Shoutouts: lillypad22, iggsplosives and by default fnick girl, No namer44, Tri-Sierra-Tops (welcome to the party!), carly, Noah Stark Dawnson, Unknown Writer O.o, girlreadsalot, and AnikaandAj!

Chapter 13 Trust

"I have a team of specialists, who performed my surgery, I trust them." other Iggy said, nodding his head, face serious. He looked at Max then at me. "They won't question me."

"They're still whitecoats," Dylan pointed out, eyes narrowed. "If they rat us out we're up the creek."

"Or down the sewer," other Gazzy joked, though no one laughed.

"You've got to trust me. I won't let anything happen to him." other Iggy said, putting his hand on Iggy's shoulder. Iggy glanced at me then closed his eyes and looked at the sky. "They may trust you, but they won't know what to think when you come in with yourself." I pointed out.

"I'll tell them it's a clone."

"That ended up blind?"

"They don't know how I became blind."

"There's a lot of loose ends here."

"Aren't there always?" Iggy came back, waving his hand. "We need to get moving though, I was expected back by now."

I frowned at him but gave a stiff nod. "Fine, but Fang goes with you." Other Iggy's eyes widened along with Max's. "What?" she said. I looked at her and said in a firm voice, "I'm not letting Iggy go alone. I don't care if it is with his other self. He'll be out of it during the surgery, I need someone there to watch his back."

"But Fang is supposed to be in Atlanta!" Max complained, brown eyes narrowed against mine.

I held her glare though and said, "I know that. But you forget Fang can turn invisible. He'll slip in with them, and not be seen. I just need you to know he's there, watching." I said, my voice hardening as I turned back to other Iggy who snorted. "Like I'd try anything, he's me for crying out loud!"

"Max I-." Iggy started then closed his mouth and frowned. I reached out and took his wrist in my hand. Iggy looked at me and I said, "I'm not sending him because you're blind, Iggy. I'm sending him because I want someone there I trust to watch your back. Just like how I'd hope one or all of you would watch my back if I had to do something like this."

Iggy's pale blue eyes looked at my face, his eyes were focused on my forehead but close enough, and after a moment he nodded. "Okay." he turned to where Fang stood beside me, emotionless but a determined spark in his eyes. "I know you've got my back."

"Always man."

I rolled my eyes as they bumped fists. It was such a macho man moment.

Ten minutes later, I stood in the shadows watching as the other Iggy got back into his car while Fang took Nudge's and Iggy rode with himself. I gave a half wave, slightly unsure, and Fang nodded at me from the inside giving me one of his reassuring half smiles. Other Iggy jerked his head and our Iggy, from the back seat, twisted and looked out at us with a sort of blank face.

I could tell he was nervous. But at this point, what did he have to lose?

"They could always kill him." a voice said behind me and I turned seeing Angel standing there. Her long blonde hair lifted slightly in the breeze and the shadows played across her face making her blue eyes shine. I frowned, my eye brows furrowing, and said, "You don't know that."

"You could."

"What?"

Angel just looked at me and shook her head. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be all cryptic like this. I guess I'm just worried." Angel scuffed her shoes in the cracked earth which sent up a little cloud of dust. I put my hand on her shoulder, I was a little freaked but not wiling to show it, and said in as calm a voice as I could manage, "I understand, Angel, but we don't have any other options here. It was Iggy's choice. He'll live with the consequences."

"But what about Ella and Emma and his baby that hasn't even been born yet? If Iggy dies where does that leave them?"

Okay, Angel's attitude was seriously weirding me out. It reminded me a bit of the old Angel. I really hoped she wasn't reverting back to being a little fire breathing demon with a deceivingly angelic appearance. I didn't know if I could handle adult leadership complex Angel….

"They were able to fix the other Iggy. It's the same with our own." I said, my words sounding more confident than I felt. Angel still seemed unconvinced but nodded and stalked away, plopping down a little way aways with Total who she sat in her lap and began to pet. Kovu padded over, he'd come back a little while before, and sat down behind her.

