A story based on that part in #41 that says that the night after that battle, Tom figured out that Jake was morph-capable. Written while a large cat attempted to eat my headphones, help type, lay on top of me, and get pet, all at the same time. Thought of while waiting for a phone call (which never came). The Yeerk's name used is from the AniTV script. Not a very reliable source, but I don't remember the new one being mentioned anywhere in the books.
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One Night
My name is Tom. The alien in my head also has a name. He is called Iniss Three-Three-Five by his fellows. I typically call him many names that have nothing to do with his name, and are usually not very polite. He is a Yeerk, a slave master, one of the species who have come to Earth to take over our little blue-green planet. They have taken over other planets as well, some using more direct force, others slowly infiltrating, like they are here. On Earth, they use a front organization called The Sharing to attract voluntary hosts. Iniss Three-Three-Five says that the voluntaries are far easier to control than people who fight all of the time.
Originally, I was a voluntary. I went to the meetings just to have fun, and maybe because of the girls there. When they offered the full membership, I accepted, not knowing that they planned to shove my head into sludge and let an alien wrap around my brain. When I had tried to resist, they insisted it was just hazing and everything would be fine. That when I woke up the next morning, a whole new universe would be open to me. What they skipped mentioning was that this universe was a terrifying, painful one that could take your life at any time.
Ever since they took me, about a year ago now, they've been after my family and friends. I suppose it's one of those tree ideas. One person leads to another, who leads to even more, and eventually you've got the whole town, then the whole state, the nation, the world. Then, as Iniss has told me many times, then Earth as we know it is destroyed and replaced with somewhere more like the Yeerk homeworld. Dusty, barren, filled with spaceports and factories instead of schools and malls. All while the humans watch, helping the process along without being able to control their own minds. Animals are exterminated to reduce risk of the morph-capable Andalites, land being used for one huge Yeerk pool, and, if the Yeerks get their way, the moon becoming a permanent Kandrona someday. After that point, there's nothing anyone, not even the Andalites, can do for Earth.
The Yeerks are working very diligently on achieving that goal. However, there is a group of renegades that are fighting. No one is sure how many that group consists of, who the leader is, or even which species they are. Some are sure that they are Andalites because of their morphing powers, others claim that there are humans who can somehow morph. All they know for certain is that this group is quickly becoming a threat and must be stopped for the Yeerks to continue taking over Earth.
There is also a Yeerk force against what the majority of Yeerks are doing. They say that involuntary hosts should not be forced to accept them. I guess it hurts those Yeerks to hear humans screaming at them all the time, hating them with all their power. The other Yeerks must have a fair number of people on their side, but none have ever been questioned. It has been assumed that they are connected to the renegades because all captured peaceful Yeerks have been released before questioning. The human hosts all seem to agree that this could be stopped by the other Yeerks if they would try harder, but none of us really want that small group stopped.
Tonight though, they might be. The Yeerk in my head suspected my brother, Jake, of being one of the morph-capable humans. He had enough evidence, in his opinion, to kill Jake, or have someone infest him. Tonight had been the final clue for him. Jake had come home just after dark, exhausted and wearing skin tight clothing. There was what looked like blood on his leg, but not the right coloring to have been his blood, as he claimed it was. Iniss was convinced that there was some connection between the child he had to play big brother to and the Andalite bandits. Further investigation of one of the current projects had proven his theory.
After making sure that Jake was asleep, he slunk down the stairs to the kitchen phone, where he called the first person he could think of.
"Chapman. Who is this?"
"Iniss Three-Three-Five. I have some…information about the Andalite bandit, sir."
"I'll connect you to the Visser."
A short conversation, but all that they could risk with the possibility of Melissa, Chapman's daughter, or my parents coming in.
"This is Visser Three, and it better be good, Iniss."
I could feel the fear that even Yeerks can disguise coursing through Iniss.
"I think it is, sir. I suspect, with much evidence, that the brother of my host is one of the so-called Andalites."
There was a slight pause that Iniss was convinced was purposely used to terrify him even more.
"He is human?"
"Yes, sir."
"Give him something that will keep him asleep and bring him to the construction site. Now."
"Yes, sir. I will be there shortly."
"Good," said the evil voice of Visser Three's human morph.
They hung up and Iniss immediately started looking through cabinets for sleeping medicine.
Where is it, where IS the stupid stuff? he asked frantically in his thoughts. Then, as he pulled a piece of cloth out of the drawer, he saw a bottle that looked like it would work well enough.
Oh, Jaaaake, he taunted, time for your medicine.
Why are you doing this? I demanded, Jake never hurt you!
Not me, but Yeerks as a whole, if he is what I suspect.
How? Just tell me that.
I'm…not sure.
