Cassie

It had fallen to me to talk Aftran through her first morph. I didn't mind, really; morphing was something I was good at, I guess. And the first time you morph, heck, even just morphing a completely new animal was always unnerving. See, the only consistent thing about morphing was how unpredictable it could be. We never knew which changes would occur first. Since this was Aftran's first time morphing and she was still getting the hang of it, we had to watch in slow motion as human skin and hair spread out over her ever-growing slug-shaped body.

"Hey, uh, guys?" Rachel said suddenly, "This is Aftran's first time morphing. She's hasn't worked in clothes yet." Marco's and Jake's eyes shot wide and they quickly turned around, and Ax and Tobias followed suit.

"Oh, crap!" I gasped, "Rose, do you have any spare clothes, or a blanket? Something to cover her up."

"Or we're going to be seeing a lot more of you than you might like," Rachel added helpfully. The Doctor didn't seem to realize what we meant, but Rose certainly got it.

"Oi! Turn around you!" she exclaimed, slapping the Doctor's arm.

"Ow!" he cried out, rubbing his arm and pulling off his brown trench coat and handing it too her as he spun to face the wall.

"Thank you, sir," she said cheerfully, "S'pose we'll have to fix that soon, yeah?" Rose looked down at Aftran's rapidly growing body, with now had hands and feet, but no arms and legs. A head was forming and the beginnings of a face. Rose bit her lip and tilted her head.

"Here," I said, taking the coat. She was still taking it all in, and I don't think she was sure where to even cover up Aftran's shifting form.

"Uh, thanks. I was sure if I was s'posed to just cover all of her or…?" Rose asked, pulling a piece of hair behind her ear. Ears appeared on Aftran, and a nose. Still no arms and legs though. Where her eyes might have been, blonde hair hung over her face.

"Aftran we're gonna cover you up some, so we don't embarrass Rose too much, okay?" I said, gently setting the coat on top of the now mostly human body.

There was a loud noise, almost popping, which was probably the aforementioned limbs. We all held our breath, waiting patiently to see if Aftran had finished. Then, I heard Rose's voice mumble something, muffled by the heavy brown coat. There was some movement, and Aftran spoke again.

"OH. Oh-ohkay," said Rose's voice from under the coat as Aftran tested out the human mouth, "I think I'm finished."

Naturally, she was handling human speech a lot better than Ax ever did. She had experience with the human brain and well, using a mouth. The coat lifted up into a Rose-sized hump as Aftran struggled to sit up and keep Rose's dignity intact. Her head popped out from underneath the folds.

"S'then it worked, yeah?" asked Rose

Aftran stuck her arms out through the sleeves of the over-sized coat, and sat up, blonde hair falling around her face. Wrapping the coat around her body, she stood up.

"I think so, yes," said Aftran-Rose, trench coat dragging around her feet on the ground.

"Oh that is too weird," said Rose, her eyes wide. She stepped up and stared at her own face in disbelief. She even lifted one of her hands, like she wanted to touch the face in front of her. Her jaw was dropped so far I thought it would hit the floor.

"Yeah, Cassie had to morph me once," Rachel chuckled, "Alligator morph allergy. Long story. It freaked me out too."

"Do you feel alright Aftran?" I said, coming to take a closer to look at her. Everything seemed fine, but… "Any dizziness, nausea?"

"No, I don't think so," she said, looking down and rubbing her hands before nodding firmly.

"So does that mean can we turn around now?" asked Marco.

"Yes, you should be fine now," said Aftran. She played with her mouth a bit and swallowed. "The accent is strange. I'm used to the American, but your body's muscle memory tends towards British." Rose laughed.

"Just be glad I'm not Scottish," she said, grinning.

"Hey now!" said the Doctor as he turned around, chuckling.

"Is there a difference?" said Jake, and both Rsoe and the Doctor snorted with laughter.

"We'll have to get you both some morphing clothes, " I explained, "It's tricky to do, because the Andalites didn't really have that in mind when they made the technology."

"Has to be skin tight," Rachel added, pulling at my gymnastics leotard, "We're the least cool super heroes on the block. I can lend you both an old gymnastic leotard. I think I have some of the ones left from when I was a little shorter."

"I should have held on to my old ones!" said Rose, "Ha. Never thought I would actually need them again for something."

