Chapter 27

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We were out of our league, and we all knew it.

We needed the brains, the leaders... the ones who knew what to do, and where to go in a crisis... we're all missing.

The only two of us who had even half a clue was Mihra and Splinter. But Splinter was out of his element, and Mihra seemed to only half understand what was going on. Then again, she was only very new to the Yeerks and their form of technology.

We set up a small campfire, deciding to try and get a couple of hours rest. Splinter and Raph had decided to take the first watch, the rest of us laying down on the dirt to try and get some sleep, using whatever we could as pillows.

I didn't know about anyone else, but I knew I wouldn't rest. So I just lay there, head on my jacket for a pillow, shivering a little as I looked out into the dark night, my back to the fire.

The worst part was, we had no way to get in contact with the Animorphs. Of all the times to leave my communicator at the lair... it had to be the night where everything had just hit the fan. I kept silently cursing myself, knowing if I hadn't, we could have at least called them and gotten their help...

I wondered where Ithiell and the others where now. Were they okay? Were they hurt?

Oh Donnie...

If something happened to him, or to me now, I'd never forgive myself for leaving it like I had. Walking away from him like I did...

Then again, if I hadn't... would we even be alive now?

Was he alive? Or-

I felt a lump form in my throat, and tears spring to my eyes, going to quickly try and wipe them away. Unconsciously, I let out a sniffling sound, hoping no one else had heard that. I knew Rachel and-

"Jade?" There was suddenly a hand on my arm, and I looked up to see Splinter there, a wary smile on his face. He let go of me as I sat up, trying to wipe my tears away with the sleeve of my shirt.

"Sorry Splinter" I managed to get out, curling my legs against my chest and resting my chin on my knees "Didn't mean to-"

"Of course not, child" He smiled again, his eyes now sad. He must have been more worried than I was about his sons.

"Donnie and I had a fight" I finally admitted, and we both turned our attention back to the trees around us.

"And this is troubling you?"

I nodded.

"Jade, you must have trust in what you have built with Donatello. You have both seen the worst of one another, yet have always risen above it. This I have seen" He smiled at me.

"But what if I never see him again?" I felt tears prick my eyelids again "What if I never-"

"Donatello knows how you feel. And you will see him again, soon. Do not give up on him or the others. They are all resourceful in their own right"

I knew he was right, but I still couldn't help but worry.

We fell into silence, and I soon felt another presence on my other side, looking up to see Raph.

He let me lean my head on his shoulder a little, the three of us sitting quietly until it was time to change shifts.

Since I knew I wasn't going to be sleeping, I offered to take Mikey's place, and Serah was woken up to take her shift.

We both sat in silence for a little while, me shifting my ears and eyes, listening and watching for anything unusual.

Eventually I heard her get up, coming over to sit beside me.

"Hey" She said slowly, and I turned to look at her, seeing a little bit of surprise on her face.

"Hey" I replied, watching as she went to move to touch my cat ears, then deciding against it.

"That's amazing"

"Not really" I smirked a little then, looking away "Then again, I've had eight years of practice"

"I really want to learn"

"Maybe when we're not running and fighting for our lives" I told her, my eyes trained back into the darkness.

"I know... just..."

I looked at her again.

"I never thought you would... I mean, I knew you were a tomboy, and gawd some of the things you wear are-" She stopped when I raised an eyebrow at her.

When I didn't say anything, she slowly continued.

"I never in my life thought I'd be running from... well, aliens. And that I am somehow this half breed who can somehow change shape but... I don't know how"

She suddenly turned away, tears in her eyes.

"Serah?" I put a hand on her shoulder, and she turned back to me.

"I... I'm worried about my dad. And my brothers. I mean... they're now... I mean... they're controllers now, aren't they?"

"Yes" A new voice, and we turned to see Kristiana sit down next to us, seeming to have a little difficulty.

"Did we wake you?" I asked, catching a strange look from her, before she shook her head. She must have been looking at my changes...

