Syzygy

by Sanraita

Max is back and kicking butt along with the flock. But what they need to do is suicide. How can the possibly win? Max knows one thing. Someone isn't going to make it out alive. Nothing can ever be easy, can it? FAX! IggyxOC Beware: Hilarity will ensue!

21. Final Battle

Syzygy 21

Max POV

I blinked. She was so scared because of a group of Erasers? Something wasn't adding up here.

"The Erasers?" I asked slowly.

"The Erasers." Angel was back to normal, her sweet blue eyes defiant, but still slightly anxious. "As in, all the Erasers. Every single one from the three schools in Africa. And that's thousands, Max. Maybe tens of thousands. There's too many minds for me to count."

"Let me take a wild guess at who's leading them. Hm, let's see now. Could it be…Serena?" J.J. asked sarcastically.

"Yeah." Angel said shortly. "But I can read her mind now. She's thinking about how she screwed up because of their 'little discovery' and now our powers will work. That's good, at least."

I bit my lip. This wasn't going to be good. I looked at Natalca. "Can you sense them yet?"

She closed her eyes, then opened them. "Oh, shit, yeah. There's a mass just flooding into my range."

"How far away?" Fang asked her, all business.

"Three miles."

"Crap, let's go!" I shouted, leaping into the air.

Madysyn shot a look at Natalca. "Which direction are they coming from?"

And, coincidentally, that's when both Angel and Natalca gasped and Angel almost fell over.

"Every direction." Natalca moaned.

Everyone looked at her sharply.

"We're surrounded." Angel sighed. "Completely. Madysyn and Regan can't get out. And they've got guns; they'll shoot us right out of the air. And they're not here to catch us. They're here to kill us. Terminate us."

Oh, jeez. Fang looked at me. I gazed back, and then gave a tiny nod, looking back at everyone else.

"Then we fight." I said casually, like it meant absolutely nothing.

Smiles broke out everywhere. Iggy and Gazzy slapped high fives. Angel and Nudge did a little dance. J.J. lifted Natalca and swung her around. Madysyn and Regan just watched, as Fang and I did.

"Okay, if you're all done celebrating, we can strategize now." I said acidly.

They stopped and immediately became serious.

"If they have guns, fighting from the air is out." Fang said.

I nodded. "They're in a complete circle? There's absolutely no opening?"

Natalca and Angel nodded solemnly.

"Great." I muttered. "Then get a partner, like we did that other time. And stay together, obviously."

I stepped over beside Fang, and J.J. took Natalca's hand. Regan and Madysyn moved closer together, and Gazzy and Iggy started talking about bombs, leaving Nudge and Angel.

"How far away now?" I asked.

"Half a mile. Look around you, Max." Natalca told me.

I did as she said, and swallowed hard. It was like a swarm of bugs. Big, hairy, dangerous, bugs. I could see the Erasers, coming quickly from all sides. They covered the half mile easily, stopping about three meters away from us. The wall of Erasers was at least five hundred thick everywhere I looked. They were spaced out, ready for a fight. This was going to be tricky. Then the dark haired menace we all loved so much appeared.

"So, I'm sure you've figured out why we're here." She began.

"Because you can't wait to be obliterated?" I asked snidely.

"Oh, hahaha, so funny!" Serena put on a fake school-girl voice. "Because we can't wait to obliterate you, Max. All of you. Quite convenient how the cat and the wolf decided to travel with you, isn't it?"

I looked her over more closely. Always best to know the enemy. She was dressed in a skin tight black cat-suit, her long dark hair tied back in a messy bun. Her tall body was slim and muscled. Strong. But under her eyes were dark bags, like she hadn't been sleeping well. Angel had said something about a 'little discovery'…I wonder what it was?

"Has anyone else noticed that she has problems with family? First she leaves her parents and brothers and sisters, then her fiancé dies, and her sister, and now she wants to kill her son. Serena, you have issues." Natalca hissed.

Serena shrugged, which was very un-Serena-ish. But I didn't have time to dwell on it, because then she shouted, "Kill the mutants!" and all hell broke loose.

