A/N – I guess it's a little early to complain, since I just put the last two chapters up a few hours ago…but they each already have over 10 separate readers with no reviews. Even though these author's notes are apparently ineffective and pointless, I still want to ask you to take the time to review. Is it some sick sadist thing, where the more I ask, the more pleasure you get out of ignoring me? I'm honestly curious. Whatever…to those of you who are decent, enjoy the new content! It's for you!

Chapter 23

Nobody answered Marco at first. Cassie muttered, (This is borderline. This is so borderline…how can we do the same thing we're fighting the Yeerks for doing?)

(When all of your choices are bad, you make the best one,) Marco said, as if it should have been obvious. (This is by far the best one. Unless you want to either let him go back to his life of killing kids or kill him yourself.)

(Shut up, Marco. You've made your point – now you're just being a jerk,) Rachel growled at him. Then, to Jake, (The jerk is right, though. We draw straws.)

Jake took a long look at Ax. (Anybody who wants to be kept out of this one, I'll understand.) Even though he was looking at Ax, I assumed the statement was more for Cassie. After all, Ax had already made it clear that he wasn't into morphing a Yeerk.

Ax looked like he'd just walked in on somebody putting fertilizer on his feeding grass, but he said, (I will do my duty. If the five of you can consider doing this, then I can – I must – be a part of it, too. That is the way a team works.)

The only other person who would have a complete objection to doing what one of us was going to have to do would be Cassie, and she seemed to know it. (That's true. We all need to pull together here – I'm in. God help me, I'm in.)

Marco picked six long pieces of grass, then snapped one in half. He hid the bottoms in his massive fist and offered one to Rachel. She pulled a long one. I was next. I got a sinking feeling when I plucked one out with my beak and realized it was the short one. (That's that,) I said, trying to sound matter-of-fact. (Guess I'm about to learn the meaning of the term "know your enemy.")

(Great Rage Against the Machine song,) Marco joked. Four dirty looks went his way, and he shut up and looked at his feet, letting the remaining grass in his hand fall to the ground. (Sorry, Tobias.)

(No biggie,) I said, trying to sound like it was no big deal, one way or the other. (Ax, tell him we accept his proposal. I guess we'll know if he was lying by how he reacts to that.) The sudden, stupid hope that the Yeerk would say, "Aw, you got me. Nevermind," was starting to work its way into my consciousness.

(Tobias, you don't have to do this,) Rachel told me privately as we headed back inside of the shack. (I'll volunteer. Really, I don't care.) But the truth was that Rachel didn't want to morph a Yeerk any more than I did. She was just being considerate. I appreciated it, and said so.

(Thanks, Rachel, but it's my job. We can't start undermining the sacred ritual of Drawing Straws,) I tried to kid with her, but she just stared at me blankly with the appraising eyes of a grizzly.

Once inside, Ax spoke to the man. (We accept, Yeerk. Leave this human, and we will find out if you speak the truth.)

The man looked surprised, like he hadn't expected that, but nodded. "Just out of curiosity, what will you do with me once I am out of this human?"

(I thought you said you didn't care if you lived or died,) Rachel challenged, and Jake told her privately to let Ax handle the controller. The Yeerk answered her anyway.

"Of course I care," the Yeerk said. "I only said that I would prefer death to this…assignment. I'm still afraid. I'm not insane, like the man I inhabit. He is laughing at me mercilessly right now. He wants to watch you kill me."

(We won't kill you, Yeerk,) Ax said. (You may not survive the day, but we will not end your worthless life.)

The guy nodded again. "I guess that's the best I can ask for." He looked at each of us grimly. "I don't know which of you has taken the assignment of doing this…but you have my sympathy. I hope that seeing this man's mind doesn't ruin you, the way it's ruined me." And without another word, the man went rigid and I saw the Yeerk wriggling out of his right ear. I looked away.

I knew when it was done, because the man bound on the floor began yelling immediately. "Don't listen to it!" he screamed. "He would say anything it took to survive, please don't do it, don't take control of me again!" He began to cry, and despite what I believed him to be, I felt sorry for him. "Please, please don't! It's a trick, he just wants -"

Jake snarled, and took the man's neck in his jaws. (You shut up, now. Not another word. If you're being honest, this will be over before you know it. If you're what the Yeerk says you are…) he trailed off menacingly. The man just whimpered.

I flapped over to where the Yeerk sat on the floor. It's really hard not to feel a little bit sorry for them when you see them in their natural state. The only thing that makes you indifferent is the fact you know they'd enslave everyone you know, given their way. It's easier to imagine them in a host body, perpetrating their evil plans. Seeing them on a dirt floor, quivering and blind and deaf…it's harder not to feel sorry for them on some level.

I reached out a talon and tried not to shudder as I made contact. I focused until the Yeerk became a part of me. After it was done, Marco picked it up and held it outside of the doorway, where I assume Erek took it away from him. I almost began the morph until something occurred to me. (Ax, do I have to worry about the Yeerk's instincts taking over? I mean, I'll be able to control him, not the other way around, right?)

Thankfully, Ax believed that was the case. (As a rule, the more intelligent a species is, the less they rely on their instincts. This is true for humans, is it not? It is true for Andalites, as well; I would assume a Yeerk is much the same. In that regard, at least.)

(Yeah. Okay. And I'll be able to communicate through thought-speech, anyway. Not like I'll be totally cut off from you guys.) I realized I sounded nervous, like I was trying to talk myself into it, and stopped talking. I closed my eyes, and began to morph into the last creature in the universe I ever wanted to become.