The Ellimist's Plan

Part One

Lost In Time



Chapter 1

Marco

It was pitch black.

Well, that's what I thought at first. Then I realized my gorilla eyes were closed, and wouldn't open. I quickly demorphed.

I was in a hot, sandy place. There were big, gigantic, sand drifts on every side of me. An unconscious lion was on one side of me. A grizzly bear was on the other. I had been the first one to wake up.

My name is Marco.

I could tell you my last name. It's been so long. There's no more secrecy anymore. So, just for the heck of it, my name is Marco Wilburn. I'm Hispanic, but on my mom's side. Wilburn might not be the most thrilling last name, but I'm thrilled to be able to finally say it.

I am an Animorph. Ok, so you probably know that. Let's face it; the whole world probably knows that. And just in case you're the one person that doesn't, I'll tell you.

Six years ago, I had the extreme misfortune of taking a walk through an abandoned construction site. I wasn't alone. My best friend Jake, his cousin Rachel, Rachel's best friend Cassie, and this guy Tobias, were with me.

And there, that night, I found out the truth: Aliens do exist.

And guess what? I was supposed to fight them.

The five of us were given the power to morph, to change into animals. Shortly after we were joined by an Andalite, one of the (mostly) good aliens. His name was Aximili-Esgarouth- Isthill. We called him Ax for short.

And we won. Six teenagers against the whole big bad Yeerk Empire. Except one little catch: Rachel died, in the last battle. But we went on. Life went on. The Yeerks were gone.

Or so we thought.

Here's the deal: the Yeerks, the bad aliens, came back. Two new Animorphs, Sara and Melissa joined us. Rachel came back from the dead (yes, back from the dead, long story).

Oh, and by the way, Yeerks aren't just the kind of aliens that shoot guns and hope you'll die. These aliens wanted our bodies. You see, Yeerks are like slugs. Parasites, actually. They crawl inside your ear, enter your brain. They take control of your body.

We were fighting the Yeerks, including Ax, who is now host to a very mean Yeerk, who once held the ranks Visser Three, and Visser One.

An alarm started buzzing. Before we had time to get out, there was an explosion. I was tumbling head over heals through blackness. And then, I woke up.

I reached over and shook the grizzly bear, Rachel. No response. I checked to make sure her heart was beating. It was, and I moved onto the lion, Sara. She woke up.

Ok, this is not where I was before, she said calmly.

"No kidding," I told her, then noticed she wasn't exactly in the greatest shape, there were cuts and bruises all over her lion body. "You might want to demorph."

Yeah, She started demorphing. I stood up to see how much I could see. Not much.

"Where are we?" Sara asked. She had finished her demorph and was standing up. Sara is very short, with golden brown hair that goes down to her waist, and blue-gray eyes. And when I say she's short, I mean short. I'm not exactly the tallest person in the world myself, but Sara's not even five feet tall.

"It's either a desert or a really big sandbox." I answered.

Sara pushed her hair back away from her face. "It's hot here, wherever it is. But how did we get here?"

I tried to think about why we could be there, but all that came up was a memory of a T-rex...

"Sario Rip!" I exclaimed triumphantly. "That's why we're here."

"Great. We just don't know where we are. I think I'll climb that big sand pile thing," she said. "Maybe I can see where we are, or find the others."

"I'll try to wake Rachel up," I said. I grabbed handfuls of her bear fur and yanked. "WAKE UP!"

Hey! Hey! What are you doing? She yelled at me. She swung one of her giant paws at me. I ducked.

Oh. Where are we?

"Sario Rip. That big explosion threw us somewhere. Sara is trying to see where we are. I don't know what happened to the others."

Rachel started to demorph. She went back to the body she had always had. Way too tall, blonde, blue eyed, you get the idea. Except for one little thing...

"I'm only sixteen? I should be nineteen! That stupid Ellimist!"

Well, you can't please them all.



Chapter 2

Sara



Climbing a big pile of sand is not the easiest thing in the world to do. In fact, it might just be the exact opposite of easy. For one thing, I couldn't find anything to hold onto. The sand kept slipping out from under me.

It was hot. The sun was high up in the sky, which told me that it was about noon, and I would be burnt to a crisp within an hour. Sunburn has always been one of my enemies.

I looked up. The top of the pile loomed up in front of me. I had a bad feeling that all that would be on the other side would be another pile. I kept crawling, and crawling, and crawling. Finally I reached the top.

I pulled myself up over the top. Panting and sweating I looked.

It's always been my goal to be an archeologist and/or paleontologist. I couldn't decide whether to study ancient animals, or ancient people, so I studied both. Either way, nothing could have prepared me with coming face to face with ancient Egypt.

The Nile flowed about a mile away from me. The city of ancient Alexandria was spread out along it. There were houses of mud bricks, and a large palace. Palace? Of who? What Pharaoh, what year?

Village people hurried throughout the city, most dressed in the strange Egyptian clothes. The harbor was in view.

Attempting to stay calm, I slid down the pile on my butt.

"So where are we?" Rachel asked.

"Egypt. A long time ago." I answered.

"Well, that's an improvement." Marco said. "Last time we got blown by a Sario Rip we ended up around dinosaurs. At least here, there are people."

"People we can't talk to," I pointed out. "Unless either of you know Ethiopian, Hebrew, Greek, or any of the other languages these people might speak."

"Besides, I doubt we're dressed right," Rachel said, indicating her black leotard.

"It's always clothes with you, isn't it?" Marco rolled his eyes. "I guess some things dying just can't change."

Rachel gave him an evil look. "How we supposed to get around unnoticed if we're dressed differently?"

Marco cringed. "Ok, your right," he admitted. "But where are the others?"

"This Sario Rip thing, is it possible we were blown to different places? Not time zones or anything, but could they have been blown into the city, maybe?" I asked.

Marco and Rachel shrugged simultaneously. I sighed.

"Well, should we go look for them? Steal some clothes?"

"Not like we have a better plan," Rachel said. She shielded her eyes with her hands and looked at the sand pile. "Let's morph. climbing that thing does not look like fun." She started morphing a seagull. "Gulls are everywhere, right?"

I had no idea. "Uh...supposedly. Let's hope so." I followed her. Gull was one morph I had.

I didn't like the way my skin turned snowy white, like I was dead, but besides that the morph was fairly easy. I morphed very quickly, something I've always been able to do. When I was finished, I lifted my wings and flapped up.

Seagulls have ok eyes, and are good fliers. I flew towards Alexandria, and Marco and Rachel followed.

You know, when we first found out who Erek was, didn't he say he helped make the pyramids? Marco asked.

Who's Erek?

How would I know? I was outside. As backup. Rachel said.

Who's Erek? I echoed. No answer. Ok. I'll just suppose this is some secret inner-Animorph thing I'm not supposed to know. Still no answer.

I Oh, so you've been 100% honest, Sara/I? A nagging little voice in my head taunted.

Sometimes it sucks to have a conscience.



Chapter 3

Cassie



I woke up in a palace.

There's no other way to describe it. I must have been in a hallway.

The floor was cool marble against my cheek. I could see open doors to rooms up and down the narrow path. A young girl, probably fifteen or sixteen, was shaking at me.

"Wake up! If you wish to live, wake up, now!"

I groggily opened my eyes. Somehow I was human again. I vaguely remembered demorphing before passing out again.

The girl had dark hair and dark eyes, and was dressed in white linen clothes that were pretty showy. She yanked me up to me feet and pulled me down the hall. I let myself be pulled, surprised by her strength.

She dragged me down stairs into a room littered with far less beautiful items that I had seen in the hallway and in rooms I had peeked in. There were other young girls, and some older women. Even though it was very different from anything I had ever seen, I assumed it was a kitchen.

"And who is this?" an old lady with tangled gray hair asked.

"I found her in the hallway. I don't know where she came from." the girl who had brought me here said.

"Dalila, what have I told you about strangers? This girl could be a murderer." the older lady said. I gulped.

"I don't think she's a murderer," Dalila said. "Can't we keep her here? She can help."

"That Dalila," I heard another girl whisper. "Doesn't she ever think?" This girl was very beautiful, with fair skin, and icy blue eyes.

"Never," a girl with short black hair said.

"Nyla, Zalika, stay out of this." The old lady snapped. Both girls shut their mouths.

"Now, Dalila, what language does this girl speak? I haven't heard her say one word."

That made me think. Wherever I was, I was sure it wasn't America, England, Australia, or any of the other places that spoke English.

"I speak the language you do," I said. They all stared at me.

"You speak our language?" Dalila echoed. "That...that is good. I did not expect it."

Then it dawned on me. They weren't talking in English. And neither was I. If this was a Sario Rip, as I had assumed, then we would not be able to speak other languages. Or would we? The last Sario Rip had been to the times of the dinosaurs. Not a lot of people to test languages on then.

"Yes," I said, not knowing what else to say.

"And, how did you get here?" the elderly woman asked.

"I don't know," I answered. "I woke up in the hallway, I don't know where I was before then."

"What is your name?"

I decided to go honest with this one. "Cassie."

"Cassie." the older woman repeated. "Well, if your going to stay here, go with Nyla to get some proper clothing."

"Yes, ma'am." I said. I wanted to look for the others, but what choice did I have?

Nyla turned out to be the girl with the blue eyes. She silently led me to a room and tossed a bundle of white cloth at me. I unfolded it and tried to figure out how to put it on.

"You'll need to take that Ithing/I off first." she said, indicating my bright orange leotard.

I did, but still couldn't figure out how to put the white garment on.

Nyla gave an exasperated sigh. "Like this," she said and wrapped the thing around me, fastening it at the shoulders and waste. "Haven't you ever worn a chiton before?"

I debated whether or not it was a hypothetical question before answering "No."

Nyla rolled her eyes. "Have you ever cooked before, either?"

I had, but not the type of food that would be cooked in the kitchen I had been in before. "No."

Nyla sighed. "This is going to be harder then I thought."





Chapter 4

Jake



I woke up in a bathtub. A very big bathtub, in a very big bathroom. I was floating on the surface, a tiger. I could see a panther on the marble floor, not in the pool. A hawk was perched on the edge of a marble bench.

I began to demorph. The water was warm. I swam to the edge and climbed out.

You're awake, Tobias said. I woke up a while ago. I don't know how long I was out before that.

"Where are the others? Where are we?"

Your guess is as good as mine,

A large door swung open, and a woman walked in, surrounded by maids. She either didn't notice us, or didn't care. She stripped down and climbed into the pool/bath. I could practically see Tobias's hawk eyes popping out of his little hawk head.

She was probably around eighteen, nineteen, my age. In looks, she had dark hair and dark eyes, like an Egyptian or something. She was very pretty, almost balancing right on the line between pretty and beautiful.

"Now then, who are you?" she asked.

"I--I--" I stuttered.

Oh, please.

Melissa had waken up. She sounded extremely exasperated.

"Is that your pet?" The woman motioned towards Melissa.

"Uh...yeah, my pet..." I said, still stumbling over the words.

"I am sure you know who I am, Cleopatra, Queen and Pharaoh of Egypt. And you are...?"

Cleopatra?! Melissa and Tobias yelped in one voice.

"I am...I am..." What was a male Egyptian name? I mentally focused on my old history lessons. Weren't the Romans and Egyptians around at the same time? And wasn't Marcus or Marc a common Roman name? But didn't Cleopatra marry a guy named Marc? "I'm Marcus." I finally answered.

Cleopatra seemed satisfied by this answer. "You are Roman, then?"

"Yes," I agreed. "Definitely Roman." I prayed this was a good thing.

"Then may I ask why you're in my bathing room?"

"Well...I..."

You were cleaning it, Tobias suggested.

"I was cleaning it," I finished. One of the maids combed some kind of scented oil through her hair, and she ducked under. I waited for her to resurface.

"You may leave now," Cleopatra said. I headed for the big doors. Tobias and my "pet" panther followed me.

As I was leaving, I nearly bumped right into two maids entering with their arms full of towels.

"Oh, sor-" I started to mumble, then I noticed who one of those maids was. "Cassie?"

"Jake?"

"You know him?" the other maid whispered to Cassie. Cassie nodded.

"Can I talk to her for just a second?" I asked the other maid.

"Yes, but hurry," she said, giving Cassie a knowing smile. Cassie handed her the towels, grabbed me by my arm and pulled me down the halls.

"So you're a maid now?" I asked. "You had so much potential, too."

Cassie rolled her eyes. "If this is a Sario Rip, who knows how long we'll be here? I'm trying to make the best of it so I won't end up starving in the streets. Have you noticed we're speaking the same language as them?"

"Huh? Language?"

"Wherever this is, I doubt we should be speaking English here, but we can talk to them, and they can talk to us."

"Yeah...I definitely...didn't notice that," I admitted. "What are you wearing? And where are Marco, Rachel, and Sara?"

"I think it's called a chiton," she said, adjusting the very loose fabric. "And they're not with you?"

"Nope. But, I think I know where we are."

"That's an improvement. Where?" She asked.

I hesitated. "Wherever Cleopatra is. Egypt, I guess."

"Cleopatra? Egypt?" Cassie fiddled with her chiton, or whatever. "So how are we supposed to get back? I don't think there's any explosive devices here, and even if there was, where could we set them off?"

I shrugged. I vaguely noticed that neither Tobias nor Melissa had said anything. "Well, at least we know time isn't a problem. When ever we get back, it should be exactly the same time it was when we left."

"Yeah. That's how it worked last time, at least. I have to go. Dalila's waiting for me." Cassie scampered off to the room with the gigantic bathtub.

