This is just a morph like any other, he-she? What gender could this creature call itself? thought. When I'm in a morph, I can use thoughtspeak. And when humans make mouth-sounds, they can wake others up. Logically, I should be able to wake the prince up with thoughtspeak.

It would be too risky to actually speak, although in this body it could. The morpher had spoken as a human in the past, and the sounds were unnatural. Too much repeating of syllables. Bull-zes. Yes, thoughtspeak was the way to go.

Now that he felt confident of the morph, he demorphed back to his Andalite self, then remorphed to a bug. Once he had snuck inside the bedroom of the sleeping prince, he demorphed once more and morphed the DNA he had acquired years ago, on a beach. The Frolis Maneuver involved mixing DNA from different organisms, but he still had the original. Now he, or she, or it tested the limits of the morph, trying to use thoughtspeak.

«Jake?»

He groaned in his sleep.

«Jake, wake up.»

It must have been working a little. He rolled over fitfully.

«Jake, come on. It's me.»

"'Syou who...urrgh..."

Tentatively, the uninvited guest kicked the mattress. Sleepily and annoyed, Jake blinked and looked around. When he saw the face in front of him, he gasped wordlessly and then asked "Is this a normal dream, or does the Ellimist, Crayak, or anybody have something to do with it? Let me go back to bed."

«I can't stay long, Jake. Listen up.»

"Or am I dead. That's it. I'm dead."

«No. You are neither dead nor dreaming.»

"Then what are you doing here?"

«I came to talk to you.»

Jake sighed. There was no way this ghost-it had to be a ghost-could make him feel any more guilty than he already did. "Go ahead."

«I wanted to tell you how proud I am of you.»

Jake flinched. Out of all the emotions he would expect-bitterness, resentment, jealousy,-pride was not one of them. But it still had more to say.

«There's no way I can imagine how difficult it must have been for you. To send your own cousin and brother to their deaths. But you found the strength to.»

"So I'm a cold-hearted machine that doesn't care about my own flesh and blood?"

«You're a leader who knew how to defeat an evil. Tom and I couldn't be happier.»

"Tobias could. I could."

The thing smiled at him. «Tobias will be okay. Will you?»

Images flooded Jake's mind. Yeerks, Hork-Bajir, Taxxons, humans, dead at his word. "Of course not."

«Jake. Look at me.»

Her eyes were as wild as they had been on the day they had tried to walk home through the construction site. "What?"

«It's time for you to see. The planet needs you.»

"The planet needed you."

«And it had me.»

How could he answer a dead girl who was standing in his room?

«You chose the right person to do what you needed done. Regretting the correct decisions you make is even stupider than regretting incorrect decisions, but you didn't make any of those.»

"Then why are you dead?"

«Am I?»

"Up until ten minutes ago I would have said yes. Now I'm not so sure."

«I think I'm more alive than you are.»

"Huh?"

«It's time for you to go on with your life. This is the time when people your age fall in love, and I think you've succeeded in that. Live out your dream.»

"If my dreams involve my dead cousin showing up I'd rather not, thanks." Jake pulled the covers back up over himself. "I'm going to bed."

There was nothing more that could be done here. The morpher quietly exited the house, then demorphed under Jake's window.

It would be worth one more try. «Jake?»

He couldn't hear if there was a reply, but continued. «Tom's proud, too.»

Jake looked out the window. He did not see the retreating figure of Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthil, but instead stared out at the stars. He could hear a screeching bird as Milky Way arched over the dome of the sky.