Prologue
When he left it felt like my whole world was falling apart around me. He was my shooting star and when he had passed over the horizon my eyes would not adjust. All I could see was blackness. And then something incredible happened. You see, my past has always been rather hazy. It's kind of like how I imagine vampires must remember their pasts. Once changed their human lives supposedly grow dimmer and dimmer, harder and harder to remember. They know who they were and what happened to them, but it's like they can see their lives out of the corners of their eyes but when they look directly at it, it just disappears. No distinct memories exist, just a blurry lump of emotions and experiences. That's how I guess it's always been for me. I've never really questioned it though, because I've never been one to dwell on the past. And maybe I figured it was the shooting star's fault that I could no longer remember the ordinary night sky. But when he left, I, I started remember weird things. Bits and pieces came back to me. There were lab coats and needles and mazes and cages and darkness and the open sky and a family, a family I had forgotten. I couldn't remember their faces. I just felt like I should, like they were somehow important to me. One day I just couldn't take it anymore, the depression, the being cooped up, the not knowing, and I hopped on my motorcycle and got the hell out of there. I drove south, towards California. I had just stopped to stretch somewhere near San Francisco when I heard a loud screech and next thing I knew I was lying flat on the ground with an angel bouncing on top of me, literally. She had bright blue eyes, blond hair, and white…wings? Yes, she definitely had white wings sticking out of her back. My first thought was that I had finally died, but then another 'person' landed next to me. He was tall, with long black hair, dark eyes, and olive toned skin. He had wings too, black ones that seemed to have purple streaks in them. Maybe he was the angel of death. Then another girl landed. She had brown skin, dark hair except for a blond streak in the front and huge light brown wings. A tall boy with strawberry blonde hair and unnerving light blue eyes lightly touched town besides her. Then came another boy who looked very similar to the little angel who still sat excitedly on my lap, with blond hair and blue eyes, only he had brown wings instead of her pure white. Finally a tall girl landed in front of them all, looking concerned at the angel, with olive toned skin like the first boy, and blondish brown hair and brown eyes that looked surprisingly like mine. She stepped closer to us and looked down somewhat angrily at me.
"What's going on? Who are you?"
That's when the little one spoke up.
"Calm down Max! Don't you recognize her? Well, I guess you wouldn't, still, she is your sister, she's our sister!"
My mind went into overdrive at this point.
"What!?" The girl, Max I guess, shouted?
"What do you mean our sister? This isn't Bell. She can't be! Angel, she's human!"
What were these kids talking about? Human? Me. Of course I was human; I mean that's why he left in the first place, because I was human. But then what Angel said next shattered my world.
"She's really not. And I think she goes by Bella now. Remember, I can disguise people. Or rather, I can make it so that a person is perceived as something they're not. This is Bell, our Bell, my big sister Bell. She's just not herself right now."
"But how, why?" Max stuttered.
Memories seemed to be seeping back to me, but they were confusing. All I could see were flashes of images. I looked at the tall pale kid standing behind Max. There was something about him that seemed so familiar… but I couldn't quite place it.
"Iggy!" I shouted remember his name. Wait, what? Who was Iggy? What was I talking about?
They all looked at me in shock, even Angel.
"But how, how can you remember us? Your memories should have been hidden, to protect you!"
"Who are you? What are you?" I was desperate for some answers.
"Oh, you don't remember. Let me help you." She took her little delicate hands and placed them on my temples, closing her eyes and concentrating hard.
"It's difficult with you, since your thoughts are blocked from me, but I should be able to open your mind back up to itself at least."
That's when it all came rushing back, the school, the experiments, the cages, the house on the mountaintop, and a family and a home, and then the day Jeb went missing and I became a target. We never knew why I was the target, but we did know that as long as I was Bell I would be in constant danger, as would my family, the flock. Somehow they could track my mind, my thoughts and use them against me. Of course they couldn't read my actual thoughts. That was my special ability, a mental shield of sorts, but through my persona of Bell they could somehow track me down. So one day, Angel came to me and told me she knew how to help, how to save me perhaps, but that I would have to stop being Bell. I didn't want to do it. I couldn't just abandon them like that, but I knew as long as I was there they would only be in danger. Max was really always the leader, I only helped out. She would be able to take care of them and there would be a lot less to take care of them from if I was gone. Plus, who knows what havoc those crazy white coats would cause if they got their hands on me. I remembered, it all. I remembered Maximum Ride, and Fang, and Iggy, and Nudge, and Gazzy, and my little Angel.
"I...I... rememeber."
(A/N Thanks so much for reading! Please, please review! Oh, and I don't own Twilight or Maximum ride, of course. The second part of the prologue should be up very soon!)
