Chronicles of Terrus Chapter 11: Aftermath
Current location-Training facility 790-3 hours since mist events
It had been three hours since the terrors of the mists. Three hours since I had fought and let live one of our most hated and most feared enemies, an Andalite. Three hours since I had killed two fellow Yeerks, one, to cover my tracks, my BETRAYAL. The other, an accidental murder. At the moment I was sitting on the same ledge at the Pool perimeter, the same spot I always had, staring into the trees. This time, however, I was far more troubled than any other time. But at least I wasn't alone, as I'd been before. There were many controllers standing guard now. A couple dozen Taxxon, and many more that number of Hork-Bajir. I payed them all no attention. Neither did my distractions who were sitting to my right, and neither did Desha and Heyo on my left.
"You did a good job with the monster, Terrus." Heyo of course. Trying to cheer me up. It's no use you darkap, you can't. Desha, tiny sitting next to Heyo, leaned forward to look past him at me. "When will you tell the Visser?" I glared at the little darkap and answered "When will you leave? Or did you forget that you tried to kill us? So what are you still doing here?"
Heyo laughed and grinned down at her. "Terrus makes a good point. What are you still doing here? If I were you, I'd go straight to the Visser and claim I killed the Andalite in a glorious battle after my team was slaughtered and-" Desha slammed her wrist blade down right on his tail, cutting it off, then stabbed her other arms blades into his gut, and pushed him off the ledge, all within the space of two seconds. Nobody had had any time to react at all! I looked down over the edge and saw he was already a small figure, and getting smaller until...several seconds later I couldn't see him as anything other than a tiny speck on my vision.
Gleeful high pitched laughter brought me out of my shocked state. I jumped to my feet and grabbed Desha by her neck, putting my wrist blade to her throat. Eliza stood up, alternating from staring down off the ledge, to staring at me. Whereas Serri was up and warding off the guards "Nothing to see here! Go back to your duties or you'll be next!" I glared at Desha, who went to slice off my arms in an instant but was met with wrist blades that countered her own. I glanced left and right. Distractions! "I told you two I don't need saving." Desha lowered her ams and laughed again but stopped when I pressed my blade to her throat, drawing blood. "Alright you little darkap. As much as I don't like Heyo, why did you do that?" "Isn't it obvious?" Desha replied softly.
I stared at her, completely perplexed. What does this darkap mean? "Okay. Let's try something else. Why don't you just leave?" She stared into my eyes and said simply, "I'm on my own now." I glanced at Eliza, who nodded at me, then Serri, and put her blade to her throat for a second. I stared back at Desha. She misses her team. I sighed at her and let her go, lowering my blade arm as well. "Do you want to be on our team?" She laughed in the annoyingly shrill way she did and said in her oh so quiet voice. "Yes." I stepped back from her and looked at Serri and Eliza. "Desha will betray us at any point in the future, unlike Heyo...but he's..dead now.." I couldn't believe it. How CASUAL it had been for Desha to do that. How untroubled she is.
I can't believe how strongly I'm feeling for this darkap now. So many times over training, so many times just TODAY, I've been wanting to do that myself to him! I directed to Desha "You want to join our team..but teams are only allowed four members..so you killed the fourth one...who also was on your own team at one point before he esca- I mean left, and formed his own team, and became the egotistical darkap he is now. Correct?" She nodded with a bit of a smile. I continued on, "Well I was just starting to like him. We'd gotten past our differences, and then you just went and killed him like that..That's a problem you and I have now."
Serri took a step forward at that but I halted him with a glance. Desha looked to Eliza and whispered, eyes wide. "If I join you I promise I won't kill anyone else on the team. Please protect me from Terrus too!" Serri stared at her, utterly thrown off. I also felt completely confused and put off. She's acting like a day old grub! That's the point though, I think. Eliza beamed at her and seemed about to hug the devious little darkap, but thankfully didn't, and instead told Desha "Of course you can join us! I'm sure you don't feel bad for doing that to Heyo because of how he treated you before leaving your team, and that's understandable. But you really didn't need to kill him."
