Chapter 25 (Cassie)

I was helpless. Completely, utterly, helpless. I could hear my own tiny, fragile bones snapping one by one as the tiger bit down on my body. I could feel pain, burning, white-hot pain as his fangs tore my delicate wing membranes.

I was a bat. A bat in the mouth of the tiger.

((Haha, this is too perfect,)) Jake crowed to me. ((Little Cassie, pathetic Cassie, a helpless little rodent in the big kitty's mouth.))

No, I told myself, that was not Jake. Whatever evil creature was controlling him, taking his voice, making him say things that he never meant to say.

I could already feel the next morph progressing. My fur ran together. My skin hardened into an exoskeleton.

Oh god. An insect! I was becoming an insect!

((No, no, no, no!)) I yelled frantically. I had to stop the morph! Had to! If I morphed to insect, Jake would crush me!

I tried to clamp down on my fear. But it was hard. The bat's instincts were screeching out of control. The bat was screaming. I was screaming. But my cries came out as faint, high-pitched squeaks that only a bat could hear.

Predator! Predator! Fly! Fly!

I flapped my melting, shifting wings, which only sent another flare of pain through my shredded membrane.

I forced myself to breathe. To ignore the pain and the fear. I had to calm down. There was no other choice. Breathe. Slowly. In. Out. I had to relax. Don't think about it. Think of something else.

I was not here. I was somewhere else. Somewhere far away. At home. I was at the home where I used to live, back in another lifetime. In the barn. My barn. Comforting one of our horses. Cooing to it. Letting the panicked creature know that everything would be alright. Everything would be alright.

Somehow, miraculously, I managed to reverse the morph. I morphed back to bat.

But there was nothing more I could do. I couldn't demorph. Jake's jaws would crush me if I grew to human size.

Stay calm, that was it. All I could do. Don't think about the pain. Don't think about the hot breath that I could feel, washing over my body with each panting breath that the tiger took, reminding me of how utterly at this Yeerk's mercy that I was.

I looked around, at the battle that still surrounded me. I saw a Hork-Bajir that had to be Marco, fighting two others. I saw him glance briefly at me, and I could practically see the wheels in his head turning. He was wondering why Jake had not released me. But he could not turn his attention from the battle for more than a split second, as more Hork-Bajir descended upon him, forcing him to defend himself.

Then, something else caught my eye. Just at the edge of my vision, behind Jake. A human. A little older than me, with black hair, a short beard, and a rugged, powerful build. His hazel eyes were locked onto Jake like a vice, his movements subtly mirroring those of the tiger.

Jake spoke again, and now I could see that the man behind him was moving his mouth in time to Jake's words. The movement was very slight, hardly noticeable unless you were looking for it, but it was there.

((Marco! Tobias!)) Jake's thought-speak voice suddenly declared to everyone in the room, and I could hear in his voice that he had dropped the pretense of trying to sound like Jake. Marco and Tobias heard the change too, judging from their shocked and bewildered expressions.

The battlefield suddenly fell silent and still, as everyone, Yeerk and Animorph alike, seemed to be waiting for Jake to continue.

((You will leave this place peacefully,)) the Yeerk stated. ((Right now. Or your friend Cassie dies. I only have to bite down, and she will die. We don't want a fight. All we want is to be left alone. Just leave, and you will not be harmed. I give you my word.))

He tightened his grip on me, and I let out another shrill scream as pain lanced through my wing. The message was clear. The Yeerk would make good on his threat. He would kill me, if he needed to.

But I could swear I sensed a certain hesitance there, too. As though he didn't really want to hurt me. As though he were only doing this because he had no other choice. No . . . it was probably just my imagination, rebelling against the very idea of Jake wishing me harm.

I couldn't see Marco anymore at that point, but I saw Tobias immediately freeze in mid-air. ((What!)) he shrieked, shocked. ((Why are you . . . )) He trailed off as he put the pieces together. ((Yeerk filth!)) he screamed when he figured it out. ((I'll kill you! Where are you? Show yourself!))

Jake's voice only laughed. ((Come now,)) he said. ((Why should I do a thing like that?))

I stayed silent. Hopeful, yet afraid. Keeping quiet so that my voice would not betray what I could see, what was sneaking up behind the black-haired man.

