Animorphs Forever 4: Forever and a Day
Disclaimer: Animorphs belongs to Scholastic, Highlander belongs to Rysher Entertainment, and I make no money, yadda, yadda, and a ho-ho-ho.
Ax's first impressions were of aches. His head, his back, and his tail all throbbed dully, like he was recovering from being beaten. He didn't have any idea where he was. Slowly, afraid to find out, he opened his main eyes slowly, then his stalk eyes.
There were bars, like in a human prison, blocking his view, and he when he tried to move, he couldn't. Other than his eyes, he was paralyzed.
"So, the sleeper awakes," said a drawling, human voice. Turning his stalk eyes, he caught sight of the person that had captured him.
Taylor was as poisonously beautiful as she always was. For a human, she was of an outstanding beauty, and the insanity of her mind and of her yeerk, had warped them both, until they had almost become the same being.
He shuddered mentally, because his body couldn't.
"Well, my fine young Andalite," she said, and smiled like a cat. "Since you are back in the land of the conscious, then we can begin finding out why you were following me.
The way she looked at him made him feel dirty, defiled. He also had the feeling that whatever it was that she was going to do to him; it would not involve infestation. It would likely be much, much worse.
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"Darius? I thought that you'd be taller, not to mention male," sneered Hamilton, looking at the wisp of a girl in front of him. It was definitely the same one that he had met as the school, but now, she was wearing one of the long coats that most immortals favored, and had her hair slicked back. With white face paint, and heavy black makeup, he wondered what she was trying to do. She did look eerie, that was for certain.
"Darius died several years ago, but I received his Quickening, and, have you heard of the Darius effect?"
"Please," he grunted, wondering why he was getting goose bumps. The girl was looking at him through eyes that were darker than they should have been, and Hamilton remembered the overpowering feeling when he walked within the edges of her Quickening. For a child-immortal, it should not have been so strong; in fact, few immortal children lived long enough to take any heads at all, so she should have given him a very weak 'buzz'.
Her voice was deep, too deep for a girl-child.
"Yes, I have. When Darius faced down the oldest immortal of the time, possibly the oldest immortal of all time, he was changed. He went from a blood thirsty warlord, to a priest who worked for world peace the rest of his life from holy ground."
She nodded, slightly. Hamilton was now getting past his first impressions of her youth to the way that she stood. It was balanced, ready to move at a moment, but utterly still.
"Now, tell me what you think would happen to the person that inadvertently got his Quickening?" she asked softly, and Hamilton wondered where this going.
"She was eighteen at the time, and which personality would be more powerful? One that had been changed by the Ancient's, or one that had only taken three heads?"
"I have watched this world and these people since we sat in caves, chanting to animal spirits. Do you think that I would leave them to aliens?"
Hamilton's mind seized on that. "SO, even the Ancients knew about them?"
"No, only from personal experience."
This was where Hamilton decided that he would make his bid.
"Visser Three has become immortal. I can't take his head without help. We both know that the Game was not meant to be played by aliens. We have to stop him."
Morgan just looked at him. The offer he had made was completely unexpected. She had come with the intent of making him tell her what he was doing with the yeerks. How she had known where he was, she didn't know. At times like this, she wasn't the person in the driver's seat. It was Darius, the military genius, and the Ancient, who directed her. She hadn't lied when she had stated her name.
: I think that we may be able to trust him, at least for this,: Darius told her. For the most part, he stayed in the back of her mind, rarely commenting. Now, he was in complete control, and the echoes of other voices resounded in her thoughts.
"I'll help you. What do you have in mind?" she asked, after several minutes.
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"This can't be right," Marco exclaimed in annoyance.
"What do you mean?" asked Cassie, when they were in the barn later.
"I mean, both Morgan and Ax have been missing all day. Tobias confirmed it, although as far as Morgan goes, she left a while ago."
"Why would Ax go after her?" Cassie asked in confusion.
I think it had to do with some hero worshiping, said Tobias slowly. She saved our lives twice, and he can't seem to understand that she might be trying to turn us in.
"I never thought that he would be pulled in so easily by that freak," Rachel muttered.
