((Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride, or any of the characters in this book. They all still belong to James Patterson, well, they still did when I last checked. Enjoy!

But I do own the plots, so PLEASE respect this story and the author and don't steal the plot(s).))

Chapter 25: The Biggest Mistake

"WOW! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Ha! I'm sorry!" She ran towards the flock. Max didn't pull away, she just laughed.

"Fang, you move, I'll kill you." Good enough excuse for me. So I stayed.

We sat down, leaning against an old log.

Max held my hand, and I played with lose strands of her hair.

"Do you think this could work?" Max asked shyly, avoiding my eyes.

"Maybe. I don't think…I'd be able to do this on my own anyway."

Max nodded. "Not with out you." She smiled to herself, resting.

"Oh, hows your leg!" I rolled my eyes, pulling a leave out of her hair.

"Don't Max. It's fine ok?" She frowned.

"So you really think this could work? Us?" I nodded at her question as I got up to head back to the camp.

I woke the next morning to find I was the only one not awake.

"Are you going to get up and join the rest of human race or a you going to lie there like the sloth you are?" Max was eating cereal out of the box, with her hands and no milk. How lady-like. Angel giggled.

"I'm beginning to lean towards the second one. Since apparently everyone else 'round there is a sloth as well."

Max hit me with her pack. "Why miss out?"

"Ok guys we leave today. I think it would be nice to go to DC. How 'bout it?" Max looked round at the flock, would nodded.

"Yeah ok. That would be cool."

I nodded. "Yeah." Max rolled her eyes at my one word answer. It was what time in the morning?

"It's 7" Angel said. I winced. Not as early as I hoped.

"Yeah, we'll go there. So then the Easers and the Whitecoats and Jeb won't find us!"

"Don't they anyway Nudge?" Iggy finished his Beenie Weenies and stretched.

"Jebs dead." Gazzy pushed his empty plate away from him. "Can I have some more." Just like that.

"What? How can you be sure?" Max eyed him, confused.

"Fang killed him. I heard a Whitecoat say it after they checked his pulse. They were serious."

5 pairs of startled eyes feel on me. Oh oh.

"I didn't know that. I wasn't meant to kill him." I tired keeping calm, inside I was confused as heck.

"You kill Jeb," Angel said again, frowning.

"Our father."

"But he betrayed us remember? His not our father." Nudge hugged Angel.

When she put it like that- Jeb being our father- that was too much to comprend.

"I'm sorry Angel. I didn't think-" Angel put her hand over my mouth, glaring at me. Was she really angry at me?

"No. I don't want to know. He wasn't worthy to be call our father anyway. He was Max's though. And Ari's. Remember?" I heard Max breath in with shock.

Oh jeez, I'd forgotten. Oh shit.

I'd killed Max's father.

I pulled her closer to me, hugging her.

I whispered in her ear. "I'm so sorry Max. I screwed up big time. I'm so sorry." Max shook

her head at me.

"When I was little and Jeb was talking care of us, I wanted him to be my father. Now that he is…or was…I'm not so sure I want to accept that. He hurt the flock, badly. You had every reason to do what you did, even if you didn't know about it. I'm not angry about it at all. He was a liar, a cheat, a two-faced, backstabbing, betraying, hypocritical, ba-"

"We got it Max," Iggy said, holding up two hands in surrender.

"So no, you shouldn't be sorry. I'm only sorry you didn't do it along time ago. He would have only ended up killing us anyway." Max, finished her speech, got up and started putting things back into the respective backpacks. The whole flock, but Max, was watching me. I sighed.

"AGH!"

Gazzy started to speak. "Fang-" I fell backwards, almost knocking myself out cold. What a shame that would've been.

No it wouldn't! You'd get hurt!" Oh well Angel. She sat there glaring at me. I got up and went to Max, who was busying herself with something.

"Max?" She didn't reply, she continued what she was doing.

"Max!" I raised my voice a little, but still she continued, ignoring me. I sighed.

"MAX!" I said, raising my voice heaps. The flock's eyes flickered up. I wasn't very often that I raised my voice.

Max turned, startled.

"What!"

"You're ignoring me!" I said softly, coming up to her to hold her.

"No, I was just thinking. Sorry, guess I was thinking too hard." She grinned at me.

"Are you ok?"

"Can you be more, you know, comprehensive?"

"Killing your father," I watched her reaction. She looked down, then sighed.

"Fang, he's not my father. I don't think of him as that, nether should you. Lighten up ok?" She rubbed my stomach then walked back to the flock. I sighed.

Was this going to ever get easy?

Great, I had hurt Max, made her choose between Ari and I, killed her father and but her mother in great danger. I had, like, destroyed the whole family.

Great.

"Fang, you didn't destroy anything. For God's sake! Stop saying and thinking that! Fang you didn't kill anyone I loved. That makes a difference. A big difference. Ok?" She pulled me into her and kiss me, but I couldn't find it in me to kiss her back. She sighed and pulled away.

Then I remembered what Jeb had said to me, just before I'd found my new skill.

"Uh, persistent isn't he? That'll be your downfall Fang."

"Maybe. But I'll be yours." Wow, who knew?

"Gazzy, put your shoes back on. We're leaving. Take your backs everybody." Max handed everyone our backs then unfurled her wings. She scanned the area one last time, then ran a few steps, jumping into the air. One by one we followed, unfurling our wings.

Once up, I felt better. Who wouldn't? I watched as our campsite became a tiny patch of green amongst the trees.

"Hey Fang, look!" Nudge pointed down and I saw our shadows following us.

"We should race them! Doesn't it look suspicious from down there? I mean birds don't wear sneakers, even the real big ones. I wonder what we look like from down there? Do you? Have you ever seen us from right down there when we were up high? I haven't. I wonder if Max has? Do you think-"

I sighed. "Nudge, please? I've got a headache." She frowned at me.

"Oh, ok. Do you want a tablet for it? I've got some in my backpack. I'll get them if you want."

I sighed. "No, it's fine." We flew in silence for the best part of an hour and a half before Angel started up. Angel, not Nudge.

"Max, what are we going to do once we get to DC? Have you got a plan? Fang's good at making plans quickly, but not long-term. Your good at making plans long-term, but not quickly. You two, like, make up for each other's weakness. Like Fang is strong when Max isn't. And Max uses her brain when Fang doesn't. See? That way the flock's, like, invincible!"

"Thank you Angel. We know, that's why we concentrate all the time, to pick up were the other left off. Are you guys hungry yet?"

"I-"

"No, we can go on a little longer," Iggy said, cutting into Nudge. Nudge frowned at Iggy.

"I'm frowning at you Ig."

"Good." Iggy laughed.

"Guys, we'll stop in another hour. That ok?" Max looked at me, smiling. I nodded in reply to her question.

On the hour, the Nudge alarm clock chimed. Like, she actually said "It's time to stop now Max!"

Max had just laughed, searching for somewhere to stop. I pointed down to the corner of a lake, witch was shaded and covered in.