A/N: Okay, I'm SO SORRY that I haven't posted in forever, but I do have some good excuses! (kinda) First, my main computer is broken, so I've had to use my mom's, which crashes every fifteen minutes, literally. Second, I've been upset due to the fact that I celebrated both the one-year anniversary since I read the last Animorphs book and the four-year anniversary since my family moved to Texas. I have also been slightly sick, and had a touch of writer's block, and I had finals, the source of all evil in the world!!!! I should be able to get this up soon, though, because yesterday (5/28) was my last day of school, and now I'm FREE!!!!!!!! I have some minor surgery next Tuesday, so I may take a little longer to post the next chapter then, but this should go up soon. I'm just rambling now, so I'll get to my next point, and then let you read the chapter. Well, now for some shameless advertising my friends asked me to do… Read these awesome authors' work: fearlessness, Graceful Blondie, phennphenn, quackingduk, The Excessively Loud Waterfowl, Hanni B, morpherkidvb, gwenalyn, The Wandering Blue Andalite, Ami of Destiny, angelofcloud9, Cassie the Crazy Band Child, lillybell04, divel-17, Aidyn Elcrom, Peacockgirl, Angel of Drama, Marco's Andalite Princess, pottergirl, GinnyWPotter, mickEmousina, Lady Lupin, Phoenix Sol, Chibi Chang, Everlasting Fire, and many others that I'm sure I'm forgetting… I'll add them later…
Chapter 2
"No, that's not good, genius," Rachel said sarcastically, replying to my remark that Crayak being more powerful than before was not good.
Rachel, although she was tall, blonde, and beautiful, had a bad attitude. Out of all of us, she had probably changed the most during the war. When she began to fight, it was like some secret version of her psyche came out. She became some sort of Xena: Warrior Princess. Rachel was crazy, reckless, and when needed, remorseless. Ever since she had been rescued from her future death during the Sario Rip, she had been much better, but her irritability still showed pretty often.
We all shifted in an uncomfortable silence for a moment or two, unsure of what the Drode's announcement would really mean.
"I'll check up top," Tobias finally said, demorphing.
He used to be kind of a dweeb, I guess, with shaggy blonde hair and these dreamy blue eyes. The key words there were "used to be". During our first battle, Tobias became our first casualty of war. You see, if you stay in morph for over two hours, you get stuck in that morph. Forever. Tobias' new normal form was that of a red-tailed hawk. Through some nifty tricks of the Ellimist, Tobias regained his morphing power and the ability to morph back into his old human form for two hours at a time, but it was still just a morph.
As brown, white, and red feathers etched themselves across Tobias' skin, we all started talking at once.
"Who was he? What did he mean?" Jeanne, the other one of Jake's students asked. She was smart, witty, and beautiful. About two years older than me, Jake, Tobias, and Cassie.
"How can we kick his butt?" Rachel, of course.
Nothing up here, came Tobias' voice from the sky.
"So do you guys know that thing?" said Tom, Jake's brother.
"This is not good," muttered Toby thoughtfully. Toby was a Hork-Bajir seer. Normally, Hork-Bajir are not exactly the sharpest tools in the shed, but Toby was the exception. She was actually about as smart as an Andalite, and some people ever rumored her to have the gift of being able to see the future. Back on earth, she was leader of the Hork-Bajir colony and a silent observer of Congress. She had been named after Tobias, who the free Hork-Bajir saw as their liberator. That's another long story.
"What exactly did the Ellimist say again?" Jake prodded of Cassie. Jake, my best friend since I can remember, has brown hair, brown eyes, and the build of a football player.
Prince Jake, I am sorry, Ax said quietly. Ax, brother of Elfangor and one of my friends, was an Andalite, and Tobias' uncle. Andalites look like some sort of cross between a scorpion, a large deer, and a human. They have a human torso, the body of a deer, and a scorpion-like, deadly tail. Ax, besides being sometimes annoying due to his tendency to play with sounds and go crazy around food when in human morph, is brilliant, honorable, and a great guy to have on your side in a fight.
"You know, this is actually kind of funny," I said, smirking. "I mean, is there some sort of award for whichever all-powerful pain-in-the-butt kills us first?"
Who is this Crayak? Captain Miaker, leader of the Murkra asked. He looked like a large, lopsided, multi-colored crab with eyes that randomly opened and closed all over his exoskeleton. The Murkra were descendents of a race whose planet was drawn into a black hole and destroyed. Limited numbers escaped to form new colonies around the universe. One of the groups colonized Earth, but was destroyed sixty-five million years ago at the same time as the dinosaurs. This group had lived in their spaceship for the past few million years, for the most part staying frozen. After we unknowingly bought their ship, we had been working with them against The One and his Garatron minions. The Garatron and the Murkra had a little… history.
"He's like The One, but now probably hundreds of times more dangerous," Cassie explained. Another one of the original six Animorphs, Cassie was probably the kindest and most caring of all of us. She and Jake had a little thing for each other.
