Oh My Gosh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I Got A Whole 21 REVIEWS. Thats right 9 for 1 chapter!. Miracles Can Happen. *sniffs, looking sad* I can't believe I actually got past the first chapter * eyes start to water* I just gotta thank my two best friends for threatening me and criticizing me *sniffle* whenever i had writers block.

*sudden mood swing ends*

hold on a moment what just got into me? oh well its time for the year twelves at my school to leave and even though it won't be my turn for another three years

( i'm in year 9) my friends and i have agreed that it's gonna be real sad.

* different mood swing suddenly starts*

Yippee!!!! it's da holidays. *starts dancing like a lunatic* freedom, I'm free for a whole 2 weeks!!! yeah!!! happy, happy, happy, happy, happy (yes this is one of my moods, just ask my friendz) *starts getting bored and walks in a circle saying "I'm getting bored, I'm Getting Bored, I'M GETTING BORED, I'M GETTING BORED!" oh what to do, oh what to do?

I kno how about i stop annoying you lot with my incessant babbling and start getting to the next chapter of the fic?

Nah. I'm having fun. Anyway i haven't been uploading because of a joint effort by two of my evil teachers Stormont ( my history teacher) gave us two assignments. TWO at ONCE! And Sowter (my english teacher) gave us two too. and with english you actually have to think AND express an opinion. That's plain NO FAIR!!! then i had all these other assignments. then my sister got some assignments that she had ta do so I couldn't use the computer then!

Another thing that happened is that me and a friend by pen name of Summer Rose have decided to do a few combined fics. We are gonna set up an acount specially for them so I hope you people will at least take a look, they are Harry Potter fics.

And whats more, after that it waz time for da yearly exams. Boo hoo.

Anyways enough with the complaining and explaining and on with the fic.

Oh, wait a sec, I almost forgot the disclaimer.

Disclaimer: who here actually thinks I own Animorphs? If any do, please go to the nearest mental institute for emergency help.

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Chapter 5 Jake's POV

I was overjoyed, elated even. The reason? Rachel was back. She was ALIVE!!! Yes the biggest burden was off my shoulders, all of a sudden the 17,000 or so Yeerks killed didn't matter and with Rachel with us we couldn't lose. Never. (A/N: great, i just spilt black paint all over the handwritten copy, perfect isn't it?)

But now it was time for the meeting to start seeing as we had actually lost the Blade Ship.

As soon as we were all assembled Rachel came up with a plan that consisted of tracking down the Blade Ship, take over by using brute strength and then rescue Ax- I mean Prince Aximili. Yeah sure I'd let her do something like that, she seemed to forget that it was a plan like that that got her killed in the first place. No way in hell.

"Umm.... try 'No Way', Rachel, We go after them, sure, but once we find them we talk to them, try to compromise, get Ax then haul butt outta there. Absolutely no loss of life or injuries for either parties, okay? ".

By now all the Animorphs were staring at me in shock. What? Did they think I was just gonna take 'em into a plan that several of us would end up dead in? No way, this war was gonna be different to the last one. I wasn't gonna make any of the same mistakes all over again.

Rachel narrowed her eyes,

"Jake, Cassie told me you had changed but I didn't think you had changed that much. Now I'll say this nicely and I'll say this only once so you'd better listen good: WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN SMOKING? THAT ONE , WHATEVER IT IS, HAS GOT AX AND ALL YOU CAN THINK ABOUT IS NO ONE GETS HURT? WE NEED YOU TO LEAD, OKAY? BUT IF YOU'RE LIKE THIS THEN SOMEONE WILL GET KILLED AND WE CAN'T TAKE THAT RISK." she stopped her ranting long enough to take a breath.

How could she expect me to take charge like I used to, when I had gotten her killed? To live with the guilt that I had sent my cousin to destroy my brother was hard enough to deal with, but to live with the knowledge that I had gotten her killed a second time? How did she expect me to do that? I would go crazy from grief.

Wait she had started again but in a slightly softer tone.

"... I know it's probably hard for you to bear but all of us chose to come on this mission, okay? We know about the risks and we also know that we will all survive and emerge victorious, if only so I can go shopping and watch that Animorphs movie." Rachel finished with a laugh.

I grinned, yep, we could be in the middle of space somewhere looking for a space ship to rescue our friend and Rachel would be talking about her next shopping trip.

She laughed when I mentioned it.

"Okay people," I said rubbing my hands together, " seeing as it's highly unlikely that we will be able to compromise with THE ONE I suggest we proceed to chase the Blade Ship but with full shielding power, we don't want them to know that we are still here. How many docks were there on the ship, Menderash?"

"You got a plan fearless leader?" Marco asked with a maniacal grin.

"Bits and pieces" I said.

"Yes! Watch out Yeerk slime 'cause Jakie boy is back" Marco said, punching the air with a fist.

