Ax/Marco (Animorphs)
Title: More than Leftovers
Author: Eppy
Email: LizzyPaul@aol.com
Fandom: Animorphs
Pairing: Ax/Marco
Spoilers: Books 1-54, Megamorphs 1-4, Andalite Chronicles, Visser Chronicles
Notes: I'm only using book canon; the short-lived TV show isn't mentioned. Also, I need give a giant shout out to felinephoenix and teremala, who really deserve co-author credits. This would never have been finished without their suggestions and encouragement. Thanks, guys!
Introduction
Animorphs is a young adult book series written by K.A. Applegate (and several ghostwriters). It ran from 1996-2001. I was involved with the fandom almost from its conception, and posted bad Jake/Cassie fanfic on fanfiction.net. I also ran (briefly) a Jake/Cassie beta reader mailing list. After the disappointing end of the series, I stopped being very involved with online fandom. By the time I returned, about a year ago, I had become a slash fan, and viewed my favorite childhood series with new eyes.
The series begins with five average middle school students walking through an abandoned construction site. They're all loosely connected, but certainly aren't a clique. An alien ship crashes in front of them and an injured alien, who resembles a blue centaur with a scorpion tail, emerges from the ship. He is Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, an Andalite.
The Andalite tells the captivated kids that they are being invaded by Yeerks, another alien species. Yeerks are small, slug-like parasites that have the ability to crawl inside someone's ear, move up to the brain, spread themselves out into every crack, and take over the body. A being with a Yeerk is called, appropriately, a Controller. Yeerks could be anyone--your family, friends, authority figures--and they want Earth. Or, more specifically, humans. Their one weakness (besides the fragility of their natural state) is their need to leave the host body and bathe in a pool filled with Kandrona rays, which simulate the light of their home sun. Death by Kandrona starvation is particularly gruesome.
To fight this invasion, the kids are given the ability to morph. By touching any living animal, they can acquire its DNA and change into that creature. If they stay in morph longer than two hours, however, they will be trapped as that animal forever. Also, the animal mind is present after the morph, so they must quickly take control of whatever instincts the animal has. They can communicate telepathically while in morph, called "thought-speak." Thought-speak is compared to e-mail: you can speak to one person privately, or broadcast to an entire group.
After being given this dump of information and the power to morph, the Yeerks arrive. Their leader, Visser Three, is the only known Andalite-controller. As such, Visser Three possesses the power to morph. He turns into a huge alien and eats Elfangor. The kids escape without being noticed, and have to decide what to do.
Eventually, of course, they decide they must fight for Earth, and they take on the name "Animorphs." They are extremely paranoid about being caught, for good reason, and for much of the series the Yeerks believe that they are a band of Andalites (as Andalites are the only species known to have the morphing ability). Early in the series (Book 4), they rescue a young Andalite who survived the crash of his ship, named Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, who joins their fight as well. They do their part to delay and sabotage the invasion, waiting for the Andalites to come and save them. Eventually, they win the war and force the Yeerks off Earth, with very little help from the Andalites, and the series ends in a way that still has many fans alternatively raging and scratching their heads.
The Animorphs, besides Ax and Marco, are:
Jake: The reluctant leader, chosen by the others. He has a keen sense of responsibility, and takes things seriously (some say too seriously). He is Marco's best friend. Ax acknowledges Jake as his commanding officer.
Cassie: Cassie is an animal lover and gives them much of the information on the various animals they morph. She has a strong sense of ethics, and often tries to keep the group from crossing the line. She helped both Ax and Marco with various emotional problems they developed; she's the unofficial Animorphs therapist.
Rachel: Rachel is Jake's cousin and Cassie's best friend. She's most often described as beautiful and dangerous. She was into "girly" things at the beginning of the series--shopping and gymnastics--but the war quickly consumed her life, and towards the end of the series she became even more reckless and bloodthirsty. Her relationship with Marco is antagonistic, though they became romantically involved in an AU the author wrote (Megamorphs 4).
