Disclaimer: When pigs fly and Rachel goes out with Marco. I don't own nothing from the Animorphs.

I feel like you all are going to kill me.

Gah. You are, aren't you?

Yeah, I was stupid, and completely forgot about this story for a while. It's been months, hasn't it.

*Whimpers* I'm so getting flamed.....

Anyways, before I get you anymore angrier, I'm going to start the next chapter.

Chapter Nine:

(Aximili! Marco! Where are you?)

I had called out twice since walking through the doors, but there was no answer. They were either too far away, or preoccupied.

I was not happy with them.

They were idiots.

They were warriors. They were supposed to be paranoid and smart. What happened? Did the rolly-toasters permanently affect their brains? Surely they weren't that stupid?

How could they not see that the whole contraption was a hoax?

My lip curled in disdain. Of course they couldn't see the trap. They were children after all. And Marco, for all his talk, was too busy waiting for me to make a wrong move, when he was the one who needed looking after.

And Ax. Well, we all knew Andalites were arrogant and confident and generally snobby, but still....was he so blinded by his "fun" that he couldn't see a Yeerk trap?

I smirked at the image of Elfangor's brother mentally beating himself up for his stupidity. I was beginning to wonder if Ax would ever be quite like his brother. I respected Elfangor. I had yet to respect Ax.

The first part of the maze was just a series of hallways and paths that you could take and get lost in quite easily. If you knew the way through, it was short and easy. If you didn't...well, the Yeerks had monitors who watched out for anyone who had difficulty getting through the maze. All Controllers had a map of the maze in their heads. If you didn't know your way, chances were that you weren't a Controller. So the Yeerks would take the time and generosity to make you one.

I paused in my thoughts. Ugh. That was a joke. My jokes were just as good as Marco's. Which wasn't good at all.

Lucky everyone had an outline of the maze in their heads. I knew Ax, at least, had it completely memorized.

What bothered me the most wasn't how stupid Marco and Ax were, though, as I thought out my feelings. I wasn't really too angry at them. I figured that Jake, no doubt, would take care of that.

But the other thing that was annoying me was how easy it was to fool the Controller at the counter that I was a high-ranking Yeerk. He didn't doubt my words at all. That was because my words were spoken like a true Yeerk. Cold, slightly harsh, and cunning.

I didn't like that. A "true" Yeerk? I thought I had left those days behind. Oh, I didn't delude myself into thinking that I could forget it all. But I thought I didn't have to act so bloodthirsty and cruel to everyone. I thought I could act like...a nine-year old.

Pretending to be a high-ranking Yeerk and succeeding at it…it wasn't something I was proud of. I had been a Controller for such a long time, that I couldn't even be a normal human. Acting all Yeerkish was the norm for me.

I turned another corner, thinking deeply. Ever since I was born, I hadn't realized how different I was. The fact that every other human Controller was an adult was something that didn't bother me.

And it took years for me to discover that I was one in a million. No, one in a billion. I was one of the first child Controllers. And it was like a blast of a high-energy cannon right in my face. Not every child had to be a Controller. Not every child had this kind of life.

I couldn't believe it. That there was some other sort of life beyond the walls of the Blade ship was something I couldn't truly comprehend.

I still remember one of many times I watched "normal" life in action. I was standing in a Bug fighter, mouth grim and old, eyes cold and hard, the kind of face that result from being a Controller for too long.

My underlings worked behind me, and I felt my mouth, that was not my mouth, move and shout out orders. But my eyes were drawn to the window.

There was the view of the street. I watched bitterly as the human children no older than me laughed and played in the sun.

I had never felt the sun. Neither had I ever stepped foot on Earth. I had never met anyone my ages on the Godforsaken ship, except Darwin, let alone played with them. Yeerks don't believe in a playtime.

My Yeerk read my thoughts, and burst out laughing. (Little Madra,) He jeered. (Don't you realize by now that you'll never be one of them? Even given a chance to communicate with the children, you still wouldn't belong. You belong here, on this ship, with me in your head.)

I ignored him and focused on the children. Jealousy roared through my veins. I've heard that jealousy is identified with the color green, but for me, it was pitch black, the color of pain and bitterness all rolled into one. If you could choke on anger and drown in sorrow, then surely it was possible to suffocate in that blackness, that jealousy.

(Accept it, girl.) My Yeerk snarled. (You think you know pain? You think you feel jealousy? I'll teach you jealousy. I'll teach you to breathe it. Now don't go soft on me.)

