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Author's note: This is a story idea I've been stewing over since I read Book #54, The Beginning, which picks up right where #54 left off. It's a full circle, l'dor v'dor (Hebrew), e saeculo ad saeculo (Latin), from generation to generation (English). In this case the Animorphs series is truly going out as it began: with five kids going where they shouldn't be, seeing something that they shouldn't see. Everything about the Ujwari including their planet, is my own creation, but everything else belongs to KA, or possibly Scholastic. Just not to me. Background information: Ujwari are reptilians who hatch and live in clutches of three. Around adolescence those groups change from siblings to one close friend (crai) and one boyfriend/girlfriend. Siblings share middle sound, vowel, consonant, vowel. Tria is third, Bui is second, Uon is first. Pri or Uk mean only sibling.
Elfangor's Legacy
"Ram the Blade Ship," Jake ordered. "Tobias, take one of the shuttles and see if you can distract the Blade Ship, or breach its hull. Head for the planet below us."
#But, what about–# Tobias began morphing his human form.
"That's an order," Jake cut Tobias off. "We'll be fine."
#No, I meant what about the Rachel? Should I look for you? Do you expect yourselves or the ship to survive this?# Tobias headed back towards the two shuttles that the Rachel held, and continued to speak in though-speech, more out of habit than necessity. As he entered one of the shuttles, he continued to talk.
"No," Jake replied bluntly, relaying his reply through Menderash. "If any of us survive…well, I don't expect that we will, but we shouldn't give up without a fight."
Just then, with a sickening shriek of metal, the Rachel crashed into, and partially through, the Blade Ship. While bug fighters flew out its rear fighter bay, sparking electronics fell out of its bridge, which had take most of the impact. Among the wreckage floated a flash of blue, which Tobias saw. Jake must have seen it too, became Menderash quickly relayed another, more desperate message.
#The morphing cube is headed almost exactly your way. Take it, Tobias, we can't let the Yeerks keep it, no matter the cost. Now, go. Run!#
Tobias, one last time, did as Jake asked. He caught the morphing cube by decelerating, opening the airlock to catch it, and then closing the airlock again. In order to handle the shuttle controls better, and also to be more stable, he morphed human; rather, he morphed himself. While Tobias morphed, he heard one last message from the broke wreckage.
#The One…mutated Yeerk…so many alien Controllers…Ax would rather die than be a host. It's trying to eat us! Visser Three's morph…#
Tobias moved his shuttle in closure to the intertwined shuttles, hoping to hear more.
#We have…from…planet…new Yeerk army…here.#
One of the bug fighters turned to pursue the shuttle, but Tobias was able to shoot it down. However, its remains hit the shuttle straight on, and dented the shuttle, and hit its sole passenger, leaving a large scar down his side and knocking him unconscious. The shuttle skipped off the planet's atmosphere twice, and when Tobias awoke he saw a panorama of cities glowing beneath him on the planet's night side. The shuttle's clock told him that he had been unconscious for more than two hours, but Tobias had already known that there was no going back. That, one way or another, this mission would be his last. Something flickered off to the right, and Tobias saw the other shuttle, also falling. He wondered if any of the others had survived. If they had, they would have to do without him.
As Tobias fell, he wondered if Elfangor had realized that he would achieve so much in his simple gift. He wondered if Elfangor had recognized him, or if the Andalite would have given the gift to just any teenagers who had been walking by at the time. He wanted to believe the former, but knew that the latter would be both more likely and what he was about to do. He aimed his shuttle for a dark spot among the city lights and hoped.
Epilogue
Kumar-Tria fed a bird as he waited for his two nest-mates rise. He himself had been up since dawn, pondering the events of the night before. The light in the sky, the crash, the strange, scale-less alien that had come to warn them of the invaders. The Yeerks, he had called them, saying that they were a threat to all species and could be any Ujwari around them. The alien had given them the cube, and explained its benefits, and its curse. Minutes later Kumar-Tria had heard and seen their edudisciplinant order them to be killed. Kumar-Tria had been the odd one out. Urona-Pri, an only-hatch, had been there with her friend Aroka-Bui; Aroka's nest-mate, Riokat-Uon, had also been also there with his crai, Polao-Uk. Kumar-Tria had simply been there trying to avoid his nest-mates. They were both older than him, having adopted him after their third nest-mate died and they were required to fill her place. Neither cared about anything he did as long as he did it somewhere else. All morning he had watched a zurken raptor outside, with its six eyes and three razor-sharp talons. He had tempted it to come close to the window by leaving a pieces of meat on a thin wires, which he slowly moved. Kumar-Tria could just imaging sailing free on the zurken's wings.
Author's Note II: Return of the Text
The body of the story is the ending of the Animorphs. The Epilogue is the conclusion to it, as well as the beginning of something new. If you liked this story, or even if you didn't, please review it, since this is the first thing I've ever written for or any website.