Quotes [Canon]

The Encounter:

Marco: Look, these aren't people we know. They aren't my friends. Or my family. (shoots guilty look at Jake) And we did everything we could for Tom. So why should I get killed for strangers? We can't stay lucky forever. Sooner or later, we'll slip up. Sooner or later we'll be standing around here crying because Jake or Rachel or Cassie or Tobias is gone.
Rachel: You know something? I'm tired of trying to talk you into this, Marco. You want out? Fine, you're OUT!
Marco: Hey, Rachel, you're not just doing this to help save the human race. You get off on the danger. That's why you went with Tobias to free that bird. That wasn't about saving the world. That was about rescuing some stupid bird.

The Message:

Jake: I figure this ship is going like, what, twenty miles per hour? Figure an hour, and that puts us twenty miles out, right?
Rachel: (points finger at her forehead) Jake's a total mathematical genius. One hour at twenty miles per hour. Right away he figures out that's twenty miles.

The Stranger:

Marco: This was always insane, right from the start. A handful of kids fighting an alien invasion? Look what's happening. Tobias is trapped in a morph. Rachel is starting to use morphing to get away from her problems.

Tobias: But how does the butterfly know when to beat its wings?
Rachel: It doesn't. I guess it beats its wings the best it can, and hopes it will all work it. It's a butterfly. If just does what butterflies do.
Marco: And what do we do, Xena, Warrior Princess?
Rachel: (grinning) We kick Yeerk butt.

The Underground:

Rachel: (narrating) Unlike Cassie, unlike Tobias perhaps, I'm ruthless at times. But even I have enough sense to know the words "we have to win" are the first four steps on the road to hell.

The Solution:

Rachel: (narrating) I kept wondering: Had I always been like this? Back before the Animorphs, back before that encounter with a dying alien who changed our lives, who had I been?
I tried to remember, but it wasn't like I was thinking about myself. It was like I was remembering some girl I used to know. Like she was an acquaintance I'd forgotten about until someone reminded me. It was like, "Oh, yeah, Rachel. I remember her."
I'd been very into gymnastics, I knew that. Shopping. I guess I'd never exactly been a happy-go-lucky party girl. But I tried to imagine myself back then, and tried to imagine grinding the tines of a fork into someone's ear while I threatened his family.
I almost laughed. It was crazy. I mean, I'm not someone raised in an abusive family or anything. Yeah, my folks got divorced, but probably a third of the kids in school have divorced parents, and another third wish their parents would divorce.
I'd never had to wonder if my parents loved me. I knew they did. They told me. And they showed me.
I wasn't on drugs or anything. But somehow, someway, I had gone from being this occasionally sharp-tongued girl, to being... well, as Marco would say, Xena: Warrior Princess.
What made me feel stupid was that I hadn't realized I was changing. But everyone else obviously did. Jake did. When he knew it was coming down to kill-or-be-killed with David, he'd sent Ax to get me. Not Marco. Not Cassie. "Get Rachel."
And in the cafeteria he had to let me go, knowing what I would do. Afterward, I'd seen Cassie in sixth period. She didn't ask me what had happened. She didn't ask me what I'd said to David. She'd known.
I could have said, "Look at all the battles I've been through." It would have been a good excuse. Except that Cassie'd gone through the same battles. And Marco. And Tobias.
Would Tobias have done what I did? That was the killer question, see. Because Tobias lived life as a predator now. He'd have every excuse in the world. But I wondered if even he would have gone as far as I'd gone.
And, I wondered something else. What if David ignored my threat? Would I... could I...

Rachel: Yeah, "Oh, that's what this is about." What did you expect me to do to David? Did you think I was going to kill him? Did you? Is that why you let me go after him? Is that why you sent Ax for me? Because you think I'm some kind of violent nut you can call in whenever you need some dirty work done?
Jake: Look, Rachel, every one of us has his strengths and his weaknesses.
Rachel: And my strength is being some kind of crazy killer?
Jake: I didn't say that.
Rachel: You didn't not say it!
Jake: Okay, fine, Rachel. You want to do this, fine. I think you're the bravest member of the group. I think in a bad fight I'd rather have you with me than anyone else. But yeah, Rachel, I think there's something pretty dark down inside you. I think you're the only one of us who would be disappointed if all this ended tomorrow. Cassie hates all this, Marco has personal reasons for being in this war, Ax just wants to go home and fight Yeerks with his own people, Tobias... who knows what Tobias wants anymore? But you, Rachel, you love it. It's what makes you so dangerous to the Yeerks.

