CHAPTER THREE

::Cassie::

"Ellimist?" I asked, calmly. "What are you doing again?"

I was sitting in a chair, in an empty classroom that I hadn't been inside since a few months ago when we all relocated to the valley. The Yeerks knew who we were, where we lived, where we studied. We couldn't come back. And yet, in an instant, I had been transported from walking across the valley ground to sitting in this chair.

There were sounds of shuffling feet and voices outside the classroom. I sat upright. "Ellimist? This isn't funny. I'm not here for any lesson that you're going to teach."

No response. I got out of my seat, only to realise that there was a schoolbag on the ground. I picked it up and rummaged within. Each book was labelled with my name, in my own handwriting. I stared. I never had these textbooks. They were at least one grade higher than what I had been studying – back when I was still in high school.

Something was very wrong.

Swinging the bag quickly over my shoulders, I darted out of the classroom and into the sea of oncoming students moving to their next class.

I had to find the others. "Ja –"

No, that was stupid. I couldn't just yell out like that. Anyone here could be a Controller. And whoever it was, would recognise Jake.

But wouldn't they recognise me too? I realised in horror. I had to morph.

Morph to something big! Crush the school, it could be teeming with Controllers!

What?

No, no, that wasn't the point. It wasn't about the war now. It was about my friends. Morph to something small! Fly!

I dumped my bag in the last cubicle in the nearest washroom, then morphed to fly. As the wings sprouted and I felt myself shrink, I couldn't help wondering why I wasn't as scared as I ought to have been. And what was with that earlier thought about crushing the school? That was a thought that belonged to Rachel. Not me. But strangely enough, I didn't feel as much repulsion as I ought to have. I was disgusted – but disgusted at the fact that any of those students that I had brushed past earlier on had been a Controller. How easy it would have been, just to...

Just before I lost my hands, I unlocked the door. Then I finished the fly morph at the fastest speed I could manage. Just as somebody opened the door, I flew out.

"Hey, someone left her bag here!"

Crap. My name was on the textbooks. Oh well, that could be dealt with later.

ZIIIIP! I darted towards the open door, spinning around insanely in circles to slow down when I was out in the corridor.

‹Jake!› I yelled in thoughtspeech. ‹Marco! Rachel!›

Those were the only three I would figure might be around. I was directing my thoughts at them. But were they even here?

I could give it a shot. ‹Tobias? Ax?›

Were any of them even part of this reality that I was in? I couldn't be dreaming... it was too real to be a dream. But yet...

‹Jake! Answer me!›

I flew up the staircase, above everyone's heads. ‹Jake! Marco! Rachel!›

Was I alone? ‹Please answer me!›

Then suddenly, I saw someone stop. At the edge of the stairway.

‹Marco!› I gasped, relief flooding my body. Or at least, the fly's body.

His eyes scanned around, but with human eyes, it was probably quite difficult to spot a fly. He jerked his head to the side, and then he fell out of step with the student crowd and disappeared down the hallway. I buzzed along, with a couple of hands waving me along irritably. Finally, I flew straight into one of the empty rooms that Marco had spotted, and upon entering it, Marco slammed the door shut and locked it. He then walked over to the door at the end and locked it. I began to demorph rapidly.

"What. The. Hell. Is. Going. ON!" Marco burst out, furiously, waving his hands about. "One moment I'm laughing about with my parents in their cabin, and the next moment I'm back in a school that thinks I'm dead!"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I found myself in some empty classroom with a school bag of books that are mine, but I never owned them before. I think we need to figure out where the rest are."

Marco swung his backpack onto the table. "Same thing. Sitting in some classroom, and books in here I haven't studied before."

"Something is terribly wrong about this," he continued, grimly, and I was a little frightened by his expression. "You know, I have a good feeling that I should have been able to say something about the Ellimist and Crayak and all that? But I don't know what to say to them. About them. At all."

"There's nothing we can say to them, or about them," I said, flatly. "They're jerking us around again."

"It's not that..." began Marco, but then he shook his head. "Okay, forget it."

But something was nagging at the back of my mind. I knew once, and only I ever knew, that the Ellimist and Crayak once played around with time and sent us back to a timeline that would have existed should Jake never have made the choice not to walk through the construction site that fateful night. My memory of that incident was hazy; I couldn't exactly remember what happened to us, but I knew that we had been part of a game those two entities were playing, and only I was allowed to remember because I was an "anomaly", as the Drode had called me. Marco wouldn't know, and I was all the more determined that this was another game. A very, very cruel game, considering that we were at the cusp of all-out war with the Yeerks. They had finally got to know our identities, and it wasn't about hide-and-seek anymore.

All-out war. Rachel had always wanted that. I hadn't. Well thinking about it, it wasn't such a bad idea after all. They were the attackers, the perpetrators. They deserved to die. All of them.

Suddenly, I froze. There were voices issuing from the corridor outside, one of which was vaguely familiar.

"...holding it on Sunday evening instead."

"Are you sure? He last confirmed it on–"

"Are you doubting me?"

"No, sir, I mean..."

"Get back to class." There was the sound of scurrying feet. Thereafter, was silence. Before I could open my mouth again, there came a sudden loud banging on the door. "Open up!", came the voice, more clearly, harshly. "Are you kids doing drugs or something? Open up, or I'm coming in!"

"It's Chapman!" hissed Marco. "We can't let him see us here!"

"Morph!" I whispered, already beginning the transformation to fly. Quickly, Marco followed. The door banging ceased, and the sound of a key being jiggled into the keyhole started. I was now fully fly, but Marco was still a mass of human and fly parts.

‹Marco, concentrate!›

‹Gee, you think?›

The door swung open. Marco, thankfully, was now fully fly as well.

"Where'd they go?" Chapman mused, looking positively furious. He bent down to look under the tables; he looked almost comical. But then I had to remind myself a disgusting slug was wrapped around his brain. That killed off any amusement I had.

‹Oh shit.›

Chapman had spotted Marco's backpack. He opened it up, and pulled out a textbook. Flipped the cover open.

‹Ohhhh shittt.›

"Marco?" Chapman frowned.

We held our breaths. As much as the fly bodies could possibly hold.

Then came something unexpected. He slipped the book back in and sighed. "I'm not looking forward to getting his father down again." With that, he took the backpack, and left the room.

‹Excuse me?› Marco sounded skeptical. ‹Did he say he wanted to see my dad?›

‹That's strange.› I agreed.

‹Strange? That's insane! I mean, shouldn't he freak out that Marco, an Animorph, is not dead and still in school masquerading as some kid? Or the fact that some kid got hold of Marco's textbook? You get what I mean?›

‹Yes.› I began to feel chills, even in my fly body. ‹I get what you mean.›