Callisum jammed the terrifying end of the Fugue baton right at Tellion, fully intending on ramming the sparking tip straight into her forehead. She reacted in pure desperation, rolling to her side and off the small table that she had been sitting on. As she went down, the crackling tip of the Fugue baton passed so dangerously close to her that Tellion felt the heat pass over her fragile skin. As she hit the floor, the Fugue baton's end also hit the wall just where her head had been a moment before, leaving s scorched mark against its surface as a testament to the danger the weapon posed.
Callisum grunted in frustration, pulling the baton back to his side and facing Tellion. "Faster than I thought. Not that it matters. You'll be done soon enough. But," he laughed slightly under his breath as he held the sparking end very close to his face, casting ominous shadows across his gaze. "I am very curious to see what will happen to your host once I remove you from them."
No. Tellion thought. I won't let you…I won't let you murder Susan!
But she was no fighter, and it clearly showed to Callisum as she desperately scooted away, looking so laughably pathetic to him that he didn't make any immediate attempt to attack her. Displaying an evil grin, he began to pace towards her. Tellion's back finally hit into the wall. She had nowhere left to go. Her eyes darted momentarily to the door, her only escape. She then looked back to him, knowing all too painfully well that she didn't have any hope of opening that door before Callisum would be on her.
"Go ahead, run." he mocked. "It'll make this even more enjoyable for me. I always like to play with my prey a bit before the kill. But in your case, I'd rather watch while Visser Three tortures you. Are you ready then, little fugitive? Are you ready to face your painful and scream filled end?"
Tellion forced herself to her feet even as she felt the hopelessness of her situation pressing in on her.
Don't stop fighting. Never give up.
Those words. That voice. Tellion's eyes widened upon hearing that. Just as she did, Callisum attacked. Clearly expecting an easy hit, he threw his whole body at her with the baton extended out to jab at her skull. Tellion grasped the edges of the large vest she was wearing and threw it straight at him even as she ducked. The action caught Callisum off-guard and he missed her once again.
Growling in his frustration, he slapped the vest aside and swung wildly several times at Tellion. She just barely managed to keep the crackling end of the baton from striking her as she stumbled backwards from him. She hit into another surface, cornered once more. She saw something nearby, looking like a small knife.
Tellion grasped the tiny blade as Callisum rushed towards her. Tellion stabbed at him when he was almost on top of her. But she had no combat training, had never used a knife of any sorts before. Callisum easily knocked her jab aside, grasping her wrist and twisted it until the pain caused Tellion's grip around the weapon to slacken. Tellion weakly clamped her free hand around Callisum's wrist that held the Fugue baton as he attempted to ram it into the side of her head, and struggled to keep that crackling end away from her head even as Callisum slowly forced it closer and closer to her skull.
"You fool." he hissed. "You're no warrior."
After he said that, Callisum smashed Tellion's hand that held the small knife against the edge of the table. The pain that exploded all through Tellion's hand caused the blade to slip from her fingers. It clattered to the floor, its noise mimicking the crushing feeling that rushed all through Tellion's arm.
"You're just another pathetic, weak Yeerk that hopes to hide in the shadows of this war. Never willing to risk anything, never willing to do what needs to be done to ensure victory. It's because of weaklings like you that the Andalites are still able to oppose us."
Callisum shifted his smaller body until he was pressing the full weight of his frame down upon her and grasped the handle of his weapon with his other hand, giving added strength in his effort to press the jolting end of the baton into her head. With no options left, Tellion brought up her injured hand in a vain effort to shield herself from the impending doom.
Callisum appeared more amused by her struggles than frustrated as he smacked her injured hand away. "You think any of your struggles makes a difference? It'll end the same way no matter what you do. Soon you'll know the pain of the Fugue, and I'll see what will happen to this body once you leave it. Should make for an entertaining and useful experience. I may even have to recommend to the Visser about starting a trial program to place hosts into a chemically induced coma. It may prove to be a task with having to keep them sedated and have their lives sustained while their Yeerks are away, but that might be a viable alternative to having to go through the trouble of keeping them caged all the time. This may be a big opportunity for me, don't you think, little fugitive?"
Tellion still didn't answer. She was fighting back with all her strength, and losing. She could do nothing except watch in wild fear as that sparking end lowered towards her sweat soaked face.
Just keep fighting, never give up.
She kept repeating those words over and over in her terrified mind. It helped her to keep holding on, even though she knew that her death, and Susan's, was only moments away as the heat from the Fugue baton's tip began to burn her skin.
"Stop fighting dammit!" Callisum snarled into her face. "You can't save yourself. Give up. Just give up!"
His frustration with her struggles clearly growing into full on anger, Callisum shifted his body to give himself a better vantage position to force the baton's tip into her skull. His legs parted slightly as he made this shift.
He's vulnerable! That voice that had spoken to Tellion before, now echoed all through Tellion's terrified mind. Strike him now. Now!
An image flashed through Tellion's mind of what she needed to do.
She didn't think. She didn't question it. She simply reacted.
Crying desperately through her clenched teeth, Tellion threw her knee upwards with all her might, and rammed it right into the space between Callisum's legs. The reaction was instantaneous.
Callisum stopped trying to force the baton into her skull and his body became as still as a piece of solid metal. His eyes widened to an almost impossible width. A faint, weak sound sipped from his gapping mouth as he released his grip on her wrist and desperately grasped to cover the area that Tellion had just hit.
