Chapter Fourteen

Jeb had watched him as he slept on the stone floor, watched as he woke and discovered his vision, and watched as he punched the floor. But he stopped watching when Iggy turned towards the camera, his new eye glaring at the camera as if seeing through it. Jeb turned from the screen with his skin crawling. He snatched up the panel and CD and walked from his office to head towards Iggy's cell.

Ari watched his father go off towards the cell of the avian boy before turning around to peer into the cell from the camera. He watched as Jeb entered, spoke, and tossed the panel to Iggy. He grinned widely when he saw the teens eyes widen as he looked into the screen of the panel. Then chuckled when Iggy had his jaw hanging open as he probably spotted the green words that told him F0873 was currently being reeducated.

"Does something amuse you?" A cold but familiar voice reached his ears. He turned around to see the feminine figure of Anne. He bowed his head slightly before gesturing to the screen

"Just watching the avian kid" he said, then spotted the suitcase at her side. He lifted a brow at this then looked at Anne. Jeb appeared behind Anne who turned to him to explain the business matters. Ari narrowed his eyes at her, as she lowered her voice so he couldn't hear her.

He growled under his breath, she never wanted the Erasers to hear, and for some odd reason she didn't want him to hear, especially him. Jeb saw Ari glare at Anne and met his son with a stern gaze. Ari scoffed at this and turned around to look over the various camera screens.

Meanwhile, Anne was explaining to Jeb about Itex, Arizona, and the meaning of her suitcase at her side.

"So I will be heading out to Arizona to The Pack and will be leaving you in charge of Itex for the meantime"

Jeb was nodding his head slowly as she spoke quite rapidly. She lifted up her arm to look at her watch.

"My flight leaves in an hour, I expect that Iggy be here, alive and well, by the time of my return in eight days" she said, making Jeb nod once again.

"He'll be here" he said tersely, before letting Anne pass him to head for the exit with her suitcase rolling behind her. He watched her, before sighing and turning around.

"This'll be a long week" he groaned, before peering through the camera into Iggy's cell.

Fail had been out cold for roughly five hours before she had woken from the tranquilizer dart. She tried to wipe away the sweat line that had developed while she was out cold, but found that she couldn't. From her wrist to forearm, on both her arms, was latched in a thick metal with two sets of chains leading up to the ceiling of the cage. Her feet didn't quite reach the ground and she left herself hanging most of the time. The cage that surrounded her was made from bars and beams, and was rather small and painted all black.

She took the chance to look around, to find herself in the storage area of a jet. There were hardly any suitcases on board and the place was rather small, meaning it was a private jet (obviously). She saw two Erasers standing guard at the entrance and both were watching her. One she recognized, and the other she didn't know of. The first one was one of the 'Betas' of the pack, and known as simply, Joe. The second was definitely one of the newest ones, since he seemed to be on edge and extremely cautious and had begun to grow pale when he saw Fail's golden eyes looking at him.

Joe saw his companions uneasiness but was grinning widely when he saw that Fail was awake. He walked towards the cage she was kept and stood in front of it. He had to look up to see Fail's face, since he was 5'6" and she 5'8" with the fact of the cage holding her up a few more inches, but, nevertheless, he was grinning widely.

"G'evening to ya F0873"

"Don't call me that" Fail had growled at him and turned her head to look at him with pure hatred in her eyes. Her vision swam slightly and thats when she took heed of the small buzz in the back of her skull. So they had drugged her?

Great she thought just when I thought things couldn't possibly go worse.

"Whatever" Joe replied, shrugging lightly before grinning again "So... what did ya think bout' that flock you was stayin' with? Specially that blind one" he asked, light dancing in his eyes as he saw Fail's reaction.

She gripped the chains above her head, lifted herself up and forward a bit to peer down on Joe, her face full of hatred, her eyes narrowed and her teeth gritted.

"Don't you dare" she growled "or else..." she looked as if she wanted to sink her teeth into his flesh then and there, on the ground or in the air, she just wanted to cause him pain.

