The Soldier: A Young Girl's Record of an Alien Invasion [Youjo Senki/Animorphs]

[Ellf]

Chapter One

My name is Tanya. This is perhaps the point at which you would assume my last name, having it be something you would expect. But no, I have no desire to share my last name. This is for the safety of my comrades, for the safety of myself, and for my family. Yes. Family. Perhaps by a wondrous twist of fate, or perhaps a cruel one, I have been affected in multiple lives by a being who considers himself above such petty things as mortals. In both of my last lives, I called him Being X, mostly out of spite. The thing wanted worship, and I refused to pay more than lip service to him when it became necessary. But despite him likely still being out there, he wasn't important, and he isn't important to you.

The Controllers are, as are their masters. What they do to those who resist is a fate far worse than anything Being X ever threatened me with, save for going to Hell in the afterlife.

I won't tell you where we are. Just know that in this life, I was born into a real town, a real place, in the United States of America. Perhaps it wasn't quite as modern a time as my original life, but it was more modern than my most recent one. Again, that's less relevant to you and more to me. You probably are curious about the Controllers. I would be too.

This Earth is in danger, invaded by an alien species so insidious that they can hide in plain sight, and their technology far outstrips our own. My comrades and I are perhaps all that stands between Earth and these aliens' successful destruction of all we hold dear. I write this down for similar reasons as my comrades, such that if someday, someone is able to find the truth. And perhaps we may be able to survive as a species long enough for the Andalites to return and save us. While I hold little optimism for that, hope springs eternal.

I just wanted a quiet life. I even had one, once, until that fateful night, that Friday night at the mall.

My older sister had dragged me to the mall with her best friend, Cassie, intent on getting a shopping trip done. See, we had just gotten our weekly allowance, and Rachel knew that I had enough money saved up to actually buy something, whereas she would just be window shopping. She had been hoping to guilt me into buying some clothes for her in addition to myself, but in reality, I think she just wanted to hang out with me. Both of us did gymnastics together, and despite how exuberant Rachel could be sometimes, she was a fairly loving older sister.

An odd experience for someone with my past, of course, but I couldn't not give her what she wanted. She was adorable that way. She isn't all that much older than myself, barely two years, but she was always into fashion and the movements of the sports, whereas I spent more time studying. Rachel, like myself, is blonde with blue eyes, that calculated as they watched, but unlike me, she got our father's height. I suspect she will end up fairly tall as she grows up, while I will remain shorter, much like our mother. She claims that her height is a hindrance on her gymnastics career, but she still comes every week, supporting me in it.

Cassie, her friend, is a lesson in contrast. She's a black girl that keeps her hair short most of the time, is a little shorter than my sister, and today, she was wearing a plaid shirt and jeans contrasted with my sister's pink skirt and white blouse, and my own green skirt and blouse. She's quieter than Rachel, perhaps gives a bit more thought when she speaks than my sister, and she's able to cut to the heart of things. Frankly, Cassie makes me nervous at times, as she seems to see right through me. See that I'm not just Rachel's little sister. Not the way my twin is, or our younger sister, Sara.

On some level, I appreciate that she doesn't treat me like I'm some small China doll, but I worried what my parents would think. Of course, there would be other, more pressing worries.

But that night, the three of us were in line to check out. Rachel turned to me, and said, "Tanya, I'm serious about those shoes. They really did look good on you, and I know that Liam in your class would appreciate them."

"Rachel," I said, looking at my sister. There was a way to play this, as I had no desire to purchase more shoes before the current ones were ruined. "Why would I want Liam to appreciate my shoes?"

Besides, there were better things to be spending money on.

"Don't you like him?" Rachel asked.

"I believe she said she liked him as a friend," Cassie said. "And not even a close one. That Victoria girl was closer."

I waggled a hand. Victoria reminded me of someone, but she wasn't all that important to me now. I couldn't do too well at school, lest I risk my quiet life, and having school friends was a part of ensuring that quiet life could continue. "They're both friends, but Victoria can stay the night. Mom wouldn't let Liam do that."

Rachel snorted and then mussed up my hair. Instinctively, I pulled away. Not for the first time that evening, I wished Jordan had come with us rather than spending the night at her friend's place.

"Hey!"

"Maybe when you're older, Mom will tell you why," she said. Somehow, I suspected even she didn't really know the reason.

I wasn't going to ask her now, though. That would be an inappropriate response for a younger sister, and I was anything but inappropriate. Instead, I steered the question toward something else: our way home. "How much later are we staying at the mall, Rachel?"

"Not too much," she said. "We might not have school tomorrow, but Mom'll kill me if we get home too late."

"I'm sure we can make it back to your place in time," Cassie said as we finished checking out. "Your mom is okay with me staying over, right?"

"She usually is," Rachel said. "Especially with Jordan over at Lily's place for the night. Mom and Sara should be home when we get there though."

Cassie nodded, and we left the store. My older sister switched the subject to some of the sale prices she saw elsewhere, and as we walked, she tried to convince me to purchase some other items, namely a sweater to go with some jeans, if only so she could try and convince Cassie too. While I understood her fashion references, purely by osmosis, mind, Cassie seemed oblivious.

"There are just certain sweaters we can pick up from that store because of the sale and that other store has jeans that would look really good on you, Cassie. The store down there would be better for Tanya or Jordan, but there's probably something we could find at either place," Rachel said. To her consternation, Cassie's eyes seemed to be glazed over. "Tanya, back me up a little here."

"Rachel, I believe Sara is the one with better fashion sense than either Jordan or myself," I said. "I must confess that—"

Cassie held up a hand, and I quieted down. "Shh… Jake's here."

"Oh, he is?" Rachel glanced around, and I did as well.

"No, don't look!" Cassie said sharply. She gave a glare to each of us. "Seriously!"

"He's our cousin," Rachel said, a sly grin coming to her face. "What, precisely, is wrong with us looking at him? I mean come on, it's Jake!"

Our cousin Jake went to the same school as us and even was in the same grade as Cassie and Rachel. He was tall for his age, looking more like he belonged in high school than in the junior high we attended, and he had broad shoulders. I supposed to someone not family, he might have been attractive. Not that I personally was attracted to anyone, anyway. He had brown hair and eyes that matched, and today he wore jeans and a white T-shirt.

He was standing with someone I assumed was his friend, a dark-haired Hispanic boy. I recognized him from the brief times I saw my cousin at school, but I couldn't quite place his name. Perhaps I hadn't been introduced to him.

My sister and Cassie seemed more focused on our cousin, however, with Rachel needling her friend about Jake's appearance. Something about arms, lips, and wrapping and pressing, and it all just seemed a big waste of time, despite Cassie's vehement denials and blushes. If Cassie liked Jake in that fashion, well, she was pretty much family already, maybe that would work out. It wasn't something I was all too worried about. We had time.

The three of us eventually made our way toward the mall's exit, where once more we saw Jake and his friend, but this time a blond boy, wearing a blue T-shirt and jeans, accompanied them. I recognized him as one of the newer children to our school this year, given his arrival mid-year. He was an artist and a bit on the aloof side. Thus, he was bullied by those who misunderstood him. Children could be cruel. That he was with my cousin surprised me, but I remembered Jake having a big heart.

They must have been leaving too because Jake waved as he walked over. He looked at Rachel, his eyes passing partly over me as he did so. "You guys going home? You shouldn't go through the construction site by yourselves. I mean, being girls and all."

Involuntarily, I bristled. While there was safety in numbers, his casual misogyny was not something that I could stand.

My sister beat me to the punch. "Are you going to come and protect us, you big strong m-a-a-a-n? You seriously think we're helpless just because—"

"I'd… appreciate it if they did walk with us," Cassie said. "I know you're not afraid of anything, Rachel, but Tanya's here and we need to think about her too."

Rachel snorted. "Tanya can take care of herself."

The vote of confidence my sister had for me was inspiring.

"And if anyone were to hurt her, I'd kick their butts myself," Rachel said with a vicious grin.

"Are we… going?" I asked.

"Yeah, we can," said the blond. He walked over to me as the six of us left the mall. "So, Tanya, right? I'm Tobias. You're… Rachel's…"

"Sister," I said. "I'm her little sister. One of three."

Tobias nodded, glancing at my sister surreptitiously. I don't think he thought I noticed. He lowered his voice some. "Is she a good sister?"

I nodded. If he wanted to know more about her, he could ask her himself though. After all, we still needed to get home, cutting through the construction site.

Well, to be fair, we could have walked the long way around. The old, abandoned construction site was a more direct route, of course, but everyone's parents cautioned against going through it. It was the job of a parent to ensure that their child knew the rules, just as it was the job of children to occasionally break the rules and learn the hard way the reason why you shouldn't. If only I had insisted on taking the long way around that evening. If Rachel had any chance of listening to me or convincing the others, perhaps we would have.

The construction site encompassed a large area, surrounded on two sides with the highway separating it from the mall. There's a broad, open field, between the site and the nearest houses. It was one of the most isolated places in the area. I heard once that it was supposed to be some sort of new shopping center, but something made them abandon the construction, perhaps mismanaged funds. Logistics was such an easy way to fail a project. Now, the site sat abandoned for years, with piles of rusted steel beams, pyramids of concrete pipes, mountains of dirt, pits long-filled with muddy water, and an old construction crane. If there were an easier way to look things up, I would research which company failed this miserably.

We quieted down as we passed through the construction site, creeping through and keeping our eyes peeled. It wasn't that I feared anything that might have been there, at least at the time. Most homeless people were unlikely to actively try to harm children, especially if they were outnumbered, and any who tried anything with me would learn the hard way why that was a bad idea. Still, as we walked that night, I had a strange feeling in the back of my throat. That feeling of anticipation that came before a battle before something significant was about to happen.

I didn't know what it could have been. There was no battle ground here, merely an abandoned construction site. I looked around, and nothing seemed out of place. Nothing, it seemed, until Tobias stopped and pointed the one direction I hadn't thought to look.

"Look!" he said, and I followed his gaze into the stars. His voice had been more serious yet full of wonder than when he had spoken to me earlier. Given what I saw, I understood.

A shining blue-white light flew across the sky, far too fast to be an airplane, at least at first. It slowed down soon afterward, slower and slower.

"What is it?" Jake asked, looking as well.

"I don't know," Tobias said, shaking his head. The two of them met eyes, and something passed between them.

Of course, I had an idea of what it could be. I doubted it was any sort of mage. The light's size was too large, and the distance was too far up without some sort of significant help. That it was getting larger and closer worried me some, but it didn't so much as Cassie's statement.

"It's a flying saucer!"

Damn you, Being X.

 

[Ellf]

Chapter Two

Jake's friend scoffed at Cassie's exclamation. "A flying saucer?" The laugh that came from his mouth could easily have been mocking, but the moment he looked up, it cut off. I suppose the idea of some sort of alien ship was ridiculous to him. To be honest, it was a little strange to me, even in light of my previous life, where I'd had magic and fought in a war against other mages and people who used more traditional weapons. Of course, I had none of that in this life, and I had not expected to see anything like what I saw in the air that night.

My heart pounded in my chest. The appearance of such an omen could only be something bad. Being X was cruel enough to give me a sense of security, a family, safety, and a quiet life, only to snatch it away so that I might turn to him. I wouldn't give that creature the satisfaction. Still, with my family and their friends here, I could only stand ready. Even without the magic I had in my last life, I would find a way to ensure their survival, but I would not sacrifice my own.

"It's coming this way," Rachel said. My sister had an eye for perspective, and from what I could see, she wasn't entirely wrong.

"It's hard to be sure," Jake replied, but even I could tell that he wasn't confident in that assertion. Our cousin was taken by the craft as much as the rest of us.

"No, it's definitely coming this way," I said, agreeing with my sister, even before she could speak up again. Whatever the craft was, it was certainly getting closer and slowing down the whole time. Soon enough, I could make out the specifics of it.

"It's not exactly a flying saucer," Jake said. He wasn't wrong.

The craft, ship, whatever you wanted to call it, wasn't exactly all that large. It was, perhaps, about as long as a school bus, with a front end that had an oblong shape, almost like an egg. I suppose it could have been called a pod, likely where the cockpit of the ship was. A shaft extended backward from there, long and narrow, with two short, almost stubby wings. On each wing must have been some sort of engine, given the long tubes emitting a blue light on the ends. It looked almost like something a child would dream up, and the raised almost tail-like curve that pointed forward sharp as a needle almost certainly was a weapon.

Jake and his friend agreed, commenting on it aloud as it got closer.

"There's no way this ship was alone," I said. "It doesn't make sense."

"What do you mean, Tanya?" Rachel asked, her voice a little breathy. There was a sense of wonder in there, questioning as if this was really happening. I couldn't blame my sister.

"It's too small," I said. The ship was too small to be anything meant for any sort of long-term journey. Even if the ship were capable of some sort of faster-than-light travel, said travel would need to be extremely precise, and I could only imagine the necessary calculations for that. "It needs somewhere to resupply."

"That makes sense," said Jake's friend. "Who is this kid, Jake?"

"Rachel's little sister, Marco," Jake said, frowning as he looked at the ship.

"Right," Marco said, his gaze never really leaving the ship. It was much closer now. "I think it sees us. Do you think we should run? I know the kid's got stubby legs, but we could pick her up."

"I'm capable of retreating on my own," I said.

"Still, if we got a camera, imagine the money we could make off the video of a real UFO," he said. "We'd make it on Letterman for sure."

"I don't know," Jake said. "Maybe if we run, they might blast us with Phasers on full power."

I glanced over to my cousin. "Aren't those something from Star Trek?"

"Yeah, only on Star Trek," said Marco, with a roll of his eyes, as if either of us truly knew anything. Levity can help with tense situations like this was, but none of us were experts, given this was the first alien ship we'd ever seen. Of course, that didn't mean that they didn't have advanced technology. For the first time in this life, I was finding myself wishing I had some sort of computation jewel. If I had one, and I were capable of using it, I could handle anything that these aliens would throw at us.

The others here were just children. I was experienced. Perhaps not in this life, but my last life's experiences counted for something. Still, I found myself standing closer to my sister. I would make sure that she returned safely to our mother that evening. The way she was standing between me and the oncoming ship, I was almost certain she was thinking the same thing.

The ship stopped and hovered above us not long after that, and the air, charged with static. My hair, Rachel's hair, and the hair of everyone else here stood on end. If we weren't in the situation we were in with an unknown ship, possibly that of an enemy to us, floating above us, the image would be almost comical. Jordan would have loved a picture of both Jake and Rachel in that moment, and if I were to be perfectly honest, she would have wanted a picture of me as well. The only person spared from the hair-raising experience was Cassie, merely due to her haircut.

"What do you think it is?" asked Marco.

"Alien," I said frankly. Because that much was obvious. Of course, it was obvious that everyone was nervous and a little on the giddy side. They were all children, and we were in a situation that would likely make adults nervous. The static had his dark hair sticking up crazily. I frowned as I studied the ship. "Perhaps a fighter?"

"I think it's going to land," Tobias said. He had more excitement in his expression than anyone else. I supposed that some children were more prone to being interested in the strange and different than others. Victoria and Liam would probably have been the same if they'd been here. Both had their place, but I was happy they weren't here with us. The danger was too great.

The ship started its descent, proving Tobias to be correct. While I had the urge to leave, swiftly, something in my gut told me that leaving now would be a bad idea. I wasn't sure if this was Being X's influence or if this was my own instincts, but keeping here, even if the ship was "coming right at us", the way Jake had exclaimed, seemed the correct course of action. Even if I had wanted to leave, there was no way Rachel was going anywhere, and convincing my older sister away from this would have been more trouble than ensuring her safety otherwise.

