Chapter Thirty
They shackled me. I don't know why they bothered. A Hork-Bajir was leading me. He took me down to a dock I think.
< Is that the docking area? > I asked the Andalite.
< Yes, > He sounded tense.
< I wonder why? > I asked him. Why the docking area?
< The Visser wants you in his Blade Ship. > He replied.
Oh goody.
They walked her to docking eighteen. In Yeerk ships, docking eighteen is used for Blade ships.
The hatch was opened and she walked inside. She grumbled as they yanked on her chain. It was a long walk. But finally. They stopped in front of a quarter. I think it was the Visser's.
"Visser Three." One of them called.
It was the Visser's.
The door opened and the Visser came out.
< Oh, there you are. > He said laughing.
He turned to the terrified guards and took the chain. He yanked it hard so that Devils –caught off guard- stumbled.
She looked at him and growled.
The doors automatically closed behind us. The Visser looked at her in Amusement.
"What are you staring at?" She snarled.
This surprised the Visser. It surprised me too.
< So hostile. > He mocked.
She looked up at him. She was slightly shorter than he was.
< Are you going to stay silent all day? That would be a shame. > He said pityingly.
Devils said nothing.
The Visser was called to receive some kind of communication. He looked at Devils and called a Hork-Bajir in. He handed over the chain and walked out of the room.
< Take her to the interrogation chamber. > He ordered.
Then he left.
I was lead into the interagation room. On the way in, I notced a big plastic door. It looked kind of heavy duty, only it had a black plastic covering.
As I walked passed it I caught a faded image of a figure standing there. I stared at the figure.
The figure, was a human being, a female. Around twelve to six-teen years old. She had jet black hair that shined a faint metallic blue under light. Her hair was not long. It was boy cut, well almost. Two locks of hair; at the back of her head, grew longer than the rest of her hair. Opposite to each other. So that they would be ruffled by the breeze of her walk. Her eyes were liquid gold. The gold of the Sahara sand. They were golden, when direct sunlight shined into them; they would turn a shade of golden green. Eyes that when mad, would turn a hard light brown. And a cold evil presence would be glimpsed from inside the eyes. Her skin was a golden tan, it spoke for where she lives; the golden nature of a desert. She was tall and thin. Not too thin, in fact she was slightly in the muscular side. Not that you would have noticed. The only thing that betray that strong part of her was the way she walked. Like a cat, liquid metal, graceful, and strong. The most cunning of her features… were perhaps her piercing eyes. They would catch you off guard. They were silent… mischievous eyes, a certain 'sinister and dark' intelligence were in them. Here eyes were sharp, solemn and sinister, listeners eyes. The kind that talked none and did all. 'If silver be talk then gold shall be silence.' Her eyes were a story of their own. All in all… no one would mistake her for what she was… of course, a hunter, a predator that lived in the wild. That can never be mistaken.
It took me a while to realize who I was looking at… it was me… That was my own reflection. The Hork-Bajir yanked at my chain. I continued walking. I knew. That the reflection that I saw… that strong healthy part of me. Would cease to exist. Knowing the hard years that I would spend here I would change. Question is; To the better? 'Or' to the worst?
Chapter Thirty-One
Two years had pasted. Two years since she had been captured by the Yeerks. They couldn't make a Yeerk out of her. I don't know why. But Devils knew, she wouldn't tell me. I restricted myself into shutting myself out of her. Isolating my self. Not wanting to live through the horror that she was living in… the pain… the questions… and when she refused to answer… more pain.
It was strange that she held on for long. She never told them anything. When I asked here how come she didn't tire of what she was dong, she answered me by saying that she had pride, and her planet meant very much to her. She said she would sacrifice her life and soul just to save it.
I talked little with her, truthfully I was afraid. Of the way she thought. The twisted ideas… the insanely crazy thoughts… I hoped that all humans didn't think like her. When I asked her she laughed and said that she was a mad women. I couldn't be so sure. But that was because I was forgetting the good times, the times spent with my noble friends. Marco had used the word insane before. Know the word had a human example to go with its meaning. That human would be Devils.
It came to a day where Devils was being taken t the Visser again. The chains were loose and Devils was very sure that she could take them off.
The Visser was cranky today. The 'Andalite Bandits' were getting on his nerves. They had destroyed another Kandrona and two Yeerk bases. The War was still private. Not a lot of humans were aware of it.
