I had a wonderful, wonderful vacation, for those of you who wondered. Canada, why are you so cool?

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride.

Fang's POV:

Dr. Ison begins to walk into her posh house. When she realizes that we are not following, she looks back at us.

"Well, come on in, then," she says, smiling, beckoning us.

I turn to Iggy, unsure what to say. He nods imperceptibly and we both cross the threshold and enter the house. The first thing that hits me is the whiteness. Everything was white except for slight accents of color. But unlike the dreary pallor of a hospital, which I absolutely hated more than pretty much everything else, it looked crisp and fresh and clean. White walls, white coach, glass table, but a small crayon drawing hanging up that looks like nothing from this far but has every color on it.

I feel a pang of loneliness when I realize that Angel must have drawn it. Iggy and I take a seat on the couch while Dr. Ison walks into a different room, mumbling about being right back.

"Everything is white, isn't it?" Iggy asks me.

"Pretty much," I reply. "How can you tell?"

"You know how even when you have your eyes closed you can tell if someone just turned the light on? It's like that, but on a larger scale. The brightness is like, practically attacking me."

I make a noise in between a scoff and a chuckle. Leave it to Iggy to make me laugh in a situation like this.

"How does she know us?" I whisper to Iggy. "I feel like this is a trap."

Iggy shrugs. "Angel's not here."

I really should be used to it by now, but time and time again Iggy mystifies me with his perceptiveness. "How do you know that?" I ask him.

"I shouted for her in my mind. Had she been here, she would have heard it."

I frown, thinking about this. "If she didn't remember her powers, then she couldn't use any of them, right?"

Iggy gives me an are-you-serious face. "Right, because it's so easy to keep secrets from a mind reader."

I open my mouth to point out that whatever technology and science that had stripped us of our memories originally could easily have been altered to take away Angel's powers, at least temporarily. After losing my sight for a few hours, I was wary of anything science had to offer me. Before I can say this, though, Dr. Ison comes back with a tray of steaming hot mugs and cookies.

It's more than cliché, but I can smell the hot chocolate and cookies all the way from here and neither Iggy nor I hesitate before grabbing some of both. If it's poisoned, at least I'm dying happily.

"Now tell me," Dr. Ison says, taking a seat on the opposite couch and clasping her hands in her lap. "What can I do for you?"

"Dr. Ison," I begin, not entirely sure where I was going. I take a bite of chocolate chip cookie to give myself time but all it does is remind me of Max, which of course brings forth a pang of sadness.

"Jenna,' she interrupts. "Please call me Jenna. They only call me Dr. Ison at work."

I decide to be truthful; this lady seems genuine. You can tell these things with people. With Anne, the first time we stayed with her, her nicety had a ring of falseness to it, but Jenna seemed like the kind of person who gave blood every other week, volunteered at the animal shelter and baked brownies for every new neighbor- authentically nice.

It didn't mean I trusted her, though. Being nice and being trustworthy were two very different, very separate things.

"Jenna," I amend. "We came for Angel."

"But she's not here, is she?" Iggy interjects.

Her smile dropping, Jenna look at the two of us with wide eyes, and not just because we were staining her perfect white couch. "I told Angel to leave a week ago," she tells us. "I told her she had a week to find her brother and get as far away as possible. I told her Nudge was in Boston, and you and Iggy had already run away from home and would find Max. "

"Her brother…as in Gazzy?" Iggy asks.

"Yes," Jenna answers. "He was in Oregon too, in a city that's about a four hour drive from here. But Angel and he should be long gone- I warned her of the repercussions."

"What repercussions?" I questioned, not entirely sure if I wanted to know the answer.

Jenna gives me a sad half smile. "We're all being monitored, Fang, all us 'parents.' I could buy her a week of time by pretending that she had gone to spend some time with my sister- her aunt. But the School is sure to realize the lie now."

"Let me get this straight- you're being monitored and you're openly telling us all of this information? And you openly told Angel her real past and where to go?" I rise in my seat, ready to make a dash for it. Iggy is grabbing cookies next to me, and I can only presume they're for the road.

"Sit down, you two, I'm not stupid." She scoffs, but not meanly. "I thought all of that to Angel. I thought it all the time until I was sure that she heard what I was thinking. And I'm not monitored with a video camera or live feed- they just check up on me every now and then. Mostly it's at work, but sometimes they come home."

I haven't relaxed a muscle. "So they could be on their way this very minute?" Iggy tenses when he hears me.

"They checked up on me yesterday," Jenna reassures. "They have no reason to come again today."

Neither of us is actually reassured. "Lady, we have to go." Iggy says abruptly. "Just point us in Angel's direction- we have places to go, people to rescue."

