The two fly to the Gardens and explore in Andalite form. Estrid asks Ax about jelly beans, and he kicks some M&Ms out of a vending machine for her to try in human morph in response. The two assume human forms, and they kiss after eating. They agree that it is pleasant, though not as much as chocolate. Ax is clearly smitten. On the flight back, he silently contemplates for a moment the idea of running away with Estrid and leaving behind the difficult shades of gray of his life. He shakes off the reverie, and they return to the ship to plan for the morning's attack on the Visser. Ax later suddenly realizes that Estrid had made a joking reference to plintconarhythmic equations, which are employed in an incredibly complex bio-engineering field involving clear thought in n-dimensions, but uneasily writes it off as a figure of speech.