Tobias: Tobias spends most of the series as a red-tailed hawk, as he overstayed his time in morph. In Book 13, he regains the ability to morph, and even the DNA of his original body, but still lives as a hawk most of the time. In Book 23, it's discovered that he's the son of Elfangor, the Andalite who gave them the morphing ability. This makes him Ax's nephew, and he and Ax have a close friendship.
Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill (Ax)
Ax is the younger brother of Elfangor, the Andalite who gave the Animorphs their knowledge of the invasion and the ability to morph. He's a aristh, a cadet, and was ordered to a safer section of the Andalite ship when it crashed, and was the only known survivor for much of the series (in Book #40, the Animorphs learn of two other survivors). After being rescued, he joins the Animorphs in their fight, and accepts Jake as his "Prince", an Andalite military rank similar to captain. The Animorphs call him "Ax", as it's easier to say.
At first, Ax is reluctant to become too close to the Animorphs. Andalites have a strict law of non-interference called "Seerow's Kindness", after an Andalite named Seerow gave the Yeerks knowledge of interstellar travel, leading the Yeerk's invasion of various other planets. The Animorphs are suspicious of him hiding information, as they shared their lives and even attempted to get him home. Eventually, Ax comes to trust and befriend the Animorphs, even putting his loyalty to them over his own people.
Andalites, as said before, have a centaur's body and a scorpion tail. They have no mouth, but four eyes--two stalk eyes that have the ability to look in all directions, and two main eyes, similar to human eyes. With no mouths, they absorb the nutrients in the ground as they run. They communicate telepathically.
As Ax needed the ability to move around in human society, he acquired the DNA of Marco, Jake, Rachel, and Cassie. He melded the DNA to create a human morph, and while he could chose to be male or female, morphs male. According to Marco, he "could be either a really pretty guy, or a kind of unattractive girl" (Book 5, Page 27). He can be somewhat uncontrollable in human morph; as Andalites don't have mouths, he is unaccustomed to both taste and talking. He can go crazy over food (especially cinnamon buns) and likes to play with sounds when he talks. He gets better at adapting as the series progresses.
Ax becomes best friends with Tobias, a relationship that only becomes closer after the revelation that Tobias is his nephew. (His brother, Elfangor, chose to become a human nothlit, married and had a child with a human named Loren, Tobias's mother. He was forced to return to his Andalite life, and Tobias grew up without knowing who his father was.) Both of them are outsiders, Tobias as a hawk and Ax as an alien, and they spend a lot of time together out in the woods where they both live. Ax gets a TV (with stolen cable) and spends most of his down time watching it. He records all the programs (a pre-TiVo invention) and tries to imitate the humans he sees on the TV, sometimes with hilarious results. He loves "these messages" (commercials) and soap operas.
While Ax doesn't have much of a canon love life, he does admit to being distracted in school because of "attractive females." Also, in Book 8 he says that he finds Rachel attractive while in human morph. In Book 38, Ax meets a female Andalite named Estrid-Corill-Darrath. They have a short-lived romance. Interestingly, Ax kisses Estrid while in human morph. Also, we're given the impression that Estrid is not a typical female Andalite.
At first, Ax is a homesick kid stranded on a strange planet and thrust into combat. As the series progresses, however, he starts to embrace human culture. He enjoys human foods, human television, becomes close to his human friends, expresses human sexuality. He even considers doing what his brother did: morph human permanently and live on Earth. However, at the end of the series he returns to the Andalite homeworld with no explanation given.
Marco
When the series opens, Marco is a seemingly normal middle school boy. He likes video games, jokes around with his best friend Jake, and acts conceited about his good looks (though he's self-conscious about his height). Of all the kids, he's the one most opposed to fighting the war.
Marco has a tragic past that influences his desire to stay out of the war. His mother is thought to have died two years before the series begins, and his father fell into a deep depression. Marco takes care of his father and himself. He doesn't want to die (a very real fear, for him) because then his father would be totally alone.
