#something about Tobias -- the self-described predator -- also refusing it

[theidiotabides]

My own hawk eyes returned, so superior to the Hork-Bajir vision. I turned my gaze on Visser Four. The head moved. He was still alive. Then I saw a smaller movement. I fluttered my wings and hopped over. I darted my beak down and snapped up the gray slug that was crawling down the doomed man’s cheek. <The Yeerk,> I said. The others came over. Cassie was human. Rachel mostly so. Marco as well. Just kids now, in a ditch, behind a burning tank, surrounded by bodies. <What should I do with him?> I asked. Marco held out his hand. He took the Yeerk. “We can’t let him get a new host. Can’t take him back to our own time. He knows now that we’re humans. We leave him here, he dies slowly of Kandrona starvation.” “They say it’s a horrible way to die,” Cassie said. Marco held the Yeerk out to Ax. <No,> the Andalite said. <I have enough to answer for.> Ax looked at Rachel, then looked away. “No,” Rachel said as Marco offered the Yeerk to her. <Not me, either,> I said. “I see,” Marco said, nodding slightly. “No one’s anxious to add another stain on their conscience? Everyone’s had enough?” He flipped the Yeerk almost casually through the air. Threw it into the flaming hulk of the tank. “Starve or burn,” Marco said, trying in vain to sound tough and indifferent. “His only choices. This is quicker.” -Megamorphs 3: Elfangor's Secret

Crying, screaming, throwing up, etc.

#probably going to come back to this to write actual meta but for now #here look at the Animorphs passage that's been living rent-free in my head this week #something about Tobias asking “what should I--” and Marco taking V4 away and making it a collective “WE can't--" #(like Jake would if he were here but Jake isn't here Jake was shot in the head Jake is dead) #something about Marco's careful outlining of their options and the consequences and Cassie backing him up about it being a mercy kill #something about Ax and Rachel -- who sat through David's nothlitting explicitly so the others didn't have to -- both bowing out #something about Tobias -- the self-described predator -- also refusing it #something about how Marco gave them a choice and made them explicitly say they wouldn't do it even already knowing he WOULD #something about how he didn't offer the choice to Cassie #something about how Cassie was already planning a worse crime that undoes this one anyway #animorphs meta #animorphs #marco animorphs #cassie animorphs