Hey guys it's the Jade Empress. I'm so sorry about the wait and the Authors Note. Life's just busy. Ok so here's the deal won't be able to update every Friday anymore. In fact I might not be able to do every other week. My promise is that I'll get at least on chapter pasted a month. It may sound long, but I need the time to make a good chapter. Since it will be an unsteady flow of updating I suggest you alert or favor the story.

I have an explanation for this chapter at the bottom.

This is the chapter were some new characters are introduced. Don't worry I'll give the creators credit during and at the end of this chapter. Please read on.

Disclaimer: I don not own Maximum Ride James Patterson does.


Flashback:

I heard the quiet whirl of gears and then a faint click.

We were in.

The door swung open and it revealed a long, dark flight of stairs. I headed down with Sam and Maya flanking me, while Abby brought up the rear. We were about halfway down when Jenna complained.

"This place reeks of danger and it's really humid down here."

"Jenna…" Abby started.

"Yeah?"

"…shut up and keep going down."

"No need for the sarcasm," she replied in a hurt tone.

At the bottom of the staircase there was an open archway leading into a large room with a meeting table and chairs. The room had two doors that headed in opposite directions and was empty of humans. Now if you've been following me for a while you should have been as confused as I was.

"Where are the computers? There was a giant computer here the last time I came! Crap." I gazed around looking for any hints on where we should go.

Nothing at all, no map and not a single clue.

"Alright we're going to have to split up. We can't stay here for long, but we need to get the job done. Jenna, Maya and I will go search for the computers. Abby, Luna and Sam you guys go and look for other mutants. I'll set up a mental link with Sam, so we can communicate. If you do find the computers contact us instantly. Remember you have one hour tops and stay together."

Before we separated I tossed Sam my paperclip.

"It's to help you open any locks you find." I whispered and then walked to my group. My group headed in to the West wing, while the others went towards the East.

"Ok. Think, think." I commanded myself as when walked down the door less corridor. "If they changed the schematics of the Institute they probably put the central computer system far away from the entrance. The problem is we don't know how big this place really is, so all we have to do… is…"

"You just need to get the blue prints of the Institute. They have to have them in one of the lab rooms-" Maya started with Jenna cutting her off abruptly.

"-yeah, they need them for drills like when intruders come, an experiment gone wrong or maybe even a crazy mutant attack!"

I nodded and we carefully rounded the corner. In front of us was a dead end.

"Now what?" Maya asked. I frowned. A hallway that has nothing in it and it leads to a dead end? That doesn't sound right.

"Nice. You lead us to a dead end." Jenna said sarcastically. She put her back against the wall to rest. "Now what-" She yelped and fell through. We could no longer see her, but I still sensed her standing there.

"Guys, why are you standing there like idiots? Help me up!" I could hear Jenna's voice coming from the wherever she had gone, but I couldn't see her.

Hesitantly, I stretched out my arm and placed it on the wall. The wall rippled at the slightest touch; like water when the winds blowing. A small shudder escaped me when my arm disappeared behind the wall.

"What the hell is this? Magic?" Maya asked.

"No…" I said slowly. It's some sort of projection a trick of some sort. It looks like a wall, but it isn't. This must lead to the rest of the School." To test my theory I stepped all the way through. It felt like I walked through a thin sheet of water. I opened my eyes and saw Jenna standing brushing off her legs.

"The floor is so dirty," was her only comment.

I turned around just in time to see Maya come through. Goosebumps were all over her arms.

"That felt weird and tingly," she replied, disgusted. From the side we were on, we could now see the other side without any illusion. It was like a one way mirror.

The room we were in was tiled a dark blue. There were no lights on, but the small square tiles gave off an eerie glow. I could just make out the shape of the room - it was circular and there were two arches. The one we came in and the other leading in a different direction.

In the center of the room was a giant glowing fish tank. When I mean big it was about 50 feet long and about 30 feet wide. We cautiously approached the tank unsure of what we would find. Inside was filled with greenish water and a dozen small caves that were netted at the openings. On the tank there was a metal ladder the lead up to the top, that was about 40 feet in the air.

