I'm ba-ack! BTW, I'm now a betareader so send me your stories, okay? I'd love to edit your fanfics. I'm already doing one for Birds of Prey and Harry Potter. I really want to do a Maximum Ride one, though. Does anybody know who wrote Bird of Prey? PM/Review me if you do, okay? And if this chapter doesn't get a review from every FAX lover that reads this story, then I seriously quit. This chapter is so WOW it deserves like 40 reviews. : ) And in response to an anonymous review submitted by somebody who signed it me(of corse), it just seemed to fit. Jeb needed to be evil, it fit my plot.

Chapter 10: Proposals and HUH?

Max's POV

"Max? I've been thinking," God, Nudge really needed to stop doing that, "Well, we're going to need an army, right? We're going to need someplace to train that army. We're also going to need somebody to train them. What are we going to do?" She did have a point. A good one, too.

"I have an idea, but you're not going to like it." Total stuck his head out of the carrier on Iggy's back. I rolled my eyes but figured I'd humor him anyway.

"What's your idea, Total?" I asked the talking shape shifter.

"Anne's. Think about it. She isn't there and it's a HUGE house with a very large property. We'd have plenty of room for a shelter and training." What a great idea! Sense my sarcasm, people.

"Total…" I planned on letting the dog down gently. His feelings seemed to get hurt easily.

"No. That's a fabulous idea," Fang began and when I gave him a 'where's your brain' look he continued, "No, seriously. Hear me out. Her property is ginormous and we are going to need a huge place to train even a medium sized army. We can build more shelters on the surrounding area. We could even split up to do the training and rescuing. Half of us can train, while the other half recruits." There were a few surprises in Fang's speech. One, I thought he'd never want to go back to Anne's, EVER. Two, he's actually agreeing with Total. And three, he looked ready to kiss Total for giving him the idea. Oh, and that was a long speech for Fang, even for me.

"He has a point." Gazzy said and basically everybody agreed. I rolled my eyes. What didn't these children understand? I really rule my flock under a Maxocracy.

"This isn't a democracy! I make our decisions. How many times do I have to tell you? I rule with a Maxocracy." I snarled to my flock. For a second they looked dismayed, but quickly got over it.

"Please, Max? Remember how totally beautiful it was there?" My baby begged. If it were possible to get down on her knees while flying, she would have. Then to make it worse, her and Nudge went all Bambi eyes on me. I HATE Bambi eyes.

"Fine, Anne's place it is." I muttered in submission. The flock behind me high fived and punched the air. The newer members looked excited to see where we had once lived. I banked steeply to the right and continued flying.

15 minutes later of cheer, and evil glares courtesy of moi, we landed softly on what had once been lush, soft, green grass. Yup, we had arrived at Fang's mom's house. Or the she-devil's pit of hell, if you prefer. We carefully walked up the dead grass to the front door. I stood on the same spot where that cretin, Sam, had once kissed me. Iggy soundlessly pushed open the door and we cautiously walked inside. When nothing ambushed or jumped out at us, I began a guided tour of the large estate.

Afterwards, the younger kids wandered off to visit the pond. Me, Fang, Charity, and Iggy sat at the table where we had once had our Thanksgiving feast. I rummaged through some drawers until a found 2 pieces of paper and a pen. Sitting back down, we began to discuss plans.

"Who's going to room with whom?" Iggy asked as I wrote roomies on top of 1 page. Then, I wrote Max and Fang on 1 line and Ig and Char on the 1 below it.

"Who said I wanted to room with Iggy? I want to stay with the girls." Charity asked pointing to what I had written. My eye brows furrowed in confusion.

"We broke up last night. We're still friends though." Iggy clarified for those who were out of the loop. Fang raised his eye brows and I looked from Charity to Iggy and back again in surprise. Charity nodded and I crossed out the names I had written.

"Okay… Boys and girls? It'll be cramped, but we're going to need the space." I decided and wrote Char, Nudge, Ange, and Abbey on 1 line. Directly underneath it I wrote Ig, Gaz, and Rayne.

