AN: This chapter is for:
bleachgirl4
maxy1998
5253Racer
randomreader
Night owl-Day goddess
and Blawwmkw.
The narrator of this story is...*drumroll*...ANGEL. She'll be the one to tell you what happened the day of that battle and why it happened, and why she thinks it's her fault. This chapter takes you guys into the past, more than seven years before the first chapter. Every few chapters, it'll just be Angel in the present. All those chapters will be titled "This is Now."
Correction: Last chapter, I said this would probably be my last MR fic. I was pretty dang sure that I'd changed that before posting to my last multi-chapter MR fic, but apparently I didn't. So, yeah, it's probably my last multi-chapter fic, 'cause I might randomly release some oneshots.
Anyways, enjoy the chapter!
If Only…
Summary: It's been exactly seven years since a terrible battle involving the flock played out in a forlorn forest clearing. But what really happened on that day can only be told by revisiting the bloody past and unlocking the secrets of the flock's sole surviving member…
Chapter Two: That Was Then
Things were going great. We had a home and it was safe.
It was a very special day. We, the flock, had not been disturbed for exactly six straight years.
After we'd taken on the U.S. Navy and those radioactive mutants, Max was sick of it all. We did stick around for a few months, helping the CSM in what ways we could, while still trying to take down the remnants of Itex. But one day, Max finally cracked. She blew up at everybody and threw whatever she could reach at anyone and everyone she'd had enough of. I think Jeb got the worst of his newly-fifteen-year-old daughter's wrath, as she threw his office desk and various other items at him. Dr. Martinez had a lamp thrown at her, Ella got a trashed room, Brigid narrowly dodged more than one chair, and Fang got a hard slap to the face. Max only apologized for one of those incidents, and I'm sure you can figure out which one.
That night, the seven of us (I refused to leave Total) left the safe house the CSM had gotten for us. Max had finally decided to take Fang's suggestion seriously. We maybe weren't looking for a deserted island, but we were definitely looking for a secluded escape.
We flew by night and slept by day. Max stubbornly didn't want to take any risks at being found by anyone: the School, Itex, or the CSM. She had said that trying to live a normal life was overrated and something we were terrible at. The years at the E-shaped house had been the best of our lives, and she was ready to go back to that life-style.
For the few months that followed, we never spent more than a week in the same place and the best of all those places was a cave we found in Baja California overlooking something that the locals (and tourists) call "La Bufadora." Every once in a while, water would explode from it in some huge spectacle that lots of people would gather to see. The weather was nice and the view was great, but Max started getting paranoid after four days, when she started seeing people with Eraser-like features walking around.
And then we found it. A place up in Wisconsin, just a few miles away from Lake Superior. There was a deep, dark forest there that no one went into and so many trees that they were impossible to count. Max liked it, Fang liked it, we all liked it. For a while, we just camped. Then it started getting colder and colder, and we all set to work building a house.
We had been there for six years to the day, but it was more important than that, somehow. I had just turned fourteen and it was Iggy's twenty-second birthday. I was young and naïve and I could read minds, so I naturally thought that I knew everything the world could possibly offer.
And then I met him.
His name was Darcy, and he was beautiful. He had pencil straight ink-black hair, pale skin, and dark black, almost purple eyes.
You see, Max had sent Nudge and I to the supermarket one day, as we were terribly short on eggs and chocolate chip cookies, and we wanted to get a cake for Iggy. Max didn't like to get out much after she hit twenty, but she always loved cookies. She claimed they reminded her of careless moments, when she'd had a family that didn't know she was family.
Nudge and I were walking out of the store, bags in hand. Once we were away from the people, we'd fly the rest of the way back to the house. As we were exiting the store, I tripped on the threshold and I felt two strong hands catch my fall.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I—" I stopped talking when I looked up and saw him. He was smiling and I suddenly wished that I'd done something with my hair other than just tying it up.
"No problem. But pretty girls like you should be more careful."
I blushed. "Thank you."
"My pleasure," he said, winking and patting my shoulder and walking into the store. My own brain had turned into such useless mush that I didn't even bother trying to figure out what was in his, besides Darcy.
Once he was out of earshot, Nudge nudged me, a mischievous smile on her face. "Angel? I never thought I'd see you drool over a guy!"
I was aghast. "Was I actually drooling?"
Nudge nodded and giggled.
I blushed bright red. I knew I'd never live it down.
We entered the woods and relaxed the muscles in our backs, letting our wings hang. A few more steps and we took off.
The boy's face was still in my mind. I had to see him again. I just had to.
Ten minutes later, we could see the house. It was this shabby little thing that seriously needed a paint job, but it was what we called home. We nearly crash-landed into the densest thicket of trees surrounding our house. It was impossible to set foot within a twenty-foot radius of our house and not be heard, especially with our hearing.
We got two steps closer to the house before Gazzy ran out. Max made sure we were always prepared in case of an attack, but we hadn't heard from anyone in ages: the School, the CSM, hikers even.
Gazzy grinned wide when he saw Nudge and me. Over the years, he had also taken a major liking to chocolate chip cookies, and I had a feeling he was happier to see the cookies than he was to see us safe and sound.
He ran to us and took the bag with the cookies and the eggs from Nudge's fingers. Then he ran back towards the door, yelling to Max that Nudge and I had returned.
I rolled my eyes. Even though he was almost sixteen, Gazzy hadn't matured so much.
Fang had silently walked over, filling the narrow door-frame, but Gazzy didn't see him and knocked him clean over. So much for the eggs. They were all a mess between Fang, Gazzy, and our floor. Nudge and I laughed, but tried to hide it so that the guys wouldn't see.
