Disclaimer: I don't own Animorphs. I wish I did, but I don't. - Anyways this story and any characters that are made up are mine and Cassie's. So don't use them without asking.
Just so people now this isn't just my story. My friend Cassie and I came up with this together. We're co-authors. I come up the ideas and she types them up. And the chapters will switch between Kitty's POV and Loren's POV. Enjoy!
Kitty's POV
I knew something had gone wrong. Loren never came like that. She wasn't upset, but she wasn't happy, either. I couldn't tell if she was trying to look happy or not. I'd never seen her like that before. I wanted to ask her, but under her visage, she was really disturbed about something. And the fact that she wasn't going back puzzled me. Even though she hated her home, she always went back. I stopped thinking about it. I knew I would find out sooner or later.
I followed her into the house, and we went up to my room. I left her in there alone, and went to talk to my mom. I opened the door to my room to find her standing right there.
"Hi, mom," I said. She took my by the arm, and we went into the kitchen.
"What's going on?" she asked me. She had watched us from the window. She knew something was up.
"I wish I knew. She said she wasn't going back, though." My mom sighed.
"I've been expecting this for a while," she said softly. I wondered how she knew. "Go back up and talk to her. We'll give her the guest room. She can't sleep over in your room every night." I nodded, and went back to my room.
I got there, and Loren was crying softly. I knew she didn't want me to see her like that, but I knew something very wrong had happened, and it had to be said or let out one way or another.
"Loren, what's going on?" I asked her as I sat down next to her and put an arm around her. She shook her head, and collapsed into sobs. I tried my best to calm her down, but what had been done, was done.
I let her lean on me and cry until she had no tears left. Then she told me everything that had happened, including morphing into a wolf. I was shocked; I had never expected anything like that from her. Oh well, people change, I said to myself. I really hadn't believed it, even after what Marco said. It's such a hard thing to believe. But I guess that somewhere inside of me, I knew that it was true, and that it would come back and affect us.
"Kitty?" she asked.
"What?" I answered.
"Can we go out back and change into wolves? It's a lot of fun. It gets my mind off of things, too."
"It's not supposed to be used for that," I started. But then I thought about it. If she was hurting this bad, it couldn't be a bad thing to try and cheer her up a bit. Besides, I wanted to try to turn into an animal. It seemed like fun, but at the same time, what morphing meant to us, and our lives, was oppressive. "I suppose we could try it," I amended. She brightened considerably, and led me out to the woods.
When we got there, the ground was still wet from the storm. I could smell the wet ground and the wet trees. I loved the smell and the feel of the woods when it was wet. It was beautiful. It was almost a different place after a rainstorm. We pushed further into the woods, and then she stopped by the cave. She took off her shirt and pants, and tossed them into the cave's entrance. I gaped at her.
She was wearing a pink and purple tye-dye shirt that was very tight, and black leggings were even tighter, if that was possible. She grinned at me, and then mouthed the word, "oops."
"What?" I asked suspiciously.
"I forgot to tell you," she started.
"What?" I repeated.
"You can't change, or morph, whatever, in anything but skintight clothing," she said with a small giggle. I shrugged. She must have found that out the hard way.
"Okay, as long as we change back to humans inside the cave," I said. She nodded, and began to change. I watched her in amazement.
First, soft grey fur rippled across her entire body. I almost laughed; she looked like a werewolf. Then all of a sudden, her nose sprouted outward, and her skull flattened. It was sickening to watch, but at the same time, I couldn't look away. Her ears rotated, moved to the top of her head, and grew pointy. Her hands and feet changed into a wolf's paws, and she sank to all fours. Then she shrunk. She was the size of a wolf, without a tail. Then, the tail erupted from her backside, and she was a wolf. I gaped at the wolf who was my best friend. She stared back, and howled loudly. The noise reverberated through the woods and the cave.
"And that's supposed to mean what?" I asked her with a smile. She was right, this was going to be a lot of fun.
Hurry up, Kitty, her voice said. But I hadn't heard it. It was inside my head somehow!
"How'd you do that?" I asked.
I don't know, she said, shaking her grey head. I've never tried talking before. Come on! Try morphing, but be careful of its instincts. I had no clue what she meant, but I tried to morph.
