((Author's Note: This interlude was inspired by a review from Ember Nickle, who mentioned that it would be a good idea to obliquely reference Zeke as a minor character from one of the "original" stories. Thus, here we have my rendition of the last chapter of Animorphs #13, The Change, where Tobias first uses his human morph to see Rachel receive the Packard Foundation Outstanding Student Award.

Now, for the "Author's Reply" section. This week (or however often it is that I update) I'm discussing why I've put Zeke into the stories. It has been mentioned to me that many of Zeke's lines are potentially ones from Tobias or Ax--and sadly, therein lies the rub.

Basically, I created Zeke because I feel that there is a role missing from the series. Applegate showed us a variety of people:
1. the token "unwilling but natural leader;"
2. the warrior-princess (which, I recently discovered, is an actual literary device, lol) who combines girly-girl with ferocity;
3. the "funny man" who hides a ruthlessly logical side;
4. the nature-attuned "counselor" and emotional anchor;
5. the token "tortured soul", a good guy who has to live through a life of suffering, but comes out better because of it;
6. the "honorable warrior" dealing with discovering dishonorable secrets about his race (and the token "alien who doesn't understand humans")

In all of this, I felt that a couple roles were left out, and I put them into Zeke. He's got aspects of Tobias and Ax (nice guy and knowledgable), bits of Marco and Cassie (humor/occasional cinicism, and empathy), and a darker side similar to Rachel (a deep, feral rage that is sealed beneath his calm demeanor). I felt that spirituality, a real focus on science (not the mediocre scienciness of the more advanced Andalite warrior), and the token "shut-in, naive nerd" were all missing from the original group.
Sadly, it's impossible to make a new character have nothing in common with the current ones, and I sort of planned that he would foil aspects of various characters. In order to make him significantly different ehough, I'd either have to make him a Mary Sue/Gary Stu, which I don't want to do, or I'd have to reduce his role in the stories, which I don't want to do either. It's a damned if I do, damned if I don't, damned if I just sit here and twiddle my thumbs proposition, unfortunately..))

Interlude II: Tobias

The "Original" Universe, From Animorphs #13, The Change; this time, including Zeke.

The next day, Monday, was the Packard Foundation ceremony that would honor all of the students receiving the award at the school this year. My school, or at least my old school, was one of the few in the country to have so many Outstanding Students—five, counting Rachel. I guess it was a sign of accomplishment, or something. Chapman's Yeerk enjoyed the limelight.

I didn't really know the other four students that would receive the award. I mean, I sort of knew them, since I'd gone to school with them on and off for several years. It was just that the time I had spent as a hawk was more then enough for me to forget anything I knew about them, which wasn't much to begin with. They had become no more than names on a page, faceless classmates who were ahead of the curve.

The whole school was excited about the ceremony. Obviously, the awardees and their families were amped up, and the faculty felt justifiable pride in their students. The rest of the students were happy because the ceremony would eat up a big chunk of the day, right after lunch, so they'd just have to put up with sitting still for an hour and a half on the gym floor before being let out.

I couldn't be there for the early part of the ceremony—a reading of some speech by Chapman, plus some official representative person listing off the requirements for someone to win the award. I had to be careful: unlike anyone else there, I had a time limit. A two-hour time limit, of which I was more intimately aware than anyone. Plus, no one in that auditorium had to walk from the edge of the woods to the school and back within that limit.

As I snuck in, though a back entrance that had been left ajar, a hall monitoring teacher noticed me. She gave me an odd look, like she knew who I was but couldn't put her finger on it, and shooed me off to the auditorium. While I was looking to find a seat, the winners stood and prepared to receive the actual Packard Foundation plaque and the certificate that made up the award. Unable to quickly find a seat, I stood at the end of the center aisle between groups of seated students.

The first two were girls I didn't recognize, one Asian-looking and the other somewhat Hispanic. The third guy seemed very vaguely familiar, though I wasn't sure that I recognized the name "Ezekiel." It was probably just someone I had known before I got trapped in hawk morph, someone who sympathized with me instead of bullying me.

He looked odd, too—he had this outward front of happy acceptance, but his body language seemed troubled and frightened. Of course, if I'd been an ordinary human, I wouldn't have noticed, but I'm neither ordinary nor fully human anymore. I'd seen that look on dozens of faces, though most of them belonged to animals. Especially the really beat up ones in Cassie's barn, the ones that had been abused or neglected. He looked wary, like he was always on alert for potential threats. Basically, he looked like he always had a defensive front set up, just waiting for the next bit of hurt to be piled on.

I felt a stab of pity and empathy, things I rarely felt anymore. I knew what it was like to feel that way, being shunted from unloving home to unloving home, having no one to love or to give love back. He looked worse for it though, like he'd lived with some nightmares that even being an Animorph couldn't top.

I also noticed that, as he walked off the stage, there were no welcoming arms. The rest of them had at least one parent or relative there, warm and congratulating, celebrating their son's or daughter's achievement. Ezekiel stood alone, clutching his award as he waited for the rest of the ceremony to end. For a fleeting moment, his guise of happiness dropped, and the stoic, numb face of a boy forcibly aged beyond his years showed through. He raised the disguise after that very brief lapse, so soon that anyone who had been idly looking would think that he was just tired or bored and not something else.

Sighing, I turned to see Rachel, the last of the participants in the presentation, walk across the stage and receive her award. Of course, she was decked out in an outfit from the height of fashion, looking like a movie star. She flashed a brilliant smile as the photographer snapped her picture, then proceeded offstage to join the others. They walked in a single-file line out toward the door.

Cassie, sitting right at the edge of her row, gave Rachel a wink as she walked past; Rachel rolled her eyes and laughed, giving in to a bit of self-mockery. Of course, she couldn't help a little bit of swagger in her step, but I think anyone would agree that she'd earned it today. Marco, ever being a joker, made a flourishingly fake bow, as if he were kneeling before some member of royalty, a queen or duchess.

When she neared the end of the aisle, I stepped out of the shadows. At first, her eyes merely passed over me indifferently, seeing nothing more than another face in the crowd, another admirer or distant acquaintance. Then she did a double-take, the shock and happiness visible in her face. She stopped walking and stared at me, wide-eyed.

"Hi, Rachel," I said with a human voice. My human voice.