Chapter four









I walked around the streets, debating on whether or not to go back home. I had hidden the dagger in the woods before I came into town.

I walked aimlessly around until I found myself in front of my house. I took a deep breath and walked up to my door, then paused. I tried to hear what was going on inside, it was obvious that my parents were arguing.

"How could you let them in?!" My father was saying, "They could've been murders for all we know and now Leigh's disappeared!"

"Don't worry about it." My mother said, "She'll come back. She's a smart girl, and probably stayed with a friend. You have nothing to worry about."

I opened the door and peeped inside.

My dad turned his head and looked straight at me. "Where have you been, Leigh?!" He shouts at me. "We were worried sick, and you haven't called or anything."

I came in and closed the door, time to face the music. "I was at a friend's house." I told him.

"Why did you take off like that?" My mother asked concern, "You could've been hurt or worse! Dead somewhere in a ditch and we wouldn't have known."

Yeah, riiiigggghhhhtttt. I thought and resisted the urge to roll my eyes. As if she cared, all she wants is the stinkin' dagger. I'm just a tool.

So I put on my best 'I'm so sorry but I was scared' face with a few tears to make it look real.

Halley Barry, eat your heart out.

"I'm sorry.." I sniffed, "but.I was.I was so scared of him, mama! He didn't feel right!" I hugged her letting the tears flow. God, if I wasn't a clairvoyant, I should be an actress.

Thank you, Thank you, I'd like to thank all the little people for helping me get this Oscar Award.

"Don't worry about it." She told me, "You don't have to see him any more." She pulled me away from her. By now, I knew what she was looking at. A red face child with a runny nose and tear streaked face. Ok, so some of it wasn't totally fake.

"Now, where is the dagger?" She asked.

I blinked and rubbed my eyes, "The-the dagger?" I repeated stupidly like I didn't know what she was talking about. Of course I knew where it was and how it worked, but I'm not about to tell her that.

I bowed my head, "It-it was st-stolen." I stuttered. "I'm sorry, but some guy took it from me and ran off."

"Do you know what he looks like?" Her voice was now high pitched and was urgent.

"Who was he?" She began to shake me. "Who was he?!"

"Mama you're hurting me!" I cried, which was the truth. He nails were like claws on my shoulders, digging into them.

"Stop it!" My father said quietly, "Let her go now or I swear I'll hit you."

She stopped and glared at him then backed away.

"Where's the dagger, Leigh?" He asked gently, "Don't worry, everything will be alright."

I looked at him. My father was kind and very wise. He knew me very well, I just hope not good enough to know when I'm lying.

"I don't know." I told him, "I didn't see his face..it happened so fast, I didn't have time to react." I looked down, "All I know is that he has red hair."

My father smiled at me and put a hand on my shoulder, "It's ok, why don't you go upstairs take a bath and get some rest?"

I nodded and mumbled an ok, then went upstairs.

It was late when I heard a tapping sound at my window. I looked at the glowing digits of my alarm clock. It read 1:22 AM. I had fallen asleep a little after seven so I had been asleep for six hours.

I groaned and got up, I was wearing light brown pajama shorts with a tank top. I put my gloves on then opened the window.

Move out of the way. I heard and backed away from the window.

In flew three owls and one hawk.

"What are you guys doing here?" I whispered and peeped out of my room and down the hall. There was a guest room between my room and my parents.

They demorphed to their original forms.

I turned back and looked at two people, a red-tail hawk and an alien in my room.

"Listen." Jake began, "We need you for our mission tomorrow night. So tomorrow, you will be admitted into our group." He stares at me, "If you want to."

I just stared at them, "Is that why you're here tonight?" I asked, "Wait, how did you know I came home?"

Cassie smiled slightly, " We had Tobias follow you just in case there was trouble."

I shook my head, "Ok, ok,.." I started to weigh my options again. Then nodded,

"Alright, I'll do it."

Jake smirked, though it didn't look like it belongs on his serious face. "Good, meet us at the barn after school."

"Sure," I told him, "Now may I please get back to sleep?"

What, do you need your beauty rest? Tobias asked.

