by DawningStar
Cassie--
It might have been the night Alai left that the dreams started--they were so indistinct at first that I could never tell for sure. But certainly it wasn't long afterward that they grew more vivid. Alai was there-always Alai, but she wasn't the human form I knew her in. Instead, there was only a violet mist that was the color of her eyes. And the Ellimist. I might have thought it was no more than a dream, if not for that.
The basic parts of the dream were always the same. Alai talked with the Ellimist, who seemed pleased, and then he told her something that she didn't like. She argued for a time, then fell silent in reluctant agreement.
At first the dream was brief, and I scarcely remembered it once I woke. But slowly, the voices grew clearer. It was only a few weeks later that I saw and remembered everything in the dream--if it was a dream...
Alai appeared in the Ellimist's dimension, bright purple mist a sharp contrast to the surrounding fog. He was there in front of her, apparently a small, almost elfin man, with skin that glowed a pale blue. "Riyadh made it home safely," he told her. She didn't smile, exactly--she couldn't without a mouth--but there was a distinct feeling of relief. "Good. And are our charges yet choosing a name?" "They are not. There has been much discussion of the subject, but no decisions." "I am expecting it," Alai agreed. "Selecting a name is not being a light matter." There was something like a sigh before she continued, a hint of apprehension in her voice. "I am giving Cassie the ability to see time, Ellimist." He nodded. "I know. It was a good piece of work, seeing that it had happened and making it so. You know what would have happened had you not done it." "Yes." "Very well. Something you may not know, however, is that Crayak has realized what you did in making Cassie sub-temporally grounded. He couldn't stop you, because technically you were acting on your own, without help from me. But he can now get involved, indirectly, in the battle you will join. He will do his best to keep you from helping the Animorphs again." I felt a sudden rush of anger from Alai. "But I am being here on my own! Crayak should not be sending anyone!" "I'll agree with that." The Ellimist sighed. "But rules are rules, and I did bend them by letting you destroy the Drode's time shunt retroactively, even if you did do it on your own." "I am not letting it make any difference," Alai said coldly. "I am knowing my job." "It will be harder now," the Ellimist warned. "Are you prepared, if the worst happens?" The purple mist began to gather back into the childlike shape Alai had shown us before. "Yes." The Ellimist nodded with a slight smile, as though he was proud of the Sharf Den girl and trying not to show it. "You will be permitted only one shapechange. Make good use of it. Don't forget, when you take on human shape, you are vulnerable almost as much as other humans. And if you must, you know what to do." "I am knowing," Alai nodded. "And you are knowing what my conditions are." "Don't worry. All will be well, Alai..."
I sat up in bed with a gasp. The dream had been so vivid this time--more real, even, than Ax's mirrorwave call so long ago. I'd been having the same dream for just over two weeks. Ever since Alai had visited us, and given me her gift of seeing time, in fact.
I wondered briefly whether I should tell the others that Crayak might be interfering again, then dismissed it. They probably wouldn't believe me anyway. I wasn't quite sure whether I believed myself.
Alai--
I am reappearing in the barn. I am choosing a time when no one is around, in order not to be frightening anyone, or giving away that something unusual happens in Cassie's barn. I do not wish to be putting the Animorphs in any danger--no more than I am already doing, at any rate.
One bird is screeching at my appearance, but there are being no other noises. I sigh. Now, perhaps, I am understanding somewhat of Riyadh's time-worries--how long, in human timesense, is it being before the Drode is coming? I cannot be seeing his possibilities as I do all others. Will I be telling the Animorphs enough before he comes?
Suppressing my worries, I am glancing around the barn, looking for a nearby time. I concentrate on one image of Cassie entering the barn alone, slipping my substance between times and into that now.
She is hardly jumping as I appear in front of her. It is not being surprising-my gift is leaving us both with a connection to one another. Quite possibly, she is expecting me. "Hello, Cassie," I am saying.
