What happened afterwards? In the confusion I had gotten lost, not knowing what was happening, who I was, where I was. So many things were hidden in my mind, an endless fog that made me feel as though I never belonged, as though something were missing. My Name is Danielle; I'm just your average teenager. I have an average life. I live in your everyday town. But all my life…something, something I can't quite picture has always bothered me. I have dreams, dreams so horrible and gory that I wake up and run to the bathroom and throw up. Their so real...so vivid…. why do these dreams haunt me at night…?
"Beeeeep! Beeeep!" My alarm clock went off, my hand went over it and hit the snooze button and fell asleep.
"Danielle!" a voice screamed at me. "Get up! Your late for school." I was suddenly awake, it was my first day in my new school and I was going to be late! I jumped out of bed and ran right past my mother into the bathroom to shower and get ready. 20 minutes later I had my outfit on, and my hair and makeup done. My golden blonde hair was straightened and flowed freely over my shoulders. My blue eyes were accompanied by midnight blue eye shadow and silver mascara. My lip-gloss was a light brown that glittered in the sun. I was wearing a black skirt with my new Steve Madden shoes and a baby blue tank top. My mother always said I had a flare for fashion, I personally loved to shop but I really never was able to have any friends because we moved around too much, so I would mostly go by myself.
I stepped off the bus and looked at the school. It was so much bigger than my last one; I took a deep breath and started walking towards it.
* * *
"Hey Danielle, sit here!" A girl yelled at me as I walked into the cafeteria. It was Crystal, a girl from my math class.
"Hey." I said as I sat down at the table with her. Crystal was about the same height as me, and she had wild red hair and hazel green eyes. She had come up to me in math and started talking to me; she was the first friend I had made.
"Hey girl," she said with a smile. "Here's the girls, this is Brigit," She said pointing to a girl with short brown hair who then waved, so I waved back. "This is Lauren, Ashley, Amy and Catherine." After she finished introducing everyone, we started talking about the normal stuff, boys, makeup, clothes, shopping.
"I heard that this place has a great mall, please tell me that I'm right!" I said laughing. Crystal smiled and stood up as the bell rang.
"This town got the best god-damn mall in the tri-state area." She said with a smirk. "Where you going next?"
It was two weeks later and I loved this town. I finally had friends and with one exception, was hated by no one. Crystal and I had become best friends in such a short amount of time; I had already planned to have my first party.
I walked into first period class and sat down. All of a sudden I heard. "No! No! It can't be!" I looked behind me and saw this kid named Marco walk over to another girl Cassie. "Who is this vision of loveliness? Who is this fantasy come true? Excuse me but are you Tyra Banks." He talked on and on until Cassie told him to shut up and they started talking about how much he was paid to say that then the bell rang and Marco quickly slithered back to his seat.
English class. The single most pointless, boring class on the face of this planet. I slipped my headphones on and started tapping my pen to the beat. "Danielle, could you please answer the question?" Mr. Mills asked me, but I couldn't hear him, I was doodling on my binder and still listening to headphones. Mr. Mills walked over to my seat and tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up and smiled while taking my headphones off.
"Yes Mr. Mills?" I heard a small burst of laughter from behind me.
"Your going to the vice principals office…now!" Mr. Mills stormed off to his desk to write out the pass.
"Hahahahaha!! Beautiful." Marco giggled.
"You too Marco!"
"Aw...man."
We walked into the hallway; this wasn't the first time I had been sent to Chapman's office, last week I was accused of cheating on a test so I was sent there. I don't really scare easily, but to tell you the truth. Chapman scared me.
"Adjectives is something very important if you didn't know adjectives how could you call me, Mr. Mills a stupid little dick head!" Marco said under his breath as he laughed. He walked up to me. "Your Danielle, right?" he said.
"Yep, that would be me…and your Marco?" I replied swiftly.
"Yes, Marco the Mighty, Marco the Magnificent, but to others "hey you!"" I let out a laugh and we started talking.
"Hey, you ever hear of the sharing?" I asked him, and I swear as soon as I said sharing he stopped short. He must have seen that I noticed so he started walking normally again.
"Ya, but it's not really my thing." He replied.
"I know, it sounds corny to me, my friend Crystal wants me to join it with her and so does my mom. But that guy, the one that runs it, he's evil." "You'd never know." Marco answered as we walked into Chapman's office.
"Why hello Danielle…Marco. Danielle, what are you doing here?" he asked me.
"I had headphones in class…" I said as I put my head down.
