The Bond, Final Part

By-Mousie227

Chapter Three

(Jake)

Cassie woke me up the next morning at six.

"Jake, you need to get up remember school." She whispered as she shook my shoulder. I yawned.

"Okay, I'm up, I'm up." I said.

"You sleep okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, better than I have for awhile." I replied.

"Good, I'll see you at school okay?" She said.

"Yeah, see you." I said. She climbed down form the loft and went to her house. I sat there for a few minutes then headed home. No one was there; I showered and dressed, then headed for school. The day was pretty uneventful; I blew a math test that I had completely forgotten about.

That night my parents and Tom tried to recruit me again, I just told them that I had other stuff going on right now.

"Okay you don't have to join, but will you consider just coming with us this weekend?" My mom asked.

"This weekend?" I asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry we must have forgot to tell you, the sharing is having a weekend camping trip, We leave tonight and will be back on Monday." My dad said. Already it was starting I thought. Slowly their personalities would change to suit the yeerk. Not too quickly or someone would take notice though.

"That's okay, hey a weekend all to myself, great." I said.

"No parties, midget." Tom said. "Sure I promise no parties." I said. "Jake, no parties." My mom warned. I tried to smile at her.

"Well it's getting late, we should probably go. There's plenty of food in the fridge, and here's some money for a movie or anything you want." My mom said, handing me an envelope, I peeked inside. The yeerks were getting generous, seventy-five dollars.

"Okay I'll see you on Monday." I said. They waved and were gone.

I sighed and leaned back in my chair. Then I went up to my room. I pulled the money out. A folded piece of paper fell out; I leaned down and picked it up. It was from my mom.

Jake, I'm sorry you decided not to join us, we would have had fun. Here's some spending money, use it wisely. Think some more about joining the sharing, it opens up all kinds of new opportunities. Mom.

I stared at it, and calmly set it and the money down on the desk. Then I grabbed a clay paperweight and threw it on the floor; it broke apart with a satisfying crash. I looked at the mess, then turned around and left.

I was shaking, I went down and called Marco this weekend camping

thing could be someone. I calmly called him and explained what my mom had

said.

"Ok, I'll call Rachel, you call Cassie, and we'll head over to her barn,

okay man?" He had said. I agreed and called Cassie up to explain.

"Ok, sure. Jake are you okay?" She asked.

"I'm fine," I lied. Then I hung up and left for her house. Rachel was already there when I arrived. Marco came in about a minute later.

"So?" Rachel asked. "My parents and Tom left for this all weekend sharing thing, they said it was a camping trip, but I'm betting that it was just a front." I said.

"Prince Jake," Ax said coming into the barn. I looked up; Tobias was perched in the rafters.

"Don't call me Prince." I said.

"Yes, Prince Jake," Ax replied.

"So what should we do?" Cassie asked.

"I don't know, I have no idea where it even is," I said.

"They didn't mention anything about where they would be?" Marco asked. "No, just said they would be back on Monday." I said. "Well if it's anything big, Chapman would be going, maybe he

hasn't left yet." Rachel said.

"Okay, We follow Chapman." I said.

"We should probably call our parents tell them we're sleeping over at someone's house." Marco said. I nodded, they called using the phone in the barn, and Cassie called up to her house.

We morphed into our birds of prey, and set off for Chapman's. Perfect timing he was just pulling out of the driveway, with a duffel in the back seat. {Okay, we follow him} I said.

He drove for about forty-five minutes then pulled off onto a back road. {Hey what's that?} Marco asked.

{An old Ranger tower.} Tobias replied. I looked; He was pulling up into

a parking lot. It didn't look like an old ranger tower anymore There were new

windows, walls, and guarded. There were smaller buildings all around it, and

cars parked in the lot. We landed on a tree close to the tower.

{Can you hear what they're saying?} Tobias asked. Chapman was talking to a guard.

{Yeah} I said. I was the closest.

"Is the new Kandrona ready yet?" Chapman was asking.

"There were some complication, a small accident." The guard said nervously.

"What kind of accident?" Chapman snapped.

"One of the hosts, it gained control for a moment and shot the main computer with a dracon beam." The guard replied. Chapman snarled at him, and went in.

{He was talking about a new Kandrona.} I said.

{I'm betting it's in there.}

{So let's smash it.} Rachel said.

{There she goes again, I would like to live a little while longer.}

Marco said.

{We should plan this first.} I said.

{Okay, maybe we should talk to Erek.} Cassie suggested.

{Ok, let's go.} I said. We flew a few miles about landed, demorphed and remorphed. Then we went to my house.

