::walks into cheering crowd:: (because I'm delusional, you understand.)
Hello everyone! Yes, I know you've all been waiting for me. I warned you about my lateness in the last chapter. This chapter is the longest so far, so that should hopefully compensate.
"Oh," Marco said in response to Elfangor's explanation.
Yes.
"Hey, how did you find us?"
We were tracking for Andalite DNA, and we found Aximili's. We needed him to respond to us to trace his exact location. I believe he didn't respond directly, but we could pick up some of his thought speech. If you don't mind telling me, where is he or she?
"Who?"
The remaining human morpher.
"He's elsewhere."
Ah, I see. Elfangor looked suspiciously at Marco.
Elfangor, the other morpher is outside keeping a watch. Marco just didn't know how to say this specifically. I'm Jake, the unofficial leader of the human resistance. We are grateful that the Andalites have finally come. We call ourselves the Animorphs, Jake introduced. You know, animal morphers… And poof, the sophisticated feel of leadership deflated.
Animorphs. Well, you all need to come aboard the Dome Ship so the commander can talk to you and a report of the situation on Earth can be sent to the Homeworld. The Animorph who is outside needs to come as well.
Oh. Okay… do we demorph?
Yes please, Elfangor shuffled. Do you… happen to know if my hirac delest reached the Homeworld?
"Your what?"
No, Elfangor. We have encountered a number of Andalites since I joined the Animorphs, and they did not know of any morph capable humans.
Are those Andalites of high rank?
Ax knew Elfangor hoped that the Andalites the Animorphs encountered didn't know simply because the government had kept it from the public.
Relatively so. There was an apex intelligence officer…
Oh… well, I have to tell them then. Please let me do all the talking, then, with rare cynicism, he added Should be interesting, eh?
* * *
Marco, Jake, Rachel, Cassie and Tobias were all in human form, and they expected the Andalite officers to stare at Elfangor in a shocked and furious manner, before screaming him into shame about betraying the Andalites, repeating Seerow's mistake, and so forth.
They didn't.
Diwwalt sighed heavily and closed his main eyes. Aselton threw down the device he was holding and stared up at the artificial sky. Fynalin remained unmoving and expressionless.
Elfangor stood neutrally, his stalk eyes scanning each of them. Finally he said Well, I thought you had the right to know. What's done is done, I hope they'll be of some help. I told you three first because you are of the highest rank, and because I thought you'd understand. Eventually I want to everyone to –
Look, we all know what has to be done, Diwwalt cut in. So let's drop the matter. Jake, please tell us about your experiences with the Yeerks.
Diwwalt, our people needs to know –
And that would do a lot of good, wouldn't it? Clear your conscience elsewhere. Jake, proceed. Elfangor was startled and stung by Diwwalt's reaction.
"Um…" Jake cleared his throat and started again. "Our group of six may be small, but we've done a lot of damage to the Yeerks, hoping that the militarily experienced and technologically advanced Andalites will come to our aid soon. I see that you have finally come, and I want to thank you. Over the past two years we Animorphs have been through thick and thin together, our lives have been changed dramatically. And given the choice, I would have said, No, I don't want to get involved in this war. But I am, and I am glad that someone is fighting for Earth, whether it be us or someone else. So I thank Elfangor for giving humans a chance, I thank you, Elfangor, for giving us hope." Elfangor smiled sheepishly. "I believe your group and the human resistance can work cooperatively together and reach our common goal." Jake stuck out his hand to Diwwalt.
Jake's hand was ignored, and he let it fall to his side. Diwwalt paced across the quarters. Pace, pace, pace, pace, turn. Pace, pace, pace, pace, turn. He felt mixed emotions. Betrayed, confused, angry, lost.
Yes, we have no choice but to cooperate with you.
"No, you don't. We started off as five clueless human kids plus an alien kid, now we're reluctant soldiers. But we're determined to save Earth, and you Andalites have always led us to believe that you'd be there to help us."
Yes, yes. I haven't denied that now, have I? Diwwalt sounded impatient. Now you said cooperate. So tell me about your experiences so I can make an estimate as to what to expect from you. Diwwalt's attitude seemed to have gone from bad to intolerable. And still, he paced restlessly across the quarters.
