Hope
Disclaimer: I have 38 cents in my pocket. You think that'll be enough to buy 'em off Scholastic?
Author's Note: Told from Marco's POV. We get to see how the other's are doing three or four months after they kicked Rachel off the island, and they get to meet up with some strange kids about their age who say they work for someone named "Renee"…mighty suspicious, no? Sigh. I'm no good at summaries. BTW, I'm still after a beta. E-mail me at kris@turtlegod.com, okay? Also, Kiera is mine, and mine alone. She's guest starring from another series, which is heavily in the making right now. That's why this part took so long to get up. Oh, yeah…remember, in my version Visser One is still Marco's mom, but she's not really in this.
We needed help...I was literally standing there, watching this whole thing go to pieces around me, and there was nothing I could do.
"Would you PLEASE give me a HAND, if it's not too much TROUBLE, your MAJESTY?!"
I shook my head sadly. "Kiera, Kiera, Kiera. Nothing short of a miracle will save this thing. I swear, chemistry is the most useless class there is. Who the heck cares what all the individual enzymes are, anyway, I mean-"
"I care, you little maggot! I need a good grade on this lab," I backed away under the assault of dark red hair and dark blue eyes that seemed to take up all available air space, "and if you don't stop drawing pictures of Superman on our worksheet, I'm going to take that paper, tear it into tiny pieces, and SHOVE THEM UP YOUR—"
It was at this time that I beat a hasty retreat. I almost ran headfirst into Jake, who had no doubt been watching the whole exchange. I smirked and nodded my head towards Kiera's Irate-Irish-Woman rant. She hadn't even noticed that I was no longer standing behind her, taking her abuse. "She wants me. She wants me baaaad, Jakey."
He snorted. "You wish. She's not into guys anymore." I had to quirk an eyebrow at that.
"Oh? Do tell."
"According to Cassie, she had a major thing for Tobias once upon a time. Apparently they've known each other for years. She asked me about him once. When he spurned her advances or something, she turned to women." Jake looked me up and down once. "Besides, she's about a foot taller than you, man." Jake broke off to squint at the thermometer in his bubbling beaker of goo. I took the moment to stare hard at my friend. He'd lost a lot of weight a few months ago, and Marco and Cassie both had feared for Jake's mental and emotional well-being. Lately, though, he'd started to talk more, eat more, and smile more. He didn't act as though he'd just seen a ghost every time Lourdes walked by wearing Tom's body. In short, he seemed like he was getting back to a point where he didn't hate himself and hate Rachel.
Rachel…a few times now we'd broached the subject to our fearless leader, but he'd just get this creepy far-away look in his eyes that meant that he wasn't really ready to deal with the problem yet. After he'd faked her death, he hadn't mentioned her even once. Tobias and Cassie didn't say anything either, so Ax and I were left thinking that maybe she'd just left town. I got the feeling that Jake knew something, but I wasn't planning on pressing too hard to find out. To be truthful, I wasn't sure I'd like the answer.
The battles were getting more frequent, more violent, and more public. The Yeerks were keeping up the secrecy bit to some degree, but their standards were slipping. This time they attacked a wilderness retreat not too far from where Cassie lives, and they managed to scare some campers pretty damn good. Jake had just called for a retreat, staring each of us in the eye and making sure that we understood that the battle was over. Nope, not quite over the Rachel thing yet…
Prince Jake, I feel compelled to point out that we are quite obviously the winners of this battle, and that the battle was finished several minutes ago. Each of our enemies has been defeated, despite the odds against us, and…
Jake looked for a moment as though he wanted to say something really scathing, but bit off his response. Let's just get going, okay? They probably called the forest rangers, and tigers and gorillas aren't really known for hanging out in the Northern Hemisphere.
What do you want us to do with the bodies? I shuddered inwardly. It had been a very bloody battle indeed.
Leave them.
What?!
Just leave them. If someone finds them, then maybe they'll tell an uninfiltrated branch of the government. 'S better than staying out all night digging a mass grave for five Hork-Bajir and eight Taxxons.
He stalked away, rippling up from tiger form into human form, and, without missing a beat, shifted into falcon form. I marveled at that for a minute…he was so graceful. After so much morphing experience, we all were. Ax once told us that except for the estreen on his world, the si--five of us were probably better at morphing than any Andalite.
I watched the others go, bringing up the rear. It was such a peaceful night; the moon seemed so big and the stars so friendly. It was unseasonably warm—October had been a cold month this year. I could've stayed there forever, marveling in the simple beauty of a moment without violence and bloodshed…
Moment over. I heard voices coming from the bushes to my right, and I instinctively stepped back into the shadows. "I think they're gone now. C'mon, Kat!"
"Are they…d-dead?"
"Yeah, don't let 'em bug you. Renee sez that the Horks used to be really nice and all, but they still look real big and sharp to me. These ones are dead, though. Really dead. That tiger tore this one up real good."
