Also, this is the 5th story in my “Luna” series.

Breaking barriers

By Sambrea

Cassie, Marco, Jake, and Rachel were walking down the street with Tobias close enough to hear
what they were saying but far enough so he didn’t attract attention.

“We need a vacation guys,” Marco said.

“Yeah, with everything that’s been going on lately we need it,” Cassie said.

*Yeah, but we’re four kids and a red-tailed hawk. Where would we go? An animal park? Also,
watch what your saying, after all you never know who might be around.* Tobias thought-said.

“Good point. If we didn’t have that 2 hour limit on you know what we could experience that for a
while.”

*You guys better watch what your saying. You don’t know who might hear.*

“Guys is it just me or is this fog getting thicker?” Rachel asked, stopping.

*It is a lot thicker Rachel. Even up here.*

Almost as soon as Tobias said that, they were engulfed in the fog, making it impossible to see
anything but each other.

“This is really strange. Tobias why don’t you come down here?” Cassie said, holding up her arm.

*Thanks, Cas. This is really freaking out the bird in me.* he said as he landed.

Cassie stroked his feathers as they waited for the fog to clear.

Ten minutes later it did.

“Guys where are we?”

++++++++++

Catalina, Wade, Quinn and Rosie were out riding when they came upon the group standing in the
middle of the trail.

“What’s going on?” Rosie asked.

“Well it looks like we’ve got visitors.”

Quinn dismounted and led his horse forward. “Hello,” he said. “Can I help you?”

The four kids looked at each other quickly before looking back at him.

Quinn glanced at the one strange thing about the group, the bird perched on one of the girl’s arms.

Whatever it was doing with them it seemed to have an uncanny intelligence about it.

The small group was talking among themselves, just barely loud enough for Quinn to hear.

“Where are we guys? This is really strange. We had to be transported somewhere.”

“Don’t forget guys. We need to be really careful about what we say to Tobias too.”

“Well at least we got our vacation, wherever we are.”

*Cas, give me a boost. I can tell you what’s around. I’ll come find you guys later.*

Author’s note: Quinn couldn’t actually here Tobias, but I thought it important enough to add.

Quinn watched as the girl launched what he now realized was a red-tailed hawk.

Wade had gotten off her horse and was standing next to Quinn.

“I’m Wade and this is my husband Quinn, Catalina and Rosie.”

“I’m Jake and this is Rachel, Marco and Cassie.”

“Who’s Tobias?”

Jake glanced at his friends. “He’s the hawk that came with us.”

“Is he your pet?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then why is he with you?”

Jake hesitated, unsure if he should tell the truth.

“Look no one here will judge you. We all come from different lives here on Luna.”

“Wait a second. Did you say Luna?” Cassie asked. “What’s a Luna?”

“That’s where you are. Welcome to Luna, the place to have a home if you don’t have a home or
can’t get home.”

“Yeah nice, Quinn. Completely confuse them.”

“Wait a minute, we’re not on Earth?”

“That seems to be the question almost everyone asks when they get here. No, we are not on Earth.”

“I guess we’re getting more of a vacation than we though, Rachel said.

“Aren’t you kids a little young to be needing a vacation?”

Marco snorted. “With everything we’ve been through we needed one months ago.”

“Well you might as well come back to the ranch with us. Catalina, why don’t you go back to the
ranch and tell Kathryn. We’ll just walk back.  Rosie, it might be easier for you if you go back with
Catalina” Quinn said.

The pair left, and the others started walking back.

“How did you guys get here?”

“We don’t know. One minute we were walking down the street when the fog became incredibly
thick. The next minute we were here,” Cassie said.

“Guys, if this is not Earth could we tell them who we are?”

Jake just shrugged and turned to Quinn. “Have you guys ever heard of a species called the Yeerks?”

Quinn shook his head. “No, but we’re really not the ones to ask.”

*I don’t see any kind of Yeerk-like activity from up here so I think we’d be safe to tell them.*
Tobias said, broadcasting to Wade and Quinn also.  *I’m going hunting. I’ll come find you later.*

“What the heck was that?”

“I guess that answered that question, though there are certainly going to be more people who need
to know,” Rachel said.

“What are you guys talking about?” Wade asked.

“I’ll demonstrate guys,” Cassie said, taking off her shirt.

“What are you going to do?” Jake asked.

“Horse,” she said, stripping down to her morphing outfit. Can someone hold my clothes for me?”

Rachel took the clothes and Cassie stepped back a bit.

Cassie closed her eyes and a second later a horse stood in her place.

“So you all can do this?”