He met her glare with a chuckle

"Why the heck not?" he asked rhetorically "I mean, why not speak of that night nearly two-" he was broken off when Fail kicked him, hard, in the chest. His breath was knocked out of him and he held a hand to his chest, as if to try and force breath into him. A few seconds later he began to choke as air returned to him. He leaned against the wall for support, and once he was breathing properly, he whirled around to glare at her and fumble for a small remote in his shirt pocket.

Once he got hold of the remote he pressed a small red button with a white lightning bolt on it. A slight buzzing was heard from the thick metal clamps that held Fail, then electricity surged from them into her. She grunted and pulled herself up and arched her back, as if to curl herself up as if to try and numb the pain. She bit her lip, drawing blood, and a tear formed out of the corner of her eye and trickled down her face to her neck.

Joe released the remote and the pain stopped surging through her and she let go of the chains above her, exhaustion overwhelming her. She felt as if all her energy had been drained from her, and not even the rage could get her to make much effort to say a few short words.

"You'll pay for that" she growled lowly.

The Eraser just narrowed his eyes at her

"I think we're even" he replied before turning around and returning to his post with the other Eraser who was wide-eyed.

Fail growled after him, narrowing her eyes at him before looking away to peer through a small window. She saw clouds, blue sky, light of the sun, and land far beneath the jet. Sometime during the flight she slipped into dreams, and woke when the jet made a rather hard landing that jolted her awake. She looked out the window to see the asphalt of a runway of an airport, as with people wearing neon orange vests. There were no buildings insight thus giving her the idea that this was a private runway.

She looked at the door, to find both the Eraser guards were gone. Then the sound of something large opening echoed in her ears. She looked down to see that the floor close to her cage was sloping down into a ramp. Luggage that had previously been on the ramp slid down. A corner of her cage was over the ramp, and an idea sparked in her head.

She swung back and forth, putting all her weight against that corner till it started to fall. The cage slid down the ramp with an eerie squeak and when it hit the ground, she was hoping for escape, but the clamps on her arms and the cage door was apparently well secured.

"Be careful with that!" A voice commanded as the cage slid down the ramp and struck the asphalt on it's side. She hit the ground by her back and she groaned as pain rocketed through her body.

The people with the neon vests were looking at her, with wide eyes, but they made no notion to run, but quickly turned to get the rest of the luggage. They had an Eraser look to them hence the explanation why they hadn't turned and run to call the police. Two Erasers set the cage straight, one of them Fail recognized as Merc. He was grinning at her, with eyes that danced with ideas of torture and pain. He opened his mouth to say something but was caught off guard when Fail lashed out at him.

She kicked him in the chest, just as she had done with Joe, but this time, had grown her Eraser claws and dug them into his shirt to pull him against the bars of the cage and rake his skin.

"Where is he?" She demanded, referring to Iggy since Merc was the one to take him away.

The other Eraser had been the new one that had been guarding the door with Joe, and who stepped back a few paces from the cage when he saw Fail lash out. Merc, on the other hand, scowled and looked at her, growling as he reached with his hand to curl around her neck in a flash.

"Mercaine!" A whitecoat that had just stepped out of the plane shouted from a few yards away, not wanting to get any closer. Merc ignored him and gripped tighter on Fail's neck, causing her to force air through her instead of breathing regularly. She clawed at Merc through the bars, scoring his skin a few times before electricity surged through her. Her muscles clenched as the pain shot through her, but she was grinning, which made Merc look at her with confusion.

"Payback" she said before electricity charged forth from her body to surge through his.

He yelped and struggled to get away, and eventually tore away from her grip, leaving half his shirt in her claws. He was breathing heavily, and three black marks were on his chest where Fail had grabbed him.

The whitecoat that had pressed the electric button was looking rather shocked at the result of one of his high rank Erasers getting electrified as well; even though he was a whitecoat who should've known that would happen. Fail was grinning as she swung back to hit the back of the cage. The electricity subsided and her heart rate slowly began to climb down the chart.

"What, in the world, just happened?" A man in a gray business suit and stripped tie came rushing from a car parked a ways away with a briefcase in hand. The whitecoat with the remote to trigger Fail's electrocution immediately hid the remote behind his back, looked at the man and straightened his back.

