A/N: Sorry for the lateness of this chapter, everyone! Real life has been really hectic recently, and I haven't had very much time to write. Hopefully it's made up for by having a new narrator this chapter, and hopefully I won't be quite as long with the next one!

Also warning for some bad language in the first part of this chapter.

Elsa was running late. Not that there was anything unusual about that, of course; her being on time for anything other than work was unheard of. However, today it looked like she would be even later than usual because of the crawling queue of traffic in front.

"Bloody buggering hell," Elsa snapped, free to swear as loudly as she liked in the privacy of the car without needing to worry about anyone hearing her. She tapped her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel, a small part of her still reveling in her freedom to make even that small gesture. Most of her mind, though, was consumed with stress and irritation. Kelly and the others would expect her to be late, of course, but if this kept up she was probably going to keep them waiting at least half an hour.

"Oh, will you get a fucking move on!" Futilely swearing at the traffic made her feel better for about half a second, but it didn't last long. She'd been more irritable than usual over the last week… well, more emotional than usual, really, worrying about stupid things and feeling restless whenever she got a few moments to herself.

Despite that, though, it had been a good week. She'd finished her term paper the day before the deadline for once, instead of her usual method of pulling an all-nighter, and she'd made some progress on the getting-Yeerks-hosts front that she was keen to share with Kelly, Sara and the others. If only she could get there.

The group had agreed to take a walk together for their next meeting, all of them keen to avoid being stuck inside on what forecasters had correctly promised to be a glorious day. Quite apart from not wanting to keep them waiting, Elsa knew she would need to head back before the stores closed. Her mom had asked her to pick up some last-minute ingredients for her sister's birthday cake, a task Elsa would not allow herself to forget.

"Fourteen," Elsa murmured to herself, not quite able to understand when her sweet baby sister had turned into a teenager. The number had a more sinister significance, though, which kept pushing its way back into Elsa's mind no matter how much she fought it. From tomorrow, Annie would be the same age as Elsa had been when she was first infested.

The thought made Elsa's hands begin to sweat, her breathing speeding up as a memory began to push itself insistently at the edge of her mind.

Paralysis. Complete and total paralysis. While Elsa was still trying to twist her body, to throw off the hands holding her head under the water, suddenly she couldn't. Was this what dying felt like? Was she drowning? But why… why would the Sharing leaders kill her… surely if everyone who tried to become a full member disappeared someone would notice. Maybe some sort of bizarre initiation ritual, then, maybe they'd let her up in a minute, in which case she was going to tell them exactly where they could stick their offer of membership.

(You're not going to drown. It's alright.)

No it bloody well wasn't alright! Elsa couldn't work out where the voice was coming from; under the water? Above it? It didn't seem to come from anywhere.

(I'm in your head,) the voice replied, which was not as reassuring as the voice seemed to believe.

Suddenly, Elsa felt her hand moving without her asking it to, tapping a complicated rhythm against the arm of the man holding her down. He released her instantly, and her head began to move too, lifting out of the sludgy water. While being able to breathe again was welcome, any sense of relief was utterly overwhelmed by the rising sense of panic that her body seemed to be moving of its own accord. Unless… was the mysterious voice doing it? Was she going mad? Maybe there was something in the sludge they'd forced her into that made people turn insane and think there was something else moving them around… maybe Elsa was moving herself, as always, but she had some kind of mental illness that made her think…

(You haven't gone mad. I'm the one moving your body. My name is Silrin… I'm something called a Yeerk. We can attach to brains and control them.)

Again, this was not as reassuring as the voice seemed to think. (I don't want you to control mine!) Elsa tried to shout, but no sound came out.

(I have to, Elsa,) the voice said, indicating that at least the voice had heard her even if no-one else had.

(No you don't! Let me go!)

Elsa felt some feeling that was not her own, a sensation of sadness, guilt even. But it was gone as soon as she felt it, and then her mouth was moving of its own accord.

"I have control."

Breathing hard, Elsa came out of the memory at a honk of a horn from behind her, and realised the traffic ahead of her had moved on some way. Hastily sliding the car back into drive, she hurried to catch up with the queue of traffic, sending a silent prayer of thanks that the memory had at least appeared to haunt her while the car was stationary rather than moving. It had been over a year since memories had stopped appearing out of the blue like that, but this week it had suddenly begun happening again. Elsa wondered whether it had something to do with her finding out that Silrin had died. The news had hurt her more than she was willing to admit, and on top of that there was the shock and confusion about how to react. Silrin had hardly been Elsa's only Yeerk, and she knew what had happened to many of the others since the war, but learning one of her Yeerks had died in such a horrific way… well, it had been unsettling, to say the least.

