Chapter Thirteen

Iggy awoke on the floor of the cell once again. The side of his face was cold from the water on the floor and his body ached from the stones digging into his back. The clamps on his wrists and ankles were too small, thus making them rub against his skin every time he moved. His wings were wet and once he looked closer, he discovered that his wings had some feathers pulled. But when he studied his wings through one eye, he could see them, he could see the feathers dampened by the cell water, he could see his pale and pruned skin, he could see the cell, see the chains, he could see, through one eye, and then he took a look at his reflection in a puddle.

He saw his golden earring in his ear, his black and red spiked hair, his pale skin, his one blind eye, then he saw the eye he could see through, the eye Jeb had tainted. It had a gray sheen over it, as if it were made of metal. His Iris had a white corona around it and his pupil was a deep red color. The sclera of his eye had the gray, metal color overthrowing it with just a few white spots that broke through. He gasped once he saw the eye he saw through. He raised his fist and punched the water, his hand colliding with the stone floor below but he didn't care, he just wanted to rid himself of the eye he saw in his reflection.

He turned away from the churned water with his head in his hands. He looked up when he heard a whirring sound, to see a camera, peering at him through a black lens. He glared at it, before turning away and slumping against the wall, thinking of the flock, Fail, the eye he saw through.

"Why?" he said in a faint whisper "Why"

He winced when the door was opened and light flooded into his cell. He shielded his eyes from the light till the door slammed shut. The sound echoed in the cell and bounced off the walls, to beat painfully into Iggy's ears. He turned to face the source of the noise. He didn't recognize the whitecoat perfectly but he knew it fit somewhere in his memory of his younger years. Then he heard the whitecoats voice, and recognized him as Jeb.

"How are you Iggy?" He asked, a grin plastered on his face, one that made Iggy's skin crawl.

"Like I've been blown up by one of my own bombs" Iggy retorted, narrowing his eyes at Jeb, who simply grinned wider.

"So... you can see?" He asked, preparing to scribble something down on his clipboard.

"Unfortunately, yes, I just wish the first person I had to see in years wasn't as imbecilic as you, thinking we'll go without a fight" he referred to the flock, and for once, felt a pang of regret since he had left them to find Fail, especially Gazzy, but that made him think, were they looking for him now, or were they still in the forest completely oblivious to his disappearance. He shook his head lightly, of course they were looking for him! But, that would mean that Gazzy had told them his story, and that Fail had to face them. He winced slightly as he imagined how the flock would react against the Eraser even if they believed her side of the tale or not.

Jeb met Iggy with his smile again, but it had faltered somewhat.

"Well..." he began, scowling as he pulled out a flat panel from his coat. He also grabbed a CD from his pocket as well, before sliding the CD into the opening in the side of the panel. The screen of the panel flickered to life and his malicious grin appeared again. He tossed the panel to Iggy, who caught it with fumbling hands, since he hadn't been expecting Jeb to do so.

"Well the second person you'll see in your newfound vision, will bring back some more recent memories" He gestured to the panel with his hand and a nod of his head.

Iggy looked down to the panel, to see the flickering screen and what it displayed. It showed a girl, about his own age, bouncing up and down in a greenish liquid. The girl had short hair, pale skin, and was clad in a white shirt and pants that were loose and were similar to those of an insane asylum, except, they had the Itex logo stamped on the sleeves. There were wires connected to her wrists, ankles, and head, and every now and then a shock would travel through the wires causing her to make the slightest movement of pain, like the clenching of a fist, or gritting teeth. He hadn't seen her before but he could match the description easily. He was looking at Fail, and sudden rage coursed through his body as he saw the state she was in. He looked up to Jeb who was grinning ear to ear by now. He turned on his heels and waved back to Iggy.

"Enjoy the show" he said before opening and slamming the door shut. Iggy glared after the whitecoat he had once trusted, before looking down to the Eraser he believed in. He frowned at the picture, and searched the panel for anything that may give him an idea of where, in Itex, she was. He caught a glimpse of a window, that looked outside to a large pine forest with large mountains in the background. He didn't recognize the landscape or the mountains but he knew some fact that may help find the location. But what really caught his eye were the digital green words in the corner of the screen.

F0873: REEDUCATION

The flock had flown back to the cliff they had stayed at before, all with scowls on their faces and drooped wings that seemed to make no effort to keep them in the air. Total had his head in his forepaws and he was looking over Angel's shoulder back towards Itex. They all felt like they had failed, failed Fail, and had been unable to even guess where Iggy was. Nudge was first to land in the cave. She immediately sulked to the shadowy back to discover the file they had printed from Itex and which she had left at the cave a few days ago. She looked at it, before throwing it aside, deeper into the cave.

The others landed heavily and they all retreated to the cool cave to get out of the scorching sun above. They all sat at certain spots in the cave, all spread out and away from each other, especially Fang who retreated to the darkest corner of the cave and wrapped his wings around himself. They all were troubled about what had happened to the Eraser they still didn't quite trust all the way, and they were worried about Iggy, about what whitecoats were doing to him and even if he had survived the night or not.

Angel was looking at Total as he lay down with his head on the cold stone floor, pondering over the recent events. Max and Gazzy were towards the mouth of the cave and all of them were silent. The blanket of silence that shrouded the cave was new to them. It was a sorrowful silence, worried silence, and fearful silence, which caused them to be in a mode between half-asleep and on edge.

Nudge grew bored, tapping the stone wall and floor with her fingernails, till she spotted the file again. She shrugged, no harm in rereading a file anyway. She picked it up and walked to the other side of the cave to sit down and spread out the papers in front of her. She organized the papers into stacks in categories. One stack was a stack of history, one was of personality, thorough description, special abilities, and so on and so forth. She flipped through the history stack first, not heeding the clues that practically shouted at her. She switched to the personality stack to find that it hardly explained what Fail was. It said that she had a quick temper, easy to anger, and hard to convince. Hard to keep under control less with a good reason. Asks many questions and is very outgoing.

Nudge thought Fail as awfully hard to upset or even get a flicker of anger out of her and show it to have proof. She thought her rather shy less she was hyper, definitely not what the stack had said. Then she reached the description stack and finally realized their mistake.

In the basic description it sounded like Fail, dark hair, yellow eyes, but then she reached height. It said she was 5'10" and Nudge knew she was at least two inches shorter. Then she reached to more advanced description. In the gender area it said Male, and in the name area, it said, Experiment F0872, not F0873. She jumped up when she made this discovery, and had hit her head on the ceiling of the cave in the process.

She ignored the jolt of pain and rushed to the center of the cave, flailing the file in her hands.

"We were wrong!" she said excitedly. The flock looked at her questionably.

"Wrong about what?" Max asked, standing up to approach Nudge.

Nudge pointed to the file

"This isn't Fail!" she said, tracing her finger under the name and gender text.

"This is experiment F0872, Fail is F0873!" The flock widened their eyes at this news.

"Then" Fang said from the back of the cave "where and who is this F0872?"

"Well..." Nudge began, tracing her finger over the paper of personality, history and description. She stumbled back slightly after she saw pictures flash in her head from her ability that she took pride in.

"This, everyone" she said in a formal tone, holding up the file for all to see "Is the second new and improved Eraser and-"