Hey everybody.

Okay, so here's some things that you should probably know if you're going to keep reading this. HP stands for Harry Potter. MR stands for Maximum Ride. IC stands for the Inheritance cycle. Everything in italiques and bold, I wrote it. Everything in bold, the actual author of the story wrote. Everything else is the real story. Before I read this story I had no idea that this had happened. No surprise since I'm Canadian and I was 4 when it happened. I thought it was really sad and I thought that more people should know about what happened. So, enough of my ramblings! Enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: MR belongs to JP, sadly. This story was written by empressofsaracasm. (I luv that name)

This oneshot it post-MAX. FANG never happened, nor will it ever occur. Takes place in 2001.

I feel very patriotic, so this is a oneshot in honor of 9/11.

Dedications: This story is dedicated to all of the people and rescuers who were killed in the 9/11 terrorist attack. God bless you all and your families.

MPOV

It was a normal day in New York City.

The flock and I were walking around, sight-seeing for the heck of it.

"Hey, Max," Angel said, skipping by my side. "Can we go see those really big towers? The ones that look alike?"

I smiled and patted her blond curls. "The Twin Towers/the World Trade Center? Sure, sweetie."

The warm September air felt good on my skin. Cool from the morning fog that had long since dissipated, but warm from the late-summer sun at the same time. All in all, a perfect day.

While she and Nudge babbled excitedly about being so close to Broadway, and Iggy and Gazzy were probably discussing their next bomb, I glanced at Fang, who was holding my left hand in his right. He was looking at me with his dark, intense eyes. I blushed.

He cracked a smile. "You do realize that I've made you blush more times in the last month than in your whole life, right?"

I grinned and nodded. "Yeah."

When we got to the towers, Nudge looked up in awe. "Wow," she gasped. "They're huge!"

That was probably the shortest sentence any of us had ever heard her utter. I laughed. "That's why they're New York's biggest towers."

Angel glanced at a pamphlet she had picked up in the lobby. "The Twin Towers are easily over one-thousand feet tall, the biggest in the state of New York."

Unfortunately, to get the best view, you had to go to one of the top floors. And that meant the elevator.

After that short traumatic episode, the flock and I gasped at the view. (Not Fang, though. His eyes just got pretty wide.)

"Wow!" I gasped. "It feels so weird to not be out flying and yet having this amazing view."

Gazzy nodded in astonishment.

A few minutes later, Nudge came over to me. "Hey, Max? Can Angel and I go down to Broadway?"

I sighed and nodded. "All right. Just make sure to stick together." I glanced over at Iggy and Gazzy. "Why don't you take the pyros with you? We don't want the whole building to go up in flames, especially with them here."

Nudge nodded. "Okay!"

She and the others left.

Fang put an arm around my waist. "Where're the others going?"

I looked up at him. "Nudge wanted to go to Broadway. So did Angel. I didn't want the building to go up, so I sent the boys with them."

He did his little half-smirk thing that I love so much. He kissed me for a moment. "Want to start heading down?"

I smiled. "Sure."

My phone rang, "What I've Done" by Linkin Park playing slightly loudly. I flipped it open and said, "What's up?"

"Hey, Max!" Nudge's voice said. "Just calling to let you know we're on Broadway right now. Just so you know we're safe and that—"

"All right," I said. "Fang and I were just about to head down. Stay right where you are. We'll be down in a minute."

I hung up and placed my phone back in my pocket.

I thought for a second and said to Fang. "I wonder what would happen if this place suddenly went down."

He glanced at me and replied, "As in, suddenly got bombed like in '93? I don't know. A state of national panic."

We chuckled slightly. "Yeah," I said. "Like that would ever happen."

Fang nodded to the elevator and said. "Let's start heading down. The others will be waiting."

I nodded and took one last look out the window.

And saw something odd.

"Hey, Fang," I said, my voice cautious and guarded. "Why does it look like that plane is getting closer?"

"It's just a figment of your imagination," he said back, glancing out of the other window. "No idiot would even begin to think of flying that close the Twin Towers, even us."

I shook my head. "No. It really looks like it's getting closer."

This time Fang looked where I was looking. His dark eyes got wide.

It took only one look at each other to know what to do.

"DUCK!" I screamed at the people who were close enough to hear.

BOOM!

The explosion shook the whole building. Fang tackled me to the ground and covered my face with his arms.

