February 11, 2000 7:50 PM
"What the fuck am I doing here?" I asked myself aloud. Western High's Valentine's Day Dance. As per usual I was having an awful time.
Bird and Blue looked uncomfortable in their human morphs. Aximili hates missing his eyes and tail. Tobias, well, Rachel makes things complicated for him. Rachel didn't look to happy either. Tobias was probably resisting dancing with her. Melissa was chatting with her. I hadn't talked to her all night. I woke up this morning with the desire to talk to her about that strange dream I had. How it was more than a dream. It was much more . . .
Any ways, no such luck yet.
"Is there a reason why you're staring at Rachel?" Marco said from behind me. "You're not developing a crush on the psycho are you? Cause that's just scary. You two getting married and having little baby sociopaths."
I was actually staring at Melissa. "Marco, I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't talk about things you know nothing about. Of course, then you'd actually be silent."
"Oh, Ha Ha. Look who took his funny pills this morning."
"Why don't you go bug someone with a real sense of humor?" I asked.
"You know, you guys all need learn to chill out. I swear to God . . ." Marco lamented as he went to go harass Rachel and Tobias. Melissa had left Rachel while I was talking to Marco. Who knows where.
Romeo and Juliet. Tobias was fond of referring to himself and Rachel in that fashion. If he was Romeo, I was definitely Hamlet, and Melissa my unfortunate Ophelia.
"Penny for your thoughts." I heard Melissa say from behind me. I turned around and her expression went wide. "Terry!"
Oh yeah, I was in Terry Stevens morph.
"Of course, you'd be Terry. Why not? I saw 'Terry', but my mind . . ." Melissa stammered.
"It's all right." I said trying to keep her from talking anymore. 'The whole morphing thing' as Melissa calls it was still difficult for her to handle. She was still getting used to the fact that she is dating David Hunting and that Terry Stevens is just a fake person that David can turn into. David can turn into other things, too.
"This is weird." Melissa said. "Is this weird?"
"My entire life is weird. Day in. Day out."
A slow song started. Well, semi-slow song. Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris". Melissa beckoned me to dance with her and I obliged. For a while, it was nice. To avoid looking at my face, Melissa placed her head on my shoulders, but even Melissa could tell that the shoulders were not mine. Too high up and not big enough. My Terry Stevens morph was a foot taller than Melissa at 5'11, while I in my natural state was 5'8, almost 5'9.
"And I don't want the world to see me,
cause I don't think that they'd understand.
When everything's made to be broken,
I just want you to know who I am."
"I wish I could dance with you. The real you." Melissa said.
"It's dark enough."
Melissa lifted her head really quickly. "David, don't."
Too late. As the instrumental part of the song picked up, I was rapidly demorphing, I was David. Melissa grabbed my head and tried to hide my face in her hair. It was awkward because I was still between nine and ten inches taller than her. Very silly. Her hair smelled very nice, though. No hair spray. That's always good.
"You're going to get yourself caught."
"What? You asked for it."
"Oh, now you do what I ask."
"Fine. I'll morph back. Then you can tell me to do something else." I offered. I morphed back anyway, when I caught Tobias hurriedly leaving the gym. Melissa and I followed him but hung back when Mr. Chapman started following him. We saw Rachel stalling Chapman from getting an escaping Tobias who was climbing over steel gates when Melissa pulled me aside.
"Let's go."
"What? Now?"
"While my father and your friends are occupied."
We escaped the school, and walked quickly to the corner of the block.
"I'm ready." Melissa said.
"For what?" I asked stupidly.
"To watch you morph."
"To wa--?" I stammered as I realized. "Oh. Yeah. Right." For a second I thought she meant something else. "Any requests?"
"Something I can ride. My feet hurt like hell." Melissa said.
Again, taken out of context . . . I pushed aside my sexually idiotic thoughts. "I have a horse morph. Saddle not included."
"That's fine."
I looked at her as I morphed. I guess I wanted to make sure she was watching. I wanted to do it majestically. I guess I wanted to impress her. I focused on the size increase and general shape change. My legs lengthened and reshaped. My nose jutted out. My blond hair became a gray mane. The last things to change were my arms. They became horse front legs. I was able to keep my balance so I looked like a horse in "calvary" position. I put all four hooves on the ground and let Melissa mount me. And then I let her ride me. I then I took two seconds to laugh at all the double entendres before focusing on galloping at a speed that won't make Melissa fall off my back. I wish I had more practice in this morph, but I haven't morphed this since that night I went racing with Cassie.
