A/N: Before we begin, I would like to say thank you to Glitterwave, who is my first ever reviewer. Thank you so so much. You have given me heart to continue. :) However, I would still like reviews from people. And trust me, if you review, then I will return the favor for your story(ies) as soon as I can. Oh, and on a side note, I revamped the prologue, so go check it out if you feel like it. Also, concrit: much appreciated.

Warning: Character death ahead. Hopefully, though, Future Max will be able to prevent it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Present Max POV

My head snapped to the left to see the woman who spoke coming out of the woods, just where Fang and I had come from with the firewood. That solved that one mystery on if someone was in the bushes, but started many other mysteries.

The Flock and I all got into our fighting stances, getting our butt-kicking faces on.

The woman was really pretty, with brown hair and blonde streaks in it, kind of like mine, and chocolate eyes, also like mine.

Weird.

Not to mention that when she looked at us, there was a look of wanting, happiness, and sadness all at once in her eyes. She was wearing a weird metallic bracelet, dark blue jeans, and a light blue t-shirt with wings on the front. She kind of looked like the leader of Itex Germany – you know, the kook who said that she was my mother, Marian Janssen.

Also weird. But what was really strange was that Angel hadn't sensed her coming. She usually senses if anyone other than us is nearby. This made me uneasy. When I glanced at the rest of the Flock out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that they too were confused by the woman's appearance. I then realized I had to speak to her.

"Who are you? And what do you mean by again?" I said, trying to sound forceful and in control. The woman just smiled sadly and stepped closer to us, causing us all to tense up even more, if that was possible.

"Come any closer and we will attack. Now answer me," I said coldly. That would have frozen most full grown men, but it just made the woman shake her head solemnly.

"What, you don't recognize yourself?"

What did she just say? The Flock's eyes widened. "Sure, you've aged a bit, but you have to see the resemblance. I'm you from, well, this sounds really corny and sci-fi ish, the future."

Now the Flock was stunned, including me, but we couldn't let this stranger know that. She couldn't be telling the truth… Could she?

"Angel, honey, are you picking up any vibes from her? Any thoughts?" I thought, hoping Angel was listening in.

"Nope, none at all. She's blocking me out. But I think she's an older you, Max," Angel thought back.

"What about you, Voice? Any words of wisdom, hinting at who she is?"

…No answer, of course. Why did I even ask.

I sighed internally. This was going to get interesting.

"Alright, then if you are me from the future, how can you prove it?" I directed my question towards her, motioning to the rest of the Flock to stand down a bit, but not entirely.

The woman - me, possibly - smiled and took a step closer and sat down in front of the campfire. The Flock sat opposite of her – me – whatever. She soaked all of our faces in, as if she hadn't seen any of them in ages. But she had to have if she were me from the future, right?

"Well… how should I do this…" she trailed off. Then she straightened up. "I've got it," she said happily.

The woman, possibly moi from the future, rummaged in her jean's pocket for a minute, then pulled out a picture and passed it to me. I gasped.

It was an exact replica of the picture my mom had taken earlier today, except older and more crumpled.

I took out my own picture and compared the two. They were exact matches. That means it wasn't a replica, it couldn't be, no one else but my mom and I have handled the picture.

This was the picture. I showed the pictures to the rest of the Flock, and they were speechless – including Nudge, if that's even possible.

"How did you get here from the future?" Iggy asked Future Me interestedly, deciding to believe her… for now.

"I will explain later, I have more important things to tell you guys about," Future Me said solemnly.

Fang looked up at Future Me – I'll just say FM for now on – in wonder.

"But that doesn't explain why you are here. So why are you?" he asked FM, staring at her – me – whatever – awestruck. I started to get jealous, then realized that it was me he was staring at, just an older version. Creepy, but sweet.

The delighted smile FM had on her face when Fang talked to her slid off like gelatin on a hot car's windshield.

FM took a deep breath, then spoke. This wasn't going to be good. "It's a long, long, terrible story. But in short, I'm here to help you save humanity – and yourselves – from death."

)()()()()()()()

Future Max POV

"It's a long, long, terrible story. But in short, I'm here to help you save humanity- and yourselves- from death." Well, I couldn't have made that more ominous and depressing for them, could I? If I thought that the Flock's eyes were big before, I was wrong. They looked like the size of dinner plates now.

