Yeah, yeah, I know. Shortish chapter. But, it's the longest so far. I really hope I can start making these a bit longer.

Disclaimer; If I owned Maximum Ride, wouldn't my name be on the front cover of the books? However I do own the following characters; Arrow, Daela, Brytt, Cammi, Vissa, Dyami

Yay to all my reviewers, luv ya all!

Unimaginable

By; Ashleylia Days

Chapter Two; Knowing Truth

I starred at Arrow's face for a couple seconds after his words, just then realizing how pale he was, compared to how the white-coats always looked. I wasn't sure why, but it made me feel nervous. Did I really look that way too? Angel's face popped into my mind and I realized it for the first time. We really were dying, just as I'd told Fang. I hadn't really meant it, but I knew it would help get Fang to cooperate in escaping. It never occurred to me that what I'd been saying was really true.

I wasn't sure exactly why dying was what came up as I looked into his sapphire blue eyes. Perhaps it was the pain echoed deep within, or the obvious flickering of suspicion that betrayed him every time a living soul came near. We were all dying. Once more, I knew we had to escape, only this time I would take a flock that wasn't mine.

And it would have to be planned out better. I wasn't about lead us all into a suicide mission. The white-coats would be high on security for a long time, expecting us to escape. No-- this time we would be patient and we'd get away...all of us. This time I wouldn't trust Jeb; I would have to do this all on my own.

I just have to get Arrow to agree.

But that would come in the future. There was a major chance that we would have to wait a year or two to perfect the plan and get the white-coats to lower their guard. There was time. Plenty of time. We would all escape the place called the School, even if it was the last thing I do. No one deserves to be locked into cages, not even mutants. We're all human...or at least part human.

Were they really so different that no one could accept that?

Yes, The answer echoed in the back of her mind, a faint wisp, Yes.

"You're Arrow," I faltered slightly, seeing his eyes narrow. "And I'm Max. Can...will you tell me the names of the rest of your flock? I'm curious."

He looked hesitant, but eventually nodded, almost sheepishly. He pointed towards a cage that was the farthest away and I could make out a girl, not much younger than Arrow or I. "That's Cammi. She's thirteen and has stupidly tried to escape eight times before the white-coats figured out how to keep her from trying, though they don't know how she does it."

"I can go invisible." The girls voice was strained, as if she was having a hard time speaking. My heart twinged. "They don't know it, but they don't ever let me out anymore--not even to go outside.

"Invisible?" I inquired. "That's--how's that even possible?"

"We all have powers of some sort." Arrow told me, shaking his head lightly. "It has to be the mix-up of certain genes. We can do things birds can't do, and yet we also can not do things humans can. It may be odd, but some of the skills are useful."

"I don't think I'm anything special." I said, full of doubt. "Angel..." I realized suddenly.

"Angel?" Arrow interrupted, head tilted slightly to the side, thinking. "Who's that?"

"She's the youngest in my flock--four."

Arrow nodded, uncomfortable. "As I was saying. Brytt is ten. He's probably the most troublesome. Whatever you do, don't ever ask him what his name means. I couldn't believe he actually called himself that!"

"It means 'Slayer'." Chipped in an oddly cheerful boy, opposite of me. His eyes were full of mischief as he continued. "The white-coats can't stand it. They tried to make me change it, but they went away when I told them that--"

"That's enough." Arrow glared at the boy, silencing him. "Sometimes, Brytt, you don't seem to know how to keep your mouth shut."

My mouth twitched, nearly smiling. I knew a couple others like that.

"There's Vissa." This time he spoke of a girl who looked back at me with such rebellion that I wondered how Arrow-- and the white-coats for that matter-- managed to keep her from sabotaging the whole School. I couldn't help but look at her in wonder. She was so young, yet she seemed to be even more in control than Arrow. "She's nine, and very difficult." He said the final word in a whisper, though the girl obviously couldn't hear. "Deaf." He said sadly, answering my question. "But she was born that way and she somehow managed to learn to recognize sounds by air vibrations. Whether it's quiet or not, she can hear...or feel, I guess."

"You bet." The girl mumbled from the corner, but this time I was in awe.

"That's amazing."

"Not really."

"Daela." Arrow rolled his eyes. I was happy, though. Perhaps they would allow themselves to get close to me. This girl was smaller, huddled in the corner of her cage. Her lips were moving, yet no sound appeared to come from them. I looked at Arrow questioningly, and he seemed saddened. "Poor Daela. She's eight, but she hasn't ever said a single word to any of us."

"Stupid white-coats."

I jumped at the new voice-- it was young and so full of hate. The person who'd spoken it had a surprising resemblance to the silent, muted girl and I was struck with the idea that they were siblings. "I'm Dyami. It means 'Eagle'. Daela's my twin sister."

"Right-" Arrow said before I could utter a word. I glared at him... I had the oddest feeling that he was trying to keep me from asking to many questions. He was still suspicious, then. Suddenly, his face was solemn as he looked at the final cage in the room, where a small girl was in even worse shape than Daela. "That is Azura. Six, and she's terrified of her wings."

"What?!" My face was contorted from shock. No one from my flock could even dislike their wings. After all, it was the white-coats fault that they were at the School not the wings. "How can you be terrified of them?"

"The white-coats did a series of...tests... on her. They were worse than all of ours put together. We don't know what happened, but when she came back, she wasn't the bright four year old I raise. She talks, but rarely and if she sees her wings or ours, she goes...crazy, I suppose."

"What could they have done that would make her like that?" I whispered, a horrified expression on my face. If they would do something like that to a little four year old, what would stop them from doing it to me, or even Arrow? "What could possibly be that bad?"

