Chapter 12
Okay, I realize that I haven't updated in a looong time, but in my defense, I was in the most beautiful place on earth! Well, I spent one day in the most beautiful place on earth and a week in the places around the most beautiful place on earth, search up Lugu Lake in China. And then duty calls for me to be my mom's clone during her college reunion. So I spent two days being called my mom's name. And we don't even look that much alike. Just a little bit. I don't have my own identity among these people, I'm not myself, I'm not even her daughter, I'm her. So yes. There's my excuse. And I was swimming in the ocean and got bitten by a sea monster with rows and rows of sharp teeth. Kidding, there was a rope, but now I have three cuts on my leg. And then there's the cut on my leg from when I fell down while chasing some little kids around. And the ten million mosquito bites because my blood is so tasty.
And I haven't read Nevermore yet, mainly because I can't find it here. Anyone read it yet? If so, thoughts?
Max
I push the door open slowly, the wood moving like snakes beneath my fingers. A strange smoke leapt out from inside the room but was pulled back in by an unseen force. There was a piercing scream and then a silence that no one dared to break. Angel began to stir, her hands fisted tightly.
"Maximum Ride," came a beckoning whisper, "Maximum Ride, come to me."
I moved forward without thinking. "Max, come back," Fang called behind me. His voice sounds muffled and surreal. I tried to stop but I couldn't.
There were angels and humans alike crumpled on the floor, against the walls, and sprawled over each other. They looked like they were in pain, just like Angel does.
"Maximum Ride, finally," and then there was cackling laughter ringing out in the silence. A green light flashes, lighting the room in its eerie glow. Something looms over me. It was a huge black spider. I recoil unconsciously.
"Tell me, Maximum Ride, what's your heart's greatest desire?"
"I want nothing," I say.
"Nothing?" the spider asks, "That's what the little one said."
And then the room disappears. In its place are the Flock and the Royals. "You want them to be safe, don't you? Isn't that what you've fought for all along? You led Heaven's Army just so they would be safe, but you've put yourself in danger. I can offer your loved ones protection."
"They would be safe forever?" I ask.
"Forever."
Max, Max, don't do this. It's not worth it.
Voice? And then I hear my own voice. No, not my voice. Maya's.
"The Puppetmaster has power over everything in the universe but only if the victim let's him. He sees the desires in every soul and he uses them. He offers them their desires in exchange for servitude. But the victim always ends up losing what they were promised and is killed in the process. It's not a deal made. It's more like the victim is bent over getting what they want so they do everything Jeb or the Puppetmaster says."
He has power, but only if I let him. I won't let him. I won't!
"No!" I cry out, and the scene is ripped away, the room is solid again. The Flock is there including Maya, but they were chained on the wall.
"No!" I repeat myself, "I can protect them myself. I will not make a deal with you. Let go of Angel now!"
"Maximum Ride," a different voice says behind me. It sounds robotic, controlled, and monotone.
I turn to see Jeb, his gray eyes were blank. "Jeb, this is your monster."
"Maximum Ride, you must die," he says in that scary emotionless voice.
"Not again with me dying! I've had enough of people trying to kill me!" I snarl and flew at Jeb. And that's when I smell it too. I smell the same scent I caught on Angel. He's being controlled too.
I pin him to the ground. "What did you trade for?" I ask unable to keep the harshness out of my voice.
"I deserve to rule Hell!" He cries out suddenly, "I worked for it, I fought for it, I was the one that recruited all the angels, I literally created Hell from the ground up. It's mine, not Lucifer's."
"Yeah? Well how are you going to get control of Hell?" I ask sardonically, knowing that every word I said was cruel. "They follow Lucifer because they're scared of him, they're not afraid of you. You're just his lackey. Even if you kill me, even if you kill Lucifer, they'll never follow you! You made this deal, you want control, but you're being controlled and you don't even know it! Looks like your little pet's got a mind of its own, doesn't it?"
I turn back to the Puppetmaster, "Show me what you really are!"
It hisses and smiles cruelly, shifting shape into a snake, a vulture, a lion, but it grew smaller and smaller until it stopped changing. The Puppetmaster was a leech. Literally.
I pull out a down feather and felt it change into a silver sword in my hands. The Puppetmaster as a leech moved slowly. I poised to attack.
I struck down.
And then I fainted.
Angel
"Max, are you okay?" I ask. Her thoughts were quiet. No dreams, no memories. It was almost as if she was dead. But her heart was still beating and her eyelids fluttered once in a while. The Flock filled me in on the whole thing while I was being possessed. Maybe I got a little too greedy.
She laid there still and pale, her head pillowed on soft grass. Fang called for a healer. And a demon named Maya was there.
