Disclaimer: Own not I a dragonfly nor the Animorph series.
Also, please don't try and correct any science I throw in here. I am coming up with something that works, and that may not always be plausible. And if it keeps you up at night, The Ellimist did it, ok?
Chapter 2
Rachel
I was Rachel. Guess that name doesn't really work anymore because I'm currently sprawling on the floor; my palms flat and I think my neck is broken. I can tell this because I'm standing next to it. My soul or shade, or whatever it is, is now me. The whole world seemed to be grey, and there was no sound whatsoever. The polar bear that just killed me now just kicked my body. This got me very mad, show some respect for the dead, why not! I ran up to him and tried to smack him round the face, which was quite stupid as I could barely reach to begin with and even though I only caught his chin, my hand still past straight through it.
"Argh!" I yelled in frustration as the polar bear demorphed and I landed a flurry of blows into his lower intestine all of which did nothing. I slightly amused myself by waving my fingers in people, but soon I was mad again. Somehow I was in purgatory, limbo, stuck and pissed off.
"Hello? Look, someone should at least tell me what the hell is going on?" I yelled, my voice echoing around nothing.
'So long as you want it.' Came a voice from behind me. I turned to face the Ellimist.
"You! What the hell!? You come to say goodbye, leaving me here, and then you come back! Can you PLEASE explain?" I yelled.
'Of course, the event continued despite your death. I had to ensure that Crayak didn't try to pull anything.' The Ellimist replied calmly. 'You, as you can see are dead.' He indicated my body on the floor. 'I couldn't change that and I am sorry. But you still have options.'
"What, sit here forever, or leave and watch everyone else live? Great choice. Because if I was supposed to meet an angel or whatever, they are late!" I yelled. Bastard let me die!
'No. You will die completely, your essence will vanish and you will know no more. Or you can join me.' The Ellimist said.
This intrigued me. "Join you?" I asked.
'Yes. You would be like Crayaks Drode, only for me. You will learn the intricacies of the game, and you will help me play.' The Ellimist replied.
It was tempting, considering my alternative was to die. But I wonder how it was possible. "But I'm just human. How can I possibly be like you?"
'My power is in effect limitless. Only a fraction of my power will place you even with the Drode.' The Ellimist said. 'But you must obey all the rules of the game as we do.' "But why me?" I asked him.
'After watching your actions I realised that maybe I am too passive. On occasion action is needed, and you will be the best choice to guide me when that is so.' The Ellimist.
That gave me an ego trip. Out of all the beings in the galaxy he had chosen me. I said this to the Ellimist.
'I sense great potential in you and I wish to discover how far you can go.' He said.
I smiled. "I accept. When do I start?"
'Now.' The Ellimist nodded and we were gone. Instead of the Blade Ship's grey interior it was darkness. Or at least the sky was, the floor was a river of colour, twisting, cavorting, new strands ended and new strands began of every colour imaginable. I couldn't help myself but think how great some of those colours would look on me. At least I think it was the floor, I was hovering several feet above it all.
"Wow." That was all I could manage. Yes, me, Rachel, was overawed by some pretty streamers. Sad huh? Well those streamers are amazing; I haven't done them justice with these few words. But they are a side point, we must move on.
'This, is Time. The passing of, the past and the future of. All that will happen here is recorded.' The Ellimist said grandly.
"Wow." I repeated. But then a thought occurred to me. "If you can see this then why don't you erase all the bad things, like the Yeerks?"
'Time is a delicate tapestry, removing a thread unravels the whole thing.' The Ellimist said sadly, 'Come, and see.'
Suddenly we rushed backwards, streamers appeared and disappeared until nearly everything disappeared. A gap miles long was in the middle of the tapestry, and in the gap was a festering lump. 'The removal of one 'bad' species, destroyed most of the galaxy. This is my greatest folly and it must never be repeated.' The Ellimist said.
I looked closer at the darkness and felt the pain, destruction of billions of lives. I pulled back in shock. 'Yes. Each time we lose, the galaxy suffers. It is a heavy burden to defend, but now we must.' The Ellimist said.
"Wow. Kind of makes my fight pale in significance." I said. Defending the whole galaxy.
'No. Every fight is important, every life is vital.' The Ellimist stressed that point. 'Never think less of anything.'
I nodded, "Lesson number 1, eh?"
He nodded back, "Out of many." And so my training began. I learned so much, in the space of no time. The Ellimist created tiny worlds in our minds, with which we fought over, sometimes I defended, and sometimes I had to destroy. I lost them all. The Ellimist knew of thousands of races, and we battled over them all, when aliens invaded, famine swept the land or a meteorite hit. And I lost them all. Races prospered when I tried to destroy them, worlds died when I defended them. Death seemed to open my mind; I could remember every single detail, from every game, every time The Ellimist spoke I could remember what he said. And I learned. I discovered the rules were simple, but the possibilities endless. It ran on a simple points system, each action gave the opponent points with which to respond, the bigger the action the more points and therefore the bigger the reaction called an exchange. This is a simplified version, as a lot of game was a feeling about something. At the start I took the hammer approach, smashing diseases, killing predators, bringing rain, or when I destroyed, rains of fire and plagues but each time The Ellimist brought a new terror that I couldn't fix regardless of what I tried, a tiny gene flaw in the people or the food that completely countered my move. But soon I reduced my actions, such as getting a smart person to study medicine or a new method of irrigation, little things that had a huge impact on the world. And as I started to win The Ellimist smiled. 'Now, we play the whole game.'
