So, this one isn't a crossover and takes place in the After. But since the events are directly related to the Marvel crossover events, there are MCU spoilers including Endgame, so beware.

Background info: The Thorns fanfic series

Lizardstone's Promise

By: Lizardtuft

"You talk as if you knew them." Lizardtuft dipped her head in sorrow, remembering how she would never be around Gorsepaw's enthusiasm or Echopaw's curiosity ever again. They were so excited when Buckoflight told them they could come into ScarClan. A now-familiar ache seized the she-cat's heart at the thought.

"They came over all the time." Thorn recalled. "They were always so interested in what we did without twolegs. They wanted to know how we live." Lizardtuft saw a flash of sadness in the tom's eyes, then they went back to determination. "I don't want to go back to twolegplace."

Lizardtuft froze in her tracks, almos tripping over a tree root. "You can't come to the Plains!" She exclaimed. "You won't survive a day!"

"Yes, I can." Thorn propped himself up a little higher, which made Lizardtuft want to snort in amusement. "I'll prove it."

Lizardtuft rolled her eyes, gesturing for them to keep going. Thorn leaped up excitedly, then ran a cat-length in front of Lizardtuft.

"Don't go too far ahead." The warrior warned. Thorn had become a lot more adventurous in the day since they left the Clans. Lizardtuft had never seen a cat change so quickly. "There could be bears or foxes around."

"Pfft." Thorn made a noise. "I don't smell anything."

But Lizardtuft did. She ran forward, yelling just as a fox came bursting out of the bushes. This fox's coat was a dull gray. Weird. It headed straight for Thorn.

Lizardtuft kept running, wishing for Brambleblaze's super speed ability. Luckily, she was still faster than the fox, who was gaining on Thorn. The tom had noticed the fox, running through the undergrowth with a fear-scent coming off him.

I told you not to go ahead! Lizardtuft made her paws go faster, no matter how much strain it put on her body.

Suddenly, a sharp pain in the she-cat's side sent her tumbling to the ground. Trying to rise to her paws, Lizardtuft fell back down to the dirt. A screech sounded up ahead.

Thorn! Lizardtuft pushed herself for one last time before the darkness took her.

# # #

Lizardtuft awoke with a start. The sky was red with dusk. The she-cat quickly did an internal scan of herself, finding nothing wrong. What in StarClan's name-

"Lizardtuft?" Thorn's voice was unmistakable, which was what made Lizardtuft scared. Her name was spoken in pain. Surprised that getting up wasn't hurting her, she walked around for the source of the whimper.

"Thorn?" Lizardtuft called. The twolegplace cat responded with a grunt, which led the she-cat right to him. "Great StarClan…"

He was bleeding everywhere, and one of his eyes had been torn away. His tail was reduced to a stub, the amputated tail laying a mouse-length away. Lizardtuft fought the urge to vomit. "We have to go back." She choked.

"No." Thorn whispered. "It's too dangerous."

Lizardtuft waved a paw over her chest, the Stone appearing between her claws. After a moment of thought, she mewed: "You're right. We can't go back."

Thorn twisted his body and started to lick the blood off his belly. Lizardtuft let out a yawn, sitting down on the grass against a tree. She watched as Thorn cleaned himself up.

"I think we should go to the Great Tree." Lizardtuft told Thorn. "Then, we can circle upwards to twolegplace. From there, I can go to the Plains."

"Wouldn't it be easier just to keep going the way we were going?" The tom questioned. "We would get to the Plains a lot faster."

"Yes, but I would have to take you to twolegplace and go all the way back to the Plains." Lizardtuft reasoned. "This way uses more time, but lets us get more done."

Thorn rose to his paws slowly, his fur almost completely clean. Only his eye was still bleeding. His tail had stopped.

"Let me find you some cobwebs." Lizardtuft offered. Looking around, she spotted some tangled in the roots of a nearby tree. How convenient. As she applied the web to Thorn's raw tail, he asked her questions; the last one was: "Why are we going to the Great Tree?"

# # #

"This was a sacred place to RiverClan, right before the Clan War." Lizardtuft explained as she and Thorn eased their way into the hollow that housed the monstrous tree the next day. "When the last of them died out, this place remained unknown to the Clans for countless moons. During the Endless War, Stormstar rediscovered it." Lizardtuft looked upwards, watching the bare branches sway in the wind.

