Revelation

I suppose I should have been relieved when the next day found me pulled out of English, in Riistram 227's office sitting the opposite of both Sub Visser 23 and Jinnniss 127. In fact, I had been anticipating this very meeting the second Jinnniss 127 had left Mandy's abode in Myers' body, all too dreadfully certain of what matters we would handle and how the conversation would end. They both regarded me coldly; the warm smiles and welcoming eyes of our human masks having dissipated the very second Riistram 227 turned the lock.

At that moment even my property seemed to detect the tension rolling between the four of us. Her fervent complaining about missing her English test faded off into an echo.

"May the Kandrona shine upon and strengthen you both, Sub Visser, 127." I bowed my head slightly in due respect. I was all too aware of just what the two could propose if it meant the safety of my mission, disposing of the threat to discretion in threatening the safety of Mandy's family. I was offering to my superiors whatever I could, sincerely, as the thought of being withdrawn from my host and left blind and helpless in the pool flared inside my mind with unforgiving clarity.

Kandrona starvation notwithstanding, there weren't many worse fates than such a conviction, a sentence.

"Save the formalities, 348." Sub Visser 23 rose from the desk, the piercing azure of his host's eyes bearing turret-trained diligence as they bore straight into me. "I think you're all too aware of what we're here to discuss."

"I'm not a fool, sir."

"Despite Ressaer 213's testimony otherwise, I find myself in agreement with you in that regard." Sub Visser 23 said flatly. I couldn't very well contain the spark of hatred, not even outwardly as Mandy's fingers balled tightly into my whitening palm. "Like it or not, your possibly being targeted by RUBICON should do well to aid our mission and finish it within the next few weeks."

((POSSIBLY?!)) Mandy's outrage nearly paralleled mine. ((THEY FRIGGIN' TORE APART MY ROOM!))

Once more I constricted my body tightly around her brain, plunging myself into the crinkles of her lobes and tightening my control. ((Quiet, human.))

"Possibly, sir?" I composed myself much more soundly than my host for having drawn the exact same conclusion, needless to say. "I think last night's intrusion was direct as we could hope for in knowing just what these savages are after."

"On the contrary, Timmron 348." Sub Visser 23 rose from his chair completely, currently stationed behind Riistram 227's desk while Riistram contented himself guarding the door against unwelcome ears. "We don't have any concrete evidence as to just who the intruders were. Jinnniss 127 has presented me with her suspicions about the involvement of those Andalite bandits."

I could only spare Jinnniss a passing glance before turning back to the sub visser. If the Andalite involvement in our situation happened to be argued between my superiors, it would be unwise to find myself in the middle and taking sides. The sub visser outranked Jinnniss, certainly, but Jinnniss was quite fond of utilizing her own ruthless disposition if it meant something as trivial as carrying out a grudge.

Thankfully, I wouldn't have to oppose as the sub visser continued. "We can all only hope that Jinnniss 127 is wrong, considering that Andalite activity would mean the direct involvement of Visser Three. For all of his…. …efficient tactics…" The four of us were silent as the words staggered out. "The chance of exposure is far too great if this problem draws both panic in masses and all Imperial attention."

Nestled into the receded corner of her own mind, Mandy was left in an immutable awe. To hear such things escaping the mouth of student president, soccer playing and usually jovial Josh Peack, the one and the same that had egged Chapman's car when they had been younger, the one and only Josh Peack was discussing such things as sting-operative tactics. The shedding of our human façades seemed too erratic for her to ever grow used to as the magnitude of the horror never lessened. She associated their faces and voices to the people she used to know too strongly.

"Agreed." Jinnniss 127 drummed Myers' fingers across the arm of their chair. "But sir, with all due respect the Andalites are hardly looking out for our convenience."

"I'm well aware." Sub Visser 23 replied coolly, winding his way around Riistram's desk and beginning to circle the office absently, hands clasped behind his back. "But I also see no obvious or even sensible motive for them to break into Timmron's host's home. Timmron 348 has been awarded nothing really worth attacking him for that could serve their purpose…." The Sub Visser's eyes narrowed. "Unless of course one of your investigations out of your line of recruitment duty leaves much for them to target you for, Timmron 348."

Staring right back at him, I shook Mandy's head with detached calculation. "No, sir. I've turned up no new leads or anything worth targeting me specifically for in regards to the investigation."

"With all due respect, sir," Jinnniss 127 spoke almost meekly from her chair. "The Andalites might very well be targeting Timmron 348 simply for his involvement with the investigation. We've addressed this issue, Timmron and I, and even he agreed that for the chance to expose our people to the humans the Andalites have too much to gain and too little to lose in attempted aid to the RUBICON."

"Nonsense!" Sub Visser 23 huffed, the action within itself almost ridiculous given the host body in which it was executed. "As if they should ever do something so taboo unto them as smear their absurd Andalite pride by working directly with humans."

