A/N: In return for the long break, here's a much-longer-than-usual chapter!

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

::Ax::

I flapped my wings as hard as I could. The only morph that could allow one to see clearly at night was not the fastest of flying creatures on Earth, and I lamented that I had not acquired a egafit (a night-seeing version of the kafit) back on my home planet to aid in this mission. But I had a goal, and that was keeping me from despairing.

"Tobias..." Loren was murmuring in her sleep. It was getting more fitful. "Tobias... where are you..."

I was inclined to push away the emotions that came with listening to her murmurs. Humans have a strange feeling coursing through their blood when they are emotionally charged. It can be pleasant, like when I kissed Astrid. But it can also be very unsettling, like now. For Loren's next words were,

"Please, you have to save him. I'll do anything!"

She clasped her hands together, as though she was praying to somebody. "Please!"

Then all of a sudden – "NO! COME BACK!"

Loren sat up at once, eyes wide open, her face covered with perspiration.

"It is only a bad dream," I said, and reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. When Cassie does that to me, it calms me down and I could only hope Loren felt the same.

But she did not. She looked at me, her eyes still wide. "I saw him."

I was confused. "Saw who?"

Her eyes were now full of wonder. "Aximili..."

I jerked a little at her use of my full name. It was endearing and strange all at once.

"I saw your brother."

"It was a dream," I said, flatly.

"Yes, I know," said Loren, breathily. "But every time I dream of him, I can never really see him. This time I did. He let me see him."

"Who let you see him?"

"This man... he had a long white beard and straggly white hair. I couldn't tell what he was dressed in, but it seemed like there was nothing, yet something. Does that make sense?" She clutched at her chest. "He was young, though. His face... it was a young man with a wise mind. I could feel it."

I blinked. "What did he say?"

As I flew, I could see my destination clearly in my mind. Tobias had once said the image was implanted into his mind by the Ellimist even though he had never been there previously. It was an indelible memory; the greenery, the gushing water... a pang of homesickness hit me, for it reminded me of the beauty of my home planet.

Loren had described the place in her dreams so clearly that there was no doubt she was referring to the Hork-Bajir valley. The 'young man with a wise mind' had been in the middle of it, gesturing around him to indicate that he was safe there, and so was she.

"Come here to seek what you have lost, Loren." The man had said.

It was just a dream, I told myself. There was nothing significant about it except that Loren missed my brother. The man was nothing like the Ellimist, but then again, the Ellimist had been known to take on forms of all kinds.

Then, Loren had whispered, "He said, you must come here to right what is wrong too."

The word 'must' was very unlike anything the Ellimist would say. The Ellimist never promised anything. He was a cheat and a fraud, but he would mask it with the illusion of choice.

This creature gave no choice. And yes, I was beginning to suspect he was no ordinary human male.

"Aximili," Loren had whispered, "I want to seek my lost son. I want to right what is wrong with everything that is happening. Help me, please."

How could I help? I was not the one with the dreams. But when she began to describe the place, I realised that I had to help her after all. Only I would know that place.

"Close your eyes, Loren."

And she had fallen back to sleep again, this time calmer. When Cassie had arrived, flustered about the debacle with Melissa and David, I knew it was the time to act on my theory. Cassie would find the rest. I would find the creature complicit in creating all these problems.

The Valley was shrouded in darkness when I reached. I was exhausted from flapping so much, but there was no time to waste. I landed and immediately demorphed (to human! The travesty of it all).

"Show yourself," I said, as firmly as possible. In truth, I was frightened of what the being could do to me, but there had been so many possibilities for us to be killed already. There was only one way to go, and that was forward.

There was only the rustling of leaves. The grass below my feet tickled and felt less comfortable and homely than I last remembered.

"I come on behalf of Loren." I tried again. "You must know who I am."

"You are not here for Loren," came a soft male voice, startling me. "I will not meet you."

I clenched my fists. "If I am here to seek what I have lost too?"

There was a pause before the voice asked, "What have you lost, aristh?"

The answers came immediately to me.

My body.

My home.

My family.

So many things! I opened my mouth to ask.

Your friends, Aximili. Your friends.

I shut my mouth. My heartbeat had accelerated.

This is not my war!

I looked up at the twinkling novas in the sky. An uncomfortable feeling settled in my throat.

"What have you lost?" the voice repeated.

Not your war. Not your war.

I stared at my human hands. Inside, the veins were pumping with red blood. The blood that carried the DNA of my friends – Prince Jake, Marco, Cassie and Rachel. And in the Andalite part of me, a blood connection to Tobias, my shorm.

"I want my human friends and I to be returned to the original reality," I said, quietly. My heartbeat began to slow down. "By coming here, we are losing everything that we have fought so hard to achieve there. This is not our world."

"Oh, is it not?" The voice had turned a little sly. "But it's ridden with so much losses over there, Aximili. Over here, your Prince has no more heartbreak, Cassie no more moral dilemmas, Marco no more distractions, Rachel no more violent and sadistic tendencies, Tobias no more parental troubles. And you, Aximili?"

I waited.

And waited.

"Is it my turn to talk again?" asked the voice, annoyed.

"That is because you cannot complete that sentence," I said, smugly. "You think by putting me in a human body, I will lose connection with my Andalite spirit. But you will never kill that side of me."

"Oh no, no, Aximili, not that strong, obstinate Andalite spirit. Actually, honestly, I don't know why he wanted you to be human. It's probably a sadistic streak."

