Marco

"You do know this is all your fault," I said to Rachel. It was Saturday and we were all in Cassie's barn, minus Ax who couldn't stand leaving his scoop so early in the morning and Jake. He had made some petty excuse about resting up.

"What's my fault?" she asked distractedly. She was filing her nails.

"All of this," I said, trying to get her attention by attempting to grab her nail filer.

"How is it my fault?" she asked, slapping away my hand.

"Well, let's see," I said, mocking stupidity. "You turned psychotic, you broke up the group, you went on a rampage and most recently you made Jake that stupid offer that's landed us all in trouble."

"Hey, Cassie," she said looking up. "What was Jake's future thing if he declined my offer?"

"He would become depressed," Cassie said, sounding depressed herself.

"Was that it?" Rachel persisted. "Was there anything else?"

"No, just that he became clinically depressed."

"Did he have any side affects when he was depressed?"

"He never left home, he never spoke to anyone and he never ate," Cassie said.

I looked at Rachel. She had gone all pale and was biting her lip.

"What?" I snapped. "What is it?"

"I shouldn't tell you," she said. "I promised Jake."

"If this has anything to do with that depression thing, we need to know," Cassie said, quickly.

Rachel hesitated, the two demons within her battling it out. And then she sighed. "Jake hasn't been eating," she said. "Only just recently he eats, but not much. It's like food makes him sick."

"And you decided to tell us now?" I shouted furiously. "What if he turned worse?"

"He's better now," Rachel said, defensively. "He's getting better."

"That doesn't mean he's going to get better," Cassie exclaimed.

((Rachel was only trying to do what she thought was best,)) Tobias said, sticking up for me.

"Yeah, and that could lead to Jake's depression," I said, snidely. "So, thankyou Rachel. You've made my day knowing that you may have caused our leader to become anorexic."

"He's not anorexic," Rachel cried. "He's not some teenage girl model wannabe."

"Oh, you mean like you?" I snapped.

"That's it monkey boy," Rachel shouted. She stood up from my bale of hay and started towards me, but Tobias landed on my shoulder.

((We don't need this right now,)) he said, calmly. ((Jake doesn't need this right now. Rachel you said he was getting better right?))

Rachel nodded.

((So we don't say anything to him unless he gets worse, right?))

"I can't lie to him," Cassie said. "I can't look him straight in the face and lie to him."

"You're not lying to him," I said. "You're just not telling him the whole story."

Cassie gave a little smile, but said nothing.

"What do you think he'll choose?" Rachel asked, softly.

I looked at her. She was Xena, but that didn't mean she didn't have a conscious. I had told her more than once that it was her fault we were in this mess, but I don't think I really meant it.

"I don't know," I admitted. "All I know is that I prefer my life Yeerk free."

Everyone nodded.

The only person that had been infested by a Yeerk involuntary was Jake. He never talked about it, but whenever it was mentioned I saw a painful expression on his face. I knew the pain he went through. I knew he suffered; Cassie had been there with him when the Yeerk came out and she said she'd never seen anything like it before. She looked horrified herself. Jake had trouble walking for the first couple of hours, being infested you have no control over your body and he collapsed on his first try. Being his best friend I would have traded places with him in an instant, for some reason I think I would have had less trouble with it than he had. He did mention that the Yeerk tortured him over his brother. That was Jake's one weakness.

For a while everyone sat in silence. Probably thinking about their own futures and what would happen to them if Jake chose the wrong one. In my mind, both of them were the wrong ones. I hated the Ellimist right then. What he was doing to us and especially what he was doing to Jake.