freebooter posted:

Yeah but remember when you're a teenager, each lived year and each anticipated year lasts for about five years. I feel like my adult life, even the Plague Year, is just whipping by.

Cythereal posted:

Given how evasive she is about it all of a sudden, I'm guessing Applegate was referring to Loren having her period or going through sexual changes as she prematurely aged and her body matured. Without actually saying that because this was the 90s and a teenager talking about normal bodily functions wouldn't be considered appropriate for a YA book.

Cythereal posted:

Given how evasive she is about it all of a sudden, I'm guessing Applegate was referring to Loren having her period or going through sexual changes as she prematurely aged and her body matured. Without actually saying that because this was the 90s and a teenager talking about normal bodily functions wouldn't be considered appropriate for a YA book.

Epicurius posted:

Maybe, but Loren seemed like a high schooler who was like 16 before this and not prepubescent. My guess is (spoiler for the rest of the book) it's so Elfangor/Loren can marry/have a sexual relationship without it being too "technically, it's ephebophilia".

quote:

Three Years Later …

I ran away from the great war of Yeerk against Andalite.

I ran away and hid on the planet called Earth. I buried the Time Matrix in a patch of woods. I performed a Frolis Maneuver: the mixing of different DNA to form a single morph. I found ways to come in contact with humans and absorb bits of several DNA patterns. And when I had enough, I morphed a human for the first time.

quote:

And for the last time. You see, I was done with the fight. I had done all I could, and I had made a mess of things. My people would be better off without me. And there was no way to hide over the long term. I had to become a human. And stay a human.

I attended a human college. I majored in physics. It was hard. Hard to pretend not to know all the answers instantly. I had to pretend to struggle with equations I had known perfectly since childhood.

And it was hard being a human. I missed my stalk eyes. I missed my tail terribly. But I didn’t want to fight anymore. I was done with the war. Sick to death of it.

Besides, there were good things about being a human. The human sense of taste is wonderful.

Almost overpowering.

And then there was Loren. She had recreated her own life to deal with the fact that she had aged several years. She went back to a mother who never knew she had been gone. Back to friends and family who all expected her to be the age she now was.

The power of the Time Matrix is awesome. I had seen what it could do, and I was more convinced than ever that it could not be given to either side in a terrible, bloody war. Desperate people do desperate, evil things.

I finished college at an accelerated rate. Not surprising, since I was a century or two ahead of all the professors. I began graduate school. But I was bored there, too.

I had a job writing software for primitive human computers. It was the 1980s on Earth and humans were just beginning to understand computers.

I met a lot of humans who were working in the computer field. My human friend Bill used to come over to my room and we would exchange ideas. It was hard for me to simplify my knowledge enough for him to follow. Everything had to be explained in simple human terms, using words like
“window” to explain a childishly simple concept.

And my human friend Steve thought it was a huge breakthrough to use symbolic icons and a simple pointer rather than a lot of complex language.

quote:

One day I got a terrible shock. I saw Chapman at the college. I was with Loren at the time.

Chapman did not recognize her. He did not know her at all.

It made no sense. We had left Chapman back on the Jahar, tumbling toward a black hole. He should have been swallowed by the black hole, crushed and annihilated.

Loren tested him. She went up to him and said,” Hello, Chapman. Heard from your old friend Visser Thirty-two lately?”

He’d stared at her like she was confused. This Chapman recalled nothing. His memory had been erased.

I tried to put it out of my mind. I told myself Chapman had a twin, or that it was some unknown physics of black holes. But it nagged at me. From then on I felt a sense of being watched. And I wondered if, or when, the power that had rewritten Chapman’s memory would make itself known.[quote]

All the more reason, I think, that bringing young Chapman into things was a mistake of this book.

[quote]But the most important thing I did as a human was to marry Loren.

We had come to care about each other on our adventure. And when she was ready by human standards, I married her.

And I really thought that I had left everything behind me. I thought that I was a human now. That Earth would be my home. That I would remain far, far away from the terrible space battles that raged across the galaxy, around stars so distant I could not even find them in Earth’s night sky.

I left my own people. My own species. And I was human … except in the dreams where I would run across the open grass and speak to the trees and whip my tail around for the simple joy of it.

We got a house. What I used to call a hollow house. Now I understood human things.

I drove a car. A yellow Mustang like the one I’d driven on the Taxxon world. And I only thought of my own people, and my own family, and my own world some of the time. Not every minute.

Not every minute.

I even took a human name. Alan Fangor. It was Loren’s idea. See, humans shorten their names, just as Andalites do. So most people called me Al Fangor.

