A/N as promised I give you two chapters and this is where it gets interesting and slightly sad. But Ii hope you enjoy it and I would love some more reviews. My New Years resolution is to finish this as quick as possible so I can work on my other ideas. I was thinking of doing a crossover with Twilight for a story what do you think?

Chapter 9

I didn't want to wake up. I was still holding on to my last dream. I dreamt that Chase had come and got me, and the best part, I had felt the wind on my face, I was free. I didn't want to open my eyes to the blackness, but I knew it was inevitable. My childish mind wanted to peek around me just to check and see that maybe it hadn't all been a dream.

I opened my eyes slightly and glared in disappointment, then snapped my lids closed and tried to dream of Chase again and freedom. But then my brain snapped out of its normal routine and processed what I had actually seen. My mind spinning with anticipated hope, I sat stiffly up and looked around me again. Only this time seeking out every detail of my surroundings visually.

I was on a wooden bed with a MATTRESS. Not cold concrete or metal, actually fabric. It was really comfy. For those of you have lived with a bed and blankets and mattresses and pillows, by god you must live like kings and queens. As I quickly realised I was in a type of cave with chairs scattered around the room and a small table in the corner, there were even lights.

Wait, lights in a cave? I must be dreaming. But no matter how many times I blinked the studio lights stuck into the rock ceiling just did not vanish. And I didn't wake up either.

A childish impulse suddenly took hold of me and I forgot about the lights and rocked backwards on the bed. The springs made me bounce a bit, then I pushed up on my arms and dropped down and bounced on the springs. My quiet giggling dried up as my arms began to burn. Dumbly I looked down at them and saw they were bandaged from my upper arm to my wrist, even some of my fingers were individually bound. It felt strange, I had never been cleaned up like this before, normally a shabby set of stitches were used to hold together a huge laceration or strip of cloth used to stop a flow of blood that was like a waterfall.

Wherever I was, I wasn't at the Arena. Someone had actually taken care of me. A slight smile curled my lips. Chase had come and got me, so he was here somewhere. And so was Sky. I was about to jump off the bed and poke my head out of the drape that acted as a door to the cave fluttered open.

I quickly twisted around and curled up on my side and pretended I was asleep, I was good at pretending very rarely if they thought I was asleep they'd leave me be for a bit longer. It was worth the chance.

And for once in my life this childish little tactic worked, whoever had walked in, did not realise I was awake. I heard heavy footsteps and a lighter set of footfalls, two people one male and the other possibly female. But what did they want.

"Hey is she awake. How do we know if she's awake when we have to check on her?" A soft female voice asked. I was still tense under the covers. Were these people from the Arena.

"I don't know do I, perhaps if we just poke her. If she fidgets we know she's nearly awake, and if not then she's still out for the count."

That way the males voice, then I heard those heavier footsteps getting closer. His voice sounded deep and harsh like the Wing Beaters. I didn't want him to touch me. It was taking all of my willpower for me not to shake and reveal that I was awake. Put I could feel a hot hand slightly running up my arm. Then I felt a meaty finger push down on my bandages. The bandage rubbed against my sore skin and stung like a bee sting. I squeaked in pain and jumped up trying to defend myself. Arms raised and fists clenched.

"Jacco what did you do?" The woman by the door started to charge in with an angry look on her face.

"Nothing Rachel, I did nothing 'cept poke the kid. Hey its alright just stay still for a mo-"

Jacco didn't get to finish his sentence, because while he had been reaching out to me and trying to soothe me with his voice, in a similar way the white coats did, I lashed out.

My fist connected with his nose solidly and I heard a faint crack. He shot up from his crouch on my bed and his hand flew to his nose just in time to catch the falling red drops of blood.

I prepared myself for Rachel to pounce on me, but to my complete and utter shock and surprise she keeled over laughing, leaning slightly against the cave wall. "Oh my frickin God! You just got socked by a kid barely four. Oh my I'm never going to let you live this down. I like the kid all ready."Yeah well I didn't like her. She was talking about me as though I weren't even there, like I was an object, she was talking like the white coats did about me.

