End of RAF

[DinosaurNothlit]

Nope, that's not it.  P.S. If anybody does figure out what it is that's bothering Rachel, spoiler please.

Chapter Twenty-seven

The RAFians woke up ravenous.  Most of them hadn't actually eaten much of anything since Cinnabon.  But, over the course of the previous day, they had long-since passed that point where they got so hungry that they stopped even realizing they were hungry.  The 'night' had cleared their minds, which had brought their hunger back.

They dug into the food they had brought, wolfing down a breakfast of dry cereal, as they discussed what to do.  They'd checked their own memories, of course, to see if Queen was moving against their families.  Thankfully, all their thoughts still included their mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers, even in this timeline.

"Since we can't save everyone, we need to focus on our priorities," Terenia was saying.  "We should bring those who provide the greatest advantage.  We have an escafil device, after all.  We should use it to bolster our ranks.  We'll need everyone we can get, if we're going to take down Queen."

"Richard is a natural leader, he'd be an asset for sure, even without any memory of RAF," Myitt thought out loud.  "And Goom has an excellent technical mind, I think we need to find him and bring him back to our side.  Rad's always had an innate understanding of politics, so she could be useful against the Yeerk power structure.  Cloak seems like he would have been a powerful fighter even before he became a Realm Walker, but he also has a strong moral compass that might prove useful."

"Heh," Estelore scoffed.  "Good luck finding Cloaky.  We don't even have so much as a first name, or a home state, to go off of.  We know that he is a male, living somewhere in America."  Estelore seemed to think for a moment, and then they added, "Probably."

"That really narrows things down," Shock said sarcastically.

"Oh, hey, and let's not forget Bloodbane and his crew," Cody pointed out.  "We could definitely use an orc and a wizard on our team."

"That's a good idea," Seal agreed.  "Plus, as an added bonus, they aren't RAFians.  So Queen might not even know about them."

"We have, let's see, ten extra Marks besides the ones we're wearing right now," Aquilai thought out loud.  "Two have already gone to Rose and Michael, so that leaves eight.  Four for the Switzerland crew, so we'd have four left to save a few RAFians.  Richard, Goom, Rad, and Cloak?"

Everyone grudgingly nodded.  They didn't like the thought of leaving their families to Queen's mercy, but they could all see the undeniable logic of saving those who provided the greatest asset to fight back against Queen.  Saffa hugged Rose.  She couldn't help but to feel glad that events had played out so that at least one family member could be saved.

It was decided that the former RAFians would be saved, first.  Bloodbane's crew might be able to fly under Queen's radar, so they were in less immediate danger than the RAFians were.

Most of them wanted to rescue Richard first.  But, the thing was, nobody really knew how to find him.  Goom was the only one who had ever known his phone number.  Except that, in this timeline, Goom would now have no memory of Richard at all.

Fortunately, Aquilai had found out a way to run a database search for the former leader of RAF.  He could set up his computer to perform a check for every person who fit all the details they knew about Richard.  Hopefully, with all the details they'd been able to enter, it wouldn't come back with more than a few dozen possible 'Richards.'  To find just one, well, that was probably too much to hope for.  But they wouldn't know one way or the other until a few hours later, when the search was finished.

In the meantime, Goom was much easier to find.  Several different RAFians knew his address, so Aquilai simply set his TARDIS for the proper street in San Antonio, Texas.  Moments later, they were emerging from between a pair of houses in an upscale suburban neighborhood.

Tentatively, not really knowing what to expect, they knocked on the door.  A kindly looking woman answered, a brittany spaniel peeking around her legs to greet the RAFians.  The woman looked confused, obviously not expecting to see such a large crowd on her doorstep.

"Um, is Kevin home?" Phoenix asked, as he bent down to pet the dog.

The woman nodded politely.  "Friends of his?" she asked, to which several RAFians answered in the affirmative.  "Kevin!" she called up the stairs.  "Some friends of yours are here to see you!"

Goom came down the stairs, momentarily stopping in his tracks as he spotted the crowd outside on the driveway.  "What?  Friends of mine?" he wondered.  "Mom, come on, I'm not that popular.  Who are these people?"

Goom's mother shrugged.  "They said they were friends of yours."  She turned back towards the RAFians, wearing a concerned look.

"We are," Dino said pleadingly.  Feeling a little self-conscious talking about RAF matters in front of Goom's mother.  But, then again, they couldn't really ask her to go away and leave her son with a bunch of 'strangers.'  "We know each other in another timeline.  I know it sounds strange.  But this timeline is broken.  You don't know us, but you're supposed to."

