Chapter 41- Ax

It was I who saw the human first. The others were focused on escaping. I couldn't blame them; but when you have four eyes you can pretty much see everything even when focused on something else.

I had been watching to make sure Estreen didn't follow us. But she stayed in the building. I was surprised the human Controllers didn't attack us. When I realized we had forgotten the Governor. Which was why I twisted, and saw the human girl laying in a pile by the wall.

Tobias, Prince Jake! I called. They turned. Saw the girl and were silent. [We must retrieve the Governor as well,] I whispered urgently.

Prince Jake snapped 'back to reality' as my friends said. Alright. Rachel, you and Marco and Tobias and Cassie get the Governor, while Ax and I deal with the girl.

The others slunk off to demorph and remorph something that could slip in without causing an uproar, while we walked up to the girl.

"You..you.." She said, trembling with what I believe was fear.

You? Prince Jake said.

"In my.." Her eyes widened.

In your head. Prince Jake said patiently.

Prince Jake, I would suggest you demorph. You only have four minutes in morph! I said the last part with emphasis.

Yeah. Uh, you talk to her. He walked off to demorph.

Do no be afraid, I told the human girl.

"Not…you're…alien…" She mumbled.

Yes. I am an Andalite, I told her.

"Anda-what?"

Andalite.

"And..he.." She said, still scrunched against the wall.

He-

Prince Jake came back, remorphed as a Hork-Bajir. He smiled at the human. I believe this caused her to be even more afraid.

"You," He said aloud, his voice rough. "Have seen too much."

The girl shrank against the wall at his words.

We'll have to take her with us, He told me silently.

Yes, I agreed.

Suddenly, the girl shot to a standing point. She tried at run, but she fell. She looked up at Prince Jake and I.

Should we wait for the others? How do we take her back?

Whatever we do, we can't let her see us as human. He told me.

The others suddenly appeared. Marco was back in gorilla morph, carrying a tied and gagged aged human.

We better get out of here. He saw the girl What are we doing with her? He demanded.

She's seen too much. Jake told him. We can't have a girl running around talking about Andalites and Hork-Bajir and gorillas and bears and wolves and hawks and monsters running around.

We're making a new Animorph? May I remind you of David? Rachel said. She wasn't prejudiced, she was making a point. A good one, at that.

We might as well. We've already got the Governor.

How? She's not unconscious. The Governor is. Big difference.

Easily changed though.

Rachel tapped the girl on the head, and she dropped like a bag of rocks.

It's now or never. We leave her, or we don't. The Controllers will get her if we leave her. And the Controllers will get us if we don't get out of here fast!

Let's vote, and quickly, Prince Jake decided. I'm for it. I'm not going to leave somebody to be taken as a Controller. There's no other hope for her otherwise.

I say no. Remember David? Marco said.

I agree with Jake, Cassie said.

No, Rachel said. We don't know anything about her. She's either above us in school or she goes to a different one. We don't even know her name!

Tobias was resting on Rachel's shoulder. I say, yeah. I mean, I know we don't know anything about her, but none of you knew me really. I remember David, but I don't know…

It was three to two. If I voted 'no' we would probably drag her out of the area, but no more. If I said yes, we would make her one of us, and use the 'blue box'.

Yes, I said. David tried to kill all of us. But this human does not seem to be at all like David. I think we should take her.

Four to two. She would be one of us.

An Animorph

Chapter 42- Visser One

"THEY GOT AWAY?!" He roared, angrily. He was talking to the girl over the phone.

"Yes Visser. With the Governor. But, they didn't get away easily. I almost destroyed them."

"But they got away." He said in a dangerous, silky-smooth voice.

"Next time, we will do it my way, Visser. And we will see if those Andalite Bandits escape." There was a click.

She had hung up.

The Visser slammed the phone onto the receiver, quivering with anger. He demorphed.

He paced his quarters until he calmed. Then, he stood, brooding.

Yes, he would let her do it her way. But this was the last failure he would allow.

It would be a fight to the death. And only one side would win.

Maybe not even that.

Chapter 43- Marco

So we took her. Ax morphed human, but we had to risk Rachel. How else would we carry a full-grown guy and some girl around?

Tobias morphed human too. That way, he wouldn't fly into any walls. As human, he could complain about bad eyes and stuff. Like we didn't have anything else to worry about.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm tired. I could sleep forever." I yawned for emphasis.

"We all are. Now, what are we going to do with the Governor? Leave him on the street? Or..what?"

"Drop him off at a police station. No, wait. Controllers will grab him there." I mused.

How about we give him to the police, figure out what to do with the girl, and go to bed? Rachel grumbled.

"Yeah."

Jake sighed his "I'm-the-leader-and-I've-got-to-make-a-decision-that'll-decide-the-fate-of-mankind" sigh.

"Alright. We go to the police. Cassie? Owl."

