When they reached Mark's vehicle and he helped her inside, Tellion waited until he was walking around to the other side to reach into her pocket. The small plastic bottle rattled against the brush of her fingers. One pill per person. Samier had been very clear about that. Then she needed to use four, and hope that the effects would take hold over Mark and Susan's family quick enough to give her the time she needed to repair the Kandrona Ray and set up the Yeerk Pool.
And figure out how the 'ventilator' worked.
Tellion truly hoped that Samier was right in what he had told her about the effects of the pills. She didn't want to hurt any of them. But she needed to save herself and Susan.
As they started to head back 'home', Tellion began to work on the final phase of her plan. She had all the essential components. Now there was only one last thing that needed to be done. Tellion needed a place and a secluded tank of sorts to convert it all into a viable Yeerk Pool.
But where? Where would she be able to store all of the things she had and make it into the salvation that she needed? Without drawing any unwanted attention, especially from Mark. As she pondered those thoughts, a memory from Tellion's first night with Mark flashed in her mind.
It seemed such a silly thing to remember, but she was a Yeerk, and remembered everything that was exposed to her. And now that silly memory would prove to be her salvation.
That container locked away deep in the basement. The thing that Mark had called a 'self-depravation tank'. Tellion didn't understand the things that Mark had said it was meant for in relation to Susan's condition, only that it had been meant to help heal her. And now, ironically for Tellion, it would be used to save her life. Tellion accessed her memories of the tank. Yes, it was deep enough to lay down in, and its dimensions would be adequate for the right displacement of the Yeerk Pool liquid that Tellion would have at her disposal.
She just needed to inspect the tank before committing to using it. That wouldn't be too difficult for her, as long as there was no interference from Mark or the others. Yes, it was a very likely probability that Tellion could convert the tank into a viable Yeerk Pool. As she pondered her plans to save both herself and Susan, Tellion's concentration was broken by the feeling of physical contact on her hand.
Brought from her thoughts, she twisted her head slightly to see Mark looking at her.
"Red light." he said, gesturing ahead of them with his eyes. Tellion followed his gaze and saw one of the multitude of native mechanical traffic controllers. She had seen it the prior night when they had left the hospital the first time. The signal was red, as she had learned the name of the color from the programing presented to her over the last few days, and that meant they had to stop.
Tellion wasn't sure why Mark had pointed that to her, it seemed an insignificant thing to notice. Her answer came a moment later when she saw Mark smiling at her.
"You look really happy. I'm glad everything turned out ok."
Seeing him look at her like that made Tellion shiver. It sent those confusing feelings that were both good and bad to Tellion rushing through every portion of her weary body. Before she consciously processed her actions, Tellion was smiling back at him.
"I glad I ok." she whispered to him.
Mark's response to her words was to squeeze her hand tighter, sending more shivers up the length of her arm. She wanted him to do more than that, but the signal before them transformed to a green hue, and he had to focus his attention back to driving them home. Tellion's joyful smile of the experience lasted as long as the next Fugue tremor.
From that moment until they reached home, Tellion spent the time glaring out the window in a desperate effort to keep Mark from seeing the erratic twitches and shakes that came from the Fugue tremors. She didn't want him to worry about her, but she also knew that he believed she was still ill in some way, there was no chance that she would be able to escape his watchful eyes.
As they pulled up to the house, Tellion felt the first real bit of pain from the Fugue tremor. She didn't know how much time exactly she had, but it wasn't very long. Her only real estimate of that time frame, aside from the increasing pain, was the position of the planetary star in relation to the plant's rotation. It had been dark when she had left the hospital, so she must have been taken from the Kandrona Ray nourishment at roughly the same time frame. Checking the position of the planet's star, Tellion guessed that it would still be several hours before dark came, and her inevitable agonizing death if she didn't succeed.
She didn't know exactly when Samier would bring the essential tools for her salvation, but she could only assume that it would be after the night came. There would be less activity, less peering eyes to witness things that transpired. It also left her with a very, very narrow space of time to accomplish her tasks.
Tellion didn't know what part she dreaded more. The prospect of having to work harder, and faster, than she had ever done in her entire life to fix a shattered Kandrona Ray generator and set up a viable Yeerk Pool, in addition to figuring out how to operate the human machine that would help Susan breathe while out of her body.
Or having to endure the mounting pain of the Fugue while in the presence of Mark and Susan's family and keep them oblivious to her growing suffering.
Neither was desirable to her. But aside from physically harming, or even killing them, Tellion had no other options available to her except to endure her pain.
She did her best to suppress her fears as they returned inside the home. Susan's parents and Ellaine were right there to greet her with hugs and kisses and words she was still having trouble deciphering. Tellion was grateful for their signs of affection, and did her best to pretend that everything was alright.
Using the excuse of changing garments, she was able to escape them for a few moments into Mark and Susan's sleeping quarters. Once the door was safely closed, Tellion went about hiding the Fugue baton. The best place that she could think of would be the shelf that held Susan's garments for her more intimate area. It was a gamble, but Tellion calculated that there was only a minimal probability that Mark or the others would go searching through Susan's private clothing. Once she had the weapon safely hidden under a pile of the 'underwear', Tellion also took four of the pills from the bottle Samier had given her and hid the rest in the inside of one of Susan's shoes.
After that had been done, Tellion kept her word and changed into a different, more comfortable outfit. She remembered to tuck the four pills away in a pocket. Once she emerged from the sleeping quarters, things went as they had done for the last two days. They all ate, then Mark, Linda, and Arthur attempted to teach her more about words with the primitive viewing screen. Trying to appear interested in their efforts, while hiding the ever increasing pain from the Fugue tremors, proved to be one of the hardest endeavors of Tellion's young life.
