I do not own Storm Hawks. Here it is! The chapter you've all been waiting for. Enjoy :D

I landed on the smooth terrain of my home Terra. Finally feeling that sense of relief to finally be somewhere familiar to me was unbelievable. I finally, after about three days of pain, agony and worry, felt content and well, just pure happiness and joy to finally be over.

Most people would have stopped and observed the area around them, just to see what they missed. Well all I can say way that I was not interested in what was around me, all I was interested in, was what was ahead of me, my wife and son.

And not to mention my nice comfortable California king bed. Hey, you would be the same if you had gone about three nights without a decent night's sleep!

Deciding not to wait around I sped through the streets of the Terra. Lucky for me it was nearly midnight, so there would be no one around. It would be a very quick and short journey, my house was only on the outskirts of the village, so even by foot it would only take around ten to fifteen minutes to get there and back by foot. But, I didn't care, I pretty much hit the accelerator on my skimmer and I was home before five past twelve.

When I got to my house, I breathed in the air around me, it was cold but pleasant because for the past two days it ha been like twenty degrees, so it felt good to just be cool. Slowly, I approached my house, my leg was still injured and it was still hurting, but it was not as bad as what it was when I woke up and I was not limping any more which was good.

When I got to the front door, I noticed that it was quiet, too quiet for my liking. "Hang on, it's midnight. Of course its going to be quiet you idiot!" I thought to myself, following that thought in my head called 'common sense' I shrugged my worries of and made my way into the house.

When I got through the front door, I could not see a thing, there was no lighting. To avoid tripping on anything in the pitch black darkness I switched the light on. The house was brighter now, I could see clearly and everything looked normal. But even though things looked normal, I could not shake the feeling that something was wrong.

Still, I ignored it just thinking that it was because I was simply tired. I threw my keys on the side and kicked my trainers off and hung my jacket up on the hanger. I rubbed my neck as I made my way up the stairs, trying not to make any noise. I mean come on the last thing I want to do it wake Aden up, or Starling for that matter, trust me, she's at her worst when she is disturbed in her sleep.

As I walked down the hallway, I noticed that Aden's door was open, I took notice because it was unusual for Aden to leave his door open when he was asleep, he always liked it closed. When I went to close it, I noticed that Aden was gone form his bed and plus the door was hanging of it's hinges.

Now I was concerned, I rushed down the hallway to mine and Starlings room, that door was also open, and the bed had been used but she was not in it. Now I was really concerned, I ran down stairs to check the living room, they were not in there nor the dining room.

"STARLING! ADEN!" I called out, hoping they would hear me and answer back, but nothing. Now I was more than concerned I was scared.

The last room to check was the dining room. When I got in there, I saw two people tied together sitting on the floor both unconscious. One was a woman and one a child, it was my woman and my child, Starling and Aden.

I ran straight over to them, bending down to their level, I shook hem violently trying to make them wake up. "Come on Starling, come on baby, don't you die on me now!" To my relief Starling woke up quickly and became fully alert, she looked at me as if it was a dream but then I held her in my arms, nearly crying, this had gone way, way, WAY too far.

"Ace, what, what happened?" She said quietly, almost like she was in pain, but she clearly was not. I began to untie the bonds that were holding her still, and man were they tough one's to do, even I was struggling to undo them. Finally the last knot came loose and I started on Aden's.

"Starling, don't worry, were going to get out of here and go live somewhere else, we cant keep living here, especially if he knows where we live." I told her, just managing to untie the last knot.

Carefully I picked Aden up and we got ready to leave the house for good, but when we turned around, "You lot, aren't going anywhere!" Maxy tormented at me and my family, he was holding a Bowie knife at us, I narrowed my eyes at him as did Starling.

I knew that this all had to end tonight, I just knew it had to, there was no other way my family was going to get any peace. He had to die!

Just that moment, Aden began to wake up. Just what I needed, but he could not help it. He so drowsy, you could just tell by the way he spoke, "Dad?" Aden turned around to see Maxy standing there. I could see by the look on Aden's face that he was scared.

Deciding to get Aden out of here, I put him down so that he could stand on his own two feet, but I still kept watching Maxy stand there, not letting my guard down. "Aden, Starling, I want you two to run and hide." I told them sternly, Aden just nodded and ran out of the back door, but Starling stood there.

