So here's the real version. I don't know if you guys have read my other fics, but I loooooove angst and death scenes. I'm not really sure why... So after watching the anime Chrno Crusade, I decided to randomly write a oneshot on our beloved mean kitty, Thistleclaw. Fwirl and I both wrote WTF?! versions of our latest fics, but this is the one that I had planned on writing, had I not been up waaaay too late at night and consuming copious amounts of 1000 Grand bars.

"Idiot! Unbelievable moron!" Thistleclaw's unsheathed claws clicked loudly on the cold stone boulders outside of the ThunderClan as he paced, his mind burning with anger. "Stupid she-cat! What's she playing at, not making me deputy? No cat deserves to be deputy more than I do!" He raked his claws down a swath of moss, feeling a prickle of satisfaction when the green plant ripped easily under his blow.

"Redtail," he spat. "Why would anyone pick that little runt for their deputy? He's only been a warrior for four moons, for StarClan's sake! He's still training his first apprentice!" Thistleclaw growled, baring his teeth at no one. "I trained Tigerclaw to be a great warrior! Why shouldn't I be the next one?"

Thistleclaw narrowed his eyes in fury as he remembered the past few moments—how that lame-brain Bluestar had picked her first deputy.

"I have gone to the Moonpool and received my nine lives as leader!" Bluefur—now Bluestar, he corrected himself grudgingly—stood atop the Highrock, her blue eyes fierce as she stared down the Clan.

A chorus of proud yowls went up around the clearing. Thistleclaw didn't join in.

"I have thought about this matter on the way back from the Moonstone, and have decided to make Redtail my deputy." She nodded to the tortoiseshell tom, who was sitting in the shadow of the Highrock. His face was a blank mask of shock.

Thistleclaw was on his paws in an instant, his lip curled, revealing his sharp fangs. "What?" he demanded, his claws curled into the soft ground. "He's barely a warrior! He just got his first apprentice a moon ago!"

Fuzzypelt, an elder just moved into the den, got to his paws and glared at him, his pale eyes narrowed. "Watch your mouth, Thistleclaw," he growled.

"Why should he?" Adderfang shot back, his claws unsheathed. "He can speak his mind! Bluestar." He turned to address the new Clan leader. "Are you sure you've thought this through enough? Redtail has earned his warrior name, true enough, but do you really think he's ready to lead?"

Bluestar's eyes sparked. "Why don't you ask him yourself?" she said calmly, flicking her tail towards where Redtail sat, his green eyes passive.

Adderfang's fur bristled along his spine. Thistleclaw watched his old mentor back down with a sense of disappointment. "I apologize, Redtail," the old tom mewed.

Redtail nodded slowly, showing no anger towards Adderfang.

Weakling, Thistleclaw snarled internally. "Why do you think you'll be such a great leader, huh? Surely there are more well-trained,"—he drew the word out—"warriors to choose from."

"Like you?" someone muttered in the back, but when Thistleclaw turned to snarl at them, the cat had receeded.

Bluestar's eyes were carefully guarded. "I think I've made the best choice for the Clan," she answered slowly, her eyes darkening.

Furious, Thistleclaw took a step forward. "What makes him qualified to be leader?" he demanded Bluestar. "I've trained the best warrior in the Clan!" He lashed his tail towards Tigerclaw, who sat half in and half out of the shadow of the warriors' den. The dark tabby pulled back obliquely when his mentor gestured to him, lowering his head humbly.

Thistleclaw's jaws dropped. You too, Tigerclaw? he thought darkly. "Does everyone agree with this? This decision?"

No cat spoke up. An uncomfortable silence fell over those watching, and Thistleclaw knew he had no choice now but to back down.

But he wasn't going to do it willingly.

"Fine!" Thistleclaw snapped. "Fine, pick him. See if I care. Don't expect me to go along with any of his decisions."

"You're out of line, Thistleclaw," Bluestar warned.

"Out of line?!" he shrieked. "I'm out of line? I should have been the deputy before you, you foul excuse for a leader!"

Redtail stepped forward, his eyes narrowed. "Cut it out, Thistleclaw. You need to calm down."

