A/N: Here it is! Just as I promised!
Controller
(by Sinister Shadow)
Chapter Eleven
Edriss 562
I do not believe that my childhood was one of the best there ever was among Yeerks. Perhaps my adulthood was better, but I will not go that far in the future. Not yet.
For that part of my life... is an entirely different story.
But the present, this present, was among the worst of my times. I had been, once again, abducted by Sub-Visser Nine. Being carried by Blade ship all the way back to his headquarters.
What he wanted from me was unclear. But nevertheless, I felt defeated. Stupid. Like I wasn't looking out enough for myself and my friends...
... My friends!
What if they'd been captured also? How stupid could we have been to think he would just leave us alone?
Sub-Visser Nine sat near me, on a chair designed for Hork-Bajir. I was laying on the ground, my arms tied behind my back and my legs tied together with indestructible microcellular cords. Microcellular cords are made of billions and billions of tiny particles of very strong metal, all intertwined. The stuff is completely indestructible, and very flexible. Hence the fact that it is rope. And this rope tied me down...
Sub-Visser Nine had not spoken to me once since we had entered the Bug Fighter. And I had not spoken to him. I was too humiliated to speak. Too humiliated even to listen...
So when Sub-Visser Nine finally said something, I was awfully surprised.
" So, Orifix One-One-Four-Four, correct?" asked Sub-Visser Nine. " You thought you could escape me, didn't you? Well, evidently, you were wrong."
He paused for a moment. I was confused. But then, I remembered...
But yes,I reminded myself, I am in Orifix's host body. Sub-Visser Nine thinks he kidnapped Orifix, not me!
I gloated interiorly. Even if it would not help me in the least, the fact that Sub-Visser Nine thought wrong was very pleasing to me.
I was pulled out of my thoughts once again by Sub-Visser Nine's horrible voice ringing in my ears.
" Oh come now," he said with a sneer, " You remember me. Sub-Visser Nine, in charge, among other things, of hosting Yeerks. Anyhow... you will serve me a great purpose. By telling me where your little friend, Edriss Five-Six-Two is! You will tell me, or you will die a very, very slow death."
I could feel his anticipation. Sub-Visser Nine would give anything to torture a poor, helpless Yeerk.
" I will tell you nothing," I said at last, trying to sound calm and perfectly controlled. Usually, that wasn't a very hard task for me. But today, tied up in these microcell cords, so badly taken care of, I felt weaker than ever.
" Then you will die, as you must," Sub-Visser Nine sighed.
He rose from his chair almost gracefully, walking towards a compartment desk attached to the far wall near the entrance to the room. He pushed a red button over the compartment, and its door slid open, revealing countless pieces of miscellaneous equipment.
... Sub-Visser Nine slid his hand in the compartment... and came out holding something I recognized immediately... as an electrical chain whip!
I swallowed hard. Closed my eyes, hoping to wake up twenty years from now. Or at least in my bed at the Base...
... But it didn't happen. I felt paralysing terror spread throughout my entire body.
He was actually going to torture me! Right here on this ship! And plus, he was going to do it with an electrical chain whip. Those were completely and purely illegal!
I wanted to scream. I wanted to run. I wanted to die right here and now, just to avoid the pain.
But I couldn't do either of those things. I was afraid. I was paralysed with fear. And for more than one reason...
... If Sub-Visser Nine tortured me until I cracked, which I knew he would, I would say whatever he wanted me to. I knew that much of myself. It's not that I would deliberately betray my friends. Never that... It was that I wasn't strong enough.
Maybe I had gotten stronger since the blind host. Just a little. But it still wasn't near enough for a five point five year old Yeerk to take being whipped countless times...
" You..." my words failed. I tried again, swallowing hard. " You wouldn't dare! You wouldn't dare, you dapsen!"
I was surprised at the roughness with which I spoke. I had never said anything foul, and let alone swore, in my entire life. But I guess now may have been a good time to start, considering the Sub-Visser was a dapsen...
But soon, I realized I'd made a mistake. Sub-Visser Nine may have been slow (and of course, he still is), but he wasn't completely stupid. He turned around, facing me, and eyed me suspiciously.
" Hmm..." he said. " Say, young one, you certainly have changed a lot since we last met. A lot more cocky than I remember. We're getting confident, aren't we, Orifix One-One-Four-Four?"
" I have no reason to be confident," I admitted lowly. " You have all the advantages. It may be unfair..." I sighed. " But it's true."
He looked at me for a long time. I looked back, but turned away. I couldn't stand his eyes looking at me, so powerful and so confident. I was afraid they would see right through me, right through the secret I was trying to hide from him.
But then, to my great surprise, he smirked lightly, turned off the whip and threw it roughly to the ground, making a noise as loud as a Dracon cannon.
" I see," he said with obviously fake gentleness. " I won't hurt you, Edriss Five-Six-Two... Not now."
I swear I almost passed out. Right then and there. How did he guess? Was it my overconfidence? Was there a way to tell hosted females from hosted males? ... Or was it just that I was lacking that certain charisma that Orifix possessed? Whatever the case, I knew I had blown it. I had acted like me, when I was supposed to act like Orifix... Sub-Visser Nine had guessed. He'd won.
... But I didn't have to tell him that!
" What are you talking about?" I asked neutrally, struggling to control my own fear and defeat. " My name is Orifix. Edriss isn't here."
" Lie to me all you want, Edriss," he said. " You think I don't know you? You can't hide from yourself, you know. You have a special character. A sort of aura around you. And you cannot do anything to help it. You're different, Edriss Five-Six-Two... You've always been different."
