AN: Sudden inspiration = new chapter. Go figure. Enjoy.
Chapter 32: Retribution
An evil chuckle bubbled in Crimson's throat as she slid through the Dark Forest's murky territory, making her way steadily to where the High Stars were waiting for her by their thrones of stone. She grinned darkly as her plan came together in her head. All she had to do was send the High Stars their power from the cats they had gathered and then watch as all the power seeped into her, weakening the powerful leaders even more. They have no idea what's about to happen! she thought gleefully as she leaped onto a fallen tree so to avoid a large puddle of thick mud.
"Disgusting," she muttered as she stared down at the thick puddle. "This place will be the first to go once the High Stars are dead."
"And what makes you think you can kill the High Stars?" a voice whispered in her ear. For the first time Crimson actually jumped a little, shocked that she had not seen the voices owner creep up on her. But when she turned to face the cat there was no one there, just an odd purplish coloured mist with two blue globes staring out from within. "Ah, even the bravest of cats fear the unknown, do they not, Crimson?"
"How do you know my name? And who are you!?" Crimson snarled as she retreated further along the fallen tree, eyes focused on the mist that followed her every move. A chuckle – deep and mocking – rolled out from within it.
"Crimson I know everything about you, even if your story is short so far. I also know what you are going to do in the coming days and I must say I am pleased with what I see. No cat has ever lived with the ambition that you have or the power you control."
"Your compliments are charming, purple mist, but I'm afraid I cannot trust you until I either know your name or see your complete body. However I have a feeling that you do not have a body at the precise moment," she retorted smoothly, flinching a little as her rear hind kissed the twisted roots of the fallen tree. "So tell me your name."
The mist alighted atop the fallen tree, licking the flaking bark with soft tendrils of purple mist. It began to take a shape, the form of a huge cat – bigger than even Fallenshadow – with eyes as icy blue as a frozen river. Crimson sucked in a deep breath. This being held more power than even her. "As I cannot allow you to see my true form I suppose I can give you my name. Frozengaze is what I am known by in the realm I am from. You should be honoured that I have taken notice of you and your endeavo-"
"Realm? There are no other realms apart from the one we are in now and the living one below us. You cannot be from another realm, it is impossible," Crimson interrupted as she narrowed her eyes in distrust. "How do I know you aren't just a trick sent to badger me by the High Stars?"
"Because I know your real name even when you are using Astrid's disguise. There is one more realm that you have not been told about, a realm that you will never be able to enter unless you have my blessing, otherwise it would kill you, so don't even think about spreading your reign into my realm. The cats in my realm are all cats older than you by seasons, older than cats such as Bluestar even. Some of us have been around since the dawn of time. But that is all you need to know otherwise you might start getting a little greedy." The purple coloured cat suddenly snapped its head to one side, ears pricked high. "Your High Stars are getting impatient. Run along, Crimson, you'd better not be late. But don't forget that I will be watching over you, my champion.."
Then the large cat made of purple mist vanished in the blink of an eye. Crimson remained standing pressed up against the tangled roots of the fallen tree, blinking at the place the cat had stood moments before. She was still trying to register the fact that she had been visited by a being from a different realm, one that was more powerful than her. He said I was his champion…
A loud screech ripped through the silence that had descended and Crimson snapped her head up. The High Stars were starting to get impatient. She leapt effortlessly off the fallen tree and began to bound easily through the tight forest, dodging bramble bushes and soaring over rotten stumps. The clearing where the High Stars resided appeared before her as did the three High Stars themselves, the highest of them pacing angrily to and fro.
"Astrid! Finally you have decided to grace us with your presence!" Iceshard sneered as Crimson trotted hurriedly over to them. Crimson grinned a little as she spotted the cats chosen to be sacrificed for the High Stars. All of them had their heads bowed and paws shackled to the ground by Settingsun's thorn studded vines.
"I apologise, Iceshard, the Dark Forest is larger than I recall so I got a bit lost on the way here," Crimson replied smoothly allowing herself to sink away into her disguise as Astrid. "I'm here now so we can get on with this…power transfer."
Eternity rose to his paws and spoke, his deep rumbling voice echoing throughout the meadow, "That we can. Settingsun, come join your mother down here, we don't always have to sit on our stone thrones. Besides, it would only be proper for these brave cats to be sent off in a noble way, they are being rather brave giving up their afterlife so that we can gain more power."
"Oh shut up, Eternity. You know they were forced here and so does Astrid. We don't have to pretend that these cats like us, they're going to die anyway," Iceshard spat as she sat down and flicked her tail over her paws. "Get on with it Astrid, I assume you know what you're doing."
