Fighting Back #1: The Prelude

My name is Jake. Jake, as in leader of the Animorphs, Rachel's cousin, Cassie's-well, I won't go into that. But you know the story, right? Elfangor gave us the power to morph, we have to fight the Yeerks, all of that? I hope so, because I don't exactly have the patience to explain it to you. 4 years had passed since we got the power to morph. That's when Erek came to us with an idea.

"So why are we here again?" Marco asked impatiently. It was a pretty nice Saturday morning, and we were all in the barn. Marco was leaning back on his favorite bale of hay. Cassie was feeding one of the injured birds, Rachel was helping her, Ax was standing there not really doing anything, Tobias was sitting in the rafters, and I was waiting for Erek to arrive. Then Erek, the Chee, walked in.

"Erek, can you answer that question?" I said.

"Yeah. I've heard that defenses are down for the most part in the Yeerk Pools around the city. It was some kind of computer virus input into the system. No one was really giving out much information about it. They probably want to keep it from Visser Three." Erek explained.

"And this means..." Rachel trailed off.

"That means that if you plan to go into the Yeerk Pool any time soon and cause some damage, now would be that time."

"Oh, no. No, no, no, no. We are not going back down there! No way! And if you are, then leave me out. I mean, who knows what could happen? We could get caught!"

"Marco, grow up! I mean, haven't you ever heard the saying; 'That which doesn't kill us only makes us stronger'?" Rachel snapped at him.

"Yeah, but...but they wouldn't kill us down there! They'd catch us and make us all controllers!"

{Marco, you're starting to sound like a three-year-old.} Tobias warned.

"Guys, let's take a vote." I said tiredly.

"I say we go in." Rachel, of course, piped in with enthusiasm. Marco looked around the barn. I looked over at Cassie.

"If we're going to do this, we need to take time to think about what we're really doing." She remarked. That's what I've always liked about her. Her rationality. The way she thinks.

{I will follow you, Prince Jake.} Ax calmly stated. I didn't even bother to start with the 'Prince' thing. If that's what he wanted to call me, then so be it. I didn't really care any more.

{I'll go.} Tobias offered. I looked up at him, and then over to Cassie.

"I guess I'm in." She said at last.

"Then I'm in too." I declared after she decided. We all looked to Marco, who was still hunched over.

"What?! You're obviously going with or without me!"

"Yeah, but you have to agree to this." Rachel explained.

"Fine. Whatever. I'm in." He muttered with a sigh.

"Alright then. When is this happening?" Cassie wondered.

"How about in a few years?" Marco asked hopefully.

"Marco, live with it. You're going in to the Yeerk Pool and you're going to kick some Yeerk butt, just like the rest of us. Got it?" Rachel ordered. Marco looked at her, wide-eyed. Cassie grinned and shook her head slightly.

"This afternoon. Giving us some time to make up excuses and give them to our parents." I decided. Everyone agreed. Except for Marco, of course. I had a feeling he would never agree to any of our missions.

I morphed to falcon and flew out of the barn. It was a great day for flying, but I wasn't really into it, so I flew into my bedroom window and demorphed. I had a few hours to spare before we invaded the pool, so I decided to get a bit ahead on the report that we had due Monday. There was a knock at my door.

"Come in." I said, concentrating on typing up a rough draft. The door opened, and Tom walked in. I lowered my eyes back to the computer screen.

"Hey short stuff." Tom murmured, like it was routine. He sounded totally normal, and I resisted the urge to tell him not to act anymore. That the Yeerk role-playing was getting old. But that wouldn't help anything. That would have made things worse. And I kept my mouth shut.

"Hey." I said casually, trying not to let anything slip. Hey Yeerk. I snidely greeted silently. "So what's the big occasion for coming in here?"

"Nothing much. I was going to a special meeting at the Sharing. They're having a recreation day down at the park. I was wondering if you wanted to tag along."

No, I don't want to go to your Yeerk front organization meeting and have a slug shoved into my head, I thought to myself. What I really said was, "No thanks. I'm trying to work on this report before my grades go any lower." Besides, I have other plans...

Tom shrugged. "Fine. Whatever." Then he left for the park, I assumed. I continued typing, until the phone rang.

"Jake! It's for you!" My dad called. I picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Jake, this is Marco. Remember that report that we were going to work on together? Why don't you bring it over to my house?" Marco said. I knew what he was talking about.