"Watch, bird boy or I'll turn you into a feather duster and sell you for a hundred bucks."

Only a hundred? He sounded miffed, I'm worth more than that.

Let's go. Jake told them once they had remorphed. He looked at me one last time,

See you tomorrow, Leigh.



I groaned as I made my way to Cassie's house. I had a mountain of make up work, not to mention that people want more updates on my story, and my parents aren't speaking to each other.

I walked up to the barn where the meeting was being held and slipped in unnoticed. Or so I thought.

"Hey, Leigh," Marco said, "Had a good night sleep?"

I glared at him, "Apparently not, Marco Polo." I said, "Or I wouldn't have fallen asleep in the middle of Geometry."

He smirked but decided to bother Rachel.

I sat on a bale of hay and started writing and adding more to my story.

"What are you doing?" Cassie asked and looked at my notebook. In my notebook there were stories and some doodles in the margin and comments here or there.

She read a part out loud:

"She could only think about him. The way he smiled, or talked, or even frown, they all seemed special to her.

But she knew that this could never be. She was forbidden to fall in love with anyone or to find happiness anywhere. Of course, she didn't care anymore, thanks to her father's training, she could no long feel. All the love that a human was born with or possessed, was bled out of her at a very young age..or so she thought."

Cassie looked at me, "Is this suppose to be a romance story?" She asked.

"A little, but it mostly about the fact that she's a trained warrior that was never loved. Her mother was dead and her father was a cold-hearted soldier himself and trained her like he was."

She nodded, "Sounds sad."

I shrugged, "Especially when it really happened and she had committed suicide because her father killed the man she loved."

"Are all your stories like this?" She asked giving me the book back, "Do they all die at the end?"

I looked at her, "Of course they do, Cass." I told her, "Everyone dies someday, some are sooner than others. Sometimes..there are those that are given an extra push into death. But they all died..we all died. It's the way our universe is."

She didn't look too happy about it but nodded, accepting it.

"Sorry I'm late." Jake said walking in. "My mom wouldn't let me leave until I finished the dishes."

"Our Fearless Leader is a homemaker." Marco mutters.

He looks at me, "You ready?"

I shrugged, "No one is ever ready for anything." I hopped down, "Now is a good enough time as any."

"Ax."

The Andalite came forward with a blue box he held in one of his many fingered hands.

"Shouldn't we make an oath or something?" Marco asked. "That way it'll be more official."

Jake rolled his eyes, "Alright."

Marco grinned and then turned somber, which is really amazing to watch. He turned to me. "Take off your glove."

I took off my left one.

"Now, repeat after me." He began. "I, Leigh(Fill-in any name you want cause it'll still be wrong.), solemnly swear to use the morphing power that is bestowed upon you to fight the yeerks and save the planet."

I repeated the whole thing feeling kind of silly.

Now put one of your hands on one side of the square. Ax instructed. You will feel a tingling feeling.

I did and I felt more than a tingling feeling, I felt emotions that I shouldn't be able to feel. I saw scenes from the past that I shouldn't be able to see, and now they were all in my mind.

~*Flash back*~

The yeerks are right behind me! I thought as I flew faster. I have to get them away from this planet. The planet where Loren lived on with..with our son.

Engine one has been hit. Main control systems..damage The computer announced. I have to land. Even though..

The ship rocked again and I lurched forward. My wounds were too deep, I don't think I'll survive.

I landed in a open area and opened the hatchet. I have to get away, even if it was only for a moment.

Wait! I see something. Human..children?!

A plan began to formulate in my foggy mind. I hate to do this, but they are the only hopes that this world has.

I called the children to me, so young they are..and that boy..he looks like.he looks like her.

Tobias, I said after learning his name and given him and his friends the power to morph.

How is your.mother?

But when he told me his mother left when he was little, I felt a piece of me die. Loren.Loren. I should have stayed. I could have.

Go now! I ordered, Don't let him.them see you! One of the other children grabbed him and dragged him away.

Another spacecraft landed next to mine. An evil sinister laughter rang out through our heads.

