Sorry this one took longer. I tried to write it so it would be ready faster than last time. I really did. But then there was a part that I thought I should move to a later chapter then I decided I didn't want to do that and then allergies karate kicked me for three days and then I had a concert and homework and basically there was a lot of stuff going on that would make great excuses. I'll try to get the next chapter out sooner, but, again, don't hold me to it. Thank you so much for being patient with me.

Thank you to Anooooon for the nice review. I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you so much!

Thank you to ShepherdisaBOSS for faving! I'm honored!

I do not own Red vs Blue. RvB belongs to Rooster Teeth.
I do not own Maximum Ride. MR belongs to James Patterson.

She woke up cold. She woke up sore, and she woke up scared. She didn't ask where she was. Even through the slowly wearing off anesthesia, she knew –she felt- where she was. Her eyes were too heavy to keep open, but she was awake. The "scientists" knew this –they knew everything about her- so they started to proceed.

"The subject is responsive. Notify the Director-"

"Shut up, Councilor. I'm already here."

She could hear her own heartbeat pick up on the cardiogram, the green lines would be spiking to reflect the sharp fear stabbing into her heart. Dread pushed the anesthesia out of her system all the faster.

The footsteps got closer, but she pleaded he wouldn't make her open her eyes. She knew what she would see. That man and his horrible, displeased gaze framed by glared glasses lenses looking down at her.

She felt a hand brush her teal wing. Terror shot through her and she tucked her wing as far as she could against her and curled up.

"Hello, Number One. I'm glad you could join us again."

She was going to die. She just knew it.

She ran away. She disobeyed. She escaped. There would be consequences.

She was going to die.

They wouldn't kill her. They couldn't afford to. They had invested over a decade's worth of research, money, and time on her. She was their special one, their model. No, they wouldn't kill her, but she would die. The person who she had become over those few weeks when she was free –Carolina- would die. They would try to destroy all that she had tried to rebuild: her faith in her human side and her capacity to care for other people.

Carolina had learned what friendship, laughter, and peace were like. For these scientists, that just wouldn't do. Test subjects like the Director's Number One only knew the difference between obedience and disobedience, fear and sleep. She knew that after living as Carolina, going back to being Number One would be as painful as death.

That's when something stirred inside her. A flicker of treasonous reasoning, her own sort of rebellious and courageous thought: She didn't have to go back. She didn't have a choice about her circumstances, but she could control her emotions. They could break her body, mutate it and warp it in any way they saw fit, but her will was her own. She could decide to be either Number One or Carolina.

While the lab rat, Number One, might have been scared of the Director –his mere voice sending her whimpering like a child, Carolina wasn't scared of anyone. She had people to protect. She had to be strong for them. And she had to get them out of here.

Slowly, she rolled from her side and on to her back. She, confident the anesthesia wore off enough, opened her eyes. She set her jaw firm and clenched her fists that were held down under restraining straps. Her fear wasn't gone, but she had forced it down and held it there so none of the old emotion would filter through her pale, green irises. She looked into the Director's eyes, facing her fear. Then she spoke.

"I'm sorry, Director. But my name is Carolina."

The first few hours after they had woken up, the twins were measured and prodded. Every inch of them was calculated and recorded. They even had blood samples taken. The two could hear bits and pieces of what the scientists were saying, but it was hard to make out anything definitively because they had those hospital mask thingies on over their mouths and noses.

"…unusual plumage coloration doesn't seem to be artificial. Observation is only confirmable once tests results..."

"Are they even ours? Could the Insurrectionists…"

"Have they finished looking through the archives yet? They have to be…"

"…then ask them to look for any records of experimentation on dizygotic embryos."

"Maybe they were the Institute's? We readmitted a few of the recaptured that had their records on file with that branch of Project Freelancer which could explain…"

"What does the Director recommend? We can't prep or even move on from phase one until I know what the…"

North and South were confused and scared, but they didn't put up a fight. So far they hadn't actually been harmed, and the only people they'd seen since waking up in this room were the three ever-circling guys in lab coats. They didn't even know if the other mutants got away or not. It was best not to jump to conclusions though.

