Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Reviewer Responses—(Shane C./Sancho: Hope this chapter's a more respectable length. Goodness knows it took long enough to write! Thanks for all of your reviews and suggestions!) (traycon3: Thanks!) (SouthernBelle: Sorry it took so long to update, I had massive writer's block…thank you for your review!) (Lilmaniac: Thanks for your help with the thought-speak thing and the review!) (Aeika/mweph: Ahh! So confusing! Everyone is changing their pen names, I can't keep up…anyway, thanks for the review : )…and don't worry, I'll leave Harry Potter to you…) (Brisk33: Thanks so much! I do love them. But in truth I haven't read the books in years—I gave my collection to my school when I graduated, and the collection in the public library is, shall we say, less than adequate…so I am really relying on reviews to keep me on target…)

Sorry! Sorry! I have many excuses, none of them good, as to why this chapter took so long...hopefully the extended length will appease the irritated...

Chapter 7

You know, the worst thing about finding out your mother is a controller is not that the woman who raised you is now a slave in her own mind. It isn't that you doubt whether or not you can free her; nor that you have to witness the woman who used to be your most trusted confident calmly ordering her underlings to kill your friends. It isn't even that you have to face the fact that one day you might very well have to kill your mother.

No, the absolute worst thing about finding out your mother has been infested by Visser One is not knowing when the infestation happened. Who was it that tucked you in at night? Who nursed you through the scrapes and fevers of childhood, who comforted you when you woke up, screaming, because the big purple dinosaurs had suddenly multiplied and were threatening to drown you in honey and sow bugs?

…What?

Suddenly every childhood memory…every cherished moment...becomes tainted. The very foundations of who you are, the person that child became, begin to shatter as you question those memories. Was it your mother, acting out of love? Or was it the yeerk in her head, just acting? Was the person who shaped you into what you are today really just a psychotic, ruthless Yeerk?

Would I be the person I am today if my mother had never been infested?

"Marco."

It's not a question I particularly like to think about.

"Marco?"

Problem is, I find myself thinking about it whether I want to or not…

"Marco!" I jumped and clapped my hand over my abused auditory sensors.

"What was that for?" I glared at Rachel. For just an instant, I thought I caught a flash of dark emotion within those brilliant eyes of hers—but I must have been mistaken. Rachel doesn't do pity.

At least, I hope not.

Then the moment was gone, and the Rachel I knew was back; cocky, confident, and utterly irritating. She lounged back against the hay bale and smiled innocently.

"Oh, sorry Marco. I forgot that yelling that close to your head would create an echo."

I growled something unrepeatable and tuned back into the conversation.

"Why would they bother bringing back all those controllers? Why not just assimilate more members of the Sharing?"

"We don't know why, but it must be something big. Bringing back the human-controllers is a big risk for the yeerks. It could draw a lot of unwanted attention if any of the host bodies are recognized. So either the yeerks are confident that they can deal with any security leaks, or…"

Jake made the leap. "…or they no longer care about maintaining their cover." He paused for a moment, then paled. "But that would mean…"

Eric nodded solemnly. "Yeah. That's why the Chee are worried. We don't have anyone in a high enough position to find out exactly what is going on, either. So if anyone is going to find out anything, it'll have to be you guys." He stood up and began to pace around the barn, then turned and looked back at Jake. "Jake, do you know what Tom is doing this weekend?"

"He—it—hasn't told me anything. I think the yeerk has finally realized that there is no way, short of kidnapping, to get me to join the Sharing and has given up…for now, at least."

Eric pulled out a crumpled poster from his 'backpack' and tossed it on the ground. "Read this."

I squinted at the paper from my seat on the hay bale, trying to read the violently coloured bulletin, and felt my stomach start to sink.

The Sharing is going to be having a 'nature vacation!'
Two and a half days of clean, wholesome fun for the entire family.
Come help clean up Rielys State Park with us!
Camping, scheduled activities, food provided. Enroll today!

"A meeting for all the sub-Vissers above the rank of nineteen will be called sometime during this event, we know that much. And it is speculated that Visser Three is expecting a superior to show up for the next meeting of the sharing—"

A low, thought-speak moan interrupted Eric, accompanied by the unmistakable sound of someone retching. We all glanced towards Ax's stall, and Cassie stood up hurriedly.

"I'd better go check on him." She hurried off, muttering "I hope he had the sense to wait until his digestive system was fully formed…"

"Speculated?" Tobias prompted.

Eric snapped his attention away from the stall, which was now producing a series of disturbing (and vaguely rude) sounds, along with the soft sound of Cassie's coaxing voice. "Come on Ax, just keep morphing, it'll pass…"

"Yes, speculated…" and here Eric grinned, "…because the entire system has been staying as far away from him as possible. Whatever the reason is, Visser Three is seriously ticked off. And that usually means that he is about to loose some measure of control…or about to see someone who he hates."

Visser One. It had to be her. "So, we need to infiltrate that meeting and find out what's really going on." The sinking feeling in my stomach accelerated.

Rachel snorted. "Brilliant deduction, genius."

"What are we going in as?"

"Fly, I guess. We're going to need their maneuverability to get as close as possible to the meeting." Jake shuddered and turned towards Cassie, who had just emerged from the stall, a quivering, pale-blue Andilite in tow. "But believe me, I'm open to suggestions." Jake was nearly squashed as a fly. He's been understandably worried about the morph ever since.

