Animorphs: Redux

[Phoenix004]

Nice work as always, I look forward to reading more.

[Kitulean]

Awesome, guys. Glad you liked that. Let's see how I do with Rachel's narration. Here we go.

Book 22: The Solution.

Chapter One

My name is Rachel. And at that moment, I didn’t care about the Animorphs. I didn’t care about the Yeerks. I didn’t care that right now my friends were trying to stop the leaders of the free world from being enslaved by brain infesting slugs from outer space. All I cared about was that my sister was probably going to die.

I was standing in the hallway outside of the room where Jordan was being kept in intensive care. My mother was in there with her, and I was watching Sara to give her a chance. Dad was in there too. He’d flown down earlier.

I’d lost track of how long I’d been sitting here, just waiting. After I finally to the hospital around early afternoon, Mom said they had Jordan in surgery for several hours before finally sending her here. They were going to do more surgeries in the morning, but things didn’t look good.

There have been so many times in the past where I’ve been terrified. I’ve been scared out of my mind, absolutely certain that I was going to die. I have faced Hork-Bajir whose blades could cut me in half with a flick of their wrist, or just open up my stomach to let me die slowly. I’ve seen Visser Three become creatures that will haunt me forever. I have seen this alien invasion spreading like a disease over the entire earth while everything we do seems to accomplish nothing. But I have never felt as helpless as I did right then.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, if you don’t know who I am, or who we are, you need to back up. By now you should know exactly what’s going on. Our world has been invaded by an alien species called Yeerks. They look like gray slugs that squirm and crawl into your brain through your ear and take over. They control you, completely. Everything you look at, everything you do, the yeerk chooses. You are a passenger in your own body.

They are here, and no one is fighting them. No one even knows about them. No one that is, except for me and my friends. Six human kids and one alien cadet are earth’s only hope. Originally it was me, my cousin Jake, his dork friend Marco, my best friend Cassie, and Tobias, the kind of shy, quiet boy who only ever wanted to belong.  Later we rescued Ax. He was an Andalite, the only race still fighting against the Yeerk Empire. We found him where he had been stranded in the middle of the ocean. And finally, just recently, Melissa, another of my friends, joined us after she found out the truth, that her own parents were infested and her father was one of the leaders of the invasion. That’s all of us. That is the thin line standing between the forces of the Yeerk Empire and earth itself.

But we do have a weapon. Before the Andalite Prince who told us about the invasion died, he gave us a power. He gave us the ability to morph, to become any animal that we can touch. With this weapon we have hurt the yeerks. We will continue to hurt them. We will fight them with everything we have, because to do any less, would be the same as dragging my family and friends down into that disgusting hellpit of a Yeerk Pool and shoving their heads into the sludge myself so they could be infested… enslaved.

Some people think I’m crazy, that I only care about the killing and the fighting. They think because I volunteer for every extreme, probably suicidal mission that I’m insane. In some ways they’re probably right about me. None of us, no one, could go through all of this without losing ourselves at least a little. I know I’m not the same person I was when this all started.

Am I insane? Probably. But that is not why I volunteer to do everything dangerous. It’s not why I want so badly to take every battle straight to the yeerks, to hurt them as much as possible. It’s not why my answer to every suicidal plan we hatch is ‘Let’s do it’. I say those things, and do those things, because I’m the one that can. There are thousands of humans out there, enslaved by the Yeerks, who don’t have a choice anymore. They will never be free unless we win this war, unless we take a few chances.

So, am I insane? I might be, but I’d rather be insane than look my family in the eyes after this is all over and have to say that we did anything less than absolutely everything we could to save humanity. When all is done, no matter how it ends, I will stand and say that I fought with claws and teeth or with bleeding, broken knuckles. I will never surrender, and I will never choose to take the easy path.

I had a lot of time to think about all of that while I was waiting for news about Jordan. So much had happened in the past couple of days that sitting for so long felt wrong somehow. Even though all I could focus on was my sister in the other room, broken and close to death, I still knew what my friends were going through.

The Yeerks were going after a supposedly secret peace summit meeting at this resort between six of the world’s leaders. If they took those people, we might as well have already lost. On top of that, Melissa, who up to that point had been an innocent bystander, got mixed up in all of this after she found the blue box that Elfangor used to give us our powers. She chose to join us, which was good because we needed all the help we could get on this mission, especially since Cassie was attacked by what you might call our other problem. His name was David, and somehow he not only had the power to morph, but he could do it better than anyone. He didn’t just absorb the dna of the animal, he absorbed the body itself. He’d done it to Cassie, and if I wasn’t here with Jordan I would be tearing that resort apart looking for him so I could pull her out of him. I had to trust Jake to deal with David for now, so that I could be here, where my family needed me.

I’d be there with them, but we had found out that Jordan was hit by a van and was in bad shape. It was hard, probably one of the hardest decisions I’d ever made, but I chose to leave my friends and come here to be with my family. I knew at the time that I wasn’t just leaving for a time. There was a shield over the resort that would make so if I left, I couldn’t get back until everything was over. I chose to sit out this fight, because my sister needed me.

As I stood there with my back to the wall, trying to my shoulders from shaking from the memory of seeing my little sister lying broken in that hospital bed, Sara put her hand on my arm. She’s the youngest, only ten years old. When I opened my eyes and looked down at her, she tried to smile, but it was weak. “It’s going to be okay, right?”

“I don’t know. Stop asking me that.” I shrugged my arm free and turned away, feeling like the world’s biggest creep. She was just looking for some reassurance, and I couldn’t even give her that. I was so upset, so helpless myself that I couldn’t help Sara feel better.

Hearing her sniff behind me, I sighed and turned back around. I didn’t know what I was going to say, but the words came to me as I put my hands out to take both of hers. “Look, Sara, I don’t know if it’s going to be okay. I don’t know what’s going to happen. But those doctors are going to do everything they can for Jordan. They’re the best, all right? But no matter what, mom, and dad, and me will be here for you.”

Sara glanced down at the floor, and then looked back up to me.  Her gaze was solemn as she thought about what I said, and then she spoke quietly. “That kind of sucked, you know? You’re supposed to tell me that Jordan’s gonna be fine, that she’ll be okay.”

I covered my mouth to hide a smile that felt like a sob. Even though I tried hard not to let it, my voice broke a little. “Maybe….” I swallowed hard. “Maybe you should tell me that part.”

She put her arms up, and I knelt there on the hospital floor. She put her arms around me and I held my little sister close. She whispered to me. “It’s gonna be all right, Rachel.” Her voice was so sad, yet so brave, that I couldn’t help but embrace her tighter.

That was when one of the nurses walked up to us. After we both looked up, she looked to me and cleared her throat. “Miss? I believe you have a phone call.” She pointed back to the nurses’ station and I blinked before following her there. I felt Sara trailing behind me.

At the desk, the nurse hit a button on the phone and handed me the receiver. Hesitantly, I took it and said, “Hello?”

“Rachel.” It was Jake’s voice. He sounded tense. “How is she?” 

There were a dozen things I wanted to ask him, but I couldn’t, not on a phone line that the Yeerks could be listening in on. “She’s not good, Jake. She’s…. they think…” I turned away from the nurse. “They don’t think she’s going to make it.”

Jake sounded torn, like he hated himself for what he was about to say. After he said it, I think I hated him a little too. “We need your help.”

I frowned. I’d made my decision. I was out of this fight. I couldn’t even go back if I wanted to. What was he getting at? “Jake, you know I can’t. I’m… I’m here. I can’t go there with you.”

Sara tugged on my sleeve. “Jake? What does Jake want?” She was confused, because as far as she knew, Jake and his family just left half an hour ago. Actually, ‘Jake’ had been one of our Chee allies, hyper-advanced robots that can project holograms to disguise themselves as anyone. They helped us by taking our places when we couldn’t be around.

I waved my hand at her. “Not now, Sara, please. I need to talk.” I turned from her and took a step away, stretching the cord with me. “What?”