One day I drove my car home from my job and parked it in the driveway. I could see that Loren was not home. Her own car was not in the driveway. She had gone to see a doctor. Although human doctors were practically barbarians who could not even eliminate a simple tumor without cutting
holes in a person!

I stepped out of the car on my two human legs. It turned out, much to my surprise, that I seldom fell over, even with just two legs.

I walked up the driveway to the door and opened it, as I had done a thousand times before. Only this time someone was standing in my living room.

He was a man. A human. Or so I thought.

“What are you doing in here?” I demanded in angry mouth sounds. The man looked at me with amusement. I was good at reading human expressions now. “What am I doing here? What are you doing here?”

“I live here. This is my home.” I was a little fearful. Human arms are strong and can be used for fighting. But whenever I sensed danger, I missed my tail. And I felt vulnerable, being unable to see behind me.

The man shook his head sadly. “Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, this is not your home.”

My knees weakened and I almost collapsed. I made it to the couch and sat down heavily. “What are you?” I asked.

He laughed. “You don’t ask who I am. You ask what. You are still wise enough to know I am not human.”

“Just tell me what you want,” I snapped.

“I don’t want anything. We don’t want anything. We do not interfere in the problems of other species.”

“We? Who is we?”

“The ‘we’ whose machine you have used to alter the direction of time and space.”

“Ellimist?” I whispered fearfully.

“Yes. I am one of those creatures you call Ellimists.”

quote:

I couldn’t believe it. I had never been sure I believed in Ellimists. I still wondered if it was some kind of trick. He looked fully human. But of course, for a true Ellimist, such things are easy.

“Am I really an Ellimist?” the man asked, mocking. “Let’s see. I know that Arbron still lives in the tunnels of the Living Hive. I know that you made a universe once, you and the human and the Yeerk called Visser Three.”

I jerked in surprise. “Visser Three?”

“Yes, he’s advanced quite far in the Yeerk hierarchy.”

“He should be dead!”

“Should be dead? Do you really think you can play games with time itself? Do you think you can change things around to suit you and not make a mess of it? Are you so naive, Andalite, that you can’t understand that time is a trillion, trillion, trillion strands, all woven and interwoven? That if you twist and break one strand it may have unforeseen effects in a thousand other places and times?”

“He’s alive. The visser.”

“Yes. He is alive. He still inhabits Alloran’s body.” The Ellimist focused gray human-seeming eyes on me. “He is a terrible enemy of your people.”

I shook my head. “Humans are my people now.”

“Like the human named Chapman? Is he one of your people?

“You. It was you. You brought him back here and erased his memory.”

“I undid an error in the time-space continuum. Chapman plays a part in what is still to come.”

“I don’t care,” I said harshly. “I don’t care about wars in far-off space.”

“Far off? Do you really think you are safe here, Elfangor? Do you assume the Yeerks will never come?”

I felt my throat clutching up. It happens to humans when they are upset or afraid. “Will they come here?”

“Elfangor, the first Yeerk advance scouts are in orbit above Earth right now.”

I said nothing for a long time. I looked out of the window, expecting to see Loren’s car pull up at any moment. But then I realized what a fool I was being. If the Ellimist didn’t want us to be interrupted, we wouldn’t be.

“There’s nothing I can do,” I said at last. “I tried my hand at being a hero. I failed.”

“Failed? You kept the Time Matrix from falling into the hands of either side, Yeerk or Andalite. You saved the galaxy.”

“I couldn’t save Arbron. I helped destroy Alloran and deliver him to the Yeerks to create the abomination he became. I wasn’t able to destroy that abomination. I was weak. I was foolish.”

“You refused to slaughter defenseless prisoners. You refused to destroy yourself in order to win a battle. You are wise, for a primitive creature. But you also altered the course of time by using the Time Matrix. And that has created awful problems. For your people. For both your peoples. Your peoples need you.”

I laughed. “No one needs me.”

“You are not where and when you should be, Elfangor.”

“The galaxy will get along without me.”

The Ellimist leaned forward and put his face close to mine. “No. It won’t.”

“What do you want from me?!” I yelled, suddenly enraged.

“We want nothing.”

“Liar! Why are you here if you don’t want anything?”

“We do not interfere in the affairs of other species.”

“Then go away! Get out! Leave me alone!”

“We do not interfere. But sometimes we repair what has been shattered.”

I froze. What stupid game was he playing? He wouldn’t interfere, but he would? Which was it? What did he want?

“What do I want? Nothing. But I can tell you that you have twisted and distorted time. Things are not as they should be. Battles are lost that should have been won. What should be safe is now endangered.”

