AN: Here is to the link of the song being played: .com/watch?v=99GyFmnH59s&feature=related

By the way, SO SORRY about the lack of updating here. I wasn't very inspired...and you probably don't care, so here is the next chapter anyway-

Iggy: She also doesn't own me

Angel: or me

Max: or me

Me: OKAY THEY GET IT!

flock: ...

Anya: What about me?

Me: I think you are an exception, honey

Anya: Umm is that a good thing or a bad-

Fang: Oh shut up and get on with the story already!

Chapter 25- Piano

Iggy POV

A few days later

I came to a sudden halt, hearing the familiar sounds of a piano several rooms over. I drifted off toward the source of the noise. Gentle broken chords swirled around the room, their beauty intensified by a damper pedal. I didn't know much about the piano, but I could definitely tell when someone was talented at it. Who is that playing? I must know...

So, being beyond curious at this point, I moved closer. The wonderful piece came to an end, and whoever was in the room spun away and left in a haste. I carefully felt the piano seat. It was warm...did not imagine that, I know someone was here. Should learn a song on the piano. Maybe it would impress Ella.

"Iggy, what are you doing here?" I recognized Nudge's voice from behind me.

"I was wondering who was playing the piano," I said. There was a lingering scent of familiar perfume.

"Come on, we have to finish our game. Round seventeen, only seven hundred seconds to hide this time. Max is it and-"

"Alright, I'm coming!" I snapped. "Just give me a minute." Nudge sighed and stomped out of the room. Trying to make me feel guilty, I suppose. I ran my fingers over the keys, wondering why, despite my enhanced senses, I couldn't figure out the mystery person at the piano.

Max POV

I was getting bored with hide and seek, so I decided to go find Iggy and tell him the game was off. Room after room after room...my mom's house was huge. Well, at least the new safe house in Arizona, that is. This one was practically a mansion. Some halls were wide enough for us to spread our wings, while some were so narrow they were a tight squeeze even for Angel to walk down. The design of this place was awesome. We moved here last night after another Eraser attack so we'd be a little safer. Almost everyone had healed from the surprise invasion...Fang was hurt badly, though, especially his wings. He wouldn't be able to fly for another day or so.

I wandered through still more rooms, and nearly ran into Ella, who appeared to look nervous and scared about something.

"Ells, what's wrong?" I said, forgetting about Iggy for the moment.

"N-nothing," she stuttered, looking everywhere but at me. I glanced down at the floor and saw some sheet music had fallen. I bent down to pick it up, and that was when I noticed the title. Moonlight. The notes scurrying across the page made no sense to me, but I just gathered up the remaining pages anyway and handed them to my half sister.

"Thank you." She ran off to another area of the house, leaving behind a faint scent of her perfume. I heard the plunking of piano keys nearby, almost as if they were trying to imitate something.

Ella POV

That was a close one...I couldn't have anyone know about my ability yet; it would be dangerous if the wrong people found out. Great, now I was turning into Max. See, yesterday while I was at school and the others obviously have given up on education, I discovered my learning curve had exploded to 300 percent my previous capability. What was once hard was now beyond easy for me. I had decided to test a piano piece I had never seen before to see how well I could play it. Of course, the second I finished, Iggy was standing there, listening in on me. Until I figured out how to use my ability for something useful, it had to remain a secret. So, I panicked and ran off.

Once I was sure nobody knew what I was up to, I slunk off toward the piano room again, but was shocked to see Iggy there, trying to imitate the piece I had just played.

"Why can't I get this right?" Iggy shouted at nothing. I meekly stepped forward.

"I can help," I said softly.

Dr. Martinez POV

I smiled at the fact the piano in this new house was being used already. Wait a minute. Ella didn't know how to play the piano. She hasn't had a single lesson. Yet, as I walked in there, she was definitely playing as if she'd known how to her whole life. What could this possibly mean? Iggy was there, attentively listening to her. I decided to leave them be. Besides, for all I knew, Ella could have suddenly turned into some kind of a genius after all those headache attacks she had gotten over the past few days.

Dr. Martinez, you are right a voice sounded in my head. Angel. Of course she'd know, she happened to be a mind reader. How awfully creepy of the eight year old to choose this moment to invade my private thoughts.(AN: Yes she is eight. Remember Chapter 12?)

What do you mean, Angel?

Ella has gained a major learning curve and can now learn things almost instantly, which is why she can play the piano and also happens to have super good grades at the moment.

Well, that was a large piece of information that Ella could have told me in person, but I suppose I wouldn't have believed her at first. Then again, she was no longer human, so what did I know about normal anymore? I wasn't human either. A difficult concept to get around, but at dinnertime it was easier to see with everyone always being so hungry. Including me. This was...hard to deal with at work.

Since today was Saturday, we could all enjoy our wings together. I still couldn't get over the fact I could fly. I went outside and found Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge playing a game of freeze tag together, sometimes jumping over each other with wings outstretched or shoving someone to the ground and running off in an effort not to get the same treatment in return.

"Mom! When did Ella learn to play the piano?" I turned to see Max standing there. My daughter...It really was strange how I came to know Max. I remember it more clearly than any other day in my life before things had changed. Ella had come home, talking wildly about this girl that had suddenly dropped in and saved her. I listened to her, wondering where the girl had come from. Hours passed. I didn't think anything else of it.

Then Ella comes running up to me, a little wet from the rain, saying the girl from earlier needed help. So, being the kind person I was, I brought the girl-Max I later learned, into the bathroom to treat her. Then there was the matter of her having wings. Somehow, it explained everything.

"Earth to Mom!" Max exclaimed, snapping me out of my reverie.

"I have no idea, honestly," I told her. She sighed and shook her head. Max was a lot more like me than she thought...she just had to look more closely. I went to go answer a call from one of my collagues inside, wondering if I was meant to have wings or if it was all a mistake on my part.

AN: Pointless, I know...it was more of a filler chapter. I hope you liked it anyway! Sorry for the long wait!