"She's not a freak, she honestly thought that it was Hamilton that she was fighting," Jake answered, looking annoyed. "Because you couldn't hold your big mouth, we lost a potentially valuable ally."
"I did not!" she shouted. She was about to go farther, but stopped at the withering looked that Jake gave her.
"Do any of us have any idea where she is?" asked Cassie, trying to cut them off.
"Last we heard, Erek said that she was at the Shelter for runaways that the Sharing sponsors."
"We need to find out what she is doing there, and see if we can stop Visser Three."
They all looked at him like he was crazy, but Jake had on his "Determined Leader" face. So, Jake and Rachel decided to walk down to the shelter, while Tobias, Cassie and Marco provided eyes in the air, and hoped that they found Ax along the way.
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Ax was coming out of his paralysis enough to feel his limbs. He tried to move, but they still were unresponsive.
"Oh, it is good to see that you are feeling things again," said Taylor, who had been gently running razor blades over his fingers from time to time, seeing if he could feel them. He had tried to jerk away from the pain, and she had noticed.
She laughed, a lighthearted sound, but laced with madness, he fancied. Looking at her, she looked so human. For all he knew that humans could be evil, his friends had shown him what humanity strove for, and it was more noble than he liked to think. She, most definitely, wasn't it.
Smiling, she gently started to touch him, to briskly massage his sore muscles.
Ax's eyes widened with surprise. He had been bracing himself for pain, but this was a total shock.
"Oh, your surprised, hmm?" she asked innocently, but her didn't stop her slow massage, but continued to stroke him, the rhythm changing. Taylor had started at his shoulder blades, worked her way down his chest, then back up again.
"You thought that I was going to hurt you?" she smiled at him. "No, pain has little effect on an Andalite. Torture they expect. I find that it works best to humiliate a captive, first."
Ax watched as she slowly and lightly moved her hands around his body, and abruptly he realized what she was going to do, when the first burst of pleasure bloomed. Try as he might, he couldn't make himself not feel anything.
Concentrating on his breathing, he tried to pull himself away from what she was doing. Wishing that he were human, so he could bite his lip, he trembled when she brushed her fingers against the base of his tail.
There was the soft sound of her laughter again, and his eyes flew open when he heard the soft rustle of artificial skin.
Taylor stood in front of him, naked.
"What, never seen a human without clothing?" she asked, and posed. Ax wondered what she was doing.
Ax wanted to groan. He had been among the humans too long. Closing his eyes against reality, he did his best to retreat into his own mind.
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Morgan and Hamilton walked carefully to one of the entrances of the yeerk pool. They had come to a truce of sorts. First, they would kill Visser Three, then they would try to kill each other. This was a part of the Game, and the Rules had to be followed.
Watching each other like a pair of wary wolves, they seemed to also work together in an almost eerie fashion.
They had decided on going to the main entrance inside the Sharing's main headquarters, out of something of a crazed urge to make an entrance.
There was a method to this madness, though.
Hamilton walked him, calmly showing his ID. Morgan shadowed him, and the Controllers never saw her until she dropped down from above, grabbing one and breaking his neck, as Hamilton drew a Dracon beam and fired. The other guard disappeared in a glowing cloud of particles.
They looked at each other, and Hamilton bowed, gesturing for her to go first. Sneering at him, Morgan complied, and drew her si. Holding then in an oriental grip, she proceeded down the endless spiral of stairs that led into the pool.
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Flashback-
Morgan had started running after she had gotten Darius' Quickening, and hadn't stopped, even though she had no idea where she was.
Lungs sobbing for air, she stumbled and fell, landing on her hands and knees.
Think, girl, think! You can't just keep running. Darius is dead. Does anyone know about it? Can you avenge him?
She moaned as she thought about the kind priest, and curled into a fetal position. Morgan rocked and keened, but her mind kept working.
Call Mac? He must know about him already. Darius had mentioned him coming for a visit, although he never said what for. He's better at this kind of thing.
Who the hell were those people? Why did they want to kill Darius? He never hurt anyone!
