This story was 3-4 months in the making. I started it in late September/Early October '98. I would appreciate any and all feedback. Since I'm striving to make this the best story I've ever written, it may go through a few re-writes as people give me more feedback.

Warning:This is a very dark piece, especially the begining. If you're offended by the death of your fav characters, you may want to avoid this story. The rest of you, enjoy!!!

Chapter 1

I looked back behind me. Were they still there? Where's Cassie?

"Cassie?" I yelled, "CASSIE!"

"AHHHHHHHH!" I stopped running when I heard the scream. I turned all the way around. And I saw one of the worst sights I'd ever seen in my years as an Animorphs. The huge Hork-Bajir had Cassie. And who was standing beside him? None other than Visser Three.

< Ah. Cassie, isn't it? > Visser Three said.

I was frozen with fear. They couldn't take Cassie! I'd lost too many people already, Jake, Marco, my entire family...Tobias. I was not about to add my best friend to that list.

Then I noticed Cassie was trying to tell me something. She was mouthing something to me. Something like, "Run, Rachel, Don't let them catch you. I'll be okay."

I wiped tears from my eyes and nodded. I had to get out of there before Visser Three or the Hork-Bajir came after me. I whispered goodbye to Cassie and flat out ran, crying silently. I had lost everyone.

The next day, I found myself back in Tobias' old territory. I'd been wandering around for the last day, switching between crying relentlessly and staring off into space. I was always moving, I didn't dare stay still and have the yeerks find me. For all I knew, I was the last free human on Earth. The yeerks had been openly attacking Earth for almost a year now. And every day of that year, we had been fighting them, trying to stop them. But, one by one, we were captured.

First they took Jake. From Jake, they got Marco. They got Ax, too. Then, when we were attacking the yeerk pool once, trying to free Jake or Marco or Ax. They...they got Tobias. At least he wasn't a controller, I could rest easy knowning that. He'd been shot down by a dracon beam. Every day since then, I'd replayed the last conversation we'd had in my head.

The flash of a dracon beam lanced out in front of me.

I swiped my huge bear claw at the Hork-Bajir who had fired, knocking him out, but just barely. I was weakening.

< AHHHHHHHHHHH!!! > Tobias!

I looked to where the dracon beam was pointed, and I saw Tobias fall, his left wing singed off.

< TOBIAS!!! > I screamed, and lumbered over to him. I picked him up in my clumsy bear claws, < Tobias! >

< Rachel... > he moaned weakly.

< Come on, Tobias! Hold on! Don't give up! I'll get you out of here, just hold on! >

< I'll...I'll try...Rachel... >

< Cassie! Come on, we're not going to win this one, retreat! > I watched as Cassie, in wolf morph, deftly dodged the paw of a tiger. The former leader of the Animorphs, Jake. My cousin. Marco's best friend. Cassie's boy friend.

< Ha ha ha. Did your little bird friend get hurt? > Marco's thought speak voice thundered in my head. The anger I used to feel when I heard Visser Three's thought speak voice was nothing compared to the anger I felt when I heard Marco's or Jake's.

I gently carried Tobias out of the hell hole known as the yeerk pool, cradling him in my one good arm. Cassie was covering my back.

As soon as we were a relatively safe distance from the pool, Cassie and I demorphed.

"Tobias, hold on. Do NOT die on me!" I yelled. Then, suddenly, an idea! "Tobias! Morph! Morph now! Morph anything! Just do it!"

< Rachel...I...I've tried...I can't. Just too tired. So tired. Must...must sleep. >

"NO!!!" I picked Tobias up and held him directly in front of my face, "You are NOT going to sleep. Sleep now and you never wake up!"

< I'm...I...Rachel, It's...it's time, I think...I...I love you. >

I gently laid Tobias back on the ground, tears flowing down my cheeks, "I loved you too, Tobias. Please, go to a place where there won't be any yeerks to fight. Go to a place where there isn't any hurting. And remember, wherever you go, I love you."

I suddenly looked up. I'd been sitting on a rotting log, resting from all the running I'd done the past day. I had the feeling I was being watched. I crouched down behind the log, trying to hide from whoever-or whatever-was watching me. Of course, I could just be really paranoid. I've become an expert at paranoia lately. Marco would've been proud.

Speaking of Marco...please don't tell me that's a gorilla over there! I thought to myself. Unfortunatly, it was. Marco, or Marco the Controller I should say, had been hiding in the shadows of the forest in gorilla morph while I had been resting.

< Heh heh heh. I see you've found your way back to your bird friend's meadow. Still in mourning, Xena? >

I felt a pang of pain in my heart. As much as the nick name had annoyed me, it burned me up inside to hear the name coming from that yeerk.

I started to morph grizzly bear. If I was going down, I would go down with a fight.

< That bear won't do any good here, Xena, > the yeerk mocked in my head, < I have hundreds of Hork-Bajir warriors surrounding you as we speak. >

< Go ahead and call them, > I said defiantly. < I don't really care. >

Suddenly, the gorilla started going into convulsions. Was Marco rebelling? The real Marco?

< Rachel!...He...Bluff...Attack...end...cycle... > Then, suddenly, the yeerk was back in control again.

I felt a renwed strength inside. The real Marco had broken through! What had he said? Bluff? Could he mean that the yeerk was bluffing? I looked around with my pathetic bear vision. I couldn't see anything but shadows. But were those shadows from the trees, or Hork-Bajir warriors? I tried my keen bear sense of smell, the only scents were those from me when I had been human, various wild animals, and the gorilla. End cycle? what had that meant? Could it be the yeerk was at the end of it's feeding cycle and that's how Marco had gotten through to me?

No time to wonder, I had to guess. So, without warning, I lunged at the gorilla that had once been my friend Marco.

The yeerk must have still been trying to control Marco. I had knocked him senseless easily. I half carried, half dragged the huge gorilla to a delapidated shack way back in the middle of no where in the woods. I hadn't been back there since Tobias had died, but it was where Tobias, Cassie and I used to sleep and such. There was rope and food and an old dracon beam that hardly ever worked back there. What I was going to attempt to do was practically impossible, especially since there wasn't anybody there to help me, but I was going to try and starve this yeerk.

As soon as I had the yeerk securely bound with the rope-a special knot Cassie, Tobias and I had devised that was practically break-proof, I couldn't break out of it as a grizzly bear, there was absolutly no way the gorilla would be able to break out. But, just to be safe, I demorphed, and aimed the dracon beam at him before I hit him a couple times in the face to wake him up. This yeerk wasn't a dumb yeerk, although it didn't know that the dracon beam probably wouldn't work, it knew that when you have somebody threatening to shoot you with a dracon beam, you stay very, very still.

"Okay, yeerk, here's the deal. You're going to demorph now, or you're going bye-bye, comprende?"

He understood, he immediatly started to demorph. He didn't want to get shot with a dracon beam, and he probably didn't want to risk getting trapped in morph. Fortunatly, rope was tied in such a way that it stayed tight around Marco's wrists.

"What do you hope to do, Rachel? Starve me? You don't know how long it's going to take me to die. For all you know, I just got back from the yeerk pool and it'll take me three days. And I'm sure you don't want to stay in one place that long," 'Marco' said once he had demorphed.

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong, yeerk," I countered, "From your momentary lapse in control back there in the forest, I gathered from Marco, the real Marco, that you're at the end of your feeding cycle. So I'm guessing that you're gonna be gone in a few hours."

Judging from the dark rage on his face, I had guessed correctly. He started squirming where he was sitting, trying to slip out of the rope.

"It won't do any good to do that, so save your strength," I said, while opening a can of pineapples to eat, "Cassie and I perfected that knot a long time ago. I can't even get out of it in grizzly bear morph." I sat down beside him and offered him a spoonful of pineapples, he declined. I shrugged and ate all the fruit as fast as I could. I hadn't eaten in three days, I was ravenous.

The yeerk spent the next four hours trying to get out of the rope. He tried everything, from morphing back to gorilla to force the knots off, to wolf trying to chew his way through the rope.

Finally, after four hours of struggling. The fugue began.

It was horrible to watch. Marco's face kept contorting into different looks of pain, and all I could do was hold his hand and assure him he'd get through it.

Finally, after an hour, it was over, and the yeerk crawled out of Marco's ear and fell onto the dusty floor of the shack. After a minute, you couldn't tell where the dust of the yeerk had been from the rest of the dirt.

Marco, now fully in control of himself, just sat on the floor of the shack and kind of silently cried. I sat next to him and cried with him.

Finally, after sitting like that for nearly half an hour, I wiped away my tears, and tried to get Marco to talk.

"Hey, Marco. It's good to see you again."

"It's...It's...good. Good-duh to see you too. Tooooooooooo, Xena. Zzzzzeeenaaaa." He stuttered when he talked, trying to get used to having control over his self again. Then he laughed a very weak laugh, "I sound like Axxx."

I laughed, "Good to see you can still call me Xena."

He smiled this sad, far off smile. He might still be able to call me Xena once in awhile, but he'd never be the same.

"Hey, do you think you could get these ropes off me?"

I giggled hysterically, "Oh, my gosh. I'm sorry, I forgot about them." With a few deft movements of my hands, I'd removed the course rope from Marco's arms and legs.

Marco rubbed his wrists, "You and Cassie created that knot?"

I looked away, "T--Tobias. Tobias helped, too."

Marco gave me a sort of awkward hug, consoling me. Everyone in the group knew the me and Tobias were close. Just like we all knew Cassie and Jake had liked eachother even before we started fighting the yeerks.

"So, Xena. What are we going to do now? Where's Cassie?"

"You mean you don't know?"

"Know what?"

"Yesterday...yesterday Visser Three and this monsterously huge Hork-Bajir...well...they were chasing us and..." I started sobbing.

Marco patted my shoulder, "It's okay. It's okay. We've both seen our share of horror. You don't need to talk about it. I get the picture." He paused for a moment, "But, what are we going to do?"

"Why're you asking me?"

"Well, you've been in the good guy side of this fight for longer than I have. I'm not any good at this leadership stuff."

"I don't know what to do!" I cried out, "I just want to dig a hole in the ground, crawl in and die. I'm in absolutly no shape to lead anybody. Not even myself."

"That's where you're wrong, Rachel," Marco told me gently, "You are in great shape. Maybe you need a little rest, but you have been an awesome leader. After...after they took Jake, you became our leader. And you did a fantastic job while I was with you guys. And from what I saw through my eyes when I was a controller, you were an awesome leader to Tobias and Cassie and Ax. And I can't think of anybody else who would have been strong enough to take me here and kill that yeerk."

"Yeah. You do. Any of the others would have been able to. But because I was too weak to stand up to the yeerks, they're all gone!"

