A/N:  This chapter is mostly here to clear up some questions about Hope and the previous Animorphs.  It's set at Hope's house when she's at the party to when she sneaks back into the house.

Disclaimer:  K.A. Applegate owns the Animorphs.  I own Hope, Alexandria, Sarah, Bade, and Josh.

~~Rachel~~

My name is Rachel.

I know what you're thinking and yes, I am the Animorph Rachel.  I know people think I'm a hermit or something and you know what, I'm glad they do.  I just want to be left alone, so I changed my last name.  Then I married Tobias.  Yes, Tobias is also an Animorph.  He lives as a human now, but due to technology, can still morph.

I don't really know what has happened to the other Animorphs.  They're all basically in hiding except for Ax, who's a War-Prince.  I guess I'm a little busy.  See, Tobias and I have a daughter named Hope.  We keep lying and telling her we aren't Animorphs.

Tobias and I had just seen Hope leave for a party when we had one of our all too common talks at the dinner table.

"Rachel, I've been thinking," Tobias said.  He still looked something like the guy I fell in love with, only he was older and he had lost his lankiness.

"What have you been thinking, Tobias," I sighed.

"Hope is getting older, and, I know we agreed to tell her everything at 16, but…" he stopped.

"Tobias, we've been through this," I said.

"But Rachel, this time is different.  Remember last time we talked to Jake, he said some weird activity involving clubs was coming up."

"Yes."

"Well Rachel, that's a bad sign that the Yeerks are coming back.  And that's not all…"

"What?"

"Rachel, Ax is missing.  Last time they saw him was when Yeerks were attacking."

"Oh no." I said.  Ax and Tobias were best friends plus Ax was Tobias's uncle.  It's a very long story.

"Rachel, the Yeerks are back and once they find us, they'll come after us.  Hope too.  And," he started crying, "I don't want her to become a controller."

"So, do you think we should give her the power to morph?  I mean, I don't want her to go through what we went through, but I don't want to be a controller either."

"She'll be home any minute.  Let's talk about this later." Tobias said.

"Okay. I'll-" the doorbell rang, "get it.  Wonder who it is?"

I made my way to the door.  Unfortunately, we don't have a peephole so I opened the door a crack.  It was a blue centaur with seven-fingered hands and a human shaped head with dear ears.  It had no mouth and three vertical slits for a nose.  The eyes were all bright green, with two eyes where a human's eyes would be and two eyes on flexible horns.  Its tail had a blade at the end of it.  It was an andalite.  More importantly, it was Ax.

I opened the door all the way, "Ax!  How are you?  We heard you've disappeared."

I looked around.  There were seven-foot tall walking razor blades behind the andalite.

Hork-Bajir.

Oh god!

Yeerks.

A/N:  Sorry to leave you hanging.  The next chapter is where the plot truly starts.  Anyways, please review.