A/N: Thanks a LOT for the reviews! I say that I'm self-motivated to keep the chapters up, but they help a lot :D I decided to update a lot earlier because today happens to be cloudy—like, it looks like it's going to rain (Who doesn't like typing in rain? Really hope it rains today). And I have to make this particular chapter exciting (not necessarily longer, though), seeing as how it's my favorite number… Haha…

Chapter 14 – Honor or Glory

Duskshadow was alone in the training hollow when Ravenwing padded up to him silently. To announce her entrance, she touched him lightly on his shoulder with his tail, and he turned with a look on his face that said, What took so long?

"So how'd it go?" he asked calmly, as if the medicine cat had just gone away on a hunt.

"ShadowClan, RiverClan, and WindClan have agreed to send us as many warriors they can spare. But Thistlestar asked who our leader will be, after Dawnstar's gone."

Duskshadow shrugged. "Anyone. You. So long as it's not me, I'll fight my part."

"Are you such a coward?"

"Have you bees in your—" He halted when her words just started to sink in. I've been called reckless, talented, and the warrior with foxdung for honor. But even Rowanheart—or any other cat—could call him a coward. "So what does the great medicine cat have to prove that I am scared?"

Ravenwing's voice was strained and desperate. "You know why! There's no other cat fit to take over the leadership! The best cat to succeed Foxstar was Stormclaw, but he's dead and now the next best warrior is you! You were mentored by Stormclaw, and even if you lost—"

"I seem to recall that I was the one with foxdung for honor. With me as leader, ThunderClan will be worse off than now. How do you know I won't do the same thing as my sweet sister?"

Ravenwing's blue eyes looked knowingly at him. "I didn't come right away from WindClan. I had to see what was going on first—what if I came into a camp with no one left? What if I were too late? And then I saw you in the training hollow with those apprentices—and what you were doing."

Duskshadow laughed at her stupidity. "So what if I'm giving them training? We'll need all our teeth and claws in the fight to come. Even a cat with one eye should be able to see that."

"I'm not so blind that I can't see what you're doing! You've changed, Duskshadow. I can't say whether it's for the better—but I know that you're so similar to your sister, and at the same time so different. Can't you see? Dawnstar has an army of untrained rogues who don't know the first thing about the warrior code, and couldn't be bothered to try and learn it. You have an army of apprentices, trained in moves that no one else knows how to counter—but all the same, they're bound by the warrior code—like you."

Duskshadow was mildly surprised, when it shouldn't have. Of course I've changed, mousebrain, was what he wanted to say, but it wasn't like him. He knew what Stormclaw told him was right—he was honor-bound to the warrior code—but it felt so wrong to go against his nature, like licking his fur the wrong way or using a bird-stalking technique to hunt mice. "It's just… I know I've changed, Ravenwing, I really do. But what the heck, a leader should be a leader in heart. And I can't find it in myself to do it."

"Following the warrior code isn't always easy, Duskshadow," Ravenwing meowed. "Do you think the legendary Firestar wanted to be leader? I'm sure, that along the way, that he grew to appreciate watching over ThunderClan. He wasn't able to sleep with his fellow warriors anymore, but did he have a choice? Maybe there was an older cat, more experienced and able to take on the job—but as deputy, he had no choice to take up that burden. I know you're not standing exactly on his pawprints—I know you're not deputy. But it's what Stormclaw would have wanted. No one might appreciate you anymore, especially Rowanheart, but this is your chance to prove them wrong, and save ThunderClan! What matters most to you, honor or glory?"

"You make it sound so easy," Duskshadow hissed. His voice was filled with malevolence, but inside, some part of him that was born of Stormclaw's lectures of the warrior code, wanted to agree with her. Right now, there's no one even close to Stormclaw to succeed the leadership, even me. But I'm as closest as we can get.

They stood there while Ravenwing continued to glare at Duskshadow, and he continued to wrestle with his old ambitions of becoming the best warrior in all the Clans. Which was the more satisfying and easiest choice, honor or glory? Glory. Which was the wiser choice, the choice that Stormclaw's restless spirit would want him to choose? Honor.

Duskshadow finished his meditating and opened his eyes. "I guess I'm grateful that you think I've gone for the better. But I'll give you my answer to which is better—honor or glory." A ghost of that cutting smile touched his muzzle as he continued, "Why, the choice won't matter if we all end up failing and dying, will it?"

Further note: After you read this chapter, you might think: Okay, Ravenwing might love Duskshadow. I'll tell you now: It's up to you, the reader, to guess whether or not they'll break the warrior code, fall in love, cliché cliché macho cliché. I think it's pretty obvious what'll happen, especially by the end of the story, but I'll tell you now that while I may nurture that little relationship, I'm firm that there won't be any romance in the story. 'Tis reminds me of The Little Prince—do they break the warrior code, or do they not? The outcome of the story will change completely on that one little guess…