I hope y'all like this chapter! I'll have another one up on or by the weekend, I hope! Well, this's a rather interesting chapter, I think. People get shot! Hah hah hah. And someone dies… Maybe! Read on and enjoy!! My longest chapter so far! Yay!! -Max

Disclaimer: Blah blah blah I don't own Maximum Ride blah blah blah. Nor do I own Greece, where something in the story takes place.

Claimer: My characters! My plot!

"I can't believe they captured us," Raz muttered angrily. "You guys do know that I could snap these bars, right? Why are we just staying here? I don't want to be locked in a cage."

"Shock collars," I explained. Raz nodded and looked around the outside of his cage in boredom. Yes, I said cages. Raz, Kuro, and I managed to get ourselves captured. It was their first time being locked in a cage. They were handling it better than I was.

We were being held in an Itex office somewhere in Greece. At least, I though that's where we were. You see, the Voice had been mostly MIA since I left the Flock. I think it was mad at me. I didn't really mind that much, though. The only voice that needed to be in my head is my own… And Kuro when he wanted to talk.

"Max, I want to leave," Raz whined. I looked over at him. He could be as bad as Nudge sometimes. "I don't like it here and this cage is too small and there's nothin' to eat and I'm really hungry and bored. When can we leave?"

"Soon," I answered. Raz seemed satisfied with my answer and went back to looking around, bored.

There wasn't much to look at. Luckily there were no other experiments in the cold room we were being held in. It was only the three of us. Outside the cages were computers worthy of hacking and windows which were taunting us with views of the outside world.

"Zis is ze room ze experiments are being in?" a creepy voice asked. Ter Borcht.

"It is," an unknown voice answered. The door to our prison opened and in stepped a bunch of Whitecoats.

"Maximum, so ve meet again," ter Borcht said. His voice made me shiver. "Ver is ze vest of zem?"

"From our sources, the rest of this batch of avian-recombinants have split away from the girl and are in hiding right now," the unfamiliar voice answered. "We don't know where they are."

Fang had managed to get off the radar? Maybe he could do better without me…

"Zey don't matter," ter Borcht said. "It's ze girl ve vant to test."

Test? I hope he didn't mean with needles and stuff. There's no way I could go through all that pain I went through the first ten years of my life.

"Right," Mr. Unfamiliar agreed. "Omega is ready whenever you are, sir."

"Good," ter Borcht grinned. "Get her and vets go."

My cage was unlocked. I jumped out, ready to wring a Whitecoat's neck, when the shock collar on my neck shocked me. It wasn't very hard, just enough to stun me a tiny bit.

"Brind ze boys," ter Borcht ordered. "Zey can see who's stronger."

Kuro and Raz were released from their cages. Neither of them made the same mistake I did.

We were walked down hallways into an outdoor arena. A boy not much older than myself stood in the center of a circle in the middle of the arena. He was much bigger than me, though. I frowned. This fight was already unfair. Then again, I had fought off Erasers and Flyboys, both of which weighed way more than me. Of course, I'd had help from the Flock with them, too.

"Max, you will be fighting Omega," a female announced. "No one is aloud to help you."

So much for having Raz and Kuro help. Oh, well. I've done stuff like this before. It couldn't be too hard, right?

"Begin!"

Omega did flips and jumps towards me. Before I knew it he was standing in front of my face, his fist moving towards my noise. I bent backwards. His fist only hit air.

I did a spin and managed to kick Omega's side. It didn't faze him. I threw punches and kicks, only to find that he was able to block them all.

He can't see things that move fast, Kuro told me. I nodded to show I got the message.

I started moving faster than ever. My super-speed that I got when flying seemed to help my running. Omega couldn't keep up with me. I laughed and landed kicks and punches on the wonder-boy. He could do nothing but take them!

Suddenly Omega got an idea. He stuck his foot out and tripped me. I wasn't expecting this, so what did I do? I fell face-first into the dirt!

"Got you," Omega said in an empty voice. Those were the first words he spoke throughout the whole battle. He was less talkative than Fang, believe it or not!