"Did you know that your mother and I are good friends? She second in command for the sharing. She's a wonderful woman, your mother. You know what? I'll just give you a warning if you say that Chapman says hello. How about that?" That wasn't at all what I expected; I put my head up and smiled.
"Sure!" I said happily.
* * *
Lady Marmalade played on the stereo. It was the night of my party; so many people were there. Crystal and all of my usual friends, some people from the high school, my mother's friends from the sharing and other people in my grade. I was wearing a pink dress that ended about three inches about my knees and I had a shear white cardigan over the dress.
I was standing on the balcony and when I turned around, some kid I didn't know was standing there, looking at me as though he were disgusted. The boy was dirty, and he smelt of blood. "Can I help you?" I asked as I stepped back, closer to the rail. The boy looked at me with rage in his eyes. "Yeerk, you dirty filthy thing!!!" he screamed as he lunged at me. I started screaming, he put his hands around my neck and started strangling me. "You won't get me!! No I'm free! Free!!! You'll never get me again!!" He raged on as I kicked and screamed.
I thought I was doomed, I thought I would die here, until I looked at the door and standing there were six people. A kid named Jake stepped out of the shadow and lunged at the guy, the kid Marco, his best friend stepped out about two seconds after Jake and helped him get the boy off of me. The boy looked at them and started screaming. "Andalite!! Andalite!!" he laughed hysterically as he looked into the shadows. I followed his gaze and saw a flash of blue but then it was gone. When Marco and Jake got the boy off me, I passed out and when I woke up I was in the hospital with a bunch of doctors looking at me.
"Why hello Danielle." One doctor said as he looked at a clipboard in his hand. "You fainted after the attack but your fine now." He smiled and walked out of the room.
* * *
"Yo." I heard a voice say, the doctors had wanted me to stay the night just to be careful so I had missed school. I sat up and looked at the door, Marco was standing there with a smirk on his face. "Isn't it a bummer, your in the hospital but Mr. Mills still sends you your homework." He walked over to my bed, grabbed a chair and took the remote from me.
"Thank you." I said as he handed me the homework.
"Well Mr. Mills said he'd consider not making o to summer school if I gave you your-…"
I looked at him. "No, I mean thank you, you and Jake. That guy was crazy, he would have killed me."
"Well it's part of the superhero job." He smiled. "Ow!" he suddenly went to start itch his shoulder but then he drew his hand back. "Well I got to go, see you in school." He quickly ran out of the room talking to himself.
"Hey girl!" Crystal shouted from across the food court. I ran up to her, Brigit Ashley, Catherine, Lauren and Amy.
"Hi everyone." I said as I ran over to them with two limited bags and one gap bag. Crystal looked at me in disbelief.
"You shop like that crazy bitch Rachel." She said with a laugh, a boy with messy blonde hair walked past us with a soda in his hands, he "accidentally" dropped it in Crystal's lap.
"Oh, I'm sorry about that." He said with a smirk. Crystal looked at him as though she knew him.
"Hey Tobias!" we heard a voice call the boy; Rachel the girl Crystal had just insulted was calling for him. He walked over to her and they kissed then got up and left.
"You're right, she has almost the same amount of stuff." I said laughing. "Who's that kid, I haven't seen him around before."
"I think he's this kid Tobias, he used to go to our school but then like a year ago, he just disappeared." She said with sudden curiosity in her voice. I looked at my watch and sighed.
"I gotta get home, my mom's going to kill me." I said as I got up and waved good-bye to everyone.
There were two ways to get home, the long boring way by going around a constructions sight, or the dangerous, exciting way, go through the construction sight. I took the short way. My mother had always warned me not to go through that way and that only druggies and hobo's hung out there but I was only going home so I figured it wouldn't really matter that much, as long as I got home on time.
I was in the construction site when I saw a bunch of pipes and concrete set up, it looked like it would be fun to climb so I put down my bags and started climbing. I couldn't believe the marvelous view when I reached the top, I could see above the have finished building. I looked down to where my bags were and saw what I figured was people there. I slowly got down out of sight and crept closer…
"Well whoever left this here must have had good taste." A female voice said joyfully. I knew that voice. It was that girl Rachel!
"Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you, shopping with Xena." That voice…that was Marco's!