It was a point quite well taken, one I couldn't help agreeing with though the sentiment boiled in my blood. That utterly blind, driven and excruciating Andalite pride, that arrogance, that pompous exclusion of species they just happened to pity or dislike from their same privileges while they policed the galaxies with a suddenly existent sense of honor and self righteousness…

Really, I could hardly see these less than admirable traits in connection to that which was directly behind the aid of the humans. Especially if they were risking themselves exposure to aid them, though that contrasted directly with the point that if an Andalite could stop a human host from being infested, they wouldn't without payment or without audience. I for one happened to believe, alongside a few brother Yeerks that prolonging their lives to turn them into hosts happened to be nothing but a pipe dream at best considering that they were the last Andalites in this sector. The only useful or good Andalite, to utilize the simplicity of human vernacular, is a dead one.

"I suppose so." Jinnniss 127 relented, though I could spy the doubt in how her mouth grimaced. "But let us not eliminate their possible involvement completely from this endeavor, Sub Visser. They've still reason enough to dirty their hands in our investigation."

"I'm well aware, Jinnniss 127," the Sub Visser sighed impatiently. "But let me clarify this, and I will only clarify once…" Suddenly Josh Peack's demeanor was only a ghastly imitation of the youth crushed beneath the Yeerk's total control. His stare was fierce, unrelenting, and his tone darkened into what was nearly a gravelly whisper. "We are going to find this RUBICON at all costs and by whatever means necessary, short of summoning Visser Three's mindless lapdogs to go barking into the tall grass. We are going to hunt down each and every one of those freed hosts. We are going to insure that any human anywhere near these incidents is going to be infested and promptly before this is over." Mandy was cast nauseous in her receded corner.

"…But what we are not going to do, is what humans say, cry wolf." He paused, directed his stare coldly around our circle, and continued. "If the Andalites ARE involved, then so be it. The orders still stand that anyone who wishes to live while under my subordination will keep this from the Imperial circle, until Andalite activity entices the Visser's actions directly. But right now we are not hunting Andalites. We are hunting a group of freed host vigilantes who are drawing unwelcome attention with their own actions. They are the target, and until any of you sees an Andalite face to face, you are to remember that and keep your tongue if you've the interest in holding onto it."

"Yes sir." Jinnniss and I both chorused. For all of my inclinations and for all of Jinnniss' obduracy, we both knew well where we stood when our commander took that tone.

"Timmron 348, regarding your excessive actions, you are to immediately resume your recruiting duties. Is that understood?"

I nodded. "Yes sir."

"Jinnniss 127, you are to further investigate that break in and gather whatever witness accounts you can. Also try your best to insure the surveillance of Timmron's host's family, see if perhaps they're bait in RUBICON's intentions. Let us see just how this plays out."

Jinnniss 127 immediately stood from her chair, head bowed. "Yes sir."

"Dismissed."

Riistram showed us the door just as the bell rang for next period. It was all the more time to ponder things, which turned out wasn't quite a step above the Kandrona starvation and threat to my cover that I'd been anticipating, ever since first hearing of RUBICON. My host had become dormant as expected in the back of our mind. Trigonometry had never been her favorite subject, and the ability to sleep through it had been one of the very few advantages of my unwelcome residency.

A pity, since I'd been counting on her usual rage and screaming as some sort of distraction.

Though I wouldn't dare admit it aloud, in all of her paranoid fixation on the involvement of the Andalites, Jinnniss 127 actually had a point. If even for the chance to expose us, the last Andalites in this very sector might well take the smears on their hands from human-aid, that absurd pride of theirs notwithstanding.

In fact, I wouldn't put it beyond them to warp the desperation of a human cause to meet their own ends, not when humans themselves were so fragile and disposable in Andalite company. One swipe of a tail here, a head tumbling there, it wouldn't be the first time Andalites decided to play judge in which would be better for innocents, concerning death and servitude to the Empire. It wasn't beyond them. It wasn't beneath them. But then not much was, if it came down to victory being swayed in either direction…

And all those soldiers, they were just trying to do their jobs, and those Andalites ever being involved in their slaughter only to further their own ends…. I couldn't, it just…

Mandy's hand carved serrated edges into the seven I'd been jotting down. I could positively feel, just let go and feel the scorching hot fury pulsing through me. It was such an unusual feat, spiraling anger from one body and into the shapes and wires of another, but there it was. The fire thrummed through the veins on my human wrist, shaking my hand as it fisted with the need to just send it flying. I could feel Mandy's heartbeat, my heartbeat fluttering.

I could feel the fire seeping and rising from the blood and into my skin, I could feel my entire body lightening as my muscles tensed. It was a single, marked moment where my all of thoughts collaged violently; almost incoherent in how they spun so close together. It was a clouded and floating sensation that clamped my jaw shut and ground my teeth.

I sat there, trembling and yet left in awe. Trying to regain control, yet enjoying how the fire burned around and through me. This… This purging, this emotional drain as I began tapping both my feet, tapping the now broken tip of my pencil, this was human rage. I wasn't entirely sure as to whether or not I enjoyed it, but I knew better than to let the sensation linger. Ash was staring at me from an aisle of desks over.

Had to sever the neural connections. Had to ease the body back, ease and relax the body while slowing the heartbeat. I could let the anger cloud inside our mind, but I couldn't simply let my emotions meld into my body without becoming what I suppose would be too obvious. I could not let the rage control me so completely, let my mind wander to the thoughts of those soldiers, those… Andalites.

