The Lost and Won

Chapter #1

Jake: The year 2020

I knew it wouldn't work, all of us did right from the start, Marco excpecially. We had managed to keep our luck for a long while, then it ran out. The Leerans had been taken, the Andilites, the Skirt Na, and the Iskroot. Also all of the Human race have been captured except us. The Yeerks no longer fear us. All of my friends have become shadows, something no longer human, something more than human, nothing, everything. We were always silent and solemn. Even Marco had stopped joking, he just killed. Finally I lost it. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I had a plan, to kill as many Yeerks as possible and then? Well then we die. Kill, kill, kill, and die.

We entered the Yeerk pool quietly and morphed, I wish Marco would say something like “This is insane!” so I would have a reason to call it all off but he didn’t.

Our new members Cassaia-Esgarrouth-Shamtul, Tobass-Warrrithsa-Sirite, Andrea-Sirinal-Falan, and Noel were also silent and solemn. I felt sorry for them. They had just joined and their first mission was to kill as many Yeerks as possible and then die. It was as if they had joined just to die. Cassaia and Noel were from a different universe, a parallel one where the Animorphs were just children Sci Fi books and Cassaia was a normal, human girl named Cassidy, later the Ellimist messed with Cassidy/Cassaia’s life and she became what she was before being a nothit and shiped off to another universe, sister of Ax and Elfangor. Andrea and Tobass are siblings who threatened to kill Cassaia and Noel mistsaking them for controllers, not that they are related, Tobass was adopted.

We all went into battle morphs. As my black stripes appeared I let out a long roar, one that no one could lock out, one that could turn heads, and it did. It did, yes it did and that was something that would get us all the attention we needed and a little extra that we didn’t.

Hork-Bajir and Taxxons came running, no fear in their eyes like before. Before.... Such a beautiful word, such a beautiful world. Lost in my thoughts for a moment was just about enough to get me killed, “ROOAAR!” I cried as a blade cut into my left thigh.

Anger bubbled in my tiger brain. “KILL!” it said “KILL!” so I did. I slashed around blindly, that was the only way I could hurt anyone anymore, we had fought so much that the Yeerks knew most of our moves. The Hork-Bajir in front of me of me was about to cut me with the blade on it's head.  He arched his neck, bad move. I lunged and ripped his throat open, he fell.

<AAAHHHHH!> I cried as my right ear came off. Another Hork-Bajir had snuck up on me. Somehow I turned around and broke his/her arm. The Yeerk abandoned his host. I squashed him with my paw.

<Run! Ket! Go!> I told her. After Ket and Bek were taken from Cassie's barn the free Hork-Bajir had left the valley in fear of capture. All except Toby who still waits for her mother to return. Ket nodded and left. The Hork-Bajir had come with us to our refuge planet.

My Hork-Bajir were taken care of so I went to help the others. I turned around to a horrible scene. Rachel no longer had both paws, Marco had three Taxxons hanging on his arms, Tobias was a bloody mess, his whole tail had been removed, Ax was missing a stalk eye and his tail blade was chipped in five places, Cassaia had fallen over and no longer had a tail blade, Tobass had only one arm and was bleeding badly, Andrea was going tail to tail with another Andalite, except this Andalite was a War-Prince, Noel was about to get her little snake head chopped off, then behind it all was Cassie, she was crouched against the wall, she had fainted and a Taxxon was about to make wolf chow out of her. I couldn't take it anymore, <RETREAT!> I cried as I slung Cassie on my back.

We ran, Ax opened the door of Visser Two's Blade Ship. Once everyone was inside I gave the command to go. <Everyone de-morph! Ax, don't de-morph yet, first get us into Z-space.> I told everyone.

After I had de-morphed I noticed that Cassie had not de-morphed with the rest of us. “Ax, give me her status,” I said

<At this rate I believe she will die far before she can de-morph on her own.> Ax replied.

“Get the Anti-Morphing Ray,” I told Ax calmly. It was a useful little tool we had gotten from the Yeerks long ago. Ax handed it to me. I zapped Cassie with it. She began to de-morph.

“Marco? Get us to Narrok,” Narrok was a small planet much like Earth where we hid. Narrok is only known and inhabited by us except for a few animals we saved from Cassie's barn and the Gardens, a few transplanted plants, and the native plants and animals that lived there. A small, freshwater stream also flowed through the planet and lead to a large lake. It was kind of odd, the large lake had two mouths that turned into one river, that river flowed out one mouth and came back in the other mouth. Our new planet, you see, was quite small.

<Prince Jake? We have arrived.> Ax informed me.

“Thanks,” I said. The rest of my friends remained silent. We just sat on rocks and stared until Cassie broke the silence.

“It was me wasn't it? We retreated because I was about to die. That was why we didn't stick to the plan,” she accused.

“N-no, “I stamered, “It’s just ....but....I ....”I was cut off by Cassie.

“It's all right. You were just worried. I think you did the right thing as far as I'm concerned,” she said. “Go to bed.”

~*~

Chapter #2

<Prince Jake! Tobias has called a meeting!> I heard someone cry.

“Huh?” I asked ,”Oh, I'll be right there.” I looked at my watch. 3:01. Dang! Tobias could have waited. I met everyone at our new “barn”. “So, what’s the big news that couldn't wait?” I asked Tobias.

“Well, I had a dream. It was about before, actually it was more of a memory. Remember the time when the Yeerks was testing the AntiMorphing Ray?” Everyone nodded, “Well, then I had a hallucination about Elfangor. At the end he told me 'Out of respect for life, you have to endure.' We are forgetting that. Even if we are loosing we can still turn it around! Even if Earth is no longer safe enough for us to live we have Narrok. We have to pull ourselves back together and save the world, again.” Then Marco did something he hadn't done for a long time. His lips parted into a smile,

“Score one for Bird-Boy!” he said. Rachel laughed. Tobias smiled and told us his plan that could pull the fear back into the Yeerks.

“And the awesomely insane part goes to; 3...2...1...” Marco said.

“I'll go!” cried Rachel, right on cue, glaring at Marco like she was about to mangle him.

“Welcome back 'O' mighty Xena. I bow before you. And what can I do for you 'O' fearless leader?” Marco asked. We both smacked him, hard. “What did I do?” Marco demanded. Rachel just grinned.

<You know,> Cassaia said, <I think I’m going to enjoy being an Animorph.>

Finally, finally we were back. Back to before.

By SilverTear

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