Chapter Text
????
My name isn't important. You will all know me soon. You will see me clearly then, for the first time.
Sometimes your entire life boils down to a single moment. Everything you are, everything you will ever be. The wick of your heart burned to your very essence.
That was what that moment was, for me. I was being taken from the room. My bones were broken. My vision was blurred. I couldn't have been in worse shape and have still been alive.
He was right there, in front of me. He didn't even care. Disinterested as ever in the lives of others. Especially one so far beneath him. But I couldn't let it go. Or him. Not as long as I lived.
So I told him. I opened my charred lips to scream those dreaded words. I said….
-------
Jake
My name is Jake. I can’t tell you my last name. I can’t tell you where I live either. And if you’ve gotten this far in the record, you know why.
Our planet is being invaded. You can choose to believe me or not, but it’s happening. The invasion is hidden, nearly invisible. More people are being taken every day.
The invaders don’t want our planet. They don’t want precious metals. They don’t even want to make us dig up dirt that’s valuable on Planet Xenon or something. Not a real planet, and trust me, I know the difference.
They want to take our bodies and destroy our souls. They’re called Yeerks. And the only thing standing in their way is a small guerrilla army. The only soldiers are six kids, five from Earth and one from another planet. All six with the power to morph into any animal we touch, for two hours at a time.
I’m the leader. I don’t know why. I didn’t want the job when I got it. But I am. Someone has to be.
Being a leader means making hard choices. It means really looking at the people in front of you, and seeing what they can do. Sometimes it means seeing them only as ways to save your planet, instead of your friends. Recently, I had to realize that again. I know it’s going to be important before this war is really over. Important to use my friends as weapons. Use my knowledge, lest someone else use theirs first.
A lot of times, in secret, I’d think about something I didn’t want to tell any of the others. Sometimes I think Marco would understand, though. He’s the smartest of any of us. I hate to admit it sometimes, since he’s my best friend, but he is.
I thought about how lucky we were that it was us. Us and not anyone else. That’s not me saying that I wanted this. It’s the opposite. I wish we didn’t have it. I play back the image of Elfangor, the Andalite prince who gave us our powers, dying in that construction site. I wonder if there was some way to get us out of living life facing horror.
But then I think about David. I think about what happened the one time we let someone in on the secret, the time we created a sixth Animorph. It was a disaster. It ripped out a hole inside us that’s barely healed over. Stitched-over bitterness that aches whenever you think about it too long.
Nowadays, I also think about her. “We’re just kids,” I’ve protested again and again. But maybe because we are just kids, there were mistakes that we couldn’t make. Choices that we couldn’t consider. That’s what I’ve learned now.
It’s time to explain how I learned it.
---
There was nothing going on. You could swear, if it wasn’t impossible, that the Yeerk Empire was taking the month off. There had been no missions, no battles.
We were all passing around theories. “It’s politics again,” Marco said, after a moment of rare silence. “Visser One managing to not die, wherever she is now. Bringing the fight over Earth back to the Council of Thirteen.”
“I don’t think so,” Cassie said, glancing at the group cautiously. “We know Visser Three. If that had happened, he would be boiling over with rage, doing everything he could to push the Earth invasion forward. The Chee would’ve caught something by now.”
“Maybe he got sick,” Marco joked. “Slugitis. Terrible case, pool-ridden for weeks.”
<You could try to be serious,> Tobias scoffed.
“Nah, then you’d miss me,” shot back Marco in response, grinning.
“Resource shortage?” offered Rachel, shrugging a bit. “We know they can run out of all kinds of things. We’ve disrupted their operations, but we’re not the only thing that can.”
“Maybe,” Cassie said softly, but it didn’t sound like she fully agreed with it.
<The question is: is this a good thing or a bad thing?> said Tobias, in the rafters. <And how could we find out which one it is?>
“Erek,” I said. “Have him and the Chee monitor the pool and other Yeerk strongholds more closely. Look for information.”
“They’re doing that already, though, and they haven’t found jack squat,” said Marco. “We’re the X-men, remember? Superman and his Superfriends. If anything weird was happening, we’d know about it before you can say ‘Metal dog pretending to be a basketball hoop.’”
“So then nothing looks out of the ordinary,” I said. “It doesn’t mean nothing is.”
“But it’s still too much of a risk to check ourselves,” urged Cassie. “It’s not as if we can decide to go down to the Yeerk pool whenever we wish.”
“Right, and if we go to the Community Center, we risk running into Tom and Chapman, who will be real interested in my change of heart about The Sharing,” I said glumly. “And by now lots of people recognize Ax’s human morph as my friend. Or cousin.”
“No leads. No way to get new ones without looking suspicious. Isn’t this just wonderful?” muttered Marco.
