The Prophecy

Patchboy

___________________

Chapter 1

I am Kyle. Just Kyle. I'm not going to tell you my last name. Heck, up until two weeks ago, I didn't have a last name. And why?

Because there are worse things than being dead. One of them is slavery.

Slavery to someone larger or stronger than you, who makes you do things by threatening you is a terrible thing. But there is even worse slavery.

There is slavery of the mind.

There is a race of inter-galactic parasites loose. The Yeerks. To get the image of a Yeerk in your mind, first think of a slug. Or a snail without a shell. No, think of a leech. Except, instead of sucking your blood, this thing sucks your brain. It doesn't feed off it. Instead, it wraps around it, and sends out little interceptors to the nerves, and takes over. You are a slave inside your own mind, capable of watching, and listening, but never acting.

Trust me, if you can't imagine this, you're lucky. I've got a good imagination.

I have to. Because these creatures, the Yeerks, are taking over our world, by stealth. By the time they decide to flatten Earth, and enslave all free humans, it's more or less a safe bet they will have every single human of importance already enslaved. And there is a rebellion.

Not a big rebellion.

Just 4 people. And one bird. And one alien. 6 people, if you count Nathan and me.

Nathan doesn't count, really. He's an Ellimist, at his core. But for the sake of helping his friends, he has assumed a form of a human.

What makes this rebellion special is that, while the Yeerks have power, the rebellion has a different power. The power to morph. The power to replicate animal DNA in their bodies, then tell their own bodies to change at the sub-molecular level. To become something they're not. To become animals. Animal Morphers. Animorphs.

As you can guess, this technology is NOT human. It belongs to a race of creatures called Andalites. Now, don't get me wrong, my second best friend is an Andalite. But they are really, really arrogant, prideful, self-absorbed, and exceptionally stupid. They have stratospheric IQ's, and yet can't walk around on two feet.

Second best friend? Yes. Aximili, the sixth member of the Animorphs, is an Andalite. He has inherited all the worst traits of his race, but with help, he's stop being so arrogant. He's still quite stupid at times - never take him to the mall without a leash - but he's a cool, intelligent person nonetheless. And he's got my DNA inside him, so he's technically my twin.

What does this have to do with imagination? Well, I'm a sorcerer. Not a magician, or a wizard, or an illusionist, or even a witch. I'm a sorcerer. The old sorcerers were people who, using their minds as a lever, wedged into the cracks of the universe, and moved it. Sorcery is thought. Whatever I can imagine, I can do. But effort is equal to expenditure. For example, if I ever tried to bring a dead man back to life, I'd die, thanks to the effort I expended. And, despite how easy it is to form mental images, It's very hard to form clear mental images.

The worst part is existential conceptualising. This is a complex way of imagining things that you cannot see, or sense. Impossibilities. I can, if I could wrap my mind around the concept, turn myself into a god. But since no human mind, not even a sorcerer's, can handle the concept of infinity, I'd never be able to do it. But the main reason I wield sorcery is to change my shape. Once I lifted an entire city from underneath, and after that, my more powerful sorceries fell apart. Translocation - the mental art of moving something from one place to another - I can do. Transmutation - changing things into other things - I can do. Creation - assembling the atoms in the universe around me into a desired object - is easy. But anything much harder and I screw up. And it's pretty damn embarrassing when you morph into a lizard or something and forget the knees.

My story is a hugely complicated history - better to let it unfold. I have three sisters, and one cousin. My twin sister, Rachel, is an Animorph. Like me, she's a warrior. My cousin Jake sort of leads the Animorphs. The other three are Marco, Cassie, and Tobias. Tobias is a weird case. He stayed in morph over the only restriction - a two hour time limit - and became trapped in it. Then, he rescued an enslaved race, the Hork-Bajir, and was given the ability to morph from his current red-tailed hawk form. Then, he was taken back in time, and allowed to acquire his own human DNA.

Ax, however, has a human morph comprised of Rachel's, Marco's, Jake's, and Cassie's DNA. Since Rachel and I are identical twins, we have identical DNA - trust me on this one - and therefore, Ax has my DNA, too. It's rather comical to watch him walk on two legs.

So, Nathan, Ax, Tobias and I were all standing in the woods, in human forms, the outcasts.

"Look, Rachel just kicked me out of the house at four. I can't go inside. She just won't tell me what the hell is going on!" I said. I was rather peeved at that. After school, I liked to go home and meet the family I never had until two weeks ago.

"Dunno why. I know Rachel's birthday is at least two months and sixteen days off." Tobias said.

Three pairs of eyes swivelled and focused on Tobias.

"Hey, it came up. In conversation. It's not like I count down the days to her birthday."

I smiled. Tobias likes my sister, and he feels really awkward talking to me about her. When I first came here, because the Ellimist had wiped my memory, I didn't know who Rachel was. But I knew I needed to know her. So Tobias had thought I liked her. He's still trying to recover from the embarrassment.

"You have it easy, Belkyl. After all, you can just -" he waved a hand in an arcane gesture.

I subjected Nathan to my most withering scorn. I abhor the way people think sorcery can be used for the most mundane things. Though none of use will admit it, we represent the most intelligent section of the Animorphs. Since Nathan's an Ellimist, he has a mind that could bestride the world. I have to have a good grasp of what's happening, logically. Ax was born smart, and Tobias is a good lateral thinker. Jake is the leader, but that's because he can make the decisions.

Ax stood next to Tobias, and away from Nathan. I stood near Nathan, and near Tobias. Andalites mistrust Ellimists, simply on principle. Ax didn't say anything. I was making sure of that.

Since Ax has a hard time balancing as a human, I gave him a big, heavy book, and made him walk around with it on his head. It's been a while, but he's getting the hang of it.

Then, a wolf trotted into the clearing. A shot-grey wolf. A wolf I recognised.

"Hi, Cassie." Tobias greeted her.

Two hours. I'm not constrained to that limit, however. The Ellimist who gave me this power - Nathan's father - had given me sorcery as I had imagined it, and set up some limits. I can never destroy anything. If I try to make anything not exist, it will annul me. When someone's mad, they instantly want to destroy whatever they are mad at. So, I have to keep my emotions dull. The others don't like it.

But I also know a dark prophecy, told to the Yeerks by the Ellimist. And the Ellimist had told me, too. The revealed part of the prophecy revolved around me. And it said that the second I touched the cube of azure, all that I was would end, and I would retain but five remnants of myself.

