<The power to morph,> said the Andalite. As if it explained everything, but it did not. <It is a power that we have never shared with anyone, but your need is great.>
"What do you mean by morph?" Rachel asked. Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. The Andalite only just now decided to do something, and he was barely explaining it? "Morph how?"
<To change your bodies,> said the Andalite. <To become any other species, any animal.>
"Does that include beings like you?" I asked.
<There is no time,> he said. <But anything with DNA.>
Marco laughed dismissively. "Become animals?" Obviously, he couldn't see the benefits to it. At the time, I didn't know him too well. If this power was real, there would be many advantages.
<You will only need to touch a creature, to acquire its DNA pattern, and you will be able to become that creature. It requires concentration and determination, but if you are strong, you can do it. There are… limitations. Problems. Dangers, even. But there is no time to explain it all… no time. You will have to learn for yourselves. But first, do you wish to receive this power?>
He was offering, not forcing. He would not give this power to us if he saw another choice in the matter, and given the time constraint, we would need to make a decision on it soon.
"He's kidding, right?" Marco asked.
"No," I said at the same time as Tobias, who continued, softly. "He's not kidding."
"This has to be a joke," Marco said, his voice pitching upward, looking around. "There's a hidden camera around here somewhere, right? This whole thing is nuts. Yeerks and spaceships. Slugs taking over people's brains? Andalites and the power to change into animals? Who's pranking us? It has to be a prank, right?"
"It's beyond weird," Jake said. "But…"
"It's real," Rachel said. "We left the map of normal far behind, but unless we're all dreaming… We need to deal with this. Tanya, are you okay?"
"Can you morph?" I asked the alien. "Change and leave?"
<If…> The Andalite trailed off, and his eyestalks turned from me, glancing off into the distance. <There is no time. No time at all.>
"He's dying," Tobias said.
"I'll do it," Cassie said. The decisive tone to her voice almost surprised me, but the girl's eyes could cut to the heart of the matter. If this power would help us defend our home, it made sense to have it. She could tell the Andalite was truthful.
Yet, he still hid something. I wasn't sure what though. I wasn't even certain that he
was hiding something, but something about his body language felt off. Perhaps it was the fact that he
was dying.
"We should decide as a group," Jake said. "One way or the other."
"Tanya s—wait, what's that?" Rachel asked, pointing toward the sky. We all followed her finger, looking up, and two pinpricks of light, bright and red, shot across the sky. The movements once more were far too high to be a plane, too precise as well. Humans lacked personal flight in this world as well, which meant it could only be one thing.
<Yeerks.> The sheer hatred infusing that word was worse than anything I'd felt in any of my lives. This was not something the Andalite wanted us to deal with, nor was it something that we would be able to avoid. The lights above slowed and shifted in a circle, coming back toward us. <There is no more time. You must decide!>
"We need to do this," Tobias said. "How else could we fight these Controllers?"
If I had my way, none of them would be fighting any Controllers. But even in my gut, I knew that I wouldn't. They were too stubborn to not.
"This is insane!" Marco said. "Just insane."
"Maybe," I said. "But is there any real choice?"
"We don't have more time to make that choice," Rachel said, frowning at me. "Tanya, I don't think…"
"I'm here, Rachel," I said, meeting my older sister's eyes. If any of this was a result of Being X, I would not allow any of my family to suffer because he wished to torture me. "I will not be swayed."
She nodded, sighing, as Cassie asked Jake. Our cousin looked at each of us in turn, but ultimately, between myself and Tobias, I knew that he had the right decision in mind.
"We need to do it," Jake said.
<Then, each of you, press your hands against one of the sides of the cube.>
With only the slightest bit of hesitation, I joined my sister in pressing against the cube. Four more human hands joined us, each pressing a different side of the cube, and a seventh hand, one with more fingers than that of a human held the final side.
<Do not be afraid,> said the Andalite in a soothing tone. How a thought could come across that way was beyond me, but the Andalite's speech was meticulously chosen.
