Quick note. I'm using brackets [ ] for thought speech because this site won't let me use angle brackets. I hope it's not too confusing.

The usual copyright BS. I don't own Animorphs and I ain't makin any money off this.

~The Last Ronin~

[This is so cool!] she shouts as she dives passed me. We fly close together, largely because I don't want to let her out of my sight but also because what do we have to worry about? The Yeerks are gone. The worst that can happen is that some bird watchers think they've gone mad seeing a red-tailed hawk and a bald eagle flying together.

She twirls and soars around me, acting exactly like we all did the first time we'd morphed birds and flown. Floating on the thermals, watching her enjoying herself, for the first time in a long time I feel like I'm home.

It had taken me the night and most of the next morning to explain everything to her: who I was, the war, morphing...how she died...and the sun had begun it's decent before I finished. She'd been skeptical of course, but she hadn't run off screaming into the hills either. I'd been a bit worried that that's exactly what she would do around the time I had to demorph but she watched quietly - although she did make a few faces that made me wonder if she wasn't going to be sick.

She'd given me another look when I'd explained that she too could morph - the look someone gives a person they know isn't all there, but she'd tried anyway. Now I think she's convinced.

It had also taken me some time to accept that I wasn't dreaming, but after talking with her for several hours I'd realized there was no way I could be asleep.

She is still Rachel, of that I'm certain.

Every once in a while I see the girl I love: in the way she brushes her hair from her eyes, or in the sound of her laugh. But she's different too. She's as she was before the war changed her. Before she'd become the person her cousin would use as an assassin. She's the Rachel I never knew, the one I'd only ever caught fleeting glimpses of after a particularly hard battle or something especially horrific happened to one of us.

And I love her still.

Of course, none of that explains why she's alive so it's still possible that I've simply gone insane. But I don't care. She's alive and that's all that matters.

[Alright Tobias, I'll admit you had me nervous for a while but I'm certain you're not crazy,] she laughs as she pulls up next to me.

[Yeah well the jury is still out on that one but I'm glad you're in my corner,] I can't help but laugh with her; I've missed this more than I can put words to.

[So where are we going?] she asks, drifting close enough that her wing tips brush mine.

[Huh?] her question catches me off guard, I'd been too busy enjoying flying with her again.

[You said you had something you wanted to show me...,] she prompts.

[Oh yeah,] I chuckle at how easily distracted I am by her, [Well we don't have to if you don't want to, but I was going to show you the park they dedicated to you.]

[They dedicated a park to me?] I can hear the disbelief in her thoughts but all things considered she's been taking the whole having died thing quiet well.

[Yeah, it was actually a cool ceremony now that I think about it. Everyone gave speeches, even the president.]

[Everyone? You too?] I cringe slightly as she asks that.

[No.] I admit [After you died I...well it was a very bad time for me. I wasn't in any shape to give a speech. It was a long time before I could even bear to be around anyone else.]

[I'm sorry.] she says after a long moment of silence.

[It wasn't your fault,] I say quickly, [it was a war. The fact that we all survived as long as we did was nothing short of a miracle.]

[It's not that,] she hesitates, [it's just that...I don't remember any of it...and you've been great to me and all but I don't think I can be the girl you remember.]

She's right. For all I know the girl I knew during the war is gone forever. Not necessarily a bad thing. No one knows better than me how much pain she suffered over what the constant battles did to her.

[Rachel,] I say at last [you were my only...my best friend long before we were anything more. I'm quite aware of the impossible set of circumstances that must have occurred to make you fall in love with me. When you died it nearly killed me and for so long now I've wished it was all just a bad dream; that I'd wake up and you'd be alive again. Now here you are. If we're never again anything more than just friends I'll still be happier than I have been in a long time just because you're alive.]

[Tobias, that was,] she pauses, [really sweet. Thank you.]

[I do hope of course, I won't lie,] I add, [but I don't want you to feel pressured. If this is all that will ever be between us then it will be enough.]

For a while she drifts behind me and we fly in silence. Maybe I went to far? Said to much. She must really think I'm a hopeless loser now.

[How much further?] she finally asks and I look around to confirm our location.

[About a minute, this way,] I bank to my right and begin descending. I can see the park in the distance: a large, lightly wooded area overlooking the ocean.

We land in a tree across from a monument seated at the top of a small cliff. Although it's getting late there's a small group of people still here.

"Mommy, mommy. What's this?" a little girl asks, yanking on her mother's sleeve.

"It's a memorial to a young woman who died saving us from the Yeerks," the mother answers, her voice hitching as if she's holding back tears.

"Oh," the little girl says, obviously too young to remember the war and thus already bored.

The woman walks up to the large stone and kneels next to it, resting her hand on it as she does.

"Thank you," she whispers and I can hear the tears in her voice now, "you saved me from slavery and gave me a chance to bring my daughter into a better world."

She sits there holding her child and crying for some time before slowly collecting herself and moving off.

[Tobias?] Rachel says quietly, [Can we go? I think I've seen enough.]

[Of course. You need to demorph soon anyway.]

We take flight and head back towards my meadow.

When we arrive she demorphs and sits at the base of my tree. For a long time she doesn't say anything. I just watch and leave her to her thoughts.

"Can you become human again?" she asks eventually.

[Sure.] I land and begin to morph, [You ok?]

"Yeah," she nods and then wraps her arms around me in a hug as I finish morphing, "thank you for showing me that."

"Sure thing," I carefully hug her back, not sure what's going through her head right now. She doesn't pull away though and we stay like that for a while.

"I want my memory back," she says at last.

"You do?" I try to hide the hope in my voice.

"Earlier at the memorial," she trembles slightly, as if trying to withhold a sob, "someone who could do the things written on that stone, who could cause someone who didn't even know her to cry in gratitude. That's a person worth being."

"On the risk of sounding selfish, I'll do whatever I can to help," I hug her tighter.

She laughs.

"Thanks."