*A/N* Okay, I don't own Animorphs. K. A. Applegate and Scholastic do. And this may seem cliche at first, but keep reading. Hopefully there's not another fic out with this name yet. Hopefully it's not too emotionless, since it;s not the first death story I've done...oh well, enjoy the story!
The Decision
(Morgan)
Another day, another forlorn hope drifted away. That's just how things had gotten since I became a full member. Oh yes, it really would change your life; not for the better. I kept my thoughts low, so maybe...maybe the Yeerk wouldn't hear them.
Poor Morgan. Silly, silly Morgan. Do you really think you can keep your thoughts from me? I own you. The Yeerk said, sneering at me. How I hated him, hated his whole filthy, thieving, killing race. How I wanted it to end. Maybe next time I was down at the Yeerk Pool...maybe the Andalite bandits would come and kill me. Or maybe they would free me. The Yeerk heard my thoughts, and laughed to himself.
You really think Andalites would be so generous? No, I guess not. Why would a regular middle-school student matter to the great and powerful Andalites? Arrogance has overcome them. No one matters to them anymore. With that, my very last hope, the last grain of thought of rescue, diminished.
People were staring at me. The bell had rung. Had class been over so quickly? The Yeerk stood up, gathering the books that had my name in them.
My name, Yeerk, not yours.
But you are under my control, Morgan. You cannot do a damn thing about it. We were still standing there. A Hispanic boy turned his glance towards us. Did he suspect something? What was that look in his eye? And his friends...they seemed tired. Especially the tall boy. What was his name? Oh yeah, Jake. It was hard for me to remember names. It always was.
The Yeerk moved my legs, made me walk into my fifth period class. He plopped me down in my assigned seat, and I sat in the back of my mind as he pretended to pay attention. But what he was really doing was taunting me. Astneer 1-9-2. The name made me want to kill. It filled me with rage.
Would you shut up?
And why should I?
Because I can do terrible things to you. I stopped. Tried to stop thinking at all. Almost over. Tonight would be it. Either I would escape, or I would kill myself during my free time down in the pool.
There has never been a recorded suicide in a Yeerk Pool. Ever. But from experience, the Yeerk let me keep my knife, which lay just in the top of my boot. For protection. I don't understand why he let me keep it. But I wasn't about to ask him.
Class seemed to fly by. It's easy when you don't have to do your own schoolwork. The last bell rang. The Yeerk went to my locker, pulled out my book bag, and made me walk onto the bus. It took us home.
My parents were free people. They worried that I spent too much time at The Sharing.
That's it, mom! Get worried and keep me from going to a meeting tonight! Please! For God's sake, ground me!
I thought desperately. It was the only time I can remember that I wanted to be grounded.Fool! You think a simple human can keep my life away from me? You do not know yet, Morgan, how dangerous I am. Astneer said. In the back of my head, I let out a low moan and sank into an unreality.
I felt the Yeerk pull me out of bed and go out the window on the first floor. Why did I only have a one-story house? Why? It made me walk to the school, made me go in and to the janitor's closet. I walked down the stairs and into the tremendous cavern. People walked behind me.
We stood in line, waiting to have the Yeerk free from the host. In these few moments of heaven that will follow, I will fight with all I have. I reassured myself of that.
Do not even try, Morgan.
You will be unable to stop me.
He said nothing more. I had gotten him there.I kneeled down on the cold metal pier and the Yeerk squirmed out of my ear, causing a terrible pain. Then...nothing. I could blink. At first I was shocked. Had this moment finally come? One of the burly Hork-Bajir guards grabbed my forearm. Another Controller grabbed my other arm. I kicked and screamed as they locked me in one of the cages.
I looked at who I stood beside. An older version of one of the boys in my class. His name was Tom.
"Let me out of here!" I screamed. "I'll kill you all! I swear it! You will all die!" I threatened. Tom clutched the bars of the cage and screamed with me, along with the hundreds of others. But that wouldn't help anything, and it wouldn't intimidate the Yeerks. I saw something out of the corner of my eye. A flash of brown, flash of orange. Andalites!
