CHAPTER 3
For once, no one made a sound. The child looked down at Fang, (for her, though, looking is strictly impossible) then grabbed his hand. She whispered unknown words into his ear, then looked me straight in the eyes with her dark sockets.
"I'm sorry, Maximum. He can join me now, where he belongs. Fang's my brother, you know. And he wouldn't die unless you came along. So please just give me your soul. Don't make it painful, like Fang did."
The wind picked up again, and soon Fang was standing there.
"No! Don't take Max!" He yelled at the young girl. "I gave myself up for you! Isn't that enough?"
"You of all people should know, Fang, that it's never enough." She faced all of us.
"Like I said, Fang's my brother. You are all under the assumption that Fang is Omega's brother, and is real name is Alpha. That's not true. It's all a lie that the scientists made up so they could keep Fang. The real story is different. Much different. I'll start from the beginning.
"I'm Fang's older sister. I know I look like a young child, but that's only because I died as a little girl. I was created before all of you, with no name. So I named myself. I'm Death. I know, a weird name, but that was the only word I could process at the time. Death was the only thing the scientists ever talk about.
"Then, when I was three, Maximum Ride came along. I could tell from the moment I laid my eyes on her, that she would be independent and stubborn, the perfect qualities that make up a good leader.
"A few months later, I was cloned, and the DNA was injected a teenager's baby before it was born. That changed everything. The baby barely looked like its mother. Instead, it resembled me." Now that I think about it, the two do look a lot alike.
"The baby was deformed, though. It had no eyes. So the scientists removed mine to give to the baby, because they thought he would be so much better than me. Sadly, they were wrong. The child withdrew himself from everything. But that is another story.
"Anyway, the baby was put in with Maximum and me. I always called him my brother, even though, theoretically, he wasn't. The first time I held him, he bit me and drew blood, so I named him Fang.
"Two months later, another child was added to the group. A beautiful, blue-eyed, strawberry blond hair boy. I couldn't think of a perfect name for him. Fang and Maximum came so easily to me, but nothing seemed to fit. I wanted something to do with fire, because the boy was draw to it, like bees to flowers. After much thinking, I combined Ignite with Piggy, because he ate more than anyone else in the cage. So I got Iggy.
"We lived, not happily, but satisfied in the cage for three years. With companions, the tests weren't so painful. I had something to look forward to at the end of the day- family. Love. Then, Jeb Batchelder came along and ruined everything.
"He told me that my brother and I were useless. We had no purpose in live, but Jeb wasn't going to kill us both. Not right away, at least. Instead, he would kill me now, and give Fang another twelve years on two conditions. One- that they let Fang be subjected to anything and everything they do, and two- I was the one that had to kill him when his twelve years were up. I had no choice but to agree. The only other option was that Fang died then, and I had to go through twelve horrible years of knowing it was my fault.
"Fang was too young to remember me. No one did. No one missed me, just like it should be. The next day, a new baby was added, probably to replace me." Death sighed.
"Today is Fang's fifteenth birthday. The twelve years are up. Fang is coming with me."