Disclaimer: I do not, repeat, do not own any characters or plots in this story that James Patterson had previously come up with. (This is really getting old fast)

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Chapter 9

Soon Oz was able to speak and move around some, but was very limited. He was looking much better though his once dashing features were lost to lack of food and the trauma he had undergone. The improvement was most likely because of everyone fawning over him, especially Max.

"You can't believe what this means to us Oz, we were all empty without you." Frannie to the seat next to him and put her on around him. "Now is there anything I can get for you?"

"Water. Please" Oz's voice was not the same. It sounded as if it hurt to talk.

"OK, if that's what you want" Daedalus got off his chair and walked to Ozymandius.

He placed his hand on Oz's temples again, and eventually spoke again with the signature features of Oz's voice. "That's better, I guess I'm still not fully healed. My throat still hurts a lot. We used to do this often when I was unconscious. I told him why I had to leave and go to you, and it is also how he found Icarus. Turn towards Max now, no don't say it, you turn to her. Never mind." Everyone laughed at the internal argument. "I just wanted to say that I love you, always have, when..."

"Oz, you don't have to tell me. I know and I feel the same way." Max put her hand on Oz's cheek. While she talked to him her fingers brushed against Daedalus

In a matter of seconds, their minds were one and Max could see what Oz had seen. Daedalus had secrets, more than Max could handle. But one memory came to her in vivid color. She was looking to the eyes of Daedalus and saw herself in his arms. She looked to have been just born.

Then Harold Hauer came in, and Daedalus smiled at him. "I told you it would work." He said to the doctor.

"What should we name her, it's your choice. Yes, you are one third, her father and the only alive one. So you name her." The doctor seems different than any other time they had met him.

"Maximum" he said. "Sweet little Max" she saw herself grab Daedalus' finger and watched as he laughed.

"D, I think that is a perfect name." Daedalus was only eight or nine at the time, but Hauer treated him like an adult.

Daedalus yelled out in pain and broke contact with both of them. Now you see who I am. Icarus, come with me, you belong with me. Maximum I'm sorry you had to see that."

Oz fell to the floor, you having seen the same thing as Max and they dahlias. He was just a shocked. Max was in tears as she held onto Oz.

"That totally blew my mind, he showed me some memories before but I had no idea. Did you?" Oz seemed to have regained some of the strength

"I need to see him again. Ic, he wants you to come to. He wanted us to live with him like when we were babies." Max had a serious tone, she only just adopted.

Matt ran over to steady Oz, and asked him what had just happened and Peter and Wendy were crying because they didn't want Icarus to go again. Since he got back, they had been hanging on him and Oz the whole time. Kit stood up and sternly forbade her from going after him. Even after he had saved Oz, Kit still didn't trust Daedalus.

Max looked angrily and Kit as she held her arm. He just didn't understand what it felt like. This turned her whole world upside down. She just couldn't handle it at once. First Oz was gone, and then Ic, her heart wasn't made to handle this type of duress. And now, someone from her past had come to help in she pushed him away.

"Come on Icarus lets go, he'll get away." She pulled away from Kit and looked somberly and them both.

Frannie's eyes pleaded with her, longing for Max to stay while holding on to Peter and Wendy.

Max looked at Icarus, who was still sitting. "Max how do you think I feel. I lost Oz to, and now I have a brother. You and Matt, you know how it is, your close. I want that, I need that, I deserve that. I've never seen, haven't seen on Oz. And still can't see him. What I'm getting it is, I love you Max, and always will, but right now you're wrong." Icarus sat back down and turned his back to her.

"Matty...Matt you agree with me." Max pleaded with Matt.

"Just stay, stay with us Max. We're together again, and you want to break us up. Just stay with us." Matt had tears in his eyes; him and his sister had gone through several degrees of hell together and had grown close. He could relate to Icarus.

"None of you know what I saw! I remember him now from when we were small." Max fell on to her knees and held out her hands as if she was holding a child. "Used to hold me, and his laugh is so unique. Remember Oz, remember Uncle D.?" She was smiling as she remembered the time before the school, perhaps the only other fond memories she had besides those with Frannie and Kit.

"I do remember, and I saw as well. Did you wonder why he stopped when he did? Because there is something he wants to hide from us! I felt at once when we talked he was always nervous, always blocking something." Oz closed his eyes and shook his head as if to clear away some cobwebs. "When I remembered and called him Uncle D, just like when we were kids, remember Max?"

" Yeah, I remember, Oz"

"When he knew I remembered him he left me alone for close to a week and when he came back he acted like nothing ever happened. I didn't mention it again, because I was afraid he would leave me again. I... I didn't want to be alone. When I was alone, I just thought of you, Max. I didn't know if you were alive either." Matt left Oz, who appeared to be feeling much better, and went to comfort Max.

Max clung on to her brother and Oz. She knew that these were the most important people to her. She wouldn't blow it again. Frannie and Kit soon came over with Peter Wendy and Icarus. The eight of them were back together again and Max couldn't imagine a place she would rather be, none of them could.