A/N - This chapter...there's something big, probably something you wouldn't expect. Thank you so much to the new people who've been reviewing the story, as well to the old reviewers who I hope continue. Key that you leave a review this chapter! You'll see why ;D

My Girl

Chapter 6

My world exploded as our attackers lunged at Max, Dylan and I. To my horror and before my very eyes, the people I loved were taken down. Iggy tried to fight, and managed to knock one down before they grabbed him out of nowhere. He was the first to go. He had tried and he was strong, but he was blind. He was in an unfamiliar environment, so it was only natural that he would go down first.

Gazzy put up a decent struggle, kicking one to the ground and punching two in the face, but he was overpowered by a sea of the attackers surging down upon him. He struggled to breathe and then disappeared under as his pressure point was hit and he collapsed, unconscious. Angel caused a brawl by turning one against the other and starting a bloody riot, but was snuck up on and then struck with a sleeping dart followed by a quick karate chop to the back of her neck.

By the time I looked to see Nudge, she was already unconscious, being carried away with Gazzy, Angel and Iggy. My heart lurched as I saw her closed eyes and peaceful expression, knowing she had fought as best she could before they had gotten to her. I was so caught up in watching her being carted away that I barely noticed that I had backed up into a circle with Max and Dylan.

The Director and Doctor Gunther-Hagen were smiling smugly, and I wanted to punch those smiles straight off their faces. As for that boy with them, I'll tell you right now he was nothing like me. He was just letting it all happen, not caring one bit that they were evil and ready to kill us. He had a glazed look in his eye, and I wanted to punch him down, too.

I sent the first one who came at me careening back with a smooth kick to the stomach, sending him flying back into two others, all three of them collapsing with satisfaction. I saw Dylan out of the corner of my eye, punching one back, and I saw Max, smashing two heads together. But I knew that we couldn't take them all. There were even more waiting for us, and they were swarming on us.

I found myself being attacked by fifty of them, and I was ready to go under. "Fall back!" I struggled to yell. "We'll save the others, but we have to save ourselves now!" I saw Max's look of comprehension as she realized that I wanted to leave the flock and come back for them. It wasn't an easy decision, but Max and Dylan both knew I was right.

Our wings snapped out, each hitting two or three people and knocking them back. I flapped a little to gain space, and launched myself into the air. This was something that Max hadn't done. She clawed her way to the top and jumped, but Dylan and I had gained running space. We ran and jumped, soaring a good fifty feet above Max.

We were too far away for them to get us, but Max wasn't. Still down around ten feet from the ground and struggling desperately to gain altitude, she didn't make it far before a rope was thrown by an attacker, wrapping around her ankle and dragging her back to earth. She struggled farther to rid herself of it, but she was going down fast.

Three nets were shot out of a cannon, aiming for Max, Dylan and myself. I dodged mine neatly, letting it glide past me easily. Dylan's snagged on his shoulder, but he brushed it off before anything could drag him down. The bastard. But it was Max who couldn't escape. It wrapped around her, suffocating her and dragging her down. The last thing I saw of her was her signaling us to go as she was dragged with a thud to the pavement.

I looked at Dylan, and my heart sank. She wanted us to take off without her and then find her later. I was about to be stranded with him, alone in the wilderness as we would try to find them. This wasn't going to be good, I thought, as I rolled my eyes and led the way to shelter without a backward glance. He followed me all the same.

I blinked groggily as I opened my eyes. I ached all over and I could feel a black eye starting to form. Bruises and scratches were all up and down my arms, but that was to be expected. My hair was tangled and singed, and I felt like hell. I was parched and starving.

I knew I was chained to the wall before I even looked up. Being chained was even worse than being in a dog crate; when you were in a dog crate you could sit down and sleep. When you were chained, your legs cramped from standing up and your wrists ached from the shackles.

