So now we pick up from Wind's Nocturne. The battle is over by now, but Hollypetal will fill you in, no worries.

Song of the chapter is Mad World by Tears For Fears or Gary Jules.

On the night Toadstep died of greencough, the sky was cloudy.

Rosepetal lay at his side, face buried in his fur. Daisy and Spiderleg were sitting on the opposite side of her.

"I'm sorry," Spiderleg repeated, over and over, "I should have been there more for all of you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Berrynose and Mousewhisker both stared mournfully from beside the warriors den.

Jayfeather and Briarlight sat outside the medicine cats den. Briarlight appeared to be comforting Jayfeather—the loss of another greencough victim had been a hard blow to him.

Hollypetal padded quietly out of camp and headed towards the lake. She knew Rockfur would be there—ever since the great war and the loss of their powers, they'd needed each other more than ever. He complained of constant headaches from not hearing the rest of his clan anymore, talked about his worry for his sister. Roseleaf's sudden loss of power hadn't bothered her as far as anyone could tell—it was the loss of her mate, Raccoonpaw, that had struck her harder than anything.

All of the clans were suffering much, much more than they could handle. In just ThunderClan, how many cats had they lost? Firestar, Ferncloud, Mousefur, Sorreltail, Foxleap, Icecloud, Hazeltail, and now—

"Toadstep died tonight," she greeted Rockfur tiredly.

He didn't look surprised, but did look sympathetic. "Greencough?"

She sighed. "Yeah."

They stared at the stretch of water in front of them silently. She wanted to throw rocks into the water with her power, but couldn't; he wanted to know exactly what she was thinking, but couldn't.

After a few heartbeats, he asked, "How many others are sick?"

She had to think about it for a few moments to organize the dead from the living. "Briarlight is just starting to recover. Sparrowflight is recovering, too, so that leaves Frostpaw."

"He's still bad?"

"Pretty bad." She kept talking to fill the silence. "How—how's Blackstar?"

Rockfur was shaking his head before she'd even finished. "He's no better. The battle took a lot out of him, mentally and physically."

"I should come visit him," she said hollowly. She wanted to see Blackstar—but she wasn't sure if she wanted to see how he was doing. Bramblestar hadn't complained about her meetings with Rockfur, but she didn't want to stress him out any more than he already was by asking to go to ShadowClan.

"I don't know if that's a good idea," Rockfur meowed. She wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed or neither. "He's... he's just not good."

"Do you think he'll retire soon?"

"No. I think he'll be leader until he dies."

Silence fell again. It had been strangely easier to talk before the battle. Maybe because Rockfur always knew what she was thinking and so she hadn't needed to actually talk. She could feel the distance between them growing and knew there was nothing she could do to stop it. Their fates were no longer tied with Crowfrost dead, with Hollyleaf gone, with no more powers to help them communicate.

They now had the ability to lie to each other and she knew they would.

"How's Roseleaf?" she asked, shuffling her paws beneath her.

"Dunno. She doesn't want to talk about it."

"Can she try talking to Littlecloud?" Her tail started to flick nervously.

"She doesn't want to talk about it." His voice had gotten harsher. She could feel the snarl growing in him through the air between them. Drop it.

She let her tail drop back to the forest floor.

She'd been in ShadowClan after the battle had ended, had seen Roseleaf fall to the ground when Raccoonpaw's limp body had been dragged into camp. She'd tried to imagine seeing Scorchfur's body, tried to imagine seeing Hollyleaf's body, remembered seeing Petalpaw's body.

Rockfur had wound himself around his sister, and they'd both lay there. There was no talking; the only moving had been both of them taking in large ragged breaths and letting them out in bursts of sobs.

Hollypetal had left, passing a group bringing in another body.

Roseleaf hadn't come to meet her since.

When she'd arrived back at camp, she'd been just in time to see Frostpaw tripping over himself in grief to get to Ferncloud as she was set in the middle of camp, beside Firestar and Mousefur. She'd waited until she'd seen Dawnpaw and Rainpaw join the group starting to form around the corpses, then she'd turned back out and walked back to the lake. It had been far from the sanctuary it had once been—the sand was clumped together with blood and fur. She had had to sit in the shallow water as to not sit in blood.