"Hey what was that number that Erek said we could call, the one that couldn't be bugged?" I asked. Ax told me, and I dialed it up.

"Yes?" A voice answered.

"Uh, is Erek there?" I asked. "Just a minute." A few seconds later, Erek answered.

"Jake?"

"Yeah Erek it's me." I said.

"Have you heard anything about a new Kandrona?" I asked.

"No, I haven't why? Have you found something?" He asked.

"Yeah, we think so. Thanks I was just wondering if you knew anything." I said. I hung up and turned to the others.

"He doesn't know anything." I said.

"So what do we do?" Marco asked. Great, I had to decide.

"I don't know, try to destroy it," I said.

"I agree with that. When?" Rachel asked.

"I don't know, soon though, before it's operational." I replied. I sighed, another decision. What if it was a bad one? One of these days it wasn't going to turn out, one day I was going to go on a mission with six and come back with only five.

"Okay, well I have to go," Marco said, Rachel had gymnastics practice which she'd been missing a lot of lately, so she went also.

"Jake?" Cassie asked when they had left.

"Yeah?" I replied.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, I'm fine." I said as convincingly as I could. She shook her head.

"That may work on the others, but I know you Jake, something's wrong." She said. I sighed, was I that transparent? She had enough to deal with without having to deal with my problems too.

"Really Cassie, everything's fine. I'm just a little stressed." I said, hoping she would believe me. She didn't.

"Jake. Drop the act okay, don't try to hide from me." She replied.

"Listen you probably already know. It's my parents and Tom, they've been after me to join the sharing, it's just tough." I said.

"Okay, remember my barn is always open." She said. "I should go, I have chores."

I said goodbye and she left. I sat alone in the silence, until the sky darkened, and the room became pitch black. It was strange, they weren't even here, and yet I could still feel their eyes on me, cold and calculating when my back was turned, warm and deceivingly open when I was looking. I shivered, maybe I was going nuts, it was bound to happen sooner or later.

I stood up, my back screaming from lack of use while I sat still in the same position for so long. I went up the stairs to my room; I flipped on the light switch and looked at the mess of broken clay on the floor. I should

probably clean it up, but I didn't want to. It was strange looking at it. I

felt like that broken paperweight, once strong now just lying there, in

pieces. I crouched down and slowly picked up the pieces. I got some glue from

my mom's things and carefully fixed it.

There, I thought looking at it. Again it was me, broken, yet no one would know. That's what I did. When I lost control, can't let anyone know. Just patch me up, the breaks will still be there, but no one can see. I have to be strong. I'm the leader. I have to be strong for them, but I wasn't that strong sooner or later there would be too many pieces and not enough glue.

I put it back on my shelf, and changed into my sleepwear. I lay in bed for a while, not thinking about anything, just staring at the ceiling, and wondering why out of all the people in the world, it had to be me. I fell asleep on that bitter note. I dreamed that night, one of my regular dreams.

I was in a cage, Marco, Rachel, Ax and Tobias all standing there, controllers. It was just me and Cassie left. They came in and grabbed her. They slammed the door after her. I reached out through he bars she reached back and caught her hand. She reached out and grabbed my hands, I held on as tight as I could, I could feel her hanging on desperately.

"Jake!" She cried.

yeerk, all of you. Leave her alone. I'll destroy you for this! Cassie!" I cried.

I could hear her frantically calling my name, I yelled out every obscenity and threat I knew to no avail, They dragged her to the end of the pier.

"Cassie!" I sobbed one final time. Then I jerked awake. I was sweating,

but my skin was cold to the touch. My hand was shaking violently, as was the

rest of me, I noticed. I stumbled into the bathroom, and splashed water on my

face.

I looked into the mirror into my own eyes, and for a minute I didn't

recognize who was staring back. I took a drink from the sink then went back to

bed, the dream didn't appear again that night.

I woke up the next morning; the nightmarish dream that had wakened me still fresh in my mind, as it always was the day after I had it. Marco called while I was eating breakfast.

"Hey, Erek called me, he got this new CD and was wondering if we wanted to go listen to it. Cassie wanted to also so we're going to her house, okay?" He said. I knew the drill, which meant to get to Cassie's as soon as possible. "Sure," I said and hung up. My parents weren't there but we didn't want to take any chances about being overheard. I scrambled into my clothes and headed towards

Cassie's.

"So, what's up?" I asked as I walked into the barn. Erek looked over

at me.

"I've gotten some information. It appears that the new Kandrona is not

yet fully functional, because of this, the guard is not a strong. If you are

planning an attack, now would Be the best time." He said.

