A/N: Hey, kiddos. This is the… third…?... time I've tried to write this stupid fanfic, but every time I get pissed at my first few chapters and give up. (I'm a quitter. I admit openly to this. I know, quitters (and cheaters) never prosper. Blah.) It's been stuck in my brain for too long and I will never stop obsessing over it until I actually write it, soo….. yeah.
Stick with me here, this will be over soon. I'd just like to say thank you for looking even this far into my story. That means my summary was good enough to gain a click from you! *dances*
QUICK NOTE THING: This story takes place after book… 5? I think? I actually never read past book 5, because the ending made me so mad that I gave up on the series. (I said I was a quitter…)Well, except for my book 6 idea, that is. Anyways, if I get stuff wrong, PLEASE CORRECT ME. I'm horrid at remembering details of any kind, and I will not take your corrections as insults. (As if any fanfic reviewers have ever held back in correcting authors. ;) )
Max's POV:
"Do you think we'll ever find Fang?" Nudge asked as we sat around the campfire.
"Maybe," I said, unable to tell her my doubts.
"She's lying," Angel muttered quietly, but we all heard her.
"No she's not," Iggy said, ever the optimist. "She's being serious. I think we'll find him. He can't hide from us forever. He knows that, too."
'Whatever," Gazzy mumbled. "I never want to see him again. It's not like he cares about us at all."
"Feels like that doesn't it?" I said, mostly to myself.
Angel perked up as she said, "No, he does. He cares about us a lot. I could read his mind, remember?"
"As if we can ever forget that annoying detail," said Nudge.
"Hey, play nice," I said before I bit into a marshmallow.
"Can you guys just admit you're all mad at him, but miss him a lot?" Dylan said from the shadows. I had forgotten that he was there at all.
"You just don't like hearing about him 'cause you know Max loved him and not you," Gazzy said, standing up to look Dylan in the eye even though he was a good foot and a half shorter.
"That's not true..." Dylan said in a defeated tone before coming into the firelight to get a marshmallow.
"Bedtime. We're getting cranky," I announced. The kids spread out to lay down without another word. They snuggled up together while Iggy, Dylan and I stayed up eating marshmallows and talking a bit.
"Where could he be?" I asked, though I didn't expect an answer.
"Anywhere, unfortunately. He may not even be in the country," Iggy replied.
"Maybe not even on the continent..." Dylan said quietly. I looked at the two mutants sitting in front of me. One was hopelessly in love with me and mildly childish and the other one was one of the strongest people I had ever met. I hated to admit it in Dylan's case, but I'd grown to love them both.
"Thanks," I said quietly.
"For what?" They said in unison.
"For being here when he isn't."
"We'd never leave you," Iggy said, smiling. I ducked around Iggy's shoulder to check on Angel, Gazzy and Nudge. I crouched down, rubbing my thumb gently across Gazzy's forehead. "He's getting so big..." I said, playing with his little blonde curls. I tucked another raggedy blanket over Nudge, who had grown to be so beautiful right before my eyes. I finally kissed Angels small, delicate head, marveling at how cute she was in her sleep. "Night, lovelies."
I sat back down with the two boys, leaning back on my hands and basking in the starlight.
"They've never realized how great of a mom they've got," Dylan said. I blushed and twirled my fingers in the hem of my shirt.
"Thanks." I looked up and tried to smile, but it might have been more of a grimace.
"You kind of amaze me sometimes, Max," Iggy said.
"What?"
"Most people would be a mess right now."
"But I am a mess."
"So? Doesn't matter as long as they," he gestured to the kids, "don't know it. Nudge might because she's so big, but as long as their leader looks strong, they will be too."
"Go to bed," Dylan interrupted, "You'll feel better with a little sleep."
"Thanks. who's gonna' keep watch, though?"
"I will. It's fine. I'll wake Dylan up in a few hours and then It'll be morning," Iggy said while he lightly pushed me in the direction of the nice, warm fire.
"What would I do without you? G'night!" I said as I lied down next to Nudge.
