Marco's Universe - January 1 Fandom Time
“Wait, let me get this straight. The Taxxons, Taxxons, want to make a deal with us?” Marco puzzled out loud and wondered who the crazy one in the room was. He was betting it wasn’t him.
“Yes, the Taxxons.” Jake replied for the third time.
“Eat-anything-that-stands-still-long-enough Taxxons?” Marco checked.
“No, the puppy cuddling Taxxons.” Jake snapped.
“Okay, you know, when I said crazy suicidal? I did not mean we go in and get eaten before there even is a fight!”
“Not we. You and Cassie are going to get Chapman.”
“…We get to kidnap the Vice-Principal?” Marco asked suddenly gleeful.
Jake didn’t roll his eyes because he simply didn’t do that. “Yes.”
“Why didn’t you just say that? I get to kidnap the Vice-Principal!” Marco paused mid glee. “Chapman, not Hades, right?”
“What?”
“Never mind.” Marco didn’t really want to kidnap the Vice-Principal with the blue fire hair.
“And bring Erik King.” Jake said suddenly.
Marco froze. “Chapman’s not leverage against the Yeerks, is he?”
“No.”
Cassie wasn’t speaking to Jake and Marco was more than fine with that. He had managed to shut down the part of his brain that was still capable of emotion and was now acting purely on cold, hard logic. “Where’s Rachel?” Cassie addressed Marco.
“Shoe shopping.” Marco guessed. “Maybe getting a new purse.”
Jake didn’t say anything for a long minute. “Wait here. I’ll be back quickly.” He headed off to “talk” to General Doubleday.
“Why does he get to do the cool part of this plan?” Marco whined. “Rachel gets to go shoe shopping, Jake gets to convince a General to help us out, and I have to morph a stupid Governor.” He paused. “It could have been worse, it could have been Schwarzenegger.”
Cassie snapped out of her thoughts. “The actor?”
Marco blinked. “I didn’t say anything.”
Cassie opened her mouth to say something, but Jake had chosen that moment to return. “It’s all in place.” His eyes met Marco’s. Neither boy could make themselves look at Cassie’s accusing glare.
“They’ll die.”
***
Marco glanced down at the pool of Yeerks. “They’re helpless. Can’t do a single thing to stop us now. Just slugs. But not to them. It’s the perfect distraction.” He wasn’t surprised about how cold his voice sounded. He had suggested sending dozens of people to their deaths as a distraction. What was 17,000 more?
“Flush the pool.” Jake said. The temperature in his voice could have rivaled Marco’s.
< Yes Prince Jake. > Ax wouldn’t have seen anything wrong with what they were doing, Marco realized. And neither did he. Over 17,000 Yeerks were flushed into space within a heart beat.
***
“Erik disabled the engines!” Marco informed Jake.
“What?” Jake looked like he was about to throttle the messenger.
“We betrayed him.” Marco pointed out. He had a feeling he was never going to be warm again.
Jake’s next few comments were appropriate for the situation, but not polite society.
“That’s what I said.”
< Where’s Rachel? > Tobias’s though speak voice was soft. Jake didn’t reply. Marco’s brain was calculating their advantage so that when Tom switched sides one more, he wasn’t even surprised. And when Jake told Rachel to attack, his brain gave its approval.
***
Marco, funny Marco. He hadn’t said a word as Rachel and Tom had fought. He hadn’t said a word as Tom died. He didn’t say a word as Rachel glanced up. He didn’t say a word as she died. Didn’t say a word as Toby came in to ask what to do. He was calculating. Always calculating. Jake began to shut down, so Marco took over.
< It’s okay, Toby. Tell the Yeerks that Jake will be along in a minute. Tell them Visser One is our captive. Tell them we approve of the deal you made. >
< My people may not agree. >
< Yeah? Guess what? This is our planet. Our prisoners. Our victory. If the Andelite high command doesn’t like it they can come and try to take a piece of us. > He wasn’t brave, that was Rachel. He was just doing what had to be done. It wasn’t his cousin who was dead. Not his brother. Not his girlfriend.