"I'm perfectly calm!" Thistleclaw hissed, not wanting to spend a moment more in the presence of this runt—the runt that Bluestar picked just so she couldn't pick him. We'll see who comes out on top, won't we? Spinning around, he stalked across the clearing, ignoring the scorching glares of his Clanmates.

Rosetail shook her head sadly as he walked out. "Please, Thistleclaw," she whispered.

"Why should I do anything to help them out?" he spit out, not looking at his sister. "I should be the deputy." He hated how whiny he sounded, like he was some bratty kit begging to be an apprentice.

"Just give it a chance!" the red-tailed queen pleaded. "Please."

Twisting his head away sharply from her, he stomped out of the clearing and up the ravine.

Pulling himself back to the present, Thistleclaw seethed silently, cursing himself for allowing his control to slip in front of the Clan. "You need to be more careful," he ordered himself quietly, turning away to clear his head with the clean, fresh scents of the green-leaf breeze. "You have to keep your head—you can't be blowing up like that."

As he clambered out of the top of the ravine, a sudden strong wind buffeted his spiky gray-and-white fur, brushing it against the grain of his pelt. He bared his teeth at the uncomfortable sensation as he padded farther into the forest, feeling the creeping cold of leaf-bare starting to wane, and the moist warmth of new-leaf underpaw.

"Thistleclaw!" The call came from behind him, an unmistakable deep mew.

Not turning around, Thistleclaw slowed to allow the cat to catch up. "What do you want, Tigerclaw?"

"I was just worried about you," the dark tabby said calmly. "You lost it back there."

Curling his lip, Thistleclaw spat angrily. "What do you care?"

Tigerclaw narrowed his amber eyes. "Don't be like that with me," he growled. "We're on the same side, remember? Don't you think I was upset that she didn't pick me to be the deputy either?"

"You?" Thistleclaw whirled to face his former apprentice. "Why in StarClan's name would she pick you over me?" He scoffed, twisting away from Tigerclaw with a sneer on his face. As if you're qualified to be the deputy.

"Need I remind you," Tigerclaw snarled, "that I just got my first apprentice."

Thistleclaw laughed hollowly. "Yes, and little Ravenkit will obviously be a great tribute to the Clan." Somewhere in the back of his mind, Thistleclaw knew he was being unfair to Tigerclaw. The dark tabby warrior had been his closest ally after Snowfur had died. Just the thought of the white she-cat and her sparkling blue eyes sent a shot of agony through him.

"I'll mentor him just as well as you did for me." Tigerclaw's voice was sincere, though laced with anger.

Thistleclaw sighed. "Sorry," he mewed grudgingly. "But I'm moons older and moons more qualified than that little runt Redtail. She just picked him because she doesn't want me to lead the Clan. She'd rather ThunderClan be the other three Clans' kittypets than do any real action." He laughed without humor. "She practically gave them Sunningrocks again! I would have fought for them like a real warrior!"

"Someone needs to teach Redtail a lesson," Tigerclaw hissed. "He thinks he's better than us because he's had an apprentice for a moon. Even Whitestorm got an apprentice before me! I'd have mentored Sandpaw just as well as he can."

"Watch it," Thistleclaw snapped. "That's my son you're talking about. Besides, Bluestar gave Ravenpaw to you to challenge you—it's so obvious."

"Maybe." Tigerclaw's eyes were carefully-guarded. "Don't you think I'd make a good leader, though? I have the right kind of drive for it—I would lead the Clan to greatness, too!"

"You aren't experienced enough," Thistleclaw said bluntly. "You need to work more for it—you can't just expect it to leap into your paws. It's like hunting a mouse: you need to stalk it, keeping downwind and out-of-sight, until the moment is right...and then you pounce." He raked his claws down a stick on the ground, splintering the stiff wood with a loud snap.

Tigerclaw watched with wide, eager eyes. "Yes!" he agreed. "That's just how it is!"

"You better make sure to teach that to your apprentice," Thistleclaw growled, wrenching his claws out of the heap of wood scraps. "Ravenpaw needs to understand how to claim power. Heh, maybe he'll be named Ravenclaw and—" Suddenly, he stopped, ears pricked and mouth open to scent the air. "Do you smell that?"

Tigerclaw's eyes were narrowed with anger. "RiverClan," he spat. "They're too close to our border."