They charged into the pool: a bear, a tiger, an Andalite, a wolf, a gorilla, and a hawk. They began to throw aside the Hork-Bajir and Taxxon controllers like they were dolls. Especially the bear and the gorilla. Then the gorilla walked over to the cage I stood in. It seemed a little startled to seem, but then began to rip the lock off of the cage door with his huge fists.
Finally, the lock gave way. He swung the door open and motioned for us to get out.
"Thank you!" I said as I walked by. The fifteen people who were in my cage ran, escorted by a wolf. The gorilla walked to the other cages and began to open them one by one. I looked around. Visser Three wasn't here. That was a good sign. I heard a scream as a human was struck down by a Hork-Bajir, the once-peaceful race of beings.
I was almost there. Almost at the steps, ready to get out. Freedom was so...so close! The way was jammed by ten people who were moving slow. I squeezed by, running up the stairs two at a time. I leapt up and onto the top step. I was out!
I then began to think of the hundreds of others still down in the pool. Should I go back? But it was too late. Freedom was here, it lay in my hands. I rushed out of the school building and waited in the bushes to the side of the building, to see if others would come out.
No one came. The Andalites walked out of the building, still in their animal forms. They didn't see me as they began to demorph in front of me. The Andalite, bear, tiger, gorilla, and wolf all began to sprout human features. The hawk remained in its form. One by one, humans appeared from the animals. So the bandits are nothing more than humans? I wondered to myself.
I was not scared of morphing. I had seen Visser Three morph before. It startled me how these so-called Andalite bandits were indeed human. I unconsciously popped out of the bush.
Guys? I heard the voice in my head. I froze.
"Uh-oh." I mumbled. The people turned around. They were in my school! The Hispanic boy and his friends! "You...you're..." Suddenly they were on me.
"Yeerk!" The unfamiliar boy hissed. They pinned me to the wall.
"Look, I'm not a Yeerk anymore, okay?!" I said, almost shouting.
"Quiet!" The tallest boy said. Jake, his name's Jake idiot! I told myself. The unfamiliar one began to morph into an Andalite. Probably to use his tail.
"The gorilla opened the cage I was in and I escaped!" I explained, about to start crying. My legs wobbled, unstable beneath me. My knees buckled and I slid to the ground. I covered my face with my hands.
"You think she's telling the truth?" One of the girls asked. I didn't know which one.
"I'm not sure."
"We should hold her for three days, you know." I began to sob.
"It's Hell. Going through that is Hell." I said, my voice becoming muffled through my hands. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly. Tears escaped and ran down the palms of my hands.
"I know." I looked up at Jake. Had he ever been through this before?
"Jake..."
"Rachel, if she was a controller wouldn't she have been gone by now instead of sitting here crying?"
"It could be an act."
"Fine. You don't trust me? I'll leave then." I said, standing up and wiping my eyes.
"You can't leave." The Hispanic boy said sternly.
"Marco's right. You know we're human. Come with us." Jake said. I looked him in the eye, my black hair falling into my face.
"No." I pushed past him and started to walk away.
"You don't have a choice in this!" Jake called after me. The two girls ran over and grabbed my arms.
"Let me go! I don't want to fight!" I yelled.
"You've got to become an Animorph. We can't have someone knowing our secret without defense." Jake told me. I shook my head.
(Marco)
"No...I'm done with this shit. I just want to be myself!" She cried. Tears streamed down her face. The girls let go of her and she fell to the ground. I saw her reach for her boot.
"Ax!" I whispered.
"This is your war." She said through her cracking voice. She looked up at me. Brown eyes looked into mine. She pulled something metal out of the boot. A knife. What was she going to do with it?
"This is your war," She whispered again, "Not mine." And without another word she plunged the knife into her heart.
I looked at Jake, then the others.
"She made her choice." Rachel said, disappointed.
"It was her choice to make, Rachel." I told her. The decision we all have to make. Live and fight, or die, wanting not to. She made her decision. Maybe we didn't think it was the right one, but she did.