I concentrated on the wolf. I could feel the changes begin. I concentrated harder, and they happened more rapidly. I had wolf ears on top of a human head, and I had a tail. Then I changed back to human; I wanted to try something.
Kitty? What are you doing? Loren protested. I ignored her, and started changing again.
This time, I wanted a tail. I concentrated on having a tail first. It worked. The tail sprouted from my spine. I waved it in the air, and looked over my shoulder to see it. This was fascinating! I wanted the wolf's head next. My ears shifted and rotated, and I could hear bones rearrange as my skull flattened out, and my nose stretched to an outrageous distance. Then I completed the morph. This was very cool. The wolf's mind surfaced, and it wanted food. And it wanted to run.
I started to trot, but I remembered Loren's warning about its instincts. I took control of the wolf's mind with little difficulty. I noticed my clothes lying on the ground in front of the cave. I trotted over, and picked them up in my mouth, and carried them inside the cave a little. I tried to talk to Loren.
Let's go! I yelled. She reared up on her hind legs, and took off.
It was exhilarating. I could smell everything, I could hear everything, and my sight, my sight was astonishing. I ran side by side with Loren for miles. That's a good thing about wolves: they don't tire easily. We had run for almost two hours, when I stopped suddenly. I had an excellent sense of time.
Loren? I said quietly.
What? she asked.
Did my mom ever say anything about how long we could stay in morph? It's been a couple hours. How long can we stay in morph?
I'm not sure, Loren said thoughtfully. But she definitely did say something about a time limit. I remember that much.
You have two hours in any specific morph, a different voice said. We spun around, but we couldn't see anything. We looked all around us, but we still didn't see the speaker. I smelled the wind, and smelled nothing out of the ordinary. There was a hawk perched above us, but there was no Andalite, or anything of the sort.
Look up, the voice said, amused. We did, and there was the hawk I had detected.
You see, you and I smell no different than a normal animal would. It's just that we have other forms, and can talk in other people's minds. You have to control your thought speech, he admonished gently. Now demorph, so we don't have two other nothlits roaming the woods. If a wolf could have shrugged, that's what I did. I started to demorph, then remembered that I wouldn't have any clothes on.
Hey, whoever you are? I said to the hawk. I left my clothes in a cave a few miles back. Could you go get them, please? I heard him fly away, and Loren's giggle in my head. I loped behind a tall tree, and demorphed. Loren demorphed a little ways away. I heard her laughing in exhilaration. I crouched down, and leaned against the tree, waiting for the mystery bird to come back.
I'm back, the hawk said as a bundle of clothing was dropped next to me. Then I realised how poor human senses were compared to those of animals. I hadn't even heard him approach. I looked at him from behind the tree. I wondered who he was.
I shrugged, pulled my clothes on, and stepped out from behind the tree. Loren was standing there in her little outfit, and the hawk was perched on a low branch. I swear, if hawks could have laughed, he would have been.
"What are you doing here?" I asked him.
I could hear your thought-speech for a mile, he said. You have to control it better.
"What do you mean?" Loren asked as she looked up at him.
"Who are you?" I asked at the same time. He looked at me first.
I am a nothlit. I am trapped in morph, he said. I looked up abruptly. Now things made sense!
"Then are you the other Andalite?"
No, but I have a morph of Aximilli, and I used it that day, he said, staring at us with his golden eyes. I thought he was glaring at me but then I thought about it. Hawks can't do anything but glare, really. We should get back, he said suddenly. You have come a long way, and we'd best hurry. And no morphing, he added to Loren, who looked ready to jump back into her wolf skin.
We walked through the woods, back to the cave. The hawk flitted from one branch to another, leading us in the right direction. I really had no need of him, since I knew the woods, but I didn't really pay that much attention to him. I just followed Loren, who was looking up at him interestedly. We had only come about four or five miles, but as wolves, we had circled and romped a lot. I looked around us. The scenery was beautiful as always, and it still smelled wet. I breathed deeply, and kept moving.
When we got back to the cave, a couple hours later, Marco was already there waiting for us. His arms were crossed, and he was leaning against the rock. He looked stern, but then he spoke to us.
"About time you two showed up. I've been waiting here for hours," he said with a grin.
"Sure you were," I said. Loren went into the cave and came out fully dressed.
