Official Meeting (Animorphs/Leona)

[Jake]

The next day, the Animorphs got together as soon as they could. They had a lot of matters to discuss. First of all, they needed to brief the two Andalites who had joined them, and find out who they were. Then, they would discuss their current mission. New Andalites or not, they had to continue with the mission. After all, it was most urgent; they couldn’t let Visser Three morph this guy and use him to spy through the eyes of the Secret Service.

And so, their agenda was set; this would be a long meeting. They couldn’t do so at the barn; they had an Andalite who couldn’t morph among them, and couldn’t run far on her broken leg. Tobias had gotten the word to him as soon as he could, and Jake had gotten ahold of the other Animorphs. Their leader arranged a meeting as soon as possible, and they all gathered around Ax’s scoop.

Jake had come by air, using his peregrine falcon morph. The others had as well; they had no time to waste. Jake folded his arms, and waited on the others to arrive.

[Jamilan]

Jamilan had slept pretty well after they’d saved Leona. Still, he hadn’t gotten much rest that night, but he was happy. They’d managed to save her. And it was all because of a little insomnia. Maybe insomnia wasn’t bad, after all. The Andalite ended up resting during the day, which meant the other two Andalites had the day to themselves, seeing as the human-turned-Andalite was knocked out cold.

He was roughly awakened as the first of the “birds” arrived, and turned into an Animorph – Jake, in this case. Their leader. The one who would explain it all to him. Finally. He hated being in the dark like this...but no-one had had time for anything yet, what with the “normal” parts of their lives. The normal was what Jamilan missed: going to school, the movies, going places with friends...even homework. There were some things he didn’t miss, though: bullies and similar jerks, Jean, Chapman, and the Sharing. What was better, he was fighting that scum! She got to actually oppose the foul Yeerks, who were taking over good (and bad) people. And today, hopefully, he’d get to receive a human morph, so that he could pose as a normal human, and do some things, such as going to the movies. That, and they were going to learn of their next mission.

He rose to all fours. Most of the time, Andalites slept standing up. He had lay down, exhausted fully and utterly, from last night and the day before. He now felt...refreshed. But he knew that, due to it, he wouldn’t get much sleep tonight. He walked up to Jake, and stood beside him...almost laughing at his ridiculous outfit, the bike shorts and tight shirt. <Can’t wait to get this party started,> Jamilan said, with a wink. Of course, there was no party, and he was serious about all of this...but he knew when he could be silly, and when he shouldn’t.

[Leona]

Leona had not slept well, if at all, the night before. All four amber eyes seemed more then weary. In her tired haze Leona's main eyes gave several confused blinks when the first of the 'Andalite bandits' arrived.

He was not an Andalite at all, he was human. <I'm.....confused.> Leona thought aloud as she seemed to study the human boy, close to her own age. <You're human...>

For a confused moment Leona remained silent. This was their leader? But he was so young and human. A group of Andalite warriors would never put a human in charge, let alone an adolescent one. One of her stalks glanced between Jamilan and Aximili. Were they the only two real Andalite's in the group?

[Jake]

Jake smiled slightly at Jamilan, when he said that. Good that he was feeling alright, after all that he'd been thrust into. Jake still didn't understand what was going on with Jamilan; hopefully, he'd find out in the meeting. He really didn't like it when people concealed things.

Then, the other Andalite, whom Jake hadn't gotten the name of, spoke up. She was confused about the fact that he was a human...understandable, seeing as a similar thing had happened with Ax when they'd first met; now, Ax had accepted him as his prince. He was sure he could trust the Andalite; that was why he'd shown himself to her.

"That's right," he replied. "I'm Jake, leader of the Animorphs...Earth's resistance against the Yeerks."

[Tobias]

I was grouchy when I arrived at the meeting late with a mouse in my talons. I didn’t like eating a mouse in front of the others but I’d have to deal if I wanted to get my food and be at the meeting. It had been raining on and off that day and I’d been tired having been occupied that night with helping Leona.

<Yeah we’re mostly human,> I told Leona as I tore the fresh meat with my beak and swallowed it. She would have noticed by now I stayed in this form. <I’m Tobias, the Animorphs’ air force.>

[Jamilan]

A stalk-eye stared over at Tobias, who was eating a mouse, though Jamilan had seen worse. Still, it was disturbing, thinking he was actually a boy, forced to live the life of a hawk. He felt bad for him, but he wouldn't say anything about it.

<I'm a human too,> he admitted. He didn't mention his gender; he'd told no-one about that. He liked being a guy, for some reason. <I just woke up in this body yesterday, with no reason at all. Still confused about a lot of things. Where are the others?> He looked over at the female Andalite. <Oh, by the way, I don't believe I got your name...>

[Leona]

Oddly enough Leona looked a bit more confused then disgusted at the sight of the hawk among them eating a mouse. <....Weren't you an owl last night?> She asked with a curious tilt of her head.

Hearing Jamilan's question Leona turned her main eyes to...another human, apparently. At his question Leona lowered her gaze looking almost ashamed to answer for a moment.

She knew it was unlikely that even the only really Andalite among them would recognize her name. Still he would recognize it wasn't an Andalite name, and that would likely lead in to an explanation longer then she really wanted to give.

