A/N:  I've been trying to update.  Really, I have.  Kind of.  I've just had a sort of lack of inspiration, and that's made it hard, and I'm sorry.  Honestly.  And, even though I know you really don't care, here are my excuses:  First and foremost, FFN is down right now.  Secondly, school is evil.  In addition to normal homework and tests and projects, since I last updated, I've had to take the PSATs (which I got a really really really good score on, so that makes me happy), and I had finals.  Evil.  I did get my grades for last semester, though, and I did really well.  Anyway, what little free time I do have is still spent working on Both Sun and Moon.  I'm also involved in tons of extracurricular activities this year, so I've been involved in Sci-Fi Club, Literary Magazine, Poetry Club, Bonsai Club, Bibliophiles Club, my church choir (which is right now busy getting ready for a mission trip we're going on next summer to Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic), the community choir around here, voice lessons, and volunteering at a local animal shelter.  I had a concert with the community chorale, and that took up time.  I also finally started going out with the guy I've liked for nearly two and a half years.  However, there have been some problems with that because of a certain evil bitch…  Just don't even get me started.  And, I was in my play.  I was at school every day until eight at night for practice.  I was sooo busy.  My teachers were being evil and assigning sooooo much homework at the same time.  In one period, a Thursday night through a Monday night, I got fifteen hours of sleep.  Total.  I've also had inspiration for a new original novel, Time Enough to Wait, which I've already posted the first three chapters of.  If you guys were to read and review it, I would love you forever and ever and ever and ever and ever…  Finals also took up time and energy.  Then, over break, I worked on The American Animagi and Time Enough to Wait.  I also read the many awesomeness books I got for Christmas.  On New Year's, I went to Colorado for a ski trip, and so although I really did mean to write this chapter then, my dad wouldn't let me take my computer, so I couldn't.  Luckily, though, I was hit by inspiration on the bus ride back at two o'clock in the morning, and started writing the beginning, and wrote the rest yesterday and today.  So yeah, I'm trying to update, really, but it's hard.  This semester, I'm going to be in Man of la Mancha, and though my part isn't nearly as big as it was in Dark of the Moon, there will be four months of practices.  By the way, can anybody tell me why I, usually considered to be the sweet and innocent one in the group, was cast as a magical whore in the last play, and a male pimp in this one?  UGH!  So yeah, I'm going to be busy.  I'll update when I can, but it's hard.  I hate school.

Chapter 6

            So, the creep was probably after earth.  If so, he had no idea of how much of a mess he was getting into.

            Cassie and Jake looked troubled.  Even Marco's face was missing its usual cocky grin.

            "Don't worry," I laughed, appearing more assured than I felt.  "We won't let him do anything."

            "You really think so?" Sandra asked hopefully.

            I started to nod, but stopped.  No use in lying to the girl.

            No, she doesn't, Tobias clarified.  It's just the normal thing to do: Rachel acts overconfident in order to cheer up the rest of us.  You get used to it.

            "Oh," she said faintly.

            This…  Crayak will not harm our own ship, will it? Captain Miaker asked.  You have another ship now, and if he will destroy this ship, and with it, the last of the Murkra race, then I ask that you join your friends on the Garatron's ship.

            "Nobody knows what Crayak will do, okay, bud?" I exclaimed.  I didn't mean to explode like that, but I was scared.  Just as scared as everybody else, no matter what act I put on.  Perhaps even more; I wanted to go home to earth so I could see my family, the family who hadn't seen me in nearly four years.  I would like it if earth was still in one piece when I got there.

            Captain Miaker turned away, gazing disapprovingly at me with a few hundred of the eyes on his back.  He scuttled off, meeting with Raikon and Leenear, presumably to discuss what to do now that the crazy earthlings had taken control of their ship while the crazy all-powerful being hunted down them and their home.  I turned away, suddenly embarrassed at my outburst.

            Prince Jake, Ax called.  There was an odd edge to his voice.  Prince Jake.  There is an unidentified ship near the edge of our sensors.  It's approaching quite rapidly.

            Tom's voice crackled in over the speakers from the other ship.  "Are you guys seeing this thing?"

            "Yes.  Let's just hail it, figure out who they are and where they're going," Jake replied.

            "Uh, buddy?" said Marco, gazing at the sensor screen.  "You really should look at this first."

