AN: this was an abandoned fic of mine that I decided, the first two chapters are a little old- so if at times the entire style of writing seems a little off, it's because of major revision… Please R/R

Edit: ATE my formating... so heres a guide to dialouge+

"speech" ... 'thought' ... ""Thought speech""

'My name is Alex', a simple phrase to start a story that's far from simple. I'd like to tell you I have a normal life, tell you my last name, tell you everything is fine...

But everything is not fine. I can't tell you my last name. My life- is far from normal. I'm Alex, my friends and I know of alien invasion of parasitic creatures. Not and open war where everybody else knows and fights back. They're called Yeerks. Small, slug like alien parasites that can crawl into your brain, then they control you completely. They control your every motion; make you into what's known as a controller.

Sounds crazy I know, I wouldn't have believed it either if my life hadn't suddenly turned into its own Sci-fi fantasy world of aliens and super science.

'My name is Alex' sure doesn't tell you that, does it. So maybe I should start from the beginning, a few months back the Andalites first came to earth to fight the Yeerks, the expected only minor resistance and got their tails handed to them by the arrival of Visser Three's blade ship. Very few Andalites survived the battle.

But back then I didn't know this, I was on my way back from the Mall with my friends, so was another group of five teens, but I didn't know about them back then either.

My friends and I were just headed home; five just barely above average high school students headed the opposite direction as the five who would later become heroes. Us, we looked up in time to see a flaming wreck in the sky come falling down. We chased it halfway towards out of town-

Why did we chase it? Simple, it was weird, we were curious, and we certainly didn't have anything better to do...

Finally the small ship came down with a loud crash into the water, about fifteen feet from the water's edge on the beach. A few parts of the ship could still be seen smoking above the water's surface. Another ship seems to appear out of nowhere like some alien cloaking function was turned off. We saw the fighter ship in the water fire off one last beam from its tail-like feature sticking out of the water.

The weapon on the ship in the water exploded after firing that one blast, but the other ship was instantly vaporized before our eyes.

There was a loud hissing and gurgling noise as a hatch opened on the ship in the water. Out crawled a badly beaten and bleeding alien. He had four eyes, two on his head, two poking out above it, but one of the 'stalk' eyes was badly damaged, and both main eyes were reddened and raw. One of his frail looking arms was obviously broken, and he had a large gash across his chest that bled freely. He held his good arm onto the edge of the ships hatch; from there we saw the rest of his body. He had a lower-body not unlike a deer or a small elk, except his whole body was covered in a blue fur. Where you would expect a cutesy Bambi type tail he instead had a long tail that formed into a wicked scythe at the end. One of his legs was standing limply, as if also broken or just badly beaten.

""Run, others will be coming for me... You must not be seen..."" he said without words, yet still in a hoarse gasp. His grip slipped and he nearly toppled into the water. Without thinking, I rushed forward and caught him before he could fall.

"Dude! What are you doing- he's an alien, what do we know!" Called my best friend Matt, a total skeptic, always, but exactly why we always got along, he tended to balance out my naivety- or as I maintain, my willingness to believe the better of others.

"We know he's been hurt, now shut up or help me find something to bind his wounds."

"We can't stay here, you heard him, others will be coming." That was Jessie, Matt's sister, Matt would kill me if he ever knew the way I felt for his sister.

"I have an idea, remember the old clubhouse we used as kids," Xander spoke, already rushing to the alien's other side to help me guide his steps.

"But we haven't been to that place in years, who knows what kind of condition it's still in," Lisa commented.

"You have a better idea," I asked.

""No, you must go, leave me, or else you will be in great danger!""

"We won't leave you, trust us, we'll fix you up."

""Why- why would you do this for me?""

"That's a good question Alex," Matt said as he slowly came over to help me on the alien's right side, "why are we risking our neck for an alien we know nothing about?"

"Because he's hurt and because he took down that other ship that probably would have toasted us with him just for being here, so I'm gonna go out on a limb here and trust the one that didn't try to vape us on sight."

As we stepped out of the water, the waves rose up and wiped away our tracks, as if we were meant to save this one alien life...

