A/N:
I'm back! New chapter! Yay! Sorry for not updating sooner. I wrote up to the first paragraph after the line break, and stopped. Ummm, oh yeah, writing. Sorry, spaced out there. I'm bored! O.o I just blew you mind.
Tigerstar stood, his back to the marshes and pines of ShadowClan. He took a step forward, glancing back over his shoulder. ShadowClan lay, dark and forbidding, behind him. He looked across the border.
'Firestar will pay for what she did,' he thought. 'Firestar will pay with his life.'
A voice sounded next to him.
"Oh, Tigerstar, is this really what you've become?" He glanced beside him.
"Leopardfoot? Why?"
She smiled sadly, and ebbed away, her voice still remained. "Is this really what you've become?"
Scrouge walked up behind him. "Tigerstar, are you ready?"
He paused, mulling over the vision that plagued him mere moments ago. Coming to no conclusion, he whispered, "yes."
...
Leopardstar crouched by the fresh-kill pile, her belly rumbling. She felt sick. For two reasons. The thought of BloodClan and TigerClan sickened her. The piles of bones towered above her, making her feel small and insignificant. She hated this, what Tigerstar was doing, what Tigerstar truly was. But she stuck with him, for better or worse. The monstrosities she'd committed in the name of TigerClan was piling up against her. But she stuck with him. But she stuck with him, fooling herself that she'd seen the real Tigerstar one that day in the snow, the day when she'd realised that she was in love. But no, Tigerstar left her. Pushed her away, like unwanted fresh-kill. She thought she has seen kindness and love in the tom's eyes when he looked down on her. She closed her eyes, remembering the bite of the snow and the warmth of his eyes clearly, almost too clearly.
She settled by the bone-hill, her eyes roaming the camp. The fresh-kill pile was well stocked, and everyone seemed to be getting along. Then why was everything going so wrong?
But now he was gone. Killed, murdered by Scrouge, all of his nine lives ripped out of him in one go. She'd been too shocked to do anything, she just watched her love die, powerless to stop it. It was at that point her heart stopped beating. She barely noticed anything anymore. Sure, Tigerstar had never loved her the way she did him. But that wasn't important, she needed to stay strong. She also needed his wisdom and skill. StarClan, she just needed him.
The bone hill stood in front of Leopardstar, whitened by age and bleached by the sun.
Only Mudfur knew she was carrying kits, and she wasn't sure why he wasn't stopping her. She still led her Clan, and ShadowClan too. She settled in front of the bones, letting Blackfoot sort patrols.
Firestar and a band of his warriors emerged from the undergrowth. Firestar padded towards her, his ginger pelt flashing. She saw the pale ginger pelt of one his warriors, Sandstorm, if she remembered correctly, dart after him.
'So, Firestar, finally taken a mate, have you? Thank StarClan she's ThunderClan, we don't need two leaders who've broken the Code.'
Firestar spoke to her. She replied without thinking, she'd planned for this, and she knew her lines. Painfully aware of Blackfoot watching, she meowed her speech without emotion, barely knowing what she said.
"Let be discuss this with Blackfoot," she meowed, padding away, any excuse to get away from Firestar and his perfect mate. Was she jealous? Of course she was, he had something she couldn't dream of, because of a Code far older than herself, one that she'd broken. He had security and peace, he did have to worry about the unborn kits that were everything TigerClan despised, loathed and, if given the chance, would've killed. Half-clan kits, born to a Clan leader. No-cat would've thought that a leader would break the Code, but no-cat knew that Tigerstar was the father. No-cat even knew they existed. But they would, someday, and when they found out ...
"Well, I think we should follow them. It's do or die," he murmured, bitterness making his voice harden, bringing her back to the harsh reality.
"I don't know ..."
"Leopardstar," he said sharply. "Look around you, do you really want all these warriors to die. Tigerstar may be dead, but not these warriors, and not you."
She dipped her head, turning back to the ThunderClan warriors. "RiverClan will follow you," was all she could mange, her thoughts cast in the uncertain future, and the dark, sweet past.
"And ShadowClan too," Blackstar meowed.
She turned to the bone hill. "This belongs to a darker time, we must pull it down."
She looked at Blackfoot, whose eyes were glowing with ... pride? His word echoed in the back of her mind. "Tigerstar may be dead, but not these Warriors, and not you."
'Oh Blackfoot, how wrong you are. Without him ,I may as well be dead.'
...
Mudfur prodded her with his paw, waking her from her nightmare of claws, ripping her open, feeling live slip past like seconds, mewling kits calling pitifully.
"Leopardstar, it's time," he meowed with grim satisfaction.
She rose, her dark eyes glinting like Flintstones. "Do you think I'll be okay? Will the kits survive?"
Mudfur frowned. "It all depends on whether you let them hit you," was all the comfort he gave. He padded away, leaving Leopardstar to mull over the news, her mind slowly filling with dread.
Padding outside, she prepared herself for the coming battle. "Cats of TigerClan," she called, "we must fight BloodClan if we are to survive." She saw Blackfoot leaping to her side. "Firestar has extended a paw to us, promising that ThunderClan will help us, but we don't need ThunderClan! We will fight like we have never fought before! We shall prove that we don't need ThunderClan's help! TigerClan, are you with me?"
Her Warriors roared. TigerClan gave her strength, proof that all that Tigerstar had done hadn't been in vain.
'Oh Tigerstar, are you be proud? StarClan, how I wish you could see your Clan now.'
