Disclaimer: I truthfully own NOTHING.

Not even the idea for this chapter. All credit for that goes to FeliciaCaden. I posted this chapter different than this, she reviewed it with a different idea, and with her permission, here is the wayyyy awesome-er version of chapter 14. XD Also, you can thank FeliciaCaden for the slight bit of sort-of Faxness in this chapter. Also her idea. xD

Chapter 14 of ADOT:

Max POV: (real Max)

Angel, Nudge, and I made our way through the ventilation systems in the School. Army crawling definitely wasn't my favorite thing to do, but, hey. I'd do it for Fang.

I had decided I wasn't going to do my usual, which was sneaking into rooms, gathering information, and then either getting caught or wasting time. Instead, we would find Fang, get him, and get the hell out of there so Iggy could blow it to bits.

We reached another vent, and I glanced into the room below. Computer lab. About ten feet, and another vent. Lunch room. For some reason, it seemed ridiculously out of place in this place. Another ten feet, another vent. I had gone through probably thirty more, and looked into it. The sight horrified me.

No, it wasn't Fang. It was something more horrifying-some sort of robot-eraser-M-Geek-Flyboy type of thing. It was like a complete mix of every successful species created here. And, it looked-surprisingly-successful.

I kept crawling, and another eleven vents, I glanced in. This sight both overjoyed me and scared me.

This time, it was Fang. And four others, that looked around our age, one maybe slightly younger. Three girls and a boy. Now, for the hard part. Actually getting to him, considering the room was probably under surveillance, and the doors were open, leaving a window for anyone to see us.

Making any noise to get his attention would just alert people to us being here. I had no option besides to wait. While waiting, I watched them.

There was a girl with long black hair, that could almost be Fang's sister. A few differences told me she wasn't, though. The other boy had brown hair, blue eyes, and was nicely built, a little skinny. The younger-looking girl had green eyes, dirty blonde hair. Then, I saw the last girl.

Then, I saw me.

Blonde hair (A/N: I'm sorry all you brunette-Max supporters. I've always pictured her as a blonde, like on the covers), brown eyes, kind of pale. The fact that she hadn't broken out of here yet proved she was working for the school.

Well, duh. I'm an idiot. Ignore that last paragraph… No, Max, of course she's not working for the School! No way, why would you think that? You just have a totally not evil twin! DUH!

That only meant one thing: My old pal, Max II, was back. Oh, how fun. Seemed like this time, I would actually have to kill myself. And by myself, I mean clone-me, and…Oh, forget it. I think you know what I mean.

I couldn't help myself; I started panicking. I deep-breathed for a second, and that second was evidently too much.

Fang POV:

I heard someone breathing, and looked around for the source of the sound. The other Flock members had noticed, too, and it hadn't been them-I knew their breathing. It wasn't all-human breathing, either, it was too quick. It was mutant-breathing.

I looked around the room, and then my eyes settled on the air vent. Behind the vent was a confused-looking Max. (And by a confused-looking Max, I mean one of many, evidently.)

She realized I had spotted her, and her eyes drifted to the other Max, and then back to me. She was silently asking me, 'Who is that?'

I gave a slight shrug of my shoulders, to signify I honestly had no clue anymore. Out of my flock, only Ember had noticed. And that was probably because of her power to sense feelings.

Ember was looking at the vent, and then back at the other Max, trying to make sense of it all. When she caught my eye, I mouthed, 'Can you tell which?'

She shook her head, but mouthed back, 'No. Seems more likely to be…' she gestured toward the Max behind the vent.

I gave a tiny nod of my head, wondering how we would get out of here. I knew we had a better chance now that Max was here, but I wasn't sure.

All through the time she was there, until nightfall, we made silent communication. When nightfall came, and the light turned off, our night vision adjusted. I mouthed to Max, 'Now. Low security-no one by door.'

She nodded, and not long after, the vent came off silently. She sank down into the room, and I was glad the other Max was asleep. Nudge, and then Angel, followed close behind.

Max-the real one, which I've decided I'm going to call Max One until this identity crisis is done-walked over to my cage first, and fumbled with the lock for a moment before recruiting Nudge. She ran her fingers over it, her eyes closed. About a minute later, there was a small beep as the lock came undone. And then the alarm sounded.

Shit. Again.

Knowing we had about -30 seconds until something happened, Nudge quickly unlocked the others cages, too. Not Max2's, though. Smart move, probably.

We heard the footsteps, and, knowing we couldn't escape fast enough, posed for battle.

Max POV:

The hybrid of all the successful mutants entered the room, followed by a few whitecoats. The whitecoats, of course, had guns.

Deciding not to wait, I lunged forward.

The others followed, and began kicking some whitecoat butt. I didn't know what was going on with the mutant-he was the least of my concern. I was focusing on the armed ones first. They had shot several times, but hadn't managed to hit any of us yet.

A roundhouse kick to the head sent one of the five whitecoats unconscious. I back-handed another across the head, but it didn't seem to do anything but leave a nice red mark there. I kicked this one in the stomach, and he shot at me. I dodged the bullet easily, and kicked him in the stomach again. This time, it was hard enough to knock the wind out of him, and I finished him off with a fatal blow to the neck.

I glanced around, and saw that all of the whitecoats were down. Fang, Nudge, Angel, and the other three were fine. Minor bruises when one of them had actually hit them, but no big deal.

(This is what I changed, so if you already read the old Chapter 14, you can start here instead.)

More whitecoats flooded into the room, armed again. Probably ten of them this time. The three others started fighting, and for a moment, I watched them. They were good fighters.

The battle raged on, more and more whitecoats filing in as we killed these. A few M-Geeks joined the mix.

At a slight lull, I looked around to assess the damage. The three I didn't know seemed to be okay, and so did Nudge and Angel. They had some cuts and bruises, but none had been shot. Finally, I found Fang.

He was attempting to stand up, because he had been shot in the knee. Two whitecoats ganged up on him just as he stood. He didn't have time to move-they raised their guns and put their fingers on the trigger.

Things went into hyper-speed and slow motion, somehow mixing into one. They pulled the trigger at the same time, and all I could think was, No. Not Fang. Not now. Acting on impulse, I jumped in front of Fang, taking both bullets. One in the shoulder, one in the chest. The last thing I can remember is me falling to the floor, my last coherent thought being, Please. Please let Fang be alive.

And then, everything went black.

A/N: I'm hoping this lived up to the epic cliffhanger you wanted, FeliciaCaden. XD

Once again, thank you a ton, FeliciaCaden. I love this idea, and it will let me drag the story out longer. XD

From now on, I'm going to update every three or four days. Thanks for the reviews, etc.! I really appreciate them!