"Of course. I must ask you to be silent and not say a word. If my concentration breaks then the spell could do very wrong. Ready?" Crimson purred silkily as she slid her eyes closed and prepared herself to be attacked by waves of power.
"Ready," Settingsun murmured and Crimson began weaving her spell. Her words grew quiet as she spoke the old language once spoken by the ancients so many seasons ago. Then her eyes snapped open so that she could watch the destruction unfold. The High Stars sucked in a deep breath as the power rushed into them and then gasped in pain as it flooded out of them, taking some of their own power with it, rushing into Crimson.
The black she-cat opened her jaws in a silent wail as all the power flooded into her, filling her every fibre with power. Iceshard watched in shock as 'Astrid' opened her eyes to reveal blood red orbs that could only belong to one cat. "Crimson," the Highest Star gasped as her knees buckled, sending her collapsing to the hard ground. "How?"
"You do not understand the power I have," Crimson cackled as she stalked over to the fallen High Stars, blood dripping from the corners of her eyes. She looked insane. "And now you have payed for your fatal mistake of sitting on your royal rear ends doing nothing whilst I wreaked havoc on your petty Clans, turning them into an army of my own. I hope you enjoy watching me tear your kingdom down whilst you sit here wallowing in your last, few, powerless moments."
Settingsun groaned in pain as she rolled over to stare at Crimson with her big blue eyes, "Why are you doing this? What have we ever done to you!?"
"I was created to destroy your fragile rule and then take control of the six Clans plus the four dead territories. I will be the supreme ruler whether you like it or not! Those you dare speak out against me will be silenced for the rest of eternity. No longer will StarClan or the Dark Forest be worshipped only I will be worshipped as the one true ruler. This is the way it will be from now on," Crimson snarled as she pressed her claws into Settingsun's throat. Blood welled up from around her claws, making Settingsun squirm and shriek in fear.
Iceshard screeched angrily as she struggled to rise to her paws, eyes aflame with pure rage. "Leave my daughter alone you abomination! Death was out of his mind when he created you! I could see it in his eyes when I killed him and I will be the one to send you back to the darkness from whence you came!" But the Highest Star's threat fell short as she collapsed to the ground as another bout of pain racked her weakening body. Without her power her body was beginning to age rapidly, all the seasons of ruling over the Clans catching up to the High Stars.
"There is nothing you can do anymore, Iceshard. Be like Eternity, accept your death with nobility. You have reigned over these Clans for too long and now your reign has come to an end." Crimson paused and then flicked her gaze back to Iceshard. "But you shall not die here, Iceshard. I am going to give you just enough power to keep you alive so that you can watch me ravage your Clans and uproot the laws you set long ago."
"What..about us?" Eternity gasped as his fur began to fall off in large clumps.
Crimson grunted, "You will be dead within seconds. Any last words?"
"Keep the Clans alive," was the black tom's reply before he became too weak to even speak. By now most of his fur had fallen off leaving him naked and pink, like a baby rat. His eyes were rimmed with fear as his skin began to flake off as well, allowing his bones to peek through. Settingsun watched on from under Crimson's laws as her oldest friend wasted away before her, skin piling around behind him until there was nothing left but a pile of bones.
Eternity was dead.
"He..he's gone," the pretty she-cat murmured in shock before she squeaked in pain as Crimson's claws sliced through her throat, killing her as well.
"And now you're gone as well," Crimson sneered as she withdrew her bloody claws and stared at the blood that stained them with greedy eyes.
Iceshard's jaw dropped, "You killed them. My daughter, my friend, gone!"
"Yes, I thought that much was obvious."
"Murderer!" Iceshard screeched. "Why don't you just kill me too!?"
Crimson laughed, "You're just as much of a murderer as I am. Killing you would be giving you mercy and I don't do mercy, ever. You have a little power left over that should keep you alive. Maybe you could use it to pull your way to the tip of Skyward Mountain so that you can pray to whatever lives upon that mountain?"
"Wherever I go it will be way from here and the bodies of my last remaining kin," Iceshard meowed hoarsely as she hauled herself to her paws and began to stumble towards the safety of the trees. "You may have beaten the Dark Forest but you forget that there are three other leaders you still need to defeat before you will truly rule over everyone. Farewell, demon." Then the Highest Star was gone, nothing more than a broken shadow moving silently through the undergrowth towards the mountain that peered dauntingly over the horizon.
