Fighting Back #2 : The Return

It was all over. At least, that's what I thought. It was over for everyone but me. Tobias, the hawk. The renegade, the runaway. They couldn't find me. There are plenty of red-tailed hawks around, and I could disguise myself with them easily. I'll never know what happened to Ax. But the others, they're all controllers.

Here's the story. We all went into the Yeerk pool. About four years ago. But they had extra security, and we were noticed. So they took the others and tried to catch Ax and I. But I don't think they did. Well, they could have caught up with Ax but they didn't catch me. I'm here after all, aren't I?

Or am I? Am I really Tobias the hawk? Or am I Tobias the mental patient who thinks he's a hawk? Am I special case #1? Am I really at home, crying because my uncle's beating me? Wishing that I was out here? Is this all just one big nightmare and I'll wake up to see my mother's face? Is she even alive? God, I wish I knew.

Well, I know for a fact that Jake has become Visser Two, and Cassie wasn't far behind. Visser Three was promoted to Visser One, after Marco's mom was killed for something. Treason, I think. No, I don't still fight the Yeerks. Instead I run from them. Running to a place that I myself can't find. We should have known that it was almost impossible from the start of that damn mission. But we didn't. But enough of my own talk.

Everyone knew about me, I was wanted dead or alive. Preferably dead. I run, and I hide from them. But I'm running out of places to go. Running out of places to run to. And then the Ellimist had to get into things.

I was in a new territory. Hunting my dinner. I was starving, and the sun was going to start to set in a few hours. The Yeerks were on their way to killing every living creature on Earth. Then I saw it, a nice, juicy rat. I lunged, and it disappeared. I landed face-first on the ground.

{What kind of cruel joke was that?!} I demanded, not knowing if I would receive a reply.

TOBIAS, WHAT IS IT YOU REALLY WANT? The Ellimist asked in his weird not-talking-but-being-heard-though-not-using-thought-speech kind of way.

{Dinner.} I mumbled, as a dry joke.

TOBIAS! BE SERIOUS!

{Jeez, I think I know the answer you want. How's this: to be human again and be able to morph.} I said. The thought had gotten kind of old to me. And it would have meant less places to hide. But what I really wanted was for this whole stupid war to never have existed.

IT IS DONE, THEN.

{Oh, how nice of the Ellimist to give me my real wish ten years after I wanted it!} I snapped. I was hungry, and I was on the ground. It's not exactly the best combination for a hawk. But then I just wasn't a hawk anymore. In a flash, I was my normal self.

"Took you long enough to grant this didn't it? Could you please tell me why?"

SIMPLE. YOU WERE NOT NEEDED AS A HUMAN. IF YOU HAD BEEN HUMAN, YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN CAUGHT WITH THE OTHERS. YOU NEED TO RESCUE YOUR FRIENDS. FIND THE ANDALITE AND RESCUE THE OTHERS. THIS WAR ISN'T LOST YET.

Find the Andalite...It took me a minute to figure out what that meant, even though the answer wasn't as clear as it should have been. Find Ax! Find AX! I said to myself. Ax wasn't a controller, apparently. Now, the tricky part would be finding him. I hadn't seen him in almost four years, that's how long I've been running and hiding. Maybe the others wouldn't recognize me as a twenty-one year old.

I walked around, or more like stumbled around, the woods where I was until I saw a road. I followed it until I got to a town. There wasn't a lot of action there, almost no one else was in the street. I recognized the place as my hometown. I apparently hadn't gone far at all. Or was this another Ellimist trick?

"Let's see...look for a field." I told myself. First I went by Cassie's barn and into the woods by her house. Not much had changed there, except for the amount of burned trees. She had apparently gone trigger-happy with a dracon beam thinking I was still in the woods. Or someone did at least. I walked around a while and found Ax's scoop. I went and looked inside, but no one was there. In fact, nothing was there at all. Suddenly there was a tail blade at my throat.