"Sure. I'll meet you in the usual place...in about 15 minutes."

"Okay. G'bye." I hung up the phone and walked downstairs.

"Dad, I'm going over to Marco's house to do some work. I'll be back later." I said on my way out the door, not waiting for an answer. I walked to Cassie's barn to meet the others, because I wanted to save morphing for the Pool.

When I got there, Marco and Cassie were the only others there.

"Wow Marco, for once you're not the last one here." I told him.

"I know, it's an occasion we need to call the press in for." He smirked. A few moments later, Rachel walked in, seeming totally inconspicuous wearing a leotard with only jeans on top of it.

"I told my mom that I was going to an unscheduled gymnastics practice, and that it may last a while." She said. Then Tobias flew in, and Ax awkwardly walked in behind him.

"One...two...three..." Marco counted quietly.

"Well, let's do it!" Rachel exclaimed.

"Right on time!" He said. Rachel jabbed him in the arm and he put his hand over his new bruise.

"Which passage are we going to use, Jake?" Cassie asked.

"Remember the entrance in the Gap? Why not use that? I mean, we know it's still there and all." Rachel suggested.

"Okay, that may be a good idea." I said.

"Then let's go!"

"Ooh, Xena's all ready to go!" Marco joked. Rachel jabbed him again and I rolled my eyes, wondering if this behavior between them would ever stop.

"Come on." I said tiredly, walking out of the barn. We ended up walking to the mall instead of flying, since kids shopping in the mall wearing leotards would look a little out of place. We went into the gap and pretended to shop around. Each of us pulled one thing off of a rack. Rachel's item of choice, of course, was something I think she actually wanted. I went into the dressing room and pulled the mirror out, revealing steps down to the Yeerk Pool. Screams already filled my ears. I stripped my outer clothing and waited for the others.

Rachel walked in behind me, and the others followed her. Then I walked partway down the stairs. There was a kind of wall on each side of me, and when I saw the end of the wall I concentrated on the tiger DNA inside of me.

The changes began almost immediately. My senses sharpened, in about five seconds. I fell on all fours and my hands had become paws, with deadly claws at the end of what should have been fingers. The orange-and-black fur covered my body. My teeth grew sharp in my mouth, and I felt my spine stretch out to form a tail. I looked behind me at the others. Rachel was mostly bear by then. Behind her, Cassie was already full wolf, and Tobias had finished demorphing. Ax had finished as well. Marco was just finishing his morph to gorilla as I started walking down the stairs again.

I calmly walked into the pool. No one noticed. Not at first, anyway. Then a human-controller spotted me and he mouthed one word before I pounced on him: 'Andalite.'

A Hork-Bajir charged at me. I swerved, avoiding his thrashing blades, and threw myself on top of him. I slashed wildly and snarled as the Yeerk in that poor Hork-Bajir's brain pleaded and begged. But soon he was silent, and I felt something on my back.

I whirled around to face a Taxxon. I slashed at it a few times and the other Taxxons did the rest for me. Then I looked around, wondering if Tom was here. Or was he at that Sharing thing he said he was going to? Marco was opening a cage, but at that point he was still ripping the lock off of the door. I went over and he pulled the lock off. Tom was in the cage. Marco motioned for them to leave, and Tom thanked him. Then he stopped and looked at me.

{Go!} I shouted at him. He nodded and ran. I heard a dracon beam being fired, and then a scream. More firing, more screams, a few feet running up the steps of the pool. I began to escort people up the stairs, and my back got burned by one of the dracon beams. I turned around and ran to tackle the man who fired at me. I don't know if Tom made it away from the pool or not.

Then he showed up. Animorph Enemy number 1. Visser Three. The only Yeerk with an Andalite body. You can call him whatever you want. I snarled and stepped forward.

{Oh, if it isn't the Andalite Bandits who have so elusively tried to fight against the whole empire for the last few years. Well, my friends, the fight is over. We've won.} The Visser sneered. I stalked forward. Some woman came from behind him, pointing a dracon beam at me.

"You move, you die." She said. I looked for the others. I couldn't see Tobias or Ax. But I saw a lot of Hork-Bajir surrounding Rachel and Ax, and Cassie was being held at firing range, like I was.

{Looks like you've run out of ideas.} I racked my brain, trying to think of a plan. I couldn't think of one. I looked at Cassie, and she was looking back at me.

{Jake...} She started privately.