"It's beautiful." Thorn stated, drawing a paw down the bark of the tree. "Why was it sacred?"

Lizardtuft looked down. "Why it became sacred died with RiverClan. But-" She looked upwards, seeing the infamous scratch marks left on the tree by Stormstar, who was still Stormstrike back then. "We can communicate with StarClan here." Without looking at Thorn, the she-cat touched her nose to the bark. "Watch."

Lizardtuft stepped away from the tree. A harsh wind picked up as soon as she took the step, and the air became choked with fog. Thorn had situated himself between the tree roots, watching the air as it clouded. A few heartbeats later, a shape stepped out of the mist with a pelt of stars, staring straight at Lizardtuft. Thorn let out a squeal.

"Hello, Lizardtuft." The cat meowed. He turned to Thorn. "Hello, Thorn."

"How to you know my name?"

The StarClan warrior ignored the question as he turned back to Lizardtuft. "You found the Stone."

"Yeah." Lizardtuft instinctively waved a paw over her chest, then placed the Stone on the ground. "But I don't understand. The Six told everyone that the Stones had been destroyed."

The warrior stared at the ground, shaking his head. "Nobody's perfect. That includes the Six."

Lizardtuft looked over to Thorn, who was watching silently. Then, she looked back to the tom. "Who are you, by the way?"

"My name is Mottledstone." The tom replied. "But please call me Mottled Pelt."

Thorn leaped over to the two conversing cats. "Hello."

"You're Mottledstone?" Lizardtuft exclaimed. "It's an honor to meet you."

"The pleasure's all mine." Mottled Pelt smiled. "We talk about you all the time in StarClan, Lizardtuft."

"We?"

Two more shapes emerged from the mist at the she-cat's word. They stood behind Mottled Pelt, but Lizardtuft recognized one of them. "Reedfeather?" The warrior had died when she was a kit.

The starry tom nodded. Lizardtuft sucked in a deep breath. The other cat walked up to the warrior, significantly smaller than the two toms. She looked up, opening her mouth to speak. "I'm Moonstone." She explained.

Lizardtuft dipped her head.

"Okay, this is all great and everything," Thorn interrupted, "but Lizardtuft and I have somewhere to be."

Reedfeather flicked his tail. "Right."

Mottled Pelt stepped forwards, touching his nose to Lizardtuft's forehead. "I, Mottledstone, Master of Time…" He stopped.

"What?" Lizardtuft looked to her side, only to see another starry cat. The she-cat practically jumped out of her fur as the cat touched his nose to Lizardtuft's side.

"And I, Tigerstone, Master of Reality."

Another nose touched Lizardtuft's other side. "And I, Redstone, Master of Soul."

"And I, Ripplestone, Master of Space."

"And I, Hollowstone, Master of Power."

"And I, Runningstone, Master of Mind."

Lizardtuft spun around again and again as she was surrounded by a host of starry-pelted cats. They all looked on her with kind eyes that made the warrior feel calm.

"You have been chosen to keep the Stone safe from falling into the wrong paws." Ripplestone announced. "This is a Stonemaster ceremony not performed since the days of the Ancient Clans."

Lizardtuft remained silent. So did Thorn.

"I, Ripplestone, Master of Space and leader of SunClan want the essence of the Stone to flow through this cat. She will be the guardian of you for the rest of her days." Ripplestone looked at the Stone, still laying on the ground. "Lizardtuft, from this moment until the end of reality, soul, mind, time, space, and power, you will be known as Lizardstone, keeper of the Stone. We all wish you luck on your journey."

Lizardstone closed her eyes, and when they opened the mist has dissipated. Only her and Thorn were left in the hollow.

"What was that?" Thorn asked, paranoia in his voice. "Where'd they go?"

Lizardstone looked at her young companion. "That was what needed to be done a long time ago." She paused. "Now, we can head north to twolegplace."

Thorn was already on his way out. "Well come on, then!"

# # #

"So then we had to go wandering the whole city to find her." Thorn was finishing his story about how his sister Maple had went missing once. However, Lizardstone didn't recognize the terms city and road and train. "We eventually found her over by Gorse and Echo's place." Thorn finished.

