This was written with only the knowledge from the first two books, The Angel Experiment and School's Out: Forever. I do not own Maximum Ride.
With the sunlight shining through her hair, making the light strands glow like spun gold, Max looked stunning in five-year-old Ari's eyes. She was tall, much taller than him, and the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. Much more beautiful than any of the female scientists that worked at the School, the genetic research facility where Ari lived with his father, Jeb Batchelder.
She was strong, too. Very strong. Ari had seen her beat grown men before, during her combat practice with his father. Someday he'd like to see her fly. He was sure that she'd be even more magnificent in the air than she ever was on the ground, since she was built for the sky. They wouldn't let her fly at the school, but Ari was sure they would someday. Why create a bird-girl if they were never going to let her actually try flying? Even a five-year-old like Ari knew that didn't make sense.
Max was strong and beautiful, and Ari idolized her. He followed her virtually everywhere that he was allowed to go, asking her to play with him, or read him a story, and forever asking her questions, or even just to stare at her adoringly. She was a pretty girl. The prettiest one he'd seen.
Even so, there were some things about Max that Ari didn't like. First and foremost was the fact that he seemed to be completely invisible in her eyes. His tailing went without comment, his requests to play were ignored, and his questions went unanswered. And it wasn't because she was an unfriendly person. He'd seen her with her flock, the other bird-kid experiments. She was always cheerful and helpful with them. She'd smile at them. Play with them. Read them stories. Answer their questions. Even give them hugs! But she wouldn't do that for Ari. Only they were worthy of her time, her attention, and Ari wasn't one of them. So Max didn't care about him.
Another thing he disliked was that whenever Max was around, his father payed her much more attention than he'd ever given Ari. Max got more of Jeb's undivided attention in a minute than Ari got in an hour, and that bothered him. It bothered him how Dad would brag to the other scientists about Max's progress, how smart Max was, things Max had done, but wouldn't say a word about Ari. It hurt. But he loved Max, so he always forgave her. Even he could tell that she was special. He even forgave his father for being caught in her dazzle, the same way he was.
But he couldn't forgive her for disappearing. He couldn't forgive her for taking Dad with her. He couldn't forgive her for leaving him behind. He couldn't forgive her for never coming back for him.
So now, two years later, he was all grown up and much stronger than before. Now, he was going to kill Max. Because he loved her.