“I can’t go back,” I pleaded. “I’m not an Andalite anymore. I’m human! I have a wife. I have a place here.”

“All a product of your meddling,” the Ellimist said. “The human girl Loren was meant to marry a human. You were meant to be a warrior. A great hero to your people. A mentor and guide to your brother.”

“I have a brother? He was born? I knew my family was preparing -”

“In this broken time line, no. But you should. He has a job to do. And so does another person who you do not even know exists. Elfangor, without you, your people, both your peoples, will be slaves of the Yeerks.”

I jumped back to my feet. “You’re lying. Manipulating me. Using me.”

“We don’t use anyone. We don’t interfere. But if you ask me to fix the mess you have made … to repair the time line so that you return to your destiny … that, and that alone, I can do.”

I wanted to hit him. I wanted to throw up. I hated the galaxy and everything in it.

“There is a battle, Elfangor. A turning point. Visser Three is there. You are supposed to be there. Right now.”

“I can’t leave Loren.”

“Listen to me, Elfangor. Visser Three will come to Earth one day. He remembers her. He remembers that she mocked him. Do you know what he will do to her? And will you be able to stop him, when he is surrounded by a thousand of his own troops?”

I felt warm liquid run down my cheeks. Tears. A human thing.

“And if I go back … if I ask you to repair the time line … will it save Earth? Will it save the Andalites? And my Loren?”

“No. Not by itself. But what is impossible now will become possible again.”

I looked at the creature who posed as a human. The creature who had the power to make entire solar systems disappear. “What game are you playing, Ellimist?”

“Will you cross-examine me, Andalite? Or will you ask me to undo the mess you have made?”

“Loren … ?”

“Will never know you existed. But you will know. You will still have your memories.”

I tried to smile, but it twisted cruelly on my lips. “You said something about a battle, Ellimist …”

“Come. I will carry you there. I will undo what was done, and repair the fabric of your fate, Elfangor.”

quote:

Once, a long time before, I had explained to Loren what it must be like to see the universe as the Ellimists saw it. And now, as the Ellimist lifted me up out of the everyday world of three dimensions of space and one of time, I saw what he saw.

When I had used the Time Matrix I glimpsed the lines of time interwoven. But now I saw a thousand times more. It was beyond sight. Beyond sound. It was some new sense, some new awareness.

I could feel the lines of time flowing through me. I could see and taste and hear and touch and smell a billion possibilities, all flowing through me.

I saw the Ellimist himself, as he really was. An indescribable being of light and time and space.

Huge, but without a place. Alone, but not the only one of his kind. I saw and understood the vast power that trailed the lines of time through his grasp. And yet, against the enormity of all that had ever been and all that would ever be, I saw his limits, too.

The Ellimist was mighty. But not all-powerful.

I saw a young Andalite who looked like I had once: so serious, so determined to prove himself. I heard his name in my mind: Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill.

Hello, little brother, I said silently.

I saw Arbron, still alive on the Taxxon world. I felt his Taxxon hunger. But I also felt his Andalite pride.

Hello, Arbron. You have become the hero I always wanted to be.

I saw Loren, and wrapped around her time line now was another human who would be her mate. I had been written out of her memory. It tore at my heart to realize that I was now a stranger to her.

And yet, I saw that some part of my own time line still intersected her own. I still touched her future in some way. My line and hers converged, and then from those two lines came a new line, just emerging, just beginning to grow.

<What does it mean?> I asked the Ellimist.

YOU HAVE A SON, ELFANGOR.

In a flash I saw the truth. That’s why Loren had gone to see her doctor. She would have come home and told me. We had a child!

<No! You can’t take me away! I have a son!> I cried. <That changes everything! Don’t take me away!>

YOU ARE AWAY, ELFANGOR-SIRINIAL-SHAMTUL. WHAT WAS BROKEN HAS BEEN REPAIRED. YOU ARE WHERE YOU MUST BE. THE CHILD WILL BE RAISED AS THE SON OF ANOTHER.

<But my son! What will happen to him? Will he still … exist?>

I saw the tiny line that was my son flow off through time. I saw pain and hardship and loneliness for him.

But then, like a distant nova, I saw a flash of light, far at the edge of a still-uncertain future.

Across the galaxy my brother’s line reached to join with my son’s. And four other bright, shining time lines formed together with those two.

I knew I was watching something incredible and important. And I knew this union of six time lines, one Andalite and five human, was the entire point of the Ellimist’s “noninterference.”