So what do we do now? Tobias asked.

"Find Marco, Rachel and Sara," I said. "You two can go out and see if they're anywhere around here."

I see a town outside, Tobias said. We can go there.

"Ok. I'll stay here and look."



Chapter 5

Rachel



Ancient Egyptians could not dress. Actually, a lot of them weren't completely dressed. A lot of the woman weren't wearing shirts (which, in my opinion, was the reason Marco was acting weird) and most of the men were wearing what looked suspiciously like loincloths.

I say we snatch those tight dresses, Sara suggested. You know, the ones with tops. I think they're called kalasiris's.

The kalasiris's were tank top floor length dresses.As long as they don't show anything, that's fine with me. I agreed.

And what am I supposed to wear? A loincloth?! Marco exclaimed.

You see anything else? Sara asked. Marco didn't answer.

We landed on the ground and demorphed behind a cart loaded with clothing. Sara and I each grabbed a white kalasiris. White seemed to be the only color, which is too bad because it's not exactly my color, and it definitely isn't Sara's. She's too pale for it. Marco grabbed a white loincloth, pouting the whole time.

"Um...how are we going to change?" Sara asked. Silence. We couldn't put the newly stolen clothes over our morphing clothes, and I was not about to take my morphing outfit off in the middle of a crowded street with Marco watching. However, if we ran around in the morphing outfits we were bound to attract some attention. Plus we had to get out from behind the cart before the merchant noticed we were stealing his clothes.

Hey! Is that you guys? Tobias's familiar thought speak voice said in my head.

"No, it's some other idiots in spandex," Marco hissed.

Well, Jake and Cassie are at the palace. Melissa's up here with me. That's all of us.

"Did any Yeerks get blown back with us?" Sara whispered.

Haven't seen any. Tobias and Melissa swooped down and grabbed our newly acquired clothes in their talons. Melissa was in a bird of prey morph, a peregrine falcon.

Marco, Sara, and I morphed into our own birds of prey: me, a bald eagle, Marco, an osprey, and Sara, a merlin. We flew after Tobias and Melissa who were leading us to the palace.

So why are we going to the palace? Sara asked.

Cassie's already got a job there, Tobias said. Since we don't know how long we'll be here, we might as well make the best of it.

My family-- Sara began.

Will never know you're gone, Marco said. The way these things work, when we get back it will be like no time has passed.

But what if we're stuck here for years?

No one answered. No one could answer.

We arrived at the palace and swooped down in through a window. The first person we saw was Jake, looking oddly out of place.

"You found them already?" he asked. "Demorph before Cassie and her friends get here." We did.

Cassie hurried into the room, carrying an armload of clothing. Two girls followed behind her.

"This is them," she told the girls. "Marco, Rachel, Melissa, Sara, Tobias. Oh, and Jake."

"I am Dalila," one of the girls said.

"Zalika," the other said, not looking nearly as enthusiastic as Dalila.

"You have proper clothing?" Dalila motioned to the clothes Marco, Sara, and I had stolen.

"Some of us do," Tobias said.

Cassie handed Melissa one of the weird dress-like things she was wearing. She tossed loincloths to the skeptical looking Jake and Tobias.

"Why do you not change?" asked Zalika. I noticed her glance a little eagerly from Tobias to Jake to Marco.

The six of looked at Cassie.

"Um...could we have boys and girls rooms?" she asked. Zalika and Dalila seemed confused.

Finally, Dalila shrugged and said, "There's an empty room next door that some of you could go in--"

Before she had even finished talking Jake, Tobias, and Marco had left the room so fast they were practically a blur.

I started to change into my kalasiris. "What jobs will we be doing here?" I asked.

"Mostly cooking, cleaning, and assisting the royal family." Zalika said. I saw she was looking at Sara's hair strangely, and noticed that both she and Dalila had very short hair.

"Although, you two may have potential for another job," Dalila said, pointing to Sara and me.

Sara raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean?" she asked.



"She has a beautiful face," Dalila gestured to me. "and you have a good figure." she told Sara.

Sara shrugged. "Whatever you say. I never turn down flattery." "Exactly what job do you want us to do?" I said as I smoothed down the kalasiris skirt.

"What else?" Dalila asked. "You'd make perfect dancing girls."



Chapter 6

Tobias



I was attempting to figure out how to make the stupid loincloth thing stay up when I heard a loud commotion from the room the girls were in. It sounded an awful lot like Rachel yelling at someone.

"What now?" Jake muttered.

The three of us hurried out of the large bedroom and into the hall where Jake hesitantly knocked on the door of the room the girls were in. Cassie answered it, wearing a pained expression.

"What's going on in there?" Jake asked.

Cassie sighed. "Dalila suggested that Sara and Rachel should be dancing girls."

Marco burst out laughing. "That's all? I thought it was something serious."

"It will be serious if Rachel murders Dalila," Cassie said. Marco stopped laughing for about a second, then restarted.

"Sorry," he gasped. "Just the thought of Rachel...as a dancing girl..."

There was a crash from inside the room. "Uh-oh," Cassie said. "Rachel just threw a vase at Dalila. Jake, go stop her."

"Me?" Jake repeated. "No way. Tobias can do it."

"What do you think I am, crazy? I don't want a vase thrown at me." I said.

Cassie sighed again. "I think everyone's dressed. You can come in now."

It was not a pretty sight. Rachel, looking enraged, was screaming at Dalila that the odds of her being a dancing girl were about the same as the odds of her becoming a pacifist. Zalika, Melissa, Cassie, and Sara (who didn't look very pleased herself) were staying out of the way.

"Rachel?" Jake said slowly. "I'm sure Dalila didn't mean it as an insult. And maybe you shouldn't be trying to kill her and maybe wipe out a thousand of her ancestors." he added in a whisper.

Rachel calmed down. Apologized. Picked up the broken pieces of the vase and threw them away.

And the whole time I could see her wanting to kill Dalila. And Jake.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"This is so humiliating," Marco said.

"Stop moving!" Sara commanded.

"But in this position, anyone could just come over and look up my...uh...little skirt thing." Marco whined. He was on his hands and knees, and Sara was standing on his back so she could reach the window she was washing, since Sara had downright refused to sit on anyone's shoulders in the dress she was wearing, and there was no other morph-free way to reach the window.

"Trust me, no one would want to," I said.

Just then, contradicting me, Zalika and Dalila wandered in, purposely looked up Marco's loincloth, giggled, and walked out.

Sara and I both burst out laughing. Marco did not look quite as amused, and tried to get away.

Note to self: Do not try to make a quick getaway when you have someone standing on your back.

As Marco tried to crawl out from under Sara, she slipped and fell on top of him. He collapsed.

"Should I leave you two alone?" I asked, still laughing, as Sara tried to get off Marco, but they had gotten so tangled up she couldn't. I grabbed her hand and tried to pull her off, but instead she accidentally pulled me down, and I got stuck, too. To make things even worse, Jake and Cassie chose that exact moment to walk in.

I don't really know what they thought had happened. Marco, Sara, and I looked like we had been playing a game of ITwister/I. Whatever they thought was probably not very good.

"This is not what it looks like," I said. Suddenly Sara managed to squirm out, leaving Marco and me. I don't even want to think about what Ithat/I looked like when Rachel came in.

"What the...?"

.



Chapter 7

Nyla



the strangers puzzled me. They must have been foreigners, the way they acted, but they spoke our language.



Dalila thought they were wonderful. She was especially interested in the tall one, Jake, I believe he was called. At first she had thought there was something between him and the one with dark skin, Cassie, but Cassie had assured her there was not.



Zalika was suspicious as well, but she didn't really care. She is very tiny, her father was a Pygmy. She inherited her height from him, although she is not black. Perhaps this is what made her so taken with the one called Marco. Either way, the strangers that were staying here did not bother her at all. She is a terrible flirt.



Dalila says I am ruthless. I do not care about anything then myself, she says. That is not true. I care about my family. I care about the other servants, which is why the strangers worry me.



Zalika says I never let anyone get close to me. That may be true. She is my best friend, but there are still some things I cannot explain to her, things she can never understand. Like why I do not wish to fall in love, or be married, as both she and Dalila desire.



Is it my fault my father murdered my mother? That she was willing to give him anything, but he killed her because I was not a son, and then sold me to the palace?



Most marriages are not about love, I know this. I also know I could be married, if I wished. Queen Cleopatra allows marriages among slaves. However, this is not one of my desires. Most girls at my age are married. I am older then both Dalila and Zalika, who should also be married.



But--



"Does my hair look nice?" Zalika asked.



"It better for as long as we spent working on it," I said. Dalila nodded.



Zalika's dark, thick hair had been braided into dozens of little tiny braids. Zalika, Dalila, myself, and some of the younger girls had spent hours working on it, all so Zalika could attract the strange boy she desired.



Zalika was wearing our blue chiton, the only thing any of us owned that wasn't white. Blue cloth is very expensive. We had all saved up for a year to buy it, so we could all share.



"Oh, you look so pretty," Dalila gushed. That's the way Dalila is. She's the youngest, and always saying and doing nice things that may just be a little too nice. Like helping Cassie and her friends.



Zalika shook her braids. She is not beautiful, but she still manages to attract many males. She says you have to have the right attitude. Know how to act.



She hooked glass earrings in her ears, and a necklace with glass beads around her neck. Zalika has a long neck like a swan.



"Let us go," she said. Dalila and I followed her down the hall.



Whether by chance or by fate, I do not know, the boy Marco was at the end of the hall alone. He had not seen us.



Zalika pulled us out of sight. "The gods have planned it!" she whispered.



I shrugged. "Go ahead." I knew she would. And I knew this Marco did not stand a chance.





Chapter 8

Marco



I was recovering from the fall I had just had when one of the Egyptian girls approached me. She was even shorter then Sara, and kind of pretty, in an unusual way. I think her name was Zalika.



"What are you doing out here all alone?" she asked me in a low voice.



I rubbed my sore bottom. "Don't even ask."



"Oh, but I really want to know," She said, lowering her blue painted eyelids.



I debated whether or not I should flirt with her, because that was definitely what she wanted. I decided I had nothing to lose.



"MARCO!" Rachel's loud voice demanded from the room I had just left. "Get in here right now!"



I sighed. "I have to go," I told Zalika. She pouted, but I didn't really have any choice. If I stayed, Rachel would come out to get me, and although obeying her call wasn't the most dignified thing to do, having her drag me away by the collar wasn't either. If I had been wearing a shirt with a collar.



It turned out Rachel had needed me to measure exactly how much taller she was then me, to take care of a bet between her and Sara. I was not pleased. Neither was Rachel when she lost the bet. In fact, she sent me back out to the hall. Yes, sent me, like I was a naughty first grader.



Zalika was still in the hall. "Do you always obey what this girl tells you to do?" she asked, disapprovingly.



"Well, the alternative is to die," I said. Zalika looked startled.



"Just kidding," I said quickly. "It was a joke." Zalika seemed puzzled, but relieved.



"So, where exactly do you people come from?" she asked me.



"It's a secret," I said. Zalika raised her eyebrows, and smiled slowly.



"How mysterious."



"I know."



Sara and Cassie came out of the room then. I guess they were going off to do some chore or another.



Cassie looked at me skeptically as they passed, but neither of them said anything.



"You seem to be quite taken with one of those girls," Zalika said sadly.



"Who? Cassie?" I asked, wondering how obvious I was being.



"No. The other one." Zalika played with one of her tiny braids.



"Sara? No, you've got it all wrong," I lied.



"I'm never wrong," Zalika said, and turned to go. As she walked, her hips swinging back and forth, her hair and skirt swishing the same way. "But I don't think you shall be taken with her for much longer."





Chapter 9

Zalika



I approached the girl Sara as she was hanging laundry on the clothesline. I helped for a while, then said, "I notice you show some affection for Marco."



She dropped the wet towel she had been holding.



"You better get over it fast," I hissed quietly, so her friends couldn't hear.



Sara whirled around to face me. "And what if I don't?"



I smiled. It was a mean smile, and I did it purposely. "Then I'll make sure you and all your friends get kicked out of the palace. The streets of Alexandria are not kind to those without money." I said this truthfully. I could very easily get all of them kicked out. Tell the right lies, and you can do nearly anything.



Sara's eyes widened. I knew she could tell I wasn't bluffing.



"Fine," she mumbled, looking down.



"I see everything that happens in this palace," I told her. "If I find out about anything...out you go. Don't tell anyone about this, either."



"Ok," she said. I left her to finish the work.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Nyla pulled me aside later. "What are you doing to that girl?" she hissed at me.



I turned away from Nyla. "Nothing. What could I possibly be doing to her?"



"You might think I'm the ruthless one," Nyla said. "but you're the only one I see doing anything to deliberately hurt people."



"I'm not deliberately hurting her," I snapped. "She's just in my way. If she didn't interfere with my plans, I'd leave her alone."



Nyla released her grip on my arm. "You really will do whatever it takes to get what you want, won't you?" she asked me. I nodded without hesitation.



Nyla walked away from me, her beaded jewelry jangling. She stopped. "Why?" she called over her shoulder. "Why does this one boy mean so much to you? You can have anyone you want."



I didn't answer. She left.



I went to the kitchen and ate a quick lunch. No one else was there except Dalila, so the others had already eaten, or had yet to eat.



I nibbled at my bread, and thought about what Nyla had asked me. Why did this one strange boy mean so much to me?



I threw my leftovers to the dogs then left the kitchen and the watchful eye of Salihah, the cranky old woman who watches over Dalila, Nyla, and me. I had chores to do. I needed to assist Queen Cleopatra. Instead, I walked slowly on the way to her room where I was to help her with her makeup.