< Devils. Trying to escape would be silently idiotic. > I tried to reason with her. Unlike her, I was not willing to die.
< Whom are you calling idiotic? > She asked.
< Not you, your plan. > I explain.
< If my plan is idiotic then I am an idiot as well. That's what you mean. >
< No, that's not what I meant. > I exasperated.
< Hey, it is my plan, I came up with it. And it's not idiotic. Besides. > She said.
< Besides what? > I asked,
< I'm bored > she muttered.
< What!? > I shrieked, < So that's your idea of fun? >
< Apparently. Yes. > More like sadly, I thought.
I really had no choice. She was going to try and make a run for it.
As I heard her thoughts. Something I had still not told her about and I am not intending to tell her. Knowing her dangerous personality. She knew that the plan would not work but she'd 'go for it'. Funny, that's what Rachel used to say.
She decided that she throw the shackles off and go through the big black plastic covered door.
< Okay, > she whispered as she arranged the shackles in an easy to drop position. The distance between the door and her was closing in fast.
The Hork-Bajir where walking in front of her. She dropped the metal chain and bolted throwing herself at the door.
Sadly, it was locked.
That was dry sense of humor.
I believe.
I never tried wet, if I did, I'd tell you.
The Hork-Bajir turned around.
"Come'on!" Devils screamed.
She took a couple of steps back and then delivered a high kick to the center of the door.
BANG!
The door opened.
She ran in. And found herself looking down a metal stairway.
< Going Down. > She said cheerfully.
The Hork-Bajir was very close behind her. One of them grabbed a metal claw thing and threw it at her. It tore at her left arm. She screamed.
She slipped and fell, tumbling down the stairs.
I heard through the communications that there was some 'enemy on the ship.' I never got to know whom. I wished it were my friends.
Devils banged her head so hard on the ground that she began to see 'stars' as she called them. But I didn't see stars. All I saw was that her consciousness was growing dark.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
I came to with a start, disoriented, bathed in sweat, clusters of black motes floating across my vision. My eyes were battered and swollen; my body was throbbing with pain in a dozen places. Where was I? Why couldn't I move my arms?
I realized that I was on some sort of chair… slumped forward in a hard, straight-backed chair… I jerked to an upright position. Too quickly. Dizziness washed over me and my stomach contracted. I fought to push back the nausea, the taste of vomit rising in my throat. For several seconds it was a touch-and-go, but then the sickness began to recede.
I squeezed my pulsing eyes shut and sucked in breath after labored breath.
Okay. All right. Let's try it again. But slower.
I rolled my head to relax the aching tendons of my neck, lifted it an inch or two-slow, slow-and opened my eyes again.
Better.
Blinking, I looked myself over.
My shirt was bloody and torn. Had I been shot? No, no, I don't think so. There had been a bad tumble in the stairway, or what passed as the stairway. Then that iron claw, or whatever it was, sinking into my arm. I'd been trying to get it out, and then somebody or something had hit me. And afterwards…?
What happened afterwards?
I gulped come on, come on, what happened? I got little besides brief, elusive flashes , and I wondered if I sustained a concussion from blows to my head, or maybe from the fall down the stairs. There had been long periods of oblivion alternating with the moments when I half awakened and took in confused snatches of reality.
At a point I had been moved. Somewhere to some other place another ship. Not the blade ship. A bug-fighter. Time passed and more time had passes when I woke up again. A car? Where? It was black inside and from the flashes that I'd had, it was a limo, black.
A bump, a crash… Something happened. To the car that I was in? or another car? I don't know. All I know was the next time I woke up I was… in another ship. A battle bridge. The blade Ship. On a hologram, a battle was being fought. Bug fighters blowing bug fighters. Funny. The Yeerks never used their own as target practice.
I had have slipped back into unconsciousness, awakened once somewhere else, somewhere dark. No still in the Ship. In a room. Then I?
It was no good, that part was almost entirely blank. I could recall nothing about it except for having been moved yet again to what I supposed as my present location. A big room, steel walls, steel door.
Both my wrists were cuffed to the arms of the chair. The restraints looked like police-issue metal bracelets.
My watchdogs were anything but cops, let alone human. Although there were some humans inside. I recognized a few from the bunch that had pursued me at the staircase including a very big one standing a few feet away from me.
I felt my head clearing. With each interval of consciousness more of what happened came back to me, my scattered bits and pieces of memory weaving back into a coherent thread and drawing me towards a full recognition of my predicament.
