Preface/notes

This is a direct "to be continued" sequel to The Anomaly. While I go out of my way to explain things that happened in previous books/stories here and there (just like the original books), starting here would be like starting in the middle of the David arc. I highly recommend that you at least read The Anomaly first.

The goal of this series is to branch off from the main story line after book 22 (the David arc), while staying true to the style of the original books. I'm mostly writing them to let my mind drift back to the world that dominated my childhood imagination, but I'll be happy to take you along for the ride.

The series so far:

1: The Hunt (Rachel)

2: The Anomaly (Cassie)

3: The Rescue (Jake)

I have ideas for more, but no promises.

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Chapter 1

My name is Jake.

If I was just a normal teenager, I'd have been in school right then. Last period. Biology, I think.

I'm not really a biology kind of guy. That's more Cassie's thing. She'd have been with me in class if she was also just a normal teenager.

I guess I kind of like Cassie. No, I really like Cassie. I'm pretty sure she likes me back in the same way, but neither of us ever really said anything. It just shows from things like taking each other's hands or instinctively huddling up together when things get rough. Maybe if we were normal teenagers I'd have asked her out by now.

But we're not.

I was flying around this university hospital thing a two-hour's drive away from school. Yes, flying – I was in my peregrine falcon morph. My friends Marco, Rachel, Jordan, Tobias, and Ax were with me in their various other bird-of-prey morphs.

Cassie was in some laboratory in the basement of the hospital, in her new Yeerk morph. She'd just infested Jessica, so Sharon and Hank – Jessica's mom and a colleague of hers – could take samples to try to figure out why Yeerks can't control her.

That's what Yeerks do: they crawl inside your skull and take full control over your body. They're sentient parasites. But Jessica is somehow immune to them.

Erek was there too. He's a Chee: an alien android with the ability to make holograms. He's an important ally of ours, but he can't fight the Yeerks directly because of his pacifist programming.

All that was part of our latest mission to try to save Earth from the Yeerks. They're invading us, and we're the only ones who have even the slightest chance of doing anything about it. A group of teenagers who call themselves the Animorphs. If we fail, humanity will be nothing but slaves in a couple of years.

Scared yet? Because I am.

Our only defense against the Yeerks is secrecy. They must never find out who we are, so they can never be allowed to see us out of morph. That's a bit of an issue, because we can't go from one morph directly to another, and can only stay in morph for two hours at a time. If we stay longer, we can never morph back.

The only ones of us who can morph without revealing that we're human are Ax and Tobias. Ax because he isn't human – he's an Andalite, like the Yeerks expect all of us to be. And Tobias because… well, he used to be human, but his natural form is a red-tailed hawk now.

The Yeerks think we're Andalites because morphing is Andalite technology, and Andalites are normally not very keen on sharing their technology with other species. Elfangor only did so because he knew it was the only chance for humanity. Even if it was a tiny one.

On the whole, we're not doing as bad as you'd think. After all, we've been at it for half a year now, and we're not dead yet. We even win sometimes.

But not always. Sometimes we mess up. Big time.

Zzzzaaap, zzzaaaap, zzzaaap.

Even to my keen falcon ears, the sound was weak. But it was unmistakable. Dracon beams, down in the basement of the hospital. They're the Yeerks' weapon of choice.

≺Whoa!≻ Tobias called out.

≺Oh man, tell me that wasn't Dracon fire,≻ Marco said simultaneously.

≺Cassie!≻ Rachel yelled. ≺Cassie, are you okay?≻

Both Cassie and Erek should have been able to respond using thought-speak. It's a telepathic thing that we can do whenever we're in morph. I don't know how Erek does it, but it's one of his abilities.

Thought-speak can be directed to only those who you want to hear it. So even if a Controller was pointing a Dracon beam directly at them and told them to stay quiet, they could still have safely told us what was going on.

But they didn't. So that meant… Cassie could… Cassie could be dead?

No, she can't be. She just can't. A minute ago everything had still been fine! Things can't go wrong that quickly. And this was supposed to be the easy part of our mission!

Dracon beams can also be set to stun, like phasers from Star Trek. Surely Cassie was just stunned! We just… We just had to get to her before they'd take her.

≺What are you all waiting for?!≻ Rachel screamed. ≺Cassie needs help! Demorph!≻

≺Demorph where?≻ Marco asked. ≺There's people everywhere!≻

≺Screw people! I'm morphing on the parking lot!≻

≺Don't be stupid, Rachel! Everyone would see you, they'd shoot you before you're even human again!≻

≺There's no people on the roof, we can morph there,≻ Tobias pointed out.

