Well, it's finally happened, I'm now legally considered an adult, 4th of August (tis for me anyway, might still be a few hours away for some of you guys)

Anyway, here's a chapter for you guys as my way of celebrating.

It had been about two weeks when Lauren and James were invited to the Ark. One of the cult leaders wanted James out of sight after an incident and he had refused to go without Lauren. Dana, the other agent apparently had some other 'path'.

So anyway, Max was trying to keep hidden on a small aircraft headed to the Ark. Magic came in really handy with the notice-me-not charm coupled with invisibility that her technique provided.

The two CHERUBs had been told the bare minimum of her abilities. Max would be their contact with the outside world so they needed to know some things about how she operated. They'd prearranged a signal if she needed to talk to them.

Other than that Max had half a dozen invisible clones exploring the Ark, a few stuck to a specific person while others just wandered. Max would either coordinate her clones of stick to one of the agents. She had been so tempted to slap the back of James head when he agreed to look at girls in the shower. The kid he was with was observant though, he would notice.

The punishment did seem harsh, Max didn't care about the spanking part, it was a shame no one was around for her to giggle at the concept with her. The second part of the punishment was about five hours in a metal shed known as the sweat box. Max took pity on them and cast a small cooling charm on it before going to see if Lauren had gotten into trouble yet.

Weeks passed by, Max was constantly reminded why she didn't like religion. When she had found the stash of weapons she knew this was going to end up a lot like Waco, she'd quickly been on the radio to Chloe who was the mission controller for them.

One of her clones destroyed itself telling her something was going down now the one that had been following Lauren had overheard an interesting conversation then the subsequent radio conversation with Chloe. She had till 8 pm get the CHREUBs out. Then there would be the horrible loss of life from both sides. The ASIS, Australian secret intelligence service, and the Survivors.

Unless… Max had a brainwave. It would make up for all the boredom and screw with people.

A bit later another clone dissipated telling her that the kid who Lauren and James had been hanging around with would be joining them. Max decided to follow them personally, she needed real time information.

She caught up with them at Joel Regan, the leader of the cult's bedside. Death bed would be more precise. The kids were trying to plan their escape. Max tapped both CHERUBS on the shoulder three times to let them know she was there.

"Is it me or does it feel like someone's watching us," the extra kid said, Max was a bit unnerved that he was looking straight at her. Max sighed and released her invisibility, the kid would find out anyway and it made her job easier.

"Don't ask about it kid. You guys need to escape right? I can give you a distraction, I can even distract the Spider for you." 'The Spider' was the eldest daughter of Joel, she was another religious nutcase, obviously inherited from her father.

"Ho-"

"I said don't ask kid, just keep moving, I'm going to try to save this place from total destruction. I need to set up some things first."

"How will we know when the distraction is?" Lauren asked

"Three taps, the usual."

By the time Max was ready an alert had already been called, the three kids were under supervision with some toddlers. Max had a clone ready to snap them out of what she was about to do. She'd tried to call up Chloe on the radio but couldn't get though.

She stood in the large court yard and sent out a large wave of chakra laced with a compulsion charm. Anyone who felt it would feel the need to get out to see her. The three taps would stop the kids from complying with it.

As more people became visible Max started some creative work. She started to emit a small layer of chakra to give her the appearance of glowing. She formed some chakra into tendrils the sprouted from her back into a vague wing shape glowing a pale blue. A slight Henge had her eyes completely white and gleaming and her clothes changed to flowing white robes. Just to add to it she was floating a few inches off the ground.

A few people gasped at her appearance and Max could hear them wondering if she was an angel.

"My children," Max started, her voice louder and echoey. "Today is a day of change. Joel Regan has completed the work set to him by the almighty father and is receiving his reward." All of the crowd's attention was now completely focused on her. "The pressure of being His almighty messenger is great on a mortal being and the message is now tangled. He has chosen Eleanor Regan to spread the message made once again pure. The devils are not to be ostracised. You must save them. You must save all of His children."

Eleanor had made her way to the courtyard and tenderly approached Max. "You will do well child. He has faith. Don't send his children underground now, it is not their time. You will survive this, standing strong without violence. May his faith guide you," Max said. She took a few steps back, in the distance she could hear the helicopters approaching and knew she needed to wrap this up.

"Lay down your weapons for He has spoken," she commanded. A shockwave emanating from Max lifted some dust into the air which began to swirl around her before being blasted outwards. The people began to lay down the weapons they had been issued just as the helicopter flew into sight.

"I must now shed my mortal image to return to our father. May you all receive His love everlasting. Go out in His name!" Max shouted making dust rise around her again. Something struck her from behind, the crack of a gun told her she had just been shot, a hand felt over where the impact had been and her fingers felt liquid.

The Tactical Assault Group (TAG) obviously saw her as dangerous. "Peace children. It is my time to go," Max said, gasping for breath, the few who had reached for a weapon stopped. She wished she'd kept on her bullet proof stuff and just dealt with the excessive heat.

