A/N: Oh. My. Freaking. God. Lauren rubs her eyes and stares at computer in awe You guys gave me fourteen reviews in just the first twenty-four hours. That's AMAZING. I love you guys! Thanks for staying with me!

I'm dreaming. I know I am. Because if I was awake, this wouldn't be happening.

I was back at the time when we escaped from ter Borcht and his evil cronies at the School. Ter Borcht was saying his final words. I blew out a long breath – maybe my last – and put my hands on the bars of our cage. I glanced around for one last look at my flock minus Angel only to find: Fang wasn't there.

I panicked. "Guys! Guys! Hey! Where's Fang? Did he get away? Did he escape?" I asked frantically. They turned blank eyes to me. "What?" asked Iggy.

"Fang," I repeated. "Fourteen year old bird-kid? Tall, dark and silent? Ring a bell?"

"Oh, that Fang," said Nudge tonelessly. She pointed.

Fang was hovering silently behind the crazed scientist, gone somehow unnoticed by anyone. He looked at me and held a finger to his lips. I was instantly filled with relief – but why was he back there? I suddenly found out why.

Fang pulled out a gun and shot ter Borcht in the back of the head.

I wasn't sure whether to be happy, relieved, or horrified. Fang had just killed someone! Fang! Sure, he'd beat people to a pulp before, but he'd never just out and out killed someone, not even someone about to kill us. Especially not behind their back without a chance to defend themselves – not like they'd win, anyway. There was no way that was Fang – but then who was it? I was almost too shocked to move.

"Max!" he finally shouted. The voice was exactly the same…it must be him. But why was he acting like this? It made no sense! "Fly! Get out of here!" He shouted at me. I suddenly realized that the door to our cage was open. How…?

"Come on!" I shouted back, and practically pushed the rest of the flock into the air. Gunshots rang out, and I wasn't sure anymore whether they were from Fang or the Flyboys below. How'd he even get his hands on a gun? I made sure the Flock was ahead of me and flew as fast as I could without using super speed.

We'd been flying for around five minutes before Fang caught up to us. "Fang!" I cried. He looked a mess – his clothes were torn, his face bruised. The rest of the flock looked back once and then turned forward again. Even Nudge's eyes were void of emotion. Was I the only human being here? Oh, wait a second…but they were still acting weird.

"Fang, what was that back there?" I demanded. "Since when did you kill people? Even people that are about to kill us like Ari – you never killed."

He laughed. "I never knew how good it felt."

He couldn't mean what I thought he meant. He just couldn't. "What?" I asked, not sure I wanted to hear the answer.

His smile twisted his lips. That wasn't the smile I knew. This wasn't my Fang. Even his eyes were different…they were…hard, if you get it. "Killing," he answered me.

Then I woke up.

I sat bolt upright, panting. Daylight was pouring into our room. I could feel my eyes widen with fear as I looked around. I looked to my left and gasped. Fang was sitting there on my bed, looking into my eyes and holding my hand. He released it gently but abruptly.

"Nightmare," he said simply. It wasn't a question.

"You have no idea," I answered him, slowing my breathing until it was even again. I shook my head to rid my thoughts of ter Borcht's death in my dream.

"Want to tell me what it was about?"

"Not really," I answered him lightly, hiding how much the dream had shaken me. Even just seeing the real Fang – the non-murderer one – had freaked me for a second after coming back from dreamland.

"Iggy's getting us all breakfast," Fang told me. "He said he doesn't feel like cooking. Angel and Nudge aren't awake yet."

"Okay," I said. I felt like I should have known all of this before, instead of sleeping in and having that god-danged stupid dream.

As if he'd read my thoughts, Fang said, "You can't be on top of everything all the time, Max." Okay. That was seriously getting creepy. Was he sure he wasn't a mind reader like Angel?

"I know," I said, and went to the bathroom to wash up. He seriously needed to…I don't know. Stop reading my mind?

I splashed my face with cold water to wake myself up further. It was just a dream… I told myself firmly. It didn't happen…Fang's not a killer…right? My reflection lookedstraight back at me from the mirror, shocked. What was I thinking? Of course Fang wasn't a killer. Did I not have faith in him or something? I shook my head at myself, squirted a glob of paste on to my toothbrush, and picked it up to brush my teeth fiercely. I was going to act normal. Fang wasn't going to find out about this dream.

To anyone else, this would have been just a bad dream. That's it. Something to laugh about when you woke up. But for me, even if the person acted completely out of the ordinary, they could become that way. The white coats could change them. And I could see them all too easily turning Fang into a heartless killer against his will.

I spat and stared into the sink. A pink tinge lingered before I rinsed it away. I bared my gums. They were bleeding. Crap. I've got to start paying more attention. I could smell bacon from the room, and my stomach practically pulled me out of the bathroom.

"What did Iggy get for us?" I asked eagerly, heading back out of the bathroom and staring at the food on the table. The other five members of my flock (oh yeah, and Total) were already clustered around it.

