Chapter 6: Mistake

"It's the river! SkyClan's camp must be nearby!" Alderpaw exclaimed in joy as their journey finally brought them closer to SkyClan. It had been sunrises ever since Sandstorm died and Alderpaw told them all the truth about the quest they were on. The others looked down from the cliff they were on and saw the river that began to flow down the gorge.

"Hey, there's some cats over there." Kirito informed the others, watching as they slipped between boulders to get somewhere, while others were talking amongst each other.

"Do they look right, Alderpaw?" Needlepaw asked the medicine cat apprentice. "They don't look like they need help or anything."

"You're right. Maybe…maybe my thoughts about this vision was wrong."

"What? You're saying we were led all the way out here for nothing?" Sparkpaw yelled in anger.

"Sparkpaw, don't say that. We can't really tell from here if they need our help unless we attempt to talk with them…or at least get closer and see how they're doing." Asuna suggested.

"Agreed. Let's get going. First, we need to find a way down." As Needlepaw was walking, Molewhisker stepped in front of her.

"We can't just waltz in there. We don't know if we can trust them, and now that Sandstorm's not here, we have to way of appearing friendly towards them."

"Molewhisker, you raise a valid point, but how else are we going to find out the answers we need? The only choice we have is moving forward, just like we've been doing." Lelouch responded. "Alderpaw wouldn't have envisioned those cats if they didn't hold some significance." Alderpaw let out a smile at the older tom's understanding of this situation.

"He does have a point. We didn't just make this journey for nothing, Molewhisker." Cherryfall told her brother.

"Right, sorry. I guess I'm just worried about the outcome of this all."

"It's a normal feeling to have, especially with a journey such as this one that means so much." Nightheart assured him. "I guess now we just look for a way down."

"Over here." Kirito stood near a path that led down to the gorge, hugging the cliff.

"Is that the only way down? Is there, you know, any way down that doesn't have the risk of falling off?" Suguha asked him.

"You're worrying too much. The path's big enough for you to just stay near the wall of the cliff." He assured his cousin.

"C'mon Alderpaw, let's get going down there. Just follow my lead." Alderpaw followed the ShadowClan apprentice down the cliff, the others trailing behind them.

"I can't believe he's following that stupid ShadowClan furball!" Sparkpaw muttered.

"Sounds like someone's a bit jealous." Kirito responded, causing the ThunderClan apprentice to blush.

"No I'm not! I just know that him following her all the time is a bad idea. He's going to get hurt one of these times."

"You have nothing to worry about, Sparkpaw. Needlepaw's honestly just trying to help us out on this journey. Her heart's in the right place." Asuna replied. "I know it's been hard for you, but you should try getting along with her." Sparkpaw scoffed at the idea, causing Asuna to roll her eyes. As the group was walking, they heard a yowl from below and saw a gray tom staring straight at the group. Now, three other SkyClan cats joined the tom and began to approach the group.

"That doesn't look good." Nightheart stated.

"We'll be fine. This was going to happen one way or another." Lelouch assured the group.

"Yeah, but why'd it have to be while we're walking down this cliff?" Suguha whined.

"Everyone stop." Alderpaw commanded. "We'll wait for them to come to us. Remember, we're not here to fight." As the SkyClan cats approached, Lelouch made his way to join Alderpaw to assist with any questions coming from the SkyClan cats. The gray tom stood nose to nose with Alderpaw, the tom's green gaze sending shivers through the apprentice.

"You're way outnumbered if you've come to take our territory." He began. Alderpaw looked over at Lelouch, and once his violet gaze noticed his amber eyes, the black tom nodded his head.

"We're not here for your territory. We've come a long way to meet you cats, the cats of SkyClan. We mean no harm." Lelouch responded.

"What do you know about SkyClan?" The tom asked, tilting his head.

"W-we're just here to learn more." Alderpaw spoke, his voice shaky.

"Then you should speak to our leader. Come." As Alderpaw began to walk, he was stopped by Sparkpaw.

