I almost fainted when I saw the number of reviews. (blows face with paper fan) Well, anywho, thank you all—especially MTGB for FINALLY reviewing after the review drought, haha—for the reviews:
Mind the Green Bits: I have given Ax a really pissed off streak, huh? And yeah, there shall be conflicts. Lots of Ax (obviously, what with half the chaps being in his POV), but there'll be some clashes between Dem's crew and Jake, Rachel, and maybe some others like Erek. IDK. Still brainstorming.
Same here with hyenas. Female dominance baby! Haha Yeah, hippos are pretty dangerous. Did you see the documentary where a hippo girl tried to nibble on a croc during a drought? WTF?
Yeah, after I put up Chap. 8, I thought, "Oh CRAP! Should've had Jake or Rachel with 'em, too. Even it out a bit." So, that partly led to how this chapter was written. This and the next chapter will build on relationships (or shatter them) between the two groups. Jake and Talon… Believe me, I'm working on that future fight. Hehheh
Weirdo: First question—The Yarbezz's biology will appear in later chapters—you know, the Animorphs wanting to know how to fight it and such—but I can give you the basic idea sequence. Basically, I wanted to make my own alien, one controlled by our favorite Visser's style, and thus had to be a big baddie. He's really a fusion of sea lion/brontosaurus, with the morphing limbs added for raze style. Second question—This chapter gives a bit of how they met up, simply to build character friendships and such. Third question—Probably Vertigo or Mercury. Don't know how I'd fit a shopping scene in though. Just have to wait and see.
Woonko the Great: If that book hadn't been in Ax's POV, it would have simply pissed me off. Cassie basically says the mission was a fluke. Argh. Anywho, Marco's going to have yet another suicidal mission next chapter: Driver's Ed.
GO2 NO2: There'll probably be a sequel. (Otherwise there'll be too many chapters in this one).
Congoi: Probably.
A/N: Sorry about the delay. It involved out of town graduation/prom parties, too much booze, finals (this Tuesday and Wednesday—pray for me), tests, job searching, and banquet for my swim team. All of which are very distracting, especially drunkenness. Ugh. Plus, there was another version of this chapter, but after Mind the Green Bit's review, I thought it didn't have enough mingling because canon characters and OC's.
A/N: This chapter has a minor bit of creationism versus evolution. Yes, I am a creationist (Lutheran/Protestant to be exact) and evolution has quite a few cracks in its theories. But I'll get into that later (possibly an argument between Ax and Meds, or something). In fact, be warned: LOTS OF CONTROVERSY AND DEBATE! Besides creationism/evolutionism, there's cloning, stem cell research (not exactly baby slicing, but it touches the topic), and some other twists and turns. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
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Chapter Nine: Purpose
Three days had passed since Talon and the Hork-Bajir had rescued me. The bandages on my arms positively, fricking itched like crazy, and when Talon and Meds weren't looking, I bit at them like a rabies-infected dog. The Screamers had spread out the search for me and for the time being, Meds had declared the abandoned apartment too risky, as it was too close to a couple Yeerk Pool entrances. However, now I sat edgily in a living room kind of area, except it was located where the basement would normally be, with two of the walls covered in bookshelves and assorted cabinets full of disks and other material—apparently the Screamer was a natural packrat. Or slug, I figure.
I perched irritably on the end of a chair, ignoring the plushy texture of the cushion, even though it was the first pleasurable thing I'd sat on in months compared to tiny cages and dissection tables. Talon leaned nonchalantly against the opposite wall, so still except for the rhythm of breathing and the calm ripple of his aura. At his feet sat a Latino girl and effeminate boy that called themselves "Mercury" and "Vertigo", just as testy as me, but simply out of shock and surprise.
Meds himself sat at a desk, tapping away at the keys of a laptop with rapid clicks—he'd told me that Screamers preferred the human design of computers, as Andalites mostly commanded theirs with thought-speak. Lying sprawled lazily on the floor, somehow not stabbing himself in that position with his own blades, a Hork-Bajir gazed intently at me, with intelligence and curiosity in those red eyes. I bit my lip, as he was making me uncomfortable, bringing up images of blood and anger and making my bandages pester me further.
"Hey, Meddie," Vertigo said offhandedly. "You said that you wanted us away from anywhere the Yoorks—"
"Yeerks," Talon spat.
Vertigo sighed. "Whatever. You know, you could be nicer. Mercury and I were the ones who found you in that alley and—okay, stop glaring. Anywho, incognito is the word. Stay out of Yeerk territory and yadda yadda. Why the hell are we here? Didn't you say one of your hallways leads to an entrance?"
