Marco

And things had been going so well.

My name is Marco, by the way. The Marco. The cute one of the group. The brains of the operation. The cynic. And I definitely wasn't ready to trust these strangers from another planet, no matter how cool their toys were. Aliens have screwed us over plenty of times before, and I for one wasn't going to let my guard down. No matter how adorable it was when Rose smiled and bit her lip…

And I certainly wasn't about to get my cute face ripped off by Rachel in her grizzly bear morph for them.

Things had gotten tense. I had hoped we might skip that part of the time travel discussion, but I didn't keep my hopes up. I understood what the Doctor was trying to say. I knew why it couldn't happen, but I also I knew Rachel and Jake might not put it together. They were both desperate to change parts of the past. And well, I had watched enough Sci-Fi movies to know that it wouldn't work. I kind of felt bad for the Doctor. But there were few people that I'd be willing to stand between Rachel and her rage for. He wasn't one of them.

Rose moved, ready to jump between the Doctor and Rachel. Which only goes to show that blondes definitely have something wrong with them. Why do they all want to take dumb risks? Cassie and I managed to grab her before she tried to fight Rachel, who was now almost completely a bear.

Most of the time Cassie and I don't see things the same way. She's all about reading people and emotions and feelings. But me? I specialize in facts. I'm good at pushing emotions out of the way and seeing the clear, straight line. The ruthless way of getting things done. Cassie read people and I read situations. Both of us saw the problem, though. I don't know if Cassie had figured out the exact reason why just yet, like I had. But we both knew that what Rachel and Jake were asking for wasn't going to happen.

I was about to say something to Jake. He needed to get Rachel under control, preferably before she got us stranded on some alien planet a few million light years away from home. But then the Doctor spun around, looking furious as he stared down Rachel.

Okay, furious doesn't even begin to do it justice.

"IT IS IMPOSSIBLE. THERE IS NO WAY. OR I WOULDN'T EVEN HESITATE TO DO IT."

I swear Rachel faltered. A girl who regularly tore alien monsters into pieces and who was currently halfway morphed into a grizzly bear took a step back from an ordinary, thin human. It was like a switch flipped inside him. One minute, he was gleeful. Friendly. Human. Now his face looked inhuman with rage.

"There are things that you can't change! Things that you have to live with, no matter how much it hurts!

Cassie and I still held tight to Rose, but it wasn't to protect her from Rachel anymore. We were just too scared to do anything else. I swear the air shook around us.

"There is nothing I wouldn't give to go back! To change it! But I can't!"

I had stood before Visser Three in his most vicious morphs. I had fought in battles that against creatures that most people wouldn't dare imagine. Nightmares were my day job. And the Doctor scared me. This alien who called himself the Doctor. It was as if out of nowhere, an ancient monster had taken over him. His eyes were dark and wild. His teeth flashed like a snarling animal.

"I will help you! I WILL FIX THIS! BUT IT WILL NOT BE BECAUSE YOU THREATEN ME!"

Rachel had stepped back now, but stayed in her grizzly morph. She didn't move to attack or anything. I don't know if Tobias had said something. Maybe she just realized that mauling this guy wasn't going to help anything. I don't know.

It felt like the whole planet had gone quiet. The bugs, the little grey flying things, even the breeze had stopped moving.

Finally, Jake spoke up. "Rachel. Demorph. Now."

His voice had become hard too. Not in the same way that the Doctor's had, but well, Jake wasn't happy either. He had been my best friend since we were in diapers. I knew it killed him that he couldn't go back and make sure Tom wasn't infested. Rachel stepped further back and started demorphing. She took her time though. She wasn't ready to give up on this just yet.

"But I'm sorry. More sorry than you could ever imagine…" the Doctor's voice quaked. It wasn't anger that he was feeling. Or at least, he wasn't mad at us. "But I can't do that. Not now. Not ever."

