A/N: AH! Thank you for the thoughtful responses, I am torn. I want to go full crazy. I've let myself flesh it out a little, but I think it may be too much or may scare you off. I don't know. I'm delaying my decision with an omniscient POV chapter.
Next chapter will either be the introduction of the last twist in Max's POV, or it will just…continue this twist with no new crazies.
Thank you…please continue telling me how you feel, it helps.
SORRY for typos. Much love.
Disclaimer: James Patterson owns the Maximum Ride characters and all recognizable canon info.
"Angel!" Iggy hollers for her frantically, pausing the video. Finally, that dreadful droning alarm stops and the room falls silent. He hears Angel's hurried footsteps rushing down the hall, and the moment she's in the doorway he gets what can only be described as a waft of absolute dread.
"She's gone," Angel says brokenly. "Super speed. She was gone before I was even outside."
"What just happened," Iggy demands. "I missed something."
Angel lets out a shuddering sigh and moves toward him, taking control of the laptop. All the while, she frets aloud, voice wavering.
"She's gone. She took off, fast, Ig. She took her pack. Her thoughts—"
Iggy shakes his head, feeling the energetic numbness of adrenaline kicking in. "We'll never find her. She'll be back. She'll call."
Angel frowns at him, dropping Max's cellphone on the desk between them. "She left her phone."
Iggy curses, rummaging on the desk until his hand lands on the audio recorder. He clicks it on, rubbing his head. Angel sighs, feeling unhappy sitting still while Max is gone somewhere. She sits beside him, in Max's chair, leaning over to skim the document on the second screen.
Iggy sets the recorder on the table and straightens up, clearing his voice. "Procedure X300—shit, um—67M?" he starts, scrambling for the numbers. Angel confirms quietly that he's right. He continues, "Jeb made a mistake; what was he trying to do? He injected her four times. What chemicals was Jeb using for the procedure? Doses? What did he do with Max?" He clicks it off, frustrated, spinning in Angel's direction.
She is ready to respond, reading from the screen, "Jeb screws up, the original Max dies. But it doesn't matter, because section 20C lists the details of duplicating Max—exactly this time, not a blank clone. Doing memory implantation. That's the duplication Max put on the timeline, like a week before the procedure. Max's eleventh birthday….that was the first time we actually met our Max."
"Holy fuck," Iggy sums finally, falling back down in his chair heavily. There's a long heavy silence. He rubs his thumb on the end of the armrest and Angel bites her thumbnail, still staring at the screen.
"He cloned her. Max has a clone. No—Max is a clone. What the fuck is real right now?"
Angel whines under her breath, clacking on the laptop keyboard. "You sound like the inside of Max's head now."
"What was Jeb trying to do with the procedure?" Iggy prompts, knee bouncing quickly under the desk.
"I don't know, trying to find out," Angel says quickly, half-distracted. "If the memory implantation worked the way Jeb meant it to, Max would have had the exact same memories as the real Max…up until the night Jeb took her and switched them out. She wouldn't have even known she was a clone."
Angel falls silent, both in words and in movements. Iggy sighs, scraping his fingers through his hair.
"Fuck. Do we go find her?"
Angel lets out a desperate sound. "Duh, if we could! Iggy, she doesn't want to be found. With her super speed, I doubt we could find her now if we tried. I just hope she's okay."
Iggy groans, heaving himself out of his chair. The tension in the room is unbearable, the sorrow he feels for Max filling up any other space left. He sucks in a breath, pushing out of the room.
"No one else is back yet," Angel calls, still at the computer. "Iggy…what do we do?"
Iggy bounces on his feet, considering. Angel's old enough and capable, but it still feels wrong to leave her home alone in this case. Chasing aimlessly after Max with no idea where she is feels wasteful. He frowns, glancing outside, willing Fang and Gazzy to make their pharmacy trip a fast one.
"Keep looking through the file, if you can," Iggy calls back to her finally, He pulls his phone out, ready to dial Gazzy. "I need air."
Outside, Iggy moves back and forth across the back deck, pacing aimlessly as his phone rings. It goes straight to voicemail and Iggy curses again, loudly, restraining from throwing his phone in anger. "Kid always has a goddamn dead phone."
Iggy really doesn't want to call Fang, but dials anyways. As he does, he fluffs out his wings, preparing himself to do a sweep for Max anyway. He hates leaving Angel in the house alone, even if she isn't a little kid anymore. Fang finally picks up, sounding fuzzy.
"What? We're flying back," he answers shortly, broken up a few times with static.
"Hey, yeah, okay," Iggy says nervously, not sure what his plan is. Suddenly, telling Fang on the phone any of this—or even just that Max is AWOL seems like a bad idea. He sighs. "Sounds good. Get here."
Fang doesn't seem to notice anything off, and says, "Alright," before ending the call. Iggy groans, heading back inside and down the hall to Angel. He hears her clicking on the computer keyboard purposefully.
"Find anything?"
Angel looks at him, frowning hard and sighing. "He was trying to change the structure of her DNA. Ended up injecting her with too much radioactive material and killed her. Procedure X30067M was supposed to give her the power to heal herself instantly. Fucking ridiculous."
