Thank you to jullian brennan for your reviews! You make me smile! : )

Do not worry my faithful readers this is NOT the last chapter. And I will try to make this one more exciting since the last one was kind of a bust.

Anyway, so here's the chapter!

Angel POV

Okay. Talk to the flock (or how much of the flock was there). I can do that. I've done it a million times.

Talk to the Flock about Jone's… uh, situation. Haven't done a million times.

Okay, I better just get it over with. We were hanging out in a clearing we found not too far away from the School. We made a fire, with the help of the Gasman, and were roasting packaged meat on sticks over the flame, courtesy of Nudge.

I guess Gazzy noticed how oblivious I was, since my piece of turkey bacon just burned to a crisp while I was conversing with Max telepathically and trying to sort out what to do.

"Hey, what's up, Angel?" the Gasman asked.

I sighed as I carefully slid the bacon off my stick and through it to my right, not caring where it landed. "Hey, guys, listen up. I just got a message from Max." They instantly shut up ("they" meaning Nudge).

"What's going on?" the Gasman asked, a teensy bit of anxiety and anticipation in his voice. While he said that on the outside, he was thinking Is Max okay? Did anyone get hurt? What happened to Jone? What did Dylan do now?

I went into both of their minds, and replayed what Max showed me. I even included some of the emotions I picked up from Max when she showed me it. When I finally finished, we were all silent. Even Nudge. Inside her head and out.

Gazzy whistled. "Did not see that one coming! How could we miss something like that when it was right there in front of us? As clear as day!"

"It isn't really clear when Jone didn't even know herself, Gazzy." I said, snapping a bit at him. He cringed. For some reason, I felt like he was directing that last statement to me. If she did know, then I should've seen, or heard, it and warned everyone. But she didn't know. Therefore neither did I.

"So, if Jone is from the School, and they can effect her decisions, how can we possibly trust her?" Nudge asked, surprising me by holding back the millions of things she desperately wanted to blurt out.

"That's exactly what Max asked me to talk to you guys about. They don't know what to do either. Max was afraid of how we would react. She knows we really like Jone, and we kind of want her to stick around. But how can we do that when she has the School on her side, whether she likes it or not?" I considered.

We were silent after that, consumed in our own thoughts. Gazzy was debating whether Dylan was right or not, that Jone couldn't- shouldn't be trusted. Nudge was trying to think of some way that we can disenable the School from Jone's brain so that she could stay with us without anyone being in danger.

Me? I didn't know what to think. I liked Jone. I had taught her to play poker. She made time to play and talk to me when everyone else was too busy. And she didn't think I was creepy, like Max and the others did. Even the Gasman, my own flesh, blood, and feathers thought I was kind of scary sometimes. He would never admit it, but I could see it in his mind.

Jone thought differently. She didn't think it was creepy for a seven year old to control minds, or to want to be leader. I didn't really want to be leader anymore, mostly because of how my last attempt at leader went, but also because of what the flock thought of me when I brought it up. Jone thought it was cute. She thought of it as a little kid striving for bigger accomplishments. Much, much bigger accomplishments. I liked that about her. It was my favorite part.

But she has the School inside her head! Yeah, I guess Max does too, in a way, with her Voice. But Max doesn't have to listen to or obey the Voice, and she rarely ever does. Jone has to obey, even if she doesn't know she is.

How can we even stand to have someone with that around us for more than five minutes? I know for a fact that the rest of the flock wanted Jone to stay. She was Gazzy and Iggy's pyro partner. She sometimes helped Iggy cook (not that he needed help. She just sped up the process). She doesn't complain or bother to stop Nudge when she starts to babble, she really listens and adds her own thoughts to the endless conversation. Total loved sitting in her lap and being wheeled around the house. And Jone didn't mind him either. Dylan was a lost cause from the beginning. I think Jone could sense that. As for Max and Fang, well, she just respected them. Especially Max. Every time I peer into her mind when she's talking to Max, the only thing in her mind is complete respect and gratefulness. Max was the one who saved her, after all.

There was something in Jone that each one of us (with the exception of Dylan) cared for. Had the School planned it that way? Did they purposefully make her that way so that she could befriend us more easily? I hated not knowing.

It was only about half a minute until Nudge spoke up.

"Maybe Jone just wont come home with us." She said, sadness filling her voice. "Maybe she won't even want to."

"No, Nudge. Of coarse she'll want to." I said, trying to cheer her up a little. I suddenly wished I was paying enough attention to hear what had brought on that thought.

"But what if she doesn't? What if she suddenly wants to go explore the world or go find some family she can live with now that she has working legs and wings. I'm sure she realizes the complication of her staying with us. Maybe she'll feel like she's endangering the flock and runs off for our sake."

