Chapter 2

I woke up the next morning early. I decided to let Blaze sleep. He'd stayed up late watching the cave entrance. And he deserved it.

I walked silently down to the little river I'd found, and stilled the water for a moment looking at my reflection. A round face with a square jaw, delicate mouth, small forehead, and wide, bright glacier blue eyes framed by a long, thick fringe of dark eyelashes stared back at me. The thin line around my iris was a deep ocean blue, softening the lighter color that surrounded my pupil. My hair was, again, almost exactly like Blaze's but I had blue streaks, and the Facility kept my hair longer. We'd raided the guard's room, so we had combat boots, cargo pants, and T-shirts on.

I pursed my lips, and then drew out the water from the stream, letting it go back to its gushing, moving current. I separated the water from the toxins, and drank before filling a canteen we'd also stolen from the guard's room. I thought about my reflection, and then the baby when my stomach growled.

I couldn't stand the fact that I'd basically been turned into a brood mare. Only good be experimented on and to create more experiments. I wasn't too happy with my previous "caretakers" in case you haven't guessed yet.

I shook my head trying to rid myself of those thoughts. Then, I started foraging for food.

Coming back to the cave I saw that Blaze was gone. I looked around, almost panicking. I searched a bit farther into the cavern, finding nothing. I started running towards the mouth of the cave and ran into him, making him drop his armful of wood. Startled, he steadied me, and hugged me back when I wrapped my arms around his waist and squeezed.

My breathing was slowing down as he asked, "Saph, what's wrong? Are you okay?" I nodded. "I was just getting some firewood. I saw you were already up and near the stream." Blaze pulled away and looked at me worriedly, eyes searching my face. More quietly he continued, "You don't feel sick? The baby is fine?"

I nodded again. "Yes. I'm fine. And as far as I know, the baby is, too. I mean, it hasn't been that long, you know? So, how could it possibly not be fine? And it's not like I got hit in the stomach or anything so there's really nothing to worry about!" I laughed nervously. And then hysterically, and the laughing threatened to turn into crying.

Blaze hugged me tightly, shushing me, as the laughing turned into quiet sobs. "It's okay. Saph! Look at me. I'm here. It's okay."I looked at him and nodded. Sometimes, I think he knows me better than I know me. "We're both fine. They haven't found us, or tracked us or anything. In fact, how about we eat right now and start flying, okay?"

I hugged him tighter. If I didn't have Blaze, I'd be lost. He's basically my other half.

We ate, and not long after we took off, flying high in the atmosphere, and covering a lot of distance. We went on the next few weeks going between foraging for food, and stealing it. Often, we'd go to a store when it was closed, and I'd short the circuits collecting water from the humidity in the air and pooling it in the security systems, cameras and alarms alike. We'd sneak inside grab what we needed – including clothes from Wal-Mart and some bags and food – then split leaving everything pretty much untouched.

Soon we were in Arizona, somewhere around Phoenix. We were stopping for the night near a small house in the surrounding woods. We slept that night on the ground. I was beginning to show, and it was becoming more and more obvious. It hadn't been that long, though, so maybe the baby would grow faster because of my quicker metabolism, and quick healing ability. We'd only had a couple run-ins with erasers, and that was near the cities, which was why this was a one-night shot. We started packing up our things. And I was about to take a bite out of an apple when we heard a back door close and footsteps coming toward us.

I looked at Blaze, eyes wide. We'd done everything we could to avoid coming into contact with humans. Everything we knew about normal people screamed that they were volatile, and cruel. They could go from loving you to hating the sight of you in a moment's notice. Grabbing my stuff, I looked from Blaze to the nearest tree. He nodded, and we both jumped up into opposite limbs mere seconds before two kids out age, tall and thin came walking by. I held my breath. One, a girl, had dark streaked blond hair and she was a bit shorter than her male counterpart. He had black hair that fell over his eyes, and the dark eyes to match. There was something about the way they walked that betrayed an alertness not many people have.

I held my breath and stared at them, waiting for them to pass out of sight, but just past me, the male put a hand on her arm stopping her. My eyes widened. Crap. I looked down, and realized that I'd left a food wrapper on the ground. He bent and picked it up. "Max," he said slowly, "I think we're being watched." Her head jerked up and she looked directly at me. I slung my pack over my shoulder and jumped to the next branches to the top of the tree. I sprung and jumped into the air, snapping my wings out and beating the air, looking for a decent current.

I cursed looking around for Blaze, when I didn't hear him, or see him, I started worrying. "Fang!"It must have been the girl, Max. "I'm going after that girl, you take that one." The sound of fighting reached my ears. I dropped into the trees just as Max took to the air. I heard someone swear. Then I saw Max drop into the trees not far from me. I dropped to the dirt and hit the ground running. That dark haired guy, Fang, would not take my Blaze. I found the little bit of a clearing as saw that Blaze was grappling with Fang. Then I realized something. Max had come after me. In the air. They were bird kids too! Just as I saw Blaze get ready to blast the kid's face with some flames, I said , "Stop!"