Immediately, Cassie started morphing. She'd find the police station so we could get home and go to bed. Morphing tires you out. And so does fear. We little Animorphs had had a lot of both tonight, and we were tired enough to sleep walk. At least, I was.

We waited for her to come back, and guide us. Ax was off in his own little world with Tobias, and Jake was standing, deep in thought. Rachel just seemed to be focused on not collapsing to the ground in a heap, and crushing the Governor in the process.

Me, I was focused on thinking up a good joke. That's what I do. And just as I was about to say it, Cassie came back.

Found it! It's only four blocks away, luckily. You need to turn right up here.

So we started walking again. Cassie told us where to turn and where to go straight. We got close, then morphed. See, if there were any cop Controllers on duty, we weren't about to get caught. We had had a long night, and weren't ready to take any more.

I went gorilla, and took the girl. I'd wait outside, so they didn't see her. The other demorphed, or morphed, depending. And off they sneaked into the station. I heard a "What the…" and so on. An alarm went off. Then- my friends burst out of the station. They demorphed. Ax and Tobias morphed human again. And off we went.

"The girl can stay with me." Cassie said.

"Alright. You're sure?" Jake asked.

"Uh-huh. Don't worry. My parents won't ground me like Rachel's."

Jake nodded. "Alright. Marco and Cassie take her home."

OOOoh, Cassie. I said, slipping up beside her, and giving her a wink. Jake's not worried I won't steal his girl?

Jake shook his head, and Cassie said, "No. Because you already have a girl."

I missed that! Oh, another spear, this time by Cassie!

Chapter 44- Cassie

Marco and I walked home. He kept cracking jokes about him being on a date with me, and vice versa. But I dealt with it. We were tired, and it kept us awake.

The girl stirred several times, and we had to kind of keep her unconscious.

Marco walked in with me to my room, and laid the girl onto the bed softly. Should we wake her up?

"No. She'd make too much noise. We'll leave her here for tonight. I'll sleep on the floor. And I'll make sure she doesn't pull anything."

OK. He said. He demorphed, and I opened my window. He remorphed osprey.

"Bye Marco," I said.

C-ya Cassie. Be careful.

"Yeah."

And with that, he flew off into the night air.

* * *

I fell asleep as soon as I hit the floor, not bothering to grab a pillow. And so I slept. And was really glad tomorrow wasn't going to be a school day.

I had recounts of the battle that day in my dreams. Except, this time, the girl had Visser Three with her. If that had happened in real life, we would have been dead in the first three seconds. Visser Three would've kept the human Controllers there to attack along side him. Six Animorphs verses two morph-capable monsters with terrorizing morphs from the darkest corners of the galaxy along with human Controllers that had machine guns and Dracon beams and we would've been dead in minutes. Maybe not even.

As long as Visser Three and the Controllers stayed out of it, we might win. A huge, huge, maybe. Like, one in a trillion. At the most two.

But now, with this girl… I tried to picture her in my mind, but I was slipping into the types of dreams you cannot control. All I saw was a human that I knew was female, turning into the creature that Estreen had become.

And then I saw-

"Wake up! Hey! Wake up!" A voice called. I felt a sharp pain in my side. I opened my eyes.

"What..?"

"It's about time." The girl stood over me. I realized she was older than me. Maybe a year or two. "Now that you're awake, can you tell me exactly what's going on?"

"Uhn." I answered stupidly, still more asleep than awake.

"Hello. I'm talking to you." She said.

"My name is Cassie." I said.

"Yeah? Well my name is Lauren. And I'd like to know what's going on."

"I'll tell you in a minute. Let me make a phone call."

And that's how we ended up in the barn, explaining to some girl we didn't even know that parasitic aliens were invading the planet.

Chapter 45- Tobias

"Let me get this straight. You guys turn into animals to fight brain-stealing aliens and he's an alien called an Andalite whose name is 'Aximili-Esagarrouth-Isthil', whose brother gave you the power to turn into animals and is the father of one of you which make's 'Aximili-Esagarrouth-Isthil' his Uncle, and you all think it's an average day to become another type of alien to kick alien butt is normal?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Jake said.

"That's it. I'm outta here. This is nuts." She said.

"See! I'm not the only one who thinks that." Marco said.

Lauren moved over to the door. Jake calmly stood in front of it.

"Get. Out. Of. My. Way." Lauren told him.

"I don't think so."

Lauren was taller than Jake by about four inches. She stared down at his eyes.

"Ax? Demorph." Jake said. Lauren turned around and stared, with a nasty look on her face. She stared at Ax, who was in human morph.

The first change was the eyes. Stalk eyes popped out of his head, and from them eyes grew. His human eyes changed shape, and his mouth disappeared. His nose became three slits, and his hands grew more fingers. A tail emerged, and grew a scythe blade, and his skin turned to bluish tan fur. Extra legs popped out of his chest and became Andalite legs and hooves. His human legs changed and his feet turned into hooves. There was a grinding of bones throughout the whole thing, and his organs swishing, which made you want to puke without the whole body-changing thing. But it was done. Ax was now 100% Andalite.

