We Are Broken

by wingsoverthewater

There's something about me and songfics. Especially me and Max Ride/Paramore songfics. Go figure.

So. No, I do not own Paramore. No flames please. The usual. Max's conversation with the Voice are in bold, the song's in italics, the Voice is underlined.

Enjoy. Oh, there's Fax, just a tad.

Max POV

I woke up...and I felt like there was an anvil on my shoulders. It wasn't the fact that I'd been sleeping on a rocky cave floor...I didn't know what it was. Then...

Good morning, Max. That anvil is the burden of having to save the world.

I groaned. Good morning, Voice. Yeah, having to save the world is tough. But why hasn't the anvil bugged me before?

Good question. It's just...getting you down.

No kidding, Voice. Why couldn't the Voice say anything useful?

Max...you're tired. No matter what the kids think, you're not invincible.

I didn't need to hear that. ...Voice. Shut up. Now.

Surprisingly, it did.

But the anvil didn't lift. After breakfast, the rest of the flock went flying outside the cave mouth. Usually I love to fly, doing stunts and dives and all sort of things. But you can't fly with an anvil on your shoulders, it's too heavy. It was cloudy, mirroring my somber mood. I watched the flock zip and loop and flip, depressed.

I am outside
And I've been waiting for the sun.
With my wide eyes,

I'm just a wide-eyed teenager. I don't need to have to take care of six other people and a dog. I don't need to save the world.


I've seen worlds that don't belong.

Why does Itex have to exist? They don't belong on the earth...
Suddenly Fang was sitting beside me. "What's wrong, Max? You look depressed. Is the whole saving-the-world thing getting you down or something?" I swear he could read my mind.

My mouth is dry,
With words I cannot verbalize.

I couldn't tell him that I hated living on the run, with a saviour-of-the-people mission hanging over my head like a knife. (A/N: I forgot to say this, Max and Fang are a lot closer, quite a bit more into their relationship...their FAX relationship, not their friendship.)


Tell me why,
We live like this.

"Fang," I said. "Why do we...live like this?"

Keep me safe inside.
Your arms like towers,

He didn't say a word, just wrapped his lean, strong arms against me.


Tower over me, yeah.

'Cause we are broken.
What must we do to restore,
Our innocence,

Itex had robbed us of our childhood.


And all the promise we adored?

Maybe...if we weren't mutant runaway lab experiments...we'd be amazing prodigious kids. Maybe I'd be an amazing writer. Fang would be a talk show host. Nudge would have great promise as a yodeler. Iggy would be a painter. Nobody would ever know.


Give us life again,
Cause we just wanna be whole.

Whole humans? Or just wholly accepted?

Lock the doors,
'Cause I'd like to capture this voice.
It came to me tonight,
So everyone will have a choice.

We didn't choose to be mutants. Who would? It was just incredibly bad luck.

And under red lights,
I'll show myself it wasn't forged.
We're at war,

That was the reason we were at war with Itex. They had robbed us of our choice, our freedom. And that was why I had to keep fighting.


We live like this...

Keep me safe inside.
Your arms like towers,
Tower over me.

'Cause we are broken.
What must we do to restore,
Our innocence,
And all the promise we adored?
Give us life again,
'Cause we just wanna be whole.
And I'll take the truth at any cost.

The fight for justice. That was our battle. If we died...oh well, the world would be free.

'Cause we are broken.
What must we do to restore,
Our innocence,
And all the promise we adored?
Give us life again,
'Cause we just wanna be whole.

I hugged Fang back. He saw me smile for the first time that day, then he released me. I grabbed Fang's hand, and we flew back to the flock, renewed. Renewed with the strength to keep going, because we knew what we were fighting for.

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