Chapter 38
Ax
“Never expected to find a bunch of humans opposing me.”
I had all four of my eyes focused on the Visser. She stood on the other end of the hallway, a good ten feet away. Even with my speed and reflexes I was unsure if I would be able to get within striking range before she could react. I swiveled one eyestalk towards Prince Jake and the others, all of whom were staring at the Visser as well.
“Y-your Highness...” Illusion sputtered. I looked at him with my second stalk eye; the Changeling had his head bowed, though it appeared to be out of fear rather than respect. His wings twitched in anticipation and he kept glancing up at Prince Jake. I was more than ready to poise my tail blade in equal anxiety. The others remained quiet, though I could tell from his expression that Prince Jake was thinking, hopefully about an avenue of escape. Next to him, Marco had a similar calculative look. Rachel was looking around as stealthily as she could, while Applejack seemed frozen in place.
And yet, something about the scene struck me as odd. I turned my attention back to the Visser, who still stood where she had emerged from the darkness. She was breathing heavily, as if in pain, and her wings drooped by her sides weakly, yet she still had a rather calm and self-satisfied look about her. It didn’t make sense. It was the seven of us against her. Why did she look so happy?
Wait...
Alone. The Visser was alone. And she carried no weapon that I could see. If Illusion was any indication, though, she likely still possessed the strange telekinetic abilities that all Changelings did.
I suddenly caught a faint sign of movement in the corner of my eye. The Visser had moved her leg, ever so slightly forward. I felt my tail twitch with anticipation, and I readied myself for whatever the Yeerk was planning to do. However, instead of attacking, the Visser unceremoniously collapsed onto the cavern floor. We all stared at her incredulously for a moment before Illusion jumped up and ran to her side, emitting a series of frantic clicking sounds.
“My Queen!” the Changeling cried. Frantically he looked over her body; my guess was he was frarching for physical injuries. When he couldn't find any he tried to squeeze himself under her front legs.
“Illusion! Stop!” Marco barked in a cold, emotionless tone. Illusion whirled to face him, glaring.
“Queen in danger! I help.”
“She’s not your queen anymore,” Marco retorted. Illusion glowered at him venomously, but Marco kept the same calm expression.
<Marco is correct,> I added. <To allow her to live now would result in our recapture, death, or infestation. You know we cannot allow that.> I boldly took a step towards the Visser, keeping my tail raised.
Illusion hissed and leapt in front of me. “No! No harm to Queen!”
“Glad to see some of my Changelings are still free,” the Visser said weakly, shakily climbing to her feet. “And by the sounds of things, I’d wager my own life is in danger.”
Illusion spun around and looked up upon his queen with a joyous expression. Taking advantage of this I leapt over him, landing perfectly next to the Visser with my tail blade at her throat. I turned one eye stalk towards Prince Jake. <At your command, Prince Jake.>
“Wait!” the Visser cried. “Andalite, I’m not under that Yeerk’s control any longer!”
My tail blade was then encompassed in a green glow, and Illusion moved it away from his queen’s throat, glaring at me the entire time.
“Queen not Yeerk. No harm Queen.”
“Of course she’s going to say that,” Rachel retorted. “She knows that you’d blindly follow anything your queen would tell you.”
“No. This different,” he insisted defensively.
“Ah think she’s tellin’ the truth.”
“Oh not you too,” Rachel said, turning to Applejack. “Didn’t you say that these things attacked your capital? You know how they work with deception.”
“Yeah, Ah know all that, which is why Ah’m sayin’ there’s somethin’ different about her now.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Marco snapped. “Yeerks are masters of deception.”
“Yeah, Ah figured that out pretty quickly,” Applejack snapped back.
A small whumph sound caught my attention, and I noticed that the Visser had fallen down again. Illusion got to her first and stood before her protectively; he stubbornly refused to release my tail as well. “Queen safe. I protect. You leave.”
“Can’t,” Marco replied. “She’s seen us. If we leave she’ll just tell the rest of the Yeerks and we’re as good as dead.”
“Alright, that’s enough! All of you!”
I swerved a stalk eye away from the Visser and saw Prince Jake. At some point he had remorphed Twilight and was looking at all of us with a cross expression — emphasized by the large eyes these oddly-proportioned equines possess.
“Everyone just calm down for a moment,” he said. “There’s a simple way of finding the truth here.”
“What then?” Rachel asked.
“Twilight’s spell that can detect Yeerks,” Prince Jake replied. “She taught it to me on the way over here.” He finished by proudly raising his head.