"You can expect the best effort from me and my team, you will trust what we have to contribute, especially when it comes to information. And we will now discuss civilly. So, let's first talk about you have in mind."
Aristh Aximili, has Jake always been this… insolent?
Prince Jake has done well for the human race.
Elfangor looked at Ax in surprise at the title Ax had given Jake. Fynalin and Aselton's seemed indifferent. Diwwalt's tail twitched and he glared at Ax.
Prince Jake? Have these people brainwashed you? What's wrong with you! Are you in a sexual relationship with Jake as well? Is calling him Prince in exchange for a sexual favour, what with you being lonely and senseless and him needing some self assurance. What is your problem! What is all of your problems! I… I don't know what to say. You… get out! GET OUT! Diwwalt turned and stormed out himself.
Aselton seemed embarrassed by Diwwalt's outburst. Fynalin remained expressionless. The Animorphs looked at each other.
"Well," Cassie said. "Didn't think Andalites would sink to sexual insults. No offense to anyone."
"Actually – " Marco wanted to clear the matter for the odd Andalite officer. And Ax was in enough trouble without all this confusion. "I think I accidentally made him think that Ax and I were having an affair."
"And the situation gets better and better," muttered Tobias.
"We-ell. Oookay, let me consider the way to bring myself the least embarrassment. You see, when Diwwalt visited Ax and I at the scoop I thought he was – well he surprised me. Ax was… not wearing anything. Don't look at me like that, I did not influence him to do so, yes surprising. He was hot, that was all. So… I wanted to call you guys before I did anything, so to do that I had to make an excuse to get away from Diwwalt, see, perfectly logical so far. I… I said that we were making love…" Marco giggled nervously.
Jake scowled at Marco severely. He was not amused. Ax stared at Marco in utter shock, for he had had only just realised the meaning of Marco's excuse to Diwwalt.
"Aw Big Jake, you gotta understand. The Andalite won't listen to any other excuses – he won't let us go! He doesn't think the natural, biological need to pee is urgent enough. He said what he needed to talk to us about was way more damn urgent."
"And I suppose your final excuse was urgent enough?"
"Well, I slammed the opening of the scoop."
"Why didn't you do that earlier?"
"Uhh…" Marco couldn't believe the idea had never occurred to him.
Jake believed Marco was trying to humour the Andalite. He threw up his arms in exasperation. Aselton and Fynalin, forgotten by the Animorphs, turned and left the under-educated, under-trained creatures. Cassie frowned at the ground, Rachel was shaking her head in disgust at Marco.
Elfangor morphed human as he walked over to Tobias. "I have not yet said hi to you, Tobias." As if on cue, the Animorphs walked away at once and left them alone. Elfangor didn't care to wonder why.
Elfangor looked at Tobias closely for the first time and saw the shadow of Loren. The family resemblance was painful to see. The slightest traits that can only be found by those who knew what to look for – the tilt of the chin, the way the lips curved into a small smile, the direction his eyes looked when he was nervous… Elfangor put his arms around Tobias gently, drew him close, and kissed his forehead.
The action surprised Elfangor, and he was relieved to find that Tobias wasn't startled. "Tobias… I have something to confess to you too. You see, I spent some years on Earth as a human – "
"I know," Tobias said softly.
A surge of joy raced through Elfangor, and he resisted to urge to throw his arms around his son. "Do you! How's Loren… your mother?"
"Well… she's fine," Tobias replied nervously.
Elfangor smiled. "And your father?" Hope he's a good man. What did you do together? Did that hair colour come from him? Did he prefer the television or the newspaper? Does he shake his head and criticize politicians? Did he read bed time stories to you? Did he…
"Actually…"
"Mmm?"
"I… I need to morph to hawk. I mean demorph. I'm a morph capable nothlit hawk now."
"Oh." The single syllable bounced hollowly into the space between them and diffused into the thin air. A weight of sadness fell upon him. In his disappointment he had failed to notice the oddity of a morph capable nothlit. How many tiresome nights after a battle had he returned to his scoop with only his persistent thoughts for company, and eventually fell asleep only with the image of a carefree human boy hanging onto his semi-consciousness?
