I had been flying for hours, at least it felt like I had. The only thing that kept me going was possibly seeing the flock again. I wonder what they are like now, I bet they haven't changed at all… My wings are wearing out, but I'm still over ocean, so there isn't much that I can do. How do birds migrate south every winter? How can they stand it? I think that I would die before I got anywhere warm enough to matter…

But oh yes, the flock, I haven't seen them in years. My names Iris, and I'm just your normal 16-year-old mutant bird-human. Ok, so maybe there's nothing "normal" about me, but who cares?

Like the rest of the flock, I have wings, as I have said. They are as white and pure as Angel's, except they have midnight-blue tips. When I spread mine out, near the shoulder blade is when my dark blue fades to pearl white. I think that the bird D.N.A that was put into me was actually two different bird's D.N.A. More tests… But there's a catch, I wasn't taken by Jeb like the rest of the flock, oh no. I was left behind, forgotten, or maybe just missed. I know I missed them.

But it wasn't Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, or Angel that I missed the most. It was Ari. Ari wasn't always harsh, in fact, he was the sweetest boy I've ever met. When the flock left, he was the only thing I had for a very long time.

We were really young when the expiraments started. He was my best friend, sometimes my only friend, but he was all I needed for a while. He was always there to comfort me, and his arms were always extremely inviting. Ari always knew how to make me feel better…

But then I had to be stupid and try to find the flock. My curiosity got the best of me. I had to find what felt like my family. Jeb had always been like the father I never had, the flock, like the siblings. For some reason Ari wouldn't come with me, he said he had to finish something. Leaving him was the worst mistake I have ever made…

I had never been one to really show my feelings. The only person in the entire world that has ever even seen me cry is Ari. I never cried because of the torture, or the expiraments, or the aching in my body. I was trained to think that physical pain was a figment of my imagination, and could be delt with easily. The emotional pain was what I couldn't handle. Waking up feeling unwanted and abused. Knowing that only select few really cared about me, and knowing that my sacrifice saved most of them, but not the one I cared for the most. I was unable to save him. Unable to save my love, my only, my Ari. It was all my fault that he was probably still in that horrible place. All my fault.

You see, when the flock was escaping, I had to be the distraction. Losing the flock made the whitecoats extremely mad at me, so I had to go through even more expiraments and tests. But it still wasn't enough for him to be free. Free from the school, from the tests, and from the pain.

I was practically falling asleep while flying, which wasn't good. I saw a speck in the distance, and unknowingly, I flew towards it, hoping it wasn't a trap. I could always just fly away at top speed if it was, but then I would wear out myself… This could turn out badly if I wasn't careful…

Thankfully, when I reached the speck, it was a deserted, uncharted island. Perfect. I just needed to get some sleep and then continue my flight in the morning. It was already really late, the night was pitch-black, my wings glowing in the moonlight. I fell alseep in a tree and woke up to the first light of dawn shining in my face.

I started my journey again, I must be almost to Germany by now. I found out about the big Itex capture of the flock, so I needed to get there in time. You never know what might happen…

Finally, I saw land below me, an extremely welcoming thing to see after flying over the Atlantic Ocean… After a few hours, I was over France. Not too much longer now, just keep going… I passed over the Eifel Tower, which looks unbelievable from the sky as well! You know, you get a whole new perspective of the world from a birds-eye view. No pun intended.

At last! I was over Germany, and decided to land somewhere and rest for a while, I would need my strength, just in case something happened… After resting for a few hours, I decided to go out looking for the Itex corporation, this time on foot.

