The last thing I saw after I pushed Rachel was Zenguh's giant mouth, full of teeth, screaming toward me, and then all was black.

It was hard to tell how much time passed, but eventually the darkness faded and I realized that I was in what looked like my old basketball gym, from back when I first tried out for the team, before the war. I was also human again. I remembered how important it was for me to make the basketball team, since Tom was such a star player.

A lot had changed.

The gym was bright, to the point that everything had a whitish glow to it. Walking through the locker room doors was a figure I knew quite well at this point.

"Hello, Ellimist," I said. "Am I dead?"

I was surprised at how calm I sounded.

The Ellimist approached me, almost thoughtfully, as if wondering how to tell me the news. When he was a few feet away, he finally responded.

"Oh Jake. Are you dead? No," he said. "You're not dead. You are not meant to die here, and certainly not now."

Oh, wow, those were some pretty awful words of encouragement. Tobias would have rolled his eyes.

"Ellimist, I'm so tired of this war," I said. It was not a complaint, just a statement of fact.

"I know," the Ellimist answered. "Many of those thrust into the toughest of times wish they could avoid it in some way. But when these things happen, we must push through."

"I have to go back, don't I?"

"Yes."

"How can I survive this?"

"Jake, surely being swallowed by a monster isn't enough to stop an Animorph?"

I blinked, and suddenly I was again in the dark, back in tiger morph, pushed and squeezed on all sides by dampness. I was back in the battle. With a burst of energy, I pulled back one of my huge paws as much as possible in the limited space, punching and clawing at the muscles enclosed around me. Surprisingly, it worked fairly easily, and a giant hole was suddenly open for me to fall out through, collapsing on the floor.

‹Jake?!› I heard Rachel's voice yelling. ‹Jake! You're alive? I...I'm sorry.›

‹It's fine,› I muttered, looking around, eyesight refocusing. ‹Rachel..where's Zenguh?›

No answer.

‹Rachel?›

"I, um, I kind of went crazy and ripped him apart when I saw him eat you."

Oh. That's why it was easy to get out. I was startled by the sudden lack of thought-speech, and how close her voice was to my ear.

I looked at Rachel, and saw her morphing, once again. She was shaking. I also saw, around us, bits of pieces of Zenguh scattered throughout the sawmill. It was gross.

‹Rachel, are you okay? This is...well, a lot to handle.›

‹I have to finish this,› she said, brown fur sprouting all over her body. ‹I have to finish this without his help.›

Help? Whose help? I wondered. I looked over, saw Zenguh. Wait. I looked back behind me at the husk of a body I had exploded out from. That was Zenguh. So, what was this new thing I saw hunched over, but very much alive? This new being looked a lot like him, but with a shimmering green hue. There was a web of green lines spread out over his grotesque, hybrid form of teeth, claws, muscle, machine, and tentacles. I couldn't really describe his form beyond that, and I didn't know how he was over there when Zenguh was so clearly dead over here.

But I watched as Rachel, in full grizzly morph, stood over Zenguh's new form, breathing heavily. Zenguh looked like he was struggling, barely keeping his head up. She reared back and attacked in one final swipe, claws tearing deep into his head. There was no doubt that she had utterly destroyed him. Zenguh's massive body collapsed in a heap, and it was suddenly over.

‹We did it,› Rachel said, sounding exhausted. ‹We really did it.›

I climbed shakily to my feet. Controllers poured into the building, surrounding us, but not interested in us.

"Destroy every piece of evidence!" various Controllers shouted to each other, ignoring us completely. "Visser One said there can be no trace of this traitor!"

We snuck out of the building, limping and hobbling, and Controllers began setting the entire building ablaze. The flames rose into the sky and, at the same time, the sun peeked over the mountains.

Rachel and I regrouped with Marco, Cassie, Tobias, and Ax in the woods beyond the sawmill.

After the initial shock of seeing me alive, I realized that everyone was completely worn out. We flew to our various homes, mostly in silence. In the end, it was just Rachel and I once more. I figured I should fly her home; I did not provide a good watch the last time. It felt weird to know that Zenguh was finished.

Once we were alone, Rachel filled me in on what I had missed, and she let me know about her side drama with Crayak.

After I had been eaten by Zenguh, Crayak granted Rachel his own version of superpowers. When Visser One had seen this so-called "Super-Rachel", he abandoned the fight, leaving his followers leaderless. Using these powers, she had gone, as Marco would say, "nuts" and really took it to Zenguh. She literally tore him apart, but he kept healing and rebuilding himself. At last, she removed his head, but she watched in horror as he morphed from just a head to an entire new body.

I had lost a leg before as a tiger, in battle. I was still able to change to human, whole and complete. Zenguh must have applied the same process. As long as he was conscious enough to change, he could, no matter how much of his body was missing.

She said that his new body looked similar, but had a weird, green glow; the same glow I witnessed. He was also worn out, just like Rachel, but she began the process of ripping him apart yet again. But once Crayak saw I was still alive after all, he immediately took back Rachel's new powers, leaving Rachel back in an exposed human form.

Rachel was able to remorph to grizzly and destroy Zenguh's brain with one last attack before he could recompose himself and continue to heal.

‹Jake,› she said as we flapped through the night. ‹I thought I wanted more power, I thought I needed more power. I realized the six of us, we can do it, we can really win this war, together.›

‹We all have our weak moments, and our strong moments,› I reassured her. ‹I hope we all make it through. Together, just like you said.›

‹I'll follow you to the end Jake,› Rachel said, her tone quite serious. ‹I know I complain about not being in charge, or everyone being too indecisive. I know I struggle with morality. But I'm telling you right now, I'll follow you to the end.›

I hoped it would never come to that.

After Rachel was safely in her room, I flew to my own house. The sun had risen on a new day, a symbol of our resolution with Zenguh.

I saw Tom on the phone through his bedroom window, no doubt hearing the updates on Zenguh's demise. There was no rest for me when the enemy lived within my home.

As I laid in my bed, unable to sleep despite being more tired than I had been in months, I wondered how this would all play out. Did Ellimist and Crayak know how the war would end? Could they foresee Zenguh's rise and fall? Would I get my brother back? Would all the Animorphs make it to the end in one piece? Could we survive?

How would this end?