Marco didn't know what to expect when he arrived at the brig. He'd come as soon as he could, after getting bombarded with people talking about what his mother might or might not have done on the comms. He still felt on edge, jittering with anger.

And fear. Most of the stuff people were saying was obviously complete crap, but the few things he had managed to figure out had really happened was her turning herself in, and that she'd resigned from her job. And it didn't make sense! Why the hell would she decide she wanted to get locked up? Leave her job? Something had to have happened, and Marco was scared to know what that might be.

He stepped into the area outside the cells, and stopped. She looked like a mess. He felt like they'd gone back to the Yeerk pool, back to when she was just the container for the Yeerks to execute Visser One in.

"Mom?" he said, hoping his voice didn't sound as freaked out as he felt as he came forward to hold onto the bars of her cell. He felt like he should say something else. One of the millions of questions swarming around in his head. Anything. But he found he just didn't have anything to say at all.