"What do you mean? What happens?" Iggy asked me, eerily finding my face with his sightless eyes. This was going to be hard to explain.

"Tell us the whole story. Now," PM said, trying to sound cold. Aw, cute! I could see underlying fear, though, on what she just said.

I took another deep breath, then spoke.

"In a few days time – for some reason I'm not allowed to say exactly when – Mr. Chu will have you guys all kidnapped and taken to separate places. It will be then that all of you, except for me, or, er, Max, obviously, will be killed."

I heard a collective gasp, and saw everyone's faces pale.

"This event will bring about the destruction of nearly all of humanity. Here, let me tell you a bit about when I'm from."

"When I'm from, nearly all of humanity is wiped out. Heck, pretty much the only person I've seen since you guys were… gone, is Jeb. You would think that humans would repopulate, but we can't. The animals are becoming smarter, more powerful without as many humans holding them back, and every day on the radio I hear the already small population of the world decreasing because of this. Soon there will be barely anyone left." I got shocked faces from everyone, including Fang, and that's saying something.

"But how did it get like that in the first place?" Gazzy asked me, his face uncharacteristically solemn.

I sighed internally. This was harder than I imagined it would be.

"Mr. Chu murdered all of you because he knew we would get in the way of his plans to slash the human race down by millions. You remember the original By-Half Plan, right? Well, this was it, but a revamped version." I paused, then continued.

"He knew we would stop him before his plan even started. His plan was to get on a private jet with a bunch of other high-paying people and world leaders, then hit a button on a special remote that sent a deadly virus that his company created into the ground. The microbes of the virus affected any humans – no animals – that were in contact with or on something touching the ground. It was horrible."

I shivered at the memory of people dying below me while I was flying, knowing I couldn't save them because I would die if I tried to touch one of them, and I needed to find what was causing this to happen.

"I had no idea what was going on – I was flying around, looking for you guys, hoping you had escaped capture, when I saw everything start glowing orange and people dropping like flies. I knew that Mr. Chu was behind it, and went to look for his plane, because I figured out that the virus only affected things on the ground. I never found him without help from you guys. Eventually, after about an hour or so, the virus died out without anyone else to manifest on. Everyone not in the air died. I had also tried to find my mom and Ella."

I shivered again, remembering the gut wrenching feeling I got when I discovered their corpses on the ground, and realizing I was too late.

"But I didn't get there in time." I had been staring at my knees, hugging them against my body, while telling the story. I heard a sniffle and looked up.

Angel, the Gasman, and Nudge were all silently crying. I saw PM, Iggy, and even Fang holding back tears.

"We have to stop him," PM said, and I was proud of my bravery then. "No matter what."

Angel looked at me right in the eyes. "I have a question," she said, not tearing her gaze away from my eyes. "How did the rest of us die?"

Oh boy. This was another thing I wasn't looking particularly forward to telling them about. But I had to tell them so that they would be able to survive and save the world.

"Well, I found out everything from files I took from Mr. Chu and his minions when the angry people remaining in the world murdered them for doing this to everyone," I said, almost gloating over his death, which had happened about a day after his little plan took place and everyone who was on a plane or in the air learned what had happened. His plan majorly backfired on him.

I wish I had been one of those people to take him down, but I was still looking for my Flock, not knowing their fates yet.

Okay, how do I tell someone how they could possibly die? I guess I will have to go on instinct. Joy.

"Alright… I guess I'll go in age order, from youngest to oldest. Angel, Mr. Chu learned about your gills and mental powers, so he sent mindless robot minions to capture you when he kidnapped all of us in the night." I still don't know how he was able to pull it off. "He… he… had them tie you up, bring you to a garbage dump, throw you into a garbage compacter, and… let it crush you… to death." I mumbled the last few words.

I saw tears freely fall from PM's face now. That's how I reacted too, when I first read the files. Only I was alone, and I completely broke down. I even contemplated killing myself, but I had to see first if there was anything I could do first to help stop this. Good thing I waited.

"For Gazzy, Nudge, and Iggy," I continued painfully, knowing I only had about an hour left here now, "they tied you guys also securely up, weighed you down, and drowned you guys in separate oceans around the world." I heard Nudge sob audibly, and looked up to see an also horrified Gazzy put his arm comfortingly around her.

