Chapter 7: Chapter 7

Just a heads up, this chapter may get a tad confusing. I will be switching between POVs a couple times and I did not label POVs on purpose. (However, like always, each switch is separated by a page break) In my opinion it interrupts the flow of the story. As I'm sure you've been able to catch on in previous chapters I switch POVs occasionally. Up until now the POVs I've used have been Max or one of the Fangs. In this chapter I incorporate the same scene from everyone's point of view, even Esperanza's for a short paragraph (In English don't worry). There are a couple time jumps as well that go back and forth, however I did label those. So, I am very sorry if this chapter is hard to keep up with, but honestly it was written that way on purpose. The point of this chapter is to keep you engaged and to make sure you're paying attention. Read it carefully. If you know the characters at all you should be able to tell whose POV is whose, and the time structure of it all. If however you are still having problems following it, please feel free to send me a message and I will walk you through it. Just to get you started however, we begin our journey here in Fang's POV.

Enjoy.

"You better just stay the hell away from us."

I was standing, my heart pounding wildly in my chest, staring down the barrel of a small handgun, scared out of my mind! Her finger clenched the trigger tightly as she held it up with both hands, aiming it at my face. It seemed the effort was difficult for her. Her hands were trembling severely making the gun click and clatter as she struggled to keep her arms up high enough to make her shot. I saw her arms. Her pale skin was almost impossible to see beneath the disturbing mesh of green and purple bruises.

I saw how much pain her body was in. Her legs were barely holding her weight; she looked like she was ready to collapse any second. She had only a leather belt strapped around her waist beneath a white silk robe that floated just barely above her thighs. Had it been any shorter it could have passed as a shirt. Her right wrist looked all misshapen and inflamed, angry swelling told me it must be broken. I saw the pain and suddenly fear for my life was the last thing on my mind. It was my fault she was like this.

But I knew her. I knew her almost as well as I knew myself. And I knew how she felt about guns. She hated guns; she didn't like them, never used them, and she never allowed any of the kids to go anywhere near them. She had always relied on her own strength and skill to get us out of a tight spot; she just had too much respect for herself and for her family to hide behind a weapon. And she was proud of it. It was one of the things I admired most about her. It was one of the things she admired most about herself.

So, I knew she must be desperate; to be carrying one around with her and then to turn it on me? She had to have been pushed so far over the edge that she felt she had no other choice…. So why doesn't that make me feel any better about facing her with a loaded gun between us?

If this was still her, if this was still the woman I knew, she wouldn't shoot. She might be desperate enough to threaten to, but she wouldn't shoot… Would she? Maybe that's just it. Maybe because she was in such an irrational state of mind, maybe she would shoot. Could I take that risk? Call her bluff?

Guh, I'm just going in circles! I can't even begin to imagine what she's thinking! I stared into her intense, hate filled eyes and I felt like my world was coming to an end, seeing her look at me like that. I studied her body movements with just a flicker of glances, I caught everything. I felt so guilty for letting this happen to her… and so angry. I had to do something. I had to make it right. It may have been a mistake to try and reach her, but it was a risk I was willing to take.

I was so weak. So damn weak, it only made me angrier. But despite how badly my body was shaking, and the screaming pain in my wrist, arms, legs, and throughout my entire being, and despite how hard it was to stay conscious, I held firm. I was no longer afraid of him, I was the one shoving the gun up his nose after all; I was ready to unleash all of my hate. I watched his eyes flicker over my body. Disgusting pervert! He was probably thinking about how he would punish me for this… Well, he wouldn't live long enough to get that chance.

He didn't move. I had given him his warning, if he didn't back off, he'd be eating lead for dinner. And yet he didn't step back or waver in any way. He just stared at me. My stomach started to churn, and I felt my skin burn with his eyes on me. I was contemplating killing him whether he backed off or not. But something held me back.

Part of me was screaming at myself to just put the sick bastard out of both of our miseries already. He didn't deserve to live. Not after what he did to me, not after what he did to us. I hated him, every second we stared at each other my hatred for him swelled, and my thoughts screamed louder. Kill him! Kill him before he does it again, to some other poor innocent girl! And my finger tightened on the trigger again.

