Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. If anyone thinks JP robbed us of Faxness in the end of MR3, raise your hand.

Asch woke up feeling very dazed. He slowly opened his eyes only to realize that he was in darkness. He tried to move but found that he couldn't. His entire body was numb, deprived of almost all physical feeling.

What's going on? he wondered, Am I dead? I should have known better than to just go jumping into the rift right after her. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

He felt wetness around him, like he was floating on water. Only it wasn't really water, it felt more like a thin jelly. Where am I?

He remembered jumping into the rift after Anne Walker. He managed to grab a hold of Anne and was prepared to start wailing on her. But before he could land a single blow, he got buried by a group of Erasers, getting him off of her. He started to fight them off but he was quickly beaten back and then knocked unconscious. The next thing he knew, he was in this endless blackness.

All he could think about was where he was. Was he in the Facility? Or another Itex building? Or maybe he was dead. Or in some sort of purgatory.

Whatever it was, it was making him feel very uneasy. He tried making fire so that we would have some light to see, but it was no use. When he tried, his head started to hurt. Whatever this place was, it was preventing him from using his pyrokinesis. He could barely move, so hyper-speed was out of the question as well.

He didn't like this. He didn't like it one bit.

He couldn't even tell how much time had passed. It was like this place was devoid of time. Just an empty void that time forgot.

He stopped trying to think about where he was. If that was all he thought about then he would surely go crazy. He needed to focus on other things. Keep his mind occupied with thoughts that wouldn't keep him asking himself questions.

He started singing to himself. He began singing every song he knew, and he knew a lot.

After somewhere between what could have been ten minutes or ten million years, a light suddenly broke through the darkness. It was almost like daggers stabbing him in the eyes. Hands reached out and grabbed his body. Someone may as well have been taking a chainsaw to him.

He was yanked out of wherever he was and dragged against the floor. Voices spoke out around him, and it felt like his eardrums were about to explode.

"Quick, get him into the room before he gets his feeling back," said one.

"Hurry, the boss is waiting," said another.

Asch was dragged through a hallway and then brought into a room where he was placed in a chair that was at a table.

As Asch's feeling returned to him, he realized that the whole room was white. The table and chair he was sitting at were a dull grey. Behind him there was a window, probably one way. He then realized that he wasn't wearing any clothes. All he had on was his boxers. His back was wet with the liquid that he had been floating in.

Before his feeling fully returned, somebody came into the room. Asch looked over to see that it was Jeb. Anger instantly boiled over him. Jeb sat down across the table from him like he was any other person.

"What's going on?" Asch asked. "What the hell did you put me in?"

"You were in what's called an isolation tank," said Jeb, "A sensory-deprivation chamber. We had to put you in it to keep you from causing trouble for anyone. You should feel honored. We've only had to put one other person in one of those, and that was Max."

"Sorry if I'm not flooding with praise. Where are we?"

"Another thing you should feel honored about. You're in the Facility."

"Oh, this is great. I've always wanted to go to hell. Wait a minute, why am I sitting here talking to you? I should just fry your ass right now."

He rose up his hand and got ready to light up Jeb when Jeb said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Why not?" Asch asked with his hand still raised.

"Take a look at that device that's right above me."

Asch looked up and saw some sort of gadget. It looked like a gun protruding out of the wall that was close to the ceiling. It had some sort of gadget attached to it that was glowing red. It was pointed right at him.

"That is a heat-sensory gun," said Jeb, "If anywhere in this room reaches over 80 degrees, that gun starts firing, and you're right in its line of fire."

"You think of everything, don't you?" said Asch, putting his hand down.

"I think you've asked enough questions for now. It's time for me to ask you some questions, and you are going to answer them."

"What if I don't?"

"You see, I'm doing this at the request of my boss, Anne Walker, the one you tried to attack not too long ago. If it was up to me…" Jeb pulled out a gun and pointed it at Asch, "you would be dead right now. So you should feel pretty lucky."

"Why does Anne want me alive?"

"Because you can tell us all there is to know about the flock. And of course, how well we treat you will depend on your cooperation."

"You honestly think I'm gonna cooperate with you. You must be nuts."

"No, actually I don't. So I've come up with an alternate solution to our problem."

Jeb fired the gun and Asch got hit in the shoulder, knocking him out of the chair. Jeb stood up with the gun still pointed at him. Asch looked to his shoulder. He found that he hadn't been shot with a bullet. He had been shot with a needle, a clear liquid quickly draining out of it and into his body.

Asch stood up and pulled the needle out, but not before the liquid was emptied out. "What the… what did you just shoot me with?!" Asch yelled.

"That was a truth serum, Asch," said Jeb, "It's mainly SP-17, what the KGB used to use, but with a couple of my own touches. I find that a bit of Valium and Ecstasy in it make the subject feel a little more pleasant rather than pressured. It takes a couple of minutes to take effect. Of course, it will be a lot faster with you because your blood flow is much faster. Oh, and you're going to want to sit down. If it takes effect while you're standing up, you'll get very, very dizzy."

