<Mmm.> And Leareth thinks in silence for almost a minute before saying anything else. <Yes. That makes sense. I can pass messages on to the Andalite command if you wish to propose it. ...Possibly tomorrow. Even the message-Gate is tiring.> 

<I will take my time thinking through the proposal, then. But - I think that they ought to surrender. They cannot win. They can hear from the other Yeerks that we're not slaughtering them all. - maybe we could ask some of the voluntary Controllers on Earth to come meet with them...>

<Yes. It would be risky for them, but - I have no doubts that some of Mhalir's staff will volunteer for it, and their hosts. I also think they ought to surrender. It...will take longer than conquering them by force - they will need to make up their minds.> He so, so badly wants it to be over. <But it will be much easier to clean up after, I think, if it goes that way. One hopes fewer casualties on both sides. Seems worth it.> 

<I agree.> Tail-swish. <I think it will sound ridiculous to my higher-ups but - Yeerks have sense. They'll take time, they'll want to know the extent of our victories so far, but - I hope they'll give in.>

<I hope so too.>

Earth isn't on the priority list for message-Gates to get faster updates, unless Leareth needs intel from Mhalir, which is less and less often nowadays when they've captured so many other planets. They tend to find out the result of battles weeks or months after the fact. 

Vanyel worries, in between mage-work and doing flashy demonstrations to impress the humans, and incidentally the Andalites. They're still not really allowing visitors in Velgarth except for a few Andalite researchers who've been to Leareth's underground facilities in the far north, but Vanyel can show off and give a sense of Velgarth's capabilities that isn't wrong, exactly, just - filtered. 

On Melody's prodding, he sees various Earth specialists about his weird Gate problem. They're so curious and baffled about it! His last appointment was with some famous world-renowned neurologist - a type of Earth doctor specializing in brains, which very confusingly isn't the same thing as a psychiatrist, this seems dumb - who was so thrilled to have a few days of Melody's time and Sight for his research. Which kind of feels like bribery, but he'll take it. They're reviewing scans now, trying to figure out if it's more the kind of problem appropriate for a psychiatrist or a neurologist. The entire process is kind of humiliating but Melody's not wrong that it would be really good if he could do Gates. Also she was right the last time she arm-twisted him into something; Earth does in fact have drugs that make him so much less sad. 

They get the news that the Andalites are pausing conquests of the remaining scattered Yeerk bases and instead blockading them and demanding surrender. A few days after that they hear about the nearly-disastrous battle on Leera. There are requests for volunteers on Matirin's staff, any Yeerks with voluntary Controllers who are willing to take the risk of flying an unarmed shuttle into a Yeerk-defended zone and trying to convince them that the Andalites really aren't slaughtering the entire species at all. There are, unsurprisingly, some volunteers. 

It's some solace that Leareth and Matirin are safer, now, but he wants the war to be over. He wants Leareth to be back. 

When he gets updates from Nerefir, he passes them on to Melody. 

Three months and one week after Leareth and Matirin left Earth, Melody hitches her customary Gate to Haven and looks for Alloran. :I have some good news: 

His eyes fix on her. <Oh?>

:It's over. Officially. Or, well, probably was two weeks ago, we're on the usual delay. Last outpost surrendered. Same as the other one, before, they insisted on surrendering to Leareth's people and not the Andalites, but - it's over: 

He holds very still, for a moment. 

<Oh.>

<They might have secret outposts they concealed records of.>

:Yes, I know. And some might have fled further into the galaxy. We'll have to keep watching for that. It's - not permanently over, not yet. Though Leareth thinks it's vanishingly unlikely there are any major outposts that they were able to conceal entirely. Not when he captured a lot of ships and planets with computers intact: 

Tail-swish. <It would be good if he is right.

There will be trials?>

:I think so. Nothing official yet on the details: 

<I want them to admit they were wrong but they probably won't and if they did they'd be lying.>

Melody is thinking that Mhalir wouldn't be lying, but that would be the worst argument to start so she doesn't say it. 

:Anyway. How are you?: It's been two weeks since her last trip down. Normally she visits more often but she got invited to some sort of famous-doctors conference and it got out of hand from there, and - well, Alloran has been doing a lot better, there wasn't much new to go over at each session when she was coming down twice a week. :Any more improvement on the freezing-up problem?: 

<It hasn't happened. I do not know at what point that will be sufficient to conclude it will never happen again.>

Melody counts back weeks in her head. :You'd said it didn't take too long to recover, the last time, so that's something. At some point we're going to have to call it long enough. But - hmm, Leareth should be back soon, now that things are finally settled. I think you should ask him to spar with you and - not go easy on you at all. I think if anything could still startle you enough it'd be that: 

<That seems like a reasonable thing to try. ...has he, in the past, been deliberately fighting badly?>

:I doubt it, but I think he'd be - scarier, if you asked him for that: 

<- huh.>

:He's not scary when he spars with the Andalites back at base. Looks like he's trying to win but not like he's trying to kill you. I've seen his memories of fighting for real, though, and it's...different: 

<That makes sense. I would be willing to try that.>

Nod. :Is there anything else, at this point, that makes you feel unready to go home?: 

<I feel distressed at the thought but do not have a reason.>

Sigh. :That makes sense. I suspect there is a reason, and I'd feel better about this if we can track down what it is, but - I don't have a perfect read on your emotions: She knows him very well, at this point, but he still isn't human. :Hmm. Can I get you to just spend a bit of time paying attention to the distressed feeling? Some people find it helpful to try to to put more words to it, to get more granularity there. And then - hmm, 'ask the feeling what it wants' isn't quite what I mean, but - is there something it's protective against, some scenario where feeling this way would be useful?: