When old enemies return

.

Tobias had been high in the air when he had first caught sight of the bug fighters. They were not cloaked, and were making no attempts to hide, so even from a distance they were easily visible. He spiralled down towards the Rachel, keeping an eye on the unconscious rhinoceros that was Santorelli, lying precisely in front of the door. He wondered how they would ever be able to move him into the ship – and if they themselves would get past him, into the ship.

We're on our way, came Marco's message finally, and in another few moments the Hawk zoomed out from amongst the trees. It touched down not far from the Rachel, and its passengers came out through the hatch at once. Tobias noted that Rachel and her kii-raja remained inside. Only Jake, Marco, and Jeanne hurried out.

Jeanne ran directly to the door, clambered nimbly over the unconscious rhinoceros, and commanded the hatch to open. Once it did, she disappeared inside.

Bug fighters, coming closer! Rachel warned.

Everyone, inside the ship, Jake said at once. He and Marco followed Jeanne over the rhino and into the relative safety of the Rachel. Tobias, come on! he called.

Tobias wavered for a moment, a part of him wanting to refuse or ignore Jake's order. But the bug fighters were clearly visible to him now, speeding towards him in four groups of three in each, and the sight was unsettling. He spun in the air, angled his wings, and dove towards the Rachel's open hatch.

His tail feathers skimmed past Santorelli's thick hide as he passed, and his wing joints were nearly torn out of their sockets as he spread his wings to cancel his momentum. (He judged a strained wing to be worth not breaking his beak against the main console, though.)

Jeanne was already at that console, working her fingers over the controls, frowning to herself and muttering "Yeerks" in the same sentences as what sounded like French curses.

You can get it working, can't you? Marco wondered, half demorphed from his osprey, hovering behind her and watching her work. She sent him a scowl which told him not to ask stupid questions and then returned to her work.

Rachel! roared Jake, also demorphing. Get the rhino inside!

Rachel used the nose of her fighter to nudge the rhinoceros in through the hatch. Tobias thought it lucky that the hatch was able to read of Santorelli's current DNA print and adapt to let him through.

When Santorelli was safely inside, the hatch was closed and a force field was set up around him to contain him.

The Hawk was still outside.

What about Rachel? demanded Tobias sharply.

She'll dock the Hawk where the shuttle craft used to be. As soon as we lose those bugs. Jake went over to spoken speech: "Jeanne! Are we ready to go?"

Almost, Jake, Jeanne told him.

Through the windows, Tobias saw the bug fighters approaching, now so close that the Hawk advanced to meet them. A few swept past the small, outnumbered Kelbrid fighter and set their dracons on the Rachel.

They fired.

"Shields up!" announced Jeanne happily. "Controls go manual in three seconds… damn these codes… two… one…"

Tobias felt the jolt as the ship left Dina'amm's surface.

Marco had gone to man the weapons station, and soon the bugs were overpowered. Bug fighters, not even a dozen, could overpower the Rachel and the Hawk working together.

Serves them right, Rachel said, as another bug burst into flames and fell to the ground in the shape of black debris.

"They're bringing backup," Jeanne warned, and Tobias sent a glance at her screens and saw that she was right: three cruiser-class ships, smaller than the Rachel and similar to bug fighters, but clearly better armed, were on their way.

"Okay, time to go," Jake decided. He had stayed in mid-morph, perhaps to hold on to thought-speech a bit longer, and now went on with: Jeanne, get us off this planet. Rachel, you follow.

But, Jake –

No, 'but, Jake'. Listen to me. This is not Freelancers R Us. Just follow. Understood?

Yes, sighed Rachel glumly, but at that moment Tobias was thankful to Jake for having at least some control over his at times volatile cousin.

The Hawk zoomed away from the windows and out of sight. Jeanne moved over to work on a docking screen, gesturing for Jake – now returning to fully human – to take over control of the ship. It did not take long before the Rachel had left Dina'amm's atmosphere – with the three cruiser ships still in two, unfortunately, making Jake mutter angrily.

Mere moments after, Rachel stormed out of the main shaft and onto the bridge, following Tom, whose tail she was gripping.

