A/N: For those of you who asked what a Mary-Sue was, it's basically a perfect girl. She's beautiful, smart, funny, innocent, and spoiled and used to everybody pampering her. She has a crush on one of the main characters, and every guy in the book usually has a crush on her. She has no flaws, except for shyness, because she can never tell her crush that she likes him, thinking she is not good enough, pretty enough, smart enough, etc. for them. In Harry Potter fics, she is almost always Voldemort's daughter, or if not, related in some way to Malfoy, Snape, or Voldemort. At the end of the story, she usually dies trying to save the character she likes. With her last dying breath, she tells the character that she loves them, and there is a big, sappy, sickening scene where the character swears revenge for the love of his life and says goodbye to her body. He then kills whoever or whatever killed the Mary-Sue. Having a Mary-Sue in a fic is one of the worst things possible, because she is in no way original. Also, sorry if I'm a bit slower getting chapters out now, but in addition to this one, I'm working on my original novel, a parody co-written with my friend Lnzy about two horrible teachers we used to have, and a companion to this trilogy which is Sandra's story. When I post it, I'll let all of you wonderful, lovely, faithful reviewers know, because I think it will give you a better idea of who she is and convince you that she is not a Mary-Sue. The story will only be one chapter long, but it will be one very long chapter. Anyway, you can read the story now!
Chapter 13
Early the next morning I woke up refreshed, although I had spend the night on the hard, lumpy ground with a pile of grass as my pillow. I was used to sleeping for not very long in strange conditions by now, after spending the last six months of my life in a spaceship, and before that, in the Hork-Bajir valley. Even if that did happen three and a half years ago, it still feels like only six months to me.
No one else was awake yet, except for some Hork-Bajir moving around in the trees far overhead, and Captain Miaker and some other Murkra eating their frozen stores of broccoli. Broccoli was actually an alien plant that was originally brought to Earth by the Mercora, the Murkra's ancestors. That colony was eventually destroyed when the comet that killed the dinosaurs landed on their city, but the other colony that eventually became the Murkra survived. Neither one ever knew about each other.
I heard a yawn behind me, and saw Jake stretch and wake up. He rubbed his eyes blearily. "I really don't want to wake up," he commented.
"Oh, just get over it," I chided him, standing up to go onto our ship. Unless we were planning on eating bark with the Hork-Bajir, I thought that I should get some of the broccoli. I stood up and walked onto the ship, helping myself to some of the recently thawed broccoli. I made a face. I didn't even really like cooked broccoli, but this was a few million years old, from what I had heard. Oh, well, it looked fresh enough.
I brought over enough broccoli for all of the humans to eat breakfast, and placed it on a small rock nearby. I realized that Tobias was no where to be found, so I guessed he was out hunting. I had no idea what he could eat, but I figured that if worst came to worst, he would be able to catch a chadoo. The Andalites had plenty of grass to graze on. I didn't know what the Isk part of Guide ate, but he looked alright, so I didn't worry about him.
I munched on the vegetable for a few minutes until Marco and Cassie woke up. I was sitting right in front of Marco, so the broccoli in my hand was the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes.
"Man, not broccoli again. I promised myself that I would never even look at that again after we got back from the Cretaceous period," he whined.
"Do you ever shut up?" I retorted.
"For all you know, I could have been quiet the entire time you were dead."
"Cassie!" I called. "Did Marco ever shut up when I was dead?"
"No," she replied, smirking.
"You weren't supposed to tell her that," he said, facing Cassie. She laughed at him, and, after a minutes, he did too. I smiled and handed them both enough broccoli to last them until lunch.
If we lived until lunch.
Sandra, Menderash, General Doubleday, Tom, Jeanne, and Santorelli awoke a few moments later, and soon Tobias returned from his hunt. We ate, chatting about everything. Amazing how normal your conversations can be, no matter how strange your life has become. Sandra and Marco sat next to each other, quite close. I grinned when I realized that he had finally her out. Good for him, it was about time.