I wasn't afraid, not truly. This might have been a different situation, but I had faced worse than a spaceship from unknown origins.

The ship hummed as it made its way down to the ground, glowing with an energy that was palpable. It slowly settled to the ground not far from us, in an open space between some half-destroyed walls and discarded materials. Seeing it from this angle, it was obvious the ship had seen combat of some sort, given the burn marks along the pod section, blackened with some sort of carbonization. The pod's skin had delaminated somewhat, separating and melting due to whatever energy had caused the damage. Had this fight been recent? Were there other aliens out there that had fought a battle in the space above our planet? It wouldn't surprise me if that had happened. As the ship touched down on the ground, the lights went out, and our hair settled back into place. The charge in the air left.

"It's not very big, is it?" Rachel asked. "Tanya's right. It's too small."

"Maybe about three times our minivan," Jake said. "Could be four times. I'm not sure."

"It's a fighter," I said softly. "There must be a supply ship out there somewhere, or maybe there had been…"

"We should tell someone," Marco said. "This is kind of a big deal, you know? It's not like spaceships land in construction sites every day. We should call the cops or the army or the president or something. We'd be famous. We'd probably even get on Letterman."

"Yeah, we should," Jake said. "Definitely call someone."

"How?" I asked. It wasn't like any of us had cell phones. They were too expensive to carry and too bulky. Yes, someone should be notified about the alien ship, but… I couldn't make my feet move. I felt rooted to the spot, so long as my sister was here. Leaving her wasn't an option. Not an acceptable one, anyway.

"I wonder if we should try to talk to it," Rachel said. She had interposed herself between me and the ship, lightly placing a hand on my shoulder. "To communicate with whatever's inside, if it's even possible."

"They haven't tried to kill us yet," I said. "They might…"

Tobias stepped forward, keeping his hands visible in a way to show that he was unarmed. At least, I assumed that was his strategy. It matched with the tone of voice he used. "It's safe! We won't hurt you!"

"They probably don't speak English," I said.

"Everyone does on Star Trek," Cassie said, giving a short laugh. American children. Their only reference to any sort of aliens were Star Trek and Star Wars. Though to be fair, that was mine as well, beyond Being X.

"Hello?" Tobias called, trying again. "Please, come out. We won't hurt you!"

<I know.>

I stiffened. I'd clearly heard someone say that they knew. The voice was even masculine. It definitely wasn't my own thoughts, and that meant that the voice had to come from outside. Only one being had done that before to me, and I could not make any assumptions about this. I glanced up at my sister, and she met my eyes, nodding slightly as she looked around, turning her head back and forth. Clearly, the others had heard it too. That didn't preclude the voice coming from someone I would hope that it wasn't from, but it reduced the likelihood.

"Did everyone hear that?" Tobias asked quietly. He must not have wanted to alert the source.

"Yes," I hissed as the others nodded. "Do you think…?" I left out the thought of where it might have come from. Occam's Razor indicated that, given the circumstances, it must have come from the alien ship in front of us.

"Can you come out?" Tobias asked in his louder voice, reserved for speaking to the ship's inhabitants.

<Yes. Do not be frightened.>

"We won't be frightened," Tobias said immediately.

At some point, my sister must have held my hand, as my hand and hers were tightly entwined as we stared at the ship. A thin strip of light in a crescent shape formed on the smooth side of the ship's pod. It must have been a doorway, and despite myself, I couldn't help but stare, holding my sister's hand. For her benefit, of course. The door continued to open, slowly shifting from a thin crescent to a thicker one, to eventually a full bright circle, eventually revealing the alien within.

He stepped into the light, showing himself for the first time to us. My first thoughts upon seeing him were of possible genetic experimentation. It was as if someone had decided to try and create a mythical centaur. He had a humanoid upper body, arms and shoulders where they would have been on a human, but the lower half was similar in shape to a deer or a small horse. His exposed skin was a pale shade of blue, and on the equine or cervine part, there was fur that was a mix of blue and tan.

As he ducked himself through the doorway, I could see him more clearly. His face was strange, lacking a mouth, instead having three vertical slits in its place and where we would have our noses. His eyes also drew attention. Two were located in the normal place on his head, but his were colored a glittery emerald that almost distracted from his second set of eyes. Almost. Two more eyes sat upon horn-like appendages located on top of his head, and they operated on a swivel, constantly sweeping back and forth, looking at each of us in turn. Then his tail became visible.

Unlike a horse or deer, the alien had a long, prehensile tail, thick and powerful looking. Its tip had a sharp, curved blade, either a horn or a stinger, similar to how his ship had its weapon built into the curled-up tail. Now it made sense. If a species had a natural weapon like that, weapons on ships would probably follow form, even if function made less sense that way. Aesthetics, in their own way, had their place in weaponry. It made sense that aliens would have that too.

"Hello," Tobias said, as if he were talking to a small child, like my younger sister. He had a wide grin on his face, and so did most of the others. I was smiling as well, but it was a more gentle one, like I wore when I was with my twin. This was an important moment. We were having a form of first contact, and the alien had told us to not be afraid.

I was still wary. This alien could still harm us, easily, but there was also the question of whatever damaged his ship.

<Hello.> The alien said without saying. A lack of mouth made the telepathy make sense. Of course, the alien species without a mouth would develop a way of communicating that didn't need vocalization. I would have expected some sort of sign language, given their hands, but telepathy worked too.

"Hi," said most of the group. I stayed silent, watching the alien.

His main eyes focused on each of the group in turn, but for some reason, his stalked ones seemed to focus on me. Perhaps because I was smaller.

Then the alien staggered as he tried to leave the ship, falling out entirely to the ground. Tobias quickly was at his side, trying to hold him up, but the alien slipped from his grasp, falling once more to the ground.

Quickly, we all were at his side, looking him over closer. He was wounded. A massive burn covered half his right side, stretching from halfway down his side to his flank. I was no expert on alien physiology, but I'd seen similar injuries on my men.

"Look! He's hurt!" Cassie said, pointing at the burn.

"He's…" I started, only to get cut off by the alien.

<Yes. I am dying,> he said.

I grit my teeth. Such a waste. "What were you fighting? Are they a danger to us?"

<Yes.> He held up a hand to stop Cassie from trying to help. The blood, or at least what looked like blood on his flank hadn't been completely dry. I could see it dripping somewhat on the ground. <Do not. My wound is fatal. I will die.>

"No!" Jake cried out. "You can't die. You're the first alien ever to come to Earth. You just can't die!"

"He's not the first," I said, frowning. I wasn't completely certain of this, but I was sure enough. Whatever was fighting him was dangerous enough to be harmful.

<There are many others,> said the alien. <Many… many others.>

"Other aliens, like you?" asked Tobias.

The alien slowly shook his head from side to side. His stalked eyes still focused on me though, and it was a little unnerving. What did he see? Why was he so interested in me? <Not like me.>

Then the alien cried out in what could only be described as pain. The silent scream echoed within my skull, pounding and tearing. I could feel the wound, a shadow of it burning in my side, and it almost felt as if I were dying along with him. The alien's pain was mine, and once again, I felt the waste. I knew it. If he could survive, we'd be able to use him.

<Not like me,> he repeated. <They are different.>

"How so?" asked Jake.

<They have come to destroy you,> said the alien.

The truth to the statement rang within my head, and I frowned. It felt like a warning, but how we could pass the information on to those who could deal with it was beyond even me. The alien was dying, and he wanted us to know what we could to survive.

<She asked what I had been fighting, and the answer is the Yeerks. They are different from us. Different from you as well.>

"They're already here?" Rachel asked. "Is that what you're telling us?"

<Many are. Hundreds. Perhaps more.>

"You'd think we would have noticed them," Marco said. "If there are that many. Maybe someone would have mentioned it at school."

"Hundreds, comparatively , is a small number," I said. "There are nearly six billion humans on this planet."

<And Yeerks are different. You do not understand. They have no body. Not like yours or mine. They live in the bodies of other species. They are…>

At that moment, I suppose words must have failed the alien because he closed his eyes and concentrated. A picture appeared in my mind of a gray-green slug-like creature, quite a bit larger than slugs or snails could get. It was roughly the size of a rat, maybe a little larger, but whatever it was, it was unpleasant to look at.

"That's your enemy?" I asked. "A slug?"

<That is the enemy in their natural state,> said the alien. <They are almost powerless without hosts, they—>

Suddenly, a blast of pain went through him, and a great sadness. The alien had been in combat for too long, and had used most of his energy. If we had a way to save him, we would have. The disappointment that went through me that he wouldn't survive had to be because it was such a waste of a life. The knowledge he had would be useful for dealing with these… Yeerks. But he knew his time was nearly done. I saw it in him, as I had some soldiers under my command.

<They are parasites and require a host to live in. In this form, they are known as Controllers. They enter into the brain and are absorbed into it, taking over the host's thoughts and feelings. Normally, they attempt to get the host to accept them voluntarily. It is easier for them to gain control this way. Otherwise, the host may be able to resist, at least a little.>

"They take over human beings? People?" Rachel asked. "They just take over their bodies?"

So, anyone we knew could have these aliens inside them. That was a worry to focus on later. I would deal with the alien in front of me before worrying about the ones tryingto stab me in the back.

"Why speak with us?" I asked.

"Yeah, this is serious stuff," Jake said. "We're just kids. Shouldn't the government know about this?"

<We had hoped to stop them.> The alien looked at me with all four of his eyes before looking at the others. <Swarms of their Bug fighters were waiting when our Dome ship came out of Z-space.>

So, there was a larger ship of aliens and a battle above. It was nice to have confirmation.

<We knew of their mother ship and were ready for the Bug fighters, but the Yeerks surprised us. They had hidden a powerful Blade ship in a crater on your moon. We fought, but… we lost. They tracked me here. They will be here soon to eliminate all traces of me and my ship.>

Operational security. I would have done the same thing, if it wasnecessary. Yes, the alien's ship would be useful to them, but if it compromised the infiltration, and it needed to be gone. These Yeerks would do what they needed to in order to have their operation succeed.

"How can they even do that?" Cassie asked.

The alien made a gesture that almost seemed to be a smile with his eyes. <Their Dracon beams will leave nothing behind save for a few molecules of the ship… or my body,> he said. <I was able to send a message to my people on my home world. We Andalites fight the Yeerks wherever they go in the universe. My people will send help, but it could take a year, possibly more. By then, the Yeerks will have control of this planet. After that, there will be no hope. You must tell people. You must warn them!>

Another spasm of pain shot through him, and the waste saddened me.

"Nobody would believe us," Marco said. "We're kids. We don't have any proof."

"You said they are going to get rid of your ship and body," I said. "Is there some way…"

"Yeah, we need to help him, Tanya," Rachel said. "Maybe if we got him to Cassie's… her parents could maybe…"

<There is no time,> said the alien. <No time…> Then his eyes brightened. <Perhaps…>

"What?" Jake asked.

<Go into my ship. Inside, you will see a small blue box, very plain. Bring it to me, quickly! I have very little time and the Yeerks will find me soon.>

In some silent discussions, it was decided by the children that Jake would be the one to board the ship. Some words of encouragement were spoken to him, but as he gazed into the doorway nervously, I stepped up to his side, taking my hand from my sister's.

"I'll go in with you, Jake," I said, after Cassie's encouragement.

"Tanya?" he asked.

"Let's go on in," I said, as we stepped up to the doorway. I lowered my voice. "Maybe there will be some weapons we can take with us. If the other aliens are going to destroy the ship and its contents…"

Jake nodded. We made our way inside. The ship wasn't large inside, and it was somewhat simple in design. The overall shape was very oblong, like a giant oval, similar to the outside of the ship. This made sense, given the shape, but at least there was no space-bending going on. Almost everything inside was a creamy color with rounded edges. The box, however, was not. It was one of the few things inside with straight edges and a sky-blue color, easily standing out amongst the background. The ship had no chairs, merely an open space where the Andalite must have operated the ship. There were few controls visible, but given the telepathy, it wouldn't surprise me if the technology had an interface for using that. An advanced species like the Andalites would take advantage of every advantage they had.

Jake secured the box as soon as we were on the ship, and I did a quick once-over, looking for anything else that might be useful. I felt around the ovals, and looked for something that could be a gun or other alien weapon. Yes, the ship's weapon itself would count, but I wouldn't be able to bring that with me.

If there was an armory to grab from, it wasn't in this area of the ship. And sadly, we had little time to waste.

"Come on, Tanya," Jake said, gesturing for me to follow him. "We need to get going."

I breathed out a sigh. "I should have asked."

As I turned to leave, something did catch my eye. A three-dimensional image of four Andalites together, two looking younger, and two looking older hung in the space near the door. I realized that this must have been his family, though neither of the older Andalites looked like he did precisely. I suspected the deeper colored one must have been the female of the species, but honestly, I did not know. I was tempted to grab the image, but I chose not to.

"Here's the box," Jake said, placing it in the alien's outstretched hand.

<Thank you,> said the alien. His eyes swiveled toward me. <You were unable to locate what you searched for?>

I frowned. "I saw the picture. But you have no side-arm?"

<I have my tail. There is something that I may be able to do to help you fight the Yeerks.>

"You could give us weapons," I said.

The Andalite shook his head, instead holding out his hand and the blue box. <I can give you a power that the Yeerks do not have access to.>

"And what power is that?" Marco asked.

<The power to morph,> said the Andalite.

If only I knew.

 

[Ellf]

Chapter Three

<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.

 

[Ellf]

Chapter Four

In my last life, I had seen death. I had caused it, even become rather adept at causing it. Whether at the blade of a knife or the tip of a bullet, all people died the same. I had lost subordinates, even sent some to where they might die. People had called me cruel, uncaring, and some, even on my own side, called me evil, a Devil.

Compared to the beast in front of me, I was nothing. Visser Three had morphed into a monster specifically to eat his enemy, and the Taxxon-Controllers swarmed beneath him, hoping, begging for scraps that fell from the oversized mouth. The inherent cruelty to promise to hunt down the Andalite's family and infest them with Yeerks, making them like himself, then eating Prince Elfangor was obvious. Visser Three had the Andalite Prince dead to rights, and he drew out the death, savoring it.

I would have just killed him and moved on, and yes, people would have been horrified at the efficiency, including my own underlings. Visser Three was cheered. Raucous laughter came from the Human-Controllers and something resembling laughter and applause came from the Hork-Bajir.

The agonized cry that Prince Elfangor gave in his death tore at my heart, burning itself into my mind as I hatefully stared at the great beast, and I glared at the other Controllers as well. Humans, Taxxons, Hork-Bajir, and him. This was the face of the enemy. At least, for now. The Yeerks inside them were the true enemy, and the bodies were merely the weapons. But try as I might, I could not dissociate Visser Three from the monster in front of me. They were one and the same.

It didn't take long before the monstrous form the Visser had taken was discarded. He slowly returned to his Andalite form, the shifting and transforming of flesh and fur made all too unpleasant sounds, even at this distance. Soon enough, he stood in his host's natural form and let out a loud, boisterous chuckle through the telepathy.

<Ah,> he said, broadcasting for all to hear. <nothing like a good Antarean Bogg morph for… taking a bite out of your enemies.>

And I was the monster? I was the devil?

The Controllers laughed again, the Humans giving a proper laugh, and the Hork-Bajir sounded almost like a "whuff" sound with each breath. Among the humans, I recognized one of the laughs. I couldn't place it precisely, but I'd heard it before. It confused me. Did I know one of the humans controlled by a Yeerk? It wasn't a family member, but the familiarity would bug me.

Unfortunately, not more than what I saw from across the site. A Hork-Bajir had locked its sights on the wall my sister, cousin and their friends hid behind. It held still, staring, as if it were trying to hear something. I glanced back to Visser Three, and then I glanced back at the hiding spot and beyond. Had they been spotted then?