Visser Three.the Abomination..that I helped create.

~*End of Flashback*~

I wiped the sweat from my forehead with my sleeve. That was him..I thought, that was the Andalite prince from my dreams. But his memories weren't the only ones that I saw. I also saw David and some of his thoughts. He was exactly what I had predicted about him earlier; evil.

I felt sick to my stomach as I saw glimpses of what had happened. There definitely was some high emotion hanging around that cube, most of it wasn't good. The cube was a weapon, and a weapon to me, was dangerous as hell.

I stepped backwards from the cube, my mind was still trying to process the information that was swimming through my head.

Was that what they'd been through? I wondered and looked at them, all of that and they still act like they should to everyone else? If I could, I would have said duh. Of course they had to act like they did everyday. It must be hard for them and now me.

I swallowed thickly before everything seemed to become somewhat normal.

"Are you ok?" Cassie asked.

I nodded numbly, yeah, I'm fine, after seeing and hearing screams shouts, a murder. The normal things to me.

What happened? Tobias asked You're shaking.

"I'll be fine." I said forcefully, though I didn't feel it. "So, what animal should I try?"

I was changing the subject and they knew it.

"Well," Cassie began, "Take your pick."

I looked around. There were foxes, a skunk, a squirrel, a deer, two turtles, a horse and an owl.

I went over to the foxes. I've always liked animals. Foxes were cute, and down right clever if you think about it.

Its fur was red and white and its eyes were dark brown. This fox had its paw bandaged. Its paws were black as soot and the top of its ears were black too.

"Be careful." Cassie cautioned, "They might bite you."

I stared at it and it stared back at me. On some level, we understood each other. If I make the wrong move, it'll try and kill me.

"Oh, and one more thing." Rachel looks at me, "You can only morph in tight fitting clothes."

"Yeah," Jake nods, "We haven't figured out how to morph with sweaters, shoes or a watch."

"Of course not." I said, "The power was meant for Andalites only. They wouldn't have any need for clothes." I touched the fox and concentrated on it while thinking that it was a good thing that I wore my jazz pants and a white shirt from ballet last year. Jazz pants are spandex material so it would keep me covered.

I stood up and took my other gloves off. "Ok. Lets try this out." I muttered and took off my shirt.

"Sorry, I don't have any money." Marco said.

"Shut up Marco Polo." I snapped.

"My, aren't we prepared."

"Hello!" I glared at him, "I've seen your memories, of course I would know what you wear ahead of time. Sheesh." That's when I started to concentrate on the fox's DNA inside of me.

The first thing that happened was that my ears side up to either side of my head and became a little pointed, and fuzzy. At the same time I began to shrink. Then a tail began to grow from my tailbone until it became a bushy red tail with a white tip.

At this point I was still mostly human. My face began to bulge out into a snout and fur grew along my body. My arms and legs began to shift and turned into a fox's legs, and of course at that time I fell on all fours.

Whiskers grew out and my human eyes turned into fox's eyes, which were much darker color than my own. Pads were on the bottom of my feet and my feet..it looked like something between a dog and a cat's paw.

That's when I felt it. A mind began to surface that wasn't my own pushing my human brain aside.

It was the fox instincts.

It wanted to run, to hide, but it knew it was surrounded. I flatten my ears against my skull, my tail swished as I bared my teeth.

I could smell them, I could smell everything. The small animals were afraid, and they should be.

I glanced at the squirrel and thought about eating it.

"Leigh." One of the strange creatures said looking at me, "Get a hold of yourself. Get a grip on the animal's instinct."

I looked at him. What? Who's Leigh? What is this creature talking about?

"Get a grip, now." The same creature said.

Leigh.that name..it's very familiar. Leigh...is ...me?!

I sat down and looked at them. Then breathed out. Sorry. I said in thought-speech. I had read enough science fiction to know how this works. You project your thoughts to the people you want to hear.

its just..weird having two minds in one body, ya know? I opened my mouth and yawned, licking my paw a bit.

"In each morph you have-," Jake began but I cut him off.