"Wow." Maya looked at tank speechlessly. It gave off a glow that made you just want to stare at it. I nudged them to climb up the ladder and followed after them. When we reached the top we saw that the whole perimeter was walled in. A small scanner was hanging on the wall. I scanned the white coats ID in front of it. The screen read,

ACCESS DENIED

"Let me try," Jenna suggested. She put her hand on top of the scanner and closed her eyes. I was about to ask her what she was doing when I saw a small light run through her body. The scanner started to sizzle and then the screen cracked. Then the metal slide open creating a door shape.

We hurried in.

A small platform stood in the middle of all the fog. The only thing that connected it to the door was a metal bridge. We hurried along. On the platform there were thousands of small glowing buttons. I skimmed the buttons for one that would be useful, but what they were was written in a different language. Until I found one I understood. It said,

打开

It means open in Chinese. I clicked the button. Gurgling occurred below us and figures moved underneath. Jenna let out a small squeak


Sam's POV:

I ushered Abby and Luna down the hallways. It had a bunch of doors, but most of them just led to dark and empty rooms.

"This is pointless," Luna stated.

'I agree. We have no idea where we're going," Abby said.

"We're just looking for other mutants. It shouldn't be that hard." I tried to reason, but they were just fed up with walking around. "Fine let's just try this last room. The humidity is making it hard for me to identify nearby living creatures, but I think someone's in here."

We opened the door and the first thing that hit me was the smell. The room had a horrible odor that smelled of decaying flesh and uncleanliness. It made my eye's water and stomach churned.

"I think I'm hoping to be sick," Luna moaned. She turned around right on time a through up in the corner. If you think we were over-reacting, think again.

Once our eyes had at least stopped stinging, we moved around the room. The first three cages held dead bodies. It was impossible to distinguish if this even had been a living being. Its form was wrinkled, and looked like a giant old raisin. They had to have been dead for over two months.

"Those white coats have no respect for living creatures. They just left the body here to rot!" Luna shouted outraged.

"Who's there?" A trembling voice asked. We moved closer to the sound. When we got closer we saw a girl who looked about a year younger then I was.

The girl had her legs up pressed to her body. I could tell she was a few inches shorter than I and she was so skinny she looked sick. Her skin was stretched really tight over her bones and she had huge frightened blue eyes. Her dull brown hair was tangled in knots and sprawled over her shoulders.

"Who are you? Are there more of you?" Abby asked quickly.

The girl in the cave shivered, "Of course there is more of us. There's only one question though. Are they still alive or are they dead?"

I quickly moved towards her cages lock. In a matter of seconds I had it off the cage and the door swung open. "Come with us, we'll get you out of here." I said in a hushed tone. The girl tried to move, but she could barely stand. Abby was beginning to get impatient.

"Come on, come on. We have more things to accomplish." I gave Abby a glare and she shut up momentarily.

The girl gathered enough strength to stand and walked out of the cage. She tottered for a few moments. "I'm Romie, pronounced Rome like the city and then EE as in heat," the girl said once she regained balance. Created by: Something Generic.

I nodded to Luna and Abby. They both walked off in search of other mutants. "Well, Romie, we are going to get you out of here." She allowed the girl to lean against her arm for support.

"Thanks," the girl managed to mumble.


Luna's POV:

I looked around happy to get away from the dead bodies. My stomach was still churning, but there was nothing left to heave. I really didn't like this mission, there was too much at stake. I barely knew the others let alone fully trust them with my life, but at the moment I was short of options.

I walked around until I couldn't see anything in the darkness. I made my body light up. It gave a glow in the darkness.

"Now I'm an easy target for anyone else." I shook my head and continued on.

