Chapter 8-Cassie
"Come on, Cass! Not much further!" a male voice called out. "It's a beautiful scene from up here!"
I was out hiking in Yellowstone National Park. Although I was only twenty, I worked as the President's Special Assistant for Resident Aliens.
Hiking was something I had taken up a while back. While I easily could have morphed to a bird and flown up here, what would be the point? This way, I got my exercise. It was also much harder.
"Yes, it is beautiful," I said to Ronnie Chambers, as I reached the top of the hill. I opened my canteen and gulped down some water. Sweat was pouring down my face, but I didn't care.
I took in the scenery. It was a gorgeous day. The sun was shining brightly, and there were no clouds in sight. A perfect day.
The hill we were on was higher than everything else around. Down to my left, I saw a herd of deer grazing. Off to the right, I saw Hork-Bajir swinging from tree to tree. Straight ahead was a waterfall.
What a beautiful place.
It was a good thing we had won the war against the Yeerks. If they had won, God knows what they might have done to the natural beauty of Earth.
We knew the Yeerks, after conquering a planet, had stripped it of everything unnecessary. Trees, animal life, anything in the way, was removed. Exterminated. In place of them would be giant Yeerk pools. Manmade holes in the ground filled with foul water.
No longer did we have to worry about that desolate future. My friends and I had stopped the Yeerk threat. Earth would remain the same, as it always had been.
"Tired?" Ronnie asked playfully. He was used to hiking, so he wasn't as worn out as I was.
"Of course not," I replied. I pulled out some binoculars, and looked around at everything.
Ronnie came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. "It's all because of you, sweetie. You saved this place, and everything else on Earth," he whispered into my ear.
"Oh, be quiet," I retorted. He poured compliments on me often, making it sound as though I had saved the world all by myself.
Ronnie worked for the governor of California. He was the liaison to the Hork-Bajir colony.
He was also my fiancé.
Yeah, he was six years older than me. But I didn't mind. He could have been any age, and I wouldn't notice the difference.
I'm glad Jake wasn't around when we got engaged. We were already on awkward terms. During the war, we liked each other. But somewhere along the line, we were torn apart. I don't know why. Jake had suddenly become this darker person, a person I had never known before.
Sometimes I wondered what might have happened with me and Jake. It intrigued me, the road never taken. But it was the past. I couldn't change what had already happened. And frankly, I didn't mind all that much.
Ronnie had been a wonderfully stabilizing presence. He helped me become the average, normal person I wanted to be. I would always be Cassie the Animorph, one of the six that had saved the planet. Life went on, though. The attention was not something I enjoyed. Marco was better suited for that. I enjoyed the anonymity, the feeling of being normal.
Normal. Ever since we met the dying Andalite in the construction site, normalcy evaded us. Our lives had become weird, crazy, you name it. Anything but normal. But after the war, we had to go back to our lives, and be as normal as possible.
I was normal. I was happy. I was getting married.
And yet, I felt lonely. Even though I had many friends in the government, there was always that creeping feeling of loneliness. It was unsettling.
A long time ago, Jake had come to me while I was hiking with Ronnie. We had only been dating back then. Jake told me about Ax, and about how he was going to rescue him.
I didn't stop him. When the war ended, Jake became a completely different person. I realized that he couldn't live without the war.
Long ago, we had worried about what Rachel would do when the war ended. She thrived on the violence, the bloodletting, the sounds of battle. But she had died. No one would find out.
I knew Jake needed to go. He knew it as well. It was a way for him to drag himself out of his personal problems. And when he left, I was sure, beyond any doubt, that Jake would not be coming back.
As I scanned the horizon, I tried to remember what the Animorphs looked like. Tobias was easy to remember, a powerful gaze forever painted on his hawk face.
I jerked the binoculars away from my face. None of the other's faces were coming to my mind.
How could I forget them? I had fought alongside them for three years, and I couldn't remember what they looked like!
"Something the matter, Cass?" Ronnie asked. I didn't answer.
Rachel…how could I forget Rachel? My best friend, even her face I did not recall.
Not for the first time, I wondered whether it was right of me to be as happy as I was. I felt guilty sometimes. Jake and Tobias, they weren't happy. They wished they could go back to the war and change some of the things they had done.
"Nothing's wrong," I told Ronnie. I'd thought about this many times before. What had happened, happened, and I couldn't change it.
I put my binoculars up and looked at the Hork-Bajir. Two of them were playfully swinging from tree to tree-
I pulled the binoculars away from my eyes. The Hork-Bajir were frozen in midair. A bird was flying in the air, but it wasn't moving. It was like someone had paused a movie.
Everything had stopped. I groaned. The Ellimist had done this, for some reason. Why would he show up? Since the end of the war, none of us had heard from him.
"Hello, Cassie."
I spun around. Standing a few feet away was the Ellimist. He looked…different. He was an odd-looking human. He looked almost like Ax when he was in human morph.
Fear started creeping up my spine. I had never seen this disguise before. Most of the time, he appeared as a simple old man. Something bad had happened.
"In case you are wondering, Cassie, this appearance is a combination of the five Animorphs," the Ellimist said. "I have come here today to bring you news of Jake, Marco, Tobias, and the Andalite, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill."
"Huh?" I had forgotten completely about Jake and the others. "What happened to them? Are they okay?" I demanded
"Jake, Marco, and Tobias came upon the Blade ship. Aximili had been assimilated into an evil creature known as 'The One'. That creature was on board the Blade ship. Your friends drove their ship into the Blade ship, destroying both ships in the collision."
My throat was dry. It couldn't have been. No.
Tears started welling up in my eyes as the Ellimist continued.
"Jake, Marco, and Tobias all died in space. Aximili's soul was freed, but he died as well," the Ellimist finished. "Jake asked me to come and tell you this."
Tears were streaming down my face. It was such a sad moment, and at that instant, I felt more alone than I had ever been.
Jake, our fearless leader, who led us into countless battles.
Marco, who cracked jokes to keep our spirits up.
Tobias, trapped in his hawk body, never quite the same person.
Ax, our resident alien.
Gone.
All gone.
I looked up at the Ellimist. Slowly, he melded from the combination of the five Animorphs into me. I was staring at a copy of myself.
"Only you remain, Cassie," the Ellimist said. "Carry on the memory of the Animorphs. Remember them. Honor them. Save them."
I barely heard anything he said. It was an overwhelming feeling of sadness. Never had so many people close to me died.
"Hey Cass, what's wrong?" Ronnie asked. I looked up. The Ellimist was gone. Time had resumed.
"Jake, Marco, Tobias, Ax…they're all dead. Gone," I said through my tears.
"I'm really sorry, Cass…I really am," Ronnie said somberly. He sat next to me and put his arm around me. "That means that-"
I looked at him. "Yes, Ronnie. I am the last of the Animorphs."