117Jorn: For those of you who read the original version of Retaliation, Just so you are all aware, Chapters 1-5 are mostly unchanged, however Jessica and her team have been removed until close to the end of Book #1. So this first chapter is almost identical save for some tweaks to the dialogue.

My name is Jordan.

To most, I am just your average eighteen year old, graduated from High School already and looking for Jobs. I have friends, family, a few crushes and the whatnot. Just your average Teenager I guess.

Well… that's how it use to be, for me at least. Now, everything is way more complicated for me and my friends.

...Have you ever heard of the Butterfly Effect? Well, basically In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change at one place in a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. This was theorized by a man named Edward Lorenz who theorized that a Hurricane could have been formed from something as simple as a Butterfly flapping its wings several weeks earlier.

I know it sounds crazy, but I personally believe in it…well, I don't believe in the Butterfly making a Hurricane bit, but the concept itself I believe is true. Small changes can easily affect the outcome of the future if one tries hard enough. That is what I am trying to is what we are trying to do.

Who are we? We are the people who are protecting you from the threats you don't know, the things you probably don't want to know, but the fact you're reading this proves you at least want to know what the hell is going on here. And what might you ask is it we are protecting you from?

The Yeerks.

They are parasites, an entire race of small slug-like aliens. Yes, Aliens. And their here, on earth. Now you might say I am crazy, that they don't exist. Well, you'd be wrong. The Yeerks are here, but you can't see them. Yet at the same time, you can.

Your friends, your mother, father, brother sister, girlfriend, school teachers, even policemen could be Yeerks, acting as 'Human Controllers.' That's what Yeerks are, they squirm into your head, and infest you, and that Yeerk has complete control of your body, and complete access to your memories. They know everything about who they control, and they can mimic them almost flawlessly. You may never know if your own family are all Yeerks in disguise.

The Yeerks are here, and they want Earth, they want humans to control so they can continue their path of conquest against their enemies, another alien race called the Andalites. Humans are not the first race Yeerks have conquered, they have taken control reportedly hundreds of other speices, some of which I've heard of like Taxxons, Hork-Bajir, and Gree, but there are many more I haven't heard of that are just as dangerous.

Me and my friends, we are all that fight the Yeerks. We are what stand between freedom, and enslavement. We are only a handful now… but we will grow, and we will build an army of like-minded friends who will stop at nothing to kick the Yeerks off of our home once and for all.

I know this sounds crazy and all, trust me it sounded that way for me too. More for me because, well… a month ago, all of this was just another science fiction story I loved to read, called Animorphs. Let me go back and explain how I became involved…

Ram the Blade Ship.

The last words of Jake, leader of the Animorphs, during the final book and chapter of Animorphs. K.A Applegate really did a number on us with that cliffhanger ending, believe me. You wouldn't believe how angry I was.

I sighed as I put 'The Beginning' down on my bedside table, and glancing at the clock. It was One fifteen AM, and it was still dark outside. I usually stay up later than the rest of my family, I don't got to bed until two or even three o'clock AM sometimes. Hell, there are some days I go a full 24 hours without a drop of sleep. I spend most of my time using the internet or, like tonight, reading up on books I loved.

As I said before, my name's Jordan. Although some tend to call me Jaden, mostly because I am writing a story where my main character is named Jaden, and my friends tend to call me that, not that I mind at all. Back then, I was just your everyday teen with short brown hair and brown eyes.

I've loved Animorphs since I was in the fifth grade, kinda funny how I became a fan when you think about it… back then I actually hated reading, and I just liked to look at the pictures of books, specifically things involving stuff like war, sci-fi stuff, you know, things kids like to see. But at my local library, they had a system where I can only read specific books with my 'reading score' which I hated. However, the Librarian was kind enough to show me one book which caught my attention, a book where the cover had someone changing into a Crocodile.

I started reading it… and the more I read, the more I was drawn to Animorphs, and reading in general. I loved the series, it was awesome. It had everything a kid could ask for, violence, action, drama, even some bits of romance for those who were interested. I started seeking out Animorphs Books relentlessly, like a kid who loved Pokemon, I just had to catch e'm all, I didn't want to stop until I had every last Animorphs book ever made.

