The DIMENSION Chronicles #1:
The Messenger
Prologue
I walked through the woods, sparing no time for thoughts. My duty -and my master's trust- were both at stake. If I deceived him, I knew what would happen. At worst he would strip me of my powers. I knew he would never kill me. He would just let me live with the fact that I had failed him.
The biggest factor was secrecy. I couldn't let them know that I knew about them, or that I was a servant of someone who I suppose they despised.
Chapter 1---Marco
My name is Marco. I can't tell what my last name is, or where I live. I would if I could.
But you already know that.
You know that the Yeerks, maybe the biggest threat Earth has ever faced, are here. You know that this planet is their next target. An unseen enemy who hides in humans. An enemy who passes invisible between humans; with futuristic technology and a knowledge of their enemy. They know that humans are their enemy, which gives them an advantage.
We don't know they're here.
Only the six of us know, actually. Me, my best friend Jake, his cousin Rachel, her best friend Cassie, and Tobias. Oh, and Ax. Six kids are the only hope Earth has. I see how that can give you hope.
But we're special. Ax's older brother, Elfangor, gave us Andalite technology. He gave us a weapon to use to fight the Yeerks. That weapon is the power to morph, the power to turn into any animal we can touch and acquire. But morphing has limits.
If you stay in morph for longer that 2 hours then you're trapped. That's what happened to Tobias. But then he got his morphing power back from the supposedly "all-powerful" Ellimist. There are other problems with morphing, too. The main one would be the clothing thing. You can only morph skin-tight stuff. Presenting us with a big problem.
"So what does a museum have to do with morphing?" I asked, for about the third time.
Well, have you ever seen Jurassic Park? I looked at Tobias, the owner of the question.
"Yeah. So what? I mean, well..."
Well, suppose that's extracted from real science. And suppose that they just happened to have a piece of amber in this museum that has a mosquito in it... His suggestion was clear.
"Man, you know it won't work! I mean, it was only a movie! And besides, don't you think someone would be the smallest bit annoyed to see a kid drilling into a piece of amber with a mosquito whose blood inside belongs to," I took a breath and continued, "An animal who has been extinct for tens of millions of years? And you suppose that there would be enough blood left to acquire it after so long? I mean, that's a completely, totally, incredibly insane plan!"
"It has my vote then," Rachel said. I shot her a warning look.
"I'm kind of siding with Marco. I mean, why would you want to morph a dinosaur? How could you even acquire it in the first place?" Cassie asked.
"Ax, what do you think? Would it work?" Jake turned to the resident alien -and morphing expert,- Ax.
I do not know, Prince Jake. The species of Earth are far different from those on my home world. We have never encountered an animal who lives off the blood of another.
"So we'd be flying blind for this? No pun intended." Rachel wondered.
If that is the expression you want to use.
"Great. So not only would we be stealing age-old rocks, we wouldn't even know if it would work," I mumbled. As you might tell, I'm not the most enthusiastic person in the world.
"Let's take a vote," Jake said, ignoring my comment. He was my best friend, but sometimes I could kill him. I swear it.
"I vote that we go. I mean, something good could come out of it," Rachel suggested. Typical Rachel. Or Xena, as I call her.
"I'm not really sure. I'm not exactly thrilled at the idea of breaking into the museum and stealing." Cassie. Thank God for people like her.
I agree with Rachel, Tobias voted. Jake looked at me.
"No way. Nuh-uh. I am not going. No way." A piece of paper blew in on the wind. It was in an envelope. It was addressed to AM. I opened the letter. Inside, in bold letters, this was printed:
I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. WATCH YOUR BACKS.
Chapter 2---Cassie
Marco held a yellowed piece of paper in his hand, staring at it wide-eyed. I could make out faint black lines from the back. I then walked over to him.
"What's that?" I asked. He shakily handed me the paper. I read it to myself and it dropped out of my hand to land on the floor. Jake managed to be the first to get it, and he read it out loud.
"Guys?" He began. "We have a problem." Marco snapped out of his trance and stood up.
"Well duh we have a problem! Someone knows about us! Someone obviously threatens us and you have to announce that there's a problem?!" He snapped at Jake.
"Marco, calm down. Jake was just trying to-"
"Shut up Cassie! I don't need your stupid peace-loving tree-hugging support right now!" And with that, he stormed out of the barn.
"Okay, now we have two problems," Rachel mumbled.
"Two in one hour. We're improving on the 'trouble' scale," Jake said. I nodded. This was turning out to be a very bad day.
****
Jake called off the meeting, then went to try and calm down his best friend. I stayed in the barn, trying to have a little piece of a normal day by cleaning out animal cages. Really normal, huh?
Rachel and Tobias flew off, to God only knows where. I just hoped that they wouldn't get into trouble. Ax left. Who ever knows where Ax will be going? Probably back to his scoop or something.
I was trying to give some antibiotics to a rebelling raccoon when it happened. I suddenly had the feeling that someone was watching me. I turned towards the barn door. There was a girl. She was pretty much transparent. She was wearing school-related clothing. Black hair hung just above her shoulders. She had green eyes too.
"Be careful..." She said with a small smile, and then she was gone.
Caimara
, the name came to me in an instant. That was her name. Caimara...it sounded like something you'd find on a novel. Very weird. I went back to the raccoon.I felt it again. Someone was standing at the door. I could see their shadow. I looked up again. It was Marco.
"Hey," He said dryly. "Look, I'm sorry for what I said earlier."
"It's okay."
"But I was just worked up over that note. For all I know it could have been a joke."
"Marco, I don't think it was a joke."
"Wha...what do you mean?"
"I saw a person here, just now. She said something like, 'be careful' and then she was gone." I looked around the barn. Marco did too.
"There's no one here," He told me.
"She...she was here. But then she disappeared."
"Well, I've got to go. I just came by to apologize." Marco jogged off while I was still wondering if I had only seen Caimara in my mind. I must have. Unless she really had been there. But that was impossible. Right?
Chapter 3---Jake
I had just left the barn when I heard a rustling behind me. I ignored it and walked on. I had almost gotten to Marco's house when I heard another noise.
"Jake." I turned around. Standing there was a girl. Black hair, green eyes.
"Who are you?"
"Jake. Someone knows..." Then she disappeared. Forgetting about Marco's house, I went back to Cassie's barn.
"Jake, what's wrong?" She asked. I looked around.
"Was she here?"
"Was who here?"
"The girl! Well, was she?"
"What...girl? No one's been here except for Marco, and he left a while ago," She told me.
"You're sure? A girl spoke to me. She had black hair and green eyes."
"Caimara!" Cassie said.
"Who?"
"She was here."
"She said that someone knows." Cassie looked at me.
"I don't get it. Why? Why warn us? Does she work for the Yeerks?" Rachel walked up to us.
"Hey guys!" She said nervously.
"What's wrong with you?"
"Someone...someone was in my room."
"Who?" I asked.
"I didn't see her. But I heard a voice. Female. It said that I was needed soon or something like that."
"Okay, something's definitely going on here."
"You've got that right," A girl said from the doorway. "I'll be back soon!" As soon as she had said that, she was gone. Marco, Tobias, and Ax appeared out of nowhere.
"What's going on here? I was just starting to..." Marco began.
"Oh, hush you baby! Act your age!" The girl said, again appearing from nothing.
"It's you!" Cassie said. She was right, it was the same girl. The one with the black hair and green eyes. Now she wore her black hair up, except for a few bangs which hung down under her chin.
"Good memory, Cassie," She said, amused.
"What do you want?" I asked, stepping forward.
"You're asking me? I think it's more a question of what you want." She looked at me. She seemed to look right through me.
"Who are you anyways?" Rachel demanded, narrowing her eyes.
"Cassie got me right. I'm Caimara."
"Is she a..." Rachel began to ask me.
"No, I'm not a Controller. If I was then you wouldn't be here," She explained.
"We don't trust you," I told her.
"That's obvious. But you can trust me." She paced for a little while.
"Why are you here?" I asked.
"I have a message for you. A vague one, but a message nonetheless."
"Really? Then what is it?" Rachel frowned at Caimara. None of us trusted her, that was obvious. But after what had happened to David, and how close we had come to being killed by him, Rachel was the one who liked this girl the least. I couldn't blame her. To me, she knew too much.
"Tomorrow. You have to go back to the construction site, where you got the morphing power. All will be revealed then." And she simply vanished.
So we're going? Tobias wondered, sounding kind of sad.
