This chapter was so hard to write...I knew exactly what happened to each of the Flock but actually writing it was exhausting...It's the longest chapter yet because I could think of a way to cut it without screwing with the pacing. I hope you like it, I tried really hard.

The next chapter may not be up for a while because I have my exams but on the bright side my internet connection is back so it'll be up as soon as it's written.

xxx

Chapter 11

Max POV

I dozed on my bed for a while. Total had been calling through the door for a while but he eventually gave up. The music was turned down to a more reasonable volume, low background noise so I could hear what was going on around the house. Total watching T.V. some game show he yells out it every once and a while. The door bell rang, Total must have ordered pizza...funny...I didn't hear a van outside.

Then I heard his voice.

I sat up so fast my head spun, it took me a second to regain my balance then I was running down the stairs.

It was Edward.

"Hi," I said awkwardly.

"Hi."

He was holding a package with my name on it. He caught me looking at it.

"I found it near the porch."

He handed it over and I looked at the return address. Mom.

It took me a moment to realise we were all standing awkwardly in the hall.

"Come in, I'd offer you something to drink but..." I turned and waved my hand for him to follow me into the kitchen.

"The offer is appreciated, none the less."

"We sat down at the table for a moment and I saw Total glance at both of us and then muttered awkwardly, "Right, I'll leave you guys alone, I'm missing family fortune."

We stared after him and then Edward whispered to me, "Family Fortune?"

"He's a bit of a game show addict..."

He nodded and we sat in awkward silence for a bit. I decided to open the package since Edward didn't seem like talking. He obviously came here for something but I didn't push him to tell me. Not yet.

The package was soft and with one big rip the wrapping was off in a moment. It was a long white tunic and leggings. I sighed in disgust, why white? Why do Mom and Ella think I should dress in white like an angel? I'm the furthest thing from an angel...

"Who's it from?" I had almost forgotten Edward was here.

"My mother," I said simply, pushing the clothes aside.

He seemed surprised. "If you don't mind me asking, I thought the story was your family was dead?"

Oh yeah, right. That's why he was surprised. I'm not careful enough with him. It just slips out.

"Yep, that's the story."

He considered that for a moment and then asked, "How much of the story is actually true?" His expression was wary, as if waiting for a bad reaction to the question. I was too but none came. I was so relived I told him, "My family is dead but they didn't die in car crash."

He nodded again and stared at me, except it wasn't a scrutinizing stare, the ones that make me uncomfortable. His eyes were soft...and a slight smile played on his lips.

I decided to bite the bullet and ask him, "Why are you here?" I tried to ask it as nicely as I could but he still frowned.

"Do you want me to leave?" He seemed hurt.

"No, no it's just that usually people make unexpected visits for a reason." I amended quickly.

"I was wondering how you were and wanted to see you." He said simply.

I raised an eyebrow, "Really?"

He nodded.

Okay...he must be up to something...

I glanced suspiciously at him.

"Have you got any ideas on what I am yet?"

"Hmm, one or two but they're probably wrong..."

"Give them a try." I encouraged, curious to see what he came up with.

"Well, let me go over with what I know about you: You are super fast and strong, your heart beats twice as fast as a human, you have metal dissolved in your blood, you smell of bird, you've raised a mind-reader, you have talking dog called Total and you need to eat a lot of calories."

"Hey how'd you know about the calories?"

"You should be more careful about eating those weight- gaining bars in school; people could see them and start asking questions."

I looked down, embarrassed that I'd been so careless.

"So I think you have something to do with animals' definatly and you don't need to gain weight so I think that you need those bars to stop you starving...I think there was something done to you as a child to help you live and these are side effects."

I barked one humourless laugh, "Yeah, your right about something being done to me but it wasn't to help me."

He looked confused.

"It was an experiment; it was all in the name of science, for the good of mankind. They call it whatever makes them sleep at night. I however like to call it torture.

His shocked expression was just what I was expecting.

Total wandered in, "Are you going to tell him, or play more games?" He asked.

"No more games." I answered and stood up.

"C'mon, before it gets too dark," I walked over to the back door. It took him a moment to snap out of his thoughts and follow me out.

"Where are we going?"

"Out," I said and started to run into the darkening forest.

Edward POV

I followed Max instantly and easily matched her pace. Remembering the speed she poured on last time it was easy to see she was taking it slow.

She was graceful, like a gazelle. Her tall thin body neatly dodged trees with her dark blond hair whipping around behind.