Despite his smooth demeanor, I could tell Meds had grown impatient towards the two prostitutes. Unfortunately for him, Talon had refused to help him with anything unless he let the two on in the whole invasion deal and gave them his semi-protection. "Visser Three isn't going to search the residences of his highly trusted devotees, especially one who's in charge of the welfare of his host, Alloran. Plus, the entrance can only be used by my associates and myself."
"Still, come on," Mercury argued. "No low-ranking slug could've sprung Talon and patchy-skin girl over there without being caught by now. And why would those Andalite whoevers that've been holding off V-Three's mission waste their time on a couple hosts?" Except for the skin comment, I didn't mind the girl. She seemed to be catching on really quick to the invasion ordeal.
"Visser Three isn't exactly a big thinker and he's got a huge grudge against the Bandits," Talon grunted. "Hmph. If the Pool's low on Kandrona rays, the Bandits busted a generator. If he's stinking and purple, it's the Bandits' fault. Well, actually, it was, so he probably isn't far off the mark." He snorted. "And the Yeerk Resistance has its roots connected to one of the Andalites."
The Hork-Bajir chuckled, a weird, rasping sound that made me shrink a little farther into the chair. "You have to admit, that was hilarious. Purple as a female he was!" He jerked his head back at me. "Now, do you know why Irey went to all the trouble of freeing you, little human?"
His aura wavered, becoming nearly solid, building up with anticipation, ready to remind me anyways. May as well let him have his moment. "My good looks?" I joked. Mercury and Vertigo broke into laughter and even Talon managed a small smirk.
The Hork-Bajir arched his brow in amusement. "Not exactly…" He glanced at Meds. "You didn't tell her? That's a bit much to forget to do."
Meds rolled his eyes. "I did, but she, like the rest of her race, have an addiction to sarcasm. Shut up, Richard! I'm not patronizing!" He cleared his throat, running a hand through his brown hair. I was still a bit bemused by a Yeerk that argued openly with his host and the others simply seemed freaked out. He rose from his seat and indicated for me to do likewise. "Come with me. The rest of you stay here." Vertigo made a pouting face, but didn't bicker.
The image blurred and cleared in quick succession, and I realized this was merely a dream, but I didn't fight the memory, as nothing cruel or painful lurked in its contents, a rare find in my cerebrum. Meds strode down a hallway, with the Hork-Bajir and me in tow. I couldn't tell visibly, but I could tell by the slight tilt in my walk that we headed for something even further under the earth.
I turned to the Hork-Bajir. "So, who are you? You don't have a, eh, another mind, er, Yeerk, I guess." I blushed, knowing how much that sounded like gibberish, but he seemed to get the point. "I mean, you're not a host. Are you a Seer? I've heard of them from the Hork-Bajir-Controllers."
He dipped his head in a nod. "Yes and no. I'm free as you, but I'm not one of the Arn's flukes." He scratched idly at his beak. "At least, not in the usual manner. My DNA pattern flows along the same lines as most of the other Hork-Bajir." He pointed at Meds, who mostly ignored our conversation. "He told you about the research he's doing on Yeerk mucus, correct?"
"A little," I said. "Why?"
"I'm one of his…I guess you could say 'voluntary test subjects'. I took concentrated doses of that material in shots for my first two months of life. The enzymes repaired the part of my brain that the Arn destroyed in my ancestors." His tail swished and his frame slumped at my slow comprehension. "I think you could call me an artificial Seer."
"Huh. Why did he do it?" I asked.
He lowered his face close to my ear, his emerald green beak a blur in my peripheral vision. "If he wants to ever negotiate with the Andalites, he has to have proof of his findings. No matter how much medical research you have on file, nothing's better than living proof of your findings." He chuckled. "He also wants to see the effects I could have on other Hork-Bajir."
"What? They fall to their knees and worship you cause of your higher I.Q.?" I asked.
He pecked at my left arm with a clawed finger and I yelped at the brief flare of pain. "Don't speak of belittling of my people. You talk no better than the majority of Yeerks," he growled in sudden anger, his aura rubbing mine raw with resentment.
"I' sorry, I'm sorry," I begged and his mood lightened and his crimson orbs no longer seemed so menacing. "Well, what did you mean?"
He grinned. "If I take a mate, my child has a forty-three percent chance of congenital mental clarity." The Hork-Bajir snapped his beak at my partially confused expression. "They'll have the same level of intelligence as any Andalite or human. Possibly smarter, if most of your race thinks as slowly as you."