Jake’s voice was strained. He knew what he was asking. “That… project that the rest of us are working on. We can’t finish it. David skipped out on us. He just took off. He’s not here anymore. We kind of need you to find him.”

I squeezed the receiver tighter. He was telling me that David had somehow left the resort and they were still trapped inside. “I think the project can wait, Jake.”

“I don’t think it can.” He sounded hesitant, like he wanted to tell me something important, but was holding off. “See, we think he’s heading for the other group. You know, our friend Erek? We’re pretty sure David wants something from them. You know how he gets when he wants something.”

I frowned a little more. Somehow David knew about the Chee, and was going to attack them. Could he even hurt them? If Jake was telling me, warning me to do something, that must have meant that he could. “Jake…” I said, feeling even worse. “I’m sorry… I… It’s Jordan… I know David is…”

Before I could go on, Sara was tugging on my sleeve again. “David! Rachel, David?”

I was getting annoyed. Turning to her, I spoke. “Sara, please! I need to talk to Jake. What is it?”

She bit her lip, looking hesitant. “It’s just… David… When… me and Jordan were out playing… before…” She looked like she was about to cry for a moment, but got it under control, though her eyes watered. “There was a guy. He tried to talk to us, but mom says not to talk to strangers, and he was really strange. We kept riding our bikes away from him, and he… he yelled at us. He said, ‘Tell Rachel, it was David.’. I… I forgot… after…”

 She trembled, and I felt myself go cold.  I stared at her, knowing exactly what had happened. David had left me a message. It was him. He was the reason Jordan was lying in that hospital room, probably dying. He was the one who had driven that van that hit her. He did it to attack me.  He wanted to get my attention. Well, now he had it.

Slowly, I raised the receiver. “David.” I said to Jake, feeling all the anger, all the rage that had been boiling away in me all day, both from my helplessness to help my sister and at David for what he’d done to my best friend. Now I could direct all of it at him. He was responsible. “It was David.”

He said something, but I didn’t hear him. I just spoke again over his voice. “He’s mine.” I dropped the phone then, not caring anymore as I turned away.

 Sara was looking at me with wide eyes. “R-Rachel? Where are you going?”

I didn’t answer her. I couldn’t. I just pointed back to the room where she should wait, and then started to walk. I didn’t care what he could do. Between the two of us, it was David that had no idea what I was capable of. “David…” I spoke as I moved faster, hitting the doors at a run. “You’re mine!”

[Nateosaurus]

Oooo awesome! Go Rachel, get David, kick his butt!

[dolphin4077]

Sorry it has taken me so long to respond, but I've been a long time lurker and fan of your story.  IT ROCKS!  An update from you always makes my day.

[Kitulean]

Chapter Two

It took ten minutes to fly to the King’s residence once I found a place to morph. As much as I wanted the power and majesty I felt in my bald eagle morph, it was too dark. The night belonged to the owls, and I was now one of them. I slipped soundlessly through the air as the world below me was lit up as though a spotlight had been turned on. I could fly without a sound, and spot the difference between the quiver of a blade of grass and a rodent’s nose. If there was any chance of spotting David, this was it.

The problem was I didn’t know what I was looking for. It was easy to start to understand why the Yeerks hated all of us so much.  He could be anything, or anyone. I was stuck keeping an eye out for anything that looked… not like an animal should. Was that dog running by itself down the street just out for a playful romp, or was it David doing reconnaissance? Was the cat on that front porch swing simply enjoying the evening breeze, or was the position of the house across from the Kings a set-up for David to spy on them? Every animal, and every person, was a potential threat.

The entire time that I was flying to the Chee household, I couldn’t stop thinking about Jordan, and about Cassie. So far David had attacked, and maybe killed, my sister and my best friend. When I found him, I wasn’t going to hold back. I wasn’t going to give David a chance to hurt anyone else. I was going to make David release Cassie. And then… I shut my mind away from that line of thinking. If Jordan didn’t make it, if she died because of him, because of this war… I refused to consider the possibility. Right now I had a target. I had a purpose. David had to be stopped.

Of course, before I could stop him, I had to find him. That was proving more difficult, and the longer it took, the harder it was to keep my mind away from the night’s tragic possibilities.

I knew I’d have to explain to my parents why I’d run out on them, why I’d left Sara alone. But I’d just say I couldn’t handle it anymore, that the stress had gotten to me. It wouldn’t be a stretch.

The neighborhood stretched out below me, teeming with more life than the average human even imagined might be right outside their door. Rats, dogs, cats, birds, raccoons, even foxes moved through the darkness, hunting and being hunted. And in the same darkness, I hunted as well. And my prey was the most dangerous of all.

This wasn’t getting me anywhere. David could have been any or none of the animals down there. Maybe the Chee would have a better idea. I flew down into their backyard, landing silently before changing back into myself.

Morphing is never a clean or orderly process. Some things change quickly, all at once, and others can take until the very end. In this case, my wings changed first. The feathers melted into skin, like I was molting dramatically. My fingers emerged and twisted into their recognizable shape as my arms extended. Soon I looked like a full owl with human arms in place of my wings. I shuddered from the weird freak show reflected back at me from the glass patio door, and continued the change. Soon my blonde hair pushed its way out of the back of the owl head as I grew. I was getting larger, and my legs finally began to emerge.

The entire process took a couple minutes, and by then I still wasn’t sure of what I was going to do here. I stood up and took another glance around, but if I hadn’t seen anything worthwhile as an owl, I sure wasn’t going to see it as a human. We, as a species, are pretty much completely blind.

For a few minutes, I just folded my arms and paced around the backyard. What was I doing? I had to find David, but did we even have any evidence that he knew who the Chee were? Jake had said that they found out David wanted something from them, or wanted them for something, but what? And how did they know that? There was something that Jake had wanted to tell me, but either couldn’t, or wouldn’t, over the phone.

Finally, I went up to the back door and knocked loudly on the glass. Almost an instant later a light came on, half blinding me. I staggered back with my hand up to shield my eyes as the door slid open. “Owww…” I complained, squinting. “Erek, turn down the light, jeeze.”

“Sorry.” Erek spoke apologetically, and the light dimmed considerably. I could look at him directly now. “We were just wondering if you were going to come in or stay outside all night.”

“You knew I was out here?”  I frowned. I’d thought that I had been pretty stealthy.

“Of course.” Erek managed one of his wry smiles that makes me wonder just how advanced his AI is. “There are pressure sensors in the ground that registered your landing. We’ve been watching to see what you did.” He lowered his head, and his smile changed to a concerned frown. “Rachel, how is Jordan?”

I ducked my eyes away from his probing gaze. “She’s really bad… they don’t think she’ll make it. There’s…” My voice choked up, and I hated myself for losing control. “There’s more.” I found his eyes again. “It was David. He hit Jordan with the van, to get my attention. And Jake called me…”

I took a minute on that back porch to tell Erek what I’d found out. When I was done, he frowned before stepping back. “Come in. We will need to… discuss this.”

“No.” I shook my head. “I need to be out there looking for David, before he gets in here. You guys can’t fight. You’ll be liabilities if he gets into the house.”

Erek seemed to take no offense at that. “Rachel, if you could have found him, you never would have landed here and demorphed. Come inside, maybe we can figure something out together.”

As much as I wanted to argue, there was really nothing I could say to that. With a sigh, I stepped past him into the house. As usual, the place looked completely normal. There was a laptop on the kitchen table with a webpage opened to google, an empty root beer bottle next to the sink, and someone in another room was watching what sounded like bugs bunny on the television. No one who came in here would have guessed that this house was the home of a race of super advanced alien androids that had lived on earth since the time of the pharaohs.

It took a few minutes for Erek to gather the Chee who were in the house and not off playing their various roles. There were seven of them. There was Erek, the Chee who played his father, two others whose holograms looked to be about Erek’s age, an older woman, a man with a grocery store apron from one of the major chains who had just come back from work, and a woman I recognized from one of the stores in the mall.