It was a pretty far walk to the old clubhouse, but it was late at night and most everyone was already home for the night, plus, as we later found out, the Yeerks were more interested in Elfangor at the old construction site. Once we got to the club house we had to rip open the rusted over hinge to the block of wood that acted as a door. Inside it was mostly as we'd left it five years ago, except for the cobwebs. Lisa rushed over to the water hose we'd dragged over from somebody's house long ago, she wet down a sheet and used it to wipe off the alien's wounds, she took another sheet and used it to wrap his wounds.

""My arm, it will have to be re-set before it can heal properly."" He said finally deciding to help us help him.

"Jessie, you set his arm, I'll go find some sticks we can use to hold it in place."

"Okay," she turned to the alien, "this is going to hurt, a lot."

The alien nodded and winced as I turned away before hearing the loud, CRACK, of his bone being set back in place. I looked along the floor for a pair of sticks I could tie to his arm to keep it still in a sort of sling.

All in all, it took about an hour before the Alien was ready to be left alone to heal, and most of us had to get back home for the night.

"Um, look, most of us have families we need to get back to, you should be safe here, if you can't tell from the cobwebs nobody's been in this place for years, just, stay here and we'll be back tomorrow to make sure we didn't make things worse."

""I- I don't know how to repay you, by now my ship has probably been vaporized, so I have nothing.""

"Your thanks is plenty for now, just stay put, stay safe, and we'll be back tomorrow- oh yeah, what's your name?"

""Name- ah, yes, I am Helios, Helios-Ilfaxt-Terros.""

"Well Helios, we'll see you tomorrow, will you be okay until then?"

""Yes, the grass here is not well kempt, but it should suffice.""

"You eat grass?"

""Yes.""

"Oookay, not gonna ask how."

Thankfully, Helios took our advice and stayed put, and also thankfully the next day was Saturday. We didn't all arrive at once, like we might have in the old days, these days we didn't all wake up early on the weekends anymore. I got there before Xander and Lisa, but Matt and Jessie were already there before me. I made an effort of knocking on the dislodged wooden block before I entered.

"Guys, it's me, Alex."

"Come on in pal, our friend from out of town is still here," Matt called back.

I stepped in and spotted Jessie looking over Helios' bound wounds, "How's it look?"

"It looks like an amateur job, duh, but it looks like amateur was enough, I don't think they'll get infected so long as we keep them rinsed, but then, I'm not the one looking into Med school."

"Lisa should be here soon, she called me just before I left, she wanted to be sure it wasn't all a dream."

"Yeah well, I think I'm lucky his blood isn't red, I had to tell my parents I got into an accident with some paint to explain all the dark blue gunk on my clothes.

"Lucky me, I had on denim, it hardly stood out at all, besides, I had to sneak in anyway, if my parent's caught me I'd have been so busted, two Fridays in a row coming in after twelve."

"Haha," A voice from the doorway, Lisa, "maybe if you brought up your grades a little, your parents would trust you better."

"Not all of us are med-school bound, now get in here, he may be alien, but you're the closest thing we've got to an expert around here."

Helios gave a puzzled expression as Lisa came over and held onto Helios' wrist. Lisa's eyebrows rose in confusion, "His pulse- it seems- like multiple heartbeats or something."

""Of course it does, that's because I have three hearts, my heart rate seems fine though, but I do wonder what that device on your wrist you keep looking at is for?""

"This," Lisa rose up her arm, "it's a watch, it lets me keep track of time, and the seconds hand lets me time heart rate."

""You mean you cannot simply keep track of time in your head?""

"Can you?"

""Quite accurately.""

Lisa frowned, "We'll, let's have a look under these- 'bandages'," she said with a disheartened laugh.

"Whoa!" Xander called from the doorway, "Yikes, he still looks pretty beat up, don't he."

"Doesn't," Matt called back reflexively.

"Whatever."

"He does, but he also appears to be healing quite nicely, even his arm, the smaller wounds are starting to scab over, and I can see the first few bruises."

""I don't know how I can repay your kindness.""

"Kindness doesn't need payment, or else it isn't true kindness," I don't know why I said that just then, but some part of me saw truth in it. What kind of kindness needed a reward, a shallow, pety kind, thats what...

