Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Some one was screaming, a terrible, ear splitting scream filled with pain that Max could barely imagine. Not the kind of pain she felt when she had brain attacks, the kind that emotionally ripped you apart and left you bleeding. It was the scream of a mother who’d lost her child, a lover who’d lost her other half, like someone was slowly having their limbs ripped off. This particular scream was for two of those things, Max guessed, seeing as the screamer was staring in the direction of a large oak tree, under which lay two bodies. The first was a teenager, dark haired and olive skinned, like Fang, she thought, he had a pair of liver chestnut wings stretching from his back and a bullet whole through his eagle tattooed chest. The second body made Max feel sick, it was the body of a little boy, the boy looked like the teenager, enough so that Max guessed he was his brother. His wings were soft, downy white, the kid was a fledgling, maybe even younger. Physically around two, the boy appeared to have fallen from the nearby tree, his neck twisted at an odd angle, blood from the side of his head staining the grass. Max, since she’d realized who the noise was coming from, had stopped screaming and now knelt between the two bodies, sobbing inconsolably. Strong, invisible arms grabbed her shoulders and shook her.

“Max!” She jerked awake as Fang shook her, meeting her eyes with worry, “Are you okay?”

She nodded, unable to shake her clear discomfort that the dream had left her with. Frowning, she had to wipe tears from her cheeks, “I’m fine. It as just a nightmare.”

He didn’t look convinced, “You were screaming.”

“Was I?” She forced a little laugh and shook her head, frightened by how easy she found it to lie to him, “That’s odd, I don’t even remember what I was dreaming about. I’m sorry if I woke you.”

“Iggy and I were already up,” He shrugged, though his bed head suggested that it hadn’t been for too long, “it’s the kids I was worried about.”

She nodded, looking around at where they’d been crashing for the past week, it was a quaint little cottage used for family vacations. Nothing too fancy, but comfortable and charming with two bedrooms, one with a queen sized bed that her and Fang had been sharing and one with two sets of bunk beds that contained the other four flock members. She smiled to Fang and headed for the bathroom, she couldn’t stop thinking about the boys in her dream. They’d felt so familiar, the older of the two had resembled Fang a bit, but with chestnut hair and wings. The little boy was horrifying, the last thing she wanted was to start dreaming about dead kids. She splashed water on her face and tried to stop thinking about it, she didn’t want Angel seeing that in her head. She headed to the kitchen and was hit by the smell of fresh omelets, Iggy was cooking breakfast.

“Morning, Ig,” She smiled at him, even though he couldn’t see her.

“Hey Max,” He chirped pleasantly, “You okay? That was a lot of screaming.”

“I’m fine,” She sighed, “If you heard that out here then it probably woke the kids.”

“They’d be up by now if they’d heard that,” He shook his head, “But you should wake them anyways, breakfast is ready.”

Max nodded, heading back towards the bedrooms. Suddenly her senses tingled, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end, something was wrong. The knock out gas hit her the second she opened the door, she choked and stumbled in to get the others. She grabbed a hold of Nudge’s arm and tried to pull her out of bed, but her knees buckled underneath her. Carefully lowering herself to the floor, she managed to choke out one word before she passed out, “Fang!”

Chapter Text

She was back in a crate, staring through the bars at little blond boy, maybe nine years old. He reminded her a bit of Gazzy, fluffy, blond and sparky, but with brown eyes rather than blue. He looked terribly familiar, but it was hard to see him since most of his crate was taken up by white, silver and navy feathers.

“Max!” The boy beamed when he saw her awake and she felt the blood drain from her face. This little boy had her smile, her eyes, the same blond curls she had as a child, this little boy looked just like her. The boy either knew why they looked so similar or didn’t notice, because he just continued on like nothing was wrong, “You’re okay! I was scared they were going to put you to sleep!”

“Mathew?” The name was out of her mouth before she even registered that she knew it, she started to push herself up, “Mathew, I forgot…”

“Max, your arms!” The boy named Mathew screamed. Her eyes snapped to her forearms, there were deep bleeding cuts running down the inside of her arms from wrist to elbow. She screamed.

Max woke with a yell, grabbing at her arms to stop the bleeding before she realized the cuts were gone. She shuttered, slowing her breathing to a normal pace.

“Max?” Nudge was looking at her with wide brown eyes, “What’s wrong?”

“Just a dream.” She shook her head.

Gazzy stared at her for a second before he managed, “Are we back? Is this The School again? It doesn’t look like it.”

“It smells like it.” She pointed out, but he was right. The room had dark wood floors and forest green wall paper. The lights were dim, but she could see that the only furniture was a simple, dull metal table with six metal chairs positioned around it like a dinner table. There was a file folder sitting on top, “Anyone remember what happened?”