A bird.
He'd missed out on seeing him learn audible speech. He'd missed out on seeing him learn to walk to two shaky legs. Diaper buying, toilet training, bathing, school fees, parent meetings, annoying principals who knew what's best for everyone's kids, walks to the park, friend problems, high school, puberty, girl problems…
No need to freak out, he told himself, you can both morph human and do things together, it doesn't make a difference. It's not as if you plan to settle down on Earth and claim Tobias as your child. Tobias is still Tobias, the only difference is physical.
A bird.
Yes, he admit it now, he had been excited to see the son he never met, and maybe see Loren. Now he can't even pretend to temporarily be the human father who conceived this human child. How can he visualize the two of them in a normal father-son relationship if he could only see Tobias as a bird? He wanted time to go back. He hadn't even known this human child, and now he's a bird. Didn't he deserve to find out what shoe size Tobias wore, whether he brushed his teeth once or twice a day?
He had vaguely imagined them conversing, catching up, laughing together for so long. It wasn't right to come this close and have it yanked out of reach. Coming to Earth was supposed to materialize that fantasy.
Not that Elfangor was any more human than a bird nothlit. He sighed and demorphed. Tobias must have finished demorphing and left. Elfangor's first impulse was to run and find him. He reminded himself that he was here on a mission, not to get caught up in the past. He would have to leave Tobias in a few months at the most anyway.
So he straightened his shoulders and went to find out what the other Andalites were up to.
And that's all for now. I just can't write 'Everything's-Perfect-Sap'. I can't. I can't. Don't spear me to death. Please.
A lot of people seem to want Elfangor/Loren romance. C'mon, do you really want your favourite Andalite to not get over someone for so long, even though he believed that Loren won't remember him, even though he committed himself to his duty billions of light years away? But, hmmm… you can always keep begging.
For those of you who said Elfangor's explanation was not lame, thank you so much! I wuv ya! I'll let you in on a secret: there was a point in time when I had no idea how to explain Elfangor and got very desperate… I thought of Visser Three's happiness after he ate Elfangor, you see, and … um…
Muse: You're pathetic.
…um, he started eating Hork-Bajir and Taxxon controllers at random. And he… vomited, and out came Elfangor, whose strong will helped him morph despite him stating perfectly clearly that he was too weak to morph.
Muse: *covers eyes* You can tell I was absent during that level of creativity.
Another explanation was that some Andalite just happened to be near Elfangor and just happened to be able to save him.
A phenomenon I discovered: the chapters so far have alternated between angst and comedy. Scary… since I didn't intend it to be that way, there's a conspiracy! *looks about in a paranoid manner* I'll break that pattern next chapter.
To my faithful reviewers…
Angel of Music – I don't have the AC with me. Heh… well I'm more likely to write dark depressing stuff than sap. But maybe she'll be there some time.
Nova Mist - *points up concerning the Loren issue* But don't run away from my fic! Elfangor wasn't likely to be worried because he thought she was fine with another husband. I say 'was' because after this encounter with Tobias, who knows?
Andre – I love my Andalites too much. Bu-ut most of the Andalites are going to be minor characters.
Phoenix-sol – I'll try to put more action in. And how could you let anime interfere with your mainstream work?! *glare*
Jinako-chan – Thank you for your review! *hands you BestReview Award* I'd like to inform you that you do have a sick obsession with M/A, but don't worry, it's a good thing. Poor Elayura, you keep calling her Pre-teen, it's all my fault. :-P As for the plot, I had ideas, but I need to work on compressing them into the chapters and actually have them making sense. And somehow keep this fic off the Comedy genre if it's irrelevant. But it's so tempting to torture Marco and the Andalites!
Uhh this Author's Note is so long. *hangs head*
REVIEW!! Now! Go to that little square button and click it. Pound a few random keys into the box that comes up, and click the long button that says submit. What do you think of the story itself? You're invited to comment on anything! And negative reviews are welcometoo, alright?