Title: The Twins

Author: Alexis Steele

Fandom: Animorphs

Characters: all the majors

Genre: Alternate Universe, after #23 The Pretender

Series: First story in the "Descendents of the Ellimist" Chronicles

Summary: Tobias is about to find more family than he can deal with

Notes: This fic was my first attempt at fanfiction back in 1999. It has been lying dormant in notebooks and my computer until I pulled it from the Net in 2004. Looking back on the fic about a year ago, I realized that I had a lot of interesting ideas that I wanted to portray in this fic – eventually to become a series – and that I wanted to pick them up again, but I had some major changes that needed to be done to my OC, Shayla. She was a blatant Mary Sue, and now she's become an attempt to see if I can write a competent OC without her becoming a Mary Sue.

And, while I will be following more closely to the events that occurred in the book series, I will always see the characters as their TV counterparts. Let's face it, ladies, the TV series might've deviated a lot away from the books, but it definitely gave us some nice eye candy to glance at. I will also be extending the timeline of the story to five years, instead of three. Therefore, the Animorphs have been fighting the Yeerks for over two years.

Normal speech denoted with "…". Thought-speak denoted in ((italics))

Each chapter heading will tell you who is narrating this part of the story. If you don't see a character's name in the chapter heading, assume that the character from the previous chapter is still narrating.

Disclaimer: With the exception of Shayla and any other minor OCs, all the other characters are the property of K.A. Applegate and Scholastic Books. All feedback is greatly appreciated

Prologue:

My name is Elfangor. I was once an aristh in the Andalite military. Now I am living peacefully as a species known as human on a planet called Earth. I have made a good life on Earth. I am happily married to my true love, Loren, and I have a good job working in my adopted homeworld's rising computer industry. I never realized the kind of life I was missing being caught in the middle of an intergalactic war. However, it is on this day that I'm reminded just how much I've taken my existence on Earth for granted for I have been pulled from my peaceful life on Earth by an all-powerful being known as the Ellimist. Now, I am standing in a blinding light, in my former body, listening to the words being spoken to me.

YOU WILL HAVE A SON AND DAUGHTER, ELFANGOR. THEY WILL BE TWINS. THEY WILL ALSO POSSESS VERY SPECIAL ABILITIES FROM YOURS AND LOREN'S UNION. UNLESS YOUR CHILDREN ARE REUNITED BY THEIR SIXTEENTH BIRTHDAY, THEY WILL BOTH LOSE THEIR POWERS FOREVER. BECAUSE THESE ABILITIES STEM FROM LOREN'S FAMILY HERITAGE, YOUR CHILDREN WILL GROW UP VERY DIFFERENTLY FROM EACH OTHER. WHILE YOUR DAUGHTER WILL BE ABLE TO DEVELOP HER ABILITIES AS SHE AGES, YOUR SON WILL APPEAR AS IF HE POSSESSES NO POWERS AT ALL.

At first I couldn't understand why the Ellimist said 'reunited' -- I assumed that my children would grow up with their mother.

((Is there anything you can do to help them along?)) I asked him.

I WON'T HAVE TO. THIS WILL ALL OCCUR IN ITS OWN TIME.

((Why are you telling me this at all?))

TO SHOW YOU THAT ALTHOUGH YOU MUST ACCEPT YOUR DESTINY IN THE UNIVERSE, YOUR TIME ON EARTH WAS NOT WITHOUT ITS OWN REWARDS.

((What kind of abilities will they possess?)) I asked, unable to curb my curiosity.

AS A RESULT OF THE ANDALITES' ADVANCEMENTS IN MORPHING TECHNOLOGY, THOUGH THE POWER LAY DORMANT IN YOUR BODY AT THE TIME OF CONCEPTION, YOUR CHILDREN WILL POSSESS A NATURAL MORPHING ABILITY THAT WILL NOT BE HINDERED BY A TWO-HOUR TIME LIMIT. THEY WILL ALSO HAVE THE POWER TO HEAL AND WILL BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER WITH THEIR MINDS.

With those final words, I was pulled away from the life I knew on Earth and back to my own. Over the years, I never stopped thinking about Loren and my children. I never thought I would ever see my children again. But one fateful night, after a disastrous battle over Earth's atmosphere, I crash-landed near an abandoned construction site. There I saw five human children, and among them was a young boy who looked exactly like me, if my human morph would have been twenty years younger. I knew he was my son, Tobias. I could see the prophecy that was foretold by the lifelines start to unfold. As I was being pulled up to my impending doom by Visser Three, I looked down at the future of Earth and knew that it was in capable hands.

Now, I, Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, die uttering one final word...

hope.