DAVID

When I saw Tobias laying there, I felt my rat brain want to jolt back in surprise and fear. But when you've been in a morph for a year or so straight, you get pretty good at controlling those things. Still, rats have a stronger will than, say, a wolf. A wolf is a hunter, and they are much more in control. The animals who jolt, whose movements are very erratic due to panicking, are the ones with stronger wills.

You'd think that a stronger animal such as a wolf would have a stronger will. It's weird to think of a hunter as "weak" in all senses of the word, and a rat as "strong." But that's how it works in the animal world, and that's why rats escape so easily. They have a strong will.

But my human brain knew that Tobias was still unconscious, so I approached him anyways... with less caution than my rat friend would have. I'd also like to mention, it's weird living with two sides to you. You're like a schizophrenic, who has it under some semblance of control. But still schizo.

I scurried up to Tobias and smelt around. I could still smell the chloroform they'd used to knock him out. I looked to my right. Marco was sitting, leaned up in the corner. I knew why he was sitting there. He could see everything. He could see the stairs where Sam or Manny would come down, and he could also see both Tobias and Rachel.

To my left, there she was. Rachel was also in a corner, but it was not strategically chosen like Marco's was. She was in no position to be strategic. Her knees were pulled up against her chest, and she was hugging them. Her greasy blonde hair shaded her face.

I looked back at Marco. I couldn't see well – rats can't – but he looked pensive. He was trying to think of a way out, but he knew he couldn't morph. Or maybe he was just thinking about how to keep his sanity with almost no human contact down here. I wanted to taunt him. Wanted to send him some thought-speak, just mess with him a little. After what they'd put me through, they deserved it. But Sam would kill me.

He looked at me and sneered. "He's not dead, rat," Marco told me. "Leave him alone."

You have no idea who you're talking to, I thought. But tempting as it was, I couldn't say anything. He spit at me and I ran. My job was done. On my way back to the stairs, I heard Marco chuckle. Maybe he figured I'd give the folks in the kitchen a scare, but I wouldn't. There was only one person in there, and he wasn't afraid of me.

((Tobias is still unconscious,)) I told Sam when I got to the top. ((Rachel is still insane, and Marco is... just as we expected.))

Sam closed the door so they couldn't hear him reply. "You idiot," he said to me. He sat down in a chair at the table, but I stayed where I was. "You forgot one important asset of theirs... the Andalite."

((Ax will follow Jake's orders,)) I replied. ((If you can control Jake, you can control Ax.))

"That's not what I meant. He can send out thought-speak to the others. To Marco and Rachel. They're far too close to each other now."

My little rat heart stopped for a moment. What would Sam do to me if I messed up his plan? I didn't want to imagine. ((I...))

"What are we going to do?"

((Where is he?))

"They're all asleep upstairs," Sam replied. "But this is the riskiest part of our plan. They're just too close to each other. If Marco yells, they'll hear him. If Ax broadcasts anything, they'll hear him. They're going to know they're sitting right on top of each other. Literally."

I had to try to redeem my plan, but the only thoughts coming to me were statements such as "if you were such a genius, you would have picked these flaws out before we executed this plan." But I couldn't blame him; that would only make the situation worse. I had to assure him if I wanted to keep my head. ((If the Andalite's asleep, we still have a chance. We have to move the other three. At least Marco. Especially Marco.))

"Where would you suggest?" Sam demanded in anger. I got the feeling he didn't actually want me to answer. "With the visser? They'll kill each other."

((The Animorphs can't know where the visser is,)) I stated. ((But there isn't anywhere else we can take them?))

"Nowhere that's out of thought-speak range." Sam stood up and threw his chair against the table. It broke into several pieces, and I scampered around, trying not to get hit by the shrapnel. "This is all your fault," he seethed. Sam was a horrifying character at the moment. I knew he hadn't slept in over 30 hours, and he'd been both working and thinking very hard since then. He was feeling the pressure. For the first time, I was grateful to be a rat. As a human, I'd be a lot more afraid that he'd hit me or something. But who would punch a rat?

((You could knock them out again,)) I suggested.

"For how long? We're just prolonging something." He sighed and leaned against the counter. Then I heard footsteps, and Manny entered the kitchen.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

"Get out," Sam responded instantly. His words were filled with anger and frustration. He was more testy than he'd been in a long time. Manny ran out of the kitchen like it was on fire.

((Don't panic,)) I told Sam. ((That's the worst thing you can do. We have to think about this.))

"Think? We don't have time to think! They're going to find each other, break out, and kill us."

Kill you, maybe, I thought. They don't know I still exist. Even if they did, I could probably escape.

Sam started towards the door that led downstairs. "I'm going to kill them," he said. "It's sooner than I planned, but if I don't do it now, everything's going to blow up."

((They'll hear the gunshots,)) I said quickly. ((You can't do it yet. You have to get Jake and the others into cells first.))

He stopped walking, resting his hand on the doorknob. He knew I was right. "Yeah... yeah, that's true. And they can morph right now. Even if they couldn't, I can't take on an Andalite."

((Once they find out what we're doing, Ax will be our biggest problem.))

"So he should be the first to go," Sam finished.

((Exactly.))

"But I can't kill him now, or else Jake and Cassie will morph," he added.

((Right. You have to get them into cells first. It's the only way.))

"This will be... a little trickier than it was with the others," Sam stated. He was thinking. Processing a new plan. "But I think I have an idea. It will be risky, but at this point, we have no safe way to play it."

((What are you going to do?))

"You'll see," he replied. "This is my war, remember?"

His war. He'd said it before. Sam had some crazy notion in his head that he was the only person who cared about killing Yeerks. He was wrong. True, I'd never exactly been a warrior in the war. My history was more with Jake and the others than with Yeerks. But still, when I understood what they were doing, I did want to help. I do want to help.

As far as the Animorphs go, they might have taken my life away, but they fought Yeerks just like Sam. He had no monopoly on this. But my beef with the Animorphs was somehow related to my beef with the Yeerks. It was hard for me to separate the two. Yes, I was still alive, but who could call this a life? Who could call living as a small schizophrenic rodent a life? That's how it was to be a controller. They were still technically alive, but it would be silly to call whatever they had a "life." They were not living, they were just simply being.

That's what I was doing. That's what I had been doing for a long time. But the reason I put up with Sam's maniac brain was because he gave me a reason to go on. My reason for living was the same as his.

Revenge.

A/N: I forgot that the thoughspeak symbols don't work for last chapter. Sorry! Hope it wasn't too confusing. As promised, here is your quick update. Hopefully the next one will be up in a week, maybe sooner, but I'm not making promises this time. I don't like to make promises I can't keep.

As for questions:

BeautifullyBroken – I actually wasn't planning on revealing this since it's not very important, so I figured I'll just tell you since it's not likely to be revealed later. Raúl/Sam was texting Manny, making sure he wasn't around at the house when Jake and the others got there. If he were, they would have to go back to Sam pretending to submit to whatever Manny said, and at this point, Sam's pretty much done with submitting.

SouthrnBelle – Haha, you're totally overanalyzing the Tobias thing. :p He's still out because he's a lot smaller than Rachel and Marco, so it affected him more. That's all. :-)