Well, you've been sitting down long enough; at least, if you've been obeying the instructions at the beginning of the previuos chapters. So get on your feet and enjoy NEW ALIENNESS!

Imagine a picture of James turning into a Pythag.

You'll know what that is by the end of this, I swear.

68: The Redemption

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Well, here it is: the big ending of this trilogy.

That said, enjoy the first full-length fic staring James as well as a brand new alien race (the Pythagi, if you couldn't guess from the above order to imagine...).

Enjoy or go to hell.

Chapter 1

My name is James. Yeah, yeah, an ordinary name. But I'm far from ordinary. You've heard it all before, I know. The Yeerks, Andalites, construction site, the war... But you probably didn't hear about me. I'm not something the Animorphs are proud of. Maybe the only thing they're more ashamed of is what they did to David. But what happened to me and my friends isn't much better.

Near the end of the First War, the Animorphs were discovered. They and their families went into hiding. They decided that they needed allies, others to help them fight the Yeerks. But who could they trust? Who could they be sure were not Controllers? Easy: hosts the Yeerks didn't want. The disabled. So they came to the hospital.

I was one of those disabled kids. See, when I was little, I was in a bad accident. Part of my spine was pulverized pretty bad. My mom took me to the hospital. She never bothered to take me back out. I grew up there, surrounded by the sick, the dying, and the paralyzed like me. It didn't make for a happy childhood. But we got by, all of us. We held on to each other; we had nothing else.

Until the day the Animorphs came. They were honest with us from the start. They told us all about the war and how desperate it all was. And then Jake gave us the option of fighting. But it was far more than that. He gave us the option to morph, to be whole for two hours at a time. And for a few of us, those who were not born with our afflictions, it was the chance to be whole forever.

I was one of the lucky few who was completely healed. I became the leader of these new Axillary Animorphs. I led them into battle and decided who did what. Sometimes, I felt like I outranked most of the original Animorphs. Stupid, I know, but I had far more responsibility than they did. I had my own people to lead and I was proud of it. Until that final day, when Jake ordered us to make the ultimate sacrifice.

He needed a distraction, a diversion. He needed some way to make the Visser think that we were attacking his ship. He needed to make a sacrifice that no one believed he would ever make. So he sacrificed us, all of us, in a suicidal attack on the Pool ship, all for the sake of realistic drama. It went just as planned; or as feared. The Visser took the ship into the air and amused himself by killing us all. I watched as my friends, my family, were murdered from the sky while they were helpless. Maybe some of them got away. Maybe they're off happily living their lives in morphs or something.

Me? I ran. I turned and ran away like a coward. There was nothing I could do to help them, nothing except get killed with them. Maybe I should have died with them. For these past few years, I thought that I should have. I believed it was my purpose. But now...now I'm starting to think there's more to it than that. I'm back for a reason; I just need to find out what it really is.

After I fled, I hid for a little bit. I had a strong, healthy body now. But there was nothing left for me on Earth. So when I had the chance, I went off with the Andalites to their homeworld. I was taken in by a xenobiologist and a doctor. Things weren't going poorly, really. And then, without warning, the Drode intervened and I found myself standing in Rachel's living room. Rachel, who I though had died. And she wasn't alone. I met the other Animorphs and was told all about this new war.

I agreed to fight again. How could I refuse? I had been given the chance to make up for what I did wrong, a reason to keep on living. So now it's into the fray once more for me. But it's a lot different now. Before, all of the Animorphs kind of kept me at arms length. I was never part of the inner circle, no matter how many of their core meetings I sat in on. Now, I'm really an Animorph.

It seems to me that all of the original Animorphs are still here, but at the same time, they're not. All of them have changed too much to ever be the way they used to be. Some of them weren't even factors when I joined up. Cassie's a good example. She had left the war to be with her finance, Ronnie Chambers. But she seems to be back now, fighting with us once more. And Ronnie seems to be tagging along.