Tattoo, those men had that strange tattoo. I need to find out more about it.
How? I'm a kid!
Getting up, and swallowing hard when her gorge threatened to rise, she realized she had left her blades at the church. She would need to go back to get them.
However, she had no idea where she was. While she had left the church to get a job, she had made sure to always use public transport, and did so during the day.
:I know where we are,: said a voice, and Morgan's first reaction was to jump. Staring, and drawing her remaining weapons, she jerked her head around, trying to find the anonymous speaker.
:I'm in here,: said the voice, and with rising panic, Morgan realized that it was coming from inside her own head.
Great, I'm hearing voices. Darius' voice! I'm going nuts. Just what I need...
:No, you are not going insane. You have my Quickening, and I just don't feel like passing on yet. You need my help.:
"Well, people already thought I was nuts. This won't change anything," she groused to herself, and following his mental prompting, Morgan managed to find her way back to the church.
Finding her swords, the voice that had guided her receded, but there was something else. She felt stronger, faster, than she ever had before. Her instincts were more honed, her mind was less quiet than it had been. Thoughts jumbled in and out, wandering and coming back, but with a little effort, she could direct them. Memories of Darius' life were buried in the back, and she reached out, touched them, and found skills that she had never had before. As if this had opened a set of floodgates, she suddenly was able to touch the memories, while less clearly, of the other people whose heads she had taken.
She shuddered, when those other's personalities assaulted her. Then something got in the way. It stilled the mad voices, made then manageable, barely.
Looking at the church, she knew that she would have to leave. Morgan couldn't plot bloody revenge against those people, especially when she was hearing voices.
Taking out one of her swords, she placed it in her left palm, and gave a sharp twist.
Watching the blood drip down, even as it healed, she answered herself.
"Soon."
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"Hey, Tom," said Jake in surprise, seeing his brother at the Sharing's shelter.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" asked his tall older brother.
"We were coming to see if an old friend of ours was here," answered Rachel before Jake could reply.
"Who was she?" he asked, the perfect helper.
"Her name is Anne," piped up Jake, after giving Rachel a warning look.
Tom frowned in thought. "I don't know if we have any Anne's here."
"Could you look, please?"
Shrugging, Tom left them, and the two Animorphs started looking around.
"She may have used another name, you know," Jake hissed into Rachel's ear. They were wondering what was going on, when they heard a very loud crash.
Tom ran up.
"Uh, guys, there was a gas leak. You had better leave."
There was another, this time sounding more like an explosion.
Tom went a rather interesting shade of green, and left to see what was going on.
"Do we have time to get the others?" asked Rachel.
Jake shook his head. "We have to find out what is going on, but…" he trailed off, and he looked at her. "You go get the others, while I find out what is happening. I'll come back and get you."
Grunting the affirmative, Rachel ran off, a little annoyed.
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The two immortals finally reached the bottom of the stairwell.
Looking around, they noticed something strange.
Several of the human hosts were lying on the ground, very dead. None of them were immortal, so they weren't coming back.
Morgan remembered what she had heard Visser Three mumbling when she had come to in the morgue, and wondered if this had anything to do with it.
Then, she heard a thought-speak moan.
Ax, she realized, and unconsciously started towards the mental sound. Hamilton grabbed her shoulder. Without warning, he jabbed his Dracon beam into her back.
"You son of a-" she started to yell, but he grabbed her and flung her to the ground. Both were then swamped with the feeling of another immortal.
"I have a present for Visser Three," he said arrogantly to the guards that proceeded him.
Visser Three was back in his normal body, and he was surprised by the glare of defiance that he saw in the young human's face. Then again, he shouldn't be all that surprised. She had killed him already.
Well, what do we have here? he asked softly, and he rudely grabbed her head. Her makeup seemed strange to him, and he didn't know what it meant.
She spat at him.
Laughing at this petty showing of defiance, Visser Three threw her to the ground. Bounding to her feet, and ready to charge him, she was hit in the back with the dracon beam that Hamilton had ready.
Take her to Taylor. I will speak with Hamilton about this gift he has brought me, he ordered, and gestured for the guards to take her away.
