My wings beat the warm currents as my grazed the canyon below me for any living thing. "Max, come on, where are you?" I muttered, terrified. I looked to the east and saw a figure flying a few hundred feet above me. I wasn't sure who it was, maybe Fang or Nudge, but I did know they were doing the same thing as I was.

It was nearly midnight. I could barely see my hands in front of me but I had to keep searching. Suddenly, I heard wings flapping behind me. I turned my head and saw Gazzy. "Zuko we have to call it a night. It's too dark, we're all tired."

I turned sharply and glared at him. "We have to find Max!" I nearly shouted, my hand flying out at him.

"Look, that's just what Fang told me!" He confessed, his eyes widening. I sighed and nodded.

"Fine," I muttered. I was tired myself, but I would never admit it.

All of sudden, we heard a yell from behind us. We turned and saw a figure, most likely a girl, falling through the sky. "Oh crap," I muttered and shot towards the girl. However, before I could reach her Appa flew under her and caught her.

I caught up with Appa and landed swiftly on the soft fur. "Who?" I asked, catching my breath.

"Nudge," Katara told me, leaning over her. Aang had landed as well and scurried over Appa's back to get to her.

"I'm sorry," Nudge said. Her voice shook and her eyes welled up with tears. "I was just so tired…I can keep going."

"No, no it's fine, you need to stop." Aang consoled her, hugging her and rubbing her shoulder softly.

"We need to call it a night," Iggy said, who was riding on Appa with Toph, Katara and Sokka. I nodded when suddenly, Fang landed on Appa as well. He landed slightly too close to me, causing me to pitch forward slightly.

"Now look what happened!" He shouted. "This is all your fault; getting us to search at night!"

"If you cared about her at all, you'd want to search all night and into the day." I shouted back.

"If you cared about anyone besides her we wouldn't have almost lost someone!"

"Look," Toph shouted over us, "No one can see anything so neither can Max. She's probably camping out somewhere. She's fine!" We all looked at her and finally relaxed.

"Fine," I said. "We'll head back." We collected Angel and we all flew back to the cave. It took seconds for everyone to fall asleep.

However, I couldn't help but sit, watching the moon cross the sky. I knew I wouldn't be able to see anything if I did take off so I remained there. I dozed off once for nearly an hour but woke up suddenly. Finally, when it was nearly dawn I stood and toke off. I hoped no one would follow and after a few minutes of just hearing my own wing beats I found no one did. I needed to tell her, to tell Max, how I thought about her. And I needed to do it alone.

I had probably been flying for an hour when I heard something.

I dipped down and saw a large truck exiting the canyon. Suspicious I flew along behind the truck. However, I was not expecting it to stop. When it did, I didn't have enough time to break, so I was sent crashing into the truck. I held my head as I slowly stood up.

Suddenly, two men came running out of the car. They grabbed my arms. I fought to stay awake but as my head throbbed and my nearly sleepless night caught up with me, I couldn't do much.

I was tied up with a thick chain. They then picked me up and threw me into the truck, my head hitting the wall hard. Unable to stop myself, I let go and fell into a dreamless sleep.

I woke maybe hours, maybe days later. I had no idea where I was and what had happened to me. I was definitely drugged. I felt something rough on my head and I lifted my hand to investigate but found I couldn't.

I shook my head (which only caused it to throb more) and my eyes finally cleared. I was lying on a smooth, flat table. My arms and legs were chained to it by my wrists and ankles. I was still wearing my clothes (thank God!) and I suspected something was stanching the bleeding from my forehead.

I gulped and breathed hard, stanching my own fear. However, it was too hard. I horrified gulp sounded from my throat. I then smelled something coming from above my head. Craning my neck I could just see a small glass sitting on a counter. From what I could smell, it was tea; jasmine with a hint of rosemary, maybe. My uncle would know for sure. Suddenly, the cup was lifted over my head and lowered onto my lips. The tea wasn't completely warm but it still was welcome to my dry throat.

