They had always pushed him too far, pressed him too hard, just because he had not been there from the beginning. After all they had gone through together, at the bottom of the ocean, on the planet of the Iskoort, in the freezing cold of the Artic, they still viewed him as an outsider. The psycho Rachel that had almost killed them all just a few weeks ago still got more respect than he did (although at least he had been held in higher esteem then the cringing version of Rachel; he did have to admit to himself that he had gotten some vindictive pleasure out of that). He would never be a full Animorph, no matter how hard he tried.
Marco had learned to bite back his comments, but that made it worse, in a strange way. He was coldly polite to David, while joking about all the others, marking David as the perpetual outsider. Rachel bantered with him occasionally, but only when she had nothing better to do. Cassie coddled him with all of her pity. And Jake expected him to fall in line like a good little soldier. It was all infuriating.
But the worst was Tobias.
They had all finally realized that living in Cassie's barn was unacceptable, from a security standpoint, if not an outright human decency perspective. They had moved him to a few different homes. He had been bored stiff by the Hork-Bajir inside a day. The Chee weren't so bad, but he had never been a big dog fan, and they were all a little too nice and accommodating. So while he went to Erek's when he needed a shower or a change of clothes, he ended up spending most of his time in Ax's scoop. And once they had set up a TV schedule to stop them from arguing over the remote, and Ax had learned that teenage human males occasionally needed a bit of privacy to take care of certain, very important tasks, they ended up getting along fairly well. If anything, they both knew what it was to be a military brat.
It was this that ended up ruffling a few angsty feathers. Tobias had become so used to being Ax's only true companion, to being closer to the Andalite than the rest of the team. When they had learned the story of Tobias' heritage, it seemed like the two would become even closer, a mix of best friends and nephew and uncle. But with him living in the scoop, the duo became a trio. Tobias suddenly had to share the first person who he had been able to call a best friend. And for all that their childhoods had not been normal, both he and David were only children. They had never learned to share and play nice.
All of this raced through David's mind as the light faded out of the red circle. He wasn't even supposed to be here. Tobias was the only one who was supposed to be caught. He was sure that Tobias had rigged this somehow; no way he would have volunteered to be captured and experimented on if he hadn't had some ulterior motive. Yes, it was all Tobias' fault. The hawk twitched and whimpered in the cage next to his, but he must have been laughing inside.
All of them were in one it, all of the Animorphs, and the Chee too. The anti-morphing ray hadn't worked on him, even though he wasn't trapped like Tobias, so what had been the point of this mission? To catch David, to get rid of him once and for all, to take it back to the original Animorphs. He had been a fool to ever think he was a real team member. He was the new kid, all over again, and he was drowning in pain while they all laughed at him.
Not anymore. The crazy Yeerk hovered over him, her blonde hair looking so much like Rachel's, and he just hated them all so very much. His thought speak was quiet but clear.
"I'll tell you everything. They'll pay for what they did."