CHAPTER 1
My name is Leela Harper.
And I was on the Yeerk ship that we had named the Rachel.
We were about to ram a Yeerk Blade ship.
~~~
Ram the Blade ship.
Easier said than done.
Prince Jake! Ax cried.
"Ax?" Jake asked, startled.
Don't hit the Blade ship yet!
"Is he insane?" Marco asked.
"No, he just would prefer it if we didn't kill him," I muttered. "Duh, Marco."
"He's probably morphing something," Jake said. "Something that probably won't get hurt when we ram the ship."
"At least we know he's okay. That One guy scared me," I admitted. "You know, we should morph too."
We did. The others went cockroach. I didn't have a roach morph, so I went fly. Jeanne and Santorelli and Menderash didn't have a bug morph at all, so they operated the ship.
Now do it! Ax yelled.
~~~
Vibrations!
Massive vibrations coming from every direction at once. Then they stopped.
Jeanne? Santorelli? You people okay? Jake asked.
"I am," Santorelli said. "I think Jeanne's hurt. Not seriously, though."
You're lucky.
I gotta demorph and help her! Marco said.
We demorphed.
The Rachel was crumpled in places. But we could still fly okay.
"At least we're not losing air," Jake said.
Prince Jake! The Blade ship is losing air fast!
What do we do, Jake? Tobias asked.
There is a backup supply, but it will be used up quickly! The One has a way to get himself out. Yet I do not think he is bothering to rescue the rest of us.
"Definitely a cross between a Leeran and Crayak," Marco muttered.
"Okay," Jake said. "Here's what we do. I'll get Ax."
"How?" I asked.
"Menderash'll show me how. There's gotta be a way to get off one ship and into another without losing air from either one."
"But what about when you get into the Blade ship?" Marco wanted to know.
"I'll just hurry. There are emergency air hoods somewhere around here. Menderash is getting them he knows where they are. I can use one of those. And I'll try to be fast."
"Okay," I said.
~~~
Jake returned with Ax. Both were wearing air hoods.
"Man, do you know how dorky those things look?" Marco asked.
He means we're happy to have you back. Alive, Tobias said. Isn't that right, Marco?
"Well, actually — "
Mar-co ...
"Yeah. That's exactly what I mean. We're happy you're not dead."
"So are we. Fortunately, the Blade ship had a few air hoods too." He pulled his hood off and gave it to Menderash. Ax did the same thing with his hood.
"So now what?" Marco wondered.
These Yeerks are not the only ones, Ax said. There are others. And other creatures like The One.
"Where?" I asked.
Elsewhere in Kelbrid space.
"Oh, man. And we thought this whole thing was over."
"It's not over," Jake said. "Probably won't be for a long time. But hey, at least they're off Earth."
"For now," Marco muttered.
Tell us about The One, Ax-man, Tobias said.
The One is the leader of the Kelbrid. They are ... well. You do not want to see one in its natural shape. The Kelbrid are more advanced than Andalites. They have something that is similar to morphing. However. it does not seem to work on the basis of DNA, rather it —
"JUST TELL US!" Jake yelled. "And don't call me prince."
Yes, Prince Jake. But that is about all I know. We aren't allowed in Kelbrid space, and vice versa.
"We know," I said.
"You know all about their morphing but you barely know anything about them?" Marco demanded.
I was merely hypothesizing. I am not sure how their morphing works.
"Hey. I have an idea," I said. "A really brilliant idea. Let's go home."
~~~
"Well, that was easy," Jake said.
Marco looked skeptical. "Somehow, I don't think we're just going to go home and watch TV and be normal. It just never works that way."
"I am never normal," I reminded them.
"We know," Marco said.
I would like to watch TV again, Ax said. Deprivation of that primitive but wonderful human invention is unpleasant.
So, you don't want to go back to the Andalite home world? Tobias asked.
No. I hoped I would find Estrid there, but I haven't. I am wondering if she is on Earth again.
"Who's Estrid?" I asked.
"Ax's girlfriend," Marco said.
I snorted.
Thank you for the lovely sound effects, Tobias said.
"You're welcome."
~~~
"What in yaolin — Krachouth!"
"Bless you," I said.
Everyone laughed except Menderash, who had spoken, and Ax, who looked shocked.
"What is it?" Jake asked.
That is ... not a nice word, Ax informed us. The last word Menderash said.
"Okay. So what happened, Menderash?"
"Zero-space has shifted. It will take us longer to get home."
"Helpful," I muttered.
~~~
CHAPTER 2
Cassie
My name is Cassie.
And I was talking to the Hork-Bajir seer, Toby Hamee.
I had been wondering something for a long time. I'd finally gathered up enough courage to ask about it.
That day on the Pool ship, I had seen Toby almost kill the visser. But she'd stopped. The visser had swung his tail and whacked her front horn. She'd left him alone.
"Toby, what happened on the Pool ship?"
"Don't remind me," she said.
"Toby, look. I have to know something."
She looked panicked. "Like what?"
"When you were fighting the Yeerks on the Pool ship. You were going after Visser One."
"Visser Ten."
"Whatever. He was Visser One then. Then you stopped."
"I remembered that it was Aximili's duty to do that."
"Yeah, right."
"Really!"
"He was doing private thought-speak, wasn't he?"
"He never uses private thought-speak."
"True."
"Cassie? I don't want to talk about it anymore."
"Okay." I decided to talk about something else. "So ... how's Phal Mashar?"
"I don't know. I haven't seen him since the Pool ship."
"What'd he do there?" I asked.
"I told you I didn't want to talk about the Pool ship."
"Okay. Whatever. So, where is Phal?"
"Oh ... he'll show up, I guess."
Something was strange. "Toby, do you even like Phal anymore?"
"Well ... "
"Toby Hamee. Why stop liking Phal? What happened?"
"He's ... he's — a Yeerk!" she blurted suddenly.
~~~
"A Yeerk?" I asked, puzzled.
"Well ... um ... " She seemed to be looking for words. "He was a Controller. He saw the Yeerk's memories. And you know how it is with Hork- Bajir. It impacted him more than it would a human, or me. Phal is almost a Yeerk."
"So what? Does he still like you?"
"I don't know. I am not sure he ever did."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, he says he did. Says he still does. And ... he still does. It's just that ... he's a Yeerk. A Yeerk."
"Toby, you're more intelligent than anyone else I know. But that was the stupidest thing you have ever done."
"What?"
"Breaking up with Phal, just because it seems like he's a Yeerk? Even though he still likes you? Please, Toby."
"You don't understand." She looked away. Then looked at me again.
"Yes, I do."
"No. You don't."
"Then what is it I don't understand?"
"I can't tell you."
I rolled my eyes. "As Leela would say, that's helpful. Very helpful."
"Sorry."
"Where is Phal anyway?" I asked.
"I guess he'll show up sometime."
"Like right now?" a male Hork-Bajir voice said.
~~~
Yeah. It was Phal Mashar.
"E — Pha-al!" Toby said. "How much of our conversation did you hear?"
"What you said, and what she said before that. You're Cassie, yes?" he said to me.
"Yeah. Cassie. Phal? What's going on? You're ... uh ... not, um — "
"Not stupid anymore?" Toby finished for me. "He was pretending before. Partly." She glared at Phal.
"Partly?" Phal said, pretending to be insulted. "I am not as unintelligent as you think."
"No, you're even less intelligent than that," Toby said. "Now go away."
They reminded me of Marco and Rachel. I had never heard Toby make jokes at another's expense. Apparently, that rule did not include her boyfriend, for some unknown reason.
Was she mad at him about something? What had he done?
"You aliens are weird," I said. "Not to insult anyone, but you are. Especially you." I looked at Phal Mashar on the last word. I felt frustrated. Frustrated because there was something that was staring me in the face that I couldn't see. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was there.
~~~
CHAPTER 3
I was talking to Toby. Again. Phal Mashar, the Yeerk/Hork-Bajir was not there.
"How's Phal Mashar?"
Toby grinned. Even now, that expression scared me. "He's fine."
Okay. So they weren't mad at each other anymore. This is good ... I guess, I thought.
"You old enough to pair up yet?"
"No."
"I didn't think so. What are you, four years old?"
"Five."
"Ah. Okay. How old do you have to be?"
"About ten of your years."
"You're as bad as Ax."
She laughed in the huffing-and-screeching Hork-Bajir way. "How is Ronnie?"
"He's fine."
"Are you going to, ah ... pair up soon?"
I suddenly felt uneasy. "No. Don't feel ready."
"I think I know why. It's because of Jake, isn't it? You still love him."
Thinking about Jake was just too painful. "No, it's not that."
She glanced upward in an "I'm supposed to believe that?" kind of way.
"Okay, fine," I said, exasperated. Finally admitting it to myself didn't make me feel any better. "But what's the point? I'm probably never going to see him again. Besides, he doesn't like me anymore."
"Yes he does. And as for not seeing him again, you can hope. I did."
"With Phal Mashar?"
"Yes. You see, he was not as safe as the rest of the free Hork-Bajir. I kept hoping that he wouldn't get hurt."
"Why?" I asked.
"The Yeerks knew Phal. Almost any Controller could look at him and know who he was. He would leave the valley often, so they wouldn't find the rest of us. That's what he said, anyway."
"And now he's fine."
"Yes. And how many times has Jake come out of a near-death experience alive?"
"Fifty? A hundred?"
"You are asking me? How would I know? Anyway, don't give up hope on Jake, okay?"
"Okay."
~~~
A few days later, I awoke to hear a beating of wings at my window.
Hey, let me in, all right? I can't hover here forever!
"Jake? Is that you?" I demanded of the peregrine falcon.
Yeah. Let me in!
I opened my window and grabbed him. I hugged the bird as tight as I could.
What are you doing, Cassie? Trying to suffocate me? But he didn't try to escape.
"Jake! I've been so worried!"
I felt like I wanted to start crying and laughing at the same time.
He demorphed.
"So, how'd it go?" I asked.
"Surprisingly well. It was real easy. Get scared half to death, ram the Blade ship, go in and get Ax, go home."
"I'm getting a bad feeling about this. It's never that easy. Marco must be totally paranoid."
"He is."
"I knew it. So, when is it?"
"When is what?"
"The wedding!"
"What wedding?"
"For once, I'll say it: Duh, Jake."
His eyes widened. "Oh. You mean — "
I knew Ronnie would be hurt. But he was just not the right person for me. He wasn't my Jake.
I'd realized that long before I'd talked to Toby. I just hadn't realized I'd realized it. Or something like that.
~~~
CHAPTER 3
~One Year Later~
Marco
My name is Marco.
I have a TV show. The women love me. I rival Visser Three's twin brother in money. (Where is that guy anyway?)
I am the handsomest dude on cable. I have it all. I have my parents. And I have my best friend, who still can't beat me at Nintendo.
Yeah, I still play Nintendo. Twenty-one years old and I am the master of video games.
The only thing I don't have going for me is The Female. Sure, I have females, but not The Female. I have had about fifty girlfriends. Broke up with them all. The most recent one was Laura Kellerman, who decided she liked someone else. Some dude named Ryan. Good grief! How could anyone else be better than Marco the Magnificent?
Rachel would say, "Well, it depends on what you're talking about. A lot of people could be better than you in the categories of intelligence and height. But in the categories of stupidity, shortness, dumb jokes, and similarity to monkeys, I don't think anyone could exceed you."
Funny, Rachel. Real funny.
I groaned.
~~~
CHAPTER 4
Leela Harper
I was at the mall. Looking for Cassie.
Suddenly, a woman walked up to me and said, "Hello."
"Uh, hi," I replied, distracted.
"Do you have any jelly beans?"
"Are you insane?"
"No. I am looking for a friend of mine. His name is Jake."
"Jake? There are a million Jakes in the world. Jake who?"
"His name is Jake. Prince Jake."
What? "Prince Jake? Uh ... I think I might know him. Who are you?"
"My name is Estrid-Corill-Darath."
"Andalite?"
"Yes."
The name sounded familiar. Maybe Ax had known her. "Do you know an Andalite named Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill?"
Her eyes went wide. "Yes! Oh yes!"
"Oooookay, girl. Calm down."
Suddenly, I remembered. Estrid was the name of Ax's girlfriend! "So, what are you doing on Earth? Just here to see Ax?"
"I came to warn Prince Jake that the Yeerks and their Kelbrid allies are preparing to attack our planet. Their base is protected by a force field which we cannot penetrate. We need his assistance!"
"Oh, man." Then I started singing for no reason. "This is the war that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend. Some people started fighting it not knowing what it was, and they'll continue fighting it forever just because — "
"What?"
"It's a song. 'This is the song that doesn't end — ' blah blah blah."
"Blah?"
"It's a nonsense word. That's not the point. Ignore that. You need Prince Jake's — good grief! You've got me saying it now. I mean, you need Jake's help?"
"And all the morph-capable humans."
"What about the Hork-Bajir?"
"What Hork-Bajir?"
"The Hork-Bajir that live on Earth. Former Controllers."
"I didn't know about them. But yes, bring them."
"I'll tell Jake."
~~~
Jake told us to meet at Estrid's Bug fighter. (Estrid had stolen it from the Yeerks. She'd flown it here.) The Rachel was too damaged to be safe in space.
We didn't tell Ax about Estrid. We figured it'd be cool to surprise him.
I got to the Bug fighter first. Estrid was already there. Cassie arrived second.
"Hey," I said to Cassie.
Just then, Jake walked in, carrying loads of bags.
"You remembered everything?" Cassie asked him.
"Yeah."
"What, did he pack your stuff?" I asked.
Cassie smiled.
Then, Tobias zipped through the door. Ax is on his way, he reported.
"Hey, everybody!" Marco yelled as he walked in. "Ready for another suicide mission? I thought those were over."
"Not in a million years, man," I said.
Ax was last of our group to arrive. Tobias had made sure of that.
Hello, Ax said. Then he noticed her.
What? Estrid, is that you?
Yes, she said.
Ax swung his stalk eyes around at us. We were all grinning. Even Estrid, although she was only using her eyes.
"Okay, do I have to say it?" I asked. "I really hate to say it, but let's do it. I know Marco will go insane if no one says it."
"Marco is already insane," Cassie pointed out.
"You're right," I admitted.
"Hey!" Marco protested.
Estrid and Ax were operating the ship. Ax was messing with the controls.
Ket Halpak, Toby Hamee, Phal Mashar, and a little Hork-Bajir arrived.
"Hello," said Toby and Ket.
"Uh, hello," said Phal.
The Bug fighter, even though it was a newer, larger one, was still too small to hold all of us. So we agreed that Animorphs and Andalites would morph flies. We'd take turns demorphing, eating if we needed, and remorphing.
But that only left room for three Hork-Bajir. We chose the two most intelligent, Toby and Phal. And Toby's mother, Ket Halpak, who'd brought Toby's little brother, Dak Hamee. He wouldn't take up much room.
Jake started counting people. "We have me, Marco, Cassie, Tobias, Ax. Where's — oh yeah."
I knew he'd been about to ask where Rachel was.
"And Leela. Estrid. Toby, Ket, Phal, Dak. Okay, do we have everyone?"
"Man," I said. Phal was practically sitting on me. That's how much room there was. "I am actually looking forward to morphing fly. Yeah, we have everyone."
"Great. Let's do it."
"I thought I was going to take over saying that," I said.
"Shut up and morph!" Marco said impatiently, just before the fly proboscis shot out of his face.
Morph. No problem.
Soon there were seven flies buzzing around four Hork-Bajir.
I'm glad I didn't bring a flyswatter. The Hork-Bajir might be tempted to use it, I said.
Marco laughed.
"I hate flying bugs," I heard Phal say.
I almost snorted through my proboscis. What, do they "bug" you? Ha ha!
Marco laughed again.
Jake groaned. Funny, Leela.
~~~
CHAPTER 5
My turn to demorph, I announced. Cassie, are you done?
"Hold on," she said.
We had been in Zero-space for months. Now we'd been in normal space for a few weeks. Not fun. Trust me on that.
Cassie started morphing and I started demorphing.
"Hey, Horks! What's up?" I said brightly after losing the proboscis.
"Up is the opposite of down," Toby began.
We've heard Ax say that too many times, Tobias said.
"Anything to eat?"
There are some cinnamon buns left, Jake informed me.
I looked in Ax's stash. "There are not. Ax ate them all."
I had one, Cassie apologized.
By the empty container of cinnamon buns, there were several bags of jelly beans.
"One Andalite is enough," I groaned. "Is there anything else? I'm sick of cinnamon buns and jelly beans."