Having to occasionally turn her head away from them to hide the involuntary twitches in her face or having to clench her hands into fists to disguise the shakes running through 'her' body became increasingly harder for Tellion. Not the least because they all were surrounding Tellion for almost every second of every minute that continued to progress on. She tried to gauge the passage of time by the various devices they had around the home in a vain attempt to give herself some kind of sense of how long she had left, but reading the primitive devices was still a bit unknown to Tellion and her thoughts continued to drift to the seemingly insurmountable task that stood before her.
All she truly had was the waning illumination as the planet's rotation carried this small portion of the world away from the star's radiant light.
As they all sat in the living area, laughing at some program that was displayed on the recreational viewing screen, Tellion had to use every last bit of her mental strength to not show any reaction to them from the painful spasm that clamped its agonizing grips around the ends of her control tendrils. She forced a smile through clenched teeth as the suffering rocked across her like a hard blow to the head. Her time was quickly running out, she needed to act.
Now!
When the pain finally subsided enough for her to focus, Tellion got to her feet and pointed at the kitchen.
"Thirsty. Lemonade." she said out loud.
Everyone stared at her in silence for a nervous moment. Then Linda got to her feet also.
"If you wanted a drink honey, you just had to say so. You don't need to shout it out to the whole house."
Linda walked past Tellion, heading for the kitchen. She began to follow after her. Linda looked over her shoulder. "It's ok honey, I can get it. You just sit back down and relax."
"I help." Tellion told her.
Not knowing what else to do, she turned to everyone else.
"Thirsty?" she asked in a desperate voice, looking right at Mark's face.
Tellion didn't know if she was giving the right expression for the situation, but Mark just smiled at her. "Some Lemonade would be great. If you want to bring me some, I'm not going to object. I've been waiting on you hand and foot the last three days, I think you at least owe me one free drink."
Tellion hardly understood what he had said to her. Arthur made a faint heavy breathing sound, the sign of suppressed laughter. Ellaine and Linda gave Mark a mutual look that Tellion could only suspect was aggravation. She didn't know if she was supposed to act upset, happy, or something else.
Linda slipped her arm around Tellion's and dragged her to the kitchen. "That's not nice, Mark."
"Is ok." Tellion assured her as she was brought into the kitchen by Susan's mother. "You all so nice...to me. I want nice too."
Linda smiled, then hugged her tightly. "Honey, you don't owe anyone anything. We're just glad you're ok."
Tellion wanted to say something, anything to Linda to give her comfort. Just in case she didn't succeed in saving the two of them. She wanted Linda's likely last night with 'her' daughter to be as joyful as possible. She never got the chance, as Linda broke the hug and pulled a large clear container of the Lemonade from the refrigerator.
Remembering where the cups were stored, Tellion made sure to retrieve five of the ones that were made of plastic and were a dark color. She needed to hide what she was about to do, no matter how uncomfortable it made her. Standing back while Linda poured the Lemonade into the five cups, she waited until Linda had filled the last one and was putting the container back into the refrigerator. Once her back was to her, Tellion immediately pulled the four pills from her pocket and dropped them into the cups, making sure to remember the coloration of the one she would use.
The pills sank to the bottom of each cup and dissolved much faster than she thought was possible. They had been diluted into the drink by the time Linda returned to get the cups. She took three, while Tellion took two. One for Mark, the one that was clean for her. They brought the cups out, and Tellion felt as if the heart in her chest was being pulled further down into her torso as she handed the sleeping pill laced cup to Mark. She sat next to him, pretending to not have a concern or show a single shred of the guilt that was coursing through her nearly as powerful as the growing pain of the Fugue.
I'm sorry Mark. Tellion thought as she watched him drink from the cup. But it's the only way to save your wife's life. I know you would understand if you knew the truth of everything.
He made what Tellion assumed was an unpleasant face. "Tastes a little funny. Does yours?"
Tellion drank from her cup and forced a smile at him. "Tastes fine."
Mark smiled back at her. "Guess it's just in my head." he said, taking another drink from the cup.
Tellion continued to fake her smile as she watched all of them drink from the cups that she had placed the sleeping pills in. She hated having to do this to these…natives, which had done nothing to her except offer Tellion acceptance, joy, and compassion. But she didn't want to die, no matter how much these, 'humans' had been kind to her. Nor did she want their precious Susan to perish with her. Despite her internal conflictions, Tellion sat back as time passed and they all continued to drink.
Samier didn't tell her how long it would be for the effects to take hold over them, but Tellion didn't need to know that. She just needed to hope that the effects would take hold before the light of the day vanished. Though she tried very hard, Tellion found it increasingly difficult to keep her thoughts focused as the pain from the Fugue continued to grow. It was no longer confined to the tips of her control tendrils. The twisting agony was now coursing all through their lengths, reaching right up to the main portion of her physical body. Every time an agonizing tremor tore through her body, Tellion's control tendrils involuntarily retracted into the core of her body, severing their control over the brain she was attached to. The lack of Kandrona nourishment was making it almost impossible to keep total control over Susan's body.
Tellion did everything that she could think of to hide the continuously growing twitches and spasms that were becoming increasingly apparent throughout Susan's body. It became so bad that she slipped her free hand under her legs as it shook violently against her control. As it did, Tellion momentarily lost all control over the body's senses. For that brief, terrifying moment, she was back to being in the natural state that all the cruel fates in the cosmos had placed up her kind. She was lost in that silent black void of what being a true Yeerk was. It lasted for what felt like an eternity, her only true sense of existence being the pain that continued to wrack her frail little body.
After that mini-millennium of senseless suffering, the pain subsided enough for Tellion to reconnect her control tendrils to the sensory parts of the brain. The very first sensation that Tellion became aware of was a gentle physical contact across her shoulder. Tellion moved her head slightly to the left, and saw Mark looking at her with a concerned face.
"You ok honey?" his words were low, Tellion sensed an effort being made by him to speak and she saw the very tops of his eyes slowly descending. "You just…weren't there for a minute."
