I do not own Animorphs. There is a small excerpt from The Andilite Chronicals. I do not own this either.

He appeared to me then, the Elimist. "Are you here to mess with time again. Have nyou not down enough to me, to my son."

He held out his hands. "I have no tricks this time Andilite. I bring a gift."

"What could you give me? Why would you even pretend to give such a gift?"

The Elimist shrugged. "Perhaps you know me not as well as you think."

"Very well what is this gift?"

He smiled if you could call it that. "Your son, would you like to see him again?"

My thoughts turned to the boy Tobias. My son, Loren's son. I wondered what fate had in store for him. My pain in leaving Loren was only matched by my sorrow in never knowing my son. It was almost ironic that I would not see him until my death drew near. But I loved him still. I wanted to love him.

"I asked you a question Andilite."

"I will not have you mess with my son's timeline again."

"I shall not. I wish merely to show you what might have been."

"No strings, trickster?"

"None."

"Very well."

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP

The alarm clock went off and I heard a mumbled yawn beside me, so human. I turned around to face familiar blue eyes. My Loren, she was there. "Al will you get Tobias ready for preschool before work. I'll fix breakfast."

I drew her to me and we kissed. I had never kissed so passionately before. It was one human activity I had always injured. It was pleasurable.

Loren smiled."Elfangor." she said using my true name.

"Al." I reminded her. She grinned.

"What's gotten into you." I did not answer, savoring my time.

"Mommy, daddy.!" My ears perked up. Tobias, my son, my son. He was calling me. He knew me.

I got out of bed and somehow found my way to the room I had never entered. A much smaller version of the boy I had seen at the construction site sat on a small human child's bed. He rubbed his eyes and smiled at me.

"Hi daddy." I smiled. I did love him. I could feel it.

"hello." He held out his arms. I picked him up, something in my birth form I could not do.

Tobias hugged my neck. He was a much happier boy then the one I had seen. "Daddy want to play with my dino, dinosaw.. dina.."

"Dinosaurs?" I finished remembering Loren's fondness for earth's long gone creatures.

He nodded. Tobias grinned. "Yay."

* * * * * * *

Suddenly time sped up. I was being held up by a dracon beam. It was Loren. "I've brought the Andilite scum." NO, NO

I heard screaming, terrible screaming. We were in a yeerk pool. No Loren. I wondered where Tobias was. I didn't have to ask myself for long.

I heard screaming. "DAD, NO. MOM IT'S DAD MOM. ITS DAD. PLEASE NO!"

Another controller raised the beam at him. "Well, well the son of the mighty Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul." It was Visser Three. The ultimate abomination. "I wonder. What could be worse then death." He laughed. Two guards came up when he motioned for them. The dragged Tobias from his cage. He struggled and struggled. My heart raced. No, not them. Not Loren. Not Tobias.

They put him close to the pool but not close enough so that he could be infested. Another controller put a dracon beam to his head. "Tell me Andilite, which would be more painful for you?" The scum laughed.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

* * * * * *

If my Andilite body could cry, I might sob. "As I have changed time your human, your Loren shall not become a controller. Your son shall live and in his own right be free."

"How is this so."

"Loren shall lose site and memory. She is now very much alive."

I remembered Tobias's early words to me and was saddened.

Your mother ... tell me about your mother,

Tobias. Your family.

"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." 1

"And Tobias. What of him?"

"His life will be sad and hard. But he will find joy and love. He will know friendship in the children you have met tonight. He will find kinship in your brother, young Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. They will be what your kind call a shorm. He will be a nothlit but in this fiond himself."

"Will he die at the hands of the yeerks?"

"I will not say. Know his life will be a hard one but good still. That is all I am willing and aloud to give."

"Thank you Elimist. Now I can die in peace."