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Jake and the others have heard Tobias and Elfangor's story, and now that they understand the true gravity of the threat. The greatly weakened but still mighty Elfangor offers the children the chance to fight on in the stead of his vanquished Andalite comrades. But Tobias and Elfangor do not wish to delay, they don't know how much time they have, the longer they linger, the greater the chance that their time being cut short grows.
The Dying Star II
"What is your decision?" Elfangor's question repeated in my head.
The ability to morph into animals, in return for fighting on the front lines of humanity's defense against the worst aliens that have tried to invade us yet. Or walk away, and hope someone else fights for us instead.
If Elfangor is even telling the whole truth, that is.
We'd been quiet for what had seemed like forever when Marco broke the silence.
"No," he said in a way that did not warrant debate.
Elfangor looked at him with an emotion I couldn't decipher, but didn't object outright. He really was leaving it up to us, I guess – for all we knew he'd zap us if we'd say no rather than just erase our memories somehow.
Tobias however, looked almost relieved, but he wasn't as easily swayed, "If you don't trust Dad, I understand. But at least trust me. I've already received the power myself."
"No," Marco repeated, adamant. "Look, Tobias, I trust you, but how do I know Elfangor isn't just tricking us all? You included? Do you have any tangible proof that your dad can be trusted?"
"I've already used it," Tobias said. "As a matter of fact, I've flown all the way here as a red-tailed hawk."
"The box has no negative side effects," Elfangor said. "It is a special model that was created just for humans, for this exact situation."
Marco was silent, and then he looked up, conflicted.
"I'm sorry, but the answer is still no," he eventually said.
"Look, turning into animals; it sounds awesome. I'll be able to actually fly under my own power!" Marco gushed for a few seconds.
"But you're not asking us to fly free as any bird out there, you're asking us to fight a war," he continued. "One we have to keep secret. One that we have no way of knowing if we'd even win! And how do we win? We have nothing, we don't know what their power structure looks like. We don't know how tough these aliens are. We don't know how many humans they control, we don't even have any idea where they are! We're literally going into this blind!" Marco said, gesturing wildly with his hands.
"And I would love to do that, I really do. I can't stand by and watch as alien warmongers choose to keep carving up humanity and our world like the Thanksgiving Turkey. But my dad's with the ETS, you can't get into that by being ignorant of your surroundings. Sooner or later he'll notice something's up."
"Then I'll cover for you," Tobias said, putting his hand on my best friend's shoulder. "And you won't be going in completely blind. Dad placed a tracker on one of the attackers, a giant worm. It should still be in his stomach. The data is being transmitted and recorded at… a location I'm not allowed to disclose. But I'll go there, and retrieve the data."
"I'll do it."
Everyone turned to where the words came from.
"Cassie?" I asked, as she stepped forward to Tobias, who was holding the box.
"Give me the power. Someone has to fight back. If the Controllers win, then we're done for."
She put her hand out, but then she hesitated, unsure of what to do exactly.
"Simply touch one side with the palm of your hand, and focus on receiving the power," Elfangor reassured her.
"Be warned though, it will tingle a little bit," Tobias said. "And your hand will be stuck to it for thirty seconds and be a little numb for a while."
So there are side effects. Made me wonder what else they left out so far.
But Cassie didn't hesitate further. When she touched the box, a sort of…paste oozed up and enveloped her hand. Her arm started twitching for a few moments, then stopped. Marco let out a quiet noise of worry.
"This does tingle," Cassie murmured in fascination.
We then waited, until…
"It is done," Tobias said solemnly.
Cassie then lifted her right hand and made a fist, clenching and unclenching her fingers. The blue-gray paste receded into tiny crevices that covered the surface of the cube.
"Huh, that's odd," Cassie said in confusion.
Oh no.
"What is it?" Tobias asked, concerned.
"You said my hand was supposed to feel numb, right? It doesn't feel numb at all."
Tobias looked back at her wide-eyed, seemingly unsure what to say. Even Elfangor seemed shocked. He opened his mouth to try to say something a few times, but failed and closed it again.