"Serah, I..." She stopped, and now we both looked at her. It looked like she was worried.

"Kristiana?"

"I was the one who helped put the Yeerk into your father's head"

Serah shook her head "No"

"And I... held your brother down as he..."

"No" Serah repeated.

"Serah, I-"

"Now you listen here girly" Serah pointed at her "You.. did not do that"

"Serah, I tried-"

"You did not do that. That slimy excuse for an alien did. And don't you dare go blaming yourself for something that you had no control over"

Kristiana looked purely shocked. She opened her mouth, as if to say something, but nothing came out.

"She's right you know" Rachel was now there, sitting on the other side of Kristiana.

"You have no control over your own actions. You can't move, can't speak, you're stuck in the-" Rachel suddenly stopped when she saw that Serah was now crying, tears streaking down her cheeks as she put her head in her hands.

Kristiana and I both moved to hug her, each of us putting an arm around her.

"That's...that's what they're going through?" She asked through a sob, and Kristiana sighed.

"I'm sorry, but it's true. You have no idea how hard I tried to fight when I was... how much I just wanted to scream and tell you guys that I was here... to tell you to run away from that Sharing meeting..."

"Oh dad!" She broke down, wrapping her arms around her legs and curling into a ball. I saw Rachel move, going to sit in front of her, hands on her shoulders.

Kristiana suddenly looked at me, and I blinked.

"Jade, I am so sorry. I really tried to stop her, when you went for the window. I am so glad you got out... but when we... well, you and her... fought, I couldn't stop her. I just-"

"No. Serah has a point. You weren't in control of yourself. If anything I should be saying to you... I mean, I almost-"

I found I couldn't finish the sentence, reliving that moment when I was prepared to drive a dagger into my friends head. It was one of the many things I'd done that would haunt me for the rest of my life.

"All right, no more. You're sorry, she's sorry, we're all sorry, now let's move on" Rachel looked at each of us, then moved forward, pulling Serah's head up. Her face was all red from crying.

"We'll get your family back, I promise. And we're going to kick Yeerk butt while we're at it"

"Sounds like a good plan" Kristiana piped up, then looked a little sheepish "I'm sure I'll find some way to be helpful"

"I'm sure there is a lot you could probably help us with" I smiled at her, then squeezed Serah's shoulder "And you, we'll have to teach you a few tricks to keep you alive"

She let out a weird little snort, which reminded me of Donnie a little.

"Yeah, otherwise I'll be pretty useless against... whoever you said she was? Fishy something?"

"Visser One" Kristiana corrected.

She frowned, then "I really hope Ithiell is okay. He's actually really kinda nice when you get to know him"

I smirked a little "Yeah, that he is"

The mention of his name made me wonder how he was. I was surprised how quickly we'd lost contact with them. I thought he'd know that we'd eventually find the-

"There's gotta be something" I muttered, and the other girls turned to me.

"Uh, Jade?" I looked up, seeing Rachel giving me a weird stare.

"Ithiell wouldn't have left the fighter without some kind of clue as to where he was going or... without some way to contact him" My head was now spinning with ideas and thoughts and wondering...

"Jade, what are you thinking?" Serah was now giving me the same look Rachel had. In fact, so was Kristiana.

Not creepy at all.

"I'm thinking we need to go back to the fighter"

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So, the decision was made that me and Rachel would go back. Me, because I knew Ithiell probably the best out of all of us, and Rachel because I knew she could bring the firepower if we needed it.

The rest were to stay at the campfire, and keep watch while we were gone. All of us were hoping what we were about to do, wasn't going to stir up a hornets nest... or, Controllers nest. We still didn't know how they could track us... or even who they were tracking. Was it the shifters, or the turtles? Or both?

Those kinds of questions went through my mind as we flew above the dark treeline, a gentle rain starting to roll in and making it slightly harder for us to search. I heard the sounds of thunder far off, knowing it was gong to get alot harder if we didn't find the wreckage of the fighter soon.

