CHAPTER SEVEN

::Jake::

Me? Lost my memory? Who were they kidding?

"I have my memory!" I nearly shouted, completely flabbergasted by the sheer nonsense that I had found myself in less than a few minutes ago. Now even Rachel was joining in. "It's you people who are acting strange!"

"No, I don't think he's lost his memory in this timeline," said Tobias. "But he's lost his memory of our original timeline. I bumped into him just now and he had no clue of who I was."

"You guys know him?" I demanded. Cassie and Marco look surprised, and I figured that somehow, they did.

"It is not really an issue of timelines. Ines." said Phillip. Had he called himself something else? "The last time something similar happened, the Drode buffered – buff. FF. Interesting sound,"–he blew on his lip–"yes, buffered our personalities and memories. Why is that now our personalities are not exactly buffered, and all our memories but Princ e Jake's are buffered?"

"That was complicated." Rachel raised her eyebrows. "But I think I kinda get it."

"What do you mean by personalities not exactly buffered?" demanded Cassie.

Phillip frowned. "Well, for one..."

"Excuse me?" I interrupted. "Could somebody please tell me what is going on?" I looked at the boy called Tobias. "Maybe we could start with you? You're a new kid in school. How'd you get to know me, or my friends?"

"Jake, this is going to sound really ridiculous," said Tobias, sighing. And then he began to launch into a story, a very, very tall tale that I could hardly believe. It involved a dying alien, an Andalite, who had given them – no, us – the power to morph into any animal whose DNA we acquired. It was a defence against the Yeerks, an empire of alien slugs that had come to infest and take over Earth. All of us had been fighting them for years, and eventually they discovered that we were not "Andalite bandits", but humans, and had driven us into hiding.

When Tobias spoke of the valley, I cut in. "So that's what you were talking about just now? That we had to go back to the valley?" I turned to Marco. "You mentioned it too, didn't you?"

Marco nodded. Phillip looked at me. "Does this not jolt any semblance of memory, Prince Jake?"

"No. But why do you refer to me as such?"

"Jake, you are our leader," said Cassie, a little gently. "Ax thinks you're the equivalent of an Andalite prince."

"If you say so," I replied, belligerently. "Then he can show me what an Andalite looks like."

Phillip/Ax looked a little downcast. "I am unable to do so."

"What?" Both Tobias and Rachel exclaimed.

"AHA!" I yelled triumphantly. "A trick! That was surely an elaborate story!"

"You saw me morph into gorilla just now." Marco eyed me skeptically. "Want Rachel to do an elephant?"

"My mind was frazzled! It was just an illusion! Another of your techy illusions!"

But just as I was yelling, Cassie began to shapeshift. I could feel the familiar panic rise in me again, the one that had overcome me when I saw Marco change into a gorilla. Then I saw my cousin Rachel turning large and grey.

I groaned, covering my eyes. When I opened them, they had gone back to normal. But I could feel myself shaking.

"Jake, we know it's hard," said Marco. "But you've got to trust us." He turned to Tobias. "Do you think you could provide some aerial surveillance?"

Tobias didn't look too happy. "Can't."

"What do you mean, can't?"

"He's lost his morphing powers," explained Rachel, glancing at Tobias with a pained expression. "Okay this is strange. Ax can't demorph to Andalite. Tobias can't demorph to hawk. What's going on?"

"I am able to morph to other creatures, however," said Phillip/Ax.

Tobias made a sound that sounded like a snarl. "Swell."

"You said you're a red-tailed hawk." I glared at Tobias. "So you can't prove that to me either."

"Well, if you want that much proof, morph to tiger yourself, Jake," snapped Marco. Then he looked a little hesitant. "You think he can do it?"

"Jake?" Cassie looked at me deeply. Okay, that was unfair. I never could say anything otherwise when she did that. "Think of a tiger. Orange, black stripes, with a white underside. Think of you turning into that tiger."

"I'm not..."

"Jake." Her voice was calm, and it made me feel calmer too. "Just try."

There was no harm trying. Sometimes, being the butt of other people's jokes makes them happy. Whatever makes Marco happy, for instance. He's been way too gloomy these few days.

I closed my eyes and focused on the image Cassie had conjured up for me. It felt a little amusing, but at the same time, a little uncomfortable. I opened my eyes and then chuckled.

"Guess it didn't work for me."

"Uhh, Jake?" Tobias pointed to my hands. I raised it up, and nearly yelled, if not for Marco suddenly leaping over to cover my mouth with his hand. It was horrifying! I had orange fur on the back of my hand.

"Mmmffh!" I struggled against Marco's grip, staring terrified at my hand.

