A/N: This doesn't involve any major characters in the Host, so if you're looking Ian and Wanda making googley eyes at eachother, then you're in the wrong place. In fact, this all takes place prior to The Host. Also, Kevin swears a lot. No really, a lot. Espeically when angry or under pressure, which he is for most of the fanfic. Chapter Two tones it down and I think that Chapter Three will be even better, but be warned.

Chapter One: The Insertion

Well… Fuck.

There was just no other word to describe this. Erin usually hates it when I swear, but I can't help it today. It's just one of those things that can't be avoided when you're under stress. Plus, I'd always had a dirty mouth. Only for Erin had I decided to try and swallow some soap. If she were to hear my thoughts now… man.

And it wasn't like I was saying it once either. There was a string of them.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Two and a half for every step that I took.

I'd thought I was fast, being the center forward of my school's soccer team in high school, but these freaky aliens were gaining on me. My heart beat rapidly and my breathing was terribly uneven. Shouldn't I be good at running by now?

"Wait! We don't want to hurt you."

I felt like I was going throw up. Running would have been easy if it hadn't been whom I was running from. A seeker was bad, but not sickening. A stupid fucking seeker in my little sister's body was un-fucking bearable.

Shit. There I go again.

"Please, Kevin." Leslie cried. I didn't even stumbled at her words. My body wanted to go to her like a magnet but I couldn't let it, and if there was one thing that I was it would be strong willed.

For a brief period in time, I actually thought that I could get out of this with my mind still running my limbs. There were four or more seekers running behind me and they had definitely called back up. I knew Chicago better than any of them. For the past three years I'd been running around the underground like a freakin' rat. That had to count for something.

I ducked into an alleyway and then leapt up to grab the latter of a fire escape. Bolting up the stairs, I ducked in to a window on the second floor. One of the parasites blinked in surprise and cocked it's head to the side. I paused for a second to grab one of their brown leather jackets that hung by the door, but I don't know if you could really call it a pause. It was more of a grab and get-the-fuck-out-of-there kind of thin. I ran out of their unlocked door and to the end of the hallway and opened the window there. Without looking down, I jumped. The sensation of freefalling lasted a second before I landed in a cushion of garbage. Nimbly, I hopped out of the dumpster and ran down the alley that ran parallel to the one I'd just left the parasites in.

There wasn't one of them in sight. All I had to do was find a crowded street or subway and integrate myself with a pair of my handy-dandy sunglasses. It was fairly bright out, so it wouldn't be completely irrational. Plus, my long shaggy hair-which was now at ponytail length thanks to my lack of access to a barbershop, would cover my would-be scar. There was already one there, of course, but it wasn't as subtle as the body snatcher's. All I had to do was get them off my tail and then I could go find Erin so that she could punch me in the face for worrying her.

I turned the corner and was still surprisingly safe. I made it two block before one of them hopped out of an alleyway and touched some kind of stun gun to my gut.

Electric pain shot through me and I fell to the ground. My eyes had already closed by the time my face hit the pavement.

XXX

This was too weird.

It was like déjà vu on uppers.

The best way that I could describe it would be that I was swimming in a memory. The last memory I'd had to be precise, but I didn't know what that meant. I remembered rounding a corner and getting tazed, everything that happened after that was blank. Obviously, I'd been caught. Not erased though, which was the part about this entire thing that was the weirdest.

When the parasites took over, didn't they completely eliminate all traces of us? Leslie certainly wouldn't have put me in their hands, no matter how pissed off at me she got. That worm was not my sister.

Was Leslie still in there?

I would have swallowed if I were in control of my throat.

The memory faded, and too-calm voices came with it's departure. Souls. I focused on listening to them, but all I could get were muffled tones.

My mind became aware of a little dot of a presence. The worm. I could feel the worm's thoughts running through my head like it was theirs. I think not. They wouldn't get any information from me. I wrapped all my memories up with me. All my fond thoughts of Erin and Amin were mine and I wouldn't give them up for a three-inch worm. Not that the thing was even looking yet. It was moving slower than molasses.

Get up. Get up. Get up. I urged. This thing was entirely useless.

Idly, the parasite flexed it's fingers. It was slowly figuring out how to use my body. When the body, my body, stirred, the chatter stopped. My eyelids opened and then snapped shut while the little weakling of a worm winced. Against my eyelids, the lights dimmed.

"Is that better?" I made out.

Nod. I whispered in my head. The parasite obeyed.

"Good, now, just take your time adjusting. There's no need to rush, we have plenty of time to get everything sorted out." There was a hint of a smile in his voice that I wasn't too fond of. Then again, I wasn't too fond of the entire situation, so this was really nothing new. "When you're ready, just say so."

My eyes opened without any prompting from me and my torso wiggled. It was like the thing was getting used to all the commands that my body needed.

I heard the worm thinking in my head. It was completely delighted to have sight again. Black memories with beautiful melodies drifted through my subconscious. It was thinking about assimilating, and how interesting it was to not have to bounce sound waves off of objects to know they were there.

I wanted to yell at it, "This is my body you turd. Get out." But I knew better. Better to be unseen until absolutely necessary.

My vision focused on two people in the room. One being a man with red hair and white scrubs. Doctor. The other was a woman I knew well. She was barely nineteen and had long honey-colored hair tied into two whip-like braids due to the thinness of her hair. Flicking her long bangs out of her eyes, she smiled broadly at me. Leslie. No. It wasn't Leslie, it was the stupid seeker that caught me.

The worm saw the recognition and went poking around my head in vain looking for my memories.