"Rachel!" Marco yelled at me, taking my face in his hands, "You did all that you could! Remember the night they took me?" I nodded, "Nobody could have stopped that. We were covered on all sides. The same thing on the night when Jake was taken."

"And how about with Tobias?"

"Nobody could have stopped that either. I didn't see all of it, but I did see the Hork-Bajir fire the dracon beam, and I did see you take him out after he fired it. Tobias was trying to get away from the beam but he couldn't."

"I could have saved Cassie. I could have taken Visser Three and that Hork-Bajir. It would have been no problem."

"I seriously doubt that, Rachel. I know the hork you're talking about. I think that even Visser Three is afraid of him. That guy is practically invincible. You would have been pulverized if you had gotten in a fight with both him and Visser Three. Besides, you wouldn't have been around to save the cute, lovable me." He grinned at me.

I shoved him playfully, "You know, you haven't changed much. You're still annoying."

He grinned at me, "Yep."

I stood up and looked down on him. "And short."

He pretended to fall back as if I had punched him or something, "Augh! She got me again!"

I laughed, "I'm glad you're back, Marco."

"I'm glad I'm back, too."

"Now, you're probably hungry, so, help yourself to a can of food, and then let's go see about saving some of our friends."

Chapter 2

We spent the night in the shack. Under thread bare blankets. But that's not the worst part, it ended up raining that night. We woke up in the morning tired, cranky, and wet. Not a good combination.

Marco seemed kind of shocked when he woke up. It was the first time in months he'd been able to open his own eyes.

"What's for breakfest?" He asked crankily when we were both up. We were both wearing our morphing suits, although his was much better than mine was. I was wearing a black unitard that was in shreds. It had been turned into a midriff to and shorts from having pieces ripped from it to serve as bandages. Marco's, on the other hand, was a pair of tight black spandex pants with a black T-shirt. If he hadn't been so tired, he probably would have made some crack about us finally getting uniforms.

"Well, when me and Cassie stayed here, we usually split a can of something or cooked a packet of oatmeal. We did't know how long we had to make this stuff last, so we ate as little of it as possible. There's also a blueberry bush and raspberry bush outside where we can pick some berries."

He nodded and walked outside. Five minutes later, he returned with an old plastic sand bucket filled with blueberries and raspberries. I took hot water off a fire I had started in an old stove and poured it over two chipped bowls with oatmeal in them. We each poured berries over our plain oatmeal, sat down on the floor and ate in silence for a few minutes.

"So, where do you think they would have taken Cassie?" I asked.

"It depends on how high ranking the yeerk they give her is. I was given Visser 10 when I was first infested, but Jake was given Visser 6, and Ax was given Visser 4."

"But we can assume she was given a Visser?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"Let's just say she was given, oh, Visser 5. Where would she be taken?"

Marco thought for a second, "High ranking Visser's like that would probably still be down at the yeerk pool. Or maybe meeting with Visser Three on his blade ship."

"Do you know why he was never promoted? He's done a pretty good job at capturing his "Andalite Bandits", shouldn't he be promoted?"

"He doesn't want to leave Earth," Marco explained, "If he's promoted, Earth goes to the new Visser Three. He wants to hunt down each and every one of us before he leaves."

"So he's made his fight with us personal?"

"Yep."

We ate in silence for a few more minutes, "What if she was given a lower ranking Visser?"

"My guess would be she'd be down at the yeerk pool. Wait!" He suddenly shouted, "There's this huge room that was built off to the side of the yeerk pool, it's where I was taken when I was first infested. The yeerk's given the oportunity to try out morphing. I was there for three days, untill my yeerk had to regenerate."

I shuddered, "So, I guess if we want our friends back, we have to go back to the yeerk pool."

We spent the morning planing our attack. We didn't want to travel there in bird morph, or anything conspicuous like that. According to Marco, the yeerks have been steadily killing off any animals not necesary to the survival of humans.

"So, what, flies?" I asked after a morning of planning.

Marco nodded, "Yep. But we'll have to be careful not to get too near anybody. I'm not exactly sure how many flies are left but..."

"Not many," I cut in, "I don't remember the last time I saw a fly."

"Okay then. Shall we go?"

I grinned my slightly insane grin. I hadn't felt like smiling in ages, "Let's do it!"

Chapter 3

Neither of us had morphed fly in awhile. It took a minute for the changes to begin. But once they did, I started to morph rapidly. First my skin got hard and plastic like and turned gray. Before I had even started to shrink, my mouth suddenly burst out into the complicated mouth parts of the fly. Only after that did I start to shrink and grow the extra legs.

Once both of us were morphed, we took off.

< Umm, Marco. One quick question here. Where are we going? I'm in the lead and I don't know where we're going. >

Marco laughed, < Oops, kinda forgot that. Umm, we should be able to get in at the old middle school. You know, that place we went when we first got our morphing powers? >

I thought back through all the memories I've made since becoming an Animorph, < Oh, yeah. They re-opened that entrance? >

< Yeah. They were running short on places for putting entrances to the underground yeerk pool, and they've only just started builing an above ground one. >

< Where's the above ground pool going to be? >

Marco was silent.

< Marco, where's the pool going to be? >

< The woods aren't going to be safe for you to hide in anymore. They're gonna use the open fields around Cassie's old place, and knock down most of the forest. They know the woods would be the only safe place for any free Animorphs. >

I was quiet for a minute, < Well, then. Let's go kick these slimy slug's butt. >

It took most of the day to get to the pool. We had to guess when it had been an hour and a half so we could find a place to demorph, which is no easy task when you have a fly's compound eyes. But, we made it to the school and down into the yeerk pool. It was almost midnight, but we were there. And perhaps it's better that we came late, less yeerks would be there to resist us.

We flew down the long staircase leading to the yeerk pool in silence. After almost ten minutes of flying we made it to the end of the stairs.

< Okay. We've been in morph for probably an hour and fifteen minutes, > I said,

< Which way to this training room? >

< Ummm...fly to the right. There'll be a large door, but you'll probably barely be able to recognize it with these lame eyes. Man, I'd forgotten how lame fly eyes are. Anyway, once we get to the door, unless we're lucky enough to get there at the same time a controller is going in there, we're going to have to walk under the door. >

It took another five minutes of aimless flying to find the door Marco was talking about. But we did find it, and we had to walk under a door with an area only about the width of a nickle to get through.

< Okay, now what? > I asked once we were in. < Where can we demorph at? >

< Fly straight up to the ceiling. Once you're there, fly left untill you hit a wall, then land on the floor, but it's not really a floor. It's a storage container for something that has an open top. >

I flew as fast as I could to the ceiling and then to the storage container. We had very little morph time left. As soon as I felt my fly legs hit the dirt floor of the storage container I started to demorph, Marco was right behind me.

Once I was completly human, I pressed my ear up against the wood slat wall to hear what was going on in the room. I only heard the slow, regular breathing of a person asleep. I assumed it was Cassie. Well, Cassie's body anyway.

"I hear her sleeping," I whispered to Marco. "Do we just bust in here, take her away, and hold her for a day or two?"

"We should probably be a bit more subtle than that," Marco whispered back. Suddenly, we heard a soft hum, "Quiet!" He whispered urgently, "Somebody's coming in!"

We both strained to hear the conversation that was going on in the room, it wasn't too hard though. Considering neither Cassie or the newcommer were being too careful to be quiet.

"Get up," The newcomer growled. It's was a he. And his voice was familiar.

Cassie yawned, "It's the middle of the night, Visser Four."

"That's of no consequence. That pig Visser Three wants to see you." It was Jake! I hadn't heard him talk in so long I had actually forgotten what his voice sounded like!

"It's Jake!" I told Marco. He nodded grimly. "C'mon, let's do something."

Marco shook his head no.

"Hurry up!" Jake/Visser Four hissed. "I need to get back in the pool, but Visser Three will remove my head from my shoulders if I come out of here with out you."

I looked at Marco. We could capture both of them and have most of the Animorphs free! He nodded, and I began to morph.

Chapter 4

The familiar shaggy brown fur sprouted all over my body, and I began to grow taller at a shocking speed. My fingernails, short, rough and ragged, turned black and grew into the claws of the grizzly bear. My sight grew weaker as my sense of smell grew stronger. Before I knew it, I was a full grown grizzly bear standing in a cramped box with a gorilla beside her.

< Let's do it! > I shouted, and busted out through the wall of the storage container.

Both Cassie and Jake freezed. Actually, the yeerks in their heads were startled by suddenly having a full grown grizzly bear and a gorilla burst out of a storage container in their secret room.

"Rachel!" Cassie hissed. "And...Marco too?"

I didn't bother to explain it to her, I tapped her lightly on the back of the head and she was out cold. Of course, the tap was light by bear standards, by human standards, it was like getting hit in the head with a wrench. I threw her over my shoulder, Marco did the same with Jake.

< Let's get out of here! > Marco shouted, loping towards the door.

< Right behind ya'! >

We quickly ran out the door of the room and headed for the stairs out of the yeerk pool at top speed. We were halfway up the stairs before the controllers had a chance to react.

Once the controllers had a chance to react to us storming out of the training room with two high ranking visser's over our shoulders, they started shooting.

I was nearly hit twice by Hork-Bajir who had run to catch up with us, when suddenly he appeared in front of us.

No, it wasn't Visser Three, it was another Andalite I knew well.

Aximili-Esgarouth-Isthill, other wise known as Ax.

< Ax! > I shouted in surprise.

< Ah, Rachel. Marco. Good to see you again. And, as much as I'd like to stay here and chat with you, I'm going to have to request you put down Vissers Four and Five and come with me. >

From behind me, I heard the sound of a dracon beam firing. The world seemed to be going in slow motion for a second. I quickly stepped to the side to get out of the dracon beam's way. I saw the dracon beam light up the dim passage way. I sliced through the air right between Marco and I and hit Ax right in the chest.

By some miracle, Ax was only stunned by the blast. I quickly picked him up too and carried him in my arms out of the yeerk pool.

< Y'know something Rachel? > Marco said as we made our escape from the yeerk pool, < This is absolutly insane! >

< Insane? > I asked, confused. < We've just saved every surviving Animorph! >

< You didn't let me finish. I meant insane in a good way. I mean, we came with the insane idea that we'd just be able to walk out of the yeerk pool with Cassie, and we end up walking out with Cassie, Jake and Ax. >

I laughed giddly, < You're right, it is insane. Now hurry up, we need to get to the shack and tie up these three before they wake up. >

After half an hour of endless walking, trading Ax back and forth between us every couple minutes since we had to carry him in our arms, we finally made it to the shack.

I quickly tied up everybody's arms and legs with my special knot, and Marco and I managed to find an old canvas bag we could use as a sheath for Ax's tail.

