Greysight woke with a jolt. Her heart was racing and her pelt prickled, but she could feel her warm nest beneath her and hear the breathing of her clanmates, or clanmate as it were; Lostheart was the only other cat in the warriors den. Greysight let out a weary breath through her nose, not feeling at all rested like she should have.

Her mind had been plagued by nightmares, the same recurring one. She was in the forest and the trees began to fall and burn, flames grew around her and the smoke made it difficult for her to breathe; she would cough and wheeze, and try to escape the heavy air, to run away from the hungry flames as they burned toward her, devouring everything in their path. But she was blocked at every turn by crashing tree trunks and snapping branches, and the hot, flickering light of the fire. Then she would see it, the screaming, flailing figure of a cat on fire, their horrified wails filling her ears, but there was nothing she could do to help, only watch her mother burn.

The flames had died away then and she was forced to look upon a field of dead bodies, the bodies of her clanmates lying in pools of blood on a vast stone surface. Everyone she ever knew, Cherrynose, Sunstar, Browneyes, Darkpelt, Mintleaf, Moonfur...

Greysight shuddered involuntarily and pulled herself up from her nest, giving a few quick licks to her shoulder as she tried to shake off the nightmare's lasting effects. Her body was stiff but she didn't bother to stretch; she padded a few tail lengths forward to Lostheart.

"Lostheart?"

It took a long moment, but she could feel the other she-cat beginning to stir.

"Lostheart."

Lostheart slowly blinked awake. "Greysight." she returned weakly.

"I'm going to check on Moonfur and Raggedear."

Her words seemed to have an effect on Lostheart as she woke up, her eyes shining with awareness. She rose from her nest and shook off her pelt.

"I'll go with you."

Greysight had thought she might want to be there, and it would be better if she was so that she could listen in on what Moonfur had to say, and also on what she herself had discovered the other day when she went looking for Scar's body.

"You seem well rested." said Greysight as they exited the warrior's den and walked leisurely over to the medicine cat den.

"I feel better."

Greysight didn't comment further. Their clan's situation was uncomfortable for everybody, and Greysight certainly hadn't forgotten that Lostheart had been attacked by her sister, or that Roseclaw had attacked her sister. The very idea still just felt so surreal to her, making her think that after she was done talking to Moonfur, she should probably talk to Roseclaw as well.

She hadn't had the chance to talk to Roseclaw about it; she had still been trying to take it all in, but Greysight couldn't ignore it or her forever, and she didn't want to. Surely there had to be some reason for Roseclaw's actions, some sort of justification or...something.

Though Greysight wasn't sure what that could possibly be.

Greysight and Lostheart stepped into the den, Darkpelt being the first thing they laid eyes on. He had been sitting, presumably watching Pineneedle and Roseclaw, both of whom were awake and now staring at the pair of black she-cats.

"Good, you're here." Darkpelt meowed. "You can take over the next shift while I rest and eat, these two have already eaten, and Mintleaf saw to it that Raggedear and Moonfur ate as well."

"Where's Mintleaf?" asked Lostheart, picking up no sign of the cream colored she-cat anywhere in the medicine cat den.

"She came in to treat everyone and bring Raggedear and Moonfur fresh-kill and then left. It is likely that she returned to the apprentices den to get some rest. There was no room for her to sleep in here."

Darkpelt stepped around them and left the medicine cat den, leaving Greysight standing there with a feeling of guilt. If she had known, or rather, if she had realized, she could have invited Mintleaf to sleep with her in the warriors den.

"Are you going to rest now too?" Lostheart turned around to ask the question before Darkpelt got too far. She doubted that Darkpelt had slept a wink that night if he was guarding Pineneedle and Roseclaw the whole time.

He snorted in response and shook his head. "No, Thistleprick and I are going to inspect the borders and place new scent markers. The apprentices are hunting on my order, but I told them to stay together. If those cats are still in our territory, we'll find them."

He walked away and Greysight and Lostheart returned to the task at hand, somewhat pleased with how they were managing to control their situation. All the injured cats were being cared for, Scar was dead, and Darkpelt and Thistleprick were going to make sure their territory was safe. If only they had enough food. Hunger was hard to ignore, but all of the fresh kill had been given to the cats in the medicine cat den, they hadn't caught enough the other night to feed everyone.

Moonfur and Raggedear were awake and well, resting in their nests; Greysight and Lostheart approached them, although Greysight was still somewhat wary. It also surprised her that Moonfur looked so calm sitting beside Raggedear.

"How are you feeling?" questioned Lostheart.

"Better." Raggedear offered.

"We're doing well." Moonfur added, offering a friendly smile. "Amberpaw, Branchpaw, and Warpaw visited me this morning."

This surprised Greysight somewhat, again, only because of the tom sitting beside her. It was almost like Moonfur could read Greysight's thoughts because the first thing she said was:

"Scar killed Wetfrost, Raggedear is innocent, that's the first thing you need to know."

