I flew over to Lilly's. Normally Jake or Rachel do it, but they were setting up the computers with Marco.
I flew and noticed that her window was shut. Odd. I demorphed in her lawn (it was about midnight) and rung the doorbell. Gran is always up when Lilly goes on a mission. He opened the door, silently.
"Where's Lilly? We've got a mission tonight."
"Tobias. I have no idea." I stared at him.
"What? Nothing?" I stood in the doorway. Where was Lilly? She always told someone where she was going, and normally she was with one of us.
"No idea. If she's a controller, if she's dead. No idea. Her room is perfect, nothing is missing, no paper is out of place and nothing is there to tell where she is."
I walked in and sat on the couch. "I'll go look. I'll come back in the morning- or Jake will, depending on if I'm asleep. She might have already left or something. I hope she did. Bye." I ran out of the house and morphed to bird.
This was not good. Lilly had to already be there. On my way I didn't spot her. There were no footsteps by the creek or in the mud. Nothing had changed since I'd left.
I landed in the clearing, where the others were. Lilly was not there. I morphed to human.
"Um Tobias, you were supposed to get Lilly." Marco said.
"She's not at her house. Gran has no idea where she is. I didn't spot her on the way over." I shrugged.
"That is really unlike Lilly. Do you think she's a controller?" Erek asked.
"No-besides, wouldn't you probably know about it?"
"True- the visser would gloat about capturing a morph capable body."
"Did they kill her?" Jake asked.
"They wouldn't. She was alone as far as we know." I said. " I'll go down to the other side of the forest and look, you guys are almost done right?"
"We just finished setting up to hack into the Yeerk pool. It will take hours and then we've got to go attack at 4 a.m." Marco said.
"Ok, I've got plenty of time." I demorphed back into hawk and took flight.
I scanned the forest for almost three hours and found nothing. It was on my way back I saw some liquid dimly lit in the reflection of the moon. I flew down and saw it was Lilly. I demorphed. I gently stepped back untill I was agianst a tree. My eyes were wide open along with my mouth.
"Oh my god. Oh my god." I froze, my eyes tearing up. A note was on the knife stabbed into her heart.
I'm back-
I'm morph-capable and I will kill anyone in any form.
David
Anger welled up inside me as I picked up the lifeless form of my sister. David-the animorph who tried to kill us once, but said he wouldn't hurt a human. He nearly killed Jake, and made the animorphs think I was dead. He hurt Rachel. He nearly sold us out to Visser Three. And now he killed Lilly. My eyes were a blotchy red.
It was only a two minute walk from Ax's hutch. The walk was slow, and I could only think of how much she laughed and how she took care of me when the medow went dry for two months.
I walked into camp without them noticing Lilly.
"Hi Tobias." Marco looked up and stopped typing, "Please tell me I'm not seeing this." He squeaked weakly before sitting down.
The others looked up. Rachel dropped the book she was holding. Jalil's jaw dropped. Cassie began to cry. Ax took a step back.
Jake just sat there, stunned.
"No." Tom wispered. "Who?"
"You don't want to know."
"Yes, I do." Rachel looked cold.
"David. He can morph again." I gulped.
"No, he can't morph. He is a rat." Rachel had hatred blazing through her eyes like a wild fire blazes through the trees.
"You want to look at this note?" I screamed at her. I gently put her down and morphed. I began to fly.
" Tobias come back!" Jake yelled. "Tobias!" He ran up to Lilly and stopped. I kept flying.
I flew to the first place David had chosen for our first private battle. It was near the powerlines.
Back so soon Tobias? I heard a voice.
David! You killed my sister! Your dead! I screamed to him and flew after the eagle in the distance. It flew forward.
No. She killed herself. I used that as a beginning. He said calmly.
Liar! I screamed in rage as I raked forward my talons.
Yes, I am lying. I killed her in cold blood Tobias. She followed me out here after I lured her from the security of her own home. Then I demorphed and stabbed her, and she went limp. He told me.
Anger boiled up inside of me as I went straight towards him. He dodged me and I felt his talons grab a hold of my back.
