A/N: I don't own Maximum Ride (Patterson does)...Just the words are mine. I made a longer version of this but re-wrote it to be a oneshot. Hope you like it.
-twilightjunkie1313
Fang Pov:
From my place at the back of the flock i could see everything. I saw Iggy flying in formation, his wingtip inches from Gazzys. I could see Angel wrapped up in her own thoughts. Thoughts that no six year old should ever have to deal with. I watched Nudge, bobbing in the air, a small trace of a smile on her face. I could see each of them, determine how they were holding up, when we needed to rest. I could see max, her straight course weaving slightly.
She never weaves, waivers or slows down when she flies. Unless...
There was something wrong with the voice.
Before i could move, or blink or even flinch max was doubled over. She clutched at her temples in agony, wincing. Then she just fell, her wings stopped beating and her light frame began to drop downwards.
"Max!" Angel screamed, holding her own head and cringing. She was picking up on max's pain.
"Iggy, Angel!" I ordered quickly, not bothering to explain.
Then i dived down after max, hurling myself toward the earth. The wind making my eyes raw. I scanned for her body, and then saw it. She was falling, slower than i was diving, but falling nonetheless. Her wings were sprawled out and whipping in the wind.
I dropped down to her, without thinking i grabbed hold of her. My arms locking around her rib cage. Her wings were beginning to tangle in mine, preventing me from flying. Our combined weight made us fall faster, i grimaced. Hitting the ground at this speed would be lethal.
I stared at max for a split second. I didn't want her hurt. Ever.
The wind whipped past us, he wings catching in it, knocking into mine. I heard two loud pops, and felt a jolt of pain. One of my wings had been popped out of socket. I hissed and tried not to swear. The ground was only a few hundred feet away now.
I had to do something, now.
So, in a max-worthy split second decision i turned us in the air. Wrapping my legs around max's to keep them from flailing around. I loosened my grip on her rib cage and threw a arm around her back, holding onto both of her tan streaked wings.
Then i closed my eyes, preparing for hell.
We hit trees and red specks flashed behind my eyelids. Crashing into the top of an old oak. The branches tore at each inch of max and myself. Cutting my face, cloths, leaving gashes across my legs and wings. The trees didn't seem to slow our speed at all. I felt a branch slice it's way over my arm, and i hissed in pain. I felt warm seeping onto my skin. Then, for a second, i didn't feel the trees eating at me. I felt air, calming empty air.
Right before i hit the ground i snapped my eyes open. Taking in blurs of tan, red and green. Then all the colors and shapes faded, replaced by blackness.
I felt a warm body on mine. Max...
Iggy Pov:
I knew something was wrong the second Angel had screamed. The terror and panic in her voice made my blood freeze. I thought it was erasers, or maybe nudge's recollection of max's beach stunt.
But as soon as i heard fang i knew it was worse, much worse. He sounded scared, and mad and determined.
"Oh my god." Gazzy breathed. He paused mid-air and hovered. I stopped at his side.
"What..." i asked quietly.
"She fell.." Nudge managed to speak, her voice coated in astonishment and fear.
In half a second my brain began to calculate. Max's average cruising altitude, provided by itex, combined with the maximum volocity something her weight could reach in freefall...
The odds were miserable. Not even fang's determination and strength could do much to change them.
I felt gazzy grab me by the arm and pull me down. I pulled back for a second, before he let go.
"We have to follow them." His tone radiated fear and determination. For a moment it was possible to hear how much like fang he was.
None of us said anything else, we just dove.
We rocketed through the air, wind streaming in our faces and howling in our ears. I urged myself to go faster, but couldn't. Half of me wanted to reach the ground. Half of me desperatly wished that i could freefall forever. I didn't want to face the scene that waited for us on the ground.
"Max! Fang!" I heard nudge yelling as her voice dropped into the trees. "Oh my god. Iggy, Gazzy, Angel.." Nudge was still yelling, but her voice was cracking and breaking with each word.
Soundlessly we followed nudge into the forrest, landing in a small clearing. The second their feet hit the ground i heard them take off running. I followed in a haze.
Angel, show me...please. I begged her with a thought.
I wasn't ready for the images, i would never be ready for them.
Fang with Max's limp body draped over him. Her tawny wings draped across them at odd angles, spotted with blood and fresh scratches. Fang's own skin etched with dozens of cuts and gashes. A line of crimsion ran up his arm, marking a deep cut. His wings crushed beneath his body hapazardly.
I couldn't breath, or blink or speak. I focused in on the details or the scene before me. Bile rose up in my throat, my stomach felt hollow.
I looked closer at the images Angel gave me. There was a fine layer of dust in Fang's dark hair. I stared at Max's hand laying limp on his stomach. Fang's own arm limply wrapped around her back. The light filtered through the trees cast strange shadows on the two. Making them seem both immortal and dead.
Angel, I begged silently, Please stop...please stop.
At once it was the most beautiful and terrible thing i had ever seen. I kept staring at them in my minds eye, their bodies broken and bloody. It was something i wouldn't forget.
