A/N: Heeeyyyyyy. We know you guys were mad at us for the cliffy, but we update as much as possible! Some authors don't update for weeks! So be grateful and review. *Bambi Eyes*
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Fly on,
Lia and Kali

Recap Ch.16:

I was walking out of the tent to go find Fang, when a hand grabbed me from behind. I was yanked off me feet and hit the ground, hard. My mouth was gagged, my arms and legs tied, and my eyes blindfolded, but not before I saw a glimpse of long brown hair and a flash of deep brown eyes. JJ.

Chapter 17: Betrayed

The blindfold scratched against my eyes as I was lifted up by JJ.

"Take her to her green room," a slightly feminine voice growled from behind me.

"Where is it?" JJ asked, confused.

"BY THE ANGEL. Do you know anything?" The other voice said. I was roughly grabbed by two large, hairy hands. Gross, I thought my other captor was a girl. Apparently she was a really hairy girl. I left JJ's arms, and that was my chance to break away. I went limp for a few seconds, tricking JJ and Hairy into thinking I blacked out.

"What did you do to her, Brigid?" JJ squealed, "Jeb wanted her awake!"

So my father was behind this. Along with Brigid and JJ, who were probably erasers. That's why they were so frigging hairy. I remained still for a few more seconds, then thrashed like there was no tomorrow. I flopped out of Brigid's hairy arms, and hit the ground with a soft thud. I rolled away from them, but it was no use. I was bound and blindfolded, and soon I was in Brigid's grasp again. She mumbled a string of colorful obscenities as she carried me to my green room. I heard JJ lock the door behind us, and say, "All clear, hall 4, room 6. Ari's group, hurry up" into a walkie talkie. Psh, who uses walkie talkies. And who came up with the name Walkie Talkie, anyway? Back to the task at hand. I was sitting on a metal chair, and Brigid was pacing in front of me. JJ was most likely guarding the door, ready to open it when Ari's erasers showed up.

"You think Dylan got Fang yet?" JJ asked, and my blood turned cold at the mention of Dylan. I thought I had killed him. Now he was prancing around, helping Jeb capture us. My hands, which were bound behind my back, worked feverishly to untangle themselves from the rope. Soon enough, I discovered Brigid made a rookie mistake. She had used too much rope, which meant I could wriggle out one hand. I used my free hand to drop the rope on the ground.

I didn't dare move yet, though, because the walkie talkie blared to life, announcing, "We're on the boy's tail, Ari is coming, hold on." Dylan's voice. They were on to Fang.

Fang POV

I roamed around the tents, looking for Max. Where was she? We were on in a few minutes. After checking the backstage room, where nobody else claimed to have seen her, I began to worry. She was never late. So where was she? I thought I heard the sound of yelling in the distance, but it was probably just the crowds cheering for Star as she tamed the wild animals. A few times, I heard footsteps echoing behind me, but when I turned around, no one was there. I hated the new circus. It just wasn't the same as our old, original one. This one didn't have the sense of home and happiness like the other one did. It must've been close to our act, so I turned around and began to walk back, convincing myself that Max would be there waiting for me. It was only until a hairy hand grasped my foot that I knew someone was really following me, and those screams were probably not from the audience, those footsteps not imaginary.

"We've got you now, pesky little bird," a rough voice growled from behind me, an amused tone in his voice. I tried to wrench my foot out of the eraser's grasp, but he flung me down on the ground, hard. I bounded back on my feet, the adrenaline coursing through my veins allowing me to ignore several probably bruised, if not broken ribs. My breath caught in my throat when I saw the attacker. Dylan. I thought we'd killed him.

"Thought I was gone, little finch? You can't get rid of me that easily," he snickered, and lunged at me. I was surprised that more erasers weren't with him. Apparently the whitecoats haven't truly discovered how strong I am yet. As Dylan charged at me, I pounced in the air, kicking him in the face as he ran under me. Idiot. I have wings.

