Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. James Patterson is the master.

"In here!"

I looked up startled and realized that I was being pulled into a dark room. Angel flipped the light switch and locked the door. We were all standing in a small utility closet, filled with brooms and cleaning supplies. Everyone, including me, collapsed onto the floor. Gazzy, Nudge, and Angel actually all passed out from exhaustion. Iggy was leaning over Fang with his hands on Fang's hip.

"Ow."

I turned around and saw Iggy rolling up Fang's pant leg. His leg was all purple, and his kneecap was grossly placed off to the side. Iggy then touched it softly.

"This is gonna hurt, so don't kill me." Iggy said as he laid his hands on Fangs kneecap.

I moved over to Fang's side and took his hand.

"On the count of three, one… two….three"

Fang gritted his teeth and swore as Iggy popped it into place. He groaned and closed his eyes.

"We have to get you cleaned up." I said out loud as I looked around for something to wipe him down with.

I picked up a few cloths from a shelf and started to wipe the blood off his cheek and eyebrow. He gasped and grabbed my arm.

"Um, ow. Stop." He was breathing heavily. He seemed like he was in pain, but it kind of looked like he was enjoying it to. That really weirded me out.

"What happened to you?" I said to him softly. I tried to then clean off the little scrapes on his arm.

He looked down at his ripped shirt and sighed.

"Well, me and Angel were together most of the time in that room. But then they came and took me out, and dragged me down to this place that was outside. It was like this big circle with dirt all over. All of these whitecoats came out and stood around on the sides with nets."

He paused and took in a deep breathe and leaned his head back against the wall. Iggy and I just stared at him. My head started pounding, but I ignored it. Fang was more important right now.

"And then they opened this door on the wall. I waited there for a while, but nothing happened, so I turned to walk away. But then out of nowhere, these little freak things started pouncing on me. There were a lot to, like hundreds. And I had to fight them. I was there for like a half an hour, but they kept on coming for me. I finally saw a way to get out and I bolted for it."

My mouth dropped. Fang had to fight those lion things, and the whitecoats sat there and cheered them on. I clenched my fists and I felt my cheeks get all red. I felt horrible, because I new that some of it was my fault. If I had been more careful with Ari at the beach, then we could have left the cave earlier. If I hadn't had that brain attack, we wouldn't have had to stop in that forest. And if I hadn't been talking to Fang and complaining about everything, we would've been ready to fight those Erasers, and we could've gotten away. I was practically responsible for everything!

"Max, what's wrong?" Iggy asked. It's weird how he can tell how a person is feeling, without being able to see their face.

"Nothing, just thinking about stuff."

"It's not your fault Max." Fang chimed in.

I looked at them both and forced a half smile. I almost started to tear up again, but I hated crying, and I've been crying way too much already. I just avoided it and started to clean Fang's arm again. He stared at me and gave me a weird look that I didn't know the meaning of.

"What happened to your arm?"

I looked at Fang and then down at my arm. It was all purple and blue. I touched it lightly.

"Oh, it's from me pulling out my stupid IV."

"IV?" Iggy said while he was cleaning his own cut on his leg.

"Yeah, the whitecoats ran some stupid 'tests' on me I guess."

"Does that explain the robe?" Fang was staring my dirty gray hospital gown.

"Oh, yeah. They cut me open and I didn't really have any shirt, so I took this when I ran out."

"They cut you open?" Fang and Iggy both looked at me with their eyebrows raised.

"Yep." I said with a sigh.

Fang leaned back against the wall. Iggy dropped his head.

"Guys, it's fine. I'm fine."

"It looks nice on you." Fang randomly said.

I spun around to him and stared him in the eye, "What?"

"Nothing." He blushed.

This was awkward. "Um, I think we should get you a new shirt."

"I think there's something on the top shelf."

I looked down at Iggy, and then on the top shelf. Sure enough, there were robes there. I reached up and got one.

"You know, you're really starting to freak me out. How did you know that?"

Iggy just shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I can just sense things."

He was looking at Fang oddly.

"That's weird." I said as I turned to Fang.

"You get to wear a pretty robe now too."

Fang just looked at me blankly and reached out to take it. I pulled it back.

"Do you think you can do it yourself?"

He glared at me. "Yes."

He grabbed it and started taking off his already ripped up shirt. I turned around and watched Iggy dab the cut on his leg with a cloth. 'Something is wrong with Fang' Iggy mouthed. I looked at him curiously. Then I heard a grunt come from Fang.

"How is it going?"

"Fine." He sounded annoyed.

I turned back to Iggy and mouthed 'What?'

"Done." Fang said loudly.

"Nice. It's definitely your color." I smirked.

He glared at me a turned his head. I looked at his forehead, which now only looked like a scratch. Then a huge scar on the side of his head caught my eye. I hadn't seen that on Fang before, but it did look oddly familiar.

"Fang, what's that?" I pointed to his head.

"Um, nothing, I just got hit with a rock" He said as he shifted his weight.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

"Um, Iggy wake up the others." I said calmly.

Fang grabbed my arm and squeezed it hard. "No Max. Let them sleep, they've had a rough day."

I tried to shake his hand off of me. Angel then suddenly popped up and gasped.

"Go you guys. MOVE!" I yelled to them. Everyone jumped up and ran. Angel stopped at the doorway and froze.

"Angel, go." She nodded and turned to run.

I whipped my head around to Fang.

"Who the hell are you?"

Fang looked at me and frowned.

"Oh, Maximum. You know me."

"You're not Fang you freak! Who the hell are you?" I was screaming now.

'Fang' grinned evilly. Then the skin on him started to disappear and turn into fur. I watched it with my eyes wide with horror.

"Hi Max."

I opened my mouth, but I couldn't say anything. I could hardly breathe. It was ARI.

Dun dun dun. Phewf, that's hard core stuff to write.

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PS: Kaori110- How did you know? hehe weird!