"Dahjo799 in Onstage1 asks: Can you tell us more about The One at the end of 54? Is it the voice in 41?
K_A_Applegate_Live says: You know what? I'm counting on all the Fan Fiction writers out there to figure that out. I wrote the cliffhanger ending because I wanted to show that Jake could only really find himself again when he stumbled back into a war.
K_A_Applegate_Live says: I wanted to show that one war often leads seamlessly into the next. But a part of me was thinking, 'here's for the fan fiction writers.'"
Here's for the fan fiction writers. That made me so happy. Thanx, KAA!! I know a lot of ppl didn't like that answer. Too bad. I did. And I'll have my regular AN at the bottom. :-D
I was half-way between awake and asleep. I was delirious, past any kind of sanity or logic. I was just calling out, calling Help! Help me! Someone! I don't want to die...>. I didn't realize the danger. I just wanted to be saved. Just wanted someone to sit beside me and help me through it, telling me to demorph NOW.
Then I heard an angel. It must have been, nothing else could seem as wonderful then. A voice in my head. <Cassie. Don't say anything.> It sounded familiar. A voice from a past life. <Don't demorph. I have you.> I felt wind rush past. Then I was dropping, falling, plummeting towards the bottom of bottomless.
I heard it again. <Demorph when you hit! No one can see you but me. You're safe.> Safe? From what? Did I want them to see me? I vaguely felt landing softly on the hard ground. The changes began. Growing larger, until I was a 4 foot tall fly. Wings, melding grotesquely into arms, hands growing out of the ends. Eyes, going from zillions of little TV screens to good old human eyes. I was safe.
But I wasn't. Who had carried me? I looked around. No one. I looked up and spotted a normal-looking red-tailed hawk. Only he wasn't normal. "Tobias." It wasn't a question.
<What are you doing here, Cassie?> He sounded so...fatherly. No, it was more like a stern, concerned friend or older brother. I didn't answer, whatever he sounded like. I was afraid. Afraid that he'd be mad at me, afraid I wouldn't be able, afraid of Jake, for that matter. Tobias would tell him. And, even though he didn't show, even in my delirious state, I knew that he cared too much for me to let me come on some suicidal, illegal, and downright dangerous mission.
I morphed back, this time to flea. Once I was finished (no need to go through the disgusting process again), I spoke to him. <I am going on this mission. I don't care what you say, who you tell, I will find a way.> I felt horrible, as if I was threatening him. I suppose I was, but, as so many other things I already regretted from this trip, it was necessary.
<Cassie, you can't go. We all agreed. We probably won't come back from this one. You need to stay. You're doing what you need to, what you should be doing. We can't just leave, and never let the world see any of the infamous Animorphs ever again.>
<Why not? What good do we do the rest of the world here? They can carry on without me. There's plenty of people working there. Ronnie's very capable of taking my job.> I had known this would happen. I shouldn't have even tried. It was useless. Then I got an idea. <Tobias, you owe me a favor.>
I could sense his puzzlement, even through his ever-expressionless hawk face. <What do I owe you a favor for?>
I had to be careful with my wording, because, in actuality, I would say we were pretty even. He had saved my life a few minutes ago. <Hey, I've been the only person to talk to you for the past 2 years! Doesn't that count for something?> I prayed silently that this would work, or all hope would be lost.
Those fierce hawk eyes bore into me. <You also helped Jake find me.>
I knew that would come up. <But aren't you glad I did?> I had a feeling that this was what Tobias needed, and, now that it had happened, he knew it.
<Cassie, you know how to work someone. Fine. I'll help you. But if Jake finds out, he'd better be pissed at you, not me.> I could have cried for joy. Somehow, going on this had become my reason for living in the past few days. Had that chance been ruined, I may not have been able to live with it. I was safe, for now at least.
Had I said safe? This was too easy. I was a flea on Tobias' back, with only one or two problems the entire time? I don't think so. Something was going on. I had a feeling I should't trust him as much as I was, but what choice did I have? Anything else was going to get me killed or kicked out for sure, where as in the position I was, that was just a possibility. Still, I couldn't get rid of that tingly feeling running through my...uh...exoskeleton.
I pushed all the unpleasant thoughts out of my head and concentrated on being able to hear and understand the conversation going on as we got ready to board the Yeerk ship.
"It seems tough enough," Marco remarked.
"It is very fast and packs a very powerful weapons array, for its size. It carries no Bug fighters but does carry two small shuttlecraft. The Yeerks intended these cruiser-class ships to keep track of what they imagined would be a far-flung empire. As well as for escort duty," It was, of course, an Andalite who knew all this. Actually, a used-to-be Andalite, known as Mendarash, now a human nothlit. He had given up his body for this mission. Even being in the war for three years, it never ceased to amaze me, the sacrifices people made. Of course, nobody could ever top the sacrifice Rachel had made.
I could see the giddy child-like happiness and wonderment on Jake's face, even with the reduced flea senses. "Well, it's ours now. Okay, Menderash. Let's go aboard."
Menderash knew to follow his captain's orders, but seemed a bit hesitant. Jake noticed. "What?"
He seemed a bit uncomfortable. "It's nothing, Captain. Just a custom. An Andalite custom. We always name a ship before the first crewman boards - it's an old notion, a superstition, really. The thinking is that the ship must know who it is before the crew can know it." He may have been in a human body, but he was definitely Andalite at heart.
"Fair enough, Menderash," Jake seemed a bit more at ease now. "Our own superstition is that a ship is never an 'it', it's always a 'she'. Even if the ship is named after a male, it's a 'she'."
There was a silence, then, "So what do we call her?" Marco, the first to break the quiet.
Suprisingly, it was Tobias who answered. <She's beautiful. She's beautiful and dangerous and exciting.> I knew immediately what he meant.
Marco laughed. "She would love it. A scary, deadly, cool-looking Yeerk ship on a doomed, suicidal, crazy mission that no one can ever know about? She would love it."
So I, hidden amongst them, boarded The Rachel.
AN: Another short part. But not as short as the last one...I'm hoping I'll be able to get parts up quicker, because I'm going to try and work on this at least a little bit a day. And because I have another great idea and I don't want to work on two fics at a time...but by no means will I rush this. Oh yeah!
Thanx to SouthernBelle14, Forlay, Aliimo, Momo Claus, THE ANimorphamanaic, Hope, RayMai, and Ax for reviewing part one. Thanx to Nutmeg, Hope, and OMEGA for reviewing part 2!
Ok, one more thing. I know! You just can't get rid of me. Thanx to Hope for reading this for me and making suggestions!