I was the only one who could see what was about to happen.

Quick as lightning, Marco's Hork-Bajir blade drew a bright red line across the black-haired man's throat. The man slumped, the life already fading from his eyes before he hit the ground.

Two things happened then. Jake's body shivered, free from the mind control, and he said, ((Cassie, I'm so sorry, I-))

But he was interrupted by a piercing cry.

"NOOOOO!" a shrill, pain-stricken voice wailed. A young girl ran through the silent battlefield, shoving her way past Hork-Bajir, heedless of their razor-edged blades. "Korash, Korash!" she moaned, tears streaming from her eyes as she knelt beside his lifeless body.

Nobody moved. The everyone was silent as this little girl mourned the death of a Yeerk.

The girl was a Yeerk too, of course. I knew that. And yet . . . something in me couldn't help seeing her as a human. Never had I seen this kind of emotion from a Yeerk. Never before had I seen a Yeerk cry.

"You monster! Murderer!" she shouted at Marco between sobs. Spat at him, a globule of spit landing on a Hork-Bajir toe. "You will pay for this! I will kill you! I'll kill you! I swear it! I'll kill all of you!" she screeched. Marco could have easily eliminated her, of course, but something seemed to hold him back.

"We have nothing left, nothing!" the girl went on, cradling Korash's lifeless head in her arms, her voice breaking as she spoke. "Nothing! We've already lost everything because of you! We are nothing! Soon, we will be no more than a memory. No, not even that. We will be forgotten, erased, purged from history like a blemish from your perfect little world."

I gasped, shocked. I'd quickly demorphed during the distraction, and I was even now morphing at top speed to wolf. Nobody had seemed to notice me. But even as I morphed, I couldn't help but hear the girl's words.

So this was why the Yeerks were here. This was why they needed this last stand. I, who could understand motives better than any of my friends, immediately saw what it was that the Yeerks really wanted.

Identity. That was all they wanted. These Yeerks no longer knew what they were, who they were, and they were fighting for nothing more than to be. To be what they thought they had to be. To be remembered as what they were.

And who was I, to deny them that one shred of dignity that was all they had left?

The young girl looked down at Korash, and closed her eyes for a second or two. "We're fighting for our freedom, too, you know," she whispered, but with emphasis. "We have the right! We have the right to be who we are! We have the right to be remembered!"

She stood, shaking with grief, but still somehow strong. "Korash died for our freedom! Let him be remembered! He, who found his life's purpose in our cause! Let us not be ashamed of what we are! Let us take back what is ours! For freedom!" And across the battlefield, her cry was echoed, as Hork-Bajir and humans shouted "For freedom!"

"Let it be known that we are Yeerks, and that we will not be forgotten!" the little girl shouted, and the Yeerks, in unison, let out a savage cry. A terrifying, unified battle cry.

I was a wolf again. And that was all that saved me, as the battle roared to life once again, this time with even more fury than before. Enraged and determined Hork-Bajir shouted "For freedom! For Korash!" and descended upon me in a whirl of slashing blades and vengeful fury.

First off, because I don't say this nearly often enough, thank you to each and every one of my dedicated reviewers! Every person who reviews this story is awesome! You guys give me the energy to keep going!

bonbon: Ax was commanding the ship alone because he was supposed to be all discreet and such. They didn't want to send in any more Andalites than absolutely necessary, since there weren't supposed to be any Andalites involved in the first place. And, if he's by himself, that looks much less professional, thus appears less "sanctioned." Yeah, probably not a great reason, but it was initially supposed to be more of an infiltration mission, not a blow-em-up mission.

And, why, yes. Defecting Andalites, indeed. Well, you see, I figure there's going to be unscrupulous members of any species ('cept maybe Pemalites), and Yenlin just so happens to be very skilled at finding people of that particular nature.

Anthiena: Ax wasn't on an Andalite ship. He was on a Sstram ship. Much more primitive, but necessary for his cover.

That's still a valid point, though, that this was similar to how he came to earth, and no, actually, that similarity wasn't intentional. But it's an interesting parallel nonetheless.

EDIT: Thanks to Rachel9466, for spotting the error in this chapter. This website always seems to mess things up whenever I upload anything. Normally I can catch it and fix it, but this time it got past my radar.