"Lotsa stuff!" replied Nudge, piling it on her plate. "Bacon and sausage and bagels and cereal and bacon!"

"You said bacon twice," I reminded her, reaching over Gazzy to grab my own plate.

"Yeah! I looove bacon." She grinned at me. Her face was right, happy, unlike the one without expression in my dream. I pinched myself. No thinking of the dream, especially when Angel was around. I tossed a cinnamon raisin bagel onto my plate next to around ten pieces of bacon.

I noticed Fang watching me carefully to see if I was going to act weird or distant, probably. I wasn't going to give him that satisfaction. I was fine, I tried to convince myself. I had no freaky dream. I dreamed that me and the flock were safe somewhere…yeah, I wish. Angel glanced at me and I gave her a reassuring smile. Good morning, Angel. Good sleep?

The troubled expression cleared from her eyes and she sent me a thought. Fine. I didn't have any dreams.

Good thing or bad thing?

I don't know. She shrugged and handed Total a piece of bacon. He wagged his tail. "Look at me! Wagging my tail!" he said, shaking his head. He's such a weirdo. Why can't he just act like a normal dog for once? Would that be too much to ask?

"Hey!" he cried. "Don't I get a plate?"

Apparently, that is too much to ask.

"Where do you all want to go today?" I asked as we finished breakfast. "We can always just explore, though."

"I want to go and see the aquarium!" cried Angel. "It's right by here! And it's by the lake! Can we, Max?" She looked up at me beseechingly.

"Okay," I agreed. "Anyone else?"

They all shook their heads. "The aquarium it is, then," I said with finality. Fang gave me a look that said: The aquarium? Seriously? I smirked. Yep. The aquarium. Seriously, my look answered.

As soon as we stepped outside, we were bombarded with noise and sights. There were vendors everywhere, and the smell made our mouths water, even though we'd just had breakfast. There were cars and people everywhere, which made me slightly nervous. Would we be able to fly away hidden? I doubted it. But then, after that football game in Texas, being hidden was just slightly out of the question.

We walked at a leisurely pace down to the aquarium. There's a side walk that goes down there, and it's a few feet up from where the waves lap at the lake below. Lake Michigan has got to be the biggest lake I've ever seen. I can't see the edge of it at all. I heard that when it's St. Patrick's Day, they dye the lake green. I squinted at it. It already looks kind of green to me.

I looked up from the lake and back at the crowd, scanning for dangerous faces as we neared the entrance. Angel and Nudge practically were bouncing out of their shoes, they were so excited. I smiled. At least they got to do something fun for once.

We entered the aquarium and approached the front desk for tickets. "What would you like to see? The dolphin show?" she asked us. Then she seemed to realize that we had no parents, and her expression turned to suspicion.

"Yes, the dolphin show would be great," Angel said, before I could clap my hand over her mouth. If she was using mind control again…the attendant's eyes went blank. Yep, she was. Angel….

"So that's six tickets for the dolphin show? Alright, sweetheart. That'll be one hundred and seven dollars, please." The attendant said, ringing the number up on the cash register.

"Our mom already paid," Angel said sweetly.

"Oh, alright then," said the attendant blandly, and handed over six passes. I snatched them up.

"Thanks," I said, and ushered our flock away before the people behind us got suspicious. Angel, I thought to her, no using mind control in front of humans, okay? Even if it does save us money. I saw her nod sheepishly and promptly forgot about it.

As we took our seats for the (gag me) dolphin show, I noticed a familiar face. I poked Fang, who was sitting next to me with a strained look on his face. "Fang? That's not who I think it is, is it?"

He looked in the direction I was pointing and his eyes widened very slightly. "Headhunter," he said shortly. Oh, crap. What was he doing here? He was the principal of a school! Wasn't he supposed to be at school and not a dolphin show?

"Um, time to go, guys," I said, standing up.

"Why?" Angel whined. "It hasn't even started!"

"Headhunter," Fang replied. Angel's eyes widened. The last time we'd seen him, he and some other teachers had been coming after us with weapons. That's not exactly the kind of person you want to meet again.

I noticed Iggy's look of discomfort. I realized that he didn't know where our potential attacker was. "He's forty-five degrees to your left," I whispered to him, so he wouldn't feel so helpless.

He nodded. "Thanks."

Gazzy looked at me. "U and A?"

"No. We're just going to walk out of here and keep a low profile," I answered without looking at him. I was too busy scanning the rest of the area for the other 'teachers'. Yep, there was one, the one who'd jumped over the table towards me. And another – but there were only two. That'd be three adults on six bird kids. Not an even match, and we wouldn't be the ones coming out hurt.

We slid back along the row, not bothering to apologize for the people's toes we stepped on. I think our lives were a bit more important then the pain in their toes. People groaned and complained, but none of us took any notice. We were almost, almost to the door. Then, one of the teachers spotted us.

And all hell broke loose.

A/N: This was supposed to have more to it, but it was getting too long, so chapter six is the rest of this!