Up, up, up in the air! It had been so dang long since I'd stretched my wings, they'd practically fallen asleep. I jumped high into the air with my super-bird kid strength, trying to ignore the pain shooting through my broken hands as I hung off the ground for a thousandth of a second, and then I snapped my wings out. My flock followed me. My heart soared in my chest.

You should've seen the expressions on the volturi's face. I almost fell out of the sky laughing, my shakes of mirth making my wingstrokes unsteady. Cauis stared at us with his jaw hanging open, Marcus' eyes actually widened in surprise (for him, this seemed to be a lot) and Aro had an expression of eagerness (that I really didn't want to interpret) on his face. The other vampires ranged from fainting in shock and screaming and running the other direction.

Fortunately, the ceiling was pretty high. We swooped upwards, wind shrieking past us, and hovered two hundred feet above the volturi.

"Dive for the door! Iggy, Gazzy- I give you permission to use all the bombs you made!" I yelled. The evil look on Iggy's face made me want to run the other direction-or fly.

"Fang, lead the way!" I added. If there's one person I can trust to take care of the flock (besides me) it's Fang. In fact, I think I can trust him forever-no! Bad Max! Stop thinking!

Fang dived downwards, folding his wings pack so that he was a dark blur rocketing out of the sky. He barrel-rolled in the direction of the doorway. Volturi guards scattered.

"Cullens! Come one!" I yelled. Bella, Alice, and Renesmee scattered in our direction, "Gazzy, Iggy, you're next! Ig, eleven o clock!" I gave him the direction of the door.

Bella and Alice dodged around the vampires. Renesmee smiled angelically and touched the arm of one of the volturi guards who blocked her path. Whatever she did, it must have hurt, because he dropped to the ground A/N: Renesmee is using her power to send him painful memories.

Iggy and the Gasmen cackled simultaneously and dropped bombs at random on the volturi that leaped for them. The bombs exploded on impact, and the vibrations through the air made me trip and lose ten feet. They made it safely out the door.

"Nudge!" I yelled. Nudge nodded, that determined look on her face, and dove down. A volturi guard lunged for her, but she dodged out of his way, touched ground for a moment, and took off through the air. Another vampire snarled and lunged for her, but she raised her hand in the air and a chunk of rock about the size of a large cello (It's what was sitting in front of me) flew into him. Nudge let out a shriek of joy and flew out the door.

I grabbed Angel's hand and together we flew out the door, through the long dark passageway, and into the moonlight. The rest of the flock and the Cullens waited for us.

"Cullens! You guys continue on by land! We'll go by air!" I shouted. Bella nodded and the Cullens took off.

Volturi soldiers began pouring out of the hole in the ground, about a third of a mile under us. I could make out their indistinct forms with my freaky bird kid raptor vision.

Of course I, being the great and noble leader I am, acted chivalrously and mature. Of course I resisted the urge to make fun of them.

Nah.

I pointed and laughed.

Okay, I was going to have to work on my three-year old tendencies. I get it.

"Let's go, flock!" I yelled. They nodded in agreement. Okay, I was probably going to die in under two weeks, I had crappy romance issues with a guy who was practically my brother, and we were currently living with a ton of vampires. But everyone enjoys a victory, don't they? It was fated that we would win SOME day.

Of course, fate likes to bite us on the butt sometimes.

Angel let out a shriek and fell. I twisted in the air, stared at her for a moment, and didn't think-just acted. My baby couldn't be hurt, no matter what was happening. She fell like a brick, wings stretched outwards, but that didn't matter because I caught her a good ten feet from the ground.

"Fang!" I shrieked. I needed Fang's help again, damn it, "Angel, Angel, Angel baby, you okay? What's wrong?" I hovered at ten foot level, waiting for Fang to come down and help me lift her. Oof. She was still ultra-cute, but she was definitely nine years old, and probably weight sixty pounds.

"Jane," Angel croaked.

"Jane?" I said, glancing at the aforementioned vampire. She smiled smugly.

"Are you using some sort of witch powers on Angel!" I yelled, knowing that Angel commonly used witch powers, "Angel, I thought you could mind-block them!"

"Double-teaming," She croaked, pointing to Alec.

I growled furiously. Alec and Jane were double teaming Angel! "Fang!" I yelled, starting to haul Angel upwards. Fang had just reached me. His wingtips were touching mine.

Then everything went black.

DDDDDDDDD

"Jeb, don't act rashly," Carlisle warned.

Jeb paced back and forth in front of vampires. They watched him silently, "What am I to do, Carlisle? My daughter and her flock have all been trapped by human blood drinking vampires. They could be changed any minute. They could be EATEN any minute."

Carlisle touched his arm, "Jeb, that is not Aro's style. He will give them a day to stew in fear, and then he will change them. Don't worry. He's not going to have them killed. He will not don't see them as very, very valuable."

Jeb ground his teeth, "So, what do we do now?"

"We will devise a plan."

