Welcome back everyone so whether it seems like it or not this chapter does some major plot moving… and an attempt at some Eggy; whether it worked or not is up to you fine readers. I really hope you enjoy this chapter; I worked hard on it and pulled two all-nighters to make sure it got to you today… or whenever you're reading this. Let's get to the reviews shall we?

blaineandthepips488

The wiki helped bunches! I think I almost understood this one

I might just read the series after I finish the lost hero..

I'm glad the wiki helped as I told you I know what it's like to read a fandom you have no clue about only using the wiki. Please do read it; it's a great series anyone one of my readers will tell you that.

Wingz-and-a-Fez

its been 6 days O.O i am really out of it... but yes, this makes up for it ^.^ and i can see where this is going. its developing cicely if I must say so myself ;)

Fezzes r cool ["]

So glad that this made up for the prologue and first chapter. So you think you know where this is going? Just wait I'm going to throw you for a loop soon. Or maybe I'm wrong and you have figured it out I guess we shall see.

jordygirl

Beautiful chapter! Sorry it took this long to review ^-^

It's fine I'm just glad that you did; I honestly don't care what the review is about or if it's the most recent chapter I just want you guys to review; good or bad, hell I'll even accept you talking with a character about something random. Reviews are love and love helps combat writers block. Sorry to go all preachy on you guys there; I'm getting off my soapbox now.

SomethingAboutDarkAngels

Me: I'm here to review!

Iggy: I'm here, being held hostage for a few more months!

Me: shut it, Igs. I like this. It's different than some o your other writing. It's a nice change. I really hope you decide to update soon!

Oh SADA and Iggy it's good to hear from you guys again. Iggy being a hostage isn't too bad; just ask Angel. Which reminds me we'll be hearing from the other four two chapters from now. So you have to look forward to.

Mrs. Isabella Van Stomm

Really great chapter. See ya tomorrow after school!

Thanks for the complement; I will probably be talking to you as you read this… now watch you won't be messaging me.

Before beginning the chapter I would like to point out that I in no way own Maximum Ride; if I did Dylan wouldn't have exsisted and Ari would have survived, but they didn't so I don't. One more thing if you couldn't tell this takes place a few months after Max; blaine I know I told you it took place directly after I lied and am sorry.

Enjoy!

"Jeb, what the hell is going on?" Dr. Martinez demanded venom dripping from each word. The door closed behind them with a soft click, Angel had followed them; somewhere in the back of Valencia's mind registered this, she ignored this eyes staying on Jeb. The scientist leaned against the white wall; arms crossed firmly over his chest. The expression he wore was one of contempt. Anger rolled from the adults causing the air in the room to thicken with tension; the front door slammed shut, signaling Nudge couldn't take the emotion given off.

"Don't pretend you, you don't know, Valencia; because you damn well do," he stated in a dry cold tone; eyes narrowing he stared at the woman before him. Fists clenching and unclenching, like her daughter just over an hour earlier; Dr. M took a step forward and stopped, locking eyes with the ex-Itex employee.

She was sick of the lying and secrets; there had been too many, from all sides. Gritting her teeth the black haired woman hissed, "Actually, Jeb; I have no fucking clue what's going on. What was it you said; 'Ella was born one-hundred percent human. No one will ever try to take her from you.' Complete bullshit, just like all your other psychologically fucked up friends; this was just another experiment to you. With all you've done in the past, I'm not sure why I didn't question it before now; hell I'll bet you told them to turn Ari in-"

"Don't you dare accuse me, of giving the order to turn him into one of those deranged monsters!" He roared cutting her off; the silence that followed was deafening. Shaky breaths came from Jeb; collecting himself before he continued, in a lower tone of voice. "I wanted nothing more than to turn him back, into that sweet young boy."

"Really, you didn't seem to mind using him to chase Max; if you wanted him human again so badly why put him in harm's way?" A look of hurt crossed the white coats face; it was erased and replaced with rage in an instant.

