Kalec POV

I went to sleep that night with Auntie Nudge's last words floating through my brain. "You get to meet your real parents. Finally after all these years." That thought is comforting. I wonder what they're like. Are they...smart? Courageous? Strong? Funny? I have no clue. Are they anything like me? Ugh, all these questions make my head hurt. I had a gut feeling that Jason and Christina weren't my parents. Come to find out, they aren't. I've been right this whole time. I can't help but wonder if they ever cared about me. They couldn't stand the sight of my wings, and didn't want me to stretch them. They hated any clue of my wings. They obviously didn't want what's best for me. They just wanted to use me as an....an....experiment. That word makes me sick. Uncle Iggy says that they were all experiments at one time, and escaped. Max and Fang included. I'm going to have to get used to calling them Mom and Dad. Can you really blame me, after not knowing them after all these years? My entire life was practically a lie. Something like that can really damage a person. What do I say to them once I meet them? "Hi, I'm Kalec, nice to see you again after eleven years, 'rents!" Or what about, "'Sup guys? Long time no see!" I don't quite think so. But I do need to rest. There's a big day tomorrow.

Fang POV
"Max."

No response. As usual.

"Max, come on."

Still nothing.

"Max! Answer me!"

"What?"

"Talk to me."

"About what Fang? The fucking weather? We can't really see what's outside right now."

"About anything."

".....You know what?" She sounds like she's about to cry again. Way to go Fang.

"Fang—I'm--I'm sorry. I just...I just want to get out of here. I want Kalec back. I want to be able to cuddle under you right now. There's just.....so much I want but can't have."

"I know, Max. I know. Why wouldn't you look up yesterday, when she was here?"

"Fang....I'm sure your eyes were just tricking you."

"No, they weren't, Max. I saw her. I was talking to her. I told her I love her and she understood me."

"Did she know you were her Dad? Or that you were related in any way at all?"

"....No. I don't think so."

"Then what's the fucking point? That's like telling a stranger you love them. It doesn't mean anything. Now I think it's better if we don't talk, don't you?"

Kalec POV
"Kay. Kay, wake up. It's time to go."

I rub my eyes and face, trying to get myself together. I open my eyes and see the sun glinting right down on my family. It feels nice to say that.

"Come on, get up. We're gonna eat on the way. We've got to get up bright and early to get your parents."

"Will it be difficult?" I ask.

"Nah. It's usually always really easy. These guys are dumber than a sack of Ritz crackers."

They pack up all the food and I see Uncle Iggy and Uncle Gazzy start packing bombs.

"What are you doing?!" I exclaim.

"Packing bombs. We'll need them to blow the place up."

"You want to blow up my doctor's office?"

"It's not an office. It's a torturing chamber.."

This completely catches me off guard and I freeze.

"Iggy! You scared her half to death!"

"What?"

"Um....I think we should leave now." I say.

Auntie Nudge nods and takes my arm, dragging me away from Uncle Iggy and glaring at him.

(Awesome Invisible Line!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

We are standing in front of the doctor's office, a.k.a. The torturing chamber. I'm super nervous. I'm getting ready to destroy the place I've come to since I was like, a year old, and I'm getting ready to meet my parents. Scary stuff, man.

"Let's do this." Uncle Gazzy says, latching Uncle Iggy's finger to his belt loop. He leads the way into the building. I immediately recognize the receptionist and realize that she soon will be dead. I never really liked her anyway.

"Listen." My aunt says to me. "You're probably going to see a lot of people get blown up. You have to realize that they have at some point hurt your parents. You can't feel sympathy for them. It'll only make it harder."

I nod and cling closer to her. She goes up to the receptionist and says, "We need an emergency visit for Dr. Batchelder. We've got a rapidly deteriorating child." She points to me. The lady asks,

"What's wrong, dear?" I quickly begin to play along.

"My head....so....much....pain....."

She nods and calls my doctor and tells him I'm here. She opens the door and we run in. We take the stairs seeing as elevators are too slow. We go up to the sixth floor, but in a different room than the other one.

"This isn't the room they were in before." I tell them.

"We know. They switched rooms ever since you saw them that day."

How they know all this, I have no clue. We reach a big super huge door with no window that looks like it's made of nothing but steel and metal. It looks quite frightening.

"Work your magic Nudge." She nods and runs her hands along the door, all over. I hear all of these clings and clacks and sounds like locks coming undone. Eventually the door pushes open a tad. We hurry in and shut the door behind us. I stare at my.....parents. My mom looks like she's sleeping on the floor. It looks terribly uncomfortable. My Dad is awake and staring at me again. This time I run over to him and get down on my knees hands on the cage. Why would they do this to someone? I feel tears start in my eyes and my fingers slide through his cage. My dad's.

"No, no, don't cry." He says, using his thumb to wipe my tears away. He has a deep voice. A fatherly voice. It makes me cry more. He looks over at my mom. She hasn't woken up yet, not through all of this chaos. He looks back at me, then above me.

