Disclaimer- I don't own Maximum Ride
Fang's POV
I stayed up, waiting until they were all asleep. Once they were, I started punching my cage again, as hard as I could. It hurt my fingers, but I didn't care. I will break out of here.
"Fang!" Max whisper yelled. I felt guilty for waking her up, but I continued to punch the cage. "Stop, get some sleep."
"I can't! You don't know what it's like, seeing you all hurt. You may think it's the same for you because you see them hurt, but it's not! I see you all hurt, and I'm not hurt at all, but you, you aren't treated differently from them, you don't feel as guilty as I do. And when you are treated differently, it's because of me! Max, it's only the first night, how long do you think I can last like this, seeing you all being beaten, bruised, starved, and all the other torture methods they have and me not being able to do a thing about it?" Now that the others were asleep, I could tell her how truly scared I was.
"Fang, this is what they want. They want you to break down. Don't give it to them." She pleased with me, but I fought back.
"You don't get it. What if I don't break down, like they want me to? What if they take things to a higher level? What if they… kill you?" I wasn't sure if I said those last two words out loud, because I didn't want to think of a world without Max, let alone be living in one.
"There are too many what ifs in the world. You need sleep. Please Fang, just go to sleep, you will regret it in the morning." Damn logic.
"I'm not tired." I replied stubbornly, but I knew I was.
"Don't argue, I can see your eyes closing right now. Please, sleep." She said, but I was already dozing off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (skip to when Fangles wakes up) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I awoke, something felt off, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I shrugged it off, everything felt off in this hellhole.
I looked around, but there weren't any whitecoats so I sat up. I looked up and saw Max, mumbling and turning in her sleep. "Max. Max, wake up, you're having a bad dream." I whisper yelled, but she didn't seem to hear me.
She turned around completely and landed on Iggy. "Max?" Ig asked, sitting up.
"Wake her up, she's having a bad dream." I whispered, and he nodded, shaking Max lightly.
"Max, it's just a bad dream," Iggy said, but she wouldn't wake up.
"No… don't kill them, you can't kill them I won't let you!" she mumbled, waving her hands frantically, as if defending someone who wasn't there. Ig looked over at me.
"Stop her hands, she'll wake up the others." He nodded and grabbed her hands.
"Max!" Ig said frantically, and she opened her eyes, waking up, tears forming.
"I'm sorry, just a bad dream." She said quietly and leaned onto Iggy, who looked over at me. I nodded, and he put his arms around her.
"It was just a dream Max, don't worry." I said, trying to calm her down. She nodded and took deep breaths, calming herself. Pretty soon she was breathing normally.
"I'm sorry, just… go back to sleep." She apologized, but I thought better of it.
"It's morning. The whitecoats will be here soon, we might as well be ready for it." I said, and she nodded.
"Right." She said, and we enjoyed the few moments of silence we got before the kids woke up.
"Max?" Angel said quietly. "I'm hungry." Max pulled her into a hug.
"I know sweetie, but soon we will be out of here, and they can't starve us for long, they want us alive. You'll get some food soon enough."
"How come Fang gets food?" Gazzy asked, and I clenched my fists. But I forced myself to calm down, he's just a little kid. He's curious.
"Because it's part of their experiments." Max said, and at that moment Angel gasped. "Ange?" Max asked curiously.
"They're coming. Right now, they're almost at the door."
"Everyone pretend to be asleep, now!" Max said, and we all laid down. Ari walked into the room, followed by two other Erasers and a whitecoat. They want you and Max. Oh great.
Ari walked over to the others cage. "Oh Maxie…" he said, opening the cage door. The two Erasers were flanking him, probably to catch one of the others if they ran out. Max took a step back, but Ari managed to grab her arm and pull her out of the cage. He held her tight while the whitecoat closed the door. "Should I get her ready?" he asked, smirking. The whitecoat nodded, and Ari took Max out of the room.