"What?" Rachel asked, concerned for her friend. "Did something go wrong? Is she okay?"
"Cassie…" Elfangor finally said. "You are something very special, the lack of numbness in your hand indicates that you're an… Estreen. A more powerful morpher than even normal humans with the gift. A supermorpher, so to speak. You will have more control over the morphing process than any of your friends, and will be able to heal more rapidly than anything else on this planet."
I sighed in relief.
"What just happened to you, was literally a one in ten thousand chance," Tobias added in astonishment.
"One in ten thousand," Marco repeated distrustfully. "Or did you just modify the box so it would do something different?"
"No," Tobias said. "The cube's settings cannot be altered, not without disastrous consequences. This was pure luck."
Elfangor turned to the rest of us expectantly. "First Tobias, now Cassie. Will any more of you step forward?"
I was still somewhat indecisive. Rachel stepped up before I could answer.
"Aaah crap, now that Cassie's in this, I can't just back out. I'm in," Rachel said. She immediately stepped forward and put her hand on the cube. Her arm got jittery when the paste touched her, just like Cassie's had. "Yow, that's…something…"
Her arm stopped twitching after a few seconds. The half-minute then came, as the wind picked up outside.
"It is do-" Tobias said, but before he could finish, Rachel removed her right arm and made a T-pose. "All right, who's bad?" Rachel exclaimed victoriously, without realizing that the cube was still stuck to her until it hit the ground. She looked at the box and immediately realized what had happened, then blushed, embarrassed. My cousin leaned down and gave it back to Tobias before walking away, clenching and unclenching her arm.
"Now there are three," Elfangor said. "Marco, are you still adamant about not receiving the power?"
"I… I'm…" My best friend said, rather conflicted. "I'm sorry, but I won't touch the cube."
"There's something else is there?" Elfangor asked gently.
Marco swallowed, before speaking up. "If I… If I choose to fight, but not get the morphing power here, will I be able to decide to get the power later on?"
Tobias' father nodded, "Yes, you can acquire the power at any time. My son will accompany you and aid you in your journey, including holding the cube. But the sooner, the better."
"Wait, you're not coming with us?" Cassie asked.
Elfangor shook his head. "No, I'm sorry, but I cannot. Though I will survive, the injuries I have sustained have crippled me. I can no longer fight."
Yeah, no kidding, I thought. He looked as if he should have died several days ago. Then again, if it wasn't for those weird crystals, would the healing abilities that come with morphing really have healed all that?
"I must go to a specially made sanctuary to heal," Elfangor elaborated. "I will join you in your fight when I recover, but this will take years. My son will escort me to the sanctuary a couple days from now, and bring some supplies back to you when he returns."
"This is… It's just too serious," Marco exclaimed. "I've seen how often Dad comes home practically yanking what remains of his hair out of his head. I don't want to see him like that anymore, please, just…don't erase my memory."
Elfangor looked at Marco with a grave expression. "This is a serious handicap you're putting on yourself. Are you absolutely sure you want to fight this way? Keep in mind this is your last chance to back out and lead a normal life, but this is also your choice, and your choice alone. However, until you receive the morphing power, you cannot take any active roles in combat or recon, and must be extra careful to stay hidden."
"This is my choice," Marco repeated. "I will fight, but I will not get the power to morph. I mean, not yet. So please, don't erase my memory."
Tobias' dad nodded. "As you wish. Considering your previous experiences with alien life, I understand why you would not trust me so easily. It is a wise decision, however unnecessary a reaction that is to my kind. I will let you go, but please do not wait around too long."
Marco just nodded.
He now looked at me, "Jake, what is your decision?"
"Yes," I said in a way that dispelled any ambiguity. It was sort of instinctive, like I wasn't even sure if I'd made up my mind yet when I said it. But I guess I'm like that. If someone puts me on the spot, I don't waste time answering.
Elfangor's eyes widened, two light dots in a sea of red. "You –" Elfangor said before getting into a nasty coughing fit. It was a long time before he stopped.
