Chapter 20 ~ Of Reunions and Revelations

PREVIOUS ON BECAUSE OF A FIGHT, BELIEVE IT OR NOT:

"Because..." he began, swallowing with difficulty. "I am Fang."

I let go of his throat slapped Alex hard in the face. Spit flew out of his mouth and landed on the floor a few feet away from him as his head flew sideways in pain.

"Liar! How dare you say such a thing! Is this how, how desperate you are to get away scot-free? If you really were Fang you would have a tattoo right on your collarbone right there—"

Somewhere between me slapping him and pinning him against the wall, the collar of his soaked shirt slipped and it revealed a tattoo shaped like a black sword, with beads of liquid dripping down from it, a substance that looked suspiciously like makeup.

My grip loosened slightly as my whole world began to fall apart, piece by piece. I looked up into the man who stood before me, the man whose identity was obscured by secrets and lies. This unfamiliar man reached to his eyes and took off the olive green contacts. First the left eye, then the right one. They came off like plastic, revealing onyx eyes that I knew too well.

"Hello, Maxie."

A POV

Standing on a building with his partner, the man looked through his binoculars. It was pouring, and the two were drenched. Why do I always agree to these missions?

He peered through his apparatus and searched the streets until he found what he was looking for. The man gave his partner a thumb up. "Andy, I've got sight of them. Make the call."

Andy immediately took out his satellite phone and dialed a number. A few second later, his boss was on. "Sir, Rob found them. On the corner of—where are they, Rob?"

"Intersection of 16 and Dolores," he responded.

"Yes, sir, 16 and Dolores. Yes, it is confirmed to be him. Yes, the blond one is with him. Okay, sir, will do. Out."

Andy looked at Rob and nodded his head. "Call the others. It's time."

MAX POV

Fang is Alex.

Alex is Fang.

The last pieces of reality began to fall in shards around me as I tried to take in the man before me, a man I thought I knew, a man I realized was a stranger.

Who was he?

I remembered the first time I asked him that. At the time, it seemed like such an innocent question with such an innocent answer. An answer I thought that was one hundred percent true.

"Who're you?"

"Fang Walker."

"What kind of a name is Fang?"

"What kind of a name is Max?"

How wrong I was.

And as I asked myself that damn question again now, I looked into his eyes, and I knew that the person I loved was hiding somewhere in there. But right now, all I could think about the fact that he was supposed to be dead. He was supposed to be a rotting corpse underneath the ground, and by some miracle he was still alive.

"How?" I choked out in a whisper. I took a step back and examined him from his wet sneakers to his soaked jacket. "How is this possible?" My voice cracked and I was pretty sure I was going break down into tears for the second time in less than ten minutes which, believe me, has never ever happened before. Ever.

"Max," he consoled. "Let me explain." Fang reached an arm out to me but I slapped it away in anger.

"Don't touch me!" I cried. I saw his face fall, but I didn't care. Compared to the pain I went through, that was nothing.

"Please," he begged. "You have to hear me out. I had no choice!" Fang came closer. I could smell his signature scent of pine and mint toothpaste.

How could I have been so blind? The signs were there in front of me. His scent, the way he "guessed" everything about me, how he seemed so familiar. I was an idiot not to see it sooner.

"Max," he said softly. "Shouldn't we talk?" His fingers gripped my own and gently began to caress them before he spoke the three words that led me to my breaking point: "I missed you."

I freed my hand from his. "Just leave me alone!" I seethed out of red-hot anger. A mixture of rain and tears ran down my face as I watched him wince.

"I'm sorry, M—" I interrupted him by punching him in the face. After hearing a sickening crack and a hiss of pain, I turned my heel and did what I always do best.

I ran away.

FANG POV

She found out.

She wasn't supposed to find out.

How could I do this to her?

The thick, coppery smell of blood permeated my nostrils. I raised a hand to my nose and gingerly touched it; sure enough, there was a red substance that I had become to familiar with over the years.

Even after so long, Max still had a good right hook.