When I did look up, I was in a small stone room with a single light hanging from the ceiling. Flies buzzed around it, and in front of me, there was a single iron door with a small window in it. The window was covered with bars.

I scanned the room for my flock, for the boys and Gazzy and Angel, but the only other person in the room was Nudge. All the same, I was happy to see her, and managed to smile a little at her. She was still out cold, though.

But where were Gazzy and Angel? Where was Iggy? Most importantly, where were Fang and Dylan? I had motioned for them to escape, and I thought they had. But what if they had been captured too? Here in this small room, the only person I knew was safe was Nudging, and she had been hostile and angry around me for weeks.

My questions were all about to be answered. The door slid open to reveal Marian Janssen herself, and I recoiled in shock. I had no desire to ever see her again, and seeing her now brought back a flood of bad memories. Nevertheless, she stood in front of me expectantly. "I'm going to release you now so we can talk. Don't even try escaping or killing me, because I have Iggy, Gazzy, and Angel."

She freed me from my shackles, and led me to a small table in the center of the room. I grabbed a chair, and sank back into it, even though it was cold and hard like stone. "Fang and Dylan escaped," she said, reading my thoughts. "Doctor Gunther-Hagen didn't want Dylan harmed, and Fang was too close."

I breathed a sigh of relief. So they had gotten away, and they would come to rescue us. But then again, there were more pressing matters. Like why the Director had shown up now after almost two years, and what her plan was for world domination or whatever the heck she was planning.

"Max, you're probably wondering why you're here, why you've been captured and why I've come back from hiding. Well, I don't really have a problem telling you, because all hopes you have of escaping here might as well be crushed. You're not in the School. You're in a maximum security prison designed especially for mutants like you in Venezuela."

I gaped. Venezuela?

"Doctor Gunther-Hagen and I have sort of teamed up together for two reasons. One reason is that he wants to do another experiment on the flock. It involves Gazzy and Angel this time, and it'll be made clear to you in time. The second reason, I'm sure you know, is to take over the world."

"What does he get out of it?" I asked suspiciously.

"My assassins got you here; he gets to experiment on you. And in return, he's given me the means to take over, not destroy, the world. We're working on a formula right now that, once released into the atmosphere, will eliminate the weak or the unfit to live, and leave the strong alive. Strong parents will make strong children."

"But what's the point?"

"Once everyone is as they should be, there's an element in the formula that will make every one of those people obedient to me. I'm willing to let us start over, to create the world as it should have been, with the strongest and most fit to live. I'm saving the world, not destroying it."

"You're off your nut!" I cried. "You're…you're insane! That's not saving the world, that's killing millions of people and taking away free will! You're willing to kill children, parents, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters just to get what you want?"

"Who's going to stop me?" she challenged. "But what's better, Max, darling, is if you join me now, there's a place in the new world for you and your flock. We've already been experimenting on other children with wings to see how well adapted they are to live, and you all fit the bill. Join us now, and you can live instead of survive."

"Thanks, but no thanks," I snarled. "It's not really living if you have to live under a psychopathic, controlling freak. And by you, I mean me." I stood up at the table. "If our mission is to save the world, you can bet we'll save ourselves from this place." I believed in Fang and Dylan.

Oh, God. Fang and Dylan, alone together working to save us. What would happen? Would we be saved at all?

In answer to my question, the Director answered, "Fang and Dylan? That's only another experiment of Dr. Gunther-Hagen. We're both convinced that their differences and 'love' for you will render them incapable of any real progress."

That was it. 'Love'? That was the straw that broke the freaking camel's back. And let me tell you, that was one tired, tired camel that had just carried way too many straws. My fist snapped out automatically and smashed into her nose, smashing it to the right. I knew I had broken it before she screamed.

They had two guards come in and drag me away from her, even though I made no move to strike her again. They dragged me back to the wall and chained me up, but that didn't even wake Nudge up. She really was a heavy sleeper.