After another twenty minutes of tense driving, Elsa finally arrived at the meeting spot, a car park near a lake in the mountains. The others were gathered around Kelly's car, Sara resting against the edge, while Adam passed a flask of water across to Illim. Kelly grinned as she saw Elsa's car pull in, and rolled her eyes as Elsa scrambled out and hurried up to them.

"Good evening," Kelly said sarcastically.

"Sorry. The traffic was awful."

"Yeah, we were late too. Not this late, though," Sara cut in with a smile.

"I always go the extra mile," Elsa shot back, grinning too.

"Maybe we should start telling you we're meeting fifteen minutes earlier than we actually are." Unlike the others, Huan did not smile. He was fastidiously well-organised and, Elsa heard, usually early.

"Sorry, Huan. I always intend to be on time but… it just somehow doesn't happen."

He raised an eyebrow, but thankfully didn't say anything else. Elsa wasn't sure she could cope with the stress today.

They set off walking along the path from the car park towards the lake, the sun beating down on them from a cloudless sky. Elsa soon felt sweat begin to trickle down from her forehead, but she was glad of the exertion, the boost it gave to her mood.

"How's Kalran?" she asked Sara after a few minutes' quiet walking.

Sara gave her a funny look. "You could at least ask how I am first."

"Sorry. It's just that I can see you look fine, but Kalran worries me. How are you?"

Sara smiled slightly. "Worried about her too. She's massively stressed about something this week, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it is."

Elsa frowned. "I think I might have an idea. Think she had a bit of a disagreement with one of the Yeerks she lives with."

Frowning, Sara said: "How come she tells you that and not me?"

"It came up," Elsa replied. "We were talking about something you said you wanted to have nothing to do with, and the argument Kalran had with Alniss was about that."

The other girl looked, if anything, even more puzzled, the sound of her feet crunching against the gravel path suddenly silent as she halted. After a few moments, though, she seemed to figure it out. "Oh. The voluntary."

Elsa bit back the impulse to remind Sara that 'the voluntary' had a name. She could understand the others' distaste for voluntary hosts. She'd felt it herself in the earlier days of her infestation, but it was impossible to feel undiscriminating hatred for so long when you watched people cross in front of your cage every three days and saw how terrified, how guilty, most of them looked. Her rage had slowly been replaced by curiosity, and then by pity, and the anger was now almost completely gone. Elsa herself often questioned whether she was doing the right thing by trying to rebuild bridges, but so far she'd always ended up deciding that she was.

"Yeah," she answered eventually. "Apparently Alniss isn't too happy about the idea of her working with us."

Sara gave a snort of derision as she began to walk up the path again, following Huan, Alma and Kelly, who had pulled quite a way ahead.

"You've met Alniss?"

"Unfortunately."

"It doesn't look like you're her biggest fan," Elsa observed, looking at Sara's wrinkled nose and disdainful expression.

"She's a little shit," Sara responded, far more sharply than Elsa was expecting. "She's one of those Yeerks, you know, the 'this is all for your own good and you'll see in the end' ones. Talks all nicey-nicey to you as long as you're obeying her, but still completely willing to shove you in a cage if you're not. And she was horrible to Kal at first, thinks she's a traitor."

"I see."

"If she's started on her again I swear I'm going to crush the little slug until she…"

"Whoa," Elsa exclaimed, alarmed at the violence in Sara's tone. "I think she might be a bit big for squashing, now."

"That won't stop me trying," Sara muttered darkly.

There was silence for a few moments as they rounded the corner of the path, the trees opening up to reveal the lake, shimmering sapphire in the bright sunlight. Elsa wasn't sure how to respond to Sara's anger, so let herself just walk for a few minutes, trying to push aside her worry to enjoy the glory of the day. Trying and failing, until Sara interrupted her again.

"So, what's Alniss' problem this time?"

Elsa explained, watching Sara's face get steadily stormier as she did so.

"And Carla just, what, gave Alniss a little bow and gave in?"

Despite her resolution to try and understand Carla's perspective, Elsa smiled. "I don't know if any bowing was involved. But yeah, it sounds like she won't go against what Alniss wants. Not yet, anyway."

"Voluntaries," Sara spat disdainfully. "I still can't believe you can stand to work with them."

"I've got some news on that front, actually. Though maybe we should catch up with the others before I share it," Elsa said, looking down the path to where the rest of the group were setting out a picnic at the lakeside.

A few minutes later, the pair of them settled down on some rocks near the shore, Elsa reaching across for a few Doritos before accepting a soda from Kelly. She ate quietly for a while, watching the others chatting, Illim still relatively quiet despite the amount of time he'd spent with their group by now. Eventually, once most of the savoury food had been consumed, Huan cleared his throat.

