A/N: Since only 1 person voted in the poll, I'm going to assume the rest of you don't care and do whatever I want. Yay!
On the upside, there's only this chapter and 1 more until the finish. XD
-PERSONAL NOTE! My favorite band is releasing a single on the 22nd! That is in 2 days people! So excuse me if I seem overly happy! Plus my romantic life I believe is about to take a happy-making turn! So I am happy today!
Ulquiorra: /mutters Too happy.
Me: Shut up, no one likes you.
/is trampled by angry fangirls
We are all speechless.
Somehow Max goes over and presses the keypad, letting the doors swing open. I jolt out of my horrified trance and step forward on shaking legs, into the room with the cages and the mutants and the nightmares.
Just looking at this room brings back the most awful memories. Horrible days, nights, years on end of running, of jumping, of swimming. Of slowly wasting away in a small, cramped crate, your life an endless stretch of pain and misery. That was the School, that was what it represented.
"This is pathetic," I murmur, glancing into the crate of a sleeping kitty with human eyes and fingers. Max glances over, holds her breath, and looks away and walks on. But I stay in front of the cat, trying to swallow the lump in my throat.
I don't know the last time I cried. Before we left the School. Actually, I don't think I've ever really cried before. So the sensation of the sting in my eyes is unfamiliar. I duck my head and curse under my breath, swiping angrily at my eyes, trying to get my emotions under control.
When I raise my head, I see Max standing next to Nudge, trying to catch my eye. I go over to her and look into the crate they're looking into. Inside is a baby bird kid, with tiny brown wings and a tuft of hair.
"You know, we can't save them all," I say tenderly.
"I'm supposed to save the whole world, remember?" Max whispers back. "Well, I'm gonna start with these guys." She turns and whispers, "Start popping latches!" to Ig, who turns and passes it on.
I keel down and carefully pick up the baby from the crate, holding it securely against my chest. With one hand, I pop as many latches as possible. Experiments are pressing against the cages, making all kinds of excited, scared, confused noises.
Finally all the mutants are freed from the crates and standing in a giant huddle, shaking with all kinds of emotions. Max frees one last kid and grabs it by the wrist, shouting, "Okay, everybody! Let's blow this joint!"
"This way!" Nudge cries, attempting to herd the kids from the lab. "Don't be afraid!"
"I hear voices," Ig mutters. "Be very afraid."
"Let's go!" Max shouts, ignoring their little dialogue. "Nudge! Fang! Angel! Out, out, out!"
I wonder what in the world we're doing. We can barely feed and clothe ourselves, but now to be in charge of fifty people…? What is Max thinking? I don't have time to stop and puzzle it out.
Nudge, Angel and I run to the second door as quickly as we can. I press the tiny baby's head to my chest as I begin to sprint up the stairs, supporting it with my arms, curling protectively around it. For some reason my throat is still aching, and my eyes are starting to burn again. I'm tired of running away all the time. I just want to sit down and play with some babies and relax. If I have a small child in my arms, I don't want to be running up a million stairs for my life with it. I want to be safe and free with it.
I push open the last door, and we all spill back into the sewer. I pause for a moment to make sure we have everyone, and I see Max talking to somebody I can't see.
"Sewer system, under a big city," she says to the person, explaining where we are. "On our way to fresh air and sunlight."
"But not just yet. First we need to chat, Maximum. Just you and I."
Ari's voice fills my ears and I begin to shake with anger, pressing the baby against my chest to try and control my violent and murderous tendencies.
"Back again?" Max sneers. "What are you doing here? I thought Dad was keeping you on a short leash." She makes 'run!' motions with her hands behind her back. Quickly, Ig and I begin to herd the mutants away, down the sewer tunnel and towards the ladder. The other three stay with Max.
As we walk, I look only ahead, climbing the ladder mechanically and helping all the mutants through. Finally the last girl comes, and I finally see who Max was talking to back there.