I curled my lip at the insult, wanting to bury my fist in his scaly abdomen, but wary of those blades along his arms, legs, head, and tail. Still, it brought up a story from my childhood, one of the many myths of the Greeks, the stories that had safeguarded my sanity during my time in the nuthouse and Screamer's incarceration. Matter of fact, the Hork-Bajir did have an ancient and Titan-like look to them. "What's your name?"
He seemed a bit puzzled at that. "Who cares about that?" He groaned when I refused to stray from topic. "Fine. CD-Five."
"What? What kind of name is that?!"
"Carbon Design. Five, since Meds's other four tests didn't reap enough positive results," he explained. "He didn't have a pure enough chemical compound and so, didn't supply enough of the Yeerk's stem cells to repair their brains."
The idea of slug slime used to enhance astuteness still unnerved me, so I kept to the original question. "That's ridiculous. I can't call you that," I snapped, and he appeared taken back by my unexpected flash of annoyance. "How about… Hm. Well, you're supposed to spread knowledge with your genes and Meds's slime to your kind. Have you heard any human mythology? Like the Greeks? How about Prometheus?"
His eyes widened after a minute. "Meds's host told me a few… Wait, isn't that the person who was tied to a rock and had his insides eaten by a bird? You humans are Taxxons without the appetite. Disgusting."
"Well, he was rescued by a guy named Hercules," I pointed out. "Prometheus brought fire and intelligence to the human race in the story."
He sighed. "Pro Metheus, then. You could be…Demeter? That earthy woman?"
"Why her?" I asked.
"Well, for one, you look like you're splattered in dirt and mud, human," he joked, but didn't continue with the jibe as my expression dropped. "Don't take it to the heart, human." He snorted at my easily shaken pride and gripped my shoulder in his scaly hand. "I don't know any of the others—"
Meds turned around and gave us a quizzical stare. "Pro Metheus and Demeter? An unnatural Seer and psychic are myths of a sort. Notice anything, Demeter?" He had stopped beside a flat and uninteresting section of wall. I hadn't noticed how far we'd walked apparently, as the smooth tiled hallway had shifted into rock and soil. However, if I peered closely at the wall he pressed his palm against, I could barely make out an indent the height of a Hork-Bajir and four feet wide, the corners hidden by cracks that crisscrossed the stone.
"Is that a door?" I asked. Judging by the swell of approval in his aura, I had guessed right. ""What's in there?"
Meds grinned. "It's not what, but who. Behind this is the person who, along with you and Pro Metheus and the Yeerk Resistance, shall end the—"
Meds's rounded, delighted face and Pro Metheus's red-spotted, broccoli green head rippled, stretching out of position as the rest of the scene dimmed and grew quiet. I grasped desperately with nonexistent fingers, tangling them into the loosening threads of dream fabric, but reality and consciousness swooped down upon me, plucking me mercilessly from sleep. I groaned, feeling the dusty, hard floorboards underneath me, realizing I lay back in the apartment.
I rubbed the grit from my sockets, sight still bleary when I heard a dull thud to my right and I stiffened. Another thump and suddenly I had a furry, wiry form rolling over my stomach and onto the floor. Mind groggy with sleep, I blinked a couple times and watched the orange-and-white feline streak across the room, tail held high. "You've got to be the clumsiest cat I've ever seen," I mumbled.
Ears twitching, the feline spun on its heels and raced back at me in retaliation, leaping and punching sheathed paws at my raised arms. (And you're a big, slow sleepy lump, Dem.)
I yelped and tossed the cat away from me. The cat hissed and spat as it dropped to the ground—on all fours—giving the pissed off look only its species could muster. And then I remembered the events two nights ago: the Andalite, the morphing, Peca's failed rescue attempt, the escape. "Hollow? Oh no." Had I really been a part of that? It still seemed INSANE. No exaggerating on the capitals.
(Yoo-hoo, Dem. Wakie, wakie. Stop zoning out,) Hollow sang out, nipping my hand with tiny, pearly white teeth. (You have to morph a cat. Have to! So graceful and sleeky and pretty! I am Simba!)
"Simba's a lion," I said.
(And a lion's a kitty,) she retorted. (Now sh. I have to practice.)
"Practice what?" I asked, laying back against the floor and pulling the smelly, patchy green blanket further up toward my chin.
(Getting control of the animal brain. Axie and Jakie said if we practice, it'd get easier.) Her ears flicked. (I uh, accidentally took a bite out of Rachel when I went polar bear. Buuut she was a grizzly. Very hard to ignore. Next time we get into a tussle with the Screamers, I'll be ready even with the instincts.)
