Summary: After Elias Vanguard' death, the Animorphs and Ax are trying to adjust back to what is normal. The same goes for their newest recruit, Kelly, while in hiding, even coping with her powers. It's not long before she gets a vision and tells Jake about it. The first vision to the Animorphs. And it's not a pleasant one. Jake's grandfather is going to pass away and his family will travel to his grandfather's home to help with the arrangements. That means Jake's brother, Tom is not going to like that. Because that would mean going in another state. For a couple of days. He can't be away from the Yeerk pool for that long and will do anything to survive, even making his father less of a problem. Jake is determined to prevent the vision from happening if what she says is true. But it may just cost Kelly's life instead.
Author's Note: Please read first megamorph, Alteramorphs 0: The Alteration, to understand the new stuff.
One
My name is Jake.
Just Jake.
My last name doesn't matter.
Where I live and go to school don't matter either.
What matters is that we're in a war, fighting for the survival of the human race.
You're thinking 'Yeah, right'. That's okay. I know – I probably would have said the same thing once.
No way. Not a chance. If it's true, then where are the troops storming the beaches? Where are the bombs? Where's the battlefield? The RPVs and cruise missiles?
Well, it's not that kind of a war.
It's a lot bigger than just that...
The battlefield is wherever we are, we being my friends and I. We are animal-morphers, given the ability to absorb DNA by touch and then morph into that animal. It's an incredible weapon, the kind that both dreams and nightmares are made of.
Ask Tobias. He stayed in his red-tailed hawk morph longer than the two-hour limit and now spends his days catching and eating small mammals.
Or check in with any one of us in the small hours between night and morning, when the nightmares of twisting bodies and mutating minds come.
Like I said, this is not your standard type of war.
We're the whole army, the seven of us now. We get some help from the Chee, but they are incapable of violence, so when it comes to the down and dirty, we're it. Us, alone, against an alien empire that has already terrorized the galaxy.
Yeah, I know. Nice odds.
Most of us learned to fight the hard way in a deadly, on-the-job-training-type deal.
But some of us had a head start, like my cousin Rachel, who loves it all. And Ax, whose full name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-lsthill, warrior-cadet and younger brother to Elfangor, the Andalite who gave us the power to morph before he was murdered by Visser Three.
And our newest member, Kelly. Only she doesn't have the morphing power. She chose not to have it but she's already gotten a taste of the war too. But she's probably the only one among us who had it tougher.
Because several days ago, a lot of things happened to her in one go. She found out about how she could predict things in the war. How she could use the ability to 'call' upon powerful creatures called the Taliths – or as Ax translated, 'guardians', that we can morph into. And that the calling power was given to her by her future self, Elias Vanguard.
We also found out more things too. How Elias changed the past nine years ago so that Kelly could exist. How she had been fighting the Yeerks and even a future version of David for those nine years.
How Kelly would one day be Elias...a ruthless, emotionless time-travelling assassin.
And that the future...it wasn't going to be a hopeful one.
I know. Sounds like bull, right? People turning into animals, aliens, creature summoning that should have been from a game, time traveling and alteration? Sounds like maybe I need to spend some time in an asylum.
But it is true. Every now and then, the crazy becomes real.
And this isn't a clean war. If there is such a thing. I mean a war like World War II, where thousands saw the wrongs being committed and stood up to correct them. Where you attacked an enemy you could see, an enemy who wore a uniform and came right back at you, guns blazing.
It also isn't going to be clean any time soon or later. Elias showed us that with her methods and her technology. Even future David had lots of new tricks up his sleeve. Just how bad the war really looks like in the future.
This isn't that kind of war at all.
The Yeerks are more subtle than that. They aren't predators, they're parasites. They don't want to destroy humanity, they don't want to make big piles of bodies, they need our bodies in one piece to continue their invasion.
See, they're basically slugs. Parasites. No arms, no legs, no face. Blind.
That's why they need host bodies.
They slither into your ear, seep into the crevices of your brain, open your memories.
And you're still inside yourself while it's happening, trapped, helpless, begging for the nightmare to end.
Only it's real. And it doesn't end.
You want to warn people and you can't make the words come out. But the Yeerk in your head can hear them. It can hear your pitiful cries, your impotent threats. It can hear you beg, "Please, please leave me, please get out of my head, please"... And it can feel you slowly surrendering even the pretense of resistance.
The Yeerks are everywhere, using their involuntary human hosts to move freely, to recruit new members into their cover organization called The Sharing with promises of good, clean, wholesome family fun.
They're the ultimate enemy.