"What about you? From what Angel has told me; the first time Max found Ella, she had z gun in her face. You should have known someone was trying to kill her." The comeback didn't have the intended effect. The doctor's eyes narrowed; 'he wants to play it like this,' she asked herself, 'fine let's see if he can take as well as he can give.' Her face reveled not a thing of what she was about to say.

"All I was told was that some boys we're giving her trouble; how was I going to know they had guns, I'm not Angel damn it! At least she survived unlike Ari, how many times did he die Jeb? Let me think here; there was the time in the sewers of New York and who could forget Germany?" She laughed, an empty dry laugh; Jeb's jaw clenched, swallowing back the emotion from that extremely low blow.

"I'm not there putting my face in the media; did you even think about Ella when you decided to lead the CSM? What would Max and Ella have done if they had lost you?" Dr. Martinez visibly flinched at this; Jeb felt a twinge of guilt, but allowed none of it to seep onto his face. The troubled mother cast her brown eyes to the floor fighting back tears.

"How was I supposed to know someone was going to kidnap me?" It was meant to sound cold and menacing; it came out weak and broken. The woman before him was no longer the angry vindictive witch who had lashed out; making what was said next none the easier.

"Besides the flock you and Ella are the most important people she has. You painted a target on your back; of course someone was going to kidnap you." His voice was devoid of emotion; like he was stating a statistic from a book.

"Just tell me what to do," she pleaded her voice uneven; pulling her gaze from the soft tan carpet, setting her tear filled eyes upon his tired uncertain ones. The sigh that he heard next was one of defeat.

"I wish I knew," he admitted casting his gaze downward in shame. Dr. Martinez had a single chance left, even as she asked about it she knew that it wasn't going to happen.

"Isn't there anyway we could delay it?" Her voice was frantic and desperate, clinging to this last hope like a life preserver.

"It's not possible for us to find a way with the time she has left." That was it there was no other options; Dr. Martinez felt her world implode in on itself. At last the fight with her tears was lost; legs giving way she found herself on her knees bawling. The last thing she heard before allowing the shock and depression to overtake her; was the almost silent foot falls of Angel, going downstairs.

Iggy and Gazzy sat on the grass; the sun warming their backs, watching Ella, play with her new power. After she been told by, a rather uneasy, Jeb that she wasn't dying; the fear had subsided and replaced with excitement. She had gone straight to where she was now; wanting to discover the limits of her power. That plan had been scrapped rather quickly, turning instead to goofing around. Something she had discovered in the short time she had tried; objects twenty-five feet away from her; were out of reach for her. She had placed the baseball that had been the source of the discovery a good ten feet away; focusing on the red and white sphere, she raised her right arm. The ball appeared, to anyone who didn't know about her power, to float. Flicking her wrist up, the ball sailed up past her zone of control; still she tracked it, waiting for the right moment to catch it. Plummeting back into range; the falling object once more held the teen girl's attention, stopping it just before it touched the ground.

"Not that what you're doing isn't fun to watch; but why are you using your arms? You didn't need to earlier," Gazzy pointed out, lying back to look up at the few clouds that had formed in the sky. The black haired girl thought back to when she had been examined; giving the ball in her mental grip, a final toss into the air.

"Jeb thinks when I tensed up for the impact; that it was enough to signal for my power to keep the ball floating. I'm not sure if he's right, but it would explain why Angel struggled to pull the ball down." Testing her theory Ella tensed her body, watching the ball come to a halt in the air; satisfied she relaxed allowing it to hit the ground, bouncing once.

"Looks like he was right," she muttered to no one in particular. Having served its purpose the ball was left, to live a lonely existence of sitting in the dark green grass. The youngest Martinez girl began searching for a new thing; to break the laws of Physics with.