<So, you don’t interfere with the affairs of other species?> I asked him.

WAS THAT SARCASM, ELFANGOR? the Ellimist asked. And then he laughed a huge laugh that reverberated through all the tendrils of space and time.

<Is it all just a game for you?>

YES, the Ellimist said, all laughter silent now. BUT WE ARE NOT THE ONLY GREAT POWERS OF THE GALAXY. THERE IS ANOTHER. OLDER EVEN THAN WE. AND HE PLAYS A DARK GAME, ANDALITE. IT IS WITH HIM THAT WE PLAY. SO HOPE THAT WE WIN, ELFANGOR-SIRINIAL-SHAMTUL. HOPE THAT WE WIN.

I saw a battle ahead.

I saw my own body twisting and changing shape.

I opened my stalk eyes. Tested my Andalite tail.

And all at once, I was on the bridge of an Andalite fighter.

FlocksOfMice posted:

I honestly had misremembered the parts where he's on earth, married to Loren, in the false time-line, as like... an entire book's worth of content. Not just a few chapters, dang.

freebooter posted:

Yeah this seems real rushed compared to what I recall.

Also a bit of retconning gets done later on: This must be about 1983/4 if Tobias is getting born, but we learn later Visser One and her partner are the first, unauthorised Yeerk scouts, and they don't show up until the Gulf War. Also KA decided later there's definitely only one Ellimist.

Also, despite Elfangor's determination to make sure nobody ever finds the Time Matrix... what do the Animorphs end up doing with it? They stop a Yeerk from getting his hands on it, but I can't remember what becomes of it after that.

Epicurius posted:

It's also interesting how this is one of those classic tropes in action films. The veteran has been scarred by his experiences, his last mission having gone totally wrong, and is living out there in the wilderness, Then the official shows up, and he says something like, "We've found Sharif.", and has to talk the guy into coming back. That's really what these chapters are.

freebooter posted:

Yeah this seems real rushed compared to what I recall.

Also a bit of retconning gets done later on: This must be about 1983/4 if Tobias is getting born, but we learn later Visser One and her partner are the first, unauthorised Yeerk scouts, and they don't show up until the Gulf War. Also KA decided later there's definitely only one Ellimist.

Also, despite Elfangor's determination to make sure nobody ever finds the Time Matrix... what do the Animorphs end up doing with it? They stop a Yeerk from getting his hands on it, but I can't remember what becomes of it after that.

FlocksOfMice posted:

I honestly had misremembered the parts where he's on earth, married to Loren, in the false time-line, as like... an entire book's worth of content. Not just a few chapters, dang.

freebooter posted:

Yeah this seems real rushed compared to what I recall.

Fuschia tude posted:

But yeah, I think I remember going through this epilogue section slowly, parsing out the implications. Especially the line about the Frolis Maneuver. How exactly does a giant blue deer-centaur-scorpion with too many eyes and fingers successfully contrive ways to physically touch humans, repeatedly, without being seen? Even if the acquiring process stuns them for a while afterwards, you can't be in morph to do it!

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

Burning man

quote:

Al Fangor

Edna Mode posted:

Did anyone else ever wish that the Animorphs had tried the Frolis Maneuver to make flying bears or walking sharks and stuff like that? I know that's not exactly how it works based on the books but it sounds super rad.

Bobulus posted:

I was going to be all smug and be like 'Wait, don't we know Tobias's last name now?' But Applegate apparently saw me coming and wrote in that bit about the new timeline having a new human husband for Loren. Dang it.

rollick posted:

Oh I thought Loren was her last name, like Chapman, and we hadn't been told her first.

Looking it up now, I was wrong, and also lol at Chapman's full name.

Gun Jam posted:

About age gap - note that Elfangor is not an grown adult himself here. "This area's cramped, let's send the kid" was mentioned earlier. Arisths being middies and all.

quote:

I heard the chaotic thought-speak voices of crying, dying Andalites in my head.

<Main engines down, we have lost maneuvering power!>

<We’re at dead stop!>

<Break off! Break off! He’s on me!>

I looked down at my display. The StarSword lay helpless, unable to move. Yeerk Bug fighters swarmed around her, firing Dracon beams at maximum power.

The defenses were failing. As I watched, one of the Dome ship’s engines was blown completely away from the ship. An explosion without sound in the vacuum of space.

The Yeerk pool ship sat like a fat spider gloating over its kill. The StarSword was finished. The Yeerks could finish her off at leisure.

But still the warriors aboard the Dome ship fought on. I heard their thought-speak cries to the few remaining Andalite fighters.