The older woman shook her head. “This boy cannot be a threat. He may try to harm us, but he will not be able to.”  I recognized her as the woman named Maria who had first argued against Erek bringing us into this house and telling us about the Pemalites. Her real name was Chee-lonos.

“You can’t be sure of that.” I argued, frustrated by the general lack of concern from the rest of the Chee. Only Erek seemed to feel that it was worth talking about. “I’m telling you, David can do things, impossible things. And if Jake sent me here to try to stop him, that means he’s a threat.”

The old woman shook her head. “And we are to believe the word of one young human? Your Jake could easily be mistaken. The Chee have lived peacefully on Earth for thousands of years. There is no reason to believe that one person is a threat to that.”

 Erek spoke up on our behalf. “Even if there isn’t a danger to us, we shouldn’t sit idle and let one develop. As long as David is a threat to anyone on this planet, he’s a threat to us.” He pressed on despite the woman starting to interrupt him. “We care about the life on this planet. If he threatens it, our programming would force us to obey his commands.”

The grocery clerk stepped in then. “No matter the threat, we could never do anything that would harm a living being. Surely he would realize this.”

One of the teenage looking Chee, the female said. “There are things he could want from us that would not result in harming anyone directly, but would still be a threat to this planet, such as our technology. He could request a forcefield for personal protection. To give it to him would not violate our programming, and we would be forced to cooperate if failing to do so would result in the harming of a living being. But armed with this technology, he could do more damage than without it.”

Glad that at least someone was thinking ahead, I nodded quickly. “See? There are all kinds of things David could do without directly hurting you.”

Maria frowned. “Chee-Suthren, you understand that we cannot take an active stand against this person. What would you have us do?”

Before the girl could respond, Erek spoke again. “We should leave this place. If David can’t find us, he can’t blackmail us.”

Now one of the other Chee, the boy our age shook his head. “Leave this house? What of our underground home?” I knew that beneath the Chee house there was an enormous tree filled park packed full of dogs, dozens of them. When the Chee first arrived on earth with the last remnants of their dying creators, they had infused the Pemalite souls with the native wolves and created the dogs we see around us every day. That’s why they have such a special, loving relationship with every dog that crosses their path. There were even two or three of the animals lounging around the house that I could see from the kitchen. They would never leave all the canines behind to face David’s wrath.

The girl who had agreed with Erek put her hand on the table. “We can lock ourselves in there, close down all access to the lower levels until this situation is resolved. There is no need for us to put ourselves or anyone at risk, even if you do not think there is a threat.” She sounded slightly scornful at the end, as though she couldn’t understand why some of the Chee refused to see this as a real problem.

The Chee named Maria paused, and then seemed to decide that there was no reason to argue with that. “That is acceptable. If we cannot be contacted, we cannot be used against the humans. But…” She looked to the Chee who played Erek’s dad. “How can we be certain that enough time has passed that the threat has been ended? And what of the Chee that are not here now?”

That stopped me. I groaned. “Ohhh no.” When the Chee all looked to me, I winced. “I thought coming here would help. But David isn’t coming here. He has no idea where this place is. He’s going after the other Chee, the ones playing us, I mean playing the others. The Chee that are taking the others places while they’re stuck inside the resort.”

Erek frowned. “We can contact them over the Chee-Net and warn them of the situation.” He paused, ****ing his head to the side like he was listening to something, and then straightened. “The Chee who are impersonating Marco and Cassie reported in, but the one who is Jake is not responding.”

I looked at him, folding my arms. “What does that mean? Could he be going through a tunnel or something?” Okay yeah, stupid question, but I had to ask.

He shook his head, looking troubled. “I don’t know. There is no reason for his lack of response. We are always connected. There’s no such thing as out of range on this planet. And our signal can reach through miles of steel and rock, let alone a simple tunnel. No, something is… very wrong.”

“That’s it.” I said quickly, turning to the door as I felt like an idiot. “David went after the Chee playing Jake. That’s where I’ll pick up the trail.”

“Wait.” Erek put his hand up to stop me. “You need one of us in case David has done something to Chee-Roven, the one who impersonated Jake. I will—“

Maria shook her head. “You are needed here. Some of the Chee will be hard to convince of the danger.” She spoke as though she hadn’t just been one of the ones she was talking about. “There are those who think highly of you, for your association with the humans, and those who think badly for the same reasons. But either way, you are listened to. If we are to shut ourselves down below, they will need to hear it from you.”

The girl spoke again. “I will go with Rachel to find Roven. I can bring him back online if something has happened to him.”

Before they could argue about it anymore, I started to the door again. “Whatever you decide, I’m leaving. If you’re coming, let’s go now.”

I reached the back yard when the girl joined me. Pausing, I gave her a look. “I don’t suppose you can morph?”

She returned my look with what I swore was a smirk. “Better. I can drive.” She held up a remote key and I heard a car alarm beep as it turned off.

Looking over, I found myself looking at a red convertible. Raising both eyebrows, I started to it. “Great, let’s go.” I glanced back to her. “Well? Come on.”

The Chee girl came after me at a trot. “Of course.” She paused, opening the driver’s side door. “I thought you should know… I am the Chee who normally takes your place.”

Swinging myself into the passenger side, that made me pause and look up. “Uhhh… great to put a face with the person who keeps rearranging my closet. What’s your name?”

She turned the key in the ignition and started to back out. “My human name right now is Belle.”

“Well, Belle.” I said with a grim smile. “Let’s go get that psycho.”

[Phoenix004]

Just read the last two chapters and I'm liking Rachel's POV so far. Rachel's epiphany about why she does the things she does was very profound, and it's always nice to see the Chee having a more active role in the story. Good work.

[Kitulean]

Chapter Three

As we pulled up in front of Jake’s house minutes later, I commented. “You know, you’re a much better driver than Marco.”  Not that such an achievement was all that remarkable. Sure, he’d been in gorilla morph when he wrecked Cassie’s dad’s truck, but I had a pretty good feeling that a real gorilla would have driven better than he did.

Belle gave me a quick smile before turning off the car. We were across from Jake’s house. “I have also had a fair bit more practice than he.”

“Sure, true.” I said while stepping out of the car and looking across the street. “But by that logic, Marco’s had his entire life to tell jokes and he still isn’t half as funny as he thinks he is.”

Belle waited for me to join her on the other side of the car, and we started to walk across the street. The place looked dark except for a light on in Jake’s room. My aunt and uncle’s van wasn’t in the drive, so I assumed they were still out somewhere. Maybe they’d gone to the hospital after I left. There was a sharp stab of pain in my gut at that thought, but I shook it off.

I probably looked strange, a tall, blonde girl with no shoes and a leotard walking across the street, but right then I wasn’t thinking about appearances. The only thing on my mind was what to do if David was up in Jake’s room with the Chee. My thoughts should have scared me, but I was too angry.  I’d cooled off a little during my search, but being this close to where we thought David was just brought my anger back in force. The rat had attacked my sister, and Cassie. That’s what he was, a rat. I wasn’t sure why the term rat fit so well when I thought of David, but it did. It made me feel just a tiny bit better.

But then I felt worse, and I had no idea why. Finally I just shook it off and walked up to Jake’s house, crossing the damp grass to the back gate. Someone had been watering here, and my feet turned cold quickly.

It took just a few moments to get into the side yard directly under Jake’s room. Fists clenched, I looked to Belle and spoke quietly. “Can you reach him?”

She was quiet, but then shook her head. “No. Roven is not responding.”

I sighed and tilted my head back to see the window above me. Now I had a dilemma. If David was in there, I needed to go in strong, but there was no way I could get my grizzly bear up to the second floor quickly, even if I was able to sneak inside the back door quietly, and the elephant was completely out of the question. I wouldn’t even have been able to move, and I even I wasn’t crazy enough to try to get an elephant up there. Besides, I already knew what happened when an elephant appeared on a second floor. I didn’t want to destroy part of Jake’s house the way my uncontrollable morphing awhile back had destroyed mine.

