Divide And Conquer- Part Three

By Dreamer

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I made up my mind. The next Animorph would be Cassie. Under my guidance,  kind, caring Cassie would become crazy Cassie. I watched her leave the barn and make her way home. I waited until the school day was past and the clock bells struck mid-night and then I entered her.

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I had been tossing and turning restlessly, unable to sleep. The scene in the barn was being replayed in my mind over and over again. The way that Rachel had kissed Tobias and then run out, with tears streaming down her face. The way Tobias had watched her run out of his life without even trying to stop her, and the way Ax had just stood there looking confused. We hadn't seen any of them for the entire school day. Rachel, I suppose was skipping but it seemed strange that Marco also was. Tobias had just disappeared, and even Ax couldn't reach him. It just seemed so awful! Why couldn't people just get along?

I sighed and then buried my face in my pillow, half hoping that the lack of air would force me to stop thinking about all this. Why was I so helpless? Why couldn't I do anything?

NO! I could do something about this! I was an Animorph, and as an Animorph I was just as powerful as any of the others. But they were using their powers to hurt other people while I wanted to help the people. They must not hurt each other! I will stop it, for I seem to be the only one with a conscience, and I don't care what I have to do to stop them hurting people!

Filled with a sense of purpose, I morphed into a owl, and took off into the night sky, pausing only to devour a mouse on my way. Then I realized that as strong as I was, I was outnumbered and would therefore have to develop a plan. I swooped back, lifting my wings slightly and headed into the barn. I demorphed, found a bunch of tranquilizer darts, and tied them into a cloth parcel. Morphing back into an owl, I tested the weight and found that I could easily carry it. Clutching it tightly, I wheeled in circles over the forest, my senses alert for an Andalite.

As soon as I saw Ax, I landed, taking care not to jolt my parcel and demorphed.

"Ax!" I said softly, tempering my voice with an effort.

"Cassie." He replied graciously. How dare he be so smug and self-righteous? He has no right to be gracious when he comes from a race of killers. Just look at his tail, it shows what he is, and why he must be destroyed. I picked up the cloth, and managed to find a syringe.

"Ax, listen to me. There has been a gas leak from a nearby factory. The gas is toxic so we have all been issued syringes with iodine. Iodine is a mineral that will prevent the gas from poisoning you since it's an antidote. The others and I were looking for you so we could give you some." I explained hurriedly, holding my hand out with the iodine needle balanced on my palm. He looked surprised. Or maybe not. With Andalites, it's a bit hard to tell. But I was fairly sure that he had believed me. Why shouldn't he, though? After all, I am the good one in their team, and he is one of the evil ones who destroyed others.

"Are you sure that this is necessary Cassie? Perhaps this gas will not harm  me." He remarked hopefully, eyeing the syringe with slight distaste. I arched one eyebrow at him, and he reluctantly took the needle from me. Yes, Andalite, just inject it and I will save everyone from you and your evil tail!

"Here, let me." I quickly offered, sliding it into his arm before he had a chance to object or even thank me. Then I stood back and waited for it to work. While I waited, I tied up the cloth again, being careful not to break any of the syringes. One Andalite down. Now all I must do is neutralize the others.

"Cassie."  How dare he interrupt my gloating! I looked at him  nd noticed that he was swaying a bit. "Cassie," and this time the words were slurred. "Cassie, I feel a b-bit, a bit, a bit uhh." With that he collapsed. I rolled my eyes, before morphing into halfway into my elephant morph. I managed to keep a humanoid form, if a rather large, bulky humanoid, but still have the elephants strength. I dragged Ax over to the barn, and used my new found strength to break some of the steel cages apart, and reform them into a bigger cage, that I then covered with transparent cloth, and sprayed with bug repellent. Now there was no way for him to escape, since even an Andalite blade couldn't cut through steel. I made another four cages, one for each of the Animorphs, and went to hunt again.

This time, I found Jake. Jake was easier, since he was my boyfriend. All I had to do was demorph around the corner of my house where I was invisible, and slide the parcel into my pockets.

"Hi Jake!" I trilled, burning inside to see the boy who was the leader of the Animorphs, who issued orders that ended in death. He smiled gratefully at me. He had been outside of his house, playing a game of basketball by himself.

"Hi Cassie." He answered, bouncing the ball a few times before jogging over to me. "Why did you come here so late? Have you found out what happened to Marco or Rachel?" Sure, Jake, pretend to care, I sneered silently. I walked over and deciding to steal Rachel's move, slid one hand behind his neck and kissed him. Taken by surprise, he focused on kissing me back, wrapping both his hands around me, while I positioned the needle right at he base of his neck, quickly drove it in, and injected the contents into his neck. Startled, he pulled away from me, but since he had less of a body mass than Ax, the tranquilizer worked almost instantly. He too, collapsed onto the ground, and then I shifted into my wolf form, but demorphed my legs and remorphed them into elephant legs. That done, I grabbed the collar of Jakes shirts, and dragged him along with me as I ran to the barn. When I got there, I sealed him into one of the smaller cages.