"I'm guessing the ball, or whatever you were throwing, stopped." Iggy guessed with slight irritation, looking at the air an inch above her left ear. Ella nodded slowly, blushing only moments later remembering who she was talking to. Gazzy still laying back, his right hand clamped over his mouth; in an unsuccessful attempt at stifling his giggles.

"Yeah Ig; I was able to stop the ball," she corrected returning to her search for something new. An old beat up wooden bat, from her days in peewee baseball, caught her eye. It was the least fragile thing that would be fun, besides the ball, in her grasp. Reaching out with both mind and arms she took a hold of the piece of wood; swinging the bat in practice a couple of times. Feeling sure of herself the girl scanned the yard in search of something to use as a ball, without having anyone pick it up. Just like with the bat there wasn't much to choose from: the ball of course, but she didn't want to risk hitting Iggy or Gazzy; a chair, that idea was shot down quicker than the ball she didn't want to get in trouble; her empty Coca-Cola bottle sat on the empty metal table, it's the safest thing to use she reasoned. Falling into a perfect batters stance, purely on instinct, she swung her arms; watching the ball, connect with the bottle.

It took off like a rocket; a smile of pure pride and satisfaction over took her face, like a child who just read their first book on their own. The bottle sailed forward unnoticed by the celebrating girl; bouncing off Iggy's left eye and coming to a stop not far from the blind pyro. Both hands flew to the injury falling back groaning in pain.

"Oh my god; Iggy I'm so sorry." The prideful smile gone in an instant; arms dropping to her side; having lost the force keeping it in the air clattered to the table below. Ella rushed to the injured bird-kids side; crouching down, she pulled both hands from the hurt eye. Nothing obscuring the impact site, she leaned his head up to get a better look. It was already beginning to swell; no doubt it would become a black eye.

"Gazzy, there should be an icepack in the freezer go grab it." Ella ordered, not looking away from Iggy's sightless eyes.

"What happened," he asked disoriented, even with his lack of sight Ella found herself looking down to avoid eye contact with Iggy.

"I hit an empty soda bottle, and well you can probably figure out what happened from there." Ella admitted her cheeks flushed ever so slightly red. Iggy gave her a sly knowing smile, looking up her blush deepened at it.

"Couldn't you have called four?" He joked with a slight chuckle, the blushing girl's giggle mixing with it. Subconsciously their faces grew closer together, their lips almost touching. The backdoor sliding open once more broke their trance like state; realizing how close they were Ella reeled back falling on her butt. The blush on both teens' face comparable to a teenage couple caught sleeping together; this wasn't lost on the nine year old. Eyeing them both with suspicion he placed the icepack in Iggy's hands.

"Did anything happen?" He asked not looking away from Ella; she gave a rushed no getting to her feet. Gazzy was positive she was lying; shrugging it off deciding to get it from his blind partner in crime later. Ella walked towards the door Gazzy had just come from going in search of Nudge or Angel.

Walking down the crowded city street had Max wound tighter than a spring; Fang's hand the one thing keeping her from a complete meltdown. The people walking past them paid no attention, to anything really; too focused on getting to their destinations. This suited the two bird-kids just fine; the shop windows held more interest to them anyway.

It had been a few hours since Max had thrown a fit, and the two had stormed off. A building captured the dirty blondes attention: it was small most of the front was glass; nearing the top was a cream colored strip of drywall, with red and yellow neon lights proclaiming to any and all who cared that it was an Arcade. Another neon sign was just to the right of the door; lit to show the place was open. Not ready to go home and looking for something to do; she decided to have some fun. Tugging Fang's hand, she guided the quite boy up to the front door.

Fang's free hand went to the door grasping the handle; the black metal cool from the shade it resided in. Pulling it open, a refreshing breeze crashed over them. Max stepped in, her boyfriend following close behind. Before them stood, what seemed an innumerable amount of old school game cabinets.

One of the games called out to the couple; the machine was painted to look like an extremely creepy old style carnival. A green and a purple gun sat in their holsters.

