AN: Woot~ Update! Hey, good news! I have decided that - in a couple more chapters - this story will end! Surprise! More details below the chapters. Only one P.O.V today. Sort of a sum up chapter. Enjoy~

Chapter 29: Sun Set

The battle raged on in CedarClan's camp. Bodies lay crumpled on the ground their limbs bent in painful positions. Screeches and hollers of rage echoed around the camp as cats clawed viciously at each other. By now the sun was sitting on the very edge of the mountains, spreading a dull golden glow down on the Clans. However it went unnoticed by the fighting cats. They were too busy tearing at each other's throats to care about the sun that was about to set.

Jinx jumped out of the fray, a kit dangling from her jaws. The kit's jaw was opened in a soundless wail as the rogue's teeth pierced its skin. Blood streaked Jinx's cream pelt, fur was missing and her eyes were narrowed in enjoyment. A bright red she-cat launched herself at Jinx with an angry screech, her eyes fixed on the tiny kit. "Put my son down you evil fox-hearted rogue!"

"I think I'll keep a hold of him for a little longer," Jinx purred around the kit's scruff. She tossed the kit up in the air and let it crash into the ground with a cry of pain. The queen jumped forwards, neck stretching long in an eager attempt to save her son. An eager attempt that was thwarted by Jinx who swept the kit back up and danced away, whiskers twitching in amusement. "Better luck next time!"

Her giggle of amusement sent the red queen into a ferocious rage. "I am going to tear you apart!" she screeched, chasing after Jinx with unsheathed and bloody claws. The space between Jinx and the queen shrunk smaller and smaller until Jinx was certain she could feel the breaths of the queen on her hind legs. But before any contact could be made the queen was knocked to the side by a kick from one of Crimson's shoulders.

The soldier just happened to be Shadari and the old shell of Fallenshadow stared down at the queen with his glowing red eyes. "Great save, bone face," Jinx hissed, her voice muffled by the kit's fur. Shadari growled in response and dug his claws into the queen's neck. He curled his lip back, ready to strike but a sharp clout from Jinx stopped him. "Save it. Let her watch her last kit die before she too dies."

Shadari paused with an annoyed grunt but didn't make another attempt to snap at the queen's neck. The she-cat opened her mouth and let out a terrified shriek that went unheard by any of the other Clan cats. They were all too busy fighting for their lives against the waves of heartless soldiers to take any notice of the pinned queen. "Beg," Jinx ordered coldly. "Beg for the life of your son. This tiny, stupid kit that you gave birth to."

"My kit has a name. Stripekit. And I will not give you the joy of hearing me beg," the red queen snarled. Jinx jerked back in shock, dropping Stripekit as she did. The small black striped tom squeaked in pain and began crawling slowly towards his mother. "Oh, Stripekit," the she-cat murmured. "Promise me you'll be brave?"

The kit nodded and blinked at his mother with the blue eyes all kits were born with. It was then that Jinx struck with the swiftness of a snake. There was a loud snap, a cry from Stripekit and then nothing but the sound of war raging on. "No!" But it was the cry of the queen that set a grin curling up Jinx's muzzle. "How could you!? He was just a kit!"

"The same way a patrol of your brave warriors would slaughter an innocent family of loners for sleeping on the very edge of your territory," Jinx spat back. With a purr of contentment, Jinx turned away from the motionless body of Stripekit and the queen. "Do what you want, Shadari. Just make it quick."

Shadari did as he was told, sinking his teeth into the queen's throat. She screeched in pain and then laid still. There was a loud roar of shock before a shadow fell over Shadari. "You," a voice growled. Drops of blood fell onto the ground. "You killed, Vixenheart. You're a monster. A murderer who murders the innocent. You deserve to die and I'm going to k-" the tom's speech was cut short by a blow to his head. The blow rendered him unconscious and knocked him to the ground.

"Aren't you lucky that I happened to just wander by," Tornheart purred as she helped Shadari to his paws. "Go and do something useful like killing off the deputy or the medicine cat or something."

The black tom dipped his bone head and melted into the heaving mass of fighting cats. Tornheart also turned to attack whoever she bumped into first. The cat she saw was not the cat she was expecting to have seen during this battle. "I loved you. I believe that you could change, that you wanted to rejoin this Clan. But you lied. You lied to me and made me bring my Clan to the slaughter. You're not my daughter."