Even with this history, Marco has a well-developed sense of humor. He's the funny one, always ready with a sarcastic barb or silly comment. Yes, it's a defense mechanism, and he admits it. He'd rather laugh than cry, and he tries desperately to find the humor in a grim situation.
However, Marco is more than just the clown. He has a sharp, observant mind and comes up with much of the strategy that the Animorphs use. He's something like Jake's right hand man; he's not afraid to speak up if he thinks Jake is making a mistake, and he's quick to point out any problems with a purposed plan. He also notices and capitalizes on opportunity. He sees the line from A to B, and while Cassie is concerned with minimizing their collateral damage, Marco is concerned with the most effective and efficient solution.
Marco also has difficulty trusting people. He tends to internalize his feelings and outright lie to keep from sharing about himself. Out of the entire group, he's the most suspicious, always looking for the trap, always questioning the motives of the people involved. Like Cassie, he's very good at understanding and reading people, but he uses the information less to help or comfort others, and more to determine their trustworthiness or reliability.
In Book 5, we find out that Marco's mother, who was thought to be dead, is instead Visser One, the highest-ranking Yeerk known outside their ruling council. She was in charge of the initial invasion of earth, and set the policy of subversive infestation that is still currently followed. After her duties on Earth were finished, she faked her death and left. Marco encounters his mother several more times in the series.
In Book 35, his father marries Marco's math teacher. This is especially difficult for Marco because he knows his mother is still alive, albeit a slave to an alien entity. In Book 45, Marco discovers that the Yeerks are after his father, who stumbled upon an advanced technology. Risking everything, Marco rescues his father, effectively sending both of them in exile.
He also rescues his mother, and though his regular life is destroyed, he has his family back together. He splits his time between their home in the mountains, a safe-house, and Ax's home.
Which brings us to...
Ax/Marco
From the beginning, Ax and Marco share a special connection. In Megamorphs 1, Ax assists Marco in pulling a reckless stunt, even though he knows "Prince Jake" won't approve, because he believes that Marco might be in some danger and wants to be there to watch his back. It ends badly, but humorously, and sets the pattern for much of the Ax/Marco interaction the future.
However, Marco was also suspicious of Ax, especially when it was revealed that Ax was keeping secrets. However, as the series progresses, Marco and Ax spend more and more time together, both by choice and circumstance. At first, it's mostly because Ax has a TV with more channels than Marco, and he hangs around Ax's home watching TV. Later on in the series, though, Marco begins to spend a good deal of his off time with Ax. With the exception of Tobias, Ax's best friend and nephew, Marco is probably the closest to Ax. After Book 45, when Marco is forced to go into hiding, he spends even more time with Ax, spending the night at his home on occasion.
Ax, Tobias, and Marco were sent on a lot of missions together, probably because Jake realized what a good team they were. There was friction in the beginning, most notably in book 30, where Ax flatly states his belief that Marco is incapable of handling a mission where his mother is involved, and Marco takes offense. By the end of the series, though, a strong trust has built between the two. Marco even trusts Ax with his mother, something he didn't even trust Jake with (Visser Chronicles and book 45). In a climatic scene that he orchestrated, he allows Ax to put his tailblade against his mother's neck, when one twitch would have killed her. He does this despite the fact that Ax has said she should die. For a boy with the trust issues that Marco has, this is huge. The Ax/Marco/Tobias team ends up carrying the end of the war, and without their ability to work together, they probably would have lost the war.
While both Marco and Ax are ostensibly straight, neither of them have much luck in the romance department during the series. Though Marco is cute and has a good personality, he goes the entire series without a love interest (with the exception of Megamorphs 4, an alternate reality version of the series). Marco spends more time commenting on Ax's appearance than he does any of the female characters, referring to his human morph as "pretty" and "attractive" numerous times.
There's a lot of speculation about Ax's sexual orientation. My personal feeling, and one demonstrated by the series, is that in his natural, Andalite form, he's straight. He makes frequent mention of "attractive females" and has a fling with a female Andalite. Also, I believe that in his Andalite form, he's attracted only to Andalites (Books 8 and 28), but can be attracted to humans while morphed human (Book 8). His brother, Elfangor, fell in love and married a human woman, so it's not entirely unbelievable that he could fall in love with a human male. After all, his morph is a conglomeration of four people who perhaps fall in varied places on the spectrum of human sexuality.
