"Where the hell are we going!" Tobias demanded as he ran up to me, he was pissed. "We have to stay here and rescue them."

"We are here to rescue Ax, one person." I said trying to hide my anger.

"No, we have to try to save her, if a part of her is alive…" He trailed off, looking at the now blank view screen then back at me.

"That isn't Rachel, you have to realize that." We were now shouting back and forth.

"Yes it is! I saw her, she looked at me the way she used to, I saw it for a second!" he continued to scream.

"What you saw was an incarnation of evil, she is not Rachel, she would never be m…Rachel do you understand so unless you want to get everyone killed then I suggest that you get back into your seat Birdboy because it's going to be a long ride." He looked at me, shocked.

"You can't tell me what to do. You have no idea what I've been through and now I see her! I saw her Faith, you can't tell me that you know that she IS NOT RACHEL. You can't tell me that you know for a fact that there isn't one ounce of her, the only person that has ever loved me in there!" His face was red from frustration and he panted with tears streaking down his face.

"Yes I can." I said calmly. "I know for a fact that she isn't there…" I hung my head down in shame as he walked up to me; I wanted to hug him, for him to wrap his arms around me and for everything to be okay. Then I slipped back into reality. "What are you talking about?" He questioned me.

"Faith, we are now entering the atmosphere due to land on the surface…" Mendorash punched some buttons in on the board. "In exactly 16 minutes and 43 seconds and counting." He stared at the control panel and continued to pilot it as we all got into our seats.

"What were you talking about?" Tobias demanded as I looked at him I once again saw everything flash before me but I also saw something else, a change of some sort and I saw him, the Ellimist looking at me…smiling in his old weakly man form.

I looked at Tobias, the view screen; Tobias, the mirror, Tobias, the mirror, Tobias, and then I put my head down and looked at the floor. "Because if Rachel was completely The One…" I whispered as I raised my head and looked in Tobias's eyes. "I wouldn't be here."

"What do you mean?" He asked, still not realizing what I had just said.

"If there was a part of her still in The One…" I hesitated, thinking of how this would change what we were doing, he wouldn't let me go into the battlefield knowing that I was alive…in a way. "Then she would have let us free because you know that she can overcome almost anything." I finally said with a frown.

* * * * * * * * * *

The planet was much like Earth, that's what I was counting on when I told Mendorash to take us down to what I hoped, was a jungle. My beliefs were justified when we landed. "Great work." Jake said as he patted my on the back. The One had so many forces that she could gather together to kill us, so many races and species that she could command to execute us, but I knew that for the legendary Animorphs…she would come in person with just a few comrades that she knew she could count on, after all she was me.

I had our crew split into two groups, there were 12 members, Jake, Myself, Tobias, Marco, Jeanne, Cassie, Mendorash, Santorelli, a young scientist named Sweeny, a technician named Poland, and two other pilots (after the last encounter we figured we needed the best) named James and Kelly. "Okay, here's how it goes." I started once everyone was lined up, most of them were still clueless to why I was in the lead, but accepted it anyway.

"I want Mendorash, Santorelli, Sweeny, Poland, James, and Kelly in one group meaning that I, Jake, Cassie, Tobias, Marco and Jeanne are in the other group." I saw Marco wink at Jeanne while she gave him the middle finger.

Two hours later we had all of our supplies and a plan worked out, we would lie low until we knew that she was on the planet, then we'd give her the bait-me. I held most of Cassie's stuff, giving her room. No one had expected her or anyone on the ship to become pregnant for that matter but she wouldn't let Mendorash perform an abortion so she was still there with the rest of us, just taking it a little easy.

"Why does this seem so oddly familiar?" Marco complained.

"If your too tired morph to get ahead, scout the area, make sure that she's not there ready to kill us. Because if you want to then go ahead, it would save us a lot of time." I responded.

"Since when are you in charge?"

"I put her in charge man." Jake slapped Marco on the back with a smile on his face, Marco thought that odd but then let it pass.

No sign of anyone yet. Tobias reported from the air, he figured that as a hawk it would be easier to get places, before we left they had given the morphing power to everyone, when I felt the slight ticklish feeling run through my body and the ecstatic urge to morph…I knew I was really alive.

