Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. I think I'll just leave it at that.

The Erasers were coming from all over the place. We were managing to hold our own pretty well. But they wouldn't stop coming.

I landed a punch square in the jaw of one Eraser and then I elbowed another behind me in the ribs. Then I delivered a roundhouse to him, knocking him down. But then another one came and grabbed me from behind. I managed to wriggle free and knock him out and over the rail of the catwalk.

I could see the others handling themselves pretty well. A few minutes later, after taking down about maybe twenty more Erasers, I saw Iggy and Gasman together. They were huddled together like they were up to something. This couldn't have been good.

I shouldn't have let myself get distracted. I wound up taking a stiff shot in the cheek, knocking me to the ground. Several Erasers then stood over me smiling. "End of the road," said one of them.

"GET DOWN!" cried Iggy. I was glad I was already down on the ground. When Iggy or Gazzy tell you to get down after huddling together, you do it. No questions asked. I covered my face with my arms.

I heard a loud BOOM and then felt a rush of heat. There was lots of screams of agony.

I moved my arms from my face. The Erasers that were standing over me were gone. I got up and looked around. There some burned Eraser remains around on the catwalk. Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy were all right. The scene told the story.

Iggy and Gazzy must have managed to hide yet another bomb from me and they threw it in the air. The concussion from it blew away any Erasers around us and the rest got barbequed.

"Everyone okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay," said Nudge.

"Oh, man that was so cool," said Gazzy. With that enthusiasm, he must have been fine.

"Thank you Sebastian," said Iggy.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"That was one of Sebastian's bombs," he answered, "He showed me how he makes bombs and I kept one that he helped me make. I wouldn't mind having a few more like those."

Wow, even in the afterlife, the Counter-Breed was still finding a way to help us.

I looked around to survey the damage. Then I noticed some movement up near where Jeb was standing. I looked up. There were some more Erasers who were fighting somebody, no, two people.

I recognized one of them. It was Angel. My baby was okay. But the other person who was fighting with her I didn't recognize. He was wearing a black, hoody sweatshirt and dark blue jeans. I took a closer look at his face with my raptor vision. He looked like an Eraser, but not really.

Then I realized who it must have been. There was only one person I knew who looked like a half-morphed Eraser. Ari!

But what was he doing fighting with Angel? Wasn't he against us?

Then I noticed that not all of the Erasers around us got taken out. There were still nine of them that survived the explosion. I wanted to go up and get to Angel but I had to deal with these guys as they charged us.

After a few minutes of some intense fighting, we were able to take them out. All I could think about in that time was getting to Angel and taking out anything that got in my way.

After the fight, I flew up to where Angel was. The others followed me. She and Ari had just finished off the Erasers they were fighting with.

"Max!" she cried. She ran over to me and gave me the biggest hug ever. "You're all right."

"I'm fine," I said, "what about you?"

"I'm okay, but… but Lily's…"

I knew the rest of the sentence. Jeb was actually telling the truth for once.

I looked over to the person she was with. He was walking away.

"Wait, Ari," I said. He stopped walking and turned his head, but not to a point where he faced me.

"Knowing some of the things that you've done makes me really mad," I continued, "but… but you saved Angel. I have to be grateful for that."

He turned his head back and continued walking away. Then Angel ran away from me and towards him. When she reached him, she grabbed his hand.

"No," she said, "Don't go, Fang."

The four of us dropped our jaws. "What?!" we all cried.

"Angel," I said, "what did you just say?"

She looked at me, still holding Ari's hand. "Fang, its Fang Max."

Nudge, Gazzy, and Iggy all had very perplexed looks on their faces. But they couldn't have been as perplexed as me.

"I'm no one," said the person, sounding worried, "just a castaway from the Itex experiments."

I just didn't know what to say. Angel was trying to tell me that this Eraser-like person was Fang. I wanted to believe her, but I just didn't know what to think.

"Come here Max," said Angel, "you'll see."

I walked towards her and the person with her. When I reached her, she took my hand and brought me to face the person.

"Look at him, Max. I've read his thoughts. It's him. Just look at him."

I looked up at his face. He was certainly tall like Fang. I looked into his face. His hair was black like Fang's but he had more hair than necessary that ran along the side of his face. He also had a half snout. It was long, but not very, not like a regular Eraser. Then I looked into his eyes. The person's eyes were dark… like Fang's.

Oh, God, those eyes. My eyes widened in realization. I'd know those eyes anywhere. I've looked into them hundreds of times. They were Fang's. It really was Fang.

Without realizing it until it was too late, I fell to my knees and started crying. I grabbed onto Fang's shirt to support myself. "Fang," I said in between my sobs, "Fang, it's really you. I… I looked for you. I missed you so much."

I just couldn't believe I was crying like this. I hated myself for looking so pathetic.

"C'mon Max," said Fang, his voice still the same, the one I missed so much, "You've got to pull it together."

I looked up to him. "Where were you?" I asked.

"I didn't want you to find me."

"Then that must have been Fang," said Iggy.

"What are you talking about?" asked Gazzy.

"Those clues we got in the rift. That must have been Fang who gave them to us."

Fang looked over to Iggy. "I was starting to think that you guys weren't going to catch on. That's why I came here myself."

"Fang," I said, calming down and getting back on my feet, "why didn't you just come find us?"

"I told you Max, I didn't want you to find me. Not like this." He held up his hands and looked at them. "I fought with Ari, twice, trying to rescue you, and lost both times. But then I took this performance-enhancing drug made for Erasers called Boost. When I met Ari again, I was the winner. I brought you to Roland ter Borcht's lab where you could get your memories restored. But then I turned into this, the very thing I hated."

"Is there a way to change you back?"

"I haven't given up on that yet. Asch has been trying to help me find a way too.

"Asch? So he did know about you?"

"Yeah, but I made him promise not to tell you about me. So, don't get mad at him, get mad at me."

"Oh, I could never get mad at you Fang."

"Yeah, you can. You could just never stay mad at me."

I couldn't help but smile. I was so happy to have him back. The others came over to us. We were all together again. It was so great. I just wished that Fang was back to the way he was. But it didn't matter. He was here, and he was real.

"We'll help you find a way to change back," said Nudge.

"Yeah," I said, "you're still Fang, no matter what."

"Aww, man," said Fang with a strange look on his face.

"What?"

"Asch said you'd say that. He really knows you well."

I couldn't help but smile again. "C'mon Fang," I said, and we continued walking through the building, together.

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Asch and ter Borcht came to a platform that was above the flock. "Look," said Asch, "it's Fang. He's with Max and the others."

Ter Borcht looked over the edge to see the group, still carrying his machine. "Let them have their reunion," he said, "they deserve it and we have other business to attend to."

"Man, I wonder if Fang will ever change back."

"Only time will tell. Max and Fang are back together. We have no part to play there." He continued walking along the walkway they were on.

Asch continued to stand where he was, looking down at the group, at Max. "Yeah," he sighed with a hint of disappointment, "I know."

He left the spot to catch up with ter Borcht.

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