Fang POV

Great. This situation is just wonderful.

Max is finally getting hit with all of the emotions now. She couldn't start hating me for leaving when she got home? Nope. Typical Max. She had to be angry with me to my face. Max always tries to hide her emotions, but she always fails. I remember when the flock was in Antarctica. I was flirting with Dr. Brigid and Max threw a fit! My life will never be simple…

I caught a glimpse of Max's face when she flew off into the woods. She didn't have tears on her cheeks, but the pit of my stomach told me that tears might be there later. No. Max Never cries. I've only seen her cry five times. The first being when Jeb left us. The second being when Iggy and Gazzy used her Mickey Mouse alarm clock to make a bomb. (She cried because Jeb gave that to her when she was little) The third when I was being beat up by Ari. The fourth when Ari died… And the fifth was yesterday morning because she found me... Max barely cried so much that I can remember each time why she broke down in tears. Max has only seen me cry once. When she found me. Wow. I show my emotions well!

I took a deep breath and sat down by the fire. Max wasn't going to be back until the morning. I didn't want her out there in the woods, alone. People were attacking us, and I didn't think she could take them on her own. Hell, Max can kick my ass if she wanted to. But if she is outnumbered by three and doesn't have help? She's going to be Sunday night's Mystery Meat.

I leaned back on a small tree. What were trees doing in a corn field anyway? No idea.

Can I talk to you? Hawk asked me. Please. Everyone is asleep and I need to talk to someone. I looked over at Hawk who was pretending to be asleep. One of her eyes opened, and she slowly stood up and walked toward me. Xavier and Josh are very light sleepers when they don't sleep in beds, so we have to talk like this.

I nodded and took a deep breath. Hawk looked a mess. She had lines from tears streaking the dirt down her cheeks. She had blood on her yellow windbreaker. It was funny how all of us wore windbreakers to cover our wings. They were so puffy that no one would expect us to have two secret limbs.

What do you need? I asked. My eyes were closed; I was pretending to be asleep. Whatever Hawk wanted to talk about was private.

Hawk inched closer to the fire and sat down; I think you know the person who attacked us today. All his thoughts were saying was 'I got Fang out of the house, now I kill Maximum ride'.

I was surprised that she thought I knew who attacked us. I don't know anyone who looks like that. Sorry. A lot of people want to hurt Max and I. That person could be working for someone, who works for someone else, who works for another guy. It's all one big cycle. I heard snoring from Xavier. Poor little guy went through so much crap today. I barely opened my eye and looked at Janie's body. A small breeze blew the sheet off of her face. I must have been seeing things because she had more… color to her face. She looked more alive. It was probably just my eyes.

No, you don't get it. Hawk said, The person was a shapeshifter.

I froze. I remember from the School that they were talking about shapeshifting DNA… How do you know they could shapeshift? I asked sternly.

I will show you my fighting scene. Hawk said. At first I was confused, but then my eyes went blank and were literally seeing someone's memory. It was like watching a movie from my brain. I saw Hawk ram the guy into a canyon wall, but then out of nowhere he shifted into someone else when knocked unconscious. The blonde hair and light skin was only visible for a second, because Hawk dropped him when he turned back into the person who attacked us. The blonde haired person looked a lot like… No. It's not possible. Dylan is miles and miles away in California. Dylan couldn't have possibly attacked us tonight. I watched the memory over again and looked at the face that was before me. Dylan stared straight ahead.

The memory stopped and I gasped. My eyes shot open and I looked at Hawk who was still pretending to be asleep. You do know him. She opened her eyes and looked at me.

I nodded. I have to think about this before I act. I'm going to bed. Night.

Goodnight.

The memory was burned into my scull. I was too tired to think. I didn't even think of the danger Max could be in right now.

Dylan was the person who wanted me out. Dylan wanted to kill us. All of this time it was fucking Dylan. He was so close to the flock. Max and I hated him, but everyone else in the flock didn't mind him; as far as I could tell anyway. Dylan. Dylan was the person doing this to us.

Max POV

I took a deep breath and leapt down from the tree. I was acting like a baby. I always ran away when there was an awkward moment between me and Fang. Growing up around physical pain doesn't prepare you from emotional pain like this. I took a deep breath and started to slowly walk back to the camp that the owl flock was staying at. The moon was my only light source. My raptor vision saw small embers from the campfire floating in the air a couple yards away. I walked over there and sat as far away from Fang as possible.

