Congratulations. I actually never expected this fic to get the most reviews. I must say that I was absolutely thrilled at all the great response given for this fic.

Luna- Yah. So now let them actually read the fic. Cuz you still need to finish packing.

Alright, alright.

Disclaimer: Don't own them, unless your counting all the books I have. I just have to find 25 more to get the complete set.

The Vacation


Jake

It was the next morning and we were all once again gathered in the Chee's underground park. Marco and I were the last ones to arrive. It only took us a moment to locate the others. They were all standing around what seems like a work station.

"Hey, the fun has arrived." Marco yelled as he walked over. I just rolled my eyes and followed him.

"Took you two long enough." Rachel remarked before turning back to watch what Elfangor and Ax were doing with several of the Chee.

"What's happening?" I asked Cassie as I scratched the ears of the dog that was sitting on her lap.

"They are making final repairs to the blue box." Cassie whispered back. We just turned to watch them poke and prod the box taking some pieces out and adding a wire or two. Occasionally we could hear Ax or Elfangor broadcast some thoughspeak commands or comments such as.

The subcopensator can't connect to the rotating drive.

or

Pass me another Z space relocator wire.

After a few moments of watching I was completely lost. I looked over at Marco who was watching the process intently. I shook my head smiling. No matter how hard Marco may deny it he had some of his dad in him.

Cassie was still sitting next to me with the dog in her lap. Several more had wandered over and they were all enjoying her attention. I looked around a bit to finally locate Rachel, who I assume had lost interest in the technological group. She was talking with another Chee.

That left one Animorph unaccounted for. Where was Tobias? I know he had stayed with Ax and Elfangor in the Chee's park overnight because it was late when they got back and there was really no point in going back just to sleep in his tree if he had to be back the next day.

After a few sweeps of the area to confirm that he was not there flying around or hiding in any of the trees I leaned over and asked Cassie. She looked over at me and answered.

"He went out to hunt. You know the Chee are nonviolent and Tobias Prefers to hunt for his own food. You know how he gets when he thinks he's becoming to dependent on us."

I sighed at that. Tobias had lived as a hawk for way to long. Yet I knew there was no way he would agree to be fully human. At least not until the war had yet to be won, and maybe not even then. I had sometimes wondered that even if the war ended would Tobias willingly give up his wings.

I was startled out of my thoughts as Marco began talking.

"You actually let him leave? He's never going to come back now."

"Don't worry he promised to come back as soon as he was done with his hunt. I really don't think we have to worry about him running off anymore. I think he was finally able to talk to Elfangor last night."

Cassie trailed off as the last member of our group walked in. Tobias in his human morph walked over to me and glanced over at the group of Andalites and Chee.

"They still at it?" he asked as he demorphed. They've been working on that since we got up.

We are almost done. I was shocked to hear Elfangor's thought speak. I hadn't realized that he was paying attention to what we were talking about.

Axilmili close the box up. I believe we are finished. He left Ax to finish the box up and he walked over to us. Rachel had joined up right after Tobias had come down and we were now waiting for someone to tell us what had been going on.

I watched as everyone gathered around Elfangor as he walked over and I realized that here Elfangor was, a true Andalite prince who could take command of this fight. This was what I had been waiting for since that fateful day in the construction site. Yet I knew in my heart that I was reluctant to give up leadership.

I had been the leader since the very beginning. I was the one everyone in the group looked up to, to make the difficult decisions. And no matter how many times I might have said that I didn't want to be the leader I'm not sure if I could trust anyone else with the decisions that I had to make, on whether to do something that could cost my friends their very lives. I understood every person in my group.

I knew how important Tobias's wings were to him yet how much he wanted to be included in every mission. I knew of Marco's sarcasm and jokes were just a self defens mechanism to stop himself from being hurt. And I knew Rachel's reckless streak. I understood Cassie's moral obligations and Ax's pride in his people and loathing of the Yeerks. I knew what each of us can and couldn't do and I also know what each of us were reluctant to do but if the need arose we would not hesitate to do it.

I was just waiting for there to be a power struggle between us any moment yet Elfangor seemed willing to let me run the show. He didn't immediately try to take over control of the group like any other Andalite probably would. And I was glad of that.

I was jerked out of my thoughts by Ax's arrival into the circle.

"So what was wrong with the box anyway?" Marco asked.

There was an uncovered wire that crossed over the Z-space relocator chip that caused a power surge. It seemed to have caused a kind of reverse black hole that resulted in my bother being brought back. Unfortunately it shorted the Z-space relocator chip so that we had to find a replacement along with rewiring the entire box mainframe to support the extra power required to extend the morphing period.

"Oh man." Rachel moaned causing all of us to look at her.

What? Tobias asked worry evident in his voice.

"I actually understood all of that." We all just stared at her for a moment before one by one each of us broke out into a smile as we each realized that we actually did understand what Ax had been talking about.

"Oh no the world is ending." Marco said holding off a laugh.

So how long did it take to memorize that Ax-man?

