What if the Yeerks Were the Good Guys? is an Animorphs Alternate Universe Fic by Zeik Aramaik. It can be found on Fanfiction.net
and AO3.
After getting a D+ one too many times, Tom joins a local club called the Sharing in hopes that it'll help improve his school performance. He soon discovers that there's more than meets the eye; it's a front to find more hosts for Yeerks, alien refugees who want to defend Earth from invaders.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Since the Yeerks are benevolent refugees instead of an invading empire, the major human hosts have much less angst. Mr. Chapman didn't sell himself into slavery to protect his daughter; Eva merely got divorced and moved away instead of having her death faked for her; and Tom is friends with Temrash instead of being suicidally depressed.
- Adaptational Context Change: Chapter 12 shows a few scenes from The Invasion from Tom's perspective. He still tells Jake that he quit the basketball team to focus on the Sharing, but this time it was all of his own volition.
- Adaptational Wimp: Thanks to a quantum virus from the Andalites, Yeerks have lost the ability to control hosts against their will.
- Dead Guy Junior: Eva's Yeerk, Edriss (no number), is named after Edriss 562, an infamous historical figure.
- Decomposite Character: Edriss 562 was one of the cruellest and highest-ranking Yeerks back when they had an empire, but Eva is infested by a different Edriss.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: According to an author's note, Elfangor really did die when Tobias was a baby and wasn't the first Andalite the Animorphs met.
- Dirty Mind-Reading: Temrash mentions that since Tom is a hormonal teenager, he's been forced to watch some... interesting dreams.
- Dramatic Irony: Tom wonders why Jake's acting so jittery after the Andalites land. Of course, the readers know that he just got the morphing power and learned that aliens exist.
- Flash Forward: Chapter 14 ends with Tom feeling glad he's safe with his little brother... followed by a future-tense scene where Jake has Tom tied up in the woods.
- Humanity Is Infectious: Temrash wonders if he's gone native; he started considering himself male after infesting Tom and keeps using human expressions.
- Jumped at the Call: Tom is ecstatic to discover that aliens are real, and doesn't hesitate to save the Sharing from some hungry Taxxons immediately afterwards.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: The full members of the Sharing try to introduce a woman to the Yeerks; she freaks out so much that they have to sedate her and use a machine to remove her memories of the past twenty minutes.
- My Future Self and Me: The Quantum Kindred was arrested for creating thousands of clones of itself using time travel.
- Oh, Crap!: The Sharing are horrified when they learn that Andalites have landed on Earth, because they want to kill all Yeerks without hesitation.
- Papa Wolf: Mr. Chapman is so furious when the Quantum Kindred tries to kill Melissa that he psychically sends all of his rage to it.
- Shout-Out: The author admits that Mrs. Chapman's first name, Allison, was lifted out of the Eleutherophobia series.
- Symbiotic Possession: The Yeerks offer their hosts companionship in exchange for being able to see the world.
- Uncanny Valley: The Quantum Kindred is described as looking like a mannequin with a face projected onto it, which freaks the humans out.
- Vine Tentacles: Tom wakes up one night to discover that all the non-controllers in the town have been ensnared in a giant alien plant's vines.
- Weirdness Censor: Iniss wonders if no-one found the cavern underneath an abandoned building because it was protected by a psychic perception filter.