{Don't move, human.} He said.

"Ax?" I asked, hoping he would know it was me.

{Tobias?} I nodded. {How...}

"I escaped. If you'd please take your tail blade away from my throat, I would tell you what happened." I said. He withdrew the blade and I rubbed my throat a little. "Thanks."

{So why are you here again?}

"Well, I was catching some breakfast when the Ellimist came and made me human again. I can still morph, though. Then he said to find you and then save the others, and something about this war not being won yet."

{Save the others?}

"Yeah. I have a feeling that the Ellimist wants us to win this war really bad."

{We should go then. Go to the Yeerk Pool and find the others.}

"Maybe they won't recognize me as a human." I suggested. I hadn't seen the others in about 4 years, so maybe they wouldn't know what I looked like as a 21-year-old human. "Ax-man, I've wanted to ask you something about those Gleet BioFilters."

{What, Tobias?}

"Is there any kind of space in the wall where they fitted it? Small enough for a small insect?"

{I believe they have eliminated the BioFilters. I have examined one entrance where they took it out.}

"So we'll go in that way? You could morph a fly and come in with me. Or use your human morph."

{I believe I'll use my human morph. I've practiced walking and speaking in it.}

"Things have changed a lot in 4 years, haven't they?" I looked around. Looked at the stunted trees, and the old place of Ax's scoop.

{Yes, they have. Follow me, we can make plans for the infiltration.}

"You'd make a good prince, you know?"

{Thank you, Tobias.} I followed him deeper into the woods. We arrived at a place not far from the old Hork-Bajir valley.

"I don't suppose...you don't think the free Hork-Bajir are still there, do you?"

{Almost all of them were killed. The ones who weren't were enslaved again.} I looked at my feet as I walked. Strange as it seemed, in 4 years I had wondered about a few things, but the free Hork-Bajirs' safety had been in the front of my mind almost every day, along with the thought of saving my friends. I then saw something, not unlike the scoop which had been Ax's home.

"Is this it?" I asked. No duh, Tobias, I thought bitterly, How many other Andalites live out here in the woods?

{Yes.} He said simply. He let me in and then followed. I looked around. The only thing that I really remembered from this bunch was the TV sitting on a crate. We started making plans for the next day.

"Basically, I think we're going to go in, try and inflict some damage, and get out again. Hopefully get one of the others. With a little luck."

{I have noticed over the years that luck is a big factor in our missions. A factor that doesn't usually show up.} He said.

"Yeah, I've seen that pattern too. Hopefully someone's on our side this time." I looked at the sky. It was tinted orange, as the sun began to set. "It's going to be dark soon." I noticed out loud. Then I noticed my empty stomach. "I'm going to go see if I can find some food." I said, leaving Ax's scoop. I dug into the pockets of my jeans, which the Ellimist had supplied me with. As well as a sweatshirt, a morphing outfit underneath, and five dollars.

"How convenient." I said. The Ellimist had given me all the tools he wanted me to use so I could be his pawn. I walked out of the woods and on to the main street. I looked past Cassie's barn, expecting Jake and the others to be sitting there. It had been a while since I had been there. The barn was closed and locked.

I saw a McDonald's and I went in.

"May I help you?" The girl behind the counter asked.

"Can I get a cheeseburger and a coke?" She looked at me sideways, as if she recognized my face. She tried not to show it, though.

"You going to be eating here?"

"I'll take it with me." I said. She handed me the food and I gave her the five dollar bill. Then she gave me change and I walked back to the woods. I sat down on a stump and ate. Then I thought about something. We need more than 2 people to save the others. Wait. That's it! Tom! I ran to get Ax.

"Ax?" I asked, looking around for him. He was out grazing. He stopped when he saw me. "Hey, Ax, why don't we go find Tom? I mean, if we can. We'll be needing him to help us get the others." I told him.