Then there's Ax. He spent some time as the host of the Visser, but after a daring raid on the Blade ship, the Animorphs rescued him. He's different now, too. Angrier, more bitter, and a lot more ruthless. He's been humbled, too, by what's happened to him. He willingly listens to advice from others; even us lowly humans. He bears the scars of this war. In his case, these scars are physical. A bad burn from the acidic blood of a Kelbrid claimed one of his main eyes and left him with a wicked scar.

Marco, when I first signed back on, wasn't all that different from the kid I had briefly known. But recently, everything got to be too much for him. He lost his mind and his memories. Now, he has some hazy, general memories, but nothing specific. He needs to be reminded every morning who he is, how old he is, and what's going on. He remembers enough that it's not a massive ordeal to coinvince him that we're telling the truth, but it's still a bit tedious. I'm glad Jeanne takes care of that.

Rachel's a lot different now, too. Unlike the last time I saw her, she's alive now. Jake traded his life for hers. Since she's pregnant with Tobias's child, she can no longer fight in this war. But she still helps us in any way she can; and even in some ways she can't, such as making us food. She seems to have settled down a bit, but I suspect that Tobias might just be putting sedatives in her food.

Tobias is completely different. The last time I saw him, he was a shy, sensitive kid trapped in the body of a hawk. Now, he's an ice-cold general. He seems to be completely fearless and totally ruthless. He's our leader now, the one who we're all putting our hopes on.

And I can't forget to mention Jake. Jake, the reason things have suddenly gotten very, very complicated. I mentioned that he traded his life for Rachel's? Well, he's been given a second shot at life, under the condition that he kills a Yeerk rebel named Mersa 528. Mersa has gone on the run and we now have five days to find and kill him. Think that's complicated? That's just all that's happened with the originals.

We've got some "new" members, too. Although I shouldn't necessarily call them that. Jeanne's been on more missions than I have. She's Rachel's step-sister and Marco's girlfriend. On top of that, she's a trained assassin. And did I mention breathtakingly beautiful? Too bad she's already taken. Although if Marco ever completely loses his mind...

Next, there's David. He was an Animorph long before I was, and the reason they waited so long before recruiting more people to help them. David betrayed the Animorphs and tried to kill them. They retaliated by trapping him in the body of a rat. When this new war began, the One - I suppose I should call him by his real name now; Azmaveth. Anyhow, Azmaveth restored David's power to morph. David betrayed Azmaveth and now works for us.

I like David. Part of it is because we have so much in common. He told me once that I am both his equal and his opposite, and I think that's true. This war took everything from David. And it gave everything to me. In spite of that, he doesn't seem to hold it against me. We get along pretty well. And the fact that we chose the exact same lion as a battle morph means that we tend to work together in a fight. He's got my back and I have his. I don't know if the others trust David, but I certainly do.

Then there's Al; aristh Alloran-Sirinial-Fangor. He's Tobias's half brother and David's best friend. Al's a genius with computers, even by the standards of the Andalites. He's also good to have around in a fight.

Lastly, there's Santorelli. He was an Animorph very briefly. During one of their earliest missions of this war, he died. He was sent back along with Jake to help kill Mersa. Santorelli agreed to return to the afterlife once the deed was done. That's all I know about him other than the fact that he's old enough to be my father. In spite of this, he follows the rest of us without resentment.

All of us were crammed at the breakfast table at Rachel's house, where we seem to have set up camp. With us were some others. Rachel's mother, father, and stepfather, Naomi, Dan, and Jacques. There was also Loren, Tobias's mother, who I sort of knew from the Andalite homeworld, since I did her yardwork there. We were also joined by Menderash-Postill-Fastill, an Andalite who had trapped himself in human morph at the beginning of this war. He was here on behalf of the Andalite Electorate to investigate Tobias's actions. See, this war had to stay a secret, but the Andalites knew that Tobias was up to something; they just couldn't figure out what. Also with us were Rachel's sisters, Jordan and Sara, as well as Cassie's fiancé, Ronnie. And I can't forget our other two guests.

The Visser, in the morph of a blue-eyed, dark-haired human (who, I might add, wasn't as young as he once was), sat at one end of the table, looking like he wanted to be anywhere else. Next to him stood a massive Hork-bajir. Guraff 427, the greatest warrior in the Yeerk Empire. He and Tobias shared an odd friendship, and I got the impression that Guraff wasn't supposed to be treated like an enemy.

