Chapter 7
The Ellimist knew that something had changed.
The change was obvious. There were…things that shouldn't be here. He could feel that the duck creatures shouldn't be here. They were an anomaly; they shouldn't be here. They should never have met the Yeerks, never have become Controllers.
One of them certainly shouldn't be an Animorph.
It was troubling, what was worse was that the Ellimist couldn't seem to get rid of them. He tried. Tried to prune them from the timestream. Not to destroy them, just to untangle them from the entire process. Change the events that brought them to the human's Earth in the first place. Make it so that their victory over the Saurians didn't involve dimensional travel. Instead of pursuing Dragaunus the ducks would win the first encounter entirely. There was always a possibility that they were a plant from Crayak. It didn't work. For some reason his powers wouldn't work on them. That was very concerning. What changes would this new element bring? She could end up destroying the Animorphs and dooming the entire human race.
Something else changed, and the Ellimist knew that they were no longer fully alone (in the sense that there were other beings here other than the Ellimist and what remained of what the Ellimist had once been. The Ellimist was never fully alone). He could feel Crayak and its foul servant, the Droid, watching, but the Ellimist could feel something else here. He could feel the universe shifting until they were in the setting that these other presences wanted them to be in. He wasn't surprised. Creatures like them did like their theatrics.
The place they found themselves was…sterile, blank, empty. A single blank room with absolutely nothing in it. There was a window leading outside to more blank space and the vague impression of buildings, but the white of the buildings blended in so well with the white of the 'sky' that they may as well not even exist. It almost seemed like a place that Crayak would appreciate. Empty and soulless.
"One day I'll get it to redecorate, I'm thinking something blue. Blue's a nice color."
"You did that ten eons ago. The paint withers like everything else."
"Remind me never to give you a pet, if that's your attitude."
The Ellimist, for lack of a better term, turned to observe the new players in the Game. He chuckled. They seemed to be playing a Game of their own. He could recognize it. Or at least he knew what kind they were playing. Figures made of pewter on a mat depicting a scene of rocks and trees and a lake. It looked a bit like a representation of the forest that Tobias and Ax lived in. The pewter figures were recognizable as the Animorphs and Ax…and the new addition.
One of the figures sitting on the opposite side of the mat looked for all the world like a simple Earth fox with black fur, the only splash of color around them. It somehow managed to hold a pair of six sided dice in its paw, rolling them around with a pleasant clicking noise. The 'fox' turned its head and grinned at the Ellimist, it's teeth and smile extending so wide they almost met its ears. Its eyes swirled with chaotic rainbow colors and it laughed at the Ellimist.
"Hi. I hate chess. So predictable, so many rules. Restricting, you know?" The fox nodded at the creature sitting opposite herself…himself? The Ellimist thought that the creature's voice had shifted from feminine to more masculine at least two times this conversation. Interesting. "It, on the other hand, doesn't like total chaos. This is its house. It prefers conformity."
"So, you play tabletop games?" The Ellimist asked.
"It fulfills us both." The other creature said. It was as white as the environment it claimed to live in. Unlike its fox companion it was no living thing, but a large slender, deerlike machine with smooth edges and shiny metal. A strange, almost falcon shaped head and four long slender robotic legs. It stood, unmoving, its head lowered towards the table as if it was almost mourning something. Unlike the livelier fox this creature sounded infinitely tired. "There are rules to these kinds of games. Rules that cannot be broken." It nudged a pair of dice that floated an inch from its hooked beak. "But the dice can fall either way. It can do anything you can imagine. A great failure, a wonderful success. Victory by an inch. Failure by a mile. Therefore, she is happy. Therefore, I have rules." The creature looked at the Ellimist. "You are very loud."
"Am I?" Asked the Ellimist.
"You are. You are correct. The two should not be tangled so. But they are. And we all must live with what is to come. You, your enemy, the chess pieces you use." The robot turned its attention back to the game board. "We are only here because you are so loud."
"I suppose you aren't going to tell me what you mean." The Ellimist smiled. Of course, they wouldn't. He wouldn't. But that didn't mean he could learn something from what they said.
"Stay a while and listen." The fox said as she grabbed her dice. She grinned at her companion. "I roll for her; you roll for the other?"
"I supposed she is in my wheelhouse." The robot nodded at his dice, which dropped to the ground. "Hmmm…it appears to be sixteen. What will you do, Fox?"
The fox laughed and tossed her dice, the Ellimist watching them very closely, learning all he could from their interaction.
The Fox grinned, mouth filled with rows and rows of gnashing teeth as the dice fell.
The Aerowing was well hidden underneath a covering of trees near the city dump. No one would be able to find it with its cloak unless they knew what to look for. Every so often the ship would scan the area, looking for specific life forms. As it scanned a signal was sent to the repaired communicator on Tanya's arm. She had rebuilt the thing a few days ago, disabling the tracker on it and making sure it would be unable to be picked up by duck computers, even if they got Drake One up again she was ninety percent sure that it couldn't detect her now. And she needed it to alert her in case a human came to check out the dump.
The screen didn't indicate a human, it detected a bird.
((So, you normally go dump diving on the weekends?)) Tobias asked, not sounding especially judgmental, just curious.
Tanya straightened from where she had been examining a tv with a shattered screen. "You ever seen Gilligan's Island?" She asked.
((Yeah, why?)) Tobias asked.
"I am the professor, and these are my coconuts." She sort of waved at the small pile of electronics at her feet. "You wouldn't believe how much you people throw away that can still be used. Like this tv here. Absolutely nothing wrong with it aside from a broken screen. I can take its guts, attach them to this old projector here and instant home theater. That's not to mention all the things I can do with the number of discarded batteries everywhere."
((Ah, recycling. Cassie will love it.)) Tobias ruffled his feathers. ((Speaking of Cassie, we got a…well it's not a mission, but Cassie has a thing.))
"What kind of thing?"
((How do you feel about parrots?))
During the Escape
It turned out that Cassie's thing was sabotage.
Specifically sabotage of a rainforest themed restaurant that had live parrots in cages to advertise the food. Cassie didn't like that. Cassie claimed that shoving parrots into small cages so they could advertise appetizers at a restaurant was a moral failing on the owner's part, and so needed to be dealt with. Somehow, she had managed to get all of them, even Jake, in on it.
"Now I know I've heard him mentioning not morphing for personal reasons so…why are we all here?" Tanya leaned over towards Tobias, who was in his human form, while Ax scarfed a pizza he had found…somewhere. Tanya really didn't ask where. It seemed like an unhealthy question.
"Well, you see." Tobias muttered back. He didn't show any outward expression, it didn't come naturally after so much time living as a hawk. "Jake likes Cassie."
Tanya blinked. "Ah…oh." She watched as the rest of the kids snuck back to where the parrots were being kept. "Well, that explains a lot."
"Ducks have that problem too?" Tobias asked.
"Let's just say I know at least five people who have done really stupid things because of one girl. Two of them are on my team." At least when Jake did dumb things for girls those girls were nice ones like Cassie. And to be fair she really didn't mind being here. It was a bit juvenile, but she was just happy to be involved. It was like they considered her as part of the group. Maybe they even did, or at least they were behaving that way. It was nice, like being back with the ducks. The Animorphs really didn't behave like the ducks, but the camaraderie she had been missing ever since her team's infestation was starting to kick in, at least a little bit. She knew that it could still be broken, so she wasn't willing to test it.
Still, watching the four kids insult the restaurant goers as parrots was a little funny.
"Squuaaaawk! Grasshopper salad! Fresh and hoppin!"
"Squuuaaawk! Just squeezed cyst juice! Two for a dollar!"
Squuaaaawk! Baked fingernails! Free with an order of mucus cheese!"
"Squuaaaawk! Order the fried butter milkshakes!"
"Actually, that last one sounds like something at a carnival." Tobias said thoughtfully. "Someone would definitely eat that."
"Squuuuaaawk! It's Freddy Kruger! Everyone run!"