And we did, The Ellimist opened up the galaxy as our playing field. A fresh galaxy, with newly formed planets and baby suns. 'The rules have changed, you must now deal on a wider scale, watching for each change on every world, for no move has to be announced to the others.' And we played, tinkering in the gene pools of starting worlds, changing orbits, adding to suns, the pre-game if you will. Often I was wrong, and many planets spun off into space, or suns exploded vaporising worlds. Hey, I'm no physicist; I can't automatically predict what will happen. Millennia past in the blink of an eye, and life emerged. Bi-peds, tri-peds and no-peds, things with wings, legs tentacles, everything imaginable occurred somewhere. And for a time, it was good. I focused on developing a quarter of the galaxy, watching over them, giving them nudges in the right direction, and only occasionally interfered directly with the running of the universe or looking around the galaxy for signs of the Ellimist's actions. Billions of years past without contact, my races evolved and developed Zero-space transportation. I had planted the seeds of good will in all of them and soon a huge co-operative empire emerged. I laughed at the thought of what Marco would have said when he knew I started the Federation. But I knew that soon the Ellimist would attack and I prepared my federation for them. I had an explorer vessel land on a specially created world, full of predators. It was horrible, even though I knew it would happen. Acid vines wrapped themselves around the ship, dissolving the outside; savage beasts with more mouths than legs ripped their way in and devoured the crew. I ensured the survival of a few to return with their message of danger. Soon weapons were being developed, to massive protests from the general population. The pacifist movement grew in strength until several worlds were lost and the high council took action, they launched warships to restore order, but it failed and despite my best attempts they destroyed the worlds totally. This sparked off massive revolts everywhere, the Federation was torn apart by internal strife. The pacifists turned to anarchists and seized control of the ships, war broke out between them and the high council. New and deadly weapon were produced and fired, destroying whole sectors and the only option left was to removed all knowledge of these weapons of war, to start over back before the worlds developed weapons. Worlds were re-animated, lives restored. And then The Ellimist played his moves. He created a system that had a unique gravitational field that randomly threw asteroids into space, straight at my worlds. I only had time to realise what would happen before they struck, my major trade and high council worlds were destroyed. Without leadership, the Federation collapsed and gradually each world fell prey to the space debris, I deflected them only for them to strike other planets or suns, killing everything nearby. Within a million years of the first asteroid, every planet I had created was dead. I quit. I just sat and watched what was my favourite world, a world of athletic shoppers, vain, yes but it was almost not my fault, anyway I watched my favourite world, now dead, slowly rotate around its sun. The Ellimist appeared and stood next to me. 'You did well.' He said.
"But how? I did everything right. They were happy, peaceful. All I did was to get them to protect themselves." I cried in frustration. I reached out and backhanded the sun into space. Suddenly all the planets in orbit flew off into space, their gravity cycle ruined. 'And if I hadn't been here, you would have created a great society. But you must understand, people will object to most new things and weapons are the worst. All I did was plant a tiny seed of rebellion in their minds and look where it went. You undid it but such a move gave me the power to alter that galaxy, destroying all your work. What is done, is done, of you undo it, that chances are that something worse will happen as a reaction. You can fix a problem, but NEVER undo it. You also focused too much on a small area, look at the rest of the galaxy.' He swept his hand and I saw a galaxy of ruined worlds, desolate plains, nothing. Everything else had been stripped clean except for my quarter, and now that was gone. 'You must have a broad mind, examining everything, watching everything, ignoring everything.' He continued. 'And now we play again.' Suddenly all the galaxy was repaired, as if nothing had happened. And we played again. I jumped around, helping developing races, toning down aggressive races. I was a freaking galactic saint. I even made an appearance to a certain race and made a religion around me, one of kindness and grace. It seemed easier than focusing on a certain race or area, and although I lost a few races to internal turmoil or disease, generally the galaxy was a happy place, and then the invasions started. From all around, worlds were being attacked by 'the Order of Rakel', this immediately arose my suspicion and I returned to my world, sure enough the world had developed into a launchpad for invasion ships. I was so angry that my message had been twisted so that I went Wrath of God on their ass, fire and brimstone destroyed the ground, and huge storms crushed any ships that left. I didn't remove the problem but I destroyed the source. And so I thought it was settled, instead the Holy Crusades increased in frequency and violence. Soon most of the galaxy was under control of the Order. But it wasn't bad, sure they were xeno-cidal but surely a peaceful galaxy was the main aim, and the Order promised that. But it was not to be. Soon the order spilt into factions, which warred with each other over the true meanings of the teachings of Rakel and they destroyed themselves. Again, the galaxy was ruined by a bunch of idiots. Again, it seemed pointless. And I thought it was, I decided to end all this, life was too dangerous, frustrating, whatever happened they were crude, and killing each other. So for a time I was Rachel the Destroyer, crusher of worlds, extinguisher of suns. And I lived up to that name, and nothing lived that crossed my path. Until I found Earth. That's right, The Ellimist had created Earth and Venus and Mars, the whole solar system. I stopped in my rampage and looked closer. It was 1995, before we met the Yeerks and I was there. I saw myself with everyone except Tobias, meeting for some forgotten reason. We were eating and laughing at the tv. And that image of me, doing nothing of importance struck me more than the suffering of imaginary billions that I had caused. I sat down and watched. It was good to see me happy, before everything happened.
'See, happiness on a large scale is impossible, for any period of time. All we can hope for is to bring peace and happiness to a single person, and then to another, and another. Until all is peaceful. Then we will have won, for not even Crayak will be able to destroy their unity.' The Ellimist had appeared behind me as usual, and sat next to me. 'Crayak works on the large scale, but victory can only be obtained through the small, growing into the large scale. Do you see?'
I nodded, "I think I do."
We were back in the Blade ship, and my body was just being dragged out. It was bizarre, to return to the same moment after I left after living what felt like millennia.
"What? No time has past at all!?" I exclaimed, "How?"
'Time past, but only for us. Now, you must be announced.' The Ellimist said. Suddenly we were gone, into a realm of darkness, black everywhere except for a small ceremonial gong, which The Ellimist struck, the sound seemed to reverberate on a higher level, and obviously travelled a long way because almost immediately Crayak and The Drode appeared. Crayak turned his red eye to me and glared. The Drode smiled and began to dance gleefully.
"She was supposed to die. That was the exchange. You have broken the rules." Crayak announced, his voice terrible with its power. I felt an urge to bow, but then I thought better, I never bowed before and I won't start now. If The Ellimist broke a rule it wasn't my fault. Instead I glared back at the Drode. "Rulebreaker, rulebreaker!" The Drode chanted, pointing a finger at The Ellimist.
'I have done no such thing; the Rachel from Earth is dead. This is my new partner. Rachel died, she is dead but her spirit is here with me.' The Ellimist replied calmly.
"False. She was supposed to die, she is still alive and you have broken the rules." Crayak insisted.