Cassie and I let go of Rose, and she darted over to the Doctor. She grabbed his hand and I saw that even now she was ready to jump in front of him. To protect him from us. And he grasped her hand like it was all that was keeping him from drowning. Something had happened there. I don't know, emotions weren't my thing. But man, he knew. You could see it in his eyes. I don't know what he had done, who he had lost. There was there that festered inside him until it poured out in a terrifying rage. Something he wanted to change, but couldn't.

"Jake, man, it's sci-fi," I spoke up. Rachel was still taking her time demorphing. "Back to the Future. Marty McFly stops his dad from getting hit by a car and almost stops himself from being born"

"The Butterfly Effect," Cassie murmured. "If we go back and stop the war before it happens, then we never fight them. If we're not fighting the Yeerks, then we don't meet Rose or the Doctor. And then they don't know to go back and change anything. Then we end fighting the Yeerks anyway."

I saw the wheels turn in Jake's head, and I knew it had clicked for him.

{So what? There's got to be another way…} Rachel's thought-speak sounded unsure, but she knew we were right. She wasn't ready to give up the fight just yet.

"We called it a fixed point in time," the Doctor said. He sounded unimaginably tired. Like he hated hearing the words as much as we did. "My people, the Time Lords… There are things that you can't change, even with the TARDIS. Not without unraveling the fabric of the universe."

{Time travel complicates many things. We saw the same effect with the Sario Rip,} Ax nodded. {The events in the jungle that no one remembers but you, Prince Jake.}

Jake sighed and bent his head down to rub his forehead.

Finally, Rachel started looking more human than grizzly. Tobias landed beside her and began morphing human, for her I guess. I always kind of knew Rachel wasn't happy about him being stuck as a hawk. Heck, we all knew those two had a thing. I guess I just never realized just how angry it made her. Or maybe it was just having that hope and then losing it again. I don't know.

Now we stood in silence there unsure of what to say. Ax shifted, his tail twitching. Nobody knew what the proper etiquette was for saying "Sorry my friend turned into a grizzly bear and threatened to rip your face off." Or "Sorry that we can't bend the laws of space and time for you."

I tried to think of something to say to break the tension. "So, uh…" I began. I didn't finish. I had nothing.

Lucky for me, Rose spoke up then. "I tried, once," she said, "My dad. He died before I ever knew him. And I just wanted to meet him, yeah? Only I couldn't…" Her voice cracked, and she wiped her eyes with her free hand as the Doctor squeezed the other.

"It went wrong. Like, world-ending wrong, yeah?" She paused and took a deep breath before looking up at us. "You don't want that. Trust me."

"If there was a way," said the Doctor, "I'd use it. I know it's not what you want to hear. But believe me- I'll still help you stop this. Put things right again."

It was quiet again, except now the animals and flowers around us were moving again. I swear there was like, cinnamon smells coming from somewhere. No wonder Ax liked it. Sighing, I shoved my hands into the pockets of my jeans and leaned back against a tree.

"Well, I'm betting someone who can almost instantly travel anywhere in the universe will still be pretty useful for kicking Yeerk butt," Rachel said, finally completely human. She actually looked a little embarrassed. I'm pretty sure that's about as close as she gets to an apology.

I saw Jake smile a little bit.

Rose even laughed. "I am brilliant at kicking various alien empires' butts. It's actually an impressive list of butts that have been kicked."

The Doctor grinned and twitched his eyebrows up, and now everyone laughed. "Well, strictly speaking, most of them don't have 'butts' per say. I hadn't actually thought about it until just now. Well, yes, I've thought about it, in a casual 'Oh, they look like that' manner, and less from this particular-"

"Yeah, we get it," I interrupted, "Many butts have been metaphorically kicked."

"Aftran says that Yeerks do not, in fact, have 'anything resembling a human excretory system, particularly butts,'" Rose added, giggling. "They release any waste product through their mucus membranes. Etc. Etc. alien anatomy lesson."

