Empowered #2: Intangible Cage

by tarsis

BWAHAHA! ~calms self~ This is the sequel to Empowered #1 (no, really?) and has muchas Xaralite/Animorph involvement (Tobias: TOO much...) Oh, shut up, you're just bitter. A particular threat from the Zaceton Controllers is discovered. (An actual SUMM

INSANELY LONG AUTHOR'S NOTE FOLLOWS: YOU MAY JUST SCROLL DOWN TO THE BIG LETTERS IF YOU'D LIKE.

Here it is! BWAHAH!! Longest thing I've ever written and I am just so amazingly proud of myself. Bwahah. Bwahah. Bwahah. Okay, I'm calm. I swear. I am.

On a more serious note, this is set before #45 (AKA, not including the story arc). Constructive criticism is massively welcome, but if you can't do that, at least review. C'mon. Validate my pathetic existence.

Yes, I got that quote from a Dilbert book. Learn to deal.

Major thanks goes to Renn (RenegadeLegacy) for cowriting with me once again (You rock!), Amalin (for just being there to plot with/talk with/annoy in general), AniSky (who I used to plot with), Saber Tooth (who listened to me ranting about how long this idiot fic was getting), and generally the group of OLers. Bwaha. Bwahaha.

Man, I'm disturbed.

Oh, one more thing. ~cringes, whimpers, generally looks pathetic~ Uh, E#1 was reuploaded several times, while I tried to change the names. Well. Um. They got changed back, and the chars are now OFFICIALLY Xilite and ACapir again, never to be changed. BWAHAHAHA!!

Xilite: Save us.

I apologize for the many reuploads, and hopefully this fic will only need to be uploaded once. Cross your fingers. Bwahaha.

Xilite: You laugh evilly far too often.

Bwahaha.

INTANGIBLE CAGE

Chapter One

If one was suddenly ejected into space to search for Xarila, equipped with a fighter and all other materials needed, that person might possibly find it, but would probably not know what he had found. The remains of the planet were contained in the one small, blasted chunk of rock that had survived the Zacetons' attack, and could easily be mistaken for space debris - which was all it was, really.

The searcher might, however, have also spotted an immense ship looming not so far away.

ACapir glared out what passed for a window into dark, star-studded space. The Tamael was captured; more than four hundred and fifty hostages had been taken by foes that were assumed to be the Yeerks. True, one hundred and fifty of those were Xaralites - but they were Xaralites who should have belonged to their torturers.

He shook his head. And I'm one to complain about losing captives.

The thought brought back painful memories, and underneath it all the sense of horrible futility, because they were nothing except memories. But he'd conditioned himself to the report that had come, and he was moving past it. Forcing himself to move past it. And eventually he would be strong enough in his self-control to force himself to forget.

And yet he still could not think about the account his underlings had brought without feeling the lightning bolt of pain strike him.

Turning back to the inside of the room, and its occupants, he smiled. Courage drained from the captured Andalite warrior's eyes. ACapir's smile often had that effect.

"What do you know of the Tamael?"

The warrior shifted as well as he could in the incapacitating grip of the Zaceton guards. He had the feeling that his life depended on answering the question well, but even though he racked his brain for a memory of such a name he came up empty, and sagged. I've never heard the title before.

"Really."

If you fight the Yeerks, he ventured, the Andalites are not your enemies.

Normally he would not have relaxed the natural Andalite arrogance that far, but ACapir's eyes made him still more uneasy than his smile did.

"We fight the Yeerks for one sole purpose: to regain what we have lost. And afterwards they can pillage the universe, destroy your kind, and perform whatever other notions come into their heads." He shrugged. "We can use them for target practice later, if we ever need such an exercise."

I think you'll find them a bit harder to defeat, the Andalite snapped acidly, taking it as a personal insult to his kind that, though he apparently viewed them so easy to kill, they were still alive.

"You'd know, I assume. Do they get their weapons technology from you, as well?" The same smile appeared on his face. "Well. What is your name, Andalite?"

I am Rinuel-Semitur-Faryon.

"Related to Alloran-Semitur-Corass in any way? I've never really understood the Andalite way of naming," said ACapir, with a look that also implied that he'd never bothered to try.

No.

"What a pity. He was an excellent warrior before he allowed himself to be infested," the Zaceton said conversationally. "Excellent strategist too, I hear, even if his plot did have certain...defects. For instance, the Hork-Bajir are still alive."

Rinuel knew he should have been shocked by the cold-blooded reference to the quantum virus, but somehow he was not. He twitched what would have been his tail blade if his tail had not been half gone. ACapir evidently knew not only how to beat an Andalite fighter-pilot, but how to humiliate him as well.

The smile crossed his features yet again, but Rinuel was becoming conditioned to it. It did not hold the terrifying edge that it had possessed on his mind. The knowledge came with the hope that perhaps, if he could learn to accept even that frightening expression, he could get out of the situation he had been placed in alive.

"So. Tell me about yourself. Specifically, which would you fear more - death, or infestation?"

Hope crashed down with its engines suddenly short-circuited as Rinuel noticed a small pool of sludge resting in a clear vault. He trembled with horror, and flailed, trying to back away. This choice was one that Andalites dreaded. And ACapir smiled again.

The Yeerk seemed to watch him, despite the fact that Rinuel knew it was blind. It seemed to follow its movements. It wanted those movements to control.

They're blind in that state, Rinuel. Stop it. Stop it. He shuddered.

"Well?"

He jerked out of the fearful reverie. Death. Of course. As any Andalite would.

ACapir nodded. "I've heard it said," he remarked. "But somehow I believe that it's only said out of the intensely dramatic feeling that accompanies it. From what I've learned of your kind, it's rarely said where the knife blade meets the throat. Forgive my phrasing. I suppose it would be 'where the tail blade meets the throat' for your kind."

We mean it, he said boldly. He nodded to himself to repel the doubt that ACapir's words awakened and repeated, We mean it, as if saying it would make it more true.

"And another thing I have noticed about the Andalites," said ACapir, mostly to the Zaceton guards, "is that they'll always deny it."

They laughed, not a guffawing laugh like the Hork-Bajir's, but a sound that slipped through the air so much that one hardly noticed the rough, jeering note in it.

"Let's give our Andalite his moment of glory, shall we?" ACapir suggested companionably. "You say you'd prefer death. We'll humor you."

Rinuel felt himself being dragged forward, and suddenly the inside door of an airlock was before him. He jerked violently, but the manacles suddenly clapped over his hands and legs paralyzed any threat he might have posed.

He was thrust through.

And then the outside door opened.

One scream made its way to their minds, but the guards did not even see ACapir's countenance twitch. He merely watched as the ship flew on, past the doomed alien. Such a death never bothered him, especially not lately.

Privately, he reflected that his release of Xilite had been a violation of his higher goals, and that the violation had to be recompensed for. He felt as though he needed to prove himself, to himself, because the doubts she had brought were not things he could afford to accommodate.

"You may go," he informed the guards curtly.

"Do you have any orders for us?"

"If I did, I would not have given you leave to go," he said in the tone of one explaining basic concepts, "would I?"

They bowed in one swift motion, and exited.

ACapir looked back. Rinuel was barely visible. He shouldn't have been visible at all after so long, except that orders had been given for the ship to go slower, so that he could see the last hope for survival disappear. ACapir considered it idiocy, but AXarin seemed to take a sadistic pleasure in such unnecessary orders.

He glanced down at the radar. An Andalite fighter was approaching the still figure of Rinuel. He shrugged, and doubted that the Andalite had enough breath left to save.

* * * * *

Andalite! Galuit-Enilon-Esgarrouth called. Andalite!

Rinuel did not answer. He could not.

Galuit swore. He knew nothing of the Andalite in front of him except that it was an Andalite, and their loyalty demanded that they not allow each other to die unheeded. Or at least Galuit's loyalty did. Not all of the race was the same.

A mild tractor beam drew the body into the fighter. Galuit quickly activated a computer to sense his pulse and heartbeat, and beseeched Fate that he was not dead.

A pulse, he murmured, and his "voice" seemed to echo in the still room. And a heartbeat. But fading quickly.

Anger leaped within him. The Zacetons were monsters. For a moment he was glad of the Tamael's fate, despite the fact that it gave the Yeerks more slaves.

The computer sent a powerful current through Rinuel's body. The pulse jumped slightly, and for a moment the heartbeat was strong, but it slowed to a soft tremor after a moment. He quickly ordered the computer to repeat it - and the same happened. He swore again, then paused, listening to the murmur that was suddenly added to the bleeps of the computerized First-Aid.

Infestation or death. Death. Death. Choose death.

A shiver raced through Galuit. He drew back slightly from the body that now had no heartbeat, and no pulse.

Death. Choose death.

The impenetrable war-prince shook like a frightened child, and the computer scanned the body again. Status: Dead flashed across the screen.

Death. Death.

Galuit reared up slightly, and his tail blade thrashed. He brought it down on Rinuel's head, justifying his action with the report the computer had already returned.

Blood streamed down from the huge wound and the caved-in skull.

Death. Death. The chant grew louder. Choose death!

Was that expression in the words? Was it feeling? Was it emotion?

Death! Death!

The inside airlock opened, and for the second time Rinuel's form was thrust into space. Galuit fell back against the console, the panic slowly dying, but the horror becoming no less real.

And still the empty eyes stared proudly.

And still his voice cried Death!

* * * * *

Xilite frowned at the laptop-size computer balanced in her lap. The screen was the greatest source of light in the very early-morning air. A clock that she had adjusted to Earth time flashed "3:23 Ante-Meridian" when she mentally moved the cursor over it.

Her right hand rested on the small pad that serve as the "input" portion of the interface, and her left flicked a thin waterfall of dark gold hair away from her eyes. The frown did not leave her lips.

"You have their DNA," she murmured almost inaudibly. "Where is it?"

The computer seemed to stare innocently back at her. She cursed the program that she'd made for the purpose of collecting specific-model DNA. Another program could concoct species-oriented DNA if she already had the main information for the said species, but this one was made purely to accept an outsider's "data" and afterwards edit it to her liking.

She hesitated as she moved the cursor over the "Exit" command, and moved it to the clock instead, sighing in frustration at the fact that a fruitless hour had gone by already.

I can program another one, she reminded herself. They're gullible. Or they might be. For a while.

Xilite closed the computer down, a look of disgust on her face. It would be dawn in a mere matter of hours. And she had been unable to sleep since the last dream, or unwilling to.

She shivered, and crept down the tree noiselessly. Her clawed feet hit the carpet of pine needles with a soft sound similar to sand being poured on a dune.

The night was lightless, except for the horrible glare of the bitter moon in a navy sky. She looked up through the forest's canopy, and shivered again as she caught sight of it. It felt so horribly empty, so horribly alien. The stars flickering behind it had no place in her memory, despite the fact that she'd probably seen them a million times before from her own planet. It was hard to tell.

The face in the moon. That was what the humans called it. Well, that face had a hostile grin, a sneer, proud and resentful eyes. It mocked her. It mocked everything about her. It read to her soul, it cut to her soul.

She shifted away from its glare. There was death in the air that night. The smell of death invaded the zephyrs around her, laughing as they carried it away, as crimson blood dripped from the moon's ivory forehead.

Death everywhere.

Your dramatic side is running away with you, she warned her panicking consciousness. Stop it. Get control.

She focused on what she wanted to see. A pure moon - no face - a simple sphere. Stars that were merely pinpoints of light, and not the eyes of tortured Xaralites.

She focused on what she wanted to feel. A simple breeze - bearing nothing - only cooling the already cold air. No death-scent. Only the forest's sweet smell.

And she opened her eyes, and she saw it. And felt it. And she could slow her racing heart even though she knew that she'd manufactured everything she saw now, and that what she had seen before was only an exaggeration of reality.

There is death in the winds tonight.

She shuddered, and began to run.

* * * * *

Serua opened her eyes as a form streaked by the tree that she had taken for her own. The brown Xaralite's vision adjusted quickly to the dark night, and she saw Xilite, running her heart out.

With a heart as small as hers, it wouldn't take long. With that poisonous thought, she stretched and shielded herself as well as she could from the fierce wind that swept by.

* * * * *

"Shh," Cassie said softly. She wiped a sweaty forehead with her glove, and then reflected on the fact that she could have had a better idea than that. The dirt smudged around her short hair and covered her face with a muddy sheen.

The cougar did not "shh." The cougar continued pacing in his tiny enclosure, infuriated at being held in, and unwilling to tolerate it calmly.

"We all live in a cage of one kind or another," a voice said from behind the girl. Cassie stiffened as she recognized Xilite. "Some of us," she said with a half-smile, "merely have more tangible ones than others do. Hello, Cassie."

"Hello, Xil. We can call you that?" she said with what she hoped was a joking laugh.

Her eyes hardened. "I'd prefer Xilite."

The attempt at joviality had obviously struck a nerve, and as good as Xilite was at hiding emotions, Cassie noticed the sudden pain in her now-angry eyes. "Sorry. So. Do -" She swallowed. "Did the Xaralites have animals on their planet?"

"Of course. What else would we hunt?" She laughed, but there was nothing joking about it as there had been with Cassie's. "You humans are lucky. You can digest plants. We can't."

Cassie nodded uncomfortably. "Yes. I suppose. Did you have any animals as companions?"

"Pets, you mean? We wouldn't have called them pets. But yes, we did have friendships, I suppose they could be called, with the animals we hunted with." Another hardening of the eyes was evident. "They were all destroyed, of course."

"I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry."

Xilite looked at her, and seeing that the words were heartfelt, softened a little. "So are we all. There were of course worse casualties. If only the animals had been killed, Xarila would have been lucky."

"So you lost your parents?" Cassie winced. That probably hadn't been the brightest comment she could have made, either.

"I lost my father. My mother has been dead for quite a while." The statement seemed to sting Xilite less than the grief over her hunting companion had. She shrugged slightly. "Death happens."

"I...I guess." Xil seemed to possess the talent of making others feel extreme confusion and/or discomfort on any topic discussed. Cassie swallowed again and turned back to the cougar.

He'd relaxed a little, watching them. His side was pressed against the right of the cage, fur sticking against the bars.

Cassie jammed the syringe in his coat suddenly. He roared in fury and tried to swipe at her through the cage as she emptied the meds into his system.

