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 15: Tobias
The rest of the school day went by fairly quickly. I was dreading the end of the day because it meant that I would have to face Gerald again. But, I made a promise to Shayla, and I don't break promises. Before I could go receive my punishment, Chapman called me into his office.
"This letter came for your last week. I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to get a hold of you. It's from a lawyer named DeGroot. He says that he's the holder of your father's estate. Also, there's a young woman looking for you. She's your cousin, Aria. DeGroot will inform you more about her at the meeting I scheduled for you at 6 o'clock tonight," he explained.
"Thank you Mr. Chapman. I'll keep that in mind," I said as I left his office. When I stepped out, Shayla was standing there. "Did you hear all that?"
"Yes, what are you going to do?" she asked.
"I'm going to have to go. If I don't, Chapman will find out about it. But I won't go alone," I said.
At that moment, I saw Jake, Rachel, Cassie, and Marco walking down the hall towards us.
"What's going on?" I demanded. I was looking directly at Shayla.
"Just a little surprise I planned," she said, smiling, "You decided to come along, Jake?"
"Yeah, I have to keep Marco out of trouble. He's bound to be hit by Rachel I estimate at least ten times while he's there. I have to protect the little amount of brain he has left," he said.
"So, what's going on?" I repeated. I looked over at Rachel who was bouncing up and down.
"We're taking you to the mall," she squealed.
"Why?"
"You need some new clothes. You can't keep borrowing Jake's," Rachel replied.
"I borrowed this one pair," I countered.
"Plus, your clothes are from two years ago. You've obviously grown. Everyone's reactions at lunch when you stood up to face Gerald said all that. There's no way the clothes you have packed are going to fit you anymore," Shayla said.
"So, this is just an excuse for you and Rachel to take me shopping?" I asked.
"No Tobias. This is for you. Whatever you want to do, we can do. As long as it's at the mall," Rachel replied.
"Well, now we have an even shorter amount of time than I planned," Shayla said.
"Why?" Cassie asked.
"I'll explain on the way. We have some business to discuss," I replied.
"Then perhaps we should get Ax?" Jake suggested.
"Oh my God. I forgot about Ax. He's going to kill me."
"Well then, let's get going," Jake said.
We walked out of school. We were about a block away from school, and only a few meters from the bush where I left by backpack, when Gerald showed up.
"I told you I'd get you, new boy. Let's do this, right here, right now," Gerald threatened.
"Tobias, you promised," Shayla pleaded.
"I know," I replied.
I really didn't want to fight him, but maybe there was a slim chance that I could beat Gerald. Marco and Jake were physically holding Rachel down from running towards Gerald to pound him. Shayla and Cassie just stood there, with looks of concern on their faces. I swear, maybe Shayla and Cassie were twins.
"I really don't want to fight you," I told him.
"Too late for that. You should've thought of that before," Gerald said.
He made a swing towards me but I had seen it coming way earlier. I easily dodged his punch. See, those two years fighting Hork-Bajir and Taxxons were paying off. Gerald was as predictable as a Hork-Bajir. I didn't need my powers. I could fight without them. I took my first punch and hit Gerald square in the face. My next punch hit his abdomen. He stumbled to the ground, gasping for air. With two punches, he went down. I guess Gerald wasn't so tough after all, or maybe he didn't expect me to fight back.
"Remember this next time you decide to pick a fight with me," I said. Then I walked away from him and back towards the group.
"Way to go, Bird-boy." Marco, of course.
"Wow. That was amazing," Cassie said, "although, I wish you wouldn't have had to fight."
"So do I Cassie, so do I," I said, "but sometimes, there's no option. You have to defend yourself."
"Thank you for keeping your promise Tobias," Shayla said, standing off in the background.
"I never break promises. Besides, he was too easy. I could see it in his eyes. Gerald's all talk."
"I guess he'll leave you alone now, huh?" Jake asked.
"I hope so," I said.
We walked over to the bush, I picked up my pack, and we walked towards the woods to Ax's scoop.
Author's Responses:
angry-penguin: Thank you for all of your reviews! I'm going to try to answer some of the questions you asked, by chapter
Chapter 3: You'll find out, in later stories, that the Ellimist hasn't been as truthful with the Animorphs as he perceives, but of course, when is he ever, right? He especially has a vested interest Tobias and Shayla's feature. HINT: I left a bit of a hint; reread what the Ellimist whispers to himself right before he vanishes from view.
Chapter 4: Yeah, I never did like that Tobias was either forced to remain a hawk, and stay in the fight, or remain human, and be useless to the rest of the Animorphs.
Chapter 5: Yeah, I still have some details to hash out, especially the situation where Tobias will be staying for the time being.
Chapter 6: That's our Rachel, all right! ;)
Chapter 7: Well, of course Rachel is going to side with Tobias, 100 percent. When I originally wrote this, I had Shayla reveal that Cassie was an empath, but I'm holding off on the announcement just yet, as it's too soon for Shayla to know that much about Cassie's personality and quirks that she'd be able to pinpoint it right away. Marco has always been the one to look at tactics and information from both sides before taking a stand on an issue. That's what makes him a brilliant tactician later on in the series. And Jake, well, Jake can't just jump in willy-nilly, especially since this is occurring directly after the whole David trilogy.
Chapter 8: Again, I'm referring back to the original story, I was also going to have Tobias and Shayla be telekinetic and empathic, but I cut it down to just telepathy, healing, and morphing, with one special ability between the two: Tobias' enhanced senses and Shayla's mind-manipulation, which I'm kind of playing off as being an extension of her telepathic abilities.
Chapter 11: Bingo! You nailed it on the head. Despite Cassie's reassurances in a previous chapter, Jake still feels the leader's guilt, and he's operating under the assumption of 'fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me'.
Chapter 12: Ooh, yay, someone found the plot hint I'm leaving open for future stories. All I can say at this point is that the only reason why Shayla hasn't been captured yet is because her case is under the jurisdiction of Visser 1, not Visser 3, who I've always seen as being more of a tactician and strategist than Visser 3.
Chapter 13: Not quite, but close. I'm hoping when I get to that plot twist, it'll definitely be an eye-opening surprise!
Chapter 14: Oh yeah, it'll definitely be payback time. Hope you enjoyed it!