<Fire!> Visser Three yelled. <Burn his ship!>
The night exploded in blinding light. Red beams lanced from the Blade ship and the remaining Bug fighter. The Andalite ship glowed, and, with a strange slowness, disintegrated.
Then, in the flash and glow of Dracon beams I saw… or thought I saw… humans. A small group of them, maybe three or four, back in the shadows behind the Visser.
"There are people over there," I told Marco.
"What? Are they prisoners?"
<Take the Andalite,> Visser Three ordered his soldiers. <Hold him for me.>
Three big Hork-Bajir grabbed the Andalite and held him down. Their wrist blades were at his throat, but they knew better than to kill him.
That was to be Visser Three's personal privilege.
Then we saw why a Yeerk as powerful as Visser Three would inhabit the only captured Andalite body. As we watched, Visser Three began to morph.
His Andalite head grew large, larger. Much larger. The four horselike legs merged into two and then expanded, each leg becoming as big around as a redwood tree. The delicate Andalite arms sprouted and became tentacles.
"This isn't real," Cassie whispered. "This isn't real."
In the hideously bloated head, a mouth appeared. It was filled with teeth as long as your arm.
The mouth grew wider and wider, becoming a monstrous, terrifying grin.
There was nothing left of the Andalite body, A monster had taken its place.
"R-r-r-r-a-a-a-w-w-w-w-g-g-g!" The roar of the beast Visser Three had become made the ground shake.
I covered my ears with my hands. "R-r-r-r-r-r-a-a-a-a-g-g-g!"
My teeth rattled from the sound. I heard someone whimpering. It was me.
Visser Three had become a monster that made the Hork-Bajir and the Taxxons look like harmless toys. He reached out with one thick tentacle and grabbed the Andalite by the neck.
"No, no, no," I heard Cassie whispering over and over again. "No, no, no, no."
"Don't look," Rachel said to her. She put her arm around Cassie's shoulder and held her close.
Then she reached for Tobias and took his hand. I guess you never really know someone till you see them scared. And even scared to death, with tears running down her face, Rachel had strength to spare.
Visser Three lifted the Andalite straight up in the air, tearing him from the grasp of the Hork-Bajir. The Andalite prince struck again and again with his tail. But each strike was like a pinprick against such a creature.
Visser Three held the Andalite high in the air.
And then Visser Three opened his mouth wide.
CHAPTER 6
I don't know what came over me right then. I had been so afraid. So terrified. But it was like something just snapped in my head. I couldn't just hide and watch, I couldn't.
"You filthy — "
I jumped to my feet. I snatched up a piece of rusted iron pipe from the ground and started to climb over that wall.
I guess I just went crazy or something. It had to be craziness, because there was no way that I, alone, armed with a piece of pipe, was going to accomplish anything.
<No!>
The Andalite's silent cry made me hesitate. I felt Marco's hands grabbing at my shirt and pulling me back. Tobias and Marco held me down. Rachel put her hand over my mouth. I was trying to scream, or curse, or something.
"Shut up, you idiot!" Marco hissed. "You're just going to get us all killed."
"Jake, don't." Cassie put her hand on my cheek. "He doesn't want you to die for him. Don't you realize? He's dying for us."
I shoved Marco and Tobias away angrily. But I was in control of myself again.
I peeked over the wall again. The Andalite prince was helpless in the grasp of Visser Three. I saw him held high in the air. I saw Visser Three open his monstrous, gaping jaws.
I saw the Andalite fall into that open mouth.
The mouth closed. The teeth ripped the Andalite apart. And the Andalite Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul died.
At the very end, he cried out. His cry of despair was in our heads. His cry will always be in our heads.
The Hork-Bajir-Controllers began making a huffing sound, like whuh-whuh-whuh. Maybe they were laughing or applauding. The Taxxon-Controllers rushed forward and crowded around Visser Three. They seemed to be stretching up toward him, and then I saw why — a piece of the Andalite fell from the Visser's jaws and the nearest Taxxon greedily gobbled it up.
Tobias turned away and covered his face with his hands. Cassie had tears streaming from her eyes. So did I.
I heard a sound that was strange because it was so normal. It was laughter. Human laughter. The humans… the Human-Controllers — because that's what they were — were laughing, like they were at some kind of a show. For a moment ft seemed to me that one of those laughing voices was familiar, like I'd heard it before. But then the sound was swallowed up in the huffing of the Hork-Bajir.
Visser Three morphed out of his monstrous form and slowly regained his Andalite body. <Ah,> I heard him think, <nothing like a good Antarean Bogg morph for… taking a bite out of your enemies.>
Again the Human-Controllers laughed and the Hork-Bajir-Controllers huffed, and I heard a familiar human laugh I could not quite place.
Marco started throwing up. It was an understandable thing to do. But somehow that sound caught the attention of the nearest Hork-Bajir.
The snake head turned. He was perfectly still.
We were perfectly still.
The Hork-Bajir turned toward us. The nearsighted eyes were aimed directly at our little hiding place.
I don't know who panicked first. Maybe it was me. Maybe we'd just had all the fear and horror we could stand. It was like an electric shock went through all of us. We were running before I had a chance to even know what I was doing.
I ran. I gasped for air.
A cry went up from the Hork-Bajir.
"Split up," I yelled. "They can't follow all of us."
Marco and Tobias and Cassie took off in three different directions. Rachel was still right beside me. Glancing back, I saw the Hork-Bajir hesitate, unsure of who to chase.
Rachel and I are the fastest runners. Tobias is totally out of shape, and Marco and Cassie are too short to be really fast. So I figured if the aliens were going to chase anyone, it ought to be us.
I guess Rachel thought the same thing. She slowed down just a little and began yelling and waving her arms. "Come on, come on, you — " And then she said some words I didn't realize Rachel even knew.
The two nearest Hork-Bajir snapped around and took off after us. "Ghafrash! Here! Ghafrash fit! Enemy! Get!"
Even in my panic it surprised me. They were talking some mix of their own alien language and ours.
"Ghafrash fit nahar! I get! I kill!"
I ran. Suddenly my foot slammed something and I was down. I hit the ground hard. The wind was knocked out of me. I tried to fill my lungs again. Rachel ran on. She didn't know I had fallen.
A spear of red light struck a concrete pipe just beside me. The concrete vaporized. The two Hork-Bajir were coming after us, bounding like some devil kangaroos. I was up and running. Rachel must have realized I wasn't with her anymore. She stopped and started to come back toward me.
"Don't be an idiot!" I yelled. "Run!"
She hesitated just a second. But she knew she couldn't do anything more for me. She ran. I saw a dark hole ahead and raced toward it.
A doorway. Inside it was as black as a grave. It was one of the buildings that had almost been completed. Just bare concrete walls and scattered junk. But I knew I had been in here before. Marco and I had walked all through it. There were hallways and little side rooms. It was like a maze.
Marco! Rachel! Had they gotten away? And what about Cassie and Tobias?