I watched the mangled hawk body fall from the sky. I ran to him, tears welling up in my eyes.

"Tobias ... please don't go ..." I knelt over him, shaking him, willing him to open his fierce eyes. "Please wake up. Wake up!" I screamed at him. I was angry now. Angry at Tobias for not waking up. Angry at myself for not being able to save him. Angry at the world. Angry at whatever had done this to Tobias.

I looked up, my eyes blazing. I searched the sky for the evil creature who had done this. Where was it? It could not be gone already! But there was nothing.

Nothing ...

Nothing in Tobias' lifeless body.

I would avenge Tobias' death.

I would have the life of his murderer.

His head perked up, and he looked at me. < But Rachel, don't you have to go to school today? > Oh yeah, I thought.

What? Suddenly I woke up from the incredibly bizarre dream.

My sheets were covered in sweat. I looked at the alarm clock on my nightstand. The numbers blazed red ... red like Tobias' blood that had been lying all around him in puddles. Only that red in the dream had been so much more real.

7:14. If I didn't get up soon, I would be late for school. I dragged myself out of bed.

I showered and got dressed. I walked down the stairs wearily. We had just returned from our longest mission yet. It had lasted over five days. Maybe more. And I was still in shock from losing Marco. Sure, he was a pain, but he had been a part of the group. A fellow Animorph. It made me realize just how vulnerable we all were.

We had hoped that he would be saved by the rescue ship that had been sent, but we heard on the news that the ship had found no bodies at all.

After eating a quick breakfast, I walked out the door and started walking towards our school. Jake walked up
behind me, looking just as tired as me.

"Rachel! I need to talk to you!" He whispered.

"What's up?" I asked him.

He looked around to make sure no one was listening. "I was just talking to one of the Chee. As you know, Marco
never came back. But apparently, someone else disappeared, too. Marco's father is gone. He went to work yesterday like normal, but never came back."

"Oh," I said sadly. I had never really known him, but I was still hit by the news. "But what's so important?"

"What if Marco has been taken by the Yeerks? They would have come after his family. And soon, they will come
after us. And the Chee. And anyone else who has ever helped us." I stood there in silence as it hit me. It might all be over.

"We'd better get the others," I said quickly.

"No need. They already know. Also, we are assembling at Cassie's barn. The Chee will continue to pretend to be us at school."

"All right. Let's go," I said tediously. "Here we go again. Already." We hid in the nearby woods and I morphed to
eagle, Jake to falcon. We lifted up and took wing.

This was bad. If Jake was right, and the Yeerks did know about us, it was over. Go directly to the Yeerk pool. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

We were flying towards Cassie's barn. Everyone else would be heading in that direction. < There's a falcon and an eagle coming this way. Probably Jake and Rachel. I'll go get them, and you tell Cassie, > Tobias said.

< Yes. > I tucked my wings back and prepared to dive towards Cassie's barn. This is always a thrilling experience.

Cassie was walking out of her home as I began the dive. Finally, when she was in thought-speak range, I called to her, < Cassie! We have decided to meet elsewhere since the Yeerks may know that we meet here often. Morph to bird and meet us in the sky, where we will continue to our new rendezvous. >

She looked up to the sky, searching for me. When she found me, she nodded to me to show that she understood. She continued walking to a small building near the barn. Two minutes later, an osprey emerged.

When we were all together (actually we were spread out to look inconspicuous), we decided to meet in an empty restaurant. The facility's name was "Wendy's." After landing and demorphing, Tobias and I morphed to human, and we went inside. We were the only people there.

"Does this eating place sell cinnamon buns?" I asked eagerly. Then I added, "Bunnnn-zzz. Bun-zuh."

"Yeah, I think they're still serving breakfast," Cassie said.

"But we don't have any money," Prince Jake replied.

"Leave it to me," Rachel said with a smile. She walked up to the counter. "Gary, I need five cinnamon buns. Put it on my tab."

"Sure thing, Rachel," Minutes later, Rachel carried back a tray of hot cinnamon buns.

"On me," Rachel said, placing the tray on the table.

"Thank you, Rachel," I replied, taking mine.

"Okay, we need to get to business," Prince Jake said. We were still the only ones in the building, so we could talk freely, as long as the restaurant workers could not hear us. "Marco might be a Controller, and if he is, we are all in big trouble. I'm not saying he is, but it is a possibility. Both he and his father have disappeared, which means the Yeerks might have gone after his father after infesting Marco."

