End of RAF

[redtailedsaffa]

Awesome! I was just re-reading this the other day. Good to have a new chapter after a while!

[DinosaurNothlit]

And another one before I go to bed.

Chapter Thirty-nine

Aquilai took the TARDIS to the coordinates Odret had named.  The place where they would find the leader of the resistance.  The one called Cloak.

The RAFians could all feel the oppressive anxiety eating away at them, as they wondered if it would really be Cloak, or just a coincidence.  Rad had been Rad, yes, but that didn't necessarily mean that 'Cloak' would be Cloak.

When the TARDIS landed, the RAFians stepped out into an eerie scene, somehow worse than the ruins of Dallas.  They were inside a building, but the roof had long-since collapsed in several places, and that awful reddish twilight of Queen's future streamed down through the holes, flashing occasionally green as lightning arced through the darkening sky.

The space, although indoors, was big.  Not as huge as the Yeerk pool, but at least the size of a good-sized basketball court, with several large hallways leading off in different directions.  The main room was enclosed by deteriorating cinderblock walls, paint clinging to concrete in only a few tattered and peeling pieces.

The floor of the space was cracked linoleum, strewn with tables and chairs, which were dust-covered from lack of use.  In a darkened corner, a burned-out Burger King logo could just barely be made out through the gloom.

"It's a food court," Rachel said wonderingly.  The other RAFians looked around, eyes wide with shock as they realized she was right.

Lumy barked a laugh, which echoed back cacophonously through the ruins.  "He picks a food court for a meeting place," he marveled, lowering his voice.  "The guy has a sense of humor."

Rachel shifted anxiously.  She got the joke, of course.  She'd been a part of many meetings in food courts.  But she didn't really find it funny.

A man emerged from the shadows behind a fallen blue and white sign that was so ruined that only the letters "Ci-" could just barely be made out in the remaining fragment of cracked glass.  The RAFians stiffened, ready for action.  Three figures emerged behind the first one, and as they each stepped into the light, their fellow RAFians immediately recognized Gaz, Myitt, and Rad.  Myitt and Gaz quickly moved to join the other RAFians.

The man who had emerged, however, was wearing a hood, and his face was obscured in the shadows cast by the cloth.  "Greetings," he said, spreading his arms wide.  He sounded like Cloak, at least.  "RAFians.  I have waited a long time to meet you."

But there was something off.  Something besides the obvious.  There was something here, that wasn't right.  All the RAFians could feel it, but Rachel was the first to put a finger on it.

There were no Hork-bajir guards.  No Taxxons, either.  Even the two human-controllers here didn't seem to be armed.

Two versus almost thirty, and they didn't even bring weapons?  Two supposedly high-ranking Yeerks within the resistance?  Either they were very sure that the RAFians were on their side, or they were incredibly stupid.

Or it was a trap.

The other RAFians began to note the unsettling imbalance of this meeting, and instead of being calmed by the apparent defenselessness of their would-be foes, they immediately tensed, ready for battle.

Shock spread his wings.  Bear reared on his hind legs.  Dino slowly angled her body so that her tail could be brought to bear.  Those who were morph-capable quickly began to morph.

But an eerie silence pervaded the space even as the RAFians readied themselves for battle, silence so heavy it felt like it could only be the calm before a storm.  The hooded man didn't speak a word, patiently waiting for the morphers to finish.

"I am Illim," he finally said when they were finished, his words jarring in the tense silence.  "The one they call CloakedFigure, well, I suppose that could be said to be the name of my host.  We come to you unarmed now, two against a legion."  He pulled back his hood, revealing Cloak's face, wearing a surprisingly gentle smile.  "Just as you came to us."

He gestured to Myitt and Gaz, and it suddenly made sense.  Illim and Odret were only extending the same level of trust that the two RAFians had already, albeit unintentionally, shown them.

The RAFians relaxed, at least a little.  Those who had morphed didn't demorph, not yet, but Shock lowered his wings, Bear settled back onto four paws, and Dino turned such that her tail was once again behind her.

<We want our friends back,> Noelle suddenly said.  Although she was standing tall with her body held in a brave stance, her voice sounded nervous, like she thought maybe she was saying something she shouldn't.  But it needed to be said, nonetheless.

"I am a reasonable Yeerk," Illim said calmly, but next to him, Odret looked uncertain.  "If you help us defeat Queen, well, we will have little need of our hosts in a world free of Queen's influence, will we?"  He sounded almost relieved, as though he had been waiting for the opportunity to revoke his hold on Cloak.  Odret nodded hesitantly, a little less sure of herself than Illim was, but still willing to compromise if it meant taking down Queen.

"Yes," she agreed, with only a slight quaver in her voice.  "If you help us oppose Queen, and promise us safe passage from our hosts, then we will free your friends."

The RAFians quickly nodded, almost urgently agreeing to the compromise before it could be taken back as too-good-to-be-true.  Aquilai stepped forward, and led them inside the TARDIS to the pool where Terenia and Myitt had fed the previous day.  The others filed in after them.  The two controllers bent over the pool, where their Yeerks left Rad's and Cloak's bodies.  There was no need for a Kandrona, as these two Yeerks had of course evolved to survive without it.

"Oh, that's better," Rad said excitedly to the RAFians, while Cloak rubbed sharply at his ear.  "I guess I really shouldn't complain, there are lots of worse Yeerks to be controlled by, but there's just something about having another mind inside you . . . "

The RAFians had to stop themselves from grinning at each other in amusement.  This Rad had no memory of Ma'at, after all.