Serri got to his senses before I did and burst out "Don't fall for this Liz. She's insane. She's cruel. She'd do ANYTHING to advance. We don't need someone like that on our team." I hissed and said to Desha "I'm not in the best state of mind to figure out what to do with people, so it falls to Serri and Eliza." Desha pressed her forehead to Eliza's and said softly "I trust her judgement." I bet you do, you manipulative darkap. I let them discuss the matter and I stood on the very tip of the ledge, looking down, unable to see the tiny speck that was Heyo. He'd splattered onto the valley floor or...
I took five steps over, now exactly where he had been sitting. This massive Pool structure was made out of the giant trees... I looked over my shoulder at Desha and my distractions and, before they could do or say anything, I took one step forward and fell toward the valley floor. I heard nothing but the rushing wind, I fell so very fast but it seemed I was falling forever, when I was about halfway down the side (As far as I could tell), I stabbed my elbow blades and my leg blades into the wall behind me. I kept falling and I began to panic and angled my arms up and, a millisecond later, felt my speed reduce so drastically that my arms were almost pulled off! I leveld my arms straight forward slowly, gaining a bit of speed again, then angled back once more. Three heartbeats later I was completely stopped, completely stuck to this wooden wall, hanging so high up still that if I were to drop I'd STILL splatter! I'm not even..I looked up, then back down again. I'm a little more than halfway down the wall. Perfect.
I looked straight down and let myself drop with increasing speed and after a second, almost going too fast again, I spotted the rapidly approaching form of Heyo! I skidded down to a halt, almost hitting the top of his head with my feet and impaling him with the sharp nailed toes. What an odd sight we must make! Two Hork-Bajir, head to toes, stuck on the side of a massive wall! He glanced up at me and said with a grin, "I figured it would be you." I stared down at him, surprised "You waited here on the side of this EXTREMELY EXTREMELY wide and high wall FOR ME? I'm touched!" We hung there in silence for a few seconds, stupidly, I thought, before I said "Heyo?" He again looked up at me, "Yes Terrus?" "Do you think maybe we should get off this wall?" He looked confused, as if he'd forgotten where we were (An impossible act for anyone else), and said quickly "Oh..yes..Of course." Darkap.
I removed my right elbow and leg blades from the wall face and swung over to the left, then slid down a few so I was right beside Heyo. I grinned over at him and said "Race you to the bottom." He grinned back and replied cheerfully, "Your mistake." and started to slide down, gaining speed as he went. I let him get a ways ahead and smiled to myself. I ripped all my blades free of the wall and just fell. After three seconds of free falling, everything was a blur to me and I was laughing like a maniac as I blew past Heyo. This is so FUN! I kept falling and laughing, the valley floor getting ever closer. In the slow way things happened during combat for me sometimes, I saw one of the smaller tree branches below, about the size and length of the average Hork, was hanging close to the wall. I stabbed my left and right wrist blades into the wall behind me, angled them down, and then pulled them out all in half a second.
Due to this act, I was catapulted forward towards the tree, so fast I was like a bug fighter! I overshot the intended branch and grabbed panickely for the others. I felt my hands snag one and I swung up, let go, came back down and grabbed another branch, then another, and another until finally, I hit the ground, still harder than I'd expected to, and fell to my knees. I stared at the ground, just laughing to death at the sheer INSANITY, the JOY that had brought me! A moment later I heard the thud of something landing on the ground and I looked over to my right at the wall and saw Heyo. I got up and walked over to him, still laughing. "Better luck next time Heyo." He looked all the way up, then looked to his left at the base. "How do we get back up? And who designed the whole base to be elevated at giant tree level in the middle of a massive clearing?"
