A/N: Here's number 4! Thanks to all reviewers so far -I really appreciate it. There's way too many to list, but I replied to most of you, I hope. Tell me if I didn't. Keep them coming! Can we hit fifty before 5 is posted? You guys can do it! I have faith in you! ;-)

Finally it settled on words.

-Hello, Flock.-

Itex was haunting us again.

"Well…that's not good," Fang said.

"No way, you think? Turn off the laptop," I said urgently, "quick." I scanned our room quickly, even though I knew no one was there. It was a habit. "They might be getting a signal of where we are from that."

"Oh, crap!" He shut everything down, but not before another message scrolled across the screen:

-The fate of life as we know it depends on the entire flock now. Do not fail.-

Well, that was something new.

"Hey, they're letting me have help now!" I said brightly, trying to make a joke in the middle of this confusion. Why on earth were they suddenly changing their tune? One second they were all, "Die, Flock, die!" and now they're "Stay together, Flock! Save the world!" Uh, is that some reverse psychology or something? Cause it's definitely not making any sense to me.

"You have help with what?" Iggy asked, poking his head in.

"You're a little behind, Ig," I teased.

"Itex has sent us a message again," Fang cut me off before I could say anymore.

I shot a glare at him. "Thanks."

Iggy looked at me. "What did they say?"

"Firstly, you know the younger ones don't need to know about this, right?" I said, before I told him anything. "It's nothing huge."

"Fine, whatever just tell me! I don't want to be left in the dark."

"All they said was, 'Hello, Flock,' and then, 'The fate of life as we know it depends on the entire flock now. Do not fail.'" I said this in a deep, dramatic voice. "You know, the usual junk. Nothing to worry about."

"I don't know…" said Iggy warily. "You said all of the Flyboys were destroyed, but every time they send us a message something bad happens. I'd just…keep a sharp eye out for me. I'll keep out a sharp ear." He gave a half smile.

"Thanks, Iggy," I said gratefully, hooking a piece of hair that had been in my face behind my ear. Just then, Nudge burst in.

"Max! Max! They have a pool here! Can we go? Oh, please can we? I swear I'll be really, really good for all the time we're here if we can just go swimming!" She bounced on the balls of her feet and looked at me with pleading eyes. I hoped she hadn't heard anything of what we were just talking about.

"Nudge, sweetie, there's just one problem – your bathing suit shows your wings, and there's bound to be other people in the pool," I said, trying to let her down softly. "I just don't think that we can."

"What if we went while everyone was gone?" Wow, I hadn't realized that she like swimming this much.

"There are windows," I reasoned, "people can look in. Nudge, we just can't risk it."

She had opened her mouth to say more, but Iggy said, "Nudge, probably not so smart."

"Fine," she grumbled, and left the room. Oh, NOW she listens!

I glanced at Iggy. "How come she listens to you? I would've been arguing for another twenty minutes."

He shrugged. "I'm just gifted, I guess." I shook my head. Honestly, the two fourteen year old guys in my flock were so…stuck up! I loved them anyway, but still. Someone needed to deflate their heads.

I checked my watch. It was nine o'clock. "I don't know about you guys, but I want to go to sleep. These beds look mega comfy."

"Sleep?" asked Iggy disbelievingly. "When there's so much stuff to do here?"

"Yep, sleep," I replied, daring him to say different. Sure, we had, like, the most stamina in the world, but if I wanted my wits about me for the next Itex curveball, I needed to sleep. We all needed to sleep. "Unless you want to be half asleep if a Flyboy troop pops along like you said, we need to sleep, Iggy."

He blew out a long breath. "I'll go tell Gazzy." We stacked and tapped and then he left the room.

"Tell Nudge and Angel too!" I called after him. I pushed my hair off of my back where it was making a wet spot on my T-shirt. "You too, Fang."

"Whatever," he said, pulling off his shirt in one easy movement. I looked away pointedly and turned down my sheets. Turned down my sheets – what kind of self respecting person says that?

