Chapter 3

I stared up and the sky. Immediately I knew what it was. The only question now was how?

I stared as the purple lights flashed, the shape of a small ship came into focus. Wind blew against my face, it was the only thing that reminded me of my sanity. It was bringing more harsh winds every second, gravel flew in them, and hit us hard everywhere. It felt like being catapulted with stones.

I glanced back at the rest of the crew, Lee was right next to me, fending for himself in the wind. He noticed me, and we turned around.

What we saw was a huge surprise, Ruthi was holding on to James for reassurance and James held her just as tight.

If we weren't in the middle of a freezing cold wood, with a spaceship landing before our very eyes, I would have teased them.

The ship's lights were the only lights in the sky ecxept from the moon and stars. They flashed right in our faces time and time again. They nearly blinded us, imagine that bright flashing disco light that gives you a headache, imagine them on a spaceship ten times worse and you're starting to get the idea.

I've seen Ax's spaceship land many times before, but this ship took much longer time than his did to land. It had taken ten minutes to get fairly close to us.

Now, ten metres above us, I stared at it until my head began to spin. Then I wondered why I was standing right underneath a landing spaceship.

"Everybody, spread out a bit," I felt like a general giving orders. Noone dared complain or argue, and I had to remain as a strong image for us.

As if it had been waiting for me and my friends to clear off, the Spaceship practically dropped, making a sound that I'm sure the whole galaxy heard. The lights immediately flickered off, and the soft buzzing of the engine calmed and faded.

All the lights in the ship flickered and died too. A door creaked and broke off. Even I could see this spaceship would not fly again. It was faulty, rusty, and now, damaged beyond repair.

Three creatures walked out of the damaged ship, none of them looked like they hadn't been in a few hundred battles.

One of them was an alien I'd never seen before. It was a dull, faded pink in colour, it stood on its hind legs like humans, but unlike humans, this creature had four arms. Each hand was armed with five claws, two sticking out of the wrist as it only had three fingers. It had had a curved back head, it's face held a determined expression…I think.

The other two were Andalites, male Andalites, I could tell. Neither of which had seen any of us. But it didn't take long for them to find us.

Darall! There are humans here, one of the Andalites alerted the pink creature I guessed was Darall.

"Yes, Cromstrall, I noticed," Darall held her voice expressionless. I knew Darall was a she, her tone of voice told me so.

Ruthi stepped forward from her small hiding place behind a thick tree with James.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" she asked patiently.

"I think that is the question we should be asking you," Darall said back. I stepped forward.

"My name is Tina, I am the ringleader of this gang, they are my responsibility for whatever happens," I said, relistening to my voice in my head, I realised something was in my voice that I hadn't meant to put in, my voice held a small amount of pride.

Darall nodded her head slightly, Cromstrall and the other Andalite just stared at me with ferocious looks.

"I am Lee," Lee spoke clearly, he obviously thought his matter-of-fact tone was funny, because I watched him trying to keep his face straight.

"I am Ruthi, Lee's little sister by a year," Ruthi said proudly, her voice held the same determination as Darall's.

"And I'm James, and who are you?" James questioned.

We are not here for questions, we are here to- the other Andalite was stopped by Darall.

"Forget it, Emstone, my name is Darall Lemesan Sarako Demiscrouche', these are my Andalite friends Cromstrall-Irthon-Anadele and Emstone-Orian-Teristophie," She said.

"What are you?" I asked, I had been itching to hear that all along, but afraid to ask.

"I am a Serisroden, we are a nearly extinct race, I am the last one of our kind in this galaxy," She said calmly. Before we could ask Darall more questions she spoke again.

"We believe the Empax are gaining control of this planet," Darall blurted out.

Of course, we have not proved this, Emstone said quickly, that is why we are here.

"The Em-what?" Lee asked.

Empax, they are a highly advanced species, in technology they rival of even the Ellimist, Cromstrall explained.

"And you think they're here?" I asked.

"Certain," said Darall.

Darall! That has not been proved, Cromstrall said harshly.

It is in my eyes, they have spread throughout our galaxy extremely fast, I have no reason not to believe they will come here now," Darall said shortly.

"How fast is this?" James asked, amazing, I thought, he had seen the question that could help solve the problem.

"Ten years, in your inferior galaxy it would barely take five," Darall replied. I began to realise I didn't like Darall all that much.

"I sense their presence, I have felt it since they got here," Darall said to Cromstrall and Emstone. Darall closed her eyes as if meditating, I wondered what she was doing, I would've asked, but I decided to stay quiet. I had the feeling Darall didn't want to be disturbed.