"Why would you do that?"

"It's medicine." Cassie stood, and brushed herself off. "This is what my dad and I do. There are some humans who will hurt animals for pleasure, and some who just aren't careful. We try to make sure the animals still survive 'unnatural disasters.' My mom's a vet at the Gardens."

"The Gardens?"

"Habitats for the more exotic animals," she explained briefly. "The ones that don't just roam around the woods."

"Ah." Xilite's eyes drifted back to the cougar. Her voice weakened a bit. "It looks like my old hunting cat. Cilayan, that was her name." She recalled the title as if from a deep haze. "I tried to save her. But I didn't realize until it was too late, I suppose." She shook her head. "I had to watch her burn. Burn."

Cassie looked horrified. "That's - the Zacetons must be horrible creatures. Sick creatures."

"Not all of them." Xilite seemed to shift out of her trance, huge green eyes clearing. "What happened to the cougar?"

"Shot. Bad aim, luckily. Probably some fool who wanted to prove that he could shoot a cougar. We've had him quite a while, and he should be released soon."

"Shot?" Xilite's brow furrowed.

"With a human gun," Cassie clarified. "Bullets, you know?"

"Yes. Those." She nodded. Cassie wondered how she knew about them.

She glanced at a digital clock that blared "5:49 A.M.," looked back at Xilite, and chuckled softly. "I have morning chores here...what's your excuse?"

"Pardon?"

"For being here so early."

"Oh. I...generally don't sleep once I wake up once. I normally cannot fall asleep again," Xilite said evasively, and Cassie noted that somehow the explanation was too wordy and too forced.

Xilite bared her teeth as she noticed the expression in Cassie's eyes, unused to people who could read her emotions from her words. The Xaralites shifted and reminded herself to be more careful.

"You said he'd be released soon. How soon?"

"Perhaps two or three days." She smiled fleetingly. "We could probably release him now, but just in case..."

"I see," Xilite lied, wondering how much it would benefit the feline to be held any longer than absolutely necessary.

He paced again, and glared directly at her. A jolt of electricity passed through her, an iota of understanding, a flash of his consciousness being imbedded in hers.

And her own words came back to her.

We all live in a cage of one kind of one kind or another. Some of us merely have more tangible ones than others do...

She shook her head against the words, and without another word to Cassie, bowed and exited.

Chapter Two

"Evliis wishes to speak with you."

ACapir's heart took a moment of shocked negligence of its job, and started again as though trying to make up for lost time. "Does he," he said weakly, mind reeling from the sheer force of the honor conveyed on him, and mustered the self-control to calmly say "The honor is great."

"Many who have said that traditional response met him to find that he only wished to discuss their past failures, you know. Or not really discuss. To have those failures...expiated...and generally not in a quick, painless way."

The huge black Zaceton raised an eyebrow, silver streaks that darted through his fur flashing in the artificial light that emanated from the walls. "You, AXarin, have never had the summons to speak with him, I believe."

"I've never been tortured for a failure, either," his verbal opponent said, with a shrug. "You, ACapir, have much to answer for."

ACapir looked at him, and read in his eyes no jealousy, no well-concealed envy. He truly would not have wished to be in the position that ACapir was in.

To take risks? ACapir laughed to himself.

"Perhaps I do," he confirmed. "Both good and bad reports have been brought of me, however."

"Evliis only focuses on the bad ones."

"You stereotype him," said ACapir, with a smirk, "like you stereotype the ones you torture."

"I could have broken the Andalite," AXarin retorted dangerously.

"Perhaps, but not as quickly as I did. One of these days you'll learn that physical torture - tearing off limbs, electrocuting, et cetera - does not always work as well as breaking their minds. Sometimes it only fuels some prideful attitude that tells them to carry on for whatever values they pursue, and they scream out defiance as you increase the torment."

AXarin glared, angered at being insulted and also at having the conversation turned, from a place where he could instill worry in ACapir's seemingly impenetrable mind, to a place where ACapir could attack the skills he employed in his profession.

"And you'd know much about the really painful torture," he remarked casually, eyeing ACapir. "You, who had enough pity to release a captive?" With a flash of insight into what could make him react, he added, "To release Xilite?"

ACapir snarled and struck AXarin across the face. He reeled back as ACapir resumed his original calm position.

"Do not mention her to me, ever again. Is this understood?"

AXarin made no comment, but nodded slowly while the blood dripped down.

"Good. If you'll excuse me, I have an obligation to fulfil."

Who knows? thought the gold Zaceton that watched him go. Perhaps we'll be lucky enough to watch his death. He tried to wipe away the blood on the long claw marks that he'd keep for quite a while. I'd tolerate anything for that.

* * * * *

"ACapir."

He bowed slightly, a gesture that was more traditional than respecting, and did not take his eyes off the emperor. Evliis, fully aware that he was the only creature who ACapir would give even a slightly respectful bow to, nodded arrogantly and motioned to a chair.

Despite himself, ACapir ran his eyes over the chair first, checking for any hidden springs that could turn it into a crude prison. He found nothing, and threw himself back on the chair with a somewhat unimpressed look.

Evliis frowned, and the questioning began.

"What is your rank, ACapir?"

"I am the main torturer and captain." He inclined his head slightly, as was customary. "But you must know this, as it is the rank directly below your own."

"In this position, ACapir, you have seen many things. You have seen death, suffering, and heard the screams of those who beg for mercy. And you have seen and heard these effects not as an onlooker, but as a participant in the acts that made them break."

"The emperor is correct," he confirmed with an unsettling smile.

"However, it has come to my attention that you possess a talent for pity." As AXarin had, he spoke the word with inexpressible contempt. "That is not an emotion we encourage, ACapir. And you have not only cultivated it, but acted on it. Because of this, nine Xaralites are freed."

The usual response to such a speech was a bowed head and somewhat uneasy fidgeting. ACapir kept his glittering silver eyes on the emperor, and it was Evliis who shifted in his chair.

"Have you nothing to say to that?"

"Only that it was not for pity that they escaped," he said with a shrug. "And they are dead now, so what does it matter?"

"No. You are wrong."

ACapir jerked, and leaned forward a bit in his chair involuntarily.

"They may not be dead," he clarified. "Xilite is most likely alive, ACapir, and I know it is her name that you are waiting to hear. Our fighter was destroyed, yes. But sources - specifically, our computers - show that nine Xaralites exist on Earth. Apparently," he said with a sort of disapproving smile, "Earth is a popular place, most likely because of their ignorance. Free Hork-Bajir, Yeerks, and Taxxon-Controllers also exist there. The humans must be blind."

He carefully kept his countenance blank.

What does this mean? he screamed silently. I wanted to be controlled. Emotionless. And I'm endangering what I worked for. Work for.

"So. ACapir. What are you going to do?"

Evliis watched him. ACapir met the glare of those eyes and returned it. "What I have been doing."

"Oh?" he said poisonously. "Freeing captives?"

"Torturing them." ACapir showed his teeth. "Tell me, Evliis, did you ever have proof that I released them?"

The emperor glared. "I have my sources."

"You know, Evliis" - and he recoiled from a Zaceton with a lower rank than he who dared to call him that - "that they all wish to see me killed, or demoted. And yet you are gullible enough to accept information from them."

Evliis made an infuriated motion and started to call for his guards.

ACapir arrested his hand and drew a knife, which he pressed to the emperor's wrist. "You could have me killed," he hissed, "but what I have said will still be true. And if you try to have me destroyed and I survive, you will die."

"If you survive," Evliis sneered, still shocked at the iron grip that pinned his arm to the desk.

"I wouldn't risk it."

ACapir released him, and stalked out the door.

* * * * *

He sat with his head bowed, shifting uneasily in the chair that he had slid up to his console. The screen's bright lights reflected in his ebony fur, and flickered in his troubled onyx-hued eyes.

So she's alive. The thought tormented his mind and seemed to send electricity through him. Electricity that he did not want. It is emotion, unnecessary emotion. I don't want to have emotion.

I made that decision before I knew that she was alive.

It was a good decision, even so...

He fought against the demons that argued in his brain. It was his answer that would decide. He only wished that he had one.

His console let out a rapid beeping, and he snapped his head up.

"Incoming message from C1 to C2."

He frowned at the words, not only at the fact that Evliis sent him yet another message, but at the fact that in rank he was behind the emperor. Competitive fire overtook him for a moment, and then he relaxed. "Accept."

There was a slight whirring sound, and then Evliis's face appeared on the screen.

"My brave ACapir," he said, smiling broadly. His smile was not as unsettling as his subordinate's, but more mischievous. "We have an assignment for you."

"What is it?" he returned, leaning back casually in the chair, arms folded.

"Bring her back." Evliis flashed another smile before ACapir could respond. "You leave in an hour. Do it." He leaned closer to the transmission device he used. "Or I'll have you dead in an hour."

"I don't respond to threats, Evliis," ACapir said coldly. "Find a way to make it worth my while."

"Very well. Leave in an hour, and we won't even kill her when you find her."

He sneered and closed the window, which disappeared along with Evliis's smirking face.

* * * * *

"Xilite," Llera said, bowing as the captain strode near. They seemed to snap to attention without actually moving at all as she moved to the certain of their little circle.

She nodded, and inclined her head.

"What is to be done about these humans?" Rlin said eagerly.

Xilite ignored her, and slid her knife out of its scabbard. Kalaos felt for the hilt of his own, wary for some reason he could not have explained. But Xilite only motioned to the handle of the weapon, and said, "Does anyone see a difference?"

"A difference in what?" said the sulking Rlin.

"Ah..." Takara shifted. "Is it that you have reduced some sort of a computer to a portable size and placed it there?"

Xilite glanced at her, shocked.

"I was right?" Her eyes lit up with childish pleasure. "I can't see a difference, I really can't. I only guessed."

"Well, then, you guessed well." Xilite gave her a smile, and the glow on Takara's face shifted to a steady light of pride. The leader suddenly felt a certain empathy towards her, a certain friendliness that was unidentifiable. She shook her head. Empathy, and friendship, were the last things she needed.

"And what functions can this miniaturized device perform?" Xahis inquired, eyeing it. He was the scientist. It would have pained Xilite to admit that in some scientific areas he might have been more skilled than she, and it wasn't proven, she reminded herself. Only very strongly suspected, and not by anyone else but her. And perhaps Kalaos. She frowned. It probably, she thought, isn't even true.

"Watch." Xilite allowed a grin that was subtly proud, and slid the computer from its grip on the hilt of her knife. A small holographic screen expanded.

"It's controlled completely by voice, since it's not large enough to be operated any other way," she informed them. "Computer - larger."

It obeyed, and the screen swelled until its top almost brushed the bottom branches of a large tree that kept watch over them.

"Ah, excellent. Computer - DNA: human."

"Male...or...female?" it responded in a jerky voice with breaks between the words. Xahis mentally calculated out several possible problems and solutions.

"Computer - female." In an aside she added, "It will only take what you're saying as a command if you say 'computer' first and use a particular tone. A fault I may have to program out."

"I can probably fix that," Xahis volunteered.

He felt her icy green eyes on him, and she hesitated, then nodded briefly. "I'll make a copy for you to work on."

"Where are you getting the materials needed for this?" Kalaos demanded.

"Fighter wreckage."

That can't be true, he hissed silently. The fighter was completely destroyed. Where is she getting it?

"Computer - edit option on. Computer - project sensors in holographic field." There was no immediate change, but after a moment a small keyboard appeared. Xilite shifted so that she was directly around it, and began to tap gently at the holographic keys. Her fingers slid through them.

"That can't possibly work," Xioyes said in his ever-nervous, almost bouncing way. Xilite tried to remember why she hadn't left him with the Zacetons, and failed.

"Computer - done. Computer - save file."

"File...name...is?"

"Catharine." She sighed. "Computer - Catharine."

"Spelled...how?"

"Computer - C-a-t-h-a-r-i-n-e," Xilite said in exasperation. She wondered if Xahis was silently mocking it. Then she straightened. Even he would not have known the language she'd needed to program it. And he could not have begun to know how to do it. It was impossible. She hoped.

"Done...display...product?"

"Absolutely."

She reached out to touch the tiny computer, and focused. An electrical surge ran through her as a spasm rocked her body, and she fell to her knees in pain. It was the tradeoff - a smaller computer stimulated far greater agony. It shouldn't have been scientifically possible for any computer to be able to conjure up that much misery...

Her eyes closed.

No! No!

And her consciousness gave way.

FLASH.

Her cell door flew open and her arms jerked against the shackles in surprise.

AXarin sneered.

"What are you doing here? The torture cells are down the hall," she informed him. But his eyes made her uneasy.

"Well, the torture cells don't do much to break you," he retorted, "do they? It seems that we have to find other...ways."

His eyes suddenly made her much more than uneasy as he brushed her hair back from her face. "More permanent ways."

She snarled at him and struggled in the manacles that held her to the wall.

FLASH.

She thrashed once, and stood up shakily, wiping beads of sweat away and trying to compose her terrified expression.

"A wonderful invention," Kalaos said smoothly.

"Silence!" she snapped. She ran a hand through her hair and glared back at him. He blinked in confusion.

There was a long pause before she regained control.

"As you know, I refused their technology. The Andalite technology. The power to change shapes." Her eyes held their steady and slightly disapproving gaze. "I did this because we will owe them nothing, you understand? If given a choice between owing them your life and death, choose death, because if you live you are indebted and I will kill you myself rather than let you endanger us."

"Harsh," Kalaos commented.

"No harsher than the torture you underwent at the hands of the Zacetons, Kalaos, as I'm sure you realize," she said with a deceptively sweet smile. "No harsher than the torture you'd be receiving without me."

He was silenced, and he hated himself. She flashed another smile.

"But I recognize the fact that to blend in with humans, we may need some way to...camouflage ourselves."

Rlin brightened. "And once among them, we can kill them!"

"You really do speak without thinking, don't you, my brave subordinate?"

