Old Friends and Old Scars (By Invitation)

[beachbeagle]

"We had everyone evacuate just in case," Tess said when Jullian questioned about Union being okay, "but other than the net falling a little things were fine. We fixed it up and whoever wanted to was allowed to join us down there."

Matt nodded at that. "Yeah, and the secret room was an interesting mystery. A part of me wants to keep working on solving it, but I'd need all the equipment that had been down in that basement plus I could never find anyone who'd known the guy. The names we had to go on weren't much, so we could never find them."

But finally the conversation that would have come up eventually had, Ethan's lack of the morphing power. Ethan's face twitched a little when Julian questioned that he couldn't, but Matt couldn't read the emotion that had flickered across it.

"Ethan....," Sara started. "He had some issues with the idea of using technology from aliens most of us had never met to fight another species of aliens. He trusts us, he just doesn't know how he feels about morphing so he fights on our side using weapons instead. I managed to convince him to use a dracon bean, and that feels like something of an accomplishment on the alien technology front."

"I might get one morph," Ethan said quietly as he toyed with the food on his plate for a moment. "Sara has been trying to convince me to get one, if only for the sake of being able to morph away injuries. I'm thinking about it...... I just don't really know how to feel."

"He didn't mean the statement to be offensive or anything Ethan. He just didn't know," Sara said, taking Ethan's free hand in hers. "It's not like you can tell by looking at someone." And with those words the topic seemed smoothed over, but questioning Ethan's reasons was something probably best avoided by anyone who wasn't Sara.

[Jullian]

But Jullian didn't know that.

"Wait, so why don't you morph?" he asked innocently enough, still trying to figure it out. Even Adamo and Zach morphed though they only had a few morphs each since they hardly had the opportunity to use them. Albatrosses or something like that.

"I mean...is it religious or something?" Jullian asked employing the only thing he could think of to explain unexplainable behavior. His family hadn't been terribly religious so the whole field was pretty much an unknown to him. Whenever something didn't make sense it was easy to ascribe it to religion, it was like saying it existed beyond the known world.

[beachbeagle]

Again Matt saw an expression flit across Ethan's face. Sara, however, put her hand on one of his large arms and gave him a look that said to cool it. Jullian wasn't trying to debate Ethan's reasons, he was just curious. The debating would, hopefully, be left for Sara or she might not be capable of restraining Ethan. Not without being large and furry anyways.

Again Sara spoke for him, her eyes conveying that she knew he didn't like the direction the conversation had taken. "He has issues with the idea of fighting one alien race with technology another alien race gave us. He's perfectly willing to fight the yeerks, he's just not sure how he feels about the andalites."

Tess nodded. "It's understandable really. A lot of humans have issues trusting the YPM because of the fact that their yeerks. It's natural to fear the unknown, and until Ethan figures out where he stands I think he should abstain from morphing. Wait to get the power until he knows where he stands and only then if it's the right thing based on his decision."

Matt shook his head though. "Maybe battle morphs, yes. But I'd want you to get the morphing power if were out in the field, at least so you could morph away injury. Yes, Animorphs have died, but a lot of them didn't have time to morph away the injury. Others have lived only because of having the power." He glanced at Ethan. "She cares about your safety is all, so at least take that somewhat into consideration with getting or not getting at least one morph."

Ethan said nothing. He merely stared at Matt as if he suddenly understood this a little better and also curiously, as if he wondered why Matt would mention this. He hadn't expected Sara's twin to have an interest in his welfare, but maybe he was realizing Ethan wouldn't be leaving any time soon.