JAKE

No one moved.

I don't think we even breathed.

"Rachel?" Tobias called.

"….yeah."

They all cheered. Tobias slumped against the wall. I heard them. But all I could do was look at the bloody, torn body of the cobra that lay next to her head.

Tom.

Dead.

Cassie was nudging against me, bouncing around like happy dogs do and cheering in my head. But my brain wasn't working. I couldn't move, couldn't do anything but look.

Toby, the leader of the free Hork-Bajir, burst onto the bridge. She was scarred and bloody.

{Jake, they're surrendering. We had to promise them amnesty and a chance to acquire the morphing power.}

I heard her words.

{What's the matter?}

She noticed Tobias, breathing heavily, a small smile creeping to his lips. Toby had only seen him in human morph a few times. She's named for him.

Rachel was getting up.

"So, how do I get out of here?" she finally asked, looking at us through the viewscreen.

I heard Ax give her instructions. Something about an escape pod on the port side.

Tom was dead.

And I wondered how I was ever going to explain it. I had ordered my cousin to execute my brother. How would I ever explain that?

All these years I'd fought to keep us all alive, to stop the Yeerks, always with the hope that someday I would save my brother, that he would come back, that he'd be Tom again. That was why I'd enlisted in the war to begin with. I was going to save Tom.

Tom was dead. The Yeerk in his head was dead.

I had failed.

I was responsible.

How many had died because of my orders?

General Doubleday's soldiers who had provided the suicidal diversionary attack on the ground.

An unknown number of James's people, the auxiliary Animorphs, who had gone with them to trick the enemy.

How many of the free Hork-Bajir?

Seventeen thousand Yeerks, frozen. Flushed into space.

Plus.

Plus.

All at my command.

"Jake, I need your okay," Toby pressed. "The Yeerks want you. They want your assurance."

How was I going to explain this to my parents?

Silly to think of that right then. Silly and stupid.

"Jake…" Toby urged.

The others had quieted, were watching me.

{Tom,} Cassie said softly. {Toby, Tom is dead.}

Toby absorbed that, then said,

"Jara Hamee, my father, died bravely in the battle here today."

Still I couldn't talk. How did I explain…

Marco was still in gorilla morph. He said,

{It's okay, Toby. Tell the Yeerks that Jake will be along in a minute. Tell them Visser One is our captive. Tell them we approve the deal you made.}

{My people may not agree,} Ax reminded him.

{Yeah?} Marco shot back. {Guess what? This is our planet. These are our prisoners. This is our victory. If the Andalite high command doesn't like it, they can stick it.}

Cassie came to me and sort of leaned into me, as close to a hug as we could get right then. I was afraid she would say something sympathetic. I was afraid she would comfort me; 'cause if she did, I knew I would break down right then. My brain would shut off, because it would make the pain too real.

{We still need you. You're not done yet, Jake.}

The right thing to say. Cassie was good at that. I noted its effect on me, observed my reaction from a million miles away.

I sighed. Okay. Yeah. I still had a job. Do the job.

{Everything else can wait,} she pressed.

I took a deep breath.

{Okay, Toby. Okay. I'll be right there. Tell them what Marco said, and I'll be there later to back you up.}

I focused on Visser One. How had this happened? How had he survived and Tom died? How did he still live? How could that be the result?

{I imagine it's time to kill me,} he said. {You'll be doing me a favor. Whatever death you have for me will be nothing compared to what the Council of Thirteen would sentence me to.}

{No. No more killing,} I said.

"What do you mean, no more killing?" Tobias asked, turning to me. "He's the one responsible for all this! He killed Elfangor! He's been trying to kill us for three years!"

{He's a prisoner of war,} I said softly. {We don't kill prisoners.}

There was a flash. A round pod shot from the blade ship and blazed through the atmosphere down towards Earth. Rachel was away. In a few moments the blade ship moved. It turned away, didn't fire on us, and its engines lit, zooming away out into the solar system.

{Marco?}

{Yeah, Jake?}

{The Visser is going to remove himself from this Andalite body he has stolen and inhabited for so long. Find a safe place to keep him.}

{You got it.}

{Cassie? Go get Erek. If he wants the Chee secret to be kept he needs to hide himself. We may have guests soon.}

{Anything else?} Cassie asked.

{Like what?} I snapped. {An apology? To that robot? "Sorry we blackmailed you into helping us?" No. He drained off the Dracon beams, and because of that our plan almost failed. He almost KILLED Rachel!}

Cassie hesitated, looked down, then turned to go.

I spoke to Ax in private thought-speak. His tail blade flashed and caught the Visser unprepared, a flat-side smack against his temple. His host body, the long-enslaved Andalite war prince called Alloran, slumped unconscious.

