I apologize if anyone is out of character. It has been literal years since I last read the Maximum Ride books, and I don't have them anymore.

I also apologize if the lore in this first part doesn't add up; the storyline of ABZÛ was just so freakin' vague. It's my best guess.

I am Not Good With Descriptions, so if you want to know what the characters look like, please just Google it ("abzu diver" and "maximum ride manga" on Google Images). I'm working on the description thing, but I had Sudden Inspiration™ for this and had to get it out. It's roughly edited; there may be a few plot holes or things I missed, but this is a fanfiction, not a novel.

Also, it's not obvious, but for those who don't know: the Diver is a robot.


Long ago, an ancient civilization fell.

They lived peacefully at first, simply gathering the ocean's energy and making sure to return enough to keep the balance. One day, however, a being appeared. This being was called the Diver, and along with it came the Harvester. The Harvester's job was to gather the power of the ocean for the ancient civilization to harness, and the Diver kept it in check—they made sure that it didn't take too much energy. One day, however, the Diver went missing. The Harvester started to take too much energy from the ocean, gained sentience, and turned against the peaceful dwellers. It continued to take more and more energy.

Slowly, the ocean started to die.

Years later, the Diver reappeared. They were many, many years too late to save the civilization, but they were in time to save the ocean. With the help of a friendly shark, the unlikely duo defeated the Harvester and restore the ocean to its former glory. No modern human knows of them, but the Diver still exists to this day.

They cannot talk, but they are a curious being—they know all about the ocean, but what about the land and the sky? One day, they found a small island. One free from people, but filled with small, furry creatures that would scamper up trees. Larger brown ones with long legs, white underbellies, and long, many-pointed protrusions coming from their heads that would run when they saw them. But the ones that the Diver loved the most were the brightly-colored feathered ones that sang in the morning and throughout the day and flew around the island.

Oh, how the Diver wished they could fly.

They would spend hours longingly watching the birds, either from the ocean or from a clearing among the trees. Soon the animals came to know the peaceful Diver, and no longer ran. The Diver discovered that the animals ate and what they liked to eat, and would collect seeds and berries for their smaller friends. They were delighted when a bird landed on their shoulder one day, chirping at them, and the Diver chirped softly back.

Oh, how they wished they could fly.


The Flock

"Maaax!" Nudge whined. "We've been flying for hours, can't we take a break?"

The Flock was flying over the ocean after weeks of fighting and being on the run. They hadn't gotten a break in a long time.

"I don't know if you've noticed, Nudge, but we're in the middle of the ocean. I don't think we'll be seeing land any time soo-"

"Hey, I think I see an island up ahead!" Gazzy shouted over the wind.

"I don't think we'll be seeing land any time soon!" Iggy mocked.

"HEY. Watch it," Max warned playfully.

They flew towards the island, grateful for a chance to take a break after running for so long. They had stocked up on food and supplies the day before they took off, however, so that wasn't going to be a problem for a while.

As they neared the island, they realized that it was small, probably only just over the size of several football fields.

"Small enough to not be on the map," Fang said. "We'll still have to be careful, though."

Circling the island once, they saw that there was a beach on one end, then it was mostly level, then it sloped sharply upwards, flattening out before the sharp drop of a cliff. The whole island was covered in trees, except for the beach, the grassy area before the cliff, and the occasional clearing in the island's forest.

Landing on the beach, they split into pairs to scout the island: Max would be with Angel, Iggy and Gazzy would be together, and Nudge and Fang were the final pair; they were all capable, but Max wanted adults accompanying the younger ones. ("We're not kids!" Gazzy had whined.)

Max had mouthed a silent "Sorry!" to Fang when no one was looking; the most talkative one had been paired with the least talkative one.

They planned to meet up in a clearing they had seen just before the grassy area near the cliff face. "Yell if there's an emergency," Max had said. "Because we use only the most refined of communication techniques," Gazzy had said in Max's voice, giggling at his petty revenge while Iggy laughed along with him.


It was near dusk when they all finally reached the meeting place.

Looking around, Max quickly realized that the trees in the area they were in had barely any low-hanging branches, and the ones they did have were flimsy and would not hold any of their weight. So Fang gathered wood for a small fire (Iggy and Gazzy would have no problem lighting it), Max rationed out food, and Nudge and Angel sat near the edge of the cliff, watching the sunset.

