A/N: This story is the sequel to The Traitor. Please read The Traitor first, or else you may be massively confused. This chapter picks up a couple of months after The Traitor ends. This story is AU and takes place after the events in the first few chapters of book number 54. Roughly three months after the war is won/Rachel's death.

This is the first chapter, and a bit of a teaser as I don't yet know how often I will be able to update this. Let me know what you think. Love to my readers, as always.

-T.

Chapter One

The sun was burning merrily, warming my skin. A gentle breeze rustled my deep indigo fur and made tree branches sway high overhead. The sky was a picturesque blue color, the result of sunlight reflecting off of the planets many oceans. The grass beneath my hooves was green and fresh.

It was a perfect summer's day on Earth. I could have flopped down on my back and watched the fluffy white clouds, or gone to the beach in a bikini and tried to impress the boys. I could have run through the fields for no reason other than to run endlessly. I considered this last option for a moment. Running freely through the fields of Earth was something that I could duly enjoy. The human in me, and the not-so-human in me.

My daydream was broken by the image of someone stepping forward, seemingly out of thin air. Not just any someone, either: this particular someone was about seven feet tall, and looked vaguely like an erect dinosaur. She had deep green skin, much darker than the grass under hoof, and had various blades adorning her body. A walking killing machine. Something from any normal persons worst nightmares.

I sighed in annoyance. (Hologram off.) I thought at the computers. The image around me disappeared. The rolling hills, the distant forests: all were replaced with the cold steel and harsh edges of spacecraft. Only the grass remained underfoot, but this grass was not bright and fresh. It was rather yellow, and when I tasted it with my hooves it was as if I were trying to ingest straw.

(What is it Agrath?) I asked, keeping my voice steady, playing the part of commander. Agrath was my second in command. Yet, in a sense, she was more powerful than me. More powerful meaning that she could decapitate me with one swift, precise swing of her arm blades. Not that I was without weapons. My own tail blade was constantly at the ready, and I kept two Dracon Beams holstered at my side. Still, Agrath knew she was stronger than me. Stronger and, perhaps, faster.

"You're followers are worrying about you, Visser." Agrath said, bowing her head respectfully. I couldn't help but smirk a bit at the title. I had never been formally named 'Visser' of course, except as a way for the Empire to exploit me. Now, in the aftermath of the Yeerk reign I had chosen the rank for myself. I wasn't just a Visser. I was the Visser. The only Visser.

(Worried?) I asked, unconcerned. In the many months that we had spent on this forsaken little ship my crew had done little but 'worry' about me. They worried that I was unstable, that I didn't have their interests at heart. That perhaps having someone who was not one of them, strictly speaking, as their leader was perhaps a poor decision after all.

"They say you are spending too much time on the holo-deck." Agrath responded neutrally, carefully hiding her own opinion, "They worry that you will not be able to function as commander."

No hiding it now. Agrath's eyes were definitely shining with amusement. We both knew better. This conversation was for the benefit of the crew. Someone was bound to be listening in – they always were. Both Agrath and I knew that she was the one truly in command of the ship. I was little more than a figure-head.

(They worry about my…functionality?) I responded slowly, (What do they think I am doing here, idling away my time staring into blank space?) Only partly true. I added to myself.

"No, ma'am. The crew just needs reassurance that all is going well. They are growing…unsettled. It has been many months, and still we have found very few survivors." That last sentence wasn't faked. Agrath's tone changed, intensified. It was true – in months of searching only a few Yeerk vessels had been discovered. Many of these vessels only had a handful of survivors, the majority of their crew starved from Kandrona and the resultant uprising from freed hosts.

(Very well. I will speak to them.) I said, nodding my assertion. We began to walk, leaving the behind the room which could take me back to blue skies. Now we were in brightly lit hallways, half empty. Those who we passed stopped to let us by respectfully. No one met my eyes. We stopped when we reached the room designating my quarters.

"Terenia, we need to rethink our options." Agrath said, dropping the act as soon as we were inside and the door was safely sealed. "They are losing hope. A defeated crew is useless."

(Yes, well, it isn't exactly easy creating an Empire from nothing.) I responded sarcastically, dropping my own mask. I scuffed a hoof on the floor in annoyance. Here, as in the holo-room, there was grass on the floor. This grass was in much better condition, and I munched on some as Agrath went on.

