This one's kinda long, but I had a lot to get in. Now you all get to find out who the cat was! I had some good guesses, and some of you were right.

"Well, I guess my homecoming's not off to the best start," Graystripe rasped, looking towards where the ShadowClan cats had left. "I haven't even seen the whole of our territory yet, and I've already angered ShadowClan!"

"Graystripe! Graystripe, you've returned!" Spiderleg danced round the deputy like an exicted kit, and then found his dignity and sat down. "I'm a warrior now. Spiderleg."

"Congratulations!" mewed Graystripe brightly, and then turned his eyes on Squirrelflight, who was sitting beside Brambleclaw, still recovering from shock. "Have you've been made a warrior too? You're twice the size you were when I last saw you!"

Squirrelflight swallowed, an amazed happiness swelling inside her. "Yes," she managed. "I'm Squirrelflight now."

"Good for you," meowed the gray tom, and then turned to Whitepaw. "How's the training going?"

"Great!" she meowed proudly. Graystripe twitched his whiskers, and then looked at Brambleclaw. "And I suppose you're Clan leader?"

It was only for a heartbeat- less than that, even. But for that amount of time Squirrelflight thought she saw her old friend's eyes flash in a cold, hungry way, longingly. Then she blinked, and he was only Brambleclaw, and he shook his head. "Of course not. Firestar's leading us as strong as ever."

"He hasn't appointed anyone in your place," Whitepaw added.

"That's just like him," Graystripe meowed. "As if he thought I'd be offended!" He purred, and the sound was so familiar that Squirrelflight joined in. She came forward to touch noses with her father's best friend. "Don't you want to see the camp?" she asked excitedly. "And the boundries and everything? You should see Birchkit, he's almost an apprentice! And Leafpool-"

She broke off as another familiar scent reached her nose. She turned to look at Brambleclaw, who confirmed it with a nod. "Stormfur!"

Graystripe nodded. "I never would have found this place if it wasn't for him," he meowed. "After I escaped from the Twolegs and made it out of their dwellings-"

He was interrupted as a lean cat, his fur dark with mud, but his amber eyes the same as ever, pushed his way through the undergrowth towards him. Behind Stormfur came Brook, the Tribe she-cat that he had fallen in love with. And tagging along was a small golden she-cat with wide green eyes. The tip of her tail was white, as were her paws.

"Stormfur!" Squirrelflight mewed happily, dashing up to press her muzzle against her old friend's. His eyes gleamed at her. "Squirrelpaw! Great to see you!"

"It's Squirrelflight now," she corrected proudly, and he purred. "Of course. How could I think you would have stayed an apprentice this long?"

Brambleclaw came forward to brush affectionately past the former RiverClan tom. "Who's this?" he asked, looking down at the small gold cat. "Your kit?" he asked of Brook.

She shook her head. "Oh, no. Sunpaw is not from the Tribe."

"Sunpaw?" Squirrelflight looked curiously at Graystripe. "A Clan name?"

"Yes. Sunpaw was trapped with the Twolegs, like I was. She had been taken long ago, when she was still a kit. She didn't remember her name, so I gave her one." Graystripe's eyes shown with such warmth as he looked at the little cat it was as if he was looking at his own kin. "She helped me keep my spirit while I was captured, and she kept me going after I escaped."

Sunpaw lifted her chin and looked at Squirrelflight, who felt her fur bristle at the intensity of her bright green eyes. They were large and seemed to flash in a challenging way. Squirrelflight wondered if imprisonment by Twolegs had done this to her.

"Graystripe says that he'd introduce me to his Clan," she mewed, all the time looking at the gray warrior as if she expected him to go back on his promise. He only twitched his whiskers. "Of course I will," he meowed, and then looked expectantly at Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight. "Can you take me to the camp?" he meowed. His eyes gleamed with a fierce, desperate hope, and Squirrelflight knew that it was time for Firestar to see his old friend again.