Probably the best canon example of the Ax/Marco relationship occurs in Book 35 on page 106. While on a mission, Ax (in human morph) and Marco need to find a place to sit down, blend in, and help the others. Quote:
"May we join you?"
It was a table full of old people in suits or dresses, depending. One of them may have been our mayor. I'm not sure.
"There's only one chair."
"It's okay, we're very good friends." I sat down and yanked Ax down onto my lap.
Okay, so while not definitive, it is a very nice, squee-worthy scene for the Ax/Marco fan.
Also, in Megamorphs 3, Marco witnesses Jake, his best friend, die. However, his first recorded thought is, "Ax was beside me. Andalite, but right there beside me." It's a beautiful picture of how their relationship had developed.
Ax/Marco is very attractive from a fanon perspective. First of all, the rest of the team is romantically involved: Jake & Cassie and Rachel & Tobias are together, leaving Marco and Ax on the outs. It's always a temptation with even-numbered teams to split them up evenly into pairs, and there's a good deal of Ax/Marco fic that (I think) comes from this idea. However, I think that there's more to the pairing than just leftover syndrome.
As I've said, Marco and Ax have a special connection during the series. Marco enjoys Ax's strangeness, a trait that any human involved with Ax would need to have. He respects Ax's natural, Andalite form. Ax is tolerant of Marco's babbling and sometimes pathetic attempts at humor. Throughout the series, Ax wants to learn about humanity, and Marco is more than eager to teach him. And on a very basic level, they enjoy some of the same things: TV and computer, activities that they do together.
Marco and Ax balance each other. This is one reason why their working relationship is so successful, but it would also be helpful in a romantic relationship. Ax is naturally optimistic, a trait shared by most Andalites, and Marco's cynicism neatly compliments it. There are a few times during the series when Marco's suspicions about the motives of people Ax trusts turn out to be correct, and times when Ax is able to provide hope to Marco's discouragement by his firm belief that things will turn out well. Marco and Ax have no problem confronting each other, making the other think about their motives or actions, yet they still remain friends.
After the series, I think that Marco and Ax have a better chance at a working relationship than any of the other pairings. Jake is depressed, Cassie moves on and has her own life, Tobias flips out and removes himself anything human, and Rachel is dead. Marco and Ax (though it's speculation with Ax) have successful post-war lives. And, after all, the series ends with Marco and the other remaining Animorphs charging off to save Ax's life.
I ship Ax/Marco mostly because of felinephoenix. Aside from being inspired by her own wonderful fics, she was very encouraging as I tentatively began to get back involved with the Animorphs fandom. The more I wrote and read, though, the more I saw it less as a weird pairing and more as a great partnership that would be full of fun, love, and loyalty. Of the various ships, it's probably my favorite, and the one I think would be the most successful.
So you want more info?
Websites
animorphs
animorphsfanfic
Official Site at Scholastic.com
Animorphs Article at Wikipedia
The Animorphs Reference Page
Shades of Gray Fanfiction Archive
Fanfic Recs:
Adventures in Clubbing by Doctor Strangelove: This is an awesome fic. Long, complicated, in character, and satisfying.
Adventures in Scrambled Porn by Doctor Strangelove: An interesting twist on the "Marco teaches Ax about human sex" cliche.
Boys Will Be Boys by Doctor Strangelove: Now this is a disturbing little fic. Very good, though. Dubious consent warning.
Be Stupid by felinephoenix: Another long fic. Beautifully in character and it does the best job of any fic I've read dealing with the events of Book 54.
Welcome Home by Sarisia: There is very little good smut for this pairing. Of course, a fic like this sets the bar pretty high...
Strange Bedfellows by Forlay: Forlay is probably best known for her Cassie/Rachel fics, but this is a wonderful Ax/Marco. Very sweet. Though the formatting makes the story hard to read, it's worth it.
