The Reunion

Chapter 2 "Revelations"

Rachel

I spent all of Tuesday trying to forget everything – push the entire experience out of my mind. But at unlikely moments, a glimpse of brown eyes, and the feel of soft feathers would surface in my mind.

On Wednesday, I brought a book. But Nadine begged again for me to come with her. When she told me she wasn't going to be working with the live birds, I finally gave in. At the center, Nadine and I helped rearrange some exhibits, and create a display on bird watching. Our two hours were almost up when a young ranger walked up to us.

"Hey, you're the girls from Monday, right? The photographer & friend?"

"Yeah." Nadine responded. "Nadine & Rachel."

"Rachel – right. Al told me you've got the touch."

"The touch?"

"You know how to handle birds."

"Oh, no." Nadine laughed. "Rachel's terrified of birds."

"Well, Al's never been wrong before. Anyway, I thought you guys might like to see some more of our residents."

Nadine grabbed her ever-present camera bag and jumped up. I slowly followed – wondering about Al, and his conclusion that I had the "touch."

We went back to the same place we'd been before. But luckily there was no sign of Al. But Nadine couldn't help asking about him. She was babbling about him to our new friend, Zane, as I followed silently behind.

"Yeah," Zane was saying, "Al's pretty awesome. Some people think he's got some kind of telepathic connection with animals. But he says he just spent most of his time in the woods when he was in high school. So I guess he just learned a lot through observation."

We passed the rows of falcons, and came to some owls. I remembered being an owl. I kept walking as Nadine took some pictures of Zane with a barn owl on his arm. I noticed movement in a cage a few yards away from Nadine and Zane. It was a hawk, eating some kind of dead rodent in the bottom of the cage. My heart twisted with pity.

"Hey," I said to the hawk as I knelt by its cage. It didn't even look up from its meal. "It's too bad all you've got is a cold dead mouse. I'm sure something live and kicking would be more appetizing."

"You bet it would."

I looked up. There was Al.

"You talk to him like you think he's going to answer you." He said.

"I doubt that." I said.

"You know, I've heard stories... Birds that can talk. Read. Play X-box."

I looked up suddenly. But he was smiling. He was joking. For a second, I was sure he knew something. Man, was this place working some major mojo on me! I had to get out.

I got up and walked away from the hawk. Away from Al.

"Hey..."

I walked quickly, until something caught my eye and I stopped dead in my tracks. There, right in a row were a peregrine falcon, a harrier, and a bald eagle. The names on the cages read, Prince Jake, Ax-man, and Xena.

I stared at the birds for a long time, until I heard quick footsteps behind me. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and heard Al whisper in my ear, "Meet me tomorrow, in the woods behind the center. Is four-o'clock OK?"

I nodded, unable to speak.

I drove home in silence. Nadine didn't even notice. She was enthralled at her new hobby.

The next day, I sat through my classes totally numb. My brain kept trying to come to conclusions, to make up theories, to make it all make sense. But every time, I came to an impossible dead end. Tobias was dead. Marco and Ax were on the Andalite homeworld. Jake and Cassie off at college on the East coast. And yet...

After class, I went to my apartment. I still had an hour before my meeting with Al. And I wasn't even sure I was going to go. Well, I wanted to tell myself I wasn't sure. I knew I had to go.

I stared at myself in the mirror. I was really a different person than I had been back then. I was no longer Xena, warrior princess. I was just an average college student. With an average apartment and an average roommate. I drove an average SUV, and had an average part-time job at the Limited. I'd even dyed my hair brown, and cut it shoulder length, just to be more average. Normal – that's what I was trying to get out of life these days. I just wanted to be normal.

But something at that raptor center was definitely not normal. And I bet it had everything to do with Al. Al... why did that ring a bell with me? Al... Al Fangor. Elfangor. Alan Fangor was the name Elfangor had used while a human nothlit on earth. When he had married Tobias' mom. It was Tobias' father's name.

But what did that have to do with Al, the tall skinny ranger at the center? Sure he had blond hair, and brown eyes... eyes that seemed to see straight into my soul. But, Tobias was dead. Right? It was true that we never found a body. But a Dracon beam doesn't leave much of a hawk to find.

I shook myself from my disturbing thoughts and jumped in my car. All the way to the center, I blared my radio and tried not to think. Tried not to expect. Tried not to hope.

I parked around back where the employees and volunteers park. Then I walked casually around the building to the woods. I gripped my cell phone, just in case this was some kind of trick or trap.

I found Al sitting on a huge log, not too far into the woods. He seemed almost as high-strung as I felt.

"Al?" I said hesitantly.

He jumped, and looked up. "Rachel."

We were both silent. Neither of us seemed to want to start.

"Is it too late to say, never mind?" Al asked, with only a little humor in his voice.

"Oh, I'd say it is." I told him firmly. "Unless there's some serious coincidence and misunderstanding going on, I think I need some explanation."

"Maybe we can just chalk it up to coincidence."

"Maybe we should say just what we're talking about here."

"Well, what are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the falcon, the harrier and the eagle... Jake, Ax, and Xena."

"Prince Jake."

"Whatever."