"What about Melissa?" she demanded, her blind eyes aimless but Tom's golden glare fixated on Jake. "We can't abandon her. We promised to take her home to Earth!"

Jake – who had just returned the controls to Jeanne – looked uncomfortable. He touched Jeanne's shoulder, murmuring a "z-space, and quickly", before turning to face his cousin.

"Well?" growled Rachel.

"We can't hang around and wait for her now," Jake explained. "We'll have to go back for her."

"Why?"

"Because – well, you saw those ships! We'd only be killed, and then Melissa would be just as abandoned. We'll go back to fetch her. We just need to… see to Santorelli. We'll stop by Cava'ara."

Rachel's eyes narrowed. "We'll go back for her, then?"

"Of course." Jake did not look at her – he was busy checking screens to make certain the Yeerk pursuit was lost. They had just entered the whiteness of z-space. Seeing that nothing seemed to be following them any longer, he let out a sigh of relief.

"Fine," snapped Rachel. Then her mood softened. "Would someone care to show me around the ship, then?"

"I'd love to," Marco grinned, as he left the weapons station. "In fact, you're welcome to share quarters with me."

What – you're kicking me out? Tobias wondered.

Rachel, though, smiled. "Sure, Marco," she said sweetly. "But Tom's too big to fit on a bunk with me. Can he have your bed?"

She gestured the beast forwards, and Marco took a hurried step away.

"Ignore Marco," suggested Jeanne with a shrug. "I'm the one with a spare bed in my quarters. You can take that. I don't mind having Tom nearby, either."

"Personally," Jake said, and paused for a large yawn, "I'll bunk here on the bridge tonight. To keep an eye on Santorelli – and the computer."

"Then I'll do the same," Rachel offered, glancing at the still-unconscious rhino. "That way, we can sit in shifts, and you'll be able to get some sleep, Jake."

Jake did not look thrilled.

"And someone needs to keep an eye on the ship, too, in case of pursuit," Jeanne reminded them all. "And to make the shifts shorter, I'll join you."

"Ah, neat – a slumber party!" exclaimed Marco. "I'm in!"

Tobias wished he had been able to roll his eyes.

Jeanne, having finished programming the Rachel's computer, turned about. "Have any of you see this?" she asked, and said: "Computer, four bunks to the bridge, please."

Out of the walls shot four obedient and readied bunks. One hit the back of Marco's knees, making him sit down heavily.

"What's this?" he wondered, eyeing it critically. "Computer, could you make this one a double?"

The computer ignored him.

"Get one for Santorelli, too," Jake said.

Jeanne complied, and a bunk appeared out of the wall in Santorelli's force field cage.

"How did you know about these?" Marco asked.

Menderash used them all the time, when he slept on the bridge, Tobias said. He soared down to the floor, and began morphing human. Rachel? Do you want me to show you around?

Rachel nodded, and Tobias took the blind girl's arm gently as he passed her – ignoring Tom's bared teeth. When he led Rachel into the ship, Tom followed, looking most displeased.

Marco's attention, though, turned to Santorelli. "He's coming to," he warned.

"Hello," Jeanne greeted the Yeerk as Santorelli's rhino eyes opened and he clambered to his feet.

Hello, the Yeerk replied grouchily.

"You know all of us," Jake said. "Who are you?"

Why would you care… Animorph? the Yeerk sneered.

"Curiosity," Jake explained.

I am a mere part of the Only One – began the disdainful Yeerk.

"Oh, no," sighed Marco dramatically. "Another one."

No. The One, corrected the Yeerk.

"Spare us the introductions," snapped Jeanne. "How about you demorphing? It's been almost two hours."

The rhino shuffled in his force field cage and the Yeerk in its head chose not to respond.

"Now see reason," Jeanne continued smoothly. "You want to be of use to the One, don't you? If you get your host stuck in morph, you'll be of less use. A morphable host is valuable, isn't it?"

The infested rhino remained silent.

"What would the One say if you ruined a valuable host?"

The best use I can be to The One Who Is All is to leave your friend here stuck in morph, for in three days I'll be dead, and until then I'll probably be stuck in this cage!

Jeanne and Jake exchanged a glance. Marco looked angry.

