On.
Off.
On.
Off.
It wouldn't stop. No matter how hard I tried to stop, to stop myself
from falling asleep. No matter what I did, I was dragged to sleep.
But that would be un-true, I never even resisted sleep, welcomed it. But
when I came to in this reality, I'd remember everything.
On.
Off.
Alone.
Not alone.
Helpless.
Self-reliant.
I was still in the hot scotching desert. But I was not alone. My brother
was alongside me.
That filled me with great happiness. I finally had a chance to talk to
him again, and I did, I told him everything, he listened to me.
Everything about this reality was true, was right. Everything but one
single fact. One single thing that forced me to accept that this was not real.
I was walking in a desert with my brother. As fantastic as that was I
have to rationalize. My brother was dead, had been so for a long time.
But how could I rationalize? What was true? What was real? Both realities
were real. I was certain of that.
On.
Off.
Helpless, alone. Cut off and isolated.
Walking by my brother and a few family friends. Hot desert.
On.
Off.
In the isolated chamber, in an extremely bad mood, depressed and fed up.
People came to talk to me, I no longer cared who I was talking to and what I was
saying.
No one understood me, they kept on asking me about how I was feeling. I
asked them if they found a cure for the virus.
My questions ignored.
There questions useless.
No one cared; they probably thought I was going to die anyway. Stall my
thinking about it by asking stupid -not to mention pointless- questions.
I asked for my parents once again. They refused to call them in.
Anger flared.
Frustration boiled.
At the end, they left me alone, I'd scream at them, still they ignored
me. It was as if I was the only living person on the planet.
Or the only dead one in a room.
On.
Off.
Why was I doing this to myself? Why the anger and the hatred? Why
couldn't I remember Crayak's deal?
Soon, I was anchored in one world. The one were Elfangor existed.
The other world, the anchor was gone, I was ready to leave it. I was
ready to die. And there was nothing I could do about it. Nothing.
On.
Off.
Where was Elfangor? I was still in the desert, the sun's heat blazed
down mercilessly. No water, no food, nothing but sand in every direction.
After what seemed like hours, I managed to reach the rocky mountains, the
distant ridges that had stood in the horizon for so long. I walked around them.
I expected to see nothing but more sand.
That was not what I saw. What I saw was my home world.
And Andalites! Going round their daily activates. I ran to join them,
talk to them.
By accident I slammed into a youth just as old as me, he picked himself
up and walked away, ignored my apology and me completely.
I shouted after him. No response.
I walked right up to him and yelled at him.
No response.
I yelled at the people around him.
No response.
It was like I was dead.
But not dead, really. I was alive! Wasn't I?
My anger failed and I resorted to kicking at the boy I had slammed into
to, not as hard as I could. His response to that was lashing back at me with his
hooves. Hard. My left haunch was numb from the impact.
I fell back from the crowd, watched them as they conversed as if nothing
unusual had happened. They were speaking, I could see that, but I was excluded
from their speech.
The sun was finally starting to drop from the sky, again, at an unusually
fast speed.
As the last strand of gold disappeared and the forest was thrown into
darkness, something strange happened.
The people around me, their eyes glittered in the dark. That was very
unusual. Also disturbing.
Their fur seemed to be thicker. And in the dark it was not blue. Nothing
close to it. Brown. Black.
I frowned.
What was going on?
I crept up to one of the Andalites who was resting. His eyes were open.
They were large. Black. Beady. His fur looked rough. And his tail was long,
thin, naked…
Arghhhhh! I screamed in horror.
Rats!
They were all rats!
I turned to run but tripped over myself. I checked myself over, my hearts
sinking. I had four legs…no arms…two ears…a naked
tail…teeth…whiskers…
Noooo. I moaned.
Once transformed into rats. The Andalites went on with rat business. They
gathered food, squabbled over a fallen bird.
One of the rats stepped forward. He was a dark furred rat.
A few inches of his tail was missing. His left ear was a torn mess.
Welcome to my world.
David.