"Are you sure about this?" She whispered. Alderpaw was furious about how much his sister doubted him during this journey, but he didn't want to say anything.

"We were sent on this journey from our own father. Wherever it leads, must be right." He replied before catching up to Lelouch. Once he caught up to the tom, he heard pawsteps approaching and saw that they were from Needlepaw.

"So…what's your name?" The gray tom turned around at the new voice and then turned his head back.

"Rain." That's it? I guess they do names differently here. Alderpaw thought before he noticed Needlepaw walk next to Rain and chat with him. The group walked up the pile of rocks near where the river gushed out and Alderpaw noticed a muscular white tom up at the base of the pile, who seemed like the leader. It can't be…That's not the leader I saw in my vision.

"Is it me, or are there more cats just appearing around us?" Kirito asked as he cause d the others to look around and notice the same thing.

"They're wary of our presence." Suguha stated.

"Well they have been separated from the other Clans, so they must not see many cats other than their Clanmates." Asuna added. They watched the white tom approach the group, a scornful look on his face.

"It looks like you found some lost kittens, Rain." Alderpaw could sense his Clanmates tense up in anger at the insult.

"Calm down, we need to know more." He told them with a whisper.

"Darktail, these strangers say that they've come from afar and are looking for SkyClan."

"What do you cats want with SkyClan?"

"We're from ThunderClan, and we're here to find SkyClan." Lelouch answered.

"Why?"

Alderpaw wasn't sure of a concrete answer to give. He'd hope that they would be fine without much questions, assuming that SkyClan cats shared their stories about Firestar coming to save them with Sandstorm. "Because…every Clan's survival depends on us working together."

"So…you're asking my cats and I to come to this…ThunderClan?" Alderpaw slowly nodded his head, unsure if they actually needed these cats to come with them. Maybe they just needed to learn something from them, or maybe just one of them was actually needed. Regardless, he wasn't even sure if StarClan meant for him to believe that SkyClan was what they needed to "embrace" or if they were needed for something else.

"Do you need our help?"

"No, not with a fight or anything." Alderpaw replied. Darktail then gave Alderpaw a nod.

"I'm impressed. You and your friends have made the long journey here, but you can't expect us to leave our territory just due to the whim of strangers.

"How about we stay with you for a bit…to build trust." Suguha suggested. Alderpaw looked back at her with a small smile. He had no other idea, but Suguha's idea seemed reasonable. Darktail looked at each of them, his icy blue gaze turning to each foreign cat before looking back at Alderpaw.

"Very well. Rain, show them where they'll be staying."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

After one day of staying in SkyClan, the group decided that they'd go out and hunt for themselves. They couldn't stand attempting to join SkyClan in their ways of how food was distributed. Once the hunters brought the food, Darktail and Rain would pick what they wanted, but after that the cats would fight for it, some even going without food due to being weaker than the others. They also seemed to have no medicine cat, or idea about herbs for that matter, Alderpaw and Asuna both helping Darktail by explaining a few cures for aliments. As much as they didn't want to admit it, they wanted to leave the gorge as soon as possible.

"Hey, it looks like there's a forest on the other side of the river. Let's go over there." Cherryfall suggested. A few SkyClan cats watched the others go, but they didn't seem to care. Cherryfall headed out with Molewhisker, Kirito went out with Asuna and Needlepaw, and Lelouch, Nightheart, and Sparkpaw went out hunting together, leaving Alderpaw with Suguha.

"Did you not want to go out hunting, Suguha?" Alderpaw asked.

"I was going to ask you the same thing." Alderpaw let out a small laugh.

"Yeah, right. All I'm good for is practicing. I can't hunt even if all of ThunderClan depended on it. I was just going to go out and practice by myself to stay out of the way."

"Let me come with you, please?" Alderpaw let out a smile and nodded his head. The two began walking in the forest in search of prey, but so far, they didn't see any. "Alderpaw…I don't mean to hurt you by saying this, but…are these really the cats that we're meant to help?"

