Author's Note: Um... I dunno what to write, so I'll just stick with the basics. I own not Maximum Ride. If I did, Ari's life wouldn't suck so much.

Chapter Three

It was weird sitting in this chair. His feet touched the floor. It wasn't as though it was one of those kid chairs, the one especially form fitted for toddlers. This was a grown-up chair, one for someone around Ari's dad's age. NOT for Ari. So why did his legs reach the floor? It was another one of those weird side effects, like his teeth growing. At first he was way stoked. It was like a permanent Halloween, those fangs. But then they started to hurt. And they tore into his gums. He fell asleep tasting his own blood, and that was not fun. Added to the weirdness was the fur that had sprouted all over his body. Yeah, it was like permanent Halloween, but Ari was desperate for a change in costume. Maybe something with a cape. Actually, he would settle for something that didn't hurt as much, or make him feel like a freak.

Ari missed swinging his legs back and forth, but he figured even if his legs were short enough this lady wouldn't approve of that. She didn't approve of a lot of things. Even though they had talked only once before, he knew that she was one of those old ladies who hated anything before their generation. So Ari stayed still, his hands folded in his lap and his feet flat on the ground, until the Director was ready to talk to him.

"Ari..." she purred. Maybe she was half cat? Ari had seen a lot of half and half people in this place. He was half and half himself. The Director sat in the chair next to Ari and placed one of her hands on his. The difference in size unnerved him. His hands had used to be soft and boyish. But now they dwarfed this lady's hands, and she had to be ages older than he was.

"How old are you?" she asked.

Well there was a question. He felt three. He was pretty sure he was three. But did he look three? No. Whenever he looked in the mirror he saw someone much older than what he felt like. And looking at his teenaged-morphed body, but still feeling like a pre-schooler inside confused Ari. Ari didn't like to be confused, so now he dodged mirrors, picturing himself as what he looked like before he came here. It was hard, as that image was slowly erasing itself and being replaced with what he was now. Whatever that was.

"Ari!" the Director snapped.

Ari immediately put his head up, but he tried not to look the lady in the eye. She was scaring him. Instead he rushed his answer out. Was that all she wanted to know? How old he was? Ari hoped so, because he was growing even more and more uncomfortable with each passing second. "I'm three." He hated talking too. Hearing the rough sounding voice coming out of his mouth was just so weird. He didn't sound like that; not the REAL him.

"You look very old for your age," the Director said. She cackled at her own joke. Okay, then, Ari thought, if this is permanent Halloween then this lady would definitely be a witch. She sounds like it with that throaty laugh, and she even looks like it with that evil smile! Ari smiled to himself, imagining the Director in a pointy hat and riding on the broomstick. Tee hee.

"Do you know why I have called you here today?" Ari shook his head truthfully. The Director let out a dramatic sigh. "Well, it's not good news. Do you still want to hear it?" Ari shrugged. He didn't see how anything she could say would affect him. Unless she said that whatever juice they'd pumped into him was radioactive and not stable and he was gonna blow up! But other than that he had no idea.

"When I ask you a question, you'd be good to answer it," the Director snapped. Then, seeing Ari's baffled expression, she tried to backtrack. "Ari, dear, I just don't want you to be heartbroken, although undoubtedly you will." The Director heaved a big sigh as she came to the climax of her act. Ari wished she'd just get the heck on with it. "Your father, Jeb Batchelder, has left us."

Ari's immediate reaction was to say, "Nuh-unh! I saw him yesterday!" But he knew that an outburst wasn't what this lady wanted. But he had seen him yesterday. Taking his daily physical therapy walks with Ted from Lab A, he'd spotted his dad. He was so excited to see someone he actually liked in this hospital-slash- evil, mad scientist lair. He broke free from Ted's leash, waving with zeal and calling out, "Dad! Dad!" It was weird, as Jeb kept on walking. Ari was sure that his dad had heard him, he was yelling loud enough. Maybe he didn't recognize Ari's voice? Ari tried a different route

"Daddy! It's me! It's Ari!." But even after that Jeb had kept walking. Ari watched as his father rounded the corner and disappear from sight. Ted linked Ari with his leash once again, and they continued walking as though nothing had happened. But something had happened, and it itched at Ari for a while.