I heard a quiet moan come from the corner. I looked and saw there was a girl curled up on the cage floor. Now unlike Sam I didn't run to her side and try to open the cage. Instead, I slowly inched towards her not daring to make a sound. When I was close enough to her I cleared my throat. The figure turned to look at me and a surprisingly strong feminine voice asked,

"Do you have something in your throat? If so, cough it up, because you're annoying me." The girl in the cage looked up. I could tell she was annoyed with me, but at the same time I didn't mind. I like the sound of her voice. It was so… melodic.

"Why don't you open the cage for me?" She suggested. Normally I would have refused, but my body moved forward anyway and began to move towards the lock.

"That's right," she cooed. "Keep going you almost done with the lock." My mind froze as I realized what she was doing. Using a lot of effort I raised my fingers to my ears, blocking any source of noise that came from her. She looked at me angrily and mouthed, "Dam."

I reached into part of her mind searching for what she feared most, and the image was confusing. This fear was symbolized.

There were two plants a weed and a seedling of a flower. They both grew equally using resources. The ground in which the flower was living on began to crack and dry. The flower began to shrivel as the weed grew even more. The flower disappeared and the weed remained. Then the ground against the weed turned against it and dried out. The weed began to die just like the flower once had.

I was brought back to the present when I heard screaming echoing in my ears. I understood her fear now.

"You're afraid of being betrayed, aren't you? You'd give up your best friend to survive, but you wouldn't want them to do the same to you. That's pathetic. Now I'm going to remove my fingers from my ears. Do not try to persuade me again or I will give you a bigger taste of what you fear."

I unplugged my ears and heard nothing, but silence.

"Good, now believe it not I'm going to help you." Luna finished breaking of the girl rusted lock. She opened the door and gestured for the girl to come out. The girl regarded her with wary eyes.

She was as tall as Luna herself, but she looked different in every other way. The girl was obviously Chinese. She had short dark brown hair with red sun streaked highlights. Her hair was dark at the top, but it faded at the tips. She had dark brown almond eyes that have gold flecks and pale skin. She looked half starved to death. Hesitantly she stuck out her hand and said,

"I'm Aria."

"I'm Luna. Don't try anymore tricks." Aria grinned.

"I'm obliged not to; you got me out of the cage."

"Your words don't make me feel any more relaxed than before." I replied.

"Smart, I think I like you." After that it seemed like we had an unspoken agreement of peace, for the time being. We continued searching until we met a dead end. I led her back to the entrance and told Sam and Abby,

"I found one, her names Aria. The rest of the cages were either empty or filled with the dead."

"Same," Abby replied. "He doesn't have a name though."

"What kind of DNA does he have?" Sam asked.

"I don't know ask him, he's right he you know."

"No need for the sarcasm." Sam turned to get a better look at the young man standing before her. He was at least six feet tall. Like Aria he too looked Asian. His shaggy hair came down to his shoulders covering half of his eye. His eyes were onyx colored and had gold specks in them. Looking at his arms you could see well defined lines of gold that looked permanently etched in his skin. Despite his thin figure you could tell he was still strong and had muscles.

The young man stepped forward and said in a deep, rough voice, "If it matters so much I have Komodo Dragon, Bat, human and chemical replacement DNA. They called me a Varanus komodoensis (Komodo Dragon) hybrid, but you may call me Long. It is Chinese for Dragon."

His voice and aura gave off the same a presence Max had. It made you want to listen to him, because he seemed like he knew the answer. But at the same time it seemed different. We were all startled by his voice. Sam was the first to recover from his voice.

"We'll worry about his name later. Right now we should get out of here. I doubt there aren't secret camera's and security guards. Let's go to are meeting point and wait for the others before we are caught-"

The floor rumbled beneath them and lights flickered off and on.

"You're too late." A voice echoed around the room. A siren went off and a growl came from the darkness. Sam, Abby and Luna nodded in agreement and pulled the new mutants.

"Run," they commanded. They all ran out the door as fast as they could. Laughter echoed through the caged room and a girl's voice rang in the hallway following them.

"You'll never escape me. I'll always find you."


