Disclaimer: Sdrawkcab ti did I, spoo. Edir mumixam now ton od I.

We came through the rift. I immediately started doing 360s to see where we were. We were in a forest of some kind. The smell of pine quickly overtook me. When we all passed through, the rift faded away behind us.

Up ahead though, were lights from a large building. It must have been the Facility. If they were trying to look inconspicuous, they weren't doing a very good job. You could have seen this place from an airplane.

The five of us started walking closer to it, trying to be careful of any traps or guards on duty. Then we decided to fly up into the trees and try to get a better view of any possible entrances.

Using my raptor vision, I could see a doorway not too far away. It had two guards by it that weren't the most pleasant looking.

"All right," said Asch, "I'm going on ahead."

"What?" I asked, looking right over to him.

"I have to find ter Borcht. If he runs into any Erasers, he's toast. He's gonna need help. I can probably clear a path for you as well. You guys find Angel and Lily."

I figured we should stay together, but after hearing that argument, I guess it made sense.

"Okay," I said, "but be careful."

"Don't worry about me Max." And with that, he disappeared out of the tree. I looked back down to where the guards were. They were lying down on the ground, unconscious.

We flew down to the entrance. When we landed, I saw some device with sparks coming out of it. It was a broken security camera. Asch really was clearing a path for us.

We stepped inside. The place was even bigger looking on the inside then on the outside. This wasn't a typical Itex building. It had its signature white walls and floors, and its smell of cleaner. But it was more wide open. I could see all the way to the top. There were some catwalks that went across the building. Around the building were various rooms.

Gazzy let out a whistle. I quickly silenced him when it echoed throughout the building. I made the 'shhh' sign to him, and then I whispered, "This is the base; we have to be quiet, and careful."

Gazzy nodded in understanding. I turned from him and started looking for where Asch might have gone. But this place was so wide open. He could have gone anywhere.

"So, where do we go from here?" asked Nudge.

"Well," I said, "we might as well start from the bottom and go up." This was going to take a while.

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Lily was still in the chair where Asch found her. She had an amazingly painful headache. Her whole head felt like it was about to explode. She remembered how Asch had told her she should only open one rift at a time. She tried to tell the scientists working there that but they didn't listen.

She complained to the scientists about her headache hours ago. Now they were finally going to do something about it. One of them came into the room, accompanied by three guards. He looked at a couple of the monitors on a machine near her. Then he came over to Lily.

He started to pull out the wires on her head. The guards came around her as he started to undo the straps keeping her in the chair.

Lily tried to concentrate on where Angel was. She knew where the whitecoats were keeping her. She would only have a second to get away.

When the final strap was undone, Lily quickly opened up a rift in the floor. Before the whitecoat or the guards could react, she fell through the rift and it quickly closed up. Her head was in an incredible amount of pain, but she knew she had to save Angel, no matter what. It's what Asch would do.

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Angel sat in the corner of her small cell. Total, who had grabbed on to her leg when Max II kidnapped her, came over to her to snuggle with her.

"Where's Max?" she asked, more to herself than to Total.

"She'll come soon," said Total, "She always comes to save the day."

After a moment, Angel said, "Yeah, you're right. She'll come get me."

As if on cue, a rift opened up in the wall. Angel staggered away from it in her surprise. But then Lily came through it and a smile came over Angel's face.

"Lily!" she cried as the rift closed. She came over and hugged her.

"Not so loud," whispered Lily, "you don't want the whitecoats to hear you, do you?"

"Oh, sorry," said Angel, now whispering, "So what are we going to do?"

"We're going to get out of here." Lily opened up another rift in the wall. They stepped through and came to a walkway on the outside along the building that was about eight stories up.

"Wait a minute," said Angel, "how come we're still here in the Facility?"

"Oh, no," mumbled Lily, "My power's weakening."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing, let's just run."

So the three of them ran along the walkway. But they didn't get too far. Lily's headache got the best of her and she fell down. Her mind was deteriorating from opening up all the rifts.

"Lily, Lily come on, get up," cried Angel.

"Angel," said a voice from somewhere nearby. Angel looked up from Lily to see that Jeb was standing close by, with two Erasers standing behind him, "I'm afraid leaving is not an option."

Angel looked back down to Lily. She was holding her head and she was short of breath.

"Forget about her," said Jeb, walking closer, "she's no longer of any use to us."

"How could you say such a thing?!" cried Angel. She got up and started to kick and punch at Jeb.

Jeb grabbed her arm. "Take her!" he yelled to the Erasers. Angel continued to struggle in Jeb's grip, but the Erasers didn't come. "That's an order!" Jeb looked over to where the Erasers were standing.

The two Erasers just stood there with a far away look in their eyes. Then, they slowly fell over on the ground face first. Behind them stood a figure in dark blue jeans and a black hoody sweatshirt. The hood was up so his face couldn't be seen.

Jeb released his grip on Angel and stared at the figure in shock. Angel just stared at him wondering who it was. "Y… you!" stuttered Jeb in his shock, "D… didn't Ari take care of you?"

The figure said nothing.

Lily managed to look up from her position on the floor. "Perfect… timing… Fang," she said with every word being an effort.

Angel looked down at Lily in surprise, then back at the figure. "Fang?" she said to herself.

The figure then pulled something from their pocket. It was a knife. He threw it at Jeb with great speed. The knife flew towards Jeb. It passed his head just above his ear, cutting a couple of hairs and then stuck into a wall.

Jeb was frozen in shock. Before he realized it, the figure came running towards him and picked him up by his shirt collar. The figure carried him and then slammed him into a wall. But before he could do any more, Jeb extended his arm and pressed a button on the wall. Suddenly, a section of the wall where Jeb and the figure were opened up and Jeb fell through and disappeared.

The figure was about to follow him but Total got in between him and the trap door. "Fang, is that you?" he asked.

The figure silently backed away from Total. Then he turned towards Angel and Lily. Lily wasn't moving at all, or breathing. Angel was trying to wake her up, but it was no use. The figure bent down and stopped Angel. Angel looked at him with sadness. The figure shook his head.

Angel looked up at the person in the hooded sweatshirt. "Fang," she muttered, "is it really you?" She reached up, grabbed the hood, and took it down. What she saw made her stagger back a few steps. The person had a half-morphed Eraser face that looked away as the hood fell. At first, Angel thought it was Ari. Ari was the only one who was half-morphed like this. But then she looked into his mind. She gasped at what she found.

"It… it is you," said Angel.

He looked back at Angel. "Yeah, it's me Angel," said Fang.

"What happened to you?"

"I don't have three days to explain it."

"What about Lily? We can't just leave her here."

"I'm afraid we have to. We have to find the others."

"Oh, no. We're gonna have to tell Asch."

"I know, let's go." Fang managed to keep his typical straight face despite the sadness and rage he was feeling. He got up and started walking into the doorway Jeb escaped through with Angel and Total walking beside him.

Well, there you go. Fang is finally here, just like I promised. Sorry it took so long, but his return wouldn't have worked anywhere until this point. And as always, please keep sending your reviews.