Never before in Max's life had she felt such ridiculous, disturbed joy. Holding some poor thing by its throat, it struggled fruitlessly. Her lips were twisted into a merciless smirk, and her nails dug into its neck. She'd stopped biting them recently, and had finally found a use for them. She was glad, on many levels, that the rest of the Flock was still in the cave and she was far away from them for the time being. She would return shortly, but she couldn't tear herself away from this. The squirming piece of flesh she held above the ground had been sent to kill her. To kill her. She wondered, really, what the School was thinking. She reached her other hand up, to twist one of its flailing arms behind its back. She twisted it so far that flesh ripped, and blood dripped form the crevice where arm met shoulder and the thing squawked in pain and indignation. Max narrowed her eyes.
"If you can still sound indignant, then I haven't done my job well enough, have I? You were sent here to kill me, so it's only fair that since you failed, I try to return the favor." The small thing went pitifully still and dared not even to breathe. Max watched with a wicked curiosity the blood that dripped down to the murky forest floor. It was glittering an appealing ruby red and looked wet and warm. She lifted a finger to it, and brought that finger to her face, examining the red staining her fingertips closely. A deep sadness seemed to well within her then, for all she had become, and she lapped the blood of another from her own finger.
And with that first bit of blood, she howled out loud, letting it ring all the way to the tree tops way up high. Thinking that perhaps, it even reached the stars and the moon, tinting them red like her soul. She spread her wings out wide, an exultant smile lighting up her lips as she silently mourned for her twisted existence. In the back of her mind, she knew, she felt, that a terrible, horrible change was coming over her and there was not a thing she could do about it. But just then, for that one moment in time, she would be content to dance in blood.
With wide eyes, the creature looked upon the girl everyone used to call savior and it shook in pure fear and rage and grief, because if that was what a savior was, then world was utterly and completely doomed.
It knew it was going to die there, in that very spot and most likely, the shell of a girl in front of it would dance on its carcass. The thing found it terribly ironic that all the scientists prided themselves on creating Maximum without her losing her mind, when clearly this girl was going insane. Many voices bounced back and forth in Max's head. Soft ones, loud ones, and they all said something different. Some said to destroy the world, others said to save it. There was her mother, speaking of love, and Jeb, speaking of lessons and trust. There was Fang, talking of life, and Angel speaking of light. Iggy talking about responsibility. Gazzy talking about dangerous fun. Nudge talking a mile a minute about things no one understood. With a bright white flash of light between each one, they appeared before her in her mind's eye, a split picture. One was happy, the other judging and quiet.
"Oh, Max, you're my daughter, of course I love you. Unconditionally!" A warm hug was usually the follow up for these words, making Max tingle from the inside out because she just loved her mother that much. And then the counterpart to that sweet memory picture, her mother frowning and silent, her eyes seeming to scream that some things could not, never, be forgiven and then she vanished. Another bright flash, and she was facing Jeb.
"Maximum, you have a job, a responsibility, and I know you can do it." He smiled reassuringly while she glared because she'd been captured once again but she knew she would escape soon.
"You have failed. Even you, could not save or destroy the world. It is stuck in an eternity of grief and madness because you have stopped all change. Nothing will advance or regress. You have doomed us all." A gasp.
"We are who we are, Max. What we've had to do, we've had to do because that's how life goes. There are some things that you can't change, no matter how much you want to. Especially not alone." His eyes drew her in, and she sighed hearing him talk, wondering how he could be so forgiving and sage-like, when he was so merciless in battle.
"You can't change the world by yourself. You left us behind and we're dying. The world is dying, and it's all your fault!" A breath out.
"Max, you're like, my mom. You're the only and best mother I've ever had, and I know that you'd never give me away like my biological parents did. And that's because you love me. You should remember that. Love is important, it changes people, gives them hope and strength, and light, and love can also take all that away." She was encased in sunlight, the yellow bouncing off her hair in tiny rainbows and pieces of the sky trapped between her eyelashes. Her smile rivaled the sunlight bouncing off her hair and her voice was sugar sweet. Max ached to just swing her up and crush her into a hug.