"It's beautiful," Angel breathed. They hadn't really had the opportunity to watch a sunset, before - much less one over the ocean. All the areas they had been in had had trees or they were short on time and needed to get out of here, now!

"It really i- Hey, what's that?" Nudge pointed to a spot out in the ocean on the left. Angel turned to look. What appeared to be a head was bobbing up and down in the water, moved by the waves and blacked out by the sun behind it. It seemed to turn towards them, looked at them for a moment, then dove under the water, the silhouette of swim fins following them down.

"Was it just me, or did that look like a scuba diver?" Nudge asked.

"It definitely looked like it, but I don't know—I couldn't read its thoughts," Angel said.

"Why would a scuba diver be all the way out here? There weren't any footprints or anything on land, but we definitely just saw something that sure looked human. It would have to come on land at some point, wouldn't it?"

"If it's human, yes. If it's some sort of. . .robot that was sent to follow us, then probably not. In any case, we need to tell the others."

Nudge and Angel got up and hurried into the clearing.


The Diver

The Diver surfaced.

After watching the sunset for a few moments, they turned and saw two girls sitting near the edge of the cliff, one pointing at them. The Diver had seen the "wing people" earlier, but they didn't want the wing people to know about them just yet. They quickly dove back down, hoping that the girls didn't see them, though they knew that they had.

The wing people seemed like cautious beings to the Diver, whose suspicions were confirmed when they saw two of them flying overhead. They were deep enough that the wing people couldn't see them, but the Diver dove deeper, just in case.


The Flock

Nudge finished her story:

". . .and Angel thinks it's not human! That it could be a robot sent to follow us!"

Max had just sighed deeply.

"Alright, who wants to come with me to fly over the place and look one more time?" she asked, looking at everyone gathered around her.

"I think it would be a good idea to have Angel go with you—she knows what this thing looks like. She can point it out, if it's there," Fang said.

"You're right. Good plan," said Max. She opened her mouth to ask Nudge if she wanted to go, but Nudge was in the middle of yawning. She closed her mouth. There goes that possibility. She turned to Angel.

"You ready?"

"Mhm," Angel replied.

"Alright, then! Off we go."


They flew over the island and the surrounding ocean several times, scrutinizing it closely. After finding nothing, Max and Angel returned to the makeshift camp. The fire was made, and the rest of the Flock were sitting around it, talking quietly and anxiously awaiting the findings from the flight.

"We didn't find anything," Max said to the them. "But that doesn't mean there's nothing out there. Everyone will take turns keeping watch."

"I'll go first," said Fang. The rest of the Flock breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay. Let's eat and then get to sleep!"

"Sleep sounds good," Nudge said.

"But eating sounds even better," Gazzy finished.

The Flock finished their meal, made sure that the campfire was out, and got as comfortable as they could. Fang stayed sitting up to keep watch, but, despite his best efforts to stay awake, fell asleep—everyone was exhausted, including him.

As they slept, a curious figure made its way onto the beach.


The Diver

The Diver stepped onto dry sand, though their body was still soaked and dripping with ocean water. They walked towards the island's forest, being careful not to step on any shells in case a hermit crab or some other sort of critter was living inside.

They carefully made their way along the path they had taken so many times to get to the cliff—it was a wonderful spot to dive from. The path was barely noticeable, though; the Diver had always been very careful to not harm the forest or the creatures who lived there. With the bright full moon shining through the trees, they had no need to activate their headlamp. So, barely making a sound, they stopped when they came across the camp. They were about fifteen feet away from the nearest sleeping wing person. The Diver recognized her as the one who had first pointed them out to her friend.

Not wanting to disturb their sleep, the Diver navigated back the way they had come. They eventually reached one of their favorite on-land meditation spots: a small clearing near the beach with a flat stone in the middle, raised a little bit off the ground. The topsoil was clear for about three feet all around the rock—almost as if this spot was meant for the Diver. They sat down cross-legged on the stone and fell into a deep meditation for the night.


The Flock

The members of the Flock woke up slowly from the best sleep they had had in ages. Everyone felt well-rested and ready to. . .well, there wasn't much to do on the island, and they weren't being chased (yet).

"Let's go to the beach!" Nudge said excitedly while Gazzy and Angel looked at Max with puppy dog eyes.

Sometimes I forget that Angel's just a little kid, Max thought.

"What about your clothes?"

"They'll dry!"

