-/|\-
A young human girl stood up in a brightly colored meadow. And she found friends. Five friends. All of whom knew nothing of themselves or the universe. That was okay with the girl, she didn't know anything either. She just knew she was with friends... in the hands of good friends.
She was safe with them. With nothing to hang onto in a freefalling world of nothing, no mental rememberance, they would hang onto each other. A small community, seperate from any outside influence.
But only for a short time. Not for long.
When they had been reaching for each other, what were they reaching for? A window or a wall?
The girl felt as though she had been reaching for a dark mirror.
-/|\-
Chapter one
Sheisu watched the Animorphs from an invisible standpoint just a few feet away. "This is hysterical," he muttered, as they started talking and laughing, making appologies for not knowing their own names and adting like they were all old friends anyway. The way that they didn't have a way to indicate who they were talking to seemed to by hysterical to them. Sheisu, frusterated, was about to appear when his brother appeared, so timely.
They must be tested, Daram hissed. You can't keep them from fate.
"They know nothing of this fate," Sheisu said comfortably, standing casually in the air. Invisible and silent to the Animorphs, of course.
This is your fault, traitor.
Sheisu laughed harshly. "My fault? My fault? If I remember correctly, and I'm sure I do, Daram, it's that Elimist's fault. And where are you getting that 'traitor' part from?"
Daram gave in to a physical body, a large red glowing serpent. "You know exactly what I mean."
"These six children-- children, Daram, children-- have no recollection of their old lives. Even you and I combined would not be able to bring back their entire memories. There would still be gaps, missing pieces, and a trial would--"
"A trial is what they are to be given!"
"No." Sheisu barely could speak, looking at the happy humans and Andalite in the meadow. Tobias was a human nothlit now, and he would never get back his wings. Sheisu didn't want him to remember his wings.
It was important to him, somehow.
"I will bring the others into this, brother. I will bring as many as needed to convince you the error of your ways."
"They will be punished unfairly, they won't understand, Daram, no, Daram wait!" Sheisu lost his cool exterior as Daram appeared to the Animorphs. But not as a serpent, only a solomn-looking boy appeared.
"You will come with me or be killed," Daram said.
Sheisu screamed, "NO!" but he was already watching the Animorph's looks of surprise and fear as they were transferred into holding cell.
-/|\-
Chapter two
The children were in a blank white room with no windows or doors.
"What's going on?" the blond boy asked.
"It looks like we're in trouble," said another boy.
The dark-skinned girl suggested, "Maybe we are waiting here before something new happens?
The alien looked around with his stalk eyes. < I do not think that is it.>
"You're right," a boy said quietly. They all turned around. It wasn't the same boy as before, but they looked similar, in a subtle way. "Something bad is going to happen," he said, taking a tired step forward, but his eyes were anything but tired. "You don't remember why you're going to be punished, but you are... I'm sorry, I'm sorry...."
Three other people walked through the walls and surrounded them. The first boy looked like a marrionette whos strings were about to be cut. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." he whispered, and stretched out his hand.
Blue light hummed in his outstretched palm. The boy began to slowly lift off the floor, like a puppet being dragged upwards. Hanging there, he closed his eyes.
The light flew towards the six like it had been blown by a gale-force wind. It surrounded them and covered them, humming. The other three newcomers-- two boys and a girl-- added light from their hands.
Then it slowly stopped.
*Flash!*
...a dying alien with a blue box...
*Flash!*
...walking through crowded hallways...
*Flash!*
...terrible, mind-numbing fear...
*Flash!*
...pain...
*Flash!*
"Morph out!".....
*Flash!*
*Flash!*
*Flash!*
Faster than their conscious minds could follow, they were assaulted with information. One-- now knowing her true name, Cassie-- found that she could manipulate it.
