Eris: Ugh, it's been a while...

Iggy: I wouldn't be surprised if you lost all of your readers.

Eris: I know, I know, it's just that I've been busy with Not My Brightest Moment and school has been killer. Forgive me! I wrote a longer chapter than usual for you all and this is where the story gets better, I promise!

DISCLAMIER: If I owned Maximum Ride, them Dylan wouldn't exist and Fang wouldn't have left.

Chapter 9: Rescue Me

My head was pounding, like a drum, when I opened my eyes. The sun was shining directly into them and I groaned, rolling over to move myself out of the light.

"Eris!" Lány shouted as she tackled me. "Are you feeling okay? Does your head hurt? Are you in pain? Can you—"

"Yes, Lány. To all your questions." I mumbled. My stomach growled and I was suddenly aware of how thirsty I was. "Can I have some water and—" I cut myself off when I realized just how strange finishing that sentence with 'and some blood' would sound. Lány, as if reading my mind, handed me a canteen. I lifted it to my lips and gulped down the fluid hungrily. I smiled at her; it was blood.

"Eris?"

I looked up to see Iggy standing in front of me, worry etched onto his features. He crouched down to look at me with his gray-blue eyes.

"Are you feeling better now?" he asked as he ran a hand through my hair and over to cup my cheek. I nodded slowly.

"Yeah. I just had this awful dream that—" my eyes came to rest on Dylan and I sucked in a breath, every muscle in my body tensing. Iggy pressed down on my shoulders with both hands to prevent me from lunging, standing, or performing any other sort of movement. "Not a dream…" I ground out, bloodlust trickling into my veins.

"He doesn't remember who he used to be." Lány tentatively assured from my left. I snorted.

"Is that what he told you?"

"Yes." Dylan answered, coming closer. I watched him warily and unconsciously moved my body to fit between Lány and him. He wouldn't harm anyone else in my family. He could try, but I'd kill him before he could touch even a single hair on Lány's head.

"Stay away from me." I hissed, baring my fangs at him. Dylan stopped and slowly sat down.

"I know what you must be thinking and I can't even begin to imagine how you feel, but please trust me. I swear on all that is good and holy that I remember nothing. If I was a monster, I want to change that. Please give me a second chance."

His bright blue eyes stared imploringly into my own. I held his gaze for what seemed like hours before finally sighing and looking away.

"I won't trust you, but I won't try to kill you either." I said. Dylan nodded him consent. I watched as he moved back to where Max sat. Once he was a safe enough distance away, I turned to Lány and pulled her into my arms. I wanted to scream, to cry, anything. This couldn't be happening. He was dead! Why did he have to come back…?

"Eris, it's okay." Lány said. "Please don't cry."

I have to pull myself together. I sucked in a deep breath and held it for ten seconds before pulling away from Lány and standing. I cracked my neck and back.

"We should get moving." I told the younger girl. "We've wasted enough time here while I was—"

"—unconscious?" Lány offered. I nodded brusquely.

"Right, unconscious. We need to go save Finn, Cale and Otto. It time to—"

"Oh, by the way, Cale got free. He's out looking for us." Lány interrupted (again). I sighed in annoyance. Brilliant. Now after rescuing those two, we had to go off searching for Cale. And only God knows where he could be!

I pinched the bridge of my nose and breathed out slowly. I shouldn't be complaining. Who knows what horrors ITEX was subjecting Otto and Finn to at the moment? Did I really wish for Cale to be going though that too so it was more convenient? I shook the thought out of my head.

"We'll worry about him later. AT the moment we know where Finn and Otto are so we'll focus on them." I glanced at Iggy. "You guys ready to go?"

Iggy looked over at Max. She came over to stand by him. "We're ready to go. They have Angel."

"Angel?" I reiterated looking at Iggy for confirmation.

"We thought she died back when we were fighting the Doomsday Group. Apparently not." He explained. I nodded.

"So even more of a reason for you all to help us."

