Hello people!

Emerald: *Opens mouth*

Me: I have had a lot of homework.

Emerald: Fine.

Me: Okay, a couple of things:

a) I have put pictures of what I want Emerald, Poppy, Dreamer and Jake look like on my profile. Check them out!

b) If you are new to this story, and have added it to your favourites or story alert, DON'T BE AFRAID TO REVIEW! I won't eat you, you know.

c) Did you know you can read ALL of the Maximum Ride manga volume 1 on manga fox? Well, now you know.

d) For the last two chapters, I didn't get very many reviews. I'm not one of those people who say "Oooooh, I want 50, 000 reviews before I do the next chapter!" I'm just pointing it out

e) After this chapter, there will be one more chapter, an epilogue, and then the story is done. Just warning you. Emerald?

Emerald: Evie doesn't own Maximum Ride. She owns the plot, and you know, me and stuff.

Charlotte, how many candles are on the cake?

My mum's voice ran through my head, but something was different-off. I was in the memory, but yet I could tell where I was, what I was doing. The Director was still standing in front of my cage, looking directly at me.

Two.

And yet it sounded slow, fuzzy, like it was coming through a badly tuned radio. The picture kept flickering.

I threw myself against the bars of the cage, screaming and trying to beat the door off. The Director seemed to have noticed something was wrong, because she had started to back away.

What are you talking about?!

No-No, you're not seeing that, I thought, shoving the door again. The screws were starting to loosen.

And then the image faded completely, the voices dieing away.

Just like that.

I'd just spent eleven years trying to control that memory, and then it shuts down in the space of, what, two minutes?

I mean, What the Heck?

Suddenly, an idea struck me.

Angel? I thought, still screaming and belting the cage.

Yeah Emerald?

I'm distracting her, tell Chase to melt the locks, I thought.

I started screaming louder, and started saying the first things that came to my head.

"YOU KILLED HER! I'LL KILL YOU!" I screamed, and then I realised I wasn't lying, wasn't just trying to scare her. She was the reason my mum is dead. She deserved to die.

The screws were truly loosening now. I had a feeling…

I pushed my full weight onto the door. It fell off completely and I tumbled out.

I leapt to my feet and started pelting full on towards The Director. Realising what I was doing, she screamed and started running towards the school's main building. An Eraser leapt at me, but I dodged him easily and continued sprinting. I was close enough to her now. I could hear her panting. She was nearly at the door.

And that's when I grabbed her around the middle, and hauled her into the air.

***

I'll tell you this; she was no light-weight.

We were flying upwards, away from the prison yard. The Director was screaming blue murder, kicking and swearing all at the same time. Quite impressive, actually.

"PUT ME DOWN!" She screamed.

"Okay." I said calmly, folding my wings and letting us drop.

"NO! NO! STOP! PLEASE!"

"Well, only 'cos you said 'please'." I said, flapping again.

"Just don't drop me!" She yelled.

"Oh, I have no intention of dropping you." I said, taking us still higher. She breathed a sigh of relieve. "Yet." I added, and she whimpered.

"I want you to answer some questions." I said, "And I might only drop you from two hundred feet if you answer honestly."

She gulped.

"What about my friend's families? Are they alive?"

She took a deep breath.

"Yes."

"Any particular reason why you decided to wreck their lives too?"

"No. They were just there. They could have been anyone."

I felt a sharp pain in my side. They could have been anyone. Harry could have been High School Jock. Poppy could have been head cheerleader. Dreamer could have been Homecoming Queen. I swallowed.

"Are there any members of my family left?" I asked, dreading the answer.

"There's me…" But I interrupted her.

"You're not my auntie. You're not even my dog. If my auntie had a dog and her dog's kid had a pet, that wouldn't even be you. In fact…"

"Your sister survived."

I nearly dropped out of the sky in shock.

"Whaaaa?" I stammered.

"I don't know how she survived the Eraser attack, but she did. She's still alive. Lives somewhere in Illinois, I think."

"How do you know all this?" I asked.

"There are files, in my office, on you six. I look through them sometimes."

"Nothing on Max's Flock?"

She shrugged as much as she could while being held in mid-air.

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Okaaay." I breathed out, then started diving downwards.

Whoosh!

The bullet flew so close to me that I let go of The Director. As she plummeted downwards, I heard her high-pitched screaming. I looked at the spot where she had vanished. This is what I wanted, wasn't it? I never really intended to actually kill her, but this was a complete accident, wasn't it? And she deserved to die anyway, didn't she?

The Director, the person who killed my mother and father.

The Director, my auntie…

***

Within two seconds, I was aiming for the ground, waiting to see her falling. I burst through the cloud, and saw her falling. She was still screaming. I flapped downwards, holding my arms out to catch her. When…

Whoosh!

Another bullet flew in front of me, and I had to swerve sharply left to avoid it. She was too close; I wasn't going to catch her…

From probably fifty feet up, I could clearly hear the sickening thud as she hit the ground.

I got so distracted, I forgot how to land. I hit off the ground, flew forward and ploughed into Fang, who ploughed into Max.

I detangled myself from the mess of arms, legs and wings and ran towards the body. She had landed on her back. Her eyes were closed and her hands were laying either side of her head. I think she must have covered her eyes. I placed my hand on her wrist. Nothing. Then on her neck. Nadda.

"Emerald?" Iggy said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"She's dead." I said, standing up. I didn't know what to do, what to feel…

"Emerald, let's leave." Max said, determinedly looking anywhere but the body. The yard was completely empty. I guessed the others must have dealt with most of the Whitecoats and Erasers.

"You guys go on." I said, "There's something I want to check out."

All done! One more chapter, and then the epilogue :(

Emerald: I'm gonna miss you.

Me: Read and Review!

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