Author's Note: Hmmm. This is longer than expected. Ah, well. Here it is anyways. The triangle things still don't work. This chapter has minor swearing.
Mob: DOES THIS MEAN THAT YOU'VE KILLED THE WRITER'S BLOCK?
Me: Yup.
Mob: GOOD!
Me: I want to clarify something about the last A/N. Pete WAS responsible for getting drunk, but he had no control over what he did when he was drunk. He was addicted and lacked the willpower to quit. He was sufficiently indifferent to Tobias for it not to matter much to him.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Animorphs yet. Aldrea/yrkh8tr has promised them to me in advance for when she rules the world, but that hasn't happened yet either.
Chapter Twenty-Two: Esp's POVAs every Yeerk knows, feeding every three days is vital for survival. I hadn't fed in the past two and a half. The glitch in time travel had messed up my feeding schedule. The past me would be feeding tomorrow. Unless I chose to stave, I needed to feed TODAY. The hunger was making itself known.
[Esp? What's the matter?] Tom asked me. He sounded worried.
[I'm fine, Tom,] I tried to reassure him. Unfortunately I moaned just after saying that.
[No, you're not,] he argued. He scanned my thoughts—I had never tried to stop him. That was one of the ways I had gotten him to trust me. This time I did try, but it didn't work. I was weaker than I'd thought. [Esp, you're starving!] Now he sounded panicked.
"Tom, relax. It isn't like I'm not at the fugue yet," I said irritably. It was pure bad luck that caused me to say it out loud. I wasn't focusing.
Every eye turned to me. Most looked curious. Ricky and Jake looked scared.
"The fugue?" Jake repeated. "Isn't that the part of Kandrona starvation right before the Yeerk dies?" Now everyone looked concerned.
"The mistake in our time traveling WOULD have messed up his schedule," Elfangor realized.
"Time traveling?" Pete repeated.
"Yeah," said Tobias. "We'd explain, but you might say something when drunk that would get us killed."
Pete shook his head. "If I got THAT drunk, I'd also be completely incoherent. One of the reasons Ricky trusted me to tell me about Eftlak. So what's all this about time traveling?"
"It is verrrrrrrrrrry compuh—puh, puh, puh—licated. Ted-duh. Duh," Aximili commented.
"Why do you do that?" Pete asked, momentarily distracted.
"Do what? Wha-tuh. Tuh."
"That. The way you play with sounds. Why do you do it?"
"I en-juh-oy oy oy oy oy it."
Pete continued to stare at him. Elfangor was giving Pete a murderous look. "You should probably go," Ricky commented, noticing this.
Elfangor (in human morph, and sitting at the table) leapt up, grabbed Pete by the throat, and slammed him against a wall. Ignoring Loren's, Ricky's, and Amy's cries of protest, he leaned in close and hissed a threat.
"Don't ever mention us. To anyone. If you do... I suggest you start writing your will."
Pete, not seeming the slightest bit perturbed at being held to a wall by his throat, looked Elfangor straight in the eye and nodded solemnly, as best he could in that position. Elfangor let him go and he left.
"Was that REALLY necessary?" Loren demanded.
"I thought so, yes."
I interrupted this little family feud by an involuntary cry of pain. Jake and Ricky were at my side in an instant.
"Esp, you need to feed. Eftlak's due at the pool in five minutes. You HAVE to come."
"I'll blow our cover," I snarled, now only linked to Tom through his speech centers. I didn't want him to feel my pain.
Ricky hesitated. "Eftlak says tell you you're way too self-sacrificing for your own good and you're coming if we have to knock you out and carry you. He also called you a stubborn—" there was a pause. Than Ricky said in exasperation, "Eftlak, there's NO WAY I'm going to say that with Amy here." I stayed firmly where I was, not even letting Tom move very much.
"I can't be seen. I'll be recognized." Suddenly, Ricky smiled, making an offer I couldn't refuse.
"We could test your theory."
"Theory?" Jake repeated. I felt a thrill run through me. I liked testing my theories, but I rarely got a chance to do so. Most of them were rather dangerous.
"Yeah. Eftlak says that Esp has this theory that, since humans have to brain lobes, which are almost like different brains, two Yeerks could work with one human host—if the Yeerks and human got along, anyway."
Everyone stared at me for a moment. Then Marco shook his head and said; "That is perhaps the craziest thing I have ever heard."
"You would think so," Jake grumbled. "It may be weird, but it's brilliant."
"You would think so," Marco shot back, smirking.
"We can try, but there's no need," I insisted. "I am perfectly okay."