She was skating the edge of the cliff, and she knew it. Kalaos's fists clenched at her words to his sister; Xioyes looked annoyed in his nervous way; Rlin fingered a knife, humiliation clear on her face; Llera's eyes flickered as she was for a moment torn between loyalty and disapproval. But Xahis and Tykeln did not flinch, and Serua barely raised an eyebrow, and Takara kept that childish look of joy at being approved. She still had warriors that she could command to kill them if she needed to. And Llera had immediately shifted back towards Xilite, as if trying to show support. Rlin and Xioyes seemed to fearfully reconsider as well - and finally the only one who bore a countenance of disapproval was Kalaos.

She would have to worry about him, eventually.

"I have the DNA of three humans, and one Andalite."

"The hawk?" Rlin demanded eagerly. Xilite frowned slightly, wondering why Rlin would ask about him in particular, but dismissed it.

"No, I don't have the hawk. Or the darker human."

"That was what happened with the computer," Xahis said in satisfaction. "I suspected it."

"What happened?" Llera asked.

"You don't remember?" Xahis smiled slightly at her. "The pain, the flash - the hawk would have been killed, and the human is an estreen. The computer cannot handle them, apparently."

"Astutely observed," Xilite commented. "I do not have the DNA of those humans and that Andalite accessible at the moment, because of a glitch in the program, but I do have human DNA. Editable human DNA. We can each program our own human forms...such as this." She slipped the computer back around her knife hilt, and tapped it once.

A holographic cube suddenly surrounded her, and seemed to harden as a force field went up. The hologram changed rapidly, projecting the idea of a morph. Dark blonde hair flowed around her shoulders and spilled over, down her back. Her green eyes seemed to shade out, and then be colored back in with a hint of blue that humans would have called "hazel" if one had been watching. Her height stayed about the same for a moment, and then shrank a few inches.

She suddenly felt vulnerable, and slid her hand to the knife that was still hanging around her waist. The way she'd programmed it, she could still reach through the force field, but no one could reach past it until the power was very, very low. She reminded herself of that.

A pair of black jeans replaced the fur on her legs in one smooth motion, and a white shirt appeared over the gold-and-brown pelt. She seemed to grab a black jacket out of midair, and slide it around her shoulders.

It was the change on her face that was perhaps most interesting. The fur pattern was only two-dimensional, etched across a smooth background. The gold and brown colors merged, and drained away to her cheeks as the human skin tone supplanted them. The close-to-end effect was a human with a very strange shade of blush - and then it vanished. The cube adjusted itself to the human dimensions, and managed to hide the outline of the knife-scabbard.

"Why doesn't the computer just automatically display a human?"

"Because, quite frankly, I want them to think we're morphing," she said without preamble and without apology. "Also because a program like this is challenging to write, and even someone like, say, Rlin, could write the other."

"That's enough!" Kalaos roared. He took a step forward. "I've had it with this, Xilite. You cannot -"

"I cannot?" Her voice was human, very human, with none of the hissing Xaralite sound to it, and none of the purring noise to soften it. "I cannot?"

Kalaos growled. "No. You cannot."

"Go back to the Zacetons, then, Kalaos. And then you tell me what I cannot do, when you're not dependent on my actions to survive."

"That's the past, Xilite."

"And you are indebted." She sneered. "You remember what I said about the humans? Better to die than to be indebted. And you are all indebted. This is what being indebted is."

A strange hush fell over the group, even Kalaos, at her words. And then they nodded slightly - except for him.

She almost smiled. Whatever could be said of him, he had a will of his own.

Chapter Three

"Where is she?" demanded Marco.

"You're so impatient for her to get here," Rachel said with a grin.

"What are you implying?"

"That you can't get a date with a human, so you turn to the aliens."

"Oh. Just curious."

Jake watched the seething mass of mall-rats carefully, snapping only a quick "Quiet down, you two," before ignoring them again. Cassie reached for his hand, reading the nervousness in his eyes, and grasped it wordlessly. He relaxed a little.

"She said she'd have a way to get here," he muttered. "But she can't morph, can she?"

"Who can't?"

Rachel spun around in her chair at the sudden, lilting voice just behind her. The chair screeched agonizingly on the tiled floor, but the girl facing her barely winced at the horrendous sound.

They stared.

She was so stunningly normal. There was nothing alien about her, no faint flicker in her pure eyes that betrayed who she was. Flawless dark blonde hair swept over her black jacket, that somehow didn't seem too overstated or too prep-esque.

She was too perfect. And that was the one thing that could betray her identity.

"So." Rachel leaned back. "Hello, Xilite."

"Rachel." The holographic lips curved into a smile as she rested an arm on the table.

"How did you morph?" Jake demanded, motioning for her to be seated.

She refused the seat that Marco pulled out with somewhat of a caustic glare. "I have no reason to tell you. Please don't ask. You will find out when the time is right."

Jake shot up out of his chair and caught her wrist, anger evident. "You will tell us now."

The fear of a caged animal showed forth in her hazel eyes, and she tried to twist away.

He can't hurt you, Xilite. He can't. He can't. Logic. Be logical. He's just a human, not - not AXarin. She snatched her wrist away and glared, snapping "human" fingers quickly. The sound seemed louder than it should have been, but it had its effect - two more strode forward.

She eyed the male, and wondered if it was really the smartest thing to bring him into contact with the Animorphs again. But she didn't trust him back with the other Xaralites - Kalaos would stir up a rebellion if he had the chance.

"Their human names are Kalvin and Sierra." She bowed briefly. "I am Catharine. Cath, for preference."

"You know us by other names, quite obviously," Serua said with a slight grin.

"I believe - beeeeeee, leave - that this is not the best, best-uh, way to begin our alliance. Alliance. Lliance. A-lia -"

"You must be the Andalite," Kalvin half-smiled.

"I am an Andalite. An. Da. Lite. Lite."

"You're merely an idiot, it seems," Serua snapped, shaking her reddish hair. "You called our leader here" - Cassie alone noticed the sneer on the words - "and we're obviously to be her escorts. So enlighten us on your plans, oh mighty humans."

"Both of you, silence." Xilite's words were electricity, which her eyes could conduct well. Serua seated herself in a chair at the next table over, with Kalaos seated across from her, and Xilite's choice was between yanking up a chair at their table or accepting the still-proffered seat next to Marco. She finally fell back into the one at the Animorphs' table. Rachel nudged Marco jokingly, and he glared.

"I echo Serua's - or, excuse me, Sierra's - question," Xilite said meaningfully.

"If you leave us out of your plans," said Tobias, "why should we include you in ours?"

"Because you called me here, and I came," she retorted. "I would be most incensed if I had made the trip here for nothing."

"Hey, hey," Cassie said, rising a little as if she could calm them down better if she was standing. "Guys. Cut it out. C'mon. We have bigger issues?"

"Yeah." Jake sank back into his chair. Cassie paused and looked at Xilite, but she was already relaxed, just with that cold expression in already icy blue-green eyes.

The expression was not loosened, but she reclined a little more in the chair, tilting it on two legs and pushing off the chair behind her. "So. After this pleasant little interlude...what's up?"

"Human talk again," Marco mumbled.

Her eyes swerved to his. "What was that?"

"Nothing," he said, and flashed her a smile.

"Marco, right?"

"Yes," said Marco, and beamed out another smile.

"Is there something wrong with him?" she asked. He cranked up the grin a few more notches, to just above a ten on the insane meter.

"Yes," Rachel answered, with a shrug. "Always is." She drummed her fingers on the table. "Down to business. Jake?"

He leaned forward, casting a cautious look around to make sure that no one could hear them. Kalaos and Serua sat back calmly, listening the nearby conversation. What Xilite wanted them to know, they'd find out. And what she didn't - Kalaos resolved that he'd find that out as well, later.

"Your kind, Xil, has been captured."

"Xilite."

Jake looked mildly taken aback. "No offense meant," he said with a shrug. "Well, they've been captured, and they can power a Yeerk completely, with no Kandrona rays. This has to be stopped."

Her eyes narrowed. "What are you suggesting?"

"That we do something about it." He raised an eyebrow suddenly, and touched Xilite's arm with a suspicious look.

It was flickering on the table, flashing her own Xaralite fur pattern every few seconds.

"That's not a morph."

"It's disguise enough, isn't it?" she returned in her controlled manner. She looked over at "Cerra" and "Kalvin" to see if their own computer copies were holding up, and to her relief they were.

"An imperfect disguise." His brow furrowed. "You'll have to take the morphing power."

She shrugged. "Perhaps. But back to your comment. Do what about it?"

The human looked uneasy.

"Do what about it?"

"We may have to destroy them," he said bluntly. "As many as we can. We may. It may not come to that, but we may."

"Why do you keep repeating yourself?" laughed she. "Yes, yes, I agree."

Kalaos rocketed up in his chair. It clattered noisily to the ground while the humans stared in shock, and he began to yell.

Xilite was up in a flash, dropping her hand to the knife that hung by her side. She let her hand rest where the scabbard was concealed, and gave him a menacing look.

They glared at each other.

"Be seated," she said coolly, motioning to his fallen chair.

Hot with anger and embarrassment, he took a step towards her and grabbed his knife beneath the hologram's concealing veil.

"You wouldn't dare draw that."

She's right, he screamed silently at himself. You wouldn't dare! Fool! Idiot!

His hand clenched around it.

"Be seated." Her tone had not changed throughout the monologue.

The others sat, frozen, watching, and Rachel felt herself start to stand. If this was action, she wanted to be in on it - and Xilite's eyes met hers. She sank back.

"You have no right to let them destroy our kind," Kalaos spat.

"I have all the right I need, subordinate." The voice she used was one that a human might use for describing the weather: calm and impassive. "You broke, you know. Where was your loyalty to 'our kind' then? Where was your patriotic rage then? What motivated you - then? Well, we either free these Xaralites or kill these Xaralites, because if we take a wrong step, it's back to the remaining Zaceton ship. And guess what, Kalaos? I know you don't want that. Now be seated."

He slowly backed away a step, grabbing the still-rattling chair.

Xilite dropped back to the Animorphs' conversation, which had been stilled. "Where were we?" she said, and none of them noticed the shaken look in her eyes. "Ah, yes. I'd prefer freeing them, as my little 'army' is small and more volunteers would be welcome" - she released a lilting laugh - "but, if worse comes to worst, I understand." Another laugh. "My 'army' may not feel the same way, however...I'll make them see reason somehow."

Cassie felt a cold ice freezing her heart, or an organ thereabouts. She wondered what kind of a beast they had allied with - not for the first time.

Kalaos sat with his head in his hands, emotions clacking together in their mad haste around his brain. He had to stop her. Somehow. But he'd let her leave the Xaralites behind on the Zaceton ship, hadn't he? A place where a death sentence like the one the humans planned to give them would have been a welcome gift? Death was something they used to taunt the captives - an enticing promise if they ever broke, for the ones who would not betray their race for power or the simple end of torture - and wasn't death better than a Yeerk's sharp control?

Than her sharp control?

"Somehow," Tobias echoed. He shifted uneasily. "Jake, when do we move in? What do we do?"

"We all have Vanarx morphs. They should still work on the Xaralites," Fearless Leader answered. "We can try that. The more in this...'army,' the better."

Serua grinned. "As long as we're allied with you, anyway."

"Silence," Xilite said curtly.

"Tell me, Xilite," Cassie said, almost playfully, "are they allowed to speak unless you give them permission?"

"Not really."

Kalaos and Serua exchanged significant looks. Serua smoothed her cinnamon hair back with one hand and fingered her weapon with the other - but Kalaos shook his head, and she subsided.

She's brought us this far, he told himself, and then the disturbing thought rose: Can we make it without her?

* * * * *

Daheila fought the creature in her mind, and lost. Her slender fingers clutching a knife, she forced a felinoid's head down beneath the sludge, the Hork-Bajir guards behind her ready in case he posed a strong resistance. The scream was cut off, and several bubbles rose slowly to the top of the seething liquid.

He rose back up, having lost his free will forever.

Sriyado, that had been his name, she remembered. A Zaceton. There was a time when she had hated him as a jailer, and now she watched him go with an ache. He was still an enemy, but somehow he had become a fellow slave in his last few moments of freedom. Even Xaralites and Zacetons were kinsmen when pitted against the slugs.

He'd been waiting for almost a week to be infested. Four hundred and fifty felinoid creatures had been captured, and it was taking the Yeerks a long time to have them all infested while plotting out the strategy to capture Earth as well. That, Daheila knew, had been worse than death for Sriyado. He, like all Zacetons, had been in control. And now - he was controlled.

Completely controlled, her Yeerk interjected companionably. No freedom of anything except thought, and we'll figure out how to take that away soon, don't worry. Won't it be a relief, my Xaralite friend? She saw another Controller come up to take her position, and the Yeerk began to walk away. Admit it, the filthy slug said almost coaxingly, wouldn't it be nice to be unable to fight? So you could tell yourself that you didn't have to? Oh, I see your thoughts, you know. You'd love to be able to tell yourself that it was over, and you didn't have to even try anymore, but some kind of idealism still forces you to. You still believe that if you resist hard enough, you can beat me. She laughed with the cold way her kind possessed. Then again, you don't really believe it. You just tell yourself that you do. It's all about self-deception.

Daheila made no reply.

You see it's true, the voice said softly. You see it's true.

And for a moment, the owner of the voice sounded disturbed.

We take our thoughts upon ourselves, the conqueror thought. It isn't always easy, watching the depth of their suffering... She cursed herself. Thank the Kandrona that they can't see ours.

* * * * *

"She said...what?" Takara's naivete was momentarily coming up against the roadblock of Xilite. "She'd let our kind be destroyed?"

"She would," Kalaos said grimly. "The question is - is that the best for them? Would any of you rather go back to the Zaceton ship than die?" No one confirmed it, and he continued: "Would any of you rather have a Yeerk than die? It's utter control. Utter control."

"So how is it different from our current state?" Serua said acidly. "How is it different? How much worse could it be?"

He shot her a poisonous look. "You don't know. Even I don't know. Even Xilite herself can't know. But it's worse."

She snorted derisively, but made no further comment.

"What about the other Zaceton ship?" Rlin demanded. "Would we be safer if we could somehow have them captured as well? We'd only be up against the Yeerks instead of the Yeerks and the Zacetons, at least."

"Yeerks in Zaceton form, with knowledge of all their torture, and all our personalities, and all of us."

"The torturers can't possibly remember all of us. They can't possibly remember each one," Llera inserted. "It's just not plausible. There were too many."

