Disclaimer: I do not own Tobias, any referred to species from the original book series, or any of the other Animorphs and plac
Disclaimer: I do not own Tobias, any referred to species from the original book series, or any of the other Animorphs and places (duh), but I did come up with the new species and technology all on my own, several years ago.
I also do not own the quote by Saul Williams, nor do I claim to.
Please don't anybody sue me for anything.
And the chapters for this won't always involve some sappy quote or anything, no worries.
NOTE: This chapter may contain what can be considered "adult themes" – in other words, something with depth of REAL emotion, so if you're afraid of going down the proverbial rabbit hole, do NOT read on.
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"The powers that be may be the powers that be, but the real powers are the powers of BEING, that each and every one of us has, and we all have the opportunity, every day, to stand up and make a difference." - Saul Williams, Live at the Voodoo Music Festival 2005, Introduction to his song List Of Demands.
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He lay there on the rocks. Just lay there, in nothing but the rather tightly-fitting articles of clothing he had on for a morphing outfit, and those were soaked through. Yes, he was being a human, for now.
He planned to die a human. She'd like that...if he stayed human too long, ignored his hawk lifestyle. Maybe not the dying part, but...oh well. Tobias smirked at the thought, feeling the water coming up past his hair, up to his ears, as he lay there at the cove.
Waiting for high tide.
It'd been one of their frequented spots, the cove. He liked it, even with the hawk's slight fear of water that would push at his mind, while they flew there. And now he was simply ignoring it as he lay there, the water getting higher and higher. He'd set all his affairs - what few there were - in order. He'd buried Rachel's ashes where nobody would find her...
Rachel...his last connection to the human race, other than this piddly little morph he could only stay in for two hours a time if he didn't want to end up exactly where he'd started. Being bullied, unable to do anything, no real family. Sure, he'd found his mom, but...she didn't remember anything about him except that he had the same shade of blonde she had. And anyone could see that much, if the two were both human and in a room together.
Being a hawk was too lonely, it left him too much time to think. Too much time to mope. He didn't want to be that rather sad looking bird that everyone knew was once an Animorph, but now had lost all the humanity in him, except to occasionally morph human and cry. The one that everyone pitied, and gave THAT look to. The look that meant they knew he was bad off, even when he said he wasn't. He'd lost the most people in this war.
He hadn't lost the most overall -- that was Jake. Jake had lost his illusions, nobody could replace that, and that truly was horrible. Tobias had lost those long before he had become an Animorph, even if he was born to be one.
He didn't even take a breath before the highest wave yet washed over him, covering his mouth, his nostrils, but tauntingly left the very tip of his thin, lithe, nose poking out for the air to touch.
He thought about the first time Rachel kissed him. And the wave was gone, leaving him coughing once - only once.
He didn't even wonder what he was doing, at this point, he just knew. He knew he just had to wait there long enough.
The next wave, and he was remembering the time Rachel brought hamburgers out to the meadow, and made fun of him because he was scarfing it down like Ax at the Cinnabon, and had to hold his face still, away from the burger, to wipe ketchup and thousand island dressing off his chin, nose, and cheeks. And some off his neck, even. It was a messy burger. A "real" burger, according to Carls, Jr. ("If it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face" -- A/N I don't own that either!)
A few tears washed away with the wave as it left him there again.
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A flurry of voices inside his head - memories he didn't even consciously know he had, from his mother, when he was a baby. His uncle telling him to "Shut the hell up and get me another beer!... worthless ..." Meeting his real father for the first time, and that voice inside his head. Elfangor's memories that'd been given to him that time that Taylor tortured him to almost this same point of near-death. Taylor laughing, for that matter. Hork Bajir faces, ones he'd killed, friends he'd lost. Gnarling Taxxons.
And then the sea disappeared around him, and he was standing alone in a ... well, it wasn't really a room. There was nothing there. Nothing at all. No color, no light, no dark.
He only saw her for a second.
"TOBIAS!!" Rachel shouted at him.
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The sun was bright, when he opened his eyes, staring straight up at high noon, so to speak.
He was cold, and wet, and his chest hurt. He couldn't focus his eyes for a while, and he could barely hear something that sounded like, "We got him!" And then a bunch of mumbling...and all turned to darkness. The darkness of unconsciousness, and not his goal.