"I see you've figured out most of what you needed to," he said.
"Not really," I said, as the hawk started speaking.
Not quite, he interjected. I could hear them talking from my perch. He didn't sound too happy about it, either.
"They just started, Tobias. So they haven't figured out how not to broadband their speech yet. They'll learn." He smiled at us. "So, did you have fun?" Loren nodded vigorously. I wasn't quite sure.
"Come on, Kitty. It was fun!" Loren said enthusiastically. I nodded. Then the trees filled with white mist.
I had had a feeling something was going to happen. And this was it. I saw a battle. There was a grizzly bear, a hawk, an Andalite, a tiger, a gorilla, and a wolf. They were fighting hundreds of big centipede-like things. The Andalite was slicing through them like they were butter, and its comrades fell upon the wounded creature with fervor. All of the animorphs worked in a similar way; they would hurt one of the creatures, and others would fall upon in with zeal. The sight made me shiver in disgust. Then I saw the same grizzly on board some type of vessel with a polar bear, a snake, and other various dangerous animals. The grizzly was obviously wounded. A dracon beam fired, hitting the bear. It fell to the ground, and reached around blindly on the floor. I noticed the snake right next to her, and realised that the snake was what she was reaching for. She finally caught it in her massive brown paw, clenched it tight, and bit off its head. Some more shots were fired at her. She made moves to get up. As she was getting up, she was turning into a human. She emerged into the tall blonde girl. As soon as she was done with the changes, the polar bear came forward. She looked at him without fear. She must have known, though! She must have, but he finished her with one swat of his paw. I looked away, and didn't see more.
I had a feeling that those things were important, but I didn't know why. Maybe they were telling me not to use morphs just for fun. I didn't know. Or maybe they were foreshadowing my future by showing me the past. Whatever they were, I didn't like them.
The trees started to come back through the fog, and Loren was shaking me, looking very worried.
"Kitty? Are you all right?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "Really," I said as she frowned. I grinned idiotically, and eventually she smiled.
"All right," she said, but she didn't believe me. Then we all trooped back to my house. Marco came with us, frowning for some reason. I wanted to talk to him, to ask him what had really happened to us, but I knew that I couldn't. At least, not yet. I needed to find some answers on my own. And I needed to figure out exactly what it was that I had just seen. Who was that taller girl? I knew that her name was Rachel, and that she loved a good fight, but I needed to know more about her. I decided to ask my mom.
We got to the house, and my mom was waiting for us. She already knew that we had been out cavorting. I smiled at her. She didn't smile back. She slipped into the living room, and sat on the couch. We all sat somewhere. I sat on the floor facing the couch, and Loren sat next to me. Marco and my mom seated themselves on the couch, and faced us, grave looks on their faces.
"You know that what you two just did was not necessarily the best thing to do," my mom started out. Loren opened her mouth to protest, but I elbowed her. I nodded for my mom to go on.
"This same thing happened to us a long time ago," Marco said softly. The look in his eyes was one of remembrance. And some of those could not have been all too pleasant.
"We know," I whispered, not wanting to break the solemnity that had descended upon the four of us.
"You have the ability to change into any animal that you can touch. But there are rules, and you cannot break those rules unless you wish to face the most dire consequences," my mom said.
"Tobias broke one of those rules," Marco said. "He is now a nothlit. One who is trapped in morph." He paused for a moment, composing himself. "There is a limit of two hours in any morph. If you go beyond that, you will also be trapped in morph. Do not push that boundary. We did, once. We were all almost trapped, half animal, half human. Not a pretty sight," Marco said, with a little glint in his eyes. It was comforting, in a way, to see that all of the battles had not killed the spark in his eyes, and had not squashed his personality.
"As you probably already know," my mom started. "You cannot morph in anything but skintight clothing. You will need to find something comfortable and tight, as you will need to wear it all the time. You cannot predict when you will next need to morph." She sounded so formal, so stiff. But I could tell that she, too, was remembering. And I could guess that times had been extremely hard for her. She was always so kind, so giving. Battle, or war, whichever one preferred, was not the most pleasant of things to live through. And the death of Rachel had devastated her. That much had been obvious.