Then, I look at him, and as much as I hate him now… I loved him that much more once upon a time. While part of me is telling me to shoot, another part of me, told me this couldn't be right. I knew him. Or at least I thought I knew him. But maybe I don't anymore. The man I knew would never have done this to me. Logic started to sink in. The man I knew loved me so much, that he refused to cross that line… even when I was practically begging for it. He had stopped us. Even though he wanted it just as much as I did. He didn't give in to temptation. I let my finger relax off the trigger.

And just as I was ready to let myself be talked out of hurting him, just as I was about to lower the gun, and soften my gaze, just as I was about to second guess that it was even him who hurt me in the first place… I look again. And I see the man I thought I knew, looming over me, and forcing himself inside of me, over and over again and again. And I remember the pain, and I see his face and he is the source of that pain. My eyes never leave his, and the gun never falls. Believe it or not, I know what I saw and what I felt, and I saw him, and I felt him, and I. Will. Kill him. I put the pressure back on to the trigger of the gun. Go on, give me a reason to shoot you.

I was scared. I was so so so so scared. I felt myself trembling lightly making my shoulder burn like fire, but I didn't care. I could count on one hand the number of times I had seen her like this. So small and frail looking, it totally looked like, if she shook any harder, she would like, shatter into a million and one pieces or something. And the cold steel in her eyes, as she stood no more than ten feet away with her arms extended, clutching the gun so tightly her knuckles were turning white, aiming it at him with the full intention of blowing his face off (uhg, that sounds so grotesque), it was enough to make even the toughest of beasts melt with fear. And I have never, never ever, ever, ever, ever never, never ever seen her act so coldly toward us.

And he just stood there! Like this was the most natural thing in the world! He was completely calm, almost serene, just staring at her with his emotionless eyes, his face hard as a stone. Like- like he expected her to do this! While I was sure the look of horror was far from hidden on my face.

Everyone was deathly silent. The only sound I heard was their breathing. Nobody expected this, especially not me. I couldn't see it, but I knew she had a gun, and from the way I felt him stiffen beside me a moment ago, I knew she had it pointed at him. I listened to her struggle to hold on to it, her breaths were labored, and I could feel her trembling even from this distance. What the hell happened to her to make her snap like this?

I felt him move beside me, taking a step forward. Everyone nearly jumped out of their skin when the sound of her clicking off the safety replied. We held our breaths.

"I said stay away from us!" She shouted loudly. I flinched. She sounded so angry, so hurt and scared; it almost made her voice painful to hear. It gave me the kind of reaction you get to nails on a chalk board. He made an attempt to reach her.

"Max-" BAM! Almost immediately, the sound of the gun releasing the bullet from its chambers, had a deafening effect to our ears. She had pulled the trigger.

"Fang!"

"Fang!" he shouted, hearing the shot. I jumped when the gun rang out, jolted and shocked, but I quickly pulled myself back together.

It's ok. I assured him. She didn't shoot him. She had lifted the gun above her head with one hand and let off a round into the sky, now it was back down, pointed at Fang's chest again.

"I swear to god-" Was that a crack in her voice? She swallowed hard, still shaking uncontrollably. Just moments ago, before he tried to take a step forward, reaching out for the gun and saying her name, she had the look of murderous hatred in her eyes. Towards him, him of all the people to hate in her life… Why did she hate him? Now her eyes had darkened with a deep fear. "I swear to god… I'll kill you." Her voice was quivering now. That didn't sound like her at all! What was she so afraid of?

Getting anything? I was really good at concentrating on more than one person, and I didn't miss his question. Nothing he was thinking slipped past me. I knew the others thought he was all calm and stoic at the moment, but inside, his thoughts raced, and he felt like panic. I visibly shook my head.

No. I responded. I couldn't get anything from her, and I couldn't get any of my thoughts through to her. She was blocking me out. But I don't think it was on purpose. It was like, to her, we weren't even there. All she saw was him. But not in the sweet romantic way I'd expected when we found her. I tried the girl that was with her. But her thoughts were in Spanish. I couldn't make any sense of them. All I knew was she was just as scared as the rest of us.

The tension was almost too much to bear. When she fired that gun, I felt the vibrations of the explosion roll through my body. But it didn't feel at all like the thrill I get from the aftershock of a well-made bomb. It was scary. Because her intention was directed at us. Or rather, at him.