"What if the One has use of you before the three days are out?" he said sharply. "And if you're stuck in morph then?"

The Great One would understand, the Yeerk said in total conviction. He'd see that I'd have done my best to cripple you.

"He doesn't strike me as the understanding type," Marco commented dryly. "Listen, I've got an idea. You'll know when you're about to starve, won't you?"

The Controller nodded slowly.

"Good. Then simply morph back at that time. Until then, we'll be able to keep you and your host comfortable, with space, food, and water. And a bunk. There's a very nice bunk, just behind you. Won't fit a rhino, though. And until then, if the One needs you, you'll be of use. Also, you'll have a better view of what's going on. Rhino eyes are useless, don't you think?"

"And when you begin to starve, you can always morph back to something even less valuable than a rhino," Jake added, reinforcing that point.

Why should I trust you? the Yeerk sneered.

"Fine," said Marco. "Be uncomfortable. Be useless. Leave a large and powerful rhino as our help." He shrugged, and turned away. "It's always been Santorelli's morph of choice, as you probably know. He'll mind less getting stuck as rhino than anything else."

Jeanne and Jake followed Marco's lead and turned away, but not before seeing some trace of humanity creep back into Santorelli's shape: the Yeerk was demorphing.

.

For what Marco had defined as 'a slumber party', the night was silent and boring.

Jake, who was trying to keep awake through a badly-going game of Doom on the computer, was enduring a long period of nothing happening, until distracted from his game by the sound of footsteps behind him. He paused the game and turned to see who had awoken. He found Rachel wrapped in a sheet, coming towards him, scowling. Tom prowled half a step behind her – so close that it was amazing he did not trip over her heels.

"Get some sleep," Rachel said, and it was nothing less than an order. Tom took on a distrustful expression, as if challenging Jake to ignore his precious human's words.

Jake sighed. "Rachel, if –"

"No 'if's," Rachel interrupted. "Except this one: 'if' you don't get some sleep, you'll be of absolutely no use to anyone. I mean it, Jake. Go sleep. I'll look after the ship."

"You can work this computer?"

Rachel's expression turned murderous.

"Fine," sighed Jake, too tired to argue with her. "Fine." He made his way to his bunk, so far unvisited, and lay down flat on his back, his hands locked behind his head. He stared at the roof.

Sleep came easy.

So did the dreams.

.

Faces. Faces flashed by, before him, perhaps before his eyes, perhaps only in his mind; he couldn't tell, didn't know. Didn't care. There was his brother, Tom; his parents; his teachers; Toby; Chapman the Controller; his neighbour; a classmate, whose name he had forgotten; Visser One, both of them; Elfangor, right before he died; a furious, despairing Melissa; Prince Caysath; and the face of an unknown Hork-Bajir, one of many his own tiger claws had felled.

Rachel. Suddenly his cousin was staring at him; staring in recognition, relief, but both gradually turned to horror. Horror that besmirched her perfect features and then gradually made her face start falling apart, decomposing while he watched, pieces of rotting skin and flesh falling off. Just as her face lost all humanity, he could hear her faint whisper in the back of his head… "What have you done, Jake?"

Then Rachel was gone, replaced by Tobias's fierce hawk gaze. The hawk's face was set in stone, cold, rejecting; he turned away, in such utter dismissal that Jake found himself gaping, about to call out… but right then Tobias, too, was gone and Marco had taken his place. Marco's eyes were carefully narrowed, just far enough to give him a look of shrewdness; his jaw was set determinately, as if Jake had made a tough call and he once again – as he always would – approved. He gave one, single nod; he bowed his head towards Jake, just far enough to hide his face, and when that face was raised again it was no longer Marco.

Cassie. Once again, Cassie. Cassie's familiar features first smiled radiantly at him, and he tried to reach out for her; he knew danger was near, he wanted to warn her, but she was just out of reach. Just when he again was about to call out, the smile on her face faded and was lost in a fierce expression of contempt. Green shone in her eyes as her skin began turning blue and her mouth thinned to disappear in the face of an Andalite who Jake hoped was still alive.

What more do I have to do, Yeerk-killer? sneered the voice that was no longer Ax's. Where do you break? Where do you yield?!

