Disclaimer: I don't own it. Sad, I know.

Gods. This was eleven pages. I feel...dead. *flash* There goes my lightbulb.

A longer chapter, but that's ok, I guess. I couldn't upload over the weekend, so sorry, but I had last-minute homework to do. And then there's MCAS....horrible.

Summer's right around the corner on the other hand. So all's well that ends well.

Remember to review at the end!

Chapter Thirteen:

(Where are we?) I asked Jake.

(Chapman's office.)

(A Controller's office?) I looked around. (Yeerks are Spartan creatures; they shouldn't have so many objects-)

(Yeah, but Chapman is also a human-Controller on Earth. You have to remember that he's a vice principal of the school. He can't seem like a Yeerk or it'll be suspicious.)

(Right.) We were underneath a big brown desk. At least, I think it was brown. The problem with fly eyes is that nothing is the right color. They see UV light and micro waves and many other rays from the light spectrum that humans usually don't see.

I looked to the left, where the girl that Marco liked, the girl Laurel, her legs like thick trunks, crossed under the chair. I studied the view of her legs, greatly appreciating the fly's vision. I never knew that someone could have golden hair, but dark leg hair.

"Welcome, Tedriss three-six-four of the Sulp Niaar Pool. May the Kandrona shine and strengthen you." The vibrations shook the air all around us. I gasped when the fly instincts took me by surprise, and my wings were suddenly moving.

I hadn't been paying any attention to the fly instincts. And the minute it heard a voice, it was off.

Flies, by the way, move at incredible speeds. Relatively speaking, of course. I should've expected it, because the smaller you are, the quicker or stronger you are. On this planet, anyways. It felt as if I was on the outside of a Bug fighter, strapped down, and hurtling through space. So fast, and all it took was one command to the wings.

Not very efficient, though. A bird flew much longer distances, but a fly could fly much faster and had reflexes ten times better than a bird.

Back to the situation at hand. (Madi! What are you doing?) Jake called. I noted sourly that he had controlled his fly instincts enough so that he didn't go flying off the desk and into the air.

(Fly instincts.) I sighed. I regained control, and stopped moving. That's another thing about flies. When they wanted to stop, they would. No slowdown, no jerking, just a smooth clean halt. I wished we had spacecraft like this.

(I thought you had no problem with that.) Jake rose in the air next to me. We were out from underneath the desk and somewhere near the surface of the desk.

(Ah, well, I temporarily lost control at the sound of the voices.) I admitted.

(That's alright. Come on, let's land on the desk, it's dark-colored, right? We'll blend right in.)

"And to you, Iniss two-two-six." Laurel's voice said. I landed smoothly on the polished desk. Another smooth landing. Now I really wished we had spacecraft like this.

(Well, that settles it. She's a Controller.) Jake announced.

(Really?)

(Marco! Where are you?)

(Above your heads, probably. We all morphed bird, and we're on the roof right now.)

"Greetings, Tedriss. I personally asked for you to come here, concerning the construction on the new Yeerk pool." The other voice, who must've been Chapman, said. His voice was much lower than Laurel's. I shifted, still not comfortable with the vibrations being so close. I crushed the fly brain ruthlessly.

(Please don't tell me you all perched on the roof.) Jake pleaded.

(Aw, come on. Give us some credit, oh fearless leader.) This was Rachel. (You think Paranoia here would've let us all perch in the same area?)

(Your turn to fly cover, Baldie.) Marco teased.

(I'm a bald eagle, not bald!)

"The construction is going well. We have a new shipment of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons to work on the building. And we have recruited five new human guards. There is expected to be more this coming week."

"And the attacks?" Chapman was swift to ask.

Laurel lowered her voice. "Those who let in the filth were disposed of." She paused. "Slowly."

"It's not enough." Chapman shook his head. "We must make no more mistakes. You know Visser Three. He will have our heads and our guts if we do not guard the pool better."

Yes. We all knew Visser Three. I remembered the fear and pain I had felt before every time I was in his presence. Every time.

The lucky Yeerk never met Visser Three. The lucky Yeerk was not a Yeerk. All Yeerks had this innate part of their mind that urged them to reach for the highest possible rank. All the Yeerks dreamed of reaching Visser Three's rank. To reach there, you had to work up the ranks. And the closer you got to the Visser's rank, the more encounters you would have with the Visser. And with his temper? It was guaranteed that you would feel fear because of him at least once.

We- The Yeerks- operated on fear. Fear was good to keep people in line. I had never questioned that.

"I want the pool guarded with Hork-Bajir at night. The traps will have to stay, if we are concentrating all efforts on the mutations and the Gleet Biofilters. How are they working, by the way?"

