Back to Before (Megamorphs)

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Animorphs Books
Back to Before
Narrator	Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, Marco, and Ax
Number	Megamorphs #4
Release date	April 2000
Cover art	A black-and-white Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie and Marco standing in front of a city
Author	K. A. Applegate
Illustrator	David B. Mattingly
Pages	179
Preceded by	The Other
Followed by	The Familiar

Megamorphs #4: Back to Before is the fourth and final book in the Megamorphs series, a spinoff of the Animorphs series. With respect to continuity, it takes place between #40: The Other and #41: The Familiar.

[edit] Plot Summary

After a particuarly vicious battle, Crayak sends the Drode to tempt Jake into accepting an alternate reality in which the Animorphs did not walk home through the abandoned construction site, did not meet Elfangor, and did not become Animorphs.

The results are drastic: a friendless Tobias joins The Sharing, and is infested by a Yeerk who is later revealed as a spy for Visser One, and is killed. Marco runs into his mother, but she escapes before he can confront her. Jake discovers that his brother Tom is involved with dangerous dealings after a Yeerk security leak. And all the while, Cassie has a strong feeling that all is not right. Ax manages to escape from his Dome Ship, and begins to warn the people of Earth about the Yeerk presence.

The Yeerk response is immediate: they abandon their silent invasion and launch all-out warfare. In the ensuing chaos, Marco, Rachel and Cassie are all killed, while Jake and Ax meet up and manage to kill Visser Three. They take control of the Blade ship and plan to self-destruct it, at which point the Drode and the Ellimist interrupt the timeline, returning the deceased characters to life and returning everyone's memories. The Drode complains that the events in this timeline are doomed to cause failure, and the Ellimist reveals that Cassie is an anomaly, a rare individual who is grounded in the true timeline and will disrupt any other timelines that try to take its place - explaining Cassie's feeling that something was not right. The Ellimist restores everything to as it was, and this time around the Drode does not give Jake the offer.

[edit] Morphs

• Ax: human (can no longer morph)

[edit] Trivia

• This book featured a fold-out cover with larger pictures of the Animorphs inside it.