Marco didn't seem to be doing well, ever since they'd been presented to Visser One by Visser Three. Ever since she'd left, in fact. He didn't know just what it was that was bothering Marco – Jake seemed to know, but he wasn't saying anything – but Tommy stayed as close to him as the other boy would allow. Especially after they were all moved to another cell, and Marco tried to curl up in a corner.

(What's our time look like, Ax?) Jake asked.

Having settled down next to him, so Marco could lean against him and feel at least a little better about whatever was affecting him, Tommy glanced over at the pair of them.

(You have only thirty percent of your time left,) Ax reported.

(Thirty-six minutes,) he said, sighing softly.

For a few minutes, all of them fell into a discussion of how to make their last stand, but it was really more idle talk than anything. At least until Marco suggested that they could morph into ants, and Ax confirmed that none of the Yeerks were familiar enough with either Earth's diverse array of animals or how the Andalites' morphing technology worked to expect that kind of strategy. Before any of them could even start to demorph, however, a door suddenly appeared in the wall of their cell and a huge Hork-Bajir loomed up into the space that had been revealed.

This one was wearing a gold uniform, which combined with the four other Hork-Bajir – these ones wearing red uniforms – collapsed on the floor, let Tommy know that there was something going on behind all of this.

After they'd been given instructions on how to escape their imprisonment – something that he and Ax had both figured was Visser One's way of trying to discredit Visser Three – he, Jake, and the rest of their fellow Animorphs all pelted down the hallway, Rachel in the lead. Her huge elephant morph helped to clear the hallway in front of them, but a downside of being so big was that she couldn't turn around.

(Keep going!) he shouted, slashing the face of a nearby red-uniformed Hork-Bajir – all of the ones they were fighting were in red, which made sense since Visser Three would obviously be trying as hard as he could to stop them from escaping – and quickly moving on down the hallway.

The only one who couldn't really participate in the battle was Tobias, since without a real way to get altitude, he couldn't strike from the sky the way he usually did. As they all continued on their way down the hall, Rachel yelled in surprise as she managed to find the dropshaft. The thought of an elevator without a floor was fairly strange, but then this was an alien space ship, so Tommy figured he shouldn't make too much of it.

Once they'd all managed to make it to the escape pods, Tommy allowed himself to relax while Rachel demorphed and the rest of them all climbed onto the escape pod. Marco seemed to have recovered, at least a little bit, so while Tommy still kept an eye on him, he didn't think there was anything he could do that Jake wasn't already doing.

He was happy about that, at least.