{That may be a good idea. But he was in the Hork-Bajir valley. The Yeerks may have found him when they found the valley.}

"Maybe you're right. Well, let's at least go check it out."

{This is just a warning. You may be shocked at the sight.}

"Should we morph birds?" I asked.

{Yes.} I concentrated on the red-tailed hawk that had been my normal body for about 8 years. Then the changes began. I shrank really fast as feathers grew on my skin. My teeth itched as my mouth formed into a sharp pointed beak and my tongue shrank. My feet became talons and my arms were wings. When we were both done, a red-tailed hawk and a northern harrier flew out to the Hork-Bajir valley, or what was left of it.

We got there, and flew in. We both demorphed and my eyes got wide at the sight. The entire place seemed dead. The grass, as well as the trees, were brown and dry. There was nothing running around anywhere. I went deeper into the valley, and saw a small lean-to in the distance.

As I came closer, I thought I saw a fire. There was a little campfire outside of the shelter, and near there was a person sitting on the grass. He looked over at me and stood up, scowling. He walked over.

"Who're you?" He asked.

"I'm Tobias. And you are..."

"Tom."

"Tom, how did you escape from the controllers?"

"Just lucky, I guess. So...what did you come here for?"

"We're going down to the Yeerk Pool. Maybe capture one of the others or something. I don't know, maybe we're taking a long shot. But do you want to come with us?" I asked, and then took a breath.

"But I can't morph or anything."

"We can arrange for you to get the morphing power.

"Seriously?" I nodded.

"Well then, who wouldn't take up an opportunity to save their brother and his friends?"

"Let's go then." I suggested.

"Now?"

"Yeah, why not? We've got to do this as soon as possible."

"But what if they're not in town?"

{Tobias, we could ask Erek the Chee if they are in town.} Ax implied.

"We don't have time. We're just going to have to hope that at least one of them is down there."

{Let's get going.} Ax, Tom and I walked out of the valley and back to Ax's scoop. After an hour of walking, we were there. Ax went inside and got the blue morphing cube that he had kept with him. It kind of surprised me, to tell you the truth. {Tom, put your hand on any side.} Ax instructed. Tom did so, and Ax put his hand on the opposite side. Tom looked like he had felt something strange and he pulled his hand away.

"Now we have to get you a bird morph and a power morph. I think I should get something better than a hawk, too." I said. Tom nodded.

{Where are we going to get these morphs?} Ax asked.

"I don't know. Cassie's barn is officially closed, I think, but we can probably find an injured bird of prey somewhere around here." I walked around for a little while and heard a sharp cry.

"Hey, what was that?" Tom asked. I shrugged, and ran towards the direction of the cry. I heard it again, only it was louder. I kept going in the same direction, and soon faced an almost-dead golden eagle.

"Guys, this way!" I shouted. Tom and Ax soon arrived, and I looked at Tom. "Tom, acquire it. Touch it and then focus on it, on the bird's strengths and flaws." He put a hand on the eagle's side and closed his eyes. The bird stopped struggling and didn't let out another cry for a few minutes.

"Okay, now what?" I thought for a minute. He didn't have any tighter clothing on. There was a clothing store nearby, and we decided to go borrow something.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Tom muttered as he walked to the dressing room.

"Why not?"

"Because it's stealing!"

"So? Have you ever stolen something?"

"Yeah, but not clothes."

"Well, now you have. Put it on and we'll morph." He went into the room and put on the morphing suit, then ripped the tags off and put on his outer clothing. "Tom, there isn't any kind of ink tag on there, is there?"

"No." He said. "Now let's go before we get caught." We walked out of the store, and no one noticed. Tom and I walked back to the woods where Ax was waiting.

"Let's morph and see if the Gardens is still in one piece." I suggested. Tom, Ax and I morphed to birds. I took off and so did Ax, and Tom wasn't very far behind. But he was eyeing me strangely.

