Chapter 14

While they weren't as solid or as well built as the base under the Pond, the camp still had a series of tunnels running underneath the grounds. Mostly used for the actors that were supposed to be hired as various goblins and ghosts and stalkers for the camp's horror theme, the underground tunnels not only led to various hidden exits, in order to maintain the illusion, but interspersed with these exits were a few small changing rooms, and well as two large break rooms meant for the actors to rest up until it was time to pop up out a bush and spook a child. And, while they were still a bit dusty in some areas, the two break rooms were intact enough, and the tunnels were still functional, and Tanya was certain they weren't going to collapse on anyone's head.

And Tanya point blank refused to sleep anywhere near Decoy. Or let her sleep near any of the computers she was working with. So, the woman was banished to the closest break room. And, while she still was wary of the other duck, Tanya at the very least helped clean up the break room and set Decoy up with another spare cot that she could use. The break room was just big enough for a small table with four chairs, two of these chairs were chucked out to be replaced with the cot, and there was a bathroom just a few steps down the hall. Granted there was no shower, if any of them wanted to shower they would have to go up and slip into the camp's communal shower, but at the very least Decoy would have the bare minimum of home comforts. Tanya might have felt bad if it were anyone else. And if she and Eva weren't in the same situation. The fact that the main computer room had the added amenity of a refrigerator, and a microwave was only because Tanya was sure it was meant to be the main break area, and these other two were just meant for the actors to have a place to sit and chat before work.

"So, out of curiosity, how many human tribes are there?" Decoy asked almost innocently. "That robot canine mentioned something about world leaders? As in more than one?"

Tanya shrugged. "Yeah, there's a lot of human nations." She turned her head to not look at Decoy, even though she could feel the woman's eyes on her. "We're in what's called the United States of America. Sometimes they just call it America, even though there's two Americas and another nation to the north of us called Canada."

"What's an America then?" Decoy asked.

"The continent names. We're on the north one, so this is North America, and the one south is called…well, you can guess."

"East America?" Decoy chuckled and Tanya shot her a glare. Decoy gave her a smirk. "Made you look." Tanya sighed at her and turned away to focus on getting the stupid cot set up. She could feel Rachel and Marco helping get the chairs away, although she was sure that Rachel was lingering around just in case a large grizzly was needed.

Decoy sort of sauntered over, and Tanya resisted the urge to…well there were several urges. Punching her, or at least shouldering her away. Screaming at her again. Maybe calling in that bear. She settled for glaring down at the cot and ignoring Decoy as she leaned in close, the traitor's shoulder an inch from Tanya's own.

"At the very least you aren't wearing those things anymore. You look so much better with your real eyes, you know that." Decoy reached around and wrapped her arm around Tanya's shoulders. "Do I have your duck teammates to thank for that? If I do, I'll be sure to play nice next time." She leaned in closer. "But that can't be it, can it? You were wearing them when I saw you last."

Tanya pulled away with a shake of ruffled feathers. "Get away from me." She elbowed at Decoy but missed as the woman stepped back. "I lost them when I first morphed, you can't morph anything but skintight clothing."

Decoy still smirked. "Well, that explains a few things. Still, I stand by what I said." She leaned back against the wall. "The glasses were a nice touch, I admit, but you're much better looking with your real eyes."

"To bad for you I have no interest in your fashion advice." Tanya finally looked back at her with a glare.

"Well, you should. You have very little fashion sense and we both know it." Decoy shook her head. "Maybe we should ask the blonde monkey, she looked like the best put together of your little circus."

Rachel leaned her head around the door frame, giving Decoy a strange look. It was as if the pride she had in her sense of fashion was warring with her natural dislike of Decoy. Finally, fashion seemed to win out as she glanced over at Tanya and shrugged. "I hate to agree with her, but she's kinda right. The glasses were a decent choice, but if you're going for eye changing lenses you could have picked something a little more interesting looking."

"The entire point was to blend in, not look interesting." Tanya gritted her teeth.

"Yeah, maybe, but who wants to blend in when you can stand out?" Rachel said. Tanya sighed and reminded herself that Rachel didn't know about…things.

But whose fault was that?

"And at the very least you aren't forcing your eyes to dilate all the time." Decoy's own gaze narrowed at Tanya. "Tell me, how are your eyes feeling these days?"

"My eyes are fine; will you stop harping on about this?" Tanya said, her tone clipped and growing more stressed.

Rachel looked from one woman to the other. "What's she talking about?"

"Oh, you didn't tell them?" Decoy's expression changed to one of mock surprise. "Did you tell any of them, or did you miss that little detail?"

"It's not a problem, would you just drop it." Tanya folded her arms. "I thought you wanted to talk about human nations."

"Actually, I was just trying to get you to talk to me about anything, instead of ignoring me." Decoy frowned at her. "I'm not going away anytime soon."

"I get that. Not at least until you've gotten what you want." Tanya snarled, then breathed in a sharp inhale as Decoy crossed the distance between them and grabbed her by the shoulders. Decoy was shorter than Tanya but had always been more forceful and stronger. She pulled on Tanya's shoulders, forcing them closer until their beaks were almost touching. A part of her wanted to smack Decoy away, but for some reason she couldn't get her hands to obey her.

"You really think you know what I want? What if I already have it?" Decoy asked, confusing Tanya to no end.

"Then you have no reason to be here." Tanya replied.

"What if being here is what I want?"

Tanya growled and finally brought her arms up to push Decoy back. "Stop it, that doesn't work on me. I'm not some idiot male you can manipulate."

Decoy laughed and allowed herself to be pushed. "True. At the very least you do better than your duck teammates." She shot Rachel a grin, who was frowning at the two in sheer confusion. "And the monkeys are a lot more sensible at least."

"If you think by constantly insulting both my teams to my face is going to endear me to you, you're so far into your delusions I'm starting to think I need to commit you instead of just finding a nice cell for you." Tanya backed away a step. For a moment she though she saw a flash of hurt in Decoy's expression before the woman was back to teasingly smirking at her.

"I was hoping I'd get a commitment sooner or later."

Tanya breathed in exasperation. "Okay, that's it. Finish the room yourself, I need to get out of here." She brushed past Rachel, who still looked very confused.

For a moment Rachel watched Tanya stride away, before raising an eyebrow at Decoy, who had sat down on the cot, the smirk still on her beak but wavering slightly. The woman looked at Rachel and took a deep breath.

