The Gathering patrol was silent as Bluestar led them towards Fourtrees. Fireheart padded beside her; his normally bright green eyes were dark and his expression was grim. On her other side, Bluestar could see Willowpelt lashing her tail and flexing her claws. The pale gray queen had insisted on coming to the Gathering, wanting the chance to see Darkstripe exposed as a murderer to the entire forest once and for all.

Bluestar knew that they would be inviting trouble from ShadowClan by bringing attention to their deputy's crimes, so she had elected to bring only her strongest warriors to this particular Gathering. With two traitors holding the most powerful positions in the Clan, she didn't think it would take much for ShadowClan to start a fight with ThunderClan–even if there was a full moon truce. That would probably only be more reason for them to do so. No one would be expecting an attack on the night of a Gathering.

She paused at the top of the slope, pausing for a moment to taste the air. RiverClan and WindClan had already arrived, but ShadowClan was nowhere to be seen. Bluestar almost snorted aloud; it was just like them to be late. Silently, she gave the signal for her warriors to descend into the clearing and led the way down into the throng of cats.

Fireheart broke away and went to go speak to Mistyfoot and Stonefur. Bluestar felt the familiar pang of longing as she watched her three kits conversing with one another. She wondered if there would ever be an opportunity for her to tell Mistyfoot and Stonefur the truth about who she was. Almost immediately, however, she brushed away her thoughts. The last thing she needed was for someone to catch her staring at two RiverClan warriors. Her two oldest kits looked eerily similar to her, and Bluestar knew it probably wouldn't take much for another cat to put everything together if she wasn't careful.

Letting out a sigh, Bluestar turned away and went to join the other Clan leaders beneath the Great Rock. Tallstar was waiting there, but she was surprised to see Leopardfur instead of Crookedstar.

"Good evening, Bluestar," Tallstar greeted as she approached them.

"Tallstar." Bluestar nodded. She turned to Leopardfur, who was sitting next to the WindClan leader. "And good evening to you too, Leopardfur."

"Greetings," Leopardfur meowed politely.

"I don't mean to pry, but where is Crookedstar this evening? Is he alright?" Bluestar asked.

"Crookedstar passed away a few days ago from greencough," the spotted molly meowed gravely. "I've taken his place as RiverClan's leader, and I received my nine lives from StarClan yesterday."

"Then, in that case, may StarClan grant RiverClan many seasons of peace and prosperity under your guidance," Bluestar meowed graciously, dipping her head to the new RiverClan leader.

She wasn't entirely surprised to learn that Crookedstar had passed away. The old tom had been the oldest among the leaders and was probably one of the oldest cats in the entire forest by the time of his death. However, she couldn't deny that she would miss him. They had been good friends as apprentices, and although they had grown apart as they grew older, the memories of joking with each other during Gatherings were some of the only happy ones she had of her younger days.

Finally, once the moon was almost at its peak, the ShadowClan representatives made their appearance. Bluestar suppressed a growl as she saw Darkstripe padding alongside Tigerstar, his head held high. It was clear that he felt no regret over murdering Rainkit–not that she'd expected him to anyway.

Let's see what he thinks when everyone else learns what he's done, the blue-gray molly thought, flexing her claws.

"Bluestar?" Tallstar meowed tentatively, looking a bit worried. "Are you alright?"

"I–oh, yes, I'm fine," she replied quickly, snapping out of it. "Leopardstar, you may speak first since it's your first Gathering as Clan leader, but if it's not too much trouble, I would like to request to speak after you."

"Of course," Leopardstar agreed, her expression bewildered.

As the ShadowClan warriors began to mingle among the other Clans, Bluestar and the other Clan leaders leaped on top of the Great Rock. Tallstar gave the yowl to begin the meeting, and the throng of warriors fell silent as everyone turned their attention to the four leaders. Bluestar could see Fireheart sitting beside Whitestorm and Willowpelt, just a few tail-lengths away from where Mistyfoot and Stonefur sat.

"Cats of all Clans, welcome," Tallstar meowed, his voice ringing out through the forest. "Tonight, we welcome a new leader. Crookedstar has passed away, and Leopardstar has taken his place as the leader of RiverClan. On behalf of WindClan, I would like to extend my congratulations and well wishes for you and your Clan."

"Thank you, Tallstar," Leopardstar meowed, dipping her head to the black and white tom. "Crookedstar was a wise and noble leader, and he will be greatly missed. But I will do my best to be the leader he expected me to be when he chose me to be his deputy. I have appointed Stonefur as my deputy, and I trust him to help guide RiverClan alongside me."

Bluestar felt a surge of pride course through her body. Her son was the deputy of RiverClan! Two of her kits had ascended to one of the most powerful, highly respected positions in the Clans. Tearing her gaze away from her older son, she turned her attention back to Leopardstar.

"Congratulations once more from ThunderClan," she meowed to her new equal. "And a fine choice of a deputy as well."

Leopardstar dipped her head in thanks. Bluestar noticed that Tigerstar made no move to welcome the new leader of RiverClan, but she guessed that Leopardstar would rather skip over that greeting. She couldn't exactly blame her either.

Tigerstar moved to speak next, but Bluestar cut him off. "I will be speaking next," she hissed at the ShadowClan leader.

"Cats of WindClan, RiverClan, and ShadowClan," she began, her voice filled with cold fury. "I bring news of a murder. One of our kits, Rainkit, was killed by Darkstripe earlier this moon."

Yowls of shock and fury erupted from the clearing. Out of the corner of her eye, Bluestar saw Tigerstar go rigid, his dark brown tabby fur fluffed out in shock. She almost snorted aloud; did he honestly think she couldn't see through his ruse? Then her attention was dragged away as Darkstripe stood up from his spot near the base of the Great Rock, his fur bristling with anger.

