Max is supposed to be a bit OOC, so if you notice that, there ya go. Explanation. In fact, the whole flock is OOC, but eventually, you'll see why. Sorry it's taking so long. Umm, review please(if your gonna read, please just review or PM me. It doesn't even matter if it's one word). I hope you enjoy, and uh, yeah. I hope I haven't left anything out, and if I have, then...oh well. Happy reading! Thank you sososososooooo much to my two(really guys? not that i don't love what i've got, but really.)lovely constant reviewers!!!! Love you guys, Kitty Bridgeta(who was my first reviewer. Go You!!) and emotionalpoemgirl(who's reviews i also love!)! x33

One Year Later

A girl with choppy brown hair, and eyes like chocolate regarded her surroundings soundly before deciding to move. Her face was set in stone, hard and grim.

Beside her, was a boy with dark hair. His eyes told all, but they moved so quickly you could never really get a lock on them. They crouched low to the ground.

Behind them, with a hand on each of their shoulders was a boy, blonde and extremely tall. His stance was the one of a dancer, lean and flexing. Bending to his will, twisting and contorting, amazing in its dexterity.

On his left was a small girl, blonde and petite. She looked angelic, completely at peace, but you could see that small spark of malice in her eyes.

On his right was a young boy, also blonde, same angelic features, but a wicked smile curved his lips upward into a grin that shouldn't be near the face of one so young.

An African American girl stood still behind them all. She was shorter, so you couldn't see her face, just a portion of her eyes, and the joy that gleamed in them. Had they been able to see all of her face, they would have seen the blinding smile that covered it.

A small black dog was in front of the first boy and girl.

Max.

Fang.

Iggy.

Nudge.

Angel.

Gazzy.

Total.

Max knew how they looked, and she could just feel the fear starting to roll off of her enemies. She stood, slowly, and regarded them. All in the span of but a few seconds, she analyzed them. Their height, weight, average strength unless under extreme duress. She knew them inside and out. Large lupine-like mutates. Claws, fur, strong. Built like a football player with the mind of one, too. With a flick of her wrist, she motioned Fang up next to her. The room they were in was not white, it was black.

It should have been dark, foreboding, even. But there were so many lights on it was like daytime with all the windows open. A casual glance to her right let her know that everyone else was still in place. Something whizzed by her head, and embedded itself in the wall. She looked backwards at the offending object, it had missed her by mere centimeters, and glared at it. She turned around, slowly, oh so slowly, and fixed her glare at the dogs. They stood their ground and snarled, drooling and howling and baying. Goading her, making her see red. She slowly advanced on them. The closer she got, the louder they became.

Her heart began to pound, even though she knew she needn't worry. One of them finally lunged at her. She threw it over her head, and let it smash into the wall.

Fang took it from there, and with a gentile scraping of his hands, the entire body was cut into many tiny pieces. He almost grinned at his success. Almost. His white shirt whipped around him and he shrugged it off. He knows it was only a bother anyway. One of them ran right past Max, and towards Angel. Max didn't try to stop it, she just turned around to watch the show, not even slightly worried about having the enemy behind her. Angel grinned. Her little blue eyes lit up, and her smile was wide and authentic. She was enjoying this, it was her favorite pass time after all.

"Hello Mr. Wolf man. And goodbye." She said cheerfully, and that was the end of that. As soon as the words left her mouth, the wolf like creature stopped in its tracks, and pulled something out of its pocket. No one knew what it was until it glinted dully in the light. As he stabbed himself in the chest, no one breathed. The stunned silence was broken by Angel giggling softly when some of his pooled blood seeped onto her white shoes. Her white dress fluttered as she twirled in small circles, running up to the blood to splash in it as if it were a rain puddle.

Yet another lunged past Max, making her hair blow in the small breeze that created. It went for Iggy. He let it run, until it was mere centimeters from him. As it left the ground and lunged, Iggy bent backwards, leaning so far his hair brushed the ground. His face twisted into a smirk as he thrust his hands up and clean through his opponent's stomach and back. When he pulled his hands out, there was an organ in them. The things heart. With a smile he threw it to the floor and stomped on it, letting the blood smatter on his white pants. He wiped his hands on his white shirt, and licked his fingertips clean. With a satisfied smile, he sighed while he waited for all of this to be done. He may be blind, but he was strong as well.

