They marched me back to the campsite, and sitting down on what looked like a picnic table. They tied my hands with thick ropes, and bound my feet to one of the seat supports. They assigned a couple of Hork-Bajir to watch me, as well as a human. I finally realised that the woman who had been so distrusting of me... was Marco's mother. Her dark hair and eyes... so much like his. Only... there was something more to this woman. After all, she'd been a Yeerk Visser. She didn't get to where she was by giving people the benefit of the doubt.

Rachel's mum watched me first, as the others went off and talked or whatever.

"I really don't know what to think of you Jade" She said a little nastily as she stood with her arms crossed over her chest and her hard eyes staring me down. The two Hork-Bajir were positioned closer. Their orders; if I start to change, they kill me.

"I don't know either" I replied in a whisper, staring down at the ground. Soon, Cassie's dad took over, looking a little weirded out about all this. He looked angry and sympathetic all at once. And that was terrifying.

I waited like that, until I heard some kind of commotion from far off, and I looked up to see the parents were going somewhere... Cassie's dad took off, and there was a lot of people talking at once, raised voices...

Then I saw Cassie run past me, tears streaking her face, and into one of the makeshift cottages or whatever they were. I don't even think she saw me. Her parents followed, worried. I thought about my parents... it had been hours since I'd last talked to them. I wondered if they were all right...

"Jade!" Came a voice. I looked up to see Marco and Rachel running towards me, the looks on their faces unreadable. Marco collapsed on his knees in front of me, trying to loosen the ropes that held my hands. Then he got frustrated, screamed, and yelled at his dad to give him a knife or something. Seconds later, a swiss-army knife was in his hands, and he cut me roughly free. I got up, and he hugged me tightly. But something was wrong... I saw Rachel...

"Ahhhh!!" She screamed in anger and frustration kicking the side of the picnic table, then balled her hands into fists, looking like she wanted to hit something. Or someone...

"What, what is it?" I asked instinctively, pulling away from Marco and looking at him. His eyes were dark.

"We... I'm glad to see you, but..."

"I'll explain later. What is it?"

"We went on a mission to try and stop the Taxxons... the Yeerks, from trying to build another Yeerk pool. We put everything we had into it... and... we lost Jake"

I choked on the words. I hadn't had contact with these people in so long... and now I get the bad news that they... that Jake was...

Marco, and a reluctant Rachel, filled me in on their situation. They had made more Animorphs, but they'd lost the morphing cube... everything was going under...

"Why didn't you try and contact me? I could have helped you!"

"If we tried to make any kind of contact with you, you would have been in even more danger. And... then you disappeared..."

"I didn't have a choice. I had to do something. And not knowing whether you guys were alive or not... I couldn't just sit and do nothing!" I told them my side of the story, and he nodded in understanding. Rachel... I couldn't tell what she thought of this.

"We can send Tobias to lead them here. But you... you have to stay here for now, ok?"

"But I..." At that moment, Marco's mother stepped up behind him.

"I see. Your mum still thinks I'm a...a Yeerk or something" I nodded, sighing heavily. They didn't want me to leave till they'd confirmed my story.

"We can't be sure until... you know" Marco said. Rachel had taken off somewhere, and I saw Ax a little off to the right, seemingly talking to a Hork-Bajir and Marco's dad.

He called Tobias over, and I told him the direction I'd flown from, but also telling them they could have run if they'd been in trouble. He'd agreed to go get them and flew off into the darkness. I was worried he couldn't see at night, but something told me he'd find them, and that everything would be ok.

An hour and a half later, they trudged into the valley, looking like the most unhappy campers you could ever come across. But as soon as they saw me, they hugged me tightly, and I held Phoebe for a little while, before Rachel and Tobias's mum swept them up, along with the Hork-Bajir seer named Toby, towards the camp, probably to make preparations. Ryan and Tina met up with Sarah and Jordan, and the last I saw they were climbing the trees, talking and laughing.

I smiled at them, then turned back to the others. Everyone seemed tense, and I couldn't blame them. They'd lost their leader. They'd lost a friend. Cassie had lost someone she loved. Poor Cassie. I went looking for her, hoping I'd find her... maybe talk to her...

But that's when my lack of sleep and adrenaline kicked in. Someone led me to a makeshift bed... where I drifted off to sleep, and into the nightmares that had become a part of my life.

