to break down and confess that it was she who allowed Tom to escape with the morphing cube. Despite the shock and anger at this realization (as well as Rachel attempting to punch Cassie before being stopped by Tobias, who is in his human morph at this time), the other Animorphs forgive Cassie for her actions and continue planning the operation, with the exception of Ax, who feels a cold hatred towards Cassie for letting Tom take the cube. After the meeting, Ax pulls Cassie aside and asks her to justify her actions. He reminds her that regardless of her reasons, she betrayed the memory of his brother, Elfangor, by giving up the one thing he'd given the Animorphs to give them a fighting chance against the Yeerks. Cassie feels incredible guilt when she realizes this, also realizing that she has hurt Ax in the process, but still remains firm in her convictions. She recalls Aftran 942 and the Yeerk Peace Movement, and speculates that the morphing technology could give the Yeerks a means to abandon their policy of infesting sentient beings and instead morph new bodies. Ax concedes that he encountered a Yeerk who planned to do this on the subway mission, though he also speculates that the Yeerk could have been lying. After speaking with Cassie, Ax talks with Tobias, who voices his support of Cassie's reasoning, even if he did not necessarily agree with her actual actions. As a result of their talk, Ax decides to disobey the orders he was given and not sabotage the plan to destroy the Yeerk pool. The next night, Ax leads the other Animorphs' parents through the woods towards a National Guard base, where the Animorphs hope to steal the explosives they need for their operation. Upon reaching the base's perimeter, the parents pose as lost campers in need of medical attention. The National Guardsmen load them into a truck and drive towards the base, with Marco clinging to the back of the truck in gorilla-morph. The other Animorphs follow as either fleas on Marco or in various bird-of-prey-morphs. Upon reaching the National Guard base, the Animorphs begin searching the various warehouses for the explosives. Once they are found, they begin loading the explosives onto the trucks commandeered by Rachel's mother, Naomi, and Cassie's father, Walter. On their way out, the Guardsmen, alerted by an alarm, halt the trucks. Rachel initially