I had a few hours of blissful sleep. For the first time in weeks, I didn't have a nightmare. Instead, I dreamed that I was home with mom. My whole Flock was there, including Fang. Mom, Ella and I were baking cookies, and I actually didn't burn them. Iggy was making dinner for us, something with bacon in it by the smell, while Gazzy played with some explosives in the yard. Everyone was happy and chattering aimlessly. This is how life and family should be, not the chaos and darkness my poor Flock had to go through. People always tried to help, but nothing but hurt came out of it in the end. We were about to sit down for dinner when Iggy started yelling something about a burn. I guessed that he had burnt himself on the oven, but he wasn't usually that clumsy.
"HELP! HELP! ITS BURNING ME!"
"It's just your hand, Iggy! Calm down. I'll get some ice!"
"HELP! HELP!"
"Calm down!"
"HELP! HELP!" My eyes fluttered open as realized the real Iggy was calling for help.
"What the…" I muttered under my breath as I jumped up to help Iggy. He was yelling for me and was…glowing? Within a second the flock and I were by his side, unsure of what to do. The blue-white glow seemed to be coming from inside Iggy. Then the light was solidifying around him, making a column surrounding him. Gazzy and I started punching the column, kicking it, scratching and tearing, but it didn't budge and blinded us with its brightness. The rest of the flock stood there, dumbfounded and unable to move, but there was no way that I was letting this thing take Iggy that easily. Iggy screamed for us for a few more seconds, then suddenly stopped. The column rose, slowly at first with us pursuing in the air, ripping the jackets that covered our wings off our backs. Gazzy and I followed it into the air, until it went too fast for us, even for my sonic speed. The light blurred out of our vision like a shooting star, and it hit me that it wasn't just a column, but Iggy. Our Iggy.
Gazzy was a few hundred yards behind me, floating above our camp still. He then promptly fainted, wings and body going limp before gravity took hold and he fell, almost in slow-motion, to the ground.
"Max, where are we going?" Angel asked from somewhere behind me.
"To my mom's. She's got more resources than we do for finding out who took Iggy."
Gazzy zoomed around in front of me, giving me a steely glare.
"Why don't we just follow him? We know what direction he came from!"
"Because we have to have more information that just north-east."
"We're just wasting time! Every minute he gets farther away from us!"
"Will you just shut up?" Nudge interjected, "WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING WITHOUT KNOWING WHO THE HELL TOOK IGGY!" Nudge stopped all of us from flying while looking at Gazzy with daggers in her expression.
"Why are we fighting…" Dylan said softly. I decided to ignore him, for now.
"Nudge, LANGUAGE!" I screamed.
"Oh, it's not like Angel doesn't hear it in our heads!" She retorted. "If anything, the thoughts you and Fang were thinking about each other whenever you ran off to do god-knows-what were way worse!"
Her words cut into me like daggers, and she knew that. With tears of stress, anger, and grief in my eyes, I turned and continued flying, aware that the Flock would follow. We were heading for my mom's for a fact. We were going to find Iggy. That was also a fact.
Iggy, wherever you are, we're coming.
"We" being my broken flock. It was just Dylan, three kids, and me, not exactly ideal. They're all good fighters, but we'd already been so upset after Fang left that I wasn't sure we could recover from another missing person. Iggy had helped me so much when Fang left. He stepped up when I was too stuck in my own sadness to be responsible. It was embarrassing, but for a while the hopeless feeling was crippling. It might be a little unhealthy at my age to have loved someone so completely, but I did, and still do. Now my last support was gone and I had to try and let the kids lean on me when I myself had no one to lean on.
And Gazzy…There would be no helping Gazzy.
Hazel's POV:
"Get up!" A pillow hit my head, waking me up from a lovely dream. "It's time to get ready for another day!" Sylvia's satin voice was nice and warm in the mornings, a stark contrast to my husky man-voice I always woke up with. Sylvia was a morning person. I most definitely was not.
"Fine, I'm up." I said, jumping from my bunk to the floor. I stretched before reaching under the bed to the pullout storage containing my clothes. I donned the required uniform of a white t-shirt and black pants and sneakers before heading to the bathroom to brush my teeth and try to tame the monstrous bed-head. My dark hair was frizzed up in a jumble all over my head. I grabbed a brush and started getting knots out of my hair while Sylvia fretted over her appearance next to me. She fluffed up her perfect shoulder-length curls, admiring how the light bounced off of her almost silver hair.
