A/N: Yikes, I made this chapter (and this whole story, too) a lot longer than I expected. It'll be wrapping up soon, though. I played around with different perspectives even more in this chapter. I hope you like it!

The cats of RogueClan huddled around the hole where the body of their leader had just been lowered into. They had made the grave over by the marshes- halfway between RogueClan and Alliance land, but still on the RogueClan side. It had felt appropriate.

"I still think we should have woken Rubblefang up before doing this," Fishleap muttered to his parents. "He should be here for his brother's burial."

It was surprising how much Fishleap had come to like Rubblefang, although he rarely showed those feelings to his face. The war against the Alliance had been taxing on all of RogueClan, and it had brought them closer together in ways they hadn't even noticed.

"Rubblefang was tired," Emberfur murmured. "And he was so shaken up… seeing Strikestar being buried might have traumatized him even further."

"Well, he's not a kit," Fishleap objected, raising his voice and garnering a few disgruntled looks from his Clanmates. "He could have handled it. Besides, we left him by himself in the camp! What if a fox or something shows up?"

"We moved him to his nest before leaving," Bearpelt pointed out. "I doubt it would be worth it for a predator to pick through those thorns just to get at one cat."

"If they were hungry it would be."

"I suppose you're right," Bearpelt admitted. "I guess I'm just trying not to worry about him too much. And you shouldn't either, okay?"

The sound of paws running through the soft, wet ground of the marsh caught the attention of a few cats. Dewdrop burst through a gap in the reeds, panting. Her pelt was streaked with blood and dirt.

"Dewdrop, you're finally back!" Specklestone rushed over to her daughter, concerned. "What took you so long?" She paused, her eyes widening. "…A-and where's Honeypool?!"

"We were in the woods gathering branches, and…" Dewdrop gulped. "An owl swooped down from a tree and tried to grab me! Honeypool fought it off, but…"

"…But?"

"Honeypool fought off the owl, but while she was fighting it, it sunk its talons into her neck!" Dewdrop wailed. "I ran back to the camp as fast as I could, but you were already gone, so I followed your scents to here."

"What?!" Squirreltail stood, his tail lashing. "Is she alive?!"

"She was when I last saw her," Dewdrop sniffled. "I think she'll be okay. I just wanted to come let you guys know. Oh, and when I went back to the camp, I saw that Rubblefang was gone too. I think he went looking for us."

Worry darkened the eyes of Squirreltail and Specklestone, as well as every other cat there.

"We should go make sure Dewdrop's diagnosis is correct," Frostglaze muttered darkly. "And let's hope that owl didn't come back for Rubblefang."

"You're going to kill Dewdrop?!" Rubblefang could hardly believe his ears. "But she's your sister!"

"If she didn't have any hang-ups about murdering me, why should I have any about doing the same to her?" Honeystar growled, keeping her gaze fixed forward as she marched through the snowy forest. "You heard her, didn't you, Rubblefang? She's the one behind Strikestar's death. Wouldn't you want her dead too?"

"I'm not her kin, though," Rubblefang mumbled. "You are."

"I'm not her kin anymore." Honeystar's vivid green eyes flashed with defiance. "She betrayed me. It's no different from how your brother felt about Mist. But we're not kin either, so I suppose you think I'm different."

"Well, I'd say it's pretty good we're not kin," Rubblefang blurted out without thinking. "I mean, it'd be pretty gross if we were, right?"

"What are you meowing about?" She stopped and stared at him.

"Well, y'know…" Rubblefang felt a hot prickling feeling in his chest. "Since we aren't kin, we're just like any other two cats."

"How so?"

"Well, there's the potential there. It's like, you're a she-cat, and I'm a tom. Not that there's anything wrong with it when it's a different combination! But for me that's how it'd have to be, I think." Rubblefang regretted every word that popped out of his mouth, but he couldn't force himself to stop babbling. "We can be friends, or we can… not be friends. I don't mean like enemies; I mean like… other cats, like, you know, doing stuff together. But not just normal stuff. I mean, nothing too weird! But just like…"

To his surprise, Honeystar smiled. Then she began to laugh, letting out a short prrt of amusement. She stopped walking and faced Rubblefang, her whiskers still trembling, but her laughter fading back into a more serious face.

