Chapter 5
Jake told me what to do. We both knew what we refused to say aloud. I was going to die. I was going to die, right after killing my cousin, the person Jake had been trying to save from the start. I was scared. My mom, my sisters, Jake, Cassie, Marco, Ax, and Tobias all think that I'm some sort of lover of war. I did get a thrill from it, but I did not love it like they thought I did Maybe they were right, and I was addicted to it, but I felt sorry for the people I killed. I was not beyond human emotion. I knew that. I could still feel. Love is an emotion, and what else was there to describe what I felt for Tobias? I understood why Jake sent me. I knew that I was the only one who could do it. I did not blame him. Still, that did not change the fact that I was scared and wanted to live. I morphed bald eagle, and started to fly away. I already missed every one. I knew I would never see them again in person. I would never see Tobias again in person. They would not know where I was until it was too late. If Marco were here, he would make some stupid joke about me not being able to be afraid, after all, I was Xena: Warrior Princess. But he was not there. I was alone. I soared up into the air, looking one last time at the area I had called home all my life. The area I would never see again. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a ball of fire fall from the sky and crash into the woods nearby. I swerved. I did not have very much time left on earth, so I decided that I might as well go investigate. I wanted to spend my last few hours happy.
The fiery ball had landed a few miles away, so I flew over to where I last saw it before it dipped below the treetops. After I found the point where it hit the tops of the trees, it was easy to find; saplings and branches had been broken and twisted as the thing descended. I saw a slight amount of movement behind a screen of leaves, and tried to move in for a closer look. I landed on a branch nearby, trying to look like an ordinary eagle. It was getting slightly dark, so my eyesight was not what it would have been during the day. I could not see very well, and the leaves in between the thing and me were not helping any. I looked a bit closer, and thought I could make out three figures dragging a third out. One looked like a small, seven-foot tall dinosaur, another looked like a centaur, and the last two looked like humans. It was one of the humans that was being dragged out. I realized what I was looking at. It was an Andalite, a Hork-Bajir, and a couple of humans. For a moment I thought it might be Visser One with his cronies, but I took a second look and realized that it was a different Andalite. Oh, my God, I thought, as I looked one more time. That girl on the ground looked kind of like Cassie, but... not. It looked like an older version of Cassie. And I realized I knew that Hork-Bajir from somewhere, I just couldn't place it. And was that General Doubleday? What was he doing here, when he should be getting ready to provide the distraction? I heard snatches of their conversation.
"She was knocked...after we were...by the meteor. Why does everything...weird?"
The Hork-Bajir answered the human. "I don't know. Yahal...you think?"
I watched them listening to the Andalites private thoughtspeak. I was concerned. I decided to venture forward and try talking to the Cassie look-alike.
Cassie? That's you, isn't it?
The girl fluttered her eyes, and then sat up. Her face showed a look of pure horror, and she screamed.
I tried again. Cassie, it's me. It's Rachel.
She started to look around desperately, and finally her eyes locked onto mine. "Rachel?" She asked. "Is that eagle you? How... What are you doing here? Where are you going? How are you here?"
The Hork-Bajir kneeled as well as she could, and spoke to Cassie. "Cassie, you were hit in the head when we crashed. You're hallucinating. Calm down."
"No, no, I'm not. Rachel, talk to them. Talk to all of them! Prove to them that you're alive!"
I had no idea what she was talking about, but something in the intensity of her voice told me that something was going on. Confused, I flew down to the burning wreckage of the space ship, as they were saying it was, and spoke.
Hello, Cassie, General Doubleday, I paused. I looked again at the two aliens, and made a startling discovery. The familiar-looking Hork-Bajir was Toby! Toby, Mr. Andalite. Cassie, why are you, and Toby, and the General staring at me?
The Andalite started to speak. Cassie, I believe a Sario Rip was opened when we crashed into the meteor. My time sense is still adjusting.
Sario Rip? That sounds familiar... Where have I heard it before? I wondered. Then, I watched Cassie turn pale.
"A Sario Rip... That's the rip in the time-space continuum, right? Do you mean that we went back in time?" She demanded of the Andalite.
Yes. The only way to get back to our own time is to recreate the explosion that sent us here. Do you know when we are? Do you know this thing?
I simply stared at them. I slowly demorphed. My mouth dropped open. "Wait," I said. "Are you saying that you are Cassie, Toby, General Doubleday, and an Andalite from the future?"
The Andalite turned all four eyes on me. You are a human, not a bird?
I nodded. "Yes, I am a human. I have the Andalite morphing technology, given to me by Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. Now, yes or no, you are from the future?"
Cassie stepped forward. "Yes Rachel. We are from the future. We don't know how long though. Where are you going right now?"
I looked at her. She was a bit older, and she still had not gotten a clue about clothing. I could not help but smile. She seemed sadder though. And the way she was staring at me, it just plain scared me. I looked away, unable to absorb it all. "Cassie, I am on my way to the Blade Ship. Do you know what happened? Jake wants me to go and kill Tom." I looked at her again. "By the way, what's the Andalite's name?"
A ghost of a smile flitted across her face. The way she looked at me was so weird. It unnerved me. "His name is Yahal-Corass-Jahar." She paused, her face conflicted, her eyes on me the entire time, looking as though she had seen a ghost. "So that's what that gargantuan space ship coming down to earth was. It was the Pool Ship. Yes, I remember. I know what happened. We beat the Yeerks. Alloran was freed. Visser One went on trial, and is imprisoned for three hundred years. Everybody knows about the Yeerks, about us. Andalite tourism is quite popular. Yahal is a pilot for one of the tourist transports. A select few people from militaries all over the world have the morphing power, in exchange for a Krispy Kreme franchise on the Andalite home world. Ax became a prince. Jake went into a deep depression, because you were successful in killing Tom, and he condemned seventeen thousand unhosted Yeerks to death. Also, because- never mind. Tobias disappeared for two years, living as a hawk. It was because of, um... He only appeared in public once, a few days after the Yeerks were defeated. The Blade Ship got away, and Ax was kidnapped. Jake, Tobias, and Marco left to go save him, because the Yeerks went to a galaxy the Andalites are not allowed into, there is some treaty... Jake made me stay on earth. I went after them, and on our way out of the solar system, we hit a meteor... Now we're here."
I looked at her. "What happened to me Cassie? Where do I fit in?"
She looked away.
"You're purposely avoiding the subject, Cassie. I know you too well."
She looked back at me, her face conflicted and tortured. Her eyes were hollow and dark. "The third reason Jake is so depressed... The reason why Tobias disappeared... Tobias only appeared to the public once, to take something. You died, Rachel, he came to take your ashes." A tear rolled out of her eye.
