Like most stories I write I came up with this song while in the shower.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

It starts with
One thing, I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind, I designed this rhyme
To explain in due time

Extermination day. The by-half plan. The day the world ended. Whatever way you look at it, it meant bad news. The day of destruction. Of death. The day Max was designed to prevent. Time had run out. Maximum Ride had failed. That day was today.

All I know
Time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down to the end of the day
The clock ticks life away

Why, you may ask? Max contemplated as she sat in her cage in the Itex lab, watching as the experiments were taken one by one to be exterminated. That answer is simple. The flock. They were her world, so of course she put all her effort into keeping them alive and happy rather than making sure the world didn't blow up, like she was supposed to. What she should have done. Max had no clu where the flock were now, apart from not being at Itex. Even after they left her, she made sure of that.

It's so unreal
Didn't look out below
Watch the time go right out the window
Trying to hold on, but didn't even know
Wasted it all just to
Watch you go

Her flock, her precious family, fell apart under the pressure of Max's destiny, or 'Her always having to be the freaking hero', as Fang put it. It made her smile sardonically that it ended up like this. The world was against her. She couldn't win.

I kept everything inside and even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me, will eventually be a memory, of a time when I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter

She had tried, god how she had tried, to stop this from happening, but it seemed the harder she did, the more she failed. Max remembered how Fang always teased her, laughed at her, sneered at her whenever she had tried to follow her destiny, trying to make her turn away from it and live somewhere where they all could just sit back and relax. As if. Max remembered all those whispered arguments about how she couldn't possibly save the world, how she was so full of her self before he violently shoved her against the closest object and whispered in her ear about how she was his. Somehow, all her arguments with Fang ended that way. Go figure.

One thing, I don't know why
It doesn't even matter how hard you try
Keep that in mind, I designed this rhyme
To remind myself how
I tried so hard
In spite of the way you were mocking me
Acting like I was part of your property
Remembering all the times you fought with me
I'm surprised it got so far

Max fought tooth and nail against everything that came her way, even after the flock fell apart. She wasn't the same as she used to be, a hopeful 14 year old who believed everything would be ok if she tried hard enough. Max was an entirely different person now. She just wanted it to end.

Things aren't the way they were before
You wouldn't even recognize me anymore
Not that you knew me back then
But it all comes back to me
In the end
You kept everything inside and even though I tried, it all fell apart
What it meant to me, will eventually be a memory, of a time when I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter

How did Max end up in this situation you may think. That is also an easy one. Jeb. Foolishly, she had believed him and followed his directions blindly to the last head of the hydra, ready to end the threat once and for all.

I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I've put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
For all this

There's only one thing you should know

It had been trap. Itex had caught her, experimented on her, tested her and then threw her into this dark room to be 'taken care of'. Come to think of it, the room was now empty, which means that she was next to die. Maximum Ride had failed. Not only herself and her flock, but the entire world. That really sucked.

I've put my trust in you
Pushed as far as I can go
For all this
There's only one thing you should know
I tried so hard
And got so far
But in the end
It doesn't even matter
I had to fall
To lose it all
But in the end
It doesn't even matter

Max looked through her bars at the tiny window in the corner on the room. Soon those tree and bushes would be gone, as would the people and the animals. Her flock too.

"Next experiment"

But do you know what? Right now, it doesn't even matter.

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