((Author's Note: Isn't it FREAKING ANNOYING how won't accept the thought-speak braces? I think so. But hey, I figured out a way around it anyway, so it's all good. Now, without further ado, the second chapter.))
Chapter 2: Zeke
Hi. My friends know me as Ezekiel, or Zeke for short. Can't tell you my last name, even though I'd love to. Believe me, I really, really would love to. I'm the trusting sort, but in this situation my life depends on you not knowing who I am. As one of my close friends would say, I'm kind of attached to living.
Think I'm paranoid? You're right. But my paranoia is justified. If you'd seen the things I've seen, fought the battles I've fought, and had to make the decisions I've had to make, you'd be paranoid too. There are times when I just want to crawl into a hole, bury myself, and never, ever, ever move again. But I can't, not until the Yeerks are defeated.
Yeerks, you say? Wondering if I'm not just paranoid, but delusional too? Think again. When I look up at the stars at night, I don't wonder whether we're all alone in the universe. I don't think about what it would be like to meet the first aliens to visit Earth. I know we're not alone, and I know what it's like. They're already here, and they're trying to take over.
The Yeerks are slug-like parasites. They crawl in through the ear of their intended host, pushing their way through until they reach the brain. Then they stretch themselves out, thinner and thinner, until they're nothing more than a sheet of flesh covering the host's brain, fitting into every crease and fold of the grey matter. Then they link their nervous system up and take over. That's when the host has become a Controller.
And they can be anybody. Your parents. Your siblings. Your weird aunt that likes cats a little too much. That teacher that you just hate. Your favorite grandparent. And you'd never know. That is, you'd never know until it was too late for you. Until they made you into a Controller too.
Now I bet you're wondering how a kid like me knows if these Yeerks are secretly taking over? It's almost simple, in that uniquely bizarre way that our lives consistently are nowadays. My five friends—Jake, Cassie, Rachel, Tobias, and Marco—and I met a dying alien war hero in the middle of an abandoned construction site, and he told us. Simple, right?
Not really. Because, when Elfangor told us what was happening to our planet, he didn't just arm us with knowledge. He gave us a great power, too—the power to morph, to take on the shape of any animal that we've touched since then. The power that has been our terrible burden, our secret curse, and Earth's only hope against the invasion that it doesn't even know is happening. It has some positive sides, too, but we don't have much time for fun when trying to save the world.
The seven of us are the only ones who know this is happening. Me, Zeke, the Questioner, as my friends sometimes call me. Marco occasionally goes farther, but it's all in jest. He's the joker of the group, and those stupid jokes of his have pulled us through more than once. His best friend is Jake, the unofficially official leader of our group. Jake makes all the hard decisions for us—and I don't envy him at all. Sometimes, I wish he didn't have to make those decisions, because he's had to grow up faster than all of us combined. But I'd never wish that we'd never met Elfangor. He was…meeting him was the most important moment of my life.
Cassie, our resident lover of all things foliaged, furred, feathered, or finned, is also our emotional anchor, the one who always knows the right thing to say, and who has saved us all from the temptation of insanity. Everybody knows that she and Jake have a thing, but they're shy about it and none of us wants to press the issue. At least we can be normal on some levels, right?
Her best friend, Rachel, is the true warrior of the group. All of us, and especially Marco, have called her Xenia: Warrior Princess at one time or another, and she couldn't be more different from Cassie. Where Cassie is a short, fashion-impaired, quiet peacemaker, Rachel is a tall, outfit-obsessed, loudly blunt soldier-at-heart. But hey, opposites attract, they say, and the two of them couldn't be better friends, either.
The last human member of our little band is Tobias, who is actually a hawk. It's kind of complicated and kind of tragic, but he's trapped in a hawk body. However, because of a trick pulled by the Ellimist, he can now morph into his old human body.
That leaves only one member left. Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. Our resident alien, brother to Prince Elfangor, and expert on anything extra-terrestrial. He also happens to be Tobias' uncle, through an extremely twisted time-paradox, again because of the Ellimist, that makes Tobias Elfangor's son. Ax and Tobias are shorms, which basically means very, very close friends in Andalite language. He is always trying to figure out how us humans tick, though most of his 'adventures' in his human morph end up as nightmares. Nobody gets hurt, but Ax is…very sensitive to taste.
Oh, and about Ax's human morph, which he just happened to be in. It's a blend of Rachel, Cassie, Marco, Jake, and I. He chose to be male, since Ax is male, but since the DNA is almost half female…he is unnaturally, disturbingly pretty for a guy. You know those…bishounens, from anime? He puts them to shame.