I try not to think of it. Ellimist imagery is botchy, at best, but the concept of stopping existing and leaving behind just four fingers and a nose doesn't exactly whet my appetite for suicide missions.

But I tried not to think about it as I followed the wolf.

Chapter 2

It's not a long walk from Tobias' wood to my house. As we walked up to my door, I fished in my pocket for the key. Tobias and Ax just looked at the lock like I could pop it. As if. Nathan understood my situation - his father had explained it to him - and understood the fact I never seemed to exhibit emotions. Since I recovered my sorcery after Rachel had resuscitated me from death, I had recovered my knowledge, and realised how close I had come to self-annihilation earlier.

I finally dug up the key and turned to Cassie.

"Will I regret using this?"

She gave me a Look. I ignored it. I put the key in the lock, turned it, and -

"Surprise!"

"Aaagh!" I fell back on my butt.

Ax looked inside.

"It appears to be a festive gathering. I see Jake, Marco, Rachel, Jordan, Sara, Amanda, Melissa, and Erek the Chee. There are others I do not recognise."

"Amanda?" Nathan asked.

"At one point, I had to masquerade as Jake's cousin, Philip. Amanda was one of the humans I met then. She is very intelligent."

Tobias peered around my recumbent form. I was still trying to get back up.

"Amanda? Oh, her. Her brother's name is George. One of the school bullies. She's alright though."

Cassie helped me up, dusting me off. "Typical boys, standing around gawping while the party cannot go on without you." she shoved me lightly into the room. "Socialise!"

This was going to be painful. I shot Nathan a look that read 'help me' in fourteen different languages. I knew there weren't any controllers in this room - I can smell their minds - but I was still unable to attain to any emotional height or low. It's hard. Four people in the world can elicit any response from me. Rachel, Jordan, Sara, and Mum. Yes, you read that right. Mum. Australian upbringing - I may be American by birth, but I'm Australian by breeding. It makes my style of writing funny - Colour and Flavour - but it also lets me act foreign when I want to impress people. At least, it impresses the ignorant or female. And nothing can save your butt in history faster than suddenly slipping into an Aussie drawl, and talking about the bloomin' dingoes who're all crazier than an eel in a snakepit. I have a theory why this works.

It runs: People are idiots.

It's yet to be misproven.

I know I have a father - pretty much everyone has - but I've not met him yet. And here, in a room full of people who are celebrating the fact that I've appeared after fourteen years, I had nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. I had to concentrate, or I'd get all tongue-tied, and even worse, flick off a spell or two. I needed to hide. There were maybe forty people here, and I hadn't engaged a single human being in normal conversation for years. Oh, no. Rachel was Going To Be A Good Hostess. Which meant dragging me around a room, introducing me to people I'd never remember. First, Melissa Chapman, daughter of Chapman, controller Innis big-plus-long. Totally free of the Yeerk taint, thank God.

"Melissa, this is Kyle. My brother?" I had to admit, despite it all, Rachel was doing well.

I wish Jake was standing next to me at that point. Or Ax. Or Marco, better yet. Because, according to Rachel, all three are cute, some of the time, in Ax's case, and I have no perspective on how I look. I'd never known any girl before as anything other than something wild and elusive, like a deer, full of natural beauty, and totally ineffable - I was the quintessential dweeb, so I knew that what happened next would be at them, not me.

So, when Melissa looked me up and down, I felt an urgent need to burrow underneath the carpet and hide for fifteen more years. Rachel was hovering like a chef awaiting a verdict from a well-known food critic. All I know about myself is I'm blond, and I'm taller than my mother.

"Cute brother, Rache. Where's he been hiding?"

"Australia," I drawled. My only real coping mechanism was to slip into something people don't understand.

"Oh. That explains the dress sense." She smiled. I glanced down at myself. Blue shirt, blue jeans. The colours matched. No embarrassing marks, no open fly, nothing that would in any way make me look like a moron. But it was wrong, somehow.

"That remains to be fixed, Issa." Another thing that befuddles me is how to spell girl's nicknames for each other. It's pronounced EEsah, but you can't spell it that way. Ah well.

"C'mon, Kyle." Rachel dragged me by my arm upstairs, to her, my, our room. Because Jordan and Sara share one of the three rooms in the house, my stuff (four t-shirts, six socks, one pair of trousers, three shoes, and a library that could break the floor) was in Rachel's room, and I slept on a mattress on the floor.

Except now, where my bookshelf of carefully orchestrated and organised novels and scientific journals, there was a cupboard. Rachel opened up one side, and revealed the books. Then, the other side, there were racks and racks of clothes. Not clothes, I'm sorry. Outfits. Pants matched with shirts, etc, etc, and it all was in total order. I was quite honestly freaking out at how long I had pulled on the same pants every day.

Rachel's room has a walk-in closet. Had. When I walked in, the shelves were removed, and mirrors lined the wall. A sign on the door read "Changing" or "Free" depending on how you turned it. Sheesh.

"Well?" she asked me, a bit breathlessly.

"Rachel, I... I..." I had to tell her. Emotional extremes. Damn it, I hadn't cried for two years!

"You remember your allergic reaction to the crocodile?"

"Yes? The DNA burp?"

"Yes. How you had to remain emotionless. I have to, too. I'm sorry. I don't know how long it will be before I can act emotionlessly and still have emotions. I need your help here. I can't go too far. Sorry. If I could, I'd be leaping for joy and going skitz."

"Sorcery thing, huh?"

"Yes. I'm really sorry. It's really... nice of you to organise all this, but..." Then I remembered something.

"Hey, Rachel? Remember when we were down in the pool, and I morphed a shambler?"

The Shambler was a computer game monster that can create an electrostatic charge between its prey and its claws. It's roughly the size of a pickup truck, and about twice as tough. It makes Rachel's grizzly bear look tame.

"Yeah. That was a cool morph. I wish I could acquire it."

"Well, here." I pulled a tuft of fur from my pocket.

"Kyle, it's fur."

"Yes, but it's Shambler fur, and it has blood on it. Shambler blood. All you need is a DNA source, right? So you can acquire this, can't you?"

A slow smile of understanding crept across Rachel's face. She put her hand on the tuft, and I felt something leave it, then return.

