A/N - Ugh, I had SUCH a writer's block during this chapter, it took me a week. I COULD HAVE WRITTEN THIRTY THOUSAND WORDS AND I ONLY ENDED UP WRITIGN 35OO? This is not good, not good at all. Anyway, since I'll be spending the next week at Lake Tahoe, no more updates, sorry! D:

If any of you recall, the last time I had a new story coming out, I did a poll on my lookup for the pairing everyone wanted. I'm doing that again for a new story in August, be sure to vote on the poll and check back on August 1st for the new story! Enjoy this chapter and don't forget to leave a review~!

My Girl

Chapter 8

Zander, Zarra and I walked behind Doctor Gunther-Hagen down the long hallway. The doors to the right were prison cells, I knew. In one were Nudge and Max, and in another was Iggy. Angel and Gazzy had been reserved for a special storage space, of course, because they were brother and sister. But what we were going to was at the end of the hall – the Director's meeting room.

We were lead in and were told to take a seat. When they asked us to do something, we never complained. Heck, Dr. G-H could have asked us to scrub the toilets and we would have done it, but we didn't always enjoy the things we were told to do. Like keeping the flock hostage, for example.

I shook my head. I couldn't afford to lose my head in the clouds today. And I couldn't afford to think that way about the flock. They were our enemies, and it was us against them. No matter how much I liked that blonde boy, it was me or him. And I wasn't willing to die young so that he could live. Rule number one of being a mutant freak was to survive.

"I'm sure you were all informed," she smiled down at us. I could tell that she thought Zander and I were completely adorable, but she kept glancing at Zarra with a distasteful look in her eye. Zander had told me that she considered Zarra to be "questionably" the greatest threat, the one most likely to forget our mission.

Informed of what? Zarra held the whiteboard up with little interest, inspecting something on her fingernails. I stifled a laugh as the Director sent a chilling glare her way, giving an indignant huff. Ooh, Zarra wasn't interested in her little games. Time to call the cops, I'm sure.

"As I was saying, I'm sure you were all informed that exactly one month from now will be your contest against the flock. But remember, they're all locked in cells, and not being fed enough. In no time, they'll be as weak as normal humans, giving you the advantage." But underneath her smile, I caught the underlying hint of her words – there will be no screw-ups.

Zarra cast me a sideways glance, then looked back at the Director. She held up her white-board with a smile. Of course. We will beat the flock, and there will be nothing standing in the way of your plan. I doubt the competition will even last ten minutes. The Director smiled with satisfaction. Zarra had officially earned her trust with a little sucking up.

As we exited the room, Dr. Gunther-Hagen dismissed us, and we all went our separate ways. I saw Zarra heading towards Iggy's cell, but I stopped her and pulled her into the nearest supply closet. She gave me a confused look, tilting her head to the side. But I wanted answers, and I wanted them now.

"What was that back in there?" I asked furiously. "You know that our loyalty is to Dr. G-H and the Director. If you don't get on board, you'll die, it's as simple as that. So you have to beat Iggy in that competition! I don't want to see my own sister die!" There were tears in my eyes. Why couldn't she understand?

She scribbled furiously at the whiteboard, and I waited patiently until it was all on. I had to squint to see it, but there it was. Zera, this is wrong. We know she's evil, and we're not doing anything to stop it. What if there was a better way, a way to let them and ourselves live? Wouldn't you choose that way, above anything else? Her eyes were pleading.

I shook my head. She just didn't understand. "We don't have that option," I hissed. "Our options are kill or be killed. I will not lose to them when my own life is on the line. If that sounds selfish, it's because it is. I know the odds, Zarra, and if we help them, the odds are not good for us. The Director is just too powerful."

Her fists clenched and her eyebrows furrowed. I knew that she was as angry at me as I was at her, but I didn't care. I turned around and opened the door. But before I left, I turned back around. "I mean it, Zarra, I want you to stay away from Iggy. The closer you get to him, the harder it will be."