{Tom? Tom, you okay?} He didn't reply. {Tom! Get control! You're human, remember? Think of TV, and Pizza, and...and music! You are human!}

{Huh? Wha...oh, those instincts were weird. Okay, I'm in control.} We flew the rest of the way in silence. The Gardens was still there, but there wasn't as much security as there used to be. We flew over the amusement park and over to the zoo-like part. I looked around at the habitats and Tom found something to acquire. {Hey, I'll do the leopard over there.}He said.

He dove down to the exhibit. {Be careful.} I told him. He demorphed and walked quietly over to the leopard closest to the back of the habitat. I went over to the panther exhibit and flew down. Then I demorphed and acquired a sleeping panther. After that I morphed behind the tree I was standing behind and flew up to wait for Tom.

{That wasn't very hard.} He said, surprised.

{The hard part is yet to come.} I remarked.

We got a little chance to rest and try out our new morphs. But soon the inevitable moment came where we had to go into the pool.

"Ax, where's that entrance you said they had removed the Gleet BioFilter from?"

"Allow me to lead the way. Wa-yuh. Waaaa-yuh. Way."

"Okay." Ax started to walk in one direction as the other two of us followed. We walked for a while before we came to civilization again. Then Ax lead the way to a shopping center, and into a deli. In the restroom, he opened the supply closet door and I saw a crack in the wall. There was another door disguised as a wall.

I pulled it open and we walked in. Tom led the way, Ax was behind him, and I was at the back. We looked around and I gave the signal to morph. Well, Ax demorphed, but I morphed to panther. Black fur spread across my body, and I fell onto all fours. A tail shot out of my back and my knees reversed directions. Then my senses got better. It was like seeing ten times superior to a human's vision. After the morph was complete, I charged down the stairs after the others.

Everyone seemed kind of surprised to see us. But I didn't see anything more than the usual bunch of controllers. None of the others were there. Not that I saw, at least. A Hork-Bajir swung at me from the front, and I dodged. I swiped a paw at him, leaving a gash in his stomach. I didn't bother hurting him any further, because he simply ran away.

I looked over at Ax, who was stunning a few people that came against him. But he also cut off a few limbs. Tom was acting more like Rachel would have, in the sense of attacking and occasionally killing everyone he could see.

Then everyone stopped. They simply stopped what they were doing, and they stared at something behind me. I slowly turned around and looked up. There was a woman standing there. Blond hair, blue eyes, tall, beautiful. I knew who it was. It was Rachel.

"Well, I recognize Ax, but who's your friend? And please, don't fool me with the Andalite routine." She said with a smirk that said 'it's over' to me. I looked over at Ax.

{If you can escape, then do it. But it'll have to be if I make a distraction. I'll demorph. Then you morph something small, okay?} Ax nodded sullenly. I began to demorph to human. But I had a plan.

"Well, Rachel, so nice to see you again." I said sarcastically.

"Can this be Tobias? The bird boy? Well, looks like he's gotten a lucky break." Rachel muttered snidely. I glared at her. It's not her, it's not her, it's not her. I repeated in my head. I looked over, and Ax was gone.

"You let him get away." I mumbled.

"What did you say?"

"I said that you let Ax get away!" I shouted, pointing to where he was a minute ago.

"WHAT?! Guards, why weren't you watching him?" Rachel demanded, looking at the hork-bajir behind her. A few of them shrugged.

"Visser Four, we're sorry. We got a little...distracted." I looked around, and saw Tom. I morphed a fly.

{Tom, demorph and morph to bird. We're busting out of here.}

{But what about-}

{Not now! Now we've got to worry about getting ourselves out of here!} He began to demorph and then he morphed to golden eagle. He flew ahead of me, and we flew out of there while Rachel and her guards were still arguing. Then I thought for a moment.

{Rachel! Come and get us if you can!} I taunted. Then I flew out of the pool and back into the janitor's room. Rachel ran up the stairs after me, and I demorphed and morphed to hawk. Then I flew out of there so she could see me.

