It was late Saturday morning. Ax and I had watched some cartoons at his scoop earlier, and we were enjoying a day of relaxation. Zenguh was defeated and the Yeerks' ridiculous swim meet had been cancelled, so there was nothing to do but enjoy life.

We were soaring high in the air, on our way to meet up with our friends. I looked down and thought, That's still here because of us. I had meant the city, but it could probably apply to the whole planet.

The sun was shining, and flying was easy. I flew through a low cloud, just because I could. And the thermals! Have I mentioned how great thermals are?

We passed Cassie's house, and I chuckled to myself, thinking about the broken Helmacron ship we had buried under a tree by the barn. It was just one more thing we wouldn't have to worry about anymore. It really felt like life was going our way.

I could see our destination, the mall, in the distance. It grew larger as we approached, and we flew over the playground where we had fought Zenguh.

‹They really did a good job cleaning up that park,› I called to Ax.

‹It looks very pristine,› he commented. ‹From what I heard, it was a mess when you left.›

That made me think. I said to Ax, ‹Knowing what we know now, about all the DNA swirling around in our blood, we should probably be more careful about cleaning up.›

‹We should,› he agreed. ‹If humans kept any sort of health records, the Yeerks could probably use them to track us.›

‹We do have that, Ax,› I told him.

‹Oh dear,› he said, gravely.

We landed near the mall, near some bushes that hid a duffel bag with our clothes.

Jake, Rachel, Marco, and Cassie were already in the food court. We exchanged hugs, and went to go pick out lunch. Normally we don't like to meet together, in case anyone is watching. I think we were too relieved and tired to care this time.

"Can you handle this, Ax?" I asked.

"I will do my best to control myself. Elf," he said, his mouth already watering.

"Good, because I'm really looking forward to seeing you use chopsticks," I said, as we walked toward the Panda Express.

We got our food and met back at the table.

Cassie was the first to speak.

"It's such a relief to be done!" she exclaimed.

"Definitely," Jake agreed. "This morning, Tom invited me and my friends, that's you guys, to a barbeque that The Sharing is throwing. I think the Yeerks are really glad Zenguh is gone, too."

We all laughed. We were obviously not going to go to a Yeerk picnic, but hearing that even the Yeerks were happy really cemented that we had won, and that life could go back to normal. Our normal, at least.

Rachel spoke next. "It's a shame we couldn't have acquired Zenguh."

We all looked at her like she was crazy.

"I mean, I've learned my lesson about morphing myself and all," she said. "The anxiety of possibly getting stuck in a morph of myself and missing out on the war was too stressful. But Zenguh's been all over the galaxy. I'm sure he's got some morphs that would be useful against the Yeerks."

She had a point.

"But who knows what his real form even was at the end?" I asked. "Plus, the changes he made to himself could have made things unpredictable."

"Even so," said Cassie. "I would have loved to know what morph he was using to make his skin glow that beautiful green at the end."

Leave it to Cassie to be interested in the anatomy of other creatures, even when they were trying to kill us.

I noticed Ax get a weird look on his face, like he was deep in thought and unaccustomed to using his mouth in his facial expressions.

"Ax, you look like you've got something on your mind," I said.

"That green glow," said Ax. "I had not realized it until just now, but I recognize it."

"Cool," I said, getting ready for one of Ax's space stories. "What's it from?"

"I think I have mentioned them before," he said, his expression showing more fear by the second. "The Hawjabran."

Seeing that the name had meant nothing to any of us, he continued.

"Interesting," he said. "None of you are shocked. Let me explain. In the academy, we studied an incident where an Andalite courier ship had come across a Hawjabran ship, floating in space. The life support had been disabled, and thousands of Hawjabran floated inside, frozen."

"What does it mean, Ax?" asked Marco, impatiently.

Ax took another breath, and said, "The ship had been attacked by Yeerks, trying to turn the occupants into Controllers, but the Yeerks gave up. Are you sure I haven't mentioned this before?"

"Out with it! Why?" I asked.

"Because the Hawjabran have decentralized nervous systems," said Ax. "They don't have just one single brain that the Yeerks can control. Their 'brains' are spread out over their whole bodies."

I understood, and it wasn't long before I could see the lights go on in the others' expressions.

Rachel ran the fingers of both of her hands through her hair, and let her head settle in her hands. She looked just short of panic.

"So, when I morphed grizzly, and destroyed his head, and he fell down dead…" she started. "He could have been faking it?"

"A small chance," Ax said.

"It's okay," said Jake. "The Yeerks torched it all, right? They burned everything that was left of him, and the entire sawmill."

Cassie said what we were all thinking.

"What if they missed a piece?"