We can't tell you who we are. Or where we come from. It's too risky, and we've got to be careful. Really careful. So we don't trust anyone. Because if they find us... well, we just won't let them find us.

The thing you've got to know is that everyone is in really big trouble. Yeah. Even you.

Sometimes, though, there are people who are able to help. People with even stranger stories then us…

Animorphs

Middle of Volume 29: The Sickness

My name is Cassie.

Just Cassie. I have a nice last name, really. And I would give anything to be able to tell you what it is, because that would mean it was safe. That I was a normal girl, with a normal life. But I am anything but a normal girl.

And right now, I was alone.

My friends, the Animorphs, were all sick. And I was going to have to do a mission on my own. Make decisions, on my own, that could determine the fate of the entire human race. And I wasn't so sure I could handle that pressure, but there wasn't any choice. Because the Yeerks are here, and they had to be stopped, before everything we knew and loved was lost forever. You see the Yeerks are parasites, like tapeworms or ticks or all those other pests that we treated in my family's barn, also known as the Wildlife Rehabilitation clinic. They look so harmless, like big slugs. But they were so, so far from harmless. The Yeerks are aliens, and unlike those other, normal Earth creatures that I knew so well, they couldn't be treated with a pill. They crawl inside of the ear, and take control of you from inside your own brain. All of your thoughts, emotions, and feelings are theirs now, and they use them to try and create even more hosts, Controllers, for their fellow Yeerks. It's a perfect disguise, and it was why we have to guard our identities so closely. We'd never know if they were a human, or a Yeerk we were talking to.

It was hard, not to judge them. We were told they spread across the galaxies like a plague, enslaving and destroying as they went. But then I met Aftran, a Yeerk who wanted nothing more than a better life than that of a blind, helpless slug. She showed us, me, that there were Yeerks who would be willing to live in peace, given the chance. And now, she had sent word, through another Controller, whose voluntary host Mr. Tidwell was a teacher in my school, that she had been captured. That because of me, she was to be tried, and likely tortured, by Visser Three, the leader of the Yeerk invasion of Earth. If he, and the rest of the Yeerks, managed to find out through her the identity of my friends and I, we would be captured and enslaved ourselves, along with our family and friends, anyone we cared about.

The Yeerks would win, if that happened. We, the Animorphs, were Earth's last and only line of defense. Because of one fateful night, cutting through an abandoned construction site, everything changed.

We had been given the incredible power to turn into any animal we touched. Using this gift, we had managed to hold off the invasion, hoping that one day, help would come from the Andalites, inventors of the morphing cube.

Tobias, the boy who had chosen the life of a hawk over his broken human one.

Rachel, my best friend. Perfect, beautiful, and a warrior who I feared might be one day consumed by passion for battle.

Marco: smart, funny Marco, whose mother was a Controller, and who saw the world so differently than me.

Jake, our fearless leader, who I loved despite never daring to say so, and who made the hard decisions. Ones that I was going to have to make in his place, because all of my friends were sick.

And because the last of us, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, an Andalite from another world who's brother's dying moments had been used to give us a way to fight, was laying in my family's barn, concealed by an android named Erik, slowly growing sicker from an illness I couldn't begin to understand. From a diseased mass in his brain, that I had no hope of finding without possibly maiming or killing him. When his fever dropped below 91.3 degrees, I would need to perform brain surgery on an alien.

Ax was dying, and I had no idea how to fix him. There wasn't a doctor on the planet that I could trust, or who would even begin to know what to do if I showed them what would to them look like a blue-furred centaur with too many eyes and no mouth. And the clock was ticking. Somehow, I had to save him and Aftran. I didn't know how, but I knew this much.

I needed help.

Doctor Who

Series 2, Sometime after Episode 11

Hurtling through space, the TARDIS suddenly lurched sideways, knocking its passengers sideways. Frantically, the Doctor flipped switches, running about the consol.

