Author's Note: Honoring the victims of 9/11 10 years ago. Let's hope this never happens again in the near future. We should remember this day forever, in my opinion.

Some days later, Hollyleaf was very energetic. Her paws itched to get up and do something useful. Maybe it was that mouse she ate, bigger and slower than any prey in ThunderClan's forest. Or did Russetflower and Jaypelt feed her some herbs in her sleep, some herbs she had never heard about? They might have caused this unusual feeling. Either way, she couldn't sit still. She wanted to hunt, watching her well fed Clan with pride. She wanted to wander the forest, her eyes lighting up when she spotted the herbs that Leafpool desperately needed. And most of all, Hollyleaf wanted to go home.

Russetflower and her mate were very friendly cats. They tried their best to be welcoming, and didn't mind if Hollyleaf spent long, restless nights in their camp. The ginger she-cat especially was a little shocked when Hollyleaf didn't seem grateful. Well, she was grateful, but she was afraid to show it to cats who were so different from her. And that didn't change the way things were for Hollyleaf very much. Her clan, as she knew it, was still gone.

In their place were cowards, who stayed as far away from Hollyleaf as possible the time she was with them after Leafpool's secret was revealed. Why? The reasons were endless. Maybe they thought Hollyleaf was going to announce THEIR own secrets to the entire world. Perhaps they avoided her because she was very different from them, yet not so different at all. Also, one of them could have seen Ashfur in their dreams. It was a possibility. Knowing the gray tom, Hollyleaf suspected that he would tell the truth. He was not afraid to say what he wanted, which ultimately led to his demise at a certain she-cat's claws. In other words, for Hollyleaf... going back to the world she longed for was impossible. There was nothing left.

Yet the black she-cat had known a way to return, just in case she ever needed to. One day, she approached Jaypelt, who was sorting some herbs. The dark gray tom looked up when he saw her.

"What is it?" he asked, rather impatiently. Organizing herbs into their respective piles was something he didn't like doing, Hollyleaf guessed.

The black she-cat repeated the question she had asked earlier. The tom refused to explain, no matter how much Hollyleaf begged. She was rather curious about this whole mess, wondering if Jaypelt could help her with her powers. Maybe he would keep Sol's promise, which that fox hearted loner had forgotten. She even decided to act as a medicine cat, using the skills Leafpool had passed on to her in her early apprentice days. Of course, the tom, fiercely stubborn and independent, declined her offer.

The young warrior rephrased her question lots of times, but with no success. Jaypelt seemed to know what she was doing. Or was it Russetflower whispering all about it to him? Hollyleaf had no idea. She eventually decided that she was over thinking the solution to her problem. She simply padded up to Jaypelt and asked him if he knew what direction the ThunderClan territory was in. The rogue answered in the negative. So Hollyleaf stayed where she was, in the camp.

At first, she thought that the cats would attack her in her sleep. Maybe not Russetflower, but Jaypelt could possibly be hiding something from her. Yet Russetflower and her mate were far from hostile, she later realized. They were rather eager to help her, even if they didn't truly know what her problem was. In Hollyleaf's opinion, this made the idea of living with rogues temporarily easier to bear. She secretly detested rogues. She scorned those to whom the warrior code was just nonsense told to kits to make them behave.

But these two cats had warrior names, although they didn't seem to think StarClan was real. Was there a leader in their midst? Or was there a Clan, where cats like Mothwing hid their real beliefs from those who cared about them most? But these cats seemed to be alone. Again, Hollyleaf was being rather nosy, she couldn't quit asking them questions. But she just couldn't help it. The black she-cat promised herself that her questions would be answered sometime in the near future.

However, another cat disagreed. He was not bound to the warrior code like a kit to its mother. He didn't mind Jaypelt and Russetflower. This cat thought that Hollyleaf's actions were rather suspicious, and was not afraid to show it. He was a cat of little words, but when he spoke his words were usually pessimistic. He didn't seem to be aware of how his sarcasm, used often, hurt some other cats. This cat was Russetflower's nephew, and he had a rebellious spirit. He was once kicked out of his Twolegs' house, a former kittypet. Having no other place to go and protesting fiercely, he sought shelter with the ginger she cat... and therefore, her mate.

Sometimes Hollyleaf thought that this cat, Flametooth, was turning the two rogues against her. One day...

"Look at the way she stares at you, with her green eyes... some evil glint in them," Hollyleaf had overheard. "Are you sure that there are not some of her precious warriors, planning to ambush us?"

Jaypelt had simply shrugged, and Hollyleaf had moved away from Russetflower's relative. She didn't hear what he replied, thinking that she was about to be discovered. Flametooth, after all, had the eyes of an eagle. He had looked her way a couple of times. Better to be safe than sorry.

The young warrior tried not to let this kittypet's hostile words affect her. Some of her actions could be classified as evil. That would be how she told the clan who she really was, and how a certain gray tom's head happened to be bobbing in the river, his eyes empty of life. In Hollyleaf's defense, she had worshipped the warrior code. What Leafpool had done was not right, and Ashfur would probably get exiled anyway. Exile was worse than death, in Hollyleaf's opinion, not being able to live with your loved ones. But her situation, thought Hollyleaf, was even worse than death.