I had a really crappy-no wait-the worst day of my life, and I'm hoping that you all had a better weekend than I did. Hopefully this will get me happy again.

Disclaimer – I'm too depressed right now to even try to pretend that I might own Maximum Ride.

Fang's POV (Chapter 12)

"We clear on Plan B?" Max asked, a bit louder than usual, my guess so me and Nudge would hear her over the wind.

I just nodded. Why most people choose to voice answers, when they can just give a simple head movement, I'll never understand. Like Nudge…

"Uh-huh," said Nudge. "If we get separated somehow-though I don't see how we could, unless maybe one of us gets lost in a cloud or something-do you think that could happen? I haven't ever been inside a cloud. I bet it's creepy. Can you see anything inside a cloud-"

Max shot her a look, which made Nudge pause, then finish quickly, "We meet up at the northmost point of Lake Mead."

Max nodded. "And where's the School?"

"In Death Valley, eight miles due north from the Badwater Basin." She opened her mouth to continue, but stopped when Max raised her eyebrows. Even I'm not the only one who thinks Nudge talks too much.

"You got it," Max Said, "Good job." Could the address of the School be anymore ironic? Death Valley and Badwater Basin. I mean it practically screams 'this is an evil place where evil scientist live who create mutants'.

The wind started blowing extra hard making Max's braid come undone, whipping around her face. It looked so free like that; it made her look more relaxed. But knowing Max she would try to cut off her hair as soon as possible; even though she thought it was annoying I thought it was beautiful. Wait a sec…I need to come back to reality.

The Gasman and Iggy had been none-too-happy campers when we'd left; I thought Max had made the best decision she could. What when said was true, but she had different reasons for saying it. I'm happy I'm not the leader. Look at all the decisions Max has too make by herself, the job didn't come with an instruction manual.

I saw Max glance at me out of the corner of my eye, but I didn't do anything to let her know I noticed. She seemed to be studying me, but I tried not to think about it. Then she edged closer to me.

"On the plus side, flying is just really, really cool, "She said, I turned my head and looked at her with half a smile that didn't looked forced; she seemed to buy it. She kept staring; it was actually starting to creep me out a bit.

She seemed to remember herself again."On the minus side, we're mutant freaks who will never live a normal life."

I shrugged. "Win some, lose some."

She gave me a small smile and looked at Nudge. She was three years younger than us but she was honestly holding her own. Like all of us, she was tall for her age, and skinny, probably weighing no more than sixty pounds, thanks to strong, light bird bones.

Max was starting to look worried; she was probably thinking that we weren't going fast enough. The "scientists" at the School could do a lot of damage. Even with that knowledge over our heads, I knew we would have to take a break soon. If we were going to take on the whole School, we'd need to be rested, not hungry.

Max checked her watch; I guessed that we'd been flying around two hours. She was probably thinking it was time to rest; come to think of it my stomach was starting to growl. Flying burns energy like nothing else, and after a long flight, I feel like eating a cow. Utensils optional. Max had to admit that food was a necessity, even with Angel at the School.

"Max?" Nudge began, "I was thinking-"

Here we go.

"I mean, right before we left? I just looked at Jeb's old files, you know? And some of them were about us. Or me. I saw my name on a page, my real name, Monique, and then, like, some people's names, and then-Tipisco, Arizona. Tipisco is right on the Arizona-California border-I found it on the map. Real tiny town, it looked like. Anyway, I was thinking, none of us ever knew our real parents, and, you know, we've always wondered, or at least I mean I've always wondered, but I guess the rest of you have too, like, whether they gave me up voluntarily or whether-"

"Nudge. I know how you feel. But those names might not have anything to do with you. We don't know if we were just test-tube babies or what. Please. Let's focus on rescuing Angel." Max replied.

There was no response.

"Nudge?" She asked.

She finally answered. "Yeah, okay. I was just thinking."

Max had her I-know-this-is-gonna-come-back-and-bite-me-in-the-butt look. She was right.

This chapter in the book is in no one's POV, but it's about Angel at the School, and Fang isn't there at all, so I'm just going to copy it straight out of the book. I OWN NOTHING IN THIS NEXT CHAPTER.

General POV (Chapter 13)

Her mouth was so dry. Her head ached-everything ached. Angel blinked several times, trying to wake up. Above her was a dark brown plastic roof. A cage. A dog crate. A Kanine Kamper, size medium. Fuzzy thoughts pushed at her brain as she struggled to a sitting position. She knew where she was-she would recognize that chemical, disinfectant smell anywhere. She was at the School.

New new 'n' wings an new new wings girl new

In a crate next to hers were two other children, younger than she. Their eyes, too big for their hungry faces, locked onto her.

"Hi," Angel whispered. She didn't feel any whitecoats around-just the scrambled, incoherent thoughts of these kids.

Mouth noise girl wings new new

The other children stared without answering. Trying to smile, Angel looked at them more closely. She thought they were both boys. One had rough, scaly skin-literally scaly, like a fish, but just in patches, not all over. Not a happy effect.

The other one just looked like . . . a mistake. He had extra fingers and toes, and hardly ay neck. His eyes were huge and bulging, and the hair on his head was sparse. It made Angel's heart hurt just to look at him.

"I'm Angel," she whispered again."Do you have names?"

Noise noise bad girl wings bad noise

The two boys looked afraid, and they turned from her and edged farther back in their cage.

Angel swallowed hard and was quiet. What had happened to Max and the others? Were they in cages too?

A door opened and footsteps sounded on the linoleum floor. Angel felt the caged boys trembling with dread, crazed, swirling thoughts of fear crashing in their brains. They huddled together at the back of their cage. But the two whitecoats stopped in front of Angel's.

"Oh, my Gosh-Harrison was right," one whitecoat said hunching down to stare at Angel through the grate."They got her! Do you know how long I've wanted to get my hands on this one?" He turned excitedly to the other whitecoat. "Did you ever read the Director's precept report about this recombinant group?

"Yeah, but I wasn't sure I believed it," said the other whitecoat, a woman. "Are you saying this is Subject Eleven? This little girl?

The first whitecoat rubbed his hands together with glee."You're looking at it." He leaned forward to unhook her cage door."Come on, little thing. You're wanted in lab seven." Oh, yes! Man, when I section her brain . . .

Angel winced, then rough handle dragged her out.

Pathetic relief washed through the boys that it was she who was being taken Angel didn't blame them one bit.

I finished finally. That took forever. I think I'm going to take a nap right now. So review please?