She'd waited, hoping Hollyleaf would come, but she hadn't. Instead, Cinderheart and Lionblaze had. When they saw her, Cinderheart had broken into a run, faint sobs escaping her. She'd crashed into Hollypetal and bubbled out "Don't scare me like that!" while Lionblaze caught up to them. Then they'd all sat there, everyone crying except her. She'd still been waiting for Hollyleaf. Maybe even Petalpaw.

Hollyleaf had been in the battle, fighting back dark forest cats with Scorchfur by her side. Their movements matched and it had been somehow mesmerizing. There had been no time to join her amongst the chaos and she hadn't gotten to talk to her even once. She didn't even know if Hollyleaf had 'lived' through the battle.

She did know that Crowfrost hadn't. He'd had two star-pelted cats snarling at him, closing in with barred teeth. She'd barrelled towards the group before any of them had attacked, had leapt right over the StarClan cats and right into Crowfrost. Had ripped his throat open before he could even recognize her. The relief had been palpable—she had killed him. Her body, her soul, her control.

Petalpaw hadn't made an appearance during the battle that she had noticed. She hoped that Hollyleaf had made her stay in StarClan, safe.

Rockfur stood beside her. She startled out of her thoughts.

"I'm going back."

He turned and didn't wait for her to say goodbye before he disappeared into the shadows.

She stared sleepily at her paws before getting to them. She watched her paws as they lead her back to camp automatically. She wanted nothing more than to just go to sleep, but she knew someone would start to worry if she wasn't there in the morning.

Spiderleg's apologies had ended while she was out. He was next to Daisy, his nose pressed into Toadstep's pelt. Berrynose and Mousewhisker had disappeared, probably back into the warriors den to sleep. Jayfeather was also gone, but Briarlight was still out, talking to Blossomfall. Rainpaw and Dawnpaw were curled up not far from them, waiting for any bad news about Frostpaw.

She walked over to them, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. She curled next to Rainpaw without a proper greeting. He raised his head to look at her drearily.

"How's Rockfur?" he rasped.

"Okay," she answered. She wasn't sure if she was lying or not. "How's Frostpaw?"

"Okay." He rested his head on his paws. "He tried to come out just a bit ago but Jayfeather yelled at him."

She couldn't hold back her amused purr.

Rainpaw lifted his head and shook it at her. "He came out to tell me and Dawnpaw to leave. Then he apologized for being sick because it was postponing our warriors ceremony. The nerve."

"The worst part," Dawnpaw added with a yawn, "is that he genuinely feels sorry. For being sick."

"He really does want to be a warrior," Hollypetal mewed. "It's probably bothering him that he's sick instead of one. Plus he probably thinks he's holding you two back."

Dawnpaw scowled.

Rainpaw's head was still shaking. "We wouldn't become warriors without him. It doesn't make a difference unless he isn't with us."

"Does he even realize he could die?" Dawnpaw sounded pained.

She shook her head. "This is Frostpaw we're talking about."

Briarlight dragged herself towards them with Blossomfall at her side. "Maybe he's afraid he'll die without becoming one," she suggested.

Blossomfall nudged her.

"I mean," Briarlight coughed, "I'm sure he'll be fine."

Rainpaw and Dawnpaw shared an unimpressed look.

"He is getting better," Briarlight continued, coming to a stop in front of them. "The fact that he even managed to get out of the den is impressive."

Dawnpaw flicked her tail. "You're out and you're sick."

"I'm much better," Briarlight waved off. "I've survived worse, clearly."

Blossomfall shook her head behind Briarlight. Her and Rainpaw shared an exasperated look like they just couldn't believe the siblings they had could be so dumb.

"How's Ivypool doing?" Rainpaw asked Blossomfall.

Ivypool had nearly been killed by her dark forest mentor, Hawkfrost. If Bramblestar hadn't gotten there when he did, Ivypool wouldn't have survived. Ivypool was the only cat still recovering from the fight. Her neck had several gashes through it and they weren't healing properly.

Blossomfall visited her frequently, much to Jayfeather's obvious annoyance. He'd told her to leave more than once but she kept refusing and Ivypool didn't want her to leave anyway.

