Chapter 1

San Francisco 2015 (This story is set 10 years after the events of The Struggle and The New and 14 years after #54 That would make Jake 31, Cassie 30, and Rae 12)

For those who are new to this universe, I would suggest that you go back and read The New and The Struggle in that order. Otherwise you will be utterly confused and start reviewing with stupid questions like "Why can't Jake Morph out of his injury?" and "Who is Rae?" that you would have known if you read my earlier stories/.

My name is Rachel.

But everyone calls me Rae.

My parents had their story.

Now this is mine.

It all started before I was born. Almost 20 years ago 5 kids decided to take a shortcut through an abandoned construction site. They stumbled upon one alien (later his brother?) and the greatest evil that this side of the universe has ever seen. The Yeerks.

After 4 long years, they managed to defeat the aliens and save the world. But not without a heavy cost.

You see, two of the kids happened to be my parents, Jake and Cassie Berenson. The other were my Dad's cousin, Rachel, his best friend Marco, and Rachel's boyfriend Tobias.

Rachel died in the final battle, along with my Dad's brother, Tom. The survivors were heros, but my Dad and Tobias went into a deep depression over losing the people that were closest to them. But that all changed once Ax was captured by a new threat, the "One". My Dad went with Marco, Tobias and the US Special forces under the radar to go save him. And they did.

Mom stayed behind and had me.

I wish I could tell you that everything worked out fine.

But it didn't.

In the process of freeing Ax, Dad was injured pretty badly.

Paralyzed badly.

He ended up in a wheelchair. And there was no way to fix him. No morphing, no special Andalite technology. Nothing worked.

When he got back, he had it pretty rough, but everything turned out better in the end.

We lived, along with my little brother and sister, in Berkeley. Mom ended up being the doctor that she always wanted to be, a psychiatrist to boot.

Dad took a more relaxed position due to his injury. He ran a place part-time for injured soldiers, but he also became a writer.

For the most part, I could say we were the prototypical happy family.

But that all changed the week before 7th grade


"Rae, RAE! Dinner time!" I heard Dad yell from the hall.

"Give me a couple minutes!" I yelled back to him. I was on the phone with my friend Robin.

"Of course, I want to go downtown, we can ride the cable cars. I definitely want to go to get some Ice Cream at the Ghiradelli store. Mom says it's full of calories and it's totally unhealthy, but I can't resist!" I put the phone down for a second

My plan was to leave before dinnertime, so I started brushing my light brown curly hair and I put it into a ponytail. It wasn't as tightly curled as my Mom's or bone straight like Dad's, but it was still a pain in the butt to comb.

I frowned at myself in the mirror.

My dark brown eyes stared right back at me. Everyone says my eyes are just like my Dad's. Ugh. Why? Mom's eyes are soooooo much prettier.

Dad also was nice enough go give me embarrassing freckles that dotted my light brown skin. As well as a nose that didn't look like it belonged anywhere on my face.

The joys of being mixed...

At least I got my Mom's beautiful cheekbones and lips. But that was an aside. In reality, I never focused too much on the fact my parents were different races. When I was little, I knew they looked different, but I didn't know that Dad was White and Mom was Black until my kindergarten teacher pointed it out to me. But most people in the Bay are mixed with something or other, so I never cared.

I put a Green hoodie on over my yellow tank and picked the receiver back up. Robin came back

"Oh I completely understand! It's been forever since we've been able to try and sneak into the city. Too many paparazzi try to follow you around Rae."

"Tell me about it," I muttered.

That was one of the drawbacks about having world-famous parents. All the attention.

We couldn't even go out to the movies without a bunch of crazy cameramen following us.

Mom tried to shield us by sending us to private school and giving us bodyguards, because people had done some crazy stuff in the past...

"RAE! The food's getting cold! Plus your Mom is coming through the door! You know she just got off her shift and wants to sit down to a nice meal. Together. Before she passes out." I could hear Dad's voice getting more impatient by the second.

"Dad, I said I'll get off soon!

I heard him wheel up the hall and come into my room. He came into the threshold. He was not happy.

He stroked his goatee and frowned. I could see him staring at me from behind his glasses.

He folded his muscular arms over his chest and glared at me.

"Rachel, I have been waiting for ten minutes for you to get off the phone. I expect you to actually DO something when I tell you, not to have to come get you." He said, in his super-creepy steely voice he had whenever he was pissed.

"Robin, I gotta go, call you later." I whispered just as he came over to me.

"Possessive much?" I grumbled.

"I'm not being possessive Rachel. I'm parenting. There's a difference."

"Yeah,right." I rolled my eyes

"Excuse me? Don't roll your eyes at me" He raised an eyebrow.

I thought of a snappy comeback. But decided against it. I never wanted to get on Dad's bad side. I never won. Not like Mom. She was a pushover.

"Nevermind,"

I followed Dad out of my room and into the dining room and sat down at the table, where dinner was waiting.

Fish. Ew. At least it wasn't Mom's Tofu surprise.

My litter brother Tommy and my little sister Melissa were sitting in the booster seats at the dining room table.

Let me emphasize Little.

