Children of the Andalites Chapter 1: The Protector

by Sarah aka DEVI

My friend Lauren and I are HUGE animorph finatics. So why not put us in the story somewhere?-_-'....Hopefully will have more chapters to come... :) I do suck@summaries-_-'....Please R&R

4. Children of the Andalites Chapter 4: The...

The Visions

My name is Sara. Just Sara. I won't tell you my last name, or even my middle name. It's too risky. I can tell you though that my Andalite name is Wisteria-Delphini-Saramistrum. If I told you more than that, the Yeerks might find us and enslave us. We won't let them do that though. They're everywhere, even though people don't know it. They could be anyone, your teacher, the store clerk, or even your own parents. One day though, the Andalites will come, and help us defeat the Yeerks, if they come. Until then, we fight.

It sometimes amazes me though, how much we go through, but still we manage to stick together, more with some than others. Tobias and I is one of those examples. It was this adventure that I think was one of the craziest aside from the one with Visser Ones's ship. Here is how it happened.

Lauren and I were walking home from school one day. Lauren is the newest member of our "team". She is also the youngest of us. Both Lauren and I are in the same math class, and it was my fault that she got into this. I happened to be morphing in my locker for a "meeting" with Tobias. The lock got stuck and I started to make noise. Lauren then found me as a half morphed bird/human creature.

You see, my friends, that would be Jake, Marco, Rachel, Tobias, Ax, Lauren, and myself, all have the power to morph, or become any animal that we touch. This is our only weapon against the Yeerks.

If you saw a Yeerk in its natural state, you would see a slug that was about the size of a rat. It looks harmless, but believe me they aren't. They have the power to go inside a victim's brain, fill into the cracks and crevices, and take over that person. They've taken over countless species, including the Taxxons, the Hork-Bajir, the Gedds, and many others. They are after us now, and will stop at nothing to take control of our planet. And they would have by now if it weren't for us.

But back to what was happening at the moment. Lauren and I were walking home from school, Lauren going to my house supposedly to "study." In reality though we were going to have a flying lesson taught by one of the best teachers around.

"I still don't get the importance of a flying lesson, Sara." Lauren said, almost a whiny expression in her voice. But believe me, in battle she is definitely not whiny. "Why can't I just let the hawk do all the flying?"

Lauren stands slightly shorter than me, but not by much. She has this incredibly long black hair that she always keeps down. I too, keep mine down, but I have a braid in the middle. She is very smart, otherwise she wouldn't be in my class being a couple of years younger than me.

"Believe me Lauren," I explained. "There will be times when you will need to know how to fly, or you may run into a tree head on."

"I won't ask." Was her only reply.

Just then we came up to my house. It is pretty small, considering that only myself and my uncle live there. Uncle Gran was over at the Gardens at the moment working on the new program for the Gardens. He is a whiz at computers, maybe that has something to do with the fact that he was originally an Andalite, but at the request of my Andalite parent, he came to earth to watch over me. He has been my family my entire life. He has never told me who my father was, only that he was a great warrior and is now dead, killed by the Yeerks.

You are probably wondering what the heck I mean. In other words, I am half Andalite. Because of this, I inherited some special abilities, and some other abilities that I guess come with being a smorgasbord of different species. I will clear things up on that later.

I unlocked the door, and we went inside. Both Lauren and I dropped our stuff on the couch and sprinted upstairs to my room. You see, my house is one of the safest places my friends and I can be.

"Gosh, Marco is right." Lauren said as she took off her outer clothes to reveal a black leotard. Morphing is somewhat limited, so we can only morph skintight clothing, leotards for the girls, bike shorts and tight t- shirts for the guys. It is just enough to keep ourselves from dying of embarrassment when we morph in front of each other.

"Hmm?" I asked. I was wearing my blue practice leotard I wear when skating sometimes.

"We do look like some refugees from the circus." Lauren said. We both laughed.

"Okay, enough of Marco's smart alec ways and let's get flyin'" I said. We both knew exactly what that meant.

Slowly, Lauren began to change. I did also but at a much quicker pace. I fell rapidly, not in the suicide sense, but shrinking at an alarming rate. My skin gained a very pretty pattern, and then individualized to become feathers. My mouth and nose protruded to form a beak. My ears shrunk to virtually nothing. My fingers melded into one another to form wingtips. My feet sprouted deadly talons and got all scaly. Within about thirty seconds, I had become a red-tailed hawk.

Lauren's morph was a broad shouldered hawk, a smaller cousin of my morph. Strangly, Lauren was finished morphing at the same time I was.

I swear, I'll never grow out of the thrill of flying. Lauren said in thought-speak. When in morph, we use telepathy to talk to one another.

Ditto. I replied. We flew out of my open window out towards the forest, where we would meet Tobias and Ax. We landed on a branch. Underneath us was a blue-and-tan furred creature with a human-like torso. The difference was this- humans have mouths. They also have two eyes. And they don't have blue skin. To top it all off, or to bottom it off actually, was a huge scorpion-like tail, just as deadly as the little version. This creature was Aximili- Esgarrouth- Isthill, Ax for short. He's an Andalite. They're the ones who will come and save us some day. Perched on a nearby tree was a red-tailed hawk. His name was Tobias. Tobias got stuck in hawk morph way back when it all began- before I was an Animorph. That's the curse of morphing- if you stay in a morph for over two hours, you are stuck in that morph. Amazingly, he got back the power to morph from an Ellimist- an all-powerful alien. But he's still a hawk.

Hi, Lauren, Sara, Tobias said. Ax's decided something. When're the others getting here? As if to answer his question, four birds of prey suddenly swooped down out of the sky. I started to morph out of my hawk shape. Lauren followed, as did the rest of the Animorphs after landing. Lauren and I was done before them- I am a very speedy morpher.And Lauren? She's a human, I have no idea why she can speed-morph. I have this ability because of the strange mixing of Andalite and human genes inside me. I don't know how it happened- I don't understand genetics. Soon we were all demorphed. We sat down on the grass in front of Ax. Tobias flew down to land on my shoulder. I noticed Rachel looking at him strangely, and wondered about it. But then Ax took my attention.

You remember when we rescued Tom, and Sara was in his head as Yeerk morph?

"No." Lauren said. Marco rolled his eyes.

"You weren't there, dimwit." Lauren made a face at him, then turned back to Ax.

"Go ahead, Ax. I'll learn about it later." Ax nodded and continued.

While there, Sara made Tom call out the secret we had learned- about controlling the Yeerks- to the prisoners.

"They definitely heard me," Sara interrupted. "They all turned toward me, um, Tom, and some of them called out, asking who I was, what I meant. Sorry, Ax, continue." Ax was looking a little irritated.

As I was saying... the prisoners heard the advice, and undoubtedly tried to use it. So why haven't we seen raving lunatics, shouting 'The Yeerks are here! They're taking over!' and such? Something is wrong.

"Yes," Rachel agreed, "And we have to find out what."

"Well," I said. "The only way I can think of is to go up and ask them."

"What?" Marco said with shock. "You're kidding right? We just go up and ask them."

"No." I said. "We infiltrate the Yeerk pool, yes again, and morph into something pretty tiny, and then ask them, but we will need to use Ax as our diplomat, because Andalites sort of have an accent. I might be able to help a little, since I am partially Andalite, but not by much."

"Pardon me for asking," Lauren interrupted. "But what exactly is a Yeerk pool?"

The Yeerk pool is where Yeerks go to regenerate in their natural state. Tobias explained. Every three days, they have to go to an artificial Yeerk pool where they soak up Kandrona rays. If they don't, they starve to death.

"Oh." Was her only reply.

"Believe me, Lauren, its no picnic." I said. "I had to be in the Yeerk pool itself for a while. Don't even bother to ask."

"Okay then, so when will this little expedition be?" Jake asked.

"Oh shoot." I said.

"What? What?" Rachel asked almost frantically.

"I just remembered something." I said "When we rescued Tom, we pretty much persuaded to move their entrance. We have no clue where to go now. The school is out, the mall is pretty much out."

"What about the docking bay?" Lauren asked.

"No, its too far to be an entrance to the Yeerk pool." I replied.

Well, maybe not all is lost. Tobias said. He seemed to hang onto his words.

"What are you talking about Tobias?" Cassie asked.

Well, remembered when I was visited by the Ellimist? Sara and Lauren weren't here at the time. Tobias asked our group. They all nodded except for me and Lauren, who had no clue what was going on. Well, I had found a possible entrance over by the car wash. Why don't we go check it out over there? Its worth a shot.

Everyone looked at each other, debating whether or not we should storm the car wash for a Yeerk pool entrance.

"Its worth a shot." Rachel said. "What have we got to loose?"

"Oh lets see," Marco began, "I can lose my chance at a driver's license, my life, my sanity, but I lost that a long time ago."

"Oh hush Marco." I said to Marco.

"Well, then its settled." Jake said taking command once again. He is sort of like our leader. "We will storm the car wash say, Saturday?"

None of us had anything planned, so our date with the Yeerks was that Saturday. Not that we have any time for plans, what with saving the world and all. We said our farewells and departed our own ways in morph of course.

I thought that since we weren't going to the Yeerk pool until Saturday and it was Thursday, we'd have a quiet Friday. I was wrong.

"Remind me again," Cassie moaned. "When did I agree to this?" We were at the mall. We had been dragged there by Rachel. Lauren was tagging along behind, looking relieved that she wasn't at the front. You see, Cassie and I aren't exactly mall demons, and Rachel's goal was to convert us. I could almost see her staring at us with strange metal components on her face, saying-

"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. You will buy. You will buy. You will-" My reverie was broken when Rachel said,

"Ah! Here we are!" She dragged us into the Gap.

"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here," I moaned.

"Okay, Lauren, let's go!" Rachel cried like a drill sergeant. "Choose a shirt!" Sara and Cassie picked up a shirt. "Now, Lauren, what do we do next?" Lauren looked at Rachel like she was sprouting wings, which she had done from time to time.

"Um... try it on?" Rachel smacked her forehead.

"I thought you were a mall person, Lauren! Oh well, three pupils isn't enough to handle. What you do next is choose some other shirts, in case it doesn't fit! Everyone knows that. Let's go!" Somehow, in the space of five minutes, Lauren, Cassie and I each had five shirts, five skirts, two pairs of shorts, and a few accessories, and I hated them all. Rachel pushed us toward the dressing rooms, trying to explain color coordination. I dashed in my stall, breathing a sigh of relief. I do NOT like shopping. Reluctantly, I tried on one of the outfits and looked in the mirror, expecting to see what I always did- a medium-sized girl with a long auburn braid and green eyes, in the strange new outfit. What I saw was entirely different. The only thing that stayed the same was my eyes. In the mirror was reflected a purple-tinged Andalite slightly smaller than Ax, with a long scratch down one of its arms. I had scratched my arm this morning falling down the front steps. I looked down at my arms. I was certainly not an Andalite- why did the mirror say I was? I fearfully peeked through the curtain.

"Rachel," I gasped hoarsely. "Come look," Rachel came over and criticized the image in the mirror. "What do you see?" I asked nervously.

"I think the skirt clashes slightly with your eyes, and the shirt's buttons just don't do it against your hair. Try the purple flowered skirt, there, and that shirt with the strawberries." And with that, she swished out to check on her other pupils.

"No! Rachel, come back!" I called. She returned, sighing. "Are you sure you don't see an- an-" I lowered my voice to a whisper. "An Andalite?" She started, putting a finger to her lips.

"Shush! No, of course I don't! Why? What's wrong?" I turned to the mirror.

"Because it's there! I see-" I broke off suddenly. All I saw reflected in the mirror was me. And I had to admit, the buttons really were an ugly color.

"You're not serious Sara, an Andalite?" Cassie asked.

We were at the food court, having lunch. I just had frozen yogurt, because the incident with the mirror had left me sort of shaken, and my stomach wouldn't settle for anything else. I told Rachel, Cassie and Lauren about my suspicions at a whisper of course so no possible controllers would hear us. They were both amazed and shocked in disbelief.

"Are you sure Sara, I mean, are you positive you were just not feeling well and started to see things? Are you even sure there was a mirrior? Because mine didn't have one." Lauren said.

"Come to think about it, there wasn't a mirrior in mine either." Cassie explained.

"No, the two stalls you guys went in don't have mirriors, I dunno why, but they never have had mirriors." Rachel explains.

"No, I'm absolutely positive that I saw an Andalite where my reflection should have been. It looked kinda purplish, and smaller than Ax." I explained.

"Okay, that's strange." Lauren said.

"Maybe not.." Cassie trailed off.

"What do you mean?" I asked. I was anxious to find out what I had actually seen.

"Remember when Ax said that Visser Three with purple fur looked like some kind of Andalite female?" Cassie said.

"So?" I said.

"Now I see what you are talking about Cassie." Rachel took over. "What you saw was an Andalite female."

"Oh man." I started to feel faint.

"What? What?" Lauren asked with concern. "I didn't think that it would be THAT shocking."

"No, no Lauren, its not that." I explained. "What was weird was that this Andalite had a long scratch going down her arm, exactly like mine. I get the distinct feeling that it was me as a full Andalite, not a trace of human DNA."

"Whoa." Everyone said at the same time as enlightenment passed through.

They were all staring at me, then I saw three familiar faces in the crowd behind Rachel's head. It was Marco, Jake, and a very squinty Tobias. He was in human morph, and so used to normal hawk vision that to him, having normal human vision was like being nearsighted.

Hi guys. I whispered over to them. They glanced over to our direction, and moseyed over to our table, careful not to look like they had too much of a purpose.

"Hi Rachel." Jake said. Jake and Rachel are cousins.

"Hi everyone." Marco said. "Whoa, Cassie and Sara are at the mall!"

"Shut up, Marco." I hissed at Marco, and I'm usually not that testy.

"Uh oh, something's up." Tobias said looking at the glare I was giving him. "What happened?"

I related the entire mirror incident to Marco, Jake, and Tobias. They just stared at me like I had just said that the Yeerks won the battle for earth.

"An Andalite in your mirror?" Jake asked.

"Would you prefer a hippo in your bathtub?" I snapped.

"But really?" Tobias asked.

"Yeah, I saw a female Andalite in the mirror, and it was me as a pure Andalite. I could tell because we both had scratches on our arms." I explained.

"Maybe we should ask your uncle about this." Jake suggested.

"I think he's right. He might be able to shed some light on the subject." Lauren said.

"Okay then, back to your house Sara." Rachel said.

