SURPRIIIIISE! I am sooo sorry to those who have given up or nearly given up on this, but I am back and fully functioning. I have reevaluated life several bloody times before this point and I am ready to start wrapping up everything I've left behind, including this story, this will end soon, I am sorry to say because it is my favourite story I've ever written, why? because it was the first time I wrote something and I realized I could write it and no one had a say in what I wrote. No one, not my family, not my friends, could critique it and tell me it was garbage (because they couldn't read it (ha!)) and people liked it, you guys have no idea how good your reviews make me feel, and it was the first time I let all my emotions unfold, in the words of Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith, 'there's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein,' and that is what I did. I hope you enjoy.

Oh, and I no longer have a Beta, if anyone likes, I would be honoured to have you.

Oh, and Happy Reading :)

Chapter 26

(Sorrow's POV)

"So he just up and left?" Iggy's voice sounded shocked and surprised. I couldn't blame him.

Shadow took a deep breath; I could feel the anger coming off her in waves. "He has his reasons. He won't be gone forever. He'll be back," she said practically glaring at her husband.

"But to just leave like that…," Nudge whispered trailing off, "Now especially."

"You guys don't understand, he would have been in constant pain until he decided to leave," Shadow's anger was growing more and more over time. The flock had been at her throat before when she couldn't tell us where Fang went, now they'd cooled off and were just constantly asking questions.

"Guys, I hate to say it, but Shadow's right. This isn't the end, this is more the beginning. Fang's definitely not gone for forever and Max is going to need our help," I said standing, I looked over at my sister, "I need to see Max," I told Shadow.

She nodded, "Don't be surprised if she doesn't reacts strongly to you… for good or bad," she warned me.

I raised an eyebrow, "Why?" I asked sharply. I wasn't entirely happy with my sister.

She smiled slightly, "You do look almost identically similar to Fang."

I nodded in understanding and headed for the stairs. I walked up the stairs and I entered Max's room and saw her curled there on her bed. It hurt to see our fearless leader so broken, but I walked to the bed and sat down, waiting for her to notice me there.

She looked up, her cheeks shiny from her tears, "Oh Sorrow," she cried and hugged me tightly. I held her as she cried, rocking her slightly.

I gently shushed her as I rubbed her back, "Oh Max, it'll be okay, I promise. I know Fang," at the sound of his name she broke down again, "He won't be gone longer than necessary. He wouldn't go if it wasn't important, and you know it. It's all going to be okay," I assured her. She calmed down a little by my words, but it might be that I was slowly sucking all the negative emotions from her to make her feel better.

"Thank you Sorrow," She said hiccuping slightly. She sniffed and wiped away tears from her cheers. She nodded, "Okay, everything is going to be okay," she whispered as if it was the only thing keeping her sane.

I nodded and held her close to me, "You don't need to worry about him, you just take care of your little baby and when Fang gets back we can all beat him up," I said smilingly slightly and she laughed, wiping away tears. "Come on, let's get you something to eat," I said helping her up and leading her downstairs.

(Fang's POV)

I looked over the cold landscape around me. The whole world was covered in a thick white blanket. I had flown over the charred remains of my old home a few miles back and I was still flying north. I could see a huge valley ahead and I thought that perhaps it was over there. I was right.

I saw the huge Asian style temple, it was hanging right off the cliff and it had wooden bars plunging down into the cliff, holding a part of it up. I noticed that the door was facing out, facing towards me and the open drop and there was only a small pathway that one could easily slide off of. I cautiously landed on the path and noticed that it was incredibly slippery and was slightly slanted away from the building making it more likely that I'd fall. I grabbed the doorknob to keep myself from slipping and threw the door open and pulled myself inside.

It was completely dark inside, I looked around frowning slightly. I left the door open so I had a bit of light. Suddenly several yells sounded around me and 5 people seemed come out of the woodwork.

I immediately went into action, I was doing pretty well actually, but then they got a few well placed hits and I went down and the five pinned me to the floor.

I heard a childish laugh from one of them and there was a deep chuckle from someone farther down the hall. The lights suddenly came on and I looked around the place. It kept with the Asian theme as the outside. I pulled against those restraining me. They were dressed completely in black except I saw they had white wings pained onto the back of their shirts. Their faces were completely covered except their eyes, like ninjas.

The smallest one, who looked short enough to be a child of ten or younger got off me, "Master Sheppard, we caught the intruder!" a girl's voice called down the hall.

"Oh good," the deep voice came and a tall man with short brown hair. He smiled when he saw me, "Oh dear, Fang, shouldn't you know not to enter a man's home without knocking? Or through the back door for that matter," he said smirking.

I glared at the man, "You told me to come through that door jackass." This wasn't going too well. I was getting pretty pissed with this whole charade.

