'Allo, my adoring fans,

I just felt I should add a chapter that shows the other character's perceptions on the new David, which of course will involve banging away at the old David.

And since I believe in giving credit where credit is due, it would be unethical, ungentlemanly, and well, just plain not nice, if I didn't mention that this chapter was inspired by Ryan Griffin's review. Thanks, Ryan.

That being said, Enjoy!

Til' next we meet,

Augustine Quill

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March 19, 1999 11:17 AM

Jake

The four of us don't usually eat together. It's bad security. Especially after the four of us had cut school the day before, but this was necessary.

The four of us sat at a table. We had to discuss the mission at hand.

But right now the four of us were just silent.

Marco finally broke the silence. "We failed."

"We'll try again." Rachel quickly said.

After some more silence, I finally spoke "I'm worried about David." I said to my group. I then looked specifically at Cassie. "What do you think?"

She shrugged. "What do you mean?"

"Come on, Cassie." Marco said. "Jake maybe a George Patton, but he's no Sigmund Freud. You're the introspective, tree-hugging hippie, remember?"

"I don't know." Cassie admitted. It seemed like her mind was far off. "He has no qualms over killing non-sentient animals and totally against killing sentient life."

"He killed two crows. Deliberately. In cold-blood. And he's obsessed with killing Visser Three." Marco said.

"Visser Three has a lot of enemies who want a piece of him. Yeerk, Human, Andalite, too many to mention." I said.

"David's father works for the NSA." Cassie brought up.

"Don't remind me." Marco said. "I really don't want to think about how there is one of them in our country's intelligence agency."

"Well, my point is that he was brought up with military principles."

"Which he holds absolute contempt for."

"But that's still how he thinks. If a troop of yeerks does something, he blames the general not the troop."

"Namely, Visser Three." I said.

"Yes," Cassie agreed. "He believes Visser Three should be righteously executed, a sentiment he shares with Ax and half the galaxy. But he also believes that his underlings are innocent and do not deserve death unjust."

"What about what you saw him doing to that controller? He beat his face to frickin pulp!" Rachel reminded.

I considered then telling them about the lion incident between David and I. David had wondered aloud who would win in a fight, lion or tiger. I never offered an answer.

"David seems to harbor a lot of rage." I said finally.

"A lot of rage?? He's out of control!" Marco argued. "He blames himself for the taking of his parents, and yet he doesn't seem to take any responsibility for any of his actions. What was all that talk about ripping off jewelry stores?"

"Marco's right." Rachel said. "He's completely contradictory. You saw the look of contempt he had when he talked about paying back that beach shop. Like we were some naïve little children."

"And yet I saw his relief when Jake rejected Ax's decision to kill the Yeerks in the banquet pool." Cassie argued back.

"So, what? He's against murder but in favor of stealing?"

"That's pretty much the sentiment of most homeless people." Marco said.

Marco had inadvertently made a good point in David's favor. He was homeless. He did what he needed to do to survive. He was against the killing of sentient life, but had no problems with stealing what he needed to survive.

"I'm surprised he's stuck with us so long." I finally said.

"He tried to leave two night ago." Cassie said.

"What?!" Marco and Rachel said in unison.

"I stopped him."

"That's all well and good, Cassie, but what if he tries to leave again?" I said.

"I don't think he will."

"Why not?"

She offered no answer and just seemed to sigh inwardly. Like she was hiding something. I looked over at Rachel. She mirrored my exasperation. I looked over at Marco. He had a rather suspicious look on his face.

"He is smart. Not a bad fighter." Rachel admitted.

"The Ax-man told me that he went from eagle to human in under fifteen seconds." Marco reported.

"Fifteen seconds??!" I yelled. Which got an immediate quiet down gesture from Marco.

"An estreen?" Rachel wondered aloud, but softly.

"Like Cassie." I said looking over to her. Again she smiled weirdly.

"Are you sure?" Cassie asked.

"Well, I believe his exact words were 'His morph took approximately 13.45923 seconds.'"

"Smart and talented." Rachel summarized.

"Visser Three aside, he's against taking sentient life." Marco added.

"But has no problem with stealing." I amended.

"Stealing is taking things, material possessions, stuff." Cassie interjected. "Life is life."

"He's an idealist." Rachel concluded.

"Like Cassie." Marco said shooting another suspicious look to her.

This second comparison of Cassie to David got me thinking. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't unsettled. It had only been three weeks since Cassie's own temporary withdrawal from the Animorphs. Her ideals had caused her to leave the group. The result was an incident which she gambled her life on said ideals. She changed the ways of a Yeerk named Aftran. I guess in a spiritual way, she saved her. Hopefully, she can save David, too.

But I was still unsettled. For the first time in a long time, my thoughts were not those of a general, but those of a normal teenage boy.

How did Cassie get David to stay? Why is she so silent on the subject?

What is going on between Cassie and David?