I'm pretty sure this is the longest I've ever gone without posting, and I'm really sorry! There were some things I had to work out involving a certain group of aliens before I could continue this story, but I have it worked out now so we're all good. I also started a new story very shortly before I posted chapter 20 about Sonic and Co. going to the Pokemon world and was kind of obsessed with it for a while there, but I get like that with all new stories. I'll try to balance it out, I promise!

Disclaimer: The usual. These dudes/dudettes are not mineandIwishtheywerecuzI'dberichandfamousand…I'm rambling.

Chapter 21

Waiting, Watching, Window Washing

Michael's POV

I watched the freak as I had ever since we had first arrived with the Cullens the night before; discreetly and from a distance. It was easy to fade into the background and keep out of anyone's thoughts, as it always had been for me. It was the same when Max, Isabelle, and I lived in Roswell, too. Unless I did something wrong, I went unnoticed. But I wasn't going to do anything wrong now. I was being careful, as were Max and Isabelle.

The dog sat on the porch in his human form, watching Maximum try to teach the bird boy how to properly work his wings while I, too, watched them silently, waiting. We all were.

"Was this their plan?" I heard Isabelle ask from my right. She was focused on the female Max and her boyfriend Fang.

"I don't know. I don't think so," her brother said. "Plans change sometimes."

"We don't even know what their plan was in the first place," Isabelle pointed out. "We just had to find them. We've done that."

"But we haven't reported in," I said. "They don't know we found them. Not unless they've been watching us."

"That would explain how the cats found the kids." Another good point from Isabelle.

I thought about this, not worrying about Edward. He hadn't been able to read our thoughts before, and he wasn't able to now. "Hmm…"

"So what should we do now?" Max asked.

"Now," I said, looking back at him from the concealment of the trees, "we wait."

Jasper's POV

I looked out my window again, glancing at the three aliens that stood in the shadows of the trees facing the house. I could tell they were trying to be discreet, but that effort goes wasted when visiting nine vampires with extraordinary vision. Even when Esme, Rosalie, Renesmee, and the bird-kids are out exploring the wondrous land of Forks, someone is still bound to notice you. That someone was me.

Not that it was hard to notice them. Who couldn't? They were aliens, and they were vampires. Edward couldn't hear their thoughts, Alice had never been able to see them in her visions, and now I…

"Jasper?"

I turned. Carlisle was standing in the doorway. "Hi." I turned back to the window and looked out, but the aliens were gone. I sighed, openly showing my uneasiness.

Carlisle joined me at the window. "I've noticed," he said simply.

"What?" I asked, already knowing what he was talking about.

"You," he replied. "Ever since Max, Isabelle, and Michael showed up, you've distanced yourself from them. Is something wrong?"

"Yes," I said.

"What are you picking up from them?"

I looked at him. "That's the problem. When I'm around them, I feel…nothing."

He raised his eyebrows at me. "Nothing?"

"Nothing," I confirmed.

"Hm. Would it be because of their background?"

I shook my head. "No. I've picked up emotions from them before they were turned. Now there's nothing there. It's like they completely stopped feeling anything; love, hatred, sadness, anger, remorse… It's all blank. It's like—"

Carlisle cut me off with a finger on his lips. I knew what he meant. This wasn't the place to talk about it. Not now. With our sensitive hearing, it was possible the aliens were listening in. Them, and just about everyone else except for the winged kids.

"Let's go hunting," Carlisle said. I nodded.

A few minutes later, we were fifty miles away and out of earshot of anyone. We hadn't told anyone that we were leaving, so we were sure we hadn't been followed. Now we could talk.

"Tell me everything," Carlisle said.

I did. "I noticed when we arrived to help Maximum, when Michael seemed angry at us interrupting his meal. I thought it was odd that I couldn't feel his anger. I started paying attention to them, trying to find out why I couldn't sense it. Then I noticed that I couldn't feel any of their emotions. When Max healed Fang, he looked like he felt compassion, but there was nothing there. It's…kind of scary."

Carlisle walked with me, his eyes on the ground and his thoughts obviously on the aliens. "Do you suspect foul play?" he finally asked.

I looked at him, unsure of what to say. I decided to go with the honest truth. "I don't know."

He sighed, troubled with these thought. I was too. Alice couldn't see them, Edward couldn't hear them, and I couldn't feel them. If they were up to something, we would have no way of knowing until it was too late.

"What should we do?" I asked.

Carlisle looked directly at me. "For now," he said, "we wait."

Maximum's POV

I chuckled as Fang fell out of the air and landed hard on his tail bone again. At least he could move his wings together now. He stopped barrel rolling ten minutes into it and now he could keep himself in the air for a minute at a time, but he kept forgetting to keep flapping.

Fang sat on the ground where he'd landed and sulked. It was so weird seeing him act this way. The Fang I knew would never sulk. Then again, the Fang I knew knew he was Fang, too. The new Fang didn't know what the original Fang was like. He didn't remember Fang's feelings or experiences. This Fang was a whole new Fang that Fang would have disapproved of. I wondered if this Fang was the Fang that Fang would be if he wasn't really Fang…

"Would you think about something other than Fang?" Edward asked. "Please?"

