I do not own MR.

Fang POV:

I flew ahead of my pack through the Colorado hills looking for BKSO (bird-kid shaped objects). I tried yet again to squelch my rising emotions. The 80% of my mind that was devoted to Max was in an absolute uproar. The rest was determined to get her back. No matter what the cost. Far to the West I saw the first trace of what might have been a BKSO. I raced forward violently thrusting down with my winds to propel me faster. I shot like a black bullet from the last chamber in Russian Roulette, just as mindlessly angry and just as mindlessly scared. Oh and just as deadly. I was going to painfully mutilate and kill whoever kidnapped Max.

"IT'S FANG!" I heard the Gasman's voice yell.

As I skidded to an awkward landing a more awkward silence lowered over us. It was the air had suddenly been sucked out and we were standing in a vacuum that was pulling us apart. Nudge couldn't meet my eyes. I was hurt by the fact that our most open and loving flaockmate couldn't bear to look at me. Iggy had the nastiest scowl I'd ever seen on his face, worse than the ones he pulled out for Erasers. I understood how he felt completely. The Gasman looked like he was barely holding it all together. Max would have given him some of her mega-surplus of courage. I on the other hand had nothing to offer but my surplus of self loathing. And Angel's eyes were piercing me to the spot like a moth in an insect diorama. No wonder-boy Dylan. I did a double take. Were two flockmates missing? My mind prickled at the idea that tried to slither further, had they run off together? I cringed away from the thought. Yet another box never to be opened in the Indiana Jones Warehouse-Vault of Fang's Mind.

Angel spoke first. She had really matured in six years. I was so proud my feathers floofed slightly. On the other wing I was so emotionally shredded because I had missed it. She had lost her vibe of crazy-power-hungry-mutant and had gained a stronger superpower than any other: diplomacy. "Fang." Her eyes were razor blades. Ouch. "We need your help to find Max and save her. Obviously. This is where she was last seen."

"What do mean 'last seen'? Like yesterday or two days ago? When was the last time you saw Max? Did she say she was going out for anything? Shopping, flying, saving the world?"

She paused, the group tensed. Iggy's fists balled up until I was sure his fingernails were cutting into his fists. I knew this because mine were too. "Nobody's seen or heard from Max in almost three weeks."

My eyes widened slightly. A Fang version of the fish-faced gasp of shock. "But… If you guys were… the flock… then…"

Angel sighed with barely masked anger, "The Flock hasn't been whole since you left. We splintered. Me and Gazzy were the last to go our own way."

I froze. Cold tendrils of shame and anger pulsed through me like ice in my veins. It felt like my feet had been nailed to the rocky earth wit steal spikes. Nobody had been with Max. They had left her all alone. I had left her all alone. The flock hadn't been whole since I had left. Guilt gripped me like an iron maiden's embrace. Slowly more anger began to filter in. Anger at myself for my many failings. Anger at them for leaving her too. Anger at the cold, uncaring, unflinching, mechanicality of the universe.

I realized I hadn't spoke for a minute. I remedied this. In my own socially inept way. "You left her?"

"Fang…" Iggy's voice was a warning. And it only opened the gates for me to get past my shock.

"YOU ABANDONED HER?! ALONE?" I focused my fury on my old sparing partner, the last to talk, Iggy. Just as I was about to tackle him and break his nose he stiffened and a large hand came down on my shoulder holding me back like a ramrod of steel. Took them long enough. But running was so much slower than flying, I couldn't blame them.

"Who are they?" Nudge asked, finally looking at me (if only to look behind me).

The hand on my shoulder squeezed harder. I nodded. It would be stupid and petty and pointless to break Iggy's nose. And this was my fault to begin with anyways. The hand on my shoulder let go. I sighed and looked at Iggy's staring eyes. "We need to talk. I'll tell you everything. But arguing won't fit down a better time line or clues of who stole Max. And we need to get her back."

I whispered to myself "I need to get her back." The words wheezed out of me like the gust of air that is forced out when you get punched in the gut really hard. I hope no one heard how pathetically needy I sounded just then.

We all sat down in the house's living room. It was sparsely furnished and all that was in it was knocked over from some brawl. We sat amongst the wreckage of the present ready to stir up the past. Silence struck again heavy, thick, and choking as early morning fog on a moor.

I spoke first, "Who left first?"

Iggy's eyes flashed, his face was a knife. His teeth pulled back in what might have been a smile, however the ends of his mouth were cruelly twisted. "You did."

That stung. It was true though. My shoulders slumped under the weight of truth. But I had no time to nurse my own hurts. I was focused on Max. Max Max Max Max Max Max… I needed as much information as possible on what I had missed to help track Max down. There had to be a clue somewhere. People who were strong enough, smart enough, and evil enough to trap Maximum Ride just aren't that common. In fact out of that small pool of suspects most were long dead. Max just doesn't tolerate those plotting to kill her. One of those odd quirks I love about her. There was a divine art in the way Max's arm would pull back, her back muscles rippling, and punch the lights out of some poor sap. It's like watching television for bird kids. Ultimate fighting for real. Focus Fang, focus. I couldn't lose myself in my head over Max when the real one was endangered. However I had lived the last six years in my head with my Max since I could not have her in real life. Habits, ya know?

"Who left after I did?"

"I left next." Iggy replied.

"Why?" I asked calmly.

"YOU ask ME why I left? Why did you leave?!"

I paused, self-loathing swamped me and my voice was heated, "I thought I was doing the best thing for the flock. I thought I was helping Max save the world. I thought I was giving her the chance to have 'her other half'." I almost choked with bitterness at the last part. I hated Dylan with a special kind of hate that I reserved only for him. Like my hatred for hospitals times a billion.

Iggy scoffed. "Oh you left for our own good? How noble of you."

"Ig…" Nudge weakly warned. I sensed she agreed with him. Hell, I agreed with him. What I had done was stupid, and time was making it a worse decision by the minute. Max was missing. My heart felt like it was cut out and I was bleeding on the floor.

"I left because my hearing improved."

I didn't understand. "Why would…."

"Let me explain…"