Chapter 9

Setting: After 7th Book

Warnings: None

Pairing: Fang and Iggy

Rating: T

A/N: Let me know what you guys think of the story so far! Reviews/comments/suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Colors were swirling on the horizon, or where it used to lie. Now the world appeared dark, with streaks of paint crisscrossing all over. Distant voices were yelling something, but it was they were too far for Dylan to make out what they were saying. Flashbacks of the lab were now reoccurring deep within the blonde's mind.

The strange, far away voices turned into the pained moans of the other experiments he heard as he was trapped behind the glass. While he was safe in a large vat of a clear gel, able to move around, he witnessed a view of multiple stacked crates off to a side of his clear, human sized tank. What he once thought were empty, abandoned cages, now joined in unison with both their pained expressions and dreadful screeches for help. Occasionally he would see a thin limb or two emerge from between the metal bars, only to be quickly shooed by one of the numerous coated scientists wandering the isles. As each one died, they'd leave them there a day or two, then drag the metal cage away, most likely into another lab for further data collecting.

Soon the moans grew so loud that they were becoming unbearable for Dylan. Trying to shake them out of his head, he started hitting his cranium with his fists. The drowning sounds began to transform back into words as the unconscious boy started to come to, and the sudden light blinded his eyes.

"Dylan, wake up!" Fang's dark hair fell into his dark eyes as he shook the young avian awake. Dylan could now make out the former distant horizon, as well as a small crowd of people around him. As he slowly returned his fists to open palms, he noticed an extremely large tree branch off to the side of where he lay.

Sitting up and examining the remainder of his surroundings, most of which were covered in the same green leaves as the branch, he concluded in his mind that he had been struck by the branch. His mind still remained shaken as his gaze went from the branch to the spot where he had been laying, horrified by the scene of his awful nightmare during what he thought had been his never ending unconsciousness.

"Dylan, can you hear me?" Fang was now crouched about a foot away from his left side, still staring intently into the boy's blue eyes.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I think I'm okay." Dylan managed to croak out as he tried to stand, his feet weak and wobbly. As he tried to expand his wings to both assess the damage to them and give him more balance, a sharp stinging of pain surged through his entire upper body. Just as the pain managed to touch the tip of his wings, his legs gave out, leaving him with a face full of asphalt.

"Woah! Careful there," Fang lifted the other boy off of the street, giving his face a better view than the rocky road that left some of its remnants embedded into his golden hued skin. "That was quite a hit. You should rest for a while." Fang helped the tall blonde place his wings into a slightly less irritating position, and wrapped then wrapped his own arms around Dylan's torso to help carry him. Ratchet and Holden lifted Dylan's legs, following Fang's orders, leaving only his feet to dangle on their own. Kate and Star followed close behind them as they all worked their way back to the motel.