A/N:  Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everybody!  Okay, I know that it probably won't be Saint Patrick's Day by the time I get this out, but Happy Saint Patrick's day anyway!  Top o' the mornin' to you!  *Ax smiles and tilts her green hat that says "Luck o' the Irish" on it, but does not notice that it's three thirty in the afternoon*  Oh, and guess what!  I HAVE 150 REVIEWS!!!!!!!!!!  ALL YOU WONDERFUL READERS WHO REVIEWED ARE MY FAVORITEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Anyway, sorry about that little cliffie at the end of the last chapter… I know, I'm evil, aren't I?  Sorry, but you had better get used to having cliffies, because the rest of this book is going to be one cliffie after another…  Just wait for the last chapter…  =)  And I would just like to remind you, reviews make me happy!  I only got eight reviews on the last chapter!  Please, please, please review! 

Chapter 15

Toby, Ax, and Yahal ran out into the fray, to help the three Murkra.  Indi stayed back, unsure what to do.  Blades flashed and claws snapped.  Garatron tails whipped forward, driving my friends into a tight clump.  The Garatron ran around them, so fast that I could not see anything but a blur.

Taking a deep breath, I looked at Tobias, Rachel, Marco, Tom, Jeanne, Santorelli, and Jake, and then I began to morph to wolf.  I morphed as quickly as I could, and finished while my friends were still in midmorph.  Jake went tiger, Rachel grizzly, Tobias himself, Tom cobra, Jeanne leopard, and Santorelli rhino.  Marco was going Hork-Bajir again.  This was not a job for pure muscle, which was what his gorilla morph was.  He needed teeth, blades, and claws like the rest of us.

Without waiting for the rest of my still-morphing friends, I leaped into action.  Until that point, I had remained hidden by the bushes surrounding us.  Standing outside the circle of Garatron, I bared my teeth and growled softly, blocking the path of the next alien.  It loomed up in front of me, and stopped.  I snapped at its feet in front of me.

Suddenly, I yelped as another Garatron came up behind me, and whipped its tail into my haunches.  A long, deep gash appeared along my side.  My blood poured onto the grass.

Snarling, I tried to pull myself to my feet.  I was hurt badly.  Were those my intestines spilling onto the ground?

The Garatron moved back in, holding its tail high, to finish me off.  Inwardly, I was shaking.  Who were these creatures, these creatures that moved so much faster than any Andalite, that were so fierce?  Nothing I had fought before, except for the Howlers, were this tough.

Weakly, I lunged forward and tried to rip at something.  It stepped easily out of the way.  With a malevolent, triumphant expression, it started to whip its tail down.

I whimpered as I realized that my time had run out.  I was going to die here, on a planet light years away from home.  However, my feelings of dread disappeared.  After all, the sun was warm, and the grass was blue.  A cute little chadoo frolicked above us.  I allowed myself to rest, thinking how nice it would be to sleep.

The tail came sailing down.

            A mix of black and orange leaped over my head, knocking the Garatron away, and ripping its throat out.

            The tiger came to rest in front of me.  Cassie!  Morph out.  Morph out now!  You're losing blood.  You're very badly hurt.  You will die if you do not demorph.  Morph.  Now!

            Hello, Jake!  I said in a sing-song voice.  I remembered Jake.  I loved Jake.  Jake was my fiancé.  In my clouding mind, I saw me and him hugging each other.  The picture became kind of hazy, blurry.

            Cassie! Jake's voice finally cut through to my consciousness.  He was battling another Garatron, and losing badly.  He was being pushed further into the circle with Ax, Yahal, Toby, and now Jeanne and Tom.

            I jumped.  Pain, so much pain.  And blood.  With all my will, I focused on my own, human body while a slaughter took place around me.

            My own vulnerable human skin replaced the rough wolf fur.  My insides went back into my body.  As soon as I became human, I remorphed to wolf.  I could think clearly again.  I was scared to death.  It had been way too close of a call for me, and while I had been laying on the blue grass, my friends had been battling for their lives.  They still were.

            And the battle was not going well for them. 

            They were fighting as well as they could, but the ten or so Garatron circling them was too much.  They were all bleeding from small cuts all over their body, as well as a few larger ones.  So far, two Garatron had fallen.  It was too much for me.  We were supposed to be trying to negotiate.

            Stop! I screamed.

            No one even flinched.

            Please, Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar, stop this.  You are fighting members of your brother species.

            He swiveled his one unhurt eye around the scene, where the battle was still raging.  He had been overlooking the battle, but he had made sure to remain in some thick bushes, where Tobias could not get him again. 