Don't think of her now, idiot! Focus! At least you didn't think of Stephanie. DAMNIT!
So where are we going?
"Sandy Hook Beach. There's this spot I used to go to with Scottie." She said. I felt her tense up upon mentioning his name. "Sorry. You didn't need to know that."
Not particularly, no.
We got to the beach and we passed the time. Ok, we made out, but the less it was about half an hour later before our lips were available for conversation again.
"What are you thinking about?" Melissa asked me.
"I dream I had."
"Good or bad? Am in it?" She asked right away.
"Bad and no."
Melissa grumbled, more at the fact that I had a bad dream. She knows those make me grumpy. "What is it this time? More insane visions?"
"Yeah. Explanation of the whole Beast thing." I said. "I had a bunch of images of other beasts from other universes. They all had the mark."
"What mark?"
"The Beast Mark. 666, in some way, shape, or form."
"Do you have one?" Melissa asked.
"No numbers anywhere on my body." I said.
"Well, what were the others like?"
"Most of them fell into the birthmark, scar, or tatoo category."
"Do you have any of those?"
"One of each, actually."
"Really?" Melissa said, intrigued. "Show me your birthmark."
"I don't think you want to see it."
"Yes, I do."
"Oooookay." I said. I got up and slid the right side of my pants down, showing half an ass-cheek.
"'DC'?"
"What? No, you're looking at sideways. See? It's the Zodiac symbol for Taurus."
"I thought you were an Aries."
"I am, but nonetheless I have Taurus the Bull on my ass."
Melissa chuckled. "Pull up your pants, David. Where's your scar?"
I re-buckled my belt and parted my hair in a specific place. I bent down to Melissa could see it. "See that jagged line and the line that crosses it? Where hair grows no more?"
"What happened there?"
"You wouldn't believe me."
"Tell me!"
"Lightning struck a tree I was under. The branch came down and conked me on the head. I was asleep for seventeen hours."
Melissa laughed again. "And the tatoo?"
I took off my shirt and showed her the underside of my left arm. "See those?"
"VI?"
"I'm twelve years old. I live in Seattle. Grundge-Mecca. I just got Spawn, so I decide I'm going to be bad-ass and get the word 'VIPER' tatooed on my arm. The guy got the V and the I before my father found me and dragged me home."
Melissa laughed a third time. "The things that happen to you."
"Yeah. I'm glad I'm so entertaining. Still, I don't have anything that constitutes a Beast Mark. No numbers."
"Just a bunch of letters. The ones on your bum are just fate I guess. Your head was bad luck, but it was your stupid choice for the 'VIPER'!" Melissa said, laughing again.
"What did you say?"
"'VIPER'. It was stupid."
"No, the whole thing."
"Bum was fate. Head was bad luck and your arm was a stupid choice." Melissa paraphrased.
"Fate. Chance. Choice. One of the beasts tried to destroy the universe using three stones. The Hexstone of Fate. The Hexstone of Chance and the Hexstone of Will. You said the same thing to me once. How they each play a part in our lives."
"And I was right. They each gave you silly letters on your body."
"Letters?"
"You say it's Taurus the Bull, but it looks like DC to me. And you got the VI yourself."
"What about my scar?"
"That's a couple of letters too." She said as she drew my scar in the sand. "See? It kind of looks like an L and an X."
"DC, LX, VI. DCLXVI." I repeated. "Oh, shit."
"What?"
"Roman Numerals. D=500, C=100, L=50, X=10, V=5, I=1. DCLXVI is six hundred sixty six."
"666?"
"I am a beast. And this is my mark."
"So does that mean you'll destroy the universe?"
"I'm not sure. Now that I think about . . . I might not. I never saw any of them destroy the universe. Just what their plans were. I know Moonbeam failed. I think they all did. One of them explained how the purpose of the Beast was to raise some demon lord, which can only happen when a dimension is destroyed. Once one is gone, the others fall like dominos."
"But we haven't fallen yet."
"Which means all of those Beasts failed."
"So you're going to fail too?"
"Maybe. But if I don't destroy the universe, I'd like it to be because I didn't want to, not because I tried to and failed."
"You won't destroy the universe." Melissa said very matter-of-factly.