They had. The Hork-Bajir had heard something, and panic ensued.

They ran, and the Hork-Bajir near them let out a cry, staring after them. Cassie, Marco, and Tobias each ran in different directions while my family members stayed together. I needed to figure out how I could help them leave.

Rachel taunted the Hork-Bajir, clearly trying to draw it off. As I felt the blood dripping in my hand, I remembered the rock I'd picked up before. I threw it hard. In Elementary School, Jordan and I both played on the school softball team. The rock was smaller yet denser than any of the balls we threw then, but the weight was about the same. I might not have been able to throw as fast as in my last life, but I could throw fast enough. The rock clocked the Hork-Bajir in the side of its head, and it spun its neck around toward me and snarled.

I took off running as one Hork-Bajir gave chase. I'd been through the construction site during the daylight hours before, and I knew which way I needed to go. I saw two more go after my sister and cousin, but at least I'd gotten one to break away. The Taxxons seemed too preoccupied with eating scraps of Andalite to chase after anyone.

"Enemy here! Sikhar! I kill!" The Hork-Bajir spoke, its voice sounding remarkably like that of a parrot that swallowed gravel as it spoke in a mixture of its own language and English. That it was able to speak English surprised me, but perhaps the Yeerk inside had started sharing information with those who were inside humans somehow.

Or perhaps they just learned the language swiftly. It didn't matter, as the Hork-Bajir followed me. Being nearly three times my size, there was no way I could hope to actively outrun it on an open field, so I went further into the construction site, hoping to lose it among the partly finished buildings and rubble.

The creature bounded after me, and I ducked around a wall attached to what might have been a future electronics store at some point. It never was finished completely, as no glass was ever installed on the store front. The roof remained, and I tracked what was inside. Apparently, some homeless had made this their temporary home at one point, as I saw a fire pit, some glass bottles, and a glinting metallic blade that looked like a steak knife with cloth around the handle. It might have just been a shard of metal, but it was there near the fire pit.

I clung to the wall as the Hork-Bajir turned the corner, using the shadows to hide my presence. I needed to have the thing not fire its weapon, which must have been a portable Dracon beam, at me. If I could have it just give up and go away, I could run, find Rachel, and we could make it home together. I wasn't going to go home without my sister. Trying to explain that to my mother and other sisters would be difficult without telling them of the imminent alien invasion.

And I had no proof that any of them weren't already controlled by the Yeerks. I wasn't, but I didn't know what it took for those slugs to infest someone. I didn't know how long it took for them to gain control, and I didn't know if there were ways to test to see if one was inside.

The Hork-Bajir paused, looking into the store front. This was my time to test how much what Prince Elfangor was true. If it truly had poor night vision, there was no way that it would see me from my position. I merely needed to remain quiet. Getting the knife would be helpful, but the hulking form of the alien gave me pause.

A human stopped near the Hork-Bajir. I could barely make out her form in the limited light.

"What are you doing?" asked the human. She was an adult, dressed in pants and some sort of jacket. I couldn't quite make out the specifics.

"Il nash fallay. To fallay fit? Whatever order," said the Hork-Bajir.

The human shook her head. "Orders from the Visser. Just kill them. We can eliminate the bodies. Chapman says to save the heads for identification."

"I kill," answered the Hork-Bajir.

"Good," said the human. "See that you do. You do not want to fail the Visser, not on his night of triumph."

Chapman. As in our Vice-Principal? Not Jordan's, but I was at the same school as Rachel now. The idea that our Vice-Principal was a Controller made some small, petty, part of me happy. Perhaps the Yeerk was what made him as much a stickler for the rules as he was. I just had no way of knowing for certain. It could have been any Chapman. It wasn't as if that last name were uncommon.

"Ik na say. I obey," said the Hork-Bajir. The human woman shined a flashlight into the store front, and I slipped along the wall, waiting.

As the light shifted across the store, I slid over to the fire pit and picked up the knife. It wasn't a very large one, but it had a sharp edge. Someone had left it here for a reason, but whatever the reason, it would be serving my purposes now. Carefully, I unwrapped the handle from the cloth, but I kept the cloth in hand as I held the knife. I didn't want to leave any sort of fingerprints that the Controllers could use to track me, assuming the aliens thought to do so.

I glanced at the woman with the light and the Hork-Bajir with the Dracon beam. One of them had something I wanted, but the Controller was too dangerous if it could see me. The woman with the light had to go. I knew how fast I could throw something the size of the knife and the precise angle I needed to throw it. While I hadn't practiced much with knives in this life, I'd used darts and balls. The skills were transferrable, albeit imperfectly. I just needed to make sure to get this right.

Of course, if I'd had any sort of physical enhancement, I wouldn't have worried. But the cube I'd picked up couldn't be used like that. Or if it could, I hadn't had any time to figure it out.

With a slight flourish to get a better grip, the flashlight temporarily gleamed off the knife as I slipped out of it.

"There!" Pointed the Human-Controller, and a red beam of light shot out from gun held by the Hork-Bajir.

The beam struck the back wall, burning a perfectly circular hole into it. The concrete it had struck simply disintegrated with a sizzling sound. I was less than impressed with the Hork-Bajir's accuracy, but the damage done by the Dracon beam was something I had to admit was something I felt could be useful. That it was the size of a pistol only made me want it more.

I just needed to deal with the light source first. I had no clue what happened to the hosts when the Yeerks took them over. Did they suffer? Was it possible for the Yeerks to let them go without killing them? How could I enforce that? I didn't know. There was far too much I still didn't know, but behind the eyes of that human was a Yeerk, and the Yeerk wanted to kill me. As far as I was concerned, she was an enemy combatant, and there was one thing to do to an enemy that wanted to kill you.

Kill them first.

Making my final, calculated step, I threw the knife with the appropriate speed, at the appropriate angle. The knife sailed through the air, and it embedded itself into the side of the woman's throat. If she hadn't turned her body to the side, the knife would have caught her in the trachea, which might have been survivable. Instead, the blade dug into the carotid artery, and the Human-Controller immediately did the worst thing she could do in the situation.

She reached up and pulled the knife out. Between the blood loss and the wound itself, the woman ended up dropping the flashlight, its beam still on. The flashlight rolled on the ground as the woman herself dropped. I hoped that the being behind was suffering as the woman had to have been. I said a silent apology to the host, but a sense of satisfaction rolled through me as I dropped my first Controller, without the help of anyone else.

Then the light rolled onto me completely, and the Hork Bajir snarled. It shot at me with the Dracon beam, but I was able to dodge it. I dodged a second beam and glanced toward the entrance. Now it was just the Hork-Bajir, but who knew how long that would last? The human was dead. Getting out of the store front would not be easy, and there was the chance that the Hork-Bajir would call more of its compatriots to track me down.

The Hork-Bajir stepped into the store, having to duck under the window frame as it did so. It looked around, aiming the Dracon beam around. Yes, it was a ranged weapon, but given what the Hork-Bajir had access to, it surprised me that it would want to rely on it so much. It fired another shot, wild and blind, but if I hadn't already moved, it would have hit me. The beam struck a concrete slab that had been lying against a nearby wall, burning another perfectly circular hole. It seemed the beams couldn't make it much further than two inch-thick concrete at the strength the Hork-Bajir was firing.

Interesting.

I had an idea. If there were Human-Controllers here, what were the odds that the Hork-Bajir knew each one of them? Yes, I was no adult, but surely, the Yeerks weren't only infesting adults. I had already killed the woman, and she was able to order the Hork-Bajir around. Perhaps I would be able to as well, if I assumed the right attitude. My heart pounded in my throat as I thought of this.

I had experience giving orders, but it had been so long since I led the 203rd. Would I be able to pull this off? Would it be worth the risk if the Hork-Bajir didn't believe me?

I slipped around the store, careful where I stepped, until I made a misstep. Glass. It cracked under my foot, and the Hork-Bajir suddenly shifted in place. I stepped quickly to the side as it fired its Dracon beam once more.

"Just what are you doing?" slipped out of my mouth before I could stop myself. I used my officer voice. "Aiming at your superior? Truly?"

"Enemy! Ikhar! Order to kill!"

"I'm not your enemy, idiot," I said with a dismissive tone. "Do you really think that Visser Three would want to waste a host like this?"

The Hork-Bajir seemed confused and stepped closer to me. "Order kill. Who?"

"That is not your place to ask!" I sneered. "You were to kill the interlopers. Not ask questions."

I couldn't edge toward the exit. Somehow, the Hork-Bajir had managed to place itself between me and the doorway. It hadn't clearly seen my face yet, as I had not stepped into the light, but I did my best to hold myself as an officer. If this worked, if the Hork-Bajir-Controller could be fooled, maybe I could get away without needing to kill it.

Unfortunately, the Hork-Bajir had other ideas. Perhaps the Yeerk inside was smarter than it seemed, as it cut me off entirely. Holding its Dracon beam with a single hand, it grabbed me by the shoulder and lifted.

"What are you doing, fool?" I asked, still holding back as much fear as I could.

"Human child. Ikhar verify not Enemy!" The Hork-Bajir squeezed tighter around my shoulder, and I reached up to grab at its arm so that I could take some weight off my aching shoulder. Its skin was leathery under my hands.

Another idea occurred to me. I didn't know how quickly I could do this, but the alien held me tightly as I held on to it. "Let me go, unless you wish to face the wrath of Visser Three."

The Hork-Bajir whuffed out a laugh, and I focused my mind. Morphing. The Andalite Prince had said that I would need to acquire the DNA first, and then I would be able to morph. Maybe it would work by concentration and calculation. I focused on the Hork-Bajir, on drawing it in. If this worked, I could maybe use the form as a way to get out of this alive.

As I felt a tingle go into my hands, it turned out I needn't have bothered.

"Get away from her, you bitch!" Rachel's voice cried out and metal rang as she struck the Hork-Bajir across the head with a rusted pipe.

I kicked out at the Hork-Bajir's other arm, and the Dracon beam flew out of its grip. Its head still reeling, it dropped me, and I used my gymnastics training to quickly get to my feet, scurrying away.

"Get the gun!" I called to Rachel. My sister met my eyes, and in the dim light, I saw her nod.

She ran over to where the Dracon beam clattered to the ground, and she picked it up. She aimed at the Hork-Bajir, which was recovering.

It sneered. "Enemy! I kill! You die!"

"You first," Rachel said, pulling the trigger. The red beam struck true, impacting the Hork-Bajir in the chest, and instead of a hole burning through it, the leathery flesh of the alien sizzled. It disintegrated before our eyes, as Rachel held the trigger of the weapon down, burning it to a crisp. After it fell, she let go, lowering her hand.

I ran over to her. "Rachel! I thought…"

"I couldn't leave without you, Tanya," she said. "But Jake… he's… I had to leave him…"

I frowned, and as she wrapped her arms around me, I lied. "I'm sure he's fine. He's athletic and smart." For a child. If we all survived this evening, we would be lucky.

"Yeah, you're right," Rachel said. "What were you doing? Why didn't you just run?'

"I couldn't," I said, and I glanced to the dead woman on the ground ou Out of the ear, a green-grayish creature started to squirm in the drying blood. "Look!"

"Is that… a Yeerk? It was in the woman?" she asked. "How did she die?"

"I threw something," I said, and as we made it over to the woman, I looked at the sluglike alien. It was maybe five times as large as an Earth slug. "I guess it tried to escape before the host…"

Rachel shot the Yeerk with the Dracon beam. "Can't let it get back."

I nodded. "We should do something about her…"

Rachel frowned, but she nodded. "I'm sorry that this happened, Tanya. I know you wanted to stay home tonight."

She could have faced this without me, and I'd never have known. "No, you couldn't have known. May I?"

"No," Rachel said, determination coming to her face. She fired the Dracon beam at the corpse, and like the Hork-Bajir before it, the dead woman disintegrated, clothes and all. "Here. I'll put it in your bag. But we'll hide it in my room."

"Okay," I said, and together we snuck off. She didn't ask about the morphing cube in there, but she held tighter on my bag as we left the construction site. We'd killed two Controllers that evening between the two of us and their hosts. Rachel was handling it better than I thought she would, but maybe it just hadn't sank in yet.

We managed to make it home without further incident, and when we got there, we made it into our rooms. Rachel pulled me into another hug when we got into her room, and we were able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Of course, it would only be temporary. We had just been drafted into a war for humanity, and though the Yeerks didn't know it, we fired the first retaliatory shot that evening.

I knew this was no dream. But perhaps it would have been better if it was.

 

[Ellf]

Chapter Five

I ended up falling asleep in Rachel's room that night, as my twin was at her friend's house. I felt leaving Rachel alone that night would be bad for her mental health after what we did. Plus, a selfish side of me noted, it was comfortable in her bed next to her. Were I a normal child, I suspect nightmares would have been possible. Our lives had been upended, after all. We had found out that not only was humanity not alone in the universe, but there was an actively hostile alien race looking to enslave us all. This would not be something that a normal child would easily be able to reconcile, which was why I stayed to observe my sister.

Rachel had no visible nightmares with me there with her, even if the guilt at leaving Jake behind ate at her. She apologized to him profusely when he'd called to check in the night before, and she verified that the others had returned to their homes safely. She let me know before we laid down to sleep, and it did bring a small comfort to me.

I awoke the next morning to my sister getting out of bed. There were certain morning routines that you did not interrupt in our home. Rachel's was among them, lest you risk having your head bit off. I might have gotten away with it once or twice, but we did have extra bathrooms in our home because there were four of us.

I made my way to the hall bathroom, rather than Rachel's, and dealt with what I needed to do. Sara, our little sister, toddled toward it as I came out. Her brown hair was a mess in the morning, and I frowned. While I could leave it for Mom to deal with, I didn't want to have to help out.

"Tanya why isn't Jordan here?" asked Sara as she stood in the doorway.

"She spent the night at Lily's," I said. "Before you ask, I wasn't invited."

"Why?"

"Lily is Jordan's friend, not mine," I said.

"Why?"

"Because she and I don't have all the same friends," I said.

"Why?"

"Do you really care?" I asked, crossing my arms. At nearly four years old, Sara should have been past the "Why?" loop already, but sometimes I swore she did it just to rile us up. It worked more on Jordan and Rachel than myself, but there were times I wanted to shake my little sister. Of course, after the previous night, I just was happy to see her. And I doubted that the Yeerks would bother taking someone so young if they could have someone older. She didn't need to know though.

"You spent the night with Rachel," she said. "Can I come next time?"

"Maybe when you're older," I said noncommittally. "Go on, Sara. Do what you need to, and when you're done, I'll come in and help with your hair."

"Okay," she said and went into the bathroom.

While my younger sister did what she needed to do in the bathroom, I pondered the previous night. I'd killed for the first time in this life, and my older sister had as well. For Rachel, it had been three aliens, but I had killed the human host of one of the Yeerks. Yes, the Andalite, Prince Elfangor, had said that there were likely collaborators, people who willingly allowed themselves to be infested. However, I had no clue if the woman I'd killed had been one of them. I'd simply thrown a knife. Perhaps the Hork-Bajir had been an innocent as well, but it wasn't a human being. I could rationalize away dehumanizing an enemy that was never human to begin with, and I had no doubt that my sister could do the same.

"Give me liberty or give me death" was said by Patrick Henry in 1775, before the Revolutionary War started. While he was speaking about the rights of the American Colonies, the sentiment applied here. Better to be dead than to be enslaved by one of those aliens, especially with how they acted last night.

"Tanya, I'm done," Sara said from within the bathroom, and I smiled, heading inside.

