Two days after that, we went back to the Yeerk pool. I went to the pier
farthest from the entrance I took. There was only one person in front of
me. He dipped his head into the gray sludge. He twitched just ever so
slightly, then stood up. He thanked the Hork-Bajir, then walked off to the
underground restaurant, muttering about being hungry.
Then it was my turn. I kneeled down with a little help from the Hork- Bajir, dipped my head into the iron-grey gloop, and felt Temrash let go of my mind and drop into the pool.
I stood up calmly, stared daggers at all the near-by Controllers, then was led away by another Hork-Bajir armed with a Dracon beam.
It led me to the same cage I was thrown in three days ago. With the same inmates.
The oddly familiar man was there again. He came up to me again, frowning a little.
"The Ariel I knew twenty years ago would have put up a fight till the day she died," he said in disappointment.
"What do you mean, the Ariel you knew? Who are you?" I asked nervously. If this man knew me from twenty years ago, then he wasn't from this world either.
"Ariel, you've never been a very good actress. Put down the facade of belonging here and talk to your old friend. I'm sure I look much older, but you look as young and beautiful as ever," He said rather mockingly.
I groaned. The only man that I knew from that long ago that would even consider commenting on my beauty at a time like this was Kenneth.
"Kenneth, this isn't quite the time to be mentioning how young I look," I said in the Common tongue, a language I haven't spoken to another person in nearly twenty years. Then I grinned. "How are you, my friend? It's been quite awhile, has it not?"
"Not so long. Only a few days. But then, you elves don't recognize us humans after a long time, do you?"
"Yadda, yadda, yadda. I meant before the other day. Anyway, I age as well. My own father wouldn't recognize me, if he were here and alive."
"Yes, you do age. But so slowly as to be impossible to notice. But you've changed in another way as well, friend."
I sighed. I knew he would mention this sooner or later. But maybe I could stall telling him why I've changed.
"Me change? Look at you! Your no warrior anymore. Look at that belly! And spectacles?" I mocked. "I could take you down in one hit. And, hey, wait a second! Is that what I think it is, Kenneth? Gray hair!" I grinned. "Gray doesn't look good with your once thick brown hair."
His old, medium-blue eyes narrowed in mock warning. "One hit? Just one? Don't you have any respect for your elders? And betters? It would at least take you five good, hard punches to even hurt me, if you could even get those in. By the time you got one hit in you'd be down on your back, panting for breath."
"I'm quicker than you and always will be, old man. And now I'm much stronger. And always will be." Oh, how I loved sparing insults with my old friend, Kenneth Tidwell. I'd actually missed him very much.
"By the way, I'd heard from a friend of mine that you'd taken up teaching. I just never thought of you as a teaching, nurturing type. What do you teach -- gym? I could see you doing that."
"Gym? With this big, ole' belly of mine? Hah! No, more like social studies. Much easier on the mind and body."
Just about then, a Hork-Bajir came into the cage. "Oh, gods. He's for me. Gotta go, friend," Kenneth said as the big brute grabbed him roughly by the arm. He just shook off the touch and walked to the reinfestation pier himself. I watched sadly as the Hork-Bajir thrust his head in the sludge. I watched as he lifted his head back out again, without any seeming difference. But I knew there was one. A Yeerk was now controlling the body of one of my closest friends.
I also knew that I would one day free him.
* * *
Four months later
"I am no longer safely a part of the Yeerk Empire," Temrash told the Animorphs one afternoon at a meeting.
"What do you mean by that?" Cassie asked.
"The Yeerks know that someone is giving the 'Andalite bandits' some valuable and top-secret information. And they know it's not someone in the Sharing. There aren't many Controllers who are not in some way a part of the Sharing. So they're interrogating every single Yeerk who's host is a 'civilian'. I'm next in line. And I'm not supposed to know it."
Temrash and I had become very close friends. I would die for him if I thought it would help. But we both knew it wouldn't.
My mother always said I was more like a human than an elf.
"This is one of those situations, I think, that we just go 'uh-oh' to," Marco said.