"The Gleet Biofilters are exceptional." Laurel said with pride. "We actually have a sample- hold on." Laurel suddenly reached for her purse.

Through my weird vision, I saw her take out a bottle out of her purse. It had the look of the thing that Rachel had used on me, to make me smell fruity. What was it? Peroom? No, perfeme? Per-

(A perfume bottle?) Jake asked skeptically. (She's going to spray us?)

And it clicked. (Out of the way!) I yelled and launched myself up. I pushed my fly body into Jake's.

(What?) He snapped, but I had already carried his fly body up and back.

There was a whirlwind of scents that swept us both out far out. I felt it hit my body and I braced for the pain.

Surprisingly, there was none. I ran through the calculations. We weren't far enough away for there to be no damage, so-?

(Madi, what was that?)

(Gleet Biofilter.) I said absentmindedly. (Aximili. We were not killed in the blast radius of approximately three feet. No injuries were sustained. Last I heard, the Gleet Biofilter had complications. What do you suppose happened?)

(You can't figure it out?) Stupid Andalite was amused. (The killing rate has gone down. The Yeerks must have decreased the speed of the pain and death by increasing the radius of the blast. I can calculate how drawn out the death will be if you give me the distance. How far were you from the Biofilter?)

(Shut up, Andalite.) I snarled. (I didn't ask for a calculation on the rate of death. I asked for a reason. It's your technology, you should know.)

(Listening to them is like listening to a couple of geeks fighting over test results.) Rachel observed.

(Only one of them is a Cinnabon-loving alien and the other is a nine-year old Gothic Einstein.) Marco put in. (Man, do you know how weird life has gotten?)

(We have eight human minutes until our cells implode.) I called out. (Starting now.)

(Human- what the-) Marco sputtered. (What is up with you guys and messing up the minutes system? It's simple, work with me, people. They're not our minutes, or earth minutes, or human minutes. You're on Earth, they're everyone's minutes.)

(What is he talking about?) I asked Ax.

(I have no idea.) He answered solemnly.

(Just keep track of time, Ax-man.) Jake commanded, cutting Marco off.

(Yes, Prince Jake.)

"You see." Laurel showed off her bottle as we landed on the desk again. "We have concocted a liquid version of the Gleet Biofilter, which will then be used as human sprays, and anyone can spray around them if they suspect Andalites."

"Impressive." Chapman reached out to take the bottle and inspected it. "Has it any weaknesses?"

Laurel sighed and took back the bottle. "Our scientists are currently trying to find a way to make it more powerful. Newest Gleet Biofilters are shown to have a longer distance and accuracy of hitting organisms, but less time in killing the creature. Depending on how far the organism is to the source of the spray, it can be up to ten minutes until death occurs."

(Hold on.) Jake said. (The Gleet Biofilter can kill us?)

(Yes.) Ax said. (But not for several minutes. But the distance and accuracy is much improved.)

(And now they're disguising it as perfume?) Marco asked disgustedly. (How low can you get?)

"This will, of course, be remedied?" Chapman asked.

"Of course," Laurel reassured him. "All of the current data is being entered into the computers as well, though you can only access it at the pool."

(Well, that sucks.) Tobias said after hearing Jake give a summary of what was being said. (It means that Ax can't just hack on and delete the info. We still have to go down there and destroy that, or else we can't go anywhere without worrying about some Controller whipping out the perfume and spraying us.)

"The mutations have also been doing well." Laurel reported. "Though most of the test subjects were killed in the attack, the data was already recorded. Humans are still the best test subject on the planet."

Chapman sighed. "That's a shame. We will need to find someone to test that on."

"We have several candidates already." Laurel replied. "Myself being one, of course." She sounded proud as she puffed out her chest.

(That's demented.) Marco said after we told them what was going on. (You're using your body-well, your host's body- to do this experiment that's probably not going to work. And you might die in it. Me? Sayonara, dudes, I wouldn't do it. I like my body.)

(You mean your short fat-headed body?) Rachel sneered.

(No. I mean the toned, muscled one that all the girls want to-)

(We're keeping this PG Marco.) Tobias warned. (We have a minor in the building.)

(I just feel bad about all the animals killed off for their experiments.) Cassie said softly. (I'm kinda glad that most of those experiments didn't work, you know? Because now their species doesn't have to undergo the rest of the mutations.)

(Yeah, but now, we do.) Marco complained. (Why did our A and T and G and Z's have to match up with the Hork-Bajir's A's and T's and-)

Ax and I burst out laughing. (First, humans have C, not Z.) I corrected.

