Switch tried calling Iris, but she didn't answer, so he sent her a message asking if she was okay. He was worried about her. Her brother had already glitched out; he was afraid it was only a matter of time before Iris also glitched out, and he didn't want her to be alone when it happened.

The kitchen was stocked with fresh fruits and veggies, and Switch went straight for the broccoli. He couldn't get enough of the fresh broccoli. It helped that the boys living with him hated broccoli, so he often had it all to himself. Switch crunched through the stem, sighing contentedly at the subtly sweet taste. This was far, far better than the manufactured veggie sticks that Iris tried to get him to eat.

His watch vibrated on his wrist, signaling an incoming message. He dropped the half-eaten stem back into the bowl and tapped his watch with his finger to display the message.

[Iris]: Bro got his eyes back. Nothing for me yet. Scared, but fine. Your watch is still blue. Protein patties rule.

Switch smiled at the little rhyme but the rest of the message made him feel sick with dread. He wondered if he should go back over there to be with her in case anything did happen. Her brother was hardly an understanding and caring person, and he had no idea how her parents would react to the news that their mods were glitching.

Can't hurt to ask, he thought.

He messaged her back asking if she still wanted help with her English homework. That was innocent enough.

[Iris]: Can't think about school right now. Walk instead?

Switch huffed out a sigh of relief and quickly messaged her back.

[Switch]: You got it. C U soon.

He tapped his watch to make the screen go dark and rushed out to let Mary know he was leaving again and would be back later.

He met up with Iris outside of her front gate. She seemed distracted and kind of sad. Switch tried in vain to talk to her about mundane things, but got one-word answers and a shrug of her shoulders. He eventually gave up around the time they had reached the bridge separating the Class One district from Class Two's.

Switch put a hand on her arm to pull her to a stop. "Iris, are you okay? I know the stuff with your brother was really freaked, but you can talk to me."

"I know," she said sadly. "I just..." she trailed off, unable to find the words.

"Are you afraid it's going to happen to you?"

"I guess. But, honestly, if it does, I'll know it's just a faulty mod. But, Switch, it's so much more than that now. This means that Cypher Co isn't perfect. It will cause doubt. And doubt spreads quicker than truth."

"But don't you think that they need to be held accountable for the faulty mods?

"They do," Iris said quickly. "But I also think that if they can't get this under control soon, they'll have a lot more trouble than just the glitches to worry about."

Switch frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that the Implants are Cypher Co. They rely on these." Iris tapped the back of her neck where her own Implant was. "Without one hundred percent cooperation, Cypher Co risks restarting the wars."

"Woah," Switch said with wide eyes. "I think you're overreacting just a little bit."

"Am I?" She looked at him sharply. "You're so smart, Switch. You tell me. What will happen if people lose faith in Cypher Co? What will they do if they can no longer trust the very thing that was supposed to make their lives better? Because right now, a lot of people are scared. They're not sure what to do. All it takes is one person to speak out and the powder keg is lit. It'll only be a matter of time before it blows."

Switch was speechless. He had never heard Iris speak this way about Cypher Co. Her family were Class Ones, and powerful. Of course, she would want to maintain her lifestyle, but he had never realized that her fears ran much deeper than that. It was about protecting the world from all-out war. The last one had nearly wiped out the human race. Of course, she would never want to see another in her lifetime.

"So, what do we do?" Switch asked, barely above a whisper.

"I don't know, but I think we need to start with my dad. He created the mods. He'll know how to fix them."

Switch was afraid of that. He knew they'd eventually have to face Iris's father, but it didn't mean that he had to enjoy it. They hated each other.

Iris's father was convinced that Switch was a good for nothing piece of class four garbage. And switch was convinced that Mr. BigWig himself was no better than the classist radicals who created this screwed up system in the first place.

The only place left on the entire continent where all four classes interacted on a regular basis was their school. Every other aspect of their lives were separated by fences and concrete and iron bars. Only miles away but worlds apart.

"Let's go," Switch said with resignation.

Iris stared at him for way too long.

"What?" he asked uncomfortably, looking down at himself to make sure he had washed off all the evidence of his scuffle with Miss Bessy's offspring.

"You want to come with me?" Iris asked in disbelief.

"No," Switch said bluntly. "But I'm not leaving you alone to glitch out somewhere all alone."

"Sweet of you, but why haven't I glitched yet?"