On the other hand, a wolf, the only thing I could think of small enough to get upstairs without trouble, wasn’t going to cut it in combat with David.  I wasn’t even sure the bear would, but a wolf would get demolished.

Besides, I needed to fight him outside, away from the tiny confines of the house.. I groaned.  This was so not my department. Usually Jake would be doing this kind of planning. I’m not the type to sit around planning out how to do something. I’m the one that says we should do whatever plan we come up with. Actually coming up with the plan, by myself, was hard.

Eventually I had an idea. I looked to Belle. “Can you project a hologram of Jake’s parents getting home? You know, the van pulling in, them getting out and heading inside, with all the noise?”

She nodded immediately. “I can do that. You think David will leave if he thinks they’re home?”

I shrugged. “I don’t have any better ideas right now. Get ready to do that, but not until I tell you.”

Belle stepped away to get ready, and I racked my brain. If David did come out, would he go by air or land? Would he walk away or fly? If I was in the air and he came out as himself or something bigger he’d have the advantage. But if I morphed something on the ground and he flew away, I’d lose him completely. This was why I needed a bear morph with wings.

Finally I knew what I was going to do. To make it work, I needed a morph that I hadn’t used in a while. I looked from Jake’s window to the large oak tree nearby, and then walked to it. Reaching up, I tested one of the branches. I thought it would hold, but I was going to be a lot bigger than I was now, so all I could do was hope.

Taking a breath, I focused. This was a morph I didn’t like to use much, because of the morals involved. But Cassie was Miss Morals, and she… wasn’t here. It took a few seconds for the morph to start, and the first change was my neck. It suddenly grew dramatically, leaving me with my shoulders a good two feet below my head. Then it kind of curved over, turning leathery while the rest of my body began to grow as well. I lost a finger on each hand while the rest grew hard claws, and then sharp blades erupted from my forearms. I was becoming a Hork-Bajir. A Hork-Bajir named Jara Hamee, to be exact.

The Hork-Bajir, by nature, are peaceful and, to be frank, a bit dim. I guess they’re kind of like pandas in that they’d sit around eating tree bark all day if it was their choice. But the blades on their bodies that they used for stripping bark from the trees and climbing made them ideal shocktroops for the yeerks, who had enslaved the entire species. At least, the entire species until we managed to free a couple and hide them in the mountains. I’d acquired the morph then, but mostly refrained from using it because we didn’t like to morph sentient creatures. Somehow it just seemed wrong.

It was hard to care about what was wrong right now though, and I shook off the uneasy feeling. A minute later I was fully morphed. I tilted my narrow head up on my long neck to see the top of the tree, and then started to climb. The tree was huge, taller than Jake’s house, but it was easy to climb. The claws in the hork-bajir’s hands and its taloned feet made getting to the top a breeze. These guys really were born to live in trees.

As soon as I was as high as I needed to be, I stuck a hand out and forced the strange fingers into a crude thumbs up, hoping that Belle would get the message. She seemed to, because a second later I could see what looked like Jake’s parents pull in with their van. They got out, slamming their doors and talking loudly to each other, and I braced myself.

He came to the window within a moment. I couldn’t see him, but I could see his shadow block out the light that fell across the grass from the window. The window was shoved open, and I said, just to myself. <Let’s do it.> I paused, and then since Marco wasn’t there, added. <This is insane.>

Obligatory pre-mission statements fulfilled, I tensed. It only took a second to find out which escape David had chosen. There was a thud as he hit the grass, and then I saw him start to climb the fence into the next yard. The house there was for sale, and fully surrounded by the tall wooden fence, so I wasn’t too worried about being seen.

I let David get all the way into the other yard before springing. Throwing myself from the tree, I crashed into him full force, hitting him directly in the back with the hork-bajir’s greater weight. David was knocked sprawling across the grass with a loud yell of surprise. I’d taken him completely off guard.

David rolled in the grass, right to the edge of the backyard pool, morphing even as he came back up with a loud growl while flicking his golden mane back. It had taken him only a couple seconds to go from human to lion, a process that would have taken any of the rest of us much longer.

He came up and paused at what he saw. I gave him a hard hork-bajir grin and brought both arms up to bare my wrist blades. <Hey, David.> I said ****ily. <You wanted to send a message? I got it.> That was all I said before I lunged at him, swiping down with my left blade. It struck his right shoulder and he roared in pain before slashing up at my arm. His claws tore into the muscle there, but I barely felt it. I was too angry to care about pain right then.

I moved for another slash, but he was on me too quickly. He roared again and came in fast and hard. His right paw smacked the side of my exposed head, knocking me sprawling from the force of it while his claws cut into my long neck. I went down in a heap, then brought my legs up and kicked out blindly, rewarded by his yowl as one of my taloned feet lashed into his stomach in mid-leap. He was knocked back and down, and both of us came back to our feet.

To the left, I spotted something near the pool. It was the blue box, the morphing cube. David had taken it from wherever it had been hidden. That was why he left the house walking, because he had to carry the cube.

In my moment of distraction, David attacked. His fist slammed into my chest, knocking me staggering backward with enough force to break several of the hork-bajir’s ribs, or at least what I figured were ribs. Wait, his fist? Sure enough, he’d changed, becoming a light haired gorilla with the fangs of a crocodile. <Rachel!> He crowed, sounding happy. <Glad you made it!> He threw a hard punch at me, but it was slow and I was able to raise my own arm to block it. That turned out to be a mistake as his blow shattered the bone in that arm. It felt like sticking your arm out in the street and having it hit by a semi doing seventy.

David was lunging in and down, ready to tackle me when I fell to my knees so he could close his hands around my throat and finish me, or whatever else he had in mind. He’d get those powerful hands on me and I’d be helpless against this thing’s incredible strength.

At least, that’s what would have happened if I fell down from the blinding pain of my broken and shattered arm. But I didn’t. I was still standing when he tried to anticipate my fall.

It was hard not to fall down and scream in pain, one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but I managed to stay on my feet. I think it was the fact that I managed to remain standing through all the agony in my arm that took him by surprise. Which just proved he didn’t know me at all. As he tried to correct his anticipatory lunge, I used all the strength in my remaining arm to lash out, driving my wristblade directly into his chest with a scream. <You sonofa****!>

Blood burst from the gorilla thing’s chest as I stabbed as hard as I could into it, lifting him off the ground. What was left of my other arm screamed in protest at the movement, and I saw white through the agony, but continued to haul David up with my good arm. As he flailed in surprise, choking on his own blood, I started to drag my blade down to gut him. Only he wasn’t there anymore. Even as my arm moved, he morphed around it, changing form and healing his injury. My bloody wrist blade, which a second ago had been deeply embedded in his chest, was extended through empty air.

Now he was some kind of bipedal wolf creature, about four feet tall. His teeth gave a predatory smile before he dove at my leg. I tried to slash him first, but a flash of pain from my other arm made me flinch. Then his teeth closed around the muscle in my thigh and he bit nearly to the bone. Instantly I crumpled as that leg completely gave out. <Arrrggghhh!>

<Yes!> David yelled in triumph as he tore me to the ground, hanging on like a dog with a stick. <Think you’re so brave? You’re a coward! They give you morphing power and you think you’re some kind of warrior! You’d be nothing without it, just like you’re nothing now! You can’t even save Cassie. You can’t hurt the guy that hurt your sister! You can’t do anything that I can’t do better! I’m better than you are! Say it!> His teeth closed and snapped the bone in my leg. My arm was shattered, my other arm was pinned under my body, and he had one of my legs literally crushed in his powerful jaw.

