The Conclusion

By Jessie
 My name is Jake. I can't tell you my last name because secrecy is essential in this war. It's been going on for a while now. Sometimes it seems like my whole life has been this war. It's been enough to fill a lifetime. But my life did exist before it, even though now I think that if I were to go back in time and see the old Jake, the Jake of Before, I would hardly recognize him. Maybe you'd think we'd get used to it, fighting, and all the pain we've inflicted and the pain we've endured, but I know I never will. And I'll never stop wishing it were over, all though it's hard to imagine what it would be like if it were.
 We were in the forest near Ax's scoop, trying to come up with a plan. I'd eavesdropped on Tom's phone conversations and heard him saying that The Sharing would be constructing a haunted house in the mall for a local kid's charity benefit. The maze of ghosts and spider webs would lead down to the Yeerk pool for infestation. It would certainly be the most terrifying haunted house ever.
 "Crash the construction of it," Rachel was saying. "Go in and just demolish whatever they're planning to do. They know we know The Sharing's front, and this way they'll know we're onto their plan. Make them wary."
 "One problem, Rachel," Marco said. "Isn't the benefit at the mall? Supposing we happen to accidentally destroy Old Navy while we're at it? How would you be able to live with yourself?"
 Rachel was glaring at Marco and looking about ready to say something smart back to him, and Ax suddenly rushed over to his scoop. I looked over at him. He was looking anxiously at a blinking object,
something he had constructed.
 < Prince Jake! > he yelled. Ax never yells.
 "What?" I asked, jogging over, followed by the others.
 < It is a message from an Andalite Dome Ship! >
 "You can receive messages?" Marco asked.
 < Yes, I constructed this device some time ago, but there has never been any reply until now. It can only be heard on ships relatively close to this planet because I did not have the materials to make it reach the home world. If I'd had a stronger Z-Space transponder, which would increase the velocity of- >
 "What does it say?" Rachel cried impatiently.
 < It is a message from Prince Galuit. Since we aided him on the Planet Leera, he has been assembling a task force to come to earth. Quite a large one. Most of the Andalite fleet. >
 I glanced at Cassie. Her eyes were wide with excitement and a look of hope like she wasn't daring to hope.
 "So . . ." I said, hardly believing it. "The Andalites are coming?"
 < Yes, Prince Jake. >
 For a minute, nobody said anything. We were all shocked happy, too happy to speak. What we'd hoped for so long was finally coming true, finally.
 "This is so great!" Rachel said, initially surprising me with her enthusiasm. I hadn't thought about it, but I guess I'd just assumed Rachel wouldn't be very excited about the fight ending, the possibility of no more battles. I looked at her, and she was staring straight at Tobias, perched on a low sycamore branch. Her eyes shone as she stared at him.
 "I can hardly believe it," Cassie said softly. She smiled at me and a minute later we were hugging in happiness. I expected Marco to say something but his eyes had a hard, thinking look in them. He was
already strategizing.
 < Prince Jake. >
 "Yeah?"
 < Prince Galuit wants us to join him. He says that he wants us there when the Yeerks fall. He will be sending a cloaked Andalite fighter down to retrieve us. >
 Instinctively I looked up at the sky, wanting to see what was coming, even though Ax had said it was cloaked.
 < Well, > Tobias said 

 The Andalites were cordial to Ax but wary and nearly snide to us, despite the fact that their prince had requested us. We were escorted to a small room, away from everything and they were going to let Ax stay with them, but he said he'd rather remain with us. The trip to the Dome Ship wasn't long at all, thanks to superior Andalite technology that one day humans would understand, if we survived. And now, at last, it looked like our chances of survival were pretty good. We docked with the Dome Ship, which I couldn't actually see, and were led to another small room. A few minutes later a door opened and two Andalites stepped in. One I recognized as Prince Galuit . The other had lost one stalk eye and half of his face, probably in battle.
 < Aristh Aximili and humans, I want you to see what is going to happen. What we're up against. > He turned to the Andalite with the one stalk eye. < Tactical Officer! Window! >
 < Clear, > the T.O. said, and suddenly the left wall ceased to be there. It was a huge window looking out on stars and stars and infinite blackness. And ships, hundreds of them. There was the big Dome Ship and little Andalite fighters all around it. And directly across from us was the Yeerk Mother Ship, huge, spider-like, and threatening. Around it were bug fighters and a larger ship shaped like a battle ax.
 The sides looked pretty evenly matched. It would be messy. I saw Rachel's eyes light up and Cassie's droop.
 "I guess I thought there wouldn't be any more battles once the Andalites were here," she whispered to me.
 "I didn't really, either. But hopefully, this will be the last one."
 < Sir, > Ax said. < What are our chances of winning? >
 < Fairly good. We look evenly matched, but the loss of Leera was a great blow to the Yeerks. They were severely weakened. That, and they have recently been at loss for capable leaders. > I smiled a little at that. < It will be a relatively easy victory. And that is what you will see when you witness the fall of the Yeerks! >
 Galuit swept out of the room. The T.O. said sharply, < You will stay here humans, and Aristh Aximili, unless you wish to join us. >
 