"You should ask her more questions about the things duck do to people like us. She can't keep up the excuses forever."

"What are you talking about?" Rachel glared back.

"Look, you might think I'm a liar, and to be honest I'm good at it, but there's no reason to lie when the truth is so much worse."

"Uh-huh, and you could tell me what you're dancing around at any time, you know?" Rachel said, the urge to morph bubbling under her irritation.

"True." Decoy's spine seemed to collapse as she hunched forwards, slumping as if the weight of something weighing her down had suddenly hit and briefly cracked the mask she seemed to wear in front of others. "But it's really not my secret to tell."

Rachel scoffed and turned away. "If I were you, I wouldn't go after her right now. If you get hungry for dinner, ask Eva. I don't think Tanya wants to talk to you again for a while." She marched away after her friend, deciding that Decoy wasn't worth her time.

Decoy listened to Rachel's retreating footsteps, then, she seemed to collapse even further, her hands meeting her face as she hunched even further within herself.

Sleep did not come easy that night. Not only did she have to worry about the traitor lurking just down the hall in the dark within easy reach of her, but the next mission seemed especially important this time. Oatmeal she could sort of laugh about. It was funny, if the effects on the Yeerk's bodies weren't so horrific, but the thought of several human national leaders with Yeerks in their brains was a terrifying thought. If it had only been, say, the American president that would be bad, but from what Tanya understood the American government had several checks and balances to it. Sure, he could do damage, but at the very least he had two other branches of government to keep him in line. Although Tanya didn't quite understand their government, it seemed needlessly complicated, she knew that it wasn't as bad as it would have been if this leader could do anything he wanted.

Like launch nukes at whoever the Yeerks wanted them to be launched at.

But having multiple tribal leaders Controllers, especially since she knew those others also had nuclear weapons, and with some leaders with more control over their government than the president, well, who knew exactly what damage the humans could do?

Why in the world were so many human tribes just sitting on nuclear weapons anyway? She had no idea. There was a reason she had mostly given up trying to understand humans. Sometimes they acted like rational normal people but then suddenly some monkey gene must activate that demanded they fling things at each other and screech like idiots.

And, to add a cherry to the nightmare sundae, she was back in the frozen ballroom she had seen when she had briefly visited the land of the dead.

Wonderful.

"You know, Mother is going about this all the wrong way. I keep telling her that she can't just walk up to people and demand they listen to her, but I guess when you've spent thousands of years having your tail kissed by a pack of sycophants you tend to forget that people will say 'no.'"

Tanya tensed and turned to look up at the shadow form from before. The male spirit was still mostly indistinct, a shimmering black outline that was vaguely Saurian, the only feature that really stood out were the red slitted eyes and the antlers. Tanya pushed down her instinctive dislike of the thing and took a breath.

"…are you Northen Breeze?" She asked.

The creature blinked at her, then burst out laughing. "You…is that why you were so scared of me before? You think I'm Breezy?" The creature lifted a hand and rubbed its head. "Hahaha, when you mentioned my name to your hatchlings I thought for sure you guessed who I am, but I suppose not!"

"Ummm, no. I mentioned Polar Frost because…ya know the stories are kinda…tied together. And…well you don't seem evil, but then you mentioned that stuff about Drake Ducaine and now I'm not sure who you are. But…you're Polar Frost?"

"Of course! Those stories must be more ridiculous than I thought, if you can mix me and Breezy up!" The creature, Polar Frost, lifted a claw and showered the ground with icy snowflakes. Soon, a form began to emerge from the gathering flakes, the snow forming a snow lizard image of the legendary villain. Tanya blinked in surprise when Polar Frost lowered his claw. The snow lizard before them stood a good head below Polar Frost, even with the antlers the two shared. While Polar Frost was big and bulky, Northern Breeze was thin and tiny, even shorter than Polar Vortex. The snow depicted a creature that seemed mostly Saurian aside from the feathers that sprouted from its arms and legs and encircled its throat like a fancy necklace, even the face was more like a Saurian's snout without a hint of a beak, the only duck feature were the feathers. Still, there was something soft about the image before her. Rather than the horrifying, huge monster depicted in duck stories and movies, this thing was almost harmless looking.

"Northern Breeze was a thinker. A dreamer." Polar Frost said, gazing at the image in an almost sad way. "He could barely lift a claw in his own defense. He was sweet. Mild…weak." Polar Frost shook his head. "He was a lot like you, in some ways. He liked machines too. Couldn't lift a sword and never practiced magic like he should have…but he made a bunch of twisted metal and wood fly once."

"Nice to know that even now, I'm being judged by a Saurian for being weak." Tanya scoffed, and Polar Frost snapped his gaze back to her.

"That's not what I mean. I was talking about the machines. I'm your ancestor, not him, but you have the same fascination with technology that he had. I, on the other claw." Polar Frost lifted his claw again, snow circle around the shadow digits, "Have learned quite a bit of magic after I died."

Tanya's feathers ruffled at the sight of it. She tensed. "What do you want from me?"

"Me? Mostly what my mother wants. For you to survive, to thrive. To save our kin from their fate. To gain your trust and help you."

"And what do you get out of helping me?"

"Are you not paying attention?" Polar Frost snarled. "Whatever lies you've been told about us, we care about our kin. I can do nothing now, even less than my mother. I'm dead. I can never come back, nor would I want to. Necromancy sucks, and I've had enough of being used. I want to help you because you and I share something you haven't considered."

"And what could we possibly have in common?"

"Something my mother could never really understand. How often were you told that your Saurian blood made you a monster? How often were you told that you would turn on the ones you cared about one day? That no duck team could ever truly be safe around you because you could snap at any point? How often were you told to be ashamed of what and who you are?"

Tanya winched, trying to not to listen to the tiny voice in her memory that echoed every word that Polar Frost said. A voice that sounded so much like General McMallard.

"My mother loved me, tried to encourage me, but I admired Ducaine so much…I should have listened to her from the start. Don't make my mistake. I can show you the magic I learned after I died. I, and Mother, can make you stronger. With it you can protect your humans and save your ducks and reunite with your clutch. You can break the magic around our home and free our kin."

Tanya took a step back. "Magic, like Wraith. No way. You said it yourself, I'm a scientist. I don't do magic, especially not Saurian magic. Not like him." She could live with the magical alternative Anaheim's magical nature, and the young elflike man they had met. It wasn't her place to judge the methods of an entire dimension. But that magic hadn't been Saurian magic and no one had excepted her to use it. The closest they had come to using that universe's magic was the sword Duke used, but a sword wasn't the same as the methods used by an evil Saurian warlock.