Author: Eppy
Email: LizzyPaul@aol.com
Fandom: Animorphs
Pairing: Ax/Marco
Spoilers: Books 1-54, Megamorphs 1-4, Andalite Chronicles, Visser Chronicles
Notes: I'm only using book canon; the short-lived TV show isn't mentioned. Also, I need give a giant shout out to felinephoenix and teremala, who really deserve co-author credits. This would never have been finished without their suggestions and encouragement. Thanks, guys!
Introduction
Animorphs is a young adult book series written by K.A. Applegate (and several ghostwriters). It ran from 1996-2001. I was involved with the fandom almost from its conception, and posted bad Jake/Cassie fanfic on fanfiction.net. I also ran (briefly) a Jake/Cassie beta reader mailing list. After the disappointing end of the series, I stopped being very involved with online fandom. By the time I returned, about a year ago, I had become a slash fan, and viewed my favorite childhood series with new eyes.
The series begins with five average middle school students walking through an abandoned construction site. They're all loosely connected, but certainly aren't a clique. An alien ship crashes in front of them and an injured alien, who resembles a blue centaur with a scorpion tail, emerges from the ship. He is Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, an Andalite.
The Andalite tells the captivated kids that they are being invaded by Yeerks, another alien species. Yeerks are small, slug-like parasites that have the ability to crawl inside someone's ear, move up to the brain, spread themselves out into every crack, and take over the body. A being with a Yeerk is called, appropriately, a Controller. Yeerks could be anyone--your family, friends, authority figures--and they want Earth. Or, more specifically, humans. Their one weakness (besides the fragility of their natural state) is their need to leave the host body and bathe in a pool filled with Kandrona rays, which simulate the light of their home sun. Death by Kandrona starvation is particularly gruesome.
To fight this invasion, the kids are given the ability to morph. By touching any living animal, they can acquire its DNA and change into that creature. If they stay in morph longer than two hours, however, they will be trapped as that animal forever. Also, the animal mind is present after the morph, so they must quickly take control of whatever instincts the animal has. They can communicate telepathically while in morph, called "thought-speak." Thought-speak is compared to e-mail: you can speak to one person privately, or broadcast to an entire group.
After being given this dump of information and the power to morph, the Yeerks arrive. Their leader, Visser Three, is the only known Andalite-controller. As such, Visser Three possesses the power to morph. He turns into a huge alien and eats Elfangor. The kids escape without being noticed, and have to decide what to do.
Eventually, of course, they decide they must fight for Earth, and they take on the name "Animorphs." They are extremely paranoid about being caught, for good reason, and for much of the series the Yeerks believe that they are a band of Andalites (as Andalites are the only species known to have the morphing ability). Early in the series (Book 4), they rescue a young Andalite who survived the crash of his ship, named Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, who joins their fight as well. They do their part to delay and sabotage the invasion, waiting for the Andalites to come and save them. Eventually, they win the war and force the Yeerks off Earth, with very little help from the Andalites, and the series ends in a way that still has many fans alternatively raging and scratching their heads.
The Animorphs, besides Ax and Marco, are:
Jake: The reluctant leader, chosen by the others. He has a keen sense of responsibility, and takes things seriously (some say too seriously). He is Marco's best friend. Ax acknowledges Jake as his commanding officer.
Cassie: Cassie is an animal lover and gives them much of the information on the various animals they morph. She has a strong sense of ethics, and often tries to keep the group from crossing the line. She helped both Ax and Marco with various emotional problems they developed; she's the unofficial Animorphs therapist.
Rachel: Rachel is Jake's cousin and Cassie's best friend. She's most often described as beautiful and dangerous. She was into "girly" things at the beginning of the series--shopping and gymnastics--but the war quickly consumed her life, and towards the end of the series she became even more reckless and bloodthirsty. Her relationship with Marco is antagonistic, though they became romantically involved in an AU the author wrote (Megamorphs 4).