"I can hardly see…I hate these eyes." Another boy said, I looked through a small whole in the concrete wall and saw Tobias, Jake, Cassie, Rachel, and Marco standing there around my bags, talking. I hadn't known they were all friends, I mean Jake and Rachel were cousins, and Jake's best friend was Marco and Rachel's Best friend was Cassie but I had never seen them like this. "Well…time's almost up anyway, I might as well change back." Tobias said Change back? I thought. I hadn't understood what he said, I looked at him and I saw what looked like feathers sprout out of his skin. I puked right there.
"Did you hear that?" Cassie said as she looked around. I ducked but then looked out of the hole again, when I did the boy Tobias had a beak and talons.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" I screamed as I started to run.
"Hurry, get her!" Jake yelled as I ran away screaming. I heard footsteps behind me but I didn't turn to look, I just ran, I ran for my life. The footsteps got closer as I reached the edge of the construction site, someone grabbed me and I fought with all of my life to get away but after about 10 minutes I gave up. I covered my face with my hair and hands with some pitiful attempt to not be identified. The person pushed me back to where my bags were.
"I think I found something." Marco said with a smirk, it was him dragging me back. I punched him and sat against the wall, I was no fool. I knew that the hawk or Jake or Marco or whoever could quickly once again catch me.
Jake walked up to me, "Rachel, get into battle morph." He said, as he got closer. "Show me your face." Jake said as I slowly put my hands down and fixed my hair.
"Let me go." I said bluntly.
"And what, let you report back to Visser 10, I think not." Marco said.
"I don't know what your talking about!" I screamed. Cassie walked up to me.
"Your Danielle." She said with a smile, "Well if there's a yeerk in you or not, your mother is the host body of Visser 10, sorry but we can't let you go until we know for sure." She stepped back and Jake nodded at her.
"Tobias." Jake said as he looked at the hawk standing on the ground. "Get Erek, tell him to meet us here immediately." The bird flapped its wings and flew away.
CHAPTER 2: A SECRET REVEALED
I was battered, bruised and basically very pissed. Not to long after Tobias left, Rachel had found some rope and tied me to a tree and I had been there ever since. About an hour after Tobias had left, he came back as a human with Erek. Erek was just some kid I knew from school, I heard he was on the soccer team for his school and I had seen him at the mall a few times. But why would they want Erek? Was he somehow involved in this weird, colt thing that they had going on? Whether that was it or not, I would find out soon.
Erek waved to Jake as he jogged up to us with Tobias. He looked at me and frowned. "Are you hurt?" he asked me sincerely.
"Do I look like I'm hurt?" I said freshly, even if they were kidnapping me, I wasn't going to just sit there and take it. "Or do I look like I'm having a great time? Well guess what. I'm not, I'm not happy, I'm not hurt, but I'm not happy. I've been tied against this tree for the past hour thinking of ways to stay calm and use my stunning intellect to trick you guys into letting me go, but that doesn't seem to be working." Erek looked shocked, I liked that. People always thought I was some shy girl that never talked, but after you got to know me I was the loudest person with the biggest attitude you ever knew. Erek got up and started talking to Jake, when they were done they came back to me. "Come on." Jake said as he helped untie me. When I was loose enough, I kicked him and finished untying myself.
Erek walked up to me and put out his hand. "I won't hurt you." He said with a strange calm. For some reason I believed him and took his hand. I jumped back in shock after I touched his hand. It felt cold, like metal. He looked at me and smiled as I took his hand again and walked into the hologram. We walked for what seemed like ever. Erek explained everything to me, the Chee, the pemalites, the howlers, everything. He even told me about the yeerks, who they were, what they were. I wouldn't believe that they thought I was one of those…those…things! The yeerks were parasites that would crawl into your ear and get to your brain from there and take control of your body. Imagine waking up and wanting to go downstairs and eat breakfast. But you couldn't because the yeerk would control your body. It would bring you downstairs, it would make small talk with your family at the table, it would talk to your friends, and it had total control.
"We're here." Erek released his hologram from me, I looked at him and he was once again "Erek" your average teenage boy. I looked around me and saw a sort of 7-foot demon. A goblin from a child's nightmare, it was yellow and had blades coming out of numerous parts of its body. I looked around and realized that there was more than one, there were about 100. One came up to me.
"Hello." That was the last thing I heard before I fainted.
"…I already have one of my people covering for her," I heard Erek say.
"Good, because we'll need your people there for three days tops." I opened my eyes a little and looked around, I was still in the valley, lying on a sort of cot that was set-up there and the others were all talking.
