(Jake) My name's Jake. And frankly, I was tired of being him. Being one of the five humans who was basically Earth's only line of defense against the Yeerks. Yeerks are small gray slugs that crawl in your ear and control your body, tap into memories, and use them to fool your friends and family.
I mean, if you look at our situation, it's really kind of unfair. Not only are we soldiers, but also teenagers. Most people would think that in itself would be enough to drive you crazy. Us five are fighting in a war where there's no mercy.
Let me tell you, you don't know fear until you see a 10 foot long worm that is so cruel,it would readily eat one of their own kind's bodies, even if they weren't dead yet. Those are Taxxons, allies of the yeerks. Or even worse yet, a 7 foot tall monster covered in deadly razor blades. That's a Hork-Bajir. Despite their frightening appearance, Hork-Bajir are basically a peaceful species.
If that doesn't get to you, well, I've saved the best for last then. The abomination. The only known Yeerk in the whole galaxy with an Andalite body. Visser Three. His body may not look as threatening as a Hork-Bajir's, but just hearing it speak would make anyone want to shrivel up and die. I can't tell you how much I hate the Yeerks.
I hated them for making me sacrifice me and my friend's childhood. I hated them for taking my brother and turning him into a mindless slave with no hope for salvation. I hated them for making Cassie feel as if she were losing her soul.
She's probably the reason I keep fighting. She didn't deserve to live her life in fear, none of us did. But we'll keep fighting, until the Andalites come. But for now, we were meeting in Cassie's barn to talk to Erek, who had important information about the Yeerks.
The last bell rang, signaling the end of school. I exited the classroom and started down the hall. I spotted Marco leaving a classroom down the hall.
"Hey Marco," I said walking towards him.
"Hey man," he replied. We walked down the hall towards his locker. Marco is a little on the short side, but don't tell him that. He has dark shoulder length hair and olive skin. Marco is always making dumb jokes and sarcastic comments. You wouldn't think we'd be best friends, but we are.
"Did you talk to Rachel yet?" I asked Marco. Rachel is my cousin. She's tall, and has long blond hair and blue eyes. At first glance you'd probably think Rachel is some stupid ditz. Let's just say that if you ever said that to her, don't count on walking away without a broken nose. He shook his head.
"Yeah, she said Erek's gonna meet us in the barn after school," he said.
"Tell Cassie I'm gonna be about a half an hour late, okay? My mom told me to come straight home today. Don't ask," I said, after seeing the expression on Marco's face.
"Oh yeah, we wouldn't want Cassie to worry Cassie,now would we?" he said slyly.
I guess it's no big secret that Cassie and I like each other. She's the kind of person you can talk to if you have a problem because she's very thoughtful and trustworthy. She has short, black hair and dark, beautiful eyes. Not to mention she has the prettiest smile I've ever seen. Cassie's parents are both vets, and her mom works at The Gardens, a nearby amusement/wildlife park. Her dad runs the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic, aka Cassie's barn. She helps him feed and care for the animals. This partially explains why she dresses so casually. Her and Rachel are best friends, and she's constantly on Cassie's back for her wardrobe.
"Shut up Marco" I replied dryly.
"See ya," he said, laughing down the hall. I shut my locker and walked out of the building. As I was walking towards my house, I saw a red-tailed hawk flying around. Tobias.
Tobias is a nothlit, which means he's permanently stuck in hawk morph. Not really anymore, because the Ellimist made it so he can morph again, even to his human form. In his human body, Tobias has dirty blonde hair and thoughtful brown eyes. He was kind of a loner, and I guess he still is.
Cassie thinks Rachel and Tobias like each other, which is probably true because Cassie can sense those kind of things. I sighed and walked across the yard and into my house.
"Hi Jake," my mom said, sitting in the living room. There were four suitcases on the floor.
"Hi mom. What's going on?" I asked casually, sitting down on the sofa.
"Well, it turns out that your father and I are both going away this weekend. The medical seminar was scheduled the same day as my writer's workshop," she said with a worried look on her face.
"Don't worry mom. Tom and me will be fine," I said.
"I know, I'm just a little worried", she said. I stood up.
"Do you need any help packing?" I asked. Mom shook her head no.
"That's okay." I started walking toward the door.
"In that case, I'm off to Cassie's. I'll see you later," I said. For a second there was a sort of concerned look on her face. But then she just smiled.
"Bye Jake."
Cassie's farm is kind of far from my house, so I grabbed my bike and pedaled towards her house. As I approached the barn, I could hear Marco and Rachel arguing. I faintly heard Cassie telling them to quiet down, you're scaring the horses.
I laughed a little to myself. Marco and Rachel were almost always biting each other's heads off, and Cassie was always telling them to calm down.
Everyone was there, including Erek. Cassie turned away from a kestrel with a broken wing and smiled at me.