"Ooookay," Goom's mother muttered, starting to close the door.

"Wait!" Bear cried.  He hit the button on his Mark, instantly changing himself into a bear.  Goom's mother paused in shock, the door still half-open.  Bear used a claw to press the button again, flashing back to human.  "We're telling the truth."

Goom rubbed his eyes, unable to believe what he'd just seen.  "Um, what?"

"We all have alternate identities in this universe," Seal explained.  "I'm a seal, he's a bear, she's a dinosaur.  You're supposed to be a goomba, by the way."

Goom gave a little hesitant nod.  "I have always been a fan of the Mario games.  So, that makes some sense.  Still, I'm supposed to be a goomba?  That sounds, more than a little crazy."

"We eat crazy for breakfast, these days," Seal commented.  "Mind if we come in for a minute?  Just to talk?"

Goom's mother still looked concerned, but then she gave a weary smile.  "I suppose, if you're really a bear and a dinosaur, there's not a whole lot I can do to stop you."  She stood politely aside, allowing the RAFians in.

"Why exactly did this happen?" Goom wondered.  "Why are you all animals?"

"Not all of us," Terenia said with a half-smile.  "Some of us are aliens."

"We're RAFians," Lumy explained, even though that word wouldn't mean anything to Goom.  "We're from the internet."

Right then, for just a split second, Goom twitched violently, almost like he was having a spasm.  His arms came up around his head, almost like he was trying to grab his forehead, but he couldn't quite do it.  He was saying something, but his voice was garbled, from trying to talk through clenched teeth.  His eyes darted towards Dino.

But in an instant it was over.  Goom acted like nothing had happened, and some of the RAFians wondered if maybe it had just been their imagination.  A few others thought, well, Goom was epileptic, wasn't he?  Had he just had a seizure?

"Kevin, are you okay?" his mother said worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Goom reassured.  "I think it was just a nervous tic."

Lumy, at least, knew better than that.  He pulled Terenia aside, out of earshot of Goom.  His expression was deadly serious.

"What was that he said?" Terenia wondered softly.

"Yeerk," Lumy whispered harshly.  "He said the word, 'Yeerk.'"

[redtailedsaffa]

Small DNSU back there toward the end: his mum called him Goom.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Thanks, Saffa.  Lol, DNSU, I like it.

Chapter Twenty-eight

Terenia and Lumy did their best to act normal, like they hadn't noticed anything unusual.  The other RAFians, of course, all had their dawning suspicions that Goom's outburst had been no 'nervous tic.'  But they each knew enough to keep it to themselves.  To show no sign of suspicion.

They told Goom about the rest of the story, the Time Matrix and Queen, and the fact that the world was ending, as history unraveled.  He nodded incredulously, exactly as the real Goom would have.

"Well, it's been good talking," Dino said quickly.  "We've given you a lot to think about.  We'll leave you alone for a bit, you know, give you time to think about everything.  We'll be back, once you've had time to consider what we've said."

She led the rest of the RAFians across the street, back to the TARDIS, leaving Goom and his mother as perplexed as ever.  But the lie seemed to have worked.  Dino looked back to see Goom and his mother talking, presumably about the weirdness that had just happened.  Discussing whether or not Goom should go along with the RAFians, to help save the world.

Or, at least, pretending to discuss the possibility, with his obviously non-controller mother.

Once inside the TARDIS, the RAFians immediately started chattering amongst themselves about what to do next.  They wearily kept an eye on Goom's house, from the open door of the TARDIS, watching for any sign that Goom had caught on to what they knew about him.  Not that they'd be able to see it, necessarily.  But they were each pretty sure that he had bought the act.  He had been oblivious to what they knew.

"I think we all know what that was," Terenia began.  "Question is, what do we do now?"

"Starve out the Yeerk, obviously," Russell said disdainfully, as though Terenia had asked an obvious question.  "What other option is there?"

"I don't know," Seal said hesitantly.  "We'd have to kidnap him from his house, and his family is going to fight us.  I don't want any of them getting hurt.  They're just innocent people."

"We can't exactly just leave him there," Jess said angrily.  "We can't leave Goom a controller, for heaven's sake!"

"Look, the simple fact is, we do not have the required three days to wait around," Myitt grated harshly.  "In two days, Terenia and I will be dead."  She flinched, looking guiltily at Terenia.  Not meaning to have stated that particular truth so harshly.  Terenia looked away coldly.

"Maybe we can negotiate something with it," Noelle was wondering, but not really looking like she believed it.  "Find something the Yeerk wants, or is afraid of, and use that as leverage to convince it to free Goom."

