Animorphs Book 56: The Rebirth

[Horsefan1023 (Seal)]

Yeah, that's AWESOME.  I cant WAIT to see more!   

[DinosaurNothlit]

Chapter 23 (Jake)

We waited, just outside the lip of the Yeerks' cave, for the alarm that would be our signal to move.

My muscles tensed, the seconds seeming to tick by like hours.  And yet, it felt so familiar, the way the adrenaline surged through the tiger's veins, as I prepared myself for the battle.  Prepared to kill.

Suddenly-

SKREEEEET SKREEEEET SKREEEEET!

I jumped like a coiled spring and bolted forward, my feet flying underneath me.  To my left and right, a wolf, a Hork-Bajir, and a Kelbrid ran forward with me.

Chaos erupted as we ran into the Yeerks' base.  Dracons flashed, and I felt the heat from a near miss.

We struck!  I hit a human that had been shooting at me, bowling him over like he was nothing more than a flimsy creature made of sticks.

<Don't hold back!> I told everyone.  <There are no hosts this time, they're just Yeerks!  Show no mercy!>

I roared as a Hork-Bajir came at me.  I ducked under his blades, only to leap upward with my feline grace, dispatching him with a bite to the neck.

I lost myself in the battle for a while.  Blows and counterblows, no time to think, only time to kill.  Dodge the blades that would kill me if they connected, keep moving or the Dracon beams would burn me, and deliver death by tooth and claw.

Somewhere in the midst of the battle, I began to feel a crawling sensation of someone, or something, watching me.  The feeling came as a prickling at the back of my neck, as some strange force seemed to be scrutinizing me.

The feeling intensified until it became a burning itch in my mind.  I tried to move my head, to see whoever or whatever it was that was observing me so intently, but, with a shock, I discovered that my own neck would not obey my commands.

Slowly, gradually, I stopped fighting against the Yeerks around me.  Even though I hadn't consciously decided to.  My legs padded away from the midst of the battle, and try as I might, I could not turn myself around and make my feet obey me.  Hork-Bajir still slashed at me as I passed, but each blade missed by a hair's width.

<Guys?> I said, terrified.  <Something's wrong.  Something's controlling me!>

There was no answer.

<Guys!> I shouted desperately.  <Cassie!  Marco!  Help!>

<They can't hear you,> a voice in my head told me, and my blood went cold.

<No,> I moaned.  <Someone!  Anyone!  Please hear me!>

Without warning, my head shot downward.  Out of my control.  My teeth suddenly sank into my right shoulder, a searing flash of pain shooting through my body.  My own blood filled my mouth, and I screamed in pain, unable to make it stop.  The terrible force controlling my body shook my head back and forth, tearing at my flesh, my blood spilling down my fur.

When it was satisfied, it released my shoulder and slowly made its way back into the fray.  Unbidden, my thoughts went to Cassie, as the force inside my head rifled through my memories, and the voice commented, <Interesting.  Very interesting.>

I moved towards Cassie as she twisted and fought to avoid her Hork-Bajir attackers.  She ignored me, of course, much more focused on staying alive.

I wanted to yell, <Run!>  But she couldn't hear me.  My body carefully turned to the side as I sidled up next to her, keeping my injury out of her sight.

Just when Cassie was about to notice me, I pounced!  My body twisted to face her, my mouth opened to reveal my deadly fangs, and I sank my teeth deep into the back of her neck.  She yelped in pain and shock.  I resisted, desperately tried to release her, but my own mouth would not obey me.

<Jake!?> Cassie exclaimed, shocked.  <What are you doing?!>

<What's going on?> Marco asked, looking over at us with confusion, then horror, as he saw me holding Cassie's neck in my teeth.

I breathed a sigh of relief.  My friends would realize now that I wasn't myself.  Surely, they wouldn't let me attack Cassie.  They would find a way to stop me.

<Guys, something's wrong!> I heard a voice say, and with mounting fear I recognized the voice as my own, even though I had not formed those words.  <Cassie tried to attack me!>

<WHAT!?> Cassie screeched.  <You're the one who bit me!>

My body turned so that Marco and Tobias could see the bite mark that my body had inflicted on itself moments ago.  <Look!> my voice said, subtly nodding my head towards the wound.  <She was aiming for my neck, but I managed to block her.>

To my dismay, I saw that the blood that was still flowing from my wound obscured its shape.  It could have been inflicted by a wolf or a tiger, and no one would have been able to tell.

<I don't know anything about it,> Cassie moaned.  <I didn't do that!>

<Pretty weak, Yeerk,> Tobias said accusingly.  <That's a bite mark, alright, no denying it.  Good work, Jake.>

Oh my god, he'd believed me!  <No!> I screamed helplessly.  <NO!>

<Yeah, you seem to have things under control.  Just don't let her go,> Marco said to me.  <Try and get out of the battle.  Tobias and I will take care of things until you can make sure Cassie's okay.>

<No, no, no, no!> I screamed in rage and frustration, desperately willing my voice to be heard.  Whatever was controlling me was going to kill Cassie, and my friends were just going to let it happen!

Cassie looked pleadingly at me, knowing she was trapped.  Knowing that anything she said to Tobias or Marco would only look like a ruse, to trick them into forcing me to let her go.  <Oh god, Jake.  If you can hear me, fight this!  Please!  Please help me.>

My jaws responded by biting down harder.  <You deserve this,> my voice told her in private thought-speech, and I felt a chill go down my spine as I saw what the Yeerk was planning.  <Jake would have done it himself, you know, but he was too weak.>

<What are you talking about, Yeerk?> Cassie said, her voice sounding more puzzled than disgusted.