"Did you know," Fang said suddenly, "I've figured out how to trace people who leave messages on the blog?"

I looked up, startled. "No! Since when?"

He glanced down. "A few weeks ago." Alright, slick, what are you not telling me?

"Whose comment were you trying to trace?" I asked suspiciously. "And why?"

He hesitated. "Fang…" I warned.

"There was this one person…" He stopped.

"Go on."

"They said that one of the flock was a traitor. Of course, I didn't believe them, but all the same…I wanted to trace it to see who it was."

"Who was it?" I prompted impatiently.

He opened his mouth to say the name, but noticed that the connecting door was open and swiftly crossed the room to shut it. Then he turned to me, lowered his voice and said, "Roland ter Borcht."

"No," I whispered, sitting down on my bed. "How did he find out about the blog? Did he tell anyone?"

Fang shook his head. "I don't know."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" I exploded. "That was the stupidest move you've ever made!"

"Because for once in a really long time, we were happy," he said, his look cutting through me like a sharp piece of ice. "And I didn't want to change that."

"Fine," I said, thinking about what I'd just learned instead of arguing. I seem to be doing that a lot lately. "But wait a minute – didn't Angel kill him?"

"We don't know that," Fang said, shaking his head. "She whacked his head pretty hard, but we don't know for a fact right now whether he's out for the count or not." This was great. Just peachy. (Note sarcasm there.)

I sighed heavily and crawled under my covers. "I'll think about this in the morning. G'night, Fang."

"Night." I flicked off the light and closed my eyes, but knew that sleep wouldn't come easily. Thoughts raced through my head, and I was tense, knowing that there was no one on watch and we could be attacked at any moment. It didn't help that ter Borcht had wormed his way into our lives yet again…the lying, cheating scum!

I gritted my teeth as I thought of ter Borcht. I wondered how Fang had traced him…doesn't that kind of stuff leave a trail? Doesn't everything on the Internet leave a trail? I gasped and sat up.

"Fang! Are you still awake?"

"Of course. I can't sleep." His deep voice seemed disembodied in the pitch blackness, but I could see his outline sit up.

"Yeah, me either, but I've just thought of something – if you tracked ter Borcht through his comment on the blog, doesn't that kind of stuff go two ways?"

He stiffened as he realized what I was getting to. "You're saying that if I could trace him…"

"He could trace us."

"Shit." I didn't rebuke him for swearing. I felt like saying the same thing myself.

"You can say that again."

"Shi-"

"I didn't mean it!" I rubbed the back of my neck agitatedly. "It seems like we can't do anything before they throw something in to mess us up again. We can't even sleep! Well, they can," I said, cocking my head towards the connecting door. "But we can't."

"It sucks, but I don't see right now how we can change it."

"I don't either." I sighed for the umpteenth time. "And there's no way I'm falling asleep anytime soon. There's too much on my mind."

"Stuff I should know?"

"Stuff you already know…" I trailed off, leaving him to think of everything I was thinking of. "Itex, ter Borcht again, and most of all, Jeb being my Voice."

"That was a little creepy."

"Tell me about it!" I exclaimed, forgetting to keep my voice low for a second. I lowered it again hurriedly. "You weren't there when I found out that…he was talking to me in that Voice, the voice that he uses to speak inside my head, and I don't know how or why he does it…" I shook my head. "It's just a lot."

"Has he said anything since you left Germany?" he asked.

"Nothing," I replied. "Not a whisper. I'm relieved…but I think something's coming. Something bad."

"Whatever it is, we'll face it when it comes," he replied quietly. "All of us."

"Thanks," I breathed.

"No problem. You should try to sleep, even if you don't think you can. I'll stay up and watch if you want."

"No, Fang, we're in a place right now where they keep watch for us. We all need to sleep," I protested.

"Relax, I'll only stay up for a bit and then I'll sleep. Promise."

"Swear?"

"I swear, Max. Go to sleep."

I gave in. We stacked and tapped and then I burrowed underneath my warm blankets. What do you know? I did fall asleep.