Visser Three circled at blazing speed, but I threaded my way again and again through the arches.

8Good job, Ax-man!"; Tobias cried.

8Hang in there. I have him in my sights!"; Humans were gathering beneath us, gaping up at the bizarre spectacle.

"Hey, that bird has too many wings!" one yelled.

"Must be a mutant bird. Go seagull, go!"

Whap! My wing tip caught the edge of an arch. I stuttered through the air. I missed my turn.

8Aaaaahhhh!"; The razor-sharp beak cut an inch from my wing tip! I fell. I hit the black roof of the fast-food restaurant. I staggered and hopped into a narrow s.p.a.ce between two large, loud cooling units.

I saw the Visser swoop by low overhead and I knew that he had landed on the roof, too.

I began to demorph as fast as I could. The roof was surrounded by a raised wall. The humans on the ground could not see us. And once I was Andalite again, the bird would pose no more threat.

From my talons, hooves began to grow. My tail feathers melted together and formed the beginnings of my tail blade. But as I grew, the s.p.a.ce became tight. I was wedged in between the cooling units, with fans blasting me with greasy smells.

I forced my way out, half Andalite, half bird, staggering on misshapen legs. Out into the open center of the roof. And there I saw him. Like me, he was demorphing. Like me, he was part bird, part Andalite.

But this was no true Andalite.

8Give yourself up, Andalite,"; the Visser sneered. 8And I may even let you live."; 8Let's see how good you are tail to tail,"; I said, once more trying to sound far more confident than I was.

His tail emerged. My tail emerged.

And we stood, seemingly two Andalites, preparing for a battle to the death.

I looked into the eyes of the Abomination. And there I saw evil.

And then I saw something that made my hearts leap. Because I also saw fear.

CHAPTER 5.

It had been a very long time since any Andalites fought tail to tail, except as part of military training or as a sport.

And this was no sport.

There, amid the blowing fans and the smell of grease and fried meat, Visser Three and I stood face-to-face.

Two seagulls fluttered down to land. Then two more. My stalk eye noted the predator's outline of a hawk on the wing overhead.

8Let's demorph,"; Rachel said, directing her thought-speak to include me. I hoped she'd remember not to let Visser Three hear it. Humans sometimes forget that thought-speak can be targeted to everyone or just a list of people.

8We can't demorph,"; Prince Jake said to me. 8We'd have to pa.s.s through our human forms first. We can't demorph unless we are absolutely sure Visser Three is not going to walk away from this."; 8If we demorph, he won't walk away,"; Rachel said grimly.

I kept my eyes trained on the Visser.

My tail was on a hair trigger. The slightest movement and I would strike.

I said, 8Prince Jake, we can't take the chance. If he ever learns you are humans, your lives will be worthless. I can avenge Elfangor alone."; 8This isn't the place,"; Ca.s.sie said reasonably. 8People down below saw a six-winged bird come up here. Someone is probably on their way."; I barely heard her. The Visser was edging sideways, looking for an opening. I arched my tail blade high, ready to block his attack.

8Ax, can you back off without getting hurt?"; Prince Jake asked. 8Ca.s.sie's right. We don't want this fight here."; Part of me wanted to say, yes, yes, we can let the Visser escape. He was bigger than I. His tail would have a half-foot advantage in reach. He was taller, which made it easier for him to strike my eyes, my head.

But another part of me had seen that look of fear in the Visser's eyes. He'd realized he was in a trap. He'd realized he was facing a battle to the death where the odds were not all that favorable to him.

I wanted to see more of that fear from him. I wanted to see the terror as I pressed my tail blade against his throat and said, 8This is for my brother."; Sudden movement!

I struck! My tail blade missed its target, but slashed the Abomination across his shoulder.

In the confusion, I didn't understand at first.

Everything happened at once: his sudden movement, my strike, and then, the graceful flight as his leap took him over the wall.

He fell from sight. I ran to the edge and craned to look over.

A human girl below was crying, "I swear I saw a blue horse jump off the roof!"

"You're crazy. Where'd it land, then?" her friend said.

I could see where he'd landed. In a large square trash bin.

"In that Dumpster," the first girl said.

