A/N: After seventeen votes in the poll, Angel won by a landslide. Thanks so much, guys!
Also, thanks to melissaeverlasting for inspiration for this chapter – even if you don't think you did anything!
One: Angel was afraid. She didn't want that man to touch her.
"Come here, Specimen 11," he coaxed. He smelled like sweat and bad breath. It hurt Angel's nose. Just one more test, she could hear a voice say in her head. Actually, two tests if the first one goes well. It better hope that it goes well, or else this experiment is over.
Angel was only one, and she couldn't understand all of the voices she heard in her head. It only happened when she was around other people. She could pick up on one word most of the time – test.
She didn't like that word. It scared her. Whenever she heard it something bad happened to her, and it didn't matter what the big men said – the tests were always bad. She shrank back against the wall of her cage and peered out at the man with large, frightened eyes.
Oh, for the love of God, why does she always do this? It takes ten minutes just to get her out of the freaking cage. It's almost like she knows that her brain has to be tested today….
There it was again. That word. Test.
Angel whimpered as she was pulled out of the cage.
Two: Angel was never much of a crier as a baby or a toddler. One year in the School had stopped that pretty well. The only time that she had really cried – flat out bawled – was when Jeb was out of her sight for too long. She was around three, and the rest of the flock was out flying. Jeb said she wasn't strong enough to fly that far away from home yet, so she stayed back at the house.
She didn't know where Jeb was. One second, he was there, watching with a smile as she played with her dolls. The next, she turned, about to ask him where her brush was, and he was gone, like he had just disappeared. She couldn't hear his thoughts, either – by now she had figured out what the voices in her head were.
It scared her to death. She was closer to Jeb then everybody else knew. Where did he go?
She dropped the doll and ran on pudgy feet through the E-shaped house. "Jeb!" she shouted. "Jeb! Jeb!"
She ran through the house for ten minutes, yelling his name until her voice was scratchy and yucky. Then she sat on the floor and cried and cried. Jeb had gone. He'd left her. Where did he go?
It was only a little bit before she felt a big, warm hand on her shoulder. She jumped, but she could hear Jeb's voice in her ear saying, "Angel, it's okay. I'm here, Ange. Don't worry." She turned and buried her face in his chest and kept crying until she felt better. She pulled back some and looked at his face.
He could see that she was mad at him for leaving her alone. "I'm sorry, Angel," he said, and he really sounded sorry, so Angel forgave him. "I won't leave you again. I promise."
It was only a year later that he broke that promise, and with it, Angel's heart.
Three: She's never really thought of Max and Fang as her brother and sister. They're more like a mom and dad to her. Well, because first, they're eight years older than her, and that's a lot! It's more than double her age. Plus, they're always together. Like a team. Aren't moms and dads like that – a team?
Then there's Iggy. He's more of a brother to her than Max and Fang, but more like a cousin than a brother. It's that same age difference thing again. Max told her one time that there are brothers and sisters that are ten years apart or more. She can't imagine that. People even older than Max, Fang, and Iggy as her brother or sister? It's just…different. But she can't talk about different, can she?
Anyway, she was talking about the older three. It doesn't change that she loves them a lot – because she still does, and probably always will. She just doesn't love them the same way that she loves Nudge and the Gasman. You know?
Four: The most scared that she has ever been was when she had to pretend to be a traitor, back before the flock split up. It was so freaky to have to walk around the School – the School – and act like nothing was wrong, like she wasn't scared stiff. Jeb had scared her too. Ever since that first day when she couldn't hear his thoughts, she's been pretty nervous around him. She doesn't know what to think of him anymore. She always knows whether she can trust someone – and with him, she can't. It scares her, more than she lets on.
Plus, she heard stuff, while she was pretending to be bad. Horrible stuff. The old lady that wanted to give the rest of the flock cookies passed her in the hallway. Her head was filled with pictures of the flock dead with green tinted skin, poisoned from the cookies. It made Angel want to throw up. She knew that Max would be smart enough not to eat them, but she also knew that Max loved chocolate chip cookies. She almost couldn't function until the lady came back fuming, angry that they hadn't even wanted to eat the cookies. Except for Total. It was only then that she could move, and breathe a silent sigh of relief.
The worst part, though, was everyone but Max thinking that she really was evil. She couldn't stand the looks on their faces. Every one of them was filled with disbelief and shock that first day. The next time when she came in, she could tell that they hated her. Gazzy didn't, though. Thank God for Gazzy. He didn't hate her.
But she'll always remember that hurt look on his face. It killed her to have to act like she wanted to kill him. She could never do that.
At least, that's what she tells herself.
Five: She was only halfway joking when she told Max that maybe she should be the leader. She really meant it.
Angel had been feeling a little off that day, anyway. She was a little crabby. Nudge's talking had been annoying her. Iggy and Gazzy had been annoying each other, which was annoying her. Fang was….well, Fang didn't really talk a lot, but his thoughts were all swirling and confusing. It was like he was shouting at her. And then, Max seemed like she couldn't make any decisions without asking Fang first. It bothered her. Max was independent. She didn't need to ask any questions. Angel wouldn't ask questions if she was leader. She would just do what she wanted to, and they would do whatever she said. And if she didn't, she could just make them. No big deal.
