Again I want to thank all that reviewed including freak show, Skyflight Erek's Loyalty, atlastme, The Shang Kudarung, Kumomaru, and nicole. Thnaks! And I'm sorry for how long this chapter took to get out. I've been having a bad case of writer's block with it. It should be over by now hopefully.

------------------------------------------------

-

(Back to Tobias' POV)

-

Chapter #7: The New Arrival

-

Yeah, hi. Tobias again. Sorry, about that. Rachel stole my notebook and wanted to add her own bit. She's sitting next to me right now and reading this over my shoulder. But back to the story.

I realized after a few minutes of lamenting my situation and feeling sorry for myself that I hadn't brought up Rachel's plan to save Jake and Cassie. I didn't really want to talk to Elfangor again so soon, and I had a feeling Elfangor was feeling the same way, so I decided to put it off for the moment. But the next morning I couldn't put it off any longer.

"Elfangor?" I called, knocking softly on the closed door to Elfangor's study. It was about 10 o'clock in the morning and my tutoring lessons wouldn't start for another hour.

"Come in!" Elfangor called back and I cracked open the door to peek through. Elfangor was at his desk in human form, busy tapping away at the keys of his laptop. I didn't really want to bother him, but I knew I had to. I had a feeling that Rachel had been completely serious when she'd said she would go down into the Yeerk Pool alone to save Jake and Cassie. And I would never be able to live with myself if I let her get killed when I could have easily prevented it.

"Elfangor?" I asked again, trying to quietly get his attention.

"Yes?" Elfangor replied, finally turning away from his laptop to give me his full attention.

"Um . . ." Now just how was I supposed to bring up this subject? "You remember yesterday when we were down in the Yeerk Pool?"

Elfangor just looked at me. Obviously he did remember. I mean, how could he forget? Stupid question. "Yes?"

"Then . . ." Feeling somewhat uncomfortable, I scratched behind my ear and tried to avoid eye contact. "Do you remember the girl in the cage next to me?" Saying this, I quickly glanced at Elfangor's human face to check his expression.

Elfangor just looked mildly curious. "I seem to remember you being out of the cage with all the other escapees by the time we got to that area of the Pool." But here he frowned, the day and the questions this awoke being brought back to mind. "I'm afraid in all the excitement I'd forgotten to ask you about that. Just how did you manage that?"

"Oh, right, um . . ." I knew Elfangor wouldn't like what I said next, but I sucked it up and said, "We were helped by a member of the Yeerk Peace Movement."

Elfangor raised his brow at this, obviously a little surprised. The Andalites still weren't exactly sure what to think of the Peace Movement. "Oh really?" he said.

"Yeah. He unlocked the cages and gave me and Rachel—the, um, girl next to me—a map of the Yeerk Pool exits. That's how we escaped."

"Do you still have it?" Elfangor asked intently, as always thinking of ways to make his fight against the Yeerks more efficient.

I wished I didn't have to let him down. "Um, no," I said, "I, uh, I think Rachel still has it."

But instead of looking disappointed Elfangor just looked curious again. "And who is this Rachel? Why would she, out of all the others in the Pool, be given this map?"

"See that's the thing," I said now that we were finally getting to the real point. "She kind of, um, came in with me." Seeing Elfangor's brow beginning to furrow in confusion, I hurried to explain, "I mean, I didn't just run straight into a Controller and immediately get captured when I went out yesterday. I kind of ran into Rachel first and then tried to run away because I knew I wasn't supposed to let people see me. But then I got hit by a car and then a Controller kidnapped the both of us. We both got away but then we went to the house of one of Rachel's friends. You know, to help with my concussion? But that friend turned out to be a Controller too so we ran and then we, um, got captured again." I slowed down a little, my explanation petering out. "And that's when we were taken to the Yeerk Pool."

"So you had quite the adventure," Elfangor summarized, no expression on his face to show how he felt about this. I didn't imagine he was all too thrilled with it.

"Um, yeah," I said uncomfortably, scratching behind my ear again. "You could say that." I paused then continued, "But the thing is, you know, Rachel?" I looked at Elfangor to make sure he was paying attention. He was. "Well she kind of wants to, you know," I paused again before saying quickly, "save her friend and cousin."

