Chapter 6
Now, I’ve never been the most trusting person, but I never had a problem with Sarah’s little... quirks. She was oddly temperamental, never moody, just easily angered, but you could depend on her for a lot of things - not that we did, because we just didn’t trust her - but if there was a mission, she would know about it and show up if she felt the need to. And she usually did, if only to make sure Ax and Tobias made it out in one piece. That’s friendship for you.
But, then again, Sarah had been a little more quirky then usual, especially with the emotional breakdown we had witnessed that morning. Something had happened to her and it was making her... weird.
< Who are we chasing again? > I dodged a tree branch, then another, then another. < Damn forest! >
< Sarah made a few personal enemies among the Yeerks. One of them is an... assassin, named Alay - the host’s name is Alay anyway. She’s been following Sarah since last night, as far as Sarah can tell. >
She thinks that my human form is a human morph - they all do. They have never seen me demorph, but they have followed me plenty of times. Just stay out of my way - this shena is mine. I knew what shena meant and would’ve grinned, had I had lips. It translated to something really not nice in English, something like a cross between a whore and a cattle animal called a reca. Hey, I’m not so inept at Sarah-lingo.
< Jake, this just screams trap, > said Rachel in private-thought speak that included everyone but Sarah. < She’s been weird all day, she feeds Tobias a weak story, and, now, all of sudden, we’re trailing someone we can neither see nor hear. I don’t like this. >
< Do you not like it because it’s Sarah in the lead or because you actually think it’s a trap? > The cold voice was Tobias, amazingly, as he stayed right on Sarah’s tail. He may have cared for Rachel a lot, but not when she was making accusations about Sarah. < Sarah, there’s a clearing ahead. She’s stopped and is waiting. >
Thank you, Tobi'as.
< Prince Jake, it has been almost two hours. We need to stop and demorph .> There was a silence.
< All right. Everyone stay in the trees. Sarah, hang back a minute. Let her think you’re demorphing, then morphing again. > Sarah stopped and hung back, eyeing the upcoming clearing angrily. If she had had fur, it would have been bristling.
< So how much of a problem is this Alay chick anyway? > I asked as I landed to demorph. Sarah looked back at me and frowned.
“She is a good fighter,” she whispered. “Stay clear and out of sight, or she will try and take one of you out as well.”
“You still there, Andalite?” The word was said with scorn and a small chuckle, as if it was some big joke. “Gehna, Sarah?”
“Iades gehan!” Sarah yelled back angrily. “All of you, stay here. You are welcome to watch, but do not get in our way.” She crept from behind the tree and disappeared into the underbrush. We all did the same, pausing at the edge of the clearing and staying hidden.
There was another person in the clearing, someone about the same age as the rest of us, with dark brown hair, almost black, with several blonde streaks, two of which fell over her face and framed a smile that wasn’t at all nice. She carried a thin sword in one hand and a book in the other.
“Long time no see, itala.” Sarah frowned and I saw fingers tighten into fists.
“Controller,” she sneered angrily. “Nice try, shena, but nadesei hitan plan will not work. You are not leaving this meeting alive.”
“Oh, I don’t plan on spreading my new information among the Yeerks,” said the other girl calmly, examining her fingernails and fanning herself with the book - I struggled to see what it was, but it was too far away to read. “You see, the more people who know, the less chance there is it will be me who brings one of your sorry carcasses in and gets a promotion. So, you see, it’s more beneficial if I alone know... well, maybe the other two can as well.” Alay smirked as a shudder went through Sarah.
“You... Iades murain na...” The Controller made a small sound of mock sympathy and pouted.
“Oh, does it hurt, little human?” she asked, practically purring. “Yes, they’re Controllers too. We took the strongest one first, this body, then forced her to watch as we took the other two. They screamed so nicely... wish you could’ve been there. We actually would have taken you first then and you would have seen it al-” Sarah was just suddenly there, directly in front the Controller, and had her down with one hit. She backed off, ready to hit again, her anger practically seething in the air around her. I had never seen anyone move so fast and, apparently, neither had the Yeerk, because it had come as a great surprise to her. She struggled up to her feet and glared daggers at her opponent, then wiped away the blood from her lip. “You... hit me... you aren’t supposed to be able to hit me!”
“You are confusing me with someone else then, Controller.” Sarah’s voice was like ice, hard and unforgiving. “Search Alay’s memories. Find every one of the times we have spared and know that I was there as well. Nothing you do can surprise me.” The Yeerk was silent a moment, then grinned wickedly. Something about this whole thing nagged at my mind... things didn’t add up, but I didn’t know why. I glanced at Jake, who seemed to be struggling with the same thought I was - this just wasn’t in line with what we had been told. Sarah and Alay had known each other...
“You’d like to think so,” said Alay, smoothly. “But, you see, like you, I prefer not to travel alone.” Sarah’s eyes flickered over to where we were, then back to Alay, who was smirking like a cat. She raised her hands above her head and a white fog began to spill out of them, falling like water through her fingers to spread across the clearing. Sarah gasped and backed away from it, her eyes darting around the clearing, as if there was something she needed to see. The fog began to encircle her, curving inward as no fog ever should. Sarah’s eyes locked on mine and she nodded, a grim determination set forward to cover the fear.
