Chapter sixteen:

Max's POV:

I was sitting in the back of a van, tied up, somewhere in Mexico City. I couldn't even fight back; for fear that my flock would be terminated because of it. I was now a bunch of M-geek's personal punching bag. So far I had a black eye, a couple of broken ribs, and I just woke up from being hit in the head. But this was my decision, I had to deal.

Now what's happened to the Maximum Ride I know? She wouldn't be moping right now, she would be making up a plan to get out.

That Max left on that last concussion. I thought dejectedly. I wanted death so much right now.

Remember those force fields that surrounded you before? How they came out of nowhere and helped? What were you thinking then?

I was so startled by the voice bringing that up I couldn't think for a minute. I hadn't thought about those things in- days. Was it only a couple days ago that I was sitting in a tree with Fang, worrying about those things?

What were you thinking when the force fields first showed up, Max? Before the first one that surrounded Fang?

I thought about it. I was thinking about how Fang was going to die and somehow I needed to stop it?

Exactly.

Well so what? Of course it didn't answer, that would be too easy.

I was all alone, except with a bunch of robots beating me up, and with an annoying voice in my head rambling on about pointless things. I needed to break these ropes, now. And that's when it happened.

Chapter seventeen:

Fang's POV:

We're in the sky, just outside of Ohio.

"Where are we going, Fang?" Nudge asked. She was still pretty upset about her leaving. We all were.

"Arizona." I answered. They all immediately knew why we were going there.

"She's probably not there, Fang." Iggy said quietly zooming up closer to me.

I looked over at him. "It's all I have to go on." I didn't even know why she would leave. She couldn't have been taken, she left us all notes, we know it was her because Iggy has a voice recording, and Nudge can feel her vibe in the papers. Then I remembered something. "In my letter she said that leaving was the only way to keep us safe, maybe she was becoming dangerous somehow?"

"Fang?" said Angel.

"Yeah?"

"Max was really scared the day before she left. I couldn't tell what it was except that I knew it was someone, some guy."

My jaw almost dropped. "Why didn't you tell me?" I asked frustrated.

"I tried but Max cut me off, she spoke to me and I have to focus to send thoughts to someone."

I vaguely remembered Angel sending thoughts to me and it being cut off, but why couldn't she have told me after?!

"I'm sorry! I wasn't thinking about it." Said Angel, reading my thoughts.

"It's not your fault Angel, I'm just frustrated." That was the most I had ever admitted to anyone but her.

"Fang, can we find someplace to land?" Gazzy said. He had not spoken a word since we found the notes and I could tell he was almost at his breaking point. I nodded and adjusted my wings towards the mountains. I'm not great at this whole parenting thing with the younger kids, but she was amazing at it. She was like their mom. In a sense she was their mom, not biologically, but she looked after them, she held them when they cried, she made sure they were relatively healthy, and she well... mothered them.

I sighed when we landed in the cave, nothing would be the same without her. Life would be a lot harder and a lot less happy.

After we ate and the kids were asleep, I was taking watch. There was nothing to think about except her. I was going to pay for it later with depression, but it was worth it. I sighed and re-played all my best memories of her.

Chapter eighteen:

Max's POV:

The force fields came from me. I knew because one just came around me and broke my ropes. I stayed put. I was going to wait twenty-four hours so I knew for sure that the flock had left the safe house and then I could break out and see them again. I could see Fang. My heart swelled with hope. I squashed it. Optimism is over-rated. The voice had told me that.

I thought I heard it chuckle.

I wanted to know what I could do with this power. I tried again. It didn't work. I realized I had only some of the big picture of this power, I knew it came from me, but I didn't know how to use it.

I was depressed. I missed the flock, I missed my mom, and I missed Fang. Tears welled up in my eyes. I sat there brokenly for a long time.

Eventually the door of the van opened and one of the M-geeks pushed me out. I didn't care. I was already hurt beyond imagining. Nothing could be worse than how I was feeling now.

Fang's POV:

I was depressed. I was tired and frustrated. I could see Dr. Martinez and Ella sobbing over a note. She had been here. If I had been a little faster I could have got her. At least I was on the right track, but I didn't know what to do next. What would she do?

