POV Switch

It had been a few days, probably, but I didn't actually know because I didn't have a watch or a clock or anything else. But considering my sleeping habits hadn't changed much, I could pretty much figure out how long we'd been stuck in there.

I kept trying to understand how we'd gotten captured in the first place. The last thing I remember from before the black Lexus is the fight I had with Kaito. Jeez, that was intense. I mean, a lot of our fights are, but that was particularly intense. So I had flown away, as you probably know. And I was in the forest. And I was just flying around and finding different trees that I could hide in, in case of a future event like this. I actually found a few great spots, if you're interested. But anyways, I was flying around and I landed to take a break for a minute. Then I heard leaves rustling behind me. I turned to look, but didn't see anything. I paused and listened, but I heard nothing more.

"Whoever is following me, just go away!" I shouted. I knew someone was there. It might've been Tara, or Crevice, or possibly Smosh. But I wasn't sure. Then I heard leaves crunching from behind me, in the opposite direction they had been before. I whirled around. "Who's there?! Go away!" I stood still but again heard nothing. Then I heard laughter. It was too low to be anyone other than Smosh, and even that was unlikely. He never really followed people out into the woods after an intense fight and laughed at them evilly. It just wasn't his personality type. I knew that I needed to scram. I unfurled my wings quickly, my heart beating really fast, but before I could even take a running start, I heard more branches snap and suddenly there were four Erasers surrounding me.

All four of them charged at once, and I shouldn't have been able to do what I did next. I round-house kicked one of them in the chest, knocking him down. Then I whirled around and punched another one in the face. He whined a little, and I punched him again. He backed away and I continued. The third was right in front of me as I turned so I jumped back, thrusting my elbow straight into the stomach of the fourth Eraser. He groaned and scratched me as he doubled over. His claws raked a huge gash on my arm and I cringed. And that was about the time when my luck ran out. The third Eraser moved in and grinned horrifically, letting his huge teeth show. Then the Eraser that I had punched in the face was back up, his snout dripping with dark red blood. I heard the first Eraser get up too, and a quick glance to my left showed me that he was very unhappy that I had kicked him. I backed up quickly, but the fourth Eraser stuck his booted foot out and tripped me, and I fell on my butt. I squirmed and got up as fast as I could and tried to take off right there, but the third Eraser already had a hold of one of my wings. I yelped as I was yanked back to the ground. Then he grabbed my other wing and pinned them together, not showing any care that they were bent the wrong way and that I was in immense pain. The other Erasers closed in on me. I tried to squirm, but every move I made twisted my wings more. After a few seconds of squirming, I gave up with that approach.

One of the Erasers –the one I had punched- laughed. It sounded like he was trying to swallow gravel. "Ooh, we're gonna have fun with her," he said. He inched closer and spat blood on my shoe. I tried to jump up and kick him in the… Actually, anywhere, really. I almost did, in fact, but the Eraser grabbed my shoe and twisted my foot. I groaned as I felt my ankle crack. I flailed my arms in any direction, trying to hit anyone. One of the Erasers at my right grabbed my right arm and dug his claws into my wrist. I felt hot tears burn my eyes and slide down my cheeks as I screamed out.

"Man, she's really feisty," the Eraser with my wings said. "I like that." He bent down and snipped at my ear, and I jerked away.

"Just throw her in the car already," said the one with my arm. "We don't have all day."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," said the one with my wings. "Let's go."

He started dragging me backwards and the others walked with him. I felt blood run down both my arms and tears blurred my vision. Somewhere in the distance I heard screams. I could hear howls from what I think were Erasers and curses from almost definitely Kaito. I couldn't decide what was happening from where I was.

I squirmed again and thrashed and tried to kick, punch, bite, do anything that would get me out, but the Eraser who didn't have his paws on me pulled a burlap sack out of a bag which I hadn't noticed he had. He came closer and tried to thrust it over my head, but I kept moving around. He raised his furry hand and whacked me on the head. For a second, spots danced around my vision, but unfortunately for me, that second was long enough for him to work the sack over my head and chest. He –well, probably him, but I couldn't see his face through the sack- hit me on the head again, and pain coursed through my skull. I felt more tears run down my face, and bit my lip to keep from crying out too loudly. He pulled the sack further down my body. I shrieked as loudly as I could to try to get someone, anyone, to hear me as the Erasers dragged me along. Soon my throat hurt from screaming and I was thrown onto something somewhat soft. I bumped into something, but it was comfortable enough, and I knew they had already taken me and that there was nothing I could do, so I just closed my eyes and choked back my tears.

