The Gate: Chapter 5

A/N: You guys are going to hate me. I know you are tired of this. (You'll see what I mean when Toby speaks first) I told myself I wasn't going to do this, but I had a good reason, believe me. *Jumps off a building*

Cassandra

Those two kids were wreaking havoc on this quaint little universe inside a universe. I could hear him picking inside my all too inferior mind. He was asking why I had let this happen. He told me I should have closed the gate before they could reach it.

I told him they would have died and that it hadn't been closed since the incident on the Itaricterin planet. That is another story. It would take millennia to tell. He told me it was my entire fault that a war had started in his universe. You see, the only wars that existed were the ones in the deceased memories. Things were growing tense between the master and his gamekeeper.

He put all the pressure on me to end this. I had been relieved of my celestial duties until I found a solution. I had been working round the clock to fix it. I hadn't found a way, and probably won't for a hundred years from now. Oh well, I needed a vacation.

Actually I did have a solution, but it wasn't pretty. The only solution I could think of was to kill them. I didn't know how to do that without causing more pain, which was what I was trying to eliminate. I was thinking that I could have them kidnapped. I guess I could rewrite memories of everybody who knew them, and kill them some quiet way. But that takes a lot of work. It would take forever to write the alternate scenarios for the some thousand people they have affected.

Suddenly, I collapsed. I can't say what I collapsed onto because there is nothing I stand on.

DO IT!!!!!!!!!! He told me.

I started at once on those alternate scenarios.

Elfangor

I stumbled out to the car. The ship had landed just outside the city. It took me an hour to find my way and another to find the landing site. I parked the car on some country road and walked about a mile towards a farm.

I saw a barn. As I got closer, I could hear voices.

"Did I say you could have a break? Get back to work, slug!"

I also heard machinery roaring. I walked another half mile so I could see what was going on. In the dark I could have been mistaken, but I swear I saw a pool ship. Of course, I had to be hallucinating. I was hallucinating from the beginning. I couldn't fight them. I decided a long time ago that I wouldn't fight anymore. What was I doing?

I ran back to the car and ran into a man. Without thinking I punched him, and ran. In five minutes I made it to the car, and jumped in. I took off at 100 mph. What was I thinking?! I needed to go home and make a battle plan, develop weapons, and tactics.

Just beyond the city, I saw it. It was going towards the spot I had just come from.

Tobias

Somehow I got to my room. It took forever, having two women pulling on the wheelchair. . . Rachel was sitting on my bed crying. I knew enough to know that this wasn't her. In the old world, she never opened up, but now she was crying all the time and saying she loved me all the time. That was all good but it just didn't fit her.

There were several things I noticed: first is that the guy who shot me knew her, and second that she had gained weight. I remembered when my mom started gaining weight, and it wasn't good.

I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but we had gone into one of our silent moods. Really, I was thinking about Dad. Mom wouldn't say where he had gone. I figured he went to the hospital, but he should've been back by now.

What the heck, ask her.

"Rachel, what is wrong with you?"

"I can't tell you."

"So you admit that something is wrong. You're not going to get away with anything this time."

She stiffened up, and took a couple of deep breaths and said, "First, Jason, the guy who shot-, he was my boyfriend until the night I came to this universe."

"The jealous type?" I whispered. I didn't mean for her to hear that.

"Don't." She started to cry again. I put my good foot on the floor, and picked myself up. I swung myself around to sit on the bed. The other leg didn't like that move very much. I'll live. I took her hands in mine and looked deep into her eyes.

I asked her, "What happened the night before you came here?"

"He raped me."

"And then what?" I asked, half crying myself.

"The next morning, I started puking on everything and I went to the doctor and he told me that I - was - pregnant."

"With his kid?!" I nearly screamed. I slapped myself, covering my face.

"You hate me don't you?"

I stopped and said, "No, uh, no, I love you very much. I couldn't dump someone who has been through hell and back."