Cassie is smiling. "Hi, Alai," she is greeting me. "I thought you'd be back."
I am nodding slightly. "Yes. I am telling you about the battle you are fighting in a near-now, Cassie, as it is concerning you most of all."
A small frown is crossing Cassie's face. "Why?"
I sigh. "It is to rescue you that your friends are attacking a Yeerk stronghold. In one possibility, the Yeerks are infesting you, and the Animorphs are failing. In another, they are succeeding without outside help. Usually I am leaving such things up to the normal course of time, but there is being a change. Crayak's wild card, the Drode, is interfering now."
Cassie is going a little pale at the thought of capture and infestation. She is swallowing hard. "And how does that change the possibilities?"
"I am not knowing. The Drode's actions are being invisible to me. But do not be worrying, Cassie--I am helping you. You may not be seeing me--" I break off, and reflect. "Then again, perhaps you are. With my gift, you may be seeing me even when I am between times." I am pausing. "Cassie, are you seeing me as I shifted nows?"
She is looking at me, considering. "I may have," she is saying hesitantly. "Were you speaking with the Ellimist?"
With a smile, I am agreeing, "Yes, I am speaking with him. You are seeing me, indeed. There may be advantages in this, beyond what I am expecting."
"So, what's going to happen?" Cassie is asking. "How am I captured? Wouldn't it be better if you just told me, so I could prevent it entirely?"
"I cannot," I am telling her. "I am not knowing. The Drode is involved now, and Crayak, and I am not seeing their actions, their possibilities. I am wishing I could--I am apologizing."
Cassie is saying, "I understand. Do you know how long it will be? Will you tell the other Animorphs about it?"
I shake my head. "There are being limits on how much I can say now. Truly, Cassie, I am being sorry, but in this now I am becoming a part of the game between Ellimist and Crayak. The Drode is being Crayak's representative; I am being Ellimist's. To be telling you too much is to be giving what I am doing away."
Sighing, Cassie is accepting it. "How much can I tell the others, then?"
I am shrugging slightly. "As much of what I am telling you as you are wishing. But the battle is approaching."
Cassie--
"Why is the Drode interfering?" I asked Alai.
"I am having a hard time explaining that," the Sharf Den child told me, looking around the barn. She half smiled. "Such a simple world you are living in, Cassie."
I laughed. "Simple?!"
Alai nodded. "Effect is always following cause, to you. Linear, one now at a time. Simple. I am seeing many nows, all at once. Even my gift to you is not allowing you to be seeing time as a Sharf Den is. That...to be seeing though a Sharf Den's eyes...that is driving anyone insane."
I stared at Alai for a moment. Had she winked at me? What was she trying to say?
Her shape grew faint. I recognized that she was no longer altogether in the same time as I was-that was why she was invisible to anyone without the gift she had given me. Though the gift seemed to extend into the past as well as the future, I supposed I shouldn't be surprised. As Alai had said, I lived in a world where effect followed cause. Alai didn't.
Now, what was I going to tell the other Animorphs?
Jake--
Rachel, behind you!>
Watch out, Tobias, that Controller's got a gun!>
Cassie! Cassie, there's a Hork-Bajir to your left!>
Have I told anyone that this attack was crazy!>
Another battle. Strange how it seemed almost routine now.
Oh, man, there's a whole swarm of Taxxons over there!>
Jake, get out of there, you're surrounded!>
I roared, swiped at the Hork-Bajir with my tiger's claws extended, dodged a cut from the sharp blades. Yelled, Everyone, retreat! We've done what we came for.>
What we came for. To throw the newest Yeerk plan into disarray, to discourage them from building a base in the forest.
A horse's anguished whinny, roars of Hork-Bajir, grizzly bear, Marco's gorilla, my own tiger, all mingled into one, mixing with the thought-speak and voiced cries of both sides into one terrible blend of battle.
Jake!> Cassie's voice. I can't get out!>
I looked toward her. In horse morph, Cassie was surrounded by Hork-Bajir. Her flanks were bloodied, and somehow she didn't seem able to move her back legs as she should have.