"Wait a second, wait a second!" Jake called. "One at a time. We're not getting anywhere. First, what exactly did Ellimist say?"
Cassie was quiet for a moment, but finally said, "'The six of your fates are entwined for all time; five of you are not whole without the sixth. What you did may not have been good, but it was needed.' He was talking about me rescuing Rachel."
"Well, that makes sense," I commented. "Don't we feel lucky. Okay, so you brought Rachel back. Which was needed for some reason or another. I assume that it was needed so that whatever was going to happen would happen. And considering the fact that she and Tobias, uh, played a direct part in getting rid of The One, she was probably 'needed' for that. Unless Jake and Cassie were about to get all lovey-dovey on us."
Both Jake and Cassie glowed red for a moment, and Jake turned so he wasn't looking at me, mumbling something about how hard it was to find good best friends these days. I just laughed. What can I say? The boy gets too serious sometimes, and needs me to say something to bring him back to reality.
You can't trust Ellimist, Ax warned. This time, I almost agreed with him. I was just plain sick of him, Crayak, The One, and any other all-powerful beings we didn't know about.
"Okay, so that works," Rachel said, breaking the silence. "But is there anything you can get from what he said about Crayak becoming more powerful, O Wise and Powerful Marco?" Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.
"She wants me," I stage-whispered to Tom.
Rachel snorted, and Tobias came back down from the canopy to land on her shoulder.
Nothing up top, Tobias repeated.
One by one, we all looked at Jake. At first he didn't say anything, but then he slumped and ran one hand through his hair, one of his little things he does when he's stressed.
"Listen, I don't know any more than you do, all I know is that Crayak has a bad attitude and has it in for me. And the rest of you. I don't think he was very happy with Rachel's decision when he came to her…" Cassie and Jake shared a dark look, and his gaze flickered over to Rachel for a split second. "Anyway, any and all ideas you have are welcome. This is a democracy, not an monarchy."
Jeanne grinned. "But Professor, I seem to remember you telling me and Santor–" she cut off before she could say the name of Jake's other student, who had been killed. "I seem to remember you telling me that you would be in charge, and I would be a low woman on the totem pole."
"Yeah, well…" Jake said, hiding a laugh.
"Oooh, not good!" I crowed. "Jake, Mr. I-Don't-Want-To-Be-Leader told them that he was in charge? Tut, tut, tut."
"Shut up, Marco," remarked Rachel in a laughing voice.
Good. I had people laughing again. God knew we were going to need it.
"Before we do anything, we need to get back to General Doubleday, Sandra, Guide, Menderash, and the other Murkra," said Cassie.
The ship, as well, added Yahal, another Andalite, the son of Visser Three's host body.
"I must check on my people," Toby said, lifting her head.
"How many do you think were absorbed?" Cassie quietly asked.
"Too many," Toby responded in almost a whisper.
There went my wonderful plan to have them laughing again.
Twenty-twobladedmonsters,Hork-Bajir,asTheOnecalledthem, said a new voice. It was too fast to be an Andalite or Tobias. It had to be a Garatron.
We whipped around, and before she even saw where the voice was coming from, Rachel started her grizzly morph. Firepower didn't sound like such a bad idea at that moment.
With two leaps, Ax made it to the source of the voice, and whipped his tail to its throat. It was Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar, leader of the Garatron, beaten and bloodied by The One, and having just woken up after The One knocked him unconscious.
Yahal joined Ax, keeping his tail blade quivering above the Captain's own tail.
I am sorry for before, Prince Jake, Ax said.
"Wait a second, what?"
I was scared and wanted to run, before, and I will not do that now.
I slapped my hand to my forehead. "Ax-man, you're not still on that, are you?"
Ax's tail pressed even closer to Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar's neck, and a thin line of bluish blood started to seep out. The Captain looked terrified.
Please,IwastrickedbyTheOne,IneversuspectedthatTheOnewasgoingtoturnagainstus. Ididnotknowhowevilheis. Whereishe? Please,mypeople,theonlyGaratroninthisgalaxy,havebeendestroyed. Youcametofightthethingthatkilledthem. Iwouldliketohelpyounow.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Tom quoted.
My mind shot off in a million ways at once. Yes, Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar had fought The One when he attacked the other Garatron, but he had also attacked us. Then again, he had nearly listened to Cassie during the battle when Santorelli was killed, until Rachel jumped the Garatron she had been battling until Cassie and the Captain started talking.
Ax locked his main eyes with Jake, and the rest of us continued to stare at Captain Bavaritun Larumian Hartar's quivering form.
What should I do, Prince Jake?
A/N: Yay!!! I'm finally finished!!! I'll go post now. Also, just warning you, but I may not be able to post as often as I would like this summer starting in July because I'm leaving on vacation, and won't have internet access very often. I will have my computer with me, so I will be able to write, and I'll post when I can, and post multiple chapters if I have to, but it may not be very often. Sorry! Now, reviews are appreciated! *grins*