*Yep. Tobias used to be able to too, but he stayed in morph too long and now he’s stuck in hawk
morph.*

“How are you speaking?”

*It’s called thought-speech. It’s the only way to communicate when in morph. It takes a little more
effort to speak to the two of you but it’s certainly possible.* Cassie said, starting to reverse back to
human form.

“Does it hurt?”

“If it did I don’t think I’d do it,” Cassie said, getting her clothes back from Rachel.

“How did you guys start morphing?”

“Our Earth is being invaded by a species called the Yeerks. Another species called the Andalites
have the power to morph anything they aquire.  One of their people crash-landed on Earth and we
found him before the Yeerks did. Before he died he warned us of the invasion and gave us the
power to morph.

“The reason almost no one knows of this invasion is that Yeerks are these worm things that crawl
into your ear and take over your body.  Unfortunately when that happens you don’t die, so you are
bystander to anything and everything it does,” Jake said as they started walking again.

At that point they reached the outskirts of the ranch.

++++++++++

That evening the animorphs explained who they were, how they had got to Luna, and their war
against the Yeerks.

“Would they come after you?” Kathryn asked.

“I doubt it. If they were behind this, it’s a pretty effective way to get rid of us. Even if they weren’t,
they have no clue who was attacking them.   They thought we were Andalites posing as humans,
which of course we aren’t.”

*Well, this is definitely not Earth.* Tobias said, landing in a nearby tree.

“Did you get enough to eat?” Cassie asked.

*Yeah. You want to introduce me?*

“Guys meet the fifth member of our group Tobias Tobias, meet Kathryn, Chakotay, their daughter
Phoebe; Tom Be’lanna and their daughter Elizabeth; Quinn and his wife Wade; Maggie and her
husband Rembrandt; and Rosie, Catalina, Harlan and Bova.”

Author’s note: I realize I didn’t have to write all of them out but I wanted to give you a good idea of
how many people I was working with! It’s not easy doing a series with 4 different groups of people.

*Nice to meet you all.* Tobias said, bobbing his head. *You sure have some interesting and tasty
creatures here.*

“Nice to meet you Tobias. I’m sorry about your condition.”

Kathryn could have sworn the hawk shrugged before answering. *I’ve been a hawk for a while
now. I’m used to it.*

“No one should have to get used to being something they aren’t. I’m sorry we can’t do something
for you.”

“Kathryn, what about when me and you were in that transwarp accident? The Doctor was able to
change us back into humans then.”

Kathryn thought for a moment before answering. “We could certainly ask him, but don’t get your
hopes up, I don’t know how he turned us back into humans after that.”

“What are you talking about?”

Kathryn, with the help of the other former Voyager crewmembers told the story of the transwarp
experiment gone wrong.

*So he might be able to reverse the morph?*

“Yes, but I doubt you’ll have your morphing powers back.”

*That’s all right. At least I wouldn’t be a hawk anymore.*

They continued to talk through the evening.

Chapter 2

The Doctor put down the tricorder and was silent for a moment before answering the question that
had been raised to him.

“I’m truly sorry, but there’s nothing I can do for you. I can’t find anything of your former self except
your brain waves which doesn’t do anything for me. The only reason I was able to change Kathryn
and Tom back to their former selves before was because I had had records of their DNA on file and
that they still held something of their old selves. In your case, I really don’t have anything.”

Tobias was silent for a minute, then turned himself around and flew out of the room.

Cassie opened her mouth and was about to call after him when she felt a hand on her shoulder. “Let
him be,” Jake said. “He needs time to himself. He’ll be back.”

Author’s note: It took me a long time to decide what to do with that. In case anyone doesn’t know
what ep of Voyager it is that has the transwarp experiment I’m talking about it’s “Threshold”. I can’t
remember a whole lot about it, but I thought that this was probably the most likely thing that could
happen. Boy, I’m putting a lot of Author’s notes in this one <G> :).

“Doctor, would it be possible to change us back to human after a too long morph now that you have
our DNA on file?” Rachel asked.

“Yes it would be. Why do you ask?”

“Just curious. I’m not planning on doing that or anything, but it’s just nice to know that’s available if
something happens.”

++++++++++

The animorphs settled down on the ranch. Tobias wasn’t heard from for quite a while after that,
though some people reported seeing him flying around Luna occasionally.

++++++++++

Two months later, he arrived back on the ranch. He only stayed for a few minutes though, just
enough time to say that he was doing all right and that he just needed some time to himself.

Rachel stood up when he left and started stripping to her mo (morphing outfit-it’s easier to shorten
it). “I’m going after him. At the very least, I should be able to find out what’s going on with him.”

“I’m coming with you,” Cassie said, also stripping down.