Tellion put all of her concentration into forcing a smile at him. "I fine Mark. Thinking."
"Thinking of what?"
Tellion pulled her trembling hand from under her leg, clenching it several times to shake the twitches from it, and placed it over Mark's.
"You."
It wasn't a lie. It wasn't an attempted to change his thinking. The words that Tellion said to him, was the total truth from the core of her very being. Lost in that void of emptiness, the only thing that was able to bring her back from that endless blackness was his joyful face.
Mark's worry slowly morphed into a smile at her touch. "I always think of you. I still can't believe…you're really here with me again…"
Despite his increasingly distorted state, Mark began to lean towards her. Tellion wanted nothing more than for him to do that, and at the same time she knew that she had to keep him away. If he was against her, their full bodies contacting each other, he would surely feel the continuous spasms and twitches that Tellion was having more and more difficulty controlling. And against everything that she wanted from him in that moment, Tellion had to save herself and Susan first, no matter what else her…whatever it was within her that sought his affection and touch…desired.
"Sorry," Tellion whispered, turning her head from him. "Bathroom."
Tellion got to her feet and began walking away before Mark could say anything else. As she left the room, she scanned the family. Arthur was leaning back in the large chair, his head held back and his breathing heavy. His eyes were shut. Linda had fallen over, her head resting on the arm of the couch that she was sitting next to. Her eyes were closed as well. Ellaine's head was dipping constantly as she still sat upright in her spot, but her eyes were already half closed. Not long now, they would all be in peaceful slumber. And then, Tellion could save the one that this family all cared for.
She entered the bathroom and quietly shut the door. No sooner had she shut the door then a massive wave of the Fugue struck her, sending Tellion reeling. She grasped her head in a vain attempt to cushion her physical body as the tortuous pain spiked all through her. Tellion's cry of suffering echoed inside the small room as she stumbled over to the sink. Using what little control she still held over the jolting body, Tellion grasped the edges of the sink to keep herself from falling to the floor.
As the agony rolled all through her and inside Susan's skull cavity, Tellion hovered over the sink. Eyes shut and teeth clenched tightly, she couldn't do anything to alleviate the pain. A long strand of liquid seeped from between her shut teeth, and she had no conscious ability to control or stop it. All Tellion could do was whimper in her own personal suffering as the Fugue continued to wrack her real body. It hurt so much. She was running out of time.
After a seemingly endless space of agonizing time, the pain finally subsided enough for Tellion to collect her senses. Yet it didn't end. All of her control tendrils were not just feeling uncomfortable, they were now hurting her. And the suffering that she was enduring was getting worse. She had never gone this long without Kandrona Ray nourishment. This was…terrifying to Tellion. So terrifying.
Still struggling to breathe, she dared to look at the mirror. The face that she saw staring back at her was not the one that she had seen earlier in the morning. Skin devoid of almost all color, perspiration saturating all of its surface, a long strand of saliva drippling from the corner of the mouth. It wasn't a face full of joy and life, it was one that appeared ill. Even deathly. Susan truly appeared as Tellion was feeling in that moment.
They were dying.
"Ss…Susan…" Tellion whispered in her native Gedd/Yeerk language, no longer really caring in that moment of casting aside the veil of secrecy she had built around them.
Tellion weakly lifted her trembling hand and gently ran the edges of her finger tips across the surface of the mirror, tracing their path across the reflection where Susan's cheeks appeared. The whole endeavor should have seemed pointless and silly to Tellion. She didn't even know if Susan could really hear her. But she just wanted Susan to know what she was thinking in that moment.
"We've come so far…" Tellion said, "I…I'm not going to fail you. You're family…Mark…they need you. They're not going to lose you. Just hold on for a little while longer. I, I will save us. Your family…their family to me now too. Susan…you're my family now also. I promise that I'll save us."
Tellion pressed her fingers hard into the reflective surface, like she had done in the dream world. She hoped, in some strange and unexplainable way, that Susan could hear and feel her intentions. Tellion had to believe that was the truth. Knowing that she needed to hurry, Tellion turned from the mirror.
Her entire body froze when she saw Ellaine standing in the doorway. Her eyes were struggling to stay open and her body was resting against the door frame, but she was still very much awake.
"Suzie…" Ellaine mumbled in a low voice, as she rubbed her eyes. "I…saw you leave…you were talking to yourself…what was that…"
Tellion walked over to Ellaine and pulled her into the bathroom before she could say anything else. She looked carefully into 'her' sisters eyes.
"Ellaine," Tellion said. "What I say?"
"You were mumbling." she answered. Her words sounded weak, and not directed straight at her. "It was…weird…never heard that before."
Tellion's throat tightened at the fear and realization that Ellaine had heard her speaking in her native language. She had just put both of them in immense danger with her stupid mistake of letting her guard down.
Ellaine placed her smaller hand against Tellion's cheek. Despite her increasingly delirious state, Tellion could easily see the worry that came over Ellaine's face.
"Suzie…you're sick…"
Tellion pulled Ellaine's hand away from her face. "I fine Ellaine."
Ellaine stumbled to stay on her feet, forcing Tellion to hold her up. Even with this, the look in Ellaine's eyes didn't fade away. She looked up at her with a nearly pleading in her gaze. "Don't…lie to…me…Suzie. Mom and dad…they need…"
Tellion didn't let her say anything else. Not knowing what to do, Tellion pulled Ellaine close to her and hugged her tightly. As she did, another Fugue tremor hit all across Tellion's body. She would never know how she was able to absorb that pain without any of it showing to Ellaine, but somehow, against all the odds, Tellion was able to keep her trembling face from Ellaine's suspicious attention.
"Ellaine…" Tellion spoke into her ear with the softest voice she was able to manage. "I fine. I promise. Just tired, like you."
Her smaller body began to shake in Tellion's grip. It only took Tellion a moment to realize that she was feeling Ellaine beginning to cry. It hurt her insides knowing that she was causing that, but there was nothing else that Tellion could do in that moment for Ellaine.