-----------------------------------------x------------------------------------

By early next morning, I knew I'd missed something big. The valley had come live, and as I staggered out into the early sun, I saw Hork-Bajir running around a little nervously, and the parents seemed a little more optimistic then they had been at night.

Then I saw why. Jake. He was alive!

I ran over to the big group, shocked to know he was all right. Cassie and Jake looked surprised. But Marco quickly filled them in before Jake told us his story. The Taxxons... they wanted to side with us!

It was great news... until Ax decided to tell us his big secret. Then everyone seemed to erupt at the same time. I couldn't say much... I hadn't been with the program for a while. But I was angry at him too, for betraying his friends like this... after he'd sworn never to do it again. In my books, if you have people that trust you, and you trust them, you don't turn your backs on them. No matter what.

But Jake finished telling us about the Taxxons, and what he planned to do. But I saw he wasn't as happy as he had been when he started telling it to us.

"Jade" Jake finally said, turning to me "Is there any way we can contact Ithiell and the others? Or maybe the Chanaibens?"

I shook my head "The only thing I know for sure that could have helped us is my little watch/phone. But I had to leaved that behind in the apartment when I left with my family. I don't know if it's still there or not..."

"Okay..." he took a deep breath "Okay, here's what we do" He told us, and about an hour later I was in the air, flying out to where the town used to be. Marco and Ax were with me. I would've liked to take Rachel, but Cassie and Jake warned against it. She had become a very 'loose cannon', according to them, and since they didn't want to leave Rachel and Ax together, he suggested I take the two. Tobias would be the lookout while the five of us were gone.

Ax and Marco were fleas on my little bird shoulders as I flew, since we didn't want the Yeerks seeing three birds in the sky going the same direction, and Jake had made it clear that we needed to hurry. So I was riding the thermals like Tobias had once taught me to do, flapping hard every now and then, then diving and gliding diagonally to cover as much ground as possible.

Soon, we were over my old apartment building... which was still standing.

(Good news! It's still there! It might mean the watch is too!) I said excitedly.

(All right then, let's go in) Marco instructed, and I pulled my wings back and dove, straight for my old window, shattered from the explosion.

I glided neatly through, landing on the bed, looking around with my intense eagle eyes. I saw two fleas catapulting off my back, and onto the floor, and we all began to shift and change.

(Watch for the glass!) I told them just before I lost the ability to thought-speak. I grew, and soon found myself kneeling on the bed, looking down as the other two began to grow from the floor. It was disgusting to watch, but for some reason I couldn't take my eyes off them. Soon they were back to normal, both looking around.

"Let's start looking for it" Marco said, helping me up off the bed. Below our feet, the floor creaked noisily.

(I suggest we watch our step. The support structures of this building may have been...)

"Ok" I said, moving over to my night stand, flicking the light on and shuffling through the mess on it.

"And they say girls are neat" Marco scoffed as I heard him making his way carefully around the broken glass, to the other side of the room.

"We were in a hurry. And Phoebe stays in this room too you know" I replied as I turned my attention to the drawers. I heard Ax crunching over to my wardrobe and opening the door to look inside. Marco was looking around on my small desk. I looked through the three drawers, then carefully started to lift the clothes and stuff on the floor, watching as shards of glass fell from my old clothes.

"I found it!"

"Ah!"

At the same time Marco shouted in victory, a small shard of glass cut my hand, in the middle of my palm, and I dropped the shirt and fell back on the bed.

"Jade, what happened?" He asked as I held my cut hand with my other, shaking a little. It was more or less the sudden sharp pain that scared me, not the pain itself. But the blood was dripping onto the floor.

"Hang on" he came over, put the watch beside me, then picked up another old shirt, being careful not to get cut as well, then pulling and the edges and trying to rip it.

(Here) Ax offered, and in seconds his tail cut straight through the shirt, with Marco yelping in surprise.

"Don't do that!" he cried, but then ripped the shirt apart more easily and bandaged my cut hand as well as he knew how to.

"Thanks guys" I said, grabbing the watch in my other hand and inspecting it. It didn't look too damaged, and I was sure Ax could probably fix any damage it might have.

"Let's go" Marco said tersely, and minutes later we were out the window again, with me carrying not only two fleas, but with the hope that we could win this war.