My worn sandals made a slapping noise as I walked. When I entered Cleopatra's room, she looked at me with annoyance, for my tardy.



She sat waiting in a chair covered with pillows, waiting for me to serve her like the queen she is. As I set to work painting her face, she asked me a question.



"There is a new servant here, I believe. He said his name was Marcus, but from what I heard it is really Jake. What do you think of this new servant?"



Marcus? "He seems like a good worker to me," I lied as I applied the kohl to her eyes. Truthfully, I hadn't seen him work at all yet, but I was not about to let anyone in Marco's little group get sent away yet. If one went, more then likely they all would.



"That is good," Queen Cleopatra said. If I had bothered to wonder why she had asked me, maybe I would have realized it was slightly strange. But I didn't.



I began doing the queen's hair, placing the fancy gold Egyptian hairpiece on it. She inspected her appearance, then let me go.



I was heading back to the kitchen when I saw Marco coming towards me.



"Hey," he said. Smiled. I smiled back. Squinted at him, trying to see where the skeptism that flooded from him came. Emotions are one thing I've always been able to read. Feel, actually. I could feel the skeptism coming from him in strong waves.



"Where did you go before?" he asked me.



I smiled again. "Secret."



"You have a lot of secrets, huh?"



"I could say the same thing to you."



"Yeah, I guess you could." He was uncomfortable now. I had said the wrong thing.



But it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. Oh, no, definitely not. I had everything just as I wanted it.



Chapter 10

Cassie



We'd been in Alexandria for three months.



Yes, three. Months. And we still had no idea how to get back.



It was not a good situation. The fact that we had been trapped two thousand years in the past for all this time had been getting to us. We were not being very nice to each other. Particularly Rachel and Marco, and Sara and Marco.



Rachel and Marco had never gotten along. However, they seemed to have gotten worse since Rachel came back. Take this conversation, for example:



Marco: "Is it just me, or did death make you slightly more cranky?"



Rachel: *Censor beeeeeeeeeeP*



Marco: *Censor beeeeeeeeeeP*



You get the idea.



And as for Marco and Sara...well, I'm not sure what was going on there. I wouldn't say they had entirely gotten along since Sara came, but now they just avoided each other. Or rather, Sara avoided Marco, and Marco seemed clueless. This is your basic conversation between Sara and Marco:



Marco: "Hi."



Sara: "Hi. Oh, would you look at the time? Got to go," followed by an exit that would make Speedy Gonzales proud.



Surprisingly, Sara and Rachel got along quite well. Go figure.



I was making bread. Nyla was there, too. Nyla never said much to me. She worked silently. I had long since given up trying to talk to her.



Tobias came into the kitchen, dragging his feet and looking pretty pathetic. "What's wrong?" I asked him. He shrugged.



"I dunno. It's just this whole...thing."



I knew he was talking about the Sario Rip. "Yeah," I admitted. "It's getting to me, too."



I finished with the bread and snuck out of the kitchen. Either Nyla didn't notice, or didn't care. Tobias followed me.



"Spending the rest of my life in Egypt isn't something I'm looking forward to," Tobias said.



"Me either," I agreed.



"It's not only that," Tobias paced back and forth. "I'm actually starting to get used to living here."



"Same here. In a way, I almost don't want to leave. I mean, what do we really have to go back to?"



"Saving the world." Tobias gave a sad little half-smile. "Again."



Dalila came running down the hall. Her cheeks were flushed red, and she had an excited look in her eyes. "You will never believe what is happening!" she squealed in her energetic, teen- without-a-worry way.



"What?" I asked, smiling. It's hard not getting cheerful around Dalila.



"Cleopatra's riding on a ship!" she exclaimed, practically jumping up and down with excitement. "And we've been chosen to go with her!"



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"We" turned out to include Dalila, Nyla, Zalika, me, Tobias, Jake, Melissa, Sara, Marco, and assorted other servants I didn't know very well.



And the thrilling ship ride turned out to be...well...not what I had expected.



News Flash: Ships in ancient Egypt are not what they are in the twenty-first century.



For one thing, they were rowed. By slaves. It was inhumane. For another, the ship rocked back and forth, and back and forth, and back and...



The result was seasickness, and lots of it. As in, every single person on the ship. Cleopatra ( I know, I had to take care of her once). Nyla, Zalika, Dalila. All the other servants. And us Animorphs. Oh, except Sara. She must have a stomach like a rock or something. She was the only person on the ship not sick. And I mean only.



She was sitting with Rachel and me. Both of us were fighting the urge to throw up, and she was eating a fig.



She was chatting on about anything and everything, trying to take our minds off our stomachs, but it wasn't particularly working.



"Why don't you talk about something important?" Rachel asked. "If you want to entertain us, you could talk about something other then the weather."



"Like what?" Sara asked.



"Like why your avoiding Marco."



Sara choked on her fig. She recovered quickly. "I am?"



"Don't play dumb," Rachel said. "I would normally think it was his fault, but it's pretty obvious he doesn't know what's going on."



Zalika came in then. Sara froze. "I have to go," she said, and hurried out to the top of the ship.



"What was that all about?" Rachel asked me. I shrugged.

Chapter 11

Sara I went topside. I'm probably the only one on the entire ship that's not seasick. I expected it. I haven't thrown up since I was about five. I think at some point I just taught myself not to.

There was some guy leaning over the side of the ship, barfing. I couldn't tell who it was, but since I had nothing better to do I walked up beside him. I rested my arms on the side of the ship, and looked to see who it was.

Marco.

I nearly had a heart attack. I was about to leave, when he spoke to me. "IHow/I can you not be sick?" he asked me.

"I don't know," I said honestly. You'd think that if the constant rolling of the ship didn't get to me, the sight of so many other people tossing their cookies would.

Marco stood up straight. Wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. I was getting ready to make a break for it when he started talking to me again. "What do you think about this whole time warp thing?" I shrugged. "It's weird, that's for sure, but in another way so awesomely cool. I mean, I saw a Ipyramid/I. An actual pyramid. And the sphinx. When it still had a nose. This makes IThe Mummy/I seem pretty pathetic." Marco laughed. "I guess I never thought of it that way. But I still love IThe Mummy/I. Even if it was basically a love story." "You don't like love stories?" "The ones without happy endings are depressing, and the ones with happy endings are unbelievable." Marco shrugged his shoulders. "What's to like?" I thought for a moment. "Did you see ITitanic/I?" "Not by choice," Marco said, shaking his head and rolling his eyes at the same time. "Did you cry?" "No!" Marco exclaimed immediately. I raised one eyebrow. "Ok, maybe a little." He admitted sheepishly. I grinned. "But what does that have to do with anything? The ship sinks, the guy dies. End of story." "The point isn't that he died." I said. "It's the time they had together, that changed the girl's life forever. If everyone went through life never getting close to anyone just in case they died, where would we be then?" I never got to hear Marco's answer. A large wave slammed into the side of the ship and sent me flying towards Marco. He grabbed my arm and steadied me, but I jumped back at his touch. He looked hurt.

"What's going on? Why are you avoiding me like this?"

I seemed to be getting asked that question a lot lately. I looked down into the waves.

"Sara?" I still didn't say anything.

I brushed my hair back from my face. I was propped up on my elbows, which were on the side of the ship, then I just buried my face in my hands. It was either that or scream from frustration.

There were noises beside me. Marco had started throwing up again. This was my chance to get away. But...maybe if I stayed, he'd know that it wasn't my fault I was avoiding him. But if I stayed, Zalika might come out.

I left.

I was going back down into the ship. Hide in a closet, maybe. Away from Rachel and Cassie and Zalika and Marco and everyone else.

I hand clasped on my shoulder. I spun around. Zalika.

"You looked like you were getting pretty friendly," she said in a voiceless whisper.

"No!" I protested. "We were just talking."

She crossed her arms, and appeared to be deep in thought. "Ok," she said. "But the next time you talk to him, it better be to say you never want to see him again."



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"You ok?"

I was sitting on the wooden floor of the ship, my knees drawn up to my chest, my arms wrapped around them. I looked up. Jake was standing there. He sat down beside me.

"Yeah." I said flatly. Brilliant, I know. That's really going to convince him.

Jake looked a little green in the face, which wasn't unusual on this ship. "You don't look ok. What's wrong?"

"I can't tell you. Not unless you want all of us abandoned as soon as we get to wherever we're going." It sounded a little melodramatic, but I figured I better let Jake know that much, at least. He was, after all, the leader, right?

"That bad?" Ok, he thought I was exaggerating.

"I'm serious." I said.

"I know. I saw Zalika. It looked like she was threatening you. What I want to know is why."

"Oh." Should I tell him or not?

"You gonna tell me?" he asked.

I could tell him. Then he could tell me what to do. He could tell me I had to do what Zalika said to keep the rest of us safe. Then, when he told me I had to, I wouldn't feel so guilty.

I told him the whole story.

"So what are you going to do?" he asked me.

"What?" I squeaked. "You're supposed to tell me what to do! You're the leader!"

"This is a choice only you can make, Sara," he said.

"Why?" I blurted out. "Why can't you just tell me to do what Zalika said and keep avoiding Marco?"

"Because you love him." Jake said.

Chapter 12

Jake



"I--I--" Sara stuttered. I felt sorry for her. She looked terrified, like the idea had never even occurred to her. "I don't know." she said finally. But she didn't flat-out deny it.



"Hey, it's not a bad thing," I said. "We won't be here forever."



"It feels like it," Sara said, shrugging. "Besides, by the time we leave Marco will probably already hate me. Anyway, it's not really that big of a deal." I didn't believe her.



"You don't have to listen to Zalika," I told her.



"Can't you just tell me what to do?" she begged again. I shook my head. Truthfully, I didn't know what she should do. I could make decisions about war and fighting, but when it came to stuff like this, I was clueless.



"I guess it doesn't matter," Sara poked at the wooden floor with a perfectly shaped fingernail. "If Zalika finds out I told you this, she might kick us out anyway."



"I don't think she'll do that," I said. "If she's still after Marco, then why would she kick us all off? It wouldn't make sense."



"Yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe she'll just lock me in a closet, which I have to say would be an improvement." Sara pulled herself to her feet. "I have to go. Work."



That could have been true. As the only non-ill servant, Sara was getting stuck with a lot of work. But somehow I knew she just wanted to get away.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"So, did you get the scoop?" Rachel asked. I couldn't get away. She had me cornered.



"Well, yeah," I admitted.



"And...?" she let the ending trail.



"And I'm not going to tell you," I said reluctantly. Rachel looked enraged.



"Why not?"



"Rachel, I just don't think it's my place to tell you. If Sara wants to, she will."



Rachel seemed to take that fairly well. She and Sara get along.



"But Rachel? I don't think you should ask her. Not yet."



Rachel considered that. "Ok." As I turned to leave, she asked me a question. "What's happened to you and Cassie?"



"Things changed." I shrugged.



"Things changed?" Rachel asked. "Or did you change?"



"Maybe both," I said.



Rachel didn't further question me about Cassie. She'd made her point.



That night I lay awake, thinking. Mostly about being a leader. Being stuck in time. How the hell we were supposed to get back before the creatures on earth invented the explosive devices we needed. Before it had been different. Ok, so the ruling creatures were dinosaurs. But among those dino's lived two alien species. They provided us with the explosive we needed. And, that time we had only been gone for a few days. This time it was a couple months. Would the Sario Rip work the way it had before? Would everything be just as it had been when we left?



See why I'm a little overstressed?



IThump, thump, thump/I. I wasn't the only one awake. Someone else was up, going to the top of the ship. I quietly stood up and followed the moving shadow.



The person moved toward the edge of the ship. At first I thought I was going to witness a midnight barf-fest, but the person just stood there, looking out at sea.



There was a nearly full moon. A glimmer of light flashed across the person, just enough to show me who it was.



"Marco?"



"Jake?"



"What are you doing out here?" I walked up to him.



"What are you doing out here?" he asked.



"Following you. Your turn."



Marco shrugged. "I don't know. I couldn't sleep."



I know my best friend better then that. "Ok. I was talking to Sara earlier--"



"Really?" he interrupted, a little too eagerly. I smiled smugly.



Marco realized his mistake. He gave a small smile. "Ok, you got me."



We were silent for a while. There was a light breeze blowing. I looked up and could see the stars. I'm not much on astronomy, but I still liked looking at them.



"Jake? Do you know...do you know why Sara's been acting like I have leprosy lately?"



Uh-oh. Let's review my possible answers. I could tell Marco that yes, I knew, but he would want me to tell him. And then he would be mad that I wouldn't tell. Or, I could lie to him, but more then likely Marco would be able to tell, and then he'd be even madder at me. How nice. I decided to go with the lying. Maybe for once Marco wouldn't notice.



"No, I don't know," I said, crossing my fingers from habit.



Marco studied my face. "Yes, you do." I sighed.



"Jake, why won't you tell me? I thought you were my best friend."



"That's not going to work." I said. Now it was Marco's turn to sigh.



"Jake, really, why won't you tell me?"



"I can't, Marco."



"How do you know?" Marco said suspiciously. "Jake...are you...and her...?"



"No!" I exclaimed, knowing how guilty I sounded. Way to go, Jake, just make things worse for Sara. Yep, that's the right way to help her out.



Marco went back down into the interior of the ship. I stayed outside.

Chapter 13

Melissa



The Roman harbor came into view.



