The Betrayal

by CobraGirl

_________________________

My name is David.
Yes, I know what you're thinking. The 'bad' Animorph.
The one that was outwitted, trapped in rat morph, and left on an
island in the middle of the ocean. The one that came closer than
Visser Three and the other Yeerks to killing the Animorphs.
Well, I got news for you, pal. There was nothing else I could do.
If I had gone out in public as a human, I would have been tackled by
Controllers and infested before I could even blink. And the Animorphs?
They were no help at all. They pushed me around. They treated me
like scum. And then they turned around and expected me to thank them.
But I would never thank them. Never. I would get them, if it was the
last thing I did.
I would have my revenge.

Dawn was beginning to break as I scampered out of the hole in the
ground that had become my home. I immediately began to search for
food. The food supply had begun to dwindle from the overpopulation
of rats on the island. Sometimes I went for an entire day without
eating. But I had learned that most other rats weren't early risers,
so if I got up early, I could maybe find some food before the others
did.
There was a small cluster of wheat on the far side of the island that
I knew about. I headed over there, clambering over slippery rocks and
dodging the ever-present waves. Because it was so far away, few rats
knew about it. I was sure to get something.
Eventually the golden stalks of wheat began to tower above me.
To my dismay, about thirty other rats had had the same idea as me.
Most were already at work, climbing up the stalks and grabbing wheat
grains from them, occasionally pausing to shove the grains in their
mouth. I sighed and carefully maneuvered up a stalk. At the top, I
hurriedly began to gather the grains, stuffing as many in my mouth as
I could. Then I grasped a kernel in my front paws and dropped from the
stalk. As I darted from the field, I collided with another rat. But
not just any rat. The rat. The one that had been trying to steal my
food and home for the past week. He had gray fur, unlike my own white.
There was a large bare patch of skin on his back, gotten from God
knows where. He eyed the single grain of wheat clutched in my paws
with his beady, black eyes.
<No,> I said. <You're not getting my food. Just leave me alone.>
Not that he understood me. As far as I know, I'm the only rat with a
human mind on this island.
Bare Patch, as I had started to call him, glared at me in utter
disgust. Then he shot out his paws with the quickness of a snake and
grabbed the kernel. I kept my grip on it, turning it into a tug of
war.
<It's mine. MINE!!> I shrieked as I yanked it as hard as I could.
<Get your own food, you stupid rat!>
Bare Patch just yanked even harder, and soon I was flat on my back,
watching him run off with the kernel shoved in his cheek.
<Fine,> I said in a beaten voice. <Fine. Just take it. See if I care.>
I rolled over and began to walk home.
I hated my life. I really did. If I wasn't such a wuss, I would have
jumped off one of the many rocks around this place and thrown myself
into the ocean. But for some reason, I stayed here, in my miserable
existence. Maybe I was just hoping for a miracle. After all, Tobias
had gotten his morphing powers back after he had been trapped.
My ears picked up a low rumbling. A throbbing, , struggling against
the wrist bands.
<Oh, just a little something,> I said with an evil leer.
<You know, all this time, Visser Three has had a serum that can
disable the morphing power. It can be given to anyone with the power
to morph. In fact, he was planning to use it on us, once we were
captured.> I jerked my head sideways, and a Hork-Bajir gave Jake a
kick to his back. He sprawled across the Blade Ship's floor.
 Jake fought to get to his knees,
his hands trembling in a combination of fear and anger. A Hork-Bajir
roughly seized his arm and plunged the needle into it. Jake gave an
almost inhuman wail of pain and struggled to get away. But it was to
no avail, and soon the needle was withdrawn, covered in blood
and still dripping a bit of the serum from its tip. He collapsed to
the floor and lay there, blood slowly dripping from the puncture wound
in his upper arm.
"You'll never get away with this, David," he muttered in pure hatred.
<Maybe you're going deaf, Jake,> I snarled. <Because I clearly said
that I am now Sub-Visser Twenty.>
"I don't care what your name is now!" he screamed suddenly, jumping
to his feet. "I'll kill you! I..."
<Take him to the holding cell.> This command came not from me, but
from Visser Three. <Make sure he doesn't escape. Because if he does,
all of you will die.> He swept the line of Hork-Bajir with his eyes.
"Yes, Visser." One of the Hork-Bajir pulled out his Dracon beam, set
it to level one, and shot the still-screaming Jake in the head.
His words were abruptly cut off as he fell like a tree and was caught
by the Hork-Bajir. They promptly dragged him down.
