A Choice and a Chance 2: Awakenings
Elfangor woke up after his journey into the Dream World in a hospital room. Various IV's and monitors were attached to him. He was human, he realized with a shock. He looked at his five fingered hands, and tan-pink skin. I'm alive, he thought, which made him feel dizzy. He had never been happier to be dizzy.
Just then several nurses came in and looked at him in surprise.
"Mr. Fangor, you're awake!" exclaimed a young orderly.
"Ah," he responded, trying out his voice. "Yes, I do seem to be. What happened, and how did I get here? What date is it, anyway?"
"Well, Mr. Fangor, you were hit in a hit and run accident three months ago. You were apparently crossing a street when a car came from no where and hit you. Thankfully, your insurance was very good. You have gotten the best care we could give you."
"Um," he responded. "That's nice.
Elfangor, now Alan, left the hospital, and entered what seemed to be a continuation of the life he had left to return to being a warrior among his people. The only difference was that he was supposedly a total recluse, he had no wife, and there was no real record of him before now. He was a computer programmer working out of his home and made good money.
He returned to "his" house. The place was Spartan. No television, nothing to play music. The only furnishings were a bed, a huge bank of primitive computers, a chest of drawers, and potted plant. He wandered around, getting the feel of the place. He wondered what he was supposed to do now.
ELFANGOR.
Alan sighed. "I had thought that you would show up eventually, Ellimist."
HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?
"Death decided to send me back."
An old human male appeared before him. He looked like a picture of a human wizard that he had seen in a book that Loren had shown him.
"That is impossible. Death is not a person, a being that can make decisions. Death is ending of life. It can't pick and choose. It is an action, not a living being!"
Alan shrugged. He really didn't feel like arguing.
"I know what I saw, and that I am here now. Explain that."
For the first time, the Ellimist was speechless.
"I can't read your mind," he said finally.
"I'm just as glad. I'm not your toy anymore. I and others may be pieces on a board," he answered, thinking of his conversations in the land of dreams. "But, so are you. The players here are bigger than you could imagine. I will move to their will, not yours."
The Ellimist disappeared.
Alan sighed, and decided he had better start trying to figure out why he was alive now, and sat down at the computers.
He searched late into the night, but nothing came up. He was pleasantly surprised, though, at the way that human computers had advanced since he had left earth. While still painfully primitive by Andalite standards, they were great achievements for humanity. He decided to call it a night.
He fell asleep, and dreamed.
He found himself sitting on a couch looking at a fireplace. Books lined shelves that were carved out of living rock. He looked around and caught sight of the woman he had met in the Dream World, Emrys.
"Welcome back," she said, smiling sardonically.
"
I can't be dead again, can I?" he asked."No, you are still very much alive. This is the World of Dreams, right? You can come here any time if you are asleep. You did it by yourself, too. Congratulations. You must have the ability called Dreaming. Rare. I imagine that you are not the same Andalite that you were before you died. Well, I suppose if you are going to be doing this every time you fall asleep, I had better start teaching you how to control it."
So she did. That night she started teaching him ways to use this newfound talent.
The next day, he went to the bank and to get some groceries. He came out of the store, and saw a person screaming for help. He took a second look, and saw that the man's mouth was shut. He looked like nothing was going on. Still, the sobs, whimpers and moans went on unabated. Alan realized what he was seeing. He could tell if a person was a Controller.
Such an ability would have enormous value in information gathering. He could find out who the Yeerks were, and get information for the youths he had given the ability to morph. He smiled coldly. He might not be able to tail fight, but he would do the damnedest job that he could.
He tried to feel something for these people. All he could was a distant kind of pity. The only emotion that he could feel at all was a cold resolve. Nothing else touched him. He had lost the fear that he once had, about losing, and death. All that mattered now to him was the defeat of the Yeerks, nothing at all.
He returned to his house, and began compiling a list of the names of the Controllers that the hosts had screamed into his mind.
Loren had no idea how long she had been in the mental institution. She knew it had to be soon after she had recovered the truth about Tobias and Elfangor. One night, in her dreams, a giant red eye had stared at her, and she remembered everything.
She had come home from the doctor's to tell Elfangor the good news. They were going to have a baby! They had some serious things to discuss, and she wondered how he would handle it. He had been such a good husband; she knew he would make a good father, too. What were they going to name the child? Were they going to tell him or her about where Elfangor came from? The most frightening part was, if they brought a child into the world, how would they protect it if the Yeerks came?
She parked in the drive way, next to Elfangor's yellow mustang. Walking in the door, she tried to imagine how she would tell him.
It wasn't Elfangor waiting for her in the living room. A completely normal looking man was standing there, and he looked at her, then seemed to look through her.
"I'm sorry, Loren," was all he said, before he stole her life and love away.
She had lived out her life normally after that, with the memory of her love gone from her mind. After her memories returned, she began getting increasingly depressed. The shock of suddenly remembering sent her into a downward spiral. It had taken place over two years, when she finally told someone. That person, her "friend", had her placed into a mental institution before you could say 'shrink'. She was diagnosed a delusional schizophrenic. They put her in the loony bin and started drugging her.
The drugs were the worst part. For days on end, she would stare at the wall in a daze, as the drugs worked their way through her system. She would live in a fuzzy daydream, humming and talking to herself. They made her forget. Only when they were nearly out of her system did she remember Tobias and her life before. She would cling desperately to these scraps of reality, and feel them slip out of her fingers when the drugs were again administered.
When she was aware enough to ask, she would ask about Tobias. They would tell her that he was doing fine, that all was well. Bill was taking good care of him. For some reason, these all felt like lies. But then, she didn't think they would give her the correct answer if it were raining.
She was coming to the end of a drug cycle. She was felling more clear headed than usual. She even managed to get to her feet when they came into her padded cell to give her the shots. Only, this time it wasn't the orderly that was assigned to this floor. It was a white-coated doctor. She hadn't seen one in years.
He looked at her like a germ under a microscope. For some reason, his gaze was familiar. She felt chilled, as if pure evil radiated off this man.
He smiled, attempting to seem kind. It looked like he was bearing his teeth.
"Hello, Loren. It has been awhile since we last met. Do you remember? You grew up rather suddenly, if I recall."
Loren hissed. Visser 32. She could only guess at his rank now.
He was going to kill her. No way out of that. Well. Maybe she could get in a few good shots of her own first.
"Yes, I do, Alloran."
Anger twisted his face. For a moment, the face twitched, as if the host was responding to her. She got a grim satisfaction from that.
"How's your son, Loren? Last, I heard, he was living on the street. Not quite the heir to Elfangor that I would have expected," he shot back.
That got a reaction from her, all right.
She screamed, and threw herself at him, trying to tear out his heart, straightjacket or no straightjacket. Their bodies collided, and she noticed that no one was guarding the door. Rolling to her feet, she made a mad break for it. An orderly tried to stop her, but she smacked into him, and they both hit a wall with an emergency ax. The glass shattered, and the man was knocked out. Backing in to the ax carefully, she ripped open the straightjacket. The door was open, and there were no guards. Of course, the Visser wouldn't want any witnesses to his revenge party, would he, she thought. Flinging her jacket to the winds, she ran to freedom.
She was able to live again. If the Yeerks were here, she had to find Tobias, and protect him. She needed to see if there was any way to contact the Andalites, and get help. First, she needed information.
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