Heartwarming / All Assorted Animorphs AUs

• "What if the Auximorphs joined the team right away?"
  • The responses to Cassie's death. First, Rachel decides that "What would Cassie do?" should be the team's motto to prevent them all from going off the deep end. Later, when they need to evacuate the parents, Tobias and Timmy offer closure to Walter and Michelle.
  • Tom hugs Jake for ten minutes as soon as his Yeerk is gone.
  • At the end, James decides to honour the Animorphs' memories by writing a memoir of what really happened before history has a chance to distort it.
• In "What if Eva was never a controller?", Peter and Eva become parental figures to all the Animorphs. Among other things, Peter and Ax design a program that allows Ax to call his parents twice a week, and Eva installs an air mattress in Marco's room so Jake can stay over when he doesn't feel like facing his parents.
  It might be a cliché, but the truth is this: at Marco’s house they are safe. And in that small bubble of safety, they have freedom. The freedom to talk openly about new morphs without fear of being overheard. The freedom to come and go through the sunroom skylight that Eva leaves open at all times. The freedom to be vulnerable and scared and not sure where they’re going with this war. The freedom to be kids, and to ask an adult for help.
• "What if the series was set in modern times?":
  • The Animorphs send Marco messages in their group chat to cheer him up after Visser One falls to her Disney Death in The Reunion. He realises that his mom would tell him to focus on the fact that he's surrounded by people who love him.
  • After Tobias is tortured in The Illusion, Rachel considers buying him antidepressants. Cassie tells her they won't work on a hawk, but the thought was there.
• "What if they were caught during their first mission?" is pretty bleak at first... until Jake echoes a heartwarming moment from The Capture:
  One day Jake reaches through the bars separating the hosts’ cages and grabs Tom on the arm. “Tell the others,” he says. “There are andalite bandits here, and they’re fighting back. Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up. Not while there’s still hope.”
  Tom’s eyes widen. “You mean…?”
  “I mean the yeerks aren’t winning this war as cleanly as the vissers want everyone to think,” Jake says. “Tell everyone you can: the andalites are out there.”
  • At the end of the chapter, everyone from Tom to Cassie to Ax to Gafinilan to the mayor instantly respects Jake for helping the hosts to escape, even though Jake is a teenager who only just got his autonomy back.
• In "What if they rescued Alloran in #8?", Alloran laughs when he learns that the Animorphs are human; he wouldn't have expected any different from Elfangor.
• "What if Tom was infested by a member of the Yeerk Peace Movement?"
  • The whole premise is heartwarming. Aftran chooses Tom as a host because it's her chance to help the Animorphs, and he stands out to her because he's comforting a little girl.
  • During the meeting where Tom and Aftran explain everything to the Animorphs, Rachel hugs him.
  • After the Animorphs have a particularly difficult mission, Aftran offers to take them to McDonald's.
  • When they're declared the new Visser One, the first thing Tom and Aftran do with their new power is deliver a Rousing Speech about how the Yeerks don't have to be enslavers. Notice that it's Iniss 226 who asks if they can get every Yeerk a voluntary host; his host is Chapman, who became a voluntary Controller to keep Melissa safe. From there, they give orders to bury the dead and free all the involuntaries.
• The entirety of the above's follow-up, "What was Tom and Aftran's first conversation like?" Even though he's not the most receptive, she's careful not to overstep his boundaries and wants to prove that he can trust her.
• "What if Jake was stuck in morph?" starts out harsh, but pretty much everyone is better off than in canon by the end. Hosts start being freed en masse when Yeerks and Taxxons leave the Empire to become nothlits, until the war ends with a peaceful surrender and hardly any casualties. Jake is on the verge of tears when he reunites with his mother.
• "What if they had a chance to do it all over?":
  • Jake hugs Tom as soon as he gets home; even though Tom is still a Controller at this point, Jake's just glad to see him again after five years. Similarly, Rachel and Tobias kiss as soon as they see each other in the mall.
  • When they find Ax, everyone becomes giddy. In a reversal of their usual Running Gag, Ax tells Jake not to call him prince, but Jake does so anyway.
  This time around the near-giddiness infects the whole group, causing Rachel to try and knock Marco off course while Tobias dryly lists off all the things he’s not going to miss about being a bird and Cassie points out distant fish species with childlike awe. It can’t be chalked up entirely to the dolphin morphs. Still, Jake thinks, if anyone asked, that would be the excuse they’d give.
• In "What if Elfangor and Loren raised Tobias?", Elfangor ventures into the forest on a rainy night to offer Ax to come over for dinner.
• "What if all the yeerks suddenly died? (Part 2)"
  • Ms. Hanna comforts Jake after he dissociates in history class. She offers to refer him to the nurse, or write an excuse note so he can go home early.
  • A bully tells Marco that his mom faked her death to elope with a pool boy, but halfway through Tom and the other ex-host teenagers interrupt him.
• "What if the Animorphs could use magic?"
  • After she finds out Melissa is a Controller, Rachel performs a spell for her that drags minds away from forces that take hold.
  • Cassie helps Aftran survive Kandrona starvation by sharing the energy from carrots with her.
  To be human is to murder and uproot and consume just to stay alive. But to be human is to choose, at times like these, to share the plenty that surrounds her.
  • At the end, the ghosts of Ax, Tom, and Rachel tell Jake they're at peace with their own deaths.
  Tom: It’s the easiest thing in the world, once you let yourself go.
• "What if they were in Emelan?" ends with the Animorphs gathering at an illusion of their childhood home, long after they've grown up and gone their separate ways.

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