Day 55: Dawn
Light snowfall marked the beginning of the morning, accompanied by a strange sort of quiet. The usual announcements that came at this time were nowhere to be heard. Thus, one might have expected the institute to have its first peaceful morning, uninterrupted by voices overhead
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He scrambled backwards up the bed, as if he could escape from his human body that way.
Human! Human, and his internal sense of time, of how long he had been in the morph, told him nothing. The last thing he remembered was being at the mall with Marco. Then there was only a blank!
His mouth made strange huffing sounds, as if he had been running instead of sleeping. His clumsy human hands trembled.
Perhaps it was not too late. Ax took several deep breaths, closed his eyes, and tried to focus on his own, true body. The noises from his mouth stopped. His hands steadied. He strained and stretched his legs, hoping to feel those tiny fingers at the ends of them merging, hardening into his hooves; felt his forehead wrinkling from the effort of trying to will his stalk eyes to grow out of the top of his head.
Nothing.
He was stuck.
"Nothlit," he whispered. It was a word he had known all his life, and yet, it sounded odd, as if it had been stripped of meaning. "Noth. Luh. Lit." Shame and fear twisted into a hard knot somewhere in the middle of his chest.
Prince Jake? he sent out. Tobias? Marco? Cassie? Rachel?
The thought-speak sounded... strange. As if it were echoing in his own head. Perhaps they were simply out of range.
Where was he, and why had he been taken? His mind was still his own, one small thing that was all right. If this place were run by Controllers, why would they not have--
There was one reason. They knew what Ax was, and they were waiting for... him. The Abomination.
Visser Three would certainly wish to personally witness the creation of the second Andalite-Controller ever.
But I am not an Andalite anymore. I am human.
Ax was not sure why, but pulling his legs to his chest made him feel better. Humans had primitive instincts at times. Being smaller would not help him. The tightness in his throat served no purpose, either, only made him feel he could not breathe. And there was water coming from his human eyes. Tears, he remembered. Humans used their eyes to cry. In spite of everything, though, he felt a defiant sort of pride. Your arrogance has cost you, Yeerk scum. You waited too long. I may be only a human now, but you will not take me alive, and you will never turn me into a creature as vile as yourself.
The door of the room opened, and a human male stepped in. Still huddled, Ax blinked at him. He still was not very adept at reading human facial expressions, but the man had not seemed surprised to find a young human male here. If he had been expecting an Andalite, surely he would have betrayed shock and anger that Ax was not. Not anymore. No, he would not think about that.
"Get up, put your beret on, and come with me," the human male ordered.
"Ber-ay?" Ax repeated, confused.
Without changing his facial expression, the human picked up a black pouch-like object from the desk, and tossed it onto the bed.
Ax fitted it over one of his hands, but the man snapped, "Wear it properly. On your head," he added, before Ax could ask the obvious question.
It seemed as if it would be better not to challenge his orders. Ax crammed the strange artificial skin on over the shaggy fur on his head. He had not yet been able to decide what the purpose of human head coverings was, but they were clearly of importance in this place. It also seemed there would be little use in not going along wherever the human intended to take him. Ax wanted answers, and presumably he was being delivered to someone higher-ranking. He only hoped this human body would prove strong enough to present a challenge to whatever enemy had incarcerated him here.
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