Title: The Twins
Author: Alexis Steele
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: all the majors
Genre: Alternate Universe, after #23 The Pretender
Series: First story in the "Descendents of the Ellimist" Chronicles
Summary: Rewrite of #23 The Pretender. Tobias is about to find more family than he can deal with. Who is telling the truth, and who is spinning a web of lies?
Author's Notes: This fic was my first attempt at fanfiction back in 1999. It has been lying dormant in notebooks and my computer until I pulled it from the Net in 2004. Looking back on the fic about a year ago, I realized that I had a lot of interesting ideas that I wanted to portray in this fic – eventually to become a series – and that I wanted to pick them up again, but I had some major changes that needed to be done to my OC, Shayla. She was a blatant Mary Sue, and now she's become an attempt to see if I can write a competent OC without her becoming a Mary Sue.
And, while I will be following more closely to the events that occurred in the book series, I will always see the characters as their TV counterparts. Let's face it, ladies, the TV series might've deviated a lot away from the books, but it definitely gave us some nice eye candy to glance at. I will also be extending the timeline of the story to five years, instead of three. Therefore, the Animorphs have been fighting the Yeerks for over two years.
Normal speech denoted with "…". Thought-speak denoted in ((italics)). From this chapter onwards, there will also be periods of telepathy written. Telepathy will be shown by ((bold-italics)).
Each chapter heading will tell you who is narrating this part of the story. If you don't see a character's name in the chapter heading, assume that the character from the previous chapter is still narrating.
Disclaimer: With the exception of Shayla and any other minor OCs, all the other characters are the property of K.A. Applegate and Scholastic Books. All feedback is greatly appreciated
Chapter 14:
There were still fifteen minutes left until the end of our lunch period, but I wanted to try to get away from talking too openly about anything dealing with the Yeerks or Shayla while on school property. Of course, my cousin had to go and ruin my plans as she exclaimed, "I want to see a demonstration of Shayla's powers."
"What do you want to see?" she asked. Of course, Shayla obliged her.
"I would like to see your healing ability," Cassie said. 'Not you too, Cass,' I inwardly groaned.
"Um, that would require someone to injure themselves in some way. Any volunteers?"
"I'll do it," I said, deciding to bite the bullet. I wasn't too thrilled about the idea, but since I was the most skeptical, I figured I might as well.
"Okay, whatever you want Jake," Shayla agreed.
Looking around to make sure no one noticed what was about to happen, I forcefully slammed my left shoulder into a nearby maple tree, and I heard the sickening pop as it became dislocated or worse. I heard the others stifle sympathy moans as I slowly backed away from the tree and sat back down on the picnic bench.
As I sat down, Shayla rose from her seat and walked around to my side of the table, and placed her palm on Jake's shoulder for five seconds. A soft, yellow glow emanated from the area under her palm. As her hand moved away from the injury, I could see the joint in my shoulder realigning with my shoulder blade, then the muscles surrounding the joint reknitted into place. The glow disappeared from Shayla's hand as she sat back down next to Tobias.
"Overkill much, Jake?" Rachel sneered.
I shrugged my now healed shoulder, noting that the pain was completely gone. "Perhaps," I returned. "But at least it provided an effective demonstration of her abilities."
"Does that mean you're ready to trust me?" Shayla queried.
"You're telepathic right?" I inquired.
"Yeah."
"Well, then, read my mind and find out," I finished.
She hesitated for a few moments before responding. "You're okay with this?"
"Why so hesitant?" I challenged her. "Can't do it?"
"Of course I can do it. I'm just not in the habit of invading peoples' thoughts without permission," she explained.
"Just this once, I give you permission," I warned her sternly.
She nodded solemnly. "Of course."
For a few moments, Shayla closed her eyes. She remained perfectly still and calm. She was so still that blowing lightly on her would've knocked her down. Then she opened her eyes again and looked down, defeated. "No, you're still not going to accept me as an Animorph. I respect that. You are the leader and I will wait until you are ready."
"Jake, come on, man, even I trust her, and you know how skeptical I am," Marco said.