"No no no no no!" He shouted, and knocked an already off-balanced Rose Tyler backwards from where she was clinging to the machine in attempt to reach another whirring knob with his foot. The TARDIS gave another aggressive leap, and the walls shook.

"Doctor! What's going on!?" Rose yelled, trying to be heard over the whooshing, whining, ruckus around her.

"There's some sort of temporal anomaly in the time vortex. The TARDIS is being pulled, but I can't get a reading as to where or when! Come on!" He yelled at the consol, pushing buttons even faster now, and pulled a large lever.

The TARDIS shaking only increased, and the noises became even louder. Suddenly, the doors of the police box fly open.

"DOCTOR!"

Hearing Rose's scream, the Doctor turns around just in time to see her sucked out of the TARDIS and into a whirling mass of space and time. For a split-second, he thinks of jumping out after her. However, the doors of the TARDIS are blown shut from the violent movements of the police box, and suddenly, without warning, the whole thing slams to a halt, throwing the Doctor across the floor. Quickly standing up, he begins pushing buttons across the consol.

"Where are we? Where is she? Come on!" He slams his hand on the nearby railing. "Give me something I can work with here!"

The TARDIS makes more noise, and the lights around the Doctor begin to flicker.

"No no no!" Pulling out his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor tries to boost what little power seems to be left. The screen in front of him flashes information in Gallifreyan, and few brief bits of information, before going blank. The TARDIS itself slowly dims its lights around him.

"Oh… this is not good… Earth, year 1998, California… Rose is nearby…" He pauses, and walks to the door of the TARDIS. "Wrong Earth, though. Wrong universe, even. Not good."

Opening the door, he steps outside, and looks around at a suburban neighborhood. Dusk was falling, and everything appeared to be quite normal, boring even. But something had pulled the TARDIS to this place, and he was going to have to figure out what… as soon as he found Rose.

"Let's see… we're looking for someone out of their time… should be easy enough." Fiddling with the sonic screwdriver, he soon has it on the correct setting, and the familiar noise points him the direction of a nearby home.

"Allons-y!" With a mad grin, the Doctor takes off running, towards the signal he thought was Rose Tyler.

Cassie

-Direct Quote from Book-

- I rode my bike up Mr. Tidwell's driveway and parked it. Then I hurried to his front door. He swung it open before I had the chance to ring the bell.

"Where are the others?" he demanded.

"Sick."

"It's just you?"

"Yes. Me. Me or no one."

He hesitated only a moment, then he drew me inside.

"So where should we do this?" he blurted the second I was inside. "Bathroom? Kitchen? Where?"

He kept touching his ear, rubbing his finger around the edge. He seemed totally freaked by what we were about to do. I felt like telling him to join the club. But I figured that would only make things worse.

"Kitchen's fine," I answered. I led the way, even though it was his house. Even though he was a teacher and I was a kid. There wasn't time to waste on all that. I sat down at the kitchen table and waved Mr. Tidwell down into the chair next to me.

"Now?" he asked.

"Let's do it!" I said.

It was Rachel's line. But Rachel wasn't there. Maybe it would bring us luck. All of us.

Mr. Tidwell tilted his right ear toward the table. I leaned down. My eyes locked themselves on the hole at the ear's center. I couldn't look away.

The opening to the hole began to glisten. Then a pencil-thin wand of wet gray flesh slid out. It wiggled this way and that. Almost as if it were tasting the air.

Shh-lop. Shh-lop. Shh-lop.

More of the gray flesh squeezed itself out of Mr. Tidwell's ear. - End Direct Quote -

Suddenly, a tall, lanky man in a trench coat stormed into the kitchen. I saw Mr. Tidwell freeze next to me, and I began running through options in my head of morphs that might be necessary. The man, though, did not seem to notice the strangeness in front of him, at least not immediately.