"You aren't him. I know you won't use this for evil. You're so afraid of becoming a Saurian you've pushed that side of yourself into so deep a hole that I'm honestly afraid I won't be able to draw it out of you, no matter how much I want to try. Ducks struggle with magic and you'll need to tap into your Saurian half to bring it out anyway."

"No way!" Tanya shouted.

"Even if it could protect your friends? Even if it could save your team? I can teach you a ward right now, this very night, that will alert you if your clutchmate goes behind your back and touches your computers! You could know the instant she turns on you! It's not all fireballs and mind control!"

"I won't be like a Saurian!" Tanya bellowed.

"You must! It will help you! It could save you!"

"I won't be like -her-!"

There was a long, silence. Somehow, Polar Frost had crossed the distance between them, claws stretched out to her like a drowning man desperate to grab a lifeline. Or, perhaps, like someone on the shore reaching for someone they know is drowning. There was a quiet, almost helpless desperation in the shadowy monster's gaze, and if Tanya weren't so horrified she might have been concerned about him.

"You can't…I won't…I can't." She stuttered, and Polar Frost dropped his claws.

"Once, long ago, I thought the same as you. Different details, but I thought much the same. I thought I had to prove that I wasn't a freak, that I could suppress the dragon within and be a good little duck…" His gaze seemed far away. "Like Ducaine wanted me to be. I stuffed it down deep until suddenly I was the weak, mild one, and Breezy was the stronger…and then…Ducaine…" Polar Frost's voice broke as he shook his head. "I couldn't stop him."

She didn't want to hear this, didn't want to hear what the duck's greatest hero, their savior, might have done to summon this level of sorrow and grief to her ancestor, but something in the almost helpless way he looked around the frozen ballroom prompted her beak to open and ask. "What did he do?"

Polar Frost gazed at her. "You won't believe it."

Tanya stepped a bit closer. Now they were almost snout to beak. "Try me."

"Let's just say, that Drake Ducaine loved his people. He would have done anything for them. He loved them so much he would die for them. You'd do the same, wouldn't you, for your teams?"

"In a heartbeat."

"So, would I. But here is the question." Polar Frost closed his eyes. "How many times can you kill for them before that becomes more important than dying for them?"

Tanya blinked at him. She remembered how often Ax spoke of Yeerks with nothing but hate in his heart. How often he said that the Yeerks were just enemies to be killed. But…no, no. Drake Ducaine was a hero. He couldn't be like Polar Frost was implying.

"There must be a mistake…"

Polar Frost chuckled. "At least you aren't calling me a liar…yet." He sighed. "I can do something else for you. I won't make you promise to do anything for me in return. No strings attached. If I must prove I'm trustworthy, I will."

"And what could you possibly do that- "

Polar Frost snapped his fingers and the scene shifted from the icy ballroom to what looked like a mountaintop back home. Just as cold and snowy as the ballroom but bright and shining and somehow much warmer, Tanya at first had no idea why her strange ancestor had brought her here. She was even more confused when Polar Frost leaned forwards and whispered in her ear.

"Just call me Grandpa, if you wish."

"Tanya!"

Tanya jerked at the familiar voice and turned around, barely noticing that her ancestor had somehow grown even more indistinct, the shadows blurring until only his eyes were recognizable, the outline of his snout and antlers fading until he might have worn any type of face or had any kind of horns on his head. He still gave the impression of a huge frame, but that frame was more shadow now than it had ever been before.

But that hardly mattered to her anymore. Because right behind her, beneath a tree that he clearly had been meditating under, stood Grin. His eyes were wide as he stared at her, his normally unflappable demeanor gone for now.

She gapped and shook her head. She glanced behind her and glared at her ancestor. "How?"

He snapped his fingers again. "Magic."

Grin crossed the distance between them, placing a hand on her shoulder as he stared down at her. Slowly, a soft smile formed on Grin's face. "You're here…how. I've never known you to mediate. Your mind is far too busy."

Tanya again looked up at Polar Frost, who bowed to Grin. "Hello. Evil Saurian ancestor here. Nice to meet her teammate."

Grin eyed the shadowy form up and down before giving Polar Frost his own polite bow. "Saurian or Scaleborn, if you are her family, you can't be all bad." He frowned at the shadowy figure. "But this is dangerous. I can keep the Yeerk at bay, but this is still a risk."

"I can help shield your mind. I am not sure if I could do much for the others, unfortunately. Ducks don't take to magic that well. That Duke fellow, maybe, but it would be far risker. I tried you first because duck mysticism is the closest you can come to magic, and your mind is already shielded from the Yeerk. As much as it would be a comfort to the rest of you, the moment you all woke up the Yeerks would know everything about this conversation."

Grin nodded. "I understand. At the very least, we can do this much." He looked at Tanya and placed a hand on her shoulder, giving her a reassuring squeeze. "I won't ask about your Andalites or what they are doing, just in case. But I must ask. Are they treating you well? The Yeerks like to tell us how awful Andalites are, and we have no way to confirm or deny their claims. Are you going to be okay?"

Tanya blinked. A part of her wanted to tell Grin everything about the Animorphs. She wanted to pour everything out to the friend she hadn't seen for months. But, she knew, that if she did and the Yeerk managed to break into Grin's mind that it would know everything about the humans. The thought of them being taken by the Yeerks was just as horrifying as the reminder that her original team was still trapped. It was a reminder that she still had to be cautious, that she had to keep what she knew about the Animorphs a secret. At least for now

So, she nodded. "Andalites can be, well, they can be a bit arrogant and a bit rude, but they aren't bad people. Suck at hockey with the hooves and all, but we have one that's learning how to knock a puck around with his tail, one of the younger ones. They're…not as friendly as humans, but…" She sighed. "I like them."

Grin nodded and pulled her in for a friendly hug. "You have two teams now. Congratulations. You and I will always be Mighty Ducks, but the Bandits are lucky to have you as well. I hope they know that."

She nodded, unable to say much more through the lump forming in her throat.