My first reaction was to dance around, leaping for joy, happy to be off the stupid, rocking ship. But that would have called attention to myself. And having people look at me, being the center of attention, is not something I'm fond of.



When I first stepped onto the dry land again, I fell to my knees, not because of my relief, but because my legs were so wobbly I could barely walk.



Cassie reached down and pulled me up. "Sea legs," she said, and smiled.



"This is good...very good." A voice said behind me. I recognized it as Cleopatra.



A very beautiful rug was being brought out of the ship. It was laid down flat on the ground.



"Help me," Cleopatra commanded Cassie, Sara, and myself. She lay down on the rug, and we rolled her in it taco-style. One of the other servants, a very strong looking man, picked her up.



"This rug is to be delivered to Julius Caesar, as a gift," Cleopatra's muffled voice instructed. "It is the only way."



The only way for what, I didn't know. Cassie and I were chosen to go with the servant who was carrying the Cleopatra-rug.



Walking through the streets of Rome was not a pleasant experience. It smelled! The road was so foul, with horse and dog dung, and even human from where people had dumped latrines into the streets. I stepped from stepping-stone to stepping stone to avoid getting this horrible mixture on my feet.



The male servant who was carrying the rug never said a word to Cassie or me. When it was to be delivered to Julius Caesar, he simple laid the rug on the floor, and unrolled Cleopatra inside it.



Caesar was quite surprised. He also seemed quite impressed with Cleopatra, whether it was her daring act or her beauty, I do not know. Either way, we were not executed, and that is something to be thankful for.



Chapter 14

Tobias



There was a party/banquet thing that night. We went as servants. Melissa, Sara, Cassie, and Rachel waited on tables. Jake, Marco, and I stood around as guards of Cleopatra.



The meal was pretty gross. The Romans served some strange dishes. And, between courses, some of the people would take feathers and tickle their throats to make themselves throw up. At first I thought all these people were bulimic, but Sara explained they did it to make room for the other courses. How she knew this was beyond me.



I was amazed to find I could understand everything being said, no matter what language. Cassie had been right.



After the eating was done, Cleopatra wandered off to do whatever it was Egyptian queens did at Roman banquets. Some of her other stronger, more powerful guards (including Jake) followed her, but she told Marco and I we could do as we pleased.



"Well, this makes me feel downright pathetic," Marco said. "How about you?"



I shrugged. I was actually happy to be free to wander around doing what I wanted.



Marco grabbed a cup of wine from somewhere and sampled it. Everyone drank wine in Rome, while some form of beer seemed to be the more popular choice in Egypt. Marco tasted the wine, made a face, and put the cup back. "Nasty," he said and went off somewhere.



Sara came up to me then. "Hi, Tobias," she said. She picked up the cup Marco had abandoned, tasted it, made a face, and put it back down. "Nasty," she said. I didn't bother commenting.



"Do you actually talk?" she asked me, tipping her head to one side slightly.



"Yeah," I said. "I just--"



"You don't trust me?"



"It's not that," I lied.



"Then what is it?" Sara raised her eyebrows.



"You wouldn't understand."



"Try me." Definitely a challenge.



"Fine. You ever wish you weren't who you are? That everything bad in your life would just disappear? That you weren't a bird?"



"Sure," Sara said. "Well, except for the bird thing. But think about it. Who would you be if none of the bad stuff happened to you?"



"I don't know." I looked down. "I'm not even sure who I am now. I still wish..."



Sara paused for a moment.



"ISo what would you do

If you wake tomorrow,

There's no more sorrow

Your dreams came true.

So knock on wood and cross your fingers

Now count your blessings,

It might be you.



What would you do

If you wake tomorrow

And all your gray skies

Have now turned blue

How many days do you think you're given

Now get on livin', it's up to you/I." she sang.



"Did you write that?" I asked.

She smiled. "No, it's LFO. You're really out of music, huh?"

"Yeah. But you're right. LFO is right, I guess. Only, you can't imagine what I've gone through."

"And you can't imagine what I went through," Sara said.

"You were a Controller. I can guess." I said. I mean, she wasn't the only Controller in the world. Ok, so maybe she was one for years, but so were other people.

"Tobias, if I tell you something, can you not tell anyone else?" Sara sounded urgent, like she had to tell someone before she exploded.

"Umm...sure, I guess."

"Ok. I was there." she was avoiding my eyes.

"You were where?"

"At the Yeerk pool. When...when you guys blew it up." Sara's hair fell forward, covering her face.

"You survived?" I asked stupidly.

"I did, my Yeerk didn't. I lied about it becoming a Inothlit/I. It was awful. It's something I'll never forget."

"I wasn't there," I said. "I saw the remains, though."

Sara saw something over my shoulder, got a deer-in-the- headlights look, and took off in the opposite direction without saying a word.

"Do I always have this affect on women?" Marco asked from somewhere behind me.

"From what I've seen, yes."

"What were you two talking about?" Marco asked, walking in front me.

"Nothing much," I lied. "just small talk."

Marco looked suspicious, but didn't say anything.

This Zalika girl came over then, and she and Marco started talking. I managed to get away when they weren't looking.

"Hey," said a voice from (again) behind me. This time it was Rachel, which I have to say was a great improvement from Marco.

Rachel and I spent the rest of the evening talking (ok, and kissing). I had to demorph, and remorph, which just made me wish I was like the others, which brought me back to what Sara had said. Maybe she wasn't the ditz I had thought she was. Or maybe she was a smart ditz, if there was such thing.

Whatever. I had more important things to think about.

Like who LFO was.



Chapter 15

Sara

I was watching the stars.

I could probably get in trouble. I had snuck away from the banquet into the garden. I was sitting on the wet dewy grass. My neck was sore from looking up. Finally I just laid down so I was looking directly up.

Ever seen IThe Lion King/I? I loved that movie. To this day I still listen to the soundtrack whenever I'm feeling down. Well, you know how Mufasah tells Simba that the stars are all the great kings of the past looking down on us? That's what I thought about. Mufasah, the great old lion looking down on me.

"So, are you going to appear from the clouds and tell me what to do, too?" I yelled up at the sky.

"Can't make any guarantees."

I screamed, and sat up quickly. When you're talking to the sky, you don't generally expect an answer.

But it wasn't Mufasah that had answered me. It was Marco. He sat down beside me. "Who were you talking to?"

"Mufasah," I said. "Just seeing if he was still awake up there."

Marco kind of smiled. "What were you asking him for help with?"

I shrugged. "Life, I guess."

"Did he answer?"

"No. Maybe I need Rafiki to help me."

"We're not in Africa anymore, but I'll let you know if I see him." He squinted up at the sky. "There's a lot of them, aren't there?"

"A lot of what?"

"Stars."` "Yeah. I always liked the constellations." I pointed up at the sky. "Virgo, the virgin." I traced the outline with my finger. "Draco, the dragon. Hydra, the water snake. Leo, the lion. Ursa major and Ursa minor, the greater and lesser bears, or the big and little dipper. And Cancer, the crab."

"Do you know all the little legends that go with them?"

"Sure. Do you want to hear one?" I had memorize them all a long time ago. "Yeah. Tell me about the lion." Marco grinned. "That is, if you're sure there's no gorilla up there." I smiled. "I'm sure." I thought back on the tale of Leo the Lion. "I guess the story really starts with Hercules, the strongest man that ever lived. His father was Zeus, who was married to Hera, but his mother was Alcmene of Thebes. Hera was mad about Zeus's constant affairs, and she focused her anger on Hercules. When he was grown up and happily married, she caused him to lose control of his mind, and then tricked him into thinking that his family was a pack of wild animals, and he accidentally killed them. Zeus ordered Hercules to complete twelve difficult tasks as punishment. " Leo was a terrifying lion that roamed the forest of Nemaea, and Hercules's first task was to slay him. Hercules did so by strangling him, and after that he always wore the skin over shoulders, to guarantee him protection from harm. Zeus put the lion in the heavens, in memory of the battle, and to eternally symbolize the challenges of kingship." "It sounds like a fairy tale." "Greek mythology. Basically the same thing. It-" I stopped my explanation abruptly, most likely because Marco leaned towards me and pressed his mouth against mine. IOhmygodhe'skissingmeohmygod!/I It felt like there was a flock of butterflies inside me, fluttering from my chest down to my stomach, and back up again, but at the same time I felt strangely warm. When Marco had pulled away from me, and I started breathing again, I remembered. Remembered why I shouldn't even be with Marco, let alone kissing him. I squirmed uncomfortably. What had I been thinking? Someone could see us. Someone like Zalika. "Where's Zalika?" I asked. I had seem them talking a lot. Maybe he would get the point and leave. Not that I really wanted him to. What I really wanted him to do was kiss me again.

"How should I know?" he seemed annoyed that I had asked. "Where's Jake?"

"Jake?" Now I was confused. What did Jake have to do with this?

Marco sighed. Neither of us said anything for a while.

Someone once said: "Words are silver, but silence is gold." Whoever said that had never been in my situation. At least when someone is talking, you know they're still there. You know that at least they acknowledge you. When they're silent, you don't know anything.

I turned to look at Marco. He was staring straight ahead. How do you tell what someone is thinking when they're silent, and they're face is expressionless? Before I could look away, Marco turned towards me.

"What's wrong?" Marco asked. "What have I done to make you act like this?"

"It's not you," I said.

"Then what is it?"

"I-well.I." Stuttering. Me. Sara, cool, calm, and in control. And I'm stuttering. If Rose could only see me now. Good-bye reputation.

"You what?" Marco asked, not unkindly.

IYou love him/I, Jake had said. Why did he have to be right? Why did it have to be up to me to decide whether my feelings were more important then all of us getting kicked out onto the streets? What was I supposed to do, eeny-meeny-miny- mo?

"I can't do this," I said. And I ran away.

I've never been the kind to run away from my problems. Actually, charging into them headfirst might be a more appropriate description. But I ran.

Maybe I should have looked at where I was going. I ran right smack into someone.

"Sorry," I mumbled, and tried to get away, but the person had my arm.

"Hey, what's wrong?" It was Jake. I shook my head and didn't answer. He hugged me. Somehow I do not think he is a hugging person, but he hugged me anyway.

I made myself act perky very fast, but it didn't convince Jake. "Tell me what's wrong," he said. I couldn't, and he didn't ask again. Just held me, which I guess was the only way he could think of to comfort me. Even though I don't like Jake as anything more then a friend, it still felt good to be held by someone.

Even if it wasn't the person I wanted to hold me.



Chapter 16

Marco



I followed Sara back to the banquet. I saw her bump into Jake. I saw Jake take her in his arms.

So that's what was going on.

"She wasn't good enough for you anyway."

Zalika was standing beside me. She had come out of nowhere. Her comment didn't make me feel any better.

Sara had pulled away from Jake. She was looking around, looking for someone or something. Her eyes landed on Zalika and me.

On a sudden impulse, I turned to Zalika and kissed her. It was so different from kissing Sara. Pretty as Zalika was, I felt nothing. Like it wasn't even me kissing her, like it was someone else.

When I pulled away, Sara was still watching me. Jake was, too, and he looked angry. Very angry. Not that he had a right to be.

Sara's expression was blank. She turned and walked away.

Jake, however, pushed his way through the crowds of partying people to reach me. Zalika, looking amused, went after Sara.

"What the hell do you think your doing?" Jake asked, looking down at me.

"Is it against the law for me to kiss someone?" I asked innocently. "'Cause it looks to me like you were having fun yourself."

"You have no idea what you're talking about!" Jake hissed.

"Yes, I do," I said. "Obviously Sara decided she liked you better then me. No big deal." I lied.

"Is there something wrong with your brain, or are you just too thickheaded to figure it out?" Jake asked.

"Figure what out?"

Jake looked exasperated. "That Sara loves you. That the only reason she's staying away is because Zalika's been threatening her."

I let that sink in. "What? She loves me? What about you?"

"Do I have to spell it out?" Jake sighed. "I'm sorry. I know what it must have looked like to you. But trust me: there is nothing between me and Sara."

My brain was still working slowly. "Zalika? Threatening her? But...Zalika just went after her..."

"This is your problem, not mine," Jake said.

"You're right," I started to leave, and then said over my shoulder. "Jake? Thanks."

"No problem. You know me, always doing what I can."



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"You saw, didn't you?" Zalika said to Sara, sounding as if she had won some contest. "You saw him kiss me. You saw it's me he wants, not you."

"I saw," Sara whispered.

I flattened my back against the wall and moved closer. I had to see if what Jake was saying was true.

"You didn't think it would happen, did you?" Zalika sneered. "You fell in love with him, I can tell. You know, at first I thought he might choose you anyway, no matter how much you ignored him. I should have known he would never choose you over me."

Jake was right. Only one problem: what did I do now?

"Can I go now?" Sara sounded like she might cry. My fault.

"Yes, go," Zalika sounded pleased with herself.

Sara came out the door I was standing by. Her face had the same blank look it had had before. I grabbed her arm and pulled her out of Zalika's hearing range.

"I have to explain," I said.

Her hair fell down, shielding her face. "You don't have to explain anything to me, Marco."

"Yes, I do! Just listen to me, ok?" Sara gave a slight bob of her head that could have been a nod. "I didn't know. I didn't know about Zalika."

Sara looked up suddenly. "How do you know that?"

"Jake told me. But please listen. I thought you and Jake...I saw you...but he told me I was wrong. I'm sorry." I pleaded.

"Sorry for what? For kissing Zalika? Obviously kissing someone doesn't mean much to you anyway." Ouch. "Ok, I deserved that. But I have an excuse. Sort of. I saw you and Jake, and I guess I wanted to make you jealous."

