Thunder: Back Through the Rain-Chapter 1

By MyNameIsCAL

This is the sequel to "Through the Pouring Rain". You do not have to read "Through the Pouring Rain" to understand this fanfiction. Everything will be explained again, in summary. This fanfic will alternate between Iggy, Fang, and Max's point of view. Every time there is a change in POV, it will be stated, such as the beginning of this chapter. While the first few chapters will only have one point of view for each, as the story continues, POVs will alternate within chapters. Just a warning. If you've read my other fanfics, you'll know that it's not confusing at all.

Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, Ella, Dr. M, or any of the other characters that come out of the Maximum Ride series, which was created by James Patterson. I would like to thank him for creating these characters so people like us can read and enjoy them both inside and outside of the books.

Thanks.


---Iggy's POV---

The flock was falling apart before my eyes. Max was in shambles and Fang was now burdened with almost unbearable pain. If they fell apart completely, I was the next to go insane.

It was only a few months ago when Max and Fang had gone after erasers. Fang had come back hurt, bitten by an eraser. Except the eraser that bit him had been newly designed. Itex was making them with some sort of venom in their saliva that inflicted pain onto its victim. Luckily, when Fang had been bitten, the wound could have been worse. He got by with a limp. The pain would come and go. There were good days and bad days.

Marian Janssen, the Itex director, made a deal with Max somehow. I wasn't quite sure how that happened, but it did. A deal with the devil, as I'd like to say. With that deal, Max got Fang the cure and injected him right before some erasers snatched her away. Fang was devastated, angry at Max for doing something so stupid. In all honesty, Fang couldn't live without Max. He needed to get her back.

We found Max in Alaska, fighting with an eraser. I'm pretty sure it was the same eraser that had attacked Fang the first time. As we opened the door, the eraser had launched itself at Fang, digging its teeth into the same leg he had been injured in, and bit deeper than before. The doctors could barely save Fang's leg. It was going to be a slow healing process now that the eraser had gotten a bigger bite at Fang.

Fang was furious at Max now. I knew deep down inside, Fang still loved her. In the end, he would come to his senses. Unfortunately, Max didn't see that. She was broken inside now. I could hear her crying through the walls at night. At least Fang wasn't around to hear her. Sometimes I thought that he should hear her and maybe he'd come to his sense. They were both too stubborn though.

The last time Max had spoken to Fang, he told her that he hated her. That wasn't a smooth move on his part, and I spent the rest of the day trying to calm down a hysterical Max. Comforting girls wasn't really my thing, especially Max. This was supposed to be Fang's job. It was an awkward position, but Max came to me first, and so I wasn't going to push her away right after Fang had.

I felt like the new leader of the flock. Since Fang was in the hospital and Max spent most of her time occupying herself with other things, Gazzy, Angel, and Nudge came to me with questions. Most of them I couldn't help them with. I was blind after all and walking around without someone who was reliable made me uncomfortable. It's not that I couldn't take Gazzy or the others out, it's just that I thought it wasn't safe.

And I had to stay around Max to make sure she was ok. There were countless nights I would wake up to her crying. Sometimes I'd go to her room, and try to calm her down. It wasn't easy. She dreamed about Fang. I told her she just needed to relax and try not to stress out over him. Sometimes that would be enough, other nights I'd have to keep talking until she had fallen asleep.

It was important that I kept myself in check too. No one ever really talked about it, but I was third in command to Max and second in command to Fang. If neither of them pulled themselves together, I'd be stuck watching, well ok I'm blind, but supervising the rest of the flock. Neither Fang nor Max was mentally stable. No that they needed help or anything, maybe mentally was the wrong word. It was more like emotionally unstable.

Fang only really talked to me. Even when he did, I could tell that he was still deeply hurt by Max. I'm sure if he knew he'd get hurt from going after Max, Fang would still have rescued her. What angered him the most was that Max could have prevented the whole thing. He thought she was trying to be the hero. I knew Max was just trying to help Fang. Watching him suffer, I knew, hurt a lot. She didn't know it would end up like this.

Like I said, they were being stubborn.

"I would have been better off still being hurt from the first attack," Fang growled as the nurse wrapped new bandages around his leg.

"She didn't know," I said, trying to defend Max, and only because Fang wasn't being totally rational.

"Of course, that's what you keep telling me." Fang winced as the nurse lifted his leg up. "We just went in a complete circle."

I shrugged. "Alright, Fang."

Fang sounded like he was frowning. "I still got another week in the hospital. Then I get to go home."

I took that information in. Maybe, just maybe I could sort some things out and relieve that tension between Fang and Max. Even if I could get Fang to talk to Max, that would be a start.

And that was better than nothing.


Chapter 2 will arrive shortly. Thanks for reading. Please review if you have the chance.