-1I don't own this. Patterson does. I have wanted to do this piece for a long time, and now here it is!

A MAJOR APOLOGIE TO THOSE WHO WAITED FOR THIS...I HAVE P.C ISSUES AND HAVE FOUND ANOTHER PERSON TO POST FOR ME.

To ruby1792, Max-ride-obssesed, katie-3llen and my best friend edwardlover1313 (who borrowed my number for her name) You guys rock so this goes for you. To everyone else, i hope you like this as much as I do. enjoy.

-twilightjunkie1313

Iggy Pov:

"See you at the beach."

Max had muttered that to Fang moments before she launched herself toward the shore. We didn't have any hope of catching her, she was going too fast. But something about the way she said it made me think that she didn't want us to catch up with her.

There was a pause, as Fang, Nudge and myself worked through every possible meaning of those words.

"Are we racing?" Gazzy asked innocently, his voice sounded confused.

"No, Max just needs her space." I replied.

"So why is Fang following her?" He countered.

My blood ran cold, for a second. Then my veins were filled with adrenalin. I listened for Fang's steady strong wing strokes, and found nothing. He was gone, and my brain was scrambling to fit the pieces together. Nothing added up.

Max's voice, telling us to meet her at the beach.

Her tone, calm, oddly detached and relaxed after her violent screaming not five minutes ago.

Fang gone, following after Max, not bothering to tell us where he was going or why.

Angel's thoughts pushed into my head.

Iggy, we need to follow them. We don't know which beach Max was talking about...and there is a lot of coast.

Right. Follow, i can do that.

"Gazzy, let me hold your ankle, I need you to fly wide open-follow Fang." I said coldly, making the request sound like a cruel suggestion. In seconds Gazzy's ankle bumped the side of my outstretched arm. I grabbed into it, and we were gone.

Fang Pov:

I didn't have time to warn them, to tell them what was going on. They may not have heard the confusion, desperation anger and hurt in Max's voice - but I did.

And I followed after her, nowhere near her speed, but fast.

I was still far away when I spotted her. Max's body was a small moving speck on the white shoreline. As I dove the sight became clearer. Max's at the waters edge, snatching something out of the ocean. Her body tense as she stomped back into dry sand.

At first I thought it was a handful of rocks, to throw into the sea.

But as I lost altitude all the details appeared. The sharp jagged line of the shell. Her face, tight and pale, eyes lost. Then her raising the shell to her arm...knuckles white. I was close enough to scream at her. But i couldn't. For a moment, a fraction of a second I felt nothing at all. Like i was watching this play out from far away.

And then all the emotion came. I was scared and sad and so many other things. I could lose her, right here, on this beach. I came down on the beach landing hard, running toward her. Her arm was bleeding, the shell still hoovering above her pale skin. The worst possible thought came into my head...she was going to cut herself again.

I wasn't aware that I had crossed the beach, i wasn't aware of much at all. There was fear, and hurt and sadness coursing through me.

"What the hell are you doing?" I screamed, the sound of my voice snapping me back to the present. I grabbed Max's wrist, slapping the shell out of her hand.

"Are you crazy?" I asked, panic seeping through my veins. Did she want to die? Had she been trying to commit suicide? What was she thinking, why would she do that to us...

She glared at me. It was a pathetic glare, a broken, hurt and confused look. Her eyes focused on something behind me, and i realized the flock had arrived. Max looked away and I winced, the flock didn't need to see her like this. Kneeling in the dirt stained with blood, seeping over her forearm and now onto my hand.

"Want the chip out." Max muttered quietly. Her voice was weak, and shaken. I didn't care, if i had come with the rest of the flock...if i hadn't followed her here. She'd be dead and we'd be alone.

"Look at where your cutting!" I snapped, needing her to know how very close to i had come to losing her. "Your going to bleed to death, you idiot!" Something in her eyes blazed, chiding away from the word death. Numbly i realized the flock was still watching, that now wasn't the best time to talk.

I threw her hand aside, and took off my pack. I rummaged through it looking for the first aid kit. It took seconds for me to find the antiseptic, and a bandage. I grabbed Max's arm again, pouring the antiseptic over the cut. She winced.