'Rachel is dead. There is a body, there are witnesses, she no longer exists.' The Ellimist replied. 'What happens after death is a new exchange.'
Crayak's eye narrowed. "Very well. She is your new partner, equal to The Drode. Does she understand the rules?"
'Yes, she does. But as she is new, may we play for a low risk bid? A single world, no outside influences?' The Ellimist suggested. "Very well. Low bid, for our new player, shall we begin?" Crayak boomed.
'Yes.' Was the reply.
"Haha! Not Jake, but his cousin! Fun, fun, fun!" The Drode crowed. And again we were gone. The three of us appeared next to a yellow planet, orbiting a reddish sun. It was the fourth planet out and it was inhabited. And I have no idea how I knew this. I tried to think of other things that I wouldn't know. I realised that I had the knowledge, of everything, anything I wanted to know I had to think about it and I knew it. What my parents were thinking at the moment, when Marco finally realised he didn't stand a chance with me, how my parents first met in detail, everything. I started focusing on what else I knew when The Ellimist grabbed my attention, not with anything, he just made himself noticeable to me.
'Enjoying your new powers?' He asked.
"I wasn't expecting anything like this." I said amazed by the amount and accuracy of the knowledge.
'Yes, it may take sometime. But we must focus on saving this world. Think about this planet.' The Ellimist said.
I did and I knew all. Yeah, it sounds pretty omnipotent but I really did know everything. I knew their history, technology, society, everything. And I could think about them all at once. The race was the If-lor, a tri-ped race, surprisingly silicon based. They seemed similar to the Leerans, as they are frog-like, with their huge chests, but their faces were very layered, with layers of flabby skin hanging off everywhere. They had a complex language, at about the same level as English. The land covered the surface with only a few lakes of sulphur. Hey, this isn't Earth, remember? They had several nations, all in contact with each other. They were mostly used for trading and boundaries were very slack. Their law was a tribal law, there was a judge voted in who listened to the case and decided on the punishment.
'We must find what Crayak has changed.' The Ellimist said. 'Look carefully for anything that doesn't seem the norm.'
And I did, I searched all over the land, looking for anything bizarre like a thief stealing something important but worthless, or a randy predator that seemed to want to reproduce a lot. Instead I found a very normal thing. One If-lor had killed another, by accident, he had rolled a stone out of the way which had rolled, off a cliff onto the other If-lor. Unfortunately, things were complicated, because in the local tribal custom, whoever killed the chief became the chief, and guess who kicked the bucket? Yes, the chief, normally this would be ok, but the killer belonged to a different tribe who believed in punishing the crime. So, there was a group who wanted him as chief, a group that wanted him to be tried in a court, a group that didn't think he should be chief because it was an accident but didn't have an alternative, a group that didn't want a outsider to become chief and a group who think a chief is above the law. So there are five factions that are all arguing over this one If-lor, who doesn't have a clue how to act.
'Our move.' The Ellimist said. "Are you sure? What do you suggest?" I asked, being impetuous was all well and good when the people weren't real, but this takes on a whole new level.
'Yes, the stone should have rolled the other way. Crayak has used the slightest push to alter the peace, you should learn from it. The best solution is that the If-lor goes to the trial, is found guilty of manslaughter and the punishment is to have to share the power of the chief hood with a council made up of both tribes.' The Ellimist replied.
"Isn't that much larger than making a stone roll the other way?" I asked.
'Yes, but it would settle the most people the easiest way.' The Ellimist replied and so gave the new chiefs mind a little nudge. During the trial he also prodded the judge to declare manslaughter and set up the council. There was uproar at first and a few fights but gradually, as each side accepted the other they learnt tolerance and acceptance. 'See?' The Ellimist asked indicating the new tribe, sharing ideas at a council meeting.
And so my first real struggle for a planet began. I became The Ellimist's spy girl, I leapt around finding changes, or useful people. Science was a low concern to the If-lor and so I decided to increase the curiosity of a few If-lor. They began to experiment with their world, finding out how things work. Just to cover our back, against a plague or something. The Ellimist wasn't happy. 'Why? What possible use would a smarter If-lor be to the crisis on the other side of the globe?'
I shook my head, surprised he couldn't see, "To protect ourselves, as they evolve, they will discover things, that we can use later."
'Hmmm.' Was the only reply I got.
Time continued, only a year or two and the world changed. With each new change The Ellimist and I discussed what should be done, he dismissed a lot of my ideas of hand that annoyed me a bit, but he knew to listen if I had a real gem. Crayak in a gamble began to change the atmosphere, small vents in the surface pumped out small amounts of oxygen, which was poison to the If- lor. This gave us a great chance. The Ellimist and I altered a common creature that was a bit like a dog, but not much to not only absorb oxygen but to excrete valuable minerals as well, sort of super evolution. You can debate over whether opening the planets core is more or less important that forcing evolution on a species in 5 months but in this game it was more. It was fairly impressive watching a dog crap diamonds but more importantly, it gave us an edge, a small bonus over Crayak for any further schemes of his. In the long run this was a very good thing as Crayaks next move was to fatten these animals up, make them attractive to hunters soon their numbers fell and the poisonous oxygen increased, the tribes near the vents began to die out but with our extra 'points' we gave them oxygen resistant veins, anything biting them would get a nasty dose of oxygen, killing them instantly and oxygen store house in their main fat storage area, making them in-edible. And since such valuable metals were being produced in abundance, tools suddenly got better, digging was much more effective and if you ignored that you lived in a house of crap, it made good building material. It was everywhere and so there was no war over possession of it, thankfully sidestepping that possible problem. Crayak tried to mangle every detail into a weapon, land disputes, ownership, their equivalent of marriage, everything, but each time The Ellimist showed me a simple solution to it, and it seemed we were getting the upper hand. I smirked as the group of smart If-lor solved a problem all by themselves, granting me an apology from The Ellimist. 'You were right, there was a purpose to them, although there was no way you could have foreseen this.' To which I replied, "My middle name is luck, and it seems to be making up for killing me." This earned me a slightly higher level of respect with The Ellimist and soon he started letting me chose how to respond to a problem by myself. I got confident, and I screwed up big because of it. Crayak had been setting aside a few points every opportunity he got until he could play his ace and he did. Suddenly at the start of a new lunar cycle a huge creature attacked a tribe, he breathed oxygen, killing many of the warriors that went out to meet him and crushed the others. The tribe was wiped out in minutes, and I had no idea why. I searched back, and found my answer. Those dog like creatures I helped create? Yeap, those had put on a lot of weight and found leaves didn't cut it anymore, a giant oxygen excreting monster. I studied their genetic make- up, Crayak's extra fat had kept growing over time and he just gave it a boost. Soon these monster dogs were killing hundreds everyday and I had to stop it. I couldn't kill them as they took the oxygen away and provided valuable resources for the If-lor. But how to stop them. And then I found it. A small underground plate that it struck in the right way would close all the oxygen vents, and if I retarded the growth of the monsters everything would return. I should have been suspicious, that plate was too convenient but I wasn't. I moved it and it closed all the vents and lots of the growth hormones in the dogs were mysteriously taken away. The world returned to normal, or so I thought. Crayak didn't do anything, which worried me. The Ellimist was also worried, he searched all around but couldn't find anything wrong. Then suddenly: BOOM! Every vent on the planet erupted, the pressure had gotten too much and millions of litres of oxygen burst all over the planet, killing everything. And I mean everything, plants, If-lors and those smaller dog like things, everything on the planet was dead. And again I had caused it.