Tornheart narrowed her eyes, pinned her ears back and unsheathed her bloody claws from her blood soaked paws. "I was once your daughter, but I'm not anymore." The two she-cats began to circle each other, growling, snarling and snapping their jaws. Insults and sneers were thrown at one another as they prepared themselves to fight with tooth and claw. "I'm sorry for breaking your heart and your Clan but I must do it. It's instinct."

"Murdering innocent cats is not instinct!" Sageleaf cried, but it was no use. Tornheart let out a ragged battle cry and leapt at her mother with bloody claws. Sageleaf was unprepared for the sudden attack and was bowled over. She screeched in pain as her daughter ripped flesh from bone, clawed shreds into her ears and sunk her teeth into every part of her body she could reach. For a moment Sageleaf let herself be beaten by her daughter because she felt sorry for Tornheart. Her daughter had gotten lost in the big wide world and all she needed was a small nudge to turn her back onto the right path. But then – with a sharp clout from Tornheart – Sageleaf reminded herself that her little kit had been corrupted and would never come home. And it was that thought that forced Sageleaf to pull herself from her numbing state of mind and fight back.

With a snarl the senior warrior kicked out, catching Tornheart in the chest. The strength in the kick flung the rogue away, allowing Sageleaf to pounce onto her, claws digging deep into skin. Blood oozed out from around her claws as she dug them deeper and deeper. She glared down at Tornheart and Tornheart glared back. An emotionless gleam split Tornheart's eyes, "Go on. Kill me. It won't change a thing."

"No. I will not kill you," Sageleaf rasped, unsheathing her claws a little. "I am not a murderer. But I will leave you in the claws of the Clan. What they do with you is up to them. I will play no part in your death." The she-cat raised one paw, closed her eyes and was about to bring it crashing down onto Tornheart's head to knock the rogue out when a rumbling like thunder erupted from the ground beneath the paws of every cat.

Screeches of anger turned to shrieks of fear as cats were knocked off of their paws as the ground bucked and shook underneath them. Tornheart scrunched her eyes shut as her mother's claws dug deeper into her skin. As the ground rumbled, Crimson grasped the chaos and confusion of CedarClan and drove her claws deep into the chest of Shadestar. The smoky black she-cat gasped in horror as her blood pooled onto the ground, spilling from her chest like a waterfall. She collapsed onto her knees, spluttering blood from her mouth. Death was about to open its doors to the leader and she was about to grasp it with her claws when another agonised screech rang out.

As the rumbling of the ground slowly died away, Tornheart surged up from underneath her mother, claws tearing through skin. In one swift movement the rogue she-cat brought her left, clawed paw ripping up through Sageleaf's chest and into her throat.

Blood sprayed from the neck of Sageleaf as she screeched in pain, tumbling to the ground in a writhing mess of blood and fur. The fighting came to a stand-still as all cats had trouble choosing which dying cat they should be looking at; Shadestar in her puddle of blood that leaked from her stomach or Sageleaf with blood still spurting from her neck.

The decision was over quickly as Shadestar's writhing came to a sudden stop and she laid deathly still. Murmurs of shock rippled through the clearing from the CedarClan cats. The loss of their leader was numbing.

Tornheart hadn't even registered her old leader's death. She was too busy staring at her dying mother. Her old self suddenly surged back into her mind, taking over the parts of her body Crimson had latched onto. The time she had in her own body was short but it was long enough to fall to her knees and sob beside her mother. "I am so sorry," she whispered, tears streaming from her eyes, mixing with the mud and blood on her face. "I-I never wanted to – oh god! How, how could I do this!?" she wailed, "I killed my own mother!"

As she sobbed the sun slipped beneath the horizon and a flash of bluish light lit up the world. Tornheart raised her head slightly to stare out towards the mountain where she felt the sun had sunk, just like it did every night. But it was the three shapes that hovered just in front of her - shifting in and out of focus - that made her shudder. "We told you. Sun set has come and death has been dealt at your claws. This death will be the one that changes you in one of two ways. From this moment onwards the decisions you make will be greatly influenced by Crimson but there will always be a shred of you capable of changing those decisions. Keep well, Tornheart. We are afraid that venturing into your world is too dangerous for us. We will be watching you from our land above. Farewell, Guardian."

