Another War

Chapter 4

Ax- Battles

Disclaimer I do not own the Animorphs. Not a chance, not even close.

I walked into my cabin and looked around. I don't understand why they bother to make the captains quarters so large. We rarely are allowed to spend much time here. Surely there was some better use that could be made of this space. But then, I was only a Prince, with not idea of how to design ships.

After having lived among humans so much the quirks of my own people sometimes confused and annoyed me. Why would a designer know which design would work better in a ship, when they never had to use the ship under real circumstances? Of course they had their labs where they could run their tests and simulations, but most of the time they never actually took the result out into the field themselves. And when officers did offer ideas for improvement they were dismissed as impossible or impractical. What was so wrong about moving a set of controls half an inch closer?

I sighed to myself in my head, a habit still left over from my days on earth. I had picked up many earth habits that my fellow Andalites often found disconcerting, such as shaking my head and shrugging my shoulders. I was able to control when I made these actions, and often avoided them for the comfort of those around me and serving under me. But sometimes it felt good to unnerve those around me.

I had not expected the message from Cassie. It actually came as quite a surprise. But the content had not been. I remembered how Tobias had been when Rachel was killed, and I was not surprised at how Cassie had found him. I was more surprised at the fact that he was still alive at all. She had begged me for my help.

I grew angry. Angry at Tobias for doing this to himself and putting the rest of us through it. Angry at my brother for creating this problem in the first place. But I was most angry at myself. Angry for what I had done. Or more accurately, what I had not done.

I had abandoned my friend on earth. I had abandoned my kin and left him to fend for himself. I had done the unforgivable. Now I just had tohope that it was not too late for me to try and make up for my mistakes.

I had already applied for my leave. I did not see how they could deny me. I had an enormous amount of leave time built up, and technically this was a family matter, even if most of them would never know it. Then I would have to find a way to earth, as soon as I got approval for what I was planning to do.

I doubted the council would be very happy with what I had in mind, but I did not see how they could refuse me either. I was the great Aximilli, a war hero, and technically Tobias was too. Even if they did not approve I would go ahead and do it. They will probably approve it on those grounds alone.

But convincing them was not going to be the hard part.

The hard part was going to be convincing Tobias.

With that thought on my mind I began to make the calls I needed to, getting all of the arrangements in place.

Can anyone guess what Ax is going to do? snisk I will be very surprised if anyone can. But give it your best shot when you tell me what you think of this chapter. In other words- REVIEW! Or I'll use an antimorphing ray on you, and we wouldn't want THAT, now would we?