Just Try by Anna-Banana-Bofanna

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride's plot or characters. If I did, there would be lots of suicide and self-mutilation. And drug use. You have been warned.

Before it happened...

Angel was in her room, organizing her teddy bears. She was separating them by color, working on the tawny ones that matched Nudge's wings. Stroking a small one named Luna she browsed through the Flock's thoughts. Gazzy: cheese. Nudge: Demi Lovato. Iggy: blowing something up. Fang: Max. Max: Fang. Everything was normal. Going back to her dolls, she focused on the task, moving on to smoky grays. She had no way of knowing.

Gazzy was watching TV, some cooking show. It was the only thing on, and he had nothing to do. Well, according to Max's mom there was plenty, but everything she suggested involved a mop, broom, vacuum, or physical activity. The chef, a bouncy man in his late thirties, was making cheese fondue, and it actually looked kind of yummy.

"Iggy!" he yelled, keeping his eyes on the dish. The man was now adding some kind of spice.

"What?" came his reply after a few seconds.

"Come here!"

"No. I'm busy."

"Iggy, please! They're making cheese fondue on TV and-"

"Gazzy," Iggy's voice was tired, surrendered.

So Gazzy gave up. He didn't give it another thought, just started channel flipping. He had no way of knowing.

Nudge. Dancing in her room, Demi Lovato's "Get Back" playing on her iPod. She posed in front of the mirror, creating different iNudge things. One leg kicking up, head tilted back. Pirouette, arms extended. Jumping in the air, hair flying. She heard a faint voice calling her name, and yanked her ear buds out.

"Huh?" she called, cocking her head. Iggy's voice answered her.

"Nudge, honey? Come here for a second."

"But Iggy! I can't right now!" Nudge whined, sighing audibly.

"N-never mind. Forget it."

But Nudge didn't hear. She already had her music pounding in her ears, practicing more iNudge's. Wings stretched out, hands on hips, foot tapping. She had no way of knowing.

Fang was blogging about Max, his readers apparently excited by their blooming relationship. Her hair, her eyes, the way she had food caught in her teeth during breakfast and had practically beat the crap out of him when he didn't tell her. When Iggy entered, he was so silent that even the light tapping of Fang's laptop keyboard masked it. He was only alerted by his friend's presence, the feeling that someone was watching him.

"Hey, man. What's up?" he asked. Iggy looked genuinely surprised, as if he hadn't expected end up in Fang's room, or even see him. He looked lost. "Ig? You okay?"

"Uh-yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine," his tone was eerie, as if he was in a trance. And slowly, he walked out of Fang's room, down the hall. Fang shook his head, made a note finish his post then go see what was wrong. He had no way of knowing.

And Max. The protective one, the one who blames herself whenever anything relatively bad happens to a member of her family. She was taking a joy fly, soaring through the air. Everything seemed perfect- the wind whistling through her feathers, the flock of geese flying just below her, seemingly copying her movements. The world was beautiful. She had no way of knowing. Knowing that everything was about to collapse, that her Flock, her family, was about to go through a wild ride, worse than flying in a hurricane.

None of them did.