A/N: Sorry for the wait! I've gotten really behind with sports and school, so I didn't have a lot of time to write.
Just some clearance – in chapter one, what was going on with Max's arm was her chip being put in, as many of you got. Next is Iggy!
One: It goes without saying that Iggy thinks that out of all of his family, he was hurt worst by the School. Becoming blind at age five was the worst thing that could have happened to him. Sight was more important at the School than anywhere else. If you couldn't see the Erasers, you were more likely to get torn up. If you couldn't see the whitecoats, you didn't know when to shrink up against the cage and make yourself invisible. If you couldn't see, you might end up killing yourself, because you would end up dead anyway, and everyone knew that it was better to die by your own hand than by the hand of the psychos at the School.
He had seen it happen before, when he hadn't lost his sight yet and still thought that nothing that horrible would ever happen to him, even if he was kept in this hellhole. They had taken away one of the human/ursus hybrids for improving – they wanted to attempt to give him heat vision, and it obviously went horribly wrong. Without going into too much detail, they ended up having to surgically remove his eyes from all of the damage that had been done, and instead of replacing them with fake eyes, they sewed his eyelids shut. The bear genes in the kid had given him permanent claws, and he had fresh claw marks across his face from trying to take out the stitches for the next two weeks before he died. He thought that if he got out the stitches, he'd be able to see. It had broken Iggy's heart – and then, a month later, the same thing had happened to him.
Two: Iggy used to love staring out of the window of his section. He watched the cloud formations and the birds flying by. There was one bird that perched on the wide window sill outside every day. It had made its nest there, and Iggy would talk to it in a low voice. The blond girl and the dark boy he talked to sometimes, but not as much as they talked to each other. That was okay. He kept himself occupied at his window, just soaking up the sights and talking to his bird. It was the only way that he didn't die of boredom.
He had liked a blond lady. She had been nice to him, had gained his trust. When she came to his cage, he actually lifted his arms, asking to be picked up. When he went with her, there were no bad tests. He would be rewarded, or smiled at, or something else good would happen. Of course she had been the perfect pick for the director of that particular School to send for Iggy. If she had said, "Jump off of a cliff with your wings tucked in – trust me!" - He would have done what she said without a second thought. He had been stupid to trust her, he thinks now. The director knew that Iggy would go with her without a fight, unlike for the other whitecoats in the building. It made taking away his sight easier.
It wasn't until he was strapped down on the table that he began to suspect that something was wrong. "It'll all be over soon," crooned the lady whitecoat. "I promise. We're making you better." Iggy relaxed. If she said it was okay, it always was. He drifted off to sleep under the influence of a drug, wondering what new thing was going to happen now. It couldn't be that bad, if she had said it.
"Open your eyes," said a dreamy voice awhile later. It seemed like it came from very far away, and Iggy wanted to open his eyes and see who it was that was talking to him. His eyelids felt like they were made of lead, and it took some effort to open them. Still, all he could see was black – not even a slit of light. "Good job," said the whitecoat. "Can you tell me what you see?"
"Not all the way open," mumbled Iggy, still somewhat sedated by the drug. Couldn't she tell that his eyes weren't wide open? He couldn't see anything.
"Yes, they are," said the voice, confused. "What do you see?"
The drug's effect began to wear off more, and Iggy was able to groggily sit up. He touched his eyes – they were wide open. But he still couldn't see.
His stomach dropped. Why couldn't he see? His breathing came quicker and his heart sped up. "I can't see," he realized. "I can't see! Why can't I see? Make it go away!"
"Quiet!" said a new voice, a deep male one with an accent. "Marian, what did you do?"
"I didn't do anything wrong, it was probably you who messed it up, Roland, you never pay full attention to what you do! You've ruined it!" said the blond lady's voice angrily. "All the hard work, the research, the planning, all of it's gone down the drain because of you!"
"I swear I'm going to have you stationed somewhere else - Germany or something-" said the male voice again. They continued to argue in loud voices, completely ignoring Iggy.
Later, he was dumped roughly back in his cage, which only made the tears flow faster. He could hear the other two in his area crawl to the front of their respective cages, trying to see what happened. He tried desperately to match a picture to the sounds, but he was too distraught to even continue down that train of thought, and gave up, sinking into a corner and wrapping skinny arms around his legs.
"What's wrong?" asked the girl, concern lacing her voice.
"I can't see," he sobbed. "I can't see! They said they'd make me better, but it didn't work…" He curled up in a ball in the corner of his crate, just wanting to be left alone.
Later, he could hear his bird perch on his windowsill and chirp questioningly, but he couldn't see it anymore.
Three: He constantly wonders what the rest of his siblings look like. He remembers Max – the five year old Max – distantly, and he has an idea of what she looks like now from touching her face, seeing with his fingers. He remembers Fang, and has a guess at what he looks like now, but using his hands to 'see' Fang is a little weird and awkward, so he doesn't do it. But Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel he's never seen before, ever. He wants desperately to have a mental picture that's real, and not just one that he guesses at. Max has told him, many times, what they all look like, but it's not the same. He loves the new power that he's gotten – the power to know color by touch – because it helps him visualize things so much better. He'd wondered the exact shade of Nudge's skin for awhile now, anyway. Yeah, so that sounds weird. But think about it – if you'd never seen half of your family before, wouldn't you wonder?
