CHAPTER TEN
"Hey!" a voice shouted. "Hey, you kids! Get outta here! This is my place!"
"Oh, brother..." Tom turned. Smirking, he said, "Okay, Aliana. Do your thing."
((What thing?))
"You should still have his DNA, right?"
((I... I suppose so.))
"Morph him."
I nodded and began the transformation. When it was done, the old man simply smiled, taking a look at his bottle.
"I need to lay off the juice for awhile." Again, he turned and hobbled towards the crumbled wall.
Tom chuckled to himself. "All right. So what's your plan? Why did we need to come back here?"
"Well... Everything we did here was wrong. We only made things worse."
"Yeah, so?"
"Except for one thing," I added. "You retrieved Elfangor's escafil device. You prevented it from falling into Yeerk hands."
Tom's eyes lit up. "Wait.. So we were meant to do all this?"
I nodded. "Yes. Without us, the Yeerks will have the morphing power too soon, before your father learns to fight..."
"But I don't understand. I already have the cube. Right here." He patted his chest.
I smiled. "Tom... Don't you see? That is only the cube from one version of the past. We must retrieve it in this one for it to remain absolute. Elfangor is yet to land in this reality. And the Yeerks are yet to... to..."
Tom's face grew serious. "Yeah. Yeah, I know... I remember... I'll always remember."
"So you understand?"
"Yeah... I know what we have to do. We have to get that cube again and take it back with us."
I touched his shoulder. "Exactly... Except for one minor detail..."
He sighed. "What is it now? This time travel thing is making my head hurt..."
I took this opportunity to use another human expression. The smirk.
"I do not know why, but... We are not meant to return the cube to our time. It must be left here..."
"Left here? Why? So someone can find it one day?"
"Perhaps..."
"This is bogus!" he exploded. "This Ellimist dude needs to stop playing games with our heads... I want to know what's going on."
"We will. As soon as we return home."
I demorphed and looked into his eyes.
"All right, Aliana." He said, smiling. "Even after all we've been through... I'll trust you."