Sam was sitting in the back of his father´s truck, trying to keep himself awake. They had been driving for hours and now they were getting close to Santa Monica, the town where they had agreed to stay for the night. John, who was sitting next to Six, suddenly pointed to a sign that read: "Rachel Berenson memorial, 5 miles." Clearly he had a feeling that it was important to go there, so they turned left instead of going into the town. As soon as they had arrived, John got out of the car and approached the memorial. No one was there, but lots of flowers were lying around, all with notes attached. He picked up one and read: "Happy birthday, Rachel. It has been a year since you died, but we still miss you terribly. Love, Cassie, Jake, Tobias, Marco and Ax."

He put it down again gently and turned his eyes to the memorial. It was made out of a single stone and in the middle was a picture of a smiling blonde girl that looked so much like Sarah that John almost cried. Beyond it were the words: "Rachel Berenson, hero of the human-yeerk war. May she rest in peace."

John frowned, he had been on Earth for over ten years, but he had never heard of something called Yeerks and the stone was still looking new, so it must have been put up only recently. He heard Sam and Six coming up behind him. They both looked at the memorial as well, but even Sam, the alien expert, had never heard of them. They turned to leave as Six started to yawn but before they had gotten very far, they heard a noise behind them and looked back.

Out of nowhere the girl from the picture had appeared, looking very confused as though she could not believe that she was here. She did not notice them and called out: "Where am I? Ellimist, have you brought me here? Is this another of the stupid games between you and Crayak? Ellimist, if you can hear me, answer! " She did not receive an answer from whoever she had called and came straight towards them, angrily. She was a few metres away and they were getting ready to get out of the way, when she finally noticed them.

Her face immediately lost the angry expression and now she seemed very embarrassed. She pushed past them and muttered to herself: "Great, Rachel. You are coming back from the death after you have killed your own cousin. You do not even know why and the first you do is making a fool of yourself in front of strangers." Then suddenly she turned as if she had just realized something, looked at them suspiciously and asked: "You are Controllers, are you? You came to destroy everything that reminds of your defeat, yes? Well, you will not have a chance. Everyone knows that you are just pathetic slugs without your hosts."

She did not wait for an answer and stormed away, leaving three confused teenagers behind. Before she got out of earshot, Six came back to her senses and called after her: "Rachel, wait. We come from far away. Please explain what you mean. What are Yeerks?" Rachel stopped abruptly and waited for them to catch up to her. She looked like she could not believe that they had never heard of Yeerks, but she explained anyway: "Years ago, my best friend Cassie, my cousin Jake, his best friend Marco and a boy from our school called Tobias were walking home from the mall. We took a shortcut through an abandoned construction site, when we saw an alien spaceship crash. The pilot, his name was Elfangor and he was a member of a race called Andalites, gave us the power to turn into any animal we wanted to be, to keep up the fight against the Yeerks, parasitic slugs, who can take over the mind of almost every species in the galaxy. Elfangor was killed shortly after, but we continued to fight and eventually rescued Elfangor´s brother Ax from the bottom of the ocean. He joined us, we taught him to pass as human after he had taken on human form and he became our friend. Where do you come from that you never heard from any of this? Please, do not tell me that you are aliens as well."

Upon seeing their faces, she groaned: "Of course you are, that must be why I was brought back, to help defeat another alien invasion, is that correct, Ellimist?" Almost immediately there was a popping noise and an old man appeared. He smiled and told Rachel: "Yes, you are right, that is why I brought you back. You need to get together with your friends again and tell them that it is very important. But this time you have one advantage as the enemy does not live in the bodies of another species. I will leave it to your new friends to explain the rest."

With that, he disappeared. Rachel shouted: "They are not my friends. Ellimist, come back immediately. I am sick of your cryptic answers."

There was no reaction. Rachel sighed and said to the others: "Well, since we are expected to fight together, can any of you give me something to write?" Six pulled a piece of paper out of her bag and handed it to her. Rachel wrote several phone numbers on it and told them: "As soon as I have convinced my friends that I am alive again and not a piece of their imagination you can reach me on each of these numbers." With that, she walked away, leaving John, Sam and Six staring after her. They had not gotten to explain anything about themselves and the Mogadorians, but they assumed that could wait after they met Rachel´s friends, so they would only have to give the same explanation once.