"Yeah. Tomorrow, we're going back to where everything began."
Chapter 4---Tobias
The construction site. The last place I wanted to be with this strange girl who called herself 'Caimara.' I wondered if she was who she said she was, or if it was an illusion. I thought heavily on the situation and the risk while I went flying.
Thermals were beautiful as I glided over the streets. Carrying me up, and then I'd dive and another one would life me up again. Kind of like a roller coaster, only much cooler because you knew that it wasn't a machine. You have no idea what a thrill is unless you've dive-bombed at 70 miles per hour, rushing head-on at a building, and then pulled up just in time to save yourself from getting flattened. The pure adrenaline is all that keeps your courage up.
I flew over the city. I saw Jake's house, Marco's, Rachel's...and then I saw the construction site. I don't know why I stopped there, but I did. I landed and morphed to human. Memories came back.
"Tobias?" A female voice asked from behind me. I turned around. The voice belonged to Caimara.
"What're you doing here?"
"I know how you feel. You know, about El-about your father," She said. How did she know he was my father? How would she know how I felt anyways?
"And what makes you think that you know how I feel?" I demanded.
"Listen, Tobias. I want to tell you a little story." She sat down and I sat across from her. "A long, long time ago, the major races in the galaxy were the Andalites, -technological geniuses- the supernatural beings like the Ellimist, and my race: the Netteril. Then, the Yeerks gained space travel. After enslaving the Hork-Bajir, Gedds, and Taxxons, -as well as countless others in no particular order- they invaded the planet of the Netteril. The planet on which I was born.
"I was probably six years old when they came into my very home and captured my entire family. This included my parents, my three brothers, my sister, and me. They separated me from my siblings and killed them before my very eyes. I knew that they would have killed me, too, but a small Andalite force came in and distracted them, allowing me to escape. I never saw my other siblings again. I don't even know if they're alive. They later destroyed my planet. I don't remember exactly how I got out of the terrible explosion, but I know that now I'm a messenger. Even though I can't tell you who my master is.
"That, Tobias, is how I know what it feels like. I've seen many deaths and the destruction of many races. But the most vivid thing that I still remember is seeing my parents die." I felt bad. Here, I thought that my life sucked so bad. And Caimara didn't even have a home planet any more.
"I'm sorry, Caimara," I told her.
"Call me Cai."
"Okay." I demorphed and flew back to my tree, in my safe meadow. And I thought for a while.
Chapter 5---Rachel
It was time to meet in the construction site. I knew my mom would kill me if she knew where I was going. But I had faced death very many times before. Hell, I didn't really care how much trouble I could get into anymore.
I locked the door to my room and opened my window. Then I began to morph. I immediately began to shrink, and my mouth became hard like a beak. A 2-dimensional feather pattern appeared on my arms and over my morphing suit. Then it became more than just a design and formed actual feathers.
I was completely eagle when I flew out of my window and to the site. It took 10 minutes at the most. I landed behind a wall and demorphed. The others were all there except for Caimara. I didn't really expect for her to be there anyways.
"Hey Rach." Cassie said.
"Hi. Okay, now, we were supposed to get some kind of message or something? Then where is it?" I asked. Caimara appeared out of nowhere, with her back turned to us.
"One of the advantages of this is being able to do stuff like that," She said to herself.
"Hey Caimara." She turned around.
"Glad to see you're all here," She remarked.
"Well, since we are here, I suggest you tell us why we're here in the first place," Jake told her.
"Come on." She directed us to the very spot where Elfangor died. I walked slowly, delaying my approach. I didn't want to go there ever again. Tobias stalled, too. He must have hated it more than I did. We walked together. Jake and Cassie stayed close together, although not as close as I think they wanted to be. No, not that way.
We arrived at the spot and stood there for a while. We didn't know why we were there. At least, I didn't have a damn clue, and I don't think the others did either. Caimara didn't say anything to us. To tell the truth, I didn't even think she knew what we were doing there.
I'm pretty sure that I heard the blast before I felt it. But suddenly there was a sound like an explosion, and pain Ripped through my body. Someone had set up an explosive close to where we were. I screamed in surprise and pain and fell down.
I woke up on my back in the construction site. I knew that's where I was because I was laying on a piece of concrete that was jabbing my back.
"Ouch," I mumbled.
"Really," Caimara added.
"You," I pointed at her. "You knew this was going to happen didn't you?"
"Huh? No! No way in Hell did I know this would happen!"
"Liar!" I painfully sat up.
"Girls, quit it!" Jake said. I stopped, stood up, and walked out of the site.
Chapter 6---Caimara
I angrily watched Rachel leave. She had the nerve to call me a liar and a traitor? Okay, so she didn't say that I was a traitor. But that's what she implied. I only do what I'm told to do, and nothing more. I was told to deliver a message, and that's it.
CAIMARA, a loud voice boomed.
"Y-yes sir?" I asked. The other Animorphs looked around.
Ellimist! Aximili hissed.
YES, AXIMILI, IT IS I, THE ELLIMIST. CAIMARA, YOU HAVE SERVED ME WELL YET AGAIN.
"Huh? Caimara, you're a messenger for the Ellimist?" Tobias asked. I guess that he had morphed to human since the explosion happened.
SHE'S A VERY GOOD ONE AS WELL. CAIMARA-
"Ellimist!" I shouted.
YES?
"I-" A pain went through my arm. It felt like...like someone was squeezing my arm. Like someone had wrapped a tight rubber band around my elbow and it was cutting off the circulation to my lower arm. I looked at the pained arm, thinking that it would be red. But...it was fine. It still hurt, but there was nothing there. I could feel fingers -and fingernails- in my elbow. I rolled up my shirt sleeve but there were no marks.
"What's wrong?" Marco asked, walking over to me. Another pain went through my arm. It was throbbing now; I could feel the blood straining to go through my veins. I could hear my heart beating faster and harder. Suddenly, it stopped. Not fading to a duller ache. It just...stopped. No more.
"Caimara?"
"I...I'm okay now."
Caimara, what happened? Aximili asked. I shook my head.
"I don't know, Aximili," I told him. He looked shocked at the use of his name. I looked at him for a minute. He seemed somewhat familiar. My mind wandered back to when I was able to escape from the Yeerks.
The Andalites who had the Yeerk operatives distracted...one of them had carried me out of the building. I had been too shocked to get out on my own. I remember looking right at him.
You must leave. Find a way to get off the planet. He had said.
"Who are you?" I'd asked, being the inquisitive girl I was at age six.
I am Elfangor-Sirinal-Shamtul. Now, you must hurry! And he had run back into the building.
"Cai?" Tobias asked. I blinked.
"Huh? Oh, uh..." I trailed off, being brought out of my flashback.
"We have to go. You sure you're okay?" Jake questioned.
"Look, I'm fine okay?"
"Alright, jeez! I was just concerned because you don't seem fine when you say the circulation to your arm was cut off and they're no evidence. Then you go into some sort of trance. You didn't seem fine," Jake mumbled.
"Okay, maybe I'm not fine. I don't know. I'm not sure what happened back there or why it happened."
"Maybe we should ask your buddy, the Ellimist."
"That's not a good idea, Marco," I told the Hispanic boy.
"You don't have to bite my head off about it! Lighten up," He told me.
"Sorry. I'm just having a very bad day."
Chapter 7---Ax
Caimara had called me 'Aximili.' I don't know what it is about being called that by a human. I just hadn't heard that in a long time. My human companions call me 'Ax.' It's easier for them. But Caimara was strange. Of course, she's a messenger for the Ellimist. It shouldn't have bothered me that she was different. She walked over to me. I took a moment to look at her. She was pretty, for human standards. I hated to admit it, though.
"Aximili, I need to talk to you," She whispered. I quickly morphed to human. Caimara had moved to a somewhat secluded place. I carefully followed her.
"Yes? What do you need to talk, alk, to me about? Ab-out?"
"Your brother. Was he not Elfangor?" She asked. A strange question.
"Y-yes, he was. Why do you ask, as-kuh?"
"Because he saved my life," She replied. I took a minute to think about her answer. I think she saw the confused look on my face. "My planet was destroyed when I was young. The Yeerks invaded and it exploded. But before that, the Yeerks captured my family. They killed my parents and were about to kill me when a group of Andalite warriors distracted them. Long enough for me to get out, but not long enough for me to find my siblings. Your brother was one of those Andalites who helped to rescue me."