Max fainted after she killed the Puppetmaster. I saw her, draped over her sword, the blade pierced the leech. The angels and humans in there were groggy but woke eventually and it took hours for us to get them all out. Especially when we had to find a portal out of there. You know, I still find it strange that after all the angels the Puppetmaster and Jeb had trapped in there, Lucifer never batted an eyelash. Wouldn't be kind of obvious after all the angels being trapped in one room? Their scent to demons would be overwhelming. But the stench of the Puppetmaster was overwhelming too.
"Wait," an angel with long black hair and dark eyes ran up to us, "I know you. You're the Flock. Maximum Ride and Fang left Heaven. You guys fought in the War. But- but why are there two Maximum Rides?"
"I'm Maya," Maya says with a bit of annoyance. In her head, she thought Why does everyone think I'm Maximum Ride?, "Who are you?"
"Oh, right, of course, I'm Ella, from District 3."
"What did you trade for?" I ask her.
She looks down sheepishly, "I asked for freedom."
"Freedom?" Iggy speaks up.
"I'm from District 3, and that's pretty high up. It's just under 2 and 1, the Watcher angels, the Avenging angels and the Archangels. I was kind of pampered. I really didn't have a job, and all I had to do is look good and sit there. It was boring. And then came the War and I saw Maximum Ride and you Earthborns fight and how Nicholas was banished from Heaven. I wanted excitement I guess. I didn't want to be stuck in that one place doing one thing and one thing only. I guess, I want to be like you."
She's like another Nudge, Gazzy thought.
Her voice is pretty, Iggy thinks. And I think he likes her.
Nudge lit up at the mention of District 3. "But isn't it great to be pampered? You get everything. We don't have time to have luxury. I wish I was in District 3, but I'm an Earthborn. Isn't District 3 pretty though? I wish I could see it. The last time we were in Heaven we didn't get to go to District 3. Can we switch places? Oh my gosh, what's it like there?"
"Nudge, stop, please. My ears hurt," Iggy covers his ears.
"You don't want to be like us," I tell her, "You don't want to be hunted down or captured everyday of your life. You don't want to worry about so many people all the time. It's not fun and games."
"I know!" she says, "But it's better than what I had. Please, I'm a healing angel, I can be useful. But in District 3, I wasn't needed, because District 3 is full of Grace Angels. They all treated me like a child, and I wasn't allowed to anything. All of them have a gift, singing, dancing, poetry, and whatever else, but I don't have a gift. There's millions of other healing angels in Heaven. They don't need me. Let me be like you."
"You're a healing angel?" Fang finally speaks, and I can literally see the gears in his head turning, "Can you help her?"
Ella nods her head eagerly, happy to be useful, "Yes!"
She went over to Max's side and placed her hands on Max's cold forehead. She shut her eyes in concentration. A scent like honey and freesia filled the air. After spending time in the Puppetmaster's den, the smell was like cool water in the hottest day. Color flooded Max's cheeks, her breathing deepened and her eyes slowly. And Max, being her suspicious self leapt away from Ella.
"Who are you?" she asks dangerously, already in a fighting stance.
"Relax, Max," Fang calmed her, "She's Ella, a healing angel from District 3 and she brought you back to consciousness."
"You're Maximum Ride," Ella says almost with reverence, "Can I join the Flock? I can make myself useful. Please."
Trust her, I send to Max.
Max's lip twitches as she looks to the Flock. They all nod, most eagerly was Iggy. She sighs, "Fine."
They all jump in the air and whoop loudly, with the exception of Fang who does whatever he does. A smirk?
"We'll be good friends, I know it!" Nudge hugs Ella.
"Don't scare her!" Iggy laughs.
And then Gazzy lets out his trademark.
"Oh jeez," Max pinches her nose, "What happened to not scaring the new girl?"
Ella looked as if she was going to pass out.
Gazzy looks sheepish, "Sorry."
Max turns to Maya, "I promised. But is this what you really want?"
Maya smiles, "Yes."
"Ella? Could you get us into Heaven?" Max asks.
"Of course!" Ella mutters something under her breath and a doorway appears, nothing like Max's portal.
"How did you do that?" Nudge asks.
"It's a spell. I'm from District 3 remember?"
Max mutters something about being unfair.
Max and Maya steps into the portal, "Wait here, I'll be back soon," Max tells us.
Maya
I've never been so nervous in my lifetime. What if they don't let me in?
So, I was thinking and thinking about the ending and I'm sorry but I really don't need the SYOC characters. I'm so sorry! Please forgive me! But I don't remember why I needed them in the first place. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysor ry. So there's your guest character, Ella. She's a healing angel.
And Grace Angels, if you haven't figured it out, they're like inspiration. They each have a gift, like Apollo's Muses. They go around inspiring people that they like, just like Lacie from Chapter 1. So there.
And this story's ending in a couple chapters, if you haven't noticed. I have one more chapter and then an epilogue. I don't feel like dragging this story out really long. The Puppetmaster's killed, Jeb is still unconscious, there's really nothing left.
Viva la Revolution,
Allace.