His striking eyes were currently bluish-green grey (how on earth did he get that color?) and were watching the television that we've set up in his little 'home in the forest.' He calls it a 'scoop,' since that's apparently what Andalite homes are called on his homeworld, but it's really just a little indentation in the ground, with fewer trees. Well, either way, the Animorphs were meeting there to discuss our newest "Teach Ax to Be Human" mission. Or missions, as was actually the case.
It had, oddly enough, been Marco's idea. "All I'm saying is, with summer coming up soon and no big missions on the horizon, I think Ax-man here needs some more visits to the outside world."
Rachel let out a small sigh, possibly of exasperation, and said, "Guys, I hate to say this, but I can't help agreeing with Marco on this one."
I raised an eyebrow. Surreptitiously, I checked my friends. Jake had raised both in surprise, and Cassie was carefully trying to hide one of her knowing smiles. I knew where Marco got the idea—and why Rachel was finding herself agreeing to it, in spite of herself.
I smiled. "Well, I'm all for it," I said, being careful to keep my expression just on the happy side of neutral. "But, just one question: What made you think of it?"
The look in Marco's eyes, that was gone almost as soon as it appeared, told me exactly what I wanted to know. It hadn't just been his idea…Cassie probably helped him along with it.
His impromptu was superb, though, when he said, "Well, y'know, all of us are gonna be going off to camps and going on vacations and things, and I thought Ax might start feeling a little left out and lonely."
Now I turned and glanced at Aximili, who was (for one of the only times I could remember) saying nothing at all. At Marco's mention of not wanting Ax to feel left out or unhappy, I saw the tiniest spark of joy in those strangely colored eyes. However, the commercials had just come on on whatever channel he was watching, and they distracted him momentarily. He particularly loves commercials for some odd reason (perhaps because Andalites don't have them?) and calls them "These Messages."
"I would not be opposed, ozed, to learning more about human culture. Why is summer, ummer, mer-uh, different from any other time of the year?" he asked, playing with the unfamiliar speech sounds, as was his wont.
"Well," Jake said, trying to explain more of human culture, "On Earth, at least in the United States, summer is a break from school for most kids. We don't have school for about two and a half to three months."
"Fascinating. Ting. Ing-guh. This time of year is set aside for vacations and such things because there is more free time, and the weather is better?"
"That's exactly right," said Cassie, smiling. "The only problem is, a lot of us are going to camps at some time or other, like Rachel's Gymnastics camp."
"Yes, I would enjoy, oy, oyoy, that very much. Utch."
"Great!" Cassie chirped, almost beaming. "Now, there's something else that's very mildly important, but it doesn't have much to do with either Ax or Tobias."
"Hmm?" said Marco, sounding wary. "What sort of mischief does Tree Hugger Woman have planned for us now?"
"Oh, Marco, you!" she replied, shaking her head. "I was wanting to call…a study night."
"Hey, that's a great idea," Rachel said, approvingly. "My grades in…everything, really, could use a little boost. And with finals coming up next week…ugh. I don't even want to think about that."
"And now we see what Xenia: Warrior Princess is really like," Marco half-whispered. "She'd rather go toe-to-toe with half a dozen Hork-Bajir than study for that Algebra exam."
Maybe we were all a little bit tense. I don't know. We'd had some really tough missions over the past few weeks, and the stress level was pretty high. All I know is that that joke, as stupid as it was, was really funny right then. We laughed, even Ax and Tobias, until tears were streaming down our faces, until Tobias nearly fell out of the tree, and all of us on the ground were in a heap on the sofa. Once we'd reached that giddy exhaustion that comes after laughing really hard, we extricated ourselves and fought to catch our collective breath.
"I've gotta head home," said Jake, as he checked his watch. "We're cleaning up the house so that we can leave for my grandparents' cabin in a few weeks."
Rachel nodded. "I have to practice my gymnastics exercises. But I really would like that study night that Cassie suggested."
"Are you sure that it's safe?" asked Marco, as his eyes turned steely and cold. His strategic side was showing again. "We never want to seem like a group."
I nodded, but countered, "While you have a point, at the same time, there's going to be a whole bunch of students doing this sort of thing. It's not like it's anything special. Besides, I've agreed to help a few other students out too, so the Yeerks will probably think it's just you guys taking advantage of a sort-of friendship with me."
I blushed, and said, "Well, I have been falling a bit behind…"
Marco scoffed. "Yeah, you went from an A+ average to an A average, Zeke. If you're not very careful, you might get…" Marco made a mock gasp of horror, "…a B!"
I couldn't suppress the chuckle that Marco's joke produced. "Yeah, yeah, you're probably right. So, when will we have the study night?"