Iggy rolls forward on the balls of his feet, sighing. "Fang and Gazzy are coming back. I haven't told them anything yet. I can't really do much of a sweep for her but I can check the cave. I need you to be here when they get back so they don't panic." He says it firmly, so Angel takes the hint and doesn't push it.
She knows the cave he's thinking of—Max and Fang go there the most, but they'd brought the entire Flock there a few times. One night for a meteor shower that Nudge had wanted to see. Once for a glammed-out sleepover for Gazzy's birthday because he joked about missing sleeping in caves and Nudge had taken the theme and ran with it.
Max and Fang go there all the time, whenever they want to be alone and out of ear shot—or Angel's mental perimeter. Angel honestly doubts that Max went there, but it doesn't hurt to check. She understands why he doesn't want her to go, too—without even reading his mind, she knows that after something this traumatizing he expects the worst from Max.
Max can do and has done some crazy stuff when scared or stressed or upset. As much as she tries not to, she thinks with her heart. She feels everything. She does way too much that is counter-productive to her interests, especially when she's melting down. Especially when she's asking the big questions.
What am I? Who am I? What am I here to do?
Angel shakes her head, pulling herself out of her own internal tangent of worrying and hurries Iggy out the door. She hears him pull his coat on and arm the security system before tugging the door behind him. Angel focuses back on the screen in front of her, still chewing a thumbnail absently.
The procedure document is long and nearly coded in scientific terminology. If Angel's lack of chemistry or biology knowledge isn't enough, the language and big words and pressure of the moment have her reading each sentence repeatedly, fighting to comprehend it.
Getting annoyed with the document, Angel clicks out of the file and explores the other folders on under the procedure name. She finds a audio recording and hesitates, just a moment, before clicking.
Iggy told her to keep digging.
For the first time, Angel is a little hesitant to do this alone. But she readies herself and clicks the play button on the audio file, sitting back anxiously and sitting on her fingers to stop biting her nails. She kicks her feet absently as she listens to Jeb. It's a recording of what she just witnessed on the other monitor with Max, and Angel can't stand to listen to it again. She's thankful it's without the visual. She forges through it, clicking forward a few seconds once that final, devastating beep starts emanating.
Angel doesn't even let herself contemplate what this means. She can't cope with any of this right now. With the fact that Max, from the beginning until age 11, was a completely different person. A person who is dead. A person they have yet to mourn in any way. A person who is still completely present and surviving through…well, through Max.
Their Max. Max for everything important. Their mother and sister and best friend and leader. Max.
Angel blinks. She reaches for a notepad absently and starts noting what Jeb does after realizing he's killed her. For a moment, he does mourn.
It's odd to hear. Angel hears real grief in his voice, but it feels wrong. It feels less like the excruciating cry of a father losing his daughter and more like the regretful and disappointed tune of a failed scientist. She shudders, clicking her phone to make sure there are no new messages or calls. She's simultaneously trying to listen, with her ears and mind, for Gazzy and Fang approaching.
"Procedure states that we recommend with the instructions of section 20C. Duplication is already in place, so Max should have no problem proceeding as normal. Will continue to monitor the implemental testing. Sending remains back to Headquarters for examination."
That's it. That's the last mention at all of any duplication. As she listens, Angel notices that Jeb only refers to Max as Max. no real Max and new Max. No clone. Just Max. Like, it really didn't matter to him at all.
Her body went to the School. God knows what happened to her, or what they tried to do to her. Or learn from her.
What a waste.
Angel feels her tears brimming but forces herself to shut it down. She pulls in deep breathes and makes tight fists, anchoring herself by poking her jagged fingernails into her palms. She rises from the chair and moves out of the office, sticking the pen that she'd been taking notes with behind her ear. She peers out the back windows, searching for a sign of Fang or Gazzy. Nothing yet.
Max has to understand that none of it is her fault. She is their Max, and they love her and need her. She can't have forgotten that that easily, right?
Although, Angel can't even imagine what finding out you are a clone feels like. The kind of questions you have to confront… the kind of decisions you have to make for your identity.
Hell, what if she doesn't even want to be Max anymore?
Finally, Angel sees two forms approaching in the sky over the forest. She heads outside, antsy, hoping Iggy would be back soon, too. When the boys land, Angel stays on the porch, and stays silent. Unsure how to start.
"Hey—what's wrong?" Gazzy says. He started with a cheery grin, but upon seeing his sister's face it dropped into a serious and concerned expression. "Fang?"
Fang comes up next to Gazzy, holding a paper bag from the pharmacy in town. "What Angel?"
"Max…"
At that exact moment, Angel sees Iggy coming in for landing behind them. She swallows. He's alone.
Fang and Gazzy turn to see Iggy landing, and Fang shoves the bag at Gazzy, moving past him into the yard.
"What's wrong? Where's Max? What happened?"
"We're fine," Iggy says first, putting his hands up cautiously. "It's Max."
Fang is only getting angrier and more impatient, so Angel butts in quickly. "She ran off. We stumbled on something…traumatizing for her and she ran out."
"Traumatizing?" Iggy quotes back. "We have to tell them."
