Epilogue (Part One)

Marco

I awoke in the cockpit of my Mako starfighter. I stretched, and suddenly spasmed as things started coming back to me. 'Rachel! The Howlers! We died! Where in the hell am I?' I looked furiously around outside the cockpit, but all I saw was the dull metal of the Messenger's docking bay. I slowly keyed the communicator and said, "H- Hello?"

"Hi, Marco!" Jake's voice boomed over the headset installed into my helmet. It was all I could do to not rip the helmet off and throw it as his impossibly loud voice broke the silence. "Look sharp – you launch in sixty seconds."

"How? What? Jake, you gotta tell me what's going on," I pleaded. "I'm dead. Rachel -"

"Nah, you're not dead. We're coming up on Earth's atmosphere now. The crowd is going to be expecting a show – let's give it to 'em," Jake said, his tone still jubilant.

I shook my head. Slowly. It felt like Helmacrons were inside my skull banging tiny drums all over the surface of my brain. "Whatever. Whatever. I'll play the game," I said.

Lok's voice came over the headset and said in a deeper but quieter tone, "Greetings, Marco. Rachel, Toby, and I are already deployed in formation around the Messenger. I – we – would be honored if you would lead us down."

While I thought I might have imagined Jake's voice, there was no way my brain could have made up the formal and emotion-choked words of the big blue guy. "No problem. I'm sure someone will eventually get around to telling me what the hell is going on," I grumbled, automatically flipping the switches and pressing the buttons to fire the Mako's engines and release the docking clamps that held the fighter in place. Although it was impossible for me to be in the fighter – I had watched it cinder as I flew away from it in seagull morph on the Trunsk home world.

I deployed with the usual puff of air that was the artificial atmosphere caught between the Mako and the Messenger's hull seals. I rolled and oriented with the fighter closest to me. The cockpit was beginning to glow with atmospheric friction, but I could still make out the beautiful eyes above the breathing mask and the long, golden hair that flowed from the back of the beat up helmet. "Rachel?" I blurted.

I saw her look over at me for the first time and give me a thumbs-up. A blue light flashed on my communications board, indicating that what was coming over the headset was a private transmission. "Jake wanted to keep you in suspense, the ultimate joke, but I know I couldn't handle not knowing. So I'm going to tell you. We won. Crayak's gone, and the Ellimist brought us all back as a reward. That's all I know – that's all Jake told me. And don't you dare tell him that I ruined the surprise. He was really looking forward to him tricking you for a change."

I slowly grinned as I began to wrap my head around what she was saying. I clipped my oxygen mask into place on the side of my helmet to cover my moronic grin. 'Nice try, Jake,' I thought. 'Of course, I'll have to get you back, but a nice try.' The glow at the nose of my fighter lessened as me entered the lower levels of atmosphere, and I keyed for a broad-band transmission.

"All right, Makos – the nice people at home want to see something special, so lets put the Blue Angels to shame. Grand Slam parade formation – execute!" There was a few moments of confusion while I tried to explain the maneuver to Lok. Rachel and Toby had learned it in the early simulations I'd put them through. I hadn't ever expected to use it, I just made them learn it as a lesson in fine-tuned thruster control.

The flight oriented themselves in front of and slightly below the Messenger in the baseball diamond formation they'd learned. With myself at the head, we'd wait until we were in plain sight of the surely assembled crowd, then we'd start rotating the fighters counter-clockwise, barrel-rolling the whole way. It was quite a sight from the ground.

A pair of much larger Andalite fighters appeared on my left, and a second pair appeared on my right. (Marco!) Ax cried, unable to contain his glee. (I can't tell you how glad I am to see you are well. Was your nap satisfactory?) he asked innocently. I grinned – Jake must have recruited Ax in on his little joke. How he convinced the normally humorless Andalite to participate was beyond me.

"That's affirmative, Ax," I said, mock-serious. "Impressive fighters," I told him, and I meant it. "Too bad that compared to my pilots, your boys are going to look like cab drivers."

(You'll pay for that remark, Commander,) Ax said, faking anger. (Twenty-twos, replace Mako squadron!) he cried in thought-speak. The Andalite fighters oriented themselves directly below our fighters, blocking the view of the rapidly approaching mass of gathered humans.

"Two, break right with me. Three, Four, break left and replace the twenty-twos…now!" we broke at impressive speeds and replaced the Model twenty-two fighters in a skillful imitation of their earlier maneuver.

(Nice,) Ax said. (Same break, twenty-twos, but stay on their wings. This is their show. Match Mako Squadron's rate of descent. Nothing flashy.)

I looked at the view from my ventral camera and saw that I was beginning to be able to separate individuals in the crowd below. A raised landing area had been assembled in the huge park in the center of the new city. Well, relatively new. I'd grown up there, but the buildings that had risen after the Yeerks' defeat was more to defy them than anything. "Makos, execute the Grand Slam," I said. Smartly, everyone began to replace each other and roll their fighters. Even from this height, I heard the crowd gasping and cheering.

I smiled, and we ran through the formation a few times before we broke up and oriented ourselves for landing. The crowd, which was nothing short of enormous, was going absolutely nuts. This was what I'd hoped for when I signed up to fight the Yeerks. I wasn't a celebrity anymore. I wasn't a movie star. I was a bonafide hero. And I was the best kind of hero – the kind with all of his friends to share the glory with.