Then they were gone and with them the voice that had whispered in her head. She was back in the living world with her old self fading and her newer self, the one Crimson had created, forced herself back in, shutting the real Tornheart away from the world. She pulled herself away from Sageleaf's still body to come face-to-face with Jinx's snarling face.

"I saw that," the cream she-cat hissed threateningly. "You switched back to your old self. I saw it. Crimson will hear about this."

Tornheart laughed. "Leave it, Jinx. I don't believe you, so how would Crimson?" She pushed past the bristling rogue and strode over to Crimson's side. "Another job well done I see?"

"Indeed," Crimson replied, shifting her weight onto a different side. Many claw marks littered her body, most of them still spilling blood. "She put up a stronger fight than most. I see you dealt with Sageleaf? Jinx has told me that she nearly killed you? It would have been a shame to lose you so early in my plan. We still have four Clans left to crumble."

"It was close." Tornheart arched her neck to look out over the soldiers as they pinned CedarClan fighters onto the ground. "But I sorted it out, as you can see."

Crimson nodded, stretched and then seated herself atop the toppled tree trunk Shadestar had used to address her Clan from a few days prior. "Cats of CedarClan!" Her yowl brought the eyes of all CedarClan cats onto her, as well as the dull yellow eyes of her soldiers. "My army and I have beaten you, killed many of you and slaughtered your leader. Your Clan belongs to me now." Cries of outrage and disgust rang out, giving Tornheart and Jinx time to slink over to the tree trunk and sit in front of it, guarding Crimson. "Who is your next in line to take over from Shadestar?"

A clear voice rang out, "I am." It came from a peppered looking light brown tabby she-cat that was pressed against the ground by three soldiers. "I am the deputy, Cloverstream."

"Well," Crimson eyed the deputy with greedy eyes, "come here. You need to be appointed as the new leader. As I take it you leaders don't take nine lives anymore?"

Cloverstream was released from her pin and was walked – flanked on all sides by soldiers – over to Crimson. "No. We haven't received nine lives for seasons."

"I see." The sleek black she-cat jumped to the ground, red eyes glinting in the quickly fading daylight. "Let us induct you as a new leader." She slit one paw with one claw and extended the bleeding paw out to Cloverstream. "Go on. Do the same."

The peppered tabby she-cat narrowed her eyes in distrust, only to hiss in pain as the soldiers grabbed her paw, slit it and pressed it against Crimson's. Muddled up words spilt from Crimson's jaw as she whispered quickly, pressing her paw against Cloverstream's so that that blood would mix together. Cloverstream yowled and tried desperately to rip her paw free by the grip of the soldiers was too strong.

There was a moment of silence as Crimson completed her chance, and then Cloverstream collapsed to the ground. "We shall leave you to bury the dead, CedarClan," Crimson purred as she stepped over the fallen body of CedarClan's newest leader. "But soldiers will be sent tomorrow morning to watch your Clan on that island all of you are watching the Games from. Oh, and if you warn any of the other Clans about intruders dragging Clans away, then I will personally kill all of you. Buh-bye now!"

Jinx snorted and followed Crimson as she padded out of the blood stained camp. Her soldiers let the Clan cats up and then quickly followed their leader. Tornheart was left standing beside Cloverstream's fallen body, staring at her old, broken Clan with emotionless eyes. They stared back at her with angry, accusing eyes. "I hope you're happy," one of them snarled. "Get out of here, rogue. You're not one of us."

Tornheart happily obliged, slinking around the bloody bodies that littered the camp. Before she exited her old camp she turned, her eyes firmly fixed on Firestrike, her old friend. The orange she-cat was leaning heavily on her brother, Hawkflight. "The old Tornpaw wants me to say goodbye. She feels bad for what happened here, however I don't." Then she turned and left.

Firestrike blinked once and then bowed her head, "The old Tornpaw is greatly missed."

AN: Hope you enjoyed. 2512 words is pretty good for one P.O.V I feel.

Anyway. Before this story ends we still have Screech to face the last two super animal things, one of those being Night of Rising Fury, who if any of you remember, is dead. Wildstorm still has to reach his destination set by Death before he died. (I totally haven't forgotten about Wildstorm) I have something planned for Iceshard soon as well as all the other characters that have been spread out. More competitor deaths as well. :D

Competition is still running. Details are on my profile.

-Hunter