"You were a gymnast too?" Rachel laughed, and I smiled. "Wow. We do have a lot in common. Though you're shorter than me, you probably actually had a chance at being good."

"Won a bronze back in junior school gymnastic club actually," she replied with a small grin, "What was your event? I always-"

"Anyway-" interrupted Marco, "So we now we've got two Roses, which is awesome, by the way-" Rachel shot him a dirty look as Jake shoved him.

"-Oh come on, you know what I- whatever, never mind," he said, smirking.

"The point is," said Jake, "We know Aftran was able to get the morphing ability through Rose, without touching the cube herself. The question is if Rose can still morph too."

And if there's a limit to how far the technology can be linked, added Ax.

"Theoretically, there shouldn't be any decrease in effectiveness," said the Doctor, who was now shiny the sonic screwdriver's light in Aftran's eyes as he scanned her, "Or at least, nothing that should be noticeable in anything under a few million repetitions of the technology. Nothing we should worried about on the scale we're dealing with, anyway."

"So as long as Rose is able to morph normally, Stage One of this master plan seems to have gone off without a hitch," Rachel said, "Cool."

"To the surprise of every Animorph present," added Marco.

"Oh, don't worry," said the Doctor, shooting a sly grin and eyebrow raise in Marco's direction, "There's still time for things to get exciting."

"We'll have Rose try out a morph tomorrow, at the barn," I said. I stepped back and leaned against a railing, pressing my lips together, "Get you both set up with a few useful morphs as well." I thought hard about who was in the barn right now… we didn't have any birds of prey, so…

"We can meet up at the barn tomorrow once Cassie's parents are gone. We're going to have to all skip school. If things are about to get intense, its not going to matter much anyway." Jake sighed. He looked exhausted. Probably felt even worse than he looked, knowing him. He sighed again, louder this time, rubbed his forehead and then forced a smile. "Looks like I don't have to worry about that math make-up after all."

"It's actually a solid trade, if you think about it," said Marco, "I'd rather fight alien invaders than do trig any day."

"So we'll get some sleep tonight, everyone, as best you can," continued Jake. He was focused, completely stepping into the role of our fearless leader, "And we'll meet up at Cassie's barn at 8. You're parents usually leave well before than, right?"

"Yeah, they're gone by 6 most mornings," I nodded, "Erek, are you sure you and the Chee will be okay with this plan?"

He hadn't spoken much since he finished helping Ax and the Doctor adjust the morphing cube. I was pretty sure that what we were asking was well within the Chee's nonviolent programming, but I didn't want to ask them to do anything they weren't comfortable with.

"You're literally asking us to escort people to safety, with little to no chance of violence or even discovery," said Erek with a smile, "In order to save lives. It's well within our non-violent programming. We might even offer refreshments to them as they leave."

"I know my people will be incredibly grateful for what you are doing," said Aftran, "We will never be able to thank you enough."

She spoke solemnly and I smiled. She practically swimming the brown trench coat. It dragged around her feet, and her arms didn't even reach all the way out of the sleeves. She looked a little silly, but I could tell how seriously grateful she was. Erek smiled back. He was sincerely touched by her thanks.

Erek and the other Chees' role was quite simple, really. AsAx and Aftran made sure all Yeerk Peace Movement members were able to morph, and the Doctor turned off the Kandrona, we were going to create a giant diversion and haul butt out of the Pool. The Chee were going to form a holographic safe route for the newly morphed Yeerks to escape. They would give them clothes and find a safe place for the Yeerks to hide themselves.

After that, the Chee themselves would hide, retreating to their underground sanctuary until we were sure that they weren't in danger from the Yeerks.

I was a little worried about so many Yeerks morphing human. But it wouldn't be fair to ask them do anything else and well… the Doctor was working on that now. He was on his hands and knees and digging through an open floor grate, setting aside pieces of alien technology.

"And each of you are willing to provide DNA for our little potluck, correct?" the Doctor said, tossing aside a strange metal… skateboard deck?

I held back a frown, but nodded.

"Yes. It's worth it," said Jake, meeting my eyes. He nodded slightly and I forced a smile. He knew I didn't really feel comfortable with the idea. But we both knew it was the best option for everyone.

"Though this does mean Ax's human morph will suddenly develop an army of strangely attractive siblings," Rachel added, laughing.

My human morph would be considered attractive by your species standards? asked Ax.

"Weirdly, yes, Ax-man," said Marco, "Don't let it go to your head."