"I don't even know myself. I'm starting to doubt this all as well. The way they push their kits and elders around…I don't even know if there's any hope for them…but I don't want to let everyone down."

"You won't let anyone down, Alderpaw. We all know how hard you've been trying this entire journey, and I'm positive everyone back in ThunderClan feels the same way." She assured him with a small lick, causing him to blush. "Sorry! Isn't that what some cats do in a friendly way or something?"

"Y-yeah, it's fine, Suguha. I just…stuff that comes from you really means more than you might think. I really…appreciate it all. You, Asuna, and Kirito are so nice to mean. That's not to say that the others aren't…but to think we haven't even know each other for a moon and you three are just…amazing, to say the least."

"It's not that hard to be nice to cats who make us feel at home in a world that isn't ours. We're glad to be part of the family that ThunderClan has." She looked over at a nearby tree and saw a thrush on the forest floor. "Alderpaw, there's a thrush over there. Why don't you try and get it?"

"It'd be better if you did. We both know I'm going to fail." He responded.

"You won't know until you try." She responded, causing him to let out a sigh. He got into a hunter's crouch and slowly crept up on it when suddenly, out of the bushes, another cat leaped forward out of a bush to catch it, missing by a mouse-length, plopping onto the ground.

"It's your fault that I missed it. I was already stalking it before you and your friend arrived." As the tom complained, Alderpaw stood there, frozen, his gaze fixated on the cat. "Hey, is your friend okay?" Suguha walked over to Alderpaw and saw his unfazed gaze on the cat.

"Alderpaw, are you alright?" He shook his head and let out a sigh.

"Yeah, sorry, it's just…" Alderpaw leaned over to her ear. "This is one of the cats I saw in my vision. He looked more healthy thought."

"Really? You should talk to him." She replied. Alderpaw looked over at the tom, who was not even more confused by the whispering conversation the two cats shared.

"Who are you, exactly?"

"My name's Mistfeather. Why do you ask?"

"Hi, I'm Alderpaw, and this is Suguha. I'm from ThunderClan, but she's..."

"Wait…ThunderClan! You must know Firestar then! I wasn't born when he came, but I always heard the story about him when I was young. He was the cat we honored the most."

"What are you doing out here all by yourself, Mistfeather? From what it looks like, SkyClan must've exiled you." Suguha guessed, but he shook his head.

"Was I exiled? Think again: it was all of SkyClan that was!" The two stared at the SkyClan warrior in disbelief. "I bet you've met those flea-pelts in the gorge, huh? They made you think that they were SkyClan? They're just savage rouges that drove out the rest of SkyClan and took our territory."

"That explains why they act the way they do. At least that's a relief…but what happened to SkyClan is terrible." Suguha stated.

"Where did the rouges come from?" Alderpaw asked. Maybe this means we still need to help whatever's left of SkyClan. I don't know how to feel about this news though.

"I don't know. All I know is that they're evil!"

"Was your Clan not enough to fight back?" Alderpaw wondered.

"We had as much daylight warriors in our Clan than cats that lived in SkyClan, so it wasn't an easy fight."

"What's a daylight warrior, Alderpaw?" Suguha asked.

"It's the first time I've heard it as well."

"They're cats who come train and hunt with the warriors in the morning, but then return to their Twolegs at night."

"Wait, you let kittypets into your Clan?" Alderpaw said in disbelief.

"Wasn't Firestar a kittypet too? Why do you seem so disgusted by that, Alderpaw?"

"He's different, Suguha." The she-cat just shrugged the apprentice's sudden anger off and allowed Mistfeather to continue speaking.

"It worked for us, but those rouges attacked at night and we were easily outnumbered. It's hard to fight when you want to protect your Clanmates and not kill your enemies, but they believe otherwise so they easily defeated us."

"How about the rest of your Clan?" Suguha said.

"We all scattered around once we lost I'm not sure how many of them survived. I'm the only one here…because my mate died in that battle. I want to stay where she died instead of looking for somewhere else to live."

