Chapter Text
“Marco, I have to go to work!” Peter argued.
“I… I know, Papá,” Marco said. “But－”
“Marco, I appreciate your concern,” said Peter, “but I can assure you that the planet is perfectly safe.”
“It’s not the planet I’m concerned about!”
“Then what?”
Marco watched his father for a moment, then collapsed wearily onto the edge of his bed, folding his head in his hands. “I saw her, Papá. I saw Mamá.”
Peter stared at his son, utterly stunned at this new revelation. “What?”
Marco rubbed his face and took a deep breath, but he still couldn’t meet his father’s eyes. “Just a bit ago, we got pulled in by an Alliance Cruiser for flying too close,” he said. “They found it necessary to survey our contents and bring us in for interview. And the woman who… interviewed me… was Mamá. Was… Eva Guerra.”
“Oh, mi hijito…” The expression on Peter’s face was a mixture of pain and nausea. “Those are very common names…”
“No, listen－!”
“You were very young when she died,” said Peter, “and I know it’s emotional for you, but you can’t let yourself get confused just because you want something to be true!”
Marco gawked up at his father. “You think I’m confused?” he demanded. “You think I can’t tell a stranger apart from her?” He jumped to his feet and stormed over to the equipment wall, pulling out the shallow drawer that served as a desk. Carefully, he removed the writing surface to show the shallow storage area beneath, which held a few photos, some jewelry, and a fresh flower. “I see her every day; I’m not going to forget her.”
Peter stared at the display. It was small and minimal, but it concerned him all the same. “You pray… every day?” he asked.
Marco nodded, feeling suddenly awkward and not understanding why. “I don’t… I don’t really care about church or… being righteous or whatever. I just… Yeah, I pray for her.” He looked at his father, lost. “I’m supposed to, aren’t I?”
Carefully, Peter reached out and slid the drawer back into the wall. “I think, maybe, it’s a bit much…”
Marco shook his head. “No, you don’t understand…”
But Peter grabbed him to keep him focused. “No, Marco, listen,” he insisted. “You’re already very stressed. Don’t lie to me; I know you are!”
“You have no idea…” Marco muttered, rolling his eyes.
Peter nodded, taking this as agreement, and continued, “And you have been, apparently, obsessing over your mother.”
“It’s not obsession! It’s love!” Marco insisted. “I care what happens to her! Don’t you? You used to!”
Peter sighed and shook his head. “Marco… I was obsessed. But that has passed. Your mother…” Peter swallowed hard, feeling like he was choking on the words. “Your mother is dead. There is nothing more that can happen to her.”
Marco laughed and leaned back against the wall. “Yeah, you’d think so, huh?” he said.
“Marco, that woman was not your mother,” Peter insisted.
“She called me ‘hijo’!”
“Everyone calls you ‘hijo’!” Peter insisted. “You’re very endearing!”
Marco rolled his eyes again. “Yeah, so endearing that she beat me and tried to put a slug in my ear.”
Peter just blinked at him. “What?”
Marco sighed heavily, then said, “An alien slug. It crawls in through the ear canal and takes over your brain! That’s how they’re controlling her!”
“Are you shitting me?” Peter demanded, suddenly a lot angrier.
“No, I swear!” Marco insisted. “I can prove it! Okay? I can prove it to you, if you’ll just－”
“This isn’t funny, Marco,” Peter growled.
“Do I look amused?!” Marco demanded as Peter turned away and headed for the door. “Papá, I’m serious!”
“Stop it!” Peter snarled. “Stop it right now! I do not want to hear this from you again!”
“Papá, no! Please!” But the door was slammed shut in Marco’s face.
－ －
Now…
Tom threw Jake back into the door, slamming it shut just as Marco reached it. “NO!” Marco shouted, throwing all his weight against the door. But he was too later; Tom had already triggered the lock.
Marco turned to Aximili who was still running to meet him with Rachel. “Ax! Get this door open!” he ordered. “Rachel, find another way in! And do either of you know where the fuck King is?”
Both pointed to the locked door and said, “In there.”
“Ave María…” Marco growled.
“Hey, Marco, have you considered ‘pausa’?” Tobias asked over the intercom as Ax set to work on the electronics and Rachel ran off somewhere.
