Summary: Two warriors find themselves in the body of the other. Cue shenanigans.
Welp, this is quite possibly the worst and weakest AU I've written so far. Nothing flows right and there are a lot of plot holes and overall I just don't like how this one turned out.
But I already came this far, might as well post it and let everyone see the next atrocity I've written this week.
I'd say I would delete it if I really hated it, but I probably won't. :/
This ended up being rushed and delayed by a day because of mental health stuff and because I want a Halloween chapter to come out before Halloween ends. I'm thinking bout doing that sequel for Halloween Magic...
Reviews are appreciated!
His wounds ached and stung as he sank gratefully into his nest. Great Starclan, he was tired! It had been a busy day of rebuilding what the badgers had destroyed, along with the usual hunting and patrolling. The clan was exhausted more than usual; they were still adjusting to living in their new territory, many warriors had been injured, and they had lost Sootfur and Cinderpelt.
Plus, he had no deputy still. So now he was taking up not only his leader duties, but also responsibilities meant for the deputy of Thunderclan.
'Not so much different from when I was deputy,' Firestar mused. The only difference was that he was receiving help this time.
His clanmates also weren't slowly losing their minds and faith like Bluestar had.
'Sometimes I just wish I was a normal warrior again,' he groused. He closed his eyes, slipping away into sleep.
When his consciousness brushed back into a more awake state, he realized that he hadn't really dreamt that night. He mut have been incredibly exhausted to not dream.
A cold breeze ruffled at his fur, and he lazily opened his eyes. Stretching his jaws in an enormous yawn, he looked up. A patch of pale sky was visible through a ragged hole-
His jaws snapped back shut. 'This isn't the leaders' den!'
Around him other cats were beginning to wake. Cloudtail got up, wincing as he put weight on the paw that had lost a claw. "Badgers!" he snorted. "If I never see another, it'll be too soon."
"Did I accidentally wander into the warriors' den?" he muttered to himself, frowning at his deeper voice.
Cloudtail gave him an odd look. "You came in with everyone else last night. Mouse-brain," he whispered the last part to himself. He brushed between two branches, out into the clearing.
Firestar narrowed his eyes. Not particularly at his nephew's prickly attitude and words, but at the notion that he had joined the other warriors in the warriors' den when he clearly remembered going to sleep in his own nest.
He rose from the nest, letting out a grunt of pain as his shoulder stung and throbbed. He hadn't remembered hurting his shoulder this badly!
Just before he could exit the den, he heard his daughter and Ashfur just outside. Curiosity took hold, so he stood without moving, screened by a branch, to listen.
"Look, Ashfur." Squirrelflight's voice told Firestar that she was trying hard to hold her temper.
"I really care about you as a friend, but I don't want any more than that."
"But I love you!" Ashfur protested. More hesitantly, he added, "We'd be great together, Squirrelflight, I know we would."
He almost felt sympathetic towards the gray warrior. He knew there was friction between her and Brambleclaw, but he didn't realize that his daughter had struck something up with Ashfur as well.
"I'm sorry," Squirrelflight went on. "I never meant to hurt you, but Brambleclaw- well, I think Starclan has destined us to be together."
"I don't know how you can say that!" There was the hint of a snarl in Ashfur's voice. "You said yourself that it's impossible to trust a cat with Brambleclaw's heritage. He's a great cat, I know, but he is still Tigerstar's son."
All his sympathy vanished in that moment, being replaced by a stony cold anger towards both of them. He knew it took him moons to trust Brambleclaw, but he knew now that the tabby was nothing like his father. He never should have judged him based on his looks alone.
He didn't know how much of Ashfur's words he could trust, but he still felt shock that his own daughter might possibly think or had thought of Brambleclaw the same way as Ashfur did.
'Starclan, do I know my warriors at all? Do I even know what my own daughters think?'
"I'll judge Brambleclaw by his own actions," she retorted hotly, "not by something that other cats did long before I was born." He felt relief at her words.
"I'm only thinking of you, Squirrelflight," Ashfur meowed. "I can remember Tigerstar. His paws were red with the blood of innocent cats. You know that he murdered my mother to lure a pack of dogs to our camp?"
Squirrelflight murmured something Firestar couldn't catch, then went on more clearly, "But that doesn't mean Brambleclaw will turn out like his father."
Movement behind Firestar distracted him, and he realized that more of the warriors were stirring. Not wanting to be caught eavesdropping, he slid quickly between the branches and into the clearing.
Squirrelflight turned to him as he appeared. "Hi, Brambleclaw!"
'Brambleclaw?!'