"There is plenty of bark," Phal Mashar said helpfully. I swear he was deliberately trying to make me mad. He knew humans didn't eat bark.
"Oh, wait. Potato chips! Who brought those?"
Me, said Jake.
"Cool. I didn't know about them." I grabbed a chip bag and started chowing down.
"The Andalite home world is getting close. Whose turn is it to demorph, after Leela?" Toby asked.
Mine, Tobias said.
"Well, can Ax demorph too? I need him to help me here."
Okay, said Ax.
"But not yet!" I protested. "I gotta finish eating first."
Save some for us, Marco grumbled.
"I am! Who do you think I am? Miss Piggy?"
"Should I answer that?" Phal Mashar wondered.
I glared at him. Who had been teaching him humor? And how the heck did he know what I was talking about?
Phal Mashar was one annoying Hork-Bajir. Not by using baby talk, he didn't do that as much as Ket Halpak or little Dak Hamee. But Phal tried to be a pain. What's more, he was good at it.
I ate the last chip in the bag. Fortunately, there were three bags.
"I hope the Andalite home world has edible plants," I said as I began to morph. "I mean fruit and stuff. Not grass."
What's wrong with grass? Ax asked.
"Oh — " Just then my face split to form the fly's mouth parts. Nothing's wrong with grass. It's just ... grass.
Yeah, Marco agreed. Grass is grass. Brilliant observation there, Leela.
Marco had been driving me crazy the whole trip. Between him and Phal Mashar ...
~~~
Okay. Slower, Toby, Ax said. Easy ... easy ...
THUMP!
That's easy? Marco and I asked at the same time.
"It was the softest landing I could manage," Toby said.
Okay, I replied. Whatever.
Okay, Jake said wearily. We demorph. Remorph to Hork-Bajir.
We did.
"Phal Mashar?" I asked when I was human again. "How is it that whenever we demorph like this, I get stuck with you? And you always like to use me for a chair? That's just wrong."
Phal laughed. Actually, he huffed. Hork-Bajir laughter is very weird.
"It's not funny."
"Yes it is."
"You are so annoying. Get off."
"I can't."
"When I morph Hork-Bajir, you are going to get gored by my horns. GET. OFF."
Phal ducked into the Bug fighter's rest room. It was built for Hork-Bajir, so he'd have room.
"Why didn't you do that in the first place?"
"I did not think of it."
"Yeah, right."
He looked hurt.
Good for him. He was getting on my nerves. I stood up and began to morph.
~~~
CHAPTER 6
Eleven Hork-Bajir emerged from the Bug fighter. We walked quickly, trying to look inconspicuous.
"You," said a Hork-Bajir-Controller, swaggering up to us. "Who are you?"
"I am Rakich-Four-Six-Nine-One of the Flet Niaar pool," Jake said, using the name Marco'd made up.
"I am Tarak-Nine-Three-Seven-Five. Visser Three."
Tarak 9375. The name sounded familiar. I couldn't quite place it, though. Also, I thought it ironic that this Yeerk ranked the same thing Esplin had when I'd first seen him.
"What are you doing?" Tarak asked.
Cassie spoke up. "We are taking this equipment to get repaired." She looked down at the supplies she was carrying.
"Good."
Phal Mashar looked at Tarak weirdly. Maybe he had known the Yeerk. I didn't pay any attention to it. Maybe I should have.
Anyway, we left Tarak behind. I just couldn't think of him as Visser Three. Can you blame me?
~~~
We made our way to Andalite territory.
"Hello," Ax said to the first Andalite we saw. "I am looking for Noorlin- Sirinial-Cooraf. Do you know him?"
What about New Orleans? I wondered.
The Andalite looked at him suspiciously.
"Don't worry, I am an Andalite in morph."
Then demorph.
Ax did.
The Andalite's eyes widened. Prince Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill?
Yes.
I will take you to Noorlin. Who are these Hork-Bajir with you? Are they Andalites too?
Not all.
Controllers?
No, free Hork-Bajir.
We had decided not to tell anyone that some of us were humans. We didn't want the Yeerks to know that the Animorphs were here.
The Andalite looked surprised. Free Hork-Bajir?
Yes, Ax answered. There were several on Earth, and now there are many more. You will hear the story later.
Fine.
Now where is Noorlin?
This way.
He led us to an Andalite "scoop", which is really nothing more than its name: a scooped-out hole in the ground. The scoop was partly covered by this awning thing, and there was assorted stuff under the awning, but nothing more.
This is Noorlin's scoop. He should be nearby. Probably out feeding, said the Andalite. Now I have things to do. Good-bye.
Thank you, Ax called.
"Now why are we here? Who is Noorlin Whatever?"
He is —
A big Andalite came galloping up. What are you doing here, Hork-Bajir? This is my scoop.
I brought them, Ax said.
The Andalite swung his stalk eyes toward Ax. Aximili-kala? Is that you?
Yes.
You're all right!
Yes.
But I heard you were taken prisoner by the Blade ship. How —
My friends. They are right here. Five morph-capable humans. And those Hork- Bajir are also my friends.
All four of the Andalite's eyes widened.
Prince Jake? Ax asked. Everybody? This is my father, Noorlin-Sirinial- Cooraf. Father, this is Jake. My former prince. "The Jake Formerly Known As Prince."
"Keeeeroihnkh!" Jake said. A Hork-Bajir combination of a laugh and a snort.
What? Noorlin asked.
Human humor, Ax explained. Anyway. Prince Jake, Marco, Cassie, and Leela are the humans. The Hork-Bajir are Toby Hamee, Phal Mashar, Ket Halpak, and Dak Hamee. And Estrid-Corill-Darath is the other Andalite.
"Can we demorph?" Prince Jake asked. I mean Jake. Sorry. I do that sometimes.
Ax nodded. Go ahead.
I demorphed. So did the other Animorphs. Noorlin, Ax, and the Hork-Bajir watched.
What is the flying animal? Noorlin wanted to know.
The hawk is Tobias. He was a human, but got trapped in his morph. He has regained morphing abilities. That is a long story.
Noorlin stared at Tobias. I think he was a bit weirded out by his son dropping in accompanied by what looked like ten aliens.
Another thing you should know. Tobias is Elfangor's son.
This time Noorlin's eyes went even wider. I was afraid his four eyeballs would fall out. His mouth would have been hanging open, but he lacked any sort of mouth.
Wait a minute. Tobias? Elfangor's son?
"What?" I asked stupidly.
Tobias, the kid of the Andalite who'd given the Animorphs their powers? The Andalite who'd been the worst enemy of my second-best friend's little brother? The Andalite I'd watched being ... yargh.
"You never told me!" I accused the other Animorphs.
"You never asked," Jake pointed out.
"Well, duh. Of course I never asked. I had no idea!"
Noorlin finally recovered. Mostly. How — but Aximili, you said he was a human.
Ax sighed in thought-speak. That is another long story. I don't even know the whole thing.
"I didn't know anything about it," I grumped. "You people should tell me these things."
"You never asked," Jake said again.
"If you say that one more time — " I threatened.
"You never asked," Phal echoed Jake.
"You did that on purpose!" I accused.
"Yes," Phal replied.
"You make me so mad!"
Phal laughed.
"It's NOT FUNNY!"
"Yes it is."
That Hork had a talent for being a pain in the butt. I wondered where he'd learned it. Maybe from his Yeerk. I didn't know and I didn't really care. I was mad.
"Chill, Leela," Cassie said.
I still had to fight the urge to refer to her as "Little Cassie."
We met Ax's mom, Forlay-Esgarrouth-Maheen. We told her the same stuff and got basically the same reactions.
I was used to it. After dealing with my parents, this was like nothing.
We stayed with them while on the Andalite world.
~~~
CHAPTER 7
Tarak 9375
"What are you doing here?" I asked the Hork-Bajir who had walked up to me.
"Hello, Tarak. Visser Three," he said. "I am Visser Ten."
"Arlin-Five-Three-Four-One?"
"No, she's promoted to Visser Nine, with my recent demotion from Visser One," the Controller said grumpily.
"Esplin-Nine-Four-Double-Six?"
He grinned.
"What are you doing here?" I screamed.
"I came with the remaining Animorphs, two Andalites, and th — four Hork- Bajir."
"What do you want?"
"A new host," Esplin replied. "Another Andalite host body." He demorphed. To Yeerk. Then he began to morph to Andalite.
"You currently have no host?"
Correct, Tarak.
"Anything else you want?"
To share in this battle. And also, I would prefer it if you didn't kill the four Hork-Bajir. Do whatever you like with the humans and Andalites, as long as I get an Andalite host. But keep the Hork-Bajir alive. Especially the younger female and the older male."
"Why?"
"Because."
"Anything else?"
"Ah ... no."
Wrong. There was something else he wanted. I knew it.
Esplin-Nine-Four-Double-Six the primary twin was hiding something. I knew it.
~~~
CHAPTER 8
~A Few Years Later~
Leela
I woke up very suddenly.
I had been sleeping on the floor of Noorlin's scoop. Noorlin himself was out feeding, while the other Animorphs had gone to check out the Yeerks. For the millionth time. The Yeerks still had not begun their attack, and we had not figured out a way to get past their force field.
The Hork-Bajir were out stripping bark. I was supposed to be guarding the scoop.
"I did not fall asleep! Oh man, Jake is gonna kill me if the Yeerks — "
Just then I heard the familiar sound of Hork-Bajir footsteps.
"Phal, Toby, Ket, I sure hope that's one of you," I whispered.
Then the distinct sound of Andalite hooves.
You! said an Andalite standing over me. Leela! Where are the other Animorphs?
The Andalite looked kind of like Ax. Yet he resembled Esplin's former host, too.
"Who are you?"
Just tell me where the other Animorphs are.
"They're — I don't know," I lied. Some instinct told me not to trust this Andalite.
Where is Noorlin-Sirinial-Cooraf?
"I don't know!"
You didn't know he is out feeding? And the Animorphs are spying on the Yeerks? Again? I don't think so, Leela.
"You know too much. You're a Kelbrid, aren't you?"
No. Not Kelbrid. But I know you, Leela. I have seen you many times before.
"You have?"
Yes. He laughed. I will wait till Noorlin returns. Oh, there he is now.
Aximili? Noorlin asked. No, you're not him. What are you doing here?
I wanted to speak with you, said the unknown Andalite.
What do you want from me? Noorlin demanded.
Nothing except yourself, the Andalite said, laughing again.
Then he whipped his tail! The flat of the blade hit Noorlin's head and knocked him unconscious. The Andalite began to morph.
He was morphing a Yeerk! Why? Why morph a Yeerk?
Then he stopped. Leela, he said. Don't touch me when I demorph. Or else.
"Or else what?" I wondered.
Or else my Hork-Bajir-Controllers surrounding this scoop will come out of hiding and decapitate you. Am I clear?
"Your Hork-Bajir-Controllers?"
Actually Tarak's Hork-Bajir. He's Visser Three, you know. But he won't be for long.
"Why not?"
Once I infest Noorlin, I'll be promoted. He grinned, using his main eyes. It was not a nice grin. Have you figured out the truth yet, Leela? If you're as intelligent as Hekliss claims, you should have figured it out by now.
Suddenly it dawned on me. He hadn't been morphing a Yeerk. He'd been demorphing to Yeerk. "Esplin!"
Yes, he said, beginning to demorph again.
Okay, what do I do? I'm trapped in this scoop with Esplin 9466. This is not good, I thought. My mind raced. My heart was beating like crazy.
"Leela? What happening?" Ket cried from outside.
The Hork-Bajir were back!
"Ket Halpak! You have to run! Tell Toby the Yeerks are here! Esplin's here!" I screamed.
Shut up, said Esplin, who had resumed demorphing. But he couldn't stop me. He was too Yeerk to do anything.
"You shut up," I shot back.
But I didn't say anything. Much.
"Shut. Up!" Man, he was as annoying as Phal Mashar.
Speaking of which, was Ket doing what I asked? I heard lots of noise from outside. But I couldn't see anything because Ket had approached from the awning side of the scoop. And Esplin and I were under the awning.
Of course, I was seeing Hork-Bajir running around. The Hork-Bajir on the un- awninged side were racing to help the others capture Ket.
That gave me an idea. Soon, there would be no more Hork-Bajir in that direction. I could escape!
I ran.
I ran right into Toby.
"Leela! What are you doing here? You're supposed to be watching the scoop."
Running into her had knocked me down. I got up off the ground and fished some grass out of my hair. "I was watching the scoop. I kinda, you know, fell asleep on the job?"
"Leela. What. Happened."
"You don't want to know."
"You're right."
"Well, see, the Yeerks showed up. Esplin's trying to infest Noorlin, and — "
"Esplin?"
"Yeah. He used to be Visser Three."
"I know who Esplin is, you idiot! What is he doing there? When I get my hands on that Yeerk ... oh." She was seriously angry.
"Oooooookay. Whatever. And about fifty Hork-Bajir are going after your mom. Where's Phal Mashar?"
"He said he wanted to be alone. Oh. Morph, Leela. I have to speak with a certain Yeerk."
I began to morph to snow leopard. "But yahn-rahhhhrrrrr!" My mouth had bulged outward and my teeth had grown huge.
As fur rippled across my arms, I began to race back toward the scoop.
You want to deal with Esplin? I asked Toby.
"Yes."
Okay. I'll take care of the Horks. Man, this is not good. Can we expect Phal Mashar to show up soon?
"No."
Okay. Then we'll have to hope the other Animorphs come soon. Noorlin is unconscious and Ket has Hork-Bajir attacking her. And we'll be joining her soon.
"That is the third time you've said 'soon'."
When we reached the scoop, we found no one around. Not Hork-Bajir or Andalites or anything.
Oh, man. Esplin's an Andalite-Controller again!
"Third time," Toby commented.
Third?
"It's a long story. I guess the first time didn't really count," she said, talking more to herself than to me.
Ooooooookay. And Ket's probably dead by now. Or taken prisoner. Let's go to the scoop.
We did.
Okay, that was slightly stupid. Are we nuts? I asked.
"That is not for me to decide," said Tarak. The same Yeerk we had encountered upon arriving at this planet.
He's the Yeerk that's now Visser Three! I said.
"I know, Leela," Toby said.
So we beat him up. Easy.
"I don't think so," said another Hork-Bajir-Controller. "My name is Korlin- Seven-Nine-Three-Eight. My rank is Sub-Visser Six-hundred-twenty-four. And you are Leela Harper, former host of Hekliss-Eight-Two-Seven-Five, Sub- Visser Forty-nine? And of course, the Hork-Bajir seer, Toby Hamee?"
Yeah. You got a problem with that? I asked, trying to sound tough.
"No. There is no problem with that. There is a problem, though. The problem is that your friends have been trying to sabotage our efforts to take over this planet."
Yeah. Course we have. And we're gonna keep on doing that. In fact, I am going to beat you up right now. Toby? Let's do it.
I don't think so, said a third voice. A thought-speak voice.
"Visser Ten's here," said Sub-Visser Whatever-his-number-was.
Esplin (and Noorlin, of course) galloped into the scoop. That is an admirable animal, Leela. A good choice for a battle morph. Sadly, a cat and a Hork-Bajir are no match for two Hork-Bajir and an Andalite.
Toby didn't say anything. Just glared at him.
You're not an Andalite, I corrected. Only a not-that-intelligent-and- slightly-wacko Andalite-Controller.
He didn't like that.
Shut up, Leela. He turned his stalk eyes from me to Toby. His main eyes had been looking at her the whole time. We are not going to kill either of you. You, Leela, will be a nice host for some Yeerk, he said, turning one stalk eye on me again for a second.
"What about me?" Toby asked.
You are not my concern, right now.
What? Esplin would never just let her go. He was ... well.
Toby laughed. "I'm not, huh?" I guess I'd been rubbing off on her.
That is so not fair! I said.
Esplin's stalk eyes looked up at the ceiling. I could guess what that meant. The Andalite equivalent of eye-rolling. I didn't mean that. I mean, I'll deal with you later.
"You will, huh?" Toby said again.
And no blowing up Bug fighters.
She put on a disappointed look. "What?"
She was joking. I think. Maybe.
Who can tell with Horks?
~~~
CHAPTER 9
I suddenly leaped at Esplin.
He wasn't expecting it. I think I gave him a triple heart attack.
Aaaaaahhh! Get off, you idiot!
I'm the idiot? What about you?
Tarak seemed to think that was funny.
Shut up! Esplin yelled.
He seemed to favor that phrase. I think he'd learned it from being around me and Hekliss too much.