<Seerian, watch out! Bug fighter on your tail!>

<Separate the Dome! Give them two targets to deal with!>

And then, <To all fighters. This is the captain. We are beginning self-destruct sequence. Clear the area. If anyone is still alive out there, get clear of the StarSword. We will implode the engines and blow a hole in space. Maybe we can take some of those Bug fighters down with us. Self-destruct in three minutes,> he said heavily, and then added, <We have done our duty.>

Now there was a new ship on my viewscreen. All black. Shaped like some ancient battle-ax.

The Blade ship of a visser.

It swooped in close to the doomed, powerless StarSword. And with its Dracon beams it began to slice away the remaining two engines. The StarSword would not be allowed to self-destruct.

<Fighters! Any fighters, try to draw that Blade ship off!>

The captain’s call went unanswered. There were no fighters left.

So this was the battle the Ellimist wanted me to join. This was where I was supposed to be. I called up ship-to-ship communications. <Hang on, StarSword. I’ll take care of that Blade ship.>

<Who the … who is that?>

<Elfangor. I mean, Aristh Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul.>

<What by all the bloody tails of Crangar are you doing here?>

<It’s a long story, Captain. I hope I’ll have the chance to tell it to you.> I switched channels to broadcast in the open. On a frequency the Yeerks would monitor.

I aimed the fighter straight at the Blade ship. I punched up a nice, medium burn. And then I called up the Blade ship. <Andalite fighter calling the Yeerk visser.>

A Hork-Bajir face appeared on the monitor. “Who are you to call upon the visser? If you are pleading for mercy, I can laugh at you as well as he!”

<Pleading for mercy? Not likely. Tell the visser that an old friend is here to see him. Tell him that Elfangor has come to finish what we began in a vortex, a long time ago.>

In a flash the screen image changed. And there was the Andalite face that had once belonged to War-prince Alloran.

<You!> he cried.

<I have to congratulate you on escaping from that black hole. And I hear you’ve been promoted, Yeerk. Visser Three. Very impressive. But I have to tell you, Yeerk, I am aimed straight for your ship. And in exactly ten seconds I will punch up Maximum Burn. At this distance it will take me less than two seconds to impact your ship.>

<You’re bluffing!>

<Ten … Nine …>

<You’d be killed as well as me.>

<Yes. I would. Seven … Six …>

<All Dracon beams on that fighter!> Visser Three shouted to his crew.

The Blade ship turned to bring its Dracon beams forward where they could be aimed at me.

<You don’t have enough time, Visser,> I said. <And once I punch a Maximum Burn it’ll be too late. Four … Three …>

His main eyes blazed hatred at me.

<Two … One …>

<Get us out of here, top speed!> Visser Three screamed at his helmsman.

quote:

The Blade ship’s engines glowed bright and the ship broke away from the StarSword. <You think you’ve won, Andalite?> Visser Three sneered. <You’re still just one fighter. And your Dome ship is crippled. I’ll swing around, move off, and finish you in my own good time.>

<I wouldn’t swing around just yet, Visser. See, you’ve cost me too much. And I am going to put an end to you right now. Computer? Maximum Burn!>

FWOOOOOSH!

My engines lit up and I was blown back across the fighter’s cramped bridge.

BOOOOOOM!

My fighter hit the neck of the Blade ship, slicing the diamond-shaped bridge away from the rest of the ship.

But I didn’t see that. The impact knocked me out and tore both the fighters’ engines and its shredder completely off.

I should have died.

But I didn’t.

Minutes after I crippled the Blade ship, the Andalite Dome ship TailStrike came out of Zerospace less than a light year away. The Yeerks decided it was time to leave. Their Pool ship put a containment field around the parts of the broken Blade ship and made for Zero-space.

When I woke up, back aboard the StarSword, I was already a hero. The lost aristh who had returned mysteriously, years after disappearing, and had flown his fighter in a bold suicide mission.

I had saved the StarSword. I was made a full warrior. The captain himself told me that I would be a prince within a couple of years.

I had plenty of time, while recovering from my injuries, to figure out what to tell the captain. I considered all sorts of lies. But in the end, I told him everything. I wanted someone to know, now that Loren no longer did.

I told the captain everything … except for the location of the Time Matrix.

When I was done he looked at me for a long time in silence. At last he said, <You realize, Elfangor, that this story will never become public. You are a great hero, and our people need heroes. The details of your story would just confuse the issue.>

<But, Captain, I committed mutiny against War-prince Alloran. I failed to save Arbron. And … and in the end, I ran away.>

He looked at me very seriously. <Young warrior, do you think I don’t know what happened to Alloran? Do you think I don’t know about the Quantum virus he unleashed in the battle for the HorkBajir world? Alloran was my friend. When we were young arisths together he was a gentle, decent youngster. And funny! He loved to joke and play tricks.>

<Alloran?> I blurted without thinking.