I groaned inwardly, another battle, possible death of my friends. "Okay, we go in tomorrow." I said. We talked about our strategy for a while. There wasn't an easy way in; we would simply have to do our battle morphs and charge the building, hoping our combined strength was enough.

"Ok, then tonight, well technically tomorrow. Meet here at 3:30 am." I

said. We split up and headed our separate ways to deal with the upcoming

events alone. I walked for awhile. Not going anywhere, I just walked, up and

down the neighborhoods until I came to my own house. I made myself a frozen

pizza. I hung out by myself all day, going over different scenarios. I went to

sleep early, knowing that I would need all the rest I could get.

My alarm beeped at 3:00, I slipped out of bed and took a shower to wake myself up, then headed for Cassie's.

"Ready?" I asked them when I went in.

"No." Marco said bluntly. We morphed birds, and flew away. There was no conversation, just a tense silence, except of course from Marco. We arrived at the correct spot, landed and demorphed.

"Okay, five minutes rest then we go." I said. Morphing takes a lot of energy, and we would need it later.

"Okay, battle morphs." I said after a few minutes. I concentrated on the tiger and felt the changes begin. Orange and black fur spread over my body and a tail slid out. Large sharp teeth grew in my mouth. I fell to all fours as my legs changed. Huge claws grew out of my weak human hands. My vision, hearing and smell sharpened.

{Okay, everyone ready?} I asked.

{No.} Marco said again.

{Let's go.} I added, ignoring him. We got to the edge of the forest and slid up to the door.

{Ax?} I said. He stepped up and punched in the code Erek had given us. The door opened and we walked through. The room was huge. Vast ceiling, and in the

middle stood a huge object, the Kandrona. All of a sudden and alarm went off.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! red lights were flashing. "Andalites!" Someone yelled. Hork-Bajir poured out of the doorways. Now the real test would begin I thought.

I lunged toward the nearest Hork-Bajir, he slashed at me with his blades, I evaded them and went for the throat. I kept fighting, against it seemed an

endless supply of enemies. I was tiring, my sleek coat soaked in blood some of

it mine some of it not.

{Go for the controls!} I yelled. I saw Ax running towards a computer panel, frantically typing in something.

{Prince Jake! I am finished; the Kandrona will explode in five minutes. They will not be able to crack the code I have used.} He said.

{Retreat!} I yelled. We fell back. Rachel out first, followed by Marco and Tobias, Ax was soon after. Wait a minute.

{Where's Cassie?} I yelled.

{I don't know. I saw her fall man, she's gone.} Marco said.

{No!} I cried.

{Wait I have to make sure!}

{Jake! This place is gonna blow you have to get outta there!} Tobias yelled.

{Not without Cassie! You guys go!} I ordered.

{I'm coming with you.} Rachel said. {No. You go.} I said.

{Jake! Cassie's my best friend you're my cousin I am not letting

you go alone.} She cried.

{Rachel! GO!} I yelled. {Ax, take her.} I ordered.

The last words I heard as I disappeared back into the building were. {Yes, my Prince.}

I raced back in, my sharp cat eyes searching for any sign of Cassie.

There! I saw her, surrounded by human controllers. She was hurt badly, barely

able to stand. Dracon beams were pointed at her head. I hesitated only a

second. We didn't attack humans in our battles, but Cassie was more important.

I leapt onto the nearest controller. He screamed as I slashed into his chest.

Dracon beams fired wildly.

{Cassie! Run!} I called. She didn't listen to me, using the last of her strength she latched onto the arm of a controller who was pointing a dracon at me. Taking care of the human-controllers was easy work compared to the Hork-Bajir, but I was badly injured. When most were down I called frantically to Cassie.

{Come one, the building will blow; we have to get out Now!} I headed for the back way, Cassie on hot pursuit. We had almost gotten to the exit before the Hork-Bajir came. They charged at us. I was weak from my injuries and so was Cassie but we fought. I fought until I though I would pass out from exhaustion and pain, which was probably only a few minutes because the building hadn't exploded yet.

{Cassie, we have to leave now!} I said. I saw an open spot.

{Look there, run for it!} I said. I ran to the back door her right behind me. We ran into the woods, a few seconds after we had cleared it a blinding explosion threw us further into the trees.

{Demorph.} I said. I focused on my human self and changed, my wounds left along with my tiger form. The same with Cassie. She looked at me when we were human again. Then she threw herself into my arms and held tight.

"You came back for me." She whispered. I hugged her to me.

"That was stupid!" She exclaimed.

"What?" I asked.

"You could have gotten yourself killed!" She said.

