Animorphs #55: The Prologue

Chapter 1

My name is Tobias. I can't tell you my last name or where I live. I don't know what my last name would be anymore. As for where I live, right now it's somewhere in a foreign sector of the galaxy. I'm writing this because, when this is all over, there I want the survivors to be able to understand who we were and why we did what we had to do. And I'm writing this because maybe, just maybe, someone will read this and have the strength to go on when they might fall without it.

.Let me set the scene for you. We came out of Z-space and found the Blade ship, the ship with the last Yeerks in the world, waiting for us. Ax, my friend, had been taken over by some being called The One.

I just heard Jake, my old 'friend,' give the order to our pilot, Menderash. "Ram the Blade Ship." I saw Menderash reach for the controls. Then, I saw him freeze. I looked around.

Nobody moved. Not an inch. No breathing, no blinking, and no wavering of the grotesque hologram of Ax that even now smiled at us with arrogance etched into his mutated face.

I knew this game. <Ellimist,> I muttered. <Come to not help us once again?> Then I heard a voice I wasn't expecting.

"Not Ellimist." I turned to see the Drode. The Drode looked sort of like a purple dinosaur, but his flesh was very wrinkled and his face was way too close to a human face.

The Drode served a being known as Crayak. At first, I thought of the Ellimist as good and Crayak as evil. But I haven't been sure what those words meant for years.

<Crayak, then. As if it matters. What does your master want?> I demanded. I guess most people would be a little thrown by a creature that could stop and start time on a dime. Not me. The whole 'time freeze' gag is old news.

"I remember when you were respectful and shy," the Drode sighed. "I might like this version better. But that is neither here nor there."

<What do you want?> I repeated.

"Come now, Tobias. Surely you don't think that the Ellimist would let his little friends the Animorphs kill themselves like this."

<If the Ellimist cares, why are you here?>

The Drode didn't answer me. Instead, he said, "I'm about to tell you a story. Don't say anything until you hear it. I'm sure the Ellimist has told you a thing or two about my master, but I'm going to tell you the whole story. Then, you need to decide something. Are you ready?"

I tried to answer in thought speak, but I heard nothing. So I just nodded. Yes, I was ready. Then, just as I had expected, I was no longer in our dimension.