I launched myself at the nearest Eraser, and Fang covered me from the behind, his back touching mine as he went invisible. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched what everyone else did. Natalca was launching rocks and splitting their skulls easily. As I watched, she laughed as she managed to hit two Erasers with a particularly large rock. J.J. was being creative with his gift, preserving energy by turning only select things to stone. Like the Eraser's gun, or legs, or arms, or head, or even the air in between himself and the Eraser. Madysyn was making the ground pitch and roll under the Erasers, so they fell, making it easy for her and Regan to pounce on them and rip their throats out. Iggy and Gazzy were happily hurling bombs left and right. I could only hope they didn't hit one of the Flock. Nudge was controlling their guns and hitting them with them. I knew she wouldn't dare shoot one, for fear of missing and hitting someone on the good side. Angel was, of course, controlling their minds and making them drop dead.

And even with all of our deadly gifts, I knew this was not far off from a suicide mission. There was a very large chance we wouldn't make it out of here alive. But we had to try. Then I felt a sharp pain explode in the side of my head, and I whirled to discover what had hit me.

Oh, joy. Serena.

I shook my head angrily and then sent a kick at her head. But she wasn't there anymore. I looked around furtively. And then a finger tapped my shoulder from behind. I spun, seeing an evil smirk before she disappeared from there, too. It went on like that for a very long time, her teleporting behind or beside me and then punching me when I turned only to teleport away again. Finally I got frustrated and didn't turn around. I just waited. When she kicked the back of my head, I feinted to the left, making it look like I was going to turn. She fell for it and teleported in front of me, where I smashed her face in with my foot.

Then she brought out a knife and things got a little scary. I had no gift to protect myself from that. Various cuts and bruises later, I saw a shimmer of displaced light from behind Serena and held in a grin. When the invisible Fang kicked or punched her head, she pitched forward out of surprise. And of course, she put her hands out to catch herself. And she'd been standing very close in front of me.

And guess what was in one of those hands? The knife. Right.

I heard a strained No! from behind Serena, and I think I heard a shriek rip out of my chest before the knife sliced through my jacket and shirt and into my chest. In my state of pain and surprise and shock, I wanted to laugh at the irony. This was exactly how Shannon died. Were we cursed to die by knives or something?

As I fell to the ground, I saw Natalca quickly take Fang's spot battling Serena and Fang race to me.

"Max! Oh, Max, stay with me! You'll be okay, I promise, Max." Fang said, his voice soft and firm.

But I knew he was lying.

"Liar." I croaked. "I have a knife in my chest, and Shannon is definitely not around to heal me. But I'd rather die in a fight than in a hospital as an old hag."

And then I died. I felt my consciousness slip away, and I heard Fang scream my name, and I heard the furious roar of revenge that erupted out of him as I died.

Fang POV

NonononononnononononononononononoNO!!

Max couldn't be dead, she couldn't be! Frantically I wiped away some of the gushing blood before deciding that was a lost cause. I put two fingers just below her jaw on the side of her neck, searching for a pulse. There was none.

Maximum Ride was dead.

Or so I thought until I felt the absolutely faintest, smallest, ghost of a pulse. I could barely feel it, even with my mutant senses. But it was there. I pressed harder, and felt it beat again, very faintly and very slowly. But it meant she was alive, and that was good enough for me. She must have passed out.

I leaped to my feet and searched for Serena. She almost killed Max, which meant I had something to settle with her. I saw her fending off Natalca with…another knife? God, where the hell did she hide these things? I ran over there, noting with satisfaction that her back was to me. Again. I went invisible and made sure not to do the same as last time. I didn't want Natalca stabbed as well. I was just about to tackle her when five Erasers, all with guns that they held to my head, grabbed me. The barrels were digging into my skin, and it was actually pretty darn uncomfortable.

Crap.

"Nudge!" I yelled, since she was the closest to me.

She spun around and her eyes widened. I heard them cock the guns and prepare to shoot just before all five guns flew into the air and snapped in half. I wrenched myself out of their grasp and shouted a 'thanks' to Nudge before proceeding to attack all five Erasers at once.

And normally, that would work just fine. But these Erasers were smarter than normal. They grabbed me again, and one whipped out a knife and held it to my throat, the blade pressing into my skin and making it hard for me to breath. But he didn't slide it across my throat and kill me like he was ordered. Instead he looked uncertainly at Serena. She saw me held with the knife at my neck and yelled back, "Leave him alive. Disable him, hurt him, injure him, but do not kill. That is for me to do!"

That sounded like it was going to be a hell of a lot like torture. Back to the first fourteen years of my life we go. Great.