We all landed and powered down the starfighters. As soon as the Makos, Ax's flight, and the Messenger were all settled on the ground, a bunch of F-16s flew overhead and dropped 'confetti bombs' from their weapons ports. The red, white, and blue crap rained down on us as I hugged Rachel and much more carefully hugged Toby. Lok dropped to his knees and embraced me, and I let him. Right now was not about looking cool. Right now was about friends. Right now was about family. These people had actually died for me, and I'd died for them. You couldn't get any closer to a person than that. For once, there was nothing funny to do or say. I cried my eyes out for a short moment.

As soon as Lok let me go, Ax stepped in front of him and saluted me. I saluted back. That weird little alien dude was awesome, even if he was a little too serious. Cassie barged down the ramp of the Messenger and launched herself at Rachel. Tobias – in human form – didn't wait for Cassie to be finished. He threw himself into them and it was just one big hug party for a minute. Cassie broke first and came over to me, leaving Rachel and Tobias to begin kissing. Camera flashbulbs went crazy when they did that, and I groaned.

Cassie gave me a questioning look at my noise of displeasure as she embraced me. "Oh, it's nothing. It's just that now nobody's going to believe my story about me and Rachel sleeping together the night before the battle," I joked.

Cassie mock-glared. "Since you just came back from the dead, I won't tell her you said that. It would suck if you got killed so soon after being reincarnated." I laughed as Jake brought up the rear and Cassie backed up to give us a little space.

He stopped short of me, mischeif in his eyes. "So," he said, poorly restraining a grin.

"So," I said back. "Where the hell are the Dallas Cowgirls? I specifically remember requesting a cheerleading squad at my welcome-home party," I said, as seriously as I could manage.

Jake looked confused for a split-second, then the grin broke out on his face like water breaking through a dam. "Marco, you dumbass," he said, pulling me into a hug. For once, I didn't mind. I know I said it wasn't about looking cool, but I could see the cameras going crazy again and I knew I'd be embarrassed over the pictures later. That I was alive to be embarrassed wasn't a bad thing at all. Jake walked towards the president and several members of congress at the huge podium, but not without stopping first to give a long, passionate kiss to Cassie. I rubbed the back of my neck. Once again, I didn't have anyone. It was okay, though. I was alive, my friends were alive, and everybody was happy. Who was I to get all selfish?

As Jake shook hands and stepped up to the million microphones, the crowd went quiet. Rachel, Toby, and Lok, all in the same pilot jumpsuits that I was wearing, stepped over to stand with me. Rachel grabbed my ears and shook my head, and I swatted at her. I really wanted to concentrate on Jake's speech. I found myself hoping he'd screw up and make a fool out of himself, and the mature part of me told the immature part to stop it.

"Well, it's been a long trip," Jake said, the raincloud that had always hung over his head at speeches like this not present. He had a slight smile on his face and a sharp look in his eye. Not at all the depressed, grieving soldier I remembered from before. "First and foremost, I'd like to present to you my cousin, Rachel. We all thought she'd died at the Yeerk Battle four years ago, but being Rachel, she survived." I nodded my approval of that lie. No one could know the truth about the Ellimist. It would destroy human civilization from the churches on up. Jake waved Rachel up to speak, and she smiled and waved to the crowd, but shook her head no to the invitation to speak.

"As you all know, we've been on a top secret mission sanctioned by the leaders of Earth," he said, another lie. Jake's lies might be considered amoral, but they'd stop a lot of division and violence among the different peoples of Earth. "We successfully aided the peaceful Taruffs in repelling the vile Trunsk, and once again, peace reigns in the galaxy." He waited through the scattered cheers and polite applause, and Amni'bel made her way from the Messenger to stand beside Jake. She looked stunning, even for a member of a weird alien species. Her scales were polished, her gown was perfect, and the metal jewelry shined in the sun.

"Thank you, Prince Jake," she said loudly in perfect English. "We are honored to join our human and Andalite bretheren in peaceful trade and political agreements. I am certain that our peoples will get along famously, and it is my wish that ten years from now, everyone will have forgotten the fact that our races haven't always been acquainted with each other." Applause met her words as she stepped back to let Jake resume his speech.

"We are all here. We are all alive. Peace reigns," he said, and his good cheer disintegrated. "I want every person here to remember what I'm going to say next. Peace is a priveledge, not a right. We are very, very lucky to have it. If it weren't for the brave actions of my friends and comrades-in-arms, we wouldn't be at peace. So I want you all to remember how good you feel at this moment. You're safe. We've made some new friends. Everything is good and right. While Princess Amni'bel wishes you to forget this moment and think of us as old friends, I tell you not to. We are all different. The only thing we have unanimously in common is that we want peace. Once the feeling of freedom goes away and you get bored, you might think back to this time. You might think, 'Maybe things weren't so bad. At least things were exciting.' If you ever, ever start thinking like that, all is lost." His smile returned. "I'm not here to spoil anyone's parade, and I won't bore you with any more talk like that. Just remember this day, and how good it felt to know that we're not alone. There are others out there just like us who want the same things – fun, security, peace…friends. The Andalites and the Taruffs are more than our friends – they're family. Treat them like you would a long-lost son or daughter. Rest assured, if any of you ever get the chance to visit Xylen, or the Andalite home world, that is exactly how you will be treated. Enjoy the celebration," he said, waving and stepping down from the podium as the crowd cheered.

I grinned and looked at Rachel. "Damn. He didn't screw up. I thought he'd at least sneeze," I joked.

She smacked me playfully in the head as her mom, dad, and sisters were allowed through the barricade and they ran toward her. "Don't forget, you owe me a Ferrari," she said as she broke for her family.

I grinned. "A Ferrari ride," I corrected her.

A/N – There will be a few more parts to the epilogue, so be on the lookout!