"There's something wrong there," Tobias spoke up. "It seems to me that the Yeerks would have come for us first. Not Marco's father." He had a good point. "He disappeared when? Yesterday after work?"

"Yeah. And they still haven't come for us," Prince Jake answered.

"It's no reason to get cocky, though," Rachel said warily. "Just because they haven't come yet doesn't mean they
aren't going to."

"Rachel is right," I said. "The Yeerks are unpredictable."

"So what do we do?" Jake asked. "Just wait around until they make their move? You know how much I hate being on the defensive."

"Jake, something's been bothering me," Cassie spoke up. "Marco's mom is a Controller. When she went over the edge of that mountain, she knew Marco was there and that he could morph. Then Rachel reports that she may still be alive. Could she be behind this? Taking Marco and then his father?"

"But wouldn't she come for us as well?"

"I guess you're right. Still ..."

We finished the cinnamon buns and left the restaurant even more confused.

No, no!

They had taken my father. My father!

My mother ... my father ... both Controllers ...

And myself. I was a Controller.

And we weren't just Controllers. My mother was still Visser One. My father was Visser Two.

And I ... I was Visser Four.

It couldn't be happening. All my dreams, all my hopes of one day freeing my mother and restoring our family were dashed. We were all Controllers.

My friends were in danger. But for some reason, the Vissers did not seem very interested in them. I knew they
would be, though. They would be, as soon as they were finished with whatever foul plan they were coming up with. Their 'glorious plan', as the Yeerk had called it.

The Vissers were talking in a cold, steel room with no seams. We already knew that Visser One had been disgraced - thanks to us. I assumed that Vissers Two and Four had suffered a similar fate.

"As we have already discussed, we must join forces, if we hope to return to power," Visser One said. "Right now, our greatest weapon is the boy. The second morph-capable Controller. But he will not be the last."

"Our main goal is to destroy Visser Three. We can use the Animorphs to do this." This got my attention.

"Before we go on, why did we take this particular human?" Visser Two asked. He was referring to my father.

"That is personal. These three humans are a family. Seeing each other in this condition will be painful for them."

"How will we bring about destruction to Visser Three?" Visser Four asked. It was my voice, but it wasn't me.

"Through the Animorphs. We will catch them and infest them. Visser Three will be disgraced by the Council
because he could not catch them, and we could so easily. Then, how do the humans say? We will 'kick him while he's down'. Without the Council knowing, of course. Our victory over the Animorphs will be enough to convince the Council to return us to power." She looked at me ... Visser Four. "My greatest fear is that the humans may be too difficult to take. They are clever to have lived this long." Then, to Visser Four, "I suspect your host is taking pleasure in hearing me say this?" I was. Visser One feared us. "Well, don't. Your friends will be destroyed soon enough."

"Shouldn't I acquire some new morphs? There are none here that can stand a chance against Visser Three."
Visser Four said.

"In time, you shall. But not now. You will only need that form, in order to trick the Animorphs into thinking you are
the real Marco."

This was bad. The only good thing was that, if Visser One's plan worked, Visser Three would die. But for that to
happen, my friends would inevitably be made into Controllers.

And I would unwillingly make it possible.

We decided to pass the day flying. We just flew for two hours, demorphed, remorphed, and flew for another two
hours.

It was really, really boring.

< So what're we going to do if the Yeerks do show up? > Tobias asked.

< We'll have to hide out, > Jake answered. < Where, I don't know. Right now we have to wait and see what happens. >

< Ugh, I want to do something! > I yelled. I couldn't stand it, just waiting for the Yeerks to make their move.

< Oh my God, > Cassie said solemnly.

< What? What is it? > I pressed.

< It's ... it can't be! It's ... it's Marco! >

< What? > The rest of us said in unison.

< It's him! It's got to be! >

< Where? Where is he? >

< Down there by the school, > Cassie said. I looked. It was Marco!

< So, if he's alive, then he has to be a Controller! How else could he be here? > Tobias reasoned.

We flew down, keeping our distance. He had to be a Controller.

He walked into the woods, heading toward Tobias' territory. We landed, surrounding him. We kept ourselves hidden from him, however. Demorphing, I watched him through the dense trees between us. We followed him, never letting him know we were there. He seemed to be looking for something.

When finally he came to a clearing, we came out of hiding and quickly surrounded him, preventing him from
escaping.

"Hey, guys," he said nonchalantly.

"Shut up, you Yeerk filth," I said with hatred hanging off every word.

He was thoroughly confused. Or at least he looked like it. "Yeerk filth?" he said, repeating me.

