Chapter 13

{What?!}

{How?}

{Impossible!}

{What else does he know?}

{How did he find out?}

{Does he know which humans?}

{How come you were in his head for an hour, and you're only just now letting us know?}

That last question was Marco. Skeptical as always. It was a quality about Marco I admired.

{Visser Three has many memories,} I said. {I have to sift through decades of memories to find the important ones. And the Visser is distracting me with…}

Just then, Visser Three again replayed the memory of Elfangor's death. I once again heard his final cry. Tasted his blood.

{Distracting you with what?} Hannah asked gently.

{Disturbing memories,} I said simply.

{Tell us what Visser Three knows,} Marco said.

{He knows at least two of you are human youths. He does not know how or why. He does not know your exact ages, looks, or names.} I said.

{Why would he keep that information to himself?} Rachel wondered.

{If the council of thirteen found out you are humans, it would be embarrassing for Visser Three.}

{So the Visser crippled the entire Yeerk invasion just to protect his reputation?} Marco asked quizzically.

{Exactly,} I confirmed.

Cassie snorted. {Typical Visser Three.}

And then I once again watched my brother die.

{Twenty-two more minutes, Esplin.}

{Do not call me that!} Visser Three snapped.

{I will call you whatever I want, Esplin. I can…}

Tobias.

In the torture cube.

Covered in his own blood.

Twitching in pain.

Barely alive.

Elfangor.

Eaten alive.

"Kill me," the Hork-Bajir with gills begged, barely able to breathe, let alone speak after the medical experiments. "Just kill me. Please."

{I don't think so,} the memory of Visser Three said. {Your body will be of great use to us.}

{Tell me more about Elfangor, Visser,} I said. I was trying to keep the traumatic memories at bay.

It worked. I was brought back to the present.

I noted Cassie was missing, presumably in bird morph flying overwatch.

{Why do you ask, Andalite?} Visser Three demanded. {You could see the memories in my head.}

Because I'm sick of watching your heinous acts, I wanted to say.

But I didn't say that. I couldn't let the Visser know his memories were getting to me.

{I would like to hear your comments in hindsight, rather than thoughts at the time,} I said lamely.

Anything to not have to watch my brother die again.

{Well, all right,} Visser Three said.

And then he told me a long story. The Taxxon homeworld.

I was hearing Esplin 9466's words, and watching Alloran's memories at the same time.

And then I saw the moment Visser Three became the abomination. He wasn't Visser Three at the time, of course. He was just a lowly sub-visser.

Elfangor knocked out Alloran. Because Elfangor didn't want to kill 10,000 defenseless Yeerks. And then Esplin left Chapman, his current human host….

Chapman?

What a coincidence….

And slithered into Alloran.

I felt Alloran's terror. His paralyzed body, no longer his. Never to be his again.

I felt Esplin's triumph. At long last, his goal of taking an Andalite body, finally accomplished.

Elfangor had created the abomination.

I felt like I'd been slapped.

I'd looked up to Elfangor my whole life.

And he'd been responsible for this?

The story went more quickly after that.

The Jahar, slowly being sucked into a black hole.

Elfangor and Visser Three, decided to work together to use the time matrix.

And the ensuing mental fight over the time matrix.

I saw the strange pocket dimension, the pocket universe that was somehow one third Earth, one third the Andalite homeworld, and one third the Yeerk homeworld.

I watched the duel over who would escape the pocket universe.

And Elfangor won.

Visser Three retreated, and mentally prepared himself to find a way to escape the black hole.

But…the black hole never came.

For years, Visser Three wandered the strange universe.

And then suddenly, he wasn't there anymore.

Visser Three had teleported onto the bridge of a blade ship. In the midst of a space battle with Andalites.

He was shocked to hear that he was no longer Visser Thirty-Two, and was now Visser Three.

After the battle, he spoke to one of his Sub-Vissers.

To everyone else, Esplin 9466 had never disappeared.

As soon as the opportunity arose, Visser Three manipulated his way into being sent to Earth.

Visser Three hunted down Chapman and placed his most faithful lieutenant in his head.

His mind had been erased.

For years, Visser Three searched for an explanation.

And found none.

{Strange, isn't it, Visser Three?} I asked.

{Yes. To this day, I don't know why. The most probable cause I could think of is a Sario rip. But it still doesn't seem right.}

{No, it doesn't,} I admitted. To myself I wondered, was the Ellimist involved?

It seemed that was the only explanation. But something was still off.

Before I could put my finger on it, Visser Three called up a new assault of memories.

"Don't do this, please," the homeless human woman begged. "I'll do whatever you want, just don't turn me into one of those things."

