Animorphs The Adventure Continues

by Catty Vancouver

Series to continue the series--new characters, new species, new motives

1. Book 1 From the Ashes

We thought it was over. The Yeerks,

the fighting, all of it... We thought

Rachel was dead, never to come back.

We thought it was the end. We thought

wrong.



You see, nothing's what it seems anymore.

We don't know who to trust. But one

things for sure. We're not going to give up.

Ever.





From the Ashes



Chapter 1

Tobias

For every ending, there's a new beginning.

My name is Tobias.

Jake gave the order and I knew it would happen. Knew, like I knew that it really wasn't

over.

The Yeerk's were back.

Would we all end up dead, like Rachel?

Rachel.

After three years, I still couldn't believe she was dead. The sadness was still there, every day. As much as I tried to put it behind me, it wouldn't go away. I couldn't forget.

We had named the ship after her. Not really a tribute, we had to name this ship, this ship that was so much like her.

And, aboard this ship, we discovered that the Yeerks weren't gone. Some were still there, our enemy, and they had a new leader. The One.

The One had a face that didn't seem to stay the same. It shifted, melted, back and forth between three different faces. One was almost like an elf, one was almost robotic, and one of them belonged to Ax. Prince Aximili, to be exact.

I guess I'm getting ahead of myself. The Yeerks were a parasitic species. They lived by wrapping themselves around the brain of a living creature. They enslaved several species. Taxxon. Hork-Bajir. Gedd. And they wanted us. Good old Homo sapiens.

But the Yeerks aren't the only alien race out there. The Andalites were Yeerks enemy, but some of them were willing to blow up Earth just to get rid of the Yeerks, if it came to that. Ax is an Andalite. A good one, though.

So, who am I, you are asking. Who's the crazy guy talking about aliens? Well, get prepared, cause I'm not just a crazy guy. I'm also a red tailed hawk.

See, six years ago my friends Rachel, Jake, Cassie, Marco, and of course, me, took a short cut through an abandoned construction site. We met a dying Andalite named Elfangor, Ax's brother, who broke a bunch of laws and gave us the power to morph. The power to become any animal we touched. Not long after we met Ax, then a young aristh, or cadet. We were the only uninslaved ones on Earth that knew what was going on. Five kids and a young alien.

But we defeated the Yeerks. Or so we thought. A lot of them were killed. The others morphed and became nothlit, or stuck in the body of their morph forever. That's what happened to me, and that's why I'm a red tail hawk. But I still have morphing powers, thanks to an incredibly long story that I'm not in the mood to tell.

Rachel was one of us. She died in a mission, three long years ago. She and I are thought of as the "Forgotten Animorphs". I left after her funeral. I didn't want to come back. I still don't, but I had to when I heard Ax was gone. And now I really wish I hadn't.

The mission was almost hopeless. We couldn't do anything without possibly killing Ax, the person we were there to save. Marco, Jake, and I are the only Animorphs aboard. Two people from one of Jake's classes, Jeanne and Santorelli, were also with us. Menderash, an Andalite nothlit who had become human, flew the ship.

Jake told Menderash to ram the Blade ship. I felt the engines power up. Then, with a sudden surge of power, we went forward.

A shockwave vibrated threw the Rachel. I was thrown into Marco who in turn flew into Jeanne. I'm not so sure that was an accident. Jeanne is gorgeous, and Marco had earlier made it clear that he was well aware of this.

"TSEEEEEEER!" I cried. My talons grabbed the back of Marco's shirt and held on tight. I managed to see that the Blade ship had tilted to the side. Our ram had done damage.

"Again!" that was Jake. The look on his face scared me. It was pure Rachel.

We rammed the Blade ship again. This time we hit an engine, which exploded. The Rachel's engine caught fire, too. The smoke was let in through a vent and we all coughed and sputtered.

Now what? I asked.

Jake seemed unsure. Scared, I guess. But he still managed to get out his decision in a split second.

"There's a smaller ship -cough- under. . .bridge." My hawk eyes picked it up immediately. A small ship. The Rachel Jr., probably.

Marco, morph small! You too, Jeanne. I didn't know how Jake would respond to me giving orders and I didn't care. This wasn't the time.

Marco and Jeanne both started shrinking. I recognized their morphs. Flies.

Jake and Menderash headed for the mini-ship. Santorelli followed. I watched the screen where The One watched us with a bemused expression.

"Pitiful humans, you believe you can kill The One?"

I didn't have time to watch. I couldn't. Ax was part of this.this thing. If it died, Ax died. But.was killing The One worth losing Ax? And, more important, could The One be killed?

"Tobias!" Jake. He was standing near the entrance to the ship. I knew he wouldn't leave me, so I flew over and into the ship.

It was majorly crowded. Even with Marco and Jeanne as flies, I could barely lift a wing. And what would happen when they had to demorph?







Chapter 2

Cassie

The dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow. -Robert Goddard



I leaned back against my bed and just sighed. Jake, Jake, Jake. The words pounded through my head. Just three years ago, I had loved Jake.

Just three years. Not a very long time, yet sometimes it seemed like an eternity. Other times it felt like just yesterday I had knelt beside Jake in that anaconda cage and told Jake I loved him. But did I still?

No. At least, nothing like the love before.

Everything was wrong. Rachel was dead. I had thought she was dead before only to have her show up when I least expected. This time she wouldn't come back. Not by any miracle.

The Ellimist. He could bring her back, but I knew he wouldn't. Crayak could. But why? He had wanted Jake dead. Now he got to see Jake suffer. Why would he take that suffering away?

The Drode always said Rachel was his favorite Animorph. I don't know why. I think it was her fighting nature. But the Drode couldn't bring her back even if he wanted to. He didn't have the power.

Tobias. I had seen the pain in his eyes when Rachel died. The pain that could never heal.

Jake. The knowledge that his order had killed his cousin and his brother. It had to happen, but that didn't make it right to Jake.

And myself. Rachel was my best friend, the only other girl in the Animorphs. She kept me from feeling alone, even when I was in her glamorous shadow. But I never felt in her shadow.

Six years had passed since we walked through that construction site. Six years of fighting, guilt, lying, pain. And Rachel had loved it. But Rachel was gone.

Cassie, girl, stop laying around moping about me.

I sat straight up. The voice.in my head.Rachel! "Who's there? Rachel?"

Who'd you think? She stepped from the shadows. A tall blonde girl. Sixteen. A girl who should be dead.

"But.Rachel.you're."

Dead? She shrugged. A technicality. The Ellimist let me come and tell you to get off your lazy butt and go get Jake!

"You need Jake? For what?"

Rachel rolled her eyes. I don't need him. You do, girl.

"Why are you talking like that?" the voice was like thought speak, it was in my head.

So no one else can hear me. Duh. Now quit changing the subject. I've got limited time here.

"Okay." I didn't argue with Rachel when she was alive and I wasn't going to now.

You're lucky, Cassie. I wanted to live, but I was willing to die. You're already nineteen and I'm stuck like this forever. But enough of my whining. I've got stuff to tell you. There's going to be a new Animorph. She's going to take my place. Marco and Jake have both met her before.

"Rachel, no one can ever take your place."

I know. But you need someone to help you. I noticed Rachel was starting to fade. I have to go.

"No!"

Yes. If I don't leave peacefully, I won't get to come again.

"Good-bye, Rachel,"

Bye, Cassie. Tell Tobias I love him. I nodded. Rachel disappeared, leaving me alone.

I wondered if I had imagined it all. What did she mean if she didn't go peacefully, she couldn't come again? And how could the Ellimist bring someone from the dead? Then I noticed something. It was a scrap of paper lying on the carpet.

I picked up the paper. The handwriting was Rachel's, the words what I expected:

Nope, it wasn't a dream!





Chapter 3

Rachel



Nothing in the world is as certain as death.

-Jean Froissart

You guessed it; I'm not dead. Well, my body is. Just ask Tobias; he's got the remains.

What happened was the Ellimist and Crayak let me think I was dead for, oh, a day or so. All part of their game. I don't know how or why they saved me. I know their game had rules. The Ellimist had told me. He had shown me what he was, who he was, why he was.

And now I couldn't remember.

They must have done something to my memory. I knew I had been told the story of the Ellimist. I knew I should be able to remember. But whenever I tried to, I got this foggy feeling in my brain. A feeling I couldn't shake off or break through.

They put me in this stupid little room that has, like, a million TV screens that show my friends at all times. And, after three years of begging and pleading, they finally let me visit one of them.

You can imagine that picking one of them was hard. I desperately wanted to see Tobias. But Cassie was my best friend and I thought I owed it to her.

I hate this little "life" of mine. Who wants to watch one guy mourn over you while another rolls in money and forgets you ever existed? Who wants to see your cousin drown in guilt for something he had to do? I don't even know why I'm here. Why am I not dead?

The Drode is constantly bugging me. He finds it fun to haul his big green butt in my room and watching my friends and point out how a few of them are in danger of going insane. Basically, making my life (well, sort of.I guess I really don't have a life) miserable.

I watched the screen in front of me. Jake, Marco, Tobias, an Andalite, and two of Jake's groupies were on some suicidal mission on a ship called the Rachel. Dedicated to yours truly.

I hated watching. They were off on a crazy mission.without me. But my love of fighting, of war, had that led to my destruction?

I tried to ask the Ellimist. I asked why I was here, why not dead, why couldn't I go back? I threatened him, but it didn't work. I begged, pleaded, but nothing would make him budge.

I turned back to the screen. A little ship that had been stored on the Rachel was zooming into space. Jake and everyone were in it. They headed towards Earth.

I wondered what I had missed. Why were they taking off like someone was hot on their tail? I found out in about two seconds.

KABOOOOOOOOOM!

The Rachel exploded! It was a giant ball of fire and sparks, hurling into zero-space. I was glad the smaller ship had gotten away, but kind of sad my namesake was now space dust.

I focused my view on a screen that showed the inside of the ship. For a few seconds the screen was filled with the image of a red tailed hawk. I reached out my hand and traced his outline.

I love you, Tobias.



Chapter 4

Jake

Seeing is believing.



It took almost five days to get back to Earth. Since we had been out in space for months and months, I had expected it to take longer, but since we knew where we were going, it didn't. Once we arrived, I kept quiet about what had happened. So did Marco as far as I know. I asked him to tell Cassie what had happened. I just couldn't face her. I don't know what Santorelli and Jeanne told people. I let them go and cut off contact with them.

Ring, Ring. It was very tempting to just let the phone ring. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I just wanted to be left alone. But I knew it could be someone important so I reluctantly answered.

"Hello?"

"Jake?" I knew the voice, but I didn't believe my ears. It couldn't be.

"Cassie?"

"Yes." There was silence. I couldn't talk. Couldn't think of anything to say. Fortunately, Cassie could:

"I talked to Rachel."

"Uh..?" I know, not the most intelligent response. But I wasn't going for intelligence. I must have heard wrong. Had to have heard wrong.

"Yeah. Rachel. I think.I think she was a.not a ghost. But she was here."

"Cassie," I said as gently as possible. "Rachel is dead. She doesn't come by for a chat."

"Jake, I know what I saw. And heard. You have to see the note she left. It's her handwriting." I swallowed. Had Cassie gone insane?

"Cassie, what are you doing?"

"What do you mean `what am I doing`? I'm not making this up. Rachel was there and she told me there's going to be a new Animorph. Someone to take her place." I bit down on my lip. Cassie sounded dead serious. I could hear how the past three years had changed her, made her into someone else. She wasn't my Cassie; she was Ronnie's. She had moved on, something that I couldn't do.

"Okay. I believe you. Did she tell you how she was there? Or give any information on this new Animorph?"

"Yeah. She said the Ellimist let her come and she might come again. And that the new Animorph will be a lot like her in some ways and that you and Marco already knew her. Oh, and she wanted me to tell Tobias she loves him."

I'm not stupid. Don't think I am. But some small part of me believed Cassie. Rachel's death was my fault. I didn't want her to die. But.was she really dead? Or was this whole thing some illusion thought up by the ever helpful, yet still annoying Ellimist?

I remember the time he took us ahead to what the "future" would be like. About the same time this is now. Rachel was the only one still alive, in that reality. And in this one, she's the only one dead.

Suddenly I realized Cassie was still on the phone. "Cassie?"

"Yeah?"

"Remember when the Ellimist took us to the supposed future, where Earth was infested?"

"And Rachel was the only one? Yeah, I've been thinking that a lot lately."

"Do you think the Ellimist knew? Did he know that time line was a total fake, and that Rachel would really."

Cassie didn't answer for a long time. When she did, her voice was thick with unshed tears. "I don't know. Oh, Jake, what's happened to us all? Nothing's right anymore. I don't know how to make it right."

"Neither do I. Did Marco tell you about The One?"

"That's another thing that's wrong. How can we fix it all? You're the leader, Jake. You. How are you going to lead us out of this one?"

I didn't know. My head was spinning; the room was spinning.

"I don't know. Maybe we should find this new Animorph?"

You can't find her. She'll find you.

I whirled around to see who had spoken. Rachel was standing behind me. I couldn't see through her like a ghost, she was just standing there as if she had just walked in.

"Raa."

It's not your fault. You had to do what you had to do, Jake.

She knew what I was thinking. "Jake? Jake?" Cassie's voice echoed through the phone. But Rachel wasn't done talking.

I'm dead, Jake. But I'm stuck with the Ellimist and Crayak. I have absolutely no idea what they're going to do to me, but it can't be that bad. I mean, I'm dead.

"You're real." That was me. I'm not big on words, at least not at these moments.

Yep. And you better get back with Cassie, cuz. You two belong together.

"Did you come from the Great Beyond just to give me a lecture on my love life?"

It was on my to do list. I figured I'd take care of it first.

"Well, you can give it up. Cassie doesn't care about me, or the Animorphs. She's moved on." Only then did I remember she was still on the phone.

I slammed down the receiver.

Harsh. You better apologize for that one.

"Sorry."

Not me, you dope. Cassie.

Then she disappeared. No sparking lights, no noise. She was just gone.



Chapter 5

Marco

Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt.

-Clarence Darrow

Needless to say, I wasn't too enthusiastic when Jake called me up and launched into some long story about Rachel and a new Animorph. I listened. I listened some more. And then I told Jake he was absolutely insane.