I twitched and brought the Hork-Bajir tail up and over to lash at him with the spike, but he was ready for that too. He changed once more, resuming the shape of the gorilla creature. With one hand, he squeezed my leg wound, crushing the bone even more while the other hand morphed into the same giant crab pincer I’d seen before. He caught the tail in mid swing and a second later another shot of agony tore a scream from me as half of the tail fell to the blood drenched cement.

He pressed down close to me, his eager eyes watching mine as he showed his teeth, pressing on my sore chest. <Say… it! Say uncle, Xena. I beat you. I beat you!>

The hork-bajir body was broken. I had one good arm that was still pinned, another arm that had most of the bones shattered in it and was useless, a leg that I could get up and around to where David was in my helplessly prone position, another leg that was in just as bad a shape as my arm, and a useless stump of a tail.

There was every reason for David to be right. He had beaten me down, nearly destroyed me within a few seconds. Most people would have given in. The agony that shot up and down my body in blinding flashes, as well as the increasing difficulty in keeping my eyes open, were a testament to that. Almost anyone would have said it was time to give up.

David leaned even closer, repeating himself. <Do it, Rachel… say I’m better than you.> My eyes focused on his, bleary through the approaching darkness of unconsciousness, and he looked eager to hear my surrender, the surrender that anyone would have given.

But I’m not anyone. I’m Rachel, and I do not surrender. <Well.> I said through the pain that threatened to drive me to tears. <You’re certainly dumber than me.> With that, I slammed my head forward and up, driving the head spikes into the gorilla creatures face and neck. David cried out and fell off me. I felt the satisfying feeling of blood dripping down my head and over my eyes. It nearly blinded me, but it was worth it. It was his blood, not mine.

I rolled away, screaming in what might have sounded like rage but was actually torturous pain. My leg was destroyed, but I rose up anyway. I stood on it as every pain receptor in my body shouted in horror. My arm was shattered, but I brought it up next to my undamaged arm anyway. My entire body begged, sobbed to fall down, but I was not going down.

David came up and seemed surprised to find me standing. I was barely up, only hanging on by a thread, but he didn’t know that. I bared my teeth and flexed my good hand, barely managing not to fall. <That was fun… let’s go again.> I told him, nearly whimpering at the thought.

He took one look, one long hard stare at my standing form, and then took off. He left the box and hauled his butt out of there. It took him only a second to clear the other fence as he vanished into the night.

I stayed like that for another moment, and managed a half delirious. <Ain’t so tough now… are ya…?> And then I fell forward, my body broken, my blood nearly gone. I fell over the cube, shielding it with my body.

Then the pain and unconsciousness claimed me, and all I knew was darkness.

[dolphin4077]

great fight scene

[Nateosaurus]

Nice fight scene. David's frealy morphs are interesting. Can't wait to read more yet again! You're doing a heaps good job with the POV's too.

[Kitulean]

Sorry for the delay here. First it was my birthday on the 8th, and then I got halfway through the chapter before deciding I hated how it was going and completely rewrote it. I like this one much better.

Chapter Four

I woke to a strange haze of colors. It took me a second to realize that I was seeing the light from passing cars distorted through the windows of Jake's family's garage. I pushed myself up, feeling disconcerted. "What..." My throat felt dry, scratchy, like I just ran a marathon. I had trouble swallowing at first. God was I tired. Morphing heals injuries, but it was exhausting.

From a couple feet away, Belle spoke. "You are safe. Such as it is. I took you in here before you could be seen in your other form. You were losing a lot of blood, so I talked you through demorphing. You were very out of it, so you probably don't remember." She paused before adding with just a hint of teasing to her voice. "You called me Tobias."

I felt a flush of heat touch my face and shook it off, rising to look outside. "Thanks... but David got away. I could barely slow him down." I felt angry, impotent. David had basically plowed right over me like I wasn't there. What was it going to take to put that creep down? He just healed anything we did to him before it could really hurt him. He couldn't be invincible, could he?

"You frightened him." Belle said softly. I turned to retort that he hadn't seemed very afraid while he was gutting me, but she held up a hand. "Not in how you hurt him, but in how you refused to fall. In your situation, he would have fallen. He would have given up. He can't understand people who don't do that. In a way, that makes him exactly like a Yeerk."

I paused before conceding the point as I turned back to look at my aunt and uncle's house. "Did you save the Chee?"

Belle's voice turned regretful. "No. He was not there... I'm... afraid that he was... absorbed by that... David." She sounded almost angry as she went on. "I've alerted the other Chee. No one knows how such a thing would be possible."

"I'll tell you how it's possible." I muttered while looking down at my torn and dirty morphing outfit. "Life's a ****."

She paused, turning her head to me curiously. "That does not explain much."

"Actually, it explains a lot. It just doesn't make it any easier." I said dryly before sighing. "I need to call Jake. I've got to let him know I messed up. And I need to find out how... how Jordan's doing." My voice caught a little and it again surprised me how much I'd rather risk my life fighting David than sit around the hospital waiting for word on my little sister.

"I can put you in contact with Jake at the resort or your parents at the hospital." Belle said while moving up next to me to look outside.

Glancing sideways at her, I frowned while asking. "What are you going to do, tap into some secret military satellite, reorient it to accept a transmission from you and beam it onto the phone lines at the other end?"

"Perhaps..." Belle replied before holding up a cell phone in her other hand. "But this might be easier. It is untraceable, no technology, human or yeerk, can listen in."

Coughing, I took the phone from her. "Right, of course." I paused then. Hospital or resort, which should I call? I turned the phone over in my hand indecisively, thinking about the numbers. I could call the resort and maybe Jake and the others wouldn't even be in the room. That could be a quick call. The hospital was likely to be much longer and... emotional. I told myself it was the former reason that stopped me from calling there first.

I was halfway through dialing the number that had been on the caller id of the hospital phone before stopping as something occurred to me. I turned back to Belle suddenly. "Wait, the box. The blue box. I was on it, where did it go?" In my initial grogginess, I'd actually forgotten about the thing.

"It's here." Belle confirmed, holding the blue box up in her hand. The sight made me breath out in relief. At least David hadn't gotten the box back. Whatever his plan, we still had that. For all the good it did us.

I nodded and took it from her, tucking the box under my arm. "No offense." I said before turning away. "We'd just rather keep it in our hands." I heard her murmer something about understanding while I redialed and waited for someone to answer.

The phone rang three times before it was picked up. I held my breath, hoping that the number led straight to my friends and not to some front desk area. Thankfully, it was Melissa's voice I heard. She sounded hesitant. "Hello.....?"

"Melissa?" I frowned. Why would she be the one answering? "Why are you picking up the phone?"

"Because it rang." Melissa said quietly, and I could detect a hint of a smile in her voice before she actually explained. "And because we found out Tom got a job out here at the desk, probably because you know what. Jake and Marco said I should answer the phone just in case he's on it, because I'm the one whose voice he's least likely to recognize."

"Right..." I said slowly. That made sense, even Tom having a job at the resort for the duration of this conference. Tom, my cousin and Jake's older brother, was a yeerk. If the stuff he was involved in was any indication, he was also a fairly high ranking one. "Well tell Jake that I need to talk to him and the line is secure. It's a chee thing."

"Oh, okay, sure." Melissa replied after a moment's hesitation. She was still getting used to this whole alien technology thing. Heck, I was still getting used to it. But if the Chee said the line was secure, then the line was secure. If there's one thing they know, it's security.

I heard a rustle and murmer as the phone was passed, and then Jake spoke. "Rachel. Did you find David?"

Wincing, I sighed. "Found him. Couldn't stop him. He took off, but I got the box away from him. He had it." I let Jake absorb that for a moment before adding. "I think he absorbed one of the Chee, the one posing as you. The rest are all locked in their bunker thing, except the one with me."

Jake was silent, and I could tell he was thinking hard. "Great, so David has access to Chee technology." He told the others what was going on, and I tapped my foot impatiently while they caught up. I needed to be out there, hunting David. Not stuck here in some conference call.