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Morgan revived some place that she really didn't want to be.
Taylor was standing in front of her, still nude, and there was a whimpering sound coming from the prone Ax behind her.
This prompted Morgan to start swearing in one of several dead languages that she had acquired since getting Darius' Quickening.
Taylor looked in the direction the profanity was coming from, and saw that Morgan was once again alive.
"So, what are you?" she asked, real curiosity coloring her voice. "What am I?"
To this, Morgan went right on swearing, this time using English.
Taylor slapped her, saying, "Naughty, naughty."
Morgan was staring at the hapless alien on the table across from her, wincing as she did so. Taylor was still slapping her, but the pain was distant. It was only pain, after all, and Morgan had died with the best of them.
Seeing what Taylor had done to him, Morgan's vision was tinged with red. She knew those pathetic whimpers, the way he tried to cave in on himself. The memories of lifetimes showed her, and she had a first hand view at being both victim and aggressor.
He'd been raped. There was nothing else that would describe the way that he looked at her with the total humiliation, pain, rage, and terror that made all of his pupil's dilate to their fullest, and leave him shaking the way that he was. He didn't look at her, because the shame was too great.
There was no physical damage, but Morgan shuddered at the thought of the mental.
"Oh," said a suddenly thoughtful Taylor. "You don't like what I did to this creature?"
She strode back over to him, and then took out some sort of liquid from a cabinet that was beneath Ax's table.
Laughing, she poured it out onto his blue and tan fur, and started to rub it over him.
Morgan's eyes narrowed, and then widened. The smell that came from it was familiar, one that she hadn't caught whiff of in centuries… It was something that was both a combination of truth serum and aphrodisiac.
"Who are you?" Taylor asked the Andalite.
Aximili.
"Where are the other Andalites?"
This was something that Morgan couldn't let go on. But there was nothing that she could do.
They are on the Andalite Home World, he answered, and Morgan heaved a sigh of relief.
"How did they get back there?" she asked in surprise. "We've had no information to confirm that!"
They have always been there, he answered, mind-voice dreamy.
For a moment, Morgan sat there, and almost giggled. She hoped that Ax wasn't a Babylon 5 fan. Seeing how it was acting on his body, Morgan thought that they must have under dosed him. In fact…
He was coming out of it.
Ax was looking more and more lucid, even as Taylor continued to ask him questions about the 'Andalites'. He kept on giving her stupid answers. She must be getting impatient, she thought. She didn't take the time to fully break him.
Shivering with relief, she waited until she had enough time to break out.
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Jake had found his way to the yeerk pool entrance, but he was alone. Inside there was the sound and smell of an explosion, one that he had gotten to know so well.
What the hell was going on down there?
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"Why won't you answer me?" shrieked the blond that stood in front of him.
Ax had come to enough to understand what was happening to him, not that he wanted to. She had succeeded in her first goal, to humiliate him, but for a strange moment, he wondered if she was just amusing herself. She hadn't been trying to get any real information from him…
Then, he saw Morgan in the background. Her eyes narrowed in concentration, as he saw the beginnings of feathers on her hands. She shrank, and her eyes started to turn a glossy black.
Ax was watching this with his stalk eyes, and he also noticed that he could move his arms. He was trying to keep a lookout for anyone else, when the rustle of feathers caught his attention.
Taylor heard it also. She was about to turn her head, when Ax grabbed her arm, and started acquiring her. Taylor promptly went into a stupor.
The feeling that he got when he was acquiring her made him ill. It was like she was doing more to him than just becoming a morph. He was being changed. It was like something in him was being destroyed.
The rustling stopped, and a half-human, half-raven wiggled out its restraints.
Watching the way that she demorphed, he had to wonder if she was an estreen.
Nope, he snorted.
He was still paralyzed in his legs, but his arms were working more, and he pulled back when Morgan moved over to Taylor. Grabbing the woman's neck, she jerked her arm up and twisted. Taylor's neck broke with a sickening crack. She fell like a stone.