Nudge PoV:
I had seen them first. How i don't know, but i did. Without thinking i just raced into the forrest, running at them as soon as my feet hit the dirt. Even from far off it looked bad, but survivable.
Then i came closer and i knew...
Seeing their bodies, Fang and Max, their wounds and the sickening bend of their wings. They had crashed, just below dive speed, into the trees. The odds of surviving that, even for them were slim. I began to scream, not wanting them to be dead. Needing the rest of my family here with me, i couldn't face this alone.
It didn't take long for the others to catch up to me. Angel was screaming max's name, panic seeping into her voice. Their footsteps coming to a sudden stop as they saw them.
I tore my eyes from our leaders to look at te trees. Freshly broken limbs showed their fall path. I winced, some of the branches they had hit were eight inches in diameter or bigger. The fall out of the trees must have been around sixty feet.
I heard my breath rush back to me in a ragged gasp. Nobody wanted to move, nobody wanted to touch them, to see if they had a pulse. To clean their wounds, because it would mean knowing if they were alive.
And having to tell us if they were dead.
None of us wanted to know if they were dead. We couldn't handle that, i couldn't handle that. My head spun a bit, the forrest going blurry. They were our protectors and our leaders, as close to parents as we had ever had. They couldn't be dead...but the silence of the flock and the way Max and Fang looked, i didn't know.
"Angel, read them." Iggy's voice broke the heavy silence, his voice a painful whisper.
"Nudge, the emotion, can you..." he paused for a moment. "Are you okay?"
"Yes." I replied, taking a step closer to Fang and Max. Getting ready to touch the ground around them and feel the emotions. Another step, and i sunk into a crouch.
"Wait!" I heard Gazzy's paniced voice from behind me. I spun, to see him and Iggy staring at Angel. Her face had gone blank, her eyes closed, hands in tight fists at her sides. She was whispering Max's name over and over.
Then is a split second she opened her eyes and her hands relaxed. She blinked at us.
"Max is having a brain attack, I can't read Fang, same as usual." She explained her tone wieghed with worry.
"Will they be okay, when will they wake up?" I asked reciving a glare from iggy that said don't-push-her-she's-scared.
"I don't know." Angel replied, sounding more like a six year old than she ever had.
We all stood for a moment, absorbing that information.
"What are we going to do?" Gazzy asked slowly, looking from Iggy to myself.
"I can't move them, they could be hurt." Iggy stated flatly, i nodded.
"We're staying here then." I said, looking around the forrest.
Iggy Pov:
I nodded at Nudge's words. Max and Fang would cheerfully beat us if they found out we were going to stay in an unknown forrest, in an impossible-to-defend location. But they would have both done the same thing.
"Angel, Gazzy scope out the forrest a bit. See what's out there, get some fire wood." I said quickly.
"Okay." I heard Gazzy mutter before darting into the woods, Angel at his heels.
"Nudge find a tree that Angel and Gazzy can sleep in."
"Any one of them will work."
"Okay." i replied, falling silent.
Fang PoV:
I felt Max, her body limp and heavy stretched out over mine. I didn't open my eyes, didn't move. Every inch of my body felt like it had been beaten with a bat. Then i rememberd why i was laying here. Scattered bits of memory played through my head, the pictures sharper than a razor blade.
Max clutching her head, curling up mid air...Her body dropping out of the sky, wings fluttering around her... Me, diving down to get her, stop her from hitting the ground...
We had crashed. I tensed up, hearing voices.
"Iggy we can sleep on the ground..." Angel protested. Mentally I smiled, knowing that angel wouldn't take special treatment. Max and I had raised them better than that, they were tough and determined...poor Iggy.
Angel, listen to Iggy. I thought hard, letting the barriers in my mind slip open. He's doing the best he can for you.
Okay. She replied simply, i heard her jump up into the trees.
Is Max okay? I asked, keeping my breathing shallow, not moving. I looked asleep to everyone but angel.
I don't know, she's been having brain attacks...they've been lasting for too long.
How long?
Almost five hours now...are you okay?
Yes, but i need more rest. I felt my head spinning, and an odd prodding feeling. Was angel trying to read my thoughts?
Angel, i need you to stay out of Max's head. You could get hurt, badly. I also need you to get out of my head, now.
I sighed unoticably as the prodding feeling faded. Then i closed my eyes and drifted back to sleep.
Max Pov:
When i woke up i felt like i had faught three dozen heavily armed erasers with my wings tied behind my back. Ouch. I stretched my wings out quickly, and then winced. My left wing felt like it had been twisted out of socket. The muscles around the joint connecting my sholder to my wing hurt, bad. I didn't move my wing after that...it hurt.
Then i heard a groan and opened my eyes, wide.
Fang was laying underneath me, crushed down on his raven wings. His face was coverd with scratches, dust coated his hair. His eyes widened a bit and then narrowed at me confused.
"Fang." I said breathed slowly, not wanting to move. My body hurt, and a wing was out of socket, at least i thought it was.
Fang Pov:
I looked down at her. She was safe, alive and, for the moment laying on top of me. I did a three sixty and saw iggy sleeping against a tree.