I still did not take my eye's off Maxy, "Star, I told you to run!" I protested, she just glared at me as if to say 'Are you serious', but I guess she was, she never ran away from a fight. Never.

We stood there for a few moment's not saying anything, as he waited for me to and Starling to attack him we did the same. But, there was one thing I had to know; why? Why is he doing all of this? What can he gain from it?

"Why Maxy? You kidnapped and tortured my son, nearly tried to kill me and you've held my wife hostage. Why? What is it you aim to get out of all this?" He just laughed at me, plainly he was avoiding the question, I narrowed my eyes at him, he kept digging into me, he knew what pisses my off.

"Yeah, I'd like to know that too Maxy, why are you doing all of this?" I looked at Starling as she repeated my question, then back at Maxy who was clearly getting cocky and full of himself. He was just pissing me of even more, not only was he insulting me but he was also insulting my wife.

"You both really want to know what it is, don't you? Well then no time like the present. You see Starly," Oh my god! He was calling her by the one name that she hated the most. I dont even have the gut's to call her that! And, I can kind of see why she hated it.

"It was never about you Starly or that pathetic little excuse for a son you so call 'Aden'." I saw Starling gripping her fist's tighter, she was clearly getting angry, even more so, furious. To stop her hurting herself, I grabbed her hand gently and held on to it, I then focused my attention back to Maxy.

"It was always about him!" I looked at Starling confused as she did at me when Maxy pointed the knife in my direction. When we looked back he continued tormenting us. "You see Starly, he has everything I ever wanted, YOU!" okay, this guy is very seriously fucked up in the head. But I let him continue.

"I was always in love with you Starly, I even told you on numerous occasions that I loved you. But you chose him! You could have done so much better than him, I mean look at him, an arrogant, stuck up, self conceded, cold blooded killer! Why you chose him I will never know. But also what you did to make it worse upon yourself, was that you stood me up on a date to go make out with him!" I looked over to Starling who's face had dropped in pure shock and anger.

"What? Maxy, I never stood you up, I told you we were going to do some re-con at the academy and that it was nothing like a date! It was purely a mission! And by the way, YOUR INSANE! I NEVER LOVED YOU! And looking at it now and then, I think I will stick with the ' arrogant, stuck up, self conceded, cold blooded killer' you so describe my husband as. And another thing, don't you dare ever insult my son like that!" My wife protested, I was shocked, never in my life had I ever seen her blow her top like that.

The strange thing was, that I was shocked and yet, lightly impressed and other thing's too, slowly I felt my lips curl into a smile, "Baby , did I every tell you how pretty you are when you're angry?" probably not the most appropriate time but I could not resist it. She did not look at me, but kept her eye's fixated on Maxy.

"Well then Ace honey, I must be gorgeous right now because I'm furious!" she shouted, not trying to have a go at me but to show how pissed she was. I looked back at Maxy, he just looked unimpressed. He began to walk towards Starling, that prompted me to step to her side, immediately he stopped.

I stood facing sideways which gave me an advantage as the was a knife of the side of the kitchen sink, this gave me just enough cover to grab the knife, ready to attack him. He just stood there, trying to evoke any fear inside us, but it did not work. Nothing about him could scar me or Starling.

"You know what Starling, I've been dreaming about this day for a long time. Just to see the look on you're face when you watch me kill your family." Starling was slightly startled now, but not enough to throw her off guard.

He then made eye contact with me, "Hey Maxy," I called to him coldly, "you want some advice?" he dipped his head slightly, I could not tell if it was a nod or what, "Keep dreaming!".

I threw the knife at him, the knife I threw hit the hand his Bowie knife was in making him drop it. I launched myself at him, grabbing him by his shirt, I threw a punch in his face and the kneed him in the gut and smashed his head against the side and to finish it all off I threw him to the floor, knocking him out cold.

I began to take some steps backwards towards Starling in case he woke up and got any ideas. When I was on the opposite side of the kitchen with Starling we nodded to each other to say we were leaving.

As I turned my back, a sheering pain shot straight through my body! I screamed in agony as I fell to the floor, Starling supporting me as I fell. Maxy had stabbed me, I had no idea if it was fatal or not. I lay there in my wife's arms, I was panting, trying to bear the pain. He stood there clutching the blood stained knife, grinning like a madman.