Russell rolled his eyes.  "What the Yeerk wants?  Goom.  It's afraid, of Queen.  There isn't a lot we can do to either of those ends."

Phoenix's eyes lit up.  "Hey, what if we just go back in time to before he was infested in the first place?"

Aquilai shook his head.  "We do that, and Queen just changes the past again so that he's infested sooner.  Besides, we have no idea when he was infested, anyway, so how are we supposed to go back to before it happened?"

"Let's at least go back inside the house, and see if we can coax him to come with us, somehow," Bear said.  "Maybe this doesn't have to end with bloodshed.  It's gotta be worth a try, at least."

"We'll only get one chance at this, remember," Noelle said nervously.  "We screw it up, and Goom could be out of our reach permanently.  We can't rush into it."

"He may be starting to figure out what we know, though," Demos said wearily.  "We wait too long, and he starts putting it together and gets away anyway."

While the others were still discussing what to do, however, Dino had already broken away from the group, unnoticed.  She slipped silently from the TARDIS, crossing the street back to Goom's house.

She didn't knock.  Instead she simply opened the unlocked door, as quietly as she could, and slipped inside.  She found Goom in the kitchen.  He looked up, but he didn't look surprised.  He had been expecting her.

"Iniss," Dino scolded him sharply, as she marched up to him with a definite air of authority.  "Learn to control your host, you incompetent fool.  You've been made.  You have to get out of here, now, before the others return."

"Yes, of course, Carger," Iniss said meekly, ducking his head in humility as he realized that he should already have figured out what he was now being told.  "My apologies."

"Don't apologize to me," Carger snapped.  "Just get out."

Meanwhile, it was slowly dawning on the other RAFians that Dino was missing from the conversation.  They trickled out of the TARDIS, one at a time, wondering where she could have gone.  They looked across the street, looked at each other, and walked anxiously across to Goom's house.  Worried, their walk soon escalated into a run.

Jess was the one to knock on the door, this time.  She heard groaning inside.  Quickly, she tried the knob, only to find it unlocked.  The RAFians burst inside.

They found Dino, on the floor, looking frustrated, and with no Goom anywhere to be seen.

"I went back, to try to talk to him," Dino said bitterly.  "I figured, I've always been one of the RAFians closest to him, so I thought I might be able to trick him into coming along with us.  But I screwed up.  I tried to hold onto him, but he got away."  She pointed at the back door.  "He went that way, over the fence!"

Dino got back up, slowly, and led the way.  The other RAFians, unsuspecting, followed her lead.  Which was why they never saw Goom, who even then was beating a hasty retreat from the garage.

[Underseen]

If people came to my door and said they were from a different timeline I'd be skeptical too.

[redtailedsaffa]

Going ahead and making the heroine a Controller! Very bold. I like it.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Lol, I don't even think of myself as the 'heroine' in my own story, is that weird? 

Chapter Twenty-nine

As the RAFians ran after the phantom of Goom, Rachel started to lag behind, lost in her own thoughts.  The pieces were clicking into place, as she finally managed to put her finger on what had been bothering her.

Starting with Dino's escape from Queen.  It had been too easy, Rachel suddenly realized.  Queen was supposed to be some kind of evil genius mastermind, and yet, she hadn't thought to frisk Dino's human form for weapons, like her Sario Ripper?  She hadn't posted guards at night, to keep an eye on what Dino was doing at all times?

No, of course.  The explosion that had sent Dino back in time, it had not been an 'escape' at all.  Queen had intentionally let Dino go.  And there could be only one reason why.  Rachel's heart was in her throat, as she realized what should have been obvious from the start.

And, with that first piece of the puzzle figured out, the other pieces fell right into place.  For starters, there was Katherine's death.  How, exactly, had that one Hork-bajir known precisely where to look for her?  Nobody except RAFians had known where she was hidden.  And yet, somehow, that one solitary Hork-bajir had found the correct closet within seconds.

As if someone had told him where she was.

Then, when he'd found it, the one person who could have stopped him, was Dino.  But she had stood by and let him pass.  She had done a very convincing job of making it look like she was frozen in shock.  But that had not been the case at all, had it?

Then there was the fact that, somehow, Queen had suddenly found out the exact location of at least one RAFian family member.  Information she could not possibly have known, not when the RAFians had disguised their identities with usernames.  No, she would have had to have an inside source, to know something like that.

Rachel stopped running.  All of a sudden, she seriously doubted that Goom had ever come this way at all.

"Something wrong?" Seal asked, wondering why Rachel had suddenly stopped.

"Very," she hissed, a careful whisper.  "Dino.  I think she's a controller."