"I want…to believe you." she sobbed, resting her face into Tellion's shoulder. "I lost you…I can't…Suzie…I can't lose…"
Tellion couldn't stop the liquid from filling her vision as she listened to the pain in Ellaine's words. Why did being native…human…have to hurt so much?
"I sorry I left you." Tellion said. "But…I here now. I not leave you again."
"Promise…"
"You, me, sisters." Tellion repeated the words Ellaine had spoken to her when they first met, running her hand through Ellaine's hair for reasons she couldn't explain. "I stay with you now. I promise."
Ellaine mumbled something into Tellion's shoulder just before all of the strength in her body evaporated. Tellion caught Ellaine before she fell to the floor. When her head fell back, Tellion could see that the pill had finally taken its effect on her. Ellaine was asleep, and hopefully in a happy dream. Tellion stared at her equally gentle and peaceful face, brushing aside the hair that had fallen over it. She tucked the hair behind her ears, the same way Mark had done to her.
"Sisters forever…" Tellion whispered.
Knowing that she had to hurry, Tellion carried Ellaine into the house's main room where, thankfully, everyone, even Mark, was asleep. Tellion placed Ellaine back where she had been sitting. Hopefully, she would think of everything that had happened in the bathroom as a dream.
With all of them resting in quiet slumber, Tellion put on her shoes and silently exited the building. She thought for a moment about taking one of the vehicles to the meeting point, but decided against it in her current condition. Tellion couldn't afford to take any more chances.
The light of the day was nearly gone, and for some strange reason, there was no one around. It was so odd. This place was usually far more active, even at this time. It was as if, something was shielding Tellion from the surrounding world. Tellion shivered even though she wasn't physically cold. As she continued on, Tellion felt as if she were being watched even though there was nothing and no one around her.
It was strange. Almost as strange as everything else that had happened to her in the last few days.
That voice. She thought. It must be the 'other', the one that the first voice told me about.
But if that was true, then why would that force help her? Of what significance could she be to it, or either of them?
Your life is a wager, and very small one, between us.
Tellion shook her head. No. She couldn't think of these things. She didn't have time!
Feeling as if her very life were draining from her, Tellion hurried along to the meeting place. When she rounded a block, and saw the van parked next to the open space, Tellion's heart began to race. He had kept his word. Samier had kept his word!
Tellion couldn't hide the joy on her face as she rushed towards the van. Her joy only increased to nearly silly levels when the driver side door opened and Samier stepped out.
"Thank you!" Tellion cried, almost throwing herself at him as she hugged him tightly.
"You're…welcome…" he said in an unsure voice, not returning the gesture.
Tellion quickly collected herself and pulled away.
"I was about to leave." Samier said. "I was going to make notes for using the ventilator. But with you here. I'll show you how the machine works."
Tellion knew enough words to understand that he was going to teach her himself on how to use the breathing machine.
"Thank you, Samier." Tellion said to him. "For your kindness, and understanding."
Samier nodded his head and opened the back of the van. He pulled out the machine out and showed it to her. Yes, that was the same one that she remembered. Tellion's excitement was so great that she almost couldn't keep her body still as Samier took her over the process of how the machine worked and the steps that she needed to take to ensured it worked properly. He was also very clear to her that it needed to be plugged into a very reliable power source.
As Tellion began to assure him that she understood what he was telling her the Fugue struck her again. This time, the pain brought Tellion to her knees as she grasped her head so tight that she thought that she would crush her skull in. The harsh grasp of the stinging through the exterior of her body caused Tellion to lose all power in her control tendrils again. Except this time they retracted into her body against her will. In the next instant, Tellion felt the fear of becoming deaf and blind to the world around her. Another span of seemingly endless time passed that she was forced to know nothing except the pain. When it finally, and with perhaps a bit of mercy, passed, Tellion forced her control tendrils from her body, reconnecting them back to Susan's brain and willed her eyes to open. They were all hurting so much now that it was getting harder for her to effectively reconnect the tendrils where they needed to go. Things were a jumbled and confusing mess for a few terrifying seconds before Tellion regained control over the senses.
She was laying on the grass, Samier huddled over her.
"…are you alright?" he asked, for who know how many times before that.
"No." Tellion said weakly, sitting up. "I'm…I'm dying…not much time left…"
"Can I help?"
Tellion cautiously sat up and looked at him. "No. If this doesn't work, I don't want you to suffer anymore because of me."
"But I can at least…"
Tellion shook her head. "No, Samier! You've done more than enough. You wouldn't even begin to understand how to help me with the generator or setting up a stable Yeerk Pool. You would do more harm than good. Go."
He hesitated to leave. The conflict was easy to read upon his face, even for Tellion. Knowing what she had to do, Tellion gently pushed him away from her. "Samier, you don't have much time either. The moment they realize you are free, the hunter squads will come after you. You have to get as far away as you can before that happens."
"They're not going to take me again." he said in a very low voice. He pulled something from the pocket of his pants. Tellion only saw it for a moment. It vaguely reminded her of a Dracon blaster. It must have been a human weapon. Primitive, but no doubt still very effective.
"Go Samier." Tellion pleaded with him. "I will be alright."
He turned to go, but stopped for what would likely be the last time they spoke. "Thank you for freeing me."
"Your family will be free someday too." Tellion told him, not hiding the emotion in her voice. "They'll know that you escaped, and it'll give them hope. You just have to keep fighting, and I believe you'll be with them again."
"I…I want to believe you." Samier said as he began to walk away.
"So do I, Samier. So do I." Tellion whispered as she watched him leave.
After he was gone, Tellion jumped into action. She hurriedly took the ventilator, the Kandrona Ray generator, and everything else from the back of the van. Tellion found a dark, well-hidden spot in the open space between the human houses. Once she had everything collected, she threw some broken and decayed vegetation over it to temporarily conceal it all. When she was sure that it was hidden enough, Tellion climbed into the driver's seat of the van.