"What do we do…I mean controller or not, she'll be free in three days…what then?" I heard Marco ask everyone, most girls in school didn't like him that much, and I mean anyone would say that he's cute but his sense of humor was a little too much for some people. But I could see that past that he was actually very smart, one of those people that reads between the lines and sees possibilities that you haven't.
"We could make her one of us…" Cassie said softly. "I mean I know we don't have the morphing cube, but…with her mother as Visser 10, she could help us." I could sense a strain in Cassie's voice as she spoke, "you know I don't want any more people involved in this than necessary but she's already seen and heard so much…"
"I agree." Rachel said. I decided that I was done listening and I went back to sleep.
I was in nothingness, a fog of mist. Eternally surrounding me, not letting me see anywhere but letting me see everywhere. I knew this place. It's where I had been for millennia. I had lived here, died here, yet I had never been here. Then suddenly I was in the mist. I had no form but I had every form, I was alive yet dead, small yet large. Hello. A large voice echoed around the hidden walls of the mist.
"Danielle. Yeerk. Whoever you are, time to wake up." I opened my eyes and sat up. I saw Tobias standing there with toast in his hands. "This is yours." He put his hands up to mine and I grabbed the toast from him. I had been held in a small shack built of wood for the past two days, my mother probably knew I was gone by now…unless of course the chee were still there.
Around sunset all of the "Animorphs" were there. That's what they call themselves, animal morphers. I happened to think that was quite clever. Cassie came into the shack and unlocked my foot from a pole inside of it. "I'm sorry for the conditions we have actually met in." Cassie said with a smile. "Come on." I walked out with her, I was positive I looked like crap; my mascara was probably running down my face from crying.
And then I saw it. I saw the thing, the centaur. Its upper body was like a human's except it had blue fur, no mouth and stalk eyes atop of its head. I stepped back and into one of the Hork-Bajir. They were a kind people, if you didn't judge them by looks. "Sorry." I said politely as I walked back to where I was standing.
It has been three of your days. The Andalite said, yes an Andalite. Erek had told me about them.
"Ax-man, until your off of this planet their your days too." Marco was leaning against a tree eating a granola bar. Jake sighed and stepped up to me. "There was no yeerk, we're sorry for doing this too you." He looked sincere as he put his hand out to me. After some consideration I put my hand out and we shook.
CHAPTER THREE: AN UNKNOWN ALLIANCE
"So your saying that one of these "yeerks" has my mother?" I asked cautiously. They had two choices for me, one was to get my memory erased by the Andalite…or help them spy and stuff. When a girl's favorite game to play growing up is detective and spy, well I'm guessing you know the decision I made.
"Yes," Jake replied. He and Marco were filling me in on the whole invasion thing. "And one of them has my brother…"
"And my mother," Marco finished as he looked at Jake. "It's okay man, I'm over it I know we'll get her back."
"Jake!" Cassie screamed from across the camp. "I need your help!" There was some kind of fight between Rachel and one of the Hork-Bajir going on.
"Umm…excuse me for a minute." He said as he ran off.
"And Xena's at it again." Marco said quietly.
"How long have you guys been doing this?" I asked suddenly, I wanted to know how they had actually survived this stuff. We were just kids…
"Since we were 13." Marco said. "But it seems like forever, they keep coming back…"
* * * * *
It had been almost a year since I had first stumbled upon the secret of the Animorphs. I was actually a good spy, I had even amazed myself with the stuff I got. I was able to get down meetings, send Ax copies of files on my mother's computer. Even though I did all this for them. I still had to hang out with my regular friends.
"Danielle why don't you come to the sharing meeting with us?" Crystal asked innocently…or at least her yeerk did. For the past year she had been trying to pressure me into joining.
"No, I told you." I said with a French fry in my mouth. "That's just not my thing, besides I'm busy tonight." Crystal looked angry, like she was about to jump me and slam a yeerk into my head herself.
"With what?" The yeerk quickly covered its anger and once again acted like any 15 year-old girl would.
"I have a date." I said happily, the new guy Trent had asked me out. "With Trent!" I added with a giggle.
"Seriously!" Crystal replied with a giggle also. "That guy is as hot as hell. Do you know where he's taking you?" She asked still giggling.
"Danielle, honey your date's here!" My mother screamed at me as I anxiously ran down the stairs.
"Bye mom." I said giving her a kiss on the cheek as I ran outside to Trent's car.
"Hey." He said as he flashed me some of his Brad Pitt smile.