The Illusion:

Tobias: (Rachel is about to kill Taylor) No, Rachel! No!
Rachel: You know she should die.
Tobias: She will. This is the Yeerk who lost a prisoner. Leave her to Visser Three.
Rachel: What she did to you…
Tobias: Rachel. Be Rachel. Not her.

The Weakness:

Rachel: How do you do this? How do you make decisions that may get people killed? How do you live with that?
Jake: It's a war. We do what we have to do because we're forced to do it, right? Someday it will be all over. Someday the Andalites will come. Or the Yeerks will decide we're not worth it. Someday we'll win.
Rachel: Maybe. But how do you make decisions that get your friends hurt? That maybe someday will get us killed? How do you keep it from getting inside your head and just eating away at you? (narrating) Then I saw something strange on his face. For just a fleeting moment it was the face of a terrified kid on the edge of tears. It shocked me. I knew what I was seeing. It was my face when I'd realized the old man had died. My face when I'd thought I'd lost Cassie forever. But then the mask came down. And he was Jake again.

The Unexpected:

Rachel: (dropping a bag on a table at The Gardens) Consumerism completely baffles you, doesn't it, Cassie?
Rachel: (facing the group) Can you imagine my elation, my total euphoria, when Cassie, OUR Cassie, said she wanted to go shopping?
Marco: (nodding) You were expecting to lay down serious cash at the mall.
Rachel: Exactly! See? (turning to Cassie) Even Marco understands. (shakes her head) But no, Cassie drags me to the zoo--the ZOO--where she ransacks the gift shop and comes up with a postcard. A POSTCARD. Cassie, buying a postcard at the zoo is not shopping. Say it with me now. Postcard. Zoo. Not. Shopping.

The Deception:

Marco: Look. Maybe the situation isn't as desperate as we think. Yet. Maybe the Yeerks are just seeing what they can get away with. They push, we push back. They don't try that particular move again. They shove, we don't shove back, they shove again, but this time, harder. And eventually, we fall on our butts.
Rachel: (nods) Right. We don't wait around for the cavalry. We fight with everything we've got, with or without the Andalites. Self-defense is always justified. We've known that from the beginning. End of story.

Cassie: (smiles, but not happily) If there's one person I trust to keep his decency, it's you, Jake.
Marco: (folds his arms, nods at Rachel) You, we're not so sure of.
Rachel: (flips him off)

The Sacrifice:

Rachel's mother came to a stop. Reluctantly, I ordered the others to stop as well. "Hope for the best?" she repeated. "That's all you have to offer? Am I the only one of you people worried about our kids?"
I could not help myself from retorting. "You do not need to be afraid on behalf of Rachel," I told her. "Rachel is the one who frightens others."
"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" her mother demanded shrilly. "To know that my oldest, my first child, my little girl, has become some kind of monster? Some kind of bloodthirsty freak?"

The Answer:

"Rachel, I have a job for you."
I explained what I wanted her to do.
"You're sure, Jake?" she asked solemnly when I had finished. "Because if you tell me 'Go!' I'll follow your orders. You know what that means."
"Yeah, Rachel, I know what it means."
Still she hesitated. "It won't be the Yeerk, Jake. It'll be Tom. It'll be him."
"I know that," I said. "And I ... if it happens, if it comes down that way, I don't have a plan for getting you out. You'd be on your own."
"That's how I like it."
"Okay, then. Get started. Make sure Cassie doesn't know."
"You still don't trust her?" Rachel said angrily.
"She loves us both, Rachel," I said. "I can't make her part of this. I can't let her know in advance, so, you know, if it happens, if it happens, I don't want her spending the rest of her life wondering if she could have stopped it somehow."
Rachel said, "Okay, Jake. You're right. And you're right to use me for this. Not exactly something I'm proud of, maybe, but later, you know, if — don't be blaming yourself, okay?"
She angled her eagle's wings to take the wind, and flew away.

The Beginning:

Rachel: (narrating) It was a war, after all. A war we had to win.

Rachel: Answer this, Ellimist: Did I . . . did I make a difference? My life, and my . . . my death . . . was I worth it? Did my life really matter?
Ellimist: Yes. You were brave. You were good. You mattered.
Rachel: Yeah. Okay, then. Okay, then.