Rachel was dead, Xena: Warrior Princess or not, no one can come back from the dead. I know I sound harsh. Rachel and I were never close. Actually, I doubt we would have even been friends if it wasn't for the whole Animorphs thing. But I still felt the impact when she died. Bloodthirsty or not, she was still just a sixteen year old girl trying to save the world.

But, even with all this logic, Jake still almost convinced me. Almost, but not quite.

"If we get a new Animorph that's anything like Rachel, I'll believe you." I said. There was no one out there even close to Rachel, let alone someone who could find a way to become and Animorph. So, it was a safe bet. But I still felt uneasy. Like I was being watched.

"The One is here on Earth." Jake said into the phone, about a week later.

"And."

"And we have to stop him." I groaned. I knew it was coming. I'd thought this was all behind me. I was very rich and successful. Sure, my girlfriend had recently dumped me, but I'd get over it. So, why did this all have to go wrong now?

"How, Jake? If we kill this thing, we could end up killing Ax too. Or, is it worth losing Ax to kill The One?"

"Saving the world wasn't worth losing Rachel."

"I don't know. What's one person, no matter how close we are, compared to a whole planet?"

"Marco, we'll talk about this later." Jake was using his I'm-right-let's-leave-it-at-that voice. I was glad. I hadn't heard him sound like that in years.

"Whatever, Big Jake. But what about the other faces of The One? That robot? The elf, or whatever the other face was?"

"I don't know. If Ax was here we could ask him."

"But he's not."

"Nope."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my computer flashing. It was the "You've got mail" flash. Stretching the phone cord, I moved towards it and clicked the icon.

The address wasn't from someone I knew. It was from theone@alien.com.



I hadn't morphed a gorilla in a while. But it looked like I'd have to. The One had challenged us to what it called "A fair fight" Our bravest warriors against his.

I didn't want to do it this way. I wanted the army to take care of it. Leave us Animorphs out of the whole thing. But Big Jake wanted the Animorphs to handle it. I guess he was going crazy without these fights against the Yeerks.

Efflit 1318 had contacted us. He had said that The One would especially like to have his troops fight against the original Animorphs.

I smelled a trap. But did Jake listen? Noooooo. I think he wanted to do something. Take a stand. So he agreed to the duel.

Jake, Cassie, Tobias, and I were the only one's left. I tried to tell them it wouldn't work. There wasn't enough of us. But Jake insisted. I don't know what's wrong with him. He was around Rachel too long, and now he wants to do some totally crazy and reckless mission.

I mean, I could get it when we were thirteen and fourteen, but now? After all we'd been through.



Chapter 6

Tobias



Jake wasn't making much sense. His whole plan was crazy. I sensed a trap. So did Marco, but he expressed himself better then I did.

The One had informed us to meet at a deserted warehouse. We didn't know what his troops were, or if we even had a chance. Well, Marco claimed to know.

"Are you guys INSANE??? It's a trap! Or something equally horrible!"

I couldn't tune him out. Hawk hearing is too good. And he wouldn't shut up.

In a way, it was like old times. Except something was missing. Rachel telling Marco to shut up. Ax rambling off about stuff we might someday understand.

I hated it. It was like going back in time and having something very important missing, something impossible to overlook.

Once inside the safety of the warehouse, the others began to morph. Marco went gorilla. Jake tiger. Cassie wolf. I remained hawk. As soon as they had finished, the back doors burst open and Efflit 1318 and about twenty different animals leaped. Well, Efflit 1318 didn't leap, but the most of the animals did. Others slithered and charged. There were all kinds of different species, lions, tigers, bears, snakes, rhinos.

Jake leaped for the nearest lion. They rolled, biting, clawing. Cassie went for a tiger, and Marco a rhino.

I soured around, diving and clawing when I could, but I wasn't much help. I knew I needed a different morph. Polar bear? No. Never. That's what had killed Rachel. I could never morph polar bear again. Hork-Bajir? Yeah, that would work.

I went through a window and started to morph. My feathers melted into green colored skin. My tiny bird went from maybe eight or nine inches tall to seven feet tall. Blades popped out of my arms, forehead, and legs. I wasn't fully morphed, but I was close enough.

I leapt through the window and slashed at the nearest lioness. She leaped up and pinned me down on my back. Around her head, I could see someone leaping towards me, someone with long golden hair.

The girl had something long and thin in her hands. A baseball bat. She swung hard and hit the lioness on the head with a loud CRACK! The lioness collapsed on top of me.

Thanks. I said to the girl. I figured she was someone who had heard about us and followed the others here. She was short and had one of those curvy figures. Her long hair was really light brown, not golden, but it hung down past her waist. She had intense blue-gray eyes that seemed to look deep in my soul. Right before a male lion took her from behind.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" the girl shrieked. I tried to think of what to do. This girl had saved my life. She couldn't survive against a lion. I had to save her. I slashed at the lion and somehow managed to lift the lion off her and she quickly stood up and retrieved her bat. The weight of the lion had caused me to fall backwards, and it was on top of me. This time the girl hit the lion in the neck, and it collapsed as well.

As I removed myself from a not moving lion, this time she shoved the lion off me. Well, sort of. I'm not sure how heavy lions are, but it was definitely heavy. Once gravity took over though, she was able to get it off. Her clothes were torn, and blood seeped from her shoulders where the lion's claws had scratched her.

Who are you? I asked her. "Don't you think you have more important things?" she motioned towards the battle. I couldn't tell who was who.was that gorilla over there Marco...or was he the one to the left?

Retreat! This isn't working! Jake sounded upset.

You should have listened to me. That was Marco, of course.

Come with me, I said to the girl. She nodded. We ran out after the others, who were giving us some pretty weird looks.

Tobias? Is that you? And who's the babe? Marco asked skeptically.

Yeah, it's me. And I don't know who she is, but she saved my life.

"My name is Sara," said the girl. Something about her tone made me shiver. Annoyed. Especially the way she said "name". It was so familiar.

She's another Rachel, Marco muttered, and then looked stricken as he realized what he'd said. I don't know why.

You guys don't think she could be... that was Cassie.

The new Animorph? Jake finished. I thought about that, but I've never met her and I don't think Marco has either.

What new Animorph? I asked.

"Yes he has." The girl interrupted.

That startled Jake, who sort of looked almost guilty, as much as a tiger can, at least.

"In fact, he knows me very well. Except, the last time he saw me my hair was blonde and I was wearing about a pound of make-up."

Hey! You're the girl who played Rachel's little sister! In the Animorph movie!

"No duh. And, how about you Jake? The last time you saw me I looked like this:"

Sara held out a picture of a young girl, about six, holding a Popsicle and smiling. I knew she was Sara because they had the same blue eyes.

Jake studied the picture for a long time before he spoke. You were my neighbor about eleven years ago.

"Yep. I was the one you proposed to in the sandbox with a ring pop."

Marco snorted. Jake, how come you never told me about this "lost love" of yours?

"Are you guys going to stand here? I'm pretty sure those animals you were fighting before will be out soon." Sara's logic cut through like a knife.

Go bird, everyone. Jake barked.

What about Sa- But she was already being covered in feathers.

You can morph?

"What a brilliant observation." Sarcasm. Already she was shrinking, and her legs were becoming yellow and crispy. Her feet split apart in talons. Her mouth burst forward and joined with her nose to make a beak. I watched her arms feather and elongitate as she shrunk. The others were now human, but were quickly becoming bird. I myself had only needed to demorph.

TSEEEEEEEW!

The door to the warehouse burst open and the animals we had fought before came out. No, not animals. Yeerks. Yeerks that had morphed into animals.

Sara flew up into a tree's branches. She was a merlin, a small but fast and agile bird of prey. The others were not all morphed, and I dove and swiped at the Yeerks to distract them. I recognized Efflit 1318, still in his human form, and raked his eyeballs with my talons.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a merlin follow my example and rake an annoyed looking grizzly bear. The merlin swooped and dove at other animals, just generally distracting them.

As soon as the others finished morphing, we all flew off towards the woods.



Chapter 7

Jake

Things are never what they appear.

I was shaken. Rachel had been right. The girl.Sara.was a lot like her. There was no mistaking it.

She was short and had one of those hourglass figures. Rachel had been tall. Sara had almond shaped blue-gray eyes that were different from Rachel's, but still blue. Her hair wasn't blonde, but it was a light brown that looked golden when the sun hit it, and fell past her waist. Her face...well, she was pretty, but not beautiful like Rachel had been.

How old was she now? How old was she when she moved? Six? Seven? About that age. What would that make her now? Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen?

I dove down in my peregrine falcon morph. I was headed for the old Hork-Bajir valley. It would be a good place to talk. The others all followed my lead.

We landed on the ground and demorphed. All except Tobias who perched on Cassie's shoulder. We stared at Sara for about three seconds before she spoke:

"Take a picture; it'll last longer."

"We wouldn't want to break the camera." That was Marco. I shot him a don't-even-think-about-starting-anything look.

"Like you'd know how to use one." Sara returned. I winced. Marco looked annoyed, but not mad.

"If you guys are done..." Cassie said pointedly.

"We're done." Sara and Marco chimed together. I hoped they were.

"Sara," I asked, "where did you get your morphing powers?"

She bit her lip. "Can I plead the fifth?"

Marco rolled his eyes.

"Just answer the question." I said.

"A friend of mine..."

"A friend?"

"An Andalite friend." "An Andalite friend?" "I think we've established that it was an Andalite, and a friend. She.her father had a morphing cube and she snuck it out for me to use. We used to do crazy stuff like morph roaches and eavesdrop on my friends. And we loved to do dolphins."

"How long ago was this?" Cassie asked.

"Long? Um...it must have been at least three years."

How'd you know where we were? Tobias asked, changing the subject.

"I've been watching you guys for a while. You can bet it surprised me, what with "The Ghost of Rachel" or whatever showing up and all. It was weird, though. I could here you guys talking, and I could see Rachel, but I couldn't hear her, and-- "

WHAT? Rachel? What happened? Tobias cut her off.

She looked back and forth at Tobias and me.

" You guys didn't tell him?"

Tell me what?

"Tobias, can we talk about this later?" Cassie tried.

Tobias looked towards Sara. Alright, but you guys better have some explanation. And the word "joke" should be involved.

"Okay. Now, getting back to the subject at hand, Sara, why, exactly, were you spying on us." I asked calmly.

"Because, exactly, someone told me to."

Who? Tobias cut in.

"If I told you, you wouldn't believe me."

Marco laughed at that. "I think, Short Girl, that we'll believe just about anything you tell us. Do you know how much unbelievable stuff we've had to believe over the past six years? You would be the one not believing if we told you."

Sara rolled her eyes. "Don't call me Short Girl. And I know exactly what you went through. I might not know what it felt like, but I acted in your life story, remember? I think I know. And if you really want to know who told me to follow you, it was a creature. A dinosaurish, purple-green creature told me to follow you."

"The Drode." Marco said calmly. "We know him. We know him a little too well, if you ask me."

"Whatever. I've been calling him the Prune." A laugh escaped from Marco, but he turned it into a cough, not wanting to seem impressed.

"What did the Drode say to you?" I asked.

"He said the Yeerks are back," Sara looked me right in the eye and I felt a chill go down my spine. "And I had to stop them."



Chapter 8

Marco



It was too much. All of it. Rachel coming from the grave to make predictions, the Drode telling Sara what to do, Sara being able to match my superior jokeness, The One attacking and nearly slaughtering us, everything.

Okay, back to the show.

Needless to say, Tobias was not happy when we told him about Rachel appearing. He won't believe us, he thinks its all a cruel joke and now refuses to talk to any of us.

I blamed Sara for bringing it up. So maybe it's not her fault, but still...

Okay, I admit it. The whole thing is really getting to me. Sara seems nice enough, and she can hold up her end of a conversation with me, which is more then I can say about most girls. They just don't seem to get my sense of humor. But it's always been just Jake, Rachel, Ax, Tobias, Cassie, and me. Now that Rachel and Ax are out of the fight, it doesn't mean we need to replace them. I argued with Jake. I pleaded. Nothing I said even daunted him.

We have a new mission tonight. We're going to attack the ship on which we believe The One is living. Our new recruit will be coming.

I walked outside towards my pool. The clear water showed no reflection, not any indication that I was standing there. I kicked at it and splashed my pants.

Wetherbee, my butler, appeared behind me. "Something the matter, sir?"

"No, Wetherbee, just that my life is falling apart. Can you bring me a Coke?"

"Yes, sir."

I doubted Wetherbee believed my life was falling apart. He didn't know about the Yeerks coming back. Jake had made it clear that we were to tell no one. I wasn't about to disobey.

A large bird swooped down and scratched my head gently. Not a very subtle approach. Marco, Jake asked me to come tell you we have to leave early for the ship. As in NOW.

"Okay, whatever." Now Sara was Jake's personal messenger? I was wounded.

"Has Jake heard about this new invention?" I asked as I started to morph. "It's called a phoooooaw" My last word was jumbled as my mouth and nose melted together to form a beak.

The phone? Yeah, I think he's heard of it, but he wanted us to travel together for some reason.

The buddy system, I joked, Jake doesn't trust either of us alone. Actually, I knew the real reason. And that was-

No, he doesn't trust me alone, Sara stated. He needs someone to watch me, make sure I don't mess up. Why he chose you, well, that I'm still not sure of.

I didn't deny it. She was right and she knew it. Luckily, Sara didn't give me a chance to say anything. She just lifted her wings and flew up, up, up. I silently followed.

We flew until we reached a swampy area not far from the local beach. I spotted Jake and the others standing nearby and we flew towards them.

Sara and I began to demorph, which the others had already done. We were all shoeless, badly dressed, teenagers standing in muck up to our ankles. Mosquitoes swarmed us and we swatted at them pointlessly.

"Morph to fly, everyone." Jake said. Sara shifted uncomfortably.

"I don't have a fly morph," she mumbled.

Jake nodded. "You can come in bird and be lookout. We need someone since Tobias wouldn't come."

She sighed and went back to bird. The rest of us melted and twisted into flies. This way we could easily get in the ship and not be noticed. I had no idea what Sara would do.

Once fly, none of us had much sense of sight, so Sara guided us. Fly forward. Left. Forward. Left. Right.

Somehow, we managed to make it to the ship. Getting in was the next problem. Fortunately, it was easily solved. Someone had left a window open and it was big enough for even Sara to squeeze her bird bulk through.

Sara described the room we were in as a "bedroom". She claimed it held a bed like one that you would find in the hospital, a gray filing cabinet, and a dresser.