Cloak was staying silent, brooding.  He knew he should be glad to have his body back, and of course Rad was right, there were loads of worse Yeerks, but Cloak had never liked being 'beneath' anyone.

As much as he resented Illim for his methods, though, he also felt guilty for that resentment.  He knew Illim was a good Yeerk, and in other circumstances the two of them might have even been friends.  In some ways they had been.  Cloak had helped Illim see Queen for what she really was, and at times they had even worked together to oppose her.  Didn't mean Cloak liked it, though.  And, of course, Illim had known that.

Dino edged closer to Rad and Cloak, back in human form herself, trying to comfort the two of them.  She knew some of what they were feeling.

Aquilai handed a Mark each to Rad and Cloak, which they strapped on, not needing explained to them what they were.  He held the remaining Mark, looking at it wonderingly.

"Only one left," he mused.  "The one we would have given to Goom."

"So, what, you're saying now Goom's a lost cause?" Jess said sharply, almost accusingly.  "Hey, we can't just give up on him."

"Yeah," Dino said quietly, wincing.  "I think his cause is pretty lost by this point."  She was still trying to convince herself that it wasn't her fault Goom had escaped.  Rationally, of course, she knew it had been Carger.  But it was hard to convince herself, when it had been her own voice lying to her friends, and her body leading them in the wrong direction.

"And, you know, it just seems a shame to just leave Illim and Odret like that after all they've done for us," Phoenix added, gesturing at the two Yeerks in the pool.  "The Marks contain human forms, don't they?"

"They sure do," Bloodbane said smugly.

"They could share it between them," Aquilai said, staring down at the slugs beneath the water.  "Each one of them being human when they need to."

<Guys?> Russell asked suddenly.  He was holding up his escafil device, with a smile in his Andalite eyes.  <I think we're overlooking a far more obvious answer here.>

[redtailedsaffa]

The name Illim rings a bell.

[DinosaurNothlit]

As well it should, Saffa.  Every Yeerk who has been featured by name thus far in the story (except Sub-visser Four) is actually a minor character from Animorphs. 

[spoiler=Cheat sheet]Iniss (Goom's Yeerk): Chapman's Yeerk.
Carger (Dino's Yeerk): Hork-bajir Chronicles.
Odret (Rad's Yeerk): Megamorphs 4 (Tobias's Yeerk).
Illim (Cloak's Yeerk): Book 29 (Tidwell's Yeerk).[/spoiler]

(Sorry it took so long to reply, it was another case of 'I'm waiting until I have a chapter to post until I post' and then of course I promptly get writer's block. )

Chapter Forty

The RAFians held the two Yeerks in their hands, passing them from one to another, allowing them a sampling of DNA from those few RAFians who had human DNA in the first place.  Terenia, meanwhile, acted as translator, conveying the clicks and squeaks of the Yeerk language into her own thought-speak so that the others could hear.

It was a strange little ceremony.  The strangeness of it seemed to be lost on the RAFians, who had, of course, endured much stranger.  But it was not lost on those to whom this world was still new.

Michael shivered slightly as he cradled Illim in his calloused hands, passing the Yeerk with a sense of urgency to a hesitant Richard.  With the slug no longer upon his skin, the author tried to hide a sigh of relief.  He knew it was wrong, of course, but still he couldn't help but to recall the creature, identical to this one, that had been responsible for his wife's death.

Worse, his earlier dreamlike feeling of unreality was beginning to fade.  It was becoming harder and harder to deny that all of this was, somehow, really happening.

Once the odd ritual had finished, the two Yeerks morphed to their new human forms in private, using the same room of the TARDIS where the RAFians had been keeping most of their spare clothes.  The two newly minted humans emerged, amid looks of appraisal and, after a few moments of scrutiny, general approval.

Illim's human form ended up as a cross between Michael, Tony, Shade, and Cloak, with just a hint of Richard thrown in.  Taken together, he had become a dark-haired young man, but with the soft features of wisdom.  Except when he smiled.  His smile was young and genuine and familiar.  It was Tony's goofy grin.

Odret ended up a cross between Saffa, Rad, Tara, and Kyris, with a little of Rachel.  She was a young girl, but beautiful in a way that seemed almost threatening.  Nevertheless, she had taken on a vaguely tomboyish look, her dirty-blond hair falling in loose waves around her dark-edged and stoic features.  A fierce visage which was quite at odds with the almost humble way she looked to Illim.  A reverential look that didn't quite rise to meet his eyes.

"Okay," Illim said, getting right down to business.  "You've all been briefed, correct?"

The RAFians nodded.  A few of them looked apprehensive.  Not since rescuing their downloaded fellows from Switzerland all those months ago, had any RAFian dared to venture as far into enemy territory as where they would be going.

"Good," Illim said, trying to muster a calmness in his voice to allay the others' fears.  In truth, however, he was worried, too.  But it was time somebody stood up.  Queen had been in control, delirious with her own power, for far too long.

Illim gestured to Cloak, who nodded back.  From his pocket, Cloak produced a small silvery concave disk, which he handed to Illim.  Which made sense, several RAFians realized.  As Illim's former host, anything that the Yeerk had brought along with him would still be on Cloak's person.  Cloak crossed his arms, glancing at Illim with a weary expression.

Illim gently tossed the disk to the floor, where it illuminated the inside of the TARDIS with a grid of blue light.  It was a hologram projector.  The lines flickered for a moment before resolving themselves into a blocky tunnel-like shape, like a three-dimensional blueprint with all the RAFians huddled inside.  Some areas of the 'blueprint' remained fuzzy, and a few pieces were missing altogether, like a computer image that couldn't finish loading.