I forced a breath through the nose. I could feel our chest and stomach, lead heavy and welled with the sudden desire to just… ….let go. Simply let go, and by let go I imply completely what it is to let go. I imagined myself in all assortments of freedom. Flipping the desk, grabbing the nearest human child by their hair, curling my fist into knuckles before pummeling every inch of skin and bone and human I could find until they screamed and pleaded, the same way those soldiers might have, and all the same I would ignore their pleas the same way those Andalites, those ANDALITES…

Ash was still staring at us from her desk, adjacent to ours. I didn't care, I couldn't care, I would never care so long as they were still out there. My human fingernails had begun burrowing into my palm, the pencil fell from my clenching fist in two broken halves. Another breath through the nose, furrowing deeper, scorching, screaming, let go and throw the desk and punch and kick and just throw back the head and let fly a deafening shriek, a scream, all the same screams I put up with day in and day out but just scream…

((….are you okay?))

Mandy had woken by this point, stirred to consciousness by the seething practically permeable both outside and inside. Of course she didn't honestly care for my well-being. She had the same ends that I did in our relationship; convenience and nothing more. She was also well versed in how usually human hosts were swept up into whatever we happened to feel, intentionally or not.

I couldn't speak. I wouldn't speak, rather. I was far from the mood to be remotely conversational, and she could detect that, since the anger I had allowed to consume me so completely was impossible to hide.

((Take a deep breath.)) she said, quickly, comparing speaking to me at the time to what she would call ripping off bandages.

But to try dwindling it, the intoxication of this fever, this anger, this rage and fury, how could I when it was simply too easy to… No, couldn't. what. no, it's not that just it's….

I shook my head, mentally, as I attempted grasping the outward situation objectively. I urged another breath through my nose, deeper, beyond the heavy heart and stomach, allowed the cool air to completely fill me.

((The mouth.)) Mandy said. ((Try it through the mouth.))

I let go and slowly released, palp by palp as I took in a gulping mouthful of cool air that suddenly existed beyond the blistering and screaming. Let go, but maintain control as I monitored the synapse connections carefully while willing my mind back to relativity. I was Timmron 348 of the Hett Niam pool, born aboard transport ship 6748925, transport to main designated pool as overseen by Iniss 226.

"What's wrong?" Ash mouthed, when I was able to look up for only a second without screaming. Another deep breath, another stifled flow of the electricity across the synapses while maintaining my control, a feat that ate nearly all ounces of strength I had. In the back of our mind however, I knew an all too willing host was waiting to leap at the chance for control.

((If they're trying to save us from you, they can't be that bad of people.)) Mandy snarled, responding in kind to the anger thinking of those Andalites had rendered me into with indignant rage of her own.

((As I must remind you over and over again, don't speak of that which you know nothing about you ignorant slave.)) I intoned icily. I had regained my composure enough to address my host perhaps, but I wasn't that far back in control of my emotions. My hands had stopped shaking. My eyes could focus beyond the blurry films that anger had distorted them into, availing me the true meaning to that human expression 'So angry I can't see straight'. I might never have known it was literal had it not been for experience, though I had no time to appreciate it. ((Trying to save you from us indeed,)) I sneered. ((You WOULD believe that, wouldn't you? Anything for your freedom, anything for your so-called rights that you've done nothing but take for granted. Anything for your sight, legs and arms that you ignorant humans seem content with leaving idle on couches while you watch television and let life drift right on by.))

I felt Mandy recoil slightly at that latter sentiment. Though she even felt that my point stood, it didn't halt her anger. ((Oh, so what? Boo hoo, pity me, I don't have a body of my own. So I'll just take someone else's, I'll enslave them in their own mind, I'll taunt them with their worst fucking memories and I'll make threats to take away their best friends day in and day out, but just because humans watch T.V or just because a few people ARE lazy, THAT makes it all okay!))

((That very same ignorance is what makes you such ideal candidates for hosts,)) I volleyed back. ((Everywhere you turn on this planet, nothing but humans making some loathsome lot in life. You've officials who lied to reach where they are, you've murdered each other over the differentiated views of an omniscient being, you kill to eat, and you kill each other for money to eat. And all this, for what? It may be distant, but in the grand future, your planet will eventually be uninhabitable given how your resources are depleting, your atmosphere is being stripped, it'll face the same fate as the planet Mars and given that inevitability, still you humans exist merely for yourselves and your conveniences. Do you really think you humans are better off without us? Do you actually think that you humans will make ANY progress killing each other, bombing and starving your young and leaving them uneducated? But I suppose our attempts to make something BETTER of your race, rather than allowing it to descend into its own destruction as nature intended is a crime on our behalf.))

((Don't even give me that 'we're SAVING you humans' bullshit, Yeerk.)) Mandy's voice was clipped, flinty with temper. ((It's about viewing us as shiny plastic toys, puppets, and you and I both know it.))

((I'm not going to argue with you.)) I was finally beginning to calm completely. Mandy had actually well served her purpose as a means of distraction from just why I had been so livid to begin with. ((As for the threats, the taunts, what have you; I see that you fail to mention that most of them were retaliations on my behalf against your futile struggles and constant insubordination. What it comes down to is that I am the one in power, the one in charge. Every decision from what we do to where our intentions lie happen to be mine to make. They're decisions you don't agree with, I'm certain, but yet another fault of you humans would be your single-tracked inability to see from any perspective different from your own.))