I lifted my arms and took a running leap out of the cave, my wings catching the air and allowing me to soar up. I glanced down to see Lány and the Flock following. Max came to fly next to me.

"So where are we going?" I asked.

"Idaho." She answered. "Lány somehow managed to get a device in the building to find them. A metal… bat I believe."

I small grin curled my lips up. Sparrow… I guess he is more use than I initially thought.

"It'll be maybe an hour flight from here." Max added. I nodded at her.

"Not long at all."

The ITEX building was huge, like most were, and left no markings to show what it truly was. Lány, Iggy and I were going to infiltrate the building, rescue Otto and Finn, and then the others would have a get-away car waiting for us so we could make a hasty retreat. There was no telling what shape my family was in so flying may not be an option.

It was dusk, the perfect time for a break in. All three of us flew up to the top of the building where Lány said there was a roof door. It was locked. Iggy made quick work of it and within seconds we were inside the building. The halls were unnaturally quiet, something that had me extremely nervous. When things were this quiet—

"Stop! Who goes there?" a voice shouted from behind us. We whirled around to see a scientist and a superhuman standing in the corridor. Iggy and I exchanged glances.

"We take out the superhuman first and then worry about the scientist." I hissed under my breath. Iggy nodded and we launching into action.

The fight was short and left an unconscious scientist and a broken, bleeding superhuman on the floor. We once again began our trek forward, relying on Lány to find the way with her psychic link to Otto.

"They're over here." Lány whispered. Iggy and I followed behind her as she led the way. I was twitchy and full of adrenaline, especially after the minor fight we just got out of. Lány stopped in front of a room that had metal bars over the small window. "This is it."

Iggy nimbly fiddled with the door handle and a paperclip for about six seconds before the lock popped open. He grinned cheekily at me as he opened the door.

Rows of empty cages lined the walls and to my left were holding two very familiar occupants.

"Eris!" Finn and Otto yelled at the sane time another voice yelled "Iggy!" I rushed over the Otto's cage and broke the lock off as Iggy worked on opening the cage to Otto's left. I helped the thirteen-year-old out of the box and hugged him tightly to my chest.

"Thank you for coming for us." He whispered. I grinned at him, kissing the top of his head.

"Always."

I pushed him gently toward Lány, allowing the twins to embrace, before working on unlocking Finn's cage. My hands were shaking so bad that I couldn't open it so Iggy, holding a small blonde girl, took over and popped it open. Finn climbed out and tears finally began to form in my eyes. He smiled at me with a split lip and there was a cut over his right eyes. Bruises covered his arms and legs as well as dry blood matting his onyx hair.

"Eris—"

I tackled him with a sob. He winced but gently encircled my body with his arms and allowed me to cry.

"I thought I'd never see you again." I whispered brokenly, grief finally catching up with me. He stroked the back of my head softly, running his hands through my bleached hair. "What was I supposed to do without you?"

"You seem like you've managed well without me." He commented. "I mean, you did manage to rescue us."

I shook my head fiercely. "Not really. I had a mental breakdown when I—"

"I don't mean to interrupt," Iggy said, cutting me off, "but we kind of need to get out of here."

Finn staggered as we moved to leave, so I pulled his arm over my shoulders to take some of his weight. Iggy was carrying the little blond girl and Otto and Lány were holding hands as we slipped out of the detainment room. Outside stood two superhumans who had been preparing to enter the room.

"!" I swore. I released my hold on Finn and ran at the one on the left. Iggy took the one standing on the right while Lány helped Finn stand. Otto came up next to me with his fists raised.

I grabbed the superhuman's head and bashed it on my knee before biting into his arm that he tried to hit me with. Blood from my opponent filled my mouth and Otto kicked his legs out from under him. The superhuman fell after I punched him straight in the face, effectively dazing him. Otto jumped n his left leg, a sickening snap coming from the limb; Otto had broken it. The superhuman made no sound despite his major injuries. I decided he was no longer a threat at the moment and moved to help Iggy incapacitate the other superhuman.

