Chapter 1

My name is Jake. A few years ago I wouldn't have told you my last name, where I live or even what state I lived in. But a lot can happen in a couple of years. Now practically everyone of the planet knew my last name and where I live. The war between the Yeerks and the humans had ended. We had won. And yet I was still unhappy. You see, victory usually comes with a heavy price.
On The Rachel, the ship on which I have lived the last few months on, I slept. But once again, my dreams were haunted by the dying souls of the people who died in the war. Souls I could not simply erase. These were souls that stuck with you, souls that were implanted on my brain cells.
I was running across a field. I knew people where chasing me, but for once, they didn't have slugs in their head. They seemed normal almost. Except the people running after me where people that no longer existed in the real world.
'Jake!' the voices shouted. 'Jake, stop! Listen to us Jake!'
I clamped a hand over my ears. I didn't need to hear this. I had heard it many times before, not just from other people, but from myself too.
'Jake, why won't you stop and listen?' the voices wailed. 'Save us, Jake! Why didn't you save us in the end? Why?!'
The field abruptly ended. The grass simply ended onto an empty white void and I could go no further. I turned to face my pursuers, tired and bleary-eyed.
Rachel. My beautiful cousin. She had died carrying out orders I had given her.
Tom. My brother. The one I had told Rachel to destroy, but instead, they both ended up getting killed.
The Auxiliary Animorphs. James and his gang. All slaughtered by the Blade Ship's Dracon beams. I could have helped...but I sat there in fly morph, watching them die one by one.
Seventeen thousand defenceless Yeerks. They had been flushed from the ship under my orders. A totally unnecessary 'distraction'.
'Jake!' they cried together. 'Jake...'
'It was war!' I argued. 'We had to win!'
'Did Tom have to die for us to win the war?' Rachel asked, stepping forward. 'Did he? Did I have to die killing Tom? A pointless instruction that resulted in the death of two of your closest family? Is that what it was Jake?'
'No, it wasn't like that...'
'What was it like, Jake?' James asked, sneering slightly. 'You watched me and the others slowly die, didn't you? What was it like? Did you get a rush from it?'
I clutched my hair and began scraping my scalp until I could feel blood on my fingers. Why wouldn't they leave me alone? Why? I wasn't my fault. If the Yeerks hadn't invaded earth in the first place...
'I tried to save you,' I said meekly. 'I really did...'
'No you didn't!' Rachel accused. 'You didn't care! You killed me. You killed Tom. You killed us all, without a thought of pity!'
'NO!!!!!'
I sat bolt upright on the cold metal floor of the spaceship my friends and I now occupied. Sweat clung profusely to my clothes. Panting, I stood up. I could see the outline of Menderash still working feverishly at the controls. How did it end up like this? How?
I could still remember that fateful day when the five of us had foolishly decided to take a shortcut through an abandoned construction site. There was me of course, Jake Berenson. Then there was my best friend, Marco. He was the class clown, a real joker if ever there was one, but his entire personality was not based around humour. That guy had—and still has—a very alert mind, perhaps a ruthless mind that could see the shortest line between point A and point B without letting morals obstruct him. He wasn't cruel—he just knew how to get things done quicker.
Then there was Rachel, my beautiful cousin. A gymnast wannabe. People could call her a dumb airhead model, but most people who did found themselves with their hair in her grasp and her whispering threats down your ear. She was the true warrior of the group, the always-up-for-it person. But it was that strange, out-of-control violence that eventually led to her downfall on the Blade Ship.
Rachel's best friend was Cassie. Cassie was...how can I explain her...the group pacifist. She was the total opposite of Rachel—they liked different style of clothing, Cassie dressed casually, Rachel dressed wonderfully for every occasion, but it was perhaps the reality of war that brought out the real differences. You see, Rachel seemed to love the war: she loved the adrenaline that cursed through her body before battle and the powerful surge of her strongest morph, the grizzly bear. But Cassie hated the war. She wished it was over from the beginning and although she joined in and was probably the bravest of the lot, she had her line, a line she would not cross even for the good of the planet. She was smart, much like Marco, but unlike Marco, her path between A and B twisted and turned to avoid the morals of life.
The other member of the original group was Tobias. None of us really knew him back then, but it was soon apparent that a strong connection began to grow between Rachel and Tobias—almost a romantic connection. But Tobias' tragedy changed everything. He became trapped in the morph of a red-tailed hawk and there he stayed for a while until the 'non-interfering' Ellimist allowed him the power to morph again, but he had never regained his true body. His life seemed strange...a boy living the life of a hawk. He was some weird mixture—hawk, boy, and for some strange reason, Andalite. I often look back on him, wondering how strange and isolated his life must have been. But he coped with it, certainly better than anyone else would have dealt with it. War changes you. At the start, I'd have thought Tobias would have been the weakest of us...but incidentally, he turned out to be the strongest.
Our last member arrived later. He was an Andalite, Elfangor's brother and strange as it seems, Tobias' uncle. He hand Tobias formed a special bond. They were, after all, two lonely freaks, millions of miles away from their true home. Who knew what they both were thinking. But Aximili- Esgarrouth-Isthil (or Ax for short) came through for us and helped us in countless battles.