"You can't fool us, Yeerk. We know that you are not Marco."

"Well, you have one thing right," he replied with a sneer. "I am not Marco. But I'm certainly not a Yeerk."

"Yeerk lies. Do you really expect us to be so stupid?"

"If I were a Yeerk, I would have an army supporting me."

"They're hiding," I said defiantly.

"Perhaps this will convince you," he said. I watched as he began to change. It was not happening very fast. Then I realized he wasn't morphing an animal. He was changing into another human!

"Have you figured it out yet, Rachel?" he asked with a cruel laugh. Then I watched in horror as I saw who Marco
was changing into. It was impossible! The others saw it too. We shared a look of shock and terror as the changes finished, and the result was the one person who it could not be.

David.

David was a rat! He was living out his life as a rat, trapped in morph! Stranded on a barren island!

And yet he was standing there, defying logic.

Memories flooded my brain. David had almost killed me. That sort of thing stays with you, you know?

"Nice to see you again, Jake," he said with a gleam in his eye. "So, I guess it's a lion, huh?" Don't ask.

"What ... how ... ?"

"You're wondering why I'm not still cat nip? Well, there's a good, long story behind that. But, long story short,
your friend Crayak made a deal with me. He brings me back to you. I succeed in destroying you and I become
Crayak's new best friend. I fail and I get the pleasure of being erased from the universe. But I can assure you, I
won't have that privilege."

"Oh, you've still got a chance," Rachel sneered. Without warning, she jumped out and swung a fist at him. But
David had seen it coming and ducked out of the way. He countered with a quick jab that connected with Rachel's face. In her shock, he slipped past her and started running, but not before delivering a powerful blow to Ax's left foreleg.

He took off running like the hounds of Hades were on his heels. And with Rachel after him, there wasn't much
difference.

The rest of us were still trying to sort out what had happened. Then Ax went after them, quickly followed by Tobias, Cassie, and myself.

Ax should have caught him easily, if it weren't for his wounded leg. And David had the advantage over the rest of us. I saw Cassie start to morph. Course wolf fur was sprouting all over her body.

I started my tiger morph, but Cassie stopped me. <The wolf will last longer.> I morphed wolf and followed along.

We came to Ax. < Morph and catch up, > I said as I passed him.

< He's getting away! He morphed to bird! > Tobias called down from the sky. He had demorphed and taken wing to watch from above.

< Rachel, you have the strongest bird morph. Morph as soon as you can and chase David. Don't let him get away! >

< I'm already in grizzly morph, so it might be a little while, > she called back to me.

< This is great. David is a golden eagle, and here we all are on the ground. And, no offense, Tobias, but you're no match for a golden eagle. > Too many mistakes. Too many wrong decisions.

Too many consequences.

David would get away, and it was my fault.

Tobias would almost surely die, and it was my fault.

I watched as David flew toward Tobias. And that's when Visser Three showed up.

The Blade Ship of Visser Three.

I assumed the Visser was in a bad mood. We could hear his thought-speak voice all the way outside.
< Report. > There was a pause, as someone answered. < Are there any sentient lifeforms? > Pause. < Any animals which could be Andalites in morph? > Pause. < What do you mean, you don't know? > he yelled. Then, < Someone call the Taxxons in to dispose of this mess. > I could assume what had happened. < This is merely a feeding trip for my host body. Surely you can handle that. >

Then I guess he looked out the front viewport, because the next thing I heard was, < Look! It's a kafit bird! It must
be an Andalite! > Kafit bird? What was he talking about? But no time to worry about it.

< Did you hear that? > I called to the others.

< Yeah, > Jake said. < Let's move! >

I turned away from the ship and dived. My wings were pressed back against my body for speed. The trees came closer ... closer ... I pulled up!

Trees all around me! I swerved and missed the huge tree by a few inches! How could we TREE! get out TREE! of this mess? TREE! But there TREE! was no time TREE! to think. TREE! Finally I burst into the clearing where David had demorphed. Rachel was there. Cassie was there. Jake and Ax were missing, as well as David. Did he escape? We would find him, if he had. He had to be stopped.

Or maybe the Yeerks got him, thinking he was an Andalite. Personally, I didn't care.

Then I realized. David becoming a Controller would be just as bad as one of us. The Yeerks would know our every secret.

As much as I hated to admit it, we had to protect David.

