Well I felt as though there wasn't enough of a confrontation in the last chapter with Locke so I made a special little something for this chapter. Oh, and as a bonus we get the return of one of the most hated characters in all of the Maximum Ride series... Well sorta', if you catch my drift. *locks self in room for safety*

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Chapter 28: Agent of Chaos

I had been on the road for what felt like a month but in actuality had only been about a week. Needless to say that a lone person in a suit on a motorcycle wasn't the best way to travel incognito. Even more needless to say was that it wasn't easy tracking a madman across a country when you had no idea where exactly he was or where he was going. All I had to go on were the cryptically ominous and taunting messages that he would send into my mind and the scent of rot and blood.

The sun beat mercilessly down on me, and a fading cloud of dust marked where I had already been. I was propped up against the tree, finally allowing myself to stop searching for just a moments rest. At the rate I was going everything seemed utterly hopeless; I was lost and alone, at the whim of a deranged psychopath who haunted my every step and yet could not be found. His shadow moved behind every rock and tree, at times I felt as though he was the one tracking me. A ghostly omnipresent being that was nowhere and everywhere at once. I closed my eyes wanting to fade away into the darkness, and sadly I only slipped into a dream.

I was standing in a white room wearing all white; Locke stood in front of me wearing his tattered suit, broken chains hung from his wrists. His book was on the floor and opened up to the first page, the pages were aged and turning yellow and the letters were blood red. He stood there looking down at his book, confused, as if he had forgotten what he had written and had only recently rediscovered his twisted views on life. His hands clenched and unclenched, one hand became a paw while only the fingers on the other changed. A sick failure compared to the rest of the breed.

"I'm no failure, as a matter of fact, I'm the only one that can truly be called a success." He didn't look up at me, he licked his lips. "After all, I'm the only one who can see the bigger picture." He paused and looked up at me through his matted greasy hair, the outline of a smile slither up the sides of his face. "So far." He stepped over his book and walked towards me, stopping only about ten feet away. His foot prints left blotted shadows on the floor, the contrast was almost blinding, like staring at a sunspot. "Let me ask you something Felix." He spun around, the book closed hovered in the air and flew into his hands. "What do you think is the reason why you're chasing me?" He tilted his head to the side as if I had asked him the question.

"Because you're a madman who doesn't deserve his lease on life." If it was possible, half of his face was smiling and the other was frowning.

"Think harder." His voice came out deep and raspy. He took a step forward, closing the distance between us uncomfortably.

"Because you're a sick and twisted menace to everything that breaths." He seemed to grow larger and the room seemed to grow darker.

"Think harder." He took another step forward, putting the book in a pocket inside his jacket.

"Because you haunt my every step." My emotions began running and my heart racing.

"Think harder." Another malevolent step. I spark of fear lit the abyss inside me for a mere moment and then was snuffed out. To my dismay he seemed to sense it.

"Because-"

"Think harder!" He interrupted me, taking another heavy step. He was right in front of me, staring down, looming over me as if I was underneath the shadow of some behemoth monstrosity. "Think faster!" He was yelling at me.

"Because you-" He threw an arm around my neck putting me in a head lock with one arm and holding my feet down with one of his. His free hand disappeared into a pocket and reappeared with a loaded pistol. The click of a prime rang in my ears.

"THINK HARDER! Come on, I know you can! You did it once before!" For one moment in my life I admitted to myself that I was afraid. He continued screaming at me, shaking me side to side as if he was having a conscious and voluntary seizure. "Think harder!" He stomped on my feet and pressed the barrel of the gun into the side of my head. He tightened his grip on my neck, slipping his arm into a suffocation hold. "You know they say some people work best under pressure. I wonder if you're one of those people. But I suppose we'll soon find out, after all, people show you who they really are in their final moments. So that raises the question... Are you a coward?" He inhaled heavily and chuckled. "I can smell your fear." I was finally able to choke out a few words.

"Because I want to know if I am meant for something more." His grip waned for only a fraction of a second.

"Good." He sounded disturbingly pleased.

"Why's that?"

"Because, your life isn't the one in my hands." I blinked, and when my eyes opened I was standing ten feet away from Locke, and there clutched in his arm with a gun pressed to her head was Phoenix. I blinked again out of an incredulous shock, gasping slightly out of what I called a need for air. Her grove green eyes were choked with tears. I could hardly believe that she was there alive, but she couldn't be, she was dead.

"Felix!" She managed to get out a cry before Locke silenced her with a squeeze of his arm.

"Let her go Locke!" I almost charged him, but my eyes kept bouncing between Phoenix and the gun pressed to her head. My hands balled into fists and I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins.

"Why should I? After all, you're the one who determines if she lives or not. Make the wrong move or give the wrong answer and my finger might just slip." His yellow fangs split his smile in two. Phoenix struggled to get out of his grasp, he stomped on her feet. "You'll play along my dear." He pointed the gun at me. "Or my arm might have an involuntary muscle spasm. Understood? Good." He placed the gun back on her head and shot me a devilish look. "Understood?" I didn't respond, he began to laugh. The shadow underneath him grew, pooling at his feet like blood, and expanding at an increasingly fast rate. It only stopped after the whole room was consumed in darkness, the only shred of light came from my suit.

