A/N Chapter 18, at your service.

'She didn't tell us why we're here.'

Nudge's words reached me through a haze, just about making their way through my jumbled thoughts.

'Because if she was telling the truth about how much control they've had over us and everything then they could've brought us in at any time, really, and now we don't know if this is just another one of those emotional challenge things that she talked about or if we're actually here for good, even though I think we're probably here for good because if you think about the room and the door and stuff then it just seems like quite a lot to do just for a test, and plus she already told us everything that's been happening since we escaped the very first time and-'

'Seriously, like my ears haven't been through enough already?' Ratchet interrupted. 'We know why we're here – the only reason she kept you out of a holding cell for the last few years is 'cause she needed you guys to be that Referee thing. Now they've started making stronger stuff and you're not what they need to test it out anymore. You're not useful to them now, so there's no point in keeping you around out there where you could turn into a threat, and the rest of us are pretty expendable; it doesn't matter whether we live or die, so we get shoved in here too because we're on your side.'

'I just can't believe it was her,' Gazzy said, shaking his head.

'Well, you were the one who said it back when she and Jeb disappeared – you said you thought they were both in on it,' Iggy pointed out.

'I'd been trying not to bring that up. Thanks. But I still can't believe it, even if I said it before. Seeing it was different than just thinking stuff.'

'I thought that A-…' Nudge started, flinching. She took a breath and continued. 'I thought that Angel said Dr Martinez really did love Max, though. I didn't look like it that much just now. It didn't look like she cared about any of us.'

'We had the chance to ask her about anything that's happened,' Star asserted. 'But we didn't.'

'We should've asked what happened to Ella. I bet she knows,' Gazzy said, and Iggy made a pained noise in the back of his throat.

'There was too much to take in,' I stated, my voice devoid of any emotion. The others all turned to look at me, almost wary of what I might do after everything we'd just discovered. 'She was throwing out all this new information at us, and it was so overwhelming that we couldn't work through it fast enough to find all the things she wasn't telling us. That's it.'

They all looked at me sympathetically, but I waved them off and turned away, walking over to the wall and sliding down it until I was sitting, staring at the floor. Slowly, tentative conversation started up again, but I tuned it out; I needed some time in my own head.

The strange thing was that I didn't feel like crying. There was a sickening, aching loss inside me, but all I really felt like doing right now was breaking something. Which, unfortunately, was not really an option in a room containing only myself and a bunch of people I was trying not to see hurt. It was just so, so, incredibly unfair. Right from the first time I met her, Dr Martinez had been like the epitome of everything I could've wanted in a parent, and now to find out that it had all been a lie was just so far past the reaches of "disappointment" that I barely recognised it.

'I'm sorry about your mom,' said Dylan's voice from beside me. I hadn't even noticed him sitting down.

'Don't,' I mumbled, all the muscles in my face feeling taut. 'Talk about her as The General. Talk about her as a scientist. I don't care. But do not refer to her in any way as something belonging to me. That woman is not my mother, not anymore. Please, just leave it alone.'

Out of the corner of my eye I saw him nod, and I felt a rush of gratitude towards him for not trying to push the matter. He laid a hand on my shoulder and in that moment I was tempted to lean into him, just to be close to someone. But I stayed rigid, lifting my head jerkily until it hit the wall, my eyes skating across the white ceiling.

I was jolted out of my thoughts by the sound of the door opening, and I looked across the room to see a whitecoat standing there flanked by two of the Gen77 Laser Kids, holding a clipboard and trying to look authoritative. Personally I though he looked more ready to wet himself than anything. Of course, if I were some puny, non-enhanced human and I'd just walked into a top-security cell full of what were apparently an evil organisation's strongest mutants, I wouldn't be feeling too breezy myself.

'I'm here for the one called Dylan,' he said, glancing at his clipboard then peering at us anxiously. Dylan's hand tightened slightly on my shoulder, but watching the whitecoat's gaze skip between the faces of the different guys in the group, I realised something: he had no idea who Dylan was. Most likely he'd just been given a name and that was it.

'And why would that be, exactly?' I demanded tightly from my spot on the floor. The man consulted his clipboard again and cleared his throat.

'Well, it's been decided that Subject 71.1, known as Dylan, has not achieved what was required of him, and has therefore been slated for extermination.'

I almost felt like laughing at the absurdity of it all.

'Okay, I'll humour you. What has "Subject 71.1" failed to manage?'

'It was planned that he should be successful in causing the disbandment of the group known in some instances as "the flock". Whilst unaware of these expectations himself, his programming should have allowed for unrest to develop and a permanent fracture to occur. Um, which it clearly didn't,' he finished lamely, gesturing nervously around at the group of us.

'Clearly not,' I agreed, lifting my chin and waiting for him to say something else. He coughed and fidgeted a bit with the paper on his clipboard.

'So if Dylan could come with me…' he trailed off hopefully, and in an instant I was on my feet and across the room, my face right up against his.

'You're way out of your depth here,' I said in my quietest, most deadly voice. 'We're a family. We don't sell each other out, we don't give each other away, and you are in serious need of a brain transplant if you think we're about to point out the person you're looking for.'

The whitecoat looked terrified, but he just about managed to hold his ground. I had to give him some credit; I'm seriously scary when I'm pissed.

'I don't want to have to use the 77.31 subjects, but I will if you fail to cooperate. I was sent to retrieve the one called Dylan,' he said, making it about halfway to defiant.

