Everything was perfect, just right. That was until…

"Ahhhhhhhhhh," We heard a scream in the hallway. Sarah. Me and Fang looked at each other in recognition and he yanked the door open, whilst I still held onto baby Sarah, not wanting to let go. Erasers. Crap. What a perfect moment, I mean you wait two years when I would have welcomed an eraser attack, and you send them NOW. Where they actually kidding?……

Acting in a flash, not stopping to think about the things that would fundamentally cross peoples minds in a situation like this one, it all came naturally – the whole acting well in a crisis thing. I zipped baby Sarah into my jacket in a way that she could not fall, and could still breathe, and I tried not to jostle her too much, but that was an art I was going to have to conquer in the future, again the whole mothering didn't come to me yet.

I snapped into hyper-senses and joined Fang in the head-on battle with the erasers, throwing in a quick snap kick to the one that tried to sneak up behind me. I was thinking for two here, thinking of little Sarah the whole time, and for some reason it worked, all I could think now was – survive, survive for Sarah and the flock (if they were alive) – I punched another eraser straight in the jaw.

Erasers were a doddle, we'd managed them way before now, it did confuse me though as to why they'd brought them back, after having retired them all anyway, but I didn't have too long to debate this in my head as an Eraser dropped a kick in my side, knocking the breath out of me as Sarah began to cry out, poor girl, it was all too much for her. But why did I get the feeling that this wasn't going to be the last eraser attack she'd have to survive through?

Fresh anger radiated through me as I thought this, and I swiped out another two erasers in an instant, they were thinning out in numbers now, and I could see the culprit behind the scream. What I could only imagine was a clone of Ari was standing back at the end of the corridor, with his great filthy paws pinning Sarah (the original) against a wall. He waited until I knocked down five more erasers and reached him at the end of the corridor, while Fang covered my back. They evidently reprogrammed him with the old bitter Ari, rather than the latter side I'd seen before he expired, when he'd actually been like the brother he was to me for a bit.

I sighed an angry hiss, and threw myself at him, the power of my motherhood instincts rising up inside me and making me feel invincible as all I could think of was seeing his face smashed in. But before I could do this, the second I'd leapt into the air, he'd thrown his fist into Sarah's head, making a whole in the wall with his effort, as she flopped lifelessly to the ground.

"NOO!" I roared, fresh anger building up now, as my heart felt like it had been the thing behind 'Ari's' fist. Ok, I'd never seen this 'Ari' before, but now it was personal, nothing was going to come between me and his jaw. His head popped out of his neck joint surprisingly easily, I'd have to remember this for future battles, they made the 'clones' - or robots as they basically are – with very weak neck joints, or had my anger-fuelled adrenaline rush just been stronger than I'd thought.

I watched as 'Ari's' head fell to the ground and his body remained standing for a few seconds before some hissing noises could be heard within the wiring.

"Self-destruct, self-destruct in 10 seconds, Max this is not the end, I am the first of many, with every time we meet and you destroy me, they learn and fix my weaknesses, one day I will destroy youuuuuuu…" It fizzled out at the end, the sound had come from somewhere inside the robot and now, as it had said, it was 'self-destructing'.

"Fang, run!" I shouted as I flung myself out of the fire escape and did a quick U and A, while the robot was still fizzing and whirring. Fang flew out the door just after, kicking an Eraser off his leg as he did so. Just as we got high enough into the air, the whole place went up. The 'self-destruct' being more of a 'I'm going to self-destruct and destroy the whole building with me' kind of act. A feeling of pain ripped through me as I thought of the hospitality of the people in that place over the last two years, and the fact that it was still open, and there would have been a few stray men still inside, begging for more before they were chucked out for closing. The whole building was up in flames now and I heard a far-off siren. Me and Fang flew away with haste but in silence, as the realization of what 'Ari' had just said, and of what he did to Sarah just hit me.

First, I had probably lost my best and only friend outside the flock and family, and I was filled with the regret that I never let her in or got to know here better, when all she'd shown me was kindness. I only hoped that her kind selfless spirit could carry on in her namesake with baby Sarah so she could still be with me, and filled me with even more determination to bring her up right now. Secondly, the fear of what the message meant for me and Sarah, was it safe to look for the flock now? Was it safe to bring them back when I knew that we had more of this to face? When I knew that they were improving the 'Ari'-bots each time. So they would fix the neck weakness this time I figured and I would have to find another weakness for them to fix, fear was building up even more now as I realized that if they did this, the message was right, It was going to destroy me in the end, but I didn't want it to destroy everything I stood for at the same time.

Even so, I wasn't going to be able to manage this alone, me and Fang managed them just about, but we still hadn't wiped out all the erasers on our own, the explosion did that. So I needed my flock more than ever, my little mini army of a loyal family. I wanted to see their little faces more than ever.

I looked across at Fang as we landed in the clearing of a forest upon his lead. This was not good. What did this mean for us? For our future? For the flock? An most importantly Sarah?

A/N: Good? Bad? Tell me what you think, the review button is right there, only a little flick of the mouse and you're there. But anyway thank you for the great reviews I've been getting. What do you want next? Flock? Or more action first? Or more FAX first? Or something to do with Sarah? Let me know, it can only improve the story if I include what you want.