Here in this room, I had been asked questions…mostly by Visser Three… Asked questions and beaten hard when I refused to answer. But that hadn't been the worst of it. Not by far. I had been through brutal ordeals before, and believed that I could withstand their interrogation for quite some time.
Oh, shit. These goddamned bastereds came to the same conclusion, didn't they?
The hairs at the back of my neck prickled, I remembered the needle. How could I have forgotten the for even a second?
Maybe, though, that was why my mind had switched itself off for a while. To provide a cessation from what was otherwise unavoidable. To spare me from thinking about the needle.
The first time had been the roughest. They'd held me down, torn off the sleeve of my shirt, and jabbed the needle into the bend of my arm. Because I had been struggling, the one with the syringe had blotched several attempts at piercing a blood vessel. But eventually he'd succeeded, pressing the needle flat against my skin, inserting it down the length of the vein, drawing a little blood to make sure he 'd got a clear hit. And then depressing the plunger.
I had made a small sound, a kind of moan, and slid in the chair, my head nodding, my eyes rolled under the lids. Wildcat tingles had rushed up my arm in what seemed to be a direct line to my brain, then widening out into ripples of numbing warmth that spread through my flesh and bones and internal organs until I went slack.
And the horror, the really overpowering horror of it, was that part of me that welcomed the nullity it brought. I'd trained my mind and body to endure the severest punishments, but to have my pain drawn out of me in a merciful whoosh like the heavens taking a deep breath…
The white lady, they had called it.
Heroin.
Chapter Thirty-Two
She was a seductive bitch, and that was what they were counting on.
My memories were rushing back on me now. I glanced at the inside of my left arm and saw black and blue where I'd been injected …how many times? Five, maybe six. There were blisters under my elbow where the spike had slipped and some of the drug was inadvertently pumped between my skin and the muscle. The first couple of times they had shot me up, a ferocious rash had spread from my elbows to my shoulders and neck, but my system had adjusted, and the redness and terrible itch were slowly fading.
I was still taking stock when I heard movement to my right. I looked up and saw one of the guards-I counted eight of them in the dimness- step over to the door and punch something into the keyboard. It opened and he came in.
He came swaggering in like the lord of the fools he was. He looked at me and smiled.
Here we go again, I thought, steeling myself.
I watched in silence as Visser Three moved to a table about ten feet away, where my captors kept the Heroin and works, as well as a water pitcher and a small –gas I think- burner for cooking the drug. I saw orange flames spurt from the burner, saw the Visser drop a chunk of the Heroin into a spoon then saw him mix it with some water and held the spoon over the heat. I didn't know the reason behind him standing there and doing it. Maybe he wanted me to fear him.
I didn't fear him, I feared the drug.
After about a minute of boiling he dropped a cotton swab into the spoon, let it swell up with the liquid , pushed the needle into it, and raised the plunger to filter the narcotic solution up through the cotton.
< My friend, you have kept your secrets against much persuasion, but sooner or later you must tell me what I need to know, > The Visser said in a silky voice, approaching with the hypo.
I sat there, with no response.
< You will not comprise your honor by breaking your silence, > The Visser came closer, looking at me with his stolen Andalite eyes.
The Visser shook his head. It became something of a repetitive drill – the unanswered questions, the heating, and, once that failed, the junk. They were simply exploring their options. Reasoning that sooner or later I'd either succumb to the pain or desire for death. Insidious suckers. Given intravenously, the heroin rushed into the brain's pleasure centers within seconds. Addiction would take a while, but the craving for it…
That was the worst part wasn't it? The part my mind had cringed away from acknowledging, and the reason to shut itself down.
The Visser came another step forward.
< Just one thing, > He said, < Tell me. >
He knew that I knew the location of the time-matrix, he wanted the location badly. He thinks I'm going to use it or give it to the Andalites. Dream on…
I kept staring at the Visser in silence.
His face grew sorrowful – yeah, great act - < It shouldn't matter to me, but I want to give you a 'fair' warning. While you may not remember how to use your tongue at the moment, it is certain that you will before I leave here. You understand what I just said? >
I swallowed dryly. No, maybe I didn't understand, not altogether. But I had an awful feeling that I would. I had also kept an eye on the big guard, watched him sidle over the table, reach for a knife sheathed against his leg, then stand near the burner with the weapon in his hand. It was a dagger; its blade about six inches long and shaped like a sine wave…
Something new and different, I thought.