<Are you going to infest him?> I asked Visser Three.
<Of course,> he snapped. 
There was something nagging me at the back of my head, but I was
afraid to speak it out loud. What if the serum didn't wear off?
What if it rendered Jake and the others permanently incapable of
morphing? I started to tremble at the thought. Because I knew that if
the plan failed, chances where that Visser Three would take it out on
me. And when Visser Three takes his anger out on you, you don't
usually survive.
<Do you think that maybe you should infest Jake now? Maybe if you do,
he could be used as a decoy to aid in capturing the other Animorphs,>
I hesitantly suggested.
He swiveled a stalk eye towards me. <Because you are a new ally,
I will forgive you for your incompetence. I did not get to the top of
the Yeerk hierarchy by having no clue as to what I was doing.>
His other stalk eye focused on me and sent me a glare that made me
shudder.
<On the other hand,> he continued, 
I looked up at him hopefully. <You think like a true Yeerk, not a
human. That will surely land you a spot as a Visser in the coming
years. And since this is more your plan than my own, you may do what
you please with it. But if you fail...>
He raised his tail into a threatening position.
<Oh, I understand,> I said hurriedly. I dropped down from the table
I had been standing on and scurried off, looking for Jake's holding
cell. It didn't take long for me to locate it - it was the only one
surrounded by about twenty Hork-Bajir.
<We are going to infest this human,> I whispered to them.
<Prepare a portable Yeerk pool and bring it to the cell when you are
done.>
The Hork-Bajir nodded, and about ten of them raced off to prepare the
Yeerk pool. I glanced at Jake, still unconscious in the cell.
The blood from the injection was beginning to clot, leaving an
ugly-looking scab on his arm. At that moment, I almost felt sorry for
him. But then I was reminded of the time I broke into a hotel in bird
morph. He had found me and said, basically, that he would kill me if
I did something like that again. Soon my pity evaporated,
replaced by a hard feeling in my heart.
Within minutes I heard a faint scraping sound as the Hork-Bajir
wheeled a portable Yeerk pool, which looked like a Jacuzzi, over to
the cell. They unlocked the door and pushed it inside, close to Jake.
One of them knelt down and pulled Jake upright, moving his head over
the pool. And then he woke up.
"Huh? Wha?" he murmured. Then he opened his eyes and saw the leaden
water of the pool. "Oh, god. No! NOOO!" He screamed bloody murder and
thrashed against the Hork-Bajir guards as they pushed his head lower
and lower.
<Oh, I'm sorry, Jake,> I mocked. <Did we wake you?>
"David! How did I guess it would be you?!" he shouted angrily.
"Listen, and listen good, you filthy rat. I swear to God, I will kill
you. I will destroy you for what you've done, if it's the last thing
I do! I - " But just then his head was forced under the pool's
surface. I held my breath as he continued to flail, then let it out
in a long whoosh as his limbs stopped moving. As the Hork-Bajir pulled
him upright again, I saw the tail end of the Yeerk slurp into his
head. He seemed dazed for a few seconds before his eyes slowly
scanned the room, then blinked. The Hork-Bajir released their hold on
him.
<So, Arghan two-nine-one, how do you like your new host?> I asked him.
"It's...fine," he said haltingly. He gazed at the iron bands that
still held him, then brought them up. "Could you please remove these
things? I see no use for them."
I nodded my tiny rat head, and a Hork-Bajir aimed its wrist blade and
sliced through the band, forming two metal bracelets around his
wrists. He then took each of his hands and made tiny, precise cuts
along the bracelets. The bands clattered to the floor.
"Thank you." Jake, or more accurately, Arghan, gently rubbed his
wrists.
<Now, your host has been given an injection that temporarily disabled
his morphing power,> I said, silently adding the word <hopefully>
at the end of the sentence. <So you will be in a normal human body
until the serum wears off.>
He nodded.
<The plan is actually quite simple. We will drop you off at your
host's home. You will then proceed to get in touch with the other
Animorphs and tell them that there is an emergency meeting at your
house. As soon as all of them have congregated, persuade Tobias to
morph human. As soon as that is complete, the Animorphs will be
captured and infested. Any questions?>
"No, Sub-Visser Twenty," he said.
<Oh, and by the way,> I added. <To make sure you don't screw up,
I'm going to be with you in the so-called meeting. If anything at all
goes wrong, you will be explaining it not only to Visser Three, but
to my friend Sub-Visser Forty-Eight as well. Understood?>
He nodded quickly, a faint flicker of fear in his eyes.
<Good. Now, then, someone get Arghan a Dracon beam. It's time to
pay a visit to the Animorphs.>