She and the guards filed out of the room. "According to Dr. Gunther-Hagen, I can't hurt you physically at all. I can't starve you, and I have to feed you. But I can keep you locked in here with her."

"Why should she bother me? She's my sister."

"Sometimes people change, Max." She smiled wickedly and walked out the door.

An hour later, I heard her murmur Fang's name in her sleep.

Two hours and I had finally managed to make a campfire. If that jerk had helped me, we might have been able to save Max and the others. He was supposed to be her boyfriend. So why didn't he care enough to speed things up? I tossed a match on and watched it start to burn. Fishing in my backpack, I found a box of crackers.

"What are you even doing over there?" I glanced at him. "You've been on that thing for almost two hours, Fang. I'm starting to think you were just playing solitaire." When he looked up, there were dark circles under his eyes. He looked beat, but I didn't like him any better.

"You idiot. I'm trying to track Max and the others. And before you can say anything, I meant through the blog. People read this in ever country at any hour. It's a long process, but it's really all we have. So please, for the love of God, let me concentrate."

I shrugged and went back to eating. A few minutes later, he actually smiled. Well, it wasn't like he was going to jump for joy. "I found them," he informed me. "Not their exact location, but they're somewhere in or around Venezuela. Some kid saw them fly overhead in a plane, and a few others backed him up."

"We're not going to Venezuela tonight," I rolled my eyes. "It's too far, it's too dark and it's been a rough day."

"We need to save Max," his voice was hard.

"Look, I love Max a whole hell of a lot, too, but we're never going to find her tonight." I was starting to get impatient. What made him the leader all of a sudden? Max was missing, not dead. We were equal.

I received a swift punch in the face and felt blood erupt from my nose. I glared up at him, and in a flash, he was on top of me, punching me and beating me to a pulp once again. Last time, I had let him do it. But now, Max wasn't here. I could hurt him as much as I wanted now.

So I brought my knee up to his stomach hard and rolled over so it was me who was punching the living crap out of him. I punched him one, two, three times in the face, and heard his nose crack. In a moment he flipped me over and slammed me against a tree trunk, tree bark scraping against my face.

I whirled on him and kicked him back, sending him flying only a foot from the campfire. If only I hadn't missed. I kicked him twice when he was down before he got back up and pushed me to the ground, then he was leaning over my struggling form, a bloody mess.

"Don't you understand?" he growled. "I have nothing. Max is the only person I've ever loved and now she's slipping away from me. You're not even supposed to be alive, by nature, and I don't want you anywhere near the flock. You can have anyone but her. Stay away from Max."

I threw him off me and glared at him. "I love her, too," I whispered.

In one fluid motion, he grabbed my shirt collar and threw me against the same tree. "Then the race is on," he challenged, "to see who can save the flock first."

He grabbed his backpack and walked through the trees, vanishing into the fog. He didn't come back.

When I finally woke up, everything was a blur. I didn't know where the rest of the flock was, and I didn't know if anyone had escaped, or who else besides Gazzy and Iggy had been taken down. I couldn't pick up on any thoughts, either. Everything was buzzing around so fast that it was a whir, including my vision and my stomach.

It cleared up a bit, and I saw where I was. I was in a cage, but at least it was slightly bigger than last time. I could see Gazzy in the crate next to me, and he was awake and alert. How long had I been asleep? I had a massive headache and my stomach was churning. I was so hungry that I was ready to die.

I held myself in a fetal position for a few minutes as Gazzy reached his fingers through his cage and touched my shoulder. I gotta tell you, it wasn't a whole lot of comfort, but it was better than nothing. Five minutes later, most of the headache and stomachache had cleared up, and I could sit up again.

We weren't in the School, that was for sure. In the School, there were rows and rows in a whole warehouse full of dog crates, and there were other mutants. Where I was now was a storage area with only two cages, one for me and one for Gazzy. It was so dark that I had to resort to relying mostly on raptor-vision to see much of anything.

