As they approached the Blade Ship, everyone on the Rachel, except Menderash, was halfway into cockroach morph. By the time they crashed the morphs were finished and they could barely feel the impact. When all of them were sure it was safe, they demorphed and looked around.
The cockpit was completely destroyed, Menderash was still sitting in the chair, but he was definitely dead.
The Rachel was wedged into the Blade Ship and would never fly again, but the crash had opened a part of the hull where they could walk through without problems. Once they had entered the other ship, they split into groups. Jeanne and Santorelli were going to try to distract the Yeerks, while Jake, Marco and Tobias went to search and hopefully rescue Ax.
It did not take long until they were confused. They could not shake the feeling that the One, whoever that was, was playing with them. The corridors they were walking along constantly changed and led them to a dead end more than once. After what seemed like an eternity, they finally reached the bridge and there he was. He still had the form of Ax, looking exactly the same like he had been when they had last seen him. As they came closer, the face of their old friend split and showed that ugly mouth from earlier again.
They formed a line in front of him, even Tobias had morphed human. In thought-speech he said to the others: "If we must die now, then I will die as human. If I meet Rachel again in the afterlife, I will not live with her as a hawk." When they took each other by the hands and moved forward, the One looked from one to the other, seemingly distracted. It took only a moment, then he was focused again. But then it was already too late, Tobias had jumped at him, grabbed one of Ax´ hands and pulled him forward.
The One shuddered, flickered and then it was over. Ax turned all four eyes towards them as though he could not believe what just happened.,
He took a step in their direction and stumbled, only Tobias´ quick reaction kept him from falling. All four of them walked away from the bridge, to search for Jeanne and Santorelli. In the meantime, Ax started to explain: "The One was a creation of a long dead race, it was a computer program that was supposed to act as a partner or a friend to the users. But it malfunctioned and instead of providing company to his creators, the creators became company to him, he found a way to make them a part of himself to become stronger. Eventually the ones who were left noticed this and put him on a ship that was programmed to fly through space for all eternity. The ones who were left were not enough to keep the race alive. During the flight, he came across other ships, the crews sent out boarding partys that became part of the One, like me and then the ships were destroyed, to prevent rescue, like the Intrepid was."
He turned and walked away. Jake started to follow him, but he was stopped by Tobias´ hand on his arm, who said: "Let him go, he lost his entire crew. He needs to grieve in private, I just hope he handles it better than I did when Rachel died. It was not your fault, Jake. I know that now, I know she would have gone even if you did not tell her to."
Jake slowly turned to Tobias. He did not expect this confession and he was stunned when Tobias came towards him and hugged him, like he had never done before. He suddenly felt like something had been taken off his shoulders, a weight he did not even realize he had carried.
But that did not stop him from thinking about the problem of going back to Earth. They could not use the Rachel anymore, so they would have to use the Blade Ship, but as he did not know how many Yeerks were aboard that would have to wait for later until he could ask Ax about that.