Another shudder crept over me. "Wait, wait. Next time? Hollow, don't you remember how we almost, I don't know, died?" For a few seconds after I had fought some of the Sub-Visser's guard and saw Mercury's limp shape, I had thought as much. "I mean, we were all pretty screed up. Mercury got crippled and Talon—"
(And Axie almost got eaten and Jakie lost an eye and Tobias almost got munched and crunched and burnt a few times,) Hollow reminded me, creeping up behind her stuffed crocodile, each step calculated. (They've been fighting a long time and still alive too.) Pounce! Bite! The plushy enemy brought down, fangs sank into the neck. (They need help. Six against an empire isn't fair, but eleven, well, it's still not fair.)
"Hollow!" I groaned. "Did you forget what I just said? You, anyone, could've been killed!" I was almost glad to have finally said that and hoped it registered as something serious to her. Yesterday I hadn't had the chance, as the Animorphs had spent hours giving us the situation of Earth—Talon and I had shared a glance at that, but Mercury, Vertigo, and Hollow had listened intently, the limits of morphing—it had shocked Vertigo that if a person died in morph, he didn't just demorph and press restart on life, and taken us to a theme park-slash-zoo called The Gardens. We'd acquired what they considered the "basics", besides our aerial and battle animals: fly, cockroach, and flea, for spying and hiding; dolphin, for aquatic missions; seagull, the inconspicuous flyer.
Of course, when we'd returned to the apartment last night, Vertigo and Mercury had immediately run off, either to gather up more morphs or chatter to each other about it at Illusions. Talon had left to go fill Meds up-to-date about our connection with the "Andalite Bandits". Hollow didn't even stop here, but had continued testing the thermals, what remained of them at night, with her powerful goshawk's wings.
She padded over to me and sat sphinx style, green eyes staring narrowly into mine. Her usually unpredictable emotions cemented into somber, delicate thought. (You were the one who volunteered the rest of us. You zoomed in as a birdie and our new comrades carried us off as rats. We fought and bit and scratched, and now we're Animorphs. We can't leave them now.)
I chewed my lower lip, peeling off loose skin. "You're right, but…" I shook my head, knocking off my loose, ragged toboggan, and curly, reddish hair blocked my sight. "Well, I'll keep fighting. I know how Visser Three is and if I'm captured, I can't become a Screamer. And if I'm…" My tongue twisted and refused to say, "killed".
(Screamer? You don't want to go near that Pool again, do you? Vert told me how crazed you were. Gone totally loopy,) Hollow said, striped tail swishing from left to right. (Well, none of us do, but it helped.) Her claws scratched the wood beneath us, digging holes into it. (I'm not scared of death.)
"That's a stupid thing to say," I muttered. "Why?"
(I am a little, I think, but they had kiddies in those cages. Alien and human kiddies, Dem! They were curled up and calling for their mommies. You heard them, didn't you?) Hollow said, her face stretching and fur disappearing as her paws and shrinking tail reached for the floor. (They're parents might not even know they're Screamers! It's sick!)
I thought of when we'd entered the Pool, the cages lining the walls in neat, identical order, with Hork-Bajir and humans mere puppets with their strings cut, waiting as their masters swam placidly in the Pool. Then as we'd fought, I'd heard the screams and saw the release of souls and felt the pain of my foes, especially that awkward looking creature, the Yarbezz. In the brief glimpses I got of his surface thoughts, I had felt a longing for a planet of luscious, scarlet swamps and steamy, stormy weather. Free will. People took it for granted twenty-four/seven, but those poor souls couldn't even blink or breathe for themselves.
Hollow reached a pale hand toward me, fingers clasping my wrist. I stared blankly at the cobalt blue veins spread like ivy on brickwork along her arm. "Got to have some scars after you're burned, Dem. Those kiddies were just so gloomy and depressed and—"
The door knocked loudly as someone banged their knuckles against its frame outside.
I jerked back in surprise and guardedness, almost tripping over into Hollow's lap as my legs tangled with the blanket. Adrenaline surged through us, the hackles on my neck prickling and breathing speeding up, sending up the flag for fight-or-flight. Talon, Vertigo, and Mercury never knocked, just slipped or barged right in. Other than them, not a lot of good Samaritans came knocking on your door out here in the decrepit part of the city. Drug addicts and gangs and psychos could bust in, ready to kick your ass out or rape you or set you on fire or stab you or a dozen other sadistic options. Considering it was day outside, I doubted most of them, but enough remained to keep me edgy. Should I run? Fight? As human or hyena?
That entire thought went through my mind in two seconds before Hollow gripped me and whispered, "Check 'em."
Oh, right. Sometimes I amaze myself. I reached out, gently brushing against the aura, and barked out a laugh. "Come in!"