            Jake strode over to the computer screen.  "Look at what?"  He paused.  "Oh.  Crap."

            "What is it?" Cassied asked as we all crowded around the screen.

            "The ship is quite large," Menderash commented through the speakers.  "I believe it is even larger than the ship that kidnapped you, Prince Aximili.  Is that so?"

            ItisbiggerthananyGaratronships, Bavaritun volunteered.

            What species builds starships the size of planets? Tobias queried.

            From the Garatron ship, Yahal answered.

            None.

            Do you think that they would be willing to sell the secret to creating such large ships? Guide asked hopefully.

            "We should have visual confirmation in about ten seconds," said General Doubleday, calculating how long it would be for the ship to come close enough for us to get a good look.

            There was silence as we all peered through the clear windows of the bridge.  At last, a bright light shot toward us, quickly looming larger and larger, until it finally took on a shape.

            "What is that thing?" Jeanne asked in horror, looking at the huge machine.

            However, it wasn't all machine.

            "Crayak," Jake said grimly.

            As if it could hear Jake's voice, the ship turned, revealing a single, blood-red eye.  Sandra stifled a scream.  Crayak stared at the ships, evil radiating from him.  A chill went down my back.  The last time I saw him, it was horrible.  I had nearly given into him, his evil and his promises of power.  I had seen myself for who I was, and I had not liked it.  When I finally turned away from him, he had been angry.  And then I had to deal with David…

            "Nearly four years, and you're still upset about David," Crayak taunted.  "Not as strong as you seem.  Not as heartless.  Too bad, really."

            I moaned inwardly.  I so did not want to think about this.  I so did not want my friends to think about this.

            "I didn't think about it until you showed up," I shot back.  I knew that he could hear me, though walls of metal and the vacuum of space separated us.  "Besides, it's only been almost a year for me."

            "Ah, yes.  Cassie decided that she has the power to play God.  Cassie decided that she can choose who will die, and who will live.  I didn't see you trying to save those seventeen thousand Yeerks, Cassie.  Cassie, the killer with a conscience."

            The mention of the Yeerks made Jake prickle.  "Leave her alone," he commanded.  However, he only succeeded in changing Crayak's line of fire to himself.

            "And Jake.  Jake the Yeerk-Killer.  Never felt any remorse, did you?  When you watched your cousin murder your own brother in cold blood, you smiled.  That's why I still like you, Jake the Yeerk-Killer.  You don't care."

            "He does to!" Tom shouted vehemently from the other ship.  "He had to have Rachel kill me in the other timeline.  He had to."

            "He still smiled when you died."

            "Because I knew that Tom was at last free," Jake whispered.

            "And dead," Crayak returned.  "How cowardly is it to die for freedom?  Forget the glorious fight, the blood shed for freedom, when you can simply have your cousin kill you and leave you as nothing more than a memory in others minds and a faded strand of space-time?"

            "There was no other way," Tom hissed through gritted teeth.

            I felt my blood boil.  What right did this jerk have to come and remind us of memories we would rather forget, to twist them in ways that made us feel so ashamed?  To reveal our darkest secrets and fears to our friends, leaving us naked and unprotected?  Rage built up inside me toward this, this thing that was doing this to us.

            "Speaking of running away," continued Crayak, "Tobias, you weren't all that brave, either, were you?"

            My head snapped up.  "Don't you talk to him," I ordered.  "Don't you talk to him!"

            Rachel, Tobias began, but couldn't finish.  Already, Crayak had begun with his verbal assault.

            "You ran away, like a coward.  'Oh, dear, my lovely girlfriend is dead, and so I'm going to do the exact opposite of what she would have wanted me to do, and run away into the woods,'" Crayak mocked.  "Life is loss, Tobias.  If you want to continue to live, to be strong, to gain power in this universe, you have to learn to deal with loss.  You never have been able to, though, have you?  Always upset about not having parents, disappointed in your aunt and uncle's lack of care, angry when you found out that your father was murdered, murderous yourself when you learned that Loren lived so close to you your whole life, and never visited.  She shouldn't have been alive, anyway.  If she hadn't used the Time Matrix, she wouldn't be.  Elfangor never should have run away from his battle, his life.  And then you would have never been born.  You shouldn't exist, Tobias.  A freak that is not human, not Andalite, and not hawk should not exist."