"It worked," she said. I touched her face, and she reached up and squeezed my hand.

I didn't really know what to do or say then, so I just did the first thing that came to mind. I kissed her. And this time she didn't stiffen up or act panicked, just kissed me back.

That is, until Zalika happened to walk that way and see us. I'd say that was about the same time all hell broke loose.



Chapter 17

Rachel



I heard screaming.

It could have been anybody about anything, but somehow I knew it was different.

I pulled away from Tobias. "Oh, no," he said. "You can't be serious. We're just going to get ourselves in trouble."

I was serious. I shouldn't morph in front of all these people, but if worse came to worse, I would. As I headed toward the source of the screaming, I saw Jake and Cassie going the same way I was.

"What do you think it is?" I asked Jake.

"I'm not sure, but Marco, Sara, and Zalika are all over there."

Nyla laid a tray on a table and came toward us. "I know that sound," she said. "There is a scent in the wind. Zalika knows black magicks. I believe she is using them."

"Zalika's a witch?" I exclaimed. I got my answer within the next five seconds.

Zalika was yelling some weird kind of curses at Sara and Marco, who both looked thoroughly terrified.

I guess Zalika was a fairly seasoned witch, because what she was doing was pretty impressive. There was a tornado of wind swirling around her, blowing her hair and clothes every which way. I saw the flash of lightening, and heard the crash of thunder.

"What kind of spell is she doing?" I yelled at Nyla. "And how do we stop her?"

"It's a fear spell!" Nyla shouted over the loud rush of wind. "She is casting it on all of us, now! It will show us what we fear most! The only way to stop it is to not be afraid!"

Easier said then done.

Suddenly, I was alone in a room of black. I saw coffins. About five or six, perfectly lined up coffins. I stepped towards them. Closer. Closer.

They were in them. All of my friends, the Animorphs. They were dead.

"It's your fault," said a voice behind me. I whirled around. Marco. A shadowy, whispy version of him, like he was a ghost. My heart pounded faster and faster.

Then the others appeared, all in the same whispery form. Jake pointed in the direction of the coffins. "Your fault we're dead," he said. I whirled around to face where the coffins had been, but instead there were tombstones, each bearing a name and two dates, and each saying: 'It's all Rachel's fault.'

Then, the irony of it caught me. It actually said it was all my fault on the tombstones? I couldn't help it: I laughed.

The room of black vanished.

The others were there, solid and looking more scared then I'd ever seen them. I couldn't help wondering what each of them had seen.

"Your laughter destroyed it!" Nyla exclaimed. I guess Zalika didn't know it had been my laughter, because she grabbed a dagger from under her clothing and lunged at Sara, calling her names I won't repeat.

The blade probably would have hit Sara in the chest where her heart was, where Zalika was aiming, which would most likely have been fatal. Sara probably would have died before she could have morphed and demorphed, which was what Zalika was planning on happening, although Zalika didn't even know Sara could morph, or what morphing was. She was just trying to kill Sara.

Zalika wasn't planning on Marco jumping between her and Sara. Actually, I don't think Marco was either.

The dagger hit Marco in the stomach. It was a pretty gruesome sight, the handle of the dagger sticking out of Marco's stomach.

Zalika screamed. Sara screamed. Cassie screamed. I think I even screamed.

Marco sank to his knees. I rushed over to him, the others right behind me. I kneeled down in front of him, beside Sara.

"Pull it out," he said. "You have to pull it out before I can morph."

Sara looked like she might throw up just from the suggestion. No one else looked exactly thrilled, either. "I'll do it," I said, before I had time to think. Might as well be fearless Rachel.

I grabbed the handle, which was warm and sticky with Marco's blood. I yanked it out quickly. Marco screamed this time. "Sorry! Sorry!" I exclaimed, throwing the dagger and wiping my hands on the ground. Marco had already started morphing, gorilla.

When he was finished, he tapped Zalika, who was cowering in fright, lightly on the head. She fell unconscious. Maybe if we're lucky she'll think she dreamed it all, Marco said. He demorphed.

As soon as he was fully human, Sara threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. "Idiot," she said.

"But you love me anyway, right?" Marco said, putting his arms around her.

Sara laughed. "Don't push your luck."

Much later, sometime in the middle of the night, after the banquet had ended and everyone was asleep but us, we Animorphs sat and talked with Nyla. I couldn't help thinking that if she had been from our time frame, she would have been a good Animorph.

I ate a grape from a bowl of fruit Melissa had snatched from somewhere.

"So you're from the future?" Nyla asked. "What's it like?"

"Well..." No one answered. We could tell her about the good things, if we could explain them, like TV's and CD players. But then again, there were also much worse things. World Wars, plagues, Britney Spears.

"Well," I finally said. "In the future there are hundreds of places where you can buy clothes in any color. Not just white."

That seemed to satisfy Nyla, although it earned me some exasperated looks from everyone else. "When are you going back?" Nyla asked.

"We don't really know," Jake said. "You see, there's these things we need to get back. These things called explosives."

"Explosives?"

"You know," Marco said. "Things that go 'boom'?"

Nyla considered that. "There is a sorcerer," she said finally. "A sorcerer with the power to make great noises, and shoot lightening from his fingers. He lives here in Rome. I learned about him from one of the Roman servants."

Jake sighed. "I'm not sure if that's the kind of 'boom' we need." he said.

"There's one more thing," Nyla said. "This is something that is not well known about him, but the girl I talked to saw it happen with her own eyes. This sorcerer has the power to become a very shiny dog that can walk on its rear legs."

Shiny dog that walks on its rear legs? Where had I heard that? "Chee," Marco said. "Erek, or one of his friends."

"Now am I going to get to find out who Erek is?" Sara asked.



Chapter 18

Jake



The Chee. An Android race whose creators, the Pemalites, had been destroyed thousands of years ago. The Pemalites had been a genius advanced species, so advanced they had forgotten about war and hatred. The very last of the Pemalites, and their deathless Chee, had traveled to Earth, and the Chee had planted the souls of the Pemalites in wolves, and behold: dogs.

The Chee use holograms to pass as regular humans. After we defeated the Yeerks, we did not reveal them, which is why Sara and Melissa had no idea who we were talking about. We eventually told them.

And then we had to track down this sorcerer.

"What do you want me to do?" the old man asked, bustling around. "Raise someone from the dead perhaps?"

"No, we just want to get home," I said.

"And where is your home?"

"The future."

"Sorry, can't help you." The Chee sorcerer quickly changed pace, and tried to shove us out of his home.

"Chee!"

It was Rachel who yelled this out. The Chee froze, and pulled us all back in. Muttering to himself the whole time, we were led back behind a curtain to a room full of jars with weird things I didn't even want to think about in them.

"How do you know that word?" He asked us quietly.

"You can turn the hologram off," Rachel said smugly. The Chee seemed even more startled.

"There was a Sario Rip," I explained. "We know about the Chee in the future. We need your help to get back."

"I cannot help you," the Chee said. "Please go."

I don't know if this Chee was the future Erek King or not, but I decided to take a chance. "Ok. In about 2000 years, look us up. We're called the Animorphs. You know, Yeerk fighters."

We left.

"So now what do we do?" Sara asked.

"I'll let you know when I think of it," I said back.



There was a thunderstorm that night. Since we had let Zalika go, I wondered if perhaps she had something to do with it.

I was sitting awake, talking to Marco. The others were asleep.

Marco was in the middle of telling one of his usual funny- yet-depressing jokes when I heard a bump.

"Hey what's that?" I asked. Marco turned around to see.

"Must be one of the girls. Judging by height, I'd say it's either Sara or Cassie."

I turned around, too, to see a figure clothed in white, drifting towards the door outside.

"She looks almost like a ghost, huh?" Marco said. "Think we should follow her?"

"I think she's sleep walking."

Marco and I followed her all the way outside, through the garden, and out it. Of course, it was pouring down rain.

"This is enough," Marco said. "I say we grab the sleep walking chick, and get out of the rain."

No arguments from me. Then I saw where the girl was heading. Towards a tall hill, with someone standing on top of it. Someone controlling the storm.

I had gotten close enough to see who was sleep walking. Sara. I shook her by the shoulders, but she didn't wake up, just kept moving towards Zalika's hill.

"She must be under some spell," Marco yelled over the thunder. Zalika chose that moment to spot us.

She yelled out something I couldn't hear, and put her hands out in front of her like she was pushing at an invisible wall.

A surge of...something hit me hard, and I went sprawling backwards. Marco did too, but Sara was still standing where she had been before.

Zalika raised her hands up. A bolt of lightening struck where Sara was standing. I could actually see her light up, see her bones.

Then I saw nothing else.





Part Two

Home Again



Chapter 19

Ellimist



The human girl Rachel was the first to wake up.

She sat up from her present position of being sprawled on the floor along with the others. It was very clear she didn't know where she was. That is, until she saw me.

She turned away from me and instead began nudging the others. One by one, they gradually woke up.

"You," the one called Marco said to me. "It wasn't a Sario Rip, it was you, interfering in our lives again."

"Maybe he has a reason." Cassie, the compassionate one, was not quick to judge me.

"There's always a reason," this was spoken by Sara. "Just whether it's good or bad is the question." One of the reasons I had chosen this girl, there wasn't much she missed.

So, the bird ruffled his feathers. Why are we here?

I was silent.

"Why do you think any of us are here?" Sara asked them.

"Because we're Animorphs. Duh." Marco. Always much sarcasm from him.

Sara tossed her hair. "You ever wondered why you're an Animorph, Marco?"

"Sure. All the time. Of course I've wondered why it wasn't some other dufus walking through a construction site that night. But what does that have to do with anything?"

"I can tell you why you were there." I let her continue talking. I let her tell them what they had overlooked all these years.

"I know exactly why you were there that night, Marco. It was no accident. Have you always thought it was just a coincidence that the biological son of Visser One's host body just happened to be an Animorph?"

Now Sara turned to Tobias, the bird.

"Or you, Tobias. Elfangor was your father, through a very complicated turn of events, all involving Ihim/I." Sara pointed to me. "So you think you just accidentally happened to be there that night to see your father one last time? Or that Ax, Elfangor's brother, just coincidently survived that Dome Ship crash for you to find him?"

Sara became silent. The others were all silent as well.

"Is it true?" asked Marco.

"Yes," I answered. I had wanted them to know, that's why I had allowed this girl to tell them. "Some of you, the original Animorphs, were chosen for reasons. The others were accidents."

"And what about us?" Sara motioned to herself and Melissa.

"You will learn it time. But this is not why I brought you here. Do you not wish to learn why I sent you back in time."

"Actually, we would very much like to know that," their leader said.

"It was for you," I told them. "To make you realize the errors of your ways. To teach you."

"Say what?"

"Think about it. Are you different now then you were before? " I sent them back to their homes, each one in their own bed, asleep.

"One day, Ellimist, they will find out. They will learn that their old pal the Ellimist is the one that sentenced them to this doom. That the Ellimist has so much more planned for them. And not just them. It goes way beyond just them."

"Yes, Crayak," I said to my old enemy who had suddenly appeared. "One day they will learn. One day I will tell them."

Chapter 20

Melissa



I was home.



At first I had no idea how. My last memory was of falling asleep in Rome. Then I remembered...the blue-ish looking old man, the Ellimist, whoever that was.



I was just about to crawl out of bed when my phone rang. I picked it up, trying to remember what date it was, who could be calling me, etc.



"Hello?" I asked hesitantly.



It was Jake, telling me to meet at Marco's house as soon as possible.



I rolled my lazy self out of bed, threw some clothes on, pulled a brush through my hair, brushed my teeth, washed my face, morphed a peregrine falcon and flew to Marco's house.



I flew in through the open living room window and demorphed. I was the last one there.



I sat on the floor, next to Sara. I guess she less intimidated me because she was a new Animorph, not one of the original. Since I wasn't even an Animorph, I felt way uncomfortable at their meeting.



The others seemed uncomfortable, too. Jake was cracking his knuckles (gag), Rachel was playing with her hair, Tobias was preening his feathers, Cassie was picking at her fingernails, Marco was tying his shoe and untying it over and over, and Sara was pulling at this silver ring that was stuck on her finger and had been the whole time we'd been in Egypt.



"So, fearless leader, why are we here?" Marco finally asked, breaking the silence.



Jake shrugged. "What are we gonna do?"



"That's what your supposed to tell us," Rachel said.



"I can't do it anymore," Jake said. "I thought I could do it right this time. Not make mistakes, beat the Yeerks once and for all. But I can't. I'm making the same mistakes I made back then."



"It's not your fault," Sara said, giving another violent tug on her ring. "You're doing the best you can."



"And what if the best I can do gets us all killed?"



"Then I'd still say you're the bravest person I know." Sara blew a bubble with her gum and popped it inside her mouth, letting the air deflate out slowly. "Some people are leaders, and some are followers, but it's a lot harder to be a leader then a follower. I couldn't have done what you did, and I can't think of a single other person that could have. All of you went through more then I could have stranded. I would have given up within a month."



"You went through a lot, too," Cassie pointed out.



Sara shook her head. "That was different. I didn't have a choice."



You're here now, Tobias said. That's your choice. I didn't think you'd last two battles, once you saw what it really was all about. But you have, and you're still here.



"Yeah, and it's a school day and everything-" Marco began.



"Oh, no!" Sara shrieked. "How did I forget about school? If my parents find out-"



She gave a particularly vicious tug on the ring and it flew off, narrowly missing Marco's head. "Oops," Sara said sheepishly.



