RACHEL

I stalked out of the barn. I wasn't mad. Oh no.

I was furious.

I heard Tobias come up from behind me. I stopped walking and felt his sharp talons dig softly into my shoulder as he landed there.

You know, Rach, you really have no right to be mad at him. We all know that Jake tries his best to be there for us and that the only time he's not there, something is either really wrong or he was hurt. Just wait a few more minutes and if he doesn't come we can search for him. He told me softly. I gazed at him with tear-stained eyes.

"Okay. But we shouldn't wait for him, Cassie can do that. Why don't we call his house? Or his mom's cell? She always picks up, and if she doesn't, then we'll know that something happened to him at home." I replied in a heavy voice. Tobias looked at me for a while, then nodded his tiny head and flew back towards the barn. Probably to inform Cassie, I thought bitterly.

When he came back, I was already on my cell phone, calling Jake's house. Tobias landed on a nearby tree branch, the lowest one he could find. I waited patiently after dialing the number, but the phone didn't even ring.

Then, the operators voice came on, startling me. "We're sorry but the number you are trying to reach is currently unavailable. Please try redialing, and call again…"

I hung up. That was weird.

Unavailable? The only time a number was unavailable was if that person had their number changed or if that person moved. Jake would have informed us if either had taken place.

I looked at Tobias. Seeing the worry in my eyes he asked me what had happened.

"Their phone didn't ring, and the operator said it was 'currently unavailable'…

I'm worried Tobias. What if something happened to him?" I confessed. He cocked his little bird head.

I'm sure he's fine Rachel. And besides, he's a strong kid. He can take whatever anyone throws at him. He told me. Then as an afterthought, he said. But maybe we should check on him, see why they're not picking up. You know, just in case.

I nodded. "Yeah, okay. Let's go see what's up." I quickly morphed to eagle and joined Tobias in the sky. We flew for about fifteen minutes in silence, neither of us knowing what to say to the other. So for a while, we just flew.

As we neared his street, I saw flashing lights. I squinted hard and I could just make out three cop cars, two fire trucks, and an ambulance.

And a whole lot of people.

The scariest thing was that this was all taking place right in front of Jake's house. I looked at Tobias and found, to my surprise, that he was staring back. We looked back at the scene but saw nothing but smoke since the wind was blowing in our direction.

We flew around back and found a small forest near the edge of their property. We flew behind the few bushes that weren't on fire and demorphed. Well, in Tobias's case morphed to human. As soon as the morph was complete, we crouched low and looked at the wreckage. Now that the smoke had cleared, we should be able to see his house clearly.

I stared at it for a few seconds, and then I began to scream.

There was nothing there. Just pile upon pile of ash and dust. Where there had once been a house, there was now a huge, smoking crater that had been burned into the ground. And in the very center of the still burning flames, there stood a crumbling wall. And on that very wall was the house phone I had been trying to reach.

And that's when I realized why it was 'unavailable'. The phone had been completely destroyed and the bottom half was black and melted. The only thing on the wall that hadn't been touched, was the family portrait that they had gotten last year as a gift.

I glanced at Tobias. His chin was almost hitting his chest and his eyes looked about ready to pop out of his skull. He quickly shut his mouth, blinked, then looked at me.

" Well, now we know he's definitely not okay.." His voice cracked as he said 'okay' and he looked away and began to demorph to hawk again. When the morph was complete he turned his head and looked back at the wreck, then turned, again, to me.

Come on. Let's get out of here. We have to tell the others. He told me. I nodded my head slowly, unbelieving. I felt the changes begin and soon after we took off yet again into the night sky. On our way we picked up Marco and Ax, and together flew back to the barn.

As we landed, Cassie looked pretty shocked to see us back so soon. Especially since we had just interrupted her conversation with none other than the Bear of Bad News: Erek King.

Cassie stood up as I demorphed. The others followed quickly. As soon as we were fully human, andalite, and hawk; she spoke.

"Guys, Erek and I have some really bad news to tell you. It's about Jake." She said sadly, her bottom lip quivering.

I sighed. "Don't worry Cass, you don't have to say it. Tobias and I already know." I stated simply. Cassie and Erek both looked confused. Erek stood up and wrapped his arm around Cassie's shoulders.

"How do you know?" He asked skeptically. Tobias and I glanced at each other before he spoke.

Look Erek, we saw his house, okay? We know that he's… we know what happened to him. Tobias trailed off, unable to say that final word. Erek on the other hand didn't look relieved. Not at all. Instead he looked even more confused.

"His house?" He said quietly. "What does his house have to do with anything?" I was confused.

"What did you come here to say if it's not about what happened to his house?" I asked genuinely confused. Didn't he come here to tell us that Jake died in the fire? I asked myself.

" I came here to say that while I was down at the pool, I noticed a lot of the Yeerks were acting strange. They kept talking about this day being the best birthday Visser Three's had in years. Of course, I didn't think anything of it. Then, a few minutes later, as I was helping out at the infestation pier, I saw most of the controllers head towards the main entrance. My partner was replaced by two muscular-looking Hork-Bajir guards. Pretty soon, I too, was replaced. Since I wasn't working I decided to see what the commotion was about." He paused to let that information soak in.

"When I was about five feet away from the crowd," he continued, "they suddenly began to cheer. I ran to see what was happening and as I found a spot in the crowd where I could see, Visser Three and a couple of his strongest guards passed the spot where I was. Following right behind them, were six more guards. I couldn't tell who it was from where I stood, but I could see that they were dragging someone. A human." He paused again to cough, remembering that moment almost made him cry.

"The visser led them towards the stronger cages, where the Hork-Bajir were kept. As they dragged the child to the very last one, they stopped suddenly in front of it. The boy was unconscious, and because of this sudden movement, his head jerked up. And I saw his face right before he was thrown roughly into the cages." He stopped again and this time didn't continue.

"Who was it Erek? Who was he?" I pressed, wanting to know.

Erek looked at me sadly for a brief moment before glancing at the others.

"It was Jake."