.

This time, Jake did not wake. He frowned in his sleep, tossed over onto his side, threw an arm over his head so that it hid his face, and from then on his sleep was dreamless.

Marco, who had the watch at the time, could actually see how the tension which had haunted Jake for the last week or so now melted from him. His breathing eased, and as he slept on he slept easy.

Marco, relieved that his friend was sleeping soundly for the first time in so long, yawned and continued playing Doom. Someone had left a game running, paused, and that someone had not been a very good player. He had to work hard to gather the scraps of it.

When his shift was over, he walked over to Rachel's bunk and prodded Tobias to take over. The hawk's fierce eyes opened.

My turn?

"Yep. I'm going to sleep. See you in the morning."

Sleep well.

Marco did.

At first.

.

Suddenly, Jake awoke with a jerk and sat up, wide-eyed. In half a minute he was totally awake, adrenaline pumping, ready to morph, and rage seething in his blood. His fists were clenched in determination as he looked around, searching for something to attack, seeking the threat.

There was nothing.

But a tight knot of fear had built up in his stomach, making him almost feel sick. Those knots were not as rare as he wished they had been, but they were dependable; they had never appeared for nothing.

But… there was still nothing.

Except that, in the dark, hazy lighting that served as night-lights on the Rachel, gleams of white met him as he looked around. The gleams of the wide-awake eyes of his friends. And one set that shone in gold; Tobias.

"Okay," Marco's voice said with a suspicious drawl. "That was weird."

You're awake? Tobias asked. He was the one on duty at the moment, but instead of staying by the consoles he was still perched on the edge of Rachel's bunk. And amazingly, Marco, you're correct. I'm awake. For some reason. I hear Jake moving. I hear you complaining, naturally. And Rachel has grabbed my wing so that it almost hurts.

"Sorry," Rachel murmured, and let go. Then she called for Tom, who rose to his feet and reached his head over the side of her bunk, puffing at her arm with his cold nose, wondering grumpily why she always had to wake him in the middle of the night. She ignored his indignant mood and scratched him behind the ears, feeling much better when he was there and could tell her what was around her. He, of course, could see in the dark.

Jake waited for his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting and glanced around to find Santorelli and Jeanne sleeping in their places. Santorelli had curled into the deepest corner of his bunk – Jeanne was sleeping comfortably sprawled, with an arm hanging over the edge.

"What time is it?" Marco wondered.

Time enough for a good few hours of more sleep, Tobias informed them. Judging from our usual luck, we have a long day ahead of us, and we need all the sleep we can get.

Jake nodded; a useless gesture since no-one could see it. The group began laying themselves back down to sleep, (except for Tobias who simply ruffled his wings, and remained the one on duty) but as anyone who has tried it knows; if you wake in the middle of the night for no reason whatsoever and your adrenaline's gone haywire, you do not easily fall asleep again.

.

Unknown to Jake and the other Animorphs, there was actually a reason for them to wake up so suddenly – if you believe in sixth senses.

Because it was very, very far away.

On Earth, it was early morning. It was not a beautiful, sunny one. Rather, it was a cold and rainy and dark one, and the sun had not risen yet, as if reluctant to begin the day's work. The sky was grey with clouds, and it all fit the events of the morning perfectly. The picture was completed with a nice little thunderstorm that made it almost impossible to hear anything further away than at arm's length.

Cassie had first been woken, only minutes after falling asleep, by the ringing of her mobile – she had forgotten to shut it off during the evening, and had fallen asleep with it lying on her pillow, beside her ear. She grabbed it, clicked the button, and muttered a few choice words before saying her usual; "Cassie. Speak."

There was no reply, except the faint sound of breathing in the other end. Cassie remembered the last time no-one had replied, remembered what Erek had said and the small tracker he had found. She let out a laugh, and said; "No use. I've removed the tracking device."

There was a click as the call was quickly ended.

Cassie yawned as she lay back down to sleep. She probably should be worrying about who that had been, but she was too tired. She could worry later. Besides, soon, she would not have to worry. She'd go where they, whoever they were, couldn't reach her.

She was in her old house, in her old room. For the last time.