"Squuuuaaawwwk! What grave did you crawl out from?"
"Squawwk! You might want to get that growth looked at!"
"Squaawwwk! What do your face and space have in common? The moon!"
"I don't know that one might be a little too abstract. I think they just confused that poor guy." Tanya mused. "The cyst one has to be from Cassie, I think."
"What is a cyst? Saaaist? Sist?" Asked Ax innocently.
"Abnormal growth on the body. Usually filled with, ya know, liquid or dead tissue or things like that. Kinda gross." Tanya replied and Tobias shuddered.
"Glad I already ate. Eww. How do you know that?"
"I'm the human equivalent of in my twenties, and I'm also a medic." Tanya said.
"Wait, you're a doctor?" Tobias asked.
"No, I'm a field medic. I specialize in mechanics and weaponry, and I have higher than average knowledge in computers, programming and biology. I know basic field medicine and first aid." Tanya shrugged. "And of course, hockey, but everyone knows hockey."
"Right…wow…how did you find the time? I mean, what kind of college-"
"Never went to college." Tanya said. This earned her a very long, hawky stare.
"You…can do all of that, and you never went to college?" He asked. "How-"
"I studied all of that. I never went to an actual college." Tanya shrugged. "I technically don't even have our equivalent of degrees in everything I know. I just know them."
"…how are you supposed to get a job a then?" Tobias asked.
"Dragaunus happened."
"But I mean before that, you couldn't have known that-"
"And we're changing the subject now, Tobias." Tanya said firmly.
"But-"
"I said we're changing the subject." Tanya said, slightly more forcefully. Ax studied her, suspicion clear on his borrowed human face. She ignored them. It was none of their damn business.
She looked to the side and noticed that the others had snuck away and demorphed. At first she thought all four of them were coming to the table, but then Jake's head whipped around and he narrowed his eyes. He grabbed Marco and the two of them hustled over to another young looking human. For a moment the crowd obscured them, and then they were gone.
Tanya tensed. "What?"
"Oh" Tobias blinked. He had noticed it too. "That was Erik."
"Enemy or friend?" she asked as Rachel and Cassie took a seat across from them. Cassie looked proud of herself while Rachel just looked pleased.
"Kinda a friend." Tobias' voice lowered. "Erik is an android. He's from a race of them called Chee. They were built by an ancient civilization called the Pemalites. They were totally nonviolent. Completely peaceful. They built the Chee to be toys and companions, but they were all destroyed by a different race called the Howlers. The Chee survived because they're basically indestructible, but the Pemalites were all dying. They ended up on Earth and somehow, they transferred some of the Pemalite essence into wolves. That's how you get dogs."
Tanya blinked at him. "…huh, is there something special about dogs? I never really noticed." She pondered. "To be fair I always tried to avoid dogs."
"You don't like dogs?" Someone said from behind her. She turned and looked at the boy that had caught Jake and Marco's attention. Erik. "That's so sad."
"I don't have anything against them, personally. They just set off my allergies." She studied the boy. He didn't look like an android. But then again if he was trying to blend in, he wouldn't. Jake and Marco, who had been behind Erik, slid into seats next to Cassie and Rachel.
"Oh, that's good then." The boy smiled at her. "I thought I'd come over and met the newest Animorph."
"Ummm," Tanya looked around at the mall full of people around them. They had been talking quietly, but Erik didn't seem to be restraining himself.
"Don't worry. I can project audio as well as visual holograms. The people around us have no idea what I'm saying…in fact." For a moment the world sort of shimmered, and she was now looking at what looked like a bipedal metallic dog android. "This is what I normally look like."
"Yeah, I think I'm going to avoid demorphing, just in case." Tanya said. She eyed the android again. She didn't like it. Him. She wasn't sure why, but she didn't like it. Maybe it was because he seemed to instantly judge her on if she liked dogs or not. Like she had control over her allergies or something. She could already tell from just looking at him that Erik was a serious piece of hardware. She had no idea what material he was made out of, but the fact that it looked absolutely pristine either meant they had a way maintain themselves in such a way to avoid normal wear and tear, the body was new, or the body was so indestructible that normal methods couldn't hurt it. That bothered her. B.R.A.W.N, the enforcer robot that Dragaunus had reprogramed that one time, had been bad enough, but this robot? Yeah, bad news. The ease of using both audio and visual holograms also suggested something extremely powerful. She wasn't sure she was comfortable with this thing, and she didn't even have to look at his insides to see something that just might be out of her league. She didn't like it.
"It's fine, I understand." Erik said. "Honestly, I just came over to let you know something. We Chee are pacifists. We never fight or kill, but we make good spies. We've been keeping an eye on the Yeerks for a while. If you want, I can keep an eye on your friends as well. Make sure they don't catch the wrong end of the Visser's eye."
Tanya relaxed slightly. "Ummm…yeah, I'd appreciate that."
"I have something interesting to tell you right now, in fact." Erik seemed to smile. How he managed that with a muzzle Tanya wasn't sure. "Your big guy, Grin, has completely messed up the Yeerk's plans to blend in. Normally a Yeerk can tap into a host's memories, but for some reason Grin is blocking his Yeerk from reaching his memories or his mind. The Yeerk can still control Grin's body but his mind is cut off from the Yeerk and they have no idea what to do. Grin's Yeerk can't skate or shoot a puck or even keep up his proper speech patterns." Erik continued to smile. "What's even better is that they know they have to keep it from Visser Three, because the Visser has already written off your entire species as unimportant. Those Yeerks want your fellow ducks, but without you they can't get to your homeworld and if they make too big a fuss Visser Three will come down on them hard. So, they've had to make up a lie about Grin feeling so bad that you went missing he's secluding himself."
"…oh I can't wait for those tabloids." Tanya muttered. Still, it was nice to know that at least one of her friends was fighting back. "Are the others doing alright?"
"As best they can, from what I've seen. Mallory is constantly messing with her Yeerk by just suddenly jerking a body part when they skate or train. Just trying to get her to mess up on purpose. I don't know what if anything Wildwing is doing, but Nosedive's Yeerk will loudly complain to any other sympathetic Yeerk about how disruptive his host is. Something about Henry the Eighth and a song that gets on everyone's nerves."
Tanya thought of all the ways Nosedive could annoy you with just his voice and grinned. "Good. Hope he drives the slug up a wall."
"There is, however, some concern with Duke's Yeerk." Erik said. "He's a…well there's something off about him. We Chee can't get a good read on him, but he has a reputation for being violent. Just be wary of him." Erik sort of rubbed his robotic ear in almost human like gesture "From what I've heard the Yeerks are surprised by how resilient your team is. Many hosts give up hope after a bit, but yours show no sign of it. The Yeerks are laughing about it, but from what I've heard every single member of your team is convinced that you're going to rescue them."
Tanya nodded. She couldn't help but feel a bit better. She knew that her team was alright, or at least as alright as they could be, given the situation.
"Wish I could tell them why it's taking so long…" she shook her head.
"Hey, we're all doing the best we can over here." Rachel interjected. "It sucks, but at least you know they are hanging on."
"And they have you." Jake said thoughtfully. He gave her a tired smile. "Most hosts give up, after a bit. They don't know that there is a resistance. They don't know there are people out there fighting for them. Of course, day after day, night after night with no change, seeing the Yeerks grow more and more powerful, of course many hosts give up. But your team knows you are free. They probably fight even harder, knowing that." She was a bit surprised. It was the first time Jake had spoken to her other than to give an instruction or an order.
"Thanks." Tanya nodded at Erik. "I appreciate it…just wish I could send a message to them. I know I can't, Marco, you don't have to say it." She grinned at Marco, who shut his mouth.
"We'll keep an eye on them for you." Erik promised. "Now, I have to go…you guys are going to be busy soon."
"Wait…what?" Tanya blinked, but in the time she took to close her eyes and open them again, Erik had gone.
