Nudge was leaning against her chains, just staring at her feet. For once, she had nothing to say. Gazzy, on the other hand, was in a total rage, pulling at the walls that held him prisoner.
He had no idea where they'd taken Max, Fang had suddenly been brainwashed, and there was a Fake-Max floating around somewhere filling Fang's head with garbage. He had no idea what to do, and for some reason the rest of the flock had grown silent.
"What are we doing?" the Gasman screamed, and not for the first time. He'd been repeating himself on a off for the past four hours, and the flock knew what he would say next. "Come on, guys! We have to make a plan! Max always has a plan!"
"Well, Max isn't here!" Iggy said with more fierceness than he'd intended, having lost all his patience. He was visibly shaking from the stress of everything, and Gazzy's little outbursts were not helping. "She could be dead for all we know!" The slight intake of breath to his right was easily identified. Iggy regretted what he'd said immediately—he'd forgotten Angel was right there. "I'm sorry, Angel. I'm just—"
"I know," Angel said quickly, cutting him off. "We all are." Angel looked towards Nudge, who'd started crying. Angel herself had a few more tears to shed, but she decided that she'd better try to stay strong, like Max always did. She sucked in a deep breath and let it out very slowly.
"What are we going to do?" Nudge whimpered quietly. She didn't raise her head to meet the other's gazes, and they were all staring at her. That was the first time she'd spoken in hours. Suddenly she looked up. "We can't just let them kill Max. And you know she's not dead," she added in quickly, if for no one's benefit but her own.
"She'd be pissed if she died like that," Iggy said, the ghost of a smile hinting at his lips.
"Yeah she would!" Gazzy exclaimed, happy that the conversation had suddenly picked up. Maybe they were going somewhere with that plan after all. "We've got to do something."
"Well, we don't exactly have a lot of options," Angel said skeptically. "I tried controlling the minds of the few scientists I saw running around—I think they've got some kind of block on me or something." She frowned, her small blond eyebrows knitting together in frustration. Gazzy's face dropped.
"But—but is that even possible?" Gazzy's face had slowly drained of color. Angel shrugged.
"I guess so," was her only reply.
"But you still read Fang's mind, right?" Nudge asked hopefully. "He's not completely one of them, is he?"
"Yeah, I did; and no, he's not." Angel closed her eyes and breathed in deeply again.
"I just don't understand. How could he not recognize Max?" Gazzy breathed. "I mean, she's…"
"Max?" Iggy added helpfully.
"Yeah." Gazzy nodded in approval.
"It's…it's hard to explain," Angel hedged. "It was really confusing in there—kind of gave me a headache. Somehow, the scientists have gotten him to put his old self away; only his instincts are left; his instincts and his love for Max and the rest of us." Angel pulled a little on the manacle that surrounded her wrist in a painful bite of metal. "That's how Fake-Max got in. She's convinced Fang that our Max isn't real; that she's going to destroy us. That's why he wouldn't listen to us. They've got him, and they've got him good. His mind is just a whirl of dreams and illusions that are packed in like a bunch of bricks." Angel was very frustrated, and this seemed to stoke her hatred of the white coats like flames.
"I just wish we could do something," Nudge complained. "I've never seen Max just flat out cold like that. It was…it was really bad."
"Fang was the only one who could ever get around her," Iggy said sadly. Nudge looked on the brink of tears again, and as she moved to wipe her face on her eyes the chains that held her to the wall rattled. She curled up into a ball on the ground. "But she was breathing," Iggy said softly. "I could hear her. It was very faint, but at least...at least her heart was still beating. Come on, guys," Iggy chimed. "She's Maximum Ride. She'll pull through it." The school won't let her die so easily, he added silently to himself.
"I'm going to help Fang."
One by one every pair of bird kid eyes locked on Angel, who had a very determined look in her menacing little blue eyes.