I grinned and replied "Well, to the first, I don't know. To the second, I don't know." "You're a darkap then. A complete darkap. We're on the far side of the Pool, and all the way on the other side is the base. And we're down here.", he stated. I went over to the wall and stuck my blade in, testing it..."We can climb all the way back up." I said with a grin. He stared at me and looked all the way up to the top, then at me again. "No. Do you have any idea how long that would take?" Heyo asked me. "No. No I don't." He sighed and pretended to slit his own throat. I suddenly heard shouts and screams from so very very far above and I looked up to see a brown black speck that was getting bigger all the time. When it was about halfway down the wall, I yelled as loud as I could "STICK YOUR BLADES INTO THE WALL YOU DARKAP!"
After another few painful seconds of watching whoever it was fall, finally he (or she) started to slow down. The darkap isn't going to stop in time! He was still screaming to death and Heyo yelled at me in frustration "GIVE THE POOR DARKAP SOME ADVICE!" I watched the Hork fall and shouted up at the darkap "LISTEN, YOU SHOULD NEVER, EVER GO TO THE TAXXON HOMEWORLD! IT'S TERRIBLE AND THERE'S LIVING MOUNTAINS AND CANNIBALISTIC CREATURES AND A HIGH CHANCE OF DYING-" Heyo punched me in the face and yelled "ADVICE ON HOW TO LAND!" Close enough now the Hork was about the size of my armblades, I stayed silent and watched as he slowed down a bit more, landed on his feet, and crumpled to the ground a few feet away.
Heyo shoved me over to the downed Hork and asked furiously "Why didn't you tell him the part about angling the blades to slow down or speed up?" I shoved him back and answered nonchalantly,"I thought he'd figure it out on his own." The Hork rolled over onto it's back, hissing and growling.
I looked him up and down "He seems fine."
Heyo glared at me and said sarcastically "The poor darkap just fell off the top of a wall so high it's level with those giant darkap trees and had difficulty slowing down. Why wouldn't he be fine?" The Hork laying on the ground glared up at me and Heyo and said "That is something I never want to experience again..and I believe this hosts legs are severely damaged to the point that I am not able to use them. Also, the advice was not very helpful at all miss."
Heyo grinned and asked cheerfully "So what did you do to get thrown off the Pools perimeter by Desha?" Serri didn't grin back and stated dully "I attempted to explain to her that killing our own is not very helpful to the Empire and tried to convince Liz that Desha was manipulating her good nature." Heyo patted him on the head and said "She's not very good with being told that she needs to end her ways." Serri responded with a simple "Shut up." and I glared at both of them before, for the second time, I heard screams from above.
All three of us looked up and watched the person fall. Heyo, still watching, asked, "Who do you think it is Terrus?" I didn't look over at him either as I responded "Well, think of it this way. Do you think Eliza could have managed to throw Desha o-" "No."
I grinned and watched as Eliza slid down the wall, not going too fast or too slow. "Liz adapted to that very quickly." Serri commented, not hiding how impressed he was. She's not even halfway down the wall and she's got her blades in and she's controlling her speed! I'm impressed too. Eliza soon landed lightly on her feet infront of us and her eyes immediately went to Serri. "What happened?" She asked in pure concern.
"Nothing. I just didn't make as good a landing as you." He said with a grin. Heyo glanced at me and muttered "I'm fine too thank you for asking. I just have no tail. Not that I used it anyway." I stopped myself from grinning as Serri asked Eliza "How is your hand?" She waved it around a bit and moved her claws. "It's okay but not as good as the old one." Serri was about to say something when I kicked him and asked "Does anyone have any idea how to get back up?"
They all stared, at nothing, at each other "Exactly. Desha most likely took your advice Heyo," I gave him a glare before continuing, "and threw everyone off the base so she can go to the Visser and take credit for everything, in addition to reporting her own mission of killing or neutralizing us, complete."
Serri glared from the ground and said "I'm sure she can find a way to make it seem all the more impressive despite the loss of her team. Also I don't think this hosts legs will recover anytime soon. At least not soon enough for us to try to stop Desha." What a darkap. I glared down at him and said exasperatedly "Just leave the host! You can get another one, a better one." He replied with a "Yes miss." and within seconds the host body began throwing its arms around trying to injure us with the blades and was screaming "GAFRASH YEERKS!"