Apparently I had fallen asleep, and I was having a really weird dream. Kaito was dancing around me, a syringe in his hand, with gray liquid in it, and I knew what it was right away. My doses always looked just like that. He smiled at me but then shoved the needle into his own arm. Then I was really confused. His face and body started morphing, changing until I was looking at a mirror image of myself. It was really unnerving and I realized that that was how everyone must feel when I morphed like them. He grinned at me –or I grinned at myself?- and opened his mouth to speak.

"Shouldn't have been let out of his cage along with the rest of us," he –I?- said.

He pulled out the needle again, which had been magically refilled, and thrust it into his arm again. He morphed into Crevice and blinked as if he were confused.

"Oh!" he said after a moment. "There you are! I thought I'd lost you!"

"Lost me?" I asked. "I've been here the whole time. Are you Crevice, or Kaito?"

He smiled at me. "Who do you want me to be?" He licked his lips. His face stayed the same, but then his eyes flashed Kaito's mysterious blue for a second and I backed away.

"That's not what I want to know!" I said. "I want to know who you are, not who I want you to be!"

"Well, then, I can't help you, dearie."

Dearie? No one ever calls me 'dearie'.

He morphed again into the shape of an Eraser, but one of his eyes was Crevice's deep, soothing brown, and the other was Kaito's energetic blue. The Eraser snarled at me and lunged, and my eyes flashed open.

I was in a car, I realized after a few seconds. I was crammed in between Atia and Crevice, and my arms were pinned behind my back. I started to panic, after I remembered what had happened earlier, and after I realized how close everyone was to me. That is, too close. I was a little claustrophobic, as you would be if you had been raised in a dog crate your whole life. Atia was staring at me.

Now, I'm pretty sure you've heard this part of the story, so I won't repeat it. I was freaking out and trying to wake up Crevice so he could help us get out of there. Atia kicked me and started making noises as if she were trying to say something. Of course, I was impatient. I knew where we were going and I didn't like it, and half of the family was missing, and I wasn't telepathic or anything, so it's not like we could contact each other. Then a man sitting in the passenger seat started yelling at us and took out a syringe. After he shoved it into my shoulder, I started to fell dizzy, and I fell back in my seat as my consciousness slipped away.

Later, I woke up in a cage, cramps all throughout my body. The room was white but not bright, and I sat up groggily, trying to make sense of everything. Nothing was really clear to me, any of the room's details, another person in a cage across the room. The person looked at me, but it was as if I was looking at them from underwater: everything was shaky and blurry. I rubbed my eyes and that cleared it up a little. The person turned out to be Atia, and all my memories came flooding back to me.

I'm sure you've heard this part of the story too, so I won't repeat it.

So anyways, back to where I started, we'd been in there for what was probably a few days, but I didn't know for sure. I was sitting in a room all by myself, on white tile flooring, waiting for something else to happen. It was freezing in there, and actually, probably colder than freezing. Literally. The Whitecoats had brought each of us in here to test how much cold and heat we could withstand. I'd already done the 'heat' test, which was awful, but probably not as awful as this.

The lab clothes that they gave us were so thin. They neither provided nor contained any heat whatsoever. We might as well have been butt-naked. I sat on the floor, my arms wrapped around my legs, and my wings stretched around my body. My teeth were chattering as much as Artie does. My nose was dripping and my throat hurt from breathing in freezing air. My lungs stung so badly. My fingers were frozen, and so were the tips of my wings, my nose, my ears, and my bare feet. I know, people say that if you keep moving, you don't get as cold, but I hadn't the energy to move around. The most I could do was rub my frozen hands together and flutter my wings a bit. I sat there and thought about life; about how terrible mine was, and I had to stop the tears from flowing before they could freeze. I sat there for another minute, thinking about my family and everything they'd done for me. I wanted to remember everything about them in case I never got out.

Another few minutes passed, and I decided to try a new approach. I got up and walked to the only door in the room. I knocked on it and ignored the tingling sensation my fingers got.

"Please," I said quietly. I cleared my throat and continued. "I give up. Just let me out."

No response. Great.

"Please…"

I closed my eyes and sunk to the floor again. I curled up in a ball and shivered. I just wanted to die right there. If I died, I wouldn't care. I felt like I died right there, actually. Everything got dark, darker than it was when my eyes were closed, somehow. And I felt peaceful there, being dead.

Unfortunately, I woke up again, and it turns out I hadn't died. I was back in my cage, but it must not have been too much longer, because my feet and wings still felt cold and I was still shivering a bit. Atia looked at me pitifully from across the room. I saw Crevice looking at me from inside his box.