My eyes jerked open. All four of them. I almost immediately wished they
hadn't. Someone was standing beside me, I couldn't tell who it was. But I
guessed Cyas. Someone was taking a blood sample it had to be him.
But Cyas wasn't speaking. I turned a stalk eye at him. Useless. I still
couldn't tell if it was him.
Vision from my main eyes was blurry. My stalk eyes; dim. Hot, it was
getting extremely uncomfortable. My muscles ached. I longed to get out of the
horrid place.
I had no clue how much time had passed; my biological clock was greatly
distorted.
I didn't bother asking, they wouldn't answer this one question for
me, I did not know how much time was left, but I was sure it was very little.
My throat constricted. I gasped for air. It felt as if I was buried
underneath soil. I remembered the time we had to morph the earth creature called
a mole. My stomach turned over.
The blurry figure was walking away. I felt light-headed. I wasn't
breathing properly. I sucked in another lung full of air, but it took a great
deal of effort, my throat tightened even more.
My vision grew from bad to worse. I tried to call out for help. I failed
the first time.
Commotion. People moving around me, all I saw were walking blurs.
I gathered my remaining energy. Can't…can't
breath…need…
One of the blurs walked towards me, grabbed my arm. I saw an unfocused
face…was someone talking to me? I couldn't hear a thing.
Something was defiantly happing, more people around me. It took me a
while to notice that I was breathing properly again -and that for some strange
reason, I wasn't breathing for myself, they must have inserted a tube down my
throat, no air was running in or out of my nose.
Pain seared my chest. Heat like fire inside of my body ripped me. Outside
it was freezing inside I was burning up.
What was going on?
The face again.
Hang on. Don't give up.
Who said that? Me? The face?
The voice was very familiar. It was that of an Andalite. A female.
I had heard that voice before.
Someone was yelling angrily. Another voice cursed. A third said something
calmly. A fourth voice, the female, sounded shocked.
The female let go of my hand.
I no longer felt hot. In fact, I felt extremely cold. Very cold. This was
a shock to my brain. Only I wasn't thinking…stunningly cold, I was shivering
uncontrollably. What were they doing? Killing me?
My vision cleared slightly. The female. The fourth voice, she was the one
who held my hand.
She was Estrid.
Maybe I was imagining things.
Cold.
A sharp pain.
I think I fell unconscious at a point. But only for a few seconds. I woke
up and everything was clear. The blurs were people in suits around me.
The sudden coldness came from the ice that surrounded me.
Blood everywhere.
Whose blood?
Mine.
It was cold, so cold. I jerked an eyestalk.
He's coming to! Hadon, I recognized his voice.
Impossible! I didn't know who said that. His left heart
stopped beating! Besides, we've frozen him up to decrease brain damage. He
can't be gaining consciousness!
I know, I know. Hadon? We have him open.
They have me what?
My stalk eye caught a grizzly image and I understood what Hadon meant about having me open. He meant they literally had me open. I could see my internal organs.
I yelped in shock. Kicked.
Something fell clattering to the floor with an awful amount of noise.
Hold him down!
He's not suppose to be conscious!
I think I blinked into unconsciousness again, because when I opened my
eyes again, I almost fainted.
I wouldn't have seen it if my stalk eyes weren't elevated. My main
eyes were not facing the correct angle. But I saw it all right.
One of my hearts -from what I saw of it, it was the left one- someone was
holding it in both of their hands.
The situation must have gotten worse if they had to manually pump my
blood for me. Marco might find something hilarious about that. But Marco
wasn't here to try and make me laugh about it.
I traced the hands to the body, I looked at the face.
She was older than me, even though when I first met her there was barley
an age gap. But there had been an intellectual gap; she was a prodigy.
Stunned I said stupidly; You have my heart in your hands.
Yes, I do. Estrid's stalk eyes wavered. Panicked.
Take care of it.
I will. She started to say, but my mind was gone. I was
unconscious again-
-Are you ready to give up? David whispered.
I gave him no answer. My brain was whirling. I was a rat! I tried to
demorph. I couldn't. Was I trapped!?