"I couldn't leave you there." I said softly into her ear.

"You should have, you almost died Jake." She replied.

"Yeah right, I would never have been able to live with myself, knowing I had left you in there." I said. She was shaking, this was the closest we had come to dying in a long time, we had barely had enough strength to morph, and even now I couldn't stand.

"Don't do that again. Don't scare me like that Cassie." I said brokenly. The adrenaline and battle high had left and I was shaking remembering how close I had come to losing her. She buried her head in my neck, and we rocked back and forth. Both exhausted. I heard car engines as vehicles pulled up, finding out about the explosion.

"We need to get out of here." I said, pulling her to her feet. I was so tired I didn't think that I could walk, but I pushed myself, as did she and we headed further into the woods.

Phseew! Phseww! Dracon beams cut the tree to our right. "I see someone!" I heard a voice yell. I grabbed Cassie's arm and pulled her into a run, I felt like I was going to fall over. More shots were fired. Cassie cried out in pain and stumbled.

"Cassie!" She was holding her side. I searched around wildly, there was a hill nearby through the trees I could see a cave. I thought briefly of bears but the though vanished as I heard the footsteps getting closer. I grabbed Cassie and pulled her into the cave. I helped her to the ground.

"Cassie, are you okay?" I asked.

"I think they, got me me with one of those shots." She groaned. I put my hand on her side, it came away sticky with blood.

"Cassie? Do you have enough energy to morph?" I asked.

"No," she whispered in pain. Through the faint moonlight peeking into the cave I could see her face crumpled with pain, I could also see her side, which was covered in blood. I lifted her morphing suit away from the wound. I felt the blood drain from my face. There was a groove cut out of her side, burnt skin around it, and it was bleeding heavily.

"How bad is it?" She asked.

"Not that bad." I said.

"Liar." She whispered. I pulled off my tight morphing suit bunched it up

and held it to her side. She hissed in pain.

"Oh jeez, that hurts," she said.

"You need to, to go. They're going to find us sooner or later, maybe you can get help." I knew she was fading because her voice was growing soft and she

was slurring her words. God, we had gotten out of the worst of it, and now

this was how it was going to end.

"Cassie, you need to wake up." I said desperately.

"I'm getting warmer," she whispered. I didn't know what that meant but it didn't sound good.

"No you're not, Cassie." I said. "I can't see you, I, its getting kind of dark in here. I'm really tired." She whispered.

"No you're not, Cassie. Come on don't fall asleep. Focus on the sound of my voice." I pleaded. There was no answer.

"Cassie, some on Cassie. You can't leave me here. I can't do this without you. I need you Cassie, come on. I love you Cassie; you can't leave me here alone Cassie. I love you, god please don't leave me." I said brokenly. I heard a squishing noise then, her face protruded outward, and she slowly morphed into wolf, when it was complete she morphed back to human. She seemed to be unconscious while doing it.

When she was completely human she pulled my face close and whispered. "I love you too." Then she fell asleep. I laid her back, and lay down next to her and slept. I woke up the next morning before she did. I nudged her awake.

"Cassie, we should leave." I said. She blinked slowly and sat up. I remembered my words the night before and felt like a complete idiot. I cleared my throat and went to stand up. She grabbed my hand and pulled my back down.

"Jake, about last night. I meant it." She said. I looked at her. "When I said I loved you, I meant it. I do, so much. I know what you're going to say. You'll say that we're too young to be in love for real, but we're too young for a lot of things, and I know that this is real. I love you, for who you are, who you really are. You put up such a strong pretense, a mask. I know what's behind

the mask Jake. I love you for all your faults, and all your strengths. For who

you are, who you've been and who you can be." She said passionately. I felt

the emotion well up in me. I took a deep breath.

"We probably are too young, but I don't think so. I love you too. I'm not that good at flowery words, but I do love you. You're the most selfless person I know. You give so much of yourself and ask for nothing in return. You care so much about life, any and every life." I broke off I had no idea what to say.

"For someone who's not good at words that sounded pretty good to me," she whispered. I leaned over and kissed her. I tried to put all the emotion that I felt into that kiss. She must have known it because she kissed me back with the same love, tenderness, passion and desperation.

"We should probably go and let the others know we're alive," she said smiling. I nodded, and helped her to her feet. I focused on my falcon morph, when we're finished we waddled out of the cave and made the difficult climb to the sky.

I looked over at Cassie, I never knew I could love someone like that, without reservation. Sure I loved my parents and my brother but that was different. Cassie was, she was everything to me. Things wouldn't be easy, but suddenly they didn't look quite so lonely.

The End???