**Disclamier: I don't own Animorphs *sighs* K.A. Applegate does. But that
doesn't mean I can't right this! :) He he he. But anyway...Enjoy the
fanfic. This is the first fanfic I've ever written and I hope you enjoy it.
Ja ne!**
Chapter 12:
"Well, this should be fun," I said, exhausted. You see, I hadn't had any sleep in two days, what with watching Cossette on and off for two hours at a time. Now it was time to watch her once again. Ax and I had started to walk back towards the deep section of the woods to start our next shift, when I thought I heard something. Probably just a couple of bobcats fighting over some territory.
Sarcasm I presume?
"Yeah."
Well, anyway, Cossette is nearing the third day mark and I have an odd feeling that today should be quite interesting. Unfortunately, it's definitely not going to be fun. For any of us, especially for your sister. And that's when I heard it again, and it definitely was not a Bobcat. Those were human cries, and something that sounded like a very large cat. Ax must've noticed it too because he stopped in the middle of what he was saying and stopped walking to.
"Did you hear that?" I asked him.
Yes, and it does not sound very good. At that point, we briefly glanced at one another, and then we started to run. And by run, I mean run.We ran towards the part of the forest he knew Cossette was in. Soon we heard panicked thought speak voices in our heads.
Aaaaahhhhh!
Jake, look out! Behind you!
"Oh man, this cannot be good," I muttered to myself.
Yes, it appears that the Yeerk has gotten desperate. It realizes that it's three days are almost up. This is not going to be fun, said Ax.
"Or pretty, definitely not pretty."
Oh no, Ax said, I guess it was supposed to be only to himself.
"When you say "Oh no" it's never good. What is it?"
I forgot to check her for...
TSEEEEEEEW!
For Dracon beam weapons.
Ahhhh, my wing! Its just,...gone! and that sounded a lot like Rachel.
"Oh, man!" And that's when we entered the little clearing we had been keeping Cossette, and let me tell you, it wasn't a pretty sight, and for not the first time, I wasn't happy for being right.
I watched as a bald eagle fell from the sky, it's right wing gone, just gone. Jake was in tiger morph, burn marks like racing strips down his back and sides. I could smell burn fur and flesh as we walked closer to the scene.
Tobias was racing towards Rachel, but he wasn't going to make it to her in time, and if he did, he would only be able to slow her fall, not stop it. I raced towards the falling eagle. I wasn't going to make it, she was falling too fast, too far away. I dove the last few feet and felt a searing pain on my right side as I smashed into the ground, catching Rachel only six inches before her impact with the earth.
Nice timing, Jess, She said to me, as she began to demorph. One second later and I would've been a nice eagle flavored pancake.
"No problem," I said, as I placed her gently on the ground. She was getting larger and I couldn't hold her up anymore. "Ow," I said as I started to get up. "My right side, it burns!" Then I looked at my side, and what I saw next caused me to scream. There was a burn that went from my thigh to my armpit, but that wasn't why I was screaming. The reason I was screaming was because I could see the muscle in my thigh and the bones in part of my rib cage.
JESSICA, I heard Ax scream in thought speak as I collapsed onto the ground, weak from all the blood I lost. The white pants I was wearing, now blood red. My vision was starting to dim as I watched the battle raging before me.
Jessica you need to morph, someone yelled at me. Something, anything! I tried, but it was hard. I concentrated on the lynx DNA that was a part of me and I felt it start to assert itself. The side of exposed bone and muscle started to grown skin and then fur. The pain! The pain, it was gone! I felt my strength start to renew itself as my hands turned to paws and my legs shortened while my feet grew.
The razor sharp claws of the lynx replaced my nails and its movement sensing eyes replaced my own dull ones. My ears slid to the top of my head as my skull changed shape.
I then felt the lynx's muscles replace my own. Their strength filled my body and I felt like the animal version of liquid steel and with that, the silence, stealth and gracefulness of the cat.
The last to change was my internal organs and the structure of my bones. I heard the squishing noises as my internal organs rearranged themselves. I was almost done, except for..Sprout! Except for the little, stubby tail of the lynx. Now my morph was complete, and I was still alive. Alive! But my joy was overcome by despair as I observed the ongoing battle before me.
I noticed Rachel starting to morph bear, but that wasn't who I was concerned about. "Jake, where's Marco and Tobias?" But he was too busy to answer. Then I spotted Tobias, he was fine. I looked up and watched as he dove through the air, aimed at Cossette. No, not at Cossette, at Cossette's dracon beam gun.
