"I will not speak to your inferiors, Crayak." The Ellimist yelled psychically into the darkness. He turned. "Drode, fetch your master. I know he can hear me."

"I am here, Ellimist." Crayak's voice droned from no where. "What is it you are you angry about? I was in the middle of making some very important moves."

Suddenly, the picture of a construction site appeared from the darkness, filling Crayak's sensors. "Your pet Animorphs again? We had a deal-"

"Watch." The Ellimist told him. He altered time-space slightly, and suddenly the picture became mobile. Humans run excitedly over it like the bugs they were to Crayak. A primitive yellow pulley device was positioned over a large hole in the ground, and seemed to be pulling something up…

The Ellimist could feel Crayak's smirk before the object even appeared. "This was not part of our deal, Crayak. Change it."

"I allowed you to create the boy."

"My debt has already been paid for that!"

Crayak shrugged physically. "Regardless, this isn't my doing. Really, Ellimist, you had to know they would find it eventually."

The Ellimist, fiery with anger, said nothing, but, with a twist of space-time, vanished from that plane of existence, reappearing far from his nemesis. He did not entirely believe him that he had not played a part in this, but nevertheless, there were things to do…

The Time Matrix had been found.

Jordan had not lied to Tobias. He would never have lied to him. He might, possibly, have emitted some things, though. He touched his sensitive dog nose to the ground, sniffing franticly for Tobias's scent. Ah, there. It was muffled, he'd been carried maybe, but that was him. Jordan took off in a fast run in the direction the two men had taken his lover.

Tobias perched in what had to be called a cell. Though it was, admittedly, nicely furnished, and equipped with a halo-vision, it was windowless, tiny, and smelled something like urine. Besides, any place begins to feel like a cell when you're trapped in it for two days. At first, Tobias had banged angrily on the door, calling for someone to come and tell him what this was all about, but when no one had come after the first few hours he had given up. He had demorphed, there was no reason to be human here, and the hawk's senses would be of much more use to him. When the door opened, he started back, but quickly recovered. He flew at the guard's face, raking his talons forward… but seconds before he would have destroyed the man's eyes, he felt rough, gloved hands grab his body, pinning his wings to his sides and his talons together, rendering him entirely useless. LET GO He yelled in thought-speak, though he knew it would do no good.

A man stepped out from behind the guard. He was dressed in an expensive suit, his hair slicked back, he was the kind of man that just emits 'evil bastard'. "Ah, Tobias. We regret the delay, but it was beyond our control, I'm afraid things came up. But we are, thankfully, ready for you now. It you would, please, become human? I feel altogether silly speaking to a bird."

I'd rather stay like this, thanks.

The man smiled coolly, and shrugged. "Fine. Take him to my office and put him in a cage. And I want him watched at every moment, understand?" He turned back to Tobias, "We may not have quite the level of technology the Yeerks had when trying to contain you, but we aren't going to make any stupid mistakes, anyway."

Tobias did not answer. He had been a captive before, and although he very much did not want to think back on those memories, he knew it was best just not to say anything.

He was carried to another room, and unceremoniously thrown into a cage that did, in fact, remind him remarkably of the seemingly perfect, inescapable cubes that Visser 3 had used on them once. He scanned the room with his superior hawk eyes through the clear cube. It was empty except for his prison and a desk, with a chair behind it. There was another chair pushed off to the side, his cube was situated where he guessed it would be if someone behind the desk was talking to another person. There was a door, which stood open. Presently, the man entered it. He sat delicately down in the chair, turning to smile broadly at Tobias.

"Alright. I'm sure you'd like to know what this is all about, hm?" He asked.

Tobias glared at him, though he knew the man wouldn't tell the difference from his normal stare. No, I'm perfectly happy being imprisoned for who knows what by who knows who. Perfectly.

The man ignored his sarcasm, going right into his speech. "Tobias, I am Captain Gregory Hatch. I command a special branch of the U.S. army. You don't need to know all of what we do, just know that we are in charge alien studies." Tobias scoffed, but was otherwise silent. The man continued, "The reason you are here, is that we recently discovered a strange cube. It was discovered, in fact, in the very legendary construction site where you and your friends became what you are today." He stopped to press a button on the desk, pulling up a computer screen which he turned toward Tobias. "Do you know what this is?"

Tobias managed to remain silent, though he could feel his heart beating faster, his thoughts racing, at the spinning, 3D image of the glowing opaque cube. The Time Matrix. They had found the Time Matrix. And that meant… that meant, if he could get at it, use it, that meant he could… he could change everything. That… still doesn't explain why I am here. Tobias reminded the man cautiously.

"No, you're right, it doesn't." He conceded. "We brought you here because we need you to test it, Tobias."