Who'sspeaking? he demanded.

            I ran around the fight, my heart breaking as I saw the pools of red Earth blood, blue Andalite blood, green Hork-Bajir blood, and purplish-blue liquids that I assumed were Murkra blood.  I am, I answered.

            Stopfightingthem, the Captain ordered his fellow Garatron.

            They froze, holding their deadly tail blades facing my bleeding, wounded friends.  If they so much as moved, they would be lacerated.

            Whatdidyousay?

            I tried to stop my shaking body.  I had to play this right, otherwise my friends would die, while I was running away, again, kind of.

            Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar, sir, those are your cousins you fight, the Andalites.  I tried, unsuccessfully, to slow my breathing, and lower my hackles.

            ThosearenotAndalites. ThoseareMurkra, he said, motioning toward Leenear, Raikon, and Captain Miaker.  He completely ignored Yahal and Ax.

            Yes.  Those are Murkra.  However, the other aliens, the blue ones that look slightly like you, those are Andalites.

            Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar said nothing.

            Inwardly, I took a deep breath.  The Murkra took you from paradise thousands of years ago, right? I asked, hoping I was saying all this right.

            Yes. Butthatispossiblymyth.

            They did not take all of you.  There were still many left on that planet.  They evolved into Andalites.  Your cousins.

            He was silent.

            All of a sudden, I felt that something was wrong.  I whipped my head around, just in time to see Rachel charge forward, trying to get out of the circle, where she would not be as vulnerable.

            Rachel, no! I cried.  It was too late.

            Itwasatrap! Attackthem! Attackthemnow!
            His tail sailed towards me, and I rolled away. 

Once again, the other Garatron fought my friends.  Once again, it was a massacre. 

This is insane! Marco yelled.  I had to agree.  The world consisted of nothing but flashing blades, snapping claws, gnashing teeth, and flailing claws.  We were losing badly.

We fought for another ten minutes, and we were separated and pushed into smaller circles.  It was almost over.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the Garatron in front of me dropped, a long spear sticking out of its chest.

What? I asked stupidly.

Two more Garatron fell, spears in various parts of their anatomy.  Other spears flew through the air.  The scent of Hork-Bajir drifted to my nose.

What? I repeated.

The air was thick with spears, but whoever was throwing them were not aiming them at us.  The Garatron ran, but there were so many sharp points everywhere, their speed could not help them.  After another Garatron fell, Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar gave the order to retreat.

Wewillgetthemlater! Now,wemustrun. TheOnewillunderstand,andhewilldestroythemiftheycometooclose. Retreat!

Almost as soon as they had come, the Garatron disappeared and the spears stopped coming.  A Hork-Bajir dropped from a tree, followed by about six others.  Indi was the second to jump down from the tree.

I shook my head, trying to clear my senses.  Too much had happened too quickly for me to comprehend it all.  In the past half an hour, I had gone from sneaking quietly around the Garatron to fighting the Garatron to nearly dying to trying to negotiate to battling again to watching the Garatron flee.

I looked back at the new Hork-Bajir, and recognized them as Lorn, Ink, Burg, Fed, and a few others I had not seen before.

What? I said, again, now feeling quite stupid.

"Indi see you in trouble.  Need help.  Indi get help," Indi said simply.

Thanks… I said, still trying to rid myself of the memories of the carnage, the memory of the one Garatron whose throat I had ripped out, the memory of…

I shook my head again.

Is everybody alri- I started to say, but stopped in mid-word.

My eyes had just rested on a bleeding, shapeless form hidden by some low bushes.

Wolf sight is not the best, but their sense of smell is second to none.  I could not see to be sure, but I knew one thing:  My nose told me that the bleeding body was dead.  And it was not a Garatron.

A/N:  Okay, that was chapter 15!  Wow, that was really violent…  It scared me writing it…  Please, please, please tell me what you thought in a review.  Oh, and for those of you who care, I did wear the grass skirt to the dance…  Let's just say I looked… interesting.  Yes, interesting is a good word to describe it!  Oh, well, it was lots of fun.  Also, I am working on starting my own fan fiction website.  However, I need fanfics to put on it!  If any of you would like me to post your works on my site, please email them to me at MyLittlePony204@hotmail.com.  They must be rated R or less, and I will be the one to decide the rating.  I will have sections for every section I have things for, so it's cool.  Also, if you have a songfic you want to send to me, if you send me a file that has the song on it or tell me where/how I get it, I will gladly make the song play in the background of the page your songfic is posted on.  Please send all emails with the subject "New Fanfic."  Thanks!  Now please review!