A/N(dalite): Well, I'm currently blocked on my Pemalite story, but it will be continued, I assure you...someday. This story is set before V3 becomes V1, k? The Animorphs are still semi-normal humans. Except Ax and Tobias, of course :P
~~Zaya~~
My name is Zaya. And I was, at the moment, human.
"Two-page essay on 'People I Admire' due Monday!" Mrs. Ebbysmeier shouted as we left the class.
Fifteen minutes later, I was home. (I had the power; did you expect me to *walk*?) I looked in the fridge, found nothing I wished to eat, sighed because it was sort of depressing that food had lost its amazingness, and decided to go do my homework. I zipped through the math--I couldn't understand what was hard about it; spent longer on the history, but got it done; kept having to double-check my biology just in case they had misconceptions I wasn't aware of; and then stared at the paper on which I had written the English assignment's title. Who *did* I admire?
The obvious choices--Elfangor and all the other war heroes and brilliant scientists--were out. My parents were out--I didn't admire them, though I did love them. My father was a disgrace and my mother was...gone. My other relatives were out--they didn't exist. Humans were out--I knew of none worth admiring.
But who cares about human school, anyway? I doubted I'd be on Earth long enough for it to matter, except to my foster parents.
I sighed. That was not how an Andalite should think. I ought to be trying my hardest. But I'd never cared about the Arts. I was going to be a scientist someday. I would be a famous bioengineer who would be the one to destroy the two-hour limit. Well, that's what I wanted to do someday...but I would be stuck on this primitive planet for the rest of my days, with my awful luck.
I have no human friends, so I'm usually asleep by about nine, but I don't ever get the sleep I need--humans need deep sleep, but if you have to wake up every two hours, you can't get that. I spend most of the week dragging myself through school. Then on the weekends I can go hiking, and demorph while I'm out there. I can tell my human foster parents that I'll be going farther than I really am, and get in some sleep to keep me from falling asleep in one of my human classes. Since I demorph, I don't have to worry about the two-hour limit, and Andalites need less sleep than humans.
---
I scribbled a quick note to my foster parents. They worry if they don't know where I am, and I don't think they like my hiking trips. But they let me do most of what I want--they think I've got to make my own mistakes. But how could I, an Andalite, be harmed on this pitiful human planet?
I knew the Yeerks were attempting to take this planet. I knew that, should I be discovered, I'd be dead--or worse. I knew that there were other Andalites on the planet, but I couldn't find them. Still, I felt safe on this planet.
I hurried off to the mountains near town. There was a bus that took people to a town even closer to the mountains, so I had no trouble getting there. I hiked through the trails around the mountain. But I was so tired I couldn't go as far into the forests as I would've liked. I knew gym was bad for your health...
I quickly demorphed. I couldn't risk falling asleep as a human, not without an alarm clock handy, anyway. Maybe some people can tell themselves when to wake up, but I can't. Not with results, anyway...
I fell asleep.
---
When I woke up, I found my hands and tail bound. What?! What had happened?!
Ah, you're awake, a voice sneered. An Andalite's voice. And I had a feeling I knew whose it was.
Visser, I replied, contempt coloring my tone.
Andalite bandit, it replied, gloating. There was only one Andalite-Controller. Only one Andalite had been captured out of the millions alive since the Yeerk invasion. Why, why, why couldn't it have been someone else?
I turned one stalk eye towards the Visser. Turned it away just as quickly. Why didn't they recognize me? They should. Maybe the Yeerk wasn't interested in its host's memories. Maybe he had stopped caring. Maybe he was trying to protect me.
I turned my other stalk eye to look around at my surroundings. My main eyes were still having a hard time focusing--they were more complex than the relatively simple stalk eyes, which had to physically move to focus correctly.
I was in the Yeerk pool, not surprisingly. And my tail was tied--there was nothing I could do to prevent my infestation. Nothing. I mentally sighed in relief. I am a weakling, I realized, appalled. But there was nothing I could do about that.
Take her to the Pool, Visser Three demanded. We shall watch the Andalite's companions walk right into our little trap.
But they didn't know I even existed, I realized hopefully. The other Andalites wouldn't come. The Visser wouldn't get the Andalite bandits--only me. And I didn't know any more about them than he did. Possibly less.
I didn't resist as blue-banded Hork-Bajir yanked me to the Pool. What was the point?
---
A/N: I'm rather pleased with Zaya at the moment. She isn't as Mary Sue-ish as most of my chars. She was, for a while, but then I re-wrote everything after she fell asleep. The plot has been much improved. (Considering its current state of badness, you should be thankful it isn't even worse! ^^;;) So, what do y'all think? Also, one thing that might be confusing: Yeerks are always 'it' to Zaya. Their hosts are always 'he' or 'she'. The host and the Yeerk together is 'they'. To the Animorphs and Ax, the Yeerk is still 'he' or 'she', depending on its host. Make sense? Good...R&R, please! Flames will be used to torch Zaya's evil English assignment!