"You accept?" he asked, tears in his eyes. I guess he wasn't expecting me to.
"Yes, I'll take the power," I said, turning towards Tobias. "They'll come for all of us eventually, there's nothing stopping that. Nothing but us."
"From the moment he saw you, my son knew you were something special," Elfangor said. "It is not very apparent now, and it took me some time, but I, too, can see it now. You will make a fine leader."
"Oh my gosh," Tobias said in exasperation. "I didn't see that last part in him, Dad!"
"Then what did you see?" he asked quizzingly with a smile on his face.
"I saw… something," Tobias said in confusion. "I can't put my finger on what it was, but… the best I can describe it is as a sort of… greatness. But your point still stands, Dad."
Tobias then extended his arm, the cube still in his hand. I walked a couple of steps towards him and touched it.
The paste rose from the crevices and covered my hand, glueing me to the box. Two seconds in, my right arm spasmed for a moment, just like what happened with the others. It made it feel like pop rocks feel in your mouth at first, but then it went completely numb. I also felt… strange in my chest and head while it was happening, but that feeling abruptly stopped after a little while.
"It is done," Tobias said. The box and my hand became unfused with each other, but my entire right arm remained completely numb.
"Now, you must go!" Elfangor said desperately. "Flee, return to where you came from!"
"What?" Rachel said. "But we literally just –"
"There's a chance that my father may have been followed," Tobias interrupted. "The longer we remain here, the greater the chance that the Controllers will find their way here and track you down!"
"What?!" Rachel demanded angrily. "Why didn't you tell us before now?"
"Because they didn't want to rush us into this decision," Cassie said, trying to defuse the situation.
"Ensuring that the battle for this planet is not lost is our absolute top priority," Elfangor said firmly. "There are two relics on this Earth that will turn the tide irrevocably to the enemy's favor, one is The Last Recorder, the container of an archive of ancient information millions of years old, and possibly including the identities of the Controllers and each of their alien hosts. The second is the cube that my son now carries. These are the conditions of our defeat: the Controllers are not stopped, they seize the Recorder, or they take the Cube. If any one of those things happen, then both of our kinds are truly finished."
"WAIT! EVERYONE QUIET!" Tobias suddenly exclaimed, holding his hand up. He looked desperate.
"Oh no…" he said after listening intently for a few seconds. I looked to Elfangor and saw the same expression of fear.
"Children, hide in the mineshaft, now!" Elfangor said.
"What are yo-" Marco said.
"There's no time, they're coming!" Tobias said urgently before running out the door, taking the box with him.
"Who's co-?" Rachel tried to ask Elfangor.
"Get. To. The. Mine. NOW!" he shouted at us with a strength I didn't know he had. But his voice wasn't the only thing that spurred us to go there that day. One look at his face was all it took to know that if we wanted to keep on living, we had to obey.
"Everyone, we gotta move," I said before following Tobias, and we all broke into a sprint, navigating through the bank's doors to get outside. Tobias was already at the mine entrance when we emerged, waving us forward. Rachel and I were the first to get to him, with Marco following close behind. Cassie was the last to get there, and she only just made it in time. Just as she went past the tree in front of the entrance, I heard a sound like a bomb exploding in the distance.
"Oh crap, is that a ballistic missile?" Marco asked in fear.
"Worse…" Tobias quietly said in hollow despair. He took his right index finger and rubbed it violently on the palm of his left hand, then he put his left hand to the ground and I briefly saw a flash of rainbow light.
"Whoa, what was that?" Rachel asked.
I looked outside to see that the world was now slightly distorted.
"We're invisible now," Tobias said. "They can't hurt us here."
They? I thought. Just when I opened my mouth to ask Tobias who he was talking about I saw something small, dark, and fast crash into the roof of the building we were just in. We flinched, and everyone was quiet.
We waited a few seconds before I spoke up.
"Why didn't i-" was all I could get out before I heard a loud, hateful, and inhumanly angry voice shout from all the way inside the place where Elfangor was.
