(Warnings and Disclaimer still apply.)

Pemalite Chronicles I: Last Thing on my Mind (part 3)

Impossible

by: AniDragon, aka Riona-chan

Our "talk" was quick to turn into "sitting in silence". Both Annette and I had a secret, and neither of us was willing to divulge it. Both of us wanted to know the other's secret without revealing our own.

That obviously wasn't going to happen.

"So," I broke the silence, deciding that small talk was better than no talk, "You mentioned you were new around here. What brought you to this neck of the woods?"

She stiffened at the question, but answered: "My daughter, Lily. She went missing last year, and I thought I saw her in the background during a news report filmed in this town. It wasn't much to go by, but…"

"Ah," was all I could think to reply. Can of worms, anyone?

It was then that a stray dog wandered into the clearing. It was a young German shepherd, and quite obviously hungry.

Automatically, I reached inside my bag. I always carried a bit of beef jerky with me, since I was particularly fond of picking up and feeding strays like this. When the Pemalites were wiped out, the Chee preserved their essence by melding it with wolves. That union is what created dogs. Every time I looked into a dog's eyes, I could see a Pemalite soul behind them.

"C'mere, boy," I beckoned.

The dog hesitated when he got near me—a normal reaction, since he wasn't able to detect any sent on me—but hunger took over and he let me feed him.

"Good boy," I said as I pet his head, "You must have been hungry."

"Do you like dogs?"

I jumped at the sound of Annette's voice. I'd forgotten she was there.

There it was again. Before today, I'd never forgotten anything before. How did I manage to forget two things in one day? I'd have to run a full system scan when I got back home.

"Yes," I answered her, "Quite a bit, actually. You?"

"Love them," She answered, and leaned over me to scratch the dog behind the ear, "They're almost like family to me."

She paused a moment later, a pensive look on her face. She looked at me with mild shock on her face.

"I knew something in the air smelled strangely. Erek, you don't have a scent."

…

What?

How in the world had she noticed that?

It was times like this that holograms really came in handy. Most of the time, our holograms were programmed to react to our "moods", but it was possible to change the programming so that the expressions weren't automatic. I'd luckily thought to change the setting once I'd decided to discuss things with Annette. If I hadn't, my face would have betrayed me.

"Thanks," I answered, "I like to keep myself clean. Still, I fail to see what that has to do with anything."

She raised an eyebrow, not buying my act, "No amount of soap and water can completely take away someone's scent. You… You aren't even organic, are you? I suppose that explains the hologram…"

"I think this conversation has gone on long enough," I interrupted, standing up. I glared at her hard. I couldn't hurt her, but she didn't know that, "What in the world are you? No human can smell that well, no human can notice someone manipulating holograms. You aren't human. There's no way you can be hu…"

"You're right."

I stopped, shocked at the bluntness of her response.

"Neither of us are human," She continued, "You're some kind of android, or advanced machine, and I'm a creature who's only disguised as a human. I think we'll step on each other's toes a lot less if we can just be honest with each other, as blunt as the truth may be. Don't you agree?"

She was right, of course. I nodded and sat back down. The German shepherd licked my hand, glad that the ruckus was over, and I scratched him behind the ear. I should take him home; he looked like he really needed some love.

"So what are you?" I asked her.

"An alien, I suppose you could say," She answered, "Although that's not entirely right… I was born and raised on Earth, though my ancestors did come from another planet."

"Andalite?" I guessed, knowing I was wrong, since she'd been in human guise for longer than two hours. Still, it was the first race that came to mind when I thought of morphing or shapeshifting ability.

"No, but good guess," She answered, "You're well informed. Andalites are the leading race in terms of morphing technology, though my own race isn't exactly on the charts. We like to keep quiet. Our own morphing technology, if you could call it that is very different than the Andalites'. Long ago, when we began living among humans, we changed out own genetic coding so that we could change at will between our true form, and a human form. Both forms are passed down genetically, so even if a child is born human – which will happen if the mother is in human form during the birth – they'll have the ability to shapeshift into their true form once they learn how."

I only let a bit of my shock show on my face, though she wasn't paying attention to my expression. The technology to do what she was describing was incredibly advanced. It was far beyond Andalite morphing technology.

"Sonia and Lily are half human, mind you," She continued, oblivious to my thoughts, "They don't know about their other roots yet, though I'll be telling Sonia when she's old enough to understand. Sandra and the twins found out when they were just kids, but my first husband was a Pemalite as well, so they're pure-bloods… Instincts kicked in faster for them, I suppose."

It took me a moment to register the last bit of what she said. The name 'Pemalite' had left her lips so casually, so nonchalantly, that I was sure I'd misheard. Not to mention the fact that it was impossible for her to even know the name of a race that died out before the Great Pyramids were built.