Kalaos frowned. "They took delight in it. They loved knowing what made each individual break. I think - I think they somehow remembered."

Tykeln, Xioyes, and Xahis kept to themselves, as usual. Kalaos glanced at Tykeln, and happened to meet his eyes. There was a clarity in Tykeln's eyes that few of them had. If he took more of a role in the small group's debates, Kalaos was sure, they would be more stable and more powerful and maybe they would have overthrown Xilite by now.

But did he want to? He'd had opportunities, and he'd always backed away, recognizing that they needed her. So what did it matter if they could have overthrown her? Even if they still could?

He let his eyes float over each of them - Rlin, the uncontrolled vat of boiling hatred and rage; Llera, who owed her loyalty to the intellectual arts but her talent to fighting; Xahis, the scientist; Tykeln, the convincing debater - when he chose to actually speak, at least; Xioyes, the nervous fool; and Serua - well, Serua, who knew? Her life as Xilite's "sister" and made her almost as much of an enigma as Xilite herself was.

Xilite was out running, hunting. She didn't like to hunt with the rest of them, and Kalaos had a guess at why. He wondered if she was afraid of them, as a full group, united...and then shook his head. It didn't matter if she was. In the heat of the fight, she'd win. He couldn't have explained how he knew, but he knew.

And he hoped he was wrong.

They'd have to hunt soon. And he hated hunting with his sister. Rlin took too much pleasure in it. Her enjoyment went beyond the mere thrill of the chase. Far, far beyond that.

Of all of them, Rlin's scars from the torture were the most prominent - the long scar across her left arm, the still-healing gash on her cheek, the battered mind. Of those, the mind would be noticed last, but was by far the most damaging.

I don't want to hunt with her.

I have to.

They're prey. Who cares what happens to them?

Kalaos looked around, and realized that somehow he was in the center of the group. Somehow, he was the leader in Xilite's absence. But if somehow they did escape Xilite's control, would he be a good enough one?

He shook his head. "Let's hunt. To each his own," he added, and when they all began to run, he headed in the opposite direction as his sister.

* * * * *

Tobias, in his raccoon morph, sniffed the air. He needed to find the place where the Xaralites were when the Animorphs were not nearby. It had been mentioned after Xilite and her minions left the little meeting - and he knew that Jake hadn't wanted him to go alone, but he wanted to find it, and the sooner, the better.

He sniffed again, in disgust. No sign of them.

A dark shadow seemed to drop over him. He froze, used to being the predator and quite suddenly trapped in the mind of the prey.

"Hmm. What's this?" wondered the shadow aloud. "Quite an interesting small creature." A hand picked him up by the tail. He tried to bite, but couldn't get his mouth to the hand.

One of the Xaralites. He started to relax before catching the gaze of Rlin's fiery eyes.

He'd seen that look before.

Rlin? It's me, Tobias.

She didn't seem to hear him. The crazed grin of a psychopath stole across her mockingly innocent face.

"Well. A little creature. What am I going to do with you?"

Tobias didn't like where this appeared to be going.

Her free hand dropped to a knife belt and withdrew a particularly wicked-looking one. She touched it delicately to his leg, and then pressed it in harder.

He screamed and writhed and tried to claw her. One flailing paw drew a red line on her arm, and she shook his body in fury against the knife. Skin and fur flaked off his leg like dried plaster from a wall.

Let me go! Rlin! he cried desperately.

She seemed not to hear him, or else- and this was probably a far more accurate way of looking at it- not to understand. The knife sliced his tail in several places, removing it by bits and pieces.

Rlin! Stop it!

She ignored his panicked voice. The pain hadn't set in yet -- it had happened too fast -- and there it was, in a wave that brought a scream from his mangled body. He writhed, and she suddenly paused, and changed her grip to his left and right forelegs.

His tail hung loose.

See, Rlin? It's me. Tobias. The hawk. He breathed a sigh of relief that came far too soon.

She sheathed her knife. He relaxed further. And suddenly her clawed hand closed around his tail and tore at it.

Arrrrrrghhhhh!

The cut that was at the base of his tail had been deep. And it was there that his tail suddenly began to split. After a moment, her hand moved away from him -- still clutching the black-and-silver ringed appendage.

Her clawed hand moved closer to his face...gripped...one claw dug into his right eye, slipped, gouged...

"Pretty little animal," muttered Rlin. Tobias was convinced she had lost her mind.

She drew her claws along his hind legs, lightly, almost caressing, but tracking red lines along flesh.

AX! he screamed. Why, why, why had he gone alone? What kind of an idiot had he been? Ax! Rachel! Xilite! If anyone could stop the crazed monster, she could. But would she?

Was anyone even out there?

Her knife came out again and was pulled across his body, lightly but trailing hot streaks of pain. Abruptly, she dug it into a paw and twisted. Tobias felt bones jerking out of alignment.

Tobias didn't feel his one remaining eye close, but his brain was already beginning to see nothing but darkness.

A shadow swept between the sun and the image of death that loomed over him. He strained to see it, and barely made out the shape of a northern harrier...

Ax, he thought weakly. No. Come back...

And he realized that he did not even have the strength to scream as the Andalite spread his wings further and vanished, buoyed up by the beautiful thermals that Tobias suddenly knew, with perfect clarity, that he would never ride again.

He didn't open his one good eye. He didn't want to see.

But he could feel.

Her knife slotted itself into joints, popping the bones out of their proper positions. Her claws streaked white-hot agony across his skin.

Let it go, Tobias. Let it go. She won't keep you alive. She doesn't even have that much intelligence now. Her eyes have no soul.

He made the mistake of opening one eye, to stare into mindless pupils and watch as she brought the knife down again.

Let it go.

Chapter Four

Hello, Cassie.

Cassie smiled. "Hey, Ax," she said, without looking up from the cougar. "What's up?"

He paused, and then remembered that humans rarely asked "What's up?" in a literal fashion. Not very much.

"Not that I'm complaining, but why are you here?" she said, finally looking up.

I thought that Tobias might be here. He shifted uneasily. I thought I heard him calling. But I cannot find him anywhere.

"Oh. I'm sure he's fine," she said vaguely, with a shrug. She straightened, but kept her eyes on the large cat as she stood. She could tell that she was still very much the center of his vision, and it made her nervous for some unidentifiable reason.

I don't think so.

She turned to face the northern harrier in the loft. "Why not?"

He was screaming. And I cannot find him, or anything out of the ordinary, or even the Xaralites.

"They can display holograms. That's why you can't find them. No problem. And Tobias - well, you might have imagined it."

I would like to see if I can find him, the Andalite said stubbornly. Something may be wrong.

Cassie shook herself. What's wrong with me? Tobias might be in trouble. Ax is right.

"Come on, then," she said, initiating the morph to osprey. "Let's go."

They swept out of the barn, two symbols of flight buoyed up by a thermal's waves. Too tense to enjoy it, Ax swept the ground with his amazing eyes.

What if the Yeerks found him? Cassie asked worriedly. All nonchalance on the subject had fled her. What if -

Our job is not to hypothesize, but to find him, Ax cut in. He swooped down for a slightly better view, and Cassie caught up to him.

Of course it is. I'm just - I just worry about him, she admitted. With all that torture from Taylor. You know he still thinks about it. And if they have Xaralites-Controllers swarming the forests, they're going to find him sometime...

Worrying will do no good. Ax spoke in a clipped tone that Cassie had not heard from him often, except in interrogating Controllers. She dropped past him in a dive, and scanned the terrain for any signs of a Xaralite, or a hawk.

Xilite! Ax roared. The birds in the trees hushed. Ax yelled out her name again, and a third time, and finally their was a response - but not her voice that responded.

No! Stop it! A thought-speak sob erupted from some unknown source. Cassie's eyes zipped around, searching frantically for the owner whose voice she had already recognized. RLIN!

Ax swooped in still closer to the trees. Tobias! Tobias! Where are you?

Nooooooooo... Another sob came, and another, and Cassie heard a maniacal laugh that was certainly not his. The horror gripped her tightly as she tried to gulp in a blast of air.

And then her wings went on strike.

She crumpled against a force field, and slid to the ground.

Cassie! Ax swore. These Xaralite fools! It's not a Controller. That laugh was not a Yeerk's. Take down your force field, Xaralite. Take it down now.

Another laugh answered, and he froze in midair, realizing that she didn't laugh out of defiance but out of sheer insanity. The note of mingled fear and hatred and pride and the sick shout of the torturer all mingled into her laughter, and for a moment even Ax was terrified of it.

He looked down at Cassie's body.

She is outside the force field, he told himself. She is safe. It is Tobias who must be rescued.

Xilite! he shouted. Xilite! Your warrior, he added with a flash of insight, is uncontrolled.

And through the forest that word echoed, and caught a running alien's ear.

* * * * *

"Rlin."

Ax stood beside Xilite, tail blade poised. Tobias's cries, faint and weak, still echoed, but there was no answer to Xilite's commanding tone.

"Rlin. Release both of them."

Ax cursed himself for being such an idiot. The force field was such that objects could be pulled in without dropping the barrier - and as a result, the unconscious Cassie was also held hostage by the crazed Xaralite.

Perhaps she cannot hear you.

"She can," Xilite sneered. "She probably just can't understand. The fool!"

Does this happen often?

"Only when she hunts alone. The others don't realize how bad it is, not even her brother. Oh, in groups, they know she's horrible, but she's only this - this uncontrolled" - Xilite pronounced it as an utmost insult - "when she hunts by herself."

What do you hunt?

"Anything. Put something in front of us, we'll hunt it. Well, most of the time." She raised her voice. "Rlin. Drop the force field immediately."

Only a sucking, gorging sound answered her. A scream split the air - Cassie's scream. There was a snapping of bone - Ax turned away.

"She's conscious," Xilite announced, unperturbed.

This is sickening, Xilite, Ax said harshly. You must teach her how to control - He fumbled suddenly, feeling that the word was overused, and its context twisted. You must teach her not to do this.

"They're not children," answered she, and Ax was amused by how her words and her previous actions seemed to differ. "Merely the victims of torture."

We cannot simply stand out here and - and listen to that! Ax shouted over Cassie's wail of pain. I will not hear my comrades reduced to that.

Xilite bit her lip thoughtfully. She slid something off her knife-hilt, and pressed it against the force field wall.

"Computer: On."

"Computer...program...initiated...awaiting...command."

"Computer: Disable force field."

"No...force...field...in...action...access...code?"

Access code. Xilite muttered something softly, trying to remember Rlin's password. She blurted out a sequence of numbers, and was rewarded by a computerized confirmation of her accuracy.

"Disable?"

"Computer: Yes."

"Done."

There was no outward change, and the gold-and-brown creature gritted her teeth and tapped on the side of the hologram.

Her fingers slid through, and she quickly stepped inside. Ax followed her.

What greeted them was pure carnage.

Ax reared up on his hind legs, drawing back sharply from a raccoon tail that was simply thrown on the ground, blood still seeping out. It had been sliced up by a knife, and he could only hope that it had sustained that damage after removal. Another unidentifiable appendage rested relatively close to the sandy-colored Xaralite - who was feeding.

Tobias had stopped screaming. Only a few faint struggles evidenced the fact that life still remained in his body.

Xilite grabbed Rlin just above her shoulder in a vise-like grip and twisted. The subordinate suddenly whirled to face her, eyes lit as if by a red glow. Blood was dry on her mouth and teeth, which were revealed by the lips she drew back quickly.

"You idiot!" She struck the monster hard across her bloody face - stained not by her own blood, but by the blood of the small, furry creature that lay discarded on the ground. Ax knelt and picked the once-raccoon up as Xilite drew her knife.

Rlin snarled an animal snarl of rage, which proved her insanity.

"Pain intoxicates her," Xilite mused, stepping back for a moment. Rlin lunged for Cassie and found the knife point sharp against her throat. She pawed at it foolishly, and stared in stupid surprise when the fingers of her right hand were nearly seared away. She licked eagerly at the blood that resulted as Xilite sneered. "Frustration drives her madder than she already is. And there's no way to control her now." The knife pressed tighter on her subordinate's throat. "She is of no use to me."

So you merely...kill her? said Ax, stepping back in horror. He straightened. She deserves it. You would be correct to inflict a punishment for what she has done.

It's not about punishment, Xilite informed him silently. It's about whether or not she's useful anymore. And she's not. She's not.

Kalaos will be angry.

The thought came out of nowhere, and her jaw dropped as she realized what she had been thinking. She clenched her free hand. And would I change my decision to fit his wants? Would I endanger my own campaigns to spare his sister? No. I would not.

Would I make a decision, though, based on defying him?

"Rlin."

The creature that had been a warrior looked at her again, eyes were beginning to clear. She stared down at the bundle that Ax held carefully, and a little gasp escaped her throat.

"Sheath your knife," Xilite said with contempt, and Rlin did so, as though in a daze. "And don't you ever, ever let me find out about anything like this again. Ever."

Xilite paused before she slid her knife back into the scabbard.

She paused just long enough to strike Rlin across the face with it.

* * * * *

"You have my apologies."

The statement seared her pride, but she owed it to them - and possibly more - on behalf of Rlin. She forced her jaw into a straight line. "I had no idea that Kalaos would allow her to hunt alone. It will not happen again, even if I decide not to inflict the death penalty."

Tobias was perched on Rachel's arm, eyeing the alien warily. All the same, he said calmly, I think it would be best if Rlin did not attend any meetings between our two groups.

"I will second that," Xilite said with a quick bow. "I did not intend to allow it."

"How do we know that other members of your little band won't lose it?" Marco snapped. "How do we know that you won't?"

"Control is her drug, Marco," Cassie said somewhat stonily. "Of course she won't lose it."

"I doubt that was a vote of confidence," said Xilite, grinning. "But Rlin's always been unstable. The torture hit her harder than the others." Her eyes floated around the barn. "Is that cougar ready to be freed yet?"

The change in subject was surprising, and Cassie blinked hard. She rested weary eyes and leaned back against a stall door, saying, "Yeah, I guess. Dad and I will do it later."

Xilite smiled slightly at the big cat. She stretched her hand through the bars and stroked it, and it relaxed, almost as if in an acquiring trance. Then she drew the hand back out and looked at the Animorphs. "What will we do about the felinoid Controllers? I know my race, and I know the Zacetons. I doubt that any of you could take one on."