<You broke him,> my voice told her.  <Oh, I wish you could see his mind for yourself.  It's pathetic.  He's been a broken shell ever since the end of the last war, and it's all because of you.>

I felt Cassie's pulse quicken beneath her fur.  <What, why?>

<You know perfectly well why.  You left him, Cassie.  When he needed you most, you left him.>

As much as I wanted Cassie not to believe the Yeerk's words, I could sense that he had pulled them from the deepest parts of my own mind.  Somewhere in my mind, I really did feel that way.  Cassie had abandoned me when I'd needed her most.  And a very real part of me, even now, still hated her for it.

But . . . no!  Not like this!  I didn't want this!

My jaws tightened on Cassie's neck again, and she whimpered.  <No, no,> she moaned.  <Jake . . . I couldn't . . . >

<Don't believe him!> I shouted silently, powerless even to keep my deepest secrets to myself.

<Taste Jake's pain, Cassie,> my voice whispered to her as I drove my teeth deeper and deeper into her neck, powerless to stop.  <You weren't there for him, even after he had always been there for you.  When you had to deal with your guilt, when you were crying over your pathetic little insecurities, I was there, to listen to you, to comfort you, to tell you it would all be alright.>

The Yeerk didn't sound angry, or condescending, as I was so used to hearing from Yeerks.  Rather, he sounded . . . sad.  Wistful.  He was using first person now, speaking in my words, my voice.

<But what about me?  I held the weight of the world on my shoulders, Cassie.  And when it finally crushed me, when I was a broken shell, you ran away.  You protected your own delicate sensitivities at my expense.  You could have saved me, Cassie.  You could have saved me from myself.  As I had done, countless times, for you.  You selfish wretch!>  Anger was creeping into 'my' voice, now.  Righteous anger.  Indignance at having been wronged.

From the Yeerk?  Or from me?

<Jake, I'm sorry,> Cassie moaned, her thought-speak voice weak with guilt.  <But . . . I was hurting, too.>

My head shook back and forth, twisting Cassie's neck and tearing her skin, as the Yeerk said furiously, <Do not even pretend that you felt a fraction of the pain that I did!  The blood of thousands is on my hands, Cassie!>

<No, no, stop it!> she screamed suddenly.  <You're not Jake!  You're twisting his words, you're lying!>

<Am I?  You know as well as I do that I couldn't know these things if they weren't right here in Jake's mind,> the Yeerk stated simply.  <Oh yes, he hates you.  Can't really blame him, though, can you?>

I felt a shiver run down Cassie's body.  Right then, as her skin began to flow like a liquid under my teeth and her body began to shrink, it suddenly dawned on me what the Yeerk had been trying to do.  Why he had been so determined to torture her like this.  To draw out her emotions.

Cassie realized it too.  <NO!  No, no, no, no!> she screamed, but still she shrank.

She was morphing.  I leaned down, keeping my teeth around her neck even as her body dwindled.  She pleaded with me, <Jake, help me!  Fight it!  Please, Jake!  Help me!>  But I could not answer her.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Chapter 24 (Ax)

My fingers flew across the controls of the Sstram grid-ship, as I dropped the cloak and opened fire with my beam cannon.

The first shot was a hit.  The Blade Ship had not had time to put up its shields, and I had struck it from behind.  The white beam of light flashed towards the Blade Ship's left wing, and where it landed it left a blackened, sizzling hole.

The Blade Ship began to turn towards me almost immediately.  I fired again, this time with the grid-ship's smaller beam weapons while my cannon recharged.  But my shots merely glanced off the Blade Ship's shields.

I rose from the crater in which I had been hiding, drawing level with the Blade Ship as it turned to face me.  A red beam lanced from its own Dracon cannons, but I anticipated the shot and rolled my ship to the side.  A miss.

My communicator light flashed, indicating an incoming communication.  I kept my guard up, my stalk eyes locked on the Blade Ship, but I warily opened the channel.  A sleek and feminine, but male, Andalite appeared on the screen.

I was taken aback by the image.  An Andalite?  On a Yeerk ship?  What was going on?

<Ah, you must be Prince Aximili,> the Andalite said warmly, his voice dripping with false courtesy as he addressed me by my formal title.  <The heroic little Andalite who helped lead the backwards and primitive humans to victory over the hated and despicable Yeerks.  Yes, you are quite the hero.  It's no wonder you are so admired.>  His voice was full of mocking admiration, layered over barely concealed disgust.

Something didn't seem right about this.  How had he known who I was?  Had he recognized me?  Or had he somehow found out about my mission?

As he spoke, his eyes seemed to bore into me from across the space between our ships.  I felt an uncomfortable tingling at the back of my neck, the creeping feeling that I was being scrutinized at a level I could not comprehend.  It was a mental itch that seemed to burn its way into my thoughts.

I tried to move, to look away from those eyes, but I found myself paralyzed under his gaze.

<Who are you?> I asked.  <What are you?>

<My name is Yenlin seven-hundred-and-five,> he said, a smile in his eyes.

I felt like I'd been slapped.  Yeerk!  He was a Yeerk!  This Yeerk scum, this filthy creature, had trapped himself in morph as an Andalite!  I wanted to reach through the screen with my tail and ram it through his smug face.  <Yeerk filth!> I raged.  <How dare you take an Andalite body!  How dare you defile my people with your slime!  Filth!  You are not worthy to be crushed under our hooves!>

For a brief moment, he looked hurt.  <Is it really I who is the evil one?> he retorted, his thought-speak voice ringing with false innocence.  <Your own people are the ones who allowed me to defile them, to touch them, to take their DNA.  They caressed my slime, they willingly gave themselves to me.  All for a few small favors on my part.>  The Yeerk smiled as he sensed my revulsion.  He shrugged in mock helplessness.  <I am not evil.  I only take opportunities where they happen to arise in front of me.>

I seethed, furious that this Yeerk had the nerve to mock my people with such impunity.  I tried to reach forward, to fire my weapons at the Blade Ship again, but I found that I could not reach the controls, even though they were only inches away.  Somehow, I could not force my hands to cross that tiny distance.  My arms were paralyzed, unresponsive to my will.

