A/N

Sadly enough, I don't own a single scrap of this. Not even the dialouge. *sob sob*Oh, well. But as soon as Fang jumps out of the pages and becomes a tangible being, he can own my body all he wants! *big grin and a thumbs-up* No, no, I'm just kidding. In any case, there's some scenes in the Maximum Ride series that simply need a new take, or a different POV, or a different outcome. Since the vast majority of Maximum Ride is from Max's view, I'll probably be in Fang's head a lot. Beware of the completely hopeless romanticism.

THE ANGEL EXPERIMENT

CHAPTER 116

"Look who's come to the seashore."

Sleep was not kind to me. The vibrations in the air took a moment to compute through my nerves, to my brain…okay, someone was talking. That was good. And the voice was…smooth, cruel, cold…

Ari.

What does Ari want?

Max.

Max!

I ripped myself out of sleep. Next to me, Ig was coming round also. My head whipped around, and there was everyone's favorite Eraser—Ari, with his boot planted on Max's throat. Adrenaline filled me, and red swam in front of my eyes. I watched Max wake Nudge, who drowsily sat up, only to jolt into full alertness as she looked around. I spared a look around.

Erasers. There was no other word for it. More than I'd ever seen. Hundreds, thousands. It was madness. How did they even make this many? I heard Max's quiet gasp, and I knew she saw, too. I wanted her to look at my eyes, wanted to have one of our silent conversations so I could help her fix this. I wanted to get her in charge again.

Then Ari was talking again. "You're so pretty when you're sleeping—and your mouth is shut. But what a shame to cut your hair."

My fingernails cut deep into my palms. How…dare…he. I would kill him. Coming on to Max, my Max, and insulting her in the same breath—he'd pay for that. He'd pay dearly.

"When I want your opinion, I'll ask for it." She fought against his great meaty foot. That was my Max. That was my everything.

Ari laughed disgustingly, tempting my further to rip out his esophagus. Then—Gods above and below—he reached out with one of his huge paws to touch Max's face and whisper grotesquely: "I like 'em feisty."

That just goddamn tore it.

"Get off her!" I flew headfirst threw the air at Ari, taking him right off Max. Right now, it didn't matter that Ari was a solid hundred pounds heavier than me, or that he was an Eraser, or that I was so badly outmatched I might die—none of that existed anymore. I was cold. I was hot. I was raw fury, pure strength, whipcord rage and I wanted one thing in the world—Ari's blood. I'll be damned if I wasn't going to get it.

On the corners of my mind, the one bit that was still a little bit Fang, I heard Max scream my name. I had enough sense left to wonder if she needed help or wanted to help me, but both those options only infuriated me more, and I went for Ari again.

The meatbag clawed at my face. I was beyond pain. My hand came down on Ari's collarbone, extracting a highly satisfying yelp. I wanted to roar triumph, but it was way too early for that. Ari's paw caught me in the head, and my neck twisted, and the world went black.

It hurt, even in unconsciousness. Once, twice, my head crashed into something hard. Damn, that hurt. But even as the pain dragged me down further, another worry, so many times more important, pulled me back up.

Max.

If I blacked now, Max would be in serious crap.

My eyes opened, pathetically slow, and there was that goddamn Ari again, his big ugly face filling my vision. I grabbed a fistful of sand and threw it in his face, earning enough time to regain my feet. I sent a solid roundhouse into Ari's chest, and all the breath whooshed out of him in a very satisfying way. But as he straightened in recovery, he threw his elbow into my face.

I felt a tooth break free of my jaw, hurting like hell. A disgusting amount of blood spewed out of my mouth, and I went down again. Dammit!

Ari leered into my face, his big, ugly Eraser teeth all yellow and drooly. "Had enough of life?" He growled. I couldn't do anything. I was seriously down for the count. Agony was trying to bring me back into unconsciousness, but exhaustion had set in way too fast, sabotaging me. I closed my eyes. I'm sorry, Max.

"Ari!"

