The young woman looked quietly over the pond as the wind rustled her blonde hair. The evening sun, glinting off the surface of the water, illuminated a face laced with pride, pain, and sorrow. She had an air of complete confidence, even arrogance. But there was something else inside of her, something dark. Her icy eyes flashed as she stood there, as if some internal debate was transpiring within her. The passers-by went along with their busy lives, not really noticing the woman. What could be so interesting about her?
Come on, can't we please go to the park? I want to see the children. Please? Please? Pretty please?
Shut up, I have to be down at the pool for my feeding or Sub-Visser Twelve will report me. You wouldn't want me to get killed, would you? I helped you. I'm your friend. Your only friend.
Sighing, Taylor, or at least the Yeerk that controlled her, turned away from the pond and walked away towards the mall.
Dear lie
You suck
You said you could fix anything
Instead I'm fucked
You made things even worse for me...
Damn this stupid Yeerk! If she's my friend, why won't she let me have any fun? I just wanted to see all the pretty children... but no, it always has to be her way, yes it does, isn't that right, Yeerk? Just like when we had that Andalite bandit, I wanted to have some fun but you wouldn't let me, and do you see what happened? He got away, yes he did, yes indeedy. And then Visser Three came and he tortured me... you... us, until I couldn't really remember anything, could I? Just laughing and crying and screaming and smiling, all at once. Just like we made that pretty bird do. It wasn't my fault, was it? That mean old Visser Three. He thinks he is so special, just because he has an Andalite body. But he is really not nice. But now I'm a good host, aren't I? I always do what you say. Don't want you to hurt me. Would you? Are you my friend?
Remember the fire? Of course you do, you weren't there, I was all alone. Always alone after that fire. Until you came. But you still remember. You can see the fire in my head, can't you? The flames in my mind? The fire that took EVERYTHING from me, my friends and my looks and even my legs? Why didn't it kill me? And then I went to the Sharing and you all said that I could get better if I joined, yes you did, and I wanted to be popular again.
You laugh at me, Yeerk?
Of course I'm laughing at you, Taylor. Stupid slave. You think you're strong? You couldn't escape the fire. You gave in to us, so easily. You didn't even think about what the price of your precious beauty would be. And you weren't strong enough to handle the Visser's torture. Now you're just a blathering idiot human. Almost useless. I don't know why you haven't been disposed of. Perhaps this feeding cycle...
You said you were my friend! That's what you said! Why are you always so mean to me?
You were useful to me, that's all. Do you really think anyone could like you, Taylor? You were always an arrogant, vain girl, until the fire. When you first came to us, you had merit. You could get us more hosts, and you were intelligent, as humans go. Yes, I enjoyed your ridiculous chatter then. Or endured it, at least. But now, you're really nothing more than an empty body for me to control. So no, Taylor, I can't say that I like you at all.
Why is she always so mean to me? Maybe if I'm good at the Pool she'll be nicer.
If I had balls
I'd tell you get away from me
Guess I'm not smart
I let you unnerve me
I let you control me
Afraid the truth would hurt me
When it's you that hurts me more...
Well, Taylor, be good while I'm in the Pool. Actually, no, do something incredibly stupid. Get yourself killed. Preferably eaten by Taxxons. Bye, bye, dear...
As soon as the Yeerk drained out of Taylor's ear, she jumped back and tears began to roll down her face. Why did it hate her so much ?
"Why is she so mean to me?"
The Hork-Bajir swung around, grabbed her by the arm, and began to haul her away to the cages.
"No, no, I'll be good! Don't put me in there! I changed my mind, I don't want to be a Controller anymore! I want to go home! Please? I won't tell anyone about you guys, I promise! Can I go? No, I said no! No, please......"
But the young woman's cries were swallowed up by the pleading of the other slaves in the cages around the Pool.
Get out of my mouth
Get out of my head
Get out of my mind
Stop putting words in my head
Get out of my mouth
You're nothing but trouble
Get out of my life
Get out of me, out of me, out of me, you lie...
Taylor looked blankly at the walls of her cell. She'd been put in solitary confinement. Visser Three was coming to see her. Apparently her Yeerk had been telling the truth. She was to be... disposed of. Normally she would just be shot with a Dracon beam, or fed to the Taxxons. But the Visser hadn't tortured anyone else since her, several months ago, and he was bored.
Taylor was terrified.
Work, brain, work, she pleaded, tears squeezing out of her eyes. You used to work, I remember. Before the fire, you were so smart.... I was pretty and popular too. Maybe it was the fire that made me stupid. Not the torture. But no, the Yeerk said I was smart. She doesn't lie.