"Why was she there?" Lizardstone asked, just to keep conversation going so she wouldn't collapse from exhaustion.

"She never told me when I asked." Thorn replied.

The pair walked in silence for a while longer, and Lizardstone's legs were starting to feel like jelly. "Maybe we should stop for the night." She told Thorn.

The tom looked back at her, his eyes dreary with sleep. His ears and tail had fallen as well. "Okay."

The two walked around the surrounding area until they found a cave underneath a particularly large bush. "Over here!" Lizardstone called to Thorn.

The twolegplace cat ran over to her, poking his head inside the hole. "It smells like fox." He stated. Lizardstone nudged him aside, taking a whiff of the dirt. Sure enough, a fox scent was present. But it was stale. The fox hadn't been there for at least a moon.

"It's safe." She told Thorn. "The scent is pretty stale."

Lizardstone squeezed into the small entrance, which opened up into a spacious cavern. Thorn made his way in a few heartbeats later. "Woah!"

Lizardstone's nose soon clogged with the scent of dung. Scrunching up her face, she went back outside to look for some honey to mask the scent. The air was clean and fresh, promising-

"Great." Lizardstone hissed. "Thorn!" The tom's white head appeared in the cave entrance. "It's going to snow."

"Mousedung." Thorn didn't seem too worried. "Imagine traveling in that!"

"The problem is that the snow will take days to melt." Lizardstone explained. "We have to walk through it."

Thorn disappeared inside the cave. Lizardstone glanced around, looking for anything with a pleasant smell. She spotted a patch of lavender a tree-length away. Thank StarClan. A memory flashed in the back of Lizardstone's head as she familiar scent wafted up her nose.

I used to sneak into the medicine den at night and take some lavender from Loststone because it just smelled so good. Tawnyflight -Lizardstone's mother- told her when she was an apprentice. He never let me hear the end of it. And when Moor Frost became his apprentice, she would grab some for me.

Lizardstone's heart ached with homesickness at the thought. Her mother thought lavender had the best smell in the world. Snapping off a few stems, Lizardstone padded back to the cave.

Thorn was burying his nose under his paws when she entered. "Great! Now I don't have to smell this… poop." He meowed awkwardly. Lizardstone snorted, glad that the tom had joined her when she left ScarClan.

As the two companions laid the lavender over the strongest smelling spots, Lizardstone told Thorn about how the Stone was discovered by Scarredpelt, a warrior of WindClan that would one day become ScarClan's first leader. All of the Clans agreed to break the Stone into six smaller Stones and to hide them farther than any warrior had gone before. She told him how the Stones remained unknown by the Clans for countless moons until Mistystone brought them back with the intention that they would help him rule the Clans. And she finished with how a war broke out between the Clans and Nutstone, who was also on a quest to complete his Stone collection. Reedfeather had given the famous blow the ended the mad cat's life.

"It's amazing," Thorn meowed, "how all of this was going on and I just sat there-"

"The Stones are Clan business, not yours." Lizardstone retorted. "Now, we should get some rest."

Thorn finished laying down the last of the lavender and curled up in a corner on the hard stone floor. Lizardstone purred as she curled up next to him.

# # #

Lizardstone woke to the sound of screeching. Her eyes flew open, catching sight of a red pelt. Foxes! She sprang to her paws, frantically searching for Thorn.

She spotted the white and brown tom being cornered by two smaller foxes. Lizardstone launched on one of them, pulling it back and giving Thorn a chance to escape. The she-cat sank her teeth into the fox's back, and it let out a squeal of pain. She wrapped her paws around its neck, unsheathing her claws and penetrating the fox's skin. Then, she slowly pushed her two paws apart, opening its neck up. Blood ran red on Lizardstone's front legs. After a few moments of sputtering, the fox flopped dead on its side. Lizardstone unlatched herself from it and ran to find Thorn.

There were three foxes in total, one of which Lizardstone had killed. Thorn was underneath the other smaller fox, shearing his claws along the creature's belly. It was trying to grab at the tom, but he was too small and too far under.

Lizardstone leaped on the fox's back, doing the same with what she had done with the other fox. As she was tearing her claws through its red neck fur, it grabbed Thorn with its paw and flipped him over to the cave wall. Lizardstone gritted her teeth, finishing off the fox as it fell over on the stone.

