AN: A note before we get started is that I'm publishing this for myself. This is a stress-relief fanfic for me, and is mostly uploaded here because I wanted to see it in a new way.
Chapter One: In Which the Great Battle Takes Place
The battle has left the clearing, but still soaks the air. The scent of blood fills Ivypool's nose and keeps her paws light on the ground.
"They went straight for the nursery," Leafpool says. She's shaking.
Dovewing looks grim, her shoulders and tail stiff. Ivypool herself is shaking. The Clan had fought off the attackers, but barely. If Ivypool and Hollyleaf hadn't immediately run back to camp . . .
Hollyleaf is leaning far too heavily on her now. Ivypool can't tell where it's coming from, but the smells says the wound is deep. Ivypool had barely thrown off Snowtuft and Thistleclaw in time to chase Darkstripe away. The dark tabby had been far more competent than Ivypool remembered; he'd nearly killed Hollyleaf.
Leafpool turns to Hollyleaf, pausing before she moves closer. She searches her daughter's eyes, amber staring into green. Ivypool isn't sure for what. But Hollyleaf's answer is clear; she lurches from Ivypool's side and, stumbling, makes her way towards Leafpool. Relief fills Leafpool's eyes. She rushes forward, guiding her daughter into the medicine den.
Satisfied that Leafpool will take care of the cat who saved her from Darkstripe, Ivypool turns to helping patch up the camp and nursery. She glances up at the pale cliff over their heads, and wonders if there's a move that would allow a cat to land without impact—surely Hawkfrost would have taught her if he knew? But who knew how much his father trusted him.
She hadn't seen Hawkfrost through the battle, and a shiver goes down her spine. Could Tigerstar had discovered his son's treachery and killed him already?
She prays to StarClan. 'Please, let him be safe. Let me see him once more.'
Jayfeather feel more than hears when the fighting begins again outside. He checks over his herbs once more, then pulls down more and begins to sort out mixtures for different wounds. They'll have to get more after the battle, for follow-up treatments, but it should last for two more battles at least. As long as no one else gets a near-mortal wound, that is.
He can hear Leafpool tending to Hollyleaf, and can feel how content his sister is. In turn, Leafpool seems ecstatic. But she's also worried, just as he is.
Staying in the den is like a nightmare clawing at his pelt. He's just waiting for the name of the first dead Clanmate to echo in from a grieving loved one. His heart feels too tight.
Then he hear Lionblaze shouting, telling the Clan that the Ancients have come. He doesn't process it.
The brambles move. His heart jumps. "Hollyleaf!" Comes a relieved cry.
"Fallen Leaves," she returns, her voice filled with—something. What sort of affection is that?
Fallen Leaves scrambles to her side. "I have to fight," he says, "but first, I had to make sure .. ."
That's when Jayfeather finally realizes. Half Moon! She'll be out there, fighting along with his Clan. He feels his pelt begin to burn, worry and joy and apprehension all at once. He waits until Fallen Leaves says goodbye to Hollyleaf and runs out, then follows him.
He tastes the air, but can't sense her. "Half Moon!" He doesn't care that he's being obvious, he has to see her. "Are you there?"
"Jay's Wing!" She apparently doesn't care, either. A moment later, her scent crashes over him, and her muzzle is pressed to his, soft and warm. For some reason, being blind in her presence makes his heart jolt. It's real—she's real. He wants to cry his joy to the sky, that she exists and she loves him just as he loves her.
Instead, he whispers, "You came."
Her voice is warm. "Of course, my love." Those words feel like a title more than a form of endearment. He feels stronger than he has in moons. She presses her cheek to his, then pulls away. "I must fight."
He's loath to let her go, but it's not his choice, and it's necessary. So he nods. "Send any wounded to me." He pulls away, and it feels like claws in his pelt, but he pushes his way back into the den.
Cinderheart's shining ghost is fighting side-by-side with Lionblaze, their attack synchronized perfectly. Dustpelt yowls beside the nursery, fighting Dark Forest warriors for each inch towards his wife. A badger roars into the fight, pelt shimmering like starlight, great paws scooping warriors into granite rocks and light wood.