She didn't want to piolet the vehicle, but it was a far greater risk to her to just leave it where it was. Drawing on her memories of when Mark had driven her away from the hospital, Tellion mapped out a route to the nearest and best place that she could think that would conceal the vehicle until she could figure out a more permanent solution to dispose of it.
Going from those same memories, Tellion turned the ignition key and worked the stick that put the vehicle into its proper gear shift to make it drive. Her foresight to study Mark driving was proving to be very smart indeed. But she didn't waste a moment to dwell on that understanding. She had to move.
Gently pressing the moving peddle, Tellion gripped the wheel tightly as the machine began to roll forward. Tellion's eyes wildly kept looking in all of the reflective side mirrors and at the pavement ahead of her. She had to be absolutely careful in this critical moment. If she hit anything, or anyone, then she was dead. And so was Susan. Block after block she went, it felt like an endless loop even though Tellion was mentally mapping out the distance and directions. She finally came to the place where she needed to hide the vehicle. It was a ramp that lead to the elevated road, the 'interstate', as Mark had called it. The place was sparsely populated, and she didn't see any signs of human life anywhere near the place. Driving the van over the small barrier at the edge of the road, Tellion pulled the vehicle under the ramp near the support pillars.
The place wasn't ideal, but it was secluded enough to keep the vehicle hidden from the street and if the imperial forces deployed any human aircraft the density of the structure should shield the vehicle from the scanners they would use. At least that's what Tellion hoped. When she successfully parked the van, Tellion turned the engine off and exited the vehicle. As her feet touched the ground, the Fugue struck her again. Unable to withstand the pain, Tellion's anguished cry echoed throughout the area and she collapsed to the dirty ground.
Pain was all she knew in that torturous and nearly endless expanse of time. But even as she writhed in the dirt, things began to flash through her mind. She heard words, but not with her ears. They drifted into her thoughts, from somewhere else.
…this will not be pleasant. You will not enjoy any of this…
…I'm glad so see you suffering. You deserve every moment of this Yeerk…
…You may soon regret those words…
Tellion came back to her reality. Or was any of it even real? It was…getting harder for her to concentrate. It was in this moment that the true terror of the Fugue took hold over her, because now it was no longer just the pain. She was starting to lose her grip on her mental capacities. She was starting to lose her sanity.
So little time left…
Tellion didn't know how she would be able to find the strength to even pick herself up off of the ground. Which was nothing to say of making her way back to Mark and Susan's home and doing everything else that needed to be done. Maybe she should just…lay where she was for a while longer. Just a little while longer.
As another wave of the pain of the Fugue struck her, Tellion's mind momentarily lapsed into nothingness. When she came to her senses again, she was rising from the ground, though not from her own actions. Some…force…was lifting Tellion to her feet. She couldn't see anything near her. There was nothing around her. And yet, she was standing on her unsteady legs before she truly understood what had happened.
Her mouth dropped to say something, to call out to whoever, or whatever, it was that had caused this. Or maybe nothing had happened. Maybe she had just somehow gotten back up and didn't realize it. Reality was starting to slip from her understanding. As she thought this, Tellion felt the force again, this time pushing her back in the direction she had come. Tellion didn't question it this time. She just walked away from the van, her thoughts an ever confusing mess.
Tellion didn't know how long it took her to get back to the open space, it truly only felt like she had taken a few paces and then she was suddenly there. Everything was hurting. Her whole body now, and it wasn't subsiding in anyway. Nothing was spared from the agony of the Fugue. Tellion did her best to focus and stumbled over to where she had hidden everything. She grabbed the Kandrona Ray generator pieces and her tools first, and made her way back to 'her' home.
Everyone was still in deep slumber when she returned, much to Tellion's needed relief. She moved past them and went into the basement. She went over to the wooden slab that was built into the wall and pushed everything on there off in great haste. After she had put everything she had carried on its surface, Tellion went and plugged in the deprivation tank. Her legs began to give out from under her as she headed back up the stairs.
"Focus dammit!" she screamed to herself as she practically pulled her body up the stairs.
She hurried out of the home and back to the open space. Next she got the ventilator and brought it into the basement. Tellion plugged it into the power source on the wall and worked the machine the way Samier had shown her. When she was sure that everything was set up, Tellion dragged it to the edge of tank. As she placed it near where her head would rest, another spike of Fugue pain stabbed into the core of Tellion's body.
Tellion collapsed against the side of the tank and fell to the floor. Her screams resonated all through the very foundation of the building. She instinctively grasped 'her' head, the nails on her fingers digging into the flesh of her skull as she tried in desperation to rip open her skull and free herself from this never ending agony. Her legs flailed about wildly, completely devoid of any trace of control.
"It hurts! It hurts. It hurts so much…" she whimpered through her tear saturated eyes as she cradled her pounding skull in trembling hands.
As she writhed in the agony, words echoed through her diminishing mind.
…it hurts. A voice whimpered in just as much pain and fear as she had. It hurts so much…
…yes. The other, equally weary voice said with a hint of sadness in it. I bet it does…
Tellion's eyes shot open as she regained much weaker control over Susan's brain once more. Grunting through clenched teeth, she somehow found the will to fight through the pain and pull herself back up.
"You're not going to die." Tellion hissed. "Not here. Not now!"
Back on her feet again, she stumbled out the home and back to the open space. Tellion grasped two of the containers of Yeerk Pool liquid. Somehow, she would probably never really know, Tellion managed to find the strength to drag both of those heavy containers back to the basement. She didn't know if two would be enough, but she was out of time. She had to fix the Kandrona Ray generator. Now!