<What have you done to me?!> I screamed, horrified, as my utter helplessness slowly dawned on me.  <What Yeerk treachery is this?!>

<Ah, I see you've finally figured it out,> Yenlin said, still smiling that terrible smile.  <Yes, these mind-control devices are quite treacherous, aren't they?>

<Mind control!> I screamed, furious, my blood boiling, yet utterly helpless to do anything about it.  How dare he?!  How dare that filthy Yeerk control me!?

<Feel the deadly union of Arn technology and Yeerk power!> Yenlin taunted.  <How do you like it, Andalite?  It is only a pity that I no longer possess my own true form, for a true Yeerk wielding this incredible psychic bond would be all but unstoppable!  I would have led armies!>  He pumped a fist into the air to emphasize his point.  <Still, I am more than powerful enough for you,> he added smoothly.  He seemed amused, as he watched me struggle against his control for a moment, and then admonished, <There is really no point in resisting, you know.>

With that, he limbered up his tail, and I felt my own tail mimicking his movements.  Suddenly, without warning-

FWAPP!

His tail arced forward, and mine, a mirror image of his, curved up over my head and came down in front of me.  But he stopped his own tail in mid-swing, yet mine did not stop.

CRASH!

The blade of my tail plunged into the controls in front of me, tearing through metal and wires.  I felt a pulse of electricity surge through my muscles, and the flickering lights of the control panels began to dim.

<NO!> I screamed.  <Stop!  Yeerk filth!  Scum!  You will pay for this!>  But I was completely powerless to stop him.  I was his puppet, utterly at his mercy.

Again and again, my tail whipped forward, destroying more and more of the controls of the grid-ship.  I could hear the whine of the engines as they began to flicker and fade, their power leaking away.

Finally, with a sickening lurch, the grid-ship's power simply gave out, and I plummeted towards the ground.

I looked up through the windows as I fell, and watched helplessly as the Blade Ship flew upward and away from my own doomed craft, listing slightly to the side and smoking from the hole I had inflicted.  I couldn't help but smile at my own small and brief victory, despite that I knew myself to be doomed.

Finally feeling my own body return to me, I looked frantically for any working controls I could find, anything that could save me.  But my blade had spared nothing.  Everything was smoking and in ruins.

My ship slowly turned as it plummeted towards the ground.  Soon my window was facing downward, and I watched the barren Hork-Bajir wastelands leap up to crush me.  I could briefly see a green valley, just at the edge of my view, and then even that disappeared beyond the quickly-growing horizon.

I closed my eyes, and took a deep breath to still my hearts.  I would not let the fear of death overcome me.  That, at least, was one small victory that I still had the power to deny that Yeerk scum.  I could still die with honor.

<I am the servant of the People,> I began, calmly reciting the ritual of death.  <I am the servant of my prince.  I am the servant of honor.  My life is not my own, when->

[dolphin4077]

Cool, updates, looking forward to more

[Mr. Guy36]

Oh my god. It gets better and better.

When I read 55, I was thinking, "Wow, this sounds exactly like what they would do." Now, I'm just thinking, "How are they going to make it out of this one?"

[roguebluejay]

I have spent the last hour reading your books. Wow.

I love them. Bringing Rachel back was SO cool, and I love how its not like: oh someone somewhere morphed her and there was this thing that...

Its so specific! The writing just feels like Animorphs! I only now realised how much I've missed it!

I am looking forward to seeing how the Jake Cassie Ronnie situation plays out. I hope the next book (YOU WILL WRITE ONE!!!) is predominantly set on earth, like having them go back to the construction site or something (have they ever gone back there in the books? Could be a good place to have Cassie and Jake talk about old times?)

Anyway. Can't wait to see how this ends. Keep writing!

PS: I agree with what the other person said about wanting to contact Applegate. This should be printed and distributed to the world!

[DinosaurNothlit]

Chapter 25 (Cassie)

I was helpless.  Completely, utterly, helpless.  I could hear my own tiny, fragile bones snapping one by one as the tiger bit down on my body.  I could feel pain, burning, white-hot pain as his fangs tore my delicate wing membranes.

I was a bat.  A bat in the mouth of the tiger.

<Haha, this is too perfect,> Jake crowed to me.  <Little Cassie, pathetic Cassie, a helpless little rodent in the big kitty's mouth.>

No, I told myself, that was not Jake.  Whatever evil creature was controlling him, taking his voice, making him say things that he never meant to say.

I could already feel the next morph progressing.  My fur ran together.  My skin hardened into an exoskeleton.

Oh god.  An insect!  I was becoming an insect!

<No, no, no, no!> I yelled frantically.  I had to stop the morph!  Had to!  If I morphed to insect, Jake would crush me!

I tried to clamp down on my fear.  But it was hard.  The bat's instincts were screeching out of control.  The bat was screaming.  I was screaming.  But my cries came out as faint, high-pitched squeaks that only a bat could hear.

Predator!  Predator!  Fly!  Fly!

I flapped my melting, shifting wings, which only sent another flare of pain through my shredded membrane.

I forced myself to breathe.  To ignore the pain and the fear.  I had to calm down.  There was no other choice.  Breathe.  Slowly.  In.  Out.  I had to relax.  Don't think about it.  Think of something else.

I was not here.  I was somewhere else.  Somewhere far away.  At home.  I was at the home where I used to live, back in another lifetime.  In the barn.  My barn.  Comforting one of our horses.  Cooing to it.  Letting the panicked creature know that everything would be alright.  Everything would be alright.

Somehow, miraculously, I managed to reverse the morph.  I morphed back to bat.

But there was nothing more I could do.  I couldn't demorph.  Jake's jaws would crush me if I grew to human size.