Esplin's tail swung. I ducked.
He hadn't been aiming for me. It was just an automatic reaction.
Watch it, I said. You could kill someone.
Oh.
Oh? Oh? What was up with Esplin? I was expecting something like That's the idea, or That would be a tragedy.
Esplin's totally weird. I will never understand him in a million years.
I knew that, he added.
That's better, I said.
Toby slashed at Korlin. He went down.
Then she started to go after Tarak.
No! yelled Esplin.
Toby stopped.
Totally strange.
This is a nightmare, I said. I will wake up at home in my bed. What is happening? Why aren't you just killing us, or making both of us Controllers?
"We aren't telling you," Tarak said. "The Hork-Bajir will cooperate. That's why she won't be infested."
"I will cooperate?" Toby asked. "You think I will COOPERATE?"
Yes, Esplin said.
"I am going to find the other Animorphs."
Wouldn't it be better if they didn't know I was here? On this planet?
"I'm still going," she said. "And don't try to stop me. I don't have to kill you or that other Yeerk. I can just hurt you."
You won't.
She began to walk away.
He leaped, trying to block her. She slashed at him.
Aaahh! he yelled. She'd narrowly missed removing one of his stalk eyes.
"I'll do whatever it takes."
Except kill me.
"I don't have to," she repeated.
I got in between Toby and Esplin. Run! I yelled.
"What do you think I'm doing?" she asked, already running off.
Hey, wait for me! I screamed. I started to race after her.
I don't think so, Esplin said. The Hork-Bajir won't be a problem.
Why not?
Because.
You're helpful, I said, sarcastically. Maybe Toby won't be "a problem", although I seriously doubt it. But I will.
Suddenly, I was on him. He whipped his tail. I ducked, but the blade still nicked off part of my ear.
"Rrrrhaaaaaaaaawwwwwwrrr!" I roared in pain. That hurt.
It was supposed to. Now come. And demorph.
No way.
Then come on.
No way, Esplin.
Tarak! Sub-Visser Six-hundred-twenty-four! Take Leela.
The two Hork-Bajir grabbed me. Esplin's tail blade went to my neck.
One wrong move, Leela Harper, and my tail twitches, he warned.
Great. I wasn't going to make Esplin mad. He was still wacko, no matter what Catrek 643 thought. I could see it.
Fine.
Toby would bring the other Animorphs soon. They'd get here in time to help.
I hoped ...
~~~
CHAPTER 10
The Horks took me to the Yeerk pool. The Lin Veraka pool.
Where did they get those names?
There was an infestation pier. There were Hork-Bajir and humans and Taxxons. It was not much different from the now-gone Earth pool.
But the pool did not have as many Yeerks. There was a majority of Hork- Bajir, not humans. And there were no voluntary hosts.
Also, the pool was out in the open. The red-orange Andalite sun sparkled off the surface of the Yeerk pool. I could see the slugs clearly.
I wished Hekliss was there. I wished she could be my Yeerk, instead of some unknown slug. But Hekliss was on Earth, a human nothlit.
I wondered what she was doing. I wondered what Caitlyn, Larry, and my parents were doing.
No time for that.
Now, demorph, Esplin said. Demorph or I will remove your head.
I demorphed. I felt kind of chicken, but what else was there to do?
Then I stood in line to get reinfested.
Jake, Toby, this would be a good time to drop in, I thought.
I saw no Hork-Bajir except the Controllers. I did not see any wild animals either.
Wait! There was Ket Halpak! No, she was a Controller.
Like I was going to be soon.
The Hork-Bajir forced my head downward.
I felt the Yeerk. Felt it force its way into my head. It started to hurt a lot, but the Yeerk kind of numbed it. Like Hekliss had done.
Hi, said the Yeerk.
I was startled. The Yeerk must have been a human-Controller once.
Hey, I said. Might as well get friendly.
My name is Esplin 9466.
Uh, what? No way.
I am Esplin the secondary. Visser Three's twin.
You mean Tarak? Or Esplin?
Esplin. Duh.
He's Visser Ten. Not Three. Duh yourself.
Yes, I see that now. I can see your memories, Leela-Sirinial-Corain.
Yahhh! He knew! He knew I was an Andalite! I'd forgotten that he'd be able to see that.
Andalite-human, huh? Very interesting. Hekliss 8275 was a member of the peace movement? Human nothlit now?
Stop doing that.
Why?
Good grief! He was Esplin's twin. Just as annoying, almost as wacko, but slightly more intelligent.
Thank you.
Shut up.
We got up.
This was all I needed. Why did I always get stuck with Esplin's siblings? It wasn't fair. Hekliss had been nicer, but still annoying sometimes. I wanted a Yeerk who wasn't a pain in the butt.
Too bad.
Stop that! Can I see your memories? It's only fair.
No way! If you ever get some other Yeerk —
What did you do?
Not telling.
Helpful.
~~~
So this was what it was like to get a non-peace-movement Yeerk. This was what Cassie had gone through.
Only her Yeerk had been female. And no relation to Esplin.
You think my brother's annoying? Esplin the secondary asked.
Duh, Esplin. Yeah.
This would be very confusing. Two Yeerks named Esplin 9466?
You're right. He sighed in my head. Annoying and insane.
Duh again.
You like that word.
You said it first.
"Good," we said to Jake. "Let's get outta here. Everyone okay?"
"Yeah. Phal Mashar's missing, though."
I felt Esplin look through my memories. Interesting. The Phal Mashar of your memories looks kind of familiar.
Probably seen us trying to be Hork-Bajir-Controllers.
You succeeded in fooling Visser Three. Tarak, that is. I wonder how ...
How what?
How Esplin and Tarak are getting along. They used to be best friends, you know. Back before.
Before what?
Before this whole thing got out of hand.
He wouldn't tell me any more.
~~~
CHAPTER 11
"Hello," said Phal Mashar when we got back to the scoop.
"Hi, Phal," we said.
"Talk to you alone?" he asked.
"Sure. What's up?"
"Don't play games with me. I know you're a Controller. Who are you?"
Esplin hurriedly rummaged through my memories. "Rakich-Four-Six-Nine-One," we said, using Marco's made-up Yeerkish name.
"Rank?"
"No rank."
"Ah. I see."
"You're a Controller?"
"Yes, Rakich."
Phal? A Controller? I had to warn Toby. But I couldn't!
I was beginning to get frantic. Esplin wasn't like Hekliss. He wouldn't do whatever I said. He wouldn't warn Toby. He might hurt the others!
Yet I wondered how long Phal had been a Controller. He couldn't have had access to a Kandrona on Estrid's Bug fighter.
Esplin read my thought.
Stop that! I screamed.
"How long have you been a Controller?" he asked. "You cannot possibly have had access to a Kandrona."
"None of your business," Phal said shortly. "Keep playing the role of Leela Harper. I'll do the same with Phal Mashar."
"Um, Phal Mashar? What's your Yeerk name?"
"You are not permitted to know. You may not know my rank, either. Call me Phal Mashar."
"Okay. Phal Mashar? I think there's something you should know. Should I tell Visser Three or someone first?"
"No, tell me first. What?"
"This Leela ... she's an Andalite."
Shut up, you Yeerk idiot!
Oh, I'm hurt.
Great. A sarcastic Yeerk. The last thing I needed.
"What?" asked Phal.
"She is the child of two Andalite-human nothlits. Her Andalite name is Leela-Sirinial-Corain."
Phal opened his Hork-Bajir mouth wide. Then shut it.
"Tell Visser Three. But no one else, you hear? No one else." Having said that, Phal quickly walked out of the room.
~~~
CHAPTER 12
Months passed.
I was afraid the Yeerks would go after my parents. My brother. But I heard nothing of Yeerks going back to Earth.
I knew they were scared of the humans. Now that many humans knew about the Yeerk invasion, the Yeerks didn't have enough firepower to invade Earth again.
Esplin kept telling me I was wrong. I always said, "Yeah, right."
The Animorphs didn't find out a thing. Two of their friends were Controllers now.
Including me.
I yelled for help in the Yeerk pool. I remembered seeing Big Cassie do the same thing many times.
An involuntary Controller. That's what I was.
Esplin never told the Yeerks his real name. He was scared of his brother. I could feel it. But I didn't know why.
Visser Ten got promoted. Visser Three again. Tarak got demoted to Visser Four. Esplin was sure they'd end up fighting. But they didn't. Not for too long a time, anyway.
~~~
CHAPTER 13
One day, an idea occured to me. I was in a cage. Esplin was feeding.
Visser Three walked by my cage.
I said, "Hey. Esplin-Nine-Four-Double-Six."
He swung his stalk eyes toward me. He stopped walking.
"I think you'd appreciate knowing something. Did you know that 'Rakich-Four- Nine-Six-One' is a fake name?"
What?
"The Yeerk that controls me is actually your brother. Your twin." I grinned. Shrank back in the cage, out of reach of Visser Three's tail blade. "Esplin the secondary, right?"
His main eyes widened. He glared at me with his stalk eyes.
Is that true, Andalite?
Tarak had informed Visser Three about me.
"Yeah. Ask him. Ask him when I'm reinfested," I said, trying to sneer. Not exactly succeeding, but oh well.
Then I went to get in line on the second steel pier. I heard the too- familiar sloshing of the Yeerk pool. The Hork-Bajir pushed my head down.
What. Did. You. DO? Esplin screeched. IDIOT!
I grinned inwardly.
He'll kill me!
Talk about sibling rivalry.
This is not a joking matter, Leela!
Oh, it isn't?
Shut up! Oh no. I am dead.
Yes you are.
Shut up!
Visser Three trotted toward us. Esplin?
"No! I'm Rakich-Four-Nine-Six-One!"
Visser Three gave us a "like I believe that" look.
What is the secret? he asked, his tail blade at my throat.
"Secret of what?"
Of Kandrona rays. How do you survive without Kandrona rays?
Esplin knew how to live without the Kandrona?
What do I do now? he asked me privately.
Try telling the truth.
Are you nuts?
Yeah. But then, so are you. And so is Visser Three.
The visser took us to the Blade ship.
Yeah, the Blade ship. The One, or whoever he was, had transported it here somehow. It had since been repaired.
Where is he taking us?
The torture chamber, Esplin replied.
Okay. Now tell him the truth.
He'll kill me.
Look, Esplin. Which is better: death, or Visser Three's torture?
But I can't!
You'll probably spill it anyway. I've heard of the kind of torture Visser Three can —
I get the picture. I can see your memories. Yet I can't — oh all right! You're right, I'd spill it anyway.
"Esplin," he said to Visser Three. Then he started talking real fast. "You want to know the Kandrona thing? Fine. See, what you do, instead of absorbing Kandrona rays every three days, is you take a Yeerk. A hostless Yeerk. And you process it. Make it into a food that humans can consume. I think it only works for human-Controllers."
You're not saying what I think you are saying.
"Yeah, I am. I been eating other Yeerks this whole time. Well, until Tragol- One-Nine-Two-Three gave me another human host. And Kandrona access. I was in the Blade ship's pool when Tragol was killed. Came here with these others."
You are dead.
"Yeah, I know."
You have been ... consuming ... other Yeerks?
"How many times have you decapitated a Controller? Is that any worse?"
That's different. They deserved it! Besides, I don't do it anymore. Much.
" 'Much.' Typical of you. Well, I don't do what I did any more either. At all. So, whatcha gonna do? Cut me off from the Kandrona so I can eat Yeerks again?"
He was hiding behind me. Using my sense of humor as a shield.
I had a chicken Yeerk. So much like Visser Three, yet a big chicken.
I bear no resemblance to poultry, Esplin said.
Uh-huh. Stop quoting Toy Story 2 and go on.
I wasn't. That goes, "Funny, he doesn't look like poultry.
Whatever. And now you ARE quoting it.
Visser Three glared at us. He twitched his tail blade back and forth, unsure of whether to use it.
"Go ahead. Use your tail. But you won't, right? You don't do that anymore."
Much.
"Hah. Much. Why don't you kill me now?"
I am definitely considering it. Would you like to avoid decapitation?
"Duh. Yeah."
Then go away. Leave me alone.
"Okay."
See, that was easy.
You think, Esplin said. He's going to tell the other Yeerks. I'll get worse than grounded.
You could always leave me, I said.
And do what? I need another host.
Maybe not. Did we bring the morphing cube?
Why are you asking me? How would I know?
I'm telling you to ask Jake.
~~~
CHAPTER 14
"Yo, Jake!" we yelled.
"Yeah?" Jake said.
"Hey, I was just wondering if we had brought the morphing cube."
"You think we'd leave that? I hid it. Buried it in the ground, under all our stuff. At the far side of Noorlin's scoop."
"Oh. Okay."
We raced back to the scoop.
Now Esplin, what you do is crawl out of my ear.
He did. He knew what I was doing. He could read my thoughts.
I placed him on the cube. Touched the cube myself. Felt a pleasant little zap.
Now what? Yeerks could only hear very high sounds. Higher than I could talk.
"Oh, this is helpful."
I morphed partway to snow leopard. Anyone could hear thought-speak.
There was a weird little animal nearby. I'd forgotten what it was called. It was walking kind of slow on its six short legs. It was eating grass.
A perfect first morph.
I pounced on the animal. Picked it up with half-hands, half-paws. Brought it back to Esplin.
I held the animal still. I dropped the Yeerk on its back.
Now think about the way the animal feels, I said. Concentrate on that fur.
After a minute I said, If you're done, roll off.
He did.
Okay, think about the animal again. Think about everything you concentrated on before.
Esplin began to morph.
Yahhhh! he said as soon as his thought-speak cut in. What the —
You're morphing. That's all.
This is so weird.
I know. My first reaction too.
Esplin had morphed before, of course. But not from Yeerk form. He'd used my morphing abilities.
I demorphed. "I don't think Visser Three will be worried about a ... a ... whatever-it's-called."
Well, okay. But what if I want to acquire something else?
"Your problem. I helped you enough. Now go away."
Fine. This animal is too slow, he complained.
"You think I'm gonna try to catch something faster? Go on."
~~~
Free again.
I wasn't sure how long it would last this time.
"We should burglar-alarm the scoop." I said, walking up to Jake. "Yeerk- alarm. Whatever."
"Maybe," Jake said. "I'll talk to Ax about it. But where have you been?"
"The scoop. Then out for a walk."
"A walk that took one whole day?"
"Okay, fine. I was looking for Phal Mashar. He hasn't been around lately. I suspect he's a Controller."
I hadn't told the others about Phal and me being Controllers. I was going to tell them, just not right away. Not now.
"You know what you've missed?"
"A lot?"
"You pick today to go looking for Phal Mashar? He's at the scoop. For once. So is everyone else."
~~~
CHAPTER 15
Tarak 9375
Look, Esplin said. You aren't going to win this war. You can't beat millions of Andalites with only ten thousand Yeerks. And a few Kelbrid who aren't even allowed in Andalite territory. It just won't work.
I glared at him. "Well, what are we going to do? Go home? Give up?"
Not in a million years. You think I will ever consider giving up?
"I should know that by now. But what are we going to do? We have something to settle with these Andalites."
I certainly agree with that. But I think we should try invading Earth again.
"No way! The humans know about us now."
Kelbrid. We get Kelbrid to morph humans. By now humans know about human- Controllers. There have been all kinds of primitive human movies and TV programs —
"Primitive human TV programs? You don't get cable, do you?"
Funny, Tarak. You're as bad as Hekliss sometimes.
"Thank you. So, a second Earth invasion?"
Yes. The humans knowing about us may work to our advantage. They won't be expecting us to return. Also, we need more Kelbrid on our side. What do we have? Ten?
"Twenty."
Fine, twenty. And is The One on our side?
"Sort of. The One helps us sometimes. Never directly, though. And not because he especially wants us to win, though. He's strange."
Yes. Very strange. And that peace treaty they have with the Andalites ... He looked around with his stalk eyes. Well, I say a third of us go to Earth. Three thousand Yeerks, six Kelbrid. And another five hundred Yeerks and one Kelbrid look for other planets with suitable host bodies.
"Like before?"
Yes. Except we will only need them for this war. Then no more hosts. We tell the Animorphs we'll make peace with them. And we will. He grinned. They give us the morphing power, and we don't need to fight.
"How are you going to stand it?" I mocked.
I meant we don't need to fight them. There will always be others to fight, which is good. I don't like the idea of no more of this any more than you do.
Since when do I "not like that"? I thought. I'm bored. Sick to death, no pun intended, of this stupid war.
