My return to consciousness was like a slow crawl through frozen thorns.

Minus the poetry, it hurt a great deal and immediately had me regretting every one of my life decisions.

This is even worse than that time I picked a fight with my dentist...

The moment I could focus beyond the pain, I sent an inquiry as to why my brain and lungs had chosen this moment to compete for the title of the most agonising organ in my body.

In reply, came the image of claws and blood.

Memories rushed back to me, sharp and cringe-worthy.

Jack had...

I pushed back the hysterical thoughts, suppressed the memories, not anywhere near ready to deal with what had happened.

What Jack had done to me.

Unfortunately, the closer I got to being awake, the more I realised, that was the least of my problems.

Because I could hear a violin. The sound I had come to associate with being screwed.

The music was soft, melancholy vibrating through the strings with each slow note.

It was beautiful, as Jack's playing always was, but I was having a hard time appreciating it right now... What with the way my head was threatening to split open.

The urge to curl up in a shaking ball of misery and pain struck me hard. A single despairing thought racing through my mind.

I can't do this-

I crushed the doubt, along with the small whimper threatening to escape my lips.

Even in my pain hazed state, I knew better than to alert Jack to the fact that he had an audience...it would be really dumb...but if I don't move, that pretty much leaves me stuck here...listening to his music for the rest of eternity...

It was a tough call.

Torture... or boredom.

On the one hand, stalling until help arrives will probably save me a lot of pain in the end...on the other...

Playing possum is for chickens.

I sighed, coming to the only reasonable conclusion.

Nobody calls me a chicken.

Especially not my own head.

I can do this.

I'm gonna stand up, scowl meaningfully, and kick psycho bird ass...

A sharp jab from my insides swiftly had me revaluating my plan of attack.

Yep. As soon as the urge to vomit blood dies down to only a mild urge, I'll be all over that.

...Meanwhile, let's suss out the situation like the calm, collected and probably concussed war hero ninja God I am.

Laying down.

Knowing that I was instantly going to regret this, I cracked an eyelid open.

Welp, not only was there light, which sent it's courtesy searing pain into my already tender brain thank you, but it was flickering.

Hello seizure, here I come.

Squinting against the light, I made out the shape of steel bars above me, bent in the shape of a dome. The bird swing hanging from said ceiling confirmed my fears.

The irony of Jack putting me in a freaking birdcage was not lost on me.

Gritting my teeth against the irritation building in my chest, I chanced a small glance out of my peripheral vision, seeing enough of the room beyond to know that it wasn't the one I had been in last.

Nor was it the one I had started out in.

So new territory. Jack is nearby. No sign of Alex... and I am trapped in a cage.

So...No hope.

Great. Good to know.

Unfortunately, the bleak circumstances left me with nothing better to do than overcome my recent trauma.

With the tiniest sigh, I closed my eyes and forced myself to slowly go over what I could remember.

Jack came out of the vent.

The fingers I had been leaning against disappeared from behind me.

I lost my balance with a yelp, startled into looking back, away from the oncoming threat, to see what Alex was doing.

Besides making me look like an idiot.

The fingers returned before I could finish the movement, crashing into my side and curling around me in a tight grip.

I felt the force of the motion, the pressure, more than I actually saw the blurring world as Alex rolled to the side and up onto his feet.

Winded and disoriented, I coughed a polite reminder to my lungs that they were supposed to be working right now.

Hands clenched against Alex's fingers, I looked to the place we had been only an instant before... to see Jack slowly rising to his feet.

The bird boy balanced delicately on claws, back straight and smile in place.

Black wings stretched out with a heavy slowness, seeming to take up all the space in the room.

Jack was a few good inches shorter than Alex, more fragile in figure and demeanour, but in that moment he seemed to loom over us both.

The smile he wore spoke softly of his insanity.

"Ta-Da."

Apparently, Alex didn't need eyes to see that Jack's crazy switch had been flipped.

For the first time in living history, Alex didn't waste his breath on complaining, throwing himself backwards and away from Jack with sickening speed.

Good thing we left my stomach behind.

As he quickly back-peddled, I was shoved unceremoniously into the solid, unflinching wall ...otherwise known as Alex's chest. Probably giving me a concussion.

Jack followed our retreat step for step, keeping up with mocking ease and maintaining a deliberate distance.

Close enough to reach out and attack, but his arms only remained relaxed at his sides.

Alex hit the wall with a brutal crash, ducking down in the next instant as Jack tried to pin him to the wall with a clawed foot.

If nothing else, becoming a human/bird hybrid had done wonders for his flexibly.

Alex dove to the side, rolling forward and up onto his feet. He started forward, only to stumble and fall as he tangled up with a broken chair.

Fighting blind never did look pretty.

Alex took the fall calmly, rolling onto his back with the same motion he used to catch himself.

Jack stepped forward, and Alex sat up to meet him, stomping on Jack's clawed foot to stop him in his place.

As I was wondering how he had been lucky enough to actually land the hit... and what he was supposed to do now that he had Jack's foot hostage, Alex scooted forward, sliding his other leg in between Jack's.

He rolled to the side in a near one-eighty, suddenly laying against the outside of Jack's leg as he hooked his own in behind the birdlike knee.

By the time I realised that I was about to be a part of greatness, Alex had used his free leg to swing himself forward and up on to his knees.

Jack fell forward, his leg still trapped in Alex's own as the redhead curled forward to grip him in a chokehold.

...Too bad Alex didn't account for the wings.

They snapped out, connected with a sharp crack and Alex fell to the floor with a muffled curse.

Jack was on us in an instant, grabbing Alex wrist and roughly dragging the hand that held me trapped up into the air.

Alex's hold tightened painfully, but I did little more than send him a frustrated look.

He was squinting at me, his eyes fully formed in their blood-stained sockets, but not quite yet able to focus.

I had to do something.

"Stop." I snapped, rounding on Jack as much as possible from Alex's hold.

And was surprised to find those Birdlike eyes only inches away, half-lidded and calm.

"You can't hurt me." I panted, trembling slightly as I faced my own reflection in his eyes. It reminded me uncomfortably of the last time we had been this close.

"Alex found me first." My voice was unexpectedly firm, despite the way my heartbeat in my chest.

"You lost the game."

"Maddison." He whispered softly. He sounded almost confused. Like his grasp on reality was as loose as the screws in his head.

"I always wanted to tell you."

Alex made to move, and Jack slammed his clawed foot over the fallen boy's head, pinning Alex down even as he held the hand holding me up to his face.

"I am an artificial creature." He murmured, voice so soft it was barely there. "My entire life has been spent crawling in the mud, searching for a way out...."

It was only because I was so close that I saw Jack's gaze flatter.

"... trying to find meaning in an endless cycle of doing wrong and being wronged. But you...."

His other hand reached up to me, pinching my chest between two claws.

"....held your hand out to me. Even when I try to drag you down with me, you remain on the high ground, offering me a chance to do the right thing."

Jack didn't smile.

"Even now."

Blood splashed onto Alex's shaking fingers.

I looked down slowly. Saw the thick claws buried in my chest.

Felt the flood of liquid on my tongue before it dripped down my chin.

"You expect me to play fair."

I squeezed my eyes shut, trembling at the painful memory.

The sound Alex had made when I went limp in his hand.

The way my vision had blacked as Jack dragged us away.

All thought of faking sleep left my mind as my hand reach to clutch my chest, feeling the crusted blood on my dress.

The wound was healed.

The nanotechnology had done its job. Even the rawness of my hands from the stairs had been mended.

But now...

I was hungry.