Now, twelve years later, and here I am. Although my collection still isn't complete, its a drastic improvement to what I had before. Out of the sixty two books that had been made from 1996 to 2001, I have thirty six of the original fifty four books, plus three of the four Meganimorphs. Even today I keep an eye open for the remaining books I need to complete my collection. And I am just now realizing we're getting off track, so back to me.

After I had put down The Beginning, my mind thought back to everything I had read in Animorphs, all of the triumphs and defeats of Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Marco, Cassie, and Ax. I also thought about all of those minor characters, like Melissa Chapman, the Auxiliary Animorphs, and many others who had so much potential, but could never meet it. And it did sorta make me angry that K.A Applegate ended this amazing series on such a sour note in my opinion. When I was younger, I tried to make a story which would continue Animorphs, sorta my way of 'ending on a good note' you could say. Of course I was just a kid back then, so it never really worked out, just being an early piece of fanfiction before I even knew Fanfiction existed in the first place.

Though sometimes I still thought of what it would be like to somehow fix the world the Animorphs lived in, to save so many lives, and make everything turn out for the better. Of course I just dismiss those as childhood dreams that could never become reality.

How wrong I was.

Suddenly, I began feeling much more tired than I was before, like I was hit by a wave of sleepiness. I took that as my sign to just go to sleep, and I did as I pulled up the covers of my bed, rested my head on a pillow, and in just moments I found myself falling asleep.

I finally awoke with a loud yawn, as I shook my head. "Okay..." I muttered as I sat up in my bed, rubbing out the last bits of sleep in my eyes "Saturday Morning, got lots to do, placed to go, and I gotta..." At that moment, I opened my eyes, and I froze as I looked around.

This was not my room. It looked similar, but it was missing everything. My lamp, posters, my calender, everything was missing! The bed didn't even feel the same. "Okay..." I muttered, "What the fuck?"

I quickly got up to my feet, thankfully I went to bed with my clothes still on, just a pair of basketball shorts and a red T-Shirt. I looked around and saw the room, while looking similar to my original room, was different. All of the walls were white, not lime green like my room was. And as mentioned before, all of my posters and other items I had put around my room were also gone.

"Two questions," I said, "First: What? Second: The Fuck? Where the Hell am I?"

"Where are you? You ask. This is your new home Jordan. For the moment at least," a voice from across the room answered, causing Jordan to whirl around in a defensive stance, however his eyes widened at what he saw. It was vaguely humanoid, but clearly different. Instead of hair, it had magnificent, rainbow-colored quills. Four wings came from its back looking like an angel's. He had four arms and four blue eyes as well. He stood on two feet. I noticed that the tops of his feet were like talons. It looked almost like he could rotate a foot to stand on a talon instead.

I blinked in surprise, as I looked at the… thing, in front of me. "What the hell…?" I muttered, and the weird… bird… thing smiled.

"Think, Jordan." He said, "Look at my features, where have you heard of them before?"

I was about to ask how it knew my name, but I did as asked, and tried to think where he had seen - or 'heard' of this… thing. And in one moment however, it hit me like a sack of bricks as my eyes widened. It was a Ketran! He was a Ketran, an alien race that was extinct in Animorphs continuity… save for one.

"And now, you know." The creature said, reading his mind.

"Ellimist..." I muttered, trembling a bit "But wha… how… you don't exist!"

"The fact I am standing before you disproves that theory, Jordan." The Ellimist said, "There are many universes, Jordan, the Multiverse has many different worlds and galaxies, each one different, yet some are very similar. Is it too much of a stretch to believe that one universe that was once fictional, is in fact a reality?"

"So… so wait..." I said, trying to grap the idea of this "So… Animorphs… Jake, Cassie, the Yeerks… their all… real?"

The Ellimist nodded "Yes," he said, "Or at least it will be real. Tonight at Seven will be the night that Elfangor will land on earth, and you must be there with the Animorphs to guide them to the better future."

I raised an eyebrow "Why are you doing this?" I asked, "And why pick me, out of all of the people in my reality, out of billions of people to pick, you chose me. Why? I doubt big old red eye's would let this slide."