Don't go soft on me. I don't think I ever understood those words until that moment.

I closed my eyes, putting the memory away for later, and when I opened them, I saw a small pinpoint of light at the end of the hallway. The maze came to an end and there would be, as promised to the humans, something of a rolly- a rowell- a -

Never mind.

In any case, the...thing...was a cart floating in the middle of a misty lake. If I closed my eyes, I could remember the trees and forest land. The Hork-Bajir marched about, the Taxxons digging in the dirt, the Gedds fixing a broken-down Bug fighter.

Of course, the forestland was a hologram. The aliens weren't. But of course, the humans would believe that the whole thing was a fake and laugh at the illusion.

I entered the compound, and saw the misty lake. My eyes narrowed, as I watched a solitary yellow cart make it's way slowly along the lake, and then wash up to the dock. I reached out one hand to grab hold of cart handle, and felt a shiver of apprehension.

Where was the guard who normally stood here? Where was the guide?

I exhaled slowly, and moved into the cart. I remembered how shaky it had been the last time, and I had been the first one to complain bitterly about it. They must've fixed it, because it didn't wobble at all, when I climbed in. The cart was the same size as before, large enough to fit as many as twenty people. I felt rather small in it, though since I morphed a combination of Rachel and Cassie, I was taller than I had been.

I found it even stranger that there were no other carts coming along. The way I remembered it, the carts came nonstop and continuously, and there were many Controller guards and guides in case Andalite bandits came or if the humans got rowdy.

My heart beat faster. Adrenaline was being pumped into my system, a natural human reaction to troubling times. I knew something was wrong.

Luckily, I understood how to operate the controls of the cart. It required passwords and Yeerk DNA.

No need. Within a few minutes, I had broken into the system. Easy. The Yeerks hadn't changed any of the controls after all.

I calmed down. And then I panicked as I realized that I couldn't see any Hork-Bajir, Taxxons, or Gedds.

Surely the Yeerks didn't call them all away, did they? Or was it because there was an emergency of some sort? Did they discover the Andalite and Marco?

It was getting mistier, and you could hardly see anything. The gray lake rippled beneath the yellow cart, the only thing I could see. But I knew there was a tunnel coming next, and once you were past that, you arrived at the Yeerk pool.

So where were Marco and Ax? I tried to call, but got no answer. Not good.

Suppose they had already arrived at the Yeerk pool? Suppose they were fighting in it? Or were they already infested?

I was nearing the tunnel. I tensed as I watched the black opening grow nearer and nearer.

That was when I heard the weird noises. Several bellows of pain, the hiss of the Dracon beams, and yells for help.

So, this was where the circus stopped at.

I started to demorph back to my natural state, the nine-year old. I needed to remorph to another shape, not human. Maybe I'd morph red-tail hawk. I liked having wings.

The tunnel was darker than I remembered. I couldn't see anything at all, but I kept hearing those noises. Red-tail hawks couldn't see very well in the dark, could they? So maybe I ought to morph something else.

Somehow, though, I doubted that morphing either a Coly or flockroach would get me very far.

Huh? Wait. It was the other way around wasn't it? A cockroach and a fly. Or was it…

TSEEEEEWWW!

In the light of a Dracon beam, I saw a hairy humanoid shape throwing a Hork-Bajir over his shoulder. And a young blue-furred four-legged creature whose tail kept whipping around.

Ax and Marco. There they were. They stood on the banks of the tunnel, out of the water, balanced precariously and ducking down. Plaster from the tunnel rained down on us, shattered from the constant beams.

I wanted to yell out, but I was fully demorphed. I couldn't speak to them without running the risk of yelling out.

I quickly realized I had other problems though. Both Ax and Marco were retreating, backing up. Too many Hork-Bajir reinforcements. They moved along the banks, fighting back fiercely. If it were a better time, I'd be impressed by their fighting.

However, I was more concerned by the fact that they didn't see me. They didn't see the yellow cart moving steadily towards them, and me, running forward to work the controls. I hadn't been watching the waters and the cart. The cart that had been floating in the middle of the waterway was beginning to lean towards one of the banks.

Marco flung out one huge meaty arm to balance himself, and it hit the cart. That was really all it took.

I was thrown backwards as the whole cart was unsettled and flipped back. I was launched on my back into the murky water. I saw the whole cart turn over, a huge yellow block that was upright for a moment, and then crashed into the water.