I wondered where we were going. What she was planning...and soon after about ten minutes we came to a stop at cliff face, where she stayed the first night after the attack. The setting sun cast shadows around us.

She turned to me, "Do you want to see the real me?" her face was sad and worried. I nodded yet her expression didn't change. She started to take of her hoodie, and I was at a loss of what to think she was doing.

Feathers floated around her from inside her hoodie and managed to catch one in my hand. I stared at it and when I looked up again I dropped it in shock.

An angel?

She had wings. They were white and tawny brown, elegant and beautiful. I was in love with an angel.

Then I looked closer at the rest of her back and gasped in horror. She wore a black backless halter neck, revealing angry red scars slashed violently across her skin. Like someone had tried to rip them off...

"My real name is Maximum Ride. I'm...the result of an experiment done by a group of scientist called the school." Max whispered, she obviously didn't like my reaction.

"You're beautiful," I said strongly, "what happened to...?"

"...My back? I was attacked...I got distracted in a fight and...."

Anger burned deep inside of me. How could anyone attack her? I wanted to kill the person who did this. I slowly walked towards her. I wanted to tell her that she was beautiful, that I didn't care if she had wings or scars...I wanted to tell her that I loved her.

But I could tell this was not the time to tell her this.

"May I?" I raised a hand and looked towards her wings. She was hesitant but nodded and stared intently at me as I felt the softness of her feathers against the tips of my fingers.

Eventually Max spoke again,

"I want to tell you about me...about what I'd been through...about my family...but...I don't know if you'd be able to handle it..." Her voice was a whisper.

"Tell me. I can handle it."I replied simply.

I saw her hands clench into fists as she looked away from me. When she spoke again, her voice was stronger, more decided, "Okay, I'll tell you."

Max POV

From when I first met Fang and Iggy in the lab, to when Jeb saved us, from when Angel was kidnapped to Ari's death...

I was proud of myself. As soon as I started my story I couldn't stop. It poured from me as if all this time it had built up inside and I was finally releasing it. I felt strangely relieved, but I was proud because I managed to do it without bursting into tears.

Edward listened. He asked the odd question or two but mostly he stayed silent. The range emotions that appeared on his face were amazing. He did his best to keep a straight face but I could hear the fury and sadness in his voice at some points like when he found what Jeb did, what the school put us through or when Ari died.

"What happened to the Flock?" He finally asked after some silence. I was waiting for this question, the worst of them all. Like the rest of the story the memories washed over me picking at the scars at the back my mind.

He let me start in my own time, I was grateful and as soon as I was in control again I spoke, "Dead. They're all dead."

Edward's eyes widened, I could see him tense. He was hoping for a happier ending.

"After the incident in Germany, We met up with Fang, Iggy and Gazzy and went to see my mom. Jeb was there already, knowing we'd come. He said that during the riot one of the scientists managed to activate our expiration dates early. A capsule containing a special poison inserted into us at birth breaks up in our bodies. It takes about six months to reach our hearts, depending on how strong we are, and then we die instantly.

Jeb was right. Within days dates showed up on our necks. The countdown had begun. After Ari's funeral we started doing tests to see if we could stop the poison. Then flyboys from the remaining branches of Itex started showing up. Along with other experiments created to capture us. There was this giant bee thing and its stinger was like a foot long and deadly poisonous. I've been stung so many times and managed to survive the effects so I've become sort of immune to it. Gazzy wasn't so lucky, he was stung one time to many and wasn't strong enough to survive it."

"Oh god..." Edward whispered, "Was it painful...?"

I nodded in response and went on. "Next was Nudge and Iggy. We heard that a school in Texas might have an antidote to stop the poison. But something went wrong. Nudge started to feel faint and sick because her date was only a month away then. She collapsed in the middle of a fight. I got distracted by her scream and tried to save her but...."

I pointed to my back. I winced as I remembered how painful it was. Edward reached out hesitantly as if asking if he could touch it. I nodded and his cold fingers traced the scars down my back. I stared out into the now dark sky. The full moon stared back. I shivered, it was a full moon back then as well.

"Are you cold?" Edward asked, and then he actually started to take his jacket. I managed to stop myself smirking. "No, did I mention the killer bees poison screwed up my sense of hot and cold? I could probably stand in Antarctica and only get slightly chilly or in the Sahara and not able to feel my skin burn from the heat. I was just shivering from the memories."