I glared down at the Visser. His left rear leg was broken from the fall. He was morphing to human as fast as he could. He looked up at me with eyes blazing hatred.

I wanted to say something. I wanted to shout some threat. Make some dire promise. But all I did was stare eye to eye with Visser Three.

And then, as his human mouth appeared, he sneered.

8Come on, Ax,"; Prince Jake said.

8We're done here.";

CHAPTER 6.

That night I ran across the far pastures of Ca.s.sie's ranch and tried to figure out my emotions.

It was a wet night. Rain was falling, although not hard by Earth standards. The gra.s.s was wet and moist. I could feel my hooves picking up the worms that come out of the ground when it's wet. There would be extra protein in my diet, which was the last thing I needed. Too much protein keeps me awake.

The clouds overhead hid the moon and the stars.

This made me sad. I like to find the home star at night. It has become a sort of unofficial ritual. Something I do for myself. To remind myself that there is a place for me in the galaxy. I may not be there, but the place does exist.

Or am I just fooling myself? Yes, I have a home planet. And a home on that planet. And a people like me. But will I ever fit in there again? Have I changed too much, been with humans too long?

I saw the lights of Ca.s.sie's home.

Once I had morphed into Prince Jake and gone there for dinner with Ca.s.sie's parents. I have Prince Jake's DNA from the time when he became infested by a Yeerk.

It's a treasured memory. Dinner with Ca.s.sie, I mean, not morphing Prince Jake. Sometimes when I'm alone in the woods and thinking about home, I find myself thinking about that evening instead.

I ran faster now, no longer concerned with eating, but just wanting to feel the impact of raindrops on my face and my chest. If I could run fast enough, all the drops would hit my face and chest and none would fall down on my back.

I saw a wooden rail fence. Almost too high to jump. But I ran straight at it, kicked, tucked my front legs, and sailed over.

There was a "thump!" as one hoof nicked the top rail.

I landed easily and realized I was panting.

I slowed down and trotted back toward the woods.

I could have beaten him, I told myself.

I could have forced the fight. I could have struck again before he had a chance to get away.

Another part of my mind answered, No, you would have lost. He's taller, bigger. He's more experienced. The Andalite body Visser Three controls used to belong to a great warrior. Visser Three has all of that warrior's skill and experience.

You went tail to tail with Visser Three and let him get away.

I went tail to tail with Visser Three and at least I didn't run away.

You wanted to. You were frightened.

I'd be a fool not to be frightened. But I didn't run. He did.

I realized I'd come to rest, standing beneath a particularly tall pine tree just back from the edge of a meadow. Tobias's meadow.

8What's up, Ax-man?"; he called down from the darkness above.

8Are you awake?"; 8allyeah. I have this slight tendency to wake up when big, blue, scorpion-tailed alien centaurs go crashing around in the woods like a herd of ruptured elephants."; Tobias is sometimes harsh when awakened. It is a human characteristic that he has not lost.

8I apologize for waking you. How do elephants come to be ruptured?"; Tobias sighed. He floated down to a lower branch, then sailed over to a fallen log.

8ally're stewing, aren't you?"; 8What?"; 8Stewing. Going over things again and again in your head. Around and around in circles, asking yourself the same questions again and again, then starting it all over again."; 8How did you know?"; 8Look, Ax, the first time I saw Visser Three ... and you know when that was ... I cried, I was so scared."; 8He was an alien. He was unfamiliar to you."; 8Elfangor was an alien. He was unfamiliar. He didn't scare me. Visser Three did. Not because of what he looked like, but because I could feel something coming from him. Like a dark cloud. Like a smell, almost. This feeling, I don't know any other word for it. Like I was looking at something that needed to be destroyed. He was evil. I felt it. And I had this horrible understanding, this knowledge, that one way or the other, that evil was going to touch me and change me. So I just cried."; 8I have met Visser Three before,"; I said stonily. 8I should not have been afraid."; 8What could you have done?"; 8I could have forced the fight."; 8What if you'd lost?"; 8What if I'd won? It would have been a terrible blow against the Yeerks. I would have avenged Elfangor. I would have done a great service for my people."; 8Look, Ax, you went up against him. He backed down. Not you."; 8He was surrounded and outnumbered. He thought each of you was another Andalite warrior ready to demorph and attack. He retreated with honor."; 8Honor,"; Tobias said derisively.