Right before I went under, I saw Marco turn, distracted, and the Hork-Bajir he was fighting shoved him hard. The Hork-Bajir and Marco both lost their balance simultaneously and hit the water hard. I felt the waves of water they created literally turn me over and over, in a continuous somersault. No screaming. I told myself strictly. If I screamed, I would suck in water and humans weren't aquatic creatures after all.

Well. I could handle this. I didn't know how to swim all that well, but it wasn't that difficult, was it? Just hold in your breath, and move your feet and hands, and…

That's when I turned to the side, my eyes opening to determine where the surface was. The water was still shadowy, but right in front of my eyes, I saw a slimy rod-shaped creature I wished never to see.

A Yeerk.

And as I looked all around me, I discovered that wasn't the only one. They were all around me, in multitudes, just relaxing, and floating about.

This lake…wasn't a lake. The Yeerks must've made this adjustment after the last time I had visited it. This was a Yeerk pool.

Oh, no. My ears, my ears! I reached up to clap them shut. My lungs burned, my eyes stretched to see beyond the Yeerks.

Oh. No. Not again, not here, please no…

I knew I shouldn't, but I did. I screamed.

One of my greatest fears when I was younger was drowning. *Shudders* Not fun.

Anyways....I'll answer some questions.

Ember Nickel: Thanks for the boatload of reviews. I love all your stories, they rock. For your question: Why did they give her the morphing power /before/ the three-day spy routine? Well, that was because they were pretty darn sure that she wasn't a Controller even before they started the three-day thing. She didn't know how to eat a wrapped chocolate bar, complimented Elfangor, and wanted to fight the Yeerks. She didn't try to escape the first night, and didn't quite act like a normal Controller. They decided to give her the morphing power before the three-day thing was up. Sorry, should've made that clearer. And about the new Yeerk pool? I actually haven't seen that Star Wars movie, but I kind of needed a...shall we say, a catastrophe, and this was the best thing I could think of. Gah. I know, it's not the best, but I'm working with it.

metamorphstorm: Thank you for being the first person to review this story. You don't know how many times I read your first review over and over. I always liked every one of your reviews, too, they made me smile, as cliche as that sounds. So, just wanted to say...thanks.

Captain Kurt Hoffman: I visited your homepage, and I'm pretty sure I won't try to guess your gender. I suck at any guessing games, but I love to watch people guess. lol. Anyways, thanks for your advice on the thing about contradicting other people's stories. I had been wondering about that for a while, so it was good to get that advice. Advice is gold, these days, I tell you, GOLD.

Kai Richards: lol. Hey, thanks for the review. I have been worrying about the humor, since I have such a morbid mind. My friends are always creeped out by how dark I can get. Yeah, I can't do humor very well, but I try. The chapters probably will get longer than they are now...my other story on fictionpress is much more darker but I write close to 20 pages a chapter. Insane. It's just that I've always thought of Animorphs with short chapters, so I base my chapter length on that.

voodooqueen126: Thanks for reviewing! Yes, this is completely AU, and if I had to put it to a specific range of books, I'd say around the 40-ish, before Marco's dad finds out about the Animorphs, but after Visser. Madra's fate in the Animorphs is actually never made known, and she's about nine. The Animorphs really treat Madra strictly the first time they meet her because they have a suspicion that she is a Controller. For your question: Wouldn't a child who had spent her whole life as a controller have serious problems, like head rocking/banging etc? Well, Madra is the strong and coping type. She wouldn't break down so easily. That's how I picture it anyways. And yeah, you're right, they shouldn't discuss it in public, but I guess they got carried away or something. Anyways, thanks for all the reviews!

Freakazoid: I laughed during your review. Yes, I was actually hoping someone would pick up on the fact that Madra has a tendency to act like a nine-year old attitude, mixed in with a Yeerkish upbringing. And Visser One will show up...*evil laugh* Love the phrase, "You got Yeerk'd!" Freakazoid was really the only thing I could think of. Me, and my humor? I thought it was slightly stupid, since I don't do well with humor. Once in a blue moon, maybe, I'll make someone laugh. Interesting that I actually made you laugh. Though I'm not complaining. :) And oh yes, the Animorphs will interact more with Madra, because I want to show all of their relationships with Madra. But I'll space it out. Rome wasn't built in a single day, you know. And oh, Darwin will show as well, and the rest of our lovable cast of Yeerks. Thanks for your review!

Alright, remember to review/flame/criticize, and please don't throw rocks through my window. I need it when the nights get cold.