Chapter 21

Same Disclaimer Applies.

(Rae)

Mom wasn't happy.

I could tell.

Mostly it had to do with the fact that she was snarling and chasing us around the Yeerk Pool room.

Being in the room itself was quite eerie. A small Kandrona stood at the top of the pool. It was industrial, with gray steel all about. Just like everywhere else in this compound. But I wasn't focusing on the scenery so much as I was focusing on Becky trying to keep a hold on my Mom.

Becky looked different. Her hair was pulled back into a French Braid and she had a lab coat on, just like Jon. But she couldn't hold on to Mom's leash.

If only we could get Mom to see we WEREN'T the enemy.

Derrick was trying to tame her. "Down girl, easy, easy," Mom was going after him the most.

"Hit her with your baton, Derrick!" Tanya screamed.

"I am not hitting Rae's mom!" he yelled back.

"Listen, MOM, we're the good guys." I tried to explain.

She stopped her growling long enough and swerved her head to stare at me.

"Yes, I'm your daughter. The daughter you had with Jake Berenson,"

Now she REALLY stopped. I could see her pause. Then she began the process of demorphing. Human limbs and arms came out of her body.

Quickly, she finished demorphing and walked over to me. She examined me, looking up at my face and touching my cheek with her hands.

"Those eyes…it IS you…Teresa"

The others left the room to give us some space.

"My name is Rachel," I told her softly.

"Of course, your middle name." she kept on stroking my cheek.

"I don't think you understand." I tried to explain

"Sit down, sit down," She led me to some metal chairs at the side of the Yeerk pool.

"Why did you give me away? Well, here, anyway?" I asked her. I stared out into the Yeerk pool. I could see many of those horrid creatures swimming around, feeding, and taking in the rays of the Kandrona.

"Hey, one more low blow about Yeerks and I'll have you beat yourself up!" I heard Myitt yell in my brain. I ignored her. Right now, she wasn't my focus.

Mom was.

She started to explain everything to me, with tears running down her cheek.

"When your father never came back, the world became more and more unstable. By the time you were born, I realized all of them were dead. It was so dangerous that peace loving aliens and humans had to band together to fight off the One, our main enemy. It still wasn't enough. The One had managed to find enough rebel Yeerks to take over Earth. They were already enslaving people when you were born. I had to go on the run, and I knew that a baby…both of our lives would be in so much danger. That's why I left you at the orphanage. I knew they could take care of you and give you a life free of fear. I guess that didn't happen, huh."

I was taken aback by her story of this world. No Dad…meant that the world went haywire?

That was too much. In fact, that was crazy. Crazy beyond my wildest dreams.

But the fact that I was here, now, told me otherwise.

I decided it was the right time to tell my Mom, THIS Mom at least.
"I have something to admit. I…I…don't belong here. Life is not supposed to be this way."

"What do you mean? In this lifetime, this is the way things have always been,"

"That's the thing, I just got here today. I'm not of this world. Neither are my friends. I just went to sleep one night and woke up here."

She stopped and paused.

"Ellimist. That's the only way all of this…all of you…you could have found me. But it sounds like you come from a better world than me. He has the power to manipulate time. He must have sent you here for a reason."

Just then, alarms went off.

We were invaded!

"There are some Dracon beams in the corner closet, grab about five of them for your friends, this is the most fortified room." She ordered.

Everyone came running back in.

"How do we use one of these?" Jon was freaking out as I handed one to him.

"Point and shoot, like a gun."

Everyone grabbed one and hid.

"Now when they come in, you have to be fast, these guys have elite military training." Mom warned.

I could hear foot steps down the hall. Mom quietly turned herself into a Hork-Bajir.

(It can take the most damage), she assured me.

I heard streams, then silence. People were getting killed! And I was getting freaked out.

BOOM! I heard the door get kicked in.

Ten fierce looking fighters in black appeared.

"So Derrick, you thought you could defect with your little friends here? You'll pay with your life!" One of them shouted.