"Yeah. A big 'uh-oh'," Temrash said seriously. "The visser wants to interrogate me personally because I'm a sub-visser. He questions me, you're all either dead or Controllers. 'Game over, man. Game over,'" Temrash said in my most nerdiest of voices.
That got a nervous little laugh from everyone. Temrash makes jokes almost as much as Marco. He's just not good at it when he's scared to death.
"All right. So what do we do?" Jake asked.
We shrugged. "I dunno. We kind of left that part up to you."
"Great. Okay. We can't let you get interrogated for several reasons, and you can't just stop going to the Yeerk pool for mostly the same reasons," Jake said looking quizzically at everyone. "Anyone have any ideas?"
Marco raised his hand. "Yes, Marco?" Jake asked.
"How about we all just go home and watch TV. Star Trek V's on the Sci- Fi channel tonight."
"How about, no."
Marco shrugged. "It was just a suggestion."
What about what we did for Aftran? Tobias blurted suddenly.
"Let me morph?" Temrash asked in surprise.
"Not a bad idea. Not a bad idea at all. A vote?" Jake asked.
"Why not?" Cassie asked.
"Definitely," Rachel said.
"I don't see a problem," Marco stated.
"What about you, Ax-man?" Jake asked.
Ax had stood listening to the whole conversation without a word. I think he'd finally forgiven me about almost killing him.
I do believe we should, Prince Jake.
Jake looked like he was going to give his customary reply, but then just shook his head and did this little "Why bother?" look.
"Let me morph?" Temrash repeated in a mixture of excitement and fear.
Why fear? I asked him.
What if they make me morph some kind of blind, helpless animal? Make me take my true form without my true form? I want to be able to see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. Like I do with you.
I'm sure they'll let you become human. I wouldn't be able to bear not being with you.
Cassie went outside to where she hid the blue box. She came back into the barn carrying it. It was a beautiful object. Perfectly square, a shining, bright color blue. It had the beauty and symmetry of Andalites, its creators.
"So what do you want to be when you grow up?" Marco asked laughingly.
Temrash looked the Andalite right in the eye.
"Human. I want to be human," he told them with unshed tears blurring his vision slightly. He quickly blinked them back and continued before the others could even react. "Ax, you did it. Can you show me how? You know I can't just copy another person and take their life. I need to mix DNA, and you can do it. How?"
I...uh...Why, it's really rather simple, Ax told Temrash and me. He continued on to explain how he had mixed the DNA of his human friends.
Don't aquire me, I told Temrash. And he understood why.
Temrash crawled out of my head and I touched him to the box, careful not to touch it myself. I didn't need the power.
I then touched him to all five of our purely human friends.
I then laid him on the floor of the barn and let him morph. We all turned our backs so he could get dressed in the extra set of clothes Cassie had stored in the barn.
When we turned around, the Animorphs all gasped, but I just smiled. In front of us stood a perfect copy of Ax's human morph only about five years older.
He was very handsome. But that didn't matter. What mattered was that I was seeing what Temrash had always been in soul but not body. Perfectly, completely human. Every aspect of humanity. Except one.
He radiated innocence. Somehow, with all the horrors he'd witnessed in my mind and out of it, he was completely and totally innocent.
I made a little tsk, tsk sound and said, "You know, we're going to have to fix that one little aspect. No one but lunatics are that innocent."
"Who said I'm not a lunatic?" Temrash asked with a sparkle in his eye. He said it, in his own customized voice. I shivered in delight at the sound.
"Haven't you noticed, Ariel? We're all lunatics here! And now we have a new member to our crazy club!" Marco joked.
"Yeah, well, we're two people who are leaving the 'crazy club,'" I told Marco.
"Leaving? Why?" Rachel asked.
"We're no longer a part of this war. I've lived for a hundred and nineteen years, and I've seen enough fighting to last me for another hundred and nineteen. Good-bye, my friends." With that I took Temrash by the hand, by his own hand, and walked out the door. By my bike, in full view of the barn, I grasped his head in my hands and kissed him, full on the lips.
It lasted for only a moment, but to me at least it lasted an eternity. When we finally broke away from each other, we were both smiling and panting a bit.
I took the extra helmet I knew we would need from one of the mirrors and handed it to Temrash. I strapped my on own and mounted my beauty after my friend. We drove off into the evening.