And, in his defense, there are a lot of different shades of black. He's not sure which one Nudge is. Okay, that didn't come out quite the way he wanted it to…it sounded really racist. He's just going to shut up now before he gets sued or something crazy.
Four: He makes the bombs because he likes the satisfaction – there's nothing cooler than hearing a huge boom from something that you made yourself – but he also makes them to feel like he does something useful. If he didn't make them with Gazzy, he would feel like dead weight. Sure, he has great hearing, but so do the others. And Fang is pretty good with a lock pick, so there goes that skill. But he is the only one who can build a bomb from almost nothing, the one that can deactivate a bomb in little to no time depending on the difficulty level, and that is the only thing that keeps him on the safe side of sanity.
Gazzy might be getting good at bomb making, but Iggy hasn't quite taught him everything that he knows yet.
Five: Max wasn't the only one who Lissa bugged the crap out of – he couldn't stand her. He had no idea if she was hot or not (according to Fang, she was kind of pretty, but you could never trust him – he was too obsessed with Max) but God, her voice – that voice could drown out a whole hallway of people, and it was so high pitched it hurt his ears. It made it really hard to concentrate on Fang's footsteps in the hallway when Lissa was with them chattering away. Of course Fang didn't say anything, and he was the reason that she was even hanging around them – so he let Iggy do all of the "Yeahs" and "Okays" and "Whatever you say"-s of it all. Not. Fun.
Gee, thanks, Fang. Just leave him with chatterbox. She was as bad as Nudge, but Nudge's voice he could tune out. Lissa…well, not so much.
Six: Angel is freaking frightening. Come on, the kid can read minds, control minds, shape shift…is he missing anything? Probably…oh, yeah, breathing underwater, talking to fish, and now he thinks he has everything. Even for them, it's not normal. He seriously believed that she had betrayed them when they had been taken – who else was young enough for the School to corrupt? Who else was powerful enough for the School to want them back? (Well, Max, of course – but everyone wanted her, it seemed like.) He loves Angel like the sister he never had – but sometimes he's not sure if he can fully trust her. You just can never tell with that child, you really can't. He feels, like, insanely guilty, but there it is.
Seven: The funniest, absolute funniest moment of his life was when he and Gazzy blew up Max's Mickey Mouse clock. If only he could have seen the look on her face – Gazzy told him that she was pissed. He can imagine it now – face screwed up, eyes wild, mouth gaping open in disbelief. Perfect. Then, of course, she had to go and punish them by searching their entire room for explosives, which she promptly flew with and dropped in a lake somewhere. That had made Iggy furious, but he had kept some stowed under his shirt and the beginnings of one in his pocket, so at least he hadn't lost everything.
Why Max's clock, you ask? Well, there's nothing else more fun than blowing up Max's stuff.
Eight: His parents broke him more than he wants to admit. Finally, finally, he had found his family. They cared about him. He was normal. He missed his first family like crazy, but these were people that he was actually related to. Didn't he belong here more than anywhere else? Wasn't he supposed to fit in here, happy and loved and well fed and everything? They didn't even care that he was blind. They were planning on getting him a guide dog until he explained that he really didn't need one. His mother had fussed over him and tucked him in, even though that was a little weird. She was just like a real mom was supposed to be. It was going to be perfect.
And then, it wasn't.
Yeah, they were cool with the wings. They could care less if he had a beak. Either way, his picture still would have been plastered across People magazine, The New York Times; everyone would know his name, his face. He would be the circus freak again. Wasn't that what parents were supposed to protect you from? From feeling exposed, vulnerable…scared. He'd never admit this to anyone else, not even Fang or Max or Gazzy. It's just too personal. He'd put so much stock into having parents, he'd gotten what he wanted, and then all of his dreams had come crashing down.
Maybe it isn't the blood you share with people, but the experiences? It's too philosophical for him, but it sounds about right.
Nine: The one good thing about being blind is the hearing. He can hear anything, anywhere, thanks to his body naturally adapting to the lack of sight. He makes the perfect eavesdropper. He's heard so many conversations between Max and Fang than he can count. It keeps him pretty well informed, to be able to listen in on everything. It helped a lot at the School – he knew when a test was coming up and whether the test was good or bad.
It also meant that he was the 'lookout' for when they escaped the School – he would be the first to hear any Erasers that were coming up behind them.
Ten: He used to view being blind as a curse. Sometimes, he still does. He learns everyday how to cope, tiny tricks to make life easier. Being blind now isn't so bad – and maybe he can finally just accept his life.
A/N: "And, in his defense, there are a lot of different shades of black. That sounded really racist. He's just going to shut up now before he gets sued."
I AM NOT racist, guys, okay? And I am black, so please don't send me angry messages about black people. And if you are racist, keep the comments to yourself.
Alright, so sorry for the LONG wait, and I hope you review!