I was about to throw back some kind of witty reply, but something cut me off.

'That's me,' came a voice from the back of the room.

I whipped around, nearly head-butting the whitecoat as I did so, and for a moment I couldn't understand what I was seeing as I watched Fang step forwards to the front of the group. The others around him seemed to balk, staring at him in incomprehension. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out; it was like all my circuits were jammed. Then something managed to sputter to life and I turned back to the whitecoat, my face fierce.

'No, it's not,' I said, daring the man to argue.

'Yes, it is,' Fang said evenly behind me. I turned to face him again, looking back and forth between him and the whitecoat a couple of times before twisting away from the man by the door and taking a few quick strides towards Fang.

'What are you doing?' I whispered through gritted teeth, grabbing his arm roughly.

'It's just me they want, Max,' he said clearly, so that the room could hear him. 'If they don't get what they want then they'll start using force. People will get hurt. It's not worth it. If I go with them then they'll leave you alone for now.'

He looked me dead on, and I felt the panic rising in me at the resolve I saw in his eyes as they bored into mine; he was serious, he was actually doing this.

'Wha-' I began, but he cut me off by placing both hands on either side of my face, his fingers curling, stroking lightly down my cheeks as he leant right in to whisper in my ear.

'Don't say anything. Please.' He pulled back to meet my eyes again, and there was pain in his face now.

'Don't do this,' I pleaded, any thought of a calm front forgotten. No, no, no, I'm not losing someone else today.

Fang took one, slow look around the group, his gaze lingering on Dylan last of all before turning back to me.

'I have to,' he said quietly. 'It's what's best for you.'

He dropped his hands from my face, and I grabbed at them in an attempt to physically prevent him from leaving, but he calmly pushed my arms down to my sides and walked over to the door where the whitecoat, whose eyes were wide with relief that he hadn't had to do anything extreme, was waiting.

I stood there, feeling completely numb as I watched the Laser Kids take hold of Fang's arms, sticking to either side of him as they marched him from the room. The whitecoat shot a quick, almost remorseful look around at the rest of us, then the door had closed and all four of them had disappeared.

No one spoke.

My legs didn't buckle, my fists didn't clench, I didn't cry; on the outside I was a blank space. But inside my head there was total chaos. Shouting and screaming and OHMYGODNO, and bouncing around in there, too loud to ignore, were the words Fang had said to me back in the living room in Oregon:

'…if you'll have me, then I swear to God, the next time I leave you will be the day I die.'

Had he been telling the truth?

I couldn't feel any part of my body anymore; every sensation I was experiencing at that moment was internal, pounding through my mind like a hammer. I was only vaguely aware of Dylan standing up slowly, making his way through the mist of horror that had descended over the room. He stopped to the side of me, keeping a slight distance, knowing that I wouldn't even be able to look at him, let alone bear him touching me.

'He did it for me,' I said suddenly, letting the words hang there for a while. 'He saved you so that if we found a way to escape from here, I could be with you. He removed himself from the equation. He took away the choice.'

'Max-' Dylan began, sounding completely shaken.

'No,' I said, my voice so quiet that for a second I wasn't even sure that I'd said the word out loud. 'Don't. Please.'

And none of us said anything else. No one moved, no one made a sound.

That is, not until a good fifteen minutes later when the door hissed open for a third time, and the only person who I think could ever have broken me out of the state of shock I was in walked into the room.

I snapped. Screw not feeling anything, because suddenly it was like all the blood in my body had been set to 'instant boil'.

'You lying, betraying bastard!' I roared, throwing myself towards Jeb. I would've torn him apart – in an entirely literal manner – if Kate hadn't lurched forwards and locked my arms in an iron grip. I struggled against her, feeling all the rage towards The General, towards Fang being taken, towards Angel dying and my sister disappearing, towards every hellish thing that had happened in our lives, come coursing through me, all directed at the man standing in front of me now.

'I'm going to kill you, Jeb! I'm going to rip you into pieces, you evil, disgusting excuse for a human being. Kate, let me go. He doesn't deserve to live!' I realised I was crying, tears dripping into my mouth as I shouted, but I was so, so past caring.

'Max, listen to me!' Jeb called out, his face pale and worried.

Suddenly my shouts were cut off, Kate's hand coming down over my mouth as her other arm wrapped around me, stopping me from moving.

'Max, I'm sorry,' she said, her voice trembling slightly. 'From what you've said about Jeb I don't trust him anymore than you do. I'm not saying you need to listen to what he's saying or anything, but if you don't calm down – I know it sounds ridiculous and impossible right now – but if you don't calm down then you're going to hurt yourself.'

I kept pulling against her, unable to stop myself, needing a way to force out all of the pain-induced energy inside me. Jeb stood in front of us all, looking shaky and stricken, then slowly opened his mouth to talk.

'I need to talk to you. All of you.'

Iggy scoffed bitterly.

'Don't think that just because Kate's got Max that means you're safe,' he said, a cutting edge in his voice.

'I don't,' Jeb replied. 'I know how much you all hate me, and I know how much you've all been through. I'm aware that it was dangerous to come here alone, but there are some things you need to know. Things I couldn't say in front of anyone else. I have to talk to you.'

I struggled futilely in Kate's grip, trying to break away, and then Jeb turned to face me.

'Max,' he said. 'I need to speak with you about your mother.'

A/N Again, don't hate me! The next chapter's gonna be at least partially in Fang's point of view, so this is definitely not the last we'll be hearing from him. Review!