A/N: A huge apology for the utterly long wait as I was preparing for my examinations. Already working on the next chapter, so hope it'll be up soon! Thanks for stopping by to read, I appreciate it (:

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

::Cassie::

Everyone fell silent at Tobias's rants. A nearby eagle let out a ferocious caw, but Tobias's instinctive reaction of glaring hard at it shut it up.

Jake threw up his hands. "I don't know. I'm not a leader here. You guys make the decisions. I'm tired of having to deal with this."

"Jake..." I whispered, but he refused to meet my gaze. I couldn't imagine how horrible it must be for him to meet up with a bunch of his friends and end up realising that they were all psychos believing in a psycho reality.

"It's my brother there," he said, teeth gritted. "It's my brother you guys are talking about, and you're saying an evil slug lives in his brain and we're supposed to get rid of those slugs, even if it means having to kill him, right?" He looked up around at us. "Is that what it is?"

"Yes," said Marco, simply.

"Bullshit!" Jake leapt to his feet. "All this is just bullshit!"

"Jake, will you just–"

"You're all liars, that's what you are! Screw this!"

And he stalked out of the barn.

In the midst of the silence, I was sure that everyone was thinking the same thing as me – how Jake had joined the fight against the Yeerks for Tom. He had even been infested by the Yeerk that had controlled Tom before, and had access to all of Tom's memories – sweet, bitter, miserable, horrific. Jake had told me before every single one of his nightmares involved Tom, whether it was Tom killing him, or him killing Tom. And always, at the last moment, the real Tom would fight for control, his true expressions of fear and terror leaking through to cry out, but one of them would be gone before they could do anything. That sense of helplessness, said Jake, was the worst feeling ever.

Now he was once again rendered helpless, in this new dimension we'd opened up in his world.

"I think I shall return back to my residence," said Ax, quietly. "I fear I may stir some unwanted emotions in the woman who is supposed to be my mother if I return too late."

Marco groaned as he left. "Ax should stop being the model human kid when none of us are."

"Tobias," said Rachel, in a low voice. "Can I talk to you outside?"

Tobias looked less than willing to have a private conversation with Rachel, but when she turned to walk, he followed suit.

Marco was left lounging on the hay bale, his hand over his face. Then he removed it.

"So it's just you and me," he said, arching an eyebrow at me.

"Marco, that plan was just – look, it made a lot of sense, but I think you should have at least given one of us the head's up."

"Sure, tell Rachel about it and she'd ban me. Tell Ax about it and he'd be after Visser Three behind our backs. Tell you about it and you'd have stopped me too because this is not fair to Tobias and it will endanger him and I'm putting all of us at risk and yada yada yada..." He trailed off, realising that he had gone a little too far as he met my gaze. "Look, Cassie, I took a risk all right? I don't like that i'm getting shit for the discovery we just made. And right now, we all just need to cool down and think this through rationally to find a next step. I'm sorry I didn't plan that far ahead okay, but it was a gamble worth taking to find our way to this point."

Then Marco got up and left the barn as well.

This was turning into a horrible day. Well, honestly speaking, I thought Marco was right. Some risks were needed in order to get to the next step. Adrenaline was coursing through my veins now; I felt like I had to take action. None of the others were ready, and I needed to get them started. Then it hit me. Hadn't Marco said that the key to this problem was Elfangor?

And there was only one person on Earth who could have the possibility of knowing more about Elfangor during his time on Earth.

-.-.-.-

I had only been to Tobias's house once before, and that was actually pretty recent. We had convinced Loren to touch the morphing cube and allowed her to escape via bird morph before the Yeerks came descending upon the house. There was nothing but a half-wrecked house left. Yet, it was in full white glory below me now, complete with a tiny little garden beside the porch. Two bicycles were parked against a small bench. Something inside me twisted as I thought that this would have been Tobias's life if nothing had happened to Loren. Not in a tree in the meadow, eyeing prey and competitive predators, or flying into Rachel's bedroom when he got lonely at night.

