A.N. Another apology for the long update! Once I get over this hurdle of a chapter, it should flow better! And this chapter will probably be one of the most serious chapters of the story.

Again, thank you to everyone who reviewed for this story! I love hearing your thoughts!

Warning: There is mention of gore in this one, but I tried not to make it too graphic!

Enjoy! :)

Recap: And after the crashing stopped, I lifted my head, immediately inhaling a thick cloud of dust. I coughed, doubling over and lifting the front of my shirt to my mouth, breathing through the material. I blinked my eyes rapidly, trying to regain my eyesight.

"Max?" Jon croaked from somewhere to my left, his figure partially illuminated from one of the flash lights that had fallen in the floor due to the rumbling.

But my attention was riveted elsewhere.

My eyes were locked on Dylan's unmoving sneaker-clad feet.

Which happened to be the only part of him that could be seen from underneath the two ton wall of rocks.

Chapter 5: Dylan

"Oh my God," My mom gasped as Jon and I wheeled Dylan into her makeshift doctor's office on a gurney.

Jeb immediately turned from his patient at the sound of Mom's voice, lowering the facemask from his mouth. His face paled as his eyes landed on Dylan's figure, but he was nowhere near as pale as Dylan was.

Mom rushed forward, hands covering her mouth, fighting down tears at the sight of Dylan's unconscious body. "How... how did this…" She trailed off, looking up at Jon.

Dylan looked like road kill, and that was putting it lightly. His body looked broken and beaten. 'He looks dead', I thought, before instantly trying to suppress that negative idea. My eyes skirted over him before quickly looking away, trying not to take in the grotesque image of his bent limbs and wings, his closed eyes, and all that blood...

"It was an accident," I whispered. "The rocks collapsed, and-and Dylan was…" Mom's eyes met mine, and I almost started crying. Almost. My eyes became glossy and itchy with tears, and I gulped thickly, trying to remain as calm as possible even though I was freaking out beyond comprehension on the inside.

"Valancia, he needs help," Jon butted in, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"What do we do, Mom?" I asked, choking on the words. My throat felt thick- like it was stuffed with cotton balls.

"We need to get him hooked up," Jeb ordered, collecting some IV's and other medical instruments from around the room. When he saw that Mom still hadn't moved, he stopped. "Valancia!"

Mom shook herself out of her stupor, swallowed, and looked at Jon. "Wheel him over to the corner," she pointed towards the back left corner of the room, "and we'll start the IV's." She quickly slipped into her doctor role, and she rushed over to Jeb where a small wheeling cart was stationed. She pulled out a small stock of sterile needles and medicines as Jon followed her orders.

Within seconds, Mom was monitoring his heart rate with a stethoscope, and Jeb was hastily setting up the IV's to Dylan's body. Jon looked at me from over their heads, and his solemn look mirrored my own.

"What can I do, Mom?" I asked helplessly, the moisture threatening to fall from my eyes as I watched Dylan get hooked up to so many wires and needles that I lost count. "Tell me how I can help."

"Honey, there's nothing you can do right now," Jeb said, concentrating on injecting a clear liquid into Dylan's shoulder. I tried to ignore that he called me 'honey', and the way the sight of the needles made my skin crawl.

"But there's got to be a way I can..." I trailed off, shuffling nervously as I awaited an order. Anything to keep preoccupied and of use. I was bad at just sitting around; I needed to help.

I received no answer. "Be patient, Max," Jon consoled, moving to stand beside me, not wanting to get in the way of the two of them. "All we can do right now is wait." Oh great. Because I was so good at waiting patiently.

I watched as Jeb cut Dylan's shirt down the middle, maneuvering it off his skin, sticky with blood to view what was below. I gasped and raised a hand to my mouth at the sight, feeling dizzy and sick. Jon noticed and grabbed my arm, holding me steady.

Long razor-sharp cuts adorned his chest and stomach, and the blood flow wasn't stopping.

Mom swore loudly in alarm, grabbing some gauze and large strips of cloth. She pressed them into his wounds in an attempt to stop the bleeding, but it looked as hopeless as trying to use a piece of bubblegum to stop a leaking wall with twenty holes in it.