Memorize? What do you mean? I watched as Ax's stalk eyes went wild looking in all different directions.

Tobias gave a small thought speak laugh before replying I hear you repeating pieces of that all morning. You should really watch who you are broadcasting to.

Each of us got another great laugh at Ax's expense even Elfangor who patted him on the back in a rather human gesture.

"So now that we've gotten that out of our system is the blue box ready to be put to use?" Marco asked the question that was on all of our minds.

Almost. Elfangor replied. The box is do doing a final system check and I want to give it some time to make sure there are no more unexpected complications before we expose it to anyone.

"Ok. Are there any more matters of business that we need to address before our trip?" I replied getting back into leadership mode.

"I made the appropriate change for our ticket." Marco said as he petted a golden retriever that had wandered over. "I even managed to get two adjoining rooms."

"Good. Any other problems or notices that should be pointed out before we leave?"

"How about all of our stuff?" Rachel asked. "My sisters go though my things all the time and they would notice if a load of it was gone."

Don't' worry the Chee have it covered. Tobias replied as he started to preen his wings. I realized that last night and talked to Erek about it for you. He said that which ever Chee is playing each of you will be able to set up a hologram to make it seem like all of your stuff is there.

"What if someone has to take some of our things?" Cassie asked "I know my mom is constantly going though my things because she accidentally gives me her things when we do the laundry."

"Don't worry about it. We have it under control." Erek said joining the group. "We just put some holograms over some extra clothes that we have lying around. You'll be surprised on how much you acquire when you've lived for several thousands of years."

"Alright. Is everything else set?" I got a chorus of yeses from the group.

Just one more thing.

"Yah, Tobias?"

How are we going to get to the dock?

"What do you mean how. How else do we get anywhere?"

That's great for us. But how about our luggage?

"Oh umm…"

"Don't worry Jake. We can take care of that. You can use the Chee car."

"Chee car? Is that like the Batmobile." Marco remarked.

"Almost." Erek said smiling, or at least his hologram was smiling.

"So what kind of car is it?"

"It's what ever kind of car you want it to be."

"Hologram?" I asked already knowing the answer.

"Yep."

"Awsome. Can I take it for a spin?" Marco asked.

"NO!" We all spoke out at once.

"What? Don't you trust me?"

"Marco, buddy, we trust you. It's just that we've also all been in a car with you. I think the Chee would like their car back in one piece." Marco glared at me but I knew he wasn't really mad.

"I believe your box is ready." Another Chee came over carrying the box.

"Ok. So how do we do this?" Rachel asked looking at the blue box. It didn't seem any different but I trusted that they knew what they were doing when they put it together.

It's rather simple. Just put do the same as you did when you first acquired the morphing power. Elfangor said taking the box from the Chee. Unfortunately we did not have the necessary power source to extent he morph period to two months as Ax had previously calculated. At the time I calculated the morphing time to be extended to twenty four hours.

"An entire day. I think we can live with that."

"So who goes first?" Rachel asked.

"Tobias, Ax and Elfangor definitely should go first."

Alright. Tobias lifted off from Rachel's shoulder and glided to the box in Elfangor's hands. Ax put a hand on another side of the box and all of them concentrated as the box did its job.

Whoah.

"Tobias?"

It's ok. It just jolted me.

"It did the same when we got the morphing powers." Cassie said.

Well there is one way to figure out if it worked. Tobias landed on the ground in the middle of our group and began to change. Slowly he became human.

"Are you sure you want to test this." Cassie asked worriedly. "If it doesn't work you'll be trapped again."

Tobias looked at Ax and Elfangor before turning to the rest of us. "I trust them"


Hahaha. Cliffie strikes again!

Because I love each of you here's the review response for the last chapter.

Skylamiat- Thanks. I'm honored that this is your favorite fic. And I believe you when you say you've read that many fics. I don't do much else but read fan fics either.

Luna- Yah maybe if you stopped reading some time you can get these chapters out sooner.

You were right about how Elfangor got his money. And yes he did meet and work with someone names Steve during that time too.

rockergurl13- Nope still not dead. I'm glad you though I really caught the essence of the Animorphs. I hope this chapter was just as good.

Mersang- Don't worry they should be getting on the boat in the next chapter. And thanks yet again for becoming my beta.

Luna- Yah now we won't have to deal with her horrible spelling.

LucreziaNoin86- Glad you liked it.

traycon3- Reviewing makes the world go round. I'm glad you found this fic again.

animekitty47- Thanks for the review. Hoped you liked the update.

gabrieldarke- I would never forget about a fic. I'm just a horrible procrastinator. Glad you liked it.

Important Notice: Now I know I should have thought about this before I started writing this fic but I was never one to let a plot bunny sit alone for long.

All muses- We know!

Well to get down to it. I have no idea what a cruise is like. I've never actually been on one. If any of you nice people who have been on a cruise can tell me even just the layout of the ship and some technical terms I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

No I have to go finish packing for Gov School. Wish me luck and Review.