To princesstillydoo- umm… I don't know if there's a store called Rhapsody in the UK… I'm Australian… Rhapsody is actually a name (unusual I know!!!)

To Nathaniel 773- I haven't read any stories by Myrah so I didn't know that she has wrote about aura's before… also by the amount of people that have told me that it is a new and excellent idea I'm guessing that not many have read about it in her stories… also talking about auras is a subject so it's not really like I'm copying her… if I had stolen a character that would be a different story but is everybody who writes a story about Fang turning invisible or Max being pregnant or Iggy and Nudge getting together COPYING? Writing about aura's isn't something that any one writer has MADE UP in their stories… aura's are involved in lots of different novels all around the world so are both Myrah and I copying THEM? And this is beside the fact but isn't FanFiction based around copying? Or did someone who is a FanFiction writer come up with Maximum Ride?

Just something to think about…

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'Max, this is going to be new and strange to you; it will be hard- expect it to be hard- don't think that you're going to be able to snap your fingers and she will be whole again. I'm asking a lot of you here- to heal such an enormous wound without any practise on smaller, less life threatening wounds- but I think that you will be able to do it.'

I gulped, and managed to stutter, 'I'll try my best.'

'Healing is a lot like meditating- it requires calm, dedication and peace of mind. I want you to concentrate on the wound- recognise what has been damaged and how it needs to be fixed. You must concentrate HARD; block all other noise from your mind. We heal by using the patient's life force together with parts of our own to cleanse and seal the damage.'

'What do you mean by life force?'

'Our life force is the centre of ourselves, it is a ball of light, usually mirroring the main colour of your aura, that shows up stronger or lighter depending on the state of the person in question. You must never mix a life force and an aura, the aura is a glow around the outside of your body where as the life force is a ball inside you.'

'One more question; how will I SEE this life force?'

'That is part of healing; my ability to see auras is actually one with my ability to heal, those with the ability to heal will be able to see life forces and auras as long as they concentrate on the person. To understand them- I shall have to teach you.'

'Ummm….ok'

'Now Max, today I'm not going to need much of your healing powers; I don't have the time, or more rightly PHOENIX doesn't have the time, for me to teach you. For now I only need you to concentrate on the wound, remember to block all noise from your mind. I will complete the work needed to tie our three life forces together. It won't require much, although it looks grave, Phoenix's wound isn't actually that bad, but her condition is deteriorating quickly. Shall we begin?'

I focused on Phoenix's injury, blocking out the flock's breathing, the chirping of Central Parks many birds, the noises of the Park's many visitors, who were on the other side of our screen of trees. It was surprisingly easy for me, as unbeknown to any of the others (especially Fang) I had been practicing Meditation for just under a year now.

Suddenly the world burst into colour, like I've never seen before, so bright, so overwhelming that my surprise forced me to let go of my calm state.

'I know it's new Max, I told you that it would be new, and I know it's distracting but I need you to stay calm.' I heard Sapphire's quite voice.

I sunk back into my calm state of mind, trying hard to take no notice of all the colours sprouting from everybody's person.

I felt a slight tugging and looked down to see a tendril of red glow, running from my body and entwining with a vivid blue before lacing itself with a web of bright orange.

I saw the three colours mixing as one and knitting themselves through Phoenix's injury, pulling it whole.

After a few moments I felt a hand on my shoulder and I pulled out of my state. I looked up to see the worried face of Sapphire.

'Do you feel faint?' she enquired.

'A little,' I moaned in reply.

Sapphire told me that this was normal after my first time of assisting with a healing and that I should lie down, I gladly obeyed.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

I woke to find my head lying on something warm and soft, I dug myself further into it and turned, to get more comfortable. This meant that I was facing down my face touching the something that was warm and soft, and suddenly it wasn't very soft anymore.

'Eww, that is so gross!' I heard Gazzy whinge, followed by numerous agreements.

I lifted myself to find a very embarrassed Fang and a group of very grossed out flock members, along with two very amused siblings.

I registered the following in order;

Phoenix was awake and moving

I had been lying on ahem, ummm, Fang's, ummm, manlyhood.

After the original shock wore off, all seven of us gathered around Phoenix, who due to exhaustion had returned to her grassy area.

'Sapphire,' Angel whined, 'I thought you said that you were going to read our auras.'

'Well how about we get Max to do that.'

'But I can't understand them?'

'You read the colours to me and I'll explain them, it will give you good practise.'

So I sank into that calm state concentrating on Angel.

'I see a lot of pale blue, marred with streaks of dark red. I see splotches of a very pale pink and bubbles of aqua. Then there's… well this is weird… they're kinda like circles but they're filled with a mix of colours, that always flashes and changes.'

'Very good Max,' Sapphire praised, 'the pale blue shows that Angel is a calm and caring person but the fact that there is so much of that particular shade of red in it shows that she has been scarred for life and has lost all innocence. It also shows that she has taken the life of another and is subject to anger. Don't worry though, most experiments will contain this shade of red, all of you do. The pale pink indicates that there are certain people that Angel really cares about; in this case I'd suggest that those people are the flock. The aqua reveals that Angel has a talent associated with water, the shape of this colour shows that this talent is the ability to breathe underwater. Finally there are the circles of rainbow; these show that Angel is a mindreader. The circular shape indicates the mind and the ever changing colours are the ever changing thoughts of all people. This is a rare and very special talent to behold.'