He remained still, and as calm as ever. It amazed me how well he kept himself together in the face of death. The only reason I wasn't making any attempt to run was cause I was so shocked that I couldn't move.

He continued to move toward her now, his hand, reaching for hers to take the gun. He took only a small step, and he went very slowly. He kept his eyes locked on her, cold and determined. I even caught the bead of sweat that rolled down the side of his face as he made another attempt to step forward.

Her eyes darted to his outstretched hand. Then snapped back up at him as he took another small step, slowly making his way toward her. She was still shaking uncontrollably. She looked so scared, and her wide eyes kept shifting between him and his hand. She was fighting herself on whether or not to shoot, whether or not she actually had the guts to kill him. Then the look changed in her eyes. I felt my heart drop clear down into my stomach.

He was about six feet away from us and leaning forward to take the gun, when she tightened her grip. She squeezed her eyes shut and grimaced. She turned her face away as her finger tightened on the trigger. He only had a split second to realize she was really going to do it. I saw the flash of fear and pain in his eyes just before the shots rang out. Once. Twice. He went down with the third one.

Five minutes earlier…

"Are you sure you know where we're going?" Gazzy asked. I couldn't blame him for doubting me. After all, my directions to finding Max were a couple of disturbing dreams, a voice in my head, and a gut instinct to follow this road. And we had been following it, for almost three hours now. It was a paved, two lane road that ran straight through Mexico. On and on and on. In the middle of nowhere! We hadn't seen a single soul for almost two hours now! I think even I was beginning to doubt I knew where I was going.

You'll find her. I didn't even flinch when I heard Angel's voice in my head. I was used to it by now. Over the past twelve hours I have had an entire three ring circus playing out like an endless merry-go-round in my brain. I had a verbal falling out with my knew friend who had invaded my brain, beaten myself up for letting this whole thing happen to begin with, listened to Angel scold me for blaming myself, argued with that stupid Voice over the true meaning of world peace, walked myself through what I was going to say to Max when I found her, and let Angel do what she was doing right now. She was trying to comfort me, giving me words of encouragement because she thought I needed them. You do need them Fang. This is hard for all of us, especially you.

You have no idea. I thought. Just, keep your eyes peeled. I was focused on the road below us. In my dream I saw that very same road stretched out before me for miles on end. I knew Max had to be following it. She had to be heading north too, that was only logical. Civilization was north, Arizona was north, heck just about everything was north. We were flying over the same road she was on, traveling south. If she was in the air, we'd run into her eventually. But I had a strange suspicion she wasn't flying. I kept my eyes scanning the empty road desperately. Because if she was on the ground, that meant she had been walking for the past twelve hours or more, and the chances of us finding her dead body were growing every minute.

Ten minutes earlier… (Fifteen minutes all together)

She had collapsed. She couldn't go any farther. We had gone two days, following this damn road for miles with no food, no water, and feeling like crap. I was so thirsty, my body so dehydrated, that my lips had shriveled up and cracked and were bleeding, my tongue was so swollen I could hardly breathe! I hadn't eaten for days. Nothing new there. But with my body in this condition, hunger pangs felt like my insides were being dissolved little by little by my own stomach acid. I'm sure Esperanza was experiencing much of the same thing. It was more than my body could handle. And yet, this frail petite little innocent child, had been able to follow me all this way. Even when I was ready to give up, she was still right behind me, and I knew I had to keep going. Now it seemed, neither of us could go on. We couldn't make it.

I stopped when I heard her body hit the ground. I knew she was down; I didn't even have to look back. Suddenly I couldn't take another step. I slowly turned around to face her body, lying on her side, exhausted and near death, there on the ground. I hit my knees because my feet just wouldn't move. I used the last of my strength to crawl my way back to her and collapse at her side. Her breathing was shallow and that tiny bit of light from her eyes was gone. Yet it still felt like she hadn't given up hope.

"Lo siento, Max ... sólo necesito ... a tomar un poco de descanso ..." She whispered hoarsely. Every word took a great deal of effort to mutter, and she had to take gasping breaths between every few syllables. I gave her a weak smile and nodded, reaching out and taking her hand in mine. I might not have understood her words… but I knew what she was saying. She was dying. We both were dying. But she still hadn't given up on me, and I hadn't given up on her.