"It's okay, back to human now," said Cassie, calmly. And so the orange fur receded into pink skin. But it was enough.

"Okay, this is beyond madness." I struggled to keep composed. "So if what you guys say is true... I mean, what are we supposed to do now to get back to the reality you all were in?"

"Everytime the Ellimist is involved, he would appear to tell us exactly what he wanted," said Rachel, getting a little worked up. It was a bit strange to see that, for Rachel is usually quite unruffled. "Now he gives us nothing, NOTHING!"

"Maybe we should start a little by understanding our situation a bit more," said Phillip/Ax. He shot me a questioning look. "Prince Jake, you mentioned something about Marco never being the one to make jokes, did you not?"

I didn't see what relevance that had to do with anything. "Yes, but..."

"I don't make jokes?" Marco asked, surprised. He must have not heard me the first time.

"Come to think of it, Marco, you seem to have lost your touch," said Cassie, eyeing him suspiciously.

"What touch?" I demanded.

"Marco's the joker of the group, duh," said Rachel. "He's always making lame jokes and inserting redundant punchlines."

There was a pause. Then Rachel's eyes took on a hint of alarm. "Oh man, I thought he would say something like that was a total oxymoron or something."

"I didn't think of anything to say to that," admitted Marco. He scratched his head. "I know I had a lot to say before, but... umm, I just don't find it funny?"

"Oh great, we're all losing it." Tobias threw up his hands. "Marco, Jake, Ax... and me? I've lost the one thing that makes me happy."

"Tobias, don't say that..." Rachel muttered. I was a little surprised at how much concern Rachel was showing for this new boy. Despite what he had just told me, I couldn't bring myself to be comfortable in the presence of someone I had barely got to know – in this timeline, at least.

"So nothing's wrong with Cassie and Rachel?" Marco asked, skeptically.

"I miss the old Marco." Rachel groaned. "We could do with some sense of humour, however lame. Something along the lines of the fact that we girls are unharmed."

"That's nice to know," remarked Cassie, winking at Rachel. Marco scowled.

"Okay wait," I cut in. "Maybe if I tell all of you what you all are like in this – this reality, save for Tobias, that is – you might be able to find the differences?"

"Good idea," said Cassie. So I began my own little tale – well, it was the truth to me, but it seemed to fascinate the others, for it seemed like while I had 'lost my memory of their timeline', they had seemed to lose their memory of my timeline. It was altogether complicated. I noticed however, that as I spoke, Marco's eyes became a little dimmer, Rachel's more skeptical, and Cassie's a little hesitant. Phillip/Ax had no facial response however; he merely shifted from foot to foot a little unstably.

"Cassie, you sound a lot tougher here," mused Marco, once I had finished. "And Rachel, quite the opposite."

Rachel seemed to look very uncomfortable, but only for a short while. Then she looked skeptical again. "I woke up to find myself in a janitor's closet. Melissa told me I had been whacked up by a couple of uhh... stupid girls."

"You? Whacked up?" Marco stared at her. "Umm... weren't you always like..." He paused. "...the whacker?" He finished lamely.

"Melissa?" asked Cassie. "Like Melissa Chapman?"

"Yep. She said she would get you to help me."

"Oh, so you guys know Melissa Chapman in your reality too?" I raised an eyebrow. "Like her dad's our assistant principal?"

"That didn't change," Marco sighed. "Nor the fact that..." he trailed off.

"So, did you say that Tom's been trying to get you to go to The Sharing lately?" asked Tobias, suddenly. There was a dark look that suddenly came into his eyes, which was a little unnerving considering his expressions were pretty much blanked out most of the time.

"Uhh, yeah?"

The rest exchanged looks I didn't understand. "Is there anything wrong?"

"Jake, The Sharing is..."

"A great place!" exclaimed Marco. "We should go visit it."

"What?" Rachel stared at him. Then she suddenly mellowed a little. "Oh. Oh right."

I didn't like the way they seemed to be hiding something. "What's wrong with The Sharing?"

"We had a little gathering there before," cut in Cassie. She took my hand. "It was just rather strange. Marco... no, Rachel didn't like the way it was too happy, though Marco kinda liked it."

There was a strangled noise somewhere, but I resisted the urge to stare at whoever it was, because Cassie was smiling warmly at me as she spoke.

"Cassie..." began Tobias, but Cassie smiled, first at him, then at me. "Tobias didn't really like it either. But maybe it's just him and Rachel. Maybe Marco and I can come along some other day with you."

"Cool." I felt a little more cheerful thinking about Cassie and Marco joining me at a Sharing gathering. That way I wouldn't feel too awkward either. Maybe Marco would feel happier, and Cassie would be more relaxed. That would be great.

Really great.