Brushing Sara's hair was a soothing exercise for both of us. I knew how to do it in such a way that the knots her hair mysteriously developed overnight would come out without much pain. It took some time, but once I finished, I smiled at her, as comfortingly as I could. "There you go, Sara."

Sara laughed. "You look silly."

I blew out a sigh and patted her head. "Go and bug Mom. I'm sure it's breakfast time soon."

"Kay," she said and skipped out of the bathroom, to my irritation.

My smile did not look silly. My friends liked it when I smiled, especially when we were playing sports. They took it as a sign that we were about to win. Of course, that wasn't always the case, but I had fun sometimes.

I went into my room to change clothes, and Rachel followed me in with my bag in hand. She walked over to my dresser and pulled out a green blouse and a pair of jeans, along with appropriate undergarments, throwing them on the bed. "Go ahead and get changed, Tanya. But we need to talk."

I nodded, doing so. She'd already changed, herself, into a similar outfit, only with a red spaghetti-strap blouse instead.

"About last night?" I asked.

Rachel nodded. "Yeah. And what we're going to do with… this stuff."

"That depends," I said. "What do you want to do?"

She shrugged, looking inside at the weapon we'd liberated from the Hork-Bajir Controller last night and the device that gave us the ability to morph. "I'm half-tempted to just try and destroy both things, but I don't even know how. And… with what we saw… what we did…"

"We had to," I said.

"You killed someone," Rachel said, her voice pitched low. "And… I know: she was controlled by that… Yeerk that came out of her, but… still. Tanya, you shouldn't have been in that position in the first place."

"None of us should have," I said. "It's happenstance that we ended up there at the exact time an alien ship decided to land. A coincidence, really." One that seemed remarkably convenient, in some aspects. As if we were placed there. Then there was the fact that the Andalite seemed to recognize what Being X had done to me, only claiming that it was Ellimists. Whatever those were. Perhaps it was an Andalite term for things like Being X?

Which meant there was more than one. Wonderful.

Focus. One enemy at a time.

Rachel snorted. "Your vocabulary… You read too much, Tanya."

"I do not," I said, crossing my arms. "Reading is a perfectly normal pastime."

"We can argue about that later," Rachel said. "But yeah. And your quick thinking about the cube… who knows what would have happened if one of them had picked it up?"

I nodded. "The woman mentioned Chapman giving orders. They wanted us dead, leaving only the heads for identification."

"I knew someone sounded familiar," Rachel said, frowning. "That's something we should bring up when we see the others."

I nodded. Knowing at least one person as a Controller was a start. But we needed to know more. We knew far too little about our enemy, and it would be difficult to recruit any sort of allies as things were. "When are we going?"

"I told Cassie that I'd be by around noon," Rachel said. "We can ask Mom if you can come with. I think her dad has some animals that might be… interesting to try and test out."

"You mean morph," I said. "Like what…" I didn't mention that I may have acquired that alien. Not yet. It would be useful later, but I wanted to be sure before I tested it out. And I would also want to try the power out with an Earth animal first.

She nodded. "I'm not sure if I want to be the first person to do it, but understanding what we are doing before going in…"

"We know next to nothing about these Yeerks," I said. "Our greatest asset is that they don't know about us. At least, as far as the fact that we have this power, anyway. And a weapon."

"Yes," Rachel said. "We need to know more. And there's not really anyone else we can rely on. Not without knowing more. How can we know someone is a Controller unless the Yeerk does something like last night? Do they have weaknesses? We're supposed to fight these things, but… it won't be easy."

I nodded. And ideally, they wouldn't be fighting at all. Somehow, given the look that Rachel was giving me, I felt like she was feeling similar feelings.

"We're not telling Jordan," Rachel said. "Not yet anyway."

I nodded. Protecting our sisters and the rest of our family was important. "Are you okay?"

"Yes… no. Not really," Rachel said. "I keep wanting to have last night be a dream, but then I just look in this bag. We really were there. We really saw aliens, and you and I… really killed two of them."

"Three of them, and one human," I said. "The Hork-Bajir had a Yeerk in its skull too."

"And we don't even know if the Hork-Bajir was male or female," said Rachel.

"Or if they have sexes, the way that humans do," I said. "For all we know, there's three biological genders in Hork-Bajir. Or one. Or none. I don't even know."

"It's not like the Andalite was able to tell us much," Rachel said, frowning. "That poor thing. What Visser Three did was… disgusting."

I nodded. "Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul sacrificed himself so we could get away. He might have been able to morph, but if he had, Visser Three might have found us. And we'd be dead. Or worse."

Rachel shuddered, but then she suddenly wrapped me in a hug, dropping the bag. "Don't even think like that. If anything had happened to you last night, I would have…"

I leaned into the hug. My sister was a very physical person, and sometimes I had to placate her with things like this. It helped that they weren't uncomfortable to be in. Jordan and Sara liked them as well, and if I were honest, our parents were probably the ones who instilled that in us.

Rachel pulled away slightly. "I hope Melissa's not a Controller. If she is…"

"Maybe we can find a way to free her," I said. "If she is. We don't know how things work. How they work."

"So, what then?" asked Rachel. She frowned at me. "Are you sure you're okay?"

No, I was far from okay. The quiet life that I'd come to enjoy was being taken from me, and I'd been thrust into a war where the only compatriots I had were children. Children that were older than me, sure, but they were still children. This was far from an ideal situation, and… why was Rachel brushing my cheek? Were there tears? Was I crying?

"I… don't know. Last night was… bad," I said. "And if we fight, it will be worse."

"But if we don't, they'll win," she said softly. "And Earth will be doomed. Humanity as we know it will be gone."

"I don't want you to fight," I said, and she let out a sharp laugh.

"Isn't that my line?" Rachel asked. "Tanya, you're not even eleven yet. And you and I both killed last night. We watched an alien brutally murder another alien. We shouldn't be the ones fighting, but we know what's out there. And we have the power. We can't just dump this on someone else."

"Especially if we don't know if they're the enemy," I said.

"Exactly," Rachel said, and she brushed the tears off my face again then stood. "Come on, let's go get some breakfast. We need to be ready for Cassie's."

I rubbed my face a little as I stood. Feeling this overwhelmed by what happened could only be chalked up to my age. How was my sister, who as far as I knew was on her first life, dealing with this better than me? She'd never experienced war before. Was it some sort of naivete? Or was she just hiding it better?

I forced myself to calm down, thinking of breakfast. "Do you think I could have some coffee this morning?"

Rachel's laugh this time was more a teasing one. "Fat chance. You know what Mom said."

"No coffee until I'm a teenager," I said, frowning. "After last night though…"

"She doesn't know," Rachel said. "But maybe I can sneak you some, if she's not in the room."

That would have to do. My sister really did seem to care about me.

I would ensure she survived this. No matter what I needed to do.

 

[Ellf]

Chapter Six

Cassie's parents owned a farm not too far from the edge of town. It was nearly a three-mile bike ride from our place to get there, and it backed right up onto the edge of the woods. At one point, it likely had been used for its original purpose, and they do still have horses and a cow. However, the time of it being used to grow food is long gone. The red wooden barn has been converted into the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. Both of her parents are veterinarians. Her father runs a charity veterinary clinic out of the barn that focuses on local wildlife like birds, skunks, deer, and the like. Occasionally, I've even seen a wolf or bobcat being treated by her father.

Her mother worked for a nearby theme park that we knew as The Gardens. The park was divided into two areas: one, a more traditional amusement park with rides including roller coasters and a few more childish rides, and the side Cassie's mother worked for, a zoo. Technically, it was called a wildlife park, but it had some more exotic animals to the area. There were elephants, big cats, and there was even an aquatic area.

When we arrived at Cassie's farm at a bit before noon, she was standing near the horse paddock, lightly petting one of the horses she had on the farm. She waved us over with a smile, never taking a hand from the horse. It seemed almost to be in a trance under Cassie's touch.

"Rachel, Tanya, I'm glad to see that you guys are all right," she said. She looked at me with a small frown. "I wish you'd stuck with us."

"Tanya had good reason," Rachel said. "And Jake and I managed to draw off the big guys. Are you okay?"

Cassie shook her head. "You'd think I would have had nightmares, but… I think what we saw was worse than what my mind could dream up."

"What are you doing?" I asked. "You're not just petting her."

Cassie shook her head. "I want to try it. The power that he died for. But I wanted to wait until you were around, just to make sure."

"And your first time is going to be a horse?" Rachel asked.

"Why not?" Cassie asked. "She's an animal that we have here." She let go of the horse, and the black mare seemed to stay in its trance for a few seconds. I mentally counted them. Approximately fifteen. I would need more data before making a judgement.

The horse nickered, and Cassie pet its head again.

"So, when are you going to try?" Rachel asked.

"Let me get Smokey settled in her stall, and then we can try this. You two can come inside as well," Cassie said, as she took the horse by the reins and led her into the nearby stable which connected to the barn.

I caught a glimpse inside at the cages Cassie's father kept animals in. There were two birds in there along with a few other animals that I could hear but not see.

"Right," Cassie said, as she stowed the horse away. She stepped into another stall of the stable, and she nodded to us. "I'm going to try it."

"You're going to turn into a horse?" Rachel asked.

"That's the plan," Cassie said. "Turn into it, turn back. See what it feels like. You mind being my timekeeper?"

"You're not going to stay long, right?" I asked. "The Andalite said two hours."

"Not long this time," she said, and her body already started to change. The hair on her head started to grow out, and pushed along the back of her neck as her neck elongated. She shrugged out of the coverall she'd been wearing as fur started to run along her arms and chest. Her face stretched out into a horse's muzzle, and her arms started to change, lengthening to become a horse's legs, even as the lower part of her body moved out behind her.

"Where is she getting the extra mass?" I murmured. This was like magic, in that what was happening should not have been possible. But it clearly was.

There was some tearing and stretching along with cracking of bone and popping as the morph continued. Cassie's clothes, or what was left of them fell to the ground beside her, as she stood on four legs. Not long after that, a bushy black horse tail pushed out of her rear, and she let out a rough whinny. An identical copy to Smokey the horse stood in the stall before us.

"Cassie?" Rachel asked, looking at the horse.

The horse that was Cassie nickered and stepped up to my sister. She nuzzled at Rachel, and then she turned to me to do the same.

I will admit that horses are beautiful animals, but they are also large. Cassie now dwarfed me by several times. "Cassie, are you in there?"

<Oh, that's a rush.> Cassie's voice resonated in my head, and I assume my sister's as well. <I want to head into the field and run around a bit.>

"That is you, Cassie, right?" Rachel asked.

<Yes, Rachel, and you don't know what it's like. The stall is too small. I want to have more space. I don't want to—>

"Morph back," I said.

<Pardon me?> Cassie asked.

"It took you ninety seconds to morph into this form. We don't know when the timer specifically starts. Morph back. You can always morph into this form again in a little bit to try it out more," I said.

<I'd like to go out in the field, though.> Cassie nickered after her speech. Was the horse body influencing her somehow? I supposed that the different brain would cause something to happen. If we were expected to know how to use the bodies after morphing into them, then there must have been some sort of instinctual transfer.

It made me a little nervous to morph into anything with that.

"For Tanya's sake, maybe you should morph back, Cassie. She's right that you could try running around the field after morphing again," Rachel said, keeping her voice calm and almost soothing, as if she were talking to a real horse rather than her friend. Maybe my sister had picked up on the same thing I had.

<Fine,> Cassie said, and her body started to shift back. The muzzle slowly merged back into her human face, and her upper body shifted to a human's, legs shifting back to arms, and rear legs shifting to legs. One thing I noted. The clothing she'd been wearing had disappeared entirely, leaving her skyclad.

"Whoa!" Rachel exclaimed. "Tanya, go get her a blanket."

"From the barn?" I asked.

"Yeah," Rachel said. "Cassie, are you okay?"

"It's… okay. The blankets aren't that far in, Tanya," Cassie said. "I've also got some other clothes in a cubby just inside the main door, to the right. Could you just grab them all? I've got some ideas."

I nodded and ran off.

The inside of the barn smelled like a mixture of hay, iodine, isopropyl alcohol, and varying kinds of animal waste, recently cleaned. In the far corner were the pens that Cassie's father would keep the larger wildlife in, which currently held a single doe with a tracker and a light bandage. Sitting on several tables were cages sized for birds of prey, and two were even occupied at the moment.

One cage held a hawk of some sort that had a broken wing. I was never any sort of expert at ornithology, but I recognized the natural beauty of the bird, including its red tail feathers. However, the bird in the cage next to it was even prettier. From a distance, it resembled a bald eagle, but as I got closer, I could see its darkly barred wings and tail. It had a black bill and its legs were a bluish-gray. This one had something resembling a necklace in dark feathers on its upper breast, and it seemed to be favoring its right talon. The left seemed to be missing a claw, almost.

"Liking our guests, Tanya?" asked an older male voice, nearly startling me. I wasn't surprised at his presence. I knew Cassie's father was likely working today, and he had a job to do.

"They're beautiful animals," I said, and in an earnest tone, I decided to play up my age a little. "What are they, exactly, Doctor?"

"You know you can call me Walter, Tanya, just like your sister," said Cassie's father. "And the bird on the left is a red-tailed hawk. He's got a broken wing at the moment, but he'll heal fine. On the right, she's an osprey. I think you can see the issue she has."

"That doesn't grow back, does it?" I asked.

"Not precisely," said Walter. He gestured for me to follow him, and I did so. I'd have to get Cassie her items soon, but nothing said I couldn't make a small detour. Plus, it would arouse suspicion if I just came in and out so swiftly. "We're working on some prosthetics that can function like the original. It's not fully complete yet, but I hope that she can adjust."

I nodded. "She seems strong. Does she have a name?"

He shook his head. "I try not to name them, as it might make it harder to release them when they're healed. After all, they're not the ones my wife treats."

It made some sense, but I frowned as I looked over the osprey. "When do you think they'll be heading back then?"

"Probably another two weeks of healing for the red-tail, but the osprey needs another three," he said. "Would you like to hold her?"

"Maybe just pet," I said. "I can't stay in here long."

He nodded and he pulled on a hawker's glove. I doubted he had one in my size anyway. The leather gloves were a little large. He carefully opened the cage and guided the osprey out onto his arm, and he held the osprey within my reach.

I held out a hand and carefully started to stroke her feathers. Like the night before, I focused as I pet her. I wanted to acquire something that could fly, and this bird wouldn't have any issues doing that. I felt the telltale tingle of energy going through me as the bird settled into almost a trancelike state.

"Huh. You might have a knack for this, Tanya." Walter smiled at me, not patronizing in the least.

"I think she just likes me," I said, and after a second, I pulled away. "Oh, I was supposed to get some stuff for Cassie in here. She said she kept a change of clothes in a cubby?"

"Over there." Walter pointed. "What happened to the clothes she was wearing? And why isn't she just going to the house?"

Your daughter shredded her old clothes turning into a horse. Well, I couldn't really say that, exactly, but a proper lie needed to have a grain of truth in it. "I think one of the horses did something. She wanted to be nearby in case the horse did something more though."

Walter nodded. "I'm going to be heading into town soon to get some supplies. Let Cassie know for me, will you?'

"Okay!" I said, and I quickly gathered up the clothing and ran outside.

Rachel was waiting next to the stable with a cocked eyebrow. "Took you long enough."

"Her dad was in there," I said. "And there were some birds. Where's Cassie?"

Rachel nodded to the paddock across from the stable, where a black horse was trotting around. She was increasing her speed and decreasing it, sniffing at various things as she went around the edges of the paddock.

"Cassie! Tanya's back," Rachel said.

The horse trotted back over, and she paused at the edge of the paddock. <Did you find everything?>

"I have the blanket, and it looks like a coat and some other clothes…" I said, looking into the bundle.

