- Narrator: Tobias
The Yeerks finally realize that the "Andalite bandits" are humans.
Tropes:
- Amnesia Danger: Had Loren still had her memories, she would have known about the Yeerks. The Ellimist wiped her of all her alien knowledge, and the car accident made it worse, leaving her unable to comprehend the danger she's in until the Yeerks are upon her.
- Big Damn Heroes: Rachel in grizzly bear morph hijacks a forklift and uses it to bust into the blood bank just as the Animorphs are told there's no way out.
- Big Damn Reunion: Subverted. Tobias's reunion with Loren isn't as dramatic as he thought it would be. Loren was expecting him to show up at some point, but she admits she didn't know what to do with herself after her accident, let alone try to take care of a baby.
- Borrowed Biometric Bypass: Jake tries using a Blue Band Hork-Bajir Controller's hand to open the door when the fight in the blood bank goes south. Unfortunately, the granny-Controller was Crazy-Prepared enough to delete the guard's DNA from the database before confronting the Animorphs just in case of this exact scenario.
- The Bus Came Back: Loren turns up blinded, but alive, after not being seen since The Andalite Chronicles.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Cassie realizes that the Yeerks can just use the Animorphs' spilled blood to find their identities. Right there and then, they get into a fight with the Blue Band Squadron, sealing the end of their secret identities.
- Jake evacuates the Animorphs's families one by one, saving his own for last, not stopping to think about "Tom" taking his parents lawnmower shopping. By the time he tries to save them, his parents have already been infested.
- Disability-Negating Superpower: Loren's blindness is negated after she demorphs, much to her surprise.
- Impersonation Gambit: The Animorphs cut up one of Marco's blue t-shirts and use it to make blue armbands, then morph to Hork-Bajir in the Yeerk blood bank. As they now resemble the Blue Band Squadron, human and Hork-Bajir Controllers scramble to get out of their way. Even being asked for a password doesn't stop them, because the guard is too intimidated by the sight of what appears to be Visser One's personal guard staring him down. Unfortunately, the real Blue Band Squardron shows up soon afterwards, after Ax has demorphed.
- Implausible Deniability: Rachel points out that her mother is a lawyer, and can find a way to shut down any arguments despite overwhelming evidence. This is why she opts for strong arming her mother and sisters into evacuation by showing off Ax and walking in as a bear.
- Inertial Impalement: Tobias kills a Blue Band Hork-Bajir Controller by allowing him to jump into his Hork-Bajir morph's wrist blades.
- Mama Bear: Tobias observes this in his friends' mothers. Cassie's mother gets in between her and what she thinks is a radioactive deer (it's just Ax), while Rachel's mother rips a spice rack off the wall and tries to fight a bear (Rachel in grizzly bear morph) she finds in her home. Tobias no longer has to wonder what it's like to have a mother that cares when Loren puts herself between him and a Dracon beam.
- My Instincts Are Showing: The Animorphs, minus Rachel, morph to fly in a dumpster. The fly finds all the rotting organic material to be delicious.
- Nasal Trauma: Marco's Hork-Bajir beak gets sliced off by a Blue Band Hork-Bajir Controller during the fight in the blood bank.
- Never Mess with Granny: The primary antagonist of this book is a Yeerk infesting an elderly woman. The Yeerk isn't too pleased by having an aging host, but is no less dangerous for it.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: The Animorphs abandon their human lives and escape into exile with the free Hork-Bajir because the Yeerks now know who they are.
- Shapeshifter Showoff Session: Each of the Animorphs morph in front of their parents to prove that they're not making up stories.
- Super-Empowering: Tobias plans out a scenario where he gives Loren the power to morph and acquires his hawk form to fly away from the Controllers chasing them. It works.
- Taking the Bullet: Loren shoves Tobias out of the way of a Dracon beam in midair, getting nearly sliced in half in the process.
- Trauma-Induced Amnesia: The accident that rendered Loren blind also stripped away all her memories. She needed help remembering what teeth were.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Jordan and Sara barely notice the Animorphs walking into their house, even though Ax and Tobias are in their base forms.
- We Need a Distraction: To get into the blood bank, Rachel causes havoc with her elephant morph, throwing a stop sign at the door to disable the Gleet BioFilter, and then running off while the rest of the Animorphs sneak in as flies.
- Wham Episode: The Animorphs lose their secret identities and are forced to go into exile with their families. Tobias finally reunites with Loren after fifteen years. Jake fails to save his parents from the Yeerk in Tom, who arranges for them to be infested.