Grin was never a huge talker, or at least when he did talk it was usually to say something that Tanya couldn't understand. Neither of them could really understand the other's skill set. Grin's was too abstract and esoteric while Tanya's was to technical. However, Grin took some pleasure in telling her a bit more of what the Yeerks were up to, and Tanya was able to talk about a few things she had experienced since she last saw them all free. It was a slow, short conversation in the matter of word count, but a long one in terms of the actual time spent talking.

All the while, Polar Frost stood nearby, watching silently and occasionally waving a frosty claw around the area. Possibly doing something magical to keep Grin's mind reinforced.

Finally, Tanya frowned at her ancestor. "Are you okay with him doing that? Pretty sure he doing some magic over there. Was all he could talk about before."

Grin shrugged. "If it can help keep the Yeerk out, I am fine with it." He sighed. "It has been…difficult. The Yeerk doesn't feed on the same day the others do. They have managed to have conversations with each other, but I have yet to be able to reach out to them. The Yeerks are…cautious because they know I am the strongest, and they don't want me to help the others break out."

Tanya snarled. She had known about that. Erek told her but hearing it from Grin himself almost broke her heart. Sure, Grin was quiet and loved his privacy, but being forced to be alone with only an evil space slug in your head for months was a form of torture. Solitary confinement was bad enough. She had no idea if having your captor be the only one you could talk to was worse, but she could bet it wouldn't be any better.

"Perhaps you can help us settle an argument?" Polar Frost lowered his claws and stared at the two. "I've been using the wards I mentioned to you before, granddaughter, and I can show you how to do them. I can show you even more if you let me. If you continue to insist on suppressing your Saurian half, I can still at least show you basic spells. Any edge you can get, you should take, shouldn't you?" Polar Frost stared at Grin.

Grin inhaled a deep breath and turned to Tanya. "He can teach your Saurian magic?"

Tanya growled. "That's what he said, but I'm not going to do it. I won't be like fro…ah, like Wraith. I'm not…I'm -not- a Saurian, Grin."

Grin stared at her for a long time. So long that Tanya was certain he had caught that almost slip and was going to ask her about it. But instead, he turned to the mountains surrounding them and nodded.

"We have something in common you know?" he asked.

"Uhhhh, what?" She blinked.

"Not exactly. I would never say that my struggles are exactly like yours. I'm not a Scaleborn, I have no idea what it's like to be you. I can emphasize as much as I can, but I can never truly know. But yet, there is something I think I we share." He closed his eyes and took a deep calming breath.

"I told everyone the story of how I became the hockey player I am today." He continued. "You and Duke I told later, but I wanted everyone to know about that battle. What I never told any of you was how alone I was."

She blinked. "A-alone?"

"I used my strength to push people away, as I was pushing them around to make myself feel bigger. But, when I returned from my lessons on this very mountain, no one could know how I had changed. How the lessons I learned here shaped the boy I was into the man I am now. All they could remember is the bully who hurt them and abused them. It didn't matter how often I tried to make amends, no matter how much I changed, they could never see it. How could I blame them, though? I did so much harm. For me to come back as I am…I can guess what they must have thought. Perhaps I scared them. Perhaps they thought I was playing a cruel joke on them. Maybe they were scared that my lessons had somehow brainwashed me. But, while everyone was very polite about it, it was clear that I was not welcome among them." Grin sighed and shook his head. "The strength I have I used as a tool to hurt, and in the end the one hurt the most was myself."

"Grin…" Tanya's mind raced for something to say, but nothing came out.

Grin smiled. "I met all of you, and for the first time I had a team that saw who I was, rather than what I had been. I have dedicated my life to using that same strength that hurt so many to protect many more. I might never earn their forgiveness, but perhaps if I dedicate myself to defending those I would have preyed upon before, I might find peace."

"…you always seem peaceful to me." Tanya said.

His smile grew melancholy, or perhaps it had always been, and she was only just now seeing it. "I've had a lot of practice." Then, he frowned, very slightly. "Tanya, I can see myself in Siege every time I fight."

She jerked and shook her head. "But, no! You can't think like that, you're not even Scaleborn! You're nothing like a Saurian!"

"But I was, before. I told you. I used my strength to hurt the weak and helpless, like Siege does. Perhaps it was not as harmful back then, but I was also a very young boy. If I hadn't learned inner peace and patience, if I hadn't learned the true way of hockey, I would be just like him now. A bully, and a cruel tyrant. Tyrants don't just rule cities and conquer planets. Some tyrants are just petty, pathetic bullies who live to hurt others. I was once that, and I can see it in Siege every time we cross paths in battle." Grin was once again staring out into the mountains, eyes far away. "I am not like him, not because I am a duck. If that were true, I would never had needed to come here. I am not like him because I choose not to be. Because I chose to change, to follow the path my Master showed me. That was my choice, and to say I chose it because I'm a duck and not a Saurian is a lie." Finally, he looked back down at Tanya. "You are one of the smartest people I know, but there is something you must understand. Your bloodline doesn't determine the choices you make. You can use your brain to make weapons. I've seen what you can do with the Migrator and the Aerowing. You could blow up an entire planet if I gave you a day to figure it out. Am I wrong?"

Tanya shuddered. She could. She knew she could. It wouldn't even be hard. The possibilities were almost endless. The thought of what she could do with a few easily stolen components and no one to stop her sickened her. But she knew it was possible.

"You can cause just as much damage with a bomb as you can with Saurian magic. But you would never make such a weapon. If you were to accept your ancestor's offer, you would never suddenly turn into a Saurian like Wraith. You would simply be you, with just another tool at your disposal." He smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in for another friendly side hug. "I trust you. We all do. Even if you came teleporting into the Pond with a fireball and a legion of angry Andalites, we would trust you."

Tanya sighed. "Just that simple, huh?"

"It is." Grin nodded. "Ask your Andalites when you wake up. I would bet they would say the same."

She chuckled. "Ya know, you're probably right."

"If they know you half as well as we do, then I know they will."

Of course, Grin had no way of knowing that the Andalites he thought that Tanya had joined were, in fact, mostly underage humans and only a single Andalite, but for some reason she doubted he would have given different advice had he known.

And it wasn't like she was completely devoid of other adults to talk to. Granted she had no desire to talk about Saurian magic or Saurian ghosts in front of Decoy. Knowing her she'd either be all for Tanya learning how to use it or be insanely jealous of her. Probably both. So, Tanya would have to wait to talk to anyone about last night's little midnight discussion.

