When I came to my senses, I had no idea where I was. I was lying on something soft, but I felt weird. Numb. I opened my eyes to a bright light. I saw a man in all black standing beside me, arms crossed. I struggled to sit up and he helped me. I felt entirely useless. I looked at the man.

"Where am I? What happened? Where's the tiger? Is he alive? Is he..." I began the man cut me off.

"You're asking all the wrong questions, kid. Well, at least you're asking the wrong person! I'm just a mechanic." The man said. "The name's Ethan. I can answer one of your questions. This is FADE. As for what happened, well, only you and the tiger know that."

"So he's alive?" I asked.

"It's a she, and sort of." Ethan said, scratching his neck.

"Can I see him, I mean, her? I have to know if she's okay! I didn't mean to, it just happened! She attacked me first! I..." I stopped talking. As I was trying to get up, I noticed something. A flash of metal. I looked down at my hands. My entire right arm and hand was metal. I moved it back and forth, opening and closing my fist. At first I didn't really process what I had just learned. Then realization hit it's mark. My heart felt like it was being burnt and cooled at the same time, leaving a panicking feeling in my gut. My breathing quickened and I glanced at Ethan. He ducked his head.

"Ah, yes. I'm afraid your injuries were worse than we expected. I had to create a metal arm for you. It's strong, impenetrable, light weight, touch censored, a regular arm but better." He said. I didn't say anything at first. I noticed that my dagger was on the bedside table. I reached for it and gripped it in my metal hand. I could feel it, but not in the hand which was weird. I fingered the knife like I always did when nervous, but it slipped out of the metal fingers and clattered to the floor. Ethan picked it up without hesitation.

"It will take some getting used to. Hey, you got it lucky. I don't think the tiger even qualifies as a tiger anymore." He joked. I didn't laugh. Feeling myself on the verge of tears, I pulled my sleeve over my arm and got to my feet.

"Let me see the tiger." I ordered. Ethan ducked his head and led me away. We walked through metal hallways that made it impossible to forget the metal that was a part of me now. The worst thing was that I knew what I would see when we got to the tiger. We came to a big metal door at the end of a hallway and Ethan pulled it open for me. I nodded my head to him in thanks and walked inside. On a hospital like bed was the tiger. Just as I expected, her beautiful white striped coat wasn't the only thing covering her strong body. The right half of her face, her front right leg, and her mid section were all metal. I could see the faint rise and fall of the metal side as she breathed. I couldn't help myself. I took a few steps forward, ignoring Ethan's hand on my shoulder. I reached out my nonmetal hand and touched the tiger's nonmetal side of his face. The fur was soft like it had just been washed. The tiger's eyes shot open at my touch, her eyes alight with fear. I took a step back as the tiger pushed herself to her feet. Doctors and scientists ran around trying to find something to restrain the tiger, but I shouted for them to stop.

"You'll only scare her more!" I pointed out. Everyone stopped moving and the tiger jumped off the table, her metal paw making a clanging sound as she landed. The tiger looked irritated with his paw, but she kept advancing on me. I put my nonmetal hand up to calm her.

"Hey. We saved your life, tiger, whether you like it or not. Now calm down. You had your revenge. I'm just like you." I said. I raised my metal hand and the tiger sniffed it carefully. she looked me in the eyes, one eye it's usual electric blue, the other a bright red like your stereotypical cyborg. I smiled at the tiger and she relaxed a little, taking a non-menacing step forward. I reached out a hand to touch her and she didn't protest, so I placed my hand on her head. Half on the metal, half not. He shivered at my touch, but didn't attack or pull away. Ethan whistled in awe.

"And here I thought we were going to have a problem." He said. I rolled my eyes at him. The tiger looked at me then at Ethan. Oh no, I thought. The tiger leapt at Ethan, claws extended.

"NO!" I cried, hands outstretched to stop her. The tiger pulled up and fell short. She turned to look at me and sat down.