"I am but a gamer."
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Don't sue me.
A/N: This is the second last chapter, and it's probably one of my favorites. The Ellimist's character is very mysterious, so his feeling are guarded a lot. Any help would be appreciated. The next is Jake's, which will be up in a few days.
To understand some of the beginning, you will need to have read 'The Ellimist Chronicles' (which I don't own, by the way) which isn't a fic of mine, but another extension of the K.A. Applegate series.
***
I have played these games for many years. Perhaps too many.
I, as a Ketran, was born into a world where 'games' were just that: games. They were only used for entertainment, a plaything for youths. But then fate stuck, disaster came, and our own technology turned itself against us. Ketrans dies on that day because of the very games we played. And I died too.
I was reborn to be a player in the same games that had killed me. To accompany a creature known as Father, in his pursuit of victory. Hundreds of losses. The humiliation, the disgust, the absence of pride. But later, as I was to discover, games are not to win or lose. Games are to experience, to learn, to become.
I am an Ellimist now. The Ellimist. An all-powerful to some, but still the same simple competitor to others. Still the gamer. Still the player. But different in a way that it is difficult to comprehend. Much different.
I used to play games, to win, to lose, to discover an outcome. I still do exactly that, except now, it has changed. The games hold more risks, there is more danger, and the stakes are higher.
I m playing with lives.
So many millennia, I have saved races, destroyed species, created worlds. All in an agreed war. A war with rules. My opposition: Crayak. A chess game, we have called it. Our board: the Universe. Our pieces: it's inhabitants.
So I became player once more. And I find, inside of myself, shame at how I can let these games continue. To the universe, I was God – and Crayak was the Devil. Could they say I was in league with my enemy, because I chose to let these games continue? While there were worlds I could save? Planets I could help? But these feelings I buried deep, and I fought in this game. A game of so many species. A game of huge, so elaborate, even I – as a superior to Crayak – could not have foretold its outcome.
The game I speak of is Earth. A world so different, so unique, so special compared to those found anywhere else in the galaxy. A world of beauty, complexity and meaning.
I had vowed not to let Crayak take it.
So I have kept my word. I have saved Earth. But it is just Earth. But, like Father, I had been so wrapped up in my quest for triumph, that I had forgotten what was most important. Once ago, I had told five human children and an Andalite aristh that Earth was beautiful, that I had wished to save it. I had forgotten the humans. What these humans have shown me. In so many worlds, of those arrogant, tyrant and unimportant, humans have proved themselves to me.
And these six youths have proved themselves to the galaxy.
A fortunate accident, I had called them once. And it was the very same that saved so many species, so many worlds, so many lives.
But so many lives were also lost. Because I had chosen to stay on the borderlines, to watch my chess-game unfold itself. To wait and see. So many times had I told the 'Animorphs' that I did not interfere. I did. I was player. The player always interferes. I was like Crayak, in essence, the king. We could not do much, because of the rules, but we were the most important. We were why the game was being played.
Over so many long years, I have seen creatures through the cycle that is life. I have become used to it. The death. The life. Perhaps I am an immortal. And these hundreds of years do not mean much time to me. Just another game. But strangely though, these hundreds of years have changed me in so many ways. I have learned from these Humans much. The pieces have taught the player.
And so the game ended. Crayak and I, our ultimate battle through Yeerks and Hork Bajir. Yeerks and Andalites. Yeerks and Taxxons. Yeerks and Yeerks. Yeerks and Humans. The game ended. The chessboard showdown. The fight. The rules. The loopholes. The game:
Checkmate.
***
=) Please review.