I saw Serri on the ground next to it, now out of the host, and I stepped quickly on the hosts neck and rammed my elbow blade straight through its forehead. It spasmed a few times and then lay still. Eliza stepped forward and picked up Serri carefully. I gave her a smile "Don't drop the darkap." She smiled back. "I won't."
I looked around at the smaller trees, then at the wall, at Heyo and Eliza, and at the rest of the base that I could see from here.
I need to come up with SOMETHING! THINK! I looked around hopelessly for a few more seconds and, coming up with nothing still, I kicked the host on the ground. "Whatever I could possibly come up with to get us back up there won't be fast enough." I said resignedly. Heyo stared incredilously at me and said angrily "NO! I've spent all of my training being beaten. The competitions. The scores. The ranks even. I'm not going to be beaten AGAIN, ESPECIALLY not by Desha!" Eliza had stayed silent so far, looking between me and Heyo. She looked at me cautiously before saying "Being the fastest or strongest isn't always the best...There's four of us. One of Desha. We could get there an hour or two after Desha and could still beat her. Convince the Visser we're the ones that should be promoted..."
She wants a NON-VIOLENT victory? I stared at her in wonder. Again I felt the impatience bubbling up, the need for ACTION, ANY action. "Fine. Let's just get up there already! We can sort out everything LATER!" Heyo shook his head at me and Eliza sighed. I ignored them both, jumped at the wall, impaled it with my wrist and knee blades, and began to climb as fast as I could.
A long while later we reached the top of the Pools wall. I wasn't sure how much time exactly had passed, but the climb seemed like forever so it must have been alot of time passed! I don't really care though, do I? I just want to get to Desha and kill her, or SOMETHING. Whatever I decide to do, I have to do!
As we hauled ourselves up over the wall, all the guards and random controllers close enough turned their eyes to us. The guards started cIosing in, but I didn't wait for Heyo or Eliza. I jumped to my feet and sprinted through the crowds, past the surprised guards all the way to the lifts. I leaned against the lifts door frame and looked back across the Pool, only to find that they hadn't followed! I saw across the distance that they were being held up by four Taxxon and twice that number of Hork-Bajir. Darkap! They should know by now that when I rush into action, they either follow or suffer the consequences.
Right as I was about to enter the lift, I felt a claw tap my shoulder and I turned around again to find myself surrounded by five heavily muscled, heavily armed, ten foot Hork-Bajir and two of the biggest Taxxon controllers I'd ever seen. The Horks had black ramonite armor that covered the chest, gut, arms, necks and legs, and a visored helmet that matched the structure of the skull. They had dracon rifles slung across their backs, a belt across their chests contained Cells and hand held explosives, and they were all aiming dracon beams at me. All of them had green symbols on their chests.
The Vissers symbol.
I took all of this in, and their positions, in a heartbeat. Two on my left, two on my right and one directly infront of me. The two Taxxon were standing completely still behind the Hork infront of me. For now.
I put on a huge grin and said to the Hork infront of me, designated mentally as Leader "All this for me! I'm flattered." I took a cautious step backward to the lift and a Hork from each side moved in instantly and grabbed my arms. I laughed and let them keep their appearance of control and authority by not resisting. Leader's visor bored into me and a harsh slightly mechanized voice issued from his helmet, from him. "No-ranked Yeerk Terrus 5633. Associate and team member to Yeerks Serri 481, Heyo 222 and Eliza 388. Due to several acts of treason, insubordination, and the murder of fellow Yeerk, you are sentenced to death by Kandrona starvation."
Kandrona starvation! The grin left me, as did any positive feelings,
I experimentally shook my arms, and the two Horks holding me tightened their grips, while the other two stepped closer. I said as casually as I could to Leader "This," I paused for a second and they unconciously leaned in a fraction. "This is all a misunderstanding brought about by the real Yeerk criminal, Desha." As I spoke I lowered my voice more and more, and they leaned in closer. I prepared to jerk my arms free and escape... Leader put his dracon beam to setting four and said "Enough. You can tell it to the Visser." I relaxed.