[Esp, stop trying to fool everyone,] said Tom. He was overly concerned. I was fine. [I'm not 'overly concerned', Esp. You are most defiantly NOT fine. Just GO FEED, for goodness sake!]
"I'm not letting you kill yourself!" Tom took control of the speech centers by accident. I didn't have the strength to fight him for them.
"Esp, please," Ricky said irritably. "You have to feed. Eftlak does, too. Let's just test the damn theory and go!"
I sighed mentally as I crawled out of Tom's ear. When Ricky got mad enough to curse in front of Amy, it was best just to do as he said. I was picked up and pressed against another ear immediately. I was more sluggish, no pun intended, about crawling in than usual.
[About time!] Ricky snapped when I finally reached his brain. [Make yourself at home, Eftlak's on the other side,] he added, a bit more pleasantly.
[Thanks,] I murmured, exhausted from the energy I spent coming in.
"Esp's in and real tired," Ricky announced. "We need to go now."
Amy ran over and hugged him. Ricky smiled as he hugged her back. "Be back soon," she pleaded.
"I will be, Amy," he reassured her. "Be good." He turned to Tom. It felt odd to look at him through someone else's eyes. "Tom, take care of Amy 'till I get back, will ya?" He hid his emotions well. Only the slightest tremor in his voice showed how worried he was about leaving Amy here with strangers. Still, he knew that he could trust Tom.
Tom nodded. "Sure thing, pal."
We left quickly. Ricky made good time towards the nearest Yeerk pool entrance. I was a bit surprised. It was a bathroom door at an old gas station with a sign on it reading 'Out of Order'. Ricky glanced around to make sure no one saw us before he opened it and slipped in.
Instead of a bathroom, there was a staircase. Ricky had only gone twelve steps down it when we could hear the screams.
[I didn't know about this entrance,] I commented.
[It's new,] Ricky explained. [There're quite a few Controllers near here, they needed a place they could all get to.]
[Ah.] Suddenly, a new thought struck me. [Hey, Rick? How are we going to hide the fact that TWO Yeerks will be infesting you?]
[My head's always shoved under all the way. Crawl in different ears.] I didn't respond, feeling embarrassed for not thinking of it sooner.
After another minute, during which I almost went mad with hunger, knowing that the pool was so close, we emerged into the underground cavern.
As always, I first focused on the cages. There were so many... most of them were full. I felt a burst of sorrow for their inhabitants. Then I glanced at the place where the voluntary hosts relaxed, seemingly oblivious to the despair surrounding them. Now I felt rage, not all of it my own. Ricky, Tom and I shared our feelings for THEM: total hatred.
We joined the line at the closest pier. It was easy to tell the two apart. On the uninfestation pier, everyone was calm until they reached the end. Then you got to see which hosts were involuntary, and which were... traitors. On the reinfestation pier, nine people out of ten were thrashing, screaming, and fighting the Hork-Bajir restraining them. Ricky would soon be among that ninety percent.
"You're early," someone commented behind us. Ricky turned, startled, but not showing it.
"Perhaps, Illim," he said coldly, "you are late." He acted the part of a cool, detached Controller perfectly.
Illim, a fellow Yeerk from my home pool, shook his head. His host, Mr. Tidwell, was a teacher at Jake's school. "I know the schedules. You aren't due for another five minutes."
"How long do you think this line will take?" Ricky gestured at the two Hork-Bajir, three humans and Taxxon in front of us. I groaned. This would take a while.
"Good point," Illim acknowledged. Ricky turned back to facing forward, thinking their discussion was over, when Illim continued. "How's Esp doing? I haven't seen him recently."
[DON'T TELL HIM I'M HERE!] I cried desperately.
[Don't worry, I won't,] Ricky said calmly. "He's fine, I think. His host hasn't been giving him much trouble lately."
"Lucky for him," said Illim casually. He seemed about to say more, but Ricky cut him off. "Look, Illim, I came here to feed, not socialize."
Illim fell silent. By now, the Taxxon, one of the Hork-Bajir, and two of the humans had been 'released'. The Taxxon went of somewhere, and the Hork-Bajir and humans were all dragged to the cages, screaming bloody murder.
The next human knelt at the end. She twitched slightly as the Yeerk left her ear, the gracefully got to her feet, and went over to the other voluntary hosts. I recognized her. Taylor. The host of Sub Visser Fifty-One. The only Yeerk in the Empire to be better than Esi at torturing people.
Ricky glared at her, but masked it well. Like Tom, he had had a crush on her before finding out about the Yeerks. Now he hated her with a passion. [How do you keep yourself from trying to rip out her throat?] I asked him, awed that he wasn't attacking her.