We finished breakfast, and everybody that had been on the Jahar II and the Rachel, Sandra, Captain Miaker, and Guide all gathered together for a meeting to decide what we were going to do about the One. However, I agreed with Cassie, and thought that we should basically do the same as we were going to do: Go after him and hope for the best.
Jake rolled his eyes when he saw how many people there were at the meeting. I decided that it was because he had always been annoyed with so many people at the meetings in the Hork-Bajir valley, so he must be going through the same thing here. Too many people with too many agendas.
"Okay," he said, "we need to do something. What do we do, and when?"
"Now," I volunteered. "And we can just do what we were going to do yesterday."
Marco raised his hand. "Do we have to do this?" he asked. "I mean, it seems like every time we run into something without a solid plan, we end up screaming and bleeding and running away with our tail between our legs. It's just not fun."
I grinned. "What do you mean it's not fun? It's the greatest part of our little job as Animorphs!"
"She's crazy I tell you!" Marco exclaimed. "Crazy."
Jake looked confused. "We can't do anything else, really, because we don't know enough about the One. The only things we know about him are from Ax, and he thinks that the only way to defeat him is mentally, in games, and that was millions of years ago when he was Father. So this is pretty much the only thing to do, right?"
Cassie paused, and then nodded. Marco, as much as he complains, knew Jake was right, and he nodded too.
I'm ready, Tobias said.
All the other morph-capable people, and Toby, agreed. Even Captain Miaker went along with us. I guessed that it was because he wanted revenge on the Garatron. Only Ax was silent.
"Ax?" Jake asked.
Ax looked down, shuffling his hooves. He didn't say anything. We all looked at him expectantly.
It is not our place to do anything, he finally said, his stalk eyes facing the ground.
I snorted, and rolled my eyes. Jake gave me a warning look.
"Why not?" he asked, trying to appear calm, but sounding slightly annoyed anyway.
The One is on Hork-Bajir soil now, Ax replied. He is no longer our problem.
That made me angry. "What do you mean he's no longer our problem? He's going to keep chasing us until he absorbs us or we destroy him. And anyway, he dragged the Kelbrid into this, so now there's an infringement of the treaty between you people and the Garatron. It's not just the Garatron that came into Andalite space either, it's you who was brought there and Yahal who came willingly. It is your problem, and therefore it's our problem, too," I exploded.
"One for all and all for one," Marco joked, smirking. But I could still tell that he still agreed with me. For once.
Ax turned his stalk eyes away, and slumped his back. He was quiet.
"There's more, isn't there?" Cassie asked quietly. She looked at him imploringly.
Ax did not move for a moment, but then slowly nodded his head. You do not understand. The One is more powerful than you think. Being absorbed by him is… Being absorbed by him is horrible. Living hell. You are alone, except for him and his tortures.
Cassie nodded, her eyes empathetic. She always knew what to say. "If we can do something about it, though, we have to, right? We all know that the Hork-Bajir cannot deal with this on their own. No offense, Toby. So we have to help."
Don't you understand?! There is nothing you can do! Ax yelled. I jumped. Ax never yells.
"It would be the honorable thing to do."
It looked like a shudder ran through Ax's body. He then stood straighter and held his stalk eyes up. Painfully, slowly, Ax said, I know. I will do it. I will follow Jake, my prince.
I smiled. Cassie had an effect on him.
Jake jerked as though he had just been startled. I decided that he had not thought of himself as anybody's prince for years. Ever since I died.
"I guess that it's decided then! Let's go get ourselves absorbed by the One!" Marco said brightly.
We all laughed, and everybody who could not morph, minus Toby, wished us luck and said goodbye. It was much more emotional than the last time, because we were not so rushed by trying to save Guide. With a final hug for all of us from Sandra, we turned around and left to once again go and try to defeat a monster.
A/N: Please review? Please? I love reviews, especially when you review every single chapter! Reviews make me soooo happy! *Stares dreamily into computer screen that shows reviews on The Carried* Oh, and if you leave your email or leave a signed review, I will email you whenever I update. Thanx!