Its been fun writing this and it was something I was very passionate about, so the finale is just really short but still satisfying. (in some ways)
Read afterwards for some questions answered and stuff like that.
Nightstorm felt the leaves crack beneath his paws as he ran through the woods. You have to keep going, get a move on!
A fire erupted in front of Nightstorm causing him to skid to a halt. He hesitated before running directly through it, the fire vanishing. It's not real, it's not real. A bear lunged at him through the pathway. He didn't flinch and kept running. A huge tidal wave crashed through the forest but he kept running, never looking back.
Finally Nightstorm arrived at camp and jumped through the entrance, seeing dozens of cats fighting in the clearing. Some of them he knew were dead, like Snakefang… others he wasn't sure. He looked around for Stonepelt and saw him struggling with two other cats, Nightstorm instantly running forward. He couldn't risk that not being real.
He ran through the fighting cats, most of them vanishing when he ran past them. Are they all fake? When he reached Stonepelt one cat swatted him straight in his head and he was knocked to the ground. Looking up, he saw the clearing was empty, and there were only four cats along with him. Where are my clanmates?
Nightstorm was pinned down by a CaveClan cat, being pressed hard onto the dusty ground of camp. He caught a glimpse of Stonepelt managing to slash one of the cats throats, but the others tackled him and were ready to kill the struggling warrior. Nightstorm recognized Addertail, about to deliver the killing blow.
If he did nothing to help Stonepelt, Nightstorm wouldn't die. The FireClan cats that were off somewhere would defeat the remaining Star's and he would be saved. But if he tried to save Stonepelt, Nightstorm might die instead. Nightstorm heard a kit like voice in his head. Save him.
Nightstorm launched the cat holding him down while the CaveClan cat was not expecting it and jumped on him, sinking his jaws into the CaveClan cat's throat.
The CaveClan cat gasped as blood pooled out of his throat and Nightstorm turned and ran towards Stonepelt. Nightstorm jumped on Addertail, knocking him backwards and tackling the other cat, who must've been from LightClan and was struggling in Nightstorm's grasp. Nightstorm gave him a quick killing blow before stopping in front of Addertail. Addertail opened his jaws to speak. "Move, we have to kill Stonepelt and bring StarClan back," hissed Addertail, blood dripping from his shoulder.
"StarClan isn't here, and they will never be," said Nightstorm coldly.
Addertail let out an irritated hiss before launching himself at Stonepelt, who batted him on his head and knocked Addertail to the ground, a claw mark in his throat. Even with blood pouring out of him, Addertail weakly continued trying to get himself at Stonepelt, swiping a blind claw at the gray warrior. Eventually, Addertail stumbled and slumped to the ground, remaining motionless.
Nightstorm looked up from Addertail's dead body to see Mintbreeze sitting over the fallen medicine cat. She looked to be exhausted, her eyes wary. Nightstorm ignored her, turning around to try and find the rest of FireClan. When he turned back that way, she was gone.
Whiteheart and a few others rushed through the camp entrance a few moments later. "We killed the Star, is that Addertail?" asked Whiteheart, clearly confused.
Nightstorm shrugged. Stonepelt explained. "They waited for you to leave so they could attack me, Graycloud is dead, I don't know about Sandfur..."
Nightstorm looked at the bodies littering the ground sadly and saw the pelt of Graycloud and Sandfur, but the tan warrior's chest was rising up and down. Her fur was matted in blood, but IceClan's medicine cat was with the others so she would be fine.
Nightstorm felt his eyes go droopy. He was shocked about everything that had happened, but he knew he needed to rest. "I'm gonna go to sleep," said Nightstorm to Stonepelt.
Stonepelt nodded. "I think you need it... Hunting tomorrow? That seems like a bad thing to ask right now, but I couldn't help it."
Nightstorm weakly smiled. "Sure," he replied, before settling down in the warrior's den to drift off to sleep.
