Aj: We're into Part Three of the story, meaning there isn't much left. For those of you who hadn't realized this yet, last chapter=REAL.

Anika: Please don't do the annoying evil laugh. The readers can't hear you, you know.

Part 3: Facing the End—Together.

Previously:

"Your chip was never taken out. It was a decoy. You were the reason we always knew where you are, what you were doing, and how to break each and every one of you."

...

"I have to say I was wrong about you Maximum. I didn't know you were a natural-born killer."

...

"I'm sorry, Fang. I'll find a way to get you back, I promise."

...

Fang wanted to save Max for last; he wanted to prolong every second of her suffering.

...

To save Fang, I would have to die or I would have to kill him.

...

You're already dead inside. You're already broken."

At one point in time, everything is born. The flock wasn't the flock in the very beginning, back when they were in the school. They were just a group of experiments with two percent of similar DNA to one another. They had seen each other in the halls, they had heard one another screaming, they were even trapped in the same room together. Fang and Max were the only ones who had truly interacted before, and that was only because they refused to kill each other for the white coat's sick games. The flock hadn't been born until the day Jeb had broken them out of the school to, in their minds, some fairytale of a place.

Back then; they didn't know it wouldn't last forever.

September 24, 2001. The day of the escape was already feeling the effects of the coming fall, as crisp wind bit at Jeb Batchelder's skin. His hands were buried in the pockets of his bleached lab coat to hide their fidgeting. It was an attempt to keep his traitorous plans covert, but the sweat glistening on his forehead ruined the effect. He had gone through the plan in his head, twice, but even his caution couldn't match the school's ability to be unpredictable.

As he walked along the narrow pathway that winded down a steep hill leading to The School, he could only hope that today was scheduled for the children who were genetically engineered with the rabbit DNA. Jeb normally was cued into everything that was happening at the lab, but Robert Grey had constantly undermined him the past few months. Not only had Grey taken control of his operation, Jeb didn't trust him. Grey had an extensive reputation that made most of the white coats look like veterinarians. Not to mention the fact that Grey seemed entirely too fascinated with the six bird kids.

The goal of the aging scientist was to free Max, and if all went well, Fang would come with them. He would take the two hybrids to the old villa that Ari and his wife, Margaret used to spend the summer in. Ari had called it the E-house since he had been able to talk. After picking up the children, he would collect Ari. Nothing, not even the team of rampaging erasers, would stop him from taking his son along with him.

The walk to the school was agonizingly slow because of the thoughts flittering through his educated brain. Once he reached the entrance after scanning his access card, he knew something was terribly wrong. At as steady of a pace that he could manage, Jeb hurried to the avian unit of the school without paying much attention to the wary looks the other scientist's gave him. They were all worthy of prestigious awards for their brilliance and many of them were Jeb's own friends, but he knew what he was doing was wrong. There had to be another way to study the mutants without physically and mentally destroying them only to create replacements.

The sterile smell was no longer comfortable to Jeb as the sense of paranoia chilled his insides. The sounds of screaming made by the ones who knew how to were drowned out by the blood rushing to the middle-aged scientist's head. There were only two hallways left to walk until he reached the room that the six Avian hybrids shared, but it seemed as if it were two million. A part of Jeb wanted to stop the plan now and continue on with his high paying job and promising career. He had things most men dreamed of; a family; a good paying job; and a luxurious home. Why was he risking it all for two kids?

Before he had the chance to turn back and play it safe, hoping he would survive when the newcomer Marian Janneson put the by-half plan into action, he had reached the thick metal door leading into holding room B-12. Scanning his access card, he entered the darkened room and didn't need to turn on the lights to know that the room's usual six occupants were all missing. Even though the four eldest had perfected calming their breathing enough to make it seem as if they weren't there, the two youngest were oblivious to the reasoning behind staying hidden. They were supposed to be here, all testing was scheduled for the following week. And all of the avians were never in testing at the same time. It had always been one at a time. Two at the most.

Somebody had known he was coming.

Jeb stormed out of the room without so much as a second glance, his lab coat whipping behind him. Jeb was seeing red and he wanted answers, he wanted them immediately. The closest white coat that was high up enough to be useful was Hans Gunther Hagen, who was currently in the process of creating a system of boxes made of Plexiglas that would stack together, each holding an organ preserved in liquid inside to sustain a human who had recently died. The idea wasn't terrible, but Gunther Hagen hadn't been taken seriously since he had talked about the companion for the Plexiglas man that he would name Gozen.