"Geez," he said. "Are you alright?"

I just stared at him. What the hell kind of question was that?! 'Are you alright?' Of course not! I nearly froze to death!

"Yeah, I'm fine," I lied.

"You sure? You're skin is a little blue. Literally."

I sniffed. "Yeah. Yeah." I looked down at the bottom of my cage and tapped on the metal with my numb fingers. "Anything happen while I was gone?"

"Nothing except the usual torture."

I nodded and shivered. Then we heard footsteps from down the hall.

"… negative 4 degrees! Outstanding!" somebody said.

"I know! I can't wait to see how much the others can withstand," somebody else said.

I rolled my eyes as they walked into the room.

They bent down by my cage. "Hey, little girl," one of them said. He had sandy brown hair and glasses that slipped down his nose. (Author's Note: Juliette, he looks like a certain kid at school. You should know who. If you need a hint: he got his head bashed into the table by James in 7th grade. But I won't say his name here.) He was talking to me like I was a frightened puppy or something. "You did really great in there," he said. "We're going to see how much your little friends can endure later. Don't worry; you're done for the day."

I would've found his words a little reassuring except for the fact that A: he was a Whitecoat, and B: he was so obviously faking it. You could hear it in the tone of his voice. He was treating me like an animal.

"Go to hell," I said simply. "I don't need your fake pity, and I don't need, nor do I want you to treat me like your pet dog. So just go away"

He looked at his Whitecoat friend as if he were surprised that I could speak comprehensively. His friend shrugged and bent down to my cage.

"You're cute, thinking that we care what you say to us," he said. He opened the cage door and stuck his hand in. I don't know what he was trying to do, but whatever it was, I didn't give him the chance. I grabbed it quickly and twisted his wrist. I heard something crack and he shrieked, which was really funny to hear. The other scientist called for Erasers.

Erasers came storming into the room and I let go of the Whitecoat's hand before they could see what was happening. The Whitecoat stood up, slammed the cage door shut, and rubbed his wrist. He cursed and gave an order to the Erasers.

"Choose which one we test next," he said to them. "And make it fun for yourself. Whoever you chose will have less fun than you had, Girl." He didn't look at me while he said the last sentence, but it was clearly meant for me.

"Yes, sir," one of the three Erasers said.

The Whitecoat gave me the death stare, and I flipped him off before he and his friend walked away.

The Eraser who had spoken bent down by my cage. "Which one should we test next, freak?"

I backed away, as far as I could in my cage. He grinned disturbingly and rattled my cage.

"This one?" He pointed to Atia, who was watching cautiously and observantly. She looked me in the eyes and silently pleaded to me. I could feel my face contort in sorrow and worry for her. "Or this one?" he said, pointing to Crevice's box. I felt my eyes widen in fear of the Erasers or Whitecoats hurting Crevice. I opened my mouth and then clamped it shut again, afraid of saying anything stupid.

The Eraser grinned and motioned to the other two. One went to Atia's cage, and the other walked to Crevice's box.

"Which one?" the first Eraser said, still near my cage. "Choose, sweetie."

Choose? How could I choose?! I thought about both of my options, not liking either. Then I realized that my focus had trained on Crevice automatically.

"Great!" the Eraser by my cage said. "The boy it is!"

"No! Wait!" I said.

"Are you changing your choice?" the Eraser asked.

"Well…" I couldn't decide. If I let them take Atia… She'd already suffered so much. But if I chose Crevice, I would never be able to forgive myself. How could I choose one over the other? Atia's cage was always next to mine, and we shared a room and stuff. We had gotten close. But Crevice… I loved him too much to do that to him.

"I'll go," Crevice said. "Just take me. Leave her alone." He looked at me and his expression never changed. He looked indifferent to everything going on. Of course, I knew that was not the case. But he didn't show it.

The Eraser by his box pounded on the side. "That's a good boy," he said. He lifted up one end of the box and stated dragging it across the floor.

"No! Crevice!" I cried. "Don't take him!"

"Take her?" the first Eraser said, motioning to Atia.

"No! Don't take her!" I said. I pounded my fist on the floor of my cage. "I can't choose!"

Crevice winced and shook his head at me. I realized then that this was probably the worst thing I could've said.

"Now, I know it seems like there were no right answers in this situation," the first Eraser said, "but that was definitely the least right answer you could have given us. Since you can't choose, you won't have to." He smiled even more and snapped to the other Erasers. Then both Crevice and Atia were carried out.