(Second, Hork-Bajir have different DNA strand than humans do. Similar, but different chemicals.) Ax chuckled.

(Great. I cracked an Andalite joke. I feel nerdier every day.)

Laurel and Chapman had been discussing mutations in the meantime. I listened to their plans as the birds above us chattered and argued.

I tensed when they mentioned a human-Controller who escaped, but was sure that she was dead. I answered truthfully when Jake asked it that was me.

(Yes.) I said. (I supposed I'm lucky they believe I'm dead.)

Jake laughed. (I still can't believe you managed to avoid them for almost two weeks by now. It's kind of like the other Hork-Bajir who ran. Except we met the Ellimist on that day. He helped.)

(Right.) I drawled. Ellimists. I wasn't going to argue a fairy tale story. When I saw it, I'd believe it, but not before.

In any case, I was glad that they were still looking for me, but concentrating most their efforts on the new Yeerk pool. Smart of them, and lucky for me. I didn't get lucky most of the time, and I counted when I did.

Ax called us when we had four minutes left. But we still needed more information. We agreed on going when we had three minutes left. That would leave enough time.

It was near the end of the conversation when I heard them talking about the mutations again.

"We actually have a new Controller overseeing the mutations." Laurel informed Chapman. "You should see him if you have questions."

I tensed. A name was good. All we had gotten out of this conversation was stuff that we already knew, or stuff that I suspected.

(Three minutes, Prince Jake.) Aximili called out.

(Get out of there, you guys.) Tobias called out. (Cassie's at the doors, ready to open them for you. Anytime now.)

Jake started to drift off. (Madi?) Jake asked. (Come on, it's time to go.)

(Hold on. We're about to get a name.)

"Oh, really?" Chapman asked. "So it's not that Jetran anymore?"

"No," She smirked. "He was executed for incompetence."

"Good. He was already a hazard to us, anyways." They laughed. I waited impatiently for their humor to subside. Give the name already!

"You probably know him." Laurel continued. "He is Eskar 352."

And I froze.

Oh. No. Please. Anyone but him. He was too young. He was supposed to be on the construction team, not the mutation team. We had been on the construction team, together. He was good at it too. Why had he been moved to overseeing the mutations?

But when I thought about it…my leaving the Yeerks meant that my role would've been passed to Iress. Iress was leading the mutation team, and his role would've gone to Jetran. And if Jetran was gone, then his second-in-command was…

I had caused this. I had run, and this was what had happened.

(Jake!) This time, it was Marco. (Time to move, buddy.)

(Can't leave without Madi.) Jake answered tersely. (Just be ready. We'll make it, but be ready.)

"Eskar 352..." Chapman mused. "Isn't that the boy...?"

"Yes. That is the human boy. Darwin."

My heart stopped.

Seconds later, it restarted.

(You ok?) Jake asked me.

(I'm fine.) I managed to say. (Let us go.)

Our wings beat in unison, as we rose off the desk.

I was stewing in my own guilt. My only brother. We had to stop him. We had to free him.

But that was impossible. And how could I tell the Animorphs about my brother? They'd deem me a traitor to the group. No, I couldn't say anything. But how could I ignore the fact that my brother had to go in order to stop the Yeerks?

At the moment, though, we had more pressing matters.

"AAAHHHH!" Laurel grabbed her purse. "Flies!"

"No! Fool!" Chapman snapped. "Andalites!" He reached under his desk, and pulled out a glass jar.

(Madi! Move!)

(What's happening, Jake?)

(We just got busted. Big time.)

There was a hiss of the spray, but I moved farther away from it. Laurel shot again, this time, hitting me. It was interesting to note that the increase of hits did not affect the amount of time taken to kill the object. Another weakness of the Gleet Biofilter. I knew that if it did, I'd be dead already.

(Madi, get to the door and don't look back, whatever happens.)

(Ok.) Translation: Leave me behind if I get caught or killed. Fine by me. I could do that. It wasn't the nicest thing I could do, but it was true. But if Jake got caught, I'd certainly move out of there. As fast as possible.

I dodged a swipe from the glass jar. (We're too fast for them!) I crowed.

(Careful, Madi- AAAAHHHHHH!)

I looked back to see Jake bounce off the glass jar wall, and fall the bottom of the jar. He sprang back up, buzzing ferociously.

(Jake!) Tobias shouted.

(You ok, man?) Marco asked.

(Jake has just been captured.) I yelled.

"Hah-hah!" Chapman yelled. "I have you, little Andalite." He slid a paper underneath the jar and held it up to his eye level. "Visser Three will be very happy to meet you."

(Madi! Go!) Jake said. (Don't worry about me- go!)

