Alternate Beginning

By M.C.

Disclaimer: I make no money or claim ownership of the Animorphs book series, they belong to K.A. Applegate, her husband Michael Grant and the folks at Scholastic. I'm just borrowing the characters for a non-profit story.

Foreword: I've had this idea percolating in my head since the last book came out in 2001, and my first big return to fanfic. I wasn't satisfied with the finale when it first came out, but during the years I've gotten to liking it. But I kept wondering how Rachel would've dealt with the aftermath of the war ending, as well as the auxiliary Animorphs. The nagging fact that at least 12 of the auxiliary Animorphs were killed on the front lines, but where were the other 3-4? (This will also ignore that the last book implied that ALL of the Auxiliary Animorphs were gone.) This won't be an ongoing series like capnnefir's impressive continuation, just a couple of chapters (in varying POV like Rachel and James). No Kelbrid, no The One or anything like that. Feedback is GREATLY appreciated.

Chapter 1

RACHEL

The second lion charged gamely, leapt and sank its teeth into my left haunch.

Had to take down the Yeerk with the polar bear morph. Had to stop him remorphing. I'd been lucky once, experience had told. But I couldn't count on a second easy win against a polar bear.

I tried to stagger forward, but the buffalo had done some damage now. My hindquarters were numb and weak. He was hitting me with short, sharp blows, like a boxer rabbit-punching. He'd figured out that he couldn't really wind up and deliver a killing blow.

RRRROOOOAAARR!

A lion's roar is hard to ignore, but in the confines of the Blade Ship, the deep, throaty vibrations were magnified tenfold. The bass alone went through my claws and vibrated my blood-caked fur.

Through my pain-hazed mind, I remembered that two lions were attacking me. And the cape buffalo morph and the Yeerk with the polar bear morph. Then Tom. Why would they stop in mid-battle to roar?

Wait. Wait a minute. Two lionesses were the Yeerks. Where did the male lion come from?

Was this Tom? Did he outsmart us?

No. Even the morphs had turned to see this new arrival.

I felt the breath leave my grizzly body. It couldn't be true.

[James!] Jake cried through the monitor.

Without further preamble, the lion leapt over the console and landed on the demorphed Yeerk, who was remorphing to polar bear. In midmorph, the Yeerk was helpless as James pinned the half-human body to the ground and tore his throat out.

Two Yeerks down, several more to go.

[Rachel!] Jake cried out. [Don't forget Tom!]

Enraged by the death of one of their own, the two lionesses forgot me and swarmed onto James. One leapt and bit at James' neck, while the other attacked his flank.

Before I could turn around and help James out, the cape buffalo began attacking me again with short, sharp butts to my bear midsection. The momentary distraction brought by James' arrival had got me in front of one console. In my weakened state, the sharp head butts against the hard, alien metal had crushed a few ribs and my back wasn't faring well either.

But then I realized James had brought backup. A familiar crocodile surged from under the console I had been hiding behind before I attacked.

Collette.

With ungainly but swift crocodile agility, she latched onto the right rear leg of the buffalo and what seemed to be almost no effort, pulled the buffalo away from me. The distraction allowed to get in a few good licks to the buffalo's head and neck, before I let Collette finish him off. After Collette delivered three sharp head shakes, worrying the buffalo around like a dog's stuffed toy, the buffalo crumpled to the floor. Without a word, she went to the lionesses attacking James. As I watched, a newly morphed bobcat joined her: Timmy.

[He's morphing, Rachel!] Tobias called out from the viewing screen. [Tom!]

[Got it,] I turned towards my prey, who was slowly morphing to cobra. Scales were popping out from his bloody skin, and his arms and legs were starting to wither away. But he was still mostly human.

[You're finished, Yeerk,] I growled.

"Kill me cuz," he spat out through bloody teeth. "That's what Killer Jake sent you to do, right? Kill me because he doesn't have the balls to do it himself."

[No.]

"Then what?"

[This.] I slammed one of my grizzly paws against his head. The Controller collapsed like a sack of potatoes.

It wasn't fatal, I had retracted my claws and I wasn't using all of my bear strength. It was the technique I perfected with this morph many times before: the love tap. Tom was going to be out for an hour or so.

I turned towards the other side of the room. James, Timmy and Collette had finished off the remaining morph-capable Yeerks and were licking their battle wounds.

[Good work guys,] I said. [Secure the Blade Ship. Make sure Tom didn't have any more of his buddies behind as backup. If the Yeerk pool is unguarded, lock it up or something.]

