It's interesting that at this point in the series KA has definitely settled on the idea that Earth will be pivotal to the outcome of the overall war. That's come up a few times so far - I think firstly or most prominently in Visser - but I don't remember it being suggested in the first half of the series.
It's interesting that at this point in the series KA has definitely settled on the idea that Earth will be pivotal to the outcome of the overall war. That's come up a few times so far - I think firstly or most prominently in Visser - but I don't remember it being suggested in the first half of the series.
No, it definitely feels like a retcon. I don't think they had come up with "why" for a lot of these questions at first.
This is a good chapter for estimates of Yeerk numbers. Also, we see sort of the attitude "Oh, the Yeerks are advanced. They must be peaceful and friendly".
This bit about the unstable shifting nature of Z-space feels new, too. We haven't heard anything like this in any prior book, right?
No, it definitely feels like a retcon. I don't think they had come up with "why" for a lot of these questions at first.
This bit about the unstable shifting nature of Z-space feels new, too. We haven't heard anything like this in any prior book, right?
I thought I remember it coming up when Ax sneaks into the observatory and calls home.
I thought I remember it coming up when Ax sneaks into the observatory and calls home.
Yeah and also in Andalite Chronicles. I think earth shifts a little bit at the end.
I'm curious what's caused the timelines to diverge. It could be the message from Tobias' yeerk, or it could be Ax fucking everything up with his dumbass broadcast
I love Ax's little euphemism there. "Andalite actions" indeed. Also, the most immersion-breaking thing in this book is the idea that thought-speech works over a television broadcast.
The early books definitely played up the idea that the Yeerks were an unstoppable wrecking ball who'd already conquered dozens of species as a means of heightening the odds, but I think two things changed that. First, I bet Applegate found it a lot easier to work with only a few "common" alien species. She basically only has to provide exposition about Andalites, Yeerks, Hork-Bajir, and Taxxons in most books, along with maybe an alien-of-the-week. If the Yeerks had a ton of species available as Controllers, that gets a lot more complicated.
The second is when she started writing the Chronicles books detailing the early days of the Yeerk war, but wanted them to have a few "present day" characters like Alloran, Visser Three, and Chapman appearing in them to ground them in the main books. That pretty much destroys the idea that the Yeerks have taken dozens of planets, since the time frame just doesn't work. And if that's the case, Earth becomes kind of a make-or-break point - take it, and the Yeerks have enough hosts that they can't really be realistically contained. Lose it, and the Andalites can quarantine them.
We do know that Andalites can communicate through Z-space broadcasts using though speech, so the idea that thought speech works for more than just one-on-one conversation is a thing already. That doesn't mean it works over video tape obviously, but....
And I think the major divergence is Ax revealing himself as an Andalite. Tobias's Yeerk would have shown up on earth without Tobias joining. There just would have been some other unfortunate host.
I think Ax showing up on TV is a big one, but I think the biggest thing is that the first book with Visser One didn't happen. Visser Three capturing and then immediately losing the Andalite bandits was very politically embarrassing for him. The Council of 13 is less likely to trust V3 with an all out war if he can't handle half a dozen Andalites.
Oh wow this is just terrifying. It really does a lot to make it seem like theyb are winning meaningful battles in the main timeline by showing how BAD things would be without the pressure of the andalite bandits on them.
I was wondering why the invasion was overt in this timeline. I assume it must have to do with Tobias, but I don't know exactly what.
I think Ax showing up on TV is a big one, but I think the biggest thing is that the first book with Visser One didn't happen. Visser Three capturing and then immediately losing the Andalite bandits was very politically embarrassing for him. The Council of 13 is less likely to trust V3 with an all out war if he can't handle half a dozen Andalites.
Yeah I think it's this. V3 looks a lot better without Andalite bandits around so when Ax blows the whole deal (the other big change, imo) they are more willing to let V3 go loud with the invasion.
I think poor Tobias is there just to show us how important some kind of purpose was for him.
I kinda doubt it (or that it was even meant to be this), but maybe the fact that Tobias wasn't there slightly delayed the Yeerk getting a host. By delaying it slightly, Visser One might have already gained support from the Council of Thirteen for continuing the convert operation.
This kinda falls apart seeing how there were other humans with Tobias, unless they were already controllers (why didn't the first one get the important Yeerk?). Or that honestly it shouldn't be more than a day's delay at most to get another host.
(why didn't the first one get the important Yeerk?)
I think Tobias is perfect for a Yeerk who is mostly working with other Yeerks. If you're a Yeerk who infested a music producer or a cop then you're time is going to be taken up working those jobs to help the invasion. The music producer is going to spend his day getting popular musicians to join the Sharing or recording songs that tell you to join the glorious Yeerk empire when you play them backwards. The cop is going to be doing cop stuff. Tobias doesn't have any responsibilities so he can spend all day supervising Mr. Visser.
