Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Animorphs or Stargate SG-1

(Yeerks!) Hissed the silent voice in our heads.

The twin red lights slowed. They turned in a circle and came back towards us.

(There is no more time. You must decide!)

"We have to do this," Tobias said slowly. "How else are we going to fight these Controllers?"

"This is insane!" Marco said. "Insane."

"I'd like more time, but we don't have that choice," Rachel said. "I'm for it."

"Me too," I said, "You never have to be afraid to do what's right!"

"What do you say Jake?" Cassie asked him. It was weird, but I think right then was when I realized that Jake was our leader. I knew I couldn't do it, I wasn't that kind of person.

He looked around at each of us…sizing up his team I guess.

"We have to," Tobias said to Jake.

I held my breath, and another realization hit me. Jake was our leader; we weren't going to do this without his OK.

"Yes," Jake said. "We have no choice."

(Then each of you press your hand against one of the sides of the cube.)

We did, six hands pressed against the square. Then a seventh hand, on top of Tobias's, with way too many fingers.

(Do not be afraid,) The Andalite said.

I felt a shock wave run from my fingers up my arm and into my body. It didn't hurt. It actually felt nice, like a warm buzz of comfort.

But then a third ship appeared alongside the red lights. It was larger. Blacker than black, it was a piece of a starless night sky. It was a strange shape.

Later Jake would say that it looked like a medieval battle-ax. All I knew was that there was a feeling rolling out from its surface that I can only describe as evil. I'd only felt the feeling once before, after going to Germany with my parents and visiting one of the sites of the holocaust. Where my grandmother had been kept.

But that was residual evil. The evil that was there wasn't alive anymore, Thank God. This was evil alive and kicking.

(Go now,) The Andalite said. (Only remember this—never remain in animal form for more than two of your Earth hours. Never! That is the greatest danger of the morphing! If you stay longer than two hours you will be trapped, unable to return to human form.)

"Two hours," Jake repeated.

Suddenly the Andalite looked up with one of his stalk eyes, and noticed the evil ship.I felt fear rush through him.

(Visser Three! He comes.)

"What?" Jake asked, shuddering as we all felt this new terror. "What's a Visser? Who's a Visser?"

(Go now! Run! Visser Three is here. He is the most deadly of your enemies. Of all Yeerks he alone has the power to morph. The same power you now have. Run!)

"No, we'll stay with you," Rachel said firmly. "Maybe we can help."

Again the Andalite smiled with his eyes. (No. You must save yourselves. Save yourselves and your planet! The Yeerks are here.)

"But how are we supposed to fight these…these controllers."

(You must find a way. Now run!)

Tobias stayed behind for a moment, but the rest of us took off. I felt the urgency and the power of the Andalite's order.

Suddenly my hand was glowing. It was in a circle of white-hot light coming from the ship. I snatched my hand back, out of the light, and ran. With a burst of strength the six of us leapt over the half wall that I had been hiding behind before. My knees hit the ground hard, but I barely felt the pain.

Now the searchlight from the ship illuminated the dying Andalite prince.

"Okay, you can wake me up now," Marco whispered, "I've had enough of this dream."

The two Bug fighters slowly descended, followed by the Blade Ship.

The Blade ship door opened, and Cassie started to scream. Fortunately Jake had more sense than I had at the time and clamped his hand over her mouth. I didn't scream, but I'm certain a wet my pants.

They leapt from the ship, whirling and thrusting and slicing the air. These creatures looked like walking weapons. The stood on two bent back legs and had two very long arms. On each arm there were curved horn blades at their bent back knees, and two more blades at the end of their tails. They had feet like a t-rex.

But it was the head that got your attention. They had long snake like necks, a mouth almost like a falcon's beak and, from the forehead three dagger-like horns raked forward.

(Hork-Bajir-Controllers.)

"Did you guys…?" Jake asked.

We all nodded but said nothing more.

(The Hork-Bajir are a good people, despite their fearsome looks,) The Andalite said. (But they have been enslaved by the Yeerks. Each of them now carries a Yeerk in their head. They are to be pitied.)