We walked outside and started to head to my house, which is a short walk from the mall. Tobias, Jake, and Marco walked on the other side of the street to avoid suspicion. We had gone a short ways when I saw two boys step right into their path. I recognized them as Woo and Drake, the school bullies. Woo is somewhat smart, but a total jerk if I ever knew one. Drake has a brain the size of a kumquat and the IQ of phlgem. Either way, I have heard horror stories of what they did to poor Tobias. They would stick his head into the toilet, flush the toilet, and start to laugh. He was rescued by Jake and has stuck by him ever since.

"Well if it isn't Marco-roni and Swirlie Boy." I heard Drake say.

"Where have ya been the past year? They got new toilets." Woo said.

I started to fume, like a volcano about to erupt. Rachel started to stride over to the other side of the street, but I ran over there. Before either side could say anything I stepped between Tobias who was beginning to shake and Woo. I was right at his eye level, with my green eyes blazing.

"What exactly do you think you are doing?" I asked Woo.

"Well, aren't you a pretty little thing. Nice eyes." Woo said. I get the distinct feeling he was trying to sweet talk me into stepping aside. It didn't work. "Why don't you step aside sweetie and let me handle these geeks."

"Oh yeah, sure, OVER MY DEAD BODY!" I yelled.

"I see we have a tough little critter." Drake said. "Let me handle her."

"Sara don't--" Marco started to say, but then Drake came towards me fists up.

In ways I am like B'Elanna Torres from Voyager. I have two sides where one is more aggressive, which is my Andalite side. The rational side is my human side. I let go of my rational human side and let the Andalite in me surface. Drake swung, but I was too quick for him. I ducked and punched him hard in the stomach. It knocked the wind out of him. Gasping, he retaliated and came charging like a mad bull. I rolled my eyes and calmly stepped to one side. He roared on, tripped and fell. I kicked him in the back and his face went into the dirt. That's when the two bullies decided that they had had enough. They ran off in the other direction. Luckily there was no one around to be a witness to the fight.

"Oh man Sara, I never knew you had that in you!" Rachel said. I could tell that she was slightly jealous and didn't have a chance to fight them.

"Tobias, I think you have a bodyguard." Marco said. What puzzled me was that when I heard Tobias being threatened, I started to be very angry and protective. I felt like this had some connection to the Andalite in the mirror.

I shook aside the strange thoughts worrying my head and we walked the rest of the way to my house. Gran stood in the doorway.

"Pretty good moves, Saramistrum," he said with a smile. He calls me that sometimes, but never in public.

"Something strange is going on, Gran," I said worriedly. He nodded and ushered us inside. We sat around the kitchen table, except Tobias, who morphed out and perched on my shoulder.

"So," Gran said, "What's the problem?" I wiggled in my seat, trying to figure out the best way to explain.

"Well, see, Rachel took me'n Cassie to the mall to teach us the realm of the shopper, and when I went into the dressing room and looked in the mirror- I saw an Andalite! A female- with purple fur- and she was a bit smaller than Ax. But the scariest thing is- remember when I fell down the steps this morning?" I showed him my scratch. He nodded, looking confused. "Well, the Andalite had a scratch of the same length on the exact same arm!"

"We think this Andalite is reproduction of Sara's Andalite DNA- but that's the part I don't understand. If Sara's dad was a human nothlit when he was here, and his wife- whatever her name was- was human too, then how could Sara have any Andalite DNA at all? How could she have the abilities she has?" Rachel asked, looking confused. Gran sat back, looking at us but not seeing us as he recalled his Andalite past.

"When you are a nothlit, you retain your previous DNA- and your previous mind. The other DNA will assert itself after ten years- if you have a child before then, there is a chance the child will pick up some of the DNA you still have inside you." We all stared.

"Clear as mud," Marco said.

"No, I think I understand," Rachel said. "When you get stuck in a morph, you keep the DNA you had before you got stuck for a long time. Your father had a kid before his Andalite DNA was gone, and so Sara got some of the DNA."

"This is all very interesting," Jake interrupted, "But that doesn't explain what is happening to Sara." Gran looked uncomfortable.

"Yes, Gran, sir," Lauren said. "What's going on?" The nothlit sighed.

"I have no idea," he said sadly.

I spent a good portion of the rest of the day with Ax and Tobias in the forest. Uncle Gran had to go to a meeting of the managers of The Gardens to discuss a problem with the new computer system. He was gone the rest of the day, and I was sort of disturbed by these crazy phenomenons. First an Andalite in the mirror, then I get fumed and nearly punch out Drake's lights out. Not feeling very hungry, I went straight to bed after coming home.

Around midnight, my eyes snapped open for no reason. I wasn't sleepy anymore. I must have counted sheep for a long time before deciding what I was going to do. I got out of bed and pulled on my morphing outfit. I focused on the DNA of a master of the night- the barn owl.

I grew snowy white feathers and deadly claws. My mouth and nose formed a deadly beak while my arms switched position to become wings. I flew out the door towards the gardens.

I easily flew over the guards' heads without any suspicion. They were just thinking it was a barn owl out hunting. Boy were they wrong. I flew over the gates and morphed out quickly.

The gardens is kind of a cross between an amusement park and a zoo. I headed towards the zoo section and strode purposely through the exhibits. I knew exactly what I was looking for and was just looking for it. Finally, I came to the cheetah exhibit. She was sleeping peacefully.

"Nice kitty," I said warily. She had some huge claws. "Good kitty." Gingerly I reached in and touched the cheetah's fur. Once I came in contact, her eyes snapped open. I quickly focused, because acquiring an animal causes it to go into a trance except for some rare animals. Cassie told me once that poor Tobias was stuck on a dolphin's back acquiring, but it just kept leaping. By the time he broke contact, he looked like a drowned rat. I withdrew my hand and morphed back into my owl body before any guards came around. I got the distinct feeling that I was going to need speed. Only one more acquisition and I would be done for tonight.

I flew home and morphed out. By this time I was becoming very tired. Very rapid morphing can take a lot out of a person. I walked over to a box on my dresser. In very neat rows were what looked to be normal rocks. However, they had labels like "Tyrannosaurus Rex" and "Velociraptor". These were genuine fossil chips from various dinosaurs. Don't ask how I got them- it's a long involved story that has to do with Gran's sudden interest in dinosaurs and an ancient Gedd museum... Anyway, I took out the fossil labeled "Triceratops". It was just a simple chip, but I had the ability to acquire and morph deceased animals as long as I had a genuine sample. This is a benefit of being a Andalite/Human hybrid. I focused on the fossil, and slowly acquired the prehistoric DNA. I gingerly put the fossil back into is proper place, and went to bed, plenty tired by now.

The next morning, I didn't wake up until noon. Uncle Gran was still asleep too when I woke up. Apparently he didn't get home until around at least three in the morning. I pester him constantly about he should not stay up so late on his project, but he never listens to me. I still love him dearly. He has been my family ever since I was just a baby.

I ate a can of soup before walking over to Lauren's house. We were already friends before she joined our group, but then we became better friends after she discovered me as the bird woman. She and I have fairly close houses.

I walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. Her mother answered, and I discovered how much she and Lauren looked alike. Her mother had the same dark hair as her daughter, but it was shorter.

"Hi." I said nervously. This was my first meeting with Lauren's mom. "I'm Sara, a friend of Lauren's from school."

"Oh hello." Her mom said politely. "I'm her mom. Pleased to meet you."

"Is Lauren around?" I asked.

"She's in the living room. Come on in." Was her response.

I came in and Lauren's mom led me into a homey living room. Lauren was on the couch reading a book.

"Hi Lauren." I said.

"Oh hi Sara!" Lauren said. "Glad you could come. I've been really wanting to see Titanic, but was too nervous to go by myself." Our excuse to get Lauren out of the house to get to our meeting and then to the Yeerk pool was that we were going to see the three hour long "Titanic". It was a fairly decent excuse.

"That's okay. You ready?" I asked.

"Sure. Bye mom." Lauren said. "I'll be back in a few hours."

We walked out the door and started to hike to Jake's house. His parents were going to be out the rest of the day, and we didn't have to worry about Tom anymore. Tom is Jake's big brother and a former Controller. I had rescued him from a life of a Controller, and we discovered the Yeerk's weakness while at it. Tom now had the power to morph after a little gun crossfire we were stuck in. He was an occasional helper in our fight against the Yeerks, but he was not a full fledged fighter.

We walked for about twenty minutes before finally coming to Jake's house. I rang the doorbell and it opened to reveal Tom.

"Hi Sara, Lauren. The others are upstairs." He said, and gestured towards the staircase.

"Thanks Tom," I replied. "How's life as an ex-Sharing member?"

"Never better." Tom said with a smile. "I can't thank you enough for getting that Yeerk out of my head."

We walked up the stairs and over to Jake's room. The others were there so we were the last to arrive. Tobias and Ax were in human morph with Ax scarfing down some pretzels as fast as he could. I held back a snicker of the sight of Ax his mouth full of pretzels. Ax is a great fighter, but he would never make it as a human.

"Hi everyone." Lauren said. "Did we miss anything?"

"Not much. We were just waiting for you." Jake said.

"Well okay, now that everyone's here, let's morph." Marco said. "If this will finally get rid of the Yeerks, I want to hurry up. Besides, Baywatch will be on at five and I don't want to miss it."

We all started to morph into our various birds of prey, Tobias reversing his morph to become a red-tail again. I became another red-tail, Lauren became a broad winged hawk, Rachel became a bald eagle, Jake a peregrine falcon, Marco and Cassie ospreys, and Ax into a harrier.

Now where did you say this new entrance is Tobias? Cassie asked.

Over at the car wash. I'll bet we can go in as flies with the next controller. Tobias explained.

Sounds good to me. Rachel said. Let's go!

Looks like Xena is becoming anxious. Ay-ie-ie-ie-ie-ie-ie-ie-ie!! Marco imitated Xena's battle cry. We all laughed as we flew quickly for the local car wash.

Woowwwwiiiieee! Lauren shrieked as she did a loop-de-loop in the air.

Fly Airlines Flight 700 is reporting turbulence, Marco said in his pilot's voice.

Man, no matter how many times I use this morph, it's still so cool! Lauren cried. I admit I've only used it, what, three times or so, but still! Rachel buzzed in front of her.

I know! I must have used this morph- too many times to count, and I still get this insane rush!

We had just morphed into flies after flying most of the way in our bird morphs. Flies can't do distance flying, but people would sort of notice eight exotic birds flying into a gas station.

Okay, Tobias said, Enough acrobatics, guys. We're getting near the gas station, and after what we've done they'll really be on the lookout. Though they don't know we know about this entrance yet.

We hope, Cassie said pessimistically. Our spirits slightly dulled, we buzzed in through the open doorway of the little convenience store connected to the gas station, landed on a shelf, and looked around.

Hmm, Ax murmured. Where's a good place for an entrance?

That door? I suggested. It looks like a closet or something.

Let's check it out! Rachel said enthusiastically, as always. Marco groaned under his breath as we flew carefully under the crack at the bottom of the door. The closet was pretty small, and there wasn't much in it except a mop, a bucket, a broken jelly jar, and some old boxes.

Look! Cassie said. Those footprints! We looked. The jelly jar had been long broken, but some old crusty jelly was still on the floor, and footprints were easily viewable, even for fly eyes. We quickly flew down to look at them. The footprints went right across the room and disappeared. We hurried over to where they disappeared and found half a footprint, half under the wall.

Well, there it is, Jake said. Now what?

Now we wait. Ax replied. And wait we did. We had already been morphed for ten minutes. We waited patiently. Ax was just warning us that half an hour had passed when someone rattled the doorknob. We quickly buzzed up to the ceiling, where it was least likely we'd be noticed. Someone we didn't recognize walked across the closet and said, "Kandrona. Open." the door politely clicked, and the Controller pushed it open. We flew through behind him. At this entrance, instead of a ramp or stairs, there was a ladder. This was surprising, but we soon realized the ladder led to a dropshaft. As flies, we still had to fly, but we could let ourselves fall if we got tired. Soon the dropshaft ended and the Controller stepped out into the Yeerk pool, with his escort of eight houseflies.

So. We're here. What exactly are we going to do? Marco asked. Just walk, uh, buzz up to one of the prisoners and say, 'Hi. I'm one of those Andalite bandits you've been hearing about, and I'd appreciate it if you'd tell me how well our last attempt worked.'?

Great idea! Sara said, only half-joking. That was the plan, sort of. Marco snorted. We went over to the cages where the humans and Hork-Bajir were held, separately of course. We knew better than to try to rescue them- it just didn't work. Maybe another time. Rachel boldly buzzed up to a redheaded girl who looked especially miserable and was about to speak when Ax stopped her.

No! When the Yeerks get back in their heads, they might be able to tell if a human or Andalite spoke to them- I'll do it. Rachel pulled back, landing on a wire of the cage. The redhead didn't even notice the buzzing above her.

Ah, excuse me? Ax said, unsure of how to say it. I could tell by his tone he was speaking only to her. The girl looked up without surprise. Her life had been so torn up she wasn't surprised anymore. Don't be alarmed. I am one of the Andalite bandits who have been giving the Yeerks so much, ah, trouble lately. The girl blinked, registering surprise this time. She had the presence of mind not to shout.

"Take me." she whispered. "Take me away."

Well, um, we can't exactly do that now, I'm afraid. Ax said uncomfortably. Could you tell us something?

"What?" the girl asked disinterestedly. She wasn't going to be rescued and so wasn't excited about us. I wondered what it would be like to be like that. I hoped I would never know. A terrible scream rent the air as some poor human had a Yeerk loaded into his head. I winced. The redhead didn't flinch. Ax continued.

Well, as you may recall, recently we came in and rescued a -ah- friend of ours. While we were escaping with him, we shouted out information to you- vital information on how to get the Yeerk out of your head! Do you remember? Ax was slightly frantic at the girl's blank expression. She nodded slowly.

"Yeah. Tried it- we all did. Did nothing- fools..." A man sitting next to her stopped cursing the Yeerks and turned toward her.

"What? Who you talking to, Andy? Who is it? Going crazy, are you? We all are, now.." The girl blinked at him

"Oh, just an Andalite who's stopping by, asking questions." The man looked up with fiery eyes.

"Andalite!" he cried. "Where? Where? Save me!" A Taxxon's head turned at this sound. He spurted some gobbledygook at a human-Controller next to him. The human-Controller's head snapped up. He began to run toward the cage.