Greysight blinked in surprise, "He admitted to it?"

A nod. "Yes."

"How can you be sure he wasn't lying? And if you didn't do it Raggedear...why did you run?" Greysight meowed, shifting the conversation toward the tortoiseshell tom who had been the victim of their accusations.

"I know he wasn't lying, trust me." Moonfur affirmed, looking to Raggedear to answer Greysight's question.

He looked uncomfortable.

"I panicked..." He admitted, avoiding direct eye contact with the two she-cats, seemingly despite himself. "It was like all of my fears were becoming a reality. When it happens, when he...takes over, I have no recollection of it most of the time. For a second there...I seriously considered the idea that I had killed him, and just didn't know it myself. I didn't know that you knew this whole time, and then Darkpelt started saying all those things... The shock was just too much for me. I thought that you were all going to blame me for it, and hate me for what I may have done, like I was some sort of monster... I didn't want that to happen, so I did what I felt was right, and fled, not wanting to become a prisoner or be forced to endure your hatred, or see the looks of betrayal on everyone's faces."

"I think it was his plan all along..." Moonfur meowed, ending the silence after Raggedear spoke while also catching Lostheart and Greysight's eye.

"You didn't meet him..." she continued eerily. "He was...deceptive, cunning, and merciless." Finding the right words to describe the cat from her encounter wasn't easy. "I think he was definitely capable of something like this...I feel like we were set up."

Lostheart saw Moonfur's mismatched eyes flicker back to Roseclaw, inciting her curiosity.

"Mintleaf told us about what happened, she says Roseclaw claims not to remember anything." Moonfur's voice was hushed as she spoke so that Roseclaw would not be able to hear them, but Moonfur was absolutely certain.

"That's right." Greysight meowed, though she was still very confused. "Wait. Start from the beginning, what do you mean by 'set up'?"

Moonfur looked to Raggedear and he nodded. She swallowed nervously, almost as if she was afraid before she spoke, her voice serious.

"There is something...very wrong with those cats."

Greysight's eyes widened at this; she had felt it from the moment she quite literally laid eyes on them, but Moonfur was the first other cat to say such a thing, aside from her clanmates' confusion on where they had come from or how they had known of their clan.

"They knew things about our clan." Moonfur continued, "He knew things about me, things that I haven't told anyone in detail... He knew about my entire life."

Greysight felt her blood run cold. Could these cats have been tracking and watching Moonfur this entire time? Was that how they had found their clan? But why? Why would they do that?

They were speaking at a normal voice level now, though they knew that they had two listeners across the den.

"He was demented, crazy... He said that he killed Wetfrost, that he was going to kill me, and that our clan was going to be destroyed, and then he tried to kill Raggedear." Convenient, that was the word he had used when Raggedear came back, he said it was convenient. "I think...their aim is to kill all of us."

"Why?!" Greysight demanded suddenly.

"I don't know! He wouldn't say." Moonfur answered, clearly stressed. "I thought I was going to die! I couldn't exactly ask him if he could wait a minute and postpone killing me so that he might answer my questions!"

"It's okay," said Lostheart, though she too was bothered by Moonfur's theory.

"He was going to pick us off one by one!" Moonfur exclaimed. "He killed Wetfrost first and created distrust in our clan, he meant to drive us apart from each other! They spoke strangely and told us odd things, and said that Wetfrost's murderer was among us. We were all so angry and paranoid, especially after finding Pineneedle that we took the bait, it was all a lie to make us turn on each other! What if...he knew that we would blame Raggedear." Moonfur's eyes suddenly lit up and she continued on with her paranoid rant. "He took advantage of the fact that we knew about...his condition, and he used our suspicions and fears against us. He made us drive away our clanmate, and then I left and went after him, and then Lostheart went after me."

Moonfur's eyes flickered over to Roseclaw who caught her gaze.

"Then once the three of us were separated and away from camp, he took action. He took over Roseclaw's body and tried to kill Lostheart!"

Greysight and Lostheart both reacted visibly at this, even Lostheart who had retained her ever-present calm up to that point; their eyes bulged and they turned to look at Roseclaw who looked equally as surprised, completely shocked.

"What?!" Greysight sputtered, making sure she had had heard Moonfur correctly.

"He took over her body, that's why she can't remember anything! It's because she didn't do it, Scar used her! He did the same thing to Raggedear, and then he tried to kill me! Don't look at me like that," she hissed to Greysight, "I'm not crazy! That's what happened- I don't know how, but-"

"It's true." Raggedear meowed, grabbing Lostheart and Greysight's attention. "I fought him briefly and told him that he was outnumbered, I hoped that if I scared him he might leave us alone. I was checking on Moonfur one second and the next I was leaning against a tree and Moonfur was staring down at me, and Scar's body was behind her."

"How do you know you didn't just have one of your regular blackouts?" Greysight asked.