The answer to Erik's slightly cryptic statement came the next day. A new race the Yeerks were after, called the Leeran, were under attack by Visser Three's superior, a Yeerk named Visser One. Not something they could take care of, even with the Aerowing there was no way they could fly to a different world. But apparently there was an underwater facility that was somehow involved in the invasion of this new world they could sabotage. The Leerans were apparently a telepathic aquatic species, so they would have to use the dolphin morphs to go to an island near the Yeerk base and look around.
And Tobias didn't have a dolphin morph. This wouldn't be a problem except it was a twenty-minute trip out there, and they didn't all want to go dolphin and swim that way. But Tobias would tire himself out by the time they got there. Tobias was clearly edgy about the dolphin. He kept babbling about if dolphins could remember to keep their breath under water and if they ever forgot and not being able to breathe and it was really sad.
"Ummm, guys." She tried to interject as Marco ribbed Tobias over his fear of the water and Rachel angrily came to Tobias' defense. "Guys?" And more ribbing from Marco and Jake was reassuring Tobias he didn't have to go as a dolphin. Tanya sighed and whistled. "KIDS!"
Rachel shot her an offended look. "Kids? Excuse me?" A few weeks ago Tanya might have assumed she was actually offended but by now she was pretty sure the little smirk on Rachel's face meant she was more amused than anything else.
"I have a fighter jet." Tanya reminded them. "None of us have to fly as seagulls to this island. I can get us there in two minutes. And Tobias can stay in the Aerowing if he wants."
"…can it do water?" Jake asked.
"…Jake, it can do the vacuum of space. I wouldn't take it down to the Mariana trench, but yes. It can do water."
"Oh…well that makes things easier…can it shoot underwater?" Jake asked.
"Missiles and pucks, yes. Lasers no." Tanya replied.
"Still better than what we had before. Alright. New plan. We take the stealth fighter to the island, have Tanya hide it, morph dolphins and Tobias can fly cover. No big."
((No, no. I didn't get the morphing power back to sit on the sidelines again. I'll morph the dolphin. It'll just be a quick detour to the Gardens then to the Aerowing, what can go wrong?))
"So, the next time I suggest staying the Aerowing maybe you should consider staying in the Aerowing?"
((I really don't want to talk about it anymore.)) The very damp, very cranky hawk grumbled.
"You almost got smashed into a dolphin hoop, I can't bring you people back to life if you die on impact, you know?" Tanya scolded, sounded more parental than even she realized.
((Look, my talon got stuck and the dolphin wouldn't go into a trance. Marco saved me, we're fine. Everything's fine.))
"Okay, okay." Jake said as he slid into one of the Aerowing's seats. "Tobias has the dolphin, and no one got hurt. Including the dolphin. Let's just please fly to the island and get on with this?"
"Sure." Tanya growled. "Alright." They weren't even five minutes into the mission and already one of them almost died. It boded well.
"You know, if we put a saddle on the dolphin we can make a little dolphin rodeo…red tail and dolphin…charge twenty bucks a show…" Marco mused.
Once again Tanya vowed to keep that kid away from Phil.
Royan island took only a few minutes to reach in the Aerowing, just as Tanya thought. She gently set the ship near a grove of trees near the beach and set the stealth shields. Hopefully no one would find it.
"Doubt anyone will come out here though." Jake said as they neared the hanger. "It's a private island so we only have to worry about a few people."
Ducks, like the Earth variety, are naturally buoyant. Far more buoyant than humans. While none of the Animorphs were bad swimmers, except for Tobias and Ax, Tanya couldn't help but mentally note how prone they all were to sinking, even in just waist deep water. The others ended up treading water while she just sort of sat there in the water. For the kids it was waist deep, so she ended up sort of curling her legs up and just bobbing there for a second or two. Especially she could tread water without actually having to move anything, while the others couldn't.
"I swear you're showing off." Marco rolled his eyes as his legs started to become more dolphin like. He slipped underneath the water as he kept morphing. Tanya just chuckled and focused on the dolphin morph. It was one of the odder ones she had done, as she hadn't yet done a bug morph. The first thing that happened was her arms forming into fins as she floated on the water. Her face melted, turning from a duck beak to a dolphin's snout. For a second she felt the familiar sensation of not being able to breathe as her nostrils vanished, but soon enough she could breathe again. Instead of breathing through nostrils she was now breathing through a hole in her neck. Her feathers shriveled and shrank, exposing skin that was changing from her normal color to the dolphin's grey skin. Still, she never really sank, and as her legs fused together to finish the morph she found herself a dolphin poking her head up out of the water. She allowed herself to slide down until she was underwater.
It took a few seconds for the dolphin mind to hit her.
It was completely different from the other morphs she had done before. Both the goshawk and the hyena were confident predators. The Hork-Bajir and the pigeon were simple and calm. The horse had been a bit high strung, but controllable. The mind of the dolphin was completely unique to it and unlike anything she had ever felt before.
She had never felt so happy in her life. The dolphin wanted to do nothing more than play. It wanted to swim and leap and cavort around the ocean that was little more than a playground to it. It was nothing like the joy she usually felt when she was fixing or inventing something, that was a happy feeling, but there was always a sense of obligation to it. She enjoyed it, but it wasn't just for her. It was just as much for the people around her. This was pure, simple, and almost selfish. The dolphin wanted to do what it liked to do, and it held no thoughts for what others might want. The dolphin liked its pod, but only because they were its playmates.
The sheer joy was almost intoxicating. There were six other dolphins here for her to play with and she wanted to play. She rushed forwards and nudged one, then flicked away and darted back to nudge again. The other dolphin quickly caught on and began to chase her. The two of them leaped and splashed, their bodies shooting through the sky and into the water like torpedoes.
((Guys, I think we lost Tobias and Tanya.)) There was a voice, but it was unimportant.
((Yep. Hey, guys, we need you to focus here. I know the dolphin brain is a bit much, but you two need to get a grip.)) The voice was familiar but she couldn't place it.
((Tobias! Hey! Both of you!)) All of a sudden two other dolphins had darted in front of her, halting her game. ((Hey, settle down. We have a mission here, remember?))
Tanya shook herself. ((Wait, what…huh?))
((Welcome back. Focus, okay?)) Oh yeah, that was Jake…had she really gotten that carried away? ((We need to find that underwater base, alright.))
((Maybe think of it like a scavenger hunt?)) Cassie. ((It might help to just let the dolphin brain do its thing for a bit. It can be overwhelming for all of us.))
((If you need a shot of reality, take a look to your left.)) That was Marco's voice. Tanya turned her head and instantly felt the desire to play melt away at the sight of a tiger shark. ((Don't worry, it's Ax. He doesn't have a dolphin either, but it's still Ax. The dolphin brain doesn't like him, so it can help calm it down.))
((I…I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me…)) Tanya shook herself.
((It's fine, we all did it when we first morphed dolphin. You get used to it. Usually, the uncontrollable morphs are really small prey animals like mice. The fear is almost impossible to fight off, but with dolphins it's just that they are so happy all the time.)) Cassie explained.
((Dog brains are similar, just really big playful goofs.)) Jake said. ((Come on, let's give the island a little look. Circle it. Oh, and Cassie, show them how to echolocate as we go.))
((Hey! A race!)) Tobias didn't sound at all embarrassed by their temporary lapse. That was fine, she was embarrassed enough for both of them. She attempted to focus as she followed the others around the island, echolocating as they went, but she kept a firm grip on her own mind as they did so. It was a struggle. The dolphin had a relentless mind. It was dangerous in its own way. Being happy like this was unnatural, potentially harmful. It was just too much of one emotion. It was worse in that it seemed so innocent. Being happy was supposed to be a good thing, but the dolphin mind was so unrestrained it sort of scared her. Tanya honestly didn't like it, now that she was thinking more clearly.