I noticed that he had a bit of blood on his chin and paws which he proceeded to lick away.

"Max, what do you wanna do while they're gone?" Nudge asked, coming up and stopping just a foot from me. I saw that she'd calmed down a lot, probably due to the fact that she didn't have either Iggy with her. Her brown eyes still looked a bit worn though.

"We need to get things ready to fly out as soon as possible. Iggy said they would be back by dawn. If they aren't…, we'll go get em'."

"What about-," Nudge shuffled her feet and refused to meet my eyes. I leaned down so that I could look up at her face and prompted, "Nudge?"

Nudge looked away then back up at me and said in a rush, "Max I'm just feeling really awkward about this whole thing I mean now that the other me is here and she was seeing Iggy and they kissed and it just feels weird and I don't know what to think and I'm really confused and I just kinda wanna go away or curl up and pretend it was a dream what I saw but I can't get the images out of my head and I'm afraid I never will and it's just crazy because Iggy is like a brother to me and then there's Holden who don't get me wrong I love I mean I can't see myself with someone else we are perfect for each other and we're getting married and I don't regret it but I feel really confused and kinda like I betrayed him even though I didn't do anything and I'm just so worried and confused and, and-."

Nudge shut her mouth and looked at me with those fawn like eyes of hers. My first reaction was, OMG Nudge you haven't said that much in years. My second thought, poor girl.

I wasn't sure what to say, if someone had asked me what the best move was to dodge a punch or how to do a forward snap kick I could tell them with ease. But emotional relationship stuff? Not so much. I'd struggled with that all my life and managed to somehow end up where I was. Happily married to Fang, a mother. There'd been a time when all that seemed impossible, when Dylan entered our lives. But now looking back it was all so clear. There'd never really been a choice. Just an obstacle to overcome.

Which was what Nudge now faced.

Reaching out I grabbed her arm lightly. "Nudge, I can't tell you what to think. It's not up to me, it's up to you. But I can tell you that this is just one obstacle life's thrown at you that you've gotta work through. And you will, and you'll see it will all work out. It did for me, Lord knows I had to work at it and I went wrong a lot of times. But it all works in the end. Just…trust your heart. It sounds sappy-," I laughed softly and could see Nudge grin, "but it's true. You love Holden, and you two are meant to be together. So you will be. You've just gotta have faith okay?"

Nudge was silent for a moment, a moment long enough to make me think maybe I'd said something wrong, then she surprised me by wrapping her arms around me, pulling me closer and huddling against me just like when she was little and having a bad dream. I instantly hugged her back and after a moment she pulled away, looking at me with brighter eyes than ever as she said, "Thank you so much Max. I understand now." She hugged me again but pulled away faster this time.

Then she blinked and dropped her arms to her sides moving away and going to sit by Gazzy who was busy working some wires into what looked like a remote. Other Gazzy, was right beside him.

I let out a sigh and felt like sitting down and closing my eyes. Emotionally, today was like a train wreck.

"That was some good advice. Where was all that wisdom eleven years ago?" Dylan asked, coming to stand beside me, a slight, teasing smirk on his face. "Oh shut up," I said, lightly smacking his arm. Then I turned serious, "If I ever drug you along for the ride…I'm sor-." But Dylan stopped me with a wave of his hand. "Your name is Maximum Ride, I would have felt cheated with anything less. Besides, I don't think I had a choice but to jump on from the moment I was introduced to you in Africa."

I let out a small laugh. "You were doomed from the start."

"Never had a chance." Dylan agreed, smiling. Then the smile faded and his eyes saddened. "I miss her, so much." I knew instantly who he was talking about. I patted his back lightly and said, "I'm sure she's fine."

"Yeah," Dylan said, but his voice was still low, wistful.

There wasn't anything I could do about it besides say, "We'll just have to do our best here. Then somehow we'll get home."

"Yeah, if Jeb would just wake up. How's he supposed to build a machine to get us home if he stays in a comma?"