            No, Tobias mumbled.

            Elfangor was trying to hide the Time Matrix, Ax opposed.  He was obeying his duty as an Andalite warrior.

            "By marrying a human girl and having a son on earth?" Crayak scoffed.  "He was a coward.  Yet his people did not seem to think so, am I right, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill?  They made him a prince, elevated him to the position of hero, cursing his little brother to a life lived in his shadow.  But you finally outgrew that, didn't you?  At last you are considered greater than your simpering nitwit of a brother.  You are Prince Aximili, the aristh who singlehandedly managed to use the humans to win the war, the expert on all things human."

            I did not do it all by myself.  My friends, my people helped me.

            "Your people," Crayak scoffed.  "You have no more idea who your people are than Tobias, the multi-species freak does.  You cannot decide whether it's the people who look like you or your friends.  It's weak.  The only people who matter are those that are powerful.  Andalites, obviously, have more power than humans.  Forget them.  They are weak.  They do not care about you."

            They saved my life more times than I can count! Ax protested.

            "Only so you would help save them.  Isn't that right, Marco?  You were against getting Aximili off the bottom of the ocean to begin with.  Only after you learned that he had information that would help you did you decide to accept him."

            "There was more to it than that."

            "Oh, but everything is black and white, Marco.  Black and white and a clear, bright line from point A to point B.  Who cares who gets hurt, if the plan works?"

            "That's how I first see it, but I do care."

            Crayak laughed.  "Only if it involves your own skin, Marco.  Your own skin, or those few who you really care about.  You're lying to yourself.  That's your biggest joke.  You don't care.  Do you remember Nora, Marco?"

            "Shut up," I snapped.  Crayak was more than just grating my nerves.  I wanted him away.  Not only did I dislike him, what he was doing, but I was also afraid.  Afraid of what he might do, and how I might help him.  I was a good guy.  Really, I was.

            "I couldn't help her," Marco stated, almost as though he was more trying to convince himself, instead of Crayak.  "I couldn't."

            "But you could have, Marco.  If you had just called, right away.  You might have saved her.  But that wouldn't have suited your needs, would it?  It would have kept you from getting back your big, happy family."

            "Why are you doing this to us?" Jeanne cried.  I heard Tom trying to comfort her through the speakers.

            "You!  You just want to be a hero.  You left your life on earth so you could rescue a complete stranger.  Simply so you could be a hero.  A dead hero.  Pitiful."

            "I had no life on earth!"

            "You could have made one."

            Guide stepped forward, nervously wheezing.  Crayak, I have a business proposition for you.  Sell me your memories, or maybe even just that ship, and you can become one of the most powerful merchants in the City of Beauty!  Perhaps on the entire planet!"

            In a mixture of thoughtspeak and normal speech, all of us shouted at once, "Shut up, Guide!"

            Once again, Crayak began to laugh.  "Iskoort.  Such a weak species.  A culture based on commerce, not war.  Heartbreaking.  If it weren't for you, then the Yeerks would be-"

            He fell silent suddenly.

            "What, Crayak, upset that your little plan to keep the Yeerks from discovering that there's another way failed?" I shouted.  Finally, here was a way to get back at him.  "Well, I've got news for you:  It's your own fault.  Your Howlers were ruined because we care about each other, we love each other."  I was on a high, shouting whatever I could to hurt him.  Yelling what it was that we had that he lacked.  I was vaguely aware of everybody else's nervous, warning glances toward me.  Marco kept motioning for me to shut up.  I suppose that ticking off an all-powerful being wasn't the smartest thing to do in the world, but I couldn't help it.  He scared me, made myself scare me, and that made me mad.

            "Delusions, although they sometimes serve some wonderful purpose such as setting off wars, seem to not be doing you any favors," Crayak announced slowly.  "Because I…  care so much about you," he continued with a voice dripping of irony, "I would like to strip you of these delusions.  Remember, I'm only doing this for you."

            His laughter echoed through the universe as everything around me changed.

A/N:  Once again, I'm soooooooooooo sorry that it took me so long to update.  And gyver21…  Are you serious when you say that you've read the entire trilogy nineteen times?  I'm flattered beyond all belief, if it's true…  To think that somebody would devote (does math, figuring that it take about four hours to read the entire trilogy once) over three full days of reading my stuff????  *faints at just the mere thought of it*