Wow. I have seen some pretty big factories in my lifetime, but this thing tops them all! It was huge! It was surrounded by enormous electric fences that even came over the top. Right, I guess they had thought about the flock just flying off…

Now, how to get in… Maybe I should pretend to be looking for work… No that wouldn't work, who's gonna hire a kid? That was when I saw someone I hadn't seen in a very long time. It was Jeb! I just wanted to go up and give him an enormous hug, but I didn't. I could only ask myself why he was here. Was he here to help the flock escape again, or was he on their side? Whatever the case, I wasn't taking any chances…

I had a great gift for being secretive and sneaking around. I knew one day it would help me, I just didn't know when… But I found out soon enough that day. I'm not going to tell you the boring details, 'cause you'd probably just stop reading… Let's just say it envolved a maze of air-vents and some underground tunnel thing. (Which by the way was extremely filthy…)

I really didn't like being underground. It made me feel trapped. But then I thought to myself, "Hey wait, I pretty much am trapped!" But that didn't really make me feel better either…

I finally got inside the building and found a jailroom type of thing. I could tell that the flock had been in there, mainly because of their scent. Weird, huh? But anyways, I followed this scent (I bet you didn't know that birds can follow scents did you???? Neither did I…) back out of the building and onto a field, which of course, was surrounded by electric fences. Oh, and by the way, guards were everywhere along the way. I think I knocked out like fifty of them at least. They came in small groups, so they were pretty easy to get past.

I looked up, and, I had guessed correctly, the field was covered with electric fences. Then I heard an extremely loud voice over some kind of intercom or something. I ran towards it, turning around the corner of the building to see the continuation of the field, but this time, containing hundreds of mutated things, the flock, hundreds of guards/flybots, and a woman and a teenage boy on a platform. But they weren't the only ones, Max was up there too…

The "director" was the woman's name, but I didn't find that out until later. The boys, Omega. Nice name, huh? Max and Omega were supposed to fight until the death, which didn't sound so good. Then it happened.

They started the brawl, and Max was somehow winning, for a while… It seemed to be going back and fourth. The mutants were getting a little restless, seeing one of their own getting hurt. The flock was mortified. The guards were just staring. No expression. The Director had an evil smile on her face.

Then, a fight broke out! Everyone was fighting. Including myself. I couldn't let them hurt Max, I just couldn't. She was after all, like family. As I was fighting I noticed everyones expressions changing. Anger and agony were across everyones faces, well except for the flyboys. They never had any emotion, they were robots…

I saw Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, Jeb, Omega, The Director, only the people who's faces I could pick out. But then I noticed someone else. Someone who looked vaguely familiar, yet I couldn't put my finger on it. We made eye-contact, and he mouthed my name. "Iris?" He said. "Iris?" A little louder. "IRIS!!!!!" He screamed my name at the top of his lungs, and right then I knew who it was, my one, my only, my "ARI!!!!!!!!!!"

I ran towards him, screaming his name and not believing he was truly there. We finally embraced each other, and it felt so good to be with him again, to be in his arms again. Something was wrong with him though, his face was stretched out and it looked like he had WINGS?! WHAT HAD THEY DONE??? But it gets even worse, I noticed the teeth, the claw-like fingernails, they had turned him into an eraser…

"WHAT HAPPENED?!?!" I asked him. I left him, and he got turned into an eraser?! I hated myself even more for ever doing that.

"Iris! Iris, it's not your fault! They told me that if they turned me into an eraser, that I would get to see my father again. I wanted to Iris, don't blame yourself!" He said, but I just started to cry. I held him tighter than ever now, I would never let him go, he was mine, all mine. Nothing bad would ever happen to him again, or so I thought…

Then he looked at me and did something that we had never done before. He gently leaned in and ever so lightly put his lips to mine. It was amazing. All those times I had dreamed of it, of holding him in my arms and kissing him, it was so much better than I had expected. It was true, I had loved him since the first day we met, and he helped me cheer up. He had held me in his arms and let me just sit there and cry. His kind words soothed me, and made everything ok. From then on, we had been friends, best friends, but I had always dreamed of something more…

Today I got that. It was fantastic. Then, I heard something even more fantastic and felt like I was going to melt. Who knew? Who knew that three little words could mean so much?