A tingle passed through my body, not unlike what I had felt when using my magic in the last life. There were enough differences for me to notice, but was it possible that the technology the Andalites used were similar to magic in some fashion? If I could harness that, or perhaps somehow I could use spells I'd used in my last life, fighting these Yeerks would be easier. I would not underestimate an unknown enemy, but I could not say that having magic wouldn't be better than not.
Regardless, the tingle faded.
<Go now,> the Andalite said. <Only remember this – never remain in animal form for more than two of your Earth hours. Never! That is the greatest danger of the morphing! If you stay longer than two hours, you will be trapped, unable to return to the human form.>
"Two hours," Jake repeated, clearly committing it to memory, as we all did. Limiting this power to two hours of use would require much, but I was confident that we could do it.
Then a feeling of dread washed through the Andalite's mind. All of us could feel it, as our connection with him was wide open. I felt the fear in my bones, spreading from deep within yet recognized it as his rather than my own. He stared up at the sky with his main eyes, and I followed his gaze. There was another ship up there with the Bug fighters.
<Visser Three! He comes!>
"What?" Jake asked, his voice trembling. "What's a Visser? Who's a Visser?"
The Andalite couldn't answer precisely. <Go! Now! Visser Three is here. He is the most deadly of your enemies. Of all the Yeerks, he alone has the power to morph. The same power you now have. Run!>
"No, we can stay. Maybe we can help you," Rachel said, and I gave my sister an incredulous look. The Andalite quaked with fear, and I knew she felt it, same as me. Same as all of us.
"There have to be more weapons," I said. "You said we have to acquire the DNA and then we can morph? Could we morph you?"
The Andalite smiled at us, using only his eyes once more. <No, there is no time. You must save yourselves. Save yourselves and your planet! The Yeerks are here!>
The Bug fighters above continued to sink lower in the atmosphere, and something else, something
larger, floated behind them. The ship behind it dwarfed both the Bug fighters and the Andalite's ship. At that distance, I couldn't get a good sense of exact measurements, but it was larger than any airplane I'd been on in any of my lives.
"But how are we supposed to fight them? These Controllers?" Rachel asked.
<You must find a way. Now run!>
"He's right. Run!" Jake echoed, and the force of the command nearly had me on my feet running already.
It certainly did for Marco, Cassie and Rachel. Tobias stayed behind with the Andalite, kneeling beside him and taking his hand. While he did that, I scanned around the Andalite. If only one Yeerk had the power we now had, and it came from that cube, then I wasn't going to leave it here for them to find. I spotted it, not far from where Elfangor sat with Tobias.
I ran over to it, and I scooped it into my bag.
<Young Tanya, heed my warning,> said the Andalite. I looked around, carefully, and I spotted a glimpse of my sister behind some rubble.
She scowled at me and gestured for me to hide. Clearly, the Andalite was speaking only to me.
I glanced back at him, just as he placed his head against Tobias's. The boy stumbled backward and ran.
<Hide from the Yeerks, get to safety. But pay attention, for Ellimists watch.>
What did he mean by Ellimists? What was an Ellimist?
I ran, holding the cube in my bag, and I made it behind another set of rubble just as a bright beam of light snapped on, locking onto the Andalite and his ship. It was a spotlight from the Bug fighter, and a second one from the other fighter joined it, lighting up the Andalite like a star.
I rolled behind the rubble, not having to crouch far to keep from the light. I saw the wall the others were huddled behind, across the construction site. There was little that I could do.
<Your life has been touched. Redone again. Perhaps this time, you will get it right. Do what I failed to.> The Andalite sounded like he pitied me. His voice was quieter now as well. Had he also encountered Being X and fought against him? Were Ellimists what Andalites called beings like that? I couldn't know. <Stay quiet, young one.>
I frowned, peeking my head out slightly to watch as the Bug fighters descended. The name did them justice. They were barely larger than the Andalite's ship, and they were shaped like legless cockroaches. This begged the question of why they were called "Bug", but perhaps that was some sort of translation that made sense, given their shape. They had small windows on the front resembling eyes on what would be the head of the bug, and either side of the head had very long serrated spear-shaped weapons. These must have been the Dracon beams the Andalite spoke of.