"Hi." He did the sweetest thing any guy has done for me. He took me shopping at the new store in the mall then we went to the food court for a bite to eat. "This has to be the best night of my life." I said truthfully with a smile on my face. Trent looked at me and smiled.
"You have something on your…" he leaned over and touched my face with his fingers then leaned in for a kiss. "Lips." He said as he pulled away and began eating again.
"MMmmm…Tasty-tasty food." I heard a voice say. I turned my head and saw Ax in human morph eating cinnamon buns, with Marco trying to calm him down. I let out a giggle and Trent looked at them. "That kid is such an Ass." He said looking at Marco.
"Don't say that, he's my friend, he's really sweet once you get to know him." I said with a slight smile as Trent looked at me.
"What, don't tell me you like that jerk?" He said.
"He's only a friend Trent." I replied.
"Well he's still a total ass, no one even thinks he's funny." That is what got to me, sure you can make fun of him for a second, not knowing that I was friends with him. Then apologize. But no, he didn't do that. He continued to say things as Ax ran over to us.
"Hello Danielle," he said looking at my pizza. "May I?"
"Sure," I said looking at Trent. "I'm done here." I got up and walked away with Ax behind me.
"I'm sorry, did I interrupt something?" He asked sincerely.
"No," I said looking at Ax. He looked pretty weird in his human morph, you could see a little of everyone in him. "Hey." I said as we approached Marco. "Having fun babysitting Ax." I said with a laugh.
"Yeah, it was great up to the part when he almost attacked the cashier demanding more food…Hey prince charming looks pissed." He said as he looked behind me to the table where Trent was standing.
"Eh, forget him. Want to go to the arcade?" I asked looking back at Marco. "Sure." We walked to the arcade with Ax asking us why we enjoyed playing such games.
CHAPTER 4: AN UNCOVERED LOVE
"And I don't want the world to see me, cause I don't think that they'd understand. Well everything's made to be broken. I just want you to know who I am. And I don't want the world to see me. Cause I don't think that they'd understand, well everything's made to be broken. I just want you to know who I am." The song played on the radio as we stood in Cassie's barn.
"I hate this song." Rachel said as she walked over to turn it off.
"Well I like it." I said with a laugh, I got the feeling Rachel didn't like me very much. She didn't like the fact that I didn't let her get her own way all the time. "Besides, I think it describes you and Tobias perfectly." She blushed and walked back to where she was standing.
"No, okay Jake why do you think Batman could beat superman? Are you stupid or something?" Marco said as he and Jake walked into the barn. "Danielle, please straighten him out." Marco looked at me with a smile. Over the past few months we had gotten closer. The school dance was coming up in three weeks and I was hoping he would ask me…Before Trent. Trent thought I was still his girlfriend even though we only went on that one date.
"Jake, Superman is THE single most great super hero of all time!" I explained with enthusiasm. "I mean not even Cat woman could beat him."
"My god it's a female version of Marco." Rachel sighed.
"Okay, time to get down to business." Jake said interrupting the argument as he looked at Tobias. "Clear?"
Yep. He replied silently. Tobias was our eye in the skies; he would stay in the rafters where he could see everything for miles so we could talk in privacy. "The yeerks have the Anti-Morphing ray. From what I hear their ready to test it." Jake went on and on until I zoned out.
* * * *
This is all that has been, will be and was supposed to be. I didn't know where I was. I looked around and saw once again the mist. It haunted me, clouded my memories. I looked in front of me and saw them, the Animorphs. But they were different. I couldn't sense any knowledge of me in them. They were in a battle. David, David the Animorph. The one that had died, the one that was killed by the Visser shortly after becoming one of us, he was there. He was alive, and he was fighting Jake. As though he were trying to kill him. Do not be alarmed, that was what should have happened. But it didn't. So you have changed them, you have changed their lives.
I woke up right after that with Marco looking at me. "You okay?" he asked as we rode our bikes back to our houses. Ever since he and his father moved, we had lived near each other.
"Ya, just a bad dream." I said trying to pass a laugh. "Umm…I was wondering." He said as he stopped his bike and looked at me. "You know that dance coming up and everything?" He seemed nervous as he talked on. "Marco, actually I have something to ask you," I said interrupting him. He looked depressed. "Would you like to go to the dance with me?" I smiled as he said yes and we rode our bikes home.
* * *
The dance was wonderful. I was late though because my mother had tried to convince me into going to a sharing meeting and skipping the dance, but I declined her offer. I saw Marco standing on the side of the room all alone so I came up from behind him. "Would you care to dance?" I asked with a smile. Marco looked at me and smiled.