{Cassie, we don't have a choice.}

{Jake, we are not going to be taken!} Rachel cut in. {Free or die, remember?}

{Free or die.} I agreed half-heartedly.

{Where are Ax and Tobias?} Marco asked from farther away.

{Maybe they got out!} Cassie said hopefully.

{I really hope so, because I don't think they would really kill four perfectly good 'Andalite' hosts.} Marco groaned. Everything was strangely quiet. No one made a noise. The human-controller holding the dracon beam at me directed me towards a cage. I reluctantly walked in to it.

"Demorph." She ordered. I stood there, looking at her. "Perhaps you didn't hear me, Andalite. I said demorph!" She shouted. Cassie turned her wolf head to me and nodded.

{No one will be able to find Ax or Tobias if they've escaped.} She explained.

{They've got us all, man! There's no way one of us is going to get out of this. I mean, if the others aren't caught, then there's a chance...} Marco said.

{You aren't thinking about giving yourself up are you?} I asked, angry at Marco.

{I'm saying that if we become Controllers, the others might still have a chance at saving us.} I couldn't reason with him. He was already demorphing, and soon our secret would be out. In only a few minutes, everything would be lost.

"Human!" The woman said, looking at Marco. "You're a human! And the rest of you? Is that why you weren't in your natural forms?" She asked, finally putting the pieces together. Rachel slowly demorphed as well. I couldn't believe she was giving up. I mean, she was the one who embraced the 'free or die' philosophy. Cassie demorphed as well.

{They're giving up on you, human.} Visser Three told me. He was right. I hated to admit it, but he was right. I looked at the others, surprised at their actions. But I too demorphed. After a few minutes of thinking, though. Then we were led to the infestation pier, with our hands tied behind our backs. As I neared the end of the pier, one thought ran through my mind.

It's all over, Jakey-boy. You've failed. You've let your friends down, and your families, and the entire world. The end of Earth is on your head. And as they forced me to my knees, I saw two flies buzz above my head and fly away. Is it really over? I then asked myself. If one of us, or two of us, escapes, can it really be over? Don't give in, Jake. There's still some hope.

They forced my head under, into the sludgy water. I felt an immense pain as a Yeerk crawled into my ear. Then it stopped, and I couldn't move like I should have. I thought about the others. They had made their choice. They had lost their courage in the end. Free or die. It had no meaning to them now. They thought that there would be hope if Tobias and Ax had escaped. But what if they got caught before they could leave?

No one had thought about the long term consequences. No one. I couldn't believe myself. I had gone along with them. Maybe we were having a moment of temporary insanity. Maybe we were desperate. Maybe we just couldn't face death. I don't know exactly what happened. I should have charged at the woman who was holding me at gunpoint.

The Yeerk took control over me, and made me look around.

{My first human host. Pleasure to meet you, Jake. I'm Artan One-Seven-Four.} The Yeerk said privately.

{The feeling's not mutual.} I muttered.

{Too bad, too. Because we're going to be spending a lot of time together. I see your Chee friend Erek believed us about the fake defense problems?}

{What? That was a trick?}

{Yes. A very clever trick if I say so myself.} The Yeerk was silent for a few minutes after that, and then he spoke up.

{So you can morph. I don't believe that Prince Elfangor would break the rule of Seerow's Kindness. Especially since he enforced it so much.}

{Desperate times call for desperate measures.} I quoted.

{Tom...you wished for him to be free?}

{What do you care?}

{Well, he escaped. And before we get exposed, we have to get him back.}

{No!}

{Yes. It's necessary. Either that, or we kill him. Take your pick.}

{Is there a third option?}

{No.}

{I didn't think so.} He didn't wait for me to answer. He made me walk up the stairs into the Gap dressing room. He put on my outer clothing and we walked out of the mall. I didn't know where the others were, but I assumed that they were controllers too. We walked home and into my kitchen.

"Where's Tom?" I asked my mom, who was sitting at the table reading. Well, the Yeerk asked her where he was.

"I don't know, Jake. He's around here somewhere." Then the Yeerk made me walk up to my room. There was a note on my desk, and the Yeerk read it.

For the first time since we had planned to go into the Yeerk Pool, I was happy. Tom had escaped. Tobias had helped him. I still had my hope in my mind. That was one thing I was not going to give up.