"Pity. Right," Rachel said grimly. "They're walking killing machines. Look at them."

But a new form that crept and slithered and shimmied out of the Blade ship drew our attention away.

(Taxxon-Controllers,) The Andalite said. He was trying to prepare us; even at the very end he was trying to let us know what we were up against.

(The Taxxons are evil.) The Andalite said, (Unlike the Hork-Bajir they chose to allow the Yeerks to control them. Each one now has a Yeerk voluntarily.)

The Hork-Bajir and the Taxxons poured out from the Blade ship, and spread out like well-trained Marines. They held small pistol like weapons. They formed a ring around the Andalite and his ship.

Suddenly one of the Hork-Bajir leapt towards us, and in a flash he was practically on top of us.

I held my breath. I wanted to scream. I wanted to run. I had to get away.

(Silence!) The Andalite warned us. (Hork-Bajir do not see well in darkness but their hearing is very good.)

I swear I went my pants again.

(Courage my friends.)

And then, a warm feeling seeped in, like a curl of warm water swirling around me. The Andalite sent us courage.

I needed the courage, because now I had to watch him die.

"They're all standing at attention," Jake whispered.

"How can you tell," Marco whispered back "Who knows when a jelly-eyed centipede or a walking Salad Shooter from Hell is standing at attention?"

Then he appeared.

Visser Three was an Andalite. Or at least he was an Andalite-Controller.

"What the…" Rachel said. "Isn't that an Andalite?"

"No," I whispered, "This one's different."

(Only once has a Yeerk been able to take an Andalite body,) Our Andalite said, (There is only one Andalite-Controller. That one is Visser Three.)

He looked like an ordinary Andalite I guess, based on my vast experience with the species, but he felt different. He felt evil.

(Well, well,) Visser Three said.

I wet my pants for the third time that night when I "heard" that.

"Can he hear our thoughts?" Cassie whispered.

"If he can we are so dead I don't even want to think about it," Rachel told her.

(He cannot hear your thoughts,) the Andalite said. (As long as you don't direct them to him. You hear his thoughts because he is broadcasting them for all to hear. This is a great victory for him so he wants all to hear.)

(What have we here? A meddling Andalite?) I got the sense that Visser Three and our Andalite had some kind of history, like this was not the first time they had met.

(And no ordinary Andalite warrior. Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, if I'm not mistaken. An honor to meet you. You're a legend. How many of our fighters have you shredded? Seven, or was it eight by the time the battle ended?)

I don't know if the others saw it, but it seemed like banter to me. As if the Visser was mocking Elfangor, I was certain that this was not their first meeting.

(The very last Andalite in this sector of space. Yes I'm afraid that your Dome ship has been completely destroyed. Completely. I watched it burn as it fell into the atmosphere of this little world.)

(There will be others,) Elfangor said

(Yes, and when they come it will be too late. Earth is an out of the way planet; there is no Stargate here. By the time that they reach earth it will be too late. This world will be mine. My own contribution to the Yeerk Empire. Our greatest conquest, and then I'll be Visser One.)

(What do you want with these Humans?) The Andalite asked. I think he may have asked for our benefit. (You have your Taxxon allies. You have your Hork-Bajir slaves. As well as your Ssstram, Nahara, and Mak slaves. Why these people?)

(Because there are so many and they are so weak,) Visser Three sneered. (Billions of bodies! And they have no idea what's happening. With this many hosts we can spread throughout the galaxy, unstoppable! Billions of us. We'll have to build a thousand new Yeerk Pools just to raise Yeerks for half this number of bodies. Face it Elfangor, you have fought well and bravely. But you have lost.)

Visser Three stepped right up to the Andalite. I could feel the Andalite's fear, but rather than cower he fought the pain of his wound and climbed to his feet. He knew he was going to die, but he wanted to die standing, looking his enemy in the face.

The Visser however was not done taunting his foe. (I promise you one thing Elfangor—when we have this planet with its rich harvest of bodies, we will move against the Andalite home world. I will personally hunt down your family. And I will personally oversee the placement of my most faithful lieutenants in their heads. I hope that they resist so that I can hear their minds scream.)