The person holding my left arm down punched me in the face as quick as lightening. "Show some respect, slowpoke," the boy snapped.

I got my right arm free and punched him back. "Don't interrupt, arrogant prick."

"Boys, stop it," 'Master' Sheppard scolded. "Daniel, release him. Gabe, Heather, Russell, Eve," He gave them a pointed look and the remaining four holding me down let me go.

One of them helped me up and then they ran off, leaving me with the mystery guy. "So... I take it you're the letter writer..." I muttered.

He smiled slightly. "No, not really, I was given them and told to give them to you. I was told you'd take a while, but I didn't realize that you'd take this long... I guess the letters weren't very convincing..." I remained silent, not really feeling like saying that I had lost the letter... "Well onto business, this is a training academy for... select... individuals, as you may have noticed, they're doing pretty well." I rolled my eyes, silently telling him to get to the point. "The program lasts usually about 7 months, and afterward, you'll be fully trained and ready for your... job and able to protect your family." I swallowed at the thought. 7 months? "Anyways, you Fang are last student... for now anyways, and we're going to teach you how to be... you know..."

"An angel?" I asked in a bored tone.

"Wouldn't call him an angel," muttered the boy's voice who'd hit me. He looked about 19, my age, and was out of his ninja garb, wearing a dark blue t-shirt and form fitting black jeans. His fluffy blond hair that hung in his eyes made me sorely want a pair of scissor. His hair blocked his shockingly vibrant blue eyes that seemed muted by his dark mood. "Master Sheppard, dinner and his room are ready."

"Thank you Daniel... who's room is he in?" the man asked as he walked forward.

"The empty one... I figured the prince of darkness would want his own room," Daniel said coldly.

What is this kid's deal! I thought, resisting the urge to get physically violent with him... even if he was right.

"Yes, well, I'm sure Fang, or Cole, which do you prefer?" with my shrug he continued. "Well I'm sure Fang would like that, but that's not how things work here." He said sternly to the boy. "If I recall correctly, there is a spare bed in your room. Say hello to your roommate." He said and walked through a door and left us standing there glaring at each other.

It's going to be a long 7 months, I thought bitterly.

(Sorrow's POV)

The wrench bounced off the wall and shot across the room. I let out an annoyed shout. "What could possibly be wrong with you!" I shouted at the car engine. "I've done everything!"

Emotion gave me some quick advice and I tried it out. The car purred to life, "Finally! Stupid hunk of junk," I glared at the car. It had been three months and I wasn't any sounder in mind about my older brother's absence than I was on the morning of his disappearance. My body was another story, a growth spurt had hit me like a brick and I had shot up like a bean sprout. I was happy to say that I didn't look awkwardly tall and still shorter than Iggy, and I had an almost graceful control of my gangly limbs. At least I apparently was gracefully... I still found time to trip over my own feet.

I sighed and sat down, I was finally finished but I didn't want to go back home. I knew what was waiting there: a hormonal, pregnant Max who currently couldn't stand the sight of me and a mood swinging Shadow and probably Angel and Gazzy and Nudge.

I sighed and went over to my math textbook resting on the counter. I had to drop out of school to help with the family. The others had tried to stop me but I wasn't going to let them all suffer. I took the courses online, so I guess I wasn't really dropping out, and took over Fang's job.

You know, you'd think he could send a letter or something to just make it known he's alive, I thought bitterly. Max is unbelievable, some days she loves having me around, I personally think it's because I look like Fang and then the next she can't stand the sight of me. I shook my head and headed home, it was all too ridiculous for me to handle anyways.

When I got there Shadow ran up to me and shoved me into the closet with her. "This... is weird," I whispered when the door closed and we were quiet for about a minute.

She put a finger to her lips, "Max is going to be back from her ultrasound soon..."

I frowned, "Okay... is the baby alright?" I whispered kind of confused.

"Oh yeah, they're perfectly healthy," she whispered with a small grimace.

We were silent for a long time after that, "Fuck," I finally said.

"Yes, she's going to be alternating between weeping and excitement and she will probably be unable to look at you on account that she'll get upset because she can't tell Fang," Shadow said frowning. "Just a fair warning," she added.

"Thanks," I hissed sarcastically. "How do you know?" I asked quietly.

"What?" she asked bewildered.

"How did you know it would be twins? ... It is twins right?" I asked desperately.

She nodded looking slightly confused by my odd question and then sighed, "I always knew, the higher-ups told me."

I sighed and banged my head against the wall, "Why don't you go tell Fang or something?"

Shadow grimaced. She knew this was a sore spot on the family. Only she could talk to Fang after all. "This is one of the only times I'm allowed to... I wanted to wait for Max first."

I shook my head. "May God have mercy on us all and please keep hormonal Max at bay."