We were all sitting around the table for the same reason. If there was one thing we could all agree on, it was that Mersa 528 had to die. He had gone on the run and the Yeerks were willing to help us find him. With the time pressure we were desperate, so we accepted.

We ate in silence except for Tobias and Guraff, who kept a polite conversation going. I noticed the Visser struggling to eat the food. "Who cooked this?" he demanded.

"I did," Rachel answered him.

The Visser looked from Rachel to Guraff to Tobias and finally back to his plate. He said nothing. Apparently, not even the Visser is stupid enough to let Rachel know how bad her cooking is.

Funny thing: up until that day, I thought Rachel's cooking was something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. And now my worst enemy was eating it, and I savored every moment of it.

Chapter 2

We ate in silence, mostly because no one dared to discuss exactly who our guests were. Tobias had mentioned Guraff only once in her presence, as a business associate. She probably assumed they were here on behalf of the Andalties, since the Visser wasn't morphed when he arrived.

We all finished quickly and excused ourselves. Tobias led us to the Reliquary, the only place we could be sure Naomi wouldn't overhear us. I guess it's kind of funny: here we were, and all of us were afraid to antagonize an ordinary human woman. Okay, not afraid exactly, but it was definitely something we wanted to avoid at all costs. An angry Naomi made life very, very difficult for all involved.

It was very tense on the bridge. The Visser demorphed, which made us all pretty nervous. Ax and Al kept their tails ready, but there wasn't much they could do. I've seen Guraff defeat Ax before, with almost no effort. Heck, I saw Guraff beat Tobias in Howler morph. Neither of the Andalites would be of much use against him, and the fact that Guraff had the Visser to back him up just made things worse.

Tobias seemed calm, though. I don't know if it was just an act or if he was really that unperturbed by the situation, but I bought it. Seeing him so relaxed, lounging on his bed, made me feel a little better. If he thought things were going to get out of hand, he'd be in Howler morph by now. I guess there wasn't much to fear. Besides, Rachel came with us and he wasn't about to put her in any danger.

Silence still reigned. No one had spoken during breakfast and that hadn't changed yet. Someone needed to break the silence. I guess I decided that person had to be me. "So...what are we going to do?" I asked. "We need to find Mersa, but how? Where would he go?"

((There are several possibilities,)) the Visser told us. ((Guraff's ship, the ship Mersa stole, is equipped with a tracking device. We can follow it.))

"Then why do you need us?" Marco asked. "Why bring us into this at all?"

Guraff answered him. "Because Mersa is not a fool. He has several options at this point. He could disable the tracking signal at any time, leaving us lost. He abandon the ship and get a different one, escaping our signal. He could separate from the ship so that following it would lead us in the wrong direction. Or he could remain with the ship and hope that we assume he would never do so."

((So following the ship is most likely a bad idea,)) David said. ((But it's also the only lead we have, right?))

Guraff nodded. "We have no other options at this time other than a random search."

((At the very least,)) Ax continued, ((we know that Mersa possessed the ship at one time. Following it may yield clues as to his present location.))

"All of this is stuff the Yeerks could do on their own," Rachel pointed out. "Why why bring us into this?"

((Guraff's idea,)) the Visser sighed. ((He believed that your assistance would be helpful, perhaps even necessary. Although I disagree, Guraff's judgment has proven to be reliable in the past. I am willing to lend him my ear this time. I suffered greatly in the past for ignoring his advice.))

"Okay, so," Jake began, "we're about to start gallivanting across the galaxy. How do we go about doing that?"

((The Blade ship-)) the Visser began.

"-Is a great way for us all to get slugs in our heads," Marco interrupted. "No way am I riding with the slugs."

"Didn't we have this argument once before?" Cassie wondered. "It sounds kind of familiar." Well, if they had it before, I missed it.

"There's a simple solution," Tobias said. "I'll go on the Blade ship. The Visser will go on the Reliquary. Then we both have important hostages. If I get infested, the Visser gets killed. Or if he gets killed, I get infested. Simple enough."