"Well then Rose Tyler, I think…" It was if he finally realized how odd what was happening in front of him really was. Me, carefully watching a man bent over a counter top, Yeerk slug halfway out of his ear. His eyes though, lit up with curiosity, rather than fear or disgust or anger. Hopefully that was a good sign. Hopefully it meant that, whoever he was, he wasn't a Yeerk.

"This is new… Am I interrupting something? And have either of you seen a blonde? Rose Tyler, nice girl, tends to wander off at unfortunate times."

It was at that moment that Illim completely freed himself from Mr. Tidwell's ear canal and landed on the kitchen countertop with a loud plop.

"Oh that is very interesting! Never seen anything like you before."

Before Mr. Tidwell or I could even think to react, the man had run forward to look at Illim. His eyes were wide with excitement, and he spoke quickly in a British accent. But I couldn't let him know what Illim was. Controller or not, it was too dangerous for regular people to know about the Yeerks. Whoever he was, he'd be much safer if I could think of a good excuse for what he had just seen.

"It's… uh… just a grey slug. It was crawling on him. N-nothing to be worried about, we got it off!"

Mr. Tidwell snapped out his shock at the stranger's sudden arrival to back me up.

"Unfortunately, uh, yes, really. I was out gardening, and this nice girl offered to help get it off!" He nervously fiddled with his ear, rubbing the area where Illim had exited moments before. We needed this guy to buy our story, or the whole operation, the whole world, could be in trouble.

"Uh-huh… that is interesting…" He wasn't buying our story. I thought frantically for something, anything to say to get him out of here.

"So, uh, as you can see. Everything's fine!" I forced myself to grin, and I could tell it must have looked horribly fake. "Did you say you were looking for someone? I don't think she's here, sorry, maybe you should go look somewhere else?"

"Yes… but something is strange about this little bugger here…" Peering quizzically, he took a step back, and then I saw it. A strange, metal, definitely alien instrument in his hand. And he was about to point it at the Yeerk on the counter.

"WAIT! Don't hurt him! Please!" Mr. Tidwell yelled before I could even react. The desperation in his voice… I hadn't realized, I had been so preoccupied with saving Ax and Aftran, but it occurred to me now that Mr. Tidwell and Illim might actually be friends. It was strange, but hopeful thing to think. Even after everything that has happened, that there might still be a chance for our species to coexist peacefully... But right now there were much more important matters to worry about. The strange British man with what was definitely alien technology was still pointing his weapon directly at the Yeerk lying helpless at the table. His manner was not threatening, but I was very, very worried. Slowly, subtly, I began to morph, changing features that were easy to hide, hoping he wouldn't notice.

"Oh that is brilliant then! It's intelligent. I thought so! Alien, yes? Bit of expert on them; well… bit of an alien myself, but not important right now! Symbiotic parasite, is it then? Fascinating. Most humans from this time period I've met don't even realize the existence of aliens, let alone form this type of partnership with them. Why'd he come out? Seems a bit dodgy having him lying all helpless there. I suppose he can't communicate without being inside you, yeah? "

He spoke so rapidly; I could barely process what was coming out his mouth. An alien? Time periods? The morph was as far as I could take it without become very, very obvious that there was a half-wolf girl standing in the kitchen as well. Next to me, Mr. Tidwell, scooped up Illim, and allowed the Yeerk to climb back into his ear, clearly concerned for his safety, and unsure of how to react himself. The stranger watched with fascination.

"Wonderful! Humans, sharing their bodies with aliens! Oh the things I get to see!" He turned to face me, excitement clear on his face. "Do you have one in you as well?"

I reacted without even thinking.

"No, of course I'm not a Controller! Don't you understand how awful that would be?"

A throat-clearing cough behind me alerted me to the fact that Illim had finished reconnecting to Mr. Tidwell's brain.

"Sorry, Illim, but you understand what I mean."

"Of course," replied Dr. Tidwell/Illim, I couldn't tell of course, "That is why we are here."

