Chapter 11

After we took off, things ran smoothly. We were really on the lookout for meteors, and we did not hit any. Toby tended to sit off to herself, quiet, probably thinking of how her son Jark and the rest of the Hork-Bajir were doing. Yahal talked a bit, excited about the prospect of seeing a Kelbrid. General Doubleday did his best to make life exciting, and Rachel tried to soak in every single detail of what had happened in the three years she missed.

The Yeerk in Tom's head made him sit sullenly, knowing that in just a couple more days he would starve. Though I knew that it had tried to kill us many times, and it being in Tom's head was part of what drove Jake to his depression, I still pitied it. I do not want any living creature to die. I spent time with Tom, knowing how horrible the last few days are from Jake's experience. I wanted to help Tom through it. At first, he would morph to try and get out, I do not know what he expected to do; I guess he thought he could take back the ship and make it back to earth. What he thought he could do when he got there is a mystery to me as well; the Yeerks are gone from earth. After two days though, he did not do anything. The lack of Kandrona was starting to affect him. I stayed with them, the Yeerk and Tom, knowing that the last few hours would be the worst.

I woke up with a start, wakened by a shrill scream coming from no more than ten feet away. I looked over, and saw Tom clawing at his head. I realized I muct have dosed off while sitting with him. I had nearly been three days. In one more hour, Tom would be free, and the Yeerk would be dead. Tom's nails began to scratch his face, neck, and ears bloody. I walked over, and uttered some soothing words, and tried to restrain him, but he had the body of a powerful basketball player, whereas I was just a short, little girl.

"Help me... Help me... Kandrona! Where is the Kandrona?" pleaded Tom in a hoarse voice. "Must have Kandrona..."

I studied his face, and felt a twang of pity in my heart. The Yeerk was going to die without any possible chance of life. I forced my face into a smile, for Tom's sake. There was nothing I could do for the Yeerk. "It's all right Tom. Jake went through the same thing. You will make it through. Think of freedom."

His face twisted in agony, Tom screamed again. He started to writhe on the floor, thrashing and kicking. I felt my face go pale. I did not know what to do to keep him from hurting himself.

"Calm down, Tom, please calm down!" I heard myself say. Then, I stared in horror as something slimy started to poke out of Tom's ear. It was the Yeerk, coming out of Tom's head. Slowly, it crawled free of his ear canal. As I watched it, it seemed to shrivel up, and then it just disintegrated. Slowly, Tom sat up, and looked around. His mouth worked for a moment, but no sound came out. Then, he tried to stand up. He stumbled, and fell over again. I walked over and helped him up. The Yeerk had been in control for so long that Tom had forgotten how to walk and speak, for the most part. He tried standing again, and this time made it. He took two shaky steps toward me, and hugged me.

"Thank you," he managed to say, his eyes tearing up, "Thank you so much."

"Just a second," I said, "I am going to get the others." He sat back down again, and I hurried out of the room. "Rachel, Yahal, Toby, General Doubleday!" I called as I approached the bridge. I ran in and saw them all looking expectantly at me. "The Yeerk in Tom's head is dead. He's free!" The General and Rachel both smiled, Yahal turned all four of his eyes to look at me, and Toby stood straight.

We should go see him, said Yahal. Together, the five of us walked back to the room where we had been keeping Tom locked up. We neared, and I saw Tom practicing walking in the room. He seemed to be getting the hang of it again. I walked through the door, followed by Rachel, then the General, and finally Yahal and Toby. Tom ran over to us, and hugged everybody one by one.

"Thank you, thank you," he kept saying. I did not blame him. I knew what Jake had gone through after only three days of captivity, and what it had been like for me in just a few hours of captivity, before I convinced Aftran to stay unhosted forever. However, when she was found out, we eventually gave her the morphing power and watched as she became a whale nothlit. I wondered how she was doing, and if she knew that the Yeerk invasion had failed. I looked at Tom again. He had tears streaming down his face.

"I'm free," he said. "Thank you. I'm free." His face broke into a wide grin. "And you said the Yeerk Empire was crushed, right? So I'll never be infested again, thank God. My parents, did they escape?" He asked, his face becoming serious once again.

Rachel looked at me, and I took a deep breath. "Yes, Tom, your parents are safe. It was just you and Rachel that died, that you know."

"How did you do it? They looked for you, you know. They looked so hard."

Rachel shone with pride. "There were only five of us in the very beginning. We hooked up at the mall, and started to walk home. We ended up walking through the abandoned construction site. As we walked through, we saw a flash of light, and watched as a spaceship fell from the sky. An Andalite walked out. It was Elfangor. He told us about the Yeerks, and then gave us the morphing power. We ran off and hid, and saw Visser Three, later Visser One, come and eat the Andalite. Quickly, we learned that Mr. Chapman was a controller, and so were you. Our first mission brought us down to the Yeerk Pool to try and rescue you. That was where Tobias became stuck as a red-tailed hawk." Her voice faltered for a moment. "It was partially luck, and also because they were convinced that we were Andalites at first, which enabled to hide.  Even Jake was somewhat safe, even with you in the same house. It wasn't very long before we found Ax in the dome of his ship under the ocean though. Time went on, and Marco learned that his mom was Visser One. Later, we found out that a kid had found the blue morphing box, and was selling it on the internet. We made him one of us to save him. He was power-hungry though, and tried to sell us out to Visser Three/One. We ended up having to trap him as a rat." I saw her eyes go dark. "When Marco's dad learned about Zero space, they faked their own deaths in order to go into hiding. We were able to save Marco's mom, and they lived with the free Hork-Bajir. Later, when the Yeerks found the partial match to our DNA, Tobias' mom, we all went into hiding with our families. Except for Jake, because you took your parents and made them controllers." Rachel went on, but Tom's face colored, and he looked down, and wiped his eyes. "Jake is a great strategist, and that was a major reason we won the war. I think you know most everything else. Of course, we had our allies, the free Hork-Bajir, General Doubleday and his troops, the parents, James' people," she said, looking at Toby and General Doubleday, respectively.

"You were great," he said, his eyes shining. "I always told the different Yeerks in my head that you would beat them. I told them that, and they ignored me, but I told them and it annoyed them. I had two different Yeerks, but one left me about two and a half years ago. I mean, five and a half. This jump forward in time is really messing me up." He smiled. "Thank you, I'm free. Now, let's go rescue the midget, shall we?"

All six of us laughed out of sheer relief.