Morph to human. He yelled as he brought both of us to the ground.
I felt my mind shutting down as I began the process. I also felt him demorph to his human state. It was bizzare, feeling his talons become soft and fleshy. He grabbed hold of my neck.
I began to choke.
"Tobias. I'm going to kill you." I was gagging for air as my body shut down. I couldn't morph, not without air.
My lungs were on fire.
"But, I won't suffocate you. Scream to the Animorphs. They will hear you from here."
"Jake! Help!" I screamed, and in public thought speak, Help! He's trapped me! Rach, Ax, anyone! Can you hear me?
coming.... I heard Ax's faint thought speak.
David looked angry. "You used thought speak! I said scream!" He grabbed a knife and plunged it into my lung, missing my heart by centimeters- maybe less. I fell backwards and closed my eyes. I heard David morph and fly away.
I concentrated on staying conciness. The pain really hurt and I was too tired to morph. I heard Ax and the other's come up behind me.
"Tobias!" Rachel screamed. She ran up to me.
I tried to speak, "I'm alive." I wispered really silently.
"He's alive! Oh my god. Jake!" It seemed Jake hadn't arrived yet.
I heard two birds of prey land and demorph. The sounds mixed together.
"He's alive Jake, just barely. He's alive." Rachel repeated.
I felt the pain begin to recede. I knew I wasn't going to make it. "Too much. Can't hold on." I wispered a bit louder. And darkness took over.
Marco
I demorphed to see Rachel kneeling over a figure. I ran up with Jake.
"He's alive Jake, just barely. He's alive." Rachel told us.
Jake took in the scene around him. "Shit." I heard him mutter under his breath. No one else heard him.
Then Tobias spoke. "Too much." He wispered. "Can't hold on." His muscles relaxed.
"No!" Rachel yelled. "Tobias! Tobias wake up!." I put my hand on her sholder. It was the only thing I could do to comfort her. She began to cry.
Ax took Tobias and carefully put Tobias over his back. He began to walk back to his hutch. We all followed, with Rachel crying on my sholder.
We put him next to Lilly. Rachel went over to my bed and sat down.
"Tom. We need to go tell Gran. Let's stay in numbers. Cassie and Jalil, get some Chee. We are abandoning this mission. We have another priority on our hands now." I ordered.
Jake looked at me strangely. "I'll take this one." I told him.
"Jake and Rachel, stay here with Ax."
Tom and I morphed and flew to Gran's. It wasn't Lilly's anymore.
I knocked on the door.
"Hi Tobias," Gran said without looking. He looked up,"Oh Hi Marco, Tom." He looked confused.
"We found Lilly. But not first." I told him. "David killed her. He killed Tobias as well." I told him bluntly.
He went white as a ghost.
"Tobias and Lilly? Both are d-dead?" He choked.
"Yes. Look, we've got to go. I'm so sorry, I. It. I can't stand it either." Tom and I walked out onto the lawn, where David was standing.
"You!" I spat at him.
"Did you miss me?"
"You killed them! You killed both of them!"
"And both of them struggled untill the very end. It was a touching speech Marco, now let's see if you can catch me." He morphed bird. Tom and I followed.
I caught some speed and was almost caught up with him. I forgot all resons to be careful, or rational.
He dodged in and out of buildings, while I stayed slightly above. He dove into a small block and I followed. We demoprhed together in the Ally, Tom had probably been lost in the chase.
"I can't believe you did that to her! Your dead!"
"You know, Tobias said that before I killed him. Lilly said that before I killed her. So I have to kill you know." He pulled a knife out of the fence, obviously put there before and threw it at me. I dodged it, but didn't see the second one.
"Ahhhhhh!" I yelled, stumbling back towards the fence on the other side of the ally. He hit my upper lung. I slid down the polished wood. "Tom! Help!" I screamed with all my might. I felt as if my lung had collapsed, and it probably had.
I felt the hard tears come as David walked over to me. "You know, you didn't have to die. I would have let you stay and join me. We could have destroyed the Animorphs! But now I'll do it on my own. Besides, you're the third one down in one night."
