MARCO

It was like trying to control a morph, only worse. It was like battling a yeerk for dominance, only worse. Ten times worse.

I don't love Mary!, I screamed pitifully from a small corner of my mind. My mind ignored me, and followed her into the mall.

"Okay," Mary said, her voice sounding like the most beautiful music on the planet. I hated it. "We need to find Jessie."

(No duh, Sue.) I tried to say. But what came out was, (Yeah. Good idea.)

We both scanned the mall area, looking for a sign of Jessie. 'We' Being Mary and the entity that currently inhabited my body.

There were various store clerks yelling and running away from us. There were some hot looking teenage girls, yelling and running away from us. There were some mothers yelling and running away from us, dragging their children along with them.

None of this worried me that much. People tend to run, and usually scream, when a hulking primate walks into the local mall.

The thing that did worry me was the small group of people yelling and running towards us, some of them the same type of big men the yeerks liked to use as human shocktroops. There are only four types of people who will run towards a gorilla at the mall: idiots, lunatics, Cassie, and controllers. Discounting idiots and lunatics through pure cynicism, and Cassie through common sense (Where was that girl, anyway?), there were maybe twenty people trying to kill us.

(Mary, we've got some trouble coming our way.) I warned. Drop dead, Sue.

Mary pointed towards the escalator. "There's a group of controllers running that way, away from us." She reported. "The only reason would be that they're chasing Jessie."

I looked, and sure enough, several feet ahead of the controllers, was Jessie. But the crowd was slowing her down, and soon those feet would be turning to inches. And she couldn't see what I could see from down here.

(She's heading into a dead end!) I realized. (We have to get her now!)

Mary nodded, and turned to face the controllers. "You take the ten on the right, I'll take the ten on the left."

I almost laughed. (I saw you the 'fight' you put up with those two controllers outside. How about I take on all twenty, and you just run?)

There was a triumphant glint in Mary's eyes. Something's up. Don't trust her! I yelled at my mind. My mind ignored me.

(Go!) I said, charging the controllers. Mary looked at me one more time, and then ran towards the escalators.

It was almost funny, really. The controllers had their guns, and probably dracon beams too, but they didn't dare use them in public. It was kinda sad, seeing controllers reduced to using whatever sharp objects they could get their hands on.

"Andalite Bandit!" a lady snarled. She pointed a knife at me. "Why must you-"

(Sorry, no time to chit-chat.) I said, lunging straight into them. (I've got a day to save.)

Okay, that was corny. I was going to have to work on my lines.

The lady had a moment to look surprised before my fist slammed into her stomach. She skittered backward across the polished tile and slammed into a potted plant.

"Get him!" The others yelled, swarming around me.

Somebody darted forward and swung a switchblade at my chest. It bounced off of my rubbery skin. The other controllers took this as their misguided cue to attack.

Knife. Dodge. Fist. Duck. Yawn.

"Marco!" somebody called loudly. I jerked my head around and saw Mary taking her good ol' time up the escalator. "I'm not going to make it!"

I turned to see where Jessie was, and felt my heart skip a beat. She was fighting with a lady next to the railing, teetering dangerously on the edge.

Jessie jerked away from the railing, and they both sprawled onto the ground, not ten feet away from Mary. Mary had plenty of time! She certainly had had no problem keeping up with Ax, Rachel, and me when we were in bird morph.

But my mind ignored me, simply refusing to think bad things about Mary.

(Ah!) I cried. While my attention had been averted, one of the controllers had succeeded in plunging a Swiss army knife into my stomach, price tag and all.

I broke his neck for him, and looked back upwards. This time, my heart stopped beating altogether.

Jessie was plummeting through the air. I blinked twice, but she was still falling. Mary leaned over the railing and made a half-hearted grab for her.

Mary was going to kill her! I realized. She doesn't want Jessie to be made an Animorph, because then she wouldn't be special! She was killing a perfectly good Animorph.

I slammed through the controllers and ran, the knife in my stomach not even slowing me down. Please, I had once endured having a sword rammed through my chest.

Mary wouldn't let her die! My mind said. See, she's running to catch her!

She was. But at about half of her maximum speed. If she wanted, she could have easily caught Jessie. But she wasn't going to. It was murder.

Stop! My mind yelled in a commanding voice. Mary has her! Get back to fighting controllers!

I ignored my mind, and ran forward with jerky, halting steps. This is my body! I yelled, forcing myself to keep moving. Somehow, I managed to get underneath Jessie's shadow, while fighting the voice. The gorilla was also inside of my head, much more peaceful than the voice but still annoying. It was sending me this general '?' feeling, just accepting puzzlement. That was good, because I didn't think I could handle anything else inside of my head right then. I was about to go insane as it was.

Mary vaulted over the escalator railing at me, suddenly moving at full speed. A look of pure anger was on her face.

"I said I have her!" She yelled. With surprising force, she body checked me to the side and reached up to catch Jessie.

It was the biggest mistake of her life.

Jessie landed in Mary's arms, and time literally paused for a second. Jessie had a shocked look on her face, as if she had just grabbed a live wire. And Mary – for a second her hair shortened and faded from God knows what color to a mousy brown. Her violet eyes flashed brown. He teeth were dull enough to look at without sunglasses. The screaming, yelling, dominating voice in my head was blessedly quiet. For a split second she seemed to be – dare I say it – normal.

But then time started moving again, and she became the farthest thing from normal. Mary and Jessie both started glowing. Freaking glowing.

(Oh no.) I moaned, staring at them in amazed horror. The world around them was falling away, as if some giant was tearing off chunks of matter and tossing them away into this green tinged nothingness.

Signs, clothes, food, people, and benches went flying away. The controllers dropped away. And then I felt myself slipping away, the world losing focus-