[My name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill.]

We made our introductions. Marco was sitting on his butt, back against the trunk of the tree I was perched in. Cassie was sitting too, but cross-legged under the overhang of the bleachers. Tobias was leaning against the aluminum supports, looking every bit like a kid that was too cool for school. And Jake was just standing there with his arms crossed, watching Ax.

My cousin. My friends. And Marco. The Animorphs. The only people in all the world who knew that we were being invaded by hostile extraterrestrials. Officially introducing ourselves to an alien cosplaying a 'yote.

[I am a warrior of the Andalite people, serving as a starfighter pilot. I am assigned to the Sixty-Fourth War Fleet. Our fleet was formed specifically to hunt down Yeerk invasion fleets.] Ax the coyote sat up straighter. [We have safeguarded worlds from the Yeerks since they unleashed themselves upon the galaxy. We are the best fighting forces my people have to offer.]

"I hope not."

Ax looked over at Marco. [You hope not?]

"The Yeerks wrecked you guys," Marco explained. "Pretty easily, from what we've heard."

Tobias and Cassie gave Marco dirty looks. Jake rolled his eyes. "Marco, can you try keeping your mouth shut for five minutes? Please?"

Marco grinned. "One can hope."

[He makes a fair point, though,] I supported. [Both Elfangor and Visser Three said the fleet was destroyed. How did that happen?]

Ax looked up at me. [You have faced Visser Three?]

"More like ran from Visser Three."

Jake sighed audibly. "Marco. Let him speak."

[Very few of our people have survived their encounters with him. Until this moment, I knew of only one who had.] Ax bowed his canine head. [You all have my respect.]

"We'd rather have guns or something."

"Seriously, Marco, stop talking.

Ax had apparently decided to ignore Marco completely. [He has murdered many of my people,] Ax said to me. [My brother, Prince Elfangor, is the only Andalite I've known to fight Visser Three and survive. You said you've met with him. Where is he?]

Tobias spoke up. "He's -"

[You tell us what we want to know first,] I answered, cutting Tobias off. [Afterwards, we'll tell you about Elfangor. That was our deal.]

Now Tobias was giving me a dirty look. I puffed out my feathers and thought, Fine. I won't sit with him anymore.

Then, I noticed Jake and Cassie were glaring at me, too. But Marco looked up at me and winked.

[Our 'deal' concerning my brother,] Ax said icily, [was that you would tell me where he was if I hid from your...police with you. I believe I performed my end as expected.]

[And you nearly took my head off two minutes beforehand,] I countered before anyone else could say something.

[You attacked me,] Ax responded calmly.

[How do we know that -]

"Enough."

He said it quietly. He didn't raise his voice. And he kept his tone passive and non-confrontational. Yet, somehow, someway, my cousin Jake, the kid brother I'd never had, actually managed to shush me.

That was…aggravating.

"Aximili is an Andalite," Jake said. "He is part of the race that tried to save ours from annihilation. They failed, and a lot of good people died. Now, Ax is stranded on our planet, with no friends or allies, and surrounded on all sides by unseen enemies. And upon discovering the only humans on Earth that have both an idea of what's going on and a desire to fight the Yeerks, the only thing he has asked of us is what happened to the only family he has this side of the galaxy.

"The right thing to do here is to tell Ax what he wants to know. We're not going to dangle that information over his head for any reason. What we're going to do is honor the deal Cassie told me we made. Which is, tell him about Elfangor, how we came to acquire Andalite technology, and then Ax is going to show Cassie his pretty alien bird morph, and then we'll see if we like each other enough to form an alliance.

"But, spoiler alert," Jake finished as he glared up at me, "we're gonna. Because our groups both need each other, and we've lost too much to the Yeerks already."

None of us really had anything to say to that.

Well, okay, I did. But obviously Jake wasn't in a mood to hear it.

"Your brother crash-landed in there," Jake said to Ax, pointing behind him to Deathburg. "We found him, and he nearly killed us. But he was hurt, and after we convinced him we weren't Controllers, he let us tend to his wounds. He told us about the Yeerks, and gave us the means to fight them. He also mentioned you and hoped that you were safe.

"When Visser Three showed up, Prince Elfangor fought hard so that we could escape. We got away, but...but Elfangor didn't make it. He gave his life for us."

Ax suddenly looked very much like a dog that had just been kicked. It was a little funny. I guess even aliens don't like to lose family.

"I'm sorry," Jake told him.