And I saw the pain in her eyes, feeling instantly guilty. I thought of Gazzy, and if I would even have the strength to stay away from him. I had managed to avoid him, and I had been the only one. Zander was sneaking off to see Angel, and Zarra couldn't hide that she was in love with Iggy. And strangely, I was feeling more like the leader than Zarra.

"Look, two in our flock are already with them!" I cried. "Even if we've never met them, we're on our own now, and we are not gonna stop until we win. Even if I'm not supposed to feel any human feelings, I love you and Zander, and I care what happens to you. Falling in love with Iggy will only drag you down. So please, please don't go back there."

She held up the whiteboard. Zera, I'm the leader of the Anti-flock, ever since Dylan left. I'm not going to take orders from you. I know what's best for me. I don't need you to be my mother. There was a defiant spark in her eyes. I can make my own decisions. And I love Iggy more than I fear the Director. Let me go. And she brushed past me, out of the room.

I don't know what snapped in me, maybe it was knowing that she was right and that the Director was evil. Nevertheless, I took a deep breath and started walking toward the storage area where Gazzy was being held. I felt like a hypocrite, but if I was going to die, I was going to make my life count.

Fang weighed a freaking ton, I noted as I dragged him through the air. It was making it harder to fly, supporting another person. We were in southern Mexico now, many miles to go before we hit Venezuela. I would stop twice as often, every few hours, to rest and regain my strength, and then I would carry on, the same as before. All the time, I reminded myself that it was for the flock. But it was becoming increasingly difficult, even with that motivation.

I had been looking out the entire time for another one of the black planes to come back or pass over with the mind-controlling gas. I had been super-alert and careful. Every time I stopped to rest in the trees, one never managed to find me. But I hadn't expected one to find me as I finally dropped out of the sky and into the trees for some well-deserved sleep.

Just as my eyelids were drooping, I felt myself cough when I inhaled it. And I knew there was no stopping it. My eyes opened wide as my mind started to fog over, and I fell off the tree, landing on the ground with a thud. Furiously, I struggled against it, prying myself up and running away through the trees, ignoring the searing pain. Once the green gas was clear, I leaned against a tree trunk and breathed heavily for a few moments.

I had left Fang, but more importantly, I figured out that the gas didn't effect me, and that I was strong enough to withstand it. I walked back to pick up Fang, waited for the helicopter to leave, and smirked before taking to the skies again.

For all the hours that we spent there, Max never talked to me. I was in a cell, like a caged animal, but it wasn't a feeling that I wasn't used to. I hated feeling like we were competing against each other, and feeling like I was betraying one of my best friends. But I couldn't help who I loved, and neither could she, and that was just what got us into this situation in the first place.

The silence was so strong that you could hear a pin drop, and every breath we took. The door opened occasionally when they slipped us some food, which was complicated as hell, as our chains didn't allow us to stretch very much. When Max slept, I cried. I wanted someone to come and save us, but there was really no hope at all.

Until this 'competition' that Gazzy, Angel and Iggy would be facing happened, we were all stuck there, and all I had was her, and all she had was me. I didn't know what would happen to Max and I if they lost, or even if they won. We were both worried about them. When she thought that I was asleep, she cried.

I decided to see if I could get to Angel at all. She could help me through a time like this, and she was the one that seemed to know everything about this place, being the one that had all those other Anti-flock kids on her side. Angel, I screwed my eyes shut and called her mentally. Angel!

What? Her voice popped into my head.

Angel, when is this competition, exactly? I thought hard at her.

Well, we don't really know, she 'said' bluntly. Zera told us that it was coming soon, but we don't know when. But as much as I can figure out, they want us to compete against them with a series of tests focusing on our agility, strength, and basically, our chance of living in this new universe of theirs.

Wait, I thought, confused, if you're fighting Zarda and Gazzy's fighting Zelda and Iggy's fighting Zeron, who are Max and Dylan fighting? And who are Fang and I fighting? It made perfect sense that naturally, we'd be fighting as well.