Jenna's POV:

Fog rose and the figures swam underneath us. Bubbles were rising and they kept disappearing from sight. Finally, Max decided to do something before they attacked us from nowhere. She raised both her arms in the air and then in one solid movement pushed them down. The fog disappeared leaving us surrounded by clear water.

We stood back to back as the creatures swam around us. The first appearance was from a girl. She exploded out of the water her brown hair flying behind her. The girl landed crouched at our feet. She immediately jumped up into a fighting stance and stared us down hard. Her dark blue eyes were cold and calculating. Her eyes didn't betray her in anyway and gave us no information of what she was thinking.

Next a boy rode in onto the platform on a wave. He jumped off of it and landed on the opposite side of her. His grayish blue bangs dangled loosely in his face. His face was angled, jagged and he had a long sharp nose. Like the girl, he had the same fierce blue eyes. Created by: Eichlera.

The final two figures, but emerged very differently. One violently jumped out of the water. His eyes were blue as well, but tinted with red. This boy had real pale blond hair, which looked mutilated from the water. Created by: I lOvE gIrAfFeS .The other figure was a girl. For her the mist swirled around the platform and she calmly walked out of it. Unlike the others she didn't pose as much as a threat. Her hair was a dull blonde and her eyes looked bleached. She just stood there silently with a grim face.

The first to emerge was the one to speak for them.

"Who are you and why did you free us from our cages?" The brunette snarled.

"Stop talking, lets attack-" The boy with reddish eyes yelled, but got cut off by the leader.

"Shadow, shut up and let me do the talking. Don't mess this up like the last time." The girls eyes didn't waver a second from us. Her voice was full of command and strength. The boy tried to protest, but the second girl replied. Her voice was melodic and serene.

"Listen to Iris. She knows what to do and we're to follow her without a word, that's the privilege you lost." Her voice seemed to calm everyone's nerves in the room. She looked at Iris to continue.

"Thank you M, now answer our questions." The girl looked at Max expectantly. Max response startled the girl.

"I'm Max, this is Maya and Jenna. We've come to free you from this hell hole."

"What if we don't need saving?" She challenged.

"That's ridiculous. You wouldn't be here if you didn't need… help. And if that doesn't change your mind, we're going to crash the computers. If you don't come with us, they're going to blame you. It's your choice." The girl thought more a moment.

"I will do what is best for us. This… alliance is not permanent. You will get us out of here, but not control our decisions." She said each word slowly as if she were thinking about its impact later on.

"Agreed, we will not stop you from leaving us, but we hope you don't leave immediately." The girl nodded and both boys started to step forward to argue with her. She raised her hand in a sign to stop them. They halted, but grumbled angrily. When she was sure they were done she turned to me.

"You are one of us?" Iris asked. She took a step forward and gently took my hand. The she whispered, "I trust your group, because of you. Do not disappoint me." Her grip loosened and in the palm of my hand was a blue glowing symbol of a wave.

"It is the symbol of the great ocean. As long as you know your origin, you can gain strength from that knowledge." The girl with blonde hair stated. "I'm Misty and those to knuckle heads over there are Ike and Shadow."

Max and the girl, Iris walked left through the door and headed down to the floor. We followed them, but there was an awkward silence. When headed out of the room with the tank and continued down white tiled hallway. It had black dots that created a line along the wall. At the end of the hallway there was a door that was labeled,

Control Room

"Finally," I said reading the sign. The door had no lock and no door knob, only a scanner. We scanned the ID on the scanner and yet again it came as,

Access Denied

"I'm so sick of these scanners," Maya said exasperated.

I reached out and tried to shock the scanner into opening for us. Instead of opening the scanner collected my electricity and redirected my shock back to me.

"Shit," I mumbled bringing my hand away; the shock was on high voltage. I can absorb it the electricity, but I still feel it running through my body.

"I agree." Max says. "I guess we'll have to use prehistoric methods. " She took about ten steps back. She ran forward at the door and when she was right in front of it she jumped up and swung out her leg in a sidekick. As her foot hit the door, the hinges broke off and it caved in sending her into the control room. Max flipped in the air and landed in a crouch.