For that I had no answer, so I said nothing. Dylan wasn't expecting one it seemed so he just lifted his mouth on one side and after a nod walked away. I watched him disappear farther into the woods back towards camp where other Nudge and Ratchet were. Max was there too, talking to her Nudge, I didn't know about what.

I stood there for a moment, looking at my Flock, then turned and focused on where the two vans had disappeared.

Please let them be okay!

(Iggy Pov.)

The sound of the van's axel rebounding against the wheels hurt Iggy's ears and the seat belt cut at his chest like a dull blade. Iggy winced as the van hit another bump in the road, probably a pothole turned giant tire sucking crater, and behind him he could hear Fang (they'd ditched Nudge's car and he was now riding with them to the School) sliding around in the far back as the van bumped over a second pothole among thousands. The streets were littered with them.

Fang cursed.

So much for my tax dollars, Iggy thought, laughing bitterly on the inside. Just because he couldn't see didn't mean he wasn't able to sense, smell, hear or touch and know what had become of the world. It was like a ghost town, no people talking, no birds chirping, heck no horns honking. He couldn't hear the steady thrumming of the subway trains beneath the pavement like he could the last time he was in New York City. He couldn't her the lull of thousands of engines, or even smell the clogging, smokey atmosphere.

All there was, was emptiness and the smell of decay. And based on the place he was headed, he knew there would only be more of that floating around.

Another bump, Iggy's head hit the ceiling this time and he let out a small hiss as he rubbed the top of his head. "Sorry about that. But there's really no smoother route."

"If you still had wings there would be," Iggy griped, glaring ahead of him where he thought the rear view mirror was. He could practically see the glare mirrored there but held his gaze. "Low blow, dude."

"I'm you, you can take it." Iggy said simply, turning to stare blindly out the window.

"Whatever, I'm trying to help you."

Iggy didn't respond to that.

It was another ten minutes before either of them spoke. Iggy felt the car slowing down and heard the brakes grinding though they were well greased. "Here we are. Just let me do the talking. The less they know about you, the better." Iggy felt eyes on him again and nodded, concentrating on hearing and feeling what was happening. He felt the car brake and the window roll down. Something big was at the window, and Iggy could hear it's heavy, panting and smell the rancid stink of it's hot breath as it leaned down to peer into the car. On the other side, just like at the School in Death Valley, there was another beast staring in at him.

"Position and business." A man's voice asked, and Iggy knew it came from some sort of collar Nudge had described to him. "Director Iggy, permission to re-enter with subject for experimentation."

"Description and treatment course."

"That won't be necessary today Jim. Let me in."

Iggy's eyes widened as there was a pause on the other side and he held his breath. Then he let out a sigh as the voice came back and said, "Enter."

"Thanks," the other Iggy said cooly and rolled up his window. He looked back at Iggy and he imagined a smirk. "Golden."

"Fang?" Iggy asked, glancing behind him. He heard movement and then a hand touched is shoulder. Iggy didn't shiver, he wouldn't have seen Fang anyway.

"Okay gents, here we are," other Iggy said, slowing down as if shifted the van into park and pulled the key out, killing the engine. "Iggy, come out and let Fang out with you. Fang, buddy, for God's sake, don't go uninvisible." Other Iggy chuckled as he hopped out and slammed his door shut. Iggy rolled his eyes but got out and pretended to take his time tying his shoe before turning and closing the door.

He could hear Fang's breathing somewhere behind him and smell the other Iggy's cologne as he walked up to him, clapping his hand behind his back and pulling it away sharply before putting it on his shoulder. Iggy grinned sardonically on the inside. He must have felt his wings.

Together the three walked across what Iggy thought was a parking deck but instead of going into an elevator they went directly to a door where the other Iggy pulled something from his pocket and scanned it. Then he put it back and pushed Iggy forward.

Iggy's nose was instantly clogged with the smell of antiseptic and goosebumps ran up and down his skin as the temperature dropped several degrees. His eyes flickered back and forth, and he wished now more than ever that he could see. At least that way he'd know what it was he was walking into.

But that's what I'm doing here, he reminded himself. This has to work.