"You were looking at Earth holos." She commented. It wasn't an accusation, just an observation. Yet I could sense suspicion and worry in her tone. She didn't trust me, not completely.

(Yes.) I responded. There was no use in denying it. Hopefully that fact wouldn't make her think that I was weak, nostalgic for a life I had given up long ago. She chose to change the topic.

"We have found no more than fifty hosts fit for duty. In addition to those we already had, our crew is nearly two-hundred and fifty." She said, her reptilian eyes watching me fiercely. "That isn't even one atom's worth of what it takes to build an Empire. There are a thousand un-hosted Yeerks in our Pool. We need to do something before everything falls apart."

(Yeah?) I rebutted, getting defensive. (Well what do you expect me to do? Make a bunch of hosts appear out of thin air for the remaining Yeerks? Then make more Yeerks appear out of thin air so that we can raise an army?)

"We need to look harder. At the very least we need to raise morale." Agrath said. I sighed heavily. Agrath was a mercenary. An assassin. Her business was in killing people. Not exactly the most admirable job, but she was very good at what she did. As a result of her profession people generally did what she told them to do. However, 'raising morale' was not usually on her priority list. Or mine, for that matter.

(How?) I asked, (Throw a big party? Get out some balloons and a nice big cake and give everyone a public holiday?)

Blank stare. Oh, right. Agrath's host was a Hork-Bajir: a pacifistic killing machine from a planet which consisted mostly of trees. She had never had a human host, and had spent little time on Earth. Balloons and cake were meaningless to her. Sometimes it was hard to remember that everyone didn't spend their youth as humans, on Earth, oblivious to aliens except in bedtime stories.

"I propose an attack." Agrath said, choosing to ignore my brain lapse, "On the Andalites."

(What?) I said, incredulously. (You're joking. We'd be slaughtered.)

"No. The war is over. Most of their forces have returned to the home world. Those that are left are spread out amongst the galaxy." Agrath insisted. I could see her getting more and more excited as she talked. She was pacing, her eyes bright. Bloodthirsty. "We can attack something helpless. Big and bulky – like a transport ship. They won't be expecting it; they think we all fled the galaxy. We pick a fight that we can't lose. If our crew sees a bunch of Andalites burn, it will make them feel much better about our situation."

It was quite a speech. And maybe part of it was true. But I had learned, over the years, that under-estimating anyone, even the arrogant Andalites, usually led you down a bad path. Then again, knowing that something was a bad idea had never stopped me before.

I had known that it was a bad idea to climb aboard a Bug Fighter and investigate the strange alien ship. I had known that it was a bad idea to stand up to Visser One, after I had been trapped in Andalite morph and joined the military. It had certainly been a bad idea to agree to accept his deal – a decision which led to the death of my friend Allora and my brother Danny. And the decision which followed that, the decision to trap myself in the body of a Yeerk forever.

That was one decision that had had an interesting result. My best friend, my shorm Jennor, couldn't stand sharing her head with me. Over time we drifted, separated. My need for control, for power, grew. I left her. I left the Andalites and joined the Yeerk side. My big decision: the big whammy. As far as the Andalites were concerned, it was the ultimate betrayal. I was an Andalite, as far as most of them knew, who had chosen to live out her life not only in alignment with the parasitic Yeerk race, but to become one of them.

I was sure that the details had gotten warped over time. No doubt those warriors were telling their sons and daughters stories about the 'evil abomination' who tried to destroy the entire Andalite race. A bit laughable that inside it all was a teenaged human girl.

The thought of the Andalites made my fur rise and my muscles clench. Anger. They were a pompous, arrogant, self-righteous species. They had lied to me, used me, and thrown me to the curb. Even Jennor had dismissed me when she no longer needed me. It would be nice to lash out at them. Even a sure-win battle would feel somewhat…justified. They had beaten me down so many times, why not return the favor?

(I will think about it.) I said to Agrath. She smirked and nodded, knowing full well that I may as well have said yes. (The Andalites are getting comfortable. They could use a little…excitement.)

After all, the Andalites were one reason that I no longer had any blue skies to look forward to.