"Jon!" Mom cried, and he rushed over to her. "Hold these down. Max, I need you too!" I immediately joined them, and together we held the strips, trying to absorb and put a stop to the bleeding.

"Elevate his feet!"

"Put more pressure on it, guys!"

The blood began to seep onto my hands, and I couldn't help it as tears tracked their way down my dusty face. I put more pressure onto the wound, not sure if I was doing more harm than good. I bit my lip hard, trying to focus on my hands and not on Dylan's face, on his condition, or on this whole situation.

This sucked.

"This is bad, Jeb," Mom whispered from beside Jon. "Really bad. His pulse is about… 300 beats per minute."

"The normal heart rate for avian recombinants is about 240. It's way too fast right now."

"Jeb, check his blood pressure."

"I'm checking it now," Jeb answered. "Get him hooked up to the Electrocardiogram, over in the corner. The generator plug-in is right behind us."

"On it."

Another few seconds, and Mom had Dylan hooked up to the heart monitor. The lights flickered at first, the EKG suctioning most of the generator's power as it powered up. But then the power balanced out, and a green line appeared on the EKG's cracked screen, signaling Dylan's heartbeat.

And then we got the sound feedback. But instead of the fast and steady "Beep. Beep. Beep." sound that all Avian-human's heart rates were supposed to be, his was a rushed and frantic "BeepBeepBeepBeep!" with little pause or space in between.

The hair on my arms prickled and my stomach dropped, and Mom and Jeb's alarm grew at the frantic pacing of his heart. I watched the erratic green line zigzag up and down uncontrollably to my right, and I felt like I was going to throw up.

"Valancia, prepare the hypodermic!" My eyes widened. I had used one of those on Fang, after his heart had stopped during one of Dr. Chu's experiments gone wrong.

"Wait!" I yelled. "Isn't that only for a low pulse rate?"

"Yes, but in case of his heart stopping, we'll need to get it back up and running," Mom elaborated, taking a large syringe out of the wheel cart and injecting something into it. After a few seconds, she held a huge needle up to the light, squirting a few drops out of the point. I tried not to cringe at how close the needle was to me. Old habits die hard.

"Is it ready?" Jeb requested.

"It's ready," Mom confirmed, over the sound of The EKG's constant beeping.

"Good," Jeb commented. "Let's hope he'll stabilize before we have to use it." Jeb looked over at our fabric strips, which were no longer dry against Dylan's chest and stomach. "Keep pressure on that, Max." For the first time in a long time, I did what Jeb asked.

"Is the saline solution in effect?" Jeb inquired. Mom held Dylan's wrist where a needle attached to the clear tube was inserted into his veins.

"Yes- it is keeping his blood-plasma levels stable. Do you have the blood pressure levels?"

Jeb nodded at Mom, a grim frown on his lips. "His Systolic and Diastolic levels are 200 over 130. That's about 1/3 faster than it should be. Valancia, he's in danger of going into Atrial Fibrillation... or Cardiac arrest."

Mom sighed as she quickly attached a water tube to one of the IV's in his arm, raising the bag to hang on a suspension bar near the EKG machine. "He's lost a lot of blood. He's going to need multiple transfusions."

Jeb shook his head. "Not if we can stop the internal bleeding. Dylan's a newer life form, with unbelievable regenerative properties."

Mom looked at Jeb quizzically. "And what does that mean?"

"If we can find the sources that are cause of the most trauma and cure them, he will ultimately regenerate the blood he's lost, as well as the bones and muscles that were torn or broken." Jeb said in a rush, using antiseptic pads to wipe away some of the blood on his hands.

"And how do we figure that out?!" Mom said, her anger at the helplessness of this situation rising. "He's got a mixture of internal and external bleeding! We don't have the technology we used to have, back before the world ended!"

"No," Jeb agreed, giving her a steady look. "But we do have mutants. Mutants that can heal." Mom's eyes widened as she got it.

She peered at me from across the table. "Sweetie, you've sent Angel mind messages before, haven't you?" She asked urgently.

I nodded. "Once," I cleared my throat of the gruffness. "I have once before." That had been before Fang split to find his own gang, and just before I had seen him die. I had sent a mental image to Angel, and she had heard me.