"Shit!" Was all I could do, there was no one left to save. I had lost.
'A whole world, gone forever.' The Ellimist said.
"I know! I caused it! It is all my fault!" I yelled at him. "You chose wrong! I can't do this! Everything is too hard, I don't play defensively!"
"The game is over." Suddenly Crayak appeared as smug as a giant machine thing can be. "Your 'partner' lost."
'Yes. She did. Now, back to the proper game, alright?' The Ellimist asked.
"Oh no. I still am owed a move." Crayak announced.
"What! NO! You took your turn! You killed everything on the planet!" I yelled, that murdering scum was trying to scam us!
"No I did not. That was a natural process." Crayak smiled. "See inside yourself, feel it to be true." And I did, and he was right. The pressure built up was natural. He would have had a huge turn to take. "And since there is nothing left here, I will move it into the real game."
'What! NO!' The Ellimist yelled, emulating me a few seconds earlier. 'That is against the rules!'
"No it isn't, just as we move around the galaxy I will move my turn into the real game. There is nothing to affect here, so I will alter reality again. But to obey the rules, I will use it with a 'friend' of 'Rachel', perhaps their Andalite friend. Aximili?"
NO! He can't do that! I thought.
"He's been a busy little Andalite. Searching for your killers. I think me might just have to find something else." Crayak taunted me.
"No, no, no." I said shaking my head slowly.
"Oh yes. Rachel, I think you had better watch." Crayak said. We moved, into a grand overview of the galaxy, all the stars and planets. It zoomed into a moon, where out of nowhere a giant ship appeared. It was horrible, Crayak had created a floating weapon, it looked exactly like a crippled craft, powerless but it was vibrant with power, undetectable to Andalites. The perfect ambush. The Intrepid drew up nearby and prepared to launch a craft. Ax fell for it, Crayak even manipulated it so Ax would be onboard the weapon. I turned to The Ellimist,
"Can't we do anything?" I asked.
'Crayak still has too much power, anything we try would be futile.' He replied, sadness in his eyes.
"I will not believe that!" I yelled and I ran. Ran down into the real world ran to the Andalite ship. I appeared in front of Ax, I breathed in. It had been a lifetime since I had seen him. He looked much the same, but bolder, braver. Being a Prince had improved him. I ran to him, to warn him. But I past straight through him.
"What!?" I yelled in frustration, "Ax, listen to me! Get out of here!"
"Foolish girl! They cannot see you." Crayak's voice appeared in my head along with his laughter. Screaming in anger I ran to the bridge of the ship. Again I tried to warn them, but nothing. They couldn't hear me! I focused, I had to change something! And then I saw it. The shield level, if they could be increased, then the ship might be saved! I focused on the Andalite controlling the panel, and implanted a subtle idea in his head, Raise the shields slowly. and subconsciously he did. It could save the ship 'Come on, come on!" I thought. Suddenly the intercom buzzed, Raise the shields! Go to condition 1! The bridge suddenly became a hive of activity, the shield Andalite looked a little surprised to have his finger on the right button but he raised it and the shields powered up, but it was too late. The ship powered up and fired, the high-powered beam smashed into the ship, the slightly powered up shields saved it from total destruction but it was crippled, a hole was opened in the bridge and one of the Andalites was sucked out into space, but the ship was safe. The survivors began to pull back, they were safe. I left and returned to the window. Crayak wasn't going to kill them. But why?
"Oh, Rachel. A missing ship is so much boring than a damaged ship with a missing captain." Crayak laughed, "And that is what this is all about, laying a trap, watching them come closer, and closer, until it is too late! It's perfect."
"You bastard. What are you going to do to Ax!?" I yelled up at him.
"Oh, I don't know. Perhaps, yes, that WILL be interesting." Crayak mused. "Yes, this will be good. Ellimist, your Animorphs will have more work."
"What! You sick, twisted freak! Can't you leave them alone?" I yelled. I was angry, he had done something to Ax and was planning to do something to all the others. Jake, Cassie, Marco,.Tobias. We had done enough!
"Oh, I will, when their corpses have decayed into nothing." Crayak laughed evilly. "But, for a while I shall leave them alone. Our game shall play elsewhere." And with this he vanished.
The Ellimist, silent through out all of this spoke to me. 'Perhaps I was wrong to do this to you.'
"Gee. You think? I only went and killed a world! A whole, freaking world!" I yelled.
'Perhaps you should just observe once more, to how we play. I was overconfident, you weren't ready to gamble with lives. You still can learn much.' He said calmly. And I knew he was right, I wasn't ready. I had cost us a world.
"Alright. But you must teach me. I thought I knew enough. I'm sorry." I said.
'Do not be. I lost many a battle before I understood how to play. You will soon.' The Ellimist replied.
OK! First public fic here, so I hope someone liked it.
Anyone that takes the time to review: I'd appreciate you saying what you liked, what you didn't, what you'd like to see, etc.