"Anticipation killing you?"

Iris made a face.

"Sorry, poor choice of words," he said.

"It really is, though. I almost just want to get it over with so I can move on."

"Is it a one-time thing, though? Has your brother glitched again since he lost his sight?"

Iris looked at him, thinking. "I don't think so, but I left him alone after his sight came back and I haven't seen him since. He didn't start screaming or speaking in tongues, so I think he's fine."

"Hmm." Switch wondered if there was a pattern that he was missing, but without more information, everything was just guesswork. He needed answers to some questions before he could really start trying to figure this out.

They turned down a small alleyway between two high-rise office buildings, the street clogged with garbage and graffitied on every available surface. It was strange, even for Switch, to see even a small stretch of this perfect city looking anything but pristine. Switch stared around in wide eyed wonder at everything this city tried so hard to hide. But then a pattern started to emerge in the graffiti. Something beautiful all on its own.

"What do you see here?" Switch asked Iris with undisguised awe.

What he once saw as random graffiti at first glance was actually a kaleidoscopic work of art. It's perspective changing with every step they took. Switch saw circuit boards smoking, and people laughing, green trees growing, and brown leaves falling. Kids were playing in the piles of garbage, and men in gas masks were spraying them with hoses. The further they walked down this alleyway, the darker the images became.

"I see the buildings?" Iris said in confusion, frowning at him. "Why what do you see?"

"It's beautiful, Iris," Switch said, still looking around him.

"What is? Grey walls and dumpsters? I guess, if you're into that sort of thing."

Switch's heart broke for everyone living in this godforsaken city, unable to see their own lives as they could have been, as they should have been. And unable to see that they had destroyed themselves for vanity. That's what this was. This artwork was a testament to what this city had gone through. Cypher City was built to serve mankind's new obsession with hiding the truth.

Switch stopped in his tracks and looked up at the darkest stretch of wall with equal parts wide eyed wonder and utter disbelief. His brain was having a hard time processing what he was seeing. Switch counted at least a dozen kids lined up in a neat row, eyes blank, mouths open. A man was standing over one of the kids in full, head-to-toe protective gear. He had a larger-than-life syringe in his hand and he was poised to plunge it into the neck of one of the children. Bodies were piled behind him, discarded and rotting.

He stood there staring at it, wondering if this was how it had been when they first began injecting the Implant into the citizens of Cypher City. Switch had been walking these streets all his life and he had never noticed this little stretch of art before. It was easy to ignore most of the graffiti that adorned the walls around him, but this little hidden stretch of real-estate spoke more truth than he had ever seen in his life. But it broke his heart to know that no one else would ever see it.

"Who do you think did all this?" Switch asked Iris in a low whisper.

"All what?" Iris asked with a bored voice. "I thought we were out here to help me feel better, not stare at a blank wall all night."

Switch smiled a sad smile and reluctantly turned away from the wall, vowing to return when he was alone to more thoroughly inspect the artwork on this wall.

"Let's go get some hot chocolate," Switch told her finally.

"That sounds wonfluffable," Iris said in a dreamy voice. It took her a moment to register that her last word was complete gibberish. She sucked in a sharp breath and stared at Switch with wide eyes. "I cabubblint sp-spibleeble."

Switch rushed to her and put his hands on either side of her face, forcing her to look at him. "It's going to be okay. It's temporary. We knew this was coming. It's going to be okay." He said it quietly, but in as reassuring a tone as he could manage.

Iris breathed in short, shallow breaths, staring at him through tear-filled eyes. Switch kept his hands on her cheeks and breathed slow, measured breaths, trying to project a calm that he didn't feel himself. He knew that if he allowed himself to freak out, Iris would become hysterical and that wouldn't help anyone.

"Swa-la-ta-tee," Iris tried haltingly and growled in frustration. She mimed writing something.

Switch looked around for anything she could use to write with. The garbage was disgusting; bits of old, rotting food and discarded containers. There was nothing usable anywhere in there. Switch shook his head at her with a helpless gesture.

Iris let out a huff and reached around him to his back pocket and pulled out his phone. She held it up to him with a droll stare.

Switch smiled an embarrassed smile, watching Iris type furiously on his screen. When she was finished, she held it out to him. He took it and frowned.

"We need to find my dad before this wears off," the message said.

Switch sucked in a deep breath and sighed dramatically before nodding.

"You're right. Let's go."