Like one of The Young and the Restless? he said.

We all groaned. Well, Rose and the Doctor choked down laughter, the rest of us sort of… well, pop culture savvy aliens weren't always a good thing. Ax had a lot of free time in the woods and he spent a lot of it watching televeision.

"Tobias, you need to keep a closer eye on what he watches on cable," said Marco, sighing, "He's picking up bad influences."

Hey, I can't be there all the time, he replied, A hawk's gotta hunt.

"All this space and you chuck things under the floorboards like a kid," Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"I have a system!" the Doctor replied indignantly, before tossing another, smaller chunk of metal across the floor. I frowned and walked closer to look over his shoulder.

"Do you need any help?" I asked. My eyes widened when I saw the piles of what to me look liked junked shoved there under the floor, "What are you looking for?"

"Oh, trying to find a specific part of the old chameleon arch. It might be in one of the back rooms. Or the library. Or the other library. Maybe the movie theater…"

"Wow, where do you keep the swimming pool?" Marco asked sarcastically.

To everyone's surprise, the Doctor responded seriously.

"Depends on what she's feeling on that day. Right now, the TARDIS has taken to keeping it downstairs, second corridor to the left, but sometimes it ends up straight down there," he said, gesturing to a door on the far side from the entrance before pulling up a jar of… something glowing.

"Riiiight…" Rachel replied. We all leaned to look over towards the door the Doctor had gestured. Just how big was the inside of the TARDIS? It didn't seem to bother him or Rose any. A whole other universe inside of a box that you could fit on a street corner with ease. I knelt down to try and help the Doctor lift something that looked heavy, absentmindedly brushed a bit of dirt off my jeans.

Suddenly, Jake yawned so loudly that everyone jumped.

"Sorry," he said, sheepishly, "It's been a long week." I sighed. They were all only just barely done being sick. Or brain surgery, in Ax's case. Yet here we were, gathered in an alien spaceship late at night planning one of the most dangerous missions we had ever done.

"You should all go home and get your rest," said Rose kindly. "I know I'd fancy some sleep right about now."

"I'll have to morph back before long now anyway," said Aftran-Rose, "Since I can't yet take Rose's form permanently."

"We'll incorporate the morph clothes tomorrow, so you two don't have to worry about that anymore," I said, "It's easy enough once you figure it out."

"Thank you," said Rose and Aftran simultaneously, causing Rose to laugh out loud.

"Oi, stay out of my head, you," she said smiling.

I smiled softly. I was happy, knowing that Aftran had a friend. They had met under such strange circumstances and yet… well, it was nice to see just how easily a Yeerk and human could become friends in the right circumstances. And maybe, though it felt a little selfish thinking it, I just enjoyed seeing somebody else also believe what I had very much begun to think about the Yeerks. That they could be good, given the chance.

All the Animorphs started shambling towards the exit, Erek included.

"I'll spread the word with my people," said Erek, "Organize as many as I can. I'll contact your friend Mr. Tidwell and his Yeerk as well, so they can start alerting their own."

"Thank you Erek," Jake said, "Seriously, we owe you."

"No worries," he replied, "We owe you guys, after all that stuff with the Pemalite ship. But if I'm gonna get you the help you need, I better run. Lots of people to contact, lots to do, you know how it is."

In a blink of an eye, he was gone. The Chee were incredibly strong and fast. And yet they would have to stand back and let themselves be destroyed, if it came down to a choice between that and harming someone. I had to admire that, just a little. The Pemalites, their creators, must have lived in a world with such trust and peace…

"Alright, I'm gonna go crash," said Jake, "See you all bright and early."

"Same," said Rachel, who was beginning to morph Great Horned Owl. Bald Eagles might be impressive during the day, but night was the domain of the owl.

I was wondering… if I might stay for a bit, said Ax, Just in case my assistance is required with any issues related to morphing, of course, he added self-consciously.

"Yeah, of course," said Rose with a warm smile, "We'll give you the tour."

Thank you, said Ax. He was genuinely touched by her offer. I knew he was curious, but Ax would have never asked to see anything else in the ship on his own. Andalites are very… wary of sharing their technology, and I'm sure he was embarrassed to be so interested in the Doctor's.

Rachel's morph was nearly finished. The final rows of feathers filled in, and she stretched out her wings.