"Nice," Ike shook his head in approval, he was impressed.

We all entered the room with caution. There were glowing screens covering every single wall leaving no gaps. At their bases were keyboards and chairs for those who worked there. In the center of the room seemed to be a generator.

The generator was glowing and made a small humming noise.

"Everyone fan out and look for anything that you think could be useful." Max commanded. She grabbed me by the arm and pulled me up to the generator. "This is our target. This is what we came for and this is where you can contribute you powers Jenna. Understand that smashing the computers isn't a perfect plan way to destroy their systems. They have to have a backup somewhere on this computer, so what I want you to do is destroy it."

"I don't know how." I answered.

"It's simple," Maya stated as she walked around the room. "Your electrical touch will short the computers out entirely. Anything inside of it will be fried and no longer a use to the white coats." I gulped nervously.

"This is a lot of pressure. Thanks for putting the weight of our world on my shoulders." I approached the humming generator. I though, better get it over now.

I put my hand to the warm metal. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I felt my heart beat speed up and a tingling sensation flow through my body. The electricity flowed down through my finger tips and into the generator. I could feel my energy rushing out of my body into the computer and I couldn't stop it. The smell of burning wires entered my nose and I opened my eyes.


Max POV:

Once Jenna had placed her hand on the generator the room was filled with light.

We watched as the electricity shot through her body into the generator. All the computers seemed to glow at full power and the light overhead flickered on. The sound of whirling gears, buzzing lights and the pumping of the generator filled the room.

The last voltage of energy shot through Jenna's arm into the generator, which cause it to collapse. Smoke poured out of it and it began to crack right down the middle. It split entirely in half and imploded. The computer screens turned black and they cracked. The light above dropped from the ceiling hanging only by a few wires and sparks went flying.

I dropped to the ground to keep from getting hit in the head.

When most of the action was done I cautiously stood up. The air was filled with debris and all I could see was Jenna, who stood blinking in the middle of the wreckage.

"M…M…Max I feel a little light headed…" Her eye's rolled into the back of her head and she sunk to the ground. I quickly went over to Jenna and picked her up.

"Good job. I owe you for doing this," I murmured into her ear even though she couldn't hear me. I shifted her so I was carrying her piggy back style. She was still breathing, but her face was very pale and drained of energy.

"Report," I shouted. My voice echoed throughout the room.

"Here," I heard someone say on my right. I walked over and saw Maya; her leg was stuck under a big plank of wood that had fallen from the ceiling.

"Hold on a second." I said. I raised my foot and slammed it down on the plank snapping it in half. I handed out my hand and Maya grabbed it. She winced as she stood up, but when she saw my concern she said,

"It's nothing. I probably just twisted my ankle." Maya gave me a glare as if to drop the subject.

"Let's find the others." With Maya limping and Jenna on my back I lead them though the ruble. When they got to the door they saw the silhouettes of the others. The others looked fine except for a few scrapes and bruises.

"Is this what you do every day?" Ike asked. "Cause I like it. Its better then what we do every day." Misty rolled her eyes as if he acted like this a lot.

"Do you hear that?" Maya whispered as we began back tracking to the sewers. Some thing was laughing. "Everyone quiet down for a second." We all stopped walking.

"You're too late." A voice boomed loudly through the hallways. The black dots that had been along the wall were now glowing red. A mechanical voice said, "Intruders. Activate drill 14."

"Hurry up, take what you found and let's go," I commanded. We rushed down the hallways and made way to the entrance room. Laughter echoed everywhere and a girl's voice said sweetly,

"You'll never escape me. I'll always find you."

-15 minutes-

When we got closer to the entrance room the first thing we heard was yelling. I rushed in still carrying Jenna. Sam, Abby and Luna were having an argument with three other kids. One girl with dark silky hair was saying,

"We need to leave. Screw this. The floor was shaking and someone wants to kill us. We need to leave." The girl impatiently threw her hands into the air. Sam replied calmly, but you could tell she was grinding her teeth.