"After him!" She shouted, pointing at me. I smiled inwardly and flew even faster while a dracon beam whizzed by me. I dodged it and flew into the woods. Rachel followed me. She chased me on foot and then I looked back and she had morphed to bald eagle. I saw Ax in the distance.

{Ax, hit her on the head if she flies by.} I told him. He nodded, and got ready. I flew low on the ground and she chased behind me. I flew by Ax and then heard a thud as Ax hit Rachel on the head.

{Got her!} I said.

I was scared, I'll admit that. When I saw Ax and the others...I really thought that they would kill me. But when the panther turned into Tobias, I don't know, something happened. Every day for four years I regret listening to Marco. I guess I hadn't been feeling well. But now...now a ray of hope shined through. But I wondered who the third person was.

{Look, it' your old friend Tobias! A reunion, how sweet!} The Yeerk in my head jeered.

{Yeah, whatever.} I snapped.

{Oh, don't be so snotty!}

{You're going down!} I yelled, and tried to resist. The Yeerk had just come out of the pool, so he wouldn't die for three days. Even if Tobias and Ax restrained us, the Yeerk would find a way out. Then again, this is Ax and Tobias. One of them will be on guard watching us.

{Don't get your hopes up.} Then Ax was gone.

"You let him get away." Tobias mumbled.

"What did you say?"

"I said that you let Ax get away!" He shouted, pointing to where Ax was a minute ago.

"WHAT?! Guards, why weren't you watching him?" The Yeerk demanded, looking at the hork-bajir behind us. A few of them shrugged.

"Visser Four, we're sorry. We got a little...distracted." I could have cheered, but I wasn't in control. We argued and when we looked back none of them were there.

{Rachel! Come and get us if you can!} Tobias taunted. The Yeerk and I ran up the stairs after him, and he demorphed and morphed to hawk. Then he flew out of there, making sure we could see him.

"After him!" Visser Four shouted, pointing at him. The Yeerk made me morph to eagle and fly after him. He was in my sight range, and he flew into the forest, low to the ground. We followed, and then everything went black.

{What was that?} I asked the Yeerk.

{Your friend Ax hit us over the head.}

{You should demorph.} I reminded him. Then I became a human again. The Yeerk looked around. We were in a shack in the woods. It was familiar. From the time when Jake had become a controller and we locked him up here.

"Are you going to be on guard for three days?" The Yeerk asked. Tobias, who was sitting in a chair on the other side of the room, looked at me.

"Yeah. And Ax will be here too." I smiled, in the corner of my mind. Three days...three days and it would be over.

The first day wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The Yeerk wouldn't eat anything, and drank little water.

{Would you like to live longer? Then eat something!} I shouted in my mind.

{I just want to make you suffer. It's fun, too.}

{Oh, shut up. You're not in a very good position, you know.}

{Neither are you.} Then I heard something. A rustling of leaves, outside of the shed. The Yeerk turned my head, and Tobias looked around too.

"What was that?" The Yeerk asked.

{Your buddies come to look for us?} I asked privately.

{Oh please, don't give me false hope.} The Yeerk replied with sarcasm. But I knew it would be some animal.

"It's Ax. He's outside." Tobias said.

"Are you so sure? Maybe it's someone who's found a footprint, or a sign of struggle. You never know who it could be."

"I know for a fact that Ax is outside."

"Yes, but it could still be someone other than him."

"I'm not in the mood to argue." The second day wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as it could be. Tobias gave us a look of distrust that made me want to cry. But he was only giving it to the Yeerk. I should have known that. He had tied me up the previous day, and I couldn't move. I heard another rustling, this time a little louder. I saw a flash of orange. Then I began to try and piece this together in my mind when the door was broken down and a tiger charged at Tobias. It was Jake, or I should say Visser Two. I screamed in my mind, but the Yeerk curled my lips into a smile. Then I saw a ripple of black. Tobias was morphing.

