Rainbowheart watched the small body of the young cat as his sides moved up and down with each spasm that shook the poor scrap. Her paws were planted firmly to the ground, keeping her standing in place. Her eyes were wide, and her mind focused on nothing else but the bleeding young tom.

The others of her group were shouting at her, trying to wake her up from her stupor. To the warrior's ears though, her friends' voices remained muted. Without her knowing though, she slowly but surely, began to pad over to the wounded Chris.

Suddenly, the sound that fought to gain entrance to her ears broke through, and everything came tackling her senses. She was suddenly aware of the chaos behind her, her friends telling her to do something for the splotched tom. It was during this moment, that Chris' voice rang through, and silenced the others.

"Rain-Rainbowheart?"

She could hear the desperation in his voice, causing her to run the rest of the way to his side. Standing beside his shrinking and expanding form.

"Star, come here and help him!" Rainbowheart shouted over her shoulder to the white-faced she-cat.

Star had padded over quickly, along with the rest of the cats. All she needed was one look to know that the cat was not going to make it. Her eyes half-lidded, she shook her head. No words were needed to interpret the gesture.

Upon seeing the cats he trained with were there beside him, Chris gave them a remorseful look. "I'm sorry everyone. I really messed up..." He coughed, spitting up blood in the process.

Brick, who sat closest to the cat, quietly shook his head at Chris' statement. "Don't be mouse-brained I-I should have been watching you... Nobody is... is to blame but me."

The young tom gave Brick a weak smile, and closed his eyes.

The young tom's flank moved up and down harshly. It wouldn't be long though before he was gone. Without opening his eyes, Chris spoke soft and evenly, so as not to force his end closer. "I hoped that I would be around longer to… to join your clan Rainbowheart. If we were beaten... I wanted us all to live together. You've all been friends to me..."

Several eyes widened, as the young cat went on.

"Would you all do me one last favor...?"

"Anything," Rainbowheart managed out, eyes wet. The others nodded in agreement, with Brick whispering out.

"Whatever you want, Chris..."

Chris opened his hazy looking eyes. "Could you please... make me a warrior?" He was talking with struggling breaths, "I wanted to join... but I can't. I'll never be an apprentice now. I... I want to be remembered. I want... to be cheered for... while I'm still here... Please..."

Rainbowheart silenced him by touching her nose to his flank in understanding. She rose back up to meet his eyes which looked up at her with silent gratification.

Taking a quick look at the others, she began with shaky breath, " I-I... I call upon StarClan..." She stopped, trying to search for the words she needed. The warrior naming ceremony just wasn't coming to her.

The black-and-white cat looked down at the cat who's life slipped away with each second that passed. Looking into those color-drained eyes suddenly brought a calm to her.

"I'm sorry that I can't seem to remember the words," she started, "It doesn't matter though..." The warrior leaned forward and touched her muzzle to Chris' head. "Your name shall forever be known as... Spiritjump. We will honor your courage... and sacrifice."

By this time, Chris' body had stopped moving. All was silent for the moment, with the rest of the cats dipping their heads in sorrow.

The warrior didn't look up at the others at first.

"He... He said he wanted cheering..."

Rainbowheart's ears pricked up, and her gaze slowly turned to Brick.

"Why aren't... any of you cheering?" The red-brown tom was shaking slightly, eyes trained on the dead cat. "Don't you... don't you care that our friend is dead, and that he wanted us cheering his name?!"

"Spiritjump."

Brick slowly looked up when Rainbowheart spoke. He blinked his eyes, echoing the other cat's words. "Spiritjump."

The rest of the cats looked at each other, unsure at first until they slowly caught on.

"Spiritjump. Spiritjump! Spiritjump! Spiritjump, Spiritjump, Spiritjump!"

Rainbowheart stopped cheering with the others, sighing in sadness as the voices echoed around.

"Thank you all..."

The warrior's ear flicked at the familiar voice. She didn't say anything, just watched as the cheering died down for the young cat.