I just hoped I was right, and this trip wasn't for nothing. I was hoping if he hadn't left a clue, we could at least try and salvage some of the tech from the wreckage, and see if Mihra could do something with it. If not...

(I think I see it!) Rachel's voice brought me back to the present, and I looked around with my sharp owl eyes, spotting the familiar hull of the fighter.

We both landed near it, seeing the rain had put out the fires in it, still seeing some of the wires snapping occasionally. From what I could tell though, most of the power from it had drained. Which was probably good for us.

(Looks clear) She said, and I felt the rain start to hit my feathers a little harder, closing my eyes and starting to shift back. We hadn't seen anyone around... must have thought it would be abandoned and moved on.

"We better hurry" I told her, seeing her nod and turning to go inside the fighter.

We avoided the still snapping cable above the door, managing to get into a slightly less rainy interior.

The roof itself was still dripping heavily as we looked around in the darkness.

"How are we meant to find anything" Rachel muttered, as I reached out in the darkness, finding the console where Ithiell stood to fly it.

He was here not long ago...

"There should be a..." I felt along the console, then towards the wall, almost bumping into Rachel as I did, feeling for a small indent in the wall.

"Got it" I pushed it inwards, feeling the little compartment open up, feeling around inside it and grabbing what I hoped was the small torches Ithiell kept in here.

I grabbed one, holding it out in front of me and pushing the little button on it, seeing a steady beam of light hit the wall across from me.

I grabbed another one, handing it to Rachel and seeing her click it on as well.

"Okay, now what?" She asked, shining her light around.

I turned back to the little compartment, looking inside it.

What I found in there actually made me smile.

"Here" I reached in, grabbing the small dagger that Donnie had given me, as well as my watch/communicator. How did he know I didn't have it?

I shone the light on the communicator, realising this actually wasn't mine, but it looked very similar. He must have made a second one at some point...

I tried to tap it, finding nothing happened and frowning.

"Odd" Rachel was beside me, looking down at it as well.

"Yeah. Maybe he didn't finish it or something" I turned it over, not really seeing anything wrong with it, but that didn't mean there wasn't some tiny minuscule problem with it that the normal people of the world wouldn't notice.

"Let's keep looking, maybe there's something else" Rachel started to move away, and I followed her, shoving the dagger in my belt. Maybe Donnie had it with him when he went looking for me...

It was another thing I couldn't work out, but I was glad I now had some way of defending myself if I needed to.

We slowly started to search the wreckage, trying to avoid the water spilling down in random places. My hair was already matted to my head though, my clothes soaked through. I couldn't imagine how cold Rachel must have felt in her morphing outfit...

I didn't know how, if it was fate or just dumb luck, but I was lifting my little torch to look around, when my light landed on what looked like writing, scratched into a panel up high above my head, almost at the roof.

"What... the..." Was all I could get out, seeing Rachel's light shine in my direction, then pointing up to where I was looking.

"What in the world does that mean?"

Search High, Search Low, Where We Go, Only You Know It read, and I frowned a little. This was meant to be a clue?

What the-

"I don't get it" Rachel looked at me, and I shrugged.

"I don't-"

Snap!

Crunching outside had us instantly alert. I turned to Rachel, clicking the torch off and indicating she turn hers off as well, but she was already thinking the same thing.

We both pressed ourselves against the walls, hearing what sounded like two pairs of footsteps over the rain, heading towards the open door.

As quietly as we could, we crept along the wall, towards the door. I took that moment to slip the dagger out from it's sheath, holding it at the ready. I could almost feel Rachel start to grow, hoping she didn't go anything too big in this still small space.

In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the was suddenly a figure stepping through the doorway, starting to stand up as they avoided the snapping wire.

Instantly I was up, knocking the figure down and yelling as I raised the dagger high.

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