Yeah, I recognized the tiger. Jake/Visser Two in morph. And I saw him outside, so I prepared to morph. My tail shot out first. Then the tiger burst into the room and tackled me. Black fur covered my body again. When the changes were complete, I tried to throw Jake off of me. He was too large, and I was kind of small. But in that smallness I had a lot of power.

I growled and swiped at the tiger. A few red lines appeared on his muzzle, and he backed off a little. I rolled over onto my stomach and stood up. He roared and pounced. I dodged, and he skidded into the nearest wall. He stood up and shook his massive tiger head, and I was on him in a flash. But I didn't try to kill him or anything.

I saw a shovel in the corner of the shed. I ran over and picked it up in my mouth. Then I demorphed and grabbed the shovel. I hit Jake over the head with it, and he fell down. He was still in morph. I put the shovel away and looked at Rachel. No, not Rachel. The Yeerk...Visser Four. I gave her a scowl and looked at Jake's limp tiger body. I had knocked him out. He was still breathing. Hopefully he'd wake up and demorph, or he'd be trapped in morph.

I didn't tie him up, since I was waiting for him to demorph. He finally lifted his head up.

"You might want to try demorphing before you become a tiger for the rest of your life." I told him. He began to do so, almost without thinking. When he was done, I grabbed the shovel I had and knocked him out again. Then I tied him up again.

"Two down, two to get." I mumbled. Rachel and Jake were there. Tom and Ax walked in to see both of them tied up. Rachel stared, wide-eyed, at the three of us, and Jake was limp. Was he faking it so we'd let our guard down? No, I doubted it. I had hit him with the shovel.

Third day. Everyone was pretty much quiet. I didn't go to sleep at all. I hadn't in 3 days. I could feel the dark circles under my eyes, feel my eyelids closing involuntarily. But I wasn't going to sleep until Rachel and Jake were free. No way was I going to sleep. Not yet...

My eyelids closed. My head drooped a bit. I couldn't fight it any more. I started to fall asleep. Then I heard a scream. My head shot up and I looked around the room. Rachel had screamed. Her head swayed gently back and forth and she had a look of intense pain in her face. Jake was staring at her. I knew it was happening. The Yeerk in Rachel's head was dying.

She cried a little, screamed a lot, tried to get out of her bonds. But it wasn't working. And soon a Yeerk fell out of her ear. It dropped to the floor, shriveled up and died. Then it turned into nothing more than dust. I untied Rachel. She stood up, shaky at first, but then she steadied herself. She was free.

She walked over to me and looked at me. A tear fell from her eye. She was smiling, and then she hugged me.

"Thank you." She said. I wrapped my arms around her and stroked her hair.

"You're welcome." Then she stepped back and looked at me.

"But are you...I mean, I saw you..." I knew what she was talking about.

"The Ellimist finally granted my wish." I told her.

"That's great!" She said happily.

When I woke up, Tobias was standing over me.

"You'd better demorph unless you want to live the rest of your life as a tiger." He said dully. The Yeerk made me demorph and stand up. We both looked around for a minute and saw Rachel tied up. Then everything went black.

We were tied up, like Rachel was. My head hurt a lot. Tobias had hit me with a shovel. Twice. That's not exactly painless you know. My head throbbed. So did my hands.

"You're cutting off my circulation." The Yeerk muttered, with my mouth. The mouth he had stolen from me. Tobias carefully came closer and loosened the roped on my hands just enough that my hands lost a bit of their apple-red color. He struggled. I knew it would be over soon.

{Two days, Yeerk.} I said.

{What?}

{Two days. You went to the pool yesterday. Two days left until you're dead.}

{Afraid not. How is your friend supposed to see a flea get out of here?} He was going to morph. He had already begun. But Tobias was coming closer to us.

"Don't even think about it or I'll knock you out again." He ordered. The Yeerk kept morphing. Tobias lifted the shovel and...nothing. The Yeerk reversed the morph and Tobias put the shovel back down.