"And your speech," Marco cut in. "You must learn to narrowly broadcast it, or any living thing within a decent distance can hear you speak. And that's not always good when you're rattling off your battle plan. It's like talking into a megaphone, or talking on a radio: broadcast everywhere. But, just try to control it, and only talk to the person that you wish to speak to. Almost like a whisper." He seemed lost for words.
"How did you learn to do it?" Loren asked.
"We practiced it," he answered. I nodded in understanding.
"We need to tell you about things," my mom said. "You need to know. This can't be started from the beginning again. I'm sorry," she said with a look of total sincerity that scared me.
She talked for a long time. It was mainly about the same things, over and over again. She told us that morphing was not to be used for fun, and that its significance was inexplicable unless we had experienced it. I knew what she was talking about. Morphing was a gift, and a curse. It was truly amazing to be turning into animals, but at the same time, why you had to turn into animals was terrifying. And to think that the only way to save the world was to change into these different animals was stupefying. But she also talked about the Yeerks. About how they entered your brain, about how they took over every motion, every thought that you had. She talked about Kandrona rays, but I discarded that almost immediately. I didn't know why. She told us about the Yeerk pools. How they had to feed every three days. Then she moved on, and that information passed out of my mind. I was getting tired.
It got very late, and my mom got tired. Have you ever been so tired that you felt intoxicated? Well, that's how my mom looked. She started talking about Rachel and Jake. She loved Jake, but hated him at the same time. And Rachel, well, Rachel was just Rachel. Her super-model self, her spunkiness, her love for the battle... Marco stopped her after a while, and told us to go to bed.
We went upstairs without a word, and I flopped down into my bed while listening to Loren splashing water on her face in the bathroom. I stared at the ceiling. A lot had happened that day. The repercussions of it would last forever, I knew.
I went to sleep thinking about Loren, about what I had seen that day, and about my mom. I hoped that Loren would be all right through all of this. She was frail in ways, but so strong in others. And what had happened to her had hit her in her weak spots. I shook my head. I knew she would recover. She always did, and she was always stronger for it. I heard her get out of the bathroom, and go into the guest room, which was adjacent to mine. She moved around for a long while, and then went to bed.
I started thinking about my mom. She had been really shaken up by our little 'discovery.' We had finally believed in that night enough to actually try to turn into animals. That alone shocked her. The impact of what we would have to do later must have done severe damage. It scared me. And I wasn't scared of much. But what she had said about Rachel made sense.
If I had really seen Rachel, which I know I couldn't have, but I did, she was one for the battle. Her flowing blonde hair, her keen blue eyes, and her physique all made for a wonderful fighter. Her mindset was something that I couldn't hear, but I could see it. The way she had stared down that polar bear made me shiver. Then it made me think. Is that how we would turn out? Battle-hungry creatures? I didn't want that. But I supposed that it couldn't be helped. You can never tell what a person will turn out to be.
I finally fell asleep, thinking about polar bears, grizzly bears, and snakes. I tossed and turned all night, and didn't get much sleep, but I managed to crawl out of bed in the morning. I also was able to be decent to Loren and my mom, which, for being as tired as I was, was quite an accomplishment. I did get through the day at school, though. I didn't know why, but it always perked me up. I got to se everybody I knew and liked, I guess. And that's about how the next few days went: quickly.
Later in the week, Tommy and Jason invited us to hang out with them again. This time Jason said he would go. We were headed to the library, again. Loren wanted to go with them, but I had a bad feeling. I remembered all too well the first time we had gone with them. I didn't see how Loren could not remember, but I shrugged, and went with it anyway.
Jason didn't walk with us, saying he had something top do at home. He did say that he would meet us there, though. I smiled. He was always like that. He and Tommy were such opposites. But they got along so well. When we got to the library, covered in dust from the road, we stood outside for a minute. It had been extremely dry, which was why we were standing outside, beating the dust off of each other before we went in and sat down.
We finally got enough dust off of us to look decent. Then we went in and sat down in the same spot that we had been in before. The feeling in my gut kept getting worse. I sat down, and tried not to fidget. I was anxious, but I didn't want anyone knowing it. This was important. Where did that come from? I thought. I didn't know what I was getting into, but it wasn't good, in all probability. We sat there for about five minutes, totally silent. A few looks passed between Loren and Tommy, but other than that, nothing. I stared at the books.