Next I concentrated on Nudge;

'Nudge's aura is a wash of sunshine yellow, streaked as Angel is with red. She also contains the same type of rainbow circles as Angel but hers take shape as triangles and are a bit blurry, like they can't be seen properly. She also has little squiggly lines of purple.'

'The yellow shows that Nudge is a very bright and vibrant person. She is of a happy nature and doesn't get angry very often. You already know what the red means. The reason that Nudge has the rainbow shades like Angel is because she too can sense other people, but not in the same way. Nudge's talent takes the shape of triangles which shows that she senses leftover vibration, the reason that they are blurry is because this talent is limited and isn't open to as many possibilities as Angel's.'

Turning to Nudge, Sapphire smiled and said, 'just as special though.' Nudge returned her smile and Sapphire continued;

'The squiggly lines of purple show Nudge's other talent of being bilingual.'

Well naturally this went down like a ton of freaking bricks.

'What do you mean Nudge's other talent?' Iggy laughed, 'she isn't bilingual, whatever that is.'

The others, including Nudge joined in with the laughter, neither Fang nor I did though. Fang obviously for his own no-emotion rules and I because I doubted that Sapphire would have got it wrong.

'Avete Capito?' Sapphire said (ah… can I say WHAT THE HECK!)

'Yes of course I understood you why wouldn't I?'

'Parce que je parlais en italien'

'Impossible I don't understand Italian!'

'Así que acaba de entender mi francés demasiado'

'This is just too weird'

Annoyed I butted in, 'does anyone mind sharing what's going on here?'

Sapphire replied, 'First I asked Nudge if she could understand me, I was talking in Italian, I then spoke in French, telling her that my last phrase had been Italian, finally in Spanish I explained that she had just understood my French. And from the answer she just gave, Nudge understood my Spanish too- she's bilingual.'

'Wow,' Gazzy exclaimed, 'test her in some other languages!'

'I can't, I only know those three'

I put myself forward admitting to knowing a little German from when we had gone to Germany a couple of years back.

'Yeh right, that'd be the day, when Max speaks another language,' Iggy scoffed.

'Iggy ist ein Idiot'

'Ah excuse me?' Iggy, Gazzy, Fang and Angel looked dumbfounded, Sapphire just smirked and Nudge proceeded to explain;

'Max just said that you're an idiot, Iggy.'

Iggy took a flying leap at me but Sapphire stuck her arm out knocking him to the ground.

'How about we get back to reading everyone's aura's, it's nearly night. Go ahead Max.'

'Ok- Gazzy is mostly a bright green, again with the red streaks. I can't make out anything else.'

Gazzy looked at me disappointed and embarrassed that I was unable to read his aura. But Sapphire just laughed at him.

'Don't worry Gaz, a difficult aura is something to be proud of, it shows that you can conceal your secrets well, however the main reason that your aura is difficult to read is that you are in the process of developing a very significant talent. Maybe more than one.'

Gazzy was ecstatic; forget over the moon, he was way further into space than that.

Iggy wasn't fooled though, 'you didn't explain what the green meant.'

'Now this is something that you shouldn't be exactly proud of,' Sapphire scolded. 'This shade of green is the mark of a trouble maker, the brighter the green the more troublesome and cheeky that the person is and let's just says that this is the brightest green I have ever seen.'

Naturally Gazzy was unperturbed by this, in fact he was quite the opposite. Gaz seemed especially happy that his own shade of green far exceeded anything that Sapphire had seen before (which must also mean Iggy, who I knew would suffer relentless taunting about this later on).

Next up was Iggy;

'Iggy is also green, but not as bright as Gazzy, the usual red is also there. The rest of his aura is made up of various shaded flecks of white, grey and black.'

'Again, the green equals troublesome and cheeky, the red we already know. The other flecks of colour show that Iggy has extreme concentration; he could easily find a needle in a haystack. As you probably already know, this is good for designing bombs and picking locks. It also shows that he has extremely heightened senses, which I'm guessing has been and will continue to be of great use to you.'

Iggy seemed relatively happy with that and so I moved on to Fang.

'Don't you even dare!' He warned in a low and deadly whisper, I was quite taken aback.

'Excuse me?'

'I'm not having you reveal all my innermost feelings and secrets to everyone,' and with that Fang stalked out of the cover of our trees and into the air.

'I can still read them without you knowing!' I yelled after him.

'I wouldn't try,' came Sapphire's low whisper, 'it would tear you apart and Fang is quite a strong person he has many mental blocks in place. His aura could easily be read wrongly, in fact it may be impossible to read at all.'

I grumbled, but gave up my conquest, 'come on then we had better follow him.'

We flew after Fang for about an hour, well away from the city, I knew we were heading towards our next destination but I hoped that we would be stopping to rest soon.

Sure enough Fang dived down to a deserted clearing and began to set up camp.

That night, fang and I, slept on opposite sides of the camp.

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