"You're not going off alone," Rachel insisted. "I'm going to be on the Blade ship with you."

"No, you're going to be on Earth where it's safe," Tobias answered.

"Like hell I am. This isn't some ordinary mission, Tobias. You could-"

"Which is precisely why you're staying here."

"I am not going to stay at home while you run off to save the world. Guraff, tell him I'm not going to just sit around and let him do all the fighting."

Guraff looked from Tobias to Rachel. "I think it would be best for everyone if I refrain from involvement in this debate."

"Guraff," Tobias said, "tell her that a pregnant woman has no place in a battle."

"Guraff, tell Tobias that he doesn't own me and I can do what I want."

"Guraff, tell Rachel that if she wants to be a soldier, she has to follow orders."

"Guraff, tell Tobias he's a moron."

"Guraff, tell Rachel she's a bitch."

It seemed like all the air got sucked out of the room. No one twitched. Not even Marco dared utter a remark. After a moment of silence, she slapped Tobias in the face and stormed out of the ship.

Tobias sank onto his bed. "Thank God. I was wondering how I could tick her off so much she'd refuse to come even if I begged her."

We all gaped at him. Quietly, Marco asked, "So...you did that on purpose?"

"Yeah," Tobias nodded. "It's useless to reason with her. So I had to trick her into doing what I wanted. She'll calm down by the time we get back."

"Have you met Rachel?" Jeanne asked. "How long do you expect to be gone? She does not calm down. She'll just sit on her anger until she gets to yell at you some more."

"I...hadn't considered that," he admitted. "Maybe I should go talk to her..."

"Yeah, maybe," I agreed.

Tobias turned to Jake. "You can finish making the arrangements. I'll go and smooth this over. Everything should be go for leaving in a few hours."

Chapter 3

Tobias left to go and get yelled at and probably hit a few times. I'm pretty sure he's completely lost his mind now. Jake took over from there. "Okay, so I think we'll go with what Tobias suggested."

"I am no longer comfortable with his plans," Marco said. "He definitely didn't think that last one through."

"Nevertheless, we'll agree to it," Jake said. "Tobias and some of the rest of us will ride with Guraff in the Blade ship. Visser Three will-"

((Actually, I'm just going by "the Visser" these days,)) the Visser corrected.

Jake shrugged. "Fine. The Visser and the rest of us will take the Reliquary. That should be enough to guarantee some measure of trust. Neither of us could make a move without sacrificing some people too important to sacrifice."

Guraff nodded. "That seems acceptable to me. My Visser?"

((Fine, fine. I will agree as long as the rest of them agree not to tie me up and leave me in the bathroom this time,)) the Visser said.

"I think we can probably guarantee that," Jake nodded. "So now we need to look to a few other things."

"Like what?" I asked.

((Food, for one thing,)) David told me. ((We'll be out there for probably a few days. We need to eat something.))

"Marco and Jeanne should take care of that," Jake ordered. "We also need to placate the important people. We'll have to disappear for a few days and we need to take some steps so we don't cause another panic. Let's see..."

"Santorelli should be able to talk to the parents. They'll be more likely to listen to him than to us," Cassie suggested. "Ronnie and I need to take care of some things of our own. I mean...we haven't been home in a few days."

((Guraff and I need to be sure we will have access to Kandrona rays,)) the Visser said. ((And there are other things we have to take care of before we go. We will meet you behind the moon in two hours.))

Jake nodded as the pair left. Everything got a lot more relaxed then. "Okay. Anyone else need to be taken care of?"

"I should contact War-Prince Glorfindel," Menderash said. "I will not tell him what is truly going on; I understand that I cannot do that. But I must give him a preliminary report and let him know that he will not likely hear from me for a few days."

That surprised me. You don't often find Andalites who are so willing to lie to their superiors at a moment's notice. But then again, you don't often meet Andalties who are willing to trap themselves in human bodies, either. Menderash wasn't exactly the average Andalite, I guess. Ax had chosen him as a Tactical Officer, and I suppose Ax wouldn't choose the average Andalite to be his T.O.

"I'll need to talk to my parents," Jake told us. "Wow...that feels weird to say. I guess the rest of you can do whatever you want."