Just as we sat down to rest, Jake went into the fugue. We sat by him and talked to him for an hour, before we watched the yeerk, formerly known as Visser Four, crumble into dust.

Jake started sobbing uncontrolably. Me and Marco held Jake in a hug for hours, nobody saying anything, just the occasional sound of a sob from one of us. And once Cassie and Ax revived, they threw in their two cents whenever they felt like it.

After nearly three hours of silence, I tried Jake to see if he could talk. "Hey, Jake?"

He looked up at me with hollow, empty, tear filled eyes, "Yeah, Rachel?"

I smiled crookedly, "Welcome back."

Chapter 5

We went through the same process with Cassie later in the evening. She didn't cry as much though. She had only been a controller for three days. She hadn't had time to witness the horror Marco and Jake had.

Two days later, Ax also went through the fugue. It was odd watching him go through it, he didn't handle it the way humans did. He just sat there and stared off into space, occasionally wincing in pain, and even when the yeerk was out, he was quiet.

"Ax?" I asked tenativly after he hadn't talked for fifteen minutes after the fugue ended.

< Yes, Rachel? >

"You alright, man?" Marco asked, "You're awfully quiet."

< Yes, Marco. I'm fine, > but clearly he wasn't. He was staring at a point somewhere above our heads. Like he was somewhere far away. We let him sit there, wrapped up in his own thoughts. Each of us handled the situation differently, we were going to let Ax handle it his.

We were quiet most of the day. It was really awkward, almost as if we were meeting for the first time. Jake was still getting used to the idea of being in control of himself again, and Cassie was trying to help him through that. Marco and I talked to eachother alot though. We had been talking for days, we could carry on a conversation. With me and him, it was like old times. We were picking on eachother constantly. I think that helped the others get through their expiriences, seeing that although we may have all changed a bit on the outside, and changed drastically on the inside, not everything was different.

The next day when Marco, Cassie, Jake and I were sitting on the floor eating breakfast, we finally seemed to get over the awkwardness and became friends again. Ax was off in the woods grazing, so just the four of us were in the shack.

"Y'know, it's about time it happened," Marco said.

"What?" Jake asked, still a little shaky.

"We've finally got uniforms! Sure, Rachel's is a little ragged around the edges, but we're pretty much all the same!"

I looked around at my friends and myself. I was still in my ratty unitard/midriff top and shorts. Cassie was in a black unitard, and Jake was in the same black outfit Marco was in.

Cassie laughed, "You're right, Marco. Does this mean no more complaints about looking like 'The X-Men' or whatever?"

Marco considered that for a moment, "Maybe. I'll just get on Rachel's case for sticking out."

I flung oatmeal at him, "You guys are the ones that stick out. Haven't any of you read Seventeen lately? Grunge is back."

We all laughed. It was exactly like old times again. Well, exactly except for our two missing members. One was going to be back in a few minutes, but the other was gone forever.

I must have zoned out or something, because the next thing I new Marco was waving his hand in front of my face, "Earth to Rachel, come in Rachel!"

"Huh?"

"Jake's talkin' to ya'."

"Oh. Sorry, Jake."

"'Sokay," Jake stood up, holding a chiped glass full of water in one hand, "I'd like to propose a toast to the two who made this reunion possible," He raised his glass, "To Marco and Rachel, the best friends anybody could ask for."

I stood up and raised my glass too, so did Cassie.

"Wait, nope. I'm gonna counter that toast," Marco said, standing up, "I'd like to toast Rachel. This entire couple days has been made possible by her. It was her quick thinking that kept me from a life of eternal controller-ness, and if she hadn't acted so quickly back at the yeerk pool, both her and Cassie would have been toast."

I smiled sheepishly, "It was nothing. I wasn't even thinking either of those times, it was suicide..."

Marco stepped back, shocked, "What? Rachel? Talking like what she did was actually crazy? That's my job, Xena. I've finally got a chance to do it again, don't take it away from me."

"And Rachel, what you did wasn't suicide or stupid or anything. It was truely heroic. Marco's right, without you, none of us would be standing here today." Cassie said.

Jake raised his glass high in the air, "To Rachel!"

"To Rachel!" Marco and Cassie echoed.

"To All of us," I said, raising my glass.

We all laughed and drank, when suddenly, Ax came thundering into the shack,

< The yeerks! They're starting to clear the forest right now for the new pool! >

Jake immediatly lept into action, "Everybody, split up. We can't let them capture us again. We've worked too hard for our freedom to have it snatched away again."

Marco and I ran out the back door of the shack, actually, it's a hole in the wall, but it serves the same purpose. Jake, Cassie and Ax ran out the front door.

Once we were past the clearing around the shack, Marco and I split up. We didn't say where we were going to meet, we'd have to guess where the other was heading. We couldn't risk one of us being captured by the yeerks, and having the yeerks meet us wherever we had planned to meet.

I ran through the forest. Dodging trees, jumping over logs, looking behind me every couple seconds to see if anybody was following me. Suddenly WHUMP! I slammed into something and fell backwards.

I looked up to see what I had run into, and there, towering above me, was the monsterously large Hork-Bajir.

Chapter 6

I couldn't scream, that'd lead the other's here so the yeerks could capture them again, I couldn't run either, I was paralyzed with fear. I could only meekly comply when the big Hork-Bajir ordered me to stand up.

This can't be happening! I moaned silently to myself as I followed the Hork-Bajir, I work so hard to free my friends and now I'm the one being captured? I don't think so! I concentrated on a morph I hadn't done in ages. We've always had a rule, we won't morph sentient creatures. But I think this was a time for an exception to that rule. I concentrated on the Hork-Bajir morph, one of the first free Hork-Bajir Jara Hamee, that I had acquired so long ago.

The next time the Hork-Bajir looked back, I was completly morphed. < Hello, > I said when his eyes widened in surprised, then I jerked my arm forward quickly and sliced right through the Hork-Bajir's neck. < Oh gross! > I shouted, jumping back.

After a moment, I started running through the forest again. I had to get away from the yeerks. If Visser Three was out here, and he got a good look at me, he'd know I wasn't another one of his Hork-Bajir.

Through the woods, I saw a flash of orange and black. I tried to follow it with my eyes, but it was too fast. I started to run towards it, hoping to at least meet it somewhere. I just hoped that it was the real Jake in morph, and he hadn't been recaptured.

I followed the tiger to a clearing with a waterfall. He looked around desperatly, looking for an escape. He must have thought I was a controller! Before I could tell him who I was, he turned around and jumped over the waterfall!

< NOOOOOOOO! > I shouted and ran to the edge, and saw Jake splash down into the shallow river below.

< JAKE! >

I started to climb down the rock face, demorphing as I went. Before I went down so low I couldn't see over the edge, Cassie in wolf morph and Marco as himself came running into the clearing. < Jake jumped over the

falls! > I yelled at them, < I'm going down to get him. >

Once I was only five feet away from the ground, I jumped and ran over to the river, looking for any sign of Jake.

< Rachel! He's on the other side of the river bank from you! > Cassie shouted down from above, < Behind some rocks! >

I jumped into the freezing cold water and half swam, half waded accross the river to find Jake. Behind an outcroping of rocks, I saw a soggy orange and black figure.

"Jake!" I shouted, no longer cold.

I ran to him and started to shake his massive head to get him to wake up. "Cassie!" I shouted up the waterfall, "Get down here! He's hurt!"

Thankfully, wolves have excellent hearing, so while a human may have had trouble hearing me with the waterfall, Cassie heard me clearly. She was jumping down from rock to rock a split second after I had shouted at her.

Once she was down on the ground, she started to demorph. She did't bother controlling it, she just let it happen as it happened. It'd be quicker that way. The pointy wolf ears on the top of her head slid down to become her normal human hears. Her knees reversed driection so they faced the correct way. Her tail schlooped up into her spine as her wolf muzzle shrank back into a normal human nose and mouth.

As the last of her gray wolf fur was melting away, Cassie was bending over Jake, checking his injuries.

"Looks like his right foreleg is broken, and he's unconcious. Might even have a concussion," Cassie said, mostly talking to herself.

"Is there anything we can do?" I asked.

"Well, we need to get him to wake up. Splashing water on him probably won't so..." she took Jake's broken leg in her hand, "Sorry, Jake, but this is the only way." She yanked violently on his leg and Jake woke up. Very quickly.

< AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! > he shouted in thought speak as he roared with the concrete-splitting roar of the tiger. I covered my ears to block out the sound, it didn't do much to help.

< What'd you do that for? > Jake yelled.

"Jake, you were unconcious. And you were already soaking wet, so splashing water wouldn't have helped you. Yanking your broken leg was the only way to get you to wake up," Cassie explained. "Now, demorph."

Jake looked at his mangled leg. It looked pretty disgusting. He started to demorph.

Once he was human again, Jake moved his arm up and down, making sure that it was healed, "Ow, Cassie. Next time you have to revive me, think you can find someway that doesn't involve carrying pain over from one morph to another?"

Cassie got a mischevious gleam in her eye, "You mean, like this?" She leaned over to Jake and gave him a long kiss.

I looked away, embarrassed and started to climb back up the rock face to Marco. I always feel weird whenever I'm around Jake and Cassie when they get all lovey-dovey like that. Makes me feel kind of left out. I lost the only one I've ever really cared about.

"Hey! You two love birds down there!" Marco shouted, "If you don't mind me interupting, we've got a world to save here!"

Jake and Cassie looked up at us, "We're on our way!" Jake shouted up, and started to climb up the rocks. Cassie was close behind.

Once we were all up on the top, I began to notice somebody was missing, "Hey, where's Ax?"

Cassie looked around, "I don't know. Last I saw him, he was heading in the opposite dirrection of me when we left the shack."

"Come on, let's morph birds and fly around looking for him," Jake suggested.

"No," I said, stopping him. "There are zero birds left in this forrest. Haven't you noticed yet? The way there were no birds singing this morning? No bugs buzzing around your head? No fish in the river? The yeerks are working on destroying all the animals unnecesary to human survival. We can not morph anything that'd look out of place. Which leaves out pretty much everything except really small animals. Every once in awhile, small birds like robins and sparrows come through here, so they won't look out of place. I acquired one so I'd be able to travel throughout the forest unnoticed. I don't know what morph you guys have, but if you have anything, use it. We have to find Ax!"

Chapter 7

I started to morph the robin I had acquired shortly before Cassie had been captured. Cassie started to morph the sparrow she's acquired at the same time. Neither Marco or Jake had a suitable morph, so they were going to look for Ax on foot.

Compared to being a bird of prey, robins are pretty dull. They can't fly nearly as fast, and the eye sight's only half as good. But it was enough for what I had to do.