"Ari?" the Director wrinkled her nose in obvious impatience with Ari's slow reactions. She dropped the dear-old-lady act and returned to her natural instincts of a scientist. Even though she was still holding Ari's hand in hers she sounded as though she had a clipboard and was ready to take notes. "Ari, how do you feel about that? He left the Labs. Which means, by default, he's left you."

Ari hadn't even made that connection! But as soon as the director said it, Ari knew that it was true. How did he feel about that? he wondered. Not good, if the pain in his heart was any indication. It was as though he were injected by that poison juice again, except this time his body immediately rejected the thought of Jeb leaving.

It wasn't true. Jeb was his dad. Dads don't leave. Not without coming back. This realization made Ari stop breathing so hard. He hadn't even noticed how hard he'd bitten his lips, but now he retracted his sharpened teeth from his skin, noticing the new blood. Yeah, that's it. Dad wouldn't leave. Not Ari. Not his son. If he left now, it was just because he was coming back. Ari almost smiled at that, and he would've, except it hurt his bleeding lips. He managed a small grimace/smirk at the thought. He's got them all fooled, Ari thought. But one day he'll come back for me, in the middle of the night. And we'll run away again. And we won't get caught, and I'll get ice cream this time! It'll be soooo great, me and Dad on the run. Away from this place. Away from the Labs, away from Ted. Gosh I hate Ted. But when Dad comes back, I won't ever have to see Ted or his leash or the Shocker again. At the thought of all he'd be leaving behind he did smile, despite the fact that it hurt.

The Director noticed this of course. She shook her head, letting go of Ari's hands. She used her hands to position Ari's head so that their eyes met. Then she said in the most controlled voice she could manage, "Ari, your father is not coming back."

Ari rejected this with all his might. He no longer cared about behaving mannerly for this lady. He hated this lady. How dare she say that his father wasn't coming back? He WAS! He was.

A growl escaped from Ari's mouth. It scared him as much as it scared the Director, but he didn't stop to think about this new sound. Instead, seeing that the Director was no terrified of him, he growled some more. His claws sank deeply into the cushion, ripping the fluff from out of them. He was mad, enraged. He began flailing around, but there was nothing around him to crash. He headed towards the Director's desk. She shrieked. He ignored it. She called out command after command, but he ignored those too. He needed to smash something. Ari didn't know where this intense need to destroy something came from, but he gave into it. After wrecking everything he could on her desk, he was met with a new need.

He needed to escape.

The Director still shouted and screamed, in hysterics over the mess Ari'd left her desk. Ari still ignored her. He looked around, surprised to see that everything he saw was tinted in red, but not really dwelling over that fact. He searched in the red hue until he found a window. Windows led to the outside. His dad was on the outside. If he could just get out, then he'd find his dad and everything would go back to normal.

Without knowing it, Ari morphed wolf. All he was aware of was that he was on all fours and moving amazingly fast. Saliva dripped from his lips, along with blood. His claws were in full force now. He'd been morphing very slowly, ever since the Director had spilled the beans about his dad. His anger fueled the metamorphosis from half-wolf, half-boy to full on canine. Now that he was all wolf, nothing could stop him from getting what he wanted. What he wanted was his dad.

He shattered the window's glass with ease. His slender wolf body sailed into the air. Growling in satisfaction, Ari landed, albeit a little clumsily, on the ground. He sank his newly formed claws into the grass, thinking about these new feelings. He was still seeing in red, but he wouldn't rely on his sight for the search anyway. There was a whole new world to being a wolf. Now he could smell out his prey. He'd never tuned into his dad's smell before, but now he tried to remember what it was. If only he could remember...

Agh!

First a small jolt, then an unbearable amount of pain ricocheted through Ari's body. He let out his nastiest growl which, even for a pup, was fierce. But scaring someone to go away, wasn't going to cut it right now.