I rolled my eyes. "Would you get out of my head?"

"I can't, and it's thoughts like that that make me wish I could."

"Here's a thought for you," I said and got a mental image of the Uber-Director that had tried to auction us off to the highest bidder in Miami a couple years ago; the one that has his organs in clear boxes on a wheelchair.

Edward grimaced at the picture and I laughed, but an annoying voice in my head had to ruin the fun. "Focus, Max," it said. "You don't have time for this. You must help Fang."

"Lighten up, Voice," I replied. "We don't have to hurry up with anything. We took out most of Itex in Venice."

"But you have new enemies," it pointed out.

"We also have new friends."

It was silent for a moment, then said, "Perhaps, but that is still debatable. You shouldn't trust anyone, Maximum Ride. You can not afford more betrayal."

"Then why can I trust you?"

It stopped talking, just like it always does when I ask a question that I deserve to know the answer to.

I glanced at Edward and knew from his expression that he had heard my conversation with Voice. He would probably want to talk to me about it later. Then I turned to Fang, who was still sulking.

"Get up," I said. "We have to get you flying."

"I can't do it," he said.

I rolled my eyes. "The Fang before you could do it," I told him.

"The Fang before me had seventeen years of experience!" he suddenly exploded.He stood and marched over to me. "Even a real bird takes longer than fifteen minutes to learn how to fly! How am I supposed to learn anything with you only telling me what to do?"

"You asked me to teach you," I said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, well you're a really bad teacher," he grumbled, turning his back on me.

"You're a really bad student," I countered. "You're not even trying."

"Maybe if you were a little more encouraging, I'd get it faster."

I sighed agitatedly. Fang was really starting to get on my nerves. But he had given me an idea. "Iggy!" I called towards the house. He was out in a flash, walking through the door and down the steps with perfect precision. He was already getting used to the grounds, and (believe it or not) we'd only been there a day.

"What's up, Max?" Iggy asked when he reached us.

I glanced at Fang and replied, "Operation Sparrow."

Iggy and I each grabbed one of Fang's arms and spread our wings. Fang looked between us nervously. "Um, Max? Operation Sparrow…W—what does that mean?"

I just smiled and flapped straight down, launching myself into the air. Iggy did the same, and Fang screamed, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?" as his feet left the ground and we climbed further and further into the sky. Ten, twenty, fifty feet! The people on the ground were like pebbles on a sidewalk.

"Do you actually know how birds learn how to fly?" I asked Fang, who was staring disorientedly at the ground.

"Put me down!" he ordered shakily.

"Exactly," I said, and Iggy and I dropped him. "Their parents shove them out of the nest!" I hollered as he plummeted, screaming.

Now, before you think that I'm a terrible person for dropping him, let me just say that…okay, I am a terrible person for dropping him. But how else was he supposed to learn? He already knew how to flap; he just had to put it to use. Besides, I was fast enough to catch him if he couldn't figure it out. And Iggy was right here. So were Jacob, Edward, Emmett and Alice. If something went wrong, any one of us could be there in time to catch him.

"Flap, Fang!" I yelled with a grin. Then I frowned. He wasn't flapping. Sighing, I pointed myself downwards and took off to get Fang before he hurt himself again.

But before I reached him, I was relieved to see a familiar black mass spread out above his back and he abruptly ceased his descent. Instead, I was happy to see he began soaring evenly, allowing the air under his wings to carry him.

"What do you think of that, Voice?" I asked smugly. "See? It's possible to have fun and get the important stuff done, too."

"Perhaps. But this changes nothing. You still have much to do, and very little time to do so," it replied.

"You always say that."

"This time is different. The future depends on it."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. I'm the protector of the world and mankind always depends on me."

"It is not only mankind now."

That threw me a little off-guard. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Like I said; it's different this time."

The words echoed through my head even after the Voice ceased conversation. I looked around and caught Edward looking at me with that look again. I don't think he was yet used to the idea of me having a Voice in my head, and I think he worried about me because of it. I sometimes worried about me, too.

"Max!" I heard my name and turned to see Fang looking at me over his shoulder with a goofy grin on his face. "I'm doing it, Max! I'm really doing it! I'm flying!"

"Congratulations!" I said over-enthusiastically, then grumbled to myself, "It's not like you ever knew how to before or anything."

I glanced at Edward again and noticed that he also had a goofy grin, while Alice's face was blank and she looked really spaced. When she snapped out of it, she, too, produced a smile before she took off into the house too fast for most human eyes to detect. Edward took off after her immediately, and almost just as quickly came back out with a very high-tech digital camera and focused it up. I saw the red record light come on and barely had time to wonder what he was doing when I heard Fang again.

"Uh…Max?" he said.

I turned to look at him, and noticed that he hadn't changed directions. He was still soaring perfectly straight and picking up speed, except now his balance seemed waver—more out of nervousness than anything else.

"How do I tur—," he was cut off as he slammed face-first into the newly-installed back window/wall.

I had to try really hard to keep from cracking up as Fang's figure was pressed up against the glass wall even closer as he continued to flap, shouting "I don't know how to back up!"