That made sense. David and I didn't have parents; at least, not living parents that we knew of. Ax and Al didn't have that problem either. "What do you want to do?" I asked them.

((It is unlikely that I will find room or time to graze during this journey,)) Ax said. ((Perhaps we could go to the park?)) He sounded hopeful, like we might say no.

((I would not be adverse to that,)) Al agreed.

((Yay! I love the park. So much stuff to climb on,)) David added. ((Of course, I need to watch out for birds and stuff, but they usually stay away from people and Andalites. I should be fine. Not a problem... I think I'll stick close to the blue guys.))

I nodded. "The park it is." Then something occurred to me. "Let's see if anyone else wants to go. I'm sure Jordan and Sara will want to get out of the house. I can almost guarantee that Tobias is fighting with Naomi and Rachel right now. And probably with Loren, too. And Dan. And possibly Jacques. Damn, he really should not have said that. Let's get out of here."

We filed out of the Reliquary and found Jordan and Sara waiting in the backyard. "Wherever you're going, please take us with you," Jordan said to me. "Marco and Jeanne wouldn't let us come along but we have to get out of here."

"We're going to the park," I told her. "You can tag along I guess."

"Anywhere's better than here."

Chapter 4

It really was a beautiful day at the park. Me, I love the park. I know it might sound odd, but I do. Growing up, I could never go and take a walk in the park. Even if I could have walked, they wouldn't let me out of the hospital. So now that I have the option of doing so, I take a walk in the park any chance I get.

I'm not the only one who enjoys it, though. The Andalites love it. They can't really graze back at Rachel's place; not enough room. Many Andalites in town came to graze at the park, so Ax and Al didn't seem at all out of place. Granted, it's not like the place was crawling with Andalite tourists all the time, but people in this town were used to seeing them. This was a major landmark, after all. Andalites on Earth couldn't pass up the chance to check this place out.

David loved it, too. In a lot of ways, David's still a kid. He's been in rat morph since he was fourteen and in many ways, he hasn't grown out of it. It doesn't help that his human morph is his fourteen year old self. Both parts of David, his human and rat sides, loved to climb on things.

While the Andalties galloped around the park inadvertently terrifying small children and adults alike, Sara took David off to the jungle gym. Presumably, she was there to make sure he didn't get eaten or anything. Weird that writing things like that don't seem odd to me anymore. This left me alone with Jordan.

Silently, I started walking off towards a little section of woods at the edge of the park. She followed, like I knew she would. Carefully, I looked around to be sure no one was watching us. Then I disappeared into the woods with Jordan behind me.

Out of sight from anyone, I sat on the ground and leaned against a tree. Jordan sat down next to me and took my hand in hers. "This really isn't the best idea. One of the others could come here looking for us at any moment," she warned me.

"You worry too much," I smiled. People think Rachel's the beautiful one in that family, and maybe that used to be true, back during the First War. But not if you ask me. Jordan definitely takes that prize.

Jordan was nothing like how I expected her to be when I first met her. I thought she'd be like her older sister.. I couldn't have been more wrong. Rachel was reckless; Jordan worried too much. She was far more serious. Not that Rachel's some sort of clown, she certainly takes some things very seriously. But a lot of the time, she's having fun even while doing something serious. Jordan, on the other hand...

I was glad she was serious, though. It made me seem less so. I felt more relaxed around her. Someone else was worrying about the little things for once. It was a liberating feeling. There some complications, though. Complications she was more than happy to remind me of.

"You know what will happen if someone finds out," she reminded me. "After what happened with Tobias and Rachel, Mom would kick you out if she knew about this."

I put my head on her shoulder. "So let's not tell her."

"But if someone sees us–"

"Like who? Ax? He's the original 'Clueless Andalite'. Al? He's 'Clueless Andalite' version two point oh. He wouldn't rat us out. Speaking of which, David wouldn't do it, either. Bolts is cool like that."

"You forgot about Sara."

"Would she really–"

"Yes."

"How you know?"

"If I had known about Rachel and Tobias back in the beginning, I'd have ratted them out. It's a girl thing." Not being a girl, I had to assume she was telling the truth.

