A/N: See? I told you I couldn't keep up the once a week thing. -sigh- I do actually have an excuse this time, though; my parents are getting divorced and my house has been kinda crazy for the past few weeks. All the same, I apologize.

On the bright side, I'm fairly certain that there are only going to be a few more chapters of this fic ("few" being an extremely loose estimate; I'm not known for my accurate predictions of these sorts of things), and then you won't have to deal with my horrible updating skills anymore.

Oh, and a shout-out to xXjaziXx for giving me possibly the longest review I have ever received in the history of my posting on FFN, and certainly the longest review I've ever received that had that little to do with the story it was addressing. Thanks for the entertainment, and thank you for making yourself an account so that I wasn't forced to reply to the whole thing right here. =P

143

"Where am I?" I asked the Director for something like the fifth time. So far I'd just gotten vague mumbling in reply. Apparently it takes a minute for people to become coherent after being forcefully woken from unconsciousness.

I sighed and sat back on my heels to wait.

Finally, her eyes focused on me. Her brows furrowed, but I couldn't tell if that was due to confusion or anger. "Max?"

"Yep," I said, a little surprised that she was referring to me by name. "I need information, and you're going to give it to me."

"Why should I do that?" she asked, and it became clear that she was angry. "You knocked me out. I knew I shouldn't trust you, but I did, and look where it got me. You're nothing but overgrown, rebellious lab rats, and you should all be shot."

I had been expecting something like this, but there was one part of her rant that was off. "Hang on… You were trusting me? Why?"

"I don't know," she spat. "Maybe because I had a momentary lapse of any common sense at all." She paused. "Why do you sound like you don't know what happened?"

I smiled grimly. "Because I don't. I don't know where I am, I don't know where the rest of my flock is, I don't remember knocking you out, I don't know why there are no lights on… I don't know anything right now."

"Your ploys are getting weirder," she said, "but I'm not falling for it."

"My ploys?" I asked indignantly. "This obviously has something to with you and your 'let's debilitate and kill them all' craziness. I didn't just lose my freaking memory for no reason. Something happened to me."

She opened her mouth like she was going to argue, but then she closed it abruptly. She had—for lack of a better description—light-bulb-face.

"What?" I said.

"Jeb," she replied. "Jeb did something."

I raised my eyebrows. "And you don't know what it is? I don't believe that."

"Jeb took over and locked me in a cell, most likely with plans to kill me," she snapped. "He hasn't told me anything."

Wow. I was really behind on the news. "So… If Jeb locked you up, does that mean that… we let you go?"

"Yes. Your boyfriend decided to let me help you in return for freeing me."

"He's not my boyfriend," I said automatically, but my mind was going through possible scenarios in which Fang would make any sort of deal with the Director. We must have been in worse trouble than I had thought.

"Then you must be in denial," she said, "because that ex–… Fang is in love with you."

"How the hell would you know that?" I asked, irritated. "It's not like you even have any human emotions, you creep."

She scowled. "You didn't see his face when he found out that you had survived that bullet. It would take a robot to not recognize that kind of love."

My heart had a brief battle with my head, and as per usual, my head won. Not with the overwhelming victory it usually had, but it still won. "Whatever. Do you know where they are?"

144

"Remote activation!" Gazzy exclaimed, feeling triumphant.

But Iggy just shook his head. "Using what? We don't have any of the supplies for that."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Gazzy asked. "Turn it on now and hope for the best?"

"I think it might be the only option," Iggy replied, his brow furrowed. "We gave it an hour, right? That should be enough time."

Gazzy knew that things that "should" work always failed you when you really needed them, but he had to agree that it was probably their only option. Even if he didn't like it.

"Okay," he said. "Let's do it."

He took a deep breath and cut the blue wire.

As all of the numbers started ticking back from sixty, he pressed a button on the watchlike gadget he had rigged up for himself. Then he grabbed the huge, two-foot-long flashlight he'd found under one of the desks.

"Come on," he said to Iggy as he headed for the door at a jog. "We have to find the others."

145

Fang, Nudge, and Angel had almost made it back to the cell block when Iggy and Gazzy barreled out of a side hallway and almost knocked all three of them over.

"Oh, hi guys," Gazzy said. He looked anxious and a little out of breath.

"Hey," Fang replied. "Going somewhere?"

"Trying to find you, actually," Iggy said. "We have to get out of here. Soon."

Fang heard the meaningful note in Iggy's voice, and was immediately wary. "Why?"

"Oh, nothing important," Iggy said nonchalantly. "We just rigged up, oh… maybe fifty bombs to blow up in…" He looked toward Gazzy, who held up his wrist.

Glowing green numbers announced, "00:57:28."

"You couldn't wait until we knew how to leave before you did that?" Fang asked angrily. "Let's go. We have to find Max."

"And then we have to find Angel," Gazzy said. "I really hope we can find her before—"

"Gazzy," Angel said, stepping out from where she'd been hidden behind Nudge, "I'm here."

"Angel!"

Angel smiled. "Hi."

"Okay, never mind," Gazzy said, looking like he'd just gotten an unexpectedly awesome birthday present. "We just need to find Max."

Fang rolled his eyes. "Yes. Let's go."

"Don't mess with him," Nudge advised the others. "You should've seen what he did to the Whitecoat who picked on him. I bet she's going to have a headache for, like, ever."

Gazzy turned to stare wide-eyed at Fang, and Iggy raised his eyebrows.

"Ignore her," Fang told them. "Can we get going?" He didn't wait for an answer, just turned and started walking down the hall.

"Like a wet cat," Iggy commented as they followed.

Fang ignored him.

A/N: I'm not even going to try to make any promises about the ETA of the next chapter, but please don't give up on me! I still love this story and all of its readers, and I would be very disappointed to lose either. I will finish it, that I can promise.