A/N: apologies for the wait for this chapter, real life has been busy and I am slowing down a lot but I am still keeping writing!

Sara hurried to the door of her apartment at the sound of the buzzer, her mouth stretching into a joyous smile as she reached it. A few moments later, she was opening the door to Kal and ushering her inside.

"I can't believe you've finally decided to do this," Sara said, grinning from ear to ear. "See? I said you could." She felt like dancing round the room: for Kalran to join their campaign group was massive, a sign that she was doing much better, and Sara could hardly contain her excitement.

"Whoa, Sara," Kalran said softly. "Don't get your hopes up too much. I'm not sure how long I'm going to last, with this."

"Well, until Oglud gets a host would be a good start," Sara said impatiently. "Don't try and back out on me now."

Her Yeerk sighed, dropping her gaze to the ground. "You know that won't ever happen, not really." She shrugged off her jacket, hanging it instinctively on the hook by the door without looking: Sara hadn't moved home since the war and, in her more unguarded moments, Kalran still treated the apartment as her own.

"If you think that, why join?"

"I believe there might be a chance we could manage to make the visiting process better, the Pool safer... that would be something, at least. I need more time than twenty minutes, at least once..." she trailed off, suddenly upset.

"You'll get it," Sara said, trying to pull her Yeerk out of her despondency by making her own voice unnaturally cheerful. "And more. I'm sure you will. And it's better than when you couldn't talk to her at all, right?"

Kalran sighed, not speaking for a moment as she walked through to the living room and collapsed on the comfortable armchair by the window that had always been her favourite place to sit. Judging it best not to push her for a response, Sara headed out to the kitchen, returning with a glass of iced lemonade. Kalran managed a small smile as Sara passed it to her.

"Still your favourite, huh?" Sara confirmed, smiling back.

"You know me too well."

Sara sat herself down on the sofa across from Kalran, watching the Yeerk's expression brighten slightly as she took a drink.

"How are you, anyway?" Kalran asked after a few minutes. "How's Lee?"

Sara flushed. "Fine," she said hurriedly, trying not to let Kalran see how far from the truth that was.

Her boyfriend's sister had been an involuntary host in the war, too, and he had little sympathy for Yeerks. They'd been having increasing numbers of arguments about Sara's role in the campaign, and her continued contact with Kalran was a particular issue. They'd hardly been on speaking terms for a few weeks after she'd first mentioned it several months ago. He'd responded by calling it Stockholm syndrome, and Sara had been half-tempted to end the relationship right there. She knew, though, that his sister had had a horrible time, and still hoped to change his mind. Telling Kal any of this was out of the question, of course: she'd been lucky in a way that Kal's own problems had made her less attuned to her host than she normally was, but now her Yeerk was starting to notice things again, to ask more about her life.

"You don't sound very sure," Kalran said gently, confirming Sara's train of thought.

"'Course I'm sure," Sara said hastily. She hurried to change the subject. "How're Oglud and Ilkiss?"

The distraction worked a little too well, as Kalran's face twisted with sudden pain. "I- Ilkiss, he's- he told me he's ilsh'nish. He wants to tell Oglud... well, wants is maybe not the right word, but he feels he should."

Sara felt a piercing sensation of sympathy strike her gut. "Oh, Kal..." she murmured, reaching for her Yeerk's hand. "I'm guessing ilsh-thingy means dating someone else, right?"

Kalran nodded, dropping her gaze to the floor. "I don't know what to do," she admitted. "How can we possibly tell Oglud in twenty minutes? And then just leave them all alone to think about it..."

"Hey, come on, they're not all on their own. They've got siblings in the Pool they can talk to."

Her Yeerk looked down, tears in her eyes. "I know, I just... it feels so cold, to give them that news so quickly, with the computer, I... I know there's no other way to do it, I just..."

"Hey," Sara said sympathetically, hopping over to pull Kalran into a hug. "It'll be okay. It's not that bad." She patted her Yeerk awkwardly on the shoulder, uncertain: Sara hated the sight of tears, she never had any idea what to do when comforting others. "Don't cry, come on," she added, more to say something than anything else.

Kalran swatted vainly at her tears, which only seemed to make them come faster.

"I'll come with you, when you do it," Sara offered. "My ban's ended now."

Kalran shook her head. "You don't need to do that. I'll be okay." She swallowed, hard, and the shake of her shoulders began to slow.

"You can't do it on your own," Sara argued. "And if Ilkiss is with someone else, well... he's maybe not the best person to support you, right?"

"No," Kalran admitted. "But I – I was going to take someone else. Not that I don't appreciate your support, I just know it's not easy for you going down to the Pool, and I don't want to ask that of you..."

"And you think I'll probably get myself kicked out again," Sara finished for her, feeling suddenly guilty. "I'm sorry. I should've got a grip on myself. I could have come with you all this time if I wasn't..."