They hadn't really gotten close to the other bird kids while they were living at Wyoming's compound. After all, they didn't exactly share much of a common ground with them other than the obvious extra appendages. The siblings preferred to stick near each other as they always had. It's how they survived the circus, it's how they survived at Wyoming's, and it's how they would survive now.

A door slid open and a man walked through. The three lab goons jumped to attention. It was obvious this was an important guy. He reminded them of how the Ringleader of the circus was treated whenever he walked into a room. The twins eyed him closely. He walked around them as if to size them up then pointed to North.

"Bring him to the holding room. Add him to the queue and run him through the standard tests then take him to Lab 5 like the others when the time comes. After further observation, I can decide which to assign to him."

"What about the female, Director?"

The Director pushed his glassed up farther on his nose.

"…I believe I-2 is now unoccupied."

"I-2? A-are you sure, sir?"

"Bump her to the top of the queue. We need base data as soon as possible. Then take her to I-2."

The leader simply turned his head toward the trembling scientist, daring him to object, and the trembling subordinate quickly nodded his head and set to work. The Director left them alone.

In a flourish of white coats, the lab and all its measuring and prodding materials had been cleaned and organized. A push of a button opened the door again to let in four Erasers –two to restrain each of the bird kids.

They went cooperatively, injuries of their attempt of escaping at Wyoming's compound still tender to the touch. But, when the Erasers started to lead them down different hallways, panic set in.

"H-hey! No! I'm not leaving my brother! Let me go!"

South kicked and flailed but that only made the Erasers dig their nails in.

"Sis! It's okay! It'll be okay! You'll be fine!"

He didn't even have a chance to back up his statements before they were out of earshot. Fanged smiles crept onto the wolf-mutants' faces as they seemed to enjoy separating the siblings.

North was thrown rather unceremoniously to the floor of a large holding room. The door shut closed almost immediately with the Erasers leaving to terrorize other experiments or something.

"North!"

The purple-and-green winged mutant looked up in surprise to see three familiar faces.

"I'm so glad you're here! Well, err, not here-here but you know what I meant," York rambled.

North nodded in understanding but couldn't bring himself to laugh at the joke. York came closer and inspected him, giving him a once over for injuries and healing them as best he could –giving special attention to the ones newly acquired like the spot the scientists drew blood from and the claw marks from the Erasers manhandling him on the way.

"So what did they do to you so far?" Carolina came to stand next to him and York.

"Um, they had South and me in a room. They measured us and stuff. Then this "Director" guy came in and gave some orders. He said that I would be tested then go to Lab 5, and South would be tested then go to I-2 or something. What does that mean?"

"It sounds pretty normal so far. You haven't been here before so they got your stats so they can put you on file. They'll run you through various tests so they can have the "before" of the "before and after" to compare any actual experimentation against. I'm not sure about Lab 5 but York heard someone mention something like that to him too."

"Yeah. They also said they had to decide if I would be compatible or something first. Sounds like loads of fun," York said as he continued to heal North.

"But what's I-2? What's going to happen to my sister?"

Carolina shrugged and avoided his eyes.

"Not sure. Sounds like he has something special in mind for her."

"Is "special" good or…?"

North's gut coiled at that thought. He was already scared out of his mind at the thought of experimentation, but the thought of his sister being tortured was just unbearable.

"Calm down. I'm not sure. I've never heard of I-2 before. Chances are that she'll get tossed in here like the rest of us eventually."

"But what are they doing to her now?" North tried to remain composed but he was quickly losing it.

"Well, maybe they've started testing her. I mean, there's no reason for them to wait."

"Then why are we here?" A voice from behind them asked. "What are they waiting for?"

North looked behind them to see Washington sitting against the back wall, his hands bound in a strange way.

"Who knows, dude," York said, finished healing North.

North rubbed the newly-healed area on his forearm with much appreciation. Then he followed the other two to stand near Wash.

"Why did they do that to you?" North asked with unmasked curiosity.

Wash looked down at his hands.

"Well, I'm going to guess the zip-tied-together part is self-explanatory, but the thick gloves part are probably to prevent me from using my powers."

"You dangerous, dude."

York slapped Wash on the back in a show of bro-affection.

"Um, I wouldn't have described it like that, but yeah. That's the basic concept."

North couldn't comprehend why they were acting so casual about this! They had been kidnapped and set up to be experimented on! How could anyone joke about anything at a time like this –when those maniacs had his sister!