Darall opened her eyes in shock.

What is it Darall? Emstone asked.

"I sense blackness coming our way, the future…we will not be in," Darall spoke. Of course! Darall could read the future, I got excited, maybe she could read my future and my friend's futures.

"What about us?" I said in excitement. Darall already knew the answer to this because she didn't close her eyes or meditate. With her eyes full of sorrow she said to me.

"I see a future for you that is full of pain and fear, beyond that I cannot see, I cannot see much further than my death." Darall said softly.

The blackness Darall had been talking about, I had been foolish enough not to properly listen to her words. She and her Andalite friends would die.

We must fight the Empax, til our bitter end then, Cromstrall spat.

"No, that is not our reason for being here, I see now that that would be achieving other's destiny, no, we die when it is set to be," Darall said, her determination had faded a little. And her voice had weakened, but I knew she would always go on.

"Can we help?" Ruthi asked, instead of her voice being small and squeaky it now boosted confidence. And her eyes shined in the light of an adventure.

Darall closed her eyes and meditated, I felt something reading my thoughts and memories, it was just how my Parents had described a Yeerk to do.

"You are the children of a little band of morph-capable humans called the Animorphs, aren't you?" Darall smiled.

"Yes," we all said at the same time.

Then the power to help is inside of you, the power to morph has always been inside of you, Cromstrall said sternly like he always looked.

"No way! Do you know how many times I've tried to aquire an animal, and then morph it?" Lee said, not believing Cromstrall's words.

"Of course, it's never worked before, your powers are sleeping, only I can awaken them," Darall said. Before we could speak she spoke again. "And I already have, each of you felt a feeling as if I was reading your thoughts and memories right?"

"Er yeah," I told her.

"I was, I needed to know your past and future, but I was also searching for the sleeping braincell that knew how to morph,"she said. And I knew all the pieces of the puzzle fitted together perfectly.

The Empax will arrive here in less than five minutes, but I can give you some information on them. Emstone said to only us in private thought speak. Remember what your parents said about the Yeerks? Well the Yeerks were a small project of the Empax many years ago. They got out of hand when they started infesting their creators. So they dumped their creations on a deserted planet out of harms way.

Their style of attacking is the same as the Yeerks, no, they don't need host bodies neccesarily. They can live in their natural form for very long periods of time. As they only feed once every fortnight. They are stealing host bodies as I speak, why they picked humans is only because they were the next race in the universe for them to infest. There is bound to be someone you know that is infested by an Empax. Emstone finished.

No I didn't like this one bit, sure I had fantasies about being able to morph and fight the bad guys, but they were no more than fantasies. I never really wanted to.

"They are here, run, hide, you are your planet's last hope, fight like your parents before you, we will fend off the Empax til we are killed." Darall screamed after our retreating backs.

I hid up a tree, and watched as a hundred creatures marched towards Darall, Emstone and Cromstrall. I was trying not to yelp out in fear, it was only my instincts holding me back.

Some of the creatures were unlike the ones I had ever seen, about five were Andalites. Which tied a knot in my stomach, if there were infested Andalites, did we have hope?

Half of them though were my own species, half of them were humans. The human controllers –I guess they were what we could call controllers- were all carrying lethal weapons. I was watching the Controllers, I realised, not the fight, I scolded myself and looked for Darall, Emstone and Cromstrall. I wish I hadn't.

Emstone was down, gone, not alive, but at least he would never be used as a slave. Cromstrall was still going, although weakly. I watched him for a second while I had the chance. Almost immediately after I started to watch him. And Andalite controller whipped his tail, and with a thump I'll never forget. The two halves of his body fell to the floor.

I looked for Darall, but she was not there, I decided I didn't want to look for her after what I'd seen happen to Cromstrall.

"'Comon," I whispered to my friends, "let's get out of here while we still can." Noone said anything while we crept away from our hiding places and into the darkness. Now I knew that the dark was for real, it must've been nearly nine o'clock at night.

We found our way out of the woods, in silence. I suppose, everyone was thinking about today's events, and so was I.

******

Wow, that was the longest chapter I've ever written it was eleven pages long! I thought the last chapter was long 'cos it had seven pages.

Thank you so much Rachella and Kitai for reviewing the second chapter and thanks to Rasberry girl for reviewing the first chapter. You all really boosted my confidence, and made me write this a lot faster than I would've done.

Tell me if you think the kids should tell their parents what's happening or not, OK?

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