Chapter 50- The End

Recap:

They navigated their way through the maze of vents, using their great sense of direction, until they could see Angel and Nudge standing in a room. They dropped down, earning a shout of surprise from Nudge and a smile from Angel.

Angel and Nudge rushed over and hugged them before they could even take a step. A moment later, Iggy and Gazzy ran into the room and nearly fell over.

"Everything's in place," they said in unison.

Max's POV

I glanced over at the garbage doors that guarded our exit. They were locked with a padlock, but I was sure we could overcome that slight problem. I studied it, my head slightly cocked as I considered the best way – without raising suspicion- to unlock them. Would someone hear if I broke the lock? Or was I even capable of breaking the lock?

"Uh-oh," Angel whispered, a look of panic overtaking her small features.

"What is it?" I whispered as I felt a jolt of adrenaline pulse through my body. I clenched my fists as I glanced across the room at Fang, who was staring intensely at Angel.

"Flyboys and whitecoats are on their way; lots of them. They don't know we're down here, but they're searching every single room for any signs of escape."

"How long?" I choked out, my eyes darting to everyone's face and then around the room. I had to get us out of here.

"I can't be sure…probably about five minutes. Maybe less," Angel replied in a whisper.

I squared my shoulders as I gave a sharp nod. I looked over at the garbage doors and walked over to them. There was nothing to break the padlock with, so I decided to use my bare hands. I grabbed onto the lock and yanked with all my might. My head throbbed as the adrenaline doubled and rushed through my veins. I gritted my teeth as I desperately tried to break the slippery lock. Fang walked over to my side and watched my silent struggle.

I was surprised when I heard myself growl in frustration. With one final pull, I cried out as the lock came off. I stumbled backwards as the momentum threw me off balance. Fang caught me and steadied me. I felt his lips against my temple and was extremely glad to have him with me. I pulled myself together, aware that we were quickly running out of time. I couldn't have the whitecoats discovering us.

With a heave, I pulled the door open and winced as it gave a loud protest. I peered outside and was dismayed to find a line of Flyboys and whitecoats patrolling the area. Luckily, none of them noticed as I opened the door.

"Angel, is the garbage truck on its way?" I asked, apprehensive of the answer. What if they decided that it was too dangerous to let a garbage truck drive away without getting checked?

A look of concentration overcame Angel's expression as she presumably examined someone's mind.

"The whitecoats are too arrogant for their own good. They think that something in the infrastructure has gone wrong. They don't think any experiments are smart enough to pull this off. They aren't going to examine the garbage truck at all. It is on its way now.

I relaxed at the news and grabbed Fang's hand for a moment, before moving on. "Okay, I want everyone to get in," I said sternly, pointing to the dumpster underneath the door I had just opened. "Quickly!"

Angel was the first to jump into the huge dumpster. I hoped with all my might that the garbage was soft and not filled with needles or something like that. Next, Gazzy joined his sister, followed by Nudge. I helped guide Iggy into the dumpster and I was grateful that the thing was easily big enough to conceal all of us. I glanced at Fang as he looked over at me. I could hear the noises of the whitecoats and Flyboys as they made their way down to the room. If my hearing was correct, they were about a minute away from running in on us.

"The lock," Fang whispered. I nodded. I had already deduced that it would look suspicious if there was no lock on the garbage door. I couldn't risk the whitecoats checking the dumpster.

"It's covered," I whispered. Panic gripped my heart as I heard the whitecoats reach the door. I grabbed Fang and pressed my lips against his for a brief moment before I pulled away and pushed him into the dumpster. Before he had even landed, I had shut the door and thrown the latch. I threw the lock into place. It was broken, but it wouldn't look suspicious to the whitecoats anymore.

I whipped out my wings and lunged towards the air vents that Fang and I had navigated earlier. I tore off the cover and managed to squeeze myself – wings and all – into the tiny space. The door to the basement opened just as I managed to place the cover back in place. I watched through the grates as numerous Flyboys and whitecoats filed into the room.

