I'm sorry for the long update! My computer decided to break down over the weekend (Grrr...) and I lost this chapter...But I typed it up as fast as I could! Enjoy!

Fang:

They had us good. From an outsider's point of view, they had picked the perfect time to attack: the one year anniversary of the sister they had killed horribly. Nice.

As we sprinted into the meadow and promptly stopped, as if a glass wall had been slammed in front of us, my heart clenched and shrivelled into a black lump with anger and pain. The first thing I saw was Iggy, half slumped against one of them with blood seeping out from between his fingers which were pressed against his side weakly. His eyes were clouded with pain but he was shouting a name, over and over. It was Nudge's name. Angel and the Gasman were protesting and struggling to get to him, having not seen us yet.

I roared, like roared, and flung myself into the 'battle.' I got about two feet before they got me. In my defence there were over a thousand Flyboys and five bird-kids that were totally unprepared for anything. My hands were forced behind my back, despite my efforts, and my flailing legs were tied down with this type of metal rope. Damn, I can't break freaking metal. A quick glance showed the rest of the Flock were restrained the same way as me. I hate robots with a freaking passion.

The monsters picked each of us up, Iggy limp in their hands, his blood making his clothes crimson all over, and started to fly. I tried to catch Max's eye but she was focused on Iggy, repeating his name, trying to get him alert and assess his wound. She had no luck, he was out cold. She then turned to me, worry evident in her eyes, telling me silently we can't get out of this, not with Iggy down. We'll just have to go along with them until we can escape. I nodded my approval, my body aching from the tight restraints that were the only thing keeping me from ripping a couple of hundred Flyboy heads off.

The buzzing of the robot army went on for hours, making me practically deaf by the time we touched down in the middle of nowhere. I grunted -they had taped my mouth over when I started yelling- in repressed anger as they tossed us on the dusty ground just inside the massive building that I assumed was the School, forming a tight circle so we couldn't escape. We quickly undid the restraints; there was a complicated catch that could be undone from the back and the tape was ripped unmercifully from my face by the Gasman. Max immediately dropped beside the unconscious Iggy as I checked Angel and Gaz over, they had bruises that were going to hurt like hell later, but apart from that, they were fine.

Iggy, on the other hand, was not. Max's hands trembled as she lifted up his shirt, the wet blood staining her hands a scary red that we were all too familiar with. We all gasped as the search revealed a horrible gash, with metal bits still embedded in the flesh, the laceration oozing blood at a scary rate. Iggy's eyes were rolled back into his head, his hands, face and arms showing the aftermath of a battle. He must have really fought to get away. Quickly, Max and I wrapped it up, using my shirt –it would have to do for now-, and tried to get Iggy awake.

'Ig... Iggy, dude, c'mon!' We tried various versions of the same thing and slapped his face several times, but he was still out cold. Great, that's going to make it a tad bit harder to get the hell outta here... Angel even tried to "mind-wake" him (that's a really weird experience, trust me...) but she came up with nothing, saying there was an odd mind block that she couldn't get through.

We looked hopefully up at the sky, but scowled when we saw the huge electric fence that covered the entire yard-thing. The circle of Flyboys made me slightly claustrophobic and creeped out – it resembled a bully circle in so many ways. I tried to stand but was immediately shocked by a gun of some sort (it hurt like freaking hell) and was pulled sharply back down by Max. 'What are you doing?!' She hissed, concern on her face as she tried to see the shiny red burn mark that now marked my arm. I shrugged and pushed her away, calculating. We needed to get out, now.

'Bakal de gaters avida?' How are we going to escape? I hissed to Max in our secret language, the one we hadn't used in years. We hadn't needed to use it. It took her a minute to grasp the fact that I was speaking our language but just as she was about to reply, the door was flung open and a short fat man came waddling out. I resisted the urge to leap up and smash his face in; I knew I wouldn't get far. It's taken me a while, but I've learned to pick my battles. Well, at least the ones where I'm outnumbered two thousand to fiv-four.

Man, who am I kidding, I went for it. I leapt up and sprinted towards him, determined to make him pay for killing my sister. The Flyboys were a little slow on their reflexes so I got the satisfying view of his piggy face scrunch up in pure fear as I lifted him off the ground and drew back my fist. Of course, then reality caught up with me and I was yanked back by, like, fifty robots and severely beaten for being a 'bad mutant-freak'.

