Note: This story takes place after all the Animorph books. It acts as an ending.

Hi, my name’s Kay. No last name, or no address, or any of that stuff. Why? It’s not because of the Yeerks. They no longer pose a threat. It’s because I don’t want anyone to know who I really am, except the Animorphs. You see, my death was thought to be a tragic accident, and I want it to stay that way. "Death?" You’re probably thinking. That’s right, I’m dead. I’m a ghost. I only died a week ago. I stuck around to find out what was going to happen. I’ll be leaving soon, for Paradise, otherwise known as Heaven. As soon as I finish writing this, or typing rather.

I know what you’re thinking. Ghosts can type? Not exactly, but the Ellimist decided to give me the ability to type for a short period of time. Sort of like a present. He was in a good mood seeing as how the Yeerks were gone and all. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

This is my story. I’m kind of nervous about writing this, but I want the world to know what happened, even if they don’t know who it happened to.

It all started on the first day of school. I was new in town and I didn’t know anyone. Who’d thought I was about to embark on the greatest adventure of my life?

"Mom!" I yelled. "Where’s my brush?"

"On the coffee table. I’m leaving now. Bye!"

I ran down stairs. "What the hell is my brush doing on the coffee table?" I muttered.

After running around the house, getting everything I needed, I dashed out of the house and headed for school.

After first bell rang, I found my locker. There was a tall girl with shoulder-length blond hair. She had the locker next to my.

"Hi." I said.

"Hi."

"My name’s Kay."

"Rachel."

"Are you a junior too?"

Rachel nodded. "What homeroom do you have?"

I glanced at my schedule. "Miss Miller."

"Hey! Me too." She closed her locker door. "You done?"

I nodded.

"Then come on. I think the room is this way."

Rachel was right. We found the room without too much difficulty.

When we compared schedules, we found we had the same classes for 2^nd, 4^th, and 5^th period.

After 4^th period, we had lunch. Rachel invited me to eat with her and her friends, and I accepted.

"Hi, guys!" Rachel set her tray down on the table. I followed suit.

Rachel waved a hand at me. "This is Kay, she’s new here. This is my best friend Cassie, my cousin Jake, and his annoying best friend, Marco.

I smiled. "Hey."

"Hi."

"Hey."

"Nice to meet you."

I studied them. Cassie was African-American with short hair. It was hard to tell with her sitting down, but she looked pretty short. Jake was tall with brown hair, kinda serious-looking. You could tell just by looking at Marco that he was the class clown. Hispanic, sort of cute, but way to short for my taste.

We started eating, and for a few minutes there was only the sound of chewing. I thought maybe I should make some conversation.

"So, uh, do you guys know what the Sharing is?" I asked.

Rachel jerked her head up and stared at me. Marco, who was in the middle of a swig of soda, started coughing.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, fine. Just went down the wrong pipe."

"Anyways," I continued, "these guys in one of my classes asked me to join. Said it was really cool. Barbecues and stuff. In fact, they invited me to a barbecue this afternoon at the beach. I told them I’d think about it. Hey, are any of you in it?"

Jake shook his head slowly. "No, I don’t think it’s that great."

I shrugged. "Whatever."

After school, I was about to go home when I spotted Rachel.

"Hey, Rachel!" I called.

She turned around. "Kay, hi."

"Where are you going?"

"I’m taking a hike in the woods, with Cassie and the others."

"Oh, mind if I tag along?"

"Um, okay."

We meet up with everyone else in at the edge of the woods. They were kind of surprised to see me. We walked around for a while, it was pretty cool. Cassie pointed out some baby raccoons and we ohhed and ahhed over them.

We were about to enter a clearing when I heard the voice.

< Guys, watch out! There’s a few dozen Controllers two hundred yards ahead of you. Ax is keeping an eye on th…> The voice stopped.

"Did you guys just hear that voice in your head? It said something about controllers and an ax."

Rachel and the others stared at me.

"You heard that?" Jake asked, shocked.

"Yeah, did you hear it too?"

Jake let loose a few choice words.

"Now we’re dead!" Marco sighed. "Tobias just blew it. You’d think with those hawk eyes he’d have seen her and kept his big beak closed." Marco started to say something else.

"Shut up." Rachel snapped.

"What’s going on?" I asked.

Everyone looked at Jake.

Jake looked at Rachel. "Do you think she’s a Controller?"

Rachel chewed her lip thoughtfully. "No, If she was, she’d be at the Sharing barbecue."

"How do we know there’s a barbecue?" Marco demanded.

"There is." Jake told him. "Tom’s going."

"We need to check this out. Let’s just bring her with us." Cassie said.

"Hey, Tobias!" Rachel called. "It’s okay."

A bird flew down and landed on her shoulder.

"Sorry."