Stay calm, that was it.  All I could do.  Don't think about the pain.  Don't think about the hot breath that I could feel, washing over my body with each panting breath that the tiger took, reminding me of how utterly at this Yeerk's mercy that I was.

I looked around, at the battle that still surrounded me.  I saw a Hork-Bajir that had to be Marco, fighting two others.  I saw him glance briefly at me, and I could practically see the wheels in his head turning.  He was wondering why Jake had not released me.  But he could not turn his attention from the battle for more than a split second, as more Hork-Bajir descended upon him, forcing him to defend himself.

Then, something else caught my eye.  Just at the edge of my vision, behind Jake.  A human.  A little older than me, with black hair, a short beard, and a rugged, powerful build.  His hazel eyes were locked onto Jake like a vice, his movements subtly mirroring those of the tiger.

Jake spoke again, and now I could see that the man behind him was moving his mouth in time to Jake's words.  The movement was very slight, hardly noticeable unless you were looking for it, but it was there.

<Marco!  Tobias!> Jake's thought-speak voice suddenly declared to everyone in the room, and I could hear in his voice that he had dropped the pretense of trying to sound like Jake.  Marco and Tobias heard the change too, judging from their shocked and bewildered expressions.

The battlefield suddenly fell silent and still, as everyone, Yeerk and Animorph alike, seemed to be waiting for Jake to continue.

<You will leave this place peacefully,> the Yeerk stated.  <Right now.  Or your friend Cassie dies.  I only have to bite down, and she will die.  We don't want a fight.  All we want is to be left alone.  Just leave, and you will not be harmed.  I give you my word.>

He tightened his grip on me, and I let out another shrill scream as pain lanced through my wing.  The message was clear.  The Yeerk would make good on his threat.  He would kill me, if he needed to.

But I could swear I sensed a certain hesitance there, too.  As though he didn't really want to hurt me.  As though he were only doing this because he had no other choice.  No . . . it was probably just my imagination, rebelling against the very idea of Jake wishing me harm.

I couldn't see Marco anymore at that point, but I saw Tobias immediately freeze in mid-air.  <What!?> he shrieked, shocked.  <Why are you . . . >  He trailed off as he put the pieces together.  <Yeerk filth!> he screamed when he figured it out.  <I'll kill you!  Where are you?  Show yourself!>

Jake's voice only laughed.  <Come now,> he said.  <Why should I do a thing like that?>

I stayed silent.  Hopeful, yet afraid.  Keeping quiet so that my voice would not betray what I could see, what was sneaking up behind the black-haired man.

I was the only one who could see what was about to happen.

Quick as lightning, Marco's Hork-Bajir blade drew a bright red line across the black-haired man's throat.  The man slumped, the life already fading from his eyes before he hit the ground.

Two things happened then.  Jake's body shivered, free from the mind control, and he said, <Cassie, I'm so sorry, I->

But he was interrupted by a piercing cry.

"NOOOOO!" a shrill, pain-stricken voice wailed.  A young girl ran through the silent battlefield, shoving her way past Hork-Bajir, heedless of their razor-edged blades.  "Korash, Korash!" she moaned, tears streaming from her eyes as she knelt beside his lifeless body.

Nobody moved.  The everyone was silent as this little girl mourned the death of a Yeerk.

The girl was a Yeerk too, of course.  I knew that.  And yet . . . something in me couldn't help seeing her as a human.  Never had I seen this kind of emotion from a Yeerk.  Never before had I seen a Yeerk cry.

"You monster!  Murderer!" she shouted at Marco between sobs.  Spat at him, a globule of spit landing on a Hork-Bajir toe.  "You will pay for this!  I will kill you!  I'll kill you!  I swear it!  I'll kill all of you!" she screeched.  Marco could have easily eliminated her, of course, but something seemed to hold him back.

"We have nothing left, nothing!" the girl went on, cradling Korash's lifeless head in her arms, her voice breaking as she spoke.  "Nothing!  We've already lost everything because of you!  We are nothing!  Soon, we will be no more than a memory.  No, not even that.  We will be forgotten, erased, purged from history like a blemish from your perfect little world."

I gasped, shocked.  I'd quickly demorphed during the distraction, and I was even now morphing at top speed to wolf.  Nobody had seemed to notice me.  But even as I morphed, I couldn't help but hear the girl's words.

So this was why the Yeerks were here.  This was why they needed this last stand.  I, who could understand motives better than any of my friends, immediately saw what it was that the Yeerks really wanted.

Identity.  That was all they wanted.  These Yeerks no longer knew what they were, who they were, and they were fighting for nothing more than to be.  To be what they thought they had to be.  To be remembered as what they were.

And who was I, to deny them that one shred of dignity that was all they had left?

The young girl looked down at Korash, and closed her eyes for a second or two.  "We're fighting for our freedom, too, you know," she whispered, but with emphasis.  "We have the right!  We have the right to be who we are!  We have the right to be remembered!"

She stood, shaking with grief, but still somehow strong.  "Korash died for our freedom!  Let him be remembered!  He, who found his life's purpose in our cause!  Let us not be ashamed of what we are!  Let us take back what is ours!  For freedom!"  And across the battlefield, her cry was echoed, as Hork-Bajir and humans shouted "For freedom!"

"Let it be known that we are Yeerks, and that we will not be forgotten!" the little girl shouted, and the Yeerks, in unison, let out a savage cry.  A terrifying, unified battle cry.

I was a wolf again.  And that was all that saved me, as the battle roared to life once again, this time with even more fury than before.  Enraged and determined Hork-Bajir shouted "For freedom!  For Korash!" and descended upon me in a whirl of slashing blades and vengeful fury.

-------------------

Wow, thanks everyone!  Aw, you guys are making me blush.