Our faces lingered very close to each other. I knew what was going to happen tonight. There was no stopping us. She leaned back and I leaned forward. . . (What do you know; the Sex Ed. teacher was right.)

It was 3:30. I awoke with a jolt of fear. I sat up straight in my bed. It took me a few minutes to realize I didn't have any clothes on. Now, my heart really started to race. I had memories of just a few hours ago. Soon, I relaxed and couldn't help but smile. I looked at her and pretty soon I was back asleep.

Elfangor

I sped home as fast as I could. The adrenaline was pumping so fast a tiny jerk of my hand nearly sent me off the road. In an hour and a half I was home. Immediately, I ran down to the basement where I worked on my new computer designs.

There was a long drafting table in the center. I ran to it and threw all the designs on the floor and got out some blank paper.

I heard footsteps and got out the gun that was in a drawer. I turned around and saw that it was Loren. She started to scream. I dropped the gun. I sighed when it didn't go off.

"What's going on?"

"They're here. I saw them. They're trying to build a pool outside the city."

"What are you going to do?"

"First, I think it's time we tell Tobias about me." She started to speak but I silenced her. "I can't keep carrying on like I have been. He needs to know why I go up to the roof every night, he needs to know where I was, and finally he needs to know before he gets too involved with Rachel."

"First thing in the morning?"

"Yeah, um, I don't think I'll be coming to bed tonight."

She sighed. "Okay."

I spent the night working on weapon designs, plans and tactics. It wasn't unheard of to single-handedly take on a fleet. I mean their advantage was low considering they were new to the planet, and that there were only two ships that had landed.

I spent half the night working on a crude morphing device, and the rest rehearsing what I was going to tell Tobias. Strange, the morphing was simple enough, but telling Tobias that I was the stuff of science fiction? I didn't see how he would believe me. There was the chance that he could morph. I ran through the numbers in my head a thousand times. Becoming a nothlit could graft the giga-bots into my DNA, so Tobias would be born with it. I sighed; we didn't have any animals around.

I looked to the clock high on the wall. It was 6:30. Maybe a pet shop was open. I ran upstairs and hopped in the car. I went to every shop in the city. The last one was open. I picked out a golden retriever. It was small and sickly but it would do.

It was 8:30 and I was dead on my feet. I stumbled into the kitchen and saw Loren sitting with Tobias.

"I told him you have something to say to him." She got up and casually whispered in my ear, "I think something happened last night. They came down all googly eyed, and super glued."

I sat down at the table and stared into his eyes. I swear there was some hint of Andalite in there.

"So, did you get me a dog?"

"Uh, sort of." I yawned. "Tobias, touch the dog."

"What?"

"You're going to have to listen to me, okay. So, touch the dog." He did. "Okay, now concentrate on the animal." He closed his eyes. "Now picture yourself turning into the animal."

"Okay, I don't know what kind of joke this is but it's not funny."

"Tobias! Do as I say."

He did. Slowly, he started to take on the shape of the dog. It took all the self-control I could muster to keep from shouting, but finally he morphed!

Okay, that's great, really great. Now see if you can speak telepathically. All you have to do to form a sentence in your mind and aim it at me while sort of saying it to yourself. It has been awhile since I used that method of communication. I only hoped it didn't come out in Andalite or something.

Dad, how the hell do I get out of this?!

I laughed. I wasn't tired anymore. Okay, no need for rudeness. Just concentrate on your normal shape and eventually you will change back.

A few minutes later he was back to normal. Even his leg was healed. This was expected, but exciting. He walked around a bit to test his leg.

"How did that happen?!"

"Well, I wasn't always a human. I used to be an Andalite. They live on the other side of the galaxy. . .

Tobias

As he was explaining all this to me, I remembered the lawyer reading his letter to me, and thinking he should be here to read this to me himself. I remember leaving that office with my adrenaline on super, not only because there was a murderous alien sitting next to me, but also because I was angry. I was angry that my father's murderer was sitting there and didn't kill me, but could. I was angry that I saw him kill my father and couldn't do anything. I was angry with the Elimist for making my friends and I do this, knowing very well we couldn't win. Hell, I was angry at the whole damn world!