Then she sees a broad tabby slip into camp behind the Ancients, almost unnoticeable to anyone not seeking him. Ivypool's heart leaps into her mouth. Hawkfrost! He's looking around with a sneer, but she can see the worry in his ice-blue eyes. With a glance around, his façade drops as he sees that his father isn't there. He turns and digs his teeth into the nearest Dark Forest warrior, making them yowl in pain. He's fast, and throws each cat out before they can even see his face.
It's not perfect. Brambleclaw sees. His eyes widen. Then he's fighting his way to Hawkfrost, slicing and throwing cats each and every way. Ivypool would follow him, but she's busy fighting Mudtail—a cat who won't let her more than glance away from the fight.
"Stop distracting yourself, or your loner blood will get you killed," he snarls.
Ivypool's blood boils. No one talks about her mother as though she isn't truly the daughter of Cloudtail and Brightheart without paying. She distracts him with a feint, then dives forward and wraps her teeth around his neck.
She's torn away by her scruff, the breath tumbling out of her as she hits the ground and a paw is placed on her throat.
"Traitor," Brokenstar spits. Ivypool pummels his underside with her hind-legs, but he only grimaces as blood flows down her paws and fills the air with the scent. "You could have been a great warrior, Ivypool."
As Ivypool struggles, there's a yowl of pain behind her, and warm crimson spills onto her face. She flinches, blinks the blood from her eyes, and looks up in time to see a white-pelted she-cat fade behind her.
Jayfeather hears the yowl. More than that, he feels Half Moon's life fade out, gentle in the final caress. He freezes while smearing ointment on the shoulder of his Clanmate.
Then he finishes his work. Poultice, cobweb, more cobweb.
He doesn't exactly feel the pain. He knows it's shock. He should treat himself for that. But he doesn't, because he vaguely thinks that the shock keeps him moving. Keeps him breathing and rolling herbs and chewing herbs and applying herbs and covering wounds in cobwebs to keep it in.
He thinks he's breathing. He's not sure he cares.
"Get off of my sister!"
Brokenstar topples with the full weight of gray fur and the fury of mouse-fast claws. Dovewing is on him, swift as WindClan, scratching his side and biting his neck. He stands, throws her off. Dovewing tumbles back; he goes to pounce on her, but she's too fast. She's jumped over him, clawing at his flank with her hind legs. Then she jumps forward, back into the fray, and Ivypool is on her paws. The next second, Dovewing flies from another direction and into him again.
"Oh, you're dead," Brokenstar snarls, and crouches, waiting for her next attack. Dovewing pauses, panting as she faces him. Ivypool stands beside her, hissing at him.
A burst of starlight flares behind Brokenstar. He flinches, but doesn't move—does he think it's not for him? Is he determined to kill Dovewing? It doesn't matter, because Yellowfang is on him, howling in anger before she snaps his neck in her jaw.
The cry goes up that Brokenstar is dead. Ivypool yowls in triumph, taunting Thistleclaw, but he doesn't rise to the bait. The warriors leave the hollow, Thistleclaw included.
"Are you alright?" Lionblaze asks from somewhere nearby. Blood makes him reek, but Dovewing doesn't seem to care as she answers that she is, stepping towards him, and Ivypool moves the opposite direction, stepping through the camp towards Hawkfrost. The ground of the Dark Forest is marshy, but the camp ground, even soaked in blood, is firm. She didn't make it up; Hawkfrost stands before her, speaking with Brambleclaw, and he's hers. She feels like floating.
His conversation with Brambleclaw is soft enough to be inaudible. But he stops speaking when he sees Ivypool, and his broad shoulders loosen.
"I should have known you'd come find me," he meows.
Brambleclaw looks surprised. He looks like Hawkfrost in size and shape, but their eyes are nearly the opposite of each other. "This is your to-be?"
Ivypool feels heat rush her pelt, but she can't help herself from raising her head and tail, and nodding.
Hawkfrost steps forward, purring, and presses his muzzle to her forehead. "This is my to-be," his voice holds enough affection to make her dizzy. "If we both survive." Her heart aches that they might not; he lifts his head, and turns back to Brambleclaw. "If Thistleclaw's seen me, I can't surprise Tigerstar."