I think it's time we hauled ourselves outta here, folks. Lauren said nervously. Another scream rent the air as we zipped off. I looked back at the hungry eyes of the human prisoners and wished there was something I could do, but I knew there was nothing. I hurried to catch up with the others as we left. But as I looked back again, I couldn't stand it. I hated to see people condemned to be slaves for a dictating species. I must have gone crazy or something, but I banked around and started to look for a place to morph.

Sara, what are you doing? Marco asked, half angry, half scared.

I've got to try and release them. I said. After that controller is finished biting their heads off, I'll morph and attack. You're welcome to come along of course.

I was wondering if anyone was going to say that. Rachel said and banked around to join me.

Oh, man, Xena and Gabrielle strike again. I heard Tobias say. Even so, I'm going with you. Tobias banked too.

That human sounded eternally distressed when I said that we weren't here to rescue them. Ax pondered. I will join you.

Ditto. Cassie and Jake said at the same time. Lauren also joined the fleet. That only left Marco.

I know that you will persuade me to go along, so why don't we just skip that part and I'll come along too. Besides, someone's got to open the cage door. Marco finally reasoned. That is of course, if Sara isn't using her raptor morph.

Actually, I have a surprise morph I acquired last night. I said.

We flew into a small cavity by the cages. It was in the dark so we would not be noticed for the first few minutes. I was only praying that what I was doing would not result into the deaths of my friends. I would never forgive myself.

Everyone went into the cavity to morph. I felt so relieved when I had eyelids again. Then I would not have to deal with watching everyone's eyes shrink like a popped balloon. That will sometimes make me a little green. Once the final changes took place in my fly to human change, I focused on my newly acquired triceratops morph.

"So what's your new morph Sara?" Lauren whispered once she had a mouth.

"You'll see." I replied mysteriously.

I started to grow larger as I focused. My skin grew leathery, then finally started to crack to form scales. My insides made squishy sounds as they rearranged themselves. The morphing technology dulls the pain that would normally send one screaming in agony. My nose turned upwards and started to extend. Where my eyebrows were supposed to be two huge horns sprouted and kept growing. My mouth slowly changed direction to form a parrot-like beak. My spine extended to form a tail and I fell over because I could not support my extreme weight on two legs now. By this time I was about the size of an elephant, pretty much standing next to one because Rachel was using her elephant morph. Ax and Tobias were staying in their normal bodies. Marco took on the form of a gorilla, Lauren a leopard, Cassie a wolf, and Jake a tiger. These were some of our most dangerous morphs.

Whoa, Sara, how much larger are you going to get? Tobias asked after I exceeded Rachel's size.

Like triceratops size, Hawk Boy. Marco said. Did you see the size of those horns?

How the heck did you manage to find a triceratops fossil? Cassie asked.

It's a really long story- before I was an Animorph, Gran- well, there's no time now. Remind me to tell you later.

Finally, the triceratops mind surfaced. It was peaceful, with only a dull hunger pang. Its idea of a good meal was some greens and a glass of fresh water. It was confident, and its only fear was of the flesh eating predators of its time.

Man, Sara, Jake said. You nearly have the entire Jurassic period in morphs.

Everyone had finished morphing by now. We were ready to shoot out of there and head for the cages, which we did, except Rachel and I had to get out of the way. Once I had moved my huge body, everyone shot out of the cavity. I felt the need for a war cry, so I made one that got everyone's attention.

"HOOAAARRRRRRR!!!" It was a huge bellow, but enough to make a few Controllers jump a few feet into the air.

We all charged. All of the prisoners started to cheer, and I saw the red head girl's emotionless face light up with excitement and hope. I could just barely make it out because I was still getting used to triceratops sight, which is somewhat similar to a horse's but the eyes are not as far apart.

Rachel and I attacked together, somewhat back to back because Rachel needed something to protect her backside, by tail was just the thing to do it with. I glanced behind me, just in time to see her heave a Taxxon twenty feet.

Marco was working his way over to the imprisonment cage. He didn't have much of a resistance, because any Controller who got into his way was heaved aside, most of the time breaking a few bones. Gorillas in the wild were actually sweet and gentle-most of the time. When you got a gorilla mad, you may as well start writing your will, because gorillas in my opinion could bench press a truck.

We were all doing considerable damage as Marco worked his way to the cages. Jake and Lauren worked together to become a small tornado of feline fury. Tobias swooped in at any Taxxon's eyes that decided to try to shoot us. He had pretty good aim too. Cassie and Ax were another pair, working as extra escorts for Marco, in case there were any controllers who decided to try shooting Marco. Generally, they ended up with one less hand.

I was a raging dinosaur. To the triceratop's mind, the Hork-Bajir looked similar to T-Rexes, and that was enough motive to get the dinosaur's mind upset. I gored any Hork-Bajir or Taxxon that came too close with my powerful horns.

I had just finished tearing apart a Taxxon that decided to try brute strength. It failed miserably. I had glanced to my left when I saw something very strange.

Limbering towards us was a huge being that looked to be carved out of rock. It kind of reminded me of the Grost from Shadowcaster, a game I like to play- except it had three legs instead of two. It was totally huge, with a ridiculously tiny head. I would have laughed if I hadn't have known what it was. I realized that this was Visser Three in morph, with a morph that I had never seen before. Rachel obviously knew though.

Oh man, am I ever having flashbacks. Rachel said.

What do you mean? I asked.

I once was nearly killed by that morph, only by a quick save from Tobias was I to live to tell the tale. Rachel explained.

I was going to ask more, but then Visser Three spoke.

Ah, my little Andalite friends, I see you are attempting again to free my little servants' hosts. It won't happen I assure you. Why don't you just surrender and I will make your execution as painless and as quick as possible.

I was about to say 'not on your life, Visser!', but restrained myself, because he might be able to see that I had a human voice. Ax did that for me instead.

Just try and stop us, Visser Three! Ax yelled.

Very well then, Visser Three said nonchalantly, as if he always did it. I shall enjoy killing you.

Just then, I heard a loud cheering behind me. It was coming from the cages, where Marco had just knocked a hole through the cages. Humans streamed out and made a beeline for the door.

Looks like our cue to make a discreet exit. Lauren said.

I couldn't agree with you more. Rachel said worried. I guess the rock guy got to her.

Oh shoot. I said, noticing how big I was.

What now? Marco asked irritated.

I just realized, I explained. Rachel and I are too big to fit through the door!

I can't do everything! Jake yelled, trying to keep the humans together. Think of something! He began leading the prisoners toward the dropshaft, ducking the deadly Dracon beams. Unfortunately, they were being picked off right and left. Hork-Bajir captured many of the humans and dragged them back screaming to their cages. Some were injured by Dracon beams fired from the Taxxons. I would have kicked myself for making them take such a risk.

Let's bash it! Rachel said. I growled in agreement. We reared back, then dashed at the door, skirting the deadly beams and the falling human prisoners.

Visser Three realized what was happening, and ran after us roaring.

You won't get away so easily, bandits! he roared.

There were Dracon beams all around us as we ran. Somehow, we managed to get to the dropshaft with only a few grazes of a Dracon beam.

Okay, here goes nothing! I said.

Or everything. Rachel muttered. We smashed into the door. If the door's too small, enlarge the door! Rachel snarled. We squeezed through the enlarged opening and zoomed up the dropshaft.

By the time we had finally gotten out of there, only ourselves managed to escape. Everyone else had been recaptured, and I nearly started to swear at myself for taking an unnecessary risk. We morphed out of our animals, and Ax and Tobias as human, and got out of that closet before any controllers could follow us.

"Well, that was one of the most unfruitful of our missions as of yet." Marco complained once we were out on the street again. "We get no answers from the humans, and when Sara goes psycho, we get no humans free! I wish I had never gotten the morphing power."

Morphing, that's when I got a crazy idea. People without the morphing power were helpless, so.. I frowned. It really was a crazy idea.

"You guys, maybe the instinct thing has to do with morphing." They stared at me.

"Huh?" I frowned.

"Well, I'm not sure- never mind." They shrugged but dismissed my strange behavior. We left the gas station and hurried home.

I got home late for dinner. I felt lucky that, unlike the other Animorphs, I didn't have parents. At least, they weren't living with me. For what wasn't the first time and wouldn't be the last, I looked curiously at my adoptive parent, wondering if Gran would ever tell me who my father was. Gran didn't even look up as I came in.

"Successful?" he asked, taking out another setting for the table.

"Not exactly," I said wistfully. He looked up then, frowned, and waved toward the other seat.

"What do you mean by 'Not exactly'?" he asked curiously. I sighed.

"Mostly unsuccessful. We didn't free any humans-" Gran's eyes flashed with surprise.

"You didn't say you were going to free any humans! I thought you were just going to ask them if the instinct thing worked." I looked down uncomfortably.

"Well. . . I sorta felt for them, and went back. Everyone followed me." He rolled his eyes.

"I see. Continue!" I smiled, glad of such an understanding person to talk to, and continued my story.

"Well, as I was saying, we didn't free any humans. We almost did, but Visser Three came up, and the Controllers caught them. We did ask the humans, though. They said they tried the instinct thing and it didn't work." Gran frowned at this news.

"It sure doesn't sound too successful to me. What happened to make it only 'mostly' unsuccessful, as you said?"

"Well, you see, as the instinct thing worked on Jake and not on the humans, we decided it must mean only people with morphing capabilities can morph," He raised his eyebrows.

"You decided? Just like that? Look, Saramistrum, only Jake tried it! You can't base something on just one try- maybe it was a fluke!" I frowned.

"But I could feel it! The Yeerk was afraid of the instinct area of the brain!" Gran thought about this, then came to a conclusion.

"Very well. You can try it on me."

"On YOU?" I asked, surprised.

"Yes, on me. I have residual effects of morphing in me- maybe that means something. C'mon, it can't hurt," I nodded slowly and began focusing on the Yeerk DNA. I found it and began to shrink. My eyesight disappeared suddenly, leaving me blind. All my organs smushed together as my bones dissolved. Yeerks don't have bones- they're practically just slugs. Most of my organs dissolved completely away- the few that stayed changed radically. I could actually feel them changing, and it made me nervous. My arms, legs and head shrank into my body and my skin changed into a gray membrane with veins bulging through it. I was now about the size of a basketball, and looked almost completely Yeerk. I quickly finished shrinking, and braced myself for the Yeerk's mind. I had beat it down before, and it was therefore easier to do it a second time.

Okay, I said. I'm ready.

Are you sure you want to do this? I asked him. Even though it was me, I still had my doubts.

"Yes. I want to do everything in my power to help you, morph capable or not." Replied my uncle and he bent over for me to crawl in. I went in through his ear trying my best not go gross myself out. He made no effort to resist me.

Doin okay? I asked.

"Yes, I'm fine." He replied.

Eventually, I reached his brain and started to melt. I filled into the little cracks and crevices of his brain. Finally, I had control over my uncle. I know he isn't my uncle, but I'm just so used to calling him that that it just stuck.

Now if I remember correctly, I said, use the instinct part of your brain to force me out. Since you have less morph capabilities from the rest of us, you might or might not be able to.

"That may not happen, Sara," Uncle Gran pessimistically. "I've been a nothlit for more than ten years, so my morphing capability has mostly deteriorated."

We still need to find out. I replied. Just try.

I could feel Uncle Gran struggle to access the instinct part of his brain. Unfortunately, I held a firm grip on his brain. There was no way he could get me out.

Come on, Gran! I said. Think of your Andalite days. I saw visions swelling up in his mind, of morphing strange creatures I didn't recognize. Suddenly the instinct part of his brain seemed to swell and, well, push. I shot out his ear and hit the wall.

Ow. I said.

"It works!" Gran exclaimed. "That means we have a way to kill Visser Three!"

Exactly! Now the only problem we have is finding where Prince Alloran is kept while Visser Three recharges as it were. I replied and started to morph out of my Yeerk. Just the thought of being a Yeerk made me sick to my stomach, if Yeerks even have stomachs.

"We need to tell the others." Uncle Gran said. "Why don't you go tell Lauren and the others."

I tried to say "Are you kidding?" but it came out "Mar mu muffing?" since my mouth had not totally formed yet.

Once I had a total mouth, I said, "I'll fly over and tell everyone."

"Okay, but be back by six, I'm making linguine and my special sauce." My uncle said, in a parentlike way. Andalites as humans have this obsession with food. Gran had pretty much gotten over that, but he still learned to cook really well.

I ran upstairs to my room to morph, because I have blinds up there. Up there, I started to focus on my red-tail hawk morph. I use a barn owl at night and a red-tail hawk for day. A pretty feather pattern appeared on my skin before they became feathers. My insides started to squish as my organs rearranged themselves. My bones hollowed out and became more frail. Eventually, I was a red-tailed hawk. I flew out of my window and headed for Rachel's house. Hers was the fastest to get to in flying time.

After a top speed flight, I landed on the birdhouse Rachel puts outside her door for one of us who comes to her house as a bird. I alighted onto the birdhouse and peeked in. I was in luck. She was puttering around on her computer with her back to me.

Rachel? I asked.

I think she nearly jumped out of the chair. Once she turned around and noticed it was me, she opened the window and let me in.

"What are you doing here?" Rachel asked.

I discovered that the morphing thing and the instinct thing are related. We have a way to kill Visser Three! I yelled.

"You're not serious? That actually works?" Rachel asked.

Yes! I tried it out on Uncle Gran, and he could do it, but only after he visualized morphing! I exclaimed.

"Wow! We've got to tell the others!" Rachel whispered with energy.

Doing that right now. I said. Go back to my house, and then we'll all meet there and formulate a plan.

We flew over to where each of the Animorphs were, then called Tobias and Ax from the forest. We met in my house and sat on the couch. There wasn't room for us all, so I sat on the floor, facing my friends gravely.

"Okay, Sara, quit the secret stuff. What've you done now?" I looked at Marco resentfully.

"What, Marco, don't you trust me?" He glared.

"I know it's got something to do with that theory you had, back by the pool, something about morphing and the instinct power we found- you were mumbling, though- you said you weren't sure. Now, TELL US!!" I smiled.

"Okay, okay. See, I've got this theory- you heard it. The human prisoners all tried to get the Yeerks out of their heads with the instincts, and it didn't work. But it worked with Jake, and it worked with Gran when I tried it."

Gran? You tried it with him? And it worked- hmm. Tobias, who was taking the small risk of staying a hawk inside the house, disappeared into his thoughts.

"I think I see what you're saying," Cassie said. "It seems the instinct trick only works with those who either have the morphing power, or had it at some time."

"Yes, and that means-" I started excitedly.