"Just for a few minutes…" I croaked to her having a little more control over my voice than she did. "then we'll keep going…" She nodded her head closing her eyes softly. When she opened them again, she only managed to open them halfway. She looked at me and she knew I was lying, but we let ourselves believe that lie. "Don't worry Esperanza…" I barely managed to breathe to her through the dry tears in my eyes. "I'll get you home… I promise…" I felt her squeeze my hand lightly and then watched her slowly fade away into unconsciousness. She was still breathing, but it wouldn't be long for both of us now.

Soon I couldn't fight to keep my eyes open any more, I was just so darn tired. I slowly closed my eyes and let myself slip away to join my new friend. The last thing I saw before the blackness seeped into my mind, was my family, smiling and happy, and safe. All of them, including Fang, and Jeb. Maybe… maybe I was too hard on him… He says it was all for the best… And he is my father after all… I wish more than anything now… That I had just given him another chance… I wish I had forgiven him… I wish I could have let myself love him again… And I wished Fang still loved me… wish I hadn'tve hurt him so much… wish I would have stayed with him… then maybe… none of this would have ever happened… maybe… maybe I just… maybe I died….. for nothing…

"Max!" I heard their voices, but it sounded so distant. Where was it coming from? Were they voices, calling me to the other side? To death? Wasn't there supposed to be a tunnel with a bright heavenly light at the end of it? Was I supposed to be shaking so hard?

"Max! Max listen to me, open your eyes damn it!" It was just one voice this time, but it was closer. I realized I wasn't shaking but I was in fact, being shook. "Don't you dare die on me, Maximum Ride. So, help me god I swear I will bring you back to life and kill you myself… Max!" There was the sound of children, crying. Why? Why were they crying? They were crying and yelling my name, then crying some more.

"Iggy, get the girl. We have to get them back to Dr. Martinez." that male voice ordered with authority.

"But Fang!" This voice was softer in tone but louder and desperate and strained with tears. "It took us three hours to get here from the border! We'll never make it in time!"

"We have to try." The male voice growled. Then suddenly, things started to click. The fog lifted and everything fired all at once. Fang! He found us! He found out we escaped, and he came, and he found us! No! I was not going to let this happen. Not to me, and especially not to Esperanza. As soon as I felt my body being shifted and lifted into strong familiar arms, I felt the feeling flow back through my limbs. It hurt like hell, but I could ignore it. I tested my fingers wiggling them slowly so not to be seen. I could move.

"You… Bastard…" was the first thing I spat. Woops, gone and blown my cover now, haven't I? Silly me, guess it's now or never. Slowly I pried my eyes open. Sun beat down into my tired eyes and it was hard to adjust them. My vision was blurry for a few moments before I could finally make out his face leaning over me with a look of concern. I was infuriated.

"Max?" I saw the look of relief and it only made me want to kill him more. He had no right to be concerned, or relieved. This was all his fault. And I would make sure he would pay.

"You sick… Bastard…" I spat again more fervently. A look of confusion and worry crossed over him. Every look he gave me only made me angrier. It fueled my hatred and made my blood boil, warming my body again. I used what little strength I had to push him away from me and slowly stagger to my feet. Strangely he let me. My hand was inching toward the gun I had strapped to my side with the belt of that chubby old man back at the trading outpost. He didn't need it anymore anyway.

Fang slowly stood looking at me strangely. I tried to take a step back, but I tripped over something immediately and fell flat on my ass. I felt the gravel and loose dirt on the asphalt below me scrape across the bare flesh of my rear end, tearing the tender skin. I looked down under my feet at Esperanza who was beginning to stir. She was still alive! Fang took a step forward reaching for me. But in an instant, I had the gun in my hand, and I pointed it straight at him. As expected, he froze.

