Rose Tyler
"Right, so, here's where we need everyone to be-"
"Oh wait! Sorry," exclaimed the Doctor, running his hand back through his hair as his eyes widened, "One more thing! Sorry."
"Seriously?!" Rachel groaned. She crossed her arms and shifted her weight on her bare feet, causing Tobias to ruffle his feathers. Thankfully, Jake just shrugged, looking resigned to the Doctor's erraticness. The Doctor spun on his heels and scurried back into the TARDIS to grab the small series of electrodes he had been working on all night.
"Aha!" he exclaimed. He tossed them in the air with one hand and smoothly flipped out the blue morphing box from his pocket, spinning it around in the air before catching it with the other hand.
{The Escafil Device is an important piece of technology that would be very difficult to repair} Ax said. Rose noticed all four of his eyes were staring at the box as the Doctor causally fiddled with it in his hands.
"Sorry," said the Doctor, grinning sheepishly, "These little things… thing-ama-bobs… gadgets, let's go with gadgets!"
"You should just not talk," said Marco, pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing, "I mean, I thought we sounded like idiots."
"He has a point," chuckled Erek and Rose snorted.
"Okay, let's focus," Jake said. Rose rolled her eyes as the Doctor snapped back to serious. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Aftran do the exact same thing, like a mirror. Okay, the Doctor was a little ridiculous, and the Animorphs and the Chee may still have their doubts. But Rose was going to make sure they weren't let down.
Putting on his glasses, the Doctor took the small electrodes and stuck one on each of the sides of the cube. Once all six sides had a small metal round, a little yellow light lit up in the center of each one. Erek and Ax both came over to get a closer look. Taking the cube delicately in his hands, which had many more fingers than a human's despite being shaped almost the same, Ax examined the Doctor's work.
{I think everything should work according to the plan,} Ax said. After carefully inspecting each side, he held it out before the surrounded audience.
{I explained to the Doctor the method by which I acquired my human morph, and he has come up with a way to use a similar process to assure each of the Yeerks has a unique human form to take as their own.}
"You mean they're all gonna look like a weird mix of us? Won't it just seem like your morph suddenly has a lot of new siblings?" asked Rachel, frowning.
{Not necessarily. The method I used was much… simpler… than what the Doctor has created here,} he said, shuffling his hoofs. Rose though she detected a bit of envy in Ax's "voice". But it wasn't the same bitter disdain from their original meeting. Ax originally seemed like he had the hardest time adjusting to all of the Doctor's antics; but Rose was starting to think that maybe Ax was just having a hard time with being away from other Andalites for so long. From what she could tell, Andalites were completely different than both humans and Time Lords.
"Well, not simpler. Well, maybe. Well…. There's a lot more math involved," the Doctor explained, "See, DNA has a lot of potential traits hidden in it that never physically show themselves in a being. So by breaking the DNA down to it's fundamental components and then sort of scrambling it all together," he demonstrated the "scrambling process" with his hands as he spoke, "Times 5 humans, plus or minus a few million unviable combinations, you end up with nearly infinite combinations of completely unique possible human forms. Well, almost completely unique. Depending on the exact number of Yeerks, we might have a few siblings. And I wasn't sure what to do about gender, precisely, so the Yeerks should be able to choose if they concentrated. But Aftran informed me that Yeerks have much different constructs regarding gender identity and so I'm not entirely sure how that'll play out, but-"
{The point is we won't have an army of clones, got it,} interrupted Tobias.
"Based on what I understand of the Doctor's information, my people will have some very basic degree of control over age, and gender of the human morph created, but most of the genetic information will be randomized," added Aftran helpfully.
{Precisely,} said Ax, {We will collect the DNA samples now, and the Doctor's device will include the sample DNA with the morphing ability.} He stepped forward and held out the cube.
"That way we don't have to all go hug a bunch of Yeerks," nodded Marco approvingly, "So we all just touch one of your buttons?"