I glanced around. Everyone else was similarly injured, but no one else was surrounded as Cassie was. I'm coming!> I told her.
But the Hork-Bajir near me seemed to have rallied, and I couldn't fight my way through.
Jake...> Cassie's thought-speak voice seemed to have grown weaker. Maybe the blood loss, or something even more serious. Jake, get out of here. Get everyone else out. Don't worry about me.>
How could she tell me not to worry about her? How could I not worry about her? I'm not leaving you!>
Don't worry,> she repeated. Alai said...> Her voice trailed off, then came back a little stronger. The Drode. He's back. Be careful...> Then nothing. I roared again, threw myself at the Hork-Bajir blocking my way.
Jake, man, Cassie's right! We can't help her like this, we've gotta go back and regroup!> Marco told me.
Getting clear of enemies for a brief moment, I scanned the scene. Rachel and Tobias fought back-to-back, a grizzly bear and a Hork-Bajir, but both were slowing and injured. Ax held his own, barely. Marco was bleeding from a dozen slashes, trying to get over to me. Cassie was on her side, unconscious. She had to be unconscious, not...
Right,> I admitted finally. None of us were in any shape to haul Cassie away. We would find somewhere private, demorph, remorph, then come and rescue her. Long before the Yeerks had a chance to do anything.
I hoped.
Cassie--
It didn't feel like I'd been knocked unconscious. It felt as though I had simply fallen asleep. Silly, I know, in the middle of the battle, but that's the way it felt. I roused myself long enough to warn Jake about the Drode--at least, I hoped I had. I should have done it earlier, but I still wasn't sure whether I was just making it up.
Then I let myself go, falling into sleep, or unconsciousness, or whatever. I don't know. Do you dream when you've been knocked unconscious? Because I'm almost sure I did. Unless it was that connection Alai talked about.
Voices, too many voices, all babbling at once. Words, here and there, but few I could understand. Alai's voice cut through the others, talking--but not to me, not then. Talking with another voice I recognized, that of the Drode.
"Crayak is having no right sending you. I am being on my own." "Not so, little Alai, Alai the Time-Confused. Whether or not you realized it, you were acting on the Ellimist's behalf, helping out a member of a group Crayak loathes almost as much as he hates your people. They started the Howlers' downfall; you finished it, among your many other meddlings all up and down the timeline my master has worked so hard to create. You're the one who has no right being here. Crayak deserves something in repayment for your destruction of my time shunt. I know now that was your doing." "Crayak is deserving nothing, especially not this human. It is being your fault your time shunt is collapsing, Drode. You should be seeing that Cassie is receiving this gift." A chuckle. "I suppose we'll just have to see how it turns out, then. But Crayak demands repayment, little Alai. And he will have it. You know that." There was a short pause, then Alai said quietly, "I am knowing it, indeed." "Are you, now?" the Drode asked, almost eagerly. "And you accept?" Another pause, longer. "I am accepting it," Alai agreed slowly. "And all that is coming with it." The Drode chuckled again. "Very well, then, little Alai. Shall we begin?" "We are beginning." And then, for only me to hear, "Do not be worrying, Cassie. I could not be stopping the battle, but you and your friends are being safe. All is being well."
I woke to the distinctly unwelcome voices of Hork-Bajir, talking in the strange mix of English and their own language, and human-Controllers. I could make sense of part of the conversation--they were debating whether to infest me now, or wait until Visser Three arrived. I didn't feel quite so weak--they'd given me medical treatment. Didn't want the prize dying on them.
I thought about trying to escape. Maybe I could at least make enough trouble that they'd have to kill me. I couldn't betray my friends...
Then I heard Alai's voice again, very faint, as though it were an echo. "No fearing, Cassie. Be trusting me."
