Author's Note: Long story short -- I suck. Seriously, though, I really didn't mean to take so long with this chapter, it's just that life (and finals and the end of school and everything) just kind of got in the way. I'm really sorry, guys. And, oh yeah, this chapter sucks. Again, sorry, but I tried my best. Just trust me when I say the next one will be loads better. (And soon, since now it's summer and I don't have to worry about school!)
And while I'm at it -- I've started a new story on Fictionpress.net, "Superboy", if anyone's interested. Okay, now I'll shut up and let you read the story!
Chronicle Two
"In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity." - Albert Einstein
Chapter Three
- Rachel -
Yeerk, I bet. Marco spat.
Only one way to make sure.I took a nose-dive into the bushes, and found my head filled with the sound of Marco screaming at me. What are you doing? Are you insane?
I'm demorphing. I told him.
You're what?
Demorphing. I repeated. Don't you get it? Our bird morphs are useless right now, with Tom and Yeerk-Girl inside. We have no clue what they're up to stuck like this!
You're a psycho. Marco sighed.
But he swooped down beside me as I fell further down into the bushes, out of sight, shrinking to the size of a Super-Mini Mini-Me.
What if you get caught, O Reckless One?
I'll be fine. My face reappeared within the melting bits of bird. "Aff wong ast goo whatch my byaick." I said.
Huh?
The bird had disappeared and the roach's exoskeleton began coating my body.
"As long as you watch my back," I told the Midget, "I'll be fine."In a few moments later I was all roach and finding myself in front a big, feathery wall.Thank you for flying Roach Airlines. Keep all feelers, hands and legs inside the bird at all times.
You're such a loser. I laughed.
But that's why you love me, right?
You wish.Marco had no quick comeback, which was weird. But by the time I realized it, we were flying to the house, and I just didn't care.
Marco dropped me off an inch or two from the door. That's about a mile in roach-size. But it was no problem, since roaches can scurry as fast a Daytona 500.
I found a crack under the door and, ta-da, I'd busted in.
Xena! Marco's thought-speak reached me, farther away this time. You in?
Yeah! I called back.
Hear anything?
No, dumbass, I just got in.
Well, excuse me, Your Majesty.
Marco shut up after that, which was good because I was having a hard time hearing Tom and Magra or whatever-her-name-was over his "charming" wit.
"All right, you want me to tell you what I know? Fire away."
That's Tom, I realized. I started looking around for something, anything that would get me closer to my cousin. Which was not that easy to do, considering that everything I was seeing was about eight hundred times it's regular size.
I had to find something -- some way to stay with them, because if they so much as left the room, I'd be screwed -- but what?
I caught a glimpse of a tall white mountain with criss-crossing black roads.
Tom's sneakers.
I jumped on them and climbed up his leg. Good. Now I could stay in hearing range.
"I could, but I don't want to kill my messenger." Said Yeerk-Girl.
"Huh? Oh, that's right, your dracon. Why don't you put that down?"
"What if I don't?" I heard her move closer. Something made a soft "click".
"That slug...she's got her forces looking out for me, you know."
Slug? I thought. What slug?
"I know." Tom said.
"You told me your worked for her, Temrash." She said, spitting out the name of Tom's yeerk like it left a bad taste in her mouth. "The only reason I agreed to help you is because you said you'd give me information. Look, I heard your story, you've told me what you want to do, but I don't believe it."
"Madra--" Tom started, but I felt the girl grab him. "Shut up." She ordered.
Tom did.
Xena? I heard Marco's thoughtspeak from outside. You all right in there?
Well, yeah. I told him. Why wouldn't I be?
You weren't telling me anything. I thought something went down.
No, dork, I snapped at him even though, to tell the truth, I was kind of touched he'd worried. If something was going down, then I'd tell you. But I'm fine.
Good. He said. Is anything happening?
Not really. Miss Yeerk's bitching at Tom, something about the slug he works for and how she's after her and how she doesn't trust him.
The Yeerk he works for? Marco repeated.
Yeah, so?
And you said that Yeerk's a she, right?
Right.
Couldn't it be Visser One?
Oh my god, I said, You're right.