The Andalite struck!

His tail whipped up and over so fast that you could hardly see it. The Visser twisted his head aside. The Andalites tail blade missed the Visser's head by a bare half-inch. But it sliced into his shoulder. Blood—or something like blood sprayed from the wound.

(Aaaaaarrrrrgh!) I could hear Visser Three's howl of pain in my head.

At the same time a blinding beam of blue light shot from the "tail" of the Andalite's ship. It vaporized the nearest Bug fighter. Hork-Bajir and Taxxons scattered.

(Fire!) Visser Three ordered. (Burn his ship!)

Red beam shot out from the Blade ship and remaining Bug fighter. The ship let off a minor explosion and when the smoke cleared it was gone.

I heard Jake and Marco whispering but I couldn't hear what they said. Or else didn't care.

(Take the Andalite,) Visser Three ordered his soldiers. (Hold him for me.)

Three big Hork-Bajir grabbed Elfangor and held him down. Their wrist blades at his throat. They didn't kill him. That was Visser Three's privilege.

Then Visser Three began to morph.

Visser Three began to grow. His Andalite head grew large, larger. Much larger. The four horse-like legs merged into two and then expanded each becoming as big around as a redwood tree. The delicate Andalite arms sprouted and became tentacles.

"This isn't real," Cassie whispered.

In the hideously bloated head, a mouth appeared. It was filled with teeth as long as my arm. It became a monstrous terrifying grin.

The Andalite was gone. A monster was in its place. It was as though the Visser had become on the outside what he truly was on the inside.

Jake suddenly sprang to help the Andalite, but fortunately Rachel and I were able to grab him before he ended up doing something stupid.

It the last possible moment I looked away. I couldn't bear to watch the Andalite die. But I heard it. And I heard the screams in my head. But worse still were the THUK THUK sounds that the Hork-Bajir made and the laughter that came from the human-Controllers.

It sickened me inside. Those Humans and Hork-Bajir probably didn't find this funny anymore than I did. Yet they were forced to laugh because the Yeerks in their heads made them laugh.

The Visser demorphed back into his Andalite shape. (Ah,) he though-spoke, (nothing like a good Antarean Bogg morph for…taking a bite out of your enemies.)

Tobias bent over and gagged, and Marco began throwing up. Both completely understandable things to do under the circumstances, but in this case it could be fatal.

The nearby Hork-Bajir froze, his eyes raking the darkness. I knew that he couldn't see us. But he most certainly could hear us.

Suddenly our semi-safe hiding place was safe no more. Our lives were in mortal peril.

To Seeker: That's very cool. I too was one of the earlier fans of the series. Obviously not as early as you, but I followed it from the beginning. The very first book was in my book-order in sixth grade and I saw it and thought "Oh that looks kind of cool." I was into Kratt's Creatures and I liked animals (always have: going into zoology as a career) and I bought it without fully realizing what it was. I was hooked after reading it. It was also a huge influence on me as a writer. The three writers who shaped the way that I write are K. A. Applegate, C. S. Lewis, and my mom. Though I have yet to read the last two Animorphs books I do know the outline of what happens in them. As for Everworld, no I probably won't write a fic. I enjoyed the books though I never made it past book 7. (Lack of money and a nearby library, not lack of a desire) though I did leave little tributes to Everworld in Wrath, one of which I believe that you caught. Though you never know what I'll write next.

To Quillian—Yes I love Tyrsis's fics both of them, you should check out the stories I have listed under my favorites, but my universe is a little different from his. For one in my universe the Andalites, the Chee, and the Yeerks are aware of the Stargates and what they do, and in Tyrsis's it doesn't seem like they do. However in both our world the Andalites and the Yeerks are unaware of the Goa'ould. They've only gone to a few worlds within one arm of the galaxy. But fear not the Goa'ould will meet the Yeerks soon, and there will be a parasite party for those involved. Mwahahaha!