When Jenna gives me that pathetic little half smile again, my heart sinks. "It's too late," I growl. "Let's go!"

Iggy and I both hear what Jenna can't- a roar of vehicles coming down the otherwise quiet neighborhood street. Iggy and sprint to the front door, fully meaning to leave when Jenna finally speaks up.

"Boys, they're already here. It would be wiser just waiting for them to get you."

"You witch!" Iggy curses at her while I fumble with the lock on the door. Stupid rich people, needing ten bolts to secure their homes properly. "What did you do, call them under the pretense of making us hot chocolate?"

"No, Iggy. They have me under strict monitoring. They said they would hurt Angel otherwise," Jenna pleads with him, her eyes filling up with tears, but the only thing I'm thinking is that I've got to be the stupidest person to walk this planet. I gave up my last ounce of sense when I walked in through the door. Max would have never done it.

I burst the door open and Iggy and I pull off our jackets right away, and just take off into the air, not bothering to run or not be seen. Nothing matters other than getting away, away, far away. But Iggy is not on the same wavelength as me, because he pulls me into a tall tree, folding his wings in so that he isn't as visible.

"What the hell, man?"

"How long are we going to fly?" Iggy asks me. "Hours, if we need to, but we're not going to shake those stupid Flyboys. Why not avoid the fight if we can?"

I shrug, accepting the truth in his statement. "Maybe we should hide better, then?"

"Let's find a different tree," Iggy says, laughing as he wobbles.

"No time," I tell him, noting the cars pulling up to the driveway. Jenna walks outside and I strain to hear the conversation passing between her and the lead Flyboy.

"Where are they?" He growls. Unlike us, his wings are pulled in awkwardly underneath his tight t shirt. From the front, he looks like your typical attractive, college going male, but if you look closely you notice the yellowed teeth, the sharp nails and bulky muscles and wings.

"They flew that way," Jenna says pointing in the opposite direction from where we were. I breathe a sigh of relief. I was right- Jenna wasn't all bad, she was far from it. She was genuine- genuinely worried that they would hurt Angel and therefore willing to turn us in. But I had learned my lesson- hereby I would only trust people with a dislike for the world and nothing they cared for- people like me.

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" The Flyboy asks her.

Jenna looks at him levelly, not flinching, not wavering in her answer. "The life of someone that I love is at stake. Why would I lie?"

He grunts, accepting her answer. As the Flyboys climb back into the cars they came in, a thought hits me hard.

"We have to go after them."

"What?" Iggy looks at me like I've lost my marbles. Who knows, maybe I had.

"We won't be able to find Angel; it'll be a wild goose chase. There's a good chance that her and Gazzy were captured, anyway."

"Are you out of your mind, Fang? We don't give up on people like that! Angel is resourceful. They aren't any more likely to have been captured than we are.'

I look at Iggy, trying to communicate with my eyes what I couldn't with my words. But on Iggy, this didn't work, of course. "If we follow those vans, we'll be led right to Max and Nudge. And there's a possibility Angel and Gazzy are there too. But we can't waste time searching for Angel when we don't have a clue where she might be."

"She'll be in Boston, trying to find Nudge," Iggy argues. "Jenna was telling the truth, you know that. She'll be in or on her way to Boston. And we can find her."

I let out a breath in frustration. "Why are you doing this, Iggy?"

"She's little, Fang." Iggy's eyes are sad, pleading. "And Gazzy's so young too. It's what Max would have wanted. What do you think she will say to us when we save her and tell her that her baby's still missing?"

I shake my head- this is one thing that I cannot agree too. "Max in this situation would have done what I'm saying. I get it, Iggy. She's 9. You don't want to leave her to fend for herself. And you miss your crazy buddy. But you have to remember that Angel is the most capable nine year old in the world. With all of her powers, she can easily keep herself and Gazzy out of trouble. But who knows what they're doing to Max and Nudge now? Answer me with your head. Not your heart."

I cringe at the abundance of clichés in my speech, but now is not the time for jokes.

"My head is telling me that we should find Angel and the Gasman," Iggy says stubbornly.

I just look at him, waiting.

"Let's split up, then," Iggy suggests. I shake my head at this too.

"If nothing else, we have got to stick together."

A long silence. And the Iggy finally breaks it. "Fine. Max and Nudge first. But I swear I will blame it on you when Max starts yelling about how we should have gotten Angel and Gazzy before them."

I try to smile, but I'm too tense to. I'm still slightly worried about how committed Iggy is. But when I say let's go, he follows without argument, so we both set off, high in the sky, after the van.

Set off to the very place we've been desperately avoiding all along.

A/N- Cliche, ominous endings, what's not to like? Review, por favor?