Fang

Max explained during the plane ride. She cried into Ari's shoulder, but I'm pretty sure that was mostly to soften him up so he wouldn't rip me to shreds and throw me out the plane window.

"I- I'm s- sorry, Ari. I h- hope you st- still love m- me!" Max cried, squeezing his neck to choking point. He just hugged her waist, acting as if it didn't bother him.

"Of course I still love you, Max, shhh, it's okay. We'll get through this together." He whispered in her ear like a good big brother.

"Where do I come in?" I asked and through her tears Max managed to give me a look that said Shut the Fnick up. And so I clamped my mouth shut. But it was too late.

"You come in as bird dinner for doing this to my baby sister!" Ari exclaimed and went to set Max aside so he could kill me.

"Ari, please, c- calm down." Max begged, not letting go for anything. He sighed and rested his chin on top of her head. Iggy just smirked at us from his seat, Lupo whispering things in his ear that made his smirk grow.

"Only for you, Sis." Ari mumbled and only loosened his grip. I wished I could be the one comforting her, but I couldn't.

…

It was quite a few hours into the flight and Max had fallen asleep in her brother's lap. Still hugging his neck with that gorgeous tear-stained face turned to the side and resting on his chest. "I swear to God if you try to bail on us now, Fang, I'm going to make your life a living hell." Ari snarled quietly, brushing his fingers through Max's hair. It seemed to calm her from the occasional whimpers that meant the nightmares had ruined her dreams.

"I really do love her, Ari. I don't plan on leaving her, or little Fang." I muttered and he glared at me.

"Why didn't you use protection at least? This is the last thing she needs. Her life is bad enough without having to deal with pregnancy. I really can't believe you were so involved in your own pleasure you didn't think of Max." Ari snapped, his voice slowly rising.

I shushed him. "I did think of Max. I didn't think of protection- sue me. These things happen. And you know what, I don't think this has anything to do with her being pregnant, it has to do with you've been playing her father ever since whatever happened with him, and now you don't have to anymore. She doesn't need you, Ari, your babying her into thinking she does!" I snapped.

"I'm not babying her. I'm loving her because nobody else has the decency to look past the killer. No one ever thinks about that person's life. You know, I saw this thing on the news one time. These guys went to jail for staging dog fights. The dogs that had been entered in the fights were taken to the pound. They talked about how sad it is that the owners did that to them. Turned them into monsters. They didn't ask to kill their own kind. Max didn't either. She was molded into this, but nobody cares if it's a human. No, only the animals get special treatment. You don't know half of what she's gone through, Fang. And I'll tell you something- she loves you, God she loves you. And she needs you to not just love her back, but to want her, to need her, to depend on her. She needs to feel like she isn't a murderer. That's the only reason I'm not breaking your wings and throwing you off this plane."

I took in every word he spoke and then sat there. "I know he enhanced her. But what else did he do?" I asked quietly.

"That's for Max to tell you." Ari whispered and our conversation ended. I thought about what he said. Max was like the vicious dog, only, no one realized what her owner did to her. She was a wild dog then. I sighed and got my laptop out to watch a movie.

…

Halfway through it, Max walked over and sat in my lap, closing the laptop and tossing it in the empty seat next to me. "I heard you and Ari. He's right, and you're right." She whispered, that stone face dwindling away to reveal how stressed and hurt she was, it revealed to me the scars that didn't show up on her skin. She was letting me see her at a state where she wasn't bottling up her emotions. Was it the pregnancy? I doubted it.

"Max, I need you, and I want you, and I definitely depend on you. I'm never gonna leave you." I told her and kissed her forehead. She smiled weakly at me.

"Jeb was insane. I guess in his own twisted way he meant well- but the other scientists didn't." Max said, hugging my neck like she had Ari's.

"You don't have to tell-"

"Well I am." She interrupted and paused to take a breath. "He talked about graphing wings on my back. But first he tested it on kids that weren't his. That he didn't 'love'. He called it the Angel Experiment. Every last one of those terrified winged humans malfunctioned in some way.. except you." Max touched one of the slits on the back of my shirt and I leaned forward a little to extend my wings just a bit. Her gentle touch on my black feathers made me shiver.

"He wouldn't let them give me two percent of anything. So they gave me one percent instead. Jeb couldn't stop that, as they pointed out if two percent was too much only by a little, one percent would never be. And they were right." Max tangled her fingers in my hair and looked in my eyes with a certain sadness in those chocolate eyes that I'd never seen before. What were those emotions swimming in them? Sorrow? Regret? Guilt?

"After I was injected, I was given a week waiting period. After I didn't die, they began testing. Every day I got twelve hours of non-stop tests, twelve hours of sleep. Of course, I could never sleep. Not in those dog crates." We both shuddered. Dog crates. My pet peeve. I hated those cramped, small jails.

"Then, they started doing things behind Jeb's back. Training me to kill. Pressure points, survival instincts, things that made me almost invincible. Of course, I'm not- though I almost am. Then they thought I was too dangerous. Set up a date to do final tests and destroy me. Jeb broke me out of there, told me to head South and that I'd find my way. Little did I know, my way was never ending." At this point I thought her story was over and it was all I could do to shove my emotions down.

"Oh Maxie-"

"They tortured me Fang. One slip up and I was shocked, another and I was stabbed. It... it was merciless. Some days I could only lay there in a puddle of my own blood and wonder what I did to deserve it. Some days I'd try to stand and they knock me down until I couldn't get back up. Some days..." Max's voice trailed off and she twitched. "There was this little girl. So precious, she was a failed version of the Angel Experiment. Her wings grew in without the feathers that enabled her to fly. The only reason she stayed was because Jeb knew how much I loved her."

"Don't. Please stop." I begged, but Max didn't.

"She was eight Fang. Eight. I was too tired that day, too starved and exhausted. I wouldn't do anything, and so they took her out of her cage, and they tortured her to death and made me watch. Every second, every minute. And whenever I refused to do anything. They replayed it until I did." I hugged Max tight, too tight. I didn't care. I kissed the tears that were flowing down her cheeks away and I tried to whisper soothing thoughts in her ear. Tried to calm her down. It only worked so much.

"Shhh, it's okay Maxie. I'm here now. Ari's here now." We won't let them hurt you ever again." I insisted. She just hugged me. Maybe she thought I was lying. Maybe I thought I was lying. But either way doubt crept into the back of my mind.

And that's when turbulence hit.

I feel bad for not updating things in forever. I promise to update everything... twice by the end of January. Probably more cause I'll get back into it. Oh joy, one down, fifteen more chapters to write lol. Happy Holidays.

QUESTION TIME: What's YOUR New Year's Resolution?

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