"Who's willing to stay? I want to of us and 3 of the younger kids to stay and train. And Total," I added. They all shrugged nonchalantly, "Okay, fine," I said huffily, "Who's the best fighter, other than me because I'm definitely rescuing," Charity and Iggy pointed to Fang while he pointed to Iggy, "Okay, Fang you need to rest up anyway. You're on training duty. I want Angel here and Nudge with me," I was writing all this down, "That leaves Char, Ig, Gaz, Abbey, and Rayne. Charity, you want to go where ever Rayne goes, right?" She nodded, "Okay and Ig, answer honestly. Do you want to do rescue or training?" I asked the blind kid sitting next to me. Iggy sat deep in thought for a few minutes, opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again. I patiently waited for him to answer. Finally noise came out of his mouth.

"I'd rather do rescue, but either is fine by me." Iggy answered. I nodded, more for my benefit because he couldn't see, and wrote Iggy under rescue.

"Okay, is that cool with you, Char?" I asked my slightly younger half sister. She nodded, probably excited for a short break.

"Okay, so I'm staying here with Charity, Rayne, Angel, and Abbey?" Fang asked me and I nodded.

"And me, Max, Nudge, and Gazzy will do search and resue. We'll bring back any willing mutants and you 5 can train them." Iggy said. Of course we'd help with the training, we all had different powers and would need to help those who shared powers.

"Okay, we leave in 2 days." I made our departure final. There were hesitant nods around the table. Nobody wanted to say goodbye. But, if this was going to get done, I'd make sure it was done right.

"I'll get the others. We need to have a meeting," Charity said and walked to the screen door, "Guys! Meeting, come on!" Did I mention she had, like, a sonic voice? It echoed through the house and a minute later, the flock appeared.

"What's going on?" Gazzy asked as everybody took a seat around us.

"You guys aren't going to like it." Iggy began, but I cut him off.

"Ig, let me handle this, okay? It's about this whole training and rescuing thing. Sorry, but we've made the decisions. Abbey, Angel and Rayne, you're all staying here with Charity and Fang. Me, Iggy, Nudge, and Gazzy are rescuing," There was a short pause then a random collection of grumbles and cheers, "Deal with it, okay?" Nobody in the room was stupid enough to complain to my face.

"Good, rest up. You 4 leave in 2 days," Fang said and everybody left the kitchen, leaving me and Fang alone, "So, we split up again, huh? It seems like we're always saying goodbye."

"I hate saying goodbye, especially to you, but this is the best for the world. We need to have a great fighter training and 1 recruiting. I hate leaving all of you, but it'll only be a few hours at the most." I told him. It was true, plus he needed to get some rest. He nodded his understanding.

"Max, I need to ask you something," Fang said, took hold of my hands, and… got down on… 1 knee! "Maximum Ride, I want to be with you for the rest of our lives. You're the most amazing person I've ever known. I love you more than I thought it was possible, more than you could possibly understand. You're already my girl friend, the person who will be the mother of my children, and the only person I ever want to be with again. Maximum Ride, will you be my wife?" Fang slipped a very tiny diamond onto my ring finger. I stared at him in shock. What do I say?

DUN DUN DUN!!! No, I'm joking, I couldn't leave you there, that'd be the meanest thing I've ever done. On the other hand…nah, I'll continue.

"Fang, wow. I love you so much. I really, really do," he had TOTALLY flabbergasted me, "Fang, I can't marry you. I'm sorry." I took off the beautiful diamond ring and dropped it in his out stretched palm. Then, being me, I ran out the door.

I took off to calls of 'Max! Come Back! I'm Sorry!' and the bewildered gazes of my flock, even Iggy's head was turned in my direction. Immediately going into hyper drive, I flew to the place I once longed to flee. The school. No, not the 1 with the white coats. The 1 with JJ, Sam, and Pruitt. I landed on the roof after about 30 seconds of impossible speed. Landing very ungracefully, I sunk to my knees and cried.

