Disclaimer I do not own Animorphs or Ben 10
Chapter 24: Confrontation part 2
Cassie's POV
Ben's sudden appearance at our lunch table earlier today at school was definitely a shock. It kinda brought to light for me as to how close we are to our enemies. I mean I've never really forgotten about the fact that anyone we talk to could be a Controller, but what really got to me was that Ben knows who we are, and that's a scary feeling. We've managed to keep our true identities secret from the Yeerks for so long that now that someone knows who we are, it's like the David situation all over again. Only this time things are a lot more dangerous than before.
I got Ax and Tobias from the forest and explained to them what happened on our flight to the mall.
(So he wants to meet with us at the food court?) Asked Ax.
(Yeah, it seems we're not the only ones who want to talk.) I said.
(Are you sure it is wise to meet him on his terms? It could be a trap.)
(The mall's a public spot and it's not really deserted at this time of day, so it's probably safe. But Jake says that if anything goes wrong then do whatever it takes to get away.)
(Do you know the reason why he asked for me specifically?)
(I guess he probably thinks that you are the leader, since you're the alien.)
("Take me to your leader") Joked Tobias.
Tobias and I chuckled at the little joke and after a while we made it to the mall. We landed close the parking lot at the edge of the forest. I quickly found my clothes as well as the ones that I stashed for Ax. I demorphed and got changed first before Ax demorphed and went into his human morph. I helped him get changed while Tobias kept watch in case of anyone got a bit too close to where we were.
Once Ax had all his clothes worn on all the right places we walked out into the parking lot. Jake and the others were already near the entrance and waiting for us.
"Were we long?" I asked.
"No, not really, you're all pretty much on time." Answered Marco, then said. "Oh yeah, where's our favorite bird-boy?"
(Up here, Marco.) Answered Tobias, and we looked up to see Tobias perched on a ledge on the mall.
"Did Cassie tell you the plan?" Asked Jake.
(Yep.)
"Then let's get going, shall we?"
We saw Ben sitting alone at a table in the food court and we walked towards him. When we were about halfway to the table he saw us. He had the same look as the one back at the cafeteria and to be honest it was actually worse, it almost made me stop in my tracks. It was dark and angry, but there was something else that I couldn't make out. But this didn't really make any sense, why would he be so angry at us? I mean alright we did knock him out and held him against his will for several hours, and he has every right to be angry. But this was completely different, there has to be some other reason as to why he's so mad at us.
We all sat at the table, Ben was at the head of the table, me and Rachel were on one side with Marco and Ax across us, while Jake sat on the other side of the table across Ben.
It almost kinda reminded me of the feeling when I'd get scolded for doing something really dangerous, but this time the one chastising me wasn't angry at me because I could've gotten hurt. He was just angry, maybe even furious. It was so hard to even look at him directly in the eye, so I averted my gaze, looking at anything besides Ben.
After a long moment of silence Ben finally spoke up. "So, what do you have to explain for yourselves?" None of us answered. "Jake? Or is that really your name?" I could almost feel his eyes passing over me like a chilly wind. "Are any of your names your actual names?"
"Yes, they are our real names." Answered Jake, his tone calm and level. "If you're just gonna stare at us then there is no point of us being here, why did you call us out here?"
"I want to know what's going on. Why are you here? Where are you from? How are you able to transform?"
"We can ask the same thing about you." Said Ax. "Why are you here? Where are you from? How are you able to morph?" Emphasizing the word "you" in every question.
"You answer because I asked first."
"We won't be answering any of your questions until you answer some of ours first."
I was afraid that their argument might elevate into something a lot more serious, not to mention dangerous. But fortunately Ben didn't seem to let his anger get the better of him, for now anyway.
"Fine, let's make it easier on ourselves. I'll ask one question and you'll answer, then you ask one and I'll answer. No lies, no tricks, just give and take, agreed?" Proposed Ben.
I looked up at the others seeing the looks on their faces, I gave a small nod letting them know that I was fine with it. It's a lot better than just arguing back and forth like a bunch of five year olds.
"Since you're the one that called us out, we get to ask the first question." Said Jake, pausing for a moment before asking Ben. "Are you our enemy?"
"At the moment, I'm not your enemy." He answered swiftly. "It all depends on what happens now, but since you all kidnapped me, I'm definitely thinking about it." His voice lost some of its harshness and anger.