Oh. Right. Crap. I forgot all about Aftran. I mean, out of sight, in Rose's mind… I'm sure she had a high opinion of the Animorphs now. After what Rachel did and all.

"Is that a morph, Tobias? Or who you were, before?" Rose blurted out, then blushed. "Sorry, I mean, that's rude of me. I shouldn't just ask like that."

"Nah, its fine," he replied, "This is me. Was me. Whatever. It's a long story."

"I'd be curious to hear it someday, if you don't mind," said the Doctor and Tobias nodded.

"I bet you've got some interesting stories of your own," Tobias said.

The Doctor and Rose looked at each other and grinned.

"You wouldn't believe half of them," said Rose, which made me laugh.

"Puh-leaze. Time travel or not- I'm pretty sure we could out-weird anyone," I said.

"That sounds like a challenge," said Rachel and everyone laughed.

"There's no way you've done anything more insane then we have," I said

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, looking almost offended. Rose smirked.

"Alright then," she began, "First proper trip in the TARDIS, we watched planet Earth's last day of existence. From a space station that orbited around it and all. The sun incinerated the entire thing. The Earth, I mean, though the space platform did come a little too close for comfort."

"Dinosaurs. We watched the meteor hit, the one that killed them all off. There were aliens there, living with the dinosaurs, but we couldn't save them. But we did learn that broccoli is an alien plant. We were only there because a massive explosion tore a whole in time," Tobias countered.

Rose nodded approvingly. The Doctor pulled on his glasses and pointed his little metal wand. It glowed and made a weird high humming noise. He scurried around, scanning us one by one.

"So you have time travelled before?" he asked.

"Ah, sort of. I think technically I've done it twice?," Jake said, shrugging. "A big explosion caused this thing called a Sario rip, which well… we never really got it when Ax tried to explain. You might understand better- Ax?"

The Doctor looked eagerly at Ax. Ax was listening, of course. But at the mention of Sario Rips he had become engrossed by a small clump of flowers. They were bright blue and shaped like upside down daffodils.

Of course, he did have to answer his Prince. {Ah, yes, a Sario Rip is a spontaneous event that can be triggered by an immense release of energy,} he began. {We believe, well, it is possible that is a result of, ah…} He fumbled, trying to explain something he didn't understand well himself.

The Animorphs of the group laughed. For all the tech knowledge and Andalite protocol, Ax was still just a kid like us. Barely out of school, technically just a cadet. He looked down and shifted his hooves, embarrassed.

"Ax didn't always pay attention in school," I said, grinning.

{I was occasionally distracted,} said Ax. {The day we went over sario rips I was drowsy and had much on my mind-}

"Girls," coughed Rachel.

Rose snorted and then giggled.

Ax looked down again, sheepish. {As I said, I was not paying as much attention as I should have been."

This was probably going to be the closest he got to relaxed around the Doctor and Rose.

"Okay, but still- dinosaurs," said Rose smiling. She looked towards the Doctor, who nodded and grinned.

"Sure no problem," he promised.

"Yes!" she cheered, and then go serious again, "Okay, but I've still got weirder."

"We helped Queen Victoria fight a werewolf," said the Doctor,

Rose nodded. "It was roaming the Scottish countryside." She crossed her arms, looking smug.

"Wait, werewolves are real?" asked Cassie, concerned.

"Well, yes. Well, no," said the Doctor, "It was an alien. It's almost always an alien, actually."

"Okay, but it's definitely game on now," joked Tobias. He actually smiled, which was weird. He doesn't normally do expressions when he's in his human morph. After effect of being a completely expressionless hawk most of the time.

"Alright, how's this," said Jake, "Mosquitos."

"An endangered species…" muttered the Doctor, chuckling softly. He looked up and noticed we were all staring at him.

"Uh, it's from a Disney movie," he started to explain before shaking his head. "Ah, never mind."

"Okaaay…" said Rachel.

