DISCLAIMER: See Ch. 1.

A/N: Now, we see through the eyes of a character who never narrated anything in the series: The infamous Alloran-Semitur-Corrass!

This chapter is dedicated to Kharina for letting me borrow her version of Alloran's family from her excellent fic, "The Homecoming," which includes the warrior son Baras and the xeno-biologist daughter Marili! Be sure to check it out when you get the chance!

CHAPTER 7

Alloran

My name is Alloran-Semitur-Corrass.

For more than twenty years, I was the host slave to an evil, ruthless Yeerk named Esplin Nine-Four-Double-Six who climbed through the ranks of the former Yeerk Empire until he finally gained the title of Visser One.

He was a vicious warlord. The only Andalite-Controller. The only Yeerk with the power to morph. I was known as The Abomination for that, among other reasons.

Even before then, I was disgraced, that being for my actions years before that on the Hork-Bajir home world. In an act of desperation, I unleashed a quantum virus, killing untold numbers of Hork-Bajir in order to kill as many Yeerks as I could and deprive them of as many potential or current hosts as possible.

And then, there was that horrible mission to the Taxxon home world, in which my life irrevocably changed forever for the worse… in which I became the slave to Esplin 9466.

I will not go into detail about just how horribly that experience was, to be the only Andalite-Controller in existence for more than twenty years. Let's just say it was one of the worst things possibly imaginable and leave it at that.

After that, I knew that I had changed forever. Before, I was an arrogant Andalite warrior who had fiercely defended my beliefs in that I had done the best possible thing I could have done on the Hork-Bajir world (considering the circumstances, of course), who had seen the Yeerks' malicious intent before Prince Seerow even knew what had hit him and "knew" that all Yeerks are evil, who knew full well the brutalities of war which one must tolerate, which a certain then-aristh named Elfangor just couldn't accept… now, I just didn't know what to think anymore.

Perhaps I could have made better use of my time all those years ago and found a way to kill the Yeerks while sparing the enslaved Hork-Bajir. Now I knew that all Yeerks weren't evil just because they were capable of controlling other species with their parasitic abilities (a point well-illustrated by the Yeerk Peace Movement, whom I now silently revered; after all, if they could defy their evil empire, they couldn't obviously be all that bad). As for Elfangor… well, it was one subject which I decided to avoid as much as possible.

I will not forget when I joined the Andalite forces after the surrender and subsequent defeat of the Yeerk Empire at Earth…

I wandered and grazed in the dome of the Elfangor (well-named, I must admit). The warriors all avoided me if they could help it, and I knew they were conversing in private thought-speech, talking about how the infamous Alloran-Semitur-Corrass, Abomination and Butcher of the Hork-Bajir, of all people, was now aboard the ship named after the revered hero War-Prince Elfangor. (How strangely ironic, now that I thought about it.)

(Alloran?) came a polite thought-speech inquiry. (Is that really you?)

It was Galuit, one of my closest friends. We had known each other since we were mere arisths, almost from the first day we had met, and we had become shorms. I was so busy brooding that I didn't even notice him coming up to me from one end of the dome.

(Yes, Galuit, it's me. It is also wonderful to see a familiar face that isn't giving me any bad looks.)

He laughed lightly at that.

(How have you been doing, old friend? How is your family?)

Instantly, his smile evaporated, and I knew I must have said something wrong.

(Galuit, I'm sorry, I…)

(No, Alloran, it's fine, you didn't know and it's not your fault. Years ago, my family – my wife and three children – died when a Yeerk raid attacked one of our outposts. They died rather than be captured.)

(Oh. I didn't know, Galuit, I'm so sorry…)

(It's not your fault, Alloran – or the visser's, for that matter.) Here, we both knew he was referring to that slug, Esplin.

After an uncomfortable moment of silence, I finally asked a question which I was thinking about quite a bit. (Galuit… would you happen to know how my family is doing?)

By now, my son, Baras, was 28 years of age, and my daughter, Marili, was 25. The last memories I had of them before my… capture were of Baras frolicking around the fields of my family's scoop, and Marili trying to keep up with him.

(Oh Ellimist, I could even be a grandfather by now!) I said, beginning to panic and jump to conclusions.

Galuit stifled his laughter at that last comment and answered my original question. (Your family is fine, Alloran. In fact, I sort of became a friend of the family, trying to help them whenever I could. I needed something to do when I was leave, anyway.)

It was a sad sort of coincidence, when I thought about it. Galuit, now bereft of his family, was trying to help keep together my family, which I was separated from.

(I can't thank you enough, Galuit. I will be sure to find some way to repay you for your help, I'll see to that…)

Galuit waved it aside. (It's not a problem, Alloran, really.)

Deciding to change the subject before I could attempt to persuade him any further, Galuit then added, (By the way, there are also more old friends who are looking forward to seeing you return. You know – the old crowd.)

