Hello again, my few, loyal readers!

I know that Dylan should be in here somewhere, but I just don't like him, so no Dylan. Maybe he's off with Jeb or was eaten by a pack of wild boars or is currently dying in a hole with his wings bound or something.

And just as a warning, there is going to be some blood and gore this chapter, so prepare yourself. But before that is going to be so nice and happy and conflict-free that you may want to stop reading. But don't. The gore and horror and possibly the one thing no one would ever dare to do to a major character of the Maximum Ride series will happen soon. So, be warned. I'll try to keep the gore to a minimum, but I must do as I need to.

Anywho, I am back, and this time, I bring with me a hot dog!

Hot dog: Hey, what's up?

Me: HOLY [insert your choice of swear word here]! YOU CAN TALK?

Hot dog: Yeah, can't you?

Me: But, but, but you don't have a mouth!

Hot dog: You really don't know that for sure.

Me: I really don't know that for sure.

Hot dog: You want to give me ketchup.

Me: I want to give you ketchup.

Hot dog: You don't own Maximum Ride.

Me: I don't own Maximum Ride.

Hot dog: You don't own Destiny or Fate.

Me: I don't own Destiny or Fate. Lilac Rose6 does. But she said I could borrow them for this chapter. Even though they're not really in it. Oh, you'll see what I mean.

Hot dog: You will stop talking now.

Me: I will stop talking n- oops. I mean, uh, *silent*

Hot dog: That's better.

The wind flowed through Sky's wings, making the feathers flutter. The bright, Arizona sun warmed her from above. Below her, her pack was safe and comfortable. Around her, more bird-kids flew. It was so wonderful, it was like a dream. The feeling of flying and just being so free was amazing. After all those long years in a lab, not knowing if she would survive another day, worrying about her sister, who had escaped, thinking about her wings but being stuck to the ground, wondering what would happen to her next...

It had been horrible. Beyond horrible.

Sky shook her head. She couldn't think about such terrible things right now. Because right now, she just wanted to enjoy the feel of freedom and excitement as she flew.

But her thoughts still wandered. Sky looked down at the ground and the little people running around. She thought about Maya and the rest of her pack. On the ground, she felt weird. It was hard to explain and she could never explain it to anyone, but she was made to fly. Made for the air. So when she was on the ground, it felt almost like she was back in a cage. Sure, there were no more experimentations and she had a family now, but still. The air was her home. And without it, she was lost.

The worst days of her life had been those before she had learned to fly. Maya had gotten her out of the School, but she she had always felt like something was missing. That had been the time when true freedom had been so close, but still unreachable. When she could watch the birds, but her own wings felt useless against her back. The School had been hard, but being so close to freedom and knowing no one else could feel her pain, it was truly horrible.

But now, in this one moment in time, freedom felt so good. And she never wanted to let it go.

Even if she landed, she could fly again, any time she wanted. It was her gift, her wings, her freedom.

It was good to be free.

I watched the sky from the ground. At the moment, me and the twins were discussing which black dot with wings in the sky was who (whom?).

"That one, right there, next to that ice-cream shaped cloud, I think that's Gazzy." Mimi said.

"No, it has to be Iggy. It's too big." I said.

"It doesn't matter how big it is-" Mimi said.

"-if they're in the sky." Kiki continued.

"It could just mean that they're closer to the ground." They finished at the same time.

"Whoa." Gazzy said, walking over from the house. He nodded toward the twins. "How do you tell those two apart?"

"We don't." I said bluntly. "We guess, and usually, we're wrong. At one point I gave them necklaces with their initials on them, but they lost them a while ago. And to be truthful, at this point, I think Mi 'n Ki are just toying with us. They probably don't even know who's name is whose."

Mimi and Kiki smiled sweetly, but there was a hint of something mischievous in their eyes.

Just then, something in my brain went 'Click!' at that moment, and I turned toward Gazzy.

"Ah ha!" I shouted, turning back to the twins. "Told you it was Iggy!"

Gazzy looked up. "That one by the cloud that looks like an ice-cream?"

"I think it looks more like a hippo in a tutu doing a split, but yeah." I said.

"That's Max." He said. "The one by the sun is Iggy."

"How can you tell?" I asked, flabbergasted.

