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Chapter Three
Tobias and Jono
Crazy is a relative thing
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Jono

I woke up in the woods surrounded by animals. So I did what any mildly sane and extremely stressed out teenager would do, in my opinion anyway, I started screaming at the top of my lungs. I just wasn't having a good day.

There was a hawk on a low branch that seemed to almost wince before flying up a branch or two. There were two owls also in the trees, a tiger-which may have been the reason I was really screaming-, a wolf, and a kid.

Yes, a kid. Which seemed odd even at the time, but when I think back this should have alerted me to the fact I wasn't really in danger of being eaten.

"Stop that." The boy said, blinking wide eyes. He looked surprised I had screamed. Well, I'm sorry if my fear alarmed him.

Only, you know, not.

I stopped screaming though, because the tiger gave me a dirty look. I settled for backing away slowly and…well generally being very afraid.

The wolf growled so I stopped moving. I felt dizzy. And sick, we can't forget sick, because I proceeded to throw up. Nope, not having a good day at all. In fact I was having a very piss poor day and would have liked to wake up back in my bed with some sort of assurance that I was just having some kind of weird acid trip.

Not that I've ever been on an acid trip.

That I'm admitting to.

The boy frowned. "Are you alright? Ight."

"No, thank you for asking." At which point something occurred to me. "I'm having another dream. I hit my head or got a hold of some bad school food, I'm unconscious somewhere and this is all just a really bad dream. Which is strange, because there's usually more blood and pointy objects in my dreams, but that's okay."

"I can assure you this no dream. Ure…" He trailed off and glanced over his shoulder.

"Well then I really do need Prozac." I said shaking my head. "And you know, I don't want to be crazy right now. Maybe another time, but not right now. I can't be crazy; it's too much work. So please, just leave me alone and allow me to convince myself I haven't lost my mind, if that's alright with you."

I wanted to curl up into a ball and not be there. I didn't want to be there and if I could close my eyes then I'd be anywhere but there. Mind over matter and what have you. I would force myself to be elsewhere. I would…will my body away from there.

I cracked my eyes open then whimpered. I was still there. Why was I still there? What happened to mind over matter, the power of positive thinking and all of that shit? I'd been thinking…relatively positive…I think. I don't really know; I don't do it very often.

I'm a pessimist through and through. Maybe that was why I was still here.

Or maybe there was no way I was going to mentally move myself. Duh, I knew that already. I'm a little iffy, not stupid. I knew, in a logically way, that I couldn't move myself, but it'd seem like a good idea for that moment.

Nope, bad idea.

I wonder what's wrong with me. My thoughts are…odd. I wasn't at my most coherent, obviously, and I couldn't quite figure out why that was. I mean, disturbed much? Maybe I was in shock.

Tobias

'Why do we always save the crazy ones?' Rachel demanded.

'I don't think he's crazy I said, watching the boy panic. 'This isn't an everyday thing for most people. How would you take it if you were him'?

'I wouldn't scream like a girl'. Rachel muttered.

I didn't say anything after that, but wished she could see my mental eye roll. Don't get the idea I don't like Rachel anymore, I love Rachel, but sometimes…she can be a little too much for one person sometimes. Like this, putting the poor guy down. I think his reaction was pretty reasonable.

Well, maybe not the part about going crazy, but the basics of it. Screaming I totally understood.

Sometimes I just wanted to scream. I didn't, but I sure as hell wanted to do so.

I felt bad for him. I wanted to say something to help him out, but no one but Ax was supposed to speak to him. We didn't want another David accident, so we going to see if there was another way around it. Like having the Chee relocate him and his family. Anyway we could avoid telling the whole story would be acceptable.

"While I can't comment on your mental state. Te. I am not a product, ro uct, of your mind. Everything you see is real."

"Exactly what a figment of my imagination would say. Only with less stuttering and more mocking. And knives, lots of knives." Black eyes glazed over for a moment and he frowned. "I think I'm in shock. I've read about it and I think that's it."

'That would explain his behavior'. Cassie agreed.

'Or he could just be a whack job.' Rachel said. She is suspicious of everyone and had been ever since the David thing. I didn't blame her for it.

'It'd take one to know one wouldn't it?' Marco asked voice perfectly neutral.

'Shut up.' Rachel snapped.

'Would you all be quiet?' Jake demanded. 'I'm trying to think.' As he said this the tiger got up and began pacing and the boy we'd 'abducted' squeaked and shrank back.

I felt really bad for him.