Crimson watched her go with a small smile curling at her muzzle, "Correction, there is only two. Redflame you killed during your siege over StarClan. Hiddenstorm's followers will bend easily once he is dead, as will Scourge's. The hardest part of my plan is over. Now the real fun begins."
-000-
Her breath came in hoarse gasps as the freezing wind bit into her face and the stone beneath her fit sliced her paws. Her eyes were narrowed against the freezing wind as she pushed on, forcing her paws to take another step up the steep rocky mountainside. The path had gotten more treacherous since her last trip to the tip but she had to make it to the top, had to beg her father for another chance at winning the Dark Forest back.
Crimson would not win. She'd make sure of that.
But getting her father to give her more power would not be an easy feat. No doubt he'd be enraged that she had lost in the first place and then he'd want to fix the problem himself. But if he ventured down into the Dark Forest cats would work out that another world existed through the portal above the Bone Shrine, and that would not be a good thing. The High Stars rule had been shaky for moons but if this got out then it would crumble without Crimson's help.
The thought of the demon she-cat set her fur bristling. She'd lost everything to that demon. Her love, her daughter, her only friend, her kingdom and now probably her father. Crimson would have to pay; she'd make sure of that. But a plan would have to be drawn out, an intricate plan that would spell that end of Crimson's reign of fear once and for all. The time for planning would come later though, she decided, now she needed to beg her father for more power and she had the perfect excuse to use on him.
The familiar hum of the portal began to beat in her ears as purplish light appeared through the snow. Soon the Bone Shrine appeared as well and then the snow stopped, allowing the entire mountain tip to be seen. Iceshard felt the breath catch in her throat at the sight of the purple and blue portal that spun lazily above the Bone Shrine. Beyond that portal lived her mother, a cat she had never truly remembered, as well as any other kin she had. Maybe Settingsun was allowed to enter that realm seeing as she was my kin…The thought was a happy one but an unlikely one. Settingsun had never really amounted to anything apart from a High Star. She'd never done anything that had set her above the others, just been a cat to strike fear into the hearts of others.
She took a tentative step towards the Bone Shrine, feeling the vibrations from the portal run up her legs. She shuddered. The power atop this mountain was extraordinary. "Father?" she called gingerly. "I wish to speak with you."
"What do you want this time? Once again you have disturbed my home without invitation, soiled my sacred ground with your weak paws."
"I apologise but my situation is indeed dire this time," Iceshard began, voice shaking a little. "Crimson has killed the other High Stars and stripped me of my power. I am so weak that I can hardly move, I only just managed to pull myself up this mountain so that I could ask you to bless me with more power so that I can take back my lands."
Shrill laughter echoed from within the portal as two huge pale blue orbs appeared and took on the form of slitted eyes. "You have failed me!? After all the time I have given you to fix up the problems you have caused you go and lose your lands to a demon created a mere moon or so ago!? And then you have the nerve to come up here and ask me for another chance!? You have not thought this through."
"Father, I am sorry! One more chance is all I ask of you, one more chance to win back my lands! I will not fail you this time I promise! If you do not give my power then I will die!"
"You are already dead to me. I have found another that is stronger than you and has already done more than you have within a moon. She has become my champion you are merely a pawn that needs to be disposed of."
Iceshard pinned her ears back against her skull as a high pitched shriek shot out from the portal and a huge clawed paw appeared, stretching out to pin her to the ground by her hind legs. Realization hit her like a tree, "Crimson. You made Crimson your champion. Why would you do that!? She is of no relation to you what so ever! If she becomes the supreme ruler then your lineage would run out!"
The clawed paw began to pull Iceshard towards the portal as a mouth appeared underneath the eyes, a mouth that was pulled into a mocking smile lined with razor sharp teeth. Iceshard screeched in fear and dug her claws into the stone ground, desperately trying to pull herself away from the mouth that waited to swallow her whole. "My lineage will never run out, kit. You need not worry yourself with important things such as that. In my realm you will be a servant, serving the cats that have done braver things than you for the rest of your miserable after life. Your life as the Highest Star is over, Iceshard. Crimson will do so much better than you."
Iceshard screeched and shrieked, writhing ferociously in the grip of the huge paw as it pulled her closer to the mouth until she was pulled into it and the jaws came crashing down on her. A pained cry ripped across the mountain, echoing through the Dark Forest, the pained cry of a Highest Star that was no more.
The High Stars were dead.
AN: Yep. This story is progressing along nicely. Bye bye, Eternity, Settingsun and Iceshard. I'll miss your devilish ways.
-Hunter