Jake and Marco glanced at each other. “I guess we’ll come too.”

“Just be careful you don’t stay out there too long. You still have that two hour limit on your
morphing,” Kathryn said.

“Thanks. We will.” Jake said just before closing his eyes for the morph.

A minute later the four animorphs went after their friend, leaving the rest of the ranch inhabitants to
look at each other.

++++++++++

It took them an hour just to find Tobias and another half hour to convince him to talk to them. By
that time it was almost nearing the time when they would be unable to demorph so they demorphed
and sat under a tree to talk.

“So, Tobias, how have you been doing?” Jake asked.

*All right, I suppose. Life here isn’t too bad, just different.*

“Where have you been all this time?”

*No where in particular. Just around.*

“Why don’t you come back to the ranch with us, Tobias. At least there you’ll be with friends.”
Rachel said.

*I don’t know. I’m more comfortable out here by myself really.*

“Then why come visit us at all?”

*Because I knew you’d be worried. I kind of figured the least I could do is tell you I’m doing all
right.*

“So your basically going to stay out here? Your not coming back with us?”

*No.*

“If you ever need help, feel free to come find us, or go to the ranch.  They’ll find us for you,” Rachel
said.

*Thanks guys, but I should be all right. Anyways I still plan to visit every once in a while. Just don’t
expect it too much.*

“All right. Well, we’ll go now. Bye,” Jake said. He motioned to the others to morph and did the
same. A minute later they all flew off, heading back to the ranch.

*Why did you do that?* Marco asked, being careful not to broadcast.

*I think that he might follow us back eventually after we basically said goodbye to him for good,
though I don’t know for sure that he will,* Rachel said. *I take it you caught on to that, Jake.*

*It wasn’t that hard. It only took me a minute.*

*So what now?*

*Well now we go back to the ranch and hope he does some thinking.*

++++++++++

Unfortunately, Rachel was wrong. Tobias did not come back to the ranch like she had hoped that
evening or the next day.

“I guess he really is happy out there on his own,” she said.

“Let’s just hope he doesn’t eventually forget who he is.”

“Is that possible?” Kathryn asked.

Rachel nodded. “Sure. It’s not that difficult if you don’t have any contact with other humans I would
think. And in Tobias’s case it certainly seems likely that might happen at this point.”

“What happens when you morph? I mean how do you meld with the mind of the animal?” Elizabeth
asked.

“Well we don’t actually meld with it. We have to almost take it over.  Sometimes its not that hard,
sometimes it takes a while. It all depends on the type of animal and what circumstances are
surrounding our morph,” Rachel said.

“Did you often morph?”

“Only when we had to. Without knowing who was a controller we basically hid our ability from
everyone.  No one knew we had the ability, not even our closest friends and family,” Cassie said.

“You know, now would be a good time to introduce you guys to your animal guides,” Chakotay
said.

“Our what?”

“Your animal guides. Everyone has one, just not many people know about them. Kathryn would you
mind getting my medicine bundle for me?”

“No problem. I’ll get mine too, while I’m at it,” Kathryn said, getting up and going inside the house.

“You know, you never did the same for us before when you mentioned it before,” Rembrandt said.

“Well you haven’t really needed it. I think they need the guidance with Tobias. I was planning to
introduce you at some point though.”

Kathryn came back outside a minute later and handed Chakotay his medicine bundle.

“What is that?” Catalina asked.

“It basically is a bundle made up of things that mean a lot of things to the person who it belongs to.
It’s purpose is to help you concentrate on the important things in your life. You don’t absolutely need
one, but it helps, especially when your just starting to contact your guide,” Chakotay said.

“How do we make one?” Rachel asked.

“I’d be glad to show you later,” Kathryn said. “Though without a lot of personal items it’s a bit
harder.”

“Will I be able to see my animal guide?” Rosie asked.

“It’s very probable you will Rosie. There is no reason you would be blind in the spirit world, since
your blindness is a result of an accident,” Chakotay said.

Two hours later they had introduced everyone to their guides. Jake’s was a siberian tiger, Rachel’s
was an African Elephant, Cassie’s was a wolf, and Marco’s was a gorilla. Quinn’s was also a
gorilla, Wade’s was a quail, Rembrandt’s was a sparrow, and Maggie’s was a shark. Harlan’s was
a wolf, Bova’s was a rabbit, Rosie’s was also a sparrow, and Catalina’s was a dolphin.

The End

Author’s note: Just two parts to go! Yeah!! (J/K) The next part will be the climax (or depending on
what I decide to do exactly maybe two parts), then one cleanup part. Any comments are
appreciated.