Most of the Peace Reapers had left them to themselves, while some had remained in the shadows of the barn.

When Rainbowheart remembered what Bloodstorm had said to her, she stood up from where she sat. They needed to go. She motioned to the others that they were leaving, asking Buck to carry Spiritjump' body back.

"I'll do it," Brick spoke up, laying down to accept the corpse on his back. The red-brown cat grunted when he felt the weight hit him. He ignored it though, and stood up telling the others he was ready to go.

They all departed with lowered heads.

Silence had engulfed the group all of the way to their destination. It helped to enhance the eeriness that continued to pry the cats from their misery. Above them was a crescent moon that taunted the sorrowed cats with its gleeful, unwanted smile. This was not a time for happiness though, and the cats paid the glowing object little to no attention.

They continued on, until they broke through the brush that camouflaged the clearing. Abruptly, everyone stopped. Rainbowheart could see, and hear, a couple of shadowy figures on the outside of the den entrance. Gathering herself, she sighed, and padded closer to the shadowed cats that, upon hearing the patrol coming, stopped their chatting.

One of the cats, which Rainbowheart identified as Jade, broke away from the shadows to come and meet the others. Rockslide and Hazel soon followed.

At first the pure white she-cat looked, concerned, at the limp body on her Brick's back, but then it changed to one of horror, and she stopped in her tracks.

Hazel had taken notice of the grave looks everyone wore and, noticing Spiritjump's lifeless form gasped, "Oh no." She carefully padded up and pressed her nose to the body, and then pulled away when she felt the coldness beneath his pelt. Backing up, she touched her pelt against her father, who touched his nose to her head comfortingly.

Jade, with sadness in her amber eyes, stalked back in the direction of the den, "I better go get the others up." Her voice was almost a whisper, but it was loud enough to hear.

The others nodded, though knowing she couldn't see them.

Hazel watched as the white she-cat vanished into the hole, "Those poor kits are going to be devastated. They seemed to really adore him..."

Rockslide gave a reassuring lick to her head, before he padded over to Rainbowheart.

The old tabby coughed, getting Rainbowheart's attention. "Would… would you like us to do anything...?" Rockslide felt deeply saddened inside, remembering the last conversation he'd had with the deceased tom. He felt obligated to help.

Rainbowheart pondered the brown tom's question for a moment, and then dipped her head. "If it isn't too much trouble, we'd like to bury him. Could you clean him up? I... I don't think I have it in me..." she said in a low tone.

Carefully, Brick rolled Spiritjump's body off of his back, and onto the ground. He then dipped his head to Rockslide before padding a few feet away to sit alone.

"But mom, he isn't dead."

Everyone looked over to see Jade leading the kits and Shell over to them.

Topaz was looking at his mother in distress. "I just saw him, in the burrow."

"Me too, I saw him too. It has to be true if both of us saw him right?" Sparrow was trying to help defend their case.

Rainbowheart could hear some of the others muttering among themselves words of sadness for the kits. Spiritjump had been closest in age to the kits, and had been something of a playmate.

"You're all just trying to-," Topaz had stopped talking as soon as he saw the body on the ground. Sparrow followed her brother's gaze, and froze in place.

Both kits dashed to the lifeless body, prodding and nudging for the cat to get up, assuming he was playing a joke. Upon realizing the truth, they stopped and lowered their heads to cry, while Jade wrapped her tail around them and whispered words of comfort.

When Spiritjump's fur had been cleaned, Rainbowheart called for a vigil, and everyone present sat beside the lost cat's body. It had been explained to them all, that they could go home for the night. It did not matter to them though. They all stayed until the moon was ready to sleep, mourning the loss of their comrade.

When everyone was done paying their respects, Rainbowheart asked Shell and Rockslide if they could help her bury Spiritjump. "In a clan, the elders would be the ones to bury the dead, but since we are not a clan, and you are the oldest cats here, I wish to ask of your services please." She bowed her head in respect to the much older cats.

"Well of course we'll help. You helped us, and it's the least we can do for him. If it's one thing that we know, it's that the dead deserve better than being crow-food."

