I realized the other day that I never know how to start these author notes at the beginning of chapters. Oh well. So I wanted to ask all you faithful readers to head on over to my other story called A War I Didn't Start. I'd also like to say I AM SO, SO, SO SORRY FOR BEING A JERK AND NOT UPDATING! It was very rude of me. Please forgive me!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not even a clock or calendar, apparently.

Chapter 9

Walking Again

Max's POV

Breathe in. Ouch. Breathe out. Ouch.

Maybe I should have waited until I could breathe normally until I told the Cullens the tragic story that is our lives. The Cullens were still in stunned silence. Nudge broke it.

"How do you control emotions, Jasper?" she asked. Jasper looked up from his hands.

"The same way you do, I presume," Jasper said as if he was asking a question in return. Nudge shook her head

"I need physical contact, but when I have it I can tell past emotions as well as current ones. I can also project intensified emotions to a person through contact. You didn't need contact to change our emotions, though," Nudge pressed, a slight crease forming between her eyes.

"No, I don't need physical contact," Jasper answered. "What do you mean by 'intensified emotions'?"

"I mean I use my control over emotions as an offence."

"Can you show me?" Nudge looked uncomfortably at Jasper.

"I don't think you want me to do that," she said, looking at her feet.

"Please, just once," Jasper pleaded. "Show me how powerful you are." Nudge started walking slowly towards Jasper. Her eyes were warning his. She finally got over to him and placed a hand on his forehead. Closing her eyes, she got ready to cannel emotions.

"I'm sorry," She whispered before letting her power go.

Edward's POV

Nudge's power caused Jasper to whimper and sink to his knees. I clenched my eyes shut as I felt him lose control of containing the emotion Nudge was sending. Waves of pain, panic, and despair rolled over me. Bella leaned into my side, soft crying breaking from her lips. Alice was holding the door frame for support. Carlisle had his arms around Esme. Rosalie sat down on the floor next to Emmet. The worst part was I knew that what we were feeling had been deluded a little by Jasper's vain attempts to hold it back.

All the Rides were leaning against each other with their eyes tightly closed, breathing deep. All except Iggy. He sat straight with a small amount of pain touching his sightless eyes. Nudge drew her hand away from Jasper's face.

"I'm sorry," she repeated.

"What was that?" Emmet asked, still holding Rosalie.

"That's what I felt when Max…fell," Nudge whispered.

Rosalie was screaming in her head. She's just a child! She shouldn't have to feel this! Her breathing picked up. If she could cry, she would be. Instead, she walked over and hugged Nudge. "I'm sorry," she whispered. Esme followed her lead.

"Come on, we must have some food in the kitchen," Esme said. "I'll get you guys something." Nudge, Angel, Gasman, and Rosalie followed Esme into the kitchen. Iggy was about to follow when Max's hand landed on his shoulder. He immediately sunk back down to be sitting on the floor. Once the others were in the kitchen, Max addressed the other two.

"What are we going to do?" she whispered. "Is the house really gone?"

"Everything," Fang said. "The house, the car, everything we owned. Burned to the ground." Iggy's head fell forward, Max's eyes flared.

"You may all stay here as long as you like," Carlisle offered.

"Thank you," Max said. "We may take you up on that. Guys, what should we do?"

"Stay. We can train more. You can take Omega. You did last time," Iggy reasoned.

"Yeah, but I almost lost. Not to mention that was on the ground!" Max murmured, shaking her head. "He literally drove me out of the air." She seemed humiliated by that. I hadn't seen her fly, but surely getting out flown would be something to be embarrassed about.

"Yeah, because you were trying to help Nudge, and you wouldn't have to do that if we had been paying better attention!" Iggy and Max were whisper screaming at each other by now. Fang was pinching the bridge of his nose. I could sympathize.

"I think we should stay here," he spoke up. "What good would running do at this point? We have home field advantage here. Let them come, we know the landscape. We know the weather. Bring it on."

"Gee, that was totally revolutionary Fang!" Iggy said in mock excitement. "I agree, though. They will only follow us anyway."

"Why are you so snappy today, Iggy?" Max asked.

"We were beaten in our element and you went down trying to help Nudge." Iggy answered closing his eyes. "I could've stopped it."