"I see. See-yah. I see." But I didn't. I didn't understand how a human could get this story. My brother had told no one of this except for me. It only left the one possibility that she wasn't lying. The possibility that we could definitely trust her. It was a possibility that the Animorphs didn't think of.
"Aximili," Caimara said. "Can I ask you something?"
"What?"
"What happened to the others that made them unable to trust me?"
"It was a person. His name was David. He found the Escafil device in this construction site. The others decided to make him an Animorph. He then tried to kill the others," I told her.
"How did you stop him?"
"Cassie developed an idea to trap him in morph. He stayed in rat morph for over 2 hours and he's currently stuck on an island. We have no wishes for him to be returned here."
"Oh. Okay," She said with a heavy sigh. I got up and walked away. I did not want to be near her any more.
Chapter 8---Jake
Something strange had happened in the construction site. With the explosion and then Caimara's arm...yeah, something was up. I just didn't want to find out. Tobias flew over our heads as we left the construction site. The Ellimist had disappeared after Caimara's incident. I didn't see either her or Ax.
Jake? Tobias asked. I looked up slightly at him. Why do you- AAAHHH! He began to fall.
"Tobias!" Rachel cried. She ran after him, trying to gain enough ground so if he fell she could catch him. He fell faster, and I was seriously thinking that he could fall and kill himself on the pavement. A few seconds before he would have crashed into the ground, he simply turned up and landed.
Rachel kept running to where he was.
"Tobias," She gasped. "What the hell was that?"
Uh...I don't know, He told her. I ran to them. Cassie and Marco followed. There was still no sign of Caimara or Ax.
"Where's Ax?" Cassie asked.
"And Caimara?"
"I'm right here," Caimara said, walking up behind the rest of us. Ax was following her in human morph.
"Prince Jake, what happened?" Ax asked.
"You might want to try asking Tobias," I told him.
"Tobias?"
I don't know what happened, okay?
"Guys? Something's really wrong here," Caimara said.
"No, you think? I figured that everything was perfectly fine. I mean, an explosion in a construction site followed by finding out that you're a messenger for the Ellimist is normal. Then, after this explosion that we were talking about, you and bird-boy here start acting weird on us. You're saying that something's wrong with that? I didn't think that was the case!" Marco snapped.
"Marco. Hey, buddy, calm down," I said.
"I don't need to calm down, Jake, I'm just fine. And as soon as I ring this girl's neck, I'll be even more fine."
"Marco, let's not lose control!"
"Jake, we've gone beyond losing control. One of these days someone's going to snap," He explained.
"No. That's not going to happen."
"Yeah, it's inevitable. Face it Jake, we're all going to go nuts. One by one, we'll be wrapped in a straightjacket and hauled off to the nuthouse. Hell, you could be the first one!" Marco shouted.
"And if you don't shut up, you'll be the first one to get killed," Rachel threatened. I thought about Marco's words. And as much as I hated to admit it, he could have been right about them.
Chapter 9---Marco
I took a deep breath and felt better. But I still felt like I wanted to hit something; to kill someone. And hat wasn't one of the feelings that would go away easily. Calm down, Marco. You're not insane yet, I thought.
Yeah, but you're pretty damn close,
I then contradicted. Oh, Lord, now I was talking to myself! I was going nuts!Shut up Marco!
I again said to myself."Marco? You okay?"
"Duh Jake! No, he's not okay. Look at him! He's a stick of dynamite waiting to explode!" I heard Rachel say to Jake. But I wasn't exactly listening. I was off in my own little corner of the universe.
"Hello? Earth to Marco! Earth calling Marco, come in!" Jake said, waving his hand in front of my face.
"I'm okay now," I said.
"Good. Because we're leaving." I saw that the others were about 5 yards in front of me. I ran to catch up.
"Hey, Caimara? What do you think is going on?"
"I'm not sure. But my hypothesis is that it has something to do with Sario Rips. Maybe Ax has an idea."
"Actually, this has been recorded. Re-cord, reeeeecorded-duh."
"What's been recorded?" I asked.
"Well, there was an explosion once, about half the size of one required to form a Sario Rip. An Andalite stood there and got caught in the Rip."
"So you're suggesting that maybe we're caught halfway into a Sario Rip? Oh, this is bad. Oh man," I moaned.
"Is there any way to reverse this?" Jake asked.
"You have to go completely -complete, tuh, lee- into the Sario Rip and create an explosion adequate for coming out of the full Rip."
"That shouldn't be hard," Caimara mumbled.
"Oh, Caimara? That explosion in the site was only equal to about one fourth of a Sario Rip-sized one," I told her.
"Ah. That's bad."
"You got it. This is really bad. Oh man, we're in for it."
Ax-man, how are we supposed to create an explosion so big? Tobias asked.
"You're not saying that we try and kill ourselves to get unstuck from a Sario Rip are you? Because that is the worst, craziest, most insane idea I've ever heard of," I said to Tobias.
"I say we do it!" Rachel exclaimed.
I sighed and said, "Well of course Rachel's all gung-ho for it. She's insane anyways."
"We'll take a vote," Jake concluded.
"I'm all for it," Rachel piped up.
"Me too!" Caimara added.
"Oh great, now there's two of them!" I whined.
"We have to try something. This may not be a big deal yet, but think bout what could happen at school if something happens." Cassie apparently was for this too.
I don't want to end up dying because of any kind of Sario Rip.
"Ax? What's your vote?"
"I will follow you, Prince Jake. But remember that this catch could endanger our lives. We should try and get out of it."
"Okay then. And Ax? Don't call me prince," Jake said for probably the millionth time.
"Yes, Prince Jake," Ax responded, for probably the billionth time.
"Oh, so I'm the odd person out?" I asked.
"Yeah. We're fixing this whether you like it or not, Marco," Rachel said smugly.
"Fine. Okay, I guess I'm in then. But I won't go without complaining!"
"As usual."
Chapter 10---Rachel
I didn't see why Marco was so dead-set against this. I mean, what's so bad about traveling to another dimension to become un-stuck from a Sario Rip? It's the kind of thing that I'd naturally jump on.
Which is probably why Marco hates the plan.
After leaving the construction site, I got a small headache and tried to relax for the rest of the day. It was a Saturday for God's sake! Anyhow, I walked home alone. Which would have been a kind of bad idea for a normal girl from what my mom's said, except for 2 things: It was daytime and the fact that I'm not a normal girl most of the time anyways.
My headache progressed while I walked home. Now it was more like someone hitting me on the head then an ache.
"For God's sake, Rachel, now you're getting paranoid?" I then realized that I had been like that ever since the battle with the Yeerks had gotten really serious. Ever since I first really learned that there was no one I could trust. When I had seen that some of the people I knew and trusted -Tom, Chapman, (who I never trusted much) some others- could be the real enemy. That had been when I first told myself that I would have to keep this secret even from my mom and sisters.
I thought about the events in the construction site after the explosion. Caimara's arm, Tobias's little accident...there had to be a connection. They both happened after the explosion that triggered the Sario Rip. Caimara was the connection. She had told us to go to the site, she'd had the first warning sign. Caimara had been the one to guess that it had to do with a Sario Rip. The fact that she was a messenger for someone who we knew could most likely double-cross us didn't help either.
I got home a few minutes later. My mom wasn't there. Which wasn't too strange, considering that she said she would be out that day. I went straight up to my room and locked my door. My head was pounding, literally. I heard...something. Like screaming, almost. Someone was pounding on something and another person was screaming.
I leaned against the wall as I tried to get to my bed. The aching was terrible now. I could feel my skull begin to crack. I felt blood come up as the skin was broken. I felt dizzy as the loss of blood made my knees quiver. Feeling a wave of red veil my eyes, I sank to the floor. The last thing that I felt was the darkness settling over my eyes and my head hitting the floor.
Chapter 11---Jake
I still didn't really know what to make of this Sario Rip thing. I mean, what if we were wrong? How would we create the effects from a Rip anyways? I mean, you can't pull those things out of thin air. Ax said that a Sario Rip occurred after a powerful explosion. If a construction-sized explosion was only half of the power needed, then where would the rest of the power come from?
I had called a meeting for the next day. I acted like it was no big deal. Which it wasn't. We'd been through a Sario Rip situation before. And it was more intense than this would be. I mean, we could prepare for this. Nothing major.
Hours flew by as I worked on neglected homework. I didn't want to fall behind more than I had. If my grades got worse, who knows what my parents would do to me? So I spent the hours doing homework and projects and extra credit, -anything I could think of- trying to keep my mind off other things. Maybe I could have one normal afternoon.
