Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride. I just own copies of the books.

We continued to walk along the walkway. We made sure to keep an eye out behind us for that army of Erasers that we knew was coming for us.

"So how did you change back Fang?" asked Nudge, out of the blue.

All of a sudden the question hit me as well. What did happen to make Fang change back? Not that I was complaining, but I was curious.

"I don't know," said Fang.

"Did the Boost wear off?" Nudge asked.

"I doubt it."

"I think it had something to do with the Subatomic Energy that exploded out of the machine," said Asch, still carrying Lily, "ter Borcht did say that anything could happen once it exploded."

"Well, all that matters is that he's back to normal," I said.

"Yeah, you're right," said Nudge.

The walkway brought us inside the building again. It went upwards to the other side of the building. But as we went across, we heard that loud lurching sound again. We looked over the rail to see that more Erasers were making their way up the building, no doubt after us.

"Uh-oh," I said, "we better hurry."

So we started to run across the walkway. But it turned out to be no use. Some of the Erasers were flyers. And they made it to us. We just about reached the other side of the building when I looked behind me. The horde was bigger and faster than I thought. They were running up the walkway after us.

"Uhh, guys," I said. The others turned around to see the army coming for us. I could see that some of them went wide-eyed.

"There's gonna be no end to this," said Fang.

"Leave them to me," said Asch, stepping forward. He looked over to me, "Here, take Lily." He handed Lily to me and I took her in my arms. She moaned as he did. She seemed to be semi-conscious. She might have needed medical attention.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"I'll deal with these guys. The rest of you go after Anne Walker."

"Are you sure?" I said.

"Of course, I can take these guys on, no problem."

He stepped ahead of us and bent down. He placed his hands on the walkway. He started to let out a groan and I could suddenly feel it start to get hot beneath my feet. Then it made sense. He was going to take out the walkway using his pyrokinesis.

We got out of the area, leaving Asch alone with the entire army of Erasers. As we headed back to the outside, I heard the sound of screeching, like prying metal. Then there was a chorus of screams that started to fade.

We continued walking along the walkway, with me still carrying Lily. We were very close to the top of the building. There was a staircase up ahead of us. We climbed to the top. When we did, there was a circular area. It seemed like we were on top of a tower. There were a couple of computers along the outside of the area. And up ahead of us was the Subatomic Energy Core, now half-drained from ter Borcht's machine, as we could see in the window.

But right in front of us was Anne Walker at one of the computers, the AK-47 at her side. I heard her mumbling to herself and then I put Lily down. "Can you stand?" I whispered to her.

"Yeah, I can," she said. What a trooper.

"The Subatomic Energy Core has been ruined thanks to you," said Anne. Apparently, she knew we were there. She turned around to face us. "Now I have to start all over again, because of you and ter Borcht."

"We're so sorry to put in a dent in your plans of destroying the world," I said.

"Let me ask you a question: Why do you want to stop me? What is it about me that makes you feel you must stop me?"

"Well, you want to destroy the world. I was made to stop you."

"But I don't want to destroy the world. Hasn't Jeb explained this to you? I'm looking to improve it. Make it so that only the best and the greatest survive."

"But what about the rest of the world?" asked Gazzy, "Don't they count for something?"

"They need to be cut off. They only bring us down, just like ter Borcht. There is nothing significant or special about them worth saving."

"So what if everyone isn't perfect?" asked Nudge, "If everyone in this world were perfect, then life would be boring. Imperfection is what makes people special."

"But it is because of people that the world needs Re-evolution."

"Yeah," said Iggy, "but people are capable of learning from their mistakes. You could just give them a chance instead of playing God and choosing for them whether they should live or die."

"If the world today was capable of learning from their mistakes, then it would not be in the shape it is in now."

"That might be true," said Fang, "but people have the right to choose the path of destruction. They don't need you to pronounce judgment on them."

"Ironic words coming from someone who turned themselves into one of us."

"Face it Anne," I said, "You're just a megalomaniac who's run out of resources. Your world domination plan is done, especially with your Subatomic Energy Core half-drained."

"Oh, the core can be repaired. It will take time, but so does perfection."

"You won't get the chance. We're stopping you, and Re-evolution, right here, now!"

"You can't stop Re-evolution. Even if you do stop me, another will take my place. Marian Janssen may have disappeared, but all she'll need is to be found and convinced. And even if that doesn't happen, there are many others who can and will take my place."

"That's not gonna happen!" yelled Fang.

"Oh, it won't? I suppose you think you're going to kill me too, huh?"

"Are you kidding?" asked Angel, "I could break you in two."

"Oh, you could?" Anne opened her hand and four small bottles rolled out and onto the floor.

"Oh, no," said Fang, as we watched them roll on the floor.

"What?" I asked him.

"Those are Boost bottles. She took four, I only took one," then he looked up at Anne, "You fool!"

"Since no one can seem to destroy you," said Anne, "I'll do it myself."

"There's no way you could take all of us," I said, "even if you are hopped on Boost."

"That's what you think."

Then she came at us, surprisingly very quickly. She threw a punch at me that knocked me flat on my butt. The others came after her. But she managed to throw them off. With the Boost in her system, she was going to tough to beat now. If one was enough to have Fang beat Ari, then someone with four was going to be really tough.

I got up and landed a couple of punches on Anne. But she kicked in me in my stomach, and then an uppercut that sent me flying onto my back. Fang went in and landed some shots, and then Iggy came in to get some licks of his own.

Anne managed to knock them away but Angel, Nudge, and Gazzy came out to attack her. The numbers game turned out to be too much for her. She managed to squirm away from us. I noticed something strange about her. Her face seemed a little different. It was darker somehow. The Boost's side affect were starting to kick in. She was becoming wolf-like.