"DID YOU THINK YOU COULD HIDE?!" A voice exclaimed from inside the bank. Definitely not Elfangor's.
"Oh crap… Is that a Controller?" Rachel asked Tobias in a concerned voice.
"Maybe. I… I don't know, I've never even –"
Tobias was unable to finish before Elfangor was thrown through the walls of the bank. He rolled as he landed and stopped several dozen feet away.
"Father!" Tobias cried out fearfully, reflexively reaching forward. He caught himself just before his hand went past the barrier.
We looked at the hole to see his attacker walk out. It was human, wearing what looked to be a black jumpsuit… except even from this distance I could see that it… wasn't. Many parts of his body had mechanical replacements, including… a tail? I thought I was seeing things at first, but it was hard to miss after he stepped out of the hole. It was longer than his entire body! And, mind you, it wasn't a tail like a cat's or a dog's. It had a blade at the end of it!
"You… you… YOU ABOMINATION!" the… thing screamed with rage as he ran over to Elfangor.
While all my normal friends and I could do was hope that the new subject of our nightmares wouldn't spot us through the invisibility field somehow, Tobias was desperately searching through his bag. He picked up a bunch objects that I didn't recognize, though some of them were obviously alien weapons. He settled on something that looked like a pistol with a long barrel covered in some kind of pods, and aimed it at the Controller.
Meanwhile, Elfangor was actually getting up somehow. That heightened pain tolerance is no joke. Just as he did though, the Controller reached him and pushed him back on the ground, then started pounding on his head.
I winced. Not only could I hear him screaming in fury, but I heard every metallic punch connect with his head from all the way over here.
I heard Tobias let out a whisper that I almost didn't catch.
"No," he said before putting the weapon he had on the ground and continuing to desperately rummage through his bag.
"WHY AREN'T YOU SCREAMING?!" the monster shrieked in fury before stopping his assault and grabbing him by the collar. "Come on, throw me your bones. Die screaming, just like your friends!"
At the last word the freak threw Elfangor.
"Aaaaaargh!" Tobias' father shouted. He sailed until he hit a tree so hard the impact left a dent in it and snapped off a thick branch.
Then he stopped moving. His head lolled to the side and faced us. His eyes were lifeless.
"No…" Cassie said, her hands over her mouth. Everyone winced in pain.
Rachel took her friend in her arms to comfort her. "It'll be okay, it'll be okay. It's just like Tobias said, he can't hurt us here!"
If we hadn't listened… If we went for the mineshaft just five seconds later…
"How disappointing," the monster said with clenched teeth. "But… just to be absolutely sure…"
It raised its tail blade to the point where it looked like a scorpion. He slowly walked over to Elfangor, partially crouched down, arms forward, hands open.
I looked one last time at Tobias' father for signs of movement, but he didn't move a muscle.
"I'm sorry, but –" I said before noticing what was now in his gloved hand.
A crystal, a long jagged purple crystal.
"Wait," I said hurriedly. "I don't think he's out yet, Elfangor's got a crystal!" I said.
"A what?" Rachel asked.
"Yes, Jake's right, there's Critaggium Crystal in his hand!" Tobias said, excited and hopeful.
"How is the crystal not mauling his hand right now?" Marco whispered.
"It needs direct contact with living tissue in order to activate," Tobias explained. "Dad still has a chance!"
"A snowball's chance in Hell more like!" Marco said fearfully. "Look at him, how much of those superhuman abilities do you think he has left? Even though that's not his true form, for all intents and purposes your dad's a regular human, right?"
Tobias opened his mouth, before closing it again. He was speechless for a while.
"He can play dead like no one else," he said eventually, while looking forward at the fight grimly.
Marco didn't know what to say to that.
The monster picked up Elfangor by his collar, then raised him to the air, his lifeless expression passing out of view. I saw the monstrosity move its tail out to the side, then it started swinging it like a lasso. Part of his tail seemingly became loose and started swinging faster and faster, so fast that it became a blur. Then the cyborg's tail changed positions again, about to move to cut off his head.