"You okay? It's me, Dar-, uh, Morgan," Morgan said into his ear. She started to pull on the restraints that bound him. Ax flinched away from her, memories of being touched making him sick. He saw that she had trouble at first, then she gave a heave, and electricity crackled around her. The shackles opened.
What was? he said weakly, as she grunted, and flung him over her shoulders.
"The force of life that an immortal is able to use," she rasped, wheezing with the effort of moving him.
"Gods, you need to go on a diet."
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Hamilton was currying favor. He needed it, if he was going to survive.
That was the major rule of the Game, and one he exceeded at. If he was able to give Visser Three Morgan, and her signature was able to cover his, then he would live to use the yeerk. Simple as that.
Then, there was the explosion.
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What are you doing? asked Ax, when he was able to get to his feet. They had stopped to retrieve Morgan's weapons, even though her beloved coat was in shreds.
She was packing then into her clothes, and suddenly Ax started to laugh.
She whirled to look at him, disbelieving.
Unfortunately, some guards also heard him.
The first Hork-Bajir went down with her si sticking out of its head. The next was human, and Morgan grabbed her, and broke her neck with ease.
Looking down at the body, she saw the weapons that they had.
"Hold these, and if you loose them, I'll kill you twice," she snarled at the feverish Ax, thrusting her weapons out to him. She leaned over to take the dracon beams that the guards had been armed with, and looked it over. Taking cover behind some barrels, she took a sharp shooter's stance, aimed, and fired.
BOOM!
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Jake and the other Animorphs stepped off the stair well, and into pandemonium. Controllers were firing everywhere, but at nothing. Somewhere in the middle of the melee, Tobias spotted an Andalite, and a cougar.
Ax was carrying something, and the cougar was in front of the Andalite, who was moving with something less than his usual gracefulness. He was moving like he was in the middle of thick mud. The cougar, on the other hand, was almost supernaturally quick, but obviously unfamiliar with its body, and was also on the clumsy side.
Jake took stock of the battle. The odds were against them, but when weren't they? It was then that he saw the cougar dive between Ax and an incoming dracon beam, and saw that it was protecting him, like he couldn't take care of himself. The cougar then puffed up its fur, and looked around, like it had heard something.
Visser Three and Hamilton were running towards the alien and the immortal, and the cougar stood in their way defiantly. It was then, as Hamilton sensed the cougar, that he stared in amazement. The pieces of a puzzle that he had been trying to understand fell into place, and he grinned fiercely.
Jake and the others morphed quickly, before they could be seen. They fought their way over to the twain, and formed a circle so that they could get clear. Apparently, though, the cougar was wanting to get to Hamilton.
The eyes of Hamilton and Morgan met, and she issued the challenge.
I challenge you both, Hamilton. There can be only one!
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"Okay, now that we're all safe and sound, Morgan, what the hell do you think that you were doing?" shouted Jake into the stoic face of the immortal sitting in front of him.
"I was trying to take Visser Three's head," she answered, wondering how he would respond.
"What is the deal with the head chopping?" asked Marco. "I know that they can be stuffed and mounted, and that there is supposed to be some kind of energy taken, I think you said. But why do you fight? It's not like you have to, or anything."
"Well, we do, because of the Game. See, in the end, there can be only one. That one will have the power of all the immortals that have ever lived. There are those that actively play the Game, and some that could care less. I've only taken heads in self-defense. If I could get away with it, I would live on holy ground the way that I-, the way that my friend Darius did, but I couldn't stay for very long. People get suspicious of non-aging teenagers after a while."
"Some game," said Marco with a shudder. "Are there any rules?"
"Yes," Morgan said softly, eyes focused on nothing. "The only refuge an immortal has from on another is on holy ground. No immortal may fight there. All challenges have to be answered, because they can just keep coming after you. All duels are one-on-one. Blades only. I don't have much choice when it comes to fighting, because if someone like Hamilton or Visser Three was to get the Prize, then who knows what would happen?"
"What's the Prize?" asked Cassie, voice soft.
Morgan's expression lost its faraway look, and she focused on the girl sitting beside her.