Cassie and Rachel were both morphing wolves as quickly as they could. I followed suit and let the changes begin. I didn't have a wolf morph, but I could morph Hork-Bajir for endurance. Ket Halpak wouldn't have minded.

Of course, we weren't really out in the clearing. The ship might have seen us.

First of all, I started growing. My legs did little more than thicken into the monstrous Hork-Bajir feet. My tail
feathers grew out into a long spiked tail. The rest of my feathers simply withered and disappeared. The change from hawk to Hork-Bajir is surprisingly easy. The features that changed the most were my wings into the dinosaur-like hands of the Hork-Bajir. My neck stretched out and my eyes dimmed. The rest of my body turned tough and greenish brown. The last things to happen were the blades that sprouted pretty much everywhere on my body. There were blades at my ankles, my knees, my elbows, my wrists, and my forehead.

< They'll be sending ground troops pretty soon, > I said to them. < Better start moving. >

We ran. We ran for about fifteen minutes, never slowing.

And then, quite suddenly, we couldn't run anymore. We stood on the edge of a huge ravine. Floating down on the wind was a single bird of prey. Even with my weak eyes I could tell it was way too big to be a falcon or a harrier. It could only be a golden eagle.

< So, we meet again, > David sneered. < By the way, the Yeerks are only half a mile behind you. Whether or not you believe me is your decision. >

< I'll kill you now! > Rachel yelled.

< Rachel, no! You'll die if you jump! >

< Besides, you'd never reach him! He's too far away! > It was weird telling her that. Of course she couldn't reach
him! Anyone could see that! But I guess we were all too consumed with anger to have a good hold on reality.

Then, another form appeared in the sky. A bird, even bigger than David! But it was not any species of bird from
Earth. It had twelve wings.

Visser Three had morphed a similar bird once. Had he found us already?

The bird spoke. < So, David, how have you been? > It was not the evil voice of Visser Three. It was Ax!

< Ahhhh! What is that? > David screamed in horror.

< What, don't you like my kafit bird morph? Why don't I show you what it can do? > With that, Ax dived. David tried to dodge out of the way. But it was no use. Ax slammed into him doing about 150 mph. The shock knocked him unconscious. He fell down through the ravine.

He fell to a large mass of vines that grew out from the wall of the chasm. There was no way Ax could follow him.

< Ax! > I called to him. < How come you never told us you have a kafit bird morph? >

< I ... I thought you already knew, > he said plainly. < I suppose you weren't paying attention when I explained the
details of Andalite warrior training. And you probably don't remember me telling you about the psychophysical
paralellisms of Zero-Space during a rift in space-time ... >

He never came home, so we knew something was wrong. His parents went crazy. Who am I kidding? I went crazy! Let's face it, when someone that close to disappears, you can't just blow it off.

Jake's parents had search teams all over the city and beyond looking for him. At least I had a better idea what might have happened. Not that it made it any better.

None of us had any idea what to do. Marco and Jake were both either dead or Controllers. David was on the loose. Certainly Visser Three had not given up so easily. Or perhaps he had, after taking Jake. If that's what had
happened to him. And if Jake was a Controller, we would have unwelcome company very soon.

Since Jake was gone, we needed a new leader. Rachel volunteered, and no one objected. She decided we should concentrate on David first.

We had left David unconscious in the ravine, but surely he had gotten out since then. He had an advantage over us. He probably knew where we are, looking for the right time to strike. All we could do is wait and go on with our lives.

The Chee had pretended to be us that last Friday, and we had searched for Jake over the weekend. We decided to go back to school. What else could we do?

That first day back was hard. Everyone at school, students and teachers alike, were kind of in shock from Jake's disappearance. He had been really popular, and everyone in the school knew who he was. And of course Marco's disappearance added to it. Although not as many people had known him. Actually, I think most people had just seen him as Jake's best friend.

Despite all the gloominess, it would have been just another day of school. But it wasn't. Everything I saw reminded me of Jake. Rachel's locker, where she had first introduced me to him. The water fountain where I had accidentally drenched both of us.

Jake's locker was covered in all sorts of ribbons and other commemorations. So was Marco's, but it wasn't as
elaborate as Jake's. Everybody suspected that the two disappearances were connected. I knew better.

I made it through most of the day okay. But then, as I was leaving my second to last class, these two bullies, Drake and Woo, approached me. They wore sneers on their faces. "Well, look who it is," Drake said. "I believe it's Cassie."

With a cruel smile, Woo said, "Nah. That can't be Cassie. Cassie's always happy and cheerful."