"What?" Seal gasped, lowering her voice to match Rachel's.  "How?  When was she . . . "  Seal trailed off, as she, too, put the pieces together.  "Oh my god.  When she was captured by Queen.  And, that's why Katherine . . . "

Rachel nodded curtly.  "Help me tell the others.  But be careful.  Don't let her overhear you."

A few other RAFians seemed to be giving up the chase.  They were in the woods behind Goom's house, and from here, he could have gone almost anywhere.  They could sense that it was pointless.

Rachel and Seal went carefully from one RAFian to another, whispering what they knew.  Being careful to be stealthy, but without making it look like they were sneaking around.

"What's wrong, guys?" Dino said as she noticed everyone slowing down.  "Come on, we might still be able to catch him!"

"Give it up, Dino," Terenia said, her voice carefully controlled not to give away the terror that was bubbling inside, after hearing what Seal had just whispered in her ear.  "He could have gone anywhere.  We'll never find him."

"Then we split up!" Dino urged desperately.  "Come on, this is Goom we're talking about!  We can't just give up!"  It was so hard to believe that they were hearing a Yeerk talking.  She still sounded exactly like the real Dino.

Rachel, at least, didn't hesitate.  "I'll morph to wolf, then.  I'll be able to find his scent.  Should be easy, since he only passed this way moments ago."  It was almost impossible to detect, unless you were looking for it, the slightest trace of bitter sarcasm in her words.

Within moments, she was a wolf.  <Nothing.  I don't smell a thing.  No humans other than us, have been this way in days.>

Dino fidgeted.  "I suppose I did hit my head pretty hard," she allowed, rubbing her temple.  "Goom might not have gone the way I thought I saw.  Sorry."

Aquilai sighed.  "Well, nothing to do now, except head back to the TARDIS."

"I'm really sorry, guys," Dino apologized again, with quite convincing sincerity.  "Seems I'm just screwing everything up, lately."

"Don't worry about it," Jess said, as gently as she could manage, when inside she felt furious.

Once they were back in the TARDIS, Rachel shut the door behind them.  "Take us into orbit, Aquilai.  Right now."

"What's going on?" Dino wondered.

"You are," Rachel practically snarled.  "You're a controller."

The few RAFians who hadn't yet gotten the news, gasped in shock.  But as realization dawned in their expressions, they narrowed their eyes in suspicion.

Dino laughed incredulously.  "Come on.  How?"

"When Queen had you," Terenia spoke up.  "You've been a controller ever since."

"And it took this long for anybody to notice?" Dino retorted.  "If I really am a controller, then some friends you are."

"You know perfectly well, why we wouldn't have been able to tell the difference," Phoenix pointed out bitterly.

"Fine then," Dino said.  "Drop me off somewhere for three days.  I'll prove I'm not a controller."

This gave the RAFians pause.  A supposed controller, actively volunteering for the three-day test?  What?

"You know we can't do that," Myitt said harshly.  "We only have two days, remember?"

"Yeah, and we have a time machine," Dino said, with an implied 'duh.'  "Drop me off, leave a couple powerful RAFians with me, maybe Estelore or Phoenix or Shock, to make sure I don't try anything, then just fast forward and pick me up three days later.  Terenia and Myitt, you'll be fine, and then you'll know that I'm not a controller."

Rachel narrowed her eyes.  No, that didn't add up.  Somehow, she didn't know how, but somehow this Yeerk must know a way around the three day limit.

"Better idea," Terenia said slyly.  "You don't really want to be sitting around twiddling your thumbs for three days, anyway, do you?  How about, either me or Myitt, we just slip inside your head and check-"

"No!" Dino suddenly yelled, the word coming out before she could stop it.  "No," she repeated, more calmly.  "No offense to either of you, but I don't want anybody poking around in my brain.  There's stuff in there that I wouldn't want anyone to see.  No, no, I'll take the three days."

"We won't look at anything," Terenia vowed solemnly.  "We'll only go far enough to see if there's a Yeerk in there."

Dino firmly shook her head.  "Sorry.  Not that I don't trust you.  You know I'd trust both of you with my life.  But I just, really don't like the idea of having a Yeerk going into my brain."

"That's it," Myitt said, moving forward.  "I do not trust this, not at all."  She was angling to line up her own ear with the side of Dino's head.

Dino immediately flashed from human to Ankylotyrannus.  Before anyone could so much as move, she had her jaws wrapped around Saffa.