I would've. But Laurel was not about to let me go. "Come back here, you little-" I dodged some more sprays from the Gleet Biofilter, and the minute Laurel's back was turned, I dived for the folds of her skirt.

She froze. I froze.

"The other Andalite seems to have disappeared." She said calmly. Yeerks. Screaming buffoons one minute, and the next they're act as if nothing happened. Their mood swings were incredible. Just look at Visser Three, an ideal specimen.

"That's fine." Chapman reassured her. "We still have this one." He held up Jake. "He will submit and tell us anything we need to know in the Visser's ship."

(Madi?) Jake asked. (You outside yet?)

(No.)

I think I could imagine the expression on his face as he bit out the next words. (And why aren't you?)

I chose to ignore that. (Rachel?) I called.

(Reinforcements are coming in. Hang in there, guys. We're coming.)

"I'll call the Visser." Laurel reached in her purse again.

(Quickly, Rachel. Laurel is calling the Visser.)

(Got it. Incoming!) She shouted.

(Wait, Rachel!) Jake yelled. (Don't- do- anything.)

(Madi said quickly!)

CRAAASSHHHHH!

"TSSSEEEEERRRR!"

(The cavalry has arrived.) Tobias announced. He tore in, knocked over the jar, and scooped up Jake in one fluid movement. (And it is ready to haul butt. Bail, Madi.)

(What did you do?) Jake demanded.

(Actually, Rachel's threw the rock through the window, and now she's tearing into Chapman's face. Oh and here's Marco.)

"Andalites!" Laurel yelped, and picked up her bottle. Before she could spray Marco, he weaved in behind her and grabbed a talon-ful of her hair.

(Hey!) He yelled, startled. (She's got dark roots!)

(Told you so.) Rachel said triumphantly. (I knew it. A blonde knows another blonde, and she was so not blonde.)

(How can you tell?) Marco teased. (Because a blonde's too stupid to-)

(Finish that sentence and I will throw this paperweight at you.)

(Listen to her, dude.) Tobias advised, braking and racing to the window. (If she doesn't hit you now, she'll do it later.)

I followed Tobias as fast as possible, as he complained about the turbulences and the space in the room. The turbulence from his wings blew me back, so I kept flying safely straight behind him, where it was slightly easier. I fought to keep up.

We hurtled through the irregular space of the broken window. Tobias opened his wings, flying even faster for the forest beyond the parking lot.

We couldn't demorph here, I realized. It was too close to the Yeerks. We needed to move farther on. But my wings would never make it to the forest in time.

Big structures closed around me. (Got you.) I heard Cassie say. (Hang on, Madi.)

(How much time?) I gasped out.

(Forty-five seconds.) Ax circled above us. (But the killing process should take at least thirty seconds.)

(Start demorphing, Madi.) Jake instructed me. I focused on the picture of myself in my head, ignoring the closed space and the fact that we were flying, and started the changes.

It grew dark and cooler, as we entered the forest. The wind tickled my spine and blew on the hair of my legs. I felt us swooping lower and lower towards the ground, until Tobias said: (Drop-off time.)

The big structures around me opened up and I found myself falling in midair. I was spinning, the wind whistling past me, the forest a blur of colors. I knew we were only ten feet above the ground, but to my fly mind, we were a hundred feet up. I would've screamed, but I was still focused on the changes.

I bounced along the ground, rolling along, and growing rapidly. I was at least five inches long, but I had normal eyes.

I looked to the left to see Jake a few feet away, his legs sucked back into his chest. He was lying on his side, his big glassy fly eyes staring.

I think I would've vomited, but I didn't have a mouth.

Jake was demorphing much faster than I. I watched as the hairs on my skin disappeared one...by....one.

I was scared. I remembered when SubVisser Fifty-One failed Visser Three once, and was dragged aboard the Blade ship to the torture chamber. Ironic, because she was in charge of torturing the Andalites with the AMR. I remembered how no one heard her because of the soundproof walls, but we all knew. I remembered how poorly I slept, shuddering awake from nightmares about what might be happening down there, and what if it were me one day. I remembered how the next morning, she came out alive from the torture, showing no visible injuries on her host's body. Oh, but we knew. Technology can erase the worst of injuries. Technology can hide the scars. And proud as she was, she showed nothing in her eyes but tiredness. But she knew, we knew. We knew.

That was what it was going to feel like. The Gleet Biofilter, in seconds, would start to kill me. Painfully, and slowly.

Fear of pain unites the Yeerks. That's why they invented Dracon beams. To kill, and to cause pain. Atoms ripped apart, nucleus and electron, and then proton from neutron, and quarks from quarks. It will hurt. It will break down the most stubborn, the bravest, and the strongest. Pain is stronger. Always.