Both Ax and the Doctor nodded. Rose and each of the human members of the Animorphs stepped up to Ax and placed their hand on one of the sides. Cassie was the last one to reach out, almost pausing for a moment. But as soon as her fingers touched the last electrode, Rose felt the now familiar relaxed sensation that came along with being acquired. In a moment, it had stopped, and she clapped her hands briskly, trying to sound braver than she felt.
"Right! Should we get started then?" she said with a smile.
"Erek, are you guys ready to go?" Jake said.
Erek nodded, taking the morphing cube from Ax carefully. Rose realized that the other Chee had disappeared without her even noticing.
"Let's do it!" said Rachel, a wild grin on her face.
In that moment, Rachel reminded her of the Doctor, or rather, the Doctor as Rose first knew him. Another lifetime, another face ago. Rachel had a cheerful bravado that hid a great deal of strength… and darkness, too.
Rose shook her head and banished the thought. She could worry about psycho-analyzing these kids later. Forming a line, they followed Erek into the dressing stall. The mirror on the wall was swung aside to reveal the top of a winding staircase into the dark. No one was talking now, and the noise made by Ax's hoofs clanging on the metal steps seemed so loud that it pounded in her head. The Doctor was fiddling with the sonic screwdriver again, and she wondered if he was nervous. Or maybe he just didn't want to have to see it again. The Yeerk Pool.
Rose felt dread building in the pit of her stomach. It was the noise that she was dreading the most. She could hear it, creeping up closer to them.
In front of her, Rachel's shoulders tightened, and Rose knew it wasn't because Tobias's talons were holding on there. Traveling with the Doctor, she had seen terrible things, monsters and nightmares and death and destruction. But nothing compared to the noise of this place. The weeping. The pleading. The screams.
When they finally reached the bottom, Rose was shocked to see a pair of robotic dog-like creatures standing amongst them.
"You're with me, Rose, Aftran," it said, and she realized that it was Erek. Or rather, the Chee beneath the façade that was Erek. The other one was a Chee too, but she had no idea which one. They must have been standing inside their holograms. It looked as if they were standing in a shimmering bubble, only just barely large enough to hold them all. Aftran stepped over closer to Erek, but Rose paused.
"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" she said, looking at Jake and the others, "I know I'm new at all this, but if you need backup…"
"We'll let you know," he said, "It's probably easier if we don't have an inexperienced person out there, though."
"If you hear us screaming in terror, that's normal," Marco added sarcastically. Rachel rolled her eyes. Rose felt someone touch her arm- Cassie.
"I know you want to help, but the best way for you to help right now is to stay with Aftran and Erek and help the newly morphed Yeerks," she said. Sighing, Rose nodded.
"I'll be fine," said the Doctor, "In case anyone is worried about me." He pouted in a faux-dejected frown.
"You better get going," said Jake, "As soon as they realize that we're here, they're going to lock down the control area even more, and be looking for anyone suspicious."
The Doctor nodded. Before he could move, Rose grabbed him and pulled him into an embrace. It lasted only a second before she pulled away. Jabbing a finger at his face, she stared him straight in the eyes.
"You better come back," she said, "You're my ride."
"Of course, he said, grinning, and with a spin of brown trench coat he was off, already blurry outside of the hologram.
"Rose, Aftran, Erek, you better get going," said Jake.
"Be careful!" said Cassie. Rose waved awkwardly before turning to face Erek.
"This way guys," he said, gesturing to Rose and Aftran. He walked toward the edge of the hologram, and stepped through, visible but shimmering.
Rose turned to face Aftran and to her surprise, Aftran was already looking at her. Their eyes met, and Aftran smiled reassuringly. Or at least, as reassuringly as possible from someone wearing your own face. Together, they stepped through the hologram to follow Erek and found themselves looking at another Chee, also maintaining a hologram. This Chee nodded at them and gestured for them to walk through the other side, where Rose could just make out the shape of another Chee. Rose bit her lip nervously, and took a deep breath.
They could do this. She knew they could. She stepped through again, and there stood now familiar true form of another Chee.
"Thanks for all your help," She thought she ought to say something, after all, and not just walk past in silence.