They found the underwater base easily enough. Echolocating was a useful tool and she sort of wished she could do it as a duck. They even spotted a Yeerk submarine heading for the base, and the Animorphs identified Visser One as they looked through the aquatic ship's windows. Visser One was a human female, of middle age Tanya thought, who looked unremarkable. Unlike Visser Three she had no evil aura. She simply looked like a human woman.
That was when Ax alerted them to the hammerheads.
Ax had kept his distance, perhaps because his own tiger shark brain disliked the dolphins as much as the dolphins disliked him, but he had been able to alert them to the approach of what he thought were simply odd-looking fish. Tanya had heard of hammerheads but had never seen one up close. They were an odd looking bunch of fish. Who heard of animals with an eyeball at each end of a long tube of flesh growing from either side of their face? Her dolphin brain disliked them, but she didn't really see why they inspired so much fear in humans. As the ten or so hammerhead sharks approached the group, Jake gave the order to retreat, but turning around they found even more sharks approaching and cutting them off.
Tanya wasn't sure which of them fled first, but one of the others raced ahead of the group, it was almost a panicked response, though Tanya didn't know who was fleeing. Still, they had been told to retreat, so she went to follow. Her dolphin brain wanted to be gone as much as she wanted to. The hammerheads circled and, as if signaled, went for them.
((We just need to hurt one of them, make it bleed. They'll go into a feeding frenzy and attack the wounded one and we can swim away!)) Cassie said. ((Tobias, Tanya, ram one of them with your nose! Right in the gills!))
Trusting Cassie's word Tanya turned in the water and shot towards a hammerhead, ramming in the gills with her nose. She saw a jet of blood shoot out and she backed off. One of the other hammerheads came for her side, and she expected it to go for its bleeding comrade, as Cassie said it would.
Instead, it darted towards her. Tanya attempted to swim away, to dodge it, but she was just a bit too slow. She felt something impact her side and a horrible, ripping pain erupted from her middle. She didn't gasp, dolphins really don't do that, but she could feel the immense agony as the hammerhead shook its head, spreading blood and bits of dolphin flesh floating through the sea.
((Ahh! Help!)) From the corner of her eye, she could see one of the others in dolphin morph, simply floating there, staring at her. Dolphins don't have any expressions save for a joyful grin, but she almost imagined that this morphed dolphin looked frozen. She turned her head and locked eyes with the frozen dolphin, and she knew that he or she was too stunned by fear to help. It was like what happened with her and the dinosaurs, the mind chilling fear that left you helpless and paralyzed. Grin and Duke never really understood it, they had never felt it. But she had, and she knew what the kid was going through.
She didn't blame him.
She just wished-
The hammerhead bit down again, harder, tearing through her stomach and disemboweling her. Oh, that was bad. Unless the hammerhead went for her throat next that would be a long, painful way to die…but the hammerhead had her. It would be all over by the next bite.
And her team would never know how she died. At least not at first.
She could hear someone screaming her name in her mind, and she wanted to morph out, but the shark would find her just as easy prey as a duck as a dolphin. She could feel her tail thrashing, but it didn't seem to help much. She wasn't going anywhere.
There was…a sound. Like an alarm of some kind. The teeth removed themselves from her guts and she felt the hammerhead swim away. The hammerhead was…retreating? But it should be eating her. They all should be. There was no way she was going to live through this. Animals don't kill for fun, surely, they were going to eat her but now it was leaving. It was so odd.
Wait, the kids were screaming at her to morph back. She probably should. There was only one shark left and it was Ax. She felt someone nose themselves underneath her, gently lifting her back up to the surface so she could breathe.
((Come on, morph out. Please.)) It was Marco's voice. Why did he sound like he was about to cry? It wasn't like him.
She was already morphing back, the horrible wound in her stomach healing as she was lifted into the air away from the water. She found herself gasping a bit as she turned back into her natural shape.
((The others followed the sharks. That alarm called them off.)) A second dolphin, talking in Cassie's voice, surfaced. ((That shouldn't happen. Sharks don't do that. They don't hunt strategically like that, and they'd never break off from a kill…Tanya, are you okay?))
"Yeah," She sort of rolled off Marco and floated in the ocean again. "I'm good." She tried very hard not to think about the amount of her blood that was no doubt still spreading through the sea right now. So that's why humans were so wary of sharks. She always thought the movies had been exaggerated, and maybe they were. But even though she was healed now through the power of morphing she thought she could still feel the shark's teeth ripping through her flesh.
((The hammerheads went into the underwater base.)) Jake, followed by the others save Ax, surfaced. Tanya could see Ax's shark fin raising itself out of the water a fair distance from them, and tried not to shudder. It was a bit too close to a hammerhead fin. ((I think there's only going to be one way into that base.))
"Oh. Perfect."
Marco was quiet the rest of the trip home, and Tanya had a feeling she knew why. She wasn't going to bring it up in front of the rest of them, but she did think about it while flying back. Most of the way back the kids were discussing a plan to go to a place they called Ocean World to acquire a hammerhead to sneak into the base. Personally, at this point Tanya would almost prefer just sending down a few well-placed missiles from the Aerowing and calling it a day. If the base was unmanned, she might even have seriously suggested it. As it was they were going to have to rely on the hammerhead plan.
Besides, she didn't want Visser Three to start noticing that they were implementing a duck fighter jet and start paying more attention to her team. She wanted her team's heads attached to their necks as well as being Yeerk free.
While the others were exiting the Aerowing, Jake sort of lingered. Both Marco and Cassie turned to look at him, but he waved them forwards.
"Give me a second, okay?" Jake said. Marco gave him a narrow look. Whatever look Marco received in return Tanya didn't catch, but eventually Marco did turn around to leave the Aerowing, now looking more and more tense than before.
Jake waited a second as if to make sure he was gone before turning back to Tanya. She couldn't help but feel almost nervous. It was silly. He was a kid, but in a way he was also her team captain now. That meant something, at least to ducks it did, and it helped that he always sort of projected a calm, in control attitude and seemed very mature for his age. She hadn't forgotten he was just a kid like the others, but it was easy enough to talk to him like he was an actual adult because half the time around her he did act like an adult. Maybe he showed a different side to people like Marco or his parents, but to her he was a young, but still effective leader.
"Everything okay with you?" Jake asked, making Tanya blink. He had never showed that much interest in her general health before.
"I'll live, obviously. Is everyone alright? You all seem a bit tense."
Jake paused. "You don't tell anyone I told you this, especially Marco. He gets antsy about people showing him pity. But Marco was almost bitten entirely in half back when we first morphed dolphins. Sharks as well, not hammerheads, but still sharks. No one wanted to see a repeat of that, but…" He shrugged. "Like I said, don't bring it up, but after that…I guess we all want to make sure you're alright."
She could guess the other reason. Sure, it might have been true that the two incidents might have hit too close to home for all of them. PTSD could hit the people who witness the event as well as the people involved in the event, especially if it happened to a loved one, but Tanya suspected that this was Jake's way of letting her know that Marco hadn't just frozen for fun. Maybe if she were younger, she might have taken it personally, but while she wasn't a mental health expert she knew enough to see the signs of trauma.
"I get it, honestly." She shrugged. "It happened so fast I can't really remember what happened. I was concentrating on demorphing, you know." Better to let them all think she hadn't noticed Marco freeze.
"Great, you going to be okay to morph the hammerhead? I won't force you too. I can understand if you don't want to morph something that almost killed you." Jake asked.
"I can handle it."
"Alright. Just making sure."
Another useful cover. He could now honestly say to Marco that he was just making sure Tanya was alright to morph the hammerhead. A part of her wanted to shout in frustration. These kids really needed someone to talk to, a therapist or someone who could help them work through these issues they were having. Tanya knew she had just enough knowledge of duck psychology to guess that these kids needed help, but she was not an expert and once more these were still aliens. Granted they were aliens that were very similar to ducks, but they were still aliens. She had no idea if pushing them to try and talk to her about these problems would help or not. But she did wish she had a normal adult human around to ask these things. It was infuriating.