One of the human-Controllers suggested, "We'd better infest it, then wait for the Visser. Otherwise it might get away." The others agreed, and I heard rustling noises, and a liquid sound, as of a portable Pool being brought close to me. I tensed. I hadn't opened my eyes yet, hadn't wanted them to know I was awake, but now I did.
And found I lay in an open field, with no sign of captivity, Controllers, or a Yeerk. I scrambled to my hooves in disbelief. It was the pasture behind my barn, adjoining the forest.
Alai must have managed this, somehow. If I closed my eyes, I could still hear Controllers talking. But what they said made no sense to me. The sentences were backwards as often as forwards, and usually overlapped. I had to be hearing it from Alai's point of view now. How did she keep track of it all, I wondered?
How long had I been in morph? I quickly demorphed, and morphed into wolf. It was quick through the forest, and it would spare me the time of remorphing again. I had to get to Jake, warn him I was no longer in there.
Jake--
I led the way cautiously back into the Yeerks' building. It had taken far to long for us to find a safe place and demorph, in my opinion. More than fifteen minutes.
We were quiet on the way in, quickly dispatching the few Controllers with the misfortune to stumble onto us. Where we had been battling, a horse lay on the floor. Cassie. It had to be Cassie.
But then the horse's eyes opened, and I felt a shock of recognition. They weren't brown, or black, or any other horsey color.
They were a brilliant, gleaming purple.
That isn't Cassie,> I said, not quite believing it.
What do you mean? Of course that's--> Tobias began, then he saw the eyes too. No way. That's not Cassie, that's Alai!>
Carefully, the others looked as well. Marco pointed out, Even if it's Alai, we can't let her be infested. She knows about us, too.>
I nodded my head. Right. Come on, everybody, move in.> I felt a tinge of worry for Cassie--if Alai was here, where was she?
But we'd wasted too much time, and one of the human-Controllers was already holding a small tub of liquid up to the horse's ear. Alai made no attempt to escape, but said, I am warning you, do not be doing this.> The Controller only laughed.
We began to rush forward, but then a terrible scream in open thought-speak filled the room. We and the Controllers alike cringed. It was Alai's voice, but not her. The Yeerk who had barely begun to take control was the one screaming.
Words began to be mixed into the shriek, a constant unintelligible babble. The horse who was Alai thrashed around on the floor, trying to get to her feet and failing, trying to escape from whatever the Yeerk was seeing.
The Controllers scattered. One of them pulled out a Dracon beam and fired. Alai's body evaporated almost before it reached her, in an atypical bright purple mist...
No! Alai!> Cassie's voice cried in grief from behind us.
I turned in joy and relief, mixed with sorrow for the Sharf Den. Cassie, how did you get away?>
She shook her wolf's head, as though trying to clear her thoughts. I don't know,> she said in bewilderment. I think Alai did it, but I don't know how. Come on, everyone, we should get out of here while we can.>
So we did.
Riyadh--
I was thrilled when Alai appeared in front of me, then I realized that the purple mist that was her natural form was very dim and slowly getting dimmer. "Is something wrong, Alai?" I asked, suddenly worried.
"I am coming to be telling you good-bye," she said, her voice sounding...not weak, precisely, but as if it came from far off. "I am ending here, Riyadh. I am being sorry."
"Alai, no!" I exclaimed. "You can't! We still need you--I still need you!"
"I am being sorry," she repeated sadly. "I am supposing I am not being so careful as you are warning me to be, Riyadh. Be telling the rest of your people." Her substance spread out still farther.
"Wait!" I called, my voice choked. "We are choosing a name, Alai." I used her own phrasing, for this last talk. "We are choosing to be Time's Children."
There was a delighted laugh, as soft as though it had traveled miles before it reached me. Then nothing.
I fell to my knees. "Alai," I whispered. She'd been almost family, the only family I'd ever known. I had friends among the other Time's Children, but Alai was like a sister, a mother.
A whisper in my ear, so quiet perhaps I imagined it. "No fearing, my Riyadh. No fearing."