"No one really knows. Some think that it is all the power of the combined immortals. That we will all be someday pulled to a far off land, and then fight until there is one left. There are also those that think it was a crock of bull made up by some ancient immortal to give an explanation for why we fight. Some think that it would be mortality, to be able to grow old and have children. Others think it is ultimate power. I'm rambling, aren't I?" she asked, looking at the Animorphs.
Jake nodded, but his eyes held pity.
"How many people have you killed?" asked Cassie, suddenly.
"Immortals, or in all?"
Cassie looked like she didn't want to ask, but Rachel answered, "In all."
Morgan again looked outside, into nothing.
"Too many."
~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~*~**~~~***~~~***~~~***~
Taylor and Visser Three were discussing what had happened to them.
"She broke my neck!" screamed the blond.
Yes, and you survived, said the Visser. She is like us, in that we can't die. When he said this, he lapsed into thought.
Both of them were staring off into space when Hamilton waltzed in. Despite the challenge from Morgan, or Darius, or whatever it was that she was calling herself, he had figured out something amazing, and it was the bargaining chip he needed to get rid of the irritating immortal, and the Andalite Bandits.
"I know how to find the Bandits, Visser Three," he proclaimed, and watched as the two warlords eyes lit up.
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"We need to go talk to Mr. King," announced Jake in the silence following Morgan's pronouncement.
"Who?" Morgan asked, a little flabbergasted.
"He's an android. They're called the Chee. They were created thousands of years ago by the Pemalites, who made them into complete pacifists. They can't fight, it's a permanent part of their programming."
There was a strange look that flashed across the young immortal's face.
"That's nice."
"He's the guy that first told us about immortals. He heard about them, but was also the only one of the Chee that believed they existed. He might know something else that might help.
Anyway, they infiltrated the yeerks, because they have a stake in this world. They infused the wolves of this world with the spirit of the Pemalites, creating dogs."
Morgan stared at Jake incredulously. This was the most absurd thing...
"You have got to be kidding me."
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They walked over the King residence.
Marco was leading the way. He knocked on the door, and smiled hugely when Erek opened the door.
"Hey, this is Morgan," he told the android, gesturing to the stunned girl beside him.
"She's one of those immortals that Mr. King was talking about."
Erek was as stunned as Morgan had been at the idea of dog loving androids. Stepping back to let the Animorphs in, he stared at Morgan, and she stared back. They watched each other as warily as two hawks in the same territory.
Mr. King had heard them, and was also looking at Morgan like she was some kind of bug under a glass. Of course, since she was looking at him the same way, it made for a strange scene.
Rachel finally broke the silence when it stretched out for too long.
"Did you hear about what happened a few hours ago at the yeerk pool?" she asked the younger looking android.
Erek nodded. The story that had come from one of their people was so strange that he hadn't really believed it.
"There was a report saying that Hamilton knew how to find the Andalite Bandits."
"What!" chorused everyone in the room and Morgan started to mutter in a different language.
"How do you know Latin well enough to curse in it?" asked Mr. King.
"Don't ask. I think I know how Hamilton figured it out. He must have sensed me in morph."
Tobias, how was in human morph, looked at her with confusion. "What, so there aren't any immortal Andalites?"
"I think, heck, this is one crappy long-shot, but I think that Visser Three became immortal when he morphed Hamilton. It made him pre-immortal, anyway. There is an easier way to tell, though. Does he have any family?"
She glanced over at Ax for a moment. He was also in human morph, and looking like he would rather be somewhere else.
"His host, yes, had a family. It was a very prominent one. He also had children. I don't remember much else."
"So, I guess my theory has some points," she muttered, and looked up, seeing the 'what-the-hell-has-that-got-to-do-with-it' expression.
"All immortals are foundlings. I loved my adoptive parents, but they did adopt me. We can't have children. No immortal knows who their parents are. I guess that could be a good thing, so we won't have to watch them age, but it would be nice to have blood family."
"I'm sorry," said Ax, who had an extensive family, even if he did have only one brother.
"It's the way things are."
"So, how does this tie into Hamilton figuring out who we are?" asked Jake, trying to get back to the point.