"This is what we have," Illim explained, gesturing at the pixellated phantom hallways that shone all around them.  "Apologies for the gaps, but our information has always been spotty, at best.  Some of this is not much more than hearsay, and of course several areas are only accessible to those inside Queen's royal guard.  But it is what we have, and I hope it serves better than nothing."

Seal, curious, moved towards the wall of the hologram.  In time to her movement, the wall curved to move toward her.  "Eeep!" Seal exclaimed, surprised by the sudden motion.  As she jumped back, the wall did too.  Testing the phenomenon, she tried moving to the side, and again, the wall moved along with her, as if the place where she was going was also coming towards her.

Several other RAFians began to move along the 'wall,' noticing the same thing Seal had.  The hologram was interactive, it seemed.  It would effectively 'zoom in' to wherever they wanted to go.  And in such a way, they realized, the map was actually bigger than the part they could see within the room of the TARDIS.  By walking towards the places that were 'off the map' behind the walls, they could bring those areas into view.

"Pretty sweet," Shock commented, testing the 'wall' with a wingtip.  It passed through the blue light, looking for a moment like he had dipped his wing in bright blue paint.  "Future tech meets Yeerk tech.  Nice."

The RAFians spent several hours in the map of Queen's fortress, doing their best to memorize its layout.  It wasn't easy.  The passages were a labyrinth of dead-ends and crooked loops and switchbacks.  Designed, of course, to confuse outsiders.  All the while, the RAFians imagined the corridors filled with enemies, Hork-bajir and who knew what else.  They staged mock fights amongst themselves, trying to find the best vantage points, the most useful cover.

After a while, though, it stopped being a task to study and learn about the enemy base.  It became a game of repetition.  RAFians doubled back through the same corridors, over and over.  But it was their minds that were stuck in a loop.

They were stalling.  Somewhere in the back of their minds, they didn't want to face Queen.  Not yet, not yet, their subliminal instincts muttered.  They weren't ready.  How could they ever be ready?

When Illim noticed that hesitance, that fearful lingering, he made the hard decision for them, that they were about as ready as they were ever going to be.  He stepped forward.  He glanced curiously at Estelore, who had drifted away to the edge of the map to answer a call to their Mark.  But he decided to go on, anyway.

"If I may be so bold," he began.  "I think we're done here."

Seal raised a flipper, tentatively, like a kid in class raising a hand.  "Can it wait until tomorrow?  It's getting late, and this isn't exactly a mission that we should attempt on anything less than a full night of sleep."  Again, there was that hesitation, that niggling feeling at the back of her mind that it was too soon, somehow.  This wasn't supposed to happen, not yet.

Myitt, meanwhile, glanced at Terenia, who shifted uncomfortably.  Yes, it was getting 'late,' at least by the circadian rhythms of the RAFians.  They hadn't slept since before their attempt to rescue Goom, and that already felt like forever ago.

But, this meant that another day was passing.  With a start, Terenia realized that there would only be one night left after this one.

That same fearful stalling feeling was working at the back of Terenia's mind, too, but at war with it came a sense of urgency.  She had seen her future.  She knew what was to come of waiting.

But they weren't ready.  Something was missing.

"Guys?" Estelore piped up, waving their Mark enthusiastically in the air.  "Before we all nod off for the night, do you suppose we can make time for one more errand?"

[redtailedsaffa]

Oh, I know the feeling. Been struggling with writer's block for quite a while now. But always good to see a chapter up! And I can't wait to see what happens next.

[theyoungphoenix]

Oooohhhh... Wonder what they're gonna end up doing next... Can't wait!!

[DinosaurNothlit]

Chapter Forty-one

Monica stared at the ceiling, slowly spinning in her swivel chair.  Still thinking about what Estelore had told her, during that fateful phone call.  It was nearly impossible to think about anything else.

It was ludicrous, of course.  The internet somehow being its own world?  Things that had come out of that world?  And which were now threatening the real world?  It was preposterous.  Obviously it was preposterous.  What other word could there even be, to describe whatever this was?

But then again, Monica knew, Estelore was nothing if not ruthlessly honest.  If Estelore had a flaw it was that they were sometimes even too honest, saying exactly and precisely what they thought with never any frills or sugar-coating.  The idea that they'd make something like this up, was somehow even more preposterous than the thing itself.  And even besides that, Monica reminded herself, she had once believed crazier things from Estelore.

So, ridiculous as it all seemed . . . she sighed, rubbing her temples.  It was hard to know what to think.

The one thing she did know was that she had acted too rashly during that phone call.  She had let her own temper get the best of her.  Again.

Really, when everything was considered, what did it matter what the RAFians had done, or hadn't done?  Her history with them had happened a long time ago, and if they were willing to let bygones be bygones, well, why shouldn't she?

Still, the idea of there being, somewhere out there, another her . . . even the suggestion of that possibility frightened her, on some deep and primal level.  And she did not like feeling frightened.  Fear was an emotion that could all-too-quickly escalate into anger.  Which is exactly what it usually did.

Which was why it was so hard, not to be angry at the RAFians that had done it.

She sighed, picking up the phone and running her finger over the 'redial' button for about the tenth time in the past few hours.  She didn't know if redialing an unavailable number would even work, of course.  But an unavailable number was the only thing she had to go on.

She steeled herself.  The fate of the world itself might be hanging on- but, no, she couldn't think like that, too much pressure and she would only freeze again.  She couldn't think at all, she just had to press the button and be done with it.

