Disclaimer: I claim no right to the Maximum Ride universe. I hope you like the changes better than the original. I think I do. Anyway, keep reading. Much Love.

Iggy's momentum carried all three of them to the floor. He yelped and rolled to one side to take the weight off of Max and because her skin had burned him. The sound was lost in her scream. He rolled to a crouch and flexed the fingers that had touched her. He could feel blisters already forming.

Fang landed on his back, arms automatically closing about Max despite the heat of her body. It didn't burn through the clothing, but he felt burns forming beneath his long sleeve button up. And just like that, the heat disappeared and Max's body went instantly limp. He lay there for a second, breathing hard and with her scream ringing in his ears, trying to feel her heartbeat through his chest or the light rise and fall of hers as she breathed. He felt neither.

Panic suffused him, lending him speed as he flipped them over and pressed his hands anywhere they might find a pulse. And there, in her neck, he found it. A faint pump of an artery that should be so much stronger, but at least it was there. He slumped in relief, his forehead touching hers. His hand dropped to the floor, but entwined in her scattered golden strands. He had already lost her so many times.

"Is she alive?" Angel's frightened tearful voice penetrated his haze.

Fang looked up at her standing with her hands clasped tightly in Gazzy's and then over at Nudge who sat by Iggy, checking his hands. All of them looked scared, terrified. And Iggy looked a bit guilty, too. Something to note for later, but unimportant now. He nodded. "Yeah, she's alive. I think-" he said, then began again. "I think she just went into one of her visions or something." He lifted a hand to scratch at the base of his neck, but Angel darted forward and knocked his hand away.

"Don't scratch. She burned you," she said. "Your hands, too." She turned them over. The palms were red and blistered.

Nudge glanced up from Iggy. "So what do we do? Is there a way to bring her out of it?"

Fang shook his head. "I don't think so. I think it's something that has to run its course." He sat up and rested his chin against the backs of his wrists. His gaze traveled over them, halting on Iggy. "What do you think?"

Iggy lifted his head. "I think that I caused it." He looked miserable. "I found her up on the roof in some kind of trance and had this sense that something had happened today."

Fang's mouth pressed into a thin line.

"I waited until she came out of it and asked her about it. She met Ally today."

The younger ones, well, Angel and Nudge gasped softly.

"Yeah, I know," Fang said tightly.

Nudge spoke before her brain kicked in. "I bet that sucked." Then it registered and she clapped a hand over her mouth in surprise. "Sorry," she whispered.

Iggy shoved her. "She got upset, said some things. I came home wanting to show her what it was like for you, so she could see that she wasn't the only one."

"How can my experience even compare to hers, Iggy?" Fang snarled. It took every ounce of control not to strangle the blind one who had never seemed blind until now. "She gave up everything for us. EVERYTHING," he roared. He was shaking as he scooped Max into his arms and held her protectively. "It is not your place to speak for me."

"Then who will? You certainly won't," Iggy snapped back.

Fang let his hair fall into his eyes and his old mask of indifference blanket his features. He had no reply. Instead he turned to Gazzy. "Could you bring some water up to my room?"

The eleven year old blonde nodded. "Yeah, I'll be up in a sec."

"Good," Fang said and drifted up the stairs with Max in his arms, leaving everyone else behind. He carried her into his own room, instead of hers, kicking the heavy quilt off the bed and laying her gently on the cool sheets. He had just released her when her face crumpled and she whimpered.

Her hands twitched, so he grabbed one and squeezed it tight. "It's okay, Max. I'm here. You're safe."

"Find a place to land,' she rasped. "Please." Her eyes remained closed and her face smoothed except for small tight lines around her mouth and forehead.

Those words caught in his memory. He remembered watching her wings fold and her body fall from her place next to Nudge. He remembered the wild fear that jolted through him as he dove after her, praying to a God he had never believed in that he would catch her. And he had.

"And help me be a better leader, a better person," she whispered. "Make me braver, stronger, smarter. Help me take care of the flock. Help me find some answers." Her face looked calm now, as if she had found peace somewhere.

Fang gazed at her, wishing he could read her mind just once so he could know the right thing to do. No matter how hard he tried, something always came between them. Her obliviousness, his fear, saving the world, saving the flock. And then he had lost her for three years, living with the torment that she was probably dead, had died alone and at the hands of the monsters that had created them. Now she was back and that stupid Ally had fucked it all up. Who was he kidding, he had fucked it all up.

Max's breathing changed again, growing labored and thick. Deep welts spontaneously split her smooth cheek. Blood dripped from the slices.

Fang wrenched open his bedside table drawer and pulled out another of the many med kits stashed around the house. He popped it open and dabbed away the dark liquid, surprised to see the gashes already starting to close. Bruises flowered on her skin, bursting around her eyes, across her cheeks and down her arms in bright flares before fading away to pale shadows.

A knock cause Fang to jump a foot in the air. Pretending it never happened, he called out, "Yeah, come in."

The door creaked open slowly and Gazzy poked his head around. "Hey, I got some water for you. Well, for her. She's gonna be okay, right? Right, Fang?" His blue eyes were huge in his lean face. Fang suddenly felt bad.

"Yeah, Gazzy. She'll be cool." He promised.

The Gasman looked like he wanted to ask something else so Fang turned his full attention to the eleven year old. The past few days had to have been just as hard on him. Fang hadn't been the only one to lose Max.

"Are you gonna be okay?"

The odd question rattled something deep inside. Fang blinked for a few seconds, trying to process Gazzy's question. He didn't quite manage. "What?"

The boy gained confidence at Fang's discomfort. "Are you gonna be okay? Everyone is worried about Max, for sure. But, we're worried about you, too. Don't forget that." With an assessing look out of place on a young boy's face, Gazzy left Fang alone with his thoughts and Max's unconscious body.

Fang gaped at the door for minutes after Gazzy had shut it. Gaping meaning staring with mouth not shut as tightly as usual. The idea that the others were worried about him when there was Max to worry about flummoxed his sense of how the world should work. He shut his mouth. It made sense in a strange sort of way.

A heavy sight forced its way from his chest and Fang circled the bed to sit on the other side. Max whimpered softly. He scowled. It was going to be a long night.