Me: Alrighty, Max's chapter. Woohoo. Finally got there.

Iggy: Let me guess, more emotional stuff?

Me: -shrug- I write better when I'm talking about emotions...don't know why. I've never been all that good at humor unfortunately :(

Iggy: Whatever...

Me: ANYWAY, I would say that this is the last chapter...but I'm thinking of writing a few bonus chapters. I have quite a few ideas, actually. Is that what you guys want though? If not, I could end it right here, right now and that would be the end of the fic, or I can keep going. It's up to you now, my faithful readers :)

Anyway, here's the next/possible last chapter :)

"Max? You in there?"

Maximum Ride moaned softly in the back of her throat in annoyance and rolled over, facing away from the door. She pulled the covers higher over her face and rubbed her cheek against them, still half asleep.

"Max? Hello?" Iggy said louder, knocking on the door again.

She continued to ignore him and decided to pretend to be asleep, evening out her breathing so that it sounded deeper. She heard the door slowly ease open with a quiet creaking noise, and Iggy's soft footsteps making their way over to her.

"What are we going to do with you, Max?" He said somewhat irritably, shaking her shoulder. "I've considered a few things, from leaving you here in your room, all the way up to putting you in a crate and shipping you off to an island somewhere…but I was outvoted on that one. Come on, get up already."

Max knew that he was only joking around…somewhat. But he was only really making things worse. Mainly because going off to an island is what her stupid ex-best friend had wanted to do so long ago, and that only brought up painful memories that made her heart feel like it was shattering - spreading the sharp, broken fragments throughout her entire body.

"Go. Away." She finally ground out sleepily, pulling the covers right over her head this time, hiding her face away in the darkness that her blankets gave her.

Iggy sighed loudly, sitting on the edge of her bed. "No, Max. I'm not leaving until you eat something. You haven't eaten for days."

She was feeling very angry now. Angry that Iggy had decided to try and boss her around, angry that he was the one trying to help her when she should have been looking after the rest of the flock…and angry that Fang wasn't here helping her. And that was because he deserted her when, clearly, she really needed him. This thought only made the anger inside her stronger.

"I said," she replied slowly, stretching the words out like a rubber band, "go away."

"And I said," Iggy replied stubbornly, also stretching the words out the same way that she had just done, "that I'm not leaving until you eat something. Please, Max. Everyone's worried."

Max could feel what was left of her heart starting to break even more. The flock was worried about her. Of course they were. And there she was, curled up under her blankets sulking.

Slowly, she lowered the covers off her head and sat up, turning to face Iggy who was looking at her with almost perfect accuracy, his sightless eyes portraying exactly how he was feeling; tired, annoyed, worried…but mostly tired. She could already see dark, mishapen rings forming under his eyes.

"Good. Now eat something and I'll leave you alone," he said, thrusting a tray with a stack of toast on it into her hands.

"You sound like a mom," she grumbled picking up a piece of toast and crunching down hard on it purposely.

Iggy scowled. "Someone needs to do it," he snapped, standing up and walking out of the room.

Max found herself staring after him.

…

"Can't sleep?"

Twelve year old Max whirled around on the couch and looked towards Fang, who had practically appeared out of nowhere.

"Don't do that," she said putting a hand to her chest.

"Do what?" he replied with a slight smirk, taking a seat on the couch next to her.

"You know exactly what I mean," she muttered, tilting her head back against the soft couch cushions. "What're you doing up?"

"The same thing you're doing."

"Which is?"

"Sitting here, trying to figure out where to go from here."

As usual, he knew exactly what she was thinking without having to ask. She didn't know how he did it, but it was times like these that she loved him for it. It was so much easier than having to explain herself.

But, of course, she would never tell him that.

"Alright Mr. Smart guy," Max said, turning her head so she was looking at him. "What am I thinking now?"

Fang's dark eyes locked on hers, as if by looking hard enough he could really read her thoughts like Angel.

"I don't know," he said eventually, his face impassive as usual. "You tell me."

Max sighed and leant forward, rolling her shoulders and repositioning her wings against her spine so that she felt more comfortable. What was on her mind was something that she couldn't talk about with the Flock. This was one of those things that if she let them know that she was afraid, they would freak out. And, therefore, she had to be strong for them. There was no other option. But keeping everything bottled up inside her meant that it would all just explode in her face sooner or later. She couldn't keep doing this.

