Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. How many disclaimers with corny comments can one person handle?

We had made it to the fifth floor. We searched all over the first four floors and we didn't find anything that seemed to be significant. But what was really getting to me was that no Erasers had attacked us yet.

We came out to where the building was wide open in the middle. We were on a wider section of the catwalk when a voice boomed out from above us. "Well, well, the intrusions just never end, do they?"

The four of us looked up to see Jeb standing on a platform high above us. At least I thought it was Jeb. It could have been just another robot. The sight of him was making me angrier by the second.

"What do you mean?" I shouted at him.

"Well, first there is Roland ter Borcht, and then there is your friend Asch, and now you. Oh, and then there's Fang."

"What? Fang's here?!"

"Yes, it's just too bad that he let Lily die."

My heart rate skyrocketed. Not that it wasn't already sky high. Fang was here and Lily was dead. The thoughts were like spikes jammed into my brain.

"Of course," he continued, "none of that really matters. Just look there." He pointed outward towards his left.

We all looked towards where he pointed. There was a large window and through we saw this giant device. It was grey and onion-shaped. It had some sort of window on it and there was a light shining out of it.

"You've made the world's largest inedible onion?" I asked.

"No," said Jeb in an annoyed tone, "that is the Subatomic Energy Core. The key to our entire operation. With it, we have the fuel to carry out our plan to save the world. It is the source of all the energy that runs this place and that will run the other machines we must use throughout the world."

"Whoop-dee-doo," said Nudge, "you have a giant onion. That's not gonna help you beat us."

"True, but that problem is about to be solved right now." Jeb snapped his fingers. We could even hear that echo through the building.

Suddenly, several sections of wall opened around us and hundreds of Erasers flew out towards us. They landed on the catwalk or circled around above us.

I looked up to see that Jeb had disappeared from his platform like the rat he was. But now wasn't the time to think about him. I had a whole army of Erasers to think about.

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Asch ran up a flight of stairs towards a walkway. Erasers and guards were coming down to block his path but he dealt with them easily. He sliced into them with his hands burning at the ends. Every one of them he came across fell down the stairs screaming in pain.

He came to the top and went through a doorway that led to the outside. It was just after twilight, the sky now becoming darker. Lights along the sides of the building were slowly turning on.

Asch ran along the walkway, more Erasers coming to try and stop him. He took down all of them again, delivering fast, lethal kicks and punches or setting them ablaze.

The walkway made a curve around the building. As Asch rounded it, he saw something ahead of him. There were a group of Erasers surrounding something that was on the ground. It looked like a person.

Asch quickly made his way there. Before the Erasers realized he was coming up on them, Asch quickly brought them down with fast punches and kicks. They all fell to the ground unconscious.

The person who was down on the ground slowly rose up. Next to him was a strange machine that he must have brought up.

The person finally got to their feet. It was a man. He had somewhat long grey hair and a grey goatee with green eyes. He was wearing a long, white coat with black pants and black shoes.

"Thank you, my young comrade," he said.

"Dr. Roland ter Borcht," said Asch, "what are you doing here?"

"You," said ter Borcht, "I know you, don't I? Yes, you're that Asch fellow who broke into my system."

"Yeah, that's me. But don't worry. I'm on your side now. So, again, what are you doing here? Why didn't you just try to find Max or me?"

"Anne Walker and Jeb Batchelder were my apprentices. The burden of stopping them was mine to bear."

After a few seconds, Asch asked, "But that's not the only reason, is it?"

Ter Borcht walked over to the edge of the walkway and looked outward. "I can't deny there was more. I don't know what you heard or read about me, but you do know of my being put in an insane asylum in the Netherlands, correct?"

"Yeah, I know about that."

"Well, it was Jeb and Anne who had me put in there."

"What?!"

"Yes, they set me up to be caught and convinced authorities that I was crazy. Then, when I was taken away, they ran away here to the United States with my work and continued it. When I started doing this, I can assure you I had no intention of this 'Re-evolution' scheme. That was concocted by Jeb and Anne. My vision was completely different. I wanted to spread this ability of flight to all, not to just a select few."

"Wait a minute. You mean Re-evolution wasn't your idea?"

"No, I wanted to give the world the ability to fly. Think about it. If everyone could fly, there would be no need for airplanes, helicopters, trains, automobiles, or anything like that. Think of the gas and energy problem we're facing. All of that fuel that gets wasted could go into heating homes and buildings. The price of gas would drop phenomenally. But that wasn't Jeb and Anne's vision."

"So they betrayed you?"

"Yes, they had me thrown into that cursed asylum. All the time I was there, all I could think about was my work, but then my thoughts slowly changed day by day… to revenge."

"Revenge, huh? Well, I guess I can relate to that."

"They had stolen everything from me. My research, my life, and my pride."

"Well, I can't help you with revenge. I mean, I want it too. Jeb and Anne killed most of my family. But you can't let it cloud your vision of what's important."

Ter Borcht let out a sigh. "I know," he said, "Fang must have told me a thousand times."

"Now that you brought him up, where is Fang?"

"I'd imagine that he's catching up with his friends by now."

"So what exactly happened to him? I know a few of the scattered details, but he never came a hundred percent clean with me."

Ter Borcht let out another sigh. He continued to look towards the darkening sky. "I… am to blame."

"What do you mean?"

"When I first me Fang a little less than a year ago, he still had the appearance of a young man. I found him in the manor I was using as my base. He was using it as shelter after he had fought Ari… and lost. He was severely hurt. Even with his advanced healing abilities, if untreated, he would have died within hours. I nursed him back to health. And then when I found out what he was, I'm sure you can imagine the shock and joy I felt. Fang was a great help to me. He helped me construct my lab, and he filled me in on a lot of information that would have taken me months to find on my own."

"You know, he had a blog. You probably could have used that to get some other things."

Ter Borcht let out a laugh. "Yes, I've seen his blog. He has a talent for writing. Anyway, when he told me about Max, I did some research into Itex and found how they had erased her memories. I began building a machine that would create a virtual world where I could keep her safe and restore her memory. I asked Fang to go find Max and bring her to me. He left without a word, as per his usual self. He went and fought Ari who was keeping Max for reasons only known to him. And I can only imagine that Fang lost that fight as well. He went to an Itex building and found something called Boost, a drug Jeb and Anne developed to make Erasers stronger and faster. He took it and fought Ari again, this time killing him. He brought Max to me and I put her in my virtual world and began restoring her memory. Then the side affects of the drug started to kick in and he began to look as he does now. I think you know the rest from there."

"So that's the story," said Asch, "During his time with you, I met Fang on a few occasions. We told each other our stories. I told him I didn't trust you, because I thought you were working with Itex. But he stood by your side. He wanted so much to help Max. More than I did. The last time we met though, after he changed, he made me promise not to tell Max what happened to him while he was out looking for her."

Ter Borcht groaned in disappointment. "Fang became the true victim of my revenge. How my heart ached. After his transformation, he re-introduced himself as Ari. I could only laugh… to hide my shame."

Ter Borcht turned around to face Asch. "The time has come. I must make amends to these young people I've hurt so much." He walked over to the device that was lying on the ground and picked it up with both hands. Then the two of them continued walking along the catwalk, further into the building.