"Wait a second!" Marco cried. "Hold yer horses! You're saying you've tried the instinct trick twice, and you're instantly deciding all these theories? Well, let's see, the Earth's got life on it, so all other planets must have life on them too."

"Ridiculous! us, us." Ax said condescendingly. He was in human morph because, while we could hide Tobias if someone came in, it would be hard to hide an Andalite. Marco nodded.

"Exactly! Ridiculous! C'mon, Sar, you can't base something like that on two tries." I nodded slowly, thinking. I grinned suddenly as an idea popped into my mind.

"All right, Marco. Since you're so skeptical, we'll try the instinct trick again. To check." Marco nodded appreciatively, but he looked a little apprehensive.

"Good. Um, who will you try it on?" I grinned.

"You!" Marco groaned and slapped his forehead.

"I should have seen that coming! Well, I guess I deserve it. Go ahead." He sat stock still, closing his eyes and scrunching up his face as if he was expected a bucket of ice water instead of a Yeerk. I pulled of my shirt and jeans, exposing my colorful morphing suit. I focused on the form of the Yeerk, going through the convulsions of morphing. This time I turned into a blob before I shrank, and I heard the others groaning. I knew it wasn't a pretty sight, and I was glad I didn't have to watch myself. Not that I could, of course, being blind. I soon finished shrinking and fought back the now-familiar Yeerk consciousness, which I couldn't exactly call a brain.

Phew. Okay. Somebody pick me up. I felt a hand touch me, draw back, then slowly pick me up. I felt the hand clumsily place me by Marco's ear, which I could feel trembling.

Don't worry, Marco. Remember- instincts. I slipped through the ear canal, then into his brain, flowing out and filling all the wrinkles. I let the Yeerk's mind take over slightly, as I took control of Marco's brain. I felt memories flood in. I was just looking at a memory of Marco struggling with his algebra homework when suddenly I flew out of his brain, shooting backwards out the ear canal and barely missing Rachel's head.

"AAAAH!" Marco shouted, getting back control of his senses. I quickly morphed back into human form, holding my head. Gran, surprised, stuck his head in the doorway. He saw me finishing my morph, nodded, and stuck his head back in the kitchen. I grinned. Gran must be the only parent in our world who would just nod when he saw his adopted daughter turning from a slug to a human while her friends are watching calmly.

"Ow. Man, Marco, you have some pretty powerful instincts."

"That's what comes from being so close to an animal," Rachel said, pushing Marco with a grin. For once, Marco ignored her.

"All right, all right, I believe you guys. Phew. Remind me always to agree with you, Sara." I grinned.

"I just might do that. Okay, now that we're all in agreement, I'll tell you about my plan." Rachel was glowing with excitement. Lauren looked at her.

"Something tells me you've already told Rachel. Well, go on, come on!"

"Well, the instinct thing only works with morph-capable people, or people who were once morph-capable, right?"

"Riiight." Cassie said.

"So the only people who are morph-capable are us, and the Andalites, right?"

"Rig- AAH!" Tobias suddenly saw what I was talking about. "Visser Three! Prince Alloran! We can free him!" Everyone's eyes lit up.

"Wow! Now, all we've got to do is get near-enough to him to tell him that, without getting killed." We sat in silence, trying to think of a plan to free the poor Andalite stuck somewhere inside the consciousness of Visser Three.

I think we must have sat still for about half an hour, with an interval for Ax to morph out and rest because he was about to hit two hours. At one point, Gran came in to make sure we were living because we were so quiet.

"Well, this is getting us nowhere." Lauren finally stated and broke the silence. "Maybe we should all leave to think better."

"That sounds good to me." Cassie agreed. "I need to go work on a paper for English class."

"Ditto." Marco agreed.

"Well, I'm going to go to gymnastics class." Rachel said. Rachel takes gymnastics as a hobby and is in my opinion, really good. She doesn't think so though.

"I need to get home anyway because Mom is expecting me home soon. She thinks I went to see Titanic." Lauren stated.

"And I promised Tom that we would see that basketball game together." Jake excused.

"Well see ya guys." I said and escorted them to the door. We all said good bye and the only ones who were left were Ax and Tobias.

"You want to stay for dinner?" I asked. "Gran is making spaghetti."

"Spaghetti? ee?" Ax asked.

Its a type of food that is made of strands. It generally has red sauce on it. Tobias explained.

"Ah, well, I would love to stay and try this spaghetti. EEEEEEEE." Ax said.

I'll stay too. Tobias agreed. Its been a long time since I've had spaghetti.

Tobias hopped off of my shoulder and began to morph to his human form. With the help of an Ellimist, he traveled back in time and acquired himself. He started to grow upwards while his feet started to shrink in a way. His feathers melted together like hot wax and melded into his skin, revealing human flesh. His wings started to extend into arms while his fierce hawk eyes changed into eyes that looked so distant. Finally, his hair came. It is blonde and a total mess.

I noticed, not for the first time and not for the last, how similar Tobias and I looked. We both had wild hair, except I can tame mine with a braid. We were about the same height, and even the same way of walking.

"Are Tobias and Ax staying for dinner?" Uncle Gran asked when he poked his head in.

"Yes s-uh." Ax replied.

"Oh, okay good, because I made extra." Uncle Gran said. "It'll be ready in a few minutes."

We concentrated for a few minutes on how in the universe were we going to get close enough to War-Prince Alloran to tell him. I was the first to speak, but it was mostly after some pacing and definite excitement.

"Oh, man, I just had the craziest idea."

"Uh-oh, not good." Tobias replied with a smile.

"What about if we find out where Alloran is while Visser Three regenerates?" I asked. "We could morph something small and get close enough to warn him? Its worse enough to try to get close when Visser Three is in him."

"Like I said, not good, but worth a try. Why don't we meet up at Cassie's barn on Saturday to tell them?" Tobias asked.

"That sounds all right ite ite." Ax said, doing the usual sound playing he does.

"C'mon you three. Dinner's ready." Gran called from the kitchen.

"Spaghetti and sauce aws aws." Ax said. I braced myself for a feeding frenzy from Ax, because he was obviously exited to try spaghetti.

We all sat down at the table, and I watched Tobias and Ax's reaction to spaghetti. Gran really does have a talent for sauces.

Ax picked up his fork, and tried to scoop up some spaghetti. It just fell through. Apparently, Ax wasn't Italian.

"How do you make the spaghetti stick to the fork?" Ax asked in distress. This time he didn't play with his sounds.

"Here Ax, look at how I do it." Tobias said, and twirled some pasta onto his fork. Ax looked confused.

"That is a strange technique, but I will try it." Ax said and awkwardly grasped the fork. After a few faulty tries, he finally got some onto his fork without it falling back onto his plate. He put it into his mouth and chewed. Ax's eyes lit up.

"This is wonderful! Ful."

"Yeah, it is good, Gran." Tobias agreed.

"Thanks." My uncle said. I think he even blushed a bit.

We all ate silently, with Ax getting sauce all over his face. Finally I broke the silence.

"Uncle Gran, we may have discovered a way to warn Alloran." I stated.

I think that my Uncle nearly dropped his fork. "What? Getting to a high ranking Visser's host is one of the hardest things to do. He will be guarded like he was a nuclear bomb with guards armed to the teeth. Are you sure you know what you are doing?"

"Yes. We have to at least try. Ax, wipe your face." I said to Ax, who looked like a tomato. He did, after help from Tobias. Ax's plate was pretty well licked clean. Luckily, he couldn't go on a feeding frenzy because the rest of us were finished too.

"Well, we better go Sara, we need time to get back to the woods." Tobias commented.

"Okay, see you guys on Sunday." I said, and walked them to the door. "Then we might see where Alloran is kept."

"Bye." Ax said, and stumbled down the stairs. Luckily, he was unhurt. I saw why Tobias didn't morph, because poor Ax would stumble the whole way back to the woods, looking like a drunkard. I went to go help my uncle clean up the table.

The next day was uneventful, except that I sort of committed non- mallaholic sacrilege by shopping for a birthday present for Cassie, who was having a slumber party that night, with Rachel, Lauren, and myself. I finally settled on a copy of Watership Down, my favorite book. It seemed appropriate, since it was mostly about rabbits. Cassie liked all animals, so I hoped she would like the book. But unlike the normal day, that night was almost as weird as the day at the mall with the mirror.

"Hi Sara, come on in." Cassie said when I knocked on her door that night. I was decked out with the usual sleep over stuff, sleeping bag, change of clothes, etc. I was the last there, which seems to be normal for me.

"Hi Cassie, Happy Birthday!" I said cheerily. We walked to the living room, were Rachel and Lauren were talking about what they had gotten for Cassie's birthday. Once we came in, they both went silent, not wanting to spoil the surprise.

"Hi Sara!" Both Rachel and Lauren said at the same time.

"Hi guys." I replied.

This was the first time I had been in Cassie's living room. It was very cozy, with a TV, couch, and a piano in the corner. I don't know what it was, but I felt drawn to that old piano.

"So what's on the agenda for tonight?" Lauren asked Cassie.

"Well, I rented a few movies, we can have popcorn, and maybe a few pillow fights." Cassie said with a smile, then turned to Rachel. "At least that's what Rachel says we should do." I realized that is was Rachel's idea to have a slumber party for Cassie's birthday.

"That's a pretty piano Cassie." I said to Cassie.

"Thanks, it was my grandmothers." Cassie said. When she noticed how much I was staring at it, she asked "Would you like to play it?"

"Sure." I said, and sat at the piano.

At first nothing happened. I just plucked a few notes on the piano, then something happened. A song, from I don't know where, started playing in my head. I think I went into a trance or something, but I laid my hands on the keys, and the song came out of my head onto the keys, and I started to play. It sounded so familiar, yet so distant. From what I was hearing, it was beautiful. After I was finished, I sort of came out of the trance. I turned around to face my friends. They were all staring at me.

"I didn't know that you could play the piano." Lauren said with amazement.

"I do...but not like THAT." I said.

Lauren was looking at me like a Yeerk had suddenly fallen out of my ear, shriveled, and died. Suddenly her face cleared slightly.

"Oh, I know. It's another one of those- I don't know- visions you've been having. Only this one's with sound."

"That is so weird!" Cassie burst out, then glanced around to make sure her family wasn't nearby. "What do you think's happening?"

"An Ellimist?" Rachel blurted. Lauren looked up confusedly, then nodded.

"Oh yeah. One of those Q-like guys. Maybe- but I don't know what they're like. Would they do something like that?"

"If they had a reason to," I said thoughtfully. "Maybe..." I broke off as Cassie's mother came into the room.

"Hey Rachel, Lauren, Sara. I was heading back from the barn when I heard this great music! It sounded like the piano. Was that one of you girls?" Everyone glanced sideways at me. I gulped.

"Oh, yes, um, that was me, ma'am. I-I've been taking piano lessons." Cassie's mom looked at me strangely.

"You must've taken a lot- that sounded great! Beautiful... Why don't you play some more?" Lauren looked at me nervously, with a little shrug. My mind raced.

"Well, actually, I don't feel like it right now. Hey, is that popcorn I smell?" Luckily, it was. We hurried off to have a snack while Cassie opened her presents. She opened Lauren's first. It was a tape, called Earth Celebration. Lauren looked down nervously. She's still a new Animorph, and doesn't know any of us too well, except for me.

"I didn't know what you'd like, but you like saving the whales kinds of things, so.." Cassie grinned at her.

"Thanks a lot, Lauren! This is, actually, one of my favorite singers! She popped the tape into a tape player and let the music play while she opened my present.

"Watership Down? I seem to remember you mentioning this before. Something about seagulls, when Tom was hurt." I nodded.

"That's right. It's one of my favorite books! I hope you like it." Cassie grinned at me.

"I bet I will. Thanks!" She moved on to Rachel's present. There was a little present on top of the larger one. Cassie took off the little present and was about to open it when Rachel interrupted.

"That one's not from me. It's from Jake." Cassie blushed instantly, and looked pleadingly at Rachel. Rachel laughed.

"No, I don't know what it is. Come on, it can't be too bad!" Cassie sighed and opened the box. Her eyes lit up, and she lifted out of it a chain with a crystal dolphin dangling from it. I hissed with jealously. I absolutely love dolphins!

"Oh, man, Cassie, that's great!" Cassie nodded at me, then lifted her eyes up to Rachel, smiling.

"You must have helped him shop for it. I seem to remember Jake isn't a mall rat like you..." Rachel grinned and rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, no kidding. He once bought his mom a comic book! But believe it or not, I didn't help him this time. He did it himself!"

"Amazing," Lauren said. "But can't you open Rachel's present so we can have cake? I'm hungry." She had already finished the bowl of popcorn. I giggled.

"You seem to be becoming another Ax, Lauren. You've inherited his appetite!" She looked up at me strangely, but said nothing. Cassie opened Rachel's present, which was a shirt Cassie protested about because it said 'hand-wash only'. We put Contact in the VCR and started to watch it. Rachel tried to start a pillow fight and failed. I tried to watch the movie, but even though it was interesting and everything, I felt strangely tired. And though it was against all sleepover laws to fall asleep before midnight at least, I found my eyelids drooping. I fell asleep, hearing the music of Lauren's tape still playing in the background. It was some song about rain falling... falling.... falling...

I landed on nothing suddenly. I dimly knew I was dreaming, though it seemed so real. I thought I heard a sound, like a horse's hooves, and looked up into the face of a fully-grown Andalite.

Wha- where am I? I asked the Andalite. He seemed so familiar in a way. I was wondering why I could not speak, then I noticed, I had no mouth! My hands had too many fingers, I could see all around me. I was an Andalite! I realized suddenly that I was the andalite in the mirror.

Wisteria-Delphini-Saramistrum, the Andalite said to me. you must listen to me. I cannot talk long now because your dream will be terminated in a few minutes, but I must talk to you. The Andalite you are now is yourself, only a pure Andalite. You were first introduced to this side of yourself the other day, if you remember correctly. What you have is a remarkable gift. You are the hybrid between Andalite and human, which allows your abilities.

What about the strange visions I've been having? I asked. Did you send those?

Yes, through the ability of an Ellimist. You will be having dreams from me every now and then until I can get all of my information to you. The body you are in now is a morph of yours now. Please, do not tell anyone, except Aximili. He can help you. It will be easier that way. I must go now, for my time is short. I will return.

Wait! What about-- I had so many questions I had to ask, but he was shimmering out. Then there was darkness for a moment before I snapped awake.