____________________________________

It didn't take long for Arghan to reach the Animorphs. I guess he
just opened up Jake's mind to get their telephone numbers. How they
got in touch with Ax and Tobias, God only knows. Maybe he got someone
like Rachel to morph a bird and go out and get them. But, either way,
they were soon all in Jake's room, with Ax and Tobias in human morph.
Because being jammed in Jake's pocket was far from comfortable,
not to mention the fact that I couldn't see anything from there,
I managed to talk Arghan into letting me sit on Jake's bookshelf.
I wedged myself back in a corner, where there were plenty of shadows
to hide me from view, and watched the "meeting" that took place.
"So why are we here, O great fearless leader?" Marco said with a grin.
Arghan rolled his eyes at Marco's remark. Just as Jake would have
done. I laughed silently to myself. This plan was going to go off
without a hitch.
"We're here because of something I overheard from Tom," he lied.
"Apparently, the Sharing is going to be taking a trip up into the
mountains."
"So?" Tobias asked in his unfamiliar human voice.
"So they're taking a bunch of people who are going to become full
members along with them. They're going to use one of the caves to
infest people."
"Let me guess. We're going to go and stop this from happening,"
Cassie said with a slight smile.
"You're a mind-reader, Cassie," Arghan joked. "We'll probably fly up
there, demorph, then remorph and attack them."
"That's easy enough," Rachel commented. "Let's- "
" - do it," Marco finished. "We know, we know, mighty Xena just has
to say that before every mission we do."
Everyone laughed, except for Arghan. Upon inspection, I saw his hand
edge towards the pocket that held his Dracon beam. The laughter
slowly died down as everyone saw his serious look.
"Jake?" Cassie asked. "Jake, are you all right?"
"Nobody move," he said as he pulled out the Dracon and aimed it in
one fluid motion. He pointed it to each of the Animorphs in turn.
"The first person who tries to morph is the first person to die."
"Whoa, Jake. Where'd you get that Dracon?" Marco asked in a worried
voice.
Then I saw the realization sweep over his face. "Oh. No. You're a
Controller."
<You always were quick to pick up on everything, Marco,> I said,
making my presence known. To Arghan, I whispered, <Could you help me
down from here?>
He walked to the bookshelf and placed his hand onto it.
I scampered on, like someone boarding an elevator. He lowered his
cupped hand until I came into view. I saw a look of pure rage and
hatred cross Rachel's face as she saw me.
"You," she hissed.
<What? You didn't miss me?> I said in a fake pout.
She clenched her jaw. "David, if you weren't a tenth of my size and
didn't have a quarter of my intelligence, I'd kill you right here,
right now. But I believe in a fair fight."
<Oooh, that really stung, Xena,> I said with a snicker.
<Of course, I don't think you'll be getting a fight any time soon.
Because, see, Visser Three's Blade Ship is hovering above the house
right now. As soon as I signal, he'll come down and force all of you
aboard, where you'll quickly be infested. Like little Jakie boy here.>
I laughed. <I'm now in alliance with the Yeerks, in case you haven't
noticed. And everything I know, they now know.
And I mean everything.>
Cassie drew in a deep breath and closed her eyes. I thought I saw a
tear trickle down her face. Then she opened her eyes and did the last
thing I could have possibly expected. She lunged forward and seized me
by the tail, jerking me up into the air. I squeaked and started to
motor my legs on pure instinct.
<Visser!> I shouted up to the Blade Ship. <Send down the
reinforcements quickly! Arghan and I are having some difficulties!>
Cassie brought me up until I was looking straight into her tear-filled
eyes.
"You know, David, when everyone else suggested killing you, I
opposed them," she whispered. "I didn't want to kill anyone. So we
trapped you in morph instead." She sighed. "But it looks like I made
the wrong choice. I'm starting to think that we should have killed
you."
Suddenly, Arghan grabbed Cassie and pressed the Dracon against her
head. "I would suggest putting him down, Cassie dearest," he said
sarcastically. She swallowed hard, but gently lowered me into Arghan's
waiting hand. He released his hold on her as several Hork-Bajir burst
into the room, each carrying the biggest Dracon Beams I'd ever seen
in my life.
"Out the window," one of them said, gesturing towards the window.
The Blade Ship had come down and was hovering beside it, the door
lined up with the window. "If any of you try to morph, you will be
killed in an instant." He shoved Marco in the small of his back with
the Dracon as the other Hork-Bajir did the same with the rest of the
Animorphs. They all began to board the Blade Ship. Arghan and
I followed as soon as all of them were aboard.
A movement suddenly caught my eye. It was Rachel, who had been the
first person to board the ship. She was beginning to change. Her
ears began to travel up the sides of her head. Brown fur was starting
to sprout from her bare arms. She was getting taller.
<Rachel, sometimes you are just so stubborn that it blows my mind.
Didn't Arghan clearly explain that if you morphed, you would die?>
To the Hork-Bajir that was guarding her, I coldly added, <Kill her.>
The Hork-Bajir pulled the trigger of his Dracon beam and shot Rachel
in the head at point-blank range. She let out an awful scream, half
human, half grizzly, and collapsed to the floor. A pool of blood
slowly spread around her like a red halo.
"RACHEL!" Tobias screamed. He broke free of the guards and rushed to
her side. "Rachel, no. Don't leave me. Please. Please..."
Tears began to run down his face as he cradled her head in his hands,
oblivious to the blood that stained them.
She looked up at him with a faint smile on her face.
"Tobias..." she whispered in a hoarse voice.
He was crying hard now, sobbing as Rachel reached up and touched his
cheek with a hand that was mutated and covered in brown fur.
"Tobias," she repeated.
"I never got to tell you..."
"You didn't need to," he choked out as he hugged her.
"I knew. I always did."
<Oh, gag me,> I muttered. I expected that the Hork-Bajir would shoot
Tobias as well, for trying to escape. But they stayed perfectly
still as he held the dying Rachel in his arms, his tears mixing with
her blood. After a few minutes, Rachel's hand fell to her side as her
eyes closed for the last time.
"Rachel, no. Come back. Come back to me!" he cried as he hugged her
tighter.
"Don't go! Rachel, please! NO!!"
Cassie turned her face away and covered it with her hands,
her shoulders shaking as she cried. Marco carefully aimed his eyes at
the ground, trying to escape the scene that had been laid before him.
Even Ax closed his eyes in an attempt to shut out Tobias' mournful
screams.
<Let that be a lesson to the rest of you,> I said.
<Does anyone else still want to try and morph?> No one replied.
<That's what I thought. You.> I nodded to the Hork-Bajir that had
shot Rachel. <Clean up this filth, then prepare another Yeerk pool
for the rest of our guests.>
He nodded.
<And the rest of you. Take the Animorphs to a holding cell and
quadruple the guard. The first ones to be infested should be Ax and
Tobias, so they can avoid being trapped in human morph. And if there
is any trouble, kill them all.>