Perhaps it was my fault we took that route through the construction site...or perhaps it was the subhuman creature that called itself the Ellimist's fault. I don't know, nor do I care anymore for what happened then happened and changed our lives beyond belief. An Andalite ship containing the dying prince Elfangor crashed landed almost coincidentally in our very spot. It was there that Elfangor told us about the terror that was the Yeerk Empire. He warned us about the invasion. But, without his other form of help, we wouldn't have stood a chance. He gave us the power to morph, to transform into animals.
That night changed everything. We very quickly got an insight into the Yeerk war. We started off almost amateur, but we quickly grasped the idea of guerrilla warfare. We attacked the Yeerk pool, we destroyed the ground- based Kandrona, we found out that Marco's supposedly 'dead' mum was in fact Visser One, we discovered the Chee, we saved Leera from the Yeerks, we defeated the traitor David, we saved the Iskoort from the scheming mind of Crayak and destroyed his infamous Howlers...We did more that humanly possible in a war against mind-controlling aliens, and yet we did it. In the end, after three years of fighting, we won. We destroyed the Yeerk Pool, we recruited new Animorphs, we captured the Yeerk Pool and saved Earth. We even rescued Alloran-Semitur-Corass from the filthy slug Visser Three (later Visser One). But we lost a lot of things too...
Most of our town was destroyed in the destruction of the Yeerk Pool. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people died. Then there were General Doubleday's men, the seventeen thousand defenceless Yeerks, the auxiliary Animorphs. Tom. Rachel. Probably more. War was like a wet slap across the face. It stung. We, of all people alive, should know.
My hair ruffled, I stood up. Marco and Menderash were at the controls. Menderash was an Andalite who had allowed himself become trapped in human morph for the mission. Mission? I hear you say. I thought you said the war was over? Why are you still doing missions?
Well, the Yeerks weren't entirely defeated. Although the Empire was fragmented, small remnants still scoured the galaxy, hoping to start anew. Ax, our dear friend, had been captured trying to irradiate the last few Yeerk survivors. Word had got to Earth and the Animorphs sprang into action again, or at least most of us did...Rachel wasn't around to help us, although she certainly would have done had she still been alive. Tobias agreed, but only because Ax was his shorm, his true friend. Marco agreed simply because he was bored. He would regret it later, I knew, and start complaining. Cassie, however, would not be joining. She had wanted to, but I didn't allow it. She was the one true survivor of the war. Sure, Marco, Tobias, Ax and I also survived, but only Cassie flourished. I had been so weighed down with the guilt and the pain that at one point I didn't even know what was going on around me. Tobias was so saddened by the experience of losing Rachel, he became a hollow of his real self and disappeared for two years. Marco seemed to be fine and happy and so on but I know him. He wasn't as happy as he should have been considering he had a massive mansion, a TV show, a great girlfriend. But Cassie...she set up a nature reserve for the Hork-Bajir in Yellowstone, she had a boyfriend named Ronnie Chambers or something. She was ecstatic when the war ended, a lot happier than the rest of us. I didn't want her to come with us. It was a dangerous mission. We could all die. Cassie had it all...she couldn't die. Not now. After three years of continuous war.
So, with the three of us, I recruited three more members. Menderash- Postill-Fastill was the only survivor of the ship Intrepid, which had been the ship Ax had been on. It had been captured and all the Andalites on board captured or killed. Except Menderash. He was the one who came to earth to tell us. Aximili had been his prince, and armed with the knowledge that Ax might still be alive, wanted to rescue him. However, due to some rule that said Andalites could not cross the border into 'Kelbrid' space without causing an intergalactic war, Menderash was forced to permanently morph into a human.
The other two volunteers: US army ranger Sergeant Santorelli and Jeanne Gerard. Both had barely any family—the reason I chose them. It was likely that no one would return from this trip.
Well, anyway, there we there, the six of us, setting out on a suicidal mission. We had spent half a year on The Rachel. I was bored. I wanted something to happen. I wanted us to find the Blade Ship. If we found the Blade Ship, we would find Ax.
Seeing Marco take over the ship's computer to play a game he probably brought along for the ride, I headed for the toilet. I saw Santorelli and Jeanne sleeping in one corner of the room. Tobias sat perched of a pole Menderash had rigged up so he wouldn't have to sleep on the floor. I felt a pang of grief. Only half of the original Animorphs were here—the rest were dead, feared dead or sleeping peacefully on earth. The good old times when we were together and we raided know Yeerk facilities were over—the real war had begun, the Animorphs had split up and I'd recruited new members—members that couldn't even morph. Perhaps I'd made the wrong decision. Perhaps Marco, Tobias, Menderash and I would have been enough. There was no need for Jeanne and Santorelli to join us...but there was a feeling. Six was the best number. It had worked before, why wouldn't it work again.
But that six was reduced to five, Big Jake, I reminded myself. Would one of us perish like Rachel did/ Marco? Tobias? Menderash? Santorelli or Jeanne? Or even myself?
I'd just done my business on a toilet designed for Hork-Bajir when I heard a voice call out, 'Captain, to the bridge!' It was Menderash.
I rushed over to him. I saw him and Marco studying something on a computer screen. I saw a red dot. 'What is it?' I asked.