"Should we get down to business?"

"Mmm," Kelly murmured in reply, her mouth full of cookie, while Elsa nodded.

"Sure."

"I've made some leaflets," Alma said quietly after a few seconds, reaching into her bag to pull out a piece of colourful paper. "I'm not sure what you'll think, though. It's such a hard thing to communicate in so little space." She passed the paper on to Kelly, who looked puzzledly at the first side, flipped it over and then smiled.

The cover of the leaflet, when it reached Elsa, was a colourful painting of a countryside scene, with the text: "Enjoy seeing this?" Elsa frowned, not quite certain how the picture linked to what the leaflet was supposed to be about, but the answer became clear as she turned over the page and the text continued: "So did Tamhet 1209 of the Sulp Niar pool. It's her favourite piece of art." More information about the Yeerk followed, which brought tears to Elsa's eyes as she read it. Tamhet's sibling, Lissis, had been starved as a sympathiser because his host had asked to be freed and Lissis had let him go. Of course, the Empire had found out, resulting in Lissis' death. Tamhet had continued to fight for the movement despite this, refusing to give up until the war's end. A few years later, Tamhet had found she was allergic to the morphing technology, separating her from most of her remaining siblings.

"Poor thing," Elsa murmured.

Her mind wasn't really focused as she scanned further down the page: an explanation of the allergic Yeerks' situation followed, with an emphasis on those who were in the peace movement, ending with the question "Don't we owe them more than this?" and a website to visit to find out more. Elsa could see it was very persuasive, but she was too caught up with Tamhet's story to really concentrate on the words.

"It looks great, Alma," Elsa said eventually, raising her eyes from the leaflet. "How'd you find all this out?"

Alma looked towards Illim. "Illim has some friends who are still in the Pool. He booked in to see one of them, and they gathered some stories for him from the others. We've got stories from six now who were peace movement Yeerks with human hosts: those are probably our best bet at convincing people."

Elsa frowned. "You're right, but it's not exactly a hundred per cent honest, is it? If we act like it's only peace movement Yeerks we'd be helping…"

There was a snort of laughter from both Adam and Illim; laughter that came at exactly the same time from both of them, which was a little disturbing. "Since when has any form of marketing been a hundred per cent honest?" Adam asked, with a wry smile.

"This marketing should be," Elsa argued, ignoring the joke. "The people who used to be hosts are owed the truth."

Alma looked uncomfortable. "So what am I supposed to say? 'This is Innis, they used to enslave people and now are stuck in the pool, shouldn't we let them out?"

Elsa bit her lip. She had to admit that wasn't going to convince anyone, but she didn't want to give anyone the misconception that they were only involving the peace movement Yeerks, it wouldn't be fair.

"Maybe we should only include the peace movement," Kelly interjected. "Can we really trust the others with hosts?"

"We'd need checks, obviously," Adam said. "But it's not like anyone will stop the hosts leaving if they want to quit after three days, so the Yeerks would have to treat them well."

Elsa and Kelly exchanged a look. Both of them had, at different times, had some very cruel Yeerks, Yeerks who had tortured them for the fun of it. "A Yeerk can do a lot of damage in three days," Elsa said quietly.

"Maybe we should just give all the non-peace movement ones to ex-voluntaries," Sara muttered darkly. "They already agreed to take the risk when they chose to go along with the Yeerks taking over the whole bloody planet."

Elsa felt anger bubble in the pit of her stomach. Sara couldn't possibly know what she was threatening there, of course, but the hatred in her voice made Elsa nervous. "You don't know what you're saying, Sara," she snapped.

The other girl frowned. "Don't I?"

"No. You only ever had Kal. And I know at the start she wasn't peace movement, and I'm not underestimating how horrible that was, but I can't imagine her deliberately hurting you."

Sara looked concernedly at her, her annoyance at Elsa's tone seeming to lessen. "Are you okay?"

Realising there were tears in the corner of her eyes, Elsa swallowed hard. "I am now, thanks. But it… it can screw you up for life just having a Yeerk like that for three days. One of mine only lasted nine before they got banished to the Pool, but I… by their third feed I didn't even feel I could stand up. Or speak."

Illim made a choking sound. "Elsa…"

"It's not your fault," Kelly said quickly to him, Elsa not daring to say any more in case she started to tear up again.

There was a long silence. Elsa glanced out over the shimmering water, the light glinting off it in sharp shards as it hit the wrinkles the wind was making on the surface. The leaves of the trees beyond were rustling gently in the breeze.

She was drawn back from the view when Sara hesitantly asked: "Banished to the Pool?"

