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Disclaimer: The literary series The Animorphs was created by K.A. Applegate and published by Scholastic. I own none of these characters. I have merely written a fanfic for my own perverse enjoyment. Anyone else who enjoys it just has very good taste.
I froze, my hand mere centimeters from the controls that would send us crashing into the last remaining Bug fighter in the universe and end everything, as I hear a familiar voice. A voice that should have been a trillion miles away, saying something other than what it was articulating.
"So this is the true end of the Animorphs. We finally get the glorious death we should have had with Rachel and the others."
I turned and stared at her. Cassie. Cassie, who was supposed to be on Earth, getting on with her normal life. Well, as normal as life can get for someone who saved the world. I tried to speak, to ask her why she came, but I found that my voice wasn't working.
"Don't act so surprised Jake. You should have known that I would come. Morphing really is very useful. Why did you want me to stay behind?"
I sighed as my voice returned. "I thought you'd want to live out your life, Cassie...I was trying to protect you..." But I knew she was right.
Cassie smiled sadly at me. "Jake. you know better than anyone that we've only been pretending to live." She shot a look at Marco. "All of us. Our post-war lives have been lies." She looked at my hand, still hovering uncertainly over the controls. "Now we can join Rachel. And James. And the others." She glanced at the screen, where, moments before, Ax's body had been. "And Ax." She flashed me a Rachel grin. "Let's do it!"
I glanced at Marco as he muttered, "Great...Another Xena..." He caught my gaze, held it for a moment, then grinned and nodded.
Then I noticed that Tobias had morphed to human. To the body he had held the night this whole thing began in the construction yard all those years ago. So many years later, he grinned at me akwardly and nodded.
My gaze returns to Cassie and I pull her to me as I set the controls with one hand. I kiss her forhead just before impact. I hold on tightly to her as we are thrown to the hard floor, Then the universe disappears in a bright flash.
I blinked as I opened my eyes. Looking around, I saw...everyone...All the Animorphs, nearly thirty of us. Ax. Rachel. James and his crew. All as they looked during the was, minus their disabilities. Tobias as a human. Cassie and Marco as teenagers. I looked down to see that I, too, looked as I had during the war. I looked up again to see them all looking at me, smiling, Ax in his weird Andalite way. All of my dead friends. Then I heard a familiar voice. Someone who I should have guessed I would see.
"Assembled at last." I looked up to see the Ellimist in the form that he has always shown us, be it his true one or not, hovering over us. "A very impressive bunch. Who could have guessed that such frail-looking creatures could have so much will. You have won. I congratulate you."
The silence was nearly palpable for a moment. "Until your next 'game' with Crayak," Cassie sneered, startling all of us. "Then all our pain, all our suffering, our lives, our deaths...will mean nothing!" Slowly, we all nodded, knowing it was the truth. Chaos would inevitably break out again with the next 'game.'
The Ellimist seemed to smile. "No. You see, Crayak tried so hard to win this game because he made the ultimate wager. The Bug fighter that you destroyed was his last-ditch effort to win. It's over. Good has won." The being smiled again. "Your lives, your pain, your deaths have brought peace and life to the universe. And, for that, you shall be remembered forever."
With that, the Ellimist seemed to shine, brighter and brighter until the light obscured everything else.
And life began again...
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