"No, I'm pretty sure that is Cassie. But I don't why she looks so sad. What do you think?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's that Jake guy."

"You know, you might be right. I heard he died. Him and that kid Marco he always stood up for." Then to me, "Say, didn't you like him? Jake?"

"Yeah, maybe that's why she's so sad. Is that it? Huh?" I broke down. I won't deny that. I started bawling like a baby.

"Cassie! What's the matter?" It was Rachel. "Cassie? Are you all right?" Then I guess she saw Drake and Woo,
because she said a few things that I shouldn't repeat. Then she went after them. Some girl I knew from one of my classes came over and sat with me for awhile. I would have rather it been Rachel, but I accepted the comfort.

Rachel and I were excused for the last hour of school. She told me first that Drake and Woo had gotten away. She had been about to pound them when a teacher stopped her. Then she did me a huge favor by just listening to me as I started to cry over Jake. She offered what comfort she could muster, but she was also starting to break down. Jake had been her cousin after all.

She tried to remind me that it was possible Jake was still alive. But we both knew that if he was, he was almost
definitely a Controller.

We were falling apart. One by one, the Animorphs were breaking up. How long would it be until we were all gone?

We were watching the events that were taking place on Earth right then. My friends had been flying out in the
woods when Visser Three's Blade Ship showed up. I saw the others run away, hoping they would escape to safety. All of them, except for Jake. I saw him fall after being hit by the Dracon beam.

At first, I thought he was dead, but then the Hork-Bajir ground troops picked him up and dragged him back to the ship. They wouldn't bother if he was dead. The shot had only stunned him.

If it had been me, I would have wished it had killed me. I knew what was in for Jake.

He was in wolf morph. So Visser Three probably didn't know he was human.

The Vissers were not happy. They wanted to catch all the Animorphs and prove Visser Three useless to the Council of Thirteen. Now he had captured Jake.

"We must take action," Visser One said. "Before the Council hears word of this. We must eliminate the human."
If I had been in control of my own body, my heart would have caught in my throat.

The Empire Ship sped away towards Earth. The Vissers hoped to intercept Visser Three's Blade Ship before it got very far.

We were relatively close to begin with, and it only took about half an hour for the blue planet to come into sight.
Then it was a matter of minutes to spot the Blade Ship. Visser One's ship broke through the other ship's cloaking device, while shielding itself. It was so much more advanced that there was little trouble boarding Visser Three's ship without him knowing it.

"Visser Four, I believe this is a job for you," Visser One said to me. "You alone can penetrate the guards by
morphing."

I couldn't believe it. I was going to kill Jake! No, Visser Four was going to kill Jake. But he was going to use my
body to do it.

He boarded the ship. To my surprise, there were no guards in the area where we had attached ourselves to the ship. But I knew there would be guards somewhere. The Visser Four morphed to fly. Visser Four said to me,
< Fortunately, I was once a soldier on this ship, and I know that the prison cells can be found by following the
innermost light on the ceiling. >

< Why are you telling me? > I asked him.

< Oh, I want to keep you as involved in Jake's death as possible. >

< I swear I will kill you one day, > I sneered at him.

< I can hardly wait, > he said with an evil laugh.

He flew along close to the ceiling of the long corridor. He followed the neon light closest to the center of the hall. It seemed to go on forever. That was my whole world for awhile. That, and the muffled sound of footsteps below me every now and then.

I took that time to think. Something occurred to me. Why had the Yeerks taken Jake? Did they know? Then I
realized. Visser Three had just been landing in order to feed. Instead, he had stumbled upon the "Andalite bandits". They captured Jake.

And left? Why had they left? Surely they had seen the others. Why hadn't they gone after them? Perhaps they were satisfied with Jake.

My thoughts were interrupted as we reached to the prison cells. There were two Hork-Bajir guarding the hallway of cells. Visser Four knew the gorilla inside me would take them out easily.

He landed around the corner from them, out of their line of sight. By some miracle, they did not happen to walk down the hall and see me. The disgusting process of demorphing from a fly started taking place. Once fully human, the Visser immediately began morphing to gorilla.

Just as the last human features slipped away, the Visser barreled around the corner to face the Hork-Bajir.

When a gorilla has the element of surprise, two Hork-Bajir do not stand a chance. I'll spare you the details of the
next few minutes.

Once the Hork-Bajir were disposed of, Visser Four continued down the hall, searching for Jake. He was the lone prisoner at that time. He was trying with every ounce of energy he could muster to see what was going on. He had heard the fight.