The Erasers got these evil grins on their faces, and then the other four brought out the same razor sharp daggers as the first one. The first one lifted his knife from my throat, only to slash it right down my face, hairline to cheek to jaw. Nice.

But I stayed silent and just glared at them. I saw Iggy wince and start to run to me, but then he was attacked by a group of them and obscured from my sight. And my attention was drawn back to the knives anyway. One was making a bloody path down from my shoulder to wrist, and another felt like he was trying to cut my leg off, the way he was stabbing it. Normally, this would hurt. A lot. But I was too concerned and worried for Max to feel it. And then I caught sight of Serena, with no one attacking her. She was striding over to Max, and she looked out for blood. Well, more blood.

Scratch the 'concerned and worried' part. Make it 'panicked and unable to think anything but MAX!'

Now I couldn't see anything but Serena's demonic face and Max's limp body on the ground. I struggled hard against the Erasers holding me, but it was no use. They just held me tighter. I saw Regan look towards Serena and Max and streak over and tackle Serena to the ground, his jaws snapping inches from her neck before she shoved him off and stood. I wanted to watch, but then blinding pain and red hot agony flashed through me, and I couldn't see anything. An Eraser had made a huge, deep, slash from my collarbone to stomach. They let me go, and I took one stumbling step towards Max before pitching to the ground. The Erasers laughed at me, but I wasn't giving up that easily. I forced myself up on my hands and knees and started crawling. But that didn't last long, either. The last thing I saw was a figure off in the distance, and it looked like they were stumbling weakly towards us. But nothing other than that registered in my brain as unconsciousness overwhelmed me.

Iggy POV

Things were not looking good. Max had been stabbed in the chest, but was only unconscious, because she had a pulse. I checked. But an unconscious Max wasn't a helpful Max. And five minutes later I'd seen Fang fall to the ground, crawl a few inches, and then pass out.

It had been an hour since Fang had gone down, and in that time Nudge and Gazzy had gotten caught and, in Serena's words, 'disabled'. In my opinion that meant tortured until the victims are unconscious. In a bloody, bruised, vile way.

So, Angel, Natalca, J.J., Madysyn, Regan, and I were the only ones still standing. And I knew we needed a plan, and fast. We were all back to back, in a tight little circle, with the Erasers surrounding us. And we were injured. I was barely standing. Natalca had earned herself a broken leg, courtesy of Serena, but she was still standing, sort of. She was doing the stork.

"Hold them." Serena ordered suddenly.

All the Erasers dove. We had no chance of escape. When the dust we'd kicked up in the struggle finally settled, each one of us was pinioned by a group of Erasers. And then a slice of pain erupted on my arm. As my head whipped around to find out what had sliced me, another Eraser slashed my leg, hip to knee. And it continued like that for a while, until the Erasers that had restrained me were now holding me up. As my head slipped to the side, I saw the others in just as bad shape as me, and worse. Unable to watch as they were slashed to ribbons, I turned my head the other way and looked over at the horizon. It was dusk, and the sun was just above the horizon line. But that wasn't what caught my attention. What did catch my attention was the figure of the person steadily stumbling in our direction. It looked like a girl. A girl that was injured but determined. Not that I really cared. The only people I cared about were in the hands of Erasers, so that was my biggest concern at the moment.

And then I passed out.

Max POV

Where am I?

That was my first thought when I came to.

I must be in heaven, I thought groggily.

Then I looked around at my surroundings and knew this was definitely not heaven. It wasn't hell, either, because my Flock was here, and they couldn't be in hell. I was still alive.

And I wasn't sure if that was reason to cheer or groan, because there was currently a knife at my throat and another….sticking out of my chest?

How am I not dead?

Memory came flooding back to me. The knife plunging into my chest. No one could survive that blow. So how in hell am I still alive? I looked down again, and my jaw dropped. My chest was healing. I kid you not.

The blood was drying up and not flowing out. The tissues and muscles were sewing themselves back together, and the skin was closing and healing, with a thin pink line the only evidence that I'd ever been stabbed. The knife hit the ground with a thud.

Okay. I was alive. I was healed. All good things. So let's not question them and just get the important part. The part where I figure out what the hell is going on around here, and how we're getting away.

Looking around, I found out that we were all held in a line at the mercy of Serena. Everyone else was unconscious, except for Fang, who was stirring. Suddenly his eyes shot open and met mine. In the second before we both turned away, we each conveyed the message: Oh, shit. What now?