"Look," I turned to the strange, now confused looking man before us. Confused, but still pleased, I noticed. It was exciting to him, not knowing… interesting. "The slug you just saw is called a Yeerk. They are a parasitic species invading Earth, taking on hosts by force, and basically enslaving the entire planet in a secret war. Illim and Mr. Tidwell," I gestured to my teacher, who had taken a seat at the kitchen counter and was fidgeting uncomfortably there, "are members of the Yeerk Peace Movement. They need my help, the Animorphs help, to rescue one of their members, a friend of mine, Aftran." Which is starting to look even more impossible I thought to myself.

"Animorph, eh? Are you an alien as well? Oh this is brilliant, so many new species in this universe. Amazing how things can change. Not good about that invasion though…" He fiddled with his weapon, spinning it and looking thoughtful. "I suppose we'll have to be stopping that then. Right."

Pausing after his latest long string of questions (When did he expect me to answer them?) the strange man looked at me.

"I'm the Doctor, by the way. Last of the Time Lords, traveler from another universe. Something grabbed a hold of my TARDIS, and I lost track of my friend Rose in the chaos. Not a big deal, I know she's close by; the temporal energy is strong in this area. But once I find her, I think I might be able to help you with this invasion problem. "

I didn't know what to say. This strange person, alien, had show up, out of nowhere, and offered his assistance without knowing anything about, well, anything. But he said he was a doctor… an alien doctor! And I was running out of time, and options. I needed to know, right now, if I was going to be able to trust him. Without a word, I continued the morph. Fur spread out from my chest up my face and down my arms and legs… thank goodness the clothes I worn over here were close enough to a morphing suit to work for the transformation. I felt my bones shifting in my jaw, my already transformed teeth fitting in to place. I did my best to transform as quickly, and elegantly as possible. Morphing could look disgusting, even horrifying, but my friends always said that I had a knack for making it look nice. Hopefully, this stranger would think so too. If he was truly an alien doctor, then maybe, just maybe, he would know how to save Ax…

As I finished the final changes, I turned my now golden wolf eyes up to look at the alien who called himself the Doctor. He did smell… different. Not human, certainly. And I could hear, faintly, more heartbeats then I should. But he didn't make the wolf instincts nervous, either. It was an unfamiliar scent… and old scent. I don't know how to describe it. But I did know then that there was no way he was a Controller. No Yeerk would ever look at a morph and think anything but disgust and hatred. But his eyes were joyous, alight with excitement… with something else beneath them that might have been sadness. I wasn't sure, and I didn't have time to question it, not with so many people's lives at risk.

"Oh! That is just brilliant! Wonderful!" Before I could react, a glow came from his weapon, and strange noise that made the wolf's hair stand on end. But nothing hurt, or caused pain, and it seemed to be safe enough. With a manic grin, the doctor continued firing off questions. "Not a hologram or a perception filter. You've changed yourself on a genetic level. That is fascinating. How did you manage that? What planet are you from then? Can you communicate in that form? I should be able to translate most languages through the psychic link with the TARDIS."

{I can use thought-speak. I just have to direct my thoughts at you}. He was like a child. An excited child who had just seen the greatest thing of his entire life, and was dying to find out more about it. But with old eyes, I could see that now. An old child. I thought back to the Howler's and their simple minds and childlike innocence. Could he be similar?

"A psychic communication. Excellent. Perfect. Great!" He paced around me, practically skipping. Normally, this would have made the wolf mind nervous, but it seemed calmer than usual. It was confusing.

{I'm not an alien though. Just a human with access to alien technology that allows me to absorb the DNA of any animal I can touch and morph into it. The Andalites created it, and it's how my friends and I are able to fight in this war.}

"Andalites… hmm... I haven't heard of them either. This must be a very separate universe, a lot less parallels here. What happens-"

{I'm sorry. I don't have time to explain}. I had to cut him off. I didn't have time, and I doubt I had the answers to the questions he was going to ask. Using the morphing technology is one thing, but understanding it is completely beyond my grasp.

