Turncoat
Chapter One
Summary: Visser Three has an unexpected prisoner. A Controller with a dying Yeerk inside his head stumbles across them
Warning(s): Spoilers for the Animorphs series; AU; violence; spanking in later chapters; suicidal thoughts and plans
Pairing: Eventual Elfangor/Tom Berenson
###
My name is Tom.
Just Tom. No last name. And maybe I’m not even telling you my real first name. I certainly can’t tell you where I live. I’ve changed some minor details, but the truth is here.
We’re not alone. Yeah. I know how it sounds. I’m not talking about little green men. They’re not men at all. Think a fat, slimy slug. They’re called Yeerks and they’re here. On Earth. This isn’t the first planet they’ve invaded, but maybe it’ll be the last.
So why haven’t you seen them? Well, Yeerks are parasites. They need hosts to survive and move around. You know all those nooks and crannies inside your brain? Yeah? Well, that’s where the Yeerks invade. Inside your brain and they twist and slither inside every inch of space. They take over your life and your personality. You try to lift your hand and you can’t. You try to blink and the Yeerk decides you can’t.
All you can do is watch, helplessly, as your life is taken over. As your own body betrays the people you love and turns them over to become hosts. To become Controllers. How do I know this?
Because I was one. A Controller.
I was a dumb kid. A girl I liked joined this new club called The Sharing. I stumbled into one of the private meetings. A meeting of Controllers. They grabbed me and they shoved one of those things into my head. One of those Yeerks. And it made me withdraw from my family. It tried to target my little brother and force him to join the Sharing. I begged and I pleaded for my little brother’s life. For his freedom.
I stopped hoping it for myself. I just wanted to die. I didn’t want to live as a prisoner inside my own head anymore. And I would have rather died than ever run the risk of the Yeerk using my body to turn my family and friends into prisoners too.
But one day, everything changed.
Yeerks need to leave their hosts once every three days to return to the Yeerk pool. It’s the only moment of freedom that a Controller gets. If you could even call that freedom, being locked in a cage while our captors bathed in the pool and basked in the Kandrona rays. Still, being apart from what was controlling my every word and move, even for that small amount of time, was something.
So why was I here, with a dying Yeerk in my head, facing a prisoner held in stasis? A prisoner I’d watched get killed? A prisoner I’d seen get eaten?
I’ve been under Yeerk control for a long time. Longer than I care to think about. And I stopped fighting outright so that they wouldn’t take Jake. So they wouldn’t turn him into a Controller. The only thing that kept me going was knowing that my little brother was living free.
And then something changed.
It was gradual at first. I couldn’t take control of my body. Couldn’t move even my little finger. Couldn’t blink or shift my gaze.
But I began to influence the Yeerk who’d taken me over.
It was a really minor thing, the first time. At a recruitment drive for the Sharing, around people they were trying to bring in, I wanted a hamburger. And the Yeerk ordered it. And made my body eat it.
I thought it was a coincidence, but the more I practised, the more I found I could influence it. The Yeerk that had invaded my brain and taken over my life.
I built up to it. Learning what I could and couldn’t do. I let the Yeerk believe I was cowed. That I’d given up completely. That my only focus was on making things easy, so that my brother would be safe. And that was easy, as Jake really was all I cared about.
If I could get rid of the threat from the Yeerk inside my head, Jake would be safe. Maybe not completely, but it would be enough to buy him time. I hoped.
It took a long time and a huge amount of patience, but I was able to influence the Yeerk enough to put off going to the pool. I wasn’t stupid enough to believe I would ever be freed. I’d stopped hoping for freedom long ago.
No. I was expecting to die. And it didn’t scare me. I welcomed death.
But then we were on the Blade ship. My Yeerk had been summoned before Visser Three. And he was talking to us. To the Yeerk that had invaded my soul.
<Fetch me the prisoner.> Visser Three’s thought-speech invaded my head. Nearly made me lose my grip on the thoughts I was broadcasting at my Yeerk, so it didn’t realise just how close to starvation it really was.
I couldn’t lose my focus now. It had to happen on Earth. With humans around who weren’t Controllers. If the Yeerk started dying here, on the Blade ship, I’d be taken again.
I knew neither of us had been expecting these summons.
When we left Visser Three’s presence, I lost my focus. As we stepped into the tiny cell and the door slid closed behind us, the starvation hit all at once. It was like a tidal wave washing over us and I could feel the Yeerk’s terror and the intense hunger I’d managed to convince him he didn’t feel.
I will kill you for this! The Yeerk screamed those words inside my mind. Maybe it even screamed them out loud. I didn’t know. I was too busy staring at the prisoner, frozen.
I’d only ever seen two Andalites before. Not that Visser Three was a true Andalite, but the body he wore still looked like one.
The only other Andalite I’d seen was Elfangor. The Andalite who Visser Three had killed and eaten. I’d seen it happen. So why was I standing here, nose to nose with an Andalite frozen in stasis, who looked exactly like Prince Elfangor?
There were no answers coming from the Yeerk. He was uttering vile curses, both inside and outside our head. His, our, my body was stumbling and he tried to find the door. But now that I’d lost my focus, the hunger was all he could think about. And when he fell, it wasn’t against the door. It was against the control panel.
And the stasis wore off instantly. I knew, because Elfangor’s tail blade was against my throat.
<Who are you?> the Andalite demanded.
“T…T…T…Tom….”
It wasn’t the Yeerk speaking through me. It was my voice. Shaky and stuttering, but it was me talking.
