So, remember me? Yeah, i know i've been gone so long they're probably teaching about me in history class, but im sorry!

I went to the states for like half an age (omg i love twinkies . . .) then i had jet-lag then i had man-flu then i had homework . . .

You get the picture.

But you can all thank b4k4-r3dux for making me get my ass into gear and writing this! Three cheers! Yaaaaay . . . :D

Disclaimer : Me no own-y . . . :'(

Chapter 38.

I handed Bree to Iggy. I didn't want to accidentally throw her or something in my anger.

"Ella. Before I smash your head into a wall, I suggest you explain what the hell you are doing on this jet without Mom. Now." I tried to regulate my breathing, I was furious.

Ella looked nervous. Damn right she should be. "Well, I wanted to come with you, because I haven't seen Fang in so long, and I really wanted to help. And I know I wouldn't be able to sit still at home, knowing what you were doing, I mean, I won't be a nuisance, I can look after Bree and stuff, and I won't get in the way. I mean," She avoided my eyes. "I said this to Mom, and we argued, she was saying I'd be in the way, but I mean, I wouldn't though, would I Max?" She released the breath she'd been holding; she'd managed to cram all that into less than fifteen seconds. Have a merit.

I was breathing slowly, in, out, in, out. "Ella." I closed my eyes. "Do you realise what kind of position this puts me in? Now, apart from having to look after the Flock, I have to take care of you too. Yes, you could look after Bree, but then I'd be so busy worrying about my sister and my baby that I wouldn't be able to concentrate. Now I have double the responsibility. Before, I just had my family to worry about, now I have you too. I'm not saying you're not my family, but what if you get killed? What would Mom do then? I don't think you realise how dangerous this is, Ella."

I opened my eyes to see Ella standing in the aisle, her arms folded over her skinny chest, lower lip quivering slightly. The only noise was the humming or the engine and Bree's tiny baby sounds.

"Just go and sit down, Ella." I looked out of the window, listening to her make her way to the back of the plane silently, breathing raggedly. I knew I was being harsh on her but she needed to know the truth. Iggy was still playing with Bree, bouncing her on his knee as she squealed. My arms suddenly felt empty without her and I took her back. Iggy looked at me questionably.

I sighed. "Go sit next to Ella, she looks like she could to with some company." I looked out of the window as he stood up and left.

"Hey, baby. How ya doin'?" I tickled Bree's tummy as she lay in my lap, looking up at me with her dark brown eyes. "We're going to go get you daddy, hey? It's that cool! You'll get to see your daddy again . . ." I trailed off. Would she ever see Fang again?

"Dada." The whole plane seemed to freeze. I stared at my daughter, who was examining her foot with great interest, as if she hadn't just spoken her first word.

"Did she just say what I think she said?" I heard Phoenix say from the front of the plane. I could see him craning his head to try and see us, a confused expression on his face.

"I . . . I don't know." I looked down at Bree again. She was still holding onto her foot, holding it up in the air. "Did you say 'daddy'?"

She gave a tiny baby smile, before looking up at me again. "Dada." Her voice sounded out of place saying that, I was so used to her random little sounds, and the occasional cry.

"Like, ZOMG! That's her first word, right? That's so cool! I mean, it was 'dada', so that means daddy right? So she means Fang! That's just awesome! Like, even though he's not here, he was her first word! Haha, I bet your really jealous, max. I would be. I want all of my kids to say Mommy first. Not that I'm having any kids soon, but still. That's so cool!" Three guesses who that was.

But Nudge's little speech had broken the silence, and everyone began to chatter quietly again, the main topic of conversation being Bree's first word.

It made me think, how much had we been talking to Bree about Fang? Calling him daddy? I was distracted, however by the pilots intercom sounding throughout the cabin.

We have thirteen hours of flight left until we land at Rotterdam.

That was when Angel and Gazzy started screaming at each other. Apparently, Angel had been cheating at some sort of card game.

Yay.

Fang lay on the cold tile floor, staring at the boring white ceiling. He couldn't move, he could barely breathe. He was exhausted; he could feel his heartbeat slowing down slightly. Grief coursed through him like adrenaline. He didn't know how much longer he could go on for. His vision began to fade and flicker, until it blanked out entirely.

