A/N: RL is eating away at fandom life, so my next update might be slightly later. Definitely not later than a month though! Thank you to those who have been faithfully reviewing, I really really appreciate your kind words. Meanwhile, enjoy!

CHAPTER SIX

::Ax::

When Marco, Cassie and I had reached the area near Cassie's barn, Cassie flew around to check. She gave the "all-clear" signal by flying into the barn itself, and Marco and I followed. We demorphed quickly as Cassie shut the doors. Unfortunately, I was demorphing to human, rather than Andalite, which distressed me greatly.

"Do you think the rest heard us?" asked Marco, nervously. "I couldn't find Tobias at his usual place."

"We would have to hope so." Cassie replied, grimly.

It was a little odd. Both of their personalities...

Unlike both of them, I wasn't quick to blame the Ellimist for this strange happening. For one, the Ellimist would not be able to alter people's personalities. Alteration can only apply to tangible entities, such as skills, physical features, an entire body. Time is also considered tangible, derived from squaring the third dimension. Memories are a little bit more tricky, but we once experienced that under the Drode's manipulation. Thus, the Ellimist (or Crayak, for that matter) might have been able to interfere with my morphing abilities and altered our timeline, but he would not have been alter Marco's sense of humour, for example, which seemed to me to be conspicuously missing. After all, throughout the entire flight to Cassie's barn from the school, he had not uttered a single word or sentence that suggested humour. Even when most frightened, Marco would have made a few jokes. I did not doubt my capability to understand his sense of humour after "hanging out" with him for so long, especially when he moved into my scoop occasionally.

Whatever difference was occurring to Cassie, I was still unable to decipher.

But I didn't have time to think through about the Ellimist or Cassie, as the door swung open and in walked Prince Jake with a very bewildered expression on his face.

"Jake!" gasped Cassie.

"Cassie!" Prince Jake broke into a smile. "Hey, I thought you were sick or something."

"Sick? No, I'm fine. Jake, look..."

"Oh come on..." He looked from Cassie to Marco with a look that suddenly changed into what I would perceive as an annoyed one. "Is this another of your new technological breakthroughs again, Marco? And you roped Cassie in?"

"Dude, what're you talkin' about?" Marco raised his eyebrows. I noticed that he was shaking.

Prince Jake laughed, a laugh that seemed rather out of place. "Man, I've got to give it to you. You got me out of a math class that was really bad. I thought I was gonna enjoy it, till they got some substitute teacher..." His eyes landed on me. And I was surprised to see that he was surprised. "Phillip?"

There was a short silence. I shifted my gaze to Cassie, who looked almost shocked. Marco opened his mouth, then shut it again, gesturing to me.

"No, Prince Jake." I frowned. Phillip was the name accorded to my human morph, but I had not used it ever since I stopped practice to 'blend' in with the humans. Strangely enough, earlier on, I had an encounter with a female in a human residence who had also called me 'Phillip'. It was probably a wise decision, on hindsight, that I decided silence was the best solution, and had left the residence to demorph back to Andalite. But now, it seemed that it was not a delusion on the female's part. I was about to speak further, but Prince Jake cut in first.

"Prince Jake?"

He blinked. Then he chuckled. "Alright, you're the alien, dude. I get it."

"I am an..." I began, but Marco gave me a look that seemed to tell me to keep quiet.

"Jake?" Marco's voice was now laced with suspicion. "Where did you come from?"

Prince Jake rolled his eyes. "Marco, stop this game. You're lucky I actually hated that math class. If not, you would have so gotten it from me if I fail my next math test. Now show me the device that you used to put voices into my head to tell me to get to Cassie's barn. Cassie, I can't believe you agreed to assist him in this. I thought you guys were in danger or something!"

"You were in math class. Before that?"

"Marco, I was in history class with you." Prince Jake stared at him, now clearly displeased. "Hey, you've never been the one to make jokes, alright? It really isn't funny."

