TOBIAS

The six of us flew through the sky at breakneck speed in attempt to get to the Yeerk pool before Jake was infested. Incase no one's told you, our leader was captured about an hour ago by our greatest enemies.

The Yeerks.

They have one advantage against us, and that is if they infest someone, you can't tell. Jake could be in a cage screaming at the guards and he could be a Yeerk. I guess we just had to trust our instincts. Visser Three would do one of two things. Either he would infest Jake, then have the Yeerk pretend to be him so he could get more information out of us. Or he would infest Jake, and have the Yeerk use Jake's powers to destroy us.

I really hope he chose the first one, because I'm pretty sure that none of us could go one-on-one with Jake, and win. And although I trust her fighting skills more than anyone else's, I'm pretty sure that even Rachel would wind up dead if she tried.

And she's our best warrior.

I'm a little paranoid. A little worried. This mission was supposed to be leading to our greatest victory. But that was when Jake was on our side. When Jake was still our leader.

Now, it could be leading toour greatest downfall.

I glanced at Rachel. I knew she would be crying if her morph had allowed her to. But hawks don't cry, I've realised that over the years of being one. And I also know that the look in Rachel's eye was not the look the a fierce bird-of-prey is supposed to have. It was one my friends and I know very well.

Fear.

I glided towards her, trying not to look to conspicuous to the ground viewers, and flew besides her. She didn't even notice me next to her so I guess I startled her when I spoke.

Hey Rach, I saw her jump, then slowly get a hold on her morph and look at me. She looked so sad.

What is it Tobias? she asked.

Are you okay? You seem kinda out of it. I spoke gently, not wanting to upset her or make her defensive. But so that I eased her mind and calmed her down a bit. She banked a sharp left and flew away from me.

Well that didn't go as planned.

From then on, I kept to myself, flew my own path and before I knew it, we were there. The Yeerk pool. The one place that none of us wanted to ever return to. We flew silently around the school building and then, since we knew they'd be expecting us, landed about a block east and demorphed in some bushes. We began walking there, trying not to look to out of place, but not trying to be noticed either. We stopped behind a pile of wood on the school grounds.

Marco glanced quickly over it, then flashed us a toothy grin. "It's party time boys and girls." He whispered. The rest of us looked over too.

I gasped along with Cassie and Rachel.

There wasn't a single guard to be seen. I looked to Rachel as she did the same and gave her an exited smile.

"Like Marco said." I laughed. "It's party time." We quickly stood up and made our way to the outer wall. Once there, we stopped as Rachel checked out the security. Her eyes widened in either horror or shock.

"Rach, what is it?" Cassie asked. Rachel just sat there, gaping at the window. Finally she shut her mouth and turned to us.

"Maybe they weren't expecting us." She said. "There isn't a single guard on duty and no one is here. The place looks absolutely disserted.

We all looked, only to find that she was right. No one was there, not even Chapman. I looked at Ax, who looked at Marco, who looked at Cassie who gave him a nod then looked at Rachel who flashed her a smile.

"Let's do it!" Rachel whispered pumping her fist into the air. Marco crossed his arms over his chest.

"Thanks Xena, you just ensured our defeat. Again!" Marco said. I looked between the two of them then took up Jake's roll.

"Come on you guys, let's do this! Battle morphs!" I said. Cassie winced. I guess she didn't like the fact that someone else said Jake's line right before be went into battle. We crept inside, careful not to alert anyone that we were there. Cautiously, we made our way down the hall towards the janitor's closet.

Otherwise, known as the secret entrance to the Yeerk pool.

We opened the door quietly so no one would hear us and, surprisingly, no one was inside. Rachel reached over and turned the knobs exactly how the Yeerks do it every time and the door opened. Cassie quickly covered her ears as we all awaited the screams that would greet us.

But none came.

Instead of screams there was cheering and laughing. I noticed that Ax had stopped dead in his tracks, apparently confused as to why there were sounds of joy coming from such a horrible place.

"Come on," Rachel said, jerking her head towards the staircase. "I want to see what's going on." She rushed down the steps, then pulled off to the right where we knew a door lead to an upper hallway. From there, one could see the entire cavern. I glanced at the others and shrugged my shoulders as I followed her.

The others followed behind me and objected when I suddenly stopped. Rachel was by the railing. But instead of looking out at the Yeerks, she was bent over, vomiting out anything she had in her system.

I rushed over to help her. "Rachel, are you okay? What's wrong?" I asked desperately. She didn't even glance at me. She just waved me away and then pointed to the area below us. And as I leaned over the railing, I saw what had made her sick to her stomach. The others saw it too.

Every single Yeerk was crowded around the back entrance, all of their faces where laughing and gleeful. In the very center of the group, we saw Visser Three, booming his thought-speech so that all could hear him. A figure was crouched below him, battered, bruised, and broken; he crouched over, vomiting blood somewhere beside the visser.

It was Jake. And he did not look good. His left eye was swollen and we could see his ribs poking through the sides of his completely ruined shirt. His right arm appeared to be missing and it didn't look like he could move his legs.

Visser Three stopped talking and suddenly lashed out at Jake with his tail. The blade connected squarely with his jawbone. He fell backwards and lay there as the crowed cheered. He didn't move an inch but I could see his chest rise and fall with his uneven breathing.

He looked only seconds away from death.

And we were no where close to save him.