A.N- This is so people know what I'll be doing: the story will all be in Max's point of view unless I say otherwise. This is just a story that I thought of which takes place after Angel. So anyways- I don't own Maximum Ride that is all James Patterson's and I'm a Mylan person cause Dylan is just so cute/nice, and all. BUUUT I also like Fax. I love them since they have so much history and they're so in love and don't want to admit it. The first part of this story will be about everyone pairing off, and then it'll turn into how they defeat Itex, the Doomsday Group, and also Hans.

This Is The Last Time!

December 11th

Since your reading this, I bet you want to know what I'm doing right now, right? Well at this very moment Gazzy, Nudge, Iggy, Dylan, and I are flying over… um… somewhere around Gunnison, Colorado now, I think. There are a lot of mountains, lakes and parks here. I love it! We're coming from Phoenix, Arizona where we had just left my mother and sister after staying with them for a few months.

We are in a V form like always, Dylan taking F-Fangs old spot, and since we only have five members now *sniff* we make a perfect 'V' formation. We should be in Denver in maybe half an hour, forty minutes tops. If you're asking 'why Denver?' well I'll tell you why; we think one of the main branches of the Doomsday Group is around here.

So the flock is still broken, Fa-Fang is still… gone (I don't want to think about that too much since it still makes me want to cry). Angel is also ga-a- (Now I actually do cry).

"Max…" I hear Dylan whisper sadly, to my right. Everyone's already used to my sometimes letting a few tears come out from thinking of Angel, and they never say anything anymore. No comforting words unless I really start bawling. They know it won't help. Of course they're sad too, but she was my baby, and I already lost her once. I have a bad feeling we're not getting her back this time *tear*. We don't even know if she's still alive… All the Flock put on brave faces and usually pretend they don't see, for my sake. But they shouldn't have to do that! I'm the leader; I'm the one who should comfort them when they're hurting! *A few more tears escape and I started sobbing.

"Max it's ok, please don't cry. I know we'll find her. I just know it Max!" Nudge said trying to comfort me, but it sounded like it was more for her than for me at the end. I started to sob louder because they were seeing me like this... again.

Now Iggy spoke up "Nudge is right Max. You know Angel is super smart, and she'd never let it end it like that." I start to sob violently now after the mentioning of her name. "She loves you just as much as you do, if not more, and it's only a matter of time till she finds us!" He said with feeling, and sounding like he was on the verge of crying himself.

Then Dylan sped up, got in front of me, and led us down to the ground. We landed on a stiff patch of yellow grass on a flat part of a mountain and I fell to the ground still sobbing violently. I felt someone come down with me and felt big warm arms go around me. Dylan. I felt all my muscles relax and the pain in my chest stopped. Why does he always make me feel better?

My crying slowed and it became less painful to breath, I was still taking in quick shallow breaths but tears stopped falling. About three minutes later I was done crying, but my throat was dry and hurt like hell. After all, it is December and we are on top of a mountain, so it's not a good idea to violently take in the cold air non-stop for even a few minutes. Dylan-putting a hand under my chin- gently turns my head to face him. "Are you ok now?" he asked lightly. I nodded slowly and got up.

I looked around at everyone and saw that Nudge and Gazzy's eyes were a little red (probably how mine are) and guessed they'd been crying too. Iggy was just standing by them looking a little awkward and not knowing what to do. Iggy and Dylan had a little more control than Nudge, Gazzy, and me over this.

Gazzy put on a brave front, but you can't forget, the kid's still only nine. Once someone snaps, he can't help but break as well. Iggy's eyes showed his pain. He didn't let tears escape, but there was sadness in his foggy, ice-blue eyes. I looked at Dylan who was still on the ground and his turquoise eyes looked up at me sadly.

"I'm sorry you guys" I say looking at them all, and before anyone could say anything I added- "I'm sorry I've been doing this to you all so much lately, I'm supposed to lead you, and I'm not sure how I can if I keep breaking down like this." I say and then drop my face into my palms for a moment, to hide it from them so I don't start to cry like a baby again.

