Summary: My name is Angel, and I have a problem.
Psychic Rehab
Chapter One
"My name is Angel, and I have a problem." Angel put all the sarcasm she'd ever picked up from Max and dumped it into that one false confession.
Jeb nodded. "That's the first step, Angel."
"My problem is an ungrateful flock," she snapped.
Jeb sighed and rubbed his temples. "A step in the wrong direction, unfortunately." He placed the rest of his files in his laptop bag and zipped it up.
"What are you going to do with me? Don't treat me like I'm some stupid kid."
"You're far from stupid, Angel. You are extremely intelligent."
"Yeah, I know." The fatal fault of most grown-ups was underestimating kids. Just because they hadn't finished high school (or finished kindergarten for that matter) didn't mean they weren't smart enough to bat their baby-blues and trick you into looking the other way while they stole your wallet, secrets and pride.
"The problem is not your incredible mind. The problem is that you don't know how to use it."
In a sing-song voice, Angel said "'With great power comes great responsibility.' Spiderman."
"Correct." Maybe Jeb missed her mocking tone.
"Yeah, and I had a responsibility. My flock. Max wasn't doing a good job, so I just stepped in. I helped."
Jeb drew from his collection of papers to look at Angel for a moment. "What if," he mused, "they didn't want your help, Angel?"
"Didn't want it? They needed it. They were happy. They forget that I made them happy, but I did. We were happy."
"They aren't happy now, Angel. Think about all the pain you've caused your flock by controlling their lives for years. You knew that it was going to end sometime." Jeb adopted his favorite look. The one that went, I know you don't understand now, but you will, someday. Angel hated that look. What didn't she understand? And if she didn't get something, why sit there with your hands folded on the table, brown eyes intently fixed on her? Waiting for agreement, a nod, a stupid Yes, Jeb, I understand, you were right all along.
Angel would never say that.
She zipped her lips closed and tucked the key into the furthest recess of her mind.
"You didn't think about the consequences because, despite your intellect, you are still a child. I believe Max entrusted me with your care because she wanted me to guide you into adulthood. The School blessed you with a mind capable of calculating strategy Sun Tzu would be envious of, but unfortunately they didn't see the consequences of placing that mind on an underdeveloped brain."
"So what are you going to do with me?" Because of course her life was now in the hands of one Jeb Batchelder.
"First, I'll take you away from here. You're too comfortable in this environment to think about changing. Next, I'll give you a series of exercises both for my observations and for your growth. Then you'll meet a friend of mine."
Angel stayed silent.
"Angel. Are you going to come willingly?"
This sucked. It sucked so completely that she had to ask what her next move was going to be, that she wasn't in control of what was happening to her because Max and Fang and Jeb had decided that this was best. What do they know? They don't know anything. They couldn't even manage to keep the flock together, and now they think they can send me away?
"The flock needs me. How is Max going to save the world without me?"
"She'll have to manage. Truthfully, you'll be more of a burden to her now. Even after this program, it will still take her a while—maybe years—to fully develop the kind of trust she needs for you to return to her team."
Years away from the flock? Separated from her family for… years?
Oh, but that's right, Angel thought with a distinct lump in her throat. They all hate me now. I'm not their family anymore. I'm not her baby girl anymore.
Angel couldn't help it. Suddenly, she was a little girl without a mom and with no one else to claim her. Max had claimed her before, but now she didn't want Angel anymore.
Angel started to cry.
"I'm not going away! You can't make me! You can't-!"
She started to throw mental blows to Jeb's mind, attacking him, barraging him with everything in her power. Of course her psychic attacks were useless. He didn't even flinch. He sat there, watching her exhaust her mind. Her face scrunched up, all muscles tensed, grunting from the force of the fruitless assaults on Jeb Batchelder, the only shield that ever held strongly against her power without breaking.
They stayed in that dynamic until Angel fainted from fatigue.
She woke up moving. Her head rested against something vibrating, and when she looked up, she found that she was looking out a window with country scenery zooming past her.
She was in a car, driving who knows where, riding further and further away from her flock.
She looked across the seat and found that Celeste was propped next to her along with three burritos. Breakfast. Oh, so Jeb was trying to take care of her.
Whatever.
Angel's head throbbed, taking revenge on its host for pushing it beyond its limits.
Work with me here, brain, Angel coached it. I just need one more thing.