 < Very well. > He left.
 "Why do we have to stay here?" Marco demanded. "Why bring us all the way up here just to stick us in some little room?"
 "I don't know," I said. I personally wasn't feeling offense. Maybe normally I would have, but I was too excited and grateful to really care.
 The explosions began. Bright beams fired from our ship. There was no sound or impact for us as two bug fighters exploded, just a flash of white light.
 Cassie looked away.
 "Well," I said. "I guess this'll really be it."
 < Hard to imagine it all over, isn't it? > Tobias said.
 "Yeah," said Cassie. "But not that hard."
 I didn't know about that. I couldn't imagine going back to the way my life had been before, where the most important thing I cared about was winning my argument with Marco over whether Spiderman could beat Batman. I could hardly even imagine living without all the stress and pain. The idea sounded so dreamlike, restful, but not like something that would actually come to pass.
 "What will we do when it's over?" Rachel asked.
 Cassie shrugged. "Go back to our lives, I guess. Go to school, do homework, be kids, live."
 < Try to put it behind us, > Tobias said.
 Rachel stared at Tobias, and she got a far away look in her eyes. Tobias was probably talking to her in private thought speak. She seemed to be replying with her eyes.
 I looked away from them, and turned to Cassie. "Sounds nice, doesn't it?"
 "Yes."
 There was an impact like a mild earthquake. I stumbled back, and fell into Cassie, who fell against the wall.
 "What was that?" I asked, when we were all righted again.
 < A fighter was hit, relatively near us, > Ax said.
 "An Andalite fighter?"
 < Yes. >
 There was another explosion, harder this time, and I saw pieces of Andalite ship go spinning past, outside our window.
 "Close the window!" Cassie demanded. "Please."
 < Opaque, > Ax said, and the window was a wall again. I was glad. I didn't want to think about all those Andalite soldiers from so far away fighting for our planet. Fighting our war for us.
 The explosions came regularly, and, with the window closed we couldn't see what damage the Andalites were doing to the Yeerk side. It felt like we were loosing.
 "Ax," I said after a while, "Open the window. I want to know if we're loosing."
 < Clear, > Ax said, and I looked out. It was a shocking site. Nearly half of the bug fighters I'd seen before were simply gone.
 < We're winning, > Tobias whispered.
 "Oh my gosh, we're actually winning!" I exclaimed, and had a mad urge to hug Cassie again, but didn't because surely Marco would tease us this time.
 Suddenly, bug fighters, seemingly innumerable, began to appear out of the sky.
 "What's that?" I demanded. "Do the Yeerks have reinforcements?"
 
 "No!" Marco said. "Visser One! She's near earth. She can't go back to the Yeerk home world because she's wanted there. She probably stayed relatively close to earth, so she can come back and capture us, make Visser Three look bad."
 I saw Rachel glare at him. It was his fault that Visser One knew about us, if she was still alive, which it looked like she was. Marco glared back.
 "So, why is she here now? And where'd she get all those troops?"
 "She's here to save the day, rescue them. That way she'll be about to take all the credit for it, and maybe even put Visser Three to shame. And remember? She had loyal Yeerks. Lots of her old forces stayed with her, even when she was disgraced."
 "What do you think, Ax?" I asked. "Think we'll still be able to win?"
 
 I sighed heavily with hopes dashed.
 The battle had turned. < Aristh Aximili! > An Andalite rushed into our small room. < The captain has
requested that you join the battle. With the arrival of these new Yeerks, we need every soldier we have. >
 < Prince Jake? > Ax asked.
 "Yes, Ax. But we're going, too."
 < What? > the officer asked.
 "My friends and I. We're going, too. You said you need help. And this is our planet you're fighting for. We're going to help."
 