[Brad the Brit]

I re-read this to get up to date.... Dino its truly awsome well done

[Horsefan1023 (Seal)]

OMG THATS AMAZING


DinosaurNothlit...O h my god.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Chapter 26 (Ax)

I awoke, my head throbbing, to find myself staring up at a black sky filled with the bright pinpoints of stars.  Too bright, even.  They hurt my head when I tried to focus on them.  My vision was blurry, my thoughts confused.  Where was I?  How did I get here?

My breath felt strained, as if there wasn't enough air.  I quickly began to feel dizzy, as the air caught painfully in my chest with each breath, my brain unable to obtain sufficient oxygen.  I tried to hold on to consciousness, but I was fading, fading . . .

I blacked out again.  I don't know for how long.

But I was jolted back to wakefulness again by the sudden realization of where I was.  Yenlin!  The Blade Ship!  The Hork-Bajir home world, a crash, and then . . . blackness.  Yes, I remembered, now.

And I had landed outside the valleys, in the utterly inhospitable wastelands of the Hork-Bajir planet.  Where the air was too thin to support life.  Where the Hork-Bajir sun floated like an outsider in a starry 'night' sky, no atmosphere to conceal the cosmos.

I had to . . . I had to get to the valley that I had seen during my crash.  But it was so much easier just to lie there, to lie there staring at the stars above me, and forget about everything else.

What had I been thinking about again?

Did it matter?  It would be so easy to just forget . . .

I caught myself, just as I was about to lose consciousness for a third time.  NO!  I shook my head vigorously.  No, I couldn't sleep.  If I lost consciousness again, I would never wake up.  I would slowly suffocate in this thin atmosphere, while possibly also freezing to death.

It was strange, though.  I didn't feel cold, even though on some level I knew that I was cold.

I didn't feel anything, really.

I realized that I was injured.  But I couldn't feel the pain of my left hind leg, even though it was obviously broken.  Nor could I feel the gash across my left side.  All of that was happening to someone else, far away.

I forced myself to get up, each motion feeling like I weighed a thousand pounds.  The effort made me feel light-headed, and I had to struggle once more to stay conscious in the dangerously thin air.

Could I morph?  And what morph would help me in this place?  Everything needed to breathe.  And did I have the strength to morph, even if I'd had a morph that could help?

So I resigned myself to simply walking forward.  In the direction that I hoped the valley lay.  Careful to keep my weight off of my left hind leg.

Out of some corner of my hazy consciousness, I noted the wreckage of the Sstram grid-ship.  It had truly been a miracle that I had survived the crash.  The ship had been shredded by the impact, scattered into shrapnel that now littered the Hork-Bajir wasteland.

But I could not stop to think about how lucky I had been.  I needed air!  Air!  Air!

Panicking, my breaths came faster, shorter, gasping for whatever paltry oxygen that there was to be had.  My vision faded as my heart rate jumped, and I barely managed to remain standing.

<Walk.  Think of nothing else,> I told myself, talking to keep myself awake.  <There will be air when I get there.  Put one hoof in front of the other.  Then another.  Simply keep walking.  Do not stop.>

Step by tedious step, I managed to stumble and limp towards the place where I thought I had seen the valley.  My legs grew stiff from the cold, and my vision flickered in and out, until I was forced to walk over ground that I could barely even see.  I fell numerous times, and every time it was a nearly impossible feat of will to force my uncooperative body to stand again.  But somehow, every time, I did.

After what seemed like an eternity, I saw a flash of green!  Air was just ahead!

I practically gallopped forward, tripped when I forgot about my injured leg, forced myself up again, only staying conscious in the thin atmosphere by sheer force of will.

I was moving at a reckless pace, the effort of that movement threatening to kill me with every second that passed, as I used up precious oxygen that my aching lungs could not replace.

Yet still the flash of green barely grew.  I felt no closer to the valley than I had been when I'd first seen it.

And my recklessness was taking its toll.  My legs shuddered beneath me, barely able to carry my weight.  My vision was dark, barely able to see more than a blurred night-scape, even though I knew the landscape around me should have been brightly lit by the sun high above.  A sun which was now barely more than a pinpoint of light to my eyes.

But I had to make it!  I had to!  No one would be there to rescue me if I fell to the ground and never got up.  No one would find my body.  No one would mourn me here.

That thought kept me going.

Over ridges, around craters.  And every obstacle cost me precious effort and oxygen that I could not afford to waste.

Then, after an eternity of eternities, one last hill, a ridge that blocked me from the valley, from the precious oxygen that my lungs screamed for!

My aching limbs no longer possessed the strength to keep me upright.  On my knees, I climbed, pulling myself forward with hands and legs and pushing myself forward with my powerful tail, digging the blade into the rock and shoving with all my might.  Dragging myself along much like the lowly earth creature called a lizard.

My limbs felt like they were frozen solid.  My vision, pitch black.  I was blind.  I could not feel, I could not see, but I kept pulling myself forward, blindly trusting that there was still ground underneath me.

And then . . .

That ground ended.  I suddenly fell forward, rolling and rolling down a steep, rocky slope.  Into warmth.  Into air!

But relief was mixed with panic as I rolled and rolled and rolled, unable to stop.  Down and down and down!

Falling forever!

I felt the rocks change to grass under me.  Felt the air grow warmer and thicker, my breaths coming more and more easily as I continued to fall.

I finally stopped rolling when I hit a wall.  My vision slowly cleared, and I could see that it was not a wall, it was the trunk of a tree.  That tree held me there, allowing me to rise, shaking, to my hooves.

The warmth of the valley seared my frozen body.  It was painful, being cold for so long and then feeling warmth again.  Like I was on fire!

And then I realized that much of the pain was coming from my left side.  From my broken leg, and from my wound, which was still slowly oozing blood.

Finding the strength now to morph, I quickly morphed to human, and then back to Andalite to repair my injuries.

I descended into the valley, whole again, breathing deeply, drinking in beautiful oxygen!  Oh, how wonderful it felt to be alive!  Beautiful life!  Delicious air!  Glorious warmth!

