Chapter 7: The Truth

Nat's POV

"What the hell is your problem!?" Nexi yelled at me as I washed my face in the river.

"What are you yelling about now?" I said uncaringly.

"You! You and your stupid little attitude problems! We're supposed to be a family. We're supposed to have each other's back. We're supposed to work together to save Mom and Dad."

"Well then what are we waiting for? Let's go save them." I said, swinging my backpack over my shoulder.

"Are you insane? We can't do it alone! We need the rest of the Flock!"

"So go get them, and let's be on our way. We don't have much time."

"But we're not ready. Iggy said-"

"Who cares what he said!" I yelled in her face. I moved in, coming face to face with her. "Mom put me in charge and told me to lead the Flock. And besides, how do we know we can even trust him?" I whispered to her.

"What do you mean?" she whispered back. "He's their dad."

"But he's been gone for ten years. He just went and left the Flock. How do we know for sure that we can really trust him to help us?"

"I-I don't-" she stammered as she looked down at the ground.

"Exactly. For now, we're going to stay with him. He's our best guess as to where to find Mom and Dad. And since the others won't leave him, we'll just have to stick around to protect them."

"O….ok…." she whispered.

"And don't tell the others about this. If they find out, we're screwed. Got it?"

"Yea."

"Ok. Let's get back to the camp." I said, grabbing her hand, and pulling toward the camp.

Iggy's POV

After a couple of hours of combat practice and sparring, we were up in the air again. "Hey girls."

"Yea?" they said at the same time.

"We need a location. I figure that they wouldn't have the underground lab in the same area that the School was in."

"Ok. Give us a second." Tiara said, grabbing Crystal's hand. I waited couple of seconds before I got an answer.

"It's in Texas." Crystal yelled to me over the wind.

"Do you know the exact location?"

"Yes."

"Good. It'll take us at least another day or so to get there. When we find it, we will all rest up, and plan our attack. DO NOT do anything stupid or irrational. Got it?" I yelled over the roar of the wind. I was met with a round of yes and got it's.

"Hey Dad?" Nad called as he soared next to me. "Where you really just roaming around for the last ten years?"

"….No."

"Then where were you?"

I let out a deep sigh. I knew I couldn't keep this a secret forever. "I was a prisoner."

"A prisoner!?" Crystal shouted, surprised.

"Yes. The man who's behind all of this, his name is Dr. Jonathan Vental. He was assigned by the director of the School to create an underground section incase they were ever discovered so that they could continue their research and twisted experiments on innocent people and children.

"He did as he was instructed until the first School in Germany was destroyed by us and their secret was exposed. After that day, he took control of all sections of the School, but remained a secret in the shadows of the underground program that he called N.E.O.N.

"He had been plotting to capture us after he saw and heard of the amazing things we were capable of. He plans on taking over the world by making clones of the Flock. Or he did, until he found out that we were capable of reproducing. Somehow, he found out about you kids and your abilities. With that new information, he formed a plan that included you kids as well. Luckily, he didn't know the exact location of where you were. Or so he didn't before.

"That night that I left, I was captured when I was on my back. After the fight with your mother, I flew for a couple of hours to think. She was right. I was irresponsible, and a lot worse could have happened to you then what did. I had made up my mind, and promised myself that I would make up for what I did, and be the best father I could possibly be. I was on my way back to the house, when I was ambushed:

Flashback:

"Nudge was right. I need to grow up. I mean, I'm nineteen, and a father of three. I should have watched Nad better. But I swear, from here on out, I'm gonna be the best damned father I can be!"

I flapped my wings hard. I was about half way home, and couldn't wait to apologize to Nudge, when I was suddenly heard gunfire coming from behind me. I turned to see a helicopter full of men that looked like they were covered in tiger skinned tattoos.

"Damn! You missed!" one said as he laughed and nudge another with his elbow.

"Shit…." I said as I zigzagged back and forth in an attempt to throw them off. When the gunfire had stopped, I was sure I had lost them. How ironic that when I turned around, all I saw was the fiery explosion of a grenade in my face. I cover my face, and braced myself as I was blow a good twenty feet out of the sky.

I'm not exactly sure what happened after I was blow away. I remember falling, and hitting a couple tree branches before landing on the ground. Everything started to get blurry and then dark. The next thing I knew, I woke up in this room with camera's and a two way mirror.

Flashback ends

"I was tortured and experimented on for ten years. The worst part was that the experiments weren't the worst part. The worst was knowing that my children were going up without me. That the girl I loved more than any other in the world thought I didn't love her. I wanted to get out of that place just so I could see you all again.

"Finally, the day came. I was sitting in my room, waiting for them to take me away for my daily testing. When the Whitecoat came in, I walked up to him, and put him in a headlock, choking him until he passed out. Once he did, I grabbed the needle and the ID pass he kept on him. I slowly walked down the quiet hallway to the security room. It was pretty, what I did to those guards. Once inside, I shut off the alarms and released the other experiments as a distraction. I walked out the back exits, using the pass I stole off him, and flew as soon as I was out of sight of the hell hole.

"I flew the rest of the day until I came upon city. I needed to get cleaned up and change my clothes. Luckily, someone gave me money because they thought I was a bum. I sat there for another hour, and ended up collecting over a hundred dollars. I stayed in a hotel for the night, got cleaned up, and ate an actual, decent meal. I also went to the store and got new clothes. I thought that the first thing I should do was come back home, and that's what I did."

