Disclaimer: I do not own Animorphs or the Beast Wars.

CASSIE:

My name is Cassie. Marco probably said that I was the nature-lover of the group. I suppose that may be true. I do love animals, though I was practically raised with them. Both of my parents are veterinarians.

At that moment my head was swimming. If the story was true that the Yeerks had a time machine, that meant trouble for everyone. Especially the Animorphs.

Everyone had left for the moment. We still had normal things to do like homework and chores. Mine involved tending to some more animals in the barn. Though my mind was mostly distracted as I bandaged and medicated various raccoons, birds and deer.

In my head I was making a list of all the things that would be different if we had never become Animorphs. Tobias would still be human, that was something of a plus. However, if I was right, then Ax would end up dying on the Dome ship with his brother and it would have been in vain. At least when Elfangor died he gave Earth a chance.

The time travel device was located in a guarded building down town. That meant, to Marco's dismay, in order to get inside we had to go either fly or cockroach. From there we hoped there would be an empty room where we could go into our battle morphs.

That night I had to do something I absolutely hate to do. I had to lie to my parents. Unfortunately, lying has become a necessity. I longed for the day when the war with the Yeerks would be over so I could come clean to my parents. Just sit down with them and say, "I've been lying to you a lot and this is why…"

I had to ask them permission to spend the night at Rachel's house. Rachel was supposed to be asking her mom if she could spend the night at my house. Marco and Jake were doing the same thing about each other's houses. My stomach twisted as my parents said it was okay. They were unaware that they were really giving me permission to go on a life-threatening mission to stop the Yeerks from finishing a supposed time machine.

Walking out the door that evening with an overnight bag didn't make me feel any better. I walked towards the woods, the chosen meeting place, and wondered how may of the others were already there. Everyone was there except for Tobias, Ax and Rachel.

When Rachel arrived a few minutes later, she was carrying an overnight bag like everyone else. Shortly afterwards Tobias landed on a low branch and Ax came trotting out of the deep part of the woods. Everyone was on edge, hoping this mission wasn't just one big trap.

"Alright," Jake said after a moment, "let's get this over with."

We all stripped down to our morphing outfits and put our clothes into our overnight bags. The bags were stashed under a large bush.

The plan was we would morph into flies and ride on Tobias to the building. From there we would find a way in and then a private place to go into our battle morphs. The question on everyone's mind was how many controllers would there be? In the past we had had some close calls because we were largely outnumbered. A few of us have even come close to death because of it.

Everyone faced away from each other when they started morphing. Most of the time watching morphing is not fun because the change is not a pretty one. That goes double when morphing a fly. The extra legs pop out, the eyes bulge and then there's the shrinking. You swear at first that you're falling and will never touch the ground again.

Once in morph I felt the fly's instincts come, but I could control them since we had done the morph before.

Be sure to stay away from the dog poop, boys and girls, Marco said.

Before anyone could answer, there was a rush of wind and a slight thud. That would be Tobias landing so we could get on his back.

All aboard Red-Tail Airlines, Tobias announced. One-Way trip to Yeerkville.

Can I get a refund on my ticket? Marco asked.

What do you need a ticket for? Ax asked. Marco's sense of humor often confused him.

Okay, enough of that, said Jake; trying to sound like the leader everyone claimed he was. Everyone on.

We all flew over and landed on the area around Tobias' neck. It was probably the place were we would be least likely to get thrown off. At least, that's how it worked before.

Hold on, Tobias warned.

There was the sudden sensation of movement as Tobias pumped his wings and rose into the air

I was wondering, Marco said suddenly. If a radioactive fly bit you…what sort of powers would you have? I mean…aside from the ability to detect dog poop from a mile away.

Marco, only you would think about something like that, Rachel said.

Hey, it's either that or thinking about if this whole mission is insane, Marco replied almost defensively.

Before anyone could say anything, Tobias announced, We're here. I'm going to fly around and see if there are any open windows.

Any guards? Jake asked.

There are a couple of guys by the front door, Tobias replied. And there are six armed controllers on the roof.

Prince Jake, said Ax, it would be safe to assume that there will be Hork-Bajir controllers inside the building. More than likely there will be Taxxons as well.

Everyone was quiet. The Hork-Bajir, according to Ax, had been a peaceful race before the Yeerks enslaved every single one. They were tall and had blades on their elbows, knees, tails and horns on their heads. Taxxons were more terrifying. Taxxons were like enormous centipedes with huge mouths and jelly-like eyes. We had almost been lunch for a Taxxon once; I'm certain that was the one memory everyone was recalling at that point. We had been in insect morph then as well.

I see an open window, said Tobias. It's an empty room. I'm going to get closer. Be ready to jump off.

I could feel all my nerves start to act up. If it was possible, I would feel sick to my fly stomach. Part of me had a bad feeling about all of this, but I was afraid to say anything. The others would just say I was nervous, which I was, but this was something else entirely.

It'll be fine, Jake said to me privately. That was the nice thing about thought-speak. You could direct it to whomever you wanted.

I hope so, I replied.