I do not own MR, but I do own the poem.
Fang
A bird is only a bird with its two fluttery wings
Without those two arms, it can only sing
And only singing is not what a bird was meant to do
So no longer can you be a bird,
Be something darker, be something new
I couldn't remember where I had heard that poem before. Maybe it was during one of my late nights at the Coffee House, using their provided wifi to finish school reports. Possibly I had heard it walking the streets of my town, half-listening to the street performers as I passed them. Or maybe I hadn't heard it at all, maybe I had read it from one of my mother's poetry books. Whichever way I had learned it, it was all I could think about now.
Each word spun around in my head, making me feel sick and broken just at the thought. Be something darker, be something new. That's the line that really got to me. It was like the poem was saying if you can't be your best being good, then be bad. Why, of all times, was a poem like that circulating through my veins now?
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I was chained down with heavy leather straps to a cold metal table that nipped at my sore back. And that five scientist walked around me, grabbing various silver tools that sparkled in the harsh fluorescent light.
They had given me a strong dose of morphine, or something like that, probably expecting me to be knocked out cold for whatever they were about to do to me, but instead I was half awake, groggy and squinting to focus on my surroundings. My head throbbed viciously from the bright lights and sterile white walls that surrounded me, boxing me in until I had no other choice but to stay where I was, unmoving besides the sharp rise and fal lof my chest as I took quick shallow breaths, feeling claustrophobic in this small room.
"Dr. Janet, we need to begin the DNA transplant."A man's voice spoke up, although with everyone in light blue masks that covered their mouths I couldn't tell which one had said it.
"Of course, we will start in a few minutes after I sterilize the needle and make sure that the Canis Mesomelas DNA has a positive reaction with the creature's blood."
"I don't see how it couldn't," A different man's voice spoke up. I struggled to still seem asleep while trying to pinpoint the voices.
"Well since there is a two percent avian gene already coursing through its veins it is very possible for the canis mesomelas DNA to reject the bonding." Dr. janet explained. Somewhere behind me I heard the squeak of a knob turning, and then water running evenly.
Within two minutes the water was turned off and footsteps began towards me. Finally, a woman came into view with black hair pulled back into a tight ponytail and dark brown eyes. I let out a small gasp and she noticed I was awake.
"Oh my!" She exclaimed, stumbling back a few steps as I opened my eyes a little wider. Unsuccessfully, I tried to sit up, struggling against my restraints. This couldn't be happening. Not to me. Not now. I glanced at the woman and a ton of memories slammed into me like a semi. I had so many questions to ask, so my thoughts to speak out loud, but i couldn't bring myself to do it locked onto a table. I yelled and shouted, kicking and punching wildly, trying to break free. But at this point it was impossible. These restraints were too thick, too strong. Finally, as a mass of flesh ran around me, yelling out orders in a language I couldn't quite comprehend, I stopped. It was no use. Breaking out would change nothing anyway. I was still trapped in the School, I still had no clue whether Max was dead or alive, I still wouldn't be normal.
Either way, in restraints or not, my world was still a hot mess. I sighed, feeling reality come crashing down on me like never before. Tears threatened to spill but I couldn't quite bring myself to be so vulnerable in front of such a wicked woman. How could I have ever trusted her. I thought about saying something, asking her if she even remembered me, but I couldn't.
A sharp pain stabbed at my right arm suddenly and I groaned, snapping my head to see what was going on. I was being injected with a purple liquid, straight into my veins. And because of that strange chemical, I was out like a light within minutes.
123
I awoke to that same woman looking over me, a monotonous grin on her face. "It's waking up," She said, seemingly absolutely delighted by the fact I hadn't died from whatever experimentation they had done on me
"I'm actually a him. You of all people should know that," I spat, glaring viciously. Dr. Janet blinked in surprise, taking a step back. A thought of recognition danced across her eyes but vanished as soon as it came.
"It's rather snappy. Is there anything we can do to fix that?" She asked the man standing next to her.
"We could whip him into shape," He chortled, and Dr. Janet smirked.