He was left in darkness.

Believe me, thirteen hours on a jet can drag.

Despite the fact that the first hour was spent entertaining Bree, marvelling at her newfound word, once she'd gone to sleep there really wasn't much for me to do.

Angel, Gazzy, Nudge and Phoenix had taken a table and spent the flight playing various card games relatively peacefully. If any kind of scuffle broke out, he'd handle it with ease before I could even find the energy to stand; I was exhausted for some reason. It made me wonder if he'd worked with kids before; he handled them really well.

Iggy was sat at the back of the plane with Ella for almost the whole journey, speaking in a hushed tone. At one point, when I was doing a visual check of the plane, I could have sworn I saw them holding hands. I didn't know whether to feel angry or happy. I decided to worry about it later.

But I guess Phoenix's vision added some in-flight entertainment.

We'd been flying for almost twelve hours, and almost everyone was asleep, when there was a loud thud as Phoenix fell out of his chair and into the aisle. The whole Flock woke up at the noise, even Bree, who suddenly popped into existence in my arms and began to wail. I jumped up and hurriedly placed her into Nudges waiting arms as I leaped to pin Phoenix down.

I managed to get his legs, but his arms were still flailing around dangerously until Iggy practically fell into the aisle to hold his arms down. His fir lasted for about fifteen minutes, much more than his last one. For a moment I worried if he would wake up, but eventually his flailing around stopped and he blinked up at us.

"Don't worry guys, I just saw something . . . put it like this, don't go in any rooms marked 'Experimenting'." He grinned slightly, not meeting any of our eyes. I was confused, why was he avoiding my gaze?

I let it drop, however, as he tried to sit up and get back into his seat.

And here we were.

After we'd gotten off of the plane at some private airport in Rotterdam, we'd flown over to Amsterdam, using the darkness to cover us from view. It was about five in the morning. Iggy had been carrying Ella. I wasn't entirely happy about that . . .

And now we were circling around the outskirts of Amsterdam, looking for a giant fluorescent billboard saying 'Hey, Flock! Itex is right here! '

Just kidding.

Although that would be nice.

I was scanning the dark ground, trying to see, I don't know. A big, white building? A house? A secret underground lair?

That was when Angel piped up. "Max! I can hear Fang! Sort of . . . I can feel him, but he's not thinking any thoughts . . ." She trailed of, looking at me uncertainly.

"Where is he?" I almost snapped. She pointed directly beneath us. I squinted, and saw something that looked faintly like a . . . trapdoor? No way, that's just way to cliché, the only way to get into a soul-sucking evil corporation being through a mysterious trapdoor.

"Iggy, give me Ella." I flew over to them, ignoring Ella's protests. She took Bree, and I took her, staggering under her weight.

"Max, wha-?" Iggy started to protest, but I cut him off.

"I'm taking them somewhere safe. Ella can look after Bree. I can fly faster. Stay here." With that I kicked into super speed, leaving the rest of my family hovering in the darkness.

After about a minute I began angling downwards sharply, Ella was heavy! I landed at a small clump of tree's; there were no hills at all to hide them behind, Holland was just so flat (so true!).

I set them down, and made sure they had somewhere to stay for a few hours. I gave Ella some supplies she'd need for Bree, and a hug for the pair of them.

"Ella, stay here, okay? Try and stay as quiet as possible, try not to move, just try and be totally inconspicuous, 'kay?" She nodded, eyes wide. I looked like where she was had finally dawned on her. Good.

I bent down to Bree. "I'm going to go get your daddy, baby. Isn't that awesome! You stay here with your Auntie Ella like a good girl, okay?" I kissed her little forehead, smiling as she gurgled happily and squealed 'Dada!'. On the inside though, I was shaking with nerves. Not that I'd let anyone know it.

I turned to walk away, even though it killed me inside when I heard Bree start to whimper. I did a running take off and was in the air within seconds.

I flew at around 300 mph back to my flock, not wanting to dwell on my sister and my baby alone in a cold wood. I got up to them, almost skidding in the air, if that's possible.