Angel, Nudge and Gazzy shook their heads, but Iggy nodded, “Fang and I heard you yell from the bedroom. When we went in to find you, the room was full of gas.”

“Really original, knock out gas,” She nodded and forced herself to stand up and look at the file. There were no words to be read, just a logo on the front and pictures inside. The pictures freaked her out, they were all of children with oddly familiar faces. The first three she was sure she’d never seen before, a set of Asian twins, no older than Angel, and a boy around her age, maybe a year younger, with ash blond hair. The twins were a cute pair, nearly identical, however the boy’s inky hair was short and spiky while his sister’s had been left to grow long. The older boy reminded her of Iggy, thin and lanky with shaggy hair and blue, unfocused eyes. The next two made her breath catch in her throat, they were two of the three boys from her dreams. In the picture of the chestnut haired boy he was younger than she remembered him being and it seemed much older than the other photos. She got the sinking feeling that he really wasn’t around to take pictures of anymore. The other was of the boy she’d called Mathew, older now, maybe eleven or twelve.

“Who is that?” Nudge asked, peeking over my shoulder, “Max?”

She frowned, “His name’s Mathew.”

“Do you know him?” Fang wondered.

“I… I don’t think so.” She admitted, “I just dreamed about him. I knew him in my dream… and he knew me…”

“Maybe it hasn’t happened yet.” Iggy suggested.

She shook her head, “He was younger in my dream… like nine, but he’s got to be about eleven in this picture.”

“He looks kinda like you!” Angel piped up.

“She’s right,” Fang nodded, “He’s got your smile.”

“And your eyes.” Gazzy pointed out, “They’ve got the same sparkle.”

Nudge looked super excited, “Maybe he’s your time traveling son from the future come back to warn you about some terrible danger you’re about to face!”

She couldn’t stop her self from snorting at the idea, “My son? Sorry Honey, I don’t think he’s my son.”

“Nice,” Iggy chuckled, “Am I the only one enjoying the fact that she’s cool with the idea of time traveling, but as soon as he’s her kid, she slams on the breaks?”

“Max?” The familiar voice floated across the room from three dark shapes she hadn’t noticed before.

“Mom?” She frowned, going to kneel at her mother’s side, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Dr. Martinez nodded, “Just a headache. Where are we?”

“I don’t know,” Max shook her head, “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“I was in the living room, having tea with Jeb.” She frowned, “We were talking about… I don’t remember what… Ella came home from school and came into the living room for some cookies. Then the window smashed and the room filled with gas… that’s it. That’s all I remember.”

“Us too,” Max admitted, “Nudge, Angel and Gazzy never even woke up. The gas originated in their bedroom.”

“Is that Jeb and Ella?” Her mom asked, glancing at the other two bodies.

Max knew one was Jeb, but she brushed the hair from the girls face and nodded, “Yeah, it’s them. Why would they take Ella, too?”

“She’s probably just collateral damage,” Her mom worried.

A flare of anger rose in Max’s chest, she’d put her mom and her sister in danger. She didn’t have time to say anything else before the door swung open and a dark haired, scientist-like man came in.

“Welcome back, Max,” The man smirked, “In fact, all of you, welcome back. You’re all a lot better behaved than the first time, but then, you knew what was happening then.”

“Who are you?” Jeb, who was just waking up, demanded. Ella, also now awake, was cowering behind him.

“Hm, bossy, bossy!” The man tutted, smiling at Max like they shared some old joke, “I see why you don’t like him, you’ve never liked pushy people telling you what to do.”

“I like him a lot more than I like you!” Max snapped back, annoyed.

“Oh, that’s cold! And we’re such good old friends, too!” The man practically cackled, and then a light went on in his eyes as he noticed the picture in her hands, “Oh? You want to know who this is?”

She rolled her eyes impatiently, “Duh!”

“Mathew.” He told her mockingly, “You were so close, the two of you. I wonder how he’d feel? Knowing you forgot him. It really couldn’t hurt any more than your abandoning him. Not that any of that is really your fault.”

Max’s face went dark, “What did you do to me?”

“I had one simple interest when I met you kids… and adults,” He sobered, nodding to her parents, “Mathew is very special in ways the those bumbling fools at The School never realized. His blood, you see, had very unique properties that could prevent illness and even old age. For the most part, it doesn’t even affect him, raises his immune system at most. But with it, I could devise a serum for immortality! Not to mention, he’s a universal donor. He could safely give blood to anyone in the world… for a price of course.”

“Nice story,” Max sneered, becoming more and more aware of how much this guy liked the sound of his own obnoxious voice, “What’s it got to do with me?”