When they finally released me, I limped back to the others, blood streaming down my face and left arm, but a triumphant gleam in my eyes. The look on the pudgy one's face had been so worth it. They had yet to realise how difficult we could be when we wanted to. And I had a burning desire to be very rebellious right then. The scientist, wisely, saw that it would probably be safer (for him and the others behind him) if this interrogation-to-be was continued inside so we (and the unconscious Iggy) were carted inside and tied down to metal chairs. Even Iggy- the one who was positively out cold.

It reminded me of a top class business meeting, where the fancy clients get offered caviar and fancy wine and champagne while the businessmen steal all their money with their overpriced rates. The only differences were that we were physically tied down to what could turn out to be torture chairs, not getting offered any food or liquid whatsoever, one of us was unconscious, the 'businessmen' were currently deciding whether we live or die, we weren't paying them to mess up our lives (they were doing it for free – how lucky were we! Please note sarcasm), the freaks had killed our sister... I could go on. But apart from those minor differences, it was exactly the same thing!

They grilled us for awhile, trying to get us to crack and tell them where the experiments we rescued in New York had gone, but we all held our ground. Thanks goodness they didn't take out guns, needles or other torture materials, though. It was, all in all, pretty tame. For the School that is, there were still multiple bruises gained and I think Gaz got a few fingers broken when he tried to imitate their voices, but it was still very mild compared to our childhood.

Just when things were beginning to get a little boring, there was a crash and a high pitched scream from somewhere far off in the building. They rushed to the window, and, around their massive butts, we could see flashes of what seemed like purple flames. One of them swore softly, saying 'That kid's got guts, I tell ya. She's never going to get far.' The scientists exchanged worried looks as the purple flames continued and ran out of the room, barking orders at each other.

We stayed frozen for a moment; one of the experiments was escaping. If one of them could do it, surely the five of us could. We were temporarily forgotten and, taking advantage of that, I started to struggle to get out of these weird chairs. The others, catching onto my idea, started to try as well. Iggy began to stir when we had been at it for a few minutes. He convulsed a few times, not yet realising the situation, and his eyes snapped open to reveal large pupils that were full of worry and stress. He thrashed around, making fresh blood seep into the restraints and drip onto the floor.

'Iggy! Calm down, we're here. We're also captured and tied down, but don't focus on that right now. Are you okay?' Max talked to him softly, trying to get Iggy to calm down before he got the whitecoats to come back. Iggy tensed suddenly and then relaxed back into the chair, his face a mask of pain, both emotional and physical. He groaned softly and tried to break the straps, even though we could see the pain it was causing him. 'Iggy? Just don't move, okay? We'll get you out in a second, so just stay still now; you got pretty torn up a while back.'

'She's here. She's in the building; I can feel her, inside me.' Iggy whispered, his eyes tortured and desperate. 'She's running, they're chasing... Always chasing, never stopping... No! They got her, breaking her, hurting her. Nudge!' We all started, half afraid of what Iggy might come up with next, he must have been disoriented and hallucinating from loss of blood. I strained harder, using all my muscles to try and break free. I needed to get to him, try and calm him before he caught the whitecoats attention and they came charging back.

I could feel the restraints slowly giving way to my strength. I grunted as my body cried out, but continued to fight to get free. My whole body protested as I pushed myself to the very limit. Creak... I nearly had it. C'mon... Snap! I finally broke one of the buckles and then the rest were no match for me, once I had my right arm free. The others high-fived and hugged once I figured out the catch to their restraints - all except Iggy. He remained motionless in his chair, even after I undid his straps. 'Iggy, c'mon dude. We have to get out of here.'

He looked at me, his eyes hooded and dangerous. 'She's here, Fang. I can feel it.' He sounded so sure and heartbroken, his strawberry blonde hair flopping into his eyes, some steaks stained bright red from the bloody cuts on his face.

'Iggy, Nudge is dead. And we will end up the same way if we don't leave now. I know you can see her in your dreams, maybe even see her in real life sometimes. But this is a dangerous and very real situation... Are you willing to risk Angel's, the Gasman's and Max's life on some feeling you get or some dream you have sometimes? Because I'm not. I know you miss her, we all do. But this is serious and we have to get out before something bad happens. Are you with me or not?' My words were cold and harsh; I hated the look that passed through his eyes. I felt like a terrible person for crushing him.