Beating my stubby wings as fast as I could, I zoomed over the forest, looking everywhere, but I didn't see any trace of Ax. I also didn't see any yeerks. This could mean one of two things. 1. The yeerks had given up on us and Ax had found some place to hide, or 2. The yeerks had captured Ax and had dragged him off to the local yeerk pool for re-infestation. I prayed that it was the former, although I knew it was doubtful.

< Anybody see Ax? > Cassie asked. We all answered no.

< Ax? > I called out, < Ax? Where are you? >

Below, I heard Marco and Jake calling for Ax. Either he had chosen not to answer us, or he was unable to answer us.

Suddenly, I had this strange feeling I had to go back to the shack. It was a ways back, so I turned around and started flapping as fast as I could to get to the shack.

< Rachel? Where are you going? > Cassie called after me.

< I'm heading back to the shack. I--it's too hard to explain. I just need to go back to the shack. >

After a few minutes of power flying, I was at the shack. I landed in front of it and demorphed as fast as I could. Once I was finished demorphing, I ran into the shack, not knowing what to expect.

There, sitting in the middle of the floor of the shack was Ax, in human morph, just rocking back and forth humming to himself.

"Ax?" I asked gently. "Ax?" I walked over in front of him and waved my hand in front of his face, "Hey, Ax. It's Rachel."

"Hello, Rachel," Ax said in a totally flat tone of voice that kind of scared me.

"Ax? What's up?"

"I can't do it any more."

"Can't do what, Ax?"

I finally got him to stop starting off into space. He looked directly at me, "I can't continue on. I did too many things when I was a controller. It was wrong. I shouldn't have let myself be taken."

We were running from the yeerks, they were right behind us! Hork-Bajir warriors, Taxxon Trackers, Even Jake and Marco! Of course, they weren't themselves anymore, they each had a yeerk in their brains, taping into their memories. Tobias was flying overhead, none of the controllers were looking up there, so he was safe. Cassie and I were running as fast as we possibly could. Ax was running fairly fast too, but he was falling behind.

"Ax!" I shouted back to him, "You have to run faster!" I wanted to run back and help him, but I couldn't risk it.

"Ax, faster! Now! They're right behind you!"

Suddenly, one of the Hork-Bajir caught Ax, holding a dracon beam to his head. I heard Jake's thought speak voice, he had morphed tiger for the chase, < Ah. Rachel, so good to see you again. It seems you have a choice, Save yourself, Cassie, and Bird-Boy up there, or risk your life to save this Andalite scum. > He laughed. Not the laugh he had when he was an Animorph, but an evil, cynical laugh. < Either way, you lose, Animorphs. >

< Rachel, you must save the others, > Ax told me privately. < Go, now. >

I shook my head no. I couldn't let them take Ax!

I looked around for Cassie and Tobias. Tobias was way ahead, and Cassie had hidden in the shadows of some trees. I could faintly make out the shape of her morphing to wolf.

I couldn't risk it, I had to save Cassie and Tobias. None of us would be any good to Jake or Marco if we took a stupid chance to save Ax.

"I'll save him, yeerk," I said, glaring at the tiger. "You may have won the battle, but I will win the war." I turned back towards the forest and started running towards Cassie.

< What about Ax?! > she cried as I ran past her.

"We'll get him back next time."

"Ax, that was so totally not your fault. It's my fault they got you. I could have pressed the fight, Cassie was ready to take on all of those controllers. It would have been nothing for me to morph grizzly bear and take them all out."

Ax looked back at me with his sad human eyes, "Maybe it wasn't my fault that I was taken. But I could have rebelled. I have broken free from the yeerk!"

"No, you couldn't have," Jake said, walking up beside Ax. While we had been talking, the others had come to the shack to see why I had come. "Ax, we all tried to rebel. I think Marco was the only one who came even close to breaking through. Remember, I was there when they captured you, and there was nothing that could have been done differently, except maybe Rachel morphing grizzly and charing the yeerks like an idiot, and then none of us would be here today."

Ax didn't seem to want to believe it, he just went back to rocking back and forth, in his own little world.

"How much time do you have left in morph, Ax?" Cassie asked after a minute.

"Less than fifteen minutes."

"Then morph out."

"I can not."

"What?! Why?!" I asked.

"I do not wish to."

I squatted down in front of Ax and grabbed both of his shoulders, "You listen to me Ax. This is not the time to be wallowing in self pity. We've all just gotten over terrible expiriences with the yeerks, but do you see any of us getting trapped in morph? No. You want to stop morphing? Fine, but wait 'till the yeerks are gone. We can not afford to lose anybody else in this war. Nobody is going to quit fighting as long as I have something to say about it."

Ax didn't say anything, "Don't you have to avenge somebody's death anyway? You can't do that as a human. Would Elfangor want to see you like this? Would...would Tobias?" I looked away as I said his name. Tobias and Ax had been really close friends, even before we'd found out that Ax was in fact Tobias' uncle.

Ax looked at each of us in turn with his sad human eyes. We each had the same pleading look on our faces. We couldn't lose Ax, we couldn't lose anybody else. One lost member was one lost member too many.

Then, without warning, Ax began to demorph. I nearly fainted with relief. I don't think I'd ever seen a sight as beautiful as Ax demorphing. Now, if you'd told me I'd be feeling this way a year ago, I'd have laughed in your face and told you you were crazy. Morphing is never a pretty process, unless you're Cassie, so it's always weird to watch someone demorph. But it's especially weird with Ax, since instead of losing legs, or a tail, like we do when we demorph, he gains and extra set of legs, a deadly tail, and loses a mouth.

We all breathed heavy sighs of relief as the last of Ax's human features disapeared. We had Ax back with us again, but who knows for how long. And he'd retained that far off look in his eyes. Maybe Ax would never be totally back, but always somewhere, in a dark corner of his mind, replaying the dark events that had plauged him for months. Chapter 8

None of us were sure what to do next. We didn't really want to go back to the pool, it was too soon. And we wanted to give Ax a chance to recover. But we couldn't stay in the shack, not if the yeerks were out here. So, I grabbed the canvas bag, shoved as many cans of food in as possible, and then we set out to try and find a new place where we could hide.

We walked aimlessly through the woods for over an hour, we really didn't have a place to go. All the houses were being used to house controllers, maybe a few outlying farms wouldn't be inhabited, but none were nearby. Except...

"Hey, Cassie, do you think your farm would be safe?" I asked.

"It might be for a day or so. But the new pool is going to be in the field, that's why the yeerks were clearing the woods. To make more room, and hunt us down,"Cassie said.

"Let go hang in the barn for a day or two. We can hide up in the hay loft or something," I suggested. Then I turned to Ax, "You wouldn't happen to know the way to the barn, would you?"

< To the south, > he said distractedly.

"Okay, that's a start," I said, "So, which was is south?"

He pointed to his right with one of his weak Andalite hands.

"Oookay. Let's go that way," I said, taking the lead. I'd been a leader for so long, that it almost seemed natural. In the old days, I would have felt totally weird being in the lead, but we'd been so long without Jake, it was a habit now. Besides, I don't think Jake was ready to lead yet.

After another half hour, we came out of the woods and into an open medow. We quickly went back a few feet into the woods, hiding in shadows. We weren't going to risk anybody seeing us. Luckily, our black morphing suits blended in with the shadows, and Ax stayed behind us, so he wasn't quite as noticeable.

"Okay, I see the barn. I don't see any yeerks, but that could easily change. Anybody have any suggestions as to how we're going to cross this huge medow to get to the barn without anybody seeing us," Marco said. "It's a bit to far to go as bugs."

"Marco's right," Jake said, "Wait, see the small band of trees leading practically up to the house?" Jake said, pointing to a strip of trees, probably only 4 trees wide. "We could sneak through there, and then sneak along the shaddows of the house to get into the barn."

We cautiously made our way through the trees. It was an uneventful walk, no controllers were around anymore. And there wasn't a single living, breathing thing in sight. Only dying trees. The fact that there wasn't any animals left was a fact that still depressed Cassie, even though we'd been living with the diminishing animal population for years. Ever since the yeerks started to openly fight Earth.

FLASH! All of us snapped our heads up to look at the sky. A bug fighter was skimming through the air, shooting down buildings.

"What the heck?!" I shouted, "Why're they doing that?"

< They have begun the attack, > Ax said in his annoyingly calm Andalite why.

"Duh, they've been attacking for the last six years!" Marco snapped.

< What I meant was, they've begun attacking openly. They must have enough troops to fight the humans openly. I'm afraid human weapons will be of little consequence to the yeerks. Although they have advanced greatly in recent years, the yeerks still have highly advanced weapons. Earth is lost, unless my people come soon. >

Every day since that day it'd been attack after attack from bug fighters. There were almost constantly skirimishes in the streets, humans versus Hork-Bajir. Unfortunatly, it was always yeerks one, humans zero.

And then, about a month after that first 'open attack' it started. The killing of animals. Bug fighters shot dracon beams burning away entire areas of forest. Poisoning the atmosphere making it hard for plants to grow. It was a horible scene to witness.

Before long, we were at Cassie's old house. It looked very different compared to how it looked when I used to come here to hang out with Cassie. The paint was gray and peeling, windows were broken, and the remaining shards of glass were caked with dirt. The doors were all open, or ripped off their hinges. The yard was reduced to dirt and stone. Occasionally, there was a small shrub, but it could pretty much be declared a waste land.

We walked around to the back where the barn was. The barn looked alot worse. The huge wooden doors had been burned away, either by a fire or dracon beam. The walls were rotted through in places. Inside, the straw on the floor was mildewed and smelled musty. Rusty cages lined the walls, some having been smashed onto the floor. All the doors were opened. Before Cassie had fled her house, once both her parents had become controllers, she had opened the cages of all the animals so they'd have a chance to escape, not that they had any place to escape to.

"Well, isn't this a cheery place?" Marco said. "Well, it's not quite like home, but it'll do." He climed up the ladder into the hayloft, cleared an area of straw, and laid down. I climbed up after him and made myself a little nest in the straw. It wasn't very comfortable, but it was more comfortable than a dirt floor and a threadbare blanket.

"Oh, this feels so good," I said.

"Yeah, right," Marco said sarcastically.

I sat up and looked at him, "No, I'm serious here. You may have forgotten, Marco. But I'm the one who's been sleeping on dirt floors and rotting tree logs for the past couple months."

Marco looked away, embarrased. As controllers, the others had had nice, warm houses and beds to sleep in, while I had to tough it out in the woods.

"So. What are we going to do now?" Jake asked as he and Cassie climbed up the ladder into the loft.