Moving with a combination of pure desperation and desire to live, Tellion opened both containers and dumbed the heavy metallic colored liquid into the tank. When she had finished, Tellion saw that it had barely filled half the tank. There was no time to check the density and PH balance. It would have to do for now. It had to.
With trembling hands and a vision that kept shifting into and out of focus, Tellion adjusted the dials on the side of the tank to bring the Yeerk Pool liquid to the adequate temperature for maximum Kandrona Ray absorption. Once that task was finished, Tellion kicked both of the containers under the wooden bench and threw a blue colored tarp over them.
Pulling up a simple wooden chair to the bench, Tellion placed protective eye covers over her face and laid out the broken Kandrona Ray pieces, her tools, and the replacement parts. When it was all put before her, Tellion frantically went to work. She was so unused to using her tools with these kind of hands, but her desperation drove Tellion on with a near frenzied pace. She cut and soldered wires, replaced smashed and cracked microprocessors, reattached power conduits and half a dozen other tasks faster than she had ever done in her entire life. She connected her computation device to the power core of the generator, her human finger rapidly typing in power processing protocols and narrowing the radiation yield to a much smaller body of liquid for maximum saturation for the Kandrona Rays.
But even as she worked so fast, her mind continued to slip away as the pain became more and more of her entire existence. Twice in her repair efforts Tellion collapsed to the floor and writhed around in the agony of the Fugue. Only knowledge that she was so very close to saving both herself and Susan gave Tellion the will to fight through the suffering and back to work. Even as she struggled to remember how to fix the Kandrona Ray, the world around her continued to slip away. More words passed through her mind than she was ever able to process. And in the jumbled mess, she kept hearing those two voices.
One of them was Temrash 114. Tellion didn't truly know how she understood that, but she was certain of it. Somehow, as her own life force began to fade away…she was hearing his cries of agonizing death. Cries that were mirroring her own. The other, must be the Andalite he had infested. She almost wanted to be happy that the Andalite would soon be free. But she wasn't. Even as twisted and sinister as Temrash had shown himself to be to her, Tellion couldn't help but feel pity for her former commander. Because she was suffering the same as he was. Only he didn't have a hope of survival like her. He was enduring all of that suffering…knowing that he was soon going to die.
It was all so terrifying for her, but…she was sure it was far more for him.
But there was nothing that she could do for him. Temrash's fate was sealed. She had to worry about herself. She had to save Susan.
Reality blurred all around Tellion as she made the final repairs of the Kandrona Ray generator and reassembled it. Dragging her shaking body over to the tank, Tellion activate the generator, and prayed to something, anything really, that it would work.
As the electric hum of the means for her salvation came to life. Tellion would have leapt for joy in that moment, but another wave of the Fugue struck her. The pain and suffering that she had to endure nearly drove her to the point of madness. All of known reality was slipping away from her, and she almost welcomed it, as long as it meant an end to this indescribable suffering. She almost didn't want to reconnect her control tendrils to the brain, doing so felt to her as if placing each of those thousands of ends in scolding liquid. It was only through sheer force of will, and her desire to save Susan, that Tellion was able to push herself through the wall of torture and regain control over her host's body. Even as her eyes opened, Tellion wasn't even sure if she was even alive as the world spun wildly around her.
So little time left. So little…
Tellion was only in the dimmest sense aware that she was ripping off the clothing that she was wearing as she almost dragged herself across the floor towards her own personal Yeerk pool. Summoning a strength that she didn't even know that she was capable of, Tellion reached up and grasped the edge of the deprivation tank and pulled herself up with an arm almost devoid of any power. Tellion fell over the edge and into the liquid, not even feeling its density pressing around Susan's bare body. As her vision faded in and out of darkness, Tellion wildly grasped out and took hold of the tube to the ventilator and pulled it towards her. Disconnecting all of her control over the body's mouth and breathing portions of the brain, Tellion rammed the clear tube down Susan's throat. As her vision faded away in the blinding pain, Tellion flicked a switch, the one that she hoped that would turn on the machine. After that…
The pain faded. But so did reality around her. It all vanished. And she went somewhere else.
Impossible as it should have been, Tellion opened her 'eyes', and found herself standing on a swirling, indecipherable plane of existence. She wasn't a Yeerk, as she rightfully should have been. Instead, she was standing in this vortex of almost confusing nothingness as Susan's body. But Tellion didn't have any sense to dwell on where she truly was, or if any of it was even real. Because amidst all of that howling madness that surrounded her, Tellion heard something within that screaming air.
Crying.
Sad, pitiful, crying.
She followed the echoes of suffering through the storm of nearly emptiness. As the cries grew louder, Tellion spotted a shadowy shape through the blackness. Moving closer to the trembling figure, the form became clearer to Tellion.
"Temrash." Tellion whispered.
His head lifted at the sound of her voice, and his face turned to her. Tellion could never explain this situation, but he appeared to her as she remembered him in his former host. The younger human named 'Tom'. And, much to Tellion's infinite sadness, she could see his tear saturated face. It was not the face of a vicious killer and ruthless commander. It was the face of a horrified victim of unknown fear.
"Who…"
Tellion moved closer to him.
"It's me, Temrash."
His eyes widened. "Tellion. How?"
"It doesn't matter now."
His next words were simple, and to the awful point of what was facing both of them.
"I'm dying?"
"Yes." Tellion answered, "So am I."
"Tellion…" he said, unable, or even attempt to disguise the fear in his voice. "I'm…scared…I'm so terrified…"
Despite not knowing him, despite hearing all of the horrific things he had done…Tellion moved closer to Temrash and pulled him to his feet. She pulled her arms around him and held him tightly.
"I'm here for you Temrash." she said. "You're not alone."
In that next instant, her consciousness moved out from her own body, and Tellion saw the two of them continuously shifting from their host bodies and into their natural Yeerk bodies. Their human like hug fluctuated into a pair of Yeerks touching their palps together, back and forth. This was madness, it was pure insanity. And yet, all she could think of anything else in that moment was being there for Temrash in his, their, final moments of life.
