Yeerks Worst Nightmare 2: Revenge Can be a Killer
Disclaimer: Animorphs belongs to Scholastic, the Crow: Stairway to Heaven does not belong to me. None of it does, and I am not making any money.
I remember now. Everything. Being captured by the Yeerks. Being infested. Having that disgusting worm crawl into my ear. Escape. A few blessed seconds of freedom.
I also remember dying. Dying at the hands of Visser 3.
I have come back. I will put things right. I will have my revenge. There will be justice, even if it kills me.
Funny. I'm already dead.
I head for the nearest Yeerk Pool entrance. I remember it being in the junior high. So that is where I head.
Inside the school, I went to the janitor's supply closet. Flash.
I remembered going there every three days, desperately hoping for the chance to escape. I remembered leaving every three days, my hope destroyed again.
I was still pretty much zoned out when I felt a hand grab my arm. Without thinking about it, I grabbed his hand, twisted it around and bent it back, and down. I came within a breath of breaking the wrist.
"Ah!" yelped the tallish blond boy who stood behind me.
I released his wrist.
He shook his arm out and asked," You lost?"
"No, I know what I'm doing," I whispered.
I turned around and quickly twisted the catches that should have opened the door to the Pool. They didn't work.
I hit the sink in frustration.
"Are you sure you are all right?" the boy asked again.
"No," I answered, my voice a low growl. I hit the sink again. This time it shattered. I had forgotten about the boy being there. I really didn't care. If he were a Controller, I would find out soon enough.
I incline my head politely, and made as if to leave. Then I slammed the door closed behind me and pin the boy to the wall of the closet.
Tobias
Marco and Rachel had sent me to follow the doped up girl they had seen at the mall. I found her easily enough, but then she had gone into the junior high. I decided to morph to human to follow her in. I got there just in time to see her go into the closet that had the old Yeerk Pool entrance. When I tried to ask her if she was lost, the first time, she ignored me. When I touched her arm, she made Xena proud. She broke the sink. How the heck did she break the sink?
Now she has me pinned to a wall. Good grief.
"Are you a Controller?" she snarled. I gasped as she tried to cut off my circulation in my head.
"What are you talking about?" I wheezed.
"You know very well what I'm talking about. No one except Controllers has ever come into this closet."
"You're hurting me. Let go and I will tell you," I cried, because I was starting to grey out.
She slackened her grip, then let me go.
I didn't know what I was going to tell her. Well to begin with I could definitely tell her," I'm not a Controller. I never was. I never will. I'll kill myself first!"
She snorted, and gave me a look that was the kind that someone gives to a person they think has no idea of what they are talking about.
"That would be a very easy lie. Yesterday this door was open! I know it was! It was the one that that thing would make me walk down…" She trailed off, and gave a shuddering gasp. The pain she was in was obvious. But I had to wonder. When we destroyed the Kandrona, a lot off Yeerks died in their hosts, many were released. Most were killed. How could she have gotten away? Why did she think that it had been open yesterday?
She collected herself and gave me a slight, crooked smile. "You are right, though. Death was far better than what those-things- do to you. If this is a gambit, it will do you no good anyway. If you are a Controller, I was the host of Jard 178 of the Crazsk-Felp Pool. My name is Elspeth, or it was, before, a lot of things."
"I'm Tobias." I was surprised that I gave my name. But I felt that I needed to offer her my help, though I do know enough to be cautious. "I think I can help you. If you would be willing to meet me at the Gardens tomorrow, at five, maybe…we can work together."
"I doubt that. You would be excess baggage in what I have to do. I don't want anyone getting hurt by being in the way."
She opened the door, and I swear, she disappeared. I don't know how. She just did.
Elspeth
I was surprised I gave Tobias my real name. If he gave me his. The possibility of allies had not occurred to ma. I really didn't know how to process that. Maybe I will go tomorrow.
I felt a peculiar feeling of double vision. I was in the air, feeling the wind rush across my feathers. I was watching a hawk with red tail feathers rise above the school. It was that bird, and it was telling me to follow that hawk. I started following the crow, which would show me the way.
Tobias
I flew back to Cassie's barn, and landed in the rafters. I told everyone about how that girl, Elspeth had been a Controller, and was trying to get revenge.
"It gets weirder, Tobias," said Rachel. She was sitting cross-legged on a hay bale. "We thought of something like that, and we asked Eric to check to se if she was a Controller. We didn't find anything, until…" she stopped and shivered.
"Until I went through the deceased records. I recognized her form the description that Marco and Rachel gave, as to being the host of a Yeerk who is my Yeerk's Pool brother. The only problem with that theory is that she died in your first attack on the yeerk pool."
What! I nearly screamed. I couldn't believe that. She was a walking, talking person. They had to have gotten the records wrong. I said as much.
"No," said Eric. He made a projection using his hologram. "Watch."
We all saw our failed attack on the Yeerk pool. But this time I saw Elspeth in the cages. I saw her make a run for freedom after Marco had opened the door. Saw her get incinerated by Visser 3. I couldn't believe it any way. People just don't come back from the dead.
"How, how can that be possible?" asked Jake.
No one answered him
Elspeth
I saw a barn, and watched the crow fly into it. I followed. Inside were a group of teenagers, about my age. They were talking about me. They were asking how I could have come back.
"I wish I knew," I answered.
They all whirled around to face me. I looked up to the rafters to see the hawk I had followed to get here.
"Who are you?!" exclaimed the tall, muscular one.
"My name is Elspeth." The crow landed on my shoulder. I was getting used to its presence.
"You've got to be lying," said the pretty blond. "Elspeth is dead."
"So I am. I think I was, anyway. I wish I knew."
I glanced over and saw my infestor's pool mate. I hissed. I walked over to him slowly, and as I do, I felt a change. I was more powerful I cold start justice right now.
"Justice is a dish best served cold, don't you think, yeerk?"
Jake
I watched in horror as this girl changed before me. Her face became dead white, with black lips and black markings on her eyes. Even her nails turned black.
She started walking toward Eric, but Ax morphed back to himself and got in the way. He tried to hit her with his tail, but she performed a perfect high block and deflected it. He tried again and again to connect, but every time she was faster.
Stop! yelled Tobias, Stop! He's not a Controller, Elspeth! Eric, show her!
Eric dropped his hologram and opened his head to show her that the yeerk was a prisoner. She stopped suddenly, and Ax's attack got through. His tail-blade impaled her chest. She sank to the barn floor, and went limp. Cassie ran over and checked her pulse. Her expression told everyone what had happened.
"Great going Ax!" yelled Marco. "You killed her!"
Then she sat up. We all gave some sort of strangled gasp of amazement.
"I'm already dead, like I told you. I think I can only be killed once." She coughed. "That doesn't make dying any easier, though."
Ax went over and helped her up. If circumstances were better, I would ask for the honor of sparing with you on a regular basis. Prince Jake, I think we should tell her who we are.
"I agree, Ax. I think we could use your help Elspeth. If you hate the yeerks, you have come to the right place."
We told her the story of how we became Animorphs. Eric showed her the scenes of how she died. She flinched, and I could only imagine what it was like to have to see your own death.
"I've been dead a year, huh? So my parents…"
None of us knew how to answer that.
"I will join you for now. But I have to do something. I have to put things right, get justice, or I will never be able to go back. I'm not supposed to be here. I just wish I knew what it was I'm supposed to be doing."
I wish I knew too, I thought.
Cassie said something we all agreed about.
"We want to help you, Elspeth."
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