After the Animorphs: The One

[Doomhawk]

Team Ellimist:
Citrus Hua
Claire Malcolm (AKA Karakae 579)
Jonathan Fisher
Team Crayak:
Cory "The wolf" Miles
Barakan-Esforthel-Garid
Tak Kerik

RACHEL
My name is...was Rachel. I died in the final battle against the Yeerks. So I was pretty confused when I opened my eyes again and found myself not on the bloodstained deck of a Yeerk ship but floating in the, well, nothingness where I'd last met the Ellimist.

"Rachel, welcome back." Speaking of Ellimist, I heard his voice.

"What's going on?" I demanded. It felt like no time at all had passed since I closed my eyes and yet it felt like an eternity since I'd accepted my death and ceased to be.

"I will make this more convenient for us both." An old blue man appeared and touched my forehead with his index finger before I could back away. I don't like people touching me. My mind was full of images suddenly and I was overwhelmed. Three years. The Animorphs separated. The majority of them on a suicide mission. And two words that were represented by chilling images. The One. I stood motionless as my brain processed everything. Then:

"You jerk! Just because I died and happened to be a useful body hanging around, doesn't mean that I'm your plaything!" I was full of rage. How dare he expect me to go back down to Earth as his little guide? Back to a planet I yearned for in those last few seconds of life. Back to where those I knew still lived. "Why shouldn't I just tell every last one of these...people you've chosen everything? I don't care if The One eats you or whatever. I'm dead, you're using some kind of sick puppetry to keep me alive, I'm not real! And after you've used me, it's back to the...the void I go!" The Ellimist, to his credit, sat there patiently as I found fault with everything he had told me to do in the messages he had passed on through whatever power he used.

"Rachel, forgive me." He looked pained before continuing, "You understand that a part of this is for your friends? Your Animorphs were resourceful- five youths and a young aristh keeping an entire invasion at bay for years! If you save your friends, they may be able to contribute to the destruction of The One. And...remember, Tobias is among them." My white-hot anger turned cold and lingering.

"You're manipulating me." I spoke, my words laced with deadly fury. "You're no better than Crayak." He rocked back on his heels, pained again. My comment had evidently struck him. He replied and I could sense a kind of earnest tone in his voice.

"Perhaps, but this game is on an even grander scale than before. It is for our existence. It is possible that the winner of this game may gain even more bountiful rewards than the last game." I heard him and somehow, I don't know exactly how, I picked up something else in his voice. Hope.

"You...you're an optimist, aren't you? You really want to do good." I spoke, full of disbelief. Rusty memories of his life story came back to me. He'd told me his entire history as I hovered, not alive but not quite dead yet. He nodded, a thin smile on his face. Then something unexpected hit me. "Why me? Why not pick some other creature you can bring back?" Flashbacks to my last days on Earth struck me heavily. "In the end I'm a warrior. I killed my own cousin on his brother's orders." The wizened blue man shook his head.

"Bloodthirsty you may be, but you are also brave. You were quite a hero after the war. You are an icon of sacrifice and dedication, considering you knowingly gave up your life to secure victory in the very last battle of the war." I raised an eyebrow. "I think you might be able to inspire the people I will be sending you down to visit." I stood there silently, staring pointedly at the floor. After a very long silence, I sighed.

"Alright, alright, you win. I'll do everything. I won't give you away." Then I wondered how I would be doing all of this. "So, how exactly do I do this? Go down to Earth, give people advice, help them out when they're stuck? I mean sure, I can do the whole cryptic-Yoda advice thing, but if, say, they're captured and locked in a room, what do I do then?" The Ellimist gave me a look that the instincts stirring deep within me liked a lot, even as I didn't like the enigmatic expression on his face. I frowned and stepped forward-

This was not the nothingless. I looked up. Blue cloudy sky. I looked down. The sidewalk. A car roared past me and I jumped about a foot in the air, freaking out for a moment and stepping back from the edge of the sidewalk. Being dead, I'd forgotten just how everything was in life.