So that left Marco. "Oh no," I whispered when I saw him. Everyone must've been so busy attacking Cossette that they didn't notice what had happened to him. He was sprawled out on the ground in gorilla morph. The ground surrounding him a muddy red-brown, soaked with his blood. As I neared him I found out why. Right below his heart there was a hole. A hole the size of a half dollar. A hole that went all the way through him, so that you could see the grass he was laying on. I walked closer, he was still breathing.
Marco! I yelled. "Marco, demorph!" No answer. Marco! MARCO! MARCO, DEMORPH NOW! Please! Come on!
Huh, w-what?
Marco, you need to demorph! The gorilla is dying!
Huh?
Demorph now you idiot! I can see through the hole in your chest!
Hey, I'm not deaf. Then, when what I said finally got through to him, What?! he said, alarmed and shocked. Luckily, he began to demorph. Slowly, then faster, the gorilla started to melt away and the human Marco appeared. "Okay, that was close," he said in relief. "I guess you sister doesn't like me," he said looking at me, with a smirk on his face. "Not everyone can appreciate my charm and good looks."
Yeah, right Marco, I said, rolling my eyes. Most girls just give you the death look, my sister takes it a step further. But, anyway, come on, now that my sister has shot you, there's not really any other purpose for her to have that gun. Let's go! I said.
"Maybe I should morph something first."
Oh right, well join in as soon as you can. Take your time why don't you. I'd loved to actually see you get shot this time,
"Ha, ha, and ha. Very funny..." But then he was out of my hearing range. I crept on my silent, padded feet into the forest and and walked until I was about twenty feet right behind Cossette. Then I stared to run, and let me tell you, even for a small cat, I could do some serious damage if I wanted to, especially if I was unexpected. I started to build speed as I neared my sister. Then, when I was only three feet away, I jumped, hurtling myself at her.
"Oof," she said, as I knocked the wind right out of her. She lost her balance and fell, face first onto the ground. When she started to get up, Rachel knocked Cossette's head lightly with her paw, which is actually enough to knock someone out, which is exactly what it did. She collapsed onto the ground and the Dracon beam fell out of her hand.
Don't worry, I didn't kill her, Rachel said to me.
I know, but she'll probably be out for a while though, huh?
Yeah, Rachel said, as she started to demorph. I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't come after me like you did with Ax the last time Cossette was knocked out.
I had started to demorph too, so by the time I replied to her, I was basically human once again. "Yeah, luckily I know more about grizzlies than I do about Andalites. By now, everyone had demorphed and was human one again. Except for Ax, who was his normal Andalite self, and Tobias, who was a red tail hawk. Marco was still a little shaken up, almost dying can do that to you, but he was getting over it.
"Ax?" Jake asked.
Yes?
"Why didn't you tell us Cossette had a dracon beam?"
I simply forgot to check as I was tying her up, he said, looking at the ground and pawing the dirt with one of his hooves.
"Well," Jake sighed. "It was an honest mistake, but-"
"But it almost got me and Rachel killed!" Marco, of course.
I'm sorry, I was careless. I should've been more alert. Please forgive me Prince Jake.
"Don't call me "prince." But, it's okay because look around, were still all alive. I mean, we can't expect you to do everything," said Jake.
"Not to change the topic of anything but Ax tied her up, right? So how did she get loose and start shooting?" I asked.
Well, hawk eyes aren't very good in the dark..., Tobias began.
"Um, combine that with not sleeping for two days...," began Marco.
"I fell asleep," Rachel said. "There's no use in protecting me guys. I feel asleep and I'm the only one here with an owl morph. Marco was in wolf morph, but he was a few yards away behind some brush and couldn't see her and-"
"And I was in peregrine falcon morph and couldn't tell what she was doing," added Jake. "Tobias was his normal red tail self, so he couldn't see very well either."
"So she basically cut the ropes when no one was looking, but how?" I wondered.
She probably put the dracon beam on a low power setting and cut then cut the ropes that way, suggested Ax.
"That sounds about right," said Jake. "We did hear a really faint almost sizzling sound before she started to fire."
"Well this is great," I began. "We can't just keep knocking her unconscious, that obviously isn't going to work. She'll end up being messed up or something!" You can probably tell that I was really annoyed at that point.