"You know, I wish they'd let us have some makeup. It looks like so much fun! And think of the possibilities! Wouldn't it be great?"
"Sure. Hey, can you brush my hair? Its too long…" My hair was almost waist-length, but stick straight. It didn't have any of the nice bounce that waves or curls had. She quickly brushed through my hair, complained about her sprinkling of freckles over her acne-free nose, and then toted me out of the door to breakfast.
We walked down the hall arm-in-arm, Sylvia chatting all the way. About halfway there, we ran into Grayson and his posse, and Syl insisted that we just had to stop and flirt.
"Hi, Grayson." She smiled and batted her big, dark eyelashes up at him.
"Hey," He smiled a little, moving a bit closer to Sylvia.
"Hey, Hazel." One of his goons waved to me, blatantly looking at my chest while making the same stupid expression that Grayson made at Sylvia. I rolled my eyes and tugged on Sylvia's arm to get her to come on to breakfast.
"Have you guys eaten?" She asked Grayson.
"Yeah, sorry. Maybe we could sit with you two beautiful girls at lunch?"
"Oh, that would be just perfect!" She squealed.
"Except I don't think my boyfriend would be up to it. Or my big brother." I said, looking pointedly at the guy who had attempted to initiate flirting with my boobs.
"Oh, don't listen to her," Sylvia said. "Bye, Grayson!" I tugged her down the remainder of the hallway, cringing as she called after them, "I'll be waiting at lunch!"
"Morning," Blake said as he shoveled a bowl of cereal into his mouth.
"Meh," I said, sitting down with my own helping of Frosted Flakes.
"You will not believe who we ran into!" Sylvia said to no one in particular.
"Let me guess…Grayson?" Blaine said, rolling his dark eyes.
"Yes! He talked to us! And I invited him to sit with us at lunch!" She was practically jumping with excitement.
"Who?" Flight said as he sat down next to me, wrapping his strong arm around my waist.
"The boy-crazed lunatic decided to invite Grayson to our lunch table," Nick said, glaring at Sylvia.
"I tried to stop her. Even warned the kid who tried to talk to me that my boyfriend and brother would be there, but noooo, she had to flirt."
"Shut up," she playfully slapped me on the head before returning to her cereal.
Flight quickly kissed my cheek before whispering in my ear "Trust me, I'll make sure none of them so much as look at you." I turned and kissed him, savoring the quick escape before going back to my food.
"Still gross…" Blaine muttered under his breath when I kissed Flight. Nick and Blake agreed, the latter sticking out his tongue at us.
"Oh, be quiet!" I tossed my balled-up napkin at Blake's face, laughing as I did so.
At some point towards the end of breakfast, Nick brought up the apparent problem with the sex-ratio.
"There's twice as many guys as girls," Nick stated.
"I know. It's weird," I said.
"Especially since we all know we'll eventually reach the breeding program," Sylvia said, gaining involuntary shudders all around. "Either they expect each girl to have several kids with different dads or they're just really bad at planning," She continued.
"I don't see why they make us do that," Blaine said quietly.
"Why do they make us do anything else? It's all for research," Flight replied.
"They just let us go- poof! You have a baby, you get your freedom. What kind of price is that?" said Blake.
"It's better than nothing," Nick said. We all turned to him, appalled. We'd grown up resisting the breeding program and what it stood for, knowing that most of our parents had sold us here for financial freedom. Not the same thing as physical freedom from here, but still freedom.
"How could you say that?" I asked, staring into my brother's ebony eyes.
"Where I grew up, there was no out. We lived in cages. We were tested on daily, tortured. I escaped, and then they caught me again and brought me here. Growing up like that makes you realize what you'd really pay for freedom." We stared at him, dumbfounded.
"If you had a daughter, would you leave her behind just so you could go?" I asked, leaning across the table to look up under his messy bangs.
"No, I'm just saying that it's better than no option at all."