"What about them?"

"Al, come on! I know those are your birds. You're listed as the handler on all three cages. And you know I know who Prince Jake, Ax, & Xena really are."

"But you don't know who I am."

I shrugged. "I'm up against a wall of impossibility."

"Not impossible. Improbable – yeah. It's pretty improbable that a hawk shot by a Dracon beam would actually survive. Even more improbable that a ranger would happen to find him while he was unconscious. And that he would be nursed back to health – save for a missing wing – and kept as a mascot at a raptor rehab center. And more improbable is that this hawk was actually a human being... who eventually came back to his senses and realized he could not go on living as a pet forever..."

"No way."

"Have I really changed that much? I mean, at least my hair is the same color!"

I ran a hand through my dark hair – amazed that he had recognized me, but I hadn't recognized him. But he did look so different.

"I don't know. Maybe it's the haircut. Maybe the glasses. Maybe..."

"You're still not sure."

"Al, you're going to have to prove it."

"Man, it sounds weird for you to call me that. And I can't prove it the way you want me to."

"What?"

"I don't do that anymore. I don't..." He looked around as if making sure there was no one listening. "I don't morph."

I felt the blood drain out of my face. I sat down quickly on a rock before my legs could buckle. "You mean, you're..."

"A nothlit. Um, squared I guess."

I couldn't believe this handsome stranger was throwing around these words I hadn't heard in years. Dracon... morph... nothlit... Could this really be true?

"I know this has to be a shock to you. I knew you all had to think I was dead. You have to believe me – you have to believe that I was so badly injured, so out of it, it was months before I remembered who I was. And then – even longer before I was able to escape. By then you all were gone. I had no idea how to find you. I never meant to leave you like that."

He sat down beside me and tried to look me in the eye. He laid his hand on mine. It was beyond my wildest dreams. Here was the love of my life, seemingly back from the dead. But I couldn't get my brain around it. The dumbest thing came out of my mouth.

"So, is this a new human morph?"

He looked absolutely dumbfounded. Here he was trying to convince me he was who he claimed to be, begging for forgiveness for abandoning me, and I was asking this bizarre question.

"No... as far as I know, it's the same DNA I was born with."

"Oh god, Tobias, why didn't I recognize you?" I wrapped my arms around him, and suddenly, he finally seemed real.

"I don't know. I guess I've changed a lot on the inside. And maybe it shows on the outside."

"Yeah, I've changed a lot too."

"I can tell. But, I swear, I saw you in the audience on Monday, and I knew it was you."

"I'm so sorry."

"You've got so much less to be forgiven for..."

"Oh, Tobias, I forgive you for anything you think you've done. I know you would have come back to me if you could have."

"Well..."

"No. It doesn't matter. We were always so good at making ourselves miserable. Let's let that be something we've changed."

Al – Tobias – nodded.

"So, what's with the name?"

"I don't know. Maybe I was still paranoid about the Yeerks. Maybe I wanted to start over. I just didn't want to use my real name anymore."

"So what is it now?"

"Alan F. Tobias."

"F – as in Fangor?"

"Yeah, but it's just the initial. As I said, I was still a little paranoid."

"That's weird. Are the glasses the same deal? Trying to be like Clark Kent, incognito?"

"Actually, no." He took off the glasses and handed them to me. I could tell they had a very strong prescription. "After being a hawk for so long, I could never get used to my human vision – or maybe my eyes really were that bad. Without these, I'm totally nearsighted."

"And you really are human now? No morphing?"

Tobias sighed. "Yeah. It was just time. It's like I just needed to grow up. Some kids drink, some kids do drugs, some kids jump off of things on bikes. I did the hawk thing. And then one day, I realized I didn't need it anymore. I realized I needed to be myself. And I needed to find out who that was. Not just for two hours at a time. But for real."

I nodded. It was sad that he would never soar the thermals again, but I was happy that he had found himself. And that he was human. I realized that just him being truly human made up for so much. If I had found him as a hawk in the tree, I would have probably been much less forgiving.

I looked up at him, surprised again at how tall and good-looking he was. He had always been cute, but in an awkward sort of way. Now, he seemed comfortable, confident, self-assured. But now I could see the old Tobias in him. Especially since I still had his glasses. When he looked down at me, he was squinting, and it was so familiar, I almost laughed.

"What?" He asked, noticing my smile.

"The way you were squinting at me just then. It reminded me of a certain bird-boy I knew long ago who was always complaining about how lame human eyes were."

Tobias rolled his eyes. "Well, that's just going to have to stay a memory. Cuz, I'm not putting up with these lame human eyes for another minute." He grabbed his glasses and slid them back onto his face. "I hope you don't detest guys with glasses."

I shook my head. "Honestly, when Nadine pointed you out at the hawk show, I thought you were really cute. But I couldn't watch you too much because you had that red-tailed on your arm."

"Was seeing the hawk really that traumatic for you?"

"It was horrible. I kept thinking of seeing you fall out of the sky..."

"Oh, Rach. I'm so sorry."

"Well, I'm glad Nadine dragged me here against my will. When I decided to face my ghosts, I found out they weren't ghosts after all."