Chieftain was greatly troubled. Darkness was taking it way too far now. But he couldn't betray his master, the spirit who took him in as an abandoned kit and fed him, sheltered him, and took care of him. Those questing cats thought that he was a monster, but only Chieftain alone knew of his kind, caring side. Even pure evil had barriers. But his master...He heard plans of his, plans that would bomb the entire Underworld. His master made it sound like he was making Chieftain stay here...as his last job faithfully following him. His last job.
Is it worth it to save Darkness? Or is good actually better than it seems?
Yes, why do you ask, that Chieftain is very good at grammar? Chieftain is good at inner thoughts in grammar, but correct pronunciation is much difficult. Chieftain can also comprehend good grammar too. But as Chieftain paced his quarters frantically, it is then when the small space of conscience he had left brought back the right decision for him.
"Yes," Chieftain meowed, now certain of his decision. "Gods happy. I make right."
"Tabi?" Echopaw asked warily. "You're not dead?"
The young kitten shook her head. "No, Darkness just used me as an illusion. But enough questions for now. It's time for you to escape."
As the small tortoiseshell kit struggled to climb up to unlock their cell, a threatening shadow grabbed Tabi by the scruff. The guard-Chieftain-covered Tabi's scream with a firm paw.
"What do you want?" Breezepaw kept his tone as confident as he possibly could. "It's not even the morning yet."
Chieftain said no words, only unlocking the cell and pushing it wide open. "No talk yet," he meowed firmly, his poor Cat still getting in the way of his speech. "Must leave. Darkness not know this. I find you way out, you give me freedom."
Despite his choppy grammar, the questing cats agreed, as Bracken translated it for Echopaw, Breezepaw, and Tabi. Echopaw, however, was still hesitant of their new "ally." She stopped Chieftain, growling, "How do you know we can trust you?"
The guard took off his ghastly mask to reveal a black-and-white spotted normal-looking tom with blue eyes. Echopaw knew from a vision that Chieftain had a teardrop-shaped scar on his left cheek, but now it was gone.
"Scar shows allegiance to Master. I erase scar with Resurrection Stone. Similar to Harmony Stone. I had small piece, Master gave to me. It not work for friends of yours. Need Darkness destroyed for erase."
Echopaw nodded. That was all she needed.
Chieftain put on his mask and led them to an unfamiliar corridor. Through the questing cats' intuition this wasn't the way. Where were they going?
When they arrived to an isolated door, Chieftain stopped them. "Stay here. Wait for signal."
He placed on a paw on which Echopaw heard him say it was a "doorknob." With a beep, the door opened in a strange manner. As the trio waited outside, she heard some inaudible dialogue and Chieftain slipped out.
"What did you do?" Echopaw questioned suspiciously. The former guard looked at them, saying, "I got key for us out of Underworld."
As Chieftain was about to open the portal from the Underworld to their own world, a thought crossed Echopaw's mind. She knew what she had to do. There was something here that she need to do first.
"Wait!" She hissed quietly. All of them turned to stare at the purple-eyed she-cat with confusion. "What about Moonpaw's spirit? If we ever have a chance of bringing her back, we need to get it."
Chieftain hesitated for a moment, but then he sighed and gave in to Echopaw's valid point. "You good friend," the older tom told her. "I get jar to contain life force, you disable security camera."
"And where exactly are these security cameras?" Breezepaw questioned skeptically.
"There is vent system. Small friend can disable camera from behind. All cameras placed in front of vent system."
Bracken meowed to the little kit, "Well, Tabi, looks like you're up."
The small tortoiseshell kit nodded with determination and enthusiasm. The group found an entrance to the ventilation system, and with use of their special powers Tabi crept through.
Breezepaw looked at Echopaw briefly. "I guess that we have to trust on a kit and a former of Darkness' militia to get us out of here."
The black she-cat knew that her companion was skeptical of their chances, but she had faith in their team. "Breezepaw, you need to learn to let go. You need to trust."
The tabby tom shook his head. "I'm not sure if I can, Echo," he mewed softly. "Chieftain was one of the cats that helped kill my parents and who gave me this scar," he mumbled, pointing to the teardrop on his ear. "We didn't exactly meet on good terms."