"He didn't," Ellimist said, "Which is why we came to a compromise… I would be allowed to bring you into our reality, and make it so you can achieve whatever it is you believe will help the Animorphs the most… however Crayak will be allowed to set into motion specific events that did not occur in the original series, events which could drastically change the course of the war. They will be small at first, but eventually..."

I nodded in understanding "I get it," I said, "So not even my knowledge of Animorphs will help me through and through, so I need more trump cards."

The Ellimist smiled "So, do you accept the offer?" He asked.

"Answer me this first," I said, "What happens to my reality? I can't just leave my friends and family. Also, if you want me to help you, I'm gonna need more trump cards than just my knowledge of the series and Morphing."

"Your reality will be… paused, I suppose you can say." The God-like figure said, "Should you wish to return home once you finish your mission in the Animorph Universe, no time will have passed. However… if you are killed in the Animorph Universe..."

"I die in this reality, and my parents will forget I even existed in the first place?" I asked knowing the answer, this was how the Ellimist and Crayak's little war game worked. Spending so long reading Animorphs you learn a thing or two about how they work. His thoughts were confirmed with the Ellimist nodded "Yes, I am sorry." he said, "But those are the rules… well some of them."

For about a minute I was silent, as I contemplated my options. The Ellimist was giving me the option to go back home where it was safe… or possibly live out a childhood dream I always wanted, but risk getting killed and no one remembering me. I think that anyone else may of picked the first option, and leave… but deep down… I felt like I had to do this. Different realities or not, this may be a way to change the lives of billions of people. The Animorphs, Auxiliary Animorphs, and so many others. I could save them, and actually be someone.

I let out a long sigh "I'll do it," I said, and the Ellimist smiled, "So what are the rules in total? And what differences can you tell me that I can expect?"

"The rules are simple, really." The Ellimist said, "First, you cannot reveal the location of the Time Matrix buried at the construction site. Second, While you can tell the Animorphs some of their futures, you cannot tell them their full fates, so you cannot warn Rachel of what happens in book 54… yet. I will have a list of events you cannot tell the Animorphs… directly."

"So I can't tell Marco his mom is still alive, and stuff like that?" I took a guess, and the Ellimist nodded "Alright, what else?"

"Thirdly, the Animorphs are not allowed to read future books," He said, "But you are allowed to let them read past books whose events have already transpired. That is it."

"That's it?" I asked, "Those are the only rules? I can work with this."

"Yes," Ellimist said, nodding. "Now, there are several changes you may notice Jordan. First off, unlike in your world where it is in the 2000's, here in the Animorphs world it is the 1990's. And also, you will notice that the Animorphs themselves are older than they were in the series, more close to your age and in high school rather than middle school."

I rose my brow at that "Why the change?" I asked suspiciously.

"It is simply the way things are now," The Ellimist answered, "Neither I nor Crayak have control over this."

I processed that for a moment, before shrugging. "Alright, good." I said, "Thanks for letting me know ahead of time..." he looked around "So… where are we?"

"As I said, your new home." Ellimist answered, "It is a large house I have constructed, close to where the Hork-Bajir valley is located, and is protected the same way it is. I intentionally made it blank so you would have room to customize it… however I have taken the liberty of adding some features here you can use for you war with the Yeerks."

I rose an eyebrow at that "What do you mean?" I asked, and the Ellimist chuckled.

"You will find out in due time," he said, before he gestured to the side where suddenly a poster of a tiger appeared on the wall. "Behind the poster is a safe, which contains your entire collection of Animorph Books… as well as any books you were missing at the time, along with all of the T.V Episodes on DVD."

I blinked in surprise, but grinned triumphantly "Thank you… so much!" I said, trying to contain my excitement.

"Your welcome," Ellimist said nodding, "My time is now up, I must leave you now. Take some time to explore the house before you set out, you will find many surprises here. I also say you should check your bank account. Goodbye." And before I could say anything more, the Ellimist disappeared in a flash of light.

I looked around the room, and let out a sigh "No going back now..." I muttered, before I blinked "Wait… 1990..." I then let out a long sigh "Great… the Xbox and the Playstation haven't been made yet… what am I gonna do during the low- hu?" he blinked as a note appeared before him, and he caught it, and as he read it, he smirked. "Thank. You. Ellimist."

