Well, it's certainly been a while, hasn't it? Apologies for the delay; I've gone back to trying to juggle between two different writing projects, and the result has been...well. After May, I'm thinking I'm going to focus on this story a bit more; it seems a shame to leave this story in limbo so often, and I know I'll be getting a bit more free time then.

Also, 1-1 and 3-1 have both received edits since I last posted a new chapter, so feel free to read those as well.

Lastly: a big thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. You helped a lot, both in terms of the chapter's quality and my own motivation to write.

And with all that said, let's get started...

I silently watched as Delnik finished morphing me. My hands withered and disappeared while arms shifted in both position and shape, soon developing into the wings I enjoyed so dearly. My eyesight blurred briefly, and then sharpened as the morph completed. Again, I was the osprey – and this time, I wouldn't have to control the flight. Under most circumstances, I'd have been overjoyed; this time, obviously, I was not.

Denik launched me from the window and flapped my wings hard. He quickly caught and air current and soared up up, up into the into the air. For a moment, I let myself be lost in it: the freedom of flight, the beauty of the sky, the joy of feeling everything while needing to do nothing. This was how to live, I decided. This was what I wanted to be.

Delnik scanned the sky for Arash, and quickly found him with my osprey eyes. He was flying away from us, his path level and straight, showing no intention of turning back. To a human, he'd have been little more than a squiggle on the horizon.

((He'll be back for me,)) I said. ((I know he will.)) Just as he'd come back last time, after the war, once the scrutiny on me had been given time to die down. We'd been apart for months by then, just as we would surely apart for months to come. But he would come back. I knew he'd come back.

Delnik looked away and flew me off in the other direction. I didn't fight it, instead opting to settle in the back of my mind. For now, Arash was lost to me.

There were police cars below us, with blaring sirens and flashing lights, all heading towards the school. There were ambulances too, presumably there to take any hosts whose yeerks tried to resist. Those hosts would quickly be put to sleep, I knew, and then not woken until the yeerk was driven out.

And they would be happy about that, I was sure. Such hosts fought selfishly, needlessly. They refused to share the senses that gifted them. Creatures like them – humans, andalites, all of them – were the cause of the war. Had they merely deemed to share, there would have been peace. There would never have been a war; of that, I was convinced.

Then I thought of Gedis and Gorden, thought of the words Arash had so recently spoken. Tried to break his host.

Tried to break.

Break.

I could hear laughter – laughter, in my own mind and nowhere. The laughter of my old yeerk. Morkis. The laughter that seemed to never end.

I shut all of it out in an instant. Now was not the time.

((Lucas?)) Delnik said. ((What was that? Who-))

((Morkis,)) I said. ((My old yeerk.))

And with that, I threw myself hard against Delnik's control. I folded one wing and sent us corkscrewing to the ground.

((Lucas! No!))

Delnik fought me – and won, of course. He flapped madly and quickly managed to straighten our path. I retreated to the back of my mind, defeated. I went back to passively watching, accepting my fate. I was only a host after all. Just a host. A quiet, passive host who would never ever dream of...

I twisted us sideways in a motion no real bird would ever have tried. Delnik wrenched my control back and levelled off, only to find himself going in completely the wrong direction. I returned to the back of my mind like the docile, obedient host I was.

((Lucas, stop that! Stop!))

We flew straight. Delnik was too busy focussing on me to turn us back around. He concentrated hard and waited for my next move – a move I had no intention right then to make. A few seconds later, he banked to one side.

When he tried to finish the turn, I made us turn some more.

I could tell he was alarmed by now. I felt his control tighten, felt his presence probe my every thought. He had my wings, my legs, head, my talons – nothing had been forgotten. I thrashed against the control, helpless to do anything. This time, I thought. This time, he has me.

((Lucas, stop. Talk to me,)) Delnik said. ((I'm doing this for you, Lucas. I know you don't know that yet, but-))

I demorphed.

((No!))

He reversed my act immediately, of course. The whole incident lasted less than a second; in that time, my form changed not at all. I'd never intended it to, either: all I'd wanted was to distract him. I quickly changed our direction, but then the yeerk changed it back again, just as quickly.

Which was when I realised: I truly was out of options.

