A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Can I maybe get to 36?
The dead bodies of the cats lie in the center of the ThunderClan clearing, a large group of their past Clan mates beside them. Only one body, a gray tabby tom, had one cat beside it.
"Longtail," Sandstorm muttered with her nose in his fur. "Not you too. You know, I feel I have to admit this now. I used to look up to you when I was younger. How you acted when Firestar first came." Inwardly, Sandstorm smiled. Firestar. Just mentioning the name sent shivers up her spine. "I miss him, Longtail. Just like I miss my daughters, my grandkits, and now you and my other Clan mates. Why, Longtail?" The pale ginger she-cat whispered into his pelt, letting all of her fears and anger go.
"Smokepaw?" Lionblaze asked. "Can I go near Jayfeather now? I'd like to hold vigil for my brother."
He backed away when Smokepaw turned on him hissing. "You have been nothing but problems to me and Jayfeather! Why don't you just go mind your own business? Yes, you were his brother, but I was his apprentice. We both cared for him, didn't we? However, you just watched him die, while I actually tried to do something about it!"
Dustpelt padded over, glaring at his daughter. "Let Lionblaze see his brother. If Redpaw died tonight, you'd like to hold vigil, right?" Sighing, Smokepaw nodded.
"If you'll excuse me," she began, walking away from her father and the golden tabby warrior. She searched around camp for her litter mates, and when they were nowhere to be found, she exited the camp.
"Wow," Lionblaze muttered to Dustpelt. "She has been very protective and irritable lately."
The dark brown tabby tom bristled in anger, but his hackles went sown as soon as they rose. "I know," he sighed. "She's been that way since Jayfeather died. As a kit, she was protective, especially of Mudkit, but never irritable."
Smokepaw could faintly hear their words as she padded farther away from camp, following Redpaw's and Rainpaw's scents, but ignored them. A fresh scent mark was by the Sky Oak, where Goldenpool so recently fell. "Redpaw, Rainpaw?" Smokepaw called. "I know you're here. It's just me, Smokepaw."
Redpaw's dark brown tabby head pokes out first, closely followed by Rainpaw's blue gray one. "Oh, Smokepaw, it's just you," Redpaw mewed casually. Smokepaw's great interpretation of lying cats easily saw through his mew.
"What's going on?" she questioned a hint of anger in her voice. She glared at Rainpaw, who was nervously shuffling her feet. "I know you are keeping something from me. You two sound like sick cats that want to still fight, so you lie. Tell me now, or I will go tell Dustpelt that –" Redpaw slapped his tail over her mouth quickly. Anger flashing in her eyes, Smokepaw bit down hard on his tail, making Redpaw yelp in pain. "Are you going to tell me now?" she hissed, narrowing her eyes.
"Well," Rainpaw began, still shuffling her feet. "Redpaw and I wanted to attack the next WindClan patrol, to make them pay for what they did to our Clan."
Smokepaw's eyes lost the fire of anger, and gained on a new look. "Attack the next patrol?" she asked, beating around the bush, making her sibling anxious to hear what she had to say. "I will let you go without telling Dustpelt or Bramblestar if you promise me one thing."
Rainpaw lifted her head hopefully, gazing into her sister's eyes. "What? Anything, Smokepaw, I promise Redpaw and I will do it for you!" she exclaimed, her tail high in happiness.
"Teach me to fight like a warrior," Smokepaw mewed, waiting for her brother's and sister's reaction. What happened was like she expected. Redpaw snorted in amusement, and Rainpaw burst out laughing. "I mean it," Smokepaw growled.
"W-why? I mean isn't b-being a medicine cat enough?" Rainpaw asked when she gasped for air. Her sides heaved in and out with every breath as she tried to contain her laughing fit.
Redpaw looked at Rainpaw incredulously, and then followed her lead, unable to stop. "Rainpaw's right, Smokepaw," he confessed. "Choose one or the other. We chose to be a warrior, and you a medicine cat. Why do you want to learn now?"
Smokepaw narrowed her eyes. "I, unlike you, have a reason, a purpose to learn how to fight. I wish to take Onestar's last lives from him, to make him pay for what he did to Jayfeather, to every cat in our Clan."
Rainpaw stopped laughing, and began to stare at her sister. "Take his last lives? That's against the warrior code, Smokepaw," she mewed with confusion in her voice.
Smokepaw lifted her head proudly, and stared at her siblings. "I am not bound by the warrior code, and if you teach me, I shall make Onestar feel the blood drip from wounds created by my claws. WindClan will face many deaths like ThunderClan has." Both Redpaw and Rainpaw stared at Smokepaw, unable to understand what they were just told.