Chapter 26
Cassie
quote:
Marco was gone. He'd never even been a friend of mine. But now he was gone.
Jake couldn't return home. Tom was there, and Jake had to worry now that his own parents were in the camp of the alien enemy.
Rachel, too, was trapped. Where could she go? She had beaten Tom with a baseball bat.
I called my parents and told them I couldn't come home, either. Tom knew me as well.
My parents demanded that I come home immediately. They told me that in all likelihood these aliens were friendly. This was all a wonderful opportunity for the human race.
Maybe they were naive. Or maybe they had been taken, too.
Jake, Rachel, and I had wandered here and there. We had no real plan. What could we do? What could we do, three kids against the momentous events that were unfolding around us?
The TV showed commentators endlessly discussing what it all meant. Some people believed these Yeerks were the hope of humanity. Some believed the Andalite who had hijacked local stations to broadcast his warning. Some thought it was all a monstrous prank.
President Clinton urged everyone to remain calm. He said that just in case, our military forces were being mobilized.
There was a feeling of everything moving in slow motion. A feeling of a world hovering on the brink of something unprecedented. Waiting. Waiting.
The three of us couldn't do much about any of that stuff. All we could do was keep moving and hope to keep living. We'd hidden in stores, in libraries, in the school, here and there. In plain sight during the day, undercover at night.
"I'll grab us some munchies," Rachel said as Jake and I collapsed into the cheap plastic chairs at the mall food court.
Jake looked unspeakably weary. There were dark bags under his eyes. The eyes themselves seemed to have caved in. He was scared. More, he was devastated. Marco was his lifelong friend. Tom was his brother.
"I hope the animals are okay," I said.
Jake didn't answer.
"I mean, my folks will take care of them," I said. "They don't really need me."
I saw Jake's eyes flicker. He was looking past me. I turned around. A group of people were rushing toward the mall exit door, their voices rising excitedly. They were rushing to see/Something.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Don't know." He stared. He couldn't see anything more than me, but he must have sensed.
"Rachel!" he yelled.
I spotted Rachel at the Taco Bell counter. She had caught the tone of Jake's cry. She snatched up the burritos she'd been paying for and came running.
The crowd at the mall door came rushing back now, running away.
Rachel met us as we started to run.
"Rachel. You know this mall. Where can we hide?" Jake demanded.
"Any of the stockrooms. Urn, no, too many people there." She looked around frantically. "Furniture department at the department store. Big armoires and stuff. We can get inside."
Scared as I was, I had to admire the girl. She knew the mall.
We started running. Past Express. Past some shoe store.
People were screaming. Ahead, people running out of The Gap.
Then, it stepped into view. It had to be seven feet tall. It had a tail with spikes like a dinosaur's and big, taloned feet to match. There were blades on its arms, legs, head.
It was a monster of destruction. A creature from a nightmare. And I said, "Hork-Bajir."
No one asked how I knew. The Andalite had used the word on TV. And this, I knew, was a Hork- Bajir. More of the monsters poured from The Gap.
I should morph ... what? What was I thinking about?
Behind us, Hork-Bajir coming up the aisles of the mall. Not after us. They were rounding everyone up, forming people into little groups and holding them under guard.
"What do we do?" I cried. "We can't fight those things!"
"I'm going to try," Rachel said through gritted teeth. She drew a weapon from her waistband.
One of the ray guns she and Jake had taken. She was grinning. She was vibrating with a dangerous energy.
Back out into the mall. Hork-Bajir had cornered a lot of the shoppers. But other people were running around in panic. One had a gun. He fired at a nearby Hork-Bajir. The Hork-Bajir fired back.
The man sizzled and disappeared.
Rachel fired. The Hork-Bajir emulated his own victim.
"Up the escalator," Rachel said.
We ran for the escalator. It was still operating. We ran, taking the moving steps two at a time. Then, at the lower landing, a Hork-Bajir appeared.
He leaped! Jake tried to fire, but the monster was on him. Jake and the Hork-Bajir slammed back into Rachel and me. We rolled, bunched and tangled, while the rising steps kept punching me in the back.
Jake had lost his weapon! Rachel had not. But she couldn't get a clear shot. I dug in my heels, braced her, and yelled, "Do it!"
She fired.
Tseeeew!
The Hork-Bajir sizzled. We were up and climbing the escalator to the next level. Two more Hork-Bajir!
Tseeeew!
Rachel fired. The Hork-Bajir fired. The escalator slammed us into one of the monsters as he was disintegrating. It was like grabbing an electrical power line. I was knocked flat. Rachel fell on top of me. I watched helplessly as her weapon clattered away.