I stared at the darkness. "He?"

"Now, what did I say?" mused the voice. "No, I suppose it's not a breach of contract. I can mention him without a name, can't I? Oh yes, he, him, he, him... this is exciting! Finding loopholes in a deal!"

This voice sounded nothing like the 'wise' spirit Loren said the being had; it sounded a lot more like the Drode instead.

"Who are you working for?"

"Keep guessing, aristh! I love games and this is going to be a fun one, I know."

"It is already a game you are playing and it is not a good game."

"Not when the one who conceived the game plan doesn't cover all ground and makes a mess out of it. Not my fault. I am a great game master."

A young, egoistic one. That I was sure of.

"Show yourself. It is very uncomfortable speaking to no one."

"But you are speaking to someone. Hmm. In that case, I won't let you speak then. Do you want to thought-speak instead?"

"It does not matter which way I speak."

"Oh, but it is very uncomfortable with a mouth, isn't it? Then don't use it. In fact, take your mouth away. It is unbecoming of an Andalite."

I did not understand for a full minute. But when the wind rustled the leaves once again and the grass tickled at my feet, I momentarily wished that my feet were hooves again. So that the tickling would become more pleasant... that I could feed upon the nutrients in the grass to satisfy myself...

Ahh.

I stared at my feet – no, hooves – and looked back at the darkness. I closed my eyes and focused hard. The bones in my body began to shift, and my heart expanded and burst into pieces. I fell forward – on my two front hooves. The tail – the tail! And my stalk eyes!

I opened my eyes to see my small, weak hands before me. My tail swished to the front, its blade gleaming, curving. I could have cried tears of joy if I had been human like I was a few seconds ago.

"Are you happy now, aristh?" the voice had softened. "Gotten what you want? Have I set right what was wrong?"

‹It is not enough,› I said, tersely. ‹My friends.›

"There are only so many loopholes I can exploit, Aximili. A game master of my standards is very, very capable. But when he makes a deal with the idea creator, the power of control is not necessarily with me."

‹Why are you exploiting these loopholes if you made a deal in the first place?›

"Because my idea creator is an idealistic fool. He thinks he can change his life with this new game. Maybe I thought he could at first, too. But then he got too happy with the idea. He kept interfering with the plan. It was not supposed to happen that way. He wanted to indulge in his childhood, but ended up nearly killing himself by running in front of a car, which incidentally held Loren and Tobias..."

‹Incidentally?› I chuckled in my head. ‹You may not be a game master of great proportions, but the Ketran always know what they are doing. The Ellimist gave the illusion of choice, but you play with loopholes. Is it in your nature to be such meddlesome creatures in the universe?›

"It's called survival!" the voice snapped suddenly. "Do you think it was easy for me to survive when Toomin had conquered half the universe and Crayak the other? I was always going to live in Toomin's shadow! Nobody would believe another Ketran had survived because one of us was terrible enough, two would be too much of a threat! Crayak would eliminate me completely! Even though my powers are so meagre – I can't do anything with reality. I can only create situations. I specialise in making avatars and implanting consciousness into those avatars. With that kind of power, I could only survive on making little creatures' dreams come true. When I came to Earth, this boy's soul haunted me constantly. He wanted to be reborn, and had such a vivid plan that I couldn't resist latching onto. Tell me, who is the meddlesome one you speak of? Oh, and you are one to talk. You Andalites set a great example with Seerow!"

It was a stinging blow.

"And if you think I'm meddlesome, then maybe I should stop here. Because you are the one who was meddling with things. You were supposed to bring Loren along, but you decided to come alone."

‹What has Loren got to do with this? Bringing up Elfangor would hurt her even more!›

"You stupid aristh!" the voice raged. "Then she should forget him!"

Seek what you have lost. Right what is wrong.

Then I realised. The creature wanted Loren to seek the life she had lost. The normal life she should have lived if it had not been for Elfangor. Just like the Loren in our reality.

"See it now? She is the only person grounded in this reality who remembers Elfangor. If she forgets, he will cease to exist. I will erase his existence, and everything will be changed immediately because everything about you children started from him! My deal is that I cannot interfere any more with the set avatars of each of you children, as well as the Yeerks. But I have liberty with the rest of the people."

‹David,› I whispered. ‹He has no idea of Loren's significance in this whole war.›

"Now that you have said it out, I am free to say that slimy creep's name too!" The voice sounded relieved.

‹You said you can't interfere with our set avatars. How did you return my morphing capability?›

The voice giggled. "That is my secret. I only reveal that at the end of the game."

‹Then end it!› I exploded. ‹You hate David. You hate that he is ruining your game. So stop it, stop playing along with him!›

"I can only stop if he decides to stop," said the voice, lazily. "Meanwhile, I entertain myself with loopholes. Don't you think it is fun?"

‹Then exploit it until we can return back!›

"And by the time that happens, Aximili? There already is no time for you to go back and get Loren here because I can assure you your friends will be dead by the time she is here. Too bad."

The voice now manifested itself in what was no longer a man, but a white ball of light, illuminating the landscape before me. It was like the moon had dropped down from the sky, but it was not overwhelmingly bright. I stared at it, mesmerised for a second.

"By that time, you will all be dead."

And then the ball of light exploded before my very eyes.

I shielded myself, then looked back into the darkness.

There was only one thing to do now. We had to convince David to stop the game within a matter of minutes.

But how?