Redpaw shook his head. "You've changed in many ways, Smokepaw. Ever since this disease cam, and started wiping out our Clan mates, you've changed." He glanced quickly at Rainpaw, and then sprinted off into the forest, towards camp. He felt uneasy under Smokepaw's glare, and wanted to get away from it as fast as possible.
With her brother gone, Smokepaw turned to Rainpaw. "You," she whispered in a low voice. The threat concealed within it was not concealed, and it made Rainpaw shudder. What happened to her happy-go-lucky sister? Redpaw was right, she had changed. "You will teach me to fight," Smokepaw continued.
"No," Rainpaw whispered, fearing for her life. Her sister, the one who she would have trusted with her life a moon ago, was now inching closer, eyes alight and claws unsheathed. "I won't. Attacking Onestar is just wrong."
With a growl, Smokepaw launched herself at Rainpaw. The she-cat yowled in surprise, and easily Smokepaw flipped her sister over. "Teach me to fight," Smokepaw growled, her fangs bared inches from Rainpaw's face.
"I-I-I, fine," Rainpaw sighed. "I will, but first you must let me up." Smokepaw let her sister up, and instead of running away like she thought she would, Rainpaw actually started to instruct her. "The first move we usually learn is the front paw slash. Copy me," Rainpaw mewed, performing the front paw slash for Smokepaw, who copied it with ease. "I thought I had to wait to be a warrior to have an apprentice," Rainpaw muttered, and then turned back to Smokepaw. "That was good. Try it again."
While her sister copied the moves perfectly, Rainpaw's mind started to wander. Smokepaw was doing these moves perfectly. Why wasn't she a warrior, or was it the fact that she wanted to kill Onestar? She shuddered, making Smokepaw pause in her slashes.
"What's wrong?" Smokepaw asked sincerity in her voice. Rainpaw detected the falseness in it, and shook her head.
"Nothing, nothing," she dismissed with a casual shake of her forepaw. "Go back to slashing. You're doing very good, but to make sure you have the move down perfectly, try to pretend you're slashing Onestar." Smokepaw's face screwed up in concentration and hate at Rainpaw's mind. With a fury, she went back to slashing, actually pretending to fight Onestar.
After waiting to see if Smokepaw was fully occupied by her new battle moves, Rainpaw let her mind drift again, occasionally adding in comments. Where was Redpaw right now? The coward ran for it, leaving Rainpaw to fend for herself. He knew she would never harm her siblings, so she left her to deal with an angry Smokepaw. When she got to him later tonight in the apprentice's den, he would find he had a lot less fur than he expected.
Redpaw slowed down once he reached the thorn tunnel, as not to arouse alarm. ThunderClan was on edge already, and he didn't need to plant the false image that he was being chased by a hostile cat.
"Hello, Redpaw," Dustpelt greeted his son as he walked calmly through the thorn tunnel. Not much had changed since he had left, only that the first soft rays of dawn were now coming over the clearing, and instead of Smokepaw by Jayfeather's motionless body, it was Lionblaze.
"Hello, Dustpelt. Had I missed anything since I went out to talk to Rainpaw?" Redpaw asked, trying to conceal the content of the meeting from his father's gaze.
"No," Dustpelt sighed. "It is the same as before. ThunderClan is stuck in The Place of No Stars; it seems with all the disease and destruction going around."
Redpaw nodded. "For now it is," he agreed. "I am sure, however, that Bramblestar will bring ThunderClan out of this rut, and lead us to glory once more." Dustpelt licked his son's ear, purring. "I'm tired, Dustpelt. I think I'll go to the apprentice's den now," Redpaw yawned.
"Alright, then," Dustpelt mewed. "I am sure that you are right about Bramblestar, too." With that, Dustpelt padded away towards Ferncloud, who sat near the thorn tunnel listlessly. Redpaw waited for a few heartbeats, deciding that he would rather have a mouse before going to sleep, to aid him.
He walked over to the fresh-kill pile, and chose a small thrush out of the skimpy pile. Cinderheart spied him, and came over quickly and with urgency.
"Since you seem to take a lot of fresh-kill," she joked, "You can go on a sunhigh hunting patrol." Redpaw nodded good-naturedly, and finished his thrush in a single bite. He dipped his head to the new deputy, and went over to the apprentice's den.