"Kay, this is Tobias." Rachel pointed to the bird. "Tobias, where’s Ax?"

< Keeping an eye, or rather, four eyes, on the Controllers. Follow me.> With that, he flew of.

Jake grabbed my arm and pulled me in the direction Tobias went. Soon, we were in the woods surrounding a small burned out area.

Tobias was perched on the branch of a tree. Standing beneath him was someone from out of this world. A half-horse, half-human alien covered with blue fur. Actually, the human parts weren’t so human. He had no mouth, just three vertical slits. Not to mention the extra eyes. He had two eyes where a human’s would be and two more on these stalks on top of his head. Creepy. And of course, the tail. It was like a scorpion’s, curved, sharp, and deadly.

He glared at me. < Prince Jake, who is she?>

"Don’t call me prince."

"Her name’s Kay. She’s a girl from school who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Kay, this is Ax. He’s an Andalite." Cassie explained.

< Are you sure she is not a Controller?>

"No." Cassie admitted.

"Right now we have a bigger problem to deal with." Jake interrupted. "What happened here?"

< Approximately half of your hours ago, an Andalite ship...crashed.>

"Whoa." Jake whispered.

"Let me guess," Marco gestured to the blacked area. "It blew up."

< Actually, first it knocked of the tops of a few trees, blew up a Bug Fighter, caught on fire, crashed through some trees, broke into a million pieces, and finally, one big piece blew up.> Tobias elaborated.

"And the Yeerks are here to get rid of the evidence."

< Exactomondo.>

"Well, then there’s nothing we can do. Let’s get out of here before we get caught."

< Not exactly. I’ve been listening to their conversations. The Yeerks think that some advanced Andalite technology might have survived the crash. Particularly the morphing technology.>

"If Visser Three gets his hands on that..." Rachel let it hang.

I didn’t know what they were talking about, but I got a really bad feeling about it.

"Okay." Jake said grimly. "We do wolves, spread out, and spy. If the Yeerks find anything interesting, give a call and we’ll get it from them. Avoid the Controllers as much as possible, but if you run into one, take him out as fast as you can. And Rachel, we’re not looking for a fight. Oh, and Tobias, could you fly cover?"

< Sure.> Tobias nodded and flew off.

Marco looked at Jake. "Should we morph in front of her?" he gestured towards me.

Jake shrugged. "She knows too much anyway. Doesn’t matter."

With that, Rachel, Marco, Jake, and Cassie began to change. Frankly, it was disgusting. A few minutes later, they were all wolves.

< Kay, stay here with Ax.> Jake directed. < Guys, let’s move.>

I didn’t know what to do, so I sat down. That’s when I saw it. A flash of sky blue behind a bush.

So I walked over and peered into the bush. I saw a small blue cube. I dug through the mass of thorns and picked it up. It was pretty heavy.

I turned around. "Hey, Ax..."

< Ahhhhhhh!> Ax’s scream cut me off.

There, in front of me were about ten alien creatures with blades all over their bodies. They were like seven feet tall and had snake-like heads. About a dozen were attacking Ax.

I’d like to say I stuck around to help Ax, but the truth is, I was so scared I couldn’t move.

All of a sudden, someone grabbed me from behind and pressed something sharp to my throat.

I let out a strangled cry.

That’s when Ax saw me. He was pretty surprised to see me.

The blade-covered aliens to the opportunity to grab Ax and pin him to the ground.

"Let me go!" I screamed.

< Quiet human, or I remove your head.> The voice was pure evil.

< Visser Three.> Ax hissed. He was addressing the thing holding me. I could hear the hate in his voice, but I could hear the fear too. Ax was scared. That didn’t exactly improve my confidence.

One of the blade-covered guys walked over, and Visser Three tossed me over to him. I finally got a look at our captor.

He was an Andalite. Or what looked like an Andalite.

That’s when I saw Tobias circling in the sky. < Hang on. They’re coming.>

Good.

Visser Three walked towards Ax. < You know, I believe this is quite familiar. You are Andalite scum. You should know the name of Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul.>

I saw Ax tense up.

< This is how he died.> Visser Three continued. < You will not be so lucky. I want to know where the rest of your little band is. And what I want, I get.> He laughed.

At that precise moment, Tobias dove down like a bullet and slashed the thing holding me with his talons. I pulled away.

Four wolves jumped on Visser Three and the other aliens.

I froze.

< Give me the cube!> Ax was standing beside me.

I gave it to him.

< Now, press your hand against the side.>

"Why?"

< Visser Three must not know you are human or he will find you and infest you. He must think you are an Andalite.>

"How do we do that?"

< You must morph me.>

"What!?"

< Just press your hand against the cube!>

I did. A slight tingly feeling flowed through me.

Ax took my hand. < Hurry, acquire me.>

"Huh?"