"If he sensed me as the cougar, and I know that I sensed him, he would know that I was human, and thus, if a human had the morphing power, then maybe the others were human as well."
"Couldn't there be Andalite immortals?"
"Gods, I hope not."
"This isn't getting up anywhere," complained Rachel, who had taken Morgan's arm and was shaking her.
"I challenged Hamilton before I left. He will have to answer me, but if he is a coward, be may run. That would be stupid, because I'm a kid, both physically, and by immortal standards. He could defeat me fairly easily."
"So why did you challenge him?" the expressions on the rest of the Animorphs' faces screamed the same question that Erek had just asked.
"Who said it would be me fighting him?"
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Erek the Chee went down the maze of stairs to the yeerk pool. Looking around, and remembering the chaos that had been there, he saw that most of the damage had been superficial. Only Controllers and buildings, he thought disgustedly.
The piece of paper that held Morgan's challenge was in his pocket. He didn't like the idea of her doing this to draw out the space going immortal, but Hamilton had forced her hand. What frightened him was that she had readily agreed that she probably wouldn't survive the fight. Yet, she had reassured them all, that if she died, they would still win.
"How, do you plan to take him with you?" said Marco sarcastically. "That would be a little hard, since he would have already taken your head."
She shook hers.
"You wouldn't have heard of it, but once, a long time ago, a very evil immortal was about to have his armies attack Paris, but before they did, he was met by the oldest immortal of the time, a holy man. They fought, and he took the priest's head. After that, he disbanded his armies, and until his death, worked from holy ground towards world peace."
"And the point of that little story is…?" asked Rachel, snidely.
Morgan sighed. "He was killed later by mortals, on holy ground. He was a friend of mine, and since I was the closest immortal, I got his Quickening. If I am killed, Hamilton will get mine, and all the Quickenings of all the immortals that I have ever had, or taken. He will be changed."
That had been the weirdest story that Erek had ever heard, and he had been around a while.
It didn't take all that long for him to get the message to Hamilton and Visser Three. To keep his head on his shoulders, he had not told the Visser who he thought the Andalite bandits were, only that he knew how to find them.
Erek hoped that this plan, part hair-brained Morgan, the other insane Rachel, with only a dash of sense from Jake, would work at all.
~~~****~~~****~~~****~~~****~~~****~~~****~~~*****~~~****~~*~****~~****~~~~
"Good place for a Quickening," Morgan said as the walked into an old construction site.
"Well, axe-murderers, at any rate," answered Marco.
They had decided that for this confrontation, they would use the place where they had gotten their morphing powers. If anyone saw anything, they would think it was kids playing with fireworks, again.
"This is so weird," mumbled Cassie. She and the others were going to get into morph when Hamilton arrived, so that they would be able to handle anyone else that he might have brought along.
"Yup, tell me about it."
Morgan had started doing some stretches to get ready for the upcoming duel. She had all her weapons on her, and she would start out with her staff.
Doing some backhand springs, she got loose, waiting for the fight to start. She had dressed plainly, tee shirt and jeans, and no coat, because her old one was unusable.
Tobias and Ax got into position, Ax as a secondary fencer, Tobias in the air for recon. The others had already gotten into position.
The buzz sang through her mind. Looking around, she saw Hamilton. He was standing beside her, with a katana.
Getting her staff into position, she smiled sweetly.
"I am Morgan Pierce."
"Steven Hamilton. There can be only One!"
He brought his katana down into an overhand strike, and she blocked up, and then low, to stop his back sweep. She whirled the butt up to try for a groin shot, but the fight became too furious for thought. Both went into the realms of pure reaction.
It was then that Darius came to the full. He had been slumbering in the back of her mind, along with the other voices that Morgan would often wish were silent.
Hamilton saw her blows become faster, and more forceful.
Then, the buzz of another immortal entered the field of battle.
It startled Morgan. Loosing precious concentration, she turned back a blow, then-
WHACK!
WHACK!
SNAP!
Her staff broke in half, and Hamilton's katana bit deeply into her chest.
"GAH!" Morgan shrieked, blood beginning to pour from her mouth.