At the same time, I also gathered water and froze the other two teenager's feet to the ground. Well, in Max's case, her legs from the waist down. "What the hell?!" Max. "Who the hell are you, and how the hell did you freeze us? Let us go!"

I laughed. "Yeah. Why? So you can attack us? I don't think so. And Max? That is your name, right? Girl, I've got the elemental powers, so I'll ask questions first. If you're a good little boy and girl, I'll unfreeze you. Or he will." I finished nodding at Blaze who was now standing with a possessive arm around my waist. I sighed, and sat down tiredly. "Okay. Do you both have wings?" I asked.

Max glared at me. "Why do you want to know? Who sent you?" I rolled my eyes.

"I want to know, because obviously, you aren't the only bird kids here." I spread my wings for emphasis. "And we weren't sent, thank you very much. We ran away. Any more stupid accusations you'd like to make?" I raised my eyebrows. "No? Okay then. We weren't sent. We escaped, maybe three weeks ago from the Facility. It's a bio-genetic research facility in the middle of nowhere up in the Catskill mountain range in New York State. We've been on the run ever since, and we're just trying to find someplace quiet, and abandoned far, far away from any civilization so we aren't found again. Mkay? Satisfied?"

Max nodded slowly. Fang stayed silent. Talk about the strong, silent type, huh? Though Max began, "What's with the ice?"

I glanced at Blaze then at the two captives, raising an eyebrow. He barely nodded. "Are you going to be a good girl, Max?"

"Yes. I'm going to be a good girl, who-ever-the-hell-you-are."

I smirked. "Fabulous." With another flick of the wrist I turned the ice to water, and sent the water back into the air. "We were part of an elemental avian design. There were originally four of us, but when we were three, the air and earth experiments both died. Now it's me and Blaze. I'm Sapphire. And I don't just control ice. I have control over water in general. In fact, if I pushed myself, I could know what you're thinking because of the water in your brain and surrounding your nerves. And Blaze?"

Blaze spoke for the first time, snapping and creating a small flame light up over his thumb. "I've got fire. But I can also use lightning, and can make lava. Yes! Magma!"

Max nodded. Fang was looking at us quizzically, shaking the cold out of his feet. He asked, "So what's with the hair and the wings?" he took a closer look and added, "And the eyes?"

I nudged Blaze with my elbow. He explained, "It's an aftereffect. It's not precisely clear why that happened, but it did. The kid who had air had white hair, almost white, gray eyes, and had wings like ours, but with white instead. Same with the kid who had Earth, though theirs were a combination of green and brown."

It was quiet after that. Then I caught Fang looking closely at my abdomen, and then his eyes flicked to Max then to me. Quickly I used my mind trick to read what was going on in his head.

Hmm… She's like us… She can't be that different, and if they're on the run it's highly doubtful that she'd be over eating. God knows none of us gain any weight. So that only leaves… He looked at Blaze and I jumped. How the hell did he figure that out so quick? I thought I'd just been paranoid, thinking that I was beginning to look obvious, but I guess not. I stared right at him. Daring Fang to meet my eyes. When he did, I looked down at my stomach and then nodded slightly. Fang's eyes widened.

I swallowed noisily. Then I leaned against Blaze for support. "There's another, big reason that we ran away, besides the obvious one of the experiments…" I played with my fingers. Quietly I continued, "I found out that one of the procedures they did when I was under, was to get me pregnant with another elemental avian. And it worked." I looked up and met their eyes as they both stared. Max was gawping at my stomach, and Fang just stared, not showing any emotion. "I wasn't about to let them ruin another child's life… Especially not my own." They nodded. I could tell that Max was a Tomboy, and that Fang was just… dark, reclusive, emotionless, etc. Similar to me, I suppose, but between the running and the raging hormones, I've lost most of my careful façade.

Max frowned and stepped toward me. "How are you doing?" I'd heard that question, asked by Blaze and thousand times, but this time I answered differently.

"As far as I know, I'm okay. But I don't really know. I have no clue how many kids I'm having or how long it'll be, or if I'm doing anything wrong… If you want to know the truth… I'm scared." I bit my lip, fighting tears. I hadn't told Blaze that, but if Max and Fang could help, or knew anyone who could… it was worth telling them.

Max and Fang looked at each other then Max walked over and they talked quietly, taking glances back at me and Blaze every few moments. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath while we waited before turning and hugging Blaze. He held me and laid his chin on the top of my head, watching Max and Fang. I let the tears escape, but I didn't sob. I pulled away and dispersed the tears and water from my face and Blaze's shirt into the air, so it wouldn't look like I'd been crying. But, I can't fix red eyes, so I'm screwed if they were that bad.

Max called to us, "Sapphire? Blaze? Why don't you come meet my mom? She's a human, but she's a vet… so she may be able to help." A vet? Oh the irony. Well, at least she's cool with the whole bird-kid deal.

I smiled. Blaze did too. Then he answered for both of us, "Thanks. Really. Thank you."