"Yes, but until I see Tobias and Shayla morph after school, my decision stands," I said, "Plus, am I the only one who remembers what we just went through?"
"No offense, Jake," Shayla began, "but how dare you compare me to David? I mean, true, we just met, and yes, I tend to keep to myself, but so did Tobias when you met him. What makes him different than me? What makes you trust him more than me? Even Marco, the skeptic, agrees with me, and he was against making David an Animorph. Why do I frighten you so much?"
"Because, with all those powers you have, if you were ever to turn against us, we would be no match against you. Even if Tobias was to get the best education out of you, you'd know every twist and turn, and counter all his attempts to stop. I just can't trust what I don't quite understand yet," I explained.
"That's all justifiable, and believe me, I've wondered myself why I have these abilities and whether or not I'm responsible enough to handle them wisely, but you want to know what I've learned, nothing happens without a reason behind it. You can call it destiny, or fate, or whatever, but somehow, I know I was destined to find you guys and help you in your fight. I am prepared to do whatever it takes to keep this planet safe. I still have Natalie out there to protect. She is still in danger, and until I know for sure she's going to be safe for the rest of her life, I will not stop fighting. I would die for Natalie and for any of you for that matter. I am willing to make those kinds of sacrifices. It's the least I can do to keep my family safe. And I know you don't believe me about my morphing ability, and I don't know how I'm going to convince you, but it's the God's honest truth that I possess this ability. And I will fight along side you until the Earth is freed from the Yeerk scum."
"We could end that dispute right now," Rachel suggested.
"Rachel, I already told you, it's too dangerous, we'll wait until after school. If you trust that Shayla is truthful about herself and her intentions, you can wait until then. I don't want to jeopardize our safety just to rule out of hunch," I argued against her idea.
"It's alright Rachel, I understand, really," Shayla said, reassuring her.
Then we started breaking out into our own conversations. Then, Rachel brought up something that the rest of us had overlooked. "Where is Tobias going to stay now? He can't live in the woods anymore," Rachel asked.
"I'd ask my foster parents, but I don't want to push my luck," Shayla said.
"Who are you staying with anyway?" Cassie asked.
"The Coopers."
"Frances and Andrew Cooper?" Rachel asked.
"Yes. Why do you ask?"
"It's just strange. They are my next door neighbors. You have been in town for almost a week now and I never saw you come out of the house once," Rachel explained.
"I'm kind of a loner. I was probably in my room most of the time, or in the backyard, reading or writing. I like to do that sort of stuff. It takes my mind off my problems. Or I was playing with the stray cat I adopted. Besides, I need to stay on my foster parents good graces."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because of their daughter, Christi. I think she's jealous of me or something. She's trying to get her parents to send me back to the children's home. I don't want to return there again. There's no one there for me now. Nat is gone, and now I have Tobias. I don't want to be separated again. Besides, the last time I was there, the kids there saw one of my abilities, when it was just coming out. I couldn't control it, because I didn't know what it was, but they kept hounding me afterwards."
"Your healing ability, right?" Marco asked.
"Yes. The director and nurse wanted to bring in all these specialists to see why I could heal people with just the touch of my hand. I couldn't get a moment's rest there. It was horrific having all those people around me. It was a claustrophobic experience."
"Shayla, what are the regulations that usually occur when a living relative is found?" Rachel asked.
"Those children whose living relatives were found ended up living with those relatives," she explained.
"But that would mean..." I started.
"No, don't even think about it." Tobias shouted, "I will not put Shayla through that torture. No one should have to deal with them."
"What are you talking about?" Marco asked.
"Tobias and Shayla would have to go back to either their aunt or uncle's house," Cassie concluded.
"No way!" Rachel said, "I will make sure you two are not put back into that environment. I'll have my mom make sure to that."
"Let's stop drawing up worst case scenarios for the moment and think about the Coopers," I said. "Right now, they are the legal guardians of Shayla. Your safest bet would be to try to persuade the Coopers to let Tobias stay with them, at least until things are straightened out. Do you think the Coopers would be willing to take in another person?"