The escalator deposited us in a heap on the landing. Jake jumped up. The remaining Hork-Bajir loomed over him. Jake looked so small. So weak. There was nothing he could do.
The monster was going to take us. Infest us. The Yeerk pool, that dark cavern, that hellish place. I saw it in my mind, but I had never seen it!
"Why?" I asked the creature as he loomed over us.
He did not answer. Instead, his head rolled off his shoulders, hit the escalator, and bounded heavily toward us. The forehead blades caught. It stopped, staring, expression unchanged.
The body fell. But as it collapsed a thin arm and many-fingered hand snatched the ray gun from its lifeless hand.
We reached the top. And there, holding the weapon, was the blue centaur. The Andalite. He ignored us and started away. But three more Hork-Bajir were on him now.
He whipped his tail. The closest Hork-Bajir fell. But the other two were too close to avoid.
Slash!
The Andalite's flank was deeply cut. The hand holding the weapon hung limp.
Jake lunged. Slid on the polished marble floor, slid beneath the staggering Andalite, tried to grab the weapon.
But he was nearly stomped by flashing Andalite hooves and the huge Tyrannosaurus feet of the Hork-Bajir.
That's when Rachel stepped swiftly behind one of the Hork-Bajir. She was carrying the head. The bladed Hork-Bajir head. She lifted it high and slammed it down, blades out. She buried the Hork-Bajir's head blades in his comrade.
"Aaahhh!"
Jake yanked the weapon from the Andalite, spun, and fired.
Tseeeew!
A Hork-Bajir dropped, sizzling, seeming to fry as it disappeared.
<Thank you,> the Andalite said calmly.
I bent over and threw up.
<Give me the weapon, please,> the alien demanded.
"I don't think so," Jake snapped.
<l am attempting to save your species,> the Andalite said. <And I observe that you have lost two weapons already.>
Fwapp!
His tail snapped like a bullwhip. It hit Jake's hand and knocked the weapon away. The Andalite snatched it up with his good hand.
<And now, a third. Again, thank you.>
I said, "Ax! Ax ... Axim. Ax ..." The word was there, on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't quite reach it.
The creature's stalk eyes jerked toward me.
<Do we know each other?>
"Yes," I said. I wiped the puke from my mouth with the back of my sleeve. "Not here, not this way. I don't know how, but someway, somehow yes, we know each other."
He scanned behind himself with one stalk eye, raised the weapon, and fired over his shoulder. A Hork-Bajir took a glancing blow that disintegrated his right arm and shoulder. The creature toppled over the rail and fell.
"Andalite!" it screamed.
The effect of that one word was electric. The Hork-Bajir below us who had not seen the battle on the second floor immediately forgot about their human captives.
<Are you able to run on those two legs?> the Andalite asked skeptically.
"Dude," Jake said, "we can fly on these two legs."
<You must lead me to the roof of this structure. There is a very slight chance that we can succeed.>
So this is what the Animorphs are afraid of in the main timeline: That the Yeerks will change to open warfare and drop the secrecy, and also that their identities will be found out. And finally, they've met Ax
Chapter 27
Rachel
quote:
"Follow me," I said. I hauled toward the service corridor that would lead to the roof.
All the bad guys were coming upstairs now. Up the stairs, up the escalators, even trying to jump the fifteen feet or so straight up. And failing.
It was insane! No way we'd make it. We were done for. We were dead. Like Marco.
And yet, I was blazing! I was jazzed like nothing I've ever known before. I had gone after a seven-foot-tall alien monster and taken him down! Me!
Narrow stairs ahead, crammed with what Cassie had called Hork-Bajir.
The Andalite aimed and fired. Smart boy. He fired into the mass on the stairs, not the couple who'd already made it to the top. That would slow the ones coming up and make the couple already up here feel cut off.
We raced past them.
"There! That hallway! Right by Sam Goody!"
Tseeeew! Tseeeew!
The glass front of the CD store blew into shards.
Down the hallway, panting, running, sneakers squeaking on tile. Down, past the bathrooms, turn left.
Tseeew! Tseeew!
I felt the heat of it. Hah-hah! Missed me!
Ten feet to the door. I slammed hard against it. Backed off, scrabbled at the doorknob. "It's locked!"
Fwapp!
The Andalite's tail snapped. A gash appeared in the sheet metal of the door. I reared back and kicked it. It popped open.
Inside a metal stairway. Ten steps and a landing. Ten more and another landing. Ten more and we were at the door that led outside onto the roof.
"Ax, or whatever your name is, shoot the stairs!" Jake yelled.
The Andalite hesitated. I don't think he appreciated being told what to do. But Jake was right. The Andalite leaned slightly forward and fired at the stairs themselves.
Tseeeeeeeeew!
He held the trigger down till the metal twisted and bubbled and burned away. I had to pull back to avoid having my eyebrows scorched off.
When I looked again two flights of stairs were gone.
The Andalite said, <When we exit, we will need to move swiftly and decisively. There is a ship. We are going to take it.>
"Say what?" I blurted.
<Follow me.>
We opened the door and stepped out onto the acres of gravel roof.
And there, fifty yards away, approximately on top of Williams-Sonoma and Eddie Bauer, crouched a black ship that was all sharp edges and mean attitude.
We started running, with the Andalite out front.
There was a ramp leading up into the ship. Fifty yards. And not a Hork-Bajir in sight. Not a guard. Of course not, why bother? What kind of an idiot was going to try and run toward that ship?
Our kind of idiot.
The Andalite kicked up the gravel. We raced along behind him. Something was coming down the ramp.
Tseeeew!
Now nothing was coming down the ramp.
Under the shadow of the ship! We hit the ramp. Hork-Bajir above us.
Tseeeew!
More! Aiming at us.
"Yaaahh!" I screamed and lunged.
I felt the wind off the Hork-Bajir arm as it blew past me. I never felt the wrist blade.
I hit the corrugated steel floor. Rolled onto my side. Saw bright lights and moving shapes. The movements grew slower ... slower ...
Stop
RIP Rachel
Died as she lived, wrecking fools very stylishly
quote:
That's when Rachel stepped swiftly behind one of the Hork-Bajir. She was carrying the head. The bladed Hork-Bajir head. She lifted it high and slammed it down, blades out. She buried the Hork-Bajir's head blades in his comrade.
holy moley
Suggested reading age: 6-11
Listen, parents need to be willing to have these discussions with their children about stabbing a brain-slug infested alien to death with body parts of a second brain-slug infested alien.
Listen, parents need to be willing to have these discussions with their children about stabbing a brain-slug infested alien to death with body parts of a second brain-slug infested alien.
Kids will just learn it on the street otherwise.
Chapter 28-Jake
quote:
"Rachel!" I cried.
Cassie was screaming. Screaming like she'd never stop.
I grabbed Cassie. Pulled her to me. Dragged her with me. Couldn't look back. Couldn't see what had happened to my beautiful cousin.
Tseeeew!
The Andalite fired again and again. I saw a ray gun on the floor, clasped in a dead hand. I pried it free.
I was holding Cassie by the hand. Pulling her along with me.
Tseeeew!
I felt the charge jolt my fingers. I let go of a hand that was no longer there.
Cassie sizzled and disappeared. Simply evaporated.
I stared at the blank space where she had been. I stared at my hand. I was moaning. A weird sound. Moaning. Like a hurt animal. No sound that any human would make.
<Come!> the Andalite snapped.
I realized everything was quiet now. The Hork-Bajir bodies were everywhere. The air reeked of charred flesh.
I followed the Andalite, stumbling blindly. Down dim corridors. Past locked steel hatches.
A hatch opened, a Hork-Bajir head appeared. It stared in shock. "Andalite!"
Fwapp!
The Andalite struck. I realized now that it had been hurt again. It was staggering. Bleeding. But determined.
<The bridge. Have to reach the bridge.>
We emerged from the hallway into a wider, more open space. There were display monitors that seemed to hang, formless, in midair. Three monstrously huge centipedes manned controls.
And standing in the middle of it all was another Andalite. Older-looking. Different.
The Andalite called Ax stopped suddenly. He was weaving like a drunk.
<Visser Three,> he said.
<Yes. And you must be the Andalite who escaped from the wreck of the Dome ship. How enterprising of you.>
"He's one of your people," I muttered.
<No,> the Andalite said. He sounded weary. <Looks can be deceiving.>
The Andalite raised his weapon.
Fwapp!
The creature called Visser Three struck with his tail. The Andalite stared stupidly down with his main eyes at the stump of his arm.
The Andalite was between me and Visser Three.
I raised my own weapon ...
Visser Three lunged
... fired.
Tseeew!
Missed!
Fwapp!
I hit the ground.
Then Cassie fired.
Tseeeew!
Cassie?
Visser Three's upper body sizzled and disappeared. The deerlike lower half fell over, lifeless.
"No, no, no!" It was a voice that dripped sarcasm and contempt. But it was annoyed, too. "She's dead! The girl was dead! This is really too much!"
Cassie came rushing over to me. She knelt down and helped me to my feet.
The Andalite stared weirdly at me. And more so at Cassie.
"It's breaking up," Cassie said.
"What is?"
She shook her head. "I don't know. I ... I don't know what to call it. But it's falling apart."
The Andalite calmly shot the three big centipedes. Then he stepped to the controls and seconds later the bridge was sealed off.