Cassie frowned slightly and looked over at Eric. "Is the meeting going to be held outside?"

"As far as I know, there aren't any buildings in the area. I can't be sure without actually asking the Visser himself." Eric shrugged helplessly. "You know how the yeerks are..."

"Then…I hesitate to suggest another insect, but what about a damselfly? They're almost as maneuverable as flies."

"A what?"

I had a sudden vision of six dragonflies wearing World War I fighter pilot caps and had to laugh. "Cassie, no offense, but a squadron of dragonflies isn't exactly inconspicuous."

She shook her head impatiently. "Not dragonflies, damselflies. They're much smaller, make less noise, are often seen in large groups, and they supposedly have senses that you wouldn't believe. Plus, they're absolutely gorgeous, which makes them less likely to be swatted by the average human...although I doubt a Yeerk would bother to make the distinction."

"It's still a bug."

Jake brought his hands together with a resounding clap. "Whatever it is, it'll be better than a fly. How soon can we acquire one?"

A mischievous smile lit Cassie's face. "That depends."

"Depends on what?"

"How good are you with a net?"

"Huh?"

I have fought Hork-Bajir twice my size.

I have taken down a Bug-Fighter with my bare hands.

Heck, I've even helped Jake baby-sit Rachel's little terrors—er, sisters.

But I have never, ever before performed a task as difficult as the one I was now attempting.

"Easy, easy," I breathed, hardly daring to move. Slowly I lifted the white net above my head…

"Damnit!" The curse rang out across the meadow, startling the damselfly I was stalking back into flight. I ground my teeth. Deep breaths, Marco, deep breaths…oh, who was I kidding?

"Rachel!" I roared in exasperation. "I almost had that one!"

Had there been anyone but us in the forest, they would have been treated to the most unusual sight of four Animorphs and a hawk dashing around the meadow after insects, nets wildly swinging. Almost half an hour ago, Jake had decided to go with Cassie's damselfly morph suggestion. But deciding on the morph is one thing; capturing the critter to acquire it is another.

Rachel, Jake and I had elected to take the small nets and try our luck solo. Cassie and Tobias had formed a team, and were attempting a sort of 'seine net' air fishing. Ax and Eric were supposedly on the lookout…but I suspected that they were spending most of their time silently laughing at our expense.

We had captured plenty of bugs. But the elusive Damselfly continued to evade our nets.

Cassie smiled cheerfully in the growing dusk and pushed her short hair off of her sweaty cheek. "Well, if nothing else this proves my theory. Damselflies have excellent senses."

I groaned and flopped down onto the ground. "Yeah, great. I'll feel real safe in that morph. Oh, wait, no I won't. I don't have the morph yet, do I?"

"Patience is the key, Marco. We'll get one!"

"Yeah, Marco. Don't be such a baby!"

I opened one eye and chucked my net at Rachel. "I would have had one if you had kept quiet. Now it's your turn…" I trailed off in disbelief.

"Marco? Don't. Move." Jake breathed, his eyes riveted to my extended forearm.

Or rather, to the neon blue insect that was hovering so close to my skin that I could feel the delicate breeze of its wings.

Against all hope, I felt a single one of its six claws touch down. I concentrated on the petite insect, immediately sending it into a light acquisition trance. As the gossamer wings slowed to a stop I became aware of Cassie, leaning anxiously over my arm, a jar in her hand.

"Do you have it yet?"

"Almost. Be ready with that jar, I'm not sure how long the trance will last…"

"Oh!"

"There it goes!"

"Got it!" Cassie displayed the jar triumphantly and we all peered in, examining the subject of our long search as it zipped around its prison.

Jake smiled down at the jar. "Energetic little things, aren't they?" he said, looking up at Cassie. She nodded, attempting to ease off the lid that she had slapped upon the jar.

"Yeah. They have a crazy metabolic rate, too. Supposedly it takes two hundred mosquitoes to keep these guys functioning for an hour." She gave up on the jar and handed it to Jake, unaware that the rest of us were staring at her. I felt the remnants of my lunch give an unpleasant heave and swallowed hard.

"Um, Cassie, what exactly do you mean by two hundred mosquitoes?"

Jake looked a little white around the mouth as he spoke. "She means that if these little guys don't eat constantly, they croak. Cassie, don't you think we should have known about this earlier?"

Rachel, I believe, put it most eloquently. "Ewww…"

I winced. "You mean, in addition to dodging human hands and predators, and avoiding being detected by the yeerks, we're going to have chow down on crème de mosquitoes with a side of gnats—or die? Okay, time for a different morph…"

"So speaks the fly who ate diaper gravy for breakfast," Cassie interrupted. "Look, guys, we've been, and eaten, worse. It's only for two hours, and the damselfly instincts should take care of most of it. Just try not to think about it, and we'll be fine. Now," she said with a smile as she took the loosened lid and jar from Jake's limp hands, "who wants to go first?"

Tobias hurriedly winged away, muttering something about finding Ax.

Nobody else met her eyes.

There was a sigh, and Rachel stepped forward unenthusiastically. "Fine. Let's do it."

You know you're in trouble when the kamikaze of your group is hesitant…

Errm...yeah. I don't think that's quite as good as I'd hoped it would be, so suggestions, comments, criticisms and questions would be delightful. Also, PLEASE tell me if I stray out of character. The whole point of this story for me was to learn how to write authentic Animorph Canon, so I'm begging you, help keep me on track!