outsiderslogs

who. Rachel (

shutupmarco) and you!
what. wandering around Zeta District in confusion
where. anywhere in Zeta District
when. right now
warnings. does Rachel count as a warning

The freaky thing is that Rachel doesn't even remember getting on the shuttle. She remembers coming home to dinner late for the third time that week because of a meeting with the other Animorphs, worried she'd get chewed out or worse, grounded, but then her mother had apparently barely noticed the time and just apologized for ordering without her. She remembers the whoosh of relief, and then a bit of a pang realizing that her cousin Jake probably wasn't getting off so easily with his mom, and -- then what? She can't remember.

They're ushered off the shuttle before she really has a chance to take any of it in. Rachel falls into step with everyone else as the offload into the seething crowds of Omega, realizes with a flutter of panic all at once that she doesn't see any of the others and also they're in space. This is some kind of space station, or maybe a giant ship. What the hell.

For a moment, she thinks it's the Yeerks. That this is some kind of Controller base ship she's somehow gotten stuck on. But while she sees plenty of humans, she doesn't see any Taxxons or Hork-Bajir, just a whole host of different alien-looking creatures she's never seen anything like before. The place doesn't seem very Yeerk-like, either. Is it an Ellimist trick? Maybe. It's too hard to tell.

She thinks all of this in the space of a few seconds, before she realizes all of the people off the shuttle are being directed one way by a group of nasty thug-looking aliens in armor, a couple of equally unpleasant-looking humans among them. "All new arrivals to Zeta District," they snarl, over and over again. Rachel brushes her hair from her face and puts on a neutral smile, walking as she's directed like she belongs there. On the inside, she's trying not to puke from panic. She's got no idea what this place is, or what all of these aliens are, or why she's here, but she's going to find out.

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Rachel is about to vehemently object to that, because uh, hello, Tom might be a Controller but beating him up would be a completely backwards move, but Marco keeps talking, and she can't object, not when she's giving him a hard stare, her mouth halfway open. As soon as she realizes that, she snaps it shut.

"You have got to be kidding me," Rachel mutters. "This the Ellimist's doing, right? Showing me some freaky alternate future where we're trapped in space with a bunch of gross aliens?" But even as she says the words, she's not sure. The Ellimist is the only thing she can think of with the power to do this, but it doesn't add up. There doen't seem to be any Yeerks here. If this place was full of Controllers, Marco would be too, and he'd already have pulled a Dracon beam on her by now if that were true. The Ellimist works in weird ways, and they don't completely understand them, but...somehow this just doesn't seem quite like his style.

"No," she decides, finally. "This is something else entirely. This is weird, and you're weird, but I don't think the Ellimist is behind this. So start explaining what you mean when you said the Marco I knew."

"I'm weird? Are you insane? You're the one who's weird!" Oh, this is a productive path to start down. "You're the one that's acting like--I mean--ugh, what part of this isn't getting through your dumb blonde head? Maybe that's what went wrong in your timeline. It wasn't me, it was you!"

Despite everything, Marco's still focusing on the most critical difference between his timeline and Rachel's, and right now, he really doesn't want to deal with it. It's a cruel joke that he might be able to convince himself to laugh about later, but right now, he doesn't want anything to do with her.

"Forget it, this crap is a waste of my time. Call me when you've pulled your head out of your perfectly manicured mall rat ass."

He turns on his heel, giving his pyjak's leash an angry yank, and starts to storm off.

Admittedly up until now, Rachel had been a little preoccupied with the distractingly bizarre conversation to give more than a cursory notice to the creepy little monkey-like creature with Marco, but when he yanks on the leash and it starts to move, she actually jumps a little, letting out a startled yelp of disgust.

But it's only a moment before she immediately starts after Marco, because Marco does not get to say shit like that and blow her off. Not when she's floundering, still inwardly panicking because she has no idea what's going on. He said something about alternate universes, but he didn't explain anything. She grabs at his arm and yanks him back, hard.

"Hey! Who's got their head up their ass?" Rachel snaps, hissing, but her face is still partly bewildered. Obviously, this doesn't all add up -- Marco is different, somehow -- but she's still trying to piece it all together. "I've been here less than an hour and you're the first person I recognize, and you're totally blowing me off! You can't take even five minutes to explain to me what the hell is going on? Since you obviously know about this place, and apparently, you've been here a while! So start explaining, and I swear to god, if I hear the words dumb blonde come out of your mouth again, you'll regret it."

As soon as he feels her fingers digging in, he whirls around and twists his arm hard to try to break her grasp. The look he gives her is at least as distant as it's angry, and he's perfectly willing to cut her off forever at this point.

"Two words: Alternate. Universes. You're from one. I'm from a different one. Neither of us have ever met each other before now. We're like complete strangers, blondie, you got that?"

It's cold, but it's the only way he knows how to deal with this.

Rachel balks at that, looking like a mixture of infuriated and disgusted, and she takes a reeling half-step back. She's always known Marco's not just some clown, that he's got depth, but this is cold, even for him. For Christ's sake, they're supposed to be friends. Teammates, at the very least. They're at least supposed to work together, even if she does roll her eyes at him all the time.

Well, not this Marco.

"Complete strangers?" she scoffs, her eyes boring into him. "Well, you're wrong about that, Marco. I should've known this would happen. You've always been the selfish one."

It's a cheap shot, bitter and mean, but she doesn't care. She refuses to let anyone know, but she's scared right now. She still doesn't understand what kind of place this is or why she's here, or why this Marco's timeline is so different. It's like some sick nightmare, and Rachel has no idea what to do, but hell if she'll let Marco see that. So she tosses her hair, her stare going cold, and she draws herself up a little more, crossing her arms.

"Well, turns out I don't need your help, Marco. So you run off and pretend like you don't know me. I can make it just fine on my own."

"Yep, I'm selfish! I'm only in this to take care of myself. Guess you've got at least one thing right about me today. Excellent deduction skills!"

It hurts to chase her off---not that he'd ever admit it---but it's better that she's angry. He'd rather she hate his guts at this point. If she won't accept that there's something inherently wrong and creepy about this whole being from separate timelines and trying to interact thing, then at least she's making it easier for him to ditch her.

"I don't need to pretend something that's true, okay? Have a nice life! Don't call me!" And with that, he turns to stomp off again, bewildered space monkey in tow. "Come on, Joey, you heard the psycho bitch queen, she's on her own."

Rachel's so mad she could vomit. She can feel the heat choking up the back of her throat, the way her stomach knots up, tight and sick. She's scared, too, and confused, and a little hurt, but mostly she's just mad. She could think of a thousand terrible things to say -- she could spit in his face, she could grab his hair, she could hit him and threaten him and demand how dare he abandon her like this.

But she won't give him the satisfaction. She won't let him see she's scared or hurt. So she tosses her hair and lets her eyes go flat, lifting her chin. "I guess that's what I get for thinking I could rely on you," she sneers, one last jab just because she can't help herself, and she turns on her heel to march away. She's supposed to be Xena, right? She'll show him Xena. She doesn't need him, alternate universe or no.

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