< Marco? > he asked in disbelief. He was still in wolf morph.

< Do you know of any other gorillas who go around beating up Hork-Bajir? > It was exactly what I would have said. But it wasn't me.

< Do you think you can disable this force field? > There was a panel on the wall to my right. The Visser reached
with his massive gorilla fist and easily jarred the controls. The air between Jake and myself shimmered as the
invisible wall powered down.

< Thanks, man. Where are the others? >

The Visser was done with his little act. He stepped up to Jake and held his pathetic wolf body pinned to the ground. No offense to wolves, but compared to a gorilla, a wolf is helpless.

< What are you doing? >

< So, you haven't figured it out yet, huh? >

< You ... you're a Controller! >

< A Visser, actually. Visser Four to be specific. > With that, he crushed Jake with his weight. Every rib had to be
broken. I tried not to think about it, but it was kind of hard not to considering the fact that I was the one killing him. The Visser reached down his hand and closed it around the wolf neck. He squeezed. And squeezed.

I, no, he squeezed the life out of Jake.

Jake, our fearless leader.

Jake was dead.

I don't know how the Yeerk kept me suppressed as he snuck back to Visser One's Empire Ship. I was screaming inside my head, crying out for my friend.

Jake was dead. I envied him.

We stayed together as much as we could. We wanted to be strongest when the attack came. Days were spent in silent chaos, everyone's minds working, analyzing the situation.

Then something happened. We were in the woods near Tobias' territory when Marco showed up.

He came running up and said, "There you are!" Rachel was on him in a flash.

"That was pretty stupid, David," she snarled at him. Then, to the rest of us, "Hold him while I morph."

"David?" he asked, clearly baffled. "I'm not David."

"Oh, come on! How can you expect us to believe that? You're dumber than I thought!" Rachel was quickly becoming a grizzly bear.

"Look, I'm not David. How can I prove it?"

< You can't, because I'm going to kill you. Right now. >

"Rachel, wait," Cassie spoke up. "David wouldn't have just come out so easily. He would have had some plan. Some sneaky plan. That wouldn't have involved getting caught."

< Cassie, you don't believe him, do you? >

"I don't know. But I will. Marco, or David, or whoever you are, morph something to let us know you're not David in
Marco morph."

With that, he promptly began morphing to gorilla. "Stop," Cassie ordered. We had seen that he could have morphed to gorilla if he had wanted to. Which meant he wasn't David.

< Okay. You're not David. But who are you? >

"Why do you think I'm David?"

< I'm asking the questions here. Who are you? >

"I'm Marco, of course."

< Erek saw Marco floating in the water after the cruise ship sank. No one survived. >

"I survived!"

< How? >

"I can't really explain what it is. But if you'll come with me, I'll show you."

< Don't anybody go with him! It's obviously a trap. >

Then Tobias called down from a branch, < I seem to remember us deciding that Marco was either dead or a
Controller. And I don't think he's dead. >

< So you are a Yeerk. > I sneered at him. < He wants us to follow him in the woods to his friends, waiting to take us prisoner. > The Yeerk was getting worried now.

"Tie him up," Cassie said plainly.

< Everybody morph for extra security. Ax, just stay Andalite. > Everybody did so, and we escorted David to the same shed in the forest where we had held Prince Jake so long ago.

"It isn't going to work!" the Yeerk cried out. He had meant for us to think he was yelling at us, but I saw him
depress a button on a concealed comm unit. He was talking to the other Yeerks! They would be here soon to back him up.

"Face the truth, Yeerk. You're finished," Rachel said cruelly.

< He wasn't talking to us, Rachel. He is communicating with other Yeerks. > I stepped toward him and found the
comm unit hidden under his shirt. I quickly disposed of it with my tail.

"Why don't you just give up, Yeerk?" Rachel asked him. "Come on out of there and I'll just kill you. A better death
than Kandrona starvation."

< He could, but he still has a chance of surviving. > A new thought-speak voice - David!

I turned just in time to see the huge lion pounce on Rachel.

"AAHHH!" I screamed. The pain!

Ax came to help me, but I was between him and David. He wouldn't risk hitting me with his tail. David pulled back and got ready to strike again.

"Ax, don't worry about me! Just kill him! Kill me if you have to, just kill him!" I hated David. He had made our war
personal, so many years ago. I wanted him dead. Even at my expense.

No, what was I thinking? David wasn't even the one we were supposed to be fighting. He was our enemy. The Yeerks were the whole world's enemies. The world needed me to stop them. Not David.