{You're right about one thing, Fran,} the memory of Visser Three said. {You will do whatever I want.} Visser Three nodded to a human controller. The human controller stepped up and injected a syringe into the woman's neck. She began to twitch and jerk uncontrollably.

I watched horrified as the woman, Fran, began to change. Her skin took on a silver hue, and streaks of blood red and midnight blue appeared.

{Get her into a pod, quick!} Visser Three demanded.

Two nearby Hork-Bajir picked up the changing human and deposited her into a large glass cylindrical pod.

I had seen those pods before, in the belly of the Blade Ship.

"No! No! No! No!" The woman screamed.

The pod closed and began to fill up with mist. I could feel the memory of the ice cold pod chilling the air around the room.

The woman continued changing, becoming more alien-like. Her arms split into two and grew longer. Her feet changed shape to look like skis.

And then, as Fran's head began to change, she lost the ability to scream.

Her head grew elongated, similar to an Earth creature called a hammerhead shark. Her eyes grew large and red.

And then the change was complete.

{Excellent,} Visser Three said. {A near perfect Venber. Good job, doctor Singh.}

The controller smiled a nervous smile. I realized with a shock this was the first time I'd ever heard Visser Three congratulate one of his underlings.

{Ax,} said Cassie, snapping me back to the present. {What's the time looking like?}

I looked up with Visser Three's head. Hannah was now missing, again I assumed she was flying overhead cover.

Marco had at some point demorphed and remorphed gorilla. Cassie was a polar bear.

{Eight minutes,} I answered. {We are almost done. We should decide…}

I ate my brother again. Heard his bones break as my teeth crushed him. Tasted Elfangor's blood. Felt the warm wetness dripping down my chin. Heard his final scream…

{Ax!} said Rachel, in grizzly bear morph. {Are you alright? What's going on?}

{The Visser is distracting me,} I said. {I was going to say we should kill him.}

{I agree,} said Marco. {Especially given that he knows we're human.}

{I agree too,} said Rachel. {Visser three is too dangerous to…}

"Do as he does, do as he does," The Hork-Bajir chanted. Bodies were everywhere. Hork-Bajir, Gedds, more Hork-Bajir.

Monsters native to the Hork-Bajir homeworld stomped around, picking up unfortunate meals indiscriminately.

The blood was everywhere! It was a slaughter! The beautiful Hork-Bajir homeworld was more red than green.

"Do as he does, do as he does!" The Hork-Bajir continued to chant.

I watched as two Hork-Bajir clashed, slashing each other with their blades.

"Do as he does, do as he does," they both chanted.

Both?

No….

These were two free Hork-Bajir, fighting each other.

"Do as he does, do as he does," the chant continued.

A simple command for simple people.

Too simple.

These two free Hork-Bajir were simply too ignorant to understand the difference between a free Hork-Bajir and a Hork-Bajir controller.

"Do as he does, do as he does…"

A towering monster reared up beside them, and picked them both up in one massive hand…

{We can't kill a defenseless prisoner,} Cassie was arguing.

{It's Visser Three!} Marco screeched. {He is a mass murderer! We'd be doing the world a favor!}

{Marco's right,} said Rachel. {Some people are just too evil. Visser Three deserves to die!}

{Two minutes,} I told both my human friends and Visser Three.

{You don't need to tell me!} Visser Three snapped. {I am still aware of my time!}

{Oh but I enjoy telling you,} I taunted. {I enjoy feeling your panic as the realization sets in…}

I was enjoying this?

What was wrong with me!?

I tasted Elfangor again with my Antarean Bogg taste buds. Relished the flavor of my brother's death….

No!

Not me!

Never me!

It was Visser Three!

His enjoyment!

Not mine!

Never mine!

Elfangor's blood in my mouth.

Delicious.

{No! Nooooooooo!} I screamed in open thought-speak.

I ran to a nearby rock and bashed my human head into it.

Bashed it again and again.

I felt my human nose break.

{Make it stop, make it stop!} I wailed.

{Ax!} cried Cassie.

Strong arms pulled me away from the rock.

{Be strong, my friend,} a voice said. It was Alloran, the real Alloran, speaking up for the first time during the entire ordeal.

But still, I struggled, trying to slam my head again into the out-of-reach boulder.

{Ax! AX!} yelled Marco. {Get out of his head! It's not worth it! Just crawl out!}

I stopped squirming.

Tears and blood poured down my human face.

{Twenty eight seconds…} I muttered.

{Just leave, Ax,} Rachel soothed. {It will be okay, we won't let Visser Three demorph.}

{Nineteen seconds.}

{Are you even listening? Can you comprehend what…}

{Seven seconds…}

Visser Three broke his silence.

{Andalite fool. You're too fragile. Too weak!}

And then my reality shattered.