(Fang's POV)

If there was one person I could kill right now and not get in trouble... it would be Daniel, I thought darkly as I glared at that bitter blonde. We were sparing and were annoyingly equal. No one really knew why, well okay so maybe the Master Sheppard guy knew why, but no one else knew why Daniel hated me so much. Not that I was much a fan of him.

Finally a bell rang and it was called a draw. We glared at each other and seemed to want to break each other's hands when we shook 'politely' at the end of the match.

"Prick," he hissed as he passed me.

"Asshole," I responded as I went to sit next to a few people on the opposite side of the fighting arena.

I sat down between to Eve and Gabe. Eve was the youngest student here. She was 11 and had fiery red hair and midnight blue eyes. She was a gleeful little girl, but an honest-to-God killer if you get on her bad side. That girl's version of a temper tantrum was to beat the living day lights out of you... and she was very good at it. She'd knocked the best of us on our asses. The only real problem with her fighting was that she wasn't very strong. She had to use agility, what strength she had, weapons and her wicked ability to dodge attacks to defeat her opponent so she wasn't terribly good at hand fighting like we were doing now.

Gabe was more silent and an observer, and bloody brilliant at figuring things out. The fourteen-year-old's small dark eyes caught everything and he was an amazing problem solver. He kept his black hair short and had a stiffness to his posture and walk that I hadn't witnessed from anyone else other than those who had gone to the school. It was like he was just waiting for someone to jump him. Even when he was so-called relaxed I could see the stiffness in him. He was an amazing things that required accuracy though. I'd never seen someone use a bow and arrow like him. He was fairly good at hand combat and using small knives too.

Across the arena Daniel sat between Heather and Russell. Heather was 16 while Russell was 17 and the two were completely opposite. Heather was average height for her age, with long rich brown hair that curled perfectly and she could command a situation almost as well as Max. She was stern and yet an almost motherly figure to the rest of us. Although, she had enough pride for the rest of us all together and she wasn't good at hand combat, choosing instead to use throwing daggers and different types of swords. Russell on the other hand was shot, blond and was the type to hang in the background and let other control the situation. He acted as a sort of brotherly type, giving light conversation and jokes when needed and an all around nice, calm person. I wouldn't go as far as to say he was shy or timid but he was definitely modest and humble. He was the resident medic and amazing at hand combat.

"Alright, everyone head back to your rooms." Master Sheppard commanded and we were sent off to our rooms.

Reaching it I quickly made my way to my side of the room. We had split it down the middle, my side and his side within the first day of being roomies and somehow in the argument he got the side with the door, and anytime he caught me on his side he got to hit me once and vice versa. Except Daniel was never caught on my side so every time I walked through the door I had to let him hit me if he caught me and I rarely got to hit him for anything.

I lay on my bed and watched him enter, I had finally had enough of this dance-around-the-subject we had going on. "Alright Daniel, cut the crap and spill it, why the hell do you dislike me so much?" Daniel remained quiet and I steadily stewed in my anger, finally I forgo the line and went across to his side. Clearly he hadn't expected me to do that so he was surprised when I pinned him to the wall. "Answer me, you psychopath, why the hell do you dislike me so much?"

He glared at me for a while and finally growled, "My sister," it was all he said.

What the hell? I asked myself and gave him a confused look, "Excuse me?" I asked, "What does your sister have to do with it?" feeling bewildered.

He looked awkward for the first time I'd ever seen and looked disgruntled, "She's dying... there's no cure for her sickness. You're going to take her from me, and there is nothing I can do." I had never seen someone look so pitiful in my life, but the second the words left his mouth Shadow and Sorrow appeared in front of my eyes. How many times had I fought 'til the ends of the earth for their safety? If I had been in Daniel's position I probably would have acted the same.

I stared at him for a moment and let go of him. I took a step back from him, "Where is she?" I asked calmly.

Daniel narrowed his eyes, "Why do you want to know?"

I glared at him, "Do you want her to be healed or not?" I growled. Daniel's jaw visibly clenched before he sniffed and turned to his desk, writing what looked like an address down. Taking the address I looked at Daniel, "Is there a way to send letters?"

He shook his head, "Not unless you've got permission."

"How do you get it?" I asked immediately, and he told me Master Sheppard gave it to you when your training was almost over and the only person who had it was Russell and even then he wasn't allowed to send our letters. I frowned and paced, thinking, "Alright, I need to write a letter; I'll find some way to get it to them, if not then I'll deliver it myself."

Daniel looked at me like I was insane, "Are you crazy? You're not supposed to leave the complex."

I turned to him and leveled him in a glare, "Daniel, birds follow no one's will but whoever made this damned earth, and by God if he exists, I follow no one's will but his and I saw I am going to save your sister because I know what it blood well feels like to almost lose someone you love so shut your trap and help me," I growled at him, careful to make sure no one heard but wanting to get the message across.