Nudge spoke up first "It's not your fault Max. We're all hurting" I lift my head up and drop my hands to my sides. She made me feel a little less guilt, but I still shouldn't do this to them.

"No, it is my fault; I can't be doing this all the time! I've been dragging us down!" I realized I was yelling so I stared speaking softer. "If we want to even have a chance at finding her, I can't keep stopping us. I promise this is the last time I slow us down you guys". Gazzy quickly comes to me and hugs me, Nudge following him shortly. I hug them both tightly to me not wanting to ever let go in case they were ever taken from me. I looked up at Iggy and Dylan, smiling. They made their way over and joined this rare group hug too. "I love you all, please don't leave me" I said as softly as I could manage, but since we're all so close and we all have super hearing I bet everyone heard. They all hugged tighter.

I had to break the hug eventually and smiling at everyone. I unfurled my light brown-spotted white wings and said that we should get going. Everyone nodded and did the same, taking their wings out. Iggy accidently whacking Nudge on the head not noticing she was that close. "omigod Iggy!" She squealed rubbing her head, then patting her messy hair back down. We all laughed.

"Sorry" Iggy said blushing slightly. He was normally more observant than that, so I was going to keep an eye on him. We all took off. I checked our direction a minute later and changed our course by a few degrees south, angling the tips of my wings slightly. Everyone copied me a few seconds later.

Time-lapse:) [While they're flying there I'll tell you what's happened in the past few months]

Ok so after the flock said bye to Fang's gang, Max decided to go look for her mom and Ella before anything having to do with the Doomsday group. They thought that Angel had died so they didn't really talk about it (but Max never stopped hoping). They eventually found Dr. Martinez and Ella and they had both been brainwashed. They soon un-brainwashed them and filled them in on what had happened. It was harder to un-brainwash them without Angel, but they managed. They also found Jeb (brainwashed too). He still doesn't have their full trust and they're always on guard around him, but everyone started trusting him more as time went on. Then the voice started talking to Max again (it wasn't Jeb); saying that they should look for Angel and that the DG had her. It didn't, however, specify whether she was alive or not and didn't say anything else after that. They stayed with Max's mom for quite a while, while all of them tried to learn all of the DG branches and locations. Max had started being mean to Dylan again after the Angel incident, and after a while she just ignored him. Now in the past few weeks, they've been growing closer and Max has been getting more comfortable around him. Oh and they found Dr. Gunther-Hagen too, but since neither Max nor her mom wanted another 'Max needs to produce heirs' talk, they kicked him out the loop. Kind of like Jeb, but Jeb was still allowed to visit and conference with them. Oh and Iggy can pretty much see now. He can't see detail, but he can tell what things are and sometimes who people are.

Now back to the flock who are now at their destination (night time now)-

I was sitting on my bed with one leg folded \upright, my chin resting on my knee, and my wings coming out a bit. I know that sounds weird and is probably bad for my back but why would I give a fuck? It was comfortable! I was about to click on the 26th link I'd found when I saw a figure crawling on the floor reaching for something on top of my night stand "GASMAN, PUT THAT DOWN RIGHT NOW!" I yell at the top of my lungs. He and Iggy had made two bombs earlier and I had confiscated the second as a punishment for lighting the first in the living room. My god, when will they learn that curtains are very flammable?

"But Max, we'll be carefu-" He started, but I cut him off.

"I said no; you're not getting it back, and that's final!" He looked like he was about to say something but I gave him a death glare and he thought better of it.

He stalked out of my room and I notice someone else at my door. "Hey, can I come in?" Dylan asks.

"Yeah, sure" I say changing my death glare aimed at Gazzy, to a smile. He comes up to me and sits on me bed, beside me. His legs are out in front of him and his feet fall off the end of my bed some.