I'd been trained for this – trained by Arash. Arash had taught me precisely what to do if ever I disagreed with my yeerk's actions. He'd taught me to lie dormant and wait, and then to lash out at a key moment. We'd practiced it together on many occasions, but I'd never really put any of it into practice – not until today, at any rate.

But now, I knew the technique had reached its limit: I was out of tricks and Delnik was far too alert. And I was still going home. I could see my house below us, just one among many, and I knew we would be landing soon. And after we landed, my parents would...

I thrashed and screamed and thrashed some more, but all of it was futile: Delnik had every part of my firmly under his grip. I even tried demorphing again, but to no avail. There was no rhythm or plan to my actions now: I was just struggling and shouting like a common involuntary. Delnik began to descend. Any moment, we would be down. Any moment, we would...

((Delnik! Please! Don't!))

That stopped him, if only temporarily. He levelled off; my house passed beneath us and quickly disappeared from view.

((You'll be made a nothlit,)) I said. ((That's why you ran, isn't it? You wanted to stay a yeerk, didn't you? You wanted to stay with Sonja. And she wanted it too.)) He was listening. Good. ((I can help you, Delnik. I can get you back to her. I can-))

((Lucas, stop,)) Delnik said. ((I don't care about that anymore. Not now.)) He hesitated. ((I admit I wanted to stay a yeerk, but...but if they make me a nothlit, then so be it.))

He banked hard. The hated house re-entered my osprey eyes.

((No! No! Don't! Please!))

Again, I felt him hesitate. Again, I knew he was listening. He could feel my sincerity, my desperation. I wasn't going to try anything, I decided. Not this time. Instead, I would speak the truth.

((Delnik, I...I don't want them to know,)) I said.

As before, he flew straight; the house, once again, vanished from my sight.

((I don't want them to know,)) I said. ((About Arash…they'll…they'll hate themselves. They won't understand. They…)) I recalled their faces after the war, right after I'd been returned. ((Please, Delnik. Just take me away from here. Take me anywhere. Please!))

((But Lucas, they...they'll know already, Lucas.))

I'd have gasped, had I been able. Perhaps I'd have cried, too.

((You disappeared from the school, remember? People will have noticed. They'll be looking for you. They'll be looking for us. And your parents will know. Someone will have told them by now.))

And at that, every ounce of resistance crumpled within me. Everything Delnik had said was right, I knew. Everything.

Of course, I'd probably already known, deep down. I'd just been ignoring it all this time, deluding myself into thinking that nothing would change. I'd told myself that I could just return home and live the blissful existence I had lived for years, with Arash safely in my head, right where he belonged.

But, of course, I'd been wrong. I'd been lying to myself. It was over, I now realised. All of it was over.

((What were you planning, Lucas?)) Delnik said. ((You couldn't have gone home. Not with Arash. You'd have had to run away. Did you realise? Did Arash tell you?))

((But I...no...he...))

((What did you want to do, Lucas? Did you even know?))

((I...yes...no...I...I don't know!)) I said. ((I...I...))

For a while, neither of spoke. Delnik flew me in wide, lazy circles – a curious sight for observers, I'm sure. It was wonderful up there, all alone and free in the afternoon sky. But it had to come to an end. Both of us realised that now.

((Lucas, I'm...I'm going to land us, Lucas. At your house. Is...is that okay?))

((Yeah. Do it. Go and land us, Delnik,)) I said. ((I won't fight.))

Delnik did as instructed, the osprey's instincts guiding him down. My back garden, all green and well kept and pleasant, greeted us as he landed.

And as he landed, I had one last thing to say.

((You do the talking, Delnik. You explain. I don't want to. Okay?))

((Okay, Lucas,)) Delnik said. ((I understand. I'll talk.))

We touched down. We demorphed. I watched feathers retreat into my now-bare skin and watched my wings contort back into arms. My eyesight blurred; it then sharpened, but not nearly to the same degree as before. Once again I was grounded, human.

That was the only thing I didn't like about the osprey: I always missed it when I changed back.

Delnik stood me up, my face completely expressionless. He straightened me, tensing my arms, and I could tell he was at least as scared as I.

Soon after that, my hand pounded hard on the back door.