Lauren was shaking me awake. I felt like I had never fallen asleep.

"What happened?" Cassie asked with concern. "You just fell asleep right where you were. Almost what I did a while back."

"What?" Lauren and I asked at the same time.

"Never mind." Rachel said. "Are you okay? You must have been out like a light for about ten seconds."

"But, I was in the dream for at least fifteen minutes." I defended.

"What?" They all asked. I was about to explain, but then I remembered the Andalite's warning.

"Nothing, I guess I have that REM sleep problem some Dobermans have." I said as an excuse.

"I won't even ask." Rachel said.

The rest of the night was like a normal sleepover. Rachel finally succeeded in starting a pillow fight, we stayed up until 2:45 in the morning, and we watched another movie. I was the last to fall asleep, mostly because I was afraid of the Andalite in a way. I myself had never met an Ellimist, and if they were anything like Q, I didn't want to. The last thing I needed was an all-powerful being saying how inferior I was. I finally fell asleep as the sun began to rise. The Andalite didn't appear again that night.

The next day, after the sleep over, I morphed my red-tail and flew over to the woods where Ax and Tobias lived. The andalite said that Ax might help me, so I decided to take the chance. My sharp hawk eyes saw Ax running through the woods beneath. I called down.

Ax? I said. The andalite stopped running and looked up at me.

Hello Sara, Ax said What are you doing here though?

I need to talk to you. Is Tobias around? I asked.

No, he his out hunting and should not be back for a while. Ax replied.

Thanks, this is really getting weird. I said.

I came down and morphed out. Ax stared at me strangely.

So what is the problem? He asked.

I relayed all that had happened the night before, the music, the dream, everything. He had not been at the mall during the mirror and the fight so I told that to him too. He listened quietly, concerned.

This is not a human phenomenon? Ax asked.

"No, its getting really weird." I said. "The strange thing is that the Andalite said that my andalite half is sort of a morph now."

That can only be the work of an Ellimist. Have you tried out this new morph of yours? Ax asked.

"No, I've been too scared." I said. "Should I try to now?"

Yes, you should. We need to find out if you are sick or if this is real. Ax said.

I stood up from the log I was sitting on and focused on the Andalite in the mirror. I expected nothing to happen, mostly because I was pessimistic about the whole thing. I was about to tell Ax that nothing is happening, but then my whole body started to tingle. I stopped the morph and discovered that I was growing blue and purple fur.

"AAAAHHH!" I screamed.

Don't stop the morph. You've started it, so you may as well finish it. Ax reassured.

I concentrated again, and the tingle came back. My ears sort of slid up my head a short ways and became elf-like. My head felt odd as stalk eyes sprouted from my head. Suddenly, I could see all around me. My spine arched to form a sort of back end, like a horse. My hands sprouted extra digits while a large tail and blade came from my horse-like back-end. Finally, my mouth and nose disappeared, leaving only a few slits to breathe through. I was a full Andalite now.

Whoa. Ax said, focusing all his eyes on me.

Strange isn't it? Now what you see what I mean. I said.

Well, yes, but not only that, Ax said. But in Andalite terms, you are very attractive.

I blushed, if Andalites even can blush. Uh, thanks. I said, feeling very embarrassed. But getting back to the moment at hand, I don't want you to tell anyone, please. Not until I can get some answers.

Um, okay. Ax said, confused.

Promise me. I said. Not even to Tobias.

I promise. Ax said.

Thanks, I knew I could count on you. I said. I better be getting back home now. I'll let you know if anything more happens.

Okay. Ax said. I morphed out, then into my red-tail, and I flew home, feeling better that I had told someone.

It was 4th period art class, and I was thinking about the dream I'd had, and wondering if I'd have any dreams tonight. I had been dreamless Sunday night, but I'd been pretty sleepless too. I was so tired now I was sure I'd be able to sleep tonight. I boredly doodled in my sketchbook, hardly noticing what I was drawing until Mrs. Kranner, the art teacher, commented on it.

"I say, Sara, that's quite an odd picture you're drawing there." I blinked sleep out of my eyes, glanced at the picture to see what was so odd about it, and got a cold shock. I had been drawing myself as an Andalite! I whirled around and stared at Mrs. Kranner, hiding the picture with my elbow. I had the ability to see if a person was a Controller or not, and it could come in very useful- especially when you were worried a Controller had seen your doodles of an Andalite. I concentrated, boring my eyes into her brain. No- there was no telltale pink glow of the Yeerk. Don't ask me why the glow is pink- Yeerks are an ugly slimy gray. I blinked the tears out of my eyes and tried to think of a response.

"Oh, it's just... doodles, Mrs. Kranner. I was just playing around with the idea of centaurs... you know, half-human, half-horse? " The teacher looked at me with a bit of suspicion.

"Strange- centaurs, all right, but blue? And with, um, antennae eyes? You have quite an imagination, Sara!" I gulped, glancing around the room worriedly. But no one was looking at us, except Marco who was in my class. He was giving me an awful chipmunk face. I gave him one back and silently begged Mrs. Kranner to go away. Luckily, the bell rang just then, and we all dashed out of the room outside, to freedom. Marco caught up with me in the hall.

"Don't do that, Spock. We might get a substitute who's a-" he lowered his voice. "Controller. I take it she wasn't?" I nodded. "Well, still, control your bursts of imagination, okay? Nearly gave me a heart attack there- I was sure old Crayon was going to hiss, 'Andalite!' and, well, I don't know, send you to Chapman or something." I rolled my eyes at him.

"You shouldn't be talking about imagination, Marco. See you!" I left the horrible drudgery of school behind, and went home. When I got there I morphed the red-tailed hawk and went to find Ax. I wanted to see if he could give me any more answers.

Ax? I called out as I morphed out of my hawk. I didn't have long to wait until Ax jumped to where I was wrapping up my morph.

Hello, Sara. Ax said politely. Tobias isn't around, if that will be your next question.

"I think you're psychic, Ax." I commented. "Have you figured anything out yet?"

Unfortunately, until you have another dream, I cannot speculate. Ax said.

"I hope you have been keeping my secret." I said. I wanted to be sure that no one except Ax figured out my dilemma until I was good and ready.

Well, Tobias was slightly suspicious about why you were here yesterday, but I did not tell anyone. Ax commented. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh yes," I said, remembering the drawing I had made that afternoon. "I'm not sure if this counts as a vision, but I started absent mindedly doodling an Andalite in art class."

What is "doodling?" Ax asked with confusion. I sighed, and explained what doodling was.

Ah, Ax said. Well, I think that that was just preoccupation, not a vision.

I was listening to Ax, but I started to feel really sleepy. My heartbeat raced with anxiety at the thought of getting another vision.

"Ax," I said, struggling to stay awake. "Something's happ--" I didn't get to finish my sentence because I fell into a deep sleep. Ax managed to catch me before I hit the ground.

At first, it seemed like nothing had happened, because I was still in the forest. Then I realized that I was an Andalite again.

Hello? I called out. The Andalite wasn't there. In fact, no one was in my dream with me. I started running through the forest for no reason. Something was drawing me forward.

I raced over logs and ferns, dodging any trees. I didn't want to look like a total klutz, even if it was in a dream. It felt like a normal run for me, because I have abnormal speed, mostly from my Andalite/human heritage.

Suddenly, I couldn't run any further, for any reason whatsoever. It was like my hooves had just taken root in the soil. I looked around for that Andalite, but he didn't appear. Instead, a hawk came screaming towards me. It had a pretty red tail, but at that time, I thought it didn't mean much.

Just before the hawk was going to run into me head on, it disappeared. Everything, the woods, the logs, the sky, all gone. A voice filled my head, but it wasn't thought-speak, nor normal speak. It just popped into my head.

BONDS OCCUR IN THE STRANGEST PLACES, AND THEY ARE ALWAYS REMAIN FOR ETERNITY. The weird voice said. I didn't know what that meant, and didn't have time to ask, because I awoke.

Ax was staring down at me, with a worried look on his mouthless face. I was on the ground, staring at the sky. I sat up, and put a hand to my head.

Are you all right? Ax asked.

"Yes, I'm fine, with a little more info." I said. I told him all about my dream, the hawk, the voice, everything. He listened intently.

There is no doubt in my mind now that there is an Ellimist behind this. Ax said. It's just a matter now of finding out why.

Why what? a voice said from above. Tobias landed in a branch just above us.

I was startled, mostly because Tobias looked exactly like the hawk in my dream. "AAAAHHH!" I screamed.

Well, when where you unhappy to see me? Tobias asked in a fake hurt voice.

"Sorry," I said, and started to morph into my hawk. "You just startled me." It was a lame excuse, I admit. I finished my morph, said good bye to them, and left.

After I left, Tobias turned to Ax.

What's going on Ax? Tobias asked with concern.

Nothing, she just came over here to talk for a while. Ax said.

Well, it must have been a talk to startle her like that. Tobias said suspiciously. Really, what's going on? If its something dangerous, I want to know about it.

I promised her I would not tell anyone, and unfortunately, that applies to you too Tobias. Ax said, as his defenses began to buckle.

Please, Ax, Tobias pleaded. Tell me what's going on.

Sorry, Ax said nervously. I can't. I need to eat now, good bye. He galloped off, leaving Tobias very confused.

I flew around for a long time, trying to think of what was going on. What had the Ellimist meant by bonds happening in weird places? What kind of bonds? I thought about all the kinds of bonds I knew about. We had learned about a lot of bonds in science. There were ionic bonds, and covalent bonds... but somehow, I doubted the Ellimist was talking about electrons. What other kinds of bonds were there? Those money bonds... nah. Were there any other bonds? I couldn't think of any. Troubled, I decided to fly home to ask Gran for some insight. I was halfway there when I heard someone calling me.

Sara! Sara! I banked left and turned to meet the approaching hawk.

Hi, Tobias. How did you know it was me? He snorted, in thought-speak of course.

It's hard to miss one of the only two red-tailed hawks around, especially if she's ignoring an especially plump, juicy and slow mouse that's sort of obviously below. The hawk part of me had definitely noticed the mouse, but I had been too preoccupied to notice.

Well, I was sort of preoccupied, Tobias.

Yeah. he muttered. But you won't tell me why.

What do you mean? I asked defensively.

Nothing. he said with a sigh. Anyway, why I was yelling is because we've set up a meeting to decide what to do about Visser Three/Prince Alloran. It's at Marco's apartment- his dad's out and going to be out for a while.

Okay. Race you! I said, trying to get my problems out of his mind. It worked. We zipped through the turbulent air, riding the wind.

As usual, we were the last ones there. I think I'm jinxed to be eternally late to Animorphs meetings. We knew where Marco's house was, so didn't waste a lot of time trying to find it. I had only been there once before.

"Well, Spock and Bird Boy finally show up, fashionably late as usual." Marco commented with a smirk.

Oh hush. I said as I morphed out. Tobias stayed in his hawk form. I noticed Rachel looking at us strangely, but ignored it.

"Well, now that everyone's here," Jake said taking command. "This meeting will now come to order."

"Oh Jake that is sooooooo official." Marco commented. Jake just glared at him, then said, "We need a plan to get to Prince Alloran to warn him and tell our instinct secret. Unfortunately, from information from Gran, that will be near to impossible because there will be top security, and they'll probably fry any form of animal that tries to come through, even a bug."

"Ooohhh, nasty. Fly barbecue." Marco punctuated.

We sat for a few minutes, listening to Marco and Jake argue, when an idea suddenly came up and whopped me on the head.

"You guys," I said. "I have an idea." Everyone groaned.

"Well, what is it this time, Sara?" Lauren asked.

"What about if we made a distraction, and someone went to where Alloran is captive, and told him? We would need to get someone to acquire a morph of a high ranking Controller.

"Oh sure, we just walk right up to a controller, and say, hi, I'm going to acquire you so we can get to Prince Alloran and warn him." Marco said. "Yeah right!"

"Well, who will we acquire?" Rachel asked. I can always count on Rachel to back me up.

"We'll morph Chapman." I said. Rachel stared. "How the heck are we going to do that? We act up, get sent to the principal's office, then grab Chapman in a hug, say, "I love you, man!" and hope he goes limp fast?"

Marco glared at her. "Hey! I'm the one who's supposed to say that!" I ignored them both.

"I don't know. I can't think of everything! Hasn't anyone else got an idea?" Cassie frowned in thought.

"Well, we can't go to his house- there's no way we could acquire him there without him realizing it. So it has to be school. How can we do that?" We all thought. Suddenly Lauren grinned.

"I think Rachel's idea was close. We go up to him, touch his shoulder, say 'let me get this lint off your shirt' or something, I don't know, and then he'll go limp. We can scream and say, "Mr. Chapman! He's fainted! Oh, somebody, help, please!"

Jake groaned. "You sound like one of those Red Cross First Aid videos- Are you okay? Are you okay? Help." Lauren glared at him. I held back a giggle. "I mean, it's a good idea! That is, if we had a couple of lives to spare." Lauren rolled her eyes.

"Got a better idea? ANYONE got a better idea?" Silence. "I thought so." Lauren said smugly. "Well, I guess we do it, then. Who's going to do the honors?" Everyone looked at her.

"Why did I ever think up this idea?" Lauren moaned. "Why couldn't I let you think up something crazy, like you usually do?" I shrugged.

"Oh, come on, Lauren, you can do it! Anyway, I thought up the idea of acquiring Chapman in the first place." She sighed and nodded.

"Okay, but I already regret it. Here goes nothing!" We stepped off the bus and walked into the school, looking nervously around for our assistant principal.

"Hey, it's Princess Leia! Princess, by what event do you grace our humble presence?" I turned to see Marco coming up, grinning at Lauren. I looked at Lauren. Her hood had fallen down, and I could see that her long dark hair, which was usually in one tight pony-tail at the back of her head, was coiled into two cinnamon buns at each side of her head- the trademarked Princess Leia look. Lauren blushed and yanked her hood over her head again.

"Marco, I really don't need this." she hissed. "Today, of all days!" She stormed off toward the gym, still on the lookout for Chapman. I widened my eyes at Marco as I passed. He growled.

"Hey, is there anything WRONG with being Princess Leia? C'mon! She's this extremely cool ambassador with these awesome Force abilities, and- oh, what's the use." I giggled and ran to catch up with the steaming Lauren. I hurried up behind her, then nearly fell over her as she stopped abruptly. Lauren pointed. Chapman was walking down the hall toward the gym. I grabbed Lauren's arm. She bit her lip, then started forward. We caught up with Chapman. Lauren took a breath and hurried forward. She grabbed Chapman's elbow and pulled him to a stop.