We all looked down at Cossette, wondering what we were supposed to do with her now. The dracon beam was lying on the ground a couple yards away, just out of her reach, and that's when we saw it. What looked like a gray slug slowly began to appear in the ear canal of Cossette's right ear. It slowly slithered out and hit the ground with a small Splat!, like someone dropping a small ball of wet newspaper on the ground.
Then, right before our very eyes, it shriveled up, like when you leave a grape out in the sun. A slug version of a raisin. After it did this, it disintegrated, and the wind blew away the remainder of what was once a highly intelligent Yeerk slug.
"Okay, I just have one word to say to that,...Ew, just...Yuck! Gross! Weird, very weird."
"Jessica, that's a lot more than one word," said Marco, but he wasn't smiling. In fact, none of them were. None of them told him to shut up or to do anything else either, we all just stared at the ground, at the place were a Yeerk had been only a few moments before.
"Well, at least now we know she's not a Controller anymore," said Rachel.
"Yeah," I said. "But that's about all we know. She was a Controller for a lot longer than I was, who knows what it did to her."
"I have an idea of what it could've done and because of it, she might not be the same, at least not for a while, when she wakes up," said Jake.
"How do you know? You were never a Controller." But when I said that, I noticed everyone look away, everyone except Jake, who was looking straight at me, straight into my eyes. "You? You...You were a Controller but,...but how?"
"You don't need to know how, it's a long story. But you and I have been down the same road, and I'm sure that you know as well as I do, that after going through something like that, no one will ever be the same again."
"Yeah, I guess I do know, but I don't want her to be different. I want her to be the way she always was. To laugh and make jokes about all the different TV show we used to watch, like DBZ."
"Chances are, she'll still be that way, but something will have changed. You know it doesn't always show on the outside, some people hide it, like you and me," he was whispering now. "Besides, she has you to help her now, to help her get through this. Give her time, she'll be back to herself soon enough. But for now, she has a lot of new things to learn and is now on the opposite side of the war she was fighting in. Help her, trust me, she'll be okay."
I was going to say more, but I was Cossette's eyes start to flutter and then open. Jake looked down at her, gave me a smile, and then backed away, giving me and my sister a few feet. Everyone else backed up too, as Cossette's eyes opened completely as she sat, and then stood up, a troubled smile on her face. My sister was back, and now I would make sure that the way she was now, would be the way she would stay forever,...free.
Chapter 12:
"Well, this should be fun," I said, exhausted. You see, I hadn't had any sleep in two days, what with watching Cossette on and off for two hours at a time. Now it was time to watch her once again. Ax and I had started to walk back towards the deep section of the woods to start our next shift, when I thought I heard something. Probably just a couple of bobcats fighting over some territory.
Sarcasm I presume?
"Yeah."
Well, anyway, Cossette is nearing the third day mark and I have an odd feeling that today should be quite interesting. Unfortunately, it's definitely not going to be fun. For any of us, especially for your sister. And that's when I heard it again, and it definitely was not a Bobcat. Those were human cries, and something that sounded like a very large cat. Ax must've noticed it too because he stopped in the middle of what he was saying and stopped walking to.
"Did you hear that?" I asked him.
Yes, and it does not sound very good. At that point, we briefly glanced at one another, and then we started to run. And by run, I mean run.We ran towards the part of the forest he knew Cossette was in. Soon we heard panicked thought speak voices in our heads.
Aaaaahhhhh!
Jake, look out! Behind you!
"Oh man, this cannot be good," I muttered to myself.
Yes, it appears that the Yeerk has gotten desperate. It realizes that it's three days are almost up. This is not going to be fun, said Ax.
"Or pretty, definitely not pretty."
Oh no, Ax said, I guess it was supposed to be only to himself.
"When you say "Oh no" it's never good. What is it?"
I forgot to check her for...
TSEEEEEEEW!
For Dracon beam weapons.
Ahhhh, my wing! Its just,...gone! and that sounded a lot like Rachel.
"Oh, man!" And that's when we entered the little clearing we had been keeping Cossette, and let me tell you, it wasn't a pretty sight, and for not the first time, I wasn't happy for being right.
I watched as a bald eagle fell from the sky, it's right wing gone, just gone. Jake was in tiger morph, burn marks like racing strips down his back and sides. I could smell burn fur and flesh as we walked closer to the scene.