"Well, maybe you were right," said Anne.

Just then, there was a loud BOOM! The whole place shook for a bit.

"What was that?!" demanded Anne.

"That must be Asch," I said, "stopping all of your little minions for us."

"I see. That could prove to be foolish. He's proven to very reckless. It's only a matter of time before he destroys himself, especially with his power."

"Shut up!" yelled Lily, "You don't know anything. Asch can survive anything. He won't lose!"

Another large boom sounded. This time I could see the flames of an explosion below. The floor beneath my feet was starting to feel a little warm. Maybe Asch was getting a little too carried away. Good thing fire couldn't hurt him. I hoped he was all right.

There was another explosion that shook the tower violently. The place was getting destroyed. The tower rocked violently. We all managed to hold our place, but Anne wasn't so lucky. She was standing too close to the edge, and then fell over. We could hear her scream fading as she fell.

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The Erasers just kept coming for Asch. Every one he took out, it seemed like two more took its place. But it was no problem. He could have kept up this fighting all day.

After melting a portion of the walkway he was on and collapsing it, he took to the air and fought all of the flying Erasers, not having to have to worry about the grounded ones.

He lost count of how many he took out after forty-seven. Another came flying at him, but Asch moved out of the way. He grabbed the Eraser by its wings as it flew by and ripped its wings off. It screamed in pain as it began to fall. But Asch grabbed him by the arms and then spun and flung him into another charging Eraser. They crumpled into the wall and quickly fell to the bottom of the building.

When Asch looked down, he was amused to see that some of the grounded Erasers were climbing the walls. How were they supposed to get him if they couldn't fly? More flying Erasers came at Asch, but he burned them away shooting streams of fire. He grabbed one of the Erasers and threw it at the ones climbing the wall. It crashed into the one at the top, and they fell, knocking the ones below them off.

Another Eraser came and landed a kick in Asch's stomach. Asch bent over and then the Eraser slashed at Asch's face with his claws, leaving three jagged scratched on the left side of his face. Asch blocked another punch and landed one in the Eraser's neck. Then he took his index and middle finger and gouged them into its eyes. It screamed out in pain and fell down, too concerned with its pain to remember to flap.

Three more came and grabbed at Asch, trying to tear him apart. But Asch sent a wave of fire that split them in two halves, the six pieces also falling. Another Eraser came and attacked. But Asch grabbed him by the head, and then set in on fire. It also fell screaming in agony.

Asch was so preoccupied with his fighting that he barely noticed the headache that he was getting. Eraser after Eraser kept coming and Asch took them out one by one, in one grisly way or another. The ones on the ground or on the walkways only looked up and watched as their own fell down towards or past them.

Asch's head progressively got worse, to a point where he couldn't ignore it anymore. He held his head when he had a few seconds. It was starting to get to him. This was what Dr. Martinez was warning him about before, about expending all of his energy.

More Erasers flew towards him. He lit his hands on fire and slashed at them, leaving deep gashes in them that sent them falling. Then he formed his fire rings and started tossing them at any nearby flying Erasers, not missing once. An Eraser tried to get behind him, but he used his speed to get behind it, and then brought the rings up through the Eraser, splitting it in two. Asch continued to throw the rings. With each toss, his headache felt like it got a little bit worse.

Asch let the fire rings fade. The Erasers just couldn't seem to learn as they kept coming. Asch continued to make them plunge to their doom with lethal kicks and punches. He blasted several of them away with fire streams.

After taking out another thirty or forty Erasers, Asch's head seemed to pound now with his headache. An Eraser came at him and punched him in the face, which did not help his headache. Another came from behind him and shoulder tackled him in the back, sending him into the wall. Asch managed to start hovering again but he slowly descended. He made the mistake of holding his head again.

The Eraser charged him and rammed him against the wall. This time Asch fell down onto the next catwalk, where a bunch of ground Erasers was waiting. They all licked their lips and laughed, knowing that Asch was defeated. Asch gripped at his head with both hands as he came to his knees. His head felt like it was going to explode.

Asch didn't understand what was going on. Why was this happening? It was even worse than before. He thought he felt his brain literally throb. Then there was another strange feeling. It felt like the entire area's temperature was quickly rising.

The Erasers sensed it as well. They stopped laughing and started to complain about why the room was getting so hot all of a sudden. The lights started to flicker from the heat. Others went out. The walkway started to feel like it was a heated iron.

After a few moments, the clothes on the Erasers and Asch started to smoke, and then they caught fire. The Erasers started to scream and panic. They ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, some of them knocking others off of the walkway.

Asch suddenly heard a loud boom. Something exploded because of this heat. Asch's clothes were burning away, but it didn't hurt him. Heat or fire couldn't hurt him. The only pain he was worried about was in his head.

The temperature must have been scorching now. The walkway was melting now. The lights had gone out, and the emergency ones came on, but they started to flicker as well. Another explosion sounded; this one even louder.

Suddenly, it dawned on him. He had used his powers way too much in a short amount of time. He never gave his body enough time to recuperate. His body fainting earlier was almost a warning sign that he needed rest. But he didn't take the hint. His recklessness had finally got the better of him.

All he could think of now was Max and Lily. He would never see them again. He would never get to keep the promise he made to Max. He would never get to take care of Lily and watch her grow up. That he was going to die. His last thought was, I'm sorry, Lily. I'm sorry, Max. I love you.

Then all Asch could see was fire surrounding him, and then only darkness.

This is it. My next post will be the final two chapters. I hope you enjoy them. And of course, please read and review this chapter. Thank you.