My mom and Jeb are pretty tight with a lot of important people so they always manage to get us places to stay wherever we go. We were in a house they had gotten for us that wasn't too big, but it had a room for each of us, a kitchen, living room, and two bathrooms. It was a two story and Dylan and I had the two bedrooms down stairs. I thought it'd be safer- if anyone tried to come in through the front door (if anyone was stupid enough to, anyway) then me or Dylan would hear them and beat their sorry ass before they had the chance to get to the others. The only bad thing is that the heat was broken and it's December, so do the math…

So yeah, Dylan sits on my bed (a tiny twin bed I might add) and I was pretty surprised we fit. "Did you find anything?" He asks after situating himself up against me. A month ago I swear I would have tried to at least bite him or something for being so close, but right now I don't mind. I felt strangely happy when he was against me, plus he was pretty warm too so that was welcomed.

"Well, I don't know yet" I say, as I finally clicking on the blue link. It led to a log on screen for some site called Saving the World. I thought it was a dead end like the others but I figured I might as well try it anyway. "Nudge, can you come here for a sec?" I ask. I didn't have to yell since my door was open and I knew she could hear from the living room.

She scurried into my room a few seconds later. "Yeah?" She smiled, and raised her eyebrow; noticing Dylan and I so close.

I decided to ignore it, "Can you hack into this?" I asked turning the laptop over to her. She sat in front of my curled up form and took the laptop. Several mouse, and keyboard clicks later she changed the determined look she had gotten to one of triumph. "Thanks a bunc… What's wrong?" Her look had changed into something like shock.

"Look at this" She said turning the laptop so that Dylan and I could see. Now I saw why she made that face. The website that once said Saving the World now had completely changed its set up and now said One Light Organization. Well it's a good thing I didn't leave the site…

"Wow. Ok well I'll check it out and I'll tell you all if I find anything" After I said this she slowly made her way to my door. When she was almost out she looked back at us and gave me a 'look' and then closed my door. God sometimes she reminds me so much of Angle, how she tried to get me to be with Dylan.

Then realizing what I just thought and felt my heart squeeze painfully. I got that awful feeling in my stomach I always get when I'm sad, and that chocking feeling in the back of my throat you get when you know you're about to cry. "It hurts me when you're sad" I hear Dylan whisper behind me. I looked up at him as my eyes start to grow wet. But I wasn't feeling sad anymore; I was confused, and kind of scared. "What's wrong Max?" Dylan asked confused.

"How'd you know I was sad?" I asked cautiously. He was right of course, but the thing is I wasn't looking at him. How did he sense my sadness before I shed a tear; before I even flinched?

"What do you mean?" He asked surprised

"Well I was staring at the laptop screen, away from you. You didn't see my face and I didn't even stiffen." I wondered what they meant about Dylan and I being each other's perfect other half now. Had they taken some of me and like put it in him or something? Had they made him be able to read my thoughts, or given him a Voice, like mine?

"I don't know" He said, a little confused himself. "I've been able to know how you feel for a while now, and a while ago I started to actually feel what you felt. It's the same with the others too." He was looking into my eyes now and I felt my sadness go away. I felt happy and kind of hot…

"Oh my gosh!" I exclaimed, "I think you have a new power". I said realizing it myself. Then I got a little worried he might be able to control them too, but then it just melted away. I just couldn't get Angle out of my head today could I? Because then I realized that it wasn't very far off from Angle's mind reading/controlling powers. Then I felt that pang of loss again-

"Max I think you're right about my powers, but could you please stop being like a roller coaster?" I looked at him confused. "I can feel all the emotions you're getting and I'm trying to help you by taking them out of you and into me, but I feel like I'm about to explode" He explained.

"Sor- wait! You're taking them out? Is that why I keep feeling happy? Can you control how I feel? Did you make me feel better earlier today too?" I asked all at once and wasn't really expecting him to answer them all because I wouldn't have been able to keep up with myself either. So he really surprised me when he said-

"Yea I think I'm taking them out. I hope that's why you feel happy, since I've been trying to make you feel better. I think I might be able to control how you feel, but I don't want to do that to you. And yes, I'm pretty sure I made you feel better earlier." Wow that was a mouthful. "I had thought of the possibility of it being a new power, so I was trying to experiment some, but I never got the chance to tell you. I think I already figured out what I can do, but I'm not sure how I do it. It just kind of happens."