Brambleclaw nods. "A direct fight is the only way we can do this. Who knows—he might have already know of your treachery, and be looking for an opportunity to surprise you."
"Maybe," Hawkfrost agrees.
Lionblaze and Dovewing are speaking with Firestar, and when their leader nods, and they bound out of camp—likely to scout. Firestar turns towards them, and his ears twitch at the sight of Hawkfrost.
He approaches them. "Hawkfrost," he greets. "I saw you fighting for us."
Her to-be dips his head in respect. Firestar seems surprised, but accepts it. "I believe that I finally understand my brother's beliefs," Hawkfrost's voice is steady. "And he is right. I cannot stand aside when I've done so much harm, and I can make even a fraction of it right."
"Well spoken," Yellowfang appears beside Firestar. She's as old and crooked as the tales say, fur mussed from battle. "Perhaps you've done enough to earn a place in StarClan."
Hawkfrost's ears twitch in surprise, and Ivypool feels hope flood her. "Really?" she asks, not bothering to hide her delight.
Yellowfang's eyes soften on her. "Even if he must stay in the Dark Forest, no cat would keep you from him," she rasps. She looks back to Hawkfrost. "StarClan has never been a place for the perfect, or even the good. A changed cat is as good as one gone mad with bloodlust that did no harm."
Hawkfrost bows his head. "Thank you," he says, "but even if so, I wouldn't be able to accept unless Tigerstar was dead."
A snarl comes from the deep shadows beside the entrance of the camp. The Clan turns as one, and faces the most vicious of the Dark Forest warriors.
He steps from the shadows, barely; Ivypool is shocked yet again to see how similar he looks to his two sons.
"So this is what you planned?" Tigerstar snarls. "To betray me, and give up all your life's work so that you can marry one cat?"
"Treachery and marrying my beloved are in the plan, yes," Hawkfrost growls. He prowls forward, and no one stops him. "But if that were all I wanted, I'd never have switched sides." Ivypool and Brambleclaw follow, with Firestar matching his pace.
Tigerstar's claws flex. "You others stay out of this, or I'm leaving."
Ivypool's heart leaps into her throat. No way is she going to stand by. But Hawkfrost turns to look at her, a serious look that she knows. The look that reminds her to pick her battles.
Well, she's chosen him. If this is his battle, it's hers as well. But she nods, letting him go ahead, and knowing she won't be able to get into the fight once it's started.
It's his choice. She won't take that from him, not even now.
"Your quarrel is with me," Firestar says. "It's always been with me."
Tigerstar shows all his teeth. "Which is why I'll pick off each and every one of you Clanmates, one by filthy one, and make you watch as I drown them in their own blood."
"You're welcome to try," Hawkfrost growls. He's mad, in the way that Ivypool never sees directed at her. His eyes are the color of two frozen waterfalls.
"Oh, are you putting yourself first?" Tigerstar tilts his head to the side. "I suppose I should start with the traitors. You, then your to-be, then your brother."
"Don't let him make you careless," Ivypool whispers, fear gripping her anew. She's fought Hawkfrost enough to know his worst weaknesses.
"I'll try," Hawkfrost replies, and then launches himself into Tigerstar.
It's an incredible fight. Ivypool has never seen so many specialized moves used in so few seconds. She stands there, transfixed, as they move like water and then like lightning, swift as WindClan and powerful as ShadowClan, practiced as ThunderClan and smooth as RiverClan.
She knows how this will end.
No, no, she'll kill Tigerstar if he does, what if she interrupts now? She can't. Why can't she save him? Why can't she be fast enough to interrupt, to change the course—
Hawkfrost breaks away, and Tigerstar yowls victory before he's fully back, and then—
Hawkfrost's teeth dig deep into Tigerstar's neck. Tigerstar yowls, struggles. His struggles go faint. It's too soon for him to weaken! And then there's a gash from Hawkfrost's neck to his tail, and he falls to his side with gurgling blood.
Tigerstar staggers to his paws, but Firestar is on him in a second, snarling and ferocious. And he pins him down. That's all he does. There is no glory in how Tigerstar dies, no screeching or terrifying claws. There is just Tigerstar, and blood flowing from his throat.
Or so Dovewing tells her later. Ivypool doesn't care.