I finally interrupted. "Look Jake, you guys try to figure out your thing. I'll track down David again and..." I trailed off. What would I do? Nothing had worked before. Since David could just heal anything I did to him, I was just exhausting myself each time we fought, with no benefit. Morphing didn't even seem to tire him out like it did us. Eventually I just shook my head and finished with. "... and stop him."

There was a sigh from Jake as he responded. "We can't just go off half ****ed, Rachel. You have to have some kind of plan, some kind of advantage."

"There isn't any advantage!" I shouted into the phone. "He's the perfect morpher. He has none of our problems and all of our bonuses. He morphs faster than we do, better than we do, and we can't stop...." I trailed off as my eyes widened.

"Rachel?" Jake said quickly. "What happened? What is it? Is David there?" I was silent long enough that he had to yell. "Rachel!"

"Huh?" I came back to myself, startled. "Oh.... I'm..." A slow smile spread over my face. "I'm good. You guys do your thing."

"Do our thing?" Jake repeatedly dumbly. "What are you talking about, Rachel? What's going on?" He paused as someone said something, then added. "Marco says you've probably got some completely suicidal plan and you're grinning like an idiot over how dangerous and completely insane it is."

I felt the grin come just as Jake mentioned it, and laughed a little. Oh how they knew me. "Don't worry, Jake. I can do this."

He pressed me. "Do what? Rachel, you have to tell me what you're planning."

I knew I couldn't tell him what was going through my head. He'd think it was insane.  Heck, it probably was. I knew for a fact it was a last ditch, desperate idea. But then again, those are the kind I live for. But if Jake knew what it was, he might just try to forbid it, and I really didn't want to have to ignore him that completely. It was better if he just worried about how dangerous it was rather than actually knowing. Because nothing his imagination could come up with would come near touching the truth. "Just trust me, Jake. You sent me after David, so I'm going after David."

He tried to protest, but I interrupted. "Do your thing, I'll take care of this." Before he could say anything else, I disconnected and gave the phone back to Belle. She took it without comment while looking at me curiously. I paused before asking her three questions. When she answered affirmatively to each, I smiled. "Great. Let's go."

We were at her car a minute later. She was inside as I stood by the door, shivering a little in my torn morphing outfit. "You know what to do?" The entire plan hinged on her ability to do each of the three things I requested.

Belle nodded. "Of course." She paused before adding. "You know that I can't help you with any of the violence."

"Don't worry." I assured her. "You won't be around for any fighting. Just do what I asked and meet me there afterwards for the next thing."

She drove away to do her part and I glanced around before jogging back to the empty house where I'd fought David. The box was clutched tightly in my hand and I felt a little nervous about having it in the open. Any controller that saw me with it would instantly know what it was.

I climbed the fence and then dropped the cool grass. Crouching in the shadows, I started the morph to owl. I needed wings to get where I was going so that I'd be ready before Belle did her part.

About twenty minutes later, I landed in the construction site where this had all began. Finding a dark corner near some open pipes, I demorphed as quickly as I could. Since I couldn't carry any kind of watch, I didn't know how close to time it was. As soon as I finished, I started the morph back to Hork-Bajir. Thanks to the wonders of morphing technology, I could take the same form as earlier without any of the injuries. The dna was intact.

I was fully morphed before the middle of the construction site was lit up from above. I scrunched back into the corner as much as my large body could manage, and waited. Then I heard the hum of the engines as the bug fighter landed.

The ship settled a moment later and I saw the hatch slide open as the Hork-Bajir half of the crew bounded out. The Taxxon would be inside, manning the controls while they searched for the controller who had sent up the signal about finding some remnants of the Andalite ship that had landed months before. I'd figured that with Visser Three consumed by his current mission, something like this would fall to a simple clean up detail. Thankfully, it looked like I was right.

The Hork-Bajir made his way through the darkness, calling out in their strange, stilted language that was half their own and half english. "Strack! Herggn Andalite feshel!" I didn't understand what he was saying, but it was simple enough to tell that he was mad that whoever called them wasn't answering.

He got closer, and I tensed and went still. Hork-Bajir eyes weren't very good in the dark, but their hearing was excellent. Just as he passed my position, I struck. Without warning I slashed my forearm blade across his throat and shot my other hand out to cover his mouth. The Hork-Bajir flailed and struggled, but I drove my blade in deep and held him tightly, praying that the Taxxon in the ship wouldn't notice the struggle.

I was panting a little a minute later as I finished shoving the Hork Bajir body into the pipe. Then I picked up the dracon beam that he'd dropped and fired it twice, disintegrating the body. I started back across the lit construction yard then, heading for the ship. I was completely exposed. If the Taxxon inside didn't buy that I was the same Hork-Bajir that he'd come down here with, I was about to be disintegrated by the ship weapons.

I didn't realize that I'd been holding my breath until I got up to the hatch. The weapons stayed silent, and the Taxxon appeared in the hatch. They were impossibly disgusting creatures, giant centipedes with multiple jelly eyes and a circular mouth of jagged teeth that let them devour anything in their path in an ever failing attempt to quench their massive appetite. The creature stared at me for a second, voicing a question that I didn't understand but could grasp the meaning of. I grunted and gestured back to where I'd shot the body, hoping he'd take the meaning that I'd destroyed the evidence that had been reported. The Taxxon slithered back into the ship with a mutter and I followed.

The hatch closed behind me, and then we lifted off as the Taxxon manipulated the controls.

The plan was working. The plan that I couldn't tell Jake about. I was on my way to infiltrating the Yeerk Mothership. It was insane, it was dangerous as anything we'd ever done, and I was going in without any back up.

And this was just part A.

[dolphin4077]

a belated happy birthday

you never cease to amaze

[acdc00420]

i just now got to your second book but so far its awsome thats makes more sense than any idea about the one ive read in all the forums.i aint see that coming for real.you got a gift

[Kitulean]

Here we go, I was going to make this a Christmas gift on the 24th but... well, it didn't happen. So call it a New Years gift instead. Then you can tell your doctor that you're psychologically scarred because I never gave you anything for Christmas.

Chapter Five

Silently, we approached the yeerk mother ship. My companion didn't seem confused by my silence, so I guess the yeerks didn't really chat that much. Or at least these two didn't. That or he knew exactly what was going on and I was walking into a trap. Either way, at least I was doing something. The whole time I had to hide the morphing cube. I had it clenched in my hand, covered by an old rag, and all I could do was pray that no one would pay much attention. Taking the morphing cube onto the yeerk mothership. How insanely stupid was I? But it had to be done. I couldn't just leave it somewhere.

As we drew within sight of the pool ship, I held myself still. I remembered seeing the ship before, when we had been captured back when Ax wanted to capture a bug fighter so he could go home. Back then we had escaped just because Visser 1 had wanted to make Visser 3 look incompetent. Now I had no such safety net.

The ship was massive, like a giant, three-legged bug. In the center there was a large sphere that was flat on the bottom, with strange tendrils, each at least a quarter of a mile long,drifting from it. The whole thing looked like an enormous space-faring jellyfish. There were also three legs spaced around the sphere that came up and then bent down again, like a spider's legs. Just the sight of it made me want to quiver in fear. Actually, it made me want to quickly take out my taxxon pilot and turn this thing around. But I had no way of being sure that I could land this ship, or even get away from the monstrosity ahead of us before they somehow pulled me in if I tried something like that. Besides, I had to do this. It was the only way to beat David. That much I was sure of.

Before I could wonder any more if this was a good idea, the wall opened at the docking port and we coasted inside. It was too late to turn back now, if it hadn't been already. I took a breath and muttered a grunt to the taxxon as the hatch opened. He started to clamber past but I elbowed him out of the way and barged off ahead of him. I figured it was what an impatient hork-bajir controller would do, and not at all what a scared andalite bandit trying to blend in would do.

The taxxon did nothing but voice his annoyance while I ignored him and walked off the bug fighter. I was in a large docking bay full of dozens of ships just like the one I had just left. Taxxons, Hork-Bajir, and the monkey-like gedd were all over the bay doing various jobs, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to me.