/Rachel, do you remember who it is you are looking for?/ The Ellimist spoke inside my head, kind of like thought-speak and I remembered images of particular humans. I nodded suspiciously. /Good. I will be giving you instructions on how to find them right- now./ I reeled as another information overload hit me. So the Ellimist was watching if he could see me nod. I focused on the strange map-homing-satellite-tracking sense that he'd just given me and followed whatever it was that drew me towards the first of Team Ellimist.

DAVID
I screamed. There I was, claws scrabbling as I tried to get out of here, tried to tear apart this illusion. My tail trailed behind me.

CALM DOWN, BOY. I looked up with blurry eyesight to see a giant red eye staring down at me. YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN. Before I could panic any more, my head was full of information. I froze, primitive mouse brain unable to cope. COME ON, I HAVEN'T GOT ALL DAY. The red eye was not patient and I struggled to reclaim my ability to think and move.

<Why...why me? How?> My last memory was of a blonde girl hovering above me as everything grew dark. I was...dead, wasn't I? This was a sucky afterlife if so.

BECAUSE YOU'RE A FAMILIAR PIECE. I KNOW HOW TO USE YOU. I didn't argue. I knew that the being above me was in control. I knew how it went. Once someone's in control, there's nothing you can do. You just have to obey. I shuddered as I remembered being in someone's control before...being trapped in a pipe as time ran out...

I blinked and I had arms and legs again. I flexed my fingers, scarcely believing it. I looked up at the red eye and he met my gaze of wonder.

SO, YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU MUST DO? I received another image, one that informed me that due to my role, being a mouse would be no good. This being was infinitely powerful if it could reverse the irreversible at will, if it could make me back into a human. If it could do so and win this...this game I was apparently involved in, then maybe this would be permanent. Though after the life I'd had, returning to the peace of death didn't quite seem as bad as it had before everything... YES, PERFORM WELL AND YOU MAY RECEIVE LIFE. I shuddered again, this time with anticipation. Fuzzy memories became clearer- getting a free stay in a hotel as an eagle, breaking a shop window...I had so much potential if I could please this being. I nodded to the Crayak and-

I was standing in the middle of the road. I froze again in terror as a car drove straight through me. I exhaled as another few vehicles did the same and then stepped aside slowly, mounting the sidewalk and realising that I didn't know a whole lot about what I could or couldn't do. If I was supposed to be the Crayak's pawn, then I'd need more abilities than just being present here and being able to talk to people. I felt inner satisfaction realising that I was now closer to something like Crayak's servant Drode...maybe I possessed more power than the average human or even morpher. My face felt almost painfully strained and I reached up and touched my mouth to realise I was smiling. This was an unfamiliar and alien muscle movement to me after my being trapped in morph and death. I let it drop and felt better already.

\GO. FIND THEM.\ I nodded straight away as I felt something drawing me in a certain direction...

TAK KERIK
Tak Kerik sat on a particularly large branch, looking down through the foliage of this grand tree at far-off Hork-Bajir. He could no longer listen to Toby Hamee the Seer telling him that he was sick. He could climb and run and he still ate a large amount of bark. He was not sick. He just did not want to spend lots of time with the others. They were never sad. They didn't understand why he was sad. Toby said he slept too much. But he knew some Hork-Bajir that liked to wake up at night and sleep in the day. She said sleeping too much was a sign of this sickness. But Toby Hamee the Seer spent a lot of time with humans. They probably made her strange. They filled her brain with these strange ideas about false sicknesses. He didn't like the way humans with their strange scent came into their home to look at them. Toby Hamee the Seer said that it was fair because humans gave the Hork-Bajir this home. Tak didn't understand himself, but he felt deep down in his tired bones that this wasn't home. Not really. But he was dimly aware that nowhere could be home. He felt that wherever he went, it would not be home without his kalashi. And now he would have no kawatnoj. He reached up and touched the broken spike on his head without thinking.

