all yeah, poor Ax,"; Rachel sneered.

He throws us over in a flash for his big deal captain who, oops, turns out to be a traitor."; Rachel, I don't think that's really fair,"; Cassie argued.

Fair? Fair?!"; Marco yelled.

If it wasn't for us totally ignoring Ax and his precious captain, Ax would be dead back there along with--"; I wish I were!"; I cried. I wish I were back there with them. I wish I had died with them."; I had not intended to say that. And I did not mean it. Not really. I wanted to live. I felt terrible about it, but I wanted to live.

Okay, everyone shut up,"; Prince Jake said at last. That was rough, what happened back there. A lot of good guys just died. Everyone is hyped up. So let's just chill."; He waited a few moments before going on.

Here's what we do. We keep flying till we're near the two-hour limit. We won't get far in these bodies, even with this breeze, but we want as much distance as we can get."; We flew in silence, seeing the strange planet through the distorted compound eyes of flies, hearing almost nothing, smelling things we could not identify. We were alone in silence with our thoughts.

And after a while I almost wished the yelling and accusations would start again.

It's a terrible thing, living when so many others have died. It's terrible because no matter what you do, a single thought keeps popping up in your head: I'm glad it wasn't me.

I was glad it wasn't me.

We landed amid a tumble of rocks that would hide us from view. We demorphed. From what I could recall of the display on board the Ascalin, we were in a no-person's land between the Yeerk and Andalite forces. The battle could sweep over us at any moment.

"Okay, I'm calm now," Rachel said as soon as she had emerged from the fly morph. "So now that I'm calm, same question: Now what?"

"What do you think about having Tobias take a look around?" Prince Jake asked me.

I don't know,"; I said.

Prince Jake looked at me with a narrowing of the eyes and pressing together of the lips. The expression is "annoyance," I believe.

"Tobias? Go up and take a quick look,"

Prince Jake said. Tobias flapped up from the ground. Prince Jake looked at me. "Now, listen up, Ax. I know you're feeling bad. For lots of reasons, probably. But you feeling bad doesn't let you off the hook."

What hook?"; "Look, we got Andalites shooting at Yeerks. We have no humans in this fight except for us. Maybe you're not the big expert, but you know more than we know. So snap out of it."

Tobias circled overhead and came quickly back down to land somewhat painfully on a point of rock. We have about a thousand heavily armed Hork-Bajir on one side, coming toward us fast. They're backed up by these kind of big, flat, oval ships flying maybe a quarter mile up and firing Dracon beams. Taxxons coming behind them. And over there, we have about two dozen Andalite ships, also low down, and maybe a hundred tough-looking Andalites on the ground.

I may be wrong, but I don't think the good guys are gonna win this round."; We should try and reach the Andalite forces,"; I said.

Why, so some other Andalite traitor can rat us out?"; Rachel said harshly.

My tail blade was at her throat before I knew it.

She stared at me with cool, blue human eyes. "What's the matter, Ax? Does the truth hurt? You blew us off so you could suck up to Captain Creep back there. If we go and find more Andalites, what happens? You tell us to go sit in a corner and be nice while you start yes, sir-+ and no, sir-+ the next Andalite you see?"

I pulled my tail blade back, horrified that I'd gotten so emotional. I felt the anger drain away. Rachel was right.

I made a mistake trusting Captain Samilin. I made a mistake dismissing all of you. You have ... you have kept me alive and befriended me for a long time. All I can say is that none of you knows what it's like to be completely cut off from your own people."; One of us does,"; Tobias said quietly.

All I can do is say I'm sorry. And I will consider Jake my prince until he says otherwise."; I turned to face Prince Jake, focusing all my eyes on him. ally are my prince until you, and only you, say otherwise."; For once he did not say, "Don't call me prince."

Instead he said, "Fine. Now what I want to know is this: Is there anyone on the Andalite side we can be totally sure of?"

It was a hurtful question. I felt the last of my pride melting away. The commander. If he were a Yeerk spy, this entire battle would already be lost."; "It looks pretty lost to me," Marco said bluntly.

Force Commander Prince Galuit-Enilon-Esgarrouth lost his entire family to a Yeerk raid on an Andalite outpost. His entire family: wife and three children. They died rather than be captured. Their bodies were fed to the Taxxons. We can trust Prince Galuit."; I sighed. And we probably should trust ... no one else."; It sounded simple: Reach the Andalite forces.

But it is a very dangerous thing, advancing toward a lot of angry, very dangerous, very heavily armed, very nervous warriors.

The automated defensive grid will fire at anything in the air that comes too close,"; I warned. Anything. If it is more than a few feet above the ground the sensors will pick it up, target it, and fire."; "This ground is too rough to walk over," Cassie said thoughtfully. "And it's getting dark. We could try smaller birds. The seagull morphs again. No, wait! Bats! Not as fast, but very agile. And with echolocation we can fly close to the ground even in the dark."

"To the bat morph, Robin!" Marco said, with cheerfulness that seemed totally out of place.

"We morph, then we fly, hugging the ground the whole way," Jake said. "Once behind Andalite lines we try and figure out a way to reach this Prince Galuit." He looked at me. "And whatever happens, we stay out of this battle till we reach Galuit. Understood?"

all yes, Prince Jake."; Prince Jake looked at me with an unsmiling mouth. Then he said, "Don't call me prince," and formed a small smile with his mouth parts.

all yes, Prince Jake,"; I said.

I had been in bat morph before, and after doing mosquito and fly morphs it seems almost normal. It has fur, for one thing. And I find fur very comforting, even when it is dark brown and very different from my own blue.

But bats are almost cripples on the ground.

Bat legs are stunted and clumsy, and their front legs--or arms, whatever--are encumbered by leathery wings. Being unable to run is disturbing for any Andalite.

I focused on the bat, this strange creature from a strange planet so far away. I shrank, down and down as if I were falling. As if I might fall into one of the thousands of bubbles in the volcanic rock beneath me.

My front legs withered and left me almost facedown on the rock. My tail blade crinkled, like a burning leaf. The crinkling, withering worked its way up my tail.

I couldn't help but picture the tactical officer in those horrible moments after the captain had struck and cut away his tail. I hadn't liked T.o. Harelin. He seemed to me like too many older officers: full of prejudices and arrogance. But he had been a true Andalite.

He had died a hero.

Now my hind legs began to shrink, staying perfectly symmetrical till they were quite small. Then, at the last moment, tiny claws replaced the hooves.

My arms moved back, rotating a few degrees around my body. My fingers elongated relative to the rest of the arm, which was shrinking. Skin began to grow in loose, gray-then-black folds. It hung down from my arms as if I were wearing very loose human clothing.