_______________________________________

It took the strength of nearly five Hork-Bajir to pry Tobias off of
Rachel's mutated, bloody body. As he was dragged to the cell, he kept
calling her name, over and over again. Personally, I think he had
snapped. Sure, I knew those two liked each other, but give me a break!
I felt like screaming to him, "She's dead, okay? Get over it!"
I expected that the Blade Ship would lift off as soon as everyone
was aboard. But to my disappointment, we were forced to stay in the
atmosphere for quite some time. I wasn't sure why, but I think it had
something to do with several planes that passed above us during our
ascent. We were still in the atmosphere of Earth as the Animorphs
were herded to a cell.
I took it upon myself to stay outside the Animorphs' cell while the
pool was being prepared. One of the Hork-Bajir guards was kind enough
to let me perch on his shoulder, so I didn't have to worry about
getting stomped on. Arghan was there as well, looking on with an air
of smugness as the remaining Animorphs paced back and forth in the
cell. All except for Tobias, who was grasping at the bars of the cage,
mumbling "Rachel. Rachel. Rachel."
Arghan glared at Tobias. "You mind shutting up, Bird-Boy?" he snapped.
"We all know you miss your little Rachel, okay? You've made that
plenty clear."
Tobias jerked his head up. For a minute that seemed to stretch into an
hour, he stared at Arghan with eyes that were filled with anger and
sadness. Then he stared back down at the floor of the cell.
I saw a single tear drop from his eye.
"How long have you been in morph, Ax?" Marco questioned, never
stopping his pacing for a moment.
"Tobias and I have been in morph for approximately one hour and
thirty-nine of your minutes. Min. Uts. Uts," Ax replied. pulsating
sound that came from the sea. It was something I had only heard a
few times before, but it always brought me a flicker of hope.
A motorboat engine!
<Hey!> I yelled. I started to run towards the shore, scanning the
ocean with my weak rat eyes. It took a while before I saw the
motorboat begin to pass by the island.
<HEY!> I shouted again as I took off alongside it.
<STOP! HELP! GET ME OFF THIS ISLAND! HELP ME!!>
The driver looked around in confusion. He had heard me. I knew he had.
But he just continued on by, not stopping to heed my call.
<No!> I shouted as I stopped, watching the boat race off towards the
mainland. <Don't go! Help me! Nooooo!>
I looked up at the sky. <What did I do to deserve this?!>
I hollered. <Tell me! What did I do?> The last words were in a bare
whisper. I hung my head and began to walk home again.
After what seemed like forever, I was back at the entrance to my
burrow. But something wasn't right. The ground around it...it was too
worn. There were several tracks around it, made by a rat much bigger
than me. And the tunnel seemed bigger than normal. With a very bad
feeling, I darted inside. Under the dim light from the tunnel
entrance, I saw what had caused the disturbance outside my burrow.
It was another rat. At first, I thought it was just a rat that had
happened to wander into my burrow. But then I saw the patch of bare
skin on his back.
<You,> I hissed. Bare Patch whipped around and studied me with his
eyes. His eyes almost seemed to be reminiscent of Tobias' -
they both had eyes that made you want to look away, their gaze was so
intense.
<Get out!> I roared. <Why won't you just leave me alone?> Without
even thinking I swiped at him with my paw. Bare Patch hissed angrily,
then pounced on me, his little paws flailing at my eyes.
<Aaah!> One of his hits had connected. I felt blood begin to gush
from my forehead. I twisted around and found his ear, then bit down
on it as hard as I could. He let out a loud squeak and backed off
for a second, then hurled himself at me again and left a bright red
streak across my back.
I began gasping for air. I had to get out of here before I died.
But that would mean that the stupid rat had beaten me. And I didn't
like that idea.
What are you, nuts? I thought. You've gotta get out of here!
I retreated from my burrow, still bleeding from the gashes across my
face and back. It was all I could do not to faint halfway up the
tunnel. Maybe I was just being delusional, but it almost sounded as
if Bare Patch's triumphant squeaks were laughter.
<That's it,> I said to no one in particular.