"Rubblefang, do you… have a crush on me?" she asked incredulously.

Rubblefang gulped, his face so hot it felt like his face was already in greenleaf while the rest of his body was still in leaf-bare. What could he say to something like that? Should he deny it? But what if she felt the same way? Then if he said no he'd be passing up a chance, but if he said yes and she didn't like him, he'd never be able to look her in the eye again…

"W-well," he muttered shyly, "I think you're pretty cool. And I like the way you fight, and talk, and laugh, and you're really pretty. So, um, I guess if that's what you want to call it, then… sure, but… if you don't…"

"I think you're a wonderful cat, Rubblefang," Honeystar murmured. "And I'm flattered that you think so highly of me. But this is no time for talk of love. I've just been made Clan leader! I can't take any more excitement tonight. In some time, when we're both a little older, if you still feel that way then, well…" She hesitated, biting her lip. "Well, we'll see what's in store for us."

It wasn't the reply Rubblefang had been hoping for, but it was the best reply he really could have expected. Honeystar started walking again, following the trail that Dewdrop had taken, and Rubblefang did his best to keep up.

Dewdrop knew she was foolish to have run away without killing Rubblefang. When the tree had looked like it was glowing, she'd freaked out and run away. But obviously it had just been the moonlight playing tricks on her. There had been nothing there to be frightened of; only a dead cat, a tree, and a cat who would be dead right now if she hadn't been such a mouse-brained coward.

She had doubted that any of those pathetic "RogueClan" cats would believe her owl story, but they were even more gullible than she'd thought. Still, she seriously doubted the alibi would hold up once they found Honeypool's body and saw no feathers, and smelled no owl scent. So she told the RogueClan cats to follow her back to the willow to "check on Honeypool". Dewdrop ran ahead of them, of course, so that she would get there before them, and perhaps find some owl pellets and move them closer to the willow so her story would be more convincing.

But when she got to the place where she'd killed the cat who had once been her sister, Dewdrop found no body. That was confusing, but it was also a problem. Signs of a struggle but no bodies signs of a struggle and a body that looked like it could have been killed by an owl. That was what Dewdrop thought, at least, but she wasn't the best at calculations. And those RogueClan cats would be getting there any minute.

If there was no body for her to show to RogueClan, teary-eyed and sobbing that she had thought her sister would survive, she'd have to change her cover story. But it was too late to do that. She'd have to run back to the RogueClan cats and make something up fast. If she managed to separate herself from the group for longer, there could still be time to track down and kill Rubblefang. And that was just what Dewdrop had to do next.

Romantic love had never really crossed Honeystar's mind. She had always thought of it as a given thing that would happen to her at some vague point in the ever-distant future, but she had never thought about being with any cat in particular. Love didn't disgust her- no, she thought it was a beautiful thing- but she never gave it much consideration.

Honeystar hadn't even realized she could be in love with Rubblefang until he had brought it up… well, sort of brought it up, sort of flailed around trying to avoid bringing it up while at the same time not doing anything to change the topic. Maybe her mind was still on some kind of insane high from being at the brink of death and then revived as a Clan leader. Maybe it was the way that the stars still twinkled overhead, and now Honeystar knew that each of those stars was really a dead cat. But whatever it was, Rubblefang had never seemed cuter.

He was so young, and that was why she had never considered him as anything other than a friend. Well, he was a young cat, but he was far from a kit. He was a warrior now, and while he didn't exactly look the part, she didn't doubt that he would in a few more moons. Still, until they were both a litter older, she couldn't feel comfortable with returning his feelings. It would seem too much like taking advantage of him.

Besides, she had other things on her mind tonight…

"So, um, are you still going after Dewdrop?" Rubblefang mewed as he padded alongside her.

"Of course I'm still going after her," Honeystar told him as gently as she could. "Don't you see, Rubblefang? It's my duty as the new leader to avenge the death of my predecessor."