Bracken padded up to Breezepaw and put a comforting paw on his shoulder. "Breezepaw, mine and Echo's life has entirely been a lie. We didn't even know our true parents until now, but we will overcome this. If we can go past this, then you can definitely go past any past with Chieftain and trust Tabi that she will deactivate the security camera. Remember that Chieftain taught her."
Green eyes met brother and sister coldly. "That's the part that worries me."
The cats suddenly heard a surprised yet ecstatic squeal from Tabi. "I did it! I disabled the security camera!"
Echopaw, Bracken, and Breezepaw all smiled, but then there was something off. Wasn't Tabi in the ventilation shaft? That meant that sound echoes through the entire facility...and the young tortoiseshell kit just shouted that she disabled a security camera...oh no.
Breezepaw's eyes widened with panic. "Tabi just told the entire Underworld lair that we were here, didn't she?"
Bracken and Echopaw nodded blankly, eyes wide.
Meanwhile, Darkness finally slept peacefully in his lair, dreaming of conquering the world and making Flame suffer for what happened. In his dream Echopaw, Breezepaw, Bracken, and Moonpaw (when Traya would be out of her body, of course) were being slaughtered and burned to a crisp. A loud, annoying squealing sound ruptured his dream-ears and woke him up, much to his chagrin. Darkness groaned as the sound kept on ringing in his ears.
He heard a strange noise from the ventilation shaft, and he noted that the squeal sounded a lot like that nuisance kit Tabi's squeal. The spirit listened closely and he heard it again. A squeal, and a high-pitched voice, no older than a kit's, meowed, "I did it! I disabled the security camera!"
Darkness' eyes widened in alarm. That pest Tabi somehow got into the Underworld and disabled my security camera! "Alarm...alarm..." he muttered to himself as he looked for the emergency lockdown button. Finding it, he pressed it as many times as he could.
A loud, wailing sound came from every room and the lockdown sign flashed red. Darkness sighed with satisfaction. "You can run, Echo, but you can't hide," the dark lord cackled.
As Tabi climbed out of the ventilation shaft, a loud, wailing sound similar to a fire drill or a lockdown boomed everywhere. "Well, Darkness definitely heard that!" Echopaw was slightly annoyed by Tabi's foolishness, but she did disable the security camera.
Chieftain broke the control room door in a panic with a good size jar in his mouth, setting it down. "How-need to get out now. Chieftain knows drill. Must leave before Darkness comes!"
"Fine, but we're getting Moonpaw-well, her spirit-first!" Bracken argued, to which the formerly high ranked guard reluctantly agreed.
The cats crept to the Meeting Room, to which Echopaw acknowledged that it looked much more spacious than before. The chest was still sitting there, cold, black iron in patterns covering the eerily evil-looking box. She really hoped Chieftain knew what he was doing, because it looked really high-tech. It looked like if there was one wrong move, it would explode, obliterating anyone near enough in its path or anyone inside of it.
Chieftain punched in the code 1-2-3-4 (which was actually a little folly to do) and the chest opened slowly. Time was against them in this situation. Breezepaw remarked that he thought he heard the bloodthirsty yowls of Dark Warriors a minute ago.
Darkness' former adviser opened the jar and Moonpaw's spirit flew quickly yet gracefully into the small container. Chieftain turned to look at them. "Need to disable lockdown. Portal key not work with lockdown. Disable so we leave!"
"Wait," Bracken meowed. "How does a lockdown prevent a portal key from working?"
"Lockdown that Darkness activate disable escape chances," Chieftain explained as quickly as he could. "All pitch in for disable lockdown."
The escaping heroes raced back to the control room (the door was busted by Chieftain) and the guard explained to them that they needed to hotwire the control panel correctly in order to stop the lockdown. It was just like the chest: one wrong move, and they were done for.
This time, they were in big trouble. Chieftain had no idea on how to hotwire the advanced control panel. Only the technicians-now dead-could hotwire it if the lockdown was activated by mistake.
Echopaw thought for a moment desperately. StarClan, show me the way... She then remembered about the powers Snowstar had told them they had. The young she-cat focused on the control panel, deep in thought. Through a vision it showed her how to hotwire it. Thank StarClan...and especially Snowstar.
