Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. Or Kingdom Hearts II. I didn't want KH II to feel left out.

Ter Borcht's machine continued to fire the beam, but it began to shake. He went up to it and grabbed a hold of it with both of his hands. After a minute, it began to shake even faster.

"Dr. ter Borcht," said Asch, "what's happening with the machine?"

Ter Borcht merely let out a loud laugh. Then he said, "I'm an incredible fool. I should have known that attempting to encode pure energy would only fail."

"Then what's going to happen?" asked Asch.

"It's going to self-destruct. The energy itself will be harmless once it is exposed to the air, but the force from it being released will probably obliterate anything within about five feet of the machine. And anything could happen after that occurs."

"Then get away from there. Let go of it."

"No."

"What?!"

"I'm not leaving this spot."

"What are you doing? What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking like a smart person instead of like a genius, which I've been doing all this time."

Asch could not respond. He was too stunned by what ter Borcht was saying. By his decision to die.

"All my life, I've loved birds. I loved to study them. I loved to research them and learn new things about them. And I loved to watch them fly, to know that they have a freedom like no other. I wanted to have that freedom. I wanted the world to have that freedom. So I began my experiments. I was convinced I could create avian-human hybrids. And I succeeded. Only what I didn't see, was what it cost. No, I did see. I just turned away. All of those innocent lives lost. What I didn't see was how easily my vision could have been corrupted by the likes of people like Jeb and Anne."

"But that's the thing Dr. ter Borcht. As smart as you are, you're only human. Anyone could have made that mistake."

"I suppose, but it was my arrogance that blinded me to it. I was just too confident for my own good. It was that very pride that drove me toward my desire for revenge."

"You don't have to this."

"I must. I vowed I would die before I let this experiment be taken away from me. And now it has, yet I'm still alive. So if I must die, it will be making sure this corruption is stopped."

"No…" It was all Asch could get out. Ter Borcht had made his decision. Just like Asch had once made the decision to kill Max. He didn't want to do it, but it was what had to be done.

Just then, Max and the flock came up the walkway and found them.

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We came up the walkway and found Asch and Dr. ter Borcht. Ter Borcht was holding onto a machine that was shaking erratically. The beam was coming from the top of it.

"Max," said Asch, "keep back. The machine's about to blow."

"Well, then what's he doing there?" I asked pointing to Dr. ter Borcht.

"He's not gonna move."

"What?!"

"He's made his decision. There's nothing we can do."

"But…" Suddenly there was a hand on my shoulder. I looked to see it was Fang.

"He's made his choice Max," he said, "Let him do it."

"Max," said ter Borcht. I looked over to him. "The rest is up to you now. And…I doubt you can forgive me, but I am… sorry."

"Well, well, well," said a voice from somewhere nearby. I looked over to see that it was Anne Walker coming over from the other side of the walkway. "I was wondering who would be trying to destroy my Subatomic Energy Core. And here you all are. How convenient for me." Then she pulled out an AK-47 and pointed it at us.

We staggered back from it a little bit. If she started firing away, we wouldn't be able to escape it.

Anne looked over at ter Borcht at his machine. "Dr. Roland ter Borcht," she said, "you look absolutely pathetic."

"Have your laugh," he said, "I deserve it for not seeing you as the conniving snake you really are."

Anne let out a laugh. "You know, I think I understand. I can't believe I never saw it before. You're jealous. You're jealous of me taking your work further than you ever dared. You're jealous that I have surpassed you in every way."

Ter Borcht said nothing. He only continued holding the machine.

"I understand, though. It's only human to feel hatred towards those who are better than you. Of course, being angry at me is pointless. You are the one who started all of this. It was your research that inspired me to go further."

"I admit, it was my disregard that brought more chaos and ruin to more lives than one. But what were you seeking? You threw me into that damned asylum just to take my research and bring it to a level only a madman would appreciate."

"Madman? I'm merely carrying on what you began. You wanted to improve the world, and that is what I'm doing. I'm carrying on your dream."

"My dream didn't involve mass genocide!"