Omega flipped me over and sat on my stomach, forcing the air out of me. I sucked in a breath, only to have Omega grip my neck with two large, strong, carefully manicured hands. He started squeezing. My eyes widened in surprise.

K-Kuro, I thought weakly. Get him… off… me…

My head started to spin and I started seeing double, then triple, of Omega. Little fuzzy dots started blocking my vision. I needed to breath badly.

I heard a roar and suddenly Omega was pushed off me. My shock collar came off, thanks to Raz. I managed to take a few deep breaths, Kuro supporting my back, before I became unconscious. The last thing I remember was being lifted into Raz's arms and taking off into the air.

We were surrounded.

Again.

I don't understand! Why do these things keep happening to us? Could we never be free?

There were, oh, I'd say, about six hundred Flyboys blocking the exist. Ari was standing in front of them, a giant smirk on his face. Jeb was next to him, one shoulder on his wolf-like son's shoulder. There were at least a hundred Whitecoats underneath the Flyboys, who were floating in the air. The Whitecoats had shotguns aimed at us.

Nudge, Raz, and Kuro made to turn, but Ari's voice stopped them.

"Move and you die."

A whimper of fear escaped Nudge's lips. I wanted to strangle Ari for scaring her! He deserved it, too. After that little sound, no one made a noise.

"What do you want?" Fang's dark voice broke through the deadly silence.

"It's weird," Ari said, ignoring Fang's question. "You all wanted out of here so badly, but you keep returning!"

"Ari," Jeb warned. The Eraser fell silent, for once.

It just struck me as odd that Ari was THERE. That Ari was ALIVE. I mean, how many times have I killed him? Well, there was that one time in the subway tunnel… And the time that he ALMOST died… And the time when I fought him WITHOUT Fang there… And the other time I thought he died after I shot him. This kid just wouldn't stay dead, would he?

"How many times do I have to kill you?" I asked Ari. He just grinned at me.

"Seeing as though it hasn't worked so far…" Ari began. Jeb stopped him.

"Please, Ari, no more," he muttered. The wolf-mutant stopped talking.

Fang's mad you didn't tell him about Ari, Kuro thought to me. But he's more mad at him than you… For now.

I guessed that much, I replied. I just hope they don't say anything about this last year. The Flock doesn't know them yet. I don't want them to know it all.

"Max," Jeb said. "If you stay here, your friends can leave."

I frowned. There was no way I was going to risk my life just yet. Besides, like always, I had a plan to get us out of this situation.

"Thanks for the offer," I growled. "I don't think I'll be excepting it anytime soon, though."

"I was afraid you'd say that," Jeb breathed, his voice showing hints of sadness and regret. "But if this is the only way, I guess we must do it."

I looked at the guns carefully. It looked like only three of them were actually loaded. How stupid could they be? Three little shotguns would not stop Maximum Ride. Not after all I'd been through…

"We're not just gonna kill them, right? Ari wondered. "What about the little surprise we have for Max?"

"I was just getting to that," Jeb snapped. Ari narrowed his eyes at me. What did I do?

"Max," Jeb said in a announcer's voice. "Do you remember Omega?"

I growled, low in my throat. Of course I remembered Omega! He had almost killed me! I was so lucky that Kuro and Raz were there to get him off me before I completely backed out. Why we hadn't killed him, I don't remember. The boys had flown away, me in Raz's arms and unconscious, of all things.

Behind me I felt Kuro tense up. He remembered Omega, too. Before anyone could blink, Kuro was at my side. I knew he wanted to keep Omega away from me, but I feared I would have to fight anyway.

Fang, sensing the tension in the room, also tensed up, preparing for a fight. My stomach fluttered a little. He still did care about me! Wait, did I say fluttered? I need to keep my emotions in check… If Kuro knows that somewhere in me is this kind of feeling for Fang… I don't want to think about it.

"From the looks of it you do remember," Jeb said. "Omega wants a rematch, Maximum. This time, with no help on either side."

