AN: One: YES, this is a SEQUEL. Actually, if you're gonna get picky, it's the sequel of a sequel. This might also be my last fic for a while, until I cough up another half-decent idea. But I'm quite proud of myself for having written thirty-three stories for this site.(:

Two: I'm going to assume that everyone reading this has read the two stories before it. If you have, then I applaud you for getting this far, and I hope you're not disappointed.

Please do enjoy the first chapter of...


The Battle's Never Over
Sequel to The Battle's Just Begun

Summary: The past six months have been chaos, but there's no time for rest, not now. The flocks are split up and saddled with a new mission, and this one really does seem impossible. Of course, most things are impossible when you're a prisoner of war. SEQUEL.

Chapter One: The Dream

It was like I couldn't stop running. My heart was pounding in my rib cage. I could feel blood pulsing through my veins, throbbing under my skin. Air narrowly escaped from my mouth before being violently sucked back in. My bare feet struck the ground, every step filled with pain. Splinters of wood were poking out from my soles, I knew. All I had on was the thin white gown, starchy material, impersonal wear, itchy feel. It was loose, fitting the wind more than it fit me.

I could hear them behind me, running through the trees. Their snarls and growls, their noisy footfalls. I swore that I felt the fur of their paws brush my skin several times. I pushed myself to run faster, though that felt damn near impossible.

A tree branch scraped across my cheek, drawing on my skin with blood. It was just a scratch among the many other wounds I was receiving on this run.

I stumbled, losing my gain on them. One claw dragged itself across the top of my shoulders, just under my neck, thankfully missing my wings. I lunged forward, but not before the claw managed to rip through part of the gown.

I saw it ahead: salvation. The wood ended just four yards before me. Daylight seeped through the foliage, showing me safety.

It was a cliff.

I felt its hot breath on my flesh, impossibly close. Another claw brushed my hip as I twisted out of its grasp.

Almost there—

A dozen of them broke out of the trees at the same time I did. I smirked. They weren't getting me this time.

I didn't stop running. My foot pushed off the cliff, barely evading the Eraser's grasp. I was soaring, an instance of freefall before I snapped out my wings—

It was only then that I understood why my wings were unscathed.

I had no wings.

I kept falling. Down, down, down, until I hit the mass of Erasers at the bottom of the cliff.

{[(/*\)]}

I'd managed to stop waking with screams, or gasps, or even little jolts. There was no reason to keep Fang worrying.

He was lying right beside me in his bed, and the sunlight from the open window hit him just right. His chest moved up and down peacefully, his lips just barely parted. No snores, just breathing.

Two months ago, Fang had knocked on my bedroom door and come right in with a goofy smile on his face and his hands behind his back. "What's up?" I'd asked him, to which he didn't respond immediately. He had kicked the door shut, that mischievous grin never fading. "Fang?" I'd persisted, but he had only started making his way towards me with slow, measured steps.

Needless to say, I had been getting really weirded out.

I hadn't expected Fang to practically pin me to my bed and start kissing me like he did…without using his hands at all. When he had finally stopped (though at that point, I admit I kinda hadn't wanted him to…), he was still smiling.

And then he'd showed me the single red rose he'd been hiding behind his back.

"For one year, Max," he'd whispered against my flesh, his breath warming my neck. "One amazing year. Thank you for giving me that." He'd kissed my lips, placing the rose in my hands. "For this one year, and the many more I hope follow. And for you, my love."

Half the time that I remember this moment, I think he whispered "my true love," but the other half of the time, I'm sure I'm fooling myself.

That was the last I saw of Fang's romantic side for a while, though in the two months after, it did sometimes come back in flashes. A warm smile here, a stolen kiss there. But nothing as nauseatingly mushy as the day that was apparently our one-year anniversary.

Okay, so it wasn't nauseating in the least. It was genuinely sweet.

Lying in bed, trying to rid my mind of the nightmare, I stared at him in the soft morning light. Maya had died six months prior, and things had never been crazier. The only times I could be sure we would be okay were the nights I spent with Fang.

He stirred. His eyes opened for a moment before shutting again. Then they fluttered, almost open, almost closed, waking.

"Good morning, beautiful," he mumbled.

"Hey," I answered pathetically.