"And are her friend and cousin already Controllers?" Elfangor looked almost considering. Good. I'd hoped he wouldn't just throw out the idea as soon as he'd heard it.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Then I'm sorry, but we can't do anything."

I frowned. What? And here I'd thought he was actually considering it. "Nothing?"

"Once they're Controllers we can't do anything," Elfangor explained. "It would just cause too much trouble. Not to mention, if we liberated one person we would have to liberate them all and we just don't have the space to put all those people."

I still frowned, not liking this. "Then what am I supposed to tell her?"

"You are not to tell her anything," Elfangor said pointedly, giving me a look. "You're supposed to be in hiding. I'll have Maril or Erithin pass along the message."

"Well okay . . ." I said uncertainly, still frowning as I prepared to leave. I'd said what I'd come here for and gotten my answer even if it wasn't an answer I liked. "Then thanks, I guess."

Elfangor gave me a small smile. "Your welcome. I'll see you later."

And with that clear dismissal I left, a little frustrated and upset that we couldn't do anything to help, but not about to protest lest Elfangor get angry. Still now I had the scary knowledge that I would have to find some why to keep Rachel from going down into the Yeerk Pool by herself. Rachel wasn't exactly the type of person you said no to. How was I supposed to keep her safe?

I'd have to think about this.

--------------------------------------------------

Later, I was sitting with Maril in the living room as Maril tried to explain the concept of Z-space to me in terms I could understand. This was my tutoring session and now that it had been decided to give me the power to morph, it seemed that the gate had been opened and so now I was going to be learning all about Andalite sciences and technology. Normally we just learned about alien species and history, maybe some very primitive math. But today, I was learning things that humans wouldn't learn for at least another century or more and it was incredibly confusing. I mean, I'm not a dumb person, but this was a little over my head.

"I don't get it," I said, clearly frustrated with the subject. "Why does Z-space travel go so much faster? How is it different from regular space? It's just space, isn't it?"

Maril shook his head, starting to get a little frustrated with me as well though he was on the whole a very patient teacher. (No,) he said, (Z-space is more than regular space. It's . . .) and then he went off on some long spiel about the technicalities and intricacies of Z-space and zero gravity and zero-mass and all these other things. I understood maybe one out of every five words, but I nodded along like I understood and tried to keep up.

(And so in the event of a collision between two ships in Z-space there would be a mass transversal which would have cataclysmic effects on the individuals on board. For example, in the Andalite year 4508, there was an incident involving the ship of War-Prince Retal-Talimund-Yorli whose ship entered Z-space at point—)

And that's when the doorbell rang, disrupting Maril right in the middle of his spiel. He looked up and at the door, a little startled.

I was also a little confused. None of the Andalites ever rang the doorbell when they came over, so who could this be? Maybe a door-to-door salesman?

But, being that I was still supposed to be in hiding and that Maril was in Andalite form, both of us went to hide in the next room while Elfangor walked out of his study to get the door.

"Yes?" we heard him ask as he opened the door and I peeked my head out from behind the wall to see who was at the door. Elfangor's body was blocking my view but I could still hear the person speak.

"Yeah, hi," the person said impatiently, their voice proving themselves to be young and female, "Is Tobias home?" I recognized that voice.

"Rachel?" I asked, coming out from my hiding place and approaching the door.

"Tobias," Elfangor said warningly, not looking pleased by my actions. I had just given away my existence to a possible Yeerk in his mind.

"It's Rachel," I told him. "I told you about her, remember? She knows."

Rachel just went straight to the point, ignoring my by-play with Elfangor. "Yeah. Hi. Tobias? You were right."

I blinked and turned back to her. "The Yeerks are chasing you?"

At this, Elfangor started to look a little more interested and Rachel nodded, saying, "They tried to get me at school but I climbed out a bathroom window. Only then I went home to get some things and some cops tried to arrest me. But I escaped and came here."

I started to look a little worried. "You didn't lead them here, did you?"

Rachel looked insulted. "Of course not. I went around in circles till I lost them then came here. What do you think I am? Stupid?"