"I don't. I guess." He turned and walked away.

The twins and I stared at each other for a moment.

"Well," I said. "I still think it's Iggy."

As the sun rose higher in the sky, the Avian Americans landed.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Nudge started. "I saw this really cool looking clearing in the woods over that way," she pointed, "and I thought, 'OMG! That is like the coolest looking place ever! We should, like, totally have a picnic there!' 'Cuz, it really is awesome. There was this little stream that went through it and I thought I saw one of those tiny waterfalls and lots of flowers and stuff! So, can we have lunch there! Come on, it would be amazing!"

The twins perked up. "Yeah yeah yeah! We should!"

Everyone turned to Max.

"If mom says it's okay." She said.

"I don't see why not." Dr. M said. "I'll go grab the baskets."

Everyone cheered.

I have to say, I really admired Max. She was the perfect leader. Gentle when needed, strong when not. Able to make quick decisions that could save everybody's butts. But still able to have a good time once in a while. Someone it was easy to look up to.

Sky grabbed my arm. "Come on. We're on watermelon duty."

And with that, just about everyone ran around grabbing stuff for the picnic. I saw Gazzy grab th phone and start ordering a pizza (or twenty) and Angel making lemonade. Jaws, Iggy, and Koro had grabbed some potatoes and were trying to mash them. Nudge and the twins were were working on what looked like macaroni and cheese. Max and Dr. M went inside to start on another batch of cookies.

It was going to be a good picnic.

Nudge was right. The clearing was pretty awesome.

The grass was soft and the trees provided enough shade to keep it from being uncomfortably hot. A small stream ran along the tree line, babbling cheerfully.

Everyone sat around on a blanket that was spread across the ground. Watermelon and pizza and other foods were passed around and we all stuffed our faces. Laughter was everywhere. So it came as a complete shock when the first gunshot was heard.

The bang rang through the surrounding trees, echoing. We all sprang to our feet and ducked for cover. Yori grew to the size of a lion and roared. She took off into the forest. Koro ran after her. Everyone was screaming and panicking. Memories that surfaced, of Sky's form crumpling in the sky at the same sound I heard now. I spun around and saw my sister take to the sky. I breathed a quick sigh of relief. She was alright.

Most of the Flock followed Sky, heading out of range of the shots that still rang out. I jumped into a tree and tried to make sense of the mess.

I could see Koro and Yori running after someone, or something, in a dark brown cape to the west.

I jumped back down from the tree and started trying to get everyone organized.

I found Jaws and got him to go and try to calm Mimi and Kiki down, who were freaking out.

Total was also freaking out. He was running in circles screaming his head off. Akila howled.

Max was shouting out orders.

There is nothing worse than being a place that feels so save and secure, and then having that sense of security shattered in a single gunshot.

After what felt like hours but was probably only minutes, everyone calmed down enough for me to count heads. Everyone was here except for Koro, Yori, and the bird-kids who had flown the coop. My ears pricked as I heard someone running through the underbrush of the forest towards us. I turned in that direction in time to see Yori, with Koro riding her like a horse, hurry back into the clearing.

Koro jumped down and Yori shrunk back to her regular size.

"We lost him." Koro said. He pointed into the forest. "He was running that way."

"Didn't get a good look at his face," Yori added, sounding a little winded. "But there was only one."

The parts of the flock that had taken to the sky landed. Dr. M looked everyone over quickly.

"Anyone hurt?" She asked. "No bullet wounds, no broken bones, no-"

She fell silent when Max hit the ground with a dull thud.

"Max!" I couldn't tell who screamed it first, but soon the cry was taken up by anyone who could get past the shocked lump in their throat.

Dr. Martinez fell to her knees beside her oldest daughter and gently turned her over so Max was lying on her back. I thought I heard her whispering something like, "Not Max. Oh, please God no, not Max."

I heard someone gasp. It might have been me.

Blood oozed out of a hole in Max's lower chest. The girl herself was unnaturally pale and looked horrible. Dr. M tore Max's shirt around the bullet hole, going into doctor-mode.

"Nudge! Angel!" She commanded. "Go back to the house and get my supplies. Look for a red bag. Ella, go with them. Iggy, Gazzy, I'm going to need water and blankets. Maya-"

Max started coughing, and I saw blood spray out of her mouth. Mimi and Kiki fainted.

