Splitter

This morning, for a change, Max decided to put on her new Awear top with her worn but comfy, black cargo pants. The top was a black off-the shoulder, baggy top with a flesh coloured rose on its front. It showed off her favourite necklace, the one that Fang had given her before she left the Flock in search of Itex's secret base in London, England. She stroked the diamond-studded star with wings that hung from her neck softly as she remembered the goodbye.

There hadn't been one.

Max had left a note explaining her actions under each of the Flock's bedroom doors this night five years ago. They had been staying with Dr. M at the time, and she had personalised each note for each person. She had said in her note for Fang for him not to come after her many times, but two days into her trip to New York for the plane, she had caught a glance of a dark shadow with wings flying behind her, and had had to slip into warp drive to escape her lover.

Yes, that's right. Fang had proposed to Max on her sixteenth birthday, and she had said yes. (Angel's reaction wasn't happiness. She had yelled "About TIME!" and stormed off to look at colours for bridesmaids dresses.) The ring had been in her note to Fang that night, as was her love. But Max couldn't dwell on the past. She had to get to Gloucester Road Tube station before she missed her train.

Shrugging on her Zara mid-thigh, fitted beige trench coat, Max popped her iPod headphones into her ears. Turning it to shuffle, she locked the door of her tiny apartment to the opening beats of 'Plug In Baby' by Muse. Heading down the stairs, she nodded to Mr Smith, who lived in the apartment three down from hers. From his attire, it appeared that he had gotten into 'row' with his wife, and had spent the night out drinking. Again.

Max shook her head and headed down stairs, out onto the street and paced the two short blocks to Starbucks, across from the Train station. "Morning, Max." came the friendly greeting from Luke, her favoured Starbucks employee. "Your regular?" he asked as he unlocked the doors. She nodded, popping one headphone out of her ear. "How did you know?" she asked with faux-surprise, giggling slightly.

This was their morning ritual. Max would be the first customer in at seven fifty three every morning, Luke would whip up two Venti cappuccinos (one for here, one to go), and two slices of chocolate-spread-covered toast. Max would always finish the first coffee by the time the toast was done, and then pay using her Starbucks Card before eating the toast as she was crossing the street and getting on the train.

Max sat in her usual seat at her usual table, staring out the window towards the main street on which she lived, sipping the first cappuccino. She began to study the characters rushing up and down the streets, looking for danger. It was an automatic ritual, almost OCD, coming from years with her Flock. 'Already Gone' by Kelly Clarkson shuffled onto Max's (Product)RED iPod nano (3rd gen), and she automatically switched it to the next song, 'Ignorance' by Paramore. It reminded her too much of Fang, and her head was already in the clouds. Danger spotting needed focus, not flash backs…

Shaking her head, Max lifted her coffee cup to her nose and inhaled deeply. The rich aroma of coffee always calmed her. She noted that this morning's brew used Venezuelan beans as she took a deep gulp. She had just finished her first drink before Luke came out from the back with the grease-proof-paper bag and the to-go cup that was deemed 'Her Regular'. Max looked up at him and smiled gratefully.

As she waited for the money to be subtracted from her Starbucks Card, Max glanced around the rapidly filling café. Her regular seat was already filled, and more and more people in black work suits were filing in, waiting for their morning pick-me-up. As she walked out, she saw a tall, dark haired man look up at her. This was a usual. At twenty one, Max was taller and bustier than she had been when she had left the Flock five years ago. Many men looked at her in an inappropriate manner, but she always ignored it.

Max glanced at her watch, and then sprinted across the street. She was running behind, and may have missed her train if Frank hadn't held the elevator doors for her as she swiped her oyster card. "Thanks Frank." She said breathlessly. Frank smiled. He was her next door neighbour, and they had never realised that they were both in the lift everyday at the same time until one day Frank had accidentally elbowed Max, and spilt her coffee. Since that day, they had always held the elevator for each other.

