The dark haired boy awoke to a humming sound, and a rhythmic rocking sensation that made his stomach churn. His cheek was pushed up against the cool surface of a metal floor, and it proved a nice contrast to the hot, searing jolts of pain shooting up and down his thin body. It was hard to distinguish where the pain was coming from, because there just seemed to be so much of it.

Experimenting, Fang wiggled the fingers on his left hand. Deeming them usable he snaked them up so that his hand was lying opposite to the side of his face that was pressed against the floor.

His eyes widened when he felt that his face was wet and sticky. Was it blood? Yes there was some of that, but although unschooled the boy was smart enough to know that blood didn't normally leak out of a persons eyes. No, what came dripping down, creating a puddle that pooled on the floor, were tears.

Fang hadn't cried since he could remember.

"Hey!" Fang cringed at the loud, jeering voice of his captor. "The freaks are following us."

From his crumpled position on the floor Fang couldn't see out of the choppers window, but knew that if he could he would see the brown and white speckled wings of Max.

Max… She would be the only one stupid enough to go after him. She was rash, bold, reckless, and

impulsive. But under her tough façade was a caring girl who would rather go to hell, then to see her friends hurt.

Fang pulled his knees up closer to his chest and fingered the rope necklace that Max had made him on his 'birthday' last year. A single tawny, Max feather hung of the end, now rough from months of Fang's slim fingers rubbing it over and over.

Max, please help me!

"FANG!" Max cried, small, bloody arm reaching out in a desperate attempt to grab the skids of the helicopter. Angel shot forward and looped her arms around Max's waist to keep the girl from flying to her death. Slim circular objects poked out from the helicopters windows and Angel had no doubt that they were guns. And although the kids were strong they were not bullet proof.

Max's sticky tears streamed down her cheeks as she thrashed in Angel's hold. "LET ME GO, LET ME GO! FANG!"

Angel's head throbbed and it pained her to do this to Max, but the girl was out of control.

Max stop struggling NOW, Fang will be fine.

Almost instantly Max's eyelids drooped and she sagged limply into Angel's body as the older girl began their spiraling descent.

"So what are we going to do?" Gazzy said about twenty minutes later as he gently pushed Angel's blonde hair away from her forehead and mopped up the blood, placing Band-Aids over her cuts and scrapes.

"I don't know." Angel replied tiredly, stroking Max's bloodied hair. The little girl was slumped in Angel's lap muttering Fang's name over and over under her breath. Nudge sat across from them, tending to Iggy's scratches because he couldn't see them himself.

"Where do you think they took Fang?" Iggy sighed, standing up and shaking out his pale wings. "The Erasers could have killed him if they wanted to, they want him alive."

Angel shuddered at the word 'kill' and sunk deeper into her chair. "We know where they took him." She muttered, "We know..." She couldn't say the name. It stuck in her throat and she coughed heavily into the crook of her arm, spitting out beads of blood.

"The school." Gazzy said for her, face pale and ashen. It pained him to talk about it too. It pained them all.

"Yeah." Angel agreed. "The bastards took him there." She saw the fear flicker on her family's faces and wished she could take it all away. Was it too much to ask to just let them be happy?!

Just then Max took in a hiccupy breath and wailed. "FANGGGGGGG!" Her primal sobs terrifying Angel who could do nothing more than watch in shock as the girl screamed out her pain.

"We'll get him back Maxie..." Angel stuttered. "I promise sweetie, we'll get him back."

Max swatted away Angel's comforting hands and hunched into herself, still screaming.

The kids all watched as eventually her shouts dialed down into quiet heaves.

Angel knew Max and Fang were close but maybe it went further than that. Maybe they were truly connected in a way that couldn't be described by mere words.

Nonetheless, Max was obviously in pain and Angel was upset that she couldn't help the poor girl.

"We have to go get him." She said, trying to put a little confidence into her voice. She had to be strong for the others.

"Yeah." Nudge sniffed, wiping away the tears that Max's outburst had caused her.

"Gaz, Nudge and I will go to California. Iggy will stay here and watch over Max." Angel decided, trying to ignore the way Iggy scowled at this statement.

"I wanna go..." Angel was surprised to hear Max's voice. The girl had fallen silent and Angel had assumed that she'd cried herself to sleep.

"Max, sweetie, it's not safe."

"I wanna go!" Max lifted her head off of Angel's chest and turned to look at the older girl. Her chocolate brown eyes were red and watery and her cheeks were stained with tear tracks. "It's my fault. I need to go too!"

"What do you mean 'your fault', Max? None of it's your fault." Angel was horrified. Why would Max think it was her fault?

A few new tears slid down the little girls face as she mumbled, " The Earsers tried to," hiccup "they tried to grab me, but" hiccup "Fang pushed me out of the way and," hiccup "and they got him instead!" This cause a whole new fresh set of tears as Max started sobbing again. "It's my fault they got Fang, my fault!"

"Hey Max." Gazzy said softly, taking the lead on this one.

"What?" She sniffed.

"We're a family right?"

"...yes?"

"And being a family means we help each other. Remember that movie we watched awhile ago? LILO and stitch? Remember what they said about family?"

"That nobody gets left behind or forgotten." The little girl recited, rubbing her eyes.

"That's right. It wasn't your fault that Fang got taken. He was helping you because you're his friend. And we're going to find him, you don't have to worry about that. Fang will be fine because we're a family and we won't let him get hurt. Okay?"

"Okay." Murmured Max. She settled back on Angel's chest and Angel silently sent Gazzy a huge thank you! She wouldn't have known what to do. Now that Max was slightly mollified, the kids quickly finished bandaging their wounds.

Gazzy said he wanted to get going as soon as possible, but Nudge argued against it. She said that they needed to rest, and Angel agreed. They would be no help to Fang bone-tired.

She and Iggy whipped up a quick impromptu dinner of cereal and pop tarts and then she sent everyone to bed.

Max crawled up into Fang's sheets and Angel didn't have the heart to make her move. Nudge ended up in Angel's bed and she could hear Ig and Gaz's hushed conversation from next door. They all needed the comfort that night and Angel fell asleep to the sound of Nudges steady breathing.

She woke up to screaming.

"Angel! Angel, Max is gone!"