Fang didn't say anything, but he did not look too happy. He gave Gazzy a bit of a glare, grabbed the still-intact container of cookies, and stood. He took off his black shirt that had egg yolk splattered all over it and walked to the laundry room to leave it in there. Then, still shirtless, he went up the stairs to the room he and Max shared, taking the cookies with him.
Gazzy frowned. "I guess that means I get to clean up," he muttered, standing up and going to the kitchen. He put the eggs that hadn't broken into the fridge and threw the carton away. As Nudge and I scurried up the stairs with the cake, we could see Gazzy exiting the kitchen with a rag and mumbling to himself about how chickens needed to lay harder eggs.
We knocked on Max's door and opened it. There was Max, sitting on the bed. Fang was sitting a few inches away and they were chowing down on those cookies like there would be no tomorrow.
"Hey, aren't you gonna share with the rest of us?" Nudge asked.
Fang shook his head, smirking slightly, and Max smacked him.
"Of course. We just wanted first picks." She held the container out for us, offering the cookies. I reached out and took one, nibbling on it. I knew that I should savor it, because there probably wouldn't be any left by the next day.
"Did you guys get the cake?" Max asked, biting into another cookie.
I held up my bag. The cake was still in one piece.
Iggy's smiling face popped around the door. "Did I just hear someone say cake?"
"No, Iggs. She was asking if we saw the lake on our way back."
Iggy's face fell. "Oh." Looking much sadder, he walked down the stairs.
Max smiled at me. "Nice save."
I nodded. "So we're gonna surprise him, right?"
"That's the plan. None of us have even mentioned his birthday. He thinks we've forgotten."
One corner of Fang's mouth lifted as he reached around Max for another cookie. He had yet to put on a shirt, but Max didn't seem to mind.
"I just love surprise parties, don't you? They're just so…surprise-y," Nudge enthused.
"Well, it's not really a party, Nudge. It's just gonna be us, exactly like every other year."
"Except other years it wasn't a surprise."
Max rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You can call it a party if you want." She turned to Fang, closing the cookie container. "What happened to your shirt?" she asked, raising an eyebrow like she had just noticed his lack of clothing (which she so hadn't).
Nudge and I giggled again.
"Gazzy ran me over and the eggs broke," was all Fang said.
For a moment, it didn't look like Max believed him. "Okay…and you haven't put another one on…why?"
He shrugged. "Just haven't."
Max shook her head at him. "I'm gonna put the cookies downstairs. You, get some clothes on please."
Nudge and I crept toward the door, but not before we heard Fang say, "Why? Because you just can't resist my sexiness?"
In my peripheral, I saw Max blush scarlet. "No, it's just…"
I laughed, interrupting Max. I knew she was lying, because from the moment he walked into the room with those cookies, she had been mentally drooling and thinking, My best friends is too freaking sexy for his own good… and How do I manage to sleep next to this guy every night when he's got a body like that? Because Max and Fang always assured us that sleep was all that happened in their room at night, which, surprisingly, wasn't a complete lie. Besides, the walls in this house were way too thin for that sort of stuff to happen without everyone else knowing about it.
Max turned to glare at me, but she was really begging me not to say anything. I obliged, and Nudge and I left the room. I headed to the kitchen to hide the cake and Nudge went to our bedroom.
As I entered the kitchen, I saw Gazzy throwing the last of the eggs and paper towels into the trashcan. Total was in there, too, lying on his little pillow in the corner. All he ever did was sleep. He was getting old and none of us expected him to last much longer. He barely even talked and his wings always hung limply and uselessly at his side. It was almost as if he were reverting back to being a normal dog.
Gazzy looked up at me. "What kind of cake did you get?"
"Marble," I replied, "Iggy's favorite."
"We're still going through with the whole surprise thing, right?"
I nodded. "He hasn't got a clue."
{[(/*\)]}
Iggy definitely didn't see it coming. Literally or figuratively. We even managed to make a not-so-sad excuse for dinner without his help. He came downstairs, ready to cook, only to find us in the kitchen with his favorite foods on the table.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, IGGY!" we all shouted in perfect unison. Nudge was holding the cake with the candles, Gazzy was lighting the candles, Fang had a shirt on (after much insistence from Max), Max was trying to keep her cool about Gazzy with a match, and I was trying to make sure everything looked perfect.
"Make a wish, Iggy…" Total whispered from his corner. It was hard to hear his voice above the din, but Iggy's ears were better than most. He closed his sightless eyes and breathed in. I would swear everyone in the room froze except for him. He leaned down over the cake and, with eyes still shut, blew out the candles.
"What did you wish for, Iggs?" Total asked reverently, as if he, too, had felt the stillness. Max got a slice of the cake onto a plate for Iggy and handed it to him. Birthdays were the only time that we ate dessert before our actual meal.
Iggy stared straight ahead, picturing what he couldn't see. Nonchalantly, he put a chunk of cake into his mouth. "I wished for the same thing I wish for every year," he said so quietly I wasn't sure if Total heard him. Iggy never verbally said what it was that he wished for every year, but I still heard it clear as a bell: To see…
AN: Uh-oh. Can you say fOrEsHaDoWiNg?? I can. Who knew Iggy's deepest wish was to be able to see, especially when he gets on so well being blind? As for Darcy, it took me AGES to find that perfect name for him. It means "Dark One," by the way, and Darcy is very dark indeed (figuratively, not literally). Also, like his name reminded me of Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. Angel's found one heck of a guy, that's for sure. FAX will also pop up in this story on multiple occasions, though Max and Fang have not yet worked out their feelings at this point in time. They'll get around to it and be together for a time. But...this is a tragedy...
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