<They can break through, eventually. But Yeerks are rigidly structured. All commands must come from the bridge. They will not have an auxiliary controls I hugged Cassie close, disbelieving. I'd seen her die. Hadn't I?
"What are we doing?" I asked the Andalite.
<l am currently broadcasting a request for help to any and all Andalite fleet elements.>
"Your guys can save us?"
<No,> he said. <But they may be able to save your people. What we can do is make the arrival of the Andalite fleet less dangerous for them and more beneficial for your kind.>
"How are we going to do that?"
The Andalite didn't answer. Instead he ordered a transparent panel to appear. I was looking out at Earth. I could see the North American continent clearly.
We had lifted off and flown into orbit without my noticing a thing.
And then there was a gorilla. It was just there. Squatting in the corner.
"Oh, this is wrong!" the angry, grating voice from nowhere cried again. "This isn't it at all!"
"What's that voice?" I asked. "And what's a gorilla doing here?"
<Gorilla? I'm a gorilla? Ahh! I'm a gorilla.> Marco? It was his voice. Coming directly from the gorilla.
"It's coming apart quickly now," Cassie said, still staring weirdly around, like nothing she was seeing was real.
"Ax! What is all this? You're the alien, man, what is going on?"
The Andalite winced a little at the question. Then, obviously reluctant to admit ignorance, he said, <l do not know.> He looked at Cassie with both stalk eyes. <Perhaps she does.>
"It's all a part of it," Cassie said in a sort of whisper. "It's coming apart."
<There it is. The Yeerk pool ship,> the Andalite announced.
"What now?" I demanded.
<Now, I will aim every weapon this ship possesses - and it possesses a great many very powerful weapons - and I will annihilate the Pool ship and every Yeerk on it.>
<In five seconds ...>
<Four ...>
<Three ...>
I have to admit, I'm getting a little concerned myself about all this beautiful cousin language.
Chapter 29-Jake
quote:
<Two ...>
"Oh, all right all right!" the disembodied voice cried. "Stop it, stop it"
A thing, an alien, I suppose, something, anyway, that looked an awful lot like a small dinosaur with the skin of a prune, appeared.
The Andalite stepped back from the controls, ready to shoot this latest enemy.
He fired. The energy beam traveled half the distance to the alien, then froze. Simply stopped.
"It was the girl, wasn't it?" the prune thing said, rolling its green-rimmed eyes upward. "She corrupted the time flow."
New a second figure appeared. He could have been a little old man. If you ignored the fact that he was kind of bluish. And glowing. I had the sense that he was no such thing, but that was his appearance.
This creature, this old man, laughed. "It's not so easy, is it, Drode?"
'You cheated me, Ellimist," the Drode snapped. "We had a deal, a trade-off. You were allowed to meddle with the time line in the Falla Kadrat situation, and we, my master Crayak and I, were to be allowed to tempt this young jackal here." He stabbed a finger at me.
"I kept my bargain," the Ellimist said. "I have done nothing to bring about this result. The girl is an anomaly. She is sub-temporally grounded. You were careless."
"She's a freak of nature!" the Diode screamed.
The Ellimist nodded. 'Yes. She is."
Marco said, "What is going on here?" He was no longer a gorilla. "I'm pretty sure I was dead, then I'm a gorilla."
"Oh, I see it now, I see it now," the Drode said, ignoring Marco, ignoring all of us. "Subtle as always, Ellimist. Your meddling came before, didn't it? How could we not have seen it? Elfangor's brother? His time-shifted son? This anomalous girl here? And the son of Visser One's host body? A group of six supposedly random humans that contains those four! You stacked the deck!"
"Did I?" The Ellimist laughed. "That would have been very clever of me."
The Drode spat in disgust. "You knew the girl was an anomaly. You knew she was subtemporally grounded. And you knew that whatever time line I built, her presence would eventually destabilize it. She knew from the start that the time line had shifted. She felt it. I might as well have terminated this exercise then. I saw the sudden, inexplicable transportation of the mother, I thought, well, it's a glitch! The hands morphing to tiger. All the little breakdowns of logic and sequence. I still thought it might hold together."
Cassie said, "Is anyone going to tell us what is going on here?"
The Ellimist winked at her. And suddenly, alive, in the room with us, were Rachel and that kid Tobias.
"Does this feel more right, Cassie?" the Ellimist asked.
She nodded. "This is everyone. Only Tobias should be ..."
As I watched in amazement, Tobias seemed to melt, to shift, to dwindle. In seconds there was a hawk where he had been.
"Most creatures live entirely within their time line," the Ellimist said. "Like a person trapped in a single room. They see only what is within those four walls. Others ... like yourself, Cassie, can see beyond those walls. Can see other rooms, as though the walls were translucent. You felt the change. You sensed that things were not right. You could see, only dimly, but still you could see beyond. You could see what should be, where you belonged, and without consciously knowing it you were working to repair what had been torn apart. To reconstitute time as it should have been. You were a virus in the software. You degraded the subtle workings of the Drode's artificial time shunt."