"Breezepaw!" Echopaw meowed urgentlty, the tom immediately facing her way. "Open the panel and pull the center blue wire, the red wire to the right of it, and the green wire at the very corner in that order."
Understanding her knowledge, the brown tabby pulled all three. Five seconds later, the wails of the lockdown subsided gradually, and everyone sighed with relief. Chieftain ushered them forward impatiently out of the control room, and they were about to open their ticket to freedom...
Of course they weren't getting away that easily.
Five young Dark Warriors stood in the middle of the doorway, eyes hostile and angry. "Chieftain!" they all snarled except for the smallest one. "Gar Kelir Waadar par gar treachery!"
Well, they were definitely not getting out of here without a fight. Breezepaw, Echopaw, Bracken, and Chieftain all formed a semi-circle with Tabi protected in the middle with their fur bristling and teeth bared. The younger Dark Warriors knew they were up for a fight, and their eyes widened with fear for a moment. Determination and recklessness got the best of them, and the leading Dark Warrior lunged for Chieftain. Thus the battling began.
Chieftain yowled in pain as the lead Dark Warrior clawed his shoulder, tufts of fur falling on the ground. Echopaw snuck behind the Dark Warrior and bit his paw as hard as she could, the warrior screaming from the waves of pain. The Dark Warrior fell off and limped hurriedly away, frightened from the overwhelming advantage that was against them. The former high guard nodded a "thank you" to Echopaw as she helped Breezepaw fend off the younger Dark Warrior that he was fighting. Hissing, claws extended, the purple-eyed she-cat raked the tom's shoulder.
The brown tabby tom then delivered the last blow: scratching his eyes with his front paw. Yowls of pain from the hit sent the Dark Warrior running away likewise. As Echopaw and Breezepaw turned around, battle-ready, they saw Chieftain and Bracken hissing warningly at the smallest Dark Warrior, to which the she-cat noticed didn't say what the other four had snarled out earlier.
"Please, please...don't hurt me. I surrender!" The youngest Dark Warrior's eyes were wide in fear instead of hatred as he took off the oversized fearsome mask that covered his face. It revealed the same young tom that Echopaw saw with Traya when spying on her possessed friend: the young tom with amber eyes, a reddish pelt, and white paws. Alder.
"Are you Alder?" Breezepaw asked tentatively, fur still bristling from the fight. Echopaw was about to ask the same question but her ally beat her to it first.
"H-how do you know my name?" the young cat stuttered. His eyes widened as he tom sniffed Breezepaw. "W-wait. You're the o-one who was s-spying on our m-meeting!"
Her friend was taken aback by Alder's accusation. Sure, it was true, but how did the young Dark Warrior know?
Alder cleared his throat. "Don't worry, you guys. I won't report you to Darkness or snitch on you. When I joined the Ecto Bane in the first place, I was foolish and reckless. I wanted a better life. But then I saw its true colors a few weeks later. Then I saw you all on your journey. You all inspired me to be the better cat in this and help you. The only reason I'm still in this organization is because I'm trying to collect as much information as possible to help your cause."
Bracken was confused. "Wait, wait, wait. So you're secretly an agent for us that joined the Ecto Bane?"
The young tom thought for a moment, tilting his head. "Yeah, sort of like that."
"And you're not going to snitch on us?" Breezepaw demanded.
The young Dark Warrior nodded. "It's time for Darkness to be defeated for once. I'll do what's right for the greater good, and if it means sacrificing my life to tell you guys information, it will all be worth it. Here," Alder meowed, handing out a strange necklace with a green glow. "It will keep us in touch."
Echopaw took it cautiously, and seeing it didn't blow up, replied, "Thank you, Alder. What you're doing means a lot."
Alder's determination in his eyes showed everything as he watched Chieftain open up the portal key to the Overworld, giving him a nod of acknowledgement, and saw his new allies jump through it. He then hid in the maintenance closet because he knew that Darkness would be coming any minute now. Those who failed to do their assigned jobs were punished cruelly, some punishments so terrible that either the Dark Warriors within a few days or even instantly.
Darkness and his forces finally arrived, all Dark Warriors and him included battle-hungry. He sent a search patrol, with them coming out minutes later, saying, "Darkness, val ganar escaped."