But of course, I didn't tell Esplin that.
"Let's ask Visser One," I said. "See if he goes for the idea."
~~~
Visser One liked the plan.
He told Esplin to take the three hundred Yeerks and the six Kelbrid to Earth. Esplin would be leading this second Earth invasion, on account of his experience.
"Some experience," I grumbled. "Anyone recall the way he totally messed up the last time?"
Shut up, Esplin said tolerantly.
CHAPTER 16
Toby Hamee
Okay, I was spying.
I had a right to!
I watched Esplin and Visser Four. I overheard their conversation.
I had to tell the other Animorphs!
If the second Earth invasion really was going to take place ...
As Leela Harper would say, "Oh, man."
~~~
"Jake! Jake!"
"What is it, Toby?"
"There's going to be a second Earth invasion."
"What?" He spun around. "Are you serious?"
"Yes. Very serious. Not as many Yeerks as the first time, but enough. And instead of using human-Controllers, they'll use Kelbrid."
"To do what?"
"To morph humans. To get the humans to become Controllers."
"But you just said the Yeerks wouldn't use human-Controllers."
"Why do you think they're invading Earth? I said they wouldn't use humans to persuade other humans to become Controllers. Okay? Human-Controllers will be transported here. A Kelbrid will take their place."
"Oh no. Not again."
"Yes. Again."
He looked like he was getting a headache. "I thought this was over."
"Jake, it's not going to be over for a while. It's the same thing as last time."
"Why can't these Yeerks just use the blue box and stop doing this?"
"I think they're still mad at the Andalites."
"Oh, that's helpful."
~~~
CHAPTER 17
Leela Harper
"Oh, man! Jake, you have to be kidding me. I thought that was over. I thought this whole thing was going to be over, just as soon as we beat these Yeerks."
Jake grinned halfheartedly. "Sorry, no."
"This is insane," Marco said, expressing all of our emotions.
"That is an understatement," I said. "Are you sure about this?"
"Toby's the one that told me about it," Jake said. "She says if Visser One approves, then the Yeerks and Kelbrid will immediately be transported to Earth."
But there are very few Yeerks, Tobias pointed out. How can they do another invasion with most of their original number missing?
"Yeah," Cassie said. "And humans now know about the Yeerks. This can't be a secret thing anymore."
"Yes it can," Jake said. "For one thing, they'll be using morphed Kelbrid in place of Controllers. And Kelbrid don't need to go to a Yeerk pool every three days. And the Yeerks have another plan, although we don't know what that is."
"I think I'm getting a headache," I groaned. "So, what do we do?"
"First of all, we hitch a ride with the Yeerks," Jake said. "Then, when we get to Earth, we ... um ... well, we'll see what the Yeerks do."
"Good plan," Marco said sarcastically.
Then, let's go! What are we waiting for? Tobias asked.
If nothing else, we need to replenish our cinnamon bun supply, Ax said.
Jake rolled his eyes. "To answer Tobias's question, we are waiting for the Yeerks. We can't hitch a ride if there's no one to hitch a ride with."
"Duh," Marco said.
Uh ... I knew that, Tobias said quickly.
Cinnamon buns, Ax said happily.
~~~
The Yeerks were sending one Blade ship with several Bug fighters. There was no need for a mother ship yet.
"What are they going to do when they get there?" I wondered.
"We're going to find out," Jake replied grimly. "Morph."
We were in the Blade ship's rest room.
I concentrated on my fly morph. Toby and the other Hork-Bajir were passing as Controllers, since they could not morph.
"What if we demorph, and someone's in the rest room?" Marco asked. "That would be so not good."
"Well," Jake said. "Ax will demorph first, so he can take care of the Controller."
"The guy's gonna die of embarrassment anyway. I mean, he'll be going to the bathroom. We can put him out of his misery." Marco, of course. We all groaned.
"Hurry up and morph," Cassie hissed.
~~~
CHAPTER 18
Ax only had to decapitate a few Hork-Bajir-Controllers and one human- Controller.
No one currently alive knew we were there.
When the ship landed, we zipped out of the rest room. Waited for the hatch to open. Flew outside. Found a safe place to demorph.
"Now what?" I asked Jake.
"Yeah, now what?" Marco echoed.
"We get some sleep. We go home. Check with our families."
"Okay," I said.
~~~
"Yaaaahhh! — Leela?" my mom yelled.
Yeah, it's me, Mom. Sorry I scared you. Just then thought-speak cut out as I finished my demorph. "So, what's up?"
"What's up? What's up? Where have you been for the last million years?" Mom demanded.
"It wasn't that long," I said, looking around the familiar room.
"Where were you?"
"Andalite home world. It appears this war with the Yeerks is not yet over."
"You could have at least told me where you were going!"
"Didn't want to worry you."
"It worried me more not knowing where you were!"
"Sheesh. Sorry, Mom."
"And don't demorph without telling me it's you!"
"Mom. There is going to be a second Yeerk invasion of Earth."
"What?"
"I said — "
"I know! I heard you. What I meant was why?"
"How'd I know? Anyway, that's why we've returned. Where's Larry? Where's Dad?"
"Herilan's at work. Larry's moved out, duh. Hello? He's not fourteen anymore. While you were gone, things have been happening."
"Okay. Whatever. Can I go to bed?"
"Sure." She gave me a weird look.
~~~
CHAPTER 19
The next morning ...
Deedly-deedly-ding.
I rolled over. Picked up the phone. "Hello?"
"Cassie's barn," Jake said. "Now."
"Puh-lease, it's only ... " I looked at the clock. " ... only, uh, ten o'clock in the morning. I'm tired!"
"Now," Jake said.
Click.
I hung up.
~~~
Seagull morph.
I was so tired, but I managed to make it to Cassie's barn.
I demorphed. The first thing I noticed was the look on Cassie's face. I immediately got panicked.
"What's wrong?" I demanded.
"Something's wrong with Tobias," Marco said.
Cassie was tending to the big hawk.
"What? What?" I asked her.
"I don't know," she said. "Tobias! Wake up!"
Unh ... uh, what?
"Tobias! Morph!" Jake yelled at him.
Morph what? Tobias asked.
"Anything! Human! Just morph!"
Tobias morphed. "What? I'm tired."
"We're all tired," Marco said. "You can demorph now."
Tobias demorphed to hawk. He started to fly, then swerved wildly. Cassie caught him before he hit his head on a stall door.
"Okay, we have a problem. Morph again!"
Ooookay. Uh. He was morphing more slowly now. As his human mouth appeared he said, "But I'll have to morph back in two hours."
"You could stay human," Jake said. "It's that or ... "
"I don't want to stay human," Tobias said.
"Tobias, if you morph back to hawk you won't stay awake long enough to morph again," Cassie said. "You barely made it this time."
"Maybe it's better that way," Tobias said. "At least I'll be with Rachel."
"No," I said. "Rachel wouldn't want you to do that."
"You're right, Leela," someone said. "You're absolutely right."
~~~
CHAPTER 20
She appeared. There. In front of us.
Six voices — five spoken, one thought-speak — said the exact same word:
"Rachel?!"
"Yeah."
"But you're — " Cassie said.
"Dead? Yes and no. I am dead, but not yet. Or I'm supposed to be, but I'm not. Yet. Something like that."
"What happened?" Jake asked.
Rachel grinned. "The Ellimist. Crayak allowed him to give me one more year. One year way in the future, which I guess is now. In exchange for something else, something I don't know about."
"What's an Ellimist?" I asked.
"You still don't know who the Ellimist is?" Rachel demanded.
"No."
"A multi-dimensional pain-in-the-butt," Marco informed me. "And Crayak is a multi-dimensional pain-in-everyone's-butt."
I snorted.
Tobias had stared, mouth open, through all this exchange.
"Bird-boy," Marco said. "She's waiting."
"Waiting for what?" Tobias asked.
"Duh." Marco stared at Tobias like he was a complete idiot.
"Not here," Rachel said, glaring at Marco. "Not in front of you. Speaking of which, Marco, no girl yet?"
He sighed. "No girl yet."
"Don't feel too bad, Marco. There are lots of uglier people than you. Of course, they're all a hundred thousand years old and their bodies are decaying ... "
"Very funny."
"It's FUNNY, Marco. It's FUNNY. Laugh."
"Ha ha."
"That's not LAUGHING."
"Is too."
"Is NOT." Rachel kicked Marco's shin lightly.
"Ow! Is too."
"Shut up," Jake said.
"I am not shutting up," Rachel announced. "I have one year. I am not wasting it being silent!"
"Oookay," I said. "That's lovely, Rachel."
"It is, isn't it?" Rachel grinned again.
~~~
CHAPTER 21
I had never been all that close to Rachel. I guess I hadn't known her long enough. But it was a relief to have her back.
One year. One year.
One year, and we'd be right back where we were before. Without her.
I mentioned this to Tobias once.
"No," he'd said. "There's gonna be something different."
"Like what?"
He wouldn't tell me any more.
I was getting tired of people not telling me things.
~~~
It was nice being home. Even if the Yeerks were back. We'd beaten them once, we'd beat them again.
It was a lot like before. Rachel back. Visser Three heading the invasion. He even had his former rank.
Sure, there were Kelbrid. But we'd learned that if a Kelbrid stays in morph for more than twenty-four hours, then they would go back to their original form and not be able to morph again. Which, for a Kelbrid, is worse than being a nothlit.
Only there were differences. Stuff I couldn't put my finger on. Something different in Toby Hamee, something that had been there since we'd returned from rescuing Ax from his first encounter with Kelbrid. But also something different in Tobias. And Rachel. And Jake. And Cassie. And even Ax and Estrid. Even Visser Three was acting weird.
The only one who didn't have this strangeness was Marco. Because he'd been strange in the first place? I didn't know. I didn't really care either.
And of course, there were the obvious things. Phal Mashar, who'd finally "married" Toby. And Estrid, who'd done the same with Ax. And the fact that Jake and Cassie were together, as were Rachel and Tobias. (Grr. It wasn't fair.)
~~~
CHAPTER 22
"Okay," Jake said. "We want to stop this thing before it gets out of hand. We are going to find out where they're building the new Yeerk pool."
"Let's do it," Rachel said.
"I so knew you were going to say that," Marco said. "Isn't that funny?"
"Yeah, although YOU'RE not," Rachel replied.
"Come on, admit it, Xena."
"I'll admit you're a dork."
"Yeah, but I'm a cute dork."
"Oh, shut up," Jake said tolerantly.
~~~
The Yeerk pool was being built out in the country, in the area called the Dry Lands. Or, as Marco called it, in Gooberville.
Where are the goobers? I asked.
Cute, Marco said sarcastically.
We were in bird morph. Flying, of course. Tobias wasn't there, since he couldn't morph anyone else.
What are goobers? Ax wondered.
They can be a number of things, I explained. They can be peanuts, or a spoonerism of boogers.
What is a spoonerism?
And what are boogers? Estrid asked.
I swear Marco rolled his little bird eyes. A spoonerism's where you take the first sounds of two words and switch them around.
Like Hork-Bajir would be Bork-Hajir, Cassie said.
Ah. What is the purpose?
To be weird, Marco explained.
Oh. That explains much. Leela says that being weird is necessary for most sentient creatures.
You said that? Marco asked incredulously.
Well, that's his wording of it. To answer Estrid's question — I began.
Don't even think about it, Jake warned.
— boogers are the little slimeballs inside a human nose.
My mom calls them "nose frogs", Rachel said helpfully.
Oh, that's really appetizing, Rach, Cassie groaned.
What? Do I hear Cassie being sarcastic? I think I'm going to faint. Marco, of course. Marco, in high-pitched thought-speak.
Okay, people. We're here, Jake announced.
LET'S DO IT! Rachel yelled happily.
Darn it, I said. I can't say that anymore.
Have you been stealing my line?
Yes.
Suddenly ...
Aaaaaaahhh! I yelled.
Rachel had just dive-bombed me. I went tumbling.
THAT'S for stealing MY line.
Ouch.
~~~
CHAPTER 23
Yeerk pool.
We morphed. Battle morphs.
Then we began to trash the pool.
"Huh-RRHHOOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!"
Rachel! Good grief! I yelled. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?
No, I'm trying to give a Yeerk a heart attack.
"Aaaaaaaahhh!"
"Animorph!"
You see Visser Three anywhere? Jake asked.
Actually, no, Marco replied.
Crash!
Thud.
I swiped at a Hork-Bajir-Controller. Whacked him with my paw. He cartwheeled through the air —
"Aaaaaaaaaaagggghhh!"
Spuh-LOOSH!
— into the Yeerk pool.
Okay, that was cool.
It went on like that for a while.
Insanity.
A large number of Yeerks were now incapacitated.
Okay! Our work is done here! Jake said.
We bailed.
~~~
We demorphed away from the pool.
"I feel like we're missing someone," I said.
"Tobias isn't here," Jake pointed out. "One, two, three, four, five, six. We're all here."
"Uh, DUH Jake!" Rachel cried. "It's seven now! Me! Eight, actually. You counted Estrid in place of Tobias. We ARE missing someone!"
"I'm here," Cassie said. "Jake is here. Ax is here. Rachel, Leela, Estrid. And Tobias isn't here."
"Where's Marco?" I demanded.
"Oh, man," Rachel said, realizing.
~~~
CHAPTER 24
"Marco's still back there."
I was already on my way back to snow leopard. As soon as I was fully morphed, I ran back to the Yeerk pool.
"Rachel," I heard Jake say. "Remorph and go with her. The rest of us, morph birds, try to find Marco."
~~~
I see Visser Three! Jake called.
Where? Rachel demanded. She'd morphed to elephant, so she could bust down walls and stomp anything in her way.
Oh no. Marco. They've got Marco. He's still in morph, though. But —
We're on it!
Where are they? I wanted to know.
In that Bug fighter over there.
Over where? There's more than one Bug fighter here.
I saw Jake swoop down to land on one of the fighters. This one.
Rachel? Would you like to let us in? I asked, knowing her answer.
No problemo.
Kuh-RASH!
Here comes Dumbo and Catwoman, gonna rescue King Kong.
What the — I heard Visser Three yell.
Houston, we have a problem, I said to Rachel. There ain't no room to do nothin'!
Rachel gave me a look. It's really weird when an elephant glares at you.
Still, there was no room. It had already been cramped when it was only an Andalite, a Hork-Bajir-Controller, and a gorilla. Add an elephant and a snow leopard ... you get the picture.
Rachel pushed the Hork-Bajir out the door. Except the door was closed. There was now a Hork-Bajir-shaped hole.
I bared my teeth at Visser Three and growled.
Allow me, Rachel said. "Huh-REEEEEEEEE-yah!"
She picked him up and tossed him after the Hork-Bajir. Only the Hork-shaped hole wasn't big enough.
THUD.
He hit the wall.
Okay, I think he's out of it, Marco said.
Uhh ... You wish, Visser Three snapped suddenly.
Uh-oh.
He whipped his tail. Rachel head-butted him out the hole she had made on the way in. She rushed out after him.
Come on, Marco, I said.
~~~
We hooked up with Rachel outside.
Where's Visser Three? I asked.
He got away. I got distracted by a couple Hork-Bajir who were attempting to storm the Bug fighter you were in.
Now let's go, I said.
Hold it, Marco said. I have an idea.
He ran back into the Bug fighter. I saw it rise. Then ...
TSSEEEWW!
He fired at the pool. Water boiled, then exploded.
"Aaaaaaaahhh!" Controllers yelled. They were seriously freaked out.
Understatement of the year.
The fighter landed and Marco returned. Now let's go.
~~~
CHAPTER 25
The Yeerks now used Visser Three's new Blade ship's Yeerk pool.
We kept fighting them. We won sometimes, lost other times. The Yeerks were careful not to let any other humans know.
I didn't care about the other's secrets anymore. Didn't care about the weird way they were acting. I had a secret of my own.
~~~
CHAPTER 26
~Nine Months Later~
One day we heard the Yeerks had found a planet with plenty of host bodies. More dangerous than humans. That was all we knew about it.
We planned to go there. Hitch a ride again.
But there was something I had to tell the other Animorphs first. When we all met up to figure out the details, Marco and I brought the thing I needed to show them.
We were the last ones there.
"Oh, man," I said.
Ax and Estrid had brought something too. Jake had one, Cassie had one. Rachel and Tobias had two more.
"Oh, man," I repeated. "What the heck do we do with them all?"
"I have an idea," Jake said.
Marco couldn't hold it in anymore. He cracked up.
We all started laughing ...
My name is Leela Harper.