<Yes. Alloran. But war does terrible things to people. Some it raises to greatness. Others it destroys. You did not mutiny against Alloran. You defended the beliefs he used to hold dear. You stood up for the people.>

It was strange. I felt like crying. But I no longer had human eyes. So I cried the way an Andalite does. Inside. In my hearts.

<As for running away to this Earth place … no one can be brave every minute of every day. No one can be brave all the time. And now you have a second chance. We need warriors like you, Elfangor. Warriors who will not forget why they are fighting. Will you stand by the people in this awful time? Will you fight? Will you be their hero?>

I guess his words should have made me feel good. I had wanted once to be a hero. But now I saw what it meant. I could imagine the price I would have to pay. The things I might have to do. I could feel the weight of it settling down on me like a thousand pound stone.

<Yes, Captain,> I said. <I will fight.>

quote:

It was many years before I saw Earth again. I had fought more battles than I could count. I had won, and I had lost.

The war with the Yeerks dragged on and on. Neither side seemed able to destroy the other. I wondered sometimes if that was just the way it had to be, or if the Ellimists and their unnamed opponents were interfering to keep the war going forever.

Who knows?

A Zero-space rift had opened up between planet Earth and the busy centers of the galaxy. That happens sometimes. It meant that Earth, rather than being days away, was now months and months away. Maybe it was coincidence. Or maybe it was those great powers of the galaxy, playing their games with the threads of space and time.

But finally we did return. We went to Earth because we got evidence of what I already knew:

The Yeerks had targeted Earth.

We went in the brilliant, brand-new Dome ship GalaxyTree. We came out of Zero-space and found ourselves outnumbered. We fought, but this time there was no last-minute rescue.

The Dome was separated from the ship and plunged into Earth’s sea. My brother, Aximili, a young aristh as I had been, was aboard.

And I, desperate enough to break my own vow, took my damaged fighter down to the planet, looking for the place where I had long ago hidden the Time Matrix.

By the time I landed I was too weak from my injuries to even think about finding the Time Matrix. It was buried beneath the concrete foundation of a half-finished building. What had once been peaceful forest was now a construction site.

I lay there dying, knowing that Visser Three would pursue me. Knowing that this time, at long last, he would win over me.

And that’s when five human children, no older than Loren had been when I first met her, came by.

Three boys and two girls. Scared at the sight of me. But not so scared that they ran away.

One of them seemed especially drawn to me. And when I saw his face, I knew why.

He could only be Loren’s son. My son.

“Hello,” the one called Tobias said to me.

I broke our Andalite law and gave these children the power to morph. See, I knew what human children can do.

The Yeerks came and I told the human children to hide. But Tobias stayed behind with me for just a few moments. Alone.

<Your mother … tell me about your mother, Tobias. Your family.>

He was surprised. Troubled. “She … disappeared. When I was just little. I don’t know what happened. I guess she died. People say she just left because she was messed up. They said she never got over my father. I don’t know. But I know she has to be dead because she’d never have just left me. No matter what. But maybe that’s just what I told myself. I don’t exactly have a family.”

It was a fresh stab of pain in my hearts. And yet, I knew now that all was not lost.

<Go to your friends, Tobias. They are your family now.>

That’s when I knew there was still hope for my adopted people, the humans of Earth. My son had survived. He was strong in ways even he did not suspect. He would change the course of history.

And oh, as I lie here now, seconds from death, clutched in the power of Visser Three’s monstrous morph, I can see clearly what I only guessed at before.
I remember seeing the time line that curled away from Loren and me. And I remember the burst of light as it was joined with four other human lines, and the line of my own little brother.

Tobias was that line. And joined with these others, he held powers that would make Visser Three tremble.

I, Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, having transmitted all my last thoughts and memories to be sent through space to my people, now end my life.

My hirac delest is done. I go in peace to my death. And I leave as my last legacy a single word for all the free peoples of the galaxy.

<Hope …>

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

I liked it a lot too, when I first read it, and now even more.

Thanks for doing this, Epicurius. This series is really dear to my heart.

quote:

<Go to your friends, Tobias. They are your family now.>

Epicurius posted:

So what did everyone think?