I landed and began to demorph. SCHLOOOP! My compound eyes sucked into my head and my human eyes replaced them. My dark brown hair grew out of my scalp, replacing the small, wiry black hairs.

Gossamer wings withered and then disappeared all together. My black flesh took on a dark tan color.

Around me the others were also demorphing. It was a horrible sight, half-human, half-fly people. Oh, and one human girl with feathers.

Once we were all human Jake ordered us to go to battle morphs. Okay, maybe not ordered, but you can catch my drift. I was interested to see what animal Sara had chosen.

As I started to go gorilla, I watched her curiously. The first things to change were her eyes. They became larger, and more oval, like cat eyes. Then they turned a golden brown. Her nose turned a pinkish color before flattening and spreading across her face.

I was almost positive what she was becoming, but I couldn't believe it. I had to be wrong...

Sara's gold-brown hair wrapped around her face and sprouted into a shaggy mane. A grunting, choking sound escaped from my mostly gorilla mouth. She was a lion! I instantly reversed my morph.

I was the only human in a room full of dangerous mammals, but I was too upset to care.

"Jake, she's a lion," I said stupidly.

Marco, don't-

"Don't tell me I'm the only one who remembers." I said, "Cassie? You remember?"

Am I missing something? that was Sara, sounding confused.

"Yeah. Probably. Just be quiet, okay?" Sara shut up.

Marco, I know what you mean, Jake said. David and James, right? But that was different. They were different. Just because Sara picked the same morph doesn't mean anything.

Jake's right, Cassie said. Besides, James wasn't a traitor.

" You guys?" I turned and saw Sara. Human again. "I know what you mean. All the other new Animorphs, David and James, they were both lions. And now James is dead and David's a rat. Or possibly dead. I don't know. The only person who does know is dead. But I'm not stupid.

"I know neither of them ever really had a choice. You practically kidnapped David, and you cornered James and his crew. What would have happened if he had refused? You couldn't afford to let him stay alive with the knowledge he had."

"Stop it now!" I protested. She sent me a glare that made me thankful that looks can't kill.

"Don't deny it. But I'm not trying to put you down. Just let me finish." I sat on the hard bed.

"Thank you. Now where was I? Oh, yeah. Neither of them really had any say. But I do. This is my choice. I didn't have to listen to the Drone or whatever. I decided to help you guys when I knew you needed help, and you treat me like I'm just a thorn in your side. If you treated David like this, I can see why he went crazy.

"And James? You used him! He and all his troops were killed to buy you guys time. Why didn't you go down there, Marco? Why did you let them do that when you knew they'd die? Would you risk yourself, Jake? Or you, Cassie? When you thought Rachel was down there, did you care more then you did when you thought it was just the others?

"You have your own little club. A private club that you let no one else in and you don't care who else gets hurt. It's all about protecting you.

"But even though I know all this, I still came. I came to help even though I know I might not make it out alive. Even if you guys all do.

"Don't think I have no respect. I respect you guys and all you did. But you have to respect me, too. I didn't pick a lion for any reason. I picked it for its power. I want to use its power."



Chapter 9

Cassie



I just stared. And stared. Jake did, too. Even Marco was speechless. For about half a second.

"Who do you think you are? Do you think you can talk to us like that? You are a selfish, worthless, absolute nothing."

"Shut up!" Sara protested.

"Go to-"

Marco! That's enough! Jake interrupted. Look, we can talk about this later. This is not a good place to launch another World War. If anyone comes in, we're toast. Sara and Marco, morph now!

Marco and Sara both looked enraged, but they began to morph. When they finally finished, Marco ripped the metal door open as if it were tin foil. We entered the hall. And then froze.

Which way? I asked Jake.

I have no idea.

We stood in there for about fifteen seconds before Marco said in an annoyed tone, Oh, just pick one.

Maybe we should split up. I suggested. We did. Sara went left, with Jake. Marco and I went right. The hallways were all steal, or some kind of metal, and even my keen wolf nose could detect no scent of any kind. My ears, however, could hear traces of conversation echoing of the walls.

"Mumble, mumble.Animorphs sure to be mumble, mumble, The One.mumble."

They're talking about us, I told Marco. He grunted in reply.

As we neared a door, I could hear the conversation more clearly:

"Efflit, we have evidence they are here. Shouldn't we track them down?"

"No." Efflit 1318 said, "Let them attack. I want to see them squirm m."

It's a trap! I cried. Marco, it's a trap! We have to warn Sara and Jake!

You mean Jake, he sneered. I don't care what happens to whatsherface.

I let it go. I was already running in the opposite direction. I couldn't let anything happen to Jake. I'd lost him once. Not again.

My paws skidded on the floor, but I still kept going. I could hear Marco behind me, knuckle-walking as fast as his gorilla morph would let him.

I could see the black and orange tiger stripes ahead of me, beside the golden brown lion. They were about to knock down a door.

Jake! Don't go in! It's a-- I was too late. Sara and Jake simultaneously stood on their back legs and heaved at the door. It fell.

Jake! Sara! DO NOT GO IN!

Cassie? Jake asked, What are you doing here?

Jake, it's a trap! We heard them talking and-

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I whirled my head around. A dracon beam had fried one of Sara's back legs. But what really worried me was who -or what- had fired the beam.

It was about six feet tall, with scaly red skin. Its eyes were a lovely violet color and shaped like large diamonds. They seemed to have no iris or pupil. The mouth had blue lips and sharp looking blue teeth. It's arms and legs were very muscular and covered with wiry black hairs that reminded me of a Brillo soap pad.

What is that? Marco asked.

I don't know, but it just disintegrated my leg! Sara exclaimed.

Let's get out of here! Jake said. We all turned towards the way we had came in, but Efflit 1318 was blocking our way.

"Like my new fighters?" He asked mockingly. "They're called the Abcange. Quite useful."

I snarled with my wolf snout. Sara growled menacingly. But it wasn't either of us that leaped for the Controller. It was Jake.

"RRRRRRRRROOOOOAAAAAAAARRR!" the sound echoed through the halls, making it twice as loud. Jake had Efflit 1318 pinned to the ground. And the Abcange lifted its weapon to fire.

"RRRRRRRRROOOOOAAAAAAARRR!" Sara leaped at the Abcange on her three legs. She tackled him to the ground before he had the chance to fire at Jake.

Something's wrong, I thought, if this is a trap.why are we winning so easy?

I looked around frantically. There was no door for more fighters to come through. The only way that we knew to escape was to go right, but there might be another way if we went left. Efflit 1318 had seemed confident we would not escape the ship. What was I missing?

BABOOM!!!

I whirled around. The Abcange Sara had attacked had exploded. Yes, exploded. Thick smoke clogged the air, but I could still see Sara, laying near the charred remains of the alien.

Both of her front paws had been blown off and the ends of her legs were smoking. She had been burned badly, probably third degree, but I could see her chest rise and fall as she breathed.

Sara, demorph!

I...I can't...can't...

Do it now! that was Jake.

I...sorry...

DO IT NOW! Marco demanded. I don't care how hurt you are, for God's sake, demorph NOW!

Sara groaned, but her lion body began melting and shifting into that of a teenage girl. As I was watching, I saw the remains of the Abcange begin to gather together, they grew and healed until the Abcange stood, right above Sara's nearly human form.

"Isn't it glorious?" The Yeerk underneath Jake bellowed. "At my command they explode. And once they are put back together they can do it again and again! HAHAHAHAHA!"

And what if you can't command? Marco asked. A look of panic crossed the human-controller's face. He obviously hadn't thought of that possibility.

Marco swung his gigantic fist into the side of Efflit 1318's head. He was knocked unconscious.

The Abcange stood still, like he didn't know quite what to do. I'm not an expert on reading alien emotions, but he looked almost upset.

Sara stood up. I could read her emotion easily-- she looked scared. But only for a second. Then she just looked confused.

"What's going on?"



Chapter 10

Jake



I pulled my tiger body off of the unmoving Controller. I couldn't answer Sara. The Abcange was just standing there, not moving.

Sara reached out and poked the Abcange on the arm. It looked down at her but did nothing.

"What's your name?" she asked him/her. Marco snorted in my head, but he nearly choked on it when the Abcange answered:

"I am called Lamona." Cassie gasped. Sara seemed surprised, but continued to ask questions.

"Are you male or female?"

"I am female."

"Where do you come from?"

"I am from the planet called Bodonas."

"Why do you answer my questions?"

Lamona seemed puzzled, but answered: "You commanded. When Abcange are commanded, they obey."

Sara looked at me. "What do I do?"

Keep asking questions, I answered. Maybe we can find out more about these Abcange. she nodded.

"I did not command you," she said to Lamona.

"You asked," the alien replied. "It would not be acceptable to not answer."

"But why do you always obey? What if someone ordered you to kill yourself. Would you still obey?"

Lamona paused before answering. "Yes. It is the Abcange way." These guys are psychos! Marco said, Who commits suicide just because someone told you too?

I don't think she understood, Cassie said. These aliens can explode and come back together. I don't think any harm to their body would kill them.

I don't know, said Marco, If it didn't understand, it would have asked, right?

Let me find out, I said. Lamona, you Abcange, can physical harm kill you?

Lamona was silent.

"Why didn't you answer the question?" Sara asked.

"What question?"

They can't hear thought speak! Cassie said. They must have done something to the Abcange so they can't hear thought speak!

I get it, Marco said, We always show up in morph. If they can't hear us, they can't obey us!

"Then I guess I'll be asking the questions," Sara said. She repeated the one about physical harm.

"By kill you mean the Great Sleep?" Lamona asked. Sara hesitated, then nodded.

"No. The Great Sleep comes after 100 of your years. No sooner, no later."

Oh, no, Marco groaned. Not more of this "my year, your year" stuff. Didn't we get enough of it with Ax?

"Marco?" Sara said sweetly.

What?

"Shut up."

Marco? Sara? I said, We need to find out more about our situation, and we DO NOT have time for arguing.

"Sorry, Jake." Sara apologized.

Yeah, sorry, oh great Jake, Marco mimicked in a high- pitched voice. I chose to ignore him.

Do you think we could take this Abcange with us? Cassie asked. It could live in the old Hork-Bajir valley. We could learn from it.

I don't know, I said. We don't know what it eats or what its conditions for living are.

"So why don't we ask?" Sara suggested.

We could that. I agreed lamely. I was mad at myself for overlooking that.

"Lamona, what do you Abcange eat?"

"On our home planet, we ate a food similar to what you humans call seaweed. We have been fed on this since we came to Earth."

Seaweed? I asked. Ask if the Abcange home world -- Bodonas-- is under water.

Sara repeated the question.

"A very large portion of Bodonas is under water. Over 95%. The Abcange are not water creatures, but we are adequate swimmers and dive for our underwater food every day."

"Do you need to live near water to survive?"

"No."

Almost like amphibians, Cassie stated.

Anphini-what? Marco said.

"Amphibians," Sara said. "Creatures that can live in water or out of it. Like frogs."

Oh, no, not another farm girl. No offense, Cassie.

"Some of us paid attention in sixth grade science." Sara said.

Is it just me, or do I remember saying no fighting? I asked.

Just you, Marco muttered.

I ignored him.

"Are we going to take her with us?" Sara asked impatiently.



We can't just command her, Cassie argued. She's sentient.



"So we'll ask if she wants to go. Lamona, do you want to go with us? We'll take you somewhere where no one can command you. You'll be free, and as long as you don't leave we'll bring you fresh seaweed every day." That might have been laying it on a little thick, but I didn't care.



Lamona looked torn. "I want to go. The one's that command us; they treat us bad. But I do not want to go alone. I cannot leave my family."



We will try to save your family, I said But first we need someone --you-- to come with us so we can know where they are and how to rescue them.



Lamona decided. "I would like to go."



Then Cassie fell. Just fell. No boom, no bang, her wolf body just dropped to the floor. I spun around. An Abcange stood holding a small gun.



Chapter 11

Ax



I was not myself. I was drifting, in, out. Sometimes I remembered much, sometimes nothing. I could not control my body, at least not when I remembered I had a body.



But I was not alone.



Others were with me. Three others, I believe. Sometimes one talked to me. The other two were more like me, trapped.



But one day, something changed.



I was alert, awake. I knew who I was and what I was. Where I was remained a big mystery to me.



I could feel my body. My arms, my fingers, my tail. I couldn't see them, or move them, but I felt them.



I heard voices. One feminine, lost, confused. The other masculine, demanding. It wasn't thought speak. It wasn't sound. It was something different.



Where am I? Asked the feminine voice. What am I doing here?



Where as the male tried to cover his fear with threats: Let me out! Let me go or I'll.I'll.I'll just do something!



When I tried, I found I could speak to them as well.



Who is here? I asked. Can you tell me your names?



The female answered first in a soft, breathy "voice." I am Elinhy Mith 345. Who are you? Where am I?



The male was not so kind. What do you want from me? I will kill you! I will!



I am not the enemy, I said. I am Andalite Prince Aximili. I do not know why we are here. Do either of you?



The male voice answered. No. I do not know. The sound was like that of a machine, metallic, and grating.



Where are we? asked Elinhy Mith 345. I want to go home!



I'm afraid that's impossible, Elinhy Mith 345,



If I could move my body, I would have jumped three feet in the air. The sound was pounded into my head, it echoed again and again against my skull.



Who are you? Where are we? I asked, but I knew even before I finished the question.



It all came back. Exploring the ship I had presumed deserted, finding the polar bear hairs, and the bright light that blinded me.



It wanted Jake. The One wanted Jake. It had me. It had Elinhy Mith 345, and it had the robotic voice. And it wanted Jake.



The One did not have a body. Before, it had been just a mind, or many minds, floating, drifting.



But then, it had drifted above the planet of the Intouit. It had taken a female child and made her part of him. Then he realized he could take in others as well. He took an Obotin, a robotic looking species. It became the new leader of the Yeerks. And then he took me, an Andalite.



Now he wanted Jake, the powerful leader of the Animorphs, the most famous human on the blue planet Earth.



You will be my slaves for a very long time, The One continued. A very long time.



Chapter 12

Marco



The Abcange was taller and bigger then Lamona. It had green eyes instead of purple, and bigger muscles.



"Don't hurt it!" Sara yelled. "The Abcange aren't infested. We just need to command them not to hurt us!"