The other two Erasers took me out of my cage. I put up more of a fight than Max, but they still got me. They put me into a different cage that was facing a maze. Anne walked in and towards my cage.
"We are giving you 15 minutes to get to the other side of the maze. Your girlfriend is on the other side. If you don't make it to the other side in 15 minutes, we will kill her. And you… you will watch." I perked up at that. What if I can't make it out in time? I remembered what Max said, there are too many what ifs, I can't think like that. "To make it easier for you, you can follow her screams." What? A second later, a scream echoed off the walls, which I recognized as Max's scream.
I immediately charged the cage door, but nothing happened. Anne left the room, and once she did I was let out of my cage. I ran, running left and right, trying to find my way to Max. This maze was different, there weren't Erasers everywhere, no there were the sounds of the others screaming, which made it harder to focus on Max's.
A voice rang through saying I had 5 minutes. I got out my wings and tried to fly up, but was shocked. I used my wings to my advantage another way, by flying through the halls at twice the speed.
I flew down this one hallway that had more light than the others and saw them. Max, being tortured by Ari. He was cutting her skin with a knife.
I flew to them, rage clouding my mind, and when I was about to reach them, I was about two seconds away from exiting the maze, a bell rang and a cage door appeared in front of me, blocking my path. Ari stood up, smirking. "You failed Fang. And you know the price of your failure."
I turned around, but there was a cage door blocking that way too. I was trapped, with no way out unless they let me. I turned back to Ari. "Ready to see her die? Ready to see her bleed, ready to see the life leave her eyes?" he taunted, holding her. There was already blood dripping from her.
"Let her go." I said, my voice surprising me. It sounded calm, but really, I was freaking out. He had the power to kill her, he wanted to kill her, and he was given permission to kill her.
"Now, where's the fun in that?" Ari said. "C'mon, let's play a game. How much can I torture Max before she dies?" he pulled down the curtain behind them to show various torture weapons, whips, knives, bats, pots, pans, and guns. "Let's start out easy, shall we?" he said, grabbing a bat.
He went over to Max, holding the bat. He hit her with it in the stomach, and I cried out. "Stop!" I said, but not too loudly. I need my energy. I started to try and bend the cage bars, but they wouldn't budge. He hit her a bunch more times, then looked at me and smiled.
"You think you can't handle it now, look at all the other stuff I can use!" he laughed, hitting her face and giving her a broken, bloody nose, but he kept hitting her with it. He got up and grabbed a pan, hitting her stomach with it. "Well, I can't hit her head with this, then she'll be knocked out, and we won't be able to hear her scream!" he said, hitting her stomach a few more times before switching weapons again.
He grabbed a knife this time, which for some reason seemed to give off a different aura than the others. This one seemed to have smoke coming off it.
He grabbed Max's arm and brought down the blade, cutting swirly patterns into her. She cried out in pain. "LEAVE HER ALONE!" I yelled desperately. He laughed and cut more swirly patterns in her. "STOP!"
"Why don't we give her a little reminder of whose fault this is before she dies?" he asked, laughing as if he had the most genius idea.
He turned her onto her stomach and moved her wings, getting to her back. He purposely blocked my view and started cutting into her once again, and I heard her screams. "LEAVE HER ALONE!" I yelled once again, and once Ari seemed satisfied with what he was cutting, he moved out of the way to show me.
I gasped, horrified. (What do you think he carved? Lol I'm evil…) he had carved words into her, he carved words into my Max. Well, to be correct, it was the same words over and over. Fangs fault. I clenched my fists and pulled on the bars even harder, screaming in rage. How dare he carve words into her?
But the thing that upset me the most is that those words are true. This wouldn't have happened if I had been two seconds faster. "TAKE ME INSTEAD!" I yelled. "DO WHAT YOU WANT WITH ME, BUT LEAVE HER ALONE!"