And I was on the Yeerk ship that we had named the Rachel.
We were about to ram a Yeerk Blade ship.
~~~
Ram the Blade ship.
Easier said than done.
Prince Jake! Ax cried.
"Ax?" Jake asked, startled.
Don't hit the Blade ship yet!
"Is he insane?" Marco asked.
"No, he just would prefer it if we didn't kill him," I muttered. "Duh, Marco."
"He's probably morphing something," Jake said. "Something that probably won't get hurt when we ram the ship."
"At least we know he's okay. That One guy scared me," I admitted. "You know, we should morph too."
We did. The others went cockroach. I didn't have a roach morph, so I went fly. Jeanne and Santorelli and Menderash didn't have a bug morph at all, so they operated the ship.
Now do it! Ax yelled.
~~~
Vibrations!
Massive vibrations coming from every direction at once. Then they stopped.
Jeanne? Santorelli? You people okay? Jake asked.
"I am," Santorelli said. "I think Jeanne's hurt. Not seriously, though."
You're lucky.
I gotta demorph and help her! Marco said.
We demorphed.
The Rachel was crumpled in places. But we could still fly okay.
"At least we're not losing air," Jake said.
Prince Jake! The Blade ship is losing air fast!
What do we do, Jake? Tobias asked.
There is a backup supply, but it will be used up quickly! The One has a way to get himself out. Yet I do not think he is bothering to rescue the rest of us.
"Definitely a cross between a Leeran and Crayak," Marco muttered.
"Okay," Jake said. "Here's what we do. I'll get Ax."
"How?" I asked.
"Menderash'll show me how. There's gotta be a way to get off one ship and into another without losing air from either one."
"But what about when you get into the Blade ship?" Marco wanted to know.
"I'll just hurry. There are emergency air hoods somewhere around here. Menderash is getting them he knows where they are. I can use one of those. And I'll try to be fast."
"Okay," I said.
~~~
Jake returned with Ax. Both were wearing air hoods.
"Man, do you know how dorky those things look?" Marco asked.
He means we're happy to have you back. Alive, Tobias said. Isn't that right, Marco?
"Well, actually — "
Mar-co ...
"Yeah. That's exactly what I mean. We're happy you're not dead."
"So are we. Fortunately, the Blade ship had a few air hoods too." He pulled his hood off and gave it to Menderash. Ax did the same thing with his hood.
"So now what?" Marco wondered.
These Yeerks are not the only ones, Ax said. There are others. And other creatures like The One.
"Where?" I asked.
Elsewhere in Kelbrid space.
"Oh, man. And we thought this whole thing was over."
"It's not over," Jake said. "Probably won't be for a long time. But hey, at least they're off Earth."
"For now," Marco muttered.
Tell us about The One, Ax-man, Tobias said.
The One is the leader of the Kelbrid. They are ... well. You do not want to see one in its natural shape. The Kelbrid are more advanced than Andalites. They have something that is similar to morphing. However. it does not seem to work on the basis of DNA, rather it —
"JUST TELL US!" Jake yelled. "And don't call me prince."
Yes, Prince Jake. But that is about all I know. We aren't allowed in Kelbrid space, and vice versa.
"We know," I said.
"You know all about their morphing but you barely know anything about them?" Marco demanded.
I was merely hypothesizing. I am not sure how their morphing works.
"Hey. I have an idea," I said. "A really brilliant idea. Let's go home."
~~~
"Well, that was easy," Jake said.
Marco looked skeptical. "Somehow, I don't think we're just going to go home and watch TV and be normal. It just never works that way."
"I am never normal," I reminded them.
"We know," Marco said.
I would like to watch TV again, Ax said. Deprivation of that primitive but wonderful human invention is unpleasant.
So, you don't want to go back to the Andalite home world? Tobias asked.
No. I hoped I would find Estrid there, but I haven't. I am wondering if she is on Earth again.
"Who's Estrid?" I asked.
"Ax's girlfriend," Marco said.
I snorted.
Thank you for the lovely sound effects, Tobias said.
"You're welcome."
~~~
"What in yaolin — Krachouth!"
"Bless you," I said.
Everyone laughed except Menderash, who had spoken, and Ax, who looked shocked.
"What is it?" Jake asked.
That is ... not a nice word, Ax informed us. The last word Menderash said.
"Okay. So what happened, Menderash?"
"Zero-space has shifted. It will take us longer to get home."
"Helpful," I muttered.
~~~
CHAPTER 2
Cassie
My name is Cassie.
And I was talking to the Hork-Bajir seer, Toby Hamee.
I had been wondering something for a long time. I'd finally gathered up enough courage to ask about it.
That day on the Pool ship, I had seen Toby almost kill the visser. But she'd stopped. The visser had swung his tail and whacked her front horn. She'd left him alone.
"Toby, what happened on the Pool ship?"
"Don't remind me," she said.
"Toby, look. I have to know something."
She looked panicked. "Like what?"
"When you were fighting the Yeerks on the Pool ship. You were going after Visser One."
"Visser Ten."
"Whatever. He was Visser One then. Then you stopped."
"I remembered that it was Aximili's duty to do that."
"Yeah, right."
"Really!"
"He was doing private thought-speak, wasn't he?"
"He never uses private thought-speak."
"True."
"Cassie? I don't want to talk about it anymore."
"Okay." I decided to talk about something else. "So ... how's Phal Mashar?"
"I don't know. I haven't seen him since the Pool ship."
"What'd he do there?" I asked.
"I told you I didn't want to talk about the Pool ship."
"Okay. Whatever. So, where is Phal?"
"Oh ... he'll show up, I guess."
Something was strange. "Toby, do you even like Phal anymore?"
"Well ... "
"Toby Hamee. Why stop liking Phal? What happened?"
"He's ... he's — a Yeerk!" she blurted suddenly.
~~~
"A Yeerk?" I asked, puzzled.
"Well ... um ... " She seemed to be looking for words. "He was a Controller. He saw the Yeerk's memories. And you know how it is with Hork- Bajir. It impacted him more than it would a human, or me. Phal is almost a Yeerk."
"So what? Does he still like you?"
"I don't know. I am not sure he ever did."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, he says he did. Says he still does. And ... he still does. It's just that ... he's a Yeerk. A Yeerk."
"Toby, you're more intelligent than anyone else I know. But that was the stupidest thing you have ever done."
"What?"
"Breaking up with Phal, just because it seems like he's a Yeerk? Even though he still likes you? Please, Toby."
"You don't understand." She looked away. Then looked at me again.
"Yes, I do."
"No. You don't."
"Then what is it I don't understand?"
"I can't tell you."
I rolled my eyes. "As Leela would say, that's helpful. Very helpful."
"Sorry."
"Where is Phal anyway?" I asked.
"I guess he'll show up sometime."
"Like right now?" a male Hork-Bajir voice said.
~~~
Yeah. It was Phal Mashar.
"E — Pha-al!" Toby said. "How much of our conversation did you hear?"
"What you said, and what she said before that. You're Cassie, yes?" he said to me.
"Yeah. Cassie. Phal? What's going on? You're ... uh ... not, um — "
"Not stupid anymore?" Toby finished for me. "He was pretending before. Partly." She glared at Phal.
"Partly?" Phal said, pretending to be insulted. "I am not as unintelligent as you think."
"No, you're even less intelligent than that," Toby said. "Now go away."
They reminded me of Marco and Rachel. I had never heard Toby make jokes at another's expense. Apparently, that rule did not include her boyfriend, for some unknown reason.
Was she mad at him about something? What had he done?
"You aliens are weird," I said. "Not to insult anyone, but you are. Especially you." I looked at Phal Mashar on the last word. I felt frustrated. Frustrated because there was something that was staring me in the face that I couldn't see. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was there.
~~~
CHAPTER 3
I was talking to Toby. Again. Phal Mashar, the Yeerk/Hork-Bajir was not there.
"How's Phal Mashar?"
Toby grinned. Even now, that expression scared me. "He's fine."
Okay. So they weren't mad at each other anymore. This is good ... I guess, I thought.
"You old enough to pair up yet?"
"No."
"I didn't think so. What are you, four years old?"
"Five."
"Ah. Okay. How old do you have to be?"
"About ten of your years."
"You're as bad as Ax."
She laughed in the huffing-and-screeching Hork-Bajir way. "How is Ronnie?"
"He's fine."
"Are you going to, ah ... pair up soon?"
I suddenly felt uneasy. "No. Don't feel ready."
"I think I know why. It's because of Jake, isn't it? You still love him."
Thinking about Jake was just too painful. "No, it's not that."
She glanced upward in an "I'm supposed to believe that?" kind of way.
"Okay, fine," I said, exasperated. Finally admitting it to myself didn't make me feel any better. "But what's the point? I'm probably never going to see him again. Besides, he doesn't like me anymore."
"Yes he does. And as for not seeing him again, you can hope. I did."
"With Phal Mashar?"
"Yes. You see, he was not as safe as the rest of the free Hork-Bajir. I kept hoping that he wouldn't get hurt."
"Why?" I asked.
"The Yeerks knew Phal. Almost any Controller could look at him and know who he was. He would leave the valley often, so they wouldn't find the rest of us. That's what he said, anyway."
"And now he's fine."
"Yes. And how many times has Jake come out of a near-death experience alive?"
"Fifty? A hundred?"
"You are asking me? How would I know? Anyway, don't give up hope on Jake, okay?"
"Okay."
~~~
A few days later, I awoke to hear a beating of wings at my window.
Hey, let me in, all right? I can't hover here forever!
"Jake? Is that you?" I demanded of the peregrine falcon.
Yeah. Let me in!
I opened my window and grabbed him. I hugged the bird as tight as I could.
What are you doing, Cassie? Trying to suffocate me? But he didn't try to escape.
"Jake! I've been so worried!"
I felt like I wanted to start crying and laughing at the same time.
He demorphed.
"So, how'd it go?" I asked.
"Surprisingly well. It was real easy. Get scared half to death, ram the Blade ship, go in and get Ax, go home."
"I'm getting a bad feeling about this. It's never that easy. Marco must be totally paranoid."
"He is."
"I knew it. So, when is it?"
"When is what?"
"The wedding!"
"What wedding?"
"For once, I'll say it: Duh, Jake."
His eyes widened. "Oh. You mean — "
I knew Ronnie would be hurt. But he was just not the right person for me. He wasn't my Jake.
I'd realized that long before I'd talked to Toby. I just hadn't realized I'd realized it. Or something like that.
~~~
CHAPTER 3
~One Year Later~
Marco
My name is Marco.
I have a TV show. The women love me. I rival Visser Three's twin brother in money. (Where is that guy anyway?)
I am the handsomest dude on cable. I have it all. I have my parents. And I have my best friend, who still can't beat me at Nintendo.
Yeah, I still play Nintendo. Twenty-one years old and I am the master of video games.
The only thing I don't have going for me is The Female. Sure, I have females, but not The Female. I have had about fifty girlfriends. Broke up with them all. The most recent one was Laura Kellerman, who decided she liked someone else. Some dude named Ryan. Good grief! How could anyone else be better than Marco the Magnificent?
Rachel would say, "Well, it depends on what you're talking about. A lot of people could be better than you in the categories of intelligence and height. But in the categories of stupidity, shortness, dumb jokes, and similarity to monkeys, I don't think anyone could exceed you."
Funny, Rachel. Real funny.
I groaned.
~~~
CHAPTER 4
Leela Harper
I was at the mall. Looking for Cassie.
Suddenly, a woman walked up to me and said, "Hello."
"Uh, hi," I replied, distracted.
"Do you have any jelly beans?"
"Are you insane?"
"No. I am looking for a friend of mine. His name is Jake."
"Jake? There are a million Jakes in the world. Jake who?"
"His name is Jake. Prince Jake."
What? "Prince Jake? Uh ... I think I might know him. Who are you?"
"My name is Estrid-Corill-Darath."
"Andalite?"
"Yes."
The name sounded familiar. Maybe Ax had known her. "Do you know an Andalite named Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill?"
Her eyes went wide. "Yes! Oh yes!"
"Oooookay, girl. Calm down."
Suddenly, I remembered. Estrid was the name of Ax's girlfriend! "So, what are you doing on Earth? Just here to see Ax?"
"I came to warn Prince Jake that the Yeerks and their Kelbrid allies are preparing to attack our planet. Their base is protected by a force field which we cannot penetrate. We need his assistance!"
"Oh, man." Then I started singing for no reason. "This is the war that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friend. Some people started fighting it not knowing what it was, and they'll continue fighting it forever just because — "
"What?"
"It's a song. 'This is the song that doesn't end — ' blah blah blah."
"Blah?"
"It's a nonsense word. That's not the point. Ignore that. You need Prince Jake's — good grief! You've got me saying it now. I mean, you need Jake's help?"
"And all the morph-capable humans."
"What about the Hork-Bajir?"
"What Hork-Bajir?"
"The Hork-Bajir that live on Earth. Former Controllers."
"I didn't know about them. But yes, bring them."
"I'll tell Jake."
~~~
Jake told us to meet at Estrid's Bug fighter. (Estrid had stolen it from the Yeerks. She'd flown it here.) The Rachel was too damaged to be safe in space.
We didn't tell Ax about Estrid. We figured it'd be cool to surprise him.
I got to the Bug fighter first. Estrid was already there. Cassie arrived second.
"Hey," I said to Cassie.
Just then, Jake walked in, carrying loads of bags.
"You remembered everything?" Cassie asked him.
"Yeah."
"What, did he pack your stuff?" I asked.
Cassie smiled.
Then, Tobias zipped through the door. Ax is on his way, he reported.
"Hey, everybody!" Marco yelled as he walked in. "Ready for another suicide mission? I thought those were over."
"Not in a million years, man," I said.
Ax was last of our group to arrive. Tobias had made sure of that.
Hello, Ax said. Then he noticed her.
What? Estrid, is that you?
Yes, she said.
Ax swung his stalk eyes around at us. We were all grinning. Even Estrid, although she was only using her eyes.
"Okay, do I have to say it?" I asked. "I really hate to say it, but let's do it. I know Marco will go insane if no one says it."
"Marco is already insane," Cassie pointed out.
"You're right," I admitted.
"Hey!" Marco protested.
Estrid and Ax were operating the ship. Ax was messing with the controls.
Ket Halpak, Toby Hamee, Phal Mashar, and a little Hork-Bajir arrived.
"Hello," said Toby and Ket.
"Uh, hello," said Phal.
The Bug fighter, even though it was a newer, larger one, was still too small to hold all of us. So we agreed that Animorphs and Andalites would morph flies. We'd take turns demorphing, eating if we needed, and remorphing.
But that only left room for three Hork-Bajir. We chose the two most intelligent, Toby and Phal. And Toby's mother, Ket Halpak, who'd brought Toby's little brother, Dak Hamee. He wouldn't take up much room.
Jake started counting people. "We have me, Marco, Cassie, Tobias, Ax. Where's — oh yeah."
I knew he'd been about to ask where Rachel was.
"And Leela. Estrid. Toby, Ket, Phal, Dak. Okay, do we have everyone?"
"Man," I said. Phal was practically sitting on me. That's how much room there was. "I am actually looking forward to morphing fly. Yeah, we have everyone."
"Great. Let's do it."
"I thought I was going to take over saying that," I said.
"Shut up and morph!" Marco said impatiently, just before the fly proboscis shot out of his face.
Morph. No problem.
Soon there were seven flies buzzing around four Hork-Bajir.
I'm glad I didn't bring a flyswatter. The Hork-Bajir might be tempted to use it, I said.
Marco laughed.
"I hate flying bugs," I heard Phal say.
I almost snorted through my proboscis. What, do they "bug" you? Ha ha!
Marco laughed again.
Jake groaned. Funny, Leela.
~~~
CHAPTER 5
My turn to demorph, I announced. Cassie, are you done?
"Hold on," she said.
We had been in Zero-space for months. Now we'd been in normal space for a few weeks. Not fun. Trust me on that.
Cassie started morphing and I started demorphing.
"Hey, Horks! What's up?" I said brightly after losing the proboscis.
"Up is the opposite of down," Toby began.
We've heard Ax say that too many times, Tobias said.
"Anything to eat?"
There are some cinnamon buns left, Jake informed me.
I looked in Ax's stash. "There are not. Ax ate them all."
I had one, Cassie apologized.
By the empty container of cinnamon buns, there were several bags of jelly beans.
"One Andalite is enough," I groaned. "Is there anything else? I'm sick of cinnamon buns and jelly beans."
