Hey. So… here's the update.

Onwards!

Max's POV.

I hazily swam to consciousness, drowsily opening my eyes, which took a few seconds to focus.

I blearily lifted my head to see Fang sitting next to me, watching.

When he saw I was awake, pure relief showed on his face, and he offered me a bar of chocolate, which I gratefully accepted while dragging myself into s crumpled sitting position.

My head felt hazy and headachy, and I lifted a hand to rub it. "What happened?" I asked Fang, tiredness showing in my voice.

He raised his eyebrows. "You really don't remember?"

I shook my head while biting into the chocolate bar, which was probably the best thing I'd ever tasted. Just FYI.

"What's the last thing you remember?" He asked cautiously, as if dreading the answer.

"Um…" I though back. "I remember…. Flying. Yeah, you were carrying me. And we were talking about Christmas and then….." I broke off, disorientated, trying to remember.

I suddenly gasped as it all came crashing back. My head, the pain, me screaming at Fang to drop me, it all raced back, shattering any peace of mind that I'd had.

I looked up at Fang. "How long have I been out?"

He grimaced. "Two and a half days."

I gasped, my jaw practically hitting the floor. "Two days?" I said in utter disbelief. Fang just nodded.

"Did you think I was dead?" I blurted out suddenly after a bit of silence.

I saw pain in his eyes as he spoke. "I don't know what I thought, Max. I was just so scared." He said, his voice cracking slightly.

Without thinking I pulled him into a hug and we gripped each other tightly, locked in each other's embrace.

After a couple minutes of hugging, the silence was shattered by shouting voices.

"Max! Max, you're awake! You're awake!" I heard little voices shout, and I pulled regretfully away from Fang, half of me wishing I could stay in his arms forever.

I only had a second to prepare myself before Angel came crashing into me, hugging me with a death grip.

"Hey, Ange." I had to choke out, she was squeezing me so hard. She released me from her death grip and stepped back, smiling.

Both Nudge and Gazzy hugged me at the same time, I was being crushed.

"Guys," I choked out. "Not so hard." They let me go, smiling. I ruffled Gazzy's hair.

"Hey."

I looked up to see Iggy standing behind Gazzy, next to Jason.

We all hugged and had a very happy….I guess you can call it a reunion. Sort of.

Fang said that there was no point setting out today, we'd only have to stop in a couple of hours and that I needed more rest. I protested, but he was right. Just these small movements sapped my energy away. Both of my bullet wounds were throbbing and I couldn't move my foot at all.

I didn't tell Fang any of this though. No need to make him worry.

-Time Skip-

Later that night, the flock was asleep apart from Iggy, Fang and I. I was trying to stay awake, and only half succeeding. I was next to Fang, half- leaning on him. I think he knew I was falling asleep, but didn't make me lie down or anything.

I was looking at the campfire we had blazing when a dark figure appeared in front of it. I sat bolt upright, shocked to the core. It was roughly my height, staring down at me. It was just a mass of black in the shape of a human.

"Max?" Fang said questioningly, and as he spoke, the figure disappeared.

"Max?" He said again, looking at me with concern.

I just shook my head. "I was half asleep and I thought I saw something. Forget it."

I wasn't convincing myself, let alone Fang, but he let it go and I leaned my head on his shoulder. He hesitantly put an arm around my waist.

Fang and Iggy talked softly and I listened, not bothering to say anything.

Jason stood up from where he'd been lying and came up to us.

"Not again." Fang muttered. I shot him a look, and he told me with his eyes that he'd tell me later.

"Uh, Max?" Jason said, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah?" I said, my voice sleepy.

"Emily said-" Oh God. "that you guys have to go to the beach. Now. She says that she was wandering around and spotted some erasers coming this way. She says you have to get to the beach so that she can tell you something super important."

"Leave now?"

He nodded.

I looked over at Fang.

"Uh, Jason, can you give us a minute please." He said, and Jason went back to where he had been lying.

"Do we go?" I said, unsure of what to do

Fang shrugged, and so did Iggy. Real helpful guys, thanks.

I closed my eyes to think for a second and drifted into sleep, thoughts all swirling around in my head for two seconds until my body jerked and I woke up.

I opened my eyes to see Fang looking. "You need rest." He said. "You need a break."

"No." I interrupted. "I'm fine. Just a little tired."

He raised an eyebrow. "Sureeee."

I nodded. "I'm telling the truth." He could tell that I was lying. "But, Max, we don't want to have to wake up the flock, do we?"

"I think they'll be fine. It's not that late." I said, thinking it was about 1 in the morning. Trust me , for me that's not actually that late.

He looked at his watch. "Nine 'O clock. I guess you're right."

Why was I so tired? It was only nine! Something was wrong with me.

-Time Skip-

We lifted off, flying high at cloud level to avoid being spotted.

I was finding it extremely hard to stay awake in Fang's arms, but I managed for a while.

"Fang?" I asked drowsily, half asleep.

He looked down. "Yeah."

"I'm pretty sure I can fly now."

He shook his head. "Max, not for another week and a half, at least."

"But what if we're attacked? You said I can't run either? I'd just be killed." I said, still half asleep.

Fang tensed up. "I'd protect you."

"But what if you couldn't, like, if you couldn't fight your way to me."