Well, since you're the only one who can talk outside of thought-speak, I suggest you do it soon! I yelled back.



"Drop your weapon!" Sara ordered. The Abcange did. Sara retrieved it.



Cassie stood. I'm okay, it just stunned me for a minute, she said.



Lamona ran to the other and began babbling away in a different language:



"Iouy, ya ner huy ti me! Mouy noi brt der! Fretiyuo, merty yth."



"Lamona, who is this?" Sara asked.



"This is my brother, Iouy. May he come with us to the place you were to take me?"



"Yes, he may. What was the language you spoke to him in?"



"I spoke in the language of the Abcange. We were taught your language when we were brought to Earth."



"Jake, should we get leaving? I can stay demorphed so I can talk to them and carry this gun thing."



All right, Sara you stay human. Cassie, go bird for look out. Marco and I will stay in battle morphs.



We did that. Down the hall we went, back to the original room we had came in. I widened the window quite a bit to make it easier to get out. That was easy. The hard part? Okay, the annoying part? Once we were outside, we had to walk through the ankle-deep swamp muck again. I almost felt sorry for Sara as I watched her again and again get stuck and have Lamona pull her out. Almost.



* * *



"I so need a shower," Sara complained. I nodded and plugged my nose. She sent me a nasty look.



We were at the Hork-Bajir valley. Lamona and Iouy were pleased with their new home and were sitting down eating some tasty seaweed Cassie had fetched for them. Jake was pacing back and forth about who-knows-what, Sara was complaining about anything and everything, and I was trying to make her shut up.



"I just don't get it!" Jake said suddenly. "It was supposed to be a trap, but we won so easily."



I rolled my eyes. "Jake, buddy, calm down. They just made a mistake. Relax."



"No, you're wrong, Marco." Sara interrupted. "There is no way the Yeerks would make such a stupid mistake on purpose. They're cunning and evil, but they're not stupid."



"How would you know?" I snapped. "I know more about Yeerks then you'll ever know."

"I don't think so," Sara said, "You know why? I was a Controller. What do you think of that, Mr. Smarty Pants?"



"You were what?" Jake asked.



"Oops," she said. Her face was pale. Sara sank to the ground and buried her face in her hands. "I wasn't going to tell you," she mumbled.



Cassie put her hand on Sara's shoulder. "What weren't you going to tell us?"



"I...I was a Controller. From the time I was eleven, to the time I was fourteen. Involuntary, I might add. That's how I really got my morphing powers. My Yeerk was of sub-vissor rank, but after they lost, she left me and became a nothlit."



Jake had this weird look on his face. "I was a Controller, too." He said. "But only for a few days. Those three days were worse then any I could ever imagine. Three years...that's...that's..."



"That's torture," Sara finished. "That's worse then anything you can imagine or understand unless it's happened to you. It's being helpless as you watch. And watch. Just watching, never doing. When I was let free, it was heaven. I could move my arms, my legs. Just me. No one else. And, I had the power to morph. You wanna know what that really is? That's life."



"You like these big, dramatic speeches, don't you?" I asked.



She groaned. "Don't you ever take anything serious?"



"Don't even ask." Jake cut in. I glared at him. Cassie smirked. Sara rolled her eyes.



Chapter 13

Tobias



I sat in the big tree overlooking Jake, Cassie, Marco, Sara, and the Abcange. I preened my feathers. I tried not to listen to the conversation. But I couldn't help it.



It was freaky. Like returning to something you once knew and finding it's not as it was before. Instead of Jara Hamee and Ket Halpek down in the Hork-Bajir valley, it was some strange aliens I'd never seen before. And instead of Rachel, a girl like her, but still worlds different, was arguing with Marco.



I stepped forward and held out my hands to show I wasn't holding a weapon. "It's safe," I said. "We won't hurt you."



"Do you think it speaks English?" Jake asked.



"Well, everyone speaks English on Star Trek," Cassie said with a nervous laugh.



I didn't want to remember. I didn't want the memories that flowed into my head, but they wouldn't go away. They were my memories.mine, but I didn't want them.



"I did it," I told Jake as he tried to fix his hair with his fingers. He started to yawn. "I became Dude."



Dude is my cat. Jake's mouth snapped shut. "Huh?" I looked around to make sure no one was there.



"I became Dude. Just like the Andalite said. It was so amazing...I was petting him last night, and I thought, why not?"



The memories,they swirled through my head, making me remember good times, bad times, happy times, sad times, but all times with the Animorphs. All.



"I don't think Marco is being selfish," Cassie said. "Just the opposite. He's thinking about his father. About what would happen to his dad if Marco..."



"He's not the only one who's got people to worry about," Rachel said. "I have a family. We all do."



"Not me," I said quietly. "It's true. No one gives a rat's rear about me."



"I do," Rachel said.



Stop! Stop! I yelled out loud. What is happening to me?



DON`T YOU ENJOY YOUR MEMORIES, TOBIAS?



The Ellimist. Leave me ALONE! I yelled.



WHY DO YOU HIDE FROM YOUR FRIENDS? THE ANIMORPHS. WHY DO YOU FLEE FROM THEM?



You could have saved her! I yelled. "You could have saved Rachel!" I was human. I couldn't remember morphing, but I was human and sobbing. The Ellimist stood before me in the human like form he had used before.



"You could have saved her," I said again, but weakly.



The Ellimist stood there, and I knew at that moment that he hadn't wanted it to happen. With all his power, all his strength...there had to be some reason. Some reason why he hadn't saved her.



"Why?" I asked.



The look on his face...I didn't think his form would show emotions, but it did. "The rules," he said. "The rules."



"My friends," I said. "My friends said they saw Rachel..."



He nodded.



"Is she dead?"



He nodded again. "But dead doesn't mean forever, Tobias. You will see her again, when the time is right." He started to fade, to disappear.



"Wait! When? When will I see her?" He had totally faded now, but I could still hear his voice:



WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT,TOBIAS. WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT.





Chapter 14

Cassie



Stop! Stop! What's happening to me? Tobias yelled. Seconds later, his hawk body dropped from a nearby tree.



I rushed over and examined him. He was stunned, his heart was beating, and he was breathing, like he was asleep.



"What's wrong?" Jake asked. I shrugged.



"He's breathing fine. I don't know what happened." Just then, he started squirming. Wait! Don't go! he yelled.



"Tobias? What's wrong?" I asked.



Cassie? What...



"You fell out of the tree. You were yelling something, then you just fell, unconscious."



Oh. I...I'm sorry.



"For what?" Jake asked.



For thinking you were lying to me. About Rachel.



"Did she come to you?"



No, the-- well, it's a long story.



"Oh, no," Marco said, crouching down beside me. "Am I the only one who doesn't believe this?"



"You betcha," Sara said as she looked over his shoulder at Tobias.



"You people are all crazy." I looked at him.



"Don't even tell me about crazy, Marco. I think everything that's happened to us in the last six years has been way worse then just plain crazy, don't you?"



Marco laughed. "I guess you're right. In which case, you guys aren't crazy, you're ABSOLUTELY INSANE."



"Ok," Sara said. "As long as you understand the difference." I couldn't help laughing.



Tobias stood up on his talons. So, do we make her an Animorph? he asked in thought speak only Jake, Marco, and I could hear.



I nodded. So did Jake. Marco hesitated for a minute, but bobbed his head quickly. Sara gave all three of us weird looks.



Jake sighed. He stood up and held out his hand to Sara. "Welcome to the Animorphs." She grinned and shook his hand.



"Should I start singing?" Marco asked. "Because it feels like someone should start singing. I guess it'll be me. 'Oh, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. For purple moun--Ouch!" Sara had stomped on his foot. I doubt it hurt him much, since they were both barefoot, but he made a big deal about it and started carrying on while Sara rolled her eyes and called him a baby.



Yep, I think she'll fit in just fine, said Tobias. I nodded.



"Poor Marco."





Chapter 15

Ax



I was frightened. I suppose anyone would be in my position, but it still made me feel cowardly. I was an Andalite prince, after all.



The Obotin named Redfire demanded the One to let us free. Let us go now! I am not your slave, I am a free creature. I have a mind and a will, and I will not be held against my will like this!



The One had no response.



Oh, please let us go!Elinhy begged. I just want to go home!



Finally, The One answered: I will not release you. You will be here for the rest of eternity and forever.



But I did not believe that. My friends will save me. The Animorphs will bring on your end.



The One was not impressed. Aximili, do you really believe your friends will bring my end? I am the One that is all, the One that is today, forever, and always. I will not be defeated.



No creature can live forever...can it? There must be a way to defeat it! I must find The One's weakness! I thought. But then, even if I do find a way to destroy it how will I inform my friends?



Do not bother planning your escape. There is no way out.



Yes, there is! I triumphed. I could feel it, the hesitation in the voice, the desire to make me believe I was trapped forever. There was a way out! But, the question was, how would I find it?



Could I resist being captured? I tried. My tail would not move, and how could I resist without it?



Perhaps The One had a weakness. But what? I could not imagine a weakness in anything as powerful or mystical as The One.



But there had to be.



Chapter 16

Jake



I went home that night and just sat and thought. And thought. And thought. I thought so much my head started to hurt. I morphed to a peregrine falcon and flew to Marco's house.



He was out swimming in his pool. At least, that's what I thought. Until I noticed his legs stretching out till he was almost eleven feet tall. At first I thought it was a distortion from the water, but then I saw his arms wither into his side, and his head grow into the cylinder shape of a hammerhead shark.



It was the second time I had found him morphing for no apparent reason.



Any reason you're going hammerhead? I asked. He ignored me and continued the morph until he was a fourteen-foot long hammerhead shark.



Would you like to tell me what's up with this spontaneous morphing? I asked again.



Actually, no, I wouldn't. He replied. I landed on a lawn chair and started to demorph. However, I still had my excellent peregrine hearing when a car pulled in the driveway.



"Sounds like someone's coming," I said with my newly formed mouth. The same mouth that dropped open in surprise when Sara walked around the corner of the house.



"Thanks for letting me borrow your c-" Sara stopped dead in her high-healed tracks when she noticed Marco as a shark in the pool, and me half demorphed beside it. She dropped a car key on picnic table. "The butler said you'd be back here...I'll just leave now, okay? It looks like you two are...um, busy."



"No, stay," I said. "I could use some help punishing Marco."



Sara fidgeted uncomfortably. "Um, I...um, actually I better head home. I...I have um, school tomorrow."



You mean college? Marco asked from the pool.



"Um, no, I mean high school. I'm a senior."



High School? How old are you? Marco demanded.



"Closer to birth then death, I hope."



"Can you please tell us?" I asked, hoping to sound less threatening then Marco.



Sara fidgeted. "I...I'm...um, I...I'm seventeen."



Seventeen? Seventeen? I thought she was at least eighteen! Marco said in my head. She.she can't be an Animorph.



"Marco, we were only thirteen."



Exactly. We did a lot of very stupid things. I don't know how we never got killed.



"We can't just kick her out."



Yes, we can.



Sara whirled around and raced towards the front of Marco's house. I didn't try to stop her, and shortly after, the squeal of tires echoed back to my ears.



"Sounds like she took your car, " I said. Marco was demorphing in the water and couldn't answer. As soon as he was human he swam to the surface.



"She took my car? Okay, now it's personal."



"Marco, you have about six of them."



"That's not the point. Each and every one is special."



"Whatever. What is the deal with you anyway? Why does it matter if Sara's two years younger then us?" I asked.



"Duh! If she's seventeen, that makes her a minor. We're not minors. If anything happens to her, we get blamed. Her family could sue us and turn it into this whole big thing, and we could end up in jail. And there's not much we can do against the Yeerks if we're behind bars. And if we try to escape, we'll have half of the country looking for us!"



"Uh-oh," I said, rather stupidly. "I didn't think of it that way."



"Which is why you have me to remind you," Marco said. "Now that you realize she has to go, we can move on to more important things. Like, should I call the police about her stealing my car?"



"We can't just kick her out," I repeated, as patiently as I could. "She knows too much. If she gets mad, she could tell the world. Do you really want everyone to panic? And I'm pretty sure she plans to return your car."



"She better plan to return my car."



I knew Marco had accepted what I said. He might whine and complain but he knows what has to be done.



"When do you think she was planning on telling us how old she is?" I asked.



"Probably her eighteenth birthday." He muttered.



"You think she knew why she couldn't tell us?"



"Why else would she keep quiet about it?" I sighed. Marco was right. My best friend had always had the ability to see what was going on and what we had to do. The clear line from A to Z. And he was always pointing it out to me.



But sometimes I wondered if there was really a clear line. Was there really a way to do something that was perfect? Clear? And if there was a clear line, following it didn't always work. Something could always go wrong.



As a leader, I knew that following that line wasn't always the way to do things. If someone got hurt, was it still worth it to do the right thing? And what was the right thing? Would I ever know?



I doubted it.



Chapter 17

Rachel





It had been over two weeks since Jake had told Sara she was an Animorph. Although my many TV screens showed all my friends, all the time (well, almost all. Don't worry, I didn't see anyone in the shower) when Sara wasn't with one of the others, none of my screens showed her.



I could see her now, though. She was standing with the others in the old Hork-Bajir valley that now held the two free Abcange.



They were talking about their next mission. It was weird watching them taking about Yeerks and fighting methods. I had once been a part of that. Me! And now I had to watch some one else take my place.



Still, things were very different, so it wasn't like everything was the same as it once had been. For instance, they weren't in Cassie's barn. It had burned down several months earlier. We almost never met in the Hork-Bajir valley, not until very near the end, and then it had been buzzing with life. Now it was deserted, all that remained were the cabins we had lived in. The cabins stood hollow and empty like those of a ghost town, which, in a way, they were.



But, anyway, my friends were discussing the next mission.



"I swear," Marco said, crossing his hand over his heart. "I was watching this interview with Britney Spears when all of a sudden her face started twisting up. It looked just like when a host was trying to get control over a Yeerk."



"So your trying to tell us Britney Spears is a Controller?" Sara asked.



"All I'm saying is that it looked an awful lot like she is."



"Does that mean the Yeerks have started infesting humans again?" Cassie questioned.



"I guess so," Jake said. "But the question is, what do we do about it?"



We're not even sure she is a Controller, though, Tobias pointed out. We can't just attack her if she isn't a Controller,



"Can I ask you all a question?" Sara spoke up. "Why don't we take this to the police? The Andalites? Why are we doing this?"