I heard a satisfying crack, as blood erupted from his nose. "Are you sure about that?" I taunted, landing softly on my feet and pushing Dylan face-first into the ground. His blood smeared on the clean tile. I kicked him in the stomach, and turned around to leave. However, Dylan wouldn't have that. He grabbed my ankle, (WHY DOES HE KEEP DOING THAT?) and pulled me back down onto the blood-smeared ground. He stood over me, dripping blood on my face. "I'd kick you, but I'm above kicking a man while he's down. Now get up, and fight me!" I stood slowly, and felt immediately dizzy. Taking advantage of the moment, Dylan lunged at me and raked his claws down my chest.

"If you wanted to touch my amazing muscles, you could've just asked," I teased him, and received a growl in response. He lunged again, but this time I was ready. He brought up his fist and I caught it, throwing him into the wall. He hit the wall hard, and it nearly caved in. His eyes rolled back into his head. He wasn't dead, but would definitely be hurtin' when he woke.

"Goodbye, little doggy." I laughed as I walked away, not giving the unconscious eraser behind me a second thought.

Max POV

I sat still for a few more moments until I heard Brigid directly in front of me. Launching myself forward, I swung my arms, punching her in her hairy chest. She let out a high-pitched yelp and swung, ready to punch, I ducked, and felt the blindfold starting to slip off my forehead. I yanked it off my head, glad that I could finally see again. I looked over just in time for me to see Brigid bring her foot back, ready to kick. I rolled to the side, and stood up behind the chair. That's when my good luck ran out. JJ used her telekinesis to hurl me towards the wall. At the last second, though, I snapped my wings out, shooting into the door instead. I landed next to JJ, who attempted to lift me with telekinesis. Before she could, I punched her in the jaw, watching the light leave from her brown eyes. Knocked out cold from a little punch. What a weak eraser, I thought as she slumped to the floor. I turned my attention toward Brigid, who sprinted towards me, a knife glinting in her hairy hand. I shot into the air, levelling out before touching the ceiling.

"You can't escape, little birdy," she taunted, rearing her arm back to throw the knife at me.

"You'll have to do better than that," I responded as her knife whizzed near my ear, falling to the ground with a thud. I dropped to the ground, picking up the knife. Brigid inched away from me as I bring back my hand. I prepared myself to throw the knife as the door bursts open, and ten erasers pour in, swarming me. I threw the knife, not caring about which direction it went. I snapped my wings out, swerving around the erasers. I flew over their head, and apparently what they have in strength, they lose in wits. They all stare open-mouthed at me, surprised their prey make it out of their trap.

"Suck it," I screeched, leaving the green room and flying through the halls. The sound of the erasers followed me, echoing off the tent walls, but I was much faster than them. Soon, I was behind the curtains standing next to Fang.

"Oh thank God," I wheezed, relieved that Fang was safe from Dylan, but also wondering where he was, or if the whole 'Dylan being brought back' thing was just to make me nervous.

"What happened to you?" he picked up a rag and dabbed at the blood collecting on my ear. Apparently Brigid had hit me after all.

"Fang.." I started, but was cut off as the lights dimmed outside the curtains. Our cue. I fixed my hair as best as I could, gently wiped at the blood staining my new costume, and silently took my place on stage. The audience was slightly smaller than last time, but only because we hadn't had enough time to advertise as much as before. I was surprised to see most of the seats filled. My stomach dropped as I noticed a cluster of erasers and whitecoats dotting the back rows. Fang and I completed a perfect routine, and the new audience went nuts over our wings. The whitecoats sat silently, muttering to each other and shaking their heads and taking notes. The erasers looked ready to rip our throats out, but they stayed seated, even as Ari's group of erasers made their way to the back rows. I spotted Dylan, who was making angry gestures at Ari, obviously pissed that they didn't catch me. I looked closer and discovered one of his eyes was black, and a cut was still bleeding on the side of his face. I felt the urge to give him the finger when he turned to face me, smirking and giving me a little wave. Asshole.

Fang and I bowed one last time for the audience, then scampered to the back room, where the rest of the crew was waiting. Iggy was on stage announcing Maya's performance. As soon as he entered the green room, I ran up to him with Fang, and spilled my story.

