Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. Are these disclaimers scaring away my reviewers?

Asch floated in the darkness, running through the soundtrack of his mind. It was harder to concentrate on what he was singing with the thought that he was going to be killed.

He didn't want to die, not yet. He wasn't ready. There were still things he had to do. He had to save Angel and Lily. He had to stop Itex once and for all. He had to find a way to change Fang back. And he had a promise to Max to keep. His promise to see the world with her and the flock.

But first thing's first. He had to find a way out of here. But that was impossible. His body was completely numb. He couldn't use his pyrokinesis. It just seemed completely hopeless.

For what seemed like days, Asch lay in the darkness, contemplating how to get out but coming up with nothing.

Instinctively, he started praying. He prayed to God for some sort of answer. For some way to get out. Surely He wouldn't let him die right here, right now, at the hands of people trying to be Him.

Suddenly, the piercing light came back. But rather than encompassing his entire vision, it only took up a partial section of it. And it was accompanied by a sound that was like an explosion. It was followed by more explosions and more pieces of the light coming into view.

Something came out and grabbed Asch by the arm and pulled him out of the tank. He fell on the floor, but he wasn't dragged anywhere. He was allowed to lay on the floor on his knees and hands and get his feeling back.

His sight returned and he found broken glass from the isolation tank spread around. The feeling returned to his body and he flapped his wings a few times to get the blood flowing back into them.

A towel dropped to the floor next to his right hand. "Dry that gunk off your back," said a voice from above him.

Asch looked up to see someone was standing right above him. At first he thought it was Max, but there was something different about her. Then he realized who it was that was standing over him. It was Max II.

"You're… you're Max II," he said, gaining his strength back, "What are you doing?"

"Just dry off and get dressed," said Max II, "I got your clothes right here." She put them on the floor next to Asch.

Asch took the towel and started drying off the parts of him that were wet from the liquid he was floating in.

"What are you doing?" he asked, "Why did you just break me out of there?"

Max II let out a frustrated sigh. "Look," she said, "I'm set to be exterminated too. I figured I'd have a better chance of escaping with some help."

"Why does Jeb want to get rid of you?"

"I guess he's just sick of me. He used me for what he needed and now he's done."

"I don't suppose you disobeying him and going after Max had anything to do with it. Generally, people get terminated for not following orders.

"Shut up and get dressed. They don't know I've escaped yet, and it can't be long until they do."

Asch quickly got on his socks, blue jeans, black t-shirt, and boots.

They left the room where they walked past two security guards who were down on the ground unconscious. It was pretty obvious what had taken place.

Asch and Max II moved quickly and quietly through the halls of the building. Max II knew the building, and she slowly led Asch through it, avoiding security whenever it showed up.

Asch heard Max II muttering to herself about something.

"What are you saying?" he asked.

"I was saying I can't believe this is all happening because of a dumb movie."

"What do you mean?"

"Roland ter Borcht, the guy who started all of this, saw some movie called Birdman of Alcatraz when he was younger. It inspired him to start studying birds, and he eventually worked his way into wanting to create bird people. Jeb told me all about it."

"It's amazing what people are inspired by and how they interpret it."

An alarm suddenly sounded and red lights started to flash.

"Damn it," said Max II, "they found out I'm gone. We gotta get moving."

Their sneaking around quickly turned to running for their lives. Asch would have used his hyper-speed, but he didn't know his way through the building.

A group of six security guards then rounded a corner and came in front of them with guns drawn.

"You there, freeze!" yelled one of the guards.

"Sorry," said Max II, "that's not happening." She and Asch then charged them.

"Open fire!" screamed the guard. But before they could get off a shot, Asch and Max II were in their faces. They made quick work of them, giving swift kicks and punches to heads and stomachs. They all went down easily. They clearly weren't Erasers. But there had to be some on their way.

Asch and Max II continued running through the halls, with Max II leading.

Suddenly a group of Erasers started chasing after them. When they saw them coming, Max II got ready to fight them but Asch had other plans. He held his hands out as the Erasers continued to get closer. In a flash they all burst into flames. They all started screaming and running around in random directions.

More Erasers came from another direction. Asch heard them coming and turned around. He blasted a stream of fire at them, catching each one of them and setting them on fire. They also ran away.

"Wow," said Max II, "you are useful."

"How far to the exit?" asked Asch.

"Not too far."

"Then let's keep going."

They continued running, adrenaline rushing through them. They made it further through the building when more guards and Erasers came at every angle. Asch managed to land lethal punches and kicks with his speed while Max II was able to use her strength to snap all of her opponent's necks.

As Asch fought, something caught the corner of his eye. He was near a door with a window in it. In the room behind it, he managed to see Lily's face.

"Lily!" he cried. He finished off two more Erasers and then went into the room.

Lily had been strapped to some sort of chair. There were several plugs that had been placed on her head that had wires coming out of them and attached to a machine.

"Lily," he said, "It's me. It's Asch. I'm here."

"Asch," said Lily, "what are you doing here?"

"I'm getting you out of here." Asch reached out to start pulling the things off Lily's head.

"No, don't."

Asch stopped, "Why not?"

"They're monitoring everything that goes on in this room. If these things get taken off, they'll kill Angel. If I don't do what they tell me, they'll kill her. They're using me so I can transport their Erasers through my rifts."

"What am I supposed to do, then? I gotta get you outta here."

