Disclaimer: Ok, we've all seen a disclaimer before and we all know what it means, right? Oh, and sorry for the delay getting this chapter out. I actually had it done a few weeks ago, but then there was a time of unpleasantness involving my computer. Some virus wiped out half my hard drive, then to get rid of the bug we had to reformat and lose whatever was left. So I'm really far behind where I wanted to be by now, but I'm trying to catch up.

As more and more creatures came crawling out of the undergrowth, it became clear that Jake and Cryos were seriously outnumbered.

They were small, greenish brown creatures. They had several rows of long, curved teeth, thick leathery skin and glowing red eyes. But the strangest part of them was their legs or rather, the lack thereof. These creatures slithered on a long, snake-like tail.

The things surrounded them. Hissing and growling at them until one last creature crawled from the bushes. This one was different. It stood taller than the other ones, still only three feet tall, but taller than the others. And this one had the glint of intelligence in its eye. Where the other ones were as stupid as beasts, this one could think.

The big creature pointed at Jake in his tiger form and hissed. Three of the smaller creatures slithered up and grabbed him. One of them wrapped Jake up in it's tail and the other two dragged him off outside the circle.

Cryos looked back to the big creature when it roared at him. He turned just in time to see it lunge teeth-first at him!

He dropped to the ground to avoid it, and by the time he stood up, it was ready to strike again. He prepared to dodge another leap, but instead of jumping at him, this time it spit a blob of glowing green slime!

He spun to avoid it, and it hit one of the smaller creatures. The thing fell to the ground and twitched as the stuff began burning away it's skin like acid. A few of the other creatures backed away, but none seemed to care about their fallen comrade.

Cryos heard another crackling sound, followed by burning sensation on his back. He looked back and saw that he hadn't been quite quick enough to dodge that stuff.

He looked back at the big creature and dropped into a fighting stance, ready for anything this time. So when it lunged at him, he popped out one of his wrist blades and slashed with everything he had.

The creature was sliced open from it's long sinuous neck to it's even longer and snakey tail.

It hissed and squirmed in pain as it died, and all the smaller creatures mimicked it, writhing in exactly the same way. Until, with a frightening suddenness, they all went still.

Slowly, the smaller creatures sat up and slithered away, but the one big one didn't move. Cryos knelt down next to the dead alien.

What was that thing? Jake asked.

"I don't know," Cryos answered, "but something's wrong here. These things weren't evil."

What do you mean not evil!? Jake demanded as he started to demorph from his tiger form. They attacked us for no reason and without even being pro- He was cut off as his voice switched over from telepathy to spoken words. "Provoked!" He finished.

"Yeah, I know. But they didn't have an evil feel to them."

"An evil feel!?"

"A feeling, like a vibe or an aura." Cryos tried to explain. "Their energy wasn't bad. It felt like they were trying to defend themselves from evil. I think this whole thing was a misunderstanding."

"Well it was one hell of a misunderstanding." Jake shouted. "And even if it was, they have plenty of reason to hate us now." He gestured at the two dead creatures lying on the ground.

"Maybe not…" Muttered Cryos, leaning over the one he had sliced up. The other creature was beyond help, the acid had burned away most of it's body already and was still hissing away. But this one could still be saved, maybe.

Cryos popped one of his wrist blades back out and made one slow, clean cut on his fingertip. Moving quickly, before the wound healed, he squeezed out a single drop of his blood and watched as it dripped into the gaping wound on the snake-like alien's stomach.

The reaction was instantaneous.

The alien thrashed wildly while whipping it's tail around. Cryos tried to restrain it, but after a few good tail slaps to the face he just backed off to let it finish.

It stopped moving again after less than a minute and Cryos and Jake approached slowly. The thing had flipped over on its side and was facing away from them. When they got close it rolled over and they got a good look at its stomach. It had healed up all right, but that wasn't the problem. The entire section that had been sliced up was now the same off white color of Cryos's skin.

"Is that supposed to happen?" Jake muttered to Cryos.

"I don't really know." He answered. "It didn't happen before, but I've only done this once, so I don't know."

The alien growled and rubbed its head before looking up at them. When it spoke, its voice sounded like a growl. "You, servants of The One, you've spared the life of this warrior, but why? When we, the brave Kelbrid warriors would never have done the same for you?"

Cryos was a little surprised that it spoke English until he remembered that the translator microbes were in his blood, so now they were in this Kelbrid too.

"We aren't servants of the one." Cryos told it. "We are trying to stop him. My name's Cryos, this is Jake."

"What's it saying?" Jake whispered to Cryos.

Cryos pulled out his last translator grenade and crushed it in his hand. He blew some of the dust into Jake's face and put the rest back in his pocket. With that little bit left, he couldn't afford to waste any.

He looked back at the Kelbrid. "Do you have a name?"

The Kelbrid growled again. "We Kelbrid do not waste our times on names or individuality. We are all the same, and everything we do for the good of the hive! Why should this warrior be called anything different than that warrior? As long as the Queen can give orders and they get done why does it matter who does them?"

Cryos could see this was a touchy subject and moved on. "You attacked us because you thought we were servants of The One, that must mean that your people are fighting against The One as well, right?"

"We are against The One," Said the Kelbrid, "but we do not try to fight him, we are not strong enough. There is a legend, a prophecy, that there will be a single warrior, who rises above the other castes. Above the lowly fighting drones, the information keepers, the generals (Such as the warrior you speak to now) and even above the Queen herself. And this warrior will unite all the scattered Kelbrid hives together in one final battle to end all battles. That is what we wait for, the arrival of this singular warrior!"

