Yay! This is the chapter when the flock arrive at Max's mom's house. Remember, Mack has never met Total, or Jeb for that matter, so this is going to be……interesting.

Max's POV

"Okay guys. Let me handle the introductions of Mack, okay?" I said as we hovered over Mom's house.

Gasman looked at me curiously. "Why?"

"Because I said so," I sighed, rolled my eyes, and began circling down to the trees below.

It wasn't long, of course, before Ella ran screeching into the yard.

I turned to a nervous, fidgety Mack. "Wait right here okay?"

She nodded and bit her lip. Iggy kissed her lightly on the cheek, then the flock followed me into the yard.

"Hey you guys! Oh my God, what are you doing here? We've missed you!" Ella squealed, catching me in a bone crushing hug.

"We missed you too." I assured her, hugging her back until my mom ran into the yard. Then I passed my half sister on to Nudge.

Man, Ella got these mom-hugs every day…

"Welcome home," Mom whispered and I almost melted.

But I still had to tell her about Mack.

"Mom….Ella….what would you say if I told you there was a new addition to the flock?" I asked, pulling away from them both.

They blinked a few times.

"You guys leave me behind just three weeks and suddenly I'm being replaced," Total sniffed, trotting out of the house with his head and tail held high.

Akila, looking as amused as a Malamute possibly could, followed him.

"No one could ever replace you Total!" Angel cried, immediately fawning all over him and showering him with kisses.

"Her name is Mack and she's…..well, sort of indescribable." I muttered, turning back towards the trees and gesturing wildly for her to come on out.

A beat, and then she stepped shyly forward. Her beautiful new wings hung loosely at her sides.

Mom and Ella gasped.

"Hi. I'm Mack." Mack said awkwardly when she reached us.

"Hello Mack. I'm Valencia Martinez, Max's mom. It's wonderful to meet you." Mom said and stuck out her hand.

Mack shook it.

"Um, there's….more. Lots more, actually." I said shifting my weight.

"Well, come in. Tell us everything." Mom said, smiling.

Whoo! Time lapse time! By the way, in the upcoming scene, Total is somewhere with Akila….planning the wedding!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know if I'm actually gonna include the wedding, but it will be mentioned! So yeah…

We started from the beginning, telling it as a flock. Everything up until right now.

"Um. Wow. That's a lot to take in." Mom said, staring at all of us, especially Mack.

"So you were normal once?" Ella asked eagerly, then seemed to realize her rudeness and turned red before slapping her hands over her mouth.

But Mack just laughed. "I don't think I've ever been just normal, but, yeah."

"That's so cool," Ella breathed.

She always thought my flock was so cool.

"Um, one more thing," Mack said, not meeting anyone's eyes.

"Yes?" Mom asked.

"I think Fang and I might be….siblings." She whispered.

Stunned silence from every being in the room. Even Fang's mouth had dropped open a little.

"I don't know what kind of crack you're smoking, babe, but you're definitely tripping." Iggy deadpanned.

"Max talked to the Voice about getting a DNA test. It said it would work. I'm up for it. As long as no needles are involved, anyway." Mack quickly intervened, as if having the Voice back her up would make her theory more credible.

"I'm a vet…" Mom trailed off, making it clear that she couldn't test them herself.

"I'm not," said Jeb's voice from the doorway.

"Christ!" I shrieked and turned around, glaring at him.

"Really Maximum, you get too engrossed in your story telling. You didn't even hear me coming." Jeb looked at me reproachfully.

"Bite me." I snarled and Mack blinked a few times.

"Hello everyone. Sorry to just bar-" Jeb began to say, then cut off, staring at Mack. He looked at her as if she was his own personal nightmare.

"Um. Hi. I'm Mack." Mack said, squirming. Iggy scooted closer to her on the couch, putting an arm around her.

Jeb's nostrils flared. Interesting.

"I know who you are, young lady. The question is, what are you doing here?" He was positively outraged. I hadn't seen Jeb like this since Gasman tried to bomb Fang's dresser back at the E house and ended up destroying half the kitchen.