Tommy is 5 and Melissa is 3. Tommy has bright golden skin and this cute little black baby afro. Melissa has an almost copper color to her and her hair is wavy dark brown. They both look more like Mom then Dad. Unlike me. Everyone says I look more like him.

They're cute, but can be little pain in the you -know-what's.

At the current moment, Mom walked through the door in her scrubs, looking completely exhausted.

"Hey my babies."

I see all these photos of her from when the war ended, and she hasn't changed a bit. She looks a little older, but she cut her hair short again.

She went to kissed Tommy and Melissa on the forehead.

"Don't I get a kiss too?" Dad rolled over to her and she bent down to kiss him. Not by much though.

I always thought it funny with Dad in the chair, that I was the tallest person in my family so far, even though I was only 12.

"Ewww. Gross. PDA." I half-joked as I shielded my eyes and took a seat at the table.

Right now, Melissa was reaching over and putting peas in Tommy's little Afro.

"Melissa sweetie, that's a no-no" Mom said kindly, taking the food out of his hair.

"Well at least everyone is here together. Honey, you work too many overnight shifts." Dad said as he rolled to the table.

"I know, I know. There are a shortage of psych interns at county." She took a seat and we all started to eat. "But that should be over soon."

"Why, what happened?" Dad asked.

Mom tried to hide a smile.

"It came through..TOMMY! You don't throw carrots at your sister!"

Dad went over to wrangle Tommy.

"It did?" Dad beamed.

"Yes. UC-Santa Barbara accepted my application. They're excited that my residency went so well."

"Wait. What came through?" I was confused.

"What did your parents say?" Dad took the carrots off Tommy's plate.

I never realized how good my folks were at multitasking.

"They're very excited. This will give them the opportunity to finally move into that Condo downtown that they always wanted to. And after Daddy's heart attack..." Mom trailed off into nothingness.

Pop-Pop had a heart attack last year. He didn't die, but it scared all of us. He started to cut back his hours at the clinic, and Mom-Mom started working less at the new zoo.

I was shocked. The farm was ours so long...I needed a moment to find out what was going on.

"Wait, wait, Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop are seriously moving? I thought they were kidding! The farm has been in our family since the dawn of time!" I asked.

"Yes sweetie. They're not as young as they used to be. Taking care of that place has been hard on them the last couple of years."

"So what does that mean? Are they selling it?"

"Not exactly..." Dad trailed off.

Mom and Dad shared glances.

Uh-Oh. This CAN'T be good. I thought.

"They're not selling it, Rae. I would NEVER allow that to happen." Mom reassured me.

I blinked, confused for a second.

Then I got it. Just as Mom said...

"We're moving. Back home."

"WHAT?" I yelled.

"Outdoor voice!" Tommy said as he pointed at me.

I gave him a sneer.

"Rae, don't make faces." Mom said.

"Ok, but excuse me for being upset! You cannot barge in here today and say, 'Oh honey, we're moving, could you pass the potatoes?' "

"Would you, Rae?" Dad asked.

I groaned as I passed them to him.

"I know it's a lot to deal with, but this has been in the works for months. We were just waiting for me to get the position." She tried to explain.

I wasn't buying it.

"How come I didn't know? Tell me you're joking!"

"I didn't want to tell you until I was sure they picked me honey. You have to understand-"

I had a hard time ever listening to my parents, especially today of all days, the day where they were going to rip everything away from me.

I pushed my plate away.

"This is so unfair? What about me? You know, I have friends! I have a life too! Or at least I try with the crazy paparazzi everywhere."

"Rae this is not just about you. We made this decision for all of us."

"I bet. You know what, I'm not so hungry now."

"Rae, we're not done eating dinner." Mom started to say. But I wan't having it.

"I am." I got up and started to go back to my room, but Dad tried to cut me off at the hallway

"Rachel Berenson. Don't go down that hall!" Dad yelled.

I ignored them.

Life as I know it is OVER. I thought as slammed the door and plopped down on my bed.

I didn't know it then, but in more ways hen one, I was absolutely right.


YOU KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS.

YES. I DO.

TEN YEARS ELLIMIST. YOU WERE GIVEN TEN YEARS. MORE THAN ENOUGH TIME TO PLOT YOUR FILTHY KETRAN WAYS.

THAT I WAS.

A mysterious being with a giant red eye materialized out of the void. "Across" from him, looking over the San Francisco Bay, was a rendition of a giant whitish human spirit.

PRETTY GOOD, TOOMIN. EVEN YOUR TECHNICAL DEALINGS ARE BETTER THAN THE LAST TIME WE TRIED HUMANS. BUT, NOW IT IS MY MOVE. FINALLY!

I WOULDN'T BE SO SURE, CRAYAK. EVIL NEVER WINS.

NOT THIS TIME.EVEN YOU COULDN'T GUARANTEE COMPLETE SUCCESS WITH A STACKED DECK.

TRUE. BUT THE HUMANS HAVE A SAYING. "DON'T COUNT ALL YOUR CHICKENS BEFORE THEY HATCH.

OH, BUT THEY ALREADY HAVE! THEY ALREADY HAVE.