We sat there in silence for a while, unsure what to say. There were so few moments when we could get away like this, especially now that everyone the Animorphs knew seemed to be squeezed into one house. It was getting ridiculous. I'm really surprised Toby hasn't decided to show up just for the heck of it.

I laughed as something funny occurred to me. "What?" Jordan asked.

"I was just thinking..."

"It's about time." What can I say? She and her sister aren't completely different... "What about?"

"What if Toby and Guraff got together?"

She gave me a completely perplexed look. "............"

"Okaaaaay... Never mind. Forget I mentioned that."

But I guess I got her thinking about what was going to come. "You'll be gone for who knows how long," she said softly.

"It'll only be a few days," I reminded her.

"Who knows what could happen?" she said. "You'll be out there with the Yeerks, running around in God knows where, looking for Mersa. You could be killed, James. You could die."

"I'll be fine," I assured her. "It's not like it'll just be me. More Animorphs than ever before are going off on this mission. This is the safest things have ever been."

"Why can't the others take care of it?" she asked me. "Not everyone needs to go. They can get by without you for one mission, can't they?"

"Yeah maybe," I shook my head. "But I can't just sit here while they go off into danger."

"I thought you said it'd be safe."

"Well...as safe as these things ever get."

"That's not very comforting."

"Did you expect it to be?"

"Can't you just lie to me? Tell me you'll be fine? Tell me everyone will come back okay. Please?"

Could I? It would certainly be easier. But even though she asked for it, it felt wrong somehow. Was that any way for me to run a relationship? I know Tobias never lies to Rachel about the odds, about how things were probably going to end.

But Jordan wasn't her sister. I gave her my best smile. "Yeah. Don't worry; everything's going to be alright."

Chapter 5

We stayed at the park for a few hours. Jordan and I had to spend most of the time in the open, though. We couldn't take the chance of one of them noticing us sneaking off together. The last thing I needed was for Naomi to throw me out of the house; I had nowhere else to go. In theory, I could go and live in the Reliquary or at Marco's place, but that didn't seem to be the best choice. At least here, I was close to the action; and Jordan.

When we got back, we found Tobias and Guraff in the backyard. Tobias didn't look happy. Not to say that he ever exactly looks happy, but this time he was noticeably unhappy. Maybe he was going out of his way to display it or maybe he was finally getting back into human facial habits. Either way, we could tell he was ticked.

"What is it?" I asked as we approached.

"The Visser wants to stay behind while we go off," Tobias answered. "Of course, I can't let him stay. Like they say: while the hawk's a way, the rats will play."

((I believe it's about cats an mice, actually,)) David interjected. ((While the cat's away, the mice will play. Sound familiar?))

Tobias gave him a blank look. A few moments later, he shrugged. I guess he was trying to remember what to do with his body in response to that. "I was sure it was hawk and rat..."

"Does it matter?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Not really. In any case, I can't let the Visser stay behind. I talked him into coming with us, but on one condition: we all have to ride on the Blade ship. And he gets to bring guards."

((No way!)) David argued. ((He'll forcibly infest us.))

"Which is why I got Guraff here to agree to not let him do that," Tobias informed us. "Guraff is a man of honor. If he says he will stop something like that, I believe him."

The massive Hork-bajir nodded. "I am beholden to three duties. My third is to my comrades. My second is to my Visser. My first is to my honor. I will not bring shame upon myself by lying to you like this."

Privately, Ax warned us, ((Guraff is an intelligent Yeerk. This is an opportunity to end the war. He will not let it pass just for his honor.))

Tobias shook his head. "Guraff's honor is his weakness."

"And the Devil Prince's family is his," Guraff added. "Which is why Rachel will be coming with us. She will remain with me at all times. The Devil Prince holds me by my honor; I will hold him by what he prizes."

We all looked at each other. This couldn't be good. Tobias wouldn't agree to this. We all turned to him next. I expected to see him angry. I thought I'd see him argue with Guraff about this. But instead, his face was a cold mask. "Done," he said quietly.

((This is not good,)) Ax said to us. I was pretty sure Tobias and Guraff couldn't hear us. ((If Tobias is willing to take such a risk...))