Brushing her shoulder-length, blonde streaked hair from her chocolate brown eyes, Max bit into her first slice of toast. 'Mmmm. Breakfast.' She thought. Max had trained her stomach to only need the smallest amount of food possible, after her eating almost got her arrested in a restaurant in Covent Garden four years ago. She smiled, sipping her coffee and thinking of the Maitre-Dee's expression when she had ordered her usual fare.

As they exited the elevator, (Which hadn't effected Max in the slightest. She had been up and down in this elevator and many others since she had moved here) Max nodded to Frank as he got on the Piccadilly tube, headed to his job in Hyde Park. He nodded to her as she stepped onto the Circle Line platform, waiting for the train that would bring her to today's destination, Moorgate, 14 stops away. As she stepped onto the train, she noticed the tall, dark haired man from Starbucks getting into the same carriage.

Max sat down, and moved her iPod to the next song. The opening notes of 'Losing Touch' by The Killers began to play as the tall, dark haired man sat down next to her. She kept noticing him glancing at her, before pulling something out of his pocket and tapping her on the shoulder.

As she turned, she saw the man hold up an earphone splitter. Max remembered the article that she had read about these. On public transport, someone would provide a splitter, and you would play them a song, they would play you a song, and so on until one of them got off the train or bus or whichever. She nodded, and held out her iPod. The courtesy was for the provider to hear the first song. Max just flicked to the next song on her shuffle, and hoped it was something good.

The shuffle provided one of Max's favourite songs, 'Anything But Ordinary' from Avril Lavigne's album 'Let Go'. She sighed and relaxed slightly, settling in for a long ride. Max glanced at the dark haired man sitting to her right. Had he followed her? Had he been just getting a coffee and going on the same train at the same time? Max frowned at the second question that she had asked herself. She had to stop jumping to optimistic conclusions.

But how had he known that he would need the splitter today? How had he known that he would have use for it? Why chose her out of all the people with headphones on the tube?

While she had been pondering, the iPod had gone to the next song, 'I'm a Bomb' by Natasha Beddingfield. As she looked around the compartment, counting all the people listening to music, Max spotted a mysterious package just sitting on one of the seats on the opposite side of the carriage. It was half covered in an old newspaper provided on the tube, and as she listened to the music, Max got overly suspicious.

She pulled out one earphone and listened carefully. The man beside her looked at her curiously, and was about to speak, when Max shushed him. 'Bomb?' she mouthed, pointing at the package. The man's eyes widened. He took out an earphone and listened closely. He nodded slightly. Max pulled her earphones out of the splitter, and put her iPod away.

"People!" she said loudly, getting everyone's attention. "Do not panic, but I think that package," she pointed to the mysterious box, "is a bomb. It's ticking and is just lying there abandoned. Please, everyone move to the other end of the carriage." Commanded Max in an authorial manner. Everyone just shut up and moved down the compartment, as if the bomb would be triggered by sound.

Max took a deep breath and walked over to the package. She heard the people gasp, and a little old lady called out to her. "No, deary! Call the bomb squad!" Max smiled. "I am the Bomb Squad." She replied, and carefully took the newspaper from the bomb. Looking at it, she figured that it was a simple bomb, quite alike one of Gazzy and Iggy's inventions that she had confiscated and studied, but this was triggered by movement. A small red light was flashing in the centre, and there were about five probes detecting movement branching from the main device.

Max reached into her pocket and brought out her Swiss Army Knife. 'Which wire? What colour do I cut?' she thought. She may have told the granny that she was the Bomb Squad, but in truth, she just had a bit of experience with bombs. There was a blue, a brown, and a green wire. Was it 'Blue, Live' or Brown, Live'? Max took a deep breath, and took a guess.

._.

._._.

._._._.

._._.

._.