He groaned and rolled over, stretching out his arms. "What's waiting for us today?"

"Going to Jeb's office, because he apparently has something to show us. And he said there's someone there we need to meet, like, ASAP. Still don't know if we're all supposed to be going to this or what."

"God, can't we just stay here?"

"Huh?"

"You, me, here, alone. Nothing to worry about, no stupid planet to save. I could live that life. I'd love to."

"Actually, I don't think you could live that life, and neither could I. We'd die of boredom."

Fang chuckled, kissing my forehead. "If you say so."

We stayed there, lying on his bed together, for a few more moments. It was all the peace we could ever have.

Then someone knocked on the door. "Fang?" Lux called from the hall.

Fang sighed. "Duty calls."

"Indeed it does. I should get back to my mom's."

"Alright. See you in a bit."

I nodded, reaching over to kiss Fang once more. I could never have enough of him.

I pulled the sheets off of me, hoping Fang wouldn't notice the way they stuck to my sweaty skin. I threw myself out the window, flying as quickly as I could to my mom's house. The rest of my flock should have been up by then, and they didn't disappoint me. I smelled breakfast the moment I landed in the backyard.

Upon walking in the back door, I found Ella and Iggy in the kitchen, cooking up a batch of scrambled eggs, while Dylan set the table.

"Good morning, guys."

Iggy smirked. "Did you have a good night, Max?"

I tried not to glare at him. "What're you talking about? I just went for a fly about an hour ago."

"Mmhmm…"

"Where's Mom?" I asked Ella.

She shrugged. "Probably at work. She's never really anywhere else these days."

Ella was right. We hardly saw our mother, because she was always at the office with Jeb and the rest of their team. Of course, we had no idea what was going on. Not like they ever actually told us anything useful.

"Is anyone else up?"

Dylan grabbed a metal pot from the dish drainer and a wooden spoon before disappearing up the stairs. Iggy winced when Dylan began making use of his makeshift drum.

"They are now."

"Can I help you guys at all?" I asked.

"NO," was the firm answer.

"Alright." I wandered off into the living room, plopping myself down onto the couch. When the worn material of my pajama bottoms rubbed against my skin, I decided that I should probably change. I passed Dylan on the stairs going up. He was wearing a smug grin, and I swore that his cheek was red, as though someone had thrown something at him…

Nudge had claimed the bathroom, so I meandered into the room we shared and yanked a shirt and a pair of jeans from my side of the closet. Probably the most terrifying thing Nudge and I had faced in the past six months was our closet. It had been a mess ever since we'd started sharing the room, and after I kept pulling out her shirts and she kept pulling out my jeans ("Eww, Max, when was the last time you washed these?"), we'd decided that it was time to organize.

Okay, fine, my mom decided that it was time to organize. I had started a pillow fight with Nudge after she'd doused my favorite pair of jeans with some sort of icky fragrance. Something flowery. Turned out that the pillow I'd implemented was one of my mom's favorites…so of course she was pissed when it ripped apart.

Now, Nudge got some closet, Max got some closet. The split was about seventy percent to Nudge, thirty percent to me. I didn't complain, seeing as I still had plenty of room on my side, while Nudge's stuff was crammed.

Scary, isn't it?

Among other things, the past six months had seen the reboot of Dylan's crazy relationship with Izumi, the nearly constant absence of Jeb and my mom, a postcard from Total and Akila (who had disappeared more than a year before), which was thankfully not from an animal shelter, the loss of a lock from Ella's bedroom door (my mom walked in on Ella and Iggy for the second time, but this time, they were not in the hall closet…), the cheering up of Jeb, the withdrawal of Angel from my flock, and Lux from Fang's (they were still around, don't worry; they were just…detached), and the confiscation of most everything in the Gasman's possession, because most of it was flammable.

For the record, I wasn't behind this one. After Gazzy's minefield, the cops came knocking, and Jeb wouldn't let us deal with them. Instead, we had to let them deal with Gaz, who saved Pepin's hide and refused to name any collaborators.

Hey, we handled it as best we could. They wanted to stick Gazzy in a hospital for a while, 'cause they were convinced something was unscrewed in that brain of his. This was when I glanced at Angel, who very gently persuaded the police officers that Gazzy was perfectly fine.