"Anyway- mosquito morphs," Jake continued. "They were too small for the morphing technology to handle so there was this rubber band effect. Pulled us back to the rest of our body mass, and we got stuck helping fight a war. To help protect these mind-reading frogs- Leerans- from the Yeerks." I swear Jake was bragging. "And the whole time, we kept disappearing one by one. Snapping back to the mosquitos like the rubber band stretched too far."

Rose smiled and bit her lip. It was unfairly adorable and hot. She kept snapping her fingers, trying to think of which story she should tell next.

"One time we were pulled into a different dimension. I helped this girl who could turn into animals break into a secret underground alien fortress-slash-feeding station. We ended up saving Rose and the girl's friends." The Doctor paused, before chuckling and finishing his story. "The password to get in involved Happy Meals with Extra Happy."

That made us all laugh.

"You forgot the part where you stormed into the kitchen right as Illim fell out of Mr. Tidwell's ear," said Cassie, smiling, "You scared the crap out of us."

The Doctor grimaced, then shrugged. "Oh, uh, right. Sorry again about that."

"Still, we made your weird list? I think that means we win," I said, grinning.

"Speaking of breaking into the Pool, though," said Jake.

I groaned. "Dude, we're on our mini-vacation. You're ruining the atmosphere. Which is sort of impressive because wow this place is perfect."

Jake shrugged, frowning. "We can go on all the vacations we want after we beat the Yeerks," said Rachel.

"Absolutely!" said the Doctor, "Anywhere, any-when you'd like. You can go back in time, as well. You just have to be careful. I'm rather brilliant at keeping things in order, if I do say so myself."

"I'm gonna go ahead and suggest right now that once this is all over, we go and meet any and all celebrities we can find," I said. "Cleopatra. Julia Roberts. The Spice Girls. Marilyn Monroe. Do you think she'll sing 'Happy Birthday' to me if I ask nicely?"

"Marco's fantasies aside," said Rachel, "What's the plan?"

"Yes, what is our plan O Fearless Leader?" I said to Jake.

"We'll have to figure out what we know, and what we can do. Pool our resources," he said, and I swore he purposely didn't look at Ax then. "And then decide how we're going to make our next move."

"Right," Rachel said with a grin, "Let's do it."

I groaned, and stood up.

Our group meandered back through the woods to the TARDIS. I noticed that sun was actually starting to set, and the tree's silver leaves and branches glowed golden in the light.

"It really is beautiful here," mused Cassie, "Definitely a biologist's dream. Or at least a gardener's.

{Many of my people have an interest gardening,} Ax replied. {It is thought to be good for a warrior to have a peaceful activity to balance the stress and hardship of battle.}

The Doctor nodded in agreement. "Your people and mine have a lot more in common than you'd think," he murmured.

Suddenly, a strong breeze blew through the trees, and the grey leaves above us bloomed into huge pink gold flowers. The air filled with that cinnamon smell again. I heard a few people gasp, myself included. The sunset shown red and orange behind us.

"I could get used to this place," Cassie said. "Anyone would find it peaceful, not just the Andalites."

{Yes,} Ax said, {Simple words do not do it justice.}

"Glad I thought to bring Aftran," Rose added, "She's rather enjoying herself."

"We'll figure out what to do with Aftran once we get back," Jake said.

"Right. She can't very well live in a box for the rest of her life," said Rose before muttering "No matter how much she insists that rescuing her from Visser Three and preventing her from starving to death is enough."

Oh. Right. We had a newly liberated rebel Yeerk to figure out what to do with too. Great. Because we didn't have enough going on already. I knew what the right answer was, but it wasn't going to happen. There was no way Ax would be okay with it.

We reached the TARDIS and the Doctor opened the door. It still blew my mind that it was all inside a telephone box. I'd ask him to explain it, but it's go right over my head. Ax was the only on who might have a chance of understanding the science behind it.