A Dracon was aimed straight at his face. Mom sprang into action and sliced his head off with her arms.

"Come on guys, shoot!"

We picked up our weapons and tried to aim at the other soldiers.

It was hell. The soldiers had better training than us. We always barely got hit.

Suddenly, I saw a flash of light and I flew through the air, my head hitting the wall.

When I came to, I saw nothing but slaughter.

Someone must have thrown a grenade…. because everyone…. everyone….

was covered in blood.

And they weren't moving.

I tried to help. I felt myself. Other then some cuts and bruises, I was okay. I couldn't say the same for everyone else.

"Guys, guys, wake up!" I went over to my friends and shook them.

No response.

In Girl Scout camp they taught me how to check for a pulse.

No one had one.

NO! NONONONONONONONONONONONONO!

"Guys, guys, what have I done? I dragged you into this mess, into my life, and you had to pay with yours." I started to cry hot burning tears.

I heard a slight cough and I swiveled my head. Covered in blood, I went over to the coughing person.

It was Mom!

I ran over to see her….

But her half Hork-Bajir/ half-human morph was impaled on some pipes near a wall

"MOMMMMMMMM!" I yelled as I ran over.

She coughed again, blood this time.

I could tell she was dying.

"Teresa..." she reached out a hand to me.

"Mom, please, you can't die. Try to morph out of it. Please! For me! For us!" I grabbed her hand in both of mine.

"I don't have the…strength baby. But you…" she coughed again. "Go back and change your world, or this, this will ha-ppen"

Then her face fell over and she stopped breathing.

My Mother had died.

I sat there and bawled, her blood mixed with tears as I cried for a long time.

Then I got pissed.

"How dare you! How dare you stick me here so I can watch all of my friends and my MOTHER die? Do you have a sick sense of humor? It's not fair! IT'S NOT FAIR!"

I closed and opened my eyes a number of times. Time started and stopped. Started and stopped.

But it didn't matter. I didn't have a reason to live anymore.

YES YOU DO.

I heard a beautiful voice in my head. Male and female, boy and girl.

And then I was transferred to a different world.

This place was all white. There was no ground, and no air, everything was just white. But I felt like I was floating. Maybe I was in heaven. Or what heaven was supposed to feel like. Maybe I was dead-NO. I'd know if I were dead. I just looked at the infinite expanse of white and waited for someone, something, to give me an answer to what was going on.

Finally, someone, or something, spoke.

AH, THE WILDCARD. I'VE BEEN WAITING A LONG TIME TO FINALLY BRING YOU TO ME. The voice said. It was just that. A voice. I couldn't see a body like the Ellimist.

It must be a higher power.

"Me?"

YES, YOU. DO YOU KNOW HOW SPECIAL YOU ARE? ONE OF YOU OCCURS ONCE IN A MILLION YEARS. THAT'S WHY YOU HAVE YOUR GIFTS. I HOPE YOU REALIZED WHAT YOUR FATE COULD HAVE BEEN IN THAT LAST SCENARIO.

"Scenario?" I was confused.

LIFE HAS MANY PATHWAYS RACHEL, MANY OPTIONS. THAT WAS JUST THE ONE I FELT WOULD BE MOST SHOCKING TO YOU.

"Yeah, killing all of my friends and my mother, that's a great way to teach me a lesson. I mean, who the hell do you think you are? You can't just play with people's lives like this!"

THIS IS NOT A JOKE RACHEL, THIS IS DEADLY SERIOUS. YOU WERE TAKEN TO THE ALTERNATE TIMELINE TO LEARN A LESSON: THAT PLANET EARTH CANNOT SURVIVE WITHOUT YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER.

"Is she dead?" My mind was full of fear.

IN THAT UNIVERSE, YES, BUT SHE IS SUB-TEMPORALLY GROUNDED. SO SHE WILL BE ALIVE IN THE CORRECT TIMELINE.

"How will I know what is the correct timeline? Will I be sent to a random one again?"