Rainbowheart looked up at Shell.

The old she-cat's blue eyes shone with understanding. She seemed much more fit now, than any of the other days that Rainbowheart had seen her. "Now you go on, talk to the others. We'll bury him behind the stump. You don't need to exert yourself. I can tell that you and the others been through enough already." She gave a shooing motion with her paw.

Rainbowheart gave a small, thankful smile and nodded, then got up and turned in the direction of the others.

Rainbowheart let Shell and Rockslide do their work, while she padded over to where Streak and Star were talking with a tired-looking Brick. When they noticed the other cat's presence, they all dipped their heads.

The black-and-white cat didn't bother with returning the gesture, being too weary, and just went on to questioning the red furred tom. "Whatever happened out there, I don't blame either of you. If you'll please, tell me what happened."

Brick stared at his paws for a moment, gathering his thoughts. He looked pretty worn out himself, and had dried blood around the scratches he had received from the punishers. When he finally looked back up to stare into the red eyes of the she-cat, he was far off into the past events of last night.

"We had followed Blue, just like you told us to do. He hadn't been doing much, just lazing around his twoleg nest, so we waited for a while in some nearby bushes. When nothing new happened, Spiritjump and I began talking."

"We weren't talking loud, so no one could have heard us, but we hadn't been paying attention to Blue. When we turned back, he was gone, and out of sight. We panicked, and began searching around quietly for him, but without luck. Then, Spiritjump yelled over to me, that he had found him, and ran."

"It seemed as if Blue had spotted us, and that was why he was running, so he could tell the Peace Reapers. Then I noticed that he seemed to be leading us on..." Brick paused to gather his thoughts.

"Go on," Rainbowheart insisted.

Brick nodded, "I-I immediately yelled for Spiritjump to stop, but he was already around a corner. I sped around it and had nearly crashed into him. When I looked back up, the punishers were around us already. Blue was with them."

"After that they sent for Havoc, and beat us up a bit until he got there with Gold. We tried to fight back. We needed to fight back, to try and run… but they had us pinned down. We couldn't get away..."

Brick stopped. He clenched his jaws together, "It should have been me that died, not him. He had so much that he was going to do. I should have protected him Rainbowheart… I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

The red-brown tom let out the anguish that he had bottled up all night. Star and Streak soothed the distraught cat. The blue-grey she-cat let the tom's head rest on her shoulder, while Streak tried to talk him down.

Star gazed at Rainbowheart, "Don't worry we'll take care of him. We need to treat his wounds anyway." She narrowed her eyes, focusing on Rainbowheart's pelt, "Speaking of which, it looks like that brute did a number to your beautiful fur."

Rainbowheart licked her chest fur in embarrassment, and was about to try and shake off the worrying cat. She thought better of it though. There was no need to pointlessly argue about treatment. "Right, I think I'll go wait in the den to be treated, then."

The warrior padded away, entering the den and laying down on a moss bed.

Star came in moments later with Streak and Brick trailing behind.

The odd eyed she-cat stopped next to Rainbowheart's side and set some herbs down on the ground. "Alright, let's see how deep these wounds are."

She began sniffing and poking, trying to determine what to do. When she was done with the checkup, she began chewing up the herbs and placing them on the black and white cat's pelt, while simultaneously quizzing Streak on how to use them and where to place them.

It had become apparent to Rainbowheart, that Star was quite knowledgeable in herbs as StarClan had given hint to. The blue-grey she-cat had done wonders with treating an eye wound Blair had gotten from tripping during a race with Streak. Not to mention, being of great help with Shell's recovery.

If Rainbowheart had to leave, she silently wondered if this cat would go with her and the others.

She suppressed a hiss, when Streak began to put some of the chewed herbs on a rather deep and tender wound near her shoulder.

Streak flinched back and looked worriedly at her friend, "I'm sorry, did that sting?"

Rainbowheart unclenched her teeth, and shook her head, "I'm good. Go on with what you were doing. That rat-faced jerk must have hit deeper than I thought."

