Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride or Percy Jackson. (Have I said this enough times yet?)

Shock and terror washed over me for the smallest fraction of a second before I rocketed into action. I raced forward with maximum speed and noticed that Percy was right by my side. I felt the wind on every part of my body, spreading through every feather, urging me on faster. There was a harsh roar in my ears and I felt myself go faster than I'd ever gone before. Angel dropped steadily faster, her light body, rushing toward the ground at an alarming pace.

I willed the wind to carry me faster and as the seconds arched on slower than I ever would have thought, yet everything was in perfect detail. I took in her peaceful face as she fell, her blonde curls tangled in the wind. I managed to catch her in my arms, a good two thousand feet below my companions and friends. I needed to land to make sure she was okay, so I flew lower and lower until I found an open space below where nobody would be.

I wanted to sit and cry out,but I had others around, and Jeb had taught me to never let others see me cry – whether it's out of frustration, confusion, relief or sorrow. So I swallowed the tears of relief as my sweet little Angel gasped, coughed, and blinked open her bright blue eyes.

"Max!" She cried out and I grinned and gasped, and hugged her tightly in my arms.

"Don't you ever do that again," I told her.

"Somethings wrong," she protested, pushing back to look at me.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?"

"Someone's missing," she whispered, and Annabeth and Percy turned to look at her from where they landed about ten feet ahead of us. "Someone important."

"How could she know that?" I heard Percy mutter.

"You know what she's talking about?" I asked, my voice steady, but only barely. Fang, silently observing, crossed his arms.

"I'm not sure," Annabeth muttered. "We really need to get to Chiron." She glanced around and her pegasus stamped its hooves and fluttered it's wings. Now, I may not understand horse speak, but as far as birds go, he was antsy and sensing danger. So with that, I stood, kept Angel in my arms, and nodded to the sky.

"Let's get going," I said, then took off without another word, anxious to get back in the sky with my family.

"Almost there!" Percy called from below.

"Follow us," Annabeth shouted over the wind as she angled her Pegasus downward toward the water below where a little community was nestled between the woods and the beach. Though there was a light frosting of snow on the ground (what? It was cold, and it was . . . it was still December, right?), I saw a field of just barely frosted strawberries. Call me crazy, but that didn't seem really natural.

Percy led us over directly the strangest collection of buildings I'd ever seen, all in the shape of a U, past what looked like stables and an arena, all the way down to the beach. Once we touched down, he told me he figured we didn't want everyone figuring out the wings right away, that we should choose how and when people found out.

For that, my opinion of him heightened greatly.

"Alright, Max, Fang, everyone," Annabeth said as the two pegasuses – pegasi – pegapeople? - flew off. "Welcome to Camp Half-Blood! Let's go meet Chiron."

As she led us off the beach, it was all I could do to keep Nudge and the Gasman from running up the ocean. I noticed Percy was visible happier when near it and noticed his eyes were the same greenish blue color that the sea gave off. Not many people have eyes that color – that I've noticed anyway – and then I remembered his dad was the god of the sea, and I decided not to question it. Who knows, maybe Eye-color is god specific. I shook my head, checked my flock to make sure they're wings were tucked in, and focused on not tripping over my shoes as we clambered through the camp.

"I guess there aren't that many demigods after all," Nudge said a little sadly. I knew she was hoping to meet some new friends, so I felt kind of bad for her, but at the same time, an empty camp meant less people for us to turn into zoo-exhibits for.

"Oh, there are," Percy said. "Most of them are only summer campers."

"So what are you? Year round?" Iggy asked.

"I actually -"

"Wow, Max! Look at the mansion!" Nudge said. "The blue is so pretty! And it has an eagle on the top, huh, I never really noticed that your feathers are like an eagle's, Max. Wow, do you think we'll get to stay in there? Are there a lot of rooms?"

"We'll get to where you'll be staying before too long," Annabeth cut in with a slight chuckle. "Chiron! We're back!"

"About time you got here," Nico said from just inside. Annabeth looked a little shocked to have been answered by our original rescuer (not that we needed it, but whatever).

"Were you worried about us?" Angel asked him. He smirked, god, I swear, he looked just like Fang. Angel giggled.

"Chiron's this way," he turned around and walked through the doorway, leading into the house."

"Well," Nudge said. "The outside was pretty, but the inside is …" Annabeth shot her a warning glance, like she was worried we might turn into one of the leopards lining the walls if we weren't careful.

"The decorations for this room were a gift from our Camp Director, Mr. D," Percy said his name very carefully. Like it was supposed to mean something to us.

