trans_9 | If we lose it's over. This is the battle. This is the last stand.

Down in the city, behind a holographic wall, an epic battle for the whole of Stacy was taking place.

The Yeerks had dug out a portion of Stacy's 'brain' and built a machine that would let them wipe it clean, let them take her over and control her. It would also probably destroy the coordinates that would let the rest of the crew find their way home, but the Yeerks didn't particularly care about that. They knew their own coordinates, that was all that mattered.

Bumblebee, the Doctor, and the Master had found the machine, following the directions of the very unfortunate Yeerk that had wound up in the Master's hands. They'd brought an unconscious West with them and were shortly confronted by Sub-Visser 7, the leader of this particular batch of Yeerks. Scorpius had apparently attempted to first team up with and then betray the Sub-Visser -- what the result of that was, the Sub-Visser hadn't said.

But between two Time Lords and an Autobot, they should have no problems taking down one baseline human, right?

Well, that was before he'd brought out the Taxxons. Giant, flesh-eating alien centipedes, driven by a mad hunger to devour anything that couldn't run away fast enough. They weren't very sturdy, and they would immediately fall upon any Taxxon unfortunate enough to be injured, but there were hundreds of them. And they just. Kept. Coming.

And over all the fighting, the machine that would wipe Stacy's brain was slowly charging up...

((OOC note.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I'm ready."

And then Cybil leaned her head over and twitched as soon as the Yeerk slithered out into little bowl, putting it down and immediately withdrawing, rubbing at her ear.

"Jesus."

This is the first time in a long while she's moved of her own free will, since Robin infested her in her sleep.

"Jesus Christ."

Ax shuddered a little at the sight of the slug in the make-shift bowl, but pulled the modified Dracon beam out of the sling he'd fashioned to carry it in.

< If you could step away, Prince Cybil? > he said, adjusting the dial. He intended to do this as painlessly as possible.

For some reason, the words of the Andalite death ritual sprang unbidden to his mind. He shook them away. This Yeerk might have a degree of something like honor he had not previously encountered, but there was such a thing as taking it too far.

"No," says Cybil. "Give it to me."

She's not angry. Okay, she is, because that thing wouldn't let her warn the crew. The Yeerk had insisted on doing it all her way. She'd only listened to Cybil's occasional guidance.

Now Sam is shot in the head and she's furious.

But she's not doing this out of anger. She's doing this because she knows this creature will not be at peace unless she does, and that she was further along in the starvation than could possibly be remedied. Their geniuses are not THAT fast, not with the whole crew reeling.

She's doing this because this creature, misguided though it was, tried her best to help them, and to help her understand what had happened to her memories as much as she was able.

"You're a kid, for chrissakes. Even with the headvoice, I can tell. I'm not having you kill someone. I'll do it. I owe her that much."

< My age has very little do to with the situation at hand, > Ax said, a little stung. No one had commented on his age since shortly after he'd arrived on Earth -- primarily because all of the other Animorphs were the same age as he was. < I have been engaged in guerilla warfare against the Yeerk Empire for the better part of two years. I am fully capable-- >

He cut himself off and cast his main eyes to the ground. He'd gotten used to serving under Prince Jake. The amount of combat Ax had seen under Prince Jake would likely have made him a full warrior, or even a Prince himself, but he still had to bow to his Prince's will, and Prince Cybil had given him an order.

< Yes Prince Cybil, > he said, reluctantly turning the modified Dracon beam over.

"You're a kid. You shouldn't have to have grown up in a universe where you were fighting alien brainslugs instead of having your worst worry be about whether the pretty female centaur-person girl in your alien...science class notices you. I'm not doubting your skill as a warrior."

She goes on. "Where I'm from, the mark of a good warrior is being able resolve something with shedding the least amount of blood possible, and if someone has to experience the horror of taking another life, it's best if it's someone who's had a lifetime of training to deal with it and who's already done it, rather than someone young having that blood on their hands--no matter how skilled a warrior they are."

< I was an aristh in the military before I arrived on Earth, > Ax said. He wasn't without training himself, although admittedly he didn't have a great deal of it. < An aristh serves the will of his Prince. You do not have to explain your reasons to me. >

He was suddenly very homesick for his Earth and the other Animorphs. They sometimes spoke about wanting to be 'normal' kids with 'normal' worries. Ax had known he was going into the military as long as he could remember -- the on-going war with the Yeerks for one, and the fact that he was Elfangor's younger brother for two reasons right off.

He stepped back out of the way. He wasn't going to fight Prince Cybil for the right to kill this particular Yeerk, even if it was entirely unnecessary for her to try and protect him from it.

"I'm not like the Princes back home, Ax. I do explain myself if I feel it's needed. Or fair."

She fiddles with the thing to figure out if it works quite like a normal gun, trying to remember all she'd gleaned from her Yeerk.

"You've likely experienced horror. You probably have regrets. You've had to learn on your feet. It shows incredible strength of character that you are the warrior you are, but that you've survived likely doesn't lessen the horror of what you've had to do to do it."

She goes on, "Consider this my gift, even if the standards of our cultures are different. Rewarding a young, brave warrior for all he's done by letting him go untarnished by the blood of ally and not carrying that dishonor with him for the rest of his life."

Without another word, and with only a microscopic moment of hesitation, she blasts the Yeerk and the shrapnel to atoms. Her expression doesn't change--it only grows minutely sadder.

"I can promise you, you've not seen the things I've seen. Nothing horrifies me anymore."

She holsters the beam for now. It'll be useful, and she'll ask Ax if he wants it back later. Then she just takes a moment to kneel near the blackened spot, to honor a friend.

"Rest in peace, Lirat-561."

Ax felt dizzy. He...She...

It was like the thoughts he'd had on board the USS George Washington before knocking Prince Jake unconscious had escaped into the time-stream and filtered themselves through Prince Cybil's head to come out her mouth and return to him. But...he had been fighting along side Prince Jake for months before he'd had to make that decision. They had been allies, friends, comrades.

And now Prince Cybil was trying to do for him what he had done for Prince Jake, when he had done nothing but lie to her and mislead her. As if she felt she needed to protect him anyway, even if she was trying to protect him from something as small as having to kill a Yeerk.

It was a profoundly humbling experience. Whatever ulterior motives Stacy had for the crew, Ax certainly could find no fault in her choice of captain.

He bowed his head respectfully and held his silence as well.

She doesn't ask if he's okay. He doesn't seem to like coddling and even if she can't ignore that he's a kid, he is a warrior, apparently, and she respects his expertise.

So she goes with the next best thing to asking if he's okay.

She puts a hand on his shoulder. "You did good today, Ax. You should be proud of yourself. She couldn't have stopped the other Yeerks alone."

It was Ax finding out and raising hell that saved them all.

< Thank you, Prince Cybil, > Ax said, looking a little uncomfortable with her praise.

He bowed his head, looking at the ground with his main eyes, but continuing to scan the area with his stalk eyes. < I apologize for lying to you. You have my word that I will not keep secrets from you in the future. >

"Lying to lay low like you did may have saved your life, Ax. I sure as hell understand. Now, let's get back to the others."

< Yes Prince Cybil. >

If we lose it's over. This is the battle. This is the last stand.

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