There was an awkward pause, then Jake almost sheepishly exited the Aerowing after the others.
All Tanya could do was close her eyes and rub her forehead and wonder how they were all going to get through this.
The hammerhead acquiring went well enough, although Ax had been spotted at the aquarium, but the kids were in the clear. Tanya, less so. The few human Controller night guards had reported the Andalite in the aquarium and had also reported her. She wondered how long the news would trickle down to normal humans.
Jake had been resigned, but not upset. "It was going to happen sooner or later. But we are fine if they still assume we are all mostly Andalites. All they know now is that you are allied with the 'Andalite Bandits'. They probably assumed that anyway."
It was time to morph the hammerheads and go back down to the underwater base. The morph itself wasn't bad. The eye placement confused Tanya a bit, but it was easy enough to adjust. The hammerhead's mind was almost preferable to the dolphin's. It was simple, it had only one reason. Kill and eat. There was no feeling of selfish joy and nothing to overwhelm or fool her senses or lull her into a state where she couldn't focus on the job. The hammerhead just wanted food. That was it.
The trip down to the base was uneventful but once inside the base they encountered a bit of a snag. Ax had told them before that sharks didn't have the internal equipment to handle a Yeerk in their heads. So, in order to get the underwater shock troops they needed for the invasion of Leera, the Yeerks were mutating the sharks, making them more intelligent and able to sustain a Yeerk. The machines inside the base assumed the seven of them were normal sharks, and so attempted to alter them. This resulted in chips installed in their heads, something that they couldn't let stay there. So, the base had to be destroyed, according to Ax that would both stop the chips inside their own heads and ruin the Yeerk's plans to use underwater soldiers at the Leeran home world.
While Ax, Marco and Tobias went to find the Yeerks computers and sabotage them, the other four were to provide a distraction. A part of Tanya would have rather gone with the computer team, but she knew that Ax was more familiar with the Yeerk's operating system than she was. Trapped in an underwater base was no place to attempt to learn a totally alien computer system even if you were a computer expert. And, she didn't want Ax to feel like she was trying to take over his normal duties.
They had ended up in a sort of docking area, a large room with space for three subs to dock and entrances to two buildings. Looking up she could see the bird forms of Ax, Tobias and Marco poised to fly in as soon as the distraction started. Tanya and the other three were hidden behind some crates, morphing into their battle forms as quickly as they could. They were just lucky that they had found a place where Rachel could hide and morph a bear.
((Alright, I'm going to that building and things are going to get…loud.)) Jake said. ((Come and flank them when they come at me.))
Jake, the only one of them who was stealthy, crept closer and closer to the building. He took a deep breath then let out a terrifying roar that Tanya swore shook the rafters. The Controllers, humans, Hork-Bajir and Taxxons, all looked around and almost flinched in unison at the sight of the tiger. Rumors of what the Andalite Bandits could do in their battle morphs had spread through the forces on Earth, and while the Hork-Bajir and the Taxxons did move to attack Jake after a second, there was still a lingering fear of the big striped cat that had ruined so many of Visser Three's plans.
Rachel wasted no time. As soon as a pair of Hork-Bajir stepped close to her crate she overturned it like a human flipping a table. The thing flew through the air and landed on one Hork-Bajir, causing him to bellow in pain as Rachel lumbered forwards. Despite her size she was remarkably fast, a swift tank of fur and hair and claw that rolled over the uninjured Hork-Bajir like a train and slashed at the downed one with her claws. The uncrated Hork-Bajir lashed at her with his blades, but she firmly stepped on his face, gouging out his eyes with her hind claws. A Taxxon loomed over Rachel as she wrestled the Hork-Bajir, aiming to bite at the back of her head with its circular red rimmed mouth.
With a sinister chuckle Tanya leaped and tore into the Taxxon, her huge hyena jaws ripping into its side, rather like the hammerhead had done to her. Unlike the hammerhead the Taxxon's fellows were not as merciful, and a second Taxxon actually pushed Tanya away only to dive into his fellow worm alien's innards, ensuring that the wound Tanya left behind was fatal, regardless of what she might have thought on the subject. She couldn't help but be appalled by the sight, but she didn't have time to think about it.
A human aimed a Dracon beam at Cassie, who was snapping and darting around another Taxxon, hoping to injure it enough so the others of its kind would turn on it as well. Tanya ran and jumped, gripping the Dracon beam out of the human's grip and utterly destroying it with her teeth. Her teeth and face dripped with Taxxon goo as she turned her head to the human and 'laughed' at him.
He decided he'd rather face the Visser's wrath and ran.
She yelped as a Hork-Bajir cut a deep wound in her flank and turned to bite him, but this one managed to pull back and slashed her eyes. She jerked her head away and felt a sharp pain in her ear. She shook her head as blood began to flow down her face and nearly stepped on at least half of her ear, which was now on the ground. She backed off when a tiger landed on the Hork-Bajir's back and drove it to the ground. Jake was bleeding from his own deep cuts, but he still let out another bone chilling roar, Rachel echoing back with her own deeper voice. Tanya was still hyena laughing. She couldn't seem to help it any more than the others could help with their own roars. She almost wondered what the noise must sound like to an outsider.
((Ah! Help!))
Tanya turned her head just in time to see Cassie being pinned to the ground by yet another Hork-Bajir. She yelped and pawed at the ground but couldn't get traction. Jake yowled and turned to help, but Tanya was closer.
For a brief moment she felt the hyena's instincts taking over. She could have, perhaps, blamed them on what happened next. But she knew in her heart that the hyena only showed her how to do what she wanted to do. The motivation was all Tanya's. She wanted to do it. If she didn't then Cassie could be hurt, and she liked Cassie. Liked all of them.
(They were her cubs, after all)
She was on the Hork-Bajir's back, just like Jake before her. Only this time it was her teeth at the back of the Hork-Bajir's neck. Her jaws closing in on the innocent alien's spine and crushing it. Her fangs met the Hork-Bajir's jugular and tore it open. The Hork-Bajir might as well have been Jara Hamee, but it wasn't. It was a hostage to the evil Yeerk that controlled it. It had no choice, caught in the middle between Tanya and the Yeerk threatening her friend.
But, if all Hork-Bajir were like Jara, then this one might have been glad to be freed, even if that meant dying.
It was over in an instant. The Hork-Bajir was dying, bleeding out on the ground. Tanya didn't even have time to contemplate what she had done. Instead, she had to snap her teeth at a human attempting to shoot her and Cassie, giving Jake enough time to ram into the human and chase him off. Jake looked down at Cassie, finally able to stand, and Tanya hovering protectively close to her.
((You good?)) he asked.
((Yeah, Jake look out!)) Cassie yelled.
Jake roared again and turned to slash at a Taxxon, cutting into its jelly eyes as it tried to charge them. The worm backed off, making a high pitched noise of pain.
All of a sudden, the battlefield went quiet. A human was moving towards them, a human who strode confidently through the battlefield, occasionally kicking a downed Hork-Bajir. A human that looked at them with an expression of pure contempt.
((Visser One)) Rachel growled, clearly ready to charge. Tanya was still taken aback by the sight of a perfectly normal looking human female. She was just so unremarkable that Tanya had a hard time believing that this creature was of higher rank than Visser Three.
((Guys, forget Visser One. We have five minutes until this place blows up! We have to-)) Marco said, but he was interrupted.
Because then Visser Three himself emerged from water by the dock, a gigantic yellow sea serpent, and began to mock Visser One.