< She says to not let the fog touch you. It’s a sort of an... anti-oxygen, > said Tobias, slowly, as he got the information from Sarah. < Then why are you standing there?! > he yelled. < Get out of the clearing!> She gave a grin and shook her head. < What... the others? There are two other people in the clearing, she says, and that it’s not Alay doing making the fog... > I was more interested in the fact that the fog was being created. No one should be able to create fog, not like that...
“That goes with what she told us,” whispered Cassie, though to who, I didn‘t know. “But where are they?”
“Where are who?” I asked, irately, as I looked around the clearing. I wasn’t enjoying this a bit - evil people creating fog that was the opposite of oxygen, who could also speak, and understand Sarah’s language, even though they didn’t have an accent when they spoke English, like Sarah did - if there had been someone else to come to our area from Sarah’s hole in the wall little country that wasn’t on a map anywhere, we would have known. Hell, anyone else would mean we had over half of the population of the mystery country, since it wasn’t big enough to be on a map. And then there was what Tobias had said, about two others... I didn’t see anyone else when I was looking around, the clearing was empty, short of Alay and Sarah...
But...
I had this feeling, this cold pit in my stomach that said there were two more, not because of what Tobias had said, but because, if looked out of the corner of my eye, I could almost see them, but when I looked directly at them, there was nothing.
“There and there,” I whispered, to myself, pointing. One of them was very close to us, in fact, and if I focused on looking at Sarah, she was actually in the way of my vision. If these were the two doing it - I had no idea what it was, by the way, just that it was trapping Sarah, and dangerous, and looking at it made me sick to my stomach in a way I hadn‘t felt before - if these two were the ones causing it, then they would have to be stopped. “Do we have a plan or do we just rush in?”
“We don’t rush in,” said Jake. “We need to stay away from that fog at all costs.” The fog now covered everything in the clearing except a small space around Sarah’s feet. She was trembling and incredibly pale, but still standing with that determination in her eyes.
“Just give in, lina itala!” laughed Alay. “You can’t beat us! You’re too weak!”
“Kaiajai-!“ The small space caved and the fog wrapped around Sarah, practically dragging her to the ground with it. She collapsed, vanishing under the surface of the fog and the Controller lowered her hands, grinning.
“That was too easy,” snickered Alay. “You would think she would have been harder to take down.”
“Do not underestimate her,” warned a voice before two more girls appeared, in the same place that I had sorta seen them before. And, as more of a surprise - since we hadn’t had enough of those - one of them looked exactly like the Sarah. The other was slightly taller, with a mass of uncontrolled brown curls and hazel eyes full of hate.
“Can we just go back already?” she asked. “This human body is weak and frail - I wish I could use that power thing in a useful body, like a Hork-Bajir.”
“Or an Andalite?” asked Alay, coolly. “With this one, we might be able to kick Visser 3 out of his body - then you could have it.”
“That,” said the girl. “Would be wonderful.” The one that looked like Sarah pressed her palms together, then spread them apart, dispersing the fog. Sarah lay completely still amongst a mass of brown plants and dead grasses. She looked... dead.
< This is our chance, > said Tobias. < We can’t let them take her. >
“Can you and Ax cause a diversion?” Jake asked Tobias.
“Be careful,” cautioned Cassie. “Don’t kill them.” Ax nodded gravely as Tobias swooped out of the branch. He would have to get some air before he could do any damage to them.
“Everyone but Marco morph bird of prey,” continued Jake. “Marco, you morph gorilla and get Sarah while we keep them distracted.”
“Can do,” I replied. How fun. I got to play the hero to Sarah - I hope I was getting good brownie points for this. Given, any points with Sarah would have been good to have...
I morphed while the others did, taking my time so the gorilla bulk wouldn’t give us away until after the others were causing trouble. I heard Tobias screech, then one of the girls scream as a mad bird attacked her suddenly and without warning. Ax leapt into the clearing and there was a dull thud that could only be someone getting the broad side of a tail blade. I actually pitied whoever it was...
“Andalite!” A pissed off yell that wasn’t Alay. “I’ll kill you!!”
< Yeerk, you would not have a chance. >
“Stop arguing with it!” said another voice. “He already took out Epsil. Just grab the human and let’s get the hell out of here!”
“Are you dumb?” snapped the first one. “She is one of them, you moron! And if there is one, all of the others are here too! This mission is a failure...”
Got that right, I thought to myself.
“Me? Dumb? Are you forgetting, stupid, that these bodies can control the elements? Where were you in the last fifteen minutes when we created that fog?” Silence...
Oh, for pete‘s sake! < Ax, just knock them out already, before they hurt themselves! > I called with thought speak. These were obviously not your average Yeerks - they were a whole lot dumber.
Chapter 4
Library Desk
Front Desk
