Chapter twenty-one:

Fang's POV:

We were almost there. I could see it now, I wondered if it was the same as we left it months ago. The white E on its side looking over the mountains.

All the kids smiled their first smile in days. The only thing that could make me happy right now was if she was waiting for us in there. I missed her so much. We landed right in front of it. I opened the front door. It was just like we left it all those months ago.

I wasn't smiling. Neither were the kids. She was in this house. Not right now but all our memories of her were.

I walked down the hallway into the room the Gasman, Iggy and I shared. Jeb's old office. The kitchen. The living room with the ancient TV. The girl's room. I don't know why but something made me go into her old room. It didn't hurt that bad.

What was left in this room was from a recently turned fourteen-year-old tomboy who wore combat boots, had a strange interest in Mickey Mouse, and had a six-lock closet that a blind guy could break into. This room belonged to someone who had been closed off to most of the world and sometimes even her family. This room represented to the girl I used to know who used to be jus my friend and sister. That's when it started to hurt.

I thought about how this girl changed in to the girl I now know, the girl I now love. This girl was faced with things that changed her. She would have her little girl be taken away, learn what it would be like to live a normal life and have it be taken away. She would be in fights to the death, locked in dungeons, tortured. She would be put up against odds stacked against her and always prevail, she would do all this and have to look after five other people and a dog. That changes a person.

Now she was a little less closed, a little more mature, a little bit tougher, and a little stronger. She was by no means girly but less of a tomboy. She was smarter, too. She cared about things more, she cared about me more, and she loved me. Or I thought she did. That was when the pain really got bad and I left the room of a girl that I would one day love.

Max's POV:

Another kick, another punch, another hit, another slap. The rhythm was consistent and painful. I had been knocked out several times only to wake up in my cell and have half an hour to recuperate. Then it's back to the same painful rhythm.

My wrists were chained together and I was hanging from the ceiling. My ankles were shackled together and chained to the floor. I didn't regret choosing the flocks lives over all this pain.

I was getting used to the rhythm now I could almost ignore the pain. Another kick, another punch, another hit, another slap. And then everything went black.

Chapter twenty-two:

Max's POV:

My first day of "punishment" as Mr. Chu called it was over.

It had been more than twenty-four hours, I knew the flock had gotten out by now.

I had two swollen eyes, a black and blue face, several broken ribs that I had just had to set, and a broken arm. My face would be better tomorrow and my bones better in a day or two. Now that I was completely conscious and not delirious from pain I was so, so mad. My good hand was clenching and un-clenching and my blood was boiling. Let's just say that if it was a rabid tiger versus me right now, I would win, no weapons needed.

You need to focus on getting out before anything, Max.

Voice? The flock got out of the safe house right?

Of course it didn't answer.

I already knew how I was going to get out. I would take down anyone who tried to stop me.

It's not that easy, Max. It's never that easy.

I knew that already. I would get out. Hopefully.

I sighed and went to sleep.

Fang's POV:

I was sitting on the roof of our house in Colorado, looking up at the stars. I remember how me and her would do this all the time when we used to live here. We would laugh, and joke, and make fun of each other; we were best friends.

I heard someone walk up. "You okay, Man?" said Iggy, sitting next to me.

"Yeah." I said. It was a lie.

"We all miss her."

"I know."

"You want to talk about it?"

I decided to talk about some of it "I just don't understand what could possibly make her leave without her being kidnapped; she obviously left on her own."

"You've got to stop dwelling on her. Wait until she comes back."

I stayed silent.

"She's not coming back is she? She would tell you out of all of us."

"She said she would try her best, that she'd be fighting to come back but it wasn't likely. But fighting what is what I don't get."

"But then what do we do if she doesn't come back? Just live without her? No offense Fang but she's the leader, not you, although it was a good idea to come back here."

"She told me to come back here; in her note."

Iggy gulped. "Did she say why she may not come back?"

I didn't say anything.

I could tell Iggy knew. "If the- unthinkable happens- what do we tell the kids?"

"Ig, I kind of need to be alone, if you don't mind."

"Yeah, sure." And he left.

The unthinkable would not happen I would make sure of it. I sighed and fell asleep on the roof, like I had so many times before.

Chapter twenty-three:

Fang's POV:

I dreamed. I dreamt that I was standing on the roof of the house looking out but instead of the view of the mountains there was the same jail cell with her in it as last night.

But she looked different. The girl I saw last night was a bit scratched and bruised, but this one was- well she was in bad shape. Almost her whole face was purple and bloody. Her arms and legs were bruised and her left arm appeared broken. Her ribs were jutting out awkwardly- swollen- they must have been broken. Her wrists and ankles had metal burns; they must have been in shackles. I had no idea why I would dream this unless it really was her. I didn't even get to try to talk to her because I woke up.

Max's POV:

I dreamed. I dreamt that I was in the cell in a crumpled heap, trying to gain my strength. The pain was worse in the dream; I couldn't ignore it. My breath came in sharp hisses. My arm hurt and my wrists and ankles hurt from the shackles. My ribs hurt. My face hurt. UGH nothing had ever hurt as bad as this; no one had ever gotten lucky enough fighting me to get all these injuries in.

I opened my eyes in slits. In the spot where my usual lovely view from my cell was gone and in its place was the roof of the old house in Colorado. Standing there, looking worried was Fang. I wanted to say something to him but I was in too much pain. He disappeared. I woke up.

Mr. Chu would pay.