None of them, Animorph or Yeerk, noticed that Tanya herself froze at the moment the sea serpent lifted its head. She thought she was over it. She thought she had defeated her stupid phobia, but the sight of the dripping wet giant lizard, the giant sea dinosaur, sent a chill through her that, had Visser Three chosen to attack right then instead of taunting his rival, she would have been easy enough to dispatch. It didn't look enough like a snake to her to register it as a snake. She was fine with giant snakes. She had fought giant snakes before. But while it didn't have any arms or legs the head still was to dinosaur and not enough snake to dispel the fear. She couldn't breathe, couldn't move and it was happening again. She was so busy being afraid she couldn't help anyone. As it was, she only managed to get a hold of herself in time for another fight to break out. But still, she just couldn't move. Couldn't attack that giant sea dinosaur even as it threatened Ax. So instead, she slashed her fangs at more Hork-Bajir and Taxxons and let Rachel and Marco handle Visser Three. They did too. Marco punched Visser Three right back out to sea. Like Grin would have done. He eyed Tanya once before he did it, as if evaluating something, but he didn't bring it up.
But, when the countdown for the base's destruction was suspended, and Rachel went with Ax into the buildings to find and destroy Visser One, who had escaped the battlefield to turn off the self-destruct, Tanya followed. Better to deal with Visser One than a sea dinosaur.
((No! Don't let her kill her!)) Marco's thought speak voice came, and as she ran through office hallways after Rachel and Ax and Visser One, Tanya looked over her shoulder as Marco rapidly approached.
((What?))
Marco blew past her and into the office room where Rachel had cornered Visser One, paw poised to swing. Again, he bellowed.
((No! She's, my mom! Visser One's host body, it's my mom!))
For a moment they all stood there. Rapid fire thought speak bounced between them, but Tanya only half listened. Instead, she watched Visser One, watched Visser Three, who had been knocked back into the ocean and was now swimming outside the facility, and she watched as Visser One went for a Dracon beam to aim at the kids. She ran forward, initially aiming to get the beam out of Visser One's hands.
Either through instinct or purpose, Tanya wasn't sure, but at the sight of the Dracon beam Marco scooped up a chair and threw it at the glass of the large window giving them a view of the sea and Visser Three swimming around outside. The glass cracked, and buckled.
And Tanya knew exactly what would happen. The glass, now cracked, would not be able to hold the water pressure back. It would rush into the office, collapsing the building and causing a chain reaction through the base. It would be flooded, everyone and everything inside it drowned unless they escaped quickly or gained gills.
And Visser One was Marco's mother.
And she could very well die here.
Marco was afraid of sharks. He had frozen when one of them almost bit Tanya in half. She understood that. She froze every time she saw a dinosaur. They both had almost been killed by sharks. They both froze at the sight of something that scared them to their core.
She wasn't going to let him have a third thing in common with her. He wasn't going to watch his mother (like she had watched her mentor) die.
(He wouldn't have to watch like she had to watch the woman who had taught her everything, who had shown her how to fix an engine who had taught her how to take apart a puck pistol who had patiently listened to her childish teenaged bullshit all night be shot in the chest by someone Tanya thought was her friend. DeCoy, why did you do that she raised you too-)
Not if Tanya could help it.
(And somewhere very far and yet closer than her own soul sharp teeth flashed and rainbow eyes shone with mockery and mischief as a voice said 'Well well…twenty.")
Visser One couldn't move fast enough to fight back as Tanya's jaws closed around her shirt collar and held firm as the water rushed and swept them all up. Paddling like her life depended on it Tanya lifted her head as the water carried them through the office. She felt Visser One struggling and kicking and attempting to knock her away but Tanya clung like a stubborn burr and refused to let go. The Yeerk general turned her head and glared at Tanya. She muttered something, but Tanya didn't really get the words. Then, to Tanya's shock, a grey worm slithered out of the host body's ear and dropped into the water. The now presumably human woman gasped at Tanya, no longer smug and self assured but gaping in fear at the large apex predator that had her in its jaws. Tanya was rudely shoved away as a froglike alien she had never seen before scooped up the real Visser, the Yeerk struggling to swim in the salt water, and paddled away.
((Visser One has abandoned the host!)) Tanya looked over to see Ax rapidly morphing to shark. ((Tanya, if you plan on getting the host to safety you might wish to be something other than the hyena?))
What the heck, it wasn't as if the Yeerks all knew by now who she was allied with. She began to rapidly demorph, keeping the human woman firmly in her teeth even as they became significantly less powerful duck teeth. But now she had arms and she could wrap them around Marco's mother and hold her as the two of them were swept closer and closer towards the dock. The human had just enough time to stare at Tanya in shock and exclaim. "Wait, you're not an Andalite!" Before they both were shot through the docks and into the ocean outside.
Even with a full-grown human clinging to her for dear life Tanya was still more buoyant than a human. Still, the human wasn't exactly light, and there were sharks everywhere. Some of them had to be the Animorphs. A lot of them were altered sharks from the base. Still, Tanya focused on surfacing and surfacing fast. A human probably couldn't hold their breath for as long as she could.
A hammerhead aimed for them, and Tanya almost had a heart attack before a different hammerhead rammed it and blocked it. ((Go! We have them! Get Eva out of here!)) Jake bellowed in her mind.
((Wait, is that Visser One?)) Tobias asked. ((And who's Eva?))
((My mom!)) It was Marco, and Tanya really hoped the shark rapidly swimming behind them was him. If not she was going to lose bits of her leg and that might slow down the swimming.
((Wait, your mom? What is going on!)) Cassie yelled.
((Dammit!)) Marco cursed (My mom never drowned. We thought she did, but she was Visser One this entire time. She faked her death to go do…I don't know! Visser One supervillain things! I knew the moment we met her that first time. She's my mom and I never told anyone! But Tanya has her now and we saw the Visser leave her head and she's free and she's my mom and she can't die now!))
((You never told us…)) Cassie didn't sound mad, just stunned.
((It wasn't your problem!)) Marco snarled.
((I knew.)) Jake said. ((I've known Eva for a while. It's fine, guys, just keep the sharks off them. Let them surface.))
((Actually, it appears that the sharks are moving away. The chips must have self liquefied, as I expected when the base was destroyed.)) Ax said, in the tones of one giving a weather report. ((And I can confirm that Visser One escaped her human host. The host body is free.))
((Great, but what are we going to do now? How are we going to hide her!)) That was Rachel, but Tanya couldn't focus on them anymore. She had reached the surface and air, but the woman, Eva, was now very very limp. That wasn't good.
Tanya was close enough to the beach to drag Eva ashore. Eva wasn't breathing, but while Tanya had done this to ducks before she had never tried it on a human. But hadn't done all of this to just let Marco's mother die. Tanya leaned down and attempted to revive the human woman. Breathe into the mouth, press on the chest, breathe again, press again. She really hoped she wasn't breaking the human's ribs but then again that was probably the least of the human's worries. By now the Animorphs had apparently decided that Eva was going to end up seeing them regardless and had demorphed and gathered around them. Tanya could practically feel Marco doing his own panicked wheezing beside her, but he had the presence of mind to not interrupt.
Just as Tanya was starting to fear that she had been too late, Eva suddenly coughed and spat up a nice amount of water. Tanya sighed and helped the human sit up.
"Sorry…I almost drowned you…" Tanya muttered.
Eva barked out a laugh. "I have no idea what the hell you are but you just freed me of a egomaniacal bitch with delusions of grandeur. Drown me any day."
"Oh no, Visser One corrupted her! She's swearing in front of little kids!" Marco found his sense of humor again and placed a hand over his forehead like he was a fainting damsel in a black and white film. "What next, mother? Can you not think of the children?"
Eva froze and slowly turned her head. She stared at Marco, who dropped the act and stared back. Eva shook her head.
"But…you were a Controller…down there we saw you, spoke to you and you…"
"No, I'm not a Controller mom…"
"But…how…you." Eva's eyes widened. "The Andalites…so they did give humans the power to morph they…" She frowned. "Those assholes! How dare they make my kid fight their battles!"
"…well, I now have a new role model." Rachel laughed. Eva gaped at her, still clearly upset.
"Eva it's…not as simple as that…" Jake came forwards and sat in the sand next to them, so he wasn't looming over the former host of Visser One. "There's only one free Andalite here, and the one that gave us the power to morph died. He didn't choose us, we just happened to be in the right place at the right time."