Taylor remembered the night they had captured the Andalite bandit. Her Yeerk had asked to be in charge of the interrogation. It was an important occasion. If the Anti-Morphing Ray had worked, the bandits would have been finished. Earth would have fallen. She would have been promoted, even to a Visser! Chapman, obviously a little dazzled and intimidated by her, had agreed rather quickly to let her run the experiment. Of course, the fact that the AMR was likely to fail was probably one of his reasons. A lot of work had been put into it, and if it didn't work... well, Visser Three would have thrown the scientists involved to the Taxxons. Which he did.
The bandits had snuck in to rescue their comrade, while Taylor watched, horrified. The Yeerk knew that she would likely be killed for this failure, but both of them were transfixed by the bravery and loyalty the bandits had displayed. One bandit, in gorilla morph, had been gutted by a Hork-Bajir blade. He was being slowly, and rather painfully, killed. But he had stayed where he was, endured the pain, and had freed the bird. Both Taylor and the Yeerk knew that no one would ever sacrifice themselves for either of them. They had both been a little envious.
Of course, that envy had been replaced by fury when the bandit, long since over the two-hour deadline, had demorphed. And that amazement had been replaced, rather quickly, by fear, when a very large and very angry grizzly bear had attacked her. She had been thrown over the same ledge that she had tried to throw the bird over. She should have died. Maybe it would have been better if she had.
But, for some reason, the same Andalite she had brutally tortured for hours had shown pity on her, and left her there. And Taylor was left hanging, literally, several hundred feet above the stone floor of the cavern, until the other Controllers had come and rescued her.
If what she had put the Andalite through was torture, she didn't know what the Visser's actions could be called. She was repeatedly brought to the brink of death, then healed. Her Yeerk received minimal Kandrona Rays. Enough to keep her from dying, but just the right amount to keep her in the fugue.
Taylor's mind had broken. She promised to do whatever was asked of her, without question. Without thought. Without will, without hope. And with those promises, she was allowed to live.
Even that was not enough, apparently.
Taylor wondered, idly, if death was better than being a Controller. She believed in God, Heaven, and Hell, and she knew where she was going. She had committed so many atrocities.... and she had done so many of them willingly.
What was worse? Eternal damnation or eternal slavery?
It would be an interesting question to ask the Andalite bandits, she mused. Did they believe in an afterlife? As a Controller, she had been taught to hate and despise all Andalites, arrogant, hypocritical idiots that they were. But, she had seen them risk their lives to help their friend. And she knew that the Yeerks were wrong.
Taylor, terrified of the Visser's imminent approach, hugged herself tightly. She winced in pain as her metallic arms crushed her side.
She had forgotten that. Ever since the fire destroyed her body, and the Yeerks had infested her, she had been given prosthetic limbs. Quite powerful and advanced, actually. She had ceased long ago to think of them as anything but her natural arms. But in reality they could punch through steel. Very few natural arms could do that.
Taylor suddenly chuckled a little. Another thing she'd forgotten; her sense of humour. The fire had basically wiped any happiness from her life, and she hadn't really thought of anything as funny since she became a Controller. But, long ago, she had loved to crack jokes with her friends. She was actually known for her warped sense of humour. Humour was such a great thing. The Andalites, and Yeerks might be advanced when it came to war and technology...and torture... but they couldn't tell a decent joke. Too bad. It could keep your mind off the bad things. It could keep you from going crazy.
"Going crazy? I'm counting on jokes to keep sane, more or less, while in an underground cell, about to be brutally tortured to death by a big blue Deer-man from outer space, who is controlled by a little gray slug which he could easily kill, except it lives in brains and uses the Deer-man's body to change into different animals to enslave whole galaxies?"
Now that she thought of it like that, it was pretty funny.
Easy to kill? Of COURSE !!
Taylor, you're a genius! An absolute genius! "Why, thank you, Taylor. I do my best."
Taylor giggled a bit more, then calmed down abruptly. She was tired of being used and treated like a thing. That Yeerk thought she was stupid? She'd show her. That bitch was going to pay.
Dear lie
You're dumb
You thought you got the best of me
You think you've won
Misread my vulnerability...
Now, where is that useless little slave? There has been no activity lately. I would welcome a... diversion.
Despite her resolve, Taylor jumped as the Visser's thoughtspeak penetrated her slightly addled brain. She was a fool to think she could defy the Visser. He was so powerful. And totally insane. What was she? She was just a small, weak girl. A small, weak girl with a partially functional brain, arms of steel, and, best of all, a plan. You can do this.
Taylor pulled herself to her feet as the guard Hork-Bajir entered the room. Such a coward. The Visser inhabited the infamous Alloran-Semitur-Corass, and he was afraid of a human girl?
She sneered slightly as he entered. He immediately whipped his scorpion tail to her throat and held it there. She kept perfectly still. No matter what happened, she would not cry, or beg, or surrender. Never again. If she had to die, she would. Anything was better than being a Controller.