[Got it,] Timmy bounded from the bridge, with James leading the rear. Collette stayed behind to watch my back, as I turned back towards Tom's unconscious form.

[All right, Yeerk,] I snapped. [I know you're still there, and I know you can hear me, so listen up. You exit Tom right now, and if you don't come out in one minute, I'll cut in and get you myself.]

I began demorphing, feeling the battle wounds melt away with my bear fur. As my human form emerged unhurt from the grizzly, I let out a huge sigh of relief. The tide had finally turned and the battle was almost completely over. Despite the imminent victory, thoughts raced through my head. How did James and the auxiliary Animorphs know about Jake's plan to kill Tom? Why would James' group do it, and send the rest of their teammates out to die?

Whoever's doing for watching my back, I was inwardly grateful for. As I pondered the 'what if' scenario, I realized that I could've killed Tom. He was a Yeerk, I was an Animorph, one of the good guys. It seemed so clear cut, black and white.

But would my teammates look at me the same way again? That I, one of their own, would willingly kill the leader's brother, who was the enemy. Could I live with that knowledge for the rest of my life? As I mulled my history with the Yeerks plus the Ellimist, Crayak and the Drode - the immediate answer came to mind: Yes.

My reverie was broken as James, fully demorphed, along with a still-morphed Timmy, return to the bridge.

"Well, no more morph-capable Yeerks on the ship, but plenty of their friends in the pool." James replied. He pulled a very familiar object out of his pocket. "We found this. Guess they were going to make more of their kind."

I took the morphing cube from James. "Thanks." I then noticed Tom's Yeerk crawling out of his host's ear. "Could you find me something small to keep this guy in? I don't want to take any chances of him escaping."

"Got it." James rooted around in several consoles before finding a glass Mason jar with a screw-on lid. I gingerly took the Yeerk and quickly transferred him into the jar, and James made sure to screw the top on nice and tight.

"Good." I finally turned my attention back to the viewing screen. Things had changed during our scuffle with Tom's crew: I saw Visser One's crumpled body on the floor and that Jake, Marco, and Cassie had demorphed. Tobias had morphed to human, while Ax looked out of it. Relieved, but out of it.

Jake nodded, a smile of relief gracing his dark eyes. "You did well, Rachel."

"As well as can be expected," I yawned, and nearly slipped on the half-morphed polar bear's blood. "So what now?"

Jake's lips thinned. "We contact the Andalite fleet."

"With a working Blade Ship?" I asked skeptically. "The fleet wouldn't hesitate to fire upon us. You know how these guys are - shoot first, ask questions later."

[My people are not like that,] Ax cut in.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, the Andalite Electorate then."

A familiar, yet different thought-speak voice cut in. [Dock with the Pool ship, and say you'll surrender both the Pool and Blade Ships to them.] As I viewed the monitor, I could see Visser One's former host body climb to a standing position and survey the area through his own eyes.

Alloran-Semitur-Corass. Host body to Visser Three-turned-One, and the Andalite who had perpetrated the deadly virus on the Hork-Bajir homeworld. But the evil that emanated from him, along with the pompous attitude, was gone. Just a regular, uninfested Andalite.

I cocked an eyebrow at Jake. "Should we trust him?"

Jake shrugged. "We gave Visser One an ultimatum: have him leave the host body or we go in and cut him out. He chose the less painful route."

I smiled. "Good minds think alike."

"We have Visser One in a briefcase," Marco piped up, his mouth full with chocolate chip cookies. Tobias held up a locked briefcase for our view.

"Okay…" I looked around the bridge. The other two auxiliary Animorphs had demorphed, and looking at James for orders. James, in turn, was looking at me. Or more precisely, at the viewing monitor at Jake.

I turned back to the monitor. "So we dock with the Pool ship, no biggie. Problem is, I have limited experience with flying alien ships. Remember that private jet?"

Marco snorted. "Yeah, that wasn't the brightest idea you had."

Cassie allowed a smile. "Flashy, but yeah, I wouldn't recommend flight school now."

Alloran cut in. [You won't have to manually operate the controls. The Blade Ship is a much more sophisticated design. Just tell the computer to dock with the Pool ship, and since you three are in control of it, it will follow your commands.]

"Very well. Computer, dock the Blade Ship with the Pool ship. Disable all weapons," I ordered.

After some heated discussion with a stuck-up Andalite officer, and some destroyed Bug fighters later, the war was officially over.