"Our pleasure," said the Chee. This one's voice sounded female. Rose would have to remember to ask for names later, so she could thank them all properly.
Another Chee "bubble" later, and Rose and Aftran found themselves standing at the edge of the pool, where Erek and another Chee stood waiting with the blue cube. Aftran immediately stepped forward and kneeled down next to pool. The water rippled and splashed softly against the edge of the Pool from the mass of Yeerks swimming slowly beneath it. There was a pile of cardboard boxes set off to the side. Rose lifted the flap of one carefully and saw it was filled to the brim with neatly folded clothes.
"We'll bring down more as we need them," the other Chee cheerfully. Rose recognized the voice as the Chee who was pretending to be Erek's father, "They might not all have matching socks, but it'll be good enough to get everyone out safely." Aftran still knelt by the Pool, stone-faced and silent.
"From what I've heard, Rachel will be horrified," Rose joked, hoping to lighten the mood a bit for her Yeerk friend. Aftran dipped her fingers in the water, waving them gently to form ripples.
"You're sure no one can see us here?" she said after a moment. Her eyes stared hard at the wall of the hologram closest to the main Yeerk compound, and her breathing was a bit little shallow. She was remembering the last time she was here, Rose realized, and put her hand on Aftran's shoulder.
"100% sure," said Erek, "Yeerks are centuries away from holograms this advanced."
"You'll be alright," said Rose, "I'll be right here if you need me." The last time Aftran had been here, she was waiting to be tortured. Rose wished there had been another way, but they had to reassure the Yeerk Peace Movement that this wasn't a trap. And help coordinate the "morph congo line" as the Animorphs had put it. Rose gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze, and Aftran took a deep breath.
"Okay," said Aftran, and slowly, her skin began to melt back into a slimier Yeerk form. She shrank quickly this time, which Rose was grateful for because it meant Aftran was small before the hair was sucked into the scalp. Just as the morph was nearly finished, Aftran slid forward and dropped into the Pool with a gentle sploosh. Rose lost sight of her immediately. After a minute, something was clearly happening, because the Yeerks began to congregate near the edge.
Another minute passed. She bit her nails and fought down the urge to pace. The plan was for Aftran to return to the edge of the Pool and being demorphing once she was sure the Peace Movement members all knew that it was time to go. Rose didn't really know how long that would take, but it already felt like an eternity. There was always the chance that a Yeerk had betrayed them and Aftran would be captured again.
"Relax," said Erek, "She'll be fine… see?" He pointed to a particular slug, which Rose realized was slightly larger than the others and turning into the color of their morphing suits. Jumping down, Rose gently scooped up Aftran and set her back on solid ground, making sure there was enough space for her to become human without falling back in.
As the morph finished, Aftran nodded at her and smiled.
"They're ready," she said, and gestured to the Pool. The formally loose group of Yeerks had become a mass, but they held themselves still. "If you hold the cube here, they'll get started. We have to be quick. Some of them are nervous. They might start panicking and if that happens they'll create too much movement in the water to go unnoticed."
Erek handed Aftran the cube, and she lowered it into the water. Immediately, there was a slight sort of shiver that rippled outward from the Yeerks closest to the cube away into the Pool. After a bit, she lifted it back out, wiped it dry on her clothes, and handed it back to Erek.
"Get ready to start lifting them out," Aftran said, nodding at Rose and Erek, "They might be disoriented. Some of them haven't had a host in years."
At that, Rose heard an ear-splitting roar echo through the cavern, followed by the trumpeting of an elephant.
"That should keep everyone distracted for a few minutes," said Rose.
"We still need to hurry," replied Erek, "They won't be able to buy very much time without getting seriously hurt."
Rose could hear the sounds of weapons blasting and animals bellowing across the lake and she bit her lip, wishing she could help them. But right in front of her were two Yeerks that were starting to grow hair, and so, delicately, she slid them into her hands and set them on the ground at the far edge of the hologram. Next to her, Erek gingerly spread 3 more Yeerks. She turned and rushed back over the Pool.
She had a job to do and Rose tried to hard to focus on that instead of uproar that echoed throughout the cavern.