"You were never fit to lead this Flock. You are not a good leader, you were supposed to be on your own, and leave the rest to me. You need to leave. If you stay, we will die. Fang will die. That, more than anything, because I know you love him. Fang. Will. Die." Almost a tear.
"You are responsible for all of us, man I don't know how you do it! Don't let it go to your head, but if it were me, dude, I'd be dead. It's like having five extremely hyperactive kids…with superpowers. Sometimes, I think you break the laws of physics just to keep us all in line. Oh, wait. We do that already, wings and all." His grin was teasing, but in his unseeing eyes was a grim pride in her, and what she had to do, and what she had done. He was proud of her, and that made her happier than she ever thought it would.
"You failed. It was your job to protect us, you promised, and you lied. They're dying out there because you couldn't keep your promise." A strangled shout.
"Bombs are the most fun, I can't believe you're taking them away! C'mon, Max, pleeeease? They're dangerous, but so are we, and we're fun too! Besides, you don't see me running away from Angel, do you? And she could mind control me to jump a cliff!" He pouted slightly, his hair whipping in an imaginary breeze, and his eyes were wide open locked on hers. Her throat ached with suppressed tears, wanting so much to make him happy, but not willing to risk his life to do so.
"This isn't a game. This is dangerous. It's not fun. You can't do this alone. You were the leader, the one who was supposed to guide us and give us direction. And instead…they died. People are dying, everyone's dying. Do you realize what you've done?" A muffled moan of pain.
"Hey Max! Look at that ladybug, did you see her? I'm sure it was a her, because it was all red and glossy and pretty…Oh, Max have you seen this new jacket? It's the latest thing…" Simply bringing some joy into everyone's life, every day. Never making sense and never having to, her smile bright and lighting up everything in sight, making even the dead flowers lift up and smile. Or so Max could very, very easily imagine.
"Why…did you do that, Max? Weren't we your family? Didn't you love us? We trusted you, but…now we're all dying. We're growing and deforming, and reforming, and…we're dying Max. We're dying!"
Max.
Max.
MAX.
Max.
Maximum.
Maximum Ride.
You know I love you.
Love changes people.
Life is, the way it is.
You break the laws of physics just to keep us all in line.
C'mon, Max, pleeeease?
Look at that Ladybug, did you see her?
You have a job, a destiny…
Destiny.
Destiny.
Destiny.
Destiny!
"Destiny! Ah!" Everyone's voice played a part, and there was only one that remained quiet. Silenced. Overpowered. And that was her own. She had no say in her life, none at all, none left. It saddened her. And licking up just a bit more of that wonderfully disgusting red substance, her taste buds exploded and she felt the change within her grow stronger and faster. She yelled and laughed and whooped and hollered, and her face was the sole picture of happiness, but if one looked closely, they could see a tear drip down her face, because she was cracking and stumbling and falling apart, and there was no one to hold her up or put her back together. All that she is, was, and would be, was lost to her on that night.
Everything floated straight off her and went away into the sky, high enough where she couldn't reach it and landed among the stars, floating through the milky way, on top of Saturn's rings, revolving around the moon. She lost her essence, her soul, and she desperately needed someone to bring it back to her, but there was still no one. She was alone on this night, alone like she never had been before. Max took one more pull of the addictive, sweet, bitter, sour, filling blood, and then she looked deep into the creature's eyes. She saw acceptance, and pity and remorse.
This thing, this small being, felt sorry for her, for the fate she had been given. That stirred something deep within her, but she fought it down again. She turned its head to the side gently, and then with brutal force, snapped it's neck. A strangled sob escaped her throat and her dry, smiling lips, thirsting for more of that sticky red blood that already covered her hands and her mouth. And that creature was right, completely and utterly right. It died there on that night in that spot, for a cause it did not know, if there was one at all, and that shell of a girl did nothing more than cry and laugh and scream and dance on its dead body.
I'm getting darker by the day.
~Grimm