"I quit. I fucking quit! I give up!" I yelled at the darkening sky, "These tests are so cruel and unusual. If this is a test. And I'd like to know why I said no?" the last part was more of a barely audible whisper.

I loved Fang. That was why I couldn't marry him. Only grief can come from so much love. I had loved Dr. Martinez and Ella and my baby, look what happened to them. No, only bad things happened when Maximum Ride loved something. It was impossible anyway. Those idiots at Itex had never set us up with birth certificates.

I cried even harder. It wasn't just the fact that I had refused Fang's proposal, even though that didn't help. I had lost my baby, my family, and now probably my boyfriend. Jeb really was a good for nothing, back stabbing, cheating liar. My mom, half sister, and half brother were dead. Iggy was blind for Christ's sake! My boyfriend was attacked by my half brother, and then killed him.

I laughed, really loudly. If you don't understand why, maybe you should reread that last paragraph. All the irony in my life was going to cause my death. I was still crying harder than ever, but laughing at the same time.

Hours later, my sobs and hysterics had died down to only sniffles. I wiped my nose on my sleeve and walked to the edge of the roof.

What would it feel like to jump, wings tucked in? No, the flock needs you too much. You keep them together. Instead, I jumped off and snapped out my 13 foot wings. I slowly made my way 'home,' drying my eyes as I went.

Luckily, when I got there, there was a window left open. Unluckily, Fang had left it open for me, knowing I couldn't leave. I didn't know this though until I had landed quietly inside the room.

"Hey." He said in his old monotonous, void of emotion voice. This might be worse than I thought. I surrendered and lifted up my hand as a greeting.

Charity's POV

Iggy sensed me near by and called me over.

"Char, come here. I need to talk to you." It was a good thing at this moment that he was blind; I didn't want anybody to see the look of bewilderment on my face. Since we broke up last night, he had barely spoken. I walked into the room he pointed to and sat down on the bed.

"Max is still gone isn't she?" I asked him once he had situated himself in the chair across the room. Fang had told Iggy everything, Angel read his mind, and she told the rest of the flock. I was worried; she'd been gone for 3 hours. He nodded.

"Yea. Don't worry though. Max is a big girl, she can handle herself. That's not why I called you in here, though. I'm really sorry about last night. You were right, I was being an egotistical sexist pig," He had asked me, his GIRLDFRIEND, to describe what Max looked like, "Can you please forgive me?" I nodded then remembered he was blind. I walked over and picked up his hand instead.

"Of course I can, Ig. It's just… I don't know. I was jealous, I guess. I love you, you know that. I could and will forgive you for just about anything. But, there's already too much drama. Maybe we shouldn't get back together, not now anyway. I'm sorry." I dropped the hand of the man I loved and walked out of the room, leaving Iggy sitting there with only an empty room for company.

Fang's POV

Max would come back soon. She wouldn't leave the flock. No matter how much she hated me, she loved them too much.

So, I left a window open and waited for her. Sure enough 4 hours later, a sad, crying Max swooped in through the window.

Max's POV

"Max, why'd you run? If you didn't want to marry me, that is all you had to say." Fang's voice was flat and emotionless.

"Fang, I love you. I really do, but we can't get married. Not yet anyway. There's too much going on." I said. I was sorry I had said no, he knew that just by looking at me.

"Okay, fine. That wasn't so hard, was it?" Fang asked the stupidest rhetorical question I could possibly think of. That was hard to do. He was at the door when it hit me.

"Does that mean we're, like, broken up?" I asked and he turned to look at me.

"Yea, maybe it's best for a while." He said and left, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

So there you have. I can feel the hate attacking me as I'm writing this. Maybe, just maybe, if you all behave, they'll get back together…maybe. I like being evil, maybe this story will get more and more evil. Request me as a beta reader, okay? LONGEST CHAPTER I'VE EVER WRITTEN! R&R!!!!!!! Oh yea, there's a new poll on my profile...check it out: )