I opened my eyes and looked around. I felt my heart clench when I realized Angel wasn't in her cage. I sat up and growled. I slammed into my cage bars and let out a strange noise somewhere between a whine, a snarl, and a howl. I did this again and again until I just collapsed and pressed my forehead to the bars. "Angel..." I whispered softly.

A whitecoat to my left snarled "So you're awake? Good we can put you with Experiment 11 now."

I didn't fight the Eraser as he took me to Angel. We walked into a large gym-like room and I saw Angel gasping for air on the ground staring at a large maze. A maze I recognized. My eyes narrowed, but I didn't run to Angel like I wanted to, instead I kept a steady pace. I finally got next to her and she looked up at me, her eyes lightening a little. The whitecoat from earlier went to his friends and pointed out I was here. They pushed me and Angel in and I followed Angel as she had asked me to do. We shot through the maze in record time and I was amazed as she dropped, breathing heavy. "How did you do that?" I asked softly. She tapped her head and I realized she was getting the blueprints from a whitecoat's mind. "Clever." I whispered to her. She smiled. We were forced through the maze many, many times,working together to get out until they decided we had enough. We both leaned on each other, eyes closed, and breathing heavy.

"No, no we can't dissect her brain yet." I recognized the voice of the one whitecoat who confused me. Jeb Batchelder. A man with his own agendas, who wasn't good, but wasn't bad even though he sided with bad people. Angel stirred at my side and stared at Jeb. He held in his hands two plates of food that smelled amazing. I shuddered when I smelled them, and Angel released a strangled whimper. "Hello Aya, Angel I missed you kiddo." He said to us. He mentioned Angel's appetite and offered her the food again. Angel's reply was that she hated him and he answered, looking genuinely sad "That's OK too sweetheart. That's OK too." I was slightly confused at the interaction but I didn't say anything, sensing with my gift of empathy that it was a bad idea, though I didn't need the gift to see that. Jeb walked away and I turned to look at Angel. Not knowing what else to do, I simply pulled her into a hug, humming a happy song and sending the feelings out at her. She smiled weakly at me as the Erasers grabbed us both and began dragging us towards our cages again.

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The next couple of days passed normally for us. Wake up, get fed, be experimented on, drop from exhaustion, be forced up, more experiments, drop again, get fed, experiment until dinner with assorted collapsing between, sleep and repeat. About three days after the encounter with Jeb, something changed. New people were thrown into cages around us. People Angel apparently knew, or I assumed she did when she looked at the blonde girl with brown and white wings and quipped "At least they gave you a big crate, mine's a medium." I felt my lips pull into a smirk for an instant before Angel suddenly said "It's not your fault." I assumed she had read the girls thoughts and turned to look at the other two that had been thrown in crates across from Angel and I. There was a male with long black hair and matching wings sitting with his hands on his knees staring at nothing, and there was a little African-American girl with tawny wings and frizzy brown hair. The three newcomer's emotions were beating at my empathic senses, and messing with my head a little. My eyes snapped back to Angel when she spoke again "I'm sorry Max, this is all my fault."

Max, as she was now identified, spoke quickly, her voice evidence to her broken and clogged nose "Don't be dumb. It could have happened to any of us," she shrugged "besides, it's my fault Fang, Nudge and I got caught."

I quickly assigned names to the other two people in the crates across from us, flinching as Max's pain beat at my mind. I turned quickly to Angel when she began to cry as she spoke "Max, there's something I have to tell you."

Max interrupted quickly "Shh, It can wait. Just rest. Try to feel better."

Angel tried again "No, Max, it's really important-" This time a door opening interrupted her and footsteps sounded on the linoleum floor. I watched Max tense and get ready to spring as the person got closer.