{I know you can still hear me in there, Visser. I'll make this simple: You exit that body. You do it right now because if you don't we're going to cut our way in and yank you out.}

Tobias? Marco? Find a box, a jar, something to hold this Yeerk when he gets out. If he doesn't come out within two minutes, do it the hard way.}

I had Ax dial up the Andalite high command, and simultaneously patch it in to the civilian media channels on the Andalite home world. We knew that the Andalites there didn't fully know what their military was doing, and I was going to use that to my advantage. There was a really good chance the Andalites would just want to blow us up, and Earth too.

I met with the Yeerks who surrendered, and guaranteed that they would receive morphing power, under one condition: that they choose a morph and stay there. Forever.

CASSIE

I found Erek. I simply walked through the Yeerk ship calling out in thought-speak. A wolf prowling strangely empty, silent corridors.

He appeared before me. I demorphed.

"Hi, Erek."

"Hi, Cassie." He smiled sadly. "Jake sent you."

I nodded.

"I see. He feels guilty."

I set my jaw.

"No. Not guilty."

His eyes narrowed.

"Then what? He used me, blackmailed me, manipulated my programming to get me to break through the security grid and take control of this ship."

"You drained the Dracon beams."

"What did Jake expect me to do? I had given him control when he needed it. I wasn't going to enable him to kill."

"You forced Jake to kill tom. You almost killed Rachel, too. You almost killed all of us. That's unforgivable."

"And I'm supposed to feel regret because Jake ordered his cousin to kill his brother and I didn't allow him to massacre everyone else on the Blade ship?"

That made me really mad and I guess I showed it.

"So, you too, huh Cassie?"

"Jake did what he had to do."

"Did he? Someone flushed the Yeerk pool into space. Did he have to do that, too? They were unhosted Yeerks. They were harmless."

"No Yeerk is harmless," I murmured. "They came here. They tried to destroy us."

"Jake massacred seventeen thousand sentient creatures."

I took a deep breath.

"Jake says maybe you should get off the ship, Erek. The Andalites will most likely be coming aboard soon. It's up to you whether you go on keeping your existence secret. We won't tell anyone."

"I see."

"Bye, Erek."

He walked past me. Right before he was out of sight, I called,

"And, Erek?"

He stopped and turned.

"We don't want to see you ever again. You almost killed us. And I think Jake will try to kill you if he ever sees you again."

MARCO

Ax and I watched, fascinated and repulsed, as the Yeerk wormed its way out of the Andalite's ear. This was what we'd been waiting for all this time. It really wasn't sinking in for me yet.

I had found a lockable briefcase, a very human artifact stuffed under a control panel. It was filled with chocolate chip cookies. Some Yeerk, probably a human-Controller, had developed a sweet tooth and it would be hard to get a good cookie on a Yeerk ship.

I ate a cookie and held the case open for the slug that was the true Visser One.

{I could easily cut him in half,} Ax offered conversationally.

{Yeah. Well, better not, I guess.}

I'm probably the least emotional person in our group. I could see clearly from A to Z without worrying about the morality of it. I had no more qualms about the seventeen thousand than I had about bombing the ground-based Yeerk pool.

Tobias had demorphed to hawk. He was perched on a railing. Fidgeting. I knew he was itching to get down to the surface to see that Rachel was really okay. I don't know if he'd forgive Jake for how he'd risked Rachel. Maybe Tobias would eventually accept what Jake did. Maybe not.

I demorphed as soon as I saw the slug wriggling out of the Andalite's ear.

It was weird. I was watching our greatest foe place himself literally into our hands. We had beaten Visser One.

Later, we were definitely going to have the biggest party ever.

"Ax, pick him up."

Ax picked up the Yeerk, holding him between two fingers, as though it was something dirty. I agreed with him.

He dropped it into the briefcase. I closed the lid and turned the combo lock.

"I guess we won, Ax."

{Yes.}

"Shouldn't someone be singing 'God Bless America'?"

Ax looked puzzled and decided to let it go. He said,

{I must access the communications array and carry out Jake's orders.}

It took a few minutes and then, on the screen there appeared a wary Andalite face.

{What do you want, Yeerk?}

Ax said, {We are not Yeerks. I am aristh Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, the brother of Prince Elfangor. You have correctly identified this signal as originating from a Yeerk pool ship, but this ship is now under the control of…} He frowned, uncertain, and turned a quizzical stalk eye to me.

I shrugged.

"This ship is under the control of the Earth Liberation Army." I grinned. It was an über-awesome name for a just handful of kids.

Ax repeated it word for word to the skeptical Andalite.

{Do you seriously expect me to believe that humans have seized control of a Yeerk Pool ship, aristh Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthil? Clearly you are a Controller. Just as clearly this is a clumsy trap.}

Cassie returned. She took in the scene and decided to stay quiet.

"He's got us there," I admitted. "He has no way of knowing whether we're really us or Controllers."

Ax said, {There is a Yeerk Blade ship heading…} He consulted a display panel and gave the coordinates. {You may be able to intercept them.}

The Andalite officer said, {Anything else, Yeerk? Is there another part to this pitiful attempt at a trap?} He looked like he was about to sign off.

