So sorry about the slow updates! I've had exams, performances, assignments and issues for the past 10 weeks. But I WILL update once a week from now on. I won't keep you from the chapter any longer, so have fun reading!

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[REAPER_]

Damn, they upgraded the sentinel drones… again. And they tested them on the flock. Wonderful. They're making it awfully hard for me to 'protect' them. And now they're probably gonna realise the faults and weaknesses of the sentinels and fix those up and be even more impossible to kill… Aurgh! This is getting ridiculous! Britt Maxicom will become unstoppable if we don't get to them first. But there was something…something I remember from my 'stay' with them. Project Omega. All I know is that Omega is a 'Failed' experiment who was terminated after he failed to kill Max. That… and omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. So this could be either bad or very bad.

[MAX_]

'I need a herooooo to save my life, a hero's gonna save me just in time!' Augh! Wonderful… Gazzy has Hero by Skillet stuck in his head, and me being me couldn't block him out. Its frustrating to say the least. I wonder if this is how Angel feels?

'You have no idea…' Angel thought. You know I never thought about that before. I feel very bad: Iggy had managed to get the song that never end stuck in my head once, and I was singing it for a week.

I was knocked out of my inner musings by a feathery cannonball. Iggy was being an idiot and stacked the flip he was trying to do. Well that's what you get when you try to backflip five times without flapping.

"Do you mind?" I snapped at him. He looked up at my general direction and shrugged sheepishly. Nudge, Gazzy and Angel thought it was funny and were trying to smother giggles. Well it won't be funny when they're the ones knocked out of the air!

Angel's eyes widened when she realised what I was planning. "SCATTER!" she shouted but it was too late. I was already dive-bombing into Nudge and grabbing Gazzy on the way. This time Fang was the one trying to hide his laughter. Dylan was apparently above having fun and being kids, so he just sniffed disapprovingly. I stuck out my tongue at him to show how mature I was. Angel decided to head for Fang but I warned him before she got too close. Soon it turned into a full-out war of tag-a-feather.

It was sunset by the time we stopped with our games, so we landed in the conveniently placed forest that was below us. We set up camp but Dylan was looking at us disapprovingly the whole time.

"Tomorrow we keep heading the direction we're going, maybe stop at a town check up on the news," I said and everyone but Dylan agreed. What was up with him?

He scowled at me and tapped his foot in a condescending way. Oh, look at me! Big words! "We could be half way across the nation by now if you weren't playing childish games! I expect it of Iggy and Fang, but not you, Max!"

Iggy scowled but then his face lit up and the same way Fang's did. Oh, they were plotting something…

"Hey! I'm not childish!" Iggy cried indignantly. He then walked up Fang, tagged his shoulder and quickly ran behind me. "Tag, Fang! You're it!"

Fang sniffed and held his head high. "Not right now. I am a mature adult, above playing games and having fun. I will now return to my overly boring and mature life. By the way, my name is not a stupid name like Fang, it's Nick, a respectable and mature name."

The rest of the flock couldn't hold it in any longer: we all burst out laughing. We couldn't help it: seeing Fang muck around like that was priceless. Unfortunately Dylan had to ruin the moment. Stupid Dylan.

"I'm serious!" said party-pooper growled.

I grinned at him. "Chill, Dill. Hehe that rhymed. Everyone has to have fun sometimes, ya know? It gets rid of stress, and it's well…fun!"

He still looked tense and serious…like an adult. "Because we can all the fun we want when there's an evil company on our tail, catching up." Hey! Sarcasm is my thing!

And guess what: that little childish thought is what made me snap. "Well, even though you look the oldest, you're technically the youngest and least experienced. I, on the other hand am older and have way more experience than you! So what I say goes."

Dylan stomped his foot and glared while I froze.. "Fine!" he shouted and ran off to find firewood.

"Uh, is it just me or is Dylan acting…" Iggy started.

"Strange?" Fang suggested and Iggy nodded.

Gazzy looked thoughtful. "Stranger than normal, you mean?" he asked.

Nudge was nodding so fast that she looked like a bobble-head. "Yeah, yeah yeah! Isn't he normally hanging off Max's every word like it's, like, the bible or something? And he's always trailing after Max like a lost puppy." That was Nudge's twenty cents.