"Not good, not good." Dr. M muttered. "She's bleeding internally. Bullet must have grazed her lung or something."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jaws kneeling by the twins, fanning them like in movies, trying to wake them back up. Koro had guided a horrified Yori away.

The red pool around Max was growing. The injured bird-girl started shaking violently.

"No, no," Dr. M was starting to sound desperate. "She's loosing too much blood. Going into shock."

I knew a little bit of Bird-People's body structures, my sister being one of them. So I knew that the average Avian American's heart beat faster than a human's, pumping more blood. That was good when flying and working hard, since it got tons more oxygen to the muscles and brain, but bad in times like this, since it pumped blood out of the body faster. All that blood was currently soaking Max's clothes and into the dirt around her, until the ground was so saturated the red liquid only pooled at its surface.

I was starting to feel sick.

Sky had been standing silently beside me the entire time. Now, she grabbed my arm and led me away.

"I have to tell you something." Sky said quietly.

Something was bothering her. I could tell. I waited quietly for my sister to continue.

"When I was still at the School, after you escaped," Sky paused. I didn't blame her. Just the mention of that horrible place surfaced memories that I didn't like to bring up. And Sky had been there much longer than me.

When she had recovered, Sky continued. "After that, I met this girl named Destiny. She was a bird-girl like me. She could tell what a person was put on Earth to do. Their destiny."

"So she could see the future?" I asked.

"No, that was her sister, Fate." Sky explained. [A/N: sorry, I just had to put that in.] "Destiny could see what you were meant to do. What you're supposed to, not what you are going to do."

"Ok, I think I get it." I said. "But where are you going with this?"

Sky took a deep breath. "Destiny told me that I was going to save someone who was going to save the world, but that it would cost me, and I would never be the same again. And Max is going to save the world."

I was still thinking about that one thing she had said. Cost her? Cost her what?

I looked back toward the clearing we had just come from. The girls were back with the medical kit, and Dr. M was trying to stop Max's bleeding. Even from this distance, I could tell it wasn't working. Nudge, Angel, and Ella were huddled together, crying. They could read Dr. Martinez' face just as well as I could. Max wasn't going to make it.

How did such a perfect, beautiful day turn to this? I wondered.

I shook my head. "How do you know Max is going to save the world. Save it from what?" [A/N: the pack never really heard that Max was gonna save the world. They haven't been in society much. Or read the books.]

"I don't know from what. But I just know that she's the one I'm supposed to save."

"How?"

"Because I just do." Sky said. "Because it's my destiny."

"What about the whole costing you thing?" I added.

"I don't know, OK?" Sky shot back. "I don't ever know what I'm going to do. I just know that I'm supposed to. This is something I have to do."

Sky's bright blue eyes met mine. "Please, you have to trust me."

I dropped my head, defeated. "Just be careful, 'kay?"

Sky smiled, a small, sad smile.

And we walked back to the clearing.

Iggy and Gazzy were back now, too. Gazzy, trying not to cry, held an armful of blankets and Iggy held a pitcher of water.

"What's going on?" I heard Iggy whisper.

"You really don't want to know." Gazzy said between gasps.

"This is all my fault." Nudge sobbed. "I wanted to have a picnic in the woods."

Ella tried to comfort her.

They both broke down into sobs.

I looked at my sister, wondering what was going through her head.

I didn't know it was a memory of years ago, in a dark room behind the bars of a dog crate.

I tore my eyes from my sister to look over my pack. Koro came to stand by me. Yori clung close to his leg. Jaws finally managed to get Mimi and Kiki to wake up. Mimi sat up moaning, took one look at Max, screamed, and both her and Kiki passed out again. Jaws sighed and turned them away from the bloody mess before trying to wake them up again.

Sky took a few steps forward.

Dr. M looked up, her face streaked with tears. "I-" she stopped when her voice broke. When she could get past the lump in her throat, the veterinarian continued. "I don't have the right equipment. And there's not enough time to get to a hospital."

I heard sobs and gasps from around the group.

Sky stepped forward until she was next to Max. I saw Angel collapse to the ground next to her leader. Nudge followed her example. Then Ella. Pretty soon, the entire flock surrounded Max.

