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Marco was lying on the grass under the Andalite tree, looking as if he'd just decided at random to plop himself down there. Though, if you could look closely enough, you'd be able to see him frowning, just a little, at the tree. This wasn't the best place for meetings. Too open. Too visible. Too much chance of someone just wondering by and wondering why they were up to. Sure, he trusted Tobias to notice anyone getting too close - but this place had anyone and everyone, and a whole range of odd abilities. For all they knew, there were people on board who could get past Tobias's sharp eyes.

But, Marco hadn't exactly found anywhere else that would work well either. And this was a place that Ax and Tobias came to regularly, so them coming here wasn't exactly suspicious. If anything, Marco was the odd one out. But hey, nothing wrong with wanting to lie down on the grass, huh? Or talking to his friends.

It was all too easy to slip back into paranoia and suspicion. Sure, there we no Yeerks and no apparent need for secrecy. But paranoia had got him through one war. It might get him through another. And everything about this was one great big mess of unknown quantities.

The really big question, though: how the hell were they supposed to explain to Ax his own future? "Guess what, the borg eats you. Try not to do that again if and when you go back."

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< Looks like you're feeling very similar things to me. Of course in my case it's the whole thing with my parents, but we're both trying to wrap our minds around tough things. It all makes my head hurt > said TObias, privately of course, in case anyone was around. He wanted desperately to return home with his parents still alive.

He touched down and settled on the ground. Normally he hated it, but even the predators here weren't going to eat him, and he hated digging his claws into the tree.

Ax approached the Garibah a little later than he'd thought he would. He'd wrapped up his project in the amount of time predicted, but his cleaning up had been interrupted by a small explosion, and he'd had to help clean that up too. And his fur still contained static electricity.

< Marco, Tobias, > he said, nodding to both of them as he approached. < You said you wanted to see me? >

With a sidelong look at Tobias, Marco sat up and faced Ax. And then grinned when he noticed the fuzzy fur. "Looking-good, Ax-man. I'm sure the Andalite ladies love the fluffy look."

He managed to look a little bit more serious when bringing up the topic of discussion, though. Just a little. "We're going to tell you your future, Ax. Although I forgot my crystal ball. But I'm sure the psychic tree counts for something." Turning to look at Tobias perched on the ground, he said, "Hey, are you going to be able to tell if anyone's coming from all the way down there?"

< It's static electricity, > Ax said with as much dignity as he could muster. He considered prodding Marco to demonstrate the truth of his statement, but decided that such behavior didn't fit with the dignity approach.

He tilted his head thoughtfully, keeping his main eyes on his fellow-- the two Animorphs, looking around with one stalk eye and peering up into the Garibah's branches with the other. < I believe that the Garibah will sense the approach of most of the crew long before they can hear you, if you speak quietly. However, there are those with psychic abilities, and those with greatly enhanced senses to contend with. The psychics are a significant problem, but thought-speak should be enough to deal with everyone else. >

As soon as they figured out a way to keep this conversation private, he'd contend with the actual topic of the discussion.

< Yeah, I just feel wierd digging my claws into it. I need to see about something else to perch on if i'm gonna be here a lot, though. Hawks don't like the ground much. > Tobias said. He also had to chuckle about the static electricity thing going on.

< Yeah, I noticed. It's wierd having people around who can see your secrets...too Yeerkish for me. > Tobias said about the psychics.

Yes, Ax. Dignity. You keep telling yourself that. Marco will just sit over here and laugh at you.

"We should get you a little birdie perch," Marco said, smirking at Tobias.

And Marco was definitely with you guys on the psychic problem. At least with Leerans, you knew who the psychics were, because they were all giant frogs. "Guys, unless one of you knows about some secret psychic blocking devices or whatever, there's not much we can do about the psychics. For all we know, they've already picked our brains when we've passed them in the corridor.

He scowled, thinking of Satori. He already knows she's been inside his head, and he definitely didn't like it.

There always was the option of accidentally brushing against Marco, though. No one could blame him for that...

< I'm afraid I don't know how to do that, > Ax said. < I imagine there are techniques, but I would imagine that they need to be learned from a psychic; and I've been making an effort to avoid contact with them as much as possible. I could ask Dox, I suppose. And Jaime Reyes' parasite seems to have some psychic-blocking capabilities, or so he's claimed. >

Tobias replied. < Besides, they're kinda clumsy out of the water. >

Marco will definitely blame you Ax, and totally suspect treachery.

"Dude, getting a parasite just to block psychics? Hell no. I'd rather have them reading my mind all the time. And morphing Leerans and turning off the psychic powers didn't stop other Leerans from reading our minds, remember?" Marco frowned, trying to remember the details of that particular mission. "Or did you get snapped back before that bit?"

"Anyways.. Point is, with psychics it won't matter what we're talking about. They'll be able to read our minds anyway. Best thing we can do is try to stay far, far away. As for everyone else, if we have our meetings while morphed, we can at least do private thought-speak so they don't hear." Marco paused, realising that the only other people around for meetings were Ax and Tobias, of all people. "Well. I can morph."

< Yeah that would be better. And I'd forgotten...guess neither of us wants to relive that little adventure. > replied Tobias. He listened more, and nodded, agreeing. < Yeah, just stay away and if we can't avoid it, watch our thoughts while we're close. >

"Keep an eye out for anyone coming along, alright?" Marco said to Tobias, already focusing on his wolf morph. Sure, Ax said the "psychic tree" would warn them of anyone nearby - but Marco preferred to trust in Tobias's eyes and the wolf's nose.