David laughed at me, No you can't demorph. You haven't morphed to
start off with. Idiot.
Run. Run. Run.
What? What are you talking about?
Away from the light. Run away from the light.
Crayak, who else? He didn't tell you about this part of the deal
did he? David gloated.
Hide! Hide! Hide!
What part of the deal?! I had no deal with no one! I screamed.
Danger! Danger! Danger!
Oh, sure you do. David said, You had a deal like the one I
had. An unfair deal, you got thrown into something you didn't want to be
thrown in. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that guy
Cricket tricked you, just as you Animorphs tricked me.
Hunger. Food. Hunger.
What are you talking about? The rat instincts were hard to shove away. They controlled me somehow, clouded my mind.
David snorted in my head, You think you're so strong in that
Andalite body of yours, you want a fair fight? Let's go. Me and you. Rat to
rat.
Before I had time to object David slammed into me. If you win this
fight, I stay rat. If you lose I'm human.
What? Crayak failed to break me?
David laughed at me, Don't be stupid. You already lost. You called for
him.
I did not! I yelled.
Yes you did, I heard you. Don't you remember? David mocked,
then he spoke in a high shrill voice, Stop! Stop! Stop it!
Wha-
You lost even before the whole thing started. David retorted,
And now, it's final show down. Time's almost up. Minutes left. The one
who comes out of this alive is the winner.
What do you mean times up?
I mean that the virus has you, you're minutes from death, in both
realties. David laughed shrilly, And it's just too bad your big deal
brother Elfangor isn't here to help you.
David leapt at me, rat fangs bared. He sank his teeth into fur and cut
into skin. He had me by my neck, I tried to reach him with my own teeth but I
couldn't throw him off I screamed in anger and pain as -
-Arghhh! I screamed.
Wha?
I wasn't a rat.
I was back in the isolation chamber!
Where was David?
No David. Suited Andalites worked around me. Blood everywhere. Someone
was yelling something, whatever it was, I didn't catch it because in front of
me, someone. It was-
-Hissss!
David! He spat at me and lunged again, I jerked back, doubled and grabbed
him from behind, I sank my teeth into his back.
David screamed in my head.
Still grabbing him, I inched forward until I was in position to bite the
back of his neck, rat instincts told me to bite his throat and choke him off.
I twisted my head and sank my teeth into his throat, tightened.
Noooo!
I bit down harder.
Ax! David shrieked, Please no!
I did not release my grip.
Ax! Ax! Ax! David pleaded-
Aximili!
Through my blurry vision I stared at the impossible. The thought speak
voice. It belonged to someone I had grown up with. My brother.
Some far off part of me realized that I was dieing. That I was clinging
on to life by mere threads.
Confused I said, Elfangor?
Hesitation. A slight pause. The stalk eyes wavered; the far off rational
part of me noted that this was a sign of uncertainly.
Yes, I'm your brother.
And I believed it.
I believed that Elfangor had come back from the dead.
I believed that he was standing not a few inches away from me.
What's happing? I felt tired. Pain seared from every inch of my
body.
You're going to be alright. The voice was forcefully calm.
Elfangor was alive!
For the first time in what felt like ages, I felt hope. Renewed hope. An
urgency to live. My vision started to clear a bit.
He's pulling through! Hadon? Or was it Cyas? Or someone else-
-Urgh! I was shoved over. I fell on my back, I scrambled to get
up but David, with the experience of living as a rat for years was too fast for
me, he pinned me to the ground and suffocated me.
My vision was growing dark fast.
That was almost too easy! David crowed.
I could no longer see his rat eyes glittering in the dark.
The sun, setting and rising in an abnormally fast pace.
I couldn't believe you fell for that! David roared with
laughter.
My brain clouded.
David laughed an insane laugh. A laugh filled with hot joy, disgust,
rage, pain and anger all fused into one.
The last bit of gold was fading.
And I was gone-
Oh, yes, Ax is 'gone' only what does that mean? You'll just have to wait and find out. Reviewing can make the waiting period much shorter, if you know what I mean.