"Hans, do you know where the avian experiments are? I had wanted to have them run through the maze," Jeb lied suavely, making his gleam with a sadistic type of excitement. Jeb had never been an actor, but torturing children for a living had certainly made him an Oscar worthy liar. Gunther Hagen obviously bought the act, although Jeb detected suspicion in his voice as he answered, "You must have forgotten to clear it by Grey. He took them in for an experiment of his own."

"It was my department. I hadn't known I had to get clearance." Jeb inwardly scowled, but kept his tone smooth.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to borrow the oldest soon. I want to take some of her DNA to make a perfect other half for her. I haven't found the donor of the body I will clone yet, but it will definitely test her." Gunther Hagen informed, nearly glowing in anticipation. Jeb's stomach sunk at the thought, not trusting the elder scientist for one moment. It may have been the fact that Jeb had become emotionally attached, but the entire idea of making a perfect other half for a ten year old sickened him. Not only that, but it would distract her from her mission more than anything.

"I'll get back to you once I speak with Grey." Jeb responded, knowing that he would never get back to the German man. Gunther Hagen nodded and Jeb hurried to the sector Grey usually worked in, only slightly slower than running. Grey had taken his experiments without running it by Jeb or the committee. Something was horribly wrong about the entire situation. As the white walls went by in a blur, Jeb noticed there weren't any scientists lurking through the hallways bragging about how they electrocuted an experiment and so on. For some reason, Grey must've cleared this area out. This was a secret experiment, meaning that nothing good could come out of it.

A howl coming from room E-32 caused Jeb to go into a full run until he reached the metal door handle. Inside, Jeb was absolutely shocked. All six of the mutants were pitted against a hail of erasers twice—sometimes triple—their size. And they were not only winning, but they were working as a team. Somehow unconsciously, the hybrids had begun to follow Max who was leading their way into an injury free battle.

As one of the most successful erasers loomed over the infant form of experiment eleven, Max and Fang ganged up on it. Max was the only one out of the six who knew how to fly, so she took on the eraser from the air as Fang attempted to knock the four hundred hound block of muscle and fur off his feet. Eventually, experiment eleven had caught on and had begun to bite the toes and ankles of any eraser that came near her, her blonde curls bouncing. Maximum was barking out orders in some type of foreign language that the others seemed to understand perfectly and was leaving the erasers at a loss and at a disadvantage against the rag tag team of untrained mutants.

Jeb looked to where Grey was perched above the arena below him. To say that Grey was looking angry with the results of the experiment would be an utter lie. There was a smirk on Grey's face as he examined the six getting close to finished knocking out the erasers. Although, Grey's next move came as a surprise when he snapped his fingers and an eraser came after the dark-skinned Subject 9. Maximum noticed this and left the fighting of one particularly small eraser to Subject 8 and Fang, as Max had dubbed him, remembering to give the blind one coordinates of his attacker.

With a shriek, Subject 9 realized she was being attacked by an eraser who had a syringe in his hand. Jeb was about to step forward and end this, as he realized what the toxin was, but Max stepped in before he could. In a move of heroism he knew he would never have been able to teach her, she dived in front of the syringe, wincing as it connected with flesh and emptied the contents.

Subject 9 stood frozen, at a loss at what had just happened, but snapped out of it when Maximum had gently reminded her of the eraser. With their secret language, they communicated and synchronized their attacks until the last eraser was unconscious. It was then that Maximum was truly showing signs of the serum attacking her strong immune system until it killed her off completely. Her legs crumpled from beneath her, but Subject 9 and Subject 10 stepped in, attempting to hold her weight. Attempting being the key word. They collapsed, bringing her down with them on top of their lithe bodies.

"Grey!" Jeb boomed as he made his way up to the perch. Grey just smiled sardonically at the younger man, as if he had done nothing wrong.

"These are my experiments! I want the antidote for her now! I'm the one who decides whether they live or die and when."

Grey moved his eyes over to the table where a clear syringe was sitting, the antiseptic smell wafting from it still strong. Jeb swiped it from the onyx table and turned, ready to enact his plan until Grey's voice stopped him, "You're wrong, Batchelder. I'm the one who decides whether they live or die. You'll find out soon enough."