I, however, was still frozen. Something Angel noticed. "Are you alright Max?" she asked and alerted the whole flock to my little problem. Now the whole flock was staring at me.

"Did Dylan just stomp his foot like a little girl…?"

[BRITT MAXICOM_]

Shane Snowe was getting impatient. The conference was taking too long, and all because of one little detail they all forgot: Maximum Ride. The board of directors were all for Maximum Ride supporting their company, but Snowe could only shake his head at them. From what he read of in Maximum Ride's file, she would never support their company. They were going against all she ever believed in.

When the chairman started blabbing on about the advantages Snowe had finally snapped. He slammed his hands in the table to get everyone's attention and then started growling at them. "Did you even bother reading her file? She will never work for, she is only a threat! This company is the spitting image of ITEX, without all the weaknesses. She was the downfall of Itex, and therefor this company if we don't stop her!"

The chairman looked over his glasses at him. This company was his life, but he wasn't foolish enough to think that it was unstoppable. "What do you propose?"

Snowe was startled at the sudden change in attitude, but regained his feet. "Don't worry, my people have come up with an emergency plan if anything like this were to happen. At the time, it was only a precaution but now it is needed." Snowe was grinning maliciously into the distance. The other members of the board started shifting in their seats, fearing for their lives. "I will put this plan into action immediately."

Ignoring the objections, Snowe turned off his iPad, stood up and quickly strode out of the room. He was a man on a mission and no one was going to get in his way. This plan of his would take time, but as long as it eliminated the threat, he was all for it.

Snowe reached his office with no interruptions- all the workers had seen and felt the anger and determination off him, and none wanted to get in his way. He sat down at his large desk, ignoring the cup of coffee that his secretary placed there. He grabbed his private cell phone out of his suit pocket and pressed speed-dial and held the phone to his ear.

It only rang once before someone answered. "Ves?"

"Ter Borche, go ahead with Plan Kira. Relay command immediately."

"My absolute pleasure." There was a click and then beeping started, signalling that he had hung up. Snowe could practically hear his smirk, and shuddered. He had worked and plotted with Ter Borche for a little over four years now, starting just after the fall of ITEX. Even though he had worked with him for so long, Snowe still shuddered when he thought of him actually smirking. Ter Borche was sadistic, taking pleasure in torture and life-taking and Snowe wouldn't trust him further than he could throw him. To put it bluntly, that man was frightening.

Snowe sighed and spun his chair around to look out his recently-replaced window. That was another thing. Now, Snowe wasn't a Christian by any means, nor did he have a religion, but he liked to believe that there were other forces at work beyond human comprehension. And messing with the assassin known as Reaper felt to him like messing with forces beyond any humans' or experiments' control.

[REAPER_]

I sighed and picked up my new journal before writing. I had lost my old journal almost two weeks back, sometime around when the flock was attacked. Oh well, if one of them did manage to find it, they'd find out I was somewhat innocent…

Journal Entry 3: Start of autumn.

The nightmares have started again. Except this time they're different. They are events that have never happened in my life time… yet I can't help but feel like they did happen to me. Another thing: there's like a set of rules that don't even make sense programed into me, yet they don't seem to be the type of rules that ITEX or Britt Maxicom would create. I think it has something to do with my ability. I doubt normal humans or experiments have a set of rules that are ingrained into their mind like it's instinct.

They're…

I paused before writing further. Why did I write anyway?

Because writing your heart out is the next best thing if you don't have someone to talk to. Some, rational and smart part of my brain supplied. I shrugged, I guess that was true.

I put my pen back on the paper and continued writing. Perhaps writing these rules down will help me understand…

…The rules are as follows:

I. Taking a life is essential to keep the balance of life and death but murdering without cause is forfeiting the position and your life.

II. Saving the life of a being is permitted but only if it is not their time. DO NOT INTERFERE IF THEIR TIME IS UP.

III. Interfering with the second rule will save the life of the being but your life will take its place- the balance must be restored.

IV. Suicide is not permitted and does not work. The body will not be affected until it is up but the consciousness will move on.

V. If a being is still alive even if their time is up because of circumstances interfering with their cause of death it is your obligation to end the being as quickly and painlessly as possible.

VI. If the balance of life and death is out of order, it is your priority to restore it quickly, finding the fault, before it is unbalanced for eternity. Consequences are unknown.

