Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. No, really, I don't.

After the flames Asch made died out, I walked through the door into the next room.

It was a hallway. I walked through it. At my left there were these giant chambers that lay on the floor. They looked like giant refrigerators. They all had glass windows in them. They were all empty.

I came to the end of the hall, but when I looked at the chambers, the last four had people in them. It was my flock. Angel was in the first one, Nudge in the second, then Gasman, and then Iggy. But there was no Fang.

I tried to open the chambers, but it was no use. Maybe there was a way to open them in the next room.

I walked into it to find a giant machine occupying the whole room. In the center of it was some sort of chamber, but it wasn't like the ones in the other room.

A voice suddenly boomed from behind me, "Ahh, there you are Maximum."

I looked behind me and saw the old man who scared Asch away at the dance competition. I could have used him earlier.

"What's going on here?" I asked, "I know you know something. Who are you?"

"I am a servant of the world. As are you."

"Servant?"

"Of course. You were made to save the world. And now the world is in need of your help again."

"What do you mean?"

"Itex is up to no good again. It is up to Maximum Ride to stop them, again."

"What about my friends? My flock?"

"They will assist you, of course. However, those ones you saw in the other room are not real. You see, this world you're in right now is not real, as you seem to have figured out. It is a virtual reality program I created for you. The only thing real in it is you. I'm not even real. I'm just a program."

"But why did you do that?"

"To keep you safe from Itex. They are the ones who erased your memories. It was some sort of safety device they put in your mind in case Re-evolution failed. I had my assistant find you and bring you here. I installed a program into your mind that would turn off that safety device and restore your memories. I had to speed up the process though, because you were found. I'm sorry for that stress I caused you by the way. And then there was that shocking side effect: you remembering your time at ShawCorp and Counter-Breed."

"So, then, you know what happened to me. You know why I was suddenly put into Itex from ShawCorp."

"Unfortunately, I do not. Asch probably knows. He certainly seems to have a strong connection to you. I wouldn't doubt he knows everything there is to know."

"So what happens now?"

"Now, I need you to step into that machine so I can transport you back into the real world."

I looked at the machine. It was a little scary looking. Then I looked back at the man and said, "What about the others?"

"Don't worry. They'll be in the next room in those sleep chambers. My assistant should be deactivating them now. Now, if you please, step into the machine."

I walked into the chamber of the machine. "Thanks," I said.

"You're quite welcome. Again, I'm sorry for this stress I caused you."

Suddenly I was surrounded by a white light. All I could see was white.

After a minute, the light disappeared and I was in the same room as I was in before. But I knew it was different. It was real, I could tell. Maybe it was just my bird instinct.

I stepped out of the machine. The old man was gone. I headed into the next room.

The sleep chambers were still there. I looked at them for a minute. They hadn't been turned off. For a second I thought that old man had lied to me. But then I heard these mechanical sounds. The chambers were starting to open up.

The doors automatically opened up and then the flock got out of them, all yawning.

Angel was the first to see me. "MAX!" she cheered and ran right toward me, giving me a huge hug. It was followed by Nudge coming in, then Gazzy, and then even Iggy joined in. We showered each other with "I can't believe it's you"s and "We missed you"s. It was so sappy.

"Man, that was some nap," said Iggy.

"What happened to you, Max?" asked Gazzy, "you look you've been through hell."

"You know," I answered, "you could say that."

"What happened to Max? What happened to us?" asked Nudge.

"I don't know," I said, "I'm in the process of trying to figure that out."

"Hey," said Angel, "my clothes feel tight."

I took a good look at all of them. All of their clothes were too small for them. How long had they been in those chambers?

"Oh, man," said Gazzy, "I feel like my clothes are suffocating me… and I gotta…"

We all smelled the rest of sentence.

"Well, there's one thing I didn't miss," I said, covering my nose.

"Geez, Gazzy," said Iggy, "we come out of a long sleep just for you to knock us out again."

"We got to get out of this manor," I said.

"Oh, it's not that bad," said Gazzy.

"No, I mean we have to get out so we can figure out we're gonna do next."

"Oh."

So we all walked through the basement of the manor. We made it to the computer room when I spotted an envelope that had MAX written on it.

I went to the desk, grabbed it, and opened it up. There was a note inside. There first thing it said was to read the note aloud to the rest of the flock.

"Max, some things have happened in you and the flock's absence and I need to fill you in. Three years ago, you and the flock stopped Itex, but Jeb and Anne got away. About a year after that, you went missing. The flock looked for you but they couldn't find you-"

"Oh, yeah," said Nudge, "I remember that now."

I gave her a look saying that it was rude to interrupt.

"Sorry, go on."

"Afterwards, Fang disappeared from the group, probably to look for you. While he was gone, the flock was kidnapped and brought to those sleeping chambers that you found them in. It's been two years since that happened. So right now, you, Fang, and Iggy are seventeen, Nudge is thirteen, Gasman is eleven, and Angel is nine."

"WHAT!" cried Nudge, "You mean I became a teenager and I missed it?! I can't believe this. I hung on the day I became a teenager and now I missed it. This isn't fair."

"Oh, sorry about that Nudge," I said, "but it's kind of out of our hands."

"It's still not fair."

"It wasn't fair that I got my eyesight taken away from me, but you don't see me complaining."

Nudge was actually silent for a moment. Then she said, "Okay, good point. Sorry. I guess I'm just a little cranky from my sleep. Uhh, keep going Max."

"If you're reading this Max, this might sound a little crazy, but you need to find Asch. He'll be able to fill the holes in what's going on. Don't worry; he's not your enemy. He won't try to hurt you again. Inside this envelope you'll find a credit card. This one is unlimited and the payment will be taken care of. There's also a map. Right now, you're in Timber, Montana. I don't know where Asch is, but I know you can find him. Good luck."

"Who left that note for us?" asked Gazzy.

I didn't know. It couldn't have been that old man. He could have just told me all this in the virtual world.

"Fang?" asked Angel.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Maybe it was Fang who left the note. It's just a feeling I have."

"Maybe, but why would we talk about himself? But then again, he's a clever writer. He did keep the blog for us. But I don't know."

"So who's this Asch person?" asked Iggy, "Somebody you know?"

"You could say we've had a couple run-ins. Don't worry, I'll explain it later."

I took the card out of the envelope and left the note on the table. "Right now, we need to get some new clothes."

So we all got out of the manor and took to the sky. I knew where I needed to go. I just wish I knew where it was. But still, it felt great to be flying with the flock again. It was just like it used to be.

Well, almost. There was one part of the equation missing. And it was the part I missed the most.

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