NO, YOU WILL BE SENT TO YOUR CORRECT TIME. BUT YOU WILL HAVE A MISSION. ONE THAT WILL BE QUITE CLEAR TO YOU WHEN YOU GET BACK. YOU WILL MEET THE 6TH ONE, AND IT WILL WORK ITSELF OUT FROM THERE.

"Just one more question. Who are you? God? The Ellimist?"

NO, BUT I DO TIRE OF CRAYAK AND ELLIMIST'S LITTLE GAMES. JUST CALL ME 'THE ARCHITECT'.

I woke up in the middle of the night, back in my bed in Dad's room. For a second, I thought I was dreaming. Everything was back to normal. No more institutional orphanage.

It's never a dream, never when it comes to your parents.

I went over to the other side of the room and felt for Melissa. She was asleep on the other bed!

Yes! I kissed her head.

I ran down the hall to see about Tommy. He was fast asleep in the other bedroom.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

I need to call Tanya, Derrick, or someone. To see if they remember this at all.

Then I realized that it was really late. So I decided to beg Grandma to call them tomorrow.

So I sat on my bed and just took in everything 'The Architect' had said. I was a wildcard, so my powers were the strongest out of the group, I surmised.

But how was I going to use them to save the world? Precognition and stopping time, they weren't exactly offensive powers. And Mom in this world was still kidnapped.

Just being with her in the other world showed me how special she was to me. We had this…connection with each other. I couldn't afford to lose her again.

Then I snapped my fingers, I knew what to do.

We needed to go to D.C. and get Mom ourselves.

So EARLY that morning I snuck out of the house and met my friends at Starbucks near the mall since it was Saturday. Apparently none of them had any recollection of what happened in the alternate dimension. None at all.

"So you're saying I cut my hair?" Derrick half-joked.

"Yes," but you looked good bald. I flirted back with him. "But seriously guys, someone has taken my Mom and Uncle Marco hostage. I'm thinking we should do something drastic."

"I don't know, maybe we should let the Army or something handle it." Becky started to swizzle the straw in her coffee cup.

"I don't think we can. No one on Earth that we know of has our unique powers. Besides, we can get into the kidnappers minds, knowing what they do before they do."

"But Rae, we have no weapons, no training, how do you expect us to do this?" Jon pointed out.

"We'll be advisors. We'll tell the soldiers or Xenowarriors what to do so they can save my Mom and Uncle Marco.

"And how do we get to D.C.? We're in Southern California for heaven's sake. " Tanya looked at me with a hint of doubt as she bit into a piece of pound cake.

'Well, my Dad is still in D.C. I could ask him." I always had that option.

"Yeah right, you're still grounded Rae. No way he'll let you come out there." Derrick said.

"So then we do what we always do, we find another way." I shrugged and stole some of Tanya's pound cake.

"And what were you thinking?" Becky looked a little skeptical.

"Let's go down to the Animorph museum and make some alien friends." I smiled and started drinking my latte again.

Derrick smiled. "That's a perfect idea. Any alien will give a ride to the daughter of the Animorphs. So it's settled then, let's leave on Friday and get to Rae's Dad. That will give us enough time to plan. Then we can see if the government takes us seriously enough to let us help get Rae's mom back."

We all nodded and finished our lattes. Everyone else wasn't grounded, so I didn't want to get caught sneaking around.

As we said our goodbyes, Derrick stopped me.

"Wow, I can't believe I was a cop."

"With a big baton." I added for effect. "Look, Derrick, if you and the others don't want to do this, I understand."

"No Rae, we're almost like a big family ourselves. Whatever you need, we'll be there for you."

"That means a lot to me Derrick."

He gave me an awkward hug. I felt so safe in his embrace, and then I pulled away.

"I guess I should go," He motioned towards the door.

"Yeah, me too. My grandparents will kill me if they find I'm not there." I admitted.

"Bye Derrick,"

"Bye" he waved.

"And remember, we're going to save the world!" I called after him.

All he could do was laugh as he walked out of door.