Chapter 71- Rachel

You left me with creeps for parents because you were afraid my mother would die?! And now you think I want to come back?! Lauren all but shrieked.

"My thoughts exactly," Estreen agreed. I turned, surprised, and saw she had returned to her human form. She stood, arms folded, glaring at the mountain lion.

I-

There's no excuse! I…I HATE you! Lauren sputtered.

The lion looked confused. He'd been planning a loving family reunion, and now it had blown up in his face like a pack of dynamite.

"I was left on a planet, alone for twenty years, and you expect me to be warm and loving?" Estreen spat. "I hate to burst your bubble, but you're a bit late for friendly greetings."

No! You will come with me! He insisted.

This guy is getting on my nerves, I said, looking at the mountain lion.

I could tell he was getting on Estreen and Lauren's nerves too.

Marco sided with me. He may not be a Yeerk, but he still is an enemy. He knows we're human.

Cassie and Tobias were silent, but Ax agreed. He knew our secret. He couldn't get away with it. Jake voted. We'd attack… But only when Estreen or Lauren attacked first.

"You want me to come with you? Here, take this as a memoir of me!" Estreen said, as she shifted shapes again and kicked the lion. Lauren took this as her cue to attack.

Alright, go for it! Jake cried.

Growling, I lunged. I knocked him into Marco, who threw a punch. Lauren bit and dodged the blows from the other animals, until it was a comical cartoon dust ball of punches, biting, slashing and rage.

Rachel! This… I remember now! He's the one that bit me, the one that-

Him? He's been following you? Oh, he is dead.

I must not have been keeping my thoughtspeak that silent, because the fighting paused a minute. Well, only a few seconds, but long enough. But then it was a fighting mass again.

The lion was roaring wildly, angrily. Estreen was shifting too quickly to see. Then the fighting stopped. The lion was dead. Lauren stood, panting. I realized I was too.

Silence settled. There was nothing to say but "What now?".

Estreen asked it.

"What now, Andalites? What now, Sister?" The tone seemed sarcastic, but questioning too. More like she was asking herself than us.

Lauren shrugged her leopard shoulders. Then, slowly melting, started to demorph. Cassie and I followed suit, and finally Marco and Jake.

Estreen was surprised. "So. My father was right. In at least one point, anyway."

"Yeah," Jake admitted. "Are you going to kill us?"

Estreen seemed unfazed. "Perhaps. I have never failed a job yet. But there is a first time for everything. And I have missed much with my sister." She grinned. "Maybe in my doings I will forget the job the Visser employed me. Then again, maybe not. It is hard to say.

"Besides, I never did really like him or his Yeerks. He's too full of himself. He needs a good, long date with a Vanryx."

Ax and she laughed, and I finally caught on. Vanryx- Yeerk-eater. Ha-ha, Visser.

"How are you going to get back?" Jake asked. "Too space…wherever, I mean."

"The Visser has my ship. No doubt he will refuse to give it to me until I have proof of your demise. Fortunately, I came prepared." She held up a camera. "Primitive, I suppose, but it'll do. He mostly wants to know that the leader is dead."

"That would be me, I guess," Jake answered. "Shall I morph?"

"Of course. Lay there, and I will bloody you up so that the Visser can't do anything but assume you are dead."

Jake morphed, while Estreen shifted to her "normal" form. She slashed Jake along the neck, belly, back- everywhere. The blood stained the grass, and Jake held his breath while she snapped a picture.

He demorphed, but she remained in her form. "I'll have to go now. Lauren- if you prefer that name over which your father gave you- would you wait here? I will be back."

She dropped the camera and became a huge bald eagle, bigger than mine. She grasped the camera strap in her beak, and the camera itself in her talons, and with a few beats of her massive wings she took flight, and we watched her until she was gone.

Chapter 72- Tobias

Estreen came three hours later, in a ship. With my eyes, I could see the ripples in the air that marked a cloaked ship.

It was a large, mismatched thing, that looked like a bug fighter glued to a Blade ship with an Andalite fighter thrown in for good measure, and a couple other pieces glued on here and there. A door opened, and Lauren raced across the grass and into the ship. When she got inside, she waved until the door shut, grinning.

It was odd. We had gained a member, only to lose her. We could've been killed, and yet our killer had us help her kill her own father. There's a little different story for your diary.

But perhaps it's not as strange as I think. Maybe, somewhere, it's the norm. But I guess I'll never know. All I can say is: I hope Estreen and Lauren found what they were looking for. I'm also glad she decided not to tear us all limb from limb.

And also, I bet someplace, somewhere, we saved some other guys from assassination. Maybe we were a pawn in the Ellimist's game, once again, but I'd like to think we did this for our own, on our own. But that's something also, that I guess I'll never know the answer too.

But, in this world, galaxy, whatever: who knows?