((Oh right, because you Yeerks so see things our way.))

((We're inside your minds and know your every thought, emotion and memory, human.)) I said darkly. ((I see from your perspective just fine, and objectively speaking, I also see that you're ignorant to the true intentions of your so-called Andalite saviors. You're too naïve, too stupid to understand what this whole thing is really about.))

She was actually quiet, cast athwart with doubt at how menacingly serious my words were. For that second, she actually wondered if everything Logan had told her had been some sort of well-contrived lie, a deception. I searched her scattered memories of the cages, reading them as vividly as if they had just happened. "The Andalites are the good guys in this mess," Logan had said wearily, worked to exhaustion not for the first time by Ressaer's ruthless determination. "They want to save everyone from the Yeerk invasion. Ressaer showed me things, told me things." It was too rich for words. Nothing I hadn't expected from this drawn out war, propaganda was always so typical. But really, for such self-proclaimed warriors of righteousness, I'd have expected better of our glorious and loving Andalites.

Although on second thought, perhaps I wouldn't have expected anything less.

Her blindness was certainly an issue that well presented itself in how she desperately clung to the idea of Andalites having anymore shreds of decency than we did, though it was typical. Mandy was a maturing female, but given the general lifespan of a human she was still young, her vision obscured by inexperience, clear and untouched by the grim realities of war. Even most mature humans were of that same disposition.

She had read of wars and battles in her people's history, accounts of both fact and fiction, but then knowing of war and understanding it were two different things entirely. As terrible as awakening her might have been, I thought now to be the perfect time to shed truth on the matter. As garish as that light may have been, it was a necessary component to the larger picture. That picture being that war between us and those self-righteous Andalites, when further seen beyond the disgustingly simple good-guy and bad-guy ideal led to evil on both sides. War was impossible without it.

The smirk could be heard in my mental voice as I spoke. ((Oh, so the Andalites are the good guys, are they? Did Logan also happen to mention what happened to a good number of Hork Bajir when we invaded their world? I don't think he would know this much from what Ressaer has told him, of course. But it really is an interesting outcome.))

((If you're going to get on me about being stupid and naïve, then it'd be stupid and naïve to assume you're telling the truth, wouldn't it?)) Mandy snapped, though it was clear that my tone had unnerved her. Her confidence was completely hollow, when the surface was barely scratched by a searching palp.

((Tell me slave, you're aware of how we enslaved and conquered the Hork Bajir, aren't you? I'm sure Ressaer's told Logan that story.)) I said, already knowing that yes he had, and typical of a desperate host trying to set alight hope Logan had told Mandy of our ruthlessness and the Andalites' desperate struggle to set things right. How apparently we had cowed the Andalites aside, leaving them to watch helplessly from some proverbial sideline while the Hork Bajir were herded onto our pool ships and we infested each and every one.

As I have mentioned, it was far too rich for words.

((Yeah, he did.)) Mandy spat, as her hands continued taking notes with a newly sharpened pencil. ((Is there a point to this?))

((While some aspects of Logan's… creative account are correct… We did overtake the will of the Hork Bajir for the purpose of troops, there were remaining free Hork Bajir after our initial take over.)) I spoke with a nonchalance that had Mandy sick with fear. ((Have you ever heard of the Quantum Virus?))

((The what…?))

((Ah, a brief explanation is in order.)) I said, almost too jovially for her to be at ease. Despite this, I was only too happy to provide her answers. It was my pleasure to provide her the truth. ((The Quantum Virus is created of air-borne particles, each being an advanced simulation of life to death structured like an assortment of viruses that are programmed to break matter down at a molecular level. Understand?)) Her unspoken compliance gave me my affirmative answer. ((It's quite a terrible way to die, really. Agonizing, dragged on for weeks, months, I'd think that victim races would go mad with the pain and possibly destroy themselves before the virus finished its work.))

I felt another wave of nausea go tumbling through her, spiked enough that she couldn't speak. She knew exactly which avenue my explanation of such a sinister invention was taking. She knew exactly where I was going, but in spite of this I continued.

((That horrific end was what happened to the remaining free Hork Bajir, as I'm sure you've deducted.))

((Don't tell me this.))

((Why shouldn't I, human? I'm telling you the truth.))

((I said don't tell me this.))

((Better you know what happened rather than hold onto delusion.))

In spite of my efforts Mandy wouldn't hear of such blasphemy. I imagine she would have covered her ears, had she the hands and arms to manage it. ((You're lying! You're lying to make them look bad, Yeerk!))

((What benefit do I reap in tarnishing the Andalites with lies, when I've a host body in either instance and they're not even here?)) I asked, almost boredly. ((If I wanted to crush your hope, I would simply need to remind you of your situation.))

She couldn't argue, given how she could intuitively feel that I was speaking the truth. My host had gathered my honesty in how I had spoken so far simply from how she knew me; I preferred my hosts compliant as much as the next Yeerk, but I wasn't the sort to meet that end through fear mongering and terrorizing.