Ok, thanks!
Also, please don't try and correct any science I throw in here. I am coming up with something that works, and that may not always be plausible. And if it keeps you up at night, The Ellimist did it, ok?
Chapter 2
Rachel
I was Rachel. Guess that name doesn't really work anymore because I'm currently sprawling on the floor; my palms flat and I think my neck is broken. I can tell this because I'm standing next to it. My soul or shade, or whatever it is, is now me. The whole world seemed to be grey, and there was no sound whatsoever. The polar bear that just killed me now just kicked my body. This got me very mad, show some respect for the dead, why not! I ran up to him and tried to smack him round the face, which was quite stupid as I could barely reach to begin with and even though I only caught his chin, my hand still past straight through it.
"Argh!" I yelled in frustration as the polar bear demorphed and I landed a flurry of blows into his lower intestine all of which did nothing. I slightly amused myself by waving my fingers in people, but soon I was mad again. Somehow I was in purgatory, limbo, stuck and pissed off.
"Hello? Look, someone should at least tell me what the hell is going on?" I yelled, my voice echoing around nothing.
'So long as you want it.' Came a voice from behind me. I turned to face the Ellimist.
"You! What the hell!? You come to say goodbye, leaving me here, and then you come back! Can you PLEASE explain?" I yelled.
'Of course, the event continued despite your death. I had to ensure that Crayak didn't try to pull anything.' The Ellimist replied calmly. 'You, as you can see are dead.' He indicated my body on the floor. 'I couldn't change that and I am sorry. But you still have options.'
"What, sit here forever, or leave and watch everyone else live? Great choice. Because if I was supposed to meet an angel or whatever, they are late!" I yelled. Bastard let me die!
'No. You will die completely, your essence will vanish and you will know no more. Or you can join me.' The Ellimist said.
This intrigued me. "Join you?" I asked.
'Yes. You would be like Crayaks Drode, only for me. You will learn the intricacies of the game, and you will help me play.' The Ellimist replied.
It was tempting, considering my alternative was to die. But I wonder how it was possible. "But I'm just human. How can I possibly be like you?"
'My power is in effect limitless. Only a fraction of my power will place you even with the Drode.' The Ellimist said. 'But you must obey all the rules of the game as we do.' "But why me?" I asked him.
'After watching your actions I realised that maybe I am too passive. On occasion action is needed, and you will be the best choice to guide me when that is so.' The Ellimist.
That gave me an ego trip. Out of all the beings in the galaxy he had chosen me. I said this to the Ellimist.
'I sense great potential in you and I wish to discover how far you can go.' He said.
I smiled. "I accept. When do I start?"
'Now.' The Ellimist nodded and we were gone. Instead of the Blade Ship's grey interior it was darkness. Or at least the sky was, the floor was a river of colour, twisting, cavorting, new strands ended and new strands began of every colour imaginable. I couldn't help myself but think how great some of those colours would look on me. At least I think it was the floor, I was hovering several feet above it all.
"Wow." That was all I could manage. Yes, me, Rachel, was overawed by some pretty streamers. Sad huh? Well those streamers are amazing; I haven't done them justice with these few words. But they are a side point, we must move on.
'This, is Time. The passing of, the past and the future of. All that will happen here is recorded.' The Ellimist said grandly.
"Wow." I repeated. But then a thought occurred to me. "If you can see this then why don't you erase all the bad things, like the Yeerks?"
'Time is a delicate tapestry, removing a thread unravels the whole thing.' The Ellimist said sadly, 'Come, and see.'
Suddenly we rushed backwards, streamers appeared and disappeared until nearly everything disappeared. A gap miles long was in the middle of the tapestry, and in the gap was a festering lump. 'The removal of one 'bad' species, destroyed most of the galaxy. This is my greatest folly and it must never be repeated.' The Ellimist said.
I looked closer at the darkness and felt the pain, destruction of billions of lives. I pulled back in shock. 'Yes. Each time we lose, the galaxy suffers. It is a heavy burden to defend, but now we must.' The Ellimist said.
"Wow. Kind of makes my fight pale in significance." I said. Defending the whole galaxy.
'No. Every fight is important, every life is vital.' The Ellimist stressed that point. 'Never think less of anything.'
I nodded, "Lesson number 1, eh?"
He nodded back, "Out of many." And so my training began. I learned so much, in the space of no time. The Ellimist created tiny worlds in our minds, with which we fought over, sometimes I defended, and sometimes I had to destroy. I lost them all. The Ellimist knew of thousands of races, and we battled over them all, when aliens invaded, famine swept the land or a meteorite hit. And I lost them all. Races prospered when I tried to destroy them, worlds died when I defended them. Death seemed to open my mind; I could remember every single detail, from every game, every time The Ellimist spoke I could remember what he said. And I learned. I discovered the rules were simple, but the possibilities endless. It ran on a simple points system, each action gave the opponent points with which to respond, the bigger the action the more points and therefore the bigger the reaction called an exchange. This is a simplified version, as a lot of game was a feeling about something. At the start I took the hammer approach, smashing diseases, killing predators, bringing rain, or when I destroyed, rains of fire and plagues but each time The Ellimist brought a new terror that I couldn't fix regardless of what I tried, a tiny gene flaw in the people or the food that completely countered my move. But soon I reduced my actions, such as getting a smart person to study medicine or a new method of irrigation, little things that had a huge impact on the world. And as I started to win The Ellimist smiled. 'Now, we play the whole game.'