After a few seconds, Asch sat back down. "You're not going to get anything out of me."

"We'll see about that."

"You bastard."

"You know, I get that a lot, especially from Max. I should make it my nickname. Jeb 'the Bastard' Batchelder. Has a nice ring to it."

Asch just glared at Jeb, the man who killed his family. He was going to get him. If not Max, then definitely him. And he would make him suffer. Max might show him mercy and make it quick, but he wanted to make this geek feel pain, real pain.

"I'm sorry," said Jeb, "that was a poor attempt at humor."

Suddenly, Asch felt like his head weighed a thousand pounds. It must have shown on his face because Jeb said, "You see, it's taking effect."

He felt like he was being slowly steamrolled, his head getting it first, and then the rest of his body. Everything feeling like it was being compressed.

But then his body started to relax on its own. His whole body felt tight, but now it was really unwinding. He started to feel like his whole body was his funny bone that had just been hit.

Asch started to giggle uncontrollably. He was at the mercy of the truth serum now. He was completely helpless.

His giggles turned to laughs now. Jeb just sat and watched. This would pass in a couple of minutes and then Asch would feel completely relaxed. The most he would have would be a dumb grin on his face. The only disadvantage to his serum was that the subject would always go into small fits of laughter every once in a while.

Asch's laughs started to slow as he began settling down. When his laughing slowed to a stop, Asch said, "Man, I feel good." It came out somewhat drowsily because of the drug.

"Glad to hear it," said Jeb, "now I'm going to ask you some questions, and just answer to the best of your ability, all right?"

"Sure, whatever doc," Asch said drowsily. Everything he said was coming out like he was drunk or had just woken up.

"What is your name?"

"Asch."

"Do you know what your real name is? If you have one?"

"Tyler Ashton."

"Who are your parents?"

Asch was quiet for a moment, thinking about it. "Mr. and Mrs. Ashton? I don't know. All I do know is that my parents worked for ShawCorp. We were all given nicknames. The company figured it would be better to use children of their own rather than children of others. Unlike you. You stole the children or paid the parents off, you rotten ass."

Jeb ignored the comment. It was just a side affect of the drug. He wasn't in complete control of what he was saying. Although much of it would most likely be true, or Asch would think it's true.

"Do you know what Lily's real name is?" Jeb asked.

"Lillian Cutler."

"I see," Jeb pulled out a pad and paper and started writing something down. "Do you know where the flock might be right now? Or where they might go?"

Asch shook his head. But then he said, "Oh, wait a minute. They might go to Dr. Martinez's. She's a friend of Max's. She'll take care of them. I went to see her once. I gave her directions to my place that I told her to give to Max. I figured she would go there at some point." Asch began laughing again, from the drug. "I am so smart," he managed to squeak out.

"Yes," said Jeb, "that's why you're here. Because you're so smart."

Asch began settling down, "What did you say?"

"Nothing. Where does this Dr. Martinez live?"

"Somewhere in the middle of Arizona. I forget the name of the town."

Jeb did a little more writing on his pad.

"What are you writing?" Asch asked.

"Nothing you need to concern yourself about."

"Oh, okay."

"Now, do you know where Fang is?"

"If I did, I'd be visiting him to smack him in the head for what he did."

"So that's a no."

"Right."

"Now, I'm aware of what happened with Fang. I know he stole Boost and took it. And I know he went into several confrontations with my son Ari. What I don't know is what happened to Ari."

Asch laughed a little bit, "Ari's dead."

"What?"

"Fang finally killed him. That's why he took the Boost. So he could beat him and get Max away from him. You must have been so proud of your son to have such thoughts. To kidnap Max for himself for his own little… fantasies."

"I can assure you, I didn't support that in any way. If he died, it was of his own foolishness."

"You don't sound very distraught."

"Trust me, I am. Now I have one last question for you. This is very important so pay attention. What did you find out when you broke into the building a few days ago?"

"Oh, we found a lot. We found those rejects that you were gonna dump. We found out about who stayed with the project and who ducked out. We found out about the Subatomic Energy Core, whatever that is. Oh, yeah, and we found out that Roland ter Borcht is no longer on board.

"Is that it?

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. We couldn't find anything more."

"I see. Well, thank you Asch. You've been most helpful." Jeb waved over to the window and began to get up. Two men came into the room and grabbed Asch.

"You'll never do it," said Asch, "Max will stop you. You're just gonna fail."

"We'll see," said Jeb.

The two men brought Asch out of the room and into the hallway. Standing by the one-way window was Anne Walker. "What do you want us to do with him?" asked one of the men.

Anne stood and thought about it for a minute. "Hmm, put him back in the tank. The serum will wear off soon and he might still be useful before we dispose of him."

Asch looked up and started yelling, "No, no, not the tank. Don't put me in that tank!" He tried to struggle away from the two men but the serum still had his body relaxed. It was no use. The men dragged him back to the tank and shoved him in.

Once again, Asch was shrouded in darkness and lost of almost all feeling.

Thanks to all my readers who have stayed with me so far. Keep on reviewin'.