"That is a magnificent idea, Dr. Yenld." The man referred to as 'Dr. Yenld' was the one standing next to her with white hair and blue eyes. He turned to me and smiled viciously, obviously excited about the punishment I was about to receive.
"So that's how you treat your son, huh?" I asked, trying to sound intimidating, although I wasn't sure how well that worked since I was chained down. Dr. Janet blinked at me, looking utterly shocked by my bold accusation.
"What? I don't have a son," She insisted, although something sparkled in her eyes.
"Does the name Nicolas ring a bell?" I asked haughtily.
Dr. Janet stared at me a moment, looking me up and down, trying to figure me out, when a splash of fear sparkled in her eyes."Everybody out! This one's lost his sense." His. She referred to me as a him. Not an it. That's progress.
Without a single questioning glance every doctor in the small room filed out, and Dr. Janet waited until every last one of them was gone and the door had clicked shut before saying anything. And even after it was shut she seemed to be mentally counting to twenty before even thinking about speaking.
"Nicolas? Is it really you?" My mom asked cautiously, looking down into my eyes. she seemed to know the answer before I even spoke up.
"Unfortunately," I growled out through clenched teeth. I couldn't believe the woman standing beside me was my mother. I almost didn't want to believe it. However, a sense of relief and happiness clawed at my heart, making something like a smile threaten to form at the edges of my mouth. How could I smile though, when this woman had just injected me with God knows what while I was out.
"Oh my gosh, what have they done to you?" My mom whispered, sounding absolutely appalled as she looked me over, probably noticing all the scars and the malnourishment now that she wasn't caught up in the joy of punishing me. it was amazing how I suddenly wasn't jut another experiment passing through to her, but her son. A boy with her hair, and her eyes, who found it impossible to not love her. She is my mother after all.
"Don't you mean what have you done to me?" I snarled, and yet this comment didn't seem to affect Dr. Janet, or maybe it did and she just pretended she hadn't heard it. Although I could see the slight hurt in her eyes. We were alike in that nature, we only showed our true emotions in our eyes.
I watched with caution as she began undoing my restraints, one by one. First my wrists, then the one across my chest, then my ankles, and grabbed my hands, pulling me to my feet. I took in my short mother in all her beauty. She was gorgeous really for a forty-something year old.
"You've gotten so big," She mumbled, having to look up at me now that I towered over her by at least half a foot. For some reason, this comment made me swell with pride. I was no longer the little chubby boy she had been picturing whenever- if ever- she thought about me. I was now a lean, muscular machine that she could be proud of. And for some reason, i felt compelled to make her proud of me, although I wouldn't let her know of my true feelings.
"That's what happens when you abandon your kid, they grow up without you," I glowered, pushing her away from me. This was my chance to run away, to get out, but something stopped me from leaving. My mother had just let me go, knowing I could make a run for it, but not caring. All she wanted to do was look at me, to see what I've turned into in the years of her absence. She seemed so happy as she took me in, even after I slapped her in the face with that comment. For a moment, I began to wonder if her love for me was so great she looked past the horrible comments purposely. But how could she abandon me if she loved me so much?
"Nicolas, I'm so sorry I left. I had to, I was trying to keep you safe. Oh but I can see that it didn't work," No. You don't get permission to start crying, I thought even as the first tear fell and she abruptly wrapped her arms around me, hugging me so tight I had to force myself not to look at it as attempt at murder. She wasn't trying to strangle me, only hug me. I tried hard not to focus on her tears, if I did I would break down and hug her back. And I couldn't do that, I couldn't give her the satisfaction of knowing I love her too, could I?
I stayed stiff for a few minutes, trying to understand everything going through my head. She's not dead, seemed to be the only thing I could actually comprehend though, not that she had just experimented on me, or ordered some sort of punishment, just that she wasn't dead, and I guess that thought was enough for me to break, and so I hugged her back, resting my chin on her shoulder and closing my eyes, remembering my four year old self hugging her like this, wrapped in her arms, safe from harm. In that instance, being held by my mother, I couldn't help but feel secure. I couldn't help but feel all her love for me coming through in that one hug. I couldn't help but let some of my anger melt away.