"I guess they're not coming, again," Tommy said finally. He grinned at us. I hated when he did that! His smile was too cute. It bothered me. I smiled back at him, and stood up.
"So? What are we going to do this time?" Loren asked. He smiled at her, and stood up. I could see her all but melt when he smiled at her. I looked away. It was embarrassing to watch her flirt like that.
"Come on, and don't get scared this time," he said with a smirk. I wanted to slap him.
"Very funny," I retorted. He just looked at me, as if to dare me to follow him down those stairs. I moved towards the steps, telling him that I could do anything he could. I was stupid like that. If someone dared me to do something, I'd do it.
"Let's go," he said.
We went to the door, and this time I noticed him punch in some sort of code. He turned around and flashed us some sort of smile, as if reassuring us of something, or reassuring himself that we were still following him. Then we started down the dark stairs. We descended for what seemed like forever. The steps seemed even longer this time. The walls became slippery, as did the steps as we went down farther and farther. It didn't smell to great, either. I wrinkled my nose in disgust, and then concentrated on not falling down the increasingly dampening steps.
Tommy looked back at us once in a while, but after a while it became too dark to see him. We could only hear his footsteps echoing in the stairwell. He never paused, never faltered. Loren and I tried not to slip or fall; there was no handrail. As a result, we went a lot slower than he did.
"Tommy, can't you wait up?" Loren whined. She hated the dark, and we all knew it. We heard him stop, and we finally caught up to him. He put a finger to his lips for silence, as if our coming was a secret. Not that we could have been heard above all the ruckus coming from the party or whatever it was down there. But then he took off again, and we had no choice but to follow. I shrugged, and kept going. Loren kept a hand on my back, assuring her position on the steps.
As we reached the last part of the staircase, a faint light shone on us. It was a sickly yellowish light, accompanying the noise from the party. We could see brighter light up ahead, at the end of the stairs. The noise only got louder as we got closer. We hurried our step a little, and Tommy was waiting for us at the bottom, grinning like an idiot.
"About time," he said with, still grinning. Loren and I looked at each other and smiled. We'd already heard that earlier in the week. Neither one of us had forgotten our little frolic in the woods. I had told her what I'd seen, and she had just stared at me. But after a while, she understood that I wasn't kidding. She thought that it was both a foreshadowing of future events, and a warning. I agreed with her. We stepped into the room with Tommy.
The room we entered was brightly lit, and crammed with people. There were chairs in a semi-circle in front of a TV, a drink counter, a pool table, everything you could want. I wondered why it was under the library, and not above ground. It would make an awesome club. Tommy led us to the drink counter, and ordered sodas.
"New guests?" the bartender asked Tommy with a wink, looking us over.
"Yep," he answered, also with a wink. All of a sudden, I didn't like that place. I wanted out.
"Umm, Tommy, we're going to sit down," I said, and tugged on Loren's shirt. She followed me to the chairs.
They were relatively comfortable, black, and leather. I liked leather, even though it was dead animal skin. I didn't even glance at the TV; I never watched it anyway. Loren sat on the arm of my chair, as there was nowhere else for her to sit.
"Are you all right?" she asked, looking down at me.
"Yeah, the noise is getting to me, that's all," I lied. It was noisy, but I'd never cared much about noise. I got it all the time in the barn. But I hoped that Loren didn't know that. I wanted to figure out what was wrong with this place.
Just then, Tommy came to us with our sodas. I took mine, and sipped at it. The cool liquid felt good going down my throat. I looked around, ignoring the conversation Loren and Tommy were having. I saw a faintly outlined door in the far corner. I frowned, and leaned forward a bit to see it better. The outline was glowing slightly. I frowned even more, and squinted. Sure enough, it was glowing.
As I was going to say something, Tommy put his glass down on a convenient table, and pulled Loren to her feet. She leaned against him, looking at me.
"Come on, Kitty," he said playfully. He led Loren away, and I had no choice but to follow him. I stood there for a second, watching Tommy's and Loren's backs. Tommy was so muscular. But I could still beat him. I grinned, and went after them.
Loren was giggling as some remark of his when I caught up. We were headed towards the door. Part of my balked, knowing it wasn't going to be pleasant, but another part of me wanted to see it, wanted to know what was beyond that door.
