DISCLAIMER: i do not own AVATAR or MAXIMUM RIDE.

Side-note: since it was never stated (to my knowledge) what year the Maximum Ride books take place in, I'm taking a little artistic license with their time frame and put them in eight years before the movie. Meaning Grace's school is still running, Parker Selfridge just took the administrator position on Pandora, and Falco (a character from the Avatar video game) is the head of security with Quaritch as his second-in-command.

max.

There were two things I was absolutely sure about.

1) I was now twenty years old.

2) My life was going nowhere.

Wait, three things

3) Fang was dead.

This third sad truth of life was made painfully clearer by the sight of his cardboard casket lighting up like a match behind a heavy metal door with a glass window for funeral services. I'd known this was coming for a while, but that didn't stifle the scent of burning feathers and hair that a thousand-foot thick wall of brick couldn't mask.

I'd known for six years what was coming, just…not like this. Not by a whack-job extremist with a knife.

Four, no, five things.

4) I was alone

5) I'd failed at the task I'd been created for.

"Max," Iggy said softly, placing a hand on my shoulder, "how've you been taking it?"

Since he'd come into a large fortune from weapon development, Iggy had gotten his sight surgically restored. He lived with Nudge in the Canadian Rockies…in a mansion…while I was scraping by in a crummy apartment in downtown Denver.

"I knew I'd have to face it eventually," I sighed, still staring through the glass, as the last of Fang's remains smoldered.

"Gazzy says 'hi'."

Oh, yeah. Our little stink bomb was on the run from the FBI, I forgot. I couldn't even remember what he'd done to get in trouble. It was either fraud or use of an explosive device. I said nothing.

"Any word from Ange?"

I pulled a folded photograph from my jeans pocket, "Got this yesterday. She made it there, safe and sound," I unfolded it and showed it to Iggy, "the ginger is Grace Augustine."

Fifteen-year-old Angel beamed at me in the photograph, standing next to Dr. Augustine in front of a stainless-steel bed-type-thing that she said was a link chamber. Grace was a few inches taller than Angel, and had a kind but timeworn look in her green eyes. The photo had come with an old-school paper-and-pen letter describing Pandora, promising she'd use her powers for good if ever, told me she missed me, couldn't believe she was fifteen, and to tell Gazzy she missed him.

Angel didn't know about the Gasman yet. And I sure as hell wasn't going to tell her. Iggy smiled at the picture, stroking the filmy surface over Angel's face. "She really grew up nice." He chuckled. "God, I still remember when she convinced you to let her keep Total."

"That's when there was still a natural green," I deadpanned, recalling the days when there was honest-to-God nature on this planet. I was supposed to save it from turning into this. Didn't take long for everything to go to pot.

Iggy tucked the picture away into an inside pocket of his fancy business suit, "You know that program she's in?"

"The Resources Development Administration?"

"And the Avatar Program."

I stared at him for a good long minute. "Yeah?"

"The RDA needs soldiers…possible transfers into the Avatar Program too."

"No."

Iggy groaned, "Why not, Max?"

"I don't know the native's language. Isn't that like, a requirement?" I protested, not looking away from the spot where Fang's body used to be. "Besides, I don't want anymore adventure in my life."

"But Max, you can kick any Marine's ass! It'd make you the perfect recruit for Quaritch and Falco!"

"Why else?"

"Parker has been nagging me to recruit someone noteworthy that they could induct into the Avatar Program as a part-time soldier."

"So?"

Iggy sighed and I heard the fabric of his suit rustle from a shrug. It was too quiet in this place. "You're the toughest person I know, Max. I'm going there next year to help amp up their security system as well as see what I can do to improve their facilities."

I glanced over my shoulder, "Doesn't it take five years to get to Pandora?"

He nodded.

"And I would have to train for how long?"

"If you get a recommendation from a higher-up in the company, no time at all. They'd just need a month or so to start growing your avatar."

"I didn't say I'd join that program."

"It's kind of implied in your case," he flashed me one of his old wicked smiles, plucking a couple of hairs off my scalp. "This'll probably be enough, don'cha think?"

"I'm not going to tackle you because I am a mature adult and this isn't the right place to do it," I said through my teeth, frustrated at the concept of learning a new language in only a few months. I hadn't been good with learning any kind of language, French or otherwise. And Na'vi was going to be a train wreck in my hands.

God, what had I just agreed to?