Adderpaw

I don't know how long I slept, but it was really nice. When I came to, a wave of exhaustion swept over me, surrounding my body in a dull ache.

Then I noticed the beautiful white she-cat gently grooming my fur. I supposed she was around my age, and probably a kittypet, because she didn't look like she'd ever been outside. And her claws were missing. But there was a long scar down the side of her face that looked fresh.

"Good! You're awake! You're from the Clans, right? I wonder what Clan you're from. I bet you're from BreezeClan - no, WaterClan - wait, don't tell me, you're from DarkClan! What's it like? Are you-"

I shoved my tail in her mouth to make her stop. "Great StarClan, you talk way too much!"

"Oh, that's another thing Clan cats say!" she replied, spitting out my tail. "I just want to know everything! I'm so excited. Clan life is going to be great!"

"It's not all it's cracked up to be." Out of the shadows, another white she-cat showed her face, which looked vaguely familiar.

But she was certainly more familiar with Smoky. He looked at her in such a way I'd only seen between Echostream and Honeytail once, when my parents were still mates.

Anyway, what did she know about the clans? "What makes you say that?"

"I was a part of ShadowClan once, before a certain deputy showed me how much better being a rogue could be," she answered, tilting her head towards Smoky.

Suddenly, it clicked in my mind. "You're Snowberry," I blurted, and she let out a soft chuckle. "Yes, I am. And you're Adderkit."

Groan. "I'm an apprentice now."

"Well, Adderpaw, I-"

"Enough about her. She already knows all this stuff, and won't tell me. But you will, so it's time for me now," The younger white she-cat interjected.

"StarClan forbid anyone else get attention." Streamripple sulked in the corner while she devoured a mouse. Yet another white cat, a tom, shot her a glare.

"You never told me what Clan you're from," she continued.

"You never told me why you care."

"Oh. Right." She giggled. "I don't know what happened, but I realized that I was wasting my life away as a housecat, and then my bestie StreamRipple-" Streamripple growled, "came and inspired me to join you! I thought about BreezeClan, but I am such a slow runner! And definitely not WaterClan, because fish is disgusting!"

"Well, it would certainly be helpful to know the actual names of the Clans," I replied coolly. But the she-cat ignored my tone, looking at me expectantly. "Fine. ShadowClan. The one with all the rats."

"Haha. That's funny, Adderpaw. More Clan humor."

I sat up straighter, the pain ebbing away. "Who are you?"

Her face lit up. "Well, my kittypet - that's what they're called, right? - My name was Bella, but I want a real Clan name."

"Adderpaw. I'm glad to see you're awake, and so soon," Smoky pointed out, approaching me and giving me a satisfied nod. "Get well soon. Snowberry?" The white she-cat got up and the two of them headed for the exit of what I now realized was a twoleg structure.

"Wait. Smoky. Can you help me out with Bella?" I asked, and she frowned once she heard her old name. Smoky chuckled.

"It seems like you're doing just fine." With that, Smoky and Snowberry left me to deal with the overexcited kittypet.

Mosspaw

While I fought Sunfoot, I had to hold in a laugh. It felt effortless, and she struggled to keep her balance. Like with Ottertail, I restrained myself enough so that she wouldn't sustain any major injuries, but she was extremely weak by the end. And Oakpaw managed to defeat the other two warriors.

But then I heard a gasp behind me. Oakpaw and I turned around to look.

Mistyclaw was muzzle to muzzle with Alderstar. I had no idea about her wounds, but they looked awful, and now Alderstar was speaking softly, but his words were dripping with menace. Mistyclaw looked deeply traumatized.

Somehow, Sunfoot must have had enough strength to get up, because she brushed past me. "Alderstar. I found two apprentices on our border. They're two of the ones with the freaky powers."

Alderstar smirked and looked around the clearing. He stopped and frowned.

"But I only see one." The leader lunged at Sunfoot, and pushed her past… Sunfoot's crumpled body…

But as they fought, Sunfoot's fur became darker, her vibrant green eyes shifted to a deep blue, and I realized Oakpaw was the one fighting Alderstar, while the real Sunfoot was still in a daze, rambling about her hopes with Alderstar.

So of course, I focused on the idea of Oakpaw winning the fight.

But Mistyclaw came up to me and broke my concentration. I just hoped it would be enough to keep Oakpaw safe against the experienced leader.

"Go get Badgerbranch and tell him I sent you. We have to leave the Clans before anything gets worse."

"But I can't just abandon Oakpaw!" I looked over at him just in time to see Alderstar hit Oakpaw's head. Blood trickled out from behind his ear. "Give me a moment, I need to focus on the battle." And I thought Mistyclaw could put two and two together.

And as I focused, Oakpaw gained the advantage.

"Mosspaw!" she cried, and I clenched my jaw.

Alderstar tripped Oakpaw, and he stumbled to the ground. I yelled back at her, "I told you, Mistyclaw, I need to focus!"

"No! Look out!"

Someone landed a blow on my head, and everything went dark.

Streamripple

As Bella berated Adderpaw with questions, I laughed a bit to myself. Thankfully, Adderpaw woke up sooner than Harepaw did, so I figured his ability to heal faster had something to do with it. Now he was overwhelmed, but I didn't really want to deal with Bella's attempts at friendship, so I slipped out of the room the same way Smoky and Snowberry went. Ghost bared his teeth at me as I passed him.

I wanted to ask Smoky what we were doing here, or how long we were staying, or something to make sense of everything, but it appeared that he and Snowberry were deep in conversation.