She was leaving. She was there to pack her things and visit her parents – that had left the previous afternoon to a veterinary meeting – one last time, and prepare for her departure. She was leaving Earth, in only a couple of hours, on Ashley's ship. She had called Ashley the evening before, in greatest secret, and everything was prepared. At least so prepared that it was too late to turn back.

Which was good. Already she was having doubts about this idea.

Her parents would know nothing until they came back from their meeting a week later and found a note on the kitchen table. That was for the best, too; they might convince her to stay. The people at the valley – including poor Ronnie – would also remain unaware until a few days later, when Toby told them. Toby was the only one who knew. And Erek.

Parting from Ronnie had been hard. She had hugged him tight, and kissed him, and he had reacted by a surprised laugh and said; "Hey, it's not like we're never seeing each other again! You're only going home. And you'll be back tomorrow. Won't you?"

She had nodded, but wished she could have told him how wrong he was.

With so many worries, no wonder she had trouble falling back asleep, despite being so tired. She had just descended into an uneasy slumber, when she woke again. The reason was the ceaseless thunder. Or so she thought. At first, she put her hands over her ears and refused to acknowledge being awake. When that did not work she hid her head under her pillow. But that failed, too.

At last she gave up, scrambled out of bed and fumbled through the room's darkness to the door.

She did not notice the owl sitting on a branch outside her window, watching her.

She went downstairs to the kitchen for a glass of water, for some reason feeling shaky. She did not turn any lamps on, as her eyes were not fully awake and she had no plans on upsetting them with any sudden light.

Her hand trembled as she held the glass under the tap. A flash of lightening outside made her jump, almost dropping the glass. The flash revealed what was hidden in the shadows of the room, but her back was turned to all of them.

"Stop being so jumpy," she scolded herself firmly, filling the glass quickly and drinking the water, forcing her hands steady. "What are you afraid of? A little thunder?"

"No," a voice spat. Right next to her, sending shivers down her spine – and making her drop the glass, hearing it shatter when it hit the floor. "Yeerks."

A fist caught the side of her face at full force and she fell to the floor.

But Cassie would not have lasted even half as long as she did in the Yeerk War if she had been out of a fight because of a simple punch. She was caught unprepared, yes, and was more or less stunned, but in the half moment it took for that fist to reach her face it all came back to her: three years of hard-core fighting seeped back where it belonged and no-one, not even the worst critic, would be able to find any difference between Cassie then and wartime Cassie.

She dropped, rolled, kicked out with both legs to swipe the man's feet out from under him and began morphing wolf so fast that she even surprised herself.

A flash of lightening again revealed what the kitchen's shadows had kept hidden.

About a dozen men. One down on the floor, in front of her, already struggling to get up. Two coming up behind her. And four guards at each of the two doors, while the twelfth waited impatiently for a chance to join the fight.

"Sorry," the man mocked. "Just had to do that."

If Rachel had been there, she could have cleared out a few things about "what she was afraid of". But Rachel wasn't there. Rachel was dead. So the job fell to Cassie.

"I'm not afraid of Yeerks," Cassie spat, a slight distortion in her voice as wolf teeth were forming in her mouth.

"Possibly not. Because you don't know us. You and your friends. Thought you'd wiped us out by destroying the pool here and our Pool ship. Guess again, Animorph –" the word was said with a sneer "– because we Yeerks are survivors. We adapt. That wasn't our only pool network. We're still on this planet of yours, like it or not, and there's nothing you can do about it."

Hands grabbed Cassie's shoulders and arms. She twisted, sank half-human teeth into flesh and felt a strange satisfaction as the hands let go, and a scream tore at the air.

But then she felt the coldness of metal pressed against her neck and a jolt of electricity shot through her when a dracon set to the lowest power was fired. It didn't burn her, but broke her concentration, made the morph drop into reverse, and her features melted back to human, quicker than she herself had ever morphed.

"Too bad you won't be telling anyone about this," the Yeerk continued, watching her from a more or less safe distance as she tried to recover from the shock. He quickly got out of the way when his two friends dove after Cassie again.

She kicked wildly, beat with her fists and morphed again.

"Get her to the box!" the first Yeerk ordered. "Get her to the box before she finishes morphing!"