I closed my eyes and concentrated on breathing. All I remember was that David was still laughing when I blacked out.
Jake
Tom came back, without Marco. He looked panicked as he demorphed. Even Rachel looked up. She had been crying on my sholder ever since Marco left.
"Where is he?" I ordered.
"Follow me. David just grabbed on to him and lead him away. I couldn't follow too closley. I'm so sorry Jake."
Marco was dead.I sat back down. My best friend. Dead. Lilly. Dead. Tobias. Dead. He'd done more damage in one night than Visser Three could have done in three years.
I morphed and told Rach and Ax to stay. I followed Tom to the ally behind Marco's old house. I saw two bodies laying there. One was Marco. The other was Cassie.
"She wasn't here last time." I stared at a sheet.
Jake-
Jalil's dead too. Try your backyard.
David
I sat next to Cassie, holding her hand before Tom morphed Gorilla and picked them both up, and walked down the ally to the forest. I morphed back to falcon and flew to my back yard. I saw her, lying motionless. I morphed human and picked her up. I opened the back gate and began walking towards Ax's, which was a mile away.
Rachel
A gorilla came in with two bodies. Marco and Cassie. I dropped my firece firewall. I couldn't just see all of my friends dead.
"Where's Jake?" I asked as soon as he demorphed.
"Carring Jalil." He motioned to behind him. "He'll be a minute."
"So, just Jake, Ax , you and I are left?"
"Yeah." He muttered. "I wasn't here when David came before, what did he do?"
"He's our mistake. He found the escifl device and tried to sell it to visser three. We saved him but couldn't save his family. Then we made him an Animorph. He tried to sell us out to Visser three again. He couldn't cope with us. He nearly killed Jake and Tobias. But he didn't go near me. Not untill we tried to trap him." She told me.
"Oh." Jake was right behind Tom. He put Jalil down and panted. "It's just us? Only four now? Where's Ax?" At that moment I heard a thump. I turned around to see Ax fall from the forest into the clearing.
"Ax!" Jake screamed. No reply.
Tom, Jake and I all went into Ax's hutch. Then David came out into the clearing with two other men. They looked like bikers. Then I was inside a chee hologram.
Jake
The bikers shot at Tom and Rachel. They both fel to the ground.
"Well Jake, it looks like I won after all."
"Wanna bet David?" I heard the voice and knew at once I must be dreaming. It was Lilly, but David had killed her.
"Because I think your done for." I watched her come from the clearing. I looked down. All of the bodies had dissapeared, even Tom and Rachels.
I have to agree with Lilly on this one. Tobias said as he knocked out the bigger of the two bikers.
I just stared in amazement. They were all here. Eight people where right behind David. And they looked really angry.
Ax took out the biker to the right.
Then Rachel took her fist and punched David. He fell back. "You- you are dead. I killed you all. I saw your blood!"
"David. We have sources inside. We aren't alone. We have tons of help." Cassie told him.
"So you can't kill us." Tom said.
"But David, we won't kill you either. That would be the coward's way out. So instead, we are handing you over to the chee."Jalil told him.
Lilly bound his hands with a metal rope. Ax knocked him out. Marco tied his legs and sat him up.
Then they admired their handiwork.
"But, you were all dead!" I stared at them all.
"The chee saw David and were guarding every single one of us. Even Erek had you covered. Jake, it was a hologram after we got hit. All of us passed out and woke up fine. " She told me.
"And Marco told Gran that Tobias and I were dead. Won't going home be a surprise."
I smiled.
Lilly
I walked home with Marco, thinking about how Gran would respond. "This will be interesting.." I muttered.
"Yeah. It'll be better than when you moved to London." Marco smiled.
I opened the door and noticed Gran was on the couch.
"Wake up sleepy head." I nudged Gran.
"Your OK! Thank God!" He hugged me so hard that he picked me up off the ground.
"Hey, can I go to sleep now?" I asked.
"I'd better be leaving." Marco said, and then walked away.
"Sure honey."
I went upstairs and got in bed, knowing that the next time I woke up, life would be as regular as it could get for me.