The Visser was standing in front of me now, regarding me with careful appraisal, his false sympathy only serving to counterpoint the menace in his evil gaze.
< No? > He said resignedly. < I don't think you 're going to take my advice after all. >
The Visser swung a stalk eye to the big watchdog; the rest of his eyes kept watching me.
The Visser nodded.
The watchdog raised his dagger to the flame, its blade rapidly heating up, becoming more radiant in the dimness of the room.
He was either celebrating in some other language or calling the monstrous human that was holding the dagger.
The big man turned and advanced onto me, the dagger flashing red hot, almost pulsing in his grip. Out of the corners of his eyes. I saw that two guards had come from both my left and right. Each clasped a hand on my shoulder and pressed it hard to the chair and pinned me down to the backrest.
I strained against them, but their hands were unyielding as the cuffs on my wrists.
I tensed through out my body, my heart striking mallet blows to my chest.
In on hurry, Xiang hung over me, a moment like a live, breathing mountain.
Then he lowered the Dagger to my arm and sliced into my skin a few inches above my wrist, making a shallow, razor-thin incision that almost instantly withered around the edges from the heat of the blade.
I was seized with pain as Xaing carved into me, gliding the blade upwards beneath the skin, stripping it away little by little, pushing the blade higher…higher…higher…
Squeezing the chair's armrests, I fought not to scream, a raspy, wounded-animal sound tore out of me instead. Veins bulged in my temples. My head whipped back ad forth, I smelled the sickly-sweet odor of my own cauterized flesh and nerve tissue as it peeled away from the rising blade.
I thrashed convulsively, heard the thumps made by my banging on the chair's legs match with the jerky violence of my spasms.
I could see nothing beyond the insane, brilliant pain, think of nothing but the scream locked away in my throat, trying to tear free of my throat like a trapped thing with claws and teeth flinging itself against the sides of its cage.
I realized the cutting had stopped some thirty seconds after the Visser ordered it done. I thought it must have taken longer than that for Xiang to actually slide the dagger out of my arm, flicking a long… six inches long, at least… shaving of skin to the floor.
Finally, the guards that had been holding me down backed off and I sagged into the chair, gulping down huge lungful of air, the muscles of my ravaged arm twitching and jumping.
I felt my consciousness drain and willed myself back to clarity.
The Visser's face hovered in front of me.
< The Time Matrix, > He hissed, < Where is it? >
I just sat there motionless. Rivulets of sweat poured down my brow and stung my eyes. My arm felt coated with scalding oil.
The Visser showed me the syringe.
< Tell me, > He said, < I can make things better for you. >
I met his gaze. Inhaled. Exhaled. And then gave him a slow nod.
The Visser smiled evilly and Xiang grinned.
"My boss… I work for him… His name is Bozo The Clown… And I'm looking for freaks for his tent show." I said in a weak voice. "I scored the Jackpot… got 'em all here…a four eyed freak," –I nodded at Visser Three- "Walking salad shooters."- I nodded at the Hork-Bajir- "A Giant" –I nodded towards Xiang-
"And more geeks… than you can count." I said rotating my head to indicate the guards standing around me and the other creatures inside the room.
The Visser's be-friendly mask evaporated.
Xiang's grin faded.
< Stupid, > I guess that he understood what I just said, he nodded at Xiang and pointed at me.
Pointed at my face.
I saw the giant take a step towards me with the Dagger, the two watchdogs who'd restrained me appearing at the fringes of my vision.
I thought about how to prevent them form carving me up alive, decided there was nothing I could do but figured I would try anyway.
Xiang took the dagger and sliced it up my throat. He started deep, going up my throat and towards my cheek. The blade slid up below my eye. I held still for a moment. If I moved the blade will go into my eye. He started to remove the blade when a powerful force shuddered through the ship. It was a strong jolt. The Guards were thrown off their feet, The Visser stumbled and Xiang lurched forward on his feet. The blade of the dagger slashed up-wards in my eye and slashed the skin of my forehead.
The blade had not gone terribly deep but the pain that I was being exposed to was intense. I howled in pain. I saw nothing but red… in my left eye that is. I was bleeding furiously, from the wound that had cut my throat, face and eye. All on the left side of my face.
I had not missed the way my screams sounded. They were different, totally not me. They were lower pitched… More hysterical and…guttered.
< What the? > He was not talking about me, he was referring to the jolt that had translated through the ship.