"No. No, of course not," I hurried to assure her, "It's just . . . you know," I said and Rachel nodded as if she understood.

"Would you like to come in?" Elfangor asked, stepping aside to allow Rachel entrance.

"Thank you," Rachel said politely as she entered, put her suitcase down by the end of the couch, and then started to look around the place. I couldn't tell by the look on her face what she thought of it, but it wasn't a look of disgust, it was more one of curiosity. I had to admit the living room we were now all currently in wasn't exactly what I would be expecting from an alien guerrilla force either.

"And you say she knows?" Elfangor asked me quietly as he watched Rachel walk around the room carefully.

I nodded, but felt like I had to explain myself. "We were locked in cages in the Yeerk Pool and she was getting angry. I couldn't not tell her."

"So?" Rachel said, giving up on her examination of the room to turn to Elfangor impatiently. "If this is the house of aliens where are the aliens?"

Elfangor just looked at Rachel for a long moment, as if deciding whether he could trust her or not, then called out, "Maril? You can come out now."

There was a pause and then Maril walked out from behind the wall to show himself in all his glory.

Rachel, for her part, didn't do anything like faint or look scared. Instead she looked fascinated. "That is so cool," she murmured, reaching out to touch but drew her hand back at the last moment. Then she nodded as if satisfied and turned back to Elfangor. "So what are you going to do to protect me from the Yeerks?"

"That we will have to talk about. Maril?" Elfangor said, turning to his subordinate. "Could you possibly go get Erithin and Aximili?"

Maril nodded, an Earth gesture all of the Andalites had picked up and immediately began to morph human.

His tail shlooped into his body first and then his blue fur became spotted with peach patches of human skin that quickly covered his body, leaving him looking like some strange hairless pet dressed in skin tight spandex. His back legs crunched and twisted and then his spine followed suit, twisting his body in a grotesque way so that he was standing up on two feet. Then his front two legs sucked into his chest and his arms gained muscles.

On his feet and hands stubby, black little fingers and toes began to grow and the hooves shifted into hands and feet. Lastly was his head, where his stalk eyes shlooped into his head and his facial bones shifted into more human angles. Ears and nose grew and fat popped out to become lips. Eventually the changes came to a stop and they were left with an average everyday-looking human wearing spandex. He nodded to Elfangor and walked out the door.

All throughout this, Rachel had stayed glued to the spot, watching the changes with wide eyes, looking both disgusted by what she saw and strangely fascinated. When she didn't say anything or even move once Maril was finished and gone I became concerned.

"Rachel?" I asked, coming up to her to touch her lightly on the shoulder.

"What. The hell. Was that?" she asked, annunciating everything very clearly.

"That was morphing," I replied.

"Morphing?" she repeated, most likely remembering that I had mentioned the little fact that Andalites could morph yesterday at the Yeerk Pool. Swallowing a bit, she nodded, but kept her focus on the spot Maril had just recently vacated. "Is it always like that?" she asked, trying hard to not reveal her disgust.

"You mean freaky and disgusting?" I asked in return.

"Yeah," she said.

"Yeah," I answered simply, "but you get used to it."

"Oh, okay," she said, then shook her head as if trying to clear it and looked to Elfangor with narrow eyes. "You're not going to do that too are you?"

Elfangor smiled slightly. "I think that can wait."

Rachel nodded. "Good." And then went to sit down on the couch. "So how long until the rest of your people get here and we can get on with this thing?" she asked, getting right down to business.

I took a seat on her other side and shrugged as Elfangor took a seat in his armchair and said, "It shouldn't be long. Don't worry."

It ended up being a very long fifteen minutes for Maril to come back with Erithin and Aximili in tow, all in human morph.

Erithin stopped as soon as he entered the door. "Who's the girl?"

"This is Rachel," Elfangor said with a nod in her direction. "And she's the reason behind this meeting."

"Don't tell me," Erithin said disdainfully, as he got comfortable on one of the other chairs in the room. "The boy got lonely and decided he had to tell his little girlfriend all about us."

