Spoilers for #54, PG/K+. Prompt is "Criminals and Crime: Animorphs, Naomi, her daughter stole out of their lives like a thief in the night".
They know it's bad and they know this is it. They know that either the kids will be coming back to get them or the Yeerks will. But that's all they know and none of the parents stop worrying for a second, from the moment those kids left the camp. Jordan takes Sara out to pick berries at the foot of the hills, away from the colony, and a small horde of young Hork-Bajir follow because this is an adult time.
It's the middle of the day when the kids return but everything is dark because there are only five. She counts them twice (and another time, just to be safe) but there are only five birds in the sky. Maybe one of them stayed behind to clean up. Maybe. Maybe.
They land, one by one. And demorph, one by one. Cassie, running to her parents. Jake, looking as dead as a boy can look while still breathing. Marco, and Eva goes up to hug him. Ax, his stalk eyes drooping, and Naomi will never get used to something so alien. And then Tobias, perching silently on Loren's shoulder, and she knows what it means.
"It's over," Jake says flatly. He doesn't say we've won because Naomi knows they haven't.