A Hork-Bajir rushed in.
"Visser Three!" He gasped, "The Andalites have arrived!"
That was not a defiantly an invitation for them to start partying. But I know, that the silent Andalite in my head would have…
CHAPTER THITY-FOUR
< They have come! > I gasped.
I truthfully did not know what to tell her. Telling her anything might have made her feel worse than she was. Besides…
And what is Heroin? I still didn't understand.
< They'll kill us probably, > She muttered suddenly. She seemed to loose all hope.
< Why? We are saved and- >
< No you idiot, who knows that we are on the Blade ship? For how many years have we disappeared? You were counted dead for two years, me more. The Andalites will just want to blow the Blade ship off orbit. >
I fell silent. She was right. No one knew we were here. No one. Unless we gave them some kind of message! But how?
< You remember the way you got me unconscious? Before… Before I supposedly died…? >
< You mean when you saw flashes of me doing things? Wow, that's a long, long time ago huh? >
< Yes, do you think you could do something similar to our friends? > He asked.
She was silent I could hear her thoughts, measuring the odds, doubting it's power. But finally…
< Yes, I think I can, but you have to help me concentrate. Keep my mind off things… I can do if to people who are very close to me. But these people can also be the ones you know most. Depending on the level of concentration. >
< Thank you. > I whispered.
< Don't thank me just yet. I haven't done anything. > Her tone changed suddenly, < You don't exactly enjoy being out of your body and into my brain huh? >
No I thought, it had been a fairly terrifying and strange experience.
I watched the Visser through her one remaining eye. He had run out of the room. Leaving her to the guards.
Xiang turned towards her and snorted at her. She had begun whimpering in pain.
"Throw her into the cage. The Andalites may have come in full force. The Visser would want to conceal the Blade ship in the ground bases. We will not be able to maintain power on orbit." He looked at Devils, "We certainly don't want her making any trouble. We got as much as we can take."
Devils began to fill up with hatred, hatred at him for hurting her. The hatred and pain he and the Yeerks had caused for her.
She got ready to pounce. The Yeerks opened her cuffs and yanked her up the chair. She surprised them by slumping down to the ground. She actually hit the ground hard.
< You could have at least slowed the fall. > I objected, even though it hurt nothing to me.
< I want them to buy it. > She replied.
Xiang looked down in horror at Devils. She slowly closed her eyes and held her breath, not for long her heart had started beating faster.
"Oh, no, don't tell me she died." He reached down to check.
Devils opened her eyes slightly. Adrenaline pumped through her body as the distance between Xiang's hand and her wrist closed in.
Very, very suddenly she jumped up snarling and growling, she jumped at Xiang and furiously started ripping the flesh of his arms with her long sharp nails. She bit down on Xiangs shoulder muscles. Really hard.
"Arrrrgh!" He bellowed. Trying to shrug her off.
Devils hung on for dear life.
< I had a feeling that this was a bad idea. > I moaned.
But she was not listening. She was furious and fired up in her own rage. Her vision went red as Xiang grabbed her injured arm. She yowled in pain. Her body could no longer withstand the pain. Her outburst had done damage. The boost given off by the rage was diminishing. She was weakening!
Xiang threw the young human female off his back and she landed with a yelp.
"Stay there!" He boomed.
< Devils? >
She didn't answer. I felt her slowly loose consciousness.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
When I woke up, I saw that I was in a cage. It was not big… nor was it too small. It was made of thick steal bars and barley any light came through. For the first time in two years. I felt like I had privacy… Except for the other person in my brain. But he wouldn't bother me. And for know, I could jut be me.
I peered through the bars. I was not at the Blade ship anymore I was in… a Yerrk pool, I mean not in the yeerk pool but somewhere in that place. How did I know? It was simply because of what I was hearing and the atmosphere of despair that hung around. For a long time I sat in the cage. There where two Hork-Bajir guards near my cage. But they couldn't see what I was doing.
And what was I doing? Nothing. Why didn't I morph? I don't know. I didn't morph and I would never have. Not even to save my life. The reason behind that defied logic and…
I wanted more… More of the… My body had a sharp craving for the drug. And I felt mentally sick. I was turning mad with the feeling. The feeling to want it. Oh, Lord no!