But, as I descended the sharp slope of the valley, I now had time to think about everything that had happened.

I had failed.

I had failed my people, my prince, and perhaps even every sentient species in the galaxy.  The Blade Ship, and Yenlin, had escaped, along with the technology that could allow the Yeerks to rebuild their former empire, perhaps even more formidable than ever before.

That realization cooled my jubilation somewhat.

I should have anticipated Yenlin's tactics.  I shouldn't have fired on a Blade Ship without a plan.  I should have realized that he might use the mind-control device against me.

Should have, should have.

No matter, I thought.  Yenlin would not get far.  I would make sure of that.  I would make the Yeerk regret ever crossing paths with me.

If I had to lead my friends into the depths of space, if I had to march with them into a new war, I would do that and more.  Vengeance would be mine.  I would punish the filthy Yeerk who dared to take an Andalite body, who dared to make fools of my people.  Who dared to control me.

My tail blade twitching with anticipation, I galloped deeper and deeper into the valley, to where I knew my friends were hidden, in the Arn cities.  I would find them, and when I did, a new war would begin, and I would make those filthy Yeerk scum pay for their crimes.

It was a long trek, made longer by the slope.  The ungainly angle made my legs ache after a while, just from maintaining my precarious balance as I trotted forward at such a steep downward pitch.  I eventually decided to morph to Hork-Bajir, after which point the slope no longer mattered as I leapt into the trees.

I could just vaguely recall the coordinates from which Jake's message had been sent.  Impossible to find without the proper equipment, of course.  But it gave me a general idea of where to look.  I swung through the trees in my Hork-Bajir morph, down and down, towards the Deep.

Yes, I thought to myself, I would correct my mistake.  And I would make Yenlin pay.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Chapter 27 (Tobias)

The battle waged on, furious as ever.  The young girl's words had stirred her fellow Yeerks into a frenzy, and even the wounded and bleeding Hork-Bajir, who knew they were doomed, still fought, willing to sacrifice themselves for victory.

<This isn't working!> Jake shouted, frustrated, as the frenzied Hork-Bajir hemmed him in.  <Tobias, if you can get away, get to the computers and start doing some damage!  The rest of us will try to keep the Yeerks at bay!>

I flapped my Kelbrid wings, drawing back from the conflict.  What I saw, from my vantage point, was not comforting.  My friends were heavily wounded, and the floor was slicked with blood from both sides.

And I was not without injuries of my own.  A long gash ran down my left leg, and my right leg was missing altogether, sliced off at the knee, a stump oozing blood.

I didn't know if Jake, Cassie, and Marco would be able to hold back the tide of fevered Yeerks for long, but Jake was right.  There was no choice.

I flew deeper into the long room, past stone walls lined with instruments.  I had no idea what I was looking for, and as I flew, Dracon beams blazed past me.  I couldn't stay in one place for more than a second or two, or I would be shot down.

I saw a cluster of instruments that looked important, and descended, striking with my remaining talon, hitting a few monitors with my razor-bladed wings.  An electric charge swept up my leg, shocking me, but I shook it off and rose back into the air before the angry hordes of Hork-Bajir could mob me.  The crackling ruins of electronic equipment were left in my wake, but it was not enough.

Again and again, I flew, up away from slashing blades, and down wherever I saw a brief opening, to destroy whatever I could find.

As the battle went on, I noticed that the fighting was beginning to draw away from Jake and the others, and more and more Hork-Bajir were coming towards me.  Good.  If they were trying to stop me, that meant that I was going in the right direction.

But it also meant that it was harder and harder to keep wreaking my destruction without making a careless mistake.

"Die, Animorph!" someone shouted.  Not a Hork-Bajir, a human that had grabbed a large and unwieldy piece of shrapnel from a terminal I had already destroyed, and was now wielding it as a weapon.  He brought it down on my wing right as I was bringing my wing up, and the combined force came down on the limb with a loud CRACK!  A spike of pain shot through me, and I realized that the wing had been broken.

"Aaaaiiii!" I shrieked, a Kelbrid cry of pain and shock.  Losing my balance, I fell from the air, now at the mercy at the furious horde.  Balanced on my one good talon, no longer able to wield it as a weapon.  Surrounded!

I beat my wings, even as my broken wing sent flares of pain through me, as my wings were now my only means of self-defense.  I left dozens of shallow gashes on everything my razor-edged wings touched, but it wasn't enough!  Still the Hork-Bajir, and weapon-wielding humans, hemmed me in!

<Jake!  Marco!  Cassie!> I yelled.  <I need backup!  Soon!>

<We're coming!> a voice yelled back from far away.  <Hang on!>

The floor around me was wet with my own black Kelbrid blood.  I swung my wings, again and again, and clawed at my attackers with sharp Kelbrid fingers, but there were too many!

Then, a Hork-Bajir that I recognized began slashing through the crazed mob.  Marco!  <Hang on, Tobias, the others are coming!> he assured me.

The realization that they were being attacked from behind drew some of the attackers off of me as they began to fight Marco, and I was able to slip away, using my good leg in unison with my good wing to half-hop, half-fly away.

And then, I saw it.  The one place in the entire room that was still guarded, surrounded by the only four Hork-Bajir who were not engaged in battle.  They knew that I saw them, and tensed, holding their blades at the ready, as if daring me to face them.

<Marco!> I gasped, knowing that I couldn't fight four more Hork-Bajir on my own.  <That console, in the corner there!  It's the only one that's still being guarded!  That's the one we have to destroy!>

Marco began to back up towards the corner that I had indicated, but the battle followed him.