Cryos was a little surprised by that speech, he hadn't expected to find an entire race of aliens wanting defeat The One.

Jake spoke up suddenly. "Do you know where The One came from?"

"Yes! Yes, we do know there that accursed creature came from! The Yeerks created it! They came into Kelbrid space over fifty standard years ago and combined their genetic essence with brave Kelbrid warriors, energy absorbing Kabba spiders, and even more vile creatures, and in the end, they created the most horrible, disgusting creature the Universe has ever known! The One!! And even then, The One wasn't nearly as bad as it is now. Thirty years ago, a pair of creatures were found who had unspeakable power. The One absorbed them and their power, and now he is all powerful!!"

Cryos had a sudden sinking feeling. He grabbed the Kelbrid and lifted him high into the air. "There were two creatures? What did they look like!?"

"This warrior does not know exactly! This all happened long before our time. We just know that there was a male with pink skin and black hair, and a pale female with a tail."

"My parents…" Cryos muttered. "You!" He lifted the Kelbrid up higher. "Go tell your Queen that the people she sent warriors after are here to defeat The One!" Cryos threw the snake-like alien to the ground, but instead of leaving, he bowed low to the ground.

"Forgive this warrior for not telling you sooner, but the Queen dispatched another set of troops to destroy your camp. They should be arriving soon- ack." He was cut off when Cryos whipped his tail around the Kelbrid's neck and lifted him into the air again.

"Here's what we're going to do, you're going to come with us and tell the other Kelbrid that we aren't enemies. Then you're going to wait while I decide whether to kill you quickly or slowly…"

"But," He Kelbrid protested. "a Kelbrid general would never defy the order of the Queen. The other general will have to receive word from the Queen herself. Only then will he call off the attack."

"Then go!" Cryos threw the little alien to ground before spinning around and flying away.

"What about me?!" Jake called after him.

Muttering a few choice words, Cryos swooped back down, grabbed Jake by the shoulders and flew off again.

They were back at the campsite in less than a minute, but it seemed the only disaster in progress was Draco related. The little lizard had woken up and frozen the fire into an ice block, then set fire to several small trees.

But even as Cryos got closer, he saw the first few Kelbrid start to slither out of the forest. He dropped Jake into the center of the clearing near the other Animorphs, then ran to where Zon was swinging his blades madly at Draco, but the little lizard was dodging every move. It reminded Cryos of the training exercises he and Kentra did. Only of Draco messed up, he wouldn't get a black eye, he'd get his little head ripped off.

Remembering all at once that Kentra had been hurt, he looked around for her. It took a moment to find her, she was at the far side of the clearing with her arms full of firewood. She dropped it when she saw what Draco had done to the campsite and slowly shook her head.

"KENTRA!!" Cryos called to her. She looked up and smiled when she saw him, but then he pointed at the trees where the Kelbrid were still slithering. They were hiding in the shadows, and the only way to see them was from the air, or if you had really good night vision. Kentra saw them and ran to Cryos's side.

"What are those things?" She asked.

"For now, trouble. Maybe allies later though. I'll explain later, just stick close to be and be ready. They're tricky." Cryos looked over at Zon, who, by now, had spotted the Kelbrid as well and stopped fighting Draco.

The Animorphs had already started going into their battle morphs. Cryos was pretty sure they could handle themselves for a little while, but he didn't think any of them would last more than five minutes with so many Kelbrid all around them.

It was a tense moment as both sides enjoyed their last few seconds of quiet before the battle began. Then, all at once, a wave of Kelbrid came from every direction.

Cryos struck at the first few before they had a chance to hit him or Kentra. But he couldn't stop them all. He saw Kentra launch an energy bomb that sent one of them flying over the treetops.

Zon wasn't holding anything back. He was slicing up one Kelbrid after another. There was a pile of dead and wounded ones all around him.

The Animorphs were holding their own, barely. The Kelbrid couldn't seem to make any headway against their team of animal morphs. Poor Menderash though was having a very hard time holding his laser weapon with his burnt hand.

Cryos saw an entire troop of Kelbrid become completely immobile as the ground beneath them turned into a sheet of ice. It was Draco's work. There were a few more Kelbrid rolling around on the ground because they were on fire. Again, Draco.

The fight ended suddenly when a Kelbrid slithered out of the woods all by itself. It was a long, scrawny little thing. It threw its head back and gave one long roar.

It wasn't until a few seconds later that Cryos's translator microbes figured it out. It was a completely different language than the one the Kelbrid normally used. The lone Kelbrid had said, "By order of the Queen, these aliens are not to be killed. Instead, they shall be guided to the hive, where the Queen herself has words to speak to them."

The fighting ended instantly. Well, almost. Zon did chop the head off one more Kelbrid before starting the process of cleaning the blood off himself. But all the remaining Kelbrid stood down and slithered back the way they had come.

A larger Kelbrid came slithering up to Cryos. It was another General like the one Cryos had saved earlier. "I am to guide you to the hive." He said. "Please follow me." He turned and slithered away.

Cryos started walking after him. With Kentra close behind, Zon following her and the Animorphs bring up the rear. Where Draco had gone was anyone's guess. But he often vanished for no reason and returned later, so Cryos didn't give it much thought.

There was a sudden point of light in the sky and Cryos looked up at it, sensing a familiar energy. "Zeethra's here."