A/N: Sorry for the delay! Many theories abound here, so it might get a bit wordy, but do stay with me! Get ready, people, for the main action starts from the next chapter onwards... hope you guys enjoy this one in the meantime!

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

::Ax::

"I think we can conclude that the Ellimist did play his part then," said Cassie, grimly. "He sent Elfangor back in time to become an Andalite war-prince once again, and Elfangor was killed by Visser Three."

The expression on Loren's face mirrored the pain within me as I thought of Elfangor being killed by that beast.

"The difference," said Marco, "is that Loren never had the accident."

We had told Loren about our experiences of being transported into this reality. Surprisingly, she was inclined to believe us, but only because – in her own words – "everything's just insane right now, if I can't even trust you kids, I don't know who to trust anymore."

I was getting to like my "sister-in-law" very much.

"But Loren had a near-accident when Tobias was young. Don't get me wrong, but that sounds a lot like karma," said Cassie, wincing. "Guess the Ellimist was lucky that didn't spoil his plans."

Prince Jake put his hand over his face. All the action throughout the day must have been extremely tiring and confusing for him. He had acted bravely despite a real understanding of the dangers earlier on – his sense of responsibility still renders him worthy of me calling him my Prince.

"Shall we go find Rachel and Tobias now?" asked Marco, rubbing his forehead with his fingers.

"I'll give Rachel a call," said Cassie.

Moments later, she came back, frowning. "Rachel's not at home. Her mom thought she was with us."

"God, this is really not the time to be on a hot date!"

"Tobias is dating someone?" Loren raised an eyebrow.

"No! I mean, yes – erm... it's complicated," said Marco, waving his hands about awkwardly.

I was keeping an eye on Prince Jake throughout and I had noticed that there seemed to be something on his mind.

‹Prince Jake? Is there something you wish to ask?›

All eyes turned to Prince Jake, who began to stand up amidst the pile of hay.

"I think..." he began, then coughed a little before continuing, "there's something really strange about my memory."

"What?" demanded Cassie.

"I've been thinking about it all day... it's really weird that my memory of the past few days have been really fuzzy... like I remember we went to the Sharing, and we met Tom and these guys who later threw us out. And I'm absolutely sure I remembered their names, but now I've forgotten."

"Matt and Cam," said Marco. "Not like you need to remember anyway, they're just fronts for Yeerks."

"No, that's not the deal," said Jake, his voice trembling slightly. "It's just that I've often had a very good memory for events and details. For example, I have these extremely vivid memories of us when we were young. Like junior high school times, when we hung out at the arcade, when I first met Cassie or even before that. Rachel and I playing in the sandpit when we were young and she crying when I threw sand all over her. I even remember playing videogames with Phillip!" He pointed to me. "In fact, I remember going to Aunt Sal's house with Rachel and teasing Phillip about being a nerd all the time. And we would have some of her lovely cinnamon buns and pancakes and I can smell the whiff of it, it was awesome."

‹Her cinnamon buns are very delicious.›

Marco's eyes were narrowed, however. "And this means...?"

Jake held his head in his hands. "This sounds totally weird. I never used to think this was an issue – but lately – specifically, these past few days meeting you guys? I'm starting to have a lot of weird visions."

Marco, Cassie and I exchanged looks of shock.

‹Prince Jake, what kind of visions?› I asked, urgently.

Jake closed his eyes. "The other day I was at the Sharing, I saw this thing – it was a poster. I don't even remember what's on it now, but I remember when I saw it, I had the strangest feeling. Like... like a feeling of déja vu, you know? I've seen it somewhere. But the poster was an old one. It's not this year. That's as much as I can piece." He paused. "And also, I shoot hoops, yeah? But sometimes I have these visions of playing basketball – even though it's the same environment, it just feels different. Like I'm taller, or like I'm stronger and I have a better aim or a different angle and style." He groaned. "This is just pure insanity, my God."

"Welcome to the life of an Animorph," muttered Marco.

"And I – I think just now, when I was the tiger, I had a vision of something really, really odd. Like a swimming pool, but filled with sludge instead of water."

My main eyes stayed focused on Prince Jake, but my stalk eyes swivelled immediately to Marco and Cassie, whose jaws had literally dropped.

"It was bubbling," whispered Marco.

"Yes! Yes, how did you know?" asked Prince Jake, surprised.

"What else?" urged Cassie.

"I came really close to the pool and it was boiling. It was like being in a nightmare. Okay, I really don't know why I feel so compelled to say all these stupid things, but they seemed kinda real to me. Don't judge me, please."

"We've all had that nightmare," said Marco, bitterly.

‹The Yeerk pool,› I said, anger radiating within me. ‹But how is it possible that he has such images?›

"Colours, too, lots of colours. Like a very wondrous feeling..." Prince Jake was muttering to himself, shrugging as he spoke. "Like it was the first thing I saw something. It was such a happy feeling... but so, incredibly jarring and weird. I think hanging around you asses is making me crazy."

"I think I'm the one going crazy," said Loren, calmly.

