A/N: Okay, here's the next chapter. I think I kind of lost my JP-ish style of writing…no one minds, right? Read on, and tell me what you think. And sorry, no summary this time.

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Chapter 4: Unwanted

Max's POV

I clenched and unclenched my fingers. The knuckles became white, as the skin on my hands stretched with each clench. White like the walls around me. Jeez, these whitecoats need to hire different interior decorators. I laughed halfheartedly to myself.

I felt better, now that I couldn't see that Flock, couldn't see the mistrust in their eyes, couldn't hear the sound of the bird-creature as it burned to death. It was easier to convince myself that all this was just a dream, and that I would wake up soon. Feeling more idiotic by the second, I forced myself to stop crying, and get a grip on myself. Why am I wasting time, falling to pieces like this? I'm stronger than that…aren't I?

I rested my head on the wall behind me, and closed my eyes. Something was tugging at the edges of my consciousness. Something important. But every time I got close to remembering, the memory slipped away again.

My thoughts drifted.

Gazzy's POV

Who was she? What was she? She was like, a ghost or something. She just came straight through the door! That would have been super cool, except that she seemed really upset. It's weird, but…I really wanted to give her a hug. Even though I've never seen her before…

Nudge's POV

That girl seemed kind of familiar, even though I'm sure I've never met her before. I mean, it's not like we've ever left the School, so, well, no duh. The only people I've ever known are my family, the Flock. I don't know why I got so scared when she smiled at me. I guess…it was just kind of unexpected. And besides, Fang brought us up to be suspicious of everything and everyone. But still…it felt sort of right, I guess, when she was here. But that's strange, isn't it?

Iggy's POV

Heck, that was the freakiest thing that's happened to us in a long time. And that's really saying something, seeing as how we're winged mutants who live in a laboratory surrounded by sick scientists and wolf-men. What was it that she said about my eyes?..."What's wrong with your eyes?"… How does she know I'm color blind? I mean, I definitely haven't seen her before. She was looking at me pretty strangely, though. Like she expected me to be blind or something. Are you kidding me? I'm not that much of a freak. They fixed me. I'm ok now. Well, almost ok. (A/N: Iggy's color-blind. He used to be blind, but they were able to help him. He hardly remembers that he was ever blind)

I took the girl's feather from Fang, just so I could feel the texture. For some reason, I recognize the feather, by its feel. I know it, just as well as I know any of my own feathers. It's…unsettling. I can hear her crying, on the other side of the door. I can't imagine why she would be crying…I don't even know how she knows us. What I do know though, is that, I don't want her to cry. Somehow, it just feels wrong that she's crying. I guess I'll ask Fang about it later. He'll probably know what to do.

Fang's POV

I don't know what to do. I won't admit it to the rest of them, because I have to be strong for them. I have to protect them, from things like what just happened. Was that another trick? Another test designed by the whitecoats? It had to be. She came through the door. Last time I checked, it's impossible for humans to do that. But…that girl…and her feather. Every time I looked at her face…I kept wanting to tell her that everything would be ok. But I didn't. I'm sure this is all just a sick joke. I've got to be stoic. Stoic and calm and controlled.

I try to ignore her. I try to block out her crying. But I can't. And I don't even know why.

Angel's POV

I don't know why I did that. I mean, that name just popped out of nowhere. Max. And for a second, I was sure that I knew her, and trusted her. I wanted her to come back. It felt like she'd be good at protecting us. But then, what about Fang? He's always protected us, for like, forever. Isn't he good enough?

I don't know. I'm confused.

I wish I could have read her mind. It all just felt like a blur. I haven't told the rest of the Flock yet, but I've started to be able to hear people's thoughts. I don't want them to think I'm a freak. It's kind of scary. I've never been able to do that before.

I…I wish Max would come back.

(A/N: Angel can only just barely read minds. So, she didn't come up with the name "Max" because she got it from Max's mind. Angel came up with the name on her own)

3rd Person POV

All five of them seemed frozen, lost in their own thoughts.

Fang was standing stiffly, his hands clenched tightly at his sides, glaring at the door. Iggy kept glancing at Fang. Every few minutes, he would open his mouth to say something, and every time, he thought better of it, and shut his mouth again. Instead, he kept silent, and absent-mindedly stroked the feather in his hand. There was a peculiar expression on his face. Recognition.

Gazzy, Nudge, and Angel were sitting together, identically confused expressions plastered on their faces. Angel squeezed her eyes tightly together. She stood up, and walked timidly over to where Fang was standing. Taking his hand, she peeked up at him, through the darkness of their literal prison. Fang looked down at her, his eyes softening just the tiniest bit. But then he glanced at the cage, sitting, almost forgotten, in the corner, and his eyes tightened again.

"Fang?" she whispered. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine Ange." He hesitated, and then bent down to ask her something, something that had been bothering him.

"Angel, how did you know that…girl. How did you know her name was Max?"

Angel looked away. She didn't want to answer that question yet. So she ignored it. She squeezed Fang's hand.

