The question hit me like a sledgehammer. Of course. It made no sense. I should have seen it. Should have, should have, should have! There were too many should haves! Ax! I remembered asking him if there was some other way to get back. I remembered the way he avoided answering. "Ax? What do you know that you're not saying?"

"What do I know" he answered evasively.

"What do you know ... or guess?"

"Prince Jake, as I said, I know very little about Sario Rips.

I was preoccupied by -"

"Ax. You call me your prince. Fine, I'm your prince. So answer my questions"

"Prince Jake . . . it's possible that you are ... I mean, it's possible that you are the only real person here. The rest of us may only be memory."

I felt a chill. "What are you talking about?"

"We may not actually be here. Not really. I mean, yes, we were here in one time line, but that time line was later erased."

"Erased? Who erased this time line?"

"You, Prince Jake. It is possible that only you will escape from this time line. You may go back, alone, and alter everything, so that none of this ever really happens."

"Is it just me, or is this truly insane?" Marco asked.

"Ax, how would I be the only one to escape this time line? We think the way to get back to our own time involves repeating the Dracon beam accident that caused the Sario Rip. Right?"

"Maybe . . . Prince Jake, that may not be the only way." Ax said. "There may be another way. I didn't want to say anything because I wasn't sure. And -"

"Hey!" Tobias interrupted sharply. "Visser Three in the window over there? I just saw him wobble. Like a TV picture with interference. It's not him! It's a projection"

"A decoy!" Rachel said.

Suddenly, I saw my terrible mistake. Visser Three knew that eight fifty-four was the cutoff. He knew. And he figured we knew, too. So he knew that we'd show up, either at the Bug fighter or the Blade ship, trying to beat that deadline. He knew we'd try to hide out aboard one of the two ships. That's why he had his creatures drag the Bug fighter through the forest to be alongside the Blade ship. So we'd have only one place to go. So he'd know exactly where we'd be before eight fifty-four.

"It's a trap!" I yelled.

"It's a trap! He's expecting u!"

And at that very moment, we heard his voice in our heads.

"Five cats and a bird. Hah-hah-hah. This will be too easy."

"That right! It's a trap!"

I bolted. But a vine reached up and snagged my front paws. I tumbled, head over heel. Instantly the jaguar was up, but again a vine grabbed me, wrapping around my neck.

The vines were alive!

Like a snake, it wrapped around my jaguar throat and tightened. I couldn't breathe! I writhed with all the jaguar's strength and broke free.

I ran, then ... it hit me! I'd been wearing the Bug fighter's computer around my neck. It was gone!

"It's a Lerdethak" Ax yelled. "The vines! It's Visser Three in a morph. It's a creature from the Hork-Bajir home world: a Lerdethak. It -"

Suddenly Ax was silent.

The darkness was erupting around me in a tangle of vines. It was like being in a storm of snakes. The vines shot through the air, reaching, grabbing, wrapping themselves around me.

I saw a flash of a jaguar -- maybe Ax, I couldn't be sure -- being lifted in the air by one of the living vines. Lifted by his neck, with three more vines wrapping around his legs and body.

I wanted to help, but the snakelike things were everywhere! If I hesitated even a second, they would have me.

"Jake!" I heard Marco yell. "It's got me!"

Cassie's thought-speak voice just screamed.

"Aaaaahhhh!"

"Cassie!" I yelled. "Marco!"

"Jake! It's huge!" Tobias yelled down from above. "Can't see well, but like a ... like an octopus but with a thousand tentacles!"

A slither of tentacles slapped against me, wrapping around my legs. I leaped ... a split second away from being caught.

I ran. What else could I do? I ran!

"It's swallowing them!" Tobias cried. "0h, no! NO! It has a mouth. Huge! Help them!"

"I can't! I can't!" I cried. The vine-tentacles were less numerous now, smaller, weaker.

"I'm inside something!" Rachel said. "Smothering!"

"Prince Jake, we've been swallowed by the Lerdethak"

"Can't get to you!" I yelled. "I can't even see you! Claw your way out!"

"Can't . . . can't move . ." Cassie moaned.

"I can't just watch th!"Tobias yelled. "I'm going down!"

I was reeling from sheer shock and horror. I was running in panic, running flat out. The tentacles no longer surrounded me. But when I paused, panting, to look back, I saw it.

It was like some gnarled old tree come to life. Like Medusa's head, alive with snakes. I saw it outlined against the bright lights around the Blade ship. It was rising from the ground, growing taller and taller. Tentacles like bullwhips! A maze of snakelike arms, all surrounding a dark core. Through the tentacles I could see a wide, drooping, blue-outlined mouth.

As I watched, a struggling jaguar was tossed inside.

And one thin tentacle reached, whipped, and wrapped around a bird that was diving toward it.

"Hmmm." Visser Three said. "Just five little Andalites inside my craw. That leaves one still free. But don't worry. Plenty of time to find you."

He had them all. He had them all but me.

"Settle down, my Andalite friends. Relax. I won't kill you, yet. But you won't morph your way out of this. My Lerdethak morph will hold you tight till I decide your fates."

He had them. Visser Three had won. I was the only one left. I was their only hope.

Some hope, I told myself bitterly. I was the one in charge.

And I had walked them into Visser Three's trap. Don't feel sorry for yourself, Jake. Find a way out!

The huge, thousand-tentacled creature moved easily and swiftly through the rain forest. And now, on both sides of it, I saw the Hork-Bajir warriors.

Behind me! All around me! A ring of Hork-Bajir penning me in as Visser Three slithered toward me.

Then . . .

FLIT!

Even my jaguar eyes couldn't see the spear fly. I could only see it when it stuck into the back of a Hork-Bajir.

FLIT! FLIT! FLIT!

Spears appeared from nowhere. Hork-Bajir began dropping!

Polo stepped into view. He looked past me and launched his spear at the Lerdethak. Launched it at Visser Three.

But the Visser's morph was far too quick. One vine reached out, snatched the spear from the air, and contemptuously tossed it back. It stuck in the ground where Polo grabbed it.

There was no way to stop the Lerdethak.

It was safe, surrounded by its vine-tentacles. The only vulnerable part was the head, and it was surrounded by a forest of the - Wait a minute!

Not like vines! Not like tentacles! Wrong way to think, Jake, I realized. Branches. Like branches!

I dove into darkness and even as I ran, I began to demorph. I heard the flit of spears flying and the cries of Hork-Bajir.

But nothing was stopping the Lerdethak.

The Visser kept coming.

I was human now, blundering blindly through slapping leaves, my bare feet cut and bruised. But at least I had a plan. I ran and focused on a quick morph. I ran and shrank, but still I ran, even as my legs became bowed and I bent forward to use my knuckles like extra feet.

And when I was fully monkey ... I turned.