There was a long pause, and it reminded me strangely of all the times that I would ask a stupid question and Max would just stare at me until I got it. But this time, I was drawing a complete blank. …Nudge…you'll be fighting Fang. He's your match. That's why the Director's searching for him – to force you two to fight. Only one of you can live.

My eyes rolled back in my head as I lost consciousness, stunned beyond belief. I fainted, falling face forward. But I never hit the ground, caught only by the chains supporting me.

Days later, I still hadn't forgotten Zera's little chat with me. That didn't stop me from seeing Iggy, though. I still wouldn't call us friends, but at least I usually brought him food and got him to smile once in a while. I'd been sneaking around Zera for the time being, but that little girl was everywhere. Not to mention harassing Zander for sneaking off to see Angel.

I poked my head out of the doorway, making sure the hallway was clear. My eyes darted both ways before creeping cautiously into the hall, tiptoeing quickly across to edge along the hall. It wouldn't really stop me from being seen, so I didn't know exactly why I was doing it. But I saw it in a movie one time, so I figured, what the heck.

The door around the corner opened without warning, and I panicked. Footsteps were coming down the hall, and muffled voices. I looked this way and that, trying to find somewhere to hide, my eyes finally settling on the supply closet. At the last moment, I dived into it, cracking the door lightly. I didn't know why, because it wasn't like I could hear them.

My eyebrows raised in confusion as I saw Zander and Zarra in the hall, a murderous glare on her face and an equally ferocious one on his. She slammed him against the wall, and her back was to me. I couldn't read her lips, but I could read his. Whatever she said pissed him off, because his next reply was, "Fuck off!"

My eyes widened considerably, and she retorted back with a slap in the face and a comment that I couldn't hear, but I knew that it drove him insane. "I'm not in freaking cahoots with her!" he yelled at her, and I stifled a laugh. "Don't you think she has a right to some company before she dies?" Well, well, looks like someone else had been sneaking in to see his 'match'.

She shook her head furiously and they both stomped off in opposite directions, Zander heading the way I came and Zarra heading off the opposite way. But something wasn't right about that. Our rooms and the storage area that Angel was in were the way that Zander had gone. But the way Zera had gone was the room that Gazzy had been moved to for testing.

Well, well, well. Now things got interesting. Little Zera had a secret, too. I smiled in spite of myself, sneaking out of the supply closet and down the hall toward Iggy's prison cell.

Zander didn't really think much of Zera going off in the opposite direction, she could tell. It was something they all did – Zera with Zarra, and with Zander, and Zander with Zarra. It was a stupid and childish thing to do, but it generally made them feel better, like we'd won the argument when in reality they all looked like a bunch of idiots with no clear winner.

Today had been another one of those days. It had been days since she had convinced Zarra not to go see Iggy, and she hadn't seen her with him since. Zera wasn't convinced that Zarra wouldn't sooner or later, but for the time being, she was safe. Then Zander had come right out and announced that he was going to go see Angel.

He had somehow convinced himself that it was for her own good, and that she at least deserved some companionship before she lost to him in the competition, but Zarra knew him better than that. First, he was the last person Angel ever wanted to see. She would sooner keep a dead fish for a friend than him, and she'd probably slap him the next time he got close to her. Secondly, they all knew that Angel was going to win.

Was Zera the only one that was staying true to the Director and Doctor Gunther-Hagen, their creator, whom she had known for twelve years and had practically been her father? Was she the only one staying true to herself, and everything she believed in?

She stopped, leaning against the wall. Was that what this was really about? When she was a child, it wasn't like normal. She'd been more obsessed with books and statistics rather than finding love later. She believed in good hard facts, solid proof, and science. Not something as unpredictable of love, or even friendship.

The truth of it was, she'd never even found it in her heart to really love someone. Dr. Gunther-Hagen was never really her father, and he'd never been there when she had a problem. He'd been the one that had encouraged her through tests and manipulated her to be his little star. But had it ever been real fatherly love?

No, of course not. And Zarra had seen that a long time ago. That was why she hadn't bought into any of their crap, why she was desperately looking for a plan to make sure the world was saved. But Zera knew better. She could not, would not let herself fall into this mess that the others had. If she was the only one, that would be fine. She could do it on her own.