You have no idea how happy I am to oblige. I stretched my claws and felt the weight of my arm and wrist blades.
I grinned at Leader, who pressed a claw to his helmet and said through a voice communicator "We have detained Terrus 5633 without incident Visser, as well as her accomplices." I heard an almost inaudible voice answer "Good. Bring them in."
Without incident. So you think darkap. So you think. I laughed as they took me through the base to the Visser, and to what would most likely be my death, and the death of my friends.
As Eliza and Heyo, accompanied by their guards, fell into step ahead of me and my own, we passed three Taxxon, infested or not, I didn't know or care. But something odd happened. I saw Eliza pat her hand right on one of the things head twice, as if it were her veleek, and run her hand down the thing as she continued past. Nobody else had noticed (or they didn't care), and I gave the back of her head a questioning look, but she stared straight ahead as if nothing had even happened. Fine. I resumed thinking about my death that soon would occur.
Kandrona starvation after all! After EVERYTHING, I'm sentenced to this! I know the stories, I've heard it all in detail. I just never thought I would have the misfortune to experience it myself! And my friends... Serri, Eliza, Heyo..They will die just like me. My TEAM will die. Heyo..what was it he'd said earlier? This is MY little mission...so this is the price of it. I'm still the leader. I'm still in charge...I can still get us all out of this. No plan, nothing but the blades, surrounded. None-violent...
I stared at the back of Eliza. Yes. None-violent victory, just this once.
"Leader, would you like to tell me where we're going exactly?" I asked him as I glanced over my shoulder. "No." Despite that I tried again. "Where's the Visser?" Leader didn't even respond this time.
Okay. Keep the detained ones with as little information as possible. Good plan, Leader. You darkap.
Twenty minutes and many hallways later, our large group stopped infront of a wall. A completely flat surface that didn't quite match up with the rest of the interior. Leader pressed a claw to his helmet again and the ramonite wall expanded to reveal a room I didn't like the looks of.
It was a large room that looked as if it could fit all of us plus about two dozen more Hork guards if need be. Four holographic emitters were placed in a row on a small platform sticking out from the far wall, and infront of it, a large table and three Hork Bajir specific chairs with what seemed to be force field generators beneath them. Set on the table I saw a dracon beam, a ramonite pole, and an unknown spherical device with several wires that ended in patches.
Visser 25 was nowhere to be seen. It's a trap! Non violent victory will have to wait for another day!
I hadn't realized I'd stopped moving and had been staring until I was jabbed in the back with a dracon beam. "In. Now." Leader ordered. I stood straight and stepped into the room with alot more confidence than I felt. Right when I was within grabbing distance of the weapons on the table I was pulled back by two of my guards, one of which pointed at a chair. I glared and told him "I'll stand." Left guard squeezed my arm and put his dracon beam to the side of my head.
Eliza and Heyo came up beside me and sat right down before I could warn them what they were getting into. Darkap! The force fields activated, connecting from floor to roof, trapping my friends.
They both gave cries of surprise but didn't try to get out. They knew to do so would be futile. They could be kept there for long enough to starve! I hissed and catching my holders off guard, I crossed both my arms and threw myself backward.
Both left and right gaurds crashed into each others armored bodies with force enough that left guard loosened his grip on me. I yanked my arm free, punched his helmeted skull and snatched his dracon beam from his claws. Right guard reacted and swung his free arm to cut my head off, I ducked and slashed at his chest with my left arm blades, forgetting that he was wearing ramonite armor until I felt my blades bounce off! I heard a rush of air from behind and spun myself forward and around right guard and saw both Leaders arms slam onto the table.
Right guard STILL hasn't let go of me!
He threw his arm over his shoulder, hoping to catch me in the face with his wrist blade, I dodged and I saw now the eight 'regular' Hork Bajir, the four 'regular' Taxxon, and the two giant Taxxon that in standing were as tall as me!
All of them were coming to join the fight.
I put my dracon beam quickly to right guards shoulder, pulled the trigger and held it for a second. His arm hit the ground. Free at last! Left guard came at me from the side and I shoved Right at him, firing through both their bodies and their armor, then raised my left arm blades to block Leaders attack.