Cassie gasped for air – a Yeerk in snow leopard morph had pounced on her – and doubled the speed of her morphing. The snow leopard pounced again, easily knocking her off her half-morphed feet, and a paw – claws retracted, fortunately – slapped her so hard that things grew dizzy around the edges.

A still-human Controller had lifted a chair and now swung it at her head to knock her out. But with the snow leopard gone, Cassie was already back on her feet. She was aware that her face had morphed completely by then, and could feel her hands changing to paws. She must have looked like a werewolf, she thought grimly, with her still-human body and only partly morphed shoulders, arms, hands and head, but that didn't matter. She leapt at the first Controller, snarling, and prepared to dive at his throat –

The dracon hit her back, stunning her long enough for the Controller with the chair to slam it into her shoulder.

She fell. Tumbled. A hand caught her arm and pulled her up; another shot of electricity from the dracon sent a violent tremor through her, made her concentration fall away and her body returned to human.

Hands grabbed at her from everywhere.

"The box! The box!" a mad voice roared shrilly.

She fought her way free and turned to run, only to feel the chair fly into her back, sending her tumbling forwards, straight at the table. The table was unbalanced and tipped over, momentum carrying her along and finally crashing her into the wall.

She knew she had to morph. Strangely, it was easier to start morphing again than to focus her eyes. But when she did, she felt as if she had struck a goldmine.

She was looking straight at a pen.

More exactly, the pen she had used to write the note to her parents, and then left beside it on the table. And when the table had been knocked over…

She grabbed it, knowing that even if she failed to escape, she should leave the world some warning.

She put the pen to the floor and began scribbling with large, disorderly letters.

But before she was finished hands grabbed her arms and she was forced to return to fighting. She had halted the morph to be able to hold the pen, but now started again, more rushed than ever.

Unfortunately one of the Yeerks had a gorilla morph, and when the gorilla and snow leopard worked together with eight other Controllers they could restrain even a furiously fighting Animorph. At least long enough for the last Yeerk, in an enormous boa constrictor morph, to wrap around her and keep her from doing much more than trying to breathe.

She was only able to stay on her feet under the heavy snake's weight because the gorilla grabbed her by her shoulders – which the boa had left bare, perhaps for that reason.

"A dozen against one never were good odds," the Yeerk-infested man mused, now daring to come closer. He had turned on the lights some time during the battle, when Cassie had been too busy to notice, and now looked straight down at her face, so close that she could feel his breath. "And I thought an Animorph would have more spirit than you do." He laughed, a short, scornful sound, and his eyes twinkled. "Too bad. I was looking forwards to seeing a good fight."

"If you wanted a good fight you should have let me morph."

"Ah… no," he said, suddenly a note of respect in his voice. "That fight would have been too good. I don't doubt for a moment, Animorph, that you could have beaten us all if we had let you morph."

Cassie knew she would have done nothing of the kind – well, perhaps if the three in morph really were the only morphables, because humans she could handle – but she kept that to herself.

The Controller waved a hand dismissingly in front of her face. "Put her in the box, my friends. Before she turns hostile again."

The gorilla easily lifted both her and the boa and carried them both out of the kitchen, into the living room. There on the floor was a cubical black box, of type the Yeerks always had used to hold morphables. The boa and gorilla worked together to force her down into it. She found that it was so small she had to sit with her knees pulled up against her chest and her neck painfully bent forwards. The walls were cold, felt like metal, but neither looked nor smelt the part. Some Yeerk material, probably.

The obvious point of the box was to keep her from morphing and escaping. The Yeerk who first had spoken to her – who seemed to be the leader – explained it all in great detail.

The box contained just enough oxygen to hold one human conscious for about five hours – that is, if she kept calm and regulated her breathing.

If she started living about or yelling or screaming in the box, the oxygen would run out quicker. Ending up with her unconscious, and if they then chose to let her live they could easily open the box and refill the oxygen without any risk of her escaping.

If she morphed small to spare the oxygen, they would just keep the box closed and wait until she demorphed, after two hours. Because they couldn't risk her escaping by opening the box at the wrong time.