Lizardstone ran to Thorn, but the last and largest fox beat her to him. She pulled herself to a stop, stuck in horror as it ripped into Thorn.

I

can't

move.

Lizardstone's paws were glued to the ground, her breath coming fast and shallow. After what seemed like moons of mauling Thorn, the fox turned to Lizardstone and got on his haunches, ready to leap at the frozen she-cat. She squeezed her eyes shut, ready for StarClan to come get her.

But nothing happened.

Lizardstone opened her eyes, only to see that the fox and Thorn were gone. In fact, the entire cave was gone. Lizardstone was standing in a forest that had leaves full of trees. But it's leaf-bare. Something was wrong.

Suddenly, two cats came into the clearing between two trees. One was a cream and white tom, and the other a black tabby. With a jolt, Lizardstone realized that the cream cat was Stormstar. But he looked seasons younger and a lot madder than she had ever seen him.

"We could have been killed!" The black tom hissed at Stormstar. "All because you had a bone to pick with Hawk Frost. We should've-"

"We should have." Stormstar mimicked the black tom in a mocking tone. "Can't you just accept the fact that there's life beyond this territory?" Stormstar looked up at the sky. "We were the only Clan not to go to the Valley. Why?"

"Because Sunstar had the sense not to lead his Clan to death." The black tom responded. "We don't even know if the other Clans survived. For all we know, they could have died out ages ago."

Stormstar shook his head. "Misty Frost, I- I just know that they're out there. And I want to find them."

This was when SunClan was still at the lake. Before Dark Tail and Nutstone.

Lizardstone noticed how red wisps started to come off Misty Frost's paws. Then, they became so large and red that they took on the shape of a cat. The fire-cat detached from Misty Frost at the same time another was coming off Stormstar.

Then, the landscape changed to the forest of ScarClan territory. Lizardstone saw herself, Hollyflame, Brambleblaze. Thorn, and Petal inside the Clan hollow. Hollyflame was licking wounds and Thorn and Petal were standing a length off. Lizardstone was bent over Brambleblaze. "I'll kill you!" The angry she-cat yelled at the tom. "I'll kill you right now!"

"Wait!" It was Thorn.

Suddenly, the scene froze. The two fire-cats detached from the white and brown tom and leaped over to Lizardstone's past self. Then, they disappeared.

And Lizardstone woke up.

The fox was gone, only the remains of Thorn were in the moonlit cave. The air was back to the fox dung smell, and the warrior spotted a nasty pile of it at the far end of the cave.

"Thorn?" Lizardstone knew there would be no answers, but she still asked. Padding over to the pile of flesh, Lizardstone bent her head. "I'm glad you came with me, even though you ended up like this." A pit opened up in her stomach, bringing a fresh batch of barf, which Lizardstone dumped next to the dung pile.

"Thank you." She breathed, turning back to Thorn. "Thank you for everything."

# # #

What is wrong with me? Lizardstone trudged through the long grass, her legs barely keeping up with her. Putting one slow paw after the other, Lizardstone drew in a deep breath. Only one more moon to the Plains. She repeated in her head. Only one more moon to the Plains.

She had been saying that for the past moon. It went from two moons to one and a half moons to one moon. However, Lizardstone wasn't sure her legs could make it another moon.

One more moon to the Plains. One more moon to-

"Lizardtuft?"

The she-cat froze. She buried her head in the grass, hoping her light brown pelt would blend it with the golden grass at least somewhat. She scanned the area for the voice.

"Lizardtuft!"

She spun around, coming face to face with a brown cat with yellow eyes. He took a step back when the she-cat whipped around, but only with his front paws because his back legs were dragging behind him, paralyzed.

"Thunderstar!" Lizardstone was never so happy to see another cat in her life. "I thought you-"

"Died?" Thunderstar grinned. "Surprise."

Lizardstone wanted to ask him how he managed to get this far considering he couldn't hunt on his own, but she kept her mouth shut.

"What happened to you?" The ScarClan leader asked. "Why are you so far from home?"

Lizardstone explained how Brambleblaze was exposed, and how she had killed him by taking away his speed and how Strikestar had taken the mantle of leader. Thunderstar listened quietly and intently.

"So," Thunderstar flicked his ears. "Who's the father?"