I began to drag myself over to one of the rocks that lined the shore.
I was beaten. For the first time in my life, I felt really, truly
beaten. My home...gone. My food...well, how could I get food with
Bare Patch breathing down my furry little neck, ready to run off with
it at any second? My hope...that was given up a long, long time ago.
And revenge? Get real. How could I beat the Animorphs when I couldn't
even fend off a normal rat with an IQ of about 5?
I started a slow climb up the rock, fighting to maintain my footing.
Each wave that swept over the rock threatened to plunge me into the
sea. But I wasn't going to drown. Not yet, anyway. From time to time
I would stop to rest on a tiny plateau, then continue my climb.
Then I was at the top, overlooking the ocean below. My whiskers felt
the slight spray of saltwater as a wave crashed against the rock's
base. The salty spray made my cuts sting something terrible.
I may have only been six feet up, but it would be enough. I looked out
at the sea one last time, then slowly closed my eyes.
<Good-bye, cruel world,> I whispered, uttering the stupid cliche
I'd heard on TV so many times when I had been human. And then I
hurled myself off the rock.
You know how people say that your life flashes before your eyes
when you're about to die? It's not true. It wasn't for me, anyway.
As I plummeted towards the waves, a single memory surfaced in my
mind, so real it was like I was living it again. It was the memory of
my very first morph: a golden eagle.
I was soaring high above the clouds, my large wings outstretched to
catch the thermal beneath me. Oh, the feeling of ecstasy! The feeling
of pure, absolute freedom! It was overwhelming. I owned the sky.
I could go anywhere I wanted to, see all the places I'd only dreamed
about. And my eyes...it was as if I had a pair of binoculars
permanently attached to my face. Even though I was a thousand feet up,
I could distinguish every blade of grass on the ground below me.
I was suddenly jarred out of the memory as I hit something with a
loud THUNK!
<Huh?> I opened my eyes. To my amazement, I was not in the ocean,
but on the floor of a rowboat. It had passed underneath me just
before I leapt to my supposed doom.
<AAH!> I screamed in pain. Unfortunately for me, the bottom of the
rowboat had a small puddle of saltwater in it, which I had landed in
by sheer dumb luck. It felt like my back and face was on fire!
I kept screaming until I had scrambled up onto one of the rowboat
seats and was frantically rubbing my face to try and stop the
stinging.
"Andalite?"
I jerked my head up, my little rat body trembling in fear.
The face above me was of a woman, maybe five and a half feet tall.
Her wavy red hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and there was a
slight dusting of freckles across her face. Her deep blue eyes leaned
close to me as I stared up at her. But it was what I couldn't see
that made her stand out. Only Yeerks know about the Andalites.
This woman was a Controller.
<No,> I said. <I'm not an Andalite.>
She looked confused. "But only Andalites have the power to morph."
I shook my head. <My name is David. No doubt you've heard of me.>
"Ah, yes. The human child that Visser Three attempted to capture
after he witnessed that one battle."
<Well, I'm not exactly human any more. I'm a nothlit. Those...the
Andalite bandits outwitted me and trapped me in morph.>
She snorted. "Typical Andalite behavior. Always destroy off what is
lowlier than you." She glanced around her, then back down at me.
"I'll strike a deal with you, David. Give me the names of the
Andalites who have been causing Visser Three so much agony.
If you do, then you will be given a most wonderful place in the
Yeerk empire - a sub-visser, at the very least. Although you cannot
be infested, I can probably work something out with the Council of
Thirteen." She had an expectant look on her face.
Suddenly, I smiled. Well, not exactly, since rats can't smile.
But you know what I mean. I may have lost my human life, my hope,
and my home and food. And at one point, I had thought I had lost
this too. But now here it was again, placed in front of me on a
silver platter. Something I could not refuse.
The chance for revenge.
<Oh, I can take you up on that deal,> I said with an evil laugh.