"That's so sweet…I'm so sorry about what happened to you and SkyClan, Mistfeather."

"Those cats are just rouges who attacked a vulnerable Clan. They're cowards!" Alderpaw hit a paw on the ground.

"Would you like to turn around and tell me that?" Alderpaw and Suguha turned around to see Darktail a fox-length away from them. "It seems you've found one of the scums of the gorge, and it sounds like you're plotting against us."

"Scum? The only scum here is you and the other cats who stole our territory!" Mistfeather rose his weak back and let out a hiss.

"Territory belongs to those strong enough to defend it, or in this case; take it." Darktail growled. "Do you want to fight me for the territory? Give me your best shot."

"Gladly." Suguha and Alderpaw tried to intervene, but Mistfeather stopped them with his tail. "A fight is a fight." The two cats watched as Mistfeather leaped forward, but Darktail avoided his attack and slid his claws down the back of Mistfeather's head.

"You'll need to be faster than that." Darktail taunted. The two watched in horror as the rouge was just toying around with the SkyClan warrior, easily avoiding his attacks and landing blow after blow on him. Blood soon began to trickle down Mistfeather's body as he panted for his breath and soon fell to the ground. Darktail walked over to Mistfeather and scoffed. "You should've stayed away all this time." He raised a paw up, ready to land the final blow.

"Stop!" Without thinking, Suguha leaped towards the tom, who quickly turned and swiped a paw at her face, creating a wound on her left cheek.

"Suguha!" Alderpaw ran over to her and looked over her wound. He was relieved that she moved her head back quick enough to only sustain a shallow wound, but he couldn't help but begin to cry at the thought of her being severely wounded. Suguha was glad that Alderpaw was focused on her so that he didn't watch as Darktail slashed Mistfeather's throat open, his blood now splattering the forest floor. "I'm glad…that you're okay…"

"I'm fine. Please, just look at me. Don't turn around." Alderpaw's eyes widened as he put the pieces together quickly to realize that Mistfeather was now dead. He disregarded her order and looked down at the SkyClan cat, watching as Darktail approached. Alderpaw couldn't believe what had just occurred. Instead of bringing us to find an answer…did I bring us here to die?

"I could just kill you both right here, especially you." He pushed Suguha, causing her to flinch. "I'll see what I do with you and your friends. Both of you get up and follow me." Alderpaw got up and stood near Suguha, offering to help her, but she got back on her paws by herself. Darktail walked behind the two and guided them back to camp. "Keep moving." He gave Suguha a small shove forward, causing her to stumble a bit, but she regained her footing.

"You don't need to push her around like that." Alderpaw said with a growl.

"No, Alderpaw, it's okay." Suguha insisted, not wanting any more tension to form between them and the rouge leader. "Just…take us back and we'll leave."

"Leave? Your group is allied with SkyClan. You'll just come with those daylight-warriors and try to take over." The two knew his accusation was wrong, but they weren't surprised that he believed it to be that way. They walked the rest of the way in silence and once they got back, they saw that the rest of their group had returned as well. Darktail pushed the two into the circle surrounded by the rouges, causing the rest of the ThunderClan cats to join with them.

"What's going on here?" Molewhisker asked. "Suguha…what happened to you?" The she-cat remained silent and they turned their attention to Darktail once he made his way to the bottom of the rocks where his followers gave him his undivided attention.

"I found these two pathetic cats chatting with a SkyClan cat in the forest. It's obvious that they're working with what's left of them to steal away our home."

"Steal? If you're not SkyClan cats, you're the ones to talk!" Kirito retorted.

"I can't believe this. They're not SkyClan cats. We should've known." Cherryfall murmured.

"You're being delusional. We haven't even heard of SkyClan. Plus, we live far away from here!" Needlepaw exclaimed.

"Are you calling me a liar?" Darktail challenged.

"No, but I'm just saying that this is all a bad coincidence. These two weren't trying to do anything bad." Silence filled the air, and a black she-cat, Raven, walked over to Darktail.