'Jordan, since I know you will be bored during the period between missions, I have sent your entire game and movie library to your new house, its in the room next to your bedroom. Including titles and systems that have not been released at this timeframe. Enjoy.'

I spend a few minutes exploring the house, and the more I went by it, the more I loved what the Ellimist had done to it. It was as if he knew everything I would want in order to help the Animorphs as best as I could, and in more ways than one. Taking his advice, I checked how much money I had on my bank account… and I nearly fainted. I had over a Trillion dollars in money in the bank! That's almost the amount of money spent by the allies in World War II! Money will not be a problem for me for the foreseeable future. However thanks to the Ellimist, he had taken the liberty of dividing the money into multiple different accounts across the U.S, as to avoid any suspicion.

Also, I found out the house itself was huge, three stories with kitchens, bathrooms, and bedrooms. I could have twenty people live in this house comfortably, not to mention I found massive store rooms in some sort of mini-bunker under the house, which was stocked with food. I also found a room filled with exercise and training equipment.

After I explored the house enough, I went back to my room where I refreshed my memory on everything that happened in Book 1 of Animorphs, the Invasion, just to be sure I had it memorized from beginning to end. Once that was done, I found the garage of the place, where the Ellimist was kind enough to give me a new car, a Ford F-250. Its times like these I was glad I got a Licence the moment I graduated.

Thanks to the truck, I managed to follow an old dirt trail out of the woods and back onto the road, and thanks to a GPS I got into town without much trouble. As I drove the truck down the streets, I looked around at the people on the sidewalk, just normal everyday people to the naked eye… but I couldn't help but remind myself that many of these people may already be Yeerks… and that still freaked the crap out of me.

I drove the truck to the one place I knew I would find the Animorphs today: The Mall. According to the first book, this is where all of them were at before they were at the construction site. I hoped to find one of them before seven o'clock, which is when Elfangor will arrive. I spent most of my time planning on who to find, and I came to the conclusion the easiest Animorph, or future Animorph really, to find would be Tobias…

...but, after several minutes of searching, I found the biggest flaw to my plan was I had no idea where Tobias was! Even though I had a general idea what he looked like thanks to the book covers and the TV show, it wasn't much to go by. However thankfully I remembered that he liked reading, so I headed down to the Mall's book store. Fortunately for me, luck was on my side as there were only five other people in the bookstore. Other than the shop assistant at the desk, there was an old man looking at some classic novels, a young couple in the reference section, and a boy about my age, looking at the sci-fi books.

He was about average height; he had unusual shining green eyes, wild messy dark blonde, almost brown hair that stuck up in all directions, and a dreamy expression on his face as he was looking at a Star Wars book. I was almost positive it was Tobias; but 'almost positive' wasn't good enough, I had to be sure. After all, the fate of the planet was depending on me to get this right.

'Alright, let's try this casual.' I thought, as I took a deep breath, casually walked up to him, and spoke "So, you like science fiction books?"

He suddenly snapped out of his daydream and looked at me suspiciously for a few seconds, and then he smiled. "Yeah I love Star Trek and Star Wars and things like that with aliens in. It's so cool!" He said, "What about you?"

"Same boat here," I said with a small chuckle, "Sci-Fi is just flat out awesome, anything is possible in it if you put your mind to it..." I then stook out my hand, "Name's Jordan, you?"

"I'm Tobias," he replied. "Nice to meet you Jordan."

My heart leaped! Yes! I had done it! I had found Tobias! But I still had a job to do. I had to stay with him until we ran into Jake and Marco; then the real game would begin. "You too," I said. "So tell me, what's your favorite Sci-Fi book so far? I love Star Wars above all else."

Me and Tobias spent a lot of time talking about Sci-Fi, and each other. It was kinda weird talking to a person I once thought as a fictional character, especially one who was one of my favorite characters. But after a while I got use to it, it was actually pretty cool to actually get to know Tobias, not only did we share the same love of Sci-Fi, but we shared similar interest in… well, almost everything else. Heck, I think I introduced him to a few things he didn't eve knew existed.

"So this… Anime stuff is really that good?" Tobias asked, as we walked out of the Bookstore together, both of us having bought several books there.