They touched down, one Bug fighter on either side of the Andalite's ship. Neither ship opened up, instead whoever was inside remained locked on to the ship with their lights.
Unconsciously, I found myself clenching my fists. I had to force my hands to relax. This feeling… the uncertainty that came before battle… If I had a computation jewel, I could do something. If I had… a
morph, I could do something. Perhaps. I reached my hand inside my bag and placed my hand on the morphing cube. I doubted it could be used like a jewel, but I had to try.
As I did so, the larger ship descended, and my own breath caught in my throat. My heart pounded as I stared upward, nearly losing my focus on the cube. I tried to reach my mind into it, to focus my magic… to even cast some sort of reflex enhancement or emotion dampening, but I couldn't. My hands were frozen, a fear rippling through me that I'd never felt in this life until today. It must have come from the Andalite himself. It was the only thing that made sense.
I wasn't afraid. It was his fear.
The ship made its way to the ground, slowly settling upon it. At first, it looked like it might crush what remained of an old rusted earthmover that was parked beneath it, but as the ship landed, the earthmover sizzled, hissed, and evaporated as if nothing had been there to begin with. Were these the kinds of weapons we would have to deal with?
The ship, clearly owned by this Visser Three, resembled a medieval battle axe in shape if the handle were to be replaced by a sword. What would have been the handle ended in a point that must have been the ship's bridge, and at the rear the ship had two massive wings, shaped similar to scimitars. Up close, I could see that the ship had to be at least ten times the size of the Bug Fighters, roughly placing it at thirty times the size of a minivan. It settled on the ground, and a door opened.
What kind of supply lines fed a ship like this? How could they have kept it hidden? There were too many things we still didn't know.
My thoughts were interrupted as a few shapes swept out of the ship in a leap, flourishing and slicing at the air. These creatures were walking weapons. They were bipedal, with two bent-back legs and two very long arms. Each arm had curved blades shaped like horns growing from the elbow and wrist, and each knee also had blades. Long tails with two more blades extended behind them, and their feet were those of theropods, thick with muscle. Their heads had three more daggerlike horns, and a wicked beak extended from their face as a mouth. Their necks were long and snakelike, and the heads swiveled easily on them. What were these things?
<Hork-Bajir Controllers.>
The Andalite's voice was fainter now, further away. There was strain in it, as if he were yelling, or at least whispering very loudly. I wondered if the others heard him as well, but from my vantage point, I couldn't ask them.
<The Hork-Bajir are a good people, despite their fearsome looks,> said the Andalite. <But they have been enslaved by the Yeerks. Each one of them now carries a Yeerk in their head. They are to be pitied.>
I frowned. If the Yeerks had managed to gain control of this race, with those natural weapons, how could we handle them? I couldn't let Rachel or Jake fight. Nor should any of them, really. They were truly children.
Then a new alien drew my attention. A creature that slithered and skittered out of the Blade ship.
<Taxxon-controllers.> The Andalite should have been saving his strength, but intel was important. If we were our world's only hope until his people could get here, we needed to know our enemy. <The Taxxons are evil.>
What?
This sounded vaguely like propaganda. Though, given how Taxxons looked, I supposed I could understand. The creatures were massive and vaguely resembled centipedes, except they were approximately three and a half meters long. They were thick as a sizable tree, with dozens of legs on the lower two thirds of their body, supporting them. The upper third of the body was held upright, and instead of legs, there were smaller, clawlike hands atop what must have been arms. The tubular bodies, which induced in me a desire for vomiting, were topped with a set of four red, jelly-like eyes and a round mouth ringed with tiny yet sharp teeth.
There were about ten of each that poured out of the Blade ship, each armed with a pistol-like weapon. That was something. If I could get my hands on one of those, I could do something to help the Andalite. Then one of the Hork-Bajir bounded over near where the others were, and my breath hitched.
Rachel was over there.