Then like lightning, Elfangor struck!
"Haaaah!" With a shout Elfangor thrust the crystal towards the tail that was moving to cut off his head at the exact same time. It happened in a blur at breakneck speed.
"AaaaaAaAaAaAaARGH!" the cyborg let out a terrifying sound of pure agony that couldn't possibly have come from the throat of a human. We all covered our ears in pain at the deafening roar. I glanced at Tobias to see his expression unchanged, staring stoically at the encounter with a subdued expression of hope.
The tail retracted and the tip of it convulsed in pain. Tobias' dad was untouched!
"Yes!" I silently cheered behind my teeth.
Elfangor was quick to act, again thrusting the crystal. He hit the tail again, closer to the base this time.
AaaaaAaAAAAGRRRGH!" the Controller shouted as he let go of Tobias' father and sunk to his knees.
Elfangor thrust again, piercing the leg above the knee. Just as he did, purple crystals began to emerge from the monstrosity's tail. It looked so… wrong, it made me want to puke!
The cyborg retaliated with its bare hands, swinging at him lightning quick. But Elfangor dodged.
"Tobias, you said it should only do that to flesh!" Marco accused.
"It does, but I've never seen… this thing before! The tail has to be partly organic!"
"So a mutant cyborg?" Marco asked incredulously.
The crystals grew to the point where the monster's tail fell off at the tip, and close to the base where he was stabbed a second time. The cyborg was now at a major disadvantage. His tail was practically gone, only a foot of it was left. Still, he powered through the pain and kept trying to grab Elfangor with his lightning quick hands.
Not quick enough, though, and his amputation put him off balance. Several times a second the arms swung for him, but he dodged them every time.
"Oh my God, look at him go!" Rachel laughed with a wide smile on her face, rightfully impressed with the superhuman dodging she was witnessing.
Nevertheless, the cyborg's fists were moving faster. The near-misses became more frequent and more narrow.
Then the cyborg suddenly kicked out with his uninjured leg. Elfangor stabbed with the crystal again in response, piercing the cyborg's knee. But it wasn't enough. He hit Elfangor right in the gut where his injury was. He jumped back several feet.
We all winced. I saw Elfangor vomit a pint of red blood out of his mouth and nose. He barely managed to land on his feet. Then he leaned down, cradling his gut. Elfangor then threw away the shard. It landed on the other side of the bank.
"Well, guess I hit a weak spot!" the cyborg laughed mockingly.
"It's dangerous to go alone!" he said in a fake, condescending old-man's voice, as he limped over to where Tobias' dad was.
"Take THIS!" he suddenly shouted before smashing his hand on his left collarbone. I heard it shatter from all the way out here. Elfangor's fell to his knees, pale-faced.
"Why you-!" I moved forward in fury, automatically leaning down to pick up Tobias' gun. I took aim but before I could pull the trigger…
"Jake, no!" he said, holding me back, lowering my arm.
"Let go of me!" I practically shouted.
"That shoots homing missiles, you'll kill them both!"
I stopped resisting. All I could do was stare at the brutality unfolding, powerless to do anything. I heard Tobias continue to desperately rummage through his bag.
How can we fight that? What can we do to fight that?!
"For a cripple, you put up an amazing fight," the monster said as he limped over to where Elfangor was. "Even using our own weapons against us."
"So, it is a controller," Marco whispered.
"You were cunning, the deadliest adversary I've yet to fight. But all things come to an end, even you, your death is here and now."
"This… isn't over… abomination," Elfangor managed to gasp out.
"This, no," the cyborg agreed with Elfangor as its hand reached out for him. "This is just the beginning. But your life is done."
Then, impossibly, I saw Elfangor summon one last vestige of strength and jump to the monster's side, his right arm hanging limply. He extended his left arm, and tendrils came out of it. Elfangor smashed his left fist in the back of the cyborg's head, it went to its knees, stunned.