"Wow….I can't believe you went through all that. This guy sounds like he's got a sick mind." Nexi said.

"He does. And I have no clue what he plans to do with us once we get there." I said in a low voice.

"Well no matter what it is, we'll face it, and save the rest of the Flock. Then, we'll get this guy back for what he did to you." Nad said, punching his fist into the palm of his hand.

"Yea. We will." I said, looking straight ahead.

"Hey Dad," Crystal called.

"Yea princess?" I never get tired of calling them that.

"The location is fifty feet away from our current location. I suggest that we land here to regroup."

"Sounds good to me. You heard the girl! Landing time!" I yelled. Once on the ground, we set up camp, and started making dinner. "Ok. Tomorrow is going to be big day. It's going to be very dangerous. It's going to be crazy, and I'm telling you right now, even the slightest mistake can get us caught, or worse killed." I stopped to look at all of them. I could see the determination in their faces. They knew what they were risking, and they were ready to prove themselves. "If we succeed tomorrow, you will not only have saved your families, but you will have saved the world."

"What do you mean, 'If we succeed'?" Nat asked.

I sighed. "I'm gonna baby you, and I'm not gonna sugar code it. We all may not make it out alive. I will promise you this: I will guarantee that you five will make it out alive. I will not stop until I know you have made it out, and I can say the same for the rest of your parents. We will risk everything for you/ if it comes to that, do not waste it. If we feel the need to sacrifice ourselves for you, do not waste it by doing something stupid. Escape, plan your next move."

"Ok. So when do we strike?" Tiara asked.

"8 o'clock AM. I suggest you all get some rest. I will wake you up at seven so that we can pack up the camp and to make sure we have everything that we need for the attack."

Everyone nodded their heads. They all went their separate ways, and continued to roast their hot dogs. As I did mine, I noticed that Crystal was looking thoughtfully at the ground. I knew something was up. "Crystal?"

Her head shot up instantly. "Yea?"

"Follow me. I need to talk to you."

"Ok." She said as she got up an followed me out into the forest.

"Alright, what's up. And don't lie. I know that there's something bugging you."

She let out a sigh before looking me in the eye. "I don't know if I have what it takes to do this. What if I can't remember what you taught me? What if I get to scared? What-"

I put my hand over her mouth. "Jeez. You talk almost as much as you're mother." I said, causing her to laugh. "And don't worry. Survival tactics are in your blood. You'll be fine. And do you honestly think that I would take all of you in there without making sure you were all prepared? I've made enough bombs for each of you to carry and use, but only if need be."

"Really?" she asked, hope in her eyes.

"Yep. Now get to bed. Tomorrow, we'll be risking everything to save the one's we love."

Nudge's POV

We were all sitting in a circle in the middle of the room, trying to figure out a way to get out of this crappy place. They had taken us away individually, and had injected each of us with some weird bluish purple liquid. We didn't know exactly what that stuff was, but we knew that we needed to get out before something bad happened.

"We don't really have a lot of options. We can either wait for Iggy, or we can try to jump the next person that comes through the door, and make a break for it." Max whispered.

"I think we should go with the second option. The sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can find Iggy and the kids and blow this place to Kingdom Fucking Come!" Gazzy said.

"Lang- oh why do I care." Max said, giving in. "You're old enough to do whatever you want."

"I agree with Gazzy." Fang said.

"Angel?"

"I think that's best. I sure that they're all somewhere close, and we'd be able to find them a lot easier. Plus, we wouldn't have to put them in any risk."

"Nudge?"

"I also agree. I need to get out of here and find my kids."

"So it's unanimous. Ok, here's the plan,"

"Not so fast, Maximum. We wouldn't want you running off, and hurting yourself, would we?" came that sicko, John's voice. We turned around to see him standing in the doorway. He was holding some kind of remote. We stood and tried to attack him, until I felt a sudden surge of electricity run through my entire body.

We all fell to the floor, twitching as we felt nothing but pain surging through us. The pain was excruciating and I was sure we were going to die. It was almost as unbearable as child birth. ALMOST! Pushing out Iggy's three mutant, genetically altered children was a lot more painful then this.

As everything started to go black, the pain stopped. I tried to open my eyes, and get up to attack that bastard before he could do it again, but couldn't. Move, damn it, move! I continually yelled at my body, but it didn't respond.

"Now, get up." John said, an evil smile on his face. Suddenly, we all started to get up. What the hell!? "Now to try this out. Maximum, I want you to walk to the back of the room, and sit by the wall."

"Yes Master." Max replied in a hallow voice that didn't sound like her, and walked over to the wall before sitting down.

Oh dear god. He has complete control over us. Angel, can you get control over any of us? I called to her.

No. I can't control anything. All I can do is read minds. He has complete control over our body functions. That includes powers, movement, and our voices.

This isn't good. If Iggy and the kids show up, they're going to be in serious danger. We've got to find a way to stop him, before it's to late….

To Be Continued….

And this is where it gets good. The next part is gonna be really intense. Lots of fighting coming up. And don't ask why I haven't updated, the reason is I've been busy writing papers for school, and haven't had the drive or the time to write, but now I do, so I'll try to update again soon.

Remember: Keep reading, writing, and reviewing!

Later!

-Dt2009 with Dark Blue Wings