Before he entered, however, the sound of two cats entering the camp made his head turn. In came a very tousled Smokepaw followed by Rainpaw, murder in her glare. Without wanting to be spotted, Redpaw quickly slipped into the den, and curled up, pretending to be asleep.
"Smokepaw?" Birchfall called. "Where have you been? Hazeltail has been looking for you. She says she doesn't feel well."
Smokepaw growled at her older brother, making him step back in surprise. "Of course she feels bad. She's in the medicine den with the same disease everyone had," Smokepaw hissed, barreling her way through the bramble screen.
Ferncloud, sympathy in her eyes, followed her daughter. "Smokepaw?" she called as she entered the medicine den. It was less organized than it was previously, with herbs scattered in piles, and cats lie in every space available.
"What, Ferncloud?" Smokepaw hissed at her mother. She was collecting water in moss for the sick cats. "Can't you see I'm busy?"
Ferncloud ignored the harsh comment made by her daughter, and continued on in her gentle voice. "You need sleep, Smokepaw. I've seen the way you have been acting to everyone, even your family. Finally, I've decided that it's because you haven't gotten much sleep since Goldenpool became sick."
Smokepaw narrowed her eyes. "You are not the medicine cat, therefore, you may not tell me what to do," she growled, bringing the moss over to Mousewhisker, who was shaking in his nest. Ferncloud padded closer, and sat near Smokepaw, her tail brushing Mousewhisker's muzzle.
"I may not be a medicine cat, but I am your mother, and I care for you," Ferncloud mewed forcibly.
"So?" Smokepaw questioned acidly. "I have to help the cats here, if you don't mind." The dark gray she-cat pushed past her mother, and grabbed another bundle of wet moss.
"I do mind, Smokepaw," Ferncloud mewed sincerely. She took the moss from her daughter's teeth, and brought it over to Hazeltail, who drank it eagerly.
Smokepaw hissed. "Don't touch her!" she exclaimed, pulling the moss away from Hazeltail, who moaned. "I will do it, because I am the medicine cat. Thanks to you, I don't have any more cats to tend to." Smokepaw turned her back to Ferncloud, and sat down in the corner with her tail wrapped around her paws.
"Good, then. You may go to sleep," Ferncloud told her daughter.
"I don't want to, Ferncloud. It is my duty as a medicine cat… apprentice… to make sure that my sick cats are ok. Since I cannot make them better, then it is my duty to watch them die," Smokepaw mewed, her angry outer exterior finally broken by sadness. She gazed at Mousewhisker shaking, and let a mournful mew out.
Ferncloud took advantage of Smokepaw's break in hostility. "If you rest up a bit," she began, "then you could give better care to them, to make their deaths less painful."
Looking up from Mousewhisker, Smokepaw glared at her mother. "No death could be more painful than that of Jayfeather's. No, I won't sleep, either. I only wish that I could have gotten fully taught and my full medicine cat name before Jayfeather died. Whitepaw even waited to get his full medicine cat name for me," she mewed, in memory and telling.
Ferncloud nodded slowly, and then thought hard. "If you sleep, then StarClan will visit you," she offered, still trying to get Smokepaw to get some sleep. "Jayfeather is in StarClan, so you can see him."
Smokepaw snarled. "I don't want to see him! I want to remember him as the gray tabby tom without stars in his fur.
"How will you finish your training, then, if you refuse to see StarClan?" the pale gray she-cat asked. "Don't you need to go to the Moonpool every quarter moon?"
"Leave me alone! Go away, I don't want to listen to you anymore," Smokepaw growled, and shoved her mother out of the medicine den.
The pale gray she-cat sighed in defeat, and then padded off to where her family sat. They conversed in low tones, and became quiet when Ferncloud appeared.
"So, how is Smokepaw?" Spiderleg asked. "Did she tear your fur off, too?"
"No, but she refused to sleep, even if it meant that she would see StarClan. She nearly clawed my eyes out when I asked how she would finish her training," Ferncloud explained.
Dustpelt sighed in frustration. "Why did Onestar have to kill Jayfeather? He took the legs out from ThunderClan. We now have a medicine cat apprentice when we used to have three medicine cats, our leader is dead, and most of our warriors are sick. I thought this was a dream for the longest time, but I cannot believe that anymore."
Redpaw brushed his fur against his father. "Don't think that way, Dustpelt. When this disease is past, ThunderClan will be strong again."
"I sure hope you're right," the dark brown tabby tom mewed, glancing in on his daughter. Smokepaw was sitting with her tail around her paws, her eyes glowing light fire in the darkness. "StarClan knows we need it."
A/N: Did you like it? Please review, then!