In a fluid movement i wrapped my arm around her waist and stood. Pulling Max to her feet, and turned to Iggy.
"Iggy." i said calmly, rolling my sholders and popping the joints.
He stood up in less time than it took to blink, croutching into a fighting stance. Before i knew it he had thrown something at us, and i heard the small whoosh of a rock sized bomb.
As if by instinct i swept my hand in a wide arc in front of me. A starange blue light, almost like electricity, seemed to follow my hand. The light stayed in the air for a moment, just as the bomb hit it. The shards from the explosion sprayed everywhere, pieces that it the light seemed to desintagrate.
That was the last thing i expected.
"Holy shit." Max breathed next to me, a look of astonishment on her face.
"Max? Fang?" Iggy said in surprise, "What was that sound?"
"You almost killed them!" Nudge screched from the tree. She dropped off the branch effortlessly, landing beside Iggy with a mix of anger and surprise on her face.
Iggys eyes went wide with shock.
"Oh my god! I had no idea that was you! I thought you were still asleep.." he paused for a second. "Wait, how are you still alive?"
None of us answered for a moment. Then Angel dropped out of the trees, a rock in her hand. She threw it at Max and myself without any warning.
This time i held up my hand, right in the rock's path. No light shot from my hand, but i flicked my wrist and the rock dropped to the ground like a dead eraser.
"You can move things with your mind?" Max said softly, her voice sending a small shiver through my spine. I nodded slightly.
"yeah."
"Wow." I heard iggy mutter loudly. Nudge nodded absently. Angel yawned, trying to hide it. But Max and I caught it.
"Bed, all of you." She said easily, her voice taking an unmistakably athorative tone.
"But.." Angel got ready to protest.
Max Pov:
"Bed." I said in an unmistakably do-or-die voice. I had just fallen out of the flippin' sky from god-only-knows-how-high and woke up to realize that Fang could move things without touching them or threatening them. My well of leaderly patience was gone. I needed something to beat up, too bad all the erasers were dead.
"Fine." Angel muttered sloftly before taking off straight from the ground and setteling back into the trees. Nudge followed her without a word, so did Gazzy.
Iggy took a few steps closer to us, somehow knowing where we were.
"Are you both okay?" He asked slowly, staring at a space between us.
"Yes." I said slowly, not quite sure it was true.
"Yes." Fang replied, but the look on his face said diffrently.
"Angel showed me what happened..." iggy began slowly. Wait what? Angel showed him something, like, she let him see something?
"How." Fang asked quickly, his eyes flashing hope and suspicion before going dark again.
"She put the image she was seeing in my head, like it was a thought, but diffrent. I saw you both, you looked, it was..." Iggy trailed off.
It was horrible. That much i could tell from the twisted anguish on Iggys face. I looked at Fang, he had put his hand on iggy's sholder.
"We'll be fine." Fang said carefully, not lying but not telling Iggy how bad off we were.
"Will you help us bandage?" I asked slowly. Iggy nodded, swallowing and began to brush his hands across my face, arms and wings. Fang tightened his hold on my waist, ready in case i fell.
I nearly passed out when his hand grazed one of my wings. Fang saw the look on my face and grabbed Iggy's wrist.
Fang PoV:
"I think it's out of socket..." I paused, scanning her face. "we have to put it back in." Max only nodded, her face slightly pale. Her eyes focused on empty space. I pulled her closer to me, wrapping my arm around her back and between her wing joints. She felt light and weak, like she had been fighting for seven hours and lost ten pounds. I leaned down to talk into her ear.
"Max Iggy has to pop it back. Okay?" I felt her nod against my sholder.
I watched Iggy put one hand on her back, right between her wings, and the other on her wing. Without any notice Iggy snapped the wing back into place, and max colapsed.
I held onto her and guided her down. Laying her body on the ground.
She had passed out, probably for the next thirty minutes.
"Help me dress the wounds." I said quietly to Iggy. He nodded and went to get the frist aid kit. I pulled max's sleeves up, checking for deep cuts. There were a few, Iggy came back with the rubbing alcohol, opening the bottle and pouring some on a rag.
"Hold her for me Fang, this will sting a bit." He said quietly.
"Where?" I asked, not sure where he was going to start.
"Her arm." He said, brushing his hand over her forearm. She had a series of four or five deeper cuts running over her arm like a set of crimsion braclets.
Iggy touched the rag to her arm, the smell reminding me of the school, itex, max's clone and ari. I blinked to rid the images from my mind...
In that instant max had woken up, snapped her eyes open and sat up. She threw her arm out as if to hit Iggy. Only she didn't hit him, she didn't even touch him, but he flew fifteen feet into across the grass and landed in a heap on the ground.
"Ouch, god Max..." Iggy muttered, standing up slowly.
"I'm so sorry Iggy..." she said, her eys going wide.
"You have my power." I said slowly, we looked at each other for a second.
wow. This would be interesting.
A/N: I'm sorry if that was OOC but i had to (had to) give Fang a power. And let's face it, Max got the short end of the stick when she landed a voice in her head. So i needed to make them even, kindof. reveiw please (especially if you have any ideas.)
-twilightjunkie1313