"Hey Es? Can you hear me?" I said getting some of my strength back as I stared at Fang intently with narrowed eyes. I scooted back ignoring the pain in my wrist and the sting of the hot sand in the scrapes on my palm. as I used my free hand to get off of Es, as I had resorted to calling her, and carefully climb back up to my feet. My gun, still pointed at Fang. His eyes followed me carefully. There was no emotion now on his face and I was sure it mirrored my own. Neither of us broke our eyes away from each other as Es slowly came back to consciousness. She groaned. "Es, get up!" I ordered in a no-nonsense tone. If she was still alive and strong enough to survive just a little bit longer, then she could get to her feet.

Sure enough, Es was coherent. She understood the urgency in my voice, and she began to move. It was a slow painful process and Fang and I stayed locked on each other the whole time. Esperanza shifted, pulling her arm beneath her, and rolling over it to get to her stomach where she could successfully push herself up. On her feet now she was in the way of my gun and in reaching distance of Fang. Quickly I pulled her back with me a few feet and we stumbled back together until I had put a safe amount of distance between us and him.

Es was more alert now, and she was frightened. I could feel it. She shivered and looked at Fang over my shoulder, hiding behind me. I protected her with my body, putting myself between the man who did this to us and her small quivering form. "Esperar Max, yo no creo que eso es a el! Él tiene hijos con él. ¿No ves? Creo que está tratanda de ayudar a nosotros!" I ignored her, not willing to take the time to try and understand what she was trying to say.

"What are you doing?" Fang asked cautiously. By now my hand was shaking and I was having a hard time keeping my aim steady. I lifted my other hand and gripped the gun with both. It didn't help much.

"You better just stay the hell away from us!"

Present time…

There was a scream. Angel's earsplitting scream. Pain shot through my body piercing me to the core, not once, but twice. The third time I couldn't feel it because my body had gone into shock, either that or there was just too much pain to have felt any more. I fell with the third shot.

We were so close when she fired that gun that I was amazed the impact didn't send me flying backwards to begin with. I took a step back with each shot and with the third I hit my knees. Now I was on the ground, Angel was screaming, I was sure the others had screamed my name. But I couldn't hear them. And Max. Max was standing over me with the gun still in her hand staring wide eyed and shocked, past me, and at the rest of the Flock.

I clenched my shoulder where the bullets had entered my body and blood was blossoming and soaking through my shirt. Faster and faster, it came and started to seep through my fingers. Thank god Max had such bad aim. I know she had intended to kill me. I saw it in her eyes. But she had always had poor aim, and that combined with how unsteady she was at the moment, had saved my life.

Now she was staring at the Flock, Angel's scream having finally opened her eyes to them. Iggy was running at her now. She slowly looked down at me in horror, realization hitting her like a sack of bricks to the face. She knew now… what she had done. The gun slipped from her hand and she stumbled, struggling to stay up. She was going down.

"Igs! Catch her!" I ordered milliseconds before Iggy got to her. The girl we found with Max reached out and caught Max's limp unconscious body as she fell, and Iggy caught both of them before the girl collapsed under Max's weight. The others were with me in a less than a second.

"Oh my god Fang are you ok? I thought Max had shot you for sure!" Nudge said all at once.

"She did." I grunted. I didn't dare remove my hand from the bleed, I kept as much pressure on it as I could. The bullets hadn't gone all the way through and were lodged deep in my shoulder blade. Not good, not good, not good. I thought frantically trying to figure out what to do.

Max's belt. The Voice said. Ah! The belt! I had caught a glimpse of what Max had used to hold the gun as she reached to grab it. The belt would work perfect!

"Iggy, there's a belt around Max's waist under her robe. Get it." I ordered. Quickly without a word Iggy removed the belt and tossed it to me with perfect aim. Unfortunately, I couldn't catch it. Fortunately, Gazzy could. Gazzy caught the belt for me and turned to me for what to do next.

"I'll need your help Gaz," Gazzy nodded, he looked scared but at the same time determined to do his part. "wrap the belt around my chest, above my heart, pull it as tight as you can." I lifted my arms for Gazzy to do just that and blood seeped through my fingers even more rapidly. He looped the belt together and pulled as hard as he could. I grunted as the air in my lungs was forced through my nose. Nudge, with her good arm, helped him to make the belt secure. That would help slow the blood flow to my arm. Angel tore some fabric from her lacy pink tutu, and we used that to wrap around the wound, pulling it as tightly as possible as well. It hurt like hell, but it would have to do until we got Max to Dr. Martinez.