A moment's pause.  "Hello?" Estelore said hesitantly, on the other end of the line.

"It's Monica," she said quickly, the words spilling out of her mouth as though desperate to get out before she could change her mind.  "I've decided to reconsider your offer."

"Oh, excellent!" Estelore replied enthusiastically.  "We can come pick you up in about . . . well, from your perspective about ten seconds."

"What?" Monica asked, perplexed, and was about to add, 'oh right time travel' when she heard a metallic whooshing noise that faded in and out as it built in volume.  She turned around, still in the swivel chair, to see a blue police box materializing in her living room.

"By the way," Estelore began as they stepped from the box, speaking nonchalantly, as though nothing about any of this were strange at all.  "How is it that you can remember RAF?  Everybody else not protected by a Mark had their memories erased.  You aren't even a RAFian."

"Simple," a British man in a suit quickly cut in before Monica could answer, as he stepped out of the box behind Estelore.  "The Time Matrix.  It protects the timeline of whoever is controlling it.  You are part of Queen's timeline.  Therefore, it protects you."

"Lucky me," Monica said, rolling her eyes as amiably as she could, as she tried not to consider exactly what it was that she was getting herself into.  She got up from the familiar comfort of her chair.  Too late to turn back now.

She walked into the TARDIS, stepping lightly, as if even the floor of this bizarre new place might be dangerous somehow.  Looking around, she couldn't help but wrinkle her nose at several RAFians that had already fallen asleep.  These were the people that the fate of the world depended on?  It was almost pathetic.

She didn't know, of course, how long they'd been awake, or how little used they were to fighting against that irresistible magnet pull of sleep.  How could an outsider like her even begin to know what the RAFians had been through?

Richard and a few of the others from other 'time zones' had decided to try to sleep, even though they weren't tired, as they tried to set their own internal clocks to the time that most of the RAFians seemed to be on.  Illim, Odret, Rad and Cloak were among the few still completely awake, shifting nervously and looking at each other, as though unsure of how to interact with each other anymore, now that all four were 'human.'  Saffa's sister Rose was sleeping almost peacefully, and Michael was plenty weary enough to at least manage to fake it, but Richard couldn't quite seem to stop tossing and turning.

He couldn't stop thinking about his family.  Perhaps the only one whose family Queen hadn't been able to find and destroy.  Even Michael had lost what family he'd had.  What if Queen found Richard's parents?  Yet his fear was intermingled with guilt, that awful helpless shame that came from the realization that he was one of the lucky ones.

What right did he have to fear for his family's safety, when nobody else even could?

Richard wasn't the only one kept awake by such dark thoughts.  Other RAFians were thinking of their families, too.  The knowledge that there was nothing they could have done, did little to soothe the pain of loss.  There was a bitter voice in each of their minds, a twisting feeling of doubt, telling them there had to have been something.

But what had they done, in that time of direst crisis?  They had all laid down and slept.  It was now a painful memory, the sleep of the previous night.  As though the only reason their families were gone was because they'd simply been too lazy to save them.

As bad as it was for everyone else, it was worse for Dino.  She had been the one to betray the families.  But, no.  She kept trying to tell herself that, it wasn't her, it was Carger.  Yet it had been her voice speaking to Queen, telling her where to direct her twisted minions.  When Queen had laid out her plans for the murders, the thought-speak voice coming from Dino's own mind had only laughed.

Terenia, meanwhile, couldn't help but turn towards more selfish thoughts.  Or, at least, they felt selfish to Terenia.  But she couldn't push away that feeling of terrified dread which she almost felt guilty for dwelling upon, when so many people were already dead.

It was the second night, after all.  Another day had passed.  There would be only one more night, and then the day after that . . . what then?

A few RAFians tiredly looked up, as Monica walked inside the TARDIS.  Tony blearily opened his eyes and started.  He was, quite suddenly, far wider awake than he would like to be.  As the woman walked by, he couldn't help but flinch.

Tony was, after all, the only RAFian who had gotten a good look at Queen.  And now that he was looking at Monica, he suddenly realized that he had seen her face somewhere within Queen's multidimensional multitude.  It was an unnerving sense of familiarity, having seen an ally, within the enemy.

Monica, meanwhile, seemingly unaware of the RAFians' inner turmoil, looked around and sighed.  Seeing herself outvoted, as it were, in favor of sleep, she decided that maybe a mid-afternoon nap wouldn't be quite such a bad idea after all.

[redtailedsaffa]

Yay! New chapter. Relieved me while sitting at this boring desk.

[Underseen]

I actually had to read the last three chapters too. I sorta forgot what was happening 

[theyoungphoenix]

Well then. This is gonna be an interesting development...

[DinosaurNothlit]

Indeed, Abby.

Chapter Forty-two

Hours later, all around the TARDIS, RAFians were beginning to stir.  Aquilai had set the central room's lights to slowly brighten during the morning hours.  An attempt to mimic the early light of 'dawn.'

But even despite the gentle lighting, several RAFians abruptly started as they awoke.  They were caught off-guard, it would seem, by the stranger who had arrived in the night.

"Morning, sunshines," Monica said, looking down with an amused grin as Jess, Cody, and Bear groggily made themselves breakfasts of cold cereal and canned goods.  "I hope you got a good sleep," she mocked, her voice layered with savage sarcasm.  "Wouldn't want you to be tired while the world is ending."