"I know, you became weak. You used to be willing to sacrifice for the greater good. But then you made a crucial mistake. You looked back. You should never look back when trying to accomplish a goal. You saw what you left in your wake, and it made you weak. Jeb and I merely decided to cut you off and further your research and create a brand new world. I thought you'd praise me, but all you do is hold me back. That wouldn't have happened if you hadn't looked back. But that's okay. Like I said, I understand your jealousy of your apprentice surpassing you."

"Anne, you have surpassed nothing. You have only proved how stupid we really are. It's like the saying goes: 'If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us wings'. I made the mistake of trying to be Him and bestow the world with the ability to fly. And I made the mistake of bringing you and Jeb along. But you… you are simply making the same mistake I did. That's why any world you try to create is destined to fall! Because it is made of ignorance from a person blind with arrogance!"

Anne cocked the gun and held it up ready to fire. The machine started to shake even more violently.

"We've said enough," said ter Borcht, "Max, it's your hands now. And Fang, thank you for all of your help. Forgive me for what I've done to you."

Fang nodded his head. Sparks started to come out of the machine and then a loud whirring noise came from it. "Farewell!" yelled ter Borcht.

With that, a giant explosion blasted from the machine. Asch and Fang dove towards me and the flock, trying to shield us from the blast.

We all fell to the ground. When the explosion faded, I looked up to see little twinkling lights falling down. They quickly faded as they sprinkled down.

We all got up and looked around. Anne was gone. There was a giant hole in the walkway where Dr. ter Borcht was standing with his machine.

Then I saw something that scared me. Fang was still on the ground. For a second, I feared the worst. But when I bent down, I saw that he was still moving. And then I saw something that completely stunned me.

Fang wasn't an Eraser anymore. He didn't have any excess hair on his face. His nose no longer looked like a snout. His skin was back to its normal, olive color. I just couldn't believe it.

"Fang," I said, "you're back to normal."

Fang gasped as what I said sank in. He felt his face with his hand. Then he looked at his hand. He cracked a smile as it dawned on him that I was right.

We both got back to our feet. I could hear the others gasp as they saw Fang.

"Fang, why did you try to do everything by yourself?" I asked. "I mean, you've got us."

Fang seemed to look around at everyone who was here. Then he looked back at me. "Have you forgotten?" he said.

"What?"

"It's because I'm not a total sap like you." Then he gave a rare but amazing smile.

"Excuse me? Say that again."

Before he could say anything, we heard a loud lurching sound. We all looked over the side of the walkway. There was an entire horde of Erasers making their way up the building. Some of them flying, some of them not.

"Now what do we do?" I said.

"We have to stop Anne Walker," said Fang, "she's the leader of this insane plot. We stop her, we stop everything."

"Wait a minute," said Asch.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"You guys found Angel. Didn't you find Lily?"

Shock instantly washed over me. I knew this was going to come. But still we had to tell him. "Well…" but I never got a chance to finish.

"I'm right here," said a familiar little voice from behind us.

We all turned around to see Lily standing there, alive.

"Lily!" Asch cried. He ran over to the girl and picked her up and embraced her in a huge hug. She hugged him back. "Oh, my baby, you're all right."

"So are you," said Lily, "but I have this really bad headache."

"Okay, well, try not to think about it. You won't be opening any more rifts for a while. I'm just glad you're all right."

I thought Lily was dead. It was Angel in my head. Should we tell him about what happened?

I answered back to her in my thoughts. No, we don't need to worry him. She's all right now, so there's no need to tell him.

Asch put Lily down and they came back to us. "So what's the plan?" Asch asked.

"Let's follow after Anne," I said, "We've got to stop her before she can pull anything else. We'll do it together." I put my hand in.

Everyone else stuck their hands in and started to do our hand-stacking thing. I patted the top of the stack.

We all started to head further along the walkway. Then I noticed Fang take off his hoody sweatshirt behind us. He had a black short-sleeve t-shirt. It's always black with him. God, I missed him.

I guess he was hot in it. Well, he was, but I mean literal heat.

So we headed up to face Anne, together at last.