A/N: Okay, so I'm thinking this will be around 50-60 chapters, but that could change…Thanks to all reviewers, whether you were last minute or if you reviewed the same hour that the chapter was posted. Apologies for the delay, I wrote this at school and couldn't find the disk to save it on so I could post it at home.

I won't bore you with the details, but two hours later, I was still sitting in the snow next to a passed out Fang and the Jeopardy! theme song was running through my head. Jeb had said hours – how many hours? I was going to die of suspense here, and everybody else's worries were definitely not helping me right now.

Don't get me wrong. I'd wait here for days if I had to. I'm not some cold-hearted person that leaves their friends to die. But with little to no scenery, nothing to say to anyone that was conscious, jumping at every little noise, and random tips from Jeb in my head, let's just say I was a little ticked right now. And worried. And…oh, you get the point. I was going to go crazy. My heart felt like it was being gripped by a cold hand and was still beating twice as fast as normal.

It was bad enough when we were in separate countries. I wouldn't be able to live if Fang was dead, too.

A few more minutes now.

I jumped in surprise. Seriously? He's going to wake up soon? How do you know?

Silence. One second, he was a chatterbox, the next, when I really want to know something, he shuts up. He was as moody as a teenager!

And yes, I do realize that I am a teenager, thanks.

How am I related to him? I swear, the only thing I got from him is skin tone and hair color. I hope.

I sighed. I wondered why we were here, of all places. I mean, sure, Fang had lost control, but Antarctica was thousands of miles away from where we'd been. If he had lost control, wouldn't he have just plopped us down to wherever we were above in the transport warp-thingy then? Like, someplace other than here?

Maybe Jeb had a hand in this and that's why he's not answering, I thought, my eyes narrowing at the thought. I mean, there is the whole 'winter clothes' incident. Those definitely weren't there on accident. Who the heck left those there? Or maybe this has something to do with that whole global warming thing…I hadn't thought about that in awhile. I couldn't fathom why here of all places, if that was why. It's called global warming, not global freeze-off-mutant-butts.

I looked up at the rest of my flock. They looked like fat, burned marshmallows all wrapped up in their gear. Total was wrapped in Angel's arms for warmth, and I could faintly hear him grumbling about the cold and how insensitive it was not to leave winter clothes for him while whoever it was left stuff for everyone else. I couldn't help but smile. Wacky dog. Honestly, he's got an opinion for everything. He could write that section of the newspaper. If someone typed it for him, that is.

Fang moved next to me, and I snapped to attention pronto. His eyelids fluttered, and I could tell that he was trying to wake up. I looked up at Iggy again. He was throwing a snowball at Gazzy not too far away from where I sat. "Ig! Quit that and get over here!" I shout-whispered, not sure how loud we should be around Fang. How many times have you been around a reviving bird kid after he just took you thousands of miles? Yeah, I wasn't sure of that particular protocol either.

Iggy ran over and threw himself down in the snow. "Man, it's great here! After you get used to the cold...what did you want? Is Fang okay?"

"He's waking up," I said excitedly. "I think he'll be fine."

Iggy smirked. "Oh, I almost forgot – you want him back more than the rest of us, don't you?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked warningly, though I figured I had a pretty good idea.

"I mean…you want your lover boy," he grinned, making a kissy face at me.

"Shut up, Iggy. I mean it."

"What? You don't love Fangy-poo anymore?"

"Don't ever call me that again."

I jumped and looked down. Fang's eyes were open, and even though he looked pretty bleary and his eyes were slightly unfocused, he managed to glare at Iggy. "Seriously. Fangy-poo?" He said in a hoarse voice.

Iggy grinned. "So you guys don't have nicknames yet?"

Fang looked at me, still lying flat on his back. "Please hit him for me. I don't think I can move yet." Iggy pushed himself up and ran away towards the flock before I could lift a finger. I snorted and then looked down at Fang again.

"How do you feel?" I asked anxiously. "Are you okay?"

"No," he groaned, "but I'll be fine. Where are we?" He struggled to lift his head, blinking as snow fell into his eyes. "How come we didn't die?"

I blinked. He didn't know? "You mean you don't realize what happened?"

He shook his head. "The last thing I remember is throwing a hand out as I dropped down to avoid the gunshot, and then everything's a blank."

"Well," I began hesitantly, but I was interrupted by a high pitched squeal of, "Fang!" Nudge had sprinted over to where we were sitting and had nearly thrown herself on him, but she held back at the last minute. Thank god, she would have knocked Fang out all over again.

Nudge was followed by the rest of the Flock, who were elated to see that Fang was awake. "I thought you were dead!" Gazzy cried.

"There was a gun blast, and then there was the bomb, and then all of a sudden, ka-pow! Everything goes black and we ended up here! But you and Max were knocked out so we were really worried and really, really cold cause we didn't have the right clothes, but now you're awake and everything'll be fine!" Three guesses who that was.

Angel looked at Fang. "Why are you so confused?" she asked innocently.

"Angel, were you going through Fang's mind?" I asked warningly.

"No. He's just shouting and I can't help but hear." I raised my eyebrows at Fang. His eyes narrowed slightly.