My head snapped around as the door to the storage area opened, and I braced myself for whitecoats with needles and blood tests and all sorts of equipment for us to run on and then pass out. Well, I was two years older now than I had been when I had been kidnapped by Ari. If they thought that I would give in, they had another thing coming.

But no whitecoats came. Into the room marched two…kids? Yeah, they were definitely kids. I couldn't make out any of their features, but there was a small one and a tall one, and they were coming toward us. With a start, the tall one clapped, and the lights came on. I almost jumped out of my seat when I saw that dark-haired, blue-eyed boy with the white wings in front of me.

On his right was a young and scrawny girl, about a head taller and looking like she might be a year or two older than Gazzy. She had the same dark hair, but it was up in a high ponytail, and she had large glasses that stuck out on her face. She had the same blue eyes and same high forehead, but her hair was smooth and not shaggy.

Wonderboy had white, glossy wings that stretched as far as mine did, but he was taller, so his wings were still on the chicken side. Wondergirl had jet-black, gangly wings that still managed to work with her.

Wonderboy was –and I hated to admit this, because he was the enemy- awfully cute. He had a small cowlick in the back and his eyes were adorable. He smirked then, and my heart stopped, but he looked away quickly. The girl next to him, probably related, wasn't bad either, if only she would lose the glasses.

Wonderboy was good at maintaining a clueless expression, whereas Wondergirl was having a time of it hiding the fact that she was brilliant. I couldn't hear his thoughts, but I could hear hers, and she was Albert Einstein-geeky-brilliant. Maybe that was why she was carrying a clipboard.

Gazzy was the first to speak. "Who are you?" he demanded. The girl flashed him a smug smile, taunting him, and I didn't have to see the blush on his cheeks to know what he was thinking about her. He eyed Wonderboy distastefully.

"Well, Gazzy," she smirked, "We are here for you. Doctor Gunther-Hagen sent us to inform you about some of the…details of you being here." She sure didn't talk like she was ten. She seemed like she was Gunther-Hagen himself. "Just relax and sit back and this will go as smoothly as possibly.

"Now, let's start with introductions," she began. "We know you're Gazzy, and you're Angel. This little dork is Zander," she pointed at Wonderboy, "and I'm Zera. We're siblings. I'll cut right to the chase…we are the two youngest members of the Anti-Flock."

"The Anti-Flock?" Gazzy asked sharply. "What the hell is that, like antibacterial soap? Yeah, I'm sure you guys are just that harmless."

"Oh, the monkey's capable of competent speech," she quipped. "No. The Anti-Flock is, in short, a whole new flock of bird kids. You know one of us already. Dylan, I believe, is with you, though he's chosen to betray us."

"Why didn't he tell us?" I asked. I felt small and weak when Wonderboy's eyes traveled to me.

"He doesn't remember," he answered. "He doesn't want to remember."

"Right," Zera continued. "Basically, the Anti-Flock is a group of bird kids created by Doctor Gunther-Hagen as 'perfect matches' to the real flock. Dylan is Max's. As you may have guessed, Angel, Zander is yours, and I'm Gazzy's." Gazzy reddened even more significantly.

"But it gets better," her eyes gleamed. "Fourteen years ago, when Fang was only two, Doctor Gunther-Hagen created his 'perfect match', and it wasn't Max. You see, the original flocks were each only supposed to have five members. But one of our own escaped because of Jeb Bachelder, and made it into your flock. I believe you know her as 'Nudge'."

I gasped. Nudge was Fang's perfect match, and on top of that, part of the Anti-Flock? Jeb had rescued her with us, but she was really one of them? I absolutely couldn't believe it. "It's true," Wonderboy piped up. "Max, Fang, Iggy, Gazzy and you have matches. Nudge doesn't have one because it's Fang. Iggy's probably meeting his 'match' right now. She's our older sister."