Guess that means I should shut up, then, huh? He asked me.
You can do that?
Fuck you.
Marco left me alone after that.
"Now talk." The girl told my cousin's parasite.
Tom took a deep breath and almost squashed me as he plopped down on the couch.
"I'm pretty sure Visser Three has infested him already." Tom said. "My bet is he wants him for something, to hurt someone. Now, why he didn't just shoot him, I don't know. It would've gotten the job done a lot quicker. But, you're not going to find him by looking in the yellow pages. He's on the missing person's list. For good."
There was a pause and then the girl asked him, "Is he with you?"
"Me, myself? No. I'd have given him to you if he was. I don't give a shit about some nine-year-old Visser Three wants to keep as his pet. But is he with my kind, my brother Yeerks? Yes. The Visser, the one not after your head, has had him for a few weeks now, at least. Maybe longer."
Yeerk-Girl started laughing. "Visser Three thinks he'll hurt her by infesting him? He really is as stupid as they say he is, isn't he?"
"Can't say I disagree." Said Tom's Yeerk.
"Thank you." Said Yeerk-Girl. She took a deep breath herself. "I still don't trust you, but thank you all the same."
"You saved my life." Said Tom's Yeerk as he got up. "Consider it payback."
There was a moment of silence.
"Good luck." Yeerk-Chick whispered.
I heard the door shut seconds as she let herself out.
Marco? I called out. I think things just got complicated.
"So, wait, let me get this straight. Sluggo T and Mysterious G are going to backstab Mr. and Mrs. V?"
"That's pretty much what it sounded like." I told Tobias, looking over my shoulder to make sure Sarah wasn't jumping on her bed.
We were using code, since over the phone, there was always the risk our lines could be tapped. And just so you know, Sluggo T is Tom, Mysterious G is the weird girl, and Mr. and Mrs. V are Vissers One and Three. "Sounds like a hell of a season finale." Tobias commented.
I heard Ax snicker in the background. I wondered if Tobias was using lady's -- Loren, or Mrs. Smith's -- phone, or if Ax had one of his own that he was letting Tobias borrow.
"Oh, shut up!" Tobias shouted at him.
"Season finale? That's the best you can come up with?"
"Like you've got something better?"
"Yeah, like 'Wow, that sounds like a lame movie'."
"How is that any different than season finale?"
"Nobody would air a show like that! I mean, Sluggo T, come on!"
"I swear, one of the days, I'm going to kill him." Tobias told me.
"I heard that!" Ax shouted.
"Why don't you go shoot some hoops or something?"
"I can't. It's snowing outside."
"Then why don't you leave?"
"It's my room! But I was going to anyway, I just wanted to tell you to tell Rachel I said hi."
"Ax says hi." Tobias told me.
I tried not to laugh. "Tell Ax I said hi back."
"Rachel says hi back. Now will you just go already?"
"Tobias, I'm starting to think you don't want me here. Ow! You didn't have to hit me...okay, all right, I'm leaving."
Tobias took a deep, long breath. "He's cool most of the time but sometimes he's a real pain in the neck."
"I know how you feel." I told him, checking to make sure Jordan hadn't caused any mass destruction. Tobias laughed. "Yeah, I guess you do, huh?"
"Oh, just a little, what with having to look after Jordi the Super-Brat and the Sarah the Amazing Toddler and all." I grinned.
Tobias groaned. "I remember."
"They still think you're my boyfriend. Except, you know, now you are."
"I am?" Tobias asked, a teasing lilt in his voice. "I thought I was just your makeout buddy."
"Oh no, no, no." I corrected him. "Makeout buddies can kiss. There's a big difference."
"Are you trying to diss on my mad skills?" Tobias asked.
Then there was an awkward silence.
"Wow," He said. "I've been hanging around Ax way too long."
It was my turn to take a deep breath. "How, um, have things been working out? With all that stuff?"
"You mean with Ax and Loren?" He asked. "Yeah." I said.
"It's been okay." He said. "No, it's been good. I mean, Ax sucks, but Loren is cool. There's been some problems with, like, services and stuff, but it's good."
"Services?"
"Um, yeah, you know. Child Welfare. They, uh, they've been bugging us, but it's no big deal."