≺How are we supposed to get from the roof to the basement?≻ Marco asked.

≺Uh, stairs?≻

≺In battle morphs, and in time!≻ he clarified. ≺That building is huge, and we don't even know what room Cassie's in!≻

I swerved around, helplessly looking for a better place to demorph. But there were people all over the university campus and hospital grounds. Like Marco said, morphing out in the open when there's Controllers with Dracon beams around would have been suicide.

Not that I wouldn't give my life for Cassie. I'd do so in a heartbeat. In fact, if anyone deserves to survive this war with the Yeerks, it's her. Even after all this time, she still wouldn't hurt a fly unless there was absolutely no other way. And I think she'd still prefer finding a way to peacefully coexist with the Yeerks over sending them running or killing them.

My point is, if this war ever ends in our favor, the world will need people like her to fix it. Not people like me.

But there's a difference between giving your life for someone and throwing it away.

≺Go to the roof,≻ I said. ≺Go to the roof and demorph, then morph the strongest animal you have that'll fit on stairs!≻

The roof was about a hundred feet wide, and probably around three times that long. There was a helipad on one end, and a small raised section with the roof access door on the other. That was our way in. It was probably locked, but that was nothing Marco and Jordan wouldn't be able to handle in their gorilla morphs.

I landed near the door and immediately started demorphing. Ax, Marco, Rachel, and Jordan joined me soon after. Tobias kept circling around above us to keep an eye out, though. He'd only have to morph once, after all.

We were about halfway demorphed when Erek started talking again.

≺Guys, morph back! Visser Three is about to land his Blade ship on the roof!≻

Visser Three. The only Yeerk to ever take an Andalite host, and therefore the most dangerous. In the most powerful Yeerk ship near Earth save for the mothership.

≺What?!≻

≺Is Cassie okay?!≻

≺What happened?!≻

≺Morph in which direction?!≻

≺Cassie, Jessica, Sharon, and Hank were stunned,≻ Erek explained. ≺The nearby Dracon stun fire temporarily disrupted my communication systems, so I couldn't get back to you until now. My invisibility hologram stayed active, so they don't seem to know I'm here, but I can't move without revealing myself yet. The Controllers just put Jessica on a stretcher to take her to the roof. Visser Three will be here shortly to take her to the mothership for questioning.≻

≺Then there's no way I'm stopping,≻ Rachel said. ≺I'm not letting Cassie be taken!≻

≺Prince Jake, I can continue morphing without risk of revealing your identities,≻ Ax said. ≺What should I do?≻

Marco responded long before I figured out what to say. ≺No, guys, we're no use to Cassie and Jessica if we're dead. We need a proper plan first if we're up against Visser Three. And Jessica's mom also knows too much, are they taking her, too?≻

≺No, Sharon and Hank will be taken to the Yeerk pool on Earth for infestation later,≻ Erek answered.

≺There's no time for a plan!≻ Rachel said. ≺I'm morphing elephant. I don't care what happens!≻

≺Rachel, you'll fall through the roof,≻ Jordan pointed out. ≺It wouldn't be the first –≻

≺I just saw a bird get hit by a cloaked ship!≻ Tobias interrupted. ≺Less than a mile, closing fast!≻

≺They're here already?!≻ Marco cried. ≺Jake, we need a plan, right now!≻

There was no time. Cassie was still alive, but there was no time!

≺We have to stop demorphing,≻ I said. ≺Do what Erek says and morph back to bird!≻

≺But they'll take Cassie!≻ Rachel accused.

≺We need a real plan!≻ Marco yelled. ≺We can't let Cassie be taken!≻

≺Shut up and morph!≻

We barely finished in time. I'd only just sprouted my last tail feathers when I felt the wake of Visser Three's ship pass over us. Judging by its direction, the raised section of the roof had been between us and the ship during its approach, so they probably hadn't seen us yet.

But that was about to change.

To our left, a ramp lowered. It seemed to come out of nowhere, because the rest of the ship was still invisible. Two Hork-Bajir armed with Dracon beams materialized at the top of the ramp and started marching down.

To our right, the roof access door opened. Two nurses and a guard came out. The former were carrying Jessica on a stretcher, with Cassie in Yeerk morph inside her skull.

≺Cassie! Wake up!≻ Rachel called out, and flew right at one of the nurses. She was aiming for her eyes.

"Andalites!" the human guard yelled.

The nurse dropped the stretcher to shield her face, but was hit in the shoulder by Dracon fire before Rachel even reached her. The beam had just barely missed one of Rachel's wings.