The door opened with its usually annoying creaky noise, like in B-rated horror movies where you can practically see the paint and rubber peeling off the zombies. Cassie and Rachel stepped in, squinting against the bleak lighting—Hollow searched for a candle stump and lighter—and stumbling over one of the piles of books Hollow must've knocked over in cat morph. A pair of oval-shaped, green-streaked objects hung from Rachel's hand.
"Why did you spray paint the windows?" Rachel grumbled, now more sure of her walk as she tiptoed through the tangle of tattered blankets on the floor to me.
"Don't want mean little thieves to peep through the windows and steal our stuff," Hollow said. "They think the building's condemned or that druggies deal their smack in here." A flick of a lighter and the candle she held sent a wavering, dancing glow across the room.
I brushed cigarette butts and some of Mercury's extra clothes away from me to clear a space for the dark-skinned girl. "Nice shoes." I could see that the mysterious objects were simply a pair of Converse's. "What brings you down here?" Did we already have another mission? How could the Animorphs remain sane? We'd barely escaped with our skins intact two days ago!
Cassie shook her head and said sheepishly, "You left your shoes in my barn."
It took a few seconds for that to register after I breathed a sigh of relief that no suicide battles were scheduled today. When I'd acquired the merlin falcon at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center—Cassie's barn—the others had warned me prior to morphing that footwear refused to change properly. I'd tucked mine behind a raccoon's cage as my first morph had begun, and had completely forgotten about them till now. Instead I wore two mismatched, one size too big chunky sneakers I'd retrieved from a Salvation Army dumpster yesterday.
I raised an eyebrow. "Those aren't mine," I said bluntly.
"I tried to clean them in the washer and they disintegrated," Rachel said, wrinkling her nose. "I think the dirt was the only thing keeping them together! So, well, here's your initiation present as one of the newest Animorphs." She thrust the pair of sneakers into my hands. I rolled my eyes in amusement, but they did look like my size. I swapped them for my clumsy, SA shoes for them.
"Ooh, could I have a cat?" Hollow asked. "A brown one with stripes?"
"You just morphed a cat!" I said in exasperation.
"Yes, but I'd have someone to play with," Hollow argued. "They're such loyal animals."
"That's dogs, Hollow," Rachel corrected.
"Maybe, but cats are cleaner and they can catch the mice upstairs," Hollow said. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped. "Since I morphed a mouse, if I sic a kitty on them, does that make me a murderer?"
Rachel shrugged. "Ax and Tobias morphed steer, and I still eat hamburgers."
Cassie gagged slightly. "Unfortunately."
"After this whole thing, I'm against animal testing and ready to save the whales with you, but you can't completely convert the rest of us, Cassie," Rachel joked.
I smiled at their banter. It reminded me of Mercury and Vertigo, or Hollow and me, except I had a feeling they'd actually known each other most of their lives. I couldn't even remember any of my grade or middle school friends. I glanced over at Hollow as she started for the exit. "Hey, where are you going?"
"Going to find Vert and Mercury, see how they're doing with Marco, Axie and Tobias," she said and paused in midstep. She combed her red, blue, and green bangs away from her face and tucked the tangled strands behind her ears. "Vert said that Talon said that he needs to see you by that Frenchie food place. The one with a sign with a bunch of wine bottles—yuck. The, eh, Lunar Rouge, or something? Your Examiner friend is there." She left.
"Huh? We usually see that Screamer on Mondays and Tuesdays," I muttered, then almost smacked myself knowing it was Monday, what with the church bells ringing yesterday downtown. I raised an eyebrow at the two girls. "Are guys home schooled? Or just skippers?"
"Neither," Cassie said, which added to my confusion, even as I refrained from reaching meekly at her surface thoughts. That would be rude. And possibly Screamer-ish. "Jake is too." She held up her hand in defense. "It was my idea and my parents are going to kill me if they find out, but this was an emergency."
"Emergency? Do we need to get Talon and the others? Is Marco in trouble?" She hadn't mentioned him. Why were they so calm?
"Actually, he is the emergency," Rachel said darkly.
"What?" Had he betrayed his friends? He'd had a cynical lining inside his aura beneath the humorous shell, but it hadn't felt threatening. Or was he hurt? Captured? A Screamer? How could Cassie and Rachel look so unflustered? Did this seriously happen every week, no, every day?
"He's taking his driving test," Rachel said, a look of real fear on her face.
Had he— "What?" I laughed. "That doesn't sound too bad. Not like he'll drive through a wall or take out pedestrians."
"You'd be surprised," Cassie said.