She reached out to find the one member of the flock who might help her. Gazzy,
"Gazzy…"
His eyes bore into the horizon, singling out a speck of air a million miles away and glaring it into non-existence. He'd been out here for ages, feeling both the heat of the sunrise and the chill of the sunset. Time didn't bother him even though it had been half a day since he could actually see the car that had carted her away, severing the ties that bound her to the flock.
"She's my sister." His voice came out as a low croak, unused since yesterday when he'd stopped speaking.
Max scooted a little closer to him on the branch. "She's my sister, too."
He snorted.
"Gazzy! I gave her to Jeb to help her, not because I wanted her to leave."
Gazzy's glare was too focused, so he couldn't roll his eyes, but he did give a bitter laugh. He wasn't fooled.
"You wanted her to leave."
"I…" Max crossed her arms, and turned to look to the distance. "Yeah. I did. Only because—"
"You were scared of her. Of what she'd do." Gazzy's tone was so clipped, so matter-of-fact that Max paused a little before answering.
"Yeah."
Gazzy sighed. "That's not what she wanted."
"She controlled us, me and Fang, for years—"
"I know." He didn't want to hear about his sister's faults, didn't want to see for the umpteenth time how Max felt about Angel. Mostly because he was afraid that her expression would mirror his own.
He hadn't tried to stop Jeb from taking her away. He hadn't pleaded her innocence because, let's face it, she was guilty of everything Max accused her of.
"This is the best for all of us."
He disagreed.
"She's my sister, Max." His focus on the distance was breaking; Max placed her arm around him, trying to tear him from the position he'd fixed himself to for the last eight hours, trying to get him to let her go.
Don't let me go, Gazzy.
He jerked a bit, but years of blending into the background had given him enough experience to not let his surprise register in his expression.
He felt her smile in the back of his mind.
Hey, big brother.
… Hey.
"She's wrong, Gazzy."
That's what they've been saying, but you know that's not true. You know I was just doing what I had to do, right? I was trying to help everybody. Things got better, didn't they?
His breathing became shallow as his brain was crowded with another consciousness. He struggled to keep separate his thoughts thought for his conversation with Max.
"And with Jeb," Max continued, "maybe she'll learn right from wrong."
"You think Jeb can make her right? How can you even trust him?"
"I trust him," Max insisted.
Angel was quiet on that subject, giving Gazzy the elbow-room in his mind that he needed to continue.
"I don't," Gazzy answered. "If she had a problem, we should have worked on it together. You shouldn't have sent her away."
Angel beamed. Her happiness came like a tsunami, a sudden rush of unbridled cheer that she forwarded to Gazzy's mind. He winced. Max noticed.
"Are you… is she in your head?" Max's tone of empathy was shoved aside by anger.
The Gasman balled his hands into fists. "She's not… influencing me, if that's what you mean. She's just talking."
"You have to mentally hang up on her, Gazzy."
"I don't think she has to go away." At Max's wary look, he added, "And I mean this as me. As her brother. As the one who's… who's supposed to protect her."
"Do you think what she did to us was right?"
Gazzy waited for the little bird in the back of his mind to peck her protest, but he heard nothing. He avoided Max's look. "No," he answered.
"If I bring her back, and she thinks that what's best for the flock is to give us all puppet strings and guide us to whatever happily-ever-after she's got planned, would that be right?"
Frustration: "No, but—"
Max held her hand up to cut him off. Her expression softened allowing for empathy, now. She smiled a little. "But… but she's your sister, you love her, and you want to protect her. I understand that, believe me. But if you love her, you need to let her get the help she needs. Please, block her Gazzy."
Desperation sank its claws into his mind: Angel's desperation. She didn't say anything, but her fear traveled the link between them anyway, and the Gasman felt the full frontal blow of his little sister's reliance on him coupled with his own need to be relied on.
"I'm her brother." He clamped his eyes shut, and bit his fist.
"Gasman…"
Gazzy…
You have to leave now, Angel.
Don't do this! Please! You know they're wrong!
You're wrong.
Don't do this!
"There." The Gasman lost all will to keep his emotions in check. He let the tears flow, allowed his body to shake with the pain of knowing that he'd let his sister down in the worst way. "It's done."
Before Max could congratulate him on screwing over his only blood relation, he took off from the branch, heading in the direction opposite the sunset. Opposite west, as far from the temptation to rescue his sister as possible.
A/N: Cleaning out my fanfiction closet. I haven't read the last three MaxRide books, so this takes place in an alternate universe somewhere before FANG. I wrote this all years ago, but decided to post what I had of it because I think it's a nice idea.