A/N: Hey all, hope your week has been great. I was planning on posting sooner, but one of my friends went into the hospital and I've been by there a few times this week to check up on her…needless to say between that stress, school, and work, my stories were placed on hold. I'm only posting this because I'm too awake to get any sleep at the moment. I hope you all enjoy this chapter. I know this chapter is short, but I can't help that, hopefully things will slow back down and I'll be able to post again soon.

Chapter 31

Marco

We're screwed. I mean, Xena just fainted, bird boy is…well, who knows how he is, Jake and Cassie are staring into each other's eyes, trying to figure out what to do about Rachel bleeding to death with some comments from Ax and of course, Nomikna is staring at me like I'm a piece of meat and it's beginning to creep me out. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the kind of guy to turn a girl away, but some alien chick? Come on, most people will tell ya a long distance relationship won't last long and she don't even have email!

Cassie must have made some progress on keeping Rachel's blood inside of her because I heard Rachel give a low groan as she began to wake up and Cassie telling her to morph. Well, Cassie was probably more yelling than telling, but Cassie had a good reason. Rachel morphed grizzly and back again, good as new. One crisis averted. About five more to go, if my math was correct, which could very easily be wrong.

"OK, let's move." Rachel said, standing up and then sitting back down a moment later, looking paler than before.

"You're weak from all the morphing." Cassie explained.

"I'm fine." Rachel snapped, but not coming out as snappish as Rachel wanted it to. We all knew Rachel hated to feel weak. That is one thing that I have learned about her during our time as Animorphs.

"We all need a rest. Nomikna says we're close, we'll rest a bit and carry on." Jake said.

"We shouldn't waste our time sitting here and doing nothing." Rachel said, her eyes determined.

"Rachel…" Jake started and then gave up and threw his hands up into the air, and looked away from her for a moment and then back at her. Yikes, I would not want to be in Rachel's position right about now. Jake was one scary guy when he was ticked, and boy was he ticked or maybe severely frustrated. Who can tell? "I'm not in the mood to argue with you. If you want to go on and get yourself killed, fine, whatever, be my guest!" Jake spun around on his heel, and I was momentarily impressed as he stomped off into the woods. Cassie looked torn between her friend and her boyfriend. Rachel shot her a glare but stayed seated. Cassie scurried after Jake.

Ax began to mutter something about planetary rotation and Nomikna was staying away from Rachel and thought it best to hide beside me. Yeah, like that was going to save her. I would have to be as crazy as Rachel if I was going to stand between Nomikna and a pissed off Rachel. I was keeping Rachel in my sight, wondering if I would be able to run fast enough if she were to come after me. Rachel sensed me looking at her and snapped her icy blue eyes at me.

"What are you looking at!" She snapped. I wanted to make a smart assed remark, but the look on Rachel's face stopped me cold. I turned away from her with a muttered "nothing." Rachel looked at the ground and I wondered if a flame would erupt from the ground under her gaze. I sighed. I was bored.

Cassie and Jake were off doing…whatever it is that Cassie and Jake do, Rachel is normally someone I can shoot the breeze with by trading a few sarcastic comments, but she was definitely not in the mood. I was afraid I'd say the wrong thing and she'd morph grizzly and attack me. Ax was too busy being a science geek and I'd only end up being confused and then Ax wouldn't be muttering science things, but something about how humans are still primates or something. I glanced over at Nomikna and she smiled at me.

What the heck? I thought. At least she's not otherwise occupied or going to rip me into pieces with her bare hands.

I tilted my head up gangsta style and let out a smooth "wad up?" but Nomikna looked seriously confused. Oh boy, I thought. This is going to be the longest 15 minutes of my life.

C101: lol, glad you like the 'code name'

rg13: glad you enjoyed, and I understand, my life has been out of control this week.

LN86:D I hope this chapter isn't lowering the better and better scale, there's a…development in the next chapter…so yeah, this one is kind of a bridge.

Q: Thank you. Hope you enjoyed this one.