"That's better."

{Tonight.} He muttered. And I wished so badly that I could warn everyone. That night, Tobias had gone to sleep for a minute. He must have not gone to sleep at all since he had caught Rachel. The Yeerk began to morph to fly. Soon, we flew out of the shack and demorphed in the woods. Someone grabbed us from behind.

"Hello, brother." The Yeerk was as surprised as I was. He turned around and we were looking at Tom.

"Tom?"

"So surprised? Didn't you get my note?" We were both speechless. I didn't get it. How...then I remembered. Ax had a morphing cube. Why didn't I remember that? Tom dragged us back into the shack and re-tied us.

{Your plans have failed, Yeerk. You're going to die. Face it.} I told it smugly. It said nothing in return. The second day passed the same way.

{One day.}

Visser Four died in Rachel's head. Visser Two wasn't far behind. He started running images through my mind. Images of my past. Like when Tom first told me he had quit the basketball team. And when Marco told me that he was a controller. From that time on, the Yeerk showed me memories of things. But it also showed me of its past.

Images began to flash like a jumbled movie, going from one to the next before I could study them. I didn't know what they were from. But there was one image I could see clearly. It was a picture of free Hork-Bajir. In their trees, waving at a person I couldn't see. It made me sad to think of the way they were all enslaved, or killed. But that representation soon faded. I fell asleep in the back of my head.

The next day, I could feel the Yeerk's weakness. His thirst for Kandrona rays. His desperation. It made me sick, the way he was so cowardly.

{Are you all raised to be cowards?} I asked him.

{Are humans?}

{Not all of us.}

{Most.}

{But not all.}

{True.} We talked in short sentences. I don't think he was in the mood to talk. Soon the fugue set in. He was in immense pain, which hurt me as well. It was all so familiar from when I became a controller for the first time. It's so hard to explain what happened. But he showed me images of projects, and past hosts, and so much more. Then I felt a pain in my ear as the Yeerk formally known as Visser Two crawled out of my head, dead.

Jake and Rachel were free. Tom and Jake had a small reunion. But none of us were really talkative that day. As I had watched Jake and Rachel go through hell, I wondered about the others. Ax came in and greeted Jake with his usual {Greetings, Prince Jake.}

"Ax, please, please, please, for once can you not call me prince?" Jake said hopefully.

{Yes, pr-Jake.}

"Thank you." I smiled a little and shook my head. Of course, I was still exhausted. I hadn't really slept well in 3 or 4 days.

"Tobias, you really should get a little sleep." Rachel suggested.

"I think all of us should." Jake said with a small yawn.

"So being a controller for 4 years and then becoming a free person makes you tired?" I asked in a feeble attempt at a joke. Jake didn't say anything, but he looked at his feet. I knew he was thinking of Cassie and Marco.

"We're going to free them too, Jake." Rachel said. Jake looked at her.

"I know. But I keep wondering when."

"Probably not as long a break as it took to get you two." I told them. Jake laughed a little, but Rachel looked away, like she was trying not to remember. I could see why. I walked out of the shed and into the field by Cassie's barn, thinking of my old meadow. I bet another bird's taken over. I thought.

I remembered old times. When I would have gone to Rachel when I was sad or confused. Or the times when Marco would crack jokes at me and I would threaten to take a dump on his head. If we got the others back, maybe we could have those times again. Maybe it would be the same as before they were caught. But then I remembered how Jake and Rachel had been acting since their Yeerks died.

How distracted and forlorn they had looked. And then I remembered that I was really human again. Human. The word seemed a little strange. I wasn't a hawk anymore, no longer lived in that meadow. No, nothing would ever, ever be the same as it was before.

I began to morph to hawk. All of the familiar changes took place. I looked at the edge of the meadow. A girl was standing there, staring wide-eyed at me. She began to scream. And I realized my mistake. She had seen me morph. Was she a controller?