I don't own MR

Ari

There are seven billion people in this world, and out of all of them I never thought I would be the one who was stuck in a misfit gang that included a psychotic sister's boyfriend, a legit hacker who should have been in jail by now, a blind traitor, and me. A panic-attack stricken artificial human being who couldn't even keep his group of mutant freaks under control.

"Hey Ari, can I talk to you for a minute?" I blinked away my thoughts, turning to Nudge from my spot on a fluffy couch in the living room of the one story home we were going to be staying in somewhere in Australia.

"Uh, sure." I muttered, walking after the girl as she stepped outside into the backyard, which consisted of endless open plains. I closed the door behind us and she leaned against the brick wall of the house, looking anywhere but at me for a long time before finally gulping down whatever fear she had and opening her mouth to talk.

"Look, I can't help you anymore. At least for a while. There are some… curious people looking into my operations. After I get back to HQ I'm cutting communications for a bit, alright? Do me a favor and don't tell Max. She has enough stress on her right now without me going off the grid." Nudge explained shakily, sounding even more upset than I felt at that moment.

Each and every word she spoke sunk in like a person running through water. One at a time, slow and inconsistent. And then, after everything settled and I realized what she was saying, I felt panic rise in me, but not the kind of panic that left me speechless and at a loss of breath, the kind of panic that sent me into overdrive.

"What? You can't be serious? Without you we won't last, Nudge! You're our brains, our eyes, our moves!"

"Ari, what did you do before you met me?" I paused, looking down at the girl who used to be the same height as myself. We had been friends for so many years I couldn't remember the last TV dinner I had stolen to feed Max before she walked into the picture. What had I done before Nudge? Before the brilliant hacker who saved our lives more times than I could count?

"I don't remember." I admitted weakly, ashamed. I had grown too content in the life of flying jets halfway across the world to a new location. Funny how a rough life makes it easier to fall into luxury without a second thought.

"Well you're going to have to. It's either cut the contact for awhile, or get caught and killed." Nudge insisted and I sighed to myself, sitting down on the cement of the back porch to keep from passing out.

"Nudge, without you I become the brains, and I don't think I can go through that again." I muttered, resting my face in my hands. All too soon I was thinking about it, all too soon the memories were gurgling up. Before Nudge. Before a simpler way of getting from place to place. Back when a stolen car was the only transportation and a couple bullets were the only defense.

"Well, you have to. It's time for you to man up, Ari. Nobody likes a wuss. I'm leaving tonight and by then you need to be a real man, okay? You're what, nineteen? Act like it."

"Actually I'm-" I cut myself off. I am nineteen. My birthday had come and gone in the blink of an eye and I hadn't even been around to notice it. I was nineteen. I was another year older, I had gone through another year lived, and yet I felt dead inside.

"Nineteen. I know." Nudge rolled her eyes and turned to head in. "Do me a favor and stand up. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get on your feet. Not just literally either." She walked away from me then, and I was left feeling even more sorry for myself than when we had slipped outside.

Nudge wasn't going to be around anymore. HQ wasn't going to be around anymore. It would all be on me. I pushed myself onto my feet and looked towards the door Nudge had walked through, physically distancing herself from me. I could already feel her disappearance even though she hadn't left yet, and nothing in this entire world could have stung worse than the knowledge that I could never do what Nudge does, I could never protect Max like she does, I could never be as good as Nudge. With that in mind, I had only one thought left to think before I headed back inside to pretend the rug hadn't just been pulled out from under me.

"What am I going to do?"

"So where's Max?" I wondered out loud to anyone bothering to listen as I mustered up the courage to head back inside. I was almost immediately met by a snarky reply from Iggy.

"I never saw her walk in,"

"And you'll never see her walk out, either," I growled back instinctively. I didn't care how much pity I should have felt for him, Iggy was a traitor. He almost got Max killed, sent Fang into another dimension, let us all be injured in some way, and hadn't even apologized to Max yet. He deserved to be blind. He deserved to get his privileges taken away.

"But at least I won't faint on her," Iggy replied, and I could tell by the way his mouth twitched into a smirk he was looking for a fight. He wanted to argue, to let loose all of the energy and pain that had been building up. Fine. I was going to give him what he wanted.

"I hope you go mute next." I snarled, just in time for Lupo to catch my venomous words. Having only heard my side of the conversation, I watched her eyes flicker like a flame before it erupts into a wildfire,

"He better have just said something really sarcastic or I'm going to hit you," she promised to which Iggy began to take shuddering breaths, almost as if he had planned it.

"How can I even think about being sarcastic? I can't even walk to the kitchen without help. I don't have time to think about snappy comebacks." Iggy whined innocently, and I rolled my eyes.