8He's a cold-blooded killer. He's an invader in someone else's land. He's just another gangster. Murderers don't have honor."; 8I should let you go back to sleep."; 8Ooookay. You want to drop it, it's dropped."; He looked around, blinking, almost as blind as a human in the darkness. 8Hard to sleep when it's raining, anyway."; 8Tobias. The bird that Visser Three morphed? It was an Andalite bird. It's called a kafit bird. From my home planet."; 8ally're thinking, what? That Visser Three must have been on the Andalite home world in order to acquire it?"; 8allyes. I am worried that the Abomination has set foot on the Andalite home world."; I felt Tobias grow tense. Now he was beginning to understand. But he said, 8Sometimes people must take animals off the home world, right? I mean, just the way you can find an African lion in a zoo in America, Europe, wherever. Right?

So, okay, someone totally innocent takes one of these birds off your planet. They get hijacked or whatever. And it ends up in Visser Three's hands."; I wanted to believe it was possible. So I said, 8allyes, that could be it."; But I didn't believe it. I believed that Visser Three had either been to my world. Or that some ally of his had been there.

Either way it meant only one thing. The Yeerks had begun to reach into the one safe place in the galaxy: my home.

CHAPTER 7.

We met at the barn where Ca.s.sie and her father care for sick or injured nonhuman animals.

It is called the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. It is a large, dark building made of wood. Within it are numerous cages made of steel wire. And within the cages are the sick animals.

Tobias was high in the rafters. From up there he can see out through a sort of window and can warn us if anyone is approaching.

Everyone else was on the ground level.

Ca.s.sie was working, pushing piles of dirty hay with a very large, three-p.r.o.nged fork. Prince Jake would occasionally lift something out of her way.

Marco and Rachel were just chilling.

That's what humans call it. I believe it refers to the fact that when humans sit very still and do nothing, their body temperature drops. Thus, "chilling."

Someday, when I am old, too old to be a warrior, I will write a book about humans and their strange habits and speech and technology.

For example, did you know that humans invented books before computers? Because of this they believe computers to be superior, despite the very obvious fact that it takes one of their computers as much as thirty seconds to "load" a page, while a book page can be accessed with zero effective delay.

One would almost dismiss humans as a quaint, unimportant, backward race.

Except for two things. First, these are, after all, the creatures who have raised the art of taste to incredible levels. Humans may be technologically primitive, but they have created b.u.t.tered popcorn, the Snickers bar, chili, and cigarette b.u.t.ts. (although humans themselves become very upset by the idea of eating cigarette b.u.t.ts.) And let us not forget: Humans, for all their faults, have created the cinnamon bun. Some day, after the war, there will be pilgrimages of Andalites streaming to Earth to morph into humans for a day and do nothing but eat cinnamon buns.

Get the extra frosting. It's worth it.

"Ax, are you paying attention?" Marco asked.

I snapped out of my daydream. 8allyes, of course."; "Because, see, I've said the same thing to you twice now, and you just keep staring off into s.p.a.ce like you're a million miles away."

8Please tell me a third time and I will pay attention."; "I said, by Visser Three morphing an Andalite bird, maybe he was sending a message. I mean, he still thinks we're all Andalites. He was pretty sure he was chasing an Andalite in morph, right? So he chooses to morph an Andalite bird? That's not a coincidence. That's a message."

And that's the second reason not to dismiss humans as unimportant. They are unbelievably quick to adapt. Just a few months ago, Marco didn't believe there was life on other planets. Now he's accepted that fact, absorbed an entirely new world view, found himself in the middle of a war using morphing technology he doesn't understand, and even managed to have insights that I miss.

8allyes,"; I said slowly. 8allyes. But why? What message?"; Marco shrugged his shoulders. "He's rattling your cage. It's like, "Hey, pal, while you're stuck here on Earth I've been in and out of your house, hanging out with your buddies, and eating your mom's cookies.""

8My mother does not make cookies,"; I pointed out. 8The sense of taste is unknown among--"; "The Visser's yanking your chain," Rachel said.