"Well right now, I'm sitting. I imagine if Dr. M's hospitality comes through, later I'll be sleeping." Mack snarled right back

Hehe.

"You were captured, right? That is how you got the wings?" He demanded, looking almost terrified now.

"Excuse me, but who the hell are you?!" Mack gasped, looking bewildered.

Jeb snorted. "In which lifetime?"

Uhh…..yeah. Now I was lost.

Jeb sighed heavily, and began pacing, running his fingers repeatedly through his graying hair. He muttered things like "not supposed to happen yet," and "wonder if they know."

You see; most kids get stuck with biological dads that pick them up from the hottest parties at ten every weekend.

I get the deranged scientist.

That may or may not be evil.

"Okay. I'm going to tell this story once and only once. It never leaves this room. It never leaves the lips from any of you, even under torture. Get it? Got it? Good. So if you don't want to hear it, I advise you leave now." Jeb finally said, turning to glare at us.

No one moved, not even Mom or Ella.

Jeb peered at us, lingering on Mack.

Okay. Of all the creepy things for him to do in the last several months, this one was right up there with Come back from the dead.

"Fang's mother was a young, Italian exchange student." He stated, and Mack gasped. She and Fang shared a weird look.

"His father was an already married, older man. But none of this is important. What's important is, his mother had an amniocentesis test. And in the hollow needle required to do the test, was avian bird genes." It was as quiet in here as if, say, the Pussycat Dolls had just bombed an airport.

"Everything went as planned. Fang was born with no complications, a perfect bird-kid specimen, no slander meant towards you, Fang. His mother was told that he was dead, a still born, taken and buried in an unmarked grave. Everything was fine." Jeb paused, then said, "Until his mother got pregnant again not a month later."

"So Fang and I are only…..nine, ten months apart?" Mack gasped, staring at Fang with wide eyes.

Was it just me, or was my life like some soap opera for science nerds?

"Would you be quiet?" Jeb snapped.

"Would you just tell the story?" Nudge growled and Jeb actually jumped a bit. Nudge never snapped at anyone.

Jeb sighed heavily yet again, with the air of one using recycled patience. "As I was saying, his mother got pregnant again. This time with Mack. This would've been perfectly fine, except for one thing. The bird genes had spilled into her eggs."

Mack let out a little squeak.

"So we kept a close monitor on her, and her unborn child. The baby-Mack-would never be totally human. But she wouldn't be enough of a bird-kid to have wings, or really be considered an experiment. That is how you survived this operation, Mack. You already had bird genes. They just added a few more." Jeb ran his hand through his hair again.

"Why is this top secret?" Ella asked curiously.

"If it got out that Itex had made a slip-up…that they had made a mistake and let that mistake go uncorrected…" Jeb trailed off menacingly. I think we all got the picture.

"Mack is my sister?" Fang asked and his voice actually cracked.

"Yes." Jeb nodded hesitantly.

"There's that word again," Mack muttered under her breath. "Mistake."

"You are not a mistake," Iggy grumbled, kissing her jaw and her neck. She smiled a watery smile at him, but managed nothing else.

"Oh no. I see this has already gotten too far out of control." Jeb moaned.

"What?" I asked, voice like steel. This guy was being very irritating today.

"Have you told those two yet, Max? Have you told them what they are?" He turned to stare at me accusingly.

I knew instantly what he was talking about. "No."

"So they're like that on their own?" He gasped, looking clearly disgusted.

"What is he talking about?" Iggy asked.

I took a deep breath. "Back when Mack was having her surgery….the Voice told me you two were soul mates."

Stunned silence, and then two very ticked bird kids.

"WHAT?! You knew all this time and never thought to mention it?" Iggy yelped. He looked like he wanted to explode something.

"Well, I've been kind of busy lately." I huffed.

"We had the right to know this little piece of info, Max. It's our lives too." Mack cried.

Jeb put his fingers between his lips, and whistled impressively. We all fell silent. "You see," he said, "this is why this can't happen. None of this. For three main reasons. One, it distracts you all from your true purpose; saving the world. Second, if Itex or the School or anyone else that might want you found out, they'd stick you in a Breeding Program so fast your heads would spin. And third, Mack isn't supposed to be here with you. Because very time, yes, every damn time this girl comes into play, everything falls apart."