And Fang was her best friend. She trusted him more than anyone in the world – no, more than anyone in the universe. He was different, and he always would be.

"Jeb." Max replied finally, brushing a piece of light hair off her shoulder. "Do you really think that he isn't coming back?"

"I don't know, Max," he said, looking at the floor. "But we can't get our hopes up, right? Otherwise we're just going to end up disappointed."

"So you don't think that he's coming back?"

"I never said that."

"But you were implying it."

Fang sighed, running a hand through his messy dark hair. "You're impossible, Maximum."

"I've been told that," she replied and Fang smirked. "But you're right. There's no use in getting our hopes up about something that might not…that's not going to happen."

Fang nodded slowly. "So what now?"

"That is what's been bothering me," she answered, slight frustration lingering in her voice. "Jeb's gone. We may as well face that. But what happened to him? Or why did he leave? What's going to happen to us now? All these questions and no answers. I don't know what to do, Fang."

Fang brought his legs up onto the couch so that he was sitting cross legged and turned to face Max. "I think that you already know."

Max shook her head slowly.

"Don't tell me that the apparently great Maximum Ride doesn't know what she's supposed to do now," Fang said with a rare smile, which only made Max hit him with a pillow. Hard. He, in return, ripped the weapon of choice from her hands.

"I'm greater than you'll ever be," she retorted, "but since you seem to know all of the answers around here, why don't you enlighten me?"

Fang placed the couch pillow on his lap and rested his arms on it, leaning forward to look straight into her eyes. He had become serious pretty quickly.

"Jeb always said that you were going to be the leader, so lead. Jeb isn't the only one that's held Angel when she cried, helped Gazzy when he had nightmares, listened to Nudge's rambling, and stopped Iggy from blowing stuff up. Not to mention that you've helped us out with many tough spots in the past that Jeb never touched."

Max looked at Fang in shock. Since when did he give wordy speeches? Eventually she realised that her mouth was hanging open and Fang wanted an answer.

"But I don't think that I can do it. Not like Jeb did." Once again, this was another thing that she would never admit to anyone but Fang. She always knew that he'd somehow understand.

"You're right," Fang said, making Max frown, "you can't do this like Jeb did. So don't. Be Max instead. You're good at that." He lightly pushed her shoulder playfully. "You can easily pull this off."

"You sure about that?"

"Positive."

"I guess that I'll have to take your word for it then," she said quietly. And Fang replied to this with a smirk.

All it took was her best friend to have confidence in her to make her feel confident herself. And that was why when the two woke up on the couch the next morning, Max took over for the first time…

…

Max blinked and looked around her room in a daze. This had reminded her of why she had become leader in the first place. Sure, Jeb had told her constantly that she was going to lead the Flock, and she would be good at it…but she'd never really believed it. In the back of her mind there was always this veil doubt that seemed to linger and never leave. But that night, Fang had changed that.

Fang had changed everything in her life: he'd been there for her at the school when they'd been in cages, he'd been there when she was at the mercy of the Erasers and she needed back up and he'd been there when she thought that she couldn't go on.

He'd stopped her from doing stupid things like cutting the chip out and held her hand when her mom had performed surgery on her arm. He'd been there on the beach, in the cave, in the hotel, at Anne Walkers house, New York, Washington D.C., deep under the ocean, Antarctica, Africa…every time, through good and bad, he had been there.

And now he was gone.

Max dropped the piece of toast that she had been holding and pushed her tray aside.

Fang wasn't here for her now, even when she felt like this. For the first time, she was really and truly, very alone. And it was all her ex-boyfriend/best friend/deserting jerkface scumbag's fault. And she hated him for it.

And for the first time since reading his letter, she doubled over and cried.

Me: ...not my favorite chapter, but meh...

Iggy: Too...many...emotions...

Me: -laughs- Iggy - the emotionless robot

Iggy: -glares-

Me: Okay everyone, here's the deal. Tell me whether you want me to continue writing this or not. And if you do, do you guys have any ideas that you'd like to see written? I'll see how it compares to what I have in mind (sshhh, it's a secret atm ;)), but I'd love to hear any ideas :)

R&R? Like it, hate it, let me know please :)

-Bell and Ig