Max sighed.

"Alright, every grab your stuff, we're heading to the beach!"

The bird kids cheered. Gazzy high-fived Nudge, Angel squealed in excitement, Iggy smiled, and even Fang had a brighter expression. Everyone seemed so happy and carefree that Max could almost drop her guard. Relaxing for just a little bit won't hurt anything, she thought.

So they all made their way to the beach, not noticing the very light footprints in the areas that were topsoil and not grass.


Just before the Flock reached the edge of the sand, Fang held his arm out to stop everyone and signaled for them to crouch down and be quiet. Peering through the bushes, they could see a figure standing ankle-deep in the water, facing away from them. It clearly wasn't human—its body was too angular, there was no seam of a wetsuit, and there were two black, conical. . .somethings on the side of its helmet.

"Nudge, Angel, is that what you saw?" Max asked in a whisper.

"I think so!" Nudge replied in a louder whisper. "The head shape seems right, but I can't see if it has diving fins!"

"So what do we do, now?" Iggy whispered.

Before anyone could respond, a kind of chiming, chirping sound came from the figure, and a few seconds later, a shark's fin broke the surface of the water.

"What the hell…?" Max whispered in confusion.

She couldn't say more before she was interrupted by the figure wading out into the water, then diving underneath the waves—headed straight towards the shark. Gazzy, Nudge, and Angel gasped, while Fang quietly described what had just happened to Iggy.

"What? Are they crazy?!" he said in a harsh whisper.

While everyone was distracted, Nudge whispered to Gazzy:

"Hey, Gazzy?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't want to wait here any longer, do you?"

"Nope!"

"Good thing, because I have a plan…"


Nudge told Gazzy what to do, and he acted quickly.

Gazzy leapt out of the bushes and ran as fast as he could to the water's edge, then as far as he could without being slowed down in the water too much. He waded to where his feet were safely touching the bottom and his head was still above water, all while yelling, "You'd better come and catch meee!"

Max only noticed what Gazzy was doing once he was in her line of sight and had started yelling; she had been. . .entranced—just watching the shark and the diver play. She had never seen anything like it. She was, however, quickly snapped out of her reverie when she heard Gazzy's yell.

"Gazzy, get back here right now!" she shouted, standing up.

Gazzy just swam farther out—now his feet weren't touching the bottom, and he had to tread water to keep his head above the waves. He stuck his tongue out, and Max shouted again.

"GAZZY! GET OUT OF THE WATER NOW!"

Glancing over, Max and the rest saw the diver surface about 50 yards, with no sign of the shark.

"That's either a really, really good thing, or a really, really bad thing," she said.

"Which? The diver or the shark?" Angel asked.

"Both."

Fang kept filling Iggy in on what was happening out in the water.


Meanwhile, Gazzy initiated phase two of the plan. He pretended to look at the surface of the water, then made a scared face like there was something under the surface. He pretended to start trying to swim back, but feigned being pulled under, instead.

Max thought it was a prank at first—

"Gazzy? This isn't funny!"

—and she would be correct.

But when Gazzy didn't surface immediately, laughing and telling everyone how "he got them good," Max started to worry—there had been a shark. Little did she know that it wasn't a shark, but an undercurrent. Gazzy really was in trouble.

Nudge tried to remain calm.

"Guys, I'm going in—" Max started to say.

"But Max, there's a shark! What if you get eaten?" Angel said.

"It's a risk I'll have to take. No one in this family gets left behind, ever."

"Max, hold on. Look," Fang said, pointing. They watched as the figure dove under and headed towards where Gazzy had last been seen.


Gazzy started to panic. He went under with the intention to surface a few seconds later and laugh at how worried they'd all been, but he realized that he couldn't. He'd been caught in an undercurrent, being swept away at alarming speeds and unable to reach the surface.

He opened his eyes, hoping to see where he was going, but all he could see was the sun shimmering faintly above him.

If only I could get up there!

Gazzy tried and tried to swim, but the need to breathe was rapidly increasing. He closed his eyes, ready to just let the water take him where it would, wondering where he would go. I'm sorry, guys. He thought at the Flock, desperately hoping he wasn't out of Angel's mind-reading reach.

He exhaled, and the last thing he felt was the vague sense of an arm wrapping around his waist.


And that's that! All I need to do for Chapter 2 is type it up, so you can expect that relatively soon. Relatively.