His answer gave me a bit of hope. If he didn't consider us an enemy, at least not yet, then we might be able to sort this situation out without resorting to violence. I could feel the air around the table lose some of its tension and I was able to look at Ben the next time he spoke.
"My turn to ask." He said. "Why are you here?" He asked. "On Earth to be exact."
"That's a pretty broad question." Answered Marco quickly. "It's like asking for the meaning of life. Why are we here on this Earth indeed." I felt the sudden urge to face-palm, but suppressed the feeling.
"I wasn't asking you." He said, his tone was sharp making Marco flinch a bit. "I was asking him." He pointed at Ax. "Why are you here on Earth, Aximili?"
Ax glanced at Jake and was given a small nod then Ax spoke. "I am here because the Yeerks are invading Earth."
"Explain." Said Ben, his tone even. That surprised me a bit, to anyone the thought of a secret invasion by an alien race would be really big news. I know that the five of us reacted like anyone else when we first heard about the invasion, we were shocked and in disbelief that such a thing had been happening and no one knew about it. But Ben was calm about it, but the moment Ax told him that the Yeerks are invading Earth Ben had shown a slight hint of curiosity amidst all the anger and similar emotions that were inside him.
"The Yeerks are a race of parasitic slugs that take control of its host's body by crawling into the host's ear, into its skull, and envelop the brain before taking over." Ben grimaced as Ax explained the process of how someone becomes a controller. "We call those who have been taken over by a Yeerk a Controller. The Yeerk is in complete control of the host, it can peer into your memories, hear your thoughts, and pretend to be you perfectly. They can be anyone you know and you can never tell that they're infested."
There was no immediate reply from Ben when Ax was done explaining. He looked down at the table, his brows furrowed and lips thinned in small frown. He seemed to be thinking about what Ax just said, his eyes were distant and I could see that they moved slightly as if searching for something.
"It's our turn to ask a question." Said Jake. Ben nodded, still looking down at the table, his eyes returning to where he was. "Why did you call us out?" Jake Asked.
Ben looked up back at him and immediately answered. "I called you all out here because I want to know what's going on, know why? Because my life here so far has been happily normal for a change. Then one day suddenly I'm knocked out and I wake up in some cave with an alien interrogating me. Then after that I find out that my friends have the ability to transform into animals and that they're teamed up with the alien who interrogated me, why is that I have no clue. I'm already tired of all this. So yeah I pretty much deserve to know what's going on." Hit tone was back being angry and harsh.
Well at least we now know why he's so angry at us, but what he said had lingered on my ears, "happily normal for a change" and "I'm already tired of all this" were the ones that especially stood out for me. Why would he say something like that?
It was Ben's turn to ask a question. "Where are the rest of the Andalites, Aximili? From what I can tell you're too young to do any of this yourself and if what you say is true about how bad these Yeerk things are, there should be other Andalites around to deal with the problem."
Ax who wasn't used to hiding his expressions in his Human morph, grimaced for a moment before his face went back to being neutral. "The Dome-ship that brought me here was ambushed by Visser three and his Blade-ship along with several bug-fighters. The commander on the ship ordered the Dome to be separated from the main ship so that they could have a better chance against it. As I am only an aristh, and not a full warrior, I was the only one in the Dome when my people were slaughtered by Visser three and the Yeerks. The Dome fell into Earth's atmosphere which kept the Yeerks from destroying it as well. They found me at the bottom of one of the oceans after I sent a distress signal, but my friends rescued me and kept me from falling into their hands." And without waiting for anything else Ax asked Ben. "Back at the cave you told us that you could morph for as long as you could remember, were you telling the truth back then?"
Ben didn't seem to let the sudden question faze him. "Yes I told you the truth back at the cave. I've been able to do it for as long as I can remember." And as quickly as Ax asked his question Ben retaliated by asking his own after answering Ax's. "Why did you guys kidnap me? You guys already knew me, if I saw one of you transforming and I didn't have any knowledge about it I'd just get it straight with you guys and ask about it. Kidnapping one of you would be totally unnecessary."