No Fang, take her to the hospital in Phoenix. You both need medical attention that Valencia can't provide. I shuddered. I hated hospitals. Too closely related to a lab and they smelled like death. We all hate hospitals, and labs, and any room that was smaller than our wingspans both ways. Max will die… and so will you.

"Iggy, can you carry the girl?" I asked. The girl looked up startled. When Iggy went to reach for her, she moved away, trying to pull Max with her. Iggy turned his eyes to me helplessly as he held Max to him tightly, refusing to let the girl take his unconscious leader from his arms. I grumbled irritably. This was such a pain. Nudge went over to them. She knelt down near the girl who couldn't be more than a year or two older than her and smiled encouragingly.

"We're not going to hurt you. We just want to help." She insisted. But the girl didn't seem to understand.

"She doesn't speak English." Angel piped up. Oh, now she tells us. Crap, Now what? Max was running out of time, and we couldn't just leave this girl out here in the middle of nowhere to die. She already looked like she wouldn't make it much longer than Max, if that.

"Iggy, bring Max to me." I said. I got to my feet as Iggy broke Max away from the girl and brought her to me. It was hard and it hurt but I managed to lift Max into my arms and hold her close. The moment her body was against mine I felt a tidal wave of relief wash over me like a flood. It was automatic. I looked down at her face. I relished in her warmth and felt my heart beat with hers. She was alive, she was safe, and I had her back. That was all that mattered. I would protect her with my life, and I would do whatever it took to make sure she lived. If that meant taking her to the hospital, then that's what I would do. Suddenly, trying to coax this girl to come with us didn't seem like such a big deal. We could do this. We could save them.

"Me- me nombre es… E-Esperanza." Everyone snapped their heads up to look at the girl who finally spoke, she had come closer to us now and stood right next to Iggy and in front of me. She was staring at Max and me. She looked so small and fragile, and she was scared. I didn't blame her, after this whole ordeal, she was probably terrified of us. But she trusted us enough to speak. Now the problem was trying to understand her. She looked at Iggy who was looking back at her, but not quite. She waved her hand in front of his face and when he didn't respond she pulled away, suddenly hesitant again. We all stared at her, not sure what to do, as precious seconds slipped away. Seconds that could mean the difference between a cheery welcome home party or a gloomy funeral. (actually, come to think of it, neither sound very good right now)

"Me nombre es Esperanza." She spoke again. We looked at her still confused. She reached out tentatively and touched Iggy's arm. "Iggy." She spoke Iggy's name. She looked at all of us. Nope, still nothing. She pointed at the Gasman. "Gaz." What? Ok that didn't make any sense. The look in her eyes turned desperate. We couldn't understand her, and she needed us to know something. She pointed at me. "Fang." She turned a sympathetic gaze to the shell of a woman in my arms and pointed at Max. "Max." she pointed at herself again. "Esperanza." She said in rapid succession.

Gazzy snapped his fingers. "That's it! Her name! Her name is Esperanza!" He said excitedly and proud of himself for figuring it out. I sighed. Ok great, this is good, now we knew her name and we could stop calling her girl. But that wasn't going to get us into the air any faster.

Wait a minute Fang, maybe it will. Angel stepped forward. "Esperanza?" Esperanza looked down at her. Angel put her hand on me, and another hand on Max. "Fang and Max." she pointed to the bruises on Max's arms and the blood on my shoulder. "They're hurt… And so are you." She went over and took Esperanza's hand. Esperanza stared into Angel's eyes for the longest time, and I couldn't tell if Angel was trying to communicate telepathically or what, but finally, the girl nodded. She seemed to understand!

"Ok," Angel said out loud. "I think she'll let us take her with us now." She thinks? So, I guess the language barrier was a challenge for Angel as well. Iggy held out his arms for Esperanza and sure enough, she went into them. Iggy gently lifted her up into his arms, and she got herself comfortable. Then we all snapped out our wings. Startled, the girl tried to squirm out of Iggy's hold again, but it was too late, we were in the air before you could say 'Akunamatata'.

