trans_9 | Closed to Animorphs and Guards.

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Closed to Animorphs and Guards.

His hands itched. So did the backs of his ankles. And his head hurt.

It was rather annoying to not be able to scratch the itch. The headache was more troubling. It was going to get worse, but for the moment it was just an ache behind his eyes, aggravating more for the reminder than the actual physical pain.

He was helpless.

He let his head lull forward, resting his chin on his chest and testing the bindings on his hands. They were solid, and it didn't give in the least. They didn't even have the decency to scratch the damned itch.

He was hungry, and that would get worse as well. He had a feeling the current small portions of food would continue until he starved. He would get the added pleasure of his host's hunger making his own worse.

< They're going to kill you. > Tom's voice was soft, invasive, and annoying.

< That should make you happy. You're getting everything you wanted, aren't you Tommy-boy? >

The host was silent, considering.

Iniss kept his head down, soon, perhaps, one of his jailers would decide to lecture him, and who knew what might happen then?

If he pretended to be asleep, maybe they would just leave him alone.

((Occ: Give me what day you're on when you tag in, and we'll just do it sorta day by day? I guess? Maybe? Suggestions?)

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"... still." It was a little wierd talking about this with Jake's older brother and the yeerk infesting him. But she knew it must have given Tom something else to think about.

No person in the body? A synthetic host? It was that much closer to the symbiotes they met at the Iskoort home world. But would there still be that learning, that intelligence, the instincts of humans inside of that body? If it truly was a shell, there shouldn't be. Would they use the DNA exactly as it was, making a complete copy of it, or would they generalize it?

"Would it end up being a complete copy of Tom? Or would it be generalized?" She asked. Iniss may not have wanted to leave Tom even after receiving the power to morph, but maybe he would go into this synthetic host.

< Way to go Jake... > He could feel the pleasure from his host, the eagerness to talk to his kid brother about it, to tease him and just talk to him about the relationship. The urge was very nearly overwhelming.

He shrugged in response to the question. "Keep telling you people, I'm not a science type. I just agreed to the plan, Allen explained it. Sorta. He was already thinking about it and not really there."

"Okay. I'm not a science person either..." She paused thinking it over. She wanted to talk to this Dani and Allen, whoever they were, to see or make sure that this synthetic host wouldn't turn out to be another slave to the yeerk, or a copy of a person already living without their permission. But there wasn't time for that now.

She lowered her voice again. "... We can't let you leave here unless you either die or leave Tom... believe it or not, I don't want you to starve. You know that I'm not the only person here, watching you. The only way I can help you right now is if you reconsider leaving him. Afterwards I can meet up with this Dani and see about getting you sight again as soon as possible. I won't let them kill you." Her facial expression was concerned and serious. Her eyes never leaving his and if he found himself looking at her own eyes, he would be able to see how serious she was.

He looked at her for a long moment, leaning back a little. "If I leave my host, whichever Andalite is hovering in the sky will come down and kill me. Even my willingness to..to not. To look for another option..." His voice was soft. "I don't want to die, but If I'm going to..."

He wanted her to call Dani. Dani wouldn't let them kill him.

"Call Dani, ask her. She'll tell you. I even let her talk with my host."

She shook her head and leaned back a bit. "I wouldn't let them kill you." She gave an inner sigh anyway. She couldn't let herself be taken like she did with Aftran. Iniss was different than her. She also couldn't tell him about her own morphing and the fact that she understood more than the others how it was like without a host. It would be better if they were given more time to have her try to appeal to him, but as it were, there wasn't.

She ignored the call Dani part. She couldn't call anyone right now, but another idea came to her. "I know Tom can hear me. I can't call Dani, but if you want to live, you have to leave Tom for now. If you are killed while being outside a host, I give permission to whoever you want to kill me in return. Tom's a witness, I can even make up a contract. I won't let you die defenseless if you free Tom." A part of her hated what she said, hated what she was doing by starving a life and giving him only one other way out. But it was a part she had learned to set aside over the years.

< I wouldn't. >

"He wouldn't." It was said in almost the same breath, thoughts occurring at the same moment. "You're important to his brother. He'd lie, if he thought it would save you. He wouldn't tell Dani or anyone else. I'm his jailer, not his friend. He doesn't care what happens to me."

< Jake shouldn't have to lose anyone. >

But she might. She might care what happened to him. If she was soft...

His brain was scrambled and his mind was weak with hunger, if he hadn't been on the edge of starvation, he'd be able to use this, to use her. As it was, all he could do was try to appeal to her kindness, not in an attempt to manipulate her, but in a desperate attempt to save himself. He made a tiny, pathetic noise, as close to a whimper as he could manage and bowed his head. "I don't want to die, Cassie."