"But you're not going to do it alone, are you?" Rubblefang's single eye was wide with concern. "Get your Clanmates to help you. I can help you!"

"No, you can't," she sighed. She wished he could understand why she had to do it alone. "You're too young, and the others probably don't even know where we are right now. If they find out Dewdrop's little secret too, she'll kill them. Oh, sure, they'd have her well outnumbered; she'd be down within minutes. But can you really say that you don't think Dewdrop would be able to kill a few of them first?"

Rubblefang muttered something about "still a bad idea", but Honeystar didn't need the approval of her former apprentice to do what she had to do. She picked up speed, and though Rubblefang tried to match her pace, she eventually overtook him, leaving him yowling after her to come back.

Oh, Honeystar would come back, all right. This wasn't some glorious suicide mission. In fact, it was exactly the opposite of that; Honeystar had nine lives now, which none of her Clanmates did. It would therefore be wiser for her to fight Dewdrop than it would be for any of them to attempt the same.

Maybe she was making too much out of it. Dewdrop couldn't really be all that strong. In fact, the only reason she'd been able to get Honeystar was because she'd let her guard down. But she was good at setting traps- like the one she'd set for Strikestar. How hard would it be to dig a pit, for instance, and cover it with leaves, and then lead RogueClan into the pit? Maybe that was a dumb example, but it was the principle of the thing: lady Dewdrop, princess of the Alliance, was dangerous.

"She's gone?!" Squirreltail snapped. "What do you mean she's gone?!"

"I-I don't know, sir," Dewdrop blubbered, and this time what she was saying was actually the truth. "When I got to the tree where I left her, she wasn't there anymore!"

"Show me," Frostglaze ordered.

Dewdrop led them to the spot where Honeypool's lifeless body had been pushed by her little friend Rubblefang. She didn't get why he'd pushed her up against the tree, but maybe it was some Clan tradition or something.

While the other cats were all staring, dumbfounded, at the spot where Honeypool should have been, a dappled brown she-cat sniffed the air. Dewdrop wasn't very familiar with most of the Alliance, as she preferred to keep separate from the rest of the rabble, but she recognized the cat and her mate as Brownie and Rustle, the cats who'd defected from the Alliance to join RogueClan.

"I smell Rubblefang," Brownie (or did she have some fancy Clan name now? Dewdrop didn't care) mewed. "He must have come here looking for you two. Maybe he's the one who moved Honeypool."

Ah, yes, Brownie still knew how to think like an Alliance cat; a tactician. Of course, she and Rustle had been in the lower, brute-force-using class, but it was still expected of most Alliance cats to have the skill. And the explanation she'd come up with made sense; of course Rubblefang would have taken his dead/dying (depending on which story she stuck with) friend away- possibly back to camp to look for his Clanmates, only to find- no, wait, he'd already known they were gone when he woke up, so he went back to look for… herbs! Yes, that was the assumption Dewdrop would guide these cats into making.

"Perhaps he took her back to camp to give her healing herbs," Dewdrop suggested. "You can go back there and look for him, if you want. I'll stay in the woods in case he got lost or something."

The RogueClan cats agreed, and they went their separate ways. Dewdrop doubted that Rubblefang had really gone back to camp, but she was still worried that they really would find him there, and he'd tell them that Dewdrop had killed Honeypool. If that happened, she'd have to either kill them all or convince them to join the Alliance. And none of them would want to join the Alliance after all that, so… yep, it looked like Dewdrop would be forced to permanently silence any cat who found out.

Rubblefang's scent was getting stronger. Dewdrop began to hear his voice echoing through the trees. It sounded like he was out of breath.

"Hey… (pant) come back! (huff) Wait up, Honeystar!"

Honeystar? Intrigued, Dewdrop drew closer, following Rubblefang from a few tail-lengths away; hiding behind one tree, running to catch up, and then hiding behind another tree every few seconds. Who was Honeystar? Was she anything like Honeypool? Could she even be the same cat? Dewdrop seemed to remember that the leader of her Clan back when she was a kit had been called Acornstar, and then after that there'd been Strikestar… did all Clan leaders' names end in star? Was Honeypool somehow a leader now?! But she was dead!