I circled for a moment before flaring my seagull wings and landing upon a tree just outside one of the upper window. I could hear Loren's voice coming from there. A visitor, perhaps?

The reflection of the glass made it hard to spy, so I had to flutter to another branch. The good view I got revealed that Loren was actually on the phone. Her eyebrows were furrowed, but eventually they loosened up and a smile tugged at the edge of her lips.

"...really glad that he's taking a step towards it. It's been so difficult all this while to even get him to go out of the house, let alone talk to other people. It's surprising, really, but it must be the good work of your members. Yes, yes, I would like to, actually, if you don't mind? Oh, that's so kind of you. Yes, I'd love to go down to take a look."

She fiddled with the telephone cord.

"No, he isn't back yet. But when he is, we'll make our way there."

Loren's smile grew bigger.

"We're really grateful, my son and I. Thank you, Aria."

I nearly fell off the branch.

"Yes, he shouldn't take too long. I'll be there at five. Thank you."

No, there was no way I was going to let Loren go to The Sharing, nor let her drag Tobias there once again to meet Visser Three in Aria disguise. Something had to be done immediately! But what? Where was Jake when I –

I didn't need Jake. I could do this. Come on, Cassie. Think of something!

I fluttered down from the branch and began to concentrate hard.

Minutes later, I summoned up all my courage to knock on the door.

Loren opened it, a look of surprise forming on her face. "I'm sorry, you are...?"

I looked left and right, then back at Loren, who was now looking extremely suspicious. "My name is uhh... Christine. Yes. Umm. I know your son, Tobias."

Loren's eyes widened. "You do?"

"I met him at The Sharing just now."

Her look relaxed a little. "Oh, hi. Oh, he isn't with you?"

"Um no. He went off with a couple of people. I just wanted to tell you something though. Can I come in? I'm not going to do any harm, I promise."

"They all say that." Loren chuckled humourlessly.

"Look, they might come after me for saying this," I said, in a low voice.

Loren stared at me like I was an idiot. Well, I was. I was just banking hard on the fact that I was in some fake reality and that somehow, somehow, revealing my identity like that wouldn't be –

Okay, what had I just done?

Loren ushered me into her living room, but left her door slightly open. "I'm not taking chances," she said, folding her arms. "Now what is it that you have to say?"

"The Sharing? It's a sham. Your son looked like he was having fun, but it's just a cover. They make you feel like you're having fun."

"I'm sorry?"

I tapped my foot impatiently. "They do all kinds." I pretended to look furtive. "You know, like coke. Weed."

Loren muffled a gasp with her hands. "What? That's not the –"

"Not the impression you got? They never tell you outright, do they?" My voice was shaking. Honestly, the once meek and shy Tobias could act tough street kid better than I could, even though he spent more time as a hawk the last few years.

"What makes you want to come here?"

"I – I think your son looks like a good kid," I said hastily. Thinking on my feet was never my forte. "I just thought – "

"Wait, how do you even know where he stays if he's not home yet?"

My frustration was mounting. This was a really bad idea; I should have gotten the King of Crap Marco along with me. It was only then that I realised that I was making cloudy judgements that seldom happened in the past. Worst of all, I had been ranting at Marco earlier for making decisions on his own. Guilt soon snowballed into anger. "Look, I'm just trying to –"

"Get out of my house," said Loren, equally angrily. "You're just one of those hooligan children who spy on others and try to bullshit something to make people frightened. It's stupid, childish and a complete waste of your time!"

She grabbed me by my shoulders, but I tried to resist. "I know about you, okay?" I cried out. "I know that your family is devoid of a father figure..." I jabbed in the direction of a photograph where there was only a half-smiling Loren and a sullen Tobias. "But – but it's not because his father ran away or that he died or that you two divorced!"

Loren glared at me. "Don't play mind games with me, young lady, or I'll –"

"It's because his father is not even human!"

It was a terribly huge gamble to take. I knew the rest would kill me if they were here. But when I saw Loren's eyes widen and her grip on me slacken, I knew I was playing my cards right. For the moment.

Her lips began to tremble. Then finally, she asked weakly,

"How did you know?"