""I think I see why the Yeerks fear to attack you openly, aside from your numbers, you seem strong willed, like us Andalites,"" he seemed to smile at me, which was a strange thing to see him do without a mouth, ""The only thing I fear is those of your kind who would see it as 'kindness' to willingly surrender themselves.""

"Surrender themselves, human's don't surrender often, not as a group at least, even defeated, human history has countless occasions of us humans fighting a losing battle, even to total defeat or even death," that was Xander, trying to sound brave.

"Not all humans are like that, some will always look for the easy way out, like father."

"Matt!" Jessie called sharply.

Matt and Jessie lived with their mom and step-father now, their original father had killed himself, he'd left a very detailed note explaining why he did it. Matt had once read it, but Jessie never got a chance to see it. Matt had become very skeptical about people since then.

""I- I don't understand.""

Before Matt could start to explain I came over and put a hand on his shoulder, "Matt, chill."

Matt turned rather violently, throwing off my hand, but once he looked me strait in the eyes, as I returned none of his violence, he calmed down.

"Some humans, feel incapable of dealing with their lives, so they chose to end them themselves, most other people think it's a cowards way out, but still many people chose to end their life rather than face it," Matt managed to say calmly.

Helios seemed taken aback, ""You humans vary greatly from one to the other, it must be very confusing judging one person's actions based on only a small sample of behavior?""

"Yep, some people specialize just in trying to figure other people out," Xander laughed, "matter o' fact, it's what I plan on doing with my life, human behavioral psychology."

"Not with your English skills my friend," Matt teased.

""While I am stuck here, I would like to better understand humans until such time as I may return to my people,"" Helios announced.

"Well my friend, few are more connected than the average teenager, after all, every professional wants to convince the average teen that their job is the most important," Xander smiled.

"Plus," Jessie smiled as she reached over and dusted off an antiquated looking T.V. "What better way to study humans than to watch them unnoticed?"

Jessie turned on the T.V. the news was instantly playing about how some teens were nearly caught blowing up fireworks at the construction site.

""This abandoned construction site, is it near the large commercial structure for exchange of goods?""

"The mall? Yeah."

""I believe I saw Prince Elfangor's ship go down near there, perhaps it was a cover-up story, perhaps more humans found Elfangor, perhaps they saved him as well, I could hear the hope building in Helios' voice. I will need to acquire a human morph.""

"Whoa whoa whoa! You're not going anywhere for a while, not until your wounds are healed, you could still tear them open again," Lisa said instantly on her feet, speaking in a voice that sent the same chills up my spine as my mother whenever she scolded me for doing something foolish. I could see it even having the same effect on Helios, he was clearly taken aback by the abruptness of it.

""Yes maam,"" he said, almost embarrassed.

I walked up closer to Helios, "Seems you're not going anywhere while Dr. Lisa is here, but what's this 'human morph' stuff?"

Helios seemed to freeze, as if he'd done something wrong, ""I- I spoke out of turn, I should not have mentioned it, I- I cannot explain, I'm sorry, I will not break our most sacred laws, I will not violate 'Seerow's Kindess'.""

"What's that, I mean, what does it entail."

""We are forbidden to give alien races Andalite technology, it is one of the most important laws, though not the highest, second to only a few though.""

"Seerow was an Andalite, wasn't it, the law's name, it comes from the person who made a mistake didn't it?" Matt spoke, Helios' main eyes both jerked towards him.

"Makes sense, I suppose," I added, "You let some other race have Andalite technology, and it turned out badly didn't it."

""I am amazed by your wisdom, and yet you are mere children.""

"Young adults, teenagers, adolescents, but please don't call us children," Jessie pleaded.

""Yes, Seerow was a prince, a highly respected Andalite, who took pity on another race, he felt they too belonged among the stars with the Adalites, from Seerow's kindness has spawned our most hated rivals, the Yeerks, who are the very race that at this moment is trying to conquer your world.""

"Wait a minute; you came here to stop an alien war?"

""No, the Yeerks are already here, they chose a different path to take earth, infiltration; the Yeerks are a parasitic race, that takes over the bodies of their hosts by entering the brain, usually through the ear canal. We came to stop them, but their numbers were greater than anticipated, plus the appearance of- the abomination... and his Blade Ship.""