"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about," Cassie said.
You were in this time line, but of another. That is an anomaly. An impossibility. One of the two time lines was doomed to fail. You grounded the true time line. And thus, this time line began to fall to pieces."
"Who are you two?" I demanded of the Ellimist and the Drode.
"He's an old cheat," the Drode snapped. "There are rules, Ellimist!"
"Yes. And I obeyed them. I allowed you to create this alternate time line. And in this time line these humans and this Andalite came very close to annihilating the Yeerk presence. You suspended the exercise. Not me. You can continue this time line, or allow these young ones to return to their own
times."
The Drode's face was twisted with hatred. "Crayak will have him yet."
He was talking about me. I knew it suddenly. I knew who I was. I knew it all. I was myself once more. Leader of the Animorphs. With that knowledge came a sledgehammer of guilt.
It was all my fault! I had weakened. I'd said yes to the Drode. I'd given in. Marco, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, all dead - at least in this reality - because I had weakened and taken the Drode's offer.
"Perhaps, Drode. Perhaps Crayak will have him," the Ellimist said. "But, then again, perhaps he will have Crayak."
The Drode disappeared. The six of us, the Animorphs, stood there on the wrecked bridge of the Blade ship with the nearly all-powerful creature called the Ellimist.
"At least we'd have won in this time line," I said.
He shook his head. "Yes. But you all would have died. And millions of humans, too, before the victory."
"I gave in," I whispered. "I gave in."
Tou have been strong for a long time," he said.
"He shouldn't have to be," Rachel erupted angrily. "None of us should have to. This is enough. This has gone on too long!"
Tobias said, <l wouldn't. I wouldn't have done it, would I? I couldn't have ever gone to The Sharing. That was wrong. No way.>
"Of course you wouldn't," Rachel growled.
I said, "Ellimist, is there anything better in our real time line? Will it happen any better, there? Will it, at least, ever end?"
The Ellimist looked at me. Just at me. Sadly, I thought. Pitying.
"It will end," he said. "It will end."
I wanted to ask him more. But I knew that was all I'd get.
"So, what happens now?" Cassie asked.
The Ellimist took her hand and held it affectionately. "What will happen now? Only you will ever recall so much as a dim memory of this time line."
Cassie nodded, as though she'd half expected him to say that. "But I'll say nothing about it. Tobias can't know that he might have become a voluntary Controller. And Jake can't know that he ever weakened enough to take the Drode's deal."
"You are wise," the Ellimist said.
"Yeah, and I sure don't want to know that I ever dated Marco," Rachel added.
"How do we get back?" I asked. "How do we-"
The Elimist always stacks the game.
Chapter 30-Jake
Day Zero
quote:
"Help me. I'm cold."
Another battle. Another horror.
Couldn't anything make it end? Was there no way out? Was I trapped, fighting, fighting till one by one my friends died or went nuts?
I lay on my bed. Stared up at the ceiling.
"Help me. Please. I'm cold."
Into the cave, Cassie.
All for what? For nothing. To delay the Yeerks, but never to win. And someday, to lose. Was there no way out?
"There's always a way out, Jake the Mighty," a voice said. "My lord Crayak holds out his omnipotent hand to you, Jake the Yeerk Killer. Jake the Ellimist's tool."
I sat up. I knew the voice.The Drode stood by my desk. It wasn't large. It perched forward like one of those small dinosaurs. It had mean, smart eyes in a humanoid head. It was wrinkled, dark green or purple maybe. So dark it was almost black. The mocking mouth was lined with green.
The Drode was Crayak's creature, his emissary, his tool. Crayak was ... Crayak was evil. A power so vast, so complete that only the Ellimist could keep him in check. A balance of terror: evil and good checking each other, limiting each other, making deals that affected the survival of entire solar systems.
"Go away," I said to the Drode.
"But you called me."
"Go back to Crayak. Leave me alone."
The Drode smiled. He got up and moved closer. Closer till his face was only inches from my own.
'There is a way out," the Drode whispered. "Say the word and it never was, Jake. Say the word, Jake, and you never walked through the construction site. Say the word and you know nothing. No weight on your shoulders. Say the word."
"Go away," I said through gritted teeth.
"How long till your cousin Rachel loses her grip? You know the darkness is growing inside her. How long till Tobias dies, a bird, a bird! How can he ever be happy? How long till Marco is forced to destroy his own Controller mother? Will he survive that, do you think? How long, Jake, till you kill Tom? Then what dreams will come, Jake the Yeerk Killer?"
"Get out of here. Crawl back under your rock."