"There are plenty of things, Max. We just don't know them."


Fang wished he could pound his head into the wall.

The flock had been very successful in getting away from the School...after Max had been captured. He closed his eyes--he'd seen the evident fury in the Eraser's face as he'd knocked fang's flock leader out cold. Fang knew...he knew that there wasn't a chance that Max had made it back to the School alive. The last thing he'd seen before leading away the flock was her pained expression as the clawed fist came down on her skull.

"Take Angel--the flock--go. Get away. Please--don't ever come back for me. I'll manage. Promise me."

Fang hissed as the last words Max had said to him before they took her. How could she have asked something like that of him? Hadn't she known that he would go back to rescue her if there was even the slightest possibility that she was alive.

But there wasn't.

After an escape like that, there wasn't a chance they'd allow such a dangerous creature to roam, and have the possibility of her getting free again. Max. How could you leave me with this responsibility? I'm fourteen. I can't deal with this.

But Max had. She'd always been the perfect flock leader. She had all the leadership qualities. fangs knew well that he didn't. He couldn't take care of Angel, Nudge, Iggy, and Gazzy the way she had. She was like their mother. Fang was positive he wouldn't be able to be the same towards them. He would have keep them all from the clutches of the Erasers.

A small hand suddenly clasped onto his own and he looked down at the small figure that shrunk in comparison to himself. Fang lowered himself to his knees to get eyes level with the small girl who's face was tear streaked. "Fang," she said almost inaudibly. "It's Max. She-she's getting fainter. I can barely even sense her anymore. I can't read her at all. She...I dunno, Fang. I think she's dying."

"What if we went back for her?"

"I think it's too late." Angel muttered. "By the time we get there it will be. And you promised her you wouldn't go back."

"You know," Fang emotions were locked behind a tightly closed door again, "sometimes I believe you're way too mature for your age. You're four."

"I'll be five soon." The girl pointed out, before setting off in the opposite direction. Since Max had been captured, Angel had taken to Nudge to express her feelings to. Fang guessed that was where Angel was heading right then.

If you have to die, Max, Fang thought to himself solemnly, watching the sun disappear for the night, please let it be quick for you.


"Max."

I groaned. There was a voice...so close...yet so very far. Who's was it? I struggled to open my eyes, to emerge from sleep, but suddenly, I decided it wasn't important enough to get up. They could just come back in the morning. They should know better than to interrupt me while I got my well-needed sleep.

"Max."

There it was again, slightly louder this time. There was a tinge of annoyance in the persons voice, but I didn't care in the least. I was annoyed too. Whoever it was, was interrupting my sleep!

"Max!"

"What?!" I yelled back, hardly aware that it was even me until I realized that I was now sitting up and staring at a very smug looking Arrow.

"I think we need to talk without being over heard by rather...unwanted ears." The boy glared over at a still figure, Brytt most likely. "Do you mind? I didn't really want to wake you up this late, but any other time, well, we'd have eavesdroppers listening in."

"Can't complain now, can I?" I grumbled, pushing myself up off the hard metal floor. "It's not like I can go back to sleep after such a rude awakening. So, I guess the answer has to be yes, eh?"

Arrow smiled. Though I didn't know their pack at all, I was still remarkably glad that they were alright in a whole. It had to have been my motherly instincts acting up again...as Iggy would have so kindly put it. "First off, I though you should know that you snore...loud."

"I do not!"

"Believe what you want." Arrow held up his hands in mock surrender, still sounding a little too cocky. "But it's true, whether you like it or not."

"Whatever." Suddenly I wished that I wasn't in a cage-- and not just for the obvious reasons. "You got me up at--well, really early. Can we just get on with this. And I swear, you say one more thing about snoring and you'll wish you'd never met the great Max half-breed."

Arrow snorted. "Only someone like you would be able to say that so casually."

"Your point?"

"Max, I was curious. I mean, I really want you to join the flock, because you seem like a nice person, but I just met you this morning and I just can't trust that easily. But I really need the help. I'm fourteen and I have to help them out everyday, but I can't get near them. I want to help Daela with her talking and Azura with her wings, but I can't. Even if I was out of a cage, then I still wouldn't be able to help. I'm not a leader, Max. I was never meant to be one." I wished I could reach out and comfort him, even if he was my age. He did have a lot to deal with...it was even more than I.

"I swear," I told Arrow, determination in my eyes, "that this will stop. The white-coats can't keep doing this to you. I got my flock out, Arrow, and now I'm going to et you guys out."

"No, Max. Please don't."

"Why not. You're all suffering here. I want to get you out so we can sure their problems."

"You're not going to sacrifice yourself for us."

I closed my eyes, unsure of how to make him see. "My life isn't worth anything if we don't get out. I can't stand to see everyone I know locked behind bars for all of eternity. Even if I'm left, then I'd still feel relief."

"Give it a couple years, Max. Think it out before you act. Do at least that much for me and I might agree. First, we need time to adjust, though. Not everyone is as ready as you are."

"Take as long as you need. We're going to get out of here."

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kat-fly-fan- Yep! And you're mantioned again, lucky you! Well, here's your update!

Kyphus Maltorix- Oh! I didn't even notice. I went back to the prologue, read it, and still couldn't figure out what part rhymed until my best friend came over and had to point it out to me. Max, Fang...Gang...ha. I'm such a dope sometimes. I can't believe I wrote that...YIPPEE! You're review makes me want to write the next chapter, but I can't. It's too late...or too early, I suppose. Darn.

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