"You thought it was safe, but they found us again," I wrapped up. "And we can't fight them when the audience is there. They'd report us, and never come back."

"We'll put up extra security, but we can't do much more than that."

"Iggy, they could've killed me," I urged.

"Yeah, but they didn't make a move against the rest of us," he started. Suddenly, he straightened up, the light left his eyes like he didn't have control over his body and forcefully said, "Maybe you should turn yourself in." Then he returned to normal.

"Iggy?" Fang asked quizzically, shaking the ring-master's shoulders frantically.

"Yeah, what? Get our hands off my tux," Iggy said lightly, batting Fang's hands away. We shared a glance, confused by what Iggy had suggested, but he didn't seem to remember. "I better get back on stage. Warn everyone else, and go bring some weapons in here just in case."

Iggy left the room, leaving everyone but Ratchet, who was on stage, staring blankly at us. "So," I began awkwardly, "the whitecoats and erasers are here tonight." I am such a bad public speaker. This first sentence threw everyone in a frenzy, looking for weapons and trying to make a plan to kill them.

"BUT," Fang cut everyone off, "We are not going to fight them. Iggy wants us to remain CALM. Max and I are going to the weapons room, JUST AS A PRECAUTION. We do not plan on fighting the erasers, got that?"

A chorus of disappointed "yeses" and "fines" rippled throughout the green room.

"Good," Fang approved, turning towards me and asking, "Ready to get some weapons?"

"Yeah," I said, taking his hand as he led me out of the green room.

We walked quickly to the weapons room, trying to get there and back before the Whitecoats left. Luckily, Maya and Star still had to close the show, so we should be ok on time. We entered the room, and I went straight for my whip.

"You really like that thing, don't you?" Fang chuckled (Wait, FANG LAUGHED? WTH?), grabbing some knives and revolvers for the rest of the mutants.

"Uh-huh!" I replied. "Fang... are the guns really necessary?" I asked, hoping the answer was no. I mean, why should things turn to that? The whitecoats weren't usually armed...

"Max. Just because I have it, doesn't mean I'll use it. It's just a precaution, ok?" I sighed and nodded, coiling my whip around my wrist.

"Ok, it's just... I don't like all the violence, all the time. Why do people have to die in order for these idiots to get the point?" He walked over to me and grabbed my hands in his.

"Max, you know we don't try to kill anyone. We do what we must to defend ourselves, and that doesn't usually involve killing. If they're idiots, let them be idiots. It's not something we can really control." I nodded at him, looking back up. "Hey," he said. "Don't be down. For all we know, there's nothing big going on now. These are only for safety, right?" He leaned down and pecked me on the lips.

"Right," I sighed, and together we began making our way back to the circus. And were stopped halfway there. Fang grabbed my wrist and yanked me behind Iggy's trailer, ducking. I looked at him, confused. He mouthed at me, Whitecoats, leaving. I nodded, and looked quietly around the corner. There they were, making their way across the parking lot along with the rest of the crowd, as if they were normal people. Crap. We took longer than we thought. They passed by, and I could hear a glimpse of their conversation. "The boy... And their strength is improving greatly... but how did she... and how could you fail?" I just caught the end as they were right outside. A female voice replied. "I'm sorry, I really thought Brigid knew how to tie knots!" It was JJ. And she was gone. With the whitecoats. And there was nothing we could do to stop her.

Once they were gone, Fang and I moved out from behind the trailer and walked back to the circus. We entered the back room, to find them all clustered on a couch, looking nervous. Maya jumped up at our arrival. "Oh, thank Heavens! You guys took so long, and we were so worried, and.." she trailed off, noticing that everyone was staring at her. She blushed, and sat down.

Iggy looked at Fang, and said briskly, "Anything?"

Fang addressed the entire circus. "Well. We took so long, because we had to hide, quite suddenly. The whitecoats were leaving, and not doing anything else. Not plotting world domination, not murdering innocent people. leaving. And one other thing... There was someone with them. Not just JJ, though. Guys, there's something we never told you. Brigid... she's an eraser."

Love and HEY I'M STILL ALIVE,
Dylan