I snorted, wondering briefly if I would have been taking Driver's Ed and trying to get my license by now. Probably a point to the Screamers. I hated the idea of driving almost as much as Mercury hated sitting in a vehicle. Besides, there was the whole oil prices rising out of control, even I noticed that from walking past gas stations and listening to the swearing.
Rachel asked, "What did she mean by Examiner?" Her face didn't reveal anything, but I could sense the peek of interest in her aura.
I bit my lip, cursing mentally, but the two of them instantly caught my former gesture easily enough. I stared at Cassie's oak brown eyes and Rachel's azure blue irises, then lowered my gaze to the distorted pattern of white-and-brown along the ridges of my knuckles. One of Meds's personal jobs for me and a key component to the Yeerk Peace Movement…could I tell them? Cassie had voiced her approval in bits of conversation and Rachel seemed to have a lot of tolerance for the necessities of war… And yet… Ignoring the sour sensation in my stomach, I beckoned my two comrades to the door, ready to wedge my loyalty deeper into the Animorphs' trust and hopefully remain intact with my own towards Meds. Then we could… "Come on."
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With companions who didn't spend their time snacking off garbage thrown or tuck onto the sidewalk like Skittles, I didn't have to spend so much effort subtly shifting the attention of passersby away from us. Instead, I watched their movements with side glances. It was somewhat disconcerting, walking with people who didn't either fade into the background of society like Talon, nor stroll with a purposeful and disdainful attitude, like Mercury. Not that they had some different step from the rest of the people going past us, but they were just…normal. Which to me was abnormal. If that makes sense.
Not a lot of civilians swarmed directly around us, so I slid closer to Rachel's side—Cassie was on her left, me on the right—and chanced in a whisper, "So, how did you first meet the Screamers? Was it all of you or one of you at a time?" Curiosity had pestered me the moment I'd met the entire group of morphers, how a bunch of humans not connected to an organized group such as the Yeerk Resistance could have formed, but I hadn't had a moment to spare with the mission and training.
Rachel shrugged. "We saw a UFO after we'd gone inside an abandoned construction site a couple years ago." She laughed. "We were more afraid of finding axe murderers instead of slug invaders, though."
"Was it a Screamer or one of the blue guy's cousins?" I asked.
"His brother," Cassie said, knowing I was referring obviously to Aximili, not Visser Three's host. We walked around a man in a tattered army jacket, holding his palm and mumbling. We waited until we'd put some distance between the guy, even though I had yet to find a Screamer hobo. "His name was Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul." I could practically see the respect they had for the guy. "His ship was damaged and he was mortally wounded. He told us the Yee—Screamers had invaded our world. Right before the Screamers found his ship, he gave us the ability to morph using the blue cube."
"Couldn't he have demorphed? That heals you up quick, right?" I asked. She'd already implied that the guy had met the benevolent side of fate.
A troubled look flared briefly on Rachel's face. "I guess he didn't think he had enough time. Or he was trying to buy us time. After we touched the cube, Visser Three's Blade ship and some Bug Fighters came down. We hid and escaped, but not before we saw the Visser…" Her voice broke into something like a frustrated snarl, and I knew that they had seen many atrocious acts committed by the bastard. "He ate Elfangor."
My stomach, that traitorous pouch of acid, wobbled at those words. I'd already almost seen Aximili get consumed by Visser Three's brother—must've been a trait in both families. "Were you all together? Why didn't Aximili help his brother leave with you and Jake and the others?" Aximili didn't seem like someone who'd abandon anyone, especially one of his own bloodline.
"We didn't meet him for about a month or two after that. With our luck, he happened to be stuck at the bottom of the ocean," Rachel said. "He greeted us with a Shredder and threatened to incinerate us after he stunned and dragged us into the Dome o his ship." She chuckled and I joined in, glad we'd left the subject of who gave them the morphing box.
"That must be a formal Andalite greeting," I mused. "I was scared he'd attack Hollow and me after we dragged him into the apartment and he woke up."
Screams roared in my head as we passed a family of three, the usual structure of father, mother, and grumpy preteen. I watched the three with interest, wondering as I had dozens of times why no one else heard them, even though I already knew the answer. I mentioned it to Rachel and Cassie, and the short-lived laugh we'd shared vanished. I listened as the parents and kid raved and ranted, following them absently into some miniature thrift shop, the kind with used, ripped jeans and oversized t-shirts for a buck. The girl shied away from her dad and mom, flipping through a rack of green tops varying in shade and design.
Get out! Get out! I'll kill you! Shove you down a garbage disposal! Toast you over a fire! The moment I'm free, I'll…I'll…
Hah! Keep holding onto your pitiful dreams, human. They're amusing! Should I replay your dog dying? Or your grandparents?