Lizardstone narrowed her eyes. "What?"

Thunderstar looked downwards, at Lizardstone's underside. The she-cat looked down, seeing that the leader was right. "I-" She stammered.

"You didn't notice?" Thunderstar asked.

"No." Why hadn't Thorn told her to just take a look at herself for once? Surely he knew? "I have no idea who the father is."

Thunderstar shrugged. "Where are you headed to?"

"The Plains." Lizardstone meowed. "I have to take the Stone to safety."

Thunderstar nodded. "I was going to go find the old SkyClan gorge. Live there for the rest of my days."

"Why don't you go back to the Clan?" Lizardstar asked.

"Like you," Thunderstar started walking, "I have my reasons."

Lizardstone didn't push. She started after the ScarClan leader, her head low. She was having kits! But the question still remained. Who was the father?

It can't be Thorn. Lizardstone thought to herself. He's too young. And Brambleblaze and I never-

"So are we going to the Plains or the Gorge?" Thunderstar snapped the she-cat out of her thoughts. "The Gorge is probably closer, considering where we are right now."

Lizardstone shook her pelt. "Let's go to the Gorge for now." She instructed. "Once we're there, we can decide if we want to go to the Plains or not."

"Okay." Thunderstar replied without turning back. Lizardstone was surprised how quickly the paralyzed tom could move. The leader had his back broken by Falconwing right before half of ScarClan left the forest. Now, his legs were almost withered away. His tail was only a stub from when he and Reedfeather made the decision to chew off their tails.

"You know, you'll probably have your kits before we get there." Thunderstar broke the sudden silence. "Maybe we should stop at the nearest hollow or-"

"No, that's fine." The she-cat snapped. "I can make it."

"No, you can't." Thunderstar retorted. "We need to stop somewhere, I can tell you're getting tired already."

"But-"

"We're stopping." Thunderstar turned his head to the right, eyeing the nearby forest. "Let's go that way."

Lizardstone huffed, following the tom as he veered off to the side. I'm the one who knows what I should do. She gritted her teeth. Not you.

# # #

"I thought we were stopping!" Lizardstone whined as Thunderstar sniffed around for potential danger. "We've been walking for two days now." She turned to the sky, which was red with the second dawn since she met with him.

"Relax." Thunderstar bent to check out a bush. "I think I found something."

The she-cat lumbered over to the ScarClan leader. "What?"

Under the bush was a hole, with a hollowed out area at the end. Lizardstone attempted to squeeze inside, but her swollen flanks couldn't make it in.

"Well," Thunderstar sounded disappointed, "we need to keep moving, then."

"No!" Lizardstone desperately tried to squeeze into the hole. "I bet you couldn't get your legs in here either!" She hissed.

Thunderstar rolled his eyes. "Just another reason to keep moving."

Lizardstone grunted, following Thunderstar as he walked past the bush and continued on the path. The scent of rain was in the air. "We should find somewhere before it rains." She suggested.

"I agree." Thunderstar replied. "I just hope we will be able to."

So they walked until the sun was high in the sky, and then Lizardstone was too exhausted to continue. Thunderstar layed down on the grass, living his front legs a rest. Lizardstone did the same.

"We should maybe-" Lizardstone stopped. She was too exhausted to even suggest something. Thunderstar looked at her, then put his head on the ground and sighed, looking past her to the endless trees.

"After Rileyclaw died, I just couldn't-" he sighed another time, "I couldn't go on without her. She was really the one who was running the Clan, not me."

Lizardstone put her head on her paws. "If I had lived in the time of the Endless War," she told him, "I would've thought that ScarClan could never have repaired itself. Reedfeather told me stories about it when I was a kit. How the Clan was only a few stragglers at one point, and how the camp flooded and-" She stopped, seeing the look of a memory in Thunderstar's eyes. "You were the cat who got ScarClan back on its feet."

Thunderstar looked the other way. "Yeah, I did that." He flicked his tail in amusement.

"So get back on your feet." It came out a little harsher than she wanted it to. "Rileyclaw's gone. She's gone."

"I know." Thunderstar meowed, propping himself up. He smiled. "Let's go."

Lizardstone leaped to her paws, looking at Thunderstar. "We'll find that gorge, no matter how long it takes."