 "We'll go in the same fighter as Ax. Now."
 I wanted to get going. I was sick at the thought of all these Andalites fighting for us, and now probably loosing, while we sat here simply because we were human. The others were smiling. I could tell they felt the same way. Even Cassie, who hates battle, looked proud of me for taking action.
 < All right. This way. > He led us out of the room, and back to the loading dock. We quickly boarded a small fighter, which Ax said he knew how to operate. We flew out into deep space.
 Ax drove it, and Marco got the weapons. There wasn't much else for the rest of us to do, so we just looked out the windows, saying "There's a bug fighter! Too your right, Marco! Shoot!" and he would fire.

Our fighter was really too small to destroy any opposing ships, but it did damage them. And then the larger Andalite craft could finish them off. I tried not to think about that part.
 It wasn't like in Star Wars where the ships were swooping around, narrowly missing being blown up. It was more organized. The Yeerks had their side, we had ours, and we were simply firing at each other, but we weren't terribly close. Still, it was thrilling and horrible. Horrible, because we were loosing.
 With the new bug fighters, they outnumbered us two to one. It would be over soon.
 We saw a larger bug fighter swoop past, in front of us and around back to the Yeerk side. It stopped next to the Blade Ship, which seemed to be hovering in the background.
 "Ax, follow that bug fighter," Marco said. "It's Visser One. She's going to take Visser Three out personally."
 "Then why should we get into it? It's their own politics battle. Doesn't concern us." Rachel said. "Now, Marco, please can I have a turn at the weapons?"
 "No, we need to get into it. Do you think she's gonna kill Visser Three, even if she has a hundred Hork Bajir? No way. He'll get her, and the Andalites won't get him. This could very well be our last battle in this war, and we're just gonna let Visser Three get off? We're hardly doing anything out here anyway."
 "Okay," I said. "Let's go."
 Ax followed. I sighed. I'd wanted to help, do some fighting. Now I was really getting the chance.

 It was surprisingly easy to dock with the Blade Ship. Most of their security was going toward the recent arrival of Visser One. They hardly noticed us. We slipped out of our little fighter, and quickly found an empty storage room to morph in. I felt the orange and black fur racing across my body, the liquid steel muscles of the tiger rising up over my own, and his own ferocious power. I was ready to use it. And I couldn't help still hoping that this would be the last time I'd have to.
 Visser Three and Visser One were talking in the excited, blood thirsty voices that come right before battle when each side is planning to win, and they're taunting each other. There were dozens of Hork Bajir around both Vissers, but I knew that Visser One had no hope of winning. Why was she so confident? Visser Three was an army all by himself. Even in his Andalite body he would easily beat her, and surely he would morph into some terrifying alien creature. There was no way she could win, and Marco was right, Visser Three would go free. It was up to us to kill him. But I wasn't sure we'd be able to do a much better job that Visser One would.
 When they began fighting, Visser One firing Dracon beams and Visser Three slicing up her Hork Bajir with his tail blade, we jumped from behind the doorway and attacked Visser Three's Hork Bajir.
 < Andalites! > Visser Three screamed.
 "No, you fool, not Andalites," Visser One said between Dracon shots. Fortunately, she was distracted from finishing telling Visser Three the truth about us because a huge Hork Bajir was racing toward her.
 I lunged at a Hork Bajir. He reached out to cut me, and I dodged. I didn't think, I just moved. I threw aside the Hork Bajir as they fell, shoving my way toward Visser Three. This was going to end today. The Andalites had come and they were the only hope we had ever had. They were here and they were going to win and it was going to be over. Visser Three was going to die today.
 I fought insanely, madly, tearing and ripping and biting, and not caring. I caught a glimpse of Tobias, he'd morphed polar bear, simply knocking down a Hork Bajir unconscious. For a split second I wondered if this raging determination was what Rachel felt all the time, but then a blade was severing my left back leg, and I attacked.
 Hork Bajir and Taxxons were falling away all around me, some from us, some from Visser One's troops, and some from Visser One's own Dracon beam. I ripped the throat out of a Hork Bajir and stepped over and on him, and I was almost to Visser Three. He was deep in combat with two bears, a grizzly and a polar bear, Rachel and Tobias. Why hadn't he morphed? Probably the attack had been so quick and brutal and unexpected he simply hadn't had time to.
 See, Visser, you are going to die today.
 < Taxxons! > Visser Three yelled, and I saw why. Dozens of foul breathed, slimy worms flooded into the room. They began firing Dracon beams wildly, hitting everything, including their fellow Taxxons.
 A searing pain like fire hit me. Dracon beam! In my right shoulder. The pain was intense. I stumbled, and let a Hork Bajir live.
 < Jake! Jake! > Cassie cried, limping toward me. Her wolf fur was soaked with blood. Her own? Please not her own.
 < I'm all right, Cassie, > I said. And I was, well, not really, but I didn't think I would die from this wound. < Are you okay? > I asked her.
 