"Have you ever seen us fight, morphed?" Rachel said with something like a smile.

"No," Xilite admitted. "Well, perhaps you could. But they're harder than a Hork-Bajir."

"We're experienced with Hork-Bajir," Marco said almost flippantly. "They're getting easy."

Neither Jake nor Ax had spoken yet, and Ax finally broke his own silence. I think there is another issue here: the issue of trust. Trust between our groups has been more than slightly violated.

"I'll kill her sooner or later," Xilite said with a shrug. "I possibly should have killed her yesterday. And as soon as I have more minions, I will. At the moment, she's not very expendable, unless she commits blatant insubordination or endangers my pathetic little 'army' - in which case I may make an exception."

Hearing someone speak in such a cold-blooded way, of death, no less, made Rachel feel a strange yearning that she could not describe, almost as though Xilite possessed a kind of drama she had not reached. As though Xilite was one step closer to perfect ruthlessness than she was. She mentally slapped herself. That was Xilite's loss, not her failure.

"You have none of your 'minions' with you to hear that, I see," Rachel observed.

"Of course not. They have to trust me at some subconscious level," she replied, shrugging. She caught Cassie's eye. "You all think I'm a beast, don't you?" said she, with a laugh. "Well, I won't say that I don't share that little opinion at times."

Jake said, speaking for the first time, "We need to plot an attack."

"Of course."

Xilite bowed and turned as if to leave, but Jake called her back. "I'll need your help with it as well, Xilite. Your army will be involved."

"You spoke about the morphing power today," Xilite said resignedly. "Will that be inflicted on us?"

"It will." Tobias glared at Jake in surprise as he spoke, apparently having hoped that the recent events would have done something to change that. "Yes, it will."

"Very well." She inclined her head. "I will choose which ones of my underlings receive it."

"No. They all will."

Something in Jake's tone quailed even Xilite. She shook her head to clear it, wondering why it affected her, but nonetheless nodded. If she disliked it, she was sure, she could somehow annul it.

"Shall I bring them all here?" she said in a quietly deceptive tone, watching the hawk. She needed to control these Animorphs. And she needed to begin the process soon. First - she had to find out how to reach each of them.

We can't let you take the box without some of us, Tobias said edgily, but I don't think they need to be brought here.

I will go, Ax volunteered.

"So'll I. Let's do it."

"Rachel the warrior queen," Marco said almost affectionately.

She rolled her eyes. "Marco the idiot."

"Two of you?" Xilite nodded to herself. "Good. Come with me."

A moment later, a cheetah, an Andalite, and a Xaralite swept out the door. And the Andalite was holding a blue cube.

* * * * *

A lone fighter slipped through the dead light of space. Stars reflected on the metallic sides of the slim transportation unit, and it would have been hard for even someone who was looking for it to find the tiny shredder cannons (or schssli, as the felinoids called them).

Cold stars flickered their lights at him in greeting. He felt his lips curve into an instinctive frown at the somewhat ideological thought.

As if I even know where she is, he sneered to himself. They assume that I know her plans. Hah. It would be better if she was completely out of my life, if we had never met, but as it is she will never be out of it.

He was not sure what he thought of that idea.

Betray her. Despite his strong self-control, his hands suddenly pressed down harder on the fighter panel. This will not be pleasant.

* * * * *

Xilite winced and almost withdrew her hand from the blue box. She saw Llera's hand shift worriedly to her weapon at her commander's brief movement, and shook her head.

It is done, Ax said shortly. Xilite removed her hand as he snatched the box away and held it out, warily, to Kalaos. The Andalite then motioned for the others to join their comrade. All eight hands were placed on the box at once, and Xilite fleetingly wondered why she had been set apart.

Ax jerked the box away. His irritation was obvious.

"So you don't like sharing your technology?" the leader observed conversationally.

Since your technology is somewhat faulty, it seems that I have no choice.

"I programmed that in a matter of mere hours, with none of the supposedly required additions," she said defensively. "How long did it take the mighty Escafil to program your apparently seamless little tool?"

I refuse to engage in pointless arguments, said the Andalite, stiffly.

"That you won't win, at least," added Xilite.

Guys! Rachel shifted, and in the light that filtered through the trees her cheetah coat flashed a bright gold. Would you stop it?

"When can we obtain morphs?"

Rachel frowned to herself at the Xaralite's curt manner. Ax and I will take you, one at a time, to the Gardens, after you choose a bird morph from Cassie's barn.

"Why one at a time?" Kalaos said in amusement.

Why do you think, idiot?

His fur darkened a shade at the insult; the knife was in his hand almost immediately. Xilite reached out to arrest his apparent attack and recoiled from the sheer power in his arm, but her silent reprove was enough. He subsided, still somewhat angry.

Because we don't trust you, Rachel continued, relaxing. I think that Rlin's actions yesterday prove that we really shouldn't give you our unconditional confidence.

"Rlin's a rage machine," Serua said with a shrug. "None of us trust her either."

Kalaos turned to shoot her a glare, and she laughed. "Trying to take control, Kalaos? It's Xilite you have to challenge, not I. My statement about your sister was correct. You, Kalaos, are the one who said that we should hunt alone. Why? I think I know."

"That's enough," Xilite said absently. "Both of you. Kalaos -" She paused, and an insight revealed itself to her almost hyperactive mind. He had already been insulted by Rachel and taunted by Serua. The finishing blow to his arrogance would be to take away what leadership he had. And - "Serua, rather?"

Serua smiled, Xilite's theory almost transparent to her already.

"Would you keep them in line while I seek out my morphs?"

Kalaos froze in shock and wounded pride.

"Certainly." She bowed and turn to bestow her smug smile on Kalaos.

Xilite and the two Animorphs vanished, leaving the aliens behind. Kalaos spun to Serua and snarled. "Egotism will get you nowhere, Serua."

"Really. Well, challenging me will get you nothing except death." She raised her voice slightly. "I have the authority of Xilite. Is there anyone here who will disobey me?"

No voice contested her.

"You see? Now, I suggest that you accept your somewhat degraded position and remain in silence about it."

"And would any of you disobey me?" Kalaos turned, aware that if Serua could play her games, he could play his. "Think about it, comrades. Would any of you really want to face Xilite, without me?"

His words, arrogant as they were, struck home. Tykeln shifted, uneasy at the fire crackling in the atmosphere. "I do not think that any of us will profit by your quarrels. We are not enemies. We may possibly be at odds with these...Animorphs...and possibly, eventually, with Xilite, but not with each other. Unity is of the utmost importance in these times."

"Eloquent as always, Tykeln," said the almost sheepish Serua. She released the hilt of her knife, and Kalaos followed her example. "Excellent point. Now. I don't think any of us really want to be at their mercy. 'One at a time'! Why not simply say that they fear us grouped but have no fear of us individually?" She finished by appealing to their patriotism. "Why not simply say that they are certain that two mere humans - or Earth-dwellers - can defeat a Xaralite?"

Takara and Xioyes shot each other a look. Recognized as the two cowards, and perhaps relatively so, neither of them were as enthusiastic about the topic of Serua's little speech as the others appeared to be. But, also in keeping with their titles, neither was willing to speak out.

"Xilite will return soon," Xahis reminded all of them. "When she does, she will no doubt be as annoyed with the human's statement as we are."

"Once again, we must set aside our personal differences," Tykeln said calmly.

They responded with hesitant, almost sullen nods. Good enough, he thought.

"So we have determined that the humans are presumptuous fools," Serua began again, determined to incite rage against them. "What will be done? Will we simply agree to their demands? Obey their rules?"

Tykeln shook his head almost disbelievingly. An elocutionist in her own right. He repressed a laugh as defiance illumined the faces of the other Xaralites.

"Will we?" pressed Serua.

"No, I don't believe we will," Xahis said with affected nonchalance.

"Do we owe our loyalty to any -" here Serua swallowed her pride "- save Xilite?"

"No. We do not," Kalaos said heavily. Tykeln frowned at the fact that he, too, appeared to be caught up in Serua's eloquence, but remained silent.

"Do we owe our obedience to the human-leader?"

"No." Several voices spoke the decisive word in unison. Tykeln felt an emotion often experienced by skeptical humans at a pep rally.

"Then what will be done?"

About what?

Serua jerked at the thought-speak voice and hesitantly turned her gaze upwards.

Be thankful it's me and not a human. Xilite sounded amused as she swept down, a peregrine falcon flying at a blazing speed. Then, by way of explanation, This Earth-bird can outrun theirs.

"Can we acquire it from you?" Takara said eagerly.

It doesn't work that way, from what I understand. So. You are down here plotting...what?

Serua suddenly felt very childish, very foolish. Of course Xilite would not allow the humans to control them. Of course. Of course. And she had simply erupted into a fountain of resistance to a force that did not offer opposition in the first place.

Similar reactions were on the faces of the Xaralites.

Xilite decided, in a rare tactful moment, not to reveal that she had heard the past few moments of dialogue. They'd learned their lesson - they did not need to depend on each other - no, they could not depend on each other to assemble a resistance to anything. That was a strategy that none of them needed to learn, because they could then use it on her.

And I have enough problems without my own force mutinying.

Xilite, Ax said sternly, finally catching up with her. You should have waited for us.

Right. Rachel soared up breathlessly. Ax is right, she repeated.

I'll try to observe proper etiquette next time.

* * * * *

They had morphs. Xilite found this unsettling as she looked around the barn, seeing only the faces of Serua and Takara. They had morphs, and that meant that they had power. They could raid the Gardens and get still more firepower at any moment.

And that could spell trouble for the Animorphs, or - more importantly - for her.

"Let me make one thing clear," Jake said as he looked around. "If any of you become insubordinate to us, the price will be death."

I will be the judge of that, Xilite hissed silently. The sense that the situation was somehow outside her control scared her - her, the impenetrable one. But her underlings seemed - seemed - to have confidence that she would protect them, and that she alone would decide their fates.

She found herself solemnly promising that in this respect, at least, she would not fail them.

She nodded curtly at Jake, not agreeing or disagreeing. As her eyes gave the barn a cursory glance and settled on the cougar's empty cage, a frown was immediately outlined on her features. She turned back to Serua and Takara with a hint of annoyance on her face. "Do all of us have battle morphs?"

Both nodded. Xilite didn't press further for the animals they had chosen, just nodded again and looked back at Jake. "We will do battle whenever you wish to."

Jake started involuntarily before realizing that she meant battling the Yeerks. He shook his head and grinned rather sheepishly before becoming his usual, serious self again. "The sooner, the better."

"Better to have our kind obliterated than to have our kind humiliated," Serua said with a cold smile. He looked at her again, almost shocked, and realized that there was no sarcasm in her voice. "What would you do, Jake?" she said in her low, insinuating way. "If it was the humans? What would you do?"

He raised an eyebrow. "It is not the humans. That is not the point now."

"What would you do?"

"Serua, that's enough. What he will do, now, is the issue. What is the plan?"

Jake, thrown off-guard by her manner, took a moment to respond. Rachel and Marco shot each other an almost worried look at the dragging pace of the meeting as the thought played in his mind - what would I do?

"Erek contacted me last night," he said finally. "It seems that there have been some more developments in our dilemma."

What happened? demanded Tobias.

"The Zacetons have some kind of..." He paused, struggling for words. "Well," he said lamely, "apparently the Visser can give them the power to morph."

Ax gasped. The Visser possesses an Escafil device?

"No, not like that. It's -" Jake stopped at looked at Xilite. "Do you have any clue what I'm trying to say here?"

"Vaguely," she said, tight-lipped. She turned slightly to see the entire group. "Zacetons have an amazing adaption ability. By touching a creature with a certain power, they can - sometimes - absorb that power. It's as though the Visser is a living Escafil device" - she nodded at Ax - "to them. The power is already within him; that is enough."

"That's great!" Marco said cheerfully. "We can go down there and fight shape-shifting aliens! Wasn't one enough?"

Rachel shrugged. "They won't have the morphs that the Visser does. Probably just human and Hork-Bajir morphs." She glanced at Xilite. "I'd ask you, but I'm afraid you're a little biased. Ax? What is more deadly, a Xaralite or a Hork-Bajir?"

Xilite stiffened.

"A Xaralite," Serua said immediately.

I am not sure.

Rachel thought for a moment. "Xaralite or an Andalite?"

Andalite, Ax said, with conviction.

"Xaralite," Serua snapped with equal conviction.

"Rachel has a point," Cassie said thoughtfully.

Rachel blinked. "What point? I had a point?"

"They have access to three main forms: Hork-Bajir, Andalite, and Xaralite. If the Visser allows them to acquire him."

"He won't," Marco said, making the transformation from mock-cheerful to shrewd. "Not even for the war. He always puts himself first. And he wants to be unique." Marco shook his head. "No. They'll try to acquire us."

Chapter Five

"You know, that really can't be good," Rachel said after a silence, apparently trying futilely to raise the spirits of the somewhat grim humans, and Ax. Marco's comment had struck home with all of them.

We either kill off the Zacetons, or Visser Three, Tobias interjected, whichever is easier.

"Wouldn't it be obvious?" commented Takara. "Visser Three, of course."

You obviously haven't met the visser.

"And you most certainly haven't met the Zacetons if you'd talk such foolishness," Serua bit out.

The hard part, Tobias retorted, isn't really taking out the Visser. It's getting past legion upon legion of Hork-Bajir, Taxxons, humans, guns, weapons, torture... He preened rapidly, seemingly unaware of what he was saying.

So he'd had a bad experience with torture. Xilite mentally jotted it down for future reference.

He killed my father, Tobias said after a long silence. A better warrior than any of us will ever be.

Xilite saw Serua's mouth open to contradict the placement of any fighting skills above a Xaralite's, and raised an eyebrow at her. Serua glared, but said nothing.

His father and my brother, added Ax.

"An Andalite and a human from the same bloodline?" Takara asked in amusement, clearly not believing them.

It was the work of an Ellimist.

Tobias continued to preen, which he had not looked up from even when mentioning his father. Rachel shot a worried look up to the rafters, and spoke again. "We need to figure out what to do about this. Zacetons masquerading as humans? No."

"How would that help them?" argued Marco. "Why not simply infest the humans?"