Two hours and nothing more or you'll be stuck in the morph for the rest of the morph's natural life.or maybe more. I finished, Yeah, I know. It's kind of hard to ignore that if you have several memories of morphing and so on, drifting about in your head.

I stood up on all fours, trotted around a while, scaring the hell out of the smaller animals, which was kind of fun.

"Leigh, please, stop terrorizing the animals." Cassie said. "They won't heal if they die of fright."

I scratched my ear, Aww, Cass, you know how to ruin a good time.

I demorphed and put on my other clothes. "That was fun."

"Some of it is fun, but that's not what we're using it for." Jake told me, "This is our only weapon to use against the Yeerks. The first rule, don't morph unless it's necessary.." And of course, I learned the rules of being an Animorph. Like, Never trust anyone, not even your own family members.

When he said that I sort of snorted and said, "You don't have to worry about that one. I never did trust them in the first place."

Cassie blinked, "Why?"

I shook my head, "Let's just say the my powers are very convenient when we need some quick cash."

They said nothing more about it and so, the subject was dropped.



I had used Cassie's phone to call home and asked if I could go to the movies with my friends, of course, my mother agreed and told me to be back at eight. This would be my very first mission, so it also meant that we were going to the Gardens for me to get a few new morphs.

We took the bus to get there and paid to get in. Since Cassie's mom worked there, we could go behind the scenes and acquire new animals.

At the moment, they were pointing out selections to me, telling me the strong points and weak points of the animal.

I didn't say anything as I looked at each one of the animals as though I was looking for a particular movie or book. Then an animal caught my eye. I stopped and looked at it as though it was the only thing in the room with me. It's golden amber eyes stared at me as I stared at it. Its fur was black as midnight and sleek as velvet. Its paws were bigger than my own human had and its claws were no doubt dangerous.

For a moment, it felt as if the great cat was trying to see inside my very soul to see my intentions.

"A panther." I walked towards the cage and was only a few feet when Cassie caught hold of my arm.

"Be very careful around Ligra." She told me, "She doesn't like humans very much, not since we rescued her from a man who mistreated her."

I nodded and shook her off. "Sure." I said, but there was a sort of dreamy tone in my voice as I walked toward it.

I was half a foot away, when I bended down and took off my glove. I held out my hand and pushed back the fear that was trying to over take me.

I knew Ligra could smell my fear, which didn't really help the situation at all. Then with lighting quick reflexes that only a cat possessed, she made a grab for my hand with one of her huge paws.

"Leigh!"

"Stay back!" I said, "Stay back! I'll handle this!"

"What?! Are you insane?!" Marco asked, "You're saying that you've got a handle on this when that panther has its jaws around your arm?!"

I gave him a dry laugh; "Life was never sane in the first place, Marco Polo." I looked at him, "Besides, she's only playing. I'm not hurt."

I used my other had and petted the animal. She didn't really hate humans, only males. She slowly released my arm, which, by the way, is thoroughly soaked by drool, and I raise it to scratch behind her ear and concentrated on getting her DNA. After that was done, I put my gloves back on and stood up frowning, "Honestly," I said looking at the sleepy panther, "You really didn't have to grab me."

The panther just looked at me and rolled over on her belly. I bent down again and rubbed her belly through the bars.

"Come on, you'll need other morphs." Jake said with a slight smile.

By the time the day was over, I had acquired: a panther, a dolphin, a roach, a fly, a flea, a wolf, an owl, a snake, and a hawk, that just happened to be a female red-tail hawk.).

After that, we all went home to our families, or for Tobias and Ax, they went back to the forest, and took care of business.

As I lay in my bed that night, waiting for my parents to go to sleep, I wonder if this would be the last time I would ever see my room, my friends, or family again.

But what's done is done; there is nothing I could do about it.

For some reason or another, I couldn't sleep, so I put a fake dummy in my bed to make it look like I slept there and went over and opened the window.

I changed into my morphing suit and concentrated on the owl DNA. Of course, I can't tell you what happened cause I couldn't see. But I did feel the changes and was glad that I couldn't see.

