I… no, that wasn't me. That was the Yeerk. The Yeerk. The filthy slug in my head that called himself Temrash.
He
, using my body, walked toward the gray sludge of the Yeerk pool.This time I'll escape, I said to the Yeerk. I'll be free this time.
Temrash just laughed. Of course you will, he taunted. Enjoy your few minutes of freedom. You won't get it again for another three days. He laughed again.
He bent over the pool. Slowly, he began to writhe out of my ear. I felt myself regain control. He wormed out of my ear and dropped into the sludge with a splash.
Instantly, I convulsed and started screaming. "You can't do this!" I screamed. "Let me go! Let me go!"
I tried to run, but a big Hork-Bajir just grabbed me by the shoulders and dragged me off to the cages. He opened the door, threw me roughly onto the floor of the cage, and slammed the door in my face. Then he walked off, laughing.
"Noooo!" I screamed. "Help me! Help me!" Tears ran down my cheeks. Finally I had control again, and I was locked in a cage. The only time I'd ever be free was spent in a cage.
I ran to the bars of the cage and pounded it with all my might. I rattled it ferociously, trying with all the strength I possessed to open the door.
The Hork-Bajir guards on either side of the cages turned their snakelike heads in my direction. They just laughed at me and taunted.
I screamed and begged and pleaded a threatened them non-stop. The words I used to describe those filthy slugs I can't use here.
Suddenly, I heard a trumpeting noise. It sounded like… an elephant? Impossible! What would an elephant be doing here, in the Yeerk pool? Unless…
Unless it was an Andalite! Could it be? Could an Andalite have survived the crash of their Dome ship when Visser Three shot it down? Could an Andalite have acquired and elephant and come to save us?
I stopped screaming. After all that time as a slave, could I be freed? Was it possible?
Then I saw something else. A bird, flying high above the sludge of the pool. It looked like some kind of a hawk. I could make out a rusty-red tinge on its tail. Another Andalite! And a tiger, and a gorilla, too? Could it be? A team of Andalites in powerful Earth morphs, come to rescue us?
Even if they were Andalites, though, they may not have good intentions. Maybe they just wanted to squish a few Yeerks, and if any of us got in the way, they might kill us. I still thought they were here to rescue us, but I decided to get back if they came near me.
The Andalite in elephant morph just plowed through some of the small sheds and buildings near the pool. It just started running, and if the building got in the way, the Andalite just flattened it.
The gorilla just came loping along, swinging his enormous arms, punching anything that got in his way. A Hork-Bajir was in his way. The gorilla swung his fist and nailed him. The Hork-Bajir went down and stayed down. A crowd of human-Controllers came rushing up, the gorilla just walked into them and knocked them over like so many bowling pins.
And the tiger ran straight down the middle, and everyone just kind of stayed out of its way. The Hork-Bajir are tough, but tigers are tougher.
The three Andalites ran toward the cages. Everyone kind of shrunk back. We all wanted to be rescued, but we didn't want an elephant, a gorilla, and a tiger to come and save us very much.
The gorilla just ripped off the lock on the cage and tossed it over its shoulder. The door flew open.
Then the gorilla… bowed, and crooked his fingers.
This was my chance! We were going to be saved! I was the first out. I was scared, mad, but I was determined. This time, I would escape.
The tiger stared at me. I got a strange feeling looking at him, like I knew that tiger from somewhere. I shook it off. Just a weird feeling. How could I know that tiger? It was an Andalite in morph that I've never met, and I'm sure I've never seen that tiger before. Even if I had, I wouldn't have remembered it.
The gorilla motioned to a group of free humans, and we all stayed close to him and ran like bats out of Hell. Or like a bunch of very scared humans that are temporarily free from Yeerk control that have just been freed by an elephant, a gorilla, and a tiger running out of the Yeerk pool. When you think about, though, Hell, Yeerk pool—what's the difference? We were going to make it, and that's what counted!
Then Visser Three showed up. He began to morph. Some horrible beast from a far off star.
The beast was enormous. Terrible. Tall as a tree. Eight massive legs, eight long arms, each ending in a three-fingered claw. And there were eight heads. I had seen Visser Three use this morph before.
My feeling of hope evaporated. Nothing could stand up to this monster. We ran even harder.
Visser Three began launching fireballs. The air was full of fire. One hit the elephant on the ear, making it scream.
A large swarm of us were heading for the stairs. Anyone that escaped the Visser was surrounded by Taxxons.
A group of Taxxons surrounded me, snapping at me with their claws. I swung my fists at them. I couldn't hurt them, but I could try.
The elephant ran over and crushed two or three of them, and the gorilla wrapped another up in a bear hug, squeezing it until it burst. The Taxxons were dead. And we ran.
We ran and ran, with the nightmare creature that Visser Three had morphed on our tails.
We were a hundred feet from the stairs when the last two Hork-Bajir were brought down by Visser Three's fireballs. I was still okay. I was going to make it! Only a few more feet to go!
But then, Visser Three pelted the stairs in front of us with fire. We were trapped. Fire ahead. Visser Three himself behind.
It was crazy, I know. But I knew that the Andalites couldn't die. If they died, hope was lost. I had to sacrifice my chance for freedom to keep alive the hopes of the others—and maybe me—in the future.
I charged at the horrible monster that was Visser Three. It was insane. It was suicidal. I don't know why I did it. But I did.
The Visser swung his massive arm at me. I staggered from the blow, and fell from the edge of the stairs.
When I came to, the Yeerk was in my head again. My chance for freedom had been demolished. I was still a slave.
But the Andalite bandits were still alive. And maybe… just maybe… someday, they would return to the Yeerk pool and save me.
Maybe.
Until then, I'm a Controller. A slave in my own body, a slave to the gloating slug in my head.
But I'm waiting. Waiting for the day that maybe, some day, I'll be free again.