 < Cassie, you're hurt. Can you walk? Walk back to the hallway we were hiding in. Demorph. Cassie. Demorph. >
 < I'll . . . uh, yeah, okay. > She started away, and fell forward. < Jake! > She cried as she hit the floor.
 < Cassie! Cassie, come on, get up. >
 < I've got her, Jake, > Marco said, and with his huge gorilla arms he gently picked her up.
 < Take her outside. Make her demorph. >
 Marco hurried out of the room, and amazingly didn't get hit with the Dracon beams that were firing everywhere, all though there were less than there had been. I saw over by the far doorway from which the Taxxons had come, Ax, slicing the worms in half, covered in green Taxxon goo. And a lot of what was left of them were eating the severed bodies of their fellow Taxxons, while the Yeerks in their heads screamed for their hosts to stop, and continue to hurt, and hopefully kill us and Visser One, who miraculously was still alive, being
only in a weak human body.
 Tobias and Rachel were still in intense combat with Visser Three, and I rushed to join them. But my mad, panic rage was gone. Even while I clawed at Visser Three's Andalite body, I glanced over his shoulder, hoping to see Marco and Cassie, alive and healthy, coming back into the room.
 The Taxxon calvary certainly didn't last long. Five minutes after they'd arrived, firing their Dracon beams, only one remained, and he was feasting. That was all thanks to Ax. Ax casually sliced the Taxxon, and ran to join us. But I still heard the Dracon shots going off. I looked, and the Taxxon wasn't dead yet, dying, but still alive and firing wildly. The Dracon beam grazed my back, and hit Rachel, but apparently not badly, just burning her fur. Then I heard a very distinctly human cry of pain. For a moment I thought it was Cassie, and almost ran from Visser Three to find her. But then, out of the corner of my tiger's eye, I saw Visser One, staggering, dying.
 Marco was running toward her, just back from taking Cassie outside.
 < Mom! > he yelled. < Mom! >
 < Marco, no! > I ordered him.
 But he continued to run to her, and the few remaining Hork Bajir that still surrounded Visser One ran. He knelt next to her, as well as a gorilla can kneel.
 < Mom, Mom, come on. >
 "Marco," she said, and I could tell it was the real her, not the Yeerk. In it's agony, the Yeerk let her regain control of her body for her last few minutes. "Marco, I love you. Thank you."
 < You'll be okay, you will . . . >
 "No. Tell your father I love him, too. And I love you, Marco. Keep smiling."
 < Mom . . . >
 < Well, what is this?> Visser Three roared. < And all this time I thought you were Andalites. You've fought well, humans. But your luck has run out today. >
 < Oh no, > Tobias moaned.
 < He knows. > Rachel said. < What do we do? >
 < Just keep fighting him. If we kill him, it won't matter if he knows. > I doubled my fighting efforts, trying to ignore the searing wounds on my body. But my brain kept going over that one, simple fact. He knew our secret.
 Well, Jake, maybe it will end today. But maybe not the way you thought.
 Suddenly, another earthquake seemed to rock the entire Blade Ship. We were hit! I waited tensely for the explosion, for the ship to simply blow up. It didn't. It had just been weakened.
 But the remaining Hork-Bajir ran at the hit. I don't know if their Yeerks were simply afraid, or if they were going to bug fighters. I don't really care. Visser Three was alone, now, with only the three of us.
 Oh yes, you are going to die.
 Visser Three quite suddenly broke free of Rachel's grip and Tobias's jaws and bolted. He ran, leaping over fallen bodies as he went.
 < After him! > I cried. He could not get away. He was dying today.
 < Prince Jake, > Ax said. < Please. May I go alone? >
 I stopped, and, for what seemed like the first time since we had started fighting, I breathed.
 Elfangor. Ax wanted to avenge Elfangor's death. Kill Visser Three. This was so important to Ax. Such an important part of Andalite society. Avenge Elfangor, who had given us our powers. Ax's brother. Tobias's father.
 But Ax could get killed! Without even one of us there to help? Visser Three's Andalite body had more experience than Ax did. He was older, bigger. How could I risk Ax's life just so he could pay back Visser
Three?
 < Prince Jake? >
 I didn't know. And Visser Three was getting away, retreating.
 < Yes, Ax. >
 He ran off. Rachel and Tobias didn't say anything to me. I don't know if they approved of my decision or not. Marco finally left his mother's body and came over.
 < Marco, where'd you take Cassie? >
 < To a little closet or whatever. Just down the hall. >
 I limped off as fast as I could. Rachel was behind me.
 < Cassie? > I called. < Cassie? >
 Come on, Cassie, answer. Still be alive, Cassie. Please.
 Rachel knocked down the door to the closet. I saw Cassie there, lying half-morphed on the floor.
 < Cassie! >
 I ran to her, demorphing as I went.
 "Cassie! Cassie, Cassie, are you okay?" I knelt beside her. She was still breathing, barely, but she didn't answer.
 "Cassie! Answer me! Cassie!"
 Those moments lasted forever.
 I knelt by her, tears streaming down my face, landing on hers.
 "Cassie . . ." Gently I reached down and wiped them away from her face.
 "Please, Cassie," I whispered.
 Her eyelids fluttered. "Cassie . . ." Slowly, slowly, her own beautiful human flesh began to emerge from what was left of her wolf fur. "Cassie . . ."
 She opened her eyes, and stared at me. "Hi, Jake," she said.
 Before I knew it, I was kissing her frantically, and hugging her and trying to help her up and falling down next to her at the same time. And in between our kisses, I kept saying "You're all right, you're all right!" That made her laugh so her kisses were soft and airy, and mine were soft but long.
 When we parted, Cassie stood up and hugged Rachel, who had demorphed. Then she turned and hugged me again, and we both laughed.
 "Okay, Cassie," Marco said. He and Tobias had followed us. "My turn. I'm happy you're alive, too."
 She laughed, and I laughed and seconds later we were all laughing in convulsions.
 "Okay, everyone," I said, recovering first. "Let's go find Ax."
 I was tempted to go in after Ax. What was taking him so long? It seemed like we'd been waiting forever. I morphed back to tiger and started to go after him. Actually, Rachel and I started at the same moment.
 < No, you guys. > Tobias said. < Ax needs to do this alone. >
 Rachel and I sighed and waited.
 No one spoke for most of the time we were waiting. I had too many emotions going through me to speak. Impatience, anxiety, hope, fear, relief . . . it was too much to think about. I just held Cassie's hand.
 Ax came out, finally. He looked tired, and older somehow.
 "Well, Ax?" I said.
 He looked at me straight in the eye. < Prince Jake, I have avenged my brother. >