I had regained focus enough to realize the flock had come closer, Nudge was kneeling into the sand next to Max. I scanned the flock quickly as I wiped blood off Max's arm. Iggy was a bit paler, Gazzy and Angel stood farther back. Nudge was silent, her eyes wide. They were scared, almost as much as I was.

"Max." Nudge began slowly, her voice shaking slightly. "What were you doing?"

"I wanted the chip out." Max repeated in a whisper.

I could understand that she wanted the wretched thing out- maybe it was responsible for the voice. But I didn't care, i would never let her try and cut it out. A life on the run was much, much better than no Max. How stupid- how irresponsible of her to do that. I didn't care if the school could find us, no matter where we hid. I just needed her, and them.

"Well, forget it!" I said quickly. I had gotten all the blood off her arm, and was now wrapping a white bandage around it.

"The chip stays in, you don't get off that easy. You die when we die." I closed my eyes, trying to get a hold of myself. When I opened them Max was looking at me. Her eyes reading my every expression.

And then se cried. Her body shaking with sobs. She didn't fight or say a word. Just curled up into a ball, kneeling in the sand, her hands covering her face. She was doubled over her wings shaking silently. I didn't think, i just reacted. Wrapping my arms around her firmly, pulling her up off the sand into me.

She leaned into me, still sobbing uncontrolably. I let her. I closed my eyes and tried to absorb her hurt. I felt the flock pressing in on us, still silent.

"Shh, shh." Nudge's voice was soothing now. I wondered how hard that must have been for her. She could probably feel Max's pain, my anxiety. I opened my eyes, seeing the flock, each reaching for Max, their eyes full of shock and sadness. Iggy's face was pale and drawn, and i know he must have been scared worse than he let on.

He was afraid for her, and for us. It had been an understanding between us that if the flock ever lost Max we would both lead. But we had never come closer to that point than today.

Iggy Pov:

We set up camp on the beach, a few miles down from where we landed. Max wanted to be away from the blood, Fang wanted to be away from the memory. They never said anything to the rest of us, but we just moved.

We set camp, and Max went to sleep after dinner. Nudge vollenteered to take last watch and Fang didn't object. The flock was asleep in moments.

"You okay?" Fang asked suddenly. His voice was stoic and calm, but the words surprised me.

"No." I said slowly, a sigh escaping my lungs. "I didn't know. I didn't catch it like you did, i should have known something..." I went silent.

"I've never been so close to losing her." Fang's voice faltered slightly, i could only guess what he was feeling. "If i had come slower...god." His last word was a whisper.

More slashes of memory played through my mind, vivid as any image i had seen. Max's body sprawled out on the beach, encircled by a halo of red sand. Her tan wings still and stained. Her skin cold.

"Are you okay?" I asked him. Trying to push the image out of me. I never wanted to see it again. I never wanted to be in that place again.

"I will be." He said coldly. I knew it was as close to the truth as Fang would get.

"Will she be okay?" I asked slowly.

Silence, i heard the rustling of fabric, Fang's shirt, as he looked at her.

"It's a lot, for anybody." I said quickly, standing up and moving to a place on the ground, on the other side of the flock.

I didn't dream that night.

Fang Pov:

Iggy's words drilled themselves into my head. The more they replayed the more i knew he was right. The things we did, what we dealt with would be a lot for anybody.

But she wasn't just anybody, she was Maximum Ride.

I smiled weakly to myself. She was the girl who named herself. The ultimate warrior, survivor, my best friend. We had lived through so much, and she had always, somehow come back fighting. I wanted to scream at the sky and every scientist who had ever lived.

They were killing her slowly.

Eventually it would become too much, it was only a matter of time- even for her. I had my second right after jeb left where i chose between giving it all up and sticking it out. I had stayed here with them.

And so had she, even after itex, jeb, ari, and all the other personal hells. Max had stayed with us and guided us. I looked at Max. The fresh white bandages on her wrist, the purple bruise like shadows under her eyes. The tenseness of her sholders, even now in sleep.

I had never known what it had cost her.

Until now.

-twilightjunkie1313