"ShadowClan hasn't felt the same since you left. I wish you'd come back." That was Smoky's gruff voice. Then I heard a sigh from Snowberry.

"You know that I'm doing much better now. I can enjoy the freedom of being a rogue with only the companionship of Ghost and Bella. I never liked being in a large Clan anyways."

Smoky hesitated. "Have you and Ghost been… close?"

"Are you jealous, Smoky?" Snowberry asked, giggling a little. "No. I can't possibly imagine how Ghost and I would be anything more than good friends. Sure, he's been a good source of support. But no one could ever take your place. You know this."

Smoky sighed this time, and when he spoke again, the majority of the emotion was drained from his voice. "Well. I know you don't want to come back. But I also know there are going to be a lot of changes affecting the Clans. Something big is coming, and if you ever change your mind, you are more than welcome to come back."

"Well, although I know that's highly unlikely, I can't say I'm not curious about these 'changes.'"

Neither could I. Smoky had stirred up all the thoughts in my mind. I knew that he couldn't be talking about anything other than Leopardscar, but something about the way he said it seemed off.

Smoky laughed slyly. "I don't want to say anything. I don't know how Adderpaw would react, let alone Streamripple, and Bella… Well, she's unstable right now, thanks to Streamripple. I don't know how she'd react to finding how different everything's going to be. But," he added, standing up, "I do know we're staying here for the time being to let the current uproar in the Clans die down. So you'll have to spend a lot more time with me."

"StarClan forbid," she answered, and her giggle returned. I heard the shuffle of their paws as they started to walk towards me, so I darted inside and tried to quickly situate myself in the corner as if I'd been there the whole time. Luckily, Smoky and Snowberry barely gave me a second glance as they came in after me.

My mind raced. Smoky was definitely up to something. He almost made it sound like these changes were going to be so drastic, they would change the way the Clans operated forever, and I doubted anything good would come of it.

Oakpaw

Even though I knew Mosspaw was trying her best to help me maintain the upper paw, her power was failing. When Alderstar drew blood from my flank, I knew something was wrong. And I was right, Sunfoot had used some of the last of her strength to knock her out while Mistyclaw watched in horror. I didn't blame her, she was obviously too weak to help.

But that meant I would have to win this battle on my own. I swept Alderstar's legs out from under him, and he toppled to the ground. Sunfoot gasped loudly, and for some reason, the leader got up and rushed over to her, completely ignoring me.

"Sunfoot, what happened to you?" His voice was strained, and he was looking all over her, checking for wounds. Sunfoot flicked her tail in the direction of Mosspaw's collapsed body. "I'm glad you're not hurt," he replied.

I ran over to Mistyclaw to make sure she was alright. Thankfully, the terrible wounds she had didn't open up too much, but she looked haunted by the scene in front of her.

"Seriously, Alderstar? Sunfoot? Is she your revenge-mate or something?" Mistyclaw spat.

Alderstar frowned. "At this point, Mistyclaw, you should know I'm above that. After you betrayed me, I realized that all this time, it was Sunfoot who was on my side. You tricked me, Mistyclaw. But in the wake of your destruction, Sunfoot was sincere. While you deceived me, she genuinely wanted to help me. And that is why… I love her."

Ouch. Even though I had no idea what went on between Mistyclaw and Alderstar, I could tell it stung. She even stopped breathing for a moment.

"I literally saw this coming," she whispered, breathing again. Sunfoot frowned deeply. "But I didn't want to believe it. There's something you should know about your new mate, Alderstar."

Her sister's eyes widened. "Wait. Mistyclaw. No. Don't ruin this for me."

Suddenly, I knew what she was doing. It was a good thing Sunfoot reacted the way she did, because now, Alderstar would know it was true.

"The cat who gave us the abilities meant for me to assist Sunfoot in her assignment to take over ThunderClan."

Alderstar stumbled back, away from Sunfoot. "You… were working against me? Did you really love me? Or was I just part of your plan?"

As he moved backward, Sunfoot sighed. "Love… not really. I did like you. You would have been such a great leader. But I have to do this because Mistyclaw moved up the timeline. And I need this plan to work."

She rushed forward. Alderstar, sensing her attack, tried to run away, but she landed on top of him and split him open. I looked away, but I could hear him shuddering each time he revived, only to die again.

When he was finished, Sunfoot hollered into the forest, "Sneezeheart! Ravenflight! The freaks killed Alderstar! Help!"

Mosspaw

The black receded. I blinked several times, and slowly, Oakpaw's blurry figure became clear.

"What happened?" I asked blearily.

"I'll have to tell you later. We got to run. Again. Of course this had to happen when two out of three of us were injured. Can you move?"

I got up. I shook a little, but I replied, "I'll manage."

"Good. Then we have to help Mistyclaw."

That's when I saw the trail of blood. I tried to look, but Oakpaw turned me away. "Trust me. You don't want to see."

As we picked up Mistyclaw, holding her up between us as she was muttering in shock, I thought back to the battle. "I'm sorry about the battle. My powers were fading, and it was getting harder to concentrate."

"Don't worry about it," Oakpaw replied quickly. We started speed-walking as fast as we could go with Mistyclaw between us. She winced, but kept moving. "You had already used it too much today. I don't want you to overdo it in the future, okay?"

"Yeah. Okay."

And we're back again! This is the first chapter I've written from scratch since I decided to rewrite the story.

Thanks for reading! Please comment if you have any questions or feedback.