Marco sighed. "We don't want everyone panicking. If we told that the Yeerks are back, there would be total panic."



"That makes sense, I guess." Sara said slowly. She didn't seem very sure of herself. I hated to admit it, but I wasn't so sure the others were doing the right thing either.



"Let's get back to the point," Jake said quickly. "First things first, we need to find out if Britney Spears is a Controller."



"And how do we do that?" Marco asked. "Kidnap her and keep her locked up for three days?"



Very slowly, everyone turned his or her head to look at him. "What?" he shrilled. "How could we do that? Wouldn't the someone notice if the 'Queen of Pop' suddenly disappeared?"



One of us could morph her, Tobias said. Take her place, do her interviews and concerts, that sort of thing. But it would definitely have to be one of the girls,



Tobias, Jake, and Marco all looked at Cassie and Sara.



Cassie shook her head. "Uh-uh. No way. Not me." That left Sara. Everyone turned towards her.



"Me? You want me to morph Britney Spears? Don't you guys think this is a little desperate? I can't even sing!"



"You'll have her voice," Marco pointed out.



"But I don't know all her songs! I wouldn't know when to moan, and shriek, and say "oh, baby" or whatever other crazy things those songs involve!"



Cassie giggled. "She's got a point."



Jake shrugged. "So we'll buy her the CD and she can memorize it."



Sara sighed. "No need. I can borrow it from my sister."



You have a sister? Tobias asked.



Sara nodded. "Her name's Angelica and she's twelve. She makes everyone call her Angel, though. I...I have a big brother, too. He's twenty-two."



I noticed her hesitation in saying she had a big brother in front of Jake.



Jake's big brother, Tom, had been a Controller. A pretty high ranking Controller, too. He had almost gotten us killed quite a few times. It was he that got the blue box that gives morphing powers, and gave the power to the Yeerks. I had killed him at Jake's command, and one of Tom's friends killed me.



Jake took responsibility for both deaths pretty heavily.



Jake didn't seem offended, though. I think he knew she wasn't trying to make him upset. Or maybe he's just a good actor.



"I remember Joey," he said slowly. "He and Tom used to play together."



Sara nodded again. "So," she said perkily. "How am I going to acquire Ms. Spears?"



"She's coming to town for an autograph signing and concert," Marco said. When everyone stared at him he added, "I heard Wetherbee talking about it. He might be old, but boy does he like that belly-button of hers."



No one believed him.



"Anyway, the autograph signing is at Music Town on Monday, and the concert is on Tuesday. I figure Sara and another of us can go to the signing and get her autograph, Sara can shake her hand or something and acquire her. We sneak into her hotel Tuesday afternoon-after Sara gets out of school-" He added pointedly. "And kidnap her. She's supposed to leave town on Friday, so Sara can do the concert, make some appearances. We let the newly freed Britney Spears go, and that is that."



But what if she's not a Controller? Tobias asked. How will anyone explain that she was at all her concerts and everything, but then she suddenly says she was locked up somewhere by the Animorphs? How are we going to explain that?





"We don't have to show her who we are," Marco suggested.



"Nix," Sara said, shaking her head. "She'll just say she was kidnapped and she doesn't know who did it. Either everyone will peg her as being insane, or they'll look to the only people who could kidnap her and yet have her appear at every place she was supposed to be. The only people that could do that would be you guys."



"So what do we do?" Cassie asked.



"So we let her be called insane," Marco shrugged. "Who will care?"



"The media," Cassie argued. "She could lose her career, everything. We can't do that."



"Cassie's right," Jake said. "It wouldn't be right."



"So maybe if one of you goes to the signing with me, she'll like recognize you and make some kind of disgusted look or something." Sara suggested kind of lamely.



"Looks that may be our only option." Jake said. "If she doesn't react, we'll have to think of something else.so, does anyone volunteer to go with Sara?"



"I will!" Marco said quickly. Sara arched her eyebrows.



"Somehow I don't think it's me he's so eager to see." She said. Jake, Cassie, and Tobias laughed.



Chapter 18

Marco



I went to the autograph signing with Sara. Britney's bodyguards, upon recognizing me, took Sara and me to the front of the line right away. Let me tell you this: Britney Spears is definitely a Controller.



Almost the second she saw me, her nose wrinkled into a sign of distaste. I mean, it had to be the Animorph thing. Why else would she resist someone as handsome as me? Sara, however, saw it differently.



"Did you see that huge metal briefcase?" she hissed at me as we walked through the mall. "I bet it's a portable Kadrona."



Personally, I liked my explanation better, but I had to admit hers made sense. We checked in with Jake and confirmed the kidnap scheduled for next day.



Fate, however, had other plans.



It was about ten o'clock in the morning when I got the phone call. I was still asleep, and it woke me up.



At first I almost didn't recognize the voice on the other end of the line-Sara. The phone was fuzzy and her voice was choked up like she had been crying.



"New York.plane crashed.turn on TV!" she said frantically.



"What channel?" I asked.



"I don't know!" she said. "Channel twelve. seven.twenty-five! That's it, twenty-five!"



I dashed into the living room and turned on my big screen. I wasn't tired anymore. I clicked through the channels until I reached twenty-five.



The TV was filled with the image of the World Trade Center in New York. Thick, black smoke billowed away from it.



"Oh, my God," I whispered.



"Marco?" Sara's voice came from the cordless phone I was gripping in my hand. I lifted it back to my ear.



"What happened?" I demanded. "What's going on. what is this?"



She drew in a deep, shuddering breath before she spoke. "They think some terrorists crashed some planes into it. Something happened at the pentagon, too.



"It's chaos here at school. Someone found a working TV, but it's in this tiny room, and not everyone can fit in. I was there for a while, but it was too crowded. They didn't officially cancel classes, but everyone is just wandering around, or watching the news. A lot of people have left."



The TV showed a replay of the plane hitting the second tower. I gasped as the plane exploded into a giant fireball.



"We can't get Britney Spears today," Sara said. "No way."



"You're right," I agreed. "Have you called any of the others?"



"No, you're the first one. I'm at a pay phone. my money's about to run out."



"Can you come over here?" I asked.



"I took the bus. I have no way of getting there."



"Um.I'll have Jake or Cassie come and pick you up, ok? We need to have all of us here."



"Ok," Sara answered. "I'll be waiting out front."



"'Bye," I said and hung up. As soon as I did, the phone rang. "Hello?" I snapped, ready to tell off whoever was on the other line so I could call Jake.



"Have you heard what's going on?" the voice on the end of the line asked. It was Jake.



"Yeah. I was just about to call you. Can you come over here? We can watch the news on my big screen."



"I guess. Do you want me to call Cassie? Or get Tobias?"



"No, I'll call Cassie and ask her to find Tobias. Can you pick up Sara at the high school? She said she'd be waiting out front."



"Ok, sure. See you in a few," Jake hung up, and the dial tone echoed in my ears. I quickly dialed Cassie's number. She agreed to locate Tobias, and come over.



Ding, Ding, DONG, the doorbell rang. I started to head for the door to answer it, but remembered I was still in the clothes I slept in: boxers and a t-shirt. No way was I going to let anyone see me like that.



"Where's Marco?" I heard Jake ask. Wetherbee had answered the door.



"Be there in a minute!" I yelled and high-tailed it towards my bedroom.



When I emerged, they were in the TV room. Jake was sprawled out on a big armchair, and Sara was perched on the edge of another. And I mean perched. She was balanced on the very edge of the chair, like she didn't want to touch anymore of it then necessary. Her back was perfectly straight, and her hands neatly folded in her lap. She reminded me of a bird or something.



I turned my attention to the TV just in time to see one of the towers collapse. Jake gasped. Sara silently buried her face in her hands.



I was wobbling. I reached out and steadied myself by grabbing onto the arm of the couch before lowering myself onto the seat.



Sara's shoulders were shaking, like she was crying, but she made no noise.



Jake was looking away from the TV, and shaking his head, like he couldn't believe what was happening.



Cassie came in at that exact moment. Tobias was perched on her shoulder. She took one look at the screen and collapsed onto the couch beside me. She immediately started crying, but not silently like Sara.



I awkwardly patted Cassie's shoulder, but I don't think I was much comfort.



Sara lowered her hands. Her face was pale, and looked wet. I grabbed a box of tissues off a coffee table, and after offering some to Cassie, tossed the box to Sara.



Tobias landed on the arm of the couch. I thought about mentioning that his talons might rip the upholstery, but decided it wasn't really that important. His fierce hawk face showed no emotion. Sometimes I wondered if Tobias even felt emotion anymore.



Jake was expressionless. I think he learned to hide his feelings when he was leader. A leader can never show his feelings; at least that's what I was told. I'm not exactly the leader type.



Of course, I knew exactly how Jake, Cassie, and Tobias were going to react. I knew them; I knew what they would do in any situation. Sara, however, was a mystery to me.



I looked over at her, trying to guess her reaction. She was definitely crying. She was so thin and pale she looked almost small and helpless against the giant armchair. And alone.



"Oh, my God!" I heard Cassie yelp beside me. I whirled around just in time to see the second tower collapse.



It happened slowly, like the building was melting instead of falling. When it was finally down, a huge cloud of smoke and debris rose up and spread across the city.



The clouds billowed out, gray colored and enormous. People ran to escape the dust.ran, but couldn't escape it. Most of them covered they're mouths with handkerchiefs, or shirt collars.



"It's gone," Sara whispered hoarsely. "The World Trade Center is gone."



Chapter 19

Cassie



Unbelievable. That's the only word to describe what happened. I tried to think of better, bigger words, but none even seemed close to being right.



I've had a week to let it all soak in, and it still seems like some bad dream. Nightmare. A nightmare that I can't wake up from, no matter how hard I pinch myself.



Sometimes I have nightmares about being trapped inside the World Trade Center as it crashes....sometimes when I wake up I can't tell my dreams from reality.



Britney Spears left town. We never got to save her from the Yeerk we were almost positive was in her head.



And we weren't the only one's reacting. The whole world was. We knew it wasn't the work of the Yeerks. Not anywhere near their style. Real, uninfested humans had done this.to other innocent humans. It made me sick to think it. But still, life goes on.



You'd think that everything would just stop. So much had happened. And, for a while, it seemed as if life had at least slowed in mourning. But it never stopped.



Terrorists. From the Middle East. Our country was preparing for war, but no one except the Animorphs knew about the other war. The one that might just be more important then Afghanistan (or whatever country it was) get control of America. Because unless the Yeerks were stopped, all would be lost.



But we didn't know what to do. Our only lead, Britney Spears, was gone. We could have followed her, but Jake thought it would be too suspicious. I didn't know what was right anymore, and I didn't think any of the others did either. Sara was the only one who seemed to have a clue.



"We have to do something!" she exclaimed as she paced across Marco's living room. Jake had decided we should meet there instead of the Abcange. If they were ever recaptured, we didn't want them to have too much information.



"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Marco answered. "We know that. But what are we supposed to do? Does her highness have any ideas?" he added sarcastically.



"Not exactly," Sara said. She collapsed to the floor and looked defeated.



"I've got an idea," I spoke up. "Let's all go to the beach. We could use some time to get our minds off of...everything."



"I don't know..." Jake said skeptically. "We really need to get something done."



"I say we do it!" Sara said as she tried to scramble to her feet. Her platform sandals tangled up in each other and she fell. Quickly, she grabbed her skirt and held it down.



Marco was laughing hysterically. "Let's do it," he managed to gasp between peels of laughter. "It's not like we're actually doing anything."



Jake shrugged. "Ok, ok. How about we meet there in half hour?"



"Sounds good," I said as I gathered my bag and left.



* * *



Going to the beach seemed to be a great idea. I knew it as soon as I stepped out of my car and started walking across the sand. I slipped my feet out of my flip-flops and dug my toes deep in the sand.



As I spread my towel out next to Sara's I noticed how pale she was.



"It's probably a good thing we decided to go to the beach," she joked when I mentioned it. "My tan so needs work."



I managed a smile and began to apply sunscreen to my arms. Marco put on headphones and started unconsciously singing along, oblivious to the world. Jake stared into space.



"I think I'll go down by the water," Sara said to me. "Do you want to come?"



"Sure," I agreed and followed her down to the water's edge. She waded in and let the water lap over her ankles.



"The water's so calming, don't you think?" she asked. She was walking outward, towards deeper water. I followed.



"In fact," she continued, "I always used to go swimming when I was a kid. Now, I'm more into water when it's frozen."



"Huh?" I asked, puzzled.



"I figure skate a lot. In competitions and-OW!"



"What?" I said, swerving my head towards her.



"I stepped on something sharp. Probably a shell." Sara bent over and stuck her hand in the water. "I think I've got it." She pulled her closed fist out of the water and opened her fingers to reveal the object resting on her palm.



And that's when my heart stopped beating.



* * *



"The Ellimist has to be involved," Marco said after Sara and I had shown what we had found. "What are the odds that that crystal would sit on the beach for six years, just waiting for it to be found by us?"



Sara looked down at the glittering, diamond-like crystal in her hand. Her expression was blank.



The "shell" she had stepped on had turned out to be a Pemalite crystal. The Pemalite crystal Jake's dog Homer had taken out to the water and let loose. We had never in a million years expected it to be found again, especially not by us.



"The real question," I said with a silencing glance towards Marco, "is what we're going to do with this. This is computer technology that it might take humans, or Andalites, another million years to come up with. Can we really just throw it back into the water?"



"Who knows?" Marco pointed out. "Anything is possible. Humans could discover this stuff tomorrow."



I don't think that the phrase "Anything is possible" applies to this, Tobias countered.



"I'm telling you, anything is possible. After all, I once wrote three pages of an English paper without a topic and still managed to get a B." Marco smirked as he said this.



"You're telling me that you wrote half of an English paper without even having a topic, and you still managed to get a B?" Sara asked increduosly. "What did you write about? The weather?"



"Oh, I don't remember," Marco gave an uninterested wave of his hand, but I could see that he was proud to have impressed Sara.



"I remember that day," Jake laughed. "It was the same day they served blue goo as food in the cafeteria."



"Blue? Your food was blue? Food should not be blue," Sara said. She adjusted the towel tied around her waist, and folded it over her legs.

"At our cafeteria, anything could happen," I said, almost fondly.



Marco rolled his eyes. "No kidding. I was always afraid what I would find in my food next. If it even really was food."