I looked down over the edge of the loft and saw Ax just standing in the doorway of the barn, in plain sight of any controllers in the area. "Ax!" I hissed. He turned a stalk eye up to look at me. "Why not just put a neon sign over your head that says 'Come get the Animorphs'?" He looked puzzled. "Get out of the doorway!" It finally dawned on him that standing in the door wasn't the smartest thing, and he moved under the hay loft out of sight.

Cassie sat down on the loft beside me and sighed, too depressed at seeing her old home in such a state to suggest anything.

"How about we get some food?" moaned Marco. "I'm starving."

"You are such a wimp, Marco. I'm not even slightly hungry yet. How 'bout you Cassie?" She shook her head no. Then I remembered why Marco was so hungry. He and Jake had gotten three square meals a day as controllers. They weren't used to having to go more than a couple hours with out food. When we had been living in the woods, we had gotten so we could go a couple days with out food. Me and Cassie are able to go for three days with out getting too hungry.

I searched through the bag and tossed Jake and Marco a can of fruit, "You guys eat this. Neither me or Cassie are hungry."

We sat in silence for about half an hour, listening to Marco and Jake devour the can of fruit.

"Okay, now that's taken care of, same question," Jake said, "What do we do now? Hang here?"

I looked out the window over the door at the sky. It looked like it was probably only 5 or 6 at night, but I was tired. "How about we get some sleep?"

Marco laid back down in the straw, "I'm there," he said groggily. He was asleep almost immediatly.

"Sleep. That sounds so wonderful," Cassie said, laying down. "Oh, this feels so much better than that bed I slept on as a controller."

"Yeah," Jake said.

"I don't know," I countered, "I've wanted to have a real bed, at least a decent blanket, for so long."

"But would you want it to be from a yeerk?" Jake asked pointedly.

I thought about that, "They'd be, like, the only race I wouldn't take a blanket from."

"Same here," Cassie agreed. "Now, if nobody minds, I'm gonna get some sleep."

Chapter 9

I didn't get much sleep that night. I'm not sure why, the straw was infinitly more comfortable than the dirt I was used to. Maybe it was the smell of mildew in my nose, or maybe the weirdness of hearing four different sets of restful breathing at once. Or maybe...maybe it was the fact that Tobias' old roost was in plain sight no matter which way I tossed and turned.

I must have gotten some sleep, because I woke up suddenly with Marco's face grining at me. "Wake up sleeping beauty."

I raised my arm to punch him, but he dodged out of the way, so I settled for grumbling at him for almost an hour.

After we the four of us had split a can of cold soup and Ax got back from grazing, the same question was running through all of our minds, what to do next?

"Attack the yeerk pool?" Marco suggested half heartedly.

I shook my head, none of us wanted to go back down there. Ax was still acting like a zombie, and although he tried to hide it, I saw Jake with tears running down his face. Now,they could be from the loss of his entire family, but more likely they're from horrible memories of being a controller. He'd been a controller the longest of us all.

We were sitting around in an old abandoned tool shed in the middle of no where, planning an attack. We didn't think the yeerks knew about us yet, turns out, we were wrong.

"Holy...RUN!" Marco shouted, a look of terror on his face. We all looked in the direction of a dirty window, there, smiling evily, was a Hork-Bajir.

"Oh, sh..." I said, picking myself up off the dusty floor and running like there was no tomorrow. Tobias was flying right behind me, Cassie and Jake had gone out through a side door, Ax and Marco had gone out through a hole in the wall. Tobias took off through a hole in the trees to the safety of the sky. Cassie must have split up from Jake, because next time I saw him, he was running alone, being chased by Hork-Bajir.

I watched in horror as his jacket caught on a thorn bush. He tried to yank it off the thorn before it dawned on him to just leave the coat behind. But it was too late.

"Jake! No!" I shouted, running towards him, concentrating on my grizzly bear morph as I ran through the woods.

"No! Rachel, don't be an idiot! Save yourself!"

< I don't think so! > I said, mostly girzzly bear. I caught up to the Hork-Bajir chasing Jake just as he broke free from the thorns. I quickly took out one of the Hork-Bajir, but the others started attacking me immediatly. I looked at Jake with my poor bear vision and saw orange and black fur rippling accross his skin. He was morphing to tiger to join in the fight.

< AHHHHHHHH! > I shouted in pain as a Hork-Bajir left me without a right paw.

< Guess it's time to work on my left hook, > I joked grimmly as I hit the Hork-Bajir with my good paw, although it wasn't all that good. I'd been slashed dozens of times by the Hork-Bajir and was losing blood fast. My already dim bear vision was growing dimmer, I was going to pass out!

< Rachel! > Jake shouted at me, < Get out of here! I'll handle them! >

< No...Jake...you...can't... >

< Rachel, you're going to pass out if you don't get out of here. MOVE! >

What could I do? I lumbered off, leaving Jake to fight. I planned on getting behind an outcropping of rocks, demorph, and then morph bear and get back to helping Jake.

By the time I had demorphed, he and the Hork-Bajir were gone. Only leaving a tattered jacket on the thorn bush.

"We should find out as much as we can about this operation to make a yeerk pool in the field and stop it," I said.

Cassie shook her head, "We already know all there is to know about it," she tapped her head sadly, "We were all Vissers. Jake was right below Visser Three, if there's anything to know about that pool, we already know it."

"So? Is there anyway to stop this?"

< No practical way, > Ax said, speaking voluntarily for the first time. < The only way I know of would be to destroy Visser Three. >

"Ax's right, that's not practical in any way, shape or form," Marco said dejectedly.

We went back to sitting silently in the hay loft with Ax below us. Sub conciously, my eyes kept drifting up to the rafters where for so many years, I could count on Tobias roosting.

After day dreaming for I don't know how long, Cassie shook us all from our zombie-like state. "Where'd Ax go?"

I leaned over the edge of the loft, looking for Ax, "He was right there a minute ago," I said as I pulled myself back up.

We all leaped or climbed down from the loft and carefully crept out to the woods to find Ax.

We searched for at least two hours, with no sign of him. Nor did we ever see a sign of him again. After a few days, we resigned ourselves dejectedly to the fact that we had lost Ax for good. He most likely hadn't been re-taken by the yeerks, we would have been caught by now if he had. Ax joined our list of casualties.

One morning, about a week later, I was out wandering in the woods, looking for berries or something to eat. With four people to supply, our rations had grown from few, to non-existant.

Accidentally, I stumbled upon what would look like an outcropping of roots to most people, and that what I thought it was at first, too, untill I looked at it closer. Last time I checked, roots didn't grow in the shape of crosses.

I sat down on my knees in front of the tiny cross. The only thing marking the grave of Tobias, one of the best warriors, and friends, I'd ever known.

I used to come here about once a day, under the guise of looking for food. I'd come, cry, apologize, and just talk to Tobias. I know, it's dumb. He's dead, right? But, somehow, I feel closer to him when I'm here. Like, he's right next to me, listening solemnly to everything I say, consoleing me when I cry. Telling me it's not my fault he's dead.

"Hey, Tobias. Sorry I haven't been around lately," I whispered to the air. "But I have a good excuse, really. We freed them. Yeah, them. Marco and Jake and Cassie and Ax. Well, if you ask any of them I saved them, but I couldn't have done it alone, and I didn't."

I took a steadying breath. I didn't know why I was going to say what I was about to say, there wasn't a reason. Maybe I just wanted to say it out loud. It was a forbidden subject with everyone else. "We lost Ax about a week ago, though. Not to the yeerks, at least, we don't think it was to the yeerks. I mean, I"m here, aren't I? We kind of got lost in our thoughts in the barn one day, Ax wandered out, and then it was bye bye Ax. I don't know what could have happened to him, there weren't even any hoof marks. He probably morphed bird and flew and some stupid controller shot him down."

Suddenly, I felt a hand rest on my shoulder gently. I guess I didn't realize what was happening. I really thought, although it's really stupid, that it was Tobias. I took the comforting hand in my own, then, after a moment, jumped up, embarrased. Standing in front of me was Marco, definetly not Tobias.

I wiped my grubby hands over my eyes, trying to conceal my tears. "Hey, Marco. Um, I was just, um, you know, looking for...herbs, on the ground here."

Marco smiled good naturedly, "And you commonly talk to herbs before picking them?"

I looked back down at the ground, silent. Marco took a couple steps towards me and stood beside me. "Just so you know, Rachel, I don't think it's stupid, or silly or childish to talk to Tobias. Before...before I knew what had happened to my mom, whenever Dad and I went to her grave, I'd talk to her. Or I'd talk to a picture of her at home. Just telling her how my day went and stuff."

I looked at him, amazed at what I was hearing. I mean, I know Marco is capapble of incredible acts of compassion, and I suppose it makes sense to keep talking to your mom, even after she's dead. But...oh, my emotions were a mess. I was a mess. "Well, I've still got food to find, care to join me?"

We walked cautiously through the forest, looking for the smallest sign of a berry bush or some type of plant we could eat. "So, what brought you out here?" I asked to break the silence. It is very creepy walking in a dead silent forest. You know the quiet there often is when you walk alone through a forest? But it's not really quiet. There's birds chirping in the trees, bugs buzzing around your head, animals crawling through decaying leaves, but there weren't any sounds like that here. The leaves on the ground were few and far between so our feet didn't make a sound as we trudged through, and all the animals were long gone.

"Oh, nuttin' really. Jake and Cassie were getting all gross and disgusting, you know how those two can get, so I figured I'd come out here, get some fresh air, get even cuter by getting a fabulous tan, and then I saw you sitting on the ground, so I delayed my tanning plans and came over to see what was up."

I smiled a tiny bit. Even now, after a week and a half of puting up with Marco's ego and bad jokes, it amazed me I could smile or laugh or joke with him, or anybody else.

Marco and I've developed a special relationship. We're both sort of 'alone' in the group. Cassie and Jake can fall back on eachother when things get tough, but both Marco and I are very strong, independant people, although Marco hides that behind his bad jokes. But ever since I saved him, we've been hanging out together when Cassie and Jake hang together. We aren't boyfriend/girlfriend, don't even think about that one, we're just much better friends than I could have ever imagined us being.

After awhile we returned to the barn, laughing and talking, we turned in expectantly to be greeted by Jake and Cassie. We didn't see them. We looked through the barn and through the woods, they weren't there.

I sprinted back to the barn, gathered our few meager belongings, and set back out into the woods with Marco, looking for our lost friends, and safety from the yeerks.

Chapter 10

Marco and I barely spoke the rest of the day, we just trudged aimlessly through the forest until we were, quite unexpectedly, in the foot hills of the mountains.

"Shall we check in on the Hork-Bajir? Maybe Cassie and Jake got there somehow," I suggested.

