Chapter 10

            I heard sounds blaring around me, and I opened my eyes to see Tom sprawled across the ground.  I watched as Cassie fell out of the air, and I followed her.  I felt a sharp pain in my wing, and looked over to see it bent in half; the bone must have broken.  The room stopped spinning, and I demorphed to human.  Cassie did the same.  Tom sat up slowly, and moved his leg in front of him.  It was bent at a weird angle.  I watched as his flesh began to shift forms and colors.  Cassie saw it too.

            "Computer, open the door."  We walked through while Tom was helpless in midmorph, and then Cassie commanded it to close again.  Then, she stared at me.  "Do you think we closed it?  You are still here… Is it even possible?"

            "I don't know.  If we did, well, I don't know.  We discovered something new.  Let's go ask Yahal if you're back, and I'm here for good."

            We walked towards the bridge.  I hoped, wished, that it had been done.  That we had closed the Sario Rip.  There was no other way that I could see Tobias again.  That Jake could feel better.  That I could live.  I walked, lost in thought.  How I wanted to see Tobias again.  It had only been about a day since I left, but already, it felt like years.  After what Cassie told me about my own death, I realized how horrible it must have been for everybody.  I knew, that for Tobias' sake, I had to see him again.  I would scare him at first, but it was worth it.  Coming back from the dead is better than being dead, right?  We arrived at the bridge, where Yahal was working hard at making the ship crash land on earth, where we could not hurt anybody and would not be hurt ourselves.  Toby stared worriedly out the window, and General Doubleday nursed a bleeding shoulder.  All had grim expressions.

            "Is… is it closed?" asked Cassie tentatively.

            General Doubleday looked at her.  "We don't know.  Yahal's time sense will not be right until we land on a planet."  His gaze locked on me.  "Rachel, you will still be alive if we did close it.  The world thinks you're dead.  But you aren't, if it's closed."

            I smiled.  "Let's hope that it is closed then, shall we?"  Inwardly, I was as scared as I could be, knowing very well that I may still die, or be erased from existence.

            Earth loomed closer, and I looked out the viewport at it.  I wondered what it was like three years in the future.  Or now, depending on if the Sario Rip was indeed closed or not.  I turned back to Cassie, Toby, and the General.

            The General spoke up.  "Rachel, to everybody but us, you are dead.  This mission is top secret.  You won't be able to reveal yourself until we come back.  If we come back.  You will have to stay in the ship if you don't want to attract attention and reveal what we are doing."

            I sighed.  "I know.  I cannot tell anyone that I am alive.  Yet."

            Impact to earth will occur in approximately thirty earth seconds, said Yahal.

            "Great," I said.  "First Ax, now Yahal.  I guess I will just have to sound like Marco and say it: they are everyone's seconds!"

            Cassie laughed.

            "Cassie," I said, "As long as we are on earth, you are going to buy some new clothes.  You want to get Jake back?  You are buying some nice jeans.  The ones you are wearing now are better, I mean, they don't have poop all over them, but still, you need something nice.  And a cute shirt.  You are buying one."

            Cassie rolled her eyes, and said "I haven't seen you for two years, because you were dead, and now you are finally back, and you are still ragging on me about my clothes!"

            Then, the ship crashed.  I fell over and bounced as the ship bumped up and down.  I looked out the window and saw that we were on a straight stretch of road.

            "Is everybody alright?" Cassie questioned.  One by one, we all answered yes.

            "Where are we?" I asked.

            This is an area near where the United States Customs for Alien Visitors building is.  We left from there.  My time sense seems to be working correctly; I think we made it back to our own time.

            "Yes!" I screamed, and then hugged Cassie, the General, Toby, and Yahal one by one.  Yahal was quite perplexed by that motion, and Toby was just careful not to slice me open, but I could not contain my joy.  We would see them again!  I would see Tobias again.  I could not stop grinning.  Cassie came and hugged me again. 

            "We'll go after them," she said, her chin set defiantly.

            "Yes," I agreed, "We certainly will."

            "Rachel!  Morph something small!  Quickly!" came the General's frantic call.  I looked out the viewport, and sure enough, a truck pulling a horse trailer was speeding towards us.  I started my fly morph, and through my compound eyes, I saw two Andalites and three humans step out of the trailer and truck, and come towards the ship.  Yahal opened the hatch, and they walked in.  

            Hello, my name is Gealinar-Shamtul-Koral.  Please state your name, business, and why you landed here instead of in the landing area, said one Andalite.

            I am Yahal-Corass-Jahar, and I was just taking these humans to the Andalite homeworld.  They asked for me to, and I had already dropped off my Andalite passengers, so I saw no point in saying no to their request.  The Hork-Bajir travels with them.  On our way out of the solar system, we were hit by a meteor, and crashed here, answered Yahal.

            One of the humans eyed Cassie.  After a moment, he said, "You're Cassie the Animorph, aren't you?"

            She nodded yes.

            The human and the Andalite turned and discussed us for a moment, then turned back.  The human stepped forward.  "Alright, if you will come with us, we can repair your ship, and you should be able to go on your way within a few hours.

            Great, I said in private thoughtspeak to Cassie. Just enough time to go shopping!

            Before we left, we checked on Tom to make sure he had not been hurt in the crash.  He was fine, and we gave him some food and told him that the Sario Rip had successfully been closed, and we were three years in the future.  By the look on his face, I would have thought he was about to cry.

            "Rachel," Cassie said, "If you are going to make me go to the mall, and you want to come along, which I assume is your plan, you cannot look like that.  Your pictures are in all the history books, and people will recognize you instantly.  I know, could you morph rat?  They have okay eyes, and if you sat in my pocket, well, no one really cares what I do, I'm Cassie the Animorph.  If they see you, they will just write it off, and will not care."

            "Alright," I said agreeably, and started the change. 

I know it was torture to poor Cassie, but three hours later we walked away from the mall holding three new pairs of nice jeans, a cute camouflage halter top, an orange tank top with Japanese writing and monkeys on it, and a white t-shirt with a rose.  Knowing she could not argue, Cassie had just sighed and pulled out her credit card. 

"Now can we go to Jake and Tobias and Marco?" she asked.

Yes, I laughed, Now we can go.