****
Okay, it was the next day already. I looked around my room. Nothing to stall me. I didn't really want to go to this meeting. But what can I say, the others felt like I was a leader. I couldn't just do nothing. Besides, I was part of the Rip too. I began to morph to bird.
When I was halfway into the morph, I heard a creaking noise and remembered that my door hadn't been locked. The point when I remembered was when I heard...
"Oh Lord!" And I turned around, being half bird, half human.
Damnit! Oh man, this is bad. This is really bad. This is so bad it's-
"My son's turning into a demon from the gates of Hell!" My dad shouted!
Uh...hi dad. My mouth had already turned into a beak. I had to use thought-speech. My dad walked into the room and slammed the door shut as I reversed the morph. I could have easily escaped, but he knew where I lived. Of course he did, he was my father. And he'd tell my mom and Tom and everything would be over. And since Dad didn't run screaming, "Andalite!" I figured that he wasn't a controller.
"Jake, you...you've go some major explaining to do," He said, as if I had done something terrible wrong, like I had walked through the construction site during the night when I shouldn't have...which I had done.
"Dad, you may need to sit down for this," I told him. He sat on my desk chair and I sat on my bed. I took a deep breath and told him everything, from the beginning.
Chapter 12---Cassie
I was worried. Rachel hadn't arrived to the meeting yet. Something could have happened.
"Rachel's probably on her way right now, Cassie." I looked around. Jake wasn't there either. That worried me even more.
Where are they? Maybe I'll go check Rachel's house, Tobias said and flew out of the barn.
"This is perfect. Fearless Leader and Xena are nowhere to be found, the resident alien's not here, the bird-boy just flew off, and the human-alien girl isn't here either! This is turning out well!" Marco shouted in a sarcastic tone.
"Hi," Jake said, walking into the barn. I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Jake, you had me scared. Where were you?" I asked him.
"Uh...well, my...er, my dad saw me morph."
"What?! You idiot! You're the one talking about secrecy and not telling anyone who we are and not letting people see us morph! And you get caught in the act!" Marco yelled.
"Marco, chill," I told him, standing beside Jake. I knew that Jake had made a careless error, but so had all of us. "You've made mistakes in the past, remember?" He fell silent. He had tried to help his mom -Visser One. And he had appeared to be a Controller to her once, too. I had acted stupid when I tried to trust a Controller.
"Everyone makes mistakes, true. But not one so bad as letting your father know what's going on!"
"Fine, I'm sorry. Okay?!"
"No, Jake, it's not okay! You've practically ruined everything that we've worked for! I'm sure that if Ax were here that-"
"What would he do? Kill a fellow Animorph? Is that what you would do, too? Would you become like David?" Jake started to fume. Not literally. Marco frowned and circled Jake.
"Guys..." I began, trailing off. They didn't seem to hear me. I'm usually trying to be the peaceful one. But there didn't seem to be much I could do about this. If it got more serious then I would really have to step in. But for now, they needed to get this out. Being an Animorph puts a lot of pressure on a person.
"Jake, you've let everyone down. You destroyed the resistance on Earth and ruined all of our chances at getting our family members back. All with a stupid mistake that you could have prevented!"
"I didn't know, Marco! Okay? Is that enough for you? Are you going to drag this out until everyone finds out that something's wrong here?!"
Marco stopped. He acted as if he was thinking. I saw changes begin. Oh God, he was morphing. Black fur began to sprout all over his body.
"Okay, that's enough! This is getting way out of hand! Marco, stop it!" I shouted, keeping back tears. Marco stared at me and reversed the morph. "Okay, now, Jake, you were wrong to be so careless. Okay? Marco, you were wrong to get so uptight about Jake being careless. Marco, calm down. Jake, we'll have to figure out what to do with your dad later."
"Fine. Okay, I'm calm. I don't want to kill Jake anymore," Marco joked. But his eyes still looked dark. Jake only nodded. I heard a very faint rustle of wings as Tobias flew into the barn.
Guys, He began, Rachel's in trouble.
Chapter 13---Tobias
I saw Marco and Jake's argument. I had heard about what Jake did. I wasn't exactly as mad at him as I should have been. I was worried about Rachel. I'd flown to her window only to see her sprawled on the floor, barely breathing. She might have been dead by the time that we got there.
Guys, Rachel's hurt, badly! I said, flying into the barn. I then flew out again and waited for them. A few moments later, a falcon and 2 ospreys appeared in the air. We went to Rachel's house. Her window was opened, but her door was locked. I could hear someone pounding on it.
"Rachel? Rachel, are you alright?! Jordan! Mom! Rachel's hurt!" It was her sister, Sara.
Rachel? Oh, God! Rachel!" Cassie yelled in thought-speech, diving through Rachel's opened window. I followed Cassie, Jake came almost beside me, and Marco followed Jake. Cassie and Marco demorphed. I sat on the window sill, watching. I then began to morph to human.
Cassie checked her pulse and looked at me. She looked to see if Rachel was breathing and covered her mouth. I heard her gasp quietly. I could have guessed at what she was about to say.
"She's..." I held my breath. I knew it. "She's dead." I stared at Rachel, and for the first time in a long while, I felt myself begin to cry.
"Tobias..." Cassie trailed off. I knew it was partially my fault that she was dead. If I could have told the others sooner, or done something myself...
I looked back at Rachel. Her eyes fluttered open and my heart skipped a beat. She sat up.
"Huh?" Rachel asked. "What happened?" I didn't have time to think about my reaction. I lunged, bringing my arms around her. "Tobias? What's-" I interrupted her question with a kiss. She smiled and pulled away. "Never mind," She said, still smiling.
"Ooh, Rachel and Tobias, sitting in his tree!" Marco started.
"Don't make me hurt you, Marco," Rachel warned.
"Rachel!" A voice cried from outside her door. "Are you okay?"
"Uh...oh, yeah, I'm fine!"
"Why didn't you answer your sister?"
"I was...listening to my headphones."
"Okay then."
"Now, where were we..." Rachel grabbed me and kissed me in turn.
"Okay kids, break it up!" A voice said from behind us.
"Caimara, finally!" Marco told the girl sarcastically.
"Yeah, I'm here. Sorry that I was tied up. Now, on to business..."
Chapter 14---Caimara
I came into Rachel's room to find her in a lip-lock with Tobias. I rolled my eyes and smiled. Finally, they were getting together! I had watched them so much that I was surprised it hadn't happened yet.
"Okay kids, break it up," I said at last.
"Caimara, finally!" Marco said in his stupid sarcastic way.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm here. Now, on to business..."
"Oh, I was hoping you'd never ask!"
"Marco, you're really getting annoying.
"Okay, sorry! Wouldn't want to be annoying, especially in front of the personal assistant to the universe's almost all-powerful being," He retorted.
"You can shut up now," Rachel told him.
"Seriously," I added.
"But Rachel, I thought you liked my funny jokes!"
"They're not even that funny Marco!"
"Let's get back on track, please!" Jake reminded us.
"Oh, yeah, okay. And could we get out of my room and go somewhere where people aren't likely to hear us?" Rachel asked, jabbing her thumb at the door. "Like the barn maybe?"
"Good idea, Rachel. But unfortunately, no matter how much I've tried, I can't transfer anyone to another place except for me. It's this beginner thing. I mean, I've only been doing this for a few hundred thousand years..."
"A few hundred thousand years? Damn, you don't look that old!" Marco joked. I laughed. "She laughed! Someone laughed at my joke!" He continued, using my reaction.
"That was a joke? I thought it was just you being a completely stupid dumass. Well Marco, I was born back before the dinosaurs were finished evolving on your planet. That time to the present for you, which was a billion years or so, was only a few years on my planet. I was five when the earliest Dinos appeared. I was about ten when humans evolved, which I may say is after the Yeerks and Andalites evolved. So the Yeerks invaded my planet when I was around thirteen. You can see that it's not that long a time if you look at it my way.
"But I'm considerably old in your time. In fact, I wouldn't still be alive if this was my native planet. But you know that, right?"
"Cai, what race are you from?" I ignored the question. Tobias knew. I had told him.
"I'll tell you later. For now, let me try..." I closed my eyes and envisioned all six of us back in the barn. I snapped by fingers and opened my eyes. Sure enough, this was the barn.
