First, Mr. Tidwell went out to rent a moving van. Something small and cheap that he could get right away.

The rest of us stayed behind and packed. There were more than enough containers in the back room to hold all the Yeerks and most of the liquid.

For the first time since the ship arrived on this planet, we shut off the life-giving Kandrona.

Gently, slowly, with our sleeves rolled up and pitchers sunk deep into the liquid, we scooped all 86 Yeerks out of the pool and placed them into the smaller tanks. Melissa helped too. Her parents said she didn't have to - we could all tell she was a little grossed out by the Yeerks' slimy slug-like bodies. But she was sweet enough to pretend it didn't bother her and volunteered anyway.

Only one Yeerk gave us any trouble. Every time I reached with my pitcher, they swam away. They absolutely refused to be caught. Tem groaned through my mouth. "Somehow, Akdor, I know that's you." But I got them eventually.

We moved faster after that, working together like an assembly line. We drained the pool. Unhooked the computer. Disassembled the Kandrona into parts easier to carry. And we began moving things out of the ship. Even with six human bodies, it took many trips to carry everything out of the woods and into the waiting van.

These woods were as familiar to me as the ship was. I'd lost count of the number of times I walked this path. I noticed a squirrel looking at me from a tree branch.

I stopped walking. I just stood there, holding a tank of Yeerks in my arms, staring back.

The squirrel hadn't moved. It was just watching me . . . Was that normal?

I wasn't really sure how long it took (Just a few seconds. Not that long. Right?) but the squirrel eventually broke off the staring contest. It scurried up the tree and I lost sight of it in the leaves. But I didn't relax.

Tem and I were both silent inside my head, but we were suddenly hyper-aware of a lot of animals in the forest. There were bird calls from somewhere nearby. A harmless little garter snake was slithering under a bush. Ants were digging out of the ground.

Our deadliest enemy could be any of them.

I never paid much attention to the wildlife in these woods, except to stay out of their way and occasionally check myself for ticks. I never had to think about what "normal" behavior looked like in animals. So would I be able to notice an impostor if I saw one? But even if I could, there were too many creatures here. It would be impossible to check every one of them. We were a parade of humans carrying Yeerks in crates. We were completely exposed. Exposed and surrounded by hundreds of eyes. What if they tried to follow us to the new hideout? Anything - literally anything - watching us could be-

I flinched when a hand touched my shoulder. It snapped Tem's and my attention away from the woods and back to my own body. We hadn't realized how fast my heart was pounding.

Eva looked up at me, keeping her hand on my shoulder. "You okay?"

I couldn't respond right away. Tem couldn't do it for me, either.

But of course, Eva seemed to know exactly what I was thinking. She probably had the same thoughts herself. "It's very unlikely they found the clearing this fast. The forest is so large, it's possible they'll never find the clearing at all. This move is just a precaution. Remember that."

"Yeah, I know," I said. I pulled away from her and resumed walking.

There was nothing Tem or I could do about all the wildlife except ignore it. So that's what we tried to do.

.

Tidwell had also brought pizza when he returned with the van. It felt appropriate to me, since we also had pizza the very first day I came to the ship. We took turns with our lunch breaks while the others kept moving. During my break, I borrowed Chapman's cell phone to call home.

"Listen, Mom. I don't really know if I'll be back in time for dinner or not. We're gonna be pretty busy for the rest of the day."

"Is it that Sharing club again?" she asked. "But you were just there last night."

"It's not that exactly. One of the members, Mr. Tidwell - he's also a teacher at my school, maybe you remember him - anyway, he's moving to a new house. It was supposed to be later this month. But he just found out someone made a mistake in his lease paperwork, so he has to be out of his old address by today. So The Sharing is pitching in to help him pack up and move."

I prepared this cover story and cleared it with Tidwell and the others. In the unlikely event my mom called my bluff, those responsible adults would confirm my story. There was no risk of being caught.

"They're making you help with that?" she asked incredulously.

"No one's 'making' me, Mom. It's just, he needed all the help he could get, and I want to help."

"Oh. Well, that's generous of you. I hope he appreciates it."

I chuckled. "He won't bump up my grades for this if that's what you mean. Nothing would ever make him do that."

I felt guilty about how easy it was to lie to her. There was never anything in my expression or tone that made either of my parents suspicious. I had a natural talent for acting that I never would have discovered if it wasn't for all these secrets I had to lie about.

"Anyway, I probably won't be home until after dark. If I miss dinner, I'll just grab something quick while I'm out."

"You know, Tom. Ever since you joined that club, it seems like you're always busy with some project. Remember to take some time for yourself and have a little fun, too."

"I'm fine, Mom." Another lie. "Don't worry . . . Hey, is Jake there?"

"He was at Cassie's earlier, but he just got home. He's upstairs with Marco now. Do you want to talk to him?"