I chuckled bitterly as I saw her body run through the pouring rain. Shaking my head sorrowfully, I began to go after her before I lost sight of her.

After a good twenty minutes of shoving past the few people outside with hurried apologies, ducking in and out of alleys, and calling her name, I finally found her crouched behind a dumpster with her head on her knees.

"Max," I murmured. Even though my voice was barely above a whisper, she looked up at me. Her eyes were red, and I could see her lower lip quivering.

She slowly got up, sniffing and rubbing at her eyes. "What?" she asked coldly. I knew it hurt her to be seen in such a vulnerable state, but I didn't know what I could do.

"Come here."

"How could you?"

She had ignored me completely and begun accusing me out of nowhere, as if she were releasing some sort of pent up energy. "How could you go and fake your death? How could you leave me alone and helpless? How could you let me believe you died? How could you pretend to be someone else when you talked to me again? HOW COULD YOU?" she screamed, and with each word Max came slowly closer to me.

Then she held up her arms.

For a second, and I was gonna be completely honest here, I thought she was going to hug me. Instead, her fists began beating against my chest as she cursed me.

Bam!

"Bastard!"

Bam!

"Go to hell!"

Bam!

"Fuck you, Fang!"

I grabbed her wrists and tried to pin them to her sides, but Max continued to struggle. "Just stop already!" she sobbed.

"Stop, Max. Please." She kept wrestling, but I wrapped her into a tight hug and after a lot of coaxing and soothing words, she returned the embrace, hugging me ferociously around my waist.

"How could you?" she asked one last time. Her voice was muffled by my t-shirt as my head rested between her neck and shoulder.

I inhaled deeply. "I don't know, Maxie. I just don't know."

And then there we were. Two people standing in the rain, clutching onto each other for dear life. Afraid that if we let go, one of us would disappear.

"Are you still mad at me?"

It stopped raining a few minutes ago. Max and I were still in the alleyway, not quite in the mood to go anywhere.

Max sighed. "Of course, I am, Fang. I am beyond furious, but…"

"But?" I inquired.

"I miss you more than I hate you," she deadpanned. My hand gripped hers tighter and she squeezed right back, causing me to inwardly smile.

"Will I ever get to know what this is all about?" I turned to see her. The girl leaning next to me had aged about five years in one night, and I was pretty sure I looked the same, if not older.

"Of course. I don't think I have a choice but to tell you now."

Her shoulders slumped down, and she seemed relieved. "I think I deserve an explanation by now anyway."

I hesitated. "Sure, just…" I looked around. Since it just rained, few people were out on the streets. Even then, I didn't want to risk it. Not such a big secret like this. "Can we go somewhere else?"

"Of course." We stood up from the damp cement, still holding hands, and I lead her deeper into the alleyways, twisting and turning till we didn't see anyone with in a hundred foot radius.

I pulled her behind a brick building and exhaled. This was not going to be easy to say. "Where do I begin?"

I really asked myself that question, but Max answered anyway. "Well, for starters, why did you move to Colorado from New York?"

"My dad and mom got divorced," I answered truthfully.

"Why?"

I ran a hand through my hair. "Max, do you remember Nudge's birthday party?"

She frowned. "Um, yeah. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Remember what I told you? That I used to be involved in something bad?" She nodded in response and I continued, "Well, this is part of that. Now, my dad owns a company. It is a scientific research company that makes millions each year. It deals with animal data and mutation, and-" Then I stopped and sighed.

Here comes the hard part.

With difficulty, I continued. "A few years back, scientists there began experimenting with human and avian DNA, and created their most successful mutation yet: Humans with two percent avian DNA. These experiments had different metabolisms, bone structure, and the greatest ability of all: the avian DNA gave them wings and enabled them to fly.

"There have only been five successful hybrids to date. Two of them died in experimentation earlier, but three are still in existence." I paused to see Max's reactions. She had turned a sickly pale and yet, there was awe displayed on her features.

"Humans that can fly?" she whispered hoarsely. I nodded grimly in response. "How could this be legal?"

"It's not," I replied bluntly. "The government doesn't know about this, and those who do? Well, we pay them an awful lot of good money to keep quiet about this."

