I sat huddled under a cover with a warm mug between my cold fingers. My brother along with the 'Andalite bandits' surrounded me. I was still reeling over the fact that my little brother, my cousin, and three of their school friends were the unbending and undefeatable force that kept Visser Three awake at night. The icing on the cake had been when I'd seen Ax. The only free Andalite on the planet, and he was little more than a child. At this point, my initial shock had worn off, and I had doubled over, losing myself in a fit of laughing and crying.

Once I became aware of my surroundings again, I was sitting here on a log in front of a warm fire. It's nighttime and the sky is a deep midnight blue. I felt a vague sense of surprise as I noticed how bright the stars were, and how many there were. They twinkled and seemed to dance around an enormous glowing full moon. When was the last time that I'd gotten to just sit and watch the stars?

"Tom!"

I jerked my head down coming face to face with Jake. I realized that he had been calling me for a while, now he squatted in front of me shaking my shoulders. He watched my face for a moment as if looking for any lasting effect of the Yeerks.

"It's real isn't it?" My eyes flicked to the stars then back to his face. "That all happened right? You're still free?" I sighed in relief at his nod. "Wait! What about Mom and Dad? You got them out alright didn't you?"

Jake smiled again. He smiled different now than before. His eyes were so deep and full, as if he knew every dark secret this world had to offer. Somehow, he still managed to look happy, even with that knowledge.

"We snuck Mom and Dad out right before we nabbed you. We've been keeping them isolated, you know, just to make sure that the others hadn't gotten to them first. That's the only reason they haven't been in here demanding to see you every other minute. Rachel and Cassie went to get them, so you have a few minutes to pull yourself together."

He held out a tissue box to me. I stared at it for a moment.

"Um, Jake, were sitting in the middle of a forest with a campfire. We don't even have any real chairs. Why the hell are you carrying around a tissue box?"

JAKE

That caught me off guard. Don't get me wrong, I had a perfectly good reason for the tissues, we had done this before, more times than I'd care to think about. I knew we'd need them for the little family reunion. What got me was how un-controller-Tom that question was. I'd lived with him for so long in that state that I'd partially forgotten the brother of old: the brother who'd take time to ask perfectly irrelevant questions.

Boy was I glad that Tom was back.

I'm sure I looked like an idiot, I was smiling so much, but I couldn't help it.

"Just wait Tom," I looked up at the small group of people who entered the firelight. "You're about to thank me."