As soon as I spotted him, I growled loudly, and he bent to see Max saying "Maximum Ride, I've missed you so much." I growled louder as Angel cried harder. Jeb continued "I know your surprised, but I need to talk to you." Jeb opened her crate and I flinched as I felt her surprise turn into horrible burning all consuming hatred. Slowly she climbed out and stood. I noticed her hand behind her back, two fingers together, but I didn't understand. From the others reactions they did. There was so many different emotions batting at my head I wanted to scream. Angel was very upset, sad and angry with a hint of hatred, Max was full of hate, the one I assumed was Nudge was surprised and hurt while Fang was very, very angry.

Max walked out of sight, Jeb leading her and I let my growling fade into nothing. Angel suddenly spoke up, choking on sobs "This is Aya. She's my friend. She helped me." My eyes snapped to her, but she was looking at Nudge and Fang.

They were looking at me, so I lifted a hand waved a little and said "Hey."

Fang's eyes drifted to Angel and she hiccuped an answer to a question I didn't hear. "Yes. With my life. She's saved my life a few times." His eyes snapped back to me and I felt his wariness turn to surprise quickly followed by gratitude. He nodded to me, so I nodded back, assuming this was his version of 'thank you.' His eyes snapped to Max as she walked back in and he contented himself with staring. I could feel his curiosity and his trust in her bubble forth and smiled. Angel asked Max in a whisper "Where are Gazzy and Iggy?" I watched her shrug, but stare intently at Angel as her face fell, and then Angel nod the slightest bit before slumping against her crate.

Hours passed and Max continued to glance at each Angel, Fang, and Nudge while glancing curiously at me. A little while after that Ari came inside and I snarled loudly at him, my ears pinned back and my tail fluffed up. He glared at me as after speaking to a whitecoat and rattling Max's cage. A few minutes later, we were all stacked up on a cart roughly and brought outside. I hissed lightly as the murderously bright lights blinded me for a moment. We moved quickly and I was very happy to realize we were going outside, to the yard. The Erasers were laughing at us, but I didn't care as I soaked in the sun rays and breathed as deeply as I could. I only snapped out of it when I heard Ari scream with pain and smiled widely when I noticed Max had chomped onto his fingers. When he finally got loose, she let Angel out of her cage and I found myself very, very smug and happy. My eyes widened comically when I saw the hawks began attacking whitecoats and Erasers. Ari, who had just freed Max, was attacked by a Hawk and she shot to Angel yelling for her to get out of here as two whitecoats tried to catch her. Max was there first and threw Angel into the air. She moved quickly, fighting her way to Fang and she let him out as soon as she could. He flew out, a flurry of black feathers and I noticed, much to my surprise that he was heading for me (after punching a whitecoats face in). My eyes widened as he opened my cage, but I reacted instantly, jumping out of my cage and calling a thank you to Fang as I went. He nodded again and turned his fury to Ari. Max was letting Nudge out of her cage, and I was kicking major whitecoat and Eraser butt. On an unspoken signal we all jumped into the sky and I laughed when I realized I was really, finally free. I watched as the hawks all rose up and left the whitecoats and erasers on the ground. I grabbed Angel out of the air, holding her close to my chest as I spread my 14ft white black speckled wings wide. I flew up, next to Max. Her eyes narrowed at me and I felt the suspicion pool out of her. She opened her mouth to speak but Jeb interrupted by Jeb yelling about tests, safety, trust and coming back. Max however responded with a tired "I don't think so."

For two hours I endured questioning from all around, Angel speaking up from my arms and vouching for me throughout the discussion, even explaining that I had saved her life. What had happened was I had finished my turn swimming in the pool with concrete blocks attached to us and Angel switched with me. She was doing fine for a bit, but was tired and ended up not being able to stay above the water. The instant she was under, I jumped up, ripping away from the Eraser holding my shoulder and ignoring my tired burning muscles I had jumped in after her, dragging her back to the surface and out of the water. Anyway, two hours later we all landed on an almost invisible cliff ledge and everyone basically collapsed on the floor. I crawled towards the ledge, and leaned against a wall, and closing my eyes.