I shivered. One of the ways Screamers break their hosts is by delving into their memories and force-feeding the painful and/or embarrassing clips to the host. It only takes a massive and particularly agonizing ten-second experience to subdue the most defiant and arrogant human or Hork-Bajir. I'd seen and felt it happen hundreds of times.
I jerked my head at the seemingly passive girl. "Can you hear them?"
Cassie shook her head and Rachel scowled. The only physical sounds in the store were the clinking of hangers and scratch of fabric rubbing against each other, the nonsensical small talk of customers, the ring of the cash register, and the murmur and hiss of traffic outside. "Did you know where it came from when you first heard it?" Out of the six, Cassie had been the most acceptable Animorph considering the "weird vibes" I got, as named by Marco.
"Can't remember." That bit of time in my life sometimes blended on the exact details. After the screams started and before Meds, I barely knew up from down, right from left, with all the damn drugs the psych ward and Screams pumped me with. And the fear. Lots of that. "Started thinking I was that kid off The Sixth Sense. The dead and demons and what not trying to bicker at me."
The girl finally chose a murky green sweatshirt with some weird splotched pattern. Camo? Was she an army or punk freak? Or did the Yeerk just like the color, since it resembled his body markings? Screamers supposedly stick to their hosts' habits and personalities, but sometimes I wondered. No one really notices wardrobe changes. Or at least don't take them seriously enough. She wandered over to the cashier, hurriedly paying for the shirt and arguing with her mother when the woman saw it. Screamers keeping up appearances.
"We didn't realize how bad it was until after that night, we started picking up on some of the Controllers. A cop almost caught Cassie in horse morph and it turned out the vice principal of our school is a Controller," Rachel said.
"Must've been more fun T.P.ing and silly stringing his home on Halloween," I said.
The family unit left, silent except for the yelling between humans and Yeerks. Rachel dug her curled fists into her pockets, glaring at their backs, rage brewing around her and making me somewhat agitated. "You mentioned when you told us about your empathy and how the Yeerks caught you, that you spent at least a few months in their experiments. Drugs and torture and whatnot." We left the shop, continuing towards the direction of the Lunar Rouge. "Why are you working for a Yeerk now? That's ironic, don't you think?"
"He's different from the rest of them. He and Richard share the same amount of control in their body. Plus, he's the one who set up my rescue from my execution. Can't exactly hold that against him," I said, wincing from Rachel's still brooding gaze. I sighed. "Do you believe in higher purposes?"
"You mean like goals set by God?" Cassie asked, and I nodded.
"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Rachel asked in frustration.
Even as I opened my mouth, my memories condensed in my mind, until I not only walked with my new allies, but also sitting in Meds's basement, asking that same question.
"What the hell does that have to do with anything?" I snapped, alone in the living room space except for Meds, who was once again at the computer, scheming and plotting for the resistance. "You're risking the lives of the Yeerk Peace Movement on a 'higher purpose'? What the hell is that supposed to mean, anyway?"
"Demeter, your very name comes from human mythology and many of your race bow to a religion of one sort or another," Meds said in that annoyingly serene tone.
"I guess. I mean, I don't think humans came from fish-frogs or anything, but still! Are you saying you hear voices in your head?" I asked, and then blushed. "Maybe that comment shouldn't have come from me, but you know what I mean."
"I do know, and no, I've never heard any voices in my head besides those of Andalites and Leerans," Meds said, chuckling. His aura seemed to slacken and had a nostalgic feel to it. "Before the Andalites came to our world, we worshipped a deity we later called our source of nutrients and life: Kandrona. One of our beliefs was that during procreating, her soul mingled with the three Yeerks willing to die for the next generation and rewarded their sacrifice with new life. The Council of Thirteen had originally started to govern the Thirteen Laws, such as the Third: 'Honor your host with respect and dignity, as she/he offers freedom and awareness'. In Yeerk, 'Kandrona' used to mean 'Balance', rather than simply a food source."
I digested this with interest. I'd never heard anything about Andalite, Yeerk, Taxxon, or Hork-Bajir religions, assuming they had none besides the tribal beliefs of Mother Sky and Father Deep of the tree-loving Hork-Bajir. "Well, I haven't seen too many Screamers that treat their hosts with 'respect and dignity'."
"Part of the degradation of our society." Meds shook his head. "To you and other sentient beings, the Yeerk homeworld is a toxic, hostile planet, but we loved our world and Kandrona. We believed and reflected constantly on the Balance, as Her opposite was Chaos. However, we had no…challenges, you say. No temptations. Predators and the acidity of the atmosphere threatened us, but that was merely on a physical level. We were still in the Garden of Eden, if you will."
