Karone-sakura; yes, yes! See… I'm continuing! AHHH!

LittleMidgett; um… ok… dudette... but you'd better update soon... IM WAITING!

YAH!WE'REAAAAAAALL CRAZYY!

Wait… wait… I'm having a breakthrough…

(hehe!)

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Robert

Well, we took the engine room with relative ease.

I stood around, looking at my team-mates, breathing deep. It had been rough… hard, and fast… but in the end, we beat them.

I saw Craig and Erica demorphing, coaxing the others to do the same, one by one. I shifted back, looking around. It was a bloodbath in here…

Once human, I saw the girl named Kelly stumble, and I barely caught her in time.

"You ok?"

She nodded, coughing a little, before leaning on my shoulder to try and catch her breath.

"Morph back. You'll be ok for a little longer"

"Oh… okay" she huffed, then started to morph. I moved away when I knew she'd be ok. Stood up and looked at the others.

"Is everyone ok?" I called.

"No… oh god no… PETER!" Came the scream, and I rushed over to Erica's side, looking down. A jaguar was on its side… bloodied… it would never get up again…

"Oh god… oh god no!" She grabbed my sleeve, tugging and trying to keep herself up. I grabbed her as she collapsed, then went and gave her to Craig.

"Wake her up… and… take care of her…"

"Why, what are you-"

I slammed my hand down on the door control, making it shut. I then grabbed an old piece of pipe and smashed apart the panel. Good. For now, we'd be ok until the others finished their tasks.

(Hey! How do we get out?-!) Some guy named Timmy cried.

I twirled the pipe in my hands.

"There's always a way when you can shift or morph"

"And… what about if… the Yeerks find a way in?"

I frowned "That's exactly why I shut the doors. But… when they do get in… we'll have to be ready. Are you all ready?"

They all answered yes. Even Erica.

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Desiree (ha! Didn't expect her, did ya!)

We raced in that room… and I used every once of my cheetah morph to shoot towards the first thing I saw.

Which just happened to be a Taxxon.

I bit it… then gagged at the taste.

(DON'T STOP!) Jake screamed, shooting past me. He took out a Hork-Bajir that was coming at me, then shot towards the Andalite in the middle of the room, along with the black wolf…

He was right. I shot away, going for anything that moved… and that wasn't one of my friends.

All I heard was snarling and cries and screams as I shot around, taking out everything I could, soon realising I was tiring…

(Desiree, stop!)

(What?) I turned to see a white tigress, bloody from battle. Then I realised… there was only one figure left in the room. The Andalite.

Visser One.

I felt angry… almost furious, knowing somehow… he'd caused all this mess…

(YOU JERK!) I screamed, leaping for him… didn't see the glimmer until it was too late…

(NOOOOO!)

A scream, then a flash of something black-on-white… and then that thing sizzled… and was gone.

I skidded to a stop, seeing the Visser had a Dracon beam.

No… no… it... it couldn't be…

Seconds later the gun left the gun was painfully removed from his hands… then… a lion sped past me, slamming the frying-pan sized paw straight into the Visser's head. He went down with a heavy thud…

(Oh god… oh god…) Jake backed up into a console… he was demorphing rapidly.

Ithiell was already himself, along with Rtaia, and both were silently working at the controls… I was demorphing too… James was soon beside me, a hand on my arm…

And then Jake… my supposed father…was human again.

And then he screamed, and that scream broke my heart and soul into pieces.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

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(((((rest of this is inspired by Evanescence 'my last breath' and 'tourniquet')))))))

Amanda

I walked to the bridge with the Animorphs, and my new little tagalong friend. He seemed to trust me… and that was a good thing. But… Ithiell's voice… the hesitation in it…

I knew something was wrong, and I picked up the pace.

We were soon at the bridge… I looked around… and saw someone was missing.

Then I knew, beyond a doubt… I knew…

"Ithiell?" I said in a strangled voice. He saw me… and came over to me.

"Amanda… I… I…"

"Holy crap! Jake!" Marco suddenly shot past me, with Rachel and Cassie right behind. I looked over… and saw Jake was curled in a tight ball, the sobs coming from him making it all the more real.

No… couldn't be real… no… nonononononononono…

"Ithiell… I… wh… what's… what…" He took me in his arms as I cried, breaking down. No one needed to tell me… I knew…

My best friend in the world was…. was dead. Jade Emily Harper, the brown-haired, green eyed tomboy that always fought for what she believed in… never gave up… was dead.

Couldn't be real… she never… she couldn't…

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James

I stared blankly into nothingness… how… how could it be…

I'd just talked to her, not even an hour before… she'd playfully gotten me to morph faster… encouraged me… smiled at me, fought beside me…

Desiree was in my arms, shaking but not crying. She was in shock…

So was I.

I watched as Amanda and the rest of the Animorphs came into the room, and then watched in horror as she broke down in horrible sobs, with Ithiell trying to comfort her. He even shifted to human, holding her tightly.

Jake wasn't much better. The Animorphs went to comfort him, as Ax and the bird called Tobias went over to where Rtaia was. Tobias became human, doing something as Ax told him to…

(The Pool ship is… is secure) Ax said a little nervously. Ithiell and Rtaia shared a look, and Rtaia soon started telling him what to do.

It should have been a glorious victory. After all, we'd won the war, hadn't we?

But… no. Even one loss was too great. This was someone I knew… someone I'd seen everyday for… months…

Hannah. The image of that little baby popped into my head. She would never know what happened to her mother… what she'd done for all three of us… for the world…

I'd tell her. I realised that then.

I'd tell her when she was old enough to understand. I'd make sure she'd always remember the name Jade Emily Harper…

Soon, the rest of my team came onto the bridge. Most were birds again… and Robert soon followed them.

"What's… oh no…" Robert's already white face turned ghostly, and he stumbled back a little. He looked at me, and I nodded. I saw him stumble backwards, catching himself on the wall, then clasp a hand over his mouth, breathing heavily.

SACRIFICES MUST BE MADE SOMETIMES.

The HBs.

"You know what!" I suddenly yelled, getting looks from everyone "Sit on this and ROTATE!"

I made the signal with one finger, hoping they'd get the message. I was in no mood to be… nice… anymore. They'd given me my family, only to rip it away again.

I was beyond reasoning with these things. Beyond even simple logic.

"Ithiell?" It was Rtaia's voice. We all turned to look at her. Even Desiree, who looked up from digging her head into my chest.

"Yeah?" He said softly.

"I just received a transmission from the Chanaiben fleet. We are… victorious" she said humbly. Calmly… too calmly… hated too calm…

"That's good, isn't it?" Cassie asked softly, looking around "I mean, it means we've won the war… for good… doesn't it?"

"Yeah. But at what cost?" Marco and Cassie shared a look, then both turned away from one another.

"It could have been worse"

I looked at Robert. His face was hard and cold.

"You heard me" he glared at me "It could have been much, much worse. Just be glad it was only one of us…"

He then stormed off the bridge.

"Why that insensitive little-" Rachel snarled, beginning to go after him. Ithiell stopped her.

"No. He's right in a way"

"But… but he…"

"I know. We all hurt differently Rachel" he said softly, tears brimming his human eyes. He leaned down and picked Amanda up off the floor, taking her to a chair and sitting her down.

But Robert was right. There were still most of us here.

Somehow, that just wasn't comforting enough.

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Before you bite my heads off, REMEMBER; I am twisting this story!

Who knows… Jade might come back after all…