Ace: Here is the ninth chapter. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride

Chapter 9: What Now?

Iggy

"How am I the hero you needed again?" I asked for the millionth time.

"Not now," Mizu hissed as we walked further into the shrine. "More enemies might overhear us. Let's go the safest room in the shrine."

"There's a safe room?"

"Yep."

"'Course there is," Kasai scoffed. "Crazy things always happen to us, so it's always good to have a back-up plan."

"Actually," Mizu interrupted quietly, "we have several fail-safes, but as of right now, this is the room that is being used for the time being."

"This is great and all," I admitted, "but I have to go save my sisters, Max and Nudge."

"You have two sisters?" Kasai asked.

I fidgeted a little. "Well... We're not really siblings, but we did grow up together. I have a biological brother, but he's an idiot. So are my biological parents. And my other surrogate siblings."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Mizu admitted apologetically.

"It's fine..."

We were silent for a while. I took to looking at the walls and enjoying my sight and the colors in the shrine. When I was younger, I was used to seeing stuff in labs and was quite bored by that. After losing my sight to those idiot white coats, it taught me to not take anything for granted.

"Here we are," Kasai stated proudly.

It was rather dim, with only a few chairs. A mural was on the wall, but I couldn't make the details out clearly.

Mizu closed the doors and then turned to Kasai. He snapped his fingers, and suddenly several candles were lit.

The mural was now easy to see. It showed four children smiling. One boy was Kasai, and another girl was Mizu. The other boy had white hair and grey eyes while the last girl had dark brown hair with gold eyes.

"You see that? That's the only thing that we have left of our siblings."

"They're dead?" I asked.

Mizu looked sad. "We don't know where they are. Some men in white coats came and kidnapped them. We tried to stop them, but we failed. And it was right after we promised our parents that we would stay together..."

"White coats?" I asked.

They both nodded.

"Did they work for a 'School'?" A culprit came to mind, but I didn't want to incriminate them immediately, although it was tempting.

"Yeah," Kasai replied. "And they reminded me of evil scientists..."

I cursed and slammed my fist onto a nearby table. "Of all places they could have chosen, why did they have to be in the same country as me?"

"Pardon?" Mizu asked.

"The School... They don't understand human rights. They gave me wings when I was an embryo. They took my sight away. They tortured my Flock. They made Erasers. They made Flyboys. And now they're snatching up innocent people? They've gone too far this time!"

Kasai was speechless. Mizu began to ponder things over.

"Iggy."

I turned to her. "Yes?"

"You are the hero that will save Japan and the four other dimensions that are associated here."

"What?"

"There's your Japan; our dimension; the dimension with that houses the ones that attacked Max; the dimension of death and dispair; and the dangerous world that no one that enters survives. You, however, will be the sole one to encounter everything."

"What makes you say that?!" I asked.

Mizu walked towards me. "Take your shirt off."

"What?" I backed off, suspicious of her movements.

She laughed. "I'm teasing. I just need to see your wings."

Nodding, I let my wings spread out. They seem to fill the room. Mizu ran her hand across the feathers.

"Your wings are as described in the prophecy, and the fact that you were blind and attacked by a demon also fit in. You HAVE to be the hero, but there is still one more way to prove it," she murmured.

Kasai paled. "But the last twenty people died in those trials! We can't risk killing him! And we need our two siblings to help give the trials!"

"You will take over Earth and I will do the Wind trials," Mizu snapped.

"What?" I asked.

Mizu looked me in the eyes. "To prove that you are the hero, you must complete several trials of the elements, each more difficult than the last. If you survive them, you will gain powers that no one else has. If you fail, you die."

"Can I save Max, Nudge, and my family?"

She nodded. "And our siblings. And countless other lives."

"But there is an 99.8% of dying!" Kasai shouted.

"Then I'm relying on that .2% of surviving," I replied.

The two no rīdas looked at each other. "He has ambition," Mizu pointed out.

Kasai sighed. "Fine... For the next six days, you have to endure one trial a day. It will push you to your limits, and then some."

"If it's like the School, I'll survive," I replied.

Mizu nodded. "Great! We start tomorrow!"

I nodded. "Okay."

Mizu snapped her fingers, and a door behind me open. It was a simple room, with a bed, a closet, and a door leading to the bathroom.

"Sweet dreams, Iggy."

"G'night Iggy."

"Night," I told the no rīdas. I entered the room and shut it behind me. I walked towards the bed and laid down, preparing myself for the worst.

Yeah. Mizu, Kasai, and I had no clue that hell would break lose in those six days.

Ace: Sorry for the late update. And I know that I said that Ella would appear more, but that would be later in the story. So will Max and Nudge. And maybe Dylan. And the flock. And Sigma...

I decided to change how I was writing the story by adding certain things and removing other parts. And I made Iggy the main character for now. And the next six chapter will star a different trial. But if some characters are missing, how different will the trials be?

That's all for now.

Ace