"Yes!" Thistleclaw's voice was rapturous. "Don't you see, Tigerclaw? This is my chance! If I drive those fish-faces away from Sunningrocks single-pawed—"

"What about me?" Tigerclaw protested.

"—then she'll have no choice but to make me deputy!" Thistleclaw swept on, ignoring Tigerclaw's words, pacing up and down the small path. "This is just like my warrior ceremonyth the dog fight. Yes...this could work."

"We should go back and report it," Tigerclaw put in, still looking annoyed for being ignored.

"Are you mousebrained? If we go back, Bluestar will put Redtail in charge of this battle! We'd be stuck 'defending the camp' or some other foxdung excuse. No, this is a battle we'll fight by ourselves. We're the two fiercest warriors in the Clan anyway. This should be easy."

The scene unfolded before his eyes—himself with Tigerclaw at his side, their claws bloodstained with enemy fur caught between, their heads lifted high as he announced that Thistleclaw, the brave warrior, had driven the enemy away from ThunderClan lands. Then that idiotic peace-loving kittypet of a leader would make him deputy. He curled his lip over his fangs as he imaged himself as Thistlestar, standing on the Highrock with Tigerclaw in the rightful position of deputy.

"Thistleclaw!" Tigerclaw's insistent voice snapped Thistleclaw out of his daydream. "We need to go now!"

"Right," Thistleclaw mewed faintly, already bounding through the familiar forest and towards the river's shore, the scent of RiverClan burning in his nostrils. This is it! he rejoiced internally. One more battle and I'll get what I want finally. I deserve this.

Letting out a fierce hiss, Thistleclaw launched himself out into the open space around Sunningrocks, slewing his eyes around, fully expecting to see the whole of RiverClan lounging lazily on the warm stones.

No cat was there.

Tigerclaw padded silently to his side, his unsheathed claws clicking on the gray stone. "How can this be?" he hissed under his breath. "I wasn't mistaken."

"No," Thistleclaw said suddenly, padding forward and standing before a crack between two rocks. "You weren't." Plunging his paw into the crack, he twisted his claws in the gray fur of a cat crouching there, hauling the tiny RiverClan cat out onto the stone in front of him.

"Let me go!" the RiverClan cat—clearly not more than an apprentice, and a young one at that—hissed, twisting his face away from the ThunderClan warriors.

Thistleclaw kept his hold on the long fur, digging his claws into the kit's soft fur. "Who are you?" he demanded. "Why are you on our territory?"

"And alone?" Tigerclaw's amber eyes glittered as he leaned forward. "Don't you know better than to cross borders?"

"This is RiverClan territory!" the apprentice protested. "Sunningrocks belong to us!" He twisted violently, wrenching Thistleclaw's paw, but he didn't let go.

"Wrong, kit," Tigerclaw growled. "This is ThunderClan's and it always will be!" He lashed out and cuffed the gray cat across the head, hard.

Letting out a shrill squeak, the apprentice retaliated with a well-aimed slash to Tigerclaw's face, ripping the dark brown fur all along the bridge of Tigerclaw's nose.

Tigerclaw recoiled violently, spitting crossly as blood ran into his eyes, blinding him. "Stupid rat!" he cursed, leaping forward to bowl the apprentice off his paws, sinking his teeth again and again into the apprentice's ears.

"What's going on here?"

Thistleclaw looked up to see the outline of a cat standing on top of the tallest rock, its tail curled over its back aggressively. "Oakheart," he sneered. "It seems you've run out of time here. We'll be taking back our territory now, if you don't mind." He tried to make the words as insultingly slow as he could.

Oakheart curled his lips. "I don't think so." He flicked his tail, and a row of warriors padded up to stand beside him, their pelts bristling with anger and their claws glittered in the dying light.

Tigerclaw took one look at the battle patrol and slowly relaxed his grip on the apprentice, allowing the apprentice to race up to stand beside Oakheart, his ears tattered. "Is this what RiverClan calls fair?" he called up to them, blood still streaming down his muzzle.

Oakheart's eyes tightened as he brushed his tail down the apprentice's back. "Is a warrior against a new apprentice what ThunderClan calls fair, Tigerclaw?"

Thistleclaw stepped forward, every nerve in his body ready for a fight. "This is ThunderClan's territory, Oakheart," he spat, "and we're taking it back."