BARAKAN-ESFORTHEL-GARID
Barakan-Esforthel-Garid, or "Barry" when he was human, walked down the street casually. It was a nice day and there was nothing in particular on his mind. Various thoughts about human television that he'd watched the previous day filtered through his mind. It seemed that since the so-called "Animorphs" had stolen that ship and embarrassed the Andalites, things seemed to be changing. Morphing cubes were made much harder to give away to humans and even the human amusement parks full of Earth creatures were changing, the security growing tighter there so that any unauthorised morphers wouldn't be able to get in there and effectively steal DNA. This did not bother Barakan- he only needed his human form to get out and about...and the Earth pigeon bird form for when he needed to get across town quickly or even when he felt listless enough to be entertained by a flight through the warm air patches that sent him soaring upwards. He had almost forgotten about his long-ago-acquired kafit bird morph, something that would single him out as an Andalite immediately and get him caught and sent back to his former homeworld. He imagined that the penalty for masquerading as a human was probably high, not to mention the 'upgrades' he'd given his household technology to make life comfortable for him. He inhaled the warm, pleasant air as he wondered what he would eat for lunch today.

[Blazing Angel]

  A deer stands, the image of beauty, drinking from a stream, surrounded by majestic nature. The smell of wildflowers is in the air. Birds sing and chirp. The peace is broken when the animal slumps to the ground, dead, with a handcrafted arrow through its eye.

  Its shooter emerges from a large sapling, smiling at the clean kill. He knows a dear like this could warrant a small feast in his honor. Cory Miles stands at a near towering 6' 3. Everything about him suggests that he is dangerous. A sharp grace in every move. The formerly white cloak and hood that are now stained by his days in the woods that seems to camoflage him if he stands still. The nine inch bowie knife in his left hand that he keeps poised while examining the buck for vital signs.

  Apparently satisfied with the kill, he lifted the animal onto his shoulders and carries it to a makeshift campsight that he appeared to have ready for after the kill. A rabbit roasts over a spit and he sits on a hickory stump while whittling at a block of wood.

[Doomhawk]

DAVID

I paused as I felt the odd tugging at my being grow stronger- suddenly my surroundings blurred and changed into that of beautiful woodland scenery. I looked around and shrugged. If this is where I was sent, this is where I would go. I moved to take a step and stumbled as Crayak dumped more information in my head. I was looking for a...very dangerous man, according to the jumbled images in my head. From the flashes of moments in the man's life I saw, I could make out various weapons that he held at different times. I shivered, hoping I was just an intangible ghost-thing. I wondered whether I could morph and considered turning into a lion before realising that it might well be an invitation to kill me. So I followed the sensation that brought me here, raising my palms pre-emptively as a gesture of surrender. Before long, a camp of some kind appeared and I strode towards it slowly, calling carefully,

"Is anyone there? Hello? I come unarmed!" Cowardly it might sound, but I'd always intended to look out for myself first. You can't do anything if you get killed. I waited to see whether this man would emerge. And how he would react...

[Blazing Angel]

I smiled as a teenage boy walked into my camp. Skinny, with no from of protection. Could be a runaway if he wasn't so clean. I rose to my feet.

"Hmm, You're not very clever. Wandering into private property, filled with wild animals, poisonous plants, and" Fwang! Thwock! The knife in my hand was now imbedded in a tree, inches away from his ear. "my people." I finished. I kept my eyes locked on his as I drew the handgun from a holsteralong my hip. Leveling the pistol between his eyes I said. "Give me one reason not to blow your brains out."

[Doomhawk]

I felt a sinking feeling as I saw the man I was looking for. The words he spoke were making me want to turn and run away screaming. There's a different between cowardice and wanting to save your life. Anyone who ignored their self-preservation instincts when facing this man was just nuts. I tensed up as I heard the sound of some kind of impact and my eyes widened. I looked to my left without turning my head and saw a knife quivering, stuck in a tree trunk too close to my head. I raised a shaking hand and touched my ear.