"Don't you get it? I get to choose what happens here, I'm the one in charge, not you. I can do what I want with her before I kill her, and I will do whatever I want with her, and you won't be able to do anything about it." he taunted, laughing. I glared at him and concentrated on the bars. For a second, I thought I saw them bend.
He started cutting into her again, swirls and lines, with me and Max screaming the whole time. He laughed the whole time. He got up and grabbed the whip, then walked back over to Max. She was surrounded in her own blood. Seeing her like that destroyed me, but it fueled me to go on.
He brought down the whip on her stomach, over and over. Max's screams grew quieter, and I knew I didn't have a lot of time. But I was going to save her, her dying is not an option.
I bent the bars some more, Ari not noticing. He was so engrossed on torturing Max, it was sick, but I used it to my advantage. It was finally big enough for me to just slip through, and that's what I did, quietly grabbing a bat and sneaking up on Ari. I hit him hard on the head, letting out my anger with that one hit, knowing that was all I would get to do since I had to make sure Max was okay. Ari was knocked out cold.
I ran to Max, sitting next to her. I took off my shirt, tearing it into strips. "Okay, stop the bleeding first…" I mumbled to myself. Her wounds looked worse than I thought. She had tear tracks running down her face. I started tying my shirt around her like bandages, sweeping up all the blood.
"Fang…" she said tiredly. "It's not going to work. I'm going to die."
"No, you're not, I'm going to save you. Quit talking nonsense. I'm going to save you, and you are going to feel fine." I said, mostly reassuring myself. She would not die.
"Fang, I am going to die. You're not going to do anything about it, so please don't try." I started to open my mouth but Max stopped me. "Shhh. I want you to stop. I'm dying and I don't want you to save me, because it's not going to work. Please don't waste your efforts."
I sat next to her, but I still tried to stop the bleeding. "Max I have to try and do something, I can't sit here and let you die. I have to try." I could hear her breath getting quieter.
"Fang… tell the others I'll miss them. Tell Angel she'll always be my little girl, tell Gazzy to never fix his problem, tell Nudge I'll miss her rambling, and tell Iggy to never stop being the pyro he is." she said, bursting into tears. "I'm going to miss you all."
"Max, don't leave me, you can't die. How will I tell the others? How can I tell them it's my fault? Please don't die Max, I need you, I love you!" I said, and I realized I was crying also. I grabbed her hand, holding it. She gave it a squeeze.
"Fang, I'm scared, it hurts." She whispered, and I grabbed her and hugged her, forgetting about her injuries. If she was going to die I had to hug her first. "Fang, kiss me one last time?" she asked, and I kissed her lips, but pulled away fast. She had to use whatever oxygen she had left on breathing.
"Fang, I'm going to miss you, I'm going to miss you the most. I don't wanna leave." Her breath was getting slower, but I refused to believe she was dying.
"Max, stop talking please." I said quietly.
"I want these to be my last words. Fang, I-" (So tenrose of me to end it like that…) silence. I checked her pulse, she wasn't breathing. Max, my Max, my beautiful Max, was dead.
(I was gonna end it there but I'm nice and please don't be all like 'oh Max is dead I can't read this anymore bear with me until at least the end of the chapter.) "NO!" I shouted, crying. I hugged her body, but there was no life left in it. Not a drop. Shaking, I stood up once I heard laughter. Behind me was Ari. "YOU KILLED HER!" I yelled, my voice breaking. I grabbed a knife off the table and hurled it at him. I grabbed a bunch more and charged him.
I dropped the knives, finding it felt better to punch him. "You," I panted "Killed. My. Max." I said, throwing him onto the ground. I threw myself on him, my hands finding his throat. I grabbed it and left my hands there. He would have died if the whitecoats came in and dragged me back into my cage.
