Matirin lets him know a couple days later that all the nothlits in non-Andalite forms have been put in one place so he can demorph them.

Perfect! They are, other than that, nearly ready for his plan to take over the Yeerk high command, but he wanted to have this done first. 

He packs up his modified mage-energy generator, capable of ten times the power output, and his artificial channel with the newer, smarter computer program that can regulate higher flows and more quickly increase power input to meet the requirements for demorphing an Andalite, and two of his tether-generating artifact in case one breaks, an excessive number of morph-capable worms, and all of his notes. He tells Matirin he'll probably take several days at it, since the procedure itself takes an hour and then he needs to rest for a while before he can do it again. If Matirin has politics to do on the Andalite homeworld at the same time, he's welcome to join for the Gate. 

Does Cayaldwin want to come and observe? Leareth is comfortable repeating it without Cayaldwin's ongoing advice but it may be helpful for his current research, getting a lot of observational data on attaching the second tether. (Mhalir should probably not come.) 

Cayaldwin will come, sure.

Leareth spends the trip to Saturn reviewing his notes and checking the setup for the dozenth time. 

The Gate is easier this time, now that the routing is more familiar. Leareth still requests a couple of hours to rest before meeting with the Andalite nothlits to explain his protocol. 

The Andalites still have his room set up and are happy to accommodate this.

Leareth takes a brief nap on his weird bed with the furry blanket. (Sleepily finds himself imagining he's petting Matirin's fur, and feels a bit lonely.) Then he heads out to meet the nothlits and get started. 

They are assembled, all stuck as different bizarre alien creatures. One is in a fish tank and one requires a different atmosphere and is floating in a tank of purple air with an elaborate filtration setup.

Wow, that's incredibly inconvenient as a way to be stuck. Leareth is going to need some help from an assistant to get them out of the setups as needed once the demorphing starts, since he'll be occupied watching the side of it in z-space. 

He explains the protocol. It'll take him about an hour of work, during which time he wants to be in a room alone with Cayaldwin, who's observing and helping out, and the Andalite in question, and for them to stay very still and not distract him. He'll warn them when everything is ready before triggering the demorph. The process seems quite safe and reliable, he's done another two dozen iterations on larger animals than rabbits to make sure his new power-supply setup would be sufficient, and all of them seemed fine. That being said, he of course can't promise that it'll work, and the worst possible outcome is that they die in the process. He thinks that's very very unlikely but they should know what they're agreeing to. 

Leareth will stay with the demorphee for a couple of hours afterward, in Andalite morph, because he wants to monitor for side effects subtle enough that he didn't catch them the first time, and also they're likely to be unused to their Andalite bodies and find the first little while quite disconcerting. Their first test case was fine within a day, but he's guessing a lot of them have been trapped far longer than a month. 

Questions? 

They do not have questions.

Leareth picks the one nearest him (and not in a fish tank or atmosphere tank) to go first, rather than asking for volunteers and putting them on the spot. He takes them to the room where all his equipment is set up per his instructions, checks it a final time, and then gets to work on starting up the mage-energy generator and channel, so he can anchor the end of the new tether to their construct-body before leaping into z-space. 

:Cayaldwin, are you ready?: 

<Yes.>

And he takes Cayaldwin with him to z-space. 

Leareth is, again, very careful, but it's a little less nervewracking the second time, and goes faster. He sacrifices some worms, plops in replacement components, consults his Foresight as well as his and Cayaldwin's understanding of morph componentry before linking everything up. 

Just under an hour later, he drops briefly out of z-space to warn the Andalite that he's about to trigger the demorph, everything looks good so far. 

The Andalite acknowledges this and holds still.

Demorph! 

Leareth watches the process intently on the z-space side, ready to leap in and stabilize the morph pocket or provide more power as needed. 

It proceeds more or less exactly as the first demorph-to-Andalite did.

Leareth stabilizes the pocket a bit as it swings, since he's confident he can do that and not make anything worse, but it's much less fraught, the more powerful generator can more than meet the tether's higher needs. 

When everything stops moving, Leareth offers Cayaldwin his mental hand and pulls both of them back to the material world. He stays on his feet, concealing his exhaustion, but takes a minute to catch his breath before attempting a morph. 

:You can go now: he tells Cayaldwin. :I will come get you for the next one when I am rested: 

And he glances over to see how the Andalite is doing. 

Her body language is so badwronggross.

Leareth approaches, cautiously. 

<Everything went fine> he tells her. <Once you feel ready, you should practice moving around until it is more comfortable. It is normal for it to take some getting used to, you had a different body for a long time. I can tell when you are not moving right, and help you figure it out, but it does not bother me since I am human.> This is not completely true but it is, at this point, mostly true. Melody's redirect helps him keep some distance from it, accepting it as data without feeling like it's reality. 

The Andalite looks at him uncertainly but tries to get her bearings and move less clumsily. <I am sorry> she mutters several times.

<You need not be sorry> Leareth tells her, gently, each time. <You had something awful happen to you and you survived it. You will be all right soon. There is no shame in needing a little while to adjust.> 

He walks with her, makes some very neutral, matter-of-fact comments on how she can move more normally for an Andalite. He doesn't begrudge the time; his reserves are still recovering from the tiring Void work, he can't do the next one yet anyway. 

She seems to find this very odd behavior but she tries to take the advice anyway. She is still moving fairly oddly after a few hours, much more than the soldier was.

<How long were you trapped in morph for?> Leareth asks her. 

<It has been six years.>

<I am sorry.> He pauses for a moment, acknowledging it. <I think you will need a little more time to get used to having your body back, but it will come with practice. I need to move on to the others now.>

<Of course. I will go somewhere remote, to attempt to recover.>