"Sure, as long as you don't mind me stepping on your feet, I'm a horrible dancer." The rest of the night went by like a dream…almost. At about ten o'clock Trent came up to me while I was dancing with Marco.
"May I cut in?" He asked politely.
"No." I said as I dragged Marco to the punch bowl. Trent came back up to me.
"I said, may I cut in?" he asked, I swear he had a little vain popping out of his forehead as he talked.
"Did you hear me, NO." I said rudely. Trent hadn't stopped bothering me over the past few months, I was starting to get afraid it seemed like he was insane.
"Dude, just leave her alone." Marco said as Trent walked up to him. Trent was about 6 feet tall and Marco only about 5' 5", an inch taller than me. "Mr. Dude." He added with a smirk on his face as Trent let out a punch.
"Hey!" I said. The whole room was quiet as I ran to Marco and helped him up.
Trent stepped back and grabbed his head as I helped Marco.
"I…I don't know what happened. It's here then it's gone. It controls me, the oatmeal did it, and it did something, made it sick. It killed us!!" He started screaming until Chapman finally got him to leave with his parents.
"Here." I said with a smile as I pulled my arm out to help Marco up. When our hands touch I felt something. I can't describe it but…a light of some sort, something joining us. I let it pass and we walked outside where he morphed and then demorphed to get rid of the wounds.
"I can't believe he did that, are you okay?" Marco looked at me and without saying a word walked up to me and embraced me into his arms. There we kissed for the first time.
"I'm hunky-dory." He said with a laugh as we walked back inside.
CHAPTER 5:
As each day approached, the dreams became clearer, vivid. I would wake up sweating with fear. In Each dream he would come to me. The Ellimist would come to me and give me a decision to make, but each time I made the same one. Live, stay, be with Marco and the others. Even though that was my response each time…he still came. He would haunt my sleep with visions…things that I thought were horrible but things that he said were supposed to be…
I saw Tobias in his hawk form, in a cube of some sort. Next to him were three buttons, a blue one, a red one, and a black one. A human taunted him wanting to know things about them, the Animorphs. She pressed the red button and he started to spasm from pain, but not giving up. I watched, knowing I could not help, knowing they could not see me. Tobias's body lay limp until suddenly I was pulled into something. I was pulled into what I thought was a dream. There I saw it, I saw Elfangor going up to Tobias, his time-shifted son and giving him strength, and the endurance to last against this terrorist. "That," I blinked and then I was in my room, and in front of me was Marco. But I knew better it was the Ellimist in a disguise. "That was what was supposed to happen. But it didn't, something changed." He said as he stood in front of me. "You changed them, you somehow changed the tides and turned the war in the favor of the Crayak." He looked at me with tears in his eyes. "I can change that, they will never know that you were here, they will not remember anything." I had seen the visions, the Animorphs lying on the ground crumpled, so injured they couldn't move. I wasn't going to fall for him; perhaps it was the drode in a disguise.
"I have told you this many times, my answer will not change. I do not see how such a gory and dim future could be the true one. I won't believe it." As soon as the words were out of my mouth, he was gone. But he would be back. He always came back.
I tried going back to sleep but was restless. I just turned over and over, tossing my covers about until my alarm clock rang.
* * *
"Hey." Marco came up from behind me and tucked his arms through my shoulders nd around my hips.
"Hi." I said with a fake smile.
"What's wrong." He said now walking next to me. "You look like you didn't sleep." He said worriedly.
"It's nothing, don't worry." I said with a smile as we walked to English together.
This is the last chapter and even though it sounds weird there will be more chapters giving more details and everything about what happened, how they fell in love, the consequences. I'm gonna make it like a small book series thing very detailed so everything is explained and no one's confused J I'll start putting all of those out soon. But until then, enjoy the end.
Chapter 6: A New Beginning (it's a long one)
The Ellimist called to me, like he had before. He called to me and told me of things that were to be and how because of me they were not. I didn't believe him though; I convinced myself that it was the Drode in disguise trying to trick me into doing something that would help him win. But deep down inside...I knew, I knew that he was telling the truth but I just couldn't accept it.