She's a girl, about my age, with long, tangled blond hair and tired blue eyes. From her back sprouts two massive white wings, speckled with black spots like pepper. Her eyes lock onto mine, a confused glance passing through them. For some reason, déjà vu hits me like a jackhammer, and I can only stare for a moment with my mouth open.
Abruptly, I turn and start walking, taking the lead again. She jogs to catch up with me.
"Hey," she greets me, like we're old friends.
"Hi."
I don't elaborate, waiting for her to tell me where we've met before. But she doesn't, so I think that maybe I'm just imagining things.
"Iggy said to ask you where we're going," she says, jerking her thumb backwards at the end of the line, where Ig is bringing up the caboose.
I glance sharply at her, then look away again when the déjà vu hits me again. I shake my head sharply and focus on my footsteps.
"Uh, he said he couldn't because he was blind…" Her voice trailed off, and she realized how dumb she was being. I think.
"And…you believed this because…?" I pushed for details, fully expecting her to say, How can a blind person describe a city?
"A blind person's experience in a city is different than a seeing person's. Since we're both seeing people, I thought you might be able to explain it better," she says sharply, and I glance at her, impressed. You pass.
"Just wait," I say, and push open the last door. Bright sunlight hits me in the face, and I look at her to see her shielding her blue eyes from the light with her hands, blinking hard.
"Turn off the sun," she complains.
After about five half-seconds, she – and all the rest of the mutants – are able to open their eyes and look around them in wonder. But we don't have time for this. If we get them safely away from here, they'll have plenty of time to admire the scenery.
"Follow me," I murmur, slipping through an alley and walking down the closely walled in pathway. Gravel crunches under my feet, and I look down and notice that all the experiments have no shoes. Despite this, the girl next to me seems to be walking perfectly normally. I wondered what kinds of things she'd endured to get calluses like that.
We emerge into an empty lot, and I let all the mutants stream from the alley into it. Ig and I face the crowd, which has grouped all together to face us.
"We need to discuss some stuff," I announce, and all the heads turn towards me.
"Like what?" asks a cross female, who seems to be part cat with ears and a tail.
"Like if you're going to stay with us," I say, my voice hard. I feel a little bad about it, and actually I really do want to keep all of them, but the fact was, was that that just wasn't possible. And any weakness was going to get someone killed.
"Well, I kind of assumed…" says the blond girl, her voice faltering.
"Assumed what?" Ig asks harshly, his sightless eyes hardening. "That we'd be able to feed and clothe all forty-seven of you?"
"How do you -?"
I wave my hand, discarding a pointless question. "Let's vote."
The words hit the familiar-looking girl like a slap in the face, and she stumbles backwards, shaking her head in disbelief as she stares at me with wide eyes. I cut my eyes to her, trying to let her see what I'm feeling in my eyes, but she isn't ready look.
"Who wants them to go?" I ask, but before I can make up my mind, the girl's spine straightens and her features harden.
"Fine. Be that way," she says angrily.
Without her even needing to say anything, the cat-girl and a boy with so many lizardlike mutations I can't even count on one hand appear at her sides, looking equally angry.
"See ya, losers," she says, mock-saluting me.
Then that girl, who I had definitely seen somewhere before, turns and runs away from me, her two friends following behind.
Ig sighs and shakes his head. "Well, that's that," he muses.
I can't rip my eyes away from the spot where she disappeared, a feeling of regret welling up in me. Now I'd never know where she came from, and I'd always have to wonder why she seemed so familiar.
"What about the rest of them?" Ig asks, gesturing to the rest of the mutants. I turn and watch them. They seem to have taken a leaf out of thee blond girl's book, and are slowly disbanding and walking off in different directions.
If I knew the whitecoats, half of them would be back in the cages by nightfall, but that was okay. I hoped they got to at least enjoy the couple of hours that they'd get to be free from the Institute.
One of the mutants came up to me and wordlessly held out her arms. I handed the baby in my arms away with only a slight pang, but I quickly smothered it.
Soon the lot was devoid of any people besides me and Ig. We stand in awkward silence for a moment before I see Max limping out of the tunnel, supported by Nudge. Gaz and Angel follow worriedly.