I'm Tom. You know, Jake's brother. The controller who tries to betray him. He acted like he was just too busy every time I suggested he join the Sharing. But I guess I always knew that he had some idea of what was going on. There was something that said so in his eyes. How he knew was what I was confused about, I thought over it in my mind over and over. But it never quite clicked for me.

I had escaped from the Yeerk Pool. I was waiting to be reinfested at the time. But then the lock on the cage broke and a gorilla motioned for everyone to run. I was out of the cage when I saw a tiger in front of me. I don't know why, but the tiger reminded me of Jake. Then it told me to go. I ran as fast as I could, up the stairs, dodge the dracon beam coming at me. I think that I was the only one who made it out.

I ran home, and up to my room. There was a knock at my door and one of Jake's friends came in.

"Tom?" He asked.

"Yeah?" I said. I said it, not the slug that should be in my head.

"You need to get out of here. Now. I'm Tobias, a friend of Jake's. The Yeerks are going to come after you, so go out your window. I'll meet you at the edge of the forest by Jake's friend, Cassie's, house. You know where that is?" I nodded, dumbstruck that he knew about the Yeerks. I packed a small bag and wrote a letter. Then I put it in Jake's room, ran back to mine, and left through the window.

I ran to the border of the woods and waited for Tobias to show up again. I didn't see him.

{Tom! Tom, up here! I'll be your guide to your hiding place, okay?}

"Andalite?" I asked. I looked above me, and saw a red-tailed hawk. Then it landed and morphed into Tobias.

"Human. All but 1 of us are human, and all but 2 of us are controllers now." I gulped, afraid to ask who the other humans were.

"The others..." I trailed off.

"Marco, Cassie, Rachel, and Jake. There's an Andalite who we call Ax, too." Jake. My own brother was one of the resistance.

"The tiger. Was that Jake?" Tobias nodded.

"Rachel was the bear. Marco was a gorilla, and Cassie was a wolf." He looked down at his feet. Then I remembered that the animals had been cornered.

"Jake. They caught him. And the others too." I said sullenly. Tobias nodded.

"Ax and I escaped. They won't find us. And they won't find you either." I nodded and followed Tobias through the woods to a small valley. There were Hork-Bajir running around.

"The free Hork-Bajir." I said, amazed. I didn't know that they were still alive. One of them came up to Tobias.

"Tobias friend. Why do you bring a controller?" The young Hork-Bajir asked, pointing to me.

"Tom escaped the Yeerks. He needs a place to hide."

"He can stay here. He'll be safe, and hidden."

"You need to be introduced. Tom, this is Toby, a Hork-Bajir seer. Toby, this is Tom, Jake's older brother."

"Should you alert the Andalite of this?" Toby asked.

"That's where I'm going now. I'll bring him back here. We need to talk." Tobias morphed to hawk and he flew off.

I flew to Ax's scoop and landed on a branch.

{Hey, Ax-man! Morph to bird and follow me.} Ax looked up at me and nodded. Then he began to morph. Soon he was done and we took off, back to the Hork-Bajir valley.

We flew in. He demorphed and I morphed to human. Then we went to find Tom.

"Ax, Tom escaped from the Yeerk Pool. He's free now. And he could help us get the others back."

{You don't suggest that we give another human the morphing ability?} He asked, startled.

"Not yet. The time's not right. After the Yeerks begin to think that we're not coming back there, then we'll attack." I said. I saw Tom and we walked over to him.

"Tom, this is Ax, the Andalite." I told him.

"Hi Ax. I'm Tom, Jake's ex-controller older brother." Tom said sadly.

"Tom, soon we're going to get them back." I told him. "I wouldn't let my friends down."

"I hope you're right."

"I am. And even if we don't get them back, at least we'll have tried."

"You're right." I sat down and stared at the grass. It's over, Tobias. You've lost. And the others had to suffer. You ran away. A dark voice in my head told me. Yeah, but we tried. I didn't run away for myself. I ran away so the others would have some kind of small chance. And we're going to go back someday and get them. That's a promise that I'm going to keep. I retorted.

Ax was looking up at the sky, and I could tell he was thinking of his home. I looked away, towards the forest. My home, I thought bitterly. The place that I could spend the rest of my life in. You never really had a home, Tobias. No family, no friends, nothing. You were completely alone. And you still are. I shook my head, as though silently disagreeing.

I couldn't let myself get worked up over anything that has happened. I couldn't. No way. I would stay calm, no matter what. And I would get my friends back. Whether I had to risk my life or anything I have, I will get them back.