<My name is Leona Cabbell.....I'm a nothlit.> She said answering what would likely be the first question before it was even asked.

[Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill]

Aximili was...astonished, to put it mildly.

<An...Andalite nothlit?> Ax said, somewhat confused but fully prepared for what strangeness lay ahead.

After all, much more bizarre things have happened to them all.

<Please, do explain. How did you come to be as you are now?> The Andalite boy gently inquired, fully curious.

[Leona]

Leona felt some what relieved to see there didn't appear to be any disappointment in what looked to be the only real Andalite among them. Still it did not put her at ease in having to tell them the rest.

<I.......I am the former host of Nxion 121...Visser Six.> Her gaze lowered, looking ashamed, oddly enough. Ashamed of what she'd once been, ashamed of the crimes she'd seen her hands commit while under the yeerks control.

<Our-his!> Leona stopped her self at the slip up, her hands lifting to hold her head, while at the same time covering her face from the humiliation. She'd been this monster for so long the line where one started and the other stopped had been blurred to the point that even now she was still sorting out what was her and what had been the beast.

<Visser Six's blade ship,> She started again after taking a moment to recompose her self. <Was taken hostage by an Andalite dome ship.>

[Jamilan]

Jamilan's first words were going to be, "What's a nothlit?", but he didn't speak yet. He merely listened. He felt sickened when he heard she'd been a Controller; he had, for several minutes, been one. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to be a Controller for a year or so...

He noticed her embarrassment; he wanted to comfort her, but wasn't quite sure what to say. Finally, he said it, but privately. <<You're not alone...and you have nothing to be ashamed of.>> He wondered what happened from the point where she'd paused; he continued to listen for that, and for her response to his whisper.

[Rachel]

Rachel came to land not far from the scoop, having stopped by Cassie's to fly out to the forest together.

Beginning to demorph long blond strands started to sprout between the feathers on her head as her body began to increase in size. Feathers were melting in to the skin of a still mostly bald eagle Rachel with long blond hair. Wings began forming in to human like arms, fingers growing from the tips as hands formed. Talons grew soft and less scaly as claws were splitting in to toes.

That black leotard emerged as the last few changes took place, Rachel's body becoming fully human once again. Once finished demorphing she turned to join the group. She glanced curiously at the new Andalite but remained silent not wanting to interrupt just yet.

[Tobias]

If I’d thought Jamilan was strange, I hadn’t quite met the other Andalite; then again I really hadn’t had the time to. <Yeah,> I said. <Long story, though.> She went on to tell everyone she was a nothlit and her name sounded human, this interested me enough that I kept my eyes on her while I ate my mouse. She revealed, ashamed, that she was formerly the host of a Visser, whose blade ship was taken hostage by an Andalite dome ship.

I finished my mouse. Then Rachel arrived and I was momentarily distracted. The morphing process was never pretty but seeing her beautiful features eventually emerge from that bald eagle that flew so much with me always kept my attention. Her life had been pretty busy lately, I hoped to fly with her sometime.

A hawk’s eyes hardly ever miss anything when it’s light outside. I noticed Jamilan had full focus on Leona, as though he were talking privately with her.

Finally two ospreys arrived and demorphed to Cassie and Marco. The meeting was underway.

OOC: I NPCed you guys here so feel free to just jump in anytime.

[Jake]

Jake glanced over at Tobias; normally, the red-tailed hawk would have eaten by now. Something was wrong, but Jake knew better than to ask him - Tobias usually took care of himself. He'd already heard Jamilan's explanation the day before. He was mildly surprised to find out that the female Andalite was no Andalite, but a human stuck in an Andalite form, a former host for a visser, no doubt! Maybe they could get some information from her about the Yeerks...though, Jake would ask about that later. He wanted to hear her story first, and make sure she was alright.

He silently waited for her to give her explanation; she stopped at the part where they were captured by Andalites, probably because the other Animorphs were coming in now. It was best to wait, so that they could know what was going on. Once the three others were demorphed and with them, Jake recapped for them.

"This is Leona," he told them. "She's an Andalite nothlit. She was the host of Visser Six, but says Visser Six's ship was captured by Andalites." He stopped talking there, and looked to Leona, so that she could continue.

[Leona]

<It gets a bit more complicated, from there. Naturally Nxion died after three days, so then it was just me. I met Shalaren there, I guess she was assigned to look after me or something.> Leona paused her main eyes lowering, embarrassed, maybe even ashamed of what she'd once been.

<She was just trying to help me....I should of talked her out of it, I should of known better.> Leona found her arms hugging around her self struggling to keep from breaking down. Were she still in her true body Leona likely would of had tears streaming down her cheeks. Fortunately Andalites only cried with in their own mind. <I shouldn't have let her die for me!>

[Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill]

Aximili immediately felt serious concern for the nothlit...

The aristh quickly came up to Leona and gently grasped her shoulders.

<Cease speaking about your regret, Leona. Judging by how you escaped from the vile slugs, it seems she would have met that end inevitably. Also, while it is noble to mourn her loss, don't have the audacity to blame yourself. I know she would find that highly undesirable.>

As Aximili looked into her eyes, he realized how close he was to her form and backed away.

<My apologies... I should not have approached.>