Hey ya'll! What's up? Its super late, and I'm tryin to finish this. School did rear its ugly 'ol head and I've been spending all my time writing stupid-reports. But I have a sudden 2-day break before I have to start my next report, so I decided to finish this. (someone commend me on my steadfast attentions to this story--please!)
Anyways..onto the show!
thanks ya'll for reviewing! It makes me feel so spiffy! And thanks to Anni Morph and Jedsel for joining my Cassie Haters' Club!
Answering your questions/comments:
AmythestSkye: thanks for answering my questions! Are you interested in answering some more? grins mischievously And look how much quicker I updated for this chappie! Thanks for the review!
Robyn: yeah, thereare a lot of Ani-FF's aren't there? I mean, I bet we've got more FF's than LOTR (well, 'cept I heard started deleting accounts/stories from our sector). And I'm glad you're enjoying my story! I'm enjoying writing it. As far relaxing and stuff--can't. I'm a perfectionist (if you can't tell), plus a diagnosed obsessive-compulsive (well diagnosed according to all the internet personality tests I've taken--and we all know how accurate those are grin).
Anni Morph: thanks again for joining my Haters' Club! Glad that you like the story.
kaz456: hey Kaz! Nothin's wrong with long reviews! Darned it! Yeah, you're right about Efflit/Regan. Man! I thought I'd covered all the logic errors! Rats! (sorry, I'm not yellin at you, I'm just groanin out loud). Uhm, I guess the way to fix that would to write something like: Efflit feels the gears in Regan's brain whirling at full speed, but he couldn't care less what his host was thinking about and so just totally ignores him? Does that make sense? Oh, and you say you name kaz or kAz? (stress the a or not?) just curious. Thanks for the review!
blackwidow-MaryJane: Thanks! I'm writing more right now, as a matter a fact! : ) thanks for the review!
A-Cat: yeah, Efflit is noble, but only to a point. He only cares about his species and what's good for them. (did you read him like that?) I figured that if you have an Aftran and an Esplin, then there'd have to be a happy medium somewhere. Rachel's here now, but I regret putting her in--I should have waited for about 6 chapters more, but ah well! And ha! You already missed a few things! Good-- I didn't make them too obvious. (they'll just come back to haunt us later...)
Sparklegem: thanks for the review! Yeah, I guess we are on the same wavelength--do you crave a Tropicana Orange Popsicle right about now, too? Yeah, but I'm glad you like the story! So do I! (which often times doesn't happen--I seriously have like about 20 stories that I started and then trashed b/c they weren't good enough for anything). As far as Esplin being too compassionate, I had to establish early on that he genuinely cares for the Empire. (I have my reasons for that...) But yeah, as I was telling A-Cat, you have Esplin on the far right and Aftran on the far left. I think Efflit is your middle of the road Yeerk. (he'd make a perfect politician). And that part with the blanketÉyeah, I was actually a tad confused there myself--I didn't actually have any clue how the One was going to "appear" but I really wanted to try out this type of writing style (you pick "imagery" words and use them with as few metaphors/similes as you can...so the whole description is based on word choice not analogies) but when I finished the paragraph it confused me and my friend (who reads everything over once for me b/c he's awesome!), but the paragraph sounded pretty cool and I figured Efflit didn't really know what was going on either--so kinda conveyed that there. WoW! That was a really long reply to your review! Sorry!
KP: thanks for the compliment! And thanks for the review and answering the questions! Feedback really helps!
Brutal2003: explains a lot? Not really! There's still a lot more to come! And a lot more confusion/suspense! (it was suspense, I wrote, right? I'm not just kidding myself, am I?)
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Disclaimer: I don't own Animorphs (sadly) and this chapter contains some direct quotes from Animorphs: The Beginning #54
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Rachel:
My name is Rachel.
(You fight well human.) The polar bear said.
Then he killed me with a single blow.
Time stopped. The world dissolved into darkness.
He came to me. The Ellimist.
The puppet master come to watch my final act. It figured. He was in his saintly old man guise. As fake as everything else about him. The all-powerful weakling. The mighty manipulator.
"You," I said accusingly.
"Yes.
"Who are you?" I demanded. "Who are you to play games with us? You appear, you disappear, you use us, who are you, what are you?
And then, for what seemed a very long time, the Ellimist told me. I saw. I understood.
But I also knew he would not save me. That he couldn't under the arcane rules of his millennia-long war with Crayak.
"Send me back," I pleaded.
I wanted so much to live. I wanted to stay and not to leave. I wanted to have a life: to grow up, to have children, to have grandchildren. And I wanted to be with my friends: with Marco and Ax; Jake and Cassie.
Tobias.
"Send me back." I repeated.
The Ellimist shook his head slowly, and I saw pity in his ageless eyes. "You are dead. You cannot go back.
"Please." I said quietly. "I can't leave them.
It wasn't fair! It really wasn't. The Ellimist was this all-powerful demigod. He'd stopped time, altered history, shown us our possible futures even. And yet the one time that I needed him, he couldn't intervene.