They searched the room, throwing open cupboards and looking underneath cloths and the like. I held my breath as someone studied the garbage door. I exhaled when they moved on without incident. They took approximately five minutes to search the room, and the whole time I was aware that at any moment the garbage truck could arrive and whisk my flock away without me. Actually, it probably already had. Finally, the whitecoats and Flyboys left, yelling orders at each other and so on. The hand holding my heart didn't loosen its grip and I was sure it wouldn't until I was safely reunited with my flock.

I ripped the cover off of the air vent and ran over to the garbage door. Please, don't let them have gone without me! I prayed to God that they would still be waiting for me. I ripped the lock away from the door and heaved it open, tears of anticipation in my eyes. Please, I silently begged.

I looked down into the dumpster and felt my heart give a painful thump. It was empty. I felt the tears flow over and escape down my cheeks. I squeezed my eyes shut and forced myself to pull myself together. At least my flock had escaped. It didn't matter what happened to me, as long as they were all right.

I swallowed my tears and searched the grounds around me. My heart constricted when I saw the garbage truck at the gates of the compound. They haven't left yet. I analysed the situation in a matter of seconds and came up with a plan. I watched as a guard with a flashlight approached the back of the garbage truck. Angel was wrong; because I was certain that the guard was going to be going through the garbage to make sure there was nothing strange in it. I clenched my fists as I realised what I had to do.

I unfolded my wings so fast that I'm sure I heard something crack. I jumped into the air and flapped my wings to keep me aloft. Using all of my super speed, I raced out of the garbage door towards the gate. Whitecoats and guards exclaimed in surprise as I shot past them and made it through the gates before they could do anything about it. I slowed and turned to face them. Everyone's attention was on me.

"Come and catch me," I yelled. Without a moment's hesitation, the Flyboy's drew out their guns and aimed them at my chest. I gave a wave and flew away as fast as I could. Shouting echoed behind me as the Flyboy's raced after me and the whitecoats went into a frenzy. I looked over my shoulder and watched with satisfaction as the garbage truck drove through the gate without being checked. The guards were too surprised to do anything. I looked at the School and grinned when I saw just how much damage our bombs had caused.

The Flyboys were behind me, so I focused my attention on not getting killed and raced towards the horizon. The bullets whizzed past my head. Luckily, none of them actually caused serious damage. But I did have some knew scrapes that weren't there before.

By using my super speed, I quickly outflew the Flyboys. They were slow boxes of metal; they had nothing on me. With a sigh of relief, I made my way to the meeting area – AKA the dump- and made sure that no one was following me.

"MAX!" the flock cried as I flew into the dump and came across their dishelved looking bodies.

I landed and let them bowl me over as the all gave me a hug at the same time. I hugged them back and started to laugh in relief. I was so happy to be outside of the school with them. The only person who wasn't hugging me was- yep, you guessed it- Fang. He stood back, staring at me with his impassive mask that I was surprisingly good at reading.

"Oh, my God, the garbage was so disgusting. I need a bath, major-ly," Nudge said after she released me. I grinned at her and wiped some dirt off of her face.

"That was so close, Max! How did you manage to distract the guards so they wouldn't check the truck?" Angel asked. I ruffled her hair and smiled. Of course she would have noticed the intentions of the guard.

"I flew right out of the gates and yelled: 'Come and catch me!'" I said with a laugh.

"Right on!" Gazzy shouted.

"You should have seen the School," I said to Gazzy and Iggy. "It was practically collapsing in on itself. You guys did great!" I praised.

Iggy and Gazzy shared a high five. While the flock was excitedly talking to each other, I made my way over to Fang. Even though I claimed to be able to read Fang's mask, it was always nerve-wracking to approach him when he looked like he was coldly assessing whether to kill you or not.

"Fang," I said calmly as I stood next to him, watching the flock in all their excitement.

"Max," he replied just as calmly.

The silence stretched out as neither of us said anything. I could practically hear his anger as he brooded over what had happened. I knew he was hurt, but I didn't know how to broach the subject. I decided just to be honest.

"I'm sorry, but I had to protect the flock. I should have told you what I was going to do with the lock and everything," I said. I hardly ever apologised and I knew that Fang understood that.

