Chapter 26: Cassie

Ax was interrogating the person morphed as Jake when in the blink of an eye a cheetah ran out of the trees and attacked him. Ax was being sliced by the cheetah's large claws when I started to run forward and morph to wolf to help Ax.

"Ax!" I yelled, morphing to wolf.

[No Cassie,] He yelled at me, motioning for me to stay away. [You must run and free Prince Jake and the others.]

I tried to help him but he refused to let me help him saying that he didn't want me to die in his place and that Jake would not forgive him if I died in his place. No, I thought, Jake wouldn't want any of us to die, and he would not get mad at Ax if I died. That shouldn't matter, I should help him. But I ran anyway as soon as I finished morphing to wolf, I spun around and ran into the trees.

I ran for what seemed an eternity, hoping that every time I looked back to see Ax running behind me, but he never did. I ran and ran at full speed until my wolf body began to tire. I slowed down and stopped in a small meadow by some large moss covered rocks to catch my breath and demorph.

After I finished demorphing I sat on the ground leaning on a tree to catch my breath and come up with a plan.

I have to find Rachel, I thought, she might be the only one of us still out there. When I caught my breath enough to morph again I morphed to osprey and flew to Rachel's house.

I was really far from her house so it took me almost forty five minutes to get there. As I flew over her house I could see that practically the whole neighborhood was empty, still, almost frozen, with no people or cars or even animals to be seen.

I was going to demorph a few blocks away and go to her house as human but I thought that I might look a little strange walking in her house barefoot and in a skintight leotard. So I decided to land on her roof and try thought speak and see if she was there.

[Rachel?] I called out wearily. [Are you there?] Nothing, then suddenly a voice in my head spoke;

{RACHEL IS NOT HERE.}

Ellimist? I thought, where is Rachel, I need to find her and rescue the others. I need to see if she's okay.

{DO NOT WORRY, SHE IS WITH THE OTHERS. WHILE SHE IS HURT SHE IS SAFE WHERE SHE IS. SHE WILL BE FINE, DO NOT WORRY.}

What happened to everyone, where are they?

{THEY HAVE ALL BEEN CAPTURED BY DAVID, YOU MUST ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE CAPTURED AND TAKEN TO THEM.}

What are you saying? How could you want me to let myself be captured? I need to free the others.

{LISTEN TO ME, CASSIE, YOU NEED TO LET YOURSELF BE CAPTURED. I TOLD RACHEL THE SAME THING, OF COURSE SHE PROTESTED BUT SHE EVENTUALLY LET HERSELF BE CAPTURED. YOU NEED TO TRUST ME, AS WELL AS JAKE. LISTEN TO HIM AND DO AS HE SAYS.}

I don't understand, Ellimist, but if you truly think that I should let myself be captured then I will. But what were you saying about listening to Jake? Does Jake already know what's going on, did you already talk to him?

{YOU MUST GO NOW, CASSIE. THERE ARE TWO BIRDS ON THEIR WAY TO YOU NOW. YOU MUST GO WITH THEM.}

Can you at least tell me what's going on and how David is back? We left him on that island trapped in morph, how did he get his human form back?

Nothing. He didn't answer and I couldn't sense him anymore so he must have left. Great, I thought, I have no idea what's going on and I have to let some people capture me and bring me to the others and to David. Hopefully Jake, Rachel, Ax and the others are okay. I hope that Ax got away from the two cheetahs attacking him. But from how the Ellimist was talking all the others are with David.

Ellimist? I asked, are you there? Nothing, just silence throughout the neighborhood as I sat on Rachel's roof waiting to be attacked and taken to the others. Sometimes I hate being an Animorph.

From Rachel's roof I had a clear line of sight of the sky around me, so I scanned the skies with my powerful osprey vision. At first I thought it might be a little difficult knowing what morph the two people were going to use but I didn't see a single bird or animal for that matter the entire time that I was by Rachel's house until I saw two giant birds flying towards me, both several times larger than me.

The larger of the two was some kind of massive black vulture that had what to be a ten plus foot wingspan. The smaller of the two, and by smaller I mean compared to the vulture, some kind of beautiful brown and white eagle that had a wingspan of almost seven feet. While smaller, the eagle had me worried the most since it was the more dangerous of the two. The vulture ate mostly carrion so it's aerial hunting skills won't be very much.

As I watched them the eagle broke off at amazing speed and circled to get behind me as the vulture powered towards me with it's giant body, this vulture was more than two feet larger than me and had a wingspan twice the size of my own. Good thing the Ellimist's plan was for me to lose, I thought to myself and to him if he were still there, there would be no way I'd be able to win.