"Um, Mr. Chapman, could you stop a minute? I have this awful problem." I could see she was concentrating. Chapman frowned.

"I really don't have time for this now. Could you-" Suddenly his eyes dulled over and he slumped to the floor. I carefully caught him so he wouldn't get hurt, then bent down and laid my hand on his shoulder.

"What are you doing, Sara?" Lauren asked, confused.

"I'm acquiring him. This could be a useful morph." Lauren snorted.

"So I get to do the dangerous part, and you get the morph too?"

"C'mon, Lauren. If he had figured out what we were doing, he would have known about me too. Well, I guess it's time to scream." Lauren grimaced.

"I've never been good at screaming."

"Well, you shout then."

A bloodcurdling scream rent the air, along with cries for help. All the teachers heard the noise and hurried to see what was the matter. Jake and Rachel were just arriving.

"C'mon- they might need help." Jake said, and they hurried off in the direction of the screams.

I started to fan Chapman with my binder while Lauren acted hysterically. If anyone had suspected that we were just acquiring him, then they would have been totally fooled.

Our math teacher, Mrs. Conner, pushed her way through to us.

"Get back everyone!" She yelled. "Give him some air!" She got to us. "What happened?"

"We were asking him something, and then he just keeled over!" Lauren whimpered.

"Well, get out of the way girls, and get to class. I'll take care of Mr. Chapman." Mrs. Conner said in a commanding voice. She was so much like a hen, not in a mean way of course, but she is always clucking around her students like a mother hen does to her chicks.

A few more teachers came to help our math teacher, and we were pushed away. We weaved our way out of the crowd, and got to where Jake and Rachel were watching us.

"Did you get the morph?" Rachel whispered.

Yes, everything went a-okay. I whispered back in thought speak. The good thing about it is that you can direct thought speak to anyone, and no one can do anything about it. I wonder what Chapman will be thinking when he wakes up? I bet he'll be pretty embarrassed to have apparently fainted in the hallway in front of some students." Rachel giggled, then her face turned serious.

"That is, if he has the capability to get embarrassed any more." We stood thinking about that a moment, then Jake broke the silence.

"Well, c'mon." Jake said. "Let's get to class and get this day over with as little confrontation with Chapman as possible." We all agreed wholeheartedly and went to class.

The rest of the day seemed to crawl, as if it were a snail trying to climb up a wall. Every word the teachers said seemed to take forever to complete. Finally, the final bell rang, releasing me from its terrible grasp. I thought I would never get out of school.

"How did it go?" Marco asked once we were off of school grounds.

"Well, we got the morph." I said. "Both of us."

"What?" Cassie asked. "What do you mean?"

"Chapman blacked out with the morphing spell," Lauren explained. "Sara saw her chance, and grabbed the morph too."

"Oh man," Cassie said. "And then, with the combined acquiring spells on him, it seemed like he fainted!"

"Yep." I said.

"I bet all the teachers think he has femaliphobia now." Marco joked. We all stared at him. "Oh, you know, the unreasonable fear of females? Girls?" We glared. Marco shrugged. "Hey! What did I say?"

"Uh, well, its time for us to split." Jake said.

"Sure," Lauren said. "See you around." All four of us waved good bye to them and we walked on our way.

"Well, why don't we try this little new morph out?" I suggested.

"Okay!" Lauren exclaimed enthusiastically.

"Sorry, we can't." Rachel said. "I have a major writing report due, and I need to get it done."

"Ditto." Cassie said. "I'll see you tomorrow!" They walked off, leaving us to keep walking our direction.

"Do you think this will work?" Lauren asked.

"I dunno," I replied. "for all we know, this could be one of my worst ideas."

"And I never got a chance to really hate Visser Three." Lauren said with a smile. I smiled back.

"Well, c'mon, race you!" I said.

"Oh puhlease." Lauren said, "You know I could never beat you."

"Well, still, I want to get home early." I said, and started to jog at an easy pace. Lauren ran after me.

We burst though the front door to an empty house. Uncle Gran had gone to get some groceries, as said in a note I found on the table.

"Well, lets try this out now, and then you can go on ahead home." I said. My homework was going to swamp me that night, and I wanted to get it done. I pulled off my outer clothes to reveal my usual practice leotard.

"We really need to find some way to morph normal clothing." Lauren commented. "This spandex would really not be good if we have to morph in the winter, and its almost fall." Underneath her outer clothing, she was wearing a black leotard, similar to Rachel's.

"Let's try this." I said, and concentrated on our assistant principal.

It was an easy morph, because not much changed. I grew taller and wider. My face squished around, changing. It didn't take long for the morph to finish, and then I braced myself for his thoughts. To my utmost relief I couldn't exactly hear all his thoughts. There were just impulses, feelings.

"Man," Lauren said. "He doesn't want to miss his football game." I snickered with Chapman's mouth, then realized we were both naked.

"Um, I guess we'd better borrow some of Gran's clothes." I said nervously. Moments later we were fully clothed, testing Chapman's body out.

"This is so weird!" Lauren said. "I'm glad I'm a girl. It feels so weird to be bald!"

"Yeah, I know." I said, reaching up and feeling my bald spot. "Well, it's not exactly a hard morph to master, so that's probably enough. You can go home now. We'll decide what to do tomorrow."

"Okay." Lauren said in her middle-aged voice. "You know, Chapman doesn't like standing next to himself. He's nervous." We laughed, then went to my room and morphed back to ourselves. Lauren pulled on her outer clothes and left for home, waving.

"I really like your hair!" I called after her. She stuck her tongue out at me, playfully. I went back in the house to finish my homework, wondering how we should go about warning Alloran.

Gran came home and tried out a new curry recipe on me. It wasn't bad, considering how long he'd been cooking. Then Gran went to watch the episode of Star Trek that was on tonight. He said it reminded him of home, sometimes. Other times he would laugh at its inaccuracies. I leaned on the couch, watching too. But soon I felt my eyelids drooping, and I left for bed, leaving Gran shouting.

"That is so weird, how they managed to reproduce the Vointe homeworld exactly. Though they call it Tallaxia. I wonder if any Controllers help them with their facts..." I collapsed into bed and turned out the light. I wondered if the Andalite, who I had nearly forgotten, would visit my dreams again tonight. Who was he, anyway? I fell asleep with the Ellimist's words ringing in my head. Bonds... Bonds....

I was in a glowing blue room. The Andalite was there- he came toward me. I looked down at myself- I was an Andalite again.

Okay, that's enough! I said angrily. I'm getting tired of this charade. Could you PLEASE tell me who you are, and what you want with me? The Andalite turned sad eyes toward me.

That I can tell you now, Wisteria Delphini Saramistrum. I am Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. And Sara- Suddenly he switched to my human name. Sara, I am your father.

At first, I did nothing, just standing there, shocked. Then suddenly, I sat bolt upright. It seems that people have a sort of "security system" on their dreams. Just before one dies in their dream, they wake up. Well, this happened to me. I started to scream in shock.

After Uncle Gran had comforted me, and I was feeling calmer, I wrote a letter and left it on my bed telling Uncle Gran that I was going to be going to the forest. I might be there all night, I had wrote. I morphed to my barn owl and flew as fast as I could for the forest. I was feeling like a huge brick had been dropped right on my head. It seemed so surreal, and I thought of how straight out Prince, Elfangor was it? Had been. It was like in Star Wars when Darth Vader had told Luke about being his father.

Ax? I called out desperately, Ax! Please come out! I started to morph out quickly. Once I had gotten most of my human features, Ax arrived. I started to cry and pour out the whole story. I don't know why I was crying, but I was.

Wait, Ax interrupted when I had first mentioned Prince Elfangor's name. did you say Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul? He asked.

"Yes, what of it?" I asked.

Prince Elfangor, is my older brother. Ax said.

"This is getting stranger by the minute." I said, and continued to pour out what had happened. Ax stood in awe at what I said.

I never knew this. Ax said. Elfangor had a child?

"I guess, because I'm standing here." I said. "I don't know if I'll ever sleep again." Just then though, I started to feel very fatigued. My legs started to feel like lead weights. All that speedy morphing was finally catching up to me. I sat down quickly on a fallen log, laid

down, and immediately fell asleep.

The next morning, Ax was sitting next to me, apparently staying there the whole night to make sure I was all right. I slowly sat up and yawned. It had been a rough night for me, and Elfangor had not reappeared.

"Ax?" I asked.

Yes? He replied, with sleep in his 'voice'. He probably had just woke up a little bit before me.

"Thanks." I said.

For what? He asked.

"For listening." I said. "You don't know what it is like without anyone to listen to what you are saying." I know it was crazy then, but I gave him a hug. He was pretty shocked at it too. After telling Ax about my dream, it was like the brick on my head had lifted slightly. It was still there, but lighter.

I had to leave then, because I needed to go home so Uncle Gran didn't have much of a conniption.

After I had left...

Tobias landed from the branches just above Ax and perched on the fallen log where I had been sitting.

So will you tell me why Sara just hugged you? Tobias asked.

No, I promised her that I would not tell anyone, that she must tell you herself. Ax said. He really wanted to tell Tobias, but didn't.

Everyone is wondering why she has been acting so strangely lately. Tobias said. I hope you aren't going to be the same way like when you couldn't tell us the Andalite laws.

No, Ax said, All will be clear soon. He left to perform his morning rituals.

I laid on my bed, thinking very hard. My mind whirled. Words and images flitted through my head, trying to connect. Prince Elfangor. . . Father. . Ax. . . my UNCLE???. . . bonds. . . bonds. . . Tobias. . . Tobias? Where had THAT come from? Before I could begin to speculate, a cry rent the air.

"TSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!" A hawk screamed, flying through my open window, landing on my chest and glaring into my eyes. Okay! Enough! Tobias growled. Tell me NOW what the heck is going on! Ax is acting strangely, YOU'RE acting strangely, you're seeing things, playing weird songs, and I want to know what's going on NOW! I winced as his talons dug in slightly.

"Ow. Okay, Tobias. Get off." He lifted up and perched precariously on my bedpost. I sat up, rubbing my neck. "Well, see, it all started at the mall."

The mall? Tobias said.

"Yeah. Rachel took me, Cassie and Lauren to the mall to teach us to be mall rats. I was in the dressing room, and-"

Oh, yeah. I remember that. You saw an Andalite who you said was you because it had the same scratch you did. I rubbed the scratch on my arm.

"Mmm hmm. And then the next thing that happened was when I played the piano. You know about that." Tobias cocked his head.

Yes. But I don't see what the piano had to do with anything. I shrugged.

"I don't know. But that night, I dreamed about Prince Elfangor." Tobias looked up.

Elfangor? But... you've never seen him! How could you know? I nodded.

"That's right. I didn't know who he was at the time. He just told me he was reaching me through an Ellimist, and he gave me this." I stood up and began morphing the Andalite I had in me. I did it as quickly as possible so Tobias wouldn't faint or do anything similarly silly. I pawed the carpet a bit, my hooves straining for nourishment and not finding any. Tobias was staring at me. If hawks could look astonished, he would be.

You-you- you.... ummm. I smiled with my eyes, as Andalites do.

This is what Elfangor gave me, Tobias. But there's something else he gave me, something I haven't yet come to terms with. I looked around nervously, almost not wanting to say it. He said... He said he's my father.

Tobias fell off the bedpost. Tobias? Wake up! I said, and picked him up. He was out cold. I carefully set the bird on my bed and I morphed out, waiting for him to come around. I was distressed greatly, for no actual reason, since it was totally understandable for him to do what he did, but I still was nervous. It was like, it was my job to protect him. The bonds thing lanced through my mind. Was this the bond that the Ellimist was talking about? That I was protective of Tobias for some reason? I tossed the thought aside.

After what seemed to be an eternity, Tobias leaped to his feet, and hopped to the bedpost again. He ruffled his feathers and started to preen before he noticed me.

Oh, what happened? The bird asked.

"You fainted after hearing what I said, Elfangor being my father." I explained.

This makes no sense. Tobias said.

"Well, I guess anything's possible with an Ellimist." I replied. "Who is

Prince Elfangor anyway? I've only heard about him through Rachel and Cassie."

As they probably told you, Prince Elfangor gave us all the power to morph, and let us know about the Yeerks. Tobias explained. Soon after, he was then killed by Visser Three. I felt something towards him though, like I had known him all this time.

I sat still soaking all this info in. Then Tobias said I need to go now. The owls are out now and you know how silent they are. He hopped over to the window.

"Tobias?" I called.

Yeah? He replied.

"Thanks." I said. "Please don't tell the others now. I want to find out more, and they won't be able to accept it yet."

Okay, I guess. Tobias said, and flew off into the night.

I watched him go, and laid back in my original position on the bed. I stared at the celing where my fan was slowly rotating. I closed my eyes, thinking.

Suddenly, a scene appeared on the insides of my eyelids. I saw a blonde woman, strikingly pretty, at a piano. I could hear the song that she was playing, and recognized it to be the one that I had been playing at Cassie's house. Beside her was a red-tailed hawk, listening to the music. I realized that the color of her hair was the same as Tobias as a human. A man appeared at her other side, smiling. His hair was the same as mine. I tried to call out to them, but either they couldn't or wouldn't hear, like I was a ghost. Then my eyes snapped open.

When Gran woke up, I told him all about what had happened. He nodded.

"I can tell you a little more, Sara. I'm not sure how much you know already. You know how Elfangor chose to live as a nothlit in human form on Earth, and he had a child." I nodded. "He was pulled off Earth and out of the human form by an Ellimist, and put back into the battle. This I know, for Elfangor told me before he died." I swallowed.

"Just how did he die, Gran?" Gran looked away, turning slightly green.

"Your friends saw it, I didn't. Ask them." I shrugged and nodded, slowly.

"What I still don't get is why Elfangor's contacting me now, and why I got the Andalite morph."

"Well, Ellimists always say they fix what is broken. Maybe something it broken. Maybe at some point you were supposed to get that morph, but didn't. Ellimists are very picky." I held my head. All this was too confusing. I found myself wishing I had a normal life and didn't have to worry about my dead alien father coming in my dreams and speaking to me by the aid of an omnipotent being from somewhere on the other side of the galaxy. I sighed.

"Oh, well. I guess it's time to go to school." Gran nodded and handed me my lunch. I hugged him, got my backpack, and stepped out the front door. Lauren met me at the bus stop.

"Hi, Sara. What's wrong?" I blinked. My emotions must be showing through.