But I knew that Ax would not kill me.

Or would he? He had thought Jake was his prince and would have done anything Jake demanded of him. I guess I was his - I don't know, do Andalites have princesses?

David leaped forward. I tried to roll out of the way, but his teeth still sunk into my leg.

Ax was clear. His tail whipped forward and sliced cleanly through David's shoulder. He cried out in thought-speak.

Then, another scream, also in thought-speak. It came from Ax! I looked and saw that Marco - I mean the Yeerk - had morphed to gorilla and punched Ax in the side with his massive fist.

Cassie was morphing wolf as fast as she could. I didn't know where Tobias was.

No time to think about that. I, fearless Rachel, Xena, Warrior Princess, couldn't even find a chance to morph. David was still after me, but the wounded shoulder slowed him down. Ax and the Yeerk were going all out. Cassie and Tobias were almost finished morphing. Luckily, they had found their way outside.

In the midst of confusion, I managed to get outside. I kept telling myself it was so I could morph. But I couldn't help feeling guilty for not being in the shed.

I started morphing faster than I have ever morphed in my life. I wasn't even thinking consciously anymore. It was
just pure instinct.

The grizzly mind flooded my brain. I succumbed to it, let it take over.

I tore into the shed. I stayed conscious enough to avoid hurting my friends. I searched for my target.

A gorilla fighting with a blue scorpion-tailed centaur. A wolf had joined in to help.

There he was. David had demorphed and was nearly back into morph. I charged. I plowed into him just as the morph completed. I fell on top of him, all my grizzly weight on top of him. He slashed at me from underneath and left a deep gash in my side.

I was up in an instant, ready for anything. He jumped to his feet and sprang at me. I rushed forward.

Then, the impact. We both slashed at each other with sharp claws. Suddenly, I only had one paw to slash with.

Now I was angry. The grizzly was angry. The big cat would pay. Nothing fought me and lived! Nothing!
"RAAAAWWWWRRRR!!!!!"

David was going for my neck. One bite their would most likely kill me. I struck with my one good fist. I struck
again, and again! Still he kept coming.

I was losing a lot of blood. Where was David? I couldn't see ... couldn't think ... He was on my back! I felt his breath on my neck!

< I must congratulate you, Rachel, > David said to me. < You have been a worthy opponent. We could have been something great together. We could have taken the Yeerks. But fate decided we should be enemies. You have fought well, but in the end, evil prevails over good. So long, Rachel. See you in - >

"HhhuuuurrHHHHEEEEEAAAAH!" David was interrupted by the incredible trumpeting of an elephant.

< What? What was that? > Just then, Tobias rushed into the shed. That is, he knocked a hole in the wall and
barrelled through. Letting out another trumpeting blast, he wrapped his trunk around David's body and lifted him
up.

< Guess it's my turn to take out the trash, > Tobias muttered as he squeezed his trunk. Before he could kill him
though, a blinding light lit up the shed as the walls were destroyed. TSSSEEEEEWWW! It was a Dracon Beam! But this was no ordinary handheld weapon.

I turned and looked where the shot had come from. It was a huge ship! I recognized it as Visser One's Empire Ship, even with my dim eyesight.

TSSEEEEEEWW! Another shot! This one hit David. It left a gaping semicircle in his side. Tobias' trunk was also cut off.

David's body fell to the ground. Then, Ax screamed, < Get out of here! Everybody! > I saw an eerie light shining on David. Then I realized. I ran. Everyone else followed. Looking back, I saw the ship coming closer to investigate.

David's light was getting brighter and brighter. He had said that part of Crayak's deal was that if he failed to
destroy us, he would be erased from the universe. Something like that had to use an enormous amount of energy. Violent energy.

At the last second, a Bug Fighter left the ship in a hurry to get away from the explosion.

Then it happened. David's body exploded, completely destroying what was left of the shed and clearing out a 30-yard radius of trees. And the ship.

It erupted into a flaming ball of fire. The blast of heat was intense. Clouds of smoke poured from the monstrosity.
The remains of the burning ship fell to the ground. It was charred and black. In fact, it looked like a huge burning
rock.

So many lives ... sure, many of them were Yeerks, but a lot of innocent hosts were dead, too.

"Do not move! Attempt to escape and you will be destroyed!"

Our secret was out! They knew about us! Escape was impossible. Earth would fall to Yeerks.