In that sense, I was very much unlike an Andalite.

((Do you know who unleashed such a horrible virus? Who unleashed such a terrible weapon on the innocent?)) I prodded, not quite satisfied by her mere shock alone. ((War Prince Alloran Semitur Corrass if memory serves me right, a compassionate, gentle and loving heroic Andalite we cowed as we ruthlessly enslaved the Hork Bajir before he fell to Visser Three.)) I laughed in satisfaction at how her words hitched into a choked, stammered sound of a murmur. ((He programmed it to destroy ALL Hork Bajir, Controller and free alike to keep them from being enslaved. He believed that an unwarranted death sentence would be better for the entire race rather than risk our filthy infection. Destroying an entire race to prevent them being enslaved,)) I scoffed. ((Or perhaps the uglier truth: slaughtering a race without regard for its safety for the sake of avoiding his failure.))

((….better to be dead than a slave.)) Mandy finally whispered, as if speaking it aloud to me would ring the words true.

((Are you trying to convince me, or you?)) I asked, the mockery in my voice remaining even. ((What if we had yet to reach your family when on the off-chance the Andalites just happened to appear? Would you like the Andalites to literally take ANY means necessary to insure you all aren't taken by Yeerk control? Would you like your mother, father, brother, and your unborn sister to be destroyed in the most agonizing way possible, if it meant they would die free? Does any sentient creature deserve that fate? Does any race deserve to have that kind of fate written for them? Try to truly imagine all of that before you answer, Mandy. Consider the question carefully.))

When she pondered my explanation and question in earnest regard, answering was of the many things she couldn't do without feeling forsaken. She remained in her perceived corner of our mind, benumbed and without a word for the rest of the period.

It was a week later before I returned completely to my recruiting duties, as instructed by the sub visser. An entire painfully uneventful week, with no more break ins, no more threatening instant messages, no more calls from Jinnniss or Ressaer. It was just common-day existence for a Yeerk and his host, as if RUBICON had flickered to dispersion. We all knew better than to make assumptions. If anything, they knew now that we were hunting for any leads or connections back to them and were being careful to watch their step.

Having once been Controllers themselves, they had a decent idea of who to trust and a faint idea of whom we had targeted, though in isolation that never did a single escaped host much good. But grouping that intelligence made them quite an inconvenience.

((I'm sure something will turn up eventually.)) Mandy had said, finding how my thoughts constantly drifted back to them almost incorrigible.

((We both are, since something usually always turns up.)) I'd agreed, and it was more than enough to remind us both to be aware. I wasn't the only one in danger, if I truly had become a target for whatever intentions RUBICON had. If even it was for self-preservation, it was still enough to make Mandy wary.

Ah, but in spite of that I decided it was time to make myself inconspicuous. That was why a week later found me in an after-school meeting of The Sharing with Heather. We had been playing volleyball in the school gymnasium, Heather's team was winning. The humans circled each other on the court, smiling, laughing and joking, slapping their hands together (high fives, I believe they're called) and congratulating one another. Each of them seemed completely unaware that their entire roster was about due for infestation. It was how we had chosen teams, after all.

Temnan 254 had made her intentions clear at the meeting prior, while we were feeding in the pool. Taking me aside from the other Yeerks, she had actually placed me in charge of overseeing the infestation of a small list of potential hosts that had been inducted into The Sharing long enough, Heather Lannings being among them. I couldn't say I was surprised.

((I trust you to finish this to the best of your ability while I oversee the infestation of another group, Timmron 348.)) Temnan had said, which meant of course that I had to see this through completely. I had to agree. Every Yeerk that broke the surface of the pool inside a human host was expected to recruit their fair number of hosts eventually, it was almost a rite of passage given the freedoms our new bodies granted us. Pay it forward, as I believe you humans call it.

It was still quite a shame in itself, really. After our deal a week or so past, I could feel it if even Mandy would never admit to it, but she had actually placed an iota of trust in me. That simple bargain, as temporary as it was, had been all it took. She was now beneath the wrong notion that I struck deals, that I could be opened to negotiation, that I could be so easily sorted and understood as if I were of her kind. To some extent, she assumed we could reach some sort of compromise and had already begun digging for something of equal worth to try and save her friends.

While it was quite annoying, it fit well into my plans. A host that tried to humanize and even sympathize with its captor proved itself malleable, easier to manage than one that fought constantly. If it meant she was less of a distraction from my duties, if it meant her marginal existence would be easier to tolerate, I wouldn't be so hasty to correct her. I certainly hadn't been open with my intentions for Heather with my host when Temnan gave me the assignment. I could only imagine how well that would go.

Here and now however, it seemed that I was left without much choice. It wouldn't bode well for my preferences, but duty served the higher calling priority. From the bleachers with a small group of armed Controllers at both my sides, I smiled as Heather wound her arm back and served again, sending the ball sailing on the other side of the net. The humans scrambled for it, an entanglement of limbs and hands that knocked it into the air only to groan and curse as it fell short of the other side. Heather's team again high fived and cheered each other on.

