For All It Was Worth – Chapter 1

By MyNameIsCAL

As always, a big thanks to James Patterson for his characters. This is my first, and probably will be my only, spin on the ending of the Maximum Ride series. This in no way depicts what I want to happen, as far as deaths go. I suppose after we get the series ending, we'll see how things turn out. I've got a lot of stories to finish and a lot of other ideas I have. As long as people are reading, I'll be writing fics. But for anything branching off of what actually happened in the series, this will probably be it. All other fics that I write will most likely be alternate universe or only loosely based off of different parts of the series. I'd like to think James Patterson will give us not only a satisfactory ending that will leave room for us to continue to write fics, but also an ending that brings justice to the characters and peace to us fans.

-Fang's POV-

I couldn't save them. I couldn't bring myself to kill Angel. She wasn't Angel though. Whoever, or whatever, was a monster, and that monster was hunting us.

"Give up, Fang!" Angel cackled. "Join me and we can take over the world! You can get your revenge on Max for turning on you for Dylan!"

My blood may have boiled for a second, but I knew that it was my doing she had done that.

"Kill me!" I shouted at her.

She shook her head. "I won't give you that satisfaction."

And then she was gone.

My ears seemed to ring with the silence as I ran towards the clearing through the trees.

I dropped to my knees as I reached the center. Maya lay there, the leaves and dirt under her stained with blood.

"Maya…" I didn't know what to do, so I took her hand. "Maya, stay with me."

Her eyes met mine, so familiar. "F-Fang…"

"Maya, I'm so sorry."

She squeezed my hand. "Go, Fang. Go before it's too late."

"I'm not going to leave you." I used my other hand to put pressure on her wound.

She shook her head. "It's too late for me, Fang. You did your best."

"This is my fault!"

"It's not. I know…I know it was hard for you…but..." she started to cough up blood. "You let m-me feel like I was m-my own p-p-person. Th-Thank you."

I opened my mouth, but her hand loosened on my hand and she was gone. Now that I thought about it, I didn't really know what to say.

I stumbled as I got up. It was getting colder now. I looked around me, all the trees looking the same now. My sense of direction was failing me.

And then I ran. I ran through the trees until I could run no further. After darkness fell, the erasers would hunt me. That was how I lost Ratchet and Kate. They had cornered us, despite our abilities. Only Maya and I could fly. I grabbed Holden and Star, but we were too late to save the others as the erasers tore them apart. That was only last night though. I looked down at my hands. Was this Maya's blood? Or was it still left over from when I had gone tearing back after Ratchet and Kate. In my rage I had scared the erasers off, but they had left me in a pool of blood which I was trying to erase from my head.

Angel had gotten Holden and Star. I was trying to forget that too. She had mind controlled them to battle each other to the death. I tried to save them too. I would have died doing it too if Maya hadn't dragged me off away from the oncoming erasers.

And now Maya was gone. I was alone with no one to watch my back. I wanted to take off and fly, but I knew it would be no use. Angel and the Doomsday Group were implementing world takeover as I stood here wasting time. I couldn't defeat them on my own though.

So I started to run again, hoping that it would by me some time, that even if destiny had decided I was going to die, at least I could go down fighting.

-Max's POV-

We were on some island that didn't exist on any map. Iggy had managed to start a fire and we were sitting under a makeshift shelter. Dylan had his arm around me, trying to keep me shivering. I wasn't cold, but I wasn't going to admit I was scared either.

"I can hear generators. They're far, but we're not the only ones here," Iggy said quietly.

The past few months had been tough. Jeb, Mom, and Ella were still missing and we hadn't heard from Fang or his flock in weeks. Right now, the only thing we were running on was a piece of paper with some coordinates that Angel had left. It led us here to this island. Somewhere between California and Asia. We had stowed away on a naval boat from Hawaii.

"We should wait until it's light out." Dylan glanced around. "We don't know what's out there."

I nodded, too tired to speak.

Iggy sat down on the opposite of the fire, his eyes closed. I knew he wouldn't sit next to Dylan because he still didn't trust him. He wouldn't sit next to Nudge either because they weren't talking. There was some fall out between them that I had missed. Now wasn't the time for relationship problems though. Iggy was so sure we were going to find Mom and Ella. Nudge just wanted comfort, but at least when it came to working together, they'd put their differences aside.

We decided to take turns sleeping. I let Iggy and Nudge sleep first, but Dylan insisted on keeping me company.

"You can't keep pretending Angel's alive, Max. I know you think we're going to find her, but she's gone. She couldn't have survived in that huge explosion." Dylan lifted his hand to brush the hair out of my face, but I stopped him.

"You don't know she's dead. We don't…we don't have proof!"

"It's okay to be in denial, Max. I just don't want you to not realize the reality of all of this." He let out a breath, dropping his hand. "I want you to know that I love you too. I know you don't feel the same way, but I want you to know anyway."

I bit my tongue. You were created to love me, you idiot.

We sat in silence for a while. I watched Nudge snuggle herself against Iggy. Surprisingly, he put his arm around her.

Dylan opened his mouth to say something else, but I cut him off. "Look if you're going to stay up anyway then I'm sleeping."

"Alright." He resigned and I turned my back to him as I lay a few feet away from Iggy.

When I opened my eyes again, the sun was just starting to come up. It wasn't the light that woke me up though. There was a rustle off in the distance. Everyone was up. The fire had burned out. Iggy held up his hand.

"I smell…blood," he whispered.

There was a rustling through the bushes and a figure emerged.

Fang.