I don't own Maximum Ride. I do own, okay here's my updated list on my characters.

1. The pride (by now you should know who they are)

2. Jason

3. Layla

4. Dr. Kandi

5. The perfect assassin

Thank you my awesomtastic reviewers! I've made up a new word just for you!

I was all alone. There was blackness everywhere, like I was standing in an eternal pitch black room. I felt a cold chill knowing this loneliness was true. I couldn't hear another heartbeat or feet shuffling. Even my somewhat enhanced cat eyes couldn't make out anything in the darkness.

"Do I have your attention?" a voice boomed like God speaking out from the heavens.

"I would love to give it to you, but I'm just so distracted by the nothing all around me," I said sarcastically. "Of course you have my attention."

"Good," the somewhat cocky voice said. "Catherine Hallen."

I inhaled sharply. No one had called me that in years. The whitecoats had simply called me Cat. It wasn't until my parents found me that they gave me a somewhat normal name. Catherine Hallen, otherwise known as Cat.

"What are you doing?" the voice chided. I immediately went on the defensive, balling my fist at my side.

"I'm taking the pride away from danger. We're not staying in the School anymore," I said with my chin up high.

"You're weak." I thought about my dream. The one with Tarzan telling me all those awful things. How I wasn't strong enough to lead the pride. I shook my head of the thought.

"I am not!"

"You spoiled brat. Itex gave you a home. They took you from parents that didn't want you. That couldn't protect you," said the booming voice. This struck a strong chord. My breath were deep trying to exhale the steam from the boiling rage inside me.

"At least my parents came back for me," I said softly. The voice was quiet for a moment. I smirked. The booming voice seemed to have parental angst of their own.

"You're not doing the pride any good," said the boom after recovering from its hesitation. "Tarzan can lead the pride by himself. Maybe you should just fall in line."

"I got these kids out of the School. I can help keep them out. Besides, Tarzan and I are more like partners. It's not anymore my pride than it is his," I said.

"How many times have you screwed up so far?"

My confidence fell as I thought. The School probably had everything to do with our luck since we first escaped. I had been too blind to see it. Eric had been too young to see it. It took Tarzan and his natural deduction to point it out when it was already too late. And we were already recaptured.

I remembered ordering Salem to leave and get a car while we fought Erasers. I asked a twelve year old to go outside and drive a car with lethal gentically enhanced experiments trying to rip our guts out. I remembered the moment when I had the tranquilizer gun in my hand. The Eraser had her head in a vice grip threatening to snap it. That moment had gotten us all captured. That capture had nearly gotten Tarzan beaten to death.

"You're not fit to lead," the voice told me softly. "Even now see where you are. See you holding yourself back as your friends try to carry your dead weight."

At that moment my eyes fluttered open.

The sight of streetlights and the smell of car exhaust was welcomed compared the empty abyss I was at in that...dream? Vision? The sun was rising, turning the sky from a dull purple to a bright pink. The world bobbed up and down as I floated along down the sidewalk.

Wait. Floated?

No. I was being carried. I had taken Kitten's place on Tarzan's back for a piggy back ride. He strolled down the darkest, most deserted streets toward the center of the city.

"Hey, you awake?" Tarzan asked.

"Yeah," I said. My voice was raspy. I touched my face and grimaced. My face was sticky with dried blood and...what was that crusty stuff on my face?

"You threw up and passed out in it," Tarzan answered my question.

"Ewwww..." I groaned. Tarzan laughed. "Well, gee, thanks for fixing me up."

"I'm not touching your puke. I have a weak stomach," Tarzan said. I looked around.

"Where are the kids?"

"They took shelter in some kid's tree house. Eric's on watch until we get back," he said.

"You left them alone!?" I cried straightening as much as I could. "Wait, until we get back from where?"

"The hospital."

"Oh! Hell no!" I said squirming out of Tarzan's hold. I fell out of his grip suddenly and roughly on the concrete. I scraped my hands, but wiped them on my jeans so as not to worry anyone anymore. "We are going right back to the others. What if they get captured? We have no idea where the School is. We can't get in or out without each other."

"They'll be fine. Right now the only one in danger is you. We don't know what's wrong with you," Tarzan said.

"That's no reason to take me to a doctor. You know what they do to kids without parents? They send them to foster homes! Then of course there's the fact that I have a tail and only walk on two legs when I have to, oh yeah, and the claws under my fingernails!" I shouted. Tarzan was taken aback. I was being a little bit harsh, but it felt necessary.

"You're sick! What if you have some horrible, yet curable, disease! Then your death can be prevented," he said.

"Lot of good it'll do me. They can save me and then turn us all into the School. Then we can all die and rot there instead!"

"I don't care, Cat!" Tarzan exploded, his voice was a roar that could have rattled every house on the block. I swallowed hard. "Now quit arguing with me!"

"Make me!" I snapped. Tarzan grabbed my arm and in an instant whipped me around over his shoulders like he was carrying buckets of water on a pole. "Let me go, you jerk!"

"Stop fighting," Tarzan said, his face reddening with rage. I was pissed. Nobody made me do something I didn't want to do. I'd had enough of that at School and I'll be damned if one of my own pride members was going to get into that habit. Then I resorted to the worst. I unsheathed my claws and locked them in his skin. Tarzan leapt surprised and stung. He dropped me on the ground for the second time. He turned baring his teeth, ready to drag me kicking and screaming. I did the same, now that I was on fours I was at my best. I crouched and growled.

Then suddenly we were both very aware of the woman across the street. Some poor lady had been out for a jog and had run into our scene. Her mouth was open. I was suddenly aware that she was seeing an enormous, nearly seven foot seventeen year old growling at a sixteen year old girl with extended black claws on the ground crouched like a dangerous feline.

Tarzan cleared his throat. I got up to my feet and coughed into my fist.

"Morning," I said nervously.

"Nice day out, isn't it?" Tarzan added innocently. The woman continued her jog. Only after our encounter it was more of a sprint than a jog. As she disappeared from sight I glared in Tarzan's direction. Her was bleeding from the mark I'd made on his back. I folded my arms dangerously and shot him a warning with a single look.

"Fine. But I swear to God, Cat, if you so much as cough funny I'm dragging your sorry tail into the emergency room," he said venomously.

I snorted. "You can try."

"Oh I will."

"Good."

"Fine."

"Whatever." We walked in silence as Tarzan led the way back to the kids. As I walked behind him I felt a surge of guilt. I was not going to be a danger to the pride. I was not going to be dead weight. That dream was wrong. I am strong enough to carry everyone to safety.

At least I hoped I was.

Once again, I love you all. Feedback is VERY much appreciated and keep in mind that I'll consider any suggestions you have.