"It happens sometimes," Elsa muttered. "If your Yeerk is so evil that even the Empire thinks it's wrong. Well, if they think they're 'damaging' a host, anyway. I think it's more of a practical concern than a moral one, not that I wasn't grateful for it."

"It's moral as well," Illim whispered, so quietly Elsa almost didn't hear him.

Forcing a smile, she looked over towards him. "I'm sure for some Yeerks it is. Maybe even most."

He wasn't quite meeting her eyes, and his body leant towards Adam, probably unconsciously.

"I'm okay, Illim. Thanks in large part to you. You don't need to look so worried."

He nodded, still looking nervous. Another silence followed, longer than the last. Elsa let her mind wander, wondering what they should do. Checks to keep hosts safe would be essential, of course, and Elsa was sure there were people better qualified and more creative than her who might be able to work out some that could work. What they said on the leaflets and the website in the meantime, however, was up to them. "What if we say at the end that we just want to start a conversation?" she asked. "Then we're not for or against including the Yeerks who weren't in the movement, we just want people to be considering the issue, and take it from there. See what other people say."

Alma nodded thoughtfully. "I could have something like 'join the conversation' at the end, and then on the webpage set things out in more detail, maybe even a questionnaire asking for people's opinions."

Elsa nodded, and there were murmurs of agreement from the others. The meeting continued more positively after that, and Elsa soon had the opportunity to share the news she'd been sitting on all day.

"Two things," she said, glancing across at Kelly and Sara. "Do you want the bit you won't like first or the bit you will?"

Kelly frowned. "What bit we won't like?"

Elsa sighed, deciding to get it over with quickly. "My sister and I both go to choir… well, she goes to youth choir, which is first, and I drive her and stay till the adult one, which is right after. So anyway, it's a mixed age one, and a few weeks ago a new little girl joined. I recognised her Mom… and this is the bit you won't like... she was a voluntary in the war. Well, she realised who I was, too, and I think it was only her daughter that was keeping her in the room, you could tell she wanted to run out the door, but last week I managed to actually have a conversation with her. I haven't mentioned it to her yet, it's taken us three weeks just to get to 'hello', but I'm wondering whether maybe she might be able to help us, eventually."

Kelly shook her head slowly. "Elsa, why…"

"We've already been through this, Kel."

"We have. I don't understand it, no matter how many times you explain it." She paused for a second, then shook her head. "Anyway. What's the other news?"

"Jean Berenson," Elsa said, hoping the name would divert the others' attention. Sara, Kelly and Huan's sour faces did not make her want to give any more details about Jasmine, the voluntary she'd met.

The strategy worked: Sara leaned forward, Kelly stopped looking mutinous, and even Huan sat up a little straighter. "Has she replied to you?"

"Yes. It helps that I knew her in the war… I helped her out in the cages, you know how you do for new hosts, and she remembers that. She says she'd be willing to meet with us and hear us out, though she isn't willing to try and influence Jake. But her own voice would be pretty influential."

"Certainly," Adam murmured, surprise evident in his voice. "Wow."

Elsa let a smile spread itself on her face. "I know, right? Sara, will you tell Kal the good news?"

Sara nodded. "Sure. She's so pessimistic, though, it probably won't cheer her up that much."

Elsa shook her head slowly, her mood instantly dropping. Kalran deserved better, poor thing, much better. Knowing Kalran had been part of the movement was one thing, but Elsa'd still expected not to like her much. Then she'd met her. She was so different to most of the Yeerks Elsa had known, so gentle, so passive, that Elsa wasn't sure how she'd survived in the Empire at all. She couldn't forget, either, that Kalran had made time to call her after Elsa had found out about Silrin, even though it must have been awkward for her.

As the shadows of the trees began to lengthen around them, they began to pack up the remainder of the picnic and make their way back to the cars. It was a beautiful spot, one a Yeerk would love, and Elsa made a mental note to see if they could convince Kal to join them here next time they came. But the beauty of Earth probably wasn't enough to help her. Morphing had seemed such a good solution, but Elsa was increasingly questioning how merciful it truly had been. To give up your own body permanently… it was a massive adjustment, something she wondered whether the Animorphs and the government had even considered.

She was jerked out of her thoughts as she reached her car, and the others began to say their goodbyes.

"Next week?" Huan asked. "We could meet at mine if you like, I'll text you the address? Maybe around…" he hesitated, glancing at Elsa, "twelve-thirty?"

Elsa strongly suspected he would text the others later and tell them all to come at one, but she supposed she deserved it. She might actually be early for the meeting for once, if she aimed for half twelve. "Sure. See you then."