Tellion didn't hesitate this time. She wrapped both of her hands around the wrist that held the weapon, twisted it back to face Callisum, and rammed the electrified end of the Fugue baton straight into the side of Callisum's head. Dark red energy crackled across his bewildered face, illuminating his eyes with a momentarily hideous red glow. He fell away from her, collapsing to the floor, his body devoid of an apparent life other than a few faint spasms. His eyes remained open, staring off into nothingness. Breathing heavily and with her own body shaking, Tellion stared down Callisum's limp form. A faint odor filled her nostrils, reminding Tellion vaguely of the smell that had come from the 'burgers' from yesterday, and it made her stomach twist in revulsion. Unable to take it, Tellion quickly backed away from him and into the far corner of the room. She held the Fugue baton tightly in her hands, her mind almost oblivious to the heat of its crackling energy against her hands as she watched what happened next.
Though it was a natural process for Tellion, one she had done her entire life, she had never before witnessed it with her 'own' eyes. Partially because she had never been very near any of the demarcation or infestation areas, mostly because Tellion didn't want to see anything that reminded her of what she truly was. And here she found herself in this moment, seeing it for the very first time.
A Yeerk leaving their host.
There was almost nothing to see at first, just the body of Dr. Samier continuing to shake in a series of mini spasms. Then…she saw it.
Deep within his left ear, Tellion saw a pair of very thin appendages wiping about wildly. They each grasped an edge of Dr. Samier's ear. Then Callisum, in all of his disgusting and grotesque greenish slug form, appeared. Tellion felt her insides tighten at the sight of him, because it was a permanent reminder to her of what she truly was also. There was a faint, cringing pop as Callisum involuntarily freed himself from Samier. Even at the distance she was from him, Tellion could see Callisum's invertebrate body trembling, the after effects of the Fugue baton still ravishing his frail body.
A low, almost painful moan came from the still body of Dr. Samier. He wasn't dead, as Tellion had first feared. She saw his eyes blink, then his hands start to shake. Then she saw Callisum start to move as well. His palp antenna began to feel about, even as they continued to spasm uncontrollably, their ends desperately feeling about to find the ear of his former host.
No. Tellion thought as Callisum's palp antenna brushed against Dr. Samier's ear. You won't take him again.
Tellion rushed over to where they were and kicked Callisum away from Samier just as he was attempting to pull himself back towards his former slave's ear. Callisum skidded across the floor away from Samier, leaving a slimy trail in his wake. When he slapped against the wall, Dr. Samier's hand came to life and grasped Tellion's ankle. She tried to move away from him, but his grip was too strong for her to break free.
"K…kkk…" Samier moaned as he struggled to make his body move.
"I…" Tellion struggled to find a right series of words to speak to the male that was struggling to regain control over his own body.
Samier's head twisted to glare up at her. "Kee…keep…aw…away…from…me."
He released her, and Tellion moved away from him, as he had warned her to do. Samier slowly, and clearly very weakly, pulled himself to his shaky feet. He groaned in pain as he tried to move his legs, the injury she had dealt him still very much causing him immense pain. Bracing himself against the table that he (no, not really him) had only minutes before been trying to pin her against, Samier stared at Tellion with wild eyes. His face transformed from shock, into one that appeared very similar to the kind that he had made when Callisum had forced him to attack her. His eyes stared at her for only a moment, then began to dart about the room. He snapped his head back towards Callisum. His eyes glared with the kind of hatred that Tellion was all too familiar with to her kind that the beings they enslaved harbored.
"You bastard!" Samier roared, lunging across the room, clearly ignoring the pain of her blow. "You took away my life! You took my family!"
Tellion turned away and shut her eyes as she saw his foot slammed down on Callisum. That didn't stop her from hearing the sickening pop of Callisum's life stamped out. It also wasn't just one stomp. There came another. And another. And another. Dr. Samier, now freed from the horrific fate that had befallen every controller Yeerk slave, continued to smash his foot against his former ruler.
Tellion couldn't stand the sound. It was the echoing of a death that she had only narrowly avoided. She covered her ears in a vain attempt to block out the sound. But nothing she did could completely shield her from the heavy impacts of Callisum's gruesome demise. Only after the impacts had ended did Tellion risk lowering her hands. Shaking from her own fright, Tellion dared herself to look back.
On the far side of the room, Dr. Samier glared down at the sickening greenish smear spread all across the floor in front of him. It was all that remained of the sadistic Yeerk that had been Callisum 1643. And in that moment, Tellion didn't truly know what she felt from what she was seeing.
Yes, Callisum had shown himself to be a truly sadistic and diabolical being. Yes, he had planned on killing her, in one horrific way or another. And yet, he had been a Yeerk, one of her own kin. Had he truly been evil in the core of his being, or had he merely been shaped and molded into what he was by a life of cruelty that came with being trapped within the Yeerk Empire? Tellion didn't fully understand if there was a true answer to that question. Nor did she truly understand why she was even caring for the death of one that had only planned on sadistic malice for her. No matter what she thought, Callisum was dead now, and nothing that she did would ever change that.
Dr. Samier look up from where he had smashed Callisum under his feet at her. There was a moment of silence as she stared at the native Samier as he truly was. Then, he leapt at an object discarded on the floor, the blade that she had tried to use to defend herself. Taking it in his hands, he pointed the small weapon at her.