He glanced down at his body, now that he was in the light and not in a dark den. Dark tabby fur greeted him instead of his vibrant ginger.
She padded over to him and touched noses with him. He flinched, and he felt guilt at the hurt glistening in her eyes.
"Something wrong?"
"I… yeah. I had a bad dream," he murmured, trying to sound tired. He tried his best to ignore the frosty look Ashfur was giving him.
'She's into Brambleclaw… but I'm Brambleclaw right now!' She was giving him an inquisitive look, so he gave her an awkward smile. "It's fine, really," he tried reassuring her. He didn't want to be the reason why Squirrelflight's and Brambleclaw's relationship soured.
But if he was in Brambleclaw's body, then where was the warrior in question?
As if summoned, a flash of ginger appeared in the corner of his eye, and he turned to see his own body emerge from the Highledge. His fur was ruffled and his green eyes were glazed in confusion.
He inwardly cringed at the disheveled look. 'No! You can't go out looking like that in front of the clan!' he internally yowled at his body.
"Firestar!" he called out, twitching as he called out his own name. The ginger-furred tom stared down at him in confusion, then horror, then in understanding. "Can we talk for a moment?" he forced out.
"I- yes of course," 'Firestar' composed himself.
He all but ran up the Highledge and into his den.
"Brambleclaw?" he tested. His body looked up instantly at the name, confirming Firestar's suspicions.
"Firestar… what is going on? Why are you in my body?" he worriedly meowed.
"I should be asking you that!" Firestar whispered fiercely.
Neither one of them knew what was going on or why they were in the other's body. "Is this a Starclan thing?" Brambleclaw wondered out loud.
He paused and briefly wondered the same. If anything, Starclan had to behind this. Who else had the power to switch the minds and bodies of two cats?
"Shouldn't you go to the Moonpool and consult with Starclan?" Brambleclaw asked him.
He rolled his eyes. "Sure, Brambleclaw, who is just an ordinary warrior, will speak with Starclan and not the leader of Thunderclan. I'm sure no one will find that weird at all."
"So I'll have to go instead?"
He studied his own face, creased into worry and confusion. Brambleclaw couldn't just go to the Moonpool without a good reason. It would worry the clan if their leader thought he needed to talk to Starclan all of a sudden. The only problem they've had so far were the badgers, but they had gotten through it as well as they could.
Outside, cats were starting to mull about, wondering what was taking their leader so long.
"We don't have enough time to talk about this right now," he muttered.
Brambleclaw's ears pricked up. "Dawn patrols! We need dawn patrols!"
Firestar wondered where he was going with this.
"You lead a patrol and cats will just assume that we were discussing who would go where for the day."
He deflated; it was a good idea to start, but he didn't like that their time was about to be cut short.
"Just be ready to address the clan if needed," he stressed.
Brambleclaw's ears flattened, and he took an audible breath. "Yeah, okay. I can do that." It was almost like he was trying to convince himself. "What about going to the Moonpool?"
He racked his head for an idea. He twisted his head to gaze outside, where the clan was beginning to voice their confusion louder. "One of us will think of something later. Is there anything I need to know about what's going on in your life?"
Brambleclaw recoiled. "What?"
"I just had to witness Squirrelflight turn down Ashfur's advances. I don't either of us want to find ourselves in another awkward position."
The not-leader looked contemplative for a moment, before he shook his head. "Just don't do anything weird with Squirrelflight."
Firestar gave him a disgusted look. "That's my daughter."
Brambleclaw at the very least looked embarrassed over the suggestion.
"Just don't do anything weird with Sandstorm if we're going to go there," he grumbled.
"That's your mate?"
"Exactly."
.
.
The sky above Firestar's head was dark, but the sickly glow of fungus guided his paws along the path. Shadowy ferns brushed his fur with damp, sticky fronds. Every hair on his pelt prickled as he padded through the murky undergrowth. The pain from his wounded shoulder had vanished, and he felt stronger and more powerful with every heartbeat.
'What is going on? Where is this?'
Soon the path grew wider and opened up into a clearing. Though no moon shone, a pale wash of light revealed a dark tabby tom with a snow-white underbelly and ice-blue eyes. Next to him, waiting on a rock was a tom that made his pelt bristle in horror.
Hawkfrost sprang to his paws and raced toward him. "Brambleclaw!" he exclaimed. "Where have you been?"
Hawkfrost made it sound like Brambleclaw had been visiting these two toms in his dreams for a while now. 'Brambleclaw, say it isn't true! Don't tell me that you've been visiting Tigerstar for who knows how many moons? You know what he's done! You've seen it with your own eyes! Why would you ever trust this cat?!'