"Fang, I'm going to get tokens; go save that machine for us." The flock leader instructed heading for the counter, a bored blonde teenager sitting behind it. Her second in command nodded approaching the game. It sprang to life; on screen an evil looking jester head, wearing a smile that would make the Joker jealous, floated in front of a green spiraling background taunting the player. Fang swore to himself then and there; he and Max wouldn't leave until they had beaten the stupid game.

Max soon returned with a bucket of tokens and a look of annoyance. The dark teen raised an eyebrow, as if to ask what happened. Placing the heavy metal bucket between the two of them; she gave Fang a sly smirk. "The worker, without realizing who I was, said to put it politely that she wanted to 'get with you.' I straitened her out; and she was nice enough to give this to us for free."

Fang nodded pulling a golden token from the bucket; sliding it into the coin slot he grabbed the purple gun. Taking aim he watched Max grab her gun and press the two player button. The level select screen came up showing: a Ferris wheel, it was called rides; a decrypted old house, haunted house; and a cage simply called freak show. Fang shot the Ferris wheel without thinking. The creepy jester came up again to taunt the player like last time; Max silently vowed the same thing her boyfriend did minutes earlier. The level loaded and off they went pumping Christmas themed enemy after Christmas themed enemy full of lead.

The hours went by fast along with their bucket of tokens; until on their last one, Fang the only one of them still playing managed to beat the final boss. Making their way out to the near empty street. The sun was low in the sky; taking note of this Fang took lead, pulling his girlfriend back in the direction of the park they had first landed in.

"Where are we going?" Max asked her boyfriend; he responded with nothing just kept walking. She shrugged, enjoying the rest of their walk in silence. Reaching a hill not far from the entrance; laying back against the gentle slope they watched the sun slide down over the horizon, the sky turning that lovely dusk color. Still neither person made a move to leave; taking in the beauty of the night sky. A rustling bush ruined the moment for Max; turning her head towards the sound she caught a glimpse of a familiar red hair.

"Brigid," she hissed rising to her feet. The bird-girl may not have told anyone about seeing the meeting between the red head and Mr. Chu; but she knew that her resurfacing was not a good thing. Spinning to face her boyfriend she gave a single command, quiet enough for only Fang to hear, "U and A now!"

Not waiting for her boyfriend she whipped her wings out; taking a running leap she shot into the air. Fang wasn't far behind; positive his soul mate had lost what little sanity she had. Flying off towards home; Max swore she saw the traitor tailing them below. In an attempt to lose their shadow, she veered right. After flying for hours; they finally arrived back at the Martinez residence. The moon was high in the sky; casting the dark house in its silvery light. Flying up to it they climbed in through Max's window.

"Max what happened back at the park?" Fang asked stepping onto the soft carpet of her room. Taking a seat on her bed; Max turned to face her significant other.

"Someone was spying on us," she revealed, taking off her black combat boots; deciding not to out Brigid as the spy, yet.

"We saved the world, why would someone be spying on us now?" He asked his uneasy feelings from earlier returning.

"I'm not sure, but someone was. I'm a little worried about what they wanted; will you sleep in my room tonight?" Pulling herself to her feet she went to the left side of her bed. Fang nodded slipping off his shoes and walking to the other side of her bed. Sliding under the covers Fang slipped his arm around the already half-asleep Max.

"I love you," she muttered her eyelids closing. That night they had the best sleep, they'd had in a while.

Want to know how many this chapter totaled in pages? Eight this thing is huge; anyway. This chapter raised so many more questions. What's going on with Ella? Is Brigid really a traitor? Why are Jeb and Dr. M so close? I want to see some speculation on these questions.

Before I go I'd like to leave you all with a quote from a video game and a question on it.

"I used to be an adventurer like you until I took an arrow to the knee."

~All guards in Skyrim

Why do all the guards have the same story of why they stopped adventuring?

Until next time please review.

The Best is yet to come.

~Zorua