"At least I got the place right this time!" I looked around. "But where...are the..." I didn't finish my question. They simply appeared. I squealed in joy. "Hey, hey! I did it! Finally, it worked! I did it! I did it right! I did it! Yay! I got it right! I did it!" I hopped around the barn, chanting those words the whole time in a singsong voice, until Marco stopped me by grabbing the sleeve of my shirt.
"Alright, we get the point," He said.
"Oh. Sorry."
"Now that we're here..." Jake trailed off. "Where's Ax?"
I am right here, Prince Jake, Ax said.
"Please, for the love of God! Don't call me 'prince,' Ax!" Jake begged.
Yes, Prince Jake, Ax said. I looked at him. He looked at me. Feeling embarrassed, I turned my eyes to the floor. What was going on with me?
Chapter 15---Jake
I rolled my eyes. Ax's natural calling me 'Prince Jake' thing was getting kind of old, as well as routine.
"So how are we going to create a Sario Rip effect?" Rachel asked.
"I've got an idea! How about we d-" Marco began, but Rachel cut him off, saying, "Don't even start, Marco. You aren't going to weasel out of this, got it?"
He was silent.
"Look, we've all been having a bad day. I can see that. So maybe we should postpone this until..."
"Jake? This window's apparently only going to last for another day or so. This time tomorrow, we're doomed," Caimara told me.
"This is great. Not only do we have to create an explosion 4 times the size of the one in the construction site, but now we have less than a day to do it? Perfect, just perfect," Marco muttered.
"For right now, we need to worry about how we're going to create an explosion," I said.
"Ax and I can probably make the bomb," Caimara told me. I looked at her, then at Ax.
"You sure?"
I am almost sure that we can make an explosion adequate for this dilemma, Prince Jake, Ax said. I sighed, not even bothering to tell Ax not to call me 'Prince Jake' anymore.
"Yeah. As I said, I only think we can make a big blowout that's right for this."
"And if you're wrong?" I asked.
"Then we'll be screwed."
"Oh, goody. So either way there's a majority of a chance that we'll end up dead?" Marco asked.
"Um...well, yeah. Basically," Caimara told him.
"How nice."
"Okay, Ax and Caimara, you go do whatever you need to do to make this bomb or whatever. How long do you think you'll need?"
"A few hours at the least," Caimara told the rest of us. I nodded.
The meeting broke up. I walked home, stalling so I wouldn't have to face my family. I knew I had made a big mistake. It still made me mad. Especially since Dad didn't knock before barging in. He had tried to make me feel guilty for not telling him about what happened, but I told him that none of us trusted our own families.
He wanted to know who we knew were Controllers. That had been his first question after the question of, 'Why didn't you tell me sooner?' And I had told him all of the Controllers that I knew of, including Chapman and Tom. He was quiet when I told him that Tom was one of them and that Mom could have been one too. I made him promise not to tell a single person or we'd be killed...or worse. I think he got the point after I told him what would really happen to everyone if we got captured.
I walked in the door to find Dad waiting for me.
"Hi..." I said quietly.
"Hey, son. So where have you been?"
"Um...I called a meeting," I told him truthfully. He seemed strange. Like I had abandoned my family and changed my last name or something. There was something very wrong with this picture.
Chapter 16---Caimara
I walked a little farther away from Aximili than I really wanted to. But there was really something about him that unnerved me.
"Where should we go to find parts for this bomb?" I asked him. He, being in human form, shrugged. I guessed that it was something he picked up from the Animorphs. Andalites don't usually shrug their shoulders.
"I do not know, no-wuh. Maybe we should go to the human gathering place," He suggested. Human gathering place? Boy, that's helpful. I mean, there are so many gathering places where humans meet... I trailed off in my own thought as Aximili pointed to the mall.
"The mall? Why the...oh. Never mind," I muttered. I followed him in through the main entrance and he started walking to the Circuit City store. I walked beside him, looking around me. I had never seen so many humans in one place before! This was, surprisingly, my first time coming to a mall.
"I never knew so many humans could fit in one place," I muttered, just slightly below awestruck.
"You have never been to a place, place-uh, like this?"
"To tell the truth? This is my first time physically being on Earth," I told him shyly. It was true.
"Physically?"
"I've possessed some other forms. I've watched over you and the Animorphs in the form of a teacher, a Chee, and so many others that I can't remember them all. I remember that in the Teacher's body, he chased after one of the Animorphs. Tobias, I think. I've had many encounters with you all. You just didn't know it." I looked around. People were looking at us. We had stopped while we were talking.
"Come on, let's go in," I said. He nodded.
"So what are we looking, ing, look-ing-uh, what are we looking for?" He asked, playing with the words that came out of his mouth.
"Aximili? Could you kind of...um...stop playing with those words? You look kind of weird."
"Okay."
"Thanks. And seriously, I'm not sure what we're looking for." Aximili apparently knew though, because he walked right up to a strange piece of technology. I didn't know what it was. You couldn't blame me, this was my first time being there.
"What's that?" I asked.
"It's a very primitive quantum particle expansion device. (A/N: Okay, I don't know if that exists, but I'm kind of making up a lot of the high-tech stuff as I go along.) It magnifies the atoms in something, making it combust."
"So it's kind of like a hidden explosive thing?"
"Yes, but it lacks important parts, like a decompressor." I looked at the device. It was small enough to easily fit in the human hand, with buttons covering it. They had words like, 'Channel' and the numbers 0 through 10. It had the letters, 'RCA' printed on it. (A/N: You know what that is, right? It's a remote control for a TV/VCR.)
"Where do we find a decompressor?" He looked around.
"Here," He told me, pointing to a small square object. It had the word 'ACCESS' printed on a label in bold letters. Beside it was a small drive in which this item probably fit.
"I don't get it, how does this work?"
"I thought your race would be as advanced as others?"
"Well, I was young when I was taken from my home. I never learned much of technology. Human technology, at least. Mostly I learned of the Netteril things like our computers. But I have never seen this type of hardware. Does this square thing belong in the computer category?"
"It's a diskette, and yes, it goes with the computer. Not very good with these are you?" I looked behind me to see a tall man. Obviously an employee of the store.
"Huh? I'm very good with-I mean, no, I don't know much about computers," I said to the man. He laughed and walked away. "So which is the decompressor?"
"It's within this diskette, or so he called it."
"Ah, So what do we do now?"
"The others taught me about the human currency, called 'money.' Apparently, you need it to use have these items."
"So do you have any money?" I asked.
"No. I thought you did."
"Looks like we're going to be borrowing some stuff, come on!" I ran from the store, dragging Aximili behind me. I heard shouts and feet as the employees of Circuit City chased after us.
"I believe, Caimara, that we are in trouble. Ouble. Trou-ble."
"Aximili, please don't play with your words while I'm trying to get us out of here!" I heard the people gaining on us as I closed my eyes. I snapped my fingers and things went silent.
Chapter 17---Rachel
My whole family hounded me when I got home, asking me if I was sure that I was okay. Getting tired of all the excitement, I went upstairs and locked myself in my room.
"Jeez, these are the times when being an Animorph can get on a person's nerves," I mumbled to myself. I was tired. Being basically dead for a few minutes can be exhausting. Especially if you then miraculously come back to life. I laid down and went to sleep.
****
I was in a strange city. Fog covered most of it. I tried to see through the thick mist, but there was nothin there to see. Empty buildings, abandoned cars, a dim blinking streetlight or two. I walked in the middle of the barren street and called out for the others.
"Tobias? Cassie? Jake? Anyone here? Cai, Ax?" I asked, yelling into the cold air. My words produced a long echo. "...Marco?" I added, almost whispering. "Hello? Is someone there? Can anyone here me?!" I started to run. The silence was deafening.
"Hello Rachel..." A voice stronger than mine echoed. I turned all around. The voice seemed to have no owner.
"Who the Hell is there?" I screamed.
"Rachel...behind you. Don't you know me?" I turned around and faced...
"I know you. You...you're me."
"No, you are me."
"Does it make a damn difference?"
"Oh, touchy. Having a bad day, Rachel dearest?"
"Yeah I'm having a bad day! First, I'm dragged to a construction site where an Andalite gave us the power to morph a long time ago. There's an explosion and we find out that we're stuck in the middle of a freaking Sario Rip. My good friend, and I too, almost get killed because of it! We have to basically blow ourselves up to fix it, and then we find that the opening to fix the Sario Rip is only going to be open for about another twenty-two hours. And when I'm finally trying to get some sleep, I find that I'm in this place talking to myself! Do you think that I've been having a bad day?!"
"Lighten up, my mirrored self! Do you know where you are?"