"Hi Jake," she said. I grinned back.
"Hi everyone," I said. Erek was sitting on a bale of hay next to Marco. Rachel was leaning against one of the rafters where Tobias was perched.
< Hey Jake > he said. I sat down on the bench near the door and Cassie joined me. Erek stood up and cleared his voice.
"Well, I have some good news-"
"Oh joy," said Marco sarcastically. Rachel elbowed him.
"-and some bad news," he said. Marco sighed.
"I knew there was a catch," he said. Erek ignored him.
"What's the good news?" asked Cassie. Erek turned towards her.
"Well, the Yeerks are developing a new breed of Yeerk. One that won't be so dependent on Kandrona rays," he said. Marco threw his hands in the air.
"You mean if the testing is successful the yeerks wouldn't have to go down to the pool as often? That's the good news?" he asked.
< Let him finish > said Tobias. Erek continued.
"Luckily, the process of testing and manipulating Yeerk DNA takes time, and we can be pretty sure they won't be able to run tests on existing Yeerks without having a cover-up story," he said. I realized what he was saying. So did everyone else.
"So what you're saying is, we find out where they're doing the testing, destroy the facility and kill the super-yeerks," said Marco. Rachel flashed her white teeth.
"Let's do it," she said. Something about what Erek had just said disturbed me, and judging by the look on Cassie's face it effected her, too. I quickly focused my mind to the situation at hand.
"Well, when is the best time for everyone to do this? My parents are gonna be out of town all weekend, so I'm open for suggestions," I said.
"I'm free after school Friday. Is that okay for everyone?" asked Rachel. Everyone nodded yes.
"I'll give you the location on the testing facility as soon as possible. Catch you later," said Erek. He left the barn. Marco stood up and stetched.
"I gotta go too. Homework," he said, and I understood.
"I didn't know animals could do homework," said Rachel sweetly. They both left the barn, arguing. Soon it was just me and Cassie. She laid her head on my shoulder.
"So we're going on another mission," she said a little sadly. I lightly brushed her cheek.
"We'll stop them eventually, Cassie. I know we will," I said, trying to believe my own words. We sat in a comfortable silence for a few minutes. After a while I stood up.
"My parents are expecting me home soon," I said.
"Me, too. My dad's probably wondering why I'm still out here." Cassie stood up.
"Goodnight Jake," she said.
"You too." She headed towards her house, then looked back once and smiled. I felt myself smile back. Cassie didn't know how much her smile meant to me. I walked home, feeling slightly more at ease than I had come.
(Cassie)
After school, everyone gathered at the place where Erek told us the testing was being done. Basically, two of us were going to stand guard while the others destroyed the facility. We were all there, except for Jake. We waited for about 15 minutes before Rachel spoke up.
"Maybe we should do this tomorrow. I can't stay out too late and we need to get inside," she said.
"He'll be here," I said. I had a feeling the reason why Jake was late was because it had something to do with Tom. I was right. About five minutes later Jake jogged up to us. He looked really upset.
"What's wrong?" I asked. He looked at me with sad eyes.
"It's Tom. He left a note that said he was on a camping trip with the Sharing," he said. My eyes widened at the realization.
"He's involved in this somehow, I mean what if I have to-" Jake choked on the last word. I took his hand.
"Listen, if you're not comfortable with this, we can handle it some other way," I said softly. Jake looked torn. It made me sad to see just how much Jake had to deal with.
We had been talking off to the side, so Marco, Rachel and Tobias came over to us.
"Are we going or not- Jake what's wrong?" asked Marco. Jake still looked upset so I spoke up.
"We think Tom is apart of this project," I said. Jake stiffened a little.
"Let's go," he said forcefully. We headed toward the side of the building, where it was a little less exposed. We shed our outer clothing and morphed to flies.
< Everyone okay? > I asked. There was a chorus of yes's, and one no from Marco. We flew threw a crack in the window to a storage closet and demorphed. I could hear snatches of a conversation on the outside.
"Prototype.....No one can tell....Of course HE knows...Better hope it goes well..." One of the voices sounded familiar. It was Tom. Jake looked a little pale, and I gave him a quick hug. He seemed a little better.
"Battle morphs" he whispered. Marco morphed gorilla, Rachel grizzly, Tobias Hork-Bajir, Jake tiger and I became a wolf.
< Rachel > said Jake. Rachel easily knocked the door off its hinges and we barreled forward. A few controllers whipped their heads toward us.
"Andalites!" they all hissed at the same time. We continued on, ignoring there pitiful efforts at shooting off regular guns. Marco, Rachel, and Tobias ran through double doors that said Confidential Testing. I could hear screaming and crashing sounds inside. Jake and I guarded the door, making sure no controllers could get in. Finally, they came out, all of them with a few cuts and bleeding.
