Author's Note: Please don't hurt me. I warned you in chapter one some people would be out of character.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Animorphs.

Chapter Two: Marco's POV

Jake and I stood there with our mouths hanging open. Ax demorphed in about five seconds, looked like he was going to jump on Elfangor and hug him, and then froze, looking suspicious. He glared at us.

[You told me he was dead,] he accused. He sounded hurt.

[They thought I was,] said Elfangor defensively.

"How did you survive?" Jake asked, clearly awed.

[That morph Visser Three was in ripped off most of the burn, and I fell into the Taxxon mob,] Elfangor explained. I noticed an intense anger in his 'voice' as he said "Visser Three". [I had to defend myself until I could use my Taxxon morph, but Arbron made that unnecessary.]

[Who is Arbron?] Ax wondered.

[My friend. He was trapped in Taxxon morph years ago, back when we were both arisths. I hadn't seen him in years, but he recognized me. He protected me from the other Taxxons until I finished morphing. After I morphed, they couldn't tell us apart, even though I couldn't speak Taxxon. We were lucky none of those Taxxons were Controllers. I left out some key details when I warned you about the Yeerk invasion.] The last bit was addressed directly to Jake and me.

He rambled on for a while, but I didn't understand much of what he said. There was a lot of stuff about "the Taxxon rebellion", passing mentions of such things as "Skrit Na" and "the Time Matrix", and something about "Sub-Visser Seven". After five minutes, I stopped listening and sort of glazed over. Elfangor seemed to be mostly talking to Ax, who seemed to be hanging on to his every word. Jake was politely trying to look interested, but I doubt he understood any more than I did. I understood the words, but not the context.

[Any questions?] Elfangor asked. I shook myself out of my stupor by shaking my head.

"Actually, yes," Jake said. "Um... just out of curiosity... why didn't you contact us before? We really could've used your help."

Elfangor looked upset... and then... I don't know... almost guilty. Like he was ashamed of himself. It was hard to tell because Andalites don't really have faces, and I know this sounds cliché, but I could see shame in his eyes.

Before he could answer, there was a loud "AH-CHOO!" from the doorway. We all spun around (even though Andalites can't really spin) and saw Tom, hunched over in the doorway, sneezing his head off.

[Gesundaeit,] said Elfangor. The rest of us were to stunned even to say that. We had all forgotten that Tom was there.

Author's Note: I love cliffhangers. The next chapter explains Tom's place in all this. Review some more and I'll post it soon.