Once again, I was sure I'd never hear about the Animorphs or Yeerks until the war was over.
I was wrong again.
Then it was my turn. I kneeled down with a little help from the Hork- Bajir, dipped my head into the iron-grey gloop, and felt Temrash let go of my mind and drop into the pool.
I stood up calmly, stared daggers at all the near-by Controllers, then was led away by another Hork-Bajir armed with a Dracon beam.
It led me to the same cage I was thrown in three days ago. With the same inmates.
The oddly familiar man was there again. He came up to me again, frowning a little.
"The Ariel I knew twenty years ago would have put up a fight till the day she died," he said in disappointment.
"What do you mean, the Ariel you knew? Who are you?" I asked nervously. If this man knew me from twenty years ago, then he wasn't from this world either.
"Ariel, you've never been a very good actress. Put down the facade of belonging here and talk to your old friend. I'm sure I look much older, but you look as young and beautiful as ever," He said rather mockingly.
I groaned. The only man that I knew from that long ago that would even consider commenting on my beauty at a time like this was Kenneth.
"Kenneth, this isn't quite the time to be mentioning how young I look," I said in the Common tongue, a language I haven't spoken to another person in nearly twenty years. Then I grinned. "How are you, my friend? It's been quite awhile, has it not?"
"Not so long. Only a few days. But then, you elves don't recognize us humans after a long time, do you?"
"Yadda, yadda, yadda. I meant before the other day. Anyway, I age as well. My own father wouldn't recognize me, if he were here and alive."
"Yes, you do age. But so slowly as to be impossible to notice. But you've changed in another way as well, friend."
I sighed. I knew he would mention this sooner or later. But maybe I could stall telling him why I've changed.
"Me change? Look at you! Your no warrior anymore. Look at that belly! And spectacles?" I mocked. "I could take you down in one hit. And, hey, wait a second! Is that what I think it is, Kenneth? Gray hair!" I grinned. "Gray doesn't look good with your once thick brown hair."
His old, medium-blue eyes narrowed in mock warning. "One hit? Just one? Don't you have any respect for your elders? And betters? It would at least take you five good, hard punches to even hurt me, if you could even get those in. By the time you got one hit in you'd be down on your back, panting for breath."
"I'm quicker than you and always will be, old man. And now I'm much stronger. And always will be." Oh, how I loved sparing insults with my old friend, Kenneth Tidwell. I'd actually missed him very much.
"By the way, I'd heard from a friend of mine that you'd taken up teaching. I just never thought of you as a teaching, nurturing type. What do you teach -- gym? I could see you doing that."
"Gym? With this big, ole' belly of mine? Hah! No, more like social studies. Much easier on the mind and body."
Just about then, a Hork-Bajir came into the cage. "Oh, gods. He's for me. Gotta go, friend," Kenneth said as the big brute grabbed him roughly by the arm. He just shook off the touch and walked to the reinfestation pier himself. I watched sadly as the Hork-Bajir thrust his head in the sludge. I watched as he lifted his head back out again, without any seeming difference. But I knew there was one. A Yeerk was now controlling the body of one of my closest friends.
I also knew that I would one day free him.
* * *
Four months later
"I am no longer safely a part of the Yeerk Empire," Temrash told the Animorphs one afternoon at a meeting.
"What do you mean by that?" Cassie asked.
"The Yeerks know that someone is giving the 'Andalite bandits' some valuable and top-secret information. And they know it's not someone in the Sharing. There aren't many Controllers who are not in some way a part of the Sharing. So they're interrogating every single Yeerk who's host is a 'civilian'. I'm next in line. And I'm not supposed to know it."
Temrash and I had become very close friends. I would die for him if I thought it would help. But we both knew it wouldn't.
My mother always said I was more like a human than an elf.
"This is one of those situations, I think, that we just go 'uh-oh' to," Marco said.
"Yeah. A big 'uh-oh'," Temrash said seriously. "The visser wants to interrogate me personally because I'm a sub-visser. He questions me, you're all either dead or Controllers. 'Game over, man. Game over,'" Temrash said in my most nerdiest of voices.