Then I went into the closet and changed into a grey polo shirt, and a black pair of jeans. Then we went downstairs to meet my fate.

I had no idea of what was going to happen.

We seldom do.

Chapter 3

As I went down, I heard Offspring blasting out on the stereo. I winced as we went down the stairs, but continued.

"You alright?" Cassie asked, when I reached the base of the stairs."

"Does it have to be this loud?" I half-shouted at her. I could hardly hear myself in this cacophonous din, and it was astonishing that Cassie could.

"Loud?"

"Yes! Increased in sonic volume! Containing large bass vibrations resulting in discomfort of the eardrum!"

"Kyle, this is at the volume it's always at."

Sigh. Another adjustment. I play the guitar - not brilliantly, I admit, - and I like country and western music. This of course, brings all sorts of derision from Rachel and Jake. Marco gives me stick about it all the time. Ax simply doesn't care about music. But, here, and now, I did. I put a rather complicated image in my mind of the CD in the drive changing to one of the CD's in my drawer upstairs. Then, I said the word - it's not any word, I just chose it for the sake of it. Ok. It's Axolotl. Anyway, I put the word to my imagination, and I felt the soft implosion of noiselessness within my skull that indicates successful sorcery. And, Offspring gurgled, there was a brief moment where my vision blacked out, and suddenly, the CD spun to a different tune. It was a compilation CD, which contained the only common ground I believed I could find with Offspring. Get Over It, by the Eagles. There was a brief second where people doubted what they'd been hearing, a few more seconds while their brains told them it was impossible, and once more, they assured themselves that they couldn't have heard that. My theory was once more proven.

People are idiots.

I sat down, and looked around. Ax was talking to Tobias and Amanda, - it was more or less clear that she understood weird people - Rachel was talking and laughing with Melissa, about four or five people I didn't know, mostly female, were talking to Marco and Jake, while Erek sat calmly across the room from me. I lifted my left hand. He lifted his. I grinned. He grinned. I put my fingers in my ears and waggled them. He did the same. I held my breath and crossed my eyes. I'm pretty sure he did the same. I decided that it was time for some adventuring.

My mind left my body sitting and making faces at Erek, and roved around. I passed through the bevy of girls who were standing around Marco, briefly pausing to pick out a few thoughts along the 'my gosh, he's cute' line, and zipped to Ax's.

This was a surprise. I expected his mind to be on the table of M&M's and some other things I had no idea of. I don't understand American candy, but I understand M&M's. I even know how they put the M&M's on them. Instead, he was marking out where Nathan was in relation to Amanda. I briefly picked out a few Andalite words - shorm, leyela, mryan - before moving to Tobias. He was entirely focused on Rachel. He was looking at his own elbow or feet, but he was always stealing glances at the back of her head. Haha. I then passed Melissa - a sad mind, which didn't understand why her parents didn't seem to love her anymore, - and I shed a silent tear. I lived with Controllers, too. Voluntary controllers, who didn't love me in the first place, so I felt empathy with Melissa. Then, to Cassie. Her mind was quite happy and open, glad for her friend. I even felt a twinge of jealousy, as I saw through her eyes a girl give Jake a bear-hug. A joke, in her mind, I felt. I knew better than to go into Rachel's mind. For starters, she might know. Sorcery, the Ellimist told me, runs in the blood, and even if he gave it to me, the second he'd given it to me, I'd always had it. Therefore, Rachel might have had it, too. Then, for a flickering second, I zipped through Erek's mind. Something decidedly wrong there. It was only the knowledge of Erek's internal mechanisms that kept me from wanting to scream. I decided to have some fun with the chained Yeerk in Erek's head.

Erek, I said, would you mind if I... shall we say... played with this Yeerk? Make a different face to the one I make if I can.

I poked out my tongue. Erek flared his nostrils and rolled his eyes.

I dove towards the slug. I hate them. More than anything in this world, I hate the Yeerks.

For a brief second, I showed it the universe. It saw the vast, all-but-infinite gaps in between worlds that contain life, the huge, almost impossible huge stars, that exploded before the Yeerks were so much pondscum, and were so far away that the light from the explosion had yet to reach the nearest planet to them, places so vast that infinity seemed small. I showed them worlds that sparkled like jewels in the night, lights that drift in the void, beautiful worlds filled with fascinating creatures, places where molten gold ran like rivers, where Kandrona was plentiful, and there are no predators. I showed it the dead world Vanar, the once home of the Vanarx, the only race to prey on the Yeerks, and feed on their Kandrona soaked bodies, as they were both eaten and starved in a three-day digestion process.

And then, an infinitely small dot, on an infinitely small dot, in the most tiny, minuscule speck of reality that can't be measured in the space between stars, and must be chopped into feet and inches and centimetres, a sign, which read: You Are Here.

I laughed as the creature screamed. I laughed at its pathetic realisation that it was the most unimportant thing that ever existed. I laughed while it suddenly realised that the centuries in which we measure its frail lifespan where but a skip in the heartbeat of the awesome body of the youngest star, which was itself older than the human concept of time, and its lifespan could be measured in units a million times greater than the oldest Yeerk. I laughed as it thrashed in its metal prison, where it was all-but-starved for Kandrona, inside the mind of a host totally it was totally unable to harm or control. And then, another scream.

Out there, somewhere, beyond the stars, something screamed.

Chapter 4

Erek and I were looking at each other in panic. He had heard it. I had heard it. No-one else had.
I walked over to him, hoping that I wasn't as soaked in sweat as I'd thought. My heart was beating at about a million beats per second.

"Erek."

"Kyle."

"You heard it, didn't you."

"Yes."

"Have you any idea as to what it is?"

"None in the least."

"Oh, great. Know anyone who might?"

He scratched the back of his head, and for a brief second, my sorcerer's eyes saw into his hologram, and where his metal hand was tapping the back of his skull.

"Higher up."

"How high?"

"Oh. I suppose... maybe Nathan might know. He was sub-Visser two, once."

"Where is he?"

I glanced over to a corner where Nathan was sitting. About six girls were standing around him. Brother. I didn't try checking Nathan's mind. Looking at something that vast may well annihilate me.

One of the girls, Michelle (isn't sorcery fun?), was asking him a question.

"Is he?"

"Kyle? He's the most upstanding, intelligent, decent person I know."

"Answer the question, please, Nathe."