<If anybody does anything, if I so much as smell a whiff of defiance on any of you, the bird-girl goes bye-bye,> she hissed.  <So, you figured it out.  Smart, smart little RAFians.>

[Underseen]

I'm surprised nobody there has a Varanx morph.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Well, you probably do, so to speak, Underseen.  But, I don't imagine you could forcefully remove a Yeerk from its host without severe damage to the host.  Remember Essam, and Hildy, from Visser? 

Chapter Thirty

Estelore was already there, before Carger had even finished moving.  In the blink of an eye, they were standing right next to the dinosaur's lowered head.  Before Carger was done speaking, they had placed their outstretched hand next to his temple.  The air around Estelore's hand shimmered, heat waves rising off of their palm.

"And if you do that," Estelore replied ruthlessly.  "We will boil you inside our friend's skull."

<You wouldn't,> Carger said disbelievingly, but with a definite trace of fear.  <You kill me, your friend Dino dies too.>

Estelore's expression was cold.  "We are willing to accept that.  Death is far better, than what you've done to her."

The Yeerk seemed to shrink back from Estelore, as it quickly searched through Dino's memories, and saw that the star was not bluffing.  Yes, it was true.  Estelore, who valued free will above everything, truly would kill Dino rather than leave her a controller.

Carger slowly raised his head, releasing Saffa.  Saffa coughed once, and made a gagging noise, as she cleared the awful smell of the dinosaur's breath out of her lungs.

"You have three choices, Yeerk," Terenia said.  Her dracon was already out, and pointed at Dino, as she did her best to seem unafraid of the huge dinosaur.  "One, you die, right now, and Dino dies with you.  We'll do it.  I think you know we will.  Two, you leave her head, and perhaps we will be kind enough to leave you with your wretched life.  Three.  We knock you out and force-feed Dino as much maple and ginger oatmeal as she can eat.  You can't be starved out, anyway, right?  So we have nothing to lose.  Those are your options.  Dead, maybe alive, or insane."

The Yeerk was genuinely afraid, surrounded as he was by enemies.  Carger knew he had messed up.  There was no way he could fight his way out of this.  They would kill him, if he tried to fight.  And if he didn't, he knew, they certainly meant to make good on their plan to knock him out and destroy his mind.

<You would promise to leave me alive, if I let your friend go?> he bargained.

Michael stepped forward.  The despair had gone from his eyes, replaced now by a cold fury.  "You killed my wife," he uttered harshly.  "I promise nothing."

"That's just a chance you'll have to take, Yeerk," Seal said, only slightly more gently.  "You've got two options that will definitely destroy you, and one where you've got a slim shot at living.  I'd take the slim shot, if I were you."

Carger paused, weighing his options.  None of it sounded good.  He was cornered, trapped.  He wanted to live, damn it!  He didn't want to die.  Not after Queen had changed history to save him from death, when he was supposed to have died a long time ago.

He had gotten a second chance, and he didn't want to lose it.  Not now, after he'd come so far.

<I'll go,> he said, despairingly.  <Please remember,> he added pleadingly, desperate.  <I could have taken your friend down with me, and I didn't.>

"Yeah, how noble of you," Jess scoffed.  "Coward."

Dino shook her head, as the tip of the slug's body began to appear from her ear.  <Oh, oh my god,> she said, finally able to speak again for the first time since being captured.  Her voice broke with emotion, as she looked to Estelore.  <I'm free.  Thank you.  Oh, god, thank you.>

The Yeerk fell to the floor.  A few of the RAFians looked back and forth, wondering who would be the one to make the decision.  They weren't too keen on leaving the Yeerk alive, a Yeerk who had been inside the head of one of their friends, and who knew all the secrets of RAF.

But, this was a sentient being.  A being not so different from Myitt or Terenia, lying, helpless, on the floor.

Even Dino, after all she had endured, didn't want to be the one to coldly exterminate a helpless foe.

But Michael stepped forward.  He looked down at the Yeerk, tilting his head slightly, as though he recognized the creature from somewhere.  A vague, faded memory.  From a dream, perhaps.

Then, he closed his eyes in anguish, remembering Katherine.  He took another step, and his foot landed on the slug.  His expression twisted with anger, and he ground his foot back and forth into the floor, snuffing the life out of the wretched creature.

Nobody spoke for several moments.  After all they'd been through, after all the innocent blood that had been spilled, it was almost good to know that they could still feel like this.

"So, what now?" Bear wondered.  "What do we do-"

He was interrupted, by Phoenix suddenly gripping his head, almost as though in pain.  But it wasn't pain, so much as shock.  Horror.

"My memories," he said mournfully.  "Oh, god, there's nothing there."