Snarling, Jess jumped to her feet, cereal raining down from the bowl she had unthinkingly sent flying.  "You arrogant mother-"

"Everyone!" Phoenix urgently cut in.  He made a quick but insistent gesture to Russell, who hurriedly handed him his morphing cube.  Bear glanced at Cody, and they gave each other a subtle smile, immediately knowing what Phoenix was up to.  It was a distraction.  And it was a good one, too.

If Monica caught on to the reason behind the ruse, that it was just a diversion to keep her from starting a brawl aboard the TARDIS, she was at least wily enough not to show it.  Eyes glittering with an almost childlike wonder, she stepped towards the box.  She immediately knew what it was, of course.  She had grown up reading those books.

Phoenix held the cube gingerly out to her, trying his best not to look nervous.  But he couldn't help but feel like he was holding out a steak to a wolf.

Richard appeared, strangely alert despite the hour, moving silently as a ghost.  Monica started when she noticed him suddenly standing next to her.  Phoenix nodded, realizing that Richard had yet to receive the morphing technology himself.  The two not-quite-RAFians stood next to one another, palms against two of the sides of the cube.

Rad and Cloak stepped forward to join Richard and Monica, completing the 'circle' around the cube.  As a final touch, Becky broke away from Shade, Kyris and Bloodbane, arriving to put her own hand onto the cube's top face.  The other three of her little group gave her a sideways glance, as though contemplating receiving the morphing power themselves.  But, after a moment of thought, each of them seemed to decide they were powerful enough as they were.  Becky was the only unmodified human among them.

A few RAFians, watching the spectacle from all across the TARDIS, couldn't help but to grin giddily to themselves.  Five people being given the morphing power.  Well, heh, that was a nostalgia trip, wasn't it?  By a half-phoenix, rather than an Andalite, but still.  Phoenix made a good stand-in for Elfangor.

Once the five of them were granted the power to morph, the other RAFians quickly gave them the same spiel they'd given to Michael and Rose, when the two of them had received their abilities.  Those RAFians who made for good battle morphs came forward, and offered up their DNA to the new morphers.

But Monica only scoffed, and crossed her arms.  "It's bad enough you've got me working with RAFians.  No way am I going to morph one of you."  She lifted her nose, as though refusing to make eye contact.  "I want a proper battle morph."  As she said it, the corners of her mouth lifted slightly, unable to hide her amusement at trolling those who had cast her out.

"Oooh!" Jess growled, and Myitt reached for her shoulder as if to hold her back.  But Jess had more self-restraint than to actually attack Monica.  If only just.

Richard, feeling some strange instinct awaken within him that he didn't even know was there, quickly held up his arms in a gesture of peace.  Suddenly, somehow, it felt natural, standing up in front of these people, taking command.  "There's no reason to fight," he said, finding a newfound authority in his voice that felt like it belonged there.  "I don't suppose anyone would object, to a trip to the zoo?"

Monica looked at Jess smugly, like she had won.  Myitt actually did grab Jess's shoulder this time, as Jess gave another low growl.

Aquilai started twisting knobs and pulling levers with a nervous sense of urgency, wanting to get going before anything else could go wrong between the RAFians and their newest uneasy addition.

Within moments, they were all stepping out of the TARDIS into the gentle darkness of a night at the zoo.  Silvery flecks of light glinted off of chain-link fences and the eyes of stirring creatures within.

Cloak immediately headed for the big cats exhibit, Monica and Richard keeping an almost competitive pace behind him.  Becky broke off in the other direction, heading for the Asian animals.  Kyris and Shade tried to follow her for protection, but Becky assured them that she'd be fine.  They took a look at each other, and nodded, silently agreeing to follow her anyway.

Tony initially left the TARDIS in the direction of the African 'savannah,' but, after a moment's consideration, opted instead to chase after Rad, jogging to close the head start she had gotten.  He seemed just a little disappointed, but Rad had started walking quite decisively towards the North American mammals, and it was obvious at a glance that nothing was going to change her mind.  Tony quickly decided that he didn't want her going off alone, without even so much as her memories of RAF to help her get out of any trouble.  She was, in Tony's mind at least, a RAFian, and a fellow TJ.  And that meant, memories or no memories, that she was family.

Saffa, meanwhile, circled high above them all, keeping an eye on everyone, as best she could in the pale moonlight.

Cloak's nerves were twitching with excitement as he walked down the moonlit path, thinking eagerly about what it would be like to actually be a tiger.  The raw power, the liquid grace, the feline agility.  Richard and Monica could barely keep up with him.  He soon broke into a run, taking a flying leap at the fence and clinging to it as though his fingers had already become claws.

Becky walked down a different path, unable to quite shake the feeling that someone was watching her, even though she was alone.  But she more-or-less ignored it, because she was pretty sure that Kyris and Shade might have come along despite her wishes.  So she had to stifle a laugh when she heard the whispered words, "Petrificus totalus," and heard the muffled thump of an unconscious body hitting the ground.  So there were guards here at night.  That was nice to know.

Tony loped along next to Rad.  He had already had the power to morph for several months, of course.  But he had decided to come along anyway, to take the opportunity to boost his battle morphs before trying to take on Queen.  Seeing Monica, looking so much like Queen, right there among the RAFians in their place of safety . . . it unnerved him.

"So, what's on your mind, here?" he said, making conversation with Rad as they jogged along the moonlit sidewalk.  She obviously had a specific destination in mind, and he couldn't help but wonder what it was.  "What's it gonna be?"

Instead of answering, she shot him a sideways look, slowing down slightly as she creased her brow.  "You talk to me so casually," she said slowly, hesitantly.  At the same time, it was almost as if she'd rehearsed what she was going to say.  "Like you know me.  But you don't.  You may have known someone else who looks like me, talks like me, even thinks like me.  But, I'm not that person."