Of course, I had no idea how long that would last, so I had to move while I had the chance. Marco said once that adults tend to leave you alone if you look like you know what you're doing. I was hoping that philosophy would work here. With a shaky breath, I set off toward the nearest corridor.

I passed a set of Hork-Bajir wearing the red and black coloring of the visser's guard, and tried not to stiffen. They gave me a cursory look but said nothing, so I kept going. I just prayed that no one would order me to do something. I could only mumble and grunt my way through so many situations, unlike Marco whose entire life consisted of mumbling and grunting.

Down the corridor I trotted like I knew exactly where I was going. It was easy to find one of the open floor areas that looked just like a hole in the floor and ceiling that was actually the yeerk version of an elevator. I just stepped into empty space and started to fall, thinking hard at the elevator for which floor I wanted, the floor that Belle had said should have what I needed. Just like before when we were here, it worked. My fall slowed after a bit and finally stopped as I arrived.

It took about fifteen minutes to find my way to the area of the floor that I had Belle describe to me earlier. Luckily, one of the other Chee had spent extensive time on the pool ship and she was able to get the information I'd needed from him. I had to guess at how much time I had left in morph, since I couldn't exactly wear a watch in this form. As best as I could tell, I'd been in morph for about forty minutes. I'd give myself another hour before I had to demorph. If I couldn't do what I needed to do before then, it wasn't getting done.

The room I found was a large one, full of tubes and machinery. There were a couple humans in here, a man and a woman, who both looked suprised to see me. The male, a rather heavy set guy in his late fifty's, stood from where he had a strange device laid out on a table with various instruments that I could only guess were tools next to it. "What is the meaning of this?" He demanded, though his eyes glanced past me as though expecting to see back-up. Behind him, the woman winced and seemed to want to scrunch smaller into herself.

They both looked like a kids at school caught doing something wrong, so I took a chance. It was hard to roll the hork bajir tongue around correctly to do speech without a lot of practice, but it was possible. "Rrraahhthuthe Visser is norrg not waiting. Ghe wants iggght now."  Of course I had no idea what 'it' was, but it was safe to assume they were working on something in here, and Visser 3 was incredibly impatient when he wanted something.

Their instant flinching at my words confirmed my guess. The man started to shake his head and stammer something when the woman put a hand on his shoulder. "We almost have it. Quite nearly, in fact. We just need a little more time."

Should I let them go and find what I needed here, or should I try to find out what exactly they were working on? I was limited in time, but there was always the chance I wouldn't even be able to locate what I wanted. After a brief hesitation, I lifted my hork-bajir head challengingly. "Show."

 They both exchanged glances and I raised an arm threateningly, making them both frantically nod. I guess they were as afraid of Visser 3 as we were. While the man walked quickly to the back of the room, the woman led me behind him and began to explain. "The creatures are still nonfunctional in any environment other than one similar to their homeworld, and since we were forced to crossbreed their genetic material with humans in order to produce a viable living specimen, they won't be exactly the same as they once were." We arrived at a heavy metal door that looked like a vault, which the man opened while the female continued. "... but, as you can see, we are achieving wonderful results."

The room past the vault door looked like a large walk-in freezer. There were four tubes along the back wall with something inside each of them. As I walked closer, I could see that the creatures seemed to be shaped relatively human-like, but taller by a couple feet. Their heads looked like hammerhead-sharks with the eyes on either side of an oblong shape. They had one thick arm starting at the each shoulder which split at the elbow into two lower arms for a total of four.

"The Venber." The man spoke with an air of excitement. "We've brought them back from extinction." He spoke like a man who had just brought dinosaurs back to life. "Of course, they still can't survive outside of freezing conditions, but with these, the Visser will have his arctic-based army."

Arctic based army? A bunch of creatures who were worthless outside of the frozen north or south poles? What did Visser Three need with these guys? What possible use could he get out of them? It wasn't like when the yeerks manipulated sharks so they could have an ocean based army. There was nothing in the arctic that he could want, was there? I spent about three seconds wondering this before simply deciding that if it was something the Visser wanted, we didn't want him to have them. It was that simple. I didn't have to understand why he wanted them.

I only took a moment to think about what I was about to do before doing it. Without warning, while both scientists looked pleased with themselves, I swung a massive fist and decked the man. He was knocked cold to the floor and I had my hand around the woman's throat before she could scream. Her eyes went wide with shock as I thought-spoke to her. <Okay, yeerk, let's try it this way. I'm going to ask you a question, and you either answer me with the truth or I'll dig you out of this human's head and ask you directly. Got it?>

The woman's first instinct was to flinch away and gasp out. "Andalite!"  She sneered at first. Then she seemed to realize the position she was in and quickly humbled herself, speaking quietly. "The Visser will kill you slowly and painfully for entering the mothership. You will--"

<The Visser isn't here.> I interrupted impatiently. <He's on Earth, and unless you want me to throw you out of the airlock so you can try to swim down there and tattle, you'll shut up and do what I tell you.>

She seemed to think this over for a bare second before nodding slowly. "What... do you want, Andalite?"

I told her exactly what I wanted. At first she denied everything, but it was easy to get the truth out of her. For all their world conquering strengths, the yeerks are cowards. That's why they can't understand why we fight so much. If they were in our positions, most of them would just surrender. So she caved, as I knew she would, and told me what I needed to know. Once she told me what I needed, I made her take me to the computer terminal and held my forearm blade against her throat while I told her to voice every command she gave it and that if I even thought she was calling for guards, she'd die first. Stiffly, the woman sent the commands to the computer, all except the final command to execute the orders. That part I was saving.

As soon as I had what I came for, I made the woman take me back to the vault and tell me how to open the tubes that held the creatures she called Venber. From what I could tell, these were their only viable specimen. Destroying them would set whatever project the yeerks had in the arctic back months, which might just make them abandon it completely. I hesitated though, with my hand on the controls while the woman watched me. The creatures, if what the yeerks said was true, were the very last of their kind. I wouldn't just be killing a couple beings, I would be in effect destroying a species. That was ridiculous of course, the Venber were already destroyed. These creatures were just mockeries engineered by yeerk science. And yet, I didn't move to open the tubes.

The woman was watching me carefully. Any moment now she'd get suspicious. An Andalite would destroy the creatures without a second thought. It was imperative that all the yeerks continue to think we were andalites. So why couldn't I order the tubes to open? I didn't even know these creatures. They were nothing.

"And yet, they're everything." The female voice came from behind me, a voice I instantly recognized.

 I spun with her name in my mind, only to find myself looking at a taller, older woman. But it was definitely her. I cried out. "Cassie!" The words came from my suddenly human lips. I had demorphed! Only I didn't. I knew I didn't, and yet, I was human again. Instantly I whirled back toward the yeerk-human, only to find her frozen, staring at where I had been standing a moment before. Everything was frozen, even the bubbles in the tubes holding the Venber.

I knew what this was. I had encountered this before. Turning back, I scowled in anger. "Ellimist! Get out of my friend's form you sick son of a-"

She held her hands up quickly, placatingly. "Rachel! Rachel, it's me. It's me. It's Cassie. I promise." She smiled a little. "I'd tell you something only I'd know, but I figure you'd guess the Ellimist could find out too."

I took a breath, still furious but trying to understand what had just happened. "What's going on?" I demanded. "Why are you this old? What happened to you? What's happening!?"

So, she told me. She told me about the Ellimist and the Crayak, and about us winning the war until one of us made a deal to go back and change everything. She told me about her being the Ellimist's right-hand woman, like the creature she called the Drode. And she told me about David and what we'd originally done to make him hate us so much. She told me all of that, and yet I knew she was holding back some important information. Like which of us made the deal.

I was reeling, confused and angry. I couldn't stop to process everything she said, because the others needed me. "You're his big assistant now, so you must know what I'm going to do."