"Please tell me you don't believe that," I turned to Lupo, who was rolling her eyes at Iggy.

"Of course not. But don't say crap like that, Ari, because if it happens I don't think you'll be too happy with yourself."

"If he stops talking right now it won't be soon enough," I grumbled, walking past Lupo and heading towards the closest of the three rooms in an attempt to find my little sister. I was beginning to feel something strange towards Lupo. Not exactly love anymore. Just a dwindling snarl of what it used to be. I knew it would never truly go away, but the fact that she had immediately forgiven Iggy for turning us in had sent my feelings straight into the back of my mind, not to be accessed for a long time.

I knocked on the door to the first room, waiting for a reply, and when I didn't get one pushed the door open. Empty. Sighing, I moved onto the second. The door was cracked open just enough that I could peek inside. Max and Fang were both in this one. Only, they weren't doing anything they would normally do together. Instead Fang was just laying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling while Max sat with her knees pulled to her chest next to him, quietly begging him to wake up. I knew he couldn't hear her, but it wasn't my place to tell her what she already knew.

I sighed gently, debating whether or not to leave her alone before deciding even Max needed someone to hug her sometimes and pushed the door open, not taking a single step forward yet. "Hey," I spoke quietly, and she looked up from Fang to me. She had tear stains on her face but she wasn't crying anymore. Maybe she didn't want to, or maybe she had ran out of tears. Ever since Fang had come around she had cried more than she had in all sixteen years of her life.

"Hey you," She responded, a watery smile on her lips as her bandaged body slipped off the bed and she limped towards me. I didn't know when Nudge had come and fixed her up, but I was glad she did.

"How do you feel?" I asked as she shut the door behind her so we could talk in the hallway.

"Physically or mentally?" She questioned without the usual quirk of the eyebrow that always made me grin because even though I hated Jeb, he did it too, and I liked the little habits that meant we did have parents and family before it was ruined.

"Physically," I decided.

"Like crap."

Okay mentally,"

"Like crap."

I chuckled at her repetitive answer, leaning against the wall. "Ari, can I ask you a question?" She asked suddenly, sliding down the door and sitting down. I followed suit.

"Whatever you want, Baby Sis,"

"Do you ever realize it's time to give up on the people you love?" Some questions are better unanswered I realized as she asked this. There was no right way to respond to this, but Max relied on my answer, and so I had to give her something.

"Honestly?" I took a deep breath, not waiting for her to nod. Who didn't want honesty? Sweet lies only made for more bitter truths. "Yeah, I do. I realize I need to give up, but you wanna know something? I don't. I know I don't have a chance but I keep fighting because what else are you supposed to do? I'd rather go down swinging than letting the ball hit me, you know?"

"Doesn't that just make it harder when you lose though? To know you never gave up and you still didn't make it?" Max rested her head on my shoulder, and I rested my own on top of hers, just like when we were younger, in a more peaceful time where our biggest worry was our next meal, not our loved one's lives.

"Sometimes, but sometimes it makes me happy to know I never gave up, because at least then I can be proud of myself. Remember when we decided to bring a pet with us?" I reminded, and Max snorted to herself as she nodded.

"Ripper the 2nd, the most murderous cat in town."

"Remember when she got shot?"

"And how we didn't give up and she still died? Yeah." Max took a weak breath, closing her eyes, squeezing them tightly as if to make the memories go away.

"Some people would think what they did was in vain, but not me. I think it was good that we never gave up, even when we knew she was gone, because you know what that means? It means we care, Max. It means were not just experiments. It's a way to feel human, and I was proud of myself because when I gave that damned cat CPR it meant I was flesh and bone and flawed and just like everyone around me."

Silence floated ominously through the air for the longest time, invading my story and ripping it into thoughts that I could repeat in my mind. "So, do you think I shouldn't give up on Fang?"

"I think the moment you give up is the moment you realize you aren't human, and if you don't want to be then that's fine, but if you want to be, that's okay too."

"I don't like it when you talk so smartly. It makes it even more difficult," Max groaned and I smiled, pressing my lips against the top of her head.

"Don't give up. He's in there somewhere, I promise," I pulled Max into a hug that she returned gratefully, burying her face in my shoulder.

"You have more faith than me."

"Oh trust me, it's not faith; it's stupidity." I corrected, causing a small laugh to erupt from my little sister.

"Well whatever it is, I hope it works."

Hello All, yes I am alive, but also sick. Which is why I'm updating at almost ten in the morning on a school day which means I might write another chapter! Yay!

Oh and real quick; before everyone goes on about the 'giving up makes you not human thing' Since Ari and Max are both experiments it's from the perspective of how an experiment sees it, not like a regular person.

10 Reviews and I'll skip homework to update?

Honestly. I already have the next chapter finished and ready to go.

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