A/N: This chapter is sad, too. But I promise everything will be peachy in a few more chapters!
And, for clarification, in the last chapter, Max was unable to move because of the "new serum" those sadists injected her with. And those last two paragraphs were written in Fang's point of view, but I guess they would fit almost any flock member.
MRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRMRBump…bump…bump…bump…bump…bump…bump….
There should have been silence – what was that sound?
Bump… bump…bump… bump…bump….
Oh… right… my heart….
Bump… bump…bump….
It was amazing that it was still beating. I felt like it had been ripped out, stabbed to a bloody pulp, then stuffed back into my chest.
I should be the one that's dead….
But I was still alive. My heart, it was still beating, still pumping blood. It was rock hard, like granite. This stone heart lay heavily in my chest, filling my eyes with images of their faces, my ears with their words… especially his…
"I love you, Max…."
At least stone didn't ache like flesh. Nothing ached anymore. I didn't feel… anything…
Hands passed in front of my face. I saw Nudge's smile.
Voices called my name. Gazzy's sweet tones asked for food.
Needles pricked my skin. I felt Iggy's questioning touch.
Time passed. I didn't notice.
I had died with my flock.
So why was my stone heart still beating?
More days went by. I didn't care.
Until…
A familiar voice roused me slightly from my stupor, enough so that I could hear what was happening.
"Batchelder, your little 'save the world' plan has fallen through. Look at this experiment."
"You weren't supposed to kill the other hybrids!" His shock at my condition was evident in his tone.
"In your notes, you described that its attachment to the others was distracting it from its mission." A note of hysteria crept its way into Jeb's next words.
"You were only supposed to capture them, and send Max to training!" Huh. Jeb betrayed us again. Funnily enough, I really didn't care.
"It does not matter. This one was damaged during the capture anyways. We'll have another do the job."
"But Max is supposed to do it!" The first voice was clearly getting annoyed with Jeb.
"Your 'Max' has lost the will to live, I'm afraid. She's on suicide watch and needs to be fed intravenously. This experiment is good for nothing but testing out things too dangerous for viable mutants." There was a slight pause, and then the cold voice hacked out a humor-less laugh.
"What's funny?" Jeb ground out, an edge to his voice.
"We told the other avian hybrids that we were going to dissect this one. We actually might." He let out another coughing chuckle and then disappeared from view. Jeb looked after him for a few beats, then turned his tortured gaze on me, piercing into my eyes.
Before this, I had heard everything as if I was underwater. Clarity punched through my defenses now, and let the pain run wild.
"Max." The name felt like a jab to my heart. "I'm so sorry." I moved my hands to cover my ears, blotting out this traitor's words. He realized this and hurt splashed across his features, before quickly being masked behind his kindly-doctor face. He spoke in my mind now, determined to get his point across.
I didn't mean for this to happen. This hurt even more, him breaking into my last safe place, my mind, where I'd been reliving my days with the flock. Jeb knew this, yet continued. What's worse is… is… they didn't just kill the flock, Max. While I went to… to… send your whereabouts…
'Betray us.' This thought echoed, and I was sure Jeb heard it.
Yes… I'm so sorry… When I came back to your mother's house… they were gone, even that old dog, and the house was in ashes.
This blow sent me beyond pain. I knew the thick, stone exterior around my heart had shattered, leaving me a mangled and bloody mess. I didn't hear anything else Jeb said… I was sinking, my head was swirling, and I had lost everything… a black shroud surrounded me.
A/N: Oh, Max, always the drama queen. She hasn't lost everything. She still has…
Hah! I'm not telling you now; you'll have to wait until the end of the next chapter!