Conscious mind? Flash! "Killer with a conscious...." Who's talking to her? Flash! A wrinkled being, a minion for Crayak. Crayak? Flash! A towering red eye. Malice radiating from it. "Love," someone said simply. His face.... Flash! The boy she had met minutes ago, terrified, at a construction site. Why? Flash! A huge monster devouring a live being. A being like that other alien she had met.... Flash! A beautiful, colorful dome under the ground. "Sonar!" someone hissed. Flash! The boy, Marco, teasing that other girl-- Rachel! Flash! Below Cassie, a raging bear in a shaft, struggling to kill a tiger above her. Flash! Rubbing against the tiger, as a wolf. A wolf? Flash! Urging a half-wolf, half-boy to become boy. Because of the hawk above them... Flash! The hawk, screaching and clawing at an alien's eyestalks, it was the-- Flash! Evilness radiated from him as he gloated while her head was shoved under the Yeerk pool... Flash! At the Yeerk pool again, but for a different reason. Aftran had to be freed! Flash! Screaming from a cage in the Yeerk pool. Flash! A child playing in the park on the swings. "Look how high I can swing!" Flash! Staring wistfully at a child, wishing she could be her. Flash!
The memories were fading, going back to where they had come. Cassie kept reaching for them, saving precious memories of memories. But they kept fading, until she couldn't find a single new one. Whisps here and there, but nothing real and solid. She could nearly cry.
Then she looked up at the people in the cage with her.
"We're taking you to trial now," said the limp puppet in front of them.... Sheisu. "You will remain in your true forms or be killed." He sighed heavily, looking at the panicking boy.... Tobias. "Human is your true form now, Tobias."
-/|\-
Chapter Three
They were seated on a long bench in front of a small table. Everything in the room looked like it had been constructed with wood. In front of them was a tall stand with a hooded figure in it. The hood somehow consealed the face perfectly, despite the rest of the room being perfectly bright. The light seemed to come from nowhere, actually.
There were other people, looking busy with things in front of them or talking to people nearby, but rarely getting out of their chairs. The tables that they sat at were scattered half-hazardly around. They didn't seem to be part of the rest of the room, just bystanders. An audiance.
Then there was a table facing them that had official-looking people and aliens. Four humans, an Andalite, a Hork-Bajir thinker and some sort of odd tangle of writhing shiny blue and gray snake-like things.
The hooded figure-- a judge?-- was silent while a musical voice seemed to rain from the sky. "We don't have all day," it sang, sounding annoyed.
"What the... who was that?" the boy Marco demanded.
"Me," it said, sounding more annoyed.
"Who?" Marco asked.
Everyone in the room, except the judge, pointedly looked or gestured towards the snake-thing. "I am Reseeeesssh. I am leader of the questioners."
"Lawyers," someone translated from behind the Animorphs. They turned to see the boy who had been telling them he was sorry earlier. "I know you still don' t remember everything... but they'll go after you for every last thing you've done."
"Quiet!" Reseeeesssh snapped as sharply as he could.
"Sorry," Sheisu said meekly. As he cringed in his chair, the Animorphs could see that he was handcuffed with some sort of blue-glowing handcuffs. He didn't even try to get free. It was like the fight had been cut out of him.
"This is a clear case of these six offenders against the universe, particularly the Yeerks." As Jake, Rachel and Marco all tried to protest at the same time, he continued talking. "We wish for each of them to be held accountable for murder, accessory to murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, treason, attempted genocide, terrorism, and other equal crimes, as well as ignorance."
Sheisu shot up, hands still locked behind his back. "I wish to beg for patience! The suspects had no idea what has going on at the start of this and still do not!"
"The criminals," Reseeeesssh corrected. "Do I have to remind you that people are guilty until proven innocent?"
"I appologise," Sheisu said, but he didn't sit down. He turned to the other lawyers, or whatever they were, and started talking. "Three of these six wanted to be in an experiment of mine. The others wished they could be. According to the law, they were stripped of all crimes when I recruited them."
"Ah, but where is there record of this?"
Sheisu was silent.
"Speak, or this trial will be against you as well! We can kill you as well, Sheisu, we can cut you out, we can abandon you to the cruel mercy of--"
"There is no record!" Sheisu screamed. Reseeeesssh was pulling down his usually defences to hide behind: his immortality, his power, his unique abilities, and his friends. He had to be smart, he had to find things to duck behind which no amount of shooting could pierce. But he was getitng frusterated too fast, far too fast.
"Then there is no law!" Reseeeesssh pronounced.