"What about me?" Fang asked, his intense eyes boring into me. This part was the one I was most dreading. I still loved him so much, it was nearly killing me to be this close but still have to sit this far away from him.

"They did to you what they attempted to do to me," I started painfully. "They brought us both to separate canyons, and tied us up tightly. I figured out how to escape- I somehow turned on the M-Geeks, destroyed them, and was able to free myself before they got any further. But I guess you weren't so lucky." I gulped loudly, then continued. "The M-Geeks cut off your wings, then pushed you off of the edge of the canyon, letting you fall to your death."

If I thought their faces were horrified before, I was sadly mistaken. Everyone was crying freely, even the almighty, emotionless rock that is Fang.

"Why did you have to tell us all of this?" PM angrily questioned me, comforting Angel in her arms.

"In order to prevent it from ever happening," I replied coolly, trying to hide the inner turmoil that had sprung up while telling them their- hopefully- original fates.

"How will telling us prevent these events from happening?" Nudge asked tearfully. I smiled, trying to cheer them up.

"Well, I brought some presents from the future that will help, if anyone would like them," I said happily, trying to lighten the dark and unsettling mood that had come upon us. This is where it would get good. Jeb had given me the gadgets to give to the Flock specialized for them and the prevention of their deaths. I hope they work.

"Oooh presents? From the future? ZOMG that is so amazing we will have stuff that no one else will have for years that is so cool ooh I hope my present's cute or at least fashionable!" Nudge would have kept going on, if Gazzy hadn't slapped his hand over her mouth at that point.

She looked at me apologetically. "Sorry!" I nodded, not really minding since I had wanted to hear Nudge talk like that, so incessantly, for years.

I checked the bracelet. I only had about 45 minutes left, since a little over half the wire was gone. I had to do this quickly, in case they had any important questions that I forgot to explain. So I quickly put my hands into my deep jean pockets, pulling everything out that I needed to give them.

"Alright, these are specially made for you guys and the… death you face," I started out, noticing a look of apprehension on all of their faces.

I tossed a small silver pill to Angel, and she caught it deftly. PM looked at me warily, still not sure whether or not she should trust me. That's me for ya.

"You guys have to trust me if you want to survive," I said, acknowledging PM's narrowed eyes. She relaxed a bit, but was still on guard.

"Angel, sweetie, you are going to have to swallow that pill. It will give you control over any machines that you want to control for at least two weeks, which is enough time. You won't be able to stop robots though, for some reason," Jeb had never figured out why, "but it will allow you to control the garbage crusher. The pill will also allow you to grow spikes at will anywhere on your body, and make them disappear, so that you will be able to cut through the ropes that they bind you with. This effect will last as long as the machine controlling."

Angel's eyes went wide, and dryswallowed the pill quickly. I noticed that the Gasman looked envious of his sister. He wouldn't be for long.

"For Gazzy, Nudge, and Iggy," I said, throwing them edible cubes that looked a lot like lemon Starburst, but definitely didn't taste like them, "you guys eat those, and you will be able to breathe underwater, like Angel, Fang, and Me-ax, for two weeks."

I had almost said me. I pretty much did, and just covered it up badly. I am trying to avoid saying me, so they don't get too freaked out.

"It will also allow you to grow spikes, like Angel's, and get rid of them, so you can cut off the bindings they put on you." They all nodded and ate the cube quickly.

Then I turned to Fang, and threw him a pill also, but his was black. Ironic, no? If you're wondering how I'm throwing all of these precious things to the Flock across the fire, I'm not. We were too busy talking to rekindle the flames of the fire, so it had died out, giving a happy me a better view of everyone.

"Like the others, you will be able to grow spikes, yada yada yada, you know the rest. But unlike the others, an invisible, weightless, iron covering around the entirety of your wings, making them impossible to damage or cut off, for, like the others, two weeks." Fang just looked at me, kind of wide-eyed, and swallowed the pill. I felt PM staring at me, waiting for her turn.

"Yea, um, sorry Max, but I kind of only have advice for you. Since you- we- whatever, made it out alive, there is really no need to give you anything. So just do what we do best. Kick the snot out of everyone," I said, oh so eloquently. At least that made PM's mouth twitch into a smile a little bit.

