We waited within the cover of the forest for 5 minutes. 10 minutes. 20 minutes. Bang. That was our cue to haul ass over to the front door. There were two guards, one on each side of the entrance, both dressed in sleek black suits...who also turned into Erasers the moment they laid eyes on us. Predictable. I threw myself at one, wrapping my legs around his neck and twisting. He fell to the ground in a heap. I couldn't be sure if he was still breathing or not, but I can't say that I really care either. My blood lust is triggered by my fight or flight response and because of it, I almost always choose fight. It might be a little hardheaded of me to always choose to stand my ground, but I would much rather die fighting.

"Christ, where in the world did you learn to do that?" Fang gapped, landing his last punch on the other Eraser before he also dropped to the ground.

"I told you I've been around." I smirked. "I picked up some martial arts."

Fang shook his head in disbelief and then motioned toward Max who was already busting skulls inside of the building. She was surrounded by three Erasers which were easily picked off once Fang and I arrived.

"I have to admit, your plan is working well, Cecilia. According to the blueprint of the facility that Fang found, the records room should be a few minutes from here." Max pointed down a long, narrow corridor.

Despite the facility's large size, it was simple to find our way. Each hallway had arrows nailed to the wall with corresponding division. We didn't even need a map to navigate. Before long, we arrived at a set of steel double doors.

"Dammit, a keypad! We should have brought Nudge." Fang kicked the plaster so hard that paint chipped off.

"It's not too late. I could run outside and get her and bring her back-"

"Or...we could try the next best thing."

I approached the keypad. It was flimsy enough; the edges were smooth, not sharp. After flexing my fingers out, I rolled my hand into a fist, pulled back, and let the keypad have it. It shattered from the blow and electricity fizzed up from within it, but only enough to give me a small zap. My fist on the other hand was a bit more bloody than I had anticipated. Ignoring it for the time being, I yanked the handles of the door which opened with hardly a problem.

"Ha, well it's a good thing they were magnetic because that wouldn't have opened other wise." I let out a light-hearted laugh.

"That was reckless. That was absolutely irresponsible and now look at your hand!" Max was pink in the face with anger.

"It's not a big deal. It's not bleeding that much so all I have to do is heal it. And Honey, being on the run is no fun if you can't be a tad bit reckless." In fact, being on the run is no fun at all, but the joke was worth the look on Max's face.

"Come on, Ladies." Fang urged.

Max stomped in ahead and I followed behind. Fang gave me quick look of approval and then entered behind me. I felt a sharp stinging sensation on the right side of my body. Oh, my hand...right. I did have a role of Lifesavers in my pocket (How ironic) to keep my blood sugar in check, but I'm afraid those might come in handy later. I'll deal with the pain for now and wait until we're in the clear to heal. I do have the bandages from earlier though. Those were the only two things I thought to grab out of my backpack before I let Iggy borrow it to store his explosives. Iggy. God I hope he's okay.

The storage room was massive...and filed with file cabinets. I didn't think that Fang meant literal files, as in, not digital.

"What is this? The Stone Age? They had electronic locks, but when it comes to documents it's like they've never heard of a computer."

"Just start looking, Cecilia."

I huffed. We don't even know how much time we have before the rest of the Erasers figure out that we broke in and come to kick our asses. I analyzed the cabinets. Each had a label printed on to the front. Blood Work. Dietary Trials. Experiments. Okay, here we go, experiments. Thankfully, the folders were in alphabetical order too. Avian was pasted right on the tab of the first cluster of papers.

"Guys, I found it!"

Fang and Max ran over to where I was standing, eager to know the paper's contents.

"Read them!" Max was practically falling over herself with anticipation.

"There are only two of them." Eight year-old me was plastered on to the upper right hand corner of the first cover page. Fang, presumably as young as me, was in the corner of the second.

"This one is me and this one is Fang."

I couldn't help but wonder why ours were together? What about the rest of the flock? Where were their files?

I pushed the thought aside and handed Fang his. He began to read aloud:

Test Subject #734

The Avian Hybrid Project

Doctor's Note

11/15

With the passing of his fifth birthday, November 14th, the subject is showing signs of reclusiveness. The subject is responding well to treatment, though shows little interest in social interactions. His body has yet to accept the camouflage adaptations, but more research will be done to determine if more tests will be effective. Though not a failure, his twin sister, #733, still shows more promise. Studies will be conducted to see if the differences are genetic or psychological.

Fang violently flipped through the rest of the pages.

"All of these are doctor's notes. But what does it mean that I have a sister? Jeb never told me that."

Without waiting for Fang to finish, I began to read mine aloud. Part of me didn't want to because part of me already knew the truth. The other part needed me to confirm it.

Test Subject #733

The Avian Hybrid Project

Doctor's Note

11/15

With the passing of her fifth birthday, November 14th, the subject has made remarkable progress. Her mirroring capability has sky rocketed in the past few months. Subject was able to perform an extremely complicated piano piece by simply watching a prerecorded performance. In theory, the subject should be able to mirror virtually any skill, demonstrating an unsurpassed adaptive capability.

I paused. That explained a lot. My ability to play the guitar, my knack for martial arts, even my crazy wicked ability to pick up the ukulele. I had always thought that I was just a fast learner, but all this time it had been programmed into me. All of those "how-to" videos on YouTube were encoded into my brain. So much for natural talent.

If all goes to plan, her twin brother, #734, will develop a skill set similar to his sister's level.

That was it. That was all the proof I needed. Fang was motionless, but I knew he knew it too.

"Fang...you're my brother."

"And you're my sister."

All the time I spent looking, searching had finally paid off. For some reason it wasn't as touching or rewarding as I had imagined it to be. I mean here he was, my brother, Fang, and I couldn't even find it within myself to hug him. Then it hit me...he already had a family. I had expected my brother to be some loner kid trying to survive on his own, if he was even able to escape confinement that is. But Fang didn't need saving, he didn't need anymore of a family, he didn't need me.