"You won't take me again!" Samier shouted at her. "You hear me? I'll never be a slave again, you vicious bitch!"
He advanced towards her, the blade clutched tightly in his trembling hand. Tellion's terrified eyes darted from the blade to Samier's own scared face. She instinctively backed away from him and into the nearby corner. Even as he continued to close in, Tellion could see the fear that lurked within his eyes. Samier's wouldn't allow himself to become a slave again. He would do anything, anything, to remain free.
"You're not going to ever tell the others about this. I'm going to make certain of that." Samier mumbled to himself as he raised the blade high over his head and loomed over Tellion as she cowered in the corner.
"Please." Tellion begged him, speaking in her native Gedd/Yeerk dialect as she held the Fugue baton out in front of her as a clumsy shield. "Don't hurt me."
Her plea, desperate and full of sorrow, halted Samier. He stood poised over her to deliver the blow that would end her life. Yet, his eyes shinned with shock and his jaw fell. The small blade quivered in his hand as he stared at her.
"You…" he said, his words stuttering in surprise. "I…understand you."
Tellion barely understood his words herself, yet she was able to surmise that somehow…as impossible as it should have been, Samier was able to hear and process the words of Tellion's native language.
"Understand?" Tellion continued to talk to him in her people's tongue. "You know what I'm saying?"
Samier backed away from her, his face a mixture of shock and perhaps even fear. The hand that held the blade dropped to his side. "Yes. Yes, I can. How do I understand what you're saying?"
Sensing that imminent death was not about to take her, Tellion cautiously lowered the Fugue baton. She listened to his words, processing them while trying to formulate an answer to the bewildered Samier. Tellion thought through her memories of studying Yeerk technology, and the answer came to her.
"Universal translator." Tellion spoke, more to herself than Samier.
"A what?"
Tellion pointed at her ear. The one on her side that Callisum wouldn't have crawled out of to show Samier.
"The Empire," she said to him. "has many different species that it claims dominion over. Our ancestral language is difficult for most species to speak, and it's too difficult for us to learn all of the ones from the beings that my people have, 'acquired'. We created these translators that are implanted in the non-dominate ear canal of newly acquired hosts. It allows the various species of controllers to communicate to each other with ease."
"But," Samier said. "you don't have one?"
Again, Tellion had difficulty understanding every word that Samier spoke, but she was able to figure out what he was asking her. She shook her head.
"No. This 'body' wasn't worth the trouble of the Empire to do that to."
Samier stood his ground before her, and kept the knife held tightly in his hand. But it stayed at his side in a non-threatening way. Tellion took that for a good sign. At least he wasn't going to outright kill her.
Yet.
"And the woman?" he asked, pointing at her. "What happened to her? Is she…still in there? Is she your prisoner?"
Tellion again shook her head before blurting out her response. "No! This woman…Susan…is not here with me. I don't know how to explain any of it, but I've looked all through her entire mind, and there's no trace of her anywhere. If I had found her, I would have released Susan. I'm not a slave master, not anymore…"
Samier stared at her with an expression that Tellion had still yet to fully grasp.
"What…kind of Yeerk are you?"
"One that doesn't want to be what my kind are anymore." Tellion answered with all the truth her spirit could muster.
"So…"
Samier narrowed one of his eyes at her.
"Callisum," he said 'his' name with a shudder, "wasn't wrong. You are a traitor."
"If 'traitor' means that I am no longer part of the Empire, then the answer is yes." Tellion answered. "I don't want to be a part of what we're doing to your world."
Tellion wasn't sure how it was possible, but Samier's guard slowly lowered the more they spoke. It was as if he was able to see her true feelings, and understand that she meant him no harm.
"Alright then." he said, moving towards the door with the knife still in his hand. "You freed me, so I won't tell anyone about what happened here. That makes us even. Now I'm leaving. Don't try to stop me."
"You can't…" Tellion said weakly.
"NO!" Samier shouted, pointing the blade at her. "You don't know what that…thing did to me. My wife…my children…it made me put more of those slugs like you into them. It took away everything in this life that I care about! I have to save my family."
For once, despite her fear, Tellion found the courage to make herself do something that she knew she needed to do. With the single heartbeat of her host body hammering against the inside of the chest, she moved herself between Samier and the only way out.
"Get out of the way." He growled, twisting the blade slightly to show her its clearly sharp edge.
"You can't save them." Tellion told him, the sadness apparent in her words despite using her Gedd/Yeerk language.
"You may have saved me." Samier growled. "But that doesn't make us friends. Get out of my way, or I'll kill you."
Tellion knew very little of the words he said. But somehow, like so many time since she had entered Susan's body, she was able to understand a word in relation to what she already knew. Kill…meant death. It meant the taking of one's life by another. She was so very familiar with that concept, she had seen it all her life. And yet, knowing the danger that she was facing, Tellion stood her ground.
"Please listen to me." she pleaded with Samier. "It's too late for your family. I'm…sorry."
"No!" Samier shouted, pointing the knife at her. "You don't know anything about this. I'm going to save my family!"
Tellion weakly shook her head. "No…you can't. The Yeerk forces…they'll just capture you again and place another one of my kind in you. Or kill you. There's nothing that you can do for them. Not right now."
