FANG POV

I waited until the rest of the flock was in the building before entering. I knew I was losing it, and I needed to remind myself that I was the leader until Max got back.

Which had better be really soon because I sucked at this leader stuff. Comforting the little kids? Hah. Gazzy and Angel had been in tears for fifteen minutes straight. I sucked. Seriously.

My head was pounding, too, which was just fantastic. I wasn't used to getting headaches (genetically enhanced skill or disposition to good head health, I had no idea), but this was bad. Really bad. Like, the dim light in this room was making me squint.

There were tons of monitors and computers – this was the same room I'd been in with Jeb earlier. I took a longer look this time. The monitors I'd compared to heart rate monitors must have been some sort of brain wave monitor or something. I strode up to one without thinking, my fingers moving to touch the screen. That was Max. Those little blips were her thinking… what was she thinking about?

Was she thinking about me?

Did she know I was thinking about her?

"See those spikes? That's a higher range of emotion," Jeb said, reaching out to stroke one of the particularly high spikes on the monitor before it moved out of the screen. I looked at him with alarm.

"Like what? Like she's really scared or something?" I demanded, and he shrugged.

"It could be that. Or she could be really happy about something," he said. I narrowed my eyes at him and then looked back at the monitor. It was a little bumpy, but there were no more spikes. Suddenly, I turned on Jeb.

"You have the Voice, right? Just go talk to her! Tell her it's all right, tell her we're getting her out! Tell her we're here! Tell her I'm here!" I was yelling now. Everyone had stopped milling around to glance over at the two of us. I ignored them.

"That takes a lot of concentration, Fang," Jeb said, frowning.

"The hell it does! So concentrate!" I exclaimed. Jeb's frown deepened.

"Fang, right now we need to get Max out of these machines. I can't do that and talk to her at the same time," he said, turning from me.

Suddenly something in my head snapped. Like a knife, pain shot through my brain. I staggered a little, grasping the table beside me, trying not to cry out.

You're Fang. You have no emotion. You do not feel pain, I reminded myself. You do not feel pain, you do not feel pain, you do not feel pain. My brain begged to differ, and then it was my stomach, too. I clutched at my stomach, turning away from the flock and gasping for air. Iggy was beside me in a second.

"What is it, man?" he asked.

"Nothing," I gasped, clenching my teeth together. "Fine." Iggy looked very unconvinced, but that was not my priority right now.

My priority was not freaking dying, because suddenly that seemed exactly like what I was about to do. Screw the Fang-has-no-feelings crap, I was barely able to keep from screaming. I fell to my knees, the pain so overwhelming I didn't notice Jeb until he was yelling my name in my ear. Groaning, I sank completely to the floor, putting my hands over my head to block his voice. The pounding in my head did a good job of that, too.

"FANG! You are NOT Max! You're FANG, and you're going to STAY WITH ME!" Jeb's voice penetrated the pounding. I tried to focus on his words, tried to remember their meaning, but my brain was too frazzled for that. "Fang! FANG!" That was me, right? My name was Fang? I heard screaming somewhere in the distance and vaguely identified it as Angel's. There I was again, going and making them upset. I really needed to get this leader thing under control.

"FANG. You are NOT Max!" Why did he keep saying that? "Listen, Fang. This will go away if you concentrate. You are FANG. You are NOT Max!" He sounded totally freaked. Since when did he care if I died? Anyway, I tried to listen, tried to concentrate on what he meant. Max was dead, at least for the time being. But I wasn't. I was Fang, and I was alive, and I wasn't going to die because Max was coming back and I was going to be the first thing she saw when she woke up.

I was going to see Max again.

I just needed to not die.

And just like that, it was gone.

I looked up at the faces above me. Angel, Gazzy, and Iggy were white, their eyes wide. Nudge was crying silently. Ella looked freaked, and even Max Two looked vaguely interested. Jeb was looking very relieved.

"What the hell was that?" I snarled.