"Oh, nothing." I said cheerfully. "Nothing at all." Lauren looked at me strangely, but said nothing.

"Oh, by the way, Tobias came by just a minute ago and said we-" she glanced around at the other kids at the bus stop. "We're um, going to get together tonight, after school." she lowered her voice. "In the woods this time. He said Ax's got something to say." Lauren frowned at me. "Sara, would you please tell me what's going on? Tobias had the strangest look about him. I swear, he looked so jumpy I asked if he'd had a run-in with an owl. He just looked at me sort of strangely and said, 'be there.' Sara, what is it? You can tell me." I shook my head firmly.

"I can't tell you, Lauren. I'm sorry. Ax'll explain." She frowned at me, but then the bus came before she could say anything.

I didn't pay hardly any attention in class that day. I was too busy thinking. What did Tobias have to do with anything? Why did he keep appearing in my visions? Why was this happening? Finally school was over, and I hurried home, left a hastily scribbled note to Gran on the table and hurried off to the forest. I had just reached the clearing where everyone was gathered when suddenly my head wheeled. Everything swirled around me. Then, with a strange noise rather like the last bit of water disappearing out of a bathtub, it solidified. I was in the blue room again- and Elfangor was standing in front of me. Someone next to me gasped. I turned, surprised. It was Tobias.

My children. Elfangor said. Now you will get the answers you are waiting for.

I was in my Andalite form again, and Tobias was human.

Tobias? I asked. What are you doing here?

"Likewise!" Tobias said. "Is this the Vision you are talking about?"

Yes, but the thing I want to know is why are YOU here? We're not related, except as friends. I said. Why are you included?

I have an explaination for that Wisteria. Elfangor answered. From the time you were born, you two have been linked in a way only few beings in this universe have known.

What are you talking about? I said. I got the feeling my questions about the Ellimist were going to be answered. The only links between people that I knew of were psychic links, and those soul mate links, but those are the romantic and mushy links.

You and Tobias are fraternal twins. He answered.

Tobias and I stared at each other, then at Elfangor, then back again. I remembered from science class that fraternal twins are twins that have totally diffrent genetics, just born on the same day. Identical twins were the twins that made twins so renowned. I started to morph back to my human self, but I wasn't making myself. I noticed once again the similarities between Tobias and myself. Tobias sank to his knees, too shocked and too weak now to stand up.

"Twins?" Tobias squeaked. "But why--"

Why do you have no Andalite qualities? Elfangor completed. Tobias nodded. Actually you do, but in your sister the Andalite genes were dominant, so Andalite features developed. It was recessive in you.

"This makes no sense." I said, now with a human mouth. Prince Elfangor was beginning to change to his human morph. I just stared, as I recognized the man in my dream with the piano. I then rememinded myself, "What was with the piano?" I asked.

"Your mother, Loren, was very excellent with the piano. That song was one of her favorites to play." Elfangor explained once he had a mouth.

"Our mother, what was she like?" Tobias asked.

"Your mother, whose name was Loren, had accompanied me on my most strange adventures." Elfangor said. He suddenly took on a very sad expression. "When I was torn from my human life and put back into my original, you both still had your Andalite genes. Your new father and Loren as far as I am guessing, had a quarrel and split up, Loren taking you, Tobias, and her husband taking Sara when you were both just infants. However, your bonds still remained, and soon you would both meet up again. The Ellimist soon told me that Loren's new husband was killed in a car crash, but you had survived Sara. I sent Gran, as you call him, to become your new guardian."

Tobias and I listened silently. I started to cry, listening to his sad story. I wanted to rush over and hug him, I also wanted to scream at him for not fighting the Ellmist. I did neither.

"It all makes sense now." I said.

"What do you mean?" Tobias asked.

"Haven't you noticed?" I said. "Whenever you were in trouble, I became protective and wanted to rescue you. Remember at the mall? When those bullies came? The way I fought? The time when you were captured by the Controllers? It's this bond at work."

"You're right," Tobias said. "And whenever you were also in trouble, I did the same. We ARE twins!" Tobias hugged me, and I had no choice but to return the hug, but I kind of hugged him back, because it was like finding a long lost sibling, or something of the sort. Elfangor smiled at his children.

"You will see me once more before I leave you." He said. "Stay by each other, because together, you can accomplish much." He paused. "And--I love you both."

I was back in the forest again. Tobias was beside me, his fierce hawk eyes still closed. He opened them and looked at me. Did you-- He asked.

"Yeah." I said. "Did you?"

Yeah. Tobias said.

"Oh." I said. "Okay." Then we both fainted.

"Hey! Sar! Tobias! Wake up! What happened?" My eyes flew open. I was staring into the face of a very concerned Rachel. Behind her were Marco and Lauren. I sat up suddenly, causing Rachel to jump. I looked sideways at Tobias.

Not yet. I said simply.

Then when? he asked.

When they know the rest.

But when- Tobias broke off when I leapt up suddenly.

"Don't worry, everyone. We're fine. Just had a long day, I guess." They looked at me very strangely, but said nothing. I hurried forward to the clearing. The rest of the Animorphs were just arriving and sitting in a sort of circle around Ax. I sat down, along with Rachel, Marco and Lauren. Tobias, instead of sitting on my shoulder, sat on a branch. I think he was too shaken to be too near to people right then. Ax shuffled slightly, which is the Andalite equivalent of clearing your throat.

I have some important news. he said. It has to do with Sara's- I leapt up in shock.

"What? Ax! You promised not to tell! How could you betray me? You kept quiet about that one Andalite's kindness long enough! You could keep quiet about my-" I broke off, realized I had been about to blurt out the secret myself. "Ah, my secret! Didn't you listen to a word I said?" Ax was looking totally bewildered.

Sara! I wasn't going to tell about that. I was going to say, it has to do with Sara's idea about Visser Three.

"Oh." I sat down quickly, ignoring the strange looks everyone but Tobias was giving me. "Um, sorry. Go on, Ax." Ax looked hurt.

As I was saying, about Sara's idea about warning Alloran, Visser Three's host, about the instinct theory.

"Theory nothing." Jake said. "We've tested it. It works."

"Yeah!" Marco agreed. "We definitely tested it."

"Okay." Ax said. "So about the instinct cure. We got Chapman's morph so we could go in as him and talk to Visser Three. But I've got another solution." He paused. We waited.

"Well? Go on!" Rachel hissed impatiently.

"Remember before, I was going to kill Visser Three at his feeding grounds? Well, that was acutally not a bad idea. Andalites need quite a large area to feed in. Lately I have been searching for another possible feeding ground. I searched quite a large area and saw nothing. But then one day I happened to fly above a meeting of the Sharing, and I listened in. They said something about the Visser being at Palm hill at nine in the morning the next day. Remember where Palm hill is- over by that lake? Well, I went there at nine, and guess what I saw?"

"What? What? What?" Cassie asked.

"Visser Three, with a few choice bodyguards, went to Palm Hill and moved aside a big rock. Under the rock was a tunnel, which they entered. His feeding ground must be underground!" We sat in stunned silence, trying to imagine such a scene.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Marco asked with a grin. "Xena, would you do the honors?" But Rachel was looking at me strangely.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Let's go!" She tried to make it sound excited, but failed. Marco frowned but shrugged it off.

"You heard the Warrior Princess, folks! Let's get going!" As everyone began morphing, Rachel thought-spoke to me.

I need to speak to you, Sara. I got a foreboding feeling from this, and began to worry slightly. We all took off in our bird forms. Marco flapped hard, catching up with Ax.

Hey, Ax! What's going on with Sara? What's the secret?

I can't tell you! Ax said, annoyed.

Come on, Ax! We need to know if she's going to do something dangerous, like you trying to call home. Cassie said, catching up with them.

That's not it. Ax said. But that's all I can say.

Aaaaax, come on. Unnoticed in the rising argument, I fell back with Rachel.

What's the problem, Rach? I asked, failing to sound cheerful as Rachel had failed to sound excited.

It's Tobias. she said. Do you think he's okay? He's been acting strangely lately, sort of depressed.

Oh, he'll be fine. I said, cheerfully this time. He can take care of himself.

Yeah. Rachel said. Well, I'll get straight to the point. You like him, don't you?

Of course.

No, I mean like as in LIKE.

Naturally I do. I said, completely failing to see the point. Rachel gave a sort of sigh.

I thought so. Anyway, I just wanted you to know, it's okay with me. I'll be fine. Suddenly I realized what she was saying.

Oh, I see. Rachel- you need to know. He's my brother.

Rachel dropped like five feet. I swooped down to her. Don't black out, Rach. I can't catch you.

B-brother? Rachel burst out.

It's part of what Ax isn't supposed to say. I'll tell you all of it as soon as we're done saving the world for today.

Brother? Rachel murmured to herself. Brother?! I hurried to catch up with the others, leaving Rachel with her thoughts.

We got there with about an hour left to spare. It was partially because Rachel kept falling back, and I don't blame her. After all, it was like going up to your best friend and saying that you're cousins.

After looking around for a moment, we found a place where we could safely morph out for a moment and rest.

"Okay." Jake said, taking control again. "We are going to need some sort of morph that is small, but can take a little damage. We'll get in there, some of us will create a distraction, and Ax'll tell Alloran the weakness. Then we will get out of there as quickly as possible."

"Sounds good to me, oh fearless leader." Marco said.

"I'm not the leader." Jake defended.

"You are so, don't deny it." Marco said back.

I slapped my forehead with my hand like I do whenever someone is doing something stupid, or crazy, then said. "C'mon you two, we can debate rulership later, right now we need a morph in order to get in there."

Jake and Marco cut their argument short, and we all exchanged glances for a moment. It didn't take us long to finally decide-cockroaches. They

don't have the powerful instincts like termites, and you don't get ripped to shreds, like an ant. Cockroaches could withstand a little bit of punishment, and they're experts at getting into little spaces.

I kept my eyes closed as much as possible, since cockroach morphing is not exactly a pretty sight. By the time I was finished morphing, I couldn't see much, and so didn't have to worry about throwing up all over myself. All I could see is a group of shrinking shapes, and I was glad for it.

Once I had finished beating down the cockroach mind, which wasn't exactly in the best of moods, since there was light all around and no dark, we all headed towards the largest thing, the hill. My sensitive cockroach antannae could pick up the draft coming from the inside of the rock.

There! I yelled to the others. Follow the draft. I'll bet anything that that draft is where the rock is.

Are you sure? Lauren asked.

Yes, I reassured. There is hardly any wind today, and the inside of a hill is generally pretty cool.

If you say so. Lauren replied.

We headed slowly towards the place where the rock was, and found a crack where we could get in. Luckily, in the dark light, the guards didn't notice eight scattered cockroaches. The cockroach mind calmed down and relaxed as we got into a darker area.

Is it just my imagination, or is this suddenly going to get a little stranger? Marco queried. Suddenly, he got his answer. The tunnel we were in seemed to suddenly explode in size and light. My antennae could pick up a slight breeze.

My cockroach brain was freaking out, being in a place with brightness and open spaces, it could easily get squished.

We need a place where we can morph. Jake said. Follow the cockroach's instincts. It can find a dark space faster.

We all did as told, and let go slightly of our hold on the cockroach

consciousness. Man, did this little critter have energy! It was screaming

for darkness, and scattered to the nearest place to hide. Luckily, we all

found the same alcove, that was secluded from the light.

I carefully morphed out, making sure I wasn't seen. We were in a small cave, and I saw a huge plain out in front of me. Over in the corner was a small stream, and drinking with his hooves there, was Visser Three.

Morph out slowly. I said to them with fear. And stay close to the wall.

Why? Tobias asked. We're hidden.

Yes, I said. But Visser Three is here.

They followed my advice, and morphed out at the side of the wall, keeping out of the light.

"So what will we do?" Lauren asked. "There isn't enough room for us to all morph, and if we did, we would all be forced out of this cave before we were finished morphing."

I smiled at her, my eyes glowing, and I began to morph. I know it was against my thing of keeping things secret from them, but we needed a distraction and now. Blue and purple fur began to sprout all over my body. Stalk eyes sprouted from my head while a deadly tail came from my spine. I felt a tingling sensation in my chest as my second and third "hearts" grew to their normal size and began to operate. You see, Andalites have three hearts, but I am only half Andalite, so they never fully developed to pump blood, so they were just two small lumps attached to my real heart. The doctors all say that its just a small defect. Within a minute, I had become my Andalite self.

"What the--" Jake said.

"An Andalite?!?" Cassie asked in astonishment.

"How the heck did you get that?" Lauren asked as well.

"What's it for?" Marco also asked. I only answered his for now.

Its a distraction. I said mischeviously. Ax! Come with me. Two Andalites should really surprise Visser Three. Until now, he's only seen you. Okay, the rest of you come up on the other side of him while he's distracted. You can morph one by one, and then leap out. Let's GO! Ax and I leapt forward, thundering toward a very surprised-looking Visser Three. Suddenly I had a brainstorm.

Father! We're here! We have come to rescue you! I remembered that, in accounting their previous adventures, the Animorphs had noted Alloran had two children. Ax stared at me in astonishment, then caught on quickly.

Father! We know how to get you free of that Yeerk. We can help you. For a moment the furious face of Visser Three contorted.

Jamen? Rishi? No- it cannot be. I- His face twisted again and was replaced by the horrrible angry face of Visser Three. But at the moment of confusion, Tobias, who was still a hawk, leapt into the Visser's face and screamed,

Alloran! War-prince Alloran! Listen to me! In your mind, there is an area which controls instincts. The Yeerk is afraid of this part of your brain- deathly afraid. You must access this part of your brain. The Yeerk will be ejected from your head! You can do it! You must do it! Now! I ignored the battle around me, the Hork-Bajir who had come with the Visser trying with all their might to save their leader. I stared intently at Visser Three, watching him. He looked frightened.

No! Not the instincts! I won't let you, you pitiful Andalite. I am stronger than you- AARGH! Suddenly the Yeerk shot out of the Andalite's head, flying above us. I paid no attention to where it landed. Alloran, now free, looked extremely tired.

Th- thank you, young ones. He looked up into my face. You look almost exactly like my young Rishi, child. Almost a spitting image. I smiled with my eyes.

What kind of person is this Rishi, War-prince Alloran? He eye-smiled at me. I was amazed to see such an expression on one who had been so evil. I had never seen anything but hate on the face of Visser Three. Rachel leapt away from knocking over the last Hork-Bajir.

This is all very sweet, but hadn't we better be leaving? I grabbed Alloran's weak Andalite arm.

