MAX POV

At first, I felt my heart sink. We used superspeed! How on earth could they find…us…wait.

"29?" I called out tentatively. "If that's you, you can come up…" Oh god, please be her…. I unknowingly held my breath, ignoring the confused stares.

I felt my breath catch in my throat when I saw a hand hauling a body onto the ledge. I let it out, though, when I reocgnizd 29's midnight black hair flash when she pulled herself into a standing position.

She slowly brought her gaze up to meet mine, and she nodded curtly to me, showing no sign of acknowledgement to the other Flock members. She turned around, facing the cave's mouth. She swung her legs over the edge. She seemed frozen to that spot, other than the occasional swinging of her legs.

I turned to the rest of the flock.

"Explaining time?" I suggested.

"I should think so!" Gazzy.

"Um..yes, that would be nice…." Angel.

"Totally! How did you escape? And who is she? Is she a hybrid? An Avian one too? Did you rescue her? Does she have any cool powers? Can she talk? What— " You guessed it….Nudge.

"Damn straight." Iggy. No time to reprimand him for his language.

A curt nod. Fang.

I gestured for them to sit, and I did likewise. I told them everything that had happened since I had been caught. Not surprisingly, 29 didn't twitch the entire time. I left out the poison part, for the sake of the younger kids. When they called it a night, I would tell the rest to Iggy and Fang. They certainly deserved to know the depth of 29's withdrawal.

29 POV

When Max landed on the cave's ledge and I saw the mixture of fear, disbelief, and overall joy on their faces, I quietly slipped away. While I waited on a ledge some 20 feet below, I started to think.

Maybe I should leave. After all, Max and her Flock certainly have an attachment to each other. I would only strain it, or at least be a pest. Who needed another emotionless freak if you had Fang, as Max had (quite lovingly, in fact) described Fang as "utterly and completely, infuriatingly, silent…"? Besides, it's not like anyone would miss me…But what if I did stay? Could I handle the emotion in all of them on a daily basis? Wait, of course I could handle it! I didn't starve myself of emotion for 6 years and them not be able to handle an emotionally stressful encounter. I would simply remain impassive, and attempt to be as helpful as possible. Maybe I could…change? Was I capable of such a thing?

But I was still 29. Maybe not Experiment 29, but 29 just the same.

Keep in mind that the next chapter is 2 years from this point.

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