"Or, the wrong place at the wrong time." Marco grumbled.
Eva looked from all four human kids, one Andalite, one hawk and one alien duck and shook her head. "Please…tell me this isn't all of you."
"It is."
"And so, all this time it's just been a bunch of kids and Andalite and a…whatever you are." She pointed at Tanya.
"Duck. I'm a duck." Tanya said helpfully.
Eva just stared. "…okay, fine. I don't really care. You can call yourself Queen of Iceland. I'm still more grateful than anything else, but you have to realize how weird this all is."
"Oh, this is weirder than traveling the galaxy, seeing new places, meeting new aliens and conquering them?" Marco laughed again.
Eva shook her head. "Well, at least your sense of humor is still there."
((While we have much to update this…Marco's female parent, we perhaps should do so on Tanya's ship?)) Ax asked. ((And then, perhaps, we should figure out what to do with her? How do we protect Marco and his father?)) he gave Tanya an almost disgusted look. ((While your actions were heroic, they have put all of us in jeopardy, especially Marco's family))
Eva tilted her head thoughtfully. "Maybe not. You see, a lot of people already think that humans are part of the resistance on Earth, but nobody is admitting it officially. That's because of Visser One, oddly enough."
Everyone focused on Eva. "Really?" Jake said. "Tell us more. But we should get to the ship, it's parked fairly close." Jake got up and offered a hand to Eva, who took it gratefully. As they started to escort her back to the ship, Jake letting her lean on him all the way, Eva explained some more.
"You see, there are already reports that show…inconsistencies that indicate that some of you are human. No one knows you are human kids, but they know that some of you are human. But it doesn't get back to the Council of Thirteen and it doesn't go back to Visser Three. Visser One has been spending spies here and making sure that Visser Three doesn't get the entire picture."
"But why would she do that, wouldn't that hurt the Yeerks?" Rachel asked, confused.
"Politics." Cassie said. "The same reason she freed us on the mother ship that one time. Visser One wants Visser Three to fail, more than she wants the Yeerks to win."
Eva nodded. "Exactly. The truth is, Visser Three and Visser One are constantly trying to sabotage each other. One of their favorite tricks is keeping each other on the wrong assignment. Visser One is better at secret invasions and subterfuge, she's a much better choice for Earth. But a planet like, say, Leera where they would have to take it by force, they should give that to Visser Three. So, neither of them are utilized in their best way, and they still constantly try and ruin each other's plans. Visser One knows that the longer Visser Three hasn't dealt with the 'Andalite Bandits' the worse he looks. And, if he ever is kicked off Earth, she can swoop in and later prove that he so incompetent he failed to notice that there was a resistance of humans helping the Andalites. He'd look like an utter fool in front of their leaders. So Visser One isn't going to go after Marco or my husband even if she guesses that Marco is helping the Andalite Bandits. She doesn't care, and if Marco is causing problems for Visser Three she's happy. Now, if she does take over the invasion, then we have a problem. But as long as Visser Three is in charge, Visser One isn't going to move against us no matter how much knowledge she has." By this point they had entered the Aerowing and gotten Eva to a seat. She gave Tanya another studious look. "You're one of the new host bodies…well I mean you're clearly not a Controller, but now I think I remember Edriss getting a report about your people."
"Edriss?" Jake asked.
"Edriss 562. Visser One's original Yeerk name." Eva grinned. "She hates it when I call her that."
"Yeah, I am. I'm the only one that's not a Controller." Tanya said, focusing on getting the Aerowing in the air.
Eva sighed. "I'm sorry…" She looked around the cabin of the Aerowing, deep in thought. "Like I said, Visser One isn't going to expose us, but we should probably make it look less like a rescue. Visser Three is more inclined towards Andalite bias, but even he will have to ask why in the world the Andalites risked so much to rescue a mere human host."
Marco hesitated, then sighed. "I got an idea. It's…not a great idea, but I think it might work."
Jake looked at him. "What it is it?"
"Picture this. Tanya here is clearly a new addition to the team. Maybe the Yeerks are asking themselves where the hyena came from. Obviously normal people will realize that we gave Tanya the morphing ability, but Visser Three has an Andalite bias. So, maybe we got a new Andalite. An Andalite with a mission. Assassinate Visser One." Everyone was looking at Marco. He took a deep breath and looked at his mother. "You faked your death once before. We could do it again. Make it look like you were collateral damage, that the hyena's goal was to take out Visser One, and she just failed."
"We'd have to come up with a body." Eva said. The Yeerks would need evidence of some kind. They aren't like humans; they'd catch on if I just vanished."
"The Chee." Marco said.
"The who?" Eva asked.
"Androids they're pacifists, but they have remarkable holographic technology. They can make it look like your body just…washed up on shore one day. Maybe not on our shore, but close enough for it to be realistic. The Yeerks assume you were collateral damage. The humans think that you just washed up finally after being lost at sea…" Marco sighed. "It'll hurt dad, but it's the only way I can think of to keep you safe from them, at least for now. We can tell Dad what's going on later. I…I'm not sure he can keep the secret. He sort of…he went through a bad patch when you vanished, Mom."
"She can stay with me…if you want, I mean." Tanya said. "We can keep her hidden out in the woods."
Eva nodded. "I can rough it for however long I need. And, if you can find me some Yeerk technology or even Andalite technology I can do even more for you." She looked around at them. "Every Visser has their own computer passwords and channels. I might not be able to hack into Visser Three's more top secret plans, but I can keep an ear on their chatter. I can monitor their messages and listen in. And, if needed, I can pass on information to the Yeerks as well."
"Why would we ever want to pass on info to the Yeerks?" Rachel growled.
Marco smiled. "More politics. Spread rumors, lay false trails. 'Hey, did you hear what Visser One is planning for our boss?' Things like that." Eva nodded, giving her son a proud look.
"I think, between Ax you and me, we can come up with something." Tanya said. "Ax is our expert in Yeerk and Andalite technology, and I build supercomputers as a hobby."
Ax scuffed his hoof. ((I…would not be averse to such an idea.)) He said, sounding very grudging about the entire thing.
"And I do know Edriss's codes. As long as she doesn't think to change them, I can keep an eye on her. Sabotage her. Cause issues for her. Make sure we know if she comes back to Earth."
Jake nodded. "Sounds like a plan."
Visser Three could have killed her right there.
When the Leeran-Controller brought the Yeerk that was Visser One back to the mothership above Earth, Visser Three honestly considered simply killing them both and blaming the Andalite Bandits assassination attempt. Oh, he was sure it was an assassination attempt now, not that he wouldn't spread rumors about her talking with the Andalites and conspiring with them, but in his stolen Andalite hearts he knew that it was an assassination. No doubt the fools who claimed the Earth creature known as a 'hyena' was actually one of those moronic new host bodies would be silent now. There was no way one of those soft things was the vicious killer he saw down there. It had readily ripped and tore into Taxxon and Hork-Bajir alike, and none of those 'ducks' had the fortitude for that. No, that 'hyena' was an Andalite, and one that had almost killed Visser One.
Pity the foolish warrior had failed.
That the Andalites were sheltering the 'duck' scientist he had no doubt, but to let it have the morphing ability? Let it join them in battle? Have it perform high profile assassinations and for it to kill Yeerks so readily? No.
As much as he wanted to end Visser One, he knew that it would bring far too much scrutiny to him. Better for her to fail, and fail and keep failing, until the Council of Thirteen themselves had no choice but to execute her personally. It would be so much more satisfying to watch her fall on her own lack of merit.
Until then, he could strike his own kind of blows.