I'd never heard of humans surviving once the little worms were inserted so I didn't know what to expect or what to do. I was, however, a crafty little motherfucker, and this was my body. There was no way I was letting it get to everyone I'd left behind. I'd protected them in the city and I'd protect them from me too.

As the worm tried to figure out where the body knew this woman from, I decided to leak the information in the form of a memory. I let down the barrier around the memory of Leslie and I playing tag as kids, then our family at the dinner table saying grace years later, then one of her helping me while I fixed my car on a rainy thanksgiving the year before we found out about the invasion, and then finally, the memory of Leslie screaming as the aliens took her away.

The worm shuddered.

That's right you rotten son of a bitch. You took her from me. Feel my pain.

But no pain was felt. Instead, I felt my lips pull into a smile. "Leslie?"

The worm used Leslie's body like a puppet. "Actually, my name's Sparkles in the Lunar Prisms, but momma nicknamed me Luna."

Right. Nice to meet you Luna. Now get the fuck out of my sister. And don't call Geraldine momma. We'd always called out mother and father by their first names. Leslie especially. She thought it made her cooler since all of the cool, chic kids did it.

"It's nice to meet you Luna." My lips pouted. "This body seems quite angry."

"Most of the full grown humans are. It should pass within the a month." The doctor said. Then he changed the subject. Good. They didn't need to know that I was still poking around in here making my body pissed off. "We were going to call you Racing Song, does that name please you?"

No.

It does not please me to be called Racing fucking Song. What kind of name is that? My name is Kevin. Ke-vin. Maybe my body had been surrendered, but I wouldn't give this worm anything.

It cocked my head to the side and thought for a moment. Mulling over names. Kevin Frost or Racing Song? Kevin Frost. I pushed. I shouldn't have. It got curious. Looking for memories of this Kevin Frost that it inhabited. I let loose some harmless memories of my childhood. A few at first, and then them all. The ones that happened after Leslie was taken I kept to myself. If nothing else, I needed to protect Erin and Amin. They were my number one priority right now.

Well… them and this stupid worm implanted in the back of my neck.

And idea struck me. I wondered if I could feed him fake memories. They wouldn't really be memories of course, they'd be my imagination running wild. Well, maybe not. I could be crafty and just feed them memories of when I was alone. When Amin and Emily were not there. Or when I was on my own after Leslie had been taken. I had the same three outfits since the invasion, so time would just be a mush really. The stupid parasite was exactly that, a stupid parasite. I was confidant that it wouldn't be able to tell the difference from my whole memory and what I puzzle pieced together.

After my contemplation, I launched into me devil-on-the-shoulder routine.

Kevin. Kevin. Kevin.

"Actually, I think I'll take my host's name. Kevin Frost."

The doctor blinked, clearly surprised. "Oh. Okay." The shock faded quickly and Leslie/Luna/Worm picked up the conversation.

"We were wondering if you could tell us what Kevin was doing as a wild human." It asked. Alright, moment of truth.

I concentrated hard on my fuzzy wall that blocked my real memories and me. Carefully sifting through the appropriate thoughts, feelings and moments, I let them go. The worm saw me fiddling around with car parts, dissembling them and resembling them. Anything that would keep my hands and mind busy. Tossing a baseball up and down idly on the bed wishing that I wasn't alone. That I had someone to hold or talk to. Then one from much later, in the same bunker reading alone. Another of me on a raid in broad daylight with sunglasses and my shaggy hair on my shoulders. I was incredibly tense, and stuck out painfully. One of the parasites asked me if I was feeling okay, and I said that I hadn't felt well, after which they shoved some 'cure' on me. I didn't dare use it, but I took my stuff and got out of there. There were a few more memories of things like this. Mundane rituals and food hunts.

Naturally, the parasite got bored. It didn't bother poking around anymore after it just assumed that doing nothing was normal for me.

That was when I relaxed for the first time since

"He was down in a bunker under the city." It paused, pillaging through my memories a bit more. "All on his own too… poor thing." It said somberly.

Leslie's face fell into a pitying frown as it patted my shoulder. Don't touch me, worm. I thought in the confines of my little space. "Indeed." She cooed softly. "Well, you don't have to worry about being alone. You can come and live with momma, papa and I until you get situated in your body."

No. I won't live with you, thanks. I want to be on my own with just the one painfully pleasant worm that inhabits my body. Too much of you things are like stepping into Pleasantville. Like a conscious a wicked twisted conscious but a conscious all the same I whispered in it' mind softly. Live alone. Get acclimated to the body. It's bound to have some embarrassing habits after living alone.

It listened, and I let loose some memories of me being particularly rude and impolite, all monitored and without a hint of Erin or Amin.

"Mmm, that is very kind of you but I think I'd rather try out life by myself."

"Oh." Luna the body snatcher said in surprise. "Well, our home is always open to you."

"I greatly appreciate it."

The doctor broke in then. "Well then, let's see what we can do to get you situated. You'll need a house and a comforter to help you ease into human traditions. They'll help you find a calling once you are able to work. Why don't we go down to the cafeteria and you can sample your first meal while we get your records straight."

The worm replied that that would be fantastic, and I wasn't even angered by it. I was too smug to feel anything besides pride in my victories of the day.

Two for two, mother fucker!

Danm. I would be throwing in a hell of a lot of snickers to the swear jar once I got back to Erin and Amin, but I was okay with that. This thing inside my head was dumb as dirt, and I felt hopeful that I could make my way back to them soon. I was better than any three inch parasite.