{Listen. Please. I have to go save Aftran from the Yeerk pool}.

I started demorphing, ready to go along with the original plan of acquiring Illim and using a Yeerk morph to get past the Gleet Bio-Filters.

{I would really like to help you find your friend, and I'm sure you could help us. But right now, my friend Ax is dying, and needs brain surgery. You say you're a doctor? Can you help him? He's an Andalite. I don't know anything about the anatomy…}

The morph began to finish, and I was standing once again, human, in Mr. Tidwell's kitchen. Mr. Tidwell, for the record, was handling things quite well, given how nervous he appeared to be. Things were not even close to going according to plan, and while I was used to this happening, he certainly wasn't.

"I know you just met me. But I need your help. Please" I looked at this strange British sounding alien, still mesmerized from watching the morph.

"I've never heard of an Andalite until just now. I'm sorry. I'm not that kind of doctor. But!" His voice became more enthusiastic. " I think I should be able to help you save your Yeerk friend Aftran. At the, uh, Yeerk Pool, you called it? Should be easy enough. I don't know much about the technology here, but the sonic screwdriver here-" the doctor flipped the alien metal… screwdriver… in his hands- "Should be able to get through just about any security they might have".

"You don't understand," Illim spoke up now using Mr. Tidwell's mouth. "My people will expect intruders. The Animorphs-" He gestured to me, and I nodded, "have broken in numerous times. The security measures will be intense, and they will be on the look out for any suspicious activity. And if they capture, you will be infested. Any information, any knowledge you posses, will be theirs. The Yeerk Empire will not hesitate to use you, and everyone you care about, to their advantage. If you are an alien, one with access to technology we don't understand, the risk is too great… even for Aftran's sake."

"Oh, well… I don't think you should count me out that quickly. I have experience fighting an empire or two. " The man who called himself the Doctor grinned devilishly, and for some reason, I trusted him. In that second, there was something in eyes that told me he was telling the truth, and we didn't have time to debate further.

"He can come, Mr. Tidwell, Illim" I grinned, trying to look more confident then I felt. I could be dooming us all, Aftran, my friends, the whole human race. "I might need back up, and he certainly seems to know what he's doing." I needed to be brave. Like my friends. I wasn't good at being brave, or bold. But there weren't any more options.

"There are going to be some things you're going to need to know, but I'll fill you in on the way, Doctor…?" I paused, unsure of what name to use.

"Just the Doctor is fine," he grinned, looking much more confidant than I felt.

"Well, just the Doctor, I'm just Cassie," I joked, trying to keep myself cool. More for myself than any of them, I repeated Rachel's motto.

"Let's do this!"

Rose Tyler

Rose Tyler had been in a lot of tight spots with the Doctor on their travels together, though none of them had been quite this literally tight. She found herself pressed in between what felt like a wall and heavy, metal container of some sort… at least far as she could tell. It was dark, with only a faint light coming from across the room. And her head was throbbing, possibly from, she realized, being flung from the TARDIS mid-flight and landing… wherever she was now.

"Ouch. Geez. Where did that mad box drop me then?"

Rearranging herself out of the tiny corner, she stood up, squinting towards the light. She couldn't see past the light, but she could hear… something, outside of what she guessed was a door.

"Doctor! You here?" She called out, looking around. Her eyes were adjusting to the darkness, and it appeared that she was in some kind of storage room. Metal boxes were piled up around her. Walking further into the room, she looked at one sitting in the light, and saw that they were labeled with an alien language. After a brief moment, the TARDIS psychic connection took over, and the words were legible to her.

"Dracon Weaponry… that sounds dangerous." Turning, she gave one last look around the room to see if the TARDIS or the Doctor were here. "Guess I'm on my own then for now. Great."

Rose turned to leave, and slowly poked her head out the cracked open door into the light. She appeared to be in a long hallway; probably underground judging by the rough stonewalls. It was well lit from utility lights running across the ceiling, and appeared to be empty. A few more doors, all shut, were visible. Rose took a cautious step into the hallway.