"We thought that you were with the Yeerks." Answered Jake, then continued to explain. "That you were some kind of new species they had infested or new weapon with the ability to morph. We weren't sure at first when we saw you at the field, but when you didn't come out of one of the entrances to the Yeerk pool during that storm we thought our suspicions were confirmed. Because of the situation we're in right now and with the Yeerks being what they are, we can't take any chances. We thought that kidnapping you was the perfect way to kill two birds with one stone as we could interrogate you for information and get a very dangerous creature out of the way while we still had the advantage of surprise because we thought that you weren't looking for us yet."
Ben looked thoughtful again, he gave a near imperceptible nod as he looked back down on the table. "I'm beginning to understand your reasons to do what you did." He said quietly. "If I were in your shoes I probably would've reacted the same way." He gave a dark chuckle. "Well maybe not exactly, but close enough." He then looked up and made eye contact with each of us, save for Ax. "How did you guys find out about the invasion?" His voice held nothing but genuine curiosity this time.
Jake explained the night wen we went through the construction site near the mall where Elfangor's ship crashed, how he told us that the Yeerks were invading Earth and that the reason he wasn't with us was that he died, but Jake didn't want to get into more detail about our encounter that night. While Jake talked the air around us seemed to lighten up a bit. I could see a kind of sparkle in Ben's eyes that replaced the dark look he held earlier. I swear I thought I saw his lips curl up ever so slightly, but at what I could only guess at.
We all sat silently. Ben still looked thoughtful, he rested his elbow on the table and held his chin making it undoubtedly clear that he seemed to have a lot on his mind. It also gave us a bit of time to think about our next question. Then my thoughts went back again to what he said previously, that he was happily normal for a change and that he was tired of all this. I wanted to ask him what he meant, but now it didn't seem like he right time for me to ask. Maybe a little later when a few more questions were answered.
"So now that you've heard our side of this." Jake started. "What are you going to do now?"
Ben gave a almost too casual shrug. His mood seemed to have done a total 180. When we first got here he looked like he wanted to strangle us or something, but now he there was some kind of sparkle behind his eyes now, but they still held the small bit of concern while he was deep in thought.
"I'm not sure yet." He answered. "I need some time to think about everything you guys said. But I guess I can forgive you guys for kidnapping me." He grinned. I could feel that everyone else, especially Rachel, relax when he said those words. After a short pause he then gave a low chuckle whilst shaking his head.
Marco's mouth once again got ahead of his brain and asked. "What's so funny?" Rachel face-palmed, I kept a bit more restraint, but yeah I didn't get what Ben found funny.
Ben didn't seem to mind Marco asking out of turn and answered. "It's just that four kids and a stranded alien are trying to save the world and fight off an invasion of parasitic mind controlling slugs and the only way to fight them is the ability to trans-" Jake cut him off.
"We call it morphing." He said.
Ben gave a nod and continued. "The ability to morph." He stressed the last word. "Into animals? It's just a bit. . . funny that's all."
I felt that it was the right time to ask. "Um." I started then paused, Ben and the others looked at me. I looked into his eyes, they had that small glimmer in them that I couldn't place, I'll ignore it for now then continued. "If you don't mind me asking, Ben. What did you mean when you said that your life was happily normal for a change and that you were already tired of all this? I don't understand."
Either I'm really bad at sensing the mood or this was just a really touchy subject for Ben, but he visibly tensed, and the gleam in his eyes vanished. "That isn't something I wanna bring up right now. And I hope that you guys as my friends would respect that there are some things about myself that I can't tell you about. Not yet anyway." His voice was so neutral and sounded so smooth, flat, and cold that it seemed to make a perfectly frozen lake look like rock pile at a volcano in comparison. I gave an involuntary shiver at the sound of it, but nodded to him that I understood. He relaxed slightly. I decided to tuck this little bit of info to memory so I could ask him again when the time was right.
Ben looked at his watch and seemed surprised at the time. "I think I've heard enough for now and I want to think over what you all told me this evening." He stood up from his seat and turned to leave, then looked back at us for one more moment. "You guys gave me a lot to think about. See you tomorrow at school." He gave a small wave and left before any of us could respond.
"What just happened?" Asked Marco after the short moment of silence after Ben left the table. "Can anyone explain to me what just happened?" He sounded as dumbfounded as most of us felt.
"I think he just walked out on us." Said Ax, pointing out the obvious. I don't think that's the answer he's looking for.
