Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. Oh, my God. These disclaimers are so painful to write.

Asch continued to float in the darkness, unfeeling. He kept singing songs to keep himself occupied, so he wouldn't descend into madness. He didn't know how many he had sung, or how long he had been singing. As soon as he finished one, he went right into the next one that he thought of.

At one point, he fell asleep, or at least he thought he fell asleep. He felt himself go into an even more relaxed state and become less aware of what little surroundings he had. His mind seemed to switch gears from singing to himself… to Max.

He "dreamed" of Max. He went through memories of her like a photo album. He could see her smile. He remembered the times they spent together in ShawCorp. How they were inseparable as best friends, a regular dynamic duo. He kept seeing her smile. It was so warm and comforting to him. For years, all he had were his memories of her. And then he finally found her, and she hadn't changed one bit.

And yet she changed so much.

She had grown up a lot. She learned some colorful new words. She became a great leader. And she fell in love, with someone else.

Max and Fang definitely made a good couple, but did that mean he had to be happy with it?

He was happy for them, and yet he wasn't happy.

Max deserved what was best, and if Fang was best for her, then so be it. But he still wished he could be that person. But did that mean he couldn't love her anymore?

No, that couldn't be true. He loved Max, and he always would. But if that was Max's choice, then no matter how it hurt him, he would accept it. Fang may have been better for her than he was anyway.

He still couldn't tell if he was asleep or awake. The time he was spending in the isolation tank was distorting his sense of reality.

He absolutely hated being in this place. The vast darkness was very uncomfortable. All of this nothingness, and yet he knew he was in a space that barely encompassed ten square feet.

Humoring himself with irony didn't help one bit.

He couldn't deny it to himself any longer. He was scared of this place. The darkness and nothingness around him made him very nervous. Being alone in this place made him so tense, knowing that there was nothing around him for an infinite amount of space.

He kept trying to make fire, to bring light to the dark abyss. But it was no use. Something in this place just wouldn't let him do so.

A little bit later, a bright light broke through, hurting his eyes again. Hands came from the light and grabbed onto him, once again feeling like it was Edward Scissorhands pulling him out.

Once again, he was dragged through the hallway and brought into the same room as before. After a few minutes, the feeling finally returned to his body. His back was still soaked from floating in the liquid. The only thing he was wearing was his tattoo and his boxers. He looked up to see the gun device pointed at him high on the wall.

The door opened and Jeb walked in. He nonchalantly came in and sat down across the table from me.

"Hello again Asch," he said.

"What do you want now?" asked Asch.

"We need a little bit more information out of you. Do you think you can give it to us without any problems or do you need to be injected with another dose of truth serum?"

Asch looked at Jeb for a moment. He saw him reach into his pocket, like he had the dart gun in it. He thought about telling him to kiss his ass, but then he thought that maybe he could get away with lying to them.

"What do you want to know?" Asch asked him.

"Yesterday I asked you your real name and Lily's real name. I need to know the members of your flock's real names?"

"Why do you need to know that?"

Jeb was silent for a minute. Then he said, "What the heck? You're going to be… exterminated soon anyway. We have a lot of ShawCorp's data ever since that raid five years ago. We just haven't been able to access certain parts of it. All of your individual data is a major aspect of it. We found that your real names are the passwords to access it. We want to use it for our next batch of experiments. To see how ShawCorp succeeded where we… failed."

"I get it. Cannibalizing your enemy."

"In a manner of speaking, yes."

Asch let out a little chuckle, amazed at what lows these guys were sinking to.

"Where do you want to start?"

Jeb pulled out his pad and paper and got ready to write, "Sebastian," he said.

"His name was Samuel Pace."

"Calypso?"

"Victoria Harrison."

"Conrad?"

"Connor Harrison."

"And Max?

"You want to know Maximum Ride's real name?"

"Yes."

Asch let out a sigh, "Evelyn Dichristafaro."

"How do you spell that?"

"F-U-C-K-Y-O-U."

Jeb began writing when he realized what he was doing and looked up to Asch with an annoyed look on his face.

Asch smiled and laughed, "Took you a second to figure it out, huh?"

Jeb pulled out the dart gun and pointed it to Asch.

"All right, all right, all right," said Asch, "You want the truth? I actually don't know her real name. I used to know it, but now I don't. So I really can't help you."

Jeb continued his annoyed look, but he put down the gun. "Very well. I just have one more question for you. And then, I think that will be it for you."

"And what is that question?"

"Do you know… where my son's body is?"

"Huh?"

"Where is my son's body? I'd like to… give him a proper burial."

"So, there is a bit of human in you after all. A little bit, but it's there."

"Just tell me so I can move on with my life!" Jeb yelled out.

"Despite that outburst, I don't know where your son's body is. My best guess is that he's somewhere in the northwest. Maybe Montana or Idaho, or maybe Washington. I'm not sure."

Jeb was silent, as if he was contemplating what Asch was saying, "Very well," he said, "Well, thank you for your time Asch. As unpleasant and sickening as it was, it has been quite useful."

"I'm glad I could help you," Asch said sarcastically.

Jeb suddenly signaled for somebody to come in. The door opened and two men came into the room. Asch saw Jeb pull out the gun and load something in it. Before he could react, Jeb fired the gun and the needle stuck into Asch's neck.

"Just a little tranquilizer," he said, "before we put you back in the tank."

Asch started to struggle, "No you won't!" But the tranquilizer was quickly taking effect. Asch's head was starting to feel heavy.

"The next time that tank opens, it will be time for your extermination."

Asch managed to throw off the two men who had a hold of him. He lunged at Jeb and grabbed him by his shirt collar and they both fell to the floor. Asch managed to get in two punches to Jeb's face before the two men grabbed a hold of him again.

Asch started to fade. His energy was quickly diminishing. The excitement of his attacking Jeb made his blood flow quicker, the tranquilizer acting faster.

The two guards dragged him back into the isolation tank. Asch felt the cool liquid at his back yet again, and then the tank door closed.

Asch was lost again in the darkness, the feeling in his body quickly leaving him. The tranquilizer was taking full effect and he was on the brink of sleep.

The last thing he thought of, before he slipped into unconsciousness, was that he was going to die. The next time he saw that piercing light, he was going to die.

Please R&R. I really want to know what you think.