"In addition," Zera continued, "We all have powers similar to that of our 'match'. Max can fly at super speed, and Dylan can teleport. Nudge and Fang both have mental powers – Fang can blend in with his surroundings by becoming mentally tuned into them, and Nudge can feel memories. Angel, you read minds, and Zander can read a person's body language especially well to know what they're feeling inside, even in their sleep."

"What about you?" Gazzy asked. "I don't have any real abilities."

"You have gastrointestinal…problems," she smirked. "You use your ability to clear a room. I do almost the same thing…" she almost seemed embarrassed, and I smirked myself as I found out why. "I burp," she announced. Gazzy fell over laughing.

"Look," I snapped, my face flushing as I thought of Max and Dylan, "I won't be set up at only eight years old with anyone for the rest of my life. Doctor G-H can go shove it."

"It's not like that," she raised an eyebrow. "Dylan was never supposed to fall in love with Max, but he did, and Doctor Gunther-Hagen went with it. Nudge was an accident, she grew up with you. But Iggy's match, Zander and myself are here strictly for the Director's experiment."

"What experiment?" I asked curiously.

"Let's just say we'll be competing against one another. Us, the new mutants, against you, the old. If you lose, you'll be eliminated, and if you win, you'll be set free." She said it evenly and calmly, but she seemed troubled by something. I knew she was shielding her thoughts, even Wonderboy was looking at her weird.

"Zander," he scowled at me. For the millionth time, I blushed scarlet and turned away.

"We'll be seeing you again tomorrow," Zera finished before walking out of the room. The lights flickered off behind her, and I was in darkness once again.

I was alone. I was cold, tired, and hungry, and all I knew was that I was in a room with walls made of stone. As if it wasn't bad enough being blind, I had no idea where the rest of the flock was or what that insane woman had in store for us. I was left stumbling around a room; they hadn't even bothered to chain the blind guy up. The door was locked, even if I couldn't find it.

Hours after those cretins had locked me in there, I was beginning to lose hope for food and water, let alone anyone coming to save me. But I heard the door slowly open, and I glared down at my feet, because I didn't want to look like an idiot staring in the wrong direction.

All of a sudden, in the back of my mind, I saw a picture of the most beautiful girl I've ever not seen. She had dark eyes and long eyelashes, with long flowing black hair that stopped at her shoulders. She was slender but not terribly skinny, and she was standing right in front of me. Most importantly, she had long, grey and white speckled wings. But how did I know?

"Who…who are you?"

Talking out loud won't be necessary, Iggy. I can hear you perfectly fine in my head.

"Gaah! Why are you in my head? What's going on?"

All you need to know is that my name's Zarra, and I'm your 'perfect other half' like Dylan is to Max. I'm part of a team of 'other halves', one for every flock member except for Nudge, she's Fang's, called the Anti-Flock. Every 'other half' has a special connection with their other person, and I can hear your thoughts.

"I think I've got it," I said as she gave an exasperated sigh, "and I'd prefer to talk out loud."

I can't hear you, she thought at me. We share a connection because you're blind, and I'm deaf. But the connection isn't affectionate at all. It's to test your ability against mine. Each Anti-Flock member will test against every flock member to see who the 'better generation' is. Be prepared to fight against me, Iggy.

I heard a door slam, and I knew she was gone. There was someone who could read my thoughts other than Angel. I had gotten it all, but I was horribly confused. She didn't love me like Dylan loved Max, but I already kind of liked her. She was kind of mysterious.

But then I remembered that she was my prison warden, the one that could help me but wouldn't. I couldn't 'talk' to her again, and I couldn't, wouldn't let her earn my trust.

Alright. I added some OC's, a whole different flock, which we find out Nudge and Dylan are part of. Tell me what you think about Zarra, Zera and Zander. Pronounce their names like they sound. Tell me what you think of them, please. Some people, for example, really hate OC's. I happen to like Zera the most ^^

~Rachel