She kind of thought that would happen. But at least it was out there. Maybe it provided some sort of comfort, instead of the biting remarks of humanity on the first day that there were people out there that cared about life. But...

She gave a little sigh, looking troubled for a moment. "Tom has to be freed." She said it softly. She wasn't sure if either Rachel or Tom were going to survive that fight. Losing either one would break Jake, she was sure of it. If he ended up losing both... she didn't want to think of what that would do. It would be too much.

The little half whimper and words that followed surprised her at first. The words told her it was still Iniss who talked. She had tried. About all she could and she tried to search through her mind for anything else she could think of but nothing came yet. Not sure how to give any type of comfort in these last hours ((not sure how much time left)), she placed a hand on his arm. "The option's open. All the way through till the end. I have a bowl of... whatever this food is supposed to be. But Tom has to be freed." She repeated. It felt like he was a fish and she was dangling this bait in front of him. Just waiting for him to snatch onto it. But instead of it leading to his death, it would lead to Tom's freedom and the possibility of Iniss having a first model of what could eventually become a symbiont.

"You all insist on that one." He closed his eyes. "I had it worked out so that he would be, and no one had to get hurt." It was mostly the truth, really.

His shoulders hunched a bit, taking the offer of comfort for what it was. Unable to turn it away at this juncture. He was tired, and achy. The arm beneath her hand was probably clammy with sweat and his throat felt horribly dry. He pondered asking for water for a moment, but wasn't sure if he'd be able to keep it down. "Would you take it." It was fine and dandy to say you would. High and mighty beings that they were, they would always say yes...but.

It was another thing entirely to do. Easy to say you'd make the right choice when the choice wasn't yours to make.

She thought for a moment. Remembering her own experience as a yeerk. The colors exploading in her mind after just a small amount of time of blindness in comparison to what some of the other yeerks had to go through. In Iniss' case it was to have the option of dying or leaving the sight to go into unknown hands.

"I understand that right now you're thinking that your only choices are dying with sight or dying blind. You don't know me enough to know that I have the will and ability to keep you safe. I understand why you don't want to give him up to be blind and helpless in what you essentially know is the enemy." She shook her head. "If I didn't know the person offering it, I wouldn't take it, or I might try it because it was worth a shot, I don't know. Then again, I wouldn't want to be taking over anyone in the first place. I..." Once again, in this moment, she felt the want to tell him about her own experience. That she understood what it was like to be a yeerk, even though it was just for a small amount of time. But of course she didn't say it. She couldn't.

"If I knew about that person what I know about myself, I would take it." She paused again. She didn't have to ask, he didn't have much confidence that she could protect him.

"From the moment your Andalite friend popped out of his hiding place, I knew what was waiting, Cassie. The universe isn't kind to us, it has never been kind to us. Why should it start now? Here I am, quite possibly one of the last of my kind, and your friends are starving me."

He looked away, voice heavy with something unspoken. "You're asking me to trust you. I thought you said you knew my species."

She was silent at first, then he continued. "I know that not all yeerks are the same." She didn't get into what he was like in his future, but it was true.

"I don't like death. I never liked killing. I don't even like that I'm here when you're so close to starving to death." She shook her head again. "Killing someone that's defenseless? That just doesn't sit right with me. Do you really think that if I was protecting you on your way to Dani that my friends would hurt me to get to you? ... I'm more capable than you think I am." She paused. "Besides, why would I be offering you to a blind death when it's so close to a painful and agonizing death?"

She paused again. "The universe may not be kind, but even yeerks deserve a chance at life. A life where you can see." She may not be able to tell him about her morphing, but she could explain that she understood. "All the colors around us, the mobility we have... the only way they'd let you go is if you leave Tom. I won't let them kill you, your life is... well, it's no different from mine is it? We can't help what species we're born as." But we can help our actions...

She didn't say that of course. She wanted Iniss to leave Tom. Starvation wasn't the way to go. He should be given that synthetic host... then if his actions continue the way they had in her time... well, the group could deal with those actions then. She didn't want to think about it, but she had to deal with a lot of what reality had turned into lately. Even though she hated what it had come to.

In some sick, desperate part of himself, influenced entirely by the beginning of the fugue, wanted to believe her. He wanted to believe the hope she offered. He wanted to believe that she would protect him, even if he left his host.

He wanted to believe her, he needed to believe that there was a way for him not to die.

He wanted to live. He wanted so badly to live.

His shoulders slumped in defeat, head dropping forward. "Put out your hands, I'll leave my host."

There was good timing and bad timing in the universe.

Who knew which one this one was.

"Tom!" And from above, a little girl in a strange outfit appeared.

Dani had been looking for the better part of the past three days for Tom/Iniss. Aftran had told her she'd been unable to contact him and Dani hadn't been able to either. Thinking it was nothing, she had searched for him, but after she couldn't find hide nor hair of him, she began to worry.