Marco picked up the ring and gave it back to her. "Looks like that thing was cemented on your finger for a while. Why the sudden hurry to take it off?"



Sara blushed. "It's um, a friend's," she said. "I have to return it."



For an actress, the girl couldn't lie. Sara shoved the ring in her pocket and tried not to look guilty.



"Ooook," Marco said, obviously not convinced. "Where were we?"



"Jake's not quitting," I said, speaking up for the first time.



"Well, guess it's settled," Marco agreed. "Jake, you're stuck with us."



Jake kind of smiled. I don't think he really wanted to quit at all.



"What about me?" I asked. They had previously asked where I had gotten my morphing powers. I had refused to tell them. No need for them to know. No need for me to tell.



I'm a computer hacker. Not really that hard to do, once you know how. My computer was a lot more high-tech then it should have been, and I had access to a lot more then I should have. Such as, exactly how to penetrate Andalite forces and get to a morphing cube.



It was probably a good thing the Andalites didn't know a mere human had penetrated their forces.



"What do you mean 'what about you'?" Jake asked. "You're one of us. If you want to be." I tried not to smile.



"So what do we do?" Rachel asked.



Jake shrugged. "No clue. What do we know?"



"We know the Yeerks blew up their own pool just to try and kill us," Marco said. "They wouldn't do that unless there was another pool."



"Or maybe that wasn't even really their pool." Sara said. "Maybe they it was just a decoy so they could lead us there and blow us to bits."



"Either way, it all means that the Yeerks must have another pool," Rachel said. "We have to find it."



"It'll be dangerous," Cassie said. "Not that that's anything new."



"The question isn't what we're going to do if we find it," Sara seemed a little worried about contradicting Cassie, but she continued. "You're thinking too far ahead. We have to think of how to find it first."



I don't see how we can, Tobias said. No known Controllers to follow, no internet or Chee resources...we've got nothing.



"I wouldn't say we've got nothing," Sara pulled the Pemalite crystal from her bag. "We've got a bargaining chip."



"We can't give them that!" Rachel exclaimed.



"I know," Sara handed the crystal to Jake. "But the way I see it, we've got one of two choices."



"I think I know what you mean," Marco said. "Either we double- cross them, or we make them think we're smarter then we are."



"Exactly," Sara and Marco kind of smiled at each other, then Sara continued. "We can show them we have the crystal. That it works. Maybe even let them get very close to getting it before we switch it with a fake at the last moment. Or, we don't let them know we have it, but use it's technology in a way they can't possibly ignore, and they think we're geniuses."



"But how could those help us get to the Yeerk pool?" I asked.



"Tobias is right, we don't have enough information to do anything yet," Marco said. "We have to figure out what the Yeerks have, what they want, where they are, who they are...Right now, we've got nothing."



"How did we get information before?" Jake asked.



Cassie shrugged. "The Chee. Ax. A lot of guessing and mistakes."



"The Chee?" Sara folded her hands in her lap "Are they still available? Do they even know what's going on?"



"Somehow I don't think Erek is going to be happy to see us," Marco shook his head. "He's probably still mad about that whole blackmail thing..."



Sara didn't even bother saying anything, just raised one eyebrow questioningly.



"We kind of used Erek's programming against him to help us win the war," Jake explained. "We had to do it, but he didn't really understand. He called us more curses then exist in the English language. In fact, he had to use another language."



"Oh." Sara said. Just 'oh'. I wondered if maybe there was something they weren't telling us, but I kept my mouth shut.



"Still, maybe there is a chance Erek can help," Cassie shrugged. "We just don't know how to find him."



"It couldn't hurt to ask," Jake agreed. "Is Erek still living here? Did he go to college?"



Marco pulled a phonebook out from a magazine rack. He flipped it open to the 'K's.



"One Erek King," he said. "In an apartment nearby."



"Ok," Jake said. "Then let's go pay our old buddy Erek a visit."

Chapter 21

Cassie



We drove over to Erek's apartment in one of Marco's cars instead of flying. Sara drove, after much begging, pleading, and arguing with Marco. It was finally settled when Jake pointed out that Sara's driving couldn't be any worse then Marco's, who really hadn't improved since the time he totaled my dad's pickup (long story).



It was decided that Marco, Rachel, and I should actually go up and ring the doorbell because he was originally Marco's friend, we wanted him to see Rachel alive, and I was probably the Animorph he least hated. Tobias hadn't come.



We rang the doorbell. "I hope it's the right Erek King, or we'll have some lying to do to explain why we're here." Rachel said.



The door opened. It was Erek. He saw us.



The door slammed shut in our faces.



"I'm guessing he's still mad," Marco said.



I knocked on the door. "Erek? We need to talk to you."



No answer. I sighed. "I guess we'll have to do this the hard way."



"Cockroach?" Rachel suggested.



Marco, Rachel, and I started morphing to everyone's favorite household pest: the cockroach. My skin turned crusty and brown. A pair of wings sprouted on my back, and antennae popped out of my forehead.



As soon as the three of us were morphed, we started under the crack of Erek's door.



Hey! Marco cried out in surprise. I can't get through! He blocked the door!



Sure enough, Erek had shoved a towel or something along the crack of the door so we couldn't get in.



Anyone else slightly annoyed? Rachel asked. I couldn't help agreeing.

Maybe I shouldn't have, because my feelings for Erek went from annoyance to anger within the next ten seconds.

My antennae picked up a strange smell, one that I knew all too well from my experience with the roach morph.

RAID!

The door had opened, but not so Erek could welcome us in with open arms. He had something much better to greet us with. A can of bug spray.

I raced away as fast as I could with my little roach legs.

Forward. The towel!

Left. Wall!

I am so going to kill Erek for this! Marco yelled.

How is he doing this with the Chee programming? Rachel asked. If he kills us...

Demorph! Marco said. Raid's not exactly dangerous to humans!

I started demorphing, and quickly. I was human before Rachel or Marco, and I leaped at Erek, trying to wrestle the can away from him. Only, I wasn't expecting one thing.

Erek very lightly shoved me back.

I went flying into the wall. It wasn't enough to kill or even seriously injure me, Erek had made sure of that, but it still hurt.

"You rewrote your programming," Marco said, amazed. "I thought you didn't want to."

"I didn't rewrite it," Erek snapped back.

"Then who did?" Rachel asked.

"Hmmm...Let's see...it would have to be the people I gave the crystal to all those years back. Now who would that be? Oh, yes. YOU GUYS!"

"We didn't alter your programming!" I said defensively. "We didn't even have the crystal! Marco and Jake got rid of that along time ago." I didn't mention we had found it again.

Erek paused. "It's not just me," he said finally. "All the other Chee's are experiencing the same alterations." he stopped again, appearing to be in deep thought. "But if you didn't alter our programming...who did?"



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"So someone has altered the Chee programming?" Sara asked as she let the car come to a stop at a red light. "And the only way is to do it with the crystal, which we have?"

"That's not the only way," Marco said. He was gripping the armrest as if Sara was a wild maniac driver, which she wasn't. "The other way is to get into the Pemalite ship."

"Which is the real problem," Jake said. "Someone, and we don't know who, has been getting into the Pemalite ship and messing with the Chee controls. You can do just about anything with those controls, even set the Chee at self destruct."

"Isn't there a code or something protecting their computers? I seem to remember something about a Pemalite ship project underwater, but I wasn't involved in it."

Jake kind of sighed. "There is a code. It's 'six'."

"Six?" Sara repeated.

"Six."

"Well...at least there is a code," Sara said finally.

"I think that the gray van back there is following us," Melissa said quietly, turning around to look behind her.

Sara turned right onto a totally random street. The van followed. She turned left onto another one. The van still followed.

"You know," Jake said. "Now that I think about it, taking a convertible does sound slightly idiotic. Anyone could see us."

"It could just be groupies," Marco said hopefully.

The person in the passenger seat of the van rolled down the window and stuck a gun out of it.

"I don't think so," Sara said. "Hold on!"

With a stomp of Sara's spike healed shoe, the gas pedal went down considerably farther. The speed of the car went from about 40 mph to 60 just in time for Sara to make a sudden turn that threw us all to the left of the car.

"Hey!" Rachel cried as she landed practically in Jake's lap. "You could have warned us!"

"I did!" Sara pressed down even harder and the car speeded up even more. I looked behind us. The van was still keeping up.

"I think he's getting ready to shoot!" Marco yelled from the front seat.

Sara ran past a stop sign and drove over a curb, nearly missing a pig shaped mailbox.

"If I get a ticket, you're paying for it," Sara said to Marco, rather calmly.

The van drove over the corner, too, but hit the mailbox reducing it to splinters. It kept driving.

"We're getting close to my house!" Jake said. "It's just around the corner."

Sara drove over the corner instead of around it, but we made it to Jake's house anyway.

Actually, I should say what was left of Jake's house.

Chapter 22

Jake



My house was now a large pile of burning wood.



"Now what?" Sara asked as the rest of us stared open mouthed at what I had once lived in.



When she got no answer, she kept driving. Marco's house was farther down the road, and it was fully intact, but Sara drove past.



"That was my house!" Marco said. "We could have stopped there!"



"You can't. None of you guys can go home," Sara ran a red light, resulting in a chorus of honks and quite a few raised middle fingers. "Look, I'll explain later, just trust me on this one. First we have to lose this van..."



"Any ideas?" I asked.



"Well...I'm working on it."



The van was gaining on us. I saw Sara push the pedal down so far it actually touched the floor. I didn't even want to look at the speedometer. The van was in the lane beside us, driving the wrong way. It was almost close enough to get a very good shot at any of us.



"Anyone got any last words?" Marco asked.



"You won't need them yet," Sara said. "I have a plan."



"A plan. Lovely. Are you going to activate it anytime soon?"



"Sure. Right...about...NOW!" Sara slammed her foot down on the brake pedal.



SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!



"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"



HOOOOOOONK!



"You stupid kids!"



I actually smelled burning rubber. The car swerved out of control, but Sara somehow managed to turn it around and started driving in the opposite direction.



The van had kept going in the other direction for a while before it realized the car it was chasing was gone.



"You. Are. INSANE!" Marco said, sounding dumbstruck.



Sara just laughed and kept driving. The rest of us still hadn't recovered enough for words. The car was gaining speed again.



"Promise me you won't do that again," I begged.



Sara glanced in the review mirror. The van was visible in the distance, but very far away. "I don't think I'm going to have to."



Sara turned down one street after another, knowing the van would never be able to trace exactly what streets she had picked.



"So, who do you think that was?" Cassie asked.



"Yeerks," Marco said. "Who else? Probably Visser Three... Ax ...himself."



"No. Not Ax." Cassie corrected.



"Not Ax." Marco agreed.



Sara pulled into the parking lot of some sleazy looking hotel.



"That reminds me," Marco said. "Why can't we go home? They only toasted Jake's house."



"Simple." Sara tossed the car keys to Marco. "It was a mistake. They must have discovered none of you guys were home after they blew up Jake's house. But it was no problem for them. You guys will just figure there's some other reason, not enough bombs or something, and go back to your own cozy homes...and they blow them up, and bye-bye Animorphs."



"So why are we staying here? I know quite a few much better hotels..."



"Press. The press would find out where you are, announce it to the world, the Yeerks blow up the entire place, and kill a lot of innocent people, and you guys."



"So we have to stay...here?" Rachel asked.



"Uh-huh. And no credit cards or checks. No names either."



"No credit cards?" Marco exclaimed. "What--how--?"



"It's called cash," Sara said. "I assume you have some?"



"Not a lot," Marco said. Cassie and I nodded almost guiltily.



"But how are they supposed to get in without anyone recognizing them?" I asked.



Sara thought about that for a minute. A slow smile spread across her face. "I've got an idea," she said, grabbing the car keys back from Marco. "Be right back."



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"Remind me again why we're dressed like this," Marco hissed at me. "Remind me why we're Iwillingly/I dressed like this."



"I think she did it on purpose," I said, smoothing down my flowered dress.



Marco swung his little blue purse back and forth. "How exactly did we get stuck doing this?"



I shrugged. It did seem unfair that Marco and I were all dolled up in dresses, purses, hats, gloves, makeup, the works, while Sara, Cassie, Melissa, and Rachel, any of whom would look much less ridiculous, were morphed into birds peeping into the windows so they wouldn't miss anything. But then again, we had lost the coin toss.



I caught my reflection in a mirror the hotel people had for some reason hung on the wall. Make the room look bigger, I guess.



My reflection scared me. Sara certainly had done a good job. Rachel had nearly cried. "You're ruining them!" she had said in anguish. "They look like circus escapees!"



"Well, they're supposed to cause a scene," Sara had replied as she pinned a big straw hat to my head. "And we have to make sure there's no way anyone will recognize them."



And so, despite Rachel's objections, my face was very well concealed with false eyelashes, bright blue eye shadow, dark red lipstick that reminded me of blood, and two spots of blush on my cheeks. Marco looked pretty much the same.



"Here goes nothing..." Marco muttered.



We walked into the lobby. The receptionist stared at us.



"Well, hello!" Marco said in a squeaky southern accent.



"Uh...hello..." the receptionist wasn't very old, probably about three or four years older then us, and pretty. I said a silent prayer that Marco would remember to not try and hit on her.



"We need two rooms, one each for Bertha May and me," Marco drawled.



IBertha May/I? I mouthed silently. Marco kept smiling while the dazed looking receptionist typed into the computer and handed us two room keys.