"Badgers attacked our camp," he said carefully, not wanting to reveal what was more than necessary.
"Badgers!" Hawkfrost's neck fur bristled. He knew how dangerous they were. "How many?"
"Enough," Firestar replied grimly.
"And you're wounded." Hawkfrost's ice-blue gaze softened into concern as he noticed the long scar on 'Brambleclaw's' shoulder.
"It's nothing." He stared up at Tigerstar, not sure what to say to the loathed tom. 'Brambleclaw, you're Brambleclaw right now, not Firestar. What would Brambleclaw say?'
He swallowed his pride and dipped his head to the former Shadowclan leader. "Greetings, Tigerstar."
"Greetings." Tigerstar's amber gaze pinned Firestar like an eagle's talon. "You have not been here for nearly a quarter moon. If you want power you must commit yourself totally- every hair, every claw, every drop of blood. Anything less is weakness."
How was he supposed to respond to that? "I am committed!" he protested, almost indignantly.
Tigerstar only glared at him. "You haven't been taking any of my advice seriously for moons now."
Relief flooded back into him at the revelation that perhaps Brambleclaw wasn't following in his murderous father's pawsteps and plotting to kill him and take over as Thunderclan's leader. Even if he was technically leader at the moment…
"But in any case, you fought with courage," Tigerstar praised him. "I'm proud you were prepared to risk your life to save your clan."
He twitched his ears uneasily. He hadn't told Hawkfrost or Tigerstar about the badger attack and yet the evil tabby had made it sound like he already knew. He forced his pelt to lay flat. 'Do that mean he knows that I'm not Brambleclaw?!'
"You need to make sure Firestar remembers how bravely you fought and how hard you have worked for your clan since the attack," Tigerstar went on. "That will serve you well when he comes to choose a deputy."
'Okay, so he doesn't know,' he thought relieved. Thank Starclan he and Brambleclaw had decided not to tell anyone about the body-swapping yet. He definitely didn't need Tigerstar to know who he was really talking to.
"I still haven't had an apprentice," he reminded Tigerstar. "And Firestar won't choose another deputy until he's sure Graystripe is dead."
"Then you need to delay his decision for as long as possible, so that you have time to be given an apprentice," Tigerstar meowed. "How are you going to do that? Hawkfrost, what do you think?"
"Encourage him to think Graystripe is alive," Hawkfrost suggested.
'He is alive,' he sourly thought to the tabby.
"It can't be true, of course, but it's what Firestar wants to believe, so it shouldn't be too hard to convince him."
He had to stop himself from snapping at Hawkfrost. 'Don't listen to him. Why would I listen to anything Hawkfrost says anyway?'
The idea that Hawkfrost and Tigerstar were currently trying to manipulate Brambleclaw to this extent, quite possibly every night, made his insides squirm.
Tigerstar gave Hawkfrost an approving nod; then his gaze swiveled once more to Firestar. "What else?"
"Er... make sure I take care of the deputy duties," Firestar meowed. "That'll make a good impression on Firestar, and at the same time make him feel it's not urgent to choose a new deputy yet."
"And?" Firestar cast about wildly in his mind. It was like trying to pin down a piece of prey without the help of sound or scent. He didn't think it would be this hard to pretend to be Brambleclaw!
"Make friends with those kits of Daisy's," Hawkfrost mewed, giving Firestar a flick with his tail. "They'll be the next apprentices, won't they? If one of them asks for you as his mentor, you're all set."
"Sure," Firestar meowed. "I can do that. They're good kits, even if their mother isn't clanborn."
'Wait, he hates those without clan blood,' he realized.
"Do you think it matters that their mother came from the horseplace?" Firestar ventured, genuinely curious as what Tigerstar thought.
"Their mother should go back where she came from," Tigerstar growled. Firestar almost rolled his eyes; of course Tigerstar would think that. "She'll never be any use to the clan. But the kits may do well enough, if they're properly trained."
Hawkfrost's whiskers twitched. "Don't forget that my mother wasn't clanborn, either. Riverclan won't forget it, that's for sure, but it doesn't make me weak or stupid."
Tigerstar gave his son a curt nod. "Your mother was a rogue, but dedicate yourself to the warrior code, and you will be as good as any of those who despise you. I became leader of a clan where I did not belong by birth. And Daisy's kits are too young to remember anything but being part of Thunderclan." He paused, then added, "Being clanborn is important, but we all work with what we're given on the path toward power."
'Cloudtail thought that he was clanborn and had to be told that he wasn't, but you still hated him from the day I brought him to the clan.'