Nudge was kind of right. Jone was endangering the flock, and she was just the type of person who would run off for our sake. It certainly would less complicate things. But we would miss her, that I was certain.

The saying "If you love something, let it go" popped into my head just then. We all loved Jone like a sister. So maybe letting her go would be the right thing to do. But, then again, this was all just a theory. We didn't really know if Jone wanted to leave at all.

I realized that the only way for us to decide on what to do, is if we found out what Jone wanted to do.

Our lives are so complicated.

A.N. Hola readers! I was going to stop here, but then I realized that I promised you guys an exciting chapter! And this was not all that exciting so far. Plus, ending it here would be just cruel. So, on with the chapter!

Max POV

I sat, half asleep, with my head leaning into Fang's shoulder. I didn't know if he was as worried about Jone as I was. His time with her wasn't very different from the times he spent with my mom. But one time, the day we were teaching her self-defense-in-a-wheelchair moves, he actually smiled at her. It was brief, but you can't really expect much else from Fang. But it showed me that he didn't hate her. In fact, I think Fang sort of likes Jone (of coarse, not in the way that I should be jealous about… not that I get jealous).

If he was worried, he didn't really show it. Iggy, however, did. Every time a noise was made, or a moan was heard, or if Jeb was saying something, Iggy's head would snap up and his sightless eyes would fill with anxiety and/or fear. I didn't blame him. Even if he didn't say it, I knew he really like Jone. But I didn't think he liked her in that way. Iggy loved her, that much was obvious, but it seemed more like a long lost sister.

Dylan, well, you know how Dylan feels about Jone by now (if you don't then I seriously consider seeing a doctor about suffering a horrible case of stupidity!)

We waited… and waited… and waited… and I was seconds from exploding.

Did Dylan blurt out something that will soon get him kicked? No (but it was soon expected). Did Jone come out smiling with two working legs? Not yet. Did Jeb come out and tell us something went wrong? No. Actually, the one thing I was trying so hard to avoid happened.

I fell asleep. Deep asleep. I was so tired, Gazzy could've came in and blasted the whole room into the ground and I wouldn't have noticed.

Lucky for me, I didn't have to worry about it too much because as fast as I fell asleep, I woke up. There wasn't any clock on the School walls, but I could tell it was hours later.

I looked to my right. Dylan was fast asleep, drool hanging from the corner of his mouth. I looked to my left, where Iggy was comfortably slouched in his chair asleep, but also easily able to get into a fighting stance incase anything happens. Just like the way he was trained. I felt a stirring, and realized I was still lying against Fang's shoulder. I sat up and looked at him. His eyes were weary, and there were bags underneath them. He was awake while everyone else slept.

"Hey," he whispered, noticing I finally woke up.

"Hey," I whispered back, "has anything happened yet?"

"Jeb poked his head out about ten minutes ago saying it won't take too much longer."

"And how long have I been out?"

"'Bout five and a half hours."

I sighed inwardly. "You should've woken me up so you could've gotten some sleep."

"Don't worry about me. It's no use now. Jeb should be finishing up."

"Yeah, but how are you going to stay awake on the fly home? Do you expect Iggy to carry you?" Fang pursed his lips, telling me that he hadn't thought of that, and signaling that I was right. At the same time, Iggy woke up at the mention of his name.

"Wha- I miss?" He said/yawned.

"Shouldn't be too much longer now." Fang assured him.

I wondered if I should wake Dylan up, then decided against it. He'll need all the rest he can get if I decide to whoop his ass later.

About twenty minutes later, Jeb came out with a smug look on his face.

I waited for him to say something. When he didn't, I blurted, "Well?"

"Jone was a success. Once I inserted the avian DNA her bird kid healing kicked in immediately. Usually it takes days and sometimes weeks for someone to recover from this kind of surgery. But her wings are beautiful, her new legs should be working perfectly fine, and her body seems to be accepting the changes. She'll be a little sore for a while, but other than that she's perfect."

Dylan woke up, making a noise that sounded like a snort. "What's goin' on?"

"Welcome back, Dylan." Iggy said with false enthusiasm.

"Oh, ha-ha. I'm glaring, Iggy." Dylan said with annoyance.

"Stop it, you two." I snapped, "Jeb? Can we see her?"

As if on cue, I heard Jone get up and start to exit her room.

And when she stepped out into the hallway, there was a collective gasp, even from Fang.

Ta Da! Kind of a cliffy? Well I hope ending it here was better than ending it before. Prepare for the next chapter very soon! (I hope. School started and I'm up till midnight every night doing homework.)