_____________________________________

<They are not Andalites,> I explained. <They are, in fact, humans.
Remember when Prince Elfangor's ship crashed? Before you
destroyed him, he gave the power to morph to five humans -
the ones that have been giving you so much trouble.>
I was aboard the Blade Ship of Visser Three, standing on a cold,
metal table. Sub-Visser Forty-Eight, who was the Controller that
had rescued me, had tended to the wounds Bare Patch had given me and
had immediately sent out a call to the visser. We didn't have long to
wait for the ship to come: a mere five minutes later, the two of us
were climbing on board. So here I was, explaining the whole situation
to the only Andalite-Controller in existence, with
Sub-Visser Forty-Eight at my side.
Visser Three's stalk eyes stretched up to their full height, and his
main eyes widened. I took this as an expression of surprise.
<They are humans?> he demanded. <All this time, I have been defeated
by a band of weak, pathetic humans?> He looked slightly embarrassed,
and I prayed he wouldn't chop my head off. From what I've heard, he
has a tendency to do that.
<Um...yes, Visser,> I said nervously.
To my amazement, he began to laugh. <Well, well, well. So I won't
have to go tail-to-tail with five Andalites. Instead, I'll just have
to ward off a few measly humans! Hah! I didn't expect it to be this
easy!> He focused all four of his eyes on me. <So tell me, David.
What are the names of these five humans?>
I chuckled. <Your friend Sub-Visser Forty-Eight promised me a seat
as a sub-visser of the Yeerk empire for this information.

<But...> The visser trailed off. <You cannot be infested!
That would be impossible!>
<Who said I had to be infested?> I said smugly. <I'm a rat, Visser.
Who am I going to tell? The other rats on that miserable island
I was rescued from? No, infestation is not necessary.>
Visser Three looked helpless, for a change. He flexed his tail a few
times and anxiously look around the room with his stalk eyes
before finally answering with, <You have my word. You will become a
sub-visser as soon as the information is mine.>
<Fair enough. Now, then,> I said. <Their names are Jake, Rachel,
Cassie, and Marco. There is also another human, Tobias, but he is
trapped in a red-tailed hawk morph. You will probably be able to
find him in the woods somewhere. Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill,
Prince Elfangor's younger brother, is also located in the woods.
Jake is the brother of one of your top Yeerks, whose host name
is Tom. Marco - and this will please you greatly, Visser -
is the son of none other than Visser One.>
I saw Visser Three's eyes light up at that.
<Rachel is Jake's cousin, so you shouldn't have much trouble
finding her once you've located Jake. And Cassie, from what
I picked up, is Jake's girlfriend.>
<Girlfriend?> The visser looked confused.
<It's an Earth term meaning that the two of them have an
affection for each other that they make known,> I explained.
<Ah.> Visser Three turned towards Sub-Visser Forty-Eight.
<Take David with you and come to the bridge.>
"Yes, Visser," she said as she scooped me up in her hands.
<And Sub-Visser?>
"Yes?"
<Get in touch with Visser One somehow. Tell her that the
Andalite bandits will be captured within twenty-four hours.
Oh, and when you do, let me talk to her. I want to gloat.>
He laughed and walked off, with the sub-visser and I behind him.