"So what do we do now? What happens next?"

"Nothing worth anticipating," Carolina said matter-of-factly. "They'll come and get you when they need you, put you into a dog crate, take you to where they want, and they'll bring you back when they're done."

"Oh. Okay. But-"

He was cut off when the doors opened again. Much like North, a winged teen was thrown inside, bracing herself as she hit the ground.

"Connie!"

Wash wiggled to a stand and rushed over to assist her.

"Don't call me 'Connie'," she hissed as Wash tried his best to help the brunette up.

She grimaced as pain from bruises on her shoulders and arms protested at the movement. York, once more, set to healing his friends.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." When she got to her feet she folded her arms and asked, "So was everyone captured? Did no one get away?"

"Well, we haven't seen everyone yet. There's still a chance," Wash said hopefully.

"I'm pretty sure they got Wyoming, but who knows what they'll do to him. And you said Maine was captured along with you and Connecticut. South is here. It seems like Flowers and 479er might be the only ones that got away."

Connecticut's jaw was hard and her throat squeezed. She drew her wings in tight and went to sit along the wall. Wash's pointed ears drooped, but York stopped him from going to comfort her. He nodded solemnly. She probably did need to be alone. But that didn't mean Wash wanted her to be.

"Keep him back! I said keep him back!"

The Director heard the muffled screeches of his feckless underlings from outside the door. He drug a hand down the side of his face as he wondered for how educated their degrees claimed them to be they could be so incompetent.

He swiped his card through the reader on the side of the door, and, after blinking green a few times, the doors parted and allowed him entrance.

"Gentlemen, whatever you claim to be doing, stop this moment."

And, as if he was parting the Red Sea, the flustered scientists and panting Eraser security stopped and backed away. The man, arms behind his back, paced toward the focal point of what was the chaos just moments before.

It truly was a sight to behold. The mutant looked like …a mutant. It was disgusting. He had pattern-less patches of coarse Eraser fur mangling his human characteristics –he looked like an absolute patch job. Whoever the scientist was that created this monstrosity should have been shot.

Of course experiments could go wrong. That was the axiom of his science. But, test subjects that ended up as corrupted as the mass before him were usually due to poor calculations. If the experiment was too mutated to be of use, it was pointless and a waste of money and resources.

It was a wonder this beast survived at all. By all means something as disgusting as this creature should have been dealt with by natural selection. Only the fittest would survive. This thing that twisted below his gaze was not worthy to compete against the Director's creations. They were fit and strong and designed to prosper. His experiments were the result of tireless years of computing, extrapolating, planning, hypothesizing, and testing -each one stronger, faster, more apt to survive than the next. Then why was this one, this clearly inferior bulk of warped flesh, captured along with his best of the best? Nothing was fit to be on the same level as his Number One, yet, there it was –captured right along side her.

"Director, shall we dispose of this one?"

"No."

The world froze. All the scientists around him were preparing him for euthanization but he was giving the Eraser guards a tough time. They expected the Director would want this screw-up eliminated. They were dumbstruck.

No. There was something he missed. There was something that this creature had that his experiments didn't have –some secret that allowed it to continue its pitiful existence. He needed to know what it was. He needed it.

"No. This one will be under special observation."

A smile curled on to his features as he watched the confused expression of the mutant in question. Its brows drew together as the Director took his turn to leave.

"Queue him for both the Eraser tests as well as the avian-hybrids'. Then place it with the others. Observe how they interact with it –what they say to it, how they treat it. I want to know everything about it."

He could play a little game. If his pawn turned into a more useful piece then he would be very pleased. He might even be able to add him to the queue for Lab 5. If the pawn turned out to have no use at all or expired on its own, then an abomination of science would be eliminated. Either way, the Director was happy. He was in control and he was happy.

So there you have it. It'll start getting good soon. I had to kind of set up what's going on with them so far. I'm pretty sure you can figure out what's going to happen to our poor protagonists. Anyway, I'm glad you are still reading this. I'm sorry I haven't been very consistent. I'll try to get the action and drama in soon. Hope that last bit with Maine and the Director was satisfying. That was my favorite part.
Anyway, thanks for following. As always, review and fav as you so desire!

Looking forward to it!