Guess I'll see you crazy kids tomorrow, then, she said and took off, her wings making no sound as she flew out the door, 'Night all!

Don't stay up too late, Ax-man, added Tobias and he dove out of the rafters and banked out the door to follow her. I smiled, glad that they were going to get to spend some time together. I yawned and walked over to where Jake stood waiting. Marco stretched both arms over his head as he followed us. We stopped at the door and waved goodbye to Rose and Aftran- the Doctor was still busy, looking through another compartment of the ship.

Outside the TARDIS, the air was cool. The stars shown bright over-head, not a cloud in the sky to conceal them. I wondered, not for the first time, which one was the Yeerk homeworld. Or the Andalite homeworld. Or the Doctor's planet, Gallifrey, if it existed in this universe at all.

Saying goodnight to Jake and Marco, I walked back to my house and the barn. I was going to have to be quiet and hope my parents hadn't noticed that I was still out. I was already in some trouble for a bad grade on my last English test, they'd ground me for a month if I was caught staying out late. I rolled my eyes, laughing at myself a little. Being grounded was the least of my worries right now.

I reached the top of the hill and the pasture was now spread out before me, empty. My parents had already taken the horses in. I saw the barn in the distance across the fields. The walk out to the TARDIS had been so different. We had been nervous, a little worried perhaps. But we had been maybe just a bit hopeful that things could be fixed.

And the Doctor had slammed that door shut with more ferocity than I thought possible.

He had been so… peaceful. Friendly. Cheerful. I did remember how he was at the Yeerk Pool, when his easy laughter had turned into a solemn, barely contained… rage. At the time, I thought it was simply because of the Yeerks and the horrors they were capable of. But it was clear, now, that the smiles and joy were a cover for something buried deep inside of him. There was a personal reason for his anger and regret in the TARDIS when he told us he couldn't help. Some deep guilt that drove him to act the way he did. Yes, it was likely the reason for his kindness, but it was also the reason for his fury. I had no idea what that reason was. But something had happened, something that time travel couldn't fix, not for him.

He had told Erik that he was 900 years old, and had called himself the last of the Time Lords. How long would Rose be alive for, if she truly was a human like us? Maybe that was the reason for his pain… after 900 years, how many friends had he lost? How many family members? Time travel…

Suddenly, my head spun, and my knees gave out from under me. My head…

Something was wrong. I was trapped, crushed beneath a weight. There were people screaming, all around me. The Yeerk Pool? Why was… where was…

Just as suddenly, I felt my head clear. The images and feelings swirling around in it just disappeared, and I opened my eyes, unaware that I had even shut them in the first place. I took a deep breath.

What had happened? What was that? The stars were bright and the breeze was cool. I sat up in the grass. But moments ago, I had been trapped in the dark, stuck in rain and mud. And now I was fine. I brushed myself off, and stood up. I felt fine now… except that something felt wrong… I just couldn't place what. Maybe traveling in the TARDIS had affected me, somehow. I would have to ask the Doctor and Rose when I got back with the morphing cube. Maybe there was some sort of time-travel after effect…

Slowly, I made my way back to the barn, making sure to keep myself steady. It must have just been a momentary thing, because I didn't feel dizzy at all now. I saw the lights on in the living room, the soft flashing blue of a television screen. My dad was probably reading while my mom caught the end of a movie. I slid open the screen door. Moving quietly, I crept into the kitchen and poked my head around the hallway to look in on them. My dad was sitting slouched over on the couch, his arm wrapped around my mom. Both of them were asleep, a bowl of popcorn sitting askew in their laps. I smiled, watching them for a moment before sneaking past up to my bedroom. I change the old tee-shirt I used for pajamas, sat down on my bed, and closed my eyes. Sat there, and just kept picturing my parents sitting there. So normal. So safe. My mom had even snored a bit, her mouth hanging open. I wanted to remember the way they looked in that moment, a silly as it sounded. The world as it was was about to be coming to an end, and for a few more minutes, I wanted to pretend things were normal. That nothing was wrong.

But something was wrong. Something… I couldn't place it. I shook my head and lay down in my bed. I didn't expect to sleep, not really, but I wanted to try. Something… well, something felt off, but that was probably just because I was trying not to think about how terrified I was about tomorrow. I just needed to focus and to do that, I needed rest. So I rolled over and pulled the blankets over my head, hoping that sleep would come sooner rather than later.