[What would be gained? I'd be dead, she'd get out unharmed, and Amy would be all alone.] I was impressed by his logic. This was the most articulate speech I'd ever gotten out of him.
The Hork-Bajir right in front of us was now bending over the pool. The three Controllers behind us jumped at his bellow of agony. So much pain was condensed into that one cry... I felt like I was being torn apart by guilt. My people had caused that pain. The Hork-Bajir wasn't much beyond adolescence. A kid. And he knew more pain than any living creature should have to experience.
He was putting up a good fight. One of the guards fell of the pier, into the pool. The other was given three broken bones—at least. One of the Controllers sent to escort the young Hork-Bajir to the cages was given similar wounds. The other drew his Dracon beam and stunned him.
[They always have to do that,] Ricky told me, clearly impressed. [He's vicious.]
[I don't blame him,] said Eftlak. This was the first thing he'd said since I came in. [Isn't he in the Visser's guard?]
Now that Eftlak mentioned it, he did look familiar. By now, I was too hungry to respond. Thank heaven we were next. Ricky stepped forward as the stunned Hork-Bajir was literally dragged away.
He knelt at the end. His head was submerged. I saw in his memories that the guards often held him like this so that he had less air and was less aggressive when Eftlak left. He acted this out to perfection.
I sensed the Kandrona waves close by. I had thought I was weak from my hunger. But no. I wasn't weakened—I was desperate. My desperation gave me strength.
I shot from Ricky's brain, through his ear canal, and into the sludge that was my home in a matter of seconds. I was soaking up those blessed Kandrona rays and almost collapsing from sheer bliss while Eftlak was still squirming out of Ricky's ear. I wondered, too late, what we would do if a fellow Yeerk saw us on sonar.
[I presume that the key word was 'yet'?] Eftlak asked me.
[What do you mean?]
[When you told Tom that you weren't in the fugue yet—I presume that the key word was 'yet'?]
If I could have blushed, I would have. [Yeah,] I said sheepishly. I did a sonar sweep on the pier. Now Illim was dropping in to the pool. I hid quickly.
He was overly conversational. If he noticed me, he'd tell the whole pool about it. I had my doubts about whether he understood the concept of a secret. He was very open, friendly, and trusting, but had a tendency to spread rumors. Actually, I had used him to spread misinformation before. That was years ago, and yet I still felt guilty about it.
Illim stayed away from us, though. I felt yet another surge of guilt as I remembered how coldly Ricky had dismissed him. He and Eftlak had been inseparable as grubs. They fit to a human saying Tom had told me about once. If you cut one, the other would bleed.
[Esp? Are you listening to me?] Eftlak snapped, deliberately bumping into me to get my attention.
[Where you speaking?] I asked, mildly surprised.
[Obviously,] he grumbled. [I asked if you felt like swimming or something, not just lounging around here.]
[Oh,] I said lamely. I did feel much stronger now. [Sure, why not?]
[Catch me if you can, then!] he cried, shooting off through the pool at speeds I hadn't known any Yeerk could reach.
It was one of the greatest times of my life. Eftlak and I shot around the pool like grubs, without a care in the world. But, like all good things, it couldn't last. All too soon, it was time to infest Ricky again.
It was tricky. Ricky did a good job of trying to squirm away from us. I was amazed that he didn't drown by the time we both got in and the Hork-Bajir let him up.
We left the pool and got back to Ricky's place in a matter of minutes. Amy greeted her brother as if he had been gone for years. Tom was waiting for me right behind her.
[Hi, I'm Tom, and I'll be your host this afternoon] he teased once I was back in his head, imitating a TV show host. [How did it go?]
[It went fine, I'm good for another three days, and I have had enough of that STUPID JOKE!]
Author's Note: Writer's block. It's a curse. I HAVE BEEN CURSED!
Mob: WELL, THEN, FIND THE COUNTER CURSE!
Me: THERE ISN'T ONE! I'M DOOMED! I NEED INSPIRATION!
Mob (to reviewers): YOU HEARD THE KID, GIVE HER SOME IDEAS!
Me (regaining composure): Thank you. Those who wish to criticize, please give ideas on improvement and remember that it is impossible to please everyone. I have a few, darker ideas, so this may not be a humor story much longer.
Aldrea: Thank you very much. I love cookies! Even cyber ones... How did you know Mokuba was my favorite? (hugs Mokie-plushy) So cute! Like Amy, but richer. When you rule the world, I would be honored to publish this.
Dragon: No, I don't have a twin at all. The sister in question was ten years older than I am.