"So, mutants, how do you like being completely at my mercy?" Serena asked us coldly.

I didn't answer. I was too busy staring at the rest of my beat up flock. They didn't look so good. But thank God Natalca and Regan were waking up, and Madysyn and Iggy started blinking spastically not long after. I turned the other way and found Angel's beautiful blue eyes staring back at me, and another pair of the same blue eyes beside her. Gazzy. Beside them was a slowly stirring Nudge and disoriented looking J.J.

Then Serena brought my attention back to our situation.

"And now I'm going to kill you." Serena declared.

"But why?" I asked, trying to buy time.

"Why?" she cocked an eyebrow.

"Yes, why. The whitecoats brainwashed you, why not brainwash us?" I asked.

She blinked, and a thoughtful look came over her face. I wondered if I had just condemned us to become mindless robots.

"I honestly don't know. But I also honestly don't care. Because this way, I get to watch you die." Serena said, back to her evil witchy self. Then she turned to an Eraser beside her and snapped, "Give me your knife."

Huh, she had finally run out of her own. Look at that, we accomplished something! Make Serena run out of knives by getting stabbed: Check.

But then she was holding the dagger in her hands, and she looked determined, and murderous. Her dark hair was blowing in the wind, and the setting sun was casting shadows on her face. She looked like a dark angel or something. Except that Serena could never be called an angel. Slowly she walked over to me, gloating without even saying a word. Standing before me, she carefully positioned the knife over my heart, the sharp tip pushing slightly into my skin.

"Any last words before I drive this straight into your heart and kill you?" she asked it sweetly, like she was asking me if I would like a cookie, but her face was demonic.

In answer, I spat in her face. Reflex reaction. She hissed and brought the knife up, the blade glinting in the sunlight as if reminding me that knives were serious bad luck for my flock. Just as she stopped raising it, and as she prepared to plunge it into me, and I started to have déjà vu, a voice cut through the air, sharper than any knife Serena could have stabbed me with.

"Are you going to start without me?"

Like everyone else, including Serena, my jaw dropped wide open. I admit it. I recognized that voice, but I couldn't believe it. I didn't believe it. It was the same sometimes sweet, sometimes angry, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes caring voice that had started this whole thing by calling Iggy's name in his dream. But I still didn't believe it. So I turned and looked, expecting anything but what I saw.

I could barely make out her face, because the setting ball of fire we call the 'sun' was right behind her, outlining her body and casting the front side of her into shadow. But I could just barely make out a few details. She was dressed in the blue tank top and dark jeans that she had died in. Her long blonde hair was blown out around her head and behind her shoulders, looking like a golden halo. She stood tall and proud, legs straight and easy, arms folded across her chest, greeny-blue eyes flashing with flaring anger. The sun was setting behind her, and she stood directly in its glow, looking for all the world like an angry angel come down from heaven. Around her neck the sapphire necklace glinted and sparkled, reminding us what happened to her and how she should be in the ground.

But she sure as hell wasn't. Her skin was as tanned as always, and she was almost glowing. Definitely not a dead corpse.

And somehow I knew it wasn't a clone, either. No clone could ever capture that girl's…essence…like that. It really was her.

Shannon.

But there was no time to ask questions, because she was in motion. I think she knew from the start there was no chance of beating all the Erasers, but she was going to try. Fire raced from her outstretched arms to the hordes of Erasers, roasting them. As she whirled and spun and jumped and punched and kicked, I caught a glimpse of her wings. The right one looked fine, but the left was at an awkward angle and had dried blood crusted over the feathers.

"How…how…what…" Serena babbled in front of me.

"How what? How did I get out? Out of that stupid little cell you locked me in to waste away?" Shannon's angry voice snapped.

Serena just stared before saying, "You're a clone. You must be."

But Shannon wasn't answering anybody. She just kept shooting fire at everything in sight, excluding the flock. But I could also see how much the continuous flame was costing her. Her movements were less precise and less coordinated the more fire she used. Out of the several thousand that had originally attacked her, she had brought the number down to one or two thousand. And now she was spent, but still fighting.

"Give up." Serena commanded.

"Not likely." Shannon grunted, launching herself at Serena.