I couldn't believe my eyes. Kids… younger than me, maybe eleven or twelve. There was an older boy with Asian features poking at the corpse of the smallest of the fallen Hork-Bajir with the air of one who has done this many times before. There was a girl standing behind him—a cute, petite little thing with blonde hair and wide green eyed. She was wearing what looked like an army surplus jacket about five sizes too large. It made her look like a child of only eight or nine. I held my breath, willing myself to be absolutely motionless and silent.
"Grab the those things that look like flashlights, okay. And those walkie-talkie looking things."
My eyes widened in horror. Dracon beams? These kids were after Dracon beams and Yeerk communicators? How the hell did they know so much about this war? Who the hell was Renee? I needed answers, and I needed them now. Still in gorilla morph, I reached out and grabbed the wrist of the boy. He opened his mouth to scream, took one look at me, and decided to shut up. The girl, Kat, looked like she was going to faint any time now.
I'll let you go, but I have a few questions for you, first. Answer truthfully, and I won't be forced to show you my impression of a Hork-Bajir. You--what's your name?
"An-an-andrew…who are you?"
We'll get to that. What are you doing here? How do you know about the Hork-Bajir? Who's that girl?
"Our leader, Renee…she sent us out here to pick up any weapons the Yeerks might've dropped. Please don't hurt Kat!"
I sighed, and let the kid down. I think my leader and your leader need to have a little talk before too long.
"Who are you?"
Nuh-uh. Not ready to share just yet.
The girl looked at me. She seemed to gradually be calming down. "You're one of the Andalite bandits, aren't you? My sister was controlled by one of those slugs before Renee saved her…she said that the Yeerk used to scream about the Andalite bandits all the time. She said that one was a tiger, one was a wolf, and there was a gorilla, a hawk, a bear, and something else."
It was unnerving. She knew all about us and acted as though the war was the most normal thing in the world. The talking gorilla thing was obviously freaking them both out a great deal, but they were handling it well. It was as though they thought that after seeing Yeerks they could handle anything. I had to do something, before one of these kids inadvertently walked into the middle of one of our typical bloodbath battles. Luckily, they didn't really seem to know anything about us other than our morphs and that we fought against the Yeerks. We had a common enemy. I had to talk to Jake, or at least Cassie. How can I contact you?
The boy handed me a scrap of paper with an e-mail address on it. I stared at the bizarre name: Renaissance@phoenix.com He looked at me solemnly. "That's Renee's account. She knows everything about the Yeerks! She said that one day soon we'd have to find help…maybe you're it."
With that the kids turned and ran. I could have followed them easily, but I had too much on my mind at the moment.
An emergency meeting was called that night, and we assembled shortly outside Cassie's barn, everyone extremely grumpy about being yanked out of bed just after a giant battle. Everywhere I turned I saw a lot of "This had better be important, Marco" type looks. Quickly, I told my story, anticipating some big blowup afterwards. There were a lot of very mixed emotions--we had been down this road before, and it led to pain and disappointment. Cassie still wasn't really over her ordeal with Joe Bob Fenestre, and I don't think that any of us were really ready to simply trust some strange group that was blasé in the face of Hork-Bajir, dead or not.
Jake ran a hand through his hair. It had become an almost unconscious mannerism of his that meant that he was extremely stressed. "So, Marco, tell me what you think of this. You're the only one who's seen these kids."
"It was really weird. I mean, they looked scared to be there, and the one kid nearly wet himself when I grabbed him, but all in all they didn't look nearly as surprised as I was. They had watched the battle, apparently, so I guess that's why they thought we'd be okay to trust. And one of the kids called me an 'Andalite bandit.' My guess is that they're former Controllers. Somebody out there is doing a bit of our job for us. They talked about this Renee person like she had been the one to rescue them from the Yeerks. She was probably a Controller at some point herself."
And what if she still is? Ax interjected. Prince Jake, I feel that this is a trap. The Yeerks are certainly not above using human children as bait. They may be assuming that our Andalite compassion would compel us to aid these children. I made a remark under my breath about how deadly Andalite compassion could be. Ax glared at me. How is it that she could simply escape from the Yeerk pool?
Others have. The free Hork-Bajir are all escapees. Tobias turned to look at Jake. I agree with Ax, though. This does feel like a trap.
Cassie chose to pipe up at that moment. "But what if it is for real? I mean, these kids could really, really need our help. We can't just blow them off."
"Yeah, Cassie. Just like we couldn't blow off the Yeerk Rebellion or those internet geeks. I swear, Cass, you get us in more trouble--"
Poor Jake. He'd obviously had quite enough for the evening. "That's enough, Marco. We've all made mistakes before. Look, e-mail the girl, and see what happens."
All in all, it wasn't a very enthusiastic reaction. After all, we had been through this more than once, and a couple of dirty kids in the woods didn't sound quite as promising as, say, the Ellimist or the Andalite fleet. Still, it was something. That's how I found myself cutting school one fine Thursday morning. Tobias sat on my window sill, watching us. Ax was in his human form, brow furrowed and muttering to himself. "Hey, look…she instant messaged us!"