"Nice one," I called to Heather. She gave me a wave and a grin, and I'm certain that had she known it would be one of her last she might have prolonged it. "Let's make the next one the match point. Winning team gets to go out for dinner, our treat." I gestured around to the other Controllers sitting by my sides, an older senior, the gym coach, and a small number of parent chaperones that typically 'supervised' the meetings from the sidelines.

"Yeah," Mrs. Elliot Setzer, or rather Oondor 467 chimed in, with a large smile on the full bow of her quirking lips. "How's free pizza sound?"

The winning team of course hooted and cheered for that much. "All right!" Bert threw Heather the ball, grinning along with the rest of the team. "Heather, you're our lucky server far as we're concerned. Score this next point and show 'em how it's done, all right?"

Heather laughed, bouncing the ball carelessly atop her fingertips. "Yeah, sure." She took her corner and prepared to wind her arm back, just as the rest of the team tensed forward eagerly. It was a game already won, it would be over soon. …It would be over in so many other ways as well.

As if sensing our plans in premonition, I could feel Mandy surface from her usual corner. She didn't really feel anything, save for simply… …awake. ((…What's going on?)) she asked, when she could summon the courage.

I didn't answer. Instead I directed Mandy's eyes to Heather, while she wound back her arm and sent the ball arcing again over the net. The least I could do was avail my host this one final act of her best friend's free will, a consolation for having withheld my intentions if anything else. The other team managed to flounder the ball back, and Heather, Bert, Stephanie, Cody, Caitlyn and Carson banded together. Cody leapt and spiked it, sending it slamming into the court floor on the other side of the net.

Coach Rob blew his whistle, the skirl announcing the end of the match.

"All right, all right guys!" Oondor 467 clapped her hands as the winning team high fived again, cheering and whooping as the other team of humans sulked. Not that they had to worry, considering that their freedom might have made for a fine door prize as Coach Rob led them toward the locker room to change and leave. "Well, we're all members of our word." Oondor clapped Carson on the shoulder, beaming. "Free pizza it is!"

((What's going on?))

I waved my goodbye to the other team. "Better luck next time, guys!" I called after them before returning my attention to our winner's circle, the one and the same circle walled now by Controllers that were drawing near with their congratulations in order. I drew in close for the same, of course. "Way to really play out there, guys."

Carson's gap-toothed grin greeted me in reply. "So where're we going out? I'm starvin'!"

"We could hit the new place that opened up across town," Caitlyn shrugged, the ball beneath her arm. "I hear they've got really good pizza, it's even hand tossed."

"Sure," I said, smiling benignly. "We're just gonna have to split it up to who's riding with who." The other Controllers leapt their cues to lean forward, attentively. They knew perfectly well what I truly intended. "Cody, Carson and Caitlyn can ride with Mrs. Setzer." I directed a smile toward Oondor 467. "Um, is that okay with you?"

"It's fine!" She flicked her hand, already rummaging through her purse for keys she wouldn't be using. "C'mon, you guys, let's get going!" In that matter of mere seconds, the three humans left with Oondor 467 and two others armed with Dracon beams fit for insuring little to no struggle from any of them. I would give them at least ten minutes or so, before they returned as newly created Controllers and a trivial victory long forgotten.

I nodded my immense satisfaction. For my first assignment in recruitment and infestation, it was going quite swimmingly. "And uh… let's see… …Bert and Stephanie can hitch a ride with Gary, here." I motioned toward the senior to my right. Gary Sands, or Illuern 340 as I knew him swung his jangling keys by the single hoop awhirl on his finger.

"No prob, Steph wouldn't mind riding shotgun, right?" Gary gave her a crooked smile, a subtle wink. Stephanie gave a breathy laugh, waving shyly at him from behind Bert trying to hide the bright flush on her cheeks. I already knew that I'd set the perfect bait in that regard; Gary was the reason Stephanie had kept coming back, after all.

((What the hell's going on, Yeerk?))

"Heather can ride with me, Jacob, Cliff and Jenny." I motioned to the remaining members as Jacob tried a boyishly awkward wave at Heather. "We'll all meet up there at say, five thirty, ish?"

"Sounds good to me. See you guys there!" Gary led Bert and Stephanie out the side exit into the student parking lot. He trailed them with a confirming nod in my direction, before the finality of slamming doors cast the two new hosts out of my concern.

((Answer me, Yeerk!)) Mandy rose into a shout when I wouldn't acknowledge her. ((What the hell are you doing?! What're you up to?!))

((Typical business.)) I returned coolly, chancing her no hint of what was to come. ((Nothing that disconcerting, human.))

"All right!" Heather scooped up her jacket off the bleachers, slinging it around her arms and joining our circle. "I'm ready to go, what about you guys?"

"Hey Heather?"

"Yeah?"

"Before we get going, can I talk to you a sec?" I asked, motioning toward the doors on the other side of the gymnasium that led into the utility hallway. Understandably she seemed somewhat baffled, but with a shrug she followed me. Without a single doubt, without a question and without a single what if, Heather followed her best friend straight into her final moments as a human being.

I knew in that moment that no other time than now would have chanced me a better opportunity. It was a basic protocol, conducted much in the same way as the business of which I spoke to my host. The Sharing's complete induction included the provided chance for potential hosts to become voluntary, to surrender themselves quietly, though how the revelation and the choice went over varied as much as the humans hearing it.