Rachel shrugged impatiently. "It just doesn't sound right. And you know the Yeerks, Marco - they'll find a way to use it."

"None of that is important," Xilite interrupted. "It's clear that it has to be stopped, no matter what could happen if it was left untended. It won't be. So all that's really relevant is what will be done to stop it."

"Agreed," said Jake. "Agreed." He straightened. "Would any of them be able to recognize you as not captured?"

She thought for a moment. "Only if we came in contact with the torturers of that ship. They'd recognize us as...how shall we put this...not under their charge. If it was the Haedrin that was captured, they'd know instantly." She flashed a grin that held no happiness. "I'm well-known there." The grin faded and was briefly replaced with a frown. "The Xaralite-Controllers might recognize me as not being from their ranks...but probably not."

"And the other members of your little group?"

She bristled - is that condescension in his tone? - and her next words were clipped. "On the Tamael, one face is the same as the other. Our chances are equal."

He nodded swiftly. "So you could pose as Controllers with no threat whatsoever to yourselves."

Cassie began, "What about when their supposed Yeerks had to - oh."

"Yes," he agreed. "Their supposed Yeerks wouldn't have to." A smile that was not a smile, only a hollowed expression, rose on his face. "This little power may work out for our good after all."

A silence swept over the barn and raked the sounds out from the corners. A bird's agonized murmur was a roar; a horse's impatient whickering was a hurricane; a wolf's threatening growl was an earthquake.

Jake met Xilite's unimpassioned eyes, and then looked to Takara, whose face was tinged with anger, and Serua, who was simply enraged.

"You are telling us - telling me - that you would ask us to pose as Controller vermin?!" she shouted. "Do you know what would happen if they thought, even for a second, that we were not true - true scum like themselves?! We'd be infested, forever. Forever! Even humans have a few minutes of freedom! Even humans have a chance to escape!"

Xilite did not agree, even with her eyes or expression, but she did not silence her, either.

It was Marco who cut in. "Yes. Yes, we are. And yes, we would ask that."

* * * * *

"So it's agreed, then."

"Yes. One hundred more hosts, for one. Well. How do we know that you will keep your promise? That once you have what you want, you will not merely leave your end of the bargain unfulfilled?"

"You have this as my guarantee."

"Do...do you even realize what...this...is?"

"I realize what I am giving you."

"This - ah. Yes. This is proper insurance, yes. Yes."

"You do have the credentials to approve the exchange?"

"Of course."

"Very good."

"You - you're going?"

"Yes. You know when I will meet you. Oh - and do not, under any circumstances, fail me."

* * * * *

"Is Jake there?" a formal voice said.

"Uh, this is he." Jake switched the phone to his other ear, placed his hand over it, and yelled, "MOM! I'll be upstairs!"

His mother's face emerged from the next room. "You don't have to shout, you know. Are you done with the dishes?"

He groaned and exaggerated the tone of teenager-itis that pervaded his being. "Yes, Mom. Now," he said into the phone as he ran up the stairs, taking two at a time, "what's up?"

"Bad news. Is Tom home?"

"Nope, he's at the Sharing. And no one's on the line. This is the secure one...?"

"Of course," Erek said in an almost injured voice. "But Jake, this is...serious."

"What is it?"

"Think Yeerks. With the power to morph."

"Yeah, Marco told us..."

"No. Apparently there was an exchange. And - meet at the usual place. I'll explain there."

* * * * *

The moles crawled in sullen silence down the tunnel. Well, not silence - the Animorph side was having a rather heated discussion, in fact.

I don't care if they double the number of warriors we have! They're dangerous!

Rachel the warrior queen speaking against danger?

Shut up, Marco.

I think I have to agree with her, Tobias started.

Well, I knew I was unpopular, but really...

About the first part, Marco, he said dryly. I know how dangerous they...Rlin especially...can be. But I guess tonight is the deciding battle?

Yeah, Jake answered. Tonight is the deciding battle.

I hope that this is not an error, Prince Jake, Ax said tersely.

We'll know soon, Ax-man.

It's not like him, Cassie said, worriedly, to Marco. Not like him at all. When was the last time Jake just rushed into a - a possible "error" when he didn't know if it would work?

He gave her no answer, just ran a little more rapidly down the tunnel.

They're having a private discussion, Takara announced.

We know, you silly fool, Rlin snapped. All of us can feel it.

Actually, Xilite contradicted, you can't, Kalaos can't, Tykeln can't, Xioyes can't, and Llera can't.

I can, Xahis and Serua said at the same time.

No doubt you can. I'll be impressed when one of you can hear what they're saying.

Can you? Xioyes said in his agitated manner.

Hear that they're saying something? Or hear what they're saying?

Hear what. Xioyes's voice had something like an echo, or suggested that there should be an echo to accompany the anxious beat of his words.

She was half-tempted to lie and inspire further awe in them, but shrugged as well as she could in mole form. No. I cannot.

So we are to pose as Controllers, Kalaos said in open thought-speak, and then turn on the visser?

Why can't one of them do it? Xioyes squeaked to the other Xaralites.

Because we are not cowards, even if they are, Serua said pointedly. And we can put up force fields for brief periods of time.

Yes, Kalaos, Cassie said, when no one seemed to answer. Don't worry, we'll bail you guys out if something happens. Then, privately, Right? They don't betray us, we don't betray them.

No one replied. She shifted uneasily, nervously. And then the words seemed to scream up through her throat and explode into audibility in the cramped, confined tunnel.

Guys, please! I feel like we're in two separate camps here. We're going into battle on the same side, okay?

Dead silence greeted her. She swallowed, and then pressed on.

I know we have differences. I know there's been a lot of tension. But we have to resolve that now, before - before we end up down there, mad at each other, betraying each other, whatever. We have to take care of it now. I for one am not going to go into a place where we're fighting aliens and worry that I'm going to get - get turned in by -

Yes, yes, very emotional, Rlin sneered.

That's enough. Xilite dropped her mole nose to the dirt slightly as they shuffled on. The human's right. Our "differences" are solely for out of combat. Agreed?

But -

If you do not agree, you will face my anger, not theirs.

Cassie was shocked by how such a simple yet arrogant statement could rule them into silence. And relieved. It was not what she hoped for, but it was a start.

Smooth, Cass, Marco said sarcastically.

What did she say wrong? demanded Rachel, instantly on the defensive. I think that we all probably needed to hear that...

Rachel is right, Ax agreed reluctantly. As are Xilite and Cassie. But he didn't elaborate further, or lend a great eloquent justification to what she had roughly expressed, and she wished she was human so she could swallow the lump of humiliation in her throat.

They're doing it again, Serua said in annoyance.

I know.

Of course you know! You know everything! You know exactly how we should fight, exactly how we should speak, exactly what we are, exactly who we are, how to break out pathetic wills into submission to your great plan - you know everything!

Xilite barely paused in her hurried steps. Her gut wrenched within her, and a sadness welled up, but outwardly she made no change in her actions.

Perhaps I do.

She is sick, Serua half-wailed in disgust.

The Animorphs dislike her, Kalaos said calmly. Perhaps our little "marshaling" of defiance was pointed at the wrong source. Perhaps it should be the Animorphs we ally with to defeat her.

That sounds strangely appealing.

No large surprise.

She felt their private thought-speech and hastened her step, nearly running into Ax. She braked and felt Rlin bump into her, a shadow slamming into a shadow. It all seemed strangely unreal, and she could not place why.

I think, Xioyes said quietly, and there was no nervousness in his voice, that I would almost rather become a Controller than remain under her command.

Only silence greeted his words - but Xioyes thought he "heard," for one of the first times in his life, agreement.

And perhaps he did.

I can't see what they're saying. She broke into a run and hit Ax, who began to move faster, and gradually the entire line was running as well as they could in piteous bodies stuck in a piteous hole. I can't see what they're saying! And they're talking, I know it, I feel it.

Her heartbeat seemed to fluxuate from out of control to dragging, and she was almost certain that they could hear it.

Reassert control.

Entering the cave, Rachel announced, from the lead. You will need to acquire bats.

Yes, we know, Xahis said curtly.

One by one, they dropped into the layer of, as Marco so eloquently titled it, "bat crap."

I hate this place! he moaned as he demorphed. Wallowing in bat crap! Bat s-crap! Bat freaking crap!

We get the idea.

Xilite reached her arm up hesitantly and touched a bat, feeling its DNA flow into her. After one deep breath, she began the change, and in a matter of moments she spread leathery wings and flapped her way off the "bat crap."

Hunter robots.

Llera? Rlin? Distract them.

Yes, master, Serua mocked, and she found herself slammed against the ground by a bat that suddenly seemed much, much larger than she was.

You listen to me, Xilite hissed. I don't know how these things kill. But I'll wager that I can figure it out very, very quickly. Would you like to be my test subject?

After a silence, she slowly released the downed warrior, and without waiting for a response swooped forward to catch up with the Animorphs.

The time comes to decide. Kalaos's voice rang strong, and for a moment he recoiled as if fearful that somehow Xilite would hear.

Decide...? Takara sounded fearful of the answer.

Death, or life under her control. Controllers, or life as her slaves. Free, or enslaved.

We can't kill her, Rlin said flatly, in response to the third option.

Why? he insisted. Eight against one. And the Animorphs. Will they defend her?

We can't, Rlin said, eyes almost glazed. We can't.

Watch out!

She dodged instinctively at her brother's warning, and the hunter robot barely missed her. Breaking into a dive, she rammed it, and it hit the wall and kept falling.

Nice, Rachel complimented. It was an effort, but she managed it, and smiled to herself somewhat mirthlessly.

Thank you.

Rachel jerked at the tone of the words. Not insulting, not condescending. Nothing like Xilite. Somehow - lost? Almost broken? And reassured herself - they wage their own wars with her, Rachel. Don't worry about it now.

Remind me again, she said lightly, just why we didn't morph flies or some other insect.

Because the robots would have fried them on sight, Jake said, not equally lightly. Look, I know we're running a risk by morphing a visible animal, but -

I was just making conversation.

We should have dramatic music here, Marco broke in. Like, really dramatic music. TV show style music. Right before the heroes put themselves in great danger? But no, you don't hear about Animorphs TV shows. Oh no.

Probably just as well, responded Rachel. It'd be nothing like it actually is, you know, just wusses dressed up as aliens that ended up making the name of Animorph a mockery.

Yeah. Not like they'd be smart enough to hire us. Hey, people, we do our own special effects! What are they thinking, putting up morons who -

Marco?

Yes, Xilite?

From what I understand, this human TV show is a myth, yes? Not in existence?

Well...

So why are you complaining about the nonexistent TV show's actors?

Humor. I'm easing the tension.

Humans babbling about nonexistent whims eases tension? Serua said nastily. Humans who are supposedly competent warriors?

Supposedly, key word. And it helps to not have excitable aliens with no sense of the same.

The same what? Xioyes inquired curiously.

Sense of humor! Marco looked as exasperated as a bat can look. You have no sense of humor! Duh! That's what I'm trying to say! As if it isn't so freaking obvious it's blaring in neon lights!

Are you actually insulting us, asked Xilite, or merely "easing tension"?

I'm not sure yet.

Ah.

Okay, okay, everyone, said Jake, evidently trying to gain some control over the situation. Get ready. Force one: Assume your positions.

I give the orders to my force, Xilite thought in irritation. But she merely swooped down, behind one of the small storage rooms just below. A Hork-Bajir started to look up, and then looked back down as a human took advantage of her captor's distraction to break free. The alien let out a furious roar, and in an instant three Hork-Bajir had the Earthling pinned to the ground as tears chased one another down her cheeks.

Xilite felt a sense of pity rise in her, and shook it away as the morphed Xaralites dropped like grenades around her and began to explode to their full heights. The storage shed tilted a little as Rlin, thrown off-balance, slammed into it. Kalaos caught her hand and tried vainly to steady the shed.

"Nice move, Rlin," Llera hissed.

"She couldn't help it," Kalaos shot back.

"Let's go." Xilite stepped out confidently, motioning to the others to wait a few moments and to come out separately. She held her head high and stepped into the ranks of the Controllers.

"Did you investigate the disturbance?" one Zaceton snapped.

She raised an eyebrow disdainfully and tightened her lips. "Do you challenge a superior?"

His eyes narrowed. "Standard procedure: what is your rank and designation?"

"My designation?" She stepped closer. "My designation is my knowledge. And my rank is enough to allow me to do this."

She reached out a hand and seemed to snatch his shoulder - and he dropped, blood streaming from the wound across the life-giving vein in his neck. A few eyes flitted towards her, and she coolly returned the stares. "Escaped host," she said loudly. "Someone drag the fool over to be infested when he regains consciousness."

Of course, he already had a Yeerk, and he was probably dead, but hopefully she'd be out of there when they realized that.

Zaceton fool. She stepped over his empty body and looked around, an intense air of command surrounding her like an almost tangible force field. No one met her eyes and those shuffling past her did not even blink.

She strained to make out the whispers.

"Another visser?"

"Visser Three won't be happy about it..."

"What's her rank?"

"Shouldn't we know that? What if she's just another of the Andalite bandits?"

"Or a free Xaralite?"

"There aren't any of those on Earth. We got all of them from the raided Zaceton ship."

"But what if -"

"Look, we don't ask questions. Let the visser handle it."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kalaos and Rlin approaching from the other direction. Serua was melting out of the shadows, and Llera and Tykeln were patrolling on the opposite side of the pool.

Takara? Xioyes? Xahis? Where are they?

She twitched. I could care less about them as individuals, she reassured herself, fearful of the drug of empathetic emotion. But they could betray me. And that would be unpleasant.

Comforted by her explanation, she started moving towards the pool itself. A Hork-Bajir brushed past her, eyed her, caught her gaze and looked away quickly. Xilite smiled coldly to herself.

The Animorphs. She scanned the zenith of the rocky sky, and saw nothing. They're waiting.

Send Takara up to find us when you have discovered what we seek, Ax shouted down. She nodded slightly, knowing that wherever he was he could probably see her.

Takara. Of course. The pacifist weakling, the Cassie equivalent, except that Cassie could deal with being a warrior, and Takara - well, Takara probably couldn't. Xilite seethed. Of course that was who they'd want to hear from.