I knew who he meant by that. While Galuit may have been my shorm, there were four other Andalite warriors whom we had been friends with since our days as arisths – Feyorn, Breeyar, Nescord, and Sofor. All six of us had even served together on the StarSword as princes.

(By the way, Alloran,) Galuit said with a growing smile, (Did you know about Aximili's strange adventure on Leera with his human friends?)

(I heard something about them popping out of nowhere and dealing the Yeerks a severe blow on Leera,) I admitted, (but no, I can't really say that I do. Why, what happened, precisely?)

Galuit told me about how they helped win the cause, while I told him of these Animorphs' string of victories, thwarting just about every plan the Yeerks came up with on Earth.

I was about to tell him, but he knew I didn't have to: I was indebted to the Animorphs for all they had done for me.

I still remember when I first returned to the Andalite home world, the planet which I had not set hoof on in so many years…
While the newly-minted Prince Aximili was looked upon with awe, I was being looked upon with shock and disgust. I tried to ignore it all as best as I could.

Galuit walked down after me, and it was only after we checked through with spaceport security that I made to start for home. However, before I could exit entirely from the spaceport, four familiar Andalites trotted up to me.

(Hello, Alloran, Galuit,) said Breeyar, followed by Feyorn, Nescord and Sofor.

I returned their greeting, and we made what humans would call "small talk." My old friends had all "retired," in a sense, since there was no more war to fight in.

After some minutes, we all went our separate ways… and I went back home to see my family which I had not seen for more than twenty years.

I galloped across plans and down paths which humans might consider to be like roads, through a couple of villages, until I finally came to my home scoop.

However, I was so close to coming in plain view of my wife, who was currently tending to the flowers and grasses outside, when I suddenly stopped behind a tree. I found myself unable to go any further. I knew why: I was almost afraid to return home. How would I act? What was I going to say?

When I was freed of Esplin at the end of the Yeerk War at Earth, I was so happy to finally be free that I had never considered that some troubles could be only beginning at that point, such as how I would approach my family after so many years?

Only now was I wondering what my family could have gone through during my long absence. Were my wife and children ridiculed for being the family of the Abomination, the Butcher of the Hork-Bajir? A whirlwind of emotions was going through me right at that moment, it was almost antagonizing.

Finally, when I had calmed down, I stepped out from behind a tree…

…And found myself face-to-face with my wife.

(Jahar?)

(Alloran? Is that really you?)

She looked overjoyed to finally have me back. So far, so good.

(Yes, Jahar, I'm home.)

I wanted to say more, but it felt as though the parts of my brain responsible for speech had just frozen up…

She kissed me, and I kissed her in return. This helped loosen up the tension.

(Our children want to see you, Alloran,) she said with a subtle hint to it. She smiled – oh Ellimist, what a smile! – and looked just as beautiful as I remembered her.

I followed her, replaying her words in my head. My children wanted to see me? That was a good sign.

I saw my children, now young adults, on the other side of the scoop, conversing with each other. (Baras is now a full warrior, and Marili is studying advanced xeno-biology,) Jahar quickly informed me.

My pride of my children grew at that moment, glad to hear of their accomplishments – even if, regretfully, I couldn't be there for them.

Jahar called out to them, and they both galloped towards me. Strong and sturdy, Baras acted every part of the warrior, and my beautiful Marili moved so gracefully she was like wind solidified.

Now, I had no real speech planned, so I decided to just say things as I went along.

Addressing my family as a whole, I spoke to them. (Jahar, Baras, Marili… I know I have done several things, some of which I was responsible for, and some of which I wasn't, yet both of which I have been blamed for. I won't pretend to know whatever you may have gone through in my absence, and I'm sorry for whatever you may have endured from others during that time. I can't go back in time and undo everything which has had its repercussions for all of you, and I'm sorry I missed so many things in your lives. However, I will make sure that I won't leave any of you like that again. I don't know if I can make up for all that lost time, but I am both willing and determined to try my best. I love all of you, and nothing will ever change that.)

There was momentary silenced as they absorbed and thought about my words to them. Then, finally…

(Welcome home, Father,) my son said, followed by my daughter, both of whom looked delighted that I was back again after all this time.

We talked late into the night, as I caught up with everything they did. I could feel my tension melting away into happiness which I had not known in so long.

A few days after my return, I went to the War Council building. I was to fill them in with what I knew about Yeerk intelligence that would help them wipe out the rest of the Yeerk Empire. Additionally, I would fill them in on new worlds which the Yeerks discovered that we Andalites didn't know about, as well as some of the species from those worlds which Esplin had made me acquire, which I would morph in order to demonstrate them.
I was waiting outside the chamber meant for hearings when I suddenly heard Lirem's thought-speech voice blast through the physical barriers. As I strained to listen, I heard Aximili say something in return… and soon, it turned into a full-blown argument.