For the moment, however, she had to deal with the fact that she and Decoy were glaring at each other over a box of some manner of cereal, something that Marco had snatched that involved sugar and vaguely corn related flakes. Marco himself was not present, still at school with the rest of the Animorphs, although Tobias and Ax were dropping by to take a fly over to the hotel where the conference was taking place.

For a moment the two stared at each other. Tanya had gotten to the cereal first and still had a grip on the box and was eyeing her old 'friend' as the other hen glared at her and the box. For a moment Tanya was certain that Decoy was going to snatch the box away from her without asking, even though she would have put it down (if only the traitor would stop glaring at her as if she was offended what the hell was her problem was she really going to start a fight over a box of alien food?). However, in the end Decoy sort of scoffed at her and went to dig through the fridge.

Eva looked over from where she was reading yesterday's newspaper. Tobais or Marco would sometimes drop them off for her. Tanya wasn't sure from whose yard they might have been stolen from. "Don't eat anything with the red stickers."

"Why? What you do to them?" Decoy asked suspiciously.

"They have egg."

Decoy jerked back from a small package with a red sticker. Tanya guessed from the shape it was some sort of breakfast taco. "Egg! You people eat eggs?!"

"They're unfertilized, and they aren't duck eggs. Come from chickens." Tanya said with a mild shudder. "I know it's sorta gross but most humans eat them for breakfast."

"Oh, that's just wrong." Decoy backed away from the fridge. "How can you stand looking at it?"

"I don't, she eats them when I'm not around." Tanya nodded at Eva. Then, she sighed and pushed the box towards Decoy. "Eat this, it's a corn product."

"Please tell me corn isn't something gross." Decoy groaned as she stared at the flakes.

"It's a…kinda a grain?" Tanya frowned. "I think?"

"We usually call it a vegetable." Eva said. "Although it might be related to grain, I don't know."

Decoy shook her head at them as she eyed the box, then eyed Tanya's bowl. Quickly catching onto how this was supposed to work, it wasn't that different from some of the breakfast products ducks had back home, she poured the flakes into her own bowl and snorted when Tanya (very helpfully, thank you), pushed over the milk. Again, catching on quickly enough Decoy poured the milk and retrieved a spoon. "Still. Eggs."

"At least it's not Easter." Tanya snorted. "Some holiday they have. Eggs everywhere. Painted eggs. Hidden eggs. Eggs made of chocolate with creamy centers. Eggs baked into their bread."

"They put eggs in bread?" Decoy shuddered.

"Yep. Most of their bread products have egg in them."

"How much of this have you eaten?" Decoy blinked at her.

"Technically it's not harmful to us. I checked. And we try to buy things that don't have egg in them. It's not that hard." Tanya shrugged. "It helps that Grin likes baking so he'll sometimes make food for us. But, once or twice we probably might have eaten some of it on accident. Like I said, it's not technically harmful, just a little gross."

Decoy frowned. "Uggg."

Tanya shrugged again. "They don't eat a lot of insects here, and really dumb birds sort of take the insect role."

"…wait you guys really eat bugs?" Eva shuddered. "I didn't think ducks ate bugs."

"Uuuum, yeah." Tanya nodded. "Our planet is kinda cold most of the time. We have animals but they tend to be really large and really furry. We don't really have all the bird species you guys have, unless they are people, ya know. There are some, but they're rarer. Instead, we have insects that are a lot bigger than the ones you have here." She frowned. "Like, instead of chicken we have a kind of beetle that's about the same size of a chicken and we use them for basically the same things. Livestock and food products."

"Huh, I don't think ducks are big meat eaters on Earth." Eva pondered.

"Eh, I don't know. I never really had time to study Earth ducks. But like I said our planet is really cold most of the year. So, uh, the plants tend to be more like evergreens or trees like that. Hardy but not exactly brimming with vitamins. Most things are our planet are omnivorous, and it's why we can digest plants on Earth you humans can't eat. We're more evolved for less nutritious plants."

"What is your planet called, I don't think you ever mentioned it." Eva asked.

Decoy looked up from the flakes and clacked her beak twice at Eva and ended with a word that sounded like 'sktch'. Eva blinked at her.

"Ummm, what?"

Decoy stared, licked the side of her beak, and laughed. "Oh no, I…I just realized! They don't have beaks, do they?" She looked at Tanya and laughed. "They can't say (click click) am I right?"

Tanya nodded and turned back to Eva. "That was the word for our planet in our native language. We…sorta have two extra vowels." She then clicked her beak in the same way Decoy did. "They sort of sound like a 'sh' or a 'isk' sound to our ears, if you can imagine that. Human's can't pronounce them because you don't have beaks and…honestly I'm not sure if you can even hear them correctly in the first place. We struggled for hours to get Phil to say them and he never could. One point he even kinda sounded like he was swearing at us." She shrugged. "So, we just let him come up with a word he could use to refer to our home and he decided to tie into the hockey theme and call it Puckworld."

Decoy snorted. "Did he really?"

Tanya nodded at her. "Yep."

"…wow." Decoy shook her head. "Just…wow."

Tanya huffed. "I'm not too fond of the name, but it works out well enough."

((Hey, everyone okay in there?)) Tobias' thought speak voice asked. ((I just had my morning mouse and Ax is about a minute away. I can see him running to the tree entrance.))

Tanya looked up at the roof and sighed. "Guess that's my signal." She gave Decoy a hard glare. "Behave." Her only response was an eye roll and an annoyed glare.

Tanya might have felt a little more apprehensive about this if she didn't know for a fact that Eva could morph, and while Decoy might have been aware of morphing, she doubted that Decoy would factor every aspect of the power into her plans on short notice. If she attacked then Eva could easily use the wolf morph that Cassie had gotten her or one of the insect morphs, or the merlin that she'd also acquired. True, the merlin was a small bird, but Eva had said she preferred the smaller, less noticeable animal. And Tanya hadn't told Decoy that Eva could morph or what she could morph into. Sure, Decoy could probably guess Eva could, but there was no need to volunteer that information.

Tanya got up to leave when suddenly Decoy's hand shot out to grab her by the wrist. Instinctively Tanya pulled her arm back and took two swift steps away from the traitor, hissing a bit as she did so. For a second, she thought she saw the hurt look return on Decoy's face, but it was soon gone, and Tanya was sure it was her imagination.

"Before you go flying off, does that Aerowing of yours have any." Decoy paused and her eyes darted to Eva. "You know?"