I sat there and smiled. There were a few tears in my eyes but they didn't show themselves. It was nice to have my very own father tell me the truth.

His whole story took an hour. I stood up and hugged my Dad.

"Thank You," I said. "But there's something I got to tell you too."

"What?"

"You're dead. You died." Some more tears started to come, "I watched you die at Visser One's hand. I still don't know the whole of it, but this world is where people go when they die. Where I come from my life is a mess. All I knew for years was my aunt and uncle who would have left me out on the street if they were allowed too. Even I tried to run away a few times but the police or somebody would always take me back screaming.

In school; I went to public school; I wasn't the most popular. In fact, every day I had my hair washed in toilet water. I probably lost two hundred dollars a year in that school from bullies. Every once in a great while somebody tried to take an interest, but no friends came out of it. Sometimes, I latched on to people hoping they would include me. That's how I got into this whole mess of trouble. . ." I went on to explain the whole thing including how I got here.

My Dad started to cry. He wasn't one to hold anything in.

"So, what's my brother like?"

"He's funny, after a year, he still doesn't understand what human culture is. And he's a little biased against humans."

He laughed, "They taught him well. Have any other Andalites come?"

"They don't care, Dad. Like the Taxxon planet, they left us to die. They even tried to kill us, but we stopped them. It's weird, it seems we have to stop two invaders at once, the Andalites and the Yeerks; and you know what, the outcome doesn't look good."

"I can't believe it. What I saw last night. I got so scared. My fear must have been a pinprick to yours that you face everyday. It's one thing to have advanced aliens to worry about, but ordinary birds and animals. I'm sorry I put that on you and your friends."

Cassandra

One little word and I was done.  End.  I scratched out that little word and I was finished.  Yes, I wrote the whole thing by hand.  I guess it shouldn't have hurt.  I was a highly advanced being.  Technically, I wasn't alive at all.  So, I shouldn't feel pain right?  Maybe, it was a punishment by him.

I bet Cassie was feeling the pain right about now. I could make her feel the pain if I wanted her too. But sometimes it just happened, my emotions passed from me to her. Maybe, that's why she's such a philanthropist, she feels things she can't explain and has to act on them.

 A few minutes after I finished, I received some startling news. Rach and Toby had gone all the way. Well, more like way too far. Without knowing it they had just vouched for her child's life. In a sense, the child she was carrying wasn't real. If they had left each other alone, Rach would have left this world without a single stretch mark, but now! They had brought life to that child, and it would be biologically Toby's. There was nothing I could do to change that. I guess it was okay, I mean we haven't lost a soul yet, and we're not going to start with a fetus.

I sighed; they would have to live with the consequence of their actions in the real world. I, well, I would go on with my miserable existence making every detail perfect for him.

I caught a glimpse of the real world. The Animorphs weren't doing so hot. I had to send them back soon. This completely turned my plans around. I wanted to change the past first. Urgh, the blasted kids.

Rachel

I left the kitchen with Loren. She told me he wasn't in any trouble. I didn't believe it. I wonder if they knew about last night. They couldn't, I told myself. That would be most embarrassing. I sat down in the living room and tried to watch TV, but I couldn't. I had this strange sensation very low in my back.

I went upstairs to the bathroom and took some Aleve. I walked around upstairs for about half an hour. The pain wasn't going away. I decided to lie down in my room. It was 9:15. At 10:15, I woke up and everything was burning and the pain was unbelievable. Carefully, I turned around on the bed, and tried to sit up. Let's just say, I couldn't.

"Tobias! Somebody!" I yelled. Tobias must have been right outside the door, because he was there in two seconds.

"What's wrong?!"

"I think something's wrong with the kid!"

"Oh, uh, I'll call the –." He dialed 911 from his room. Soon, we heard sirens coming up the drive. Tobias ran out front and directed them to me. In the corner of my eye, I saw the paramedics, but before I could say anything I fainted.