"I think thinking really annoyirrsh garf urgargh grrarrrghh..." Marco said, as a wolf's snout grew out of his face. A moment later, his though-speak kicked in. <Anyway. Thinking of really annoying songs very loudly might work. At least, I'm positive I saw Satori twitching when I kept thinking The Song That Doesn't End at her. Just a little. Maybe. Possibly. I think. Okay, I've got no clue. But it's worth a shot - and at the very least, it'll make reading our minds really annoying.>

By this time, Marco was fully wolf. Sure, anyone walking by would find the sight of an alien, hawk, and wolf all hanging out together odd - but at least they wouldn't be able to hear them. <So. Hand over your palms, Ax-man.>

< I'll keep track of time, to the best of my ability, > Ax promised. He wished that it didn't give him such a headache. He did make note of the annoying song technique, although he wasn't entirely certain how to differentiate an "annoying" human song from any other human so-called "music".

Marco got a strange look in response to his order. < My palms? What are you talking about? >

<Dude, palm reading? Come one, it's gotta have been in at least one of those soapies you were always watching. New-age nutsos think that you can tell the future be reading the lines on...oh never mind,> Marco said, rolling his eyes. Trying to explain palm reading to Ax was not what they were here for.

<You said the last thing you remember is the whole USS George Washington thing, right?>

< That's what I do best > Tobias took off and soared above them for a while, though he couldn't go long without a nice thermal. He listened to Marco trying to tell Ax about palm reading.

< They're probably too rational, too science minded and all. > he said. After the exchange about the time, he commented privately < let's see if he says they're our minutes again. > He wasn't normally huge on injecting humor, but he was slightly bored at the moment. He got quiet though when Marco got serious, waiting for Ax to reply.

Ax said dubiously. Trying to tell the future based on lines on someone's hand? Humans came up with the strangest ideas sometimes...

He shifted his weight as he scanned the area with his stalk eyes a little more intently than before. < Yes. We'd arrived back in the woods, but it was only later that evening. >

The Animorphs hadn't talked much on the trip back. Or if they had, they hadn't included Ax in their conversation.

<They're everybody's minutes,> Marco agreed privately to Tobias. <Especially when no one can keep track of them.> Which, admittedly, was rather worrying when you're an Animorph and keeping track of time is very important.

Later on they could go into specifics, but for now? Marco knew what Ax would really want to know.

<We won the war,> Marco said bluntly. <A few months after the thing with the USS Washington. <But it got real ugly before the end. And...> Marco darted a look at Tobias. <We lost Rachel.>

Tobias couldn't look sad in morph, but he was feeling it.

< A lot of things happened. Visser Three became Visser One, although we rescued Eva. And the Yeerks found out that most of us were human. We wound up recruiting more warriors to help us. > He was reluctant to go much further, looking to Marco for more direction. Ax would probably freak when he found out about the morphing cube being stolen. Surrendered, actually.

Ax's hearts leaped when he heard that they'd won -- that they somehow, against all reasonable odds, had won -- then plummeted again when he heard that they'd lost Rachel. It was a shock that any of them had survived, truly, and casualties were expected in war, but that didn't change the fact that an Animorph was dead. He looked over at Tobias, his chest tightening with sympathy. He'd noticed that his shorm had been more withdrawn, but he hadn't known why. Rachel's death must have nearly destroyed him.

< Continue, > he said, not trusting himself to say anything else at the moment.

<We used the morphing cube to make more Animorphs. Disabled kids, because we knew the Yeerks wouldn't have infested them,> Marco's voice sounded casual and off-hand, but he was giving Ax a wolf stare that almost dared him to make a comment about vecols. Marco had liked those kids. <But we lost the morphing cube one time when we were trying to get new recruits.>

Marco paused - like Tobias, he was expecting a freak out at this news. <Think he's go completely nuts if we tell him Cassie let them have it?> he said privately to Tobias.

< That's what worries me. I'm not sure > Tobias replied.

The Animorphs, and Marco in particular, had made their opinion of the Andalite idea of vecols perfectly clear. Ax had no doubt that it had been discussed again when they had recruited their new allies. He couldn't quite suppress an expression of distaste; but anything he would have said was lost with the second piece of news.

< WHAT?! > he, as predicted, exploded. Even the knowledge that they had won the war in the end couldn't dampen his horror at the very idea of Yeerks with free access to an Escafil device. Hundreds, easily thousands of those disgusting creatures erasing the one edge the Animorphs had over them--

He brought himself back under control with some struggle. < How? > Then, probably more importantly, < then what? >

<Yep, he's definitely gonna go nuts. He's already nuts. We might as well go and bake him a fruitcake.> Marco said to Tobias. <You know, you're his best friend. How about you tell him about Cassie?>

Okay, so Marco was definitely trying to pass the buck here. Sure, he knew they'd have to tell him eventually if they wanted their whole "save Rachel" plan to work. But Marco did not want to be the guy to tell him.

To Ax, he said, <Funny you should ask that...>

Tobias didn't want to be the one, either. But he knew one of them had to. < I suppose it should fall to me, although I don't like it either.

< Ax, can you promise that you'll stay calm if we tell you the whole story? You may not like some of it...I can see you getting upset, but please don't slice and dice, okay?>

Ax replied stiffly.

Marco snorted. Amazing how he could still manage that when a wolf. <Of course Ax. Cause you know, you've never done anything like oh, bring your tail-blade to anyone's face when they mention something you don't like. Like Visser Three. So, I think I'm just going to keep sitting over here. Way over here.>

Okay, Marco didn't actually expect Ax to go all slice-and-dice on them. But he couldn't resist needling. Still, as much as Marco would really like to have Cassie and her ability to read people around, he decided it was definitely a good thing that she was still in the pods.