"Having a clone sucks." I said quietly, as I sat down beside Willow. She was perched on the edge of the bed Winifred was sound asleep in. "And raising kids when you're barely old enough to have them sucks too."

"I guess you'd know all about it. You've done great, Max. And I hate to ask for favors, but Meghan has to stay somewhere are you could use someone who's accustomed to flying with she is."

"I already gave her permission to spend the night. She's shopping with Angel and Nudge right now."

"You know I don't mean one night."

"And you know I can't put the flock in danger. Can she fight?"

"Try stopping her sometime. When Meghan wants to do something, be it to win a fight or find a great spa for cheap, she has a way of accomplishing it."

"Like, a mutation power?"

"Yeah. She persuades people."

I thought of Dylan. He showed an amazing skill at persuading me and at stopping people with his singing.

"She could get Dylan to reprogram himself and stop being your soulmate. She could bring Fang back. She could convince the world to fall at the flock's feet. But only if she wants to. If it has to happen, she can't. She just wills it to happen."

She was good. She'd withheld that information until she could get a private conference with me. She was clever and loyal to me above the flock. Interesting and useful.

Looks like you've got your answer. Oh, shut up, Voice.

"Okay. Meghan can join."

I knew I was going to regret that. I mean, a butterfly? Butterflies are pretty and all that, not like birds of prey.

x-x-x-x-x

"Nudge, this is really, um, pretty; but it's not something I could ever wear. I can't fight or fly in this." When the girls had returned from their shopping, they'd forced me to try on a dull-yet-shimmery brown dress, that looked like it was a bridesmaid dress.

"You could walk in it." Angel said. "That's all you'd be doing, anyway."

I may not have had a top notch education, but I can tell when something's up. "What are you planning?"

"We were thinking we need to spend time on the red carpet, getting photos taken and answering questions." Angel said.

"Can't we go answer questions in jeans?"

"If you become Queen of the world, you're going to be spending some time all cleaned up in formal attire." Meghan added. "Think of it as practice."

A door opened and Willow trudged out. She was in a dress with a wider bottom.

"What the heck am I wearing?" She asked.

Meghan leapt into a technical examination of it: "A natural waisted sage green ball gown with off-the-shoulder, three-quarter sleeves that trail away. The dress is taffeta and the sleeves are tulle. There's a built in corset under the tight-fitting bodice. Oh, and the bodice has silver embroidery and the waist is defined by an edging of silver." And a partridge in a pear tree.

"I can't bend over right now because this corset is evil, but there had better not be a pickup skirt."

"Don't worry." Meghan said as she pulled a pin out of a little sphere that looked like a blue bell pepper and attacked a wrinkle on the dress. "The skirt is gathered but it hangs freely. Very flowing and willowy. Apt, isn't it?"

Dylan and Iggy walked in before I could ask her to repeat that whole conversation in English. I looked up at them and Dylan dropped his soda.

"What? Dylan, what is it?" Iggy snapped irritably, shaking his leg to get the sticky soda off his shoes.

Dylan was still staring at me. "Max is wearing a dress."

"Yes Dylan, believe it or not, I am a girl."

"A dress?" Iggy said, scandalized. "What do you mean, a dress?"

"It's brown and kinda shimmery. And it doesn't have sleeves or anything."

"It's a chocolate brown waist-hugging strapless dress made of taffeta. And it brushes the ground." Meghan added helpfully. I actually caught most of that.

"We got dresses for all of us girls and suits for you guys." Nudge gushed. "We're going to go on the red carpet, isn't it amazing?"

"Suits? I'm not wearing a suit!" Iggy complained.

I laughed evilly. Finally, someone to take my annoyance out on. "Oh yes you are. If I'm wearing a dress everyone is going to wear formal clothes." I said in my most commanding tone.

"I don't think I can walk in this." Willow commented.

"You're going to have to learn fast." Angel told her. "I told the press we'd be there tomorrow."

This is what I got for taking in three more strays. You'd think I'd have learned with Total and Dylan…