< Devils? I have been meaning to ask you->
< Don't call me that. > I had lost every thing. My friends were no longer with me… They think I'm dead. Julian would hate me for what I had done before supposedly died. Sure he would ignore it, but he would hate me. Secretly. I was the only one in the group who lived on evil. I craved for it, and I had carved it on them. I had leaded them. Not in democracy, but in an autocracy. No wait, it was a Dictatorship… Where I was the dictator. They all hated me, and, now tasting freedom from me, they would hate me more.
My parents… the way they… no don't think of that, you left that behind. You ran away. You lived with the wild. Right? You no longer needed them.
But my parents… My brothers… I said NO! It was madness! Trying to stop myself from remembering my past. The past that had destroyed me more than the war. But that didn't matter nothing did. That was then… This is now.
< Then what should I call you? > He asked.
Call me? Call me the name my brother used to call me… No don't, I thought to myself. I laughed to myself suddenly. The Hork-Bajir turned round and stared at me. What would the alien think of the way I thought? Good Grief, I was driving myself bonkers!
Never the less… Back to what I was thinking. What should he call me? I didn't know. What about my real name? No. This was something in the past. It does not exist anymore. Call me… Call me…
< Julia. > I said suddenly. Julian and Julia. Julia and Julian. It made me smile.
< Okay. > He said, < Julia, What is Heroin? >
The smile on my face evaporated.
< What is Heroin? > I repeated stupidly, < You don't know the White lady? >
< What? >
< Heroin is a plant. >
< Is it edible? > He asked. It was what he was obsessed with. The sense of taste was something he would marvel at. Well, fine. Let him take it all. I wished I no longer had it. I want not to taste what I was eating.
< I don't know if the leaves are edible but they make a drug out of it. >
< That's good, but what are they trying to treat you against? > He sounded puzzled.
< NO, that's NOT good. Heroin is addictive. It totally ruins your body chemistry. It destroys you physically… but that's not the worst part… the worst part… is that it ruins you mentally as well… The craving for the drug. It's a strong sedative… Almost. If you take it, it'll stop you from feeling your current emotions. If you are in pain. The pain evaporates. Leaving you in a state of happiness and delight. You have nothing to worry about. You become less aware of what is happening around you and you are happy because emotions like hurt, sadness, anger, despair, had all vanished. Gone, out of your life for that moment… But that's when you are high. And to get high again you need a bigger amount of the drug. Your system will readjust each time and start demanding for larger amounts. Your body wants to get the rush, the feeling of being high. When you are not given the amounts you need. Your body-since it had become addicted to the drug and changed you're body's chemistry- will start to become destroyed. Crippled of the demands. The demands you will not get. You will be wretched in pain. Mentally and Physically. Life will become unbearable without the drug. You will despair and feel that you life is so miserable. And suddenly you find a stronger drug that beats these demands! This will be most likely Cocaine, the strongest of all drugs. The lord of all drugs! You take it once. You love it! Your high! Nothing else matters! When you wake up and start craving for a bigger amount you take it and suddenly!!! > I stopped for a dramatic effect. I wanted him to understand the downwards spiral that I was in.
< And suddenly what?!> Good, he sounded scared and terrified, terrified!
< And then, you take a bit too much. And the strain your body had been caring becomes stronger. Unbearable. Your body is practically flooded with drugs… Then suddenly you are D.e.a.d. > I fell silent after that.
I was panting, feeling… Desperate. Wanting out of this situation. Death was certainly not on the list of choices. The last thing I was going to do was get myself killed.
Who knew what happens to you when you died? Excuse me, but I don't just believe that you disappear and cease to exist. No, nothing in this Universe or any other. Could destroy your soul. Nothing.
My friends think I don't fear death. Well they were wrong. I did. I am only fearless of death in battle. I am never afraid of death when I battle. No, it never happened. But dying as a sick helpless creature. That really scares me. Very.
< Julia? > He asked.
< Huh? >
< Can you escape that fait? >
I'm not an optimist. I never was. I am a pessimist. For me, the glass is always half empty. I never said that the glass was half full.
< No. >
CHPATER THIRTY-SIX
He kept quite after that, didn't talk much. Probably scared every last living line in him. I didn't care. All I cared for…
BBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The ground shook! The earth itself trembled. At the far side of the pool, an explosion could be seen. Water in the Yeerk pool steamed up and evaporated. People were screaming. The caged humans and Hork-Bajir screamed too. But soon their screaming changed to frenzy. A frenzy of cheering.
< What is going on? > Ax asked shaken.
< I don't care, that's none of my business, > I wasn't lying; I seriously didn't care about what was happening. If the heavens fell to the ground I wouldn't have moved.