Anger rolled like waves off of Helios as he spoke of 'the abomination', and my curiosity exploded out of control, "Who's- 'the abomination'?"

Helios' good stalk eye narrowed as he thought-spoke, he twitched his tail blade violently behind him, ""Visser Three, he is the only Yeerk to possess an Andalite host.""

It was the better part of a month before Lisa declared Helios healed. In that time I felt I had a feel for Helios, and he felt he had a feel for humans as a generality. As much as Helios refused to speak of Andalite technology, it only took mild prodding to get him to discuss Andalite culture, society, and eventually even a little about his home world.

""Yes, it is very pretty, and the grasses are much nicer.""

"That reminds me, I've been meaning to ask, how is it you eat without a mouth- or is your mouth just not on your face?"

""No, I do not possess a mouth anywhere on my body, I ingest the nutrients from grass I crush beneath my hooves.""

"I suppose that makes as much sense as anything else?"

""No less so than the slaughterhouses from which you obtain your meats to balance your Omnivore dietary needs.""

"Say-what," Xander asked.

"Omnivore: eats both meats and fruits-slash-vegetables," Lisa explained.

"Oh."

""In any case, I feel that since my diagnosis is favorable, perhaps I should see if we can find Prince Elfangor, or any other Andalite survivors.""

"Wait a minute, how are you supposed to go outside looking so completely alien."

""Ah yes, I shall have to acquire a human morph, if I may, would you be object to acquiring a sample of DNA from each of you?""

"Will it hurt?"

""No.""

"Then I don't think any of us would object, right guys," I turned to see the nods of aproval from the others.

Helios walked up to each of us in turn, he touched us on the forehead and in turn we felt a calm wash over us as he 'acquired' each of us.

""This is a bit of Andalite technology the Yeerks don't posses- except for Visser Three.""

It was an unusual sight to watch as Helios changed, 'morphed' into a blending of each of us, the first thing to happen was his front and back legs seemed to meld into his single pair of thicker Human legs. Next his excess fingers seemed to melt away, first the fur, then the flesh, then the muscles, leaving the exposed bones to seem to disintegrate away. Next the fur seemed to be sucked back in from his entire body, then his tail's skin pulled back, then muscle, leaving the bones again, even out to the scythe-like tail blade. All of which melted away, leaving a very naked male.

"Hey, that's my hair," called out Lisa, touching her own unusual white hair.

"Those are my eyes," Xander pondered, his gold eyes shown with wonder.

"That's my build," Jessie pronounced confidently, making a muscle of her firm biceps.

"That's my skin," Matt commented, tracing his own pale-golden Hispanic skin.

"Hey- that's my-… um, never mind..." I kind of shrunk back from pointing out exactly what it was I saw of me in him... But it quickly made me realize, "Hey, we need to get him some clothes."

"I got some spare clothes in my trunk," Matt commented, "they should fit- except maybe around the- never mind... They should fit, just might be a little tight."

"I'll have to remember to bring by an extra pair of boxers next time we try this..." I said as I headed for the door.

Jessie caught me as I was opening the trunk of Matt's car; she hugged me around the waist from behind.

"Really now," she pondered aloud

"Really what?"

Jessie smiled and grabbed me a little to firmly in a checking squeeze.

"Yep," she smiled and let go of my waist, looking at me face to face, she winked, "just checking."

I couldn't help the deep crimson that my face turned.

"Alex, hurry up, we can't have Helios standing nude here all day."

I came in as Helios began to speak, it was strange to hear him speak in a voice now...

"N-no, we- cannot have that, after all- all, hmm... After all, I only have two ours- hours, available to me in a morph. Morph. I find this vocal form of communication- tion, talking; I find it quite amusing to have sounds coming from a mouth."

"Um... Yeah, I imagine it could be quite amusing- but ah... Yeah, you should try to avoid playing with sounds when we're in public, people would think you were mentally ill," Xander tried to explain.

"I see, well, no, I would not wish to be seen as 'mentally defective-' tive... Mentally ill in way."

"Oh yeah, it's gonna be pretty tight in my car," Matt commented.