Sheisu had watched these trials as a passive observer from the tables, but never as the defender. There was rarely a situation which called for him to be involved. And now he saw why these always began erupting in chaos.
"The human adolesent male with the designation of Marco, move forward."
Sheisu looked at Marco, and gestured for him to sit at the chair in front of the table, the one where nothing seperated him from the questioners.
Reseeeesssh hovered into the air and floated towards Marco, directly up to him. "Before we judge you for your crimes, we order you to tell us if you will continue your stubborn standpoint of being innocent of these crimes, or if you wish to inform us that you are guilty and save us the trouble of convincing you otherwise."
Marco had lasped into "bored teenager" mode, the same way he acted in front of a principal or other authority figure that he thought had the totally wrong idea. "Maybe you should tell me what all my crimes are, then." He grinned crookedly at the hovering snakes.
Reseeeesssh hissed. "Very well. I will list your crimes and you will tell me if you are innocent or guilty.
"First. Illegally obtaining a weapon."
"What?!" Marco squacked.
"The weapon in this case being the morphing power," Reseeeesssh continued.
"Illegally? Hey, Ressssssh, I just touched a box when the big blue guy told me to!"
"You are claiming innocence by ignorance?"
"Yes, I am claiming innocence by ignorance," Marco mimicked.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Jake mouthing, "Chill." Marco was in no mood to chill.
"No not mock me!" Reseeeesssh proclaimed.
A flash of memory hit Marco, this time a rediculous commercial from the radio. "By mocking me with these chips you are creating bad kharma!" and he snickered.
"Do not laugh at the court of the People, ignorant fool!" Reseeeesssh ordered. Marco dropped his grin and stared rebelliously at him.
-/|\-
Chapter five
"Your second crime would be of murder, but we will collect an exact figure and inform you of what it is now: this is the total amount of setiment beings you have killed in your lifetime.
"One thousand, eight hundred and thirty nine."
Marco's jaw dropped. "W-- what?" he managed.
Reseeeesssh repeated the total. "This includes impersonal and personal murder." Seeing the "huh?" look still on Marco's face, he clarified, "Impersonal is directly causing the murder as a result of an action on your part... Such as blowing up a building, the people inside were impersonally killed."
Marco nodded slowly, looking dazed. "Thousand... eight... god..."
"More murders...." Reseeeesssh continued, like he was scanning a list. "Kidnapping."
"Who?" Marco asked, looking disgusted.
"The human male you call David."
Marco swore at Reseeeesssh, getting across the point that he hadn't kidnapped anyone.
"The court of the people decides that you are lying. Moving on.... breaking and entering several times, robbery, attempted robbery, vandalism... leading a terrorist group--"
Marco practically gagged. "What?! I'm not the leader! He is!" He pointed to Jake.
Jake shrugged. "Umm..."
"Shut up!" Reseeeesssh snapped. "We see past your petty lies! This is a mere formality to explain to you what you are guilty of!
"Treason. You stopped fighting the Yeerk in your head.
"Accessory to murder. Approximately 20,000 times, including when the Yeerk used your body to kill and when you told your friends to kill."
"Attempted murder. Need I even give you a figure?"
"No," Marco muttered.
"Conspirasy to kill. Conspiracy to commit genocide.
"Terrorism.
"Attempted genocide.
"Do you argue any of these charges?"
"I argue that there is no law in war."
Reseeeesssh hissed, "This is law in war, you fool! We are the law! The People are the final verdict on criminals in war."
"Okay... assuming, for a moment, that I agree that I'm guilty, what's my punishment?"
"Torture fitting to the crimes."
"Damn," Marco said, thinking hard.
"Have you anyone to argue for you?" Reseeeesssh asked smugly.
-/|\-
Chapter six
Rachel shot up, but Sheisu gently brushed past her, hands still behind his back. As he walked forwards, the handcuffs shimmered and disappeared.
So they were just for show. Or someone arguing was automatically freed, or something. The rules to this game weren't clear yet.
