A/N: The story feels a bit slowmoving at the moment, not to mention my slow uploading! Apologies for that. But as each chapter is short, I need to build up a few things first, so hope you guys don't mind. Meanwhile, enjoy (:

CHAPTER NINE

::Cassie::

I picked up a broom and a pan from the nearest cupboard and began sweeping up the splintered pieces of the crate Marco had smashed with his gorilla fist. At the same time, I could feel Jake's eyes burning a hole through my back.

"How did we get ourselves into all this?", came Jake's weary voice.

I stopped sweeping and turned around to face him. "Serendipity. Predestined. It's a mix of the two."

He looked skeptical. "That helps."

"Well, what answer did you want?"

Jake sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm pretty happy with the life I have now. I can't imagine having to deal with all this three years ago and not being able to enjoy the life I have now."

It was a stuffy day, but a shiver ran through me. "Jake, are you really happy?"

He nodded. "Yeah, why not? I've just managed to get back into the basketball team, my family's good, and..." he smiled a rather wide, unabashed smile. "I've got you, Cassie. What more could I ask for?"

Just then, Marco's thoughtspeech floated into my head.

‹Here's the plan. We're going to do surveillance at that basketball game tomorrow. Jake's place at nine-thirty. Roaches. Flies. Whatever. I'm guessing we have to fight the Yeerks in this reality too, and maybe somehow we can find a way to get back to reality, I don't know. Jake won't know this, or he'd slip up. Cassie, I hope you're hearing this.›

I just kept looking at Jake. Looking at sixteen-year-old Jake. Not a forty-year-old general. I wished Jake in our reality would look like this just for a short while. It made my heart ache, and I think it must have shocked present-Jake tremendously that tears were falling out of my eyes seconds after he was expounding on how great his life was.

"Cassie!" He rushed over and held me as I sank to the ground. "Cassie, what's wrong? Did I say something wrong?"

Should I tell him? Should I tell Jake what had happened to him just before we were transported to this reality?

Why shouldn't he know? An angry voice burst out in my head. He deserves the right to know how his happiness was taken away from him by those filthy Yeerks. That way, he can go all out against them!

But yet another voice yelled at me. Cassie, how could you do that? You wouldn't have done that!

Yes, I wouldn't have done that. But why? What was the reason for not telling him?

Suddenly I couldn't find a reason.

"Cassie?" Jake's thumb was rubbing circles on my cheeks, wiping away my tears. He looked terribly worried. "Cassie, are you alright?"

"N-nothing," I berated myself inwardly for crying. My palms were sweaty and my insides all queasy. Maybe I could tell him later. Just one more day of happiness. "I'm – I'm just glad you're here."

"Me too," said Jake, once again smiling. It was the brilliant smile that I hadn't seen on him for a long while in our reality. Now I wasn't sure if it was heartbreaking, or it was slightly thrilling to know that he was the old Jake again. Or at least, mostly the old Jake. "At least all this weird stuff's happening to people close to me, like you and Marco and Rachel." He frowned a little. "And Phillip, though I was never that close to him."

"He's called Ax, Jake," I said, uncomfortably. "It's so strange when you call him Phillip."

Not to mention that 'Phillip' didn't really exist – Ax's human morph was an amalgamation of Jake's, Marco's, Rachel's and my human DNA. Why would he exist as a real human being in this reality as a human with the power to morph?

"Well everybody in this reality calls him Phillip. If I change to uhh... Ax, wouldn't that be strange?"

Jake was right, so I just shrugged it off, snuggling into his embrace. It felt reassuring to be in Jake's arms, yet at the same time, it felt a little unfamiliar.

"That Tobias guy weirds me out, though," said Jake. "He scared me the first time we met."

"Tobias has lived so long as a red-tailed hawk," I explained. "He finds it strange to be in a mall, let alone to be suddenly thrust in the middle of the school population. It's claustrophobic, highly unnerving... to say the least. He must have been really frightened."

"So he was a red-tailed hawk, his father was an Andalite, and his mother was a human?" Jake sounded confused.

I sighed. "It's a really long story, Jake." I thought of the others doing surveillance on him tomorrow, and he, the leader of our little guerrilla group, would be unsuspecting.

Leave him alone. He needs his innocence. Freedom.

When did I start making decisions for others?

Maybe when it hit me that the Yeerks were making decisions for us. They had invaded a planet that had not given its consent, infested humans who were conned into being hosts, and infiltrated our lives.

Die, Yeerk, die!

And now Jake's parents were with The Sharing too. There was no doubt that he was now living in a house full of Controllers. Somehow, I felt pretty certain that Jake was not a Controller as well, but – you know, we can't entirely be sure, can we?

I shook my head slightly. My head was aching as much as my heart was now.

There was the sound of a vehicle driving through the gravel. "Cassie!"

I sprang out of Jake's arms. It was my mother. Back from The Gardens, most probably. "Mom?"

My mother. Was she a Controller in this reality, just like Jake's?

"Oh great, Cassie, you're home," said my mother, appearing by the barn doorway. Looking perfectly normal. Like I could tell. "I thought... oh, hi Jake!" She smiled brilliantly. "Nice to see you. Cassie's dad is making some great chilli tonight, care to have some?"

I thought of Ax masquerading as Jake the last time my dad made chilli, and stifled a grin. The real Jake on the other hand, hadn't tried it.

Or so, in the other reality.

"I loved it the last time he made them." Jake's eyes lit up. I had another mad urge to giggle. "I'd love to have some of it."

"Sure, but just give your mom a ring so she'll know where you are." My mom winked at me, then disappeared back into the main house. I kept my gaze on her for a while, before turning round to stare at Jake.

"You eat chilli?"

Jake laughed and slipped his arms around my waist. It was nice, though slightly awkward, because he only does so when we're seconds away from a death-defying stunt or seconds after the stunt was performed. Not that I was complaining.

"Yup, I slurped up the whole bowl the last time I was here," said Jake, grinning.

Something was gnawing within me.

The vision of Ax masquerading as Jake – it never happened in this reality. So if Ax was somebody else here with no Andalite morph, did it mean Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, the Andalite, never even existed?

Ax was right. This was not the Ellimist's work. It wasn't just a matter of time twisting, it was complete subversion of our perceptions. This was no ordinary game, and the puppetmaster no familiar being.

Loren was in this world, perfectly alright. But if Tobias was born, that meant Elfangor had to have existed.

So, in this reality, on the night we walked through the construction site, what happened?

I opened my mouth to ask.

Jake mistook my zoning out for confusion. His grin faltered a little. "Oh right, you don't remember."

Looking at his disappointed expression, I found all the questions bombarding my head dissipate into thin air. Instead, I leaned my head against his chest. "I'm sorry, Jake. I really am."

"It's okay." He stroked my head. "We'll just have a good dinner tonight, alright?"

"Mm."

No, Jake, I thought. It's not okay. Not at all.