He turned away, before Elfangor could think up a response, and disappeared through the wall of the vortex.
"Well, that's the end of him."
No. Somehow, I doubt that very much, Elfangor said, unsure of why he didn't believe the Visser would never fulfill his threat.
He did not believe in supernatural things, so he would never call what he had just experienced a premonition. But Elfangor knew somehow that he would be seeing Visser Thirty-two again someday.
"So now what? We have to get out of here, that much is blatantly obvious. My hair is still growing, my fingernails are way out of control, and I feel like I'm getting… older. My -" Loren felt her cheeks get hot, and decided to skip explaining that particular thing to Elfangor. He was an alien, and a guy on top of that. "Well, I'm getting older, let's leave it at that. But I swear I'm suddenly eighteen!"
Yes. Your face is changing. I feel my own body changing as well. We must leave this place, but we can't simply create another combined universe. We have to go somewhere that is a part of the real universe, so there can be only one of us directing the Time Matrix.
"So where are we going? Back to the Andalite planet?"
No. What would I do if I went back to my own people? I disobeyed a direct order from War-Prince Alloran. I left Arbron behind to live as a Taxxon. And I know too many secrets now. I know that Alloran did use a Quantum virus on the Hork-Bajir world. What else might they do if they suddenly found themselves in possession of the Time Matrix?
"Oh. I see what you're getting at. Even good people do bad things when they get desperate enough."
If we use the Time Matrix to win this war, we will no longer be Andalites. Not what I think of as Andalites, anyway. We will have to win this war by being true to our customs of decency and honor, not by becoming as brutal and ruthless as the Yeerks.
"I see. What's the point of winning, if you lose what you were fighting for in the first place?"
Yes. Now you see why I cannot let my people have the Time Matrix. I also can't let it fall into the grasp of the Yeerks. I will have to hide it, since it cannot be destroyed.
"You're going to hide it on Earth, aren't you?" Loren asked rhetorically.
Yes. And this time, no nosy, greedy Skrit Na will stumble across it, Elfangor said with determination.
"All right, then I suppose I'd better get to work," Loren said with a smile. "What do you want me to do?"
Picture your Earth, your home. Fix your mind on every detail. Your mother. Your hollow house. Your friends. Imagine the time just after the Skrit Na captured you. An hour afterward, I think.
"That was what? A week ago? Did all of this happen in just a week?"
Yes. Only a week. We would need to go back in time, before your mother would have noticed that you were gone, but not before the Skrit Na captured you. We would risk undoing this entire timeline if we did.
"Maybe we should just undo this timeline. We could save Arbron. Save Alloran."
And have the two of us never meet?
Loren blinked, having failed to consider that particular consequence. "I didn't think of that," she said, chagrined. "I wouldn't want that to happen."
I wouldn't want it to happen either. But, more importantly, we don't know what the result of rewriting such a span of time would be. It may mean that the Skrit Na get away with the Time Matrix, and end up delivering it to the Yeerks. But, as long as the you from this point in time does not encounter another you, we should be fine.
"There's just one problem. This me has aged. I'm older than I was when I left. People are going to notice that I'm suddenly two years older."
Yes, they would. But imagine that they don't. Imagine that everyone you know and everyone who knows you expects you to be eighteen.
"Is this really going to work?"
I don't know. I hope so, but nothing else that I've tried seems to be working.
"Okay. Then let me take care of driving the Time Matrix," Loren said with a soft, sweet smile.
Loren put her hands on the Time Matrix, closing her eyes as she concentrated on her memories of her home, her friends, her mom, and the woods where she had been walking when the Skrit Na had swept down out of the sky and kidnapped her. Elfangor watched as the walls of the vortex grew more solid looking and images appeared. He had not seen the real Earth in this strange place, but he already felt as if the planet was his home.
As the walls closed tighter and tighter, Elfangor briefly wondered what Loren's real mother was like…
Then, all of a sudden, there they were. Loren took a long, deep breath. God, I've missed this place, she thought. There was just something about forest air that made you feel like you were really breathing, or at least that was what Loren thought. Elfangor, meanwhile, was wondering what to do with the Time Matrix.
They would have to hide it, but there was still the problem of just where to hide it. Where could they hide the Time Matrix so that it would not be found, especially by the Skrit Na, who were experts at finding things that you didn't want them to? Elfangor looked over at Loren, to ask her where she thought they should hide the Time Matrix, but she seemed to be enjoying herself so much that Elfangor didn't want to disturb her.