My eyes remained serious and blank while I screamed in my mind I'm sorry! I'm sorry! But I did what needed to be done and it worked. If we wanted to get out of the high security torture facility with bloodthirsty guards alive, we needed to be a team and together. Iggy stood painfully and limped over to the rest of us, his face a picture of pain and despair. Max fussed over him for a few minutes, trying to get Iggy to show her his wound, but he held fast. He weakly pushed her away and she stayed away, understanding Iggy needed space.

We ran to the window, to see if the experiment was still creating a distraction and stopped, amazed. There was a small (tiny beside the huge shapes) figure in the middle of what seemed like hundreds of Erasers, fighting. We were too far away to see her face or any of her features, but we could see the amazing purple balls of energy that seemed to be coming from her hands. Her body was surrounded by a pulsating bubble and her hair was flying around her as she whipped around every few milliseconds to deal with new attackers.

The girl was a brilliant fighter, but there were too many attackers for her to win. The others turned away to discuss battle strategies. But I stayed watching. I winced when they got hits in and I was angry when I saw her blood stain the dirt ground. Something about her seemed familiar, but it meant nothing, I didn't know her. It looked vaguely like—No, It couldn't be her. My hand was pressed against the glass, my eyes trained in on her. She looked so much like—I couldn't say it. I turned away just as she took another hard hit that almost brought her to her knees, if I watched for much longer, I wouldn't be able to stop myself from breaking the window and joining her.

I desperately wanted to do that. But my Flock needed me and I could help her more from the outside. That was my logic talking. Damn logic. My heart and soul were screaming at me to help her, but I couldn't. I knew which the smarter thing to do was and all I could do was hope that the mystery girl could hold on until we destroyed this branch of the School. Hold on...

Suddenly the bright purple flashes that had been lighting up the room at irregular intervals, stopped. There was an agonizingly painful shriek that filled the air for a few terrible seconds and then... Silence. My heart squeezed, jumping to the worst conclusions, and I clenched my fists. I needed to fight a whitecoat, any whitecoat (I wasn't picky), and hurt him. Badly.

'Let's do this.'

Nudge POV:

I rocked back and forth, my legs tucked up. They had to bring him back. I couldn't live without him. It had been a day and a half. What were they doing to him? Collin had been trying to protect me, now he was gone. Why did the people I care about always either betray me, or sacrifice themselves for me?

The room was strangely empty without Collin, the walls starting to close in on me. I whimpered and started to hyperventilate. What it they forgot about me? What if I used up all the air in here? What if I suffocated? What if Collin never came back? What if—

A loud clang from the door slamming open yanked me from my thoughts. An Eraser stood, jeering at me, in the doorway. 'Is the little birdie scared? Aww, are you missing your little loser friend? He was really yummy, not much meat though. Do you want to be next...?'

No. Not Collin.

I flung myself on him, like a crazy wildcat that had been deprived of food for days and had just sighted a wonderfully succulent deer or whatever. (Yeah, weird analogy, I've been alone for too long.) My hands burst into purple balls of fire and I felt the consuming rush that always came with the energy. He didn't even have time to scream as I collided with him, my eyes full of fire. As we crashed to the floor, my hands found his throat and I grasped it with both hands that were surrounded with raw energy.

'Where. Is. Collin?' I spat out, slamming his head against the ground. No reply. 'Tell me, you freak. Before I kill you...' My voice sounded so... Not me. Guess rage can do that to a person. He still said nothing and I stood, the Eraser dangling from my hands that were raised above my head. The purple flames swirled around my body, making me resemble a war god or something.

I wanted revenge and I wanted it now. My whole life was messed up, my family betrayed me, my best friend (and the only one I had left) had been ripped away from me and I was sick and tired of people deciding my fate. Now was my time to decide things. It was my time to control my life.

At first, I thought I hadn't heard anything, but then he repeated it again. 'The second door on the left, building four, on the third floor. I'm sorry.' He said the last part in a whisper, taking his last breaths. The monster that had been raging inside my mind instantly disappeared, leaving me broken and empty, with a dying man in my hands. I got rid of the flames immediately, lowering the Eraser and dropping beside him.

I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but the Eraser – who had changed back to a strangely human form – beat me to it. 'They took me when I turned fifteen. It was to see if the Erasers would last longer if they were formed during puberty. It wasn't a success.' I was crying at this point, my hands trembling as I tried to hold my tears in. 'Don't blame yourself, I was dying already. Give them hell from me.'

I turned to the open door, which was just waiting for me to charge through it, and back at the dying Eraser that had been a good person at some point. 'Go...' He gasped and pointed a half morphed paw/hand at the empty hallway. 'Before they catch you.'