"She's getting better, I think." Blossomfall sounded pleased. "She managed to eat without me having to chew her food up today."

Whitewing had just left the medicine cat den as Blossomfall finished talking. "Did she?" she asked excitedly. "She didn't mention that!" She was purring loudly as she joined them.

Blossomfall tensed a little, but Whitewing didn't glare at her or hiss, just continued purring. She was one of the few cats in ThunderClan that held no grudges with the cats that had trained in the Dark Forest.

Blossomfall nodded curtly at Whitewing. "She probably doesn't think it's a big deal."

Whitewing nodded back agreeably. "She really doesn't know when to take pride in herself." She straightened her back and went from mother-mode to deputy-mode. "Shouldn't you guys be sleeping? I expect you all for patrols tomorrow."

Whitewing had been turned into ThunderClan's deputy after Squirrelflight had refused Bramblestar's request with the startling statement of "Bramblestar, I can't. I'm pregnant."

Bramblestar had been happy, but also annoyed that she had battled in her state. "You could've died!" he'd scolded, herding her towards Leafpool and Jayfeather.

Hollypetal suspected that Bramblestar didn't know that Squirrelflight almost had died during the battle. Hollypetal had helped her chase off a grey tom with stars in his pelt that was attacking Squirrelflight viciously. He had fled when he was outnumbered and Squirrelflight and her had separated without saying anything about it. They hadn't talked about since, and Hollypetal was afraid to ask if that had been the Ashfur that Hollyleaf had killed, because she knew it was. She had seen him once after their fight, getting attacked by a dark forest warrior. He was losing badly and she had not helped him.

"Dawnpaw and I are going to sleep here," Rainpaw told Whitewing. "We'll be fine for tomorrow."

"There isn't enough room for me in the medicine cat den, so I'm sleeping out here," Briarlight chirped pleasantly.

Blossomfall shuffled as Whitewing looked to her. "I was just checking up on Ivypool, but Jayfeather made me leave."

Whitewing nodded, her gaze softening again. "Thanks, Blossomfall." She touched her nose to Blossomfall's cheek. "Make sure to get to bed soon," she said before heading to the warriors den.

Blossomfall had stiffened and was trembling at Whitewing's affection. It was no secret that Millie had been neglecting her and Bumblestripe for Briarlight. Bumblestripe had found comfort in Dovewing while Blossomfall had gone to the Dark Forest. Millie, like most of the clan, now ignored Blossomfall and viewed her with scorn. Graystripe and her had had a loud argument about the whole ordeal that had ended with them breaking up. Graystripe still talked to the dark forest cats—mostly Blossomfall. He'd apologized to her many, many times for Millie's neglect, but that didn't change that Millie was worse than ever.

Whitewing's motherly gesture stumped Blossomfall until Jayfeather walked out, tail swishing.

"You're still here?" he snapped at her. Blossomfall turned and glared at him. "Ivypool is asleep now, so keep quiet out here!"

"If you talk to me like that, I'm going to go see her," Blossomfall threatened.

Jayfeather hissed and Blossomfall smirked triumphantly.

"She's not your responsibility, so stop trying to take care of her!"

"I know that," Blossomfall scoffed. "I'm taking care of her because she saved me and she's my best friend and I love her."

Jayfeather just hissed again.

Blossomfall shook her head at him, scowling but with amused eyes. "Yeah, I'm going. Don't worry, I won't wake her up if she's sleeping." She stood, stretched, and turned towards the warriors den. Her tail flicked Jayfeather's nose as she started away.

He growled after her before turning to the remaining group. "You four be quiet!" He disappeared back into the medicine cats den, fur bristling.

Briarlight, Rainpaw and Dawnpaw all purred with amusement.

Hollypetal watched Daisy and Spiderleg and Rosepetal mourning, and wondered if being happy while they suffered was wrong.

The Renewed Trilogy: Book Three: Mad World
Prologue: Mad
Word count (excluding A/N): 2,201
Character count (excluding A/N): 12,880
Song: Mad World – Gary Jules
Started: Not recorded.
Finished: Sunday, May 10th, 2015. 7:28 AM. Edited: Monday, May 11th, 2015. 8:31 PM.