"Whatever. Let's not talk about it," Blake said.
"Yeah, I agree. Talking about it won't make the problem go away," Flight said, removing his arm from my waist.
"I still don't want to give birth to escape," I said with my head leaning on my hands.
"I second that," Sylvia said.
"Shoot, I left my binder in the room…" Blake said while going through his bag, obviously trying to change the subject. "Come with me to get it?"
"Why not?" Blaine said, packing up his stuff too. The four got up and walked out of the cafeteria, leaving Sylvia and I to talk.
"Do you think Grayson will really come today?" She asked.
"I don't know. He might since he seems to really like you…"
"He's so hot! You're so lucky to already have a guy, Hazel. He's, like, perfect for you."
"I know I'm lucky. And I love Flight so much that I really just want you to have the same thing with someone."
"Grayson might be it!"
"I'm just not so sure he is, though. He has a reputation for getting around."
"So what if he's been in a few girls' pants?"
"I just… I don't want you to get hurt, ok?"
"I won't! That's only if he ends up asking me out, anyways. You know I'd never do anything with a boy if we hadn't been together for, like, forever."
"I guess."
"Trust me, ok?" She hugged me, then quietly said, "You're my best friend in the entire world. I love you so much."
"I love you too."
"Let's get back to our room to grab our bags, kay?" She said as she pulled away from our hug.
We walked to our room arm in arm again, this time a little happier.
Iggy's POV:
"This will only hurt a little," The whitecoat grabbed my arm and disinfected it. She picked up the shot from a table by my bed, then gently injected it into my arm.
"Huh," I said when it really didn't hurt.
"You say something?" She asked.
"No."
She paused and cleaned up a little . "You're good to go. The door's directly in front of you. There's a nurse waiting for you."
I slowly got out of the bed. When I thought her back was turned, I tackled her, trying to get the keys jingling on her hip. I couldn't help it, my survival instinct just took over and I had to escape. I didn't know what those keys did, but after years of being stuck in a cage, I'd found that keys were one of the most valuable things in any lab, and there was no way I was going to be stuck here again.
"I don't think so," She said from underneath me. Suddenly, a sharp pain erupted from my lower abdomen as she stabbed a needle into my stomach. She injected something else into me, something that actually hurt. "You'll learn to just go with things. You may be a foot taller than me, but I'm a hell of a lot smarter and more prepared than you, boy." There was venom in her previously sweet voice. I continued to cradle my throbbing stomach on the floor as she walked across the room, those stupid taunting keys continuing to jingle.
"The pain will subside in a few seconds, but a word of caution. Your body tries to build an immunity to the substance, so each time it hurts you in a different way to get around the immunity, usually worse than the previous time." By the time she'd finished, the pain was almost gone. "Now get your sorry self up and go meet that nurse. She's equally equipped, so don't mess with her either." I begrudgingly got off the floor and headed for the door. As I was turning the handle, the whitecoat added, "It sometimes causes bad dreams for a day or two, so watch out."
"Good morning! I hope you're not feeling too banged up. I heard you had rough travels last night!" A bright voice, the nurse, chirped at me. The woman tugged at my arm to lead me down a long hallway barely a second after I came out of the room. "I think you'll find your dorm to be very accommodating. The boys there will help you, I'm sure! We've never had a blind student before, so this will be a learning process for everyone." We were silent for the rest of the trip until she came to a stop in from of my "dorm."
"Now, why don't we take a peak- uh, go inside!" She led me into the room, explaining where everything was. As she talked, I heard voices coming from down the hall, with one sounding oddly familiar.
"Oooooooooh! Here they come now! I'm glad I get to introduce you boys to each other! I just know you'll become fast friends!" She let go of my arm as the voices grew closer, then quieter, then stopped. "Boys! I'd like to introduce you to your new roommate!" Their footsteps stopped a few feet in front of me. "This is Iggy! He's new here, but also blind, so I was wondering if you all could help him get used to things. Help him get to classes, show him the ropes, that sort of thing. Here are his classes, Flight." She fished through her pockets then pulled out a rustling paper and, I assume, handed it to Flight. "He's due back at the hospital for part of his free period today, so make sure to show him where it is. Bye!" My chipper nurse closed the door on me, making me promptly realize I was in a room full of strangers that I would have to live with.