"What's all you can do?" I ask him, now sitting cross-legged and facing him.

"So far I think I can read emotions. I can change them, but I have to make them go into me, I can't just make them go away. Also, I think I can let other people know what I'm feeling, but that one is kind of weird, and I do it by accident." That might explain why I always feel happy when he's close.

"Well that's really cool we should tell the others later. Right now we should check this out though." I said turning my attention back to the laptop. I then sat up more like Dylan was, so we could both look at the screen.

After a while we decided that there wasn't much to learn from this site. Just some meeting times and things we'd already learned back at my mom's house when we were researching.

Nudge then comes in and tells us that she's going to bed. "You are?" I ask. What time was it? I look at the clock on the laptop screen, 12 already? "Oh yeah, I guess we should all get some sleep before we go to the DG place."

"Gazzy actually already crashed on the couch. Iggy's carrying him to his room and then going to bed himself." Nudge informed me.

"Okay, hang on, I'll go with you" I say, shutting the laptop down.

When we get to her room she starts to change to her pjs. Yes we actually wear those now. Being at my mom's for so long and not on the run kind of made us be more relaxed. "So were you able to get anything?" She asks, referring to the website from earlier.

"Not really, we knew most of the things it had and the other things weren't really important" I say, sitting down on her bed. Then I suddenly remembered "Oh and hey, guess what!"

"Huh?" she asked me turning, from getting her pajama shirt from her backpack.

"Dylan got a new power." I told her, and for a while we talked about it. We wondered if we were going to get any other powers and pretty soon I started feeling tired. "Well…" I said yawning, "I'll let you get some sleep now."

I tucked her in like I always do, in my mind she will never be too old for this, and tell her good night. She murmurs "night" as I close her door. Now off to Gazzy's room. His room is right next to Nudge's so I only had to walk a few steps.

I look in and see he's sound asleep. I go in anyways and tuck him in a little since Iggy already put the covers over him. He looks younger when he's sleeping. We all look older than we really are because we develop faster than regular humans, so I like to see the flock asleep. They look younger, more relaxed, more like we used to when we lived with Jeb after our first small taste of freedom.

I slowly close his door so as not to wake him, and head to Iggy's room. His door is wide open and when I get to it, he immediately looks at me. I can tell he wants to talk to me so I go in and sit by him on his bed.

"Something wrong?" I ask.

"I don't know." He says, staring blankly at the door. "Since my sight got better, my other senses got less sensitive." He tells me a little worriedly.

"I'm sorry Igg. Your other senses were probably heightened because of your blindness, so that might be why they're getting normal now. But maybe they'll stay, you never know." I say trying to cheer him up a bit.

"I guess you're right. Maybe I'm just over reacting, and since my sight's back, just ignoring my other senses a little."

"Yeah, exactly. Don't worry too much about it. Well, I'm going to sleep now Iggs. You should too; we're still getting up early tomorrow." He nodded and I told him good night. He told me good night back as I left.

When I got to my room I checked my watch which said 12:30. Why do I even have a watch? Oh yeah- Jeb gave it to me and I took it to not be rude… for my mom. I walk to the tiny dresser in my tiny room and open my backpack that was on top of it. I take the watch off and slip it in the pack, then take my pjs out, in exchange. I start to take my shirt off, while turning to my bed- "Oh my god Dylan, what are you doing? Were you planning on saying anything before I completely striped in front of you!" I say in a loud whisper, and put the shirt that was around my neck back on.

Dylan just chuckles. "Sorry" he says, not really sounding it in the slightest. "I guess I'll go now." He said after a while, noticing I was feeling kind of awkward.

He was almost out the door when he stopped, walked back over to me, kissed my cheek and told me good night faster than I could react. He walked out the door and closed it lightly. I was a little shocked and confused. He hadn't done something like that in a long time, so why now?

I finally got changed and crawled into bed, quickly falling asleep thinking of Dylan.

A.N- If anyone actually read this, thank you. Please tell me what you think.

Love you all even though I don't know you!

~L