He stayed silent for a moment before he said, "I thought I might have lost you. Max, I didn't know if you were going to get out of there. Don't ever do that again," he growled.

I hesitantly reached over and took his hand in mine. It was warm and reassured me greatly. He didn't pull away and I felt myself sigh in relief. After a moment, he took my hand and pressed it to the side of his face. He breathed in my scent and then pulled me into a hug. I smiled as I buried my face in his chest. I realised just how much our time in Australia had changed us. Fang had been openly showing me affection, which he never would have done before we had our memories swiped. He had opened up to me, and I knew that I was glad to know what he was thinking. I knew I had changed as well.

He raised my chin with his hand and pressed his lips to mine. We kissed so passionately that I'm sure that the world could have been set on fire and we wouldn't have noticed. Our tongues danced as we clasped at each other. My hands were all over his body, just as his were all over mine. I gasped as we pulled away for breath.

Someone in the flock wolf whistled and I felt my face start to burn as I realised that we'd just put on a show for the flock. I buried my head in Fang's chest out of embarrassment and scowled when he started to chuckle.

His lips touched my ear and I shivered. "You're cute when you're embarrassed," he said, which caused me to hit his chest. "You're even cuter when you're angry," he added. I scowled at him and was surprised when he kissed the frown from my face.

"Cheater," I muttered as I pulled away from him and made my way over to the flock.

As a flock, we had decided to head back to Australia. We all agreed that it was the one place that our enemies wouldn't expect us to go, seeing as what had recently unfolded there. We arrived in Darwin, since it was in the Northern Territory, which was the least populated of the states in Australia. We found an abandoned house on the beach and settled there. No one ever bothered us and we had enough money left on my credit card to buy food and everything else we needed.

The house had four rooms, but we had one spare. The Gasman and Angel shared a room and seemed to enjoy the experience. Iggy had contacted Shauna when we arrived back in Australia, but didn't tell her where we were. He had told her that he really liked her, but nothing could happen between them when her Aunt was working for the school. He was really upset for a few weeks and I had tried to comfort him. I was really starting to get worried when the next day he seemed to be practically fine again. I realised it was because Nudge had started to comfort him. They shared a room and I knew that a romance was starting to blossom between them, but I didn't know if it was just brotherly love, or whether it was something more. And I wasn't about to go and talk them about it. Talk about awkward.

As for Fang and I, we also shared a room. Ours was the biggest, with a queen-sized bed that was very comfortable indeed. To our neighbours, Fang and I were a married couple that had adopted our brothers and sisters when our parents had died. Of course, our neighbours didn't live anywhere near us. I smiled at the thought.

"What are you smiling at?" Fang asked me, pulling me tight against his chest.

"I'm just happy, because for once in our life, there's no immediate danger, and I can't see any to come," I replied.

"It's nice," Fang murmured, burying his head in the crook of my neck. I smiled as I ran my hands down his body. It was late at night and from our room we could see the stars shining brightly. It was very serene.

Fang started kissing my neck, making his way down my body. He kissed down my arm and I shivered, holding him closer to me. He rolled us over so that he was on top of me and kissed my lips with so much force I had difficulty breathing. A fire started somewhere in my stomach and I knew there was only one-way to quench it. I kissed Fang back with twice as much passion.

"Max," he breathed against my cheek. I shivered at how husky his voice had turned.

"Yes?" I gasped.

"I love you so much," he whispered, kissing down my neck and biting my neck softly. I gasped again and struggled to find a coherent thought.

"I love you too," I said after I could somewhat function again.

Hesitantly, I sat up and took off my shirt. He eyes connected with mine and I smiled at him. He seemed surprised, but soon we were kissing more fiercely than we ever had before. He kissed me and then went to remove his own clothes. I couldn't get enough of him, and I knew that I would keep on loving him, no matter what.

Finally, our flock had a happily ever after…

THE END

A/N: Thankyou to everyone who has supported this story and me! Thanks for all of the reviews and putting up with my laziness involving updates. I'd love to know what you thought of my story, so please review.

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