WARNING! SPOILERS FOR MAXIMUM RIDE: THE FINAL WARNING

"Ok, what're the chances of us totally kicking their butts?"
Fang quickly glanced at me, but then his eyes locked back on the robot soldiers we saw when we were in Antarctica. They had attacked us a couple times before, and I think they haven't realized they need a lot of them to beat us. There was about twenty of them in the other end of the alley we were boxed into. Of course, we could still up-and-away, but I was in the mood to turn some of these guys into the scrap heap.
"I think we can take them," he said. Akila was growling softly, and Total was, of course, in front of her to protect her. I gave Fang a brief nod. "Ok everyone, let's..." Suddenly a door to the alley was kicked open. My stomach dropped. If much more of those soldiers came here, we'd have to split.
For the first second, I didn't see anyone. Then someone strode into the alley. He had something on that reminded me of a karate uniform I'd seen on tv, except this guy had a hood on, which was obscuring his face. The sleeves were longer than his arms... but not longer than the blades he was holding, which were the size of short swords, but looked more like spikes. The back of the uniform-thing had long slits in them... Iggy's head tilted. "We've met this guy somewhere..."
Before I could say anything, the new guy turned to face the soldiers and said in a gruff voice "Max, take five."
My eyes bulged. We DID meet this guy before. "I'll deal with these guys," he said. As he broke into a run, totally outnumbered, I could only think of one thing:
Matt had found us.

Yo. This guy could fight! The soldiers were swinging punches and kicks everywhere, but Matt was everywhere too, blades flying to and fro. Mechanical limbs, torsos and heads were practically thrown around as Matt moved, almost gracefully, among them. It looked like he was hardly trying! When there were only eight of them left, they stopped, then simultaneously dog piled Matt. I heard the dreaded beeping of self-destruct countdowns being activated.
That was when Matt's blades burst out of two of them... along with six other blades just like the others out of the other soldiers. I was about to question where the other blades came from, when Matt shifted his legs and the front two bots crashed down. Then I could see everything.
Well, it turns out there were blades COMING OUT OF MATT! I wasn't able to tell before, but those first two blades? He wasn't holding them; they had come out of his palms! The front two that had dropped were impaled by blades that came out of his knee caps. He pulled the blades from his palms out of the bots they'd impaled, then thrust his arms forward and the back two dropped, who had been stabbed by blades that came out of his elbows, then he shifted his shoulders, and the last two dropped, who had been stabbed by blades from his shoulders. Then Matt raised his head and looked at us. My breath was taken from my lungs. Matt had changed since the last time I saw him.
For one, his face was heavily scarred. There were several long scars across his face, I couldn't tell how many. Second, I saw black rings around his eyes, like he hadn't gotten any sleep in ages. Also, his eyes had changed. Before, his eyes always held compassion, innocence, and a little sadness.
Now he had the eyes of a merciless killer.
Matt stood straight up and his blades seemed to dissolve into his skin. I knew the flock was shocked at the potential that kind of mutation could bring. But such scenarios were silenced for the moment as we heard heavy thudding. Matt blinked just in time for good ol' Gozen to bust through the door Matt had came through. Apparently the hurricane hadn't killed him. Well, if it had, they'd brought him back. I could see new implants on his body from the hurricane damage.
He wordlessly looked at us, then turned as he heard Matt walking to him. "You have met me on a bad day," Gozen said to Matt in his recorder-like voice. "I just got this today..." I saw his long arm transform into a huge laser...
Matt moved like a flash. In a second he had crossed the distance of the alleyway and one of his hands clamped on Gozen's head. I couldn't see Gozen's face, but I bet he had a look of shock on his face. What I DID see was one of Matt's spikes exit Gozen's head. Gozen wasn't exactly human, so there was no blood, thankfully. I bet it would've been messy if there was. Matt's spike shrank back into his palm, and I could actually see though Gozen's wirey head. So gross. Gozen fell on his knees, then collapsed backwards.
Matt looked at his hand, as though expecting it to be covered in blood, then looked his cold eyes back to us. I felt a chill run down my spine as his murderous eyes rested on me. He began a slow advance towards us. Is he really going to kill us? It was entirely possible, and I wasn't willing to take that chance.
"U and A on my count," I whispered. 'Max, don't,' I heard Angel say in my head. My head snapped towards her, and I could see her eyes were locked on Matt. 'Angel...' I began before Matt's voice cut through the silence. "Maximum Ride..." he said deliberately. "I've been looking for you."
Fang tensed up next to me, and I knew he was ready to throw himself at Matt to let us get away. Matt kept coming. "One..." I barely muttered. 'Max, please, he doesn't want to hurt us,' Angel said in my head again. I would lecture her on our safety later.
"Two..." Suddenly, Matt came to a stop about ten feet from us... and fell on one knee and lowered his head into a deep bow. It reminded me of a medieval knight. "I wish to offer you my services," he said. "As a bodyguard... to you and your flock."

