Disclaimer: Oh, great K.A. Applegate, I bow to your superiority in copyright laws. (Except that you shouldn't be allowed to have characters if you kill them all off. However...)

A/N: I blush. I am afraid I made an egregious error in my last chapter; it is Galard, not Galen that is the intergalactic language. Many thanks to Jayla for pointing this out (also, thanks for reviewing!) Now, I realize this is a very short chapter, but I think it's necessary in order to clarify what happened in the last chapter. So, read, and enjoy, and be happy!

Melissa

Ax and I were in the Control Room, when we heard Julie screaming something about a little sister and then Marco's thought-speak voice was yelling, (Julie!) Ax had just then put the Bug Fighter into flight, and I ran out to see the gorilla collapsed against the door with a look of horror on its almost-human face. Julie was nowhere to be seen.

"M-marco?" I asked. He was changing back into Marco, I don't think even consciously. "Where's Julie?" I asked stupidly, though I was positive I knew the answer. I had heard, seconds before, the muffled boom as the Blade Ship exploded. Marco was fully human now, and his face was buried in his hands. He was making a dull, dry, choking sound, like a sob, only there weren't any tears. I helped him to his feet and over to this cot which was at the side of the room. I guess sometimes they need to let their pilots have a break, and it was certainly an army-type cot, with the dark, scratchy blankets and the extremely thin mattress.

I got Marco onto it, and he lay with his head pillowed on his arms, not making any sound anymore, his dark, chin-length hair spreading around his face. I didn't know what to do. I had a feeling that anything I could say would be utterly, utterly worthless.

Jake

We basically had no idea what to do. I left the others to go keep watch on Tom for awhile. It was a kind of long trek; by the time I got to the hut in the woods I was breathing hard. We'd left one of the Chee guarding him, and Don was still there, but when he saw me he smiled and waved. "Hi," he said quietly. "Don't worry; Tom's fine. Well, as fine as he can be, right now. He's sleeping. We have approximately 1.73 days left to wait yet."

I tiptoed inside, perversely not wanting to wake Tom, though I knew that it was the Yeerk in his head who'd made the decision to sleep, probably to conserve energy so he could make another desperate break for it. All the same, Tom was sleeping too, probably, and if I woke the Yeerk I woke Tom. I didn't want Tom to be awake anymore than he had to be for the next 1.73 days.

He was slumped against the pole where he was tied, his dirty-blond hair matted to his sweaty forehead. He looked really, really tired, and there were lines of pain drawn into his face and forehead I didn't remember having seen before. But then, I didn't look at the Yeerk if I could help it. It was all I could do not to spit in his direction at breakfast.

I stood there, looking at him, wishing we'd freed him sooner. It would have been dangerous, but, hell, it was dangerous now. "Don't worry, Bro," I said softly. "You're gonna be okay."

Then I turned away, half-hoping the real Tom was awake and had heard me. "Damn it!" I whispered fiercely, shaking my fist at all the Yeerks who had done this to so many innocent people. "Damn it!"

I went out, said goodbye to Don and went back to where the remaining Animorphs were doing pretty much nothing in the meadow.