"Now what makes you think that I know where I am at the moment?" I asked, snapping at her.
"You don't have to act like such a bitch, Rachel. But since you're me, and because you'll find out sooner or later, I'll tell you where we are now. This is another version of the place you knew."
"You mean my neighborhood? But it looks so...so messed up."
"That's because it's not really y9our neighborhood. It's kind of like...how can I put this...your neighborhood and this place exist in the same astral plain. But they're in different places, so the two never meet. But they do in a Sario Rip, of you know what I mean."
"I don't believe I do."
"Listen, let me try to put it in terms you can understand, okay? Now, you're right in the middle of a Sario Rip, okay? So you're right," She balled her hands into fists and put them side by side, almost touching each other. She motioned to the space between her fists. "Here. And my fists are the two dimensions you're between. Okay? The left one is your home, the right is the other one. You follow me? Good.
"Well, these two different dimension-type places are on the same astral plain. But they're on different physical planes. There's a place between them that no one inhabits. That would be this place. Some of these buildings are familiar, aren't they? And some aren't. Well, no one's supposed to be here. But you are. Or I am. Or something like that. Well, naturally the physicality of this place is going to try and rid the place of any intruders. Intruders being you and your buddies. Which is why you're getting hurt.
"So you got it? I know it's hard to comprehend. It's just as hard to explain. We're the same person. I exist in you. But I'm only the part of you that's here. You're the whole person, but I'm kind of caught here, meaning that I can't seem to escape. That's basically how things are working."
"Do you think you could have put it simpler?" I asked. It was a little over my head.
"No, not really. For now, you've got to go home. Bye, Rachel," She said, and everything disappeared.
I opened my eyes. I was laying in my bed. The sun was going down. I shot out of the bed and opened my window. Then I began to morph.
Chapter 18---Tobias
I had plenty of time to waste that afternoon. There were some kind of good thermals. Nothing very special. The weather was going to turn cold soon. I was scared, because a lot of wild animals didn't make it through the winter. But I'm not just a normal wild animal, am I? I'm part human.
Yeah, part human. As in, not completely human. I didn't belong in either world, really. I was a little too sentimental to be a very good predator. I'm too much a hawk to be a normal kid. Neither world is mine.
I look at the others, too. We're all too old, in the mental sense, to still be kids. Rachel, a warrior whose time came too soon. Marco, trying to keep the lighter side of things alive. Cassie, the defender. She stays on the side of the animals no matter how barbaric. Ax, so far from home. My uncle, even though I didn't want to think of him like that. Caimara? Who knows. From what she told us, she's seen many things.
Then there's Jake. He told me about what his grandfather had said to him about an 'old soul.' I think his grandfather was right. Out of all of us, Jake's suffered the most. No matter what the others say, when we win, Jake will be the one most needing a break from the war. He's too young to be a leader. And we were all too old to be innocent, naïve, too old to be children.
I came out of my thought and found that I was aimlessly flying around in the mid-part of the early autumn day. I didn't care where I was going any more. It was nice just flying around with nowhere to really go, nowhere that I had to be.
I let the hawk take over for a while; I just sat back and watched him do what he did best. It still amazes me how calm hawks are while flying hundreds of miles in the air, they don't even seem to notice. Of course, they live their whole lives in the sky.
I remembered the area where we were now. The oldest, most run-down part of town. This is where my uncle had lived. It surprised me that I actually remembered. The years living in my uncle's house were the ones I wanted to forget the most. I kept letting the hawk fly. I was caught up in a memory when I saw that we were right above my uncle's house.
He's cleaned it up a little,
I thought bitterly. I flew to the window of what used to be my room. Everything was still there. I wondered if my cat, Dude, was still living there. If he was even still alive. But since my uncle had never fed the cat, Dude was probably gone. I didn't blame him. Anyone that would like living with my uncle must have been a damn fool.I saw a blond woman walking into the house, looking kind of upset. Maybe she was his girlfriend. Lord knows he has enough of them. I kind of circled around the house for a while. My uncle looked out the window and walked away. I saw him walk out the door of the house a few minutes later. The woman was right behind him. I didn't see the gun until he pointed and shot at me.
I felt a pain as the bullet hit my right wing. The woman screamed at my uncle. I took a dive. Morph, Tobias, it'll heal it, I reminded myself. I aimed for the bushes. I think you could have heard the crashing in the shrub as I fell into it.
Morph, you idiot! Morph!
I concentrated on the first thing that came to mind, my human form."Bill, you could have killed the thing! How could you shoot at an animal like that?"
"It was circlin' the house."
"So? You better hope to God that the creature's okay, because you know that killing a bird of prey's illegal!"
I heard grass being stomped on as I finished morphing. Oh, damnit! Demorph! Demorph! No time! Run, hide! I was in trouble. Stupid, stupid, STUPID! How dumb can you be, Tobias? You've practically gotten yourself killed! I was a fool to stay. I demorphed to my hawk form as I crawled through the bushes.
"I hear somethin' over here! And it don't sound like no bird." Finally, completely hawk, as the blond lady ran to my small hiding place.
"Well I'll be damned! Bill? The bird's alive. And it's not hurt either! But I could have sworn that you hit it..." I started going nuts so that the woman would let me go. "Ow! Hey! Okay, fine, I'll let you go if you're alright. There you go...now, get out of here before my brother shoots you again. This time he'll try to kill you."
Chapter 19---Marco
I did absolutely nothing while Caimara and Ax made their bomb. I was just trying to relax. The phone rang, making me jump practically out of my seat. My very comfortable seat, I might add. Slowly, I picked up the phone.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Marco, this is Caimara. We've finished the...experiment. Could you come to the...uh, the usual place to um, check it out?"
"Oh, sure. I'll be there soon," I said. Then I wrote a note for my dad, put it on the table, and went outside, planning to walk to Cassie's barn. I wasn't really in the mood for flying.
The sun was almost down when I left, and I could barely see it anymore when I got to the barn. Everyone else was there, except for Tobias.
"Well, glad that you decided to come, Marco," Caimara muttered.
"Can we just get this over with?" I asked dryly.
"Sure, sure, why not?" Caimara asked sarcastically.
"So...where do we have to do this?" I looked at Cassie, who had asked the question.
"The construction site," Caimara said.
"As if we haven't had enough trouble there," I mumbled.
"What do you mean, Marco?"
"I mean that's where David found the blue box, where we ended up trapping David as a rat, where we almost got killed by an explosion, where Visser-what's-his-name found the Time Matrix and messed everything up, and it's where we met Elfangor in the first place!" I said, almost raising my voice.
"You know Marco, you're too negative. I mean, look at it this way. You learned a lesson with David so now you won't go around recruiting every person fit to be an Animorph, you got rid of a Visser when he did the thing with the Matrix, and you got the power to morph. Morphing is a powerful gift."
And a curse, Tobias mumbled.
"Oh, that too. But really, you can see what happens from an animal's point of view. I would think it would be awesome!"
"You...oh, you can't morph, can you?" Rachel asked.
"No. The Andalites never shared technology with anyone, except for prince Seerow. They became kind of...paranoid after that, in a sense. Not that I blame them. I wouldn't trust anyone either, after the Yeerks and all," Caimara explained.
"Caimara?" I asked.
"Call me Cai, please," She requested.
"Okay, Cai? Can we just go? I'd like to get this over with before I change my mind and become a little more...unwilling to do this."
"And believe me, you don't want him to change his mind."
"What's so bad about that?"
"He's even more of an idiot when he's complaining than when he's not, that's why," Rachel clarified.
"Oh..."
"Yeah, so let's do it!"
"Typical Rachel," I mumbled as we all began to morph.
Chapter 20---Cassie
I morphed to seagull. It's one of the bird morphs that I don't like. I don't know why...maybe it's because they're scavengers. It's just annoying to be one. And I say that with the least bit of humor possible.
Now, let's go! Rachel said, enthusiastic as ever. I stopped to wonder if she had any fear in her at all.
Spreading my wings, I tried to catch a thermal and fly on it, but there weren't any. I flapped really hard just to get up in the air.
No good thermals now, the sun's going down, Tobias told us.
Yeah, I kind of figured that out, I replied. I flapped most of the way to the site where we had first met a being who forever changed our lives. This place would give us yet another turn, for better or worse.
****
After landing and demorphing, we waited for Tobias and Ax to morph to human. Caimara wasn't here yet. And she had the device that would trigger an explosion. Suddenly, she walked into my sight from behind a wall.