< Why don't you see? >
< I don't want to, I'm tiered. >
It surprised me, but I was.
My eyes stared blankly outside the bars. I wasn't concentrating on what I was seeing. I wasn't, but someone else was.
< PRINCE JAKE! > I screamed.
I saw the stripped demon jump gracefully on the back of a Hork-Bajir.
A Grizzly bear hurled a seven-foot long Hork-Bajir right through the air and into the pool.
A Red-Tailed Hawk, flew, harassing the eyes of the controllers, making it impossible for them to shoot.
< TOBIAS! > I yelled.
A Gorilla, stood banging it's gigantic fists to it's chest.
A wolf bared its teeth.
They were here! All of them and…
I saw a panther. A black panther. You wouldn't see pink ones. No, those only came from the T.V. According to my friends that is. Me? I never opened a TV willingly.
That was… Max, Max had a leopard morph. People sometimes called Black Leopards panthers. That's fine. Leopard, Panther. The same thing. I know because I have been up close to one Very close. Up close and personal. Ouch.
I saw a Polar bear. Yes, a polar bear. Salix always takes the funny choice. But a bear is good. A bear is strong. Sure it's strong, but when a polar bear is just sitting around, you'd have thought that it couldn't hurt a baby. Uhuh, that's true. And pigs might as well fly.
Looking closer at the bear, there should be… Yes there was! A ring of black, A Cobra. A king Cobra. Julian.
Where were the others? No one but the Animorphs, Max, Salix and Julian were around. And why did Julian take the Cobra morph? He had a white Bengal Tiger morph.
< On further note, > I told the Andalite, < Don't scream, it hurts my head. >
He didn't answer. I can guess why. He was looking around for Dagmar. I bet. He talked about her a lot. In the time I was with him. Pity me. For two years I had to listen to an alien's raving about someone he likes. Pretty much like Max when he got a crush on Salix.
< There she is, > He whispered in awe.
I didn't have enough energy to roll my eyes.
With Dagmar was a Cougar. Guttani.
They were all fighting. The wolf came to stand near my cage. And looked into the gloom curiously. Pure wolf gaze. The wolf came closer to the bars. But it couldn't see anything. It was too dark inside.
< That's Cassie! > Ax yelled.
As silently as I could I knelt down towards the wolf. It had not noticed my move.
"Boo!" I yelled.
The wolf yelped in surprise and scurried back. I laughed.
It looked at the battle, then at my cage. It stepped closer to my cage.
Looked up at me with the keen wolf eyes. A morph, Cassie? Was that her name. Yeah… It was one of the Animorphs. Ax talked about them. It was kind of boring to just sit and listen to the wall for two years. So we talked. Him and me. He told me about the Animorphs. And I told him about the Kanagers and the Germans.
That was Cassie, the soft one. At least, that's what I concluded. And I saw Rachel, Marco, Jake and Tobias fighting.
Max came skidding near Cassie in his Panther morph. Claws that could have climbed a tree, had no ability to cling on metal. A tiger would have done better. A cougar or a mountain lion would have done a lot better.
< Cassie? What are you doing? > He yelled, not watching his thought speak, he said it loud enough so that I could hear. No one was near my cage except them. The Hork-Bajir Guards lay in a heap in their own blood.
She looked at my cage. She must be speaking to him.
I decided to announce my presence.
"Would you open the door kind man?" I said it in a hoarse whisper. "Max, Max the Cat you were… Not better than the cat I was…"
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I had been known to play around with cats. I was the one who provided all the morphs for my friends. I loved cats. Especially the big cats. I opened a place back home in the Savanna, for cats that had been breed in my world. A cat abused and can no longer live in the wild. A big house for unwanted cats… They didn't deserve to die…
The house, if you would call it that. More like a Castle. Used to be the Kanagers' base. We would live in that castle. The Kanagers and me.
Aside; would be a place were I kept all the Cats. I also kept wolves… bears and other animals that needed help. I trained some of the animals. We use to have this tactic. We'd release a large number of wild animals in Yeerk pools; they would do their destruction. And when I called. They would come. They would come to me. To their home.
This place is huge. It was also separated. Into groups. According to the animals. The dogs would be somewhere with the wolves. All in separate pens. The cats in another. The horses further away…
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Max jumped like he'd been electrified. He yowled in surprise spun around to face the cage.