Amazingly enough, the Hork-Bajir colony had lasted far longer than any of us expected. Once Jake had been caught, I was sure that the Hork-Bajir would be found and forced back into slavery. Each time someone was captured, I was sure they would be gone, but somehow, they prevailed.

After a few minutes of climbing, we found a cave and took a huge risk. We morphed our birds of prey so we'd be able to find the valley easier. Yeah, it was stupid, and yes, Marco made very sure I knew that.

< Marco, for the last time, I know that this is a major risk, but do you see any yeerks here in the mountains? >

< Just because you can't see them, doesn't mean they aren't there. >

< Well thank you Mr. Doom and Gloom. Can't you just enjoy this? I mean, we're flying! >

< Yeah, yipee. We're flying to our death. >

< What is your problem? > I was growing impatient with him.

< Oh, nothing, just the fact that at this moment, there could be hundreds, if not thousands, of dracons beams focussed directly at us. >

< There aren't any, now-- >

I was interupted when suddenly a bright blueish-white light engulfed us. I passed out, I dont' know for how long. When I woke up, I was human, and lying flat on my back staring up at a blue metal ceiling.

I tried to sit up, but as soon as I did, my head began to throb. I quickly laid back down. Suddenly, standing over me, was an Andalite.

"Ax?" I managed to croak out after a minute.

< I do not know of an 'Ax', I am Darashi-Radier-Perscap, Medical Officer of the Andalite Dome Ship Nebula Strike. Who are you? >

"I--I am Rachel. A human being who needs a drink of water badly." Whatever these Andalites had done to me, it was having long term effects.

While Darashi got me a glass of water, he continued to ask questions, although I couldn't answer, < Who is the one with you? Who is this Ax that you thought I was? How are you free? Earth has been captured entirely by yeerks. >

After gulping down the water greedily, my head began to throb less and I could talk easier. "The one I'm with...where is he, anyway?"

< Transparent the wall, > Darashi said, and with a flicker and shimmer the wall behind me went from the same pale blue metal as the ceiling, to transparent. In the next room, Marco was still unconcious. "Well, he's Marco, a friend of mine. Ax is...was...a friend of mine also. His full name was Aximili-Esgarouth-Isthill. About a week ago, he disapeared and we haven't been able to find him. I'm free because I was part of a small resistance against the yeerks along with Marco and Ax and three other humans, Jake, Cassie and Tobias. Jake and Cassie I fear have been re-captured by the yeerks, Tobias is dead, and Marco is a recently freed human controller. No doubt you heard of a sudden disapearance of several vissers?"

< Yes, we have, > Darashi replied.

"Well, that was us. Marco there was Visser 10, or something. Ax was Visser 4, Cassie was Visser 5 and Jake was Visser 6. There, now that you know my complete history and the history of my friends, would you mind telling me why I am here?"

< Our sensors detected an energy field created during morphing. After we ran a scan over you and confirmed you were not yeerks, we brought you aboard for further questioning. >

"Hey, where the heck am I?" I heard Marco say from his room.

I looked to Darashi, "Bring him in here."

< But-- >

"Bring. Him. In. Here. Please." I said through clenched teeth. This Andalite was begining to get on my nerves.

Reluctantly, Darashi ordered the computer to allow Marco in. "Where the heck are we?" he asked when he'd joined us in the room.

"A dome ship. An Andalite dome ship. In space," I explained.

"Oh. Okay, as long as it isn't anything serious."

< Please, follow me. The captain wanted to speak with you once you were able. > Darashi led us out of the room into a long coridor. The walls and ceiling were a reddish-pink. From what Ax told us once, it's to simulate the color of the sky on the Andalite homeworld. Instead of a metal floor under our feet, there was soft, springy green grass.

After walking for a few minutes and taking several drop shafts, Darashi led us into a room with three other Andalites.

< Greetings, humans. I am Captain Rystor-Dakil-Baroble, this is my first officer, Janin-Lackby-Adina, > he gestured to the Andalite at his right, then his left, < and this is my technical officer, Zwarda-Nolin-Batey. Who are you? >

"I'm Rachel."

"I'm Marco."

< Greetings, Rachel and Marco. I'm sure you have many questions, and we'll do our best to answer them, if you will answer some questions of ours."

We shrugged, why not?

For the next hour and a half, we talked with Captain Rystor. We answered alot of questions that we were expecting, you know, how were we free, and how we could morph. And the captain answered some questions of our own, was he sure there were no free people on Earth? Yes.

The captain offered us the opportunity to stay with the crew on the dome ship. Marco and I agreed. It's not like there was any place else we could go.

Chapter 11

1 year later...

My heavy leather boots calnked on the metal floor of the coridor. I strod purposefully through the coridors of my ship, the TalonClaw, towards the bridge. My first officer had awoken me in the middle of the night saying there was an urgent message for me. One that could only be accessed from the bridge.

I took the drop shaft to the bridge and accessed the messageboard by my command chair. Marco's tired face snapped on

"Hello, Commander Marco," I greeted him formally with a grin on my face.

"Hello, Commander Rachel," he greeted me, with the same grin. It'd been almost two months since we'd last been in contact with each other.

"I suppose there's a reason for waking me up at two o'clock in the morning?" I asked, pushing my hair out of my face. Normally it's pulled back in a braid, but I didn't have time this morning.

Marco sobbered, "We have a lock on them."

I knew who 'they' were, but I wanted to make sure I had heard him correctly, "You're sure?"

"Yeah. We have a lock on Jake and Cassie."

"Where?" I snapped, no longer tired.

"They're both on a ship hiding among the astroid belt back in Earth's solar system. I can get there in about half a day, when can you get there?"

"If I leave right now I can get there early tomorrow."

"Well then, I'll leave you to make that course correction. See you tomorrow."

"See you." I flicked off the messageboard and turned in my chair to face my helmsman, "Cacitini, set a course for Earth's solar system. The astroid belt."

Cacitini swivled a stalk eye back to look at me quizically, but tapped in the course correction.

< Commander? If I may so imply, what is this change in course about? > Cusdo, my first officer asked. < Our orders aren't to return to the system for another month. >

"Cusdo, in case you haven't noticed, I don't follow orders particularly well. But, if you want, I can put your official protest in my log."

< That is alright, Commander. But may I know why we are heading to Earth's astroid belt? >

"I have some...unfinished business...back there that I need to take care of. Now, I leave the ship in your capable hands, Cusdo. I'm going back to my quarters to see if I can get more sleep."

At 7:00, I promptly walked onto the bridge. Silver and black uniform crisp, hair pulled back in a severe braid, and fully refreshed.

< Greetings, Commander, > Cusdo greeted me as I slipped into my chair.

"Good morning, Cusdo. I trust everything has gone smoothly."

< Yes, Commander. >

"Cacitini, what's our ETA?"

< At our current speed, Commander, we shall reach the astroid belt at approximatly 2:36 AM tomorrow. >

"Can we go any faster?"

< Only by going into Z-Space, Commander. And I don't recommend that. Our Z-Space engines are still not fully repaired from our last meeting with the yeerks. >

I cursed under my breath. I knew the engineers were working as hard as they could on fixing the Z-Space engines, but we needed to get to a space base soon to get vital replacement parts.

"I'll be in my study room. Contact me if I'm needed," I said as I walked into the small room just off to the side of the bridge. Everytime I step in, I get a slight feeling of deja vu. It's very much like the room that started this adventure a year ago.

< Rachel and Marco, please report to the captain's rooms immediatly. >

I was jerked from my reading by the captains call. I carefully marked my place in my book and stood up to leave my quarters to head for the captain's rooms. Just before I walked out the door, I looked in the mirror and inspected myself.

My hair was pulled back in the braid I wore it in almost constantly now. I was wearing a fairly simple outfit. An emerald green blouse over black spandex leggings.

As I walked out into the corridor, I practically ran into Marco. "Watch where you're going," I snapped for no good reason. Probably nervousness from going to see the captain. The captain doesn't just call you in to his rooms to talk about the weather.

"Yeah, whatever, Xena. Let's get to the captain's rooms before he calls for us again."

Captain Rystor turned around to face us when he heard the door slide open and admit us into his room.

< Hello, Rachel and Marco. >

"Hello, Captain," Marco and I said in unison.

< You are wondering why I called you here. I have a proposition for you. How would you two like to join the military forces? You would each command your own ship, and although you would not be directly a part of the Andalite military, you would recieve your orders from them. >

I was stunned. Commanding my own ship? Not even in my wildest, well okay, maybe my very wildest, dreams had I ever thought I'd get to command my own ship.

"I'd be honored, sir," I replied.

"Um. Yeah, same here," Marco said.

< Excellent. When you return to your quarters, access your message boards, I will send you the names of who you need to contact to finalize your choice. Dismissed. >

Marco and I walked back to our quarters, dazed. This was totally and completely unexpected. When I walked into my quarters, I heard my messageboard beeping from it's place on the wall.

"Incoming message. Status:Urgent. Do you wish to receive?" it announced in a monotone voice. Kind of like the guy on that old internet service...what was it called? Oh, yeah AOL when you had an e-mail.

I pulled up a chair and pulled up a smaller message board from my desk, "Yes."

On the screen appeared Captain Rystor's recorded image.

"Hello, Rachel and Marco. Attached to this message is a list of people you must contact to confirm your choice to accept positions in the military. Next to their names is the information you must give them." His image blinked out and was replaced by a list of four names. We had to contact the recruitment office, a ship yard, ship registry and the crew registry. We had to tell each of them basically the same thing, who we were, why we were contacting them, where we were so they could confirm our identities blah blah blah. There were slight variations on some of them. For example, when we contacted ship registry, we had to give them what name we wanted for our ship. I chose TalonClaw, commemorating both Tobias and My favorite morphs. Talon for his red tail hawk, Claw for my grizzly bear morph.

Marco chose TigerFist. Tiger for Jake's morph, Fist for his gorilla morph.

In just under a week, we both received our confirmations. The next day we would be delivered to Space Base 103 to take command of our new ships.

I pushed my chair away from the desk. Reading crew reports can get very dull. I walked over to the small food storage compartment in my room and was just about to pull out a can Coke when Cusdo hailed me.

< Commander Rachel! >

"Yes, Cusdo?" I asked, raising my voice so the ship's intercom would pick it up.

< A Visser's Blade Ship is heading towards us. It's not in weapons range yet, but it's on an intercept

course! >

"Raise shields, I'll be out there in a second."

Before heading out onto the bridge, I activated my messageboard and typed a very quick message to Marco. Telling him not to bother with the astroid belt, Jake and Cassie were on their way to get me. I also gave him my coordinates so he'd be able to come join the fight.