I didn't finish but he nodded, understanding. He put his jacket back on and I sighed and went on with the story. Edward continued to hang on my every word,

"When I woke up I was strapped to a hospital bed with wires and tubes attached to me. In such a daze I couldn't even tell how long I was out. Eventually a scientist came and told me that they had injected me with this special electrified metal, which it was now running through my blood stream. Apparently they decided I was the only experiment they could test it on successfully. They'd also managed to increase my stamina, strength and speed by accident but they didn't know that.

"It took me about an hour to recover enough to escape. I was half limping half running down the hall in agonizing pain when I heard the scream. Nudge was being experimented on to. As I tried to find her she kept screaming my name...by the time I got there she was covered in blood and almost dead...I lost it and nearly every metal thing in that room melted and attacked the scientists in the room, covering and suffocating them...back then I had no control over what I was doing, I had no idea what happened only that I had killed them with hardly lifting a finger...Nudge died on the lab floor with me holding her hand... I carried her on my back as I tried to find the others...."

Suddenly Edward brushed his hand against my cheek. It was wet. Damn, I was so sure I could do this without losing it. I quickly dried my cheeks but soon enough they got wet again. "You don't have to go on."He said.

I shook my head. No, I need to do this. It's about time I did. Maybe it will give my conscience peace.

"I found them. In cages of course and beaten to a pulp. We were all shaken by Nudges death and we all decided to burn the place to the ground. Iggy, somehow, managed to make a bomb...never doubt the abilities of a pyromaniac." I barked a single laugh at memories of him and Gazzy blowing up and torching random things.

"He and Fang decided to set up the bomb as me and Angel cleared a path out of there for them. Iggy gave me a controller saying that when it starts beeping it'll be safe to activate it..." My fists clenched. Dammit, Iggy. It wasn't necessary...you could have gotten out.

"Something went wrong. We met an army of Flyboys and bees outside and we were busy trying to get far enough from the building while inside they caught up with Fang and Iggy. Fang was thrown out a window and beaten in the sky while Iggy was stuck inside...I think...he waited until he thought Fang was far enough away and then..."

"...Signalled to you to activate the bomb." Edward finished. I nodded. I was shaking now that was not a good sign. First sign of a break down... At that moment I didn't care though. I wanted to finish.

"We found Fang; he was badly burned and hurt. He never recovered fully because his date was close as well. We couldn't find a cure. We lay together under the stars on his last night and he told me he loved me. I told him I loved him as well but even now I'm not sure that I meant it or that I was just so full of emotion at the thought of losing him...He said he was going to die happy so I guess it didn't matter...before he died he said he wanted me to be happy...I replied...'I'm not sure I know how to be truly happy anymore.'

I didn't know what happened but somehow I ended up leaning against Edward with his arms around me. He rocked and stroked my hair as I soaked his shirt with tears. Could he even understand what I was saying anymore? I should have felt humiliated but I didn't. I was just glad someone was there.

"Jeb had come to me a few days after and said he'd discovered a way to stop the poison. Apparently it had attached itself to some of the metal because of the electrical molecules or something. He could insert magnets into me and although it would cut my powers by half but I could live, and in a few years the poison would leave my body and I could take them out...I said of course. I had already decided to die."

"Then Angel...my beautiful baby. My gorgeous mind-reader had also accepted that she was going to die. She stopped speaking to anyone but Total. She refused to get anymore tests from Jeb no matter how much I begged her. On her last day she came to me in tears and said she loved me...She kept repeating, "I don't want to die. There's no heaven for me. I can't leave you." It took me a whole night to convince her there was a heaven for her. That she'd be with the flock and that they would look after her until I joined them. Then she told me very sternly. "No, I want you to live. Promise me you'll live. I want to know that at least one of us is going to go on with their life..."

I remembered they tears streaming down her pale cheeks, the bags under her eyes. Her face begging me to take up Jeb's offer.

"After the procedure I nursed a vendetta against Itex. Jeb and I eventually agreed to work for the FBI. Together we closed down pretty much every branch. I torched almost every building they built...It was stupid. It wouldn't bring them back."

"And now you're here..." Edward whisper to me.

"I guess..."I answered.

His shirt was soaked but he didn't seem to care. He slowly rocked me and I suddenly felt completely exhausted.

"You've been through so much..."

"It never seems over...there is always something...someone...after me." I clenched my fists. "I won't stop fighting."

Edward said nothing but held me tighter.