"Heads up!" I shouted to Iggy as the superhuman swung at him. Iggy ducked and them broke the superhuman's wrist after it passed over his head. I lifted my arms, spreading my wings, and jumped feet first at the superhuman. My feet connected with his spine, severing it.

"Let's hurry before they heal." Iggy said. He picked up the blond girl (who I now noticed had metal replacing pieces of her body) and I took Finn's weight from Lány. Out little group stumbled down the hallway heading for the way out.

If you ask me, leaving the front door clear and unlocked was pretty stupid on their part.

Max was waiting in the van as we rushed out of the ITEX building. Still no sirens sounded alerting to what had just occurred. This seemed way too easy.

Nudge slid the side door of the van open and we got in, Max driving away before the door was even shut.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could just get away without being chased? Oh, but that would be too easy. Of course two black hummers had to peel out of the ITEX building after us.

"Can't we ever catch a break?" Max muttered angrily as she floored it, hissing an expletive under her breath. I bit my tongue as my head connected with the side door.

"Can't you try not to kill us all?" I snapped. Max snorted and made another sharp turn. I yelped as Finn landed on my leg. He managed an apology that I quickly waved away. It wasn't his fault; it was the deranged bird-girl driving the van!

"Sorry, but I'm trying to keep us from being captured by insane evil scientists at the moment." She snapped back at me. "Suck it up right now, Princess, or we'll all be dead."

Finn adjusted himself so he was sitting next to me. Our legs were tangled, but with Max's horrible driving it was probably the only thing keeping us from tumbling around anymore. Otto and Lány had gripped what remained of the center seats while Iggy, Nudge, and the blonde cyborg girl were struggling in the back.

Town was approaching, but the black hummers were gaining on us. Was that gunfire…? I heard Max mutter another curse word as she drove off of the and into the gravel.

"Up and away, guys. We gotta move!" she shouted. I yanked open one of the sliding doors and shoved the twins out. They were up in the air followed by Gazzy, Nudge, and the blonde girl. Iggy and I were next followed by our respective leaders soon after.

"Don't look back! Just fly!" Finn shouted. He sounded farther away than he should be, so I glanced back to see him lagging behind. I turned around and wrapped my left arm around his shoulder; we flapped out outside wings in synch to gain altitude and be able to fly more properly. Finn sighed exasperatedly at me.

"I told you not to look back." His bright green eyes glared into my pitch black, but I simply grinned at him.

"Naturally, that meant I had to."

He rolled his eyes at me, but a small smile played on his lips. "Naturally."

We flew in silence, and I only glanced back once to se the hummers and the people within them fading into the distance. We had slowly started lagging behind, but the others were still in our sight so I didn't worry.

I took the moment to study my leader; Finn was tall with onyx hair that shined the sunlight. It was greasy, to be expected from being help prisoner. He had defined cheekbones that gave way to slightly slanted almond-shaped emerald eyes. He had full lips, usually resting in a flat line, while his teeth were perfect save one tooth on his bottom row. A bruise was spread on the left side of his face, slightly marring his tanned skin. All-in-all, Finn was handsome. He turned his head slightly and caught me staring. I quickly glanced forward, a blush fanning out on my cheeks. Out of the corner of my eye I could see him smirking.

"I've missed you." I blurted out, only making my embarrassment increase. A genuine smile replaced his smirk.

"I missed you too, Eris." He said. Slowly, I could feel myself lean closer to him and—

"Oi! Love-birds, we're landing!" Iggy shouted, shattering the moment and scaring us half to death. I made a face at him as he descended, but nodded my agreement.

"Do you need my help to land?" I asked Finn. He shook his head, his black hair falling over his eyes. I started to pull out of his embrace, but he gripped me a little tighter.

"But I'd like you to."

My face heated up once again and I nodded.

