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Sacrifice of Nothing, Infinite Gain
Cassie was dying in obscurity. She was a hundred and eighty-four, and despite how much of her life she had spent in morph, her body was old and tired. She had no surviving family, as her parents had passed away almost a century ago, and Ronny had died of a heart attack in the night a handful of years ago. She was surrounded by friends, Sarah Berenson's grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, but these days seeing them only made her feel guilty, yet another piece of evidence showing that she had outlived everyone that she had ever known and cared for. She was the last of the Animorphs, a living relic from a time when humans had been just another backwards race that had to protected from the Yeerks, when the Yeerks were a mighty empire. Now humans were the most technologically advanced race, just a part of the Republic of Free Sentients. Yeerks were a vital part of the Republic, serving as a vital part of its criminal justice system. Despite the Republic's long reach and strong military power, the treaty between the Andalites and the Kelbrid was applied to all of the Republic. Meanwhile, Jake, Tobias, and Marco had slipped from the public eye only years after the defeat of the Yeerk Empire. Rumor had it that they had gone a rescue mission to save Ax from some terrible threat in Kelbrid territory, but nothing was ever confirmed, and they had never been seen again. Cassie had missed them, Marco most of all, with his seeming ability to cope after the war, but had not been surprised at their departure. She knew that she would die soon, but she wanted to make her death meaningful, not just falling asleep one night, never to wake again.
Several months ago, on the edge of explored space, Elfangor's hirac delest had been discovered. It was considered a personal document, and besides one of Aximili's descendants, Cassie was the only one to see its contents. She had gone to the little-visited museum that had been built around the construction site, with special exhibits in certain places (here Prince Elfangor's craft landed, there Esplin 9466 had morphed an Antarean Bogg and eaten him), and, morphed mole. Cassie dug and dug until she finally found what she was looking for, the same artifact that Elfangor had been looking for that same faithful night: the Time Matrix. She experimented with it, slowing and freezing time around her, moving from time to time and place to place. She focused on the day it had all fallen apart, two days before Tobias cut himself off from the world, one day before Jake broke for good. First she used the Time Matrix to board the Yeerk Pool Ship, taking a dracon beam and burning the pool control booth to a cinder. Jake would not be able to kill seventeen thousand Yeerks by flushing the pool into the vacuum of space. Next she moved Erek off the Pool Ship. He not would be able to disable the dracon cannons and allow the Blade Ship to escape. Then Cassie boarded the Blade Ship and smashed its Kandrona. The Yeerks on board it would surrender or starve. In the background Jake said, "Rachel, go," but Cassie had a plan for that too. Rachel killed Tom, then demorphed. Finally, Cassie had morphed that special morph, that golden hair, those deep blue eyes, that flawless skin. A morph forever sixteen. She stopped time, stepping between the seconds to move Rachel to Earth, to the place where it all began. "I love you," Cassie said to Tobias, in Rachel's voice, in Rachel's place aboard the Blade Ship. [You fought well human] Rachel's killer said to her. Then it was all over.
The Ellimist appeared to her, explained to her, answered, "Why?"
Finally, after the Ellimist had explained, she demorphed. Both players protested that she had played foul, but neither Ellimist nor Crayak moved to interfere.
"As one wild card to another, I salute you," the Drode smiled, "You were always the greatest Animorph; why else would I have mocked you so? I applaud your disruption, for in one move you have changed the board more than every other action in this game combined."
Cassie faded away happily, knowing that she had saved all of her friends from misery and suffering, not just one from death.