Nicole

We descended down towards the Chanaiben home planet, a little fast for my liking, but soon made a soft and safe touchdown.

Again, it was like listening to an air hostess on a human plane.

"All passengers please collect your baggage and have a nice day!" they said, and Seth rolled his eyes. We got up out of our seats, leaving the ship and going slowly down one of the isles, knowing our parents would meet us outside.

"Did you hear that?" Sean snorted.

"Have a nice day!" Seth mimicked, and we all burst out laughing. Even Toni, as weird as it was.

"I'll tell you where you can put your nice day, right..." Alex clamped a hand over Megan's mouth, stopping her from saying anything rude in front of the other people. I admired his courage.

"Shh! Enough already! Don't kill everyone else's fun just because you don't like it" he hissed, but let go of her as we continued moving. He was ahead of me. The other four were behind us.

"Why not? I..."

She shut up when we reached the big outer hatch, leaving the ship to go meet up with our parents to collect our bags.

"Have fun on the flight kids?" Her dad, Marco asked, smiling mischievously.

"Oh heaps dad! Really!" She said sarcastically, and he just laughed at her.

"It was bor-ring" Elfangor said, rolling his eyes. Aerionna herself had become an Andalite again, and flexed her tail a bit, being careful not to hit any of us.

"So, now what?" Seth asked his dad, shrugging.

"Now we go to Rtaia's home" His dad, who was named Ithiell said, smiling a strange sort of Chanaiben smile.

"Don't we need... like... to go to hotels or something first?" Megan asked.

"No. Rtaia will accommodate us all. It is a big 'house'. Not like a human home, but comfy enough"

(At least we will be able to see mother and father again) Aerionna said as we moved away from the baggage area.

I took this chance to look around. It was fairly warm on the planet, but not uncomfortably hot like in summer or anything. And as we walked, I realised their homes were underground, in what looked like cave dwellings or something. There was a large part above ground, with a rock door and windows, but from what I could see, there were steps that lead down inside it.

The ground itself had yellow grass with pink tips, and gave you the impression that it really was summer here. Far off, every now and then, there were some dense thickets of trees, and some fairly spaced.

We made our way into 'town' were there were smaller cave dwellings, and every now and then a Chanaiben would come out and greet us. Or, more specifically, Alex and Seth's mothers. Jade and Amanda, I think their names were. They looked like they were celebrities here. Toni's dad seemed like it too, only he kept giving them 'stay away' looks.

My mum slipped her arm through mine and pulled me out of the way as another Chanaiben went speeding past, nearly knocking me over.

My mum was just a little shorter than me, and to some people she didn't look like my mum at all. My dad however, was tall, and I was kind of right in the middle of both of them.

"Are you ok sweetie?" She asked when the mad rush of groupie aliens was over.

"Uh... yeah. Thanks mom" I said smiling at her. I didn't care what other people thought. She was my mom for heavens sake!

We finally made our way out of the small gaggle of cave dwellings, and towards another much larger one. And out of the door stepped a large Andalite male, looking strong and unyielding, to greet us.

(Friends!) he boomed in a deep resonating voice (Welcome to our humble home) He bowed low, by spreading his front legs out ahead of him.

"Nice to see you too Ax-man" Cody's dad Tobias laughed, looking the happiest I'd ever seen him.

(Father!) Aerionna ran to the Andalite in the doorway, stopping when she was a few feet from him. They arched their tails over their heads, touching tail-blades in a greeting. Elfangor ran to him soon after that, and latched onto him like a leech.

"That is so sweet" I whispered to my mum, and beside her my dad smiled.

After the casual "hello's" were over, he lead us down into the cave, then down some stone steps, recently refashioned to suit the Andalites delicate hooves. There was a railing, and I hugged it as I looked down to see an amazing sight.

It was mostly rock and stone, but I could tell it had been changed to suit the needs of Andalites and humans. There was green and blue grass here and there, and in what I could see as the 'dining room' there was a large wooden table and chairs, covered with human decorations.

When we got down there, there seemed to be a food preparing area, like a kitchen, and even a lounge room. And everywhere you looked there were computers and electronic equipment. Especially in the lounge room.

Rtaia greeted us at the bottom of the stairs. Almost immediately you could tell she had an air of importance and grace about her, just like when the Andalite Tobias had referred to as Ax greeted us at the door.

Or maybe just like my dad sometimes. After all, he led the final fight on the Yeerks, destroying their final resistance. He was a leader. I guess he still is, in a way.

"Welcome my friends. It is good to see you and your offspring are all so well" She smiled, spreading her arms wide in a symbol of peace.

"Yeah, our offspring are just fine thankyou very much" Rachel said, giving her a devilish grin. I know I was related to her though my dad, and she was my mom's best friend, but she still creeped me out.

"As are you and yours" my mom said smiling at Rtaia. I looked over to see Elfangor was still stuck to his dad, riding on his back believe it or not, and peeping over his shoulders. I noticed he seemed uncertain, like he couldn't decide whether to stay with his dad or go greet his mom.

"Come, I will lead you to your rooms. It is in a new section of our underground residence, and I believe you will all be quite pleased with the effort we have given to this" She said, leading us down a corridor that suddenly looked like it was made of tarnished wood. Then I noticed the doors. Doors! Like a hotel or something!

"Well, Megan should be happy with this" Alex whispered in my ear from the other side of me, nearly making me jump. I nodded in agreement, to amazed by all that I was seeing.

"There are a total of nine sleeping quarters with two human beds in each as well as a clothes drawer for each, and five human bathrooms all at the end of the hall. Is this sufficient?" She asked, looking worried.

"If you've got working showers, it's sufficient" Amanda said nodding and laughing.

Rtaia nodded, then left us to sort the rooms out, telling us the reunion party would start at sundown. Everyone but Toni's dad was paired up, and I guess he liked it that way. All the other parents, including mine, chose to stay in with their partners, leaving us kids to sort out our own rooms.

Sean and Seth decided to stay together, as well as Alex's sisters, Megan and Michelle, so that just left the four of us. Alex agreed to share a room with Cody, giving me a slight smile before they disappeared through the door.

"So" I said turning to Toni "I guess it's just you and me huh?"

"I guess" Toni shrugged as we took our bags into the room to get settled.

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The music was loud, the food was great, and the night sky was beautiful overhead. The reunion party. It was crowded with about fifteen other Chanaibens, but it still felt pretty small to me.

I was wearing my most dressiest clothes; a long flowing skirt and an off the shoulder top that Megan had conned me into buying. That girl may be annoying sometimes, but she definitely knows her fashion.

Mostly I work with my mum, sometimes helping her set a bandage or give a pill to an animal (she's a veterinarian) so a lot of the time I don't really notice or care about what I wear. Sometimes she even lets me come up to check on the Hork Bajir. Creepy things, but sweet and gentle.

I caught Alex stealing glances at me, and blushed without meaning to. I guess I did look a bit out of character. But then again, so did he. All of us did, even my mom, who was wearing a cream dress. A dress! That was a feat in itself. My dad, and in fact all the other guys had dress shirts on, black pants and black leather shoes on.

I noticed Megan had conned Michelle into wearing a dress as well, and she looked a little uncomfortable as Sean came up and started talking to her, holding out a cup of some kind of soda for her to take. She did, smiling and looking up at him. I smiled and surveyed the rest of the party.

Ithiell and Ax were talking with my dad and Tobias, and Marco was in a deep discussion with Toni's dad, Robert. I didn't know what about. My mum and the other three women were drinking and talking happily with Rtaia, erupting in girlish laughter every now and then.

Seth was with Aerionna and Toni, who seemed to be talking about the difference between morphing and shape-shifting.

"So, how's the party?" Megan asked, making me jump about a foot in the air.

"Don't do that! You scared me half to death!" I cried, forgiving her immediately when I saw the shocked look on her face.

"Sorry, I..."

"That's ok. I noticed my brother keeps giving you the eye" I rolled my eyes at her. Did nothing stop this girl?

"He has not"

"Yah-huh, he has. I reckon he likes you" she nudged me, smiling mischievously and looking like her father when she did that.

"No he doesn't"

"Yeah he does. Look! He's coming over from the buffet table now to talk to you!"

"It's just because there's no one else to talk to"

"See you round Nikki..." She trailed off, disappearing back into the crowd, leaving me to stand there and blush while Alex snaked his way over to me. The music was pounding in my ears, and suddenly seemed overwhelming to me. I pushed my way out of the crowd, landing on the outskirts of the party.

"Uh, hey Nikki!" Alex called, catching up to me and looking red-faced.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to diss you. It's just the music..." I trailed off, putting a hand to my ear, and he nodded a little.

"Yeah, it is a bit loud, isn't it?"

"Uh-huh"

"Want to go for a walk? Just a little bit away from the party?" he asked, and I smiled and nodded. So we walked, side by side, away from the music and the torch lights and overwhelming crowds.

"Great game yesterday" he started, making me turn my head to look at him.

"Yeah, we can really play with hardly any people, can't we?" I wanted it to sound like a joke, but it came out sarcastic.

"Hey, it's for fun. We don't really need anyone but us, do we?" he asked smiling, and I smiled back, nodding in agreement.

He's so cute...

I blushed at the thought, suddenly glad he couldn't see my face as well in the darkness. At least, I hoped.

We walked in silence for a minute, before we decided to go walking back. We were great friends, I knew, but there was something that stopped us from actually talking like friends when we were alone together. Especially since we were billions and billions of miles away from home, and the setting was more or less kind of... romantic.

As we turned though, I thought I saw a flash of something across the sky.

"Hey, what was that?"

"What? That flash of light?"

"Yeah"

"I... I don't know. But... maybe we should get back to the party before our parents think we've gone missing" he sounded troubled, and I saw him frown and look up at the spot where we'd seen a flash of red light.

"I agree" I said biting my lip, suddenly having a really bad feeling about this place.