"We don't know if we can trust them. What they told us can't be true. None of us believe it." She advised the leader. Darktail sat there in thought for a while until he finally spoke.

"I can't just let you all leave after what happened."

"What? You can't just keep us here if we don't want to!" Sparkpaw complained.

"She's right! You're not making this easy for any of us if you don't just let us go." Kirito added.

"Kirito, what are you doing? Shush!" Asuna whispered over to him.

"Not making this easy? Look around you. I don't see how you can't tell that you're outnumbered." Darktail stated.

"Numbers mean nothing if you don't have the skill to back it up!" Kirito spat.

"Is that a challenge? Your friends don't seem to hold the same attitude." The group of rouges slowly began to close in on the group.

"Kirito, I'm not sure what you're thinking, but it's not a good idea. We can't be this reckless." Lelouch told him as they began to try and step away from the group.

"How else are we going to escape? Sandstorm told me that I was able to use my powers from SAO for a reason, and with you all, I think we can easily win." He assured them.

"A-are you sure about this, Kirito?" Nightheart asked him.

"Don't go worrying on me now, Nightheart. We can beat them, I know it."

"At this point, you've pushed us into a battle and there's no turning back." Cherryfall meowed. "StarClan please let us get back to ThunderClan in piece!"

"We have no other choice. We fight close to at least one other cat if we need assistance. Remember, we don't kill unless it's absolutely necessary. Everyone understand?" Lelouch commanded, and the others nodded. He knew out of everyone, he was worried about Alderpaw the most. I'll have to try and keep an eye on him mostly, but the same goes for Sparkpaw and Needlepaw. "Great…attack now!" The group rushed into the fray of rouges surrounding them. Kirito leaped into the air towards one group of cats, Asuna sprinting towards the same group. Once she saw the cat Kirito targeted, she immediately lunged towards one of the nearby toms, knocking him away. Having him pinned, Asuna began to slash at him belly, causing him to yowl in pain, until a she-cat pushed her off. As she got up, she saw that four cats were now surrounding her. As they approached, Kirito broke through and joined Asuna in the middle of the circle.

"I really hope you're regretting getting us into this mess." Asuna told him. "You haven't even been using your sword skills yet?"

"I'm saving it for when it's necessary. I already defeated a few with ease. I guess I catch on quick." More cats began to surround the two, Kirito looking behind him. "We kick the ones behind us with our hindpaws and then lunge towards the ones in front of us, deal?"

"Got it." The two waited, until altogether, the cats ran towards them. With swift kicks of their hindpaws, they were able to knock two of the cats away, and then tackled the ones in front of them. Kirito quickly turned to slash his claws at the cat at his right, but then saw that Asuna had two cats jump on her, knocking her to the ground, scratching and biting into her coat.

"Asuna!" She began to kick some off of her, but Kirito rushed in and tackled some off, causing fur to be ripped off of her pelt. "You okay?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine…behind you!" Swiftly, the black tom turned around to smack an unsheathed paw across the rouge's face, knocking him to the ground. They then watched as they became surrounded again.

"This is going to become a recurring thing, isn't it?"

"Can you stop talking at least once while we're fighting?" She asked, causing him to smirk.

"Gladly."

On the other side of the gorge, Suguha joined Alderpaw, Sparkpaw, and Needlepaw in their fight against the rouges. Luckily they seemed to underestimate the four, but when other cats saw this, they joined up, giving them a harder time.

"How are you three doing?" Suguha asked them. "Alderpaw, you have a small cut on your ear."

"I know, but it's fine, I promise." He assured her.

"How about you two?" She asked the two she-cat apprentices.

"Never better. This is really fun." Needlepaw responded with a smile.

"I'm okay. Better than this one over here." Sparkpaw said, glaring over at the ShadowClan apprentice.

"Yeah, yeah, less talking, more fighting!" Needlepaw leaped on the back of one of the rouges and bit into his neck, while Sparkpaw ran towards him and rammed into his paws, knocking him down. "Really, I had him!"