No boom. The red light faded to nothing, and Max pulled out her phone to alert the actual Bomb Squad to the potential threat. At this time, they had reached Victoria station, only three stops after Max had gotten on. How many times had this destruction device circled the city on this train?

*_* Time Passes. The Bomb Squad come. The passengers are put on the next train. *_*

Sitting down once again, Max saw the dark haired man sit next to her once again. He held out the splitter, and she put her headphones into the device. He plugged it into a worn, 1st gen black iPod. As she began speculating what the first song would be, Max recognised the piano introduction of My Chemical Romance's 'Welcome To The Black Parade.' Max's hand involuntarily went to her necklace. This was one of Fang's favourite songs, before she had left him 'broken, beaten and damned', to Para-quote the first verses.

But weirdly enough, this song reminded her of her father, Jeb. He had told her to save the world. To be the 'Saviour of the broken, The beaten and the damned.' He told her to defeat her 'demons, and all the non-believers, the plans that they had made'. And so she had. She had defeated Mr. Chu, and his evil plans to destroy the CSM. She had saved her mother, and promoted the CSM's message. She had gotten rid of Dr. Hägen-Daas and stopped his plan to kill Fang. All in a days work, really…

He had left her and the Flock. But he had left her The Voice. Or, The 'Phantom to lead you in the summer, To join The Black Parade…' Unfortunately, he had not left an awesome guitar solo… Max nodded her head along to the powerful chords.

She got the feeling all the time that someone was 'watching over' her. 'And through it all, the Rise and fall' of Itex, she had carried on. They had all carried on. They had made sure that Jeb's memory had carried on. Well, at least, when they thought that he was dead…

Max had lived up to her name, and had been the maximum at being 'Defiant to the end', and making sure that her cause was brought to the public eye, and to justice.

She carried 'on and on' through the fears. But 'do or die' for the white-coats, the answer was die. 'The world' (Itex) would never take her heart. She never explained or said sorry and was 'unashamed', to say the least. But, here was where she contradicted the lyrics. She didn't show her scars. She couldn't. Her scars were too large, too noticeable. Well, noticeable to Fang, maybe. But to these losers? The Humans? Nah. They didn't deserve to see them.

Max listened in to the next lyric, and it complied. She wasn't a hero. Not yet. She had still to hunt down the rest of the Hydra of Itex, and although Germany and America had been tackled, Britain, France, Russia and China were stubborn. This was one of the reasons that Max had moved to London. She had come in search of the three mini-Schools that were here in the capital.

For the rest of the song, her head was in the clouds. As the music changed, Max also recognised this tune. She had heard it blasting through Fang's walls many a time. MCR's 'This Is How I Disappear.' Max had to laugh at this. Fang was always staying still too long and disappearing. Sometimes they would 'disappear' off during the night and make out, so that the kids would wake up and find them all over each other. Max sighed, remembering the times she had with Fang, and her heart began to ache.

It was about a minute and a half into the power chords and depressing lyrics when Max noticed that there was no one in the seat beside her. The black iPod was still there, and still playing, but the dark haired man was gone. Max turned slightly, pretending to look at the map behind her head. The head phones that the man had been using were… floating in mid air…

Suddenly, a massive pain hit Max directly behind her eyes, and she whimpered slightly, holding her head. She felt the dark haired man wrap his arms around her, just as Fang did in the subway in New York before she even knew that she loved him, as a voice rang throughout her head. Wait. Correction. THE Voice. He's your soul mate. Look into his eyes and tell me I'm wrong, Maximum. 'Wait, what?' she thought. Look into Fang's eyes and tell me that he is not your soul mate.

Everything clicked. The song. Staying still. Sitting beside her. Following her. Loving her. She turned to the dark-haired, Not-so-stranger straight in the eye. His long black hair flopped down into his onyx eyes as he looked up at her. Max pulled out her head-phones, as did he. The word came out as a whisper. "Fang." His face broke out into a smile. No, not a smile. A full-blown grin.