"We are waiting for them-" the girl tried to speak again. "They are trying to help you too. You could thank them by giving them ten more minutes-"

"We're here." I interrupted.

"What happened to Jenna?" Abby barked.

"She used her electrical abilities to destroy the generator, but it drained most of her energy."

"Why would you-" She was cut off by the sound of thundering feet.

"We'll talk about this later. Right now let's not fight and try to get out of here. Here take Jenna." I handed Jenna to Abby and began pushing her up the stairs. I motioned for the others to head up behind them. We were halfway up the stairs when I heard a man's voice.

"All of the systems have crashed and won't start up again. Its sabotage and we have no videos of who did it."

An authoritative voice replied,

"Make sure you capture them. If you fail I'll make your death personal. I'll make sure you and all of you creations are burned to death."

"Yes, mam," squeaked the man. "You heard her, capture them." I created a wall of fire that would hold them off for a while and then ran up the stairs.

We were back in the sewers.

"We gave up are cages for this? This is the world outside of here?" Misty asked. She veered to the right.

"No, the world isn't like this. Right now, we're underground. We just have to travel a little longer. Also, we're going this way." I pointed in the opposite direction. "Left heads towards the Hudson River and we can escape out of the sewers. Right is a dead end."

We ran through the sewers until we saw the light a head. The pipe we were running through lead out of a cliff. The sewage was flowing out into the sea.

"What do we do?" Ike asked.

"This is where you come in handy." I thrusted my hands in front of my body and raised them above my head. As I twirled my hands above my head the water below followed its movement. The water rose and became a solid platform. Maya copied my movements.

I stepped on with Maya, but the others looked uncertain. I could hear the sound of people behind them.

"Come on quickly before the catch up with us." Sam, Abby with Jenna, and Luna were the first to step on. "If you don't trust us then you are risking you freedom. Here's your chance."

Ike was the first of them to step on the platform. He joined Maya and me in channeling the water. The others were hesitant, but as soon as they heard,

"THERE THEY ARE!" They quickly came aboard.

Ike, Maya and I all propelled our arms behind us, which sent the platform riding over the water away from the pipe.

The exit of the sewers was soon behind us and we were in the middle of Lower New York Bay. I directed our platform towards an inhabited beach. By now it was late in the afternoon.

When we reached the beach all of the new kids squinted in the sunlight.

"Is it always this bright out?" Iris complained.

"I love it! It's so sunny and warm." She fell down in the sand and began to create a sand angel.

"We have to get out of here." Abby barked. "They'll have sent eraser, flyboys and god knows what else they have after us."

"I agree." Max said standing up. "But we aren't going to leave New York just yet."

"And why not? Only an idiot would stay here." Abby asked.

"Because, that's what they expect us to do. We'll go into town and they'll lose are scent. We should rest and go under the radar again. If you don't like that reason, do it for Jenna." Abby looked down at Jenna who was still sleeping in the sand and was a pale as ever.

"Fine," she muttered.

-One hour later-

We decided to go to stay in a hotel that's located somewhere in Lower Manhattan. We booked four rooms. They were small, but it was warm, dry and at least comfortable, so no one complained. The three boys Ike, Shadow and Long were going to share a room, while Misty, Iris, Sam and Maya would share another. Luna and I would share with Aria and that left Romie, Abby and Jenna together.

I allowed the others to get clothes to wear from the stores gift shop. Once we had all taken showers I called everyone into the biggest room.

"We're safe for now. I just want to go over a couple of things before we go to sleep. What did you find while we were in the control room?"

Maya was the first to answer.

"When we were in the control room I found these." She held out syringe needles. A glowing green liquid filled them. "They were contained in a box that was sent from China. I grabbed the note that was there, but it got lost in the debris."