She looked around, and cleared her throat. A few Xaralite heads bobbed up to make eye contact with her. "Council member reporting. Where is your visser?"

A gasp ran around the pool, and a few suspicious eyes narrowed. She tossed her head somewhat defiantly, and kept the authoritative aura around her. "Well? Shall I bring back a bad report of your visser, and owe it to your incompetence?"

There was a short silence as several people contemplated that, and then an apparently high-ranking human was shoved forward. "Iniss two-two-six at your service," he said, tone tinged with sourness but a sourness he was evidently trying to mask with his obedient tone. "I will attempt to find him."

"Allow me to follow," she said curtly. "I must make a report of this place to take back to the Council, and I wish to see all I can."

Xilite wondered if she'd said the correct thing, and from the sharp straightening that ran through Chapman's frame she knew that she had. She noticed his fast, ground-eating strides - he was evidently determined to find the visser as fast as he could.

She would follow. And hopefully neither of them would leave that room alive.

* * * * *

A Council member? Visser Three eyed her. We did not expect such an honor. And I did not expect that any far-off Council member would be able to so quickly acquire a Xaralite host.

She cursed herself.

Of course! You idiot! Of course he'd see - he's a Yeerk visser. And he knows you're bluffing about your rank at least, if not the fact that you're a Controller as well.

Keep command.

"You think that your lazy underlings can obtain these bodies, and we cannot?" She met his eyes and her gaze did not waver. "You think that your failing force can overtake this race, and the mighty Council cannot reach them?"

He shifted uneasily, considering for the first time that she spoke the truth, and definitely wary to challenge her again.

"I understand that you have received a gift."

One of my inferiors - he eyed Chapman - obtained it for me.

"Allow me to see it." Seeing his hesitation, she added, "It will look excellent on your report, Esplin nine-four-six-six."

Her face did not crack a smile even as she saw him motion for the gift to be brought to him.

Get ready. Get ready.

"I - I was given -" Sweat poured down Chapman's face. "I was given this device in exchange for a single captive from the free -" He caught the visser's suddenly enraged eye, and swallowed. "For one captive from a rank of guerilla warriors who, rest assured, the mighty visser will have captured soon."

Alarm bells went off in her mind, and continued, sweeping up thoughts that held her frozen even as he revealed the precious item.

It was in a crystallized covering that conformed to its rectangular shape, with only a pad large enough for a fingertip to touch sliced through the glass, or crystal. The blue shimmered through it, reflected into a thousand colors on the wall, shining directly into her eyes until it almost blinded her. And when the blindness faded as she shifted out of the way, she saw it -

An Escafil device.

Chapter Six

The Zaceton eyes staring at Xioyes as he was forcibly introduced to the room unnerved him. He swallowed, and suddenly his eyes caught a pair of others...

Familiar others.

"Why, hello again, Xioyes," said ACapir coolly. "Haven't seen you in quite a while." He laughed mirthlessly. "Brings back memories, doesn't it?"

"You're a Controller." A thought struck him. "You're not ACapir anymore. Just another Yeerk."

"Ah, but I know everything he knows. I know exactly what he can do. And I recall the breaking strain of you."

Xioyes peered at him, and an animal fear started in his eyes. He pressed back against the guards that held him, and started to scream.

"You're -"

He was cut off by ACapir lashing out and striking him across the face.

"If you tell me where the Andalites are right now I may just kill you."

Xioyes whimpered, and suddenly incoherence overwhelmed him in the face of those horrible eyes. "Wh - I - no - I don't know!"

"How did you find this free Xaralite?"

"He was roaming around the pool," a Hork-Bajir said in rough, garbled English.

ACapir nodded curtly to the Hork-Bajir and his comrade guards. "Out on patrol. No one is to get in. Or out, for that matter."

"You're not a Controller," Xioyes stated slowly as they left him in shackles. "You're not. You're not!" The fear rose in him again, as strong as the first time he had met his old torturer. Screams started to burst from his throat. "You're not!"

"How very perceptive of you."

"What are you doing here if you're not one of them?" He whimpered again and tried to bury himself in the wall.

"Why is it that you are asking me questions?"

He let out one of his nervous laughs. "Isn't there a custom of last dying wishes? Being told why you're dying? Something like that?"

It occurred to him suddenly that ACapir would not see the logic in this.

"You're not dying yet. Now. Shall we get on with it?"

"But why?" He was almost wailing. "Why are you working for them? Did they capture you in battle and make you their slave? Did the invincible fail? Did you finally lose your first battle, ACapir?"

That comment would get him answers, at least - what he suddenly figured out was that his half-witted comment would also get him a very increased dosage of torture.

"I would thank you never to make that kind of comment ever again," ACapir hissed. "Which you likely won't."

"Am I right?" he pressed, and exploded into a burst of maniacal laughter before managing to get control of his somewhat strained nerves

"Let's say.. I've found we have one or two similar aims."

"What are they?" Xioyes sagged and only the weight of the heavy clasps on his arms supported him. "What do you want from me? From us? We're not your slaves on your ships anymore."

"Amazing, you actually managed to get out a sentence without stuttering like a terrified fool."

Xioyes whimpered, and sagged further as the futility of - of anything in this creature's presence weighed down on him.

But if all is lost, nothing is left to lose.

The over-dramatic thought - also identified as heroic, as almost all ideas recognized as heroism are mere dramatics - brought him almost no comfort, only a sense of helpless resignation, and he pressed the question again. "Why are you here?"

"Because I chose to be. Now shut up and stop wasting my time."

It was just as he remembered it.

The pain ripped through his body like a white-hot hail of needles. He felt as if something had been living in his stomach and was trying to rip its way out via his throat. He felt as if his veins were running with molten steel instead of blood.

He screamed.

"Stop it! Stop it!" He gagged and retched and finally vomited, again and again, trying to rid himself of the pain as though it was something tangible - something he could get rid of -

ACapir watched with something like disgusted pride.

"I don't even know" - he gagged again, but recovered - "what you want."

"Where are the Andalites?" ACapir asked calmly, as if nothing unusual was happening.

"I've told you! I don't know! I don't know of any Anda -"

"Don't you?" He seemed to be considering this.

"What do I gain by not telling you?" Xioyes cried, frustrated. "I would not let this continue if I knew how to stop it - you remember me - you know me, monster, you know that I would give in if I had anything to give."

He looked down at Xioyes, who was still writhing with the memory of pain. Something should have been falling into place, and it was not. Some great manacle held his mind in its grasp, some preconceived idea that, once having caught his intellect, would not release it to explore other possibilities. He closed his eyes, trying to concentrate, and was broken out of the concentration by Xioyes's helpless whimpering.

"Nonononono... Stopitstopit..." Xioyes writhed in the chains, anticipating the pain with such frightful insight that he could almost feel it. His eyes squeezed shut. "Make it stop..."

"It hasn't started," ACapir said, sounding distinctly amused. "Who are they? And where?"

He wants the humans, Xioyes suddenly realized. Morph-capables. He doesn't care if they're Andalites. As long as they can morph. I can tell him that, yes - and then it will stop -

And suddenly the face of Xilite snapped into his memory. He weighed the two beings against each other, wondering who he feared more.

He set his jaw and bore himself up into a near-steady position.

"I won't tell you. I won't. You're not invincible. You can fail. Maybe you'll fail this time. Does it scare you?"

I'm babbling, he realized, and continued speaking almost incoherently.

Defy him.

And the pain grew stronger, a roaring noise in his ears.

Be strong, just once.

And the roaring deepened, an earthquake swallowing him whole.

Fight him.

And the fall was faster, spiraling towards a canyon's floor.

Have courage, for the first time, for the last time...

And the ground opened to receive him as life slowly faded from his dying eyes.

* * * * *

An Escafil device, the visser said proudly, confirming her thoughts. I am the first Yeerk to obtain one.

"Beautiful," she said weakly. "Such power for the empire. Our empire."

Yes. Such power for me. I assume that there will be a promotion in this?

"Of course." Xilite suddenly straightened. "Of course there will. It is a great feat, Esplin nine-four-six-six. I will most certainly emphasize your accomplishment in my report."

Serua! Kalaos! Where are you two fools when I need you?

What is your designation, Councilor?

Her eyes narrowed. "I am" - a slight hesitation in her words - "Daraem four-six-three."

I have not heard of that...name...before. Suspicion was suddenly clear in his eyes.

Stupid. So stupid. She resisted the pressure to look towards the exit, time how long it would take her to escape. She sized him up instead.

And it clicked in his brain.

GUARDS!

"I think not." The knife slipped out of the scabbard into her capable hands, and she sprang forward as his tail blade struck. A long cut was ripped down her arm and blood flowed like a torrent.

TSEEWWW!

Dodge!

The beam singed her fur as she tried to twist away. Chapman aimed again.

TSEEWWW!

FFWAP!

She brought her knife up to block the visser's blow and tried to twist it around to get his tail between her and the Dracon fire, only seconds too late.

"Ayagh!"

Blood and burn marks swirled together on her skin. Xilite spun towards the exit and slammed the panel with her fist.

"Access code?"

You'll find the security system hard to beat, the visser snapped, when you have time to try, if ever. Now - well - you don't. I hope you don't think me inhospitable.

She slammed the panel again, this time with her knife. It latched into circuits and she tore them out, thankful for the leather insulator protecting her hand from the electricity surging through the metal knife.

The door slid open, slowly, and she slipped to the side, waiting, waiting -

Strike!

ARRH! He struck blindly and missed; she caught his blow with the knife and plunged it deep into his tail. He screamed again and tried to strike, only to embed his tail in the back of a would-be Hork-Bajir aide.

Visser Three tried to snap his tail back. The tail blade remained lodged in the bones and tendons of the dead-or-dying alien.

Xilite!

Oh, yes, now they notice, she seethed.

Reinforcements needed? Jake said tersely.

She shook her head. Never will I ask for human help.

The arrogant thought had hardly escaped the clutches of her conscious mind when the Hork-Bajir blade flat struck her in the head. She crumpled to the floor.

FLASH.

She felt him grab her wrists and shove her back, then lean in to kiss her almost tenderly. Her face formed into a sneer as she tried to push him back, away from her -

Tried to push the memory back, out of her life -

Out of what she was -

FLASH.

* * * * *

They got her, Tobias said as the body was dragged off. And Xioyes, I think. I don't know where he is. Haven't seen him.

So the rescue force is here, Rachel said with a giddy laugh. She tested eager claws. Lemme at 'em.

You sound so worried for our little friends, Marco said dryly. Or maybe just bored?

Idea two, Jake said coldly, I'm sure. But that Escafil device will be found, I don't care how, or who we have to go through to get it.

Agreed. But first, let's get the Xaralites. Marco grinned a rather nervous grin. They'll tell anything about us - who we are, what we are, all they know. And they know a lot.

Enough, said Ax, to bring our downfall, if the Yeerks are as good with torture as we think.

They are, Tobias answered softly. They are.

* * * * *

Her eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light, and she groaned. The world swirled around her, the only thing keeping her from falling the vises that held her wrists --

Xilite was suddenly fully awake.

"Hello, Xilite. Just like old times, yes?"

She turned her head to face the owner of the voice, already knowing who she'd see.

"ACapir? What are you doing here?" A cold fear gripped her heart. Infested?

"My job," said ACapir shortly.

"Since when do you work for slugs?"

And suddenly the fear was stronger. The corpse on the floor, several feet away, caught her eye. She made an involuntary move towards it and was jerked back by the shackles.

Her eyes turned back to ACapir. "What's happened to you?"

"Nothing. I happen to people, not the other way around."

"What are you doing here, then? You're a Zaceton, not one more torturer for slugs."

"Everyone's somewhere. Is there someplace else I should be?"

"On your ship, attending to your captives," she said bitingly.

"In a way, I am."

"In what way?" Her fingers curled around the metal strips, prying for a weakness. If he noticed the nervous movement, he didn't comment.

"In the sense of attending to the prisoners, Xilite."

Her blood froze in her veins, and suddenly seemed to follow a slow path through her body with the heaviness of lead. "What do you mean? Tell me. Don't -- don't keep evading it. Just tell me." You could at least talk to me, before. Sometimes. Yes, there must have been a few times when you did...actually told me something about who you were. There must have been a few times.

He sighed. "How do we put this. I am attending to my captives. All nine -" An odd smile spread over his face as he looked at the corpse. "All eight of you. You will be returning to the ship. Deal with it."

Xilite jerked as though slapped, and her heart beat faster. No words came, just a horrible sense of emptiness and betrayal that smothered her and bubbled up inside the deepest recesses of her mind. Who he was - who she'd thought he was - were so different. He'd made that clear, in less than five minutes of conversation.

Who he'd been. Who she'd thought he was. Were they different, too?

"Unfortunately," ACapir said after a slight pause, and the hardness of his eyes was evident, "in this great cavern, we cannot find the remaining seven of your little band. So we will have to obtain that information from...someone. Along with certain other information for the slugs, such as the identity of the Andalite bandits."

"Did I ever break under torture? Do you expect me to now?"

"Anything is possible," said he, with the fading ghost of a smile.

And the pain came.

It radiated through her almost softly at first, insinuating itself into her being, finding its way through her form, and then exploded as soon as its roots were embedded in her. Her thoughts were reduced to incoherence, her eyes were glazed and screamed out the pain that she felt, but her lips were pressed together and her voice was still even when the torture ended and she was trembling with the agony of it and the memory of it and a thousand different phantoms rising in her recollection -

AXarin -

ACapir -

As he had been -

As he was -

She shook with a feeling of frozen pain, and laid her cheek against the cold wall. I can't last through this, not if it's him. If it was anyone else - I could - but not him.

* * * * *

There was a long silence.

ACapir turned his back to her, supporting himself by an arm pressed against the opposite wall, eyes closed, head bowed.

She wondered what there was to say. A tear slid down her cheek, and the shackles prevented her wiping it away.

This is crazy, he thought almost wildly. Absolutely crazy.

Prove what you are. Prove how much control you have, over yourself, over others. This is not controlled - emotion is not - regret is not.

I thought it would be different, seeing her again. I thought it would not hurt this much.

And it shouldn't!

It does.

"You don't have to be this again."