His eyes clamped shut as another shot of pain was sent through him. He remembered about his collar and started to paw it off. But he wasn't fully controlled of his strength yet, and kept digging into his skin. He stopped after he realized the pain he was causing himself was more than what the collar was doing to him. Besides, the collar wasn't coming off. Ari was trapped. He failed.

Ari whimpered and howled. It wasn't a battle howl, it was a howl of pain. He wondered if his dad could hear him crying out, or if he'd even recognize it as him. He continued to howl, until he didn't recognize it as howling anymore. No longer could the whitecoats hear a wolf's whimper, it was now a boy's sobs. Ari, his anger and rage failing him, had morphed back into a boy. As much a boy as he had been anyway. Now the whitecoats dared to approach him. Ted hooked his leash to Ari's collar, yanking the boy from his whithered state on the ground. Ari, drained of strength, followed as the whitecoats led him back into the Labs.

They took the normal route this time, in through the front door and down the halls. Through Ari's bloodshot eyes (his eyesight had returned to normal) he could see the Director up ahead. Instantly, he panicked. What would she do to him now that he'd destroyed her room? It wasn't his fault, although he didn't know how to argue that point. How could he make her understand that his emotions had just taken over?

Ari instinctively put his hands over his face, trying to hide himself from view. They reached the end of the hallway where the Director stood akimbo. Ted pushed Ari forward, showing only apathy for the boy.

Ari looked up at her, even though he didn't want to. The Director probably wouldn't kill him, but punishment was in order, right? Ari thought back to all he had destroyed, and remembered clawing his way through an expensive-looking laptop. He gulped, preparing for the worst.

"Jeb Batchelder is not coming back," the Director said. She was a pro at keeping emotions out of her voice that she didn't want there, and so there was only a hint of fury. "You have to learn that, boy. Now there is no one watching out for you but yourself. And if you continue to do stupid, futile things then someone might accidentally forget your food. And Mr. Warren's fingers might accidentally slip into pressing the shock button. And you might accidentally get hurt. Shape up, Ari Batchelder. You've got no guardian, we are safe to do whatever we want with you. Don't try to escape, you won't get anywhere, not with that collar. If you try to chew the collar off, we'll tighten it. Do you think we're being mean?" The Director noticed the tears that now stained Ari's cheeks. Ari tried to rub them away, but more appeared after them. She grabbed Ari's hands away from his face, and brought his face close to hers. The Director was smiling. "It gets much worse from here on in. Grow up."

She dropped his hands and walked away. Ted yanked Ari in the direction of his cell.

Grow up? Ari asked himself. He was only three years old! He'd only been on this Earth for three years, and now he was being thrust into this world where Dads left you and grownups enjoy your pain? Ari walked into his cell. It was a while before he noticed the new addition. It was a mirror, all along the right side.

Even though the image displayed there was the most repulsive thing Ari had ever seen, he began walking towards it. He looked at the image that was supposed to be him. He traced it with his fingers, flinching at every patch of fur and wincing at his large fangs.

Ari didn't understand any of this. He was confused. Why did his dad have to leave? Why did he turn into a wolf when he heard that news? Did he even turn into a wolf? That wasn't possible! Only werewolves did that. Was Ari a werewolf now? And that lady, Ari shuddered at the thought of her. The witch, the Director. He realized then that he hated her. She'd given him the worst news of his three year life and smiled. She told him that he'd be in constant pain, and smiled. She wasn't human.

But this was his life now. His old life was slowly easing away. He couldn't hardly remember when his only worry was what he'd eat for breakfast the next morning. Now he was worried about if he'd turn into a wolf, or if he'd get breakfast. Along with this new body. Ari looked at his wolfish features in the mirror, but they were so different from his old self, that it just sent him backwards in his revelations.

Ari sighed, left the mirror, and sunk into his stiff bed.

He was so confused.

As is custom: review please. Do you think I went too hard on Ari? Do you think I made the Director too harsh? I shall only know if you review. Thank you.