I went fishing in the Nexus and caught something... more... than I expected. It seems my luck has changed with everything else. I've only just decided that a change of plans is required. And now I've found myself the perfect means - and the body - to do it with. He fights, but so did Natasha, and the experience is so much more worth the while.

I should have found a way to infest one of these Cybertronians months ago.

When the PIN flash fades, all is pitch black in the room where Evil!Telrim and her new guest have arrived. Unfazed and laughing with pleasure at her success, the Controller stands, and moves across the room confidently, shoes ringing on the cold metal deck-plates. She finds the light controls with ease born of habit, and the lights flicker on to show a storage hanger stacked with bales of wood and packages wrapped in sealed plastic, a few rolled-up carpets, crates upon crates upon crates with cardboard boxes numbered in clear red print. It looks like there's even a line of freezers over by one wall. A clear aisle leads off through the stacked items, giving access to the back. In one of the corners there's a number of free-standing objects, a couple of eight-foot columns of wood stood slightly away from others that have been carved into flowing, twisted shapes that look like alien figures from the corner of one's eye.

Still, it's only a small hangar, and Telrim is sure, as she turns to check on her guest, that they won't be disturbed. She comes back over to examine the stranger and consider his bindings.

"Really," she says with a smirk, "that was too easy, don't you think?"

The human's been whining nonstop, and I've realised why.

I need to find my twin. There's a decanting in the offing.

I knew I'd done a few good things in my time. Keeping Issek around was one of them. That doesn't mean I care for his insults. Hypocrite.

And now I know I'm the better half. My twin's turned traitor and taken up with Andalites, the wretched little slime mold. The mad Elfangor blindsided me and PINned me home. Which still leaves me in control of the situation, of course.

More fool my twin. She's the one who'll be made to pay for her choice.

By both sides, knowing her new friends.

I feel wonderful. Alive. Clean. All the weaknesses scoured out and dumped into that... that other. I'm sure of what she means, now. She's the rotten half.

Or less. Much less than half. After all, aren't I a full-fledged Yeerk by myself?

And I have the PINpoint, the knowledge, and the advantage. Lesser-twin can keep herself occupied until I'm ready to deal with her. I'll have to think of something suitable...

((Blame the LOL.))

For a second when Telrim PINpoints them in all is dark, until the Controller hits the light switches. They flicker on, revealing a smallish warehouse, stacked with shelves and crates and piles of oddly-shaped things in plastic packaging. Some of them have bright colours visible underneath. Alongside them are bales of bare wood and unopened bolts of fabric.

The main doors are locked shut, though there’s a smaller side door and a couple of inner doors near the back. The only windows are high on the walls, and someone’s gone to the trouble of painting them over in black. From the smell, the last coat’s still drying. No sunlight through there.

In a clear space of the bare floor are a few chairs and a table, on which Telrim’s left the clothes she picked up by request. Her attention now is on the predator she’s brought to this place.

“This is it,” she says. “The others should start arriving in a few minutes.”

It seems I know my own superiors better than some people thought. Oh, but it’s good to be proven right.

After more than a dozen generations of service to them, I’d have to be a fool not to know how the Council of Thirteen operates. And I’m proud to have seen them prove our faith in them is well-founded. The Andalites can claim the Empire a waste of time all they like. But the day an alien convinces us to think that way…

…I’m glad to say it won’t be any day soon. Not on my watch.

((For convenience's sake, the post that followed.))

I admit it: I'm bored enough to listen to the students and do silly things. But it's not my fault the shuttle's been delayed!


How evil are you?

Well, what do you know?