Al nodded slightly, then caught himself. ((I cannot believe... He must have some sort of plan. He would never risk Rachel's life. That is one thing of which I am certain.))

((Who knows what he'd do anymore?)) David argued. ((I'm telling you, he's losing it and I'm getting scared. I have no idea how far he'll go anymore. I don't know where he draws the line. I don't think there even is one anymore. He's way beyond it now.))

Were they right? I didn't know. I never really knew Tobias. When I first met him, he was bird and I tried to avoid him. What happened to him was an all too present reminder of what could happen to me if I wasn't careful. And now...now it seemed like no one knew him. Ax was his best friend and even the Andalite thought he was starting to lose it. Maybe Rachel knew if he was still sane. Maybe I'd talk to her about it. But she and I were never close; nowhere near.

I saw a hand wave in front of my eyes. "James, are you listening?" Tobias asked me.

"Uh...no. Sorry. What were you saying?"

"I said go and pack whatever you'll need. It'll be a ten day journey, maximum, and I don't trust the Visser's washing facilities. He doesn't even have clothes. Say whatever goodbyes you think you'll need and we'll be off."

I nodded and left. I didn't have a lot of possessions, so I didn't have a lot to pack. I really only knew the Animorphs, and all of them were coming along. Except for Santorelli. He decided to remain behind in case he got tempted to take Mersa for himself. Jeanne wasn't happy about that, but I guess Tobias overruled her. He didn't seem pleased with it either, but he seemed content to let it go.

I had already bid Jordan farewell before we came back. That didn't stop her, though. Like I said, for all their many differences, she is still Rachel's sister, after all.

I was in the bathroom upstairs, getting my toothbrush when she pulled me into her room. "Please, James, just tell me one more time. Tell me you'll be safe. Tell me you'll come back okay."

"Of course I'll be okay. You'd kill me if I died out there," I said with a little laugh. I guess she didn't think it was funny.

"This isn't a joke, James, and it isn't a game. You're going to be out there in space with those Yeerk monsters, headed off to God knows where. This is really serious."

"It was really serious since the day your cousin turned into a tiger in the children's ward. I know what I'm doing, Jordan, and so do the others. Jake and Tobias can handle the Visser and Guraff. And Mersa isn't a danger to anyone. He's an old white guy in a suit who can't morph. Nothing to be worried about."

"I know. It's just..."

I took her in my arms. "You worry too much," I said, just before I kissed her. Then I felt her go stiff. Someone cleared their throat behind me.

I dropped Jordan and spun around. Rachel was standing there, her arms crossed. "This isn't what it looks like..." trailed off, glancing at Jordan, prone on the floor.

For a moment, we were all unsure what to do or say. Rachel could go either way. She could be enraged at me or happy for Jordan. I didn't think Rachel had any problem with me, after all. But then again, she is Rachel and she just caught me with her kid sister. And the pregnancy hormones didn't make her any more stable.

After a few tense moments, she smiled. "You two really need to start closing doors."

"You're...not mad?" Jordan asked from the floor, sounding more than a little nervous.

"I was when I first found out. But I got over it. After all, it could be a lot worse. Especially when you consider the other guys in your life are either aliens, rats, or your cousin," Rachel told her. "Sara's the one I have to watch out for. And I'm still keeping an eye on Jeanne, too"

"How did you know? And when?" I demanded. We had been so careful...

She laughed. "Cassie told me this would happen that night she and Ronnie joined us all for dinner. I guess seeing the two of you together was a big neon sign to her. She's...good like that. But I didn't know for sure until Tobias told me yesterday."

"How did he know?" Jordan asked.

"He may be an idiot a lot of the time, but he sees everything. And besides, he and I invented this sort of thing; or at least, reinvented it. You think you can pull one over on us?" Rachel laughed again. She was actually amused by this! "Kids, we're the masters. Hell, even when we all moved in at the Hork-bajir camp, mom had no idea about me and Tobias. You two...you're like a kid's finger painting, and we're the Mona Lisa. Now come on; Leonardo's waiting with the Visser's ship."