<Throw the blanket over me. I'll put on the other clothes after I turn back. I've got some practicing,> Cassie said. <There's some stuff I want to get from inside too, once I turn back.>

"Okay," I said, and I did as she suggested. Then I placed the clothes in the paddock while she morphed back, choosing not to look at her.

<I have some older stuff inside if either of you want to do some prac—> Cassie's telepathy cut of as her head reformed completely into a human form. She cleared her throat as she wrapped the blanket around herself to keep some dignity. "If either of you want to do some practice too. Of course, you'll have to acquire a morph."

Familiarizing oneself with a weapon before using it in any sort of combat was not a bad idea, and given this was a controlled environment, I could justify some things. "I'd like to try something."

Rachel gave me a funny look. "Oh? What are you going to morph, Yaya? An ant?"

I returned her look with one of my own. Then I focused on the osprey and letting the energy suffuse me. Picturing myself turning into the osprey, similar to how Cassie had turned into Smokey the horse.

Shortly after I started, my arm started to itch, then my chest. A cracking and popping sound came from my hands as I glanced down at them, holding what was slowly becoming feathered wings in front of my transforming face. I grew smaller, shrinking in height to just under two feet tall. My clothes tented around me, and I carefully nudged myself out of them as my eyesight shifted, suddenly distorting slightly in color and improving significantly. I could see movement on the other side of the paddock, in the grass. A small mammal, perhaps a mouse, was sniffing at some of the blades of grass.

I could see the waves of warm air as they rose from the ground, and I stretched my wings, looking around as the morph completed. Two tall, bipedal things stood near me, hairless save for the loose skins that hung on them. They were not prey, but they were possibly a danger. I had to keep watch on them as I decided what to do.

Flapping my wings, I landed on the wooden perch that put me at eye level with the bipeds.

"Tanya?" asked the light-haired and fair-skinned one. A sense of familiarity passed through me at the sound of that voice. "Yaya, is that you?"

I let out a cry from my beak, warning them back. I had my talons, ready to defend myself if it became necessary.

"Tanya, you're thinking like the bird," said the darker one. The skins on her were especially loose. "Come back to us."

I was beginning to get a little hungry. Instinctively, I knew there were streams nearby. I could find some food, some fish within them to eat. But first, I needed to know why the two were familiar. Why they were using the name… Tanya.

I shuddered, my feathers ruffling up as I did so, and I asserted myself within my own mind. I was human, but I was also the osprey at the moment. And the osprey was not on comfortable ground. How did the telepathy work?

"Cassie, how did you use the thought-speech thing?" Rachel asked, seeming to sense my struggle.

"I thought at the two of you," said Cassie. "I figured that if it worked for the Andalite last night… and Visser Three in morph, it might work for me. Tanya, try and think at us. Let us know you're you, please."

I started to think, but I stopped myself, wary. How would my thoughts sound? Would I sound like Rachel's younger sister? Would I sound like the one that was called the Devil of the Rhine? Would I sound like someone else entirely? What voice would they hear when I used my mind? What voice did I hear?

"Yaya, you can do it," Rachel said, comfortingly. "Tanya, just let us know you're in there."

Well, not communicating with them would be counteractive to any sort of operation we would do, anyway. <Rachel? Cassie?>

If my voice sounded odd to them, the looks on their faces betrayed none of it. Instead, relief washed through them, and I saw it all with the perfected hawk vision of the osprey.

"Oh, good," Rachel said. "You were acting… like—"

"Like a cornered osprey," Cassie said.

<It's still in here too,> I said. Well, not said, but close enough. <But I'm me. You don't have to worry.>

Rachel nodded. "We should head inside for a little bit, while Cassie changes. I also want to take a look at the newspaper."

<You do that,> I said. <I want to stay out a little longer. I have maybe a little over an hour and fifty minutes left in the morph, and I want to make use of it.>

"Doing what?" Rachel asked.

I flared my wings, flapping some to gain some height. <I'm going for a flight.>

I didn't bother to wait for her response as I took further to the air. I did, however, watch my sister's expression change from worry, to annoyance, to anger, and back to worry as I gained even more height. While a flash of guilt passed through me as I did this, at the idea of being a bad sister, a different feeling was far more important.

I was free again.

I could fly.

 

[Ellf]

Chapter Seven

There is something entirely freeing about flight under one's own power. With naught but the air between you and the ground, it truly is something magical. In my last life, I rarely got to enjoy flight for the sake of it, usually using it for its strategic advantages and tactical vantage points for attack. With the sensors I had then, I was usually able to spot an enemy sooner than they would be able to spot me. Then other things would happen, and I was a perfectly competent soldier, willing to do what was necessary to survive and win the war.

Here, I would do the same, but my goals were different. I had family. I had comrades who, while older than me, were still children without the experiences I had. They hadn't had any formal training, and we were all being thrust into this war.

Is it any small wonder, that given the chance, I took flight? Now, flying as an osprey was different than flying as a mage. For one, there's a size differential. Ospreys, on average, have a wingspan that can span an average of five feet, yet they weigh approximately two to four pounds. If I had a nose, I'd snort. I've become so American. In standard units, that is approximately 1.4 m average wingspan and between one and two kilos. The difference in momentum a human body has compared to a hawk of any sort is measurable. Plus, an osprey is designed to fly.

The hollow bones, the feathers on aerodynamic wings, and the body all came together to make a natural flying machine that would be the envy of any aerospace engineer out there. The way my wings caught the thermals, those jets of warm air that rose from the sun-heated ground, meant I didn't even have to flap my wings that much to keep aloft. I could just hold myself there, circling the woods near Cassie's farm. Yes, I found myself drifting more toward the nearby river, but that was because I was slightly hungry. Ospreys eat fish, after all. Their eyes are specially designed to spot fish in the water, and as I flew over the river, I could easily see the telltale flickers of scales.

Would I dare eat a fish like this? The part of me that was the osprey certainly wanted to. I could feel its instincts clawing back at me, the more I stared at the fish. It wasn't like I hadn't had sushi before. This would just be a little fresher. I still had time left on my morph, and I supposed that if I went back to Cassie's place, food would likely be available.

Still, I continued my flight. With roughly an hour and fifteen minutes left in my morph before the time limit the Andalite impressed on us would be up, I felt that I would need more time. Being up in the air offered perspective. Our biggest asset right now was our anonymity. The Controllers didn't know who we were, nor did they know we had this power. What we lacked, primarily, was information. We knew what our enemy looked like, what they had control over, and we'd seen the sheer damage some of those alien weapons could do. We'd also seen their leader.

Visser Three. The Andalite-Controller

My eyes followed another fish in the water as I thought. That being was a true monster, wasteful, inefficient and cruel. He could have just killed Prince Elfangor with the Dracon Beam, but he'd wanted to savor it. It was horrifying the way he did it, and that he could do the same to me or worse, my family, genuinely frightened me. Who knew what other morphs he had in his arsenal? All we had access to were the animals of Earth. And a single Dracon Beam that Rachel and I would need to figure out how to use.

There! The fish!

Tucking my wings, I dove down at the water, reaching my maximum aerial speed. Bringing my talons to bear, I snatched the fish from the air just as it leaped out of the water. Carrying the fish, I settled down on a nearby branch and began to eat, using my hooked beak to tear at the animal. The taste buds an osprey has aren't located merely on the tongue. The sense of taste I got from the fish came from the roof and base of my beak along with the tongue in question.

<Tanya!> Rachel's voice echoed in my head. <Tanya, where are you?>

I looked around, midway through a swallow. Another osprey in the area, clearly female, flew nearby. She had similar coloring to me, and she looked to be about the same size. She wasn't competition for my fish, as I was already eating, but she was there.

Wait. She had the exact coloration I did. Add Rachel's voice…

<I'm over here,> I said, still eating my fish. I did attempt to try and direct where my voice was coming from. The specifics of this telepathy weren't something I had fully tested yet. <On the branch.>

The osprey in the air circled around once more, her eyes locking on me. She dove down, settling on a branch nearby. <Tanya, tell me you aren't eating a raw fish.>

<You've had sushi before,> I said.

<That was different!>

<And you're tempted to try some, aren't you?> I asked. <The bird wants to, doesn't it?>

<A little. Listen, you've been morphed for over an hour now,> Rachel said.

<An hour and thirty-five minutes, yes,> I said. Internally, I frowned. This was going to be cutting it a bit close. I finished off the fish, and I swooped to the ground. <I suppose I should morph back.>

<Probably a good idea. I'll do it with you, so that we are on the same timer.> Rachel followed me to the ground.

Morphing back to a human is not unlike morphing to an animal. The disturbing sounds are still there, and the pins and needles feeling does spread throughout the body. I wanted to keep my wings as long as possible, so I focused on changing those to my arms last. It was strange, but it wasn't hard to keep my wings there as I did it. However, I found that the morph almost didn't want to go that way. I had to coax it. Still, as I stood up on my human feet again, and gave a flap of my wings on my human body, I laughed.

Then I saw my sister. Rachel morphing was nothing short of horrifying. As the morph passed through her body, it changed in no logical order. Her head seemed to grow horrifyingly large first, before the body shifted, losing feathers, and her human legs stuck out, growing a little at a time. I wished I hadn't looked, as I needed to look away quickly. As she finished up the morphing, I shivered.

After all, the morphing technology didn't factor in clothing.

Rachel covered herself slightly, but it wasn't like we hadn't seen each other nude before. We were sisters, after all. "I really need to figure out how Cassie does it."

"Does what?" I asked.

"She figured out how to keep some clothes as she morphs back," Rachel said. "I guess it probably takes practice."

Must be fooling the technology into thinking the clothing was a part of the body, somehow. Maybe it was a self-image thing? If I had focused on wearing something like my gymnastics leotard, would I be able to morph back in that? Something to test later.

"I guess," I said.

"You should have morphed back at Cassie's farm," Rachel said. "I had to go in the barn and get the morph so I could follow you."

"You didn't need to follow me," I said. "I was keeping track of time."

"Yaya, you're my little sister. If Jordan or Sara did the same, I'd follow them too," Rachel said. "And what if you lost track of the time? You could have been stuck eating more fish like that every day. And not able to turn back."

I closed my eyes. "I wanted to fly."

"You could have waited. There were better times to do it," Rachel said. "Also, Jake, Tobias and Marco are coming by the farm. You should be there when they do."

I sighed, opening my eyes. She wasn't entirely wrong. Plus, being there would mean I could ensure that they would know at least some of what they were getting into. I could not allow them to make the same decisions I did. At least I had the excuse of not really being the age I appeared to be. They were. The idea of child soldiers is abhorrent, but in this case, there wasn't much choice.

"I guess seeing them could be good," I said. "I'm curious about Tobias and Marco. I don't know them that well."

"Marco's Jake's good friend," Rachel said. "I don't really know much more about him, but Jake doesn't have terrible judgement. For a boy. As for Tobias… well, we've both seen him around school."

I shrugged. They both seemed amiable enough, up until the events happened. But they were still children, not soldiers who had signed up for this. They all were. As was I, in practicality. "I suppose we can head back."

Rachel nodded. "I'll have to show you the newspaper when we get back." And she started to morph. I did the same.

Ninety seconds later, we had taken to the air. It was easier to keep the osprey at bay this time, maybe because I was less hungry.

<What's in the newspaper?> I asked, shifting to catch a thermal.

<News about last night,> she said. <They claim it was fireworks, set off by some kids. The police are looking for information about it.>

Controllers. So. They had infiltrated the police department as well. It made sense. Surely they couldn't have all the police under control, but all it would take was some key personnel.

<Fun.>

Rachel mentally snorted, but she followed me. As she caught a thermal of her own, she let out a cheer of joy. It would seem that she found some fun in the flight as well, now that she wasn't focused on finding me.

<Okay. I won't say that I'm not still a little mad,> Rachel said. <But I think I understand a little.>

<It's freeing, more than the parallel bars. Actual flight, rather than simulated,> I said as we soared our way toward Cassie's farm. I caught a glimpse of a dark-haired boy and a blond arriving on bicycles of their own. They looked to be at least ten minutes out. If we focused on our flight, we'd arrive in a fifth that time.

<Huh. Looks like that's Marco and Tobias already,> Rachel said. <I'm glad they came.>

<So, do you like Marco, or something?> I asked, not really able to stop myself. I wasn't entirely sure why I even cared. However, I had heard that sisters were supposed to tease each other sometimes about people they like. I won't say that I am perfect at it, but a little bit of levity can help morale when war is imminent. It worked with the 203rd. They certainly were happy when I showed them my own happiness, and morale raised. <I suppose he's cute enough.>

<What? No! Believe me, I do not like Marco, Yaya. Though… do you?> she asked.

<I don't know him well enough,> I said. <I have no real opinion of him outside of him being our cousin's friend.>

<Liking Marco. That's a laugh.> Rachel made to land, circling over Cassie's farm. Her voice came out as if she were whispering in my ear. <We do need to decide if we're telling the others about the Hork-Bajir and his weapon. You were almost caught.>

<And the cube?>

<We're telling them that we have it,> Rachel said. <But we'll hold onto it until we can figure out what to do with it.>

<Right. I don't think hiding a resource from the others would be a good thing,> I said. While operational security was something that we needed to drill on, hiding the fact that we had an alien weapon could only backfire in the future. <And you didn't mention the human host.>

<Tanya, the Hork-Bajir was the only host we killed, and we did it together. Understand?>

It occurred to me that I didn't know how good a liar my sister was. I guess I was about to find out.

<Understood. Yes ma'am.> I dove toward the farm, ready to land.

<Don't you ma'am me!> My sister followed, clearly annoyed.

Good.

 

[Ellf]

Chapter Eight

When Rachel and I stepped out the front door of Cassie's house, fully clothed, Tobias and Marco were putting their bikes near ours. I walked over to grab my bag, making sure that the weights of both the cube and the Dracon beam were securely inside, and I slung it over my shoulders. I glanced over to Cassie as she ran around the field. I had no way of knowing precisely when she morphed, but I trusted that she would be responsible. I could attest to the fun morphing could be and couldn't blame her for enjoying herself.

My sister had greeted the boys before I made my way over to where they waited outside the barn. I gave a look over both boys with my human eyes. They wore different clothes than the night before, which wasn't entirely unexpected. Despite recent happenings, this was still real life. Even the 203rd had changes of uniform when on the Front.

"Tanya, right?" Marco asked as I approached. At my nod, he continued. "Good. Glad I didn't forget something despite the mind-melting horror of last night. God, I wish I could forget it."

"You aren't the only one," Rachel said.

"But it did happen," I said. "That much is undeniable. We now have the capability to morph."

"Yeah," Tobias said. "It's really cool!"

"Capability to morph?" Marco asked, giving me a sharp look. "What, did you swallow a dictionary?" He turned to Tobias. "And what's cool about it? It's freaky."

"You haven't tried yet, have you?" Rachel asked.

"And? With what happened last night…" Marco shook his head. "Let's wait till Jake gets here. There's something he needs to see, anyway."

Marco held out the newspaper, and I snatched it from him, my eyes locking on the article that Rachel mentioned. Reports about flying saucers… a dismissal from a police spokesperson, blaming the lights and sounds on teenagers at the scene that ran away… fireworks discovered at the scene. They were even looking for us, offering a reward for information. Interesting. It seemed our enemy had a very good incentive to try and keep us quiet. There was no mention of a missing woman or a presumed dead woman.

"Well. That isn't completely surprising, given what I heard some of the Human-Controllers saying last night," I said. "They wanted the Hork-Bajir to just kill us. Keep our heads for identification. I suspect now, they would possibly want us as hosts in order to not only keep us quiet, but the moment any of us were taken, they would gain the same ability as Visser Three."