Once I got there, I punched the cage and cried. Angel looked at me, then realized what happened and started crying also. "They… killed Max?" she asked, her eyes begging me to say no. The others were watching as I slowly nodded. "This is all your fault! If you had been two seconds faster Max would be here! If you had gotten out of that cage faster she would be here! But because of your slowness she's… dead!" Angel yelled at me. I didn't say anything, stunned. Since when was Angel like this?
"She… she told me to tell you that she would miss you. Angel, she said you'll always be her little girl. Gazzy, she said to never stop being… well, Gazzy. Nudge, she said that she'll miss your rambling, and Ig, she said that you should never stop being the pyro you are. I'm sorry." I said, and the others all started crying.
"You've had more rest then me and are stronger than I am but even I could have done that maze with my adjusting eyes!" Iggy yelled at me.
"Fang gets more rest than us, Fang gets more food than us, Fang doesn't get hurt and we do, I bet you're working with the school and that's the real reason!" Gazzy spat at me, everyone said, shaking their heads in agreement. I can't believe they would turn their backs on me when we needed each other most!
"I hate you." Nudge said, with all seriousness and I knew she was telling the truth, because she wasn't rambling. "I wish we could trade you for Max."
"We don't want you as our leader." Iggy said, and Angel stood up.
"I will be new leader," she said proudly, "and I kick you out of the flock." She said, and I was stunned. I hadn't seen this coming. I would have said something, but I had no idea what to.
"I'm sorry." I whispered finally. "I wish I could give myself up for Max too."
At that moment, the whitecoats came in, dragging my cage out of the room. I didn't try to fight them, there was no point. I had nothing left to live for, Max was dead and the flock hates me. They took me to a different room and quickly injected me with something, and my world went black.
Time skip to when Fangles wakes up
I woke up and looked around. I was in my cage, but the others were in there with me, crowding around me. They looked nicer, but I wasn't buying it. I sat up and ignored them as they said to wait as I walked towards the end of the cage and sat down.
"Fang," said a voice I knew all too well. Earlier that same voice had told me to let them die. I turned around and saw Max, standing there perfectly unharmed.
"This isn't real," I said under my breath. "You died."
"Fang, that wasn't real. I am real. The flock is real. That flock wasn't real; would the real flock act like that?" she questioned, and I had to admit, she was right. The flock had never acted like that.
"Tell me something that only Max would know." I said, trying not to let the hopefulness creep into my voice.
"The first time I met you, I gave you the name Fang because you told me they tried to inject snake DNA into you. Once we escaped, we were out and you bought 30 apples. You and Iggy gave each other nicknames, Iggers and Fangles… the time that we pranked Iggy and dyed his hair black and gave him black clothes and I called you emo thing one and emo thing two (credit for that goes to my favorite fanfic writer silenceisgolden15 and so does the swirly cutting and the burnt knife you should check out her writing her Maximum Ride stories are amazing)!" I remembered that, Iggy looked so stupid. But she wasn't done. "You carved out initials into a tree. It was the tallest tree in the forest and I got so mad at you for leaving because I thought the whitecoats got you and you told me what you did and showed me and I kissed you and that's when we told the flock we were dating."
"Max." I said, hugging her. "My Max, I thought you were dead." I said, crying.
"I know, but I'm not, I'm here and I'm not going anywhere." She broke the hug and looked me in the eye. "Fang, none of that was real."
A/N- that was so hard to write I think I started crying but don't worry she's not really dead it'll be explained in the next chapter. And could you all please start reviewing more, I'm only getting like one review now I used to get like three.
So this week I had to dissect a chicken leg and it was so gross, but what sucks is that I know that I'm going to have to dissect a frog later this year.
You should read all John Green books and all Rainbow Rowell books because they are amazing, like seriously probably my favorite writers other than like Rick Riordan and J.K. Rowling. Like seriously you should read their books.
I went to the bookstore and get 11 books, yay! I must go read them all and write the next chapter.
Questions of the Chapter- What do you think happened to the Max he saw die? Reminder, the real Max isn't dead.
My response- you will find out next week.