"There is plenty of bark," Phal Mashar said helpfully. I swear he was deliberately trying to make me mad. He knew humans didn't eat bark.
"Oh, wait. Potato chips! Who brought those?"
Me, said Jake.
"Cool. I didn't know about them." I grabbed a chip bag and started chowing down.
"The Andalite home world is getting close. Whose turn is it to demorph, after Leela?" Toby asked.
Mine, Tobias said.
"Well, can Ax demorph too? I need him to help me here."
Okay, said Ax.
"But not yet!" I protested. "I gotta finish eating first."
Save some for us, Marco grumbled.
"I am! Who do you think I am? Miss Piggy?"
"Should I answer that?" Phal Mashar wondered.
I glared at him. Who had been teaching him humor? And how the heck did he know what I was talking about?
Phal Mashar was one annoying Hork-Bajir. Not by using baby talk, he didn't do that as much as Ket Halpak or little Dak Hamee. But Phal tried to be a pain. What's more, he was good at it.
I ate the last chip in the bag. Fortunately, there were three bags.
"I hope the Andalite home world has edible plants," I said as I began to morph. "I mean fruit and stuff. Not grass."
What's wrong with grass? Ax asked.
"Oh — " Just then my face split to form the fly's mouth parts. Nothing's wrong with grass. It's just ... grass.
Yeah, Marco agreed. Grass is grass. Brilliant observation there, Leela.
Marco had been driving me crazy the whole trip. Between him and Phal Mashar ...
~~~
Okay. Slower, Toby, Ax said. Easy ... easy ...
THUMP!
That's easy? Marco and I asked at the same time.
"It was the softest landing I could manage," Toby said.
Okay, I replied. Whatever.
Okay, Jake said wearily. We demorph. Remorph to Hork-Bajir.
We did.
"Phal Mashar?" I asked when I was human again. "How is it that whenever we demorph like this, I get stuck with you? And you always like to use me for a chair? That's just wrong."
Phal laughed. Actually, he huffed. Hork-Bajir laughter is very weird.
"It's not funny."
"Yes it is."
"You are so annoying. Get off."
"I can't."
"When I morph Hork-Bajir, you are going to get gored by my horns. GET. OFF."
Phal ducked into the Bug fighter's rest room. It was built for Hork-Bajir, so he'd have room.
"Why didn't you do that in the first place?"
"I did not think of it."
"Yeah, right."
He looked hurt.
Good for him. He was getting on my nerves. I stood up and began to morph.
~~~
CHAPTER 6
Eleven Hork-Bajir emerged from the Bug fighter. We walked quickly, trying to look inconspicuous.
"You," said a Hork-Bajir-Controller, swaggering up to us. "Who are you?"
"I am Rakich-Four-Six-Nine-One of the Flet Niaar pool," Jake said, using the name Marco'd made up.
"I am Tarak-Nine-Three-Seven-Five. Visser Three."
Tarak 9375. The name sounded familiar. I couldn't quite place it, though. Also, I thought it ironic that this Yeerk ranked the same thing Esplin had when I'd first seen him.
"What are you doing?" Tarak asked.
Cassie spoke up. "We are taking this equipment to get repaired." She looked down at the supplies she was carrying.
"Good."
Phal Mashar looked at Tarak weirdly. Maybe he had known the Yeerk. I didn't pay any attention to it. Maybe I should have.
Anyway, we left Tarak behind. I just couldn't think of him as Visser Three. Can you blame me?
~~~
We made our way to Andalite territory.
"Hello," Ax said to the first Andalite we saw. "I am looking for Noorlin- Sirinial-Cooraf. Do you know him?"
What about New Orleans? I wondered.
The Andalite looked at him suspiciously.
"Don't worry, I am an Andalite in morph."
Then demorph.
Ax did.
The Andalite's eyes widened. Prince Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill?
Yes.
I will take you to Noorlin. Who are these Hork-Bajir with you? Are they Andalites too?
Not all.
Controllers?
No, free Hork-Bajir.
We had decided not to tell anyone that some of us were humans. We didn't want the Yeerks to know that the Animorphs were here.
The Andalite looked surprised. Free Hork-Bajir?
Yes, Ax answered. There were several on Earth, and now there are many more. You will hear the story later.
Fine.
Now where is Noorlin?
This way.
He led us to an Andalite "scoop", which is really nothing more than its name: a scooped-out hole in the ground. The scoop was partly covered by this awning thing, and there was assorted stuff under the awning, but nothing more.
This is Noorlin's scoop. He should be nearby. Probably out feeding, said the Andalite. Now I have things to do. Good-bye.
Thank you, Ax called.
"Now why are we here? Who is Noorlin Whatever?"
He is —
A big Andalite came galloping up. What are you doing here, Hork-Bajir? This is my scoop.
I brought them, Ax said.
The Andalite swung his stalk eyes toward Ax. Aximili-kala? Is that you?
Yes.
You're all right!
Yes.
But I heard you were taken prisoner by the Blade ship. How —
My friends. They are right here. Five morph-capable humans. And those Hork- Bajir are also my friends.
All four of the Andalite's eyes widened.
Prince Jake? Ax asked. Everybody? This is my father, Noorlin-Sirinial- Cooraf. Father, this is Jake. My former prince. "The Jake Formerly Known As Prince."
"Keeeeroihnkh!" Jake said. A Hork-Bajir combination of a laugh and a snort.
What? Noorlin asked.
Human humor, Ax explained. Anyway. Prince Jake, Marco, Cassie, and Leela are the humans. The Hork-Bajir are Toby Hamee, Phal Mashar, Ket Halpak, and Dak Hamee. And Estrid-Corill-Darath is the other Andalite.
"Can we demorph?" Prince Jake asked. I mean Jake. Sorry. I do that sometimes.
Ax nodded. Go ahead.
I demorphed. So did the other Animorphs. Noorlin, Ax, and the Hork-Bajir watched.
What is the flying animal? Noorlin wanted to know.
The hawk is Tobias. He was a human, but got trapped in his morph. He has regained morphing abilities. That is a long story.
Noorlin stared at Tobias. I think he was a bit weirded out by his son dropping in accompanied by what looked like ten aliens.
Another thing you should know. Tobias is Elfangor's son.
This time Noorlin's eyes went even wider. I was afraid his four eyeballs would fall out. His mouth would have been hanging open, but he lacked any sort of mouth.
Wait a minute. Tobias? Elfangor's son?
"What?" I asked stupidly.
Tobias, the kid of the Andalite who'd given the Animorphs their powers? The Andalite who'd been the worst enemy of my second-best friend's little brother? The Andalite I'd watched being ... yargh.
"You never told me!" I accused the other Animorphs.
"You never asked," Jake pointed out.
"Well, duh. Of course I never asked. I had no idea!"
Noorlin finally recovered. Mostly. How — but Aximili, you said he was a human.
Ax sighed in thought-speak. That is another long story. I don't even know the whole thing.
"I didn't know anything about it," I grumped. "You people should tell me these things."
"You never asked," Jake said again.
"If you say that one more time — " I threatened.
"You never asked," Phal echoed Jake.
"You did that on purpose!" I accused.
"Yes," Phal replied.
"You make me so mad!"
Phal laughed.
"It's NOT FUNNY!"
"Yes it is."
That Hork had a talent for being a pain in the butt. I wondered where he'd learned it. Maybe from his Yeerk. I didn't know and I didn't really care. I was mad.
"Chill, Leela," Cassie said.
I still had to fight the urge to refer to her as "Little Cassie."
We met Ax's mom, Forlay-Esgarrouth-Maheen. We told her the same stuff and got basically the same reactions.
I was used to it. After dealing with my parents, this was like nothing.
We stayed with them while on the Andalite world.
~~~
CHAPTER 7
Tarak 9375
"What are you doing here?" I asked the Hork-Bajir who had walked up to me.
"Hello, Tarak. Visser Three," he said. "I am Visser Ten."
"Arlin-Five-Three-Four-One?"
"No, she's promoted to Visser Nine, with my recent demotion from Visser One," the Controller said grumpily.
"Esplin-Nine-Four-Double-Six?"
He grinned.
"What are you doing here?" I screamed.
"I came with the remaining Animorphs, two Andalites, and th — four Hork- Bajir."
"What do you want?"
"A new host," Esplin replied. "Another Andalite host body." He demorphed. To Yeerk. Then he began to morph to Andalite.
"You currently have no host?"
Correct, Tarak.
"Anything else you want?"
To share in this battle. And also, I would prefer it if you didn't kill the four Hork-Bajir. Do whatever you like with the humans and Andalites, as long as I get an Andalite host. But keep the Hork-Bajir alive. Especially the younger female and the older male."
"Why?"
"Because."
"Anything else?"
"Ah ... no."
Wrong. There was something else he wanted. I knew it.
Esplin-Nine-Four-Double-Six the primary twin was hiding something. I knew it.
~~~
CHAPTER 8
~A Few Years Later~
Leela
I woke up very suddenly.
I had been sleeping on the floor of Noorlin's scoop. Noorlin himself was out feeding, while the other Animorphs had gone to check out the Yeerks. For the millionth time. The Yeerks still had not begun their attack, and we had not figured out a way to get past their force field.
The Hork-Bajir were out stripping bark. I was supposed to be guarding the scoop.
"I did not fall asleep! Oh man, Jake is gonna kill me if the Yeerks — "
Just then I heard the familiar sound of Hork-Bajir footsteps.
"Phal, Toby, Ket, I sure hope that's one of you," I whispered.
Then the distinct sound of Andalite hooves.
You! said an Andalite standing over me. Leela! Where are the other Animorphs?
The Andalite looked kind of like Ax. Yet he resembled Esplin's former host, too.
"Who are you?"
Just tell me where the other Animorphs are.
"They're — I don't know," I lied. Some instinct told me not to trust this Andalite.
Where is Noorlin-Sirinial-Cooraf?
"I don't know!"
You didn't know he is out feeding? And the Animorphs are spying on the Yeerks? Again? I don't think so, Leela.
"You know too much. You're a Kelbrid, aren't you?"
No. Not Kelbrid. But I know you, Leela. I have seen you many times before.
"You have?"
Yes. He laughed. I will wait till Noorlin returns. Oh, there he is now.
Aximili? Noorlin asked. No, you're not him. What are you doing here?
I wanted to speak with you, said the unknown Andalite.
What do you want from me? Noorlin demanded.
Nothing except yourself, the Andalite said, laughing again.
Then he whipped his tail! The flat of the blade hit Noorlin's head and knocked him unconscious. The Andalite began to morph.
He was morphing a Yeerk! Why? Why morph a Yeerk?
Then he stopped. Leela, he said. Don't touch me when I demorph. Or else.
"Or else what?" I wondered.
Or else my Hork-Bajir-Controllers surrounding this scoop will come out of hiding and decapitate you. Am I clear?
"Your Hork-Bajir-Controllers?"
Actually Tarak's Hork-Bajir. He's Visser Three, you know. But he won't be for long.
"Why not?"
Once I infest Noorlin, I'll be promoted. He grinned, using his main eyes. It was not a nice grin. Have you figured out the truth yet, Leela? If you're as intelligent as Hekliss claims, you should have figured it out by now.
Suddenly it dawned on me. He hadn't been morphing a Yeerk. He'd been demorphing to Yeerk. "Esplin!"
Yes, he said, beginning to demorph again.
Okay, what do I do? I'm trapped in this scoop with Esplin 9466. This is not good, I thought. My mind raced. My heart was beating like crazy.
"Leela? What happening?" Ket cried from outside.
The Hork-Bajir were back!
"Ket Halpak! You have to run! Tell Toby the Yeerks are here! Esplin's here!" I screamed.
Shut up, said Esplin, who had resumed demorphing. But he couldn't stop me. He was too Yeerk to do anything.
"You shut up," I shot back.
But I didn't say anything. Much.
"Shut. Up!" Man, he was as annoying as Phal Mashar.
Speaking of which, was Ket doing what I asked? I heard lots of noise from outside. But I couldn't see anything because Ket had approached from the awning side of the scoop. And Esplin and I were under the awning.
Of course, I was seeing Hork-Bajir running around. The Hork-Bajir on the un- awninged side were racing to help the others capture Ket.
That gave me an idea. Soon, there would be no more Hork-Bajir in that direction. I could escape!
I ran.
I ran right into Toby.
"Leela! What are you doing here? You're supposed to be watching the scoop."
Running into her had knocked me down. I got up off the ground and fished some grass out of my hair. "I was watching the scoop. I kinda, you know, fell asleep on the job?"
"Leela. What. Happened."
"You don't want to know."
"You're right."
"Well, see, the Yeerks showed up. Esplin's trying to infest Noorlin, and — "
"Esplin?"
"Yeah. He used to be Visser Three."
"I know who Esplin is, you idiot! What is he doing there? When I get my hands on that Yeerk ... oh." She was seriously angry.
"Oooooookay. Whatever. And about fifty Hork-Bajir are going after your mom. Where's Phal Mashar?"
"He said he wanted to be alone. Oh. Morph, Leela. I have to speak with a certain Yeerk."
I began to morph to snow leopard. "But yahn-rahhhhrrrrr!" My mouth had bulged outward and my teeth had grown huge.
As fur rippled across my arms, I began to race back toward the scoop.
You want to deal with Esplin? I asked Toby.
"Yes."
Okay. I'll take care of the Horks. Man, this is not good. Can we expect Phal Mashar to show up soon?
"No."
Okay. Then we'll have to hope the other Animorphs come soon. Noorlin is unconscious and Ket has Hork-Bajir attacking her. And we'll be joining her soon.
"That is the third time you've said 'soon'."
When we reached the scoop, we found no one around. Not Hork-Bajir or Andalites or anything.
Oh, man. Esplin's an Andalite-Controller again!
"Third time," Toby commented.
Third?
"It's a long story. I guess the first time didn't really count," she said, talking more to herself than to me.
Ooooooookay. And Ket's probably dead by now. Or taken prisoner. Let's go to the scoop.
We did.
Okay, that was slightly stupid. Are we nuts? I asked.
"That is not for me to decide," said Tarak. The same Yeerk we had encountered upon arriving at this planet.
He's the Yeerk that's now Visser Three! I said.
"I know, Leela," Toby said.
So we beat him up. Easy.
"I don't think so," said another Hork-Bajir-Controller. "My name is Korlin- Seven-Nine-Three-Eight. My rank is Sub-Visser Six-hundred-twenty-four. And you are Leela Harper, former host of Hekliss-Eight-Two-Seven-Five, Sub- Visser Forty-nine? And of course, the Hork-Bajir seer, Toby Hamee?"
Yeah. You got a problem with that? I asked, trying to sound tough.
"No. There is no problem with that. There is a problem, though. The problem is that your friends have been trying to sabotage our efforts to take over this planet."
Yeah. Course we have. And we're gonna keep on doing that. In fact, I am going to beat you up right now. Toby? Let's do it.
I don't think so, said a third voice. A thought-speak voice.
"Visser Ten's here," said Sub-Visser Whatever-his-number-was.
Esplin (and Noorlin, of course) galloped into the scoop. That is an admirable animal, Leela. A good choice for a battle morph. Sadly, a cat and a Hork-Bajir are no match for two Hork-Bajir and an Andalite.
Toby didn't say anything. Just glared at him.
You're not an Andalite, I corrected. Only a not-that-intelligent-and- slightly-wacko Andalite-Controller.
He didn't like that.
Shut up, Leela. He turned his stalk eyes from me to Toby. His main eyes had been looking at her the whole time. We are not going to kill either of you. You, Leela, will be a nice host for some Yeerk, he said, turning one stalk eye on me again for a second.
"What about me?" Toby asked.
You are not my concern, right now.
What? Esplin would never just let her go. He was ... well.
Toby laughed. "I'm not, huh?" I guess I'd been rubbing off on her.
That is so not fair! I said.
Esplin's stalk eyes looked up at the ceiling. I could guess what that meant. The Andalite equivalent of eye-rolling. I didn't mean that. I mean, I'll deal with you later.
"You will, huh?" Toby said again.
And no blowing up Bug fighters.
She put on a disappointed look. "What?"
She was joking. I think. Maybe.
Who can tell with Horks?
~~~
CHAPTER 9
I suddenly leaped at Esplin.
He wasn't expecting it. I think I gave him a triple heart attack.
Aaaaaahhh! Get off, you idiot!
I'm the idiot? What about you?
Tarak seemed to think that was funny.
Shut up! Esplin yelled.
He seemed to favor that phrase. I think he'd learned it from being around me and Hekliss too much.