I paused.

"No . . . No, that's fine. I'll see you later. Bye." I hung up.

.

We didn't expect to get everything out of the ship in one day, but we got more than I hoped. In the end, we spent hours carrying stuff through the woods to the moving van. We were deliberately waiting until it was closer to sunset before driving downtown.

When it finally did start start approaching dusk, we drove to the new hideout. Tidwell and Chapman drove the moving van, while the rest of us followed in Alison's car.

It was a very old building. And it was in an old area near the center of the town. There wasn't much activity here, but it was actually a great location. Not too far from any of our homes. I loved the spaceship hidden in the woods, but I was looking forward to an easier commute.

We took a back alley and got the moving van behind the building. We didn't have to worry much about human witnesses at this time of day. Besides, no one paid any attention to this building for a long time. The backdoor had an old, rusted padlock.

"Did anyone remember to bring bolt cutters?" Tidwell asked.

"I did." I took out my pocket-size Dracon beam.

TSEW! The broken padlock pieces fell to the pavement.

"It's cut," I announced.

Chapman went in first, holding a portable scanner. The rest of us were right behind him, looking around with flashlights.

The place seemed completely empty. No furniture or trash. Just a little dust. The air was stale. There were light switches and ceiling lamps, but the power was off. We found a bathroom but assumed the water was shut off as well. There was no sign that anyone had been here for ages. Chapman walked through each room and waved the scanner around to be absolutely sure.

"No Andalites. No human squatters. Not even rats," he announced. "The building's clear."

We went down to the basement. Also empty, and much darker. Chapman scanned the back wall, the green glow of the device illuminating his face.

"The entrance to the cavern is behind this wall. The drywall's thin, but it's solid. We'll need to break through it. Eva?"

Chapman stepped out of the way as Eva stepped forward and aimed with the full-size Dracon rifle.

FSHOOM!

She fired one shot, blasting a big hole in the wall. The drywall was thin and old, and it didn't take much at all to begin crumbling. Just a few shots later, and the entire wall was gone, revealing another wall behind it.

The new wall was a set of double doors. I went forward to touch it. It was so smooth and cold I couldn't tell if it was rock or metal. In the center where the doors met was a circular pattern with a few tiny red lights. I assumed it was some kind of locking mechanism. If it was also a symbol from some alien culture, Tem didn't recognize it.

"Here's what I don't get," Alison spoke up. "We're assuming they built the building on top of this without knowing it was here, right? But how on Earth could a construction crew dig out this basement and not notice it was right next to an ominous underground lair?"

"Perhaps the aliens who made the cavern were also the ones who built the building?" Eva suggested.

"Iniss and I each have another theory," Chapman said. "Iniss thinks nobody ever found the cavern because it was hidden by some type of psychic perception filter, which has since stopped working due to old age."

"And your theory?"

"People are just stupid."

I got out a handheld computer device. I was planning to try and hack into the lock mechanism to get it open, but I quickly realized it wasn't necessary. It wasn't locked. The cavern really was abandoned.

I pulled, and the doors slid open. Behind them were stairs leading down.

It wasn't a very long walk down. But it felt long, in the darkness. We only had our flashlights and the green shine of the scanner's screen. But once we reached the bottom, the room lit up. The light came from thin lines in strange shapes carved into the rock walls and ceiling. Motion activated, I supposed. It was only a dim light, but it was enough for us to see.

The cavern was large. Larger than the main computer room of our ship. Possibly larger than the ship itself. The walls weren't as smooth as the door. It looked like natural rock, except for the faint lights coming from within. There was also writing carved into the walls, in between the glowing hieroglyphics, but it was a language Tem didn't know. Chapman didn't recognize it from his pre-Yeerk alien encounters either. We would later learn that the language was too old for even our computer to translate. None of us had any idea what it meant or who wrote it.

Strangely, the air seemed less stale here. I don't know how that was possible with the entrance sealed off. The cavern looked ancient, but the aliens who made it used deceptively advanced techniques.

Chapman looked around the empty cavern. He turned to face us. "Well, this is it . . . Any thoughts?"

Alison walked along and said, "It's a little dark, but a few lamps will fix that right up. Some here, some here. Maybe one of those fancy UV lamps that imitate real sunlight. The Yeerks get artificial sunlight, why not the humans? We'll put the generator here. The computers will be against the walls. The pool will go right in the middle. Well, maybe not the middle. Maybe closer to the stairs. And speaking of the stairs, I'd love if we could cut down on all the walking. Maybe there's a way to convert it to a dropshaft? If we could, that'd make it real easy to bring down a nice sofa now that we have the room."

Tidwell chuckled. "We'd better set up the pool before Alison claims this space for herself."

.

Bringing all the equipment down the stairs wasn't a problem. We had a mag-lev tray that slid down the stairs like a dolly rolling down a ramp.

