Chapter 13
The One was an amazingly complex creature. It seemed to be pure evil. It was also very powerful, able to distort the strands of space-time. After I was kidnapped, he absorbed me. He took my soul, and made it a part of him, and then absorbed my body, so that he could take its shape, but change out of it if he so desired. He smothered me in evil, taunting me about every insecurity and problem I ever had. He would tell me about how no one would ever come to save me. He controlled me though. It was like being infested by a Yeerk, but so much worse. I was not the only person he had absorbed. There were other races too. Kuranan, Zeel, Raeli, Gen, Supak, Capasin, Mercora, Korla, and Five were all controlled by him. The One was ancient, he had existed for many millions of years. I knew that other aliens were a part of the One as I was, but they never spoke. I got the idea that they could not think or feel as I could. I was homesick, for both earth and the Andalite home world. I had no clue as to how long I was trapped by him. I told him that my friends would come rescue me, but he never listened. He just said that I would stay with him forever. I remained convinced that the remaining Animorphs would save me though. I told him this, and he started to laugh. That was when I learned his real reason for absorbing me instead of letting the Yeerks onboard the Blade Ship kill me, as they wanted.
"Jake, Jake the Yeerk-Killer, is your friend who will come to rescue you?" He laughed. "Yes, those humans, they require study. I have met with your friend Jake before. I brought him to a strange reality in the future. He chose love for one human over life for the world. I want to absorb a human. I absorbed you to get to them. I, who banished Crayak to another galaxy, I who can change the space-time continuum will not be stopped by a mere human. You will never become free, Aximili-Egsarrouth-Isthill. Nor will the humans, once I absorb them, become free. You make me more powerful."
He then told me his history, and how he came to be.
"I used to live on a moon nearly totally covered by an ocean. There were a few small islands, but that was it. I do not know how I evolved, I was a freak of nature, I truly was. I called myself Father. I was a being that covered the entire moon, my tentacles absorbed the minds of aliens that crashed onto my planet. I worked their brains like computers, and that is when I first became aware. You see, I did not think then. I was just a blank disk. As more aliens came onto my moon, I learned more. Finally, a ship of aliens called Ketrans crashed to my moon. I absorbed all of them, and in doing so, killed their bodies and only kept their memories to replay and make myself stronger, except for one of them. He called himself Ellimist."
I was shocked at this. The Ellimist had once been a mortal?
"I kept him alive so that I could play games with him. It was boring alone there, by myself, with nothing but the memories of the long-dead people who came to my home to amuse me. By keeping him alive, he could think, and make new thoughts. I could play games with him. About sixty-five years after his ship landed there, another ship came, this one filled with a race called Unemites. They brought the game of music. Ellimist never beat me in anything. That is, until, then. Of course, I beat him the first ninety-nine times we played, but then he learned. He improvised. I could never beat him after that. Not at that game. I tried a different one. I won the first four times, but he won after that. A new game, and he won the first time. I never beat him again. Fool that I was, I did not see what he was doing until it was too late. He was learning. And then, he learned that to be free, he needed to absorb the thoughts and memories of all the aliens I had. And he did. Then, he absorbed me. He broke free, and disappeared, and I never saw him again. I have heard that he is now engaged in a new game with Crayak, that being that thought it could rule this galaxy when it is so obvious that I am more powerful than him.
"After Ellimist left, I no longer had access to anybody's memories. I was still capable of knowing myself, but I could not think of any original ideas. I was bored. I could not even think new things, I only had memories of other peoples memories. I started to feel hate. My hate went through me, and around me. I became murderous. The next time an alien landed on my moon, I absorbed his mind, and let his body rot. Then, I was capable of new ideas. The alien had been of a species I had seen before. It was a Capasin. Normally, they did not tolerate hatred and killing, but I disposed of all unnecessary feeling from it. I kept only its intelligence, creativity, and memories that would be helpful to me. Then, I knew how to build. It was difficult, but I used my tentacles to make a spaceship. The Capasin was an engineer, so it was easy enough to learn how to build it. The only difficult part afterwards was learning how I would get into it. All of this took thirty years. As I was pondering how to go about getting into the ship, another ship filled with aliens, called Korla, landed on an island. I quickly absorbed them, and though I killed their minds after taking the necessary information, I kept the leader of their group's body alive. I then put myself into it. I could move, breath, eat, do everything a true living being should be able to do. I walked over to my ship, and got in. Just as I was lifting off, however, the moon exploded under me. I flew up and away as fast as I could, but my ship was severely damaged. I made it to another planet that supported life, and found many of some new species. I was still able to absorb people, and so I did. I gained their knowledge. I repaired my ship, and went on my way to absorb other aliens. I was one, but many at the same time. Still, my hatred grew. I hated Ellimist for taking the hundreds of people I had absorbed, and for destroying my home. Then, one day, I met Crayak. He was a behemoth of machine and living organism. I only had a mere Korla body, but I had the memories and knowledge of thousands of races, as well as raw hatred, inside of me. We were nearly equal. Crayak did not want something like me that nearly rivaled his powers, so he shot at me. It should have killed me, except for the face that most of who I was, the people inside of me were already dead. The physical part of me was destroyed, but my essence remained. An ixcila, I guess I could call it for you to understand, Aximili. Except it was much more complicated than that. I was still able to form memories and learn. And now, I don't know how it happened, but by being like that allowed me to see the strands of space-time as well. I was in real space as well as the fabric of space-time. I was all-powerful. In addition to being able to alter the time-space continuum, I could still absorb living creatures, but in a different way than before. Now, I absorbed their bodies as well. I could take in their soul, and keep their body as a memory, sort of, and then I could take the form of their body whenever I felt like it. I was amazed. I did not have a real, physical body, but I could take on other forms and even if I did not, I was still there, could still sense, as a presence. My hatred focused upon Crayak. He had tried to kill me! I tugged upon one of the strands of space-time, and sent him hurtling through space to a different galaxy. Your galaxy, I believe. I made sure he never returned. He has not tried for a few millennia now, perhaps he has found some amusement there. I traveled the galaxy, absorbing more peoples, growing more powerful with each one. Once I absorbed one though, I always had to take on a physical form in order to travel. Otherwise, in the vacuum of space, the minds and bodies were sucked out of me. I never saw where they went though; it is beyond me. Perhaps they would cease to exist. It served them right for trying to escape me.
I amused myself playing with the minds of people of many species, whether I had absorbed them or not. I believe you know the human I studied, Jake Berenson, Jake the Yeerk-Killer. Humans are quite interesting. He chose love over life for the world. Surprising. That is why I decided to absorb you. I wanted to lure Jake and the rest of the Animorphs here, so I could absorb them. There is nothing you can do. They will soon be a part of me as well. I did not destroy the parts of you that were not helpful though. I want you alive until the time that I absorb them. That is why you can still think."
The One scared me. He was evil, evil in its purest, rawest form. My life now was nothing. The only thing I had was talking to the One, listening to him try and break me. This was no life for anyone. How I hoped that Jake, Marco, and Cassie would not come to save me. I did not think Tobias would come back from his self-ordered exile. If he did though, I hoped he would not try and rescue me either. They could not suffer the same fate as me. I waited, resigned to eternity as a prisoner.