"But they don't know that last part," Rachel said. "They just want to make sure they tie up loose ends."

"You know, I thought she was creepy," Marco said. "I guess it runs in the family."

"They're alien infiltrators whose win condition involves the entirety of humanity as hosts," I said. "Or at least as many of us as they possibly can have. Keeping the invasion silent until they can ensure compliance makes sense."

"She's right," Tobias said. "Especially given their weaknesses."

I looked at Tobias. He had stayed back with the Andalite, and while Prince Elfangor had recognized the meddling of Being X in me, had he also recognized something similar with Tobias? From what I knew of the boy, he had similar problems with schoolmates as I had. Jake helped him out, sure, but was it enough that Tobias had not needed to exercise his own capabilities? Perhaps the privacy that the Andalite had given Tobias was further support for him, as he had attempted with me.

"What weaknesses?" I asked.

"They can't stay in a host indefinitely," Tobias said. "They need to gain nutrition." He held up a hand, rubbing his head. "Sorry, I'm not even sure where this is coming from, really."

That was an impressive way to impart information without giving away the game. Professor Schugel and Mary Sioux had proven that there were other ways that Being X would interfere with not only my life but that of others. I was not so arrogant as to think that the demon's only existence was to focus on me, even if it felt that way at times.

Perhaps Prince Elfangor had given some advice for someone who had experienced interference, as he had me. Of course, outright revealing that I knew Tobias also had contact with an extraplanar being was right out. He likely guessed the same about myself, but as he hadn't said anything, I would respect his choice. Instead, I would focus on what he meant by his statements. "What do you mean, nutrition? They aren't able to absorb what they need from their hosts?"

Tobias shook his head. "I… It's complicated. I'm still sorting some things out. But they can't be there more than three days without getting something called Kandrona Rays. They need to absorb them every three days or they starve."

"Well, that's helpful," Marco said. "And just what are those?"

Tobias shrugged. "Something to do with Yeerk Pools and… It's a lot."

"It is," Rachel said, smiling at him. "But any information is better than what we have. Do either of you know when Jake's coming?"

"He said he had some chores to do before he could come," Tobias said. "I had time to head home and grab my bike. I think he shouldn't be that much longer."

"You were at Jake's place?" Marco asked. "What were you doing?"

"Morphing," Tobias said. "I turned into Dude, and he turned into Homer."

I knew Homer was Jake's dog from the last time we visited him. It had been a couple years, but I remembered the golden retriever as a friendly thing. Both Jordan and I had been far more interested in playing with the puppy than in whatever Tom, Rachel and Jake had been doing. It was an understandable first morph for our cousin. I assumed Dude was another pet.

"What did end up happening to you, last night? You were separated from us when everything happened." Tobias frowned. Perhaps, given his origins, he expected more from me. Staying with the group might have been a prudent matter in most cases, but we all did survive.

"I was on the other side of the clearing," I said. "It made more sense to separate."

"We'll only do the story once everyone's here," Rachel said. "But Tanya's safe. Obviously."

"With the separation, how do we know that Tanya's not one of them? Do we even know if—"

A resounding smack came as my sister punched Marco in the jaw. Her lip was curled into a snarl as she stood over the Hispanic boy "Don't you ever say that again."

"What?" Marco asked, rubbing his jaw. "We don't know!"

"I know!" Rachel yelled. "I know what happened with Tanya, and I know where she was."

"And what about you?" asked Marco. "How are we supposed to know about you too?"

This was unacceptable. While the paranoia about the whole situation was understandable, dissension in the ranks was not something that we could afford at this point. There were merely the six of us, after all. Infighting would cause worse problems, not allowing us to focus on those who were necessary. The Yeerks could only benefit if that happened.

"Marco," I said calmly. "If either of us were Controllers, would the paper be asking for information about us?"

"What was that?" Jake asked as he came up to the barn. He looked between Rachel, Marco and myself, frowning. The disappointment that he obviously felt was evident in his voice. "What are you doing?"

"Your friend made a comment about Tanya," Rachel said. "He thought she might be a Controller."

"I didn't say she was! I just said how do we know? And then you go off and hit me!" Marco said, climbing to his feet and rubbing his chin. "You hit hard, for a girl."

As my sister's eyes flashed with anger, Jake spoke up. "Marco, Rachel, stop. Hold on a second. I'm a little behind here. What's going on?"

I grabbed the paper and walked it over to my cousin. "You should read this."

Jake took the paper from me, and his eyes scanned over the very article that we had all focused on. His face went through a variety of emotions as he read. He paused, clearly about halfway down. "Cool. So, the cops know about it now. That's a relief."

I shook my head.

"Read further," Rachel said, gesturing to the paper. She'd given a baleful glance at Marco once more before focusing on our cousin.

Jake looked back down, and anger flashed through him. It was obvious. "But… that's a lie! They're lying. This is a total lie."

"Ding ding ding ding! Correct answer. Johnny, tell our contestant what he's won." Marco rubbed his chin again as he frowned despite his flippance.

"Did you see the last part?" Rachel asked.

Jake glanced back down again.

"They're looking for us," Marco said.

"Why would they… But why would the police lie?" Jake asked. He clearly knew the answer already, but he didn't want to voice it, lest it be true.

Marco laughed derisively. Foolish boy. Perhaps his status as Jake's friend would let him get away with it, or perhaps our cousin just had some good will to him. Marco said, "Let's see, Captain Brilliant – could it be because they're Controllers?"

"Likely not all the police," I said.

"Definitely not all of them," said Tobias.

"But it begs the question, who else could be them?" Rachel asked. "Teachers? People in the government? News reporters? People on TV?"

"Chapman," I said calmly. "That one Controller at the construction site mentioned him by name."

Jake's eyes widened. "What?"

"A woman ordered a Hork-Bajir near me," I said. "Said that Chapman ordered that the kids be killed, leaving only the heads for identification."

Jake blinked, and he snapped his fingers. "I knew that voice was familiar."

"Of course," Marco said. "Our Vice-Principal is an alien. It all makes sense now."

A nervous bout of laughter went through them all, and we all found ourselves quiet. It was a good reminder that they were all children, and this had been thrust upon them. They did not excel at an area, nor did they choose this war that was coming. I sympathized with them. In an ideal world, there would be no war, no Yeerks, merely a lasting peace that could stand the test of time.

This world was far from ideal, and with the interference of something like Being X, it would only get worse. These children were my responsibility, my new 203rd to worry about. There was no rear lines to hide behind here, but we had to do this smartly.

Marco spoke up after a minute of silence, giving voice to some of my concerns. "Look. Why do we have to deal with this at all? I say we just forget it. We never talk about it. We never morph. We just deal with our lives."

"Could you?" I asked as both Tobias and Rachel looked to Jake, expecting him to say something. "Could you really forget about it? Could you stop yourself from doing something, anything, knowing something is wrong?"

A hand was placed on my shoulder. Jake's. He squeezed it in a supporting manner. I stopped speaking.

"Marco, look. I halfway agree with you, b—"

"We could get killed!" Marco yelled. "Don't you get it? You all saw what happened with the Andalite! And there's a kid here. Do you really want your little cousin fighting this? This is radical stuff, Jake. This is real. Real! We could all get killed!"

I glanced at Marco, frowning. These were thoughts that I'd had about the last war, ones I kept inside. The difference there was that I was actually in the military. As a member of the military, I would have been expected to perform at a level required by my rank. Of course, I made sure that there were no flaws in my performance, as my brass were clearly warmongering maniacs and who knew what they would have done to me if I failed them? Here, however… Marco was a child, and so were the others. No child should fight in a war. No child should be forced to be a soldier.

Marco shook his head. "Look. I think these Controllers are jerks. But if something happened to me… my dad… after Mom, I don't think he'd be able to take it. No, he wouldn't be able to handle it."

Ah. Worry about family. That I understood. "You aren't being a coward, Marco. You care about your father."

Marco nodded. "If something happened to me. If I died? He would too. He's only hanging in there because of me."

I offered him a small, reassuring smile. The sickly grin I got in response had to be because of his worry about his father. "You don't need to fight, Marco. There are many things that can be done to support the effort that don't involve fighting."

Marco nodded again, and he looked around. "So, where's the last member of our group?"

"There's Cassie," Rachel said, nodding at the field.

I had to shield my eyes a little to catch a glimpse of the black horse that she had morphed. Her mane shimmered in the breeze as she galloped toward us. She clearly was enjoying her time in the morph, and given what horses were like, I could understand it. I almost was curious to try that morph myself, but I wanted to master the osprey first. The new instincts that the morph introduced were interesting, and for a brief moment, I was reminded of the trout in my stomach. At least, I thought it was trout. It might have been another fresh water fish. I would need to check out some sort of fish identification.

"We've been here a while," Rachel said. "And Cassie's gotten pretty good at it. Tanya can do some, but look at how fast Cassie can go."

Cassie nickered softly, nodding her head to me, and then her form began to melt away from her. The long muzzle of the horse became a human mouth, and her eyes became human. She paused for a second, grinning widely, still with horse teeth.

"Hey kids!" Cassie said.

Marco fell down to the ground hard on his rear. I suppose that he had yet to actually see a morphing outside of what Visser Three had done the night before.

As Cassie continued her morph, I saw what Rachel had mentioned when she came to get me. She had somehow managed to keep a skintight blue aerobics outfit on. She continued her morph in such a way as to keep herself half human and half horse, looking almost like a mythical centaur as her hands came out yet all four legs remained. It was honestly, quite impressive. I would have to work hard to pull something like that off, and she seemed to do it with little effort.

Then suddenly, we heard the squeal of tires on gravel, and as a group, we spun around. Down the road came a black and white car, clearly marked with the local police department's logo.

"The cops!" Tobias stated the obvious.

Jake let out a word that normally he wouldn't, and he glanced back at Cassie. "Cassie! Morph! Now! We do not want to explain a half-horse, half-person."

"Which way?" Cassie wailed, almost a whinny. She looked like she was fighting the urge to rear up in fear. "Horse or human?" She didn't completely fight it off, as she partly reared on her hind legs.

I suppose that even partially morphed, the horse still had an influence on her psyche. The strength of its instincts probably combined with the adrenaline to make her want to just run.

"Human, human, human!" Jake said, and he glanced at the rest of us. "Quick, everyone in front of her. Tanya, you stand out front of all of us."

Without thinking about it, we all moved to comply, blocking the view of Cassie from anyone just as the police car came to a stop, tires squealing between the brakes and gravel. The driver's side door opened, revealing a dark-haired patrol officer, dressed in police blues. He had a pair of aviator sunglasses on as he walked up to us.

My cousin, for some reason, was waving at the officer.

"Afternoon," he said. He looked at the four of us curiously. "You kids, uh… hiding something?"

I deferred to the others, without looking back. Cassie was supposed to be quick on the morph, and as long as the officer didn't see it, and she was human by the end, things would be fine.

"Hiding something?" Jake asked, but his voice cracked somewhat. That sort of thing would need to be drilled out of him when presenting to an enemy force. Yes, while the officer might not have been an enemy, at this point, it was best to treat most interactions with people as if they were enemies.

"Yeah," said the officer, pulling off his sunglasses. "Looks like. Step aside, all of you."

Calmly, I ran myself through a mental formula that I was certain wouldn't work as we stepped aside. If Cassie had not finished morphing, I would have to deal with this officer in some fashion. I needed to start carrying knives on me, at the least, if I could not acquire some sort of firearm that wasn't a Yeerk weapon.

Luckily, that choice was unnecessary today. Cassie had finished morphing back to human while we hid her, and she stood in place, just giving the officer a daring look. For the first time, I wondered if Cassie had had negative interactions with the police in the past.

Of course, the officer looked puzzled at Cassie being there, but he shrugged.

"Can we help you, officer?" Rachel asked. She sounded responsible.

"We're making some inquiries," said the officer. "We're looking for some kids who were shooting off fireworks at the construction site across from the mall last night."

Marco suddenly started to cough, and I walked over to him and rubbed his back.

"Something wrong with him?" asked the officer.

"Nope," Jake said. "Not at all."

"Something went down wrong," Marco said, rubbing his throat. "I think I swallowed a bug or something."

The officer winced slightly. "Right. Look. We want these kids. We want them real bad. See, it was dangerous what they did. Could have been someone hurt. So, we want to find the kids."

I blinked. Would that all the alien parasites were this obvious. This officer clearly was not the one piloting his own body. No officer would outright admit to possible suspects that they want the kids "real bad." I asked, "pardon me, officer, but what is it you would want us to do?"

"Any information you can give, if you know anything at all about the construction site last night, you should tell me," said the officer.

"Sorry, don't know anything," said Jake. "None of us were anywhere near there last night."

The officer nodded, and he looked closely at Jake. I wondered what was going through the Yeerk's head as he examined our cousin, but I suspected that I would find out soon.

"You know what? You look kind of familiar," said the officer. "You look a lot like a young man I know, named Tom."

Oh. That was not a good sign.

"He's my brother," Jake said. He was doing an excellent job of concealing his worry from the officer, at least beyond the normal talking to police worry. Still, telling the officer that information did not seem right. If my suspicions were correct, it would not surprise me if Tom, Jake's older brother, was more than he seemed lately.

Dealing with that would make things hard.

"Oh, Tom's your brother, eh? Well, he's a good kid. I know him from The Sharing. I'm one of the adult supervisors for it. Great group, The Sharing. You should come to a meeting." The officer seemed intent on Jake for that moment.

"Yeah, um… Tom invited me to it already," Jake said. "I'm thinking about it."

"You should," said the officer. "We have a lot of fun. It's a great place to meet some new friends and reconnect with old ones. You all should come by."

"We'll think about it," Rachel said.

"Yeah," Jake said.

The officer nodded, and he reached into his pocket, pulling out business cards. He handed out one to each of us. "Well, make sure you call me if you hear something, anything, about those kids in the construction site. I should warn you—they might come up with some wild and crazy story to conceal their guilt. But you all are too smart to be fooled by that, aren't you?"

"He's a regular genius," said Marco with a grin. "So's she, I suppose." He gestured at me afterward.

The officer nodded, and he took down our information. "I have some more to do today, but please, call that number and leave a message if I don't answer."

We all nodded, and the officer got back into his patrol car and drove off down the road, presumably to go and bother more kids about the night before.

Once he was safely away, Rachel turned to each of us. "Okay, rule number one, we don't do anything to attract attention. We need to make sure we stay secretive, keep everything a secret. Especially morphing."

"Yeah, I guess that was stupid of me," Cassie said. "Sorry. Just… man! It's so amazing running like that. Out in the open spaces, running and running…" She had a wide smile on her face.

"I can't blame you," Rachel said. "But we need to be careful about the demorph too."

"How'd you do clothes?" Jake asked. "When Tobias and I did it… well, let's just say it's a good thing none of you girls were there and leave it at that."

"Tanya and I also had that problem," Rachel said. "Cassie did too at first."

"I did," she said. "But I figured out after a little trial and error that the skintight clothes can work. No clue what we'll do come winter."

We would have to start keeping stashes of clothing around town, if that happened. And we'd need to check on them, to be certain that they were good areas to morph and morph back.

"That won't be a problem," Marco said. He crossed his arms. "Because there isn't going to be any more morphing."

"Maybe Marco is right," Rachel said, giving me a long look. "This is big. Maybe too big for us. We're just kids, after all. We need to tell someone important. Someone we can trust."

"How can we trust anyone?" Tobias asked. "Anyone could be a Controller. And if we happen to find the one person who isn't, what if they tell someone who is? The wrong person told, and we're dead. Or worse. And the world is doomed. Besides, we were given this power."