"No, I don't think so. As far as I know, he's never been kissed."

The girls set off in a chorus of giggles. I tapped Michelle on the shoulder, and grinned at her. She gulped guiltily, and the group broke up.

"Heh heh. Well done, Nathan. Remind me to break your legs when I have the chance."

"It is true, really."

"Not really."

"Really? Who?"

"You'd laugh."

"No, really?"

"Ellen."

Nathan looked at me, with a 'you have got to be joking' look. Then, he rolled around on the floor laughing.

You see, when I was twelve, I had only one friend in my pathetic, home-schooled life. Ellen. Ellen Mist. I'm sure you aren't stupid. Once, Ellen had kissed me, as if it was normal. I hadn't reciprocated, since it felt pretty weird. I think it was that point where I began to think in my weird way. The kiss was probably some funny way Nathan's father had to transfer something into me to make me what I am. Or maybe it was some cruel, four-dimensional, temporally independent joke that I can't get. Damn Ellimists.

"Did you hear something?" Erek asked.

Nathan grew sober.

"Yes. I thought one of you might, considering what you were doing, Kyle."

I grinned at him. Sheepishness doesn't come easily to me. Neither does anger, embarrassment, happiness, or anything. Only hate I know.

"What was it?" I asked.

"Well. I don't know, but it's pretty far out. It's something that is really, really, hating what is happening to it. It needs help. It needs hope."

"Where?"

Nathan wrote down some weird symbols. I was going to show them to Ax, when Rachel grabbed my arm.

"Kyle, come and meet Kelly."

Oh well, the scream would keep. I shook Kelly's hand, smiling as I did so. Despite what Rachel thought - that I wanted to leave as soon as I could- , I was fully prepared to make a total and utter jackass of Marco.

"Kelly? You know Jake, over there? Well, can you do me a favour?"

Kelly smiled at me. She had reddish-blond hair that fell to her shoulders. My mind reeled inwardly at the smile, but I kept my cool.

"Of course, Kyle. I'd be delighted." Oh, gosh, no, not an English accent, please no, agghhh... I felt all my plan melt and run down into my shoes.

"Oh, heck, don't bother." I grinned at her. If I said more, there was quite an large chance that I could have been carried home in a bucket. I made a brief mental sweep of the area, just to check for controllers. None. I summoned up a mental-

I was standing. On nothing. I was standing, on a total oblivious void of absolute nothingness. Purple and blue clouds rolled around me, while I stood on a level of my own devising.

A girl walked towards me. She was about twelve years old, and I recognised her, straight away.

"Hi, Ellen."

"Hello, Belkyl. Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Uh, yes. Why do you ask? Social chit-chat? Another damn prophecy? Some new and vast revelation as to the meaning of life? Come, on Ellimist. I don't need the image of Ellen anymore. I'm still kind of worried about why you kissed me."

VERY WELL, BELKYL.

Ellen was gone. In her place stood a saintly old man with a long, silvery beard and a bald pate. He wore a midnight blue cloak, and seemed to look through things with his slate-grey eyes. When he spoke, it was with a voice older than my understanding of time.

IT WAS NECESSARY. I, AS ELLEN, NEEDED TO GIVE YOU A PRIOR EXPERIENCE FOR THIS MOMENT.

"You mean I kiss Kelly? Not likely, pal."

NO, YOU DON'T. IT WAS SO YOU UNDERSTAND THE FEELING YOU HAD, JUST THEN. YOU ARE INFATUATED WITH KELLY, AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW HER.

"Precisely. Bugger off out of my mind."

WHEN YOU CONSIDER WHAT THE LITERAL MEANING OF THE WORDS IN THAT SENTENCE, YOU MIGHT JUST HOW STUPID YOU SOUND.

"Alright. What do I do? And what of the reward?"

YOUR DUTY, BELKYL. YOU ARE AN ELLION. ALL ELLION DO THEIR DUTY. YOU MUST GO, AND RESTORE THE WORLD WHICH WAS LOST, AND FREE A RACE. YOU SAVED THE BUGG.
YOU MUST DO IT AGAIN.

"Who do I save? And do I do it alone?"

The image changed. It was a tallish, blond old man. I recognised in his features, the traces of once luminously good looks. I was looking at myself, one day.

"You must save a race that is dead. You need to change that which has already happened. Do what you must. And that which was as untimely reft from you and you desire may be restored."

"No."

Chapter 5

"What?" The voice was not shocked. It spoke evenly. But it was as if the Ellimist was pronouncing italics.

"No. No more cryptic crosswords. No more crap. Nothing but the truth. What do I do, where do I go, and how does it work? And what Do I Get?"

There was a note of pain in the Ellimists' face. I had been his child, as a sort. He had raised me as much as my Voluntary Controller parents had, but, instead of with sticks and cold water, he had used rewards and happiness. And I was fighting with him. When he spoke, it was with a catch in his throat.

"You travel to Vanar. The world was destroyed by the Yeerks. There is a race there that's blood has been crying out from the very stones of the land. An army, killed, and destroyed. A race, that will never again rise. The Ira."

"Are they like the Gedds or Hork-Bajir?"

"No. They are enslaved in a manner that would set your blood on fire with rage. They are a race akin to your ants. Hundreds of workers, entirely devoted to the Queen.

"The Yeerks have seized control of the Queen, covering her mind with millions upon millions of Yeerk slugs, all united into one mind, constantly pummelling her with pain indescribable. And because the Ira have no link to their queen, they don't understand or know her pain. She can only watch as the Yeerk send commands to her children and shriek in endless pain and horror to the end of days."

I felt sick. The Gedds and Hork-Bajir were both entirely enslaved to the Yeerk. But they were slaves alone. Individual. The Yeerks were entirely destroying a creature's mind. And for what?

"The Ira are the only race in the universe who can kill Yeerk on their own terms. A Yeerk can infest an individual Ira, and feel the excruciating pain as the Ira rejects them. But the Ira have even greater gifts. They are powerful. One Ira can act as your ants, moving rocks hundreds of times their size. Ira are salicaceous. A stone race, strong, powerful, and easily manipulated. Perfect warriors."

"Then why are the Hork-Bajir being used instead?"

"An Ira that gets too far from his queen becomes free. His mind will weaken until he is outside the reach of the queen. There, his body will not move. They cannot act without the Queen."

