French F1 fighters came in for another pass after receiving orders to engage. The two fighters aimed for the pursuing army and fired laser-guided missiles. Makawee looked up as two missiles hit the ground creating a giant fireball. The army was consumed by the fire. Makawee's cloak went off briefly due to the force of the explosion. Getting to her feet, her cloak reactivated. She could hear the cries and screams of the dying militia fighters around her. Painfully, she walked away from the battlefield.
The Yautja battleship intercepted the F1 fighters and fired upon them. Both fighters were destroyed before they knew what hit them. The Yautja battleship turned around back to the Yeerk pool when it was suddenly hit by missiles. The explosions rattled the battleship and deactivated the cloak for a brief moment. Makawee stared in amazement as two more explosions hit the ship.
"Captain, we have been hit by two additional human aircraft," the pilot said.
"I can see that. How are they detecting us?" the Captain demanded.
The US F-15 fighter jets blasted the Yautja ship with additional missiles and then sped away once they were out of missiles. The Yautja battleship suffered significant damage from the inside as a result of the strikes. The ship fell towards the ground and caused a tidal wave of dirt as it impacted.
The Visser placed his mask back on and walked with his escort back towards his ship. Finding it missing, the Visser touched his wrist band. Realizing the ship was damaged and a distance away from the Yeerk pool, the Visser became furious.
A device was suddenly thrown towards the guards. An intense gravitation pull forced them all to bunch up together. A small rocket then hit them killing all of them in an explosion. The Visser fell to the ground from the hit. Lex fired a continuous volley of plasma bursts at the Visser purposefully aiming slightly to the side of him. She didn't want to kill him just yet. The Visser dodged the bursts as the ground exploded around him. He touched his own wrist band and cloaked himself.
Lex threw a bomb into the Yeerk pool itself creating a geyser of metallic liquid into the air. The liquid fell down on the Visser revealing his location. Lex also sensed her cloak disappear as the liquid rained down on her. The two fired at each other blasting off their plasma cannons. The Visser stared at Lex and then at the smoking liquid that was the Yeerk pool.
"Do you know how many you have killed?" the Visser asked angrily.
"They're just slugs," Lex said dismissively.
"No, each and every one of them has a sentient mind greater than your own, human," the Visser sneered.
"You brought them here. You knew the risk," Lex deflected.
The Visser and Lex circled one another. "It seems we are both deceptions. Neither one of us is Yautja. We could join forces, you and I, and destroy the Yautja Royal Family. It is what you want? I know you hate them," the Visser offered.
"By join, you mean enslave me," Lex said.
"Isn't it worth the risk? What is the meaning to your existence now?" he asked.
"My ancestors fought to remain free. I am not going to give it up," Lex insisted.
"You were never free. You were his slave," the Visser insulted.
"As I see it, it was the other way around," Lex retorted.
The Visser extended his blades. "I have all of his memories and training. Unlike you, I will not hesitate to kill you."
"There was a reason I am here instead of the first-wife," Lex replied extending her own blades.
The two charged in mortal combat using only their blades. The Visser skillfully blocked Lex's attacks and started stabbing her to the arms and side. Lex backed away realizing the Yeerk wasn't bluffing. Before she could depend on the Prince toying with her. Now, he was determined to kill her.
Detaching her net gut, she fired at him. He sliced through it with his blades. Detaching her disc, she threw it at him. The Visser braced himself for the disc and expertly caught it with his hand. He then threw it back at her. Lex dodged the disc just in time. The disc slammed into the rock a distance away.
The Visser unleashed his own net pinning her to the cave wall. The Visser walked over to her blades ready. "First, I am going to kill the young one inside."
Wayra exited the Yautja battleship confused by the sudden impact. His mask scanned the area and found his mother in the grass. The mask scanned her mask and identified the unique design.
"Mother? Why are you here?" he asked confused.
"My son, your father and his officers have been infested by the Yeerks. You must listen to me," she said to him.
Wayra stared in disbelief. "I personally shot down your ship. I could have killed you."
"You didn't know. All is forgiven, my son," she embraced him.
"I have failed you both," Wayra said mournfully.
"No, there is still time to save your father," Makawee assured him. "Let us find a shuttle craft," she said to him.
Wayra considered another thing. "If father has been infested we will be no match against him," he said.
"We have to try," Makawee insisted.
"I know someone on-board that can help us," Wayra suggested.
Lex used all of her strength to pull the net off her. The dirt of the cave gave way freeing her. She then head-butted the Visser with her mask. The Visser smacked her away. He then threw her into the Yeerk pool where she struggled to swim in the dense liquid.
A shuttle craft entered the cave and landed near the Visser. Makawee, Wayra, and the Yautja-cyborg exited the craft. "Assist her," Makawee ordered the cyborg as she confronted her infested husband.