A good number of them wouldn't believe it, they thought it a joke or insanity on the part of people they once thought they knew. Another number had to be dragged kicking and screaming, while still others were so fascinated by the concept that they tried it simply out of curiosity.

Or so Temnan had told me, and given what I had observed thus far I believed her without question.

The utility hall was where we kept locked and under near constant surveillance a portable Yeerk pool. It had been transported here a week ago, beneath the guise of newly shipped equipment funded to us by Sharing donations, as it was snuck in and constructed piece by piece to stave off undesired attention.

Locked within one of the larger supply and maintenance closets, Temnan 254 and Inniss 226 had personally insured that any janitor whose routine neared it had been infested. The operation had gone as smoothly as either of them could have hoped for, to say the least. And as I led Heather out into the corridor where the pool waited just on the other end, I don't think I could have honestly named a better location.

The girl passed her gaze over the rust-flecked pipes in the ceiling, the dimly lit white brick walls and cracked tile floor that flickered under the humming fluorescents. She shuddered in the almost unnatural chill of the hallway. Her expression was uneasy.

"What'd you want to talk about, Mand?" Heather finally managed, breaking our silence in a voice practically shot to a whisper. "I mean, why out here? Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine."

"Then what's going on? What'd you want to talk about?"

"Heather, Teresa's told me that you were interested in becoming a full member, is that right?" I asked as I inclined myself almost fashionably against the wall, as if this were of any normal human conversation, as if this were of any typical human setting.

"Well, yeah… I mean you said it was a lot more fun…" Heather certainly didn't seem as sure of the words as I had sounded when I said them. Now I could see her thoughts drifting to far off corners, ones she had abandoned long ago for how often she'd returned to meeting after meeting. "You said that… that…."

"Your whole world changes." I supplied.

"…..Yeah…" She had already backpedaled a step or so. I could grant humans enough that some of them retained a survival instinct, if even it served her no better than the bare fingernails she had been born with. "That's what you said." She seemed to emphasize that. I had said it, not her.

I nodded. "And I think it's time you see just what I meant by that."

Heather was completely motionless while I began to unveil the truth. "You see, Heather, your friend Mandy here isn't everything you've thought her to be as of these past few weeks." I advanced a step toward her, beautifully composed even as the puzzled human my opposite watched me in a stricken awe. "I am actually Timmron 348, of the Hett Niam pool. A Yeerk, what you would call an alien being, one of many which reside in human minds and continue our façade for the sake of recruiting hosts."

"Mandy, what're you doing?" Heather staggered back now, not that the other end of the hallway would lead her away from me. I had left the other Controllers guarding the doors, her only means of either escape or rescue. "C'mon, knock it off. We gotta go meet the others, right?" She tried smiling, though it faded when my expression became no less somber. "….Right…?"

Whether she was in awe or disbelief, I could not say. Searching Mandy's memories inclined me to believe that perhaps she thought it a joke.

"You seem to be skeptical."

"….Mand, you've played some really dumb jokes before, but this is just desperate, y'know?" Heather chuckled, a relieved little sound as if I had just admitted to joking.

"It isn't a joke or a lie, Heather."

((Oh my God…)) Slowly the truth came crashing into my host. ((Heather! RUN! RUN!)) I felt her arms struggle to thrash, her legs yearn for turning me away from my newly intended prey to no avail beneath the stronghold of my absolute control.

"Mandy, c'mon…" she sharply quirked an eyebrow, an expectant hand upon her hip. "How stupid do you think I am? I mean, seriously, I know you got me with that one crank call a few months or so back but I already said never again."

"We Yeerks have been taking entire races for our hosts for a good number of your years, now." I continued, ignoring how Heather's face fell, her brows knotted in aggravation. I ignored how Mandy shrieked; how she threw herself against me in any attempt she could to divert the inevitable. My control remained concrete and total. "Humans are among our latest targets. The Sharing is a front organization for recruitment. We've chosen you among others to address directly as to whether or not you would like to come quietly."

"Right, right, and while we're sharing secrets here… Mandy…" She composed herself as stonily as she could, though we could both still see her grin struggling to break free. "…I'm a vampire."

I smirked. "Perhaps the simpler diet will make you more ideal for a host body, then."

"Mandy, you're kinda scaring me…" Heather backpedaled another step. I followed. "Okay Mand, now seriously, what'd you really want to talk about?"

In the duration of ten minutes I thoroughly repeated myself, unmasking what I truly was behind Mandy's eyes and beneath her woven mask. I had once again given her my designation as well as Temnan's, and I had once again explained our purpose and cause logically and calmly with a careful balance of bravado, so as to lend her the right impression of our people. Heather's face only gradually paled, given how long that "Mandy" seemed to insist that this sick joke of hers continue.

"Mandy, you're really scaring me."

"I don't intend to."

"Too late for that, you're really freaking me out with this shit." Heather began to stumble along the wall, feeling it for doors, openings, anything to get away from what she seemed satisfied with calling her temporarily insane best friend. "Seriously, please stop."

"I can't, since we owe you humans the truth before we lay claim to you."