"I've managed to keep one rift open somewhere they haven't been able to detect. It's at the manor. It'll take you right back here. Go find Max and the others and bring them over here. I sent them through a rift that brought them to Dr. Martinez's house."

"How'd you do that if they're monitoring your every move?"

"They gave me a… warning. But if they find the rift I'm keeping open, they'll kill Angel."

"Okay, I'll go get the flock. I'm gonna come back for you. I promise." He held her hand for a second to reassure her. He let go and was about to head back into the hall.

"Asch, wait," she said.

"Yeah?" he asked, looking back to her.

"Roland ter Borcht is here. He broke in somehow and the bad guys are looking for him too."

"Okay Lily, thanks. I'm gonna get you out of here, no matter what." He went to leave again when Lily spoke up again.

"I love you Daddy."

Asch looked back to her one more time, "I love you too baby," he said.

It pained Asch to have to leave Lily, but she was right. When Asch came back in the hallway, he met up with Max II who had finished off the rest of the Erasers. "Where'd you go?" she asked, slightly irritated.

"I found Lily," he said, "but I can't get her out of here right now. I have to go get Max and the others."

"How about we just concentrate on getting out of here first? We're almost out of here."

The two of them continued running when they came to a door. "This is it," said Max II.

They both came through the door and were met with a startling sight. There was a huge field surrounded by fence. Inside the field were hundreds of Erasers who had just turned their attention to Max II and Asch.

"Oh, my," said Asch.

"This isn't good," said Max II.

Behind them another group of Erasers started coming towards them.

"Well, lookie what we got here," said an Eraser from the outside, "Two trapped little rats."

Asch looked around. Flying away would have been pointless because this batch of Erasers could fly as well.

"Who's the rat?!" yelled Max II. She charged the Eraser who said that and landed a fist right in its mouth. The others Erasers started to attack, baring their teeth in anger.

Adrenaline, anger, and fury was surging its way through Asch. He was desperate to take out his frustration from not being able to help Lily and being cooped up in the isolation tank. All these Erasers were just targets to him.

He formed fire rings around his wrist and started hurling them at all the charging Erasers in front of him. He kept throwing and retracting them, slicing at limbs and leaving charred gashes in every Eraser in their path.

Asch slowly worked his way through the field as he threw the rings. He soon ended up surrounded by Erasers, separated from Max II. He let the rings fade away. He started to spin around with his arms spread out. A large ring of fire blasted out from Asch and took out the first row of surrounding Erasers. The rest backed off a bit, now being careful about how to attack.

But Asch wasn't being careful anymore. He wasn't even Asch anymore. He was a killing machine. "You picked the wrong day to come after me!" he screamed. He charged through the crowd of Erasers using his speed, a trail of fire blazing from his hands, catching a bunch of Erasers.

He then took to the air and quickly came back down, slamming his fists to the ground, an explosion of fire rushing away from him, incinerating any Erasers within a twenty foot radius.

More Erasers began to swarm him. "I'm going to take you ALL OUT!" cried Asch. He brought out his fire rings and began slashing at any approaching Eraser, screaming as he did. After taking out twenty more Erasers, he stopped throwing the rings created four fire balls that formed on the ground around him about ten feet away from him. They all exploded with great force and blew away an even larger group of Erasers.

Asch saw Max II holding her own; a lot of bodies were around her. But a bunch were about to swarm her.

Asch blasted towards them, leaving a trail of fire. "Get out of the way!" he yelled.

Max II saw him coming and jumped out of the way just in time. Asch charged through the crowd, setting them on fire. They screamed as they burned.

Max II landed next to Asch and they stood back to back. Asch had fire coming out of his hands, ready for the next Erasers coming. They were surrounded by Erasers, but they stayed about ten feet away.

"You know," said Max II, slightly short of breath, "I think I liked it better when they were on my side."

"Feeling a little regret, are we?" said Asch.

After a short moment, she responded, "Nah, no way. I can handle these punks."

"Good to know."

The Erasers started to charge them. Asch shot a stream of fire at them, warding off the ones coming for him while Max II used her strength and agility to out-maneuver them and take them down.

Asch continued to use his speed and fire, soon turning the field into an ash-covered war zone. Max II brought down almost every one of her attackers, taking little damage.

Asch took down the final Eraser, breathing heavily. He was virtually untouched from the battle. "All right, let's go," he said.

Suddenly, a loud bang sounded out.

Asch looked over to Max II. She had her hand to her shoulder. She looked up at Asch and then moved her hand. A dark, red circle was growing from just below her shoulder.

She looked over to Asch with a look Asch recognized. It was realization that she was about to die. She started to let out a scream of anger, but several more bangs ran out and Max II's body jerked with each one. She fell to the ground with more red spots on her back.

Asch looked over to where the shots came from and saw Jeb with a gun. "You just don't get it, do you?" he said, "You're never going to win."

Asch ran quickly towards Jeb and jumped in the air in front of him. "She didn't deserve that!" he yelled, and delivered a huge kick to his head, cracking it. Jeb fell down hard.

As Asch landed, he heard Jeb say something else. He bent down to him.

"…never going to win…never going to win…never going to win…"

A couple of sparks came from Jeb and then his body twitched a couple times, and then he was silent. It was another Jeb robot.

"Damn it!" he shouted.

He walked over to Max II's body and turned her right side up. He placed her hands on her chest. "Thank you, Max. I'm sorry I can't properly bury you now."

He jumped in the air and took off. At 200 miles per hour, he could probably reach Arizona in about seven minutes.