Lie Tonight – Chapter 12

By MyNameIsCAL

"They told me I was crazy," Jeb said, taking hold of Nudge before she could hit him again. "But I told them that I could do it, that I could make a serum that would make people almost invincible!"

"What does this have to do with us?" Nudge asked, trying to fight him off. "Why did you have to make us suffer, why did you have to hurt Angel?"

Jeb laughed. "You think I'm stupid? Angel, she proved to be the strongest out of all of you. We had a plan, a plan that would make her better than all of you ever will be. I perfected the serum for humans, but for your genetic makeup, I had to find a way to tweak it. Angel agreed to become my test subject in exchange for power over you all."

Nudge lashed out and Jeb put her into a headlock. "She told you the truth that I told her she could have power over you. But everything else, it was a story made up to make you mad at her, to give her reason to leave and hide away and help me. It seems that I've lost her trust now."

"You are crazy," I snarled, trying to get up.

"No, I'm not." With a swift movement, he pushed Nudge to the ground and charged towards me. He pulled out a syringe, walking towards me slowly. "And this will either kill you or turn you into something better than before, Fang. You can forget everything you were before."

"You betrayed us!" I spat, my legs failing to push me backwards. "We trusted you! We treated you like a father! And then you left us for dead!"

"You never understood why I did those things!" He bent down in front of me. "But now you will after this."

"NO!"

Angel came flying out of nowhere, putting herself between Jeb and me just as he stabbed forward with the syringe. I couldn't tell if he dropped it or injected Angel instead, but Jeb fell backwards, another syringe in his chest.

"I gave you everything!" Jeb shouted at Angel. "I thought you understood me!"

"No, I was stupid to think I could be better than what I was," Angel hissed.

I stared at Jeb. The color seemed to be draining from his face. It was like he was aging within seconds, shriveling up.

"I never should have kept the antiserum here," he coughed. "I was a fool to trust you, to even tell you that I was trying to make one that would reverse the affects."

Angel kicked him across the face and his neck crack. He fell sideways, blood pooling around him.

"Are you okay, Fang?" Angel turned around, the syringe Jeb had been holding was now stuck into her arm.

I raised a finger, too weak to speak an answer.

She pulled it out, dropping it to the floor. "He never injected it. I'll be fine."

I closed my eyes. "Iggy…where's Iggy…"

She took off and I closed my eyes, letting unconsciousness take me.

I came to in a hospital room. Iggy sat on the couch, an icepack pressed to his forehead by Nudge. He held her hand, insisting he was fine. Jeb had thrown him through the window pretty hard. I was surprised that he wasn't in a hospital bed like me. At least Nudge looked alright, cuts and bruises.

"How're you feeling?" Iggy was the one to ask, not Nudge.

Looking down at my arm, it was all bandaged and in a sling. My shoulder felt numb. They must have had me on painkillers or something. "Like crap."

Nudge frowned. "Iggy, stop moving or you'll make yourself dizzy."

"Dizzy?" Iggy gave her a toothy grin. "Well I can't see anything so what's to make me feel disoriented?"

She rolled her eyes and pressed the ice to his head again. "He has a concussion. I think whatever medicine they gave him is making him more hyper than calm."

The door opened and Max rushed in, Gazzy behind, his nose taped up and a very prominent and swollen black eye.

"Fang!"

I took Max's hand as she rushed towards me.

"I'll be okay," I told her. "Don't you worry about me."

The door opened again and Angel came in. She looked tired now.

"I owe you all an explanation," she began. "And an apology."

Gazzy took a seat next to Iggy after pulling a chair over to the side of the bed for Max. No one said anything, so I spoke. "Angel, why didn't you say anything to any of us?"

She leaned against the wall. "Because you already all hated me by the time I realized what I had done was a mistake. How was I supposed to convince you that Jeb was still controlling me?"

None of us would admit it, but Angel was probably right. We would have laughed in her face and told her to go away, that she had caused enough trouble already.

"Besides," she breathed out. "Jeb would have killed me. I purposely made sure Gazzy could find me. I knew he'd go to you all for help."

There was more silence. We were speechless, I guess. What do you say to a person who's been lying to you about everything for the past three years? Only to find out that they really needed your help all along.

"I'm sorry, I really am," Angel uttered. "But…I don't think I could ever forgive myself either. And Fang and Max, I wish I hadn't done that to you. I'm glad things worked out anyway, I mean, that must say something, oh, I don't know anymore."

She turned to the door, pulling it open.

"Angel, wait," I said.

Slowly, she faced me.

"Where are you going to run to now?" I questioned her.

"I…I don't know."

Everyone was staring at me now, still, I pushed on. "Stop running from us. Come back and be part of the flock again, so we can make up for all those years we spent being so angry at you."

"You're…you're not mad at me?" She sounded like a little kid again. I should have been mad at her, but what was said had been said and what was done was the past.

"No, I'm not."

Max stood, moving towards Angel. "Please, Angel. We miss you, we really do."

Angel moved towards Max, and like what seemed like years ago, she hugged Max and started to cry.

I'd like to thank TaylorSwiftTwlightFan75 for helping me with the ideas for the past couple of chapters.

There needed to be an explanation for why Angel acted the way she did, but I wasn't going to write up some personal grudge or make her crazy. I mean, right now, or maybe it's just me, but in the books, it's gotten to the point where I'm starting to dislike Angel. And as much as I could go and write her out as the evil character, I thought she deserved some light and I wanted to show that she's not as evil or bad as we think she is. Originally, I wanted to write her off as being evil, but when I started to think about the end, I felt it wasn't right.

Thanks for reading. The next chapter will be up soon.