((YOU SON OF A BITCH!)) Mandy was still screaming, kicking and punching beneath my restraints with less than futile effort. ((YOU LEAVE HER ALONE! YOU LEAVE HER ALONE! Oh God, oh my God, oh my God, oh God….))

"Mandy stop, goddamnit!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that." I sighed, partially certain that I was speaking both of the humans now enraged at me as I presented Heather her choices, gave her the options as agreed by protocol. "You've the privilege of choosing that much," I continued. "You may either come voluntarily, become a Collaborator, or… you may come involuntarily. Either way, I'm afraid you won't be leaving knowing as much as you do now about my people, so do be quick to make your decision."

((Why are you doing this?!)) Mandy shrieked, all the more furious that I ignored her screams and fighting for the sake of completely focusing on my task at hand. ((Why are you doing this to her?!))

"You're seriously going to keep this up?" Heather's once skeptical voice had cracked in pitch. She tried another laugh, though it came out a frightened and choking gasp, nearly hysterical. "Mandy come on, this isn't funny anymore. Now it's just getting annoying."

"Involuntary it is." I replied, all of my patience having thoroughly vanished.

I turned and threw open the doors to our right, leading Jacob and the others inside the hallway. "Involuntary." I said to them in greeting, and with immediate understanding they began to circle her. It was a short chase to say the least, where Heather bolted to the end of the corridor only to meet barren walls and locked doors leading back into the school where she might have escaped us. Cliff and Jenny brought her back struggling by her arms, dragging her past me as I calmly brought up the rear until we bypassed the doors and slammed them shut, locking them behind us.

I kept to the far right of the small platoon of human Controllers with a well contained eagerness, a well contained contentment with the satisfaction of acquisition. The poor girl cried, she struggled, but the net of arms wrapped around her might as well have been forged of steel cables in how expertly they handled her as they drove her to the end of the hallway. Her terrified face peeked from between the moving shoulders, pale, stricken with panic as she screamed in our direction.

"Mandy!" she shrieked, a fist breaking off from one of her captors and mercilessly beating at one of the three currently holding her. "Mandy, do something! Mandy, do something, please, I don't want to go with them!"

It was at that moment in time, when they dragged her into one of the locked back supply closets in the gymnasium, that perhaps the host mind might have been utterly grateful for my presence there with her. "Don't worry, it will all be over soon." I said aloud, both to Heather and to Mandy as her mind completely broke beneath my control.

She was crying, sobbing, screaming and dying silently. Mandy had long since abandoned her usual degree of valor and strength and availed herself the freedom to cry all she wanted now. Her hardest struggle against me had proven futile, in her vain effort to rescue her best friend. As far as the host mind was concerned, she had no weakness unexposed now that she had ultimately failed. She knew now that my dominance, my control, everything I had stolen and still kept from her cost her too much effort for too little reward to fight.

My control was the only way her face remained so calm as I followed the group into the back room, where the pool still teemed with the bodies of Yeerk slugs well fed and eager for new hosts in the convenience of close-range infestation. My control was the only way I ignored Heather's helpless screams as they forced her down onto her knees, the only way Mandy could have ever bared her hand becoming the one to shove Heather's head into the Yeerk pool.

((Why would you do this?! WE HAD A DEAL! WE HAD A DEAL!)) Mandy shouted over and over again from her mind, the complete paralysis my control rendered for her having quickly descended into a cancer. A cancer that she finally understood she would not be rid of. My hold on her, she realized, had not only been a nightmare, but it had swiftly become a contemptuous barrier from which no force of her mind could break. Not sheer will, not strength, not courage, not family, not virtue, not even love.

The terrible truth was that love held no accordance in a world only structured by objective reality and balances of power. No matter what these humans heard from their fairy tales and no matter how strong it may have been, love was a forsaking illusion. It held no place in a world order of the strong tearing apart the weak, the masters breaking the slaves, the odds falling only in favor to those that nature dictated would create their own destiny.

As far as the reaches of their faith taught them, experience denoted that the meek only inherited the world left over, once everything they had was pulled and beaten from their fingers. Love was no savior. Salvation was for those who claimed and kept their control over their reality.

Perhaps that is far from the scruples and delusions you humans have learned, in your time spent immersed in your fantasy worlds where such nonsense prevails. Where the 'good guy' always wins, where everything is pristine white and consuming black, and where justice is thankfully never blind. Where love is the ultimate power, evidenced by magic and heart, where love can overcome anything.

The truth can be so cruel. The truth is a necessary component, to avoid breaking.

((We did have a deal.)) I agreed. ((I agreed to relent in my targeting of your family. However, that bargain did nothing to safeguard your friends, I'm afraid.))

((Why the fuck would you do this?)) She sobbed almost silently as Heather's head broke the surface of the pool to scream one last time, before my hand pressed her into the water again. She couldn't watch this. She couldn't watch her own hand plunge her best friend into the Hell she had known for almost a month. ((Why the fuck would you pretend to want to cooperate with me? Why would you do this?))

((It is as I've said all along, human…)) I explained it as calmly and as rationally as I could, remembering again that humans were ignorant. ((It's all for my own convenience.))

The next time Heather broke the surface of the pool, her face was calm and collected. The fear and disbelief had been reigned in rather quickly by its new master.