This is the story I was going to send in for the Maximum Ride Nevermore contest, but sadly I didn't send it in on time. :( So I've decided to post it on FF instead. This chapter, not including this author's note, is exactly 500 words.

It was really difficult not being able to write a longer piece, but I think it's perfect like this: short and sweet. I think I might add another chapter on to this story, which would be this same thing but with more description, but I'm not sure about that yet.

Please critique; I want to be able to improve my writing!

If in twenty years we haven't expired yet, and the world is still more or less in one piece, I'll meet you at the top of that cliff where we first met the hawks and learned to fly with them. You know the one. Twenty years from today, if I'm alive, I'll be there, waiting for you. You can bet on it.

Well, I hadn't expired yet, and I hoped that his oath hadn't expired yet, either. I circled down lower, heading towards the exact spot we had stayed once before here. It was so odd. Had I really only been...what? Fourteen? Fifteen?

Max, he needs you.

I knew that voice. Angel. But she was...I blocked the thought out of my mind before it could become too much. I hadn't seen her since the last time I'd been with him, and– UGH! Why did everything I think of have to come down to him? Even the last words my baby ever said to me led to him.

Never mind. I needed to focus on the task at hand, probably the hardest thing I'd ever done in my life. And that included watching my sister die, my brother die for the third time, and seeing all but one flock member pass away in one way or another.

I swooped down to the cliff and landed lightly, doing an instinctive three-sixty that revealed no sign of him. Great. I sat with my legs dangling over the edge, looking up at the hawks circling above, feeling like I was still the teenage Max who hadn't been through the world ending, who wasn't one of the last few humanoid beings on the planet.

The waterfall below splashed into the lake, the screeching of hawks silently dying off as they went back to their nests to feed their fledglings. One hawk dove down, extended its talons, and gracefully plunged for the kill. The small mouse it had spotted wriggled in vain to free itself but eventually gave up, life seeping out of it. Soon that mouse would be dinner, just another dead soul in the world. The toxins that it probably carried from the End would be thrust down the throats of newly hatched chicks, who would die in turn.

The hair on the back of my neck prickled and I reflexively spun around and grabbed the attacker. Or rather, I would have, but whoever it was blocked me. I looked up at the stranger and took in his features. Oh, my God. The same deep, dark eyes, the same black hair, and the same unreadable expression. He held open his arms, always knowing exactly what I needed.

I buried my face in the crook of his neck, letting out everything from the past two decades. As the sun set, Fang held me in his arms, just like he always had.

"Thank you," he quietly murmured into my hair, "for showing up. I didn't think you would. Thank you so much, Max"