I'm gonna cry. I got 38 hits, but only 1 review! ONE!!

goes off into random corner to cry for a few hours

So… SUMMER HOLIDAYS!! YAY!!

And since I'm in my Summery happy bubble there will be another chapter!

But first…

sunshinerosesandDEATH: Thank you soooooo much for reviewing. Cookies for you!! You are right, my story is about clones, but that Fang wasn't one of them. I could give you a million reasons for Fang throwing dogs at people such as:

He was fed up of carrying Akila.

OR

He was really frustrated that he had carried Akila all this way and wanted to give her to someone else, and temporarily forgot to think logically.

But the main reason is that I was writing him slightly OOC, and yes, I know if I don't get my act together soon, this story is going to get VERY confusing Very fast. Thanks as well for the tip about Akila, I would go back and change it, but… I won't.

Anyway, on with the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. I do however own this confusing plot, the new Director, and the incompetent overlooking scientist.

The Director looked around the room and sighed.

She couldn't understand how so many mistakes had been made by Itex in the past.

"Ok," she said at last. "There is only one more experiment left to discuss."

All of the scientists present sat up a little straighter and gave the director their full attention.

"The flock have been described as failures in the past, but that was more due to poor perspective than actual fact. I believe that the mere fact that they have survived this long, longer than any of Itex's other experiments is a sign of their success. There is still a lot that can be learned from them, and I have already planned how the next experiment shall be conducted. They are headed towards Arizona. Once they are there we shall begin. Are there any questions?"

No-one said a word, and the Director nodded, satisfied.

"Very well then. Here are your instructions; you have 12 hours to complete them."

Two days on and we were nearly at Arizona. It would have been faster, but we had to keep stopping to switch who was carrying Akila (we weren't going to try that in the air again), and for food and toilet breaks. I checked my watch; there was still plenty of flying-time left. With any luck we would make it beyond Arizona.

The whole 'stop and visit mom' idea was still really tempting, but I didn't want to put her and Ella in danger, and besides once we arrived there, I for one, would never want to leave. And then who would save the world?

"Are the clones ready?" The Director asked the overlooking scientist as she marched into the room.

"Pretty much… we are encountering some difficulties though…"

The scientist chewed his lip nervously as he slowly backed away from the Director.

"What have you managed to do wrong now?" The Director asked, exasperated.

"Well… well, now this one," he said indicating a startlingly realistic Nudge clone.

"This one… well you see…" He chewed his lip again.

"What?" The Director asked, for what felt the like umpteenth time.

"Well we did as you said, and checked all the files we have on each flock member. It said that this one," He jerked a thumb at 'Nudge', "is very partial to snickers bars. So we tried to alter her DNA structure to make her partial to them as well. But…."

He trailed off, obviously reluctant to continue.

"What did you do?"

"Instead of making her like snickers bars and everything about them, we did it wrong and she… and she… well she now has a severe allergy to nuts."

He wiped the sweat off his brow and chewed his lip again.

"Very well, we can work around that. Is there anything else?" The Director looked at him sternly.

"Well… errr… Several of the older clones have hormonal imbalances… They… well they may be prone to throw random temper tantrums, have abnormal growth spurts, and we think a couple of them may be attracted to the wrong flock member…""

The Director raised her eyebrows.

"How bad?"

"Well… If we put the correct clones in the correct flocks with the correct non-clones… It could be made less worse. But not fantastic by any stretch of the imagination."

"Well enjoy finishing this job." The Director said coldly.

"Why?"

"It's the last one you'll ever get."

She glanced at her watch.

"You have two hours."

And with that, the Director stalked out of the room, leaving the bemused lip-chewing scientist in her wake.

It was getting late, so we had decided to try finding somewhere to crash. I wasn't sure exactly where we were, but I think we were in the general Arizona area.

"I see a cave!" Angel called happily.

"Really? I don't." Iggy joked.

"I'm rolling my eyes at you Iggy. Ok down we go!"

We all dived down to the cave below and one by one swooped in to land.

As soon as I looked around I felt an unpleasant lurching in my stomach.

This wasn't just any old cave.

It was the cave that Fang had kissed me in.

It was the cave that I'd ran away from.

It was the cave that I'd left Fang in.

It was the cave that I'd really like to forget.

I risked a glance over at Fang. Although his face was as emotionless as ever, I could tell that he had recognised the cave too.

Great. Just fantastic.

The scientist shifted edgily from one foot to another outside the Director's office.

He needed to speak to her, but was terrified.

He just knew she wouldn't appreciate the fact that there was another problem.

"Come in."

He jumped about a foot in the air, but managed to regain himself in time to stroll into the Director's office and pretend that everything was fine.

Of course, the Director saw right through it.

"What have you managed to do now?"

"Well… you see… We are having some trouble cloning the Malamute. As it was never resident in any of our Schools, we have very little to go by. If however, we could take some DNA samples, see the animal and maybe take several photographs of it, this problem could be overcome."

"Very well then. We can delay carrying out Step 2 until you have created the clones. Leave the real one where it is though. Any photos or DNA samples necessary can be gotten whilst Step 1 is being carried out."

"Thank you." The scientist scuttled out of the room before the Director had a chance to scold him again.

After several fruitless protests I had finally agreed to stay in the cave. Most of the flock (and Total) thought I had gone mad (well, madder), wanting to continue flying now, I didn't have a clue what Fang thought and Angel thought I was being ridiculous. Which was rich, coming from a mind controlling 6-year-old, who could turn into an even weirder bird-kid-thing at will.

That's mean

Great, just what I needed, another voice in my head.

Come on Max, its me, Angel.

I knew that… no really I did. And I didn't mean to mean Ange. I was just messing.

It's ok. And Fang doesn't really want to stay here either, but he doesn't want to say anything.

Ok well, when did Fang want to say anything?

Thanks Angel.

After that Angel went off to play with Akila, Total and Celeste.

Iggy heated up some food for supper and we all sat around our little fire, with me and Fang avoiding each other as much as possible.

Well I was avoiding Fang anyway, I don't actually know if he was avoiding me. But I'm guessing he was cause once we had eaten he stood up and grabbed the laptop.

"I'll take first watch."

"If everything isn't ready by now, your entire future is in jeopardy."

The scientist chewed his lip.

"No worries- everything is ready to go."

"Well then, why are you still here?"

I woke up in the middle of the night after hearing a loud crashing sound.

"Wha'?" I said blearily

"Don't worry, everything's ok." Fang said coming over. "Perfect even. The flock are right beside you, see? They all look exactly the same as before don't they? Don't worry, it's not like we're clones or anything. We're us alright. Everything's normal. Perfectly normal. Amazingly normal. Plain. Ordinary."

"Ok." I was so tired that I just drifted back to sleep. It wasn't until the next morning that I noticed how odd it was for Fang to say something as long as that, and why did he seem to think that I thought him and the rest of the flock were clones?

So that is that chapter. PLEASE review and tell me what you thought. Please!! I'll give you cookies!!

Happy Summer!!

A.J.

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