"Marco has fought through thousands of battles. He has become ruthless." Sheisu looked appologetically at Marco. "Not ruthless in a sense, though. He sees what needs to get done. Marco calls this... going from A to B. No detours. No stops. No pausing to think about the morailty. He gets what he needs and what the world needs and he doesn't care who gets hurt or killed in the way. No, he cares, but he understand that it has to be done." Sheisu paused, looking at Marco. Deep into his eyes, trying to see a desperate secret that would save him. "And he's done that. He's moved the pieces, played the game, and lost valiantly. But there's nothing to save him now, you say." Sheisu walked forwards, to the hovering, writhing mass of snakes. "Were Marco's decisions, to kill and the hurt and to fight, all part of a bigger plan to stop killing, to stop hurting, and to keep him from fighting again? But he sits here and you pronounce him guilty."
"Yes, quite guilty. Now shut up," Reseeeesssh snapped. "That's all we have time for. Marco, do you accept that you are guilty of these crimes?"
"No."
"For what crimes are you stupidly insisting that you have no part in?"
"All of them."
This caused the whole room to momentarily stare in confusion. Even Reseeeesssh stopped moving for a second. Then he started again. "You mean that you think that the punishment is unfair?"
"I say that I didn't do none of them."
"Marco, you kill thousands. Without thinking. Without caring. We are giving you fair chance to admit that you are wrong and that we are right. We...."
The words droned away in Rachel's ears, but she didn't hear them. Still sitting on the bench behind the table, she grabbed Ax's shoulder. Ax stopped his automatic reaction of moving his tail towards her and leaned down to hear her. He nodded and spoke to the other Animorphs in pritave thought-speach. Reseeeesssh kept raving to Marco. Marco stayed glued to his seat.
Rachel jumped up from the bench now, the rest of the Animorphs behind her. She stamped up next to Marco and coolly stood between him and Reseeeesssh.
Face-off.
The other Animorphs stood in a small crowd, facing the questioners, especially Reseeeesssh. And all had surprising expressions on their faces: they were smiling.
Reseeeesssh didn't back up.
Rachel didn't flinch.
She gave him her best airhead smile, and then glared. "If you want to tangle with the Animorphs, you speak to all of us. It was all of us. You sentence us together."
When Reseeeesssh hesitated, she snapped, "You know the future! You know what crimes we get! Sentence us! Together!"
Sheisu jumped up, about to scream "No!" like he had wanted to do so many times before... but it was, again, too late.
-/|\-
Chapter seven
"DON'T PANIC!" Cassie screamed to Tobias, even though she was in horrible pain. "Just stay calm! Remember, it can't last forever! They won't break us! Don't give them the satisfaction! Tobias! Your meadow! Think of the meadow in spring! The meadow in spring with all the flowers! Remember the colors!? Name the colors," she screamed.
"Red...." Tobias mumbled, almost trance-like. "Purple...."
"That's it Tobias, that's it!" Cassie yelled, then doubled up in pain. Faceless terror had tormented them, now it was the chance for directionless pain. She founght to encourage Tobias, but her mind was going hazy.... tired.... almost giving up....
"Green...."
For Tobias. For his sanity. Pull through, Cassie! Pull through!
"Cassie!" Jake screamed.
< Cassie! I believe that you should continue speaking so we know of your stage of mental health!> Ax said urgently.
"I'm here, Jake," Cassie said.
"Uh, yellow...."
"Thank God. I don't want to lose you, Cassie. We're not going crazy here. Not here. Not after all we've been through."
"I know, Jake."
The pain stopped a long time later.
The painful memories started next.
-/|\-
They had lived.
They reeled away, like drunken robots, but they were uninjured now. Just overwhelmed.
After being stunned from the sudden lack of painful anything, they were almost in a trance-like state.
"AH! We're out! We're out we're out we're out!" Rachel screamed, hugging Tobias as hard as she could to make sure he was real and then turning to everyone else. "We're OUT!"
And everything fell into laughing, hugging, cheering chaos.
~/|\~/|\~/|\~/|\~/|\~/|\~/|\~/|\~/|\~
Okay, so chapter five and six were a little weird... and the story was weird, completely. Personally, I liked the last chapter for no good reason. Deal with it.
And deal with me doing what I do best: MAKING A SEQUAL! AAAAAHHHHHH!!! THE HORROR! So I'm writing Freedom. This seems like it's going to be a long, loooong series somehow...