I was unconscious and floating around in my mind. I saw a bright light, and a sort of tunnel. Walking up to it, I saw Cassandra.

"Hurry, we don't have much time!" She yelled. She grabbed my arm and pushed me through the tunnel. It was a shocking experience. It was very cold, and suddenly I was in a different world. It was weird how I could tell. I don't know, but it felt real. In the distance, I could hear Cassandra yelling, "Don't morph!" She might have said something else but she was cut off.

I don't know where I was. I could barely open my eyes, because they were frozen shut. I was on the ground somewhere. I lay there about an hour and fell asleep. I woke when someone said, Rachel?

I looked over and saw a blue hand with way too many fingers. I had never seen Ax from this angle before, and I think understood something. I jumped up and hugged him. It was so good to see him.

What happened to you? The others are very upset. The authorities have already given up their search for you.

"I'm fine. A little shaken but fine."

Good. Why was there ice on you? It is 64.524 degrees in the forest.

"May be you should wait. It's a long story. Is Tobias somewhere around here? Did he come with me?"

I am sorry. I have not seen him since you disappeared. It was theorized that another animal attacked him.

"No, he was with me! He was right there with me!" I screamed. Great. He's there, and I'm here. I suppose that it was a near death thing that sent me back.

Tobias

I saw the paramedics in slow-mo. First, they put her on the heart monitor. Then, they put on, what I guess, was a fetal monitor. It was beeping in the normal rhythm for a few minutes. They checked her vitals. They started an IV in her arm. It was routine.

Then the monitors started screaming. I saw one guy start out the pads. He placed them on her chest and I saw her body leap. The guy shook his head, and tried it again. They did this for several minutes. Then one guy shook his head and looked at his watch and wrote down the time.

"No, nononono!" I screamed.

A paramedic grabbed me and said, "I'm sorry man, she gone." I wrenched free of the guy and sat in the corner of our room like a little child who is put in time out. I screamed the rest of the day.

That night, I went to the roof. I saw Dad's telescope sitting there. I walked over to it, and peeked through it. I was amazed. I could see for millions of miles with this thing. For some reason, I was hoping I could see some edge to this fake universe, but it looked normal enough. I wanted to scream again. They took her. Looking through it, I saw planets I never knew existed. Dad probably fixed it so he could see his own planet from here. I bet the people on his planet were looking at us right now.

I turned around and saw Dad standing there. He scared me to death. I was trying real hard to explain myself, but it came out in mumblings.

"That's alright. I figure if something is going to take you back to where you came from, I should tell you something."

"What is that?"

"Well, I had a will made up when the company started to grow, when Mom was pregnant with you. It stated that in case of my death, or in case I suddenly disappeared and could not be found, that the company would be left to you. I had it made so that in case this happened you would be the sole owner and wouldn't have to wait until you were eighteen. Now, I'm not promising anything because I didn't exist there, but maybe someone had some mercy on you. I can't believe Bill runs my company." He paused for a moment. "You going to be okay? That was rough. I guess we got lucky with your Mom. Hey, wait a minute! Maybe she was sent back to the "real world", do you think?"

"I don't know, all I know is she died and she's not here. I keep thinking it's my fault because last night –." I shut my mouth really fast.

"No, that's not it. You know it had nothing to do with you, and I know what happened last night with you and Rachel. Your Mom saw how you two looked this morning. We kind of figured what had gone on in your room."

"You're not mad?"

"Let me answer that with another question. Would you have not done it if you knew what was going to happen? Look, I know you're tired. Why don't you go back down to bed? I love you, Tobias."

"I love you too, Dad. Elfangor – Sirinial – Shamtul."

Yes, it was nice to have parents, especially a Dad. My Dad was the coolest Dad there was. He saved thousands of lives from the slugs. He been to all the planets I can see in this telescope. He met mom in a spaceship. They saved each other's lives multiple times. That certainly had to top the charts.