Tobias: Tobias spends most of the series as a red-tailed hawk, as he overstayed his time in morph. In Book 13, he regains the ability to morph, and even the DNA of his original body, but still lives as a hawk most of the time. In Book 23, it's discovered that he's the son of Elfangor, the Andalite who gave them the morphing ability. This makes him Ax's nephew, and he and Ax have a close friendship.
Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill (Ax)
Ax is the younger brother of Elfangor, the Andalite who gave the Animorphs their knowledge of the invasion and the ability to morph. He's a aristh, a cadet, and was ordered to a safer section of the Andalite ship when it crashed, and was the only known survivor for much of the series (in Book #40, the Animorphs learn of two other survivors). After being rescued, he joins the Animorphs in their fight, and accepts Jake as his "Prince", an Andalite military rank similar to captain. The Animorphs call him "Ax", as it's easier to say.
At first, Ax is reluctant to become too close to the Animorphs. Andalites have a strict law of non-interference called "Seerow's Kindness", after an Andalite named Seerow gave the Yeerks knowledge of interstellar travel, leading the Yeerk's invasion of various other planets. The Animorphs are suspicious of him hiding information, as they shared their lives and even attempted to get him home. Eventually, Ax comes to trust and befriend the Animorphs, even putting his loyalty to them over his own people.
Andalites, as said before, have a centaur's body and a scorpion tail. They have no mouth, but four eyes--two stalk eyes that have the ability to look in all directions, and two main eyes, similar to human eyes. With no mouths, they absorb the nutrients in the ground as they run. They communicate telepathically.
As Ax needed the ability to move around in human society, he acquired the DNA of Marco, Jake, Rachel, and Cassie. He melded the DNA to create a human morph, and while he could chose to be male or female, morphs male. According to Marco, he "could be either a really pretty guy, or a kind of unattractive girl" (Book 5, Page 27). He can be somewhat uncontrollable in human morph; as Andalites don't have mouths, he is unaccustomed to both taste and talking. He can go crazy over food (especially cinnamon buns) and likes to play with sounds when he talks. He gets better at adapting as the series progresses.
Ax becomes best friends with Tobias, a relationship that only becomes closer after the revelation that Tobias is his nephew. (His brother, Elfangor, chose to become a human nothlit, married and had a child with a human named Loren, Tobias's mother. He was forced to return to his Andalite life, and Tobias grew up without knowing who his father was.) Both of them are outsiders, Tobias as a hawk and Ax as an alien, and they spend a lot of time together out in the woods where they both live. Ax gets a TV (with stolen cable) and spends most of his down time watching it. He records all the programs (a pre-TiVo invention) and tries to imitate the humans he sees on the TV, sometimes with hilarious results. He loves "these messages" (commercials) and soap operas.
While Ax doesn't have much of a canon love life, he does admit to being distracted in school because of "attractive females." Also, in Book 8 he says that he finds Rachel attractive while in human morph. In Book 38, Ax meets a female Andalite named Estrid-Corill-Darrath. They have a short-lived romance. Interestingly, Ax kisses Estrid while in human morph. Also, we're given the impression that Estrid is not a typical female Andalite.
At first, Ax is a homesick kid stranded on a strange planet and thrust into combat. As the series progresses, however, he starts to embrace human culture. He enjoys human foods, human television, becomes close to his human friends, expresses human sexuality. He even considers doing what his brother did: morph human permanently and live on Earth. However, at the end of the series he returns to the Andalite homeworld with no explanation given.
Marco
When the series opens, Marco is a seemingly normal middle school boy. He likes video games, jokes around with his best friend Jake, and acts conceited about his good looks (though he's self-conscious about his height). Of all the kids, he's the one most opposed to fighting the war.
Marco has a tragic past that influences his desire to stay out of the war. His mother is thought to have died two years before the series begins, and his father fell into a deep depression. Marco takes care of his father and himself. He doesn't want to die (a very real fear, for him) because then his father would be totally alone.
Even with this history, Marco has a well-developed sense of humor. He's the funny one, always ready with a sarcastic barb or silly comment. Yes, it's a defense mechanism, and he admits it. He'd rather laugh than cry, and he tries desperately to find the humor in a grim situation.
