Could people explain that scene in The Ultimate for me?
Explain how, Tom got ahold of the box and they couldn't steal the box without killing him.
I stopped in my tracks.
Because there stood Tom, unsteady, blood dried and streaked on his face.
Clutching the blue box. And a Dracon beam.
His eyes were wild. They darted toward Visser One. I imagined what Tom was
thinking. Whoever had the morphing cube held the future of the planet in his
hands.
Why whould he hand that over to Visser One?
Tom ran.
I followed him to the edge of the ramp. Saw a pair of eyes gleaming in the dark
below me. A crouched body, black and orange.
Jake!
He watched as Tom staggered past. Then padded after him. His paws nearly silent.
Again, I followed. Into the surrounding woods. Beyond sight of the school. Barely
keeping Jake, the silent, bloody beast, in sight.
Still, Tom must have sensed something. Because suddenly he looked over his
shoulder. Turned.
And fired.
The Dracon beam singed Jake’s shoulder! But he kept moving forward. Toward
Tom.
“Back off!” Tom screamed. “I mean it, I’ll kill you!”
Jake took another step forward.
Tsseeeew!
Tom fired again. The shot hit Jake in the back leg. He fell heavily.
Tom took off running. Sure that Jake would not, could not, follow.
But Jake lifted the tiger’s seven-hundred-pound body on three legs and started
after his brother. Into the shadows. Into the darkest place Jake had ever been. The
place where he would have to kill his brother. Or be killed by him.
Suddenly, I remembered my father’s face. His voice. “Is what you’re doing
humane?”
No matter which way it went between Jake and Tom, I would lose Jake.
Because if Jake had to kill Tom, he’d never be the same. He would cross whatever
line it was that separated us from them.
And I was pretty sure there was no crossing back.
I ran ahead into the dark. Followed the trail of Jake’s blood.
Tom crashing through the woods ahead of me.
Soft, irregular thudding. Jake.
Stalking his brother. Prepared to kill him. For what?
For a morphing cube. For…
It wasn’t worth it.
Suddenly, I knew the truth.
I reached the clearing where they both stood.
Tom was out of breath. Staggering.
Jake was only a yard or two behind him.
Tom turned. Lifted his arm. Aimed his weapon.
“I’ll kill you, Jake,” he said, voice ragged. “I will.”
Jake snarled. Crouched. Prepared to spring.
That’s when I shot forward and closed my jaws over Jake’s uninjured back leg.
Clamped down.
Jake roared. Turned on me. Smacked at my head with his paw. The blow sent me
sprawling. Claws raked deep gashes in my side.
But it was worth it. The pain, everything.
I’d done what I had to do.
I’d made the sacrifice.
Tom disappeared into the night.
Jake and I lay there, panting with pain and fatigue.
We had nothing to show for this fight. Except that we were alive to fight another
day.
And tomorrow, Jake could face himself in the mirror.
taken directly from the e-books