"No!" I cried. "No!"

All I heard were laughs from Erasers and cages being dragged across the floor as they left the room. I curled up and cried, knowing that they were both gone because of my stupidity, and knowing that I had angered the Whitecoats, and that neither the Whitecoats nor the Erasers cared if Crevice and Atia were being hurt. I cried because I was even more alone than I had been. Then I cried because I was angry at myself for crying about this. I cried myself to sleep that day.

When I woke up again, Crevice and Atia were back. Neither of them was awake. I sighed and sat up. I extended my wings as much as they would go in this cage and rubbed my eyes. I got a few hours of peace and quiet. But, of course, it didn't last.

Later, my cage was pulled into a different white room. There was one table, one Whitecoat, and four Erasers. On the table was a syringe. It was filled with gray liquid. On it was a label that read "LIQUID METAMORPHOSE: HANDLE WITH CARE. SUBJECT 14".

One of the Erasers opened my cage, but I didn't come out. He shook it, but I still didn't leave. He and another actually had to flip it upside-down, so that I was dangling from the bars, and shake the cage so that I fell out. The Whitecoat smiled at the Erasers and nodded. He, thankfully, wasn't one of the Whitecoats from the day before. He picked up the syringe off the table.

As if on cue, the Erasers all charged at me and each one grabbed an arm or a leg. I squirmed and unfurled my wings. One of them was so startled he dropped my leg. I stood up and kicked at the other leg-holding Eraser. I pulled my foot out from his grasp. I flapped my wings a few times as hard as I could, and the other Erasers let go of my arms rather than get hit by my massive wings. They were about 16 feet across, fully expanded.

I flew up in the air a few feet, but I really couldn't go anywhere.

"Erasers!" the Whitecoat shouted. "Get her!"

Two of them grabbed my feet and yanked me down. I was practically slammed on the floor, and the Erasers all acted quickly. One pinned my legs down, another held me at the waist, the third held both my wings and arms out on either side of me. The fourth held my shoulders pressed against the floor. I tried to squirm, but it did nothing. Then the Whitecoat came over to me, needle in hand, and bent over. He shoved the needle into my left arm. Then the Erasers all let go of me. I stated morphing, I could feel it.

It hurt so badly. The Liquid Metamorphose burned in my veins and I cried out. And not to mention that morphing was painful, too. It wasn't when I was doing it on my own, but when I wasn't doing it by choice, when my doses were forcing me to, it hurt like crazy. I mean, think about it. My bones are changing their structure. My skin is stretching, my muscles are tearing, expanding, shrinking. It really hurts. I screamed so loudly I was sure Crevice and Atia could hear me, from wherever they were. And of course my voice changes too. That is always really weird. After a few minutes, the pain was gone, and I looked up.

"Ah, perfect," the Whitecoat said. He pulled out a mirror from a drawer in the table and held it up to me. I looked just like him. Same dark hair, tan skin, rounded nose, freckles. Same everything. I slowly shook my head as the Whitecoat took notes in a notepad. He mumbled stuff to himself as he wrote. After a minute, he said, "Thank you. We're done for today."

I only nodded and crawled back in my cage. The Erasers didn't even have to force me or anything. There was no point in fighting back, at least not in this tiny room, when keeping this look was draining all my energy, even though I wasn't even trying to keep it. I let the Erasers lock me in and drag me back to our room. As we moved, I tried to memorize the hallways, but each one was almost identical to the others.

When we got back to our room, the Erasers dropped the cage on the floor and left.

"Switch?" Crevice asked.

"Yeah?" I said.

"Is that you? You look weird."

"You need to work on your flattery. Girls don't like it when you say they look weird," I said.

His lips curled a little. "I'll think about that the next time I'm hitting on a random girl."

I nodded. Atia smiled at us. Then she froze. Crevice and I took that as a sign to shut up and listen for anything suspicious. Then we heard it.

There were thumps from the air vents. Then voices. Nothing to loud, just barely loud enough for a bird-kid with super hearing to hear it. Crevice and I both lifted our heads towards the ceiling where the noises were loudest.

"Where are they, do you think?" I heard slightly. It was unmistakably Artie.

"How the hell should we know? Now shut up." Definitely Kaito.

I smiled more than I had in days. I saw Atia smile almost more than I'd ever seen. Crevice looked so excited and hopeful. I could feel my face and body contorting back to its original shape and form, which was a relief. I was really happy and wanted to get out so desperately, I almost cried when I heard Tara say "Guys, look! Down there!" and her voice carried even louder out from one of the vents above us.