Disclaimer: All things Animorphs are the sole property of Ms KA Applegate.

A/N: This story will cycle through the point-of-view of all the Animorphs, so you'll see all of them coming into play soon :)

CHAPTER FOUR

::Marco::

‹Let's get out of here.› I could feel fear pumping into my fly body.

‹Yeah.› Cassie agreed.

We zipped out of the classroom. Chapman had already disappeared down the hallway. Now we had to find Jake, Rachel, and if possible, Tobias and Ax.

‹JAKE!› I yelled. ‹Dude, if you hear me...›

‹Marco, they might not even be in this school.›

‹Cassie, don't you get it? This is like some reality whereby we continued on as high school students. That's why we're in school now.›

‹But what if somehow it's only the two of us who continued?›

‹What are you talking about?› I stopped moving forward, my wings still buzzing non-stop.

‹This could be like... some reflection of what would happen – if we just gave up fighting or something.›

‹And why wouldn't Jake and Rachel be part of this?› I demanded.

But it dawned upon me. Cassie had seen what I hadn't. The way Jake was right now, or at least, had been in the valley... I had never seen him fall apart so badly before. He wasn't Jake anymore. I didn't know what it would take to put him back again. And Rachel? What would happen to her when this war was over? Or if we decided to give it all up? She belonged in this war. If it was taken away from her...

‹This is sick!› I snarled. ‹I don't give a damn, I just want to find Jake now!

‹Okay,› said Cassie wearily. ‹Let's get out of here. To the valley.›

‹No, not to the valley.› It came to me very clearly. ‹We're high school students, Cassie. The Yeerks here don't know that we are Animorphs. We're still living where we are.›

‹Oh.›

‹To the barn.›

‹To the barn.› Surprisingly, Cassie was just going along with whatever I said. That tone of neutrality was unnerving. I thought she would have been clambering to find Jake and Rachel more than I would.

‹Okay.› I took a deep breath. ‹Jake? Rachel? If you guys are there, get to Cassie's barn. As soon as possible. Forget masquerading as students. Just get out of here.›

There was a pause.

‹No punchline?› Cassie asked, trying to sound light.

A punchline? I had always seen a punchline in everything.

But somehow it didn't seem to exist now. There was nothing remotely humourous about the situation we were in.

‹I'm scared to death, Cassie.› I couldn't help snapping. ‹Forgive me if I'm not being funny.›

‹Sorry.›

Something was not quite right with Cassie either, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. With a weary sigh, we zipped down the now-empty hallways, and out of the school. Behind some trees, we demorphed, then remorphed ospreys and took to the sky.

‹Tobias? Ax?› I called out. ‹Are you guys there?›

There was no response.

‹Whatever it is, come to Cassie's barn, okay?›

‹Is that you, Marco?›

There was a pregnant pause.

‹AX?› Cassie and I both yelled in unison.

‹Ax, where are you?› I scanned the clouds for any sign of a northern harrier.

There was another pause. ‹What morph are you in?› Ax asked.

‹Osprey.› Cassie circled the air a little. ‹Marco and I are flying very near each other, we ought to be highly obvious. Erm, not that that's good, but – can you see us? Where are you?›

‹I am in human morph.›

‹There he is!› I exclaimed, locating a human Ax at a nearby park. He was sitting on a bench, but he was looking rather strangely at his hands. ‹Ax, what are you doing sitting on a park bench? We're in trouble, do you know that?›

‹Yes.›

‹Something's wrong!› Cassie swooped down, and I followed suit, even though it was reckless. Two ospreys in a park? That was ridiculously conspicuous.

Cassie landed on one arm of the park bench, so I chose to be less obvious and landed on a branch nearby instead.

‹What's wrong, Ax?›

He stared at Cassie, then at me. Surprisingly, his eyes seemed to reflect a downcast expression, something he seldom managed to achieve since Andalites don't make a lot of facial expressions. "I tried to demorph to Andalite by the bushes. I can't do it."

‹You what?› I was taken aback. Ax opened his mouth to reply, but then a few people walked by, so he kept his mouth shut.

‹Ax, what about other morphs?› asked Cassie.

‹I can morph into anything else but an Andalite.› He sounded frustrated. ‹Harrier, seagull, skunk, spider. I fear that my natural body has become a human.›

‹Can I repeat that this is insane?› I exploded. ‹This is some Ellimist trick, isn't it? It's got nothing to do with a thing like the Time Matrix, because we are at the age we are supposed to be, and we're dumped back into a school and an environment which basically doesn't recognise us...›

‹No, it is not the Time Matrix,› Ax agreed, but I ignored him.

‹...we're back to anonymity, back to being students. But somehow or another, everything's changed. You're not an Andalite – you can't go back to being an Andalite! Cassie, don't you find yourself different? I find something's not quite right with me.›

‹Marco, you were never right to begin with,› said Cassie, with a chuckle.

‹Your height, to begin with, is not right for your age,› Ax added, eyeing me with a neutral expression.

Cassie laughed. ‹Ax, you are improving.›

‹Thank you.›

If I had a mouth, I would frown. ‹This isn't the time to be joking around.›

Ax raised his eyebrows, a very human action.

‹We've got to find out what the hell is going on here. If...› I turned to Cassie. ‹If it is really what we discussed just now, then at the very least, Tobias should be around. Right?›

Cassie did not answer me. She kept her gaze on Ax, who was muttering, ‹This is unbecoming. An Andalite warrior trapped as a human! No tail! Two eyes and two legs! Preposterous and –›

‹Okay, whatever, let's get to Cassie's barn, ospreys don't hang out in parks,› I continued hastily. ‹Morph to harrier somewhere. I don't like what's going on, and I want some answers.› I flapped my wings and got airborne. ‹I'll go ahead first and see if I can get Tobias in the woods or something.›

‹I don't think...›

But I was in the sky before Ax finished. I didn't exactly want to think about whether I was alright anymore. At this moment, I was just completely pissed off that we were being yanked around in some warped reality. Some part of me wished that it was all just a dream, but some part of me was quite sure that I wasn't dreaming at all. It was too real to be a dream.

And it sure wasn't funny at all.