Once I was in owl morph, I hopped on the window and stretched my wings. Ok, I can do this. I thought. One. two. and then I hopped out of the window and flapped my wings.

This was majorly cool! I mean.it's like someone turned on the lights and now I can see everything as though it was board daylight, and I can hear so many things..it's very overwhelming. After I flew around a little, I went to the forest, where we're supposed to meet. But I had other ideas before the others would arrive at the point.

I flew to the edge of the forest where I had hidden the dagger and demorphed. I got on my hand and knees, looking for the spot where I had buried it.

Ha, found it. I used the end of my shirt and held it up. It gleamed in the half moonlight as I looked at it. I put it down and decided to go wolf.

Once my morph was complete in its own illogical way, I picked up the dagger and ran to where we were supposed to meet.

About a dozen feet away, I smelled a strange scent as well as a bird. Tobias and Ax were already there, and I haven't found Cassie's scent yet nor any of the others, which was good cause Jake would've killed me if he knew what I was doing.

I demorphed back to my human form and sat down in Indian style. I held the handle of the dagger and closed my eyes as I began to call for the strange alien being named Kritra.

In my mind.

'Kritra?'

Yes, Leigh? I had long ago determined that Kritra was female.

'My friends and I are going into battle tonight, Kritra, and..' I hesitated. I had never admitted to being afraid of anything...not even death. But I was afraid of dying; afraid that I would never see anyone again; never finish my stories. Heck, I would even miss that runt of a cousin I have.

'I'm afraid that I will not survive it....even if it is only my first battle.'

Do not fear, Leigh, for Shivata is always with you and will help you through this. She told me. All you have to do is believe in her and in your abilities and your friends and everything should be alright.

I felt myself smirk.

'I haven't believed in much, Kritra.' I admitted, 'I hardly believe in my own God, let alone myself. The others.they'll live through this because they are veterans. They know the drill and what to do and what not to do. I'm still new at this.'

But you know all about death, murder, evil, and hatred. Kritra said a bit perplexed by my situation. Why would you fear it now? You have seen and heard the thoughts of the murders and their victims. You have dreamed of becoming them and killing people. Why does it bother you now?

She was right, it shouldn't have bothered me, I mean, being a clairvoyant isn't the best lifestyle you want to have, certainly one that I don't even want. Picking up old emotions from items or from people, seeing what kind of life they had or what their past was. I had once worked with the police on a case for a serial killer killing little kids or young men.

It was an experience that I wouldn't forget, an experience that I still have nightmares about. Me, trying to kill this helpless little girl or boy, not the killer who I was seeing the memory through, but me, Leigh. They would cry and cry and scream and cry. Then I'd silence them, by stabbing them over and over and over until nothing was left but a bloody pulp.

After that, I didn't work with police anymore; I just couldn't do it. Too many victims, too many lives lost. And if I hadn't, I'd be in the loony bin by now.

So what Kritra was saying was true. I have been the killer; I have been the victim. I should be use to this..but strangely.I'm not.

'I guess it's a human thing.' I told her finally, 'I have to go, I think the others are here, I'll talk to you later.'

As you wish. She said. Farwell Leigh and good luck to you. May Shivata always smile down upon you.

'Same to you.' I thought and opened my eyes. I could hear Jake now, so every one was here, all I have to do was go.

I got up and hid the dagger, than walked out to join them, hoping that I would live long enough to see seventeen.













AN: Thanks for the reviews! Though, I definitely didn't know that until after I had already written it! Thanks goes out to...

Toria Wildman: Thanks ~__-- Marco does sound cuter!

Green Eyed Girl: Glad you like it. And thanks for being the first couple of people to reveiw

Taylor Marin: Thanks for the advice, but blame it all on my computer! *Points at sputtering machine.*

remnants-2011: You like it?! Cool!

Lisa-Ann: What can I say? I tried, I worked.*in a low voice * I had detention, *Talks normally * And I succeeded! Thanks for the views and being the second person to give me a chance.

Little Washu Chan: You were my first review! And I read some of you stories, you're good too.



So thanks to all for the reviews! KuroTenshi - out! Peace Love and Coffee for all!