I lost sight of the eagle as it flew above the clouds, I flew higher and higher to be able to dive and attack if necessary when the giant vulture dove towards me, it's massive wings outstretched, blocking out the sun as it reached for me with it's huge talons.

I spiraled away from the vulture as the eagle tore through the sky like a guided missile towards me. How stupid of me, I thought, the vulture was just a distraction so the better of the two, the eagle could attack me from the back.

Whhaaammm! Aaahhhh! I screamed, as the eagle slammed into me and drove it's deadly talons into my back. The eagle shredded up my back before letting me go and dropping me a few thousand feet up in the air. I tried to flap but I couldn't feel my wings. I fell for almost a hundred feet when the massive vulture suddenly swooped down and caught me with it's talons. I tried to break free but it was pointless, besides, I thought, the Ellimist told me to get caught.

I hope you know what you're doing, Ellimist, I said to thin air as the vulture carried me into the woods.

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Fifteen minutes later the vulture dropped me in a clearing and flew off as the eagle told me to demorph, disappearing. At first I didn't want to but I realized that I should do what they said and more importantly that my two hour time limit was almost up.

I quickly demorphed to human, happy to be in a form that wasn't fighting for every last breath, happy to not be in pain anymore. I stood there in my morphing suit waiting to be told what to do when a guy dressed in very tight gym shorts and a tank top stepped out of the bushes and walked towards me. He looked to be in his twenties, really tall and muscular with spiky hair. His morphing suit was way too thin, almost see through and tight on his muscular body, as he walked I could see every muscle and everything move under his suit, and I mean everything. I tried not to look at it as it moved as he walked. He stopped a few feet in front of me and smirked, looking me up and down in my morphing suit. I could easily tell that he was staring at my chest in my skin tight and way too small leotard. I felt both furious and embarrassed as this random guy stared at my chest, smirking to himself. He stepped towards me, hand raised at my chest as I tried to step back but backed into a tree instead.

I stared at him as he stepped closer to me when he launched towards me as I jumped to the side and rolled into another tree. I was getting up trying to run away when he grabbed my arm and pulled me to him.

"Aahh!" I yelled, "Let me go."

"Not a chance, babe," He replied, laughing to himself, "David wanted you as soon as possible but I don't see why I can't have a little fun with you first." As he grabbed me by my waist and held me against his body.

"Oh god," I muttered, knowing deep down what he was about to do to me.

"Oh whats wrong? Ya nervous? Here, let me help with that." He said as he grabbed my breast in his hand, squeezing it over and over and slowly pulling off my leotard.

"Please," I pleaded, "Please stop, plea…" I begged when I was cut off by another guy pulling me and spiky haired guy apart.

"Rico!" The second guy yelled, throwing him to the ground. "What the hell are you doing? We were told to capture her and deliver her to David a little beat up, nothing more, and nothing like," He stopped for a second. "Like this." He yelled as he pointed to me, lying on the ground, arms around my chest, covering myself.

"Oh come on, man," Rico/Spiky hair said, standing up. "I's was just having a little fun, I haven't been able to do anything for the past couple weeks being cooped up in that factory. There's no harm 'n a little fun."

"You call this fun?" He almost exploded, "What you're doing to that girl is not fun, it's sickening."

"You sure you aren't just jealous, I'll let you have a turn when I'm done with her if ya want." Rico said with a smirk, stepping towards me.

"Not another step, man, I'm taking her to David, you know how he gets when he doesn't get what he wants. Besides, he wouldn't want you to do anything like this to her, you know that. You don't want David to be pissed at you do you?"

This made Rico stop and think. "You're right, I don't want my throat ripped out, and besides, he said that not all of them would die so she'll probably live so I can do what I want with her when he's done doing whatever he's doing with them." He said like this was perfectly reasonable, like what he was going to do to me was perfectly fine.

With that Rico walked into the trees and vanished from sight as the second guy walked up to me and said:

"Sorry about Rico, lady, but I do have a job to do, and David's really pissed how long it's taking to capture you."

"Wha…?" I started to ask as he grabbed my head and slammed it into the tree behind me knocking me unconscious.

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I woke up, my mind groggy and pounding. I could feel myself being dragged across the floor, I had what felt like a bag over my head. I could smell and feel the dirt and grass under my body, I could also feel leaves, so I was still in the woods, but where am I, I thought.

I was dragged for a little bit when I could feel cold, hard concrete flooring below me, and heavy metal doors opening when all of a sudden I was blinded by light when the bag was pulled off my head.