"It'll take me a while, but when I see him again, I'm going to get him out of it. Brick by brick, Fang will see the truth, and be himself again."
Angel's announcement had cheers ringing through the cells.
"Shut up!" snapped a cold, harsh voice that cracked against the walls like a whip. An Eraser loomed in from the hallway, glancing into their enclosure. "You filthy experiments," he hissed.
"Um…what do you think you are?" Iggy asked, sheer curiosity in his voice.
"I know, right?" Gazzy agreed.
"At least we got the cute genes," Nudge muttered.
The Eraser howled in rage and snapped at them, fumbling with the keys to their jail.
"Enough," said a strong voice from behind the Eraser. It was Ethan. "It's time," Ethan said simply, and the Eraser grinned a hideously cruel grin. Just then there were more Erasers, one was carrying Total under his arms.
"Angel!" sobbed the small black dog, biting the Eraser's hand. The Eraser scowled and thwacked Total on the head. "Thank goodness you're all alright! These barbarians kept me locked up in a doggie-carrier! Really; I didn't even get a proper cell." Everyone who heard Total rolled their eyes, including the Eraser carrying him.
"Get them out," Ethan said, his eyes lightless. He seemed in a particularly bad mood at that moment, and Angel took a second to regard a small red stain on his shirt. It looked like blood, but Ethan seemed fine.
Then the Erasers were upon them, and the flock sank into unconsciousness…
&&&
When Angel woke up, the first thing she realized was that they were outside…and in a huge cage. The flock had kind of been set up in an awkward stack, Total lay limp in the corner. Gradually, everyone opened there eyes.
"Wha—?" Gazzy asked groggily. He sat up, then slumped back, gripping his head.
"Gahh," Angel turned and saw Iggy in the same posture as her brother. She remembered being in their cell, chained to walls, when…gas. They'd been gassed. She felt her eyes narrow angrily.
"Where are we?" Nudge asked quietly, taking hold of Iggy's arm.
"I don't—," Angel started, but then jumped. Fang and Max stood a few feet away from their cage, right next to Ethan. She blinked and realized that no, that was the Fake-Max, the one that needed to be taken away from Fang. She studied Fang.
His eyes were dark, darker than normal, and his face was set in an angry grimace. She surveyed the area around him and realized, with a start, that it was full of Erasers, circling around the huge area. Looking up, Angel realized that they were all in a deep canyon, jagged rocks and old, rusty cars lay everywhere. What could they possibly be doing in a place like this?
"What's going on," Angel whispered. She had all of two seconds to ponder her own question because just then something happened.
The Erasers parted like the Red Sea, letting two more Erasers through, a struggling big thing linked between them that looked suspiciously like an old potato sack. With a swing, they flung the bag forward, releasing its contents.
"Max!" The flock screamed in unison, happy to see her alive. She was lying on her stomach, obviously hurt. Her gold hair had turned brown with blood, and it was extremely matted. She had a small line of blood racing from her mouth, and Angel immediately thought back to Ethan's shirt and couldn't stop the grin that started spreading. However, the grinned stopped as she glanced back and forth between Max and the group that faced her.
"Max?" she whispered, more to herself. Angel's eyes examined her a little more closely. The knock on her head still had a great affect on her, she could see, and her arms were red at her shoulder blades. Her beautiful brown wings hung limply at her back, and as Angel met her eyes, the chocolaty color she'd always loved had seemed to fade.
Despite this, Max still tried to smile reassuringly at her flock, got up to her feet unsteadily, and faced Ethan. Angel watched in horror as Fang half-crouched, as though ready to attack.
With a sharp intake of breath, Angel realized two things instantaneously:
Max was in no shape to fight; and fighting was clearly exactly what Ethan had planned.
and
Max wouldn't just be fighting anybody...
She would be fighting Fang.
Sorry it took me so long to update! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thanks to those of you who've been reviewing my story, I really appreciate it! R&R!
Falling Rose Petals