So when they were hurtling down the highway in that Echo and got pulled over, that was the last straw in Angel's day. She could tell that they were going to get in trouble. What was Max going to do now? So she had to step in. She convinced the police woman to just leave and forget all about them. Max couldn't do that. But she could.
She loved Max, she really did. Max was her mom. She didn't need her real mom. But still. There were some times when she just wasn't sure about the whole leader thing. Like, whenever she was having a bad day. Angel just felt mean. She didn't like it then, and she doesn't now.
Six: The sewer fight was one of the scariest things of her life. Watching Max kill Ari changed the way that she felt about Max forever. She'd never seen anyone really die before, and the times that she had at the School they had just sort of stopped breathing. It was never as violent as a broken neck. She'll dream about it forever – the shocked look on Max's face as she realized what had happened, the frozen expression of pain and hurt on Ari's.
She could hear Max's thoughts, coming at her fast. She knew that Max hadn't meant to hurt Ari that badly. She knew that – but she was still a little scared of her in that moment. It made her feel safe that she could take care of anyone – anyone – who wanted to hurt her, but at the same time, watching someone from your family kill someone would scar anyone for life.
Max's thoughts were coming too fast. It was like she was screaming at her mentally. Max's thoughts were her thoughts, she saw what Max saw.
Too fast, too fast, too fast!
She had to get away from there. She just had to.
She ran back along the corridor, almost slipping a couple times on the wet floor. She thought that she was just going to run away for a little bit and then go back. Just to make her head hers again. But then, just as she was back in the room where all of the experiments had been, she stopped. Someone was in here, someone she couldn't see. She could hear their thoughts.
Where is everyone? I can't believe everyone else got out of here and I got left behind AGAIN. It's not right. I want to get out of here….
Angel whirled around in a circle, trying to find the source of the thoughts. Then she saw it – the black dog that reminded her of Toto from The Wizard of Oz. He was sniffing along the floor, probably trying to find the trail of the other experiments.
"Toto?" she said quietly, just to see if he would respond.
The dog looked up. "No, it's Total. Everyone calls me that who comes in here, every human, but that is not my name!"
Angel froze and her mouth fell open. That dog had just talked. The dog stared back at her. "What?"
"You talk," she realized.
Total rolled his eyes. "Yes, I talk. Okay?"
Angel started to smile. This could be fun. All she had to do was convince Max. "You want to get out of here?"
Total nodded.
"Come with me."
Angel had always wanted a dog.
Seven: She had to warn Total to keep quiet until she told him it was okay to talk. She wanted it to be her secret, for now. She didn't have any secrets from the flock. Not anything that she considered secrets, anyway. And all the girls at her school told secrets. It was like, the more friends you had, the more secrets you had. Angel had a lot of friends. She had no secrets. Except for the wings and everything about her family. Those were big ones.
Secrets seemed like fun. So she decided to keep that one. She was a little disappointed when Max figured it out, but oh well. Total was getting antsy anyway. He hated not talking. Besides, it wasn't like the flock was missing anything when he didn't talk. He didn't have much to say that was interesting.
Eight: Only Angel knew how Max and Fang really felt. They didn't even know. It took Fang ages to figure it out, and then when he did, Max was still all confused. It frustrated Angel. Why couldn't they both just figure it out at the same time?
Still, it was kind of funny to have a sort of behind the scenes pass to everything that was going on. Fang only kind of liked Lissa, but Max got really mad and hated Lissa with all she had. She was supposed to be asleep when Max came home from her date, but she could feel all the anger and jealousy radiating from Fang's room when Sam kissed her. After school, she thought for sure that they would finally figure it out. Fang did, at least. But no. Max couldn't. Grr.
She wants so badly to just use her powers to make Max see – but she would be in so much trouble if Max ever found out, and then Max probably wouldn't realize that she actually did like Fang.
Sometimes being a mind reader is so frustrating!
Nine: She can't stand being on the run all the time. Most people don't really get how hard that is. All she wants to do is just go home, where she has a bed and stuffed animals and a view of the mountains. Somewhere that she can stay, where she's safe. She can never have that again any more. She always has to keep moving, keep flying. They always have to fight to stay alive. It's hard.
It makes it worse that she knows what she's missing. Every time she goes to sleep on the ground, she can't help but think about her bed at home with all her animals, the bed that's probably blown up by now. But Angel doesn't complain. She knows Max has a ton on her mind – she probably knows better than even Fang. She doesn't want to add to it.
And if everyone else can take it, she can, too.
Ten: She feels lucky that she has Gazzy as a brother. She'd never say this to the rest of the flock, because she doesn't want to make them feel bad, but having someone who you know you share something with is special. Max understood, after she found out Ella was related to her. It's like that with Gazzy. She loves the rest of the flock, she really does, but Gazzy is actually her brother. She shares blood with him and family. When she looks at him, she can see her eyes and her hair. There's nothing that's really like that, not anything in the whole wide world.
If she had to choose between Gazzy and the rest of the flock – not like choosing halves, but the whole flock – she would have to choose Gazzy.
Even if Nudge is her best friend.
A/N: Done. Finally! I hope you all enjoyed it. And don't forget to REVIEW!