"Please, you couldn't have taken him down alone."

"Can you both just get along for this once?" Alderpaw told them, but as his attention was turned away from the fight, Rain leaped towards him, pinning him to the ground.

"Alderpaw!" Lelouch called out, turning Suguha's attention towards the apprentice who was now on the ground.

"Lelouch, just focus on your fight. I'll protect him!" She assured the tom. As she was running towards Rain, Suguha was blindsided by a gray she-cat.

"Where do you think you're going?" As the she-cat began to throw blows at Suguha, she used her own paws to swat away her attacks as best as she could, but wasn't quick enough for some of them, the injuries on her face showing that. I have to look for an opening. She told herself, trying to remember the speed of her attacker's strikes. Once she understood the attack pattern, she waited for the she-cat to pull off one more attack before fiercely striking her in the face and kicking her off. Suguha got up as quick as she could and immediately leaped onto Rain's back, digging her claws into his neck deep enough to cause him to get off of Alderpaw. Rain viciously shook his body to get Suguha off, swaying the she-cat back and forth until he finally sent her towards one of the gorge's walls, causing her to lose her breath and fall to the ground.

"Suguha!" Alderpaw ran over to her and examined her body. "No…please don't tell me that you're dead. I can't live with myself knowing that!" He placed a paw on her stomach and could slowly feel it move, causing him to sigh in relief.

"Alderpaw…you're fine…right?"

"Don't talk. I'll make sure to protect you, I promise." Alderpaw turned around to see three cats approaching them, one of them being Rain.

"That's it! I'm done messing around! You both are going to die, right now!" From their side, Molewhisker and Cherryfall leaped towards two of the cats, pinning them to the ground. Rain looked back at the two and scoffed before turning his attention back towards Alderpaw. "You're lucky I didn't kill you and your friends when you first got here…but I guess fate just chose for me to kill you now." Alderpaw didn't know what he was going to do. He knew he had to fight, but he couldn't even move. Suddenly, both Sparkpaw and Needlepaw leaped onto Rain's back, bringing him down to the gorge's rocky floor. They immediately moved off of him and began to batter the tom's face with quick, deft paw strikes until they saw he began to bleed.

"Stop it you two! He's had enough." They looked down at the tom and saw that he had lost consciousness.

"Great work you two." Molewhisker told them after he and his sister finished with the two other rouges.

"How'd you two get over here?"

"Look over there." Cherryfall pointed with a paw. They saw that over on their side of the gorge, there were only the bodies of defeated cats, while the rest of the fighting cats had Kirito, Asuna, Nightheart, and Lelouch surrounded. Alderpaw looked around and noticed that Darktail was still standing at the side of the rock, watching his cats fight. He's a coward! How can he watch his fellow allies fall in battle? He then turned back to Suguha to look at her wounds.

"Can some of you keep watch while I look over her?"

"Yeah." Molewhisker looked over at the rest of the cats and saw that for the most part, the ones that seemed to be defeated were the weaker cats who looked unfit for battle, along with some of the healthier ones.

"It doesn't look like they're going to come over here to fight us." Sparkpaw stated.

"Maybe it's because there's more of us here than the four they currently have surrounded." Cherryfall guessed. We'll jump in when we see that they're in trouble, but right now, Molewhisker and I are going to protect you four just in case."

Surrounded by the rest of Darktail's rouges, Lelouch, Nightheart, Asuna, and Kirito each looked after one another as each cat continued coming after they'd knock them away.

"Lelouch, can't you just use your Geass to tell them to get away from us?" Kirito asked as he pushed a rouge back and sidestepped another.

"You think I didn't realize that? I can't keep my eyes on any of them if they keep recklessly charging at me." He responded before leaping towards one cat, pinning him to the ground. His violet eyes changed as he readied his Geass, and as he was about to give a command, two rouges leaped towards him, but Nightheart jumped into the air and knocked them away, giving him time. "Leave this gorge right now, and return once the fight's over." Once he saw the red ring around the rouge's eyes, he got off and the other rouges watched as the cat left.