Following the same pattern, really this was too easy for them, one more lunged at the group. It targeted Gazzy this time. He walked forward calmly, seemingly ignoring the monster careening towards him. Once it was within range, he leapt at it himself and slammed his hands over its ears. As it howled and they bled, he took his knee to the other's chest. The thing wheezed. He grinned maniacally as he took the scruff at the beast's neck and yanked. Hard enough to pull skin, bone, and anything else away. The thing lay dead, and his face held nothing but a self satisfied smirk as he used his white shoe to stomp the dead things eyes out. He picked one up and crushed it in a fist idly as we waltzed back to where his friends were.

Total didn't have to do anything at all, just sit and enjoy, but there were many things he could have done. Many more things than you would think. Yet again, one lunged, headed straight for Nudge. She looked at it carefully, with more than a hint of disdain. Before the thing could get even a few feet, and with a wrinkle of her nose, she opened her mouth and screamed. The rest of the flock barely paid attention, they were so used to it. Their enemies, however, were not. As her scream echoed, the supersonic tendencies to it caused blood to flow from the creature's mouth, eyes, ears, nose, everywhere. And then it collapsed, to put it simply. Dead, and the only thing it got from Nudge was a crooked grin.

And now there was one enemy and Max. She turned and regarded his form coolly. It grinned at her wolfishly and she grinned right back. It circled her, and without it knowing, everywhere it stepped, a small flame licked up. Until there was a ring, and Max was surrounded by it. She willed the flames higher, and so they were. The wolf screamed in alarm, but still tried to leap through the flames to reach the offending girl. He inwardly seethed, father would be so displeased. He finally made it through the flames, chinks of fur and skin missing. He was a dripping, sizzling, snarling, massive, mess. Max only took a moment to really see him before she leaped high, flipping and twisting to gracefully arc over the flames, landing on her feet in a rather catlike crouch.

That would make sense, since they did give her a small percentage of cat DNA. The irony was not lost on her at all. Once again, the thing howled in rage. She enjoyed provoking him. She willed the ring of flames smaller, tighter, more constricting. And so they were. She liked that she could see in his eyes that he knew he was going to die. He slashed at the fire. His claws dripped off of him like water. The more he hit at them, the hotter they got. Finally they were blue, then white. With a casual flick of her head, no more than a miniscule nod, a barely there movement, the flames descended upon him. Max spread her wings, and flew up to the ceiling of the exceedingly large room. She let herself drop like a stone, and her feet impaled the poor creature while her grim face transformed into a blinding smile. The splattered blood was unrecognizable in the bright bloody red of her clothes. And that was that. The flames dissipated, and she knew she'd have a few last thoughts before they came for her again.

She was Maximum Ride. Daughter of Jeb and Valencia, and she loved her mother and hated her father, or more specifically, the man who dared call himself that. She knew that. She was supposed to save the world. She was supposed to protect people. She knew she was. But her flock came first, indefinitely. And so it was no matter that she knew where she was, or what she was doing, or who she was. If this was the place that her flock could stay safe, then that was where they would be. They could be treated when sick here, have good big meals, a roof over their heads, a family, no matter how deranged. They were safe.

The world could die.

Her father could die.

She hoped her sister and her mother stayed safe.

She hoped her flock could forgive her.

She hoped for a lot of things, all the things she knew probably wouldn't happen. Her smile glided over everything, and with some parting words, the door burst open to a smiling Jeb. Max resisted the urge to roll her eyes, and looked down to the creature below her, her feet still implanted in him. His breathing was ragged, and his fur as matted, he was missing an eye. She smirked while grabbing a handful of his blood, while she smeared it on her face under her eyes, like warrior paint. Her thoughts brought a smile to her face.

They say white is the color of innocence. So it makes sense that I'm the dazzling girl in red.

The light faded from his eyes just as she finished speaking. Her words sounded scarily like the younger girl's, but then, who did they think she got them from?

"Hello, Ari. And goodbye."