"We used to tell some pretty wild jokes, too." Jake added.



"Yeah," I said quickly, before Marco could talk. "Like the time Marco got that hair cut--"



"Oh, no," he cut me off. "We are not talking about that. No."



"Oh, come on." Sara whined in this I'm-so-innocent voice. "I really wanna hear." She gave this small little girl smile in Marco's direction. She had a dimple in her left cheek.



No way Marco could resist that.



"Well...ok, I guess." He acted macho. "But they really over reacted. It was not that bad of a hair cut."



Sara had boosted Marco's ego. That is, assuming it could be boosted anymore.



"What happened," he said. "was that I got a great new hair cut, and everyone kept making this big deal out of it! Rachel said it looked like a monkey on my head, Ax thought I had some kind of illness, even Cassie laughed at me."



"I couldn't help it," I interjected. "It did look like a small monkey."



"I've always wanted to know something," Sara said. "There was a scene in the movie where Tobias comes in with bloody legs, and when Rachel ask what happened, he said "Sometimes breakfast bites back". And Marco made some joke about...a pop tart? Did that really happen?"



"The joke was, 'Yeah, no kidding. The other morning I was cooking my pop tart and I looked in to see if it was done, and WAM, the thing popped out and hit me in the eye.'" Marco recited.



Sara giggled. "Yeah. Hence the name, pop tarts. Anyway, I always thought that was hilarious. But did it really happen?"



Marco nodded. "Yep. I don't think Cassie was there, so she wouldn't remember, but Jake was. Cassie thought the mission was unethical or something." He waved his hand in the air. Sara reached out and grabbed his wrist. Turning it over, she read the numbers on his watch.



"Oh, my gosh, I have to go!" she said, jumping to her feet. She gathered her stuff and started to leave.



"Wait, where are you going?" I called as she hurried for the exit.



"I have a skating practice in twenty minutes and I still have to run home and get my stuff."



"Would you mind if I came and watched?" Marco asked quickly. "I'm really into skating!"



I could only think of three reasons why Marco would want to have anything to do with the combination of Sara and figure skating: either he was interested in Sara and flirting, he had noticed like I had that she seemed to be trying for a quick get away, or he wanted to see a bunch of girls in leotards. Either way, I didn't trust Marco alone.



"I'd like to go, too." I spoke up.

"Well...I guess it'd be okay." She said slowly. We're getting ready for a big competition, so it should be pretty hectic."



"Hectic" turned out to be the understatement of the year. The rink was full of skaters from all different groups practicing jumps, leaps, and all the other stuff skaters did.



Sara's group was easy to spot. For one thing, all the skaters were wearing their costumes, but the group Sara was part of seemed to have the most unusual costumes.



By "unusual" I mean almost no sequins or sparkles, and they weren't that satiny kind of fabric. Take Sara's, for instance. It was a plain blue leotard with a short, floppy skirt. It had one of those yellow and red S's that symbolized Superman. A girl with fiery red hair was wearing a green leotard with a torn jean skirt. It wasn't like a normal jean skirt, it hung in strips so it wouldn't encumber her legs.



Sara was circling her friends with smooth, sure strokes. She switched to backwards before leaping into a jump.



"Show off!" the red-haired girl called good-naturedly. Sara stopped in front of her, spraying her face with ice.



Sara said something to the girl, and they laughed. Their voices were muffled by the noise of the rink.



Sara skated towards the edge of the rink where the rest of us were sitting.



"Everyone will get a chance to perform they're routine," she said. "I'm actually working a new one, but it's top secret, so you'll just be seeing my old one. I'll be going last, but they'll be plenty of good skaters for you to watch. The ones with the team name 'Hot Blades' are one my team." With a grin in Marco's general direction, she skated off.



"Did you see that?" Marco asked happily. "She smiled at me."



"It could have been Jake," I said, even though I secretly agreed with Marco. I'd rather have her smiling at Marco then Jake.



Chapter 20

Jake



There had always been a bad number of Animorphs. Two girls, three guys, and an Andalite. Ax had never shown interest in anyone except that one Andalite, Estrid, and I was pretty sure the odds of him ever falling in love with a human were not very high. But as for us humans, it was me and Cassie, Tobias and Rachel, and Marco all alone.



Marco acted like it didn't bother him, but I knew him better then anyone. I knew that the only thing that could have made the whole Animorph thing better for him was to have a girl that he loved, and that loved him, to be there all those times things went wrong. But there wasn't anyone for Marco.



And now, I'm thinking that maybe Sara...



Ok, so it's not fair for me to want her to fall in love with Marco just because she's convenient. I really don't know Sara at all.



My eyes focused on the girl on the ice. She was the one Sara had been talking to earlier. She was skating to what I've heard is an unusual song for figure skating: "Pop" by N'sync. But still, she was really good. As I watch she did an awesome move that involved her taking off forward, spinning, and landing backwards. I think it was called an axel. Next she did an impressive sit spin. Her routine also involved a lot of funky arm movements and twirls in time to the music.



I hate to admit that the reason I was watching this girl wasn't because she was a good skater. It was because if I was going to play cupid, I needed to make sure I matched up the right people. Translation: I needed info on Sara.



"I'm going to the bathroom," I lied to Marco. He nodded his head and turned back to the ice. The red head was just leaving the ice. I moved quickly towards where I thought the locker rooms were. I went down some stairs and finally realized I was in a basement. I was about to go back up when I heard voices. I ducked behind a pile of tumbling mats.



"Yeah, the one with the dark hair is Marco," Sara said. "He was one of the Animorphs. I got to know him because of that whole movie thing, and he introduced me to the others."



"And now they're coming to watch you skate? That is so cool! Both of those guys are hotties!" I peaked around the mats. Sara was talking to two girls, one was the red head, and the other was blonde with big brown eyes. The one who had talked was the blonde. She looked about thirteen.



"Yeah, but I'm only interested in one," Sara said.



"Who?" the red head pried.



Sara giggled. "You're so nosy, Rose. Anyway, not in front of the Midget." She gestured towards the younger girl.



"Hey! I'm your own sister!" 'The Midget' protested. That's when I recognized her as Angelica, the twelve-year-old sister Sara had mentioned before. I wondered about the midget comment, since Sara's sister was taller then her.



"I bet it's that Jake guy," Rose said. "He is so hot!"



"And serious, not to mention majorly taken." Sara said, wagging her finger in Rose's face. "No, I like Marco better.

"

"He's cute, but short." Angelica said.



"So am I," Sara grinned. "Actually, he's taller then me."



"Yeah, but he doesn't have the 'pretty petite' excuse." Rose teased.



Sara rolled her eyes. "Come on, Angel, you have to skate soon." She grabbed her sister's wrist and dragged her up the stairs, leaving me alone with Rose. I stepped from behind the mats. She stared at me blankly for a second, then a look of recognition came over her face, and she blushed.



"Why are you here?" she asked.



"I need to ask you about Sara," I said. "What's she like?"



"Are you, like, crushing on her or something?"



"No. I want to hook her up with somebody."



"Oh...well, Sara is kinda crazy. She's always doing wacky things, and she has a great sense of humor. But sometimes...she'll just get all serious, or obsessed over something that really isn't that big of a deal. And she's got this almost scary passion with music."



"Thanks," I said. "I guess that's all I need to know. Thanks." I repeated.



"Yeah...ok."



I left the basement and went back to my seat. Marco gave me a weird look. He probably thought I was constipated.

Angel was out on the ice. Her purple costume had a cute, spunky look and went with the song she was skating to, "From AM to PM".



The rest of the skaters seemed to go by in a blur. Then Sara came out. When I heard the music, her costume made sense. Her song was "Kryptonite". Her routine was by far the best of any I'd seen. Until on almost the last jump, a double toe loop, someone nearby called it, she landed wrong and fell. Pasting a fake smile on her face, she continued the last part of the song. When she fled the ice, she looked like she was tremendously upset.



We went and stood outside the locker rooms entrance, waiting for her to come out. When she did, she looked disappointed.

okay?" Cassie asked sympathetically. "That looked like a pretty nasty fall."



Sara shrugged. Her ankle was wrapped up, but she didn't limp. "I can't believe I messed up," she said. "That wasn't even a hard jump."



"Looked hard to me," Marco said. "I can't even skate."



"You can't?" she asked. "Wow, I guess sometimes I forget not everyone can skate."



"Yeah, I remember the one time I tried to ice skate. I fell down so much I was sore for a week." Marco pointed to his backside. "I should have tied a pillow to my butt."



"I'll have to teach you guys sometime," Sara said. She smiled again, and this time her smile looked real. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she headed for the exit. "But in the mean time, I really have to head home."



She grabbed my hand. She was holding the crystal. I tried to take it from her without it looking like she was giving me something, but it was pretty obvious, her just grabbing my hand for no reason.



Marco made a kissing sign. I must have looked confused until he kissed the back of his hand. Oh. That's what he wanted me to do.



I bent over at the waste and dramatically kissed Sara's hand. Anyone watching would think we were playing around, and I managed to get the Pemalite crystal from her hand to mine.



Even though Marco looked a little jealous.



* * *



I followed Sara to her house. It was a normal, two-story house. After she and Angelica had gone in, I went up and rang the doorbell. Luckily, Sara answered.



"You know, I could have sworn I just saw you. Is it my incredibly good looks that keep you coming back?"



"Ha ha." I said. "I need to talk to you."

"Ok. About what?"



"Not here."



We went into her backyard. There was an old swing set. I sat on a swing, and Sara draped herself over a swinging horse thing. She was so short and small, the set didn't rock out of the ground when she swung, like it did for me, or anyone else over 100 pounds.



"What do you need to talk to me about?" she asked.



"It...It's about Marco."



"What about him?"



"I was in the basement."



Her cheeks turned pink. "You...were?" her eyes narrowed. "Are you going to tell him?"



I sighed. "Oh, ye of little faith. Actually, I have something I want to tell you."



She raised her eyebrows. "Tell."



So I told her the story of Marco's love life...er, lack of love life. And she understood. Understood what I was trying to make her do, at least.



"Ok, so you want me to like Marco just because I'm an Animorph? That's your only reason? I can't believe you!"



"I didn't mean it that way!"



"Sure. Let me tell you one thing, if Marco is anything like you, there is NO CHANCE!"



She tried to get off the horse, but I grabbed her wrist.



"Look, It's not like you think! I just heard you talking to your friend and thought maybe." I was lying through my teeth. I had considered her and Marco before I had overheard.



She sighed. "If you tell anyone what I said in the basement," she told me in a calm voice. "I will strangle you."



"Agreed," I said quickly.

* * *

"Why were you at her house?" Marco asked me. He had been driving down the road Sara lived in just in time to see me pull out of her driveway. He had then followed me to my house. Now he was cornering me.



"Um.I was, you know, just.like, um." was my brilliant response to his question.



"A likely story." He said as he paced back and forth in front of me. I was sitting down in a chair in my living room, and he had all but put a light bulb over my face to make me confess.



He looked back at me. This time he looked serious. "Jake, what were you doing there? I'm your best friend, you know you can tell me anything."



Oh, great. Now he thought I was interested in Sara.



"Marco, it's nothing like that, I swear."



How, pitiful is that, Jake, you try to hook up your best friend, and he thinks you're interested in the girl you try to get him with. How pitiful is that? I thought.



Chapter 21

Marco



Jake was squirming. There was something he didn't want me to know. I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him.



"Marco.look, I can't tell you why I was there. I promised."



"You promised what?"



"That I wouldn't tell that she.I mean, I wouldn't tell.you've got me, haven't you?" he sighed, realizing what he'd said.



I nodded. "What didn't she want you to tell me?"



"Marco, I really can't tell you. I was threatened to be strangled if I squealed."



"Jake, the girl is shorter then I am and a heck of a lot thinner. I doubt she could do you much bodily harm." I said sensibly.



"Yeah, but I still promised I wouldn't tell. I don't want to break that promise." He said, trying to look all-indignant.



"That's never stopped you before," I pointed out. "How many of my secrets have you spilled?"



"I never told anyone about your mom when you didn't want anyone to know."



My mom was once host to Visser One. When we first found out, no one except Jake recognized her, and I didn't want anyone else to know.



"Is it that serious?" I asked, worriedly.



"No. But still.I promised."



"Jake, do you like her or something? As in, dating like?" I asked.



"No! No, Marco, that's really not it, I swear."



"You're lying! Stop lying to me!" I said, shaking my head. "You had to pick her.of all people."



"What do you mean 'Of all people'?"



I bit my tongue. Literally. Me and my big mouth.



"Nothing," I lied. "I just meant.um, what would Cassie say? Yeah.Cassie."



Jake raised his eyebrow. He so did not believe me. Okay, well that made two of us. I didn't know why saying I liked Sara made me so embarrassed. That kind of stuff never bothered me before. Besides, I'm nineteen. You think I would have outgrown the whole secrecy thing.



"Besides," I continued desperately. "she's.um, just a little kid."



Jake shook his head. "I don't believe that one. She's only two years younger. And you've dated girls younger then that. Try again."



"Um.she's not my type?"



"Marco, you wouldn't happen to have a crush on Sara, would you?" Jake asked innocently.



He was being nosy. Well, I didn't have to take that. I turned around and left.



I could hear Jake calling to me, but I ignored him. I climbed in my car and drove. I didn't know where I was going. My first thought was to head home. But somehow I ended up at the beach.



It was pretty much abandoned. I don't know why. It was a nice day. But the only people I saw was some old ladies looking for shells, and two girls running up and down the shoreline.



One was average height. The other was really short with waist length hair.



Wait. Short with waist length hair?



I squinted to see better. Yep, that was Sara, and some other girl. The other girl was chasing her, trying to drop a handful of wet sand down her back. Sara swirled around and tried to fight her off. She was laughing, and her long hair was swinging back and forth.



She really was pretty.



Sara spun in my direction. She saw me, and her eyes focused. She froze, and the other girl managed to get the sand down her back.



"EEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHH!" she squealed, and started frantically trying to get it out from under her shirt.



Once she had succeeded she turned back towards me. Then she stomped up to me.



"What did Jake tell you?" she demanded. "He can't even keep quiet for 24 hours!"



"Sara, he-"



She gave this little cry of frustration, cutting me off. "Don't even start! I know exactly what he told you!"



"No, he really didn't-"



She spun around and ran down the beach, away from me. I ran after her, thinking I could catch up easily. Was I wrong.