<Jake, Cassie!> he yelled.  <Where are you guys?  Tobias found the computer, but we need all the help we can get!>

A tiger and a wolf leapt from the fray, running at breakneck pace, just ahead of the Dracon beams of their pursuers.  My acute Kelbrid sense of smell was overpowered by the stench of singed fur, and I saw that Jake's tail was burned off, a stump, and more burns criss-crossed his torso.  His shoulder was still pumping blood from where the Yeerk had forced him to bite himself.

<Well, come on!> Jake said, as he blazed ahead of Marco and me, deadly red light and smoke at his heels.

I followed as fast as I could, but Hork-Bajir and humans rushed to get in front of us, blocking our way.  The Yeerks knew where we were headed, and they were more determined than ever to stop us.

"For Korash!" a Hork-Bajir yelled as he fearlessly plunged a blade into my side, heedless of my flapping, razor-bladed wings.  I screamed in pain, but kept going.  I couldn't stop, even though I had lost so much blood at that point that my head felt dangerously faint.  But I couldn't stop.  We had to make it, or this would all have been for nothing!

Jake got there first, bounding over Hork-Bajir and landing directly on top of the console.  He opened his mouth, looking for something, anything to bite and rip apart, but his teeth found no purchase on the smooth metal.

Cassie arrived second, her fur already matted with blood and a Dracon burn that came frighteningly close to her neck.  She took the task of covering Jake, keeping the Hork-Bajir at bay, while Jake swiped ineffectually at the console with his claws.

Marco swung his arm towards the computer, but even his Hork-Bajir blades glanced off of the hard surface, leaving barely more than a scratch.

I was still far away, blocked by a wall of Hork-Bajir.  Jake and Cassie, close as they were to the console, were no longer being shot at, for fear of hitting the precious computer.  I was in the open, though, and a much slower target.  It was only a matter of time until-

TSEEEEW!

My good wing!  It hadn't been sliced all the way through, but a large piece of it was now only hanging by a few sinews.

But that had given me an idea.  I bounded toward the human that had fired at me, and, ignoring the searing pain in both my wings, flapped for all I was worth.  Yes, yes, I was airborne!  Not by much, but just enough.  I leaped through the air towards the man with the Dracon, and powered my injured and screaming wings to take me as high as I could get, raking the man with my one remaining talon, leaving him clutching at his bleeding face.

I grabbed the Dracon and yelled <Jake, Cassie, Marco, get back!>

They jumped away from the console.  I fired.  And fired, and fired until that console was a molten heap of slag.  And then, just for good measure, I swept the beam around the room, taking out every piece of equipment I could see.

When I was done, when the entire Arn laboratory lay in ruins, Jake yelled, <BAIL!>  He and Cassie and Marco pushed past stunned Hork-Bajir and humans.  Running for all they were worth towards the exit.

But we almost didn't even have to fight our way out at all.  The change was so sudden that we may as well have flipped a switch.  The Yeerks were defeated now, worn out, crushed.  Everything that they had been fighting so fervently for, was gone.

But as I left, I heard the voice of that mourning girl, her voice low, but still clearly audible over the sudden silence. "This isn't the end of us, Animorphs. You have not won anything this day. The Yeerk Empire will return, and we will be greater than we were before. We will take this entire galaxy, and we will lead armies of slaves, and we will crush you under our heels like insects. We will destroy you like the pathetic tools of the Andalites that you are. Mark my words, we will rise again. We will rise again!"

And I felt a shiver go up my spine as I limped into the unnatural light of the Arn valley.  Even though we had won, I could not suppress the strange feeling that her terrible vision would still come to pass.

[dolphin4077]

Great update!

[DinosaurNothlit]

Chapter 28 (Rachel)

It was a long and boring wait, made all the longer by the persistent worry that my friends might be hurt.  It was the ultimate helplessness, knowing my friends were in battle, but not being able to do anything even if they were in trouble.

Just as I was beginning to wish that I had overridden Nenan's wishes and gone into battle anyway, another Hork-Bajir walked into the cavern.  He looked at Erek, and nodded like the two of them knew each other.  He didn't seem to have noticed me yet, behind the force field as I was.

As I watched, the Hork-Bajir began to shift and change, growing blue fur and four legs.  It was an Andalite!  And not just any Andalite, either . . .

"Ax!" I shouted excitedly.  He jumped, his awkward, mid-morphed body causing him to lose his balance.  He quickly righted himself, and suspiciously asked, <Who are you, Hork-Bajir?  How do you know me?>

I paused, realizing that he wouldn't believe me if I told the truth.  Heck, I wouldn't believe me.  And Quahyliera wasn't here to help me explain, having gone to deactivate the Gleet biofilter for my friends.

But Erek seemed to sense my hesitation, and said, "It's Rachel.  Rachel's Ixcila, in any case.  An Arn found her.  Apparently Quafijinivon had taken her Ixcila without her knowledge, for reasons that we may never know."

Ax, fully demorphed now, simply stood there, shocked into silence.  He knew that Erek wouldn't lie about this, but he didn't seem to know how to respond to the news.

"Ax, it's me," I assured him.  Anything to fill that eerie, chilling silence.  "Come on, say something!"

<I have nothing to say,> he finally said.  <This . . . this was a human decision,> he said, almost as if trying to justify my existance to himself, although his disgust seemed barely concealed.  <The decision to create you . . . it would have been a reprehensible one, to any Andalite.  An affront to basic honor and dignity.  But you are not Andalite.  So I have nothing to say.>

My jaw dropped.  Did he really say what I thought he said?  That he didn't approve of the fact that I even existed?

"Hey, I'm not the one who made the call!" I said angrily.  "I didn't exactly choose to exist this way, did I?"

Ax seemed to wince.  <No, I suppose you did not.  I apologize.  I will speak to Jake and the others of this, you can be sure.  Are they still engaged in battle?>

"Yeah, they-"

But I was interrupted by the sound of panting, magnified by the walls of the cave, as a tiger, a wolf, a Hork-Bajir, and the creature that Tobias had called a Kelbrid limped into the cave, battered and broken and covered with blood.