< Commander, they're trying to contact us, > Operations Officer Trax announced.

"Send it through."

On the screen in front of me, I saw both Jake's and Cassie's faces appear, both had twisted, evil grins on their faces. Grins that were very out of place.

"So, Rachel. Oh, it's Commander Rachel now, isn't it? It's been a long time since we last met, good to see you again," Jake taunted.

"Too bad you won't be seeing me for long, slug."

"Why Rachel! Such harshness, and towards your cousin and best friend too," Cassie teased.

"Sorry, but you must be mistaken. I no longer have a cousin. Or a best friend," with that, I cut the transmission and gave the order to fire, but not to destroy the ship. I wanted them alive. Nobody on the bridge understood my reasoning for this. Well, perhaps one did. My shorm and the best warrior on the ship, Alaxia-Reshput-Vestree. Yes, she was female, but I got her on board saying that if they're going to let a female command a ship, they might as well allow a female warrior on board. Since Alaxia was my shorm,kind of like a best friend, she knew all of my secrets, including that Jake and Cassie were yeerks. She'd never seen a picture of them, but I'm sure once I gave the order that I wanted them alive she figured it out.

< Commander! The Blade Ship is releasing Bug Fighters! >

"Then release our fighters!" I snapped. Sitting around in a ship barking out orders always makes me restless. Well, there was a way to solve that.

< Commander, where are you going? > Cusdo asked as I stalked off the bridge.

"I'm taking out a fighter."

< Commander! I must protest! >

"Your protest will be noted and logged."

I felt Alaxia's hand on my arm, < Rachel, this really is a foolish move. >

I yanked my arm away, "When your best friend and cousin are yeerks and are bent on destroying you, then you can call my decision foolish." With that I ran off the bridge and to the docking bay where my personal fighter was.

I launched my fighter minutes after the others had been. I figured we'd taken one or two casualties already, but I'd still be able to get in there and help kick some butt, boy, was I wrong.

My ship may not be the largest or strongest, but it does have the most advanced fighters the military has to offer. The bug fighters should have been no match for them. But I was wrong. The fight had been going on for less than five minutes, and already our forces were half gone.

Why? I asked myself as I deftly dodged a dracon beam and fired a shredder right back. Then, I got my answer. The Blade Ship wasn't going after the TalonClaw, it was going after the fighters! Well, duh, I told myself as I dodged bug fighter after bug fighter. Both Cassie and Jake would know that I'd hate to sit in a ship and give orders while friends were out getting slaughtered. The yeerks hoped that I would come out in my fighter and they'd destroy me with one order.

"Incoming Transmission. Status:Urgent. Accept?" The computer's voice said.

"Oh, yeah, this is a great time for a message," I said aloud. "Yes."

"Hey, Rachel! Need some help?" Marco asked as his image flicked onto my messageboard. I looked out the window of my fighter and saw the TigerFist emerge from Z-Space right behind the Blade Ship.

"Excellent timing, Marco. Be careful with that blade ship though. We've got friends on there."

"This is so typical, Jake always needed me to come save his butt."

"Marco, a warning. Don't send out your bug fighters. The yeerks are destroying fighters rather than going after our ships."

"What? Why?" Marco asked as I docked my fighter.

"Well, with mine they figured that I wouldn't want to sit in a ship while my friends were fighting, so they're most likely trying to get me while shooting at fighters. I'll contact you again in a minute. I'm docking my fighter and I need to go give the order for the fighters to retreat."

I docked my fighter and got to the bridge as quickly as posible. Without a word to my crew I pushed the communications button on the arm of my command chair, "All fighters back to docking bays immediatly. This is a direct order. I repeat, all fighters back to docking bays immediatly." I cut the link and started barking orders to the rest of the crew. "Target shredders on their shields, weapons and engines, be careful not to hit any of our retreating fighters or the TigerFist."

< Commander, the Blade Ship is trying to open communications once again. >

I sighed, "Put them through."

The screen flickered and Jake's face appeared on the screen. Behind him, I could here frantic orders being shouted and saw plumes of smoke rising from many consoles. We'd done some damage.

"Begging for a cease fire, yeerk?" I sneered.

"Does this not go against your sense of honor, Rachel?" Jake asked fiercely. "Two to one?"

"There is no honor when it comes to yeerks. All's fair here."

The screen divided in half. Three way communications had been opened between my ship, the Blade Ship and Marco's.

"Ah. Marco-roni," Jake taunted when Marco came on. "Good to see you again. I was just explaining to Commander Rachel here the meaning of honor."

"And she told you there is no honor when it comes to space slugs, right?" Marco asked heatedly.

Jake shook his head sadly, "Neither of you have a sense of humor anymore. It's such a shame I'll have to kill you both." He turned to look over his shoulder. "Target life support systems for both ships. Fire half our weapons at one ship, half at the other." He looked back to us, "It's been a pleasure knowing you," he said sarcastically, then cut the link, leaving me and Marco.

"Okay, this is a good thing," Marco said.

I turned to the helmsman, "Evasive manuvers, NOW!"

The ship twisted and turned, trying to evade the weapons that were being targeted at us. I heard Marco order his ship to do the same thing. "I'll talk to you after we get out of this," I told Marco and severed the link.

Suddenly, space was filled with a briliant red light. The yeerks had fired, directly at the point we had been but a moment before.

I let out a huge sigh of relief. We were safe for awhile, it would take hours for the yeerks to replenish their energy supply and mount another attack.

"Is the TigerFist still out there?" I asked Trax anxiously. I couldn't see it on the screen, but that meant nothing.

Trax searched his instruments for a minute. < Yes! It's still there, but it appears to be severely damaged. It was knocked away by the force of the yeerk's blast. >

"Helm, take us to the TigerFist, communications, open a chanel with the TigerFist, let's see exactly what Commander Marco needs." I turend to face the screen just as Marco's bruised face appeared. Behind him, the bridge was bathed in red emergency lighting. "Marco, do you need assistance?"

He grimaced, "You could say that."

"Hold on a minute, we're on our way to tractor your ship with us to a space base. We'll dock with you and get your crew on board here and treat any wounded."

"Sounds great. But hurry, we have severe casualties."

I cut the link and waited patiently untill we were ready to dock with the TigerFist. I stood at the docking bay doors with a medical team. The hatch opened and revealed Marco and two Andalites who I recognized to be his First and Tactical officers.

I stepped forward and hugged Marco, it'd been so long since we'd seen each other in person. It had been a month and a half since we had talked, but it had been...well, I don't think I've seen him in person since I took command of the TalonClaw.

"Good to see you again," I said.

"Yeah, you too," he said, huggin me back. Unexpectadly, his knees buckled, almost causing both of us to fall over. One of the medical officers rushed forward immediatly to check his wounds. < Mild concussion...fractured arm...sprained ankle...nothing too serious. Could you help him to the medical bay, Commander Rachel? I would like to see to the others on the ship. >

"Of course. C'mon, Marco," I said, gently laying an arm over my shoulder, "Let's get you patched up."

Just as the chief medical officer was finishing repairs on Marco, the messageboard beeped. "Incoming Message. For:Commander Rachel. From:Andalite Council Status:Urgent. Accept?"

"Now what," I said to myself, "Accept," I told the computer. On the screen the image of the most powerful Andalite in the galaxy appeared. Leader Setrel-Kret-Ginklay.

"Greetings, Leader Setrel," I said after I got over my momentary shock of being contacted by him, "To what do I owe this honor?"

"Commander Rachel. You are to report immediatly to the homeworld. We have urgent orders for you here, but we do not trust our comunications. How soon can you arrive?"

I did the math in my head quickly. "Our Z-Space engines are severly damaged, so it would take me at least three days to arrive, if not longer."

"Please set your course immediatly."

"Of course, sir."

"Oh, and Commander? Do you know of Commander Marco's location? We have been unable to contact his ship."

Marco walked up behind me, "My ship was damaged severely just a few minutes ago during an incursion with a yeerk Blade Ship. We haven't had a chance to asess the damages yet, but I assume that communications were knocked offline."

"You are requested to attend this also, Commander. Please arrive as soon as possible. Leader Setrel out." He blinked off the screen.

I opened the inter-ship communications and contacted Cusdo.

"Yes, Commander?"

"Set a course for the Andalite Homeworld. Maximum possible speed. I'll be to the bridge momentarily, after I find quarters for Commander Marco's crew."

"Yes, Commander."

I turned to the medical officer, "Is the Commander allowed to leave yet?"

< Yes, Commander Rachel. Commander Marco, I'd like you to return tomorrow so I can check on your concussion. >

"Yeah, no prob, Doc."

I led Marco out of the medical bay to the nearest drop shaft.

"We're going to deck three," I told him just before stepping in. In order to operate dropshafts, you must think of the number of the deck you want. Confusing at first, but you get used to it.

Moments later, we were delivered to the third deck of the TalonClaw. "So, what do you think our orders are gonna be?" He asked as we walked down the corridor.

"No idea. Maybe they're ordering us to take a vacation."

"And just where would we go? The last two free humans in the entire universe."

"Oh, I don't know. I hear the Mall of America is great this time of year," I joked lamely.

"Yeah, if you can fight the yeerk bargain hunters."

We walked in grim slience the rest of the way to Marco's new quarters. "Here's your quarters. It's not the Ritz, but it's the best we've got. Behind my own quarters, of course."

"Ha ha. I'll talk to you later, Xena."

Chapter 12

< Commander, we shall be landing on the homeworld in five minutes, > Cacitini stated.

It was three days later, we were just entering orbit around the homeworld. I was on the bridge, Marco was sitting in the seat to my right, the only other seat on the bridge besides my command chair. Both the TalonClaw and TigerFist had an extra seat on the bridge so we could visit each other's ships and be comfortable. The Andalites have made our ships very comfortable.

Five minutes later, we were cleared for landing and desending from orbit to a military base on the Andalite homeworld. When Marco and I led the procession of both our crews off the TalonClaw, we were greeted by Leader Setrel and several War Princes. The wordlessly escorted Marco and I to a large meeting room at the base.

< Thank you for your prompt arrival, Commanders. > Leader Setrel greeted us as we took the only two seats in the room. < After months of searching, we have the flight plans for Vissers Five and Six. >

"And you want us to destroy them, right?" I interupted.

< That is one way of putting it, yes. >

"Um. Do you have any visuals of the hosts of the Vissers?" Marco asked. I was confused for a moment, but as one of the War Princes searched the records for the visuals, it clicked. Marco wanted to see if either of them were Cassie or Jake.

< Here you are, Commander Marco, > one of the War Princes said, handing Marco one of those PADD type things that used to be on Star Trek. I leaned over to look and caught my breath. Jake and Cassie had been given to the new Vissers Five and Six.