"It definitely wasn't Raggedear, it was Scar. I know it was."

"But...a cat who can possess other cats," Greysight breathed, "That's crazy!"

"Is it?"

The warriors fell silent and looked back across the den where Pineneedle was watching them, blatantly listening in on their conversation. Lostheart found herself looking into his bored gaze and she understood what he meant.

"If there was a cat who could steal lives, maybe the idea of a cat who can possess others isn't so crazy after all." Lostheart meowed grimly.

Greysight fell silent unable to argue with her at that; she remembered what was said about Willowstar in TreeClan, that he was some sort of higher-being, a cat blessed by StarClan; although in DarkClan, the cats had spoke of it as a divine mistake, however it had happened. Greysight didn't understand why such...evil cats, of all cats, would be blessed with the powers from the stars. It didn't make sense. Like Sunstar had said before, such a thing could only be a mistake.

Pineneedle's tail twitched, but he said nothing more.

Lostheart looked to Roseclaw, "...I think Moonfur's right."

Roseclaw stood up from her nest. "She is! I promise, I don't remember anything, I swear to StarClan! I can't imagine killing anybody, least of all my sister! Lostheart, you know I wouldn't kill you, and now Moonfur has proof!"

"Thinking back now, you were acting strange." Lostheart added. "You said a lot of strange things... You told me that I didn't understand anything about the world, you said that some things aren't meant to exist...even if that meant losing someone you loved."

"That's it! Great StarClan! He said the exact same thing to me!" Moonfur gasped, her eyes as wide as the moon itself.

Roseclaw however had met Lostheart's eyes, her own blue ones now a bit dull. "What a sad thing to say..." she mewed. Lostheart hadn't told her what happened, in fact, no one did. Everyone just kept saying that she had attacked her and that was all, she didn't know that she had said such things.

"What else did I-he say?" The idea of someone else controlling her, acting in her stead made Roseclaw's pelt prickle and made her feel sick.

"I don't remember." said Lostheart, shrugging slightly. "Just some random things, he was trying to play on my emotions I think."

"Oh..." She didn't know if Lostheart was telling the truth about not remembering, and knowing Lostheart she doubted it, but she realized that up until a few moments ago, some part of Lostheart must have believed that she had said whatever horrible things Scar said to her.

"Either he intended to kill Lostheart or he hoped that Lostheart would kill Roseclaw." Moonfur continued. "When that failed, he went after me when I was alone, and then he tried to use Raggedear to kill me."

"But if he wanted everyone dead, why didn't he try to take over my body and kill Roseclaw when she was unconscious?" Lostheart meowed.

"I don't know..." Moonfur murmured, narrowing her eyes slightly as she thought about it. "Maybe he wanted us to imprison Roseclaw, or worse. Finding out that she attacked you was a huge shock to the clan, maybe that was just another way to make us distrust each other."

Greysight shook her head, trying to take it all in. "Do you think back then...when you found that nightshade mixed in with my herbs?"

They all fell silent, wearing the same shocked expressions, Moonfur's epiphany bringing so much to light- if their thoughts were true, that is. Moonfur didn't want to believe it, but she could.

That cat Scar was...a mastermind, he had orchestrated everything, all of it.

By the Stars...

"And...you killed him?" Greysight asked strangely, though Moonfur nodded vigorously in return.

"Yes, he's dead."

"Yesterday after I left the medicine cat den, I went looking for him." Greysight admitted. "I found a body, but it didn't seem like his. Scent was useless as I never got his before, but I could feel him lying there and he was too light to be that cat, and..." She lowered her voice so that Pineneedle wouldn't hear them and she spoke only to the four cats with her, now that Roseclaw had joined them. "I could see him before."

"When they came to our camp?" Lostheart whispered.

"Yes. I think you're right about them, Moonfur...something is very wrong with those cats. I don't think I'd be able to see them otherwise." A normal cat would have protested at this, saying that Greysight was the crazy one, but they knew that Greysight had been able to see the StarClan cats so it wasn't so unusual. "But when I asked you to describe them, your description only sort of matched what I saw, and when I found the body, I couldn't see anything."

"His blood was black." Raggedear meowed, offering what little he knew. "He looked different after death, thin, but it was definitely the same cat. The scars on his face made that clear."

"Maybe you couldn't see him anymore because he was dead?" Roseclaw offered.

"Maybe..."

"We need to tell everyone about this, to clear Raggedear and Roseclaw's names; and not just that, we have to warn the other clans. If those two cats are still lurking around here, they could be dangerous." Moonfur suggested, and the others agreed.

Greysight let loose another loud breath of relief, but she offered Moonfur a smile. "But you killed him and the clan is safe, you avenged Wetfrost."

Moonfur smiled lightly in return and the five warriors relaxed a bit, eager to share the good news with Darkpelt, Thistleprick, Mintleaf, and the apprentices.

"Yes, I did."