Streak hesitated for a moment, but then went back to putting the gunk back on the wound.

"Whatever happened to 'not starting a fight'?" Star commented dryly.

"Oh ha-ha very fun-OW!" Rainbowheart glared at Streak. The black cat gave her another apologizing look, and Rainbowheart let it slide.

Thinking about the vile cat now brought Rainbowheart back to thinking about what Bloodstorm had said. She knew that she would have to come to a decision, but would have to wait for the kittypets before she could voice it. The final choice though, would be the one that didn't get the others killed.

"Okay, all done."

Star and Streak had finished putting the ointment on both Rainbowheart's and Brick's pelts, and were now examining their work to make sure they didn't miss anything. Seeing that no scratch was missed, they began to clean up the mess that they had made.

Rainbowheart meanwhile, was staring over at Brick, who was sniffing at the paw that had medicine on it. She suppressed a chuckle when he scrunched up his face in disgust.

"Ugh, this stuff smells terrible."

"Heh, it's for healing, Brick, not eating. It doesn't have to smell good." Rainbowheart got up and began to head for the exit, when Star appeared in front of her, blocking the way out. Rainbowheart gave a discouraged look, while the blue-grey she-cat shook her head.

"Oh no you don't. You and Brick are staying here and resting."

"But—"

"No buts, you both are injured. There's still some time to sleep before sunhigh comes, and then we shall wake you." Star twitched her tail, pointing in the direction of two fresh nests that were in the corner.

Brick had already headed over to his nest without complaining, unlike the black and white warrior.

Rainbowheart sighed, following suit, and padded over to get into the other nest. She laid down and with a huff glared at Star before closing her eyes.

A satisfied Star gave a curt nod to them, and then left.

Streak followed her out, but stopped and looked back at the two cats. "Please just stay there. You both need rest more than anybody right now." Without waiting for a reply, she promptly left, leaving both injured cats to their sleep.

Rainbowheart opened her eyes, finding herself in the forest of StarClan.

Why am I here now….? Did Foxflower and Dewstar want me?

Getting up, she immediately began scenting for the StarClan cats that she usually spoke with. After a couple of minutes, Rainbowheart picked up on the voices of several cats talking. They obviously didn't know that she was there, so she carefully laid low, and listened.

"What you did was reckless and idiotic!"

Rainbowheart could identify Foxflower's voice.

"We don't know what would have happened if I had not done what I did, Foxflower! If she stays, there is no telling what would transpire." It was Dewstar who spoke now.

"You didn't have to go this far, just because we can't see ahead of time. You didn't have to lead that poor cat to his death!"

"W-What did you say?" Those words. Rainbowheart hadn't been able to her mouth shut after hearing what Foxflower had just said. She didn't take her eyes off of the blue-grey tom.

"Dewstar… you…"

The ginger she-cat glanced at the black-and-white warrior for a few seconds, before hissing through her teeth. "I'm sorry, Rainbowheart, I tried to stop him."

The warrior continued glaring at Dewstar, ignoring Foxflower altogether. "You killed Spiritjump, you killed an innocent cat. You killed him! How could you?"

"I did it for…" The tom seemed agitated and at a loss for words. "For your clan's future," he spoke quietly, seemingly controlling himself from speaking further.

"My clan?" Rainbowheart scoffed at the words. She didn't believe it. Experience taught her that the old leader never did anything for just anyone other than his own clan.

"Please Rainbowheart, you must listen. There is darkness-"

"Shut up Foxflower. Just… shut up," the words slipped out of Rainbowheart's jaws with irritation, and anger. She turned on her paws then, keeping her back to the StarClan cats. After a moment of thinking, she began walking off.

"You're welcome to visit me Foxflower, and anyone else, but you, Dewstar, I better never see again."

She disappeared into the starry forest, going back to the spot that she had entered through. With a heavy heart, and thoughts, she curled up on the grass, and fell asleep. Silent yowls of sadness for a long-gone cat filled her mind.