After we took off and were soaring high up in the sky again, it took Iggy several minutes to get Esperanza to calm down. He struggled with her and her squirming, his face hard with concentration so as not to drop her. He tried to comfort her with reassuring words she didn't understand. It took Iggy almost dropping her and her realizing that she was indeed eight hundred feet in the air before she finally clamped down on Iggy and refused to move a muscle. Soon after that she fell asleep, or unconscious, one of the two, who could tell?

We flew head on without much incident, straight through the rest of the day and into the night. No one spoke, we were all too focused and determined to get to Arizona as fast as possible. Max and Esperanza's lives depended on it. I was continuously checking to make sure Max was still breathing. I was worried she'd slip away, and I wouldn't even notice. So much so that I hadn't noticed anything else. Until I realized there was blood on my arm. Blood, on the arm, that wasn't supposed to have blood on it.

The forearm of the one I had tucked under Max's legs was moist and sticky. Not a good sign. I knew it wasn't sweat, whatever it was, was thicker than that. I cringed, shifting Max into my bad arm so I could try and examine where I could be hurt. But there was nothing. I repositioned Max draping her long legs over my arms again. Then it hit me. I looked down at Max's white robe. Only, it wasn't white anymore. A red rose of blood had blossomed on the fabric between her legs. It was Max that was bleeding!

At first, I was actually grossed out, thinking Max was on her period. I shuddered and tried not to gag at the thought of her period blood on my arm. Then I stopped to think for a moment. No… I knew Max so well that I knew when she was PMSing, and I had pretty good judgment of when she would start every month. Which was two weeks ago. This blood… wasn't natural. It wasn't supposed to be there. Oh god. I had forgotten all about that third dream till now. I had tried to push all thoughts about it out of my mind, and then when we found Max, I didn't have time to think about it. Now it came back to me. Max was raped. Probably more than once. She was bleeding out! No, no, no! That meant we could lose her sooner than I thought! Who knew how much blood she had already lost. And she was losing a lot now! I-

"Fang." Gazzy broke me from my state of silent and unseen panic as he flew up from under me. I gave him a glance to let him know I was listening, or at least half listening. "Haven't you noticed anything uh- strange… about Max's wings?" he asked. What? Her wings? Come to think of it, it was kinda odd that she had her wings hanging so limply instead of tucked against her back. Even if she was unconscious her wings should have been able to stay put. But instead, I found myself struggling every so often to find a good hold on her, trying to get past her unfolded wings with much difficulty.

"It's just…" Gazzy went on. "She had them out the entire time, she never once pulled them in, even when she was awake but… she never held them up either, they were always limp behind her." He pointed out. He hesitated, and I could tell he wanted to say more but didn't know how to put it. "And…" and? What else could possibly go wrong here!? "Her feathers, they're all wrong."

"What?" Her feathers were all wrong? One thing we bird kids have to be extremely cautious about is our feathers. If we lose too many or if something isn't right about them, we wouldn't be able to fly. If Gazzy says that Max's feathers were all wrong, that meant she wouldn't be able to fly until they grew back, that could take months. Depending on just how much damage had been done it could even take years! That couldn't be right, he had to be seeing things. "How can you be even tell in this lighting? I'm sure you're just being paranoid."

"No Fang, I know what I saw." Gazzy protested. "Her feathers are too short, and irregular in some places, like- like someone took a weed whacker to them or something." Suddenly dream number two came flooding back to me. They clipped her wings! Silent panic started to erupt inside of me again and I was grateful that Angel was too busy with Iggy and Esperanza far below us, to hear my thoughts.

"I know…" I said and even I was amazed at how calm I sounded. Years of being the strong and silent guy really pays off.

"You do?" Gazzy asked confused. "But didn't you just say-"

"It was one of the visions I had." I explained. "You're right Gazzy, Max's feathers are all wrong. They're too short and they're misshaped because... whoever had her-"

"I get it." Gazzy interrupted me. "You don't have to say it… I know what happened." He mumbled. I dared to sneak a glance at him. He was silent. And his eyes were sad, and he looked very much in pain. I clenched my jaw hard and focused straight ahead again. I had to force myself not to think about it. I couldn't think about all the things they did to her, I had to make sure she lived. If I let myself dwell on it right now, I'd end up blind with rage. That wouldn't help the situation any. I focused all of my energy on flying. I had to get Max to the hospital before it was too late. I just had to.