Note: Hey, cameo appearance by Toby! If you don't know Toby, she is the free Hork-Bajir's seer and leader. Now go stand in the corner. And now, responses to your reviews!

LilManiac: Wicked! Stealin a Blade ship!
And hey Steve, nice to meet ya!
Dude, you can call me... Maniac!
i never reveal who i really am... or where i live... ya know?
the Yeerks might be out there...
hehe!

Yep. The idea popped in my head in seventh period. I got a crazed look and started shouting, "I need to write that down!" over and over again. But seriously. Never let them know. Just know that everyone is in danger. Yeah. Even you.

LittleMidgett: I've been reading this for awhile I was just to lazt to review...but I'm over that laziness now.
I like it! Just about everyone is in character, speed is good, but sometimes it does move a bit quick...but hey, no one's perfect and the storyline makes up for it.
Hope you continue soon! I wanna know what happens!

Well, thank you. Welcome aboard.

SilverHawk27: YAY! Stealing! i am not crazy.

Of course not.

LucreziaNoin86: ooh, can't wait. Oh and thanks for updating so fast. that is so cool.

Wait no longer. The end is near…

animorph19: gasp steal the Blade Ship? that's pretty bold...

Yep. But not just yet. First, a little side action.

Toby

The Animorphs had a plan to stop the Yeerks dead in their tracks. But they couldn't do it without my help.

Without the help of the Hork-Bajir.

In three days they were to sneak aboard the Blade Ship and take control. They planned to lift off and return to space, as the Yeerks do daily. However, they hoped to use the Blade Ship to damage the Pool ship enough to board. After that, they were to try and contact the Andalite fleet.

The rest would be history. But they needed me.

Actually, James and the auxiliary Animorphs offered to do it, but I told Jake it would be more practical to use the Hork-Bajir Liberation Army. He agreed, but also said groups of six would go with us. He said that would give the Yeerks the impression that we were not doing anything too dangerous. I applauded his decision.

Our plan was simple. Large groups of free Hork-Bajir, plus six Animorphs, were to attack the Yeerk patrol groups. We hoped to capture and free many Hork-Bajir.

But we would also lose lives. Many Hork-Bajir would die in the next few days. We as a race were rapidly approaching extinction, and that is what I fear most. That and the fact that instead of being a peaceful species we were brutal killers now.

Anytime I look up at Mother Sky, I get deeply saddened at the loss of our true nature. I also get a sick, nauseous feeling that the human Cassie calls "home-sickness".

"I truly miss the way we once were, before the Yeerks, before the killing." I was sitting in a tree with Cassie, who had told me she couldn't sleep.

"Me too. Sometimes I look back at my childhood and wish I had never known the Yeerks existed. Before I met Elfangor, I had known, known deep in my heart, that I would never kill." She was crying. "Now…now I have killed so many that I wonder if I will ever be human again."

Cassie is by far the most sentimental Animorph. She is always looking for a way out of the mess, trying to avoid any kind of casualty if she could. Don't get me wrong, she is a brave and sure warrior, but she is also the soldier who would want to never fight again if she had a chance.

I wondered if my fellow Hork-Bajir would ever take the peaceful path again.

I did not know what to say. On some levels, we understood each other perfectly. On others, not so well. I slowly stood and leaped to my nest in the trees a quarter of a mile away. As I swung, I thought about our short conversation and how everybody in the camp would do over the next few days.

Hork-Bajir, human, and Andalite. Some we would never see again.

-

Over two hundred Hork-Bajir warriors were ready and capable to fight. The dozen biggest and best fighters wore make-shift blue bands around their biceps. They would help us hide in the nearby towns and in the woods, and pass as Yeerks if the opportunity presented itself.

We were divided into five groups of about forty-five to fifty, with six Animorphs in each group. In each Animorph group, there was one of the original Animorphs, one of the healed auxiliary Animorphs, and four disabled Animorphs. The idea was to give the new Animorphs some experience before the capture of the Blade Ship.

My group of fifty-three warriors included my father Jara Hamee. The Animorph group with us contained Jake, James, Kelly, Timmy, Collette, and John. We were to attack first.

We marched out of the valley, the Animorphs leading from the air. The other groups filtered throughout the forest, going to the planned spots we had scouted. Our first attack was at "high noon".

My group headed for Cassie's old barn. We were going to find the nearest, large concentration of Hork-Bajir Controllers and capture, then liberate them from their Yeerks. All of the other groups were doing similar things.

We eventually reached her barn, barely before eleven thirty. We rested in the deserted barn and house, preparing for the assault in less than thirty minutes.

Twenty minutes passed, and Jake assembled us outside in the meadow. He gave us a short and simple speech. I never have seen him more determined or proud before.

"We are going to attack the Yeerks soon. It will be hard. It will be deadly. You might die. But you will die in the knowledge that, if we succeed, your courage will have led to a new Hork-Bajir nation. If we win, we will take back your home planet and all of you can live in peace forever. If we win, your children's children will speak of your bravery, rivaling that of those who dared to enter Father Deep. You will fight hard, bloody, and to the last man. You will fight till you have sliced apart every Yeerk who dares to enslave you. You will fight for country, brother, and freedom. You will fight like this, because you are Hork-Bajir!"

I doubted whether my brothers understood half of what Jake had said, but they started to slap their chests repeatedly while hooting. I joined them, my tail twitching. It twitched out of happiness, not sadness. We were going to win.

-

(Watch out!)

James warning saved me just in time. I ducked, spun using my tail, and swiftly swung my fist upwards to connect with the Hork-Bajir Controllers beak. His head flew back, blood seeping down his neck. He was alive, but wasn't going to wake up for a while. I immediately turned and jumped on the back of a Controller who was swinging his blades at a lion – James.

Knocking him out, James and I turned to face the last of the Hork-Bajir Controllers. At first, there were twenty Hork-Bajir and thirty human Controllers, but most were unconscious or dead. Some of the humans and one Hork-Bajir had fled, making it easier on us.

This was our fourth attack in two days. We were down to five Animorphs and thirty-nine Hork-Bajir warriors. Jake had left a few hours earlier to check up on everybody and coordinate the final assault. Most of the missing warriors had escorted our prisoners, thirty-one in all, back to the valley. There the Yeerks had a long three days waiting.

One of my soldiers had died so far. Sar Dellon. A close friend of my fathers, we had wrapped him up and sent his body with the guarded prisoners to the valley. There he is to be buried under a tree, in our fashion.

Unexpectedly, the remaining Yeerks threw their hands up and surrendered. We stopped and collected the unconscious and surrendered Yeerks and sent them to the valley. My command was now down to thirty, plus the Animorph team.

"So, James, do you think it is wrong that we are killing the Yeerks who surrendered?" I was testing him. I barely knew him when we started this three-day attack, and now I was still in the dark about him.

He shrugged. "Not really. Maybe when this war is over, we can round up the prisoners and jail them or whatever, but now is not the time to worry about niceties." I was beginning to like this young human.

"Toby! Toby! Your father die! Your father die!"

My heart stopped. I rushed through the warehouse and came to a stop by my father. He wasn't dead, but he was definitely dying.

"Father…"

"Toby is leader. Toby is son." He looked into my eyes one final time and smiled. "Toby is hope."

His head fell back, lifeless.