Marco nodded. “Alright then, go and confirm what we already know.”
“Queen no Yeerk!” Illusion hissed at him.
“A spell for detecting Yeerks? I’m intrigued,” the Visser said calmly. “Very well, you may cast it.”
Prince Jake stepped towards the Visser as both Illusion and I watching him cautiously —though for different reasons. Once in front of her he closed his eyes and his horn began to spark with the energies this species perceives as ‘magic’. The more I observe their abilities the more I am convinced that it is simply a higher level of psychic energies — much like what the Leeran possess, though more advanced. Of course, Pinkie Pie did not seem to follow these internal rules, which bizarrely manifested in me when I had morphed her. I made a mental note to run some more definitive tests on Pinkie Pie when the opportunity arose.
I turned my attention back to the Visser and Prince Jake. He seemed to be struggling, possibly from the exertion of the telekinetic abilities. Sweat was trickling down his forehead as he lowered his horn towards the Visser’s. He remained still for a moment before the energy fizzled away, causing him to exhale in relief. “She’s... not infested,” Prince Jake said softly.
Illusion’s face lit up at the revelation. “Queen no Yeerk!” he cried, buzzing his wings excitedly and letting loose a chorus of rapid clicking noises. He also released his grip on my tail blade, at last, and I clutched it to my chest, stroking the fur softly. I can’t explain why, but just doing so soothed me to a degree.
The Visser — no, Prince Jake said she was a freed controller, but I still had my suspicions — gave a warm, motherly smile to Illusion. “Was it you who brought these foreigners into my Hive, little Drone three-dash-nine-three-seven?”
Illusion’s excitement and joy vanished in that instant. He turned to his queen and lowered his head shamefully. “Yes.”
The probable-ex-Visser continued her warm smile. “Well, I suppose in this instance I can forgive you.”
Illusion looked up to her with surprise, but I spoke up before he could react. <Even if she is not infested does not mean she isn’t still in alliance with the Yeerks.>
The queen looked at me with a condescending smirk. “Ah, words of wisdom from the mighty Andalite, I presume?”
“That sounds pretty Yeerk-like to me,” Marco said. Again, Illusion shot him loathsome glares.
“Unfortunately, he’s right,” the queen said. “I may not be infested, but how can you know I’m not in alliance with the Yeerks?”
“Well, then, you’d best explain yerself,” Applejack said, stepping forward. “First off, how’d yah get freed anyway?”
“Well, when I fought back and was incapacitated by the unicorn duplicate, the Yeerk believed that we were dead. So it took its chances and escaped.” The queen frowned. “A pity I didn’t regain consciousness before I could...stop it from getting too far.”
“You’ll forgive us if that doesn’t sound like an overly reliable explanation,” Prince Jake said. “You’re obviously in a position of power here. A little push from the Yeerks and you could become even more powerful.”
The queen looked at Prince Jake. I caught a flash of emotions in her eyes: anger and rage mostly, but there was also regret. Her mouth had also twitched into a more shameful expression. This struck me as odd; the Changelings I had seen so far have shown emotional levels equal to a highly advanced colonial species. All Illusion ever spoke of was his duty to his colony and queen. Yet this queen was behaving with emotions equivalent to any other equine on this planet. If it wasn’t for their bizarre feeding habits, perhaps the ponies could see the similarities their two species share.
“The price is too high,” she said thoughtfully, pausing to inhale. “After my defeat at Canterlot I was weakened. Near dead. Unable to move. A Yeerk scout ship found me, and one of those filthy slugs wormed its way inside my head.” The queen’s voice broke for a moment, and I thought I saw a tear run down her muzzle; however, the low light made it dubious if I actually saw anything or merely imagined it. “They promised to help me gain control of Equestria and I agreed. But once they had control of my strongest warriors, all pretense of aiding me fell apart and they let their true intentions known.” She gave a heavy sigh and looked at the ground, remorse and regret plainly visible on her features even in the dim light.
“I just want a chance to make things right,” she added softly.
For a long time no one spoke. The queen continued to stare at the ground, with Illusion standing nearby, looking incredibly confused. Prince Jake was curiously stoic, with both Marco and Rachel shaking their heads slightly. It was Applejack who finally broke the silence.
“Ah believe ya.”
“So do I,” Prince Jake added. I half expected Marco or Rachel to say something, but neither of them spoke up. I understood his reasons; out of the six of us Prince Jake had spent the longest time as a controller. He had seen the Yeerk die and experienced the helplessness and lack of control.
<I am also inclined to believe her tale,> I said.