"Hullo? Is there anyone there?" she called out, her voice echoing faintly down the corridors. Listening carefully, she thought she could hear voices coming from the left, and began heading that way. There was something… unsettling about this place, but she couldn't quite put her finger on exactly what. There was clearly something alien at work here, but without knowing, where, or when she was, it was hard to say if it was friendly or not.

"S'long as it's not Daleks or Cybermen, I think I'll be alright, yeah?" she said, to no one in particular. Up ahead, she could hear noises… hissing and something rather animal sounding. Or alien sounding, it was hard to say. One of the doors ahead of her opened into the hallway and gave Rose her answer.

A pair of what were clearly aliens, though none that she recognized from her travels, stepped into the hallway. One was quite tall, with a serpentine head and covered in scales. What was truly impressive about it, however, were the large blades coming out in intervals up and down its body. The other was, well, even by Rose's new standards on alien life, disgusting. Like a giant centipede, or caterpillar, it's had a large, tooth filled mouth with arms beneath constantly moving as if to shovel in food. Rose gave a brief shudder, but she wasn't going to judge too quickly. Neither alien seemed particularly surprised to see her, a human, here, so there was good chance they were friendly. She decided to take a chance.

"'Scuse me! Um, hello! I'm Rose Tyler; I'm looking for my friend called the Doctor. Can you help me?"

She definitely had their attention now. The tall bladed one stared at her and grunted words at her, simple words, as if it was difficult for it to talk.

"Don't know Doctor… Who you? Not supposed to be here. No human hosts here"

Rose wasn't sure how to answer that. Before she had a chance to think of a response, the large yellow centipede hissed more words, more questions at her. It was difficult to understand, but the TARDIS translation did its job still.

"What isssss your name and ranksss? Why hassss you come to thissss weaponsssss?"

The hissing, spitting noises coming from the alien's mouth were disgusting and Rose couldn't help but cringe.

"Rose Tyler… I'm a friend of the Doctor's. I fell out his ship, the TARDIS? I don't know where I am, sorry. Could you help me?" She wasn't sure if she was getting through to them or not, but began walking closer, hands spread in what she hoped was a harmless looking gesture.

"Could you tell me where I am, at least?"

"No Yeerk. Not host. You should not see us. Not be here." The bladed alien took a step towards her, and raised a one arm, pointing what was clearly a weapon at her. Rose took a step back, quickly.

"No, no! Not Yeerk, no! But I'm friendly, see!" she raised her hands above her head in a surrendering gesture. "See friendly, no need for that!"

Saliva dripped from the centipede creature's mouth, still moving frantically. "You come. Sssseeee Vissssser. He'll dessssidde what to do withsss you."

The serpentine head weapon carrier, covered in blades that looked dangerous in their own right, stared down at her menacingly, and Rose knew she wasn't going to be given a choice in the matter.

"Alright, alright. I'll come see this… Visser, with you, yeah? I don't want any trouble."

She walked towards them, arms still raised in surrender. The forced her to walk in front of them, and she knew she probably still had a weapon pointed at her back as they headed down the hallway. As they walked, she could hear the noises up ahead growing louder. It was then that she realized what the sound was, and fear began to fill up inside of her. They reached the end of the hallway, and large door opened up in front of them. Rose took a step into the large, open cavern in front of her. It was enormous, and as she guess, clearly underground. A large lake, with several piers jutting out into it, filled most of the center. Around it were hundreds of cages, guarded by more of the tall, bladed creatures. Each cage was filled with humans. Humans like her.

And they were screaming. Some were sobbing, begging for their lives. Children, adults, men and women, all it cages, or lined up heavily guarded on the piers over the lake. Rose didn't know where she was, or what was going on, but she knew this much- the Doctor needed to find her, and soon. Because this was not a place that Rose Tyler wanted to be stuck in for long.