(No way in yaolin could this be happening,) I said to myself, but at the same time, I couldn't stop grinning to myself. The back-and-forth shouting was almost like music to my ears; Lirem really was such a pain in the hindquarters a lot of the time, and often acted as though he had plenty of them to deal with.

(War-Prince Alloran?)

I jumped and turned my stalks to see Electorate Leader Aldexen and his entourage. Turning now to face them fully, I dutifully greeted them.

(We will begin with our appointment shortly, Alloran,) Aldexen said with a hint of kindness in his voice. (But first, I must break up the foals in there, before they start spilling blood…)

I laughed as they went in. I stopped laughing well before Lirem stalked out afterwards, looking like some dark blue thundercloud. He was so furious that he didn't even acknowledge my presence, which I actually considered to be something of a blessing.

Aximili came out some time after that, looking quite proud of himself. His parents came out behind him, stopping briefly to greet me before leaving with their son.

At the same time, I was both sorry about how I was indirectly involved in the awful death of their son Elfangor, and yet glad that they didn't blame me for it.

I was called in not long after that. Composing myself as best as I could, I took a deep breath and walked in.

I took a good look at the Electorate Councilors as I walked in: Half of them seemed to wish I wasn't there, while the other half seemed kindly considerate.

Once things got started, I told them all the info I knew and remembered from my time as a Controller. I also demonstrated all the various morphs I had acquired over the years during that time, telling them what each species was, which planet it came from and where, and so on. After that, I submitted to a memory dump in order to recall other details. However, some of them were kind of fuzzy every now and then, since after some time I had become used to hiding somewhere in a little corner of my own head as the visser went about his way.

It seemed that not only had I provided a treasure trove of information to my superiors, but had also provided tons of new data for xeno-biologists.

Here, I briefly wondered if somehow my warrior son and my xeno-biologist daughter would benefit from all this new info for their fields of work.

Before this hearing was over, I asked what I would do now.

(Well, War-Prince Alloran, I assumed you want to retire and spend some more time with your family,) Aldexen said.

(Well,) I said, (That's the thing. On one hand, I vowed to myself that I would spend more time with my family… and yet on the other hand, I feel the sort of need to make up for… past mistakes and incidents of mine.)

They all knew full well what I was talking about. Taking a moment to choose his words, Aldexen finally said, (Well, since you did just provide us with enough information to fill a Dome ship, I would say that you have already accomplished the latter.)

This was true.

(So… I guess I will be rejoining my family, then.)

And with a few more exchanges, the hearing was concluded.

The next year or so was spent trying to mend things with my family. Overall, things were great… but occasionally, there would be some unease between myself and my wife and/or my children.

I remember one particular night when I had a serious row with Baras. I don't remember the exact details as to what started the argument, but I do remember my son yelling as to why he should listen to me of all people before he stormed out of our scoop and galloped off into the night.

I spent the whole night trying to find him in my kafit bird morph, demorphing and remorphing as I had to. When he was still missing by the next morning, I had given up and hoped he would come back soon.

I just happened to come across Aximili on the way back…

I had stopped by a stream to absorb some grass and water when I heard some thought-speech directed towards me. (War-Prince Alloran?)

It was Aximili. I stopped grazing for a moment and turned to face him. (Yes, Prince Aximili?)

(What are you doing here? This is an area near my family's land.)

I looked down, embarrassed. (I'm sorry, Aximili, I didn't realize –)

(No, that's fine, Alloran. My parents are visiting some friends, and I am here spending some time to myself.)

(What about your job as a liaison to Earth?)

(I have worked out most of the transfer deals with the humans, supervised the morphing of Yeerks and Taxxons into nothlits, and plenty of other Andalite diplomats are now taking over for me. I am essentially now done.)

We walked back towards my own lands, conversing along the way.

When we arrived back at my own scoop, not only had Baras still not returned, but Jahar and Marili we also gone. Depressed, I looked around, hoping to find something to be distracted by. Here I noticed a human book under Aximili's arm. I read the title: The Odyssey.

(What is that about?) I asked with a gesture to the book.

(Oh, this?) Aximili picked up the book and showed me the cover more clearly. (It is a new edition of an ancient epic, which is a retelling of mythical adventures from the ancient human country of Greece.)

(What's it about?)

(There was a war between the city-kingdoms of Greece and the heavily defended city of Troy. For ten long years, the Greeks and Trojans fought each other, as is recorded in a companion story called The Iliad. Anyway, the war dragged on until a wily and clever Greek king by the name of Odysseus managed to end the war through a move of deception. With Troy sacked, the Greek kings and their armies all left and started sailing back to their homes.