The battle had obviously not gone well.

They began to demorph the moment they were safe within the confines of the cave, their injuries mercifully healing over.

"Ax!  It's good to see you," Jake greeted.  "How did your half of the mission go?"

Ax stiffened.  He spoke quietly, but with a definite edge in his voice, <I . . . I have failed, Prince Jake.  I was only able to damage the Blade Ship, before my own ship was destroyed.>  Another silent pause, but it was obvious that he wasn't finished speaking.  He seemed tense.  On edge.

Definitely unusual.  Ax was not an emotional guy.

<I must deeply apologize for this terrible failure, my prince, even though mere words cannot right this wrong,> he said, all four eyes staring steadfastly at the floor.  His words were humble, but his voice still carried a subtle, almost unnoticeable, undertone of anger.  At the Yeerks?  At himself?  Or both?  <I know what my failure means for humanity, and for the rest of the universe.>

Jake sighed, and crossed his arms.  "And that means we have failed, too.  Our battle was for nothing, if the Yeerks have anything that allows them to rebuild what they lost.  They can easily replace the devices we destroyed."

Ax closed all four of his eyes, looking thoroughly ashamed.  But, again, there was that subtle edge to his expression.  That tightly controlled anger.

Whatever it was he was going through, it scared me.  Ax almost never showed his emotions.  If something could get to Ax like this, then it had to be bad.  Very bad.

When Ax finally opened his eyes again, he scanned the faces in the room with his stalk eyes.  <If I may be so bold to ask, whose decision was it to restore Rachel?> he asked quietly but accusingly, changing the subject.

"Mine," Cassie answered.  "I made the call before Jake got here."

"No, no, it was mine," another voice said.  It was Quahyliera, just now limping back from the battle, a few light scratches leaking a bright blue fluid that I guessed had to be Arn blood.  "I ressurrected Rachel, before I knew whose Ixcila it was.  Cassie only made the decision to give her a new body."

Ax's eyes widened in renewed anger and shock.  <What!?> he shouted at Cassie, suddenly furious, his tail raising about an inch and a half.  <You, with the help of this Arn . . . am I to understand that you created life?!  For no other reason than to be possessed by this Ixcila!  Any proper council of law should put you on trial for your life for this!>  After a second or two, he lowered his tail, but he didn't take his eyes off of Cassie.

Cassie gasped in shock and sudden guilt, and she took a step back as if she'd been slapped.  "Ax . . . " she started.  "How can you say that?  How can you be against Rachel-"  But then she suddenly doubled over, gasping for breath.  I stepped forward, towards the force field, unable to come to her side, but worried for her all the same.

As we all stared in horror and shock, I saw that something was growing from Cassie's back.  A leg!

The hereth illint was happening.

Cassie was shaking now.  Her skin began to shift to grey, and she began to grow, as her fear and uncertainty and guilt triggered her to start morphing.  And now a hand, followed by an arm, had appeared next to the leg, and both were already beginning to wave around frantically, panicked.  Like the person emerging was drowning in Cassie's flesh.

It was a jarring, nightmarish image.  I felt the bile rise in my own throat.  Ax recoiled, all four eyes turned away, and Marco took a shaky step back, but Jake had rushed forward to hold Cassie's hand through the transformation.  But she was still morphing, her hand withering, becoming a fin.

A face emerged in Cassie's growing back.  A head rose up behind the face, and pulled free from Cassie.  The head looked around like she was seeing the world for the first time.

Her face . . . it was the same face I saw in the mirror every day.  That was me.  I couldn't shake that bizarre feeling, that it was somehow me crawling and fighting my way out of Cassie.  Me, but terrified and confused, a blank slate being bombarded with all the experiences of a brand-new world.

All of that emotion, the fear and wonder and horror, was clear in her eyes as she looked around at the cave, at my friends, and at me.  She recoiled from the sight of me, fearsome bladed alien creature that I was.

This strange yet familiar person pressed her free arm against Cassie's back, and shoved with all her might.  She pulled herself away from the sea of blubbery skin that was Cassie.

The new Rachel seemed to be scared of Cassie more than anything else, struggling and pushing her still-forming body away from the flesh of the whale that held her captive. Cassie was still morphing, ballooning out to her full humpback whale size, nearly filling the cave as Jake, Ax, Tobias, and Marco quickly moved out of her way.

A torso appeared.  A second arm.  Finally, the last leg appeared, and she fell, rolling off of the whale's back.  Cassie, free from her allergy, immediately began to reverse the morph.  The new Rachel looked on in horror and shock as she watched Cassie's form shift and melt, and then she turned and ran for her life.

She didn't get far.  Her untested, unfamiliar legs gave out from under her, sending her plowing into the ground.  Not even knowing how to catch herself when she fell, she simply hit the ground, head first, and knocked herself unconscious.

I felt like I was going to be sick.  That was me, my body.  But I hadn't been expecting it to be a living creature in its own right.  I had pictured a lifeless thing that I would simply inhabit.  But this . . . oh god, Ax was right.  This was wrong.

Yet Jake was already dragging the unconscious body towards me, almost eagerly, as if he saw nothing wrong with any of this.  "Rachel, you ready?" he asked.

There was no turning back now.  After all, it wasn't like I could live in Nenan forever.  He was a sentient being who deserved better than that.  I would be no better than a Yeerk if I insisted on taking his life from him.

And, as repulsive as this decision was, it had already been made.  This empty shell of a person, this tortured creature, had been created for me.  She could have no life other than what we had planned for her.

I was no longer capable of life on my own, I realized.  And so my options were this, or return to death.

And I wanted to live!

So I swallowed the bile that had risen in my throat, and I said, "Let's do it."

[Mr. Guy36]

Another stunning chapter. I can't wait for more.

[dolphin4077]

I really like Rachel's portrayal.