"Nudge, get me out of here." he tells her. She gently slides me away and does her thing with the lock. He pushes the door open roughly and jumps out and wraps me up in his arms and it's the most amazing thing I could ever feel. He's warm, and soft, and smells wonderful, and I feel every kind of emotion out there. But most of all love. He's holding me so tight. I love it. I hug him back just as tight. I hear him breathing deeply. It's so nice, this feeling. I can't get enough of it. I never had this with my dad. E rarely ever touched me.

He pulls back and grabs my face. I'm crying so hard. He looks like he's about to break, but for some reason I know he won't. He kisses my forehead and stays there for a while, just holding me. I think he's saying something, but I can't tell. My own sobs are too loud to hear anything.

"Guys we've got to go." I hear Auntie Angel say. I look up and Uncle Iggy is carrying Mom. Me and my dad nod and he takes my hand and we run out. Down the stairs and out and Uncle Gazzy drops a few bombs. We run and run and run until we get into a clearing. My dad spreads his humongous black wings and gets ready to leap into the air. I hold onto his arm so he can't.

"I can't fly. They said I wasn't allowed to." I tell him. He nods and picks up in one swift movement and we leap into the air with everyone else and are flying.

I see the ground below me and cling closer to my father. He holds onto to me tighter. My mom is still out of it, though. I wonder what happened to her. So I ask my dad.

"What happened to....Mom?"

"She was taken away for a few hours.....for testing. I don't know what happened. She's been sleep ever since."

I nod. We land back in the clearing where we were before. My dad sets me down softly. I walk over to wear my bags are and sit down. He walks over to me and wraps an arm around me. He kisses my temple. I hug him from the side.

"God, I've missed you, Kay."

"I would say the same but...I don't really remember."

"It's okay. I'm just glad you're back. With me and your mom."

I nod and cuddle up closer to him. He's so warm! Who knew Dads were so warm? He sighs against me head, and kisses it. I feel so safe. It's just so intensely.....awesome.

Eventually, I must have fell asleep because what seemed like seconds later, I hear crying. No, sobbing. It sounds so....broken. I break loose from my dad and go over to where it is. It's behind a tree, far away from everyone.

It's my mom.

"Um—M-Mom?" I say, touching her shoulder lightly. She flinches and looks up at me.

"K-Kalec?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, God! Come here!" She stands up and wraps me up, like dad did. This embrace is more desperate. More needed. I feel the same emotions and safeness and awesomness as I did with Dad. I can't believe these people are my parents. They still love me so much after all these years. Her crying stops and she she kisses me and tells me she loves me over and over again and I just eat it all up. I love the fact that so many people actually love me like this.

"My God, you are so big. Pretty different from when you were three months old."

I laugh dryly. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry I let them get you."

"No, no, it's fine. I'm just glad you aren't in a cage anymore."

"Yeah. That wasn't the worst part though."

"Why were you crying?"

"Oh um.....I'm sort of pregnant.....again. An experiment they did. I guess they wanted you to have a little brother or sister delivery. Whatever. I'm fine. This about you. I haven't seen you in so long....When Fang said you were there that day I thought his eyes were tricking him. I guess not."

She runs her fingers through my hair, smoothing it down. This gesture makes me sleepy. No one ever did this to me before.

"I love you so much, Kay."

"Why does everyone keep calling me that?"

"It's your nickname."

"I've never had one those before."

"Yeah you did. When you were with us. And you still have it."

"Cool. I love you too.....Mom."

"God, I love hearing that." She squeezes me again and she kisses my hair.

"I don't think it's fair that you two are having family time without me." I hear Dad say from behind us.

"You had lots of family time without me, Fang. This is Mom time."

"Whatever." he grabs a seat next to me and wraps an arm around me and my mom. I'm sitting between my parents. It makes me giddy.

"So.....what'd they do this time?" He asked Mom. She just pointed to her stomach and sighed. He looked really angry.

"We'll deal with it. It'll be okay." He said and kissed her passionately no the lips. Mom nodded and said, "I know. We'll be fine. Besides, Kay is back."

I smile and hug them both at the same time.

"Is the house still there?"

"I don't know. It should be."

"We can move back there." Mom said.

"What house?" I ask.

"The house we bought when I was pregnant with you. Naturally, by the way."

"The Flock didn't have the Max Ride card when we were captured so they couldn't pay the mortgage. They had to let it go. But since its abandoned now, we could move back there and get everything turned back on. It would be great. We loved that house so much." Dad said.

"Then we should go back there. You could raise the new baby there like you did me. It'd be great!"

"I'm so happy that you're so enthused about the baby, but....to tell the truth...I'm not." She laughed. "It's kind of scary....I'll go through it again, because I have no choice but, I don't think we wanted another kid other than you."

I nod understanding. They look like they were young when they had me. They still look young now. No one could blame them. I wouldn't want another kid if I had one at a young age.

"But first things first." Dad says. "You need to learn how to fly. I can't keep carrying you around everywhere."

"Okay!" I say excitedly. I taught myself to fly at a young age, but I haven't flown in years. My wings aren't even in good shape. I don't even think I can move them from their sockets.

Dad jumps up and offers his hand. I respectfully deny it and stand on my own.

"Just like your mother." He smirks.

We walk farther away into an opening. He says, "Watch me."