You defy me? Visser Three hissed. After everything that I've done to you, you still have the courage to face me without fear? Commendable. Most would beg for their lives. But I see you won't. Do you think you can defeat me? Little human girl, I can cause you more pain than you can even imagine...
"I have something you want, Yeerk."
Visser Three twitched his tail, cutting Taylor's neck, and she began to bleed. She refused to react, but still looked into his main eyes. Those green eyes, so full of hate and fury and madness.... but his weakness was that he was so eager, so desperate for power. Despite his seeming invulnerability, she knew that the Council of Thirteen was angry with Esplin 9466 for failing to capture the Andalite bandits. He could be killed at any time.... unless he proved that he wasn't completely incompetent.
And that was precisely the salvation that Taylor offered him.
"Visser Three. You have heard of the Yeerk Peace Movement, I take it? The YPM? Well, I know one of the members."
At the Visser's shocked expression, Taylor threw back her head and laughed.
I got your walls
Now get the hell away from me
I learned your art
Won't let you unnerve me
Won't let you control me
The truth will only free me
And your lies won't hurt no more...
Taylor stood at the end of the infestation pier. She remembered the day she had been brought down here, the first time, in her wheelchair. She hadn't even listened to the screams and cries of the involuntary hosts. She had only been concerned with herself. As always. And because she was so willing to submit to the Yeerks, many people had been made Controllers, and the Andalites had nearly been destroyed..... she smiled grimly. If her plan would help the Andalite bandits, she would go through with it. No matter the cost to herself.
Remember, no tricks. I have many Hork-Bajir guards with Dracon beams trained on you. If you try to escape, you will be nothing more than atoms floating in the air. Or, if we catch you alive... you will still die, of course. But slowly. Much more slowly...
Taylor laughed in her head. You still don't understand, Esplin, do you? The all-mighty Visser Three, the Abomination, can't see my little plan?
But she bowed her head to the evil creature, though it made her ill. "Yes, Visser."
Taylor leaned down into the pool, as if to receive that disgusting slug in her ear. Visser Three was fairly dancing with excitement. She could see, through the sludge that was the pool, her Yeerk underneath the pier, ready to infest her.
She leaned towards the surface and....
Dove into it like a swimming pool. She coughed and spluttered, having breathed in a good amount of the sludge. But she took a deep breath and began swimming with quick, even strokes towards the centre of the pool. Taylor held her Yeerk in a firm grip in her metal hand. But she didn't kill it, not yet.
It had been so long ago, since Taylor was on the swim team. But somehow, her tired and battered muscles remembered the old rhythm, pulling her powerfully along.
Taylor heard the cheers of the involuntary hosts. She heard the cries of the Hork-Bajir. And above all, she heard Visser Three's enraged thought-speech.
FOOLS! Imbeciles! he screamed. Shoot her, you idiots!
"But, Visser, the Yeerks in the pool..."
Taylor heard a sound behind her, which she assumed was the head of the poor Hork-Bajir hitting the ground. Her fault. More innocent blood on her hands. A silent tear squeezed out of her eye as she mourned for the host. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen. Well, I did, but I didn't want anyone else to die, just me. And a lot of Yeerks.
As Taylor thought that, she slowly squeezed her fist together. The Yeerks' sonar echoed throughout the pool as it died. An easy end. But Taylor had to make sure that the Yeerk died. She was pure evil, and smart. She knew of ways to hurt the Andalites, and Taylor had to protect them. They would have to survive, to fight for her planet. To undo her mistakes.
At the same time, the Visser's thought-speak exploded in her head. Does anyone else wish to question me? he asked calmly. Then he lost all control. I don't care if you have to destroy half the Yeerks in the Pool, just KILL that GIRL !!
The evil thing was killing his own people to destroy her. How monstrous. And yet, that was exactly what Taylor had counted on. It was foolish, of course. Who was she to be worth this many lives, Yeerk or otherwise? Just a lost little girl, foolish enough to trust strangers to help her. Evil enough to join with them and fight against her own race for another chance at popularity. And, perhaps, brave enough to realize her faults and take a stand where no one else would.
Taylor could feel the pool heating up around her. Yeerks were dying by the dozens. She ignored it and kept swimming. She was Taylor. And she was free. And that was all that mattered.
As a Dracon beam finally hit her, and her cells began to explode, Taylor felt an agony unlike any that she had ever known. But she also found peace. Better dead than a Controller...
Good luck, Andalites.
Get out of my mouth
Get out of my head
Get out of my mind
Stop putting words in my head
Get out of my mouth
You're nothing but trouble
Get out of my life
Get out of me, out of me, out of me, you lie
Well, that's it. *wipes a tear from her eye...* My second fic.... I'd like to thank Escape for being my test subject. I hope it doesn't affect you later in life, hon.