Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. That's just the way of life.

I opened the door to the manor. As I walked inside, I saw that the place was really beat up. The walls were once white but they were turning brown from decaying paint. There was a collapsed table right in the middle of the foyer. The place had really gone to hell.

I walked through it carefully, making sure I didn't fall through a rotted part of the floor. I also wanted to keep an eye out for more Erasers.

I didn't know why that old man wanted me to come here, and I was starting to think it was a bad idea.

Those thoughts were soon confirmed as at least half a dozen Erasers came out of the dark, in their wolf form.

I got ready to fight them. I thought I could take them on by myself. But just then, somebody jumped down from the upper story and landed on their feet between me and the Erasers. He was wearing jeans and a black hoody. The hood was up so I couldn't see his face.

"Max," he said. Geez, how many strangers knew who I was? "That door over there," he pointed to his left, "that's where you need to go."

Impulsively, I ran towards it and opened it. I looked back to see the guy get ready to fight the Erasers.

I closed the door and went down the stairs. It was very dark, but at the bottom, I could see this blue light. When I came to the bottom, I was in a computer room. There were a whole bunch of screens surrounding the room. Some of them had a whole bunch of information that I didn't understand. Others seemed to have data on a certain person.

Then on another screen, I figured out who that person was. It was me.

There was an outline of me on a screen. It showed things like my vital signs, heartbeat, and some other things I didn't understand.

All of a sudden I had a splitting headache, like the ones I had been having the mornings before, not the ones that made me throw up. But this was the worst one yet.

I fell to my knees, gripping the sides of my head.

A bunch of images flashed through my head. I was in a lab, with five other kids, most of them younger than me. There were images of us talking together, laughing together. There were images of us being experimented on, but it wasn't miserable. Me and the scientists were even talking with each other and laughing, like we were enjoying each other's company.

Some names came across my mind: ShawCorp., Counter-Breed, Dr. Ken Albert.

Then each member of the flock came into my mind.

Lily, who was only three years old, learning how to cross dimensions. She liked to make rifts that were feet apart from each other. It drove the scientists crazy, especially Dr. Albert.

Then there was Conrad who was five years old. His wings came from an eagle. Conrad could read minds just like Angel could. Only he couldn't make people do things like she could.

Then I remembered Calypso. She was nine and Conrad's older sister. They were the kids of two of the scientists at ShawCorp. She had telekinesis. She could make objects move simply by using her mind.

Then there was Sebastian. He was eleven years old and a super-genius. He could absorb information like a sponge, and he always had random facts for everybody.

And then there was Asch, my best friend. We were closer than anyone else in the flock. He was a year older than me, making him thirteen at the time I was remembering this group. He had hummingbird DNA and could move at super-speed. But he had another ability. I just couldn't think of it.

Then I remembered when he fought me at the dance competition. Celia pointed out that I had a burned tear in my shirt.

And then it hit me. Asch was pyrokinetic. He could create fire with his mind. And he was good at it. Now doubt he's better at it now.

The pain went away and I knew all these people like the back of my hand. But at the same time it couldn't be possible. I had spent all my life at the School with Fang and the others.

It was so frustrating and confusing. How could I have had two lives?

I got back on my feet and walked through the room some more. There was another open doorway.

I went through it and came to a large, open room. It was blue like the last one. There was a doorway on the other side of the room. I started to head toward it when it opened and Asch came out of it.

He slammed the door behind him and said, "Hi, Maxie."

"Asch, wait," I said, "I remember everything now. I remember you, I remember Sebastian, the others, Counter-Breed, everything."

"Well that's just great Max," he said, "that's JUST GREAT!!"

Suddenly a large circle of fire surrounded the two of us. It reached all the way to the ceiling. The heat picked up fast and sweat almost immediately formed on my face.

"Too bad you're too late," he said, giving me a death stare. I think I understood the purpose for the tattoo around his eye. It made him look scarier, especially when he was looking to fight.

He spread his wings and started flapping them, slowly hovering to about a foot in the air.

My head started to hurt again. I couldn't help but hold it. Images of me practicing fighting with Asch came into my head. Then I knew all of his moves, I knew how to fight him. The pain stopped and I was ready.

