Heyo FanFiction! I've been reading MaxRide ff for a while now, so I decided to write one of my own! This is slightly AU, but you will figure that out as the story progresses! Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1

They are kicking me out. They are kicking me out and are telling me to never come back. That they never want to see my face around again anytime soon.

Gazzy, my little trooper, hates me. Instead of his usual mischievous gleam, all I can see is hatred in his eyes. I want him to come over, laugh at me, and give me a hug, saying this is all a joke and they were just kidding. Nothing like that happens though.

Iggy, my perverted pyro, has on a mask of disgust. Both his unseeing eyes are trained at the ground; he is so not-okay with my presence that he can't even stand to look in my direction.

Nudge, my loud-mouthed fashionista, is staring directly into my face, boring into my soul with accusations that I didn't even do. Her arms are folded and her feet are shoulder width apart. If I'm not gone within the next minute, I know she's ready to make me leave.

But the thing that hurts the most, which gives me a pang of sadness straight through my heart, like a flash of blue fire running down my core, is the look on Fang's face. My best friend, in the entire world, is also pointing to the door. He doesn't say anything, but the stony look on his face is exactly that, stone. That speaks louder than words.

Whose fault is this? What is making my family, the only people I love, hate me? Who is the reason that my family, who I have taken care of for years, wants me gone now?

Angel.

She's got them so brainwashed that I doubt they even understand what they are doing, or even if they will remember it in the morning.

I stand up from the couch I was sitting on, watching reruns on our crap TV, and said, "You want me out? Is this really what you want?"

Even though I wasn't talking to her, Angel answers for the group. "You led the Erasers right to us Max. They knew our exact location every time, no matter how often we moved around. They knew when and where our weakest points would be, and they used it against us. Every time. We know you are a double agent, we've blown your cover; stop pretending."

"Was I asking you?" I snap back, "I'm pretty sure that question was pointed at Iggy over here. Let me rephrase the question for you Igs."

I could see the internal confusion run along his face. The hatred in his eyes flickers to something else- something I cannot place. His eyebrows start to climb together, like two hairy caterpillars.

"I want…" Iggy begins. Angel has a frown on and looks slightly constipated. Well, she deserves it!

Fight Iggy, fight her. Don't let her take you away from me!

I could feel something banging around on my mind block. The Voice had taught me to block my mind from intruders just a few days back. Now, not even Angel could talk to me.

I give the bird to Angel, and she flinches slightly. Good, I think to myself. At least she still knows I can still kick her butt until next Tuesday. "Yes, Iggy?" I say.

"I want… I need…" He pauses for a second before continuing. His face has smoothed over and the caterpillars on his face have migrated back to their original, and much more flattering, positions. "We need you to leave. You have betrayed us. You are not a part of our family anymore."

And then it hits me. Angel really does have complete control. I know these kids, they would fight for me until their arms fell off, and they know I would do the same for them. I know inside their heads there is nothing going on, because if there was they would be fighting the heck out of Angel's mind control.

I know it's irrational, but I'm angry. They aren't fighting. They aren't trying to keep me. They are showing me the door instead. Not even showing me the door, shoving me to the door would be more like it.

"You do know what all of you are doing, right," I glare at all of them in turn, but I don't even get a flinch back. "What will happen as I walk out of that door? You will be losing me. Maximum Ride. The girl that keeps you together. That picks you up when you are down. When I take that first step, I will be one more foot away from helping you ever again."

My anger morphed into sadness. I am sick and tired of Angel getting the upper hand, even in small things, like calling shotgun before me because I got "confused" where the car was. All I want is a smooth running life with my friends. My family. My flock.

Oh, right. This is my life. Plus, the world is most likely conspiring against me.

I walked closer and gave everyone one last pleading look. I know, pathetic. But let's just remember that my life is being decided by a bunch of brainwashed-bird kids who are being controlled by a 7 year old. So yeah, I'm pleading.

Even with my face looking all sad a puppy-like, all I got back was angry glares and defensive stances.

"Fine. You win. I will leave." And I'm starting to get worked up now… "But don't come looking for me when you don't know what to do next. When you are cold and starving on the side of the streets, don't go searching for me. Gazzy, when you get nightmares, I'm not going to me around to give you a hug. So don't even call out my name. Iggy, when someone accidentally leaves you in a room you have never been in before, I won't be there to tap your hand and show you where to go. Because we all know, you will get left behind at one point or another. You don't deserve my awesome-ly creative pep talks anymore."

I could feel the waterworks coming, but Maximum Ride does not give into petty things like crying, so I kept on yelling.

"Nudge, when you feel alone and need a shoulder to cry on, don't look at me. Because I won't be there."

This next part was going to be hard to get out without my voice, the real one, not the one inside my head, from cracking.

I walked closer to Fang, and looked right into his face as I let him have it.

"Fang, when you want your best friend back, I don't even care. I don't care about you, I don't care about your angst, and I don't care about my feelings for you. I don't care about you, because you don't seem to care about me either."

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. I could see everything going on inside Fang's head by staring straight into those onyx eyes. If you looked close enough, you could see tiny flicks of silver around the rim of his pupil. You could also see the blankness. Normally I could tell exactly what was going through that thick head of his at any given moment, but right not I was shut off.

I could see nothing, so I got even angrier.

"Who do you think you are?" I was yelling directly into his face now. "You told me you would never, ever leave again, so instead you are forcing me to go? If you cared at all about me or our relationship, however messed up it may be, you would stand up for me! Fight back! Why are you not feeling sorry!? How can you even call yourself my friend?!

By that point, I was screaming so loud I was surprised no one's eardrums popped out.

I gestured to everyone, "What kind of people are all of you? Do I know you anymore? Heck, if you act like this I don't think I want to know you."

Leaving it at that, I took off into the sky, never looking back.

We were in Oregon. The nights were chilly, but the days were conferrable. We were in the wooded section of the state, for cover. If you hovered above the trees, not even raptor vision could see the ground below.

"Hey, Fang, do you see anyplace down there where we could catch some zzzzzz's?" I asked him. He was flying farther ahead of us to look around.

"I see some!" shouted Iggy.

I rolled my eyes at him, and then remembered he couldn't see me, so I retorted back, "I'm rolling my eyes, Iggy."

I caught the quick smirk on his face as Fang shouted back, "Yeah, a clearing is up ahead. We can sleep there."

A man of many words, I know. But he was actually becoming a lot better with speaking in sentences. After we defeated Itex, he opened up a bit every day. At this point, he smiled more often and sometimes, if we were lucky, we even got a whole paragraph! Being Fang, he still wore black and was as cryptic as ever, but I think, he was getting better.

We all were.

Please let me know if I should continue! Still kinda on the fence…. Oh and if you see any mistakes tell me because this is unbeta-ed haha