Chapter 26
Fi

Her words stung in my hearts.
The bitterness in her voice was unmistakable, but I also heard something else in her words. Sorrow. Sadness. The pain of being let down.
The Megami seemed to be a torn race. I could perceive it in her eyes. She spoke the truth.
And so, I felt shame. Shame that 'the mighty Andalites' had yet again left a promise unfufilled. Like what happened to the Hork-Bajr. Like what was happening with the humans. And now this.
I looked at Aximili with my main eyes. He looked at me, and looked away.
Jake-san was silent for a few moments. Then very quietly he said, We are not here to observe this war. We are not here to watch you die. We're here to keep you from dying. This is not a military operation. There's no politics involved here. This is from us to you, Battle Senshi and Animorph to the Megami race. Accept our assistance, or we'll do it anyway. You're choice.
The Megami leader stared at him for a long, hard time.
At last, after an eternity, she said, "Get this thing off of me, and follow us."

The others demorphed. The reunion was a happy one. Kai threw her arms around Amara-san as soon as she became human.
"I thought something had gone bad," Kai said tearfully. "I thought you were dead!"
"Takes more than that to kill us," Amara said, grinning.
We all formed a circle, arms on shoulders, bowed our heads, and listened Amara talking softly.
The group was together again.
"What do we do now?" Shinji whispered.
Amara shook her head. "We go with them, naturally." She poked her head up and peeked over at the Animorphs. They were hugging, laughing, as the Megami looked on.
"And we hurry. I don't think these guys really want to agree with us. She gave in because you were sitting her," She said, laughing at Kai.
And so, the Animorphs and the Battle Senshi followed the Megami along the forest floor. The Megami looked annoyed, and frustrated, as if they knew they could move much faster without the extra weight that was us.
Of course, I was quite confident that I could beat a Megami in a sprint. But they were obviously tree-going folk, and the ground dampened their mood.
"Where are you taking us?" Amara asked them.
Not looking at her, the leader trudged on. "I am in no position to make a decision about what to do with you. So I'm taking you to my superior." Then, muttering, she added, "Imagine what he'll say when he hears I was beaten by a group of younglings and two Andalites."
I saw Aximili's tail twitch slightly. Perhaps she's is not aware that us mighty Andalites can be quite formidable opponents, I told him privately with a small smile.
Perhaps by the time this thing is over I will introduce her to my tail, He grumped.
"And where exactly is this superior of yours?" Prince Jake demanded.
She tossed him a look of disdain and said, "Quiet. You're lucky you're not in shackles."
He opened his mouth to say something but Kai put her hand on his shoulder.
"What's your name?" Kai asked the woman.
She hesitated. "Hanukt."
"That's a lovely name," Kai said remarked wistfully.
Marco and Nichirasu stared at her with the expression that I think is known as the 'you belong in the funny farm' look.
Hanukt looked at her reproachfully. "And what is your name, youngling from another world?"
"Kai. Nice to meet you."
Rachel made a snorting sound. Cassie punched her shoulder lightly.

Finally, the trees ended right up against an enormous stone wall, covered in wet green vines and flowers. So tall, it seemed to touch the heavens. The wall extended forever in either direction, impossibly large, and if I looked up with my stalk eyes, I could barely make out the thin line of sky between the wall and the trees.
A few drops of water landed on my face.
"Well, this is nice." Marco said. "Now what?"
The Hanukt and her Megami looked at him as if he were the stupidest creature ever created, walked right up the wall and began to push.
We stared in awe as the stone gave way, proving itself to actually be a door. The humans shielded their eyes from a blinding light, now spilling over us from beyond the wall. After out eyes adjusted, the Megami gestured to the amazing city that lay before us.
"Well?" Hanukt said expectantly.
"…Whoa…" Tobias said.
"We didn't come here to look at it, Tobias, move your butt!" Rachel shoved him forward through the door and we all followed close behind.
A vast city of stone! Megami everywhere, milling about in large groups, were all around us. The buildings were huge and unbelievably complicated in design.
I couldn't help but stop and stare at the beautiful mosaics, the sparkling water fountains, the elaborate architecture-even as the Megami shoved and pulled me along towards some vague destination.
It was so bright here, in contrast to the gloomy dark of the forest. Everything was brightly coloured, painted so ridiculously that it almost hurt to look at it.
"Where…Where are we?" Amara asked Hanukt.
"The City of Dreams," She said impatiently, grabbing her arm and dragging her forward. "The only real city on this planet. We are forest people, not city dwellers. This is the political capitol of the world. Where the emperor lives."
"And we're going to meet this emperor?" Jake asked.
"He's the only person who I can think of to give you to."
We arrived at the base of temple. The giant pillars the held up the roof seemed very far away, since it sat on a hill of steps. Many steps. A lot of steps.
The humans stared upward, open mouthed.
"And we're supposed to climb this thing?" Marco asked.
Hanukt blinked. "Yes." Then she and her scouts ran up the stairs, zipping up as if they did it everyday. Which I suppose they did.
"I knew there was a downside to this place," Nichirasu grumbled. "Actual physical effort."