< Focus on becoming me. On my DNA becoming a part of you.>

Okay. I did that and Ax relaxed a notch.

< My DNA is now part of you.> Ax said. < You can morph me. Just concentrate on becoming me.>

I shut my eyes tightly. I thought about that weird fur, the dangerous tail, and the stalk eyes. I felt my body change. My leg muscles grew stronger, my arms got weaker, and my body was covered with fur. As I grew, my shorts ripped, but I was too busy to pay attention. Then the two extra legs grew in.

< Ahhhhhhh!> I yelled. That’s when I noticed I didn’t have a mouth anymore. However, I could send thoughts. Cool.

I felt me spine stretch, and I saw my tail grow out. Not a pretty sight.

Finally, the last change came. Two stalk-eyes sprouted from the top of my head. My eyesight was amazing. Being able to see all around you is pretty neat. It’s like if you were walking around with only one eye open, and then you opened the other eye, you get a bigger view.

Now, let me tell you something. I have glasses. When I morphed, or whatever, me glasses nearly fell off so I had to hold them in my hand.

< Come on, we must help them.>

I looked over and assessed the situation. Four wolves against a dozen deadly aliens. Actually, there were only eight that were still conscious.

I trotted over. One of the aliens tried to cut me. I ducked and swung my tail. I hit him in the neck. I was really beginning to like this tail.

< More Hork-Bajir coming!> Tobias yelled.

What were Hork-Bajir? Then I saw them crashing through the trees. The blade-covere aliens. So that’s what they were.

< Let’s get out of here!> Jake yelled.

Rachel looked at me, then at Ax. She jumped, fangs glistening.

< Rachel! It’s me!>

I think I saw her wolf eyes widen. < Kay?!>

< Who else?>

< Run!>

We ran.

As we ran, I saw two wolves grab backpacks in their teeth.

We ran for maybe an hour. During the first half we were constantly being shot at. We eventually out-ran them.

Finally, we stopped. The others started changing.

< Where are we?> I asked.

< In the woods behind Cassie’s farm. Now demorph.>

< How do I do that?>

< Um, just focus on your human body.>

< Okay.> I focused on becoming human again. Halfway through, Cassie stopped me.

"Do you know how to morph clothes?"

< What?>

"What happened to your shorts?"

I looked down. I was still wearing my T-shirt. < They ripped.> I said embarrassed.

Cassie nodded. "Guys, turn around. You too, Ax."

They turned obediently and I finished demorphing.

I stood behind a bush while Cassie ran to her house to get me a pair of shorts.

Five minutes later, she returned with a pair of too tight bike shorts.

After I put them on, we went to Cassie’s barn.

I sat down on a bale of hay "Someone please tell me what’s going on."

Everyone looked at Jake expectantly.

He threw up his hands. "Why me?"

"Cause you’re our Great and Fearless Leader." Marco grinned.

"Jake..." Rachel started to say something but stopped.

"What is it?"

"After what happened with David... I just don’t know." Rachel looked like she was going to cry. "I just don’t feel like I can trust anyone anymore."

Cassie gave Rachel a hug. "Just don’t think about that."

"Who’s David?" I asked.

"A guy we trusted. A guy we let into our group. A guy we gave the power to morph to, and he tried to kill us." Jake suddenly looked years older.

"You...you don’t think I would do that, do you?"

"I don’t know. We’ve all gotten used to being suspicious of everyone. It’s hard to trust someone again." Jake’s voice became bitter. "Especially when the last person we trusted betrayed us."

"How do you know we can trust her, Jake?" Marco asked.

"That’s just it. We don’t know."

"We can’t take any chances after what happened last time." Rachel said angrily.

"Rachel..." Cassie said softly. "Just because something doesn’t work out, doesn’t me you stop trying. You get more careful. You get wiser, but you don’t stop trying."

"Isn’t that what you said to Ax?" Rachel asked.

"Yes. And now I’m saying it to you. There aren’t that many Davids in this world. What are the chances of us coming across two."

"Why should we risk it?" Rachel glowered.

"Forget this." I snapped. "Don’t tell me anything. I’m leaving."

"Hey, you can’t go." Rachel jumped up.

"Why not? It’s a free country." I sighed. "Look, if you don’t want to tell me anything, I understand. It’s your secret. I’m not going to tell anyone what happened whether you tell me the truth or not. Either way, you have to trust me. If you tell me what happened, I might be able to help you."

"You want to be an Animorph?" Marco asked.

"I probably don’t know what I’m getting into, but yeah."

"We are stopping an alien invasion of Earth. And all we have on our side is the power to morph." Jake briefly explained.

Rachel looked at me suspiciously. "How come you could morph?"

"That is my fault, fault, fa, ault." Ax looked embarrassed. "I gave her the power to morph."

"Why?"