&&&

Brook and Stormfur hovered just through the tunnel of thorns, Sunpaw in between them. Whitepaw and Spiderleg stood back as well, while Graystripe walked in between Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw, looking around the new camp in interest. Sootfur, who was on guard, let out an amazed gasp. "Graystripe! You've returned!"

The unfamiliar scent drew cats from their dens, and soon the elders, Ferncloud, Birchkit, and all the warriors still in the camp were gathered around, clamoring to hear their deputy's tale. Graystripe stood in the middle of them all, answering questions, sharing tongues. But his eyes were searching, and Squirrelflight knew he was looking for only one cat.

Firestar appeared from his den at the break of the Highledge. Carefully, deliberately, he bounded from stone to stone until he was on the camp floor. The Clan parted to let him through as he leaped over to his best friend, his pace suddenly so swift that his flame-colored fur was a blur.

"Graystripe," he meowed. His voice was raspy, disbelieving. "Graystripe!"

"Hello Firestar," meowed Graystripe, his eyes dancing. "I heard that you didn't replace me. Honestly, how mouse-brained can a cat get?"

Firestar let out a purr of laughter and the two old friends touched noses, exchanging words that no one else could hear, that probably wouldn't make sense. They stood side by side before the Clan, and the joy that Squirrelflight saw in her father then was enough to make her believe that everything was all right, that nothing bad would ever happen again.

Stormfur nudged Sunpaw forward, Brook tagging nervously behind him. Firestar nodded to him, and then looked at the small kitten questioningly. Graystripe threaded his way to her side. " "Sunpaw's a friend of mine," he meowed. "We were trapped with the Twolegs together, and we escaped together."

Sunpaw's chest puffed out proudly and she looked up at Graystripe. The deputy continued, and silence fell as the Clan listened to his story. "After we rescued all the cats and the Twolegs took me, they put me in their monster, inside a little nest-thing. I couldn't get out, though StarClan knows I tried. Then they took me into one of their dwellings. It was dark and the walls were lined with cages- the things they trap us in."

"That's what they did to us when they trapped us the first time!" growled Cloudtail.

Graystripe nodded, and went on, "They put me in one. Sunpaw was in the cage next to me. She had been taken a while ago, when she was just a kit. She didn't remember her name or anything, so I gave her a Clan name.

"Our cages were on the bottom row," Graystripe meowed, "So the Twolegs had to bend down to put food in. They'd open the door every time, and shut it before anyone could get out. But one day the two that always open the cages were arguing, and they weren't facing me. I saw my chance, and I dove out. I scratched one up pretty badly, and then, when he was shouting at the other one, I got Sunpaw's cage open. It isn't hard to do from the outside. We got out the door, and escaped together."

He shivered suddenly. "I'm glad we did. It was an awful place. All the cats were always yowling to get out and you should have heard the stories that they'd tell. They said that if you stayed there long enough and no Twoleg came to claim you, they'd kill you."

Squirrelflight's fur bristled in horror. Twolegs in their monsters would sometimes injure or kill stray cats walking on the Thunderpaths, but she had never heard of them capturing and killing cats in cold blood. She saw her own terror reflected in the eyes of the Clan as they remembered being driven out of the old forest, and she forced herself to listen as Graystripe mewed,

"After I got free I managed to find my way through Twolegplace back to the border of the forest. Sunpaw helped me." The kitten beamed again. "A kittypet that lived in one of the dwellings near the forest asked if I was looking for the Clan cats. She told me that they'd gone to Highstones."

"Cody!" Leafpool blurted out from somewhere in the throng. As the cats turned to look at her she scratched at the ground, embarrased, and mewed, "Cody said that she would tell Graystripe where we went if she saw him."

Graystripe nodded to her. "Well, Sunpaw and I went to Highstones, and Ravenpaw pointed us in the direction of the mountains. It was hard going there. I think we would have died, if it hadn't been for Stormfur." He shot a grateful look at his son.

"I smelled his scent," meowed Stormfur, "And Brook and I followed it. We found him and the kitten half-dead on one of the peaks."