"Why are you so sure?"
"Because."
"Because why?"
"Just because. Don't argue with me." She said with false snippiness. She then kissed me. "I swear, it's the only way I can get you to shut up."
"Very cute." I said. "I think I should go."
"Why?" Melissa asked.
"I have a mission in the morning. We have to destroy the AMR once and for all."
"Be careful." Melissa said to me.
"Do you need a ride back?"
"No, I'll walk." She said. "I need to think."
"Ok."
We had a meeting the next morning, but the mission wasn't until that night. Our plan was to let Tobias be captured and let the Yeerks use the AMR on him. Because hawk is his true form, they'll believe the ray doesn't work. Rachel will hitch a ride on him and then fly back to us so that we can break in and rescue Tobias and destroy the AMR for good measure. I wasn't too thrilled with this plan. Neither was Rachel. For once we were in agreement.
We failed. Tobias was captured, but Rachel was gassed. She couldn't tail them. And now we had no idea how to save him.
So we sacrificed a sick eagle that was in Cassie's barn. He was terminally ill. We morphed fleas and found where they were keeping him. This was several hours later. After hours of what I'm sure was torture. Literally.
I didn't know what to expect, but I wasn't expecting this.
We burst into the room. A lion, a tiger, a bear, a wolf, and a gorilla. Aximili was already in there, and Tobias . . . .
Trapped inside a glass cube. He looked battered. He looked like shit. He looked hurt and not just physically.
When I first joined the Animorphs, I thought of Tobias as sub-human. I wouldn't kill a human back then. How things have changed. Tobias is now one of my closer friends. He, Aximili, and I have this sort of bohemian fraternity between us.
It angered me greatly that he was tortured like this. Who did this? I'll kill him.
I found the leader. In a room full of Hork-Bajir-Controllers, he was the only human. He was a she. A sub-visser apparently. She looked like . . . . .
Oh God. 10? I shouted idiotically.
"Who said that? Who called me that!" said the mad Sub-visser.
I demorphed into David Hunting.
"Ah! The morph-human." 10/the Sub-visser said. "Visser Three will reward me for your capture."
I morphed into Terry Stevens. I don't know what I was expecting. A yeerk wouldn't care about the sexual past of its host. At least they shouldn't. However, as soon as I morphed. It looked like I had punched the Sub-visser in the stomach. "No." she whispered. "NOOOOOOOO!"
She threw a punch. I caught a metal fist.
And she had such soft hands. "10? What happened to you?"
"I was beautiful. Everyone wanted me. Scott wanted me. Half her male teachers wanted her. You wanted me. You had me." She said for all to hear. She was speaking as if she were both the yeerk and the girl. She . . . it . . . they were insane. "Then the fire. I was a freak. To be cast aside like a piece of human garbage. All humans are garbage! Especially you! You fucked her and never call her back. You used me like so many men before you!"
10 was choking me now. Hands that were once soft and inviting were now metal instruments of death. Tobias in Andalite morph struck her with the flat end of his tail blade. "You!" she shouted. She grabbed Tobias and threw him over a balcony above the Yeerk Pool. I was about to rescue him, but Rachel got to her first.
Stay out of it, David. I demorphed and morphed back into lion and I fought. I fought Hork-Bajir till there were no Hork-Bajir to fight. Then I went home.
What was Taylor saying to you? Tobias asked me.
Taylor? I vaguely remember that being her real name. She knew Terry. Biblically.
You mean?
Yeah. I think that was before she became . . . that.
Stephanie was a controller. 10 was a controller. Every girl I fuck becomes one of them. What were my feelings for 10? I didn't love her. Not the way I felt for Steph. Not the way I felt for Cassie. Or even the way I feel about Melissa, but I think for a small instant during that time where we were "healing each other", I loved her. It would be almost impossible not too. I'm not like that. I'm not the kind who can just have meaningless sex. What happened between 10 and me was meaningful even if the meaning was just verification that we were not undesirable. I was not in love with her, but I always remembered her fondly.
And it saddened me deeply that she became that monster.
Tobias pitied her. I could tell. But he also feared her. It would be impossible not to. She brought him so much pain. She brought me so much pleasure, and we were the two who understood her the most.
Rachel will kill her the next chance she gets. I'm sure of that.
Maybe I can save her. It seems childish, naive, and stupid, but I have to try.
I owe it to her.