"Somebody's tampered with your memory," said Cassie, and we turned to look at her. "Somebody, or something. And in that process, that somebody or something forgot to remove Tom's memories from yours."

"Excuse me?" Marco stared at her.

"Don't you see? The Yeerk pool. The basketball memories. The poster of the Sharing. He's seeing them through Tom's eyes. But what really made me figure that out was the last bit. The colours? That wondrous, happy feeling? He's describing the Gedd memories. The feeling a blind, helpless Yeerk gets when it enters its first host." Cassie's voice had dropped to a whisper. "I felt those memories from Aftran – Jake got it from the Yeerk that was inside Tom."

‹What you are saying, Cassie, is that Prince Jake has actually come to this reality with us, which explains his morphing capabilities. But what has been modified is his memory – in fact, his memory has been manufactured to complement that of this current reality.› As much as I disliked to admit it, Cassie's logic had made more inroad to solving the problem than my thoughts had attempted to.

"Yes, that is what I'm saying. And whoever it was didn't realise that there were memories implanted into Jake apart from his own. Tom's, that is."

Prince Jake was pale. "I don't know what happened, but I'm guessing from what you said, Tom's Yeerk was once inside my head?"

Marco nodded. "Yeah, bad experience, that one. We starved it in the end and saved you, but you were stuck with Tom's memories from then on."

Prince Jake went into a moment of silence. Then he finally spoke. "It's funny, but I can actually pinpoint a specific point in time when my memories start to become less vivid. Like before that, it was almost photographic for me. Then after that day, I just felt like that ability had been lost. I was just – like anyone else, I suppose. The way everybody describes their memories – often with a few holes and stuff."

‹This is too coincidental,› I said, privately to Marco and Cassie. Cassie gave a slight nod, but Marco's frown just deepened.

"Jake, when was that point in time?" Cassie asked.

I could hear my hearts beat a little faster as we waited for his answer.

"It's... Marco, do you remember there was this time we actually met both Cassie and Rachel at the mall after the arcade by accident? We were like thirteen, I think. I mean – okay, crap, no, you don't remember, of course..." Jake scratched his head. "Well usually, I'll meet them by chance, and you'll meet them by chance, or we'll meet either one of them... anyway, it's just strange that we all met by coincidence. And I was feeling really crappy that day –just being depressed about not making the team the first time round and stuff."

Marco had gone white. "And I had lost all our quarters."

Jake raised an eyebrow. "You did? Hey, wait, yeah! You – say, how did you know?"

"Jake?" Marco's lips were trembling. "Do you remember when we told you how this whole shenanigan started? The blue box and everything?"

"Huh? What has this got to do with –"

"And I said we had found Elfangor in an abandoned construction site?"

"Yeah?"

"We thought about cutting through, didn't we? But in your reality, we didn't. That day when we met Rachel and Cassie, we decided not to take that path even though something inside you said you should have."

There was utter silence. A bird in its cage fluttered about, breaking the trance.

"So you're saying," said Prince Jake, slowly. "That if we had decided to cut through it that day, I would have met Elfangor too."

Cassie narrowed her eyes at Prince Jake. "But why didn't we walk through?"

Jake shut his eyes tightly. When he opened them, he said, "We were interrupted. I'm quite sure we wanted to. Something stopped us. Hmm."

"The ax-murderers," said Marco. I interpreted that as filled with human sarcasm.

Prince Jake snapped his fingers. "Yes! That's right. It was a boy. Our age. He said something like there was someone in there stalking him. Ax-murderers, yes, that's what he said."

"If things were supposed to go the way they were, there wasn't supposed to be a boy," said Cassie.

"He was blond. A really weird tuft on this side of his hair." Jake lifted up a tuft of his own hair. "Yeah, I remember that 'cos it's quite unique."

I had not really considered the boy to be an important factor for the last few seconds, until Loren spoke up. "You know, the boy whom I nearly knocked down during my near-accident had that tuft of blond hair too. God, his face haunts me in my dreams sometimes. He looked so scared and pale..."

"Tell me about it," muttered Prince Jake.

‹This is no coincidence,› I repeated myself, this time including Prince Jake and Loren in my thoughtspeech. ‹It seems that it is possible that this boy has been planted to disrupt the time-space continuum.›

But before I could continue my scientific theories, Marco had sat down really hard. Cassie was kneeling beside him and holding onto his arm.

‹What is it?› I asked, dreading the answer.

"That tuft of hair..." Marco let out a dry laugh. "Oh my God."

"Are you sure, Marco?" Cassie gripped him tightly.

"If I hadn't seen him the other day, I wouldn't even have thought of him..." Marco looked directly at me. "But he's here. He's happy. He's got everything he wanted and we don't."

The truth began to dawn upon me.

"I don't know if I'm taking this too far. But it has to be him. I just feel like it has to be him..." Marco gritted his teeth.

"What?" Prince Jake was completely confused.

Marco bit his lip, then uttered one word,

"David."

A/N: If the process in which they derive their conclusions seems a bit hasty, there's a justification for that which will be dealt with in later chapters. Like what Ax says, it's no coincidence!