Marco was now living in the Hork-Bajir valley with his father. In the last battle he had to make a choice...save his mother, which seemed impossible, or save me. I told him not too. I told him to save his mother and forget me, I had caused enough damage but he didn't. Something inside of him had changed so drastically. It was like he had a change of heart..."Here are the notes from Science, and I'll have a copy of the test for you next week." I said with a smile. I was in the Hork-Bajir valley with Marco, tutoring him. I didn't want him to fall behind in school since he had to go into hiding. To the rest of the world he was dead. Him and his father were. His father was working on a project that led to the discovery of Z-space; the yeerks had found out and tried to capture him. Marco and the rest of the Animorphs wouldn't let that happen though, we had gone to go rescue him and in the process told him all of our secrets.
"Why do I need to know science?" Marco asked; he was lying on a cot with his arms under his head. "I mean its not like I'm going to be needing it now, Ax takes care of all the science stuff." He looked at me smiling. "Want to go flying?" I wanted to say no, say that we had to study or else he wouldn't get a good job growing up but I decided that we needed to take a break.
* * *
Four years had passed. I was 20 now and so were the other Animorphs. The battle raged on and on for years, the yeerks eventually found out that we were human so they all went into hiding...everyone except for me. I had remained on the outside. Hiding in plain sight. The war was still concealed, although the yeerks had slipped up a little more. But we were losing and everyday they were advancing. I was afraid for the lives of my comrades, and my family. I knew that I would lose someone soon.
* * *
It was the final battle that it happened; the yeerks had taken their pool ship out of orbit and had it out in plain sight. This was going to be the last battle. We all knew it so before we went we said our goodbyes to the family we had left. I had no one. My family was gone. My mother had been killed in the most recent battle. So as everyone said his or her goodbyes, I stood alone, until Marco walked over to me putting his arm around my shoulder. We were engaged now, we had been for years but we had no rings, nothing to prove of it. Cassie and Jake had gotten married, Cassie didn't care about the promise they made about not getting married until after the war. Before they were found out we all went to Vegas on a road trip and they got hitched. It was a beautiful wedding, although they were only 18, there was a love, so mature so deep, it seemed as though it were there since the beginning of time itself. We morphed into birds and flew to the site. It was a suicidal mission but it was also our last chance. We knew that there was a good chance no one would get out alive. All we had were 300 humans, Toby's band of Hork-Bajir and a small portion of the UN army- what was left of it. We flew over the town where they all met, over the construction site where they were given the gift, the curse, the power to save earth. I wanted to stop, just go fly away when we reached the pool ship, but I didn't. We had all gotten stronger in many ways over the past 7 years. I knew that Rachel, Tobias, Cassie and Jake were having private conversations. Saying goodbye that they'd be all right.
Danielle. Marco said, even in his thought speech he
sounded depressed.
Can I ask you something? I asked quietly as my heart sank deep into my rib cage.
Sure, anything. He replied with fear.
Would you ever forget me, if something happened, something that changed, that changed time and…
What are you talking about? He asked me. I would NEVER forget you, besides neither of us can die here we still have to get married. I smiled at the thought, all my life I had pictured my wedding day. I had pictured the wedding. Flower petals covered the ground as I walked up to the alter. It would be outside, with white chairs f or the guests and I would be wearing my mother's wedding dress. And there, standing up at the end of the path would be my love, my future husband, the man whom I would spend eternity with. But those pictures slowly faded away as we reached the battle scene. The general hadn't listened to us when we told him not to attack until we got there. But he didn't listen, and that was probably the reason why we would lose.
Marco...do you promise me? I asked suddenly knowing what i would have to do.
Promise you? He asked, his voice trailing off as we soared over the open battle field. People, humans, hork-bajir, taxxons, andalites, they were all dying. They were dying because of me...
That you won't forget me, promise me that you will always
remember and if your not able to... I hesitated while wanting to just go
back, to go back to normal life...to go back to being a kid.
I...
Hurry everyone to their designated spots, go NOW! Jake ordered as we landed and started morphing our battle morphs. Mine was a female leopard, as the process began, I saw the pattern of the fur cover my body as though it were a quilt then sprout out into the luxurious short fur of a leopard. My tail sprouted out of my back and not far behind came the eyes- I must have looked like cat woman – then the legs came, and before I knew it I was a leopard.