Tobias was racing towards Rachel, but he wasn't going to make it to her in time, and if he did, he would only be able to slow her fall, not stop it. I raced towards the falling eagle. I wasn't going to make it, she was falling too fast, too far away. I dove the last few feet and felt a searing pain on my right side as I smashed into the ground, catching Rachel only six inches before her impact with the earth.
Nice timing, Jess, She said to me, as she began to demorph. One second later and I would've been a nice eagle flavored pancake.
"No problem," I said, as I placed her gently on the ground. She was getting larger and I couldn't hold her up anymore. "Ow," I said as I started to get up. "My right side, it burns!" Then I looked at my side, and what I saw next caused me to scream. There was a burn that went from my thigh to my armpit, but that wasn't why I was screaming. The reason I was screaming was because I could see the muscle in my thigh and the bones in part of my rib cage.
JESSICA, I heard Ax scream in thought speak as I collapsed onto the ground, weak from all the blood I lost. The white pants I was wearing, now blood red. My vision was starting to dim as I watched the battle raging before me.
Jessica you need to morph, someone yelled at me. Something, anything! I tried, but it was hard. I concentrated on the lynx DNA that was a part of me and I felt it start to assert itself. The side of exposed bone and muscle started to grown skin and then fur. The pain! The pain, it was gone! I felt my strength start to renew itself as my hands turned to paws and my legs shortened while my feet grew.
The razor sharp claws of the lynx replaced my nails and its movement sensing eyes replaced my own dull ones. My ears slid to the top of my head as my skull changed shape.
I then felt the lynx's muscles replace my own. Their strength filled my body and I felt like the animal version of liquid steel and with that, the silence, stealth and gracefulness of the cat.
The last to change was my internal organs and the structure of my bones. I heard the squishing noises as my internal organs rearranged themselves. I was almost done, except for..Sprout! Except for the little, stubby tail of the lynx. Now my morph was complete, and I was still alive. Alive! But my joy was overcome by despair as I observed the ongoing battle before me.
I noticed Rachel starting to morph bear, but that wasn't who I was concerned about. "Jake, where's Marco and Tobias?" But he was too busy to answer. Then I spotted Tobias, he was fine. I looked up and watched as he dove through the air, aimed at Cossette. No, not at Cossette, at Cossette's dracon beam gun.
So that left Marco. "Oh no," I whispered when I saw him. Everyone must've been so busy attacking Cossette that they didn't notice what had happened to him. He was sprawled out on the ground in gorilla morph. The ground surrounding him a muddy red-brown, soaked with his blood. As I neared him I found out why. Right below his heart there was a hole. A hole the size of a half dollar. A hole that went all the way through him, so that you could see the grass he was laying on. I walked closer, he was still breathing.
Marco! I yelled. "Marco, demorph!" No answer. Marco! MARCO! MARCO, DEMORPH NOW! Please! Come on!
Huh, w-what?
Marco, you need to demorph! The gorilla is dying!
Huh?
Demorph now you idiot! I can see through the hole in your chest!
Hey, I'm not deaf. Then, when what I said finally got through to him, What?! he said, alarmed and shocked. Luckily, he began to demorph. Slowly, then faster, the gorilla started to melt away and the human Marco appeared. "Okay, that was close," he said in relief. "I guess you sister doesn't like me," he said looking at me, with a smirk on his face. "Not everyone can appreciate my charm and good looks."
Yeah, right Marco, I said, rolling my eyes. Most girls just give you the death look, my sister takes it a step further. But, anyway, come on, now that my sister has shot you, there's not really any other purpose for her to have that gun. Let's go! I said.
"Maybe I should morph something first."
Oh right, well join in as soon as you can. Take your time why don't you. I'd loved to actually see you get shot this time,
"Ha, ha, and ha. Very funny..." But then he was out of my hearing range. I crept on my silent, padded feet into the forest and and walked until I was about twenty feet right behind Cossette. Then I stared to run, and let me tell you, even for a small cat, I could do some serious damage if I wanted to, especially if I was unexpected. I started to build speed as I neared my sister. Then, when I was only three feet away, I jumped, hurtling myself at her.
"Oof," she said, as I knocked the wind right out of her. She lost her balance and fell, face first onto the ground. When she started to get up, Rachel knocked Cossette's head lightly with her paw, which is actually enough to knock someone out, which is exactly what it did. She collapsed onto the ground and the Dracon beam fell out of her hand.
Don't worry, I didn't kill her, Rachel said to me.
I know, but she'll probably be out for a while though, huh?