“What?! You, Ax-man?” Marco cried incredulously.
“Same goes for me,” Rachel added.
Marco looked at her disbelievingly. “Seriously? I’m the only one who finds this the least bit suspicious?”
<Her story fits with evidence available,> I explained. <And if she were lying, she can do little to harm us as she is.>
“Yeah, and if she is telling the truth then we can use her to help us finally beat these Yeerks,” Rachel finished.
“I must admit I am confused,” the queen said. “All the humans I’ve met are controllers, and the Yeerks made it sound like they’re as unaware of the invasion as the ponies were. How did you come to know of it, let alone side with a — how did the Yeerks put it — self-righteous Andalite?”
<I am hardly self-righteous,> I protested.
“It’s a long story,” Prince Jake said at the same time as me. “We’re fighting them as often as we can, but very few people actually know about the invasion.”
Applejack cleared her throat. “As interestin’ as this is, Ah think we should really get back to Rainbow and the others.”
Marco let out a long sigh. “Fine, but don’t act surprised if we get out of here and a battalion of Yeerks turns us into swiss cheese.”
“Speaking of, how do we get out of here?” Prince Jake asked.
“There is a hidden pathway in my throne room,” the queen replied. “The Yeerk called Visser Seven converted the space in front of it into a feeding pool, but the passage is undamaged.”
“Hold on a moment,” Marco interrupted. “What did you just say? ‘The Yeerk called Visser Seven’? Wasn’t that your Yeerk?”
“Initially, yes,” she replied bitterly. “But when she learned of a large group of ponies escaping from Ponyville, she theorized the ‘Andalite Bandits’ would come here. So she let one of her higher ranking officers... take over.” Her face seemed to distort for a moment from the memory.
“What?!” Rachel shrieked. “Where is the Visser now? How much does she know about us?”
The queen looked up at us. “I’m not sure. Her plan was to infest one of the Andalite Bandits when you arrived here at the Hive.”
“We’ll figure that out once we’ve regrouped,” Prince Jake said. “Alright, your majesty, lead the way.”
“If one of you would be so kind as to assist me,” she asked, quite emphatically. When no one else made a move, I reluctantly stepped forward. The queen responded with a smile that seemed somehow wrong for her, all things considered, yet she leaned against me regardless. Marco and Rachel took this time to morph their gorilla and grizzly bear morphs respectively. Prince Jake then lit up his horn and set off through the tunnel with the rest of us following behind. Illusion stayed on the other side of his queen, casting accusing glances at me whenever possible.
Every so often the queen would give a direction, barking it out like an order. She otherwise didn’t seem inclined to talk, and no one else was either. Several times we came into large roadblocks formed from collapsed sections of tunnels. Some were small enough that Rachel and Marco could easily clear them while others required Pince Jake or Applejack’s assistance. Sadly, most were unclearable and forced us to take longer, greater-risk pathways.
<Does anyone else find it odd that we aren’t meeting any other Changelings?> Marco asked. <I mean, we’re only travelling with their leader in their stronghold that’s also Yeerk-infested.> I believe humans would refer to his tone of voice as ‘sarcastic’.
<Hey, would you think to stick around when the ceiling comes crashing down?> Rachel replied. <I’m honestly surprised we aren’t dead.>
<We cheat death on a regular basis,> Marco retorted. <This is just par for the course by this point.>
I was considering replying to Marco when we emerged into a massive room. Most of it had been buried by rubble, but the large throne near the back was for the most part intact. It was an odd, twisted shape that resembled the exoskeleton of an insect more than an actual throne. Next to it sat the smashed remains of a portable Yeerk Pool, which in turn was located in front of a concealed pathway. I felt the queen shudder as we entered the room and neared the Yeerk Pool.
“I’m only going to be too happy to get rid of this thing,” she muttered derisively.
<Are you sure that the passageway will still be open to us?> I questioned. <It is highly probable that it too was collapsed.>
“No, this tunnel is specifically designed to allow the royal Changelings an escape from the Hive in the worst case scenarios,” the queen replied. “It will not collapse as easily as a main tunnel.”
“Then why not build every tunnel like that?” Applejack mused.
“It isn’t feasible. Too big a workload,” came the queen’s curt reply. “Now will you cease questioning me so we may escape?”
<Fine by me,> Rachel said. She effortlessly stepped forward and used a fraction of her grizzly bear strength to flip the Yeerk pool out of the way. Once cleared, she headed off through the passageway. <C’mon down, guys, the coast is clear!>
“I like her,” the queen said.