Disclaimer: I do not own the Animorphs or have any intention of profiting from the intellectual property of KA Applegate

The March: An Animorphs Fanfiction

All of us are guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.

– Tennessee Williams

The story so far (AU)...

It was not five adolescents that found Elfangor that fateful night. It was those same five individuals with years of tempering. Of more sound mind and body, they did the impossible and freed Earth – while remaining whole in the process. Having fought hard to win their reprieve, they've settled down to enjoy their peace. Their story is over, but their actions have opened a wide berth of possibilities for humanity…

Chapter One: End of the Long Night

Aximili

I was utterly shocked that my young human comrades had done the impossible. Well, perhaps I should not have been surprised. It was my plan after all. Human weapons, despite their lack of sophistication, were as well adapted to the task of destruction as could be managed with their technology. Within days of ferrying a human bomb up to the Yeerk's pool ship, we struck their ground-based Kandrona. While the bomb wasn't enough to destroy the pool ship, it was within appropriate proximity to the location of their ship-based Kandrona. The Yeerks here in the human's so called 'Sol' system would starve in due time. Visser Three and his Blade Ship would likely be redlining his engines through Z-space, desperate to try to reach Yeerk territory before they starved. There is almost no chance of their making it. This brought me to my most immediate problem.

{You seriously expect me to believe your band of humans have successfully liberated Earth, Aristh Aximili?} Council member Lirem-Arrepoth-Terrouss pointed both stalk eyes at me in suspicion.

{I realize the improbability of it all, sir, but I can assure you that is what happened. If you need proof, you could always send a scout.} Scout craft were very fast and stealthy, but of no use in battle. {If the scout's findings are correct, I am also in need of transport.}

{We shall see.}

As it turns out, Lirem arranged for the scout to come despite his condescension. The scout scanned the unmanned Pool Ship still hovering around Earth in orbit near the moon. The lack of life signs aboard vindicated my story. Now, I stood within the scout ship watching the viewports as Earth's image shrank. The blue planet eventually faded into a speck and I reflected on my time there.

Inwardly I smiled. There was so much wonder on this seemingly unimportant backwater of a planet. Yet, during my time on Earth, my friends and I had seen and experienced at least as much as a War Prince in my civilization. We befriended the revenants of a long dead race- the Chee, learned of the enigmatic and all-powerful Ellimist, found his toy time matrix, been the subject of unheard of scientific phenomena, and so much more.

Furthermore, something deep in my soul had changed. Never again would I look at my own people's social mores as the penultimate of civilization. Too much culture and mutual respect had been exchanged. I wondered what would become of my friends. Perhaps, by chance, I might even see them again. Stranger things can, and have, happened to me in my time. Knowing them, as much as an alien could know a human, they would be back to being the people they were meant to be. Still somewhat unclear as to how human mating worked, I nonetheless was convinced that some of them showed signs of being pair-bonded as an Andalite would think of such things. Prince Jake would probably take Cassie as his female. I reminded myself that the humans called it a wife. Tobias would likely do the same with Rachael. They would be lauded as heroes by their people and would want for nothing. I absentmindedly let my thoughts turn to my brother. No doubt, Elfangor would have been happy to learn of Tobias' fate once he remained nothlit in his original form. Live well, nephew.

{Aristh, I could use a copilot.} The warrior piloting the scout reminded me. The craft was a two-man vessel and he had to forgo a co-pilot to make room for me. The trip here was likely taxing.

Of course. I strode into the operators' compartment and looked at the controls. It was good to be behind the wheel of an Andalite craft again, as the humans would say. {Is this a new model?} I asked excitedly. Newer models of these scouts had significant engine upgrades. This would be a fun ride home.

Unbeknownst to me, my homecoming would be somewhat less fun than the trip there. When I say 'less fun' I mean that with all the human understatement I had ever learned. War Prince Galuit met me at the head of a detachment of armed warriors. I had just stepped out of the scout craft as we were docked at a major fleet base on one of our moons. Seeing the company waiting for me, I snapped to rigid attention, hoping my reaction would make a favorable impression. I had some hope as the War Prince seemed to favor me when I met him on Leera.

{Sir, may I ask if I am in trouble?} I privately directed the thought-speak at the War Prince.

He turned a stalk at to me as we walked, cocooned in the shell of warriors. {That really depends on how you handle this debriefing. High Command is split on your situation. You could be the biggest hero since your brother or the biggest fool since Seerow.} The War Prince led me to a chamber where High Command usually met. Milling about were half the War Princes in the fleet!

You clearly were not exaggerating, sir. I thought back to War Prince Galuit. He merely waved his stalk eyes in the Andalite approximation of a human nod.

Chairing this debrief looked to be a very old, reportedly moderate War Prince Menenil. {First off, Aristh Aximili, I would express our condolences at the loss of Prince Elfangor. Secondly, I'd like to make clear that we are not trying to marginalize the skill and courage it took to free a planet without help…} He pointed his stalk eyes at one grouping of princes. I had not noticed before, but the War Princes seemed to be arranged into two cliques. The smaller, but more senior, group of veteran hard-liners on one side, it seemed, and some of the most daring new War Princes and their affiliates on the other. {…but we must observe protocol.} I had an inkling of what would come next.

{You gave the power of the escafil device to primitives.} War Prince Jaham sneered. There it was; the root of all problems, in the minds of the insular members of High Command. The underlying ghost of xenophobia was something I had become aware of during my time on Earth. These bigots wanted to crucify me because I had given technology to the humans. The thought of telling the truth and foisting the blame on Elfangor crossed my mind, but I discarded it just as quickly. Of course, the High Command knew the truth, but the official line was that I had done it. In turn that would naturally assume I'd take full responsibility for it.