It swept its gun through the darkness, its snake-like head swiveling back and forth, looking into the gloom.
<Silence!> the Andalite warned. It wasn't me that he did, but his words reached me anyway. <Hork-Bajir do not see well in the dark, but their hearing is very good.>
I reached down and grabbing a small piece of rubble, I looked over there. If I were to do this, I needed to do it well. My heart pounded as the adrenaline pumped. My grip on the small rock grew tighter as I watched the Hork-Bajir step even closer to my family and their friends. I couldn't… I needed to help, but I couldn't see how. The cube couldn't be used as a computation orb. It didn't respond, or I didn't have magic. Or… or…
or…
<Courage, my friends,> said the Andalite, his voice soothing. A warmth suffused me, an external comfort and courage that came from him.
It shames me to admit that I've had nightmares of my past life, of what Being X might do to me in this one to ensure that he receives the worship, but I'd been comforted when waking up from them. By my parents, by my sisters, by
family. The feeling that was going through me at the moment reminded me of that. Yes, the Hork-Bajir was there, and yes, it was dangerously close to everyone, but my fear was lessened. I was comforted by a dying alien, sharing his own courage.
I readied my arm to throw the rock, to distract the Hork-Bajir, when it turned away on its own. Something else was coming from the Blade ship. Something
new.
Every single Taxxon and Hork Bajir faced the ship's entrance, standing at whatever counts as attention for their race. I might not have recognized their shape, but I recognized what this was. Their commander was coming, and they were standing ready.
They stood ready for
him.
<Visser Three,> said the Andalite.
Visser Three clopped out of the ship, in an Andalite body. His fur was darker than the one who helped us, and he looked older. The Andalite-Controller stepped confidently in front of his men.
<Only once has a Yeerk been able to take an Andalite body,> said the Andalite. <There is only one Andalite-Controller, and that is Visser Three.>
He walked confidently to the wounded Andalite. I suppose to those who couldn't tell the difference, they might have seemed similar. Visser Three had all the same features that our Andalite had. The eyes, the tail, the body. The difference in color was comparable to the differences between cerulean and cobalt.
However, he
felt different. It was as if he were wearing a mask, falsely covering bitterness and malice with an aura of sweetness. I'd encountered people like that before. It would be better if they were straightforward.
<Well, well,> said the Visser.
I nearly dropped the rock on hearing his thoughts. I supposed that he would have had to communicate too, but could he hear our thoughts? How did their telepathy work?
<He cannot hear your thoughts,> said the Andalite. <As long as you do not direct them to him. You hear his thoughts because he is broadcasting for all to hear. This is a great victory for him, and he wants to gloat.>
Well, that was a comfort. Did that mean that Andalites could hear our thoughts if we directed them toward them in general? Pity that the only friendly Andalite we had to test that with was… in the process of dying.
<What have we here? A meddling Andalite?> Visser Three's mental voice was mocking, even as he looked at the Andalite's ship. <Ah, but no ordinary Andalite warrior. We have a
hero here. Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, if I am not mistaken. What an
honor. You sir, are a legend. How many of our fighters have you shredded? Seven? Was it perhaps eight by the time the battle ended? Oh, I'm sure you lost count.>
The Andalite…
Prince Elfangor held his silence. He was an Ace, perhaps an Ace of Aces. It was more than eight, I felt. Many more. But it wasn't enough.
<The very last Andalite in this sector of space.> Visser Three sneered. <Yes, I'm afraid that your Dome ship has been completely destroyed. Such a pity. I watched it burn as it fell into the atmosphere of this little blue world.>
<There will be others,> said Prince Elfangor. Watching this hurt. But we needed to know more about Visser Three as well.