Tony slowed down even more.  His look was confused and a little dismayed.  "What?  Rad, you're still Rad.  You're a RAFian.  I don't care what you say."

She sighed, and pursed her lips.  "Maybe I am.  Maybe I'm not.  I don't know.  I've heard a lot about you RAFians, from Odret.  I could almost picture . . . but it's just hard to know.  How different am I, from what I should have been?"

Tony sighed, not really wanting to deal with an identity crisis, on top of everything else that was already going on.  "You never answered my question," he said instead.  "Where are we going?"

"Moose," Rad said.  "I am Canadian, you know."

Tony laughed, immediately feeling his nerves ease.  "Rad, you're just the same as you ever were."

Before Rad could retort, they heard a sound that pierced the silent darkness.  An abrupt clatter of footsteps, followed by an authoritative voice.  "Stop!  Trespassers!"

"Crap, guards!" Tony cursed.  Lowering his voice, too late, to a harsh whisper.  Layers of dark enameled bone were already beginning to unroll from his forehead, forming into the thick curved horns of a water buffalo.  It was a strange feeling, morphing almost in plain sight of at least one human, going against everything he'd ever learned about being an Animorph from the books.  But he had nothing to lose, did he?  And, even stranger, there was something about having nothing left to hide that made him feel strangely, powerful.

"What the-" the guard said, confused, as his light illuminated something not-quite-human.

Tony looked to Rad, who had yet no such means of defense, and said, "You, run for it.  I'll take care of this guy."  He stamped his still-hardening feet on the ground, and lowered his rapidly-growing head, already preparing to charge.

[DinosaurNothlit]

And, just because I haven't posted regularly in far too long, here's a bonus chapter.

Chapter Forty-three

The panther gazed at Monica warily, but without fear.  This human in her enclosure was no threat.  In fact, the big cat carried an air of impatient laziness, as though the human was nothing more than an annoying insect whose buzzing had disturbed her sleep.  Sure, the panther's expression said, she could kill the human if she wanted to go back to her rest, but was it really worth the bother?

Monica bowed her head, feeling a strange need to pay her respects, as if she was in the presence of royalty.  In some way, it seemed, she was.  She held out her hands at her sides, as though proving to the cat that she had no weapons.  As if pitiful human weapons would inspire fear in such a creature.

The panther's gaze was challenging as Monica slowly approached, but the cat made no move to attack or flee.  There was no need.

Yet, Monica could have sworn, in the moment she laid her hand against that black fur, that she saw the tiniest flicker of respect in the panther's eyes.  Respect, for the human brave enough to confront a creature that could have ended her life without a moment's thought.  Respect, for the pathetic clawless creature who would dare to touch a panther.

But, no.  It was just an animal, after all.  It didn't feel that kind of empathy.  More likely it was just used to the presence of humans after so long in captivity.

The panther's bright eyes briefly dimmed as the creature went into the acquiring trance.  Monica took the opportunity to back away, retreating to the fence of the enclosure, and by the time the panther returned to her senses, that strangely fearless human had vanished into the night.

Back at the TARDIS, just a few feet outside the blue police box's doors, Illim and Odret stood, holding hands, in the moonlight.  As if they were afraid to venture any farther into this strange and unfamiliar place.

"So, this is the world, before," Odret commented, feeling like she needed to whisper so as not to break the delicate silence of this unbroken world.  "It's wonderful, isn't it?"

Illim smiled up at the sky, almost too awed to reply.  He had never in his life seen stars before.  Those horrid reddish clouds had always blocked them, since before he'd had eyes to see.  "Yes," he finally said, his voice choked with very human emotion.  "Wonderful."

He looked at Odret, his loyal follower.  Her eyes, so childlike, with the light of the stars held within.  Of course, he knew they weren't her eyes, not really.  Her human face was not her own.  But he couldn't help but feel a twinge of . . . something.  Affection?  Why?  Was it these primal human instincts that were now part of his mind, bonding to the first thing his own new eyes had seen?

Or was it because she had followed him when no one else would?  Followed him, against a tyrannical ruler that nobody else dared oppose?  Could it be-

He was broken from his thoughts by the shrill sound of a human scream.  Not an unfamiliar sound, no, not after a life lived in that terrible future remade by Queen.  But it shattered the silence nonetheless.

Odret's grasp tightened around Illim's hand as their eyes locked.  They looked at one another with an almost disappointed kind of fear.  Not really a fear of whatever had caused that scream, but more a disappointment that this world itself might not be as safe as it seemed.

"Oh!" Illim suddenly said, almost wanting to smack himself.  "We can morph, too.  Shouldn't we be out with the others?"

Odret's fearful look deepened.  Knowing that she would have to be in her natural form to acquire new DNA.  Not looking forward to facing some dangerous creature, let alone when she would be a helpless slug.  "Come on, Illim.  Don't worry.  They'll be fine."

This time it was Illim's eyes that darkened.  "We've seen Queen's army for ourselves.  We know what horrors these RAFians must face.  So we know, that they will need every last soldier they can find."

She looked deeper into his eyes, like she was searching for something.  "You already know you can trust me," Illim assured.  "I won't ever let anything happen to you."

Still holding hands, they raced off into the night.

Tony shook his head and snorted as he reversed the morph.  He hadn't even had to go fully buffalo, before the guard had uttered an embarrassingly un-masculine scream and taken off running in the other direction.