As they tumbled to the ground, Shannon wrenched one hand free and conjured a raging fireball. Just before she smashed it into Serena's face, ten or so Erasers pulled her off Serena. Serena still had the knife, so when she shot to her feet, she proceeded to slash Shannon's face, and then arms, and then legs, and then chest. But she didn't kill her. And all the while, Shannon was shooting fireballs at her, which she just dodged.

Once Shannon was sufficiently as beat up and bloody as the rest of us, Serena gave her one long glare before going back to me.

"Drop them." Serena commanded.

The Erasers dropped us. As my body hit the ground, I tried to get away, or move, or do something. I really did try. But it was no use. I couldn't move my own body. The blood pounding in my ears and the pounding of my own heart was almost equal to the pounding pain covering every inch of my body. But not quite. And it was almost loud enough to drown out the screams of my flock as Serena stabbed me. But, again, not quite.

I felt the knife slice through my skin, and then cut straight through the flesh underneath. I got a strange sense of déjà vu. Hm, I wonder why…

But I couldn't die. I just couldn't. I had to be there to get everyone else out. They were my responsibility. I couldn't let them be killed. I couldn't.

Fang.

More than anything, anything at all, I had to save Fang. I had to stay alive so I could protect him. And how could I leave him alone without me? He'd fold in on himself, become an empty shell and probably never speak another word as long as he lived.

Fang.

Fang, oh, god, I love you. I'm coming back, I am, I won't die. I can't. I'll come back. I'll save you and the others. I'll get us all out.

Fang.

And then I felt the weirdest sensation tingling over my skin. All over me, from my toes to my eyelashes to every single cell in my body. It was like water was being poured over my body, water that was neither hot nor cold but was burning hot and ice cold at the same time. And all around me was black, and in my ears I could hear the sound you hear when you stick your head out the window of a car. Roaring, whistling wind.

Suddenly all the blackness disappeared, replaced by a scene. A familiar scene that I understood immediately. Serena was standing before Shannon with the dagger. Shannon was glaring at her defiantly, but she had tears streaming down her face. Not from fear or pain, but from grief. Her eyes flashed away from Serena, and I looked where she was looking and wanted to throw up. There was the body of Iggy, limp and pale.

Dead.

Then Serena raised her arm, and I hurriedly looked away. I couldn't watch Shannon die a second time, thank you very much. But looking away didn't block the screams. And they weren't the screams of pain you'd expect to hear. They were screams of torture and immense mental pain. She'd watched every one of us die, including Iggy, who was like her soul mate, and Natalca, her other half.

Wherever I was, I was looking down at the scene, as if from the sky. And I couldn't close my eyes. So when I looked away from Shannon, I caught sight of the rest of my flock. Or their bodies, at least. All of them, everyone, dead. Limp, pale, motionless.

Including Fang. His black hair matted with blood and rivulets of blooding still dripping down his face, his body stretched out in a lunge, straight towards me. He must have tried to go to me, and Serena killed him. We were all dead. There was no second chance, no miraculous coming back to life, nothing. It was over, Itex had won. And maybe that was a good thing. We'd never have to run again. Never have to wonder where our next meal was coming from. We could have peace. Just give in one last time and let the rest of the world deal with Itex…

Let the rest of the world deal with Itex? What was I thinking? The rest of the world were civilians. The only people that could ever stand up to Itex was me and my flock. And we were dead, we'd lost, it was all over, and now the rest of the world would pay for our screw ups.

I felt worse than I ever had before. The world had depended on us, and we'd let them down….

Oh, Fang. You can't be dead. I love you.

That was my last thought before the absolute weirdest thing happened. A flash of bright light, and then there was a line connecting us all. A line of white light, shimmering and blinding. From me to Fang to Iggy to Shannon to Natalca to J.J. to Regan to Madysyn to Angel to Gazzy to Nudge and back to me. Our bodies were in a circle, and then the white light intensified until I couldn't bear to look at it anymore. Instead I concentrated on Fang's face. But then the line of light connecting us all grew bigger, and bigger, until it was like a wall. And it wasn't white. It was teal, and then dark blue, and then emerald green, and then black, followed by army green, stone grey, bright electric blue, bright orange, pink, light blue, coffee brown, and then straight white again.

