The vigil was held more for Swiftpaw than for Falconpaw, though some cats still said a few words to remember the brown tom by. Most didn't really care for him. Adderclaw, in particular, was angry. How dare that good-for-nothing rogue take away his future mate? He was going to ask Swiftpaw when she became a warrior. He could be patient. But now, that wretched apprentice had ruined everything! What did she even see in him anyway? What did Falconpaw have that Adderclaw didn't?! The brown-striped tom thought back to when Swiftpaw stood on the Highledge and glared at them, the fury in her eyes smoldering through him. He didn't like the idea of her being so upset, and he hadn't known why Falconpaw had anything to do with it.

Then he thought of Snowclaw, the leader's mate, who confessed to her mate and the entire Clan of something that happened seasons ago. If she was right, and Falconpaw was eight moons… If Falconpaw was Snowclaw's lost kit, then why would she let the others treat him the way they did? Granted he hadn't been the nicest of denmates, but Falconpaw was still a cat! As much as he teased and Paleface pushed the younger tom, it was Snowclaw whose actions were the worst! Kinktail would never let anyone treat him like that! Being the only kit of his entire litter to survive made him a miracle in her eyes, and she would claw anyone who said different! So why was Snowclaw so cruel when Kinktail was the exact opposite?!

He thought back to what Foreststar said about Snowclaw being attacked… but would that be enough to make her turn her back on the only kit she could ever possibly have?!

"Great StarClan, what have we done?" He whimpered, searching the skies. It was well-known that the brightest stars were those of cats who had recently passed, and he knew exactly where Swiftpaw and Falconpaw were, side by side and the brightest in the sky.

"I'm sorry!" He wailed to the stars.

Cats stirred from their silence to see who had yowled, and were shocked to find Adderclaw digging his claws into the ground, a pained look on his face.

"It's okay, Adderclaw. I'm sure Falconpaw understands-." He cut his mother off.

"It's not okay! It's not okay at all! Mother, you would never let anyone treat me the way I treated Falconpaw! And even though you know it's just because of Swiftpaw, you've told me to stop before. But no one else was told that, and no one else stood up for him! If Foreststar is right, then Swiftpaw was the only cat to ever show that she cared! Even if my siblings died, I had you and cats like me. We took Snowclaw's hate and gave it to him ten pawfuls worse! He's dead because of us, Kinktail! He's dead because of me!"

"I'm sure he knows you regret it." Foreststar, of all cats, spoke then. The brown warrior turned to his leader, despair in his eyes. "And that, more than anything, is probably what he wanted. You can sleep knowing you have been forgiven, Adderclaw, and rest well, because you are not the worst of his tormentors."

"That would be Snowclaw." Kinktail growled. "Now that I think about it, how dare you neglect your own kit?! I didn't particularly care for him, but I didn't actively hate him either! You are his mother! Your job is to take care of him! To feed him when he is hungry and cannot hunt for himself, to make sure that he is healthy and safe and to take him to the medicine cat when he isn't! You were supposed to love him, Snowclaw! What happened was not so horrible that you couldn't love your own kin!"

"I was violated, you kittypet slop! Do you have any idea what it was like?! I had to live knowing that my kits were the spawn of a monster! A cat who might as well have torn me up from the inside out! I was supposed to be mates with Foreststar, but that brute got to me first! And now… now I can never have kits! And the wretched thing you dare to call mine looks exactly like that murderer and you expect me to love it?! I THINK NOT!" Snowclaw screeched, heaving with effort.

"He was your kit… no matter what was done to you, kits are given to us by the grace of StarClan! Who are you to soil that with your anger?" Kinktail's voice wavered, disbelief sharpening her tone. "How could you? Your own son, he was all you had! How could you?"

"I have Forestatar! Don't tell me what to do! That thing was going to be a brute, just like its father!"

"If that were true, then it would only come to pass because of what we did to him." Mintheart, the medicine cat, meowed softly. "Falconpaw was a good cat, according to Foreststar. There was no hint of the brutality you saw in his sire, but there would have been if we kept up the way we did."

"And I don't think Foreststar wants anything to do with you." Adderclaw sneered.

"I might not have been the best of cats, but my problem was that he was around Swiftpaw all the time. I wanted her to be my mate. You wanted Falconpaw gone entirely. There's a difference between what your were willing to do and what I was. You said it yourself, you wanted him dead." The tabby growled. "I may not have liked the poor furball, but you've got to admire his strength. To have lasted as long as he did with you as a mother?" Adderclaw shook his head, trailing off.

He then turned to Paleface.

"And you worked him like no other apprentice has been trained before. You probably said things the rest of us never heard, because you're his mentor. You're supposed to teach him to be a warrior, like Lakeclaw taught me. I was heading for my nest when he and Swiftpaw left, and they had fresh-kill in their mouths. I could hear his stomach growling from where I stood, and he looked exhausted! I bet he was overjoyed when your mate moved to the nursery! I know I would be! That would mean less time spent yowling his ears off." Adderclaw paused to take a breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them, his glare was cold and all for Falconpaw's would-be mentor.

"I looked up to you, Paleface. I thought you were the best cat ever, and Falconpaw was lucky to have you. I told him that… dear StarClan, I told him that he deserved you, even if you went tough on him… how cruel were you?"

"What?! You have no right-!"

"It wasn't just Snowclaw who despised him. You had to have some part in it. Why else would he go to the fresh-kill pile in the middle of the night, long after everyone was in their nests? Why else would he be dead the next morning? So I ask again, how cruel were you?"

"He was a rogue!" Paleface roared. I thought Foreststar had given me that pitiful excuse for a scrap of fur because he thought I couldn't handle anything else, because he thought I was worthless! He sure showed it whenever he could!"

"What? Why would I do that?!" The brown leader exclaimed.

"You held back my warrior ceremony! I was supposed to become a warrior the same day Lakeheart did, and you said I wasn't ready! Three moons I remained an apprentice! Three whole moons of taking orders from older warriors and knowing that I should have been up there with my brother! So yes, I was mad at Foreststar's precious rogue."

"You weren't ready." Foreststar growled