< No more killing. >
“What do you mean, no more killing? He’s the one responsible for all this!”
< He’s a prisoner of war, we don’t kill prisoners. Marco? >
< Yeah, Jake? > Marco considered the option of letting Tobias attack the Visser and/or Jake and decided that wouldn’t benefit anything.
< The visser is going to remove himself from this Andelite body he has stolen and inhabited for so long. Find a safe place for him. Watch over him. >
< You got it. > Marco left, ignoring the fight starting behind him. He found a lockable briefcase, a very human artifact stuffed under a control panel. It was filled with chocolate chip cookies. He ate a cookie and held the case open for the slug that was Visser One.
< I could easily cut him in half. >
Marco considered this. “Yeah, well, better not, I guess.”
Ax dropped the slug into the briefcase and Marco closed the lid.
“I guess we won.”
< Yes. >
“Shouldn’t someone be singing ‘God Bless America’?”
***
“Where do we stand?” Jake asked as he arrived, turning towards Marco.
“On this lovely Pool Ship, equipped with one prissy Andelite who thinks we’re Controllers and this is a trap.”
“Perfect. How do we get around this?”
The first time that day that Marco was surprised was when Visser One - now Alloran-Semitur-Corrass - decided to answer that question. The second moment was when he asked Jake for permission to put the arrogant officer back in his place.
The arrogant day officer got replaced by an older, scarred face.
“Big time?”
< Very big time. > Marco was proud that Ax got the bit of slang right.
< Visser, I refuse to - >
Marco had had a very long day. “Hey, Ax-man,” He said brightly. “Is it true the Andelite home world is watching all this? Can I wave to them?” He waved like of the idiots outside the Today show. “Hi, everyone! Howard Stern rules! Yaaah!” Everyone’s attention was on him. Jake was probably trying to figure out what size of straight jacket he needed, but suddenly Marco saw the realization dawn on him. The third moment of surprise was when Alloran very blandly pointed out the trap the Andelite had walked into.
As Jake did the double-speak to the War-Prince, Marco translated in his head. “We know what you want. It’s over. You kill us; your people will turn against you. We’ll give you credit even though you did squat. You going to kill off what your great prince did? Kill his little brother? Guess again, you mean old fart.” Except Jake was more eloquent.
“Next time he gets to be the Governor.” Marco said softly under his breath. Everyone ignored him.
< Who exactly are you? > Asculan asked Jake.
Marco grinned and jerked a thumb at his friend. “This is Jake. Jake Berenson. President of Earth.”
***
Marco stood by Jake’s side, the trusty Lieutenant. He saw Jake’s ears begin to turn red as the Andelite denied him his requests and took over.
“Hey. We’re handing you a Yeerk Pool ship. And by the way, there are another couple of dozen major Yeerk vessels back in orbit around Earth and you can snap them up easy. Thanks to us.”
Denied, denied, denied. Marco’s response was not polite enough for the company and Jake took over again. The negotiations started turning against them and Jake began to give up.
Putting his own tempter in check, he drifted over to Jake. “We give in now, they own us.” The “you idiot” was implied.
Of course that’s when the Andelites decided to handle things their own way and Marco was beginning to loose track of the players and the moves. And mentally nodded when Jake kicked the old Andelite off of their ship. He also totally didn’t jump when Alloran gleed over the fact that he was the one in control of his body once again. Really. He didn’t do a victory dance when the Andelite admitted defeat and promoted Ax to prince and liaison to Earth. He did consider investing in Cinnamon Buns though.
***
“So what now?” Jake wondered and glanced down at the closed brieface in his hand.
Marco grinned.
Looking back, Cassie figured they really shouldn’t have let him decide. But she did admit that landing on the Mall was one of his better ideas.
“Now here’s a shiver-my-spine moment.” Marco commented as a thousand or so cops and reporters and FBI, CIA, and other agents gaped at their shiny spaceship.
As Jake and Ax explained what happened, Marco added in his own, slightly more colorful, explanations. Only Cassie noticed when Tobias flew off.