"So even a kittypet like Firestar-" he began.
Tigerstar let out a furious hiss. "Firestar will never lose his filthy kittypet scent!" he snarled. "It only weakens him. Look at the way he let that whining horseplace cat stay. Her kits may grow up more clan than kittypet, but she will never be any use as a warrior."
'Ah, so you're a hypocrite.' He already knew that of course. He assumed that Tigerstar just hated him, and by extension his kin, in general though.
"And now he has welcomed that Riverclan cat who abandoned his clan, not to mention his mate, who belongs to no clan and never will."
He twitched nervously at the confirmation that Tigerstar had been watching Thunderclan and hoped that the two tabbies hadn't saw.
"Do you mean Stormfur?" Hawkfrost's ears pricked. "Stormfur is back?"
Firestar nodded. "He and Brook turned up just as we drove out the last of the badgers. They stayed to help us recover, but I expect they'll leave to go back to the Tribe soon," he said, not wanting to reveal too much.
He hoped that Stormfur wouldn't go back to Riverclan at any rate.
'I didn't want to judge Hawkfrost on his parentage. But now it seems that I can't trust him.' Could he even trust Brambleclaw at this point?
A powerful blow to his side jerked him back to the shadowy clearing. His paws skidded out from under him and he crashed to the ground. Tigerstar's massive paws held him down and his yellow eyes glared at him furiously.
"Always keep watch!" he spat. "An attack can come at any time. How can you protect your clan if you forget that?"
Still winded, Firestar scrabbled at Tigerstar's belly with his hind paws. He heaved himself upward, dislodging Tigerstar's weight. Tigerstar's paw flashed out, aiming for his ear, but Firestar dodged the blow. He found it hard to keep balance; Brambleclaw's heavy paws being too unfamiliar to him. Scrambling to his feet, he hurled himself at Tigerstar, charging into his muscular shoulder. Tigerstar staggered but kept his balance, darting to one side and attacking Firestar again with teeth bared and claws unsheathed. Firestar ducked under the flashing claws and tried to fasten his teeth in Tigerstar's neck. Tigerstar tore free of him and took a pace back. Firestar gasped for breath.
This fight was fiercer than a normal training session, where claws would be sheathed. In the skirmish the wound on his shoulder had torn open again. He could feel blood trickling into his fur, and pain made him hiss through his teeth when he tried to put his paw to the ground.
"You should move faster!" Tigerstar snarled, leaping for him again. This time Hawkfrost sprang between them, letting out a screech as he scored his claws down Tigerstar's flank. Tigerstar leaped at him, and the two tomcats rolled over in a furious tangle of legs and thrashing tails. Hawkfrost fought as fiercely as if every badger in the world were attacking him, giving Firestar a chance to recover. When the two cats broke apart at last, even Tigerstar was breathless.
"Enough," he panted. "We will meet again tomorrow night." His amber stare fixed on Firestar. "Before then, speak to those horseplace kits and gain their trust. If you can make one of them want to be your apprentice, your path to becoming deputy will be clearer."
With that, Tigerstar stalked into the shadows, pawsteps gradually fading away.
"What was that?" He turned to face Hawkfrost, his expression hard. "I know your shoulder's injured, but that was a poor showing, even for you!"
"I've just been busy since the badgers is all," Firestar breathed out uneasily.
Hawkfrost's eyes glinted in suspicion. "You know that's not good enough for him," he gestured towards the direction in which Tigerstar had gone.
His eyes narrowed. "Are you sure you're okay? You haven't tried to dissuade me from training with Tigerstar even once tonight."
Brambleclaw was trying to convince Hawkfrost to stop training here? 'He keeps surprising me tonight.'
"It's nothing," he grit out. Thankfully the forest around them was losing its definition and fading into black, Hawkfrost leaving with it.
.
.
(He bounded for the leaders' den as soon as he woke up, disregarding all the weird looks the clan was giving him, as well as the throbbing pain in his shoulder, and shook Brambleclaw awake.
"Wha-?"
"Tigerstar? Seriously?"
He watched the now ginger tom grumble to himself. "It's not like I want to be there! I can't help it if he decides to drag me into the Dark Forest every few nights. He doesn't take no for an answer."
"Neither does Hawkfrost," he grunted, his shoulder matted with blood.)
Slight AU where Brambleclaw wasn't really listening to Tigerstar's ramblings in the DF and was trying to get Hawkfrost to use his own braincells because he knows Tigerstar didn't just reform himself overnight while he was dead.
Can't say that Brambleclaw doesn't care about his kin...
Firestar is Done™.
Tell me how I did.