I took one long desperate look back and then summoned the fire, making it climb up and around my arms. A quick glance around showed no one so I sprinted down the halls, trying to find and exit and then the way to "building four", wherever that was. I was just about to give up and smash a damn window when I found an emergency fire exit. Perfect. I opened it as carefully as someone who handles a bomb, terrified it would set off an alarm or something worse than that. If I got caught, I was officially screwed. And that might mean Collin was screwed.

I burst through the doors, uplifted by the fact that the alarm hadn't immediately alerted my escape. And then promptly backpedalled, hoping no one had seen me. Yeah right, it was so typical of my life. I just had to run into the middle of a mass Eraser training session. The bad Erasers. Two hundred or so bright red eyes immediately turned my direction and zoomed in on me. They stopped everything they were doing and started to come towards me, fast. I slammed the doors shut and went to run like freaking hell back to the empty corridors, but before I even got three steps I was pulled sharply back and thrown into the thick of the rank smelling beasts.

No you don't! Time to be difficult! I let my power loose, sending random bursts of power everywhere, trying to keep the advancing pack of Erasers from getting too close. It didn't work that well, looking back on it. You know what they say: hindsight is 20/20.

My attempts only kept them back for a few minutes; soon they were all over me, biting, kicking, and breaking bones... Just being plain nasty. I fought back and quite a few of them fell back with pain-filled cries. I could hear people running out from various building and the Erasers being pulled off me, but I continued to send flashes of purple energy at every direction. I took a particularly hard hit at one point and, somehow, my vision was pointed up at the window of one of the buildings.

I saw him, looking down on me. His dark hair was swept across his face, his expression blank, his face showing bloody cuts and bruises. His hand placed on the window, as if he was about to smash the window and fly down. I thought he saw me too, and I was about to do something, anything to show him I was there. But then he turned away. It can't be him. But they walked away from me once; he could probably do it again, easily. I was just holding tightly onto the hope that it was all a huge misunderstanding and that they would come back and save me. I was just being childish, I needed to forget them, they weren't coming back. Ever.

My mind forced me to see the logic in the situation. I knew my Flock. I knew it was Fang, I knew he saw me. But he walked away... He left me. He betrayed me a second time. Strike two. Three strikes and I would be out. For good.

I lost concentration at that point and they started to overwhelm me. I still fought back, though, determined to stay strong till the very end. My anger and pain fuelled my strength and I imagined every Eraser that I hit was one of the Flock. It worked and my energy flames got larger and more powerful as I remembered his retreating back. Always walking away.

All good things must come to an end, though. I shrieked as they caught me from behind and shoved into me into a tiny metal crate, with no windows or anything so I was completely in darkness. I tried to put all my pain and agony into the scream the erupted from my mouth, and it made a haunting sound as it echoed around the torture facility. My scream split the silence like a knife through butter, but I stopped abruptly as my cage was overturned and my head was whacked against the side. I hate the dark. I was running out of energy, feeling my wounds start aching for the first time since I got them.

I lay in the darkness for a long time and when they finally opened the door, I cringed back from the piercing light. I was tipped unmercifully out, though, and I tumbled onto the cold floor. The door was slammed behind me and I looked slowly up, moaning at the pain that was consuming my entire body. The sight that I saw made me forget all my injuries and pain, though. I was focused on one thing only.

'Collin!'

So... Love it, hate it? I tried to make this an exciting and emotional chapter, so tell me how I did.
Also, drop me a line on what you want to have happened to Collin. Do you want him to be turned into some hybrid? If so, what kind? Do you want him to be really injured? Is so, by what? Basically, if you want a say, just review or PM me and I'll pick the best suggestion, or the one that fits the most into the story line!

Thanks to the following for reviewing the last two chapters:
MaxRide05 x2
nequam-tenshi
MEGGEM x2
lunareclipse3 x2
alva
doesitmatter
BookFan22 a.k.a GwenFan22 x2
Constant-Rae-of-Sunshine
InkDrinker
UNDERLANDERfromtheOVERLAND
GoGreenAndFly
Zoe625
max ride book lover
MaxandFang101
You guys make me happy! I hope I haven't forgotten anyone now!

I'm also on a break from school for a few (wonderful) days, so if I get a lot of reviews, I will post the next chapter early!

Peace out fanfictioners,
addicted-2-oxygen