Rad came out from the nearby shadows as Tony stood up, the last of his dark fur sucking back into his skin to reveal his morphing outfit.  "We done fooling around?" she said, her hands on her hips.  "Come on."

"You're welcome!" Tony shouted at Rad's retreating back, as she turned once more towards the path leading to the North America portion of the zoo.  He stumbled slightly as his knees shifted to human, but he jogged to close the distance and catch up with Rad.  She was faster than he remembered.  From running away from Queen's guards in the future where she had come from?  Maybe.  But he didn't really like to think about that.

Cloak, meanwhile, was enjoying the feeling of the tiger's DNA inside him.  He morphed and demorphed, just a little, as he walked.  Just enough to see the striped orange and black fur creep up and down his arms, enough to watch his nails become claws.  Then he would reverse the morph and return to human.  He thought maybe he could already feel the tiger's mind, the power of it, the fearless grace.  The RAFians had told him that you would inherit the instincts of whatever you morphed.

He craved that feeling of power, having spent most of his life feeling helpless.  No sooner had he escaped his oppressive mother, than he'd become the servant of a new master.  He knew that wasn't really being fair.  He knew that Illim had never meant to hurt him.  But it had just been too soon.  He had barely even gotten to taste freedom before having it yanked away from him again.  A lifetime spent, but not his own life to spend.  He felt like his life had never once truly been his own.

Suddenly, he tripped.  He'd been so lost in his thoughts that he'd allowed the morph to progress further than he'd intended, and his legs had shifted underneath him.  That's what had made him fall.  He growled, a sound that was only half-human, cursing his circumstances as much as his foolishness.

The existence of these others, these RAFians, these people who had known him in another timeline . . . it opened up an interesting possibility.  What kind of person should he have been?  If he wasn't the person he was supposed to be?  Who was he?

Surely, that other person had been better off than him.  That person had friends, wonderful friends who were like a family.  The family he'd never had with his own parents.

He didn't know whether he was happy, or sad, about that.  He felt happy, because there was another world where, maybe, he had been happy.  But he was sad, too, because that person wasn't him.  Could never be him, perhaps.  Was it too late to become that other Cloak?  The one who had escaped his own fate and found freedom and love instead?

Maybe it was too late.  Maybe he could never have that life.  The thought made him curse that other person, the other Cloak.  Why should that Cloak get so much happiness, when he had ever had so little?

Cloak spotted the light of the TARDIS, and slowed.  It almost scared him a little, thinking about those people, and the timeline they came from.  Did they look at him and see that other person, the person who was their friend?

And was it perhaps a bad sign that some part of him wanted to just play along, be that person, in the hopes that maybe some of the other Cloak's better life might just rub off on him?  He knew it was wrong, but maybe it wasn't so wrong.  Surely, some part of him must still be the same.  How much of him was his past, and how much was really his own self?  It was a daunting question even in the best of circumstances.

<Hey, Cloak,> Saffa called from above.  <You're the first back.  How did it go?>

Cloak was pretty sure Saffa wouldn't be able to hear him, so he just gave a thumbs-up.  Yeah.  Everything was fine, just fine.  Maybe he could even convince himself that it was true.

One by one, the other morphers trickled back into the TARDIS.  They almost left without Illim and Odret, but Saffa had seen the two Yeerks leave, and told the others to wait until they returned.

With everyone well and truly back, Aquilai dialed in the coordinates, both in space and in time, that Illim had given him.  For once, he flicked the levers and knobs on his console almost hesitantly, one button at a time.  Like he had suddenly forgotten how to drive his own TARDIS.

Or, perhaps, like everyone else, he didn't quite want to go to where it was they were going.  And he was pressing the buttons just to kill time.  The TARDIS bucked under his hands as soon as he was done, as if the machine itself was telling him to get the heck on with it.

Once more, they all careened through time and space.  But this time wasn't like the other times.  Not even their two trips into the future could compare to this.

It was directly into Queen's fortress that they flew.

[redtailedsaffa]

This is moving fast.

[Underseen]

This is moving fast.

Yup. The chapters of this fic are always filled with so much substance. I love how Dino can spend 10 sentences just about the characters emotions. It's very Applegate-esque.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Underseen, "Applegate-esque" might be one of the highest praises I think I've ever received. 

For that, I present another chapter.

Chapter Forty-four

Suddenly, there was a horrible lurch and a gut-wrenching metal-on-metal screech, as the TARDIS abruptly changed direction.  It felt, almost, as though it had collided with something.  But, if that was the case, then it must have been something that was almost yielding, like a rubber band that had been stretched to its limit before suddenly flinging the TARDIS backward.  One moment it was flying along as usual, then it unexpectedly slowed, and then suddenly it was careening in the opposite direction.

RAFians cried out as they fell against one another, the floor tilting wildly, tossing them like a ship in a stormy sea.  Their shouts were nearly drowned out, however, by the long series of crashing noises that could still be heard from outside, each crash accompanied by another jarring lurch.  Several RAFians were forced to quickly tap their Marks and activate their human forms in order to avoid hurting anyone else, as they were haphazardly jumbled into one another by the erratic movement of the room they were inside.

Aquilai managed to remain standing, as if by sheer willpower, clinging to the central pillar of the TARDIS.  The console sparked and sputtered, bleeding sparks and bolts of electricity.  "Shh, shh," Aquilai said, patting the machinery, as tenderly as he could manage while the console jerked like a wounded animal beneath his hands.  "I know you've been through a lot, but we still need you."

There was another earsplitting screech and another jarring bounce, and the TARDIS finally came to rest on its side, crumpling everyone against the wall which was now a floor.

