The Seduction - Chapter 1

Rachel

I had led David to his doom. To be trapped, trapped as a rat, never to touch, or taste, or feel anything as a human again. Never to live, pretty much, again. Jake had chosen me for the job because Cassie had told him that I was the one David would pick. But, more than that, he had chosen me because he knew I could do it. He knew I could stand over a human being, an evil, insane human being, but still, a human being, and watch him until he was no longer a human being. He knew I could do it. I think he saw a little bit of David in me.

He knew I could do it.

But I couldn't.

I couldn't condemn someone to a fate worse than that of Tobias's, not even someone who had almost killed Tobias…

And I'd know I couldn't.

It took me a while to convince Ax to leave. It wasn't that he suspected me of treachery, because that's what it was, treachery, I think he just didn't want to leave me to do it alone. It was kind of him, but I knew he really didn't want to be there, so in the end he conceded. He morphed into a northern harrier and flew away. I waited, scanning the sky. I know how good a bird of prey's hearing and eyesight are. I've been one.

Then I knelt, crouching beside the pipe in which we had trapped David.

"David..." I called, softly, "You have 7 minutes until you're trapped."

Before that, he had stopped begging, fallen just to a constant monotone whimper, but at my words he exploded, screaming in my head.

You taunt me, Rachel? It should be you; it should be you, here in this cage! And it will be, someday. The Animorphs will have to get rid of you one day, Rachel the Murderer, and then I'll be the one laughing!

He let out a silent, strangled sob.

I could feel the anger, and the tears, welling up in my throat, and momentarily I reconsidered what I was planning to do. But… if I didn't, he would be right, I knew. I would be just like him.

"David!" I yelled, interrupting his sobs. "I've got a choice for you."

The sobbing vanished from my head. A choice…? He asked. I could hear the note of desperation in his voice. He was trying to be proud, but there was nothing he wanted more than to be out, out, out.

I began my morph to grizzly. "I'm going to open the pipe, Davrgg" At that point, my human mouth stretched into the familiar snout of the grizzly. David. I'm going to open it, and let you out. But you're not going to run away. If you do, I'll kill you.

It was true. I would kill him, if I had to. I couldn't let my friends know… and if he got away, he would kill them. He would kill Tobias. And he wouldn't make a mistake this time.

I couldn't go through that again. The few hours when I'd thought that he was dead… I shook my huge head, growling softly. My morph was complete. The grizzly strength, power, and apathy welled up inside my mind, and the sorrow, and terror I was reliving vanished. Now, David. I swiped a paw at the pipe, drawing four deep gashes into the metal. With my weak eyes, I barely saw a white shape clamber out of a gash. I raised my paw again, ready to dig my claws deep into the rat if it was to run… but it didn't. It froze, and instantly began demorphing. I waited silently. I knew what was going through his mind; I'd had enough close calls of my own.

"Well, Rachel, what's this choice you're talking about?" He leaned nonchalantly against the concrete wall, the swagger back in his voice. But I was a bear. I could smell his fear.

There's a loose brick in the wall. Pull it out.

He looked confused, but he did as I asked. After a number of minutes, he found the brick, and pulled it out with a loud crunching sound. I couldn't see what was behind it, with my blurry bear eyes, but I knew. It was a small plastic bag. Floating in it was something that, if you didn't know, looked like nothing more than a very overgrown slug. But David knew, too. He pulled it out, holding the bag up to the light, looking from it to me, an expression of disbelief on his face.

There's your choice, David. Rat, or yeerk.

He would realize it, I knew. He would at first be disgusted, he could never be trapped as a yeerk, a slug, that would be worse than a rat, he wouldn't be able to see, to run, he would slither and dry up and die… but then he would realize. I was giving him a chance. A chance to be human again.

I had stolen the yeerk from the pool itself. I had followed a controller into the pool entrance in The Gap, knocked her out, stole her clothes, and morphed her. I walked slowly down the stairs into the pool. I know the others think that I'm brave, but I'm really not. I am terrified by the yeerk pool. I never, ever wanted to go back there again, even in my power morph, even surrounded by my friends, and going down alone, a weak, defenseless human made me want to lose it then and there.

But I didn't. I found a nook, swiftly demorphing, and then morphing into one of my favorite morphs, my bald eagle. It took some doing, getting into the air. There are no breezes in the vast, underground cave of the yeerk pool. But once I was high, it was child's play to dive, talons forward, and snatch a slug out of the water. I was designed for doing the same with fish. People screamed, and shot at me with dracon beams, but I simply dodged them, straining my wings, to fly safely back up the stairs, out of a mall filled with screaming people, and home, still clutching the yeerk in my talons.

His eyes looked up at me in wonder. He reached in to the water, displacing some, so it splashed onto the ground. He wrapped his hand around the yeerk, taking its DNA into his very blood. Then he dropped it, smashing it into the ground with his bare foot.

I could see the triumph in his eyes. He thought I was stupid. He thought I was weak. He thought I was making a mistake.

And he was right. I knew it too.

But he only smiled at me, as he shrank, limbs dwindling.

I demorphed and sat on the ground, holding him, until the two hour limit was past. Then I morphed eagle. Again, I flew, holding a yeerk in my talons. When I was over the river, I dropped him. I hoped maybe he wouldn't survive the fall, that maybe he would die of kandrona starvation in the water before anyone found him… but in my heart of hearts I knew.

And as he fell, he whispered just one word to me.

Soon, Rachel, He whispered. Soon.