"And I don't want to stop using it," Cassie said. "You all realize what we could do with this power, right? We could communicate with animals, maybe. Help save some endangered species."

"If we lose, humans could become the next endangered species, Cassie," Tobias said.

"What do you say, Jake?" Cassie asked.

"Me?" Jake asked. He looked over to me. "Honestly, I'm not sure. Marco's right. We could all get killed. Rachel's right in that this is way too major for a group of kids. But Tobias is right too. The whole world is in danger, and we can't trust anyone."

"Except each other," I said. "And those whom we vet somehow."

"Oh, you have an idea on how to 'vet' someone?" Marco asked.

"Everything has a weakness," I said. "If we figure a way to deal with the Yeerk inside, possibly by starving it, possibly by other methods, we suddenly have a former host."

"And then what?" asked Marco. "They can't go back."

He wasn't wrong about that. However… "They'd be free, and necessarily grateful to us."

"Unless they were volunteers," Tobias said. "Remember, the Andalite said that some hosts volunteer."

"And what would they do? Besides give us information?" asked Marco.

"Help us fight," I said.

"With what?" Jake asked. "Marco and Tobias are both right here, Tanya. Even if we could free a host safely, would they be able to do anything?"

"They could use the same power we have," Rachel said. She nodded to me. "Show them."

I slipped my bag off my shoulder and opened it up. I reached in and pulled out the small blue cube that we'd used the night before.

"That's…" Marco frowned. "The right people… maybe. But finding them…"

"I also acquired this," I said, pulling out the Dracon beam. I held it out for a second before dropping it back into my bag and covering it with the papers. I also placed the cubic device back inside.

"How?" Tobias asked. "What happened?"

"We got the drop on a Hork-Bajir last night," Rachel said. "And we used that to kill it and get rid of it. It's how we got away."

I nodded. "And with that and the device… we could maybe find someone to help."

"But we would need to trust them first," Tobias said. "And that's hard to do when we can't tell who has a Yeerk in them or not."

Jake nodded.

"So, what should we do?" Rachel asked, looking at our cousin.

"It's not really up to me to decide," he said. He wasn't wrong. This decision, though it affected all of us, was about whether we should do something dangerous, even if it's to save the world.

"Maybe we should vote on it," Rachel said.

"I vote we live long enough to at least get our driver's licenses," Marco said. Then he looked at me. "Oh, and a couple years beyond that, I guess."

"I vote we do what the Andalite said – Let's fight!" Tobias said. He gave Marco a sharp look.

"You've never even been in a fight, and now you want to go and be Bruce Lee?" Marco asked. "You can't even handle the punks at school. Hell, she handles them better than you. Suddenly now, you want to go and kick the butt of that Visser Three creepo?"

Tobias said nothing, but I could tell he was holding back an affirmation of his experience. The influence that Being X must have had on his life was none of Marco's business, but it clearly made him want to fight.

Rachel looked at me and frowned before looking at Tobias. "I'm honestly not sure. Even with the box, we can't just dump this on someone else. I don't think I could look the other way. But Tanya's here."

"I will abide by the decision of the group," I said.

"And it's a decision we could wait and think over," Cassie said. "It's a big decision. It's not like we're trying to decide between pants and a skirt."

"Yeah, let's wait for a while," Jake said. "In the meantime, we don't say anything to anyone about it. We go back to a normal life. Rachel, Tanya, keep those things hidden. Until we have a better place to hide them, I'm going to have to trust you."

"Got it," Rachel said, and I nodded. "And we'll do our best to act normally."

"Good. In the spirit of that," Jake said. "Marco, want to come over for the afternoon?"

"Sure," Marco said. "It'll be good to not worry about some things."

"Before you go," I said. "Can I talk with you, Jake? In private?"

"Sure, I guess," he said. "What about? If you can say out here."

I grimaced. I didn't want to bring up everything in front of the group and possibly undermine his perceived authority. I doubted it would hurt too much, and this was too important to wait on.

"It's about Tom."

 

[Ellf]

Chapter Nine

"It's about Tom," I'd said, knowing what might go through my cousin's mind as I said this. I'd witnessed what could happen from my sister's reaction to Marco alone. Still, Jake deserved to know what he was possibly getting into. I'd leave it up to him whether he spoke with Marco or the others about it, but my suspicions were too great to ignore.

"What about him?" Jake asked.

"We should speak privately, Jake," I said, glancing at the others.

"Why don't you want to say what you've got to say in front of us?" Marco asked. He then gave me a funny look and shook his head. "I hope it isn't what just went through my head."

"As I am not telepathic, nor are you in a morph, I have no idea what went through your head, Marco," I said. "Please, Jake. Privacy."

"Yeah, fine, Tanya," Jake said, and he gestured for me to follow him. He glanced at the others. "Give us a couple minutes. I don't think this will take too long. And no morphing something with good hearing, please."

"Or at all," Marco said. "Definitely or at all."

I rolled my eyes, perhaps influenced by my age a tad, but I followed my cousin. Together we walked into the field, some, a decent distance away from the others. Telling him what I needed to tell him would not be easy. I halfway didn't want to believe it myself. Tom had always been a good cousin, at least when we were coming to visit. Of course, since the divorce, we'd not visited our cousins much, even though we lived in the same town. I suspected that Jake's parents may have blamed our mother for what happened, but whatever happened between my sisters' and my parents was between the two of them. It also could have been that Mom was just too busy with work, given her practice.

When we were a sufficient distance from the others, Jake stopped and turned to me. "So, what was so private that you wanted to say it away from the others?"

"Before we go into that directly, I want to establish something. This is only a suspicion, unproven but not unfounded," I said. "I hope that it is wrong. You and Tom are family, and…" I would do anything to protect my family. If I was right about this, someone's head was rolling, and I would pick Tobias's brain for every last thing that the Andalite had told him. I probably would do that anyway, but we needed some sort of tactical advantage.

"You can spit it out," Jake said, irritation coloring his tone. "Tanya, you're not usually this indirect."

"We agree that the police officer we spoke to was a Controller, right?" I asked.

"Yes, but I don't see what that has to—No. You're wrong." Jake shook his head. His hands were clenched at his side, clear frustration going through him. "It's impossible."

I raised an eyebrow, crossing my arms. "Am I? Is it? The officer knew Tom."

"Yeah, from the Sharing," Jake said. "It's a social group. They host barbecues, do community service, that sort of thing. Tom's been going to it for a while now."

I nodded, expecting as much. The Sharing was a relatively new thing, popped up sometime last year or the year before. I didn't know much about it, nor had I paid any attention to it beyond noticing its existence. They acted almost like a branch of the Boy Scouts, except they accepted pretty much anyone. Some children in school liked that acceptance, the idea of joining something bigger. Personally, like my twin, I found it odd and not something that was worth doing. After all, I had gymnastics and Jordan did ballet. "With how much the officer pushed it and focused on it after determining that we weren't the kids he was looking for, it was suspicious. After bringing up your brother as a member… Has Tom been acting differently lately?"

Jake frowned, clearly thinking about it. "He's in high school. Isn't that expected? Maybe he's interested in girls and found someone…"

"Has he?" I asked. "Has he changed what he's interested in? Done things differently? Dropped something in favor of something else? Look, Jake, I don't know much. We haven't really been as close recently as we were when Dad was around, but you're still my cousin."

"I know," he said. "And… Look. You're wrong, Tanya. He's not one of them. I know it."

"I hope you're right," I said. "Tom was good to us. The idea of him being—"

"He's not one of them," Jake said sharply. "I mean it." Jake was clearly angry, but he stomped off toward his bike rather than continuing the conversation further. As much as I respected my cousin and how he took a mediating and leadership role among us, it reminded me that he only recently became a teenager. Of course, he wouldn't think logically about Tom. Tom was his precious older brother whom he must have idolized. Tom had been a star basketball player, a good older cousin, and I assumed a good older brother. It probably hurt him to even think that he could be… not his brother anymore. Honestly, I hadn't wanted to have the thought myself.

I stayed behind for a little bit, watching my cousin as he and Marco left Cassie's farm. Hopefully, his friend would be able to calm him down. We were in a different world now than we'd known before, and as much as we might wish otherwise, an appropriate level of paranoia was necessary. The only ones I knew that weren't Controllers were those with me, which was unfortunate.

I walked back to the others who remained.

"Geeze Tanya, what did you say to him?" Rachel asked. "He was far from happy."

"It's up to Jake to mention it," I said, frowning as I watched the two boys pedal off. "But it was something that needed to be said."

"I guess, but…" Rachel came over and wrapped an arm around my back. She gave me a one-armed hug. "You're still my little sister, Tanya. You don't have to bear the weight of the world just because you're worried."

I shrugged her off. "It needed to be said to him. And this needs to be said here. Tobias, I need to know what the Andalite told you. You mentioned a three-day time period before the Yeerks would starve. Are you confident in that fact?"

Tobias nodded. "It's not that he told me much. It's more like… a vision with information. I told you, I'm still trying to make sense of it. But the Yeerk Pools are where they go to get Kandrona Rays, and absorb them while they're outside their hosts."

"Which would mean that they would be vulnerable, and their hosts wouldn't be Controllers…" I mused. It was doubtful that there would be only one Yeerk Pool. Visser Three had mentioned the need for even more when he was gloating to Prince Elfangor about humanity. At least a thousand to be built just to support the Yeerks bred to enslave all of us. I doubted that the invasion had gotten that far yet.

"I can go look for one," Tobias said. "But… I don't think a cat has a good enough chance of it. Cassie, Jake said your parents were vets. Do you have anything here that might fly? I think I'd want to try that."

"Flying's pretty fun," Rachel said. "They've got an osprey and a red-tailed hawk here. I can show you where, if Cassie doesn't mind watching Tanya for a bit."

"I don't need to be watched," I said, crossing my arms. She didn't need my permission to go in with a boy, and I certainly wasn't in any danger out here. "I could just stay out here while the three of you go inside."

"No, it's okay," Cassie said. "Take all the time you need. If Dad asks, I'm showing Tanya the chickens."

Rachel laughed. "Behave for her, Yaya."

I didn't dignify that with a response as she escorted Tobias into the barn. A small part of me hoped that he wouldn't go for the osprey as his morph. There was no real rational reason for it, but both Rachel and I had the osprey morph. Another option existed. Maybe if Jordan also had the morphing power, it'd be acceptable for her to have it too.

But what if Jordan was a Controller?

Suddenly, I knew how Jake felt. Logically, I knew that the likelihood of them choosing an eleven-year-old girl as their first choice of host was small. Our mother was more likely to be a target than any of us, and if she was a host already, there was a good chance that all four of us children would already be infested as well. None of my siblings had expressed any interest in The Sharing, and in fact, Jordan and I both found their recruitment tactics rather creepy. Mom was busy with work, but she was home every night for us. Sara was too young by far for any of this.

"Tanya, are you okay?" Cassie asked.

"Hmm?" I looked at the older girl. My attention needed to be focused on her here. She always seemed to find something off about me, and she gave the most subtle ways of letting me know she knew. If I wasn't careful, she might make assumptions that went in the direction of what Marco suggested. "I'm fine."

"It's okay to be scared," Cassie said. "I know that I am. The whole situation is… messed up. What we saw last night, what you and Rachel had to do last night…"

Did she know about the woman? Or was she simply talking about the alien? "The Hork-Bajir was going to kill me if we didn't do anything."

"I know," said Cassie. "And you and Rachel did what you had to, but that was still a living being."

"Two," I said. "It was two living beings. The host, the Hork-Bajir, and the parasite, the Yeerk. The Controller held me, and Rachel saved me."

I'm honestly not certain I would have gotten out of it without her. Maybe the morph would have worked, but maybe not. It was better that both the woman and the Hork-Bajir were dead, even if both were innocent of what their Yeerks were doing in their bodies.

"Two, then," Cassie said. "The Andalite did say that the Hork-Bajir were to be pitied. That it wasn't their choice. What do you think of the whole situation?"

"On the one hand, we are children," I said. "Children should never be forced to fight in a war. And make no mistake, this will be a war. We could die. Marco's not wrong in worrying what might happen to his father."

Cassie nodded. "And on the other?"

"Who else can we trust to do this?" I asked. "Yes, we have the thing that gave us this power, but we don't really know how to use it. We don't have proof beyond that of the Yeerks even existing, let alone any direct knowledge of what their plans and activities are. We also don't have any way of identifying who a Controller is, when a Yeerk is in its host. Well, unless they're all as heavy-handed as that police officer. Then it might be fairly obvious."

"He was no worse than some of the cops in this town," Cassie said. "I've seen what happens when Dad gets pulled over."

"If it were merely racism, I would agree with you," I said. "Racist police officers are not unheard of. But this officer is more dangerous than the average racist."

Cassie grimaced. "You might be right. So, what is it you want to do, exactly?"

"Gather information," I said. "Our world is being invaded under the nose of the authorities. Anyone could be the enemy, and the greatest advantage the Yeerks have over us is our lack of knowledge. It would be their hidden existence, but we know of them now."

"So, you want to fight, then?" Cassie asked.

I shook my head. I didn't want to fight. I didn't want any of us to fight. I just felt that the choice of whether to fight or not wasn't something that could be avoided. "Knowing what we know, knowing that there are aliens literally invading, and that we were given a power to try and stop them… I don't think that avoiding a fight is an option. Pandora's box is open, and all the evils of the world are revealed."

"The Yeerks aren't the only evil out there," Cassie said.

I knew that all too well.

"But they are the ones we have to deal with right now," I said. "If they had come in peace, and they weren't trying to enslave us all, then maybe there would be a way to coexist. But… they didn't, and they are."

"Tanya, you shouldn't be fighting," Cassie said. "You're eleven. Yes, you have the morphing power, but if you died…"

"I don't want to die, Cassie," I said honestly. "But I will not be enslaved, nor will I let anything enslave those I care about. Which is why we need to find out where a Yeerk Pool is."

"Why that?"

"Information. We need to know how big it is, how it operates, how the hosts are set up there, and we need to know… more or less what we're dealing with," I said. "We have no informants, no spies, and all we know is the three day feeding cycle. I want to get an estimate of their voluntary versus involuntary hosts."

"We haven't decided to fight yet," said Cassie. "Not as a group."

Cassie wasn't wrong. The final decision had yet to be made, but it seemed inevitable. The world was being invaded by body snatchers, and we were the only ones who even knew. Tobias had already expressed interest in fighting, albeit not at a religious fervor, thankfully. My sister would be unable to stop herself from helping and being effective. I saw how she was when she'd taken out the Hork-Bajir. I'd seen that look on some of the soldiers under my command. She would fight, and as it was a righteous one, she wouldn't regret it. With the possibility of Tom being a Controller, if that was accurate, Jake would at least fight to free his brother. Given the relationship between Marco and my cousin, I didn't doubt that Marco would help. That left Cassie.

"What is your intent?" I asked.

"I honestly don't know," Cassie said. "Fighting isn't something that I want to do, not really. But at the same time, I can't just ignore what is happening. I also don't want to become a Controller or let those I know be the same. My mind keeps flashing back to last night."

I nodded. I couldn't blame her. If we were to go up against Visser Three unprepared, what happened to Prince Elfangor or worse would happen to us. I couldn't let that happen to Rachel or Jake, nor really any of these children. What kind of soldier would I be if I allowed allied civilian children to die on my watch? None of them were trained. At best, they were Privates, still green.

"I want us to think on it, as much as possible," Cassie said. "Before we make a collective decision. If the decision is to fight, I will fight, to protect you and Rachel, at the least."

"And Jake too?" I asked, knowing that my cousin had spent Thanksgiving with her family last year.

For some reason, her cheeks flushed a little. I didn't think that I suggested anything embarrassing. Maybe a slight chill in the springtime air got to her. "A-any of us. All of us. I'll fight to protect all of us if that ends up being the group decision."