"What was the fruit?" I asked.
He sighed. "Knowledge. What else? The Andalite Seerow came to our planet and offered knowledge without holding anything back. He taught us science, art, literature, mathematics, and so forth. Our physical disabilities—blind, deaf, mute—in our natural forms were balanced out with our mental acuteness. We became swollen with his teachings." He snorted, shutting off his computer and facing me. "Especially when he taught us 'natural selection' and 'evolution'. We shared with him our stories of Kandrona, and he tolerated our beliefs as though we were naïve children, but others among his group sneered at us. While those at least a few cycles old ignored their comments, the younger generations and a couple skeptics such as Akdor 1154 absorbed the Andalites' talk with glee."
I laughed, harsh and sharp. "The war between Andalites and Yeerks began because of that?"
"Don't rebuke like that, Demeter. Many wars on Earth started and continue today because of religious conflicts. No, it didn't necessarily start the war, but it helped," Meds spat. He glared at the dirt brown carpeting and paced. "It's all on a subconscious level, child. If Kandrona, the Balance, is merely our imagination, there are no absolutes, and thus no right or wrong. Strong take from the weak, survival of the fittest, no morals exist. To say Yeerks are cruel or Andalites are prejudiced is void.
"And so, Laws such as the Third have no foundation. Why should we treat our hosts as equals? They serve only to give us eyes and ears and movement," Meds said, his aura almost venomous as it lashed across the room, stinging mine. I curled up in my seat, hugging my knees to my chest. "Why shouldn't we have the power and sight of Andalites? Of Hork-Bajir? Of humans? They are little more than working beasts to those who best them. If one proves incapable of its purpose, dispose of it and search for a healthier body."
I'd known Meds for two months then and had never seen him express his aggravation so vividly. During his short outbursts, I caught glimpses of what must have been the Yeerk homeworld, a place of swirling, greenish-yellow clouds streaked with lightning, of gray and brown and green vegetation and animal life, of warm, thick, slate-colored pools. It didn't sound like my idea of paradise, but it felt familiar and peaceful from Meds's thoughts. Along with those came tidbits of tales and lessons passed on through Gedd mouths and Yeerk squeaks/clicks of an entity that represented the Balance.
"Did you stick by your Kandrona?" I asked, nerves tingling with anticipation.
"I wish I had, but no. I was on the verge of abandoning the old morals, but that was before I found out about this." He went over to one of the cabinets and pulled out a plastic tube, filled with a clear, viscous liquid. "Perhaps… There still is a Balance. Our freedom from a complete dependency of the Kandrona rays for the freedom of the species we conquered. Andalite morphing technology for an unlimited amount of stem cells." He smirked at me. "You humans won't have to cut up fetuses anymore, either." He laughed as I grimaced at the thought of infanticide.
I stared at the mucus. "Gotta love Moira and Kandrona for their curveballs o Fate. Ending the war with slug snot." I frowned, wondering how Pro Metheus, Odin, and I fit into the puzzle…
"Slug snot?" Rachel said, and my cheeks flamed with embarrassment. It had seemed funny at the time. "Great. We're working with a religious fanatic. He's doing it because he had an epiphany over slime." I bit my lip to hold back a retort.
Cassie looked up at the sky, with puffy, white clouds scudding across a blue background. So different from the Yeerks' home. "I can't believe it. I thought the Yeerks were all agnostic."
I shrugged. "Most of them are now."
Cassie pursed her lips. "Who're Odin and Prometheus?"
I stiffened, the muscles in my arms and legs twisting like serpents in the middle of mating. Had I mentioned them? Yeah, offhandedly, but that didn't excuse the fact that I… Fine. No way to shove the question aside, I could feel Cassie and now Rachel's curiosity tickling the hairs along the nape of my neck. Well, may as well ask something to Balance it out.
I spotted the Lunar Rouge up ahead, with Talon lounging at the bottom of the steps leading to the entrance, a book clasped in his hands and skimming the pages. He would kill me if he heard me talk about Odin or Pro, but…somehow it seemed the right thing to do. I stopped beside the brick face of the bank we walked by, retreating a few steps into the alley between it and an apartment building. Rachel and Cassie shared a swift glance and followed after me. Trusting the gut impulse, I said, "I'll tell you, if you tell me… Who and what is Erek?"
"Oh boy, this is going to take awhile," Rachel said.
"Talon's not alert, so the Examiner didn't show up yet," I said. Cassie hitched an eyebrow. "Yeah, you want to know about her, too? Fine."