"We offered to take him back to the Cave of Rushing Water," Brook mewed, looking nervous to be speaking in front of the whole of ThunderClan, "But he wanted to find his Clan. He would only stay one night, and then we led him as fast as we could out of the mountains and searched for signs of cats. It wasn't until we found the lake when we found scents." Her eyes widened. "I never knew there was so much water in one place. Water that never moves."

She looked so awed that it occured to Squirrelflight that she had never been out of the mountains before. All this territory must seem as frightening to her as the mountains had to the Clan cats. Stormfur pressed his nose against her shoulder. "A RiverClan patrol found us when we were searching for ThunderClan. They say the land down there is their territory now." He looked q

questioningly at Firestar, who nodded.

"It is. All the Clans have new land." He dipped his head to the gray tom. "Thank you, Stormfur, for bringing Graystripe back. And you, Brook."

The she-cat dipped her head and extended one paw, a gesture Squirrrelflight remembered from the Tribe. Firestar returned his attention back to Graystripe. "Are you all right? Did you get injured at all?"

Graystripe stretched to lick the gash on his side. "The leader of the Tribe put some herbs on this when I stayed the night in their cave," he meowed.

"You haven't been still enough for it heal properly," Sunpaw piped up.

Graystripe looked down at the young she-cat, then up at Firestar. "Sunpaw helped me survive when I was with the Twolegs," he meowed. "I might not have made it through all this without her. Can she stay with the Clan?"

Firestar tipped his head thoughtfully as he looked at Sunpaw, whose wide green eyes shone with hope as she stared steadily back at him. She didn't look afraid to be in the presence of a Clan leader, Squirrelflight thought. But perhaps after you've seen and experianced all the horrors that she had such things didn't frighten you.

Firestar waved his tail, and all the Clan turned to look at him. "We've lost Shrewpaw, Hollykit, and Larchkit during all this," he meowed, looking sympathetically at Dustpelt and Ferncloud. "Right now ThunderClan needs brave, strong cats to help us through what's left of leaf-bare. Sunpaw has survived a great deal, and she has helped Graystripe find his way back to us. Now I ask her to join ThunderClan."

Sunpaw purred quietly, and Squirrelflight realized that for the first time she looked genuinely happy.

Brook and Stormfur were staying the night, saying that it would be too hard to travel through the night towards the mountains again, having been on their paws all day anyway. Squirrelflight was glad to have a chance to speak to the gray warrior again, for his leaving had hurt her bitterly.

"How's Tribe life treating you?" she asked as they ate fresh-kill at sundown.

"It's been fine," he meowed. "Crag's a good friend; he's taught me a lot. And Stoneteller says that the Tribe of Endless Hunting has accepted me. Brook's great too."

His amber eyes glowed as he looked at the she-cat, who was looking in fascination at the stone cliffs that formed the camp. Squirrelflight felt her heart prick at that warm look. "You really love her, don't you?"

"I do," he answered softly, a trace of embarrasement in his voice. "But you know about it, don't you? You have that. With Brambleclaw."

"No I don't," Squirrelflight replied sadly, shaking her head. "Not anymore."

Stormfur looked at her in puzzlement. "Why not? You two have your quarrels, but things always work out."

"Not this time," Squirrelflight meowed. "I don't trust him enough, Stormfur. I'll admit it. I'm afraid of what he has with Hawkfrost. Afraid that it's more important to him than anything else. Than the Clan. Than me."

Stormfur's tail whipped out, flicking her ear. His eyes were on Brook, but his voice was in another world altogether. "Squirrelflight, if I've learned anything from all I've been through, it's that you can't chance love. If you love Brambleclaw- and I know you do- don't bother yourself questioning it. You say you don't trust him, but you do."

"But I don't," Squirrelflight argued. Stormfur narrowed his eyes at her, but there was no anger there. "Not with your mind, maybe. But with your heart."

That's right, HE'S BACK. Graystripe's back! You can all commence cheering now, jk. Anyway, hope you liked the chappie, and review please!BTW-

Next chappie something happens between Crowfeather and Leafpool!