Max jumped up and looked out the carriage windows. They were pulling into the next station. As soon as the tube doors opened, Max was outta there, sprinting up the steps. Fang followed. He had not come all this way, spent all this time searching, just to be spurned in the oven of love. (A/N, yes, bit of Rom + Jools, bit of Gee Nicholson. I like my quotes…) He rocketed after her.

As soon as she got to street level, Max melded into the crowd. She had had five years of getting used to this, blending, merging, and Fang couldn't find her. Until she dipped into an alley and took off. Fang jumped out into the middle of the road and spread his 18 foot charcoal wings, almost getting knocked down before he took off in a flurry of feathers.

She heard him yell her name, the most perfect, yet painful thing she had heard in five long years. "MAAAX!" he screamed as he swooped after her, as fast as his feathers could carry him. "WHY? WHY LEAVE?" he shouted over the storm-force wind up here.

She couldn't turn. She couldn't reply. She couldn't do anything but activate Plan Delta-Pro. Plan Delta is the tried and tested method of 'Run/Fly like hell'; But Plan Delta-Pro was Max's Plan Delta. Warp Drive. This was too painful. Seeing him again. So she flew.

When she got to the edge of the river Thames, she landed upon the spike of Big Ben. She didn't care that anyone on the London eye or down at ground level could see her open wings. She just couldn't. Act, speak, dream, wish, hope, love… Nothing…

This pain… she had almost flown into the engine of a 747 because of this pain. And now it was making her want to tuck in her wings and just jump. Feel the wind soar through her locks and create a makeshift halo whipping around her pure face. Close her eyes and picture Heaven, fluffy clouds and harps and her little brother Ari, smiling and waving, beckoning to her. Hearing the winds, the screams, the traffic, the boats, the hearts, the pleas, the wings…

His wings…

Beating through the air desperately. He landed behind her, not very gracefully falling onto one knee on the tiles, knocking down the Frisbee one of the roofers had placed there for a bet. To the world below, it seemed that an Angel of Darkness was begging an Angel of Light for forgiveness. But it was really two hearts finding one another again, and neither of them having the courage to reach out once again and re-establishing the love…

Suddenly, the air filled with the scent of Ozone, and Fang leaped, pushing Max off of the conducting rod she had been sitting upon just before the lightening struck. Neither of them had noticed the rolling storm clouds following them through London. The two landed on the edge of Big Ben's roof, a tile beside them falling away to the ground below.

Fang was lying on top of Max, staring into her fearful eyes. She was fearful for her life, first the thunder, then going over the edge. He thought that she was fearful of him. One clap of booming thunder sounded before the dark grey clouds released all their moisture down upon London.

Slowly, Fang leaned into Max, and gently pressed his lips to hers. Her brain stopped thinking, and she went on instinct, wrapping her fingers into his long shaggy hair and responding fiercely to his mouth. A wave of emotion washed over the young couple, and suddenly, Max pushed Fang away.

Hurt and disappointment filled every wrinkle Fang had developed from worrying about his Max, and his eyes became pools of liquid onyx. She had probably moved on, was married to someone else, had a job, had a life. She stared deep into his eyes and saw what he was feeling in his very soul. Comprehension spread over her, before angry fire flickered to life in her eyes.

"We're on the edge of Big Ben's roof. My head is hanging off the edge and blood is rushing to it. My wings are crushed beneath us, and my heart feels like it's on fire. Wait until I'm on flat ground, and THEN kiss me!" She told him. Confusion enveloped him for a millisecond before she stood, offered him her hand and they took off.

Flying freely through the cool rain with Fang over the busy city of London was one of the best things that Max had experienced since she had left Arizona, beating brining down the first Itex centre in Germany and living in England by miles. But all of those things were NOTHING compared to her and Fang catching up in her apartment for the next two days… *Raises eyebrows suggestively*…

Fin.

For now…

*Shifty eyes*

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