I saw Elfangor grab both of his arms, gritting through the pain, and put them behind his attacker's back. The tendrils wrapped around the cyborg's arms, thickening into alien ropes that tied the cyborg's arms behind his back.
"You think these binds can hold me?" The cyborg said cockily, trying to tear his arms free.
"No," Elfangor said with finality. "They can't."
The tendrils then disconnected from Elfangor's arm, and he jumped forward on to the cyborg's back and put his left arm over him. The cyborg tried to shake the Andalite off, but combined with his injured leg, he was truly immobilized. Tobias' father then turned to the mineshaft.
"The rocket!" he cried at the top of his lungs.
What? I thought in disbelief, then I looked to the rocket launcher on the floor.
"No…" Tobias said in despair and horror. He had an expression on his face that indicated his worst nightmare was coming true "Not you… too…"
My eyes widened in horror at what was going to happen.
"You're not the only one?!" The cyborg said in anger, I heard Tobias pick up the rocket launcher and aim it at the both of them.
"Where is it?!" It shrieked in anger, then it's eyes locked on to the mineshaft.
"FIRE!" Elfangor repeated. "OPEN FIRE!"
The cyborg's eyes locked on to us, then widened in horror and he struggled even harder to break free. "What?! You're insane! You'll kill us both!"
Tobias' gun made a beep noise, and then his voice was… somehow in our heads.
((I love you, Father.))
"No… NOOO!" The cyborg cried out, the bindings beginning to snap.
Then the rocket was launched. Elfangor then loosened his grip, and kick jumped off of his attacker's shoulders behind him.
The cyborg broke free, but at the exact moment he did the rocket reached its target and exploded just below his neck.
It was the loudest thing I've ever heard. The cyborg was consumed in fire and smoke in an instant, and a massive cloud of dust was kicked up. I saw dark bits raining down from the sky a second later, then saw something large land close to us.
It was his skull. The jaw was gone, but some metal bits were still attached to it, including steel teeth.
The cloak deactivated and Tobias immediately ran to where his father was.
"Tobias!" I called out to him, giving chase. The others followed me.
We ran for what felt like forever, but it was only half a minute. As we got closer to the blast zone, we heard our footsteps fall on what could only be described as scorched earth. It crunched like stepping on broken glass. When I eventually caught up to Tobias, his father was on his back, held in his son's arms. Somehow still alive.
"What was that… thing?" Marco asked him.
"Remnant Mercora...cyborg…" he started, struggling to get it out. "I thought...destroyed... that one must have survived, was repaired… infested… "
He coughed. "Children, listen close…my lifetime's war is at its end... I... we... entrust our dream of...salvation...to you... You must find… the Last Recorder… If you don't, then, it means, the end of all things."
He held his hand out to me, and I took it, "Young hero...trust in the visions..."
Then he turned to Tobias and spoke in a gasping voice, reaching his other hand. "My son… don't, let them go… don't you ever… let them go...remember...The Ellemist's Omen, and you will survive...prosper..."
"Father, save your strength!" Tobias said.
"The coordinates are… 40, 18'29.2… degrees North, and…160… West…"
Coordinates?
"I love you my son," Elfangor barely managed to whisper before closing his eyes and laying his head on the grass. "Trust...The Prophecy..."
Then he went still, and I could no longer feel his pulse.
"No, no no no no!" Tobias said rapidly as he cradled his father. He held his hand as I released his, which was now limp.
"You can't fade here!" Tobias cried out in a piercing voice sharp with denial.
We all stood silently, not sure what to do.
"Get up! I said get up!" Tobias cried out desperately before putting the palm of his hand to his dad's chest. I heard a boom go off, as a light briefly shone underneath Tobias' hand. Tobias was trying to restart Elfangor's heartbeat.
He put his head to Elfangor's chest, listening.
His eyes narrowed. He shook his head and repeated the procedure.
"Come on, get up!" Tobias said more desperately. "You can't let yourself die like this!"
Boom.
"This isn't your time to die. You said so yourself, father. Get up!"
Boom.
"Come on, we came so far!"