Esplin's tail swung. I ducked.
He hadn't been aiming for me. It was just an automatic reaction.
Watch it, I said. You could kill someone.
Oh.
Oh? Oh? What was up with Esplin? I was expecting something like That's the idea, or That would be a tragedy.
Esplin's totally weird. I will never understand him in a million years.
I knew that, he added.
That's better, I said.
Toby slashed at Korlin. He went down.
Then she started to go after Tarak.
No! yelled Esplin.
Toby stopped.
Totally strange.
This is a nightmare, I said. I will wake up at home in my bed. What is happening? Why aren't you just killing us, or making both of us Controllers?
"We aren't telling you," Tarak said. "The Hork-Bajir will cooperate. That's why she won't be infested."
"I will cooperate?" Toby asked. "You think I will COOPERATE?"
Yes, Esplin said.
"I am going to find the other Animorphs."
Wouldn't it be better if they didn't know I was here? On this planet?
"I'm still going," she said. "And don't try to stop me. I don't have to kill you or that other Yeerk. I can just hurt you."
You won't.
She began to walk away.
He leaped, trying to block her. She slashed at him.
Aaahh! he yelled. She'd narrowly missed removing one of his stalk eyes.
"I'll do whatever it takes."
Except kill me.
"I don't have to," she repeated.
I got in between Toby and Esplin. Run! I yelled.
"What do you think I'm doing?" she asked, already running off.
Hey, wait for me! I screamed. I started to race after her.
I don't think so, Esplin said. The Hork-Bajir won't be a problem.
Why not?
Because.
You're helpful, I said, sarcastically. Maybe Toby won't be "a problem", although I seriously doubt it. But I will.
Suddenly, I was on him. He whipped his tail. I ducked, but the blade still nicked off part of my ear.
"Rrrrhaaaaaaaaawwwwwwrrr!" I roared in pain. That hurt.
It was supposed to. Now come. And demorph.
No way.
Then come on.
No way, Esplin.
Tarak! Sub-Visser Six-hundred-twenty-four! Take Leela.
The two Hork-Bajir grabbed me. Esplin's tail blade went to my neck.
One wrong move, Leela Harper, and my tail twitches, he warned.
Great. I wasn't going to make Esplin mad. He was still wacko, no matter what Catrek 643 thought. I could see it.
Fine.
Toby would bring the other Animorphs soon. They'd get here in time to help.
I hoped ...
~~~
CHAPTER 10
The Horks took me to the Yeerk pool. The Lin Veraka pool.
Where did they get those names?
There was an infestation pier. There were Hork-Bajir and humans and Taxxons. It was not much different from the now-gone Earth pool.
But the pool did not have as many Yeerks. There was a majority of Hork- Bajir, not humans. And there were no voluntary hosts.
Also, the pool was out in the open. The red-orange Andalite sun sparkled off the surface of the Yeerk pool. I could see the slugs clearly.
I wished Hekliss was there. I wished she could be my Yeerk, instead of some unknown slug. But Hekliss was on Earth, a human nothlit.
I wondered what she was doing. I wondered what Caitlyn, Larry, and my parents were doing.
No time for that.
Now, demorph, Esplin said. Demorph or I will remove your head.
I demorphed. I felt kind of chicken, but what else was there to do?
Then I stood in line to get reinfested.
Jake, Toby, this would be a good time to drop in, I thought.
I saw no Hork-Bajir except the Controllers. I did not see any wild animals either.
Wait! There was Ket Halpak! No, she was a Controller.
Like I was going to be soon.
The Hork-Bajir forced my head downward.
I felt the Yeerk. Felt it force its way into my head. It started to hurt a lot, but the Yeerk kind of numbed it. Like Hekliss had done.
Hi, said the Yeerk.
I was startled. The Yeerk must have been a human-Controller once.
Hey, I said. Might as well get friendly.
My name is Esplin 9466.
Uh, what? No way.
I am Esplin the secondary. Visser Three's twin.
You mean Tarak? Or Esplin?
Esplin. Duh.
He's Visser Ten. Not Three. Duh yourself.
Yes, I see that now. I can see your memories, Leela-Sirinial-Corain.
Yahhh! He knew! He knew I was an Andalite! I'd forgotten that he'd be able to see that.
Andalite-human, huh? Very interesting. Hekliss 8275 was a member of the peace movement? Human nothlit now?
Stop doing that.
Why?
Good grief! He was Esplin's twin. Just as annoying, almost as wacko, but slightly more intelligent.
Thank you.
Shut up.
We got up.
This was all I needed. Why did I always get stuck with Esplin's siblings? It wasn't fair. Hekliss had been nicer, but still annoying sometimes. I wanted a Yeerk who wasn't a pain in the butt.
Too bad.
Stop that! Can I see your memories? It's only fair.
No way! If you ever get some other Yeerk —
What did you do?
Not telling.
Helpful.
~~~
So this was what it was like to get a non-peace-movement Yeerk. This was what Cassie had gone through.
Only her Yeerk had been female. And no relation to Esplin.
You think my brother's annoying? Esplin the secondary asked.
Duh, Esplin. Yeah.
This would be very confusing. Two Yeerks named Esplin 9466?
You're right. He sighed in my head. Annoying and insane.
Duh again.
You like that word.
You said it first.
"Good," we said to Jake. "Let's get outta here. Everyone okay?"
"Yeah. Phal Mashar's missing, though."
I felt Esplin look through my memories. Interesting. The Phal Mashar of your memories looks kind of familiar.
Probably seen us trying to be Hork-Bajir-Controllers.
You succeeded in fooling Visser Three. Tarak, that is. I wonder how ...
How what?
How Esplin and Tarak are getting along. They used to be best friends, you know. Back before.
Before what?
Before this whole thing got out of hand.
He wouldn't tell me any more.
~~~
CHAPTER 11
"Hello," said Phal Mashar when we got back to the scoop.
"Hi, Phal," we said.
"Talk to you alone?" he asked.
"Sure. What's up?"
"Don't play games with me. I know you're a Controller. Who are you?"
Esplin hurriedly rummaged through my memories. "Rakich-Four-Six-Nine-One," we said, using Marco's made-up Yeerkish name.
"Rank?"
"No rank."
"Ah. I see."
"You're a Controller?"
"Yes, Rakich."
Phal? A Controller? I had to warn Toby. But I couldn't!
I was beginning to get frantic. Esplin wasn't like Hekliss. He wouldn't do whatever I said. He wouldn't warn Toby. He might hurt the others!
Yet I wondered how long Phal had been a Controller. He couldn't have had access to a Kandrona on Estrid's Bug fighter.
Esplin read my thought.
Stop that! I screamed.
"How long have you been a Controller?" he asked. "You cannot possibly have had access to a Kandrona."
"None of your business," Phal said shortly. "Keep playing the role of Leela Harper. I'll do the same with Phal Mashar."
"Um, Phal Mashar? What's your Yeerk name?"
"You are not permitted to know. You may not know my rank, either. Call me Phal Mashar."
"Okay. Phal Mashar? I think there's something you should know. Should I tell Visser Three or someone first?"
"No, tell me first. What?"
"This Leela ... she's an Andalite."
Shut up, you Yeerk idiot!
Oh, I'm hurt.
Great. A sarcastic Yeerk. The last thing I needed.
"What?" asked Phal.
"She is the child of two Andalite-human nothlits. Her Andalite name is Leela-Sirinial-Corain."
Phal opened his Hork-Bajir mouth wide. Then shut it.
"Tell Visser Three. But no one else, you hear? No one else." Having said that, Phal quickly walked out of the room.
~~~
CHAPTER 12
Months passed.
I was afraid the Yeerks would go after my parents. My brother. But I heard nothing of Yeerks going back to Earth.
I knew they were scared of the humans. Now that many humans knew about the Yeerk invasion, the Yeerks didn't have enough firepower to invade Earth again.
Esplin kept telling me I was wrong. I always said, "Yeah, right."
The Animorphs didn't find out a thing. Two of their friends were Controllers now.
Including me.
I yelled for help in the Yeerk pool. I remembered seeing Big Cassie do the same thing many times.
An involuntary Controller. That's what I was.
Esplin never told the Yeerks his real name. He was scared of his brother. I could feel it. But I didn't know why.
Visser Ten got promoted. Visser Three again. Tarak got demoted to Visser Four. Esplin was sure they'd end up fighting. But they didn't. Not for too long a time, anyway.
~~~
CHAPTER 13
One day, an idea occured to me. I was in a cage. Esplin was feeding.
Visser Three walked by my cage.
I said, "Hey. Esplin-Nine-Four-Double-Six."
He swung his stalk eyes toward me. He stopped walking.
"I think you'd appreciate knowing something. Did you know that 'Rakich-Four- Nine-Six-One' is a fake name?"
What?
"The Yeerk that controls me is actually your brother. Your twin." I grinned. Shrank back in the cage, out of reach of Visser Three's tail blade. "Esplin the secondary, right?"
His main eyes widened. He glared at me with his stalk eyes.
Is that true, Andalite?
Tarak had informed Visser Three about me.
"Yeah. Ask him. Ask him when I'm reinfested," I said, trying to sneer. Not exactly succeeding, but oh well.
Then I went to get in line on the second steel pier. I heard the too- familiar sloshing of the Yeerk pool. The Hork-Bajir pushed my head down.
What. Did. You. DO? Esplin screeched. IDIOT!
I grinned inwardly.
He'll kill me!
Talk about sibling rivalry.
This is not a joking matter, Leela!
Oh, it isn't?
Shut up! Oh no. I am dead.
Yes you are.
Shut up!
Visser Three trotted toward us. Esplin?
"No! I'm Rakich-Four-Nine-Six-One!"
Visser Three gave us a "like I believe that" look.
What is the secret? he asked, his tail blade at my throat.
"Secret of what?"
Of Kandrona rays. How do you survive without Kandrona rays?
Esplin knew how to live without the Kandrona?
What do I do now? he asked me privately.
Try telling the truth.
Are you nuts?
Yeah. But then, so are you. And so is Visser Three.
The visser took us to the Blade ship.
Yeah, the Blade ship. The One, or whoever he was, had transported it here somehow. It had since been repaired.
Where is he taking us?
The torture chamber, Esplin replied.
Okay. Now tell him the truth.
He'll kill me.
Look, Esplin. Which is better: death, or Visser Three's torture?
But I can't!
You'll probably spill it anyway. I've heard of the kind of torture Visser Three can —
I get the picture. I can see your memories. Yet I can't — oh all right! You're right, I'd spill it anyway.
"Esplin," he said to Visser Three. Then he started talking real fast. "You want to know the Kandrona thing? Fine. See, what you do, instead of absorbing Kandrona rays every three days, is you take a Yeerk. A hostless Yeerk. And you process it. Make it into a food that humans can consume. I think it only works for human-Controllers."
You're not saying what I think you are saying.
"Yeah, I am. I been eating other Yeerks this whole time. Well, until Tragol- One-Nine-Two-Three gave me another human host. And Kandrona access. I was in the Blade ship's pool when Tragol was killed. Came here with these others."
You are dead.
"Yeah, I know."
You have been ... consuming ... other Yeerks?
"How many times have you decapitated a Controller? Is that any worse?"
That's different. They deserved it! Besides, I don't do it anymore. Much.
" 'Much.' Typical of you. Well, I don't do what I did any more either. At all. So, whatcha gonna do? Cut me off from the Kandrona so I can eat Yeerks again?"
He was hiding behind me. Using my sense of humor as a shield.
I had a chicken Yeerk. So much like Visser Three, yet a big chicken.
I bear no resemblance to poultry, Esplin said.
Uh-huh. Stop quoting Toy Story 2 and go on.
I wasn't. That goes, "Funny, he doesn't look like poultry.
Whatever. And now you ARE quoting it.
Visser Three glared at us. He twitched his tail blade back and forth, unsure of whether to use it.
"Go ahead. Use your tail. But you won't, right? You don't do that anymore."
Much.
"Hah. Much. Why don't you kill me now?"
I am definitely considering it. Would you like to avoid decapitation?
"Duh. Yeah."
Then go away. Leave me alone.
"Okay."
See, that was easy.
You think, Esplin said. He's going to tell the other Yeerks. I'll get worse than grounded.
You could always leave me, I said.
And do what? I need another host.
Maybe not. Did we bring the morphing cube?
Why are you asking me? How would I know?
I'm telling you to ask Jake.
~~~
CHAPTER 14
"Yo, Jake!" we yelled.
"Yeah?" Jake said.
"Hey, I was just wondering if we had brought the morphing cube."
"You think we'd leave that? I hid it. Buried it in the ground, under all our stuff. At the far side of Noorlin's scoop."
"Oh. Okay."
We raced back to the scoop.
Now Esplin, what you do is crawl out of my ear.
He did. He knew what I was doing. He could read my thoughts.
I placed him on the cube. Touched the cube myself. Felt a pleasant little zap.
Now what? Yeerks could only hear very high sounds. Higher than I could talk.
"Oh, this is helpful."
I morphed partway to snow leopard. Anyone could hear thought-speak.
There was a weird little animal nearby. I'd forgotten what it was called. It was walking kind of slow on its six short legs. It was eating grass.
A perfect first morph.
I pounced on the animal. Picked it up with half-hands, half-paws. Brought it back to Esplin.
I held the animal still. I dropped the Yeerk on its back.
Now think about the way the animal feels, I said. Concentrate on that fur.
After a minute I said, If you're done, roll off.
He did.
Okay, think about the animal again. Think about everything you concentrated on before.
Esplin began to morph.
Yahhhh! he said as soon as his thought-speak cut in. What the —
You're morphing. That's all.
This is so weird.
I know. My first reaction too.
Esplin had morphed before, of course. But not from Yeerk form. He'd used my morphing abilities.
I demorphed. "I don't think Visser Three will be worried about a ... a ... whatever-it's-called."
Well, okay. But what if I want to acquire something else?
"Your problem. I helped you enough. Now go away."
Fine. This animal is too slow, he complained.
"You think I'm gonna try to catch something faster? Go on."
~~~
Free again.
I wasn't sure how long it would last this time.
"We should burglar-alarm the scoop." I said, walking up to Jake. "Yeerk- alarm. Whatever."
"Maybe," Jake said. "I'll talk to Ax about it. But where have you been?"
"The scoop. Then out for a walk."
"A walk that took one whole day?"
"Okay, fine. I was looking for Phal Mashar. He hasn't been around lately. I suspect he's a Controller."
I hadn't told the others about Phal and me being Controllers. I was going to tell them, just not right away. Not now.
"You know what you've missed?"
"A lot?"
"You pick today to go looking for Phal Mashar? He's at the scoop. For once. So is everyone else."
~~~
CHAPTER 15
Tarak 9375
Look, Esplin said. You aren't going to win this war. You can't beat millions of Andalites with only ten thousand Yeerks. And a few Kelbrid who aren't even allowed in Andalite territory. It just won't work.
I glared at him. "Well, what are we going to do? Go home? Give up?"
Not in a million years. You think I will ever consider giving up?
"I should know that by now. But what are we going to do? We have something to settle with these Andalites."
I certainly agree with that. But I think we should try invading Earth again.
"No way! The humans know about us now."
Kelbrid. We get Kelbrid to morph humans. By now humans know about human- Controllers. There have been all kinds of primitive human movies and TV programs —
"Primitive human TV programs? You don't get cable, do you?"
Funny, Tarak. You're as bad as Hekliss sometimes.
"Thank you. So, a second Earth invasion?"
Yes. The humans knowing about us may work to our advantage. They won't be expecting us to return. Also, we need more Kelbrid on our side. What do we have? Ten?
"Twenty."
Fine, twenty. And is The One on our side?
"Sort of. The One helps us sometimes. Never directly, though. And not because he especially wants us to win, though. He's strange."
Yes. Very strange. And that peace treaty they have with the Andalites ... He looked around with his stalk eyes. Well, I say a third of us go to Earth. Three thousand Yeerks, six Kelbrid. And another five hundred Yeerks and one Kelbrid look for other planets with suitable host bodies.
"Like before?"
Yes. Except we will only need them for this war. Then no more hosts. We tell the Animorphs we'll make peace with them. And we will. He grinned. They give us the morphing power, and we don't need to fight.
"How are you going to stand it?" I mocked.
I meant we don't need to fight them. There will always be others to fight, which is good. I don't like the idea of no more of this any more than you do.
Since when do I "not like that"? I thought. I'm bored. Sick to death, no pun intended, of this stupid war.
But of course, I didn't tell Esplin that.