Yeah, Rachel said, as she started to demorph. I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't come after me like you did with Ax the last time Cossette was knocked out.
I had started to demorph too, so by the time I replied to her, I was basically human once again. "Yeah, luckily I know more about grizzlies than I do about Andalites. By now, everyone had demorphed and was human one again. Except for Ax, who was his normal Andalite self, and Tobias, who was a red tail hawk. Marco was still a little shaken up, almost dying can do that to you, but he was getting over it.
"Ax?" Jake asked.
Yes?
"Why didn't you tell us Cossette had a dracon beam?"
I simply forgot to check as I was tying her up, he said, looking at the ground and pawing the dirt with one of his hooves.
"Well," Jake sighed. "It was an honest mistake, but-"
"But it almost got me and Rachel killed!" Marco, of course.
I'm sorry, I was careless. I should've been more alert. Please forgive me Prince Jake.
"Don't call me "prince." But, it's okay because look around, were still all alive. I mean, we can't expect you to do everything," said Jake.
"Not to change the topic of anything but Ax tied her up, right? So how did she get loose and start shooting?" I asked.
Well, hawk eyes aren't very good in the dark..., Tobias began.
"Um, combine that with not sleeping for two days...," began Marco.
"I fell asleep," Rachel said. "There's no use in protecting me guys. I feel asleep and I'm the only one here with an owl morph. Marco was in wolf morph, but he was a few yards away behind some brush and couldn't see her and-"
"And I was in peregrine falcon morph and couldn't tell what she was doing," added Jake. "Tobias was his normal red tail self, so he couldn't see very well either."
"So she basically cut the ropes when no one was looking, but how?" I wondered.
She probably put the dracon beam on a low power setting and cut then cut the ropes that way, suggested Ax.
"That sounds about right," said Jake. "We did hear a really faint almost sizzling sound before she started to fire."
"Well this is great," I began. "We can't just keep knocking her unconscious, that obviously isn't going to work. She'll end up being messed up or something!" You can probably tell that I was really annoyed at that point.
We all looked down at Cossette, wondering what we were supposed to do with her now. The dracon beam was lying on the ground a couple yards away, just out of her reach, and that's when we saw it. What looked like a gray slug slowly began to appear in the ear canal of Cossette's right ear. It slowly slithered out and hit the ground with a small Splat!, like someone dropping a small ball of wet newspaper on the ground.
Then, right before our very eyes, it shriveled up, like when you leave a grape out in the sun. A slug version of a raisin. After it did this, it disintegrated, and the wind blew away the remainder of what was once a highly intelligent Yeerk slug.
"Okay, I just have one word to say to that,...Ew, just...Yuck! Gross! Weird, very weird."
"Jessica, that's a lot more than one word," said Marco, but he wasn't smiling. In fact, none of them were. None of them told him to shut up or to do anything else either, we all just stared at the ground, at the place were a Yeerk had been only a few moments before.
"Well, at least now we know she's not a Controller anymore," said Rachel.
"Yeah," I said. "But that's about all we know. She was a Controller for a lot longer than I was, who knows what it did to her."
"I have an idea of what it could've done and because of it, she might not be the same, at least not for a while, when she wakes up," said Jake.
"How do you know? You were never a Controller." But when I said that, I noticed everyone look away, everyone except Jake, who was looking straight at me, straight into my eyes. "You? You...You were a Controller but,...but how?"
"You don't need to know how, it's a long story. But you and I have been down the same road, and I'm sure that you know as well as I do, that after going through something like that, no one will ever be the same again."
"Yeah, I guess I do know, but I don't want her to be different. I want her to be the way she always was. To laugh and make jokes about all the different TV show we used to watch, like DBZ."
"Chances are, she'll still be that way, but something will have changed. You know it doesn't always show on the outside, some people hide it, like you and me," he was whispering now. "Besides, she has you to help her now, to help her get through this. Give her time, she'll be back to herself soon enough. But for now, she has a lot of new things to learn and is now on the opposite side of the war she was fighting in. Help her, trust me, she'll be okay."
I was going to say more, but I was Cossette's eyes start to flutter and then open. Jake looked down at her, gave me a smile, and then backed away, giving me and my sister a few feet. Everyone else backed up too, as Cossette's eyes opened completely as she sat, and then stood up, a troubled smile on her face. My sister was back, and now I would make sure that the way she was now, would be the way she would stay forever,...free.