"You…you don't know that!" Samier shouted, his voice clearly teetering on the edge of collapsing.
Despite his anger, the threats that he gave, and the blade clutched in his trembling hands, Tellion held her ground. She didn't know what kind of expressions she was displaying for this poor native, only that they mirrored her own feelings.
"You can't save them." Tellion pleaded, moving cautiously towards him. "You…can't…"
Samier shook his head, yet even Tellion could see the truth in his eyes. He knew…just like her, that there was nothing that he could do to save the ones that he cared about. Samier grasped his face with his free hand and began to cry. All the strength in his body faded, and he collapsed to his knees. Tellion couldn't stand to see this poor being the way he was. Ignoring all of her internal warnings, she went to him. Kneeling in front of him, Tellion put the Fugue baton on the floor and cautiously placed a hand on Samier's shoulders. The moment she did, Samier brought the blade he was still holding up and pressed it into her torso, just under her rib cage.
"Why?" Samier whispered, not daring to even look at her face. "Why shouldn't I just kill you? How are you any different from that, monster, that controlled my body like a puppet? Give me one reason why."
The blade's edge dug into her skin, the pain making it all too apparent to Tellion the mortal danger that she had placed herself in. Yet, despite all of the pain and fear, she refused to move away from Samier.
"I don't have one." Tellion whispered to him, refusing to take her hand off of his shoulder. "But…I am sorry for what my people have done to you, and your family."
Samier growled through his clenched teeth, pressing the blade so hard into Tellion that it pierced her skin. It was a pain that Tellion strangely embraced, for she truly felt that she deserved it, despite not being truly responsible for what happened to Samier. It only made Tellion squeeze her hand on Samier's shoulder tighter. No matter how much it hurt her, she felt that Samier needed to be physically shown that not all Yeerks were what he believed they were. And her actions had a reaction. Samier's body shuddered, and the blade slipped from his fingers, clattering to the floor. His head fell against her shoulder, and he began to cry.
It was a sorrow that Tellion knew fairly well. It was the pain that she had inflicted upon Tallaxia for so many countless times. It was the pain that had transformed her into the thing that she was now. A Yeerk, but not truly a Yeerk.
"Why are you like this?" Samier cried into her shoulder. "Why are you…"
"I don't know." Tellion answered truthfully. "I just…am different."
For the next several minutes, Tellion was the pillar that Samier needed her to be in his most vulnerable moment. She ignored the burning in her torso, the fear of the impending death from the Fugue, and the seemingly impossibility of her chances of saving herself and Susan. She was just…there for Samier.
When she heard his cries of pain begin to subside, Tellion pulled away slightly so that she could look Samier in the face. Despite his suffering, he kept his gaze fixated upon her.
"Samier," she whispered. "I need your help. I need to save Susan, but I can't do that without you."
"What…are you talking about?" he asked.
"You know what…Callisum said." Tellion hesitated to say his name, yet she still found the strength to do so. "I have less than a day before my body, my real body, succumbs to the effects of Kandrona starvation. I'll die without Kandrona ray absorption."
"Then leave the woman." Samier said in a hushed voice. "You can just go back…"
"It's too late for that now. I'm a deserter, and traitor to my kind. If I try to go back to the main Yeerk pool, the others of my kind will kill me. Do I deserve to die simply for what I am?" Tellion asked, looking straight into Samier's eyes. "I…never asked to be born into this life. Or this body. But…I have tried so very hard to make the most good of this life that was given to me. And now, I've found a life that I belong in. If I go away, then Susan will become as she was before I entered her. And that would…destroy Mark and her family. She's lost in her mind, I have…I need…to find her. I have to give Susan her life back, but I need more time to do it. I…have to survive to save her. Please, help me. Save me."
"But, what can I do?" Samier asked.
"Callisum was the commander of this outpost, then he must have known about a portable Kandrona generator. I know that my team was given one, along with a significant amount of Yeerk Pool liquid. I need to find them to save myself, and Susan. Callisum must have known where they were."
"He didn't know much about that kind of stuff." Samier said. "But I remember him saying that all of the Yeerk equipment for that mission was stored away in the lower levels of this building. The stuff you might need is probably down there."
"Lower levels?" Tellion said, vaguely understanding that he meant that what she needed was in the bottom of the building, "But I also need something else. I need the machine that was helping Susan to breathe before I entered her body. Without it, she'll die when I leave her. I need it as much as I need the Kandrona ray."
"I know what you're talking about. It's called a Ventilator." Samier said to Tellion.
"Ven…il…ator." Tellion repeated.
Samier nodded. "Yes. We use it to help people breathe when they're too injured to do it on their own."
"I need that machine." Tellion told him. "Can you get it for me?"
Samier nodded. "Yes…I think I can get one. But, I have to take it down to the lower levels where the other things you'll need are."
Again, Tellion barely knew his words, but she understood that Samier was trying to help her. She bobbed her head up and down to mimic him. "Yes. Please take it down there. I need it."
Then, Tellion thought of something else. "But…what about Mark? And Susan's family? How will I be able to do any of the things that I need to without them seeing anything? They can't know the truth, it would put them all in mortal danger."
Samier didn't speak for a few moments, his eyes wandering in deep thought. Then he rose from the floor and weakly shambled over to the safe where Callisum had pulled the Fugue baton from. From inside he pulled out a small capsule that rattled as he showed it to her.