VII. Previous life memories, abilities and secrets will only be revealed in dire circumstance. Unlocking them without permission is forbidden…

My life could be a best-selling fictional series, I thought, putting down the pen. Now that I had the rules on paper, I could examine them better and stuff that escaped my notice earlier popped out of me. Consciousness will move on? Does this mean it's happened before? Whatever it is? And how was I supposed to know about the balance of life and death? To me it sounds like some sort of zen thing.

My mind screeched to a halt when I read the last rule. That last one had always been there, yet I had never been able to reach it. I had been unconsciously writing it but that just meant I could finally get it… and wish I never read it. You mean… I've had past lives? Like reincarnation? I guess it makes sense… But if reincarnation was possible, I doubt most of the people who were got a big list about balances of life and death. I guess I'm just special. Again.

Perhaps it's time I go see Jeb. He could help me, and he always seemed to know what was going on, even when others had no hope of understanding. I'll just have to time my visit so I don't bump into the flock. Bumping into them now would be bad, for me that is. And they can survive without me hovering over them, saving their butts. So it's decided: I'll see Jeb, probably sometime in the next week. He'll know what to do.

[MAX_]

I woke up startled. Iggy was on watch and he looked straight at me when I sat up. It was only around two o'clock, another hour before final watch. I walked over to Iggy and tapped him on the shoulder twice, signalling that I would take over. I had no hope for getting back to sleep. Iggy looked at me with concern but didn't argue.

I sighed and stared up at the stars. Warning bells, that's what woke me up and I could still hear them… but there was nothing in sight. I leaned against the tree and started my watch. My thoughts couldn't help but wander to what I read about Reaper. Is she really the bad guy- uh, girl- in all of this? Or just someone caught up in the current. I didn't matter anyway. As long as she doesn't try to kill us, it's all good.

Now what to do about Britt Maxicom? Obviously we need to do research, but I have a funny feeling that the results will come up similar, if not the same as ITEX. But how will we bring it down? Britt Maxicom will have obviously learned from ITEX's mistakes so I doubt that taking it down branch by branch will work… no, it'll have to be something else. And what about those drones? They'll definitely have more of those things and they'd probably fix up the weaknesses. But it was disturbing how they knew about Nudge's magnetic and hacking abilities. Us and probably Jeb and Ella are the only ones who know about it, so how could Britt Maxicom know, let alone counter it?

No use asking pointless questions now. I grabbed Fang's pack, being as silent as possible as not to wake him up, and fished out his laptop. I started it up and noticed with alarm that there was only 20% battery left. We'll definitely need to stop at a town some time soon. Once the laptop was loaded, I clicked on internet explorer and opened up the tab from Fang's blog. I scanned through, noting with relief that he only posted stuff about how we're still alive and that we're gonna need help soon. We wouldn't want to alert Britt Maxicom, and Fang figured out that writing about it in his blog is a big no-no.

I was startled when I saw a comment by jELLAbean. It had to be Ella. I read the comment: message from Jeb- be on your guard. Beware of Omega. I have no idea what that means, but plz be careful. You guys r my only family left. Omega? I thought ITEX terminated him? Great, just another thing to add onto my list of things to worry about. I replied to the comment and snapped the laptop shut and slid it back into Fang's pack.

With nothing better to do, I grabbed my bow that I inherited and started polishing it. It was the last thing I received from my mother, so it wasn't going to go to waste.

[?_]

My eyes snapped open when I felt the transmitter buzzed close to my chest. Without a sound, I brought it close to my face so I could read the message. Commence with project Kira ASAP. I smirked and destroyed the transmitter in my hand, leaving no trace of the message.

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LE GASP! What will happen next?

Dylan: dunno.

Me: I can tell you this: the plot will definitely move on much quicker now. You have reached the point of no return!

Chancey: I can see a death-note reference!

Me: yes, it's quite obvious to anyone who knows anything about death-note. But kudos to whoever gets it first!

Now seriousness: I will be in Melbourne this time next week, also visiting Falls Creek (snow field). I can't wait seeing as I've only ever been to the snow once being a Queensland girl. There MIGHT be an update, I will quite possibly work on the next chapter on the four hour bus trip from Melbourne to Falls Creek. But I do guarantee this: When I return it will be winter break as my cousins refer to it as. I will definitely update plenty in that time.

That's all from me, cheerio!