At the same time, I knew that I hadn't misheard. I couldn't mishear; I was much too advanced for that, thank you very much. As this knowledge sunk in, I noticed, belatedly, that a tear had slid down my holograms cheek.

When did I switch that setting back to detect my mood?

It didn't matter when I'd changed it back, because what she'd said had just turned my entire life upside down.

"Erek?" She'd stopped when she'd noticed the tear, "What's wrong?"

What's wrong? I wanted to shout, You just told me that your from the race that created me. You should be dead. You should never even have been born. How did you survive the Howlers' plague?

But this explained a lot, didn't it? The instinct to trust her, the mother hen feelings I'd gotten, the advanced technology she was describing… And why she seemed so Chee-like…

I stood up again and started pacing. Were my processors acting up again? They'd already done some strange things today, so maybe I did mishear.

Or maybe it was a trick. Was this Ellimist, or Crayak? Yes, that was the most logical conclusion. Ellimist created the Pemalites, and Crayak sent the Howlers to destroy them. Both of them had toyed with me in the past, and now it was happening again.

"I almost believed you…" I muttered.

"What do you mean?" Annette stood up as well, putting her hand on my arm again, "Erek, what is it?"

"I almost believed that you really are a Pemalite," I shook my head, "But it's all a trick, isn't it? Because you can't be a Pemalite! This is… But answer me this, is this one of Ellimist's tricks, or Crayak's?"

"Why would I want to trick you?" She demanded, "I thought we agreed that we'd be honest with each other, so why would I turn around and lie to you?"

"I don't know," I admitted, "Because that's how they work, isn't it? I've dealt with both of them enough times to know that trickery isn't beneath them."

She crossed her arms in front of her, giving me an annoyed look, "You aren't making any sense. I have no reason to try and trick you. You seemed fine with the idea that I'm not human, so why did the name of my race throw you off so much?"

"Because the Pemalites died out ages ago," I explained, trying to remain calm, but failing miserably, "They're extinct, gone, wiped out. I had to watch them die, one by one! So you can't be one of them. It's… impossible."

This, apparently, was news to her.

"Died out?" Her voice was almost a whisper, and her eyes were wide, "How… When?"

If this was an act, it was a convincing one.

I was uncomfortable sharing the information, but if this was a trick by Ellimist or Crayak, I wouldn't be telling them anything they didn't already know. And if it wasn't… Well, I didn't know how that was even possible, but I wanted to get to bottom of this.

"2956 B.C.E. is when the last Pemalite died, or so I thought," I explained, "They were attacked on our home planet by a race called the Howlers. We managed to escape, and made our way to Earth, but… The Howlers had released a plague, which finished off the few Pemalites who had escaped. We… We managed to save their memory… We created dogs by melding their essence with wolves. But that's it. Just a memory."

Annette shook her head in what seemed to be disbelief, "That's horrible… That a race could be so destructive… But it explains a lot, in a way…"

"How did your ancestors survive that attack?" I asked her, determined to make sense of the situation.

"They…" She scrunched her eyebrows together in thought for a moment, "If I remember my history right, then they wouldn't have even been on the planet when the attack happened. Their ship had come to Earth thousands of years before it."

And then I understood. It became so obvious that I wondered why I had never even thought of the possibility before.

The reason the Pemalites had fled to Earth instead of some other planet was because they had visited the planet roughly fifty thousand years before the Howler attack. If what Annette said was true, then some of those Pemalites must have stayed behind.

And if that group of Pemalites survived, it suddenly seemed very possible – probable even – that there were other colonies on other planets. They had visited so many in the past, all over the galaxy.

There was a buzzing in my head as I tried to deal with this knowledge. I was overwhelmed. Everything I thought I had known about my creators was swirling around my circuits, which were telling me that Annette was speaking the truth, even though I barely dared to believe it.

"I think…" I spoke slowly, "You need to come with me. You need to explain this to the others."

"Others?" She asked, puzzled, "Others like you, you mean? Other Androids?"

"That's right," I said, nodding, "To the other Chee."

The word seemed to make her understand, "Friend?" She asked, smiling, "We built you, didn't we?"

I nodded, "We were made to be toys, originally. But, we grew to be companions over time… And then we became remnants… We survived the plague – It couldn't hurt a machine, of course – and lived on when the Pemalites couldn't."

A sad look crossed Annette's face, and she put her arms around me comfortingly, "You don't have to live on alone, anymore…"

I didn't know how the rest of the Chee would react to Annette and the knowledge she brought, but right now, it didn't matter. For the first time in thousands of years, I felt like I had just come home.

End of Part 3

(A/N: WAY too much melodrama in this chapter, I think, but it needed to be done. Erek might be out of character… But the situation's pretty unique, too. Meh, I'll let you all be the judge of that, I guess.

There will be an explanation for Erek's systems acting up, by the way. I didn't just include it to cover plot holes. :P)