She really wasn't that much faster then me, I could almost reach out and grab her. But she didn't seem to tire at all. Finally, I almost caught up with her. I reached out and grabbed her arm.



.And she tripped, falling over and taking me down with her, Actually, I landed on top of her.



"Will you get off of me!" she protested. I did so, quickly. I could only imagine how this all looked to the girl she had been with, or the little old ladies giving me the fish eye from further down the beach.



She stood up and brushed off her clothes.



"Jake didn't tell me anything," I said. "I was driving by and saw him leave your house.I was trying to make him tell me why he was there, but he wouldn't."



"He really didn't tell you?"



"No."



"Oh. Well, I have something I wanted to tell you," she said. She was staring down at her feet.



"What?" I asked, a little too eagerly.



"I.I wanted to apologize for yelling at you all that first mission I went on. I really didn't have any right to say some of those things. I guess I was thinking that just because I was in that movie I knew everything about what happened.but I don't."



"No," I said. "You don't."



"But ," she continued pointedly. "I will never know, or even have a clue, unless you tell me."



I looked at her. She was still staring at the ground and didn't meet my eyes. "You really want to know? Okay. I'll tell you. Your little friend can hear, too."



"It's my sister, Angel. She's leaving."



"Okay," I nodded.



Angel left. We went down the beach to where Sara had her stuff. Among the items was a guitar.



"You play that?" I asked her.



"Yeah,"



And then I told her everything. All about the Ellimist and Crayak, both of which had never been mentioned to the public. I told her about my mom, about Jake and Cassie, Rachel and Tobias, the time we were blown back with the dinosaurs, the time we chased Visser Four and the Time Matrix through time, when we ended up at the North Pole, when Rachel was split into two people, when Tobias was captured and tortured, when I first told my dad about the Yeerks and Animorphs.



Then I told her about getting James and the others, and eventually losing them. I told about David and what we had done to him. When Cassie had befriended a Yeerk and almost gave her life as a caterpillar, and when she later rescued that Yeerk. I told about bombing the Yeerk pool, and the final times before what we had thought was the end. Including Rachel's death.



We must have been there for over an hour, but it felt more like a minute. Like I was living everything all over again, but it was going by in fast-forward. By the time I was finished, I had broke out into a fine sweat, and my voice was hoarse.



I looked over at Sara. Her face was pale, and she was staring out at the water. She turned towards me and our eyes met.



"Will you tell me your story?" I asked her. "I know you didn't tell us everything before."



She swallowed and looked guilty. "I was made a Controller when I was eleven. When I was about thirteen the Yeerk rose to Sub- Visser rank. When the morphing cube was captured, I was given powers. I picked the lion as my battle morph.



"I know it bothered you. But the reason I picked the lion was because of the power! The king of the jungle, savannah, whatever, it had the power! The Lion King. It wasn't called Gorilla King, or Tiger King for a reason. Lion is the king.



"Anyway, when the Animorphs won, my Yeerk left me to became a nothlit in some animal form. And I was free! I could do whatever I wanted! And I still had the morphing power."



"But, why? Why did you become an Animorph? I know the Drode told you. But was there any real reason you decided to do it instead of saying: 'Hell, no, pick someone else!'"



At that Sara gave a harsh little laugh. "Why did I do it? To prove to myself that I was worth something.



"When I was younger I was obsessed with this cartoon Sailor Moon. Me and my friends made these computer pictures as ourselves as Sailor Scouts. I wrote stories of our scouts, with mine, Sailor Sara, as the leader.



"Well, one day I was on my computer at school, and I sent a message to my friends saying I was bored. And she says 'Go save the universe or something, Sailor Sara.' And that really made me think, 'would I really do any of the brave stuff I made my character do?' And when the Drode came and told me I had to do something to save the world.well, how could I refuse? It was my turn to do something."



"Looks like neither of us have had the greatest lives so far," I said.



"No kidding. I thought once I was free everything would be different. But being a Controller all those years took something from me. It took three years out of my life, three years I can never get back. But there's always been something missing, even before that. Maybe that's another reason I decided to do this." She picked up her guitar and began to pluck at the strings.



"I want you to here this," she said. "You've probably heard the song before, but just listen to the words. I changed them a little bit"



I nodded, and she started to play and sing:



He spent his whole life being too young,

To live the life that's in his hands.

And now, so many years after

He feels like no one understands.



He said his life is filled with all these good intentions,

He's done a lot of things he rather not mention, right now.

Just before he says good-bye

He looks up

With a little smile at me and he says:



If I could be like that, Oh, I'd give anything

Just to live one day in those shoes

If I could be like that, what would I do?

Oh, what would I do?



Could I relate to that guy! Hey, wait a minute! It's about me! The song is about me!

I looked at Sara questioningly. She nodded, and moved on to the next verse:



She spends her daytime being perfect

Doing the things that good girls do

But deep inside it's all just an act

Her worth she wants to prove.



All her life

Is focused on

Is fulfilling her dreams

All she wants is just that something to hold on to

That's all she needs.



If I could be like that, Oh, I'd give anything

Just to live one day in those shoes

If I could be like that, what would I do?

Oh, what would I do?



This time I recognized the true identity of the character as Sara. She had an okay voice, not great, not loud, but soft and reassuring.



She set her guitar on her lap.



"That was really great," I told her.



"Thanks."



I reached over and took her hand. Surprisingly, she didn't yank it away in disgust. We sat there for a while.



Chapter 22

Ax



I couldn't sense time. Andalites have an internal clock that helps us tell time accurately, but here I could not sense time. I did not now how long I had been here, what day, week, year it was. All I knew was that I spent most of my "time" trying to figure the One's weakness. So far I had had no success.



Sometimes I communicated with Redfire and Elinhy. Over the time we had been there, Redfire's violent attitude had very dramatically changed.



The One did not bother paying attention to us most of the time. It had some way of completely blocking out our talk to each other, so we would not bother it, and also so we could not here or see anything he was doing. The only good thing was we were able to talk freely to each other, and try to come up with a plan. Unfortunately, we had no idea what was going on.



Perhaps the One does not have complete control over us, I speculated. Perhaps there is someway for us to access his memories, or the sight functions.



I don't believe it to be likely, Redfire answered. If there was a way, would we not have found it?



Does the One really have more powers then the three of us combined? Elinhy questioned. Is there anyway we can bond together?



That's how most of our conversations went. So many questions, no answers.



I also thought about what I was missing.



My friends, Tobias, and the other Animorphs.

Estrid, the female back home who was considered my "girlfriend" by human terms.



My parents. They had lost one son. They do not need to lose another.



I had to escape.



Sometimes I communicated with the One. It never told me much. It said the Animorphs had been destroyed, but I knew that was not true, for it wanted Jake. It couldn't have him dead.



Why are we still alive, even though we have no food or water to sustain our bodies? I asked. It was a logical question. One that I did not believe to be anything the One would not answer. But even so.



Water! The One said. Its voice pulsed with hatred.



Water? I repeated.



The One quickly tried to cover its mistake. But it was too late. I had heard the repulsion. Was water this great being's weakness?



It does not matter, it said. I have plans for you...very important plans. You will not be here much longer.



Chapter 23

Rachel



They decided it was best to leave the war going on alone. It was normal peoples battle, not there's. It will probably never be mentioned by the Animorphs again, they were just put in here to show everyone how we feel about this.



So they went on with our underground war, while others fighted with other humans, and the Andalites just stayed out of the whole thing, the Animorphs fought against the Yeerks.



They were having a meeting at Jake's house.



"What do we do now, oh Fearless Leader?" Marco asked. He was sprawled over an armchair.



"I've got an idea. Or, at least a clue," Sara said. "The Yeerks have to feed somewhere. So there must be a pool, and a Kadrona."



"But Britney Spears had that portable one," Marco contradicted.



"She travels a lot," Sara argued back. "It would be too inconvenient for every Yeerk to have to carry around a portable Kadrona,"



"Sara's the Yeerk expert," Jake reminded everyone. Sara did not seem happy at this reminder.



"Ok, so there is a Yeerk pool," said Marco. "Where is it? Or how do we find it? We don't even know of any local Controllers to follow."



"Efflit 1318?" Cassie suggested.



His ship is gone, Tobias said. We have no idea where he or any of his troops are.



"So we need to find out if there are any local Controllers," Jake said. "How are we going to do that?"



Silence.



"Ok, that's what I thought," Jake sighed.



"I think we're at a dead end," Sara said as she stood up and bent over backwards into a bridge. It was a painful reminder of my gymnastics days.



"How do you do that?" Marco asked, grimacing. Sara came back up into a standing position and slid into middle splits.



"I thought you were a skater, not a gymnast," Cassie said.



"I am, but I need to stretch all the time. Some of my skating moves require knowing how to do back bends and splits. Besides, I'm a cheerleader, too." Sara explained.



"Can we get back to the point?" Jake said pointedly. Sara folded her legs into an Indian style sitting position, and Cassie and Marco quit making faces.



"So, what next?" Jake asked.



Sara started picking at her nails. Tobias preened his feathers. Marco bent over to tie his shoe. Cassie began digging through her purse.



"Oh, come one, like you all just happened to have something else to do as soon as I ask a question. Do you think I'm that stupid? "



"We weren't sure," Marco said. Jake rolled his eyes tolerably.



"I don't think there's really anything we can do right now," Sara said. She wandered over to Jake's stereo and began flipping through his CD's.



"I think the new chick is right," Marco agreed. Cassie nodded.



"New chick?" Sara echoed. "What am I, poultry?"



Marco laughed. "The only difference I see is no feathers."



"I might be short, but I'm not stout," Sara corrected.



Jake was channel surfing. "Hey, I wanna watch that!" Sara dove across the couch and yanked the remote control out of his hand. She turned the channel to Hey Arnold!.



"Geez, do you really need the remote that bad?" Jake said. Sara ignored him.



"She likes cartoons. A girl after my own heart," Marco whispered to Cassie.



"Do you guys want to go to the mall or something?" Jake asked a while later.



"Sounds good to me!" Sara said. She abandoned the show and threw the control back at Jake.



"I could use a trip to the mall," Cassie agreed. Marco said yes, too. And to the mall they headed.



Chapter 24

Marco



The mall was pretty normal. It had bright lights, giant colorful banners proclaiming sales, and tons of shops. The Animorphs had spent plenty of time in that mall.



There was the time David had almost killed Jake, and attempted to kill Rachel. Or the time Tobias had gone bonkers and would have splatted into a window if I hadn't made a -if I do say so myself- fabulous throw with a baseball to save him. We had even snuck down to the old Yeerk pool through an entrance in a store dressing room. So the mall was a pretty familiar place for us.



Tobias was in his human morph, which he hadn't done in about three years. I barely recognized him. He had a little goatee- mustache thing going on. His hair, however, still had the crazy out of control look.



"First things first," Sara muttered. "Tobias gets a haircut."



She dragged us into a unisex salon that took walk-ins and shoved Tobias into one of those spinning chairs. She talked to the stylist for a few minutes, then the person started hacking away at Tobias's head. Tobias kept his eyes closed the entire time. The end result left Tobias with much better hair then he had had when he walked in.



"Um, I don't have any money." Tobias began.



Sara shook her head. "This is my brother Joey's wife. I was going to pay for you, but-"



"I said it was on the house," Sara's sister-in-law finished with a smile.



We left the salon and headed for the food court. We were munching on Big Macs (except Cassie who had some veggie thing) when I felt a tap on my shoulder. When I turned around around I saw a girl standing behind me.



She was about my age, with reddish brown hair and brown eyes. She was average height.



At first I figured it was some Animorph fan wanting an autograph, but as I looked I realized she looked really familiar.



"Do I know you?" I asked.



She nodded. "Yeah, I guess you could say that, Marco. And Cassie, Jake, Tobias." She nodded at Sara.



That's when I remembered where I'd seen her.



"Melissa," I said. "You're Melissa Chapman."



Chapter 25

Cassie



I choked on my veggie burrito. A great big lump of broccoli wedged itself in my throat, and it took a lot of coughing to get it out.



"Are you okay?" Sara asked, offering me the bottle of water she had been drinking out of. I took a big swallow.



I had been taking a bite right when Marco said whom the girl was. Let me tell you, it is not a good idea to be eating food when someone lets out some big news.



Focus went off of me and back to Melissa. I hadn't seen her in at least three years.



Melissa's father, the former Assistant principal had been a Controller. Early on, he had been one of the few Controllers we knew about, and he had been the target of several missions. Melissa had also been involved in quite a few, although she never known.



I hoped she didn't remember the time Tobias and Marco ran over her house with a tank.



Melissa sat down at our table. She looked Sara up and down curiously, but didn't say anything. Sara looked confused. Of course, she knew who Melissa Chapman was, but I don't think she was making the connection that this girl was Melissa Chapman.



"So, Melissa, what are you doing here?" Jake asked casually. Sara must have caught on then, because her gray eyes grew even bigger and rounder then normal.



Melissa rustled the bags she had been carrying. "Shopping," she said in a tone that suggested she hadn't been shopping at all. Then she leaned towards the middle of the table. The rest of us leaned in, too.



"I think I've found the location of the new Yeerk pool," she whispered.





-------------------------------------------------



"Well, isn't that a coincidence," Marco said. "We just happen to come across a girl we haven't seen in three years who just happens to have the exact information we've been looking for?"



"It is pretty weird," I agreed. "but this seems to be one big coincidence lately. I mean, first the Pemalite crystal and now-- "



"That's it!" Sara cut in. "The Pemalite crystal!"



"What about it?" Jake asked.



"We need information, don't we? Well, what better place to get information then the internet? And what better way to hack into computers then with technology that's higher then the technology your working with?"



"And how do we do this?" Marco asked.



"No problem. My Yeerk was a computer scientist. All I need is a computer and that crystal. I can do it now." Sara said eagerly.



We were at Jake's house. He had both the crystal and a high- tech computer. I didn't bother to point out that this was yet another coincidence.



Sara used a small screw driver to take the cover main computer and attatched some small wires to the crystal. Her fingers flew over the keyboard. "Oh, no," she said. "This, like, not good."



"Would you, like, tell us?" Marco mimicked.



"I've gotten to the main computer, but I can't get in instantly like I thought I would."



"Well, we knew they had high technology," I pointed out.



"Not like this. If this is right, then the Yeerks have technology equal to or better then the Pemalites."