I jerked back like I'd been slapped. Alright then! This freak was seriously starting to creep me out.
" H... How do you know?" I exclaimed. " How did you know that?"
He smiled. And let me just tell you, Sub-Visser Nine smiling is a very, very strange sight.
" From the moment I first saw you, all those years ago, I knew -- just knew -- there was just something about you. I didn't know what, I still don't know what. But there's something about you. You aren't like the other females, Edriss. Not at all. And I don't know why... but that worries me."
He picked up the whip, still turned off, and swung it dangerously an inch away from my head.
And then, he turned the whip on. It beamed with electricity, lighting up the Sub-Visser's dimly lit shipboard torture chamber.
" Just to let you know," he said sinisterly, " Experienced Andalite warriors have died here, in this room. So you may consider answering truthfully."
I gulped.
" First of all..." he leaned close, his Hork-Bajir face about an inch away from mine. " You and that Yeerk I thought I kidnapped, Orifix... Why did you swap hosts?"
I swallowed, my eyes riveted on the chain whip that could cause me incredible agony with just one blow. And then I spoke, my voice now shaking beyond my control.
" Be... Because I wanted to see," I mumbled. " Just for three days. We were going to switch back right after feeding."
" I see..." said Sub-Visser Nine. " And... Tell me. What exactly is your relationship with this Orifix One-One-Four-Four?"
I hesitated.
" He... He's a friend," I said.
" Okay... Did you know, Edriss, that host swapping is illegal?"
" Yes. Did you know that possessing an electrical chain whip is illegal?"
Sub-Visser Nine looked surprised. And then, fast as lightning, he struck. The electrical whip came blazing through the air, and then, without warning, smacked against the flesh of my right side.
" AAAAAAAHHH!" I shrieked.
The pain... oh, the pain was unbearable. It was by far the worst thing I had ever experienced in my entire life. Including the time I entered my new host, full of anticipation, and then realized I was still unable to see.
Yes, this was a whole new level of pain.
" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" I screamed again.
If I hadn't been tied down with these microcell cords, I would have fallen to the ground and I'm sure I would have never gotten up again. Instead, I let my Hork-Bajir head hang low, crying out again and again, defeated, praying for the end to come…
But the end never came. And soon, as I opened my eyes again, blinded by the intense, burning pain, I saw a figure standing not so far away, a dangerous, hanging weapon in his hand. A weapon that made my very soul quake in fear… If I hadn't been tied up, I would probably have taken my own life right then and there. It was such a hard decision for a child to make on her own… To tell Sub-Visser Nine everything, avoid the pain, but have to live with the guilt of betraying my friends… Or keeping it in, not saying a word, and die as a martyr for my friends and my siblings.
It was, indeed, the hardest choice I'd ever had to make.
But I chose martyr.
" So, Edriss?" Sub-Visser Nine spat. " You see what I'm capable of?"
He stepped calmly toward me, inching foward, just making the tension thicker and thicker by the second. And when he finally stopped he stood right in front of me, leaned down, his Hork-Bajir face just inches from my own.
" So…" he said almost in a whisper. " Where are your friends, Edriss? Or shall I simply dispose of you right now?"
I looked up into his eyes, anger and contempt making them glitter in the faint light. I recalled the hatred I had for the foul beast. Plus all my affection for my friends.
Tehlit. Kitek. Oria. Zedan. Akalis, the prime. Even Essam, for the lords' sake! Although, one, not as much as the others, and two, I would never, ever tell him…
And most of all, for Orifix.
" I take the third option!" I exclaimed.
And then, assembling all my courage, I spat twice, temporarily blinding him in both eyes.
" RRRAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Sub-Visser Nine screamed, a quaking, raging sound. " You little dapsen! GUARDS! GUARDS! TO ME!"
Once again, my fear arose, welling up within my heart. Because right then, almost instantly, I heard hurried, rushing footsteps coming this way.
Soon after, there was banging on the door. I heard it, but I was already far away… Sort of like in a trance. Maybe it was the trauma. I don't know.
… All I know is that despite all that, I still heard everything they said…
" Yes, Sub-Visser?" asked a slightly fearful Hork-Bajir-Controller.
" TAKE. HER. AWAY." Sub-Visser Nine tried very hard not to scream. " Lock her up! Give her the WORST treatment you can possibly think of! And tomorrow, she is to be starved! STARVED! I am not going to take this any longer!"
He clutched at his head, roaring in anger, and stormed off, leaving me alone with the guards.
I looked hopelessly at the guards. I watched in defeated silence as they untied me from the microcell cords. Watched on, humiliation weighing me down every step of the way along the long hallway where they kept the prisoners. The Hork-Bajir guards kicked me, pushed me into walls and jeered at me as we walked.
Then, as we got to the end of the hallway, the head guard opened the very last door and threw me into the very last room. I landed hard on the floor, my blades leaving deep dents in the ship metal. Then, I got back up, still groaning in pain while trying to be strong.
I sat against the wall in the empty room. I sat facing the door for a long time. Waiting… Hoping…
And only then did the truth sink in.
Sub-Visser Nine had ordered me starved. I wouldn't escape my death after all… And it was happening tomorrow. Tomorrow…
Tomorrow, it would all be over.
And let me just tell you that that night was by far the worst night of my life…
Yay! Chapter 11 is finally up! Did you like it? Please review! ... Geez though... More chapters like that and I may have to change the rating to T! ... Anyway, see you later!