"Come here Maxie! I'll make all that pain go away!"

He charged but I was able to dodge him. He was incredibly fast but I knew how he moved. I was able to dodge his attacks. But not for long.

He caught me with a hook and then kicked me in the stomach when I was in midair, slamming me to the ground. I got up and blocked another one of his shots, and caught him square in the chin. He staggered backward and then I jumped in the air and landed a kick in his chest.

I started charging him, putting him on the defensive. We both took to the air with fists flying. But he swooped away from me, but I charged him and landed my fist in his stomach, making him hunch. I clasped my fists and then hit him in the back, sending him back to the floor, hard.

I came back down but he got out and shot a stream of fire from his hand right at me, I barely dodged it and then we were at a standoff.

I could almost feel my sneakers start to melt, the heat was so intense. "Nice to see you still remember all of my moves Maxie. But here's something you don't know."

He started to form large rings of fire around his hands. Then he threw them at me. I ducked the first one, but the second one caught my left shoulder as it flew past me. Then they came back toward me. One caught my right forearm and the other caught my left side beneath my armpit.

I looked back to Asch to see he was making them go back and forth. He sent the rings back at me. I managed to duck them every time he sent them back. One of them went outside the circle and I heard it cut something. A lead pipe fell into the ring.

He made the rings fade away. And shot at me, hitting me in the face and he came back faster, punching me in the back. He came back and forth, hitting me each time he passed, and I couldn't even see him.

Then I looked at the lead pipe on the ground. It was sharpened at the point where Asch cut it. He charged me from behind again, hitting me in the middle of the back. Quickly, I picked up the pipe and swung it like a bat.

I hit my mark.

The pipe sliced him in the side of the stomach, just above his hip. He fell to the ground.

The fire around us began to die down. He must have been in a lot pain to lose his concentration.

He turned and faced me and managed to get on his knees. He put his hand to his hip. Blood was oozing from the wound. I may have cut his liver or one of his kidneys.

He looked up at me. He suddenly looked so weak. "Maxie," he said.

Suddenly another memory came to me. It was the last one I had of my other flock, of Asch.

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I was twelve years old. I climbed the stairs to the roof of the lab. I opened the door and saw Asch sitting at the edge of the building, staring at the sunset. He would have been thirteen now.

I walked over to him and sat next to him.

"Hey," I said.

"Hi," he answered.

"What are you doing up here?"

"Just watching the sunset. It's nice, isn't it?"

"That's all you're doing?" I said, facing him.

"Well, I have had something on my mind lately."

"That's a nice change." I said, starting to laugh.

"Ha ha ha. I've been thinking, what if we do stop Itex and Re-evolution like we're meant to. What then?"

I sat there thinking for a minute. He was right. There was nothing else set for us after we served our purpose.

"I don't know," I said.

"Exactly."

"I'm sure we could do something. I know, we could travel the world. See it for real rather than from a computer screen."

His face seemed to lighten up and he smiled, "Yeah, we could go on real adventures. Just the two of us."

"The two of us? I meant the whole flock."

"Oh!" he said, sounding very startled, "Well, that works too. Okay, let's shake on it. We'll all go on adventures and see the world, together."

We both spit in our hands and brought them together, shaking them.

Afterwards, he said, "Oh, by the way." He pulled out two freezie pops. "I swiped them from the freezer, cherry or apple?"

"Cherry, of course," I said, grabbing it from his hand. We opened them up and started slurping them, staring out at the sunset.

"Hey," said Asch, "what would you think if I got a tattoo?"

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I looked at Asch on the floor. The next memory was my life at the School. I couldn't help but feel bad that I had hurt him now. We made a promise.

"Asch…" was all I could get out.

Asch smiled up at me, "You know, I don't think I've ever been happier to lose a fight."

He was starting to gasp now. He was really in pain.

"Max, Maxie, don't let Itex take you again." Then he put his hand to his ear and weakly said, "Li-ly."

One of Lily's rifts opened up behind him and he staggered through. And then Asch, my very first friend, was gone.