'Calm down.' Jake was going to have my feathery butt when he found out I was talking to this kid, but I felt so bad for him. No one deserved to have their lives turned upside down like this, least of all someone who had just been taking pictures. 'We aren't going to hurt you.'

This strange look on his face that I interpreted as 'I've officially cracked, time to call the nice men in white to come and get me.' And I nearly laughed at it. The others were bickering about how to handle this discreetly while Ax was silent and listened. I tuned them out and tried to focus on at least calming him down somewhat.

'I'm the bird. Hawk, not owl. Don't look at me; I'm not supposed to be talking to you.'

Lips formed the words 'a rebel', but he didn't look at me. Gotta respect a kid who can follow directions.

'Something like that. The simple version of what's going on is that you took a picture of an alien spacecraft and the Yeerks, evil parasitic slug things from space, want to kill you before you can show it to anyone. That's what the guys in the park were up to. We, the six of us, want to protect you. Maybe get you and your family somewhere where no one will be able to find you or something. That's pretty much it.'

He sat there then stood up, regarding all of us warily. "It was nice meeting you and I appreciate the whole urge to protect me, but I'm not really up to being saved." His tone was clipped and precise, as if he were giving a lecture. "So tell your space slugs to bother me another time."

The guy had balls. That wasn't necessarily a good thing, but he had them nonetheless.

Jake sighed, clearly exasperated, then stood directly in front of the kid we were attempting to save, but seemed to be doing a poor job of. I mean, sure he wasn't dead or anything, but we aren't exactly helping the guy any. He thought he was losing his mind.

'You can't leave.' Jake said finally. 'Unless you have a death wish-'

"Sometimes." He tilted his head off to the side, grinning faintly. "Depends on how the day goes. And, to be honest, I'm not exactly loving life at the moment; so walking to my death isn't wholly unappealing. So you can either give me some kind of explanation or you can let me go."

Hum. This was an interesting tactic. Jake was going to talk now, to keep the kid from running off and being killed. Not that he was important to anything, but because letting him die meant the Yeerks had some kind of victory. And the picture of the bug fighter would be helpful.

'You took a picture-'

"Yes, and now slug things wanna flay me alive and what have you. Got it. I haven't got it anymore anyway, I gave it to my Astronomy professor." One eyebrow went up. "Not that aliens would care. Probably want to shoot me and make sure I don't tell anyone right? Cover the bases."

'Probably.' Jake said, pacing again. The kid lowered himself into a crouch. 'We'd prefer if they didn't kill you.'

"Welcome to the Minority. Just about everyone thinks I'm going to kill myself eventually anyway so why bother saving me? Totally pointless endeavor."

…are you trying to talk us out of protecting you? Jake's tone gave away how completely bewildered he was. I can fully understand why. We aren't used to coming up to things not afraid to die, but this guy was accepting death with a shrug.

The Yeerks will deal their way out of death many times over, valuing their own skin above all else. Humans buckled at the thought of being killed. I wasn't too sure about Andalites, the only one I'd seen die was Elfangor and he'd been pretty calm about it. But I assumed that if all Andalites were that way then there'd be a lot less of them.

A slow grin. "I just might." He blinked then a strange look settled on his face. "I have to go. My sister's home alone. I…shit."

He totally disregarded Jake and plunged into the shadows of the forest. There was a beat then the girls took off in owl morph and Marco started creeping through the forest. Jake started to melt into his own body while Ax resumed his own.

"Okay, that could have gone better." Jake said, more to himself then Ax or me.

I wasn't sure what to do. It was going to be dark within a few minutes and my eyes would be all but useless. I didn't want to go human, because humans are useless unless you need thumbs, but if we were following this guy home…

"Owl morph I think." Jake said, taking a deep breath then concentrating. His skin went white and he started to shrink, while his eyes got wide and round. I stopped watching and thought owl.

Jono

I wasn't sure if the animal saviors were following me or not, I just had the feeling I had to get home. It was like someone had reached into my chest and gripped my heart with an icy hand then twisted as hard as possible. It made me lose my breath, not to mention making me a little dizzy.

It took a little work to get out of the park and back onto the bridge path. I didn't live more then ten minutes from the University, lucky me. Running it was probably no more the four or five minutes, but it felt like moving through mud. Like I was getting nowhere fast.

You remember that part of Ghostbusters, the second one, where Lady Liberty is walking through the streets of New York? It was like that, only…on a small scale. Nonetheless I felt like some kind of huge statue trying to get through the streets quickly but failing.