"It sure isn't!" Marco suddenly shouted, angrily. Prince Jake was startled and took a step back, only for Cassie to hold onto his arm. He grabbed her hand instinctively.

"Jake, you were in the valley, remember?" Cassie whispered.

"Valley?" Jake stared at all of us. "Wait a minute, what the hell are you guys talking about? And how did you all know Phillip? He just came from out of town!"

"He's a Controller!" Marco accused, wildly.

"A what?"

I wished I had my tail blade with me. Cassie turned a little pale. "Not again?"

"Hey look!" Jake exploded. "What stupid game are you playing, Marco? Is that device illegal or screwed up or something? Did you get in touch with Phillip so he could fix it for you or something?"

Marco was beginning to morph.

"Marco, no!" I snapped. But Marco did not obey. He was turning darker, shaggy hair sprouting out from his olive-coloured skin.

My eyes were on Prince Jake now. And I saw fear – pure fear and disbelief in his eyes.

"Oh my god..." He whispered, stumbling back. Cassie held onto him. "Oh my god, Marco... somebody... somebody call the ambulance or something..."

"Jake, relax," Cassie said. "Marco, demorph back, he's seen enough."

Marco was now a full-grown gorilla, sitting in the middle of Cassie's barn. He reached out with one of his big fists and crushed a wooden crate. Cassie flinched, and I found myself instinctively doing so at the sound. Thankfully there were only a few tools in the crate. Not some animal.

"Marco, that is enough!" I reiterated, firmly.

He began to demorph. Prince Jake suddenly sat down in the hay, pale and perspiring heavily. Cassie bent down as well, her hand still on his arm.

"I do not think he is a Controller," I said.

"They act pretty well, Ax." Cassie looked at me. Unyielding.

I walked before Prince Jake, and knelt down. Thankfully I had enough practice not to fall over while doing that. "Prince Jake, I am Aximili. Do you not remember me?"

"...what?" Jake rasped, completely bewildered. "You... you are Phillip! You're Rachel's and my cousin! You live in New York with Aunt Sal, and you two just came over for the summer break because your school ends earlier than mine. But you don't know Cassie and Marco at all! Unless... unless Marco found your number somehow!" He stared accusingly at Marco, who was now torn between anger and weariness.

Aunt Sal. That might have been the female in the human residence.

"Why the hell would I find your cousin's number?" Marco threw his hands in the air.

"Because Phillip is a tech geek, like way better than you?" There was a hint of scorn in Prince Jake's voice. "Dude, everytime I told you about him, you'd look jealous!"

"I don't understand..." Cassie began.

Then the barn doors swung open again. Cassie and Marco instinctively stood up, defensively. So did I.

"Rachel!" Prince Jake yelped. "Oh man, you've got to save me from –"

"Jake! Oh – oh, everyone's here! Oh my god, can someone tell me what's going on now?" Rachel looked terribly flustered. Her blonde hair, usually very neat and tidy, was in disarray. Somehow, she looked rather different, even though her facial features were still the same.

Beside her was Tobias. I felt a sense of relief at seeing my shorm. Tobias always "watched my back", even though with my Andalite stalk eyes, I can see in all directions. Now that I only had two human ones, it would probably be better for him to continue to "watch my back".

But I could see that Tobias looked different too. He was in human form, but instead of his usual blank expression, he actually looked a little distressed.

"You!" Prince Jake suddenly sounded startled. We saw that he was pointing at Tobias. "What are you doing here!"

Rachel looked at Tobias. They exchanged a significant look. Then Rachel looked at the rest of us. "Do all of you remember?"

"The valley?" Marco asked, coldly. "The Yeerks? Controllers? The fact that we shouldn't be in school? The fact that we're still able to walk out on the streets - that I still can walk out on the streets despite not existing in official records?"

"Yeah." Rachel looked at Cassie, who nodded. Then she looked at me. I nodded too, a gesture I had picked up from my human friends. Then she looked at Jake.

"Jake, you've lost your memory."