(TEN) - RACHEL

It was nearly thirty minutes later when I reached a break in the woods.

A highway cut through this portion of the forest. I came to a stop well within the cover of the trees and began to demorph. The others soon joined me. Ax was still behind us, catching up.

Tobias was nowhere to be found.

(What was that all about?) I asked as my body shifted back into human form.

(A good old fashioned ambush,) Marco mused. He had laid Cassie out on the pine needles littering the ground beneath our feet. I could see that she was beginning to demorph as well, and I breathed a sigh of relief. She had been so silent, quietly slipping in and out of consciousness.

(Visser Three had to know the message on that probe was important,) Jake noted as his own body reemerged from his tiger morph. (There's no way he'd -)

His thought speech was cut off as the morphing process brought him too close to being human again to be able to use it. He had to wait to finish the sentence until his mouth had completely reformed back into a human one.

"There's no way he'd risk showing up like this otherwise," he finished.

"That was close," Cassie breathed, looking shaken.

Whether she was referring to nearly dying of blood loss or almost being captured alive by Visser Three was unclear. Probably both. Either way, she was right. I would never admit it to the others, but I was scared. I don't like going face-to-face with Visser Three as much as the rest of the Animorphs. There's always the lingering fear that he will somehow figure us out and know that we're just a bunch of kids. My sisters, my mom, they'd just become victims of the Yeerks.

I had made a vow a long time ago to never let that happen. I saw it on Jake's face everyday what it was like being forced to live with a Yeerk under your roof. Jake's older brother, Tom, is a Controller. A pretty high-ranking one. We'd gone up against him a few times. He never knew it was us, of course. But it was just one of the perils of being an Animorph. Sometimes you fought against people you know and care about.

"Ax said that the probe is programmed to Andalite DNA," I said, working things out aloud. "Maybe Visser Three could sense the probe was here on Earth?"

"It's the only thing that makes sense," Jake agreed, nodding.

"At least we stopped him from hearing the message," Marco said.

(You're welcome,) Tobias said, coming in for a landing on a branch above us. I was instantly a little more at ease after seeing him. I was glad to see that he'd made it away from the Yeerks. I glanced up at him with a small smile, which I knew he would be able to see quite clearly from his perch.

"Are they gone?" I asked him.

(They're still loading the Blade Ship,) Tobias informed us. (The cloak's back on. I think Visser Three is still stomping around, killing whoever he thought shot at him.)

"You shot at him?" Marco asked, incredulous. "Go Tobias!"

(It was just so I could destroy the probe,) Tobias clarified, but there was a tone of pride in his voice.

"Good job, Tobias," Jake said, nodding up towards him. "Where's Ax?"

(I saw him heading towards us,) Tobias said. (He'll be here in a minute.)

"So what do we do now?" Cassie asked. "Visser Three knows something is up now. He saw how protective we were of the probe. He's not just going to give up."

"We wait," Jake said firmly. "The Andalite said they would be here in three days. Ax received the probe yesterday, so that should mean they'll be arriving the day after tomorrow. So we wait."

"Finally, a plan I can get on board with," Marco said, grinning. "Sitting around doing nothing. That's my idea of a good time."

Ax came trotting through the trees, finally rejoining us. He looked distracted and edgy, his stalk eyes swiveling in all directions erratically. He looked spooked, which is an unusual sight to see on an Andalite.

(Nice shot, Tobias,) Ax noted.

"Good to see you made it out, Ax," Jake said.

(I am glad to see you are all well, Prince Jake,) Ax responded. (It is unfortunate that we had to sacrifice the probe. It would have made tracking us down a lot easier for the Andalites. I am sure they will devise another method, however.)

"Of course," I said sardonically.

"I think it's time we all headed home," Jake suggested.

"Yeah, I've got a ton of work to do back at the barn," Cassie said, sounding distracted.

"I'm sure my dad will appreciate me coming home before dinner," Marco said, barely suppressing a goofy grin.

Everyone began getting ready to change into their various bird morphs so they could fly home. I pulled Cassie aside before she could begin making her own transformation. I was still bothered by our last conversation.

"Hey," I muttered. "You alright?"

"I'm fine," she said, blushing a little. "Nothing a little DNA reconstruction can't fix, right?"

I could tell she was still reeling from the horror of it all. It was like that sometimes, coming out of a fight.

"I just want to say that I'm sorry," I said, feeling uncomfortable. I'm not usually one for big apology speeches. But Cassie's been my best friend since forever, and I knew deep down that I owed it to her. "I was being a total jerk earlier. You didn't deserve that. Okay?"

Cassie smiled slightly and patted me on the shoulder.

"Thanks," she said genuinely. "So we've got a day and a half to kill. What are you going to do?"

I glanced up at Tobias, a slight smile creeping across my lips.

Cassie followed my gaze, and she nodded knowingly. She brushed a few stray strands of hair behind my ear.

"You crazy kids," she said affectionately. "Just be careful, okay?"

"You know me," I said with a grin.

"Exactly," Cassie replied, laughing a little. She walked over to join the others who were already halfway morphed into birds.

"So what do you say, bird-boy?" I asked Tobias jokingly, who looked down at me with those deep, fierce hawk eyes. Sometimes I believed that he could see straight to the depths of my soul with those eyes. "Keep me company?"

(You don't even have to ask,) he responded warmly.

I felt a rush go through my body that had nothing to do with morphing as I focused my mind on the body of a bald eagle and began changing.

Within a minute, I was finished, and I took off into the air. Tobias quickly caught up with me, joining me in the wide open sky.

And we flew.