When the rumbling stopped, I looked up. It was dark. Too dark. Especially for a September morning in New York City.

Smoke billowed up outside and down through the ceiling. I coughed.

"Report," I hacked.

"All clear," Fang coughed back. I could barely see him through the thick smoke.

"We have to get down," I said, trying desperately to free my lungs of the oppressive smoke.

He nodded and we ran for the elevator.

The ride down felt like an eternity.

When we got to the lobby, my phone ran yet again.

I picked it up and coughed, "Hello?"

"OMG, MAX!" Nudge's voice practically screamed through the speaker. "ARE YOU OKAY? WHAT'S GOING ON? IS FANG ALL RIGHT? ARE YOU ON-?"

"Whoa, Nudge!" I shouted over her. "We're all right. We're in the lobby. A plane just crashed into the North Tower. Right above us. We're safe."

I could audibly hear sighs of relief simultaneous with screams of terror on her end of the line. "Thank God!" she said.

"Are you still on Broadway?" I asked.

"Yeah." Nudge was unusually brief. She was probably scared out of her wits.

I nodded to Fang, who was watching me carefully. "Hm…" I thought for a moment. "Stay right where you are. Fang and I are going to do what we can here. If anything more happens, I want you to get the others to Long Island. At the beach. You know the one."

"Okay," Nudge sounded scared and younger than eleven.

"We'll see you soon," I said, then hung up.

I looked at Fang. "Let's get out of here first," he said. "I don't want to be in here when the building takes a tumble."

I nodded. "Great idea."

People were pushing and shoving so they could get out of the North Tower. Police officers were directing them through the doors.

Fang and I managed to get out of the building and to the street in a few minutes.

I glanced up, and saw thick black smoke billowing up from the North Tower. Little bits of glass, papers fluttered, and steel glittered in the sun as they fell onto the street below.

Fang pointed to the sky. "Another one."

I looked to where he was pointing. Sure enough, a plane was rocketing through the air straight for the South Tower.

When it was close enough for the humans to see, the screaming got worse.

"Oh, my God!" I heard a woman shriek. Some pointed. Others covered their mouths in surprise. More were screaming and crying, obviously having had friends or family that worked in the towers.

"Oh, my God," I moaned, wanting to shield my eyes from the scene unfolding, but couldn't bear to tear my eyes away.

BOOM!

The plane hit the South Tower. More screams. More cries of grief. More showering glass and steel.

I myself was covering my mouth to stifle my own screams. There was no way that anyone from those planes could have lived.

"It's an attack!" I heard one man yell.

More panicked screams.

I turned to Fang. "We have to get up there. We have to save those people."

Fang stared at me, his dark eyes expressing sadness and sympathy. "You can't go up there, Max."

I felt angry. "I have to! It's my job to save the world!"

He glanced up and his eyes widened. Then he looked back at me. "Don't turn around."

"What?" I asked.

He grabbed my shoulders. "Maximum Ride, whatever you do, do not turn around." His dark eyes flashed with something that I couldn't identify.

SMACK!

My ears heard the sound, but didn't know what it was. Fang's eyes closed and he winced.

I wanted to know what had made that sound.

So I turned…

And nothing could stop my screams this time.

Tears ran down my face as I saw a man falling, his arms and legs waving in the wind.

And he didn't have wings to catch him.

SMACK!

When I saw him hit the ground, my screams only grew louder. "Stop it!" I screamed. "Oh, God, please make it stop!"

Fang pulled me to him and pressed my face into his shoulder.

More horrible noises as people's bodies hit the ground. But I didn't want to turn around to look. Nothing in the world would ever let me see that.

I heard fire trucks and ambulances pull up, their sirens wailing, sounding God-awful in the din of the chaos.

Fang never once let go of me. Even when my tears had ceased. Then he let me look, since the… fallings had stopped.

I saw black smoke pluming from both towers. I saw the fires through the significant holes made by the planes. I saw more steel and glass falling.

Before I could count, almost fifty minutes had passed since the crashes.

"It's bending," Fang muttered, almost to himself.

I took a close look at it. And low and behold, the South Tower was getting the bends.

"It's gonna break," I cried, curling more into Fang.

Then, the unthinkable.

BA-BA-BOOM!

The South Tower began to fall from the top down.

"RUN!" several people screamed.