The old man gazed at me sympathetically. "Your friends will follow you, in their due time." He replied. "And then you will all be together.
"So I have to wait until they die?" I asked in frustration.
"Yes, you must wait until they die." He answered. "But your wait will not be a long one.
"Just a life-time." I retorted.
The Ellimist laughed. "Child," he said with kindness shining in his ancient eyes. "Now that you are dead, time will pass quicker than you realize. For instance, how long do you think we have been talking?
I shrugged. "A few minutes, maybe an hour.
"We have talked for approximately one year and seven of your Earth months.
I stared at him.
The old man grinned. "You will find that time flows differently now.
The Ellimist smiled. "How do you measure time?" He asked me. "In seconds? Minutes? Years?
"Yeah. So?
"So, it is all arbitrary. It has no meaning."
Huh?
"You base your measurements of temporal continuity on what you observe. From your planet's rotation, once every twenty-four hours, and from your planet's revolution around your sun every 365 days." He explained, "Your kind ages from exposure to ultraviolet rays, gravitational forces--factors controlled by your planet's environment. But take you from your planet, remove you from these factors, remove you from the time constraints forced on you by your planet, and suddenly time has no meaning. A life-time has no meaning. You cannot gauge your existence according to 'time.'
I stared at him. I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.
The old man smiled, like he was indulging a favorite grandchild. "Maybe if I showed you, you'd understand a little easier.
And suddenly, the blackness dissolved and I was standing with the Ellimist in someone's living room. A rich someone's living room. There was a TV the size of a greyhound bus.There were two giant red leather sofas. There was a mini-bar.
"Are you insane?" A voice laughed from outside of the room. "Of course I'm coming! Mom, this is your most important summit meeting since you were appointed to the Homeland Security Cabinet.
I knew that voice. It was familiar, but different somehow. Deeper. Older.
"Yeah, I'll have to tell them at the studio," the voice continued. "No, its not a problem, I mean it is my TV show," he said cockily. "They'll just have to get over it.
The speaker entered the room. And I wasn't surprised when I saw his face. Marco.
He was a little taller than when I'd last seen him: a midget going on dwarf-status. His clothes were a bit nicer, his acne all but gone, his hair as overly conditioned as ever.
He was older. Even though I swore I'd only seen Marco an hour ago when I was--alive--I knew without a doubt that he had aged.
"Approximately one year and seven months have passed for your friend," the Ellimist reminded me quietly. "Time flows differently now that you are dead.
Marco swaggered through the room, ear plastered to his cell phone, and plopped down onto the red leather couch.
He didn't so much as glance at me.
"The dead exist on a different physical-plane from the living," the Ellimist explained softly. "Your friends cannot see you.
"It figures," I said under my breath.
I watched as Marco leaned back lazily into the oversized couch. He kicked off his shoes. His five hundred dollar imported Italian leather Allen-Edmond shoes.
"Mom I'm coming," Marco laughed into the cell phone. "I've already cleared my calendar. I've got my jet all rearing to go to Washington."
There was a pause as Marco's mom said something on the other end of the phone. "Yeah, well it will be cleared after I tell the studio." Marco laughed haughtily. "I told you mom, its my studio, my TV show. If I cancel out on them at the last minute, they'll have to understand.
Marco had a TV show? He had a jet? There were only two ways that could ever have happened.
And Hell hadn't frozen over--at least not that I knew of.
I turned to the Ellimist. "We won, then? The war, I mean. We won it?" I asked.
"Yes.
I turned back to watch Marco and couldn't help rolling my eyes. Marco, the ape-boy, had finally gotten what he wanted. All of it: the money, the fame, his mom.
I stopped at the girls. Even filthy rich, Marco still couldn't get a date. He couldn't pay a girl enough to go out with him.
I wondered how the rest of the Animorphs were doing. If Marco lived like a king
"Can I see the others?" I asked.
The Ellimist looked at me hesistantly. "You may not like what you see.
I shook my head. "I don't care. I want to see them." I said flatly. "Let me see Tobias.
And suddenly Marco and his living room dissolved, and we were in an open space. A meadow. Trees surrounded us on all sides like giant sentinels standing silent guard. The morning sun, just rising through the tree-tops, filtered light into our little clearing
We were in the middle of a forest, I realized. A huge forest. The greenery stretched for miles on either side, and it was quiet. No cars.
And then I saw him. He flared his great wings, and landed gracefully onto the gnarled branch of a giant oak tree. His sharp gold-flecked eyes glared at the meadow below him. He looked older than I'd remembered.
As I watched he lifted silently from the branch. Then like a thunderbolt he shot to the ground. He extended his talons and raked them across his unsuspecting prey. Then he landed on the ground and began feasting on the dead animal.
I felt my throat tightening. This scene. Tobias. It was all wrong. We had won the war, but Tobias hadn't become a human nothlit. He was still a hawk. He was still living in the trees. He was still eating small rodents.