She smiled at me in what would have been a warm smile, but my panicked mind saw it as a taunting grin. I pushed myself up out of bed and went to dash out the door and try to find my way out of this maze of a cave. But the drape of a door fluttered and a tall dark shadow walked in. Fearing the worst I braced myself. And I felt my mind uncoil like a snake, trying to find something it could use with my new telekinesis to protect myself. I couldn't control it my mind seemed to wrap around the rock of the cave itself and slowly squeeze inwards on itself. A sharp pain shot through my temples and seemed to rebound in my skull making me dizzy and faint. But the pain, the pain was so immense, the closest I could think of was that my mind felt scarred, as though lesions patterned my brain and I was straining myself and making them worse by trying to use my telekinesis. I felt as though I wanted to die, as dust and gravel trickled down and the cave began to groan with the grinding of rocks, I almost wished to be buried under the rubble. Anything to stop this pain in my skull.

But then the light lit up the face of the person approaching and a quiet sob ripped itself out of my throat. "MAX!"

Warm arms wrapped me up in a hug, careful to not jar my bandages and cause me pain. I hid my face into Sky's long brown hair with faint streaks of blonde. I couldn't compare it to anything because I hadn't seen much that I could compare it to.

I felt Sky's presence enter my mind. Somehow, someway she seemed to unclasp my mental hold on the rock around me and relax my mind so that the cave stood still and strong once more. But the pain was still there and there's were running out of my eyes though I made no sound.

"It's okay. It's okay. You're safe now. I've got you. It's okay." She kept repeating those words like they were a prayer, or mantra.

She was rocking me back and forth on her lap when the drape moved again. I flinched again and tried to reach out with my mind, instinctively like a rabbit trying to run and the slightest sound. Chase walked in to see the scene of me crying with no expression or sound. With Sky rocking me and repeating herself non stop. He glanced at Rachel who was standing next to Jacco by the end of my bed, helping Jacco staunch the drip of his bloody nose.

"Leave." Chase's voice held threat and authority all in that one word. But They left without hesitation.

The minutes the drape stilled over the hole to my cave, Chase walked ove to join me and Sky. He held us both and said nothing. His strength didn't need words. We held each other like there was no tomorrow, and maybe there wasn't.

But they waited until the tears stopped to move me back under the blankets then they curled up either side of me and rested their heads on my pillow, their arms felt like a protective barrier around me thaht no one could breach. Slowly but inevitably the pain ebbed away. I snuggled deeper into their arms and pulled the covers tighter around me.

I felt exhausted for no apparent reason, and a dim part of me recalled that I had only just woke up, yet I was already sleepy again. My eyes fluttered shut and Sky's slow deep breath against the back of my neck was comforting and familiar. As well as Chase's fingers that were twisting strands of my hair around his hand idly.

Before sleep and the fear that practically lived with me always, I managed to mumble the words I had wanted to say since they had left me. "I love you both. Please don't leave again. It was scary."

Chase's fingers stopped and Sky breath halted for a bit. Sky kissed the top of my head and Chase held me a little tighter to his chest nuzzled the top of my head. "We wont ever leave you again. I'll kep us safe now, there's no reason to be afraid." Chase's deep voice was gruff with tears he was holding back.

"And we love you too, always and forever, and even beyond that. No matter. Now go to sleep." That was Sky's voice having the final word comforting Chase and herself as well as me with truth she spoke with.

Happy that I was safe for now with my family around me I fell asleep knowing they would protect even if I couldn't return the favour yet.

A/N Okie dokie people the next chapter will be up by tomorrow hopefully just have to tweak a few things. As always R&R for me. And I will also start picking up the update on my other story Never Forget. If you haven't read it yet go ahead and read it. Its got badass Max all the way through =D XD Also longest chapter yet so WOOO!!