"Yeah, Anime has all sorts of stuff," I said, smiling "My favorites are Mecha Animes, like Gundam and Macross. You'd be surprise what you can find if you look hard enough for it."

Tobias smiled and nodded, he seemed much more happy than when I first met him. I knew he was always considered lonely with only a few friends, but he was practically beaming that he had a true friend now. After leaving the bookstore, we were walking when we suddenly ran into two people. One had long black hair, and brown eyes, and another guy with brown hair and eyes. I'll give you two guesses at who they were.

If you guess Jake and Marco, then your right!

"Hey Tobias, who are your friends?" Jake asked, once we caught up to them.

I stepped forward. "Hey, I'm Jordan." I said,

"Cool. I'm Jake, and this is Marco."

"What's up?" Tobias asked quickly changing the subject.

Jake shrugged. "Not much. We're heading home."

"Out of quarters," Marco commented. "Certain people keep forgetting that the Sleaze Troll shows up right after you cross the Nether Fjord. So certain people keep losing the game – and losing our quarter." Marco kept jerking his thumb at Jake, just in case we couldn't figure out who he meant by "certain people."

"So, like maybe we'll walk home with you guys," Tobias said.

"Sure" Jake said "why not?"

"I'm good with it." I said, suppressing my massive grin threatening to overcome me. As we continued walking, the four of us just told things about each other. I had to lie on just a few things, but nothing major, and I was mostly truthful when I said things like 'I just got here a while ago' and things like that.

As we walked on, we came across three girls, one with long blond hair, and sapphire blue eyes and she had that look that she just stepped out of a Magazine, another girl who looked more like she belong on a farm than in a mall, and she had dark skin and her hair was really short. I instantly recognized them as Rachel and Cassie from the covers of the books. However the third girl, I didn't recognize at first. She was easily about my age, and maybe a few inches shorter than me, she had shoulder length light brown hair, and dark blue eyes. wearing a rather simple dress shirt.

"You guys going home?" Jake asked Rachel. "You shouldn't go through the construction site by yourselves. I mean, being girls and all."

Rachel seemed to look a bit offended, as she sent a teasing glare to him "Are you going to come and protect us, you big strong m-a-a-a-n?" She asked rhetorically, "You think we're helpless just because-"

"I'd appreciate it if they did walk with us," Cassie interrupted. "I know you're not afraid of anything, Rachel, but I guess I am."

Rachel didn't say much, but rolled her eyes before she looked at Tobias, and then noticed me standing next to him "Who are you?" She asked, "Friend of yours Tobias?"

Tobias scratched the back of his head sheepishly "Just met actually, at the bookstore," he said, "But yeah, he's a friend."

"Name's Jordan, nice to meet ya." I said with a nod, still trying not to grin as the whole gang - minus Ax - were right in front of me, however I was still slightly unnerved at the third woman who was looking at me - who was she?

"Nice to meet you Jordan," Cassie said, "I'm Cassie, this is my friend Rachel, and her friend Melissa."

"Nice to meet you too." I said nodding, and the unknown girl's identity finally hitting me 'Melissa Chapman! She's Hedrick Chapman's daughter! What is she doing here? Is she one of the changes Ellimist warned me about? Wow she looks a lot like Terra Vnesa.'

"Hu, Funny." Melissa said with a thoughtful expression, "One of Rachel's sister is named Jordan you know."

"Yeah," Rachel said nodding, "So, we going through this thing or what?"

Nodding, we decided to finally take the short cut through the construction yard. And like that, it was just the seven of us walking through the construction site, to anyone else we would have looked like your ordinary group of Teenagers. However I knew differently, and I knew what would happen in just a few minutes.

That was when we cut through the construction site. I felt the shivers going through my spine as I gazed up at the skies, while also not looking to suspicious.

Then, I saw it.

"Look," Tobias said.

"What?" Jake asked.

"Just look," Tobias said. His voice was strange. Amazed-sounding, but serious at the same time.

So Jake looked up. And there it was. A brilliant, blue-white light that scooted across the sky, going fast at first, too fast for it to be an airplane, then slower and slower.

"What is it?" Jake asked.

Tobias shook his head. "I don't know."

I just couldn't stop grinning. He's here. I thought. He's finally here!

"It's a flying saucer!" Cassie yelled.