We set up the pool quickly. The original pool was built into the floor of the refugee ship, but the ship came with a spare that could be assembled outside for exactly this reason. It was a cheaply-made thing, but it snapped together easily, was about as big as the original, and didn't leak. Soon, the 86 Yeerks were swimming inside safely.

Then we reassembled the all-important Kandrona. Eva connected it to the pool, did a final safety check, and - as we all held our breath - switched it on . . . It worked perfectly.

Melissa looked confused at the others' relief. "Was there a chance it wouldn't?"

"Well, we did take it apart and put it back together for the first time," her mom answered. "You never know."

Eva examined the lights on the machine. "But the power cell is running. Connection is good. The liquid is receiving Kandrona rays. The new Yeerk pool is officially good to go."

"We still need to set up a computer terminal for them," Chapman said.

"I'll let Illim inside so he can update the others in person," Tidwell said with a smile. He paused when he saw my face. "What's wrong, Tom? You look almost disappointed."

They all turned to look at me. Tidwell was right; I wasn't smiling. I didn't feel good.

"It's just . . . I feel like we haven't accomplished anything," I said. "All we did today was find a new hiding spot - so we could run and hide. The Andalites are still somewhere in the woods. We have no way of finding them. And even if we could find them, we don't really have a way of stopping them. There's no Andalite ship we can send them home in. So . . ." I shrugged helplessly. "So how do we win?"

The whole group was silent. They looked mostly uncomfortable now.

Except Chapman. He was completely unworried. Or at least he acted like it. "We don't have to win. We just have to make sure we don't lose. As long as they can't find the pool, we're okay."

He looked around the group. "Look, I get it. We all panicked when we heard Andalites were here. I did too. We need to be careful, but we don't need to act like frightened rabbits. This isn't a full-scale alien invasion. It's a tiny group of guerrilla soldiers. And despite the horror stories we've heard, Andalites aren't some kind of invincible super-demons. They're just people who can change their shape, and they can be defeated."

Melissa cheered up. "Dad's right. Quantum Kindred could read minds, teleport, and put the entire town to sleep, and it still couldn't beat us. We can survive whatever a few shapeshifters throw at us."

"And think about it from their perspective," Alison spoke up. "They're stranded on an alien planet, alone, with no ship. If they know anything about humans, they know exposing themselves will cause a big panic. It's entirely possible they're not looking for us at all. They might just lie low and wait for reinforcements to come."

I looked at her expectantly. "And when they do come?"

"We may not have a way of stopping the Andalites now," Eva said. "But there are a lot of aliens out there who don't approve of what they're doing. If we're lucky, one of them will come to Earth first, and maybe they will have a way of stopping them."

"That's a big maybe," I said.

"We just have to accept that there's no instant solution here," Chapman said. "We're playing the long game. Now that the Kandrona is safe, we can afford to be patient and wait for an opportunity."

Despite everything all of them were saying, I still couldn't stop worrying. Neither could Tem. When our emotions were in sync, feeding each other, it was hard to break the loop and feel anything else.

"But the Andalites could still find this building. The Kandrona's not completely safe yet."

"We'll never be completely safe. No one ever is," Tidwell said darkly. "We can be hit by a bus, or get cancer, or struck by lightning. Tragedy can strike at any time, with or without aliens. We have no choice but to accept that and keep living our lives anyway."

At the sight of his sad expression, I didn't dare argue. Mr. Tidwell's wife died over a year ago. We all knew, but we tried not to bring it up.

Tidwell brightened up a little before continuing. "But we are safer than we were. It's a lot harder to notice anything suspicious about this building than to find an empty meadow in the middle of the woods. And we can use alien technology to secure the door's lock. It's not a hundred percent, but I think we'll be okay."

Less than 100 percent. Was that really enough, with 91 lives on the line?

I've always been a sore loser. It was hard for me to accept that there was no way to win anytime soon.

But Tem had grown up blind, deaf, and limbless. And he was much more patient than I was. He was more ready to admit there were certain things that just couldn't be done. [They're not wrong, Tom.]

I took a breath. "We don't have to win, we just have to make sure we don't lose . . . right?"

"We will win someday," Chapman said confidently. "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow -"

Alison suddenly spoke in a deep voice. "- But soon, and for the rest of your life!" That made Eva and Tidwell laugh a little. Even Chapman smirked.

Melissa looked up at me, confused. I shrugged. It wasn't a Yeerk joke.

.

We unloaded the rest of the moving van that evening, but we just left the equipment lying around in the cavern. Setting it up would take more time. We were all getting tired after the long day, especially the others. None of them were as athletic as I was (just saying).

We would come back tomorrow. We would get the computer and everything else up and running a little bit at a time. At some point, we would make a second trip to the old ship to get everything we left behind today. It would take a few more days before our new headquarters was finished.