That got a nervous little laugh from everyone. Temrash makes jokes almost as much as Marco. He's just not good at it when he's scared to death.
"All right. So what do we do?" Jake asked.
We shrugged. "I dunno. We kind of left that part up to you."
"Great. Okay. We can't let you get interrogated for several reasons, and you can't just stop going to the Yeerk pool for mostly the same reasons," Jake said looking quizzically at everyone. "Anyone have any ideas?"
Marco raised his hand. "Yes, Marco?" Jake asked.
"How about we all just go home and watch TV. Star Trek V's on the Sci- Fi channel tonight."
"How about, no."
Marco shrugged. "It was just a suggestion."
What about what we did for Aftran? Tobias blurted suddenly.
"Let me morph?" Temrash asked in surprise.
"Not a bad idea. Not a bad idea at all. A vote?" Jake asked.
"Why not?" Cassie asked.
"Definitely," Rachel said.
"I don't see a problem," Marco stated.
"What about you, Ax-man?" Jake asked.
Ax had stood listening to the whole conversation without a word. I think he'd finally forgiven me about almost killing him.
I do believe we should, Prince Jake.
Jake looked like he was going to give his customary reply, but then just shook his head and did this little "Why bother?" look.
"Let me morph?" Temrash repeated in a mixture of excitement and fear.
Why fear? I asked him.
What if they make me morph some kind of blind, helpless animal? Make me take my true form without my true form? I want to be able to see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. Like I do with you.
I'm sure they'll let you become human. I wouldn't be able to bear not being with you.
Cassie went outside to where she hid the blue box. She came back into the barn carrying it. It was a beautiful object. Perfectly square, a shining, bright color blue. It had the beauty and symmetry of Andalites, its creators.
"So what do you want to be when you grow up?" Marco asked laughingly.
Temrash looked the Andalite right in the eye.
"Human. I want to be human," he told them with unshed tears blurring his vision slightly. He quickly blinked them back and continued before the others could even react. "Ax, you did it. Can you show me how? You know I can't just copy another person and take their life. I need to mix DNA, and you can do it. How?"
I...uh...Why, it's really rather simple, Ax told Temrash and me. He continued on to explain how he had mixed the DNA of his human friends.
Don't aquire me, I told Temrash. And he understood why.
Temrash crawled out of my head and I touched him to the box, careful not to touch it myself. I didn't need the power.
I then touched him to all five of our purely human friends.
I then laid him on the floor of the barn and let him morph. We all turned our backs so he could get dressed in the extra set of clothes Cassie had stored in the barn.
When we turned around, the Animorphs all gasped, but I just smiled. In front of us stood a perfect copy of Ax's human morph only about five years older.
He was very handsome. But that didn't matter. What mattered was that I was seeing what Temrash had always been in soul but not body. Perfectly, completely human. Every aspect of humanity. Except one.
He radiated innocence. Somehow, with all the horrors he'd witnessed in my mind and out of it, he was completely and totally innocent.
I made a little tsk, tsk sound and said, "You know, we're going to have to fix that one little aspect. No one but lunatics are that innocent."
"Who said I'm not a lunatic?" Temrash asked with a sparkle in his eye. He said it, in his own customized voice. I shivered in delight at the sound.
"Haven't you noticed, Ariel? We're all lunatics here! And now we have a new member to our crazy club!" Marco joked.
"Yeah, well, we're two people who are leaving the 'crazy club,'" I told Marco.
"Leaving? Why?" Rachel asked.
"We're no longer a part of this war. I've lived for a hundred and nineteen years, and I've seen enough fighting to last me for another hundred and nineteen. Good-bye, my friends." With that I took Temrash by the hand, by his own hand, and walked out the door. By my bike, in full view of the barn, I grasped his head in my hands and kissed him, full on the lips.
It lasted for only a moment, but to me at least it lasted an eternity. When we finally broke away from each other, we were both smiling and panting a bit.
I took the extra helmet I knew we would need from one of the mirrors and handed it to Temrash. I strapped my on own and mounted my beauty after my friend. We drove off into the evening.
Once again, I was sure I'd never hear about the Animorphs or Yeerks until the war was over.
I was wrong again.