Had this story floating around my computer for years, I was originally going to write a longer story involving this character somehow joining the Animorphs, but decided against it when I realized how very unlikely it was to work out (not to mention way overdone) so yeah, it was reduced to just a little POV story of a controller from the very first attack on the Yeerk Pool. If there's any problems with the details, just point them out and I'll fix them, I lost my copy of the first book, so I was writing from memory ^-^;
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I walked down the steep stairway, seeming to descend in to the very center of the earth, or should I say the Yeerk in my head led me? It's been so long since I've actually walked down steps by myself, I don't know if I remember how. It's weird, how much you actually forget about moving your own limbs when you've been a Controller for over four years. After descending deep into the earthy smelling darkness, the corridor leveled out. I could feel Nisis 764's anticipation, It's been two and a half days since she last fed, and she was hungry for the Kandrona rays of the Yeerk Pool, our destination. A door at the end of the narrow hallway admitted us without a hassle, confirming our DNA as Human and Yeerk.
It is always a shock, the first few times you see the Yeerk Pool, just the size of the space alone could floor a new visitor, let alone the cages full of begging humans and Hork-Bajir. I could still remember the first time I came here, I was so shocked and appalled by what I saw that even the Yeerk in my head lost control of me for a moment. Those days are long past, I didn't even give a mental flinch when we entered the Pool. Nisis walked us down one of the long piers leading to the middle of the sludge pool that the Yeerks loved so much. A pair of bored Hork-Bajir nodded a formal greeting with their oversized snake heads and escorted us down the pier.
(Don't fall over again, pathetic human) Nisis hissed irritably in my head, she always got touchy near the end of her feeding cycle, but I've gotten used to it. Even so, as I leaned over the Pool, the two Hork-Bajir escorts were ready to catch me if I fell over, not out of concern for me, but to prevent me from falling in and getting their pool dirty with my person-as if it could really get any dirtier. I could feel Nisis squirming around in my head-another thing you have to get used to when you're a controller, and she slipped out with a thick Plop into the pool. Immediately I collapsed, unable to keep my balance, even on all fours. Weakly, I climbed to my feet where the two escorts took hold of my arms and half led, half dragged me to a cage. None too gracefully, and ignoring the pleas of the other humans in the cage, they threw me in.
I huddled weakly in a corner with the other hosts who have long given up hope of freedom. Numbly I watched the others in my cage, A sixteen or seventeen year old boy was raging, kicking at the bars of the cages and calling out challenges to the Hork-Bajir, who just laughed and teased him in a mix of English and other, more alien languages. An old lady was praying out loud to a God who most certainly wasn't going to help her, or any of us for that matter. Several other people were crying openly, something that was always disturbing. No matter how long you've had a Yeerk in your head, the sight of a thirty year old man, covered in tattoos, balling like a baby was always troubling.
I tried to count the minutes in my head, I could have anywhere between two and five hours before my Yeerk decided to finish her swim, I've come to hate the times I'm locked in the cages, Yes, I'm in full control of myself, but I am pathetic, hardly able to even talk to my cell mates, unable to forget that sooner or later the Yeerk will come back and control me once more.
I was suddenly aroused from my moping, sirens started wailing deafeningly, and hoards of Hork-Bajir leaped into action, Taxxons swarmed from their side of the Pool. Alarmed, I willed my rubbery legs to stand, never, in four years of enslavement, has there ever even been a minor alarm, the Yeerks always ran their Pools like a factory, no room for error. But as I struggled to my feet, I heard a sound I have only heard in movies, the unmistakable roar of a Tiger.
I pressed myself against the bars of the cage, trying to see over the seven foot tall Hork-Bajir, Sure enough, I saw it, a Tiger, beautiful and deadly, tearing up Taxxons. I cheered silently for it, not really caring what a wild animal was doing in a place like this. Looking around I saw several other animals in the fray, an Elephant, a Gorilla, and even a Hawk were all fighting. The Yeerks were panicking, trying to figure out what was going on. The Gorilla, through some sort of inspiration, was tearing up cages, when it got to my cage, I could hardly believe it, the door was gone, and the Gorilla was moving on. I stepped out of the cage, it was like magic, the battle raging around me seemed to stop, for the first time in four years, I was free.
I was swept up in a crowd of former Hosts franticly running for the exits, I was really lucky I wasn't being trampled, I wasn't exactly a huge person, just a thirteen year old girl. Looking forward I saw a horse running up the stairs, why not? Saved by a Gorilla, Tiger, Elephant, Hawk, and now a Horse, really, what was next?
Unfortunately, I was about to find out. A massive creature was coming out of the Yeerk Pool. A voice filled my head, and I almost fainted, it was Visser Three, the single most terrifying thing in the world. I mean, I only ever saw him once, he, or at least his host, just looked like a blue centaur, but with stalk eyes, no mouth, and a scorpion tail, But that creature scared Nisis, and everyone else, to death, and I could guess why, I mean, who knew that the blue creature, an Andalite or so Nisis told me, could turn into such a massive beast? The Visser was calling the Animals "Andalite Bandits", which explained quite a lot. What with all the fighting and saving people.
The next few minutes were a blur, Visser Three started shooting fireballs from his disgusting mouth, forcing the Andalite Bandits to retreat. Soon the Hork-Bajir were reorganized and rounding all the hosts back to the Pool. I wasn't even upset that I was recaptured, because, for just one moment I felt something amazing.
I, Jenny Bennett, for the first time in four years, felt Hope.