Chapter Fourteen

Max's POV

Two months since I've last seen my son. Two months since we got an unwanted houseguest. Two months since I found out who was behind his disappearance. Two months since everything in my life made sense. Two months of searching and coming up empty-handed again and again. Two months is an awfully long time…


Flashback to two months ago. (But you already saw this coming.)


"What do you mean 'your son is missing'?" I yelled at Alice, the peppy psychic, who was coincidently the barer of bad news around here.

"I don't know what happened. One minute, we were watching tv and Jake and Fang had just put the children to sleep, and the next, we wake up to two intruders and our bodies aren't working properly."

"Why didn't you Cullens freakin' stop them? You're supposed to be these big and bad vampires, but you can't even keep Arian safe! You let my son's kidnappers walk right out the front door and disappear into thin air! We would be better off without any of you!"

I glanced at the Flock's stone cold faces and knew that I had crossed a line. Nessie was crying into Jake's chest and for a moment I remembered that I wasn't the only mother who's son was kidnapped.

"Max." Fang whispered, trying to meet my eyes even though they were lined with tears. Just that word, my name, and I crumbled.

This was new to me; this sensation of loosing control of a situation. I was Maximum Ride, after all; fearless leader, wife, and mother. I didn't show weakness.

But, considering my son was kidnapped and I just snapped at the only people who were even conscious enough to get a good look at the kidnappers faces, I think I have a reason to let my emotional guard down.

"Sorry." I whispered to no one in particular yet to everyone collectively.

"We might have a way to figure out who is behind this." Bella spoke up. After the silence (other than crying), her voice practically echoed through the house.

Nessie eyed her father hopefully while my face remained guarded still.

"Emmett and Jasper are roughing her up, but so far she hasn't talked." Edward informed. "We were hoping that you guys would have better luck since we don't think that Will was the intended target."

"And what makes you so sure Arian was?" I snarled.

"Because," Edward said calmly, "her thoughts are centered around a picture of him."

Oh, god, don't tell me that it was some random bounty hunter. That would be freakin' fan-flippiin'-tastic! The only reason someone would have a picture of the target would be 1) bounty hunter or 2) disposable employee that wasn't high up on the chain-of-command.

Option two was starting to look more and more plausible the second Fang, Angel, and I walked outside to the 'interrogation' area. The girl couldn't be more than fifteen and she was most definitely in the wrong career choice. She was too young to be caught up in something like this. (Though, Fang and I only recently turned eighteen and were already married, so I can't really judge on the age issue.)

"Kid won't spill." Emmett growled, trying his best not to unleash full force hits on to the girl's face.

Angel was the only one who didn't approve of the blunt-force approach to getting answers. "Make him stop, Max. I think I can get her to talk." Angel pleaded, Bambi eyes winning once again.

"She's just a kid." Jasper said. I needn't to remind him that Nudge was fifteen too, and he had never called her a kid.

The two vampires left us alone, muttering about their missing nephew and Arian as they did so.

"Hi." Angel said happily to the girl, who couldn't take her eyes off of me. "I'm Angel. And this is Max and Fang. Who are you?"

The girl's expression hardened halfway through Angel's sentence, but no one else seemed to notice. The answer was so quiet that I thought it was merely the wind. "A384K3I."

Angel frowned. "No, your name. I need to know your name."

"Serenity." Again, it was like the rushing of the wind said it. "My name is Serenity."

I don't know what came over me, but I was suddenly very sleepy. One second I was shooting Serenity death glares, and the next, I was rubbing my eyes tiredly.

"What are you…*yawn*…getting from her mind?" I asked Angel.

"She's like us, Max." Angel responded. Another winged kid? "No, she's an experiment too. She doesn't have Avian DNA, but she isn't human. All I keep picking from her thoughts are the picture of AJ, this burly guy she calls Gremlin, and the words 'failure,' 'unwanted,' and 'bad-bad-bad.'"

"Does she know anything else? Like who sent her and this Gremlin guy? Does she know who her leader is?" Fang asked, looking oddly peaceful.

Angel shook her head, frowned, and then nodded. "When you mentioned 'leader,' she instantly thought of the man who drove the get away van and a woman who was his partner."

"Well, who were they?" I asked impatiently.

"The woman's name is Maria, and the guy doesn't have one. They only called him Leader, probably for reasons like this…" Angel admitted. "Serenity barely ever saw his face because he liked bandanas, but the woman was one of her regular co-workers. You'll never believe who it is. I'll give you one guess."

"I give up." I said with an eye roll. "Just tell me who it is so we can start kicking some butt."

"Your clone has your baby." Angel said ominously.

Max II was back? Omg, that meant the School was involved. I swore that I wouldn't let my son have the kind of childhood the Flock had, and I'm not about to break that promise.

Suddenly, Edward came out on the patio with us and glanced at Serenity before looking at us with hesitant eyes. "Serenity, we would like to invite you to stay with us for a little while since you have no place to go and you don't know where you were supposed to deliver the children."

"You have GOT to be kidding me." I snarled. "There is no way that one of my son's captors is going to stay under the same roof as me!"

"Of course not," Edward said and I let out a sigh of relief a little too early. "She'll be staying in the cottage with me and Bella so we can keep an eye on her."

I stared in disbelief as Angel didn't try to stop him. I mean, Fang was always on whatever side I was on, but my baby didn't even want to go against Edward?

"Max, you don't understand the big picture." Angel said, sounding philosophical at only eleven years of age.

"Fine. I don't care. Just let me know when you guys are ready to go search for the boys." I commented, tired of arguing and fighting and well, just plain tired.


End Flashback-back to the present where it still isn't any better


We split up after that, a Cullen, one of Jake's wolves, and a Flock member made up each search team (until we ran out of Flock members, and then they just went short one). We spread out so much that I think we covered the entire United States, half of Mexico, and the closest parts of Canada.

Each time a search party would return from their assigned area, I nearly died inside, because every single one of them came up empty. I knew that Nessie was equally as devastated, but she tried to put on a brave face because the rest of her children needed her to be strong.

"We'll find them." Fang whispered, noticing where my thoughts were drifting, yet again.

"How can you be sure anymore?" I asked, my usual confident manner had been thrown out the window and run over by a semi-truck.

"Because Alice, Angel, and Leah haven't returned yet." He replied. "If anyone can bring our son home, it's the psychic, mind reader, and fastest wolf.

I really, really, hoped he was right.