"Let's hit it, guys." We all tilted our wings and began to head down, when I heard Nudge shriek. We all turned to face her in time to see her eyes close, and black figure behind her, outline barely visible. We all did 360's so fast we were blurs in the night, only to see us surrounded.

How had we not heard them?

I didn't have time to think of an answer before I felt a sharp pain in my neck, and it all went black.

"Dang, what happened to him?"

"I dunno, but it's bad. We'd better start trying to patch him up before Max wakes up, she'll flip."

"Yeah, here," There was a ripping noise. "use this for that one there, it looks the worst. Is there any water in here we could use?"

"Yeah, here. There's not much though, and its warm."

"It'll do. But I'll have to use all of it, flush some of these out, there's dirt in them. God knows what they've been doing to him here. I'm just glad he's passed out."

"Why are you glad he's passed out, Iggy?"

"Well, would you want to be awake and feeling all of these?"

"No."

I blinked, opening my eyes slowly to the bright white light. I'd been hearing the voices for a while, but I'd only just got enough energy to actually wake up fully.

Shielding my eyes, I sat up, my head spinning slightly.

That's when I smelt it. The antiseptic. I bolted upright, backing into the corner of the room on instinct.

Then I actually bothered to look round. I was in a small room, maybe five by five feet. I was in one corner, next to a small bench attached to the ground, and in the opposite corner, was my Flock. They all seemed to be huddled around something, making a sort of lopsided circle. I could see Iggy holding a small bowl of water, and Gazzy holding some strips of t-shirt, folding some of them into thick squares. I wondered what he was using them for. Then I noticed that Phoenix was missing. I barely had time to wonder about him though.

They were all looking at me with apprehensive expressions. Especially Ella.

Ella?

So where was Bree?

Ella say my eyes locked on her and her eyes started to water slightly. I ignored that and rushed forwards towards her, taking about three strides 'till I was standing next to her, peering inside the circle.

And what I saw took my breath away.

And not in a good way.

Fang was lying in the centre of the circle, unconscious. His black clothes were ripped, tattered and sweaty. His jeans were hanging off of his hips; he looked almost anorexic. His arms were covered in bruises, the kind of bruises you get from needles being forced into your tense muscle. There were burns and welts and oozing wounds covering his skin, there was barely a patch of his body untouched. His cheekbones were casting long shadows on his face, making him look like death. I could see almost every bone in his body poking against his skin.

There was silence as the Flock gauged my reaction. I could feel their gazes on my face, but I ignored them as I stared at the boy I loved. I pushed past them and fell onto my knees beside him. His breathing was quiet and ragged, his eyes closed. I hoped he wasn't hurting, wherever he was. I could feel a solitary tear roll down my cheek silently, looking at how they'd ruined him, destroyed him.

Then Ella spoke up.

"Max."

I looked over at her, my expression blank. All I could think of was Fang, how broken he was, lying on the floor next to me.

"I'm so sorry." There were tears flowing down her cheeks, and her shoulders were shaking slightly. I noticed Iggy holding her hand loosely, his thumb stroking the back of it lightly.

Why would she be sorry? It wasn't her fault that Fang had been tortured like this. If it was anyone's fault, it was mine. I had o idea why she was apologizing until I noticed an emptiness in my arms. I looked down, expecting to see Bree there. But she wasn't.

I couldn't hear her in the room. And Ella was here. So that meant they'd been taken. But what had happened to Bree?

"Where's Bree, Ella?" I asked, my voice tiny and raspy, full of unshed tears.

"I don't know," She whispered. My heart broke. "They took us both, but only I was put in here. They took Bree somewhere else. And Phoenix. We haven't seen him since we were all taken." I didn't care about Phoenix, all I could think was that Itex had my baby. Jeb had my baby.

I reached down blindly beside me and found Fangs hand. I bent my head down. It felt like my life was falling apart.

I had a healthy daughter, we were on the verge of destroying Itex and we almost had Fang back. Now we were all in the clutched of the most evil people in the world. And I had no idea where mine and Fang's baby was.

My mind was starting to shut down, to block out this pain, when the door opened and a pair of black high heels clicked across the tiles towards us.

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