I walked over to the edge of the roof. I stood on the ledge, and looked over. On top of the house, there was a pretty good view of the city from the north. In the distance, I could see the Microsoft building. I felt a little wind coming across my shoulder, but didn't think anything of it. A few minutes later, the wind became pretty strong. I was struggling to keep on the edge. You would think I would have stepped off already, but I was glued.

Then, suddenly, I fainted. I was unconscious and falling to my death. In my mind I saw a bright light. Walking towards it, I saw Cassandra. She grabbed me, and yelled, "It's yours!" with a sort of beguiling laugh. I don't know what she meant. She pushed me through the light. I tried to stop her, because it was so cold, dark, and evil past the light.

I woke up in a noisy place. I heard voices coaxing me to wake up. I couldn't open my eyes because they were frozen shut. I moved around a bit and wrenched my eyes open. Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the light, and I realized that I was in the mall. Not the mall in my hometown, but the largest mall in Seattle. I stood up and looked around. The crowd now thought I was some sort of super being who could appear anywhere he wanted too.

I looked around. I just knew I was in the real world. I could feel it. I felt like I had never been here before, but in fact I had been to school with some of the kids who were mystified by my appearance right now. Without thinking I ran out of the building. Outside, I heard an ambulance screaming toward the parking lot. I ran the other way, and found a safe place to morph.

The morph took forever, but I was so happy to be in my hawk body again. I found the best thermal I could and took off. I flew around forever; it took me a few minutes to realize that I wasn't in New York. I flew around looking for Rachel. I realized that was stupid, she died didn't she?

The more I thought about it, I couldn't have possibly have survived the fall off the roof of a mansion. I looked around a while, but didn't see her. I began to get worried.

Soon, I came close to the Microsoft building. I realized what had happened. I was sent here to claim what was rightfully mine. I landed on the roof of the building and thought about how I would go about this. I could go in as a fly and find a computer that doesn't look like its being used and hack in. I knew I could do this with my newfound computer knowledge.

So I flew towards the ground and tried to hide and morph. In back of the building I saw some garbage cans. I hid behind those and morphed. After a while, I floated up through an open window.

I looked around for an open desk, well hidden. I couldn't find one. I flew around a little bit until I found a guy who looked dead drunk. I decided to put a quick change in my plans. I could talk to the guy and he probably wouldn't remember anything after he had slept it off.

Hello. I said.

He looked around and said, "What was that?" His co-workers laughed at him. Apparently this wasn't unusual. No doubt some of them were controllers.

I need you to do something for me. Now don't say anything, just do what I tell you and you'll live to see tomorrow. Right then, he sat bolt upright. Okay, I need you to look through some of the old company files; mainly for a will.

After a lot of typing and reading, he came to a search engine. I told him to look for Alan Fangor. All we got was a series of numbers and letters that spanned one line of the screen. I saw his eyes widen, and his fingers and arms grow limp.

What is it? I asked.

"Th – th – that's in the basement."

Explain.

"Some files weren't put in the company databases because of the fear that somebody would swipe them off our hard drives."

Can you find it?

"M – m – maybe."

Do it. I'll go with you.

We headed to the basement. It was a dark damp place that hadn't been seen since the start of the company. There were hundreds of filing cabinets. The file we were looking for was,

Z-285-TYWO-3-O-295847546-TYOUNV-3955-T8746YRO239-T748UOP30-TU9496. My messenger went to the very back. There must have been 150 cabinets of files that started with Z.

After an hour, we had no luck. We must have searched through forty cabinets. Then my messenger pulled one out at random and there it was. The numbers matched exactly. I told him to set it down on the ground and go back to his office and never tell anyone.

When I was sure he was gone. I turned to human. I went by the one window in the basement, and read.

In typewritten letters, it said,

"This is the last will and testament of Alan Fangor. Upon my death or sudden disappearance, in which I cannot be found; my company will be left to my son, Tobias." It went on to address some legalities, but it basically said that Microsoft was mine.