"Let her go." I muttered with a clenched jaw.

"Answer the question and I let her go, it's as simple as that." I looked at Phoenix again praying to find that grove that I had been robbed of what seemed like an eternity ago. "Now be a good boy and tell me, what do you think is the reason why you're chasing me?" I didn't want to answer, I wanted him do disappear, vanish from the face of existence. He was the bane of my existence, a living manifestation of the demon inside of me. We all have one, unfortunately my relationship with mine was far less then ideal, mine was trying to kill me and the love of my life.

"Because Locke, I want to see your head on a platter and I wont stop until I hear your dying breath."An uneasy silence fell upon all of us. Locke simply looked back at tantalizingly.

"Sorry, wrong answer." The shadows around my feet crept up my legs, binding me to the floor. The flowed unhindered up my body, my neck, and onto my face. Into my mouth and across my eyes but leaving my ears uncovered. I could hear Phoenix struggle as if she was in my situation, but I was paralyzed, numb to the bone. I was bound, a prisoner of the shadows, unable to help her once again. That feeling of hopelessness, the sheer knowledge of how powerless you are, how insignificant you really are, how that if I was to die at that moment no soul would mourn my passing.

"Felix!" I heard her scream out in an eerily familiar tone. One lone bang sounded throughout the darkness, one shriek, one unholy laugh, and a scream so inconceivable painful that I find it hard to comprehend that it came from me.

My eyes snapped open letting the bright day of light flood into me, drowning the darkness. I was freezing cold despite the warmth in the air. My breathing was heavy and labored as if I had just finished a ten kilometer run. My eyes scanned my surroundings, I was slumped down at the base of the tree I was propped up against, the motorcycle was still there and so was my suitcase. I let lose a deep sigh and ran my fingers through my hair. I could still hear the echo of the gunshot echo off of the mountains in the distance. Phoenix. Of all the things that Locke could torture me with it had to be her, the thing that hurt the most, even when I was numb.

A shadow moved in the corner of my eye. I was on my feet and ready to land a blow but my memory forced me to stop mid-rush. Propped up against a tree was Dylan. His arms were crossed across his chest and his head was held slightly low.

"A nightmare fitted for you alone, how sad." He raised his head and gave me a surprisingly calm look. I walked back over to the tree and sat down where I had fallen asleep.

"How did you find me?" I didn't anticipate seeing him anytime soon, considering that the last time I saw him was in Paris.

"How can I not see a friend in need?" He grinned slightly at my confusion. An unexpected gesture, and an unforeseen arrival. "Isaac's been wondering about you. He heard about what happened to Phoenix and Odin. I don't know how well they'll be received but he sends his best wishes to you." He smirked at what I assumed was the notion of wishing. I chuckled at the gesture, those two really were two of a kind. "He also told me that Locke's escaped, I'm assuming that you're out for his head." He looked up at the sky and stared at a cloud. "Isaac wants you to visit him at the Institute if you can. Dr. Gunther-Hagan wants to see you too." I didn't respond and he glanced at me as though something was wrong.

"That's the most I've ever heard you say, I'm amazed." I said sarcastically. We shared a a short genuine chuckle, and all the while Dylan never took his eyes off that cloud. I put my hands in my pockets and closed my eyes. "It's been too long, how have you been?" I opened one eye so I could see his reaction.

"I've been fine, life's uneventful, but from what I hear, your life has been rather chaotic over the past few months." I could see one of his eyebrows rise. "It seems as though death is your shadow." That was an understatement, one that could never be used as a hyperbole. "That's a curse that I wouldn't wish on any soul." He grew silent as if he was choosing what he was going to say next. "Forgive me, I overstepped."

"Don't be, you're right." He was, and I didn't deserve his forgiveness. After all, it was the cold bitter truth. He was still staring at that cloud as if he was looking beyond it, or he was in deep meditative thought. I remembered when I first met him and Isaac, Isaac had told me that he was the kind who sought answers through deep thought and self discovery, attempting to unravel the enigma that was the mind. I wondered how far Locke went before he drove himself insane. I sighed slightly, the search was hopeless, and if I kept it up I would be as insane as Locke by the time i found him. "Alright, I'll go to the Institute." He smirked, satisfied with my answer.

"Good, I'll phone my chauffeur and have him come pick us up." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone that looked brand new. I couldn't believe that I was abandoning a hunt for a trip to the Institute, then again, I wasn't going to be there on a regular mission. It had been awhile since I had been there though, a little over a year actually, by now they would have a whole new set of experiments in containment and a few new staff members. Not to mention that it was in New York City, this would most certainly be interesting.

Oh don't think that you can get away so easily, trust me, in time you'll be unable to resist my call.


Well there you have it, Felix is going to the Institute, and we have a reunion with not only Dylan, but Isaac as well. My oh my, it has been a while since we've seen them. We'll get to see more of them in the near future, so expect some good old Shakespeare and semi-cryptic/riddle like dialogue. I didn't think I'd get this chapter out before the twenty-fifth so think of this chapter as my Christmas present to all of my readers. Please continue to read and review. TBC, so all in due time.

P.S. Once again, Happy Holidays to you all!