In their world, Earth was 'small beans'. The loss of Elfangor, a champion of the people, and the other warriors on board the Galaxy Tree had to be blamed on someone. Why not its lone survivor?

{And I suppose the victory over the many thousands of Yeerks by this young lad means nothing, I suppose?} War Prince Calait defended in turn. It seemed my fate was to be the prize in this ideological battle.

{Despite what the Aristh is reputed to have done, we cannot simply ignore the breaking of laws.} Jaham shot back.

{Aristh, you must change your official stance and let the truth be known. Elfangor gave your compatriots the power.} Galuit said to me in private thought-speak.

{Never! Elfangor gave up everything fighting the Yeerks. I won't take away his reputation.}

{You won't. This war is teetering on edge, about to tip either way. The High Command would never allow Elfangor's memory to be tarnished. It would be too big of a blow to morale. They would spin the situation in the most positive light. I know you think this is the coward's way out, but we need more heroes in this war. In fact, we need the ideological shift. We simply don't have the numbers to check the Yeerks throughout the galaxy by ourselves. Your example would allow targeted species to shoulder more of the burden, like on Leera. It would be harder on the Yeerks than on us and these prideful fools won't have it.}

I didn't like it. It was a selfish decision, but a necessary one. {Sirs, you know full well it was my brother that gave the power to the humans.}

The shock emanating from the old guard was palpable. My supporters seemed satisfied. The ploy was likely circulated prior to this meeting.

{Curse you, degenerate fool! How dare you attempt to foist blame on your noble brother?} Jaham bellowed out his thoughts.

{Jaham, the records show it was truly Elfangor that gave the power to the humans. We can legally admit that now that the young Aristh has recanted his prior statements.} Menenil firmly countered. Jaham glared at me with all four eyes, but the requirements of law were satisfied.

{But what of Aximili's use of Z-space communications? Surely we cannot overlook that.} War Price Nahilim, a shrewd hard-liner commented. The faction supporting me grew tense. This was another transgression that could not be attributed to Elfangor. The fact that I used Z-space communications in front of primitives was tantamount to giving them the technology itself. They now knew what to look for.

{They would have learned those secrets from salvaging the Yeerk technology anyways.} I spoke evenly.

{But they're primitives. They have no inkling as to how to reach or operate the Yeerk equipment.} Nahilim sputtered.

{Please, Nahilim. I've studied Elfangor's notes on the humans. They may be primitive, but the basic tenets of spaceflight and reverse engineering are not beyond them. By not giving the orders to remove the Yeerk technology from their systems, it would be we that would be responsible for giving them the technology.} Calait defended me again.

The hard-liners finally looked defeated. They would have to give way to the inevitable.

A month later I found myself promoted to the rank of commander. War Prince Calait himself took me underneath his wing as his tactical officer on board his flagship - the dome ship Thousand Blades. We were in a system belonging to a race called the Anati. It was deemed a vulnerable target because of the intelligence I had gathered while on Earth. We knew they would be short on ships but heavy on ground-based cannon in the asteroid belt around the main planet. We would be escorting a carrier ship – the Venerable Hoof - so that its fighters could destroy the ground-based Dracon cannons. The ground-based cannon were unlikely to have turret mechanisms quick enough to reliably target the swift fighters.

{The space battle will be the easy part. It's the ground battle that will be hard fought.} War Prince Calait said to me. {When this is over, I'll need you to lead a detachment down to the planet to coordinate with the free Anati.}

I nodded with my stalk eyes and thought about the Anati. I had read reports on them and had seen holo-images provided by scouting parties. They were insects. The body was like that of an oversized grub from which spouted a somewhat humanoid torso and a head that reminded me of an Earth mantis. The legs were sturdy and its arms were also mantis-like. Male Anati manipulated technology through four prehensile, flagellate protrusions from its torso. The whole ensemble was covered in greenish exoskeleton. The reason the Yeerks were interested in the Anati was due to the strength of their bodies. The exoskeleton was a mix between mineralogical bone and insect chitin. In addition to covering them, the insides of their bodies were crisscrossed in a honeycombed network of the stuff. It gave the species better strength-to-weight ratio than any ten foot tall sentient should have. The planet was also a mineralogical treasure trove which could be exploited by the naturally talented miners that the Anati were.

More importantly, I had to have knowledge of their society in order to array them against the Yeerks. Above all, the Anati were a people that valued progression and development. They took the concept of intellectual curiosity to ludicrous levels. There really was nothing an Anati wouldn't try, including Yeerks. I had my work cut out for me.

I had wanted to go back to Earth to establish relations, but the galactic situation was volatile. My people couldn't spare enough men or material to send a proper delegation back there. This war had to take precedence above all else. I missed my friends. And the pittance of a Yeerk presence on this planet would receive the full brunt of my displeasure.

AN – Okay, here's the rundown on any background I think the reader will need to know. In terms of AU differences, the Animorphs did not strike at the Kandrona in book 7. Instead, they kept the knowledge in their back pockets. The story ends sometime in the book 40s. The important thing is that, for most of the Animorphs, their war is over. I'm giving them the maximum amount of closure without cutting out major characters, races, and plot developments.

The reason I had to do this is to shift the theme of Animorphs away from KA Applegate's themes. I'm playing around in her universe but this isn't a coming-of-age story with adolescents. I'm taking her universe and running it in full sci-fi war mode. The scale of things will be expanded beyond six friends.