Lurching into a desperate back flip, Morgan dived for her blades. Crossing then, her arms screamed with the effort of the block. The almost pain that came from healing followed the agony of the cut. Rolling out of the way of another blow, she started onto the offensive.
Then, she felt another blade slice through her back, severing her spine.
NOOOO! shouted several thought-speak voices in unison.
Ax was already running out to confront Visser Three.
You broke the rules! he snarled at the Andalite controller. He dived in without thinking, and attacked so furiously that the yeerk leader didn't have time to morph.
The other Animorphs dived in to save Ax, and Morgan was on her back. She couldn't feel her legs.
Dragging herself up with her arms, she rolled left, then right, and waited for her back to heal.
Yes! She shouted mentally, as feeling returned to her legs.
Scissoring her legs, she swept Hamilton's out from under him.
"There can be only one!" she screamed, passing her right hand sword through his neck.
The action stopped as they all felt the atmosphere shift, and the air crackled. Hamilton's body glowed.
"I hate this part," Morgan croaked, voice weak and glaring at the dead body.
The wind picked up, and the lightening started.
Visser Three didn't know what to think, as he saw what would happen to him if he failed. He had been hurt by the bandits, but the immortal was the real threat. Taking one last shot at them, he raced towards the exhausted immortal, who was on hands and knees.
Ax saw this, and reacted without thinking, slashing with his tail blade, and cutting off the end of the Visser's tail.
Visser Three howled in pain, causing him to do a spin on his hind-hooves. He still had the heavy, muscular part of his tail.
THWACK!
The blow crushed the young warrior's ribs, and the shards pierced his lungs. With a last gasp of effort, even as he started to suffocate in his own blood, he slashed, severing the Abomination's head from his shoulders.
A second Quickening hit Morgan, flowing through her, and this time, she screamed in anguish, as the insanity that had taken the Visser, the pathetic yearning, the wasted life of two beings, filled her.
She screamed, pain that bordered on pleasure making her feel like a god, and making her want to puke. Tears ran down her cheeks, and electricity sparked from her teeth, bared in a grotesque smile.
It was over, and Morgan was ignored, for everyone was struggling to get to Ax, because he had fallen to the ground, and hadn't gotten up.
~~~***~~~****~~~****~~~****~~~*****~~~****~~*~****~~~****~~~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~
Natural, boring lightening split the night sky, and was completely ignored. After the light show to the Quickening, a thunderstorm just lacked.
The Animorphs were ringed around a patch of freshly turned earth, and Tobias had sprinkled flower and grass seeds over the grave, trying to come up with some appropriate gesture for their grazing friend.
Ax was dead. They had known that the moment that they had seen him after the Quickening. The effort of taking Visser Three's head had been too much for him, and he had fallen unconscious. If he had been awake, he might have been able to force himself to morph, but he had instead drowned in his own fluids.
Morgan had taken it as hard as the others. Ax had been the only one to keep faith in her, and she felt responsible for is death.
Silence reined, as the stared at the ground, thinking about what had happened.
Shaking it off, Rachel said softly, "Is there any way we could tell his parents? They deserve to know."
"I don't know… The Chee, maybe?" asked Jake, half-heartedly.
Cassie was leaning against Jake, sobbing quietly. Marco, for once, had nothing to say. In fact, they couldn't say anything. Silence was all that seemed right.
They continued to watch, even though their minds were far from there, Jake thinking that if he had planned things a little better, if he had made different choices, things would be different. Tobias thought about loosing his best friend, and only family. They all wished it had been some kind of dream.
One by one, they left. Cassie and Jake were about to leave, finally, and Cassie put her hand on Morgan's shoulder.
"Are you going to be okay?" she asked compassionately.
Morgan just shook her head, and stared back down at the uncaring, cold dirt.
Jake and Cassie shared a look, and walked back to the barn.
Morgan's expression revealed a regret that the others hadn't understood, and that she hadn't told her friends about. She still wasn't sure, and she wasn't going to tell the others about. Hope could cut worse than any knife.
"Come on, Ax," she said in a voice that rasped from tears. "Don't let me down."
Again, lightening split the sky.