Now I only had to find Tobias, Marco and Rachel. Rachel was probably the worst of them all, she liked hurting other people and didn't bother hiding it. At least the others had the sense to act ashamed and lie about it. That was why I decided that instead of randomly finding Animorphs, I would focus on her especially. I went on home and switched on the news, knowing that in her unbalanced state of mind, she wouldn't bother hiding the evidence of her evil acts. After a few seconds of channel surfing I found what I was looking for; live coverage of a grizzly bear that broke into an ice-cream shop and set it on fire.

This time, instead of morphing, I took  the nearest car I found, and hotwired it expertly, like Erek had shown us a while ago. I drove off to the ice-cream shop, and watched calmly from the sidelines as the police shot it full of tranquilizer darts. Finally, Rachel tired of the carnage, and shambling off to the sides demorphed as she walked so that by the time she reached the welcoming darkness she looked like just another spectator, except exhausted. In her reduced state, it was easy to slip up to her unnoticed and jab a needle into her arm. When she passed out, I quickly took her to the car, telling the few people that bothered to inquire after her, that she was my adopted sister who had fainted from all the excitement.

I placed her in a cage as well, next to Jake and opposite of Ax, since I doubted the wisdom of allowing her to stay close to him. Now it was only Marco and Tobias left. Tobias was so obviously tormented by Rachels actions, that I doubted he would able to resist me well, so I ought to take scheming Marco first. After much thought, I decided that the most obvious place to look would be in the Hork-Bajir valley, so he wouldn't be there. But then where could he be? I decided to ask Tobias to help me, and then take Marco, and then get Tobias.

I found Tobias after only a few minutes, since he was in his meadow, but not asleep. I hid the disgust I felt at seeing the predator bird that he was, and spoke to him sweetly.

Tobias, I have to find Marco. Rachel wants to talk to him, but she said not to tell you where she is. Could you please help me find him? I spoke in thought-speech, thinking that it would be easier to lie to him. His wings fluttered in a semblance of anger and when he replied hatred and despair were warring for control.

Cassie, I really need to see Rachel and find out why she is acting like this. I don't what she told you, but she thinks that I'm together with Marco because he kissed me, but it was against my will, and I swear that I tried to explain but Marco got there first and she believed him instead of me. Tobias blurted out. Why did he even bother explaining? It isn't as if I care, all I care about is annihilating evil creatures like him.

Oh, really? Well, then I've got an idea. How about you help me find Marco, then when we bring him back to Rachel, you can morph a flea and hide on him so when you reach Rachel, you can demorph and explain. I suggested in my sweetest voice.

Cassie, that's perfect! Just keep me away from Marco though, else I won't be responsible for what happens. he warned me, very seriously.

Of course. Now come on, let's fly! I answered perkily, before taking off. With both of us looking, it was a fairly simple matter to locate Marco. He was staying in a cheap motel in the red-light district of the city. I demorphed, and Tobias did as well. We walked up the stairs and came through the doorway, figuring that he'd expect any Animorphs to go through the window. Without knocking, we just shoved the door open and walked right.

"What are you two doing here?" Marco drawled, not removing his eyes from the TV. Tobias took an involuntary step forward, then shot me a glance, apparently unnerved by the drawl. I shrugged and then walked over to stand behind Marco. He still didn't remove his eyes from the TV, so I just injected the tranquilizer into his neck, in much the same way that I did to Jake. Almost instantly, he slumped down in his chair. Tobias moved forward. He hadn't caught the movement I had made to prick Marco.

"Okay, now Tobias, morph into a flea." I ordered, emptying the contents of one of the two remaining syringes into the chair as I did so. He nodded obediently, without even asking why Marco had fainted and started the morph, but not before demorphing into his hawk form first. As soon as I was sure that he was fully morphed, I quickly slammed the body of the syringe over him, then ripped the section of the carpet that he was on away from the rest, to send him flying next to the nozzle of the syringe. Before he could react, I slid the plunger back in, effectively trapping him inside the syringe. The only downside to this plan was that I could hear him yelling at me in thought-speech and there was no way to silence him.

I slipped the syringe into Marcos hand, then seizing him by the collar, dragged him out of the hotel, where the receptionist only gave me a look, and into the street, where I managed to flag down a taxi. I gave the driver the explanation that Marco was my boyfriend, and that I was worried that he had too much to drink. Tobias had shut up, mainly because he was still worried about people finding out about us and probably knew that this sot of a driver wouldn't be any help. He accepted the explanation without comment and drove off  after I gave him the address to my house. By now, it was almost time for me to wake up on usual days, so I settled back, weary from the continuous morphing. Before I knew it, the driver was shaking me awake outside my house. He held out his hand for the money I owed him for the ride, but instead I slapped the syringe into it, nose down, and pushed the plunger. As soon as he was out, I put him back into his cab, so it would like he was just sleeping. I dragged Marco to the barn and locked him in a cage, and just to be on the safe side, I threw Tobias and his bottle into another cage. 

Now all the evil murderers were under one roof, it would be easier to destroy them. A well-made fire should do the trick…

Crayak:

At this point, I had to leave Cassie. I had turned her pacifism and dislike of war into fanaticism, and now she was prepared to become that which she despised to destroy that which she despised. Also, I would lose if she killed the Animorphs before I had a chance to convert them, so it would be easier to leave her. Without my presence, she would most likely deem it enough to have disabled them, and consider it unnecessary to actually destroy them. It didn't matter anyway for by making her a traitor, I had claimed her for my own.