About three seconds later, I heard a crackling in the air, and for the first time I noticed Serena standing in the circle of our bodies, looking clueless. Then the crackling got louder, and I heard one loud, sharp crack, like the clap of thunder right above your head. The wall of light slammed shut into a dome of flashing energy, enclosing Serena inside it along with the flock's bodies. Then suddenly it exploded, and all I could see was white light, zooming into every inch of space that I could see, in every direction. After the white light, there was just more blackness, until suddenly I could see again. But not up from in the sky like before. I was seeing the sky, the orange streaked clouds from the setting sun. And I could feel. I could feel the dry blood on my body and the earth under my back and hear leaves rustling in the wind. Slowly I sat up, not knowing where I was.

Heaven? Afterlife? The Other side?

But then I knew. This was not heaven or whatever. This was the real world. This was Earth. The bodies of the Erasers, and the charred ground was exactly as I'd left it. Wildly I looked around for everyone else, and was relieved when I saw them sitting up and staring around with the same disoriented disbelief on their faces as I'd felt on mine. Without a word I stumbled over to Fang. He silently held out his arms for me, and I gratefully tumbled to the ground again, letting him catch me and hold me to his chest and press his face into my hair. We didn't need words to express our relief and love and happiness that the other was alive. Once I was satisfied that I'd squeezed the life out of him, I lifted my face from his bloody chest and looked around. I saw Natalca and J.J. on the ground, holding each other and looking like they didn't plan to ever let go, with her arms tightly locked around his neck and his arms holding her close. Madysyn and Regan were actually about half-standing, and locked together in a close embrace that would put Romeo and Juliet to shame.

Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge looked speechless as they hugged each other. Then I looked around for our surprise guest and her boyfriend. In other words, Shannon and Iggy.

Finally I saw them standing about two feet apart, just staring at each other. Shannon's long blonde hair was blowing in her eyes, and Iggy slowly raised his hand to tuck it behind her ear. But he didn't drop his hand, he just left it there, and Shannon leaned her face into his palm. She looked like she was blissfully happy, like she couldn't care less about all the things in the last hour or two that didn't make an ounce of sense. He looked like he was in shock. Slowly Shannon lifted her own hand and laid it over Iggy's entwining their fingers, and then they both broke down. They fell to their knees in front of each other, knees touching. Then Shannon leaned forward and pretty much tackled him. Iggy managed to hold them upright and hold and kiss her at the same time, somehow. Normally, I would get mad at them for making out like this in front of the little kids, but right now it was only fair. Then Shannon pulled away and laid her head on his chest, her arms holding him tight and his face buried in her hair. When they finally parted and Iggy settled for just having his arm around her waist, they turned to us, and Shannon almost looked sheepish as she met my eyes. Slowly everyone came into one tight little group, everyone's eyes mainly locked on Shannon's face, the face they all thought they'd never see again. But now they were.

"Shannon?" Natalca asked weakly.

Shannon lifted a hand and gave a small wave. "Hi."

She didn't seem inclined to explain how the hell she was here, so I asked.

"Shannon, you were dead!" I blurted.

She looked at me. "Yeah, I was. I suppose you want to know how I'm here, huh?" When we all nodded, she continued, "Well, you were right, I did die. I went to the afterlife, and met Ari."

She seemed to be testing us, as if wondering how much we knew and how much needed to be explained.

"Ari told me that I wasn't supposed to have died. I was supposed to kill Taren without dying. But I screwed up" she gave a rueful grin "and got myself killed. So Ari told me that if I stayed dead, and I quote, 'Things won't happen the way they are supposed to and the whole world will die. Basically Madysyn won't have to save you, because you're not there to get in trouble, and that leads to more stuff I can't tell you without letting you know too much.' So the master of land did save me after all."

Shannon gave Madysyn a smile, which she returned happily.

"Then Ari sent me back. Sent me back to Earth, back into my body. Which was in a beautiful blue sapphire tomb, filled with things that let me know just how much you guys missed me. Thank you for that. I brought it all with me in my backpack. But anyway, I managed to use my fire to melt through the sapphire and get out, thankfully."

"And the hot drips Nudge saw was melted sapphire hitting you." Angel said suddenly.

Shannon looked at her. "How'd you know about that?"

"When Nudge touched your ring, she saw a whole bunch of things. One of them was something hot dripping onto her skin. Your skin. And your ring ended up in that School how?" I asked.

"I even have burn marks from that sapphire." Shannon rolled her eyes, gesturing at some burns on her arm. "As for the ring, I'll get there, okay? After I got out of the tomb, I knew you'd gone to Africa, so I flew there. When-"

"You flew there after cooling the sapphire and your skin with some water." Angel inserted. "You were thinking about it, that's how I know."