 We boarded our fighter and headed back to the Dome Ship. There were noticeably fewer bug fighters than there had been before. I didn't know why, the Andalites shouldn't have been able to fend off all of Visser One's troops.

I looked at Marco, to see how he was handling it. His mother was gone, this time for real. I hoped he'd be okay. He'd seemed all right before, making fun of Cassie and me. But I could only imagine how he was feeling. I remembered when I'd come so close to loosing my own father, how messed up I'd been. But Marco had saved him. I hadn't saved her.
 We docked with the Dome Ship and were told that Visser One's troops at retreated, because their leader was dead. Killed by a haphazardly aimed shot by a Taxxon.
 < Now, it is only a matter of getting rid of the remainder of Visser Three's troops. > The T.O. said.
 "Sir, Visser Three has been killed," I said.
 < What? The Abomination? Who has done this? >
 "Aristh Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill."
 < Aristh Aximili, thank you. >
 
 < Yes, you certainly have. >
 We were ushered back to our little room. I was glad. We'd had enough battle. And so much had happened, I wanted to sort it out. We closed the window and waited for the battle to end.
 I meant to figure things out, how to explain to people all that had happened, if I wanted to explain. How to destroy the Yeerk pool without destroying the town. What to do about the free Hork-Bajir, what to do about The Sharing, what to do about the utterly bizarre fact that I still had to go to school on Monday, and my English paper that I still hadn't done.
 I meant to sort it all out, but instead I sat with Cassie, while the battle for our race went on outside and thought about how nice it was to hold her hand.
 They brought us food, and let Ax out to graze. We slept, uncomfortably on the floor. It all had an atmosphere of ease to it, we were winning. I don't know how long we stayed there since the Andalites had first come. I don't know if it was a day, a week, or a few hours. But it seemed long enough.
 Prince Galuit rushed into our room. < It is over. >
 Silence. We all stared at him.
 "You mean . . . it's over over?"
 < The last of the Yeerks are retreating. >
 I can hardly describe how I felt. It was as if the entire universe opened up , and was beautiful. The largest burden had just been lifted from my shoulders. It was over. Over. I relished the world. It was Over.
 