"Its been too long since our last duel," Makawee said to the Visser.
"It will be our last," the Visser promised.
The cyborg pulled Lex out of the pool and placed her on the ground. An exhausted Lex watched as the two spouses fought. The already injured Makawee attempted in vain to get a hit on the Visser. Unlike before, the Visser backed away staying on the defensive. Lex stared at the odd fight wondering what was going on.
The Visser shot a blade into Makawee's leg disabling her. He then pushed on her mask so that she fell to the ground knocking her out cold. He pointed his blade at her throat but shuddered. His body stayed still and tensed up as if he were fighting himself. Finally, he walked passed her towards Wayra, Lex, and the Cyborg.
"My son, there has been a misunderstanding. I would never tell you to fire on your mother," the Visser said to him.
"What is this?" Wayra asked of the Yeerk pool ruin.
"I am conducting a new experiment. Humans with Yeerks in their heads are superior prey," the Visser said.
"He's lying. He's a Yeerk," Lex told Wayra.
"This Yautja fake has wanted to kill me from the beginning. She has betrayed your mother and I," the Visser said.
"Father, I can see two heat signatures in your head," Wayra said.
The Visser stared at Wayra and then rushed him to attack him. Wayra and the Visser clashed in a wrestling brawl. Father and son battled with their blades, but Lex could tell Wayra was holding back. He couldn't bring himself to kill his father. The Visser defeated his son and then kicked him repeatedly to keep him down. As before, he could not bring himself to kill his son.
"You have to stop him," Lex said to the cyborg.
The cyborg stared at his Prince and then at Wayra who was being beaten. Finally, he approached the Visser and punched him to the face knocking him off balance. The Visser took the fight seriously as he realized the superior strength of the cyborg. Reactivating his plasma cannons previously damaged from the liquid, the Prince fired on the cyborg. The blasts did nothing to the cyborg's heavy armor. The cyborg activated his sound blaster filling the cave with intense sound waves. Lex suffered as her mask wasn't able to shield all the noise. The Visser's ears bled, and he became disorientated.
The cyborg continued his assault punching the Visser into submission. As they wrestled to the ground, the Visser hit the cyborg with a TASER weapon. The electricity shocked the cyborg's systems disabling his body. The Visser then extended his spear and pointed the end at the cyborg's head. "Without honor," the Visser sneered and sliced through the cyborg's head killing him.
The Visser then struggled to walk and fell to the ground broken. Some of his limbs and ribs had been broken from the cyborg's assault. The Visser could see in his mask that his brother's fleet had arrived. Lex also got the same message from her mask. She walked over to the fallen Visser.
"It's over," she told him. She pointed her plasma cannon at the kandrona radiation generator and fired. The generation exploded in a fire ball. "In three days, you're dead," Lex told him.
"Not if I kill the both of us now," the Visser said raising his blade to his throat.
Lex felt like telling the Yeerk to go ahead, but she realized what that would mean. "If he dies, all of his wives and children will go to his next older brother. There is no greater punishment I can inflict on you," the Visser said to her.
"Don't kill him. You have already killed so many already. Use these last moments to repent of your crimes," Lex told him.
The Visser chuckled with a mock human voice. "Your human morality is comical," he said weakly.
Lex looked over at Makawee and Wayra. "She considered her own child back on Yautja Prime. The entire family would become second-class under the already existing family of the Prince's brother."
"Infest me and take the shuttle. Just let him live," Lex offered.
"You would give up your freedom to protect him?" the Visser asked.
"Not for his sake," Lex said. "Once you're in my body, you will not kill him, his wife, or his son. Do I have your word?"
"Yes."
The Visser took off his mask revealing the bloody face of the Prince. He struggled to sit up and stared at Lex. "Place your ear next to mine. If you try to betray me, I will kill him," the Visser said.
Lex took off her mask and placed her ear next to his. Quickly, the slug went from one ear to the other. Before Lex could even think to betray the Yeerk, he was already inside. The Prince's body fell to the ground limp. The Yeerk quickly took over Lex's body and placed the mask back on.
Lex was still able to see but not control where her eyes were focusing. She saw her limbs move but it wasn't her doing. She couldn't control her breathing, any of her limbs, and even her tongue when it swallowed. She was a complete prisoner. Her mind panicked as she could sense the thoughts of the Yeerk. He was thinking of anything he could use to survive. Anything other than going back to his home planet and going back to the pools.
The Yeerk considered killing the royal family members but decided to keep his word. He gave the pool containing his dead comrades and then went over to the shuttle. Using the Prince's knowledge, the Yeerk used Lex's body to operate the shuttle. The Yeerk put coordinates into the shuttle. He had his destination.