"I refuse to believe that's it. Otherwise the Yeerks would have annihilated them. The Yeerks are not a kind race. If they find something useless, they remove it. Point in case, the Naharans. No more Naharan-controllers, because the Yeerks made Satan's pact with the Taxxons. Technical superiority, and the Naharans no longer exist."

The Ellimist nodded, silently, as if acknowledging my speech to be the most important thing that ever happened. I suppose, in a roundabout way, I was more important than him. He was a temporally independent creature with more power than I could think of, but I was an Ellion. He couldn't interfere. I could.

"When an Ira is born, he comes from a Rok. The Rok shatters, and a new Ira emerges. As the Queen dictates, it becomes an Ira that is necessary for whatever currently concerns the race as a whole. There are movers, drones, warriors, procreators, and -" He left it hanging.

Vanar. It clicked in my head.

"The Vanarx. The Yeerkbane. The only predator on the Yeerks that exist." I said.

"Why not annihilate them, then?" I demanded. "The only real enemy they have, why not destroy it?"

The Ellimist sighed. He touched the air, and it rippled. A pool of light formed in the center.
"The Vanarx produce a fluid within them known as Kandar that sustains the Yeerk through its three-day digestion process. It makes them mindless and totally focused on pain. The Queen has such a mind, that if but one of the Yeerks that control her were to move or stop applying their mindless torture, she would kill them all. Yet how, you may ask, do they maintain this million-fold defence against the Ira, and still live without swimming in the Kandrona pool?"

"They digest the Vanarx's Kandar. They kill them, and feed the Yeerks Kandar. So the Ira live."

"Yes. And another type of Ira is called the Lakak. They think. Each one is used to plot out the mathematical equations necessary to sustain Yeerk pools underearth. And a million other things the Yeerks are too stupid to think themselves."

"That's disgusting."

"Yes. And you must free them. And I don't know how."

Chapter 6

"Yeah. Sure. Infinite Ellimists? Ignorant?"

"Belkyl, they can only know that which will happen. We can see forward along the current timeline. But you are an Ellion. You are a -"

"-Point on which a whole timeline will rotate. I know. I'm sick of that. Ok, so, I have to do this, and you can't tell how until I've done it. Well. The rewards."

"Well? What do you want?"

I had stuffed emotion so far down I had no idea what I was experiencing. But I was sure it wasn't good. I grabbed the Ellimist.

"You Know. You know. Rachel lives in a broken home. I had to. She shouldn't. I live in a world with no colour, no taste, no heat, no cold, nothing. And..."

"Yes?"

"Stop the prophecy. I don't want this certainty of death to happen to me. Death should be because of mistakes, not because of what must happen."

"Belkyl, I cannot. When you touch the Cube Of Azure, all that you are will be unmade, and Nought but five remnants of what you were will remain."

"Don't feed me that crap. I'm an Ellion. You are second to me. What do I do?"

"I cannot tell you."

"Listen. I'm an Ellion. Your son is an Ellimist. If I have to get this information from you, I will cause pain to Nathan that you cannot know. You've never been truly human. But unless you tell me the truth, and stop the prophecy, Nathan will feel emotional pain unlike anything in the Ellimists' mind."

He looked actually shocked. I was being hard. I had to. I knew, deep down, I couldn't do anything to Nathan. He was my friend. But, I hoped that the Ellimist didn't know. I prayed he didn't.

"Very well. The cube of azure is an Andalite artefact that conveys upon its bearer the ability to morph. That is all I can tell you. I beg of you, don't harm Nathan."

"I couldn't. Learn about humans, Ellimist. That was called a bluff."

He sagged. I hated myself for that. This creature had befriended me. And when he'd given me my gifts, I had peformed one of my many idiotic mistakes. I had gone home to my two Voluntary controller foster parents, and I had burned them to death. I remember it clearly. I set their hearts on fire, telling them they were the most foul thing that existed. Then, I gave the Yeerks a glimpse of what I was, and I burnt the Yeerks.

Then what? I had spent two weeks, rampaging around, killing voluntary controllers in the street. I made sure they were voluntary. I was very careful, and very clever. Four controllers suddenly keeling over from a stroke in the same street, in the same place? Just a coincidence.

"Don't hate yourself. It happened." The Ellimist put his hand on my shoulder.

"You know the price. You know what I want."

"Emotions and sorcery? Belkyl, I cannot allow them. I cannot allow this talk to continue. We will discuss your reward when you return."

-shield, which held down my bubbling emotions. I politely excused myself, and when upstairs. To bed. To sleep. To dream of fantasies. Such as normality.

Chapter 7

It's funny, really. There are millions of places, points, lights, lands, planets, and so forth, where anything as fragile as a human would be crushed, frozen, flattened, blown away, ripped apart, melted, burnet, fried or boiled, and yet we consider something like a door to be normal.

Hah. Marco would find it funny.

Funny. That's a foreign term, now.

When I woke up, it was that delightful beauty that was known as Saturday. Rachel had already woken up, and I could see the sign on the closet door, turned to reveal that it was occupied. I wore track-pants to bed, so, I got up without fear, and picked out a book at random.

Pawn Of Prophecy. David Eddings. Thanks to him, I'm in this mess.

Ah well. I picked up another outfit - blue shirt and white jeans, with my black jacket - and put it on with the door shut. I sigh. Now what?

"Hey, Kyle. Sleep well?" Mum, at the door. I smile. A family here. And, in the next rooms, Jordan and Sara, my sisters. My wonderful sisters. I once again suppressed emotion. A few more days. And again, I will laugh and cry.

"Yes, mum." It's funny to hear my language slip from Australian Drawl to American in one conversation.

"Tobias, Erek, and his Phil are here. Do you want me to tell them to come back later?"

Philip was what Ax was called as a human. I knocked on the closet door.

"Hey, Rachel? Some of the guys are here. Want them to come up?"

"Sure, I'm almost dressed."

"Ok, mom. Mum. Whatever."

When we were all assembled, I told them the long and short of it.

"Just think. The Yeerkbane." Ax's speech was becoming less stilted. He still had fun pronouncing words, but he kept his fun down.

"The Vanarx are a ridiculously powerful creature, and I know that I would love to suck a Yeerk out of it's owner's head." Tobias snarled.

I nodded.

"Ok, Erek, how do we do it?"

"I can't fight, Kyle."