The apprentice pressed himself against Oakheart, murmuring something in his ear. "No, Stonepaw," he mewed in return. "They won't take our land again." He looked up with taunting green eyes.

That was it, Thistleclaw thought. Letting out an explosive yowl, he charged up the slope and tackled Oakheart, raking his claws down the red-brown tabby's flanks, tearing out clumps of fur that littered the ground like leaf-fall leaves. "Get off our territory!"

Oakheart reared up on his hind legs, twisting his head to the side to latch his teeth in the loose skin of Thistleclaw's throat. With a sharp yank, Thistleclaw's claws were ripped out of Oakheart's pelt and thrown to the ground. Pinning him down, Oakheart leaned close to Thistleclaw's ear and rasped, "I'm going to teach my son how to handle ThunderClan rats."

Thistleclaw spat in his face, arching his neck to sink his teeth into Oakheart's broad paw. "I'd like to see you try!"

With a yowl of agony, the RiverClan deputy ripped his paw from Thistleclaw's grip, cuffing him once more over the head before bounding away.

Looking up, Thistleclaw saw Tigerclaw, eyes gleaming, tossing warrior after warrior over his shoulders, lashing out and dealing blows with his claws the whole time. Thistleclaw felt a brief spark of pride in his former apprentice, seeing the skill in which he fought, before being pummeled from the side.

Furious, he lashed his paw, claws splayed to attack, and raked them down the thick pelt of a ginger-and-white she-cat, feeling rage burn in his belly. As he struggled, tumbling over and over again, the bright pelt of this she-cat began to blur and shift, the ginger leeching away and leaving it ash-pale, the white patches darkening and blending, the bright green eyes of the she-cat sharpening to a piercing shade of blue...

And then Bluestar was in front of him.

Thistleclaw stared, eyes wide, panting hard, at the image of his oh-so-hated Clan leader. What? How...how is this possible?! As he watched, the image wavered, ginger patches leaping out of the blue-gray fur, then subduing again. "You," he rasped. "This is your fault."

Bluestar looked confused. "What?" she demanded, her voice higher-pitched than he remembered. "Are you mousebrained?"

Thistleclaw lashed out violently, missing his target completely. "I'll kill you, worthless kittypet!" he shrieked. "You won't destroy my Clan!"

"Thistleclaw!" Tigerclaw bustled into his side, blood making his pelt sticky. "Thistleclaw, we need to pull out."

"Never!" Thistleclaw's voice was barely in-control. "I won't allow her to turn the Clan into softpaws!" He pounced on Bluestar, her image strangely dissolving as his claws touched her, and the smell of RiverClan coming off her pelt was nauseating.

Bluestar flipped him off her broad shoulders easily, and he hit the ground with a thud, feeling a sharp pain lance up his side. "Get out of here, ThunderClan cat," she spat. "This is our territory."

Thistleclaw, disbelieving, struggled to get to his paws, his side cold as ice. "ThunderClan?" he whispered. "You're Bluestar...aren't you? Well?! Answer me!" He sank his claws into either side of the she-cat, gripping her fur tightly between his bloodstained claws, peering closely at her face.

Bluestar wrenched away from his claws and leapt back, every hair on her pelt on edge. "What's your problem?" she demanded. "Idiot!"

Thistleclaw sat down hard, confused. The she-cat was the ginger-and-white warrior again. "Bluestar..."

Tigerclaw was looking at him as if he was insane. "Thistleclaw, are you okay? Did you hit your head?"

Oakheart, a long weal down his side, stepped in front of Thistleclaw, his eyes carefully guarded. "This battle was over before it started," he snarled. "You couldn't have believed you would win."

Thistleclaw blinked rapidly. "This is ThunderClan's territory," he said calmly, drawing his resolve around him like a mist. "You'll never have it. This battle isn't over."

Oakheart laughed. "This is over, Thistleclaw! We won, you lost. Now go home." He turned his back on Thistleclaw, arrogance in his every movement.

Thistleclaw sat still, not seeing. How had he lost control like that? What was wrong with him? Was he going to let these cats get away with this? Taking over his Clan like this? "No," he whispered. "I won't."

"What was that?" Oakheart drawled, turning around slowly to face Thistleclaw again, but it was too late.

