by Dakota Pratt
A/N: Wow, I've been away for a while. The first three-quarters or so of THE BEGINNING have taken place prior to the start of this fic. The rest is AU, and you're on your own. Enjoy. - D
CHAPTER ONE: Victims of CircumstanceI had to talk to him. Before I went completely, certifiably stark-raving insane. I needed to understand what, exactly had happened between us. A week before the war with the Yeerks had ended, Jake and I had been talking about getting engaged. Here we were almost three years later and we only talked when Marco made us.
Rachel was dead, Tobias had been AWOL since the funeral, and Ax was off on some deep-space mission after having been promoted to Andalite War-Prince. We'd all been best friends during the war, and now that it was over, Jake and I only rarely associated with each other mostly because we felt like we had to. I knew that Rachel's death had torn him apart inside. I understood that. But Rachel was my best friend in the entire universe and when I was grieving, when I needed someone to turn to, Jake was not there for me.
That was when I met Ronnie, and our lives just seemed to fork off in a different direction. I'd tried to patch things up with Jake, but once he abandoned me I wasn't willing to try anymore.
Marco and I still hung out, at least; we saw each other several times a month. His new book, The Gorilla Speaks, had just come out and was a best-seller on the New-York Times, outranking me by two slots. Not that I'm competitive or anything.
And now? Ronnie and I had broken up the week before, but that didn't explain my intense desire to make things right with Jake. It was tearing me apart inside and had been for almost a month, some unexplainably pull, some unseen force was urging me to see him. I couldn't resist it anymore.
So that's why I was flying through the air at nine-thirty at night in owl morph, circling over Main Street as Jake walked out of the movie theater and turned the block to get to his car. It was a rare thing for him not to have a waiting limo and an entourage of bodyguards with him, and for that I was grateful. My mind was circling in one of those 'do I talk to him, do I not' spells, debating whether or not I should do it and if I did, how I would do it, and all that. I hated arguing with myself, I was too damned stubborn to win.
Finally I bit the bullet and called down to him in private thought-speak. Jake?
He stopped walking and looked around suddenly, head jerking in every direction as his hair fell down in front of his eyes. Even from my position in the sky, I could count the number of hairs on his head, the number of times he blinked in confusion. The sun had long past set but to my owl eyes it was bright as day.
I saw him mouth, 'Cassie?'
Above you. I'm going to come down, all right?
He nodded, and I began my descent on my soft, silent wings. I loved flying, even now with all the horror and tragedy and pain of the war behind me, I think it was worth it all just to have the opportunity to have wings. A small part of me understood exactly how Tobias had felt that first night. The choice between human and bird, between being grounded and being free. Wasn't really a choice at all, especially with a life like his.
There was movement in the shadows, and even with my keen eyes I couldn't make out the figure exactly. It shifted and blurred in the corner of my vision, almost like it was changing shape as it moved. I didn't even have time to question it. I'd learned a long time ago that when in doubt, you're in danger.
Jake, look out! I barreled down as fast as I could, pointing my tail straight out and adjusting the feathers on my body to give me all the speed I could get.
The form took on a shape, a dark-skinned woman across the street moving with a grace that was inhuman, skulking through the alley as if she was a part of it. There was something dark and metallic in her hand, and as she raised her arms I had only a split second to think gun before she fired.
Time slowed, not stopping like when the Ellimist seized control, but taking on that slow, surreal quality when you knew exactly what was going to happen and how, but couldn't do a thing to change it. When you were forced into the passenger seat to come along for the ride, and nothing you did made the least bit of difference.
I barreled into him, but I was too late. A flash of light, a small, neat hole in the center of Jake's chest. Blood. His eyes widened as he collapsed to the ground and I was too slow, damn it, too late.
Not even an owl can outrun a speeding bullet.
I was already demorping before I even hit the pavement. Feathers melting into skin, internal organs smooshing and rearranging to become human. My face elongated and my beak broke apart to form my nostrils and mouth, but I saved the eyes for last. I wanted to see who could do this to Jake, see the bitch that had just ripped away one of the most important people in my life.
Fully human in a matter of seconds, with the exception of my eyes, I whirled around and stared across the street at the young black woman who stood there, gun still smoking in her hands. As I watched she dropped the gun and it skittered to the floor. She smiled, a warm, friendly, let's-go-for-coffee smile that was all too familiar. She was short and her hair was braided back in cornrows. She wore overalls and tattered sneakers. Everything about her was familiar, every last detail, even down to the golden heart earrings Ronnie had given me that I'd lost last month. Everything about her was familiar, exact. She was startling.
She was me.
She blew me a kiss and with a small, mocking wave, disappeared completely. No flash of light, no puff of smoke. No morphing. She was there one moment, gone the next, leaving a bunch of people standing around us in awe. Hurriedly I changed my eyes back to their natural brown.
It was clever, ingenious even. She – though I had no idea who she was – had the eyewitnesses, the fingerprints, and the motive of the jealous, raging ex. As I knelt down over Jake's dying form in shock, all I could think were two things. That the man I had once loved, and still did in some way, was dying in front of me.
And that somebody had just committed the perfect murder, and the joke was on me.
