~Phoenix

Lol, you must have understood me wrong, I meant my comment was pointless. And truthfully, I really do think Scyeth is Jake in a furry blue sort of way…minus the seriousness of course. I keep on thinking Scyeth is a meld of Marco and Jake…in an Andalite manner …sorry you took it that way…

~L'il Kiddie

I'm not so sure about that. I'll just have to see what I can do about Elfangor, I know he's going to be mentioned but I don't think this fic is going to bring him alive…hmmm, maybe you will get to see him! But he'd still be dead of course…

THE THIRD BROTHER

CHAPTER SEVEN

To The Forest

MARCO

We were one mismatched badly depressed group. Rachel was finally demorphed though, after seriously freaking us –she said she'd go down there alone to get Tobias out. Of course it didn't happen –thank god to that. Now she walked beside Cassie, her blue eyes a silent storm of angry thoughts, I was sure I'd be the last one to ask her what she's thinking about all this.

Cassie's eyes were red from crying, she's still crying, and what's unusual was that Jake hadn't come up to comfort her and they still didn't give each other the pathetic looks, the corny talk and you know how these two are.

Anyway, I was walking besides the Ax man, but he too was off in his own thoughts. I guess Tobias was his best friend. His shorm. So I'm thinking he's going over stuff.

It seemed to me that I was the only one thinking with a clear brain so I decided to ask Jake what he thinks we should do. I did. And his reaction was better than I thought it would have been. You see, I expected an "I don't know you tell me" sort of look.

Instead he sighed. "We can't go back to get our parents. We're stuck here."

No one said anything but Cassie sobbed a little louder.

"Do we go to the Hork-Bajir valley?" I asked, then I answered myself. "No, that wouldn't help, Tobias knows exactly where it is, we should warn them maybe. You know, what with this situation coming up I'm thinking they'll be useful."

No one said anything.

"What do you think is going to happen to Tom?" Jake asked sadly. "Visser One would kill him for incompetence.'

"Don't sweat it just yet, Jake. Tom's useful to Visser One." I pointed out, "wouldn't surprise me if he tried to use him to get to you."

"And not just Jake." Rachel said quietly, glancing at Cassie. "We have families too."

"We have to decide." Jake spoke in a voiceless whisper. His eyes looked like those of a fifty-year old man, it didn't look like the Jake I've grown up with. "We have to decide now."

Ax remained quiet.

"Decide what?" Cassie muttered. She knew what. That was why she was crying, I suppose all of knew where the priority was.

That's why I didn't go raging off about how the Yeerks know everything about us and how they'd be coming close, hunting us down taking our families…I've always prided myself on being ruthless. I am. It's usually at my own expense, but now was not the time to let personal emotions mess things up. Now is the time to really ask ourselves what is important here; saving a planet full of people or our families?

"We have to agree. And then we have to promise never to go back on our word." Jake paused looked up from the ground, looked at us. "The days are only going to get rougher. We need everyone we got, but if…if anyone feels like they can't do this. I think that now would be a good time to say it."

No one said anything.

"Okay I," Jake ran a hand through his hair, glanced at me, "this isn't easy, but the next thing I'm asking you is that if you are staying then you promise you wouldn't either jeopardize a mission because it would help your family, or, go off on your own when a chance does come by, we talk it over together. Then we stick by the decision."

I had to admire Jake, this wasn't something I'd have wanted to tell anyone. I saw Rachel distancing herself from the group and Cassie stopped crying and sat down on a dead log.

"We stick by our decision even if it was immoral?" Cassie asked, looking at Jake with red eyes.

Jake swallowed, "why would it be immoral? How could you chose to save one person when on the other hand you have millions to take care of? And don't forget what the Yeerks plan to do to this planet after they take it. We have one chance at this, and then Earth would be over. So we have to do it right first time round."

"Gee Jake," I said, grinning, "the odds just get better and better don't they?"

No one laughed. I would have been surprised if they did. I didn't find my comment funny at all. What had surprised me there was the way Jake reminded Cassie of what would happen to good old Earth when it was run by the Yeerks. He was right after all, Earth would no longer look like Earth, it didn't bother me too much. But it bothered Cassie in the first degree. She's a nature freak.

"This is serious Marco," Jake said, but he wasn't angry.

"Jake, we have to save ourselves before we can save anybody." Cassie said so quietly I almost didn't hear her, "how can we save other people when we lose ourselves? My family is part of me. I…I can't just leave them."

Jake sighed, "Look, Cassie, this is war, bad things happen. I…" Jake paused, looked a little bit troubled. Then he smiled bitterly. "I told Justice that sometimes, war isn't about saving your friends, it's about saving people you don't know at all."

"What?" I frowned.

Jake shrugged, "it's a little…dream I had. Or maybe it wasn't a dream"-Jake said darkly, "anyway, I told this kid that when you're fighting for a large cause –like freedom- you can't chose who you save. It's sort of right isn't it? You can't leave a planet full of people enslaved and go off rescuing a minority."

There was a long pause of silence. I thought about that.

"Fine." Cassie said finally, "okay. I'm in. We stick together, right?"

"We're our own family." I didn't know why I was grinning; maybe it was all those grim faces. "I'm with you Jake."

Jake smiled, a little bit pained with my acting happy, "Right, we all know I'm for it, what about you Ax?"

Ax straightened up, I will follow you where you go Prince Jake.

"Don't call me that." Jake mumbled. Then he looked up and smiled. Ax smiled back.

"No!"

We turned, startled. Rachel was standing hands crossed over her chest. "No." she repeated, "I wouldn't promise that. Any chance I have to free my family I wouldn't turn it down."

"Rachel…"

"That would mean that if any of you were caught I'd have to turn away, right?" Rachel said bitterly, "just like the way you're all turning away. Tobias needs our help. What we're doing is promising not to help anyone we know."

Jake walked up to Rachel. "Rachel, this is war, we can't chose who we want to save. And like it or not, the people we really save aren't always our friends and families."

Rachel laughed, "Really, I recall you doing something extremely stupid when the Yeerks were after your father."

Jake flushed angrily, "that was ages ago."

"So you expect me to turn away like Marco does? Or you want me to plot Tobias's death?" Rachel snarled nastily.

"Hey!" I objected. I glared at Rachel angrily, "I did what I had to do."

Rachel said nothing to that. Then I noticed her lip was trembling. "Look, I can't promise not go after Tobias I-"

Jake walked over to Rachel, put his hand on her shoulder, "sure Rachel, Tobias is one of us, we'll get him out, all I'm saying is that we don't do anything rash."

Rachel sniffed. "I'm in then."

"Good." Jake said grimly, "Now Ax, you go to the Hork-Bajir valley. Tell Toby what happened and tell her that Jake says it's better for them to scatter and disappear in the forest, this way, we wouldn't lose everyone."

"Marco, you go get Erek. Cassie, you get the blue box –hide it. Rachel and I are going to take everything out of Ax's scoop and relocate. We'll find all of you later."

"How come Ax gets to keep his possessions and I don't?" I grumbled, already morphing osprey.

Jake grinned, "We're going to need a computer. We're also going to need TV."

I nodded, "life's scary without HBO."

Jake shook his head. "We're monitoring the news."

"Bummer." I mumbled. Just when I thought this life could be cozy…