And we did, The Ellimist opened up the galaxy as our playing field. A fresh galaxy, with newly formed planets and baby suns. 'The rules have changed, you must now deal on a wider scale, watching for each change on every world, for no move has to be announced to the others.' And we played, tinkering in the gene pools of starting worlds, changing orbits, adding to suns, the pre-game if you will. Often I was wrong, and many planets spun off into space, or suns exploded vaporising worlds. Hey, I'm no physicist; I can't automatically predict what will happen. Millennia past in the blink of an eye, and life emerged. Bi-peds, tri-peds and no-peds, things with wings, legs tentacles, everything imaginable occurred somewhere. And for a time, it was good. I focused on developing a quarter of the galaxy, watching over them, giving them nudges in the right direction, and only occasionally interfered directly with the running of the universe or looking around the galaxy for signs of the Ellimist's actions. Billions of years past without contact, my races evolved and developed Zero-space transportation. I had planted the seeds of good will in all of them and soon a huge co-operative empire emerged. I laughed at the thought of what Marco would have said when he knew I started the Federation. But I knew that soon the Ellimist would attack and I prepared my federation for them. I had an explorer vessel land on a specially created world, full of predators. It was horrible, even though I knew it would happen. Acid vines wrapped themselves around the ship, dissolving the outside; savage beasts with more mouths than legs ripped their way in and devoured the crew. I ensured the survival of a few to return with their message of danger. Soon weapons were being developed, to massive protests from the general population. The pacifist movement grew in strength until several worlds were lost and the high council took action, they launched warships to restore order, but it failed and despite my best attempts they destroyed the worlds totally. This sparked off massive revolts everywhere, the Federation was torn apart by internal strife. The pacifists turned to anarchists and seized control of the ships, war broke out between them and the high council. New and deadly weapon were produced and fired, destroying whole sectors and the only option left was to removed all knowledge of these weapons of war, to start over back before the worlds developed weapons. Worlds were re-animated, lives restored. And then The Ellimist played his moves. He created a system that had a unique gravitational field that randomly threw asteroids into space, straight at my worlds. I only had time to realise what would happen before they struck, my major trade and high council worlds were destroyed. Without leadership, the Federation collapsed and gradually each world fell prey to the space debris, I deflected them only for them to strike other planets or suns, killing everything nearby. Within a million years of the first asteroid, every planet I had created was dead. I quit. I just sat and watched what was my favourite world, a world of athletic shoppers, vain, yes but it was almost not my fault, anyway I watched my favourite world, now dead, slowly rotate around its sun. The Ellimist appeared and stood next to me. 'You did well.' He said.
"But how? I did everything right. They were happy, peaceful. All I did was to get them to protect themselves." I cried in frustration. I reached out and backhanded the sun into space. Suddenly all the planets in orbit flew off into space, their gravity cycle ruined. 'And if I hadn't been here, you would have created a great society. But you must understand, people will object to most new things and weapons are the worst. All I did was plant a tiny seed of rebellion in their minds and look where it went. You undid it but such a move gave me the power to alter that galaxy, destroying all your work. What is done, is done, of you undo it, that chances are that something worse will happen as a reaction. You can fix a problem, but NEVER undo it. You also focused too much on a small area, look at the rest of the galaxy.' He swept his hand and I saw a galaxy of ruined worlds, desolate plains, nothing. Everything else had been stripped clean except for my quarter, and now that was gone. 'You must have a broad mind, examining everything, watching everything, ignoring everything.' He continued. 'And now we play again.' Suddenly all the galaxy was repaired, as if nothing had happened. And we played again. I jumped around, helping developing races, toning down aggressive races. I was a freaking galactic saint. I even made an appearance to a certain race and made a religion around me, one of kindness and grace. It seemed easier than focusing on a certain race or area, and although I lost a few races to internal turmoil or disease, generally the galaxy was a happy place, and then the invasions started. From all around, worlds were being attacked by 'the Order of Rakel', this immediately arose my suspicion and I returned to my world, sure enough the world had developed into a launchpad for invasion ships. I was so angry that my message had been twisted so that I went Wrath of God on their ass, fire and brimstone destroyed the ground, and huge storms crushed any ships that left. I didn't remove the problem but I destroyed the source. And so I thought it was settled, instead the Holy Crusades increased in frequency and violence. Soon most of the galaxy was under control of the Order. But it wasn't bad, sure they were xeno-cidal but surely a peaceful galaxy was the main aim, and the Order promised that. But it was not to be. Soon the order spilt into factions, which warred with each other over the true meanings of the teachings of Rakel and they destroyed themselves. Again, the galaxy was ruined by a bunch of idiots. Again, it seemed pointless. And I thought it was, I decided to end all this, life was too dangerous, frustrating, whatever happened they were crude, and killing each other. So for a time I was Rachel the Destroyer, crusher of worlds, extinguisher of suns. And I lived up to that name, and nothing lived that crossed my path. Until I found Earth. That's right, The Ellimist had created Earth and Venus and Mars, the whole solar system. I stopped in my rampage and looked closer. It was 1995, before we met the Yeerks and I was there. I saw myself with everyone except Tobias, meeting for some forgotten reason. We were eating and laughing at the tv. And that image of me, doing nothing of importance struck me more than the suffering of imaginary billions that I had caused. I sat down and watched. It was good to see me happy, before everything happened.
'See, happiness on a large scale is impossible, for any period of time. All we can hope for is to bring peace and happiness to a single person, and then to another, and another. Until all is peaceful. Then we will have won, for not even Crayak will be able to destroy their unity.' The Ellimist had appeared behind me as usual, and sat next to me. 'Crayak works on the large scale, but victory can only be obtained through the small, growing into the large scale. Do you see?'
I nodded, "I think I do."
We were back in the Blade ship, and my body was just being dragged out. It was bizarre, to return to the same moment after I left after living what felt like millennia.
"What? No time has past at all!?" I exclaimed, "How?"
'Time past, but only for us. Now, you must be announced.' The Ellimist said. Suddenly we were gone, into a realm of darkness, black everywhere except for a small ceremonial gong, which The Ellimist struck, the sound seemed to reverberate on a higher level, and obviously travelled a long way because almost immediately Crayak and The Drode appeared. Crayak turned his red eye to me and glared. The Drode smiled and began to dance gleefully.
"She was supposed to die. That was the exchange. You have broken the rules." Crayak announced, his voice terrible with its power. I felt an urge to bow, but then I thought better, I never bowed before and I won't start now. If The Ellimist broke a rule it wasn't my fault. Instead I glared back at the Drode. "Rulebreaker, rulebreaker!" The Drode chanted, pointing a finger at The Ellimist.
'I have done no such thing; the Rachel from Earth is dead. This is my new partner. Rachel died, she is dead but her spirit is here with me.' The Ellimist replied calmly.
"False. She was supposed to die, she is still alive and you have broken the rules." Crayak insisted.