I looked down at the bracelet. 20 minutes left.

"So, do you guys have any questions?" I asked them, observing that Gazzy was already happily making spikes grow on his arms, nearly impaling Iggy and Nudge, who were on either side of him.

"Yea, I do," Gazzy said. I had a feeling he would.

"Go ahead," I said, smiling to encourage the Gasman on.

"Well, no offense Max, we know you're smart and everything, but not this smart. How did you get all of these things? And how did you get into the past? You told Iggy that you'd explain if you had time." Oh boy. I'd have to explain about Jeb. All of the Flock's eyes were turned to me now.

"Well as I said, they only person I have seen since the whole of humanity almost dying out thing was Jeb. He made all of these things. Including this bracelet that allowed me to return and warn you guys." I saw PM's eyes flare up.

"How did he survive?" she asked, spitting acid. Oh boy, she was angry he survived.

I felt tears well up in my eyes again, and I tried to not let them take me over.

"He knew about the plan all along. He couldn't tell us, though. It was part of the big picture of me saving the world, so we weren't allowed to know- we had to figure it out. So he didn't touch any part of the ground on that day. And later on he found me and explained more on what happened. It took all of my strength not to kill him, right then and there. I think the only reason I didn't was because he told me he could make a way to allow me to come back to the past and prevent everything from ever happening. Anything else?" I finished abruptly.

Angel innocently looked at me.

"What about Total?" she said sadly. I bit my lip.

"Since Total had some human DNA in him, the virus was able to destroy him too," I said sadly. No matter how annoying he could get, he was still part of the Flock, and I missed him too- just not as much. I saw more tears stream down Angel's cheeks.

The Flock was silent again. I looked down at the bracelet again. 10 minutes.

"Well, I have 10 minutes left. I guess if you guys don't have any more questions, I should get ready to leave." I stood up, brushing myself off a bit. The Flock stood up also. It took all of my self control not to rush over and hug them. Geez, being alone all of these years has made me soft.

I guess I let my mind block down for a moment (Jeb wouldn't be too happy), because the next thing I knew, Angel ran over and hugged me. I broke into a huge, uncontrollable smile, and hugged her back.

Tears welled at my eyes again, and I fought them back, nearly unsuccessfully. Next thing I knew, the whole Flock came over to group hug me, except for PM. I guess that would be pretty weird. But I brushed it off, and went back to enjoying being near the Flock again.

Hopefully, if I executed everything properly, maybe I wouldn't have to miss them. They would be with me again, and none of my loneliness and suffering would have happened. I unwillingly broke apart from the Flock's long-lasting hug. I really really wanted to kiss Fang, but that would be a little creepy, seeing as there was a seven-year age difference now.

Hey, I am as old as was Brigid in this time. Did I mention she was one of Mr. Chu's minions who died when the remaining people revolted? I knew I didn't like her for a reason.

I went over to PM. She stiffened, and looked warily at me. I needed to tell her some things. Things I regret never saying and doing.

"Make these last days with them the best you can, in case it doesn't work out. Get a good pinpoint on Mr. Chu so you can stop his plan from ever happening. And," I said, lowering my voice so that the rest of the Flock couldn't hear me, even with our enhanced hearing, "tell Fang that you love him. I always regret never telling him that."

PM's eyes widened, and she blushed faintly. I went back to talking in a normal tone.

"Oh and don't trust Brigid, whatever you do. She was working with Mr. Chu." I saw a look of smug satisfaction grow on PM's face, and I saw her mouth the words I told you so to Fang. I grinned, and looked at the bracelet. Less than one minute. Where did all the time go?

I stepped backwards, towards the woods, away from all of them so I could head back to the future. Isn't that a movie? I smiled one last time at the Flock, drinking in their images, just in case it all went wrong. I began to become translucent again, and the Flock's eyes were wide once again. Their eyes are going to be permanently like that after today's little adventure.

"Good-bye guys, and good luck," I said, disappearing more and more. "And hopefully I'll see you all very soon." With that, there was a blinding flash of white light, and I left the past, for good.

Bloody McAwesome? Terrible? Review and let me know!

ALSO: Here is a little self plugging of mine: If you are a Fax lover, check out my two-shot, Beach FAXcation. Thanks to all!