My head hurt from the concentrating. I willed the rest of my fly body to melt away. Jake was almost finished. Why wasn't I?

And then the pain came.

(AAAAAARRRGGGHHHHHH!)

(AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!)

Both Jake and I screamed. Our forty-five seconds were up and we weren't finished demorphing.

(Jake! Madi! Chapman will hear you!) Marco warned. He must've come back.

(They can't help it.) Tobias shot back. (This is bad.)

"Come on, Jake." Cassie was human for some reason. "Demorph the rest of the way. Come on. You can do it. Focus."

I was suddenly aware that I was the only one screaming still. Jake must've demorphed completely. He would be fine.

I couldn't concentrate on myself. I couldn't think of anything but the pain. It felt like my limbs were slowly being ripped apart, ligament from ligament, my muscles torn from the flesh, my eyeballs pierced and dug out....

(AAAAAHHHHHH! AAAAAAHHHHH!)

Thirty seconds of pure pain. It hurt to scream. It hurt to lie on my back, to even think.

This was it. I was dying. On fire, speared and pierced and run through, slashed and ripped. Dying.

Someone's hand held mine. I screamed louder at the contact.

"Think, Madi." I couldn't even tell whose voice it was through the haze of red. "Remember yourself. Black hair, black eyes. Asian. Pale skin. A French mouth. Remember?"

I didn't want to breathe because it hurt to live. Thirty seconds? Death was taking forever.

(You can have a French chin? Fight this Madi, and you can have the cigarettes. I swear.)

(Shut up, Marco. Come on; don't die on us, Mads. Don't die...)

"Demorph, Madi. I made it, so can you."

(Reassert yourself, Madi, or you may never come back.)

(Come back, Madi. You are you. Not the pain. Don't let it take you. Your family needs you. And if not them, then we need you. You're not alone.)

You're not alone. I shuddered. I was stronger than this. I was Madra. I was Madi. Whatever I was, I wasn't a bug. I wasn't going to die like this, lost and weak and alone.

Darwin. My brother. He needed me still. I needed to destroy the thing in his head. He needed me. He didn't win me a chance to live just so I could die.

Yes. I could beat this. For Darwin. Always.

Feet. Legs. Rear. Stomach, torso, arms, and hands. A neck. Hair, and face. Chin, mouth, nose, cheeks, eyes.

That was me.

The pain was dying down. The horror was fading.

I could see now, and I stared at the Animorphs, in human and bird form. I was perspiring greatly, soaking through my clothes.

My gaze rotated through each of them. They were all around me, with concern in their eyes. They had united with me, against the pain. So unlike the Yeerks, who united because of pain.

And then I stared at Tobias, the one who had told me I wasn't alone. The one who gave me the stuff it took to push through. I was me. And people needed me to continue.

He glared back with yellow eyes. Yes. He and I were loners. Once. We were different and unwanted. But not anymore. We weren't alone now.

I think I might've smiled at him right then. And then I blacked out.

Poor Madi. :) Bonding moment with Tobias right there.

Oh, and yes, Darwin will show up. You can't expect me not to add in that little complication, can you? It makes for such a good story.

metamorphstorm: Goths can be hard to get along with. No offense to Goths in general. But they'll say funny and sarcastic things that they don't mean to be funny, which just crack me up, and make them look at me weird. And I imagine, in real life, Madi would be a pain in the butt. Oh, and Jake? I have no control over Jake right now, he completely writes himself. :) Not sure how that happened...

wordcrafter: "Ruthless nerd." That's what completely just stuck in my mind after I read your review. Love that phrase. Madi kinda acts ruthless and nerd-like, doesn't she? So does Ax, but differently. In my mind, anyways. And oh, Visser One. She's gonna be fun to write. She's one of those crazy pyscho Yeerks. She and Taylor and Visser Three. I love reading them, but I have yet to try writing them. Hope I don't fail. :)

voodooqueen126: Right. I love Harry Potter, but I've always thought that there should've been more mental people in there, especially on the "good" side not just on the dark side. Would've been interesting to read about. But that's just me being morbid. And I really doubt any of the Animorphs understand how to treat nine-year olds, since she talks like an adult, but I remember the days of milk and cookies and early bedtimes....but anyways. And Rachel was the one who dressed Madi and I purposely made it all weird, because I knew the other Animorphs would get all weird about it. Plus, it's Rachel. Who must've had a field day when she realized Madi was like a doll she could dress up. But I liked writing the chapter, that was fun.

Right. So remember to review! Or criticize or flame, whatever suits you!