"What are you talking about?! We love Mack." Nudge protested.

"Yeah!" Angel and Gasman agreed, frowning.

Jeb slumped his shoulders a bit. "And this is where things get complicated."

"Spit it out, daddio." I muttered under my breath.

"Alright. Mack, as I'm assuming everyone knows, is psychic. There is several categories into which she may fall. One, the one that is her strong point, is precognition, or the ability to know ahead of time what is going to happen. Another is clairvoyance, which most people associate with the ability to see ghosts, when really what it is is the ability to see what other people cannot, such as visions, or auras, or yes, even spirits. The last one is very, very rare. It's called clairsentience, and it's a basic term for empath. Mack can read into other people's emotions, sense vibes and energy." Jeb explained.

Then he glanced at Nudge and Angel. "You two also have some form of psychic ability, though it's not what most people would consider psychic. Telepathy, Angel, is a type. Psychometry, Nudge, is the ability to hold and object and know about the circumstances and events in the life of the owner of the object. Some police departments actually use people with this skill in their searches for lost children."

"What does any of this have to do with-" Mack started to say, but then he cut her off.

"I'm getting to that. Because you are so in tune with your abilities, you probably have the ability to remember most, if not all, of your past lives. Your destiny, Mack, is intertwined with the flock's. Did you kids honestly think you were brought together by happy chance? No, of course you weren't. But your fates are different. Max and the flock are meant to save the world. Mack is meant to save the flock."

Then Jeb sighed heavily again. "But every time-in every life- this girl comes into the lives of the flock members too soon. She brings them together too soon. Of course, in this case, they were already together, but she's bonding them too soon. The flock have to save the world first. Then Mack can come in and begin her part in this."

Anger flared up inside me. "Are you saying we don't love each other? That we don't care for each other at all?"

Jeb blinked. "Of course not, Max. But the flock is held together by one common goal-to survive, to beat their enemies. As individual people you would fall apart in no time because you wouldn't know what to do with yourself. So, if Mack is introduced too soon, and she gets all caught up in the fighting and fleeing, she is going to become one of you, and her bonding effect won't work, because she'll be one of the crumbled pieces."

God, I needed an Advil.

"You can't take me away from my brother, not when I've just found him. And Iggy, you can't take him from me either. And Max and the kids…..their like family." Mack was practically hyperventilating.

"Well, of course I can't, not now, not now that you're a target." Jeb scowled.

"Wait…I'm confused. How does science and this paranormal stuff mix?" Ella frowned.

"Ever heard of EVP's?" Mack asked.

"Yeah, sure. Their featured on the ghost hunter shows my friend Amber watches." Ella shrugged.

"There's one example." Mack said, then turning, and seeing everyone else's confused expressions, she explained, "They're supposed recordings of ghosts' voices."

"Exactly." Jeb looked relieved that at least some one understood him.

"So, what do we do now?" Gasman asked.

"Well, we need to keep those new Erasers at bay, for one. And Mack and Iggy out of captures way. They've been all over each other out on the street. Anyone working for the School or Itex could've seen them." I frowned.

Fang frowned too. "What about you and me?" he asked.

Ella squealed and Mom gasped happily.

Gee, way to keep the cat in the bag, Fang.

"Well, we really haven't-" I began.

"McDonalds." Fang contradicted, shaking his head.

I swore. A lot.

"What happened at McDonalds?" Ella asked, giggling.

"Yes, what happened at McDonalds?" Jeb asked sternly.

I chose to ignore them all.

"Okay, well, since Max is obviously not one to kiss and tell……" Jeb gave me a look before turning back to Mack, "how much alcohol have you ever consumed at once?"

Yay! What a little plot twist. Yep, I'm full of lovely surprises. So, Mack is Fang's sister. I know it's such a cliché, but in my mind, there was no way she could've survived the operation without prior genetic bird background. And that was the only way that made sense.

So….review???