But if she didn't want to be sucked into the mess that they all had fallen for eventually, why was she slowly walking toward the room that Gazzy was being held in for tests, a room that only she had the key to because Doctor Gunther-Hagen trusted her more than the others? Was she really going to see Gazzy, expecting him to solve her problems when, in reality, he would just tear her down like Angel had Zander and Iggy had Zarra?

Nevertheless, she opened the door, only to find the blonde boy asleep at the table. For only ten years old, he was remarkably handsome, she noticed, and her hold on the clipboard that she always carried softened. A small smile rested on her lips, if only for a moment, before she sat down in the chair across the room, watching him silently. Her clipboard fell to the floor, abandoned for the moment. She studied him curiously.

He had been given anesthesia temporarily to calm him down, and he was fast asleep. He wouldn't be waking up anytime soon, she noted. She almost wished that he would wake up, that she could have someone to talk to who wasn't completely psychotic or as desperately rebellious as Zarra. But she knew that if she did, she would be just as bad as them, and she wouldn't have that.

For now, this would stay her little secret, and she didn't look at it as being weak and caving in. She saw it as, shall we say, taking a break and observing her 'perfect other half', all for the sake of science.

She could feel good about herself still, keeping her superiority and continuing to try to forget about Gazzy. Because she was certain, positively certain, that she wouldn't be seeing him again. It had been good to know there was someone like her, but that was all he would ever be. He was certainly not to be her friend, even if he was her 'perfect other half'.

When she walked from the room, the door closed behind her. The sleeping boy would simply never know she had been there. She smiled to herself, despite her deceit. She felt no pain of knowing he couldn't escape, that he was trapped and that he would lose to her. She left all her worries and doubts in that room.

Hours later, as the blonde boy was waking up, he rubbed his sleepy eyelids and glanced around the room. It was the same as before, with one shocking difference. He wasn't stupid in the least, and he was perceptive as anything. There, in the corner of the room, next to one of the chairs, was a forgotten clipboard, which told the story of something far more important.

She had been there. And even though his heart shouldn't have skipped even the slightest beat, it did.

I had discovered something important as I was flying over the border of Mexico and further into Central America. It was like I was having memories of a time before Dr. Gunther-Hagen had introduced me to Max and the others, a time which I had completely blocked out of my memory. I was seeing me, but I was also seeing people who I had no names for.

It was like they were familiar in some way, and special, just like the flock was to me now. There were people with dark hair and pointed features, two girls and a young boy. Nudge was there, too, chattering in her usual way. But it was wrong. Where were Max, Fang, Iggy, Gazzy and Angel? They were nowhere, nonexistent.

He hadn't been created to be the same age as the flock. He had grown up, just like the rest of them. And even if he couldn't remember the days, these images of the children with black hair and Nudge, with an occasional Dr. Gunther-Hagen, they meant something, he was sure of it. And there was something significant about the timing. The visions had chosen to appear right after he had rescued Fang from the Director.

It was all linked back to her, her plan for Max and for the flock. He swore to himself that he would find it, and always keep them safe.

If Nudge was with Dr. Gunther-Hagen, was this some secret that she didn't want the others to know? Was she really evil, and just pretending to be on their side all that time? No. For some reason, he hated to think about that. It gave him the same feeling in his stomach as when Fang had appeared and taken Max away from him.

But this was…different, wasn't it? Nudge was a sister to him, and a dear sister at that, but she was definitely no Max to him. She was just a kid, barely even a teenager and would undoubtedly end up with Fang. That was the way it was meant to be.

He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he was focused again, and the only thing he cared about was flying to Venezuela. He resituated Fang, flapped his wings a few more times and faced forward, the wind whipping around his face. This nightmare would be over soon, he was sure of it.

So, how was it? I really think that it sucked, actually, I was dead tired and possibly drugged when I wrote this! xD Jk, don't do drugs, kids. Review!

~Rachel