MonkeymansCrew: So, um…who are you?
Renaissance: Someone who wants to see the Yeerks go down. That's all.
MonkeymansCrew: Our leader wants to meet you.
Renaissance: I know…meet me tomorrow night behind the 7-11 on 5th and Main, Eleven o'clock. Okay?
MonkeymanCrew: Okay, but I should warn you that he won't be coming alone.
Renaissance: Neither will I.
MonkeymanCrew: I guess we can do a lot for each other, right?
[Renaissance is no longer signed on.]
We only had a little while left before the meeting. Alibis had been checked and re-checked. Parents had been lied to once more. I was starting to feel like the thousands of small betrayals really weren't worth the pain and anguish we felt about keeping our parents in the dark. One night, after a particularly bad battle, Jake and I had started to make a plan of what we'd do if it ever came to telling our parents. Sooner or later, that plan would be implemented.
We were all nervous about meeting this person. We still didn't know what was going on--we had known for a long time that there was a very small human resistance that posted on the internet, but this was something altogether new…kids even younger than us picking up Yeerk weaponry and communications devices for an unknown purpose. This really, really looked like a trap to me, but I wasn't sure I could just walk away from this one. Say what you will about me, there were kids involved in this, and either way, Controllers or not, they would probably get hurt. I couldn't just leave them to that fate. We did take precautions, though. Jake and I were the two obvious figures there. Both of us stood in the dark shadows, further disguised by our morphs--adult males that we had acquired a long time ago, before David sold us out. Cassie had thrown a fit about that. She was currently a pit viper, hidden under a dumpster. Tobias was there as himself, and Ax was in seagull morph.
Eleven came and went…nobody came to meet us. Everyone ran inside for a quick demorph and remorph. Finally, around 12:30, they arrived.
It was really weird the way they appeared; it was as though a bunch of shadows had just solidified into human form. There was a tall boy with coffee colored hair and dreadlocks that was built like a wall. He stood behind a small girl with blonde hair and green eyes. She looked just like the little girl, Kat--must've been her older sister. And then, there was Renee.
From the first instant I saw her, she bugged the hell out of me. I couldn't place it, but whenever I looked at her, I felt this vague sense of guilt and anger, and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why. She was really odd looking, too. Tall, reddish brown hair, skin almost olive colored like mine, and creepy grayish eyes. For a moment, she reminded me of my tall scary classmate, Kiera. She cocked her head, looking at Jake and I as though she knew us but couldn't quite place us. Then, she quirked a smile and started looking around the alley. The other girl and the boy never looked away. They stared Jake and me in the eye as though they hadn't expected to see us and weren't sure what was going on. I could see that they were both holding Dracon beams.
Jake nudged me in the ribs, and I started following Renee's gaze. Shit. Whoever this girl was, she was good. I just caught her look under the dumpster out of the corner of my eye, and she'd definitely made eye contact with Cassie. Renee smiled and looked up, tossing up a quick two-fingered salute at Tobias and Ax. Unless she was working under the assumption that some of us "Andalite Bandits" were in bug form, she had just identified all of us.
All of this had taken place in just under thirty seconds. She looked Jake and I up and down before saying in a slow, easy drawl, "So…?"
"You're late." There was the Jake I knew--the proper punctual drill sergeant.
"Traffic was bad." She sounded so old, yet there was no way she could be more than a year older than us. "You wanted to talk to me…I believe one of your number ran into some of my kids on a little retrieval mission."
Jake frowned. "We'll get to that. Right now, just tell me who you are and how you got involved with the Yeerks. The invasion isn't exactly common knowledge, you know."
Renee smirked. Yeesh…talk about the cat that ate the canary. "We'll get to that? Yeah, when I say we'll get to that, we'll get to that. Here's the rules: I don't ask you for your life stories, you don't ask me for mine. We'll save that for when you know me a little better." I decided that now would be a good time to speak up, since Jake was going a touch red in the face. That guy sure had been touchy lately.
"This retrieval operation…I assume you're talking about the way you have kids run around picking up leftovers from our battles?"
"We don't have the ability to turn into animals. We take the weapons away from the Yeerks. I would think that that would be a help to you."
"But using children--"
"Look, I just wanted the chance to look your leader in the eyes. You have my screen name. E-mail me if you want to talk. Use code. I'll be in touch. I'm sure we have a lot to teach each other. Maybe you'll even get to trust me enough to show me your real faces." She flashed a grin at Jake, but as she turned away I saw a sad look in her eyes.
"Taran, Zach, let's go home, 'kay?" With that, the three of them melted back into the shadows.
I'm on it! Immediately Cassie had gone from viper to girl to wolf. She trotted away in the direction they'd left in, and came back only a minute or so later. Sorry guys…I can't smell where they went at all. I smell a LOT of air fresheners, though. They covered their tracks.
I glanced at Jake and grinned brightly. "Well…that went well, didn't it, fearless leader?"
Jake just grated his teeth.