"Is anyone hurt?!" Jess called out anxiously, immediately checking those closest to her for injuries.  Aside from some minor cuts and scrapes, however, it seemed that everyone had made it through unscathed.  A minor miracle, to be sure.

"Ugh," Aquilai muttered, his voice now slightly muffled by Shock and Seal who had landed on top of him.  "Well, I guess Queen found a way to protect her lair from teleportation, it seems."

"That makes sense, actually," came Illim's voice from somewhere else within the pile of RAFians.  "She has always been a paranoid despot.  Fearful of anyone or anything who might threaten her power."

Aquilai didn't answer.  His sonic screwdriver could be heard anxiously buzzing as he checked the damage that the TARDIS had taken.  The expression on his face, as he did so, was not at all encouraging.

"We will need to find another way in," Richard said breathlessly as he squirmed his way out from underneath the others.  "We must be close, at least."

Slowly but surely, the other RAFians were extricating themselves from one another, disassembling the pile of people that had been lumped together in the crash.  They wore nearly identical expressions of shock and bewilderment.  Things had happened so suddenly.  Within the span of a few seconds, the only plan they had come up with to infiltrate Queen's lair had become impossible.

Pulled forward by curiosity, Noelle crawled along the wall-floor of the TARDIS, and opened the door.  Gravity pulled the door open so it thumped against the ground.  Demos, who happened to be the next-closest to the door following Noelle, peeked over her shoulder at the unnervingly hellish landscape.

They hadn't landed inside the fortress, that much was clear.  But they hadn't gone far, either.  They seemed to have landed within a gigantic expanse of burned ground, a charred-black wasteland.  Shards of soot-stained concrete were just barely visible sticking up from the hellish red-black scorched earth.  The broken concrete faintly outlined a square pattern on the ground, and with a sick feeling, Noelle realized that those concrete ghosts were all that now remained of buildings.  The city of Houston was nothing more than a blackened wasteland.

The outer edge of the burned area, so far away it was barely visible from here, seemed to curve around, like an enormous outline of a circle.  Or, Noelle realized, like a barrier.  A great open expanse through which no living thing could pass, without their movement sticking out like a neon sign.

Realizing this, Noelle drew back inside the TARDIS, pushing Demos back behind her.  She could hear a static noise, and out of the corner of one stalk eye she could see just a little of the outside of the TARDIS.  It was flickering, like a broken hologram.  A dilapidated car one moment, a bit of brick wall the next, an old storefront, a ramshackle shed.

The chameleon circuit was damaged in the crash, but it was struggling to compensate nonetheless, the TARDIS trying doggedly to hide itself as best it could in this starkly barren and open place.  At least all the disguises were subtle ones, blackened to match the surrounding landscape.  Perhaps they might avoid being seen, after all.  If only until someone looked too closely at this spot and noticed the flickering disguise.

Aquilai made his way to the TARDIS door as soon as he was able to push his way through the other RAFians.  Paying little heed to whatever dangers might lay outside, he climbed through the door.  But at least he still had sense enough to stay within the TARDIS's shadow.  He was muttering to himself as he scanned the TARDIS, waving his sonic screwdriver over the most damaged areas, gingerly touching the surface of his vehicle, like he was trying to offer it comfort in its pain.

"Hold on," he whispered as a few exposed wires knitted themselves together within the blue light of his screwdriver.  "Just hold on."

Demos took the opportunity to clamber over Noelle, peeking out of the TARDIS behind Aquilai.  He looked towards the center of the burned circle, and laid eyes on what it was they had come for.

Queen's castle itself was grandiose indeed, towering over the wasteland.  The structure was hard and angular, like the walls had been broken and put back together, slivers of stone sticking out like needles through the cracks.  The grey-black walls surrounded a central courtyard, where a hill could be seen just over the top of the foreboding walls.

Near the castle was a slightly raised plateau, not connected by any visible structure to the fortress itself.  Yet it felt like a part of the evil complex, nonetheless.  Any plants that had once lived on that barren flat plain were withering and dying, their blackened husks the only mark on the scorched earth.

The whole scene was illuminated by the reddish twilight of the apocalyptic sky.  The plateau looked like a battlefield, already drenched in blood.  And the castle itself looked lit by the fires of hell.

"Oh my god," Terenia whispered breathlessly, shoulder-to-shoulder with Demos.  "Oh, my god, I know that place.  That used to be a college campus.  That's where Marie went to school."

"Queen knew that Houston was something of a mecca to you RAFians," Illim explained.  "She took it as her stronghold, as a symbol of her authority and dominance over you."

Jess shot a poisonous look at Monica.  She knew Monica wasn't responsible for this, but it was like she couldn't help it.  She needed somewhere to vent some of her anger at this monstrous deed.

Monica felt herself being watched, and returned the glare with a challenging expression of her own, daring Jess to voice aloud the comparison Monica knew was on her mind.  Monica was not Queen.

Well, not that Queen, anyway.  She was not the exaggerated evil creature that these RAFians had made her into.

"Plan B," Richard said, stepping forward.  "We can't exactly just waltz up to that place.  We need to find out how Queen's followers get in and out, and then-"

Just then, a thrumming sound came through the TARDIS's door, from the sky above.  A sound almost like a jet engine, but higher, smoother.  It grew in intensity, then faded away, as the unseen ship flew over the TARDIS.

The sound was instantly familiar.  Several RAFians had flown one, and even those who hadn't, still knew what it sounded like.

<There's our ticket,> Russell said cheerfully.  <Now we just have to steal a Bug fighter!>