"Let's ask Visser One," I said. "See if he goes for the idea."
~~~
Visser One liked the plan.
He told Esplin to take the three hundred Yeerks and the six Kelbrid to Earth. Esplin would be leading this second Earth invasion, on account of his experience.
"Some experience," I grumbled. "Anyone recall the way he totally messed up the last time?"
Shut up, Esplin said tolerantly.
CHAPTER 16
Toby Hamee
Okay, I was spying.
I had a right to!
I watched Esplin and Visser Four. I overheard their conversation.
I had to tell the other Animorphs!
If the second Earth invasion really was going to take place ...
As Leela Harper would say, "Oh, man."
~~~
"Jake! Jake!"
"What is it, Toby?"
"There's going to be a second Earth invasion."
"What?" He spun around. "Are you serious?"
"Yes. Very serious. Not as many Yeerks as the first time, but enough. And instead of using human-Controllers, they'll use Kelbrid."
"To do what?"
"To morph humans. To get the humans to become Controllers."
"But you just said the Yeerks wouldn't use human-Controllers."
"Why do you think they're invading Earth? I said they wouldn't use humans to persuade other humans to become Controllers. Okay? Human-Controllers will be transported here. A Kelbrid will take their place."
"Oh no. Not again."
"Yes. Again."
He looked like he was getting a headache. "I thought this was over."
"Jake, it's not going to be over for a while. It's the same thing as last time."
"Why can't these Yeerks just use the blue box and stop doing this?"
"I think they're still mad at the Andalites."
"Oh, that's helpful."
~~~
CHAPTER 17
Leela Harper
"Oh, man! Jake, you have to be kidding me. I thought that was over. I thought this whole thing was going to be over, just as soon as we beat these Yeerks."
Jake grinned halfheartedly. "Sorry, no."
"This is insane," Marco said, expressing all of our emotions.
"That is an understatement," I said. "Are you sure about this?"
"Toby's the one that told me about it," Jake said. "She says if Visser One approves, then the Yeerks and Kelbrid will immediately be transported to Earth."
But there are very few Yeerks, Tobias pointed out. How can they do another invasion with most of their original number missing?
"Yeah," Cassie said. "And humans now know about the Yeerks. This can't be a secret thing anymore."
"Yes it can," Jake said. "For one thing, they'll be using morphed Kelbrid in place of Controllers. And Kelbrid don't need to go to a Yeerk pool every three days. And the Yeerks have another plan, although we don't know what that is."
"I think I'm getting a headache," I groaned. "So, what do we do?"
"First of all, we hitch a ride with the Yeerks," Jake said. "Then, when we get to Earth, we ... um ... well, we'll see what the Yeerks do."
"Good plan," Marco said sarcastically.
Then, let's go! What are we waiting for? Tobias asked.
If nothing else, we need to replenish our cinnamon bun supply, Ax said.
Jake rolled his eyes. "To answer Tobias's question, we are waiting for the Yeerks. We can't hitch a ride if there's no one to hitch a ride with."
"Duh," Marco said.
Uh ... I knew that, Tobias said quickly.
Cinnamon buns, Ax said happily.
~~~
The Yeerks were sending one Blade ship with several Bug fighters. There was no need for a mother ship yet.
"What are they going to do when they get there?" I wondered.
"We're going to find out," Jake replied grimly. "Morph."
We were in the Blade ship's rest room.
I concentrated on my fly morph. Toby and the other Hork-Bajir were passing as Controllers, since they could not morph.
"What if we demorph, and someone's in the rest room?" Marco asked. "That would be so not good."
"Well," Jake said. "Ax will demorph first, so he can take care of the Controller."
"The guy's gonna die of embarrassment anyway. I mean, he'll be going to the bathroom. We can put him out of his misery." Marco, of course. We all groaned.
"Hurry up and morph," Cassie hissed.
~~~
CHAPTER 18
Ax only had to decapitate a few Hork-Bajir-Controllers and one human- Controller.
No one currently alive knew we were there.
When the ship landed, we zipped out of the rest room. Waited for the hatch to open. Flew outside. Found a safe place to demorph.
"Now what?" I asked Jake.
"Yeah, now what?" Marco echoed.
"We get some sleep. We go home. Check with our families."
"Okay," I said.
~~~
"Yaaaahhh! — Leela?" my mom yelled.
Yeah, it's me, Mom. Sorry I scared you. Just then thought-speak cut out as I finished my demorph. "So, what's up?"
"What's up? What's up? Where have you been for the last million years?" Mom demanded.
"It wasn't that long," I said, looking around the familiar room.
"Where were you?"
"Andalite home world. It appears this war with the Yeerks is not yet over."
"You could have at least told me where you were going!"
"Didn't want to worry you."
"It worried me more not knowing where you were!"
"Sheesh. Sorry, Mom."
"And don't demorph without telling me it's you!"
"Mom. There is going to be a second Yeerk invasion of Earth."
"What?"
"I said — "
"I know! I heard you. What I meant was why?"
"How'd I know? Anyway, that's why we've returned. Where's Larry? Where's Dad?"
"Herilan's at work. Larry's moved out, duh. Hello? He's not fourteen anymore. While you were gone, things have been happening."
"Okay. Whatever. Can I go to bed?"
"Sure." She gave me a weird look.
~~~
CHAPTER 19
The next morning ...
Deedly-deedly-ding.
I rolled over. Picked up the phone. "Hello?"
"Cassie's barn," Jake said. "Now."
"Puh-lease, it's only ... " I looked at the clock. " ... only, uh, ten o'clock in the morning. I'm tired!"
"Now," Jake said.
Click.
I hung up.
~~~
Seagull morph.
I was so tired, but I managed to make it to Cassie's barn.
I demorphed. The first thing I noticed was the look on Cassie's face. I immediately got panicked.
"What's wrong?" I demanded.
"Something's wrong with Tobias," Marco said.
Cassie was tending to the big hawk.
"What? What?" I asked her.
"I don't know," she said. "Tobias! Wake up!"
Unh ... uh, what?
"Tobias! Morph!" Jake yelled at him.
Morph what? Tobias asked.
"Anything! Human! Just morph!"
Tobias morphed. "What? I'm tired."
"We're all tired," Marco said. "You can demorph now."
Tobias demorphed to hawk. He started to fly, then swerved wildly. Cassie caught him before he hit his head on a stall door.
"Okay, we have a problem. Morph again!"
Ooookay. Uh. He was morphing more slowly now. As his human mouth appeared he said, "But I'll have to morph back in two hours."
"You could stay human," Jake said. "It's that or ... "
"I don't want to stay human," Tobias said.
"Tobias, if you morph back to hawk you won't stay awake long enough to morph again," Cassie said. "You barely made it this time."
"Maybe it's better that way," Tobias said. "At least I'll be with Rachel."
"No," I said. "Rachel wouldn't want you to do that."
"You're right, Leela," someone said. "You're absolutely right."
~~~
CHAPTER 20
She appeared. There. In front of us.
Six voices — five spoken, one thought-speak — said the exact same word:
"Rachel?!"
"Yeah."
"But you're — " Cassie said.
"Dead? Yes and no. I am dead, but not yet. Or I'm supposed to be, but I'm not. Yet. Something like that."
"What happened?" Jake asked.
Rachel grinned. "The Ellimist. Crayak allowed him to give me one more year. One year way in the future, which I guess is now. In exchange for something else, something I don't know about."
"What's an Ellimist?" I asked.
"You still don't know who the Ellimist is?" Rachel demanded.
"No."
"A multi-dimensional pain-in-the-butt," Marco informed me. "And Crayak is a multi-dimensional pain-in-everyone's-butt."
I snorted.
Tobias had stared, mouth open, through all this exchange.
"Bird-boy," Marco said. "She's waiting."
"Waiting for what?" Tobias asked.
"Duh." Marco stared at Tobias like he was a complete idiot.
"Not here," Rachel said, glaring at Marco. "Not in front of you. Speaking of which, Marco, no girl yet?"
He sighed. "No girl yet."
"Don't feel too bad, Marco. There are lots of uglier people than you. Of course, they're all a hundred thousand years old and their bodies are decaying ... "
"Very funny."
"It's FUNNY, Marco. It's FUNNY. Laugh."
"Ha ha."
"That's not LAUGHING."
"Is too."
"Is NOT." Rachel kicked Marco's shin lightly.
"Ow! Is too."
"Shut up," Jake said.
"I am not shutting up," Rachel announced. "I have one year. I am not wasting it being silent!"
"Oookay," I said. "That's lovely, Rachel."
"It is, isn't it?" Rachel grinned again.
~~~
CHAPTER 21
I had never been all that close to Rachel. I guess I hadn't known her long enough. But it was a relief to have her back.
One year. One year.
One year, and we'd be right back where we were before. Without her.
I mentioned this to Tobias once.
"No," he'd said. "There's gonna be something different."
"Like what?"
He wouldn't tell me any more.
I was getting tired of people not telling me things.
~~~
It was nice being home. Even if the Yeerks were back. We'd beaten them once, we'd beat them again.
It was a lot like before. Rachel back. Visser Three heading the invasion. He even had his former rank.
Sure, there were Kelbrid. But we'd learned that if a Kelbrid stays in morph for more than twenty-four hours, then they would go back to their original form and not be able to morph again. Which, for a Kelbrid, is worse than being a nothlit.
Only there were differences. Stuff I couldn't put my finger on. Something different in Toby Hamee, something that had been there since we'd returned from rescuing Ax from his first encounter with Kelbrid. But also something different in Tobias. And Rachel. And Jake. And Cassie. And even Ax and Estrid. Even Visser Three was acting weird.
The only one who didn't have this strangeness was Marco. Because he'd been strange in the first place? I didn't know. I didn't really care either.
And of course, there were the obvious things. Phal Mashar, who'd finally "married" Toby. And Estrid, who'd done the same with Ax. And the fact that Jake and Cassie were together, as were Rachel and Tobias. (Grr. It wasn't fair.)
~~~
CHAPTER 22
"Okay," Jake said. "We want to stop this thing before it gets out of hand. We are going to find out where they're building the new Yeerk pool."
"Let's do it," Rachel said.
"I so knew you were going to say that," Marco said. "Isn't that funny?"
"Yeah, although YOU'RE not," Rachel replied.
"Come on, admit it, Xena."
"I'll admit you're a dork."
"Yeah, but I'm a cute dork."
"Oh, shut up," Jake said tolerantly.
~~~
The Yeerk pool was being built out in the country, in the area called the Dry Lands. Or, as Marco called it, in Gooberville.
Where are the goobers? I asked.
Cute, Marco said sarcastically.
We were in bird morph. Flying, of course. Tobias wasn't there, since he couldn't morph anyone else.
What are goobers? Ax wondered.
They can be a number of things, I explained. They can be peanuts, or a spoonerism of boogers.
What is a spoonerism?
And what are boogers? Estrid asked.
I swear Marco rolled his little bird eyes. A spoonerism's where you take the first sounds of two words and switch them around.
Like Hork-Bajir would be Bork-Hajir, Cassie said.
Ah. What is the purpose?
To be weird, Marco explained.
Oh. That explains much. Leela says that being weird is necessary for most sentient creatures.
You said that? Marco asked incredulously.
Well, that's his wording of it. To answer Estrid's question — I began.
Don't even think about it, Jake warned.
— boogers are the little slimeballs inside a human nose.
My mom calls them "nose frogs", Rachel said helpfully.
Oh, that's really appetizing, Rach, Cassie groaned.
What? Do I hear Cassie being sarcastic? I think I'm going to faint. Marco, of course. Marco, in high-pitched thought-speak.
Okay, people. We're here, Jake announced.
LET'S DO IT! Rachel yelled happily.
Darn it, I said. I can't say that anymore.
Have you been stealing my line?
Yes.
Suddenly ...
Aaaaaaahhh! I yelled.
Rachel had just dive-bombed me. I went tumbling.
THAT'S for stealing MY line.
Ouch.
~~~
CHAPTER 23
Yeerk pool.
We morphed. Battle morphs.
Then we began to trash the pool.
"Huh-RRHHOOOOOOOOOAAAAARRRRGGGGHHH!"
Rachel! Good grief! I yelled. Are you trying to give me a heart attack?
No, I'm trying to give a Yeerk a heart attack.
"Aaaaaaaahhh!"
"Animorph!"
You see Visser Three anywhere? Jake asked.
Actually, no, Marco replied.
Crash!
Thud.
I swiped at a Hork-Bajir-Controller. Whacked him with my paw. He cartwheeled through the air —
"Aaaaaaaaaaagggghhh!"
Spuh-LOOSH!
— into the Yeerk pool.
Okay, that was cool.
It went on like that for a while.
Insanity.
A large number of Yeerks were now incapacitated.
Okay! Our work is done here! Jake said.
We bailed.
~~~
We demorphed away from the pool.
"I feel like we're missing someone," I said.
"Tobias isn't here," Jake pointed out. "One, two, three, four, five, six. We're all here."
"Uh, DUH Jake!" Rachel cried. "It's seven now! Me! Eight, actually. You counted Estrid in place of Tobias. We ARE missing someone!"
"I'm here," Cassie said. "Jake is here. Ax is here. Rachel, Leela, Estrid. And Tobias isn't here."
"Where's Marco?" I demanded.
"Oh, man," Rachel said, realizing.
~~~
CHAPTER 24
"Marco's still back there."
I was already on my way back to snow leopard. As soon as I was fully morphed, I ran back to the Yeerk pool.
"Rachel," I heard Jake say. "Remorph and go with her. The rest of us, morph birds, try to find Marco."
~~~
I see Visser Three! Jake called.
Where? Rachel demanded. She'd morphed to elephant, so she could bust down walls and stomp anything in her way.
Oh no. Marco. They've got Marco. He's still in morph, though. But —
We're on it!
Where are they? I wanted to know.
In that Bug fighter over there.
Over where? There's more than one Bug fighter here.
I saw Jake swoop down to land on one of the fighters. This one.
Rachel? Would you like to let us in? I asked, knowing her answer.
No problemo.
Kuh-RASH!
Here comes Dumbo and Catwoman, gonna rescue King Kong.
What the — I heard Visser Three yell.
Houston, we have a problem, I said to Rachel. There ain't no room to do nothin'!
Rachel gave me a look. It's really weird when an elephant glares at you.
Still, there was no room. It had already been cramped when it was only an Andalite, a Hork-Bajir-Controller, and a gorilla. Add an elephant and a snow leopard ... you get the picture.
Rachel pushed the Hork-Bajir out the door. Except the door was closed. There was now a Hork-Bajir-shaped hole.
I bared my teeth at Visser Three and growled.
Allow me, Rachel said. "Huh-REEEEEEEEE-yah!"
She picked him up and tossed him after the Hork-Bajir. Only the Hork-shaped hole wasn't big enough.
THUD.
He hit the wall.
Okay, I think he's out of it, Marco said.
Uhh ... You wish, Visser Three snapped suddenly.
Uh-oh.
He whipped his tail. Rachel head-butted him out the hole she had made on the way in. She rushed out after him.
Come on, Marco, I said.
~~~
We hooked up with Rachel outside.
Where's Visser Three? I asked.
He got away. I got distracted by a couple Hork-Bajir who were attempting to storm the Bug fighter you were in.
Now let's go, I said.
Hold it, Marco said. I have an idea.
He ran back into the Bug fighter. I saw it rise. Then ...
TSSEEEWW!
He fired at the pool. Water boiled, then exploded.
"Aaaaaaaahhh!" Controllers yelled. They were seriously freaked out.
Understatement of the year.
The fighter landed and Marco returned. Now let's go.
~~~
CHAPTER 25
The Yeerks now used Visser Three's new Blade ship's Yeerk pool.
We kept fighting them. We won sometimes, lost other times. The Yeerks were careful not to let any other humans know.
I didn't care about the other's secrets anymore. Didn't care about the weird way they were acting. I had a secret of my own.
~~~
CHAPTER 26
~Nine Months Later~
One day we heard the Yeerks had found a planet with plenty of host bodies. More dangerous than humans. That was all we knew about it.
We planned to go there. Hitch a ride again.
But there was something I had to tell the other Animorphs first. When we all met up to figure out the details, Marco and I brought the thing I needed to show them.
We were the last ones there.
"Oh, man," I said.
Ax and Estrid had brought something too. Jake had one, Cassie had one. Rachel and Tobias had two more.
"Oh, man," I repeated. "What the heck do we do with them all?"
"I have an idea," Jake said.
Marco couldn't hold it in anymore. He cracked up.
We all started laughing ...