Marco glanced around for the intercom button, then pressed it and replied, “I think Jake’s having a bit of difficulty getting the word out while having the shit beat out of him.”
“You do realize that I’m on the intercom right now?” Tobias countered.
Marco hit his head against the wall. “Yeah, okay, do it.”
A moment later, Jake pulled the door open, sporting a split lip and the beginnings of a black eye. “Do you think you could have taken a bit longer?” he asked. “I was having so much fun.”
“Shut up,” Marco said, pulling him into a grateful hug then pecking him briefly on the lips. “Are you okay?”
“I’d answer, but you told me to shut up,” Jake pointed out.
“Fuck off,” Marco said with a relieved grin. He pushed Jake aside and entered the room, finding Erek checking over the fallen Tom. “What the hell happened?” he demanded.
Erek grimaced apologetically. “It seems that one of his trigger words may be medical jargon,” he admitted.
Suddenly, one of the ceiling tiles fell to the floor, and Rachel soon followed it. She looked around, then pouted. “Awe, did I miss it?”
“Your boyfriend fixed it,” Marco told her. “Used ‘pausa’ over the intercom.”
Her pout deepened. “That’s just cheating!” she whined, and Erek gave her a skeptical glare.
“We have got to get the full list that Alan had known,” Jake said. “We can’t keep doing this.”
Rachel spread her hands helplessly. “Melissa said she was working on it, because they’d originally removed the data and had Alan memorize it for security reasons, so she’d have to get into Mr. Universe’s systems first,” she explained.
Marco nodded and added, “Right, but we can’t talk to her while the Cortex is down, and we have no other way of contacting her group.”
“There is one other person who might know of a connection…” Ax reminded them.
Jake sighed. “I suppose we are close to Aberdeen…”
“Oh hell no!” Tobias objected over the intercom.
Jake shrugged. “Alright, that’s fair,” he said. “She’s your mother after all. So I guess you’ll be fine watching Tom for us during our next job?”
“... I’ll change course.”
－ －
“Y’all flew all the way out here jus’ t’ ask me that?” Loren asked, staring in disbelief at Tobias and Jake, who were standing on her porch and leaning back against the rails.
Jake raised an eyebrow. “Well… We sorta had to,” he said. “Cortex is down.”
Loren seemed surprised. “Is it?”
Tobias groaned and rolled his eyes toward the sky. “Loren, you gotta start turning the access point on! Most people leave it on all the time, or at least on a schedule.”
“Well, I guess most people’s made of money,” Loren sneered. “Look, I don’t know anything about no group. You say Alan worked with ’em, it’s the first I heard of it. When he left, it seemed entirely his idea.”
“Told you,” Tobias said to Jake.
Jake rubbed his nose wearily. “Is there anything, anything at all you know about him that might help us find his contacts?” he asked.
“Well, I hear he’s got a brother,” Loren told him.
Tobias shook his head. “Ax was born after Elfangor left the Andalites. Conceived after, actually,” he told her. “And he didn’t see him again until Alan was dead.”
Loren’s expression finally shifted from stony determination to surprise and empathy. “He told you?” she said.
“About the Andalites?” said Tobias. “Yeah.”
Loren nodded. “Hold on,” she said before going back into the house. Jake glanced quizzically to Tobias, but Tobias just shrugged. A few minutes later, Loren returned, with a paper in hand, embossed with braille. “Every now and again, someone might come by and say ‘I saw your man over at such-and-such,’ and I’d tell ’em that I ain’t never had such a thing. But I wrote it down, just in case. In case somethin’ happened… to Tobias, or…” She shrugged. “I don’t know.” She handed the list over. “But there it is. Every place he’s been seen. I don’t know if it’ll help. Last one’s nearly twenty-years-old.”
Tobias ran his thumb lightly over the small piece of paper. “Loren, there’s three places on this list.”
She shrugged. “Well, at least you won’t waste too much time on it,” she said.
Tobias pocketed the paper anyway. “What changed your mind?” he asked.
She shook her head, scowling. “Because if an Andalite’s willing to tell you shit... Something bad is happening.”
Tobias and Jake exchanged glances. “Ma’am,” said Jake, “do you know what a Yeerk is?”
Loren’s lip curled. “Yeah,” she said, “that would qualify.”