"Sleeping pills." he said to her as she shook the capsule. "This was meant for the governor and his staff. You can use this on Mark and the others. This will put all of them to sleep, hopefully long enough for you to do what you need to do."
"Sleep…" Tellion said as she stared at the capsule. "It won't hurt anyone?"
"No." Samier whispered.
"Remember, only one per person."
He lifted a single finger to emphasize his point. "Just one pill for one person. Anymore would be dangerous. Do you understand that?"
One for one. Tellion was able to understand that.
"I understand." she told him.
Samier nodded in approval. He offered out his free hand, somewhat hesitantly, to her. Tellion was also felt a bit of hesitation in taking it, but the need to save herself and Susan, combined with her feeling of Samier's gesture of help to her, gave Tellion the strength and trust she needed to take his hand. He lifted Tellion to her feet and gave her the capsule. She clutched it tightly to her chest as Samier unlocked the door and cautiously checked outside.
"I'm going to speak to Mark, tell him that you need more tests. That'll give you more time, but you need to be back in this room soon." He wrote a crude series of numbers on a small piece of parchment and handed her. Tellion glanced down at it and instantly memorized them. Samier handed her a small piece of plastic that had his face imprinted upon it. He pointed down the hallway opposite that she had come from.
"Go this way. First left. Then a metal door split in the middle, elevator. Buttons on the right. You press B2. Understand?"
"I understand enough." Tellion answered.
"At B1, the elevator will stop. Open the panel under the buttons, put that key," he pointed at the plastic square he had given her. "inside, then press the numbers I wrote down for you. You'll go to B2. That's where…the pool was."
Tellion involuntarily shuddered at the mention of the Yeerk pool. It was where she had been ordained by forces far beyond her understanding to die. And where other forces equally greater than her had chosen to spare her life. And now here she was. Still alive. Still fighting to stay alive.
"The equipment is in the boxes next to the pool. I think…the Kandrona ray is there. But a lot has happened the last few days. A lot that Callisum didn't know about. But it's your best chance."
"I'll take any chance given to me." Tellion answered truthfully.
Samier nodded.
"If you get it, take it through the door opposite of the elevator. You'll have to use the card and the second set of numbers I gave you. If they work, you'll come out into a sub-basement parking garage."
Tellion stared at Samier, making it all too apparent she didn't understand what he had just said.
"Lots of human, native, vehicles for transport. Put what you need in the back of one." He gave her one last thing, just as thin as the parchment he had given her. "Put this sticker under the driver side door handle, on the left side of the vehicle, so I'll know which one to use. You peel this layer off, then press it on the metal. Do you understand me?"
So many words. So much she still didn't understand. But, there was just enough for Tellion to believe that she grasped what Samier had told her. "Take what I need. Put in the back of one of the human vehicles, put this 'sticker' under the handle so you will know which one to use. Right?"
"Correct." Samier said. "While you do that, I'll distract Mark and get the ventilator for you. If everything goes well, I'll put it with all of the things you need in the vehicle. The first chance I get, I'll leave the hospital and take it close to where Mark and Susan live. I have the address on file."
"There's an empty space near, 'our', home." Tellion said to him. "Leave it there. I'll take care of everything after that."
Samier's face hardened. "Ok. I'll leave instructions on how to use the ventilator and bring it all to that place. Will you be able to figure out how to use it?"
"I've learned much of your alphabet and basic numerical system in the last few days. We Yeerks have an eidetic memory, I only need to be shown something once to fully understand it. I'll be able to operate the machine with simple instructions."
Samier nodded. "Alright then, I'll get everything to that place, but after that I'm going away. Far away."
"The Empire has many long range agents meant to track down runaway hosts like you Samier. You'll have to stay far away from large settlements, and never, ever attempt to make contact with anyone you know, especially your family. That's how the hunter teams lure runaways back into capture."
Samier's lips tightened and he placed a hand over his face. Tellion didn't know what she had said in her warning to upset him. But clearly she had. Tellion remained motionless as she heard a few weak sobs passed from under his breath. He lowered his hand slightly and stared at her with…Tellion didn't really know what the expression was. "Is there…any hope for them? My family?"
"No hope for them now." Tellion answered truthfully. "But maybe, in the future. The Andalite survivors are still fighting against the invasion. And eventually, hopefully, more of them may come to drive the Empire away from this world."
Samier stared at her, the strange look in his eyes trying to process what she had just told him. "Wouldn't that…wouldn't you die if that happened?"
Again, she knew little of what he actually said. But she did understand the word 'die'. Tellion released a weary breath as she stared at the floor between them. "Maybe. Most likely. But…this world you inhabit…it's so amazing. Greater and more…precious than anything I've ever experienced. If preserving the uniqueness, the wondrous grace, of this world means an end to my life, then I think that I could accept that."
Samier continued to stare at her, his face showing signs that he almost didn't dare to believe the things that Tellion was telling him. Some part of her wondered if she truly believed them herself. Tellion liked to believe that she did.
"I wish..." he said as he opened the door and began to leave. "more Yeerks were like you."
Tellion dared, for just a fleeting moment, to reach out and take Samier's hand in a gentle squeeze.
"So do I." she said to him, the conviction all too apparent in her voice. "I hope, and believe there are. We're not all the creatures of darkness that you think we are."
