AN FANFICTION RETELLING OF K. A. APPLEGATE'S ANIMORPHS
RE:ANIMORPHS #1
THE PRETENDER
By Vickie-believe
Cover image link in AO3 version: AO3url / works / 15841887 / chapters / 36892611
"Someone's found out our secret."
Tobias has a lot to deal with. First, he gets these weird deja vu moments. He also hears about a long-time cousin looking for him. Then there is a mention of his father's last will and testament. it doesn't help that he crosses paths with someone from school who recognizes him. A Controller. With a criminal Yeerk.
But this Yeerk is different - she talks to herself. stays away from her people, and acts strangely. What's more, Tobias starts to learn about her and her host that will shake everything he knows about himself to the very core...
CHAPTER 1
My name is Tobias.
That's my name. But that alone can't really tell you much. All names don't, do they?
What's in a name?
Really, I'd like to know. I've known two Rachel's in my life and they are very different from each other. Nothing about the name says who they are, what kind of people they are. One was rather whiny, pretty obnoxious. The other is the bravest person I know. One had dark hair and green eyes. The other is blonde, with eyes as blue as the sea. Nothing but a name in common.
Nothing except that they were just two girls.
I know a Jake, Marco and Cassie too. From first impressions, you'd never think this Jake is the leader we rely on to make the most difficult choices. Or the comedic Marco is a ruthless tactician - the ends justify the means. Or that the Cassie is a pacifist struggling in a war. You would even be surprised to meet someone with a name like Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. That name doesn't belong to a human. It belongs to an Andalite. We just call him Ax.
Names are funny that way. Parents choose the names for us at will, and we get stuck with them.
My mother named me Tobias.
And does my name say anything about me? Does it tell you I'm a boy with dark blond hair? Does it tell you I used to be picked on at school? Does it tell you my parents are gone?
It's just a name, right?
It doesn't tell you that I no longer have blond hair. It doesn't tell you that I don't worry about bullies anymore. It doesn't tell you that I have feathers. That I have talons. A hooked beak perfect for tearing flesh.
Tobias is just my name. And my name says nothing about who I am. That I'm a hawk flying with the thermals.
A name can't tell you that, can it?
I let the current carry me across the city. I was enjoying the quietness, watching everybody move on like little ants. I even spotted a small person on a yellow bike, riding down the road my friends and I used to take.
And the nostalgia hit me once I looked further ahead of that little human. Twenty, thirty feet away.
The abandoned construction site. Where it all happened.
I wasn't always a bird. I was born human. I was human once. Then one night, my life got turned upside-down. And I wasn't alone. The names I mentioned? They were with me that night. Our lives were changed completely when we saw a damaged spacecraft land in that same abandoned construction site.
And the one who changed our lives emerged from that ship. An Andalite prince.
Elfangor.
He was the one who told us the truth. That there was a secret alien invasion happening right under our noses. And with his last ounce of strength, he gave us this incredible power to morph. To touch an animal, acquire its DNA and to become that animal. To stop this invasion.
This power isn't a privilege. It's also a curse - you can only stay for two hours as an animal. If you stay too long, you're trapped. You become what the Andalites called a nothlit.
I'm that example. I overstayed the two-hour time limit. I was trapped in the body of a red-tailed hawk.
So I'm not human. I'm not the "wimp" Tobias.
Who's invading us? It's the Yeerks. They are parasite slugs who enter your brain and enslave you. And they are among us. Elfangor was trying to stop them with his fellow Andalites in our solar system. Now it's our turn to do just that with this power he's given with his life. It's all we can do to save this planet from the bad guys.
That's what the Yeerks are, all of them - the bad guys.
At least, that's what I've always thought.
We've had a few run-ins before. Cassie once helped a Yeerk and in turn, that Yeerk created a Yeek Peace Movement. But that didn't meant we could drop our guard. Everyone and anyone could be a Controller.
It's all black and white. But like I said, names don't tell you everything. What I'd discover a few days later, it changed my perspective.
But right then, up in my clouds, my thoughts were on the site. I landed on top of a roof, high enough to see the place in all of its glory.