Tanya took a deep breath and her expression softened slightly. "Yeah. Cargo bay. Left side. You'll know it." She shook her head. "It's not…you know."

Decoy shrugged. "Whatever you got it'll do."

"Just nothing with human writing, still not sure how it might affect you."

"Right. No problem." Decoy frowned at her and started to rub the fingers of her right hand with her left. "The Medicom didn't-?"

"Not for that. Never needed." Tanya said.

"Oh. Alright." Decoy nodded and briefly clenched her left fingers around her hand before turning back to the cereal, which was slowly growing more and more soggy. "Go on, I'm not going to do anything."

Tanya ignored the slight sliver of guilt and tore her eyes away from Decoy's hands. She had been staring, and she hadn't meant to. She nodded at Eva, who was looking at both with an unreadable expression, before heading for the tree exit.

She really hoped she wasn't going to regret this.

Eva was starting to notice certain things about their guest.

For one thing, both her and Tanya fought with the same energy of two close friends in the middle of a deep and personal argument that neither could remember the source of but that each had thoroughly convinced themselves that they were wronged party. How much of this was true and how much were either woman's fault Eva had no clue, but while she had only had Marco, she had three sisters and two brothers and could tell when two people who were supposed to be family were fighting. It helped that, while the clutch dynamic involved more people than even the biggest of the families, she had known in her life could have, she could find some comparisons.

Getting information about her family from Tanya was like attempting to pull teeth out of an angry bull, and while Eva doubted that Decoy, or Lucy or whatever she wanted to be called, would tell her everything, maybe she should let slip enough different things to start making a more complete puzzle.

Eva wasn't privy to the conversations that Tanya had with Dr. Ann, but like the kids she had started to suspect a few things. Most of these things were unpleasant. It wasn't really her business, not really, but for some reason she couldn't help but be concerned.

To be fair she was also concerned about Tobias living in the woods by himself and eating mice, but she also knew she couldn't just yank him into the camp and make him eat breakfast with them every morning, even if he did spend most of his time as a hawk. That would only push the boy away. Like most abused runaways he knew he could only rely on himself until proven otherwise, and she didn't have a way to keep around against his will due to the fact that he could and probably would fly off if she pressed to hard. All she could really do at this point was make a place in their home available to him in case he needed it.

In that way having the traitor duck here was a good thing. Tobias would hang around more, meaning she could, slowly and carefully, coax Tobias into a more human lifestyle. Show him that, even if he insisted on staying a hawk during the war, he might still be able to have a human life at the end. Isolation and living as a hawk would only hurt the boy in the end, but pushing too hard would drive him away.

And that was just Tobias.

She was just as worried about Jake and Rachel and Cassie. Honestly, she worried about all of them. Even Ax, though she wasn't an expert in the Andalite mind. She worried about Tanya too, even though she was a mature example of her species she also gave the impression of someone young. Not a kid, but if Eva had to guess she would have placed Tanya around the equivalent of a human in their early twenties. Mid-twenties at the very latest. To be honest, Decoy was sort of giving off that vibe to Eva as well.

Speaking of the traitor in question as soon as Decoy finished the cereal she stood up and gave Eva a fairly unfriendly look. Eva decided not to take offense. She had a feeling ti wouldn't be helpful.

"You know where Tanya stashed the Aerowing?" Decoy demanded, gripping her hands together again in an almost unconscious way. Eva didn't stare, but she made a mental note of it.

"Yeah, this way." Eva said and moved for the exit. Decoy snorted.

"I don't need you to hover over me, human."

"No, probably not. I'm going to do it anyway." Eva smiled at Decoy.

"Pfft, fine. Have it your way." Decoy glared and brushed angrily past Eva, and the human took note of the slight trembling at the tips of the bird's fingers.

Interesting.

Eva led the way to the hidden Aerowing, ignoring her companions foul (hahahaha, she'd have to remember that pun) mood. She noticed how, when they came to the Aerowing's door, while Decoy shoved past Eva again to push a few buttons on the control panel to the ship, Decoy winched slightly at the first few presses and then clenched her beak. Eva observed as Decoy marched into the Aerowing's cargo hold. Decoy turned to the left and seemed to scan the room for something. Spotting what she was looking for, Decoy marched to the left side of the ship and began to rummage through a cabinet with an intricate swirl like pattern on it. It clicked as Eva watched Decoy take out what looked like a pill bottle with more alien writing on it. The writing looked handmade, like someone had taken the pill bottle and used their own homemade label for it. Eva's theories were confirmed to an extent when Decoy popped off the top of the bottle and shook out two pills, which she popped into her beak. For a moment the woman stiffened and shuddered, then she flexed her fingers as if loosening them up. It then occurred to Eva that, ever since that morning, the woman's hands had started to look more and more stiff. It was only now that she was clearly loosening them that Eva now knew that had been happening.

"…you alright?" Eva asked.

Decoy shot Eva a cold look. "What, they don't have painkillers here?" The tone was harsh and defensive, and Eva recognized it.

"No. Is it from the leopard?" She asked gently.

Decoy gave another annoyed snort. "I bet Tanya would be furious if I told you."

"She's not here right now. She doesn't have to know."

Decoy blinked at her. "What, you'll lie?"

"Lie. Not bring it up. Either or." Eva shrugged. Unless Decoy was dumb enough to tell her about a plot she still might be running here, Eva could afford to keep a secret if it didn't threaten her son or his friends.

Decoy stared at her for a moment or two then shrugged. "You know what I am, right, what a Scaleborn is?"

"Yeah, Tanya's told a few things."

"Hmmm, probably not the important things." Decoy folded her arms and leaned against a wall. "Some of us, her and me, a few others in our clutch, can sort of pass as normal. Everyone still knows what we are. There's this smell, you see. We all have it and ducks can smell it. So can Saurians. But it's…not as bad if you at least can pass as best you can as a normal duck. Make's em more comfortable. Makes them think that maybe you only have a bit of Saurian, no matter what the actual ratio is." Decoy shook her head. "Anyway, there are…things a person can do to themselves to make them look less Saurian." Decoy raised her hand and flexed it. "Used to have claws, you see. Long ones. Retractable, but obvious once they were out." She tucked her hand back under her arm. "When we were teenagers, they started cajoling the ones of us who could pass more for ducks to make…certain changes. Like Tanya's eyes or our friend Fang's…well, they wanted to remove the…fangs." She chuckled. "For all we tease him he was smart enough to not go for it…"

Eva took a deep breath. "Let me guess, they didn't just want you to use nail clippers."