((That will be the only host she gets.)) The Visser roared at the cowering Leeran-Controller that had been attending Visser One through her visit to her collapsed underwater base. ((I know that she prefers humans anyway. Who cares what kind of human she infests? We have few hosts available since the Kandrona was destroyed. She will have that host or none at all!)) He twitched his tail towards the cowering yellow amphibian (A human might have described the Leeran as looking similar to a yellow frog) and watched as the small human girl screamed as her head was forced into the pool. It was one of their young, not even old enough to be aged in human double digits. If he was right the human grub was the equivalent of about nine turns around the Earth's sun? Maybe eight? That was young for humans, he thought. Either way she was small and weak and ugly. Even worse looking than adult humans. Still, imagining this tiny thing attempting to command Visser One's forces would provide Visser Three with enough amusement to last a few Earth weeks.
Finally, the undersized human stopped screaming and thrashing. She blinked and raised herself upwards. It was almost eerie, seeing the human child going from screaming panic to the calm, cold visage of Visser One. Visser One blinked. "…Madra?" She murmured. Visser Three had no idea what that meant, but he didn't care. Humans had too many different ways to say things. Why use so many different useless languages? Why hadn't a superior human faction already taken over and simplified things? He hated Earth and humans so much. Awful creatures. Weak. Clumsy. Backwards. Not as elegant and powerful as Andalites. Still, they suited the lower masses.
((I hope you enjoy your tiny human host, Visser One.)) Visser Three began to gloat. He felt he deserved it. The stupid monkey bandit had punched him, and he rather resented that.
Visser Ones' head snapped towards him; her ugly human face scrunched in pure hatred. "Leave. Now." She snarled. It was clearly a command. Normally, Visser Three might have given her grief, but he was too elated at her reaction. No doubt she was humiliated.
((Very well. I do hope you find your troops as…easy to command as I…)) Visser Three laughed as he turned away. ((That is if they can hear you from all the way down there!))
For a long moment Visser One sat there next to the small portable pool her Leeran assistant had brought her to. She stared at the familiar human hands before her. Madra. How had that incompetent fool found her of all humans? There was no way that the Visser did this on purpose, he would have gloated about that rather than her host's height.
Speaking of which, the child…Madra, was screaming in her mind. She had no idea what a Yeerk was. Had no idea who Edriss was.
((Madra. Hush.)) Edriss calmed herself. ((It's fine. It will be fine. I'm your mother, Madra.))
The girl's horror was like poison in Edriss' mind. ((What? No! I don't have a mother! My mother was a human! Get out! Leave me alone, I want to go home! I want to go back to my foster family! Let me go!))
((No…no. I have you back. I can keep you safe. We can find Darwin, keep you both safe…)) Maybe it was better this way. Maybe it was good. She began to show Madra what she really was. Showed her how Edriss had found Earth. How she had taken over humans until she had taken over Madra's mother, Allison. How her subordinate Essam 293 had taken a male human host. How they had Madra and Darwin with their human hosts and lived as humans for a time, until Edriss had chosen to return back to the Yeerk Empire and start the invasion of Earth. With each memory that Edriss showed her 'daughter', however, the human became more and more inconsolable.
Perhaps the mind of a human child was too simple for all of it to make sense. No matter. Edriss had all the time in the world to teach her daughter how to behave. It was the task of a mother to teach her child. Eva had taught her that…
Eva.
She turned to the Leeran-Controller. "The Andalite that killed Eva?"
((No Andalite, Visser One. I didn't get a lot from her mind, but my host was able to read enough. She is one of the new bird hosts. The only free one, in fact.)) The Leeran confirmed.
"The duck? Interesting…very interesting…" Visser One got up, her child now silent in the back of her mind. Her face now a mask of cold professionalism. "I suppose we will have to learn more about these…ducks, won't we…especially the free one."
((I was able to read her name, but little else of use. Tanya. Interesting, it sounds like a human name.))
"Really? It is a human name. How very, very interesting." Visser One pondered. Yes, this was worth keeping an eye on. Visser Three had no vision. If the ducks had half the potential that humans did, it was worth it to keep an eye on the situation. Of course, she had to deal with the Leeran home world, but once that was taken care of, all the stood in the way of her Earth was that fool Visser Three. Once he was dealt with, she could take the Earth as was her right.
And maybe after that, the duck's world.
The sun was falling, and Eva stared at what was going to be her new 'home'.
"You know, I always wanted to try this place out, but my own mom thought it was a bit…much." She grinned at the computer corner. "Still, if we can get this up and running it should be useful enough." She sighed and looked at Jake. "I don't think I should join you in actual fights. I…just don't think I can do that."
Jake nodded. "Whatever you can do to help, Eva. It'll be more than we had before. But you don't have to do anything. You've had enough of this war."
"Jake, that's sweet, but if I don't help who will?" She sighed. "You kids already are doing too much…"
Marco shook his head. "Just you wait. Once we are done with the Yeerks we can all go back to being average students, failed middle school basketball players and hockey playing vigilantes…" He smirked at Tanya. "One of these things is not like other…" He sang, only to be interrupted by Eva's sudden hug. "Awww, moooooom…." He pretended to protest, but his body sort of melted at her hug and he wrapped his arms around her waist, and, for a moment, he was simply a child finally in the arms of his missing mother. His head was turned away from them, but if anyone noticed the tears in eyes, they had the grace to file out of the camp basement and not mention it.
"We'll take a few normal days, at least for now." Jake looked around at the others as they all started to turn into birds. Or at least, Cassie, Rachel and Ax morphed. Tobias was himself, though he would fly to his own meadow soon. "We need some time to adjust to all of this."
((Yeah, is Marco going to handle the Chee?)) Tobias asked.
((Yeah.)) Jake said as he morphed to falcon. ((He'll set everything up. We should be good. Stay alert, just in case though.))
((I shall be very alert.)) Ax was done morphing harrier, but he kept his glare on Tanya. ((This is still very dangerous and unwise. You have put us all in jeopardy.))
((Hey, maybe lay off.)) Rachel grumbled. ((What's done is done. It's not ideal, but we have to live with it.))
((I am aware.)) Ax sniffed somehow in his mind, Tanya wasn't sure how his tone managed to convey a sniff of disdain but there it was and flew off with a huff.
Tobias sighed. ((Just give him time he's…well.)) Tobias spread his wings. ((For what it's worth, Tanya, I think you did the right thing. He's right, we have to be more cautious now, but it was still the right thing…)) He too, flew off.
Neither Cassie or Rachel had much else to say as they joined the others in the sky. Maybe they just simply didn't know what to think. Tanya wasn't sure. Humans could be hard to read.
Jake, still a falcon, lingered. ((I agree with Tobias. You did the right thing. We can handle what comes next.)) he turned his falcon gaze on her. ((I…I'm really grateful. Marco's had it hard since she vanished, and after he found out what she was. Now, he has her back, and it's thanks to you.))
"I really didn't do that much." Tanya said quietly.
((Tanya, you really need to stop selling yourself short.)) Jake flicked his tail as Marco climbed out of the ladder hole. ((You good to fly, man?)) Jake asked as Marco gave him a cocky grin.
"Yeah, I sure am. You go ahead, can't have us looking like Top Gun: Bird Edition." Marco began to morph an osprey. Once he was done, he sort of hesitated as Jake started his own climb upwards.
((Hey, Tanya.)) He sighed mentally. ((I don't want to make a big deal out of it. But I owe you a big one. You ever need a favor, just ask. I'm with you all the way.))
Tanya watched as Marco flew upwards. She kept watching as the last signs of the Animorphs faded into the sky.
After the sun fell, she finally went back inside, no longer as alone as she had been.
A/N: And now we start the part where Tanya's presence actually starts to change the course of Animorphs. It's still too early for everything to go completely off the rails, but the track is shaking now. Visser One is in the body of her daughter. Eva is free and ready to act as the spymaster/mission control. And the ducks are now being observed by a Visser with a brain.
The fox and the robot are my own creations who show up in a few of my works to be pests and ruin everyone's day. Even their fellow higher powers. Why? Because I can.
The grasshopper salad joke was brought to you by the actual grasshopper my mom found in her salad. Just sitting there at the bottom. Staring at her. She isn't eating anymore Dennys for a while.
Until next time.