-insert deep, sincere apologies about not updating because of homework and lack of inspiration here-

Sorry, sorry, sorry!

And thanks to:

-Bluejaygrl98

-emotionalpeomgirl

-AmyQueen95

for reviewing!

...

And now, I realized that I've forgotten to put in a disclaimer at the beginning of the story. Oops.

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. There-short, sweet, and hopefully clear…

Now, finally, on with the chapter…

Wide awake in the middle of your nightmare,
you saw it comin' but it hit you outta nowhere,
And there's always scars
when you fall that far…

- Get Back Up, by Toby Mac

Max POV

"Max! Wake up!" I could feel someone gently pushing me.

Max? Who was Max? Who was I?

Fang…

Was my name Fang?

No, wait. That was someone else.

Maybe I was Max?

Fang…Max…the Flock…

Suddenly, everything rushed back.

Opening my eyes took far more energy than what it should take, but I managed to do it all the same. I blinked blearily, watching as fuzzy figures slowly swam into focus.

"Ahh!"

I leapt up, jumping backwards. "Fang…you're alive…"

Fang rolled his eyes. "Of course I'm alive. How are you?" The rest of the Flock looked worriedly at me.

"I'm...fine," I said, hoping to calm them down, "just give me a minute."

I rubbed my eyes, and the figures from yesterday (or was it today?...) lept before my eyes. It took all the self control and mind-blocking skills I had to not scream out loud. There was no point in worrying the Flock. Telling them everything was definately out of the question.

I closed my eyes again, hoping to think of some reasonable excuse and to lesson the pounding in my head. A mutilated Fang stared out, brokenly, at me from behind closed eyelids. I snapped my eyes open and shook my head, trying in vain to push the image out of my head.

The Flock looked at me as if I were crazy. Which I admittedly might actually be.

The figures I had seen outside the mundow must have been an illusion, or some weird dream. What else could they be? There has to be some kind of logical explanation for it. It wasn't real, nothing they said was true. Not in the slightest.

Right?

Fang POV

I'm worried for Max.

First, she passes out in the middle of the kitchen while I was away getting a drink of water.

Then she's delusional, claiming that I was dead.

Now, she all tense and jumpy. She flinches at any unexpected sound, haunted eyes often staring at me for far longer than what is necessary.

What's going on?

Determined to get to the bottom of this, I went over to where she was sitting on the edge of the couch, and purposely sat beside her with a loud plop. Max jumped, then, seeing me, calmed back down (if you call being as twitchy as a hyperactive squirrel 'calmed').

I cut to the chase. "Max, what's going on?" See how easy it is with me? No beating around the bush here.

Max pretended to not know what I'm talking about. "What's going on?" she asked, eyes fixed squarely on me. Oh yeah, Max was the queen of lies.

"…This." I gestured with my hands.

"You just pointed at all of me."

I groaned—this was not going to be as easy as I had hoped.

"Exactly. You're so jumpy and...acting weird," I decided to not use 'scared', the primary reason being that, acting weird or not, she would beat me up. Happily. "You're not yourself. What happened last night?"

"Nothing. I just passed out. So?" she rolled her eyes, in a last futile attempt at tricking me into thinking everything was okay.

"So? So, I'm worried about you! People just don't drop down unconscious for no reason. What really happened?"

Max glared at me, sudden fury in her eyes. "I told you! Nothing happened. I was looking out the window and I thought I saw a bunch of Flyboys with Jeb. I must have overreacted and fainted, that's all."

She stood up and strode away into the direction of the room she was sharing with Angel and Nudge.

…

This was really serious. Because I knew that Max was lying, I could see the fear in her eyes. Because, out of all of us, Max would never faint. Because something had happened last night that had really scared her.

I could feel the Flock's eyes on me, scared at Max's outburst. Looking up, I nodded to them.

Don't worry, the nod said, I'll fix this.

I hope I wasn't lying.

I got up from the couch, surprised at how reluctant my body seemed with this.

Actually, my whole being was reluctant. Life was so perfect at Dr. M's, and then this comes along. Couldn't the Flock have a solid month of stress-free time?

Apparently not.

Life was so perfect before, and now we may or may not have a major emergency on our hands. And I have the responsibility of fixing it. Cue groaning and mental stressing-out.

Okay, so it was a self-imposed responsibility. But still.

I had to take on the responsibility. I was considered second-in-command…I had to make things look as if everything was under control. I had to help Max, somehow.

And I felt guilty. What if I hadn't gone for that drink of water? Then everything would probably have been fine, and we wouldn't have to worry about this.

Grr. Sometimes (okay, a lot of the time), our life seems so frustrating.

Suddenly, I stood up and walked to the kitchen window, looking out of it as Max had claimed to do.

Hmm…I couldn't see anything. I could see a large window with a white wooden edge, window blinds (currently all folded up), and darkness outside—it was still a little before dawn…none of the Flock has managed to sleep much, although Dr. M seemed to have snoozed right through everything.

I leaned a little closer.

Maybe Max had actually seen a reflection, or some other trick of light? We've definitely seen enough nightmares in our life to not have any problems imagining any.

Still nothing.

I frowned, and was about to pull away and ask Angel for help or something, when the window exploded.

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