"It will happen, Jake. You know that. The cave. The day will come. You know what the cave is, Jake. You know what it means, that dark cave. You know that death is within. When she dies, when Cassie dies, it will be at your word, Jake."
I covered my face with my hands.
"My master Crayak offers you an escape. In his compassion Great Crayak has struck a deal with that meddling nitwit Ellimist. Crayak would free you, Jake. Crayak would free you all. All will be as it would have been if you had simply taken a different path home."
I saw that moment again. At the mall. Deciding whether to take the safe, well-lit, sensible way home. Or the route that would take us through the construction site, and to a meeting that would change everything.
Undo it. Undo it all. No more war. No more pain and fear and guilt?
"Just one word, Jake," the Drode whispered. "No ... no, two, I think, one must not sacrifice good manners. Two words and it never was. Two words and you know nothing, have no power, no responsibility."
"What words?"
"One is Crayak. The other is please."
I wanted to say no.
I wanted to say no ...
I wanted ...
I opened my mouth to speak.
"Oh, forget it. Never mind," the Drode said angrily.
So that's the final Megamorphs book. What did you all think? Like it? Not really?
We're starting the next book Tuesday. It's a Jake book called The Familiar. It's ghostwritten by Ellen Giroux, who we last met from The Illusion (The one where Tobias lets himself be captured to convince the Yeerks the anti-morph ray doesn't work and gets tortured).
quote:
The Ellimist winked at her. And suddenly, alive, in the room with us, were Rachel and that kid Tobias.
"Does this feel more right, Cassie?" the Ellimist asked.
She nodded. "This is everyone. Only Tobias should be ..."
As I watched in amazement, Tobias seemed to melt, to shift, to dwindle. In seconds there was a hawk where he had been.
More evidence in the "Cassie is a shitbag" camp. I get the impression the Ellimist would have just conveniently "forgot" to reset Tobias if Cassie hadn't went "OH YEAH HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE A BIRD, SUCK IT NERD!"
God, how much must that have sucked for Tobias. "Holy crap, I'm alive again! I don't have a Yeerk in me anymore and I have all my memories back. AND I'm fully human again too! ...OH MY GOD, CAS--" <SIE, WHY?!>
I mean he struggles with it a ton but I genuinely think Tobias would prefer being a hawk at this point?
It was his choice to remain one, after all. And this book owned.
The book was good as a "What If" storyline and I really enjoyed it in that respect. Otoh I don't think it stood out overmuch.
As funny as Cassie asking the teacher for homework was, I think she gets a pass for trying to figure out which reality is real with a three dimensional meat brain.
Also the way the timeline thing sounded like it would work is that Jake just didn't get the chance to ask Drode to interfere, so Tobias ending up as a real boy probably wasn't on the table.
Finally, in Tobias' defense, getting lured into a dark room and getting strapped to chair while a Yeerk gets jammed in your ear isn't what I'd call a voluntary controller. I mean, he 100% was not going to be one of the controllers sitting in the Yeerk Pool rec room.
Pretty funny how they explained every coincidence in this series is a result of the elliminist. I did really like the book a lot!
quote:
"This is really too much!"
I'm inclined to agree with the Drode. Like I said before, this would've been a more interesting book if it was just an incredibly bleak Tales of Interest-style non-canon glimpse into what might've been, ending with the Yeerk subjugation of earth. Which in a sense
isn't bleak because it shows that what they're doing in the real timeline is making a difference.
Having said that I liked it! And wish it had been longer. In fact all of the Megamorphs books have been shorter than they were in my memory.
We're starting the next book Tuesday. It's a Jake book called The Familiar. It's ghostwritten by Ellen Giroux, who we last met from The Illusion (The one where Tobias lets himself be captured to convince the Yeerks the anti-morph ray doesn't work and gets tortured).
Wait seriously?
The Illusion is one of my favorite ghostwritten ones and this next one is one of my least favorite. I'll have to read more carefully and think if it is the premise or the writing I dislike so much. Both are relatively introspective single-character studies, so I see that similarity at least.
The next one is really weird to have right on the heels of Megamorphs 4.
Did we need another Jake-centric time travel scenario this quickly? Or was this just an accident of the placement of M4?
So that's the final Megamorphs book. What did you all think? Like it? Not really?
I think it's good. It falls a bit behind MM3 for me but is way ahead of the first two. It also comes at the point where getting KAA's writing back is a real and noticeable improvement in quality over some of the ghostwritten books we've been getting lately.
Finally, in Tobias' defense, getting lured into a dark room and getting strapped to chair while a Yeerk gets jammed in your ear isn't what I'd call a voluntary controller. I mean, he 100% was not going to be one of the controllers sitting in the Yeerk Pool rec room.
No, but victim guilt is a real thing. It's very common for victims to blame themselves for what happened to them, and I think this is what Tobias is feeling.
