CHAPTER THREE

As I flew back over the destruction, I thought even more of what I could do with the Time Matrix. I could prevent all of this. I could prevent the destruction of our city. I could prevent the Yeerks from discovering that we were human. And if I planned it right, I could prevent the Yeerks from ever coming to Earth. That's what I could do.

But some nagging thought kept me from doing that. Though Earth would be a much safer place if the Yeerks never came, Rachel and I would never have developed the relationship we had. I barely knew Rachel before we became Animorphs. If life had continued naturally for us, we'd never even have become friends, much less anything more.

No, I wouldn't stop the invasion completely. It would be just as bad to have Rachel not know me, not love me, as it would to lose her to death. But there were plenty of other things I could do.

I arrived at the place where the Time Matrix was buried. It was going to take a lot to get it out of the ground. I only had one morph that could grind through rock that dense, and it wasn't one I enjoyed. I released a mental sigh as I began the morph to Taxxon.

I started lengthening out to the long round body. I started to fall toward the ground, but just before I would have hit, dozens of long spindly legs sprout out to catch me. My wings and tail then withered away. My beak next began growing many razor-sharp teeth before rounding out into the Taxxon's mouth. The last changes were in my eyes. Each split into two, and then my sharp hawk eyes became vastly different compound eyes.

And then the Taxxon's hunger hit. Unless you've been a Taxxon, you can't begin to comprehend its hunger. It's like nothing else on Earth. It was easy to see why the Taxxons would rather become nothlits than live in the body of a cannibalistic caterpillar like this. I focused the hunger on the rocks below me. The rocks weren't in any way filling to the Taxxon, but little is filling to a hunger such as this.

As I let the Taxxon feed on the rock, my thoughts turned to the other Animorphs. This was something I should get them to help me with. This was the ultimate mission. But thinking back to the last time we'd seen the Time Matrix, I realized that none of them would be likely to help me. They might even try to stop me. Marco and Cassie were definitely opposed to using the Time Matrix to change history. Ax wasn't too keen on the idea either. Who knows what Jake thought of it? But I still didn't feel like approaching Jake. His decision was part of what cost Rachel her life.

Ironically, Rachel would have been the only one to support me on this. The decision as whether or not to use the Time Matrix had been taken away from us. But Rachel and I stood together on that issue. We both wanted to get rid of the terrible things that had happened in the past, like Hitler and the Holocaust. Marco, Cassie, and Ax all thought it was better to let history run its course than to make the world a better place.

Once I prevented Rachel's death, she could help me to put right some of those terrible things. There was so much we could do. And with the Time Matrix, we had all the time in the universe to do it in. We could...

I was suddenly jerked back to reality as I realized what my Taxxon body was doing. I'd lost focus and the Taxxon's instinct for finding food had taken over. I had dug through the wall of the sunken Yeerk Pool and was now swimming through the sludge eating the remains of the dead Yeerks. Though I was now aware of what I was doing, I was powerless to stop it. If I were a human watching this, it would have been enough to make me sick.

Nooo! I cried out. I started cursing myself mentally for having lost control. I already knew how easy it was to lose control over the Taxxon. I knew better than losing myself in it. It was a relief that all the human bodies had since been removed from the pool. I didn't know if I'd been able to live with myself if I'd started eating human flesh, in Taxxon morph or not.

I finally did the only thing I could to get rid of the Taxxon's hunger. I began to demorph. I was relieved as the first thing to change was the Taxxon's mouth. I struggled to stay above the liquid as my body slimmed to its hawk form. Then the dozens of Taxxon legs slurped back up into my body. As soon as I had my wings back I flapped to get out of the sludge. I aimed for the tunnel I created, but unfortunately I didn't have my hawk eyes back yet and I slammed into the side of the tunnel.

I cursed myself again as I finished the demorph. As I waited for my hawk's body to recover, I once again decided that I would never morph a Taxxon again. I could deal with the hunger of a hawk. At least a hawk can feel full. But a Taxxon will eat until he is so bloated that he'll burst.

As soon as I was sufficiently recovered, I carefully and gingerly flew up the tunnel I had created. I was then privileged to view the Time Matrix. It still wasn't completely uncovered. But it was enough that I could touch it, and that was all I'd need to do to use it.

I began to morph to human. It would be easier to place a human hand on the Time Matrix than trying to perch on its smooth slick surface. As I morphed, I thought about what I could do to save Rachel. Just evening up the odds a little would help. I'd fight alongside her. That would increase her chances of survival. Between the two of us we could take down those morphed Controllers. We made a deadly team.

Once I finished the morph, I placed my hands on the Time Matrix. As I felt the slight tingle I focused on the Blade Ship. I needed to go back before Tom had come back aboard. That would give me time to morph and be ready for the attack.

I felt a slight sense of displacement as the Time Matrix carried me aboard the Blade Ship. I was in an empty room. I demorphed and then began to morph into polar bear. I was going to need something big to move the Time Matrix to somewhere it could be hidden.

I was about halfway though the morph when a door opened and two Hork-Bajir Controllers walked in. I groaned inwardly. This wasn't what I'd planned. Both Hork-Bajir blinked in surprise.

"Animorph!" one of them gasped in shock.

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Author's Notes: Sorry I made everyone wait so long for this chapter. June was kind of a hectic month for me. However, things are starting to settle down and I hope to get the next chapter up quicker. Please review or e-mail me with your thoughts and ideas about the story.