< Oh God. The Yeerks found out who we are! > Cassie cried.
< No… No… It can't be… > Max whispered.
At that point, all turned to hell. More Yeerk troops came in. They roared when the saw 'Andalite Bandits'
< Get them! > Visser Three screamed.
He began to morph something hideous.
Max and Cassie were forced out. My friends left.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Max
It was her, no doubt to it. It was her. Period.
Cassie didn't know. She thought the Yeers knew who we are, or at least me.
"Would you open the door kind man, Max the Cat… no better than the cat I was…" That's what Devils said. Eblees. The name we gave her. The Germans changed it to Devils. Basically, it was the same meaning. Eblees is the Demon, the Devil, Satin. She lived up to her name. And, since she was back. The horror will return.
It wouldn't take her long to reassert her dominance over us. We will go back to Africa. She'll take us to our Base. The Kanagers' base. And Convert the Animorphs to Kanagers. I don't know what the Animorphs would make out it…
But she will be angry, at me, and at the remaining Kanagers. We lost all of the Germans and some of the Kanagers. Yes. The only survives of theses groups were me, Julian, Salix, Guttani, and Dagmar. So that's ten all together. We lost Ax, we really don't know how he died. Dagmar was upset the most, so was Tobias. The rest of the Animorphs were sad as well, I guess he meant a lot to them. It was sad too, to see hurt. I didn't really understand it until some of my friends died. But we stood together. We made it through.
And Devils came back to take all that away.
Back from the dead? I didn't know, all I knew was that she was supposedly killed in the sea. After a mission. Like always, Devils would be there, watching over us, protecting us from the wild. We were at the sea, near to the coast. But not near enough. We were all giddy from the victory we had faced. But Devils never celibrates. She once told me that even if every single last Yeerk was killed, she wouldn't celebrate. She said she would be triumphant, but celebrate? No.
Anyway, she was in the water with us. All of us had demorphed and were treading the water. Trying to get enough energy to morph again……
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
"Hey, Markus?" Alexis had called out,
"Ja?" Markus had replied.
"Let's go over and yank some of the boys under water. You know have fun." What an invitation it had seemed. Innocent, childish. Like the bunch of young teenagers we used to be. We started thrashing around, completely ignoring Devils' warnings. We never listened, why should we? We were invincible. Yah, nothing could happen to us. Visser Three and the Yeerks never get us. Nothing could.
Maybe that was the problem; we overestimated the Yeerks and underestimated our own wild world. A world so ruthless, that one mistake can take your life… or the life of the person who was trying to watch over your back.
Devils really got mad when we didn't listen to her. I never saw her get that mad. Devils being mad is one thing. But Devils furious? I didn't want to see that!
"Relax Cat," Julian had said, that's what he called her, "We're just having fun, you know fun. Didn't you hear the word before?"
Then we started screaming and yelling and fooling around. God we were stupid.
"WILL YOU SHUT UP?" She screamed at us.
Devils never does that, she never shouts, despite being leader and a dictator, she barley says anything. She all action and no talk, well, except for the odd disciplinary thing, it's hard keeping control over more than ten boys. Very hard. So usually, Devils had to either attract our attention by impressing us or by terrorizing us. It worked both ways.
After shouting she went very, very pale, "What was that?" She had said in a hoarse whisper.
Then her expression changed, "You are my responsibility," she had muttered softly to herself, then she yelled.
"Get out of the water! Get out of the water!"
We all panicked and took her seriously. We swam to the cliffs and climbed out of the water, the cliffs were our only chance, if we morphed, we'd be slowed down.
So we all went out except Devils.
"Where's Devils?" We asked. We waited for five minutes, she didn't come out.
"I'm going in!" Julian said.
Andreas grabbed Julian, "What are you? Insane?"
Before anything else could have happened it appeared. Startling us. It's head came out of the water.
"Arrrrghhhh!" Salix had screamed in terror.
White Shark, the Great White Shark, but that's not why she had screamed. Nope, that's not why.
For on the Sharks side deeply gorged in, was a Kangar, a dagger, Devils' dagger, Bloodied. The shark's teeth were covered in blood. So was it's snout.
Devils was no wear to be seen.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
I screwed my eyes hard to stop myself from remembering too much of what happened after that.
Sure Devils was dead, but not all of our little army had been grieving, some were happy. Yeah, no names mentioned….
So, Devil's was back.
I looked at the stars, then at Earth.
I cursed both.
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