"Good. Tell her that we need all the healers from the meeting yesterday as soon as possible. Dylan's life depends on it."

I stared at my hands, my nervousness growing after every scientific word that I didn't understand, but guessed was bad, came out of Mom and Jeb's mouth. I was sitting in the other corner of the room, beside Jaxon's, the patient that Jeb had been tending to before we had barged in, bed.

Jaxon was a kid around thirteen, with shaggy brown hair and green eyes. He had been injured in the Fracture, when a rock fell from the cave's ceiling and cracked a few of his ribs. Unfortunately, one of his lungs had been punctured, and extra-unfortunately, he didn't have super healing like us bird kids did.
I had met him yesterday, when the medical team and I had flown up this room to treat some of the patients. He was a nice kid, and I learned that he had the ability of super strength, much like his brother.

In fact, if Jon and I hadn't caught his older brother Henry as he was heading up to see Jaxon, we never would have been able to get Dylan out of the rubble in the first place. Now, Jaxon was either sleeping or unconscious, his heart monitor a lot steadier than Dylan's. An oxygen mask was tied around Jaxon's mouth, providing the air flow that his still healing lung couldn't.

I tightened my arms around my legs which were pulled up to my chest, kicking myself for not inviting Henry with us to infiltrate the caves this morning. If he had, Dylan would have never gotten hurt, and we probably would have been successful with clearing the rocks out.
It was one of those things that I hadn't thought about.
Once again, I had barged headfirst into a mission, trying to open the caves, without even a thought-out plan or safety measures beforehand.

I glared at the ground, picking at the dried blood on my palm. I was a terrible leader.

I had sent the message to Angel fifteen minutes ago, telling her to round up the healers. It had taken a lot of tries and me practically screaming the message in my head as loud as I could to get her to respond. But the minutes that they didn't show up seemed to pass by like hours. Jeb and Mom's hushed and hurried words began to blend into each other.

Mom had ordered me to sit down after I had contacted Angel, telling me that there was too many people crowded around Dylan to work. Jeb had said something about Dylan needing surgery, but they were waiting on the healers to show up so they could pinpoint the exact areas that needed crucial attention.

At this point in time, I had no idea what was going on. I felt out of the loop. I felt exhausted, and weak.

I wondered if Dylan was going to make it. But from the number of tests and the defeated wariness in Jeb's voice… It didn't sound good.

It took me a few seconds to realize that footsteps were approaching the room.

"For the last time, Angel- tell me what's going on." A deep commanding voice ordered from the hallway. Fang. The tears that I'd been fighting to hold back instantly trailed down my face again at the sound of his voice, and I rose from my sitting position, feeling numb and wobbly on my feet.

"Dylan's hurt," A soft voice that I immediately identified as Angel's announced. And then she was there in the doorway, with Fang following behind her. Mason and Logan, the two healers, trailed after them, eyes wide and uneasy at the urgency of the situation. Victoria and Lilia walked behind them, each looking nervous.

Fang's eyes found mine immediately, and I swallowed hard. He saw the tear tracks down my face, and then the blood on my shirt and my hands. His eyes widened.

Max," He asked urgently, gently moving past Angel. "Are you hurt?"

"No," I whispered, wiping the tears on my cheeks. "I'm fine." I gestured towards Dylan's body with Jon, Jeb, and Mom hovering around him.

Fang moved his eyes back to me after a few seconds. He walked towards me and opened his arms slightly. He didn't have to ask me twice. I stumbled the distance between us and latched onto him, unable to keep from letting out a strangled sob.

"Shh…" He soothed, holding me tightly. He softly ran a hand through my hair in a comforting motion, resting his head on the top of my own. "It's gonna' be alright." I sniffled pathetically, hating myself for my weakness as I buried my head in his chest. His black shirt was grimy and dirty from a day of intense scavenging, but I didn't care. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, trying to block out the sound of my mom and Jeb's frantic voices.

I heard Angel order the two teen boys over to the table, sounding calm even though Dylan practically looked like zombie. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Victoria and Lilia stand off to the side again, watching Dylan with wide eyes.

Fang shifted his head, but didn't stop smoothing my hair. "What happened?" He asked in a serious voice that sounded muffled to my ears.