The Andalite-Controller stepped closer to Prince Elfangor. <And they will be far too late. This world will already be mine. My own contribution to the Yeerk Empire. It will be our greatest conquest, and then I will be Visser One.>
<What do you want with these humans?> asked Elfangor. <You have your Taxxon allies, your Hork-Bajir slaves, and slaves from other worlds, even. Why these people?>
<Because they are so many! And so weak!> Visser Three chuckled darkly. His mental voice somehow grew even more sinister. <Billions of bodies. And not a single one of them knows what's happening. With this many hosts, we could spread throughout the universe. Billions of us. We'll have to build a thousand new Yeerk Pools just to raise enough Yeerks for half that number. Face it, Andalite. You may have fought bravely, but you lost.>
Rather than pay attention to more of the Visser's taunts, I looked around, tuning out the thought-speak to the best of my ability, and I tried to figure out what we could do next. I spotted some vaguely human shapes behind where Visser Three stood, but I couldn't quite make out whether they were prisoners or collaborators. Perhaps they were Controllers, given that Elfangor had told us that the Yeerks were here. It would make sense that they had infiltration units already active. I
Then I heard the distinct sound of a blade hitting flesh, and I looked up in time to catch Elfangor's tail blade retracting from Visser Three's shoulder, barely missing his neck. Blood sprayed out oxidizing upon hitting the air. Andalites didn't bleed red, instead it was more a purplish color that darkened on exposure to the air, but the spray didn't hold my attention for long.
Bright blue light struck one of the Bug fighters from the Andalite's ship. It sliced through the fighter, causing it to sizzle and with a wave of blistering heat, the ship disappeared.
<Fire!> ordered Visser Three. <Burn his ship!>
Suddenly I was reminded of the front lines as the sky exploded with blinding light. Red lights lanced from the Blade ship and the Bug fighter, striking the Andalite ship. The Dracon beams, and what else could they be? They pierced into the Andalite ship, slowly burning and disintegrating it. When the lights faded, there was nothing of the ship left.
I needed those weapons. We needed to be on stronger ground than the Yeerks, and the weapons would do much to at least even things up.
<Take the Andalite,> said Visser Three. <Hold him.>
Three of the Hork-Bajir grabbed Prince Elfangor, holding him down. Each of them held wrist-blades at Elfangor's throat, but none dared to finish him off. The privilege went to their commander.
I hated feeling helpless, but with no magic, no computation orb, and no weapon, there was nothing to be done. I couldn't stop the Andalite prince from being slain, but he had been dying anyway. He was taking this to allow us to get away, and he'd warned us of this very threat.
Then it happened. Visser Three morphed.
Visser Three's head grew much larger, doubling then tripling in size. The four horse-like legs merged into two and then they too grew, expanding to be as big around as a redwood. The Andalite arms, small and delicate, were replaced by writhing tentacles, with more sprouting from there as well. The transformation was horrific to watch, and the squelching and stretching sounds that I could hear from where I hid sent shivers down my spine. I watched the Visser's head grow a mouth, one that filled with teeth as long as an arm, growing wider and wider, the teeth growing sharper and sharper until they formed a grin so monstrous that I had to take a step backward. How could we fight
that?
The monster that Visser Three had become roared and the ground shook from the reverberation. I had to cover my ears, and I scanned for my sister. I needed her to be safe. It didn't appear that the Hork-Bajir had found their hiding space yet, but that didn't mean she was safe. I wished she'd been by me, so I could ensure her safety. But she wasn't, and I had to only hope.
The monster roared again, and my teeth clattered together. I couldn't just… but I couldn't tear my eyes away. Visser Three wrapped a tentacle around the Andalite's throat, grabbing him by the neck and lifting. He pulled the Andalite from the Hork-Bajijrs' grasp.
Prince Elfangor struck repeatedly with his tail. Again and again, his tail drove home, but the creature Visser Three had become had a thick enough hide that it was like a pinprick. There was nothing to do.
Visser Three held the Andalite high in the air and opened his mouth wide. There was some sort of commotion over by my sister, but…
I couldn't do anything. I had to stand and watch as the Visser dropped him. As the Visser closed that massive mouth and the teeth ripped the Andalite apart. Blood and viscera dripped down the sides of that creature's throat, falling to the ground.
This wasn't fair.
Curse you, Being X.
Curse you, Ellimists.