"Don't say that," Kalran said gently, her eyes filled with loving acceptance as they met her host's. "I loved it when you called them out... it was so... well, so you." A smile lit Kalran's face, despite the tear tracks that remained on her cheeks.

Sara looked down at the floor. It always made her uncomfortable when Kal spoke about her, especially her faults, with such admiration. She cared deeply about Kalran, liked her, admired her bravery in what she'd done in the war, but she couldn't return the way Kal felt about her, the sheer unconditional force of it.

"Kal, don't you ever admit I did something stupid?"

"It wasn't stupid," the Yeerk returned immediately. "They're horrible, and to voluntarily go down to that Pool again took so much courage on its own, without them making it worse. Goodness, even Carla nearly hit them once, and she... well, I'm sure she has pretty bad memories of the Pool too, but I doubt they're anything like yours." Kalran trailed off, wincing at the memory. "I'm so sorry, Sara."

"Don't be silly. Kal, you offered to fly me to Australia and let yourself starve to try and set me free. None of it was your fault."

Sara tried to hold back her own memories of the Pool, of being dragged around, restrained, watching as the guards did the same to everyone from tiny children to grandparents. She'd hated every moment of it, and even though she knew Kal was her best bet at staying at least partly free, at trying to bring down the Empire, even though she hadn't wanted her Yeerk to die, Sara had been tempted by that Australia offer more than once. Anger at the Empire flashed within her, and she thought for a moment about making a sarcastic comment about Carla having bad memories, but quickly stopped herself. She'd only upset Kalran even more if she did that, and that was the last thing she wanted to do.

"Punched them, huh? Wish I'd thought of that," she said instead.

"Nearly," Kalran corrected. "We managed to stop her. Thank Kandrona, I don't know what they'd have done to her." Kal suddenly sounded terrified.

"Whoa," Sara said quickly. "They haven't done anything. She's fine, right?"

"If by fine you mean uninjured, then yes."

Kalran looked as though she might say more, so it was with great relief that Sara got up to answer the buzzer when it sounded a few seconds later. Carla was second only to Akhir as the last person she wanted to talk to Kalran about.

As she approached the door to the apartment, though, she felt her nerves building again. She knew Karen and her father were due to come along today; she'd met them a couple of times before, but never at her house. They were nice enough people, but they were also the kind of rich you didn't really think existed, and Sara was more than a little defensive about her tiny little apartment with its worn furniture. At least Kalran was here.

Sure enough, it was Illim who spoke when she answered the buzzer, and he, Adam and Karen soon stood in the hall.

Karen smiled at her, pushing her long red hair back from her face. "Daddy had a business meeting," she explained. "He's so disappointed he can't make it."

"No problem," Sara said, smiling despite herself. It was hard not to like Karen. "Come on in."

Soon they were all seated with lemonade.

"That's a wonderful picture," Karen said, nodding towards the wall which displayed a poster of a city at night, the lights from the cars blurred into brilliant lines by their movement. "Aftran would have loved that," she added. "Not that I don't too, of course, but not quite to the extent of staring at it for several hours."

Sara smiled. "Funny you should say that." She gave a meaningful nod towards Kalran. "Exactly the same thing that this one does. She picked it out."

Karen turned towards Kalran, who was smiling, flushed pink at the comparison to Aftran. Kalran had an extremely bad case of hero-worship.

"You must be Kalran," Karen said gently. "I've heard so much about you. It's wonderful that you've joined us."

Illim nodded emphatically. "It's very courageous of you. How are you feeling? How's Oglud?"

Kalran answered rather more positively than she likely felt, given what she'd told Sara, and the conversation soon moved on to other topics.

It wasn't long before most of the others arrived, followed eventually by Elsa.

"Hey," Sara said brightly as she opened the door. "Only twenty minutes late this time."

"Hi, Sara," Elsa said dully, with none of her usual spark.

"Are you OK?" Sara's face furrowed with concern. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Elsa muttered, her dejected expression belying her words. "Where are the others?"

Sara showed her in, choosing not to pursue the point. Elsa didn't look like she wanted to talk.

"So," Sara said, once they were all seated with drinks. "It's a pretty special meeting today as it's Kalran's first one. Kal, welcome aboard. We're a strange bunch, but you've probably noticed that already. You've been in my brain, after all."

Kalran smiled nervously. "Thank you. Thank you all, for all this, I-"

"If you say 'I don't deserve this' one more time I'm getting the salt out," Sara interrupted, trying to keep her tone light-hearted.

Kalran gave a weak smile, which was what she'd been going for. Kelly snorted, and Karen giggled, while Illim rolled his eyes at Kalran.