"Oh my God-!" I whimpered. Suddenly a blazing red eye appeared in my mind and I felt like I'd been shocked. "Agh! OK, OK, don't shoot!" I realised he'd pulled a gun. "First things first, do you know anything about the Yeerk war of three years ago and the Animorphs?" I wasn't wasting my words. I needed to convince him I wasn't just some dumb kid who had trespassed into a place where death was apparently an appropriate punishment for that.

[Blazing Angel]

"Just because I shoot things to eat doesn't mean I don't have internet connection, or a mail service." I replied dryly. "Of course I know about it. If your some conspiracy theorist trying to tell me that it was all staged bythe freemasons or something, I would be doing everyone a favor shooting you."

[The Spectre]

My name is Daniel Andrada.Im a member of the european federation enforcer corps, and today, after 5 years of service, I can go home. If I had a home at least.My family is dead, I killed them. They were taken by the yeerks, turned into the enemy, now they are just another yeerk casuality during the battle of Paris.Thats why I hate the yeerks, more than you can imagine. I was sitting in my bunker inside the platoons quarters, dressed in blue ang gray camo outfit standard for every enforcer. Just packing my stuff and getting ready to go.The only thing left was my trusty E3000 rifle,cleaning the last part of it (a clean weapon is less likely to fail when you need it) , thankfuly  we could keep our weapons after service,ten clips were already in my backpack along with a 9mm.

[Gumby]

He was BORED.

Fisher lay on his couch, staring at the ceiling fan as it spun around in slow, lazy circles. One, two, three, four...

...Seventy nine, eighty, eighty one, eighty two. He sighed in exasperation. Two stinking weeks and those suits still hadn't answered his application. The least the OAA could do was at least pretend they were interested in him being interested in them. But here he was, staring at the stupid ceiling fan in his apartment, wondering if he could summon the strength to make his way to the kitchen for the Bacardi, then to the top of the TV for the remote.

He looked at the long three yards to the kitchen, grimaced, and stayed where he was. Fight that battle another day, back to t the issue at hand. His eyes slowly rolled back upwards. Eighty three, eighty four, eighty five, eighty six... Fisher had to do something before he went crazy.

[Karakae579]

"Okay, you have a wonderful day, sir." I said with a smile. The man before me took his coffee from the counter and nodded, walking away. I watched him go through my shared eyes. The people who came to this cafe were so pleasant. I felt so... human here. It was nice.

My name is Karakae 579. No, I'm not human. But I do share a body with one. My host body is a girl by the name of Claire Malcolm. She's a autistic young human that I have come to care for considerably over the years. We watch out for one another, almost as if we were a weird form of sisters. Some people might say that taking the freedom of a girl who can barely stand up for herself is wrong, but they don't know us. We love each other, and in a way, I think she's actually much happier with me. In taking her original freedom, I have given her a completely new kind.

Anyway, all that is unimportant. In today's world, no one knows what Claire and I are. We prefer it that way; it lets us live with the rest of the world in peace. We work. We play. We exist just as any other human would. So why does it matter that I'm a Yeerk? I figure what everyone else doesn't know, can't hurt them.

[Doomhawk]

DAVID
It was probably a good sign that he didn't shoot me. But I was insulted at the implication that I was a conspiracy theorist. I drew myself up haughtily and replied,

"If you want a conspiracy, you should be asking the Animorphs themselves, though I also know all about the seventh Animorph." Then I remembered my mission and that I was not to say a word about the Crayak. "Anyway, I'm here because you have been chosen. If you know about everything already, you should know that three years ago, all remaining Animorphs except one stole a Yeerk ship and escaped to space. They were caught by a creature known only as 'The One'. What has that got to do with you?" I wondered how to explain this. I wasn't supposed to talk about Crayak, but I wasn't sure whether I could pull off a lie and say that I was the all-powerful one here. "You have been chosen to combat and destroy 'The One'." Before he could complain that it was nothing to do with him, I added, "If this creature finds Earth, we're done for. It has been decided that you have a lot of skills that would be useful in combating this creature. Oh, and there are others like you that have been chosen so you'll have a team to work with." I fell silent and hoped he wouldn't shoot me.