What if when the tree had seemed to start glowing, something had happened? Maybe because Strikestar was dead, Honeypool had been made the new leader! Was that why Rubblefang had pushed her up against the tree- had he known it would happen? Or was it just a lucky coincidence?

Then again, maybe he had just been unable to wrap his puny little mind around the death of his friend, and was making up some elaborate fantasy where she was alive, and a leader no less. Well, if that was the case, Dewdrop would do him a favour and help his fantasy along…

Where had Honeystar gone? Rubblefang's legs were getting tired. Why did that cat have to be so proud? She needed his help! Well, maybe Rubblefang wouldn't really be that much help, but he wanted to be. He needed to be there for his friend.

Suddenly, a voice called to him from up above.

"Oh, my dear Rubblefang, I've heard your calls!" It sounded like… Honeystar- but something was different about it. She would never use such flowery words, right? "And so I have returned to see you one last time, my noble warrior."

"Honeystar?" he called tentatively. "Is that really you?"

"That's right, Rubblefang; it's me," the voice continued. It sounded a bit closer to Honeystar's real voice this time. "I speak to you with regret, though; this is the last time you will hear my voice other than in your dreams."

Rubblefang looked around, confused. What was Honeystar going on about? And where was she, anyway? Was she up in a tree? But why would she be up in a tree?

"I don't understand," he mewed. "Why won't you come down and talk to me face-to-face?"

"I'm afraid I can no longer do that, my dear Rubblefang," Honeystar sighed. "I speak to you now from the stars. I thought I could handle Dewdrop, but she proved too strong for me. I did not survive, however much you'd like to convince yourself I did."

Rubblefang's head spun. He gazed up, wide-eyed, at the sky. That couldn't be true!

"B-but you have nine lives now," he sputtered. "Dewdrop only has one! How could she have won?!"

"I'm afraid I didn't have as many lives as you think."

"But you said you had nine lives!" Rubblefang cried, silently pleading that this was all a dream. "Did Dewdrop somehow take them all at once?"

"Hush, Rubblefang!" Honeystar sounded like she was holding back tears. Could spirit-cats cry? "I can't be with you anymore, but you can get closer to me if you wish. Climb the highest tree you can see and you may be able to see me in the sky."

That sounded odd to Rubblefang. He wasn't sure if he should believe her. But if it really was Honeystar, he had to see her beautiful honey-coloured form one last time, even if it was only a starry outline.

And so Rubblefang hoisted himself up the highest tree he could see- a black spruce that was very old. A lot of the branches were dead, so he had to be very careful climbing it, but he made it fairly high up and looked to the stars. He couldn't see Honeystar.

"Climb higher," she whispered. For some reason, her voice sounded a lot closer now, as if she were behind him rather than far above him…

Rubblefang complied, but he still couldn't see her. He was nearly at the top of the tree now, and all the branches were too small to support his weight. Suddenly he heard a rustling sound coming from behind him and he spun around just in time to see Dewdrop lunging at him.

The voice hadn't been Honeystar at all! Rubblefang let out a sigh of relief; that meant she was still alive. But he didn't have much time to be happy, because Dewdrop was upon him at once. That cat must have been an amazing voice artist in order to imitate her sister's voice so closely, even mimicking emotions in a believable way. And now she was on top of Rubblefang, knocking into him and knocking him loose from the trunk of the tree. He clung on with his claws, but Dewdrop dug her claws into his paws, grinning sadistically.

"You…!" Rubblefang hissed.

"Yeah, it was me," she purred. "I've gotta say, Rubblefang, you're a lot more gullible than I thought."

With that, she yanked her claws out of Rubblefang's paws. He scrambled to keep ahold of the bark, but Dewdrop swung her hind legs underneath the branch she hung from and planted a swift kick to the back of his head. Momentarily dazed, Rubblefang let go.

As he fell, Rubblefang didn't even realize that he was crying out Honeystar's name.