Chapter 27
Marco


After reaching the top of that monster staircase, I resolved that I definitely needed to start working out.
Anyway, we dragged our sorry butts after the lunatic warriors of the lovely named Hanukt down a loooong old hallway. Then we went through a huge doorway, and into the throne room of the Emperor.
I saw the Megami instantly stand up straighter. The walked to the emperors throne and knelt. Hanukt stood.
"This is so weird," Cassie whispered. "They look like us, they act like us, well, a little, and their culture is so much the same as ours. How can that be?"
The emperor was a youngish man, who wore green robes and a lot of bracelets. He held a septer that double as a spear.
Hanukt spoke quietly to the emperor. Incoming looks. So not good.
"Ah. So," The Emperor said, crossing his legs. "You have come to play hero and save us?"
Amara and Jake looked at each other. Jake made a 'go right ahead' gesture with his hand.
"You might say that, sir." She said flatly.
The Emperor twitched slightly. "And where, pray, do you hail from, strangers?"
"Earth, sir."
"Ah. Well, that should be quite obvious. And you bring your Andalite friends to…what? Intimidate us? Anger us?"
"Wait, wait, wait. Back up. You know of Earth?" Cassie asked, surprised.
He looked at her. "That *would* make sense, it being our home planet and all."
That threw us all off for a second there, I guess. I of course, was forced to break the silence with an intelligent and thought out response. "Say what??"
The Emperor laughed and big, loud, swollen headed laugh. "You must be joking. A blind man could tell we were the same species."
"But…ah…" Amara started. She looked at Jake pleadingly.
"Who…who are you people??" Jake asked, a huge help as always. "Humans have never left Earth to go live on other…planets…have they? We?"
"What kind of history to do they teach Earth children in school these days?" He asked hotly. "Don't you know of the lost city of Atlantis?"
Another pause.
"Say WHAT???"
Me, of course.
"Oooooh, no." Lani stepped backwards, throwing her hands above her head. "This is waaaay beyond…beyond…normal. This is just plain weird, and I will not have any part of it. At-freaking-lantians?? Nope, not me, no way. Kai, pinch me."
Kai did.
"Ow!"
"Okay, okay." Jake said, rubbing his temples again. "I'll accept that. I can see where this goes. You…Atlantians…Megami…whatever. Your continent is sinking, you all fly away in your space ship and set up shop on a new planet. Okay. Sure."
"Well, what did you expect us to do?" The emperor asked reasonably.
Another pause.
"Why didn't you just like…move to Egypt or something?" Nichirasu cried.
"Earth was already becoming crowded. Our secluded island was the only way to keep us separate from the other…slightly less advanced humans. We prefer to remain that way."
"Oh, you guys are humans alright." Rachel commented, rolling her eyes.
"Fine. Okay. We are but poor, dumb, earth people. But we've come to help you so why can't you let us?" Amara demanded.
The Emperor snorted. "What help would you be?"
Hanukt whispered something to him.
The Emperor stiffened. "What?"
"Shape shifters, sir." She repeated a little louder.
Jake had a small smile. "Guys, why don't we demonstrate?"
Without saying another word, we all went battle morph. The look on the Emperors face as we twisted, our bones crunching, changing into veerry dangerous animals.
There we sat, one mean gang of mother nature.
The emperors eyes were like golf balls.
"Oh."