I nodded again. "Fighting feels like it might be the necessary thing to do, for the survival of our species. I just wish it fell on anyone but us."

"Necessary, not right?" Cassie asked. "What do you mean?"

"We are defending our planet," I said. "Our homes. Our families. But at the same time, this will be a war. Even if we are truly the righteous side, this will not be won by righteous means."

"How do you know so much about war, Tanya?" Cassie asked.

"We had a great-grandfather," I said. "On our father's side. He fought in World War II. While he never told us anything directly as he had passed when I was little, he had journals about his fighting that he left behind. Our grandfather didn't know that I got into them. I'd found them fascinating and horrifying at the same time."

It wasn't truly a lie. Our great-grandfather did fight in World War II, and his father fought in the same War that I fought in, only this world's version of it. The Germans were the aggressors in both wars, and I doubt anyone could argue that the Nazis were on the side of good. But the horrors of war still haunted both sides, and what my great-grandfather experienced was somehow worse without the mage units. I read it because I felt I needed to know, to see how things were different. But that wasn't how I knew war.

"Oh, Tanya," Cassie said. "How old were you when you read those?"

"Maybe… seven or so?" I said, frowning. "Parts stuck out, and they seemed applicab—"

Cassie cut me off by pulling me into a hug. "It's okay. And with what happened last night… what you had to do… It was more than just the Hork-Bajir, wasn't it? There was a Human-Controller too, wasn't there?"

How had she figured it out? What made her even suspect it?

"You shouldn't have needed to do that in the first place," Cassie said. "Rachel mentioned how she found you, what she needed to do."

"I put myself in danger," I said.

"You flashed back to what you read," Cassie said. "And you did what you thought you needed to. Maybe you actually needed to do it. I can't say I'm okay with what you needed to do, but it's not your fault."

A clearing of a throat happened nearby. I glanced over to see Tobias and my sister standing. Rachel had a small grin on her face, and Tobias's face was slightly flushed. He seemed to be hopping a little from one leg to the other. Not really leaving the ground, just more of shifting his weight.

"Cassie, did my little sister do something?" Rachel asked.

"Not today," Cassie said. "Done in there?"

"Morph acquired," Tobias said. "I'm going to take off and go looking for those Yeerk Pools."

"Keep an eye on the time," I said. "But I doubt you will find one out in the open."

"Maybe not, but I have to look," Tobias said, and he started his morph. I looked away long enough, listening only to the unfortunately sickening sounds of bones stretching and hollowing out. When I looked back, a red-tailed hawk stood atop the pile of Tobias's clothes.

"Tobias, you in there?" Rachel asked.

<I'm here,> he said. <This is cool, I can see the thermals. I'm going to take off now and see what I can find. I might go catch up with Jake and let him know about the Yeerk Pool.>

"If you find anything, he does have our number," Rachel said. She glanced over at Cassie. "Hey, do you want to come over and we can… well, at least learn how to do the clothes thing from you?"

Cassie nodded. "I'm going to need something smaller than a horse if we're going to be morphing at your place. Pity you don't have a dog or a cat."

Rachel shrugged. "I'm sure we can figure it out."

"I hope so," I said. "Turning back nude is not something I want to keep doing."

"It's not really that hard," Cassie said. "The hardest thing might be keeping things quiet. What if your sisters come in?"

"They better not," Rachel said. "I don't want to have to explain things to any of them, or Mom. Not until we know for sure that Mom's not a Controller."

"She isn't," I said. "If she was, we would be, probably."

"I hope you're right. I don't want any of our family to be Controllers," Rachel said.

<I hope so for your sake too,> Tobias said, spreading his wings. He caught an updraft and quickly flew high enough to be out of sight.

Briefly, I was jealous of him. Joining him in the freedom of flight would be better than thinking on my cousin who was possibly a Controller. It was better than worrying about how best to protect my sisters from the horrors of war.

But it was also something that I couldn't do at the moment. Not due to a lack of ability, but instead, it was a lack of availability. It was more important to be with Rachel and Cassie. And then to be with Jordan.

I adjusted the backpack and slung it over my back, making sure the Dracon Beam and morphing device were still in there. "I can make sure Sara and Jordan keep out, but I will have to make it up to both of them."

Rachel nodded. "Then let's go. Even if we don't end up fighting, having the ability to handle clothing could be useful if we ever need to morph."

I clasped my hands together. "Let's go train."

And I'd think about possible plans to kidnap my cousin later. Much later.

 

[Ellf]

Chapter Ten

After Cassie acquired a smaller morph than a horse, (an armadillo, of all things), we returned to our home to practice morphing clothes. Luckily, Jordan had yet to arrive, and Mom was spending the day with Sara. She'd wanted to do things with Rachel and me, but with Cassie over, she left us alone in Rachel's room. Our mother had a significant amount of trust toward us, and while we had not outright lied to her yet, if we were to participate in this war, we would likely need to for her protection. My sisters needed her in their lives, and I would have to be sure that I did not have the same blinders about her that our cousin did about his brother. Given the lack of change in her demeanor and lack of promotion of the Sharing, I doubted our mother was a Controller.

But it was still a possibility.

It took less time to figure out how to morph clothing than it did to pick out the specific clothing we intended on morphing. Given Cassie's advice on the use of skintight clothes, I chose my gymnastics leotard. For one, it was concealable underneath normal clothes, and secondly, it concealed the necessary parts to remain decent. If I could practice in it, there was no reason I couldn't use it for morphing. Rachel chose much the same. We even matched, much to her and Cassie's amusement. When we morphed into our osprey forms and back for practice, I doubted that Cassie would be able to tell the difference between us if she hadn't paid attention. They were the same osprey, after all.

After a bit, I ducked out of Rachel's room. Something told me that discussions regarding the barn and Tobias were coming, and I didn't want to be involved with those. Just because the boy may have also had his life affected by Being X didn't mean I wanted to know what my sister found attractive about him. Plus, I did have homework to finish by Monday. I doubted that my teachers would accept the excuse of an alien invasion even if it wouldn't violate operational security and risk my very life, or worse, my family's.

When I made it into my room, my twin sister, Jordan, was unpacking her night bag from her sleepover the night prior. Curious. While I knew it was possible that she'd be back today, I expected her to manage to wheedle another night at Lily's. It certainly would have given me more time to figure out how I was going to lie to her.

I disliked lying to my sister, but I would do it for her protection and my own.

"Oh, Yaya, I didn't know you were here," Jordan said, using the nickname that she'd come up with. Yes, Rachel used it too, and Sara did occasionally, but the name was my twin's invention. "Were you with Rachel?"

I nodded. "She's in her room with Cassie, gossiping about boys." Well, a boy. It was at least partially true.

"Eww," Jordan said, and I smiled in solidarity. While I didn't doubt that she would eventually be attracted to men, we were far too young for any of that sort of thing.

My twin and I are fraternal, born a few minutes apart. Jordan, like our little sister, Sara, takes more after our mother. She has brown hair and matching eyes, compared to my blonde and blue, and today, she wore a pair of jeans with a white T-shirt that had some outlet logo on it. I didn't really pay attention to that sort of thing. Rachel would have, though.

"So, why are you back so early from your sleepover?" I asked.

"It's not that early. Before dinner," she said. "But Lily's parents had some sort of minor freakout. I'm really not sure what the reason was. Something about the construction site near the mall? God, that place is creepy, even in the daytime."

"It really is," I said. Often, it was easier to agree with my sister, but now she'd drawn my attention. I met my sister's eyes, trying to see what I could within them. Would I be able to even tell if there were a Yeerk in there if the alien was actually good at infiltrating?

"Yeah, glad I wasn't there last night, if it caused that freakout. God, could you imagine?" Jordan asked. She shook her head. "Hobos or fireworks or whatever."

"Lily's father's a cop, right?" I asked.

She nodded. "Guess that might be why he freaked. Who knows? Maybe someone got murdered there."

Oh, I hoped she had no idea. At least five beings died that night. Four by the hands of her family. One by the general of the enemy… that she might have in her head. How would I be able to tell? Maybe if I had some sort of sensor, or maybe if I observed her.

"Newspaper doesn't seem to think so," I said. "They said it was kids with fireworks, and the cops are looking for them. One came by Cassie's farm earlier."

"Huh," Jordan said. "Fireworks and that level of freakout? That doesn't make sense. What do you think, Yaya?"

I shrugged. "Doesn't matter. We took the long way last night. I guess maybe I saw some weird lights in the direction of the construction site. They could have been fireworks. I don't know."

Jordan hugged me suddenly, leaning her head against my shoulder. Awkwardly, slowly, I returned the hug. Would a Yeerk really use such tactics to make me let my guard down? I supposed it was possible. Anything seemed like it could be possible now. For a brief second, I almost wished for the clarity of the last war. The warfare there was at least more open. Despite the influence of the Type 95, and despite the necessity of my front-line job, decisions were at least simpler than here. I knew some of whom I could trust.

Outside of those who were at the construction site, could I trust anyone? Could I even trust my sister to be herself?

"It's okay to admit when you're scared, Yaya," Jordan said softly. "Whatever happened, I'm sorry that I wasn't there with you."

I wasn't. I wanted her far away from this war. It was bad enough that Tom was probably already taken by the enemy. That he was pushing the Sharing… wait. That was it.

"I wasn't scared," I said. "The cop had the wrong kids. We walked home together with Jake and a couple of his friends last night. Marco and Tobias."

"Oh, Marco?" Jordan asked, pulling away. For some reason her ears had started to color.

"You know him?"

"He's Jake's best friend," she said. "Just because you don't pay attention to our cousin much…"

"Since Dad and Mom, it's been harder," I said. "But that could change. Jake's even the one who got us off with the cop. The cop recognized him… sort of. Well, he recognized him as Tom's little brother."

"Wait, when did Tom get arrested?" Jordan asked.

"What?" I asked.

"The cop knew Tom," she said. "Tom, whom I have on good authority, broke into a liquor store at the end of eighth grade with a couple of his friends."

"Who told you that?"

"Jaxson," she said. "Lily's older brother. He was the lookout."

I was starting to believe that my twin sister wasn't a Controller. But I had no clue how much of the host's memories a Yeerk could access, and I had no idea on how many mannerisms they could copy. Still, to immediately go to Tom being arrested? That felt more like my sister than some alien menace. Somehow, I doubted an alien parasite would get the inherent humor in the situation. To be fair, I doubted I would have gotten it in my last life, but why was I being fair to an alien parasite?

Had Being X's machinations actually given me empathy for the alien slugs?

I couldn't even blame the Type 95 here. Still, I needed to continue with my line of thought.

"As far as I know, the officer didn't know Tom from an arrest," I said. "I doubt that Jake would have gotten the treatment he did otherwise, and Cassie might have been treated worse."

"Oh, right," Jordan said. "You did say you were at Cassie's. Why would she be treated worse? She's the daughter of two vets."

Would a Yeerk ask that question? My sister sometimes was naïve enough to think like that though. Despite being taught to not see race or color; I knew that just because we didn't want to treat people different didn't mean the generation before us didn't. Especially the police. America wasn't as bad as Germania or Japan that way, but it still had its foibles. Personally, I never felt that someone competent should be shunned because of where they came from or what they looked like, but that was just good economic decisions that happened to line up with ethics. Competence eventually proves out.

"She's black," I said, outright answering the question. "Cops are weird sometimes. This one especially. Once he found out about Jake, he mentioned that he knew Tom from the Sharing."

"Oh. That's worse than being arrested," Jordan said. "Scouts are better. They have cookies and less creepy cult stuff. Wait, so you're saying Tom's in the Sharing?"

"According to Jake and the cop," I said. "And I guess I trust two sources for that."

Jordan shook her head with a tsk. "And I thought Tom was cool. He played basketball, and he drove. Plus, well, that thing that Jaxson told me about."

"I'm not sure that ever happened," I said. "But yes, the Sharing. Fun."

Jordan snorted. "Just tell me you haven't agreed to go."

"I have no particular desire to go to a Sharing meeting at all," I said. "You know me, Jordan. I barely go out to other things."

"Yes, Victoria pretty much has to drag you places sometimes," Jordan said. "Or I do. You could have spent the night with Lily and me last night, you know."

"She's your friend," I said. "And I'm a grade higher than you. It would be weird."

"Her parents let me have coffee," Jordan said with an evil grin.

"You're dead to me," I said with a sniff, and I walked over to my desk, pulling at my backpack. It was official. My sister was a Controller. Only a Yeerk could be cruel enough to taunt me in that fashion. There was no way my sister would dare to taunt me with something as precious as coffee.

"Seriously, Yaya, you should sleep over sometime," she said. "Or at Victoria's. I don't understand why you don't do sleepovers."

"I sleep better in our beds," I said. That wasn't entirely true, but I did tend to have less nightmares about the war front against… all of the Empire's enemies. Some nights were worse than others, but of course, now I had new nightmare fuel. Something about watching a sapient being getting consumed by another one is rather horrifying. "But I don't want to keep you from enjoying yourself."

"You never do," Jordan said. "But you're still my sister. I love you, Tanya."

I smiled genuinely at her. Yeerk or not, I did appreciate the sentiment. "You too. I guess… maybe when the school year is over, if Victoria or someone else wishes to have a sleepover, maybe I can ask Mom. We've hosted before, a few times."

"Mostly Lily, or Melissa and Cassie for Rachel," Jordan said. "Or a couple of Sara's friends."

Small children individually are cute. En masse, they become roving balls of destruction. Thankfully, we were able to keep them away from our choking hazard building sets the last time. I worried for the next time. Any sort of destruction of either Jordan's or my structures would result in… disciplinary action.

Regarding hosting… "One or two people invited over could be fine. Too many people make me…"

"Uncomfortable," Jordan said, nodding. "Mom knows that too. I think that's why it hasn't been pressed. But I think you could handle maybe more than that. You usually do at our birthday party."

I shrugged. "I'm not sure how much time I have for it during the year though. I will think about it. I promise."

"Good," Jordan said, as she reached into her bag. She pulled a metal thermos from within it, and she set it down on my desk.

"What is that?" I asked.

"I told you," she said, unscrewing a cup off the top, and she pulled a second cup from the bag. She laid both down on the desk and unscrewed the top of the thermos. A heavenly smell greeted my nostrils. "I know you like yours black, like your heart, but I added some sugar and cream. You'll just have to deal with it."

She poured two cups on the desk, and she gestured for me to take one.

"They really let you have coffee?"

"They let me bring some home for you," Jordan said. "Told you that you should have come."

I took a sip, and despite my sister nearly ruining it, it was worth it. It was still hot, sweeter than I would like, but it was pure, even with the cream. Lily's family bought good beans, maybe even ground them themselves. Briefly, I could hear the phone ringing elsewhere in the house, but it didn't matter.

"I'll get you drinking coffee properly eventually," I said.

"Good luck on that," she said with a grin, and we clinked cups.

My sister couldn't be a Controller. The Yeerk wouldn't think to give me coffee. It wasn't within the nature of a parasite. I could practically taste the love.

It really was a pity that Jake had to go and ruin it via Rachel, who popped her head in the room at that moment.

"Tanya, Jake wants us to go to the Sharing meeting with him tonight to check i—" Rachel blinked as she saw the two of us. "Uh."

"Two questions, Rachel," Jordan said. "One, is there going to be food at this thing?"

"Jake did mention that Tom said it was supposed to be a barbecue…" Rachel said. "And where did you get coffee?"

"From Lily's," Jordan said. She smiled at me. "Second question though."

"Okay?"

"Do you think I'm letting Yaya or you go anywhere near those weirdoes without having me as backup?"