Come on, War-prince. We'd better go before there are reinforcements. Alloran looked at me suddenly, in fright.

The Yeerk! Where is it? I suddenly realized I had made a very bad mistake. We instantly fell to searching the cave frantically, but the Yeerk was not to be found. Racked with worry and regret, I dashed to the door.

We can't worry now! Let's get out of here! We dashed out the small cave entrance, Ax leading Alloran. We had made it only a few dozen feet when we heard an awful noise. I looked up, nervously.

I've got a baad feeling about this... Marco said, nervously. Suddenly three Bug fighters appeared out of the clouds. One landed and Hork-Bajir soon began pouring out of it. The other two tried to pick us off. Even in my panic, I managed to notice two things- they were very bad shots, and they were keeping a wide berth from Alloran. The old Andalite thought quickly.

Behind me, all of you! he shouted. We quickly obeyed. He stood proudly, no longer tired. If you want them, you'll have to kill me! He called to the waiting Hork-Bajir. The great monsters hesitated, and the Dracon beams stopped firing. We stood silent, nervous.

Now what? Jake asked. We've got a standoff. We can't leave without being shot, and they can shoot while we're standing here without hitting Alloran. Suddenly a Dracon beam laced down and hit Alloran right in the chest. He grunted and fell. We stood there for a moment, mystified, then as one dashed out of there like we had dogs at our heels. The Dracon beams zipped out but missed us, and we soon reached the relative safety of the woods.

Are they insane? Marco screamed. They just knocked out their only Andalite! I was desperately wishing for tear ducts right then.

Stun beam. Ax said grimly. He's only unconscious.

We were so close! Cassie moaned. SO close!! I paid attention to none of them.

It's my fault. I murmured. I did it.

Sara, what are you talking about? Tobias said, irritated. You had nothing to do-

It's my fault! I screamed, then dashed away from them through the forest at top speed, paying no attention to the calls for me to come back.

I ran, trying my best to cry but not being able to since Andalites don't really have tear ducts. I was sick of risking my life, sick of getting into the worst situations, sick of being the oddball. I was diffrent from everyone else, not a human, nor an Andalite. I was a hybrid, a cross-breed, and I was sick of it! I wanted to be one or the other, but not both. I wanted a normal life! Since I couldn't become a full human, I was going to go the other way--Andalite.

My Andalite timing sense told me that I had about an hour and a half left, before the nightmare would be over. I would live in the forest, living off the grass. I would be a hermit, not needing anyone. I needed to keep moving. I didn't want the others to find me, then they would forget about me and go on with their lives.

I slowed to a trot, walking through the woods. Ax couldn't have kept up with me because I was just overall faster. Don't ask me why.

Every time I saw some sort of animal, I would break into a gallop again, thinking it to be one of them. It was an hour and fifteen minutes before it would be over.

After a while, I was in new territory. The others would have no chance of finding me, and I was hungry. I dug my hooves into the grass, the taste sharper than when I was a cross-breed. This place seemed good to stay, with grass and I heard a small stream running nearby. Thirty minutes left.

I ran around for a while, scoping out this new land. Any creature that decided to mess with me would have to answer to my tail. After a while, I heard a distant voice. It sounded familiar.

Sara? It called. Sara! After processing it a moment, I recognized it to be one of the others. Wasn't her name something like Lauren? Yes, that was it, Lauren. She was one of my friends. Wait a moment, weren't they going to take me away from this life of peace and throw me back into the battle again? I ran again, away from the voice. I wanted to get far away from the voice, the voice of battle.

I ran back into the woods again. I didn't go far until I found myself face to face with a wolf. I got my tail out, ready to fight it.

Whoa! Sara! Calm down, its me, Cassie. The wolf said. Oh yes, she was another one. You know there aren't many creatures that can out-distance a wolf.

Leave me alone! I cried. I don't want to go back to my other life.

Other life? Cassie asked. What other life?

It was my fault he got captured again! My fault! I screamed. The wolf looked up at a group of birds over head.

How much longer does she have? Cassie asked.

About twenty minutes. A voice said from up above. I recognized it to be Ax, another Andalite. At least I wouldn't be alone here.

Twenty minutes?!? Another voice who I recognized to be Marco said. She's committing morphicide! I could remember them all again now. The other three were Jake, Rachel, and Tobias. Tobias? There was something about him, now I remembered. He was my brother. But a human can't be a brother to an Andalite. It wasn't possible!

Morphicide? Jake asked with disgust.

In other words, she is going to exceed the two hour limit, on purpose! Marco explained.

We've got to stop her! Rachel said desperately.

I don't think that's possible. Cassie said. I think she's snapped.

I had enough of this. I ran again, at full speed, away from them. I had fifteen minutes left, and then they could do nothing about it. I ignored their calls again, and Cassie tried to follow me, but I weaved in and out, making it difficult for her to track me.

I ran a little ways until a red-tailed hawk landed in front of me.

Sara, what are you doing!?!?!? The hawk who I recognized to be Tobias. How could he be my brother? I realized then that I wasn't alone with this hawk. An Andalite was with us. It wasn't Ax, or any of the others. Oh yes, he was my father.

Sara, you must remember your past. This Andalite said. Just then, visions flashed before my eyes. I saw many events occurring, all when I was human. I saw myself being taught to shop by Rachel, getting into a snowball fight with Lauren while walking home, knocking some literal sense into Marco, rescuing Tom along side Jake, helping Cassie with some injured animals, flying with Tobias,--Tobias, my brother. It made sense to me again. Being a hybrid was my destiny, it was who I was, and I couldn't change it. Without me, the others would loose, and I HAD to fight.

I returned to the real world, with Tobias in front of me. I had to make a choice of being an Andalite, or a human, with only five minutes left.

I stood pawing the ground, looking up at my friends. They didn't want me to leave... But I could still help them, just without the morphing power. I was torn. It was hard to concentrate with my Andalite clock on full alarm. Five minutes! Four minutes! Morph now!!! NOW!! I was about to give up when an image came into my mind. Uncle Gran. What would he do if I was an Andalite roaming the forest? He had given up the morphing powers to save me. I couldn't just leave him alone.

Finally decided, I quickly morphed out of the Andalite shape and back to my human form. I sat weakly down on the forest floor, covered my face with my hands and started to cry.

Suddenly I was in the blue room again. I looked up in shock, then in anger.

"Leave me alone!" I screamed to nobody, barely realizing I was still human.

SARA.

I heard the Ellimist's voice and frowned. "What is it? You don't need me any more! Go bother someone else!" Suddenly I realized it was through the Ellimist I had found my brother, my father, and acquired the Andalite morph. "Well," I said, calming down. "I guess I should thank you. I'm sorry- I'm not in the best of moods."

I don't know how to explain it, but I could feel a sort of amusement coming from the room. It was like feeling a smile.

YOU HAVE DONE WELL, SARA.

I stood, looking around. I was not sure how to answer that, so I said nothing.

DO YOU NOT WISH TO KNOW WHY I GAVE YOU THE MORPH, AND THE INFORMATION?

"Of course!" I cried. This was exactly what had been nagging at the back of my head ever since the dreams.

I THOUGHT SO. Again I felt the smile. WE ELLIMISTS FIX WHAT IS BROKEN.

There was a pause.

AND SOMETIMES RESTORE WHAT IS MISSING.

I was bewildered, and it must have showed, because the Ellimist continued.

WHEN YOUR MOTHER AND FATHER DIVORCED, YOUR FATHER TOOK YOU. THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN.

"But?" I asked.

BUT, the Ellimist continued. YOUR FATHER DIED IN A CAR ACCIDENT WHEN YOU WERE ONLY TWO, AND YOU WERE SENT TO AN ORPHANAGE FOR FIVE YEARS. DURING THIS TIME, GRAN WAS SENT TO TAKE CARE OF YOU. HE SPENT THE FIVE YEARS TRYING TO FIND YOU, INSTEAD OF FINDING OUT WHERE THE TIME MATRIX WOULD BE HIDDEN.

There was another pause.

"I'm sorry, I really don't understand." I said, completely confused.

ALL WILL BECOME CLEAR, the Ellimist said. AN ELLIMIST WAS SUPPOSED TO TELL HIM ABOUT THE TIME MATRIX, BUT THIS COULD NOT BE DONE UNTIL YOU WERE FOUND. ELLIMISTS ARE BUSY TOO. SO WHEN HE FINALLY FOUND YOU, WE COULDN'T HELP. THEN HE HAD TO FIND OUT BY HIMSELF. DURING THIS TIME, YOU GREW UP.

I remembered this time. I lived out a normal childhood, and Gran didn't tell me about my heritage until later.

ALSO DURING THIS TIME, ELFANGOR LANDED AND HID THE MATRIX, BUT IN DOING SO HE BUMPED INTO YOUR FRIENDS- AND VISSER THREE.

I shivered. I didn't want to think about how my father died. He had been eaten by Visser Three.

YOUR FRIENDS WERE THERE... BUT YOU WERE NOT. THAT WAS THE PROBLEM WHICH I HAD TO FIX.

I was starting to understand. "You mean I was supposed to get an Andalite morph then, but I wasn't there?" I felt the smile once more.

EXACTLY!

"And you fixed it, huh? What about the information?"

ELFANGOR WAS GOING TO TELL TOBIAS ALL, BUT VISSER THREE CAME TOO QUICKLY FOR HIM TO DO SO. ALSO, HE WAS AFRAID YOU WOULD GIVE UP HOPE IF THIS WAS NOT KNOWN. AH- He broke off suddenly. I AM NEEDED ELSEWHERE. GOODBYE, YOUNG HUMAN.

"Wait! I have so many questions!"

GOODBYE. AH, YES. TAKE THIS. READ IT WELL. A small object dropped into my hand. Before I could even look at it, the blue room dissipated into nothing and I was back in the forest. Everyone was staring at me.

Sara, what's wrong? You passed out! I looked up at Rachel and smiled. Then I looked at the object the Ellimist had given me. It was rectangular and had little etchings along the edges, like a computer chip.

"What's that in your hand?" Marco asked.

"Um," I said, "I'm not sure." I replied.

"Okay, that's it, I'm sick of it!" Lauren said. "You've passed out three times in the past week! You've been acting strangely, you become morphicidal, or what ever marco the maniac called it, you see Andalites in your mirror, you can MORPH an Andalite, you suddenly have an amazing talent with the piano, you have a conniption when Tobias is picked on, and now you have an unidentified object in you hand!" I could tell that this was the time to tell them. "NOW, I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON!!"

"Uh, ditto." Jake said, not sure how to handle Lauren's total outburst. "Really Sara, you've been falling apart at the seams for the past day, and I can tell that Rachel already knows something."

"Not much." Rachel said, kind of blushing.

"Well, out with it Sara," Marco said. "If you go morphicidal, pass out three times in the past week, become another Mozart, go ballistic when we're picked on by a few school bullies, see Andalites, morph Andalites, then its something that your friends need to know."

"Just tell us Sara." Cassie said.

Tobias focused his fierce hawk eyes at me. Go ahead. Tobias whispered to me. They should know.

"All right," I said, and commenced to telling them about the visions I had been having. About the Ellimist, my Andalite half, Prince Elfangor, and finally, Tobias, and the vision we had together. It was Tobias that spellbound them the most. They just sat staring at me, and Tobias.

"Oh man." Marco said. "And all this time I thought you, uh, LIKED each other. I guess I was right, in a sense."

"You kind of have to admit," Lauren said, "the two do look alike in a sense, I mean, when Tobias is human."

"You're like Luke and Leia." Cassie commented.

"Oookay," Rachel said. "The things about the Andalites are freaking me out. I'm going home. Good bye."

Everyone else followed her example and started to morph into their various birds of prey morphs. I was the last to leave, staying a few minutes after everyone had left to ask Ax something.

"Ax?" I asked.

Yeah? He replied.

"What the heck is this?" I asked, holding up the disk like object.

He took it from me, examined it for a moment, and handed it back to me, eyes wide.

Its an Andalite message disk. He said. Its used to record journals, leave messages, and other things of the sort. You activate it by placing your hand on it and thinking 'activate message disk'. You'll get a telepathic message.

"Thanks." I said, and started to walk home, since a bird of prey would look kind of strange holding a disk in midflight.

When I got home, Uncle Gran was working on something on the computer which I could not recognize. After I had told him that I was home and how our mission went, I went upstairs and pulled the disk from my pocket. I held it in my hand and thought, Activate message disk.. In my head, I heard a message, with the voice of Prince Elfangor.

This is an auxiliary message disk, companion to my hirlac delest, my final statement. It is secret since I must keep the knowledge of my second child secret from the Yeerks. They must not know about the twins that Loren had, and that one of them is a--hybrid. When I was with the Ellimist at--well, I guess one could call it a time line place, not only did I see my son's line with my little brother's line connect with the five other human's lines, but I also saw my daughter's line, and another human line join them. My daughter's line had a special glow to it, which I guess came from her being a cross-breed. She and my son's lines were far apart for a time, but they grew closer, and closer, nearly touching. I could tell that they were going to be very close.

This is to my daughter, Wisteria-Delphini-Saramistrum, or Sara, as her human name is. It is a message I hope gets to you since I am entrusting it into the hands of an Ellimist. You have already heard the secret part of my last statement. I can tell that you and your friends will become very dangerous to the Yeerk invasion, maybe even destroy it, I can't tell. I must tell you though, that like in your vision you had with Tobias, you must stick by them. It's like with toothpicks. If they are single, they are easily breakable and fragile. However, together, they are nearly indestructible. I must leave you now, my daughter, with these wordsdon't ever give up. Good bye Sara, perhaps we'll meet again.

And that was the end of the letter. I found out that my eyes were swelling, threatening to burst with tears. I walked to the bathroom, and started to fill the sink with water. I wanted to destroy it, in case the Yeerks might find it. It was probably not waterproof.

I was about to throw the disk in when I stopped. I realized that this disk was the last and only thing I had to remember my father by. I let the water out of the sink, and went back to my room, where I took down a picture and started to do the combination on my built in safe. Once I had opened it and opened the box inside, I placed the disk in, with the two other things of my secret life as a defender of earth, my morphing cube, and my journal, where I was learning how to write in Andalite. I closed it up and put the box back in the safe.

I was putting the picture back into place when I heard Uncle Gran call me.

"What is it?" I called back.

"DS9 is on! Do you want to watch it?" Uncle Gran called back to me.

"Sure!" I replied, and started back down the stairs towards my uncle, and my human life.