'Rachel is dead. There is a body, there are witnesses, she no longer exists.' The Ellimist replied. 'What happens after death is a new exchange.'
Crayak's eye narrowed. "Very well. She is your new partner, equal to The Drode. Does she understand the rules?"
'Yes, she does. But as she is new, may we play for a low risk bid? A single world, no outside influences?' The Ellimist suggested. "Very well. Low bid, for our new player, shall we begin?" Crayak boomed.
'Yes.' Was the reply.
"Haha! Not Jake, but his cousin! Fun, fun, fun!" The Drode crowed. And again we were gone. The three of us appeared next to a yellow planet, orbiting a reddish sun. It was the fourth planet out and it was inhabited. And I have no idea how I knew this. I tried to think of other things that I wouldn't know. I realised that I had the knowledge, of everything, anything I wanted to know I had to think about it and I knew it. What my parents were thinking at the moment, when Marco finally realised he didn't stand a chance with me, how my parents first met in detail, everything. I started focusing on what else I knew when The Ellimist grabbed my attention, not with anything, he just made himself noticeable to me.
'Enjoying your new powers?' He asked.
"I wasn't expecting anything like this." I said amazed by the amount and accuracy of the knowledge.
'Yes, it may take sometime. But we must focus on saving this world. Think about this planet.' The Ellimist said.
I did and I knew all. Yeah, it sounds pretty omnipotent but I really did know everything. I knew their history, technology, society, everything. And I could think about them all at once. The race was the If-lor, a tri-ped race, surprisingly silicon based. They seemed similar to the Leerans, as they are frog-like, with their huge chests, but their faces were very layered, with layers of flabby skin hanging off everywhere. They had a complex language, at about the same level as English. The land covered the surface with only a few lakes of sulphur. Hey, this isn't Earth, remember? They had several nations, all in contact with each other. They were mostly used for trading and boundaries were very slack. Their law was a tribal law, there was a judge voted in who listened to the case and decided on the punishment.
'We must find what Crayak has changed.' The Ellimist said. 'Look carefully for anything that doesn't seem the norm.'
And I did, I searched all over the land, looking for anything bizarre like a thief stealing something important but worthless, or a randy predator that seemed to want to reproduce a lot. Instead I found a very normal thing. One If-lor had killed another, by accident, he had rolled a stone out of the way which had rolled, off a cliff onto the other If-lor. Unfortunately, things were complicated, because in the local tribal custom, whoever killed the chief became the chief, and guess who kicked the bucket? Yes, the chief, normally this would be ok, but the killer belonged to a different tribe who believed in punishing the crime. So, there was a group who wanted him as chief, a group that wanted him to be tried in a court, a group that didn't think he should be chief because it was an accident but didn't have an alternative, a group that didn't want a outsider to become chief and a group who think a chief is above the law. So there are five factions that are all arguing over this one If-lor, who doesn't have a clue how to act.
'Our move.' The Ellimist said. "Are you sure? What do you suggest?" I asked, being impetuous was all well and good when the people weren't real, but this takes on a whole new level.
'Yes, the stone should have rolled the other way. Crayak has used the slightest push to alter the peace, you should learn from it. The best solution is that the If-lor goes to the trial, is found guilty of manslaughter and the punishment is to have to share the power of the chief hood with a council made up of both tribes.' The Ellimist replied.
"Isn't that much larger than making a stone roll the other way?" I asked.
'Yes, but it would settle the most people the easiest way.' The Ellimist replied and so gave the new chiefs mind a little nudge. During the trial he also prodded the judge to declare manslaughter and set up the council. There was uproar at first and a few fights but gradually, as each side accepted the other they learnt tolerance and acceptance. 'See?' The Ellimist asked indicating the new tribe, sharing ideas at a council meeting.
And so my first real struggle for a planet began. I became The Ellimist's spy girl, I leapt around finding changes, or useful people. Science was a low concern to the If-lor and so I decided to increase the curiosity of a few If-lor. They began to experiment with their world, finding out how things work. Just to cover our back, against a plague or something. The Ellimist wasn't happy. 'Why? What possible use would a smarter If-lor be to the crisis on the other side of the globe?'
I shook my head, surprised he couldn't see, "To protect ourselves, as they evolve, they will discover things, that we can use later."
'Hmmm.' Was the only reply I got.
Time continued, only a year or two and the world changed. With each new change The Ellimist and I discussed what should be done, he dismissed a lot of my ideas of hand that annoyed me a bit, but he knew to listen if I had a real gem. Crayak in a gamble began to change the atmosphere, small vents in the surface pumped out small amounts of oxygen, which was poison to the If- lor. This gave us a great chance. The Ellimist and I altered a common creature that was a bit like a dog, but not much to not only absorb oxygen but to excrete valuable minerals as well, sort of super evolution. You can debate over whether opening the planets core is more or less important that forcing evolution on a species in 5 months but in this game it was more. It was fairly impressive watching a dog crap diamonds but more importantly, it gave us an edge, a small bonus over Crayak for any further schemes of his. In the long run this was a very good thing as Crayaks next move was to fatten these animals up, make them attractive to hunters soon their numbers fell and the poisonous oxygen increased, the tribes near the vents began to die out but with our extra 'points' we gave them oxygen resistant veins, anything biting them would get a nasty dose of oxygen, killing them instantly and oxygen store house in their main fat storage area, making them in-edible. And since such valuable metals were being produced in abundance, tools suddenly got better, digging was much more effective and if you ignored that you lived in a house of crap, it made good building material. It was everywhere and so there was no war over possession of it, thankfully sidestepping that possible problem. Crayak tried to mangle every detail into a weapon, land disputes, ownership, their equivalent of marriage, everything, but each time The Ellimist showed me a simple solution to it, and it seemed we were getting the upper hand. I smirked as the group of smart If-lor solved a problem all by themselves, granting me an apology from The Ellimist. 'You were right, there was a purpose to them, although there was no way you could have foreseen this.' To which I replied, "My middle name is luck, and it seems to be making up for killing me." This earned me a slightly higher level of respect with The Ellimist and soon he started letting me chose how to respond to a problem by myself. I got confident, and I screwed up big because of it. Crayak had been setting aside a few points every opportunity he got until he could play his ace and he did. Suddenly at the start of a new lunar cycle a huge creature attacked a tribe, he breathed oxygen, killing many of the warriors that went out to meet him and crushed the others. The tribe was wiped out in minutes, and I had no idea why. I searched back, and found my answer. Those dog like creatures I helped create? Yeap, those had put on a lot of weight and found leaves didn't cut it anymore, a giant oxygen excreting monster. I studied their genetic make- up, Crayak's extra fat had kept growing over time and he just gave it a boost. Soon these monster dogs were killing hundreds everyday and I had to stop it. I couldn't kill them as they took the oxygen away and provided valuable resources for the If-lor. But how to stop them. And then I found it. A small underground plate that it struck in the right way would close all the oxygen vents, and if I retarded the growth of the monsters everything would return. I should have been suspicious, that plate was too convenient but I wasn't. I moved it and it closed all the vents and lots of the growth hormones in the dogs were mysteriously taken away. The world returned to normal, or so I thought. Crayak didn't do anything, which worried me. The Ellimist was also worried, he searched all around but couldn't find anything wrong. Then suddenly: BOOM! Every vent on the planet erupted, the pressure had gotten too much and millions of litres of oxygen burst all over the planet, killing everything. And I mean everything, plants, If-lors and those smaller dog like things, everything on the planet was dead. And again I had caused it.