I stared at him. Did Jeb honestly believe I'd fight Omega voluntarily? I mean, at least when I fought him before it was life-or-death! Why would I fight him if I had no reason to? I could care less if Omega wanted a rematch. Neither of us won, so he should just be happy with that.

"Yeah, right!" I said, trying to keep from laughing. "Last time I fought him I almost died! Why would I do that again?"

I could practically feel the I'm-gonna-talk-to-Max-about-this-later vibes coming off Fang.

"You don't have a choice, Maximum," Jeb announced. "You will fight Omega whether you like it or not."

"I will not!" I yelled. Sure, I sounded like a whiney three-year-old. But, whatever! This man wanted me to do something I didn't want to do. I'm Maximum Ride. I do what I want, when I want. Jeb can't control me anymore like he used to. I won't allow it.

"No," I growled. "I won't fight him! You can't make me!"

"We'll see about that," Ari sneered. I gave him my best death-glare. He looked away.

"Go," I whispered, my voice barely audible. Kuro and Fang heard me, though. They turned and ran, picking up speed as the moved. Nudge and Raz go the hint and raced after them, passing them on the way. I turned and ran while the Whitecoats were trying to figure out what to do.

"Not so fast, Maximum," Jeb's voice rang out. I shook my head and poured on the speed, catching up to Fang and Kuro.

Not your best move, Kuro thought to me. But their stumped right now.

The guns started to fire. The bullets missed us completely! The Whitecoats' aims were so off. None of them had had practice with guns, I bet.

"No, idiots!" Jeb cried. "Can't you aim?"

"Give it to me," Omega's deathly-calm voice ordered. He shot a gun.

I quickly stepped to the left as I heard the bullet. It whizzed past my right ear, too close for comfort. That's the closest I've been to getting shot in a while…

"Max, watch out!" Fang hollered. That's when I heard it, a second bullet.

It was coming on my right, again. I was already against the wall, so I couldn't move over anymore. I felt something pierce my skin, and pain suddenly shot through my whole left leg. I bit my lip, breaking the skin, to keep from screaming as I tripped.

Both Fang and Kuro were coming back to me. I yelled for them to leave, but the ignored me. Instead, they worked together to lift me off the ground and started running for the exist, just as Omega shot the gun again.

The pain from the first shot was almost to much to bear, and I let out a small whimper. Fang and Kuro spun their heads around and eyed me carefully. I glared at both of them. Kuro turned away, knowing that I didn't need pity or something like that. Fang watched me a little longer, then got the hint and turned away.

The bullet came silently. I couldn't warn either of the boys. My voice was gone. If I'd opened my mouth, all that would come out would be screams of pain.

I don't understand, why was Omega aiming at me? I dimly heard Jeb yelling at him not to shoot me. Something happened, and I think wonder-boy screamed. I wonder why.

Pain shot through my right arm. I could feel the heat from the bullet burning at my skin. There was nothing I could do about it. I had almost succeeded in forgetting the leg-pain, but now I had to deal with this, too. Just great.

We were almost to a door. I could see the outside. Vaguely I could see five lumpy shapes hovering outside, a few miles from the School. At least the kids, and Iggy, were smart enough to know not to stick by.

The gun went off a third time. I could tell from the path that the bullet was flying that it wasn't aimed for me.

"Kuro!" I managed to squeak out. He looked at me, not understanding why I spoke his name. Fang did the same.

The bullet made contact. Kuro stopped moving and fell to the ground. Fang stumbled to hold me up. We were so close to freedom! Why tare it from us now? Those Whitecoats know how to ruin everything.

Fang kneeled on the floor, still holding me up, and felt Kuro for a pulse. I held my breath.

"Sorry, Max," Fang whispered.

I am so mean! Oh, well. This's what I want to happen. No flames, please. This's just part of the story. Trust me, things will work out… Or will they? Only time will tel… Now, onto a totally different topic: Ya' know what I've noticed, reading the MR fanfics? Most of them have Max getting shot or stabbed with a knife. Makes for an interesting story, huh? Well, mine's not original when it comes to that, I guess! Hah, thanks for reading, guys! Review if y'all want! It's greatly appreciated! -Max