"This wasn't supposed to happen." Angel whispered. "Max has to save the world. She can't die yet."

Sky knelt down and placed a hand on the bullet hole. Max's breaths now were shallow and weak.

I watched my sister close her eyes. Both hands were resting on the wound now.

I didn't think that Sky could heal others. We'd tried that once, when one of the twins had gotten a nasty scratch from a blackberry bush (note to self: blackberries taste good, but bite back) and nothing had happened.

Max coughed again and a dribble of blood ran down her chin.

Sky looked strained. She was pushing herself.

And I knew something was happening when the violent shakes that had wracked Max's body stopped.

For a moment, in my mind's eye, I saw everything that had brought us to this single point. My escaping let me learn about the world. Sky's not escaping gave her the power to heal. Jaws, who we met while breaking out, saved us from Eraser-Bots in New York. Mimi and Kiki led us here. Koro and Yori scared away the assassin. I had gone back for my sister.

All the little choices, all the little chance encounters came rushing to me at once. All those little things that led Sky here to save Max.

Sky's destiny was to save Max. Mine and the rest of the pack's was to get her here, to this one moment in time.

I was so deep in these thoughts that I hardly noticed when the first feather fell.

I didn't notice it right away. Sky looked like she was in pain, but Max looked like she was in less. My eyes were glued to them.

Dr. M walked back over. She watched Sky work, her hands clutching the sweatshirt Max had worn earlier until it had gotten too warm. I felt Koro take my hand, and I looked to him for support. He smiled sadly. Yori rubbed up against my leg.

"It'll be alright," she whispered. "I know it."

Another feather fell. This time, my eyes followed it as it floated to the ground.

Mimi and Kiki had woken up again, and had somehow managed to stay awake. Jaws herded them over to where our pack was forming.

Two feathers fell. I watched them land on the steadily growing pile. But even then I didn't really comprehend what I was seeing.

Nudge walked over to the twins. The three (two? How many are the twins?) of them had really bonded during our time here. They comforted each other.

Feathers were scattered all over the ground. The wind blew them across the clearing.

Iggy and Ella came over next. Then Gazzy and Angel. We all stood around a dying girl and another who might save her.

I hadn't realized we had been slowly stepping forward until one of my bare feet stepped on a feather.

That was when I really noticed that something was off.

Sky's wings had begun to turn black.

Where the feathers had fallen enough to show the skin underneath, it was black as frostbite. The color of something dead.

My hands covered my mouth and muffled my gasp of horror.

Sky's face was contorted in pain, her hands soaked red with blood. Feathers fell from her wings like a light rain-shower.

But Max's face had gained back some of its color and her breathing didn't seem as labored as before.

Sky was the one who looked pale. The one who's breath came in quick little gasps.

Max coughed again, and opened her eyes.

The flock cheered and practically jumped on her.

Sky fell backwards, unconscious even before Max's eyes had opened. Koro caught her, and the last few feathers still clinging to her shriveled, black wings fell.

And yet another cliffhanger. But good news! There is only one more chapter left! So all questions will be answered then. Questions like...

Is Sky dead?

Is Max a zombie?

Did the flock kill Max when they dog-piled her?

Why was there a talking hot dog?

Me: Anywho, intense chapter. But I did finally get rid of the talking, mind-controlling hot dog.

Hot dog: no you didn't.

Me: YES I DID!

Hot dog: no you didn't.

Me: no I didn't. Wow, you are worse than Angel!

Hot dog: Yes I am.

Me: Well, maybe I can get rid of him before I post the next chapter. Speaking of which, I am really, really sorry about how long its been since I posted, but I have been sick and have had work overload! Two big projects for English and social studies, a science contest (I signed up for three events!), NYSSMA (a band thing), piano (my teacher is really strict), personal life (Me:leave me alone already, little sis! Little sis: No!), posting art (I has a deviantart account. Same username. Check it out sometime.), and much more that I won't bore you anymore with.

Me: So please review,

Hot dog: bring ketchup!

Me: bring ketchup, and- hey! Stop doing that!

Hot dog: The magical, talking, mind-controlling hot dog commands you to review!

Me: You're magical now? Sweet.