______________________________________

Say what you want about Visser Three, but I'll tell you one thing:
That guy can work really fast. Within two hours, several Hork-Bajir
Controllers were shoving our first victim aboard the ship: Jake.
His wrists had been bound with something that looked like steel,
but was probably much stronger. I knew he could have probably busted
out of them if he wanted to, but the Hork-Bajir had three Dracon beams
pressed against his head.
If he had made one move, he would have been dead. His brown eyes had
a mixture of fear and rage in them as he looked around the Blade ship.
Then he spotted me, and the anger drained from his face, replaced
by confusion.
"David?" he whispered.
<You're no longer addressing David, Prince Jake,> I sneered.
<It's Sub-Visser Twenty now.>
"But...how..." He trailed off.
<The island your good friend Rachel dumped me off on wasn't as
secure as you thought,> I told him. <A passing Controller figured
out who I was and delivered me here. She promised me a position
in the Yeerk hierarchy if I gave her your name. Of course, I obliged.
After all, power and revenge rolled into one, without even being
infested?> I laughed. <It was too sweet an offer to ignore.>
"You actually allied with them?" He looked sick, then angry.
"I should have known. Only someone like you would be so stupid.
You may be trapped as a rat, but as far as I'm concerned, you're
just a slug. Like the rest of them." He glared around the room.
<Give him the injection,> I commanded.
"The what?" A few Hork-Bajir began to advance on him, holding a
needle in their oddly shaped hands. "What are you doing?!"
he shouted. Because Andalites don't have mouths, Ax is constantly
playing around with sounds. It really starts to get on your nerves
after a while.
"Twenty-one minutes left," Tobias whispered bitterly.
The first words besides 'Rachel' that he'd said in a while.
He continued staring at the floor. "In twenty-one more minutes,
I'm human again. Not that it makes a difference now."
I knew what he was talking about. At one point, when I had still
been an Animorph, Tobias was contemplating purposely trapping
himself in human morph, just so he could be with Rachel. After all,
a romance between a hawk and a human is pretty difficult.
Even worse than Romeo and Juliet.
<Oh, but we don't want that, do we?> I said. <See, two normal human
bodies are useless to us. If you were trapped in morph, we'd have
no choice but to kill you. I don't want to kill you, either.
So I'll let you demorph.>
Ax and Tobias looked at me like I was nuts.
<Go ahead,> I said. 
I began to see a pair of legs emerge from Ax's chest. At the same
time, feather patterns were beginning to weave themselves over
Tobias' skin. I watched as his hands slid away from the bars and
melded together to form wings and shuddered. I will probably
never get over how disgusting morphing can be.
A blue, whip-like tail shot out from Ax's spine. As the tail blade
emerged, I felt the Hork-Bajir I was on shudder in fear.
Even they didn't want to mess with an Andalite, and they were
practically covered in blades.
Then suddenly...
THWAP!
Ax's tail shot forward, aiming for the bars of the cage.
Faster than the eye could follow, he twisted his blade to the sharp
side, slipped it though the bars, and drove it against them.
Too fast for the Hork-Bajir to react!
CLANG!
Ax gasped in pain with a mouth that was still melting away as his
blade hit its mark. He brought his tail back around and stared at
the bar he had tried to slice away. It didn't even have a nick on it.
I laughed as he looked at the bar with his rapidly emerging stalk
eyes, his main eyes focused on me in confusion.
<Fool,> I sneered. <You actually think I'd use flimsy Earth metals
for the bars on your cage? The bars are made of Ramonite.
The only metal an Andalite's tail blade can't cut.>
I paused for a second before continuing. <Like I said before, this
is why I was able to defeat you: because you don't think.
All of you are stupid. You may have been able to outwit me before,
but that was sheer luck. I'm amazed you were able to hold off the
invasion this long, what with making all the stupid mistakes you did.
As you are infested, just keep this thought in mind: If you hadn't
messed with me, this wouldn't be happening to you.> I laughed.
<In fact, as of right now, the odds right now of you walking out
scot-free are a billion to one.>
<Wanna bet?>
I felt something grab my tail and toss me in a graceful arc through
the air. I yelled and tried to land on my feet, with no success.
I landed on the ground with a loud thump, which knocked the wind
out of me. As I looked up, trembling and gasping for air,
I saw what had thrown me. <Rachel?> I said in amazement.
<So who's the stupid one now, David?> she taunted. She fell to all
fours and squinted down at me though her grizzly eyes.
Never looking away for an instant, she casually swatted at a
Hork-Bajir and sent him cartwheeling down the hallway.
<But...how...> I trailed off.
<Excuse me one moment.> Rachel turned around and barreled straight
at Arghan, delivering a powerful head butt to his stomach.
He fell quickly, and unable to catch his breath, fainted.
She wheeled towards another one and gave a Hork-Bajir a back-handed
slap that made him howl in pain. I scuttled around the floor,
avoiding the constant pounding of feet, as she took out one Hork-Bajir
after another. In a matter of moments, the hallway was littered
with either dead or unconscious Hork-Bajir. Rachel herself was
covered in numerous cuts, all of them too small to cause her much
trouble. She then proceeded to smash the cell's lock with her
large paw. The other Animorphs poured into the hallway.
"It's quite simple, David," Marco said. He scooped me up and held me
at eye level with him. "I told you before, we've got our own inside
sources. These guys aren't human. They're called the Chee, and they
are androids. They can pass as practically anyone you can imagine.
They just alter the hologram that shields their regular bodies."
"When we found out that Jake was missing, we thought that he might
have been kidnapped by Tom," Cassie continued.
"Which meant that more than likely, he had been infested.
So we brought one of the Chee along, disguised as Rachel, just to be
on the safe side."
<We didn't guess that you'd be behind this whole thing, of course,>
Tobias added, fluttering to Rachel's shoulder. <But as it turned out,
you were. While killing Rachel was the last thing we expected,
the Chee played the part perfectly. The real Rachel was in fly morph,
perched on me the entire time.>
<So you're saying...> I stopped again.
<Yup,> Rachel said smugly. <We tricked you. Again. And now we will
proceed to bail out of here.>
Rachel gently scooped up Arghan in her massive arms.
They tore down the hallway like all the demons of hell were
after them. I started screaming at them, yelling insult after insult
as they rounded the bend and disappeared.
But in the end, I was powerless to stop them. All I could do was
pray that Visser Three had not seen the birds of prey that fluttered
down to Earth from the ship.