< Is everything gone? >asked Jake.
< Everthing > said Tobias.
< Rachel made sure of that > added Marco. Rachel ignored him.
< Come on, let's get out of here> I said.
I turned my head around, frantically searching for him. Finally, I spotted him a few yards away from where I was.
"Not so brave now, are we, you Andalite filth!" said a familiar voice. I saw a figure holding a dracon beam to Jake's head. My heart stopped. It was Tom.
(Jake)
My whole body started trembling uncontrollably. Tom, my brother, the guy I'd known all my life was about to kill me. I tried to tell myself that it wasn't Tom anymore, but it didn't help. Tom smirked.
"What's wrong? Afraid?" asked Tom. I didn't dare reply. I don't even think I could've, I could barely even breathe. I knew that I was going to die, but despite this I tried to comfort myself with the fact that Cassie and the others had gotten away. The thought helped a little. Almost if responding, I heard Cassie's voice in my head.
< Jake? Listen, I'm in the corner behind the table. Don't look > she said. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw a flash of silver. Without outwardly acknowledging her, I yelled at her in thoughtspeak.
< Cassie, you have to go now! You can't stay here! > I yelled in her head.
< I'm not leaving without you, Jake > she said defiantly. Before I could stop myself, I jerked my head in her direction.
< Please don't do this > I pleaded with her.
"What?" said Tom. He noticed my sudden movement and quickly turned in the direction I was looking. He spotted Cassie and gripped the weapon tighter. Before he could shoot it I knocked his side with my enormous paw, making sure not to cause him too much damage. The dracon flew from his hands. I lept over Tom's slightly damaged body and ran towards Cassie.
< Are you okay? > she asked quickly.
< Yeah. Come on, let's go > I said. I could see the pitch blackness of the night through the gigantic hole in the wall. We ran until we saw an abandoned warehouse. We stopped to demorph. As soon as the changes were done, I leaned against the wall and looked at Cassie.
I realized that she had just risked her life for me. I was so grateful towards her for it, but I was also a little mad. I would've never forgiven myself if Tom had hurt her. Cassie meant everything to me, and so much more. She didn't know it, but there was something in her that kept me going. Just the thought of losing her brought tears to my eyes. A single word came out of my mouth.
"Cassie." She came closer to me and I held her close. I could feel her steady heartbeat. She started crying a little. I pulled away for a moment.
"What's wrong?" I asked. Another tear slipped down her face.
"I'm just so glad I didn't lose you," she said softly. I looked into her beautiful brown eyes.
"Cassie, I want you to promise me you'll never put yourself in danger for me," I said forcefully. She looked right back at me. I don't think she really had any idea what effect those eyes had on me. They possessed sadness, but also strength. They didn't just see you, they saw inside you as well. Finally Cassie spoke up.
"I can't do that, Jake. I'm sorry. I would've done the same thing again. You're always so strong for us, and you needed me to be strong for you," she said sincerely. I felt my pulse race a little faster. I was so overcome with emotions, I didn't stop the words I had kept in me for so long from flying out of my mouth.
"You're the most amazing person I've ever known in my whole life. Sometimes I wonder, where did she come from? I mean, you're so caring, so sincere. So beautiful." She blushed a little.
"There's no words on Earth to express to you how much I love and admire you, Cassie. There's times when I think, damn, what did I do to deserve this life? But then, I remember you, and then I know. We may have been thrown into a war, but having an angel with me makes it so much easier to survive," I said. I took Cassie's small hands and intertwined her fingers with mine. In that moment I knew I had found my love. We kissed, long and hard. I wrapped my arms around Cassie's waist and put her arms around my neck. She rested her head on my shoulder. We sat in silence for a while until I realized how late it was.
"We better head home," I said softly into her ear. She pulled up and stretched.
"You're right. I was supposed to spend the night at Rachel's but it's way too late. My parents think I'm there right now," she said a little guiltily. I knew it was too late for Cassie to go to Rachel's house, or even back to her own. Then I remembered my parents were out of town for the weekend.
"It's okay with me if you stay at my house," I said, trying to sound nonchalant. Cassie put on a mock disapproving look, then quickly stood up.
"Thanks, Jake," she said, smiling. I stood up.
"It's no problem," I replied. We had just started walking toward my house when Cassie stopped abruptly.
"What about Tom? Do you think his Yeerk will be punished?" she asked worriedly. I noticed she said his Yeerk, and not Tom himself. I realized that any Yeerk who failed Visser Three, including the host, would either be severely punished or killed. I hated to think it, but I knew that neither one would be good. I must have had a pained expression on my face, because Cassie grabbed my hand and held it tightly.
"I shouldn't have brought it up. I don't think anything bad will happen to him. It wasn't all his fault, there were so many other controllers other than him involved," she said, trying to comfort me. It helped a little. As soon as we made it to my house, we quickly went around to the back in case there were any prying eyes.