I had to close my mouth before I started attracting insects. "Wha..." I breathed.
"I would like to be your bodyguard," Matt repeated. "Do you accept?"
He had left us a month ago to be "trained" by Jeb. He could've been with us, maybe eventually become part of the flock. But he left with that traitor, and who knows what Jeb told him or gave him. Maybe he was chipped? There was no way to know what he had done.
I felt the flock stare at me, waiting for my answer. My gaze shot down as I heard a low whimper. It was Akila. She had her tail between her legs and she was shrinking behind Iggy. That is not a good sign, I thought.
I looked back to Matt and put my hands on my hips. "First of all, I'm not a queen, so get back up." Matt did as he was told, and stood up. It was then he seemed to notice Akila for the first time. He nodded to her. "That one talk too?" he asked.
Total shook his head. "Unfortunately, no..." he muttered. I inwardly rolled my eyes. ONE talking mutant dog was bad enough. We didn't need two. Plus, the one talking mutant dog that would soon be a FLYING talking mutant dog, with the growing wings and all.
Matt looked at me again. "So?" he asked. "Do you accept?"
Let the interrogation begin. "How do we know we can trust you?"
He nodded back to the pile of destroyed soldiers.
"I killed your enemies. What more do I need to do?"
He did have a point. "What did you do with Jeb?"
"He showed me what I was capable of doing. My mutations. How to fight. How to kill."
Ooook... "How do we know you won't kill us?"
An amused look crossed Matt's face for a moment. "You're still alive, aren't you?"
Cocky little bugger. Oh yea... "How did you kill all those guys? Where did those blades come from?"
"It's my mutation." He pulled back one of his sleeves and held his arm across his body. I could see some things shifting and moving under his skin, which was kinda creepy. "I can manipulate the iron levels in my body, collect them on top of my skin, and condense them to the strength of adamantium." He then made several long rows of short spikes stick out of his skin, then pulled them back in. Gazzy punched the air. "That is so COOL!"
Fang had to explain the sight to Iggy, who then whistled in amazement. Nudge winced. "So gross..." she murmured. I mentally agreed with her.
"Next question?" Matt asked. At the moment, I didn't really have any more. I guess I'd find out the rest later. I sighed. "Ok," I said. "But I'll be keeping my eye on you. If you so much as twitch the wrong way... I'll take you out." I put as much menace into my voice as I could. I could've imaged the pained look that quickly flashed in his eyes, it was hard to tell. But still, he nodded. "Perfectly understandable."

We camped out in a forest again, since it didn't look like it was going to rain, and we were sure we wouldn't be spotted from the air or anywhere else. Most of the flock were settling down for the night, except for Fang, who was on first watch. I looked at Matt, who had his back to a tree, but making no obvious effort to falling asleep. "You should get some rest," I called over to him. "You look tired." He glanced at me for a moment, then his gaze shifted to the ground. "I don't sleep anymore," he said.
There was silence after this little bombshell dropped. That explains the black rings, I thought. "Whatcha mean?" Nudge asked.
"Let's just say... bad things happen when I do. Nightmares... Night terrors... It'd be better if I stayed awake."
I knew Fang and Iggy would keep an eye on him during their watches, so I shrugged and settled down for sleep.

I awoke again when Iggy tapped me for my turn on watch. "How's he doing?" I whispered. Iggy shrugged. "I think he's been drawing. I can hear scratching on the ground, like constantly. It was hard for me to focus on any thing else." I patted his shoulder. "Well, I'll relieve you of your duty." Iggy smiled, then lay down for sleep.
Well, Iggy was right. Matt was just sitting there, drawing on the ground. It looked like he was using a pencil at first, but closer examination revealed it was a small, sharpened piece of iron. I shut out the possibilities with his mutation, and after several minutes, moved and sat next to him. "Having fun?" I said.
He gave me a half wave, then kept on drawing. I looked at the artwork. It was actually very good. Throughout the hours of the night, he was drawing the flock in flight. Me, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, even Total and Akila. But...
"Where're you?" I asked.
He didn't stop from his work. "Not in it."
"Why?"
Matt gave me a quick smile, but I saw some pain in it. "I'm not part of your flock, Max. I'm alone."
For some reason, I felt a hint of sympathy for him. "You aren't alone. We're here with you."
Matt slowly shook his head. "Max... I'm always alone, no matter how many people are beside me."
I understood. He was the only one of his kind. I mean, my flock and I were mutant freaks, but we had each other. Matt had no one. It was a little sad. I decided to switch to a less depressing topic.
"So... nice battle scars," I said.
He gave me another amused smile. "You don't really think I'd let anyone do that to me, do you?"
That means... "They're self-inflicted?" He nodded. "Why?" I said flabbergasted. "It reminds me of what I've done," he said. Despite myself, I reached up and touched one. "How many do you have?" I asked. He looked solemnly at me. "One for every real human I've killed... so twelve."
That's technically twelve more than I've killed in my whole life. This guy meant business. His eyes and mine met for several moments. I could still see the killer in his eyes, but I saw something else. Was that...?
Suddenly he broke his gaze at me and half turned away. "Don't you have to go back to watch?" he said with a touch of sadness in his voice. I sighed and nodded. "Max," he said just as I was about to leave. "You might think I'm upset, but I'm not. My mutations... OUR mutations... are gifts, not curses. I don't take them for granted. My life is disciplined, it's life-threatening, it's cold... and I wouldn't have it any other way..."