<Your Yeerk is starving.> Elfanogor’s main eyes were on me, but his stalk eyes were looking around, scanning the tiny room he’d been held prisoner in. <We are still in the Blade ship. How far above the Earth’s atmosphere are we?>
“I…I….” I swallowed, feeling the sharpness of the blade against my throat. My mouth was so dry. My tongue felt too thick. And honestly, I hadn’t been paying that much attention to what was happening outside of inside my own brain.
The Yeerk was screaming inside my mind. My body was shaking. I was in danger of falling forward; in danger of toppling onto the blade. But it would be death either way. And that was the only thing left for me now.
Elfangor abruptly pulled his tail away from my throat and I toppled forward, my legs unable to support me any longer. I would have fallen to the floor, if Elfangor hadn’t wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against his body. <You will need to hold onto me.>
“Wait, what?”
He didn’t respond to my question. Didn’t pause to explain. Instead, he shifted his hold on me and began to change.
I’d seen it happen before, but it never got easier. Watching one living thing changing into another, completely different living thing was like something out of a horror movie. The only thing missing was the blood and the screams of agony.
It took several minutes, during which the Yeerk inside my head lost the ability to form any coherent thoughts. I was gaining more control over my own body, but the Yeerk was still there. His hunger was my hunger.
That was probably why I didn’t realise the size of the beast Elfangor had morphed into until the giant dragon-like creature was grabbing me in its talons. <Hold still.> The words echoed through my mind, right as a burst of heat exploded above my head, close enough that I thought it might have singed my hair.
And then he leaped out of the hole he’d just made.
I think I screamed. Probably very loudly. I grabbed onto the huge talons of the dragon-like creature, but the wind was tearing through my hair and threatened to pull me out of his grip.
And then we were landing. And I was being placed onto grass that reached up to my waist. And suddenly, it didn’t matter that he’d been as gentle as he could have been. My body was rejecting the Yeerk. And it was making me violently sick to feel the waves of agony.
I wasn’t sure how long I lay there retching for. I felt the Yeerk crawling out of my ear. And then I realised someone was holding onto me. Fingers that were too soft and felt too strong to be human were smoothing my hair out of my face.
<It’s never easy for a Controller to be freed from a Yeerk by it dying.>
I closed my eyes and leaned my hot head against Elfangor’s chest. “I’m free,” I whispered numbly. “I’m free. Shouldn’t I feel…something?”
Elfangor’s hand stroked through my hair and down my back. <You’ve been under their control for a long time.>
It wasn’t worded as a question, but I nodded anyway. “Far too long.” I wanted to stay in his arms. It was more comforting than it had any right to be. And his body was warm. Or maybe I just felt so cold inside, that any kind of touch was welcome? “I don’t know what to do now,” I whispered. “I…how are you even still alive?” I hit on the question that had been bothering me since I first laid eyes on him. “I watched…I watched Visser Three kill you. I watched him eat you.” I buried my face in Elfangor’s chest, guilt making it nearly impossible to look at him. Yeah, I couldn’t have stopped it. But still. Even as a prisoner inside my own mind, I could tell who was the good guy.
<There were other Andalite prisoners.>
“Were?” I picked up on the wording of the sentence.
<I am the only one left.>
I could feel the sadness permeating my mind. “You lost someone close to you?”
<My little brother.>
“I have a little brother too,” I whispered. “His name is Jake.”
<I know.> Elfangor placed one hand on my cheek, encouraging me to look up at him. <He and his friends were there when I was injured. I gave them the power to morph.>
I glanced at the limp body of the Yeerk that had enslaved me and ground its body underfoot. It was dead, but I couldn’t take the chance that it wasn’t truly dead. That I was wrong. “He’s in so much danger,” I whispered, horrified at the thought that the ‘Andalite bandits’ that Visser Three was always ranting about included my brother.
<You will be in as much danger. I should take you somewhere far away, so that Visser Three will not be able to find you. Will not be able to enslave you again.>
I pulled back; reluctantly, because Elfangor was warm and safe and I really needed that. “Could you give me the same ability?”
<I don’t have the morphing cube right now. I would need to find it. Then I can help make more warriors.>
I nodded and breathed in deep. “Visser Three…he won’t realise that the Yeerk in my head is dead. I can continue pretending to be a Controller. I can get information. Maybe even sabotage their plans from the inside.”
<In three days, you will need to have figured out a way to keep up the deception. Or they will realise the truth.>
I smiled, but there was no humour in it, and glanced around at the deserted clearing we’d landed in, then focused on him once more. “I have three days to figure out a plan.” I hesitated. “Will you…can you…? Will I see you again?”
Elfangor nodded, both sets of eyes fixed on me. <I will need to make my own plans. But I will come and find you,> he promised.
I hesitated, but out of the two of us, Elfangor was the warrior. Still, I couldn’t help but say, “Be careful. Don’t come looking for me if it’s going to put you in danger.”
<Being out of danger will be impossible for both of us.> Elfangor continued to gaze at me. <I will learn what I can and then I will come and find you. Do not take any chances. Do not take any risks.>
“Don’t do anything stupid. I got it.” I hesitated. “Visser Three called you a prince. Does that make you royalty?”
<It’s a title like a human might be a general, or a captain,> Elfangor answered.
“So.” I smiled. This time, it felt more natural and easy. “That makes you my prince, right? I’m a soldier under you.” I nodded, because at least I now had a sense of direction. A path to follow.
Maybe I could make up for what the Yeerk in my head had forced me to do.