Samier's eyes darted down to her chest for a second, he then pointed at some things that were sitting on the nearby table.
"You should use some of that hydrogen peroxide to clean up the blood from your shirt." He said, clearly wanting to change the subject. "You'll look suspicious walking around with blood on you."
Tellion looked at what he was pointing to and nodded her head. "Ok, thank you."
"Sorry about stabbing you." Samier mumbled, looking down at his feet. "Never did that to anyone before…"
"I don't blame you for your actions." Tellion told him. "My people have hurt you more than I can ever dare to imagine."
"Get going." he said, turning his back to her. "You don't have much time."
After he said that, Samier disappeared, leaving Tellion all alone. She used the chemicals that he had pointed to and scrubbed away the red that had stained her shirt. It stung her when she used it on and around her small wound, but Tellion didn't let that stop her from cleaning herself up. The hole was still there, but it was barely noticeable. After that, she waited for some time before finally deciding to make her move. Before she left, Tellion went back to pick up the Fugue baton she had left on the floor. As much as she hated violence, Tellion didn't want to die. She needed a means to protect herself if necessary. As she collected it, Tellion glance just once at the grisly smear across the floor. It was all that remained of Callisum.
"I'm sorry." Tellion whispered, not entirely sure why she said that to a being that was already dead, and one that had been all too willing to extinguish her own life. "You left me no choice."
After those words had been said, Tellion left the room where so much had happened in such a short time. Flicking the Fugue baton the way Callisum had, Tellion collapsed the weapon into its previous compact form and tucked it into one of the pockets on the pants she was wearing.
Tellion peeked out into the hallway, making sure it was empty. Once she was sure that she was alone, Tellion followed the hallway according to Samier's instructions. It didn't take long before Tellion found herself standing in front of the metal doors to the elevator. Glancing at the small note he had left her, Tellion pressed the 'down' button and waited for the doors to open. Once they did, she darted inside and frantically pressed the B1 button. She hated it when the doors shut and felt the gravitational force against her feet as the elevator began its descent. It gave Tellion the impression of heading down into…something terrifying.
But she didn't need to guess what it was that sent fear running through her, she already knew what was troubling her.
Once the elevator reached B1, she opened the metal cover hiding the next set of buttons underneath the main ones and used Samier/Callisum's card and entered the first set of numbers he had given her. There was a moment, just a moment, when nothing happened. As her throat began to tighten, the light to the button B2 illuminated and the elevator lowered once more. When she finally reached the bottom, Tellion shut her eyes and drew in a deep breath as the doors slid open.
She exhaled, and dared to force her eyes open. What lay before her was just a simple room, not very big. But it wasn't the room itself, it was what it meant to her. Cautiously, and a bit nervously, she stepped inside. Walking through the doorway felt like so very much more too Tellion, like passing through a barrier and into another realm of existence. Because, in a way, it was for her. She knew that she should have instantly began searching for what she needed, but she couldn't help but let her eyes drift to the large structure that was fixated in the middle of the room. A native, no human, made vat of sorts. She didn't know what its original purpose was, but Tellion knew exactly what her kind had turned it into.
Swallowing hard, but still feeling as if her throat had an obstruction within it, Tellion slowly approached what had once been the mini-Yeerk Pool. The pool where she had originally been destined to die in. She reached out and gently placed her hand on its edge, and the full weight of the fate she had escaped pressed in on her, where so many others hadn't. She peeked over the edge, not knowing what she would find. All that lay within was a clean and sterilized bowl of fabricated material. There were no traces of the Yeerk Pool liquid. Or the Yeerks that had perished within.
Tellion shut her eyes once more and offered a silent moment of respect for all the Yeerks whose lives had been extinguished in what was now nothing more than a useless bowl. Who knew what the last strands of their lives had been in those final, terrifying and agonizing moments? Did anyone, Yeerk or otherwise, even know?
What had been their thoughts and beliefs? Had they lived lives as humans similar to the one she had now immersed herself in? Had they ever experienced or felt the things that Tellion had learned of in her short time in being in Susan's body? Or had they dared to create dreams beyond what was fated for them had they not been trapped by their destiny as members of the Yeerk Empire?
All of those lives, and the potential they each possessed, were gone now. And for what? Because they were enemies of the Andalites, and that was reason enough for them to die? So that the Andalites could have a desperately needed victory against her kind, and so that the Yeerks would suffer a defeat that they couldn't afford?
Did any of this…suffering really even really matter in the end? Did war, in its true essence, even care about the events that had transpired in this room? Would any of those dead Yeerks ever be remembered by anyone? Would they ever be mourned by anyone beyond this moment she was giving them?
"There's no true victors in this war…" Tellion said to no one, unable to hold back the sadness in her voice as her vision became blurred with liquid they secreted from her feelings. "Or losers. There's only…survivors."
And she was a survivor. Maybe the only one. But what did that mean to her? To this planet? Or even to the universe?
"This…" Tellion murmured to herself as she looked into the empty vat. "was where I was supposed to, where I was destined, to die. But here I am. And I don't know…what I'm supposed to make with this life. If I've defied my preordained destiny, then what is my destiny now?"
Whatever you chose to make of it.