"Put her to the left of Jake." A frightening, familiar voice said as I looked around the room, my eyes adjusting to the change in light. I heard voices around me but I couldn't think straight.

"Cassie! Is that you?" A warm, familiar voice said, from beside me. Marco?

"Cassie, what did he do to you?" An angry, vengeful voice, Rachel.

[Cassie, I hoped you had gotten away.] A soft, kind voice in my head, Tobias.

[Cassie, are you alright? Can you hear us?] A formal, stoic, soundless voice, Ax. [Prince Jake, you need to wake up, Cassie is here, she is unharmed.]

"Cassie?" A defeated, fearful voice, Jake?

My eyes finally adjusted to the light, I could see the others, all chained to large, wooden pillars like me, except Tobias who was in a small metal cage. I looked to my left where Marco stood, trying to fake a smile through the blood oozing out of his mouth to make me calm. Next to him was Ax who was propped up to the pillar, his front and back legs chained together with his arms chained to the pillar, his tail was snapped, broken and bloody, a large, sturdy sheath was wrapped around his tail blade. Next to him was Tobias in his cage, Tobias looked like roadkill, he was the worst looking out of all of us.

Next to Tobias was Rachel, she had a fire in her eye that sent shivers down my spine, she was furious and ready for revenge. Next to her stood a guy who was leaning against the pillar, with a bag over his head, seemingly unconscious. I looked to my right to see Jake, his face looking at the ground, his eyes vacant, distracted, with traces of disgust and hatred. I looked at him, trying to get him to notice that I was there. When Ax told him I was here he barely even blinked and continued to stare at the floor.

"Jake," I asked him in a gentle voice, "Are you okay?" I looked at him, worried, he didn't seem to know that I was there. "Jake?"

"Don't waste your time, Cassie," Rachel said, "he hasn't moved an inch or spoke more than your name since he got here."

[Actually,] Tobias corrected, [I was the first one here and he was talking until Marco got here.]

"So you're blaming me for Jake being like this?" Marco asked, acting hurt.

"Shut up, Marco, no one wants to hear you now." Rachel said back.

[Hold on, Rachel,] Tobias said, [Jake went silent when Marco got here and David whispered something in his ear. I think that whatever David said has made Jake this way.]

[What could David say to Prince Jake that would make him silent like this?] Ax asked, I could hear the worry in his voice, whatever David had said seemed to almost break him, he was a motionless zombie standing before us, completely unaware that we were talking about him, that we were even there.

"Well what did he say, Tobias?" Rachel asked.

[I don't know,] He admitted, [Normally I'd be able to hear just fine but my mind was still groggy so I didn't hear what he said, but they didn't talk for very long.]

Then from the corner of the room a door opened with David and several others walking out.

"If you wanna know what I told your oh so precious fearless leader then I'll just tell you. Why keep you all in the dark right?"

"How the hell are you here?" Rachel demanded, "What do you want?"

"Oh come on, Rachel," David mocked, "Even your pathetic little brain should be able to figure it out."

Rachel glared at him, he simply laughed, he had us beaten, he had taken all of us down, we were all chained to pillars, surrounded by several morph capable people, we were at his mercy.

"Isn't it obvious?" He went on, "I want revenge, for what you all did to me."

"And what?" Rachel shot back, "You couldn't do it yourself so you had to get people to do your dirty work."

"Actually, a friend of yours sent them to me to help me get my revenge."

"Who are you talking about, Visser Three?" Marco asked.

"That idiot, no way, I did what he couldn't do in almost five years in just a few days, I defeated the 'Andalite Bandits'."

"Then who?" I asked, trying to sound calm but my heart was pounding as my mind was already thinking of an answer, if the Ellimist is involved then there's only one person who could have done this.

"The Crayak, of course. Turns out he hates you as much as I do, so we struck a deal, that he would give me my ability to morph again and send me some guys to help me destroy you since he can't directly do anything to you."

"So what now?" Rachel asked, "You gonna kill us already or are we going to have to listen to you gloat and brag on and on?" Rachel was trying to sound calm, unafraid, but I could tell that she was as afraid as I was, she just was better at hiding it.

"Therein lies the best and worst part of this deal, The Ellimist would only let one of you die, but," He paused for effect, he was loving this. "Here's the best part, your so called fearless leader over there has to decide who dies, then he has to kill that person, only at that point will the others be allowed to go free." David said with a laugh and a smile, "That's why he hasn't said a word, I told him earlier and warned him that if he said anything that I'd kill all of you before his eyes."

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To be continued. Next chapter should release within about a week.

Thanks for reading, if you like it or have any thoughts or comments please leave a comment.