Phantom snarled as he leapt on one of his father's BloodClanners. The lanky rogue bristled as his paws knocked the scruffy tom to the ground, claws tearing an eye from it's socket.

Phantom spat at the older tom as he howled and ran away, bleeding horrifically.

The black rogue smoothed his fur down, slipping under his little bramble bush den. It had once been a badger set, but the badger was either long dead or had long since abandoned it. The black tom sat, black and white tail wrapping around his blood-stained paws.

There was two other cats outside, both dead. At one time, the violet-eyed she-cat and teal-eyed tom had been his closest friends, but that was until Scourge decided it a good idea to make them into "proper" BloodClanners.

The heterochromatic cat sighed, getting back up at the sound of a nearby bush moving. He glared at it, and it swayed again, this time a small group of collarless cats stepping through.

One held their head higher than the others, and he was flaming orange with bright emerald eyes. He looked like Jake, Scourge's father.

The next was a long-furred gray tom, with pale yellow eyes.

The only she-cat was sandy-furred, with pale ginger stripes. She was quite pretty, with leaf-green eyes.

The last cat Phantom recognized.

"Boulder?" he asked, incredulous enthusiasm lighting up his voice as he stepped out into the open.

The sun caught the ginger tom just right and his fur lit up with the colors of fire.

"Phantom! Good to see you're doing well, for a rogue at least!" Boulder purred at the younger tom, who was so short Boulder could rest his chin on the top of his head without issue.

"Hunting is harder when you're always fighting off BloodClan capture patrols. Scourge is stepping up his game," Phantom meowed, voice monotonous.

The ginger tom stepped forward, nodding politely to Boulder.

"Boulder tells us you were close to Scourge. Why would he need to capture you?" Orange, as Phantom was now calling him, said, eyes narrowed a smidge.

"I left BloodClan with some of Scourge's most valued information, and then there's the fact I'm the monster's son. He doesn't want me to get killed, starve, or get loose lipped with the information," Phantom said, looking away when he told of his heritage.

"I take it you're not fond of your father," Gray said, pity shining in his eyes.

"He made me kill more cats than are currently in BloodClan. He made me kill my best friends! Why would I like him!?" Phantom snapped, suddenly looking almost exactly like Scourge. He forced himself to calm, taking deep breaths.

The ginger she-cat stepped forward, eyes sympathetic and kind.

"You can come with us, you'd be safe in our camp and you wouldn't have to kill anymore cats.

Phantom nodded thoughtfully, before turning his eyes on the obvious leader with a pleading look.

"You would be welcome."

It was night when they got to the camp. Phantom padded into the large, sandy hollow. There were many cats, one was training with a white tom. She turned her head and revealed a ghastly scar on the side of her face. Another was a white she-cat with pretty blue eyes chatting with another white cat, this one a tom with gold eyes.

Phantom padded over with Orange, whose real name was Firestar, to a giant rock over a small den. It reminded him vaguely of Scourge's dumpster.

The black tom leapt up with two great bounds and apparently, his black fur did not go unnoticed as he was suddenly being charged at by at least five cats.

One leapt up after him, catching him by the heel and throwing him down. He rolled with them, throwing them off. He snarled, bristling. His eyes flashed, the unique tones seemingly glowing in the moonlight. He snapped at the cats, "I'm not Scourge!"

They backed off instantly, the black tom's eyes and voice weren't right.

The short, lanky tom turned around and bounded back up to the frozen-in-shock Firestar.

"Three days, yes? To get out of the forest?" he asked the ginger tom softly.

"Correct. How did you guess?" he asked.

"You're not the only group of cats to live in an area Scourge wanted."

Phantom got along swimmingly with Sandstorm and Brightheart, probably because Sandstorm looked similiar to his russet-furred mother and Brightheart acted like she didn't care for who his father was. He'd met Bramblepaw, whom was a couple moons younger than him.

The black tom sighed. Bramblepaw. He'd heard that his father had made a deal with Scourge, one he didn't get all the way through before Scourge killed him in front of Bramblepaw.

Speaking of Scourge, the Clans' three days had expired. They were going to war that night.

He got up from where he sat, guarded by Dustpelt, Whitestorm and Cloudtail. He didn't get along very well with Dustpelt and Cloudtail, but Whitestorm was nice.

Phantom padded toward the fresh-kill pile, picking out a small, emaciated mouse.

He ate it quickly, barely even stopping to taste it.

When the Clan gathered in the center of camp to go to Fourtrees for the battle, he padded over to Firestar.

"I'm coming," he said simply, his voice soft.

"Alright, I look forward to fighting beside you," the older tom smiled.

Phantom weaved through the battle, bleeding from nasty gash on his forehead and limping from a twisted forepaw.

He'd spotted Scourge and Firestar fighting, and now Firestar was down. Cloudtail had attacked Scourge not long after that.

The black tom jumped on a BloodClan tom's shoulders just as he was about to land a killing blow to the Clanner he was fighting. He shoved him down when he jumped off, leaping from BloodClanner to BloodClanner. He reached Scourge just as he pinned Cloudtail and was about to kill him.

"Father!" he yowled, leaping at him with unsheathed claws.

He crashed into the surprised Scourge, burying his claws into his shoulders and whipping his body so he threw the tom away from Cloudtail. He bristled wildly, snarling.

The two black toms circled each other, Cloudtail limping away to where Cinderpelt and the other medicine cats were hiding.

"Phantom, why are you fighting for these... Weaklings?" Scourge spat the word like it was poison. "They are better cats than you could ever hope to be, Scourge!" the younger spat.

Scourge looked at his kit, taking in how much taller he was and his new scars on his neck, shoulder and ears. He seemed to favor his left forepaw and right hindleg, which Scourge knew he'd injured in an fight as a kit. He looked so much like Maddie with his white belly and paws, but his eyes were definetly more like Scourge's.

The younger glared at his father. He'd added more teeth to his collar and his claws were tipped with teeth again. The white and black tom suppressed a shudder. If his mother hadn't been caught with him and his sister when they were too young to have collars, he probably would've had a similiar collection.

The two toms leapt at each other just as Firestar began to stir.

Phantom crashed into his father, flinching when the sharp teeth of his collar buried themselves in his chest. He clawed the older tom's neck, making a rather deep cut.

They flung each other away, Scourge loosing a few trophies. His son staggered, a couple dog's teeth stuck in his chest. He toppled over, breathing shallowly, just as Firestar leapt on Scourge.

The two fought for a bit, until Scourge got Firestar down again. The ginger tom pretended to die again, and when Scourge's grip relaxed a bit, he snapped up and buried his teeth into the black tom's throat.

By now Phantom's vision had gone white, before fading to black as he slipped into the depths of unconciousness. A puddle of blood surrounded him, and his breaths were shallow and raspy.

Oh no! What will happen? Will Phantom die or naw? Find out next chapter! ~JbB