"Fang? When's Max coming back?"

Fang's jaw tightened, when he realized that Angel wasn't going to answer his question. Something very strange was happening here.

"She's not, Angel. She's not coming back. I'll make sure of that."

Max's POV

I grabbed for the elusive memory. Somehow, I felt that, if I could just remember that memory, I could understand why I had been so impulsive. Why I instinctively gave Fang my feather. And why I told him that he could trust me.

…

…

…

And then, suddenly, it came back to me. A memory from long ago, when I was just seven years old. I tried to fight the memory. What if I remembered something that I wanted to keep buried? What if I didn't want to remember? I fought. And I lost.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

I am seven years old. I hate the color white. I hate needles. I hate The Whitecoats. I have wings, but I don't know how to fly. I am a freak, and my name is Max.

Jeb shakes my shoulder, and I wake up instantly. All I see at first, is the white lab coat, and not the face. So I flinch back, expecting a blow, or a kick. I expect pain. It doesn't come. Cautiously, I look up at the Whitecoat, and I recognize the face looking sadly down at me. It's Jeb. I...I think that I can trust him. When he looks at me, he looks at me like I'm a real person. The others look at me like…I'm a specimen that they can't wait to take apart. I'm scared of them. But I'm strong. I can fight them. I won't let them see my fear.

I look defiantly up at Jeb, and he smiles. Gently, he picks me up, and I wrap my arms around his neck. I'm big for my age, but light, so it's not hard to lift me. I look back down at the ground, and then I do flinch. I see the cage. My cage. I see pain and I see sadness and I see no hope for the future. I see the power of flight, locked up, and that's what hurts me the most. They've locked away freedom, and they don't even care.

For a moment, I'm surprised. Why wasn't I in the cage when Jeb woke me up? I guess he unlocked it, and pulled me out. But why didn't I notice? …my head feels funny. I guess I was drugged yesterday, after the experimental testing session. So of course I didn't wake up right away. I'm used to it. Really, being drugged is better than staying awake. When you're awake, there's pain. And I've had enough pain to last me forever.

"There's someone I think you should meet, Max." Jeb says to me, in a friendly voice. I just look at him, with big eyes. I'm not ready to talk to whitecoats yet. They've hurt me too badly. He sighs. I stare.

He walks out of the room that is my prison, and my home. It's tiny, more like a big closet, then a real room. I guess it's more than I could hope for.

We go up two flights, and turn right, then left, then go straight. We're walking down long, white, cold, sterile hallways. I'm not surprised. So I close my eyes. Tightly.

We stop in front of a white door. It has a long, thin, rectangular window, that's been covered with black paint. I wonder why. I start to get a little curious, so I glance at the room number.

Room MFI1471. I store it away in the back of my mind. Maybe it'll be useful later on.

Jeb pulls out a key, and carefully unlocks the door. It opens soundlessly. Jeb starts to go in, but I cringe back. I see what's in there. More cages. Hesitantly, Jeb strokes my long hair with one hand, to calm me down, I guess. I'm so surprised that I stop struggling.

Jeb walks into the room, and sets me down next to one of the cages. I get down on my knees, and look in, feeling pathetic and miserable and sad. It's a boy. A boy with wings, like me.

I strain my eyes to see the boy, through the darkness. He has strawberry-blond hair, blue eyes, and light colored wings. He's staring at me, and blinking quickly, like he can't believe what he's seeing. I sharpen my bird eyesight, and I can see the freckles that decorate his nose. It makes me want to laugh. So I smile. He looks startled, and then he flashes a smile back at me.

Jeb is smiling. He points at the cage.

"His name is Iggy, Max. Iggy."

I mouth the name. Iggy. He's still looking at me, but he isn't smiling anymore. I think it's because Jeb spoke. And Jeb's a whitecoat.

There's another cage, next to Iggy's cage. In it, I can see another boy. But this one doesn't make me want to smile. He's staring at me too. But his eyes are hostile. They glare at me, and his hands clutch the bars of his cage. So tightly, that his knuckles are white. His eyes are black. His longish hair, covering his eyes, is black. His wings are black too. But I don't mind. Any color is better than white. Black is…safe. It hides you from everything.

The boy is tense. He's shaking a little, and I can see, by the way his eyes are bugging out, that he hates cages even more than I do. Which is saying something.

He doesn't trust me. He doesn't want to be my friend. And that just makes me want to be his friend even more.

This time, Jeb is frowning.

"Fang. That's Fang."

Fang? I toy with the name in my head. What a strange name. I crawl closer to the cage. Abruptly, Fang lets go of the bars, and scoots back in the cage, as far back as he can go, which isn't much. He's still glaring at me. I feel a little hurt. I crawl even closer, so that I am kneeling directly next to both cages. Suddenly, I'm inspired.