"It wasn't like they forced me. But they were very convincing. We started realizing how bad it could be when our friend Amy got a bad ear infection after they removed her ears." She scowled. "She's deaf and I…" She looked down at the floor of the Aerowing. "I didn't realize the solution was going to be to just outright remove the bones of my fingertips. To be fair to them it doesn't even look like they did anything, does it." She raised a hand again and stared at it. She was right. If there was any scarring it was so light and small that at a casual glance it didn't look like there was anything there at all.

Eva tensed. "They declawed you like a cat."

Decoy gave her a hard glare. "…like that animal that attacked me, you people do that to them?"

"No, but some people used to do that to our domestic cats." Eva said. "Keeps them from scratching furniture and people." She could see Decoy starting to shake slightly again, but Eva wasn't sure if was due to remembering her own mutilation or if the woman felt sympathy for the cats. "No one in their right minds does it these days. Most people consider it abuse." Decoy looked at her and visibly relaxed.

"At least your people managed to figure it out, and I suppose these cats are animals that can't tell you how much pain they're in."

Eva thought back to her mother's cat and shuddered. "Oh, they can. Just not in words."

Decoy sighed. "It's all the time, you know. I'm never not in any type of pain. Normally, if I can get something decent it will fade enough to feel almost normal during the day. But for some reason it spikes up at night and in the mornings…" She sighed again. "Sometimes I can barely function because it hurts so much…and mind you." She leaned forwards and gritted her teeth. "The people that did this to me are the people that raised me. You know, the people that are supposed to protect you? They did it so I could be 'normal'. Didn't even stop to consider the consequences. And I'm the lucky one. Amy is deaf."

Eva nodded but wasn't sure what to say to all of this. 'I'm sorry didn't seem like it was enough to help. But suddenly, Decoy hissed and gently tapped her fist against her arm.

"The worst part is these are the people that Tanya keeps defending. I can get her to admit that this…this was wrong, but she never gets angry, it's like she doesn't care!" Decoy huffed. "And then she keeps using those…things her eyes and I can tell it hurts her to, but she won't admit it and she keeps doing it because she's just that stubborn!" Decoy shook her head and glared at Eva. "She usually wears these stupid contacts that make her eyes look not red and normal, but do you know what they are doing to her?"

Eva took a deep breath. "I've never seen them. She doesn't have them right now."

"Only because she apparently lost them when she morphed. That's the only reason. Not for herself or the rest of her clutch but because she needed to use this power of yours to save her stupid teammates. It always comes down to ducks with her. If I'm being fair to them, I doubt they know, she wouldn't tell them this. But they had to know at some point that something's wrong, they can't be so dense they can't see it." She gave a thoughtful frown. "Or maybe they are as oblivious as I think they are."

"See what?"

Decoy sighed again. "The contacts work by dilating her eyes and using a filter to make them look round and normal colored. But it's not just a filter. The filter changes the color, but her eyes are being dilated every time she uses them." She leaned forwards towards Eva. "Do you people ever dilate your eyes to examine them? It's like that. Only it's constant, every time she wears them. The only reason she can out in the sunlight is because of the lenses on the glasses she wears. That's why they're pink. It's another filter, meant to protect them from the sunlight. But the problem is, it only slows the effect the contacts have on her eyes. It doesn't stop it."

Eva blinked as the implications of this information began to dawn on her. "Wait, so you're saying they damage her eyes?"

"Yep." Decoy shook her head. "Knowing her she can probably program the Medicoms she has to help reverse some of the damage. Wouldn't surprise me if she has. But machines and medicine can only do so much." She shrugged. "I'm a computer expert, not a medic, but if I'm right, if she keeps wearing those things the way she did when we were teenagers, she'll start losing her vision soon. Five, maybe ten years from now." Decoy shook her head. "She'll probably be completely blind."

For the rest of the day, partly to get her mind off the morning revelations and partly because she wanted to introduce the new duck to Earth things, and distract them both, Eva spent most of the day letting Decoy channel surf in front of their tv. Decoy didn't seem that interested in the soaps (to be fair Eva had never gotten the appeal either) and spent all of Jerry Springer gleefully yelling at the tv people to just 'stop fighting over the stupid male and both of you leave him!'. Eva wasn't sure if Decoy was enjoying herself or not. Eventually, Decoy finally landed on old reruns of Scooby Doo, which she seemed to enjoy a bit more. Or at the very least enjoyed it more than screaming at daytime trash tv.

By the time Decoy had discovered and fell in love with the A-Team school had finally let out, bringing with it Marco, Jake, Cassie and Rachel, each of whom had checked in with their parents, given the usual excuses, and separately made their way to the forest on raptor wings.

"The other three are still out there scouting?" Jake asked as he eyed the tv. "I see we also are having a lesson on Earth culture."

"…starting to see why they like you weird apes." Decoy said. "At the very least you have good taste in storytelling."

"Ah, living the dream. Nothing to do by sit around and watch daytime television." Marco said as he flopped on the couch. "Me, I have a mountain of math to do. A veritable stack of fractions and solving for x."

Decoy studied him. "You seem a little old to be learning basic math."

Marco rolled his eyes. "We can't all be hyper intelligent aliens and algebra sucks."

Decoy chuckled. "Pfft, just algebra?" She clicked her beak and shook her head.

"Hey, you try and keep up a C average and fight a secret alien invasion."

Decoy scoffed again. "To be fair on you, if that's the kind of education that's typical on this planet, that's your elder's fault, not yours."

Before Marco could come up with a brilliant retort the door that led to the tree entrance opened up as Tobias, in his human form, came in with Ax and Tanya following in their normal forms. Ax's stalk eyes sort of tilted upwards at the ceiling, but as long as he didn't stay in the room to long and the place didn't get any smaller he could live with the ceiling. He wasn't a fan of the place but he also didn't feel like morphing into his human form after the scouting mission.

Jake nodded at Tobias. "So, what are we looking at?" He asked.

"It's not good, honestly." Tobias said as Tanya walked over to one of her computers and started to furiously type. Decoy frowned at her, and tilted her head in an effort of see what the other alien was doing, but Tanya tilted the monitor in a way to keep the other Scaleborn from spying from her position on the couch. After a moment Decoy huffed and went back to focusing on the television.

