Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. That's just the way the cookie crumbles. Mmmm… cookies.

We were getting tired. We couldn't take much more of this fighting. Every Eraser we killed, another took its place. Wave after wave of them just kept coming through Lily's rifts.

I gave an elbow to an Eraser in the neck and then I clapped my hands on his skull. As he went down, two Erasers knocked me down from behind. I quickly got up and took them down with some swift kicks and punches.

I backed from some other Erasers that were slowly closing in on me. I found that Nudge, Iggy, and Gasman huddled against each other back to back. I backed up to them and completed the little circle. They were all out of breath, as was I.

After a few seconds, we collapsed from our exhaustion. We were all in a sitting position with our backs still against each other. I couldn't believe it. They had finally gotten us. Jeb found a way to get enough Erasers to take us out.

They all circled us, smiling, knowing they had won.

One of them jumped up towards us, ready to make the kill. I put my arms up in front of me to try and fend it off. I even closed my eyes, knowing it was hopeless.

But the Eraser never came for me. Instead, I heard a loud scream that quickly faded. Then I heard other sounds of grunts and groans like the Erasers were being beaten up. I moved my arm and opened my eyes. What I saw shocked me.

Someone, or something, moving at an incredibly fast speed was taking out all of the Erasers that were in the area.

Then I realized who it was that was doing this. There was only one person I knew who could move that fast. It was Asch. He was back.

I could barely keep up with him. The only way I was able to follow him was to watch the Erasers getting taken down. And they were going down fast.

After the last one went down and no more rifts opened, Asch stopped and stood in the yard, surrounded by fallen Erasers that were unconscious, dying, or dead.

We all got up and I ran to him. When I reached him, I gave him a huge hug. "Asch, you're all right."

He hugged me back. "Maxie," was all he managed to say. Then he slowly got down on the ground and sat. His breathing was heavy and uneven. Something wasn't right.

"Asch, are you all right?" I asked.

He looked up at me. "I just… I just need to rest for a bit. I… used too much energy at once. I hyper-flew all the way here, which I shouldn't have done, and then taking on all those guys. It takes a lot out of me."

"Well, we're glad you came. We would have been dead for sure if you didn't show up."

Iggy, Nudge, and Gazzy came over to us. "Hey, guys," said Asch. "You all right?"

"Yeah, we're okay," said Iggy, "What about you? What happened to you? Where'd you go?"

"I was at the Facility. They captured me and kept me in an isolation tank."

I shuddered when he said that. I remembered being kept in one of those by Jeb. The feeling of having no feeling, thinking that I was dead. I absolutely hated it. I couldn't believe that they subjected him to that.

Asch continued. "Afterwards, they injected me with a truth serum and I guess I talked about you guys, what you've been doing, where you've been going. I guess that's why you've been attacked by Erasers. Then, later, I got some help."

"Help?" I asked.

"Yeah, of all people, Max II helped break me out."

"Max II helped you get out?" asked Nudge.

"Yeah, she was going to be exterminated too, so she broke me out and we escaped. A bunch of Erasers got in our way of course, but we took them all out. And then…"

"What?" I asked. I had an idea of what he was about to say, but I wanted to be sure.

"Then another one of those Jeb robots showed up and shot her. She's dead."

"Oh my God," said Iggy.

"I know. The one time she does something good and she dies because of it. Talk about irony."

"Oh, man," I said. Max II was gone now. And she helped Asch. Max II was really just another puppet of Itex. She wasn't really bad; she was just looking for a place in the world. And now they killed her. Treating people like that, using them for their own ends and then just cutting them off. Itex was going to pay.

"Well, we shouldn't let her sacrifice go in vain," said Asch, "she died helping me get away. We have to see this through. The world's depending on us."

"And they don't even know it," said Nudge.

Asch stood up. "Are you sure you're okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good now," he said, "I just needed to rest for a few minutes."

"So what else happened when you were at the Facility?" asked Gazzy.

"Well, during my escape I found Lily, but I couldn't save her at the time. I didn't see Angel though. Sorry guys. Itex has been using her to get her Erasers from place to place. She also told me you brought her to the Martinez's. I went there and talked to them. They told me you were coming here. Then I came here and found you. Which brings me to a question: Why are you here?"

"Well," said Iggy, "when we were in that rift that Lily sent us through, this guy was there and gave us some things. One of them was a photo of this manor. We figured the guy was telling us he wanted us to come here."

"Who was he?"

"Max has a theory about that. She thinks it might have been Fang."

"It was just a feeling I had," I said. Asch's expression changed a little bit, like he was surprised to hear Fang's name, but then he went back to the way he was.

"Well," he said, "If that's what you think, you're probably right."

"You meant it was Fang?"

"If that's what you think. I mean, you are right a lot."