I admire that even knowing he's fucked, there's still part of him fighting and looking for an escape.
I haven't watched the TV series in forever, but wasn't there a similar what-if story?
I haven't watched the TV series in forever, but wasn't there a similar what-if story?
Episode 17, "Not My Problem"
The TV show never introduced Crayak, so the episode has the Elimist agreeing to Jake's request. Because of this, only Tobias goes to the construction site and gets the morphing gift from Elfangor. Jake goes with his brother, Cassie and Rachel to this popup dance club that's a Sharing front/event. Tobias shows up uninvited, because he's noticed changes in kids around school and thinks they've been infected. When he's there, Jake gets infested by a fairly high ranking subvisser and realizes that Tobias knows what's going on. After threatening Chapman (of course), he goes to the club and is stalked by Tobias and Rachel who confront him there Tobias turns into a lion, knocks him out and handcuffs him to a chair, then starts interrogating him.
The whole thing is a trap, though, because Rachel was infested, and a bunch of the Sharing comes in, frees Jake, captures Tobias. A happy Visser Three confirms Jake's appointment to Visser Ten, and allows him to infest Tobias with a new Yeerk. At that point, Jake appears back in his room, happy that the future never happened, and then hangs out with the other Animorphs, including Ax, who's managed to get hold of bubble gum.
It does include the great piece of dialogue, after Jake's back in the real world
"Tobias! You're still a hawk! I love you as a hawk! You look good as a hawk!"
<Thanks, I think>
The next one is really weird to have right on the heels of Megamorphs 4.
Did we need another Jake-centric time travel scenario this quickly? Or was this just an accident of the placement of M4?
Something else I find odd (and contrary to my memory) is that the Ellimist Chronicles apparently got published right before the very last two main books in the series. The Ellimist Chronicles is great, it's probably the very best of the non-main books alongside Visser, but it's easily the most standalone sci-fi adventure in the entire series and interrupting the flow of the final arc right before the series ends as a whole is an odd choice.
Something else I find odd (and contrary to my memory) is that the Ellimist Chronicles apparently got published right before the very last two main books in the series. The Ellimist Chronicles is great, it's probably the very best of the non-main books alongside Visser, but it's easily the most standalone sci-fi adventure in the entire series and interrupting the flow of the final arc right before the series ends as a whole is an odd choice.
It got published after book 45, in October of 2000. The last book was book 54 in May of 2001. So it didn't get published that late in the run, but still pretty late.
For some reason, the idea of Bill Clinton fighting Yeerks brings me back to that one weirdly elaborate fanfiction involving the demons of Hell invading America, getting their shit kicked in, and then the U.S. military conquering hell itself. Like there was a scene where Bill kills a succubus with a shotgun and makes a quip about Hillary or something. Salvation War maybe?
Animorphs trigger some weird memories.
For some reason, the idea of Bill Clinton fighting Yeerks brings me back to that one weirdly elaborate fanfiction involving the demons of Hell invading America, getting their shit kicked in, and then the U.S. military conquering hell itself. Like there was a scene where Bill kills a succubus with a shotgun and makes a quip about Hillary or something. Salvation War maybe?
Animorphs trigger some weird memories.
Clinton also shows up in the Turok: Dinosaur Hunter comics. One of Joshua Fireseed's adventures involves rescuing Bill Clinton from the Lost Land because he's been kidnapped by the Primagen and replaced by a Dinosoid doppleganger. Clinton then goes out for burgers and fries with Josh to celebrate his rescue.
It got published after book 45, in October of 2000. The last book was book 54 in May of 2001. So it didn't get published that late in the run, but still pretty late.
Oh weird. That makes way more sense. Don't know where I picked up the idea it came out two books before the conclusion.
No, but victim guilt is a real thing. It's very common for victims to blame themselves for what happened to them, and I think this is what Tobias is feeling.
Sure. Feeling sorry for yourself because alternate you was a sucker that fell for a sham is one thing, but it's a big step from sucker to collaborator. Makes me wonder if there is a case to be made for just straight up mugging people with a Yeerk, though. Not like there is a shortage of Yeerks to try with.
No, but victim guilt is a real thing. It's very common for victims to blame themselves for what happened to them, and I think this is what Tobias is feeling.
Sure. Feeling sorry for yourself because alternate you was a sucker that fell for a sham is one thing, but it's a big step from sucker to collaborator. Makes me wonder if there is a case to be made for just straight up mugging people with a Yeerk, though. Not like there is a shortage of Yeerks to try with.
Tobias isn't even "from" the main timeline, right? Drode calls him Elfangor's "time-shifted son," presumably both he and Elfangor were time-shifted from the timeline of the Andalite Chronicles where Elfangor was a human nothlit.