However, Marco is more than just the clown. He has a sharp, observant mind and comes up with much of the strategy that the Animorphs use. He's something like Jake's right hand man; he's not afraid to speak up if he thinks Jake is making a mistake, and he's quick to point out any problems with a purposed plan. He also notices and capitalizes on opportunity. He sees the line from A to B, and while Cassie is concerned with minimizing their collateral damage, Marco is concerned with the most effective and efficient solution.
Marco also has difficulty trusting people. He tends to internalize his feelings and outright lie to keep from sharing about himself. Out of the entire group, he's the most suspicious, always looking for the trap, always questioning the motives of the people involved. Like Cassie, he's very good at understanding and reading people, but he uses the information less to help or comfort others, and more to determine their trustworthiness or reliability.
In Book 5, we find out that Marco's mother, who was thought to be dead, is instead Visser One, the highest-ranking Yeerk known outside their ruling council. She was in charge of the initial invasion of earth, and set the policy of subversive infestation that is still currently followed. After her duties on Earth were finished, she faked her death and left. Marco encounters his mother several more times in the series.
In Book 35, his father marries Marco's math teacher. This is especially difficult for Marco because he knows his mother is still alive, albeit a slave to an alien entity. In Book 45, Marco discovers that the Yeerks are after his father, who stumbled upon an advanced technology. Risking everything, Marco rescues his father, effectively sending both of them in exile.
He also rescues his mother, and though his regular life is destroyed, he has his family back together. He splits his time between their home in the mountains, a safe-house, and Ax's home.
Which brings us to...
Ax/Marco
From the beginning, Ax and Marco share a special connection. In Megamorphs 1, Ax assists Marco in pulling a reckless stunt, even though he knows "Prince Jake" won't approve, because he believes that Marco might be in some danger and wants to be there to watch his back. It ends badly, but humorously, and sets the pattern for much of the Ax/Marco interaction the future.
However, Marco was also suspicious of Ax, especially when it was revealed that Ax was keeping secrets. However, as the series progresses, Marco and Ax spend more and more time together, both by choice and circumstance. At first, it's mostly because Ax has a TV with more channels than Marco, and he hangs around Ax's home watching TV. Later on in the series, though, Marco begins to spend a good deal of his off time with Ax. With the exception of Tobias, Ax's best friend and nephew, Marco is probably the closest to Ax. After Book 45, when Marco is forced to go into hiding, he spends even more time with Ax, spending the night at his home on occasion.
Ax, Tobias, and Marco were sent on a lot of missions together, probably because Jake realized what a good team they were. There was friction in the beginning, most notably in book 30, where Ax flatly states his belief that Marco is incapable of handling a mission where his mother is involved, and Marco takes offense. By the end of the series, though, a strong trust has built between the two. Marco even trusts Ax with his mother, something he didn't even trust Jake with (Visser Chronicles and book 45). In a climatic scene that he orchestrated, he allows Ax to put his tailblade against his mother's neck, when one twitch would have killed her. He does this despite the fact that Ax has said she should die. For a boy with the trust issues that Marco has, this is huge. The Ax/Marco/Tobias team ends up carrying the end of the war, and without their ability to work together, they probably would have lost the war.
While both Marco and Ax are ostensibly straight, neither of them have much luck in the romance department during the series. Though Marco is cute and has a good personality, he goes the entire series without a love interest (with the exception of Megamorphs 4, an alternate reality version of the series). Marco spends more time commenting on Ax's appearance than he does any of the female characters, referring to his human morph as "pretty" and "attractive" numerous times.
There's a lot of speculation about Ax's sexual orientation. My personal feeling, and one demonstrated by the series, is that in his natural, Andalite form, he's straight. He makes frequent mention of "attractive females" and has a fling with a female Andalite. Also, I believe that in his Andalite form, he's attracted only to Andalites (Books 8 and 28), but can be attracted to humans while morphed human (Book 8). His brother, Elfangor, fell in love and married a human woman, so it's not entirely unbelievable that he could fall in love with a human male. After all, his morph is a conglomeration of four people who perhaps fall in varied places on the spectrum of human sexuality.