< Wait a minute, > I said to others. < It's just one Bug Fighter. There can't be many people on there. Not enough to stop us. >

Ax replied, < They would already have told other Yeerks. >

< But Visser One has been disgraced, remember? No other Yeerks would believe her. And her own army just ...
well, you know. >

< Demorph and play along, > Rachel said to everyone. < When they come out for us, do whatever you can to take them out. > Pure Rachel.

We all started demorphing, except for Ax. The Bug Fighter landed, and the hatch opened. Out stepped Visser One and ... Marco's father? What was he doing here? He had to be a Controller.

"So, here we have the 'Andalite Bandits' that have been causing Visser Three so much trouble. I must congratulate you in that aspect." Marco went over to stand with the other two. It was strange, seeing the family back together again, knowing they were all Controllers.

Marco, no, the Yeerk in Marco's head said, "It's too bad Jake couldn't be here, but I'm afraid I had to kill him when we found out he had been captured by Visser Three. We wouldn't have wanted to let him get any credit for catching you."

"No!" I cried out. Jake was dead! I couldn't believe it. Jake, the one person I really cared about, was gone.

At least he wasn't a Controller. I could be happy for him about that. But I had no time to mourn over him. Visser One was taking us on board the ship.

Suddenly Rachel reached out and snatched at her handheld Dracon Beam. It fell to the ground, but before she could get it, Marco's father pulled his own weapon on her and shot her. But she merely fell to the ground, unconscious. She was still alive, just stunned. "Anyone else want to try and resist?" he said.

< I'll take a whack at it, > Tobias yelled as he dove from above and raked at the Controller's head. He closed his
talons around the gun.

By then, Visser One had recovered her weapon and was about to shoot Tobias. I leaped at her and rammed into her with all my might. She fell over and fired at the same time, accidentally hitting Marco. He dropped, identical to Rachel.

Ax stepped forward and hit Marco's father with the flat of his tail blade. He had finally come out of a trance had been in since the Bug Fighter showed up.

Visser One was on top of me, fists flying. I couldn't possibly morph. I was losing consciousness, taking many blows. Then there was the sound of a weak Dracon Beam firing. Visser One fell still.

Tobias had hit her with the beam in his talons. < I never thought I would get to do that again, > he said with a weak laugh. I stood up and looked around me. Visser One, Marco's father, Marco, and Rachel were all knocked out. Ax, Tobias, and I were the only ones left standing.

< You two stay out here and make sure the Yeerks do not wake up. And get their weapons. I'll go on the ship and see if I can find any stimulants for Rachel or anything else useful, > Ax suggested. I did as he said.

He returned a few minutes later a pouch that I guessed was a stimulant. He emptied it into Rachel's bloodstream. She woke up in an instant.

"What? What happened? Where am I?" she asked. She was full of energy.

"Yep, that's definitely a stimulant, Ax." I tried to make a joke, but I was still so depressed from finding out about
Jake. Suddenly I couldn't hold it in anymore. I fell to my knees and started bawling.

"Cassie, it's all -" Rachel tried to comfort me.

"No! It's not all right! Jake is gone. He's dead. No. Oh, no."

"Cassie, we'll all miss him. He was a great friend and leader. But we have to go on. We knew we wouldn't all be
together forever." She was right. We couldn't stop fighting just because one of us was gone. Elfangor had given us the morphing power so that we could save Earth. We had to keep trying.

No matter what happened, we had to keep trying.

That became Ax's and my job for the next three days. Rachel and Cassie went back to their lives, which were filled with misery. Everyone was still in shock from Jake's and Marco's disappearance. Marco and his father would return soon, But of course his mother could not. Everyone thought she was dead. There would be no explaining that.

There was a huge article in the paper the day after the fight. Thousands of people read about a large "meteorite" that had fallen in the forest and cleared out many trees. It was a big deal. Many people reported seeing a bright light had hearing a terrible explosion. It was the biggest thing to hit our little town in a long time. Literally.

A few days later, the big news story was the mysterious return of a man and his son. They were alive and well, and even making jokes. Their first sarcastic claim was that they had been 'abducted by aliens.'

When we found out that the Yeerks we killed were Vissers One, Two and Four, it made us feel a little better. The
war was starting to turn in our favor. For awhile. Or maybe this meant that the Yeerks would focus on humans
more.

One of us was gone. Our fearless leader, Jake. Marco had almost been lost. We realized that we were not invincible. And we knew that the war wasn't over yet. As long as there was a single Yeerk left, we would keep fighting.

Fighting for Jake.

Fighting for Elfangor.

Fighting for planet Earth.