A/N: Sorry,but after this I might not update for a while. My hands are really red and swollen at the moment,and it's hard to type or move my fingers.
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I was back at the School,locked in a too-small dog crate. The scientists came in and unlatched the cage next to me. I saw them taking away Nyx,my only friend in this prison of a home. No.

I could do nothing as they strapped her down to a metal operating table,wheeling her to the next room over. I heard a muffled shout,and smiled,knowing that Nyx was giving the doctors a hell of a fight. They were afraid of a skinny, malnourished, unarmed adolescent girl. The commotion died down,and everything went eerily quiet. It was as if the desert was holding it's breath,waiting.

Then the screaming started.

I jolted upright in my bed. It had all been a dream,only a dream. Just one of my recurring nightmares about my past. About what happened to my best friend ,Nyx,who was practically a sister to me,that fateful night all those years ago.

I glanced at the bed across from me. Normally Nyx slept on the top bunk, hidden behind closed curtains. The curtains were pushed aside. The bed was empty. For a moment,my panic returned. Where was she? They couldn't have gotten her,she was a great fighter! Then I calmed down, remembering her nocturnal tendencies and habit of waking up extremely early.

I walked out onto the deck. We live on an old houseboat, hidden away deep in the wildest part of the Everglades. Sure enough, Nyx was sitting on the edge of the deck,bare feet dangling over the water. She looked a lot different than she did all those years ago. The Florida sun had given her a dark brown-gold-russet tan. With her wings hidden, she could pass for any residential Florida kid that liked to fish and explore. Or she would if she didn't look so deadly. Her name fit her well.

Nyx,sensing my presence, turned around and nodded in a silent greeting. Her eyes were already bright and alert,no signs of lingering sleep visible in them. Sometimes I had to wonder if she slept at all.

She was holding a handline. Looks like she was catching breakfast,as usual. She was good at that kind of stuff,and her eyesight was amazing even by mutant standards, allowing her to spot supposedly camouflaged things among the plants and through the sometimes-murky water. Her eyes were unusually large to begin with and she usually had black streaks,like falcon or cheetah eye stripes,painted on her face to minimize glare.

I went inside to wake the others up. By now, Liz and Skink,the lizard kids,were already awake, gathering the warmth of the sun up on the roof. Finn came into the kitchen, yawning and dragging Molly with him. It looked like Clarisse,Frank,Cruz,and Jake were still asleep. The first one on my list was my fellow cat recombinant,Jake. He slept next to the window in the boys' room,dozing in a patch of sunlight.

I dumped a bucket of water on him. We cat recombinants hate getting wet. He let out a very girly scream,jumping to his feet. Cruz, Nyx's male counterpart, who was a pretty light sleeper,groaned and threw his pillow at Jake. I smacked him with it and threw it back in his face.

"Ow! What was that for?"he complained.

"Get up," was my only reply.

"Is breakfast ready?" Jake asked,his voice muffled due to the fact that he had pulled his blanket over his head. "'Cause I'm not coming out unless there's food."

I sighed in frustration. Boys were ridiculously stubborn. "I don't know. Nyx is fishing right now." Then another thought occurred to me,causing a wicked grin to make it's way across my face. "But," I added, "Frank and Clarisse are still asleep." They were the oldest out of our ragtag group.

The boys both scrambled to their feet without further protest,looking forward to what was soon to come.

Which happened to be pushing Frank off his bunk. He hit the floor hard,and we ran out as fast as we could,moving back to the girls' room where we did the same thing to Clarisse. The result? Entertainment. For us younger kids at least.

By the time all the commotion had died down,Nyx had already silently made her way into the kitchen with her catch, unnoticed until she fired up the stove. She was like a dark shadow come to life,and kept appearing out of nowhere. She always wore all black,and had some serious ninja skills,both in stealth and fighting. It drove me nuts.

"So,"Frank said,yawning widely. "What's on the menu today?" I knew Nyx understood him. Most of the time,she had no problem being deaf unless one of us forgot and tried to talk while in a different room,not using our code.

Large mouth bass and bull's-eye snake head, she signed in ASL,which she had first taught herself,then us.That's another thing about Nyx. She's freakishly smart,loves her books,and knows all sorts of helpful things,like how to set snares or the best ways to catch fish.

You see,a lot of fish species tend to like some cover,some form of protection from above. That's where her wings come into play. According to Nyx, there's a type of heron in Africa that uses its wings to create cover to lure small fish in. She does the same thing,just on a larger scale with larger fish. Sometimes she even went noodling. Basically,Nyx would stick her arm into catfish holes and pull the fish out when they bit her hand. And they say I'm the crazy one.

The moment Nyx was done cooking (another one of her many talents), Jake yelled, "I call dibs!"just before he and the other boys carried off the plate.

"Hey!"Clarisse barked,grabbing a frying pan and brandishing it threateningly." Come back here right now!"

Finn took one look behind him. "Run!"he yelled. They bolted.

Nyx cursed in sign language. I thought she was going to go after our annoying,thieving male companions,but she just picked up her handline and equipment again before heading towards the door.

I stepped in front of her. "Woah,where are you going?" I asked.

Going to catch more fish,maybe snake. Boys get none later at dinner. You know that will make him mad. Of course the actual signs weren't so exact,but I had gotten pretty good at interpreting and filling in the gaps over the years. Even when she decided to speak out loud in some foreign language. That's why we were closer with each other than anyone else in the group. Plus,I was the only one who knew her little secret.

I nodded. "Okay." I knew that she could read my lips,and that there was no use arguing. Even deaf,Nyx was the leader. That was indisputable. Besides,I was hungry.

She stood on the railing,wings still retracted, before letting herself fall, her brown/red/black hair streaming out around her face. Her hair and eyes were the same strange,unique color as her feathers. I could never on any one color to describe them,they seemed ever-shifting and as mysterious as their owner.

She landed in the water with barely a splash, cutting through it just as well as the fish kids could. Where we were anchored, the water was around ten feet deep or so, pretty shallow. In our perfect little lagoon, the water was crystal clear most of the time.

Even though there were gators, gar,feral pigs, cougars, poisonous snakes,and who knows what else out there,Nyx was never worried about the animals. They never hurt her. She had some kind of understanding with them. They respected her as a fellow predator among their ranks,but not competition. I have no idea how that worked. It was strange. I had to wonder if she could speak to snakes like Harry Potter, or shapeshift like Frank Zhang. In fact,her chosen last name was Zhang,but for entirely different reasons. Nightshade Zhang. Nyx for short.

I settled down for a nap in a patch of sunlight that was in front of my bunk. I sleep just about as much as a real cat. After a little while,Nyx came back with her osprey perched on her shoulder, holding a young Burmese python she had caught. Her hair was soaking wet,but she didn't seem to mind. As usual,her eyes were intensely focused,almost frighteningly so. A little glint of humor glittered in their dark depths.

She gestured as best as she could with her hands full. Ha ha. Boys miss out,the thieving brats,and I smiled. Revenge was sweet.

In case you're wondering,snake meat tastes kind of like chicken.