"The Yeerks had seen her. They knew she was human. They would hunt her down, find her, and infest her. She knew our secret, we could not afford that. However, if they saw her morph into Andalite form, they would assume she was demorphing. If they thought she was an ‘Andalite bandit’, they would not bother to look for a human."

"I see." Jake sighed. "Well, that settles one thing. Now, we know she can’t be a Controller because she had a million chances to help the Yeerks, and she didn’t. In fact, she helped us."

"So did David," Rachel countered, "for a while. Then he decided killing us was more fun."

"What did you do? Kill him?"

"No, we...we trapped him in a morph." Rachel looked away.

"What?"

"There’s a two hour limit to morphing. Once you’re over, you’re stuck, forever. You can’t return to human form." Cassie explained.

"Uh, guys. Can we get back on track?"

"Yes, oh fearless leader."

Jake looked at me. "Kay, we are dealing with dangerous creatures here. You could get hurt. Are you sure you want to be an Animorph?"

"Those aliens, that’s who you’re fighting?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I don’t like them. I’d be glad to have another chance to kick their ass. Besides, who doesn’t want to save the world."

Marco laughed. "First, Xena, now, Gabrielle."

"We have to decide whether or not we’re going to have a new Animorph." Jake said calmly.

"Okay, everyone who thinks Kay should join the Animorphs, raise your hand."

Cassie’s hand went up, then Jake’s and Ax’s. Tobias flared his wing.

Marco shrugged. "Can’t let you guys have all the fun." He raised his hand.

"Rachel?" Jake looked at her questionably.

She nodded slowly. "I trust you Jake."

"All right!" Marco stuck out his hand. "Kay, welcome to the Animorphs."

"You guys still have a lot of explaining to do."

"Tell her, Jake. Everything." Cassie voice was soft.

"It all started when Marco, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, and I decided to cut through this abandoned construction site." Jake began. "A space ship landed there. Inside was an alien, an Andalite Prince. His name was Elfangor. He gave us the power to morph. To acquire the DNA of any animal we can touch. He also warned us about the Yeerks. Yeerks are these parasitic alien slugs who can crawl into your brain and take over your body. They have complete control over you. That’s who we were fighting back there. Yeerks." From the tone of his voice I could tell he really hated the Yeerks.

They proceeded to tell me everything that had happened to them. (Though Marco made a big fuss over letting me know who his mom is).

We were talking about what had just happened in the woods.

"Jake, I just though of something." Rachel’s voice was serious. "Why was that ship here?"

"What do you mean?"

"The Andalites haven’t been here for over two years Jake. And now, all of a sudden, a ship shows up and crashes. Why was it here?"

Jake shook his head slowly. "I don’t know. Maybe they finally came to help us."

"I do not think so Prince Jake. Jaaa, ke, ke." Ax said. "If there is a battle happening, pening, ing, ing, sorry, Visser Three would have been aboard his Blade Ship. Ship, shhuup."

"Then why?" Cassie asked.

"There is one possibility." Ax said tentatively.

"What?" We all asked at once.

"It was a Scout Ship. Sent here to assess the Yeerk situation."

"But it was destroyed!" I cried.

"If the military receives no data, they will assume the worst. They will think Earth is lost. They...they will not come."

I let it sink in. The Andalites weren’t coming. No one was going to save us. There was no hope. The Yeerks had won.

We all just sat there, in silence. Each thinking their own thoughts.

"No!" Rachel jumped up. "We’re not giving up."

"You heard Ax said, Xena." Marco threw up his hands. "It’s over."

"It’s not over until we give up! You were the one who said it, Marco. Fall down seven times and get up eight." Rachel glowered at him.

< I agree with Rachel.> Tobias said. < We still have a chance. The day we give up is the day the Yeerks win.>

"I don’t know what the odds are against us," I began, "but I do know that to be human is to be free. That’s the essence of our lives. Freedom. We never have and never will give up our freedom. We’d rather die than give up our freedom."

"Nice speech." Marco said sarcastically.

"Shut up, Marco." Rachel snapped

< She is right.> Ax said. < I have noticed that your worst wars were over freedom.>

"That’s all very nice, but the bottom line is, we’re going to lose. I’d rather enjoy my last days." Marco said angrily.

Cassie had a fierce look in her eyes. "Are you that selfish, Marco? Will you be able to live with yourself when the day comes that Earth is dead and you think, ‘I might have prevented all this if only I tried.’ What would you do then, huh?"

Marco was silent.

"Come on guys." Jake stood up. "We’ve all had a bad day. Let’s just go home."

We all started to leave.

"Sorry, guys." Marco apologized. "You’re right. I shouldn’t have said those things. I’m with you all the way."

"Good." Rachel gave him a sly smile. "Cause if you didn’t, I would have morphed my elephant and stomped you."