Maximum Ride - Rise of the Phoenix

Chapter 17

"Well, aren't you the hero, Amalda." Jeb laughed, "you just made your death more inevitable."

"I don't care. At least the rest of the flock will be alive. And if I really do die, I'm taking you down with me."

"Oh really..." Jeb cackled as he took off his lab coat and revealed that he had given himself wings as well. Wings that matched Fang's. Black.

"We're playing fire with fire, huh?" Amalda smirked as she opened her hands and held fireballs in her palms, "literally."

"Careful what you wish for, little girl." Jeb sneered as they threw the fireballs at each other, which only deflected and set the whole shed on fire.

"AMALDA!!" Max shouted from outside as they watched the shed and everything around it burn. But she felt the wave of relief when she saw both figures shoot up in the air, flapping their wings.

"You fly like an amateur." Amalda sneered as she shot streams of flames at him. Jeb continued to only throw fireballs and flew in one place, as he wasn't experienced with flying.

"Give it up!" Jeb shouted.

"Are you insane?" Amalda stated bluntly as the fight lingered on.

"You, child, are a mistake. You know that?"

Amalda stopped.

"You weren't meant to be born. Even if you were, you couldn't even remember those precious moments you had with your parents. You were only an annoyance to them. Don't you see?!" Jeb smirked.

Amalda stopped everything and thought about it all. He's right... I was only the result of an apocalyptic era... My parents never wanted me to find a guy that loves me either... I can't remember what it was even like, living... In that underground... Underground...

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"Where..." Amalda thought to herself as she found herself surrounded by darkness. She gasped when she saw what looked like a light at the end of a tunnel. She only stood as the light came closer and closer, and she recognized eight figures slowly walking towards the light as well. She recognized it and remembered it. It was the moment she first laid eyes on the sun.

"Wow!" Nudge smiled.

"Finally! It's been forever!" Gazzy cheered and Iggy laughed.

"Fresh air. It was hard living in there with you, Gasman..." Total laughed.

"Total." Angel laughed, then turned back, "we made it, Max!"

The flock's leader stood for a while and let the sun envelope her, "We made it!"

"I can't believe it!" Angel ran up to her and hugged her. Then they all turned to look back at the entrance, including Amalda, who stood nearby watching, but wasn't seen by any of them.

Out of the dark underground hideout they stayed in, walked Fang carrying a young about three year-old girl in his arms.

"That's..." Amalda stared at the little girl, "that's me."

"You see that?" Fang said to the little girl, "you know what that is?"

"The sun!" The little girl held her hand out to hold the great orb of light in her fingers, her other hand clinging tightly to her father.

"How is it remotely possible that we survived this?" Total asked, making everyone chuckle, breaking the tension.

"The human spirit. Turns out it's actually hard to kill." Angel shrugged.