Boom.
Boom.
boom.
He kept going at it for several minutes, but it was no use. Elfangor's body spasmed less and less with each subsequent jolt, until eventually it stopped moving at all.
I felt like I should've said something, or helped him somehow, but what could I have done or said? What do you say to someone who practically just had to shoot his dad with a rocket launcher?
Cassie figured it out eventually. She just walked forward and put her hand on his shoulder. He stopped, and sat like that for a while, letting his tears fall on his father's chest.
Tobias slowly rose to his feet and whispered in disbelief. "No… no… you can't… after everything…"
Tobias reared his head and let out a howl of despair and anguish to the sky.
He beat the ground, as tears came out of his eyes. "He's gone!"
Cassie, not knowing what else she can say, backed up to me.
Tobias pulled the trigger. The cyborg was dead, but… he's gone, Elfangor's gone.
"First mother, then the others, not you too! Anyone but you! How can I do this without you, Dad?!"
Cassie burst in tears and cried into my chest. I looked to Rachel and saw her barely holding back her own, but moved forward to hug Tobias. He didn't reject. Marco looked stunned, like he couldn't believe what he saw.
"Why? Why have we been denied everything? EVEN OUR RIGHT TO DIE IN PEACE?!" Tobias roared at the heavens before getting down on his knees, causing Rachel to back off. Right then, I heard a thunderclap in the distance.
Tobias looked up to the sky, at the clouds. The wind blew his hair.
"Their light…" Tobias said in a broken, hollow, and defeated voice. "Everyone's gone, they're all gone. Their light has sunken into the earth forever. I'm the only one left. By The Ellemist's Husk, what have those monsters done? I'm last remaining…" Tobias stopped in the middle of his sentence as if he couldn't go on.
"Tobias…" I said, kneeling down next to him, putting my hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry."
When I touched him, I was shocked at first because it was numb. Then I remembered; the effects of the cube won't wear off for several hours.
I then felt Cassie leave my embrace and walk over to Tobias on the scorched earth. She laid the cube down gently next to him, then backed away.
"He went down swinging," I heard Marco say. Tobias went completely still, not even his silent shuddering breaths could be heard. "Your father went down swinging Tobias, he took his killer with him. That's a better end than a lot of people had, and will have. Certainly better than my mom's." Marco finished, choking at the memory. Tobias nodded in acknowledgement.
His silence carried on for a long time. Eventually, Tobias took Elfangor's arms and crossed them over his chest.
"Go," he finally said.
"What?" I asked him.
"Go back to where you came from. A storm is coming… You'll get soaked…"
"Guys, he's right, we need to go," Rachel said, walking away. "We've been here too long, the councillors are probably turning the camp upside down looking for us."
I nodded, and took the first step toward, but just then Tobias spoke again.
"Jake," he said. I looked behind myself to see him staring at me.
"The last of the Andalites are gone from this world, excluding Visser Three," he continued, his voice clear and determined. "If my people's spirits are going to find any rest, then we must take him down. With my Father gone, you're the leader now."
"Tobias…" I said. "I-"
"Go," he said, his voice breaking again. "I'll remain here and… tend to the fallen, and make sure nobody else is coming. Go!"
And like that we were out of there. We ran. When we got to the outside of the ghost town I looked back in time to hear Tobias let out one more wail of grief to the heavens, far louder than before. I will never forget that howling voice carried by the wind.
We got to the upper trail we came from, and when we got to the woods around the camp it was beginning to rain. We avoided any serious punishments due to Marco saying that nothing bad happened. Yeah, right. The worst we got was a scolding.
We got through the rest of the camp day acting like it was any other. When the bus came to pick us up, we all boarded and spent the rest of the ride in a catatonic state.
It had sunk in for me then, we were alone. No Andalites, no human military, just four kids against the worst alien invasion we've ever suffered.
No, not just four of us. Tobias was on our side too, and he has a good amount of alien tech skill. Still, the nightmare had just begun, and it was clear then, that we weren't going to wake up for a very long time.