"I….. I guess you could try. But only if you really really had to. I'll always protect you, Max. You're safe with me."

"Okay then." I simply said, and drifted away into sleep.

Fang's POV.

I don't know why Max was so tired. She was always more of a night person, like me. I remember when Jeb was still with us, he would send us to bed, and then I would go into Max's room, or she would go into mine, and we would mess around, going on the internet on Max's ipod and just generally having fun and being stupid. I know that on the days when that didn't happen, Max would stay up extremely late on her ipod, and that she was never caught by Jeb because she would always just lock it and shove it under the covers, turning away from Jeb and pulling the duvet over her head so that he couldn't see her headphones when he looked into her room.

I used to do the same, and I wasn't caught either. When Jeb left, we would stay downstairs most nights, watching TV and messing around on the computer way into the night.

So basically this was weird. Something was wrong.

Max's POV.

I woke up to somebody shaking me gently.

"Max." Fang said softly. "We're landing now."

I opened my eyes and rubbed them, feeling just as tired as before, if not more.

We touched down on the beach, and the waves lapped onto the shore by the moonlight. It was beautiful.

When we landed, Jason said that Emily said we all have to stand in a circle. I had to lean pretty heavily on Fang, because let me tell you, trying to stay awake and balance on one foot is not easy.

I was still exhausted. Then all of a sudden, all of my energy was sucked away, literally. I fell to my knees, struggling to hold up my head.

"Max?" Voices floated to me, but I only dimly heard them I was vaguely aware of Fang kneeling in front of me and speaking.

Then a bit of energy came back, and I was able to lift my head from where I was now lying in the sand.

Jason, who was standing in front of me, suddenly went rigid.

"She's coming." Was all he whispered.

I struggled to sit up, accepting Fang's help, and then roughly stood, and then fell. Fang caught me and held me up.

"Thanks." I rasped.

Then in the middle of the circle, a figure slowly started to form, from the feet up, revealing the figure of a young girl, around my age. She had black outstretched wings with odd gold splatters, and then her face showed to reveal…. Me.

I was standing in the middle of the circle.

I was staggered.

The me in the circle grinned maliciously, and laughed.

"E- Emily?" Jason said, looking from… her to me.

She shook her head. "Emily is dead. She died a long time ago. I'm not her, though. I had you all fooled." She laughed.

"What… but…why?" Fang asked, his voice astounded.

"I was created to get you all back in the school. But I'm a nice person, so I won't do that. But I'm replacing Max." She looked at me, pure hatred in her eyes. "You're useless, a failure. I could lead a thousand times better than you."

Rage flowed into me, bringing energy with it.

"Oh yeah?" I snarled. "Wanna prove it?"

"I will, but not just yet. Because I'm such a good person, I'm gonna give your flock and explanation before I kill you. You see, I was created at the school when you were last there. I'm your clone. They killed me, so that I could come to you and lead you here.

I can materialise now, because I'm using you're energy, Max. I can use yours and yours alone. But I can't come back to life, not until I kill you."

She smiled.

A/N: This is before the point in book 2 where they discover Max's clone, so they don't know about her or anything.

Newfound energy flowed through me and I stopped leaning on Fang, managing to stand normally, on my wounded foot.

Screw it. I thought, and put my full weight on it, only to fall to the ground with a shout of pain.

She laughed and came striding over to me, grabbing my arm a viciously yanking me upright.

"I want this to be a fun challenge." She said. "It's not as fun if you're wounded, it'll only be boring." With that she grabbed my wounded shoulder and squeezed, hard. I screamed in pain as heat flowed from her hand to my shoulder, and the pain subsided. She did the same with my foot, and then dropped me.

"Stand." She spat down at me.

I stood slowly, cautiously, and when no pain came, faster.

We stood face to face. It was like looking in a mirror.

I slowly extended my wings, delighted to feel no pain. She extended hers, and they were identical, midnight black with gold splatters.

"So." She said.

I kneed her in the stomach, hard.

She looked up, savage rage all over her face.

She lunged at me and tackled me to the sand, trying to put her hands around my throat.

I bucked violently and threw her off, standing up quickly. She stood up too, and we stood, looking at each other for two seconds, before we both attacked.

I gave a vicious roundhouse kick to the chest and she staggered back, regaining her balance and punching me in the face hard.

Insane, savage rage flowed through me and I lifted my hand, igniting a flame in it.

I hadn't really used my new power.

She smiled savagely, lifting her own hand and mirroring my actions.

We ran at each other, and I punched her in the face with a flaming fist. She cried out in horror and grabbed my shoulder, burning it with her grip.

I looked over her shoulder for one second and saw a bunch of erasers restraining the flock, holding them back. Fang was pulling and fighting, but the eraser had him locked in a death grip.

Then I was back in the fight.

I grabbed her shoulders and slammed her down into the sand, putting my flaming hands around her neck. She did the same to me and then we both sprang apart, standing and catching our breath.

I was just so angry. I could feel anger filling up inside me, consuming me.

She ran at me and then was suddenly knocked back by an invisible force, it looked like she'd hit a force field, and she flew (not literally) backwards through the air, chucked about ten meters away from me.

I smiled.

I think I have a new power.

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-Raven.