It wasn't pretty. A handheld Dracon beam set to kill will blast a hole two inches wide right through you. The wall behind you, too. If it'd hit Rachel…

≺Rachel!≻ Jordan called out and flew toward her in complete panic. This was her first encounter with Controllers who were actively trying to kill us. I guess she'd intended to pull her sister away, but that doesn't work when you're a bird.

At the same time, Tobias charged the Hork-Bajir who'd shot at Rachel. Marco took off in the direction of the human guard, who was trying to pull out a normal gun.

≺What are you imbeciles shooting at? Did I order anyone to open fire?≻ Visser Three raged from inside his ship. Unlike us, Visser Three usually just calls out to everyone in range when he uses thought-speak.

≺Andalites! Shoot to kill!≻ he added a second later.

≺Prince Jake, what do we do?≻ Ax asked me. He was the only one aside from me who hadn't engaged yet.

He sounded scared. Ax very rarely sounds scared.

I wanted to do something. I wanted to rush at those Controllers and cause some damage. Anything to save Cassie.

But there just wasn't anything we could do. Even if we'd stayed to fight them to our deaths, it wouldn't have changed anything. They'd still have taken her.

≺Retreat! We have to retreat! Everyone get out of here, find a place to morph seagull, then regroup by the parking lot!≻

I took off as quickly as I could, diving straight down when I got to the edge of the roof to gain speed quickly. I could see Ax do the same next to me, but I quickly lost sight of him. I didn't know if the rest of my friends had been able to get away.

The Yeerks stopped shooting at me pretty quickly. Maybe they just lost me because of the rain, or maybe Visser Three didn't want to risk people on the streets seeing the light show on the off chance that someone would actually hit me at that distance.

At least, that's what I tried telling myself. For all I knew, they stopped targeting me because they were busy picking off my friends.

I flew in a straight line away from the hospital for about a minute before finding a quiet alley to demorph in. I'd dived under a parked car, so I wouldn't be seen from the skies. It wouldn't exactly be comfortable, and it'd be really bad if someone would get in the car and drive away, but I didn't care.

We'd lost Cassie.

She'd probably stay in morph to hide our secrets from the Yeerks. So if we wouldn't be able to get to her in less than two hours, she'd never be able to morph back. If she'd even survive that long.

I was never going to see her again…

And my other friends… Did they make it out alive? It felt like I'd ditched them, but what else could I have done?

I'll admit, I didn't care about Jessica at first. In comparison, I mean; I'd only just met her yesterday. But as I forced myself to figure out what to do next, I realized she was actually a bigger problem than Cassie.

After all, if Cassie would just stay in Yeerk morph, the Yeerks might never even realize she's not a real Yeerk. But they could surely make Jessica talk. And we'd told her pretty much everything. She'd seen our faces, she'd been to the forest hideout… She'd even been to Erek's house, so not even the Chee were safe.

I guess we'd been careless. No, I'd been careless. That's the thing about being a leader. It's your fault if something goes wrong.

I never asked to be the leader. The rest just somehow decided it was my job. Even Ax won't stop calling me his "prince," no matter how many times I tell him not to.

I don't know why. It's not like I magically know what to do when they don't.

I should've called it a day when we got Sharon to help us. There was no reason to keep going without first working out a proper plan. It just felt like we were so close to a breakthrough with Jessica's immunity… Being able to make people immune to Yeerk control would have been our first real weapon against the Yeerks.

It's a good thing the alley was empty, because I completely broke down when I finished demorphing. Cassie was as good as dead, my other friends might be dead already, and the Yeerks would soon know all our secrets!

Whoever made it out alive would be expecting a plan when I'd return to the parking lot. What could I possibly tell them? There's nothing we can do anymore, so go back home, save your families, and hide?

Heck, would we even make it back in time? It took us over two hours to get here by car. Our secrets could be out within the hour.

How many days would we have left before the Yeerks would find us? I guess we could hide indefinitely, especially if we'd get ourselves stuck in some pleasant morph… but surely the Yeerks would just find and torture everyone we've ever cared about until we'd surrender ourselves to them. And they probably wouldn't stop even then.

No matter how I tried to look at it, we just couldn't win anymore as soon as the Yeerks would know our identities. We might as well kill ourselves at that point.

But then… we might as well kill ourselves trying to keep them from finding out.

Maybe the others were right when they attacked the Yeerks on the roof. At the very least, if we all die in morph, without anyone ever finding out who we really are, our families wouldn't be treated any worse than any other human hosts.

We had to find a way to get aboard the Yeerk mothership.