"How about Friday?" Jake asked, and the others nodded. "I think we'll be free then. Maybe you could invite Erek too, since he's got about ten thousand years on us."
Marco turned to look at his friend. "See, Jake, this is exactly why I'm the one that makes the jokes. Now, what would you do if I tried to lead?"
Rachel butted in. "If you tried to lead, first I'd ignore you, and then I'd hit you over the head to try and find out what was wrong with you."
Using Cassie as a human shield, he cried, "Nooo! I'm too pretty to die!"
And, with that, the meeting finally ended. Rachel, Jake, and Marco all got on their bicycles and dispersed. Ax demorphed and cantered off, probably to get a drink and some grass into his hooves—never quite understood that eating mechanism—and Cassie set off for the barn. Tobias called a goodbye to all of us, and wheeled into the sky.
I jogged a bit to catch up with Cassie, and said, "Hey, Cassie, how's everything going?"
She smiled again, but I could see the unasked question in her eyes. "Oh, pretty well, for us anyway. My mom's off at a seminar out of state, so Dad and I have a bit more to do around the house in addition to the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. And you?"
"Nothing I can complain about," I answered. "You know that idea Marco had, about him, or all of us I guess, helping Ax learn more about humanity over the summer? What did you think of that?"
"Just what I said, Zeke. I think it's a great idea. And besides, all Marco's got planned all summer is dates, so he'll have plenty of free time to show Ax around."
"Well…I was wondering. Was it really his idea, Cassie?"
She sighed in mock defeat. A little more quietly than before, she asked, "Am I really that easy to read?"
"Not exactly. You hid it well…but you let your guard down a moment." I smiled. "You're not the secret-keeping kind, Cass. Unless it was important."
"Oh, alright. I'll tell you, I guess it can't hurt. I pushed it along…because I think there's something between the two. Besides, both of them are lonely, and if they're just friends, they'll become better friends."
"What do you mean…something between them?"
"Come on, Zeke. You can't tell me that you could read me but you can't read them."
We'd reached the barn, so I changed into some overalls, pulled on a pair of boots, and started helping her with her various chores and veterinary duties. "No, actually, I can't. I'm not as good at guessing what guys think. Maybe because I am one."
Cassie grinned. "Maybe." Her expression quickly became solemn again. "Zeke, I think they're interested in each other, but I don't think they even know it."
I considered the impact of what she was suggesting. "That's a big guess to make, Cassie…are you sure?"
She frowned. "No, I'm not completely sure…but that's what these little 'outings' are for. And…I'm hoping that maybe, if Marco figures himself out through this, he'll come talk to me."
"If he's gonna talk to anybody about that, Cass, it'll be you. Marco may appear all cool machismo and humor, but underneath, he has a soft side too. I think he'll open up to you, and maybe sooner than we think."
"I really hope so," she answered. "I just want him to be happy, you know? And we both know that a little happiness, a little security, can go a long way toward holding onto that little bit of sanity we have left."
"Too true," I replied, reflecting on the debacle that had happened when we made David into the eighth Animorph…and the screams we had heard as we left him on that rock. I shivered slightly.
"I just…" She trailed off. "There's too much stress already. We've got more than enough to deal with. We're fighting a war, and we can't even talk about it. Jake's got to make decisions that put his best friends' lives at risk. Marco's always thinking of contingencies, planning for any possible way that the Yeerks could figure us out. Ax is trapped on an alien planet and hasn't seen any of his own people in months, and if you don't count that time he rewrote the computer software, years."
"So you're saying we don't need the additional stress of keeping secrets from one another? We don't need to be hiding even more of ourselves from the only people in the entire world that we can trust implicitly?"
Cassie sighed, looking drained. "Exactly, Zeke. We're only teenagers. We aren't even old enough to drive, and under normal circumstances we shouldn't even have to deal with the things we do. But these aren't normal circumstances."
"A bunch of alien slugs secretly invading Earth and taking over peoples bodies? I'd wager that's not normal. I might be wrong, but…" I smiled.
"All too true," Cassie said, sighing again. This time, however, she smiled a little. "I just want Marco and Ax to know that…if there's anything that they're hiding, they don't need to. Their personal choices aren't nearly as important as fighting the Yeerks, and they don't have to deal with all that extra secrecy and lies if they don't want to."
"You're right, as usual. I hope your little plan succeeds…because if it does, I think life will be a lot less difficult for both of them. Ax especially. He'll have two people to share his troubles with, if you're right."
"If I'm right," Cassie repeated. "I can't help worrying a little bit that I'm wrong, though."
I wished Cassie one final goodbye as I walked out of the barn, and said, "We'll just have to see what we can see."