"Thank you!" Marco called out cheerfully as he dragged me outside. We found Sara, Rachel, and Cassie, demorphed and howling with laughter, while Melissa kind of stood off to the side, smiling, but not laughing.



"You think this is funny?" Marco asked, not looking pleased.



"Funny, hilarious, laughing-so-hard-I-can-barely-breath," Rachel managed to say over peals of laughter. "What's the difference?"



"Ha. Ha." Marco said dryly. Eventually Sara, Cassie, and Rachel managed to compose themselves and help Marco and me out of our very embarrassing "costumes", but not before Sara snapped a couple pictures with a Polaroid camera she must have grabbed when she went to pick up the clothes and stuff. Some of the pictures showed me and Marco running in the opposite direction, but she managed to get a few good ones, to my dismay.



"What are you going to do with those, the Animorph's family album?" I asked.



Sara grinned. "I think I'll just hang onto them for a while. Show them to your kids someday."



"When you're all grown up." Rachel said with a wicked smile.



"Aren't we grown up now?" Cassie asked seriously. That kind of silenced everyone for a while. I mean, with the exception of Sara and Rachel, we were all legal adults. Despite the fact that we were supposed to be so much older and mature, lots of kids our age had tons more responsibilities then us. A lot are even married, or have kids. But not any of us.

"Maybe you just never had the chance to really grow up," Sara said, shrugging. "Having the weight of the world on your shoulders can be a big responsibility for a bunch of thirteen year olds."



Looking at my friends, I realized they all suddenly looked a lot younger then they really were, younger then they had looked just a few minutes ago. Melissa and Sara were the only ones that looked normal.



"Guess I never really thought of it that way," Marco said. There was another long, awkward silence.



"I guess I better get going," Sara said finally. "My parents are probably wondering where I am."



Sara morphed into a bird and left, but her words stayed with me.

Chapter 23

Marco



It had been two days and I was already out of money.

Hotels aren't cheap, even the one's I wouldn't normally stay in if Ithey/I paid Ime/I. The vending machine was expensive, too.

"Look at this," I said, slapping that morning's newspaper down in front of Jake.

The headline "Animorphs Missing!" was on the first page. We were big news.

Jake sighed. "I thought the whole idea was to not attract attention."

"This," I gestured at the newspaper. "is no problem. When we go back, we simply tell people we went on a vacation to Vegas. They'll believe us. We can deal with our families. The problem," I continued, "is that we can't go home."

"Until we beat the Yeerks again?" Jake finished. "Yeah, I figured that out. Except how do we beat the Yeerks?"

I think it will be easier this time," I admitted. "I've got a theory. Maybe there is no Yeerk pool. Maybe that whole mountain thing was a bluff. Maybe all they have is their ship. We destroy that, we destroy them."

"But where's the ship?"

"Not a clue."

"At least we have a theory," Jake said. "Just no way to figure out if it's true."

"And one other thing," I said. "I talked to Erek. Nothing else has happened to the Chee. But that doesn't mean nothing will happen. We need to go down to the Pemalite ship soon. We need to find out what's going on. Erek can tell us where it is, approximately. Then we have to go down."

"But Sara and Melissa don't have giant squid morphs."

I shrugged. "So we either get them some--that really doesn't sound fun, does it?--or they can stay behind."

"They have to come. We need as many people as possible" Jake decided. "I guess Rachel and Tobias will have to catch them one since they're the only ones with sperm whales. Is Tobias coming?"

"As far as I know."

"Ok then. How's tomorrow?"

I groaned. "Tomorrow? But it's so...soon. Only a day away."

"Yes, I've heard the song," Jake said. "So tomorrow's fine?"

I don't know why, but I agreed.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



"This is not--blech--fun," I said as I spit out a mouthful of water.

"Dolphin, everybody except Rachel and Tobias," Jake said. It was a morph everyone had.

I started the morph. Dolphins are like the absolute coolest morphs, but morphing to them in the middle of an ocean is not the best way I could think of to spend my Saturday. Usually we would morph in shallow water, then swim out to the deeper, but this time we couldn't be on the beach and risk getting recognized, so we had flown out a way as seagulls, and demorphed to humans.

I concentrated on the morph. My legs twisted together and turned into a fin. Without my legs to swim with, I started to sink. I tried to speed up the morph. Being half-human and underwater was not something I wanted. A dolphin nudged my side and I grabbed its dorsal fin. It must have been Cassie, because none of the others could morph that fast. The dolphin swam up to the surface, me morphing the entire way.

"Cassie?" I asked with my still human mouth. Only my lower half was morphed.

If I didn't know better, I would have sworn the dolphin's eternal grin got bigger.

Nope, Sara said. She sounded extremely amused. I finished my morph and kicked my dolphin tail. Dolphins have this internal joy, souls almost. They're just so happy to be in the water, who they are, what they are.

Rachel and Tobias, the enormous sperm whales, dove down under. Be back soon! Rachel called out gleefully.

Send us a postcard! I yelled back in a falsely cheerful voice. I was not looking forward to morphing giant squids.

Giant squids with two many arms to count, and a big, single eye that my encyclopedia says is remarkably similar to that of a human. And you know just how big "giant" is? Around 25 feet long and 250 pounds. Humans have never seen a live giant squid. Non-Animorph humans, at least.

Catching that thing was not going to be easy for Rachel and Tobias, if they could even find one. You see, sperm whales eat squid. But no one really knows what giant squid eat. Some marine biologists think giant squid might also eat sperm whale.

How are we supposed to keep track of time? Cassie asked suddenly. Ax had always been our personal watch. Andalites have a kind of internal clock.

Long pause. We'll have to guess, Jake said finally. Demorph every hour and a half or so to be on the safe side.

Tobias and Rachel were back within an hour, both covered in a mixture of sperm whale and giant squid blood.

I am so not looking forward to this, Sara said. She and Melissa demorphed.

I nudged up under Sara and she grabbed my dorsal fin.

This is familiar, huh? I said to her privately. She didn't answer, she was too busy spitting out inky water that the squid had sprayed, and trying to find a place to touch and acquire the squid.

One of the squid's tentacles lashed out and hit Sara.

"OW!" she said and cradled the arm where it had struck.

You ok? I asked her.

"I think so. Ok, Mr. Squid, I am acquiring you if it kills me."

Sara grabbed the tentacle that had hit her. The squid became calm and dreamy enough for Melissa to acquire it, too. Rachel and Tobias let the squid go.

The rest of us demorphed to human.

I Squid/I, I told myself. ILet's become the nice big scary squid. /I

My eyes joined together. As gross as it sounds, my eyes just melted together and became one great big eye right in the middle of my forehead.

Going for the Cyclops look? Sara asked. She was already far enough to have thought-speak.

Eventually all of us were morphed, and trying not to eat each other. Turns out squids are cannibals, too.

Where did Erek say the ship was? Jake asked me.

His specific answer had something to do with latitude and longitude, which won't be much help to us, I answered. But from what I understood, it should be in this general area.

In other words it could be anywhere, Rachel sighed. Tobias and I didn't see it when we were down there.

Split up, Jake decided. Stay in thought speak range with the person on your left and right.

Easier said then done. Try diving down 15,000 ft in the pitch-black all why keeping in formation with a bunch of other giant squids and searching for an ancient alien ship.

You see why being an Animorph is so fun.

Anyone else keep thinking about how if we demorph we'll be squished to the size of Barbie and Ken dolls? Sara asked. She was on my left, and Cassie was on my right.

Actually, that thought hadn't yet entered my mind. Thanks for bringing it up.

Any time, Sara replied, sounding terrified.

It's not really that bad, I reassured her. Just be the squid. The squid isn't afraid.

Be the squid, Sara laughed. I'll keep that in mind.

Marco, Jake thinks he's found something, Cassie said. Send the message along, then have everyone move this way.

I passed the news along to Sara, and I guess she passed it to whoever was on the other side of her, and so on. I moved towards the direction Cassie was heading in. The lights of the Snoopy looking Pemalite ship came into view.

We went into a room designated to fit our bodies perfectly. Then the ship designed habitats for the bodies we were in, bubbles of water that floated over the beautiful scene that was the interior of the ship.

Ok, everybody, Jake said. Demorph to human and get out of the bubbles. Then we'll see what we can see.

I started my demorph to human all too happily. My human mouth and lungs appeared and I swam to the air at the top of the bubble as the rest of me became human.

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

CRASH!

What happened? Rachel asked.

I tried to find out how to get out of my bubble. I stuck my arm out through it. The bubble didn't pop. I took a deep breath and jumped through the bubble wall.

"AAAAAHHHH!"

THUD!

Oh. So that's what had happened. Someone had exited his or her bubble, probably Cassie or Sara since whoever did it had demorphed fast. But what was the crash?

"This is not good! Stupid tree!"

I recognized the voice as Sara's, but I couldn't see where it was coming from. I looked all around, but saw nothing. Finally, I looked up, and saw Sara, stuck in the Pemalite computer tree.

THUD!

THUD!

THUD!

Cassie, Jake, and Rachel dropped down from their bubbles, all much more gracefully then I had.

THUD!

Melissa followed, and Tobias flew down and landed on Rachel's shoulder.

"Where's Sara?" Jake asked.







Chapter 24

Sara



It was not my finest moment.



I was stuck in the tree. Yes, literally, stuck. The skirt of the old skating outfit I wear for morphing had snagged on one of the unearth-like branches, and I was hanging about ten feet above the ground where Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, Marco, and Melissa were looking up at me and absolutely howling with laughter. I was wondering which was going to go first, my skirt or the branch.



It turned out to be the branch.



"AAAAAHHH!"



"OW! HEY!"



The first scream would be me when the branch snapped and I fell. The protests would be Marco when I accidentally landed on top of him. Of course, that just made everyone laugh harder.



"There's really no hope of regaining my dignity after this, is there?" I sighed as I climbed off Marco.



"Not a chance," he told me. "They'll never let you forget it."



"It's too bad you didn't totally crush him," Rachel sighed regretfully. "You would have done the world a favor."



Marco gave Rachel an evil look. Rachel returned it.



"Marco, can you figure this computer out?" Jake asked. He had pushed a red button, and then the code, but seemed clueless about what to do after that.



"Let me," I volunteered. The computer wasn't hard to work. I had just started to access the Chee operations when a shot rang out. I felt something hit my shoulder, hard and extremely painful. My whole arm felt like it was on fire.



"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH! OW! OW! Someone shot me!"



I've been shot in quite a few animal morphs before, and animals definitely feel pain. But let me tell you, there is a big difference between getting shot in someone else's body and getting shot in your own.



The others started looking around for who had fired. They didn't have to look far.



About half a dozen blue, webbed people with gigantic eyes and gills were standing near where we had entered the ship.



"The Nartec!" Cassie exclaimed.



"The what?" Melissa and I asked together..



"Never mind! Just morph!" Jake yelled.



"No objections here," I said and started to morph to lion. I was relieved when the pain in my arm stopped. The blue fish people started attacking us in midmorph, but the ones who went after me didn't get very far, since I'm a fast morpher. Two scaly people against a lion? Puh-lease. I wiped them both out with a swipe of my paw.



Cassie was morphed, too, and handling the ones that were after her, but Jake, Marco, Melissa, and Rachel in midmorph couldn't do much. Tobias swiped down and raked the blue people with his talons, but there's only so much a bird can do.



I launched on a Narvet, or whatever Cassie had called them, which was after Jake, but I didn't have to do anything. Upon seeing me, he decided that going up against a lion might just not be the smartest thing to do.



All the still conscious fish people dragged the unconscious ones with them and left.



We have to follow them, Jake said. Demorph, go to squid, and follow them.



Morphing takes a lot of energy. I'd done quite a bit of it the past few hours, leaving me pretty tired and cranky. And not willing to go chasing after something I didn't even know why I was chasing.



So what are these Narvets? I demanded as soon as we were all squid and chasing after the fish people.



Nartec, Jake corrected. And...well...



They're a doomed race on the bridge of extinction, Cassie explained. The stones they use for light are radioactive, and mutating them. So, they capture humans and get DNA in an effort to create a newer, stronger generation.



I let that sink in. They get DNA? As in...oh, gross!



Wrong, Marco said. That would be bad enough. But no, the Nartec have there own ways of getting DNA.



Like...?



Like slicing us up and extracting it.



I inwardly shuddered. Then WHY are we going after them?



Good question, Marco muttered.



They take human ships. Their goal is to conquer the surface. The Pemalite ship might not have weapons, but it could definitely be useful to them, Jake said. Plus there's the possibility that they already have nukes. Add that to the Pemalite ship, a bunch of crazed lunatics, and an even crazier queen, and they have way too good of a chance of actually doing some damage.



But couldn't we destroy them? Melissa asked quietly. They don't seem too hard to kill.



Maybe not a few of them, Rachel said. But a bunch of them with weapons are a lot meaner.



Besides, we couldn't just a destroy and entire sentient species, Cassie said. No one else commented.



So what are we going to do? I asked finally.



We're going to do what we should have done long ago, Jake decided. We're going to tell the world about the Nartec.



One problem, General, Marco reminded him. We're not exactly communicating with the world these days.



Oh, Jake said. Good point. What do you think we should do?



Kill 'em, Marco said bluntly. They're the ones that tried to kill us. They're the ones that are going to be extinct anyway. They're the ones that want to challenge the 'surface'.



We can't do that! Cassie cried.



Haven't you learned anything, Cassie? Marco sounded extremely exasperated. Kill or be killed. Law of the jungle, law of the universe. I'd be perfectly happy to leave these Nartec to their little water world. But they want to conquer us. It's them or us. Who do you want to win?