(However, for Odysseus, he was only beginning on his own adventures. Over the course of the ten years after that, he had to contend with gods, monsters, violent peoples, humans with supernatural powers, and even a brief detour to the Underworld, the realm of the dead. Finally, even after he returned back home to his island kingdom of Ithaca, he was faced with a few more problems to deal with. His wife, Penelope, was now being harassed by suitors who hoped to marry her for her wealth and kingdom when they were not lounging around as unwelcome guests, and Odysseus' son Telemachus, who was an infant when he left for war and was now a young man, did his best to defend Penelope. Odysseus also disguised himself as a beggar to find out whether or not his wife was still faithful to him – a lesson he learned from the ghost of Agamemnon, who had been the first of the Greek kings to return home, only to be murdered by his unfaithful wife and her conspirator.

(In the end, Odysseus revealed himself at last, slaying all the vile suitors and reuniting with his wife and son. The word odyssey is derived from his name, meaning something to the effect of "a long perilous journey." )

(An interesting tale,) I commented finally after Aximili was done with his synopsis. (Ironically, I can certainly draw some parallels between my awful experiences and those of the story's hero… although I doubt that this Odysseus was ever a Controller…)

Aximili then gave a small smile. (No, he was not a Controller, although part of what took Odysseus so long to return home was the conflict of interests between the goddess of wisdom who favored him and the god of the seas who hated him. He was controlled by fate, certainly, but not by a parasitic slug.)

We shared a laugh, and through one of my stalk eyes, I saw my family trotting up towards our scoop – with Baras among them!

Well, War-Prince, I think it is time for me to leave now, said Aximili, catching on to how my family need me, and – to use a human term – vice versa.

Aximili briefly greeted my family before going on his way. After he was gone, Baras came up to me and apologized for his earlier discourtesy. I accepted his apologies, and then extended my own for saying things which I had not given much thought about before I said them.

While my two children went off to go and graze, Jahar came up to me. (That was a truly beautiful story Aximili mentioned, even if it was only a summary.)

(Now that I think about it, the parallels are uncanny.) We moved on to different topics of conversation after that, and yet the story of that wandering king still remained somewhere in the back of my mind. I may have had a Yeerk in my head all those years, but I suppose at least it was a good thing that I didn't have to fight off a load of males interested in Jahar. That would have undoubtedly been very bloody and messy.

After that, there came the time when Aximili and myself would be heading to Earth for Visser One's trial. Accompanied by a legal advisor named Salawan, whom I actually knew and remembered vaguely from primary school, we went to that jewel of a planet which the Yeerks had gambled to heavily on and lost everything at.

However, before I left, I promised my family that I would be back in a month, at the most. (Andalite months are slightly longer than Earth months, and we have ten months in our year as opposed to the twelve on the most widely accepted calendar used on Earth.)

During that time, Salawan read up the human judicial system that would be used, and was actually impressed with some of their concepts, ranging from rights read to a person as they were being arrested to having these lawyers represent them in court.

However, upon meeting with the people running the trial and telling them about my enslavement to the visser, combined with how some memories were fuzzy from constantly being mercilessly controlled by him, it was decided that I would not be used as a witness. Most of it had to do with how my enslavement cut too closely to self-incrimination, supplemented by how some details and events were too hard to recall. At first, I was somewhat disappointed by how I would not be able to contribute to putting Esplin 9466 away for life, but at least they let me stay in court so I could watch him go down, which I admit was somewhat satisfying.

Before going back, I was sure to pick up a copy of The Iliad and The Odyssey each.

Presently, I was talking to Aximili again, both of catching up on what each of us were doing in our lives. It was strange, how both of seemed to form a loose, unofficial sort of… well, I wouldn't call it friendship, but hopefully you know what I mean. Of course, I felt myself to be in debt to Aximili and his human friends. It was also satisfying to know that they did not shun my presence, even after all they had been through at the visser's hands.

After several minutes of talking amiably, a human security officer approached the two of us and told us that the session would now resume.

TBC…

A/N: Personally, I think I liked this chapter as well, what with all the flashbacks involved in it.

Note about the Andalite word "yaolin": Samilin said this in The Decision, and judging from its word usage, I think it may be like the Andalite version of Hell. Any thoughts on this?

Note about the Odysseus/Alloran parallels: I think I did a pretty good job here. (Also, for those of you who would like to read The Odyssey, a good book to check out is the recent translation of it by Robert Fagles.)

Next chapter is where we get back on track after finishing the flashbacks, and the finally learn more from the Kelbrid about this new evil being who calls himself "The One"… –Quillian

IMPORTANT NOTICE! Okay, there is something here which I should get straightened out now…

About the proposed Animorphs/Tremors crossover: I'm glad that some people seem to like the idea, but just to elaborate, I said that I would be interested if someone else wrote it.