My name is Rachel.
I was protecting Jake's back from attack, as he was mine. Human-Controllers came at us from all sides, getting at us with long swords they probably found somewhere in the school.
I had only seen few Dracon beam flashes. How they were working was a mystery to me and I had no time to ponder in the middle of an attack.
The tide of Controllers was starting to slow. The wounded and unconscious were starting to pile up. We never harmed a human. It was an unwritten rule.
Rachel? Jake asked.
Yeah? I grunted, tossing a screaming Controller away with an effortless nudge of my paw.
Do you know where Harry and Hermione are?
I scanned the area with my dim eyesight. The flashes of the duel between Harry and Voldemort had stopped. I don't know, Jake, but you know my eyesight isn't all that great.
Go find them. I'll be fine. I can handle it all from here.
You sure?
I'm sure I'm sure.
I smiled inwardly and bounded off. Perhaps Harry had won. Maybe, though, maybe he was being infested again…
Tobias! I called.
Rachel?
Do you know where Harry and Hermione are?
Well, I just saw Harry dragging Hermione into the battle. She looked as if she were unconscious. There were just a ton of ghosts surrounding Voldemort, Rachel. You should have seen them. One looked like Harry. I think it might have been his dad.
So where are they?
I lost them. They disappeared into the crowd.
'Kay. Thanks anyway, I said, easily flicking away another human-Controller.
I ran through the battle. Ax, Marco, and Cassie seemed to be doing all right. From the looks of it, we were winning. The Controllers who weren't unconscious were wounded enough that they couldn't fight back and there weren't that many Hork-Bajir or Taxxons.
A wail or an animal's shriek, I couldn't tell which, pierced the air. It made me stumble. I could feel its magical reinforcement in the air. I felt the pure sorrow and despair in it without knowing how.
I ran after the sound. Whatever had made the noise might be dangerous. And if it was, I would have to bring it down.
A scent filled my nostrils. It was a familiar scent: two humans, female and male, dirty, bloody, magical. I bounded after it. When it seemed close by, I was standing in an abandoned corner. At least, it looked abandoned until I made out two forms. From their scents, it was Harry and Hermione.
I quickly demorphed. Hermione was kneeling beside Harry, who seemed to have taken some sort of stomach injury. Blood pooled around his inanimate body. She had her head pressed against his and was sobbing. I slowly walked over. I couldn't see whether he was breathing or not.
"Hermione?" I asked softly. This was Cassie's kind of thing, not mine.
Hermione lifted her head and looked at me. She was extremely pale. A trail of blood ran down one cheek. Her lips were covered in it. Tears cut through the blood, washing it away a little. Her eyes were hooded and hollowed.
"Rachel?" she whispered.
I slowly stepped forward. The stone was rough against my feet as it had not been against my paws. I felt the blood against my feet and shuddered a little. I slowly knelt down by her and took her shoulder in my hand. "What happened? Is Harry still alive?"
Hermione looked down at Harry. He wasn't moving. "He's… he's… not alive anymore. Ron—Istrum, his Yeerk… shot him. He lived long enough to tell me that he'd say… hello to his parents for me."
I chewed on my lip. What was I supposed to do? The girl was obviously traumatized for life. She had watched one of her best friends kill the other off, and then watched as he died. I awkwardly put my arm around her shoulder and gave her a little sideways hug.
As I said, this was more a Cassie kind of thing.
She threw herself on my and sobbed into my shoulder. I was shocked at first and crouched there, extremely stiff. Then I kind of relaxed into it and patted her back.
This wasn't so hard.
She mumbled something into my shoulder.
"What?"
"I loved him," she whispered, "And I never got a chance to tell him. I tried. And he had something to tell me before he died. He told me he had to tell me something and then he just died."
Never mind what I said about this being not so hard.
I became stiff again and looked at her in a kind of stupor. What was I supposed to do know?
She still clutched Harry's wrist in a death grip. Gently at first, then more hard, I pried her fingers off. As I said, she had it in a death grip.
I got to my feet and took her with me. I grabbed her shoulder. "Hermione, there's nothing you can do now. It's not your fault. We have to go back to the battle. More people will die if we don't do something. Do you want others to feel as your feeling now?"
She looked up at me with tear-filled eyes and slowly shook her head.
"C'mon, then, and we'll go stop that."
"Okay," she said softly.
I morphed back to grizzly. When I had done that, we both ran off to help the others.
Rachel! There you are! Tobias yelled, sounding relieved.
What? What's the matter? I asked.
Marco and Cassie are down. They've both blacked out. I don't even know if Cassie's still alive or not, her breathing in so shallow. Marco is still breathing, but he's fading fast. It's almost dusk. The moon will be up soon. We might lose Ax for a little while. Have you got Hermione? He didn't wait for me to answer. Good.
I felt my heart sinking horribly. We were losing? That definitely wasn't good. We were talking about a few hundred, if not a few thousand, lives here. We couldn't afford to lose this battle.
As this realization dawned on me, I told myself not for the first time that life is harsh. Things happened that no one wanted. Some things mowed others down and left them in the dust. Some lives are destroyed in the process. There is no other way around it.
Life is harsh.
~*~
My name is…
I don't remember my name anymore. I don't remember how old I am or what I look like. I don't know how long I've been standing on the thin line between life and the black abyss that is death.
All I know is pain. I hurt all over. It's more horrible than words can explain. It weighs down my limbs and slows my heart and lungs.
There are people near me. I don't know how many. They seem like a thousand. My head pounds worse as their harsh voices reach my ears.
Who am I?
I ponder this question. All I know that, slowly, I am morphing. Or demorphing. Am I human? Am I alien? Am I only an animal with sentient thought?
Slowly I change. Slowly the pain ebbs. How long has this been going on? Eons? It seems like that.
Brief flashes of my life creep across my mind's eye. I see people. Seven people. I remember some names. Animorphs. Wizards. Am I an Animorph? Am I a wizard?
Someone needs to help me. I'm going to fall off the side of the tightrope I walk that drops into oblivion. All my conscious thoughts are slipping. I'm losing too much blood, I can feel it. It is vague, like I don't have a body other than pain.
Some part of my mind is making me morph. Or demorph. A desperate animal instinct is keeping me from falling into death's clutches. Death tugs on me, pulls me down. It seems so welcoming, but I cannot give in…
I can remember that there are people who need me. There are a lot of them. Who are they? Who am I?
All sense of time is lost to me. I could have been here seconds. I could all ready be in my grave. Yet, where I sit is wet. It is water or my own blood? Does my precious life fluid pool around me?
I'm wobbling dangerously. The thin line between me in death is shifting away from me. I fight to stand upright. I am fighting a fight for my life and losing it. This cannot be! I've held on for too long!
I keep morphing at a snail's pace. There is nothing I can do but morph and wait…
Wait…
Morph and wait.
A/N: The plot thickens! Who could this mysterious person be? Marco? Cassie? ::evil cackle::
Before I end my little author's note, I want to thank all who review. This
story it by far my most popular story. It has the most reviews I've ever
received. It is the longest thing I have ever written, original or fan fiction.
It'll probably be the first ever story I have ever finished. The only reason
I'm doing this is because people expect me to finish (yeah, okay, so I'm having
fun writing it too). It drives me to finish and not quit half-way through.
Thanks a whole bunch!
Stay tuned for my next chapter, "Chapter 31: Freedom's Price (Ron)"!