"Nonsense, we don't need arms or backs. We need minds. And we need Chee technology to get us to Vanar."

"In which case, I can help. We have a Keram teleporter. It has a link, I think, to Vanar. We can go there, and we can find the Vanarx. I cannot fight."

"You held me like a baby, Erek." Rachel stated.

"Yes. But the Chee cannot attack. And we won't harm. We would stop you and restrain you, but we would never kill."

"Very well. I will call Prince Jake." Ax began.

"Ax. No."

Ax froze. He recognised the tone in my voice. The tone that he probably only heard in the voice of his War-Prince.

"Ok. We need Nathan here. I don't care what the Ellimist says, Nathan is going with us. Just us six. Rachel and I have the best combat morphs, Ax, to keep time and score, and because we need an Andalite to reinforce the image of ourselves as ANDALITE bandits, Erek, we need your strength - you are allowed to move things, aren't you? and Tobias. I need you, personally, to help me. You have a head for strategy."

"Why not Jake, or Cassie? Or Marco?"

I felt the Ellimist speak to me. "I can't explain it. They can't come. Damn prophecy, this stupid Ellimist playing silly buggers with me. No offence, Nathan."

I blinked.

"How the hell did you get here, Nathan?"

Nathan grinned at me. "Dad gave me a lift."

"Oh, yes, very bloody funny. Your father is quite easily driving me mad, you know that, don't you?"

"You'll be fine."

I grabbed my jacket, Rachel grabbed hers, and we headed to Erek's house. I explained to mum that Rachel and I were going to Erek's for a sleep-over. She gave us permission. We went, and let me tell you, I all but ran into that basement.

The Keram looked suspiciously like Stonehenge. Erek touched points on each of the pillars that Nathan had given me on that piece of paper, and it glowed.

"Away we go." Erek said.

"Let's do it." I said. At the same time as Rachel. She looked at me and laughed. More mental barriers. The last thing I need is more emotion.

Chapter 8

Vanar was a hole. It was a desert wasteland of baked grey clay, which stretched off to the horizon, far, far away, where they purpling sky met the ground. The only feature was a spire of grey green rock. I very, very, cautiously looked around. No-one had noticed.

Erek tapped me on the shoulder. He was in his natural Chee form, like a long, bipedal dog. No hologram.

"I have extended our hologram. We now look like grey baked clay."

"Ah, very imaginative."

Tobias, sitting on my shoulder, was looking at the spire.

"Lovely." Rachel said. "I just wonder what the Ellimist'll do when we finally hunt the Yeerks down and kill them all. Give them a chance?"

"I try not to think about it." I said. Damn all Ellimists. Right now, all I wanted was this whole prophecy to end. Killing Yeerks and saving the world was a lot easier without the terminal threat of total obliteration.

I watched as workers toiled across the clay, carrying rocks on their shoulders. Some of the rocks were fifty times the size of the Ira themselves.

"Look, guys, we need local morphs." Rachel said. "Erek can't hide us forever."

"True." I looked at the workers. Silicon. Did they have DNA? I tried it. I reached my mind out to them, and scanned their forms.

"Sorry. No DNA." I fixed one into my mind, and shifted my outline into one. I always choose inconspicuous morphs, all the time. People don't care about the small men, the tiny things. They ignore the boring man who sweeps up when they're gone. They forget his name. I saw Erek change. His hologram tightened around him, until he was a simple little rock man.

Thump.

The mind was like a brick. It sat on my mind like an oppressive weight. When I morph, there was no fight with the mind. I merely shove the other mind into a corner. The others don't. They have to fight the other mind.

*Guys, you can't morph this.* I told them. *You'd be like ants again.*

Rachel shuddered. I extended my mind, until I found something. A small rodent. Two eyes, nose, three ears - ? - and six legs. Furry. It was easy to persuade it to come to us. Rachel, Nathan, Ax, and Tobias acquired it, and morphed. The conversation was amazing.

<Yow! This is a cool mind!> Tobias laughed.

<Oh, yeah. I mean, wow. I can hear what colour Kyle's shirt is! Wow!>

We never learned what they were. To us, they were rat-things. Not even Nathan, the once Sub-Visser Two, didn't understand what they were. But they were smart, they had good hearing, and they were fast. I had to eventually become one of them, just to keep pace with them. Erek could keep up just by running. Then, the music began.

It always does. Whenever I'm amazed, confused, or any real emotion I can't suppress, I release it by releasing music. As it was, this was Steve Earle's Guitar Town. The others looked at me as if I was mad - probably - but didn't object to me singing. So, when I reached the Queen Spire, I was amazed. The music stopped. I was knocked flat on my back. The Queen was huge. She exuded a sort of low grade, greasy, niceness. It felt Ok, but I really wanted to go home and scrub my skin until it was raw.

Because, deep down, under the aura of wonder the Yeerks projected, the Queen herself was shrieking in pain and horror. She was constantly attacking the Yeerk. As we watched, a rock rolled down from the peak. When it hit land, it cracked open. A tall, bipedal, purple creature, with no head stepped out. Then, like a butterfly's wings will when shown in time-lapse photography, its neck shot out. A tube, fixed to its head. No eyes. No ears. Nothing. Just the tube. It plodded over to the spire, and, as we watched, it gutted itself and sprayed its entrails on the hill.

<Oh, god, that is just sick!> Nathan gasped.

Chapter 9

The Queen loomed over us like a mountain. Hah. She was a mountain. And, high up, marking about the three-quarter mark, was an opening. It had stalactites and stalagmites around the edge, giving the semblance of teeth.

Well? Now what? I'm not going to sit on my ar- I began.

Once again, I stood on nothing. This time, I was looking at a sad-eyed Ira. His crystalline eyes indicated a pain and sadness unbelievable.

"We. Must. Be. Free."

"No kidding." I said.

"Within. The. Queen. Lies. The. Focus. Of. The. Yeerk. Power."

"Sounds good."

-se. Ah. Ah. Ok, we go in the mouth.

<How?> Ax asked.

I think we can screw subtlety. We demorph, and I get us up there.

<Ok, Kyle.> Rachel began.

Rachel's rat thing reared up, and the nose flowed backwards into her head. The six-fingered paws slid into five- fingers, and the bottom set flattened into toes. Her middle set flowed upwards and bonded with her upper set, until they were arms. The fur was sucked into her body, and the third ear lengthened, loosened, and became her blond hair. I was already done by the time she was human, and the final step was that she stretched up into her nearing-six-foot-frame.