Eventually, the cup left my lips and was placed back on the counter. A woman then stepped into my view. She was middle height with a nice figure. She wore a long white lab coat and under it she wore jeans and a pale purple shirt. Her brown hair was pulled back into a high ponytail. She had light gray eyes and she smiled at me. "Specimen wakes at approximately thirteen hours," she muttered, writing it on clipboard.

I glared at her but she didn't meet my glance. "How are you feeling?" I was extremely confused.

"What?"

"How are you feeling, at the moment?" She asked again, waiting for my answer.

"Like crap?" I said, my voice making it sound like a question.

She mouthed the words as she wrote them down.

"Are you hungry or thirst?" She asked her eyes wide in apprehension.

"Yah, sure," I stuttered, confused still.

"What would you like?" She asked, peppy as ever.

"Umm," I thought for a second. "How about a Big Mac."

She stared at me and smiled. "Coming right up," she called, leaving the room.

I watched her go, craning my neck painfully. Finally, I hit my head back on the table and glared up at the ceiling.

Suddenly, a man strode into the room. "Wow," was all he said as he stared at me. Finally, he placed a hand on my stomach. My eyebrows fell together in more confusion and annoyance. After a second, he moved his hand to my face. I made to bite him but he didn't give me the pleasure. "You…you have emotions, you perfectly healthy and normal looking. You can…fly!" After stating the obvious, he stared at me.

"Is it true?" He asked suddenly, leaning down to look at me.

"What?" I asked.

"Fire! Can you actually…control it?"

I stared at him with such intensity; he didn't notice his coat tail catching on fire.

He gasped and pulled off his coat, stamping out the fire with his feet.

Once the flame had gone out, he looked at me and smiled. "You weren't created here. Do you even know where you were created?"

"Is this a thing of yours…stating the obvious facts? Is that your official title: Doctor Obvious?" I gasped as his hard hand slapped across my face. I gulped in breath, running my tongue over the cut on the inside of my cheek.

"Listen, smart aleck, if you don't cooperate, you'll wish a slap was all you got. We know you weren't created here, that's one of the reasons you are here. But what you will learn VERY quickly is we are very strict here. Any sarcasm will send you on a one way trip to someplace you don't wanna be. You got that, hot head?" He asked his face close to mine. I stiffly nodded, glaring at him.

"Now, where were you created?"

"I don't know, I-" But he raised his hand and I stopped.

"Where are Max and her flock?" I didn't answer. He stared at me and shook his head.

"You will regret this," he hissed.

A second later, he walked away. I saw the woman about to enter the room, a McDonald's bag in her hands. She tried to walk around him but he turned her around and closed the door. "Great," I muttered. I stared up at the ceiling desperately trying to figure out a plan. As I did, I must've dosed off.

I woke up to a sharp pain in my arm. I tried to sit up and hit my head as I did. "Ahh," I moaned and held my head. I stared down at my arm and found a deep red line on my wrist. The man was sitting next to me, a white hot poking stick in his hand. I glared at him and rubbed my wrist softly.

I looked around and found myself in a medium sized dog crate. "What the…?"

"Oh, you mean your new living arrangements?" The man asked, gesturing to the crate.

Once I had nodded, he only laughed. "Oh, it's only a precaution. You weren't willing to talk before so we figured we'd use some…leverage we obtained very recently."

All of a sudden, he nodded to a nearby assistant who pulled a cord and curtain fell to the ground. I gasped and grabbed the metal bars, melting them easily. However, I was still chained to metal beams so I stood helplessly, watching her.

Max lay on a bed similar to mine only rotating nearly vertical. Tubes and wires were attached to her arms, sending unknown liquids into her veins. I pulled against the chains, a sound similar to choking coming from the back of my throat. There were cuts all over her body and an especially horrible bloody gouge in her left thigh. But that didn't matter. Nothing mattered. That's what I thought as I fell to my knees. It was over. Everything was over, because Max wasn't breathing.