Chapter 21

"Thank you for what?!" Jake called into the abyss of white.

YOU'VE BROUGHT EVERYBODY TOGETHER. HUMAN. KELBRID. ANDALITE. YEERK. ALL TO WITNESS THE BEGINNING OF THE NEXT CHAPTER.

"What is this creep talking about?" Marco snapped, covering his eyes futilely.

"What's the next chapter?" Jake asked with much more formal wording.

YOU'LL SEE.

The white glow came to a blinding crescendo. Then the buzzing stopped, and the light faded. The details of the bridge became apparent again, but our goosebumps remained firmly in place.

Standing between us all, invitingly real but for the occasional fuzz of static, was Ax.

YOU'VE DONE EXACTLY AS WE'D HAVE HOPED. TAKEN EVERY PATH. EVERY DECISION. AND IT ALL COMES TO THIS. KELBRIDS WILL FINALLY FREE THEMSELVES OF THE SHACKLES THIS BORDER ENFORCES. THE VERY BORDER THAT PROTECTS YOU AS WE SPEAK.

It was so hard to look at Ax, his image a haunting reminder that the real Andalite was lost somewhere, unable to escape the clutches of his captors. I wanted to beg. I wanted to plea for his release, but I was frozen in place, powerless to affect a being so advanced and powerful.

SO THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR SERVICES. WHEN THIS IS OVER, I HOPE YOU MAKE IT HOME SAFELY. JUST DON'T DARE STAND IN OUR WAY.

Another horrible white flash marked his exit. Control panels and lighting fixtures around us regained their normal power, and the bridge returned to the state it had previously held.

As for us… Nobody said a word.

Reenii had reappeared in the middle of us, still glowing with achievement. He spoke something, but Jeanne wasn't paying attention. She looked on the verge of breaking.

Her premonitions were about to come true.

A new signal came to the ship, and it invited itself onto our bridge without Menderash's invitation. It was a Human, sharing Reenii's look of joy.

"Animorphs! This is Efflit 1318, Commander of the Blade Ship. Thank you for helping The One Who Is All achieve the goals he strived for. The war that will free us! The war that will rid the universe of the Andalites once and for all!"

Reenii spoke again, this time to the Yeerk. Jeanne had recuperated enough to translate again.

"Efflit 1318," He said calmly. "You have arrived in good time. Come across the border and away from the Andalite scum."

"Yes, sir!" Efflit cheered.

We were all recovering enough from the shock to look for any sign, any escape from the scene that was opening up before our eyes. I stood before the monitors, observing the real visuals fore and aft of The Shadow. The Andalites were unmoving. I couldn't begin to imagine what they were thinking of it all.

Menderash called upon Jake. "We should leave as soon as possible. The One could easily manipulate our vessel again, so long as we are in close proximity. Our only escape is in straddling the border in the opposite direction, but we would have to move at a slow speed."

"They'd catch us," Jake assumed. "And The One won't let us escape. Not yet."

Efflit looked ahead again. "On our way, sir!"

I watched as the Yeerk Blade Ship moved, dropping away from the border and deeper into Kelbrid territory to join with the fleet.

Efflit addressed Reenii. "Shall we announce our intentions to the Andalites, High General?"

Reenii nodded slowly, the grin still present.

Within seconds, Torch reappeared in his holographic form. All three holograms took up a large portion of the bridge, dispersing us around them.

"Yeerks!" Torch sneered. "What is all this? Answer!"

Efflit puffed up proudly. "The seeds of a new, better empire. You will be witness to your race's demise, Andalite."

Torch snorted and swung his tail overhead. "Your race is gone, Yeerk. You are but a fragment of a dead army. What gives you authority to throw such a threat?"

"Our friends, the Kelbrids!" Efflit laughed. "Together, Kelbrids and Yeerks form the greatest alliance the universe has ever seen!"

Reenii smirked, and the proud grin turned disgustingly sinister. He said something in a low, dangerous tone.

Jeanne looked to Jake, anxious of her own translation. "There is no alliance."

Efflit laughed it off, but it was a nervous laughter. When Reenii continued his serious stare, that nervous laughter turned into frantic questioning.

And then the Yeerk signal faltered and died.

"Something's happening," Menderash warned. "The Blade Ship has stopped. It's lost all power."

"Can you tell what's happening?" Jake questioned, rushing to look over his shoulder.

Perhaps he couldn't see, but I could. Through the monitors I saw the lights of the Blade Ship black out as it drifted limply into Kelbrid Space. Further back, into Andalite Space, there was a great white flash that radiated from an Andalite fighter.

"Guys!" I alerted. "It's in one of the Andalite fighters!"

We gathered around the monitors, watching as the sole Andalite fighter buzzed and shook. Its thrusters lit up, and it began to power forward.

"What is happening?!" We heard Torch demand. "What are you doing to that fighter?!"

We didn't hear any reply from Reenii. We only heard the confused cries of the delirious Torch, as one of his ships glided closer and closer to the border.

It crossed into Kelbrid territory. We stood in utter silence. Even Torch stopped.

And then the fighter's pronged blasters began to glow. We could do nothing as the twin weapon systems revved up.

It fired both, and the beams of super-heated, super-compressed energy hurtled into Kelbrid Space. They slammed into the side of the Blade Ship, sending debris haphazardly into the emptiness of Space.

It crumpled and tore, flashed red and then burst in a tremendous, silent explosion.

It was war.

"Retreat!" Torch screamed over the broadcast. His signal broke, and when we turned, we discovered that Reenii had already cut his. We were alone again.

"The Andalites are leaving!" Jake confirmed from the radar. "And we aren't sticking around. Let's get out of here!"

"Preparing!" Menderash announced. Marco joined him at the panel for reinforcement.

The glow of another explosion lit up our bridge! The Kelbrid fleet had surged forward, engulfing the cursed Andalite ship in weapon fire. Nothing remained of the entire vessel but the cruel glow of violent energy.

"Go, go!" Jake ordered desperately.

"Jake!" I cried, rushing up to him. "What about Lupio?!"

"What about him?!" Jake blasted. He looked about ready to lash out. But my reasoning was not an irrelevant side-point.

"The Kelbrids will follow us if we take him, Jake."

He quickly decided that, actually, I had a good point. He considered, looking down to the ground, and then he pointed at Santorelli. "You know the escape pod controls?!"

"Sure do, boss!" Santorelli called back.

"Release it!"

We steered away from Kelbrid Space at top speed. What remained of the Andalite fleet had already vanished. Kelbrid ships buzzed past us from all angles, and every moment was filled with the terrible feeling that we could be shot down at any moment.

But it didn't happen. We were of no interest. We had done our part.

The escape pod was dropped, and it spun slowly off towards Kelbrid Space where a few Kelbrid ships had remained. With nothing left for us there, we set co-ordinates for home, wondering just what had been unleashed on the universe.