Jake arrived. "Where do we stand?" he asked.

I motioned to the screen. "This genius thinks we're Controllers trying to set him up."

Jake nodded. "Perfect," he said dryly. "How do we get around this?"

{Tell him you'll surrender the Pool ship to them.}

It was Visser One! No. No, it was the Andalite Visser one had infested for so many, many years: Alloran-Semitur-Corrass. I'd forgotten all about him. He was coming around. He climbed to his hooves.

{So the deception is over. I see the Visser has revealed himself,} the Andalite officer said smugly.

Alloran started to say something, then turned his face and main eyes to Jake.

{With your permission?}

That was one weird moment. Alloran was an arrogant, determined, even criminally ruthless Andalite war prince. Or had been once, long ago. And then, for a long time, that face had been the face of our deadliest enemy. And now he was meekly waiting for Jake's okay.

Jake nodded and in a very respectful tone said, "Please continue, War-Prince Alloran."

Alloran's main eyes flickered, a slight display of emotion.

{Who are you?} he demanded of the Andalite officer.

{I am Offeran-Jibril-Castant. I am officer of the day aboard the Andalite Dome ship…} He hesitated and there was a slight, ironic smile in his eyes. {The dome ship Elfangor.}

Ax swelled about a size.

{A Dome ship named for Elfangor. There is no higher honor for a warrior.}

{A well-named ship,} Alloran said. {Now, officer-of-the-day Offeran, you're going to want to contact the captain because you have just captured a Yeerk Pool ship. We will advance at space normal speed to any point you name. All Bug fighters will be deployed around the ship, and as we reach the rendezvous point you will see all Bug fighters self-destruct. At that time we will detach the Pool ship's main engines. All weapons will be powered down. This ship will be perfectly helpless.}

That got Offeran's attention. He turned a lighter shade of blue. It was kindof like if in the middle of World War II the Japanese Navy had called up the U.S. Navy and said, "Hey we're going to turn over our biggest aircraft carrier to you. Come on over and pick up the keys."

Suddenly the scene changed. The face on the screen was older. This Andalite had a burn scar on his scalp and was missing one stalk eye.

{Captain-Prince Asculan-Semitur-Langor,} Ax said in private thought-speak.

"Big time?" I whispered under my breath.

{Very big time.}

The captain favored us with a long, hard, serious look. Then he said, {Visser, I refuse to - }

I saw it coming. The old Andalite was going to chill us. It wasn't my place to butt in, maybe, but I couldn't let this old creep screw everything up by committing himself. Once he said what he was getting ready to say it would be impossible for him to climb down.

"Hey, Ax-man," I said brightly. "Is it true that the Andalite home world is watching all this? Can I wave to them?" I waved like one of the idiots outside of the Today show. "Hi everyone! Howard Stern rules! Yaaah!"

Well, that stopped everyone and everything dead. I could practically see the wheels turning in old Asculan's nasty head. Jake looked for a minute like he was going to slap me silly. Ax had basically turned to stone.

But then Jake nodded, with a small smile. He got it.

So did Alloran.

{I should have informed you earlier,} he said. {By orders of our Prince we have patched this through to the civilian media networks.

Asculan had a mean look to him now. Furious. He was trapped. And he didn't like being in traps.

Jake stepped into Asculan's line of sight.

"Captain Asculan, we know that the Andalite fleet is devoted to the destruction of the Yeerk threat. And we know that you must be personally committed to that goal."

I translated in my head: We know you've come here to turn Earth into a big charcoal briquette because you think it's the only way to stop the Yeerks.

"Because of your devotion to duty it may almost seem a disappointment to reach your goal, only to discover that your foe has essentially surrendered.

Translation: It's over.

"At this point we have to set aside the necessary ruthlessness of war, the suspicion and hostility, and turn instead to the more satisfying duties of making peace."

Your people back home are watching and if you come in here and kill us, they'll turn on you.

"We could never have done this without the help of our Andalite friends."

You screwed us over. We asked you for help, and you abandoned us. You were going to kill us instead. But we'll make nice and pretend none of that happened.

"I look forward to our two peaceful peoples working together. We have a lot to learn from you, just as we've already learned from the great Elfangor and his no less courageous and resourceful brother Aximili."

The Dome ship Elfangor is gonna come in and annihilate everything the real Elfangor's legacy? Wipe us out and kill Elfangor's little brother, who's a ready-made Andalite hero? Guess again, you mean old fart.

The captain listened to all of this impassively, but I could practically see the steam shooting out his ears. By the end of Jake's speech his eyes were sort of glazed over. He knew he'd been trapped for good.

{Who are you, exactly?} Asculan asked.

I jerked my thumb at my friend. "This is Jake. Jake Berenson. President of Earth."

VVVVVVVV

Things will definitely be changing. Drastically, and for the better. REVIEW, PLEASE! Don't know that you like it if you don't review!