"You didn't tell me that."
"Yeah, well, like I said -- not a big deal. Look, Rachel, I gotta go try and finish my history paper. So, talk to you later?"
He was hanging up on me already? I couldn't believe it. This was at least the third time!
"Yeah." I told him, getting ready to hang up just to beat him to the chase, "Later."
"Wait!" Tobias shouted. I stopped. "I almost forgot. Do you want to go out with me later this week, like maybe Wednesday? Ax has got a game, and he really wants me to go and I thought maybe you'd want to come with?"
"Yeah." I said, smiling, dropping my anger for a moment. "Sure."
"Awesome." He said, giddy. "Later."
"Later." I echoed back, hearing the soft click when he hung up.
I put the phone back on the hook and tried to focus on the good.
Tobias had asked me out on a date. And I was thrilled. I mean, we really didn't do dates that much, unless you count all the times we'd go out flying after school. So that was great.
But I was getting tired of him bailing on me everytime I tried to figure out how things were going with him and his new "family". I knew, in my head, that everything that happened with his uncle was stuff he didn't want to talk about it yet. I got that.
But it still hurt that he wouldn't talk to me.
"Rachel?" Jordan's voice snapped me back to reality. I looked down at her, wondering how the heck she'd got to my bedroom so fast. "What?" I asked.
"Would you look over my homework for me?"
"Oh, yeah, sure." I grinned. "As long as you pay me."
"No way!" Jordan shouted as I followed her to her room.
"Yes way. You've got to pay me ten bucks, or I won't help you."
"Rachel, you know I don't have any money!"
"Oh, is that so?" I asked as I shut the door behind me. "Next week's allowance then."
"No way. I'll tell Mom."
"I'll tell her you went to that party at Megan's."
"You wouldn't!"
As it turned out, I didn't get to talk to Tobias at school the next day because Jake had sent him and Ax off to go check out what we suspected were new entrances to the Yeerk Pool.
Some of Erek's Chee friends were covering for them, though. That was one of the ultra-cool perks of having a bunch of millennia old androids on our side -- if there was a Chee available, we could play hooky whenever we needed to. They'd just set up a hologram and pretend to be us for however long we needed. It was very cool.
The downside, though, was that the rest of us were left in school.
"All I'm saying is that The Sharing is cool." I gritted my teeth as I pulled on my leotard.
"I hear, like, anybody can join." Said one girl in our squad.
Yeah, I thought, putting my hair up in a bun, You can join and become a slave for life. It's fantastic.
"Oh yeah." Melissa, or really, her yeerk, answered the girl. "It's great."
"And plus, if you go to that new mall, they'll give you all sorts of discounts if you're a member." She added.
"Are you serious?" Another girl squealed. "I'm so joining up!"
You'd trade your freedom for 20% off at The Gap? I wanted to smack her back to her senses.
"Is that if you're a full member or if you just drop by sometimes?" I asked, turning to Mel, whose Yeerk seemed taken aback.
But that was just for a second. In another moment she was back to herself again. "Full." She said. "You've gotta be a full member for the discounts. Why, Rachel, thinking of signing up?"
I started to laugh. "No way." I said. "There's no way you could get me to join a lame-ass group like that. Sorry."
The Yeerk glared at me with Melissa's eyes, sending me a message that was all too clear -- just you wait, human. Just you wait.
I gave the slug a shit-faced grin, and wave. "See ya in class, Mel."
Then I walked out of the locker room before the Yeerk could catch the tears in my eyes.
Needless to say, by the time second period was over, I wasn't in the mood to continue my day of academic pursuit. So I skipped third period, dropped by Cassie's class to tell her I wasn't feeling well, and that I'd go check in with the nurse.
Of course, I did no such thing.
No, instead I went into the girl's bathroom, opened up a window and flew out of it two minutes later.
For a while, I just flew around the school, trying to think of a place I could go. Home was out of the question -- Mom was staying at home today to look over a case. So, what other options did I have?
Then it hit me. The mall. I'd even left some clothing up on the roof, you know, for emergencies.
And while this wasn't exactly an emergency, I figured that at least I'd be putting the clothes to good use. And get my mind off Mel.
