Alright, so here 'tis. I'm going to use ( ) again for thought speech since those other things don't work so well.
I needed a plan. I hate thinking on my toes! I needed help! But there was only one way to get contact with the others. I could feel the fur beginning to poke through my soft skin, my muscles becoming layered; extreme buffness. As soon as I had the ability, I spoke to Ax.
(Dude we have a serious problem! They have Jake!) I cried.
(I'm coming,) Ax said, sounding horribly anxious. I abandoned the car, and tried to follow the trail left behind. The trail of blood. I could barely see the outline of a door to a lighted room. Common sense told me not to open it until I had reinforcements, but since when have I ever listened to that nagging voice in the back of my head? I slowly opened the door, having to be particularly careful of my hulking gorilla hands. I crept in, amazed that I wasn't instantly vaporized. In the corner, I saw a group of Hork-bajir, it looked like three of them. One was holding what looked like a big Tupperware container, which contained something that certainly wasn't day old lasagna. A bunch of gray slugs were swimming around in what I assumed was water. And slumped over in a chair, I saw Jake, blood dripping from a gaping wound on his forehead. One of the Hork-bajir was holding his head sideways, exposing his right ear.
(Get your hands off of him!) I roared, running forward. Luckily, at that moment, an Andalite, a wolf, a grizzly, and a Red-tailed hawk came rushing in, ready for action. So much for being subtle and checking things out. Rachel immediately scooped up Jake in her arms, but an arm blade from one of the Hork-bajir sliced her skin and tissue above the spine, causing her to drop him, turn, and knock the Hork-bajir's head off with one swipe of her monstrous paw. I ran forward and picked Jake back up, holding him like a baby. Ax quickly beheaded the two remaining Hork-bajir.
(We must leave immediately, it won't be long before more arrive,) Ax said, obviously horrified at having no prince to question.
(Yeah, we better get out of here,) Rachel said, running through a door in the back of the room, and rushing to the woods. We all followed, and began demorphing, only to morph back into the bird of our choice. But not Jake.
"What are we going to do with him?" I cried, kneeling at his side and gently touching the wound.
"Someone needs to morph something and get him out of here," Cassie said, beginning to morph to seagull.
"I'll go horse," I said, knowing that everyone realized I cared too much about Jake for anyone else to take him. I morphed more quickly than I had ever done. Everyone else went seagull, except Rachel, who helped lift Jake onto my back. She then joined the rest.
(My barn. Go,) Cassie said, looking at Jake. (Do you think he…)
(I don't know. I don't know…) I cried, beginning to run. Well. This was certainly poor planning on our part. And this didn't look strange, either. Me, running on all the back roads and through random hunks of woods to get to Cassie's barn, to join my friends who just flew there as birds. During my random babbling thoughts, Jake began to slowly come to.
"What…humans? No!" he muttered. I felt as if a bucket of ice had just been dumped down my throat. I had only ever heard Jake talk like this once before. When he had been made a controller, long ago.
(Sorry about this, man,) I said to him as I bucked, throwing him to the ground. He was rendered officially unconscious once more. How to get him back onto my back now? Well, I'm an idiot. I demorphed, then morphed to gorilla. Putting him on me piggyback style, I knuckle-walked my way to Cassie's, which was luckily not that far. Well, under any other circumstances this position might seem a bit more romantic.
I dragged Jake into the barn, placing him gently on the hay-strewn floor. I demorphed as Cassie immediately tended to Jake's wound.
"He's been out for such a long time," she said sounding concerned, dumping some gloopy stuff all over the wound.
"BAHKTU…ehem," I said as I got my human vocal cords back. "Actually, he came out of it for a bit on the way."
"What happened?" Rachel asked, looking at her cousin, full of concern.
"I bucked him off me, as a horse," I said simply, not knowing how to react to the awful news, and dreading the moment when I'd have to break it to everyone.
"You WHAT?!" Rachel demanded, grabbing me by the shirt and nearly lifting me into the air.
"When he woke up…he said…" I delicately released myself from Rachel's death grip, and sat on a bale of hay, putting my head in my hands.
(Said what, Marco?) Ax asked, seeming to already know.
"He's a controller," I whispered, trying to fight the tears. No one said anything. They all looked at me, mouths wide, then looked at Jake. His eyes were slowly beginning to flutter. As he opened them, the first thing he saw was Ax.
"Andalite!" he roared, sitting up quickly. Too quickly. He had to lie back down, clutching his head.
"Not again!" Cassie cried, as Rachel immediately morphed to grizzly.
"I mean…Ax-man. Hey guys, that was pretty rough, back there, huh?" he said, not fooling anyone.
"Save iiihgggd," Rachel began. (Save it,) she said as she completed the morph. She grabbed Jake and held him on her lap.