Probably the best canon example of the Ax/Marco relationship occurs in Book 35 on page 106. While on a mission, Ax (in human morph) and Marco need to find a place to sit down, blend in, and help the others. Quote:
"May we join you?"
It was a table full of old people in suits or dresses, depending. One of them may have been our mayor. I'm not sure.
"There's only one chair."
"It's okay, we're very good friends." I sat down and yanked Ax down onto my lap.
Okay, so while not definitive, it is a very nice, squee-worthy scene for the Ax/Marco fan.
Also, in Megamorphs 3, Marco witnesses Jake, his best friend, die. However, his first recorded thought is, "Ax was beside me. Andalite, but right there beside me." It's a beautiful picture of how their relationship had developed.
Ax/Marco is very attractive from a fanon perspective. First of all, the rest of the team is romantically involved: Jake & Cassie and Rachel & Tobias are together, leaving Marco and Ax on the outs. It's always a temptation with even-numbered teams to split them up evenly into pairs, and there's a good deal of Ax/Marco fic that (I think) comes from this idea. However, I think that there's more to the pairing than just leftover syndrome.
As I've said, Marco and Ax have a special connection during the series. Marco enjoys Ax's strangeness, a trait that any human involved with Ax would need to have. He respects Ax's natural, Andalite form. Ax is tolerant of Marco's babbling and sometimes pathetic attempts at humor. Throughout the series, Ax wants to learn about humanity, and Marco is more than eager to teach him. And on a very basic level, they enjoy some of the same things: TV and computer, activities that they do together.
Marco and Ax balance each other. This is one reason why their working relationship is so successful, but it would also be helpful in a romantic relationship. Ax is naturally optimistic, a trait shared by most Andalites, and Marco's cynicism neatly compliments it. There are a few times during the series when Marco's suspicions about the motives of people Ax trusts turn out to be correct, and times when Ax is able to provide hope to Marco's discouragement by his firm belief that things will turn out well. Marco and Ax have no problem confronting each other, making the other think about their motives or actions, yet they still remain friends.
After the series, I think that Marco and Ax have a better chance at a working relationship than any of the other pairings. Jake is depressed, Cassie moves on and has her own life, Tobias flips out and removes himself anything human, and Rachel is dead. Marco and Ax (though it's speculation with Ax) have successful post-war lives. And, after all, the series ends with Marco and the other remaining Animorphs charging off to save Ax's life.
I ship Ax/Marco mostly because of felinephoenix. Aside from being inspired by her own wonderful fics, she was very encouraging as I tentatively began to get back involved with the Animorphs fandom. The more I wrote and read, though, the more I saw it less as a weird pairing and more as a great partnership that would be full of fun, love, and loyalty. Of the various ships, it's probably my favorite, and the one I think would be the most successful.
So you want more info?
Websites
animorphs
animorphsfanfic
Official Site at Scholastic.com
Animorphs Article at Wikipedia
The Animorphs Reference Page
Shades of Gray Fanfiction Archive
Fanfic Recs:
Adventures in Clubbing by Doctor Strangelove: This is an awesome fic. Long, complicated, in character, and satisfying.
Adventures in Scrambled Porn by Doctor Strangelove: An interesting twist on the "Marco teaches Ax about human sex" cliche.
Boys Will Be Boys by Doctor Strangelove: Now this is a disturbing little fic. Very good, though. Dubious consent warning.
Be Stupid by felinephoenix: Another long fic. Beautifully in character and it does the best job of any fic I've read dealing with the events of Book 54.
Welcome Home by Sarisia: There is very little good smut for this pairing. Of course, a fic like this sets the bar pretty high...
Strange Bedfellows by Forlay: Forlay is probably best known for her Cassie/Rachel fics, but this is a wonderful Ax/Marco. Very sweet. Though the formatting makes the story hard to read, it's worth it.