"Prove it!" he snarled, lashing his tail. "Prove that I've touched a single hair on any of your kits' fur!"

"We have proof." It was Willowpelt who spoke this time, her blue eyes furious slits, and Darkstripe seemed to shrink away from his mother. "When we found Rainkit, your scent was on his body. I suppose you must have thought that we wouldn't notice over the stench of the Thunderpath."

"And we've picked up your scent on our territory several other times as well," Fireheart added. "So it's not hard to guess what happened. You were on our land, stealing prey as you've been doing, and you were caught by Rainkit. Since you knew that he would probably tell everyone what he saw as soon as he got back home–as kits tend to do–you decided that the best way to avoid that was to silence him once and for all. You threw Rainkit into the path of an oncoming monster, hoping that his death would look like an accident or the stench from the monster's paws would mask your scent. However, that didn't happen, so you've been caught red-handed."

Darkstripe shook his head, although the anger in his eyes from before was gone. "You can't be serious," he blustered. "I might hate ThunderClan, but even I wouldn't kill an innocent kit. I'm not Brokenstar, for StarClan's sake. If I wanted to hurt ThunderClan, why wouldn't I go for you or Bluestar instead?"

"I'll tell you why," Bluestar meowed from her position on the Great Rock. Darkstripe turned his head towards her. "Because you never confronted anyone unless you were certain that you could win in a fight against them. That's how it always was, wasn't it? You hid behind Tigerclaw–Tigerstar–for protection while you bullied the apprentices and younger warriors. You've always been weak and cowardly, and now, here's the proof for the entire forest to see."

"I–I didn't–" Darkstripe stammered, swinging his head around from side to side. His eyes landed on Longtail, who was sitting on the opposite end of the clearing. "Longtail, back me up here!"

But Longtail merely looked at his former friend in disgust and turned away. Darkstripe stared at him for a few heartbeats, then shook his head and turned his gaze towards Tigerstar up on the Great Rock.

"Tigerstar." Bluestar was both disgusted and amused to hear the pleading note in the ShadowClan deputy's tone. Of course, he would turn to his great protector now. "Tigerstar, back me up here."

But Tigerstar didn't jump to Darkstripe's defense as he would have done only a few moons ago. Instead, he looked down at his deputy, a cold, utterly impassive expression on his face. Confused, Bluestar glanced between the two warriors uncertainly. What was going on here?

"In all my life, I never thought I would see the day when one of my own warriors would harm a helpless kit," the ShadowClan leader meowed icily. He dipped his head to Bluestar, who could only stare back, stunned. "You have my word, Bluestar, that Darkstripe will see severe consequences for his actions."

"See that he does," she replied, but it was as though another cat had spoken. The blue-gray queen couldn't believe what she was hearing. Was Tigerstar taking her side–ThunderClan's side–over his deputy's in front of all the Clans? What was he playing at?

Down beneath the Great Rock, Darkstripe was staring up at Tigerstar with a look of horror, disbelief, and betrayal written all over his face. He looked so despondent that for a moment, Bluestar almost felt sorry for him. However, she quickly snapped herself out of it, reminding herself that the dark tabby deserved what he was getting.

"You–you can't–" Darkstripe stammered, taking a step back. Several cats hissed at him, and he seemed to shrink under their fury. "You can't be taking their side over mine. Do you honestly think I would hurt a kit?"

"Enough!" Willowpelt interrupted. She stormed over to the ShadowClan deputy, her fur bristling with rage and hatred. "You've murdered my son! I don't care if there's a full moon tonight; I'll rip you apart right here and now! Your Clan will be lucky if they even have a body to take home, you miserable excuse for a cat!"

"Willowpelt..." Darkstripe whispered. He turned his attention back to Tigerstar on the Great Rock and gave one final plea for help. "Tigerstar, do something! You can't just let her kill me!"

Once again, Tigerstar failed to even acknowledge his deputy and most loyal follower. Instead, the dark brown tabby turned away entirely so that his back was facing Darkstripe. There could be no clearer message: Darkstripe no longer had Tigerstar as an ally.

With the potential threat from the new ShadowClan leader gone, cats from every single Clan began to converge on Darkstripe. All around the clearing, Bluestar could see bristling tails and moonlight reflecting off of outstretched claws. She glanced up at the sky, expecting to see a cloud being driven towards the moon, but the sky remained as clear and bright as ever. Perhaps it wasn't entirely a surprise, though. If there was one thing that almost everyone in the forest refused to tolerate, it was the murder of innocent kits. She wouldn't be surprised if StarClan had decided to let the breaking of the truce slide for this one night.

Darkstripe took one last look at the group of snarling, furious warriors and fled, his tail between his legs as he raced away from Fourtrees. Willowpelt gave a yowl of rage and chased after him, followed by Longtail, Whitestorm, and Runningwind. They were joined in the pursuit by Mistyfoot, Stonefur, and Silverstream from RiverClan, as well as Onewhisker, Mudclaw, and Tornear from WindClan.

Bluestar jumped down from the Great Rock, followed closely by the other Clan leaders. It didn't matter that only two Clans had shared news tonight. Everyone knew that the Gathering was over. Dipping her head respectfully to Leopardstar and Tallstar, she turned around and walked over to stand beside Fireheart, who was still staring at the spot where the warriors had disappeared from. As she approached, her youngest kit turned to her with an expression of pure bewilderment on his face.

"What," he began slowly, "in StarClan's name just happened?"