SPOILERS
[spoiler]die?[/spoiler]
After rereading #54, one thing that struck me was Cassie and Jake's final meeting in the series. It was when Jake caught up to Cassie when she was climbing a mountain with Ron. They talk and Jake informs her of the situation with Ax and tells her that she shouldn't come. Jake tells her goodbye and that he will see her when he gets back. But after Jake morphs and flies away, Cassie, in her final line in the series, says, "I knew I had said goodbye to Jake forever".
Was KA Applegate hinting at the fact that Jake and the others don't survive their encounter with the One? I mean ramming the bladeship did seem like a desperate measure. Normally, their chances of survival would be extremely minimal but throughout the series the Animorphs have always overcome the odds so in my first read of #54, I imagined them somehow surviving again. But since K.A. Applegate included that line earlier in the book, something tells me that Jake, Tobias, Marco, and the other people on that yeerk ship don't survive. This also means that Ax isn't rescued/he is dead.
Sad to think really. That only leaves one Animorph alive: Cassie.
This is also another reason why I think that other than rereleasing the older books, Scholastic won't release a new Animorphs series that picks up from #54.