RACHEL
I suddenly got confused as I kind of sensed three presences I needed to go and talk to. If time was of the essence, how would I talk to them all at once?

/Be creative!/ I heard the Ellimist and I frowned.

"I'm not morphing starfish and chopping myself up into three this time." I didn't even know if I could morph. He laughed and prompted me,

/You should find certain...limits of physical existence removed. Why not experiment?/ I could have made a rude gesture at the sky in response to how unhelpful he was being, but the thought of being able to do things that normal, living people can't do excited me. Was I like a ghost? Ghosts could appear to people... I shut my eyes and concentrated... I heard a strange sound and opened my eyes to see two identical Rachels standing on my left and right. My mouth dropped open.

"Please, that expression does not suit you." The one on my right remarked with disdain. I realised they had my personality and quickly snapped to attention.

"Go find the others Ellimist wants to recruit." I told them and they vanished. I headed for the remaining person, suddenly finding myself standing next to them.

RACHEL #2 - WITH DANIEL ANDRADA
I realised that I wasn't a clone. Somehow I was still myself, or at least a part of myself. I looked around and noticed that I was in a military kind of building. I was passingly familiar with them after the war and I noticed the man sitting there in a camo outfit. How would I go about this? I'm a direct kind of person.

"Hey." I simply said, hoping I wasn't invisible or something weird. "You know the Animorphs? How they stole a ship and went to find their friend?" It still bothered me deep down that they'd been so stupid to just go on a suicide mission like that. But I understood that they wanted to save Ax and they weren't dead yet, so the Ellimist claimed, so I would forgive them eventually. "Oh, try not to freak out, I don't know if anyone else can see me." I added as an afterthought. I wondered whether I'd get recognised.

RACHEL #3- WITH CLAIRE MALCOLM AND KARAKAE 579
I was in a coffee shop. I could deal with this. Looking around, I wondered what kind of warrior would be sitting casually in a coffee shop. My instincts were telling me that surprisingly, it was a barista I neede to talk to. I made sure I was wearing normal clothing, not my morphing outfit. I then realised that I could hardly interrupt her work or I'd be holding up the queue. So I walked up to her and calmly asked her,

"What different types of coffee do you serve?" I knew it might be a dumb question, but it would give me time to explain everything. Instead of speaking and sounding like a lunatic in front of the normal people in the coffee shop, I tried an Ellimist trick- I concentrated hard and tried to send her mind images.

The Animorphs stealing a ship and flying into space.
An unknown creature called 'The One' that will take and absorb every human and destroy Earth's population.
You have been chosen to try and destroy 'The One' and save Earth.
You are not alone in this task- you will be part of a team.
I am your guide in this task. If you succeed, I benefit too, so I will offer help when help is needed.
If you have any questions, approach the blonde girl who will be sitting in the corner of this place as soon as you get the chance.

I stood there innocently.

RACHEL #1 - WITH JONATHAN FISHER
I realised I'd appeared in someone's home. I probably looked kind of weird in my morphing outfit.

"Boo." Why the heck not, I shrugged as I attempted to be a stereotypical ghost and scare the inhabitant of this place. Before he could react, I added quickly, "How do you feel about saving the world?"