Finally, Ax said, [We...we pursued the largest of the Yeerk invasion fleets to your solar system, the fleet under direct command of Visser Three.] Ax looked down. [We thought we would be enough to destroy them. But Visser Three is as cunning as he is evil.]

He looked back up at us. [We knew that Yeerk engineers were building a new class of ship. One as swift as their fighters but with the firepower of our Dome ships. We thought they were cycles away from completing a prototype. But the Yeerks misled us. They had one such vessel hidden behind your moon. It decimated our fleet.]

"I'm sorry," Cassie said to him.

[My brother, our commander, knew we were losing. He took our fleet's Escafil device and had me escort him planetside so that we could form an insurgency and continue the fight. I was shot down and lost contact with him.] He looked to each of us. [I am pleased that his final mission was successful. What became of the device?]

"It was destroyed," Jake replied.

[How?]

"I'm not trying to be shitty," Marco answered, "but trust us on this one. You really don't want to know."

[As an Andalite warrior,] Ax said, [I am sworn to keep our technology out of alien hands. I need to know how it was destroyed.]

[Visser Three ate it,] I told him. More dirty looks, but I didn't care. [Elfangor was holding it at the time.]

He got that kicked-puppy look again. [I...see.]

[See, this is why people are worried about you,] Cassie said to me privately. [Even Marco has more empathy than you.]

[I thought we were telling him everything,] I shot back. Cassie didn't reply.

[Jake.]

"Yes, Ax?"

[It is as you said. I am alone. I believe that I am the last of my people in this system, if not this entire sector.] Ax walked up to him. [I want you to know that I appreciate your understanding.]

Jake squirmed a bit. "You're welcome."

[But I must ask you for more.]

"Anything you need," Tobias said instantly.

"Depends on what it is," Jake corrected. "But if it hurts the Yeerks, we'll all do whatever we can."

Speak for yourself, cousin, I thought to myself.

[I need to repair my ship,] Ax said. [I crashed in your forest and I cannot get my fighter airborne. I ventured into your settlement yesterday to find supplies, but my mission was unsuccessful. If you can help me, I would be in your debt.]

[Ask him to unlock the disk,] I told Jake privately.

Jake shook his head. "I won't make promises we can't keep. I'm pretty sure none of us knows anything about patching up spaceships."

"I might have slept through that class," Marco quipped.

"Couldn't hurt to try, though," Cassie supplied.

"No. I suppose it couldn't." Jake crossed his arms and looked down at Ax. "And, if nothing else, we could show you where humans go to repair our, um, vehicles. But either way, Ax, I can't guarantee anything."

[I understand. Your honesty is commendable.] Ax thought for a moment. [It might be simpler to steal a Yeerk ship, instead.]

"Wait." Marco sat up. "What?"

Tobias frowned. "That's ballsy."

"No." Marco shook his head. "That's insane. Where would we even find one?"

[We would simply call it,] Ax answered. [Duplicating a Yeerk distress signal is rudimentary enough. Yeerk dropships are lightly manned and Z-capable. We could commandeer one easily.]

"Nonononono," Marco told him. "No. Out of the question. Too much risk, not enough reward."

"He needs help, Marco," Cassie said to him. "He's stranded. We should try to help him get home."

"Agreed," Tobias said in support. "Like Jake said. This is the right thing to do."

"No."

I cocked my head at Jake. We all looked at him, confused. But Jake shook his head. "I'm with Marco on this. Ax, I believe you when you say it'll be easy, but I think you're wrong. We don't have weapons, and we don't have the morphs. It's not possible with our current resources. The most dangerous morph we have is Rachel's dog."

"Not true," Cassie said. "You forget, my parents' farm keeps steer. We have access to big morphs."

Jake shook his head again. "I still think it's too risky."

[It's not, though.]

I dropped to the ground next to Ax, surprising everyone. Including myself.

[We're supposed to be fighting a war, right?] I rotated around to address them all. [We're going to need reinforcements, sooner or later. If Ax can make it home, maybe he can get the Andalites to fly out here a little faster. So let's help him out. Let's do it.]

Marco didn't look anywhere near convinced. But Jake relented.

"Alright, Ax. Let's steal a ship."

[Thank you.]

I focused on Cassie. [Happy now?]

She wasn't. But I knew she wouldn't be. She knows me well enough that she knew I didn't want to help Ax just because I'm a good person.

I wanted Ax gone. And launching him light-years into space sounded like the best way to make that happen.