"I…I didn't want it to end like this…" he said, true sadness echoing in his words.
"Neither did I." Tellion told him.
As they stood there, shifting in between human and Yeerk forms, memories flooded into Tellion's mind. Memories she had never lived, yet was now sharing them as if they were her own. They were visions of Temrash's experiences in his last, and primary host, whose name was Tom.
Joyful memories of a mother's hug, a father's approving smile, a girl kissing him for the first time. But among them all, one that stood out.
Temrash was outside of a home similar to the one that she had found shelter in. He was playing some kind of game with a younger human, and was easily beating him at it.
"Remember our deal." Temrash told him. "I beat you. You come to one of the Sharing meetings with me."
"You haven't won yet." The sibling countered, breathing heavily. This only made Temrash smirk.
No. The voice of Tom echoed in the back corner of his mind. Please don't do this. We had a deal.
I don't make deals with my slave! Temrash snapped at him. Now watch while I finish this. I guess I should thank you, since you were so good at this game.
No. No! Tom cried.
Temrash ignored the pleas of his host, finally stopped toying with Tom's sibling. Easily pushing past him, Temrash jumped into the air and threw the sphere into a nearly equally sized horizontal metal ring. As the sphere went through, Tom's sibling dipped his head in defeat.
No…Tom's weak voice cried out.
"That's game." Temrash said, tossing the sphere back to his host's younger brother, who said something under his breath as his head remained dipped. "I win."
Tom's sibling looked up at him. Tellion wasn't able to understand what the look on his face meant. Maybe sadness. Maybe dejection. Maybe even a bit of joy.
"Well," he said to Temrash as he struggled to catch his breath. "We had a deal. I guess I'll go to that Sharing meeting with you tonight."
Please don't do this. Tom begged Temrash. He's just a kid. He doesn't know anything. He's no use to you. Please…
Temrash looked at that young boy's face, the admiration and affection he showed to him. Tellion watched in complete fear at what she knew was to come. The horrific fate that would soon befall that seemingly helpless child.
Temrash smirked at him. "You know what…don't worry about it."
The sibling looked just as surprised as Temrash felt in that moment. "Really? But we had a deal."
"It wasn't a fair bet." Temrash said, walking towards him. "I knew you never had a chance of beating me. I may not be on the team anymore, but I'm still damn good at this game."
"Thanks Tom." he said, looking down at his feet. "To tell you the truth, I really didn't want to go."
"I know midget." Temrash said, grabbing him. He chuckled under his breath as he rubbed his knuckles into the sibling's head. "You and Marco had plans tonight anyway right?"
"Yeah." he growled, fighting to free himself from Temrash's grasp. "And stop calling me midget!"
"I'll stop when you actually manage to get bigger." Temrash teased him.
As Temrash and Tom's sibling struggled almost playfully against each other, they laughed. They both laughed. Tellion saw it clearly as anything she had ever in her entire life. Temrash was smiling.
It wasn't the arrogant smirk he had given towards Visser Three. It wasn't the sadistic showing of teeth he had given to his subordinates and her. He wasn't pretending. His actions, his feelings…were genuine.
Temrash gently pushed him away. "Now get going before I change my mind and drag you to that meeting just to torture you. And don't let mom hear you say what you said when I beat you, if she finds out you learned it from me, that's both of our asses."
"Sure thing Tom." he said, running back into the house.
They watched him leave. Neither Tom, nor his Yeerk oppressor Temrash fully understanding what had just happened.
You…Tom said in disbelief. You didn't…thank you…thank you…
"Shut up." Temrash warned his slave.
Why did you? Tom asked.
"Sometimes," Temrash said, turning his back to the home he had live in for so very long. "I envy the life you've had Tom."
So. Temrash said with a bit of confusion as he started to leave. That is what being a big brother feels like…
And in that bewildering, and equally terrifying moment, the truth was reviled to Tellion.
"You lied." Tellion said in disbelief. "You lied to everyone. Your subordinates. To Visser Three. You even lied to yourself."
Tellion's eyes widened at the full understanding.
"You didn't enslave Tom's family to prove yourself to Visser Three. You did it…because you cared for them."
His weak sobs into her shoulder only confirmed Tellion's statement. "I didn't care for them at first. As a Gedd, I had dreary and disgusting tasks. As a Hork-Bajir soldier, all I did was fight and kill. When I was reassigned to this new host, I had to do something different than the other infestors. Something that would make me stand out among them and give me a better chance for advancement. I didn't infest my new host's family, like protocol demanded. I found the challenge very enjoyable. But as time dragged on, and my rank rose, there became less and less reason for me to not have them infested. But I kept making excuses, I kept coming up with reasons to not enslave them. I don't know when my interactions with them…changed, but at some point they did. Me. The great Temrash. Visser Three's most loyal and trusted officer…brought to this by these…humans…insanity."
"It's not insane." Tellion said.
"How could you ever understand Tellion?"
"I understand better than any Yeerk alive." Tellion told him. "You and me…before this world…before these lives…we were just soldiers. Doing our duty, following orders, enslaving helpless beings, not knowing anything else."
"I never knew kindness. Affection. Happiness." Temrash said through his sobs.
"You were never part of a family." Tellion answered for him. "And then you were. You didn't know…how to be anything like that."
"I tried so hard to not let it affect me. To let their, love, move me." Temrash said. "But it did. I didn't want that life to ever end. I almost didn't want to take Visser Three's promotion when it was given to me. Because I knew that this life would end."
"Temrash…"
"I've killed so many beings, Tellion. Yeerk and non-Yeerk. I've tortured and mutilated so many, some because I was ordered to, others simply because I enjoyed crushing out their lives. I never really understood, until now on the verge of my own death, how much terror I had inflicted upon others. There's so much evil and pain I've caused in my life. Tellion, how can there…ever be forgiveness for what I've done?"
