Notes:
--Whee…this fic was previously finished, but awfully – and now I'm rewriting it! Happy day. ^^ *sing* Formerly called "Hybrid Morpher."
--It's been a while since I've read Animorphs, though…so please excuse me if I get something wrong, like a misspelled name or an incorrect rank or something. O.o;;
--This takes place maybe a week after the disappearance of the Rachel, after some of the more "high-ranking" Andalites on the Andalite home world have been informed of the disappearance of Prince Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill.
~Disclaimer (for the entire fic): I, Aura Kage, do not own anything that belongs to K.A. Applegate…such as basically all of the material in here like Andalites and Animorphs.
Chapter 1
Ankulei-Shloroun-Dristhfill
By Aura Kage
My name is Ankulei-Shloroun-Dristhfill. I am what Andalites call an estreen, one with an unconscious ability to make morphing seem beautiful, intricate – as if I was controlling the entire process myself. But in reality, maybe estreen is not the proper way to describe me – my prowess with manipulating Andalite technology is not a talent. It is learned.
I am a decol – a test subject. A voluntary decol. Though I know that my superiors would never place me through anything they thought potentially deadly, sometimes I'm afraid of what they do…sometimes. Other times, I am happy. Morphing is a privilege, one that I enjoy greatly.
And I'm proud to know that I am the prototype of a new generation of morphing. Proud to know that I at least can contribute to Andalite society, even if I do not become a great battler contributing to peace…which, to me, sounds very contradictory.
But even if I do have a very private wish to become one of those oxymoron-ed Andalites, who cares?
Maybe it's foolish of me to want to fight. I've heard the stories of those forever tainted in some way by wars…War-Prince Alloran the Hork-Bajir Butcher, "Jake Berenson" the Yeerk-Killer of the distant planet Earth. But sometimes…to have this power of mine…and not be able to do anything with it other than be subject to experiments…
But perhaps it isn't a wish to fight after all – perhaps it's just that feeling that they say one attains, sometimes, looking above when the sun leaves the faintest static of electrical ways vibrating along the atmosphere. When the clouds have fled behind the horizon on their verdant wings, and the sun with them – and the skies are bared, exposing its secrets and leaving so many mysterious wound in into the infinite spools and caches of stars and planets and universes. So much life. So much being.
Looking out and feeling…you are not even large enough, bright enough, to shine like that star a billion years of light away.
It's a horrible, helpless feeling. But I must follow Andalite protocol. Perhaps one day it will change…and I'll find my meaning. Perhaps Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill and his great brother were powerful enough to go against Andalite law as it was so long ago. But they weren't me.
~
Begin, the voice said from behind the protective screen. I nodded my still-Andalite head and focused on the DNA of the various creatures that swam in my bloodstream, through my three hearts and out again. I was in a pure white room with brilliant lights set in the ceiling. How the startling brightness of the room would help me with my morphing, I didn't know – but I had to agree that it gave it all a certain "experimental" feel.
So I began. Today would be the kafit bird and an Earth creature by the name of Felis catus, common called a cat, whose DNA had been shipped to the Andalite home world especially for my use. The cat was a predatory creature that fed on small rodents and birds – but I had before morphed a Taxxon, so I was not daunted by the possibility of any feral instincts that it might possess.
I envisioned the cat's clever, curious visage melding from my own, and distantly felt the changes in my face as I did. A whiskered muzzle erupted from my face, short and blunt, and my vision blanked for a moment before reappearing in a monotonous black and white, sharpening to an awesome pinpoint clarity. I saw all movement. Movement was all that mattered, and as my spectrum faded, I was less distracted by such trivial things as "color."
I felt my stalk eyes bend to the side, flatten and become the thin triangular membranes that were the cat's ears. My own ears melted away into ashen, almost black fur, and the pelt spread over my body. My hooves softened into paws, and I flexed the retractable claws thoughtfully. My tail blade melted away into the weapon-less cat's tail, much to my disappointment, but I felt the sense of perfect balance that came with it.
And then, I was the cat. Confident predator, slightly hungry – but not to the aggravating extent of perpetual starvation that was of a Taxxon. I blinked up at the Andalite behind the window, feeling contented, and a strange involuntary rumbling bubbled from somewhere in my chest.
Good, the Andalite said, looking down at me with his main eyes, stalk eyes glancing elsewhere. No doubt at the control boards or at another Andalite. Now the kafit bird.
I nodded – a human expression that I had come to use myself after the many months of Earth news patched on the Andalite civilian net – and concentrated…saw the kafit bird's half-dozen wings, feathered orange, come up from the cat's back…
FLOMF!
Almost immediately they sprouted up, first mere bones, then slowly feathering as I directed each vane to come out like orange tendrils stemming from my growing flesh. For a fleeting moment I felt the cat's body collapse, and my stomach heaved – a familiar pain, from my body rejecting the fact that I was going straight from one morph into another.
Concentrate. Concentrate.
The cat's body held, though some of its fur was tinged blue in a subconcious desire to return to my true form, and I finally stopped at a point of exhaustion, four wings fully formed and the two left fleshed but not feathered.
I cannot go further, I informed Fradulan-Drisrouth-Semulan. Fradulan looked down at me, disappointment clear in his eyes.
Demorph, he commanded finally, and I reversed both morphs – the kafit bird and the cat – in relief. I could never hold "hybrid" – otherwise known as "crossbreed" – morphs for very long, which was perhaps a good thing, as we did not yet know the time limit for that particular "type" of morph. As it was, I doubted that I could hold a hybrid-morph for more than an hour – my record was forty-five Andalite minutes in a hybrid-morph of the kafit bird and another Andalite bird. They were both similar, and familiar, so the level of difficulty was minimized.
As I demorphed, familiar Andalite features returning, I saw another Andalite gallop up to Fradulan, with a frantic-ness that was usually unseen in Andalites – running, unless one was grazing, usually signified some type of danger. One of the classes that I had continued after quitting the Academy was anatomy and life sciences – I learned, interestingly enough, that primal Andalite "feelings" were strung to panic at any other one of us while running. I felt by hearts' beats quicken, and hastened the morph, straining to perceive the thoughtspeak.
I only heard one word, but it was enough to raise my heartbeats to a rapid pummeling against my chest.
Aximili…