The pained seemed delayed when it blossomed in her back. Max fell to one knee, her head feeling fuzzy. Realising she would soon lose consciousness she made a hand sign, activating many seals dotted around the compound. Each released sleeping gas into the room and surrounding area. The people outside were not unaffected, Max had started a genjutsu with the beginning of her speech so they were within seconds of sleep themselves.

Max forced herself to stay conscious as she lay on the dirt, if her clone disappeared now then the kids would get affected by the genjutsu and they would be thought of as part of the cult.

The second everyone was asleep Max released her grip on everything, genjutsu first so it was safe to drop her clones, and then her illusions dropped, returning her to her normal appearance. She could feel feet running towards her, pounding on the dried out dirt.

"Rho!" She felt something being pressed up against her back.

"S'ok, 'm good." Max mumbled. She tried to smile. "I'm so going to hell for that," she said half muffled by the dirt.

"You've just been shot."

"No, shit."

"Figures she'd be able to say that coherently," James muttered.

"Chloe's heading over here, one of the helicopters has been ordered to get us out of here." Lauren said, trying to reassure Max but it was a bit late, Max had lost consciousness.

The story on the Survivor's Ark hit the news world wide. Many people were saying it was a miracle no one was hurt. It was a lie but the public didn't need to know that. A lot of people from the Ark were arrested, it was easy enough to do while they were asleep.

DiNozzo's phone rang, a blocked number but he answered it, his eyes glued to the news like the rest of the team.

"Is this Anthony DiNozzo?" asked a woman with a British accent, much to DiNozzo's puzzlement.

"Yes, who is this and why are you calling me?"

"My name is Chloe. You were the last called number on Rho's phone-"

"Rho? Why isn't she calling then? Did something go wrong? Is she ok?" Some of the team looked up briefly at the mention of Max's alias.

"She's in hospital, she was shot-"

"Which hospital?" This grabbed everyone's attention.

"Townsville Hospital in Queensland." DiNozzo hung up, McGee had been listening and had already looked up the next flight to that area.

Being shot in the arm felt like a paper cut compared to being shot in the back Max thought as she drifted through her psych. She wasn't quite sure why she was still aware, even if it was in her mind. She'd first gone to the exit only to find it barred. Instead she wandered around her primarily unconscious mind.

She ignored the three rooms labelled ID, Ego and Superego, she really didn't want to know what was in those but it was reassuring to know they existed. Max had to wonder if they had always existed or were formed on her knowledge of Freud's theory of the mind.

A look at the room that was supposed to contain all her weird fantasies, different from her desires stored in the ID room, had a note. 'Renovations in progress'. Why were renovations going on in her own mind? That made no sense!

With nothing interesting to do Max went to visit her furry friend. The shichibi had been sleeping.

'Had'. It's hard to sleep when someone imagines a huge tub of water above your head, then disappears the tub. Max knew that from personal experiences.

"What do you want brat?" the wolf growled, seven tails lashing out menacingly only to hit barriers Max imagined when they got too close.

"Trying to figure out what's going on."

"You almost died, stupid human." Max ignored the 'stupid human' comment out of reflex, any species seemed to view humans as stupid so she'd learnt to block it out.

"Almost? I suppose that's better than actual death. How long until I can wake up?"

"You could wake up now if you really wanted, I only blocked it because of the pain you would be in. That door works both ways, lets your thoughts out and your physical feelings in." Max raised an eyebrow, that was uncharacteristically nice for a demon.

"How long until you suggest I should wake up?"

"A couple of days, luckily for you time in your mind is not relative to time in real life."

"Wanna watch a few of my memories on the silver screen?"

"If it will pass the time without you dumping more water on me, then sure."

Three days after the events at the Ark and Max had quite the entourage in the waiting room waiting for her to heal. Gaara felt that Tsunade should be informed of Max's condition. Naruto had been bugging Tsunade when the message had arrived.

That how Laura and Louise had found out, then by proxy anyone else who frequented their house. Tsunade had flat out refused to let all of them go.

So that was why Laura, Naruto and Itachi were currently in Australia.

Alex was there as well, he'd felt a bit responsible for her being placed in that situation. He'd managed to get a message to Haku who had travelled from Atlantis to visit and help heal.

The CHERUBs had visited a few times, Chloe wanted to hear Max's take on the mission while the kids just wanted to know she would be ok.

What was funny was that none of the groups knew they were waiting for the same person. Haku had gone straight to helping Max so couldn't break the ice between Alex and the ninjas which the others would have been listening in to and figured out the connection.

Done. Hopefully no one was too offended by any pisstake on religion this chapter may have contained.

Man that was fun to write though. Most of this chapter was inspired by my psychology lessons. Watching the thing on Waco gave me the inspiration for Max pretending to be an angel. I was tempted for her to blow the whole place up, but Max isn't the kind of girl to repeat her actions and she'd already blown up Forks.

The ID, Ego and SuperEgo = Freud's theory of the human mind, the ID contains your desires, the SuperEgo contains your common sense and your Ego balances them. Freud also reckons that everyone has sex on the brain and that all women have penis envy. Yay for random facts.

Reviews are most welcome.