"Asch, there's something I need to ask you. Back in San Francisco, when Anne Walker said I should ask you about Fang, what did she mean?"

Asch hesitated for a few seconds. I didn't know how to feel about it, excited or worried. Then he said, "I don't know Maxie. It's not for me to say."

"Asch, if you know something, please tell me." He seemed to be frustrated about this. Now I was getting more worried.

"I'm sorry Max. I can't break my promise."

"WHAT?! You made a promise to Fang?! Then he's okay! I can see him again!"

During my hysterical tirade of joy, the others jumped in the air with big smiles. Meanwhile, Asch's eyes widened and then he let out a small gasp before covering his mouth.

He uncovered his mouth and then said, "Awwwwww man. Fang is gonna friggin' kill me now."

"Asch?" asked Nudge, "Was it Fang who gave us that stuff? Did you know where Fang was this whole time?"

"Oh, come on, guys. I can't."

"Yeah," I said, "Knowing he's all right is enough for me for now." I couldn't describe the joy I was feeling knowing that Fang was still alive. But I still wondered what kind of promise Asch made to him. What made Asch reluctant to tell me about Fang?

"So what about the manor?" I continued, "What's so important about it?"

"Well, when I was talking to Lily," said Asch, "she told me that she's managed to hold open a rift that the whitecoats haven't found. It's somewhere here in the manor. I'm thinking the basement, because the rest of this place is a death trap. It'll take us to the Facility."

"Then let's go in," said Gazzy. He, Iggy, and Nudge, went into the manor ahead of us.

I walked next to Asch behind them. Then I whispered to Asch, "They put you in the tank huh?"

Asch whispered back, "Scariest experience of my life. I will die before I get put back into one of those."

I nodded my head and then patted his arm, "I know how you feel."

When we were inside the manor, Asch whispered to again, "Opening all of those rifts isn't good for Lily."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"She's only meant to open up one of two at a time. All of those, all at the same time, it's hurting her. If they don't let her stop, she could have an aneurism, a stroke, or she could…"

He didn't need to finish. I could see the fear from the thought on his face. "We'll save her," I whispered, "We'll get her back, her and Angel."

He nodded his head. "Thanks Max."

We headed down the dark stairs into the basement. "Oh, guys," said Asch, "there's something else I need to tell you. Roland ter Borcht is at the Facility. He snuck in somehow and he's hiding in there. I don't know what he's up to, but he's definitely not invited there."

"Wonder what's going on there?" asked Iggy. "Is ter Borcht with us or against us?"

"With the way it's looking, I'd say 'with us' but I can't be sure."

"I guess we'll see when we get there," I said.

We came down to the basement. All of the monitors that were once on were now off. Only a couple of lights were on. Asch found a switch that lit up the entire room.

Some of the monitors came on. I came to a door and tried to turn the handle. It was locked. There was some sort of strange, mechanical lock on it. "We're not getting into the next room," I said.

"The rift must be in there," Asch said. "We gotta find a way in."

"You think we can unlock it using the computers?"

"It's worth a shot."

"I'll do it," said Nudge. She went over to a chair that was surrounded by monitors that had a keyboard on it. She was the best one of us with computers like this. If anyone could figure it out, she could. She pressed a few buttons. "Okay, this looks good. Uh-oh, I can't get any further without a password."

"Can't you figure out what the password is?" asked Gazzy.

"Oh yeah." Nudge touched the computer with her hand. After a few minutes, she had a look of disappointment on her face. "I can't."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean I can't. I can't figure it out."

"He must have changed the password before he shut the system down, "said Asch, "Pretty smart. But how do we figure out what it is."

"Well, we have that photo," said Iggy.

"Oh, and that Birdman of Alcatraz DVD," said Gazzy.

"That's it!" shouted Asch.

"What?" I asked.

"I was talking with Max II. She was telling me how the movie Birdman of Alcatraz inspired ter Borcht to start studying birds. And if you got it from F… that person in the rift, then that must be the password."

Nudge typed it into the keyboard. After a minute, she said, "That did it. I'm in!"

"YES!" we all cried.

Nudge pressed a few more buttons and then the door to the next room unlocked and opened.

"All right," I said, "now we're making progress."

We all walked through the doorway. We came into the room and found it was the room where Asch and I had fought. It had seemed like ages ago.

"This brings back some bad memories," I said.

"For whom?" asked Asch. He looked over to me and smiled. I couldn't help but smile back. I had forgotten. I won that fight.

"There it is," said Nudge. She pointed to a spot in the room. Over in one of the corners was Lily's rift, waiting for us.

"Okay, guys," I said, "Let's go in. Angel and Lily are waiting for us."

Everyone nodded their heads. We came over to the rift and walked through.