Rachel's Toy 2: Playtime
Disclaimer: Animorphs belongs to Scholastic, and Witchblade belongs to Top Cow. I am not making any money off of this.
To those who read my earlier one, I am sorry that I forgot that Eric was Erek. Freudian slip. I have always changed the two out in my mind. I was writing this at nine p.m., and was a little off kilter.
Rachel was at school. Boring, pointless and it was driving her crazy!
Ever since she had put on the Witchblade the other evening, she had had a persistent headache. A buzz had followed her the whole day, and she felt like she was going batty. All she could concentrate on was the memory of pure power, absolute mastery and the glory of the violence that she had dished out to those Controllers. It was more of a rush than flying with Tobias.
She had talked to Erek (I got that right?) later, and he had told her of the effects the Switchblade could have. She had dealt with the side off her craved violence, and had learned the value of both. The Witchblade sounded like her action-psycho-gymnast side. She had barely managed to come out of that sane. She didn't need some ancient glove taking her over.
She laughed grimly to herself. She thought the Witchblade sounded like a Controller.
She was afraid that if she were to put it on again, she would lose herself to it. Yet, the possibilities of what she and the other Animorphs could do to the Yeerks were boundless. They could defeat them with a single strike. Drive them off Earth. Go off world and free all the planets under Yeerk oppression. All she had to do was claim the Witchblade, and her enemies would fall. She had the power of life and death, and….
No, she thought. I am not going to let you sucker me into using you. Stay out of my mind. I don't want you.
But the song was so sweet, a gentle crooning in her ears, a sharp stab of pain when she resisted.
Rachel ground her teeth, and went on.
On the bus ride back home, Jake came over and sat beside her.
"How you doing?" he asked, trying to sound casual.
She sighed. "Fine," she answered. "As fine as you can expect, anyway. I have this really awful headache, and this feeling of wanting. It is driving me nuts. I'm not sure how much longer I can take this."
Jake muttered under his breath. "Hold out for as long as you can. We will find a way out of this. I promise."
Jake got up and left.
Rachel went home in a daze.
When she got home, she found that the house was a wreck. This wasn't a surprise, because with three girls and a busy one-parent household, that was the usual case. What disturbed her was that her mother was sitting on the couch, absolutely still.
"Mom? Hey, Mom, bad day at work?" she asked, worried.
Her Mom looked up at her with eyes that were full of pain.
"Mom, what's wrong? You're scaring me," she said harshly.
"It's Jordan. On the way home, she was walking across a street, and, there was an accident…"
"My God," Rachel choked. "Jordan's dead."
To her relief, her mom shook her head no.
"Not dead, in a coma. There was horrible brain damage. She may never, ever wake up,' she whispered.
Now the tears that had hidden inside bubbled out. Rachel hugged her mom, and didn't say a word, because she was crying, too.
Oh, Jordan, little sister. There was nothing I could have done, but I still feel that I should have been there to save you. I have saved the world, yet when it comes down to protecting my little sister, I screwed up, she thought miserably.
They were on their way to the hospital. Sarah was in the back seat, sobbing for hr big sister. Rachel was still in a haze of self-accusation. Her mom was driving like a machine, not really paying an attention. They got to the hospital.
When they entered Jordan's room, they stood there numbly. All they could do was stare at the still form lying in the bed. Nothing seemed real.
Rachel's dad showed up later that evening. Her mom took Sarah home, but Rachel decided to stay. She wanted to be there with her little sister.
She eventually fell asleep on a couch in the hall. Then she dreamed.
In her dream, people, Controllers, all the people that she had killed, alien or human, accused her. They pointed fingers, taunted her, and clawed at her. She saw Tom, when they had failed to get him out of the Yeerk pool. She heard David's screams as they made him into a nothlit. The infestation pier and a thousand other things combined to give her one of the most gruesome nightmares of her life. Finally, Jordan appeared, and just looked at her. Looked at her, and turned away.
"Goodbye, sister," she said in a singsong voice. "You couldn't help me, so now I have to leave." She began walking down a long corridor.
"No!" Rachel screamed. "No, things are different now! I, we can change things! I, We have the power of death and of life! WE CAN GIVE YOU LIFE!"
Rachel woke up to the sound of the heart monitors going flat line. Doctors rushed in, and started CPR. Rachel watched with her heart in her throat, as they barely got Jordan's heart started again.
She sat there and shook. Mighty Xena, fearless Rachel, sat and cried. Her dad came over and held her. Combing his fingers through her hair, he suggested that she go home.
"No, Dad. Could I call Cassie's parents and see if they could let me spend the night? I don't think I could go home right now," she sobbed.
"It's all right, sweetheart. I understand. I'll go call them now." He left for the pay phones.
Rachel waited for Cassie to show up, and a plan formed inside her head.
Cassie came up, and hugged Rachel fiercely. "She'll make it Rachel," she murmured into her best friend's ear.
"Yeah, I know she will," Rachel said back. They rode out to Cassie's in her father's truck.
After receiving the well-meant sympathy from Cassie's parents, she went into Cassie's bedroom. She sat on the edge of the bed, and then heard a pecking on the glass.
Hey, Rache, let me in, said Tobias.
Rachel flung open the window, and Tobias floated in. He morphed to human, and held her. She sobbed into his shoulder.
"If you (sniff) breathe a word of this to Marco, I swear that I will kick your butt," she said.
"Word of honor," he whispered. "You need to get some sleep. I need to get going."
She sniffed and nodded, and he demorphed and flew away.
Cassie and her family began going to bed. After they were all safely asleep, she crept out to the barn where they had hidden the Witchblade.
She rooted through haybales until she was covered in dust, then finally found it. She looked at it, and said, I hope you were telling the truth in that dream of your's. You found my weak spot, didn't you? No matter how much I may like a good fight, my sense of duty is greater, especially to my family. To save my sister, yes, I will be your barer."
She slipped on the Witchblade. It contracted to the size and shape of a small watch.
She grinned ironically, and said," I hope I can morph with you on me." Then she began her owl morph.
Slowly, her skin shaded into feathers, and her teeth became a beak. Her feet became talons. She was mostly owl, but still human height, and had hands right up till the time she finished the morph. Then she flew into the night.
She landed on the hospital roof, and demorphed, and found that the Witchblade was still there. She morphed cockroach, and wiggled under the roof entrance door. Demorphing, she went to Jordan's room.
The Witchblade covered her arm in the gauntlet like form that it had been in when they found it. She walked over to the bed, and touched the hair of the heart-breakingly still child. She put her Witchblade covered arm on Jordan's forehead, and said," Please, whatever you are, if you have some sort of compassion, some sort of pity, please make my sister well. Heal all the stuff that I don't know about. Take away her pain. Please."
The Witchblade glowed with an eerie, purple light. It surrounded Jordan, and the EEG monitors started picking up. Life returned to the still limbs, and Jordan began to stir.
Rachel gave a gasp, and pulled back her hand. She morphed into a rat, and hid under the bed as nurses rushed in. They looked at Jordan's monitors, and at each other.
Rachel's dad charged in, and stopped short.
"Hi, Daddy," Jordan said, weakly.
"A miracle," he said, tears streaming down his face.
Rachel flew back to Cassie's, and got into bed just before her dad called with the good news. They all celebrated, but Rachel held back. Cassie looked at her, questioningly. She smiled back, and said she was tired. Cassie looked skeptical, but let it go.
Later that night, she lay in bed, and looked at the Witchblade attached to her wrist.
"Rachel, m'girl, what the heck have you gotten yourself into?"