Fang and I weren't stupid. And we knew that we weren't far enough away.

So we took off.

The thick blanket of ash and debris was faster.

Pitch darkness. Even with my raptor vision. I couldn't see a single thing.

Fang had tackled me to the ground, much like he had in the North Tower when the plane hit.

I inhaled, but immediately started coughing uncontrollably. It felt like was hacking out my lungs.

I could see again. It was a thick grey cloud of ash, debris, and shattered glass. I was covered in the thick powder, as was Fang.

Both of us coughed.

Then I felt even more tears. How could anyone survive that that had been in the building?

People were coming out of hiding spots, all covered in the same grey particles as Fang and me.

I glanced at Fang. He looked strange, coated in the gray dust. His dark eyes peered at me sadly.

I threw myself into his arms, glad that we were safe, but grieving for those that had been in the tower and the planes.

My phone rang.

"Hello?" I asked weakly.

"MAX!" Angel and Nudge shrieked at the same time. "YOU'RE SAFE!"

"Yes," I said, trying to keep my voice even.

"What's going on?" Nudge asked hysterically.

"I don't know," I answered.

"All right," Iggy replied. I could here Nudge crying on the other end, and Gazzy comforting her. Obviously she knew what was going on. "We're still on Broadway. We just saw the South Tower go down. The debris reached us."

"Are you safe?" I asked.

"Yeah," Iggy said. "Do you want us to head to the beach?"

"Yes,' I said, shooting a glance at Fang that told him what was going on. "We'll meet you there as soon as we can. Call my mom to let her know you're safe once you get there. Me as well."

"All right. See 'ya."

He hung up, and I did the same.

Fang and I stared at each other for a minute.

My phone rang again.

"Yeah?" I said into the speaker.

"MAX!" Ella and my mom screamed.

"It's all right!" I said consolingly. "We're fine."

I briefed Mom on what was going on on our end. She sighed with relief. "Thank goodness you're all safe!"

"Do you know what's going on?" I asked.

"It's a terrorist attack," she replied. "Some men high-jacked four planes. The two you saw crashed into the Twin Towers obviously. One was driven into the Pentagon. And another was accidentally crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. They believe it was headed for Washington."

I put a hand over my mouth. I felt unable to speak. America was under attack? How was that even possible? Who would do something like this?

When Fang saw that I was incapable of speech, he gently took the phone from me and spoke quickly and quietly to my mom.

"She's in shock," he said, then paused while Mom replied. "Yes, I'll make sure she doesn't… We sent the flock to an uninhabited area of Long Island. They should be safe there… We told them to call you when they were safe… Good. Thank you, Dr. M." He hung up.

He glanced at me and said, "The flock called just before she called us. They're safe."

I couldn't even find the strength to nod. All I seemed capable of thinking of was the enormous loss of life so far.

BA-BA-BOOM!

The North Tower collapsed, sending another volley of ash and debris.

Fang and I took cover behind a taxi. I curled tightly to him, tears of grief running down my face. I could practically hear the screams of the dying when the towers collapsed.

After the ash had cleared from the air, I was sent into another fit of uncontrollable coughing.

And for the first time ever, New York was silent.

..

It was late. The flock, Fang, and I were hunkered down in someone's uninhabited beach house in Long Island.

The TV was on, the news blaring at us.

I was standing in the doorway. Fang has his arms around my waist from behind, his chin on the top of my head.

Nudge and Angel were curled up on the couch; both of them had tears running down their faces.

Iggy was standing near the window, his face stricken. Gazzy was sitting in a chair, his face sad.

"What was once there today," the reporter said. "Is no longer. What we once saw every morning when we woke up is gone."

The newscaster went on to tell about United Flight 93, the plane that had crashed into the field in Pennsylvania.

"After the plane was high-jacked, several of the passengers and crew members tried to take control of the plane," he said. "The high-jackers, in a desperate attempt to keep the plane in their control, crashed the plane into a field. There were no survivors."

I'm not too big on emotion. But right now I just had to let it go.

I let the tears flow. I cried for the passengers on the planes. I cried for the brave rescue workers who had died trying to save the lives of others. I cried for the innocent civilians in the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. I cried especially for the brave men and women of United Flight 93.

Because they were national heroes. And we will never forget.

So sad! Plz R&R and send me your stories!

Keep living,loving,laughing,writing

Peace,

Maia