"Where are you going?" Darktail yelled before letting out an irritated snarl. "Everyone, attack the violet-eyed tom! Forget about the others!" Kirito watched as the cats around him ran past him and headed over to where Lelouch was. He and Asuna tried to knock them aside, but they couldn't concentrate on them all.

"Father, we have to fight through this all!" Nightheart stated as both she and Lelouch tried to knock the other cats away. Nightheart suddenly felt a cat bite on her scruff and felt herself being flung through the air, leaving her father surrounded by the rouges. "No!" Nightheart leaped into the crowd of cats, but continued to get pushed off, the impacts of her body hitting the stone floor leaving her sore. Both Asuna and Kirito suffered the same fate as she did, and they watched as they all began to attack Lelouch, but they saw that some of the cats were also being knocked back for a while, but once that stopped, they knew something had to be done.

"Asuna, Nightheart, I'm going to save him." Kirito quickly swiped his paw down to open his SAO menu and quickly selected dual wielding. The black and aqua aura formed on his paws and without hesitation, Kirito ran into the group, slashing each one on the outside of the circle down until he broke through and saw the cats on top of Lelouch. He began to swipe his paws at the backs of the cats, causing them to cry out in pain as they moved off of the tom. He saw that Lelouch had claw scratches and bites all over his body, blood dripping onto the floor beneath them.

"Thanks…Kirito." Lelouch said as he slowly got back to his paws.

"Don't mention it. Can you still fight? I took a few down already."

"I think I can manage." He responded. Kirito wasted no time and charged towards the cats, swinging his aura-infused paws aimlessly as he began to use his Starburst Stream sword skill, ignoring any sort of pain inflicted to him from attacks from his blind spots. He swung his right paw horizontally, knocking back any cat in front of him, before swiftly turning around and attacking the ones behind him. He pivoted back forward and slashed forward in an x formation before leaping into the air and performing a downwards cross slash, knocking out any cat that was caught in the attack. Once he got to his paws he instantly continued the combo, adding uppercuts with his paws, along with diagonal slashes. Seeing only two more cats around him, he smirked and jabbed one paw forward to take out one of them, and then thrust his other paw forward to defeat the last one. He looked around and saw that no other rouge was standing.

"We did it…it's finally over." Kirito stated, letting out a sigh of relief as he unequipped his special aura.

"Kirito, watch out!" Nightheart exclaimed as she saw Darktail leap down from above, his claws unsheathed, aiming for the tom's neck. Kirito turned around to see the white tom, but couldn't raise a paw in time to swipe back. If I die here…is that it? I never kept that in my mind, but now…it's all I'm thinking about.

"No, Kirito!" Asuna screamed as she watched Darktail's claws inch closer and closer to his neck. The rest of the cats watched as a red aura surrounded Kirito, stopping Darktail's claws from reaching his throat. A sudden breath escaped Nightheart's mouth before she collapsed to the ground, coughing, blood escaping from her mouth. Seeing that Darktail was distracted, Kirito rolled over so that he was now on top of Darktail. A yellow aura surrounded his right forepaw and Kirito thrust it into Darktail's body, causing him to gasp for air before his eyes closed. Kirito panted for his breath, but looked down at his paw and still saw the red aura around it, along with the rest of him body. Where did it come from? He wondered.

"Nightheart, are you okay?" Asuna asked the black she-cat. Kirito saw her and ran over so that he was standing next to Asuna and Lelouch.

"Nightheart, open your eyes! Please!" Lelouch begged as he saw his daughter slowly begin to breathe.

"Asuna, she has to be okay, right?" Kirito quickly spoke, worry filling his mind, but he was then relieved when he heard Nightheart's voice.

"K-Kirito…you're okay...I'm glad…"

"Nightheart, don't talk…you're not…" Kirito's eyes widened in shock when he saw that he was now looking into a pair of eyes, one being filled with the power of Geass.