I opened the back door with the key that was concealed inside a fake rock. I stepped inside and held the door for Cassie. She stepped in and I locked the door behind her. I glanced at the clock on the kitchen oven. 2:00 am. Way too late to call Marco or Rachel.
"Come on. You can stay in the guest room," I said to Cassie. She turned to me and smiled that smile. I got a little light headed and led her up the stairs. She stopped a few steps from my room.
"Would you mind if I borrowed a t-shirt? My leotard's kinda messed up. There was some dirt on it, not to mention a few small tears.
"Sure. I'll be one sec," I said. I entered my room and looked through my bureau until I found a t-shirt that was a little too small for me. I joined her back in the hall and handed it to her.
"It's a little small," I told her. She gave me a slightly skeptical smile.
"A little too small for you, on me it's probably still too big," she said, walking into the bathroom to change. I chuckled a little to myself and went to my room to change as well. I threw my morphing outfit into the corner and put on a gray t-shirt and a pair of boxers.
Cassie came out of the bathroom and stood in the doorway of my room. She was right, the shirt almost came down to her knees. I blushed a little seeing her only in a t-shirt. Cassie saw me because she laughed lightly.
"It's only me Jake, don't be embarrassed. Anyways, I looked in the guest room and I saw a few paint cans and wallpaper on the floor," she said. I could've slapped myself; I remembered my parents had just started remodeling the guest room a couple of weeks ago.
"I'm sorry. I completely forgot. Here, you can sleep in my bed, I'll take the couch," I said. Cassie shook her head.
"I don't mind sleeping on the couch," she replied. Now I shook my head. "No way. You must be exhausted, you can have it," I insisted. We kept straight faces for about 10 seconds before we both burst out laughing.
"This is getting us absolutely nowhere, and we need to get some sleep. Why don't we just split your bed?" she suggested. I had thought the same thing but I didn't want Cassie to think I was being forward. My dad was always telling me and Tom never to be forward with girls, whatever that meant. I think I understood what he was saying then.
"That sounds fair," I said. Cassie got on the bed and pulled the blanket over her. I crawled in beside her.
"Jake?" she said.
"Yeah?" I replied.
"You have cold feet," she said.
"Oh yeah?" I said, grabbing her side.
"Hey!" she cried, trying to squirm away. We both got tangled in the blanket and ended up falling on the floor. Cassie was giggling uncontrollably and I'm sure I wasn't far behind.
"You sure know how to make someone feel better, even if you say they have cold feet," I said. Cassie smiled a little.
"You too. It's okay to have fun every once in awhile. We're not teenagers forever," she said. I nodded and helped her back on the bed. I put an arm loosely around her waist and she rested her head on my chest. Despite the fact that Cassie and I had both almost died that night, I hadn't felt so happy since before the war.
"Goodnight, Jake."
"Goodnight, Cass." I drifted into a deep sleep, with the girl I loved by my side.
(Cassie)
"Awww, isn't that sweet?" cried a very annoying voice. Marco.
"Hmfm," replied Jake. I could feel him stirring, and then he woke up at the sound of Marco's voice. He sat up, and so did I.
"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" said Jake, a little angry. It wasn't just Marco. I could see that Rachel and Tobias was there, too. There were all kind of staring at us.
"Where were you two? Do you have any idea how worried we were?" said Rachel, obviously mad.
"Jake and I got held up by some controllers at the testing facility," I said. I didn't say anything about Tom. Jake looked a little relieved.
"By the time we got out, you guys were already gone and we were exhausted," I finished. Before Rachel could get in another word, Tobias cut in.
"Atleast you're okay. We thought you had been captured," he said. Marco then glanced at me and Jake, then shook his head like he was disappointed.
"I'm shocked. I really I am. I always knew Jake was primitive, but Cassie? You were always the good one," he said mischieviously. He glanced quickly at the t-shirt I was wearing.
"Makes you wonder what they did last night," he said sarcastically. Jake climbed out of the bed.
"Shut up, Marco, he said for like the millionth time. We all laughed. Rachel shook her head.
"Ignore Marco. We know why you had to stay here last night," she said. Tobias sat down at Jake's desk.
"Now that we know you two are okay, what do you guys say about a trip to the mall?" he asked. Rachel's eyes lit up.
"They are having sale at J.C Penneys. And I saw the perfect outfit for you Cassie!" she said excitedly. I grimaced.
"Good grief," complained Marco. Jake and I looked at each other and tittered with laughter. It was great having friends who you could have fun with and were always there for you, especially during this war. I'm not always sure about myself and the things I do, and sometimes I don't know if I can go on. But I knew that as long as Jake was there with me, I would be just fine.
The End