A few things to note:
Nightstorm in the story is kind of mentally ill, he sees things like mintbreeze (which are completely fake, no ghosts or anything) and has trouble telling reality from fiction
StarClan doesn't affect this story, it's with the others, Addertail is just insane
Nightstorm is good at fighting. He just is.
Questions:
Is StonexNight a confirmed ship: yes, it was just not something they would say in that moment
Is Mintbreeze real at all: no, she is NOT REAL, not a ghost either
Where is StarClan: They are with the others
How does Nightstorm know the caves so well?: He doesn't, he only knows 2 routes, and in other parts of the book her is just lost and wandering for hours until her comes across something
Why can Nightstorm take out an entire patrol but not Addertail?: Well, he used what I call dirty tactics to defeat them, ambushing them and tricking them to hurt themselves. He doesn't really use this as much until the final battle, and is a rather small cat so he easily gets pinned down.
What was Briarpatch doing? A: It doesn't matter, just being a bad mentor
Why did no other cats question Nightstorm's talking to Mintbreeze when they witnessed it until the end?: This is part of Yellowstar's thing to try and protect Nightstorm. She's not really a bad cat, and just told the Clan to ignore his illusions. She gets Stonepelt and Sandfur in the middle to try and stop it by feeding him poppy seeds in his food, which calm him down.
Why did Yellowstar die instantly?: Yellowstar wasn't ever granted nine lives by StarClan since they don't walk in these skies.
Are the Star's gone for good?: Maybe. I believe maybe two members are still alive but yeah they're basically gone.
Is Lakeheart dead? Yes, that was actually a deleted scene where Nightstorm found her body in the caves.
Why did the cat in the prologue kill herself? Another thing I forgot to mention but will probably be updated. The Star's essentially threatened to kill her mate if she didn't kill herself, and they thought she was an imposter.
Is Lonelymist Nightstorm's father?: NO, it's just some rogue
Will there be a sequel?: Maybe, idk. I have an idea for one, but this was a pretty stand-alone story.
Thats all the questions i could think of, pm me if you have anymore.
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A bit of an analysis
Nightstorm's character:
You may have noticed while reading Nightstorm doesn't really accomplish anything with his life, he just sits around and waits for Stonepelt to do stuff. This is very intentional, and Nightstorm doesn't do anything GOOD in the Clans
He's a side character. THAT'S RIGHT HE'S A SIDE CHARACTER. Who's the main character? Stonepelt. He has every trait in the book, revenge, following his Clan no matter what, being the main target by the villain and finally killing the bad guy in a 1v2
So Stonepelt is the obvious candidate for leader, and Nightstorm is just... there. But if Nightstorm didn't get the help he needed, some cat who seems so un important like him could easily grow unstable. Nightstorm is clearly very troubled by his past and is already a bit on the mentally ill side, but every cat focuses on everything else happening and no cat looks at him. He needs help that he's not getting.
You may think Nightstorm is stupid for following Addertail blindly but its really his only choice. Addertail is the only one who seems trustworthy to him, he tries to help Nightstorm to lure him into the Star's cult. Finally, Nightstorm overcomes his fears but is still having hallucinations and he always will, he's just, better now.
The hidden message:
The Clans are stupid. They are in the cannon books, they are here. Nightstorm and many others are extremely tired of the favoritism, unfairness, and just cult-like tendencies the Clans have, which is why Addertail is able to turn them against the Clans so easily because he's more or less right.
Addertail is killed because he was too ignorant and trusted within his beliefs too much (something I see often) instead of keeping safe, hence the flooding of the tunnels.
Yellowstar is killed because her system sucked and cats already hated her, they just kicked her out when she was lying to them.
Nightstorm could VERY EASILY rise to power if he wanted too, there is no position for leader and the FireClan cats (while not sacrificing "imposters) are still rebelling, and they are in the right here.
I firmly believe that if the Clans were real then something like this could happen SUPER quickly. A rebellion that turns from good too just evil within a few days, cats that are dangerous like Nightstorm being ignored while the focus is on Stonepelt and the Clans falling apart.
I hope you enjoyed Nightfall...