And just now, after searching the whole city, she found him.

She didn't hear anything that was said. All she saw was Tom was tied up with some girl she didn't know and began to fear the worst.

Which was why she dived bomb right for him, grabbing him, letting a slight coldness envelop them both and then they were wrong from sight as she pulled them intangibly and invisibly out of the maze.

Relief suddenly washed over her. She would be able to free Tom and Iniss, even though his future actions weren't great, she would save him from the torture of death by starvation. She made to move her hands forward, the bowl of ... whatever you want to call it food was behind her still when she heard a voice. She looked up to where the noise was from to see a girl. She didn't know what was going on but when the girl quickly came down, both of them were gone before she got any words out of her mouth.

Her eyes widened and she looked up where she knew one of the others was watching. What just happened?!

Iniss didn't really have time to react, or process what was happening. He had been prepared to accept the loss, to accept the possible death at the hands of the human in front of him.

Tom, on the other hand, coiled in anticipation, realized exactly what was happening. < NO DANI DON'T! >

But no one had been able to hear him for three years, he shouldn't have expected any different now.

(http://s607.photobucket.com/albums/tt152/clayinIcons/?action=view&current=northernharrier.jpg)

< No! > Ax flapped his wings furiously to try and get altitude enough to spot where Dani and Tom had disappeared to. They had been so close! < I can't see where she took him! >

Cassie stood up and looked around. "Who was she?" She didn't know if Ax was low enough to where he could hear her but she asked anyway. They were so close to finally being able to free Tom. What was she anyway? What kind of powers was that?

(http://s607.photobucket.com/albums/tt152/clayinIcons/?action=view&current=northernharrier.jpg)

< A girl named Dani. She's half-ghost, > Ax explained shortly. < I don't know how it's possible either. >

He couldn't believe this. He should have thought about this. He should have been prepared.

< Use the comm rings to contact the others. They work similarly to private thought-speak. I'll try and find her. >

(http://cindergraphics.livejournal.com/1865.html)

Where Ax had done the rational thing and flown upwards, Jake... fell. Dimly, he could remember another time when the wings of his morph had been an expression of his sorrow, not freedom or joy. Had that only been just a few days ago? For Jake, it had. He considered not stopping this time, just letting the ever-expanding ground rise up to meet him, but that would do nothing for his brother, and it would do nothing for the Animorphs.

The falcon let out a piercing cry as it pulled up tightly; a few of its feathers, tugged loose by the force of the descent, fluttered to the ground scant feet below him. He circled around the spot where Tom had just been, unable to believe that they had been this close, that Cassie had worked her miracles as always, and yet at the last second, somehow, Tom had simply disappeared. Impossible.

He heard Ax's thought speak in his mind, and tried to force himself to focus. Dani. Half-ghost. What did that even mean? Pull yourself together, Jake.

< Ax... > Jake knew what he was thinking, but somehow he couldn't quite bring himself to say the right words, like don't blame yourself, or we couldn't have known. < Don't go too far. >

She felt a tightness in her chest when she saw Jake just drop from the sky. She made about two steps closer to him before he righted himself and circled around her and the spot she was talking to Iniss just moments before. She relaxed a little bit, then remembered what Ax told her about the rings.

She didn't really know how they would work but she tried it anyway. She focused on just Jake and Ax for now. < ... Testing? > She felt a little silly to be trying to thought speak in her normal form; it was never an option for them for years.

(http://s607.photobucket.com/albums/tt152/clayinIcons/?action=view&current=northernharrier.jpg)

< Yes Prince Jake, > Ax said obediently, climbing through the thick, damp air. Perhaps she'd become visible once outside the maze. As long as he stayed within thought-speak range...

(http://cindergraphics.livejournal.com/1865.html)

The usual response came to mind, Don't call me prince, but for once, Jake didn't speak it. Maybe he wasn't a prince, but Ax reminded him with every address that he had the responsibilities of one, and he had let his family distract him too many times from carrying them out.

< Bring everyone here, > Jake instructed Cassie, circling higher, higher. Ax was already a speck in the sky, ever shrinking as he flew off. < Tell them what happened, and see if they have any ideas about this... Dani. We regroup, make a new plan. Now is not the time to chase after them. >

He had to accept that Tom was gone, again, and maybe for the last time. Any impossible hope, any hasty rescue attempts, would be a liability for his team. < I'm going after Ax, > he added, and flew off after the harrier.

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Closed to Animorphs and Guards.

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Re: Third Day ... don't know who's on watch with her (she'd say different things depending)

Re: Third Day ... don't know who's on watch with her (she'd say different things depending)

Re: Third Day ... don't know who's on watch with her (she'd say different things depending)

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Yeah, I don't know if it would work either ^_^ heheh

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