"Yeah I know that Ax-man, but can anyone explain to me what's going on with Ben? One minute he calls us out here to talk or more like a two way interrogation, if you ask me, looking like he's ready to gut us open and he's back to his normal easygoing self the next!"
Jake put a hand on Marco's shoulder to get him to calm down a bit, and said. "Before we delve any further into what just happened here I think it would be better for us to get home. It's still a school night and I'd rather not get grounded."
I have to agree, as much as I wanted to talk about what we learned about Ben tonight I still have to get back home and it would take some time to get there from the mall.
We all stood from the table and headed out of the mall. Tobias met up with us after we were far enough away from any unwanted eyes and ears.
(How'd it go?) He asked.
"Better than any of us expected." Said Rachel.
(By the way you guys described him I expected him to shout at you guys at the very least, I kept my ears open and waited for the shouting match.)
"Well he and Ax nearly did, luckily he calmed down before it would come down to that." Rachel, though her mouth didn't smile her eyes did.
"I'm not willing to back down -awn against -st-tah someone like him through sheer intimidation -midation -ation alone." Said Ax, playing with sounds again when we were alone and no longer in any immediate danger.
"I know you won't Ax, but you should've kept a level head. We don't want to make him our enemy, with the way things are now we can't afford to have any more people against us." Explained Jake.
"Yes I understand, Prince Jake." Responded Ax.
"Alright, we'll lay low for a while and meet up over at Cassie's place this saturday. Let's just keep everything as normal was possible."
We all gave him various answers of assent.
Ax and Tobias went back into the forest and the rest of us made our way back home.
I lay awake in my bed that night, my thoughts were still revolving around Ben and our recent discussion with him.
During the past few weeks since he first came into town we thought that he was just some normal guy that everyone got along with easily. Even though I've never hung out with him as much as Jake or Marco, he's fun to be with mostly. I thought I had him figured out a while back, but that was before we even found out about his big secret. Ever since we found out that it was Ben was causing all the weird sightings in the forest, my entire image of him was completely shattered. He's hiding something, and a lot more than he admits. At first I wasn't entirely sure if he was telling the truth when he said he's always been able to morph back at the cave, now I am sure that Ben wasn't being honest with us at the time. Not only that, but there's a lot more that he's not telling us. The way he acted when I asked him why he was tired of all this, but exactly what "this" is is still something I haven't figured out yet, and that his life was normal for a change was more than enough to make me think that. What was it he was already tired of? Had he dealt with aliens before? That would make a lot of sense, it would explain why he didn't so much as blink when he learned that there was an invasion going on. But I'll tell the others about my suspicions when we have our meeting this weekend.
He's a complete mystery and I wanna find out what he's hiding.
Author's Notes: Okay, I feel like a complete jerk for again taking two months to update. But time has sped by for me these past couple of months, it feels like it's only been two months since the semester had started back in June, and suddenly it's already October! That's how fast time has flown for me and before I knew it it's already my Finals next week and I'm now studying my ass off. Again I'm sorry for the long gap between updates, but I can't help it. I got a lot of stuff going on and I'll be even more busy during the next semester. I've really got a lot on my plate and it will just keep piling up as time will go on. I'm also sorry for the small amount of progression in this chapter, I wanted to split this conversation so that I could use Cassie's POV for it. I remember in the books she was really good at reading people and easily able to second guess them, so she was perfect for analyzing Ben in this situation. Also at this point we are now pretty much done with the "Mysterious Morphing Creature and The New Kid Arc" and we are basically a third of the way in the story. Now a word of warning, in a number of future chapters things will be getting pretty dark and depressing; it is something that I've planned for this story since the beginning, so you have been warned. The reason why Ben's acting all weird will also be explained in the future.
Thanks again to all of you who have been with this story for a year and a half and thanks to all the new people who have been following it during that time! I hope I can finish this story before I end up graduating college and move on to other stories that I want to write. The problem is that when I get started on one story the other goes by the wayside if I decide to write two simultaneously so that's out. But I still enjoy writing my stories and reading your reviews, I really enjoy seeing that. It's what helps me to keep doing what I do and help when times are a bit stressful. Thank you all again for reading this and I hope to see you all in the next chapter! And remember
Please Leave A Review!