She's next to Hawkfrost the second he's down, and Brambleclaw follows.
She can't breath.
"I love you," she forces out. "I love you, I love you so much."
He looks at her, his eyes loving and gentle, as they had come to be with the slow growth of their relationship.
Brambleclaw presses his muzzle to Hawkfrost's pelt, and Hawkfrost bats him gently on the head.
It takes him little time to fade.
Nearly everyone lives. Ivypool tries to focus on that as Dovewing presses to her side. Few of the Clan look twice at her, and she realizes that no one was watching Hawkfrost when he touched her and nodded to Brambleclaw's question.
She'd thought this would happen. Worse, when they'd begun to seek each other away from training, she'd seen it as inevitable that one days she'd have to kill him. It had to be that way, if anyone could defeat him.
But he'd been good. He'd changed, and regretted his actions, and wanted to make up for them. If he'd managed to kill Tigerstar and live, he likely would have been welcomed to StarClan. And if StarClan has been kind enough to marry them, they could have kept in contact even though they were separated by death.
She focuses. Almost everyone lives. Ferncloud has a deep scar on her shoulder. Dustpelt only has one ear now. Daisy will likely lose her nose, Cloudtail has a deep gash in his side, Thornclaw lost a bit of his tail, Sorreltail has dozens of wounds, Foxleap is dying, Brackenfur is dead, Mousefur died, Spiderleg and Bumblestripe and Hazeltail all died—
Focus. Nearly everyone lives.
She stands vigil that night. There were bodies to bury, but there were no bodies for the twice-dead. She stares up at the sky and tries not to yowl about how unfair and imperfect the world is, about how she could have been married to a cat she hadn't expected to change, and yet he had.
Why had Tigerstar been allowed to live? Why had he been allowed to gather an army? Yet, if he hadn't, would she have ever met Hawkfrost? Would he ever have changed? He was dead, but in the eyes of ThunderClan, he was redeemed forever.
She stands vigil with others. Purdy, now their lone elder. Dovewing, Lionblaze, Brambleclaw, Sorreltail, Firestar and Sandstorm. Cloudtail does as well, tail over his paws as he stares at the sky—grief, and wonder. Seeing the stars come to life before him had been enough to awaken his faith.
There are pawsteps during the night. Tired pawsteps. Jayfeather stops beside her, tucks his tail over his feet, and lifts his face to the sky.
She doesn't know why he's here. She can't think of anyone she knows he would grieve for. But he is softer than he seems, she thinks. Perhaps he's here for the others.
But something tells her it's more than that. Maybe it's the way his shoulders are stiff as rock, or the tilt of his head that leads his clouded eyes to the stars.
What of the twice-dead?
There was Spottedleaf, and Hawkfrost—and that white pelt she saw fade. Jayfeather sits next to her. He looks empty. Stubborn, but worn down.
He looks how she feels.
Maybe she's wrong. Maybe he's here for the others. But something is telling her that he's here for the same reason she is. He lost someone he loved deeply, and her heart is wracked with pain anew.
She touches his tail with hers. She waits for him to pull away, but he doesn't. She looks again to the sky. She wants to fall to the ground, to shake and yowl, but she keeps herself as calm as she can.
Oh, how hard it is when Jayfeather briefly touches his muzzle to her shoulder.
AN: As you have probably already guessed, there are a whole bunch of changes to the universe here.
For one, Whitewing was adopted by Cloudtail and Brightheart, for the whole purpose of Jayfeather and Ivypool being unrelated biologically. Second cousins once removed, as they canonically are, are fine for reproduction, but it bugged me. Yes, they will be the main couple, but it will not be fast going.
Another big change is that, as you've likely picked up by now, marriage is a thing. Because this is my fanfic, and it's for fun! And I want marriage to be a thing, nothing deep about it.
Finally, there will be more changes, but they'll be pretty obvious. For example, I listed a lot of the dead cats because the list strays from the original, and Cinderheart is mentioned as a ghost because yeah she's dead (more on that later), and no Hawkfrost isn't evil because Ivypool needs more pain than she already has.
After this final battle, nothing is the same, because I haven't read the books that come after OotS—I'm sure if I had, I wouldn't want to change so much.