The other RAFians looked back and forth at one another.  Underseen glanced down at his Mark.  No, they didn't remember anything different.  The second timeline, the broken history altered by Queen, overlaying their own timeline, still seemed perfectly intact.  So what was-

"Aah!" Terenia suddenly cried.  "Oh god.  It feels so . . . empty.  What's happening?"

"What, what is it?" Bear wondered.  Then, "Oh, no.  No!  What's going on?  The second timeline, it's gone out.  It's just, an endless nothing."

Whatever was happening, it didn't take long for it to sweep through the rest of the RAFians.  It hit each of them, one by one.

The other timeline, everything they remembered from their own broken pasts, had suddenly gone dark.  It wasn't simply gone.  At least, not quite.  They could still sense just the barest hint of something.  But, it was emptiness that they sensed.  Nonexistence.  A lifetime, of . . . nothing.

"Oh my god," Aquilai whispered as he put it together.  "Our families.  She's hunted them down.  She's gone and killed our parents."

"Why would that-" Tony wondered, but Aquilai hadn't finished.

"Before we were born."

The RAFians each nervously glanced down at their Marks.  At a glance, they looked so small.  Just wristwatches.  But they were the last connection that the RAFians now had, to this world.

[Underseen]

When they started mentioning memories I thought she killed Richard in the past, but then I thought about how that wouldn't make any of us lose all our memories. Killing everyone's parents is pure evil.

[theyoungphoenix]

Agreed. Although we all knew she was evil...

[redtailedsaffa]

Sometimes I do get so pissed at my mother I feel like throwing something at her... but the thought of her killed in cold blood even in fiction makes me sad. And mad.

[DinosaurNothlit]

A name has been changed in this chapter (and following chapters) to protect the innocent oh who are we kidding. 

Chapter Thirty-one

Nobody really said anything, for several long minutes.  They were all thinking of their families.  Some mourning, some fuming, some bitter, some almost past the point that they could even care at all.  How much more pain would they have to endure, before this was over?  How much bloodshed, how much death?  It was too much, already, to even think about.  And yet they felt no closer to defeating Queen than they had been when they started.

So, when the time of silence was past, the RAFians quickly went back to talking of other things.  Desperate to keep their minds off of the ones they'd lost.  As though putting it out of their minds would somehow make that awful empty truth, simply go away.

Russell had decided to take the opportunity, this rare moment when no life-or-death disasters were actively in the process of occurring, to formally enlist Rose and Michael as part of the team.  He brought out the morphing cube from his pack, and held it out, reverently, to the two of them.

They both looked intrigued.  Rose looked on in some mix of curious wonder and excitement, eager for the chance to try out this strange and awesome new power the RAFians had told her about.  Michael seemed to show a flicker of recognition in his eye.  Because, although this alien device was nothing he'd actually seen before, he could feel just the slightest tug of deja vu.

They both pressed their hands against the cube.  Their eyes widened, as they felt the slight shock of the morphing power being transferred to them.  Russell had, of course, already explained to them what to expect, but to actually feel that static tingle coursing through their nerves, it was a weird and wondrous experience.

"We've got plenty of battle morphs to choose from," Russell said, with a flourish, once the ritual was complete.  Rose and Michael stared down at their hands, still taking in the reality of their new powers.  "Let's see, here, we've got, a dragon-"

"Yo," Shock commented.

"-a bear,-"

"Howdy," Bear added.

"-an Ankylotyrannus," he continued, but Dino was too far away, and too distracted by her own conversation with Terenia, to hear him.  Russell went on, listing all of the dangerous RAFians he could think of, at least those who were dangerous by virtue of their genetics.  Lumy, and Estelore, of course, were off the table.

"And," he said, as he pressed the button on his Mark, <an Andalite.>

Michael tilted his head in curious wonder at the strange, yet not so strange as he should have seemed, alien before him.  That graceful form, that powerful tail.  Yes, indeed, something about it was familiar.  The deja vu he had felt earlier was back, and more powerful than before.  He was sure, quite sure now, that this must be a creature from the book he would have helped to write, in another timeline.

His eyes lingered on that tail.  Russell, smiling that Andalite smile with just his eyes, snapped the blade forward, faster than the eye could see, demonstrating the natural speed and power of his true form.

Michael had made his decision.  He placed his hand on Russell's shoulder, and the Andalite's eyes began to droop, as his DNA became part of Michael.  Of course, this graceful alien had always been, in some way, a part of him, hadn't it?

Yes, he thought, as he felt the new DNA flowing through his blood, this was how he would avenge Katherine's death.

Meanwhile, a red-tailed hawk had landed on Rose's shoulder.  <Always good to have a bird of prey morph, you know,> Saffa said reasonably.  Rose, hesitantly, still slightly in awe at her sister's hooked beak and magnificent wings, reached out a hand, and stroked the hawk's feathers.