"Shotgun!" I called.

"Where!" Helios looked a little disturbed as he turned his whole body in each direction searching for a nonexistent shotgun.

"Helios, calm down," I started, "It's an expression, I was calling dibs on the front passenger seat by the window."

"Dibs?"

"First right to."

"I see," He said, clearly not understanding at all.

Matt was right, it was a tight fit; Jessie sat between me and Matt who drove, in the back sat Lisa between Helios and Xander. The way Jessie began tracing her fingers up my lap. I began to think maybe she would have preferred to sit in my lap than the ill-dubbed 'bitch' seat. I found it kind of difficult to maintain my composure as she stroked my thigh suggestively. It was my fantasies coming true, Jessie must have noticed my attentions on her, added to the- human Helios feature claims.

We got to the mall pretty quickly, and after we got out, I took Jessie to the side to speak privately.

"Look Jessie, I like you too, quite a lot actually, but are you crazy, your brother was RIGHT there, and you know how he'd react."

Jessie only laughed as she walked off, making certain to flaunt her firm assets as she strides away. I couldn't help blushing again; I don't know why I was having trouble dealing. It's not like she was my first love or anything- more likely it was because she was my best friend's sister.

"Anyway," I said at last when I caught up with the others, "I don't think it very wise to check the construction site, because the- unfriendlies will more then likly have the place under survalince."

"The unfriendlies- ah yes, I see, you are attempting to make code for things that might draw attention," Helios realized aloud, "yes, the 'unfriendlies'- will more than likely have strict surveillance, we can only assume Prince Elfangor either died, or was taken somewhere by humans like I was."

"But," I continued, "That doesn't mean we can't waste a perfectly good day for mallcrawling."

"Mallcrawling? Ah yes, hanging out and lose at a mall. Yet, I feel our time would be better spent searching for others of my kind who could assist us against, 'the unfriendlies.'"

"Chill Helios-man, we'll keep our eyes open for others like you, I doubt all of your kind has been exposed to MTV yet, and will probably stand out in a heavy social environment."

"Yes, my people would be lost in a vast commercial exchange area such as this."

"The Mall Helios, THE mall."

"How can you refer to it in the singular when there are many other buildings on the planet nearly identical to this facility?"

"How many captains are there in the Andalite Military- compare with how many you called 'The Captain' or 'my Captain,' in your career?"

"Sadly only one, this was only my second battle position, I had only just moved up beyond the Arisths- Aer-ish-ths, ths," he cleared his throat, "I had only just moved up beyond Arisths in rank to become a full warrior."

"Yo, Helios, how much time you got left," I suddenly asked.

"I have been in human form for approximately 30 percent of my available time."

"So, about 40 minutes, leaving over an hour to mall crawl before we find somewhere for you to demorph."

"Correct."

"Hey Helios," Matt spoke up, "you can re-morph right after you demorph, right?"

"Of course, however, repeated, consecutive morphing is tiring."

Xander chose the moment to come up behind me and whisper in my ear, "So, you going to just let Jessie do whatever while you do nothing, or are you going to so some scrouts and do something, one way or the other."

"Ah..." I mockingly coo'ed, "does Xander also have a crush."

"Hell no, you know where my flirtation energy goes, oh wait, you don't- your always too busy fawning over-"

"Don't say it."

"You-know-who, to ever notice the other neglected pretty girl, who happens to be more interested in you than she is in me, I mean sheash... when do I get the girl..."

"Maybe when you grow up Xander, show a little more responsibility, at this rate you'll end up a high school councilor."

"Hey, that was below the belt!"

"Are you two going to stop jerking around or should we leave you behind," Matt called back to us.

I slung my arm over Xander's shoulder, "Xander's just having a little hissy of Jealousy, that's all."

The two of us caught up as I practically dragged Xander in a near headlock. "Hey- hey, I CAN walk you know."

"I find it amazing how easy it is to walk on only two legs, I feared that I might be constantly falling down, thought that maybe that's why the human posterior was such a powerful muscle."

"Glutinous maximums, largest muscle in the human body, but no it's not from falling on it," Lisa commented.

"Can we go now," Jessie mocked.