Chapter 16 (Tobias)
I felt like I'd just grabbed onto an electric wire when I heard the tan Arn's words. I'm pretty sure I actually jumped.
Rachel was alive!
"Where? How?" I stuttered, incredulous. The first pang of shock was wearing off, and more vivid emotions were surfacing now. Intense joy, sadness, regret, bittersweet nostalgia, excitement, all-but-forgotten love. All at once.
The other two Arn looked strangely at me. "Quanisidaron? Are you feeling alright?" the blue one asked.
"No, I'm not. Please, just take me to Rachel. I'll . . . explain later," I managed to say.
Both Arn looked uncertain, but after a moment's hesitation the tan one began to lead the way towards the exit of the cavern. I eagerly followed. A group of two humans and the Andalite I'd noticed earlier were all watching me suspiciously, but a Hork-Bajir said something to them and they seemed to calm down.
I followed the tan Arn up the walkway and out of the city. We walked along the edge of the chasm for a while, before arriving at another deserted Arn ghost town. The Arn led me down into one of the rooms, where I could see a faint blue glow. After my eyes adjusted to the low light, I saw that the glow was from a force-field, inside which was a Hork-Bajir.
"Okay, there she is. Now tell me, what's gotten into you? You aren't acting yourself. Hmph. Not that I'm complaining, of course," the tan Arn said with distaste.
I ignored her. I walked, as fast as Arn legs could carry me, straight towards the Hork-Bajir. "Rachel?" I called out nervously.
"Yeah?" the Hork-Bajir said defiantly. "What do you want?"
I closed my eyes for a moment, trying not to cry. Yes, that was Rachel, alright. I would know that sarcastic, defiant tone anywhere.
"It's me! I'm Tobias!" I yelled, my Arn voice cracking.
The tan Arn rounded on me. "You're who?" she said angrily. "I want an explanation, right now!"
"Tobias!" Rachel exclaimed. "What are you doing here?" Then she narrowed her eyes at me. "Are you really Tobias? Or is this some sort of trick?"
I began to demorph. Rachel gasped. The tan Arn screamed. "Who are you, and what have you done with Quanisidaron?!" she said.
<What's going on?!> Cassie demanded. <Why are you demorphing?>
<Relax,> I said to the Arn. <I only morphed him. I'm sure he's fine.>
To Cassie, I said, <Long story. Can't talk now. I'll fill you in later.> I'm not sure why I didn't at least mention Rachel to Cassie. I guess maybe I wanted those first few moments with her to be mine alone. In any case, Cassie didn't say anything more.
"You're . . . an Animorph?" the tan Arn said, sounding scared. And she should be, I thought, after what she said about using Rachel to bargain with the Yeerks.
But then her look changed to one of excitement. "You can help us!" she said happily, her eyes sparkling with hope. After a moment, she composed herself again, cleared her throat, and said, "How about this. I'll give you Rachel if you help free my people from the Yeerks."
"I'm not a bargaining chip, Arn," Rachel growled.
<How dare you!> I demanded, furious. <She's a human being!>
The Arn only shrugged. "Semantics," she said. "We Arn are beings, too. Do you or do you not accept my proposal?"
Once my anger at the insolence of the Arn subsided a little, I quickly realized that, my own resentment notwithstanding, this arrangement might actually be a good thing for everyone concerned. We had come here to stop the Yeerks, after all. So there was no reason why we shouldn't get Rachel back at the same time.
Before I said anything, I looked to Rachel for approval. After a moment or two, she grudgingly nodded. She obviously wasn't happy about this, but she'd seen the same logic that I had.
<You've got yourself a deal,> I told the Arn. <Now, what's this about the Yeerks?>
"They're using us as slaves," the Arn said. "They're forcing us to design mind-control devices for them, which they plan to use to begin a new takeover."
<Mind control!> I exclaimed. <No wonder they wanted to keep this a secret. What else? Do you know where the devices are being kept?>
"The actual devices are hardly important," the Arn said dismissively. "What's important are the blueprints. They've got copies of the designs in the Arn city, and then backed up on a computer in one of their Blade Ships. You'd have to destroy both, as well as any actual devices."
<Sounds easy enough,> I said.
"And beyond that," the Arn continued. "I need you to get word out about what's happened here, or the Yeerks will simply keep doing what they're doing, and force us to re-create the devices again."
<If word gets out about this, things could very easily spiral out of control,> I said hesitantly. <The Andalites might retaliate, and could start a new war.>
"I don't care!" the Arn raged suddenly. "This can't go on! My people are dying! The Yeerks have to be stopped!"
<Calm down. We can stop them on our own,> I said.
"How?" the Arn asked.
<We've stopped the Yeerks before, we can do it again,> I said simply.
The Arn pondered that for a moment. "Alright," she said at length. "But if your plan doesn't work, I want to make sure that the authorities find out about this. Tell someone else, some neutral third party, exactly what I've told you, and make sure they know that if you die, they need to contact the Andalite high command."
<I don't think-> I began.
"That's part of the deal. Do it, or Rachel goes back in the bottle."
Rachel growled, and I glared at the Arn. But the Arn was holding the keys, and she knew it.
<Fine,> I grudgingly said. <But we won't die.>
Rachel looked down at me, a sudden look of worry in her Hork-Bajir eyes.
"Easy for you to say."