[The Spectre]

Seeing a girl standing there shocked me beyond words. How had she gotten into a one of the safest military bases in the world? No human could ever...wait!Animorphs? Yeah, the bunch of morph-capable kids who had kept the invasion at bay for years.And this guy, the one who had given a speech in TV, told us that one of them had died, a girl with long, blond hair!Was she a ghost? Hadnt she really died?Perhaps my reaction wasn't the most appropiate, but I had so many questions, I picked up my rifle and aimed at her, it wasnt loaded but hopefully she wouldnt know that.-What are you? What are you doing here?-

[Blazing Angel]

I slightly lowered the pistol. If I fired now, he would have a punctured lung and broken ribs. 'You've caught my attention. The whole stroy sounds completely unreasonable and insane, but the very fact that you managed to track me down says that you have something powerful backing you." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another rabbit. BANG! The pistol fired and the rabbit dropped. "I'm in. Come have some lunch with me."

[Gumby]

And then some tart popped out of the air. Fisher nearly jumped out of his couch with a yell of surprise.

"Whoa! Who the hell are you, and how'd you get into my apartment?" He scrambled off the couch, putting it between him and the girl. Where the hell had he left the pistol? He eyed her cautiously, noting she was wearing only a skin-tight black leotard, giving her a look similar to someone he'd seen on TV before. "Who are you, and what's with the get up? And what the hell are you talking about?" He demanded.

[Doomhawk]

DAVID
I shrugged- it was as good a reason as any to believe me, though I figured that if I actually had some kind of weird Crayak-given special abilities in addition to this whole teleporting thing, it might convince him more.

"I guess you could say that I have something's backing." I jumped as he fired the gun that had been pointing at me not too long ago. Then I realised how cowardly I looked. I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to remind myself that I was better than this, that I shouldn't be so nervous. "Yeah, OK. We can discuss the whole deal over lunch." I then realised my blank face might seem strange, so I attempted a smile.

RACHEL #3 - WITH DANIEL
I kind of expected the gun reaction, but the only thing that stopped me from trying to morph grizzly and take a bullet was that he asked not 'who' but 'what' I was. So this guy wasn't just the brawns of this whole plan.

"What am I?" I repeated his question, not totally sure myself. "Well, I'm not dead anymore, but not exactly alive either. At least, I don't think so. You remember the Animorphs? Or more specifically, you remember hearing about one that died just before the end of the war?" I jabbed a thumb at myself. "That one was me. And the reason I'm here now is because there's...someone out there who wants to protect Earth. There are a lot of things out there besides Andalites and they're not all friendly." I frowned as I continued, hoping I wasn't sounding totally insane. "This...someone decided to pick you to try and destroy an alien that wants to absorb every last human." I fell silent, waiting to see whether I'd get to test out whether I could morph.

RACHEL #1 - WITH JONATHAN
I couldn't deny it, it felt good to give this guy a scare. Not as good as it was to go scaring Hork-Bajir and making them retreat before my grizzly figure, but this would do for now.

"How'd I get in? Well, I needed to talk to you and I couldn't find you so I figured I'd just go straight to you." I wasn't interested in getting sidetracked about the technicality of my new semi-ghostly powers. I figured I'd just answer his questions straight out. "I am Rachel, this is my morphing outfit and I'm talking about the Animorphs. You know them, right? Kids who saved the world and then ran away in a Yeerk ship and are now somewhere up in space?" I hoped he knew enough about them to figure out who I was by my appearance and name. "They need help and I happened to get sent by....someone because this someone thinks that you have the skills to help them out." I'd go into detail once he seemed like he would listen.

[Karakae579]

Karakae was about to answer the girl when a series of images washed through her. The sense had probably only lasted for a moment, but it felt like forever. Inside of them, Claire shrank back, clearly frightened. Karakae placed a hand to the side of her head, feeling slightly woozy. What the....?

Her job. She needed to focus on her job. She gave her head a quick shake, trying to push off the feeling/

"Uh... my apologies for my spaciness, ma'am. Menu is to the right there," she said pointing. "And our special for the day is there." She gestured to the colorful board right above her. "Most drinks come in both hot and cold variations, so feel free to try either kind. May I recommend the peppermint cream frap from a nice warm day?"

She looked to the clock briefly. She had roughly 20 minutes until her lunch-break. Not too long. She would go to talk to this girl then.