Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. Write, disclaim, repeat. Write, disclaim, repeat.

We quickly flew over to the Counter-Breed building, but we all knew that it was already too late. Asch was ahead of us. He couldn't use his super-speed because he was still reeling from holding the ball of fire, but he still pushed on.

We made it to where the building once stood. Now it was just ashes. Some fires from the explosion were still burning.

I landed in the pile of black char, as did everyone else. We all looked around; praying the others had survived, but we didn't have much hope.

Asch was the most desperate. He quickly looked around everywhere with a look of fear I don't think I've ever seen on anyone before.

I scrounged around on the ground looking for some sort of sign or remains of the others. I didn't want to find them, but I knew I had to.

There were a lot of remains of bodies that I found. But they were all from Erasers. There were also remnants of red jackets near them all. They must have been from the Fire Rats. Jeb was willing to sacrifice an entire group of kids if meant getting rid of us.

My arms were becoming black from all the char that I was digging through, the falling rain making it muddy. I even burned myself a couple of times from the embers in the wood.

Then I found the one thing I didn't want to find. I found a necklace on the ground near what was left of a burned body. I recognized the necklace as Calypso's.

"Asch," I called.

He came over to me and I showed him what was in my hand. He knelt down and took it. His lower lip trembled a bit.

"I'm sorry Asch," was all I could say.

Suddenly we heard some sort of moaning sound. We looked over to the direction it was coming from. There was a body on its side in the pile of burned wood.

The two of us rushed over to it. It was Sebastian. He was still alive. I was so overjoyed and Asch must have been feeling triple what I was feeling.

We turned him on his back and our happiness quickly turned to despair. As we turned him over, we saw that there was a piece of burned wood through his chest.

"Oh, no," I said.

"Asch," said Sebastian.

"No, man, don't talk," said Asch.

"Asch," Sebastian said again.

"Don't talk Sebastian," said Asch, "it's zapping your energy." We both got all of the debris off of him. Asch lifted his head and shoulders.

"They… took… Lily and Angel," Sebastian sputtered out.

"What?" I asked.

"Max II… she took the both of them… before the place went up." He then gasped in pain. Looking at him like this was really hard to see. "Calypso… and Conrad got… caught in it… too. I'm sorry, Asch. I couldn't… couldn't protect them."

"No, no, don't be sorry," said Asch, "You got nothing to be sorry for. C'mon man, don't die on me. I need you."

Asch started to break down. I couldn't believe it. I never thought I would ever see Asch cry, but here he was. "NOOOOOO!" he cried

I looked down at Sebastian. His eyes slowly closed and his body slumped in Asch's arms.

Sebastian, Calypso, and Conrad were gone. Half of the Counter-Breed was dead.

Asch was clutched Sebastian's body and continued crying. I decided to leave him alone and walked away. I gathered the others and explained the situation. We stood over at the other end of the building and let him be alone for a few minutes.

I couldn't believe this. I should have known that this was all a trap. If only I didn't go, I might have been able to stop the Fire Rats. Or I might have been one the many bodies scattered on the ground. And Asch wanted to bring some of the others with us. What if just the two of us went? Then it would be me crying over Iggy and Gazzy and Nudge.

Asch had saved the lives of my family at the cost of his. Like I didn't feel bad enough, now that just made me feel worse.

After a few minutes, Asch came over to us. He had settled down a bit.

"We're really sorry," said Nudge, "we know how much they meant to you."

"Yeah, man," said Iggy, "we're gonna avenge them. They'll pay for this."

"We'll really miss them too," said Gazzy.

"Thanks guys," said Asch, "it really means a lot that you care."

"So what happens now?" asked Nudge.

"We have to rescue Angel and Lily," I said, "If we can find a way to figure out where they were taken."

"My guess would be the Facility," said Asch.

Suddenly we heard the sounds of sirens. Fire trucks were coming our way.

"We got to get out of here," I said.

"But what about…" said Asch, but I had to interrupt him.

"I'm sorry Asch, but we have to leave their bodies here. We'll have to take care of them later. Or maybe the officers will get them and we can claim them later."

"But…" he then sighed, "all right."

We all spread our wings and took off before somebody could see us. I didn't know where we were going to go. I decided we should go to the park where no one would see us and we could decide what to do next.

There was a stream in the park so we landed by it. As we did, the rain began to slow down. We washed our hands and faces of the char on them.

"So where do we go?" asked Asch, "We have no home, and no way of finding the Facility."

That shocked me. I was expecting Asch to have a plan, but he was asking me what we should do. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. He had to be feeling really depressed.

"I don't know," I said, "You still have your Itex card?"

"It was in the building."

"Oh, well, I've still got mine in my pocket, thank goodness. We'll buy some supplies and camp out here for the night."

"So," said Iggy, "it's back to the good ol' days again, huh?"

I know, it's a kind of a sad chapter, but still, please review it.