"What I found also came from China. There were letters addressed to the director School 1 to the director of school 5," Iris handed me the letters. "It's weird though. The owners address is just H.M. China."

"China," I murmured. "What's so important about China?" I could only make one connection between China and the School. China was the origin of that scientist I had met about three years ago, Mr. Chu. I you don't remember him he kidnapped my mother Dr. Valencia Martinez. He was trying to get to me through people I cared about.

The thought of my mother made me remember that last time I had actually seen her. It was right before I had turned 15 and just after Dylan had joined… us. It was when I was still naïve and inexperienced with the brutal facts of life.

While I was thinking I must have scowled or something along that line, because everyone had left the room except for Sam.

"You're thinking about them again?" Sam guessed. She leaned against the wall staring at me.

"How'd you guess?" I replied looking at the floor.

"Because I know you Max. Once we got past our trust issues you allowed me to see the other side of you. You're strong, wise and an amazing person, but everyone needs a shoulder. Things like this I can just tell."

"It's just-" I cut my self-off to think and I held the sides of my head. "I'm so angry at them, but I don't know how to vent the anger... It's been there for two years and I don't know what to do. We just escaped, but I'm risking all of you lives and freedom to do my job. I don't want to fail you, but I don't want to be alone… I'm not sure if I could handle another blow. I'm fine physically, but… it hurts, so much."

"I've experienced the same feeling before. Not as deeply as you ache, but I know the feeling. When I found out my parents purposely sold me I felt like something was eating away at me slowly. But you just have to overcome it by facing the problem. I'm not saying to go find the flock, but reason with yourself. Think about the positive things that have happened. For me it's that I met you, you're the first person I feel like I can fully trust with anything."

I looked at Sam with unsteady eyes and tried to smile.

"Thank you."

"Just remember though. I don't want a cheerful and peppy Max from now on. That would just be weird." I laughed, which I guess was the major point of what she said.

"Thanks."

"That's what I'm here for."


? POV:

-Outside the door-

I crouched outside the door listening to their conversation. Believe it or not, I felt real sympathy for Max. We've gone through the exact same things. We've been betrayed by our families and left alone in the world. Unlike her, no one will ever know my secret.

No one would know of the history I have with our pursuers…


Alright so I guess I'll start this with a question. Does anyone know who the last POV was? If you can guess who it is just by what I said I will be amazed.

So in this chapter I introduced seven new characters. Here they are again:

1. Romie-Created by: Something Generic

2. Ike- Created by: Eichlera

3. Shadow- Created by: I lOvE gIrAfFeS

4. Misty- lilmissspike and I

5. Aria- Me

6. Long-Me

7. Iris-Me

I would like to thank everyone who submitted a character. Also, do not be discoraged if you character isn't in this character. The people I contacted through fanfiction will have their character in the story. If I didn't contact you I'm sorry, but you character may have a chance to come in if an oppertunity opens up.

The other thing is I would like to clear up some things that came to my attention while re-reading my story.

1. Has to do with the character Aria. Yes, she may seem cruel from the way I described her, but I don't think any of you know what it would be like in her situation. I'm trying to take realistic about people's fears and betrayal was hers. The way the characters have been treated in the School has been horrible. I repeat horrible and I showed that by the rotting corpse. It's amazing that even some of them are even the slightest bit friendly.

2. At the end of the story Max had a mental breakdown. This is really important to include. It shows that she is still human and not invincible. She is strong willed and a unbelievable leader, but everyone needs help. The scene showed her being vulnerable, which I found need to happen at least once in the mist of the story. Also, it showed her feelings for the flock. She is angry, sad and hurt in so many ways. She's lost and unsure. That's were Sam comes in. This is their relationship. They are so close its like they are sisters and this is a really important bond.

3. Lastly I want you to know I gave a lot of foreshadowing. I suggest you reread it if you could catch any hints, because they will be important for the future.

Thank you for staying with me even though I have been busy lately. Your spirt and reviews keep me writing.

I would like to get at least 20 reviews.

-The Jade Empress