There was a long pause. "The Yeerks have a main computer?" Jake finally asked. "How come we never knew about that?"



Sara shrugged. "It was very highly protected. I helped install it. Even if you knew about it, you couldn't have gotten in. No uninfested human could have."



"We had Ax," Marco pointed out.



"Not even Ax could have." Sara began furiously typing. The screen was filled with strange markings and symbols.



"What language, or writing, is that?" I asked.



"Yeerk."



"You know Yeerk?" Marco asked.



Sara looked at him. The rest of us turned and looked at him.



"I was infested for three years. I would hope I had learned their language."



"Oh."



The computer screen started flashing a bright red. Sara hit the "n" key five times and it stopped. I didn't even bother asking.



A rainbow of colors appeared on the screen this time. The clackety-clack of the keyboard became louder and faster. The rainbow effect dissolved. Giant black music notes appeared on the screen. Sara groaned.



"It's the music test. They play a song, and you have to sing along. If you don't know the whole thing, it terminates entry."



"What's the song?"



"Don't know. It used to be 'Oh, Happy Day', but they've probably changed it by now."



'Oh, happy day'? From Sister Act 2? Tobias asked. Sara nodded.



"Well, here goes nothing. Hope it's a song I know, and you guys might want to cover your ears, unless you want to sing along."



"I'll sing," I volunteered. The others also agreed. Sara typed something, and the song began blaring out of the speakers.



It was "Spice Up Your Life."



Spice Girls.



Practically howling with laughter, we managed to sing through the whole song.



Despite what Sara had said, she was actually an okay singer. Marco and Jake were the ones that really made me want to cover my ears.



"I did that song in a talent show once," Sara said as she typed through the next obstacle.



"Where did the Yeerks come up with this song thing anyway?" I asked.



Sara blushed. "Well...actually, it was my idea and the Yeerk used it."



"Your idea?" Marco howled. "That explains it,"



"They wanted lots of different traps that would be almost impossible to get through, and that was one the Andalites would never get through.It's also one the crystal can't handle."



Everyone was quiet for a while after that. The only sound was Sara's typing. Then, finally...



"We're in!"



We all crowded around the computer. "There's not much here. They must not have deleted it all...oh, here it is. Pool locations, I mean, location. Just where Melissa said."



"Anything else on here?" Jake asked. Sara looked over it, clicked a few links, but found nothing else. And I mean nothing. Under "Yeerks in your area" there was absolutely nothing. No names. All the other links were the same.



"So what do we do?" Sara asked as she shut down the computer.



"Only thing we can do," Jake said. "We go to the Yeerk pool."



Chapter 26

Sara

You remember most what you try to forget.



Yeerk pool.



I had gone there every three days for three years of my life. I saw it in my nightmares. Felt the slimy Yeerk leave and reenter my ear, me powerless to stop it...



But that was a long time ago. I try not to think about it.



Try.



But it was hard. Especially since--



"What's with you?" a voice behind me asked.



"Yaaaaah!" I jumped about five feet in the air, which is pretty remarkable since I'm not even five feet tall. My little sister Angel gave me a skeptical look. She got normal height. So did our brother Joey. I had to be the midget.



"You've got a phone call," Angel said.



"Oh, ok," I muttered. I hadn't even heard it ring.



I was sitting on our living room couch. I snatched the cordless phone from Angel and gave her a "get lost" look. She took the hint.



"Hello?" I asked.



"Hi, Sara." answered the voice on the other end. It was Rose. I hoped against hope that her call had nothing to do with cheerleading or skating.



"We have--" please, oh please, oh please... I prayed. "A cheerleading practice." she finished. I sighed.



"When? What time?" I asked. My throat got soar just thinking about it. I momentarily wondered how a practice had been scheduled without me, since I was the captain, but decided it didn't matter.



"Now." I stifled a groan.



"I'll be there," I said in a sugary-sweet voice.



After I hung up with Rose I changed my clothes, begged my parents to let me borrow a car, and high tailed it to the school football field.



The rest of the squad was already there. I put on my best I'm-a- peppy-cheerleader smile and went through all the cheers.



When practice was over I limped to my mom's car. I had slipped during one of my flips and my poor right ankle was still sore.



"Sara?" I whirled around. Rose was behind me.



"Hi," I said. "you scared me."



"Sorry," she said. I didn't like the way she was looking at me. Studying me, almost.



"Is something wrong?" she asked finally. Rose has been my best friend forever. There's not much I can hide from her.



"Wrong?" I asked. No, nothing but the fact that I've joined the Animorphs in a probably hopeless mission to save the earth, "What could be wrong?"



Rose shrugged. "Something is, Sara. I can tell. Danny noticed it, too."



I cringed. Danny was my boyfriend, up until recently. Long story. Depressing story. "Tell him to leave me alone. I'm not his girlfriend anymore."



Danny would have to be my other best friend besides Rose. The three of us have always kind of been a group. He felt more like a brother then a boyfriend anyway.



Rose shrugged. "I know something is wrong. Does it have anything to do with those Animorph people?"



I swallowed. Lying has never been one of my talents, even though I had gotten away with it alot lately. "No," I lied.



I didn't fool Rose. She looked hurt. "I'll tell Danny," she said. "but not for you. He deserves better then you."





-------------------------------------------------



"Is something wrong?" Marco asked me. It was a touchy subject, and I was very close to biting his head off for asking.



"No," I said. He didn't believe me any more then Rose, which meant my acting was even worse then I thought. I looked down and avoided his eyes. I was aware that Cassie, Jake, Tobias, and Melissa were all watching us.



We were at the top of a local mountain, as stupid as that sounds. That's where the entrance to the Yeerk pool was. We had flown there as birds.



Marco shrugged, and continued looking for the entrance. We knew it was at the mountain, but where we weren't sure.



I scooted off the rock I had been sitting one, but my foot slipped and I went down hard on my butt.



"Oof," I said and started to stand back up. As I did I accidentally pushed against the rock. It slid and I went down again. Only when I looked up did I notice that pushing the rock had opened some kind of panel in the mountain.



"Nice job," Jake said and started through the hole in the rock wall the panel had left. He stopped. I peeked around him and saw why.



The hole led into nothing but absolute darkness.



"Bats," Cassie said.



Not all of us have bats, Tobias pointed out.



"So we all go as human?" Marco asked.



Jake nodded, then stepped into the blackness. I grabbed the back of his shirt, Marco grabbed mine, and so on. Tobias perched on Cassie's shoulder.



There was a staircase. It was hard to go down, every time a step took Jake by surprise he would stumble and take me with him. I momentarily let go and reached out my hands to both sides. On one side I felt a dirt wall, on the other, nothing.



We had been trudging down the stairs for about ten minutes when Jake must have wandered off to far towards the side without a wall. He stepped right off the edge, almost pulling me with him.



"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Jake yelled, then I heard a splash.



"Woah...woah..." I said as I tried to regain my balance. I would have gone over too, but Marco grabbed me before I fell.



"Jake?" I called down.



"What happened?" Cassie yelled from farther back.



"I think I landed in the Yeerk pool!" Jake yelled. "And..um...there's nothing in here."



"What do you mean?" Marco yelled. "What is it, closed for business?"



"I don't know. Maybe the rest of you should just jump down, too."



"Um..." I said hesitantly. "I'm not that good of a swimmer."



"We can hold hands and jump together," Marco said.



Stupid as it was, a scene from the movie Titanic flashed through my mind. You know, the "you jump, I jump," one. I quickly cleared it from my head and groped through the darkness for Marco's hand.



His hand was warm. He counted to three, then we jumped.



I was flying through the darkness. My heart pounded in my chest, and I took a deep breathe of air right before we hit the water.



We had jumped from pretty high up, and it was like hitting concrete. My body stung, and I started to sink. Marco pulled me up to the surface, and I dog paddled to stay up. We somehow managed to find the edge blindly, before Cassie and Melissa jumped.



Chapter 27

Jake



I had climbed out the pool and was attempting to find a wall, which I hoped would lead me to a light.



My fingers slid onto something that felt like a switch. I fipped it, and the room flooded with sudden light.



I saw Cassie and Melissa swimming in the pool. Sara and Marco had already climbed out. Sara was ringing out her long hair like a piece of wet laundry. Oh, and one other thing:



The Yeerk Pool was totally deserted.



I was trying to wipe some of the Yeerk pool slime off of me when a loud buzzer started persistently ringing.



"What the hell?" Marco asked. I shrugged.



Suddenly, I heard a shriek. At first I thought it was a scream until I heard Cassie say "panther".



"A panther?" Sara asked. "What's a panther--"



"HEEEEEEE-ROOOOOOOO!"



"Ok, that was definitely an elephant," Marco said.



I let that register. An alarm. The battle cries of two dangerous animals headed this way.



"Battle morphs! NOW!" I yelled. We didn't have time. Two big double doors I hadn't noticed burst open. There were about a hundred Human-Controllers, with guns or Dracon beams. The only animals were the elephant and the panther.



"In the pool!" I didn't know who gave the order, me, Marco, Sara, Cassie, Tobias, or Melissa, but I obeyed. I dove in, headfirst, and started morphing.



Orange and black tiger fur sprouted everywhere on my body. My spine extended into a long tail. My ears shifted to the top of my head. My mouth filled with sharp, dangerous teeth. My fingernails grew into claws. I needed air. Tigers can swim. I paddled to the surface.



Sara was there, a lion trying to climb out of the pool. Turns out cats can swim, they just don't like water. Marco was half morphed, gripping to the side of the pool. Gorillas can't swim. Cassie, a wolf, was dog paddling to the edge, and a panther I decided must have been Melissa had just climbed out. I didn't know Melissa could morph, but it had to be her, because she was fighting the Yeerk panther.



"GET THEM! GET THEM NOW!" One of the Human Controllers commanded. The tone of voice shocked me.



It was familiar. It was a different body. But I still knew it.



It was none other then Visser Three.



That's Visser Three! I mean one! I mean Esplin 94--whatever! Marco exclaimed. He had already climbed out of the pool and was heading for the ex-Visser.



If you guys can get him, do it! I said. Sara and Cassie were right behind Marco. Unfortunately, I had overlooked one little possibility.



Visser Three had started to morph. I mean, demorph, to Andalite. Except this time he wasn't Alloran. I recognized the Andalite almost immediately.



Ax.



Ax! Marco yelled. Ax raised his tail a swung it towards Marco.



Oh, sh-- Marco began. He never even got to finish his curse. Ax's tail struck, and Marco's head rolled off his gorilla shoulders. I heard a girl screaming. I didn't know if it was Cassie or Sara or Melissa.



Oh my God! That was Cassie.



Ax/Visser Three let out a sinister laugh. At that moment, that exact moment, something inside me snapped. I was past being reasonable, or sensible.



I could see as Ax/the Visser started movie toward Sara, and Cassie behind her. His next victims.



STOP! I yelled as loud as I could. STOP THIS NOW! I don't know what I expected to happen, but it was certainly not what did happen.



Time stopped.



Chapter 28

Ellimist

Living for the game isn't living



I made myself visible to them. They saw me. They saw an image that was only a shadow of my true power.



My great enemy, Crayak, was there. The darkness inside Crayak had grown. He wanted the game to continue. Which was why I was there.



The human children looked at me. No, they were not children anymore. They had grown older, almost adults now. I was the same to them. Ageless.



I returned them to their human forms. I attached the gorilla's head, brought him back to life. He ran his human fingers over his intact neck and seemed amazed.



I brought the Andalite. I momentarily freed him from the once Visser Yeerk. Not his body, just his soul. He appeared as a flickering, shimmering ghost.



"We're here," the leader, Jake, said.



"You're here," I echoed.



"They're here," The Drode mocked me.



"You're using us," the one called Marco said. "We're just pawns in some sicko's game. But..." he paused. "But you saved my life. Why me and not Rachel?"



"The rules," The Drode said. Crayak's machine like form, his bloodred eye, made no motion.



"So why did the rules let you save Marco and not Rachel?" Elfangor's son asked me.



"A life may be saved," The Drode answered. "Both sides must agree."



"But a deal has been made." I said. "Your friend Rachel will come back."



"And what did Crayak get?" the young one, Sara, said, quick not to miss anything.



I didn't answer. Neither did The Drode, or Crayak.



Instead, I raised my arm. A china urn appeared. The lid flew off, and ashes came out of it. They swirled round and round. Sparks flew. I didn't stay for the rest. I left, as did my enemies. I had made a sacrifice I did not want the Animorphs to know of.



In exchange for their Rachel's life, the Yeerks had been allowed to come back. It was my fault. But how the Animorphs would see this, I didn't know. Didn't want to know.



Chapter 29 Melissa

Well timed silence hath more eloquence then speech.

~Martin Tupper

The ashes flew and spun faster and faster until they finally began to take form. The changed colors and melted into the shape of a teenage girl. Rachel. Rachel looked amazed. "Hey. I'm alive again."

She ran towards Tobias. It took them approximately two seconds for them to start kissing.

I looked away. When I did, I noticed that the three strangers had disappeared.

"Where did--" I began quietly.

"They're gone!" Sara interrupted loudly. I don't think she even heard me. There's no denying I've always been kind of quiet. Acting confident at the mall had been torture. Of course, even though I've always been quiet, being around people never terrified me like it does now. That didn't start until after my mom and dad began acting weird. Before, I had just been quiet. Now I was definitely shy.

There was a flash of light. Suddenly, I was panther again, leaping towards the Yeerk panther. My teeth sunk into it's neck.

"HUUUUH-ROOOAARRR!"

The battle cry of a grizzly bear echoed through the mountain cave. It was Rachel, and the cry was not one of rage or frustration, but of joy. Like a dancer who hasn't danced in years, or an artist who hasn't been able to draw in a long time. Rachel was back, doing what she enjoyed most.

I let out the loud shriek of the panther. The whole reason I had picked this morph. The scream.

The gorilla! Visser Three/Ax cried. How can it be?

We need to get out of here now, Jake said.

Yeah, but how do we do that? Sara asked as she leaped on a man who was about to shoot her.

A persistent buzzing started then. And all the Controllers just about instantly exited the pool.

What's this all about? Marco asked.

I dunno, but I suggest we get out of here, too! Cassie said.

Agreed. Jake said. Unfortunately, we didn't move quite fast enough.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

It was so loud I felt the echo vibrate through my skull. I was flying through the air, head over heals, no idea what was happening...