Tellion pulled his head into her shoulder, holding him the way Linda had for her.
"Temrash…" Tellion whispered into his ear. "I…forgive you."
His weary sigh was so painful to her, yet held a strange trace of relief in it, as if she were taking on the burden of his evil actions. "Tellion, why? You don't know me. When we first met, I tried to humiliate and terrify you. Why would you…"
She hugged him tighter. "Because…someone needed to…"
As she stood there, hugging him as close as she would have Mark, Tellion felt Temrash do something. A part of himself separated and pulled away. She physically couldn't feel it, but still Tellion knew what Temrash had done.
That memory. The one shared with Tom's sibling whom she did not know that name to. The one where Temrash had shown mercy upon that child. It was sent back to the brain of the host he was still clinging on to with the last traces of his life. It would be the very last thing that his host would ever see, and feel from Temrash's memories. It would be Temrash's dying memory to him.
"Why did you do that? Why that memory?" Tellion asked, not sure what that memory would mean to an Andalite warrior.
"I…wanted him…to know that…all of the good memories in my life…were from that family…"
Temrash laughed softly into Tellion's ear.
"I still can't believe it would end like this. To think, the midget, all of this time…and he was…"
The swirling vortex and wind that had been whipping all around suddenly came roaring at the two of them. It slammed into Tellion with a force unlike anything she could comprehend. Suddenly she was spiraling head over feet wildly through empty air. There was no sense of anything for Tellion in those scary moments as she flipped about over and over. The only thing that she knew for certain was that she was falling. Falling into…she didn't know what. But she did know that it was horrific.
As she plummeted into that horrifying unknown, Tellion heard Temrash's screams nearby. She saw him tumbling in an equally wild fall, his now frail looking body tossed about like a child's plaything.
"Temrash!" she cried to him, reaching out her hand for him.
Temrash's terrified face filled her vision, and he wildly grasped out for her. Somehow, he managed to clamp his hand over hers and held on for his very essence of being as they spun about in the overwhelming force.
"Tellion!" Temrash screamed in pure terror as the force consumed them both, spinning them wildly, and the sheer force of it trying to pull them apart. "Please, please, don't let go!"
"Hold on! Hold on to me Temrash!" she cried, even as she felt his grip slipping as they both continued to fall. The darkness around them was transforming, changed into a rapidly reddening hue. And the wind…was morphing into lashing tongues of burning flames that struck out at them.
"I don't want to die!" he cried out as the fire began to snap out and consume both of them. "Please Tellion, don't let me go! Don't let go!"
She tried so hard to. More than Tellion ever thought she ever could. Yet, his grip was wretched from hers. And in that one last instant, she saw Temrash's terrified eyes as he transformed into the small and feeble Yeerk he naturally was.
"Ttteeellllllliiiooonnn…" echoed Temrash's final, agonizing plea to her as Tellion watched in horror while his body disintegrated and was literally blown away like dust before her eyes.
"Temrash!" Tellion cried out, wildly grasping for him in vain.
And as he vanished into that nothingness…Tellion saw something amidst that blazing inferno that was now beginning to consume her. A gaze…a powerful force…a pressing darkness beyond anything her feeble mind could comprehend…
…a great red eye astride a colossal throne peering at her with all its overwhelming cruelty and malic.
In that instant, Tellion knew a fear, a soul gripping terror beyond anything the physical world could possibly understand, or dare to even try.
Then she impacted into a non-solid surface, and the eye, the fire, it all vanished. And the next thing Tellion was aware of was that she was sinking. At first, she believed that she was drowning. But when she tried to move her arms, she felt none to respond to her command. Nor did she have any lungs to breathe, or eyes to see. She was in her natural Yeerk form again. And was sinking. Only she didn't care, because her withered and nearly starved body felt it. All across her slimy skin, into the core of her form, and down into the entire lengths of her control Tendrils.
Kandrona. Sweet. Nourishing. Reviving.
She had absorbed it all her life, and yet she had never believed that it could feel as satisfying as it did in that moment.
Am I dead? Tellion asked herself, almost not believing any of this was real.
No. You live. Cooed that voice that had been speaking to her throughout the day.
Temrash…
He is dead. And you live Tellion. The voice said to her. The voice that every part of her entire being screamed warnings to her despite its comforting tone. Heal. You still have much to do in this new life you've been granted.
Nothing else was said to her from that voice after that. Tellion didn't swim in the Yeerk Pool liquid. She just lay at the bottom of the tank, letting her ravished and weary body saturate in the revitalizing touch of the Kandrona rays. Her mind a bewildered and jumbled mess of so many thoughts, so many emotions, so many fears.
When some time had passed. How long she would never truly know, Tellion felt her body revitalized enough by the Kandrona rays to become herself once again. She swam back to the ear canal of Susan's still body. With one final hope of success, she reentered the ear and worked her way back to the brain.
Revitalized once again, Tellion reattached herself to Susan's brain and opened her eyes. Against all the impossible odds, she felt Susan's heart faintly beating within her chest. She had done it. She had saved them both. Tellion pulled the ventilator tube from her throat and turned off the machine. Weakly pulling herself from the tank, Tellion slid to the floor until her bare bottom was resting on the cold surface.
She should have felt jubilation. She should have felt thrilled that she had saved both herself and Susan. And yet…all she could think of was Temrash's terrified face the moment before he was blown away into oblivion. That face. Those eyes. His anguished cry…would forever be etched into her mind.
And that eye…the great red eye…
And as she sat there, thinking of her final moments with Temrash, and that horrific eye, Tellion buried her face into her trembling hands and began to weep.
(Well, I hope that is a satisfactory answer to the question of how Tellion would be able to survive outside the main Yeerk Pool. There's a reason why I mentioned from the very first chapter that she is a Kandrona Ray/Yeerk Pool maintenance specialist.)