Tellion jumped at the sound of that voice. The one that had spoken in her dreams the other night. The one that had warned her about Callisum's vulnerability. Even though her eyes showed her that she was the only one in the room, Tellion felt an overwhelming force filling the small confines of the space, pressing in around her.
"Who…"
Save yourself first. Mourn the dead later Tellion. You don't have much time.
Nothing else was said, yet somehow Tellion felt the presence that accompanied the voice drift away. She was alone once more. Although shaken by its sudden address to her, its words were enough to bring Tellion back to the present. It was right, she didn't have much time.
Spurred by its warning to her, Tellion left the side of the now destroyed Yeerk pool and went to the supply closet. Using Samier's card, she was able to unlock it. And Tellion's heart fluttered at the sight that was before her. There were many large shipping containers, but also dozens of metal cylinders. Tellion remembered them from the briefing. The Yeerk Pool liquid containers. She went to one and frantically twisted its top off. Tellion couldn't stop herself from releasing a joyful yelp as she stared inside, and saw the thick metallic like liquid within. Yeerk Pool liquid.
She had one of the three pieces that she needed! She could do it. She could save herself and Susan.
Unable to keep her jubilation in check, Tellion frantically began searching through the shipping containers for the mobile Kandrona Ray generator. It was only after she had gone through half of them, and found nothing of use, that her spirit began to sink. Container after container she opened, each time her hope fading just a bit more as she failed to find the generator. When she peered into the last container, and no generator lay within, Tellion's spirit felt thoroughly crushed.
"No…" she weakly croaked, dropping her head against the top of the container. "No."
She was such a fool. Of course the Yeerks had taken the Kandron Ray generator away from this place. Without a Yeerk Pool, it was useless, and there was too much danger of exposure at the moment to keep it around. The generator had likely been taken back to the main Yeerk Pool, stored away somewhere to be used at a later time. She didn't have a Kandrona Ray generator. She had nothing! She had been close so close to saving herself.
"No!" Tellion screamed, slamming the top of the container down. "No! No! NO! It can't end like this! It can't!"
Just as she screamed this, Tellion felt a very faint tremor run through her real Yeerk body. It was almost nothing noticeable, more of a mild unpleasantness than anything else. Yet, for her, it was something that was far grimmer than the physical cramp. It was a signal of her impending death.
That tremor…the very first bare beginning…
The Fugue.
It was starting. She didn't have much time left. Soon those tremors would become more frequent, and the pain from them would steadily grow. Tellion's end was coming. And it was going to be slow, and unimaginably agonizing.
"No…" Tellion wept, sliding down the edge of the container in despair. "Not like this…"
Despair sank all through her host body, and in some ways, even into her own frail one. The tears, the tears that humans shed when they felt this way, began to seep from the sides of her eyes.
The words of Lauren and Mark echoed in her mind as Tellion sat in that dark corner with her despair mounting. Yet they felt further from being any help to her than ever.
Don't give up. Just keep fighting.
How was she supposed to do that? How was she supposed to keep fighting when there was no hope? Where was that voice that had spoken to her? Where was anything that she needed in this moment?
"What am I supposed to do?!" she screamed out to the empty room, hoping that the voice would speak to Tellion and offer her some kind of advice. "How can I save myself?"
Silence was her answer. The grim stillness of nothing was all that was there for her. And Tellion was forced to face the harshness of it all. This was no dream. This…was the sinister reality that Tellion was facing.
She was going to die. Susan was going to die. Everything that she had done the last few days…it had all been in vain. It wasn't right.
It wasn't…
"It's not fair!" Tellion screamed in her anguished rage, kicking at the closest thing that was near her. Her foot struck a part of the storage shed that had been draped over with a blue tarp. There was a metallic rattle, and the object under the tarp fell over. Tellion's eyes widened as the blue covering fell away, and a portable Kandrona Ray generator collapsed right into her lap.
Tellion's tears ceased, and her breath was pulled from her weary lungs. She stared at it in silence, not risking to move, not even daring to blink. Tellion couldn't believe what was resting in her lap. The shock of the moment passed, and her mind returned to itself. She began to frantically go to work. She only had to glance at it once to understand why it had been left in the storage shed.
It was broken, the front end and parts of the sides smashed in. Clearly the Andalites had the sense to break the generator in addition to destroying the Yeerk Pool. It was completely useless in its current condition. There had been no point in taking a useless piece of equipment back to the Yeerk Pool, not when discretion was the most important priority to the Imperial forces at the time.
So it had been left in this place to rust away. And for good reason. In its current condition, no one could repair such extensive damage done to this machine.
Unless they were a Kandrona Ray maintenance expert.
And she, Tellion 7854, WAS a Kandrona Ray expert!
Tellion didn't hesitate as she felt the rush of much needed joy surge through her. Susan's hands were much stronger than what substituted for the ones Tallaxia had, but Tellion found trying to pry the twisted and broken parts open more difficult and awkward than she had ever done in her former host's body. The five digits were not nearly as versatile as the dozens of tentacle ends she was so accustom to, but she had little time to dwell on that.
Tellion pulled the Kandrona Ray generator apart and took a quick assessment of the damage that had been done. Yes, the Andalites had done a very job of smashing the machine. But most of the damage was superficial. Radiation wave emitters were all cracked and broken, several of the conduit connecters were severed, two of the microprocessor boards were destroyed. It was a mess. But the power core, and the radiation convertor, the two essential parts to the Kandrona Ray, they were intact. With the right replacement parts and tools, Tellion could repair the generator in a very short time.