They would know whether or not she was in morph due to a bio-analysis screen on the outside, which would also warn when oxygen was running low, and when she had lost consciousness.

He snickered to himself. Cassie heard muffled voices from outside the box, but was unsure as to what they were saying.

"What do you need me for now?" she asked finally.

"Isn't it obvious? You're our hostage."

"Really?" Cassie laughed bitterly, but was curious. "And what are you going to demand? Visser One freed?"

"Visser One was what destroyed our plan to take this planet," the Yeerk snapped back from outside, sounding angry. "For all we care, his Kandrona source can rot. Slowly. He will not get a chance to ruin things again."

"Don't tell me you're still trying to take Earth," Cassie said lowly, a bit alarmed but trying to hide it.

The Yeerk was silent for a while. So long, that Cassie thought he had not heard her. But then he spoke; slowly, weighing each word carefully before it passed over his lips, and himself believing every sentence of it. "We're a small group, we Yeerks still on this planet. But increasingly powerful – especially since we started capturing Hork-Bajir. Pretending at first to be poachers gave us an excellent cover for the kidnappings. One of my more brilliant ideas.

"Today was our greatest victory." He sighed. "But unfortunately it will also be our last. This planet is not worth the trouble, and we have decided to leave. Only a small force will be left on the surface, in case we ever wish to return. The only thing holding us back is the Earth Council. They keep a very tight control on airspace around this planet. Not in the atmosphere, but around it. We need to get past that."

"And..?" Cassie wondered, but already knew what would follow.

"You, Animorph, are here for a single reason; we need a good hostage to avoid being blasted on our way to freedom. And, when we reach our brother Yeerks out in space, we should bring them a gift, shouldn't we?" Even through the box Cassie could feel him leering.

That made her shudder; out of both anger and fear.

"Jake would stop whatever he was doing and come rushing to my help if he ever finds out about this," Cassie growled. "Him, and the others. He'd hunt you down if you hid in the deepest pit in the universe. And when he finds you, you'll die a more painful death than you –"

"Yes." And to Cassie's horror, the Yeerk was laughing wickedly, not a trace of fear. "He would, wouldn't he? Too bad that the Blade ship and those Kelbrid would get away. Too bad they would reach the Andalite Home World and Earth. Too bad they decided to strike while the notorious Jake Yeerk-Killer is out hunting himself into a frenzy and the Andalite and human fleets are being butchered by Kelbrid."

Something – probably a well-aimed kick – hit the side of the box and it rocked to the side, almost falling. Cassie tensed, both from the kick and what the Yeerk had said. She heard him laughing to himself as he walked away from the box, and silently repeated every curse she had ever heard.

They had obviously thought this through carefully.

Then she closed her eyes and clenched her hands so tight that even her short nails managed to dig into her palms.

"Don't let Jake find out," she mumbled to herself. "Don't let Jake know until their mission is done and the Kelbrid War is over." She opened her eyes, unclenched her hands. There was a stirring in the deep of her mind, as if something had been woken. She felt her eyes glaze over. And when she spoke it was probably loud enough for the Yeerks outside to hear – then let them hear. Let them wonder. "Did you hear that, Jake?" she said in a voice that was her own – and yet not. "Don't you dare figure this one out."

.

Jake stared up into the darkness. His friends had fallen asleep again; their calm breathing (and Marco's familiar snoring) should have calmed him, but did not. Then suddenly he shivered, as if something cold had grabbed his neck, and crept up to rest in the back of his head.

He closed his eyes and forced the bad feeling out of his mind. Tobias had been right, after all; tomorrow would be a long day.

He had no idea how long.

.

.

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Author's Note:

I know, I know, this one took a lot of time in coming. (I'll make a list of the usual excuses and post it somewhere later.) It's here now, isn't it? Be happy. I haven't died or something. takes mental note to use that as an excuse some time for late posting of chapter

And the next one shouldn't take so long (I should really learn to stop saying such things… they never seem to hold true). Every time I think I have time, it turns out I have too many things which I need to have time for.

But the one after that is already finished, so that should go easy. proud

Anyway, review, what do you think of the latest plot twist? I've got big plans for this one… they involve Yeerks. And that's only to begin with.