Sara began to pass out the agenda sheets she'd printed off. She'd started to make them a few meetings ago: as the campaign was getting bigger, it was becoming more difficult to keep track of everything and it was ever more important that the meetings stayed on topic. It was her first time leading one, though: she'd decided, at the same time as the agendas, it would be best to take it in turn officially chairing meetings, for the same reason of keeping the conversation on topic.

"Okay, so first item is the newspaper article. Alma, do you want to lead on this one?"

Alma looked nervous. "I'm afraid it didn't go well. The article doesn't really touch on the campaign at all. I'm trying to get something else set up, but I don't know how we can guarantee this won't happen again."

Sara's hand curled into a fist. "I couldn't believe my eyes when I read it," she muttered venomously. "It's not your fault, Alma. I just can't believe they lied to us like that." She turned towards Kalran. "I'm so sorry, Kal. I think it's hurt the cause more than it's helped it."

Kalran bit her lip, tears pricking at the corner of her eyes.

"Hey, it's okay," Kelly said kindly, smiling at her. "We'll get an article that does help. We'll keep trying until we do."

"No!" Kalran exclaimed. "That's not what I want. I'm not upset because it didn't help Oglud's cause." She wiped roughly at her eyes. "Look, if we do another article we need to be absolutely sure it won't be like the last one, and I doubt we can do that."

Sara frowned. "Calm down, Kal. Even if the next one doesn't help either we can keep trying. It doesn't need to be perfect."

Elsa had been unusually quiet up until now, but suddenly she spoke, her voice worn and tired. "It doesn't need to be perfect, but it needs to be quite a bit safer for the people actually doing the interview."

Huan rolled his eyes. "It's not like they were identified," he pointed out. "They kept that promise."

"I meant emotionally safer," Elsa said flatly. "It's not fair to ask anyone to be treated like that repeatedly, let alone people who are vulnerable."

"They're traitors," Huan said. His voice was calm, but there was a hint of anger around his eyes. "They'd better get used to it. No-one's going to accept them ever again."

"Leave it, Huan," Kelly snapped suddenly.

Well, that was unexpected. Sara had expected Kelly to agree; she knew she had no love for voluntary hosts, but one glance towards Elsa showed her why. Elsa looked pained, close to tears, and Kelly was her closest friend. As Sara's eyes moved away from Elsa, they landed on Kalran, and the pain in her Yeerk's face was intolerable.

"Yeah, leave it," she said harshly. "It's Kal's first meeting, don't make things difficult for her."

Kalran smiled at her, softly, but gave a gentle shake of her head. "We do need to discuss how we make sure the next interview works better. Especially if you do decide to go, Elsa."

There was a sharp intake of breath from Kelly. "What?"

Kalran immediately looked guilty. "Sorry," she said to Elsa. "I assumed that-"

"It's fine. You all probably should know." Elsa turned her head, with some effort, to face the others. "I offered to go with them, next time. And it isn't a case of if I decide, because I've already made that promise. So if you don't care about them, I'd hope at least you care about me. I'm not exactly going to find it easy."

"Elsa..." Kelly began, her brow furrowed with concern.

"Can we talk after?" Elsa said quickly to her.

Sara could see Elsa was struggling to contain her expression, and Kelly nodded quickly, though she still looked worried.

"If it helps," Karen said softly, "my father has investments in quite a few newspapers. Perhaps if he discussed the interview with them, they might be a little more understanding."

"The true spirit of independent journalism, huh?" Adam said with a smile, although there was a seriousness underneath the comment.

Karen blushed. "It'd only be to encourage them to take the interview and treat the people involved with some amount of decency. We wouldn't try to control the slant they took with the article. Most of them wouldn't have that, anyway."

"Which papers?" Alma asked curiously.

Karen shrugged. "I can't remember them all. LA Times, New York Times, some newspapers in other countries too, but we may want to start here."

"Can you fund travel, if we go to New York or wherever?" Elsa asked. "Even for Carla and Jasmine?"

"If necessary," Karen said, "although it's probably better for the papers to send a reporter here, or even use Andacall."

"Ooh," Elsa said immediately. "That's a good idea. That'd probably feel a lot safer for them."

Illim rolled his eyes. "Andacall," he muttered. "They really had to make sure humanity knew exactly who'd helped with that technology."

Kalran snorted. "Typical, isn't it?"

"Yes, yes, it's a terrible name and Andalites are arrogant," Sara said quickly. "We need to stay on topic. So, Karen, you'll try and set up an interview with, what, the New York Times?" She could hardly believe she was saying those words.

"I think that might be a bit much a bit soon," Elsa said quickly. "We'll need to build their confidence first, not to mention mine. Karen, if you can get your father to make a list I can look at it with them, see what they feel able to do." Elsa sighed. "This would be easier if Carla would meet me before the interview itself."