(So what would you like for Christmas, little Yeerk?) she asked, holding him tightly. (How long has it been? How much longer before you shrivel up into dust?)
"Rachel, come on!" But by the tone in "Jake's" voice, you could tell it had been too long ago. Things instantly changed, going from terrible to absolutely insane. Jake began to convulse.
"Kill me. Just kill me, please!" he begged, eyes rolling back into his head as something gray and slimy began to peek out from his ear. Soon the slug plopped onto the ground, Rachel standing, paw poised over the pitiful creature in its helpless state.
"AHHHHHHHH! GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT! NEVER AGAIN!" Jake was screaming, rolling around, scratching at his ears, tears beginning to stream down his face.
"Jake, stop!" I ordered, not wanting him to cause further harm to himself. I knelt down beside him, and held him in my arms. I gently kissed his forehead, which was covered in blood and sweat. I didn't care.
"Help me, Marco! Please help me," he was crying, burying his head in my chest.
"It's alright, I'm here. It's gone, it's out, Jake," I whispered, gently stroking his hair.
(What should we do with it?) Tobias asked from his perch in the rafters.
"Kill it," Cassie said. Everyone looked at her, expecting some sort of hippie tree-hugger rant.
"What?" we all said in unison.
"Well he clearly wants to die. He'll either get stepped on, or starve. You all remember when Jake's last Yeerk starved," Cassie said. Jake shuddered. He was still crying, but silently now, as I slowly rocked him.
"He didn't have long left," Jake whispered.
"He told you?" Rachel asked, demorphed.
"He couldn't hide it, he was already starting to lose it," he began, his weakness clearly heard in every word he spoke. "They kept them away from the pool too long. They had them in water, just water. The Visser wouldn't listen. They tried to explain…tried…" Jake closed his eyes, and settled himself back down on my lap.
"Come on Jake, keep going, this is important," Rachel said, trying to sound delicate.
"Leave him alone!" I shouted, holding him more tightly.
"Look, that's all very sweet, protecting your love and all, but he needs to tell us everything," Rachel said. I sighed, knowing she was right, but hating to hear Jake suffer so much. I gently turned him so he was facing everyone else. His eyes opened again.
"Please, carry on," Cassie urged gently.
"They…they have them stored in water…no room for pool…too obvious…don't have…don't have the whole police force, yet. The car wash…it wouldn't have passed inspection. The Yeerks…they were out too long. Told to go…straight from car wash to pool, McDonald's entrance right next door."
"So, now what?" I asked, cradling Jake as he finished his story.
"Kill it!" Cassie demanded, Jake's story having distracted us all from the immediate issue. Rachel stepped on the defenseless worm, a small squishing sound coming from beneath her foot.
"Look, I'm going home, alright? Jake, are you ok to fly?" I asked, slowly standing, drawing Jake up with me.
"You can't just go!" Rachel shouted.
"He needs to rest, we'll come back tomorrow night, alright?" I said, just daring her to disagree with me.
"Fine!" she said, sitting down heavily and crossing her arms.
"Jake, can you fly?" I repeated.
"Yeah. Yeah," he said, still shaking. It hurt me, seeing him like this. It was weird, I never liked it when he was hurt before, obviously. He was my best friend. But it was different now. Harder. I kissed him on the head, and began to morph. He looked at me, and followed suit, morphing to peregrine falcon. We flew home in silence, Jake flying a few loops, as if getting back into freedom mode. We flew through my bedroom window, demorphed, and he instantly laid down on my bed. I went to get him a glass of water. My dad was in the kitchen.
"Hey, take you long enough to drop your summer homework off at school?" he asked, but he was smiling, so I knew he wasn't really mad.
"Sorry, we met Rachel, you know, Jake's cousin? And had something to eat."
"Well whatever it was, it's all over your shirt. Be more careful next time, Marco. Jeez, it looks like you slaughtered a cow for your lunch!" I looked down and saw that my shirt was covered in blood. Jake's.
"Nice shorts," my dad said as he walked into the living room with some nachos and a coke. "Kids today," he laughed softly under his breath. As I was walking up the stairs with Jake's glass of water, I heard a knock at the door.
"I'll get it!" I shouted to my dad, walking towards the door. I opened it, and saw two men in suits standing in front of me.
"Yes?" I asked, not liking the looks of this.
"We heard that Jake" -insert generic last name here as I am not going to tell you- "is staying here with you," one of them said, eyes hidden behind sunglasses.
"Yeah, why?"
"His parents car went missing. We found it in a car wash, abandoned. It was full of blood. His." My heart sank. These weren't any regular police. They were controllers, which was made really rather apparent by the dracon beams in their holsters. We were in serious trouble.