Then leave Jake alone! Please!
He laughed at me, snickering in a way that made me want to punch him. Unfortunately, that was made difficult by the fact that he was wrapped around my brain. He laughed again, hearing my thoughts.
Foolish human, he sneered, You think I'm going to just defy the Visser because you said 'please'?
Silent in a corner of my brain, I seethed, knowing that I couldn't do anything to help Jake, only hurt him worse.
The Yeerk that was controlling me went back upstairs, thinking about how best to get the medicine into Jake. Searching my brain, he found random images from E.R., showing needles being slid into patient's arm. He decided that that was good enough and set out to do so, ignoring the dosage suggestions.
Stop! You're going to kill him! I shouted without thinking. I knew that it would be better for him to just die, rather than be taken over.
Iniss laughed, depressed the plunger a bit more, then slid the needle from Jake's arm. His face had taken on a pale, drugged look that I've seen far too many times in the faces of classmates. Iniss laughed again, picked up my little brother, and walked outside to the car.
Jake was thrown gently into the backseat, seatbelts ignored. Iniss got into the driver's seat, ignoring me as he often did. He backed out and started down the road. Quickly, I suppressed the idea that came so he would not read it. It was good that he was ignoring me, because that also made him overlook my plan.
As we neared the construction site, we turned on to a maintenance road that was hardly used. When he made my eyes scanned that road, I saw my chance. I quickly gathered all the power I could and took partial control of my right hand and foot. The car swerved off the road in a burst of power and hit a tree nearly head on. I saw Jake flying over me and through the windshield before blacking out. When Iniss woke up, he was very upset, to say the least.
Why did you do THAT?! He shrieked at me, over the pain that he felt as if it were his own. I, of course, only felt a dull sting.
So he would at least be safe.
Idiot, he sneered, You will die too, now.
And you also, I retorted, it was well worth the sacrifice.
In my head, he seemed to half nod, agreeing with me yet not wanting to.
Well then, goodbye, human…Tom. He accepted what was happening. Suddenly, I felt the control slipping to myself. I heard a gasp as the sting became all-out pain. Later I figured out that it was my gasp. At the time, I was more amazed by the small slug that was now trying to cling to my arm.
Goodbye, came the whisper in my head again, this time more or less like the thought-speak Andalites used.
"G-g-goodbye, Iniss," I said, stuttering on words that had now become foreign to me.
I winced as fresh pain shot through me when I tried to move. I set Iniss on the chair next to me, sure that he would die but not wanting to actually kill him with my own hands. Then I looked at my brother.
I had killed him, no matter how many times I tried to convince myself that death was better than being a slave. I had killed my brother to save him.
"Jake," I whispered, "I'm so sorry." For a second, I almost expected him to sit up and…do something. Yell at me, hug me, try to kill me himself, I wasn't sure. But he didn't. He stayed still, half in and half out of the car.
Just as I was about to close my eyes and let death have me, sure that if I didn't the Yeerks would find me again, a slight movement caught my eye. Along Jake's leg, where the spandex he was still wearing didn't cover, brown-orange fur was forming. It stopped, half there, half not, and I reached out, trying to convince myself that it wasn't real. If touch means anything, it was. As my fingers brushed it, it retreated back into his skin. Knowing the little I did about morphing, I assumed that Jake was really dead now, unable to complete this morph that could easily save his life. And, I realized, Jake knew that also. He had just wanted, I suppose, to inform me that Iniss was right and that even though he was gone, there were others to continue the fight.
Smiling, I closed my eyes again, letting all the cuts from the crumpled car bleed until I simply died, taking all the secrets of an invasion of Earth and the people protecting it die with me.
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The next day, Tom and Jake were found, after extensive searching of the town. Many questions were raised as to why the boys were by the construction site in the first place and why one was wearing only spandex. The remaining Animorphs and the Yeerk called Visser Three knew, or at least had a fairly good idea. site in the first place and why one was wearing only spandex. The remaining Animorphs and the Yeerk called Visser Three knew, or at least had a fairly good idea. site in the first place and why one was wearing only spandex. The remaining Animorphs and the Yeerk called Visser Three knew, or at least had a fairly good idea.
The war continued, of course, now without the leader of the rebels. The Animorphs were weakened greatly, but still continued on, at times just in the memory of Jake.
About a decade later, the Yeerk's plan for Earth was all but completed. There was a stronger force against the Yeerks in some ways, but yet weaker in others. No longer did great Jake lead. Mysteriously, however, he did manage to show up one day as if he life had never ended so many years ago.
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[Cue book #41]
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Really stupid? Yes, I thought so to. Had fun typing it anyway. It's probably one of the shortest things I've ever written and considered a full story.