In anger, the spirit used an invisible force to push the Dark Warrior search patrol into the wall. Chanting an ancient spell of destruction, he then clawed them and they turned into dust.
His army let out a small gasp of shock and fear, to which the dark lord silenced them threateningly. With a surge of rage and power, he yowled, "ECHO!"
The group of cats all had a minor celebration of a huge prey pile at their temporary camp. Even Echopaw, after many months of just frowns and worried looks, smiled radiantly. She, Breezepaw, Bracken, Tabi, and Chieftain all feasted on the blessing from StarClan, exclaiming, "Let the light conquer all!" They then devoured the good-sized prey pile, eating more than they did on average for an entire day's food supply.
Out of all of them, Chieftain was the happiest, most likely from being free from Darkness' wrath on him. The former adviser for the spirit now abandoned his robes and the daunting mask he used to wear was now cast aside to rot in the dust. His black-and-white pelt looked lighter in the moonlight and the cat's blue eyes even looked a little playful.
As Chieftain smiled at a joke Breezepaw just made a strange invisible pair of earmuffs seemed to be covering Cheiftain's ears, because now all sounds seemed muffled. A dark, sinister voice penetrated his thoughts.
"Why hello, Chieftain."
Chieftain's eyes widened in fear.
"Darkness, how did you get inside my head?" The blue-eyed tom thought for a minute. The bond! "Darkness, I'm not your servant anymore. You don't have a prominent place in my life. Torture any other cat, make them your slave, but I never will be. You are my enemy."
"You are a failure, Chieftain. After all of these years..." The spirit's voice cracked a little. Chieftain was shocked that Darkness would actually care for some other cat besides himself. "I have saved you from near death, raised you, and you became one of my most trusted advisers. You were third-in-command of the army. I have no choice to but..."
Chieftain started choking, feeling his life force slowly fading away. Echopaw, Breezepaw, Bracken and Tabi all noticed to their alarm. "Chieftain, what's happening?!" Echopaw asked in a panic.
"Darkness...eradicate...life force," the older cat spluttered. "Must...break...bond! Bond...is...object..." The color in his blue eyes was starting to fade as he writhed on the ground helplessly.
Bracken immediately ran to Chieftain's discarded mask and ripped it to shreds, to which he realized his efforts were to no avail. What other bond object could there possibly be between Chieftain and Darkness? The black-and-white cat already erased the black teardrop scar that him and Breezepaw both had.
That was when Bracken noticed the strange bracelet with the purple teardrop charm on Chieftain's paw. He began to run back to Chieftain, but an invisible force blocked him from getting any closer to the dying cat. Echopaw and Tabi were helpless and he realized that Breezepaw had no barrier in front of him, but the tabby tom was reluctant.
"Breezepaw!" Bracken yowled. "Whatever grudge you hold against Chieftain now, you need to let go! It's not right to let any cat die like this!"
The green-eyed tom's face was still blank, showing no emotion or pity toward the dying cat.
"Please, Breezy!" he heard Echopaw plead. "What would your mother and father want you to do?"
Breezepaw's eyes lit up, the blank mask on his face broken. His eyes shone with condolence at Chieftain, almost dead, as he raised his paw...
...And struck the bracelet, breaking it into a million pieces.
"No! No!" Darkness' voice echoed and disappeared and the invisible barriers were released, with Echopaw, Bracken, and Tabi rushing to their comrade as he coughed and spluttered back to life.
"Chieftain forever in gratitude to Breezepaw," the former guard meowed as the three other cats supported him. "Chieftain in great debt to you."
Breezepaw managed a smile, which all could read I forgive you and You're welcome.
"Now, as thank you for Breezepaw save," Chieftain continued, "Chieftain will join cause."
Echopaw's expression looked delighted. "Really? You mean it?"
"Yes." The tom looked happy with his announcement. "But before bed, Chieftain tell you story of bond."
Echopaw, Breezepaw, Bracken, and Tabi all listened intently as the older tom began his tale:
"Long time ago, before you born, I was wanderer. Parents abandoned me. I on my own, one day I got attacked by badger. Darkness saved me. Took me under his wing, accepted me in family..."
As Chieftain continued to tell his inspirational backstory, the sky seemed peaceful at last, with the moon glinting stronger than before and the stars bright specks in the night.