It's been more than a year and nothing has changed. Just the torn down police tape.
I still remember it like it was yesterday. And it still stung a little. Because that's where Elfangor died. For us. Maybe for this planet.
I was the one who understood the severity behind his words. I was the one who said to the others, we had to take the morphing powers. I was the last one to leave Elfangor that night. We had to flee before the Yeerks could come for him.
I didn't know how to read Andalite expressions at the time. But I didn't want to leave him alone. Then he took my hand.
He said something that shocked me. Frightened me.
I ran and hid with the others.
Then…
Hawks can't cry. They can't feel like humans. But I felt that sting. I shut my eyes to block out that terrible scene.
It still was fresh in my head. Like a living nightmare.
Then I felt a bit guilty. Because I had ran from Elfangor out of fear.
I honestly wished he had lived. That we had done something to save him. Just a bit longer. We didn't know much about him. Only what his brother, Ax, told us.
I guess...I wanted to say sorry to him.
He's gone now. There's nothing I could do. Except be a hawk and put those feelings away.
That's who I am. Nothing can change that.
I took off to the sky again. Far away from the site. There's no more reason to go there. Besides, the Yeerks could still be watching that place - waiting to catch five kids who were there that night.
Back to the meadow. Back to my home.
My life now isn't living under a roof with comfort and food like anyone. My home is in the trees by a nice meadow, in a world I have to kill in order to eat. To survive.
Nothing was easy, of course. It never had been. It was going to be a difficult upcoming week for sure. Cassie had told me a minor drought was coming. I told her it'd be alright for me. Plenty of mice and rabbits this time.
It didn't take long for me to get on my branch, my perch. I was home.
And hopping as quiet as possible in my meadow was a rabbit and its family, five babies. I had long marked their burrow.
Then I felt it.
This weird sense I've been through this before.
Someone was coming. To take my home.
I panicked. I searched around. Where? Where was he?
Then I spotted him. It was like looking into a far-away mirror. My own reflection. The angry, yellow-brown eyes. The wickedly curved beak. The sharp talons dug into the bark of a branch, a hundred yards away. The length of a football field.
That was a pure hawk. A real hawk invading my home.
And I was the kid trapped inside. The unique misfit creature named Tobias.
I was shaken. Not because I had an unwanted guest. But because all of this felt familiar.
I shook my head. Which was probably weird for any human to see. A hawk shaking its head.
Everything's fine. I'm just feeling wistful, I told myself. I'm just dealing with what happened last week.
Yeah. Tomorrow would be just a normal day for me.
A normal day of a red-tailed hawk for me.
A/N: Hello all! I have started my new series called RE:Animorphs (not...that original tbh).
The reason for this is I had decided to stop Sario Effect and revamp that into something new but with a brand new megamorph under that title. The problem I struggled with was putting too many ideas into one book as a start and it didn't leave any room for character developments and world building. I was very restraint with the limits I had. Thanks to a great, helpful friend from the Animorphs community, he suggested that I should spread them out and work towards the Sario Effect (renewed). It was a needed change that has given me not only reediting of certain plots but more windows I never thought of taking.
Ironically, I didn't plan to choose Pretender as a first book. But the what ifs involved were very interesting to give it a shot and explore.
I want to thank a lot of people for their help. 1. I wanna thank Artisan219, writer of the Animorphs Reboot for the suggestions and support over the Sario Effect. 2. I wanna thank Kara, my great Animorph bubby, for beta reading the chapters before release and also long time support. 3. I wanna thank dreamlover and Taku Kelmut from the Animorphs Discord for helping me brainstorm on plot elements. And lastly, I wanna thank the Facebook and Discord groups for the amount of support and enjoying the previous Sario Effect, as well loving my two OCs, El and V'trix. Thank you all for so much help and I wouldn't have gone this far without you all.
I hope you'll look forward to the first book of RE:Animorphs. The first three chapters are coming next real quick.
Btw, I have created a three page cover for this book. While sadly, FFN doesn't allow urls and I've only have the first cover as preview here, you can see the full version in my AO3 under the same name. Look it up and I hope you'll enjoy it! The link's details is mentioned above.