We climbed in, one after another. This time, I made sure to stand somewhere where I could hold onto something. Which was good because apparently the bumpy ride on the way out to the alien world was not a fluke. My friends and I struggled to hang on to the flimsy railings around the center console. Some of them looked like they were held together with nothing but duct tape and one of those swimming pool noodle. The whole room shook around us as once again the TARDIS rattled through space. Or at least I assume it was space. The entire thing shook and bounced like a trashcan that someone kicked over a cliff. The Doctor was smiling like a maniac the entire way. At least now when I said I wasn't worst driver in the universe no one would roll their eyes.

Well, we didn't actually know if he had hit mailboxes, though…

"So how long were we actually gone for? Anyone know?" Jake asked as he steadied himself on the railing beside me.

{By my count, approximately 146 of your Earth minutes have passed,} Ax said, still a little shaken from the trip. {Though it is difficult to say if time traveled at normal speed during out trip. My internal clock would not adjust for such differences.}

"Normal speed?" the Doctor scoffed. "What do you reckon the normal speed for time is then?" His face had formed an expression somewhere between amused and offended.

I guess being a time traveler makes you look at things differently. Rose was laughing again and I flashed my best devil-may-care grin in her direction.

{Somebody open the door. I'm curious,} said Tobias.

He had begun demorphing as soon as the TARDIS stopped shaking. Now almost completely hawk, he stared longingly at the doors that led to open sky.

Cassie was the closest, so she pushed the doors open outward. It looked like we had landed exactly where we started. Like maybe we hadn't even left. Apparently Tobias thought so too, because he flew out to check. We all held our breath, wondering if it still might be some kind of trick. In a moment, he was back.

{It's like we never left, except the TARDIS is now 4 feet to the left of where it started. But it can't have been more than minutes we were gone. The pair of rabbits over in Cassie's field haven't even moved.}

"Are you sure?" Jake asked.

{Are you questioning my rabbit watching skills?} Tobias said, staring hard at Jake from his perch in the rafters.

Jake shrugged a 'no offense' as Rachel laughed, rolling her eyes.

{Yeah, thought so,} Tobias continued smugly. {Just judging by a quick fly-by, we just traveled to an alien planet, spent well over an hour there, and arrived back here where almost no time passed.}

"Even better timing than the other day," Cassie added, smiling. "Do you think it's because you've been in our universe longer now?"

The Doctor and Rose both shrugged.

"Seriously though, that's pretty cool," said Rachel.

"Pretty cool?" I replied, "Pretty cool is the fact that Ax has managed to rig cable TV for himself in the woods. This was awesome. This was spectacular. This was Star Wars level alien awesome."

"OH! I love those movies!" the Doctor chimed in happily. "I'm sorry about the prequels though. Kind of have to take the blame for, well, some of it anyway.

He sighed before continuing.

"I told George, no one cares for the Gungans much in reality, they're not going to like them any better on film... but he just refused to listen to reason…"

He shrugged nonchalantly as we stared open-mouthed at him. He said it so casually. Like he was mildly disappointed with the performance of the local baseball team in the last game. Like it didn't even occur to him that what he said was earth-shatteringly insane.

{George… George Lucas? The George Lucas?} Tobias managed to stutter out.

Rose smacked the Doctor's arm. "Really? Oi, you don't even know if they've seen the films yet!" she chided.

"Oh, ow!"

"I swear, one day you're going to ruin something with your pop culture references."

"Ow, sorry!" he whined, "I forget!"

We all stared at the two of them as they laughed. When they noticed, they only started laughing harder. I smiled. I couldn't help it. Maybe it they were insane, but maybe they were the kind of insane that we needed right now.

Then Ax surprised the crap out of the Animorphs in the room. {Prince Jake, I have been considering the issue of Aftran.}

He shuffled his hoofs, which dinged against the metal floor. {Especially given her pivotal role in… saving my life. I feel that I owe her a debt. I would like to offer her a chance to use the Escafil device.}