They continued walking, turning down many hallways before coming to a stop so suddenly Iggy nearly ran into the other him and Fang, who had been following closely, nearly blew his cover. "Easy," other Iggy whispered, low enough for only them to hear. He pulled the thing from his pocket again and lifted it. Iggy heard a slight beep and a door sliding open. He stepped back, feeling a blast of air shoot out over his face, and then he was being led forward again.

Iggy's senses ranged out and he made out the unmistakably strong scent of antiseptic, stronger here than he had smelt anywhere besides at the School when he was younger. He could hear the beeping of machines and metal creaking over head. He could also hear air circulating through the air ducts in the ceiling and in the walls.

And the several heart beats that where in the room with him.

"Director Iggy, this is indeed a surprise. What do you have for us?" a man's voice asked, sounding muffled and Iggy imagined something must have been covering his mouth. "This is the newest clone version of myself. I little side project I've been working on. But it seems that the blindness carried over. I need you to perform the exact surgery you did on me. I want this clone to see as I do."

"When would you like us to start?" a woman asked, her voice also muffled. Iggy could feel several pairs of eyes on him. His heart beat quickened.

"Oh, I say now's good."

"As you wish."

Iggy felt the room shift, or more precisely the people in it, and heard them moving about, gathering things. Iggy could feel the adrenaline peaking in his blood and hear the roaring in his ears. The last time he had been tested on, had been right before he left the School. Right after they figured out he was blind….

"What does he respond to?" a white coat asked. "He goes by the same name as me. Remember this is a new clone. He's more human than any before him."

"And his eyes are damaged exactly as yours were?" the white coat who had first spoke asked. "Yes." was his simple reply.

"Okay then, Iggy," and this time Iggy realized the voice was directed at him. "Come with me." Iggy winced at the touch of the white coat's glove clad hand wrapping firmly around his arm but he forced himself not to react. Instead he walked forward stiffly and felt with his hands. A metal table, ice cold, touched his finger tips and he fought the fight and flight instinct surging like a tide inside of him.

Gingerly, he lay down and stared up at nothing.

Iggy listened to the clink of metal and foot steps as well the the muffled breathing. "The procedure should last only an hour at most. Should a sedative be issued?" Iggy almost opened his mouth to yell 'hell yeah!' but the other Iggy interrupted him. "Yes, what you gave me. Do everything the same. No chances."

"Yes sir."

Something cold and moist rubbed at the crease of Iggy's elbow and he winced as a second later a needle slid under the skin. Iggy closed his eyes but a white coat forced them open a second later and dropped a liquid inside them, it burned slightly.

Suddenly, Iggy began to grow whoosy. His head spun and he let out a low moan as his hearing became blurred. "He's going under." he heard a white coat say but the voice sounded miles away. And in the next instant, Iggy was gone.

I, love this chapter. Don't know why, but it was awesome to write from Iggy's pov. So much more descriptive because he can't see.

Oh and if you guys haven't check me out on YouTube, I have two Maximum Ride trailers up, let me know which you like better! I'd greatly appreciate it special thanks to AnikaandAj who commented on one of the videos!

Questions:

AnikaandAj: What accent do you think sounds the coolest?

Me: I'm bias towards a Southern accent. But Texan accent (sexy lol) and Australian (liven' in the land down under!) lol.

iggsplosives: Are you going to be updating less often now because of school?

Me: Hopefully no, I will be updating on my regular every other day. :)

girlreadsalot: Who is your favorite super hero?

Me: H'm, does Max count? Love me a little girl power! lol. But well known I'd say Spiderman, Iron Man, Batman. Yeah that's about it lol.

carly: If you could chose one color to paint your entire house, what would it be?

Me: Tough, um, I'd say maybe a cream, dark cream. Or blue? I'm not sure lol!

Tri-Sierra-Tops: Was Max hallucinating when she saw the bones?

Me: Ah, ah, can't answer that yet! HAHA (laughs evilly!) lol

special shout out to lillypadd22, who was my 300th reviewer on this story! Thanks and thanks to all of you!

Good night,

Avenging Angels