"Iris, please, listen to me. Iris, I love you," He said, and before I could respond, he pressed his lips to mine again, and I thought that I was going to die. It wouldn't matter, my life had now been completed.

"I love you too, Ari. I always have," I said. Feeling guilty for all those years away from him. "And I'm never going away again. I'll always be with you. I just wish I could have found you earlier."

"Me too. Iris, there's something I need to tell you. I've got an expiration date," He said, and I didn't really understand him.

"What do you mean?" I asked, growing slightly afraid. I just couldn't lose him again. If this was what I thought it was, it wasn't a good thing…

"My body will just shut down sometime. There's no way to stop it. I can't do anything. It's one of the downsides to being an eraser…" He said, his voice slightly shaking.

"When?" I asked, trying to hold back tears. I didn't like people to see my emotion. This was the first time I had cried in front of anybody for a really long time.

"I'm not sure. Extremely soon. But that's all I know," He was trying not to show emotion either, but I could tell he was feeling terrible. Extremely soon? How soon? Like a year, a month, a week, what did he consider soon? But I couldn't get the words out. I just stood there cradled in his arms. Until I realized that the flock was in trouble, and needed help!

"Come on, for right now, lets help!" I said, the numbers of guards were going down. Then I realized that they could fly. Hmmmm… I could use this to my advantage… I flew up, making sure that some of them were following, and then tons of them were following, and right at the last second, I swerved away so that I wouldn't hit the electric fence. My plan had worked!

After a while the numbers of guards had gone to about fifty. The flock could definitely handle that. I looked around for my beloved Ari, and finally I saw him. He didn't look to good, he was on his knees, like he had just fallen. He was in pain…

I rushed over there to see what was happening, and he looked like he was choking. I tried to help him up, but he couldn't talk. He had no strength left in him. I noticed something on the back of his neck, a bunch of numbers. It was a date. Todays date. Then it all hit me… It was his expiration date. NO! Not today! Not this soon!!!!

"Ari listen, I love you! I'll never leave you! I'm here, I'm here," I started sobbing hysterically. My love, my one, my only, he was dying, and there was nothing that I could do about it.

"I LOVE YOU!" I screamed at him, hoping he could still hear. I kept shouting "I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU!" Then, his eyes shut. Now it was his time to be cradled in my arms.

"I love you too," I heard the faintest of a whisper utter from his mouth. Then, he closed his mouth. He had no strength left within him. He was almost gone. I just sat there, him locked in my arms. I wasn't going to let go. Never.

As time passed, my hysterical sobbing came down to a silent cry. And finally, there was nothing left in him. He stopped breathing. His mouth was closed along with his eyes. His heart slowed and then stopped. He was gone. Gone forever.

At least he knew. At least he knew that I loved him. At least I knew that he loved me too. Yet I still didn't think that I could live without him. I couldn't leave him. I just couldn't. There was no reason for living any longer. Nothing without him. I had been searching for years, just for this.

I saw Jeb, and Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel. I saw the Director. I saw hundreds of faces, but not the one I wanted to see. I wanted to see my Ari, still alive and living. I wanted to see him smile at me. I wanted to feel his arms wrapped around me. I wanted to feel the pressure of his lips on mine. But more than anything, I just wanted to feel his presence. I wanted him to be here once again. I wanted it to all be a crazy nightmare, but I knew it wasn't. It had really happened.

That's when I decided. I saw the arm of a robot, attacked to it, a gun. All I wanted was to be dead. This was my solution. I grabbed the gun, and put it to my head. The last thing I heard was the screaming of everyone around me, still in battle. The last thing I smelled was the gunpowder all around me. The last thing I saw was my sweet, perfect Ari. The last thing I said was "I will always love you, Ari." The last thing I felt was a swift bullet taking me into somewhere better. Some place where I would see him again. Some place where I wouldn't be considered a freak, because everyone had wings. Somewhere we could finally be together. I could finally be with my one, my only, my Ari.

"I will always love you, Ari"