 < Thank you, sir. >
 < Please come with me, Aristh. You, too, humans. > We followed him out, around hallways and into the
Dome. It was beautiful, teaming with strangely colored grasses and trees, and a sparkling river. It reminded me a little of the Pemalite ship submerged deep in the ocean. Lots of Andalites stood around, seeming to wait for
something to happen. Galuit led Ax to the center of the crowd.
 < Because of your courage and determination to serve your prince and your people, I bestow you, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, the title of war prince. >
 A cheer went up among the Andalites, and we cheered, too.
 < We will now perform the hero ritual. > To be honest, I didn't really pay attention to the ritual. But I saw Ax, and he looked the proudest, happiest I've ever seen him. He was saying the words as if each were the most important ever uttered. I was so glad for him. I knew this was what he wanted, to live up to his brother. And he had. He had before now, but now he was getting recognized for it. Which he deserved. The ritual over, Ax and Galuit went off. When Ax came back, his eyes were shining.
 < Prince Jake, may I talk to you? >
 "Sure, Ax."
 
 I stared at Ax, my friend, an Andalite. He'd been with us in so much. "Yes, Ax. Go home."
 < Thank you, Prince Jake. >
 "Ax, I don't think I'm really your prince anymore."
 < You will always be worth of being called Prince. >
 We landed soon, back on earth. We each said our good byes to Ax. Tobias and Ax's was long and private. I kept mine short. I didn't really feel like there was much more to say. We got off the Andalite ship, home. On our planet, earth. Earth, which was free again.

 We met in the woods, three days later. We'd sealed off what entrances we could to the Yeerk pool, and destroyed the Kandrona. As of today, all human-controllers were free. Chapman was free. Tom was free. It was so wonderful. Nobody knew what he had done. We decided we didn't want anyone to know.
 "Hey, Marco!" I called, running up to him.
 "Yeah, Jake?"
 "You okay, man? I'm really sorry about your mother."
 "Yeah," he said quietly. "Me, too. You know, I really thought we would free her, someday. That someday we'd get her back, and we'd be happy again. I really thought that."
 I didn't know what to say. I'm not great at understanding people and making them feel better. Cassie's better at that.
 "At least there's closure with her. An ending. You don't have to worry anymore."
 "Yeah," he said bitterly. "At least there's closure."
 I looked at him, my best friend, who was always making jokes, always laughing. He wasn't laughing now. But I knew that one day, he'd laugh again. Marco walked away, just as Tobias swooped down from the sky, and Rachel and Cassie came up. Tobias landed next to Rachel, his last flight completed.
 < Well, > he said. 
 "It'll be okay, Tobias." I said. He morphed to human. He looked at his arms, hands, fingers. This was
Tobias who we'd walked through the construction site with. Who'd formed the closest bond with Elfangor in
those few moments. But somehow, it didn't seem like the same Tobias who'd fought with us all this time.
 "I guess this is me from now on," he said. He looked at Rachel, and suddenly, they both broke into wide smiles and threw their arms around each other. I smiled, and so did Cassie. Without a word, Tobias and Rachel walked away, hand in human hand.
 I looked at Cassie. She looked at me. Amazing that after all this, all we'd been through together, that I could
still feel awkward around her.
 "I, uh, guess I'll see you at school tomorrow." She said.
 "Yeah. History class."
 "Jake? Thank you."
 "You're welcome, Cassie."
 We each turned to go home.
 "Cassie?" I called suddenly.
 "Yes?"
 "Cassie, I love you." I don't know what made me say that. I hadn't planned to. The words simply fell out of my mouth. But they were true.
 "I love you, too, Jake."
 I wanted to run to her, kiss her. But I didn't. Instead, I went home.
 I walked home, too see my brother. Real, free. I hadn't really seen him in a long time. He'd been given a second chance, a new life, almost. So had Ax. So had Tobias, especially. So had all of us, really. So had I. I'd been given a new start. It's a new beginning.
 My name is Jake . . .

The End

Back to the Journal
Back to FFAP