"Anyway, roughly how many docks were there on the Blade ship?" I asked before Marco could get too carried away.

Cassie gave me a small smile, guessing exactly why I had said that, her smile was still enough, even after three years, to make me turn into jelly. I wonder, exactly what happened to Ron Chambers?

She came over until she was standing right next to me and whispered,

"I broke it off with Ronnie, he tried to stop me from coming after you and the others"

"Well I'm glad you did", I began, trying to ignore my heart thundering so loud that I was sure that Cassie could hear it, "we would have been fried without you".

"I know", She said laughing.

Why did she have to laugh like that? If I had thought that I was hooked three years ago it was nothing compared to me now.

"Rachel said that you lot couldn't keep out of trouble without us and I guess she was right" Cassie continued.

Suddenly I became aware of movement at the corner of my eye, Cassie had noticed it too. It was Rachel, Tobias, Marco, Menderash, Jeanne and Santorelli whispering to each other. As we continued to watch them, out of the corners of our eyes, we noticed Rachel jab Marco in the ribs and hiss something like,

"You go".

"Ouch", Marco whimpered and, clutching his ribs, he walked up to us. Cassie and I turned around to see what he was gonna do. He surprised us by starting to speak,

"I have been appointed by that bunch of people over there", he began, pointing at the others, "to tell you two that, even though seeing you two get together is amusing, we probably should be working on freeing Ax first."

Cassie and I sprang apart embarrassed.

"So exactly how many docks were there on the Blade Ship?" I lamely tried to cover up as everyone except Cassie and I sniggered. Including Menderash, for some reason he had developed a humanoid sense of humour that wasn't always welcome. I felt myself turn bright red.

"Hey Jake, ya know, the hairy tomato look really suits you" Rachel called out causing everyone, including Cassie, to burst into fits of laughter. I felt myself flush worse.

"Is this 'Everyone Pick On Jake Day' or something?" I said trying to keep some respect.

Wait, just let me add it to my calendar Tobias said, causing everyone to burst into fits of laughter.

"Well I guess you don't want to know what plan I've come up with" I sniffed.

"Oh come on man, we're only joking", Marco whinged, "I wanna know the plan".

"There are several dozen docks there" Menderash cut in.

"Good, seeing as there are two ships available to us and THE ONE doesn't know that, we can dock both on different sides of the Blade ship, if our shields are up they wont realise that we are there until it's too late. We all go in and, Rachel you're gonna love this, wreak chaos until we find Ax and rescue him or wreak chaos until they return him", I revealed, "it's got a few holes in it but we can pull it off. Any objections or information to share?"

"Actually, yes"

It was Rachel who stepped forward.

"The Ellimist told me that those three are to go straight back to Earth. No objections, they gotta go." she said pointing to Jeanne, Santorelli and Menderash.

"What?" Marco said.

"Sorry guys", she said to those three, "but you've gotta go", then turning back to us, "You know that plan would also work with just one ship and we can keep a close eye on each other".

Cassie grinned at me, then I realised what Rachel meant by that last statement. She didn't want to leave Tobias.

In less than ten minutes it was finalised. Rachel, who had taught herself how to pilot ships properly, would be the navigating, flying person when Menderash left.

All to soon they had left, after promising that we would all meet up after the war, to hang out.

Les than ten seconds after the others had jumped into Zero-space, an alarm went off in the ship.

Warning, warning unidentified craft at intercept time of two seconds

The next instant an enormous TTSSEEWW!! could be heard and The Rachel (the ship) popped open like a balloon that got stepped on. Everyone got sucked out through a huge rip in the hull.

I saw Marco and Tobias flailing desperately get pulled out. Someone crashed into me. Rachel! She had been brought back to life only to be killed now. She looked like she had been knocked out. But I wasn't sure if that was only it.

Cassie, where was she? I tried to semi spin while my lungs were screaming for air. I noticed her nearby fully conscious but for much longer I couldn't tell. I tried to speak but failing that I managed to mouth something to Cassie. I wasn't going to let her die without knowing how I felt about her.

It was a simple message 'Cassie, Iskoot home world' but it was enough. She managed to smile weakly before loosing consciousness.

No! I wasn't going to let her die alone. I reached out and grasped her hand.

My last conscious thought before my own brain shut down was that at least the two of us, Cassie and I, would not die alone.

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So what did ya think of that? worth it? i hope so. sorry once again for taking so long but lots of things came up. I'll type more up soon because the Christmas holidays are coming up soon (its been about 7-9 weeks since I began typing this up).

Anywayz thanks to everyone who reviewed. Reviews are much appreciated so please review again. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far.And tweetz i hope this chapter is enough to make you read this fic again. Urgh, seven words and I've written 2000. Yes done it.

Okay cya,

nith