Tom swung the gun back around and pointed it at me for a moment; as I blinked my left eye in shock, he remembered that I was no threat. He lowered it with a snarl and ran one hand through his hair, pushing it back out of his eyes. He sank into one of the hospital chairs like a visitor, his gun drooping at his side, nearly dragging on the floor.
I croaked out something unintelligible. Tom shrugged. "Just wait a little while, Taylor," he commanded. "You'll be talking again soon enough, if all goes as planned. As long as she has that box."
She'd had the box, I remembered dimly. A grizzly plunging through my window and half my wall, with the box clenched in its teeth. I tried to nod, just a little shuddering of my head, up and down, slowly. Painfully.
Tom eyed me for a moment and then his eyes lit up. "She did!" he crowed in understanding. "She did, didn't she? Well, then, it works out for all of us."
Rejuvenated, Tom jumped up. He crossed over to my bed and knelt, running his hand over the tile, searching for something. Evidently he didn't find it. He scowled as he stood up.
"That bitch," he muttered. "She - ugh!" He bent over, looking at the remains of the slug he'd just stepped in. "There goes Ickthar 417," he growled at nothing. He certainly wasn't growling at me. I wasn't important enough to growl at.
I understood that their project to "heal" me was not about me at all. I knew that they were evil; that much was obvious, from the girl's ranting and Tom's threat to kill the nurses. I knew that they needed me for something and that otherwise I would probably have been disregarded. But I did not care in the least.
Tom stepped over to the door and made a sharp left, heading down the hall to the place I assumed the nurse's station had to be. I would have scoffed if I'd been able to. Leaving me unattended was an insult. He knew I could not escape even if I did not want them to do... whatever it was they were going to do. So why had he played nice earlier?
Ah, yes - for fear that the girl and I were allied. That was the only thing that made sense.
I lay in silent contemplation for a few moments, not that I had much choice. After no more than two minutes, Tom reappeared with a canister in his hand, probably containing a slug like the one the girl had killed. His smile was cruel; it reminded me of her.
"Here we go, Taylor," he told me cheerfully. "If you don't like it, grin and bear it. You'll get used to it soon enough. And then you'll be beautiful again."
He opened the canister and held it to my ear. A moment later, I felt something wet and soft touch my earlobe. In spite of my resolve, I trembled, but even a movement like that was so agonizing that I froze and held still. The slug kept feeling its way in. I felt it squeeze through the tiny hole and past my eardrum, heard its horrible squishing body flatten and curve to navigate the pathway. And then I felt its cold, moist skin in my brain.
Abruptly I lost control of my limbs. My stump swung forward, and the pain I had been feeling was strangely absent; I was aware that it existed but I did not feel it.
{Aaaah!} a voice cried sharply. It spoke without words; I understood that it came from the creature inside my skull. {Pain! They gave me a defective host! This wasn't what I was promised!}
{They say I'll get better,} I answered immediately, and communicating the way the slug did was a relief; I did not have to form sounds with my ruined mouth anymore. {They say they're going to make sure I'm healed.}
{Don't try to trick me!} the slug snapped in fury. {Humans like this can't be healed! What's going on here? I want a -}
"I'm sure I know what you're thinking, Xanos 208," commented Tom as he observed my body twitch and squirm. I realized he could not hear us. "You were promised a normal human host. I know, I know. But Ickthar was killed by the Animorph. She's been here. Your current host is going to be our latest project; she's had contact with Rachel Berenson, who, coincidentally, is about to be infested herself."
"Khalt..." The slug's words died in my throat. It had control of my speech, my limbs; I felt the first edge of dread creep over me.
"We'll fix her, I promise," soothed the boy who was not a boy.
{Is he a slug, too?}
{We're Yeerks, not garden snails.} The creature named Xanos sighed noisily. {I know garden snails aren't slugs!} he spat as soon as the thought formed in my mind. {Just be quiet. Be quiet. Don't think; it's too annoying for me to have to listen to it. I don't want to talk to you. I don't even want to be in this twisted body. You're disgusting, human.}
I fell silent and felt him rifling through my memories. How I felt that I can't explain; I could see bits and images of what he was looking at in my mind, but it was less the visual and more the feeling of invasion that tipped me off. My uneasiness grew.
{Oh... the human has the box? You had the box? Hmm... Maybe I'll change my mind about you, Taylor Gregor.} The Yeerk sensed my anxiety and laughed. {No, life as a host is not a picnic. But maybe you will be pretty again, if she has the box... Such a stupid girl, you know. You, not her. Trading your life away for a pretty picture in the yearbook. Not that you'd have a choice about being a host to begin with, but honestly, your eagerness to trade anything for your old face is disturbing.}
I suddenly felt embarrassed - not ashamed of my desire, only ashamed that someone else saw it for what it was.
{What's going on?} I asked. {I don't understand...}
{Foolish human.} Another sigh. {I'll explain, mainly because I really have nothing else to do. Where to start. We're invading Earth. We need more bodies like yours - well, not specifically like yours, preferably ones with all limbs intact - because otherwise we are just garden snails, without the shells.
{We used to be resisted on Earth by six youths who eventually met their match,} he added arrogantly. {All except two, one of which is the girl you saw, have been captured. They can morph; anyone who touches that box can morph. If one morphs, one's injuries go away... it has to do with DNA and other complex things your little mind wouldn't really grasp, so I'll break it down for you: if you touch that box, if you morph, you'll be you again.}
{I touched that box.}
{What?!} With a yelp, he reexamined my memories. {You did! You did! You stupid, foolish, short-sighted child, do you realize what you've thrown away? You could have escaped at any time! You acquired her and she acquired you, and you didn't even know it!}
{I don't understand,} I said helplessly.
{I do.}
I felt my body changing. The Yeerk looked down as long, thin fingers traced their way out of my stump. I could see my leg growing whole again beneath the hospital sheets. Hair flowed in rivers from my scalp. My lips pressed, whole, against each other.
My right eye opened. I could have cried in ecstasy.
Tom spun around as my voice rose in delirious laughter. "Xanos...!"
"She touched it!" he cackled through my lips, the words gloriously clear. "I thought we'd never have another morph-capable, sub-visser... and now it's mine..." The Yeerk threw the sheets away from my body, revealing my legs, my arms, my skin sweeping down to the neck of my still-in-place hospital gown - all of it, whole. "She touched the box and acquired the Animorph! Without even knowing what she was doing, what power she had!"
My face began to change again; I felt minute changes occur all over my body. Tom looked at me and smiled, smiled and pointed to the corner of the room, which housed a standard hospital sink. The Yeerk stumbled as he stood up, quickly mastering human limbs, and headed for the mirror perched above the sink.
I felt his intoxication, anticipation, of what his human form would look like. He had never seen me; he did not know what to expect. I did. My heartbeat quickened, and then we were there...
Long seconds passed as he examined my reflection.
{There, girl, you're pretty again,} murmured Xanos, as if in awe. {And I... I'm invincible.}