Cassie, who still seemed strange in her older form, nodded. "Yes, I know what your plan is." She paused and smiled slightly. "It's insane, Rachel, completely insane."

"Good." I said with a slight smile. "Because I was afraid I was losing my touch."

She returned my smile, and that was all I could take. Before I knew what I was doing, my arms were around her and I was hugging Cassie as hard as I could. "Cass..." My voice choked and I held her tighter. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't help you."

Without hesitation, or confusion, she returned my hug. She knew what I meant, that I was talking about the Cassie that David had taken. "Oh Rachel, you couldn't do anything. It's okay."

"No." I said, my voice tight. "It's not okay. It'll never be okay. David, he took you. He absorbed you. How... How can we help you? Please, tell me how to save you. You know I have to know right now."

Cassie held me tighter, and I felt her own sadness. Of course it wasn't actually her that was in David, but it still was, in a way. "I don't think you can. I think it's permanant."

That made tears spring up no matter how hard I struggled to keep them away. "No!" I shouted, feeling like a child as I shoved away from her, blinking rapidly to clear my blurry vision. "There has to be a way! There is! I won't do... that. I won't let him keep you!"

Her hands were on my shoulders then as she stared at me pleadingly. "Rachel! You have to! Do you have any idea what David is capable of now? Do you have any clue what he'll do? You have to stop him, and this is the only way."

I argued weakly a little more, but I knew she was right. David had to be stopped and that mattered more than anything, even the faint hope that we could somehow save our Cassie from him. "I'm sorry..." I repeated as much as I could. "I'm sorry, Cassie. I'm so sorry."

"I know..." She said gently, looking sad as she watched my eyes fill up once more. "Rachel... you have to finish this. I'll take care of the Venber. They can go back to the planet they originated from. The yeerks won't be able to use them." She smiled a little at that. "Which I guess means we won't be eating seal anytime soon." Before I could ask what she meant, she shook it off. "Never mind, let me take care of this. You do what you came to do."

I hesitated before hugging her one more time. "I'll see you after this. Promise me."

She nodded firmly. "I promise, Rachel. Either way, I'll see you when it's over." She raised a hand and time went back to normal. The yeerk-controller lay on the ground, fast asleep. It was time to go.

I walked straight to another vault door, the one I'd made the woman tell me about. Cassie followed, watching me. She couldn't interfere much, she'd told me, but she could open doors for me. A moment after I reached it, the door slid open. I gave her a weak smile and stepped through. "Well..." I said upon finding the contents. "At least I know the yeerk wasn't lying. Now I just hope Belle did her part."

Cassie's eyes drifted closed and then she nodded. "She did. She's lured David back to the resort. They're just outside the field. Apparently he thinks she has the morphing cube." Her eyes focused on the cube in my hand, wrapped in its rags.

I smiled briefly. "Yeah, which is part of why I couldn't leave it with her. If he cornered her, she'd have to give it up. She couldn't fight him." I paused and then looked back into the vault cage. "All right, I guess it's time. I was going to try to steal a ship and fly it, but can you..."

She nodded once more. "If the field is down, I won't be interfering too much by transferring you there."

I hesitated, wanting to hug her again, wanting to say something else. But there was nothing to say. I met her gaze for a long moment before pressing my hand to the edge of the field that held the most important part of the plan. I gave the order to lower the field and release the contents in one minute before leaving the vault to head for the main computer terminal in the lab itself. After reaching it and laying my hand on it while I watched her, I sent the execute command for the orders I'd made the yeerk give earlier. Immediately alarms began to blare all over the ship. They were panicking because all the ships power was gone. Of course it wasn't really. The security system was way too advanced for even the scientist-yeerk to override. But what she had been able to do, at my insistance, is plant a command that would make the ship computer believe that the power was completely gone. So it began to drain all the power from every source it could find, which included the ship on earth that it had been feeding power to in order to fuel the shield around the resort. They'd fix it fairly quickly of course, but for now, the shield ship couldn't maintain the energy needed, so the field was down.

"All right!" I said to Cassie quickly. "You can send m--" Before I could finish, in the space between a blink, I was suddenly standing in one of the resort rooms. I rolled my eyes and yelled despite myself. "Now don't you start that crap too! You can wait for me to finish a sentence."

 Five sets of eyes, one containing four instead of two, whirled to stare at me. Tobias was the first to speak. <Rachel!> He was perched on a dresser, staring intently at me. <You're okay! How did you...> He trailed off. <Cassie.>

I nodded to him and to the others. "Quick, what have you guys been doing? We're about to have company."

"Company?" Jake looked confused, and as tired as I ever remembered seeing him. "We've been trying to find a way to figure out which one of the leaders is a controller so we can approach the other ones. Tobias has been trailing Visser 3 to keep David away from him in case he comes back."

<Our efforts have been mostly in vain.> Ax added. <We have not been able to determine the identity of the human leader who is a slave of the yeerks and David has not returned.>

"Well he's about to come back real quick." To add to their confusion, I smiled. "This is gonna be fun."

"Oh god, I hate that smile." Marco moaned. "I hate it when she says something's going to be fun. She's insane, Jake. She's completely out of her mind. Please tell her to stop it. Tell her we don't want to die. Tell her I don't want to die."

"I thought she was insane when she wanted to do a round off back handspring when we were nine." Melissa said quietly. "This is kind of past that."

"Relax, Marco, Melissa." I kept smiling, even though I was nervous. "I don't--"

That was as far as I got before the door flew open. We all whirled around to find Belle standing in front of us. "It's okay!" I said quickly. "It's Belle. She's one of the Chee. She's leading David here."

Melissa's hand went to her mouth in surprise, and Jake did a hilarious double-take back at me while even Ax looked startled. Tobias just stayed silent. I guess he trusted me. Or he was so shocked he couldn't find words. Jake spoke for all of them. "Say what?"

Marco's eyes went wide. "See?! I told you she was insane? What do you mean, leading him here? Why would you do that?"

"Because..." I said simply. "We have to stop him."

"Oh?" The voice came from the doorway, and we turned to find David there, glaring at us. "And how do you think you're going to do that, Xena?" He stepped inside, staring intently at me. "I almost killed you before, you little ****. What do you think everyone being all together is gonna change, huh?"

Jake stepped between us, his gaze even on David. "Guys, battle morphs."

David laughed. "I'll kill you all before you even finish morphing. You lose, 'Prince' Jake! You can't even morph before I finish your pathetic little band. Some big important heroes." He sneered, and I could see the fur start to appear on Jake's arm.

I stepped forward quickly, putting a hand on Jake's shoulder. "No, he's right. He could out morph us anytime, any day."

The psychotic boy met my gaze suspiciously. "Yeah, so what? What's your plan, little Rachel? Are you hoping I'll spare you if you flatter me?" He raised a hand, instantly morphing it into a sharp blade which he cut the air with before shifting it into a crab's pincer. "You're stalling.  There's nothing you can do, so stop it. Why are you stalling?!"

I just smiled sweetly back at him. "I'm waiting for reinforcements, David." Even the others looked confused by those words. Belle just stood out of the way.

David looked momentarily put off, and then angry. "Huh? What do you... there aren't any more reinforcements, you moron! You're all here! You got every last one of your little band gathered here, and even if you weren't it wouldn't matter! It wouldn't matter if there were fifty of you. I can outmorph all of you! I'm stronger than you, smarter than you, and my morphing power is stronger than all of you together!"

"Actually, I was kind of counting on that." I replied coolly.

His brow furrowed in confusion, just as a horrible buzzing sound tore everyone's gaze to the ceiling. An instant later it was ripped away, torn through like paper as the horrible spinning tornado plunged into the room. David screamed and raised his hands just as the thing set upon him.

I raised my voice to a shout. "David!" The smile came then. "I think the Veleek would like to have a word with you!"

[dolphin4077]

awesome, as usual

[OrcaMorph]

Oh shiiiiiiit.  That was awesome.