"Hello, we're trying to get going, you two." Iggy shouted again. I glared down at him as Finn muttered something that suspiciously sounded like "cock-blocker". A small smile tugged my lips upward and we landed. Iggy waited with his arms crossed over his chest and his foot tapping impatiently. He shook his head with a sigh.

"You're worse than Max and Fang when they were dating."
Lány, sweet precious goddess little Lány, chose that moment to save us from further awkwardness with Iggy. She ran over to Finn and hugged him around his waist. I stepped back to watch as the younger girl cried into his tattered t-shirt. It was then that I noticed Max and the cyborg girl talking.

"A-angel?"

Angel smiled, nodding her head and causing her golden curls to bounce around her shoulders.

"But, we thought you were dead."

"I know, Angel voiced, lifting up her metal arm. "I wasn't unharmed and the whitecoats had to remake me." She paused and looked down. "Do you, do you still love me?"

Tears were welling up in Max's eyes, but she blinked them back, pulling the little girl into a hug. She buried her face in Angel's hair, crying silently.

"Oh, Angel. How could I ever stop loving you? You're my baby and I could never stop loving you no matter what." She assured. Angel nodded slowly, still not convinced.

"But I'm not like any of you anymore. I'm even less human now and my wings are just a metal copy."

Max pulled away to smile at her. "Angel, none of us will ever be fully human or normal. I love you, Angel, just the way you are."

"Metal limbs and all?"

Max nodded and kissed Angel's forehead. "Metal limbs and all."

Angel wrapped her little arms around Max's neck and hugged her as tears poured from her human eye. "Thank you, Max." she gasped out a breath of air and started to sob. Max only held her tighter. "Thank you! I love you too."

It was so touching watching them reunited. It made my heart ache when I thought of all the people in my life I had lost: my parents, my biological younger brother, the three other bat-human hybrids who died, Maxx, Cale…

I glanced over at Finn to see him standing more easily. We healed faster than normal humans and his injuries had probably been there for some time.

"We need to find Cale." Finn said, turning his attention to e. "Cale escaped so he's probably out there alone."

"Yeah." I agreed. I turned to Iggy. "We need to find the rest of our family. I guess this is goodbye."

Max walked over with Angel's hand in her own. She shook her head. "We promised we'd help you find your family, all of them, and I intend to keep that promise."

"Max?" Nudge called, grabbing her leader's attention. "Where's Dylan? I mean, I could've sworn he was with us before Iggy, Eris, and Lány left to rescue her family but now he's not with us. Do you think he got captured?" she paused to gasp. "What if he did get captured! Then what would we do? We can't leave him because he's a part of our family now (I guess) and—"

Iggy covered the chatterbox's mouth, stopping the onslaught of words. She smiled sheepishly as his hand retracted.

"Sorry."

"Dylan told me he was going to scope out this town and find us a place to stay for the night." Max explained. I opened my mouth to protest but she silenced me with a glare. "I don't care if you don't trust him, I do. He's part of my family so deal with it."

Finn glanced down at me and mouthed 'Dylan'. I nodded slowly and he paled.

Just another thing to add to the list…

Dr. Camerose slammed her hand down on the table with her son's update. Why couldn't anything go right for once? She ran a hand through her hair and readjusted her glasses. Now they no longer had experiments F3351b and T6712y to use as bait for VP01.

It was all going to go downhill from here.

"Mother?" Dylan's voice came through scratchy and almost unrecognizable. "I have an idea."

"What is it?" she asked wearily. Mister Lin was going to have her head if she didn't—

"Send in experiment W7643d. He would shake the Colony up enough for me to separate them for us." Dylan responded. Dr. Camerose took a moment to think. It was quite a sound plan, if she did say so herself.

"Send me your coordinates and I shall do as you request."

The line fell silent, signaling Dylan shut off the transceiver. Dr. Camerose hit a button on her desk.

"Send in experiment W7643d."

No more than two minutes later, a tall man with brown hair with the tips naturally white and soulless black eyes stepped into the room. Maxx smirked at Camerose.

"How may I be of assistance?"