"Ow. Damn. No shoes!"

I glanced at her feet. Sigh.

A pair of boots appeared next to her. Cowboy boots. two pairs.

Nathan looked at me.

"Well?" I asked.

"Nothing." He pulled them on, and waited. I was morphing again.

The beautiful thing about morphing is that, in my case, it's all directed inward, so I don't tire easily. I could morph all day. But I didn't. I felt my toes thicken and others shrink. It was about a full minute before my feet were hooves. And it was only thirty seconds more before my head was long and equine.

I was a beautiful horse. I was that shade of white that makes the eyes ache from being that beautiful - the sort of white that says 'you're never going to get this good' - and was about six inches taller than every other horse I had seen. But I wasn't done.

The wings shot out from my shoulderblades. They were long, white, and silky. They looked like the soaring wings Tobias had.

Rachel sat on me perfectly - I don't know where she learned to ride. Ax morphed to human before he sat. Erek sat in front of Ax, and Tobias sat on Ax's shoulder. Nathan hoisted himself onto my shoulders, behind Rachel. There were the obligatory arguments about holding on, until I made it clear that whoever wanted to change the seating now, would have to do it from seven feet off the ground.

We soared into the Queen's mouth - orifice - and flew into her bowels. Ewww... She was the same baked clay the rest of this pit of a planet was formed of. She branched off into several esoteric branches - but who knows the anatomy of a rock? Until we came to the focus. I don't know how I know, but I know.

The entire chamber had to be as big as our house. It was huge. A thing sludge ran along the bottom, trickling in from high-up places, tubes, and ran out other such holes.

The second thing that got my attention, and almost made my blood run cold was the throne. Hewed out of the Queen's innards, the Throne was about fifteen feet tall. And sitting on it was a huge beast. A gargoyle, with two arms, two legs, and bat wings. Someone whose clothes bore the legend Sub-Visser 14.

It didn't make my blood run cold, because my blood was already at sub-zero temperatures.

In front of the throne was a plinth. And on top of the plinth was a glowing azure cube.

Chapter 10
I just hovered there, looking at the cube. Until the Gargoyle's thunderous voice came to us.

"Sub-Visser 2! How are you, sir? How's the Andalite hunting?"

Nathan gulped, and whispered in Rachel's ear. She nodded, and whispered in my ear.

"Nathan's going to try a bluff. We need to wait. He says to do what we need to do to free the Queen when he signals."

"14! You inbred fool. How are you?" Bellowed Nathan at the mighty beast.

"Fine, fine. This is a quiet post. Just process the questions we get from the Vissers, and receive bigger hosts, and feed of Vanarx juice. Fancy some?"

"No, thanks. I fed before I came here."

"Oh well. Why you here? Come to acquire a morph for the Visser?"

"Yes. I have to acquire a Vanarx."

"Cannibal, are you?"

"No. The Visser likes the creature. It scares the Innises very well."

"Hm. If it weren't for all the damn Innises, I'd have an easier lot. Fortunately, most of them are totally juiced up on Vanarx fluids, so they don't whinge. Ah well." He rapped on the cube, then reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small communicator. "Innis six-nine-twelve, send a Vanarx into the Throne Room."

The conversation and small talk between Nathan and Sub-Visser 14 washed over me. The Sub Visser thought us to be his personal guards - he made some remark about Rachel appearing a bit too weak to be effective. I couldn't hear. The azure cube filled my world. I stepped towards it, unbidden.

The Ellimist's voice resounded in the vaults of my mind.

TAKE IT, BELKYL! TAKE YOUR BIRTHRIGHT!

The Sub-Visser saw me heading towards it.

"Sub-Visser 2! You idiot! That's not a Kreaanaa! That's an Andalite! See how it walks! It's trying to steal the cube!" He raged towards me, claws extended, just as Tobias launched himself into the Sub-Visser's face. Ax was already half-Andalite, while we spoke.

The chamber was way, way too small for Nathan to go Dragon. He had to morph the one creature he had that was capable of killing small groups, and not whole armies. He changed into a Hyaunum

As I watched, he lengthened out. He became about twelve foot long in half a minute. Ax was slashing at the Sub-Visser's legs, while Tobias clawed and scratched at its eyes. Nathan's top half maintained its humanity - of a sort, it became kinda lizardy and more muscular - , but from his waist down, he became a snake. A long, green snake.

"Thank you, Sub-Visser 2! I need some help here!"

"You'll get no help from me, you murderous fool!" Snarled Nathan. They dove into each other.

When I called Sub-Visser 14 a gargoyle, I was right. He was built like a brick. Nathan's coils made absolutely no impact on the stone belly of the Yeerk. Nathan was thrown away like a rag-doll. Ax was kicked aside, and Tobias was swatted. Sub-Visser 14 stomped towards me, his scaled feet smacking the ground, and his roar shaking the cavern. But I stood completely calm. Somehow, without prompting from me, I had become my normal human form. I looked at the gargoyle that was about twice my height, its jaws chewing the air, while its weak eyes peered at me. I could see every missing scale, each tombstone-sized tooth, and I could smell the almost solid breath. He raised a hand to flatten my fragile human form.

Then, a searing bolt of electricity struck him in the small of the back. He writhed in agony, screaming, until the bolt stopped. I turned, and saw Rachel standing about ten feet away.

Of all the animals the others had acquired, only the Shambler could take the Sub-Visser on on its own terms. Two claws the size of my torso slashed the air.

<Weak and ineffective, huh?> she snarled, smacking his jaw with one of those three-clawed paws. <Ineffective this, you pig! That's my bro - ooo-ooaah!!!!> He shouts of rage became screams of pain. The gargoyle's eyes were glowing red, and I could see a corresponding pair of red marks on Rachel's fur appear.

It's a good thing Shamblers are practically fireproof. Otherwise, Rachel would be dead. Just then, the Sub-Visser stomped the ground with his feet, knocking Rachel onto her back.

And knocked me onto the azure cube.

Chapter 11

I gasped. I saw the cube, resting in between my hands. Right, I thought. I'm dead now - so let's hammer this gargoyle!

I whirled, pointing at Sub-Visser fourteen.