So I took my time and wound up at the mall about an hour later. Then I landed on the roof, demorphed, threw the clothes on over my morphing suit and went inside.
I headed towards the food court, thinking of picking up a fruit smoothie before I went window-shopping. (I'd put some money in with the clothes, too.)
But it was on the way to the food court that I saw them. A tall lady with long, wavy brown hair and lightly tanned skin in a tan sweater and black pants.
And the man holding her hand. Blonde. Blue-eyed. With a smile I'd recognize anywhere.
My Dad.
Poor Rachel! (Reader Reponse)
freak show - Well, I'm glad you liked the last chaper! And I'm also glad to that you think Marco's darker in this story than he in the series...I'm trying to make him a little more bitter and moody. And a fight between Tobias and Marco? Well, at the moment, I don't think there's going to be a fight, but you never know...and sorry about your writer's block. Want me to try and shoo him away?
Celestial Hikari - My bad about the triplets thing. Well, just for you, I'll tell which one Iniss 666 is -- Greater, Lesser, or Middle -- but later in the story.
Neri AKA Pussywillowgoddess - Hey, it's okay if you dropped Animorphs for Buffy for a while. I've done it a few times. And advice about writing -- this may sound strange, but make yourself do it. Try to get yourself a moment or two and sit there with your computer and write. It doesn't have to be spectacular, just getting started helps, 'cause that's the hardest part. And that's probably the best advice I could give you. And I'm glad you like Marco, and the characters' chemistry and all that stuff. And, yes, there's going to be lots of Rachel-Tobias goodness. And, yeah, there will be some sex, but I'm not going to make it, like, you know, dirty. And Madra is Visser One's daughter...and oh my god, you're right! There's no Harry or Buffy inserts in this chapter, either! I guess I'll just have to stuff the next one full of them. And to answer your questions -- a vigniette is, I think, a fanfic that's pretty much just a character's thoughts and feelings. They tend to be pretty short. A ficlet is pretty much a short fanfic as far as I can tell. Drabble is kind of like a vingnette, except a little longer, and usually without a plot. They also might not make much sense. NC-17 is the same as it would be in the theatre: explicit sex and/or violence. More or less porno, though a lot of times there are fics with a complete, great, story and everything...not just detailed sex. And I get most of my quotes from www.quotationspage.com. And thanks, I will continue to keep writing.
zero - I'm thinking you want me to update soon. Am I right?
DH L'Orange -Hey, s'okay that you missed the chapter again. No biggie. And I'm glad Madra made you grin. And, hey, if you put me on your author alert -- that'd be fantastic!
Patrick Blah - So, you like the word boff, huh? =P And, yep, David's a skateboard freak. A skateboard freak with problems, actually, but hey...and Madra's one of V1 kids. Remember? And I'm glad you like Human!Ax, I kinda like him myself. =)
alexise-z - Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you liked the story and Tom's chapter and all that.
Michelle - Wow. This was the first Animorphs fic you read? Um, wow, I'm flattered. Seriously. I'm glad you liked and I'm sorry I took so long updating -- and you should read some more stuff, there's some really good Animorphs fanfic out there!
kaz456 - Glad you like the Marco-Rachel-Tobias thing, and I'm flattered you think I'm doing a good job with Marco and his feelings. And there's going to be a David chapter in a while, but I'm not sure when I'll write the next Tom one (though I know he'll have more than one). And there was a bit of foreshadowing in the Marco/Ax but sssh! No one's supposed to know yet! =P
Korean Pearl - Glad you liked the chapter and the stuff with David and Rachel and Marco. And Madra is indeed from Visser...but if you haven't read it, I really don't want to tell you who she is, exactly, 'cause it would ruin a lot of the book. And the scene with Tobias and his uncle is coming up, I hope you'll like it.
Mad Cow - You really think my Marco is dead-on? Thanks. And as for the forementioned slash...well, it's not in the last chapter because Marco still likes Rachel. And while you've got a good guess about David, nope, he's not going to be slashed. But he will be more in the story later on, if that's worth anything. And, well, I didn't updated soon, but I updated...does that count?