"That was gross." Lauren said. "Ok, so maybe he is an alien, and maybe you guys can become animals, and maybe those Yorks or Yolks or whatever they are do exist. But what does that have to do with me?"

"They're Yeerks. And, it has everything to do with you. See, we can give you the power to morph, change into animals, and help us fight them." Jake explained.

"Uh-huh. Let me guess. I have to kill someone and drink their blood to be initiated?." She said dryly.

"No. Just touch this." He told her, holding out the blue box. Escalf's Device.

"Yeah right. Didn't you say Aximili-whatever was the Uncle of one of you?"

"Yes." Jake said, in his "I'm-getting-mad' voice. If Lauren noticed, she paid no attention.

"And who is it?"

Jake sighed. "Lauren, meet Tobias."

And I flew down to Rachel's shoulder.

Chapter 46- Lauren

OK, there were aliens. I could deal with that. It could explain something, I supposed. But still. I didn't ask to get some crummy powers to turn into animals and bugs and whatever. I just wanted to live my life in peace. Well, not exactly. I did want to find out who my real family was. And maybe morphing could help me. But I didn't want to fight evil brain-stealing aliens just because some kids younger than me said I had to, know that I knew what I knew.

Tobias was a bird. A red-tailed hawk they said. He had stayed past the morpher time limit, two hours, and was a bird now. Wonderful; something to add onto my list of 'No's'.

I didn't like the one called Cassie, or Ax that much. Marco was funny, and Rachel was cool, but Jake seemed all tense all the time. Tobias…well, Tobias didn't speak that much.

I listened to them awhile more, and tried to get out again, but they blocked my path. So I touched the box.

I felt a tingling sensation, like all my body was falling asleep or something, and then it was over.

"That's it?" I asked, knowing the answer. I was in. I was one of them.

"Yeah." Jake said. "We should get her a morph to practice. Cassie, what's the best thing she could become right now?"

"Well, we've got a seagull, marlin, wolf, and one of our horses. She should probably become a horse. Or maybe the marlin."

"She can try the wolf. Rachel, go Grizzly just incase."

I stood, watching Rachel grow up and up grow fur, and could've stood until she was done, but Jake said something, which shook me from my trance.

"What do I do?" I questioned.

"Just touch the wolf. Picture it in your head." So I did, feeling silly. I touched the wolf's coarse fur, and pictured it in my head. Then I let go after a minute.

"Now what? Should I be at one with the force?"

"Picture the animal in your head again. Feel the wolf." Jake said.

I did what he said. I pictured the wolf, feeling it's rough fur. I opened my eyes. And saw gray fur spreading over my body. And I felt a tail sprout. An itching as my teeth grew, my face bulged.

I closed my eyes.

I felt the changes, but no pain. And then I felt myself shrinking, but growing more powerful.

Suddenly, the changes stopped. I opened my eyes.

I could see EVERYTHING! I could smell things that had been there weeks ago, I could smell the bear that was Rachel and the smell of human Rachel. There were no smells that I couldn't smell. I was alive!

I could hear much better too. My eyes-

And then I felt a gut-wrenching pain.

I tried to scream, but all that came out was 'OOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOO!'

"Picture the words in your mind and focus on who you want to send them too." Cassie told me.

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I said. AAAAAAHHHH!AHH! IT HURTS!

"Demorph!" Cassie cried.

How?! Aaaahh!

Picture yourself in your mind as human! Rachel said. I could hear the words in my head.

I did. And as I changed back, the pain faded. It was gone. I breathed hard.

"Oooh…" I moaned. "That hurt."

Jake bit his lip. "Rachel, demorph. Ax?"

Yes, Prince Jake? The Andalite said. His voice! In my head as well.

"Do you know what's wrong?"

No. Lauren, what did this pain feel like?

"It felt like someone was gutting me like a fish, and like I was getting shot in the stomach at the same time," I said through gritted teeth. I could still feel the pain.

Um..um… Ax said. It sounds like she is feeling rejection to the power. It is very rare, but it does happen on occasion. Any time she tries to morph she will feel this pain she just felt.

"Well that's just wonderful." Marco said. "We give someone the power and they can't even use it."

"Oooh." I repeated.

"Ax, is there any reason in particular why she can't morph?"

He shook his head. I do not know. It can happen sometimes because of a certain disease one can have. Or if they try to receive the morphing power again, it works as a way that nothlits cannot try to recover it.

"So what you're saying is that either she has some weird disease, she already has the morphing power, or else she's a nothlit?"

It is merely speculation. I don't know… Ax said.

"Speculation is all we have. So now we have to figure out what's going on."

And I felt all eyes fall upon me.