"We?" Max repeated dubiously. "Where do you come into this, " she motioned wildly with her hands, "this whole story?"

I gave her a smile full of mirth. "Well, about three or four years ago, a group of our scientists observed something strange. One of the experiments, a generation 10, which was the latest generation at the time, tried to escape. He ran to a cliff and jumped off, but for some reason, his wings couldn't work. The Gen 10 experiment landed at the bottom of the cliff, and everyone was sure he had died. However, when a helicopter traveled down to take his dead body and see if it could be salvaged for experimentation, it was the weirdest thing ever. Somehow, the Gen 10 was still breathing, albeit faintly. They rushed his body to the lab and discovered that, with the right amount of DNA and experimentation, the body would be able to rebuild its structures no matter how great the damage. In other words, they had found the one thing that had never been achieved till then: the secret to living forever.

"A scientist who had not been part of the creation of the Gen 10 soon learned of the secret. His name was Roland ter Borcht. There was an attempt to steal the files on the kid, but they were caught. And so, ter Borcht and a large handful of rogue workers left Itex and created a new research facility that they named Troy."

"After the guy in High School Musical?" Max wrinkled her nose.

I rolled my eyes. "No, you dumbass, after the Greek legend of Troy, the country that tried to take Greece's princess, Helen."

"Oh. Continue."

"Anyway, this is where I come into the story. Troy made an attempt to infiltrate the company not too soon afterwards, and they were really close to getting it, too, but they ultimately failed. My father assigned me and a group of others to protect the secret."

"Why you?"

"Well, not to brag or anything, but I used to be a street fighter. A pretty damn good one, too. I was known throughout New York to be as tough as nails. Plus, I was the boss's kid. I had to be utilized one way or another. The others are trained fighters as well. Consider the FBI agents of Itex. Where there was trouble, we would be there to stop it."

Max stumbled back a few steps and grabbed the wall for support. I couldn't blame her; it was a lot to take in. "Okay, so let me get this straight: you work at human experimentation facility where people can fly and beat the bad Troy guys up because you guys know how to never die?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

She blinked once. Then twice. "I'd say you're lying, but I can tell you're not." She shifted her weight and ran a hand through her hair. "Wow. The only reason I haven't fainted yet is because I have not fully accepted anything you have said at all. "

I nodded close-lipped, not sure what to say anymore.

"One thing I don't understand at all is how you agreed to a job where scientists experiment on humans. Are you insane?"

"Believe me, Max, I had no idea what was going on when I worked there. All I knew was that there were people who wanted to hurt my dad, and I was being paid a thousand bucks a month to help him. It wasn't till about five or six months before we moved to Colorado when we realized this job was too dangerous, and that was the time my mom forced my dad to tell her the truth. That's why they divorced and we moved." I whispered the last part.

Then Max pushed herself off the wall and approached me. "I'm sorry for assuming that, Fang. I didn't know you weren't told the truth. But you know what? I am just so happy that everything is out in the open." She held out her arms and enveloped me in a hug, one that I immediately returned.

"I missed you," she breathed.

I squeezed her tighter. "Me too," I whispered.

After a few seconds, Max let go with what I felt was reluctance. "Fang, there's something I need to tell you," she stated as she looked at the ground, pushing some of her blond hair behind her ear. Her cheeks were ringed with pink. What could she want to say? "I—"

The hairs on the back of my neck suddenly began to tingle. That could only mean one thing. I grabbed hold of Max's body before she could tell me anything and ducked to the ground.

Bam!

I cast my gaze upward. There was a bullet hole on the wall. Slowly, I turned around without getting up.

There were five men dressed in black standing behind us, one of whom was pointing a gun at us.

What?

-.-

Author's Note:

I apologize for the really, really, really late update. And Aliza actually finished the story long ago I just haven't had time to post the new chapter. I apologize greatly for making you all wait. Feel free to yell at me in your reviews (;

How about 30 reviews for the next chapter, which I promise... hopefully... will be up quicker than this one was. So 407?

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