[A/N: The Yeerk Taylor would have had in books #33 and #43 died when Rachel crushed it. The Yeerk she has now is not the one in the series. It doesn't actually matter and is in no way vital to the plot -- it's just that I never got a feel for that Yeerk and I wasn't sure of the designation. With that said...]

{Here we go,} the Yeerk told me exuberantly. {Your first morph. Second, actually, if you count Rachel Berenson. But I'm not. First other-species morph.}

{You're excited,} I observed. {I didn't really think you Yeerks were the emotional type.} He snorted. {I've been in your head all of three hours,} he pointed out. {Don't form assumptions like that so quickly. And we're not. But most of us don't get to morph, either. It's a special occasion.}

{Good to know. Now that I've been educated, let's go.}

{Awfully eager yourself, aren't you? I guess it hasn't sunk in yet that you're a slave. You still think something about this is glamorous and exciting. You're even stupider than I thought. The only one it's glamorous and exciting for is me. We're going to morph a bird, Taylor, and guess what? You won't even be able to feel your body fly.}

{I'll get to see the view.}

He chuckled. {That's true.} I noticed the derisiveness in his tone.

{You don't like me at all, do you?}

{Why would I, little girl?}

{If you're going to be in my head for the rest of our lives, you should get used to me now.}

{You have so much to learn,} the Yeerk laughed.

Icy uneasiness trickled through my veins. A cold sensation of dread overtook me. I enjoyed it, and I wasn't sure why -- unless it was that this was my completion, like Patrick's was the frantic run from the cops, like Rachel's was obviously the war.

{You and Rachel are not so different,} he told me, reading my mind.

{I don't leave people to die in burning houses,} I snapped.

{And she didn't trade her freedom for a pretty face.} He considered. {You're right. You're nothing alike. You will never be what she is. She -- now she could be one of us. She's strong. She understands what has to be done. Not like Cassie.}

{Cassie?}

{Cassie, Jake, Rachel, Marco, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, Tobias. Former members of Animorphs. Tobias is the only one we haven't captured yet -- after all, as I infested you, my poolmate infested Rachel.}

{How long did they fight?}

{Long enough to damage us, but all that's over. We're free now, and the humans are too stupid to know we're here, unchecked, among them. You don't care, do you? You don't care if we take over Earth, because you think humans are traitorous anyway. You think that because your friends didn't think you were exactly a supermodel while you lay mangled in a hospital bed. You're so shallow.}

{They were supposed to love me,} I said coolly.

{You mean Brent was supposed to love you.}

{Everyone is!} I screamed, suddenly frantic. {I am beautiful! Isn't that all that matters? I am Taylor, everyone has to! How dare they look at anyone else!}

He laughed cruelly in my head. {I'm seeing thoughts no one else ever has, and it's very satisfying. Maybe this pretty exterior isn't the real you. Maybe the real you was that bleeding, oozing creature in the bed.}

I shut up, and tried to keep from thinking any thoughts at all.

{Now. Cassie should be here any moment. Visser Three wants me to acquire as many Earth morphs as possible, and the human zoo is the perfect place to start. So many animals that will be inside me. I'll be an army of one, haha.}

"Taylor," a voice called. I turned around to see a short, African-American girl coming towards me. "Welcome to the Gardens."

"Cassie!" the Yeerk answered. "Right on time. Nice to see you. Come on, show me around."