"Dude, sorry but you're blind. You have every right to miss things every now and then." Max softened her voice a little. "I think we should stay, too. But if things get dangerous, we leave." I saw her eyes flick around my family, pausing on Bella. She then raised her voice to include the rest of us.

"Hey Carlisle, how much time until I heal?" she asked.

"A human would take about a month to heal, probably a week at least to be semi-active again." Carlisle said.

"Damn," she whispered under her breathe.

"I would like it if you stayed here so we can detect any infections early. If this gets infected and you don't treat it right away, you could be crippled." Max winced.

"It's okay, Max," Fang said. "Remember when I was beat up? It wasn't that long. You'll be up in a few days and flying in a week or two." Carlisle's eyebrows shot up. I had a similar reaction. A week or two? That was an unheard of rate of recovery. Still, I was excited to see them fly. Their wings alone were magnificent. In the air, I can only imagine they would be more glorious.

Angel, Nudge and Gasman walked back into the room carrying platefuls of food. They wouldn't eat away from the others Esme thought to me. Max smiled at them and they smiled back. Angel laid one of the giant plates on Max's lap.

"Dig in!" Gasman cried out, spearing a piece of ham with his fork. The Flock ate every bite of food that was on the plates. Nudge picked up the plates and brought them back to the kitchen before sitting down shoulder to shoulder to Iggy. Max tilted her head back to look at Fang. Fang nodded.

"Guys, we're staying here for a little while," Max said. Angel broke into a full smile. Gasman nodded nonchalantly, but his eyes were gleaming and kept darting from Max to his pocket. Nudge sighed and leaned into Iggy's shoulder.

"The Cullens have offered to house us for the time being," Max continued. "I expect everyone to be polite to them. That means: no mind puppet Angel, No experimenting with powers in the house Iggy, no giving people random mood swings Nudge, no invisible spying Fang, and no playing with fire Gasman. On that note Gasman and Iggy, I'm confiscating all things that go boom. That includes the bomb you have in your pocket, Gasman. Did you think I was that dumb?" Gasman grumbled as he and Iggy fished out bombs from their pockets. I counted a total of 15. The look Emmet had on his face was worrying me. That and the fact "think of all the things that I could explode if I knew how to make bombs like that" was the only thought that was going through his head.

"Carlisle, you've let me down!" Iggy said while digging the 15th bomb from his shoe. "Couldn't you have drugged her so she wouldn't catch us?"

"Nice try," Max said, tucking away the last bomb, "like I would let him near me with anything that smelled remotely similar to a drug." Again, a moment passed where we, as in my family and Bella, were silently wondering what had happened to make them like that. They had told us their story, yet at times they edited. Throughout their story their faces had remained impassive yet their wings flared and their eyes flashed when certain points where brought up. Max hadn't gone into detail about what had happened at the School. She just said it was very bad.

"Come, I'll show you to the guest room." Esme said and started leading towards the stair case at human speed. Max nodded them off, and they leapt into the air.

Seeing the Flock airborne was unimaginable. Iggy took off first on his pale grey wings. He rose to the top of the stairway with one hard downward stroke. Nudge was next, following close behind on her tawny wings. Angel and Gasman darted after in another flurry of wind. Wind continued to build around Max.

"Max, not yet," Fang cautioned. The wind stopped. Max sighed in frustration.

"I want to get up!" she complained while staring up at Fang. Fang stared back.

"You will not get up for at least the next two days," He ordered. They glared each other down for a few seconds before Fang smiled and leaned in to kiss her. "Two full days," he whispered against her lips. Max rolled her eyes and smiled. I heard Alice do an "awwww" in her head. Bella leaned into me, her eye lids fluttering.

"You look tired, love," I whispered, putting my arm around her waist to hold her up. Bella nodded. She should have been sleeping awhile ago. I lifted her into my arms. For once she didn't protest. I turned to take her upstairs to my room when Esme came back downstairs. Close behind were the others in the flock. They jumped over the edge and half extended their wings, slowing their decent. All landed softly on bent knees and used their wings to propel them over to Max and Fang. Max smiled over at her family and they met hers with their own. All of them curled up around the couch using their wings as blankets.

"I'll take first watch," Iggy murmured as the rest of the Flock fell into quiet sleep. Their faces turned smooth and the masks they wore slipped. I could see, for the first time.

They were young. And they were scared.

I hope that makes up for part of the inexcusable time I was gone. Please forgive me! *goes in the corner and sobs*