<It is not the worst thing that could be happening,> said Ax, calmly. <They could be actively invading the Earth in full force. Instead they are not acting at all.>
“I’m afraid they might be preparing for it,” I said.
-
We all headed back to our homes, or to the woods, not long after that.
We had ended that meeting on a low note. It was never good to close one with no clue on how to proceed. Plus, I couldn’t get the feeling out of my head that something was very, very wrong.
I tried to convince myself that it was nothing. That the Empire was busy playing the world’s longest game of charades or something. It wasn’t working. I knew in my gut that they had a plan, and that we weren’t prepared for it.
I saw Tom helping my Mom in the kitchen. I tried to swallow down the knot of fear in my stomach. That hadn’t happened in a long time.
Tom, or at least the Yeerk in his head, stopped chopping tomatoes as I came in. “Hey Jake,” he said, grinning. “How’s it hanging?”
“Fine,” I said, a bit too glumly.
“Did something happen?” Mom asked, sounding a bit worried.
“Nah, just had a little spat with Marco,” I said, shrugging. I was trying very hard not to stare at Tom. What was he doing? And why was he doing it? Did Yeerks get in good moods?
“That kid can be kind of harsh sometimes,” said Tom. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
“Want to help get dinner together? Tom wanted to take some time off from applying for colleges,” Mom joked.
I knew that Tom was planning to apply. I had always wondered how the Yeerk was going to manage that. It seemed almost certain he’d plan to go someplace local, but I wondered. How far away, Yeerk, can you go from your Yeerk pool? How long will you and I be trapped together? How long will Tom be trapped with you?
"Sure," I said.
-
Dinner was awkward. But dinners had always been awkward since the moment I discovered that my older brother was actually a brain-stealing alien. I couldn't act normal around him. Couldn't think when I was around him. The worst part today was Tom himself.
He was chipper, practically rosy-cheeked and energetic. He complimented Mom's cooking. Even she was skeptical about that one. He kept asking whether I might like to hang out with him, and didn't seem to be bringing up The Sharing when he did. What had come over him? I mean he was better at being Tom than Temrash was, but he was normally the perfect picture of a sullen teenager. Playing the role and living up his own frustration.
It had to have something to do with what the Yeerks had been doing all this time, but I couldn't put it together. There was no version of the war where Chapman or Visser Three urged Tom's Yeerk to play nice. It didn't make sense. It was just one more puzzle piece with nothing to connect it to.
There was no use thinking about it. It would only drive me insane. But I couldn't stop myself. They were the thoughts I was having as I went to bed that night. Thoughts of dread about what, if anything, it all meant. What I didn't know was that everything was about to get weirder. A whole lot weirder.
-
"Hey! New guy!"
The voice practically exploded into my mind. It felt like someone was trying to assault me.
"Hey! Are you okay?"
It wasn't even that loud, honestly. It was at a normal volume. But I still felt like I wanted to kill whoever it belonged to. The sleep had been hard, but not very good, it seemed.
"Hraka...You must've taken quite a fall," the guy said, sounding worried. "Should I call Medical? The panel's only a grub's swim away from here."
'A grub's swim away?' The voice was making less sense now. I had to face whoever it was and figure this out. I slowly and painfully pulled myself off the ground, and opened my eyes. The ground was asphalt. We were in some kind of alleyway off to the side. Overfilled trash bins lined the walls, and city buildings towered above us. This wasn't my bedroom. It was not even close to my bedroom.
The guy who was looking at me seemed normal enough, but he was dressed pretty strangely. He was wearing a shiny gold coat, like the kind of thing you might see a pretty girl or a celebrity wear, but a bit cheaper and tackier than that. To make matters worse his shirt was neon green and his pants were bright purple. Nothing about his outfit looked color-coordinated. It was almost like this guy picked colors because he thought they were neat.
"No, I'm okay," I said back, a bit awkwardly. "Thanks for um...Checking in."
The man grinned. "Oh yeah, no problem! May the Kandrona shine and strengthen you!"
That stopped me cold. "What?" I barked, without thinking about it.
The guy looked taken aback. "K...SSY?" he said, slowly.
My head spun. 'Kandrona?' Was this guy a Yeerk? My mouth opened and closed several times, but I knew better than to say anything more. If this was somehow the Yeerk pool, or a ship (even though because of the buildings and skyline, that didn't make much sense) I'd be captured before you could say "Gin Rummy," and then it was over for the Animorphs. Over for Earth.
The guy paused. "I'm...gonna go. Whatever's happening to you, I don't want any part of it, come to think of it. Get yourself fixed up by Medical, okay?"
The guy took off. I could only sort of blame him. Yeerk or not, he looked like he belonged wherever I was, and I definitely didn't. I looked down the alleyway. I could clearly see the way back out towards the city or town I was in. I headed down towards it.
Whatever was coming, whatever I was about to see, I'd have to be ready for it.