Why did I freak out on him? Janie's death was making me sad, but it wouldn't make me spend less time with Fang. Oh God. I'm feeling bitter because he left. But it wasn't his fault! He did it for the flock's safety. I should be thankful to him for that. But why do I feel… unimportant? If he thought I could have helped, he would have told me about the message that told him to leave. I'm ridiculous. I pulled my knees close to my chest and let my wings unfurl. I hate emotions. They never do anyone justice.

I stared at the fire for what felt like a millennium. I ignored the sounds of yawns that were coming from the owl flock; they must be beat. Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone sit up. I turned my head and my jaw dropped.

Janie was staring at me with her giant brown eyes. "My head hurts." She mumbled. I didn't bother to keep the shocked look off of my face. "What?" She asked, worried. "Is everyone okay? Did someone get hurt?" She looked around and mentally counted the people in her flock.

"We—we thought you were… dead." I said. I looked at the ground. What the hell? She was dead, like, 20 seconds ago! How did she…?

"Uhh… No. I was unconscious…" She arched her eyebrow. I looked down at Xavier whose eyes were opening. Even though Janie and I were whispering, to Xavier it sounded like we were clanging pots and pans together.

"Can you keep it—" He started. His big blue eyes locked on Janie. Tears started to form, but he fought them down. "You're alive!" He yelled. Xavier quickly stood up and hugged her. Janie smiled and wrapped her arms around Xavier.

"I was only unconscious." She said, smoothing out his hair. "When the guy poked me in the head, he injected me some sanative or something. My heart slowed down; I felt it. I stopped breathing, but it was almost as if I didn't need oxygen."

I looked over at Josh's sleeping body. His face was stiff and serious before, but the sound of Janie's voice seemed to calm him. His eyes fluttered open and he stood up. His expression was the same as mine: Wide eyes and open mouthed. He looked down at Xavier who was hugging her. He ran over and did the same. When Josh hugged Janie, Xavier was caught in the middle of a hug sandwich. He snuck his way out and walked over to me. I watched Janie and Josh hug with a smile on my face. Even though Josh was about four years older than Janie, he pulled her into a soft and sweet kiss. I put my hands over Xavier's eyes and he laughed.

I looked down at Xavier who was smiling. He was such a sweet kid. Both of us turned around to go wake up Hawk and Fang, but both of them were standing behind us. Hawk's eyes widened when she saw Janie. She quickly looked back at the sheet. There was no body underneath the sheet. Janie was alive. She smiled and ran over to Janie, interrupting her and Josh's kiss. Hawk and Janie hugged each other. Hawk burst into tears. Janie did the same.

I looked up at Fang who was already walking back to his previous spot. Congratulations. I said, telepathically to Hawk. She smiled at me and went back to hugging Janie. I walked over to Fang and sat next to him.

"Sorry." Fang said suddenly. I was forgetting about the awkward moment we had earlier today. Until now.

I sighed, "You're not the one who has to be sorry. I was the jerk who left you flying there for no reason." Wow. I really am an idiot. Fang might as well be wearing an 'I'm with stupid sign'. One that pointed straight to me.

Fang grabbed my hand. I tried to search for a sarcastic comment about him holding my hand all of the time, but I couldn't say anything.

"Let's just forget about it." He said. I agreed with him and leaned back on the small tree. The moment was all going good. Janie was alive. Hawk and the owl flock got their friend back. And Fang and I were resolved.

Xavier asked the question that people were dying to know, "So… what happened? Why did you 'die'" he emphasized the quotes with his fingers, "and now you are awake again. You had no pulse or breathing when we checked you."

Janie looked down, "Because I never died. When I was injected with the crap by the needle in his hand, it made me faint. I heard and saw everything while I was unconscious. My heart slowed and I just stopped breathing… I think I was using my air sacks instead of my lungs." I tilted my head. I forgot about the air sacks. Because we fly very high, we have air sacks to get extra air.

So that was it. Dylan can knock a person out with a frikin needle in his finger. Wonderful. Another thing I have to worry about when fighting him. I tensed and Fang, who was next to me, looked at me.

"What?" He asked.

I bit my lip, "Dylan is at home with the flock. Hawk, did his thoughts say anything about what he was planning to do when he captured me?"

Hawk put her finger on her chin and slowly nodded, "Yeah… he wanted to take you to Itex."

I froze. Dylan could have already taken the flock there. Fang knew this too. Both of us shot up from our sitting position and snapped out our wings.

"We have to go. Now." Fang said. "Our flock is in possible danger." The owl kids nodded and stood up. Everyone flew off into the sky. I needed to get to my flock. They didn't know what was coming for them.