"Well, Mr. D must not -"

"Have wanted us to miss him, which is why he treated us with his sacred animal and favorite color," a man with brown hair, a tweed jacket and a blanket draped over his legs as he sat in a wheelchair interrupted me. He looked into my eyes and I could tell he was hiding something. I didn't trust him. "Why don't we all have a seat?"

"But you're already sitting," the Gasman blurted out. What can I say, we were raised in cages. So tact while speaking wasn't part of their experiments.

"Yes, I am, dear boy," said the man, "I am Chiron, and on behalf of our director, Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. Let's have a chat, shall we?"

"Is something wrong, Max?" Iggy asked softly from behind me.

"No," I said, but my breathing had already intensified. I tried to calm down my paranoia just a little.

"What do we need to talk about?" I asked, all my walls firmly in place.

"Percy, Annabeth, why don't you go alert the Stoll brothers about their new arrivals? They'll be along shortly," Chiron said, giving our guides a meaningful look.

"But-"

"Yes sir," Annabeth said, having to drag Percy out of the room. As they hit the light in the hall way, I noticed they each had a slight streak of gray on their heads. What was up with that? Anyway, as they went outside, I heard Percy mutter, "Why does Nico get to stay?"

"Why does Nico get to stay?" I asked Chiron.

"Because he has a sibling among you, and since he's not had the most pleasant of weeks, I didn't want to separate them again."

Nico looked very gray, like he might melt into another shadow if we weren't looking. He looked right at Fang just as a holographic skull appeared of his head engulfed in gray flames. "I told you he was with me," Nico said to no one in general.

"But you've been calling him Nick," I said. "That's not his name. His name is Fang."

"Fang," Chiron chuckled. "Suiting name. Hail, Fang, Son of Hades." he bowed slightly from his wheelchair. "As for you, Maxine, is it?"

"Max. Maximum Ride." I said, teeth bared. I didn't fully understand what was happening, but it was starting to sound like he was going to split us up, and I wasn't about to let that happen.

"Careful, Maximum," he said slowly, like trying to calm an angry horse. I realized my hair was standing on edge and I could feel an electric 'hum' resonating through the air. Something told me that if I wanted to, I could send a huge shock through anyone that touched me. I took a deep breath and I heard the kids gasp behind me.

Fang chuckled and pointed over my head.

"Can I call you Sparky now?" he muttered and I glared daggers, accidentally sending a shock his way, making him wince. I grinned.

"Maximum Ride, Daughter of Zeus," Chiron said, cautious, as if one wrong word could send him to the moon.

"Wait a minute," Nudge but in. "Does that mean that Max and Fang know who their parents are now? What about the rest of us? Will we get to know? When will we know? How will we know? I don't understand. Max? Fang? Are you going to leave us now that you know who your parent's are?"

That last sentence made Angel and Gazzer start crying, then Nudge started in before long. Iggy didn't have any idea what was happening so Fang filled him in.

I groaned, then turned on this Chiron guy.

"Look, now see what you've done? It's going to take forever to get them to shut up! How can I trust you? How much about us do you know? I...I..." I took a deep breath and Chiron looked at me with those wise eyes that seemed to hold centuries.

"Miss Ride, if I may," he gestured for us to step outside. As he led us outside, he seemed deep in thought, which must have been hard to do seeing as Angel was still whimpering rather loudly from Fang's arms. On a normal day, I would have busted out laughing at the look of his face. As it was, I was doing well not to break down like Angel.

Once we made it out on the porch, Chiron rose from his chair. I stumbled backwards into the railing as he kept rising out of the wheelchair which somehow managed to hold his entire backside which was a – white – stallion.

Given my background, you'd think I wouldn't be shocked to see something like him, but yet, here I was, scrambling to remember how to close my mouth and keep from flying back to the safety of the E-house.

"How did you escape? Are you an experiment too?" I asked.

"My dear girl, I am a Centaur," he said, abashed by my assumption that he came from the same place as us. "Did you say, too?"

I nodded, well, cat's out of the bag now, as if it wasn't obvious before.

"It would appear that there is more to discover that I had thought. Nevertheless, the dinner bell will ring in ten minutes. I must think on this for a while. If you head straight ahead to the braziers – the flames in the courtyard ahead – you'll see the cabins. Head for Cabin Eleven. You will be well taken care of from there."

I supposed that was a dismissal, as Chiron left his chair vacant on the porch and cantered off toward the forest.

"Well, that sounded quite magical," Iggy said, "but what are we doing again?"

AN:

Thanks for reading! Review and let me know your favorite cabin of the gods!

I look forward to hearing from each of you, my lovely readers. :)

Until next time,

~Jezi Raewin