"BE NOT!" I boomed in a voice that spoke of the death of stars.

For a second, nothing happened. The Animorphs just stood, looking at me in horror, at what I had said. I glanced down at my hands, expecting to see a spiderweb network of blue light - as would be happening to the Sub-Visser. The network would swell until you realise that it wasn't forming on your skin, it was holes in your skin, and what you saw into was Someplace Else.

Nothing happened.

Then, I felt rage. I felt sudden, hateful rage swell up within me. I roared. But my voice was not human anymore.

My feet drew into my legs. My fingers paired off and bonded, then lengthened. My eyes sunk backward until they no longer were there. My ears pulled inside my head. My mouth squared off, and my teeth lengthened. I grew to be about fifteen foot tall. White fur sprouted all over my body, and I felt an electrostatic charge make my fur stand on end.

I was a shambler. I was fourteen-feet tall, blind and deaf, four ton, yeti/polar bear cross, and I was MAD.

"BROOAAOAOAHR!!!" I bellowed. I lunged forward, claws flailing, rock-crushing jaws crunching. I felt my mouth close on something solid and scaly, and I bit down hard. I was rewarded with an almost-scream from the Sub-Visser.

Almost a scream, because I had bitten off his bottom jaw.

Rachel joined in the fray. The gargoyle may have been tougher, but we were faster, and in a toe-to-toe with that gargoyle, a shambler could have killed it with its arms behind its back. Rachel just didn't know how you fight with a shambler.

She'd tried side-arm swipes, and uppercuts. That doesn't work with a shambler. Most of its weight is in its hands, which means that when it raises them above its head, it allows a pendulum-swing overhead skull-cracking blow that would kill or gut anything.

My head butted and bit, and I swung my hands wildly, occasionally sparking off with lightning. I was just berserk. A claw lanced my arm. I didn't care. I was just wild. I thrashed wildly, killing, maiming, and making a total mess of the Sub-Visser. I'd never had to deal with the Shambler's mind. It was a creature of nothing but anger. It never acted, it only reacted. And I liked it.

We bit and we kicked and we slashed until we felt no motion except from each other. I stepped back, and looked at my handiwork.

The Sub-Visser was, to say the least, hanging around. And sticking to several other things. As its guts floated around in the black sludge, I demorphed, and put my hand on an intestine. I focused, and acquired the gargoyle.

Rachel was human again. Nathan was shrinking, and Erek was simply standing off to the side. Tobias was groaning in thought-speech. I watched him morph into a cat, then back into hawk. He stood up.

<Ahh. Good as new. Hey, Kyle, what the hell happened? Why aren't you wallpaper?>

I glanced down at my hands.

"Guys? I think you should know. I... think I've lost sorcery. I'm... normal...ish. I just acquired the gargoyle - You JERK!" I shouted. It made sense. The Elli-

Once again, I was standing in air. But instead of the saintly old man, I was talking to myself, younger.

"You could have said." I accused.

"I could have. But you would have acted differently."

"So, what are the five remnant?"

"You retain five of your morphs. Five. The Pegasus, the Shambler, the Night Dragon, the Fiend, and the Scorpiac."

"Really? Thanks, I suppose. Well, the prophecy is done, right?"

"Belkyl, it has yet a bit more to go - but suffice to say, that cube cannot go to the Yeerks. Understand?"

"Yes… will… Will Rachel’s home be repaired?"

"It’s your home as well, Belkyl."

"I know. But you know the deal."

"It will happen. It will not happen in a few weeks. It will take years. But Rachel and you will have a father again." There was an awkward pause.

"You... weren't going to hurt Nathan, were you?" He whispered.

"No. I couldn't. Bluff, remember. Nathan bluffed admirably back there. Am I now restricted to my own mind?"

"No. I could no more remove that than I could your eyes."

"Thank you."

-st was playing his own silly game again. Yeah. Well, one thing left to do.

"Erek?"

"Yes, Kyle?"

"Break this, will you?" I tossed him the box. He grasped it between his two hands.

"Really?"

Ax was finally waking up. He saw the box, and recoiled from it.

<Glean!>

"Whut?" I asked him.

<Glean! A combination of Yeerk and Andalite Technology. They clearly tried to copy a morphing cube. But, they probably sent it here to figure out why it didn't work. It has to be destroyed.>

"Analysis indicates it can bear a mass of fifteen thousand tons." Erek said.

Tobias laughed. <Snap it, Erek. It's like the Pemalite crystal. Too advanced. Too powerful for humans, let alone Yeerks, to get their hands on.>

Erek put it between his hands, and as I watched, crushed the cube like a can.

Chapter 12

We were standing outside the Queen when we began the killing. Since Shamblers have no ears or nostrils, or eyes, for that matter, we can handle Yeerks. That wasn't the plan. Rachel and I were standing on opposite sides of the Queen. We raised our claws, and -

Just before we let off our stored lightning, we were knocked over. The Queen was shaking. Ira were coming in from the desert from miles around, moving faster than I would have believed possible. They were clustering around the bottom of the mountain.

Suddenly, the layer of Yeerks exploded. Yeerks rained down. Ax covered his ears, but since the Shambler hunts by detecting life, I could see the Yeerks were dead before they began their flight. Rachel turned to me.

<Emotions, Kyle? What about now?>

I smiled. With my Shambler jaws, I smiled.

<Serious?>

<Hmm... No. I'm worse.>

Suddenly, before we even moved towards the teleporter, we were in the woods. About fifteen minutes walk from Rachel's and my house. I was human, Ax was Andalite, Tobias was bird, and we were wearing our normal clothes. Not our morphing outfits or anything. Normal clothes. I clutched a bit of Vanarx scales in my hand. I acquired it and handed it around.

"Ax, what time is it?" I asked him.

Rachel and I looked at each other.

"Oh, dear." We ran home.

Chapter 13

That was almost it.

Almost.

You see, first things first, I called up Kelly, and I spent about half an hour talking to her on the phone. Then, I went upstairs and read a joke book, laughing at the corny lines. Then, I went on the internet and downloaded more horror stories than is strictly healthy.

About that time, Rachel went to bed. I almost did.

I lay down, in bed.

I closed my eyes. Long-closed neural pathways opened up, muscles contracted, others relaxed, and I felt, for the first time in years, the oddly cleansing tide of misery roll down my face.

I cried.

___________________

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