"I'm not sure. I would hope since he's my brother, they would allow him to stay, but just in case, I think we should have a back-up plan ready."
"We could do a switch-off type of thing," Rachel suggested.
"How so?" I asked.
"Well, like tonight, if they are both asked to leave, then Shayla comes and stays with me and Tobias stays with Jake."
Marco picked up on Rachel's wavelength, "And then the following night, Tobias stays with me and Shayla with Cassie."
"Exactly," Rachel exclaimed.
"That's all fine and dandy, but we're missing one important piece of information," Shayla began, "my foster parents are going to want to know where Tobias has been if he's a runaway. If they check the local shelters, they won't find any record of him staying there. We have to make up some kind of story on where Tobias has been for the past two years since running away from his uncle and aunt."
"We'll have to think about that after school too. We won't have time now," I said. There was only about a few minutes left before the bell rang to single the end of lunch. Two minutes were left when Gerald -- the same Gerald from the bus -- walked up behind Rachel.
"Well, well, what do we have here? Rachel, you left in such a hurry, you forgot to answer my question."
"About what?" she asked.
"You said you were already involved with someone, and I asked who. Then you stormed off the bus." Then, looking over at Tobias and Shayla. "Hey. We have some new students with us. Wait a minute, I remember you. Did you have trouble finding your locker again, new boy?"
"No, Gerald, he didn't. And this is who I'm involved with right now."
"This shrimp? You have got to be kidding me Rachel! You could do so much better," he laughed.
"Yes, but at least he treats me with respect, not like a slab of meat to be tossed to the wolves later on when your appetite is satisfied."
"We'll see how much respect he has when he's staring at the bottom of my shoe," Gerald boasted.
That did it. Tobias was steamed now. Tobias never did like bullies. He was always a target for them in middle school. Tobias quickly stood up and was staring, eye to eye, with Gerald. That's when I realized how tall Tobias had gotten in the past two years. When I first met Tobias, he was somewhere between mine and Marco's height. Now, Tobias was probably the same height as me, maybe taller, I'm not quite sure. Tobias still looked steamed. Shayla stood up, a look of concern for her brother. The rest of us just stared at the confrontation that was about to take place. I wanted to intervene, just like the last time, but Marco held me back. Marco was more understanding about Tobias' situation since he got just about enough grief as Tobias did back in middle school. Tobias wanted to prove himself and if I interfered, I would only embarrass Tobias more.
"Ooh, you wanna fight now? Look who decided to grow a backbone," Gerald boasted.
"I've developed a lot more than that," Tobias sneered.
"Tobias!" Shayla shouted.
Just then, the bell rang. Crisis averted for now.
"I'll get you at the end of the day punk. I'll see you later Rachel and your new friend too." Then Gerald walked away. And Tobias sat back down. He took a moment to calm down.
"Thanks everyone," he said a few moments later.
"Sure," Cassie complied.
"No problem," I added.
"Was nothing," Marco said.
"Same here," Rachel commented.
"Tobias, we need to talk," Shayla said.
"Not now Shayla."
"Yes, now. I won't let you use those powers just to get revenge against people who bullied you in middle school. Just because you have a power doesn't mean you can abuse it. Now, promise me that if something happens today between you and Gerald, you won't use your abilities against him," Shayla pleaded.
"All right, I promise, jeez. Are you happy now?"
"Only if you truly promise," she added.
"I promise."
"Thank you," Shayla concluded.
"Well, Shayla, we should head off for Biology now," Cassie said.
"And we should go to Phy Ed," Rachel added.
"Hope you like fitness tests?" Marco joked.
"Well, let's go Marco, we have to get to English. I want to hear your paper," I said
"What paper?" he asked.
"You were supposed to write a five page paper about the life and three famous works of an American author or poet of your choice," I reminded him.
"Oh, that paper, no sweat," Marco said dryly.
"You didn't do it, did you?" I smirked at him, already knowing the answer to that. "Let's go," I said, dragging Marco by the hand.
With that, we parted ways to our separate classrooms.