"Hey, everyone here? Good. Now, I suggest that you brace yourself. With me here, this may or may not work."
"What the Hell does that mean?" Marco snapped.
"Well, I do know a lot about technology..."
"And?!" He demanded, walking over to Caimara.
"And...I thought human technology would be about the same as Netteril technology. But it's not," She told Marco.
"Well, that's a great thing to tell us right as we're about to go through with this!" Marco screamed at her.
"Lighten up, Marco! Jeez, she's only...would saying human be politically incorrect?" Jake asked. I laughed a little.
"Yeah, that wouldn't really be right," Caimara said to Jake. "Ready?" I looked at Jake. He looked back at me, then turned to the others. They gave small, nervous smiles and nods. He turned to Caimara.
"Yeah, I think we're ready."
"Then hold on to your butts, 'cause here we go!" She pressed one little button. One tiny little unimportant button on a configured remote control for a VCR. And my whole world blew apart.
Chapter 21---Jake
Pain hit me, as if pain never before had. It ripped through my entire body and seemed to blow me apart. This was it, I was dying. There was no other explanation relative to science.
Then, the pain simply disappeared. Like it hadn't been there at all. I was lying on my back in a clearing covered in mist.
"Can I say ouch?" Someone asked from beside me.
"Yeah, that hurt," I mumbled. I was okay. No injuries, burns, scars, nothing. Another scientific mystery. But after all that's happened since I've become an Animorph, I realized that not a lot of the stuff we did could be explained by normal science.
"Oh man, I'll be sore for weeks after this..." I heard Rachel's voice. One by one, everyone stated a complaint. Except for Cassie.
"Cassie? Cassie, are you okay?" I asked, my voice seeming to be blocked by the fog around me.
"Pain...hurt, sore. Ow," Marco mumbled, deciding to sit up.
"Rachel? Is Cassie over there?"
"I'm...over here." I turned around, not seeing anyone. "Right here!" She touched my arm. I turned to see her.
"Oh, you're okay!"
"So're you." She smiled. I heard Marco snicker. I glared at him.
"Okay, so where are we?" Marco asked. I shrugged, and then looked at the others.
"Prince Jake, I must demorph," Ax said.
"Yeah. Me too," Added Tobias. I kept looking around, barely noticing that they had begun to demorph. I stomped my foot, feeling cement beneath me.
"Huh, I think we're on a road," I told the others.
"I remember this...We should be gone in...uh, a few minutes I think," Rachel muttered.
"And how would the strange and insane Xena know that?" Marco asked.
"Shut up, Marco. I might seriously have to demonstrate how I've earned that name."
"Rachel, Marco, quit it." I paused to glare at each of them. "This is not the right time or place, got it?" They both stopped. Marco sent a snide look at Rachel. "Alright then."
"Hey guys? Where's-" Tobias started, but he never finished. At that moment, we were all separated by darkness.
Chapter 22---Tobias
"Hey guys? Where's-" I was cut off by a blackness surrounding me. "Caimara?" I finished my question, as the black cleared and left me in my meadow. "Weird," I mumbled.
Walking around, I shouted for the others. But there was no answer. I sighed and decided to demorph. I focused on my hawk self, the real me. But the changes didn't come. I looked at myself. Still completely human. I began to panic. What if I had spent over 2 hours as a human? What if I couldn't demorph? What if something happened during the Sario Rip effect that made me lose my morphing power?
My breathing turned shallow. I squinted, looking to see if there was anyone in my meadow. No one. I went into 'hysteric' mode, desperately shouting out the names of any of the others. My words echoed through the meadow. Unfortunately, that echo didn't bring me a response. I ran through the woods looking for Cassie's barn.
Finally, I spotted it. But one of the walls was burned. There was a big hole with blackened outer edges facing me.
"Oh, God," I whispered and ran in. The cages were twisted, bent, or broken. Nothing was there. No one was there. "Oh man. This is bad. Where the Hell is everyone?!"
Chapter 23---Jake
I opened my eyes. I was...in my room.
"I'm having a sinking feeling about this," I said to myself. Had I just dreamed up the whole thing? I sat up and looked around. I was in my bed. Maybe it was just a dream.
I was still wearing my clothes. Standing up, I went and opened my door.
"Hello?" I asked. It seemed like no one was home. But I heard a rustling noise. "Is someone there?" Leaving my room, I walked around upstairs. Nothing that I could see was out of order.
The strange thing was, nothing strange was going on. From what I remembered, we had been pulled through a Sario Rip. And I was back at my house? Something was wrong.
I slowly clambered down the stairs, only to be jolted at what I saw. The TV was on, channels flipping on their own. I saw a limp hand over the side of the sofa, but couldn't see the rest of the person. I slowly walked towards the sofa, hearing the creaking spot on the floor sigh beneath my feet. I got closer and closer.
Moving towards the front of the couch, I saw who it was. It was my dad. It looked like he had been hurt. There was a blood stain on the beige carpet, running down the side of the furniture. I leaned down and touched his arm. It was cold.
My head started spinning. Sure, I had seen dead bodies before. Even at funerals. But I hadn't seen things as...as strange as this. A pipe was jammed into my father's stomach, for God's sake! What was I supposed to do? Walk away like nothing had happened?
I headed for the kitchen. Leaning in on the sink, I splashed cold water on my face. Then I heard the front door slam.
"Anyone home?" Tom's voice called from inside the living room. But what was he doing here? He was supposed to be at some kind of Sharing meeting. Maybe it had ended.
"Tom," I said, walking in to face him. "Weren't you at a meeting?"
"Meeting? I told you earlier that I had a basketball game, midget. Don't you remember?"
"But I thought you quit the team," I mumbled.
"Why would I want to do that?"
"Because you started going to the Sharing," I told him.
"Sharing? There's no such...oh, I see. Getting a little too far into those books, eh?" He laughed. "You've got to waste your time with something better!"
"What books?"
"Those Animorphs books. My friend showed one to me once..." He kept going, but I stopped listening. I heard the word 'Animorphs' and my name, along with the names of the others, and froze altogether.
"Hey, kid, you okay? You look a little pale," Tom said.
"No, I'm- I'm fine. But...I have to go," I remarked, shoving past Tom and running outside.
Chapter 24---Marco
Leaving my dad's house at a dead run, I wanted to be anywhere but there. I was on my way to Jake's house when I ran in to him.
Literally.
"Marco!" He cried, seemingly relieved.
"Jake, man, you won't believe what I saw when I got home..." I began.
"The Yeerks don't exist here," He blurted out.
"Say what?"
"They're a book series here! The Yeerks don't exist! There was no Sharing, no peace movement, no Animorphs!" He shouted.
"Woah, slow down. What happened?"
"I was home when Tom walked in. When I left, he was going to a Sharing meeting. But he came in and told me that he was at a basketball game. When I asked him why he wasn't at the Sharing, he told me that it was just from a book series," Jake explained. "Now, what were you going to tell me?"
"Kind of the same thing. But when I got home...when I got there, my mom walked in the door," I whispered.
"Visser One?" Jake asked.
"No, my mom! My mother, real and Yeerk-free! I thought it was a trick or something, but she apparently heard of the Animorphs books too. But the thing about the books is that our names are changed around. My little sister who was born 5 years ago in this world, she's like a genius."
"Wonder why you didn't get the gene," Jake interrupted.
"That was not funny! Well, she's like a genius. She reads those books and they're basically the same as our missions. But the names are changed."
"Something is very wrong with this. We'd better find the others," Jake mumbled. I nodded, and we headed over to Rachel's house. Jake knocked on the door and Rachel's mom answered.
"Hello, Jake and Marco. Would you like to come in?" She asked.
"Um...no thanks. Can we talk to Rachel?"
"She's with Cassie right now. Sorry."
"Okay then. Thanks anyways," He told her. She closed the door and we looked at each other.
"Well?" I asked.
"Let's try Cassie's house," Jake suggested. We walked, feeling that we didn't need to confuse anything else here.
We got to Cassie's house about ten minutes later. The first place we checked was the barn. Sure enough, they were there and Cassie was feeding a wounded fox.
"Cassie, there's something funny going on," I said.
"Tell me about it," Cassie agreed.
"No kidding," Rachel mumbled. "Have you guys tried morphing yet?" She asked, standing up and brushing hay off the back of her shirt. I shook my head. "Well, I did, and it didn't work," She said.
"It didn't work for me either," Tobias told us, walking in to the barn. Ax was with him.