"I'm sorry, sir, but we can't destroy these vissers. We can capture them and hold them for days, but we can't kill the yeerks and the host bodies," I protested.

< Why not? What makes these two hosts any different than the billions of other hosts the yeerks have

taken? > Leader Setrel asked.

"Remember we used to fight the yeerks back on Earth with the other Animorphs? These two are Jake and Cassie. The Leader and his ecology nut girl friend," Marco explained.

"My cousin and best friend," I added.

< That is inconsiquential. Nothing can stop us from defeating the yeerks. I'm sure you've taken other loses before. This won't be any different. >

"But it will be, sir," I said, standing up. "Eight years before you came, the yeerks had started their open attack of Earth. One by one, all of us were captured. First Jake, then Marco, then Ax and finally Cassie. Tobias, the nothlit, was killed in battle. I was the only one to survive. If you could call it that. After Jake was captured, I became the leader. I led the attacks that killed one of my close friends, Melissa Chapman, my cousin Tom, Jake's brother, my own family. I'm tired of killing friends. I won't have a hand in the slaying of my cousin and best friend."

< Commander Marco, do you feel this way also? > Leader Setrel asked calmly.

"Jake was my best friend, sir. I, too, have had to commit many attrocities, too many to list. And I don't want to add any names to the list of people killed by my hand."

< I see. Then I formally relieve both of you of duty untill further notice. Niether of you shall have contact with your crews, nor shall you have access to your ship. You will have accomodations here at the base untill you decide to fight the vissers, or the vissers are destroyed. War Prince Ranata, please escourt the Commanders to their new quarters. Dismissed. >

Marco and I sullenly followed the War Prince out of the meeting room. After a few minutes of walking through the base, War Prince Ranata led us into a building that looked like an old Earth prison. < The two of you shall have this building to yourselves. It's divided into two different appartments. You shall have food that is acceptable to humans delivered to you three times a day. Good day. > He sauntered off.

Marco and I walked into what we'd be calling our home for who knows how long. "Hey, it's Buckingham Palace!" Marco exclaimed sarcastically.

The place was about as far from Buckingham palace as you could get. The walls were plain gray, and the floors were covered in gray carpet. The room we were in had two chairs, a desk, and a message board. Upon closer look, the message board could only receive incoming messages, we couldn't send any. Tucked back in a corner, was a bed with a small night stand next to it which had a clock on it.

"Well, looks like we've got a new home for awhile," I said dejectedly and walked into the adjoining room, which would be my apartment. The decor was a carbon copy of Marco's room.

I looked out the barred window and sighed at the sun set in the north. A bug flew in the window around my face. I brushed it away and continued to stare out the window, when the meaning of that bug sank in.

"MARCO!" I shouted as I sprinted from my seat by the window to his room.

"What?" he asked looking up from the point on the wall which he was staring at.

"We can bust out of here, get to our ships and get back to space!"

"How?" he said, brightening.

"Morph fly and fly our way out through the bars on the windows! We can wait a day or two untill your ship's fixed, then we can fly outta here!"

"That's insane," he said, turning back to the wall.

"Oh, you want to live in an Andalite jail?"

"And just what are we going to do out there? We won't have a crew to run our ships, we'll be chased constantly by the Andalite military. It's hopeless."

< No, it is not. >

I looked towards the door, there stood Alaxia, with the crews of both the TalonClaw and the TigerFist.

"Alaxia!" I shouted and ran to her, "What are you doing here?"

< We heard you had been detained for refusing to kill the hosts of Vissers Five and Six. All of us were going to be asigned to serve on different ships. We decided that breaking you out of here would be better than allowing you to be tried for treason and us being sent to other ships. >

"What about my ship?" Marco asked, standing up from his chair. "It's not exactly in flying condition."

< We have...borrowed...the supplies needed to repair your ship. We can repair it on the run. >

"Y'know," Marco said to me, "I can see why you two are shorms."

"Alright, then. Let's go!"

Alaxia and the other crew members of our ships made sure it was safe for us to cross the base and make it to the TalonClaw. It was pathetically easy to sneak around the base. One of our crew just had to start one of the guards in a conversation and we could walk by with out incident. And the military over estimated their guards. They figured we wouldn't be able to get past the rest of their guards, so there weren't any around the TalonClaw, with the the TigerFist just behind it, ready to be re-attached by tractor beam.

I gave the command codes to open the entrance hatch to the TalonClaw and silently ushered everybody on board. As quietly as we could, we reinstated power, attached the TigerFist by tractor beam and started the engines.

By the time the Andalite Guards tried to stop us, we were well into the world's atmosphere.

"So, what're we gonna do now, Rebel Leader?" Marco joked, walking onto the bridge the next day. We were in the safety of Z-Space. While at the base, the military had started repairs on the ship, probably hoping to give it to who ever was going to go after Vissers Five and Six. They hadn't started repairs on the TigerFist, so we had to do everything ourselves. Luckily, our crews had some of the best engineers the Andalite military had to offer.

I leaned back in my chair. I'd been out of the command chair for less than two hours, and yet, it'd been like I'd been gone for years. "Oh, I don't know, blow up the Death Star? Blow up a couple Cardassians?"

Marco laughed and layed a hand on my shoulder, "You've got your sci-fi mixed up. Rebels and the Death Star are Star Wars, Cardassians are Star Trek."

"Oh, who cares. Any sign of Jake or Cassie?" I couldn't refer to them by their yeerk designation if I wasn't in a conversation with them.

"Not yet. If only we'd gotten those flight plans!"

< What flight plans, Commander Marco? > a member of his crew asked.

"The council said they'd gotten flight plans for our friends. They were going to be given to us so we could hunt them down."

< Warrior Alaxia? Did we recieve flight plans when we raided the offices? >

< I believe so. Let me check my files. > Alaxia turned to her computer console and started searching. Everyone on the bridge was silent in anticipation. < Commanders? We have the flight plans. >

"Yes!" I shouted and high fived Marco. "Alaxia, transmit those coordinates to helm. Cacitini? Once you have those coordinates, take us to the next stop on the plans. I want to get ahead of them."

< Yes, Commander. Setting course...now. >

"ETA?"

< One hour, Commander. >

"Cool." I was too excited to be concerned about protocol. I was back in my ellement. Running from the bad guys, although the Andalites weren't officially the bad guys. They were bad guys to me though, they wanted me to kill my best friend and cousin. That's bad enough for me. And, since all of us were rebels now, nobody cared much about protocol.

"Twiso," Marco said to one of his engineers on the bridge, "How long until the TigerFist is repaired?"

< We are just running some last tests on it to be sure everything is repaired. It should be ready for flight within the next half hour. >

"Hey, Rachel? Can I talk to you in your rooms?"

"Sure, Marco." I led him into my small room just off the bridge. "What's up?"

"Just what are we planing to do to Jake and Cassie? This is space battle, we can't exactly go on there and tie them up."

"I know. I've been going over all our options. I can't come up with anything. Leader Setrel was right, we should have just gone along with his orders and killed them."

"Whoa, whoa. No way. Not unless it's absolutly necesary. We can go over plans in here. We've got an hour. Both of our great minds working together, mine being the greatest,of course, are sure to come up with something."

We scoured over different strategies for almost the entire hour before Cusdo summonded me to the bridge. We were coming out of Z-Space.

I watched the screen in front of me as the whiteness seemed to have a hole ripped in it. Through the whole in the white, the black beauty of space could be seen. We were coming out just between an astroid belt and a large purple planet.

"How long untill the yeerks get here?" I asked.

< They're here now, Commander, > Tactical Officer Janiji said, with just a quiver of fear in his voice.

I jumped up from my chair and faced the screen. There, silhouteted against the deep purple planet, was the ominous form of the Blade Ship.

< They're contacting us, Commander, > Trax said tersely.

"Put them through."

"Ah, a welcoming committee, eh?" Cassie sneered from the screen. "I'm afraid I don't like welcoming committees."

"What a coincidence. We don't like space slugs," I said, and motioned for Trax to cut communications. I turned to Marco, "Get to the TigerFist. If your engineers haven't finished their tests, tell 'em tough. We've got a situation here. Since we don't have a better plan, we are going to...to take out the Blade Ship."

"WHAT?!" Marco screached. "We aren't going to destroy that ship as long as Jake and Cassie are on it!"

"Yes, we are, Marco. Remember what we said when we freed those Hork-Bajir? Free or dead? Well, they aren't free. And since we can't save them..."I turned away. I didn't want Marco to see the tears in my eyes.

I felt Marco glare at my back, but he did leave for his ship.

Alaxia walked up next to me, < Rachel? >

"Leave me alone," I said tersely. "We've got a job to do here. Power weapons. Fire at will."

< What are we aiming for, Commander? > the weapons officer asked.

I held back the tears, "Anyway to destroy that ship," I said, my voice wavering.

I watched as the blue glare from our shredders lanced through space towards the Blade Ship, and their red Dracon beams fired back at us.

The battle was going pretty evenly untill the TigerFist got into the fight. both of us fired our shredders at the same time...and the Blade Ship...blew up....

I left the bridge and went to my quarters, standing tall, not letting anybody see my face. As soon as I entered my quarters, I laid down on my bed, and cried.

I cried for...well, I don't know how long. I faintly remember somebody coming in and sitting with me. I don't know if it was Alaxia or if it was Marco or if it was somebody else.

I woke up late the next morning, still in my uniform. I got up from the bed and walked over to the mirror. I was a mess. Half my hair was pulled out from the braid and was sticking up at odd angles from my head. There were dark circles under my eyes and my normally crips, blue eyes were a watery red.

A chime echoed throughout my quarters. It took a moment for it to register that somebody was at the door.

"Hold on a minute!" I shouted and went into the bathroom to make myself at least slightly presentable.

A minute later I answered the door looking like my normal self. It was Marco, not the person I wanted to see right now.

"What do you want?" I asked, going to what served as my living room and sitting down.

"I wanted to see how you're doing."

"I'm doing great," I snapped.

"Yeah, sure."

"No, really. I am," I said, lightening my tone.

"Hey, Rachel. This is Marco you're talking to, okay? I may not be able to read you the way Tobias could or Cassie can--could. But I can tell you aren't taking this great. I was there too, remember? And I know I spent all of last night in my quarters, crying my eyes out. Not my best hour, but what could I do? I'd killed my best friend!"

I motioned for him to site down next to me. "Yeah, Marco, you're right. That wasn't our best hour. We both had to kill friends. But, y'know? I think it was for the best. At least Jake and Cassie are free now, where ever they may be."

I stood up and walked to the viewport. Marco came up and stood beside me. "Yeah, wherever they are, they're free now. Free and happy."

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