"Uh, yeah. When I got to Cairo, I got caught. They couldn't understand how I was alive, and didn't want to tell too many people, so they locked me away in a cell. Only Marian Janssen and Serena knew I was alive." Shannon stopped and looked at me. "And then I saw you running down that hall, and you needed something to stop the door. All I had to give you was my ring, so I threw it, and thankfully you caught it."

"Why the hell didn't you tell me you were there?!" I exploded.

"Because then you would have gotten caught, and I didn't want that. I found out about Serena going after you, so I broke out and came after you. In my brilliant escape plan, which was just break the bars down and run, my wing got shot. So that slowed me down quite a bit. I hijacked a jeep and drove most of the way here, and then I…well, I hit a tree, if you can believe that in this almost treeless place. I walked and ran the rest of the way here, and then I found Serena attacking you guys."

"When she stabbed me. I should have died." I realized.

"Yeah, that was me. I didn't have enough energy to heal you right then, just enough to keep you alive, which meant you went unconscious. Then when you came to, I healed you completely." Shannon explained.

"And the weird explosion of light there? The fact that we're alive? All that? Do you know about that, too?" I asked.

"Nope. Not a clue. Did everyone else see that, too?" Shannon asked.

"Yep. And did you notice how when the line of light changed colours, it was to colours specific to each of us? Like first it was teal, for Natalca, then dark blue, for Shannon, then emerald, for Max, then black, for Fang, then army green for Iggy, then stone grey for me, and then electric blue for Regan, orange for Madysyn, pink for Angel, light blue for Gazzy, and coffee brown for Nudge. What was up with that?" J.J. asked.

"Like somehow we saved each other." Fang commented.

Suddenly Shannon, Natalca, and Madysyn all said the exact same thing, saying, "We did."

Everyone else stared at them, with their crazy grins. And then I had a leap of intuition, and I cried, "The greatest syzygy!"

The three girls nodded like bobble-heads, and slowly looks of understanding dawned on everyone else's faces.

"So, basically what you're saying is that the greatest syzygy is male and female love?" Iggy asked, his brow furrowed.

"Yes, Iggy, exactly! My love for you, your love for me, Max and Fang's love for each other, J.J. and Natalca's love for each other, Madysyn and Regan's love for each other, and Angel, Nudge and Gazzy's love for everyone saved us. Like our love was too strong to be killed." Shannon exclaimed.

"Well, now, if you're all done celebrating, I can kill you." A voice interrupted us.

Serena? Seriously? Everyone just turned and glared at her. This was Shannon's fight.

"You and what army, Serena?" Shannon asked smugly.

She was right. The Erasers had been fried by the white light explosion. So why wasn't Serena dead?

"Just because the Erasers are gone doesn't mean I won't kill you, little sister." Serena hissed.

"I'd like to see you try."

Serena gave a screech and flew at Shannon. Shannon easily pinned her to the ground, her anger giving her strength.

"And now is my payback for everything you have done to me, and the flock, and for what a horrible mother you've been to Regan, and for being such a bitch!" Shannon yelled furiously.

And then Shannon sent a burst of flame straight at Serena. The flame was so hot that it vaporized her right on the spot.

No, it didn't. I'd like to say it did, but it didn't. But it did kill her, that's for sure. We all quickly turned away from the burning body and faced each other.

"Now can we please have a moment of peace for once in our lives?" I muttered.

I looked at Fang. At his perfect face, at his dark hair and olive skin and beautiful smile. Quickly I leaned over and pressed my lips to his, loving every second of it.

"I love you, Fang." I whispered.

"I love you, Max," he whispered back against my lips.

AWW! So cute!

Anyway, that was the final battle. At least for now…

IMPORTANT! I DARE YOU TO READ IT: There will be ONE more chapter after this one, just tying up loose ends and explaining whatever mysteries I've forgotten in this chapter. That will be the LAST chapter of Syzygy. BUT there will be a sequel. I'm not sure what I'll call it yet, but when I do know I'll post it here.

If anybody has any questions about something I forgot to explain, please tell me and they'll be explained in the next chapter!

Can you PLEASE review this chapter? It's kinda the MOST important chapter in the whole story….

*SanraitaFang*