"Where are the other kids? The mutants?" Max rasps.
"The girl with wings took them." I don't know what makes me lie, but I do. I shrug nonchalantly. "She didn't want to stay with us. Wouldn't take no for an answer. Sound like anyone you know?"
Max's facial expression doesn't even change. She looks haunted. I frown worriedly. I wonder what happened down there…
"Just walk. Keep walking," Max murmurs to herself, and begins to limp forward. "Walk the walk."
Slightly concerned, I pick up the pace.
We make it about two minutes before Max stops abruptly. I get ready to roll my eyes, expecting Max to begin reading palms or announce that she's actually a prophet, but she just eyes Angel carefully.
"Angel? What's that?"
I look at Angel to see that she's clutching Celeste to her chest – nothing new there – as well as a weird, black, furry, squirming thing…
"It's my dog," she says, her jaw set as she dares Max to argue.
"Your what?" I ask, gathering to her.
"Let's move," Max says, "but this discussion isn't over, Angel."
We manage to find an overgrown area down at the tip of Battery Park, and huddle down behind yew trees and old rhododendrons. "Okay," Max says, sitting up straighter. "Angel, explain the dog."
"He's my dog," she insists. "From the Institute."
Crap. It probably has a tracker chip in it – although it's not like we don't already have one of those. I send Max a look that clearly says, If you let her keep this dog I will kill you.
"Angel, we cannot have a dog with us," Max says sternly.
The dog wiggles out of her arms and sits next to her. I have to admit, it looks really friendly. Cuddly, cute, ect. ect. It even seems to have a little doggy smile as it wags its stumpy little tail and sniffs eagerly at the air.
"And besides, you already have Celeste," Max points out as Gaz edges closer to the dog, curiosity piqued.
"I love Celeste," Angel states loyally. "But I couldn't leave Total behind."
"Total?" Ig asks.
"That's what his card said," Angel informs us.
"Totally a mutant dog who will probably turn on us and kill us in our sleep," I mutter.
The dog cocks his head at me, his doggy grin fading momentarily before he shakes off the insult and wags his tail happily.
I glare at Max.
"Angel," Max cajoles, "We can't always feed ourselves. We're on the run. It's dangerous out here. It's all we can do to deal with us."
Angel stares at her sneakers, her jaw set. "He's the most wonderful dog in the whole wide world," she says stubbornly. "So there."
Max looks at me helplessly, and I try to make my face stern. "Angel," I say, but then she looks up at me, her eyes wide and innocent, sparkling with the hope that I can make everything right, and as a side note, will I please, pretty-please-with-a-cherry-on-top-plus-those-magical-rainbow-sprinkles, let her keep just one tiny little dog…?
"The first time you don't take care of him, boom, he's out," I say, trying to hold onto the tiny bit of dignity I have left. "Understood?"
Angel's face lights up, and she throws herself at me, almost knocking me over. Her arms squeeze my shoulders, and I just sit there, stunned, for a moment before I awkwardly hug her back. Max gapes at me, and I self-consciously let her go.
"She made Bambi eyes at me," I murmur as an excuse. "You know I can't resist it when she does Bambi eyes…"
"Total!" Angel cries happily. "You can stay!"
She excitedly hugs the wriggling bundle of fur. Total yips happily, then jumps excitedly into the air.
Our collective jaws drop. Total has jumped nearly sixteen feet into the air. He lands, nearly bottoms out, and then jumps back into Angel's arms and excitedly licks her face.
"Oh," says Angel, stunned.
"Yeah, oh," Max agrees fervently.
So who else here forgot about that little detail about Total? Yeah, me too. Just another plot hole that JP left gaping in those books…
If you cried when Fang cried (I know I did, and I was the one writing it…), let me know! I KNOW ALL OF YOU WANT TO PRESS THAT BIG SHINY B-E-A-UTIFUL NEW REVIEW BUTTON! Ain't it just gorgeous!
P.S. Chapter 30? WTF is up with that? !