We've identified a few of them, though.
Our assistant principal, Mr. Chapman.
My best friend, Marco's mother.
My big brother, Tom.
I know how the guys fighting in the Civil War felt: North against South, brother against brother.
Living with the dark, ugly fact that if you met your brother on the battlefield, he would kill you.
Unless you killed him first.
I know the real Tom is still inside himself somewhere, raging against the Yeerk holding him hostage, begging for someone to save him.
I know because I was infested once by the same Yeerk who'd first infested Tom before his body had been turned over to a new Yeerk. I had access to its memories, so I saw how Tom had been dragged, screaming, fighting, and finally pleading to the Yeerk pool to receive his slug.
I was saved. Tom was not.
But it stays with me, that memory. It always will.
So will the battles. Win, lose, or draw, they're chaotic clashes full of pain and rage. And when the fighting's over and the adrenaline drains away, you're left exhausted and sick, with way too many memories.
My grandpa G - "G" for great-grandpa - told me something once, way before I ever could have understood what he'd meant.
My family had driven eight hours to visit him in his cabin in the woods. He and I were sitting on the dock at the lake, watching the fish snatch mosquitoes off the water's glassy, mirrored surface.
And it was so quiet.
Quiet enough to make me wish I was home with the TV blasting and my dog Homer gnawing on a rawhide chew.
I was about to leave when Grandpa G said, "You know, I see myself in you, Jake. You've got an old soul."
An old soul? Was that supposed to be good or bad?
He never said. Just gave me a small, kind of sad smile, and looked back out over the lake.
I hadn't known what he'd meant then, or why he'd said it. I don't know, maybe he saw my future, somehow. Because now I was old. You see too much pain and destruction, you get old inside. It's one of the by-products of war.
I also saw that in Elias too. Maybe worse than me. After all, she had been cut away from everything in her original timeline. She lost everything even before she travelled to the past. Right down to even her humanity. Tired and sick of seeing the same things all over again in this war when she had probably seen them once.
The only difference was she was the lone mercenary sent on someone's authorities to do an important mission – no questions asked – and I'm the unofficial leader of the Animorphs.
I send us into battle. When things go wrong, when we get hurt or have to run for our lives, that's on me, too. And it won't be long before I'll have to decide sending Kelly too to fight.
I'm not complaining. Has to be done. You know? Someone has to make the calls. A good leader has to make tough, informed decisions. Recognize his soldiers' special strengths and use them accordingly. Fight to win with the knowledge that he may die trying.
But most importantly, a leader won't ask anyone to do anything he wouldn't do himself.
That one came home to haunt me.
Because in five days' time, my brother Tom was either going to kill or be killed.
And it was up to me to decide.
How did I know this in advance?
I have Kelly to thank for that.
But I also wished it didn't go the way I had hoped it would.
Vickie: HELLO GUYS! I'M BAAAACK!
With the first book of the Alteramorphs! And while this will be a little similar to the book, like almost to the writing, I do hope to see how to take different directions into the story, even with the new stuff you have read in my first megamorph, the Alteration.
Repeating what I've said back in the "Don't Miss" page in my megamorph, The Alteration, it's gonna be mostly different from the original one. You see a totally new event that events from The Alteration have affected – maybe a little, maybe a lot – and still some familiar pieces from the old book. Also, not every story I write will have a new Talith morph. Maybe new animal morphs but it really takes a lot of time for me to brainstorm. However, I am open to ideas you guys may think of. Just remember, a Talith is either a fighter, protector, or supporter or 2 out of 3 combined, and it is made of 3 DNAs collected by the Animorphs. Those DNAs also have to be whatever is mentioned in before Book 30 and animals I'll write in my series. Cannot be one the kids don't have.
Also I will not be long-winded in my writing this time right. Hence not a lot of explanations from the Alteration will be repeated. If you want to be on track for you new readers, please read The Alteration (6308284). Maybe I'll be as true as I have been in my descriptions like my megamorph, just not going over 10000 words per chapter. :/
Also, I'm still strugging with the Conspiracy original story but I'll try my best at it without ruining it. Also I'd like feedback from you guys on this story. What you dislike or like about the Conspiracy. What I could avoid or try differently you'd like to see in the Conspiracy. Give your opinions. It's not just me that's shaping the story. :)
With that, this is the end of this note. I'll quickly post the next chapter this week but the next few may be slow. In all, see ya next time. Enjoy and please review. :D
The Conspiracy and the Animorphs is copyrighted to K. Applegate. Everything else that is new, I own.
PS. I am still doing the cover page for this story. :P