________________________________________

Visser Three said. 
He shot me a poisonous look though his stalk eyes. His hands were
clasped behind his back, and he was pacing back and forth in front of
me. It made me nervous, the way he did that. Not that what he was
saying wasn't making me nervous as well.
<I almost had the Animorphs crushed! I was going to take great
pleasure in infesting them and watching the last hopes of Earth
crumble to the ground. But no. You had to interfere and meddle in my
plans. Now all of them, including Jake, are free again.>
 I said meekly.
<You apologize, do you?> he said in a low, silky voice.
<Well, your apology is meaningless to me! I don't want an apology!
I WANT THE ANIMORPHS!!>
His thought-speech seemed to shake the entire Blade Ship as he
leaned close to me. The warm air from his nose slits brushed over me
like the arid desert wind.

I let out a sigh of relief. Too soon, I found out.
<Instead, you will be dropped from the ranks of the Yeerk hierarchy.
You are no longer Sub-Visser Twenty, but simply David the
ex-Animorph. And you will also be sent back to the island from
whence you came, accompanied by Sub-Visser Forty-Eight.>
<NO!> I screamed in terror. I began to tremble, looking up at
Visser Three pleadingly. <Please, no! Don't make me go back there!
I...I'll capture the Animorphs again, I promise! I'll do anything!
Just don't send me back to the island!> But my plea fell on deaf
ears.
<Someone call Sub-Visser Forty-Eight over here. Ask her to escort
David to an escape pod. Target them towards the island.>
Having successfully sealed my fate, he turned and walked away.
Sub-Visser Forty-Eight arrived shortly afterwards. She brought
me over to an escape pod and deployed it. It had been aimed a
little to the left of the island, and soon I heard a splash we struck
the water. Sub-Visser Forty-Eight used air jets on the escape pod to
maneuver towards the island, all while I begged her to turn around,
to go towards the mainland instead.
"I can't do that, David," she said as I felt the dragging
sensation of the escape pod running aground. "Orders are orders.
Visser Three would have my hide if I didn't follow them."
<Please,> I begged. <I'm just a rat. How hard can I be to hide
aboard the Blade Ship?>
"Pretty hard. Come on, get out. I have to be on the mainland by ten
o'clock so I can get picked up."
<No,> I said. <I'm not going.>
Her face looked stern, then softened a little bit.
"I wish it didn't have to
end like this," she said to me gently. "I got an inkling from you
how awful your life is on that island when I first saw you.
I really do wish there was something I could do to change this.
But there isn't. Now come on." She picked me up and opened the
hatch to the escape pod.
"Good-bye, David," she said as she placed her hand on the sand.
I tried to cling to her hand with all my strength, but she pried
me off and set me down. I watched her as she walked back towards the
escape pod and climbed inside.
She pushed off from shore and powered it towards the mainland,
where I knew the visser was waiting.
<No! Please! Sub-Visser!> I cried as I began to run alongside
her pod, like I had with the motorboats that passed by.
<Get me off of here! Please! Don't leave me!> But just as before,
she continued on, and soon she was just a speck on the horizon.

_____________________________________

I have remained on the island since then. In my absence,
Bare Patch took the opportunity to overtake my burrow. I had to
dig a new one from scratch. But that wasn't too terrible. Better
than getting in a scuffle with him, anyway.
Sometimes I wonder how it could have been. What it would have been
like if I had remained Sub-Visser Twenty, instead of being shuttled
out to the island.
Would the Animorphs have truly been captured? Would they all have
been infested? Would I have been promoted to a visser? Or would they
have escaped anyway, with the help of their android friend?
There were so many questions, but no answers.
After all, I can't change the past.
I haven't tried to commit suicide again. As brief as that encounter
with freedom may have been, it was enough to keep me going.
And I still remember the feeling of being a golden eagle,
soaring in the sky. Maybe...maybe I'm still praying for the day
when I will once again be free. The day when once
again, I'll have my own pair of wings.

END

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