<You think she remembers we wanted to kill her?> Tobias whispered.

"Karen!" Cassie exclaimed, and hugged her like she was a long lost cousin or something. "Oh, I haven't seen you in years! How have you been?"

"Oh, I've been good," Karen said. "What about you? Did you ever hear from Aftran? How's she doing?"

I wondered how Cassie was going to explain that one.

"Aftran's a whale now," she said as gently as possible.

"She's. . .a whale?" Karen wrinkled her forehead in confusion. "Did she. . .get fat or something?"

"No, no," Cassie laughed. "She MORPHED a whale. Permanently. She's free now."

"That's good," Karen smiled in relief. Me, I was trying to rid the image of fat, bloated, Aftran-the-whale-Yeerk from my brain.

"Don't mean to interrupt this little reunion, but. . ." I gestured to the Helmets, one of which was dabbing at its eyes with what seemed to be a tin foil hanky.

<This is so sweet,> he/she sniffed.

The other rolled its eyes, which was pretty freaky, seeing as when the Helmets rolled their eyes, their eyes really rolled around on top of their heads. <Males,> the Helmet, which must have been female and was also the one with the "I'm with stupid" T-shirt said. <They're always so emotional.>

A small part of me rejoiced that Rachel wasn't around to comment on that.

<Uh, Mr. and Mrs. Helmet?> Tobias asked hesitantly. <Why did you send Rachel and. . .Marco?>

<Well, they were annoying.>

Karen looked like she was trying to stifle a laugh.

Cassie was looking at Tobias with an aww-he's-jealous-that's-so-sweet look.

Tobias just looked pissed.

"So why are you here?" Cassie asked Karen, seemingly determined to carry on a normal conversation, despite the abnormality of the situation.

"Oh!" Karen exclaimed. "I almost forgot!" She slid out from under the lime- green shoulder bag she was wearing. Opening it up, she pulled out a small object. "Do you have any idea what this is?"

Cassie took the object from Karen, and showed it to me. It seemed to be made up of three circles, one larger, the other two smaller, and stuck together so they resembled the recognizable Mickey Mouse signature. But that wasn't what caught my attention. It was the strange writings on it.

<That writing is Skrit Na.> Ax said stuffily. <Probably useless. . .some trinket or another they stole, and marked as their own.>

"What does it say?"

<I think it's some sort of puzzle. 'Is the grass greener on the other side? To find out, just give me a try.'>

"That's not right." Cassie said. " 'The grass is greener on the other side' is a human expression. How would these aliens know it? And why would that write something that, when translated into English, rhymed?"

"Maybe they meant for humans to find it?"

"Then why not just write it in English? That wouldn't make any sense. Unless. . ." Cassie trailed off.

"Unless they knew that there was only two species on this planet that could read it. The Yeerks, and the Andalite Bandits." I finished.

I looked at it again. There were no buttons, no switches. Nothing to indicate how to "give it a try". Not that I was sure I wanted to.

<It had to be for us.> Tobias said, rejoining the conversation. <Why else would they send it to Karen, someone who would bring it to us?>

<Your friend Karen was at one time a Controller,> Ax pointed out. <Perhaps it was assumed that since she is still alive, this position must still be held.>

"So it could go either way." I sighed. "Great."

The Helmets were still standing silently, watching our conversation intently. Strangely, it didn't bother me. I knew it should have, especially considering what they were related to, but I had the feeling they really were here for what they had said, and I was pretty sure they wouldn't let anything happen to Rachel and Marco and ruin their memories. But, I was still thinking about something.

"Hey, Helmets? How exactly do Rachel and Marco and Rachel get back here anyway?"

I swear, the female Helmet smiled intently. She knew what she was about to say was not going to be met with smiles and hugs. <When they die in the time line they are in, they will instantly be back here. Fully intact and with plenty of valuable memories.>

"They die?"

<They die.>

And then, a red-tailed hawk fell out of a tree nearby when Tobias fainted.

Chapter 10