"Why did you leave me and dad?" I asked quietly, not daring to let go. If I let go she could disappear, and if she did I would be left truly broken. To think that I could wake up from this dream back into a nightmare was horrible. I never wanted to leave my mother again. I wanted to stay with her here and be her little boy again. But at the same time I couldn't stand it here. I wouldn't stand it. I needed to leave. Now.
"I had to. You don't understand how this place works. You make one slip up and you're dead, or even your family is dead." Oh I understood, more than I wanted to let my mother know. "Nicky, I was protecting you, I was trying to keep you out of harm's way. If you would've been killed because of me, I…" Mom's voice cracked and I let my arms hang limply at my sides, taking a step away from her. She reluctantly let me go and looked me over again, sighing softly.
"How could you have been experimented on? I was sure to make sure there was no trace of you," Mom mumbled, still crying. tears lid down her cheeks, and her eyes were puffy and red, and maybe that broke me down into telling her, or maybe it was the simple fact that this twisted person standing in front of me was my mother, the one I thought was dead, but wasn't.
"Dad sold me off." I muttered, sitting back down on the cold table. "He gave me away to the School and told me it was for my own good." I couldn't believe this. What would Max say if she saw me, sitting here talking to this woman who was my mother? What would she think of me? Would she even love me anymore? But Max wasn't here.
A sudden angry look crossed over my Mom's face and she made a sort of hissing noise. "I swear that man was the worst decision I had ever made. I thought maybe he'd be different with you, he'd protect you, but he didn't."
"And neither did you." I added snarkily, though it hurt to be so rude.
"Now listen here, I only did what I did to keep them from getting a hold of you-"
"But they still managed to get me, now didn't they?" My words hung in the air like thick rain clouds, moments away from crying all their stress away. Silence filled the white room and my mother couldn't look me in the eye for a long time.
Finally, though, she did. "Leaving my amazing son alone was the worst thing I have ever done in my life. And I've done a lot of horrible things. I can only pray you find some way to forgive me, even though I don't deserve it." Mom spoke genuinely, and I knew I had already forgiven her.
"No, you don't deserve my forgiveness. You staged your own death and left me on the brink of it myself. However, I am going to forgive you. Because if you hadn't left, I would have never gone to the School and gotten my wings, and without my wings I would be dead, and I would have never met my soulmate."
"You have a girlfriend?" My mom practically squealed and I rolled my eyes, smiling lopsidedly. Of course my mom would look so happy for me. I decided to give her some of the details since she looked so excited.
"Her name is Max, and she's an experiment too-"
"Max, as in the fugitive, Max?" My mom interrupted, and I nodded proudly.
"I'm in love with her, and we're going to have kid together, and-"
"You got Max pregnant? Nick, that girl is a ticking time-bomb! How could you be so stupid?" My mother asked outrageously, and I blinked in surprise.
"What do you mean?" I asked, curious to find out if she was just talking about Max's unpredictableness.
"She's already a monster, and a child of her descent? Fang one Max is bad enough, but two would equal the end of the world," I took a moment to let that sink in. Was that true? Could Max and Max Jr. possibly cause an apocalypse. Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me, but I wasn't about to sit here and let my mother talk bad about my girlfriend.
"You know what? I just met you, and I don't want to end this chat on bad terms so I suggest you drop it." I snarled and just like that, my mother obeyed.
"Now, is Max here?" I asked, and my mom instantly shook her head.
"No. We didn't catch her. Although we did capture her brother, Ari, along with the last existent first generation of eraser. Oh, and the only reason I'm telling you all this is because I need you to escape today, before tomorrow, or you'll be dead. And if you need those two to escape then I can tell you where they are-" My mom was cut off by the door being knocked off its hinges, and in walked three people.
Tanner, Iggy, and Max.
Alright so I think this is a pretty long chapter. Hope you guys all liked it.
So tell me what you think about everything that's playing out, and leave bunches of reviews with all your opinions on it. Even if it's a whole paragraph about hating the chapter.
Soar on
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