I was too busy blushing at the assumption that Rachel was my girlfriend to say anything back to that, but Rachel glared and said, "I'd be careful just what you say to me before you end up with my foot in your face."

Instead of looking insulted that a lower life form had threatened him, Erithin, if anything, actually looked impressed at that. "Well at least we know that not all Earthlings are as spineless as the brat over there."

At that, I started to glare a bit on my own. "I keep telling you I'm not spineless."

"And I still have yet to see evidence of that fact," was all Erithin said.

Maril sighed at this long-standing argument. "This really isn't the point of the meeting."

I didn't mean to but I ignored Maril to continue with the argument. I finally had the proof to make Erithin shut up with the spineless comments and I was going to use it. "I signed up to fight with you guys, didn't I?" I said, daring Erithin to challenge that.

That immediately caught Maril's attention and he snapped his head in my direction. "You what?"

Erithin just narrowed his eyes at me. "Which I expect is just some pathetic attempt to get Daddy to love you."

"Erithin," Elfangor snapped warningly and Erithin backed down. Elfangor normally allowed Erithin to say what he wanted as there wasn't an Andalite Council to look over them for insubordination, but that remark had been over the line. Erithin didn't look like he regretted it though. He had never really liked me as he apparently saw me as the proof of Elfangor's shame and dishonor. Apparently it would have been a huge thing if anybody on the Andalite home world had known Elfangor had deserted the war and lived as a human. The having a human child bit just made things worse.

Maril was still looking at me in some shock. "You decided to fight with us?" he asked as if he had never expected this.

Somewhat unsure about his response, I just nodded.

"What's that mean?" Rachel asked, probably completely lost by this conversation. She looked at me. "Does that mean you're fighting the Yeerks too?"

I didn't mean to, but I ignored her as well, still worried about Maril's reaction. I hadn't exactly thought about the reactions of the other Andalites when I had made the choice and I didn't want Maril to think I had made the wrong decision. After Aximili, Maril was the one I was closest to. Which reminded me. I turned to see how Aximili was responding to the news that I had joined their little guerrilla group. As usual when with the more senior officers of the group, Aximili had been silent the whole time, but he nodded at me when I turned to look at him and smiled with his eyes, looking a little sad but also a little proud and like he had expected it.

Heartened by the fact that at least one of the group didn't think I was crazy, I turned back to Maril as he asked, "Are you aware of all of what fighting with us will entail?"

"I have been watching you guys for over a month now," I pointed out. "I've seen you after missions."

"Yes, but you don't know exactly what goes on during those missions," Maril said, obviously trying to get me to make my decision. Just like Elfangor had.

I frowned. "You're not changing my mind. This is my planet and I deserve to fight for it."

"Wait," Rachel said, "Tobias?" she asked, turning to me. "Are you really going to start fighting with them?"

Still looking determined, I just nodded.

Rachel actually seemed to think this was a good idea. "How?"

"They gave me the power to morph," I answered.

And at this Rachel turned back to the Andalites. "That's what I want to happen to me. I want to help you fight."

"What?" Maril exclaimed, obviously surprised. "But you can't!"

"And why not?" Rachel said, daring them to answer her. "You're letting Tobias. Why can't I?"

"Tobias has something you do not," Elfangor tried to explain calmly. "He's the son of an Andalite. You . . . You are pure human."

That obviously meant nothing to Rachel. "And? So?"

"The Andalites have a law where they can't give technology to outsiders," I tried to explain quietly, not wanting this to become some huge argument like I could see it easily becoming.

"Well what else are they going to do with me?" Rachel asked rhetorically. "The Yeerks are after me. I can't go home. I can't go outside. And there's no way I'm living in this house for the rest of my life. Either you give me the power to morph or I get infested. And I know the location of your house so me getting infested would not be a good thing for you guys."

The Andalites all looked at each other, the truth of what she was saying uncomfortably clear. There was a long drawn out silence.

Eventually, Elfangor cleared his throat. "We will have to talk about this." He turned to me. "Tobias? Do you think you could take her to your room? Aximili will go with you."

I nodded and stood up, waiting for Rachel to follow my lead.

------------------------------------------------

TBC

"