"He just woke up, sweetie," I told her. "Of course he's confused. But he'll be fine if he's not deaf in the next ten seconds." I looked pointedly at Nudge. "I don't think he needs too much talking, right?" She grinned sheepishly.

Iggy read between the lines for once and lured the younger ones away by throwing a snowball at Gazzy, who shouted, "HEY!" and ran after him to get his revenge. Nudge and Angel followed with a last glance at Fang, laughing and egging the boys on. Fang lifted his arms with what looked like a huge effort and propped himself up on his hands. He looked down at the gloves in surprise, though it didn't show on his face. "What the hell happened?" he asked me. "Tell."

"You have a new power," I said. "Didn't you know? It's why you've been so sick."

"I told you I didn't know," he said, rolling his eyes. Then what I said hit him like an Eraser punch to the gut. "Wait a minute. Are you saying that I brought you guys here?"

"Uh…yeah." I braced myself for his reaction. There was something else I didn't want to say as well: You have to get us back.

He was silent for a bit, staring off into the snow. "Where is here? And why was I knocked out?"

"Jeb said that you used too much energy bringing us here," I said. "You almost died."

Something flashed behind his eyes. "Really?"

"Would I lie to you about that?"

"No," he said. "I guess not." He looked down at his hands again. "How did we get the gloves? And the coats?"

"No idea," I admitted. "They were just there, like they were waiting for us."

"And you put them on?" I could hear the scorn behind his words, and my eyes narrowed. I knew what I was doing. I could handle this. And, need I mention, I woke up and took care of everyone while he was knocked out.

Okay. That was mean.

"Did you want to freeze?" I asked. "Because you would have if I hadn't put that coat on you."

That shut him up.

"Listen, I was thinking," I continued. "Jeb said that you lost control, and that was why we ended up here. But I don't think everything adds up in that. If you had lost control, wouldn't we have just fallen over wherever we were? We wouldn't have kept on going for thousands of miles."

"I don't know," Fang said. He suppressed a cough and went on, "I mean it might not be like flying. We could be in some other dimension or something."

I tried imagining that. It made my brain hurt with possibilities. Ugh, never mind.

"But still," I started again. "There's the whole clothing thing. If you had really lost control, those wouldn't be here. What are the chances that some researchers said, 'Yeah, So-and-So, let's take off all of our winter gear, leave it in this pile, and go off and freeze to death'?"

"Okay," he said. "So you're saying that Jeb is lying."

I nodded. "I still don't trust him. If he says that this is another test, I'm going to strangle him."

"So that's what you think this is," Fang said. "A test."

"Exactly."

Fang started to try and stand, but I pushed him back down with one hand. "Don't even think about it," I reprimanded. "You can't just get up that fast!"

"Watch me," he said, still trying to get up. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"If I can hold you down with one hand, you're not ready to get up," I told him. "Not nearly."

Fang sent me one of those you think you're so great looks. I sent him one back that said, what are you going to do about it?

He seemed to notice something, and his expression changed a bit. "What did you do to your arm?" I looked down at my left arm where his gaze was, completely surprised. I had forgotten that the bullet had grazed me. Apparently the snow had helped to stop the bleeding, because the blood was clotted.

"Oh. That," I said dumbly. "I forgot about that."

"You forgot that you were shot," he repeated slowly.

I could feel my face heating up. "It didn't hurt anymore. Besides, it's shallow. It'll heal by itself."

He shook his head, a tiny smirk creeping across his face. "Only you would forget that, Max." I laughed, and it was almost like nothing had happened. Like we hadn't been freezing to death just a few hours ago.

Of course, being me, I had to bring up a touchy subject again.

"So what's all this about 'another dimension'?" I asked him.

"Well, we wouldn't be just flying through the air. That's not teleportation, that's what we all can do."

"But Fang," I said slowly, "do you realize what that could mean? There are other…dimensions, I guess – that exist. You control one of them. That's just….insane!" It was no wonder that he almost died bringing us here. His power was bigger than all of ours combined.

Fang didn't speak for awhile. Finally, he said, "Max, I don't like this at all."

I stayed silent. He always talked more if he wasn't pushed. "I don't know if I want to use this power," he continued. "Messing around with that sort of stuff, dimensions and everything…I just don't think it's right. Or safe. Who knows how long it'll take for Itex to figure out this power? We only just escaped being killed again."

I didn't know what to say to that for awhile. While I was distracted, Fang pushed himself up and stood. His face went pale, but he gritted his teeth and stayed standing. "Plus," he continued, looking at me, "I don't want to die, Max. You heard Jeb. If I use up too much energy, I could freaking die." His expression was closed off, but for a split second I could see the emotions that were longing to get out. Why doesn't he just show what he feels? No one is going to persecute him or anything.

"Max," he repeated, "I don't want to die. Don't let me die."

I stood as well. Without bothering to brush off the snow that clung to my coat, I hugged him tightly. The bulky coats made it difficult, but I managed. His chin was almost able to rest on top of my head. After a second, he hugged me back. "I won't. I promise," I told him. "You'll be fine. I'm the leader, remember?"

But how are we going to get back?

A/N: REVIEW, or I shall….I shall….do something to someone whose name starts with F and ends with Nick. And that is a fact. I don't make idle threats. (cue the evil laughter)