Quickly reassembling the generator, Tellion searched through the containers again. This time, she was more thorough in what she was looking for. It only took a short time for her to find all of the necessary components and replacement parts that were needed to fix the generator. Once she had collected all of them into a smaller container, Tellion checked a back corner of the storage space that she had previously neglected in her haste. There, much to her eternal relief, she found the one and only other thing that truly mattered to her in that moment. Her kit of repair tools and computation device.
Now she had everything that she needed to save herself. She just had to get it all into the transport vehicle.
Following Samier's instructions, Tellion used the second set of numbers he had given her to open the door adjacent from the elevator she had entered from. On the other side, she found a large open space full of human vehicles. They were similar to the kind that Mark had taken her away from this dreaded place, only slightly bigger. Tellion checked one of the vehicles near the exit. The back doors were not locked, and the interior was empty. Perfect.
Slowly, and with a great deal of effort from Susan's weak body, Tellion dragged almost a dozen containers of Yeerk Pool liquid. The muscles all across her body were soon burning underneath the skin from her efforts, but Tellion pushed herself past the pain. The feeling of encroaching death was an excellent motivator for her. As she shoved the last of the liquid containers into the back, another tremor jolted through her body. Her left eye involuntarily twitched in reaction, and she quickly shook her head. It was happening faster than she dared to even dread that it would. She had to hurry.
Rushing back into the storage room, Tellion took her tools and the necessary replacement parts for the Kandrona Ray and brought them to the vehicle at nearly a dead run. She continued to move as fast as Susan's body would allow her as she wildly threw everything that she needed into the back of the vehicle. Her hectic pace only halted when she went to take the broken Kandron Ray. It was far too big for her to move by itself, but thankfully for Tellion, she knew that it could be disassembled into many different parts.
Using several hand held tools from her kit, Tellion removed screws and bolts from various places across the generator's entire frame, breaking it into six different pieces. Not only did it make it easier for her to carry to the human vehicle, it also helped to disguise what it truly was. To the untrained eye, they would just see a jumbled mass of various metal, wires, and circuitry. It would take a Kandron Ray expert to know what they were looking at. And Tellion was one of only a handful that existed in this sector of the Empire's control.
Once she had everything that she needed secured inside the vehicle, she placed the sticker under the driver side door. Just like she had been told to by Samier. With everything secure, Tellion silently retraced her path back through the destroyed mini-Yeerk pool. She stopped and looked back one last time at the destroyed Yeerk Pool, the place where she was supposed to have died. Tellion never understood why she did it, but her head bowed in one final act of mourning for all of her kin that had perished in that pool. It was the least that she could do for all of those lost lives through no true fault of their own.
When she finished, Tellion pressed the number that brought her back to the floor where she had originally embarked from. As the doors opened, Tellion dared to release a faint sign of relief. She had done everything that was within her power to get the things she needed to save herself, now it was all upon Samier's hopeful grace to her. And a lot of luck.
Another tremor struck her as she returned to the room of which she had nearly died, and had found salvation in. Tellion did her best to ignore it as she took it upon herself to clean up the grisly remains of Callisum and discard them into a nearby disposal unit. Nothing in the way of a proper disposal of a living being's remains, but it was all that Tellion could do in the moment, given her present situation.
Once Callisum's remains were cleaned up, Tellion sat in the room and waited. Which wasn't long. Before she knew it, the door opened, and both Samier and Mark entered. Seeing Mark again, the joy that he brought to her weary spirit, caused Tellion to twist her lips into a smile.
The real Samier and Mark talked to each other, about many things that Tellion was still incapable of understanding. But what she couldn't understand vocally, she was easily able to assess in Mark's facial expressions. And they were ones of relief, and joy. Once Tellion was sure that Samier had assured Mark that she was 'fine', she rose from where she had been sitting when he had left and went to his side.
When she slipped her arm around his, Samier grunted and turned his face away from them. Tellion knew that his actions were because he was thinking of his own family. She did her best to not show her own sadness at his obvious loss.
Tellion kept her face hidden as Mark and Samier exchanged a few final words before he began to lead her away. As they were exiting the room, Tellion looked back at Samier and mouthed 'thank you' to him. A single, quick nod of his head was all she was able to see before she left him. As they walked away, Tellion hoped that Samier would be able to escape. And just like she had hoped for Tallaxia, that he would one day be reunited with his family.
But she didn't have any more time to think about Samier. She had to think about herself, and Susan. As if to further press that need, Tellion felt another tremor course through her natural body. Not painful, but definitely enough to cause discomfort. It was getting worse. She didn't know how long it would be before that discomfort transformed into pain, but it wouldn't be very long.
As they left the hospital, Tellion began to formulate her next plan. She had every tool and resource that she needed, and hopefully would be able to utilize them soon if Samier did as she hoped he would. It was a tremendous risk, a traitor's gamble, entrusting her life to a being she had only recently meet, and not in any way under preferred circumstances. But hope was all Tellion truly had in that moment.
As they walked away, Tellion looked over her shoulder one last time at the building where she had found salvation and near death twice. It was a building where so much hope and joy, as well as dread and sorrow had occurred. And she hoped that she would never, ever lay eyes on it again.