"Then stop flapping and let yourself fall!" I said.

He did, and what followed was too hilarious to contain.

Fang stopped flapping, and from there, began to slide slowly down the glass wall, his hands and face squeaking against the glass. But that wasn't even the best part. I finally realized what Alice and Edward were doing.

Beyond the now Fang-streaked glass, I saw the small form of Alice standing on the second floor, also with a video camera, taping Fang as he slid down the wall. Edward did the same, but from the outside. Past my own laughter, I could here Jacob's and Edwards roars. Emmett said something about a Windex commercial with a raven, but I didn't know what he was talking about. If it had anything to do with TV, I'm a little behind in that field.

When Fang finally reached the ground, he curled up with his arms around his knees and sulked again. I landed lightly beside him. "Don't worry Fang," I said, trying to stop laughing. "You'll get it."

"No I won't." He sounded like some bratty five year old.

"Hey," I said and knelt beside him with my hand on his shoulder. "It's in you somewhere. You're part bird, remember? Look at how well you did just now. Sure, it wasn't the greatest landing, but your soaring was almost as graceful as when you were you."

He sniffled and looked up at me. "Really?"

I nodded and smiled. He smiled back and I got goose-bumps. I had almost forgotten what Fang's smile looked like, how nice it really was. He'd stopped smiling all together after Angel died, and even before that a smile was a rarity. I began to wonder…was it really over for us?

But then I glanced at Jacob, who smiled as well, and I knew that it was. This Fang wasn't the same Fang that I loved. Even the Fang before this one wasn't the Fang I loved. The Fang I loved had been dead for a long time, obviously longer than I even knew, and I could never have him back. I had to move on…I HAD moved on. I had Jacob now, and for the first time in months, I was happy. Well, almost happy…

"What's wrong?" Fang's voice pulled me back to reality. I hadn't even realized I'd zoned out or stopped smiling.

I smiled again, but this time it was forced and I think Fang knew it. "Nothing," I lied. He frowned, looking unsure. "Really," I tried to convince him.

He noticed that my glance reverted to Jacob and back to him, and instinctively he did the same. When he turned back to me, he seemed troubled. "Max?" he said.

"Yeah?"

He shifted. "Do…Did I love you?"

Ouch. That question pulled at some rusty heart strings that I had tried to repair a long time ago. It was a question I had asked myself a million times since the night before. Did he love me? Did he ever love me? He had responded to that question last night, but I didn't want that to be the answer. I knew it was truth, though.

"No, Fang," I replied, trying to smile and keep the water from building up in my eyes. "You never loved me."

"Did you ever love me?"

I hesitated. "…No," I finally said, denying what my heart screamed. Yes, I loved you! I loved you forever! But you broke my heart Fang! Broke it! And then you took the pieces and trampled them into the ground! I can't ever be whole now that I've lost Angel and now you! Never! Not even with Jacob…

I smiled again when I noticed Fang still looked troubled. "Max?" he said again.

"Yeah?"

He sighed shakily. "What am…What was I like? What happened to me…to us? Why can't I remember you or Iggy or Nudge or Gazzy or even this Angel that you told me about? Why can't I even remember my own name without constantly being reminded?"

I glanced around and noticed that Edward, Emmett, and Jacob had all left; probably to give us some privacy, even if they could hear us from a mile away.

Fang continued, tears welling up in his eyes. "Why can't I remember flying? You talk so much about it, but I can't remember. I have to try so hard just to be able to flap! Why can't I remember how I got the scars on my stomach? Why do I need to go to Venice? It's too much for me, Max! I can't take this! I don't know how I'm supposed to act, what to say or do. I don't know anything! I feel so helpless and stupid, and I need to depend on you for everything! I can't do it, Max! I just CAN'T!"

He was hollering now, but he was also sobbing. He looked away from my eyes and shoved his face into his knees. I looked on, not knowing what to say. Finally, I said the only thing I knew to be true.

"Fang," I said gently. He looked at me, tears streaming down his cheeks. "Trust me," I continued, "you don't want to know the answers. You don't want to remember our past. You're better off forgetting that any of this ever happened. You're better off not knowing what they did to us, the tortures they put us through, and for what? So they could play God and toy with life itself. You don't want to know, and I don't want you to, either. As for the flock, just know that you can trust them with your life. We've all been through thick and thin together—mostly thick—and we all have each other's back. We're here for you now, Fang, because you need us. And we need you. We've already lost one. We won't lose you, too."

New tears fell down his face, and I felt them fall from my eyes, too.

"But Max—" he started.

"No Fang," I said. "I know you're confused and scared, but you're the luckiest of all of us, you know. You can start new. You have a clean slate. Build new memories instead of chasing down the old ones. Have new experiences, find new love." I practically chocked at the last three words, because as true as I knew them to be, I also knew that that love would never again include me.

He looked away again, his sobs subsiding but the tears still falling. "So what do I do now?" he asked quietly, looking up at the grey sky seemed to follow us everywhere we went.

"For now," I said, also looking at the sky, "we all wait…for whatever happens next."