Chapter twenty-four:

Fang's POV:

These dreams were seriously starting to freak me out. What if that really was her? What if she really was in trouble? I couldn't even imagine her that bad before; no one was ever fast enough in fights to hurt her that bad. I remembered how she looked; crumpled up on the floor, purple faced, ribs jutting out, in so much pain. What if that really was her now?

"Fang?" It was Nudge.

I glanced at her.

"Are you gonna come in?" I was still on the roof. "Iggy made breakfast; we set the table and everything. Are you too sad about Max? I miss her too. I miss how she used to comfort me when I was sad. Now that she's gone which makes me sad, so she can't comfort me but if she was here to comfort me I wouldn't be sad in the first place. Is there a name for that? Redundant, right? That's a weird word-"

"Nudge!" I had had just about enough of the Nudge channel. "I'll be inside in a minute."

She nodded and left.

One more night, I would see if it really was a dream.

Max's POV:

"Well Maximum, it is day two of your punishment. How do you feel?"

"Oh I feel fine. I don't mind being beat up at all. The broken bones don't even hurt a bit. Oh and my face? It looks worse than it actually is." I said sarcastically. "They are probably nothing compared to how you're gonna kill me!"

"I won't kill you. I need you to be alive so you can be punished. What good is it to punish a dead person? Your mother knew this." He smiled.

I lunged for him, but the M-geeks held strong. "Take her to her next punishment." Mr. Chu said.

It turned out my next punishment was being strapped to a lead chair. I almost laughed when they brought the TV out.

"Oooh are you gonna make me watch cheesy sitcoms till I die of the main character's over-acting?" The problem with M-geeks is that they don't get sarcasm. One of them turned the TV on. Mr. Chu appeared on the screen.

"Maximum I hope you enjoy this little home video I created."

I showed the safe house in Ohio. I watched while Fang walked upstairs into my room.

"Max? You do realize that even Nudge got up before you right?" He said, joking.

Tears sprang to my eyes as I watched him walk up to the bed and pick up my first note addressed to the flock.

He opened the letter and a vision of pain and outrage on his face.

"GUYS GET UP HERE!" He shouted, the way he only does when something is really wrong. I guess me leaving counted.

The video cut to the flock sitting casually, Gazzy and Angel in front of the TV, Iggy in the kitchen, and Nudge on the couch rubbing sleep out of her eyes. Their eyes looked alarmed when they heard Fang. They ran upstairs. It cut to Fang.

He watched with a very un-Fang-like broken expression as the flock came in. He wordlessly handed Nudge the note.

I watched horror-struck as Nudge read "Guys, I had to leave, I can't tell you why, I can't tell you where, just know that I love you all and look under your pillows. Love Max."

Tears were falling freely now seeing all the pain I had caused them.

First showed Angel. She read it silently and tears dripped on the paper where mine had already stained it. Gazzy was second. He looked like he was going to fall apart but he gathered himself up, put the note on the desk and left the room. My little trooper. Next it was Nudge. She cried silently while reading, and after whispered "I love you too, Max."

I was practically sobbing by now. Iggy. He pulled out the tape recorder I had put under his pillow and listened silently. He put it away and left the room.

Fang's reaction was the worst. He read the note silently, shaking his head ever so slightly. He read it again and again. Finally he dropped the note on the bed. He walked over to the wall, made a frustrated yell and punched the wall, making drywall spew everywhere. He was a mess. This was the first time I was ever scared of Fang. He looked, like a broken version of himself. I wasn't really scared of Fang, I was more scared I made him like that.

I was sobbing, hard. I had made him like that. I had done what all the whitecoats, erasers, M-geeks, and flyboys had failed at. I had broken Fang.

I watched him walk to Iggy's room and tap his hand twice and launch himself out of a window.

It cut to the next day with Angel in Fang's lap sobbing. Nudge was crying silently. Iggy and Gaz were stone-faced. Fang was still broken. For some reason it cut to the exterior of the house. It was far away so I couldn't see them in the windows. That was when the house blew up.

To my horror they played the whole thing again, and again, and again.

Chapter twenty-five:

Fang's POV:

Being a leader isn't easy.

I was probably just thinking that because she wasn't here. Right now it was actually not that hard, I mean it would have been easier not being leader, but here at home, it was pretty easy. The kids did their own thing, Gaz found some old video game thing that he had to leave here, and now he was taking it apart and seeing what kind of explosives he could make with it. Angel was getting re-acquainted with all her stuffed animals, as she put it. Iggy was listening to music. Nudge was watching TV. And me? I was sulking on the roof, and practicing my flying from time to time. It was pretty much like life used to be after Jeb first left. Except now we knew what really happened to Jeb, we had more experience, we destroyed the school, oh, and she was gone, and I was acting emo wishing she were here.

Max's POV:

He had gone too far. Much too far.

Beating me up was bad enough. Making me have so much pain was horrible. Blackmailing me is another thing. Taking me away from my friends? Threatening to kill them? Horrible, horrible. Shall we look back to kidnapping my mother? She was completely innocent!

But this had crossed the line.

He had killed the flock. He had done the unimaginable. He had made me watch it again and again. He would pay.

I was surprised that I wasn't even crying. I was stone-faced. The flock was dead. They barely even had a chance to live. Angel. Gazzy. Nudge. Iggy. Him. I couldn't even think his name. It was now forbidden in my mind.

My anger made anyone or anything that was ever furious seem like they were in the best of moods. I would get revenge. And I would meet the flock where ever they were.