* * *
This was where my dream would end; this is where I would wake up crying when I was little. I would wake up with tears streaking down my face not knowing what to do, how to get rid of the dream that haunted me in my sleep each night since I was an infant. This is what the dreams meant, they were preparing me, all my life I thought it was just a nightmare but it turned out to be reality. But I only hoped that my dreams were not the cause of this as I walked across the frozen battlefield. I walked over the bloody limp bodies of my friends, my comrades, my enemies. The battle was total chaos; nearly all of our soldiers were killed within the first hour and we weren't doing any damage. I walked across the field for what seemed like hours, tears streaking down my face. I walked up to where the main event was, Visser one verses the legendary "Andalite Bandits" – he was winning. They were trapped in some sort of cube and they were all in their natural forms…why did they demorph? Then I looked up to the Visser who had a machine next to him…it looked so familiar. "It's the anti-morphing ray." A voice from behind me said, I didn't have to look to know who it was.
"Ellimist." I said as I looked at the pain on their faces, the sorrow, the anger, and nevertheless, the pain, the endless pain that jolted through their bodies and was slowly killing them, giving them a long and gruesome death. "Let me say goodbye." I said as I looked at him. He was in the form of…me. But no, more than that, his eyes were glowing with a sort of energy and hair was flowing wildly.
"This is you Danielle. You have not seen yourself like this but this is the energy you process. Some how you changed the timeline, the victory and defeat of the Animorphs. No one knows how, not even I nor the Crayak." He stopped and smiled. "You may say goodbye, then you will be erased from their timeline. But your part is not done yet…" and with that he was gone and in his place was the Animorphs. At first they were frozen like the rest of the world around us but slowly joined me.
"I have something to tell you." I said breathing heavily. They all looked at me, not knowing what to think. Everyone but Ax who had figured out part of this was the Ellimist's doing. "I have been given a second chance, you all have been given a second chance to win this war against the yeerks, to become the warriors you were destined to be." They looked happy as I talked on. "But you will not remember me, I destroyed your chance of winning, I changed everything…" Marco didn't say anything, he saw between the lines. He knew that there was nothing to do yet he cried. He looked at me with tears in my eyes. "Marco, you once told me that no matter what happened…you wouldn't forget me because we still have to get married." I paused, surprising myself how I talked with such calmness. "You will forget, but I never will. I will never forget how I loved you, how I helped the Animorphs. I will never want to forget the life I lived. The Forgotten Timeline." While I was talking all I heard was the song "And there you'll be" by Faith Hill. I looked at Marco; he had his eyes on me, his brown eyes that were now full of pain. Rachel looked at me and nodded in approval, so did the rest of the Animorphs. Cassie, she would remember there was nothing that would change that but I also knew that she would never tell them because she knew how hard this was for me, how hard it was to erase my own life from everyone's memories.
"Goodbye…" Marco ran over to me and wrapped his arms around me and we kissed. How long had I dreamed that I would be the hero? The one saving the world, but I didn't feel like a hero. I felt sick. We looked at each other, knowing this would be the last time we would ever know each other the way we both did. "The Chee will know…" I said -their memories would not be erased. "Ellimist." I said, and as soon as the words were out of my mouth I saw time move backwards. It flashed before me in the blink of an eye and when it stopped I saw them at the construction site, receiving the only power that would save earth.
"You did the right thing." I was in the mist again, but it was clearing up. I looked around me and I saw a beautiful valley full of roses, animals and trees that towered over me. Then I saw him, the Ellimist. He was in his "ketran" form, which he called his native form.
"They will never remember me…what will become of me now?" I asked quietly, all of this time the Ellimist had never told me what would happen to me if I said yes to his offer.
"Danielle, you still play a part in the history of earth. You play a very important part," he said smiling.
"But." Once the words were out of my mouth I was in front of the school. My first day, I stood there looking at it, remembering how I had felt how I had wanted to belong.
"Watch out!!" The warning came too late and someone crashed into me.
"Just my luck." I said as I picked up my books.
"I'm sorry!" a voice said, a very familiar voice said. I looked up and saw Marco. He was still 14, I had gone back 6 years and although I looked 14 I was still the 20-year-old woman named Danielle. He looked at me like he was trying to place me in his mind. "Do I know you?" He asked as he helped me pick up his books.
"No," I could have sworn I heard the song "irresistible" by Jessica Simpson in my head although it wouldn't be out for another three years. "We never met." The words burned through my soul as they came out of my mouth. He finished picking up my books and then started walking away. "Wait!" I said as I ran up to him. He looked at me with hope in his eyes, the same hope that I had loved about him. "You dropped this," I handed him his binder as he said thank you and walked away. I stood there for what must have been an hour because I heard the bell for 3rd period ring.
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A/n: AHHH!!!! it's the edited longer version.......ruuuuuunnnn!!!!!!!!