Sorry its been so long guys, been real busy with uni stuff, but have managed a couple of chapters, so hope you like them :) Also a massive thank you to all my reviewers :) x

Disclaimer : I do not own Maximum Ride

CHAPTER 7

The sun was setting below the horizon in a blaze of deep orange and red. For miles and miles the sky was a dazzling shade of deep burnt auburn as the last remaining sunbeams shot through the low lying clouds before finally disappearing. I sat there, hugging my knees to my chest as I watched that giant fireball that gives life to our planet slowly disappear from view, replaced by the shadows that heralded the night.

It was odd, but I had never really thought about the sun before. I mean, I knew it was there, who didn't? It would be kind of hard not to notice it, unless you were blind of course. My thoughts immediately turned Iggy, but I shoved them aside. I didn't want to think of the others right now.

I thought it was kind of strange how all life on earth, every single blade of grass, was dependant on the sun rising and falling each day. How nearly everything that happened rotated around a giant ball of gas millions of miles away, but if that thing in the sky, which kept life so carefully in balance should come any closer, we'd all be burnt to a crisp. The whole place would just go up in flames and that would be the end of us. It was such power for such an insubstantial object (could you even call the sun an object?) to have.

I was in a strange mood, and inclined to indulge my morbid thoughts a while longer, but Fang gently touched my shoulder and handed me a sandwich. I didn't know where he'd got it. I didn't really care.

We never found their bodies. We'd looked all day but all we found were plenty of white coats and a few more mutant children. And I'd killed them all. I returned to staring at the last remaining dregs of the sunshine, and absent mindedly chewed my sandwich. Maybe it would have been better if the sun had crashed into the earth.

For the past three years I had been so focused on destroying Itex, it had been who I was, it had defined me. But kneeling there in the midst of the destruction and death I had caused earlier, I had lost my conviction that what I was doing was right. I still had no doubt Itex were evil and had to be stopped, I was still Max Ride after all, but I wasn't no longer sure that I was going about it the right way. Maybe I had become just as bad as they were. With every lab I had destroyed, I had given no thought to the people I had killed, to the families I had broken. And now I had, I felt like a monster.

The sun had set by now, and the darkness was descending on us. I heard the scraping of sticks against each other behind me and turned around to find Fang starting a small fire with a pile of sticks he'd found from the woods. Guess we were camping here tonight then.

I watched Fang for a few minutes, something I hadn't done in a while. A long while. He hadn't changed much; his dark hair was still too long and fell in front of his eyes when he looked down, he still looked up at every crack of a twig, his eyes were still deep dark pools that I could easily get lost in.

But he'd changed as well, maybe not as much as me, but his jaw was set harder than I'd ever seen it. There were new scars along his arms and one running down the back of his neck, disappearing under his shirt.

For the first time I wondered what had actually happened to the Flock while Itex had them. Had they been brainwashed straight away or had they been experimented on and tortured again first? As I watched Fang staring intently at the flames dancing before him I realized that I had been completely and utterly selfish. Not once in those three years did I spare a thought for what the others were going through, (alright so I didn't actually know they were alive, but all this time I've been sitting here counts) I was so focused on revenge I didn't actually think of them.

And how had Fang escaped being brainwashed?

As if sensing my thoughts were on him, Fang looked up and met my eyes across the fire. He'd given me my space since my breakdown earlier, leaving me alone with my thoughts to deal with everything. But I knew he was always there should I need him. No one knew me better than him. I held his gaze across the flames, the shadows dancing in his eyes. He was all I had. But he was what I needed. He was the one that pulled me back down to the ground when I flew too close to the sun. He was the one who held me when I, the fearless leader, got scared. He was the only person in the world I completely trusted. I didn't know how I'd lived the last three years without him by my side.

Slowly I unfolded my crossed legs and stood up. I made my way towards the fire and sat down next to him. His eyes followed me the whole way. I leant my head against his shoulder, drawing comfort from his warmth. I slipped my hand into his. For a second he didn't move. Then he entwined his fingers with my own and squeezed my hand gently. With his other hand he brushed the hair from my face and stroked my hair gently.

"Fang?" I asked softly

"Hmm?"

"Why weren't you brainwashed like the others?"