"She may want to," Angel says, but falters. The moment it's out of her mouth, she knows that's not true. She looks at her brother, who is still concerned and very confused. Fang is looking at Iggy with a hard, levelled expression.
"What?" he demands.
Angel hesitates still, not sure Max wants this to happen this way. If she even cares. If she's even coming back!
"Iggy—"
"No, Angel," he says, "she doesn't want to have to tell him. Definitely not him." He points a finger directly to Fang's chest, and Fang looks a second away from punching him. Iggy doesn't think Max wants to have to break this news to any of them. He can't imagine having to share the same news about himself to his unsuspecting family. He shakes his head, making up his mind.
"Jeb cloned Max and her memories. A different clone, not like Max II. He switched her out at the E house and we never even noticed."
Gazzy is shell-shocked. He doesn't move an inch, not even blink. Angel moves toward him, ready to comfort him once he's processed his shock.
Fang's eyes widen. Angel can see and hear him going through so many questions now, too. His mind is a jumbled mess. Iggy attempts to follow, quickly but considerately, with, "And then…Jeb accidentally killed Max. We've had the clone since…her eleventh birthday."
Fang's mind is unbearable now, so Angel blurts, "She really is, Jeb documented sending her body to the School. For…further study."
Fang's hands are balled into fists. For a second, Angel thinks they might be just a moment away from their two guardians running out in distress. Fang's feathers are surely twitching, clearing aching to follow her.
Follow her where?
Fang shakes his head finally, turning in silence and heading into the house. The others follow him, Angel and Iggy noisily, calling for him and asking him to respond.
Max had asked him, just this morning. About her birthday. Did she know?
She didn't, Angel pushes through to him with force, trying to slow him down. He frowns, thinking hard about blocking Angel and turns down the hall of the house toward the office.
He is going to see for himself.
"Fang, you don't want to go in there—" Angel tries.
Fang throws the door to the office open anyway in a silent huff. He stands in the doorway, speechless. The room has disappeared. In its place is the lair of three apparently obsessed mutants, tracking and piecing together this puzzle all over the ways in diagrams and lists and scratch-drawn maps. There's a long timeline drawn over six different posters stretching one wall, scribbled in red marker. Piles of files are stacked on any spare flat surface.
"Holy shit," he mutters, moving forward into the room. He heads to the desk, seeing two computers open. Angel stands in the doorway, nervously bouncing and eyeing him with concern.
"Fang, are you okay?"
"Angel, shut up."
Fang sees a video pulled up on the first screen and rewinds what they've already watched, clicking play. Angel lets out a whine, not arguing any longer but still protesting. She really doesn't want a Fang explosion right now, as rare as they are. She thinks it's possible. If not from her pestering, maybe from this video he's watching.
As he watches, Iggy and Gazzy come up behind her. Gazzy peers over her shoulder at the room, glancing around at their notes. "Jeez, you guys are in deep. Fang?"
Fang's still watching it. His eyebrows are drawn together. As the alarms begin beeping and Max's vitals start dropping, Fang's face falls into unguarded disbelief. He lets the video run longer than she or Iggy had—past the long minutes of nothing but the droning sound of asystole. After Jeb disables the machine and the flatlining ceases, they hear what Angel had been hearing.
"Oh, Max," Jeb sighs heavily, sitting on the stool beside her on the table. "If only you'd been able to do it."
Fang slams the laptop down. His mind is a fire of fury for Jeb, anguish for Max in the video. Worry and true affection for Max, out there missing.
"Have you called her?"
Angel points silently at her phone, lying abandoned on the desk. Fang slams his hand down angrily, standing up.
"I'm gonna go look for her."
"She could be anywhere!" Angel cries. Gazzy is still mostly speechless, both at this unbelievable news and at the state of the office. Iggy is leaning against the doorjamb, looking as disturbed as when this started but also bored, because they'd covered this already.
"She isn't at the cave," Iggy supplies. "She took off with super speed. Didn't say a word."
Fang rakes his hair with his hand, looking furious and heartbroken. Angel treads lightly, but offers, "You should be here, when she gets back—"
"If she comes back," Fang says harshly, shaking his head. Angel's heart drops into her stomach hearing him say that. Of course, she will come back. Right?
"No, I'm going to look for her," he says. "Few other places she could be."
Iggy shrugs and follows Fang from the office, through the dining room. He talks quietly to Fang, still filling him in with the details, not daring to argue with his plan.
"She had Max's memory. She had no idea she was different. She remembers the School, remembers anything Max would remember."
"Of course, she does," Fang says tightly, pulling open the door. "She's Max."
Iggy swallows. "Right. I know. But you know what I mean."
Fang grunts and moves outside, stopping dead in the doorway. Iggy bumps into his back, surprised by his sudden stop.
Iggy hears something, and he listens hard, hearing someone in the yard. Two soft footsteps landing on the crunchy grass of the lawn, about three yards away. Two more unsure, uneven steps and then silence. No one says anything.
Fang gazes at her, looking exhausted and devastated and confused. She looks absolutely spent. Eyes puffy red from crying, hair wild and legs shaking.
She's back.
Fang sighs, voice going soft.
"Max."