"She might, if it's business," Kalran piped up. "She just doesn't want to socialise... well, it might be more accurate to say she doesn't understand why you would want to socialise with her, and she's a bit-"

"Suspicious?" Elsa finished for her, the dull flatness returning to her voice. "Yeah, I know. OK, I'll ask her if she's willing to meet to discuss potential interviews, maybe prepare a bit for the questions."

"I can ask, if you like," Kalran offered. "In fact, if you wanted to and if Carla and Jasmine were comfortable with it, I'd be happy to join you. I wonder if that might help ease things along."

There was a short silence. Elsa looked surprised for a moment, then gave a slight smile, the first to appear on her face all evening. "You're right. That could work."

"Right," Sara said briskly. "So, Karen, you'll give Elsa a list, Elsa, you'll share it with the vol- with Carla and Jasmine, and feedback to Karen and Alma where you'd like them to approach. Any other comments on that item?"

They all shook their heads.

"This runs much more smoothly since you've done the agendas," Huan complimented.

Sara nodded in acknowledgement. "So, the next item is trying to get some improvements to the process of visiting the Pool." She slowed her pace down, slightly, as she turned to Kalran. "Kal? Can you tell us what you want to change?"

Kalran nodded, slowly. "I made a list, too. I learned from the best," she added, shooting Sara a soft smile. She unfolded a piece of paper and began to look carefully down it.

Sara felt her stomach twist with pain as her Kal began reading. A chance, occasionally, for a longer slot to talk when there was something important to say; for Oglud to be safer; to be treated with respect by the guards; the chance to touch the person she loved. It was a list of wishes so simple, so basic, that it was heartbreaking to hear.

"And," Kalran finished, "I know this is perhaps a big ask, but the chance for the Yeerks in the Pool to work, to be connected to society. They don't need hosts for everything they could do to do that: if we connected the Pool intranet to human employers and universities, even to the human internet... they could learn, do courses, contribute to human research and problem solving, create stories and art, maybe even act as counsellors, to nothlits at least, though I know there would be issues with them doing that for humans." Kalran sighed. "At the moment they're occupying themselves as best they can, learning all the old Empire training modules. The physical science ones are good, but not all Yeerks are interested in that. There's very little on the arts, of course, and the social and even the biological sciences are twisted with propaganda. Oglud's sister, Narliss, is studying human psychology but obviously the Empire version -"

"Shit," Kelly interrupted, her face twisted with horror. "Good God, I don't want any more Yeerks studying Empire modules on that. What are they called, anyway, 'most effective way to torture your host?'"

"Hey, Narliss is okay," Sara said gently. "She was peace movement, too."

"There's other information than that, and Narliss skips the parts that're obviously geared towards manipulation, but they worry they're getting a very biased view, and they don't want to read that kind of rhetoric, Kelly, either," Kalran said earnestly. "But they do want to learn. And to contribute, too. They want to try to undo some of what the Sharing did by preying on people's insecurities, and try to actually help them. And there are other things a connection could do. There are pieces of my research, for example, that a trained biologist in the Pool could easily do; data analysis, looking at the existing literature, anything like that, but they can't at the moment, and it's a tremendous waste for them and for us."

"It sounds it," Alma said gently. "I think they're all good points to include in the campaign."

Elsa nodded. "Thank you, Kalran. I can't tell you how valuable it is to have you with us. I hadn't even thought about what the Yeerks in the Pool might do with themselves all day."

"Yes, it's so useful," Karen said kindly, and Kalran blushed at the praise.

"Thanks, Kal, tamli." Sara was not keen on the Yeerkish phrase, it implied too close a relationship for her liking, but she'd noticed how happy Kalran looked when she used it, and made sure to do so occasionally. "Moving on…"

Karen had some news to share next: she had sourced them some proper premises in the centre of town, and some computers and other equipment to make a small office there. While it would be great to have an official place, Sara would kind of miss the meetings at different people's houses. It was sociable, doing it this way.

After a few more items: Huan and Karen discussing budgets for different activities, Alma sharing some new marketing material and so on, the meeting broke up.

Elsa gathered up the cups and insisted on taking them through to the kitchen to be washed, Kelly and Kalran following her. When Sara eventually returned from seeing the rest of the guests out, she found the three of them facing each other in the narrow kitchen, the mugs now sitting on the draining board.

"… so I just wondered how they're doing," Elsa was saying quietly to Kalran, her tone guilty.

Kelly glanced towards Sara as she entered the kitchen. Her expression was a mixture of anger and concern as she looked back at Elsa.

"They're both fine," Kalran said reassuringly. "And it really wasn't your fault. It was never going to be an easy meeting, and they knew that." Kalran frowned, then, her voice becoming a little quieter. "Are you sure you're alright?"

Elsa nodded, though her face belied the gesture. "I'm fine."