This can be seen as an epilogue or its very own chapter. Whichever you'd prefer. I've been waiting for this moment for a VERY long time.

FORGIVENESS

They walked back, weary warriors returning to battle, with their aches and their pains. And Jayfeather, medicine cat of ThunderClan, slipped into the nursery.

"Jayfeather!" mewed Petalflight, looking up urgently. "What's happened? Has something happened to Kestrelflight?"

"No, nothing like that," said Jayfeather. He fixed his blind eyes on Sunstrike, who looked up with dread in her heart. "I was…I wanted to speak to Sunstrike."

"I'll watch the kits," said Petalflight. Sunstrike nodded her thanks and slowly rose and followed Jayfeather. Her heart felt numb. Everything felt weary, like she had been running for days and had just now stopped. Jayfeather led her out of camp and down the slopes.

"Where are we going?" asked Sunstrike.

"To hold vigil," said Jayfeather.

"Breezepelt?" said Sunstrike. Jayfeather nodded slowly.

It was like hail, raining down on her and pummeling her mercilessly to the ground. Sunstrike felt the tears rising in her eyes, and they fell quickly, quicker when she caught sight of him, lying there, by the lake.

Someone, presumably Jayfeather or perhaps Kestrelflight, had already prepared his body for burial. He smelled so sweet – not like death, but not like Breezepelt either. Sunstrike crept silently to his side and stared down at his corpse. Breezepelt lay on his side, his eyes closed, surrounded by bloodstains that seemed thickest near his neck.

"Breezepelt?" asked Sunstrike. There was no reply. She bent down and touched her nose into her mate's pelt. Her tears fell, hot and sticky, upon his pelt, but she didn't find herself sobbing. It felt like being struck by lightning, drowning in the lake, being impaled by claws so deep they tore out her heart in one move. But it wasn't worthy of weeping. Only the type of crying so hollow and empty it had to be silent.

"I thought he had killed…a cat most important to me," said Jayfeather. "So we fought."

Sunstrike didn't reply. Jayfeather's words were vulnerable, melodious like the lake water washing up and down the beach.

"I thought it was only right for him to die," said Jayfeather. Sunstrike flinched at the words. "But I couldn't…do it. Not exactly."

She watched Jayfeather thoughtfully. He sat next to her, but his eyes were gone, facing the lake as if he was watching its movements. Sunstrike knew he wasn't, of course, but the way he was sitting there made the moment magical.

"He asked me to kill him, in the end," said Jayfeather. "He said my name, told me that he regretted everything. He told me that he didn't feel he wanted to live anymore. You were the only positive thing in his life. And…" Jayfeather paused, a heavy sigh escaping him. "It was like we connected. I could feel all is rage, all his pain, all his hate. I helped him die."

Sunstrike could visualize the moment. She knew what Breezepelt looked like when he was deep into his obsessive hatred of himself, when he was vulnerable and afraid of what came ahead. Had he finally gotten over is compulsive viciousness towards Jayfeather in order to show him his fear?

"He told me," said Jayfeather hesitantly. "He told me to tell you what happened. That he was sorry for leaving you and the kits, but…he didn't seem to think he was a proper father."

Of course not. Sunstrike wasn't surprised. That hit her heart harder, as if some of the hail pelting down on her had managed to pierce her skin and get at her innards. His pain, her pain from their fallen kit…

"He asked me to tell you not to worry," said Jayfeather. "That he would be fine, and that you…" Something about Breezepelt's final message was troubling him, but Sunstrike didn't mind. She was holding onto every word, every mental image she could summon up of her wonderful mate in the moments before his death.

"He said that you would never have to walk in darkness again. That you and your kits would be safe, and uninvolved in the dark matters."

"Do you think he made it to StarClan?" asked Sunstrike. Jayfeather thought this over for several moments, and Sunstrike felt her confidence waver. Jayfeather doubted Breezepelt. Despite all of this, Jayfeather doubted him.

"Of course I do," said Jayfeather quietly. "The worst thing Breezepelt ever did was hate himself so much that he turned himself over to Tigerstar. The rest was Tigerstar."

Sunstrike's tears came faster. She bent down to nose into Breezepelt's now-cold pelt once more and tried to breathe in the scent that she had always identified with him. It was there, ever so faint under the herbs and the blood and the lake water.

"I love you," she whispered for a final time. Then she straightened up.

"Thank you for saying all of this," said Sunstrike, sniffing back the last of her tears. She stared at the medicine cat, who did his best to stare back. His gaze was unnerving, but it wasn't harsh. "Will he be buried?"

"I've requested it of Onestar," said Jayfeather, nodding slowly. Sunstrike sniffed and nodded. "I'm sorry."

She didn't know what to say to that, but she couldn't find herself being angry at Jayfeather. All she could think about as they walked back was…Breezepelt.

Sunstrike and Breezepelt had met because chance just so happened to arrange their lives to take place in close proximity of each other, in the wild freedom called WindClan. They grew up together, Sunstrike following only a few moons after Breezepelt, and trailing him for her entire life. He had always been sad, but hopeful for a day when his father would look at him and smile. She had always been happy, but secretly upset about the day her father left, knowing that he would never exist in her life. Together, they walked, knowing that there were fathers in the world that didn't love their kits like they should.