"Kitty, you may not want to go back there," Tommy said with a smirk. "It may be scary." That was an insult. I reached out to slug him good and hard, but Loren caught my arm. She had a big smile on her face. That was good for her if she liked some cute guy that hung on her. I thought he was an idiot. He cared way too much about his looks. I grabbed my arm back and glared at him.
"Nice try," he said smugly. He smirked at us, and kept walking. He walked to the outlined door, and it just disappeared, and he walked right through the open space. Loren dropped his arm, and gaped. I was staring as well, but not at the door.
Beyond the door were cages. In the cages were people, and other creatures. Some of the people were howling and screeching like animals. Others sat and cried, and the rest just stood there in resignation, waiting for whatever punishment they were receiving. I was astounded and outraged. I was going to say something to Loren when Tommy appeared again, and told us to move it. There was a change in his voice. I knew that we had come too far to go back, and to say something would most certainly get us the same treatment that the creatures and humans in the cage were receiving. But how was Tommy a part of this horror?
We went through the space in the wall, and the door reappeared as soon as we crossed. I tried backing up into it, but it remained solid. In the middle of the chamber was a large pool of grey, viscous liquid. The noise in there was terrible. The wailing of people, the yelling of the guards at people, the struggles that broke out intermittently were awful. I looked around me.
There were two lines leading up to the pool. In each line, there was a pair of strange-looking creatures assisting, or forcing, people to bend their heads down to the pool. When we got closer, I could see a slug-like thing ooze out of their ear, and plop into the pool in one line. In the other, I could see the slug ooze back into the person's ear. I looked at Loren, and she looked petrified. I could understand her sentiment. I was too, but I didn't show it. She had dropped Tommy's arm, and was headed back to me. I put a protective arm around her, and she calmed a little. She stared at the pool, at the cages, with rapt fascination.
Tommy stopped and looked back at us. There was a mean glint in his eyes. He started advancing towards us. I backed against the door, hoping that it would open for me. Then I heard a familiar voice shouting.
"Kitty! Loren! Get out of here!" It was Jason! We looked at each other, and then looked around for Jason. We saw him, alone in a huge cage. We started to run over to him, but a seven-foot tall monster with razor blades sticking out of its body stepped in our way.
"Uh oh," Loren said to me quietly. In spite of my fear, I had to smile. What a thing to say when faced with a creature that has razor blades sticking out from its forehead, arms, ankles, and other places.
We backed up a good ways, and bumped into something squishy. We turned around, and saw one of the centipede-like things that I had seen earlier that week. It opened its round mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. I stifled a scream, and ran back to the door, just as someone came through. Loren was right behind me, and we burst through the space together. We looked around us. Everyone was staring at the two girls who had just burst through their door. Some of them approached us with menacing looks in their eyes. We looked at each other, and ran straight for the stairs.
We hit the stairs, and I slipped on the damp stone and banged my knee. I said something that shouldn't be repeated, and clambered up to Loren, and we ran together.
Tsseeeew! A beam of red light brushed past my shoulder. I could feel the heat radiating from it, even though it hadn't hit me. I had a sickening flash of knowledge of what it could do if it did hit me, or anyone. We ran up the steps even faster, trying to outrun the people climbing up after us.
I heard an animal roar that reverberated throughout the whole staircase, and made the stone walls tremble. I was afraid to look back. But I knew that whoever or whatever was down there was not happy.
"Why don't we morph?" Loren panted.
"No time," I said tersely, panting as well. Then, the steps didn't seem to have substance anymore. We flew up them like they were nothing. Almost as if we had wings. I got a tingling feeling up and down my spine, but I kept going. Loren was right beside me. I didn't know if she noticed it or not, but her steps were getting slower and slower. But at the same time, they were getting fainter.
When we got to the door, the world ceased to exist.
We were floating in nothingness. We could see the library, and the staircase, but they were far away. Where are my mom and Marco? I wondered silently. I didn't know why they should have been there, but I just knew that they should have been.
"They are coming," a voice that was all around me said. I looked wildly around, but I couldn't see anything in the white mists. I didn't want to say anything aloud, and I had a feeling that whatever had spoken would hear me anyway.
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