"Uh, hey." I said, unsure of how to greet them.
"What's wrong, Nick?" One of them finally asked, ignoring me completely.
"Iggy?" Shit. I knew that voice was familiar.
"FANG?" I balled up my fists, ready to punch him at the very least.
"I can't believe you're here!" he sounded so happy. How could he be happy?
"YOU BASTARD!" I screamed before punching his face. He fell to the ground with me on top of him, still hitting and punching, but before I got to do too much damage the other three strangers pulled me off of him. Looks like I would have to get my anger out through yelling instead.
"You left us Fang! You left Max! THE EFFING LOVE OF YOUR PATHETIC LIFE!" Still screaming profanities and insults at him, the guys pushed me to the ground. Then they were yelling too, yelling at me to shut up, yelling at Fang to explain, and yelling over each other so each individual would be heard, but Fang never said a word. As usual, he was sickeningly silent just when I wanted him to talk the most.
Finally, he told the three to shut up.
"Iggy, explain. What are you talking about?"
"You left that stupid note telling us that you weren't good for us, for Max. You up and left when we were celebrating! We found the stuff on the computer. We know."
"I- I never did that. I promise, I never did that. I was captured, Iggy!"
"Hold on," One of the other guys said. "You know him. You think he left you guys and your family and this 'Max', but he says he didn't. My only question is why you keep calling him Fang, I-,"
"Not the time, Blake." Fang said.
"No, but Fang? Is that your name? Ha, that's fu-,"
"Is there a place we can talk about this in private?" He asked.
"No. No waiting. Tell me now."
"I just told you."
"Not really. Explain more."
"Fine. Sit down." I sat on one of the beds, aware of the three other guys moving to various places across the room. Fang took a big breath before starting. "When I went home at the wedding, I was about to go inside when the glowing started. It was so weird. I was putting the key into the door when suddenly my hand was blue-white. I thought I was going insane and seeing stuff, but my skin started to tingle a little, like it does when you're outside during a thunderstorm. Then it hurt, like really hurt. Not just my skin, but my eyes too. The light was so bright. I thought for a minute that I would go blind, when I blacked out. I woke up here, which is where I've been for the past four months. Now you explain the note and whatever."
I glared at him and hoped that I was really looking him dead in the eyes before I started. "We got back from the wedding and Max went to find you. She found a note in your room talking about how you were leaving us. It said that you thought you weren't safe; you caused trouble, blah blah blah. It mentioned how hard it would be on you and how much you'd miss her and not to come looking for you. We looked through your laptop to find files that may have given us a clue to where you went, but we found files talking about your plans for leaving.
Max went insane. You'd think that would be a moment for Dylan to step up and show that he can be good for her, but no. I ended up being the one to pick up the pieces!" I was getting mad again, and he wasn't making a very convincing argument, even if the stuff he said about the tingling light sounded a little too similar to what had happened to me. "Max barely came out of her room! She tried to kill herself! Twice! And I ended up stopping her! Not you, not Dylan, ME!" My chest was heaving with anger. "Not to mention what it did to Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge! You were a father and big brother to them! Family doesn't leave family, Fang! Nudge stopped talking, Angel stopped plotting to takeover the world and Gazzy stopped blowing things up for a while! I can't even believe y-,"
"But I didn't leave." He said, deadpan.
"You did. The note was in your handwriting!"
"It wasn't mine! They wanted me here, so they must've forged a note to try and make sure you didn't try to find me. They can make clones, of course they can forge my terrible penmanship."
"Not convinced. What about the files?"
He paused. "The files were mine. I was contemplating it at the time, but I would have never had the guts to do it. I couldn't stand to live away from you guys. How can I convince you that it's the truth?"
"You can't." I became aware that the three others were still sitting in the room, listening to us.
"Please. I'm begging you. I never beg. Please, please believe me." His voice was quiet, even for him. He sounded pitiful, and I almost gave in.
"You're gonna' have to prove it, Nick."