"Keep looking, she'll come down with a cloaked ship, you might want to look for a sort of ripple in the air, then once she's landed she'll either take the form of Ax or of Rachel, or that nasty metal rimmed teeth thing." I said disgusted, how could I become that, even a small portion of me be that monster? "Remember, she has Crayak on her side. All we have is the morphing capability and some really kewl guns." I laughed trying to ease off the tension.

We set up camp for the night, with one person keeping watch at all times, I volunteered first. The landscape of this planet was remarkable. The grass was a deep shade of green and the trees had all different varieties of colored leaves. The air was cool and easy to breath in, not like the kind you would expect to have in a jungle. There were also beautiful meadows every mile or so that made me feel I was back in Tobias's meadow in the woods on earth. The sky was a brilliant shade of pink/dark purple and the two moons were in the crescent stage, looking as though they were linked to each other.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Jake asked as he walked over to me, I hadn't seen him this happy since before the war started…

"Yeah, kind of makes you wonder who could create such a thing." I said softly although I knew that the Ellimist must have made it, it was a mix between earth and the Andalite home world.

"How did you get back?" He asked me as I suddenly remembered that he knew who I was. "Why didn't you tell them." I looked at him, his eyes looked aged far older than 27, but there was still an innocence in them, the innocence that I had long tried to protect inside of them.

"I don't know, all I remember is the Ellimist coming to me, telling me that I mattered, honoring me…" I turned my head to make sure that everyone was sleeping then I looked back at Jake. "After that I saw everything, I felt the whole universe like I had imagined the Ellimist must feel and then time froze when I saw you ram into the blade ship, you all would have died. I wished to go there, to save you and the next thing I knew I was on the ship and this girl, running towards the reflection of myself, ready to die to save all of you…again." There was a long silence, total silence…even the birds were quiet. "Get everyone up!" I yelled as I ran to get the weapons.

I ran up to the top of the hill that we were camping on and I saw them, her. They were walking up the steep slop, two of them. She had split herself in half, she was walking up and next to her was Ax. I turned back to the campsite, "everyone up and in position!" I screamed as the sleepy crew got up, in the distance I saw Mendorash's group also get up and start to run towards us.

She stopped in front of me as everyone got up and we stood in a straight line. "Why hello everyone, what are you having a party without me?" She asked as her eyes went over everyone in the line, passed over me then stayed on me.

"Now this is déjà vu isn't it?" She asked with arrogance in her voice, she had been Crayak's toy for many years, she probably was never defeated in battle.

"Hello Rachel." I gulped.

"Hello Rachel." She replied as all hell broke loose.

From behind her were around 30 soldiers, human, Hork-Bajir, taxxon, and other things I couldn't even recognize. "We've been in worse situations before." I whispered under my breath as everyone began to morph.

Xena? Marco asked astounded as he started his gorilla morph.

"In the flesh, so to speak." And then…time stopped and I was once again in the vast emptiness of space and the Ellimist was in front of me.

Hello. He said softly. I have a proposal for you.

"I'm listening." I replied.

Crayak has his drode and now a part of you, someone, a being much more powerful than me took your soul out when Crayak transformed you. This is a reason I still do not know but you are here. Your lifeline is almost up, you know that but you still fight. He sounded amazed.

"Yes, I fight for my friends and my family." I said swiftly.

Indeed you do, this is the final battle between Crayak and I, and this is the final war in the final stage of our game. You are the one that can turn the tide of the war, you are the one that can help us win… His voice echoed through my head as I was once again on the battlefield.

"Hurry!" I heard Jeanne yell as she ran past me with a mega gun as Marco liked to call them.

The battle raged on for hours and when it was done we were all still miraculously alive, we had destroyed all of her warriors and she and Ax were all that remained.

"Bring me the girl." She said, the arrogance was gone. "Bring me the key of the war…" she whispered.

"Hello." I said walking up to her, she was beaten and torn. I had done most of that damage, somehow I was the only one that affected her but as it seemed, whenever she hurt me, she herself would be hurt.

We stood there, facing each other for what seemed like an eternity until I was aware of two new presences around us. Ellimist and Crayak, they were here to watch the final show, they were here to help their champion and see how the war would end, whether it was for their favor or for the other's…

And so it began…