Disclaimer: not only do I not own this, animorphs, but I also disclaim any badness now,because I don't own it, so its not a bad chapter, its just…unowned.

Chapter 17

I nearly fell off my perch. My mother was a controller? That can't be true. It can't. We didn't watch her, but she just can't be.

I felt as if I would die if I stayed in that stuffy barn one minute more. The walls seemed to be closing in on me. I flew out of the barn. As I did, I heard Cassie call out to as she noticed my flight, but I didn't care.

My mother, who I had just found, is the enemy? My disbelief weighed heavy in my mind. The Yeerk in her head was just a puppet master. I had trouble reconciling the thought.

I flew until my wings gave out. I had never flown so hard, even on my missions. I wanted the news that hurt so much to leave.I wanted the dark to swollow the news. My hawk mind did what it always did, and looked at it with a cold view of things. My human mind wanted to do something else. I wanted to fly so hard that the news would not be true. I flew blind and hit my very own tree. Then I fell. My hawk body dropped like a stone.

The impact was painful. My wing was crumpled and broken. My feathers were all out of place, and I was dizzy.

I cannot suddenly have a mother just for her to be taken away! I screamed in thought speak.

If I had not been hurt, I would have heard the hoof falls as they pounded near. If I had been aware, I would have felt gentle hands pick me up. If I had been more awake, I would have noticed my body changing hands. But I felt none of this. The world had gone black, and I lay comatose in my own aguish.

((Hurts…))

"Tobias?"

The voices were far away. Nothing I could do. I just wanted to die.

"Try him with thought speak, Ax."

The sound was irrelevant.

((Tobias, you must wake up now.))

Voices in my head, also meaningless.

((I want to die, it hurts…))

"Tell him, 'She needs him.'"

((Your sister needs you.))

((Tabitha? My sister? My family? Mother!))

"I guess he is awake now," said Rachel.

I opened my eyes. I tried to flap, but I couldn't. It hurt too much.

"There you go, big boy. Don't try to get up. Try morphing," Cassie cooed in her I'm-Talking-To-An-Animal Voice.

Right, good idea. I thought. I focused on the DNA of my human self. A self that now seems foreign to me. A few minutes later I was a very badly dressed, crying human boy.

I saw Tabitha. She looked at me, and then did something I never would have thought of doing.

She hugged me.