I sighed. "Come on guys there's nothing to see here."

"What are we gonna do next Fang?" asked Nudge.

Then it hit me, she already gave me a plan. "We're going to Colorado." I said and launched myself into the sky, seeing them come up one by one.

Chapter nineteen:

Max's POV:

"So Maximum I hope your journey was pleasant." Mr. Chu said coming in the room looking smugly at my injuries.

"It was probably better than what my stay will be like here." I said but my heart wasn't really in it anymore.

"Hm. You're probably right." He said and he waved me away.

The two M-geeks next to me put me in a cell that had a sort of shelf for a bed. I've had worse. I wrapped myself in my wings and cried myself to sleep.

Fang's POV:

We were in a cave near Colorado, because the kids couldn't fly any more. We would get there tomorrow. I figured I'd get some shut eye.

I dreamed. I dreamt that Max was in a jail cell crying I was in this cave but I could see her. I kept trying to go to her but I couldn't move. Finally I called out to her and she noticed me. She smiled a somewhat broken smile and said "Take care of them, Fang; it's not as hard as it seems. Go with the flow. I miss you. I love you."

And then I woke up.

Max's POV:

I dreamed. I dreamt I was in the jail cell crying. I heard footsteps but they never got any closer and then I heard "Max!" It was Fang, and that was when I knew it was a dream. He was standing in what looked like a cave near Colorado. I decided to give dream Fang some advice.

"Take care of them, Fang; it's not as hard as it seems. Go with the flow. I miss you. I love you."

He reached out to me and then he faded away. And I woke up.

Chapter twenty:

Fang's POV:

I didn't get it, the dream I had last night seemed so real, it was like something she would say. She was in a jail cell. Why the heck would I dream that?! Unless, it was a new power that we could communicate through our dreams... UGH! I sounded so desperate!

I can't talk to her until she comes back, which she will. I thought. Get that through you're thick skull!

"Fang?"

"What?!" I all but snarled at the Gasman.

He looked taken aback "Oh um, never mind its okay." He said and went to sit on the cave floor.

I took a deep breath, I wasn't good at stuff like this. I sat down next to the Gasman.

"Sorry, Gaz, you just caught me at a bad time. Now what did you want?" I asked quietly.

"Max is gonna come back, right? She wouldn't just desert us, right?" He asked sounding very-much like an eight-year-old, which I sometimes forgot he was.

How to answer this? "I'm sure she'll do the best she can. There's a reason she left, she would never desert us." That much I knew. "Why?" I was curious as to why the Gasman would ever think that she wouldn't come back, to them she was invincible. I was the only one who had seen the other side.

"Cause in the letter that she gave me it said how she knew that I would I would grow up to be smart and strong, but it was almost if she thought that she wouldn't be there to see me do it." A single tear dropped out of Gazzy's eye and he wiped it away quickly.

"It's ok Gaz, she'll be back." I said, and not knowing what else to do I went to look out the front of the cave. God, I wished she was there.

Max's POV:

Mr. Chu walked in my cell. "Your punishment is about to begin." He said, he looked like a little kid on Christmas morning.

After my emo weep fest on how there's no hope for me yada yada, I came back to my senses. I was Maximum Ride. No one had ever beaten me. Some may have won the odd battle, but I always won the war.

"Punishment for what?!" I snarled. "Punishment for saving my innocent mother? Punishment for destroying some M-geeks who were going to kill me?" Now he was mad. "Punishment for-"

"Punishment for ruining my life!" He shouted at me. He held up a newspaper with the headline:

Billionaire Pollutes Ocean with Toxic Chemicals!

"Punishment for exposing a madman who was going to destroy the world?" I said in a quiet deadly tone.

He tried to slap me across the face but missed because I turned my head, and he stumbled forward. I almost cracked up. He looked meaningfully at one of the M-geeks and it punched me in the stomach, hard. I ignored the pain.

"What's the matter Chuey? Have to get your cronies to do your dirty work for you?" I gazed at him sardonically.

"Take her away." He said sneeringly. Let the torture begin.