“Well as you can probably imagine, Mathew is a rather difficult person to get your hands on. He’s hardly ever alone and, thanks to you, is quiet adept at defending himself. So, I figured, there was a chance that his niece or nephew would have similar blood. The nephew was preferable, more active, easier to get at.” His expression changed to one that reflected extreme inconvenience, “Unfortunately, Junior died. You remember how, don’t you Max? It was such a shame, a little boy like that falling out of a tree; broke his dear little neck. Of course then, the sister was also unobtainable, everyone watching her like a hawk. I almost went back to the idea of grabbing Mathew himself…”

“Enough beating around the bush!” Iggy finally cut in, “Just spit it out already! What’s this got to do with Max.”

“Well I wanted the girl.” He turned his eyes back to Max with contempt in his gaze, “So I had to get rid of Mummy, now didn’t I?”

Chapter Text

Everyone’s jaws dropped and Max sputtered, “W-what…?”

“That’s right, Maximum,” he smiled at her, snatching the photograph from her hand, “Our dear, special little Mathew here, is your very own little brother. And I made you forget him, your parents too, forgot their only son. As for the rest of you, all I had to do was make you believed that Max had been with you your entire lives. Easy, if you have the right equipment, which naturally, I do.”

“But then…?” Fang frowned, “How long has Max been with us?”

“A little over two years.” The man shrugged.

“Why?” Max demanded, “Why would you replace our memories? Why not just kill me?”

“Simple.” He shrugged, “Itex paid me a lot of money for your recapture when the bought out The School. Don’t ask why. I didn’t.”

“What do you want with her now?” Jeb glared at him.

“That’s also simple,” He shrugged, “You see, Max, your little family has up and disappeared. I need you to remember where they would go.”

“Let me get this straight.” Max gave him a look of disbelief, “You just told me that I at one point had two children and of those two children, one is still alive. And you want me to help you find her? Are you nuts! Wait, no, don’t answer that!”

The man raised an eyebrow, “Is that a no?”

“I may not remember having kids,” Max snarled, “But that doesn’t make me any less of a parent. So take me very seriously when I say, if you so much as look at my kid or anyone I care about, I will hunt you down and kill you in the most painful way imaginable.”

The man said nothing more, he simply nodded, turned and strutted out of the room. Dr. Martinez turned to Max with a look of appreciation, “Keep that speech in mind for when this daughter of yours starts dating.”

“I think I played the over protective parent very well,” Max nodded, “Now, we need to get out of here so I can find this mystery child.”

“And your brother,” Jeb added, frowning a little, undoubtedly thinking of his other son.

However, Max wasn’t cutting him any slack because Ari had died, she glared accusingly at her father, “You’re sure you didn’t know about this?”

“He didn’t know, Max,” Angel cut in, sounding unsure about weather or not she actually wanted to defend Jeb. She sighed, frustrated that she’d been fooled for so long, “I would have told you if any of us knew.”

For the first time in ages, Angel sounded like her sweet little girl again, but then, had she ever actually been her little girl? Max couldn’t stop herself from reaching out to pat the child’s perfect blond curls, anyways, “I know you would have, sweetie.”

“So, uh,” Gazzy hesitated, “How exactly do we get out of here?”

Max surveyed the room and thought, there were no windows, only one door and walls that with a quick rap of the knuckles, revealed themselves to be metal reinforced. Unless they started finding really big vents somewhere, the only way out was to open the door. Iggy scoffed when she said as much, “No vents? That explains why it’s so stuffy in here. Gaz, try to control yourself, okay?”

“Ew! Oh my god, yes!” Nudge squealed, “I didn’t think of that, Ig! Please don’t, Gazzy, that would be so gross!”

“Nudge,” Fang frowned, “He won’t, he’d gas himself too.”

Nudge quieted down a little, but she kept giving Gaz little sideways glances. The look he returned made Max consider the idea that he’d risk his own lungs just to stir up some trouble. Max strode over to the door, casually trying the handle, though as expected, the door was locked. “I don’t like the idea of going out there blind but… Ig, do you think you can get this open?”

“Can fish swim?” He countered, “Everyone empty your pockets.”

Doing as he said, they all dug into their pockets, dropping the contents on the table. There wasn’t much that would be useful, mostly garbage, gum wrappers, elastic bands, a pen, bits of electrical wire and pocket lint, but Ella managed to yield a bobby pin. Curving the pin into a slight hook, Iggy set to work on the door, his sensitive fingers barely seeming to even move as he gently nudged the lock tumblers into just the right places. After what seemed like hours, but was probably only minutes, Iggy stood up, satisfied with his work, “That should do it. Ready?”

Max grabbed the file of pictures off the table and nodded, “Lets do this.”

Seemingly in slow motion, the door handle turned easily in Iggy’s hand and, with a gentle push, swung freely open.