A/N: Finally! Sorry it took so long, but I'm very busy. Plus, I've had huge writer's block. I will never complain to anyone again that they need to update. I've been getting a lot of good input on this story and I'm glad everyone likes it. I was so worried about the last chapter, I'm really not good at Marco but everyone seems to like it :-) This chapter is Rich/Rachel. Oh, and Author replies are at the bottom of this chapter. Okay, I think I've covered everything, so let the chapter begin! Rich is going to seem way different than Rachel just to let you know.

Disclaimer: Oh yeah, I have to do this thing. Okay, everyone should know by now that I do not own the Animorphs. I think I own their alternates though. I am not doing this again. This disclaimer counts for every other chapter of this story that I write.

(Rich)

My name is Rich. I won't tell you my last name. It's not that I'm some sort of freak that is afraid the government is watching me. No, it's much simpler than that. I simply don't like my last name. It's never sounded right with Richard or Rich. So don't ask me what my last name is because I'll do whatever I can to stop you from hearing it.

I flopped down onto my bed and pulled out a picture from my dresser drawer. It wasn't a very good picture, just a class one where everyone was goofing off. In the corner was the girl of my dreams. She had long dirty blond hair that was pulled back into a ponytail because it never laid flat of its own and eyes that had a look of hope, pain, and sincerity all at once. But that picture was taken a long time ago, a year ago in fact. The last time I saw her, she had cut her hair short so that it wouldn't bother her and her eyes were starting to have the look of ice when it is first forming of a lake. She never changed her dumpy, underprivileged look, but she never sported bruises or cuts like when we first met. I still remember one particular conversation about that.

I walked down the cafeteria and over to the girl of my dreams. I lightly touched her shoulders. She spun around and cracked a smile.

"Hey," was all she said and went back to her notebook where she was drawing a picture. Later, that picture won an award.

"Hi. You look a lot better. I mean, you always look good, but you're not as…hurt as you usually are. Are things getting better at home?" I asked sincerely. She looked up at me with remnants of her old eyes.

"Hardly," she swallowed back a laugh.

"Then how come you don't have any bruises?"

"Shoot, Rich, I've got to go get some colored pencils. I'll be right back."

I didn't see her until the week afterwards. But there's another reason why she was my ex-girlfriend.

My ex-girlfriend, whom I loved dearly before she practically stopped seeing me before she dumped me in a huge fight, liked my last name. She said that it had a nice ring to it, a last name that she would someday like to have. Come to think of it, I would have liked her to have it. I know it's silly to think you've found true love at my age, but I did. I just know it.

Her name was Toby.

(Rachel)

I don't know why I was freaked out, I truly don't. I guess it was just a shock. When I got home I saw a guy lying on my bed. What was even freakier was that he didn't seem nervous at all. The freakiest thing was that three other men were in the house acting totally normal and no one in the neighborhood seemed to care. So, you ask me why I didn't just go in and go grizzly on all their asses. It's pretty easy. While I enjoy kicking Yeerk butt, it doesn't mean I'll hurt a creepy but innocent person out of pure anger. That and Jake would kill me.

So, instead of confronting this person right away, I postponed the encounter until I couldn't take it anymore. I waited until all the guys in my house except the one in my room left, picked up the key from under the mat and marched up to my room.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING IN MY ROOM YOU BASTARD!" I screamed once I jerked the door open. He looked startled and dropped a picture frame that he was looking at on to the floor. There was a faint tinkle of glass as it broke and scattered across the floor.

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? DO I EVEN KNOW YOU, YOU BITCH!" He yelled back at me once he regained his composure. I could tell immediately that he wasn't very happy. God, who did he think he was, acting like this room was his and that he wasn't a criminal!

"YEAH, THIS IS THE LAWYER'S DAUGHTER TELLING YOU TO GET OUT OF HER ROOM BEFORE SHE MAKES SURE YOU'RE PUT IN JAIL!" I yelled at him as I pointed to the door. I gave him an angry look that only I could do. I was kind of surprised when he gave me the same look without any trouble at all. Still, his blue eyes weren't as hard as when I do it.

I guess what shocked me was when he stumbled back a little and screamed, "Why the hell do you look just like me!"