Sunstrike fell in love with Breezepelt partly out of an ongoing sense of optimism that kept her from being shoved away by his natural pessimism. The other part was her own inability to walk for more than a few paces without falling over. She had fallen head-over-heels for him in the process of falling head-over-heels down a hole, and in doing so, she had managed to open up a part of him no one else saw. Maybe it was because of who she was, but she had loved him first because he had been the type of cat begging to be loved. But he was also funny, and kind, and nobody else saw it. He was like her treasure.

Sunstrike saw the darkness in Breezepelt as well as the light. She saw him cast away his family and his friends, leaving everything behind to give into a blind rage that made him want to claw out the eyes of his half-siblings. It wasn't fair, for a cat like Breezepelt to be caught in that sort of crossfire. She knew that she should never have followed him, never have pursued him, never have forced him to tell her about the anger and rage. But she had never been afraid of him, even when she should have been. She had been in love with him, despite the darkness.

Sunstrike had seen Breezepelt's light, and he had found something to live for in her when she had followed him still. She waded deep in darkness, not even caring. He was always deeper still, but she had finally reached him. And in her reaching, outstretched paws, Breezepelt had found the cat that he was able to love. Light and darkness, they never should have worked. But they did.

Sunstrike and Breezepelt had been happy for a few brief moments, despite the overwhelming danger she knew was attacking him. He was in a world she didn't understand, a world that she had only been to once. That was where Mapleshade had come in, and curse Mapleshade, but it had torn them apart. It had also thrown them closer together. And he had sworn to protect her, and she to him, and that was why they were so deeply involved in everything. They loved each other enough to protect each other, even when the danger was too much for both of them to keep away.

Sunstrike and Breezepelt had formed a family. They should have, anyways, but families were difficult when you were on different sides in a war. Their family had inspired a few moments of bliss, and a few moments of pain. More pain than bliss at times. But she had held on, because she loved him still, and even though everything went to hell with the revolt and with her reputation in the Clan, they had loved each other from afar. It hurt, knowing they couldn't have each other. It hurt, seeing Breezepelt run out of time and hate himself even more knowing that he wouldn't be around much longer.

Sunstrike and Breezepelt had seen the start of new life together. It was new life that they had started, together. Three kits. One, the only one he had ever touched, had had its life snuffed out in an instant. He had blamed himself. She could not pull him together, make him see sense. He had gotten it in his head that he didn't deserve her, their family, their Clan, his own life…he was gone. He left promising her everlasting protection.

Sunstrike and Breezepelt were separated now by an even greater barrier, one that Sunstrike really had no hope of overcoming. She could ask Kestrelflight to look for him among the stars, but no, she had no real chance of seeing him until she was dead herself. But somehow, Sunstrike wasn't as sad as she should have been. She would miss him, but she had their kits now. Their kits, who were the best family she could ever have asked for. And he would be happier in a world without pain.

"Thank you," Sunstrike said again as Jayfeather poked back into the nursery with her. She looked up at the blind medicine cat, finding such faith in him. Some cats thought that Sunstrike was silly and trusting and way too stubbornly gullible, that she saw the best in the wrong cats. No one but her had seen the best in Breezepelt except Jayfeather.

"Are you alright?" asked Petalflight. Sunstrike nodded, nestling herself back in her nest and licking her kits, who had woken up and started to move around a bit.

"I know what I'm going to name my kits," she said suddenly. Jayfeather paused near the entrance of the den, and Petalflight and Mistpelt looked over, excited.

"The black tom is Hailkit," said Sunstrike. "The red she-cat is Jaykit."

Jayfeather froze in his tracks, staring at Sunstrike with a look of detached horror.

"Y-you can't name her that…" he stammered like an apprentice before Onestar.

"I can, and I will," said Sunstrike.

"I killed him," said Jayfeather weakly.

"I forgive you," said Sunstrike. Maybe he didn't understand her reasoning. Maybe none of them did; then again, they had always considered her crazy. She tripped over her paws, didn't have a father, had fallen in love with Breezepelt of all cats, had stayed in love with him despite him betraying WindClan. But to her, Jayfeather had been the one cat that had understood Breezepelt, through all his pain and suffering and hatred.

"Hailkit," she repeated. For the grief I feel, and the knowledge that my kits will help me stop feeling this way. "And Jaykit." For the cat that saved Breezepelt.

THE END

Can we just talk about how this entire fic came out of a one-chapter splurge in the middle of Book 1 as Jaystrike explained why she was named after Jayfeather. That wasn't even originally planned. None of this was. Petalflight didn't exist, either, but now she's one of my favorite OC's ever.

Goodbye, Sunstrike! Though you have been effectively promised a happy life outside of prophecy, you are still important to me, and you played such an important role in this story.

I wanted to thank Cinderpaw11, DawnflowerMoonshinestarchase, KittyMew113, The Last Moongazer, hollyleaf is cool, lithdrea23, PeaceLoveWolves, Stuffed Watermelon, Awesome, Moonshine57, and Tigertail24 for their support on this story! Whether you reviewed, favorited, or followed, I appreciate all of you! For those of you who read to the end, THANK YOU SO MUCH! This project means a ton to me, so I'm really glad to know you enjoyed it.

For more Elemental, check out my profile. This story does stand on its own, but it works even BETTER in conjunction with War of Shadows and the rest of the series. They are all posted on my profile. If you would like to leave any last comments or add this to your favorites list, that would mean a lot to me. Thank you all for staying with Sunstrike and Breezepelt on their journey. 3

~Elsi