"I haven't seen, seeeeen-nuh. See-nnnuh. I haven't seen anything like this before," He said.
"Oh, this is great. Just freaking great. We're stuck in a world where we're science fiction and we can't morph either?" I sighed.
"We'll figure something out."
"Jake, how do you figure that? We've got 2 strikes against us. We have 2 outs and 2 strikes against us! This is not good!"
"I hate to pull you two off the subject, but has anyone seen Caimara?" Rachel asked.
"She seems to disappear a lot," Cassie noted.
"Sorry. I got a little lost," Caimara said, popping out of nowhere.
"Caimara, you need to stop doing that! Before you give us all a heart attack."
"Okay, sorry Marco. Wouldn't want you to die from a heart attack rather than a Hork-Bajir's blade," She joked. "But let's get serious now."
"Yeah, let's think about this: now that we've gotten here, how do we get home?"
Chapter 25---Cassie
I listened to the meeting, not putting in any suggestions because I didn't have any. If we were dealing with what animal to morph, or something kind of like that, then I would have been able to help out. But when we were here, we couldn't morph in the first place. I'm not much of a technology person either, so I had almost no idea about what they were talking about. I bet that someone else there didn't know either.
"We know that to get back, we've got 24 hours to recreate the Sario Rip effect. And we triggered this in the construction site, right? So...we get another explosion to happen in the site and we're back home."
"One problem, Jake. How do we recreate the effect?" All of us looked to Ax.
"I believe the same type of thing we used before would work in this condition. But we will have to get the parts again."
"Like last time?" Caimara asked, a slight grin forming on her face.
"How did you get the stuff last time?" Marco asked.
"We...borrowed it," She told him.
"Oooh, it's the alien shoplifter!"
"Shut up!" Rachel and Caimara said together.
"Jeez, do you guys rehearse this stuff?"
"We do have a little time limit here," Jake snapped. "Okay, now, Ax and Caimara, go do whatever you need to do, okay? Uh...again." Caimara nodded and snapped. Almost immediately, she and Ax were both gone.
"So now what?" I asked.
"How about we figure out what we'll tell our parents when we get back?" Marco asked.
"How about you leave before I call the police?" A voice said from behind us. It sounded strangely familiar.
"Uh-oh," I mumbled.
"That's right, you know you're in trouble now, don't you? Might as well turn around and tell me who you are!" I turned around and looked at...
"You...you're me!" The girl said. And she was, too. I was looking at an exact double of myself.
Chapter 26---Rachel
My jaw dropped, practically to the ground. Cassie stood in front of Cassie.
"This is creepy," I said. Stepping beside the other Cassie was me. "Okay, this is too creepy," I then corrected.
"You got that right," Marco agreed.
"Who the Hell are you?" The other me asked.
"We were just leaving, weren't we, guys?" I asked, practically dragging Cassie and Tobias, with Marco and Jake following behind, out of the barn.
As soon as we were out of their sight, I let out a deep breath.
"Okay, what was that?" Tobias asked.
"Doubles of Cassie and me," I told him.
"Well I knew that. But why were they there?"
"I don't know, bird boy. Maybe because they're the doubles from this dimension?" Marco snapped.
"Okay, we're back!" Caimara said, right before she and Ax came into view. "We were kind of in a hurry," She added.
"You didn't steal this stuff, did you?"
"Oh, come on. Stealing is such a harsh way to put it...I prefer to call it a Visitor's Discount."
"Fine, whatever. We need to get out of here, now. Cassie and Rachel just ran into their doubles," Jake told the 2 aliens. I still felt weird calling Caimara an alien. She looked, sounded, and acted like a human being. Except for the whole older-than-Dinosaur thing. But the more I got to know her, the more unfamiliar she seemed.
"Yes, Prince Jake. I can start right now," Ax said. "Now-uh," He added as an afterthought. Jake just sighed and shook his head.
"Seems kind of hopeless, doesn't it?" I asked.
"Huh?"
"The 'Prince Jake' thing. It seems like he's never going to stop calling you that," I told him.
"Please, don't say that," He pleaded. "You're going to bring my hopes down." I sat for about 3 quarters of an hour, picking at spears of grass and waiting for Ax to finish his device thing. Finally, after the five-hundred eighty-third spear of grass, Ax said, "It's done. Uh. Done-uh. Donnnnnnne. That is a pleasant sound. Dun."
"Yeah, Ax, I'll bet people stand around saying 'dun' all day," Marco said sarcastically.
"Let's go," Jake suggested.
"Good idea. Because if a certain someone doesn't shut up, that someone will be leaving here with a black eye," I threatened. And I was totally, completely serious. Usually I didn't mind Marco's lame jokes. But I had been having a bad couple of days.
"Oooh, Xena's getting serious?" I shot Marco a warning look. He moved as far away from me as possible. "Okay then, Fearless Leader. On, to the construction site!"
Chapter 27---Tobias
I knew it had been longer than 2 hours. And I hoped that when we got home, I would be able to morph again. We walked in almost complete silence all the way to the site. When we reached the outer perimeter, Marco stopped.
"I'm kind of going to miss this freedom from the Yeerks," He said. We all nodded in agreement.
"I wonder how this place's Tom reacted to..." Jake stopped and shuddered. We then entered the construction site and Caimara disappeared for a minute or two. When she reappeared, she nodded.
"Everything's set up," She told us. Jake nodded.
"Ready?" He asked.
"Yeah, I think," I told him.
"As I'll ever be," Rachel agreed. I looked at her. She wasn't jumping all over this opportunity like I knew Marco guessed she would. The others soon joined in, deciding that it was time to go home.
"Ax?"
"I am ready."
"Good. Now, when I say three, do it. Okay?" Ax nodded.
"One..." I looked at Rachel. I saw Jake look over at Cassie. Caimara and Ax exchanged glances.
"Two..."
"Am I the only one in this group who can't share a meaningful glance with someone?" Marco asked.
"Probably," Rachel mumbled.
"Thr-" Ax pressed the button. Strangely enough, I didn't feel a thing. But I couldn't see a thing either. Only blackness. I was aware and awake, but there was nothing to see. I blinked, trying to shed the darkness that seemed to cover only my eyes. I held my eyes closed.
When I opened them again, I looked through my normal hawk eyes.
"Well, we're back," Rachel said.
Yeah, I agreed.
"So what now?" Cassie asked.
"I don't know about you, but I'm going home!" Marco said, and he left with that.
"Me too," Jake agreed, walking out of the construction site.
"Sorry, but the Ellimist needs me." Caimara snapped her fingers and was gone.
"My parents are going to kill me. I'll see you guys later," Cassie said, waving to me, Rachel, and Ax as she left.
"I believe I'll go back to my scoop now," Ax mumbled as he slowly and clumsily walked away.
"I am so seriously going to be grounded," Rachel muttered and left on that note. So I was alone. In the peace and quiet, at the construction site where I saw my father murdered.
I flew to the exact spot and morphed to human. With a heave sigh, I looked around. There were no remains. Dracon beams had destroyed them.
"Well, Elfangor -dad- I wish I had some kind of memorial for you," I said. Maybe it was the wind. Or the birds singing, or maybe just the end of summer wind. But something told me that Elfangor didn't need any kind of memorial. I demorphed and left the site in peace, to go back to my meadow.
My home.
Sample for the next DIMENSION Chronicle.
Marco
I looked around. We were standing in a kind of dark field. I saw a short building in the distance.
"I don't think we're at home any more..." I mumbled. I watched Caimara look around.
"I know this place," She whispered.
"You do? How?"
"Sssh! Whisper!" She hissed.
"Oh, okay," I said. Just then, two Hork-Bajir brushed past us. They carried a small girl between them. Then came a cart. I could hear cries and screams coming from it. They made me shiver.
"So where are we?" I asked after they were out of my sight.
"This is my home planet," Caimara said.
The DIMENSION Chronicles: Blind Faith
Coming to a fan fiction archive near you!
Want a little preview of the next titles in the series? Well, all that's definite are numbers 2 and 3. #2: Blind Faith. #3: Not Afraid to Die. So I'll post them as soon as they're done!
Expect the Insanity 5, 6, and 7 soon too. Did you really think I was done with those so early?
Okay, you can go read some other story now. That's it, all I've got to say. Other than this: Did you like the story? E-mail comments, suggestions, *a-hem* gentle persuasions to get my lazy self on the computer and get the next ones done, or ...anything else? Send those...uh, ideas and stuff to Starseeker__1@hotmail.com!