"You know," Rose said, as Saffa went into the acquiring trance.  "I've always thought, if I could choose my own powers, I'd have wanted something more like invisibility.  No offense, or anything," she added quickly to Russell.

Saffa paused for a few seconds before answering, still a little loopy from being acquired.  Then, she laughed gently.  <When all this is over, and we find a way to fix RAF, you can come online.  And then you are welcome to have whatever powers you'd like.>

Rose smiled, and nodded in agreement.  Yes, she would like that.

Meanwhile, Terenia and Dino were having a very different conversation, on the opposite end of the TARDIS.  "Is it true?" Terenia was asking.  "About the three day limit?  Your Yeerk found a way to beat it?"

"Carger was his name," Dino said shakily.  She was back in human form.  Feeling almost afraid of her Ankylotyrannus self, after having helplessly watched all of the terrible things Carger had done.  "Not 'my Yeerk.'  But, yeah.  He didn't need to feed.  And, it's not just him, either."

"What?" Myitt said incredulously.  "You mean . . . "

"Yeah," Dino said, with a weary nod.  "Queen, she altered their evolution somehow.  I think she found some alternate reality where Yeerks don't need Kandrona."

Terenia closed her eyes sadly.  "So, there are no Yeerk pools, then.  Nowhere I could, even in theory, sneak a feeding."  She sighed.  "I had a hunch, it wouldn't be that easy."

Dino gave Terenia a sympathetic look.  "I'm sorry," she said, feeling guilty to be the bearer of such bad news.  "We'll find a way.  Once we get the Time Matrix back, everything will be okay."

She nodded slowly.  Trying not to think about what the future held for her.

"Which also means, there's no way to starve Yeerks out of their hosts," Demos added, having overheard their conversation.  He looked at Dino.  "Lucky yours was such a coward, then."

Dino looked a little nauseous at the alternate possibility that Demos seemed to be suggesting.  But she nodded.  "Yeah.  Lucky."  She held up her hand in front of her face, almost reverently, like she was marveling at it.  Her queasy expression quickly turned into a relieved smile.  Enjoying the simple pleasure of being able to move her own fingers.

"Oh, that reminds me," Dino suddenly said, loudly enough to make a few other RAFians turn their heads towards the conversation.  "There's something else I found out from Carger.  In the future, there are resistance groups.  People actually fighting back against Queen."

"Free humans?" Phoenix asked hopefully.

"Not really, no," Dino admitted.  "At least, I think they're mostly controllers.  But, they don't like Queen any more than we do.  They're doing whatever they can, in fact, to try to bring her down.  They haven't had much luck, yet, but maybe they can help us."  Dino smiled, having saved the best part for last.  "And, their leader?  Nobody knows his real name.  He's proved to be dastardly hard to find, so even Queen has not yet been able to delete him from history.  But, he goes by a code name.  CloakedFigure."

"Cloak?" Seal wondered hopefully.  "You really think it's him?"  Suddenly she looked worried.  "But, resistance or not, if you're right, he's a controller.  I don't like that."

"Well, maybe if we can get the Yeerk to our side, we can manage a deal," Dino said hesitantly, with a look at Myitt and Terenia.  "We, of all people, know that not all Yeerks are the same."

"That may be true," Jess pointed out.  "But, remember, just because they oppose Queen, that does not necessarily mean they're in favor of hosts' rights."

"Still, we need to check it out, I think," Dino said.  "In any case, they could make valuable allies.  We'll need all the allies we can get."  Dino took a deep breath.  "Carger, he told Queen about how we escaped from RAF.  She then used that information, to do the opposite.  And, well, I don't know exactly what Queen brought back with her, from RAF into the real world.  But we can guess it isn't good."  She looked around at the other RAFians.  "Like I said.  We'll need all the help we can get."

Estelore was standing apart from the conversation.  Listening, but lost in thought.  Finally, they sighed, as though preparing to voice something they knew might not be well-received.  "We think there may be another unexpected ally, that we can call upon, to help us.  An old friend of ours.  Someone who knows more about our enemy, than any of us.  More, perhaps, than even the Yeerk resistances.  Someone who, we believe, even Queen herself would never dare to harm."

Several of the other RAFians turned towards Estelore, intrigued.  "Really?  Who?" Phoenix wondered.

"Her name is Monica," Estelore began, hesitating.  "But, you would probably know her better, by her username."

"Which is?" Underseen pressed.

" . . . AlmightyQueen."