I looked up Starling, her tears were hinting my face, I put my hand on her cheek pleading to her without words saying not to cry. "I'm sorry Star." I whispered. "Don't be" she whispered back to me as she pressed her lips onto mine in a final bid to say a possible goodbye. "Don't you dare die on me yet Ace!" she cried to me. I shook my head saying 'I'm not going to'.

We looked back at Maxy who was holding the knife up ready to strike the final blow. I guess this was it for me, my legacy, from a rough childhood to having it all and then loosing it all at the hands of some psychopath. The only thing that satisfied me was that if I died, Denny would take over as Aden's legal guardian and that if I was to die with the love of my life, we would be together, side by side. I looked back up at Starling, I gripped onto her hand tightly as she did the same to me, I smile at her and gave her one final kiss before saying, "I love you". In that final moment we both closed our eyes ready for it all to be over.

Then all we heard was just this massively loud bang. It rang through my ears through to my brain. Why was I not dead?

I opened my eye's to see the white walls and sides of the kitchen painted with red. Why were they red? I looked down onto the floor to see a body, a body of a man. It was Maxy, he was dead. His blood was what stained the walls, as it did the floor where he lay.

I nudged Starling, she looked over her shoulder in shock to see what I saw as well. She looked back at me in complete disarray, I pulled her roughly into my arms as I held of to her tightly. Strangely she did not cry, but when she pulled away she kissed me like mad, I think it was her way of seeing if it was all reality or was just an illusion. Still I did not care, I just held onto her, and kissed her back when ever she kissed me.

There was a set of light footsteps approaching. When I saw the two people, I was so glad to see them. The smallest ran straight over to me and his mother, I sighed in relief I was so happy to see Aden was okay.

Whilst he hugged his mother, I managed to sit myself up, it was agonisingly painful but I could now see that the second person was Denny, he held onto a Mossberg 500, he fired the shot that killed Maxy. I looked over at Starling, she was clutching onto Aden in her arms, I could hear him sobbing and I knew that in his state the last thing that he would need to see is a dead body. I looked back at Denny who pointed to Maxy's dead body, I knew what he meant, I nodded and Denny removed the body from the house.

Whilst Denny was gone with the body, I sat there trying to comfort my shaken family.

o0o

A few hours later, we were staying at Denny's penthouse. We decided that we could no longer stay there so Denny said that he would let us stay with him until we found a more permanent place to live. Whilst there Denny allowed Aden to sleep in his room for the night, me and Starling in the guest room and him on the sofa. Denny also managed to clean up and stitch up the scar that Maxy had left me with on my back. Luckily, it was not deep and so it did not hit any vital organs.

Later that night, I was sleeping next to Starling in the guest room, but strangely enough I could not sleep. Starling slept with her head resting on my chest, she was awake too. I lay there stroking my wife's shoulder trying to think of where we could go and live. Then it hit me.

"Hey star?" her head perked up ever so slightly, she did not look nor even seem drowsy.

"Yeah Ace?"

"I just thought, you know my original home on Terra Rio right, the one I own fully now, the one we use as a summer home?" I looked at her and she just simply nodded.

"Well, the thing is, that I already own that place, I have billions to my name, we could pretty much pack up and move there tomorrow. I mean all of our stuff is already there and all we have to do is go back to the old house and well get the rest of it really. What do you think?"

Starling let out a light laugh, an rested her chin on her hand in her pillow.

"I think that would be great Ace, but the thing is Ace, we cant continue this life like nothing is wrong, I mean this is no life for a child to grow up in. I mean, It was different for you and me, we were born into it, we had to adapt, but here Aden has the choice that we never had, we could quit this all together and start a new life. One which does not involve Ccyclonia, we could just be a normal family." I thought about it and she was right, about everything, Aden does not deserve a life like this.

"Your right, we, you and me; will obviously have to stay with Cyclonia until retirement but Aden does not have to, he deserves better. I mean on Rio, we could live it up, we could give Aden a better chance at an education and I know that because at the school's on that Terra, every school has a specialist teacher who can help Aden with his dyslexia. We would be fine there. So how about it?" I gazed deep into her eyes, she was falling asleep dreaming about it. She kissed me before falling asleep.

I knew that she would not wake up but I had to tell her, "We'll talk to Aden in the morning about it."

Okay, I hope that you enjoyed that chapter, the worst is out of the way and now onto the last and happier chapter. :)