Reaching back, I yank out two of my feathers. I wince, and Fang winces too. Dimly, I wonder why that is. I push one feather into Iggy's cage. He picks it up, and examines it incredulously. I smile again. Then I turn to Fang. I reach into his cage, and, since he's still close enough to touch, even though he's trying desperately to get away from me, I grab his wrist. I curl his fingers around my feather, and suddenly, he stops cringing away. He looks at me, an unspoken question in his eyes. I smile, and I speak. Everyone is surprised.

"You can trust me, Fang." I whisper softly, and at first, I'm afraid he didn't hear me. I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to speak again. But he stiffens slightly, so I know he heard me. But then, he's glaring at me again. I don't understand why, so I shrink back. Jeb picks me up again.

"I think that's enough visiting for now."

We leave. We return to my cage. Unwillingly, I'm placed back into my prison. The cage door is locked. Jeb locks the door of the room behind me, but not before throwing one last, sad look, back at me.

I still hate this place, but now, I have something to think about. Maybe, just maybe, I could have…friends? The concept is unfamiliar. I try to wrap my mind around it. It's difficult. Almost too difficult. But I manage.

I'm afraid to hope, but I do it anyway. Might as well.

A week later, Jeb takes me back to that room.

MFI1471. He's frowning. I take that as a bad sign.

Again, when he opens the door, I struggle against him, not wanting to enter the room. But this time, it's for a different reason. Iggy is crying.

This time, Jeb leaves me alone with them. Before he leaves and locks the door behind him, he flicks on a light, and whispers in my ear.

"Help him." I'm not quite sure which one he's talking about.

Cautiously, I look at Iggy. And what I see breaks my heart.

Iggy is lying on the floor of his cage, sobbing. He has bandages wrapped around his eyes, and they look bloody. The contents of my stomach heave around a little. I kneel by his cage, and I say his name quietly.

"Iggy."

Startled, he stops crying. He tilts his head in my direction.

"Max?"

"Yeah, Iggy. It's me." Hesitantly, I ask a painful question. "What happened?"

Iggy stiffens. "I'm blind," he says bluntly. "They did something to my eyes." By "they," I know he means the whitecoats.

So I reach in and take his hand. I squeeze his hand, and make my statement. I'm sure of my decision.

"Don't worry Iggy. I'll be your friend."

He smiles slightly, through the tears that are leaking down his face, pouring from his forever ruined eyes.

"Ok." He fingers my feather, and I can see that he's memorizing it. That's the only way he can "see" now.

I get up, and back up until I can feel the door behind me. I'm waiting for Jeb to come back and get me. Absent-mindedly, I turn to the black paint that's covering the window, and I start doodling. I scratch out a pair of wings with my fingernail. Fang makes me jump, by speaking.

"Max."

I turn back, and sit down in front of his cage. He moves up to the front of his cage, and reaches out a hand. I take what it is that he gives to me. A feather. A black feather, one of his own. I look up at him.

"I can't trust anyone Max." But I see the hint of a friendly challenge in his eyes. So I smile at him.

"Agreed."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The memory faded away, and I sat there, frozen in shock. Suddenly, the etching in the door's window, the feather, my promise to Fang, had sudden meaning. I didn't want it to have meaning. And I didn't want it to be true. I wanted to wake up, and go back to my "normal" life, where at least, I could be certain that I had a family who loved me.

I got shakily up to my feet. With one last, fleeting look, at the door behind me, I started running. Running away from a problem that I didn't want to deal with. I never run away. Why am I running now?

I ran and ran, straight down the white hallway. I saw the window, down at the very end of the hallway. It's a window that looks out onto the world. Maybe that's my exit. I didn't feel very hopeful.

In my mad dash, I ran straight through two whitecoats, and one Eraser. They didn't notice. Fine by me.

When I reached the window, I didn't stop running. I kept on going. And jumped through. I was hoping to fly, and put as much distance between me and the School as possible. I passed through the window. But when I tried to stretch out my wings, they flopped uselessly on my back, feeling dead, and numb. They dragged me downwards, and gravity did the rest of the damage. I fell.

The wind whistled past me, as my falling body gathered speed. But strangely, I wasn't afraid. I felt more relieved, then afraid. Because this felt exactly like those dreams we all have once in a while. Where you're falling, and falling, and falling, and right before you hit the ground, you wake up. I was looking forward to the waking up part. I prayed to a god that I wasn't sure I believed in, that I would wake up, and everything would be back to normal.

The ground was rushing up towards me at frightening speeds. I squeezed my eyes shut. I didn't hit the ground. I wasn't going to be Max the Pancake today.

The world around me dissolved into blackness.

I was waking up.

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A/N: So…what did you guys think? Was it too depressing? I didn't really mean for this story to take that depressing a turn…Oh well. Please review. And tell me if the characters are getting too OOC. Or if I suck at writing in other POVs besides Max's.

P.S. – I made Max seem weak in the memory on purpose. You'll see.

Thanks for reading, and the explaining chapter is coming up – you'll understand a lot better in the next chapter! AND THANK YOU REVIEWERS!!!