Welcome back to another chapter of "The Maximum End!" Thanks to all of you who reviewed the last chapter!

I'm having a bad day. :( There might be a wasp in my house, so I've armed myself with Windex because that kills bugs like nobody's business. But I had a good day a few days ago, because my friend (she will not be named 'cause I don't want any freakazoids out there who are on FF randomly to go and stalk her) sent me the yearbook picture of my sixth grade crush. I haven't seen him in a little over two years. (Mind you, he was cuter then than he is now.) So now he's the wallpaper on my phone. ;D

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride or any of its characters.

Claimer: I own the plot.

Chapter 4

Three or four hours later, the lights of New York City were visible as Fang and Maya flew over them. They had followed Ratchet and the others as they had driven along the highway. It wasn't too hard to keep up with them in the middle of the night, since Fang and Maya both had super raptor vision.

"So what's the plan, boss?" Maya asked, having to shout over the wind to be heard.

Fang thought before saying, "We're going to scout around and see if we can find any DGers. I also want to check out a place where they made mutants. It was called the Institute for Higher Living."

Maya frowned. "I know that place," she said, a little more quietly. "It was a branch of Itex, right?"

Fang nodded, his face showing no emotion at the name of one of the first group he'd had to defeat with Max. "Yeah. That's also where… we found Total." He didn't want to say the name of the person who'd really gotten Total out of there. It would open up a door to a room full of too much pain and too many memories—some good and some bad.

It's all my fault, Fang thought. She was right in front of me. I know she was. There was no way that she could've not gotten out of there.

Fang and Maya touched down in Central Park and waited for the others to meet them. When they did, they started to walk to the subway, where Fang knew they'd be able to find a safe place for the night.

"Where're we going?" Kate asked. "I thought we would stay in Central Park. Or a hotel."

"Too conspicuous," Fang said, shaking his head. "Especially in this part of town. Our best chance is to head underground."

"Like, sleeping in a subway tunnel?" Star asked, sounding a little miffed.

Fang shrugged and said, "It's really not that bad. It's also near the Institute, where we need to scout."

About twenty minutes later, Fang and the others were settled onto a ledge in the same place where Fang, Max, and the flock had met the computer hacker named Mike so long ago. Fang was silently hoping that weird stuff wouldn't start happening again, like it had before.

"I'll take the whole watch," Fang said, glad for the familiar routine of watches. "You guys need to rest."

The others nodded and lay down on the hard concrete. Compared to a plane, this was uncomfortable. But compared to running around a blast site lifting up pieces of concrete that weighed at least a few thousand pounds, this was, like, the Ritz of subway tunnels.

As Fang watched the scene around him, he couldn't help but let his mind wander just a little bit. Back to a time when things were more complicated than they needed to be and he hardly knew which way was up and which way was down.

Don't think about it, he chided himself. Don't remind yourself about that.

But it was hard not to. The effects from what he chose were all around him. From… Angel being kidnapped to his "death" a few weeks earlier (see book six if you're curious). Everything that could have possibly happened in the last year was his fault.

And more.

He remembered the day that he heard the whitecoats talking about sending Max into the Arena or the School Yard. How they wanted her to either fight an Eraser or just let several Erasers chase her down and rip her to pieces. He remembered how he'd spoken out of turn then, and how it had resulted in his final "punishment."

A punishment that would lead to what he was doing right then and there. Everything he was doing was a result of that.

Sometimes, Fang would go back in time (in his mind, of course) and change the way he acted. He never spoke against what the whitecoats said. But then Max would die. Selene would live. Jeb would never get them out of the cages.

Fang sighed and leaned his head back against the wall. Regrets were a hard thing to live with.

Cue scary music. I'll have a oneshot all about this Selene character up later today if things go well. Is anybody else totally amped about the "Son of Neptune" cover art? I fell in love with it the moment I laid eyes on it.

So please review! No flames, but constructive criticism is welcomed.

Peace, Love, Happiness, and Maximum Ride.

-A$h