Thistleclaw hit the deputy with a teeth-jarring jolt, sinking his fangs deep into his shoulder, deeper and deeper until he felt the scrape of bone against his teeth.

Oakheart yowled in agony, and twisted sharply under him, but couldn't loose the ThunderClan warrior.

Tigerclaw yowled loudly, but Thistleclaw could barely hear him through the blood pounding in his ears and the sounds of battle singing through his ears. He closed his eyes blissfully as he bit harder.

Oakheart bucked his back, flinging Thistleclaw off his back and onto the hard ground, but Thistleclaw found his footing before the RiverClan deputy, leaping on top of him and tearing at his fur in a frenzy of anger.

"No! Father!"

Thistleclaw was sent sprawling, tumbling tail over nose into the side of a sharp boulder, letting out a screech of agony as a point of stone pierced his side. Turning unblinking eyes to his previous battle position, he saw the blue eyes of the gray apprentice, Stonepaw. He opened his mouth to challenge the little runt for causing him this pain, but the words wouldn't form.

Blood bubbled on his lips.

Tigerclaw's shocked expression was gone in a flash as he stepped in front of his mentor, covering the sight of the building puddle of blood with his broad shoulders. "This battle is over."

"That's what I've been trying to say," Oakheart mewed mockingly, flicking his tail to signal to his warriors. "Let's go—this is finished."

As the RiverClan scent faded, Thistleclaw felt the cold point of the stone piercing his side, the searing pain, even more sharply. With a groan, he pulled himself away from the rock, feeling the stream of blood quicken.

"Thistleclaw," Tigerclaw mewed roughly, nudging his mentor with his bloodied nose. "Are you okay to walk?"

Thistleclaw looked up at him, noticing with confusion that the outline of Tigerclaw's pointed ears was blurring in the half-light. "Of course," he rasped weakly, trying to get his paws underneath him. "After all...I'm going to be the deputy soon...right?" He shifted, letting out a weak mew of pain. "Go and fetch Featherwhisker."

Tigerclaw's eyes were calculating. "No," he said slowly. "You aren't going to be the deputy."

Thistleclaw felt a weak surge of fury. "What are you saying?" he demanded in a harsh voice. "Our plans...you'll be my deputy when I'm the leader...is all that nothing?"

"Dreams and wishful thinking, Thistleclaw." Tigerclaw settled down on his belly, out of the way of the tide of blood. "And soon it will be gone...just like your life."

"What?" Thistleclaw felt his mind whirl. "Wha-what are you saying? Go get Featherwhisker!" Thistleclaw felt a growing ache of something, icy emotion, the only thing that he would not tolerate...

For the first time in his life, Thistleclaw was afraid.

"I'm not going to get Featherwhisker," Tigerclaw said conversationally, as if he were discussing the patrol schedule. "You're not going to last much longer with that much blood lost. All I have to do is wait a few more minutes and you'll be gone...and out of the way for me to become deputy."

Panting, Thistleclaw weakly shook his head. "No," he whispered. "You were my friend, my ally, my apprentice."

"I'm grateful for the things that you taught me," Tigerclaw mewed calmly, "but you never took your own words to heart. Instead of proving yourself, all you ever did was mewl and whine over the fact that you weren't the deputy." He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "I won't dare show such weakness."

Thistleclaw had to fight to keep himself awake now. A strange darkness was creeping into the corners of his vision, and it felt like he was trudging his way through a thick mud. "You won't...you won't be deputy," he muttered, his chest heaving.

"I will be," Tigerclaw hissed. "You'll see...and then one day, I'll be the ruler of the whole forest, and every cat will answer to me and me alone. You just wait and see."

His vision fading and his paws feeling frozen, Thistleclaw released his grip on the world and surrendered himself to the soothing shadows, knowing that Tigerclaw would be a leader—one that would be feared and respected...a leader who would wade through blood and kill freely...

A leader born from malice.

Aww, Tigerstar. Truthfully, I liked him a whole lot better than either of his sons, both who wanted power for doing basically nothing. Especially Hawkfrost. I really, really hated him. What did he ever do to deserve to be deputy over every other better qualified cat in RiverClan? Srsly. ;)

R&R~

Shadow