That was about the last time Angel really interacted with the flock, and if she hadn't stepped in for her brother there, I would've given her a serious talking-to.

But from the looks of things at that moment in time, standing in my room, wondering what the day could hold, I told myself that I'd end up giving her a talking-to anyway. Things felt like they were about to go awry for the umpteenth time in my life, and Angel needed to stand with the flock. The last thing I needed was a division in the flock.

I mean, I'm not religious or anything, but doesn't the Bible say something about a house divided not being able to stand? Well, that works out in my head. And if our flock was divided, we were so screwed.

That was why Angel was worrying me. We'd already come so close to division during the whole Maya episode, when I had been suspecting Gazzy. That had just been me and my paranoia, but I wasn't the only one noticing Angel's estrangement.

I headed back downstairs, following my nose to the kitchen. Angel was sitting at the table, a fork in her hand, a plate of eggs in front of her. She smiled at me. "Good morning, Max."

I kissed her head. "Morning, kiddo."

I grabbed my own plate from the cupboard and heaped a hot pile of eggs onto it. Iggy had stirred in some bacon. God, I love him.

Not like that, of course.

…Besides, he seemed to have disappeared. Along with my sister.

That train of thought stopped right there.

I rolled my eyes, sitting down across from Angel. "Who else is up?" I asked her.

"Everyone. They're just taking forever to get down here."

"Alright. Well that's better than nothing." I glanced at the clock and started shoving the eggs down my throat, scraping the fork against the ceramic plate. "I have to go soon."

Angel didn't speak for a moment, but then she crinkled her eyebrows. "Where?"

I had been building up a mental block over the past six months. Another significant change. Over at Jeb's work, hereafter known as the Office, everyone had mentally trained to build one. Angel couldn't read Jeb's mind, or my mom's, and she hadn't been able to read Maya's thoughts. Jeb was working on teaching the same thing to Fang and me, but we weren't supposed to tell our flocks, especially Angel and Lux, our two mind readers. Though they read minds differently, the block was supposed to work for both of them. After all, Lux hadn't been able to read Maya either, or else she would have come forward with information.

The rest of our flocks would probably never be trained in this. Teaching Angel and Lux only brought with it the risk of them figuring out how to unravel our defenses, which would not be good. As for the rest of the flocks, they didn't possess the valuable information that Fang and I were trusted with.

Angel couldn't read me. That was a good sign. Jeb would be pleased.

"Over to the Office. Fang and I have some stuff to do."

"With Jeb, right?"

"Yup. I can't be late." To reinforce this, I slid my chair back and dumped my plate into the sink. "Don't tell Gaz where the matches are. Iggy's in charge."

Angel pursed her lips. "Iggy's making out with Ella right now. You sure you want to leave him in charge? The world could end right now, and he wouldn't notice."

She had a point. "Dylan!" I shouted.

A door opened upstairs, and I heard his quick footsteps on the stairs. He popped his head into the kitchen, his blond hair ruffled. "Yeah?"

"You're in charge while I'm gone. Don't let Gaz near the matches, or the stove; don't let Angel watch too many cartoons; don't let Nudge stay in the shower too long; and make sure Iggy doesn't deflower my sister."

He flashed me a thumbs up. "Got it. Anything else, sergeant?"

"Nope. As you were."

Dylan disappeared before I could say, "Bye."

Angel calmly finished her breakfast and asked, "Since I can't watch cartoons, can I watch The Matrix?"

"No. Be good. I'll see you later."

I left her there in the kitchen, though I was sure she was already headed to the family room to watch something she knew I wouldn't approve of. Something much too violent for a ten-year-old.

Just what I needed. A trigger-happy Angel. We all know how that worked out last time.

I shut the front door behind me, glad to step into the morning air. And then I released my wings and took to the sky.

You really should try it some time.


DISCLAIMER: The dream sequence was heavily inspired by Max's dream at the beginning of The Angel Experiment.

REFRESHER: UPDATES happen every Friday. That's once a week, guys, no more. There's the rare Thursday or Saturday update, but the norm is Friday.

I have my second-and LAST-SAT tomorrow. I need some luck, please. Th best way of giving luck, just so you know, is sending a REVIEW.