"Why?" I asked the Ellimist, my voice strained. "Why are we here? Why is...Tobias isn't human
The Ellimist gazed at me, pityingly. "Open your heart child," he said softly. "Concentrate on Tobias and only on Tobias, and then you will know all that has happened to him since you last saw him."
I stared at the Ellimist in confusion. What was he talking about?
"You are no longer living and so your mind is no longer constrained," the Ellimist began, trying to explain. "If you concentrate on a living person, then you will know what is happening in their life. This is a way for you to keep up with your loved ones. It is called watching over them." He smiled slightly. "All the dead may do this. Consider it a benefit of being dead."
I nodded.
"Think only of Tobias. Concentrate on him and only on him. Then you will understand what has happened to him since you last saw him."
I stared at the familiar, yet unfamiliar form on the ground. And then I thought of him. Of dear, sweet, gentle Tobias. I thought of our first date. Of our first kiss. The first time he told me he loved me. I thought of his smile. The way that he always listened. How he knew me, cared for me, believed in me--more than anyone else.
And then it came in a flash. Like lightening crashing to earth, like the crack of a whip. Suddenly I knew--as the Ellimist had promised I would--I knew. I knew why Tobias was still a hawk, why he didn't live with Loren, why he never talked to Jake. I knew how much he missed me, how he shut out the pain, how he hid inside of the hawk.
And then I felt my heart tearing
"I...Tobias" I stuttered. "I can't just stand here and watch him like this!" I snapped.
The Ellimist regarded me, carefully. "There is little that you can do.
"No," I said fiercely. "There must be something!
I was angry. Angry at Tobias for giving up. Angry at myself for leaving him. And angry at the Ellimist for doing nothing to help me.
"There must be something I can do!" I repeated. "I'm not leaving Tobias like this!
"You can watch over him. You can wait." The Ellimist said with as much compassion as he could. "The dead may always look upon the living. After I leave, you can watch over your friends as you wait for them to join you. Your wait will not be long," he reminded me. "Time flows differently for you now."
And suddenly Tobias and his meadow dissolved. We were surrounded by darkness again.
"I must leave you." The Ellimist said quietly. "Now you must go to the resting place you humans call Heaven.
I glared at the Ellimist. I felt anger. Cold. Raw. Anger "But what about my friends! What about my family! What about them?" I raged. "Sure its great that my wait won't be long! But what about theirs? What about Tobias?
I couldn't let Tobias waste the rest of his years in misery!
The old man shook his head wearily. "There is little that you can do." He said quietly.
"Ellimist you and your stupid rules can just kiss my--"
Abruptly I stopped, mid-sentence. Because suddenly I saw the pain in the Ellimist's eyes. I saw the sadness. His eyes were so sad. Sad beyond grief, beyond, mourning, beyond despair. So sad, that he seemed tired.
"Child," he said softly. "You do not deserve this ending. If I could help you and your friends, I would. I but I cannot."
I stared at the Ellimist and slowly my anger evaporated as I realized the truth of his words.
I was dead, and nothing could change that--not even the all-powerful Ellimist.
The Ellimist was here for me. He didn't have to be, and yet here he was. To counsel me, to give me advice.
The Ellimist was here to honor me, and I guess that was nice of him. Wasn't going to help me much.
I wanted so much to live. I wanted so much to stay and not to leave. In a moment no answer would matter to me, but just the same, I wanted to know what I guess any dying person wants to know.
"Answer this, Ellimist: Did..did I make a difference? My life, and my...my death...was I worth it? Did my life really matter?
"Yes, "he said. "You were brave. You were strong. You were good. You mattered.
"Yeah. Okay, then. Okay, then.
"Child, go to the resting place," he said kindly. "And may your wait be a short one. May you be at peace. Watch over your friends as I have shown you.
I nodded.
I wondered if--
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yeah, okay I know this doesn't sound too Rachel-ish. I totally admit it. So if anyone can give me any hints about how to make her more in-character, I'd be eternally grateful. (well not eternally, but for at least an entire day).
So, was the chappie super confusing? Did everyone get all the 'times flows differently' junk and the 'you can watch over them' stuff? Did everyone get why Rachel was all upset about during the whole Tobias scene?
I was going to do another draft of this chappie before I sent it out, but then realized that with the way school's been going lately, that prolly wouldn't happen for at least another two or three weeks. And I didn't feel like being that patient, or making ya'll be that patient either!
Anyways. Do you want to do your civic-duty and review? You'd make a socially inept introvert feel like she's got a ton of friends. And if neither of those reasons are appealing--how's about an e-twizzler? (no, I have no problem bribing peopleÉ)
DH
PS: join my Cassie-Haters' Club! I've already got three members (well two, including myself), but we've got lots of officer positions open! (and wouldn't it be awesome to say you were an officer of an extra-curricular activity in your resume or college application?) you can find more info about my awesome club under my bio. To join, just send me a review that says "pick me! Pick me!" and what officer position you wanna be. (if you wanna be one, that is).