A/N: No new reviews cuz I'm posting this right after Chappie 9.

Now this is a LOOOOOOOOOOONG chappie. It's like three or four pages ... eight pages in online layout!

Now read it! :)

_________________

One day I was just going for a walk.

There was no sound. Just a flash of light. And all of a sudden I was somewhere else.

Like someone had flipped a switch. Turned the lights off. Or on.

I was in the forest. Marco was there. So were Jake and Cassie. Tobias. Ax.

All I could say was, "What. The. Heck."

"Ellimist?" Jake wondered.

YES.

"Now I finally get to find out who the Ellimist is. Oh, hurray." Me? Being sarcastic? Yep.

He appeared suddenly. He looked like a fairy-tale-ish old man. Pointy ears, long beard, the whole bit. He glowed a faint blue.

"You're the Ellimist?" I asked skeptically.

He smiled. "Yes, I am, Leela-Sirinial-Corain."

He knew my name. Great. This was just fantastic.

"I am no threat to you, Leela. I do not interfere — "

" ' — in the affairs of other species.' We know, we know," Marco interrupted. "What do you want this time?"

"This is the last time I will ask something of you," the Ellimist said. "Either because I do not have to, or — or because you are not around anymore."

"Oh, no. He wants us to go and get ourselves killed. What a surprise."

"The Kelbrid and the Yeerks making peace first with each other, then with you — that was a blow to Crayak," the Ellimist explained.

"Who's Crayak?" I demanded.

"You will find out soon enough."

" 'Peace with each other'?" Cassie asked.

"The Yeerks and the Kelbrid were once the same species," the Ellimist explained.

Suddenly we were floating above a planet which was almost completely ocean. The Ellimist took us in closer, and I could see slimy gray slugs swimming in the water.

They looked like Yeerks. But there was one big difference.

They had eyes. Round, lidless black globule eyes. Not soulless-black. There was a definite personality behind the eyes of the eye-Yeerk.

There were other animals in the ocean. Yet none of them looked very fierce.

"Hey," Tobias said. "Isn't this the Leeran planet?"

YES. LEERANS AND YEERKS ONCE SHARED A PLANET. THE LEERAN SUN EMITS KANDRONA RAYS.

Those are not Yeerks, Ax said. They have eyes.

CRAYAK OFFERED TO MAKE THE YEERKS THE DOMINANT SPECIES IN THIS PART OF THE GALAXY. SOME YEERKS ACCEPTED. OTHERS DEFIANTLY REFUSED. A THIRD GROUP TRIED TO MAKE PEACE BETWEEN THE OTHER TWO, AND COMPROMISE WITH CRAYAK.

"Like that would have worked," Marco muttered.

THE YEERKS WHO ACCEPTED CALLED THEMSELVES KELBRID, OR "REBORN". CRAYAK GAVE THEM THEIR MORPHING ABILITY AND LET THEM KEEP THEIR PLANET. THE OTHER YEERKS WERE RELOCATED: THE PEACEFUL GROUP TO A SWAMPY PLANET, THE OTHER GROUP TO THE PLANET YOU NOW KNOW AS THE YEERK HOME WORLD.

"The peaceful group — were they the Iskoort?" Cassie wondered.

YES. THE YOORT, ACTUALLY.

"Who are the Iskoort?" I demanded. Then, muttering, "And I thought I knew everything about you guys."

THE KELBRID MUTATED THE OTHER YEERKS, USING CRAYAK'S TECHNOLOGY. THAT IS WHY THE YEERKS YOU KNOW DO NOT HAVE EYES. BUT THAT WAS NOT THE ONLY MUTATION.

"Why would they do that?" I asked. "Take away their eyes, I mean."

YEERKS HAVE A NATURAL FEAR OF THE DARK. IT IS NEVER DARK IN THE LEERAN OCEANS EXCEPT IN CERTAIN PLACES. THERE ARE MANY RADIOACTIVE PLANTS THERE, AND THE WATER LETS LIGHT FROM THE LEERAN SUN IN EASILY.

Suddenly we were back in the forest. The Ellimist was an old blue guy again.