Jeb took a deep breath, and looked to Esme, Alice, Bella, Renesmee, Rosalie, Jacob, Edward, Jasper, Emmett and Total the dog, who was strangely silent. He knew that they were stronger than him. He knew that they knew these vampires far better. But he had to help somehow. He had to help his daughter. He had to make up for all the wrongs he had done. He had to cast aside that fateful day when he'd implanted the aneurysm into Max's brain.

He had to make things right.

"All right," Jeb said, "Show me the blueprints of the volturi hideout and I can help you strategically."

DDDDDDDDD

I woke up with a massive headache, a bad taste in my mouth, and. . .um. . .wings? I stretched yawned, opened my eyes, blinked, tried to open them again, and realized that there was no light.

My fingers scrambled away from my body. I felt around and found dirt, metal bars of some sort of cage, more dirt, and a-

"Ah!" I wrenched my arm back.

"Max? You're awake?" Fang's voice floated through the darkness.

Oh. I thought he'd been a freaking dead body from the way he hadn't been moving, "No duh, sherlock," I said, trying to hide the girly-girl shriek that had been building inside of me.

I could almost see Fang's grin through the darkness, "Glad to hear it," He said, shifting slightly. I tracked his movement with my freaky bird kid hearing and could tell he was about. . .

Six inches away.

WAY too close. I jumped up, "Have you felt the dimensions of this cage thingy?" I asked feeling around, making up a reason to get away from him. I deduced that it was about six feet in each direction. GAH! Claustrophobia kicking in! "Where's the rest of the flock."

Fang paused a moment before answering, "Angel and Gazzy were here until about an hour ago. They took Gazzy away, then Angel."

"Why didn't you stop them!" I cried out in horror. Angel! Gazzy! My two babies!

"By 'they' I mean vampires, Max. I've got some bruises to show that I at least tried to stop them."

Oh. I quieted down for a moment, then said, "Do you have any idea what happened?"

"With Jane keeping Angel down, Alec used his freaky stop-everything-and drop power on us. Least, that's Angel's explanation."

I sat down on the ground next to him. There wasn't really any way to avoid that in such a small cage, was there? "Do you know why they took the rest of the flock away?"

"Angel said she hard some vampires thinking. They wanted to separate us, the leaders, from the rest of the flock so that the kids would be left in fear. She said they took them out one at a time to instill fear."

A tremor of fear ran up my spine. Gee, looks like that Volutri's tactic was working, huh?

"So you might be taken at any moment?" I said, guessing.

"Looks like it."

I gulped. I couldn't be alone. I couldn't be alone. Not in this freaky, tiny cage, "And we're alone," I added.

"Yup."

"Just the two of us."

"Yup."

I pressed my back to the side of the cage, as far away from him as possible. Fang didn't miss the movement.

"Max," He said calmly in that fanglike way of his, "We've got some issues. We need to talk."

My heart sputtered in my chest. I deliberately misunderstood, "Yeah. We definitely need to get out of here before our expiration dates-"

"Max."

That was it. Just that one word.

My name.

I'd picked it for myself. Taking it, I'd made a promise to my flock that I would always be the best I could be, always protect them with my maximum strength, but now-! I couldn't maximum fall in love, could I?

Gah! I did not just think that word! No! Of course I loved Fang, he was like a brother!

"Max," Fang said, "You and me. If we don't decide how we're going to go soon, it's going to tear the flock apart," He let those words hang in the air.

Darn it, I hated it when he was right.

"But-" I said. I don't know what I was going to But to, because at that moment, Fang added, "You looooooove me. You loooooooooove me THIS much."

I could just imagine him spreading his arms apart in the darkness to elaborate.

I let out a shriek and tackled him, wincing slightly from the pain of my broken fists. His back hit the ground and I glared down at him, knowing he couldn't see me, "If you ever-" I began icily.

Then Fang's next words stopped me, "But I loooooooooove you this much right back."

And then he reached up and kissed me.

And what did I do, the infamous Maximum Ride who never, ever lets any person get the better of her? Who always makes fools of everyone else, not of herself? Who is strong for her flock, always, and never allows herself any form of relaxation because she can't let her flock down?

What did I do?

I kissed him right back, of course.

His breath was hot. I heard the sound of common sense flying out the window. I lost myself in the feel of his arms around me, our wings intertwined. . .

Then I heard the lock on the door click. Fang and I jumped up, taking our defensive stances. Light flooded the room, blinding me.

I blinked rapidly, and could make out the form of a volturi vampire. It was Marcus.

"Come," He said.

Wow! This is LONG! It's been so long since I updated, I felt I owed it to you :-) For all you Fax lovers, I DID promise there would be Fax. I just tend to have romance as a subplot rather than a major one. I've been kind of lazy lately (and I've had a TON of homework) so I haven't updated. I should also be updated my other story, FLOCK AND FANG, too. I think. If you read it, yay for you! Goodbye! I love you all ttttttthhhhhiiiis much!