"Shit!" Was all I could do, there was no one left to save. I had lost.
'A whole world, gone forever.' The Ellimist said.
"I know! I caused it! It is all my fault!" I yelled at him. "You chose wrong! I can't do this! Everything is too hard, I don't play defensively!"
"The game is over." Suddenly Crayak appeared as smug as a giant machine thing can be. "Your 'partner' lost."
'Yes. She did. Now, back to the proper game, alright?' The Ellimist asked.
"Oh no. I still am owed a move." Crayak announced.
"What! NO! You took your turn! You killed everything on the planet!" I yelled, that murdering scum was trying to scam us!
"No I did not. That was a natural process." Crayak smiled. "See inside yourself, feel it to be true." And I did, and he was right. The pressure built up was natural. He would have had a huge turn to take. "And since there is nothing left here, I will move it into the real game."
'What! NO!' The Ellimist yelled, emulating me a few seconds earlier. 'That is against the rules!'
"No it isn't, just as we move around the galaxy I will move my turn into the real game. There is nothing to affect here, so I will alter reality again. But to obey the rules, I will use it with a 'friend' of 'Rachel', perhaps their Andalite friend. Aximili?"
NO! He can't do that! I thought.
"He's been a busy little Andalite. Searching for your killers. I think me might just have to find something else." Crayak taunted me.
"No, no, no." I said shaking my head slowly.
"Oh yes. Rachel, I think you had better watch." Crayak said. We moved, into a grand overview of the galaxy, all the stars and planets. It zoomed into a moon, where out of nowhere a giant ship appeared. It was horrible, Crayak had created a floating weapon, it looked exactly like a crippled craft, powerless but it was vibrant with power, undetectable to Andalites. The perfect ambush. The Intrepid drew up nearby and prepared to launch a craft. Ax fell for it, Crayak even manipulated it so Ax would be onboard the weapon. I turned to The Ellimist,
"Can't we do anything?" I asked.
'Crayak still has too much power, anything we try would be futile.' He replied, sadness in his eyes.
"I will not believe that!" I yelled and I ran. Ran down into the real world ran to the Andalite ship. I appeared in front of Ax, I breathed in. It had been a lifetime since I had seen him. He looked much the same, but bolder, braver. Being a Prince had improved him. I ran to him, to warn him. But I past straight through him.
"What!?" I yelled in frustration, "Ax, listen to me! Get out of here!"
"Foolish girl! They cannot see you." Crayak's voice appeared in my head along with his laughter. Screaming in anger I ran to the bridge of the ship. Again I tried to warn them, but nothing. They couldn't hear me! I focused, I had to change something! And then I saw it. The shield level, if they could be increased, then the ship might be saved! I focused on the Andalite controlling the panel, and implanted a subtle idea in his head, Raise the shields slowly. and subconsciously he did. It could save the ship 'Come on, come on!" I thought. Suddenly the intercom buzzed, Raise the shields! Go to condition 1! The bridge suddenly became a hive of activity, the shield Andalite looked a little surprised to have his finger on the right button but he raised it and the shields powered up, but it was too late. The ship powered up and fired, the high-powered beam smashed into the ship, the slightly powered up shields saved it from total destruction but it was crippled, a hole was opened in the bridge and one of the Andalites was sucked out into space, but the ship was safe. The survivors began to pull back, they were safe. I left and returned to the window. Crayak wasn't going to kill them. But why?
"Oh, Rachel. A missing ship is so much boring than a damaged ship with a missing captain." Crayak laughed, "And that is what this is all about, laying a trap, watching them come closer, and closer, until it is too late! It's perfect."
"You bastard. What are you going to do to Ax!?" I yelled up at him.
"Oh, I don't know. Perhaps, yes, that WILL be interesting." Crayak mused. "Yes, this will be good. Ellimist, your Animorphs will have more work."
"What! You sick, twisted freak! Can't you leave them alone?" I yelled. I was angry, he had done something to Ax and was planning to do something to all the others. Jake, Cassie, Marco,.Tobias. We had done enough!
"Oh, I will, when their corpses have decayed into nothing." Crayak laughed evilly. "But, for a while I shall leave them alone. Our game shall play elsewhere." And with this he vanished.
The Ellimist, silent through out all of this spoke to me. 'Perhaps I was wrong to do this to you.'
"Gee. You think? I only went and killed a world! A whole, freaking world!" I yelled.
'Perhaps you should just observe once more, to how we play. I was overconfident, you weren't ready to gamble with lives. You still can learn much.' He said calmly. And I knew he was right, I wasn't ready. I had cost us a world.
"Alright. But you must teach me. I thought I knew enough. I'm sorry." I said.
'Do not be. I lost many a battle before I understood how to play. You will soon.' The Ellimist replied.
OK! First public fic here, so I hope someone liked it.
Anyone that takes the time to review: I'd appreciate you saying what you liked, what you didn't, what you'd like to see, etc.
Ok, thanks!