My mind was buzzing with things I really just didn't want to think about. Aliens, talking animals, me catching a space ship on camera…too much. I wanted to shut down, fall over and pretend it hadn't happened.

Once I got home I'd do just that. Home. I had to get home.

I turned onto the street and felt myself slowing down before everything even registered in my mind. A bunch of people crowded around my house, swirling blue and red lights, yellow tape. An ambulance.

I walked the rest of the way, sense of urgency fading into numbness. I could see stretchers, but with white sheets over them.

I was in the crowd and pushing my curious neighbors out of the way as I tried to forced my way to the front and get into my house. How dare they be here, I remember raging internally, this wasn't their concern. They didn't live there and they sure as fuck didn't care about what we did until now. It could sure as hell have stayed that way.

Morbid bastards. It's like a car crash I guess, it could be horrible with mangled bodies in the like, yet you still slow as you go past just to check. Darkly curious things we are.

I don't think I wanted part of my life to be just another car crash.

"Oh, Star." A hand clamped onto my shoulder. Hayes? What the hell was my teacher doing here? Can you see the little alarms going off in my head? "I'm so sorry."

"About?" I asked as I tried to shake off his hand. I didn't want to be touched right now and the alarm bells in my head had become very angry sirens.

"Your mother and sister of course. I know you didn't care much for your stepfather, but him as well."

I wanted to ask why he was sorry and then everything went slow around me. I could three bodies being piled into two ambulances, felt the wind blow one sheet to the side, causing one of the EMTs to curse and try to tug it back into place. I saw the beautiful face of my mother exposed, her pale throat and the hole that was there.

I wanted to cry and scream and hit and kill and die all at once. Yet I can only stare at this hole, this gaping black/red thing in my mother's neck, throat, in total awe. It didn't belong there; my mother didn't usually have holes in odd places. Now wasn't the time to start a new trend. I found it most disturbing and the image carved itself onto the back of my eyelids and I still can't close my eyes without seeing her.

It would take sometime to register that my mother was dead and had a bullet wound through her neck, meaning she died from choking on her own blood. Probably slowly. Not to be morbid or anything, but…they'd let her die slowly, made her suffer.

Makes me a little mad, you know.

But at the time it wasn't hitting me. So I let myself be led away by Hayes, not even feeling myself move. Didn't even realize I was at my teacher's apartment for sometime after that. He set me on the couch and went about making a cup of tea.

I took it without a though and let the warmth seep into me. It was nice in a way.

He looked at me then sighed. "I'm sorry about this Jono."

Jono? He usually called me Star, found it ironic. Jono was a new one.

"Okay." I took a sip of tea and had to repress a chuckle. I could taste alcohol and medicine. Something to make me sleep perhaps. Well, if he wanted to spike my drink more power to him. Maybe I'd get lucky. I took another sip as I contemplated the at times fathomless depths of my perversion.

Decided I didn't particularly care at the moment.

"I mean it. When I told them about you I thought they'd want to meet you, not any of this." He sighed again. "You have to understand chances like this…aren't often. I had to take it, had to meet them. They want me to join them Jono. It'll be perfect. I just…"

"What?" Another drink. It felt good as it burned on the way down. I was feeling groggy already. It was really nice. Shit kicked in quick. Another drink.

"The Yeerks. They'll let me be apart of them. Can you understand that?"

I squinted at him as my brain fought to process this from the fog that was descending on my mind. Then a very clear voice, which sounded like Marisa, said its peace. 'He fucking ratted you out to aliens that killed your family! And he's drugged you! What a sick fucker! And to think, you had a crush on him.'

The last part sounded almost smug and I could see her tossing her hair back and arching an eyebrow at me, black eyes harsh and accusing.

I blinked then let out a tiny snort. No shit? The bird and the tiger spoke the truth it seemed

The tea slipped from my suddenly boneless fingers and splattered on the floor, burning a little. It hardly mattered as I slumped over on the pillow soft couch and let myself drift off.

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Dragon: I'm glad you liked it. The story is moving right along I think, rather well. No worries about spelling errors, since I have them in my actual story.

Mechante: LOL. You just knew it have to be Tobias, eh? I'm not going to ask why and, instead, will just assume I'm getting predictable…anywho, reading works, yeah, if you wanna go that route… And Jono is pretty nuts, not to mention a borderline sadist. Maybe because he was slightly based off of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac.

And, as always, thanks to Moon and Hanyou.