We're not even sure they're a threat to us, Cassie shot back.



And what if they are? That would be me, butting in once again. I was curious to know where Cassie's loyalties were. I mean, I try not to be ruthless killer or anything like that, but there's a fine line between being ethical and just plain stupid. It's not wrong to feel bad for doing something you had to do, just don't let it take you over.



Then--then-- Cassie sighed. I don't know, ok? Does that make you all happy?



No.



No.



No.



No.



Well, now that you mention it...



Marco? Shut. Up.



Rachel? Go to--



Ok, that's probably enough of that conversation, Jake said. Look, it's that cave again.



How did we get through last time? Tobias wondered.



Rachel took a bite out of it, Cassie said. But I don't think there's much hope in these bodies.



We didn't have to puzzle about the cave wall for much longer. It opened up on its own.



Anyone else not like the fact that they're inviting us in? Rachel said.



You're just disappointed you didn't get to bust the wall down.



Do we go in? Cassie asked quickly, before Marco and Rachel could start arguing again.



Yes, Jake decided. We're going to find out just why they're letting us come in.



I have a bad feeling about this... Marco muttered. I personally agreed, but for once kept my mouth shut.



I swam in after the others. Demorph. Jake said. I did so gladly. I was more then happy to get out of the squid's predator body.



The first thing to change was the large squid eye. It split like someone had ripped it in half. Then the hard, beaklike mouth melted into my soft, human one.



After that the changes went too fast for me to keep track of. My nose sprouted somewhere on my face, then I was shrinking and shrinking and shrinking while my arms and legs reappeared from the squid ones. Soon, I was totally human.



My hair was draped over my face, making it impossible to see. I kicked my legs and used my hands to push it back while trying to stay on the surface.



"Sara! Look out!"



Somewhere behind me, slimy, scaly fish hands closed around my neck and lifted me out of the water.



Chapter 25

Rachel



The Nartec lifted Sara by the neck and pulled her out of the water.

"Battle morphs!" Jake yelled. I started to morph to grizzly bear. Cassie, who had already morphed, started climbing out of the water to help Sara.

It looked to me like she was handling things pretty well.

Sara elbowed the guy behind her in the gut. He let out some weird strangled sound and almost dropped her, but he held on. Sara grabbed the guy's hands, still around her throat, and dug her long, manicured fingernails into his flesh.

Sara's maneuvers were working ok until another Nartec got a knife. Then she stopped struggling.

Cassie leaped on the guy with the knife and sunk her long woof fangs into his neck. But there were more Nartec coming. A lot more, with weapons.

No way there was going to be a fight without me.

I charged into the nearest Nartec. It went flying. Then one stabbed a long spear into my back. "HHUUHHHROOOOWWWR!" I bellowed. How idiotic were these things, going after a grizzly? Grizzly's can be up to eight feet tall and weigh 800 pounds. The Nartec were about the same size as humans. Very weak humans.

I swung one of my giant paws at the Nartec. I didn't look to see where it landed.

"RRRRWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOORRR!"

The walls vibrated with Jake's tiger roar. Several of the Nartec hesitated.

And that's when the one unhesitant Nartec came after me with a small dagger, and jammed it into my arm. I swung out to hit the Nartec, but I stopped midswing.

What, you may ask, was so special about this particular Nartec? Well, it was female for one thing. And for another, it looked a lot like me.

That's an understatement. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was the attitude she stood with, or the huge eyes the same exact color as mine, just bigger. Whatever it was, this girl didn't just look like me. She Iwas/I me. With scales.

Oh! Oh, wow, this is weird! Cassie exclaimed suddenly. I tore my eyes away from the scaly version of me, and saw Cassie staring at...Cassie. Oh. My. God. The air started glittering, like someone had spilled a giant container of glitter from high up and it was slowly floating to the ground. I "No, no, no! Not yet! This wasn't supposed to happen for years!"/I Would someone like to tell me WHAT is going on? I"You forget, Drode, no one can predict the future."/I The female Nartec pulled her dagger out of my arm and this time shoved it into my stomach. I made no move to pull it out or retaliate. I"You brought them down here! You and your tricks!" "To my understanding, it was you who set the trap for them in the Pemalite ship." "The Pemalites! Oh, Ellimist, you are a clever one, I'll give you that. Your meddling started long ago.long ago.."/I Forget them! I told myself. If the Ellimist and the Drode wanted to carry on their little conversation, that was fine with me. I swung out my huge, ham-sized paw at the Rachel look-a- like. I meant to hit her in the chest. Send her flying. But my aim was a little off. Her neck broke with a loud CRAAAAAAAACK. And then a thick blanket of darkness enveloped me. I could see nothing, could hear nothing, except the voices inside my head. I"Everything is ruined! She killed the duplicate! Now it will happen! There is no stopping it! Are you satisfied, Ellimist? Your plan has been completed. You have won this round." "Perhaps not. Yes, they will gain the strengths of their duplicates. Yes, the Nartec colony will be destroyed. But the game is far from over. Tell your master Crayak that: The game is far from over."/I I tried to speak, but I couldn't. My mouth seemed covered in a thick substance that wouldn't allow it to move. I "Do you hear that, little Animorphs/I?" the Drode sneered. I"The Ellimist has tricked us all, once again."/I And then I passed out. I'm not sure what happened, but the last thing I remember was: I"The plan has already been activated."/I



Chapter 26

Melissa

"And I need some more clothes," Marco said. "Right. Clothes." I said, adding it to the list. "Anything else?" Sara asked sarcastically. "World domination, perhaps?" "You can find some old ones in the attic," Marco continued, undaunted. "Stuff no one will notice if they search my house and it's missing." Sara and I had already snuck into all the others houses and got them supplies. Marco's list, however, was considerably longer. About five minutes and three list items later, we were flying towards Marco's mansion. It was marked off with yellow police tape, but there didn't seem to be any officers nearby. See any open windows? Not yet. Sara groaned. Let's just go in the front door. We landed on the grass. Sara was demorphed first, and crawled up to the front door. "Locked." She said. "There is one way in." I pointed to a good-sized doggie door. "Why does he have a dog door?" Sara muttered as she crawled through. "He doesn't even have a dog.does he?" "ARF ARFARFARF!" "Sara?!" There was no way I was going to fit through the little door. I had to wait for Sara to open the door from the inside. "It's okay!" Sara yelled. "It's friendly.I think." She opened the door. The dog was jumping up, trying to lick her face. "Down, mutt." "Where's the attic?" I asked. That's where nearly all of the items on the list were. "My guess would be up." We found a staircase, then another and another. Marco had said the entrance to the attic was hidden in a closet on the top floor.but there were about 50 rooms with 50 different closets. We split up. I must have opened twenty closets, but no hidden ladders or staircases. I did, however, find a lot of mice. And combs. Marco seemed to have at least three combs in every room, and two extra ones stashed in each closet. "I found it!" Sara called. Of course, I had to look in about a dozen rooms before I finally found the one she was in. In the closet, behind a wall of clothes, was a rickety old ladder leading up to a panel on the ceiling. Sara hesitantly climbed the ladder and pushed the panel away. She rose up into the attic, and disappeared from sight. "Come on up," she called to me. I did. The attic was an absolute mess. Giant, dusty cardboard boxes shoved in every corner. Cobwebs on everything. Big trunks and suitcases. "He didn't mention where any of this stuff is, did he?" "Nope." I went to work, peeking into one of the trunks. It was full of old stuffed animals. I stifled a giggle, and moved on. The next trunk contained brushes and combs. "Hey! Look at this!" I hurried over to Sara, thinking she had found some of the stuff we were looking for. Instead, she was brushing dust off a cardboard box to reveal the word: "Animorph" written in black marker. "Are you sure you should look in there?" I asked. "No. But I'm going to anyway." She pulled back the brown flaps. The box was full of old, raggedy notebooks. Sara picked up the first one, and opened it to the first page. Although I had sworn to myself I wouldn't, I read over her shoulder, fascinated:

I My name is Marco. I can't tell you my last name or where I live. Believe me, I wish I could. I would like nothing more then to be able to tell you my name is Marco Jones or Williams or Vasquez or Brown or Anderson or McCain. Marco McCain. Has kind of a nice sound, doesn't it? But McCain's not my last name. I'm not even going to swear to you that Marco is my first name. See, I'm hoping to live a while longer. I'm not going to make it any easier for the Yeerks to find me.../I

"We shouldn't be reading this." I said. "No. We shouldn't." Sara agreed. She flipped to the middle of the book:

IAt any second they were going to rush in. At any moment they were going to catch us half-morphed. I looked over at Jake. His eyes were gone, replaced by little black BBs. "Ewww." As I watched, eight spindly, blue, insect like legs erupted from his chest. "Aaaaahhh!" I yelped in shock. Jake's face seemed to open up, to split open into a complex mess of valves. I think I would have thrown up, seeing that. Except that I, also, no longer had a mouth../I

"Aaaaaahhhh!" Sara screamed. She threw the book and jumped back. "What? What?!"

"Spider!"

I sighed, and crushed the tiny moving black dot by setting a big box on top of it. Sara calmed down and this time picked a different notebook, one with Spiderman on the cover.

/I Someday, if we won, if humanity survived, we'd be in the history books. Me and Jake and Rachel and Cassie and Tobias and Ax. They'd be household names, like generals from World War II or the Civil War. Patton and Eisenhower. Ulysses Grant and Robert E. Lee. Kids would study us in school. Bored, probably. And then the teacher would tell the story of Marco. I'd be a part of history. What I was about to do. Some kid would laugh. Some kid would say, "Cold, man. That was really cold." I had to do it, kid. It was a war. It's the whole point, you stupid, smug, smirking little jerk! Don't you get it? It was the whole point. We hurt the innocent to stop the evil. Innocent Hork-Bajir. Innocent Taxxons. Innocent human- Controllers. How else to stop the Yeerks? How else to win? No choice, you punk. We did what we had to do. "Cold, man. That Marco dude? He was just cold."/I

"What is he talking about?"

Sara shrugged. Enjoying yourselves? I screamed. Sara screamed. We both whirled around. A very smug looking seagull sat on one of the trunks. "IMarco/I?" Sara hissed. "What are you doing here?" Well, about five minutes after you two left, I realized I had nothing better to do then play Harriet the Spy. Oh, and there was an open window. Hey, what are you reading? Sara shoved the Spiderman notebook back into the box. "We were...um." "We were looking for clothes, and we found these," I admitted, showing him one of the notebooks. Oh. Those. Silence. "Well, I guess we'll just go." Sara said, starting to edge towards the trapdoor in the floor. Uh-uh, Marco said, flying in front of her and landing on the trapdoor. First, you two have some explaining to do. "Oh, please," Sara rolled her eyes. "You're a seagull. What are you going to do, poop on me?" As tempting as that may be, no. Marco demorphed. He might be short, but he's still bigger then Sara. "Ok." Sara grinned. "You and Melissa, one on one. We'll see who wins that." "Ha. Ha. How about you just tell me why you two found it necessary to go through my stuff?" Sara gave up and fell silent. I kept my mouth shut. "How much did you read?" "Only like a page or two." I said honestly. Marco pulled one of the notebooks out of the box and flipped through it. "I should probably just burn these," he said. I wasn't sure who he was talking to, Sara, himself, or me so I didn't answer. "Why?" Sara asked. Marco shrugged. "There's stuff in there I want to forget, but at the same time if I burn them, there might be something in there I'm supposed to remember.Am I making any sense?" "Yes," Sara held up the Spiderman notebook. "What were you talking about in here? About what you were going to do?" Marco shrugged. "I don't remember which one that it. But take it," he said. "It's probably of more use to you then it is to me."

I went over to Sara's house later. She told her mom I was a friend from school. I sat down on the lavender carpet of her bedroom. She sat down at her desk. "I'll read a couple pages, you read a couple pages." She said. I knew it would take a while to read that way, but I was willing to sacrifice some of my time. I won't tell you all of what was in the notebook, just the parts that are necessary for you to understand what it was about:

I was on the other side of the fissure. So was Visser One. My mother. We were alone. I She stood with her back to the cliff, raging. "Too late, Visser Three, too late to stop me!" Then, calling into her communicator, "Detach a fighter to get me off this rock!" Rachel and Tobias were back against there own dead drop. Hork-Bajir hemmed them in, attacking relentlessly. In seconds, it would be over. All done. My plan. Done. Failed. Rachel and Tobias would die. Visser Three would live. And Visser One? Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a Bug fighter rocketing down toward us. I turned to face her. Visser One. The leader of the initial invasion on Earth. She stared at me. She moved to aim the weapon at me. I lowered my head, and felt the power..It would be a hundred foot drop. I love you, I whispered. And then, I lunged. "The boy!" She whispered, amazed. "It's the boy!".....

Rachel came to see me..."There's no body," she announced... "Visser One. Your mother. I searched. In eagle morph. There's no body." I felt my insides tighten.. "Nice try, Rachel," I said. She shrugged. "I'm telling you what I saw. I wouldn't lie." "Sure you would," I said. "Pity. Charity. Make Marco feel better." "No. Because it won't make you feel better. It wouldn't be pity or charity. I wouldn't be doing you a favor. You've cried and yelled and hated yourself. It's bad, but if she's dead at least it would be over. If she's alive." ..."Rachel? I was going to do it. Then I wasn't. I was trying to kill her. And save her. What do you do?.What do you do when you have to make a decision and each choice is horrible?"/I

"He doesn't know he gave us this," I said. "Nope." Sara agreed solemnly. "So what do we do now?"