Fuschia tude posted:

But you can't go back to being 12.

rollick posted:

ANOTHER SCORCHER posted:

I really enjoyed the Ellimist's characterization in this, where he purports to just be setting things right but is really just setting things up in the way most advantageous to his side. There are all sorts of other ways he could have fixed the timeline, but he wants Loren and Elfangor to have Tobias, Arbron to be a Taxxon, Visser Three to be Visser Three, and so on.

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

Alloran was right that war crimes are preferable to an entire galaxy being enslaved

But thats a pretty specific caveat, kinda like the Kirk rule - break whatever rule you need to but you better be drat sure you save Earth


This is actually a really, really good point, and if Visser Three isn't Visser Three, you have Visser One leading the invasion of Earth which would likely take all of about three weeks and end in a crushing and complete Yeerk victory.

Zasze posted:

Down this road of thinking and how much of an effect the host has on the yerk. I wonder if allorns rather extreme and narrow world view shaped visser three over the years into who he is.

Epicurius posted:

Sorry, but for personal reasons, the beginning of the new book will be posted tomorrow and not tonight. While, you know I try to keep to a daily schedule of updates, it's not always possible. My apologies.

quote:

My name is Tobias.

The other Animorphs can’t tell you very much about themselves, but I can. See, I don’t have an address. I can’t be found. I live in an area of forest by a meadow. That’s my territory.

My territory includes the meadow, which is maybe a hundred yards across in one direction, and half that in the other direction. My territory also includes the trees around the meadow, and the woods heading north for about another hundred yards.

Of course, my territory is also the territory of other animals. Owls, jays, foxes, raccoons, on down to ants and spiders. But no red-tailed hawks.

Except me.

My name is Tobias, and I am human. Partly. Most of my mind is human. At least I think it is. I mean, I remember human things. I can read and use language. Most of my close friends are human.

And I was born a human, in a human body with arms and legs and hair and a mouth.

Now, though, I have wings and talons and feathers. And instead of a mouth I have a hooked beak.

I can make sounds with my beak. But nothing that sounds human. To speak with regular humans I use thought-speak.

But there were no people nearby right then in the early morning, as I waited patiently in the branch of a dying elm tree.

I kept my eyes focused sharply on the meadow. I knew the pathways and homes of the mice and rats and rabbits who lived there. And I knew what it meant when the tall, dry grass twitched just the smallest bit.

With my hawk’s eyes I could see what no human could hope to see. I could see the individual stalks of grass barely tremble as a mouse brushed between them.

And with my hawk’s ears I heard the faint sound of mouse teeth, chewing on a seed.

The mouse was seventy or eighty feet away. An easy target.

I opened my wings slowly, not wanting to make a sound. I released the grip of my talons on the branch and fell forward. My wings caught the cushion of air and I swooped, almost silent, toward my prey.

The grass twitched.

Through the grass I saw a flash of brown. The mouse was running.

Too slowly.

I raked my talons forward. I swept my wings forward to cancel my speed, dropped one wing to turn, and fell the last foot like a rock.

It was all over very quickly.

But this time as I dragged the mouse away to a safer spot, I stumbled on a faded magazine someone had thrown away. The wind whipped the pages by, one at a time. Advertisements. Graphs. Pictures of the president with some foreign leader.

And then one page stayed open. A photograph of a classroom. Kids my age. Some of the kids were goofing off in the back of the class. Some looked bored. Most looked more or less interested, and three were practically leaping from their seats, waving their hands for the teacher. All that, frozen
in a photograph.

A classroom like any classroom. Like the classrooms I used to attend. I would have been one of the kids paying attention, but too shy to volunteer. I was never very bold or aggressive. I was a bullymagnet, to tell you the truth. The kid most likely to get pounded. The kid from the home so screwed up that I ended up being shuttled back and forth between aunts and uncles who didn’t even remember my name half the time.

But that wasn’t me anymore.

quote:

This is my life now. I accept it. And there are some very nice things about being a bird. Some very nice things.

Well-fed and full of energy, I flapped across the meadow, gaining altitude the hard way - with sheer muscle power.

I swept above the trees and fought my way higher still. Out beyond my own territory. Higher and higher. And then I felt the air billowing up beneath me.

A beautiful thermal. A pillar of warm air that rose up from the ground as it was heated by the sun. I swept into that warm air and it lifted me up like an elevator.

I turned and turned within that warm current, twisting higher and higher, till I was nothing but a speck to the tiny humans on the ground. Up and up, till the only sound was the wind ruffling across my feathers.

I caught a glimpse back down behind me. A glimpse of a strange creature that looked like a blue deer at first. Until you saw the head with its extra stalk eyes mounted on top. And the slashing, scorpion tail.

Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. The only Andalite alive on Earth. My friend. Or as much of a friend as you can be, when one of you is a Bird-boy and the other is an alien.

<Ax-man!> I called down. He kept running. That’s how he eats. He runs across grass and leaves, and the crushed vegetation is absorbed up through his hooves.

<Tobias! Out hunting?>

<Nope. I had breakfast. See you later.>

quote:

I flapped and glided and soared till I was over houses. They were just little squares of gray and orange and brown roofs. Tiny swimming pools glittered an unnatural blue. I saw trimmed green lawns and parked rectangles of cars and roads with dotted white lines down the middle.

I flew on, across the homes, across the roads, to the school. Maybe it was because of the picture in the magazine. Maybe that’s why I wanted to go there.

It was late morning now. The light was sharp and clean. I could see through the windows of the classrooms.

There was Jake, unofficial leader of the Animorphs, looking like any normal guy. He was lounging at his desk, feet stuck out in front. He was sleepy and trying to keep his eyes open.

More than any other person alive, Jake held the future of the human race in his hands. Strange to think, huh? That some big, sleepy kid in sneakers and a jacket was the leader of the only resistance to the Yeerk invasion of Earth?

As I watched, he nodded twice and slumped. The girl sitting behind him leaned forward and gave him a gentle poke in the shoulder.

That was Cassie. Another member of our little group. Cassie has never met an animal she didn’t like. And she’s never met a fashion she cared about. She’s small, compact but strong-looking. Not like she’s muscular. More like she’s part of something bigger than herself. Like she’s some living
extension of the earth.

Anyway, that’s how I see her. Like some gentle soldier in the service of nature itself. Corny, isn’t it? Sorry, but I have a lot of time to think. And I guess that makes me get too serious sometimes.

I swept by, high above, and turned the corner. In another classroom I spotted Marco. He was talking. This was not a surprise. The class began to laugh.
The teacher laughed, too, then looked exasperated, like she didn’t want to laugh. This was also not a surprise. That’s Marco. The boy loves
to be the center of attention.

It took a while before I spotted the last human member of the Animorphs. She wasn’t in her usual classroom. In fact, I spotted her first in just a brief glimpse, walking down the hall.

Then she stepped outside. Out into the empty quad that separated the main building from the gym and the temporary buildings.

She stepped out into the sunlight, and her blond hair became a flame of pure gold.

Rachel.

Have you ever known a person who seems to walk through life with her own private spotlight shining on her? That’s Rachel.

<Hi,> I said in thought-speak. <What are you doing? Skipping school?>

She couldn’t answer. See, you can only do thought-speak when you’re in a morph (or if you happen to be an Andalite). Although you can hear it just fine.
Rachel stopped walking and shielded her eyes with her hand, scanning the sky for me. Then she gave just the smallest wave, just a twinkling of two fingers.

She jerked her head toward the gym. That’s where she was going. She opened her binder and revealed a piece of yellow notepaper clipped inside. Ah, so she was delivering a note for some teacher.

But Rachel must have forgotten that I can see things no human could ever see. Beneath the note was a fancy-looking sheet of stationery. It was a letter, addressed to Rachel. It read:

“Congratulations! You have been named a Packard Foundation Outstanding Student.”

I was about to add my own congratulations, when I noticed the date. There was to be an awards ceremony Monday. This was Friday. It was the kind of thing Rachel would have invited everyone to.

Everyone but me. I can’t exactly go to things like awards ceremonies. Rachel hadn’t even told me about it. And I knew why.

<Hey, I have something to show you after school,> I said, trying to sound perky. <My Yeerk pool mapping project is paying off. Want to go for a fly after last period?>

I saw her smile. She nodded her head again, just a slight movement no one else would notice.

<Cool,> I said.

I soared away and she walked on to the gym.

There are definitely some nice things about being a hawk. And flying with Rachel is probably the nicest. But it would have been nice to see her get the Packard award, too.

Sometimes I asked myself if I had it to do all over again … If I could never become Tobias the hawk, and only be Tobias the boy, would I actually do it?

I didn’t think about that often, though. Maybe I didn’t want to find out the answer.

Epicurius posted:

I want to remind you, these are the two characters Scholastic thought the reader would be least interested in. Also, for the record, Tobias is Ax's uncle.

feetnotes posted:

Also excited for what’s coming up. We’re really getting into the “golden age” of the series here I think. We’re past early introductory stuff setting up the conflict and characters, and it’ll be at least a while before the ghostwritten “filler” stuff kicks in.