I pushed Leader back a step, and dropped to the ground, then swept my leg inward which didn't slice off his legs but pulled him off his feet. As soon as he hit the ground I leaped onto him, yanked his helmet off and cut his head in half. One of the giant darkap Taxxon rushed toward me from my left and I just leaped backward and thrust out my left arm as it went past. I watched my arm shear through it's whole body and when it ran into a force field encased chair it split open. The other Taxxon immediately rushed past me to feast upon him. And each other.
The two remaining armored Horks on my left standing infront of the eight regular Hork Bajir began firing their dracon beams and I rolled right, over the table, grabbed the metal pole and as I came up I checked my dracon beams Cell capacity and fired off two shots at each of the armored Horks.
All four shots hit and scorched but failed to penetrate the armor, and they kept firing at me. I dodged left and right before I flipped up the table and used it for cover. They stopped firing and I heard several sets of footsteps moving toward me on my left. I kept completely still and gripped the pole. I saw three regular Horks right as they saw me, and I threw myself toward the middle one. The left and right Horks didn't make a move until I'd stabbed the pole through the chest of middle Hork!
I swung the pole around, the back end catching left Hork in the ribs, and middle Hork on the front was thrown into right Hork. Missed dracon fire flashed by, going right through the neck of middle Hork and the upper chest of right Hork, and causing both to drop instantly, middle Hork dragging the pole with him. Left Hork swung at me and I jumped back, which yanked the pole free finally. "Come on you darkap." I teased him. He growled and slashed at me furiously and we exchanged blows so fast I wasn't conciously thinking of what I was doing!
After seconds of this that seemed like minutes (maybe it WAS), he seemed to sense i was a bit slower in my reactions. I'm getting tired! You won't live long enough to take advantage of this you darkap!
He slashed for my leg with one arm, and with the other he went to cut me in half. I twirled the pole with one hand, connecting with his arm and redirecting his leg slash, while simultaniously using my free arm to slice his chest open. He came back at me despite the blood gushing out and I jerked my arm up, slicing off HIS arm. He tried again with his remaining bladed arm, and I hit four times in quick succession with the pole, a hit to the leg knocking him down, a smack in the ribs, followed by an overhead strike on his arm, and finally ending with a thrust right between the jaws.
His whole body went slack and I ripped the metal pole back out of his head, then rolled behind the table again. I got a ten second break. My weapons Cell capacity is almost empty. I stared at it, then at the ramonite pole.
I tossed my dracon beam aside. Not enough Cells...and it's not nearly as fun as the pole or blades anyway.
I laughed as I vaulted over the table with the pole in hand and charged straight at the enemies. A low droning noise sounded from behind me that I hadn't noticed before, and all the Horks infront of me looked dead standing.
Paralyzed by..FEAR! That's right! YES! Fear me! I closed in on the two armored Horks first, hearing an unfamiliar voice from behind me say in surprise, "Visser 25, THIS is the Yeerk you spoke of?", and a second unfamiliar voice say "This is the one that has encountered an Andalite and survived?"
I took the words in and ignored them at the same time as I swung the pole at the legs of armored Hork 1. The other slashed for me and we clashed blades, armored Hork 1 brought up his dracon beam, but I never gave him the chance to fire. I shoved forward against the arm of armored Hork 2, pushing his arm and whole body away, while bringing up the pole which knocked armored Hork 1s arm up, sending the dracon beam to the ceiling.
"I see why this one has given you trouble, Visser 25."
"She would do well with me on the Taxxon homeworld. Or Xandar! Anywhere she is needed!"
Again I ignored the voices.
I caught the dracon beam, turned the setting to maximum, grabbed armored Hork 2 by his arm and dragged him infront of me, lined up with the other armored Hork. I kicked them both back into the remaining five Horks, saw the hand held explosives on the retreating chests of the armored Horks..."STOP!" Eliza shouted from behind me.
Too late! I pulled the trigger and the universe was ripped apart.