Welcome to Commanding Lightning, your one way rollercoaster of excitement, terror and drama!

I, Luna, am the co-author of this re-write of Max: Dead or Alive, Bird Girl or Human? and my friend Etta (shadowleaf264) (who is different from Ella) says to tell you that it is a very different ride from MDOABGOH! Commanding Lightning is a different story, but the same characters and a bigger cast.

So, now that you know the history of Commanding Lightning, we've got one question. Are you ready to try Commanding Lightning?

A teenage girl, flying on black-and-silver wings, her black hair and dark eyes stark contrast against her pale skin--somehow familiar. She's terrified, streaking though the sky, as if something bad will happen. Who is she?

When I first discovered I could see the future, the visions were terrible--I saw them all the time. Thanks to my incredible leaderly powers, and to Angel, I guess, I've learned to control them. Now I see the future only when I want to. I told the flock I wouldn't, because they thought it could drive me mad. Of course, they're right, it's confusing, but does it matter if I can know about danger before it happens?

People, crowding around a computer screen...I could only get a glimpse of that one. Whatever.

An arm, holding a gun--pointing it at the flock, minus me. They're all frozen, staring at it. Then a voice: "Max will be furious when she learns she learns of your deaths--of course, because its her fault, it could very well drive her over the edge..."

And then a gunshot.

No. No way. The flock wasn't going to die; it wouldn't be my fault because they wouldn't die. Never.

But this is the future I'm seeing, right? So it's going to happen.

But it couldn't happen if I was long dead.

Get me straight on this. I don't want to die. But when the alternative is the Flock dying, and all of it being my fault--well, the choices aren't so great anymore. And I could do it. I've known that since Jeb disappeared, the first time.

But I had to leave them with something...

Dear Fang, Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, Angel, I wrote.

I love you all so much. I love you to the ends of the Earth and back. But I've seen the future, and it's too horrible. I'm hoping, knowing, that without me, the future will be so much better for all of you. Instead of dying horribly in the School, you'll live long, happy lives. People get over the loss of their parents, so that's what I'm asking of you. Forgive and forget me. Forgive me for doing this to you and forget that I ever existed. I'm sorry a hundred, a thousand, a million times, but I have to.

Fang, you promised you'd never leave me. If I'm leaving you, it doesn't count, so go on with your life.

Somehow, I'll see you again. Promise. And when have I not kept a promise?

I love you all so, so much.

Max

I slammed the door open and ran down the stairs of the E-shaped house we had rebuilt, trying not to cry.

"Max, what?" asked Gazzy from his room, but I ignored him and kept running.

And then I reached the edge of the cliff. I stopped.

I've flown, right? This is just a jump. I've gone faster than this. And if I chicken out, I can just open my wings...

No. No chickening out. I have to keep the flock safe.

I can't think straight, I'm so scared. All it takes is one step--the hardest step in my life. They always say that suicide is easy, that it's braver to work on your problems. But this is the hardest thing I've ever done.

"Max! What are you doing?!"

I recognized Fang's voice, and took the step.

Falling was no big deal. I've gone faster, as I said. But the thought of the ground that awaited me... Instinctively my wings opened, just a little. I retracted them firmly into my back.

Suddenly, it seemed as if I was slowing down, just above the ground, or was I hallucinating? Maybe the flock was right. I was mad.

And then the ground hit me, and I cursed whatever force had slowed my fall, cursed it to hell.

Pain. Red-hot, white-hot pain.

I would have died, a quick, easy death, if I had fallen normally to the ground.

Death would have been so much easier.

Surely the Flock will come and check, to see if I'm dead. Then I can tell them to kill me...

I want to scream, but it seems to take too much effort.

Time passes, I don't know how much. I just know it was light, then dark again, then light... I lost track of how many times.

Faces. Voices.

A scream.

What?

Noise, so loud I almost pass out, and wind so strong it makes me hurt worse.

Hands, touching me.

And then nothing.

I woke warm and dry, and, here's the kicker... not in pain.

Then I opened my eyes. White, all around me. Antiseptic smell. Tubes in my arms.

And a whitecoat, staring at me in that familiar interesting-zoo-exhibit way

What? What did I do to end up in hell?

Oh, yeah. Suicide. A deadly sin.

Someone came in. A woman. I focused on her instead.

"Thank you, Dr. Lindenberg, but Max and I would like to talk alone now." She knew my name?

Dr. Lindenberg left grudgingly.

"Max. My name is Katrina ter Borcht. I'm here to offer you a deal."

"What about the flock?" I asked. That was more important than any deal she had to offer. Ter Borcht. That should ring a bell.

"They're fine, but they think you're dead."

I'm not?

"The doctors here know everything. We'll cover up, make sure no one else learns, and you work for us."

Everything clicked into place. "Why the hell would I agree to work for Itex?" I snarled, not very effectively, due to the breathing apparatus, IVs, electrode thingies…

"I don't work for Itex. I work for Xeti, a company dedicated to undoing the damage Itex has done." She looked down. "My only goal in life is to fix what my father did. My sister wants to do the same."

"Fix it so the Flock is left alone, and I'm in."

And we leave you there. I feel so deliciously evil. And if any of you see Rose, our wayward, kinda lazy muse, please tell her we need her back-the next chapter isn't going to write itself, you know. Reviews will be appriciated.

.

.

.

OH, yeah, um, we don't own Maximum Ride, so thusly we don't own Max or the Flock. We DO own Katrina ter Borcht and the circumstances. And (I think) we own the REBUILT E-house, since it was demolished, you know...

Thank Etta for this chapter. She wrote it, and I edited and changed it. So it was a joint work...