(Rich)

It was…interesting, as Casey would put it, to see this girl storm into my room and yell at me. I didn't even know that someone could yell as much as I did. I had several way out theories on why this girl looked like me. Clone. Long lost twins. Form of me from an alternate universe. I had many more theories too. I got into science fiction after I met Toby.

"Who…who are you?" the blond girl asked.

I took a deep breath, "My name is Richard, Rich for short."

"Rachel. So, why are you in my room?"

"WHAT! Are you on crack or something?"

Rachel looked like she was about to yell something, but shook her head and sighed, "Not unless I was drugged by some maniac."

"So, why do you look like me?" I asked innocently.

She shrugged, "Don't know. What do you think?"

I started listing my theories, "Clones. Long lost twins. Alternate universes. Alie-"

"What was the last one?"

"Alternate universes?"

Although I'm not sure, I could have swore that I heard Rachel mutter the letters "DT".

(Rachel)

I almost laughed out loud. Visser Three sure would be happy to find out that the DT worked. Plus, the Yeerks did seem a little shocked to see us, like they were the first time we ever went to the Yeerk pool. The sad thing was that this actually made some sort of sense. I had finally lost it. But don't tell Marco, I don't want to give him the satisfaction.

"Who is 'DT'?" Rich asked me.

I blinked. Did I say that out loud?

I sighed and made the decision to explain to him what was going on in case he didn't already know. "It's a what, not a who, and I'm not entirely sure myself. I don't suppose you know what Yeerks are, do you?"

"Can't say I've heard of them." He shrugged.

I took a very deep breath. This was going to sound crazy to him.

(Rich)

This girl was crazy.

As soon as Rachel finished her little story, I began laughing. "You really are on crack." I told her. The look she gave me suggested that insulting her would end with my head on a pike, but I didn't care; I've always been the daredevil type.

(Oh really. Have you looked around recently.)

I blinked. I swore I heard her voice in my head.

(It's me, Rachel. I'm the big old grizzly bear or have you not noticed it yet.)

Actually, I had noticed it. I had noticed the tree hundered something pound bear in my room. It was kind of hard to miss.

"So...the changing into animals part is true then." I said simply.

It's kind of odd to see a bear nod.

"Um...could you change back? My floor collapsed a little while ago and I'd rather it not happen again."

The bear nodded again. Blond hair begain to sprout from its head and the bear nose turned back into a human nose. The eyes turned back into blue ones. Fur retreated back into the skin and the linms turned normal. Finally, all that was left were the black clows, which changed into long fingernails before shrinking back to normal size.

I was wide-eyed. "Wow." I collapsed onto my bed and began massaging my temples.

"A little much, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah." I replied. " A little much."

(Rachel)

I began exploring the room whileletting my counterpart(?) absorb all this new information. It is kind of a shock to find out your planet is being invaded by parasitic aliens. Our rooms weren't that much different, except his was more masculine while mine was more fenimine. But that was to be expected.

I gingerly picked up the photograph that he had dropped earlier. It was an old class photo that I remembered well. But it was a little hard to recognize everyone when they were the opposite sex. I looked at the bottom and found the name I was looking for.

Toby .

I was pretty sure she was Tobias's counterpart.

"Give that back!" He demanded and snatched it out of my hands.

"What!" I asked.

"Nothing." He glared.

I smirked. "You like her, don't you?"

"Like who?"

"That girl. Toby."

He glared at me again as he put the photo in his drawer. "I did like her. We broke up a while ago."

"You dated?"

"Yeah, we dated. Then one day, out of the blue, I asked her where she was going. She started yelling at me and accusing me of not respecting her privacy. She broke up with me."

"...well, have you apologized."

"No, and I'll never be able to either."

I placed my hands on my hips. "Well, why not?"

He sighed. "Because...the day after she broke up with me, she commited suicide."

(Rich)

Rachel looked shocked. "Tobias's counterpart is...dead."

"As a doornail." I said coldly.

She shook her head. "I don't believe it. I really don't."

"Believe it."

"Come on, we're leaving." Rachel demanded.

"To where?" I asked.

"To your best friends barn. I need to have a little talk with my best friend."

A/N: Well, that's the chapter. I know, not my best work. I eventually got to the point where I just wanted it to be over with. Next is Cassie/Casey. Also, note that I've changed the name from Cassidy to Casey. I like Casey better. More info on Toby's death will be provided later in the story.

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