He turned again, this time to face her. The hardness that had momentarily left his eyes was back. "What do you know of it? Of me? What did you ever know of me?"

"No more than you let me know." She smiled bitterly. "Apparently not much."

"No. Not much."

"Did I know you at all? Even a little?" The words almost choked her. "Have you changed, or was I just blind?"

"I've changed." He shrugged. "Or rather, this is what I was, before we met. And this is what I am again."

Her eyes searched his. "Is it what you want to be?"

ACapir shrugged again. His hands started to move towards the controls, and stopped inches from them. He looked back up at her, and saw the terror behind her eyes.

She was never afraid of it before.

Do you think she's afraid of it? She's afraid of you.

"Why are you here?" he said finally.

She raised an eyebrow. "If you can't get it out of me with torture, you can't get it out of me by inquiry."

"I'm reasonably sure that I can, one way or the other." His mouth tightened.

"It's not a question of what you can do, ACapir. It never was. You were always invincible, remember? It was always a question of what you wanted to do."

"That's enough," he snapped. She fell silent, and another silence raised its wall between them until he spoke with a frigid laugh. "You're right, of course. It always was. And it always will be." The shackles opened around her wrists. "Get out."

"ACapir, no." She started to move towards him, and froze at the look in his eyes.

"Get out."

"As you wish."

Xilite bowed, coldly, and exited.

* * * * *

"Serua."

The brown Xaralite spun around. "Xilite!" she hissed. "Where is Xioyes? We found the others."

"ACapir is here."

She paled. "What?"

"He's apparently a torturer for the Yeerks now," Xilite snapped in a barely controlled voice. "He killed Xioyes."

"Why is he here?"

"I tried to find out. My best guess? The Zacetons want us back."

Serua leaned heavily against the wall.

And the calvary is here!

Xilite whirled. "Rlin?" she hissed.

Nah. This is Rach.

"You acquired members of my force?" she yelled. The sound was lost in the cries of the humans and the laughter of the Controllers, but she paused at its volume.

With their permission, she said edgily. Rlin and Kalaos. We needed a disguise to get us around here. Our morphs are pretty much known. What happened to the missing one of your -

"He's dead," Xilite said coldly. "Get the word out."

Xioyes is dead, Rachel broadcasted to the Animorphs and their allies. Then, to Xilite, How?

"One of the old Zaceton torturers is here. He seems to be intent on recapturing us. Xioyes was tortured, and then killed."

What did he give away? She tried to keep the anxiety out of her voice.

"I don't know. I don't think he found out anything."

You should have gotten rid of him, just to be sure.

"I? Kill him?" Xilite laughed bitterly.

"No one can kill him," Serua said weakly. "No one. Not even her."

"Shut up, Serua."

Her eyes opened wide. "What was wrong with that comment, oh great leader?"

"Just shut up." Xilite looked back at Rachel. "Tell the Xaralites, too."

I did.

"Good riddance," Serua muttered. "Xioyes was a fool."

"Do you know where everyone else is?"

Wait. Wait. How did you get away? Rachel slowly swung Rlin's eyes around to face her. How did you escape, if you didn't kill him?

"I'd like to hear this, too," said Serua. "None of us ever knew how you escaped before, either, Xilite."

"Do you challenge me?" Her claws slashed Serua across the shoulder, hard. She recoiled from the anger in her commander's eyes and the rage in her tone. "Do you dare to challenge me?"

Stop it! Rachel tried to get between them. We're on the same side, here. You can assert your leadership later - ah!

"That goes for you as well," Xilite hissed as she retracted her claws. "Do not challenge me. Especially. Not. Now."

Serua gasped in shock as the truth hit her. Xilite shot her one look, and she fell silent. "Status?" she demanded from Rachel. "The Animorphs? My force?"

All okay. None of us have been noticed - just you and Xioyes. Did you see the Escafil device?

"Yes."

Where is it?

Xilite gave her a somewhat disgruntled look. "I was knocked out. Who knows where it is now? Now, where is everyone?" She considered for a moment, then held up a hand. "One second."

Her fur suddenly blackened, as if charred by a fire, just as a panther-like sheen swept over it. There, much better.

Rachel nodded, secretly relieved that Xilite could now give instructions to her own followers.

ACapir is here. Yes, here. Apparently working as one of their torturers. It is absolutely imperative that none of you are captured, because, guess what, you'll break if you are. Kill yourself first. She surveyed the great prison. Is that understood?

Chapter Seven

"Guards."

There was no response. He swore. Evidently the Hork-Bajir had been called away - of course they had, or Xilite would not have gotten that far.

"GUARDS!"

Four Hork-Bajir and one human entered, and stood at attention.

"Report."

"The seven are still not found," the human said. "We suspect that the Andalite bandits are here, but they, too, are undetected." He eyed the floor. "And yours?"

ACapir raised an eyebrow. "You do not question me - that is, unless you want to test my expertise in this career."

It took a moment for the human to understand what he meant. Then he gulped.

"Find them. Now." He nodded curtly and made a dismissive motion with his hand.

They backed out.

Evliis planned this, ACapir seethed. He planned for this to happen - that I be unable to face it, that he have grounds to execute me as a traitor.

And you fit in perfectly with his plans, didn't you? He was right. Why bother being angry? He was right.

Can I ever be more than this? He looked around. More than a torturer? Is this all there is? And then, perhaps, become the emperor - over mere torturers such as oneself? Is there nothing more?

If there was, what would it be? Her face flashed through his mind. Is that what you want? Is that what you're waiting for? Love fades. Happiness fades. And in the end, only the memory of invincibility is what you keep.

Or the memory of monotonous hopelessness.

Invincibility.

"It's not a question of what you can do, ACapir. It never was. You were always invincible, remember? It was always a question of what you wanted to do."

No, Xilite. It is about what I have to do, not what I want.

But here - here - is there freedom?

He examined the word in his mind, and shook his head. The concept was alien. To the Zacetons, he appeared to have perfect freedom - and yet he had none. Every action was chained by the watching eye of Evliis, who wanted nothing more than to be rid of him. And who was afraid to try it, without evidence.

His face twisted into a bitter smile. The Zaceton emperor was afraid to execute him, without evidence. Perhaps that is an accomplishment.

* * * * *

"They're here."

They are? the visser said sarcastically. Tell me something that's not obvious. He had morphed to fix the wound in his tail, but apparently his pride had not recovered. Esplin twitched the new tail threateningly, and the human gulped.

"Yes, visser." He gulped again. "Yes, visser. Ah. Well. As you know, ah -"

Stop stuttering, fool! Visser Three bellowed in a fit of rage. Chapman's knees began to knock, but he took a deep breath, and tried to continue.

"A, um, Xaralite was, ah, captured and released - we think the torturer is responsible - he's not a Controller and so -"

Well, have him infested immediately, Iniss. Immediately.

"We, ah, had an agreement -"

And if he's infested, then the agreement will become null, correct? The visser's tone rose to a mocking whine, then dropped to a whisper. You forget, Iniss, that once he is infested, he is ours.

* * * * *

Xilite sighed and spoke in a resigned tone. Go. All of my forces, go. I'll get the Escafil.

Are you insane? Marco snapped.

Probably. I don't command you six. Ask your leader about that. But I'll get the device. She turned promptly and broke into a light jog toward the place that Chapman had led her to before, already drawing her knife from its sheath.

We'll cover you, Cassie called. A few Xaralites slowly wove their ways over, in as much of an inconspicuous manner as they could. Xilite smiled briefly at them, feeling something like gratitude even though she knew they only did it to make sure that their own secrets would not be endangered.

She almost collided with Chapman, coming out. He paid her no heed, only rushed on to speak with a cluster of Controllers that awaited him. She muttered something under her breath, tested the sharpness of her knife, and then ducked in.

The visser's face contorted as she swept in, unannounced.

"Hello, Esplin nine-four-six-six."

Hello, Councilor, he said, voice dripping sarcasm, eyeing the change in her fur color. So you have not only obtained a Xaralite host, but a host with morphing capabilities? I think not.

She shrugged. "You think? How surprising, what with the fact that a few simple Andalite bandits still survive the destructive sweep of your mighty glare."

Xilite could not have said why she merely stood there, and traded insults, but she could have said what she felt. Emotionless anxiety stormed within her, and spiraled into an empty void that she would never find words for. She ran a hand back through her hair as she shifted the form back to her normal one, and faced him with her own eyes.

Earth will be won, he hissed. And I have no reason to argue with you, Xaralite friend. Merely to have you infested. In fact, my guards will already be coming. Let's ensure that. GUARDS!

"Brilliant," she said with a forced smile. The Escafil device rested behind him, and she knew that capturing it would require one-on-one combat. Combat that she could not, in her present state of mind, win. She tightened her grip on the knife and snapped it forward before he could blink, but not before he could block it with his tail.

Coming! Rachel sang.

She slipped through the door and slashed at him with her claws, quickly followed by Marco, who grimaced. Doesn't this thing have a door? He noticed the panel that was somewhat destroyed. Oh.

Each slashed, and Marco hit, drawing a long cut down the visser's back as he twisted away from Rachel's attack. Xilite slipped past him, grabbed the box, and ducked as the tail blade almost caught her head.

"Go, go, go!" she shouted, and felt the blood spurt on her cheek at his next shot. She stumbled blindly towards the door, and suddenly felt Rachel grab her wrist.

Come on, said the warrior. As Xilite's blood-blurred eyes met hers, each smiled, and hesitated for just a moment until Marco crashed into them.

GO! he shouted, pushing them forward. We have to take the manual exits, ladies and gentlemen! No way we can morph with them coming up.

And he was right: She could already hear the Hork-Bajir assembling and chasing. Their shouts were loud in her ears, and the visser's enraged voice rang in her mind, but neither could replace the voice that was insistent in her memory, repeating..

What do you know of it? Of me? What did you ever know of me?

"So what are the manual exits?" she panted.

Pick one! He gestured to the stairways.

"I can't SEE, you idiot!"

Just follow me.

She felt Rachel charge forward and Marco take the box. Xilite swiped at the blood on her eyes and, vision momentarily cleared, saw the wounds on their Xaralite bodies. Her steps became faster, and she tried to brush the liquid away again.

"Xilite!"

The call split the dead air of the cavern and the roar of Hork-Bajir behind them. She turned, and already knew what she would see -

ACapir standing, watching - mourning? Would he be mourning? No, he would be only watching, and berating himself for failing, and reminding himself that he had tasks, responsibilities, and that she would have to be captured soon, even if he could not do it then -

Her heart seemed to break. Her legs ran faster.

The BioFilter, Marco said anxiously. Will it be programmed to accept Xaralites...?

It should be. Rachel covered the last few steps up the stairs, with the Hork-Bajir close behind.

Xilite snapped into her highest gear, and was past her in a moment. "This is a very odd place."

What's it look like? Marco yelled from behind. Xilite turned to see him and noticed the long cuts on him legs, apparently holding him back from moving as fast.

It's the mall! Rachel said in delight. Another mall entrance!

"The humans will see us," Xilite said, stating the obvious.

Doesn't matter. Can't do anything about it. But man, I have to morph. She hesitated, and pushed through into a place that Xilite could not identify. This is called a dressing room. Where humans try on clothes before they buy them.

"Thank you so much for the introduction to human culture."

Move, move, move! Marco shouted.

They can't get us here anyway, said Rachel, eerily calm as she stepped in and started to demorph, out of sight of the doorway. She tossed hair that was rapidly becoming blonde. "Xilite? You do have a human morph?"

Xilite did not answer, just stared down at the cold stone of the stairway through the closing door. The Hork-Bajir, whose mouths were moving and appeared to be screaming, were inaudible - some kind of sound force field? she wondered. Then she shook her head. It didn't matter.

What matters? Does anything?

Don't start thinking like that, Xilite. He's a traitor. Deal with it. If he betrayed you, he never loved you to begin with. It was stupid to have emotion in the first place, wasn't it? Stupid to believe that "even there" there could be love. So stupid. So naive.

"Xilite?"

"Hey, Xil," Marco said, putting a hand on her shoulders. "You okay?"

"Xilite," she snapped coldly, jerking away.

"Well, you weren't responding to that name, so..." He smiled.

She bared her teeth.

"Ohkay, apparently you're either going to ignore us or blow up at us."

"Marco, lay off." Rachel shrugged. "And Xilite, you can acquire me, if you need to."

"I have a morph I set up from my computer. Like my hologram." She began to initiate the transformation, and emerged as a hazel-eyed girl with dark gold hair, wearing a leather jacket over a green-blue shirt and a pair of khakis.

"That's not what you were wearing before," Rachel observed.

Marco grinned. "She notices outfits."

"And it's not skintight, like ours have to be," she continued, ignoring Marco other than elbowing him in the ribs.

"Yeah. I get to program my own hardware," answered Xilite, with an attempt at a smile. Rachel noted that her eyes seemed almost unfocused, and wanted to ask what was wrong, but stayed silent. The whispery voice of Tact informed her that was probably the wisest course of action to take.

Xilite shook whatever emotion she was feeling off. "Well. The others. They'll be worried." She stared down at the object that Marco held, glittering in the overhead lights. "How are we supposed to get that out of here?"

"Just morph, and then take it. No Controllers can stop us," Marco answered. "If we stay human, though, they'll have us marked."

"Or," said Xilite, with a strange smile, as a thought occurred, "I could try...wait a sec." She grabbed the hilt of her knife, which was still hanging around her waist, and slipped something off it. A hologram immediately appeared, displayed on the wall of the dressing room. "Computer: edit file Catharine." She snapped out a few more commands, and then told it to save. The morphed body shifted, as though it was going out of focus, and then reformed with a backpack-shaped, opaque force-field resting securely over her shoulders.

"Cool," Rachel said enthusiastically. She yanked the box out of Marco's grip and stuffed it in. "You should program some like that for us."

"Maybe I will, sometime."

"What's wrong?" Marco said, apparently having not mastered the art of listening to the impulse of Tact.

She tried to smile, again, but did not answer as the backpack closed seemingly of its own accord. She felt strangely as though the bars of her intangible cage had snapped shut, and could never release her again - and it was foolish to think so.

Her mind flew back to ACapir - his indifference, his cruelty, his emotionless being.

Emotionless. I should be that.

But if I was emotionless - wouldn't I become what he is?