Oh, Jeb. Of course. It just wouldn't be death without your betrayer-former-foster-father to watch, would it?

I rolled my still-shut eyes and the pain brought me under.

CHAPTER 118

Voices, voices in the darkness.

"Fang, you have to wake up."

"He looks really bad. He should see a doctor."

"We could carry him, you and me."

"Where to? It's not like we can check him into a hospital."

That was my Max. But…why did it sound like she was…crying…?

"No hospi'l," I insisted, but the black remained. Ow. God, I hurt all over. I wanted to curl up into a little ball and cry like a baby. No way was that going down. Not one iota of a chance.

"Fang!" Max, Max, my Max. Why was my Max okay? Oh, right. Jeb. Trust him, even evil him, to save the day when I couldn't. "How bad?"

Awful. Wretched. The worst fricking amount of pain ever endured by a birdkid. "Pre'y bad," I muttered blearily. There was something in my mouth, and I couldn't talk right. I tried to shift to the side to spit it out, but that made it hurt more, and I couldn't hold back a groan. Damn, that hurt.

"Don't move!" Max ordered me, but whatever was in my mouth was seriously gross. I wanted it out. There was a whole lot of blood in there, too. I hacked it out into the sad. Freakin' disgusting. I lifted a hand to my mouth and spat the stupid obstruction out.

Small, vaguely cube-shaped, and with four spikes. Or roots. Ah, right. "Tooth," I muttered, revolted. "Feel like crap," I amended. Ow. I reached around to feel at the back of my head. There were some serious lumps there. What the hell had Ari hit my head against, his own? Ha. Not funny.

I looked up at Max. Damn, girl. Why was her face so covered with tear trails? She was practically covered in tears. She didn't look hurt. Tears for me? "You look like a kitty cat," she tired to joke, making little whisker motions. I just gave her a growl. Great, I have freaking cat whiskers, and she's going to make fun of me for it. Call me vain, but if those scar, I'll be pissed.

Max's fake smile just dissolved instantly. "Fang," she whispered, her voice breaking and startling me. "Just live, okay? Live and be okay."

She leaned down, lowering her face to mine.

What?

So softly, Max touched her lips to mine. Her mouth was all warmth and sweet and salt from tears, and they felt like heaven pressed against mine. That one second seemed to stretch into eternity, even as the world narrowed down to me and Max, Max and me. Blood that was already sorely depeleted rushed through my veins, and I couldn't breathe. The entire experience of having the crap beaten out of me was totally made worth it in that one moment of kissing Max.

That is, until the pain signals forced their goddamn way up my nerves, too.

"Ow," I muttered, and reached up to touch my lip. Split. Goodie. But that wasn't what had my attention right now. My fingers stayed on my lips as I stared at Max. She…kissed me? I gazed up at her in shock, and she gave me the single most mortified look I'd ever seen.

Nudge and Gazzy were both just gaping their faces off at Max, making me want to laugh, no matter how bad it would have hurt. I didn't, because it would have hurt. For the first time I was glad Iggy was blind, because he hadn't seen that. At the same time, I wanted to scream it out. I wanted to yell it like a victory chant. Max kissed me.

Ow. I forced myself to sit. I didn't want to just lie here all day. Bad enough I'd already had my butt kicked. I ground my teeth, because I wasn't about to groan like some wimp. I could take pain. But the effort still made me break out in a sweat. God, this sucked.

"Man," I admitted. "This feels pretty bad." Ah, wimp, wimp! I took the bottle of water Angel was holding out to me, taking a mouthful. Swishing it around my mouth, I turned my head and spat it into the sand, along with a lot more blood. The rage was still there, subdued now, biding its time.

"I'm going to kill Ari," I swore.

For my wounds.

For Max's tears.

For my Max.

If you feel

So filthy

So dirty

So fucked up.

If you feel

So walked on

So painful

So pissed off

You're not the

Only one

Refusing

To go down

You're not the

Only one

So get up

Let's start a riot

A riot

Let's start a riot