I felt an absurd desire to giggle. Yeerks were scared of the dark.

"Okay. Why do you want us?" Jake demanded.

I couldn't hold it in anymore. I burst out laughing.

Jake looked at me, furious. "What!?" he demanded.

"You — you said — 'okay' — again!"

Marco gave me a look. Then joined in.

Cassie looked like she was trying very hard not to laugh.

Tobias snorted.

Marco is currently too overcome with laughter to say it, Ax said. So, on his behalf — This. Is. Insane.

Jake glared at us. "WHO CARES HOW MANY TIMES I SAY OKAY!"

"Aaaaahhh!" I yelped. "Hah-HAH!"

"EVERYONE SHUT UP! — Hee. Hee-hee. Hee-hee-hah-HAH!" Cassie was apparently unable to maintain a straight face.

The Ellimist watched with amusement.

Jake was the only one of us who hadn't laughed. "Leela. Marco. Cassie. Tobias. STOP LAUGHING."

We all shut up, but not before I let out a final snort.

"Now. Ellimist, why did you bring us here?"

"Crayak is angry. He is tired of our game. And I am slowly deteriorating."

Jake's head snapped up. "Deteriorating?"

"A creature who can manipulate time and space, like me, gradually becomes weaker. Where I am is an unstable condition."

"Oh, man."

"I have been this way for many millenia. Slowly weakening. Now — it will still be a few million years before I am gone altogether. But only if I stop manipulating space-time."

"But you can't," Tobias said. "That would mean Crayak — "

"Would win our game. Yes. It has come to the final battle. But Crayak cannot destroy me. No one can. However, it is possible to destroy him."

"But you can go back in time and change things so he would never have existed. Why don't you?" Marco asked.

"Crayak has been around a long time. He is even older than me. It would take a great amount of energy to go back that far. I would almost certainly cease to exist in a few decades. Besides, that would negatively affect the future in many ways."

"I am so confused," I said.

"Like I said, it has come to the final battle. Crayak against you. You will fight Crayak's creatures while searching for the switch that disconnects him from them."

"A switch?" Cassie asked.

"The most powerful evil person — or not, as the case may be — can be flipped off by a little switch?"

Cassie gave Marco a funny look. "Not evil, as the case may be? Huh?"

"Not a person, duh."

The Ellimist waited patiently, then continued his explanation. "Yes. It will cut him off from his creatures. They are controlled by him, much like a host is controlled by a Yeerk. The difference is that Crayak is not actually in the creature."

"I'm lost," I said.

"Yes, you are." Marco.

"Oh, shut up."

The Ellimist continued. "Once you find the switch and deactivate it, it will be possible for you to destroy Crayak himself."

"How many, uh, creatures are there?" I asked.

"Seven will be fighting you. Plus Crayak."

"Oh man, we are so outnumbered," I said. "There are six of us, and eight of them. One of which, if I'm following, is more powerful than the rest of them put together. We are dead."

"Two more morph-capable people will be on your side. And Crayak will not fight until you have found the switch. Also, he is not allowed to manipulate space-time at all in this battle. Neither am I."

"Who are the other two?" I demanded.

Suddenly a Hork-Bajir appeared.

"Toby?"

"Wait a minute," Jake said. "You said morph-capable!"

"I have been morph-capable for a long time," Toby informed us.

"Grr. I hate it when people don't tell me things!" I grumped.

"You never asked," said a familiar voice.

Phal Mashar had appeared beside Toby.

"Oh, man! Not him. Anyone but him."

"Yes, me!" Phal grinned.

"It's Toby-Wan Kenobi and her own personal light saber!" Marco cracked. "May the Force — uh, Horks — be with you!"

"Oh please." Then I started singing. "Meeeeeean to meeeeeee. Why are you so meeeeeean to meeeeeeeeee." I gave the Ellimist a "how could you do this to me!" look. "When does this start?"

"I'm betting a million bucks he says 'It has begun,' " Marco said.

A/N: Yep, it's a cliffie ... no, I'm not evil (or at least I hope not!), I just like to be mean. :p

Watch out for Chapter 15!

~ Salad Shooter `Ô