[Underseen]

This is brilliant. I love time travel, it makes everything more interesting.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Chapter Thirty-two

"No," Jess and Cody said in unison.

"Absolutely not," Jess said.

"Hell no," Cody commented.

"Look," Estelore said.  "We don't know anybody else who could ever know Queen so well, besides the actual user who inspired her.  For heaven's sake she is Queen.  Having her on our side will be a huge advantage.  And she really isn't that ba-"

"Not that bad?" Cody hissed sharply.  "Friendships were ended, because of her, Estelore.  She tore RAF apart."

"It was a simple misunderstanding, that escalated," Estelore insisted.  "She just gets, defensive, when she feels threatened."

"Threatened?" Russell put in.  "My tail.  Nobody did anything worse than disagree with her, and she goes and threatens legal action against the whole forum."

Several RAFians were looking confused.  The mess with Queen had happened before their time.  It had been years ago, after all.  Many of them didn't know, why, exactly, Queen had been banned.

"There was a thread about racism," Phoenix explained to those newer RAFians as he saw their confusion, carefully keeping his voice calm.  "Queen had some, unique, ideas about what racism entails."

"Black people can't be racist," Jess coughed.

"Yeah, that," Phoenix acknowledged uncomfortably.  "Anyway, people disagreed, obviously, and she took it out by threatening to alert Scholastic to RAF's ebooks, which we still had up back then."

"Basically, she was telling us that she had the power to shut the whole site down, if we pissed her off," Shock said.

"What a jerk," Steph commented under her breath.

Estelore sighed, and hardened their expression.  "People.  This is hardly the time to be focusing on past transgressions.  Please, remember, all of this happened a long time ago.  And, back before this admittedly unpleasant nastiness occurred, Queen was once a well-liked RAFian.  Hard as that may be for a lot of us to believe.  She is not evil.  Defensive, yes.  Sharp-tongued, oh, definitely.  But not evil.  She will not want the world destroyed, any more than we do."

Phoenix nodded.  "I don't like it much.  A lot of harsh words ended up getting thrown around because of her.  She turned a lot of people against one another, in that whole mess.  But, well, Estelore's right.  Dangerous as she might once have been, now she'd make an even more formidable ally.  If she decides she's willing to work with us."

Estelore nodded, and walked off towards a secluded wall of the TARDIS, preferring privacy for the very important call they were about to make.  They held down the white button on their Mark, as they silently visualized Monica's phone number.  The Mark made a ringing sound, as the call went through.

Aquilai, although right in the middle of the group, had remained silent throughout the entire discussion.  He had been looking up at the ceiling, his brow furrowed, deep in thought.  Suddenly, his eyes widened.

"That clever devil," he exclaimed.

"Queen?" Seal asked, confused.

"No, the Ellimist!" he said, the pieces all suddenly clicking together in his extraordinary Time Lord brain.  "When he appeared to us, before.  He winked at me."

"That's wonderful for you," Jess mocked, rolling her eyes.  "I didn't even know he, or you, swung that way."

"Oh man," Aquilai continued, ignoring Jess completely.  "The Ellimist didn't appear to us as Adam for no reason!  Don't you see it?  It wasn't just so he could spin some stupid sob story about turning into the Ellimist, and having his consciousness assimilated."  Aquilai seemed to be almost vibrating with excitement, at his discovery.

"He said, and I'm paraphrasing here, but he said that if he had been any less powerful, the paradox between Adam, whose RAFsona is the Ellimist, and the actual Ellimist, as brought to life by our stories of him, would have destroyed them both.  That wasn't just Adam whining about his life.  It was only disguised as such.  So he could sneak it by Crayak.  It was a clue!  Oh, he is brilliant."

"Clue?" Seal said.  Then her eyes widened as it dawned on her, too.  "Ohhhh."

"Queen, and Queen," Aquilai said smugly.  "It's a paradox, isn't it?"

"Why haven't they destroyed each other already, then?" Noelle wondered.

Aquilai shrugged.  "Maybe they have to touch one another.  Or at least be somewhere in the same vicinity.  I don't know, but I guess simply existing together in the same reality isn't enough.  They have to interact somehow.  I would guess, touch."

"Okay, so how do we trick them into-" Cody began, but stopped when he noticed Aquilai shaking his head.

"No, I don't think this is something that deception can solve," he said.  "The Ellimist, he spoke of a power, a trait we hold as RAFians.  Underhanded trickery, that isn't it.  But I think I just figured out what it might be."

"What?" Underseen wondered.

"Forgiveness," Aquilai said simply.  "I think he was talking about the power of forgiveness."

[redtailedsaffa]

The power of forgiveness. D'aww.