"Lots of guys in suits everywhere." Tobias said. "Obviously Secret Service, but we think that the other nations probably brought their own security there. It doesn't look like we can get there easily with a bug morph. We'd have to morph pretty far out but with how the insect senses are we might not be able to even see the way over there, much less get inside. There's also dog units, but I don't think we'll get close enough to acquire one. And they are looking out for birds as well. As we were flying over we found this one bald guy. He can zap you with a Dracon beam by looking at you."

((I believe he has the Dracon beam on a low setting somewhere on his body, using the glasses as transmitters. In that way he can shoot any suspicious birds without slaughtering them and drawing attention. I believe this will be true for any bird he sees.)) Ax added.

Jake inhaled a deep breath. "That complicates things. We need to know the layout of the hotel before anything else. Who knows what the Yeerks could have there…" He looked at Tanya. "What are you doing?"

She looked over at Decoy, sighed, and turned the monitor towards them. "Remember the spy cameras I made a few days ago?" She pointed at a digital schematic of the devices. "If I can just, well, modify it a bit I can make something that can sneak into the hotel and do our scouting for us. We'd be able to see everything from here."

"Oh, I like that." Marco grinned. "Insect missions from the safety of our couch. Why didn't we think of this before."

"Problem. I don't have the material for this." Tanya said. "Or the programing software."

"Or the talent." Decoy shook her head. Jake turned a stern look at her.

"What?"

"I've gotten better at- "Tanya started, but Decoy interrupted.

"Oh please, I don't even have to look twice, and I see at least twenty bugs. And not the kind you morph into." Decoy got up from the couch and pointed at a line of code that looked like alien gibberish to Jake. "Just look at that, are you serious?"

"Well, what do you suggest, you overconfident…" Tanya started before Decoy shoved her away from the keyboard and typed out a few new lines of code. Apparently, what she did was astonishing because Tanya blinked at the nonsense as if it meant something. "Ummm…darn…"

"How you do anything to help those featherbrains you adore so much I don't know." Decoy grumbled as she continued to type aggressively. "Look, see here, just…ah, why do you do these things? It's so much harder and it's going to overload the system with junk…"

Tanya folded her arms and glared at Decoy but gave her no more objections. Within moments Decoy backed away from the computer, apparently satisfied. "There, I fixed your software. You're welcome. All we need to do is build the hardware and we can spy on these slugs by tomorrow."

"Yes. Wonderful." Tanya snorted. "Now, how do we get the hardware, Decoy?"

"What do you mean, isn't that your job? Don't tell me you can't retrofit what you have?"

"What I have, Decoy, is-

"That's not my name. You know that." Decoy glowered at Tanya, who blinked.

"Oh? It's what you've been calling yourself for the past five years."

"You're my friend, not a mark. Use my real name." Decoy glared. "I'm not lying to anyone here, so stop acting like I am."

Tanya took a deep breath and resisted the urge to poin tout that that if she was lying to them she wouldn't announce it, and since she knew she couldn't fool the Animoprhs with Tanya around her best bet was to make Tanya think she had changed. Maybe she really did want to be honest with them. Or maybe she was trying to lure Tanya into a false sense of security. Either way, it wasn't worth it to bicker over it.

"Fine. Whatever Lucy. Now stop trying to distract me. What I have, right now, is twenty scraps of metal in the shape of Earth flies attached to little cameras." She gestured at the coding. "How am I supposed to find a motherboard this small, have you seen the size of human computer motherboards?"

Decoy opened her beak, closed it, and opened it again. Then, she thought. "…steal it?"

Jake rapped his knuckles on the table. "Hey. Ladies. Can you two explain what you're talking about? And why we are suddenly talking about stealing things?"

Tanya jerked and looked at him. "Ummm, I…ahh…" She shook her head. "Basically…she fixed the software I use for the camera flies to make them more…intelligent? Basically, instead of just transmitting images they could theoretically hack into places and even independently map structures. So, with this we can have them root around any computer system in the hotel and send us like, a schematic of the building instead of just camera feed."

"Okay, that's sounds good…but I'm sensing a but." Jake stated.

Tanya stared at him for a full two minutes. "I'm trying to play a cd on an old fashioned gramophone. You know, the things that play old-fashioned music records. With the horns attached?"

"Ah. Okay." Jake nodded. "But why are we talking about stealing?"

"Well, I figured if she didn't have the material here, we could steal it from someone on this planet who does." Decoy stated.

"And who, pray tell, are we going to steal from?" Tanya snarled. "In case you missed it, they just now figured out disk technology. They don't even have digital uploads!"

"Ummm, the Yeerks?" Decoy said sarcastically, missing Ax's startled look. "The ducks? The Saurians?"

"Last time we stole from the Yeerks we ended up on their mothership and almost executed." Rachel shook her head. "No stealing from Yeerks."

"And the Saurians are somewhere at the bottom of the ocean, so no stealing from them." Tanya said.

Decoy glowered at Tanya. "You are telling me, that nowhere on this wretched mudball, there isn't a single human being who has the kind of technology we are looking for? That you people haven't managed to find one human on par with us?"

"I-" Tanya started, then paused. She opened her beak once, then tilted her head. "Ummm…actually…we have…" She frowned and muttered. "Oh, Ancestors this is going to suck…"

"Well? Who?" Tobias asked.

Tanya rubbed her forehead. "Okay…so…there was this guy who decided to replace most of his body with mechanical parts…"

A/N: So going over the first two parts of the David Trilogy I came to a realization. By taking David out of the equation the timeline is wonky.

To review, in the books the Animorphs always say they have to do these kind of missions on weekends if they are all going together. Therefore, the point where they go scouting, the day after they get David, must be a Saturday. Therefore, the day before that, when the situation at David's house happens, must be a Friday, since it happens the day before they go scouting the hotel and Marco had to bail out of school early that day. Therefore, the day before, when they learn about the world leader's thing and they fail to get the box the first time, must be a Thursday.

Thing is, now they don't have to fuss with David, meaning there is no reason to panic or for Marco to skip school that Friday. In this universe they learn about the issue with the world leaders the same Thursday that they did in the original timeline. Therefore, Tanya, Tobias and Ax are scouting that Friday, instead of having the scouting pushed to Saturday when the original team had to deal with the David situation.

Therefore, a certain event that happens the Saturday in the original books doesn't happen here. Or at least, they aren't there to witness it.

Read the books over again, if you have them, and some of you will realize what I'm talking about.

For the rest of you, you'll see.