Jeb turned to face the bald man once more and replied venomously, "We'll see, Robert."

In a flash of fury from being challenged and an extra measure to make sure the escape went smoothly, Jeb sent a swift right hook towards Grey's jaw. A crack was heard as his head snapped backwards, but Jeb ran too quickly to check if he was unconscious or not. He had to get to the avians or all was lost. Besides the obvious change to his plan, he chose to change one more factor. They were stronger with the six of them combined, like a family, so who was Jeb to break them up. That, and the fact that by now they wouldn't agree to be split up even if it meant escape for some of them.

"Come with me." Jeb told the six. They nodded and Jeb took Angel in his arms while Nudge and Gazzy had followed him. Fang and Iggy had put Max's arms around their shoulders and they quickly followed the rest of them out. Fang, Iggy, and Max burst through the school's doors and found themselves on a helicopter launch pad. They climbed into the helicopter and then heard small footsteps.

"Wait for me daddy!" The three-year-old Ari pleaded, but his father didn't listen and Ari was left at the school while the seven left it behind, hopefully forever. Fang looked down at the pale form of Max and smiled for reasons that were unknown to Jeb. The ex-white coat injected a needle into her and Fang involuntarily flinched.

"This serum will be permanent so that if Grey injects her with the same formula she won't be infected again." Jeb explained.

A flash of guilt struck Jeb as he thought about the son that he had left behind, but it had to be done. Jeb was doing this for a higher purpose. Max was going to save the world, he was sure of it. Someday, Ari would understand.

As the fully recovered hybrids gazed in awe at the wonders of the E-House, Jeb walked in behind them. They seemed to trust him now that he had saved their lives, but if he brought up their mission too soon and bluntly, he could lose their trust and they could believe he was just another white coat who wanted to use them. It was true that he wanted to use them, but it was for a good cause which wasn't the same as what the school had been using them for.

"What's that?" Subject 9, or as she decided to name herself on the way there Nudge, cooed, pointing to the refrigerator.

"It's called a refrigerator. It keeps food good and fresh so that you can save them from perishing." Jeb explained, even though he could tell she wasn't even listening as she stared in amazement at the seemingly simple home.

"It looks kind of like an eraser." Fang remarked, talking for the first time to Jeb since he had rescued them. Fang was the one who seemed most paranoid. It would take Jeb longer to gain his trust.

"Now that you six are a team, you should work like one—" Jeb began carefully before he was interrupted by the unanimously named The Gasman interjecting, "But I don't wanna' be a team."

"Yeah, we should be more like a family!" Iggy—why he was named that Jeb would never know—agreed, his sightless blue eyes attempting unsuccessfully to follow whoever was talking.

"Well, since we're part bird we should have a name that sounds…birdy!" Nudge suggested, earning a gurgle of agreement from the toddler Max had named Angel once she had woken up. It had been the one name that made sense to Jeb, although he hadn't said it out loud. Somehow, he felt a if the toddler knew that however. Crazy as it may be.

"How about tweety? The white coats were playing that cartoon once before surgery." Iggy remarked sarcastically as he relished in the comfort of the pea green couch.

"No, what about Blue Angels!" Gazzy exclaimed, ignoring the strange looks he got from the other mutants. Jeb snickered at the fact that the six didn't know the Blue Angels actually existed.

"I heard that groups of birds were called flocks." Fang piped up, ignoring Jeb's presence completely.

"From this day on, we'll be the flock. We're a family now and forever." Max announced, earning cheers of agreement.

Five years later, the promise was shaky, but the family had held strong through even the toughest of obstacles. One thing that they had failed to realize back when they had first escaped the school was the fact of life. No matter how much you love and care about someone, no matter how clever you are, no matter how brave you are, you can't escape one fact. Not even the infamous flock. At one point in time, everything dies.

Anika: I don't really like the ending, or this chapter in particular, but I've been knownto have slight perfectionist tendencies.

Aj: Slight?

Anika: Shut up.

Questions:

What are questions you want to have answered before the story ends?

Are you worried about how Nevermore is going to turn out? Or do you trust James/His Ghost Writers.

See you guys next chapter!-Anika.