"F0873 attacked Mercaine-" Fail heard a small mutter from Merc.

"It's Merc, not Mercaine" he growled but the whitecoat nor the man with the briefcase seemed to have heard him.

"and Mercaine attacked back, Sir"

"So why is Mercaine on the ground?" The man asked, gesturing to Merc who was still on the ground propping himself up on his elbows.

"Err... the electric clamps must've slightly malfunctioned resulting in both Mercaine and F0873 to be electrocuted, Sir."

The man lifted a brow at this, rolled his eyes and looked at Fail.

"So this is the rebellious one?"

"Yes Sir."

"Here for reeducation and combat training, yes?"

"Yes Sir"

"Good, now hurry up and get her out of here!" and as if on queue a semi pulled up next to the jet and the back opened up for shipping.

A forklift came up behind Fail's cage to lift it up to be loaded onto the semi. The semi was rather small, only meant for smaller things, like the cage Fail was in, and had many holes in it meant for the shipment to breath. The hatch closed, and the engine started up, and Fail couldn't say she enjoyed the ride.

The semi was obviously driving on a dirt road, with the crunch of gravel a constant noise and the tires going over small lumps and ditches in the ground. The cage was thrown about, but the space was too small for it to tip over. She was frustrated that the door of the cage wouldn't bash open from the road, nor the fall from jet to runway, it just wouldn't budge, even after she kicked at it several times over. It was dented now and she was still exhausted from the electric shock and now the beating of the cage.

Then the last ditch in the road came and the semi came to a halt. The hatch was opened, and the cage was taken out. The cage door was opened by the man in the business suit, who raised a brow at the dented metal. He looked Fail up and down, before reaching up to untangle the chains causing her to drop to her feet.

"Don't try to run F0873" The man said as he tied the chains together creating a makeshift pair of handcuffs on Fail.

Fail snorted at this, but then she turned around and went slightly wide-eyed. There, in the middle of a vast pine forest, was a three-story building with a large courtyard in the front with a wall surrounding it.

"Welcome to The Pack, Eraser training and reeducation grounds" The man said grabbing the trailing chain and leading Fail into the courtyard with three Erasers behind her. Inside the courtyard there were Erasers, abouta hundred of them, and training in hand to hand combat. The sound of strikes hitting wood died down when the courtyard doors swung open. The Erasers turned their head to see the newcomers. Most raised a brow when they saw Fail, some were grinning widely, nudging each other to whisper a small conversation, and others just turned away to continue training.

The man lead Fail through the courtyard quickly, to get into the building on the other side. The building had wood flooring, with red wood paneling on the walls. The doors were all the same color as the paneling and the only way to tell the wall and doors apart was the golden knobs on the doors. Cameras were peering around the hall, one following the group of four Erasers and the man in the business suit.

The man lead Fail to an elevator, went up to the third story, and so walked on. The third story looked similar to a hospital. White walls, white tile floor, the doors were gray and most had small windows in them. But then they turned a corner and the tile faded to carpet, the doors were now made of thick metal with numbers ranging from 1-10 on them. At the beginning of the hall there was a green luminescent sign with the word 'REEDUCATION' in green, digital letters.

At door 7 the group turned into the room, the Erasers stayed out in the hall to watch while Fail and the man stood in the room. At first it was pitch black, then the lights flickered on, illuminating the room causing Fail to blink a few times in order to get used to the light. Her eyes went wide when she saw what was on the other side of the room. A tank, a similar one that she had been in in Itex before her escape, before she found Iggy, before she was shot in the shoulder. A shiver was sent up her spine, and before she could turn around and run or attack the man, she felt a needle dig deep in her neck with a green liquid in it that was pushed into her bloodstream.

"This'll help you relax." The man whispered in her ear, disposing of the remains of the liquid into Fail. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her body went, limp, and next, she felt herself crash to the floor and there was nothing she could do about it, as wires were attached to her, and she was thrown into the tank, left there as the images flashed in her head, and pain shot through her every now and then when she attempted to turn from the images, to block them out, to protect herself from reeducation. She failed.