But right now we had the pool, the Kandrona, and a lock for the door. That was the important thing. Everything else could wait.

Andalites were not nocturnal. They were supposed to spend their nights sleeping somewhere deep in the forest. Anxiety still ate away at my gut, but I had to believe that, even unguarded, the Yeerks in the pool would be safe at night.

Well, that building was a shorter commute from my home than the woods were. It would be easier for me to check on them more often. So there's that.

I got my bike out of the moving van and rode home. It was dark, but I made it to the suburbs and my house just fine.

Exhausted, physically and emotionally, I walked through the front door. "I'm home," I called.

Mom and Dad were watching TV there in the living room. "Hi, hon."

"Did I miss dinner?" I asked.

"I left a plate for you in the microwave," my mom said.

"Thanks." I was very thankful. All I had to eat before getting home was the last slice of cold pizza.

"You were out pretty late," my dad said, looking a little concerned. "Everything go okay?"

"Yeah," I answered as I walked past them. "Even with all of us working together, it took a while to pack and unload the truck," I said, refreshingly honest. "Mr. Tidwell's all settled in now, though." I'd use another cover story for going out tomorrow.

I went into the kitchen. Jake was there, doing homework at the table. He seemed better than he did this morning, but he didn't pay much attention to me as I entered the room. I awkwardly walked past him to the microwave.

[You shouldn't put this off,] Tem reminded me. I knew he was right.

A minute later, I brought my reheated food to the table, sitting across from my brother.

"Jake?" I said softly. He looked up at me. He didn't look upset; just normal. Still feeling awkward, I shrugged a shoulder. "I'm sorry I yelled earlier. And I'm sorry you didn't make the team like you wanted."

He nodded. "It's no big deal," he said. I didn't know if he meant the fight or not making the team.

Jake went back to reading his textbook, and I ate in silence.

A few minutes later, I spoke up again. "Hey, I'm kinda tired tonight. But sometime tomorrow, maybe we could shoot some hoops. Just you and me. One-on-one."

[Don't say it,] I told Tem, a second before he could joke about how it'd technically be two-on-one.

Jake blinked. Smiled. "Yeah?"

"Sure. Just 'cause neither of us are on a team, that doesn't mean we can't have fun playing with each other."

It had been a long time since we played a basketball game together. Jake smiled wider and nodded. "Okay, cool. Tomorrow then."

"Looking forward to it," I said in a rare moment of total honesty.

I took a deep breath - Tem and I, together - and for the first time in a full day, we relaxed.

The Andalites were still out there, looking for us. We'd have to stay on our guard indefinitely.

But just for tonight, Tem and I told each other to put it out of our minds. This house was our safe space. At that moment, here at home, in front of my little brother, I felt safe.

(IF ONLY I KNEW . . .)

.

A very, very long time from now . . .

I will be trapped. I will be tied with rope to a wooden chair. I'll be inside an old wooden shack; a depressing, half-fallen-down mess with log walls and a roof that only covers half the place. In the middle of the forest, miles away from anyone who could hear me. Miles away from the life-giving Kandrona.

Tem and I will panic. I'll struggle against the rope. I'll rock with my whole body, grunting with effort, desperate to escape. But the rope won't break. My wrists and legs will have no leeway at all.

I can't break free!

I'll look in front of me. My captor will stand there, looking down back at me.

My captor will look exactly like the same little brother I watched grow up - but not really. Jake's face was never used to make this expression before. He'll look down at me with absolute hatred.

"Three days, Yeerk. In three days you will die. Tick tock."

It won't be a bluff. He's going to kill us. And neither Tem nor I will have any idea how to stop him.

Author's Notes:

Reviewers: "Looking forward to the intro of the Animorphs!" "I hope Jake learns the truth!" "It'd be cool to have Jake part of the team!" "I hope the Animorphs meet the Yeerks and they become one big happy family!"

Me, who had a plan right from the start: *Looks directly at the camera*

I should apologize, but I'm just not sorry.

So, yeeaaaaah. The Animorphs are the bad guys in this story. But they won't get much screen time. They're the Yeerks' enemies in a behind-the-scenes, the Yeerks don't know who they are, kind of way. Kinda like canon. The original idea behind this story was to make a world where Tom never got traumatized. But it just wouldn't be an Animorphs story without a little trauma.

Narratively, it probably wasn't strictly necessary to give the Yeerks a new headquarters, but I just wanted one. Now their base is kinda like a small-scale version of the canon Yeerk pool, I guess.

I wanted to upload this chapter on the six-month anniversary of when I started . . . but that didn't work out. Six months and 14 chapters and I feel like I barely got started - and not in a good way. I have a lot of ideas for this fanfiction, but I'm not gonna obsess over it. I think I'll take a little break to avoid burnout.