I was in a room.

It happened so suddenly that I fell back a step, startled. There had been no big flash, no boom… but then again, those things had never been the Ellimist's style.

I looked around, taking the view in. It was a nice room, in an average house. It was very clean, almost as if no one spent much time there. And yet… it smelled a little. It smelled like…

Dogs. I laughed to myself. I was in a dog lover's home. A place I could feel right at home in.

But whose house was it? And why had the Ellimist brought me here?

Before I could spend too much time worrying about it, I heard the front door open. I just stood there, frozen in place. What was I supposed to do? I cursed the Ellimist and his non-interfereing ways. Couldn't he have told me at least where I was going?

"Kayla?" a man's voice called out.

The voice… it struck a chord in my memory. I bit my lip hard, struggling to remember. It was important thatI remembered. Where had I heard that voice?

"Up here!" a distant voice called. "I'm just-" there was muffled laughter- "I'm just trying to give our babies a bath."

The man laughed. "Good luck with that! You should just leave them dirty, dear, you'll never-"

Loud barking interrupted him, and I took a timid step forward, peeking around the corner of the room. I saw a large wet dog, covered in soap suds running down the stairs. He jumped on someone- the man, I suppose- and I could hear him laughing. Again, the creepy sensation of recognition came over me. Maybe if I saw his face…

A woman rushed down the stairs, her hair tied up and her sleeves rolled up. Three more dogs followed her down, all wet from the bath.

She ran to the man, and I think there was a hug. There was a noise, and I flushed as I realized that they were kissing. I felt ridiculous, standing in these people's living room, no idea where I was.

"Honey," the man said in a subdued tone, and I froze as I realized that they were coming in to the room. I looked around for a place to hide, but finally decided to stay put.

They entered the room with their arms around each other, the dripping dogs at their feet. "Oh!" the woman, Kayla, cried, startled, when she saw me, dropping her arms. One of the dogs barked and another growled.
But the man just stood frozen, as did I. We stared at each other. It had been so many years since I had seen him… but I recognized him. Or at least what projected as him. It was shocking, really. Of all the people…
Well, he wasn't exactly a person.

"Kayla, why don't you finish washing the dogs," he said. "I… I'll deal with this." He was pale and shaking, staring at me like I was a ghost.

He recognized me as well.

Kayla just looked at him, saw the expression on his face, and nodded. She gave me a look, and ushered the dogs upstairs.

We were alone.

I finally found my voice. "Erek?"

"Cassie?" he said.

I nodded and shook my head and nodded again. "Yeah, it's me," I said. "Wha- I haven't seen you since… the war ended."

He looked bitter. "You mean since I helped kill Rachel."

His words stunned me. "Erek, no. It wasn't your fault. I mean, you couldn't have known… and well, after what Jake did…" I trailed off. I had never seen his hologram face look so empty, and my heart filled with sudden ache. All these years we had never communicated, and he had been here, blaming himself for some of the horrors that had happened at the last battle.

Erek shrugged my words off. "What are you doing here? How did you get in? Did you morph-"

"No. The Ellimist sent me here."

Erek's hologram tensed up. He knew what that meant, just as I had. "What does he want?"

"The others are in trouble. They're captives of a creature of Crayak. And the Ellimist-"

"Is sending you to save them?"

I hesitated, knowing he didn't want it said, but it had to be. "Sending us."

Erek turned away. His hologram flickered and vanished, and I found myself looking at the android I had known so many years ago. Unlike the hologram, it was the same as I remembered.

He looked down at his body. "She's my wife. That woman? My wife- a human. She doesn't what I am. She has no idea…"

"I was always a little different from some of my kind. I was more open to violent tendencies. Like…"

He stopped and took a shaky breath. I closed my eyes and shuddered too. Erek had once deactivated his peaceful Pemalite programming and saved us, the Animorphs.

It had been a massacre.

He changed his programming back afterwards, but I'll never forget the look on his face afterwards. The look of complete horror and disgust with himself.

I knew that feeling. I had had it too. But unlike Erek, I was born with a mortal memory, and I could push the bad memories away, forget them sometimes.

An android never forgets.

"I went off on my own a little after the war," Erek said suddenly. "And then I met Kayla and- I fell in love with her."

His hologram snapped back on, and I saw a world-weary man staring out at me. "She doesn't know, and that's the way I want it. I'll grow old with her, 'die' with her, but unlike her, I'll be reborn again." He closed his eyes, and could tell that the thought hurt. Quietly, he added, "It's against our rules, you know, marrying a human. We're not supposed to interfere with humans like that. But when I met Kayla, I just…"
I put my hand on his arm. "You don't have to explain it to me," I said gently. "I understand."
Erek smiled at me. "If anyone could, it would be you."

I was touched. I had missed Erek when the war had ended, and hated how we had left off. He had been invaluable to us during the war, but more than that, he was a friend.

"What do you want me to do, Cassie? Leave her to help you help the others? I was never an Animorph, and I still can't fight- what use would I be to you?"

"Every use!" I said adamantly. "Erek… I know this is the last thing you want to do. I feel the same way. But if we don't go, who will?"

He had no answer to that. I saw the defeat in his eyes, as well as the acceptance. I knew he would come then, if only to ease his mind about Rachel. He had to come, the same as I had.

"She really admired you, Kayla did," Erek said suddenly. "We saw you on TV, heard about the things you were doing, the things you had done… she really looked up to you. And she didn't even know you. And me? I did know you and I… I guess I admire you, too, Cassie." His hologram disappeared again, and he looked at me with his real face. "Let's do this, before I find the courage to change my mind."