"An accident," Jon replied, sounding exhausted and far away. "Dylan was trying to get to the back part of the caves, and the rocks fell on him when he was trying to clear a path."

"Is he…" Fang trailed off. Is he going to make it, I finished in my head, shaking slightly.

"His heart's still beating," Jeb announced quickly. I watched as he attached another needle into Dylan's arm. "But it's… failing."

I heard more cussing, and then Logan's shaky voice. "He's got multiple lacerations, and fractured bones. The biggest problem is the veins near his heart, though. Many of them have been either blocked or disconnected. His ribcage has collapsed... And the muscles in his heart are... not good."

"I'm trying to take away his pain," Mason announced, "But I can't exactly pinpoint it. It's coming from a lot of different places at once."

"Jeb, we need to start surgery!" Mom exclaimed. "It's a miracle he's still alive! That's got to mean something, right?"

Jeb nodded grimly. "He still might be able to regenerate. But then again, he might not."

"It's worth a try, Jeb." Mom said. Jeb seemed to debate with himself. We all knew what could happen if Jeb performed surgery. Dylan could die. But if Jeb didn't… Then he definitely would.

Jeb finally sighed, rubbing a hand down his face tiredly. "Val, get me my tools. I can do my best, but it's not looking good. He would need a heart transplant, as well as pulmonary surgery and numerous bypasses to the heart." Jeb looked up at Mom's helpless face. "But I don't think he's going to make it."

Fang stiffened, and I felt the breath halt in my throat. The words hit me like an electric shock, and I became consumed with waves of guilt. I was just a second away from a breakdown.

'It's all my fault, it's all my fault', repeated in my mind, over and over again.

Fang never stopped stroking my hair and holding me, but I refused to let him comfort me.

'It's all my fault…'

"Do you have the sterilizing needles?"

"I have them."

"Mason, are you prepared to act as an anesthetic?"

"I'm ready," He replied shakily.

"I need my scalpel and my rotary saw. Logan, you're going to have to guide me. Are you prepared to do that?"

"No, but I'll try."

Jeb nodded. "That's all I'm asking for. Val, watch the EKG. If anything fluctuates, let me know."

"Okay."

"Alright, guys," Jeb said. "Here we go." I stumbled away from Fang, observing the scene with blurry eyes.

"Max," Fang soothed next to me. His voice was gentle, like he was coaxing a wounded animal. "Let's wait outside, okay?" He grabbed my arm. He tried to tug me out the door, not wanting me to see this, but I ripped my arm away from his grasp, moving away from him. I couldn't wait to find out if Dylan lived or died. It was now or never.

I was done with waiting. I needed to be here.

Jeb lowered the scalpel towards Dylan's body, the room silent except for the fast beeping of the monitor.

And just as he was about to touch Dylan's skin with the tool, a voice rang out.

"Wait!"

Jeb stopped and everyone wheeled around to face the wall by the doorway. Victoria was standing there, eyes wide, with eight-year old Lilia standing beside her.

She took a deep breath, and then repeated, "Wait." She looked down at Lilia, who signed something up at her.
Victoria nodded at her mute little sister. "If you do surgery, you'll kill him."

Mom stepped forward, her tone hard. "Then what do you propose we do?"

Victoria swallowed thickly, as if she held the answers that would save Dylan, but would end her life or something. She squeezed her little sister's hand, and regretfully spoke out the words:

"Lilia can save him."

A.N. Please review, and let me know what you think!
Hopefully the medical stuff didn't sound too cheesy. I had a lot of help from Google!
And I know that Max was really angsty in this chappie, but she's dealing with a big case of guilt here, even though it wasn't completely her fault.
But this story will not be DAX! Sorry, guys that love Dylan and Max together, but I'm a FAX shipper, through and through!

So, why do you think that Victoria was reluctant to let her sister help Dylan?
Do you think Dylan's going to live, or die?

Also, if you have any ideas that you want me to use for future scenes in the story, let me know! They can be anything, like the flock going swimming, or Max finding out who the voice really is (because it was so not Angel. Sorry, JP, but that didn't even make sense in the last book.)
I might just use them in the story!