Disclaimer: I claim no right to the Maximum Ride universe. By the way, thank you to everyone who reviewed, if I wasn't able to reply to you. Please keep reviewing.

I awoke in degrees. It was weird because I could feel myself drifting up from the deepest part of sleep. I could even feel remnants of my dream, which, I will admit now because no one is listening in, was a great dream involving a secluded tropical island and the one and only Fang. The pressure of his fingertips still lingered on my cheek and the soft warmth of his lips as he kissed his way from my forehead to my mouth. And let me tell you, this kiss kicked the ass of the one on the beach. Mainly because Fang wasn't dying and I wasn't about to implode from the fear of him dying and because that had been how many years ago? The warmth left me as I came closer to consciousness and I reached out trying to keep it.

"Hey, wake up."

I was fully awake instantly and sat up, cracking my head into Fang's because he had been leaning over me. "Ow," I whined. "What do you want?" I took a trip back to the pillow with my hand to my forehead. His head is made of rocks. I knew it. Seriously, it hurt.

He dropped onto the bed holding his hand to his temple. "I don't know. You were making funny sounds and reaching out. I thought you might be having a nightmare." He looked sideways at me. He looked somewhat flustered. Weird.

I flushed. I think he noticed because I saw an upward twitch of his mouth. "No, I actually slept fairly well. I don't remember what I was dreaming about." There's a lie if I ever told one. I suppose I don't need to mention that I have spent approximately three fourths of my life in a lie. Whatever.

All of a sudden I remembered what Iggy had told Angel to do and I was pissed. "What the hell, Fang? Have you started telling Angel that she can use her subconscious influence? They did it to me!" I'm sure that my memories of that freak in the School that used to do that to me escalated my anger, but at this point I didn't care. I poked him in the chest. "Do not ever, ever play with my mind like that. If that happens again I will not be responsible for my actions." I rolled away from him and stared at the wall. They didn't know how dangerous I would be if certain lines were crossed.

"They just wanted you to rest. You might not see it but they're worried about you. Remember how you looked last night?" Since when did Fang speak with inflections other than sarcasm and irritation? He sounded , well, earnest and nice. Wait, I'm still very angry. Right.

He touched my shoulder.

I whacked his hand away and flung the covers off violently, rounding on him as my feet hit the floor. "And it's all gone, now. Damn it, Fang. I could have killed them without a second thought because I wasn't awake. There was this…this guy and he used to do the exact same thing. He used to do other things." My voice started to rise and a tingling feeling crept into my fingers and toes. "He used to…"

I couldn't finish as memory clips began to play in my brain. My vision flickered in and out with brightly colored spots swirling around.

Let me have them.

The softly menacing words drowned out the sounds around me. This wasn't the Voice. This was something else. This was a part of me.

They need to learn that we are not a toy. It has been so long since I've been out to play.

"No," I said quietly. I didn't care that Fang was three feet away. All I cared about was forcing the tingling out of my limbs. It had crept up to my knees and elbows. Once it got all over, forget it. There goes the town, or at the very least, the house.

Fang.

The Voice only said one word, but I knew it was right. Fang could quell this. I flung my arm out behind me, searching for him by touch since I couldn't see very well, and was surprised to find him right behind me. I grabbed his arm for reference and then wrapped myself around him, as close as I could get. The tingling had reached mid-thigh.

All of my senses were spinning. I felt like I was going to be sick. And Fang's arms encircled me tightly, crushing me to him. And he was whispering in my ear.

"Whatever this is, you're fine, Max. Don't let it win," his voice was low and urgent. His hands stroked over my tangled hair and smoothed down my back. "Stay with me. Focus on my voice. Don't let go. Just stay with me. Come on, Max."

Amazingly, the tingle receded and the dark mockery of my own voice faded into static. I was more than a little surprised. There were very few times I could remember the onset of the tingling and I always woke up several hours later, covered in blood and shaking without any clue what had happened to the Erasers I had been fighting. Well, the Erasers that had been poking at me.

Why are you so shocked? Fang was supposed to be your balance. He keeps you in check. You are more dangerous than you know, far more dangerous than the scientists expected.

I shuddered at the memory. Yeah, no shit.

I grew aware that I was still holding on to Fang with my arms wrapped around his torso and my face pressed into his neck. I froze.

"Are you back?" he rumbled close to my ear. I shivered. Oh, that was hot.

I nodded against his skin. So warm. I wonder…and without thinking I licked him.

Yeah, me, licking the boy I have been in love with since we were children but from whom have been separated three years. I think that's moving a little fast, even for us. Mmm, he tasted good.

"Did you just lick me?" He pulled back and gripped my shoulders.

"No…" Shit. He totally knew that I had. I'm still going to pretend that I didn't.

I met his gaze as my cheeks practically blazed. His dark eyes were lit with something htat I didn't quite recognize, but it was similar to the way Ari had looked at me the first time he…so I immediately pushed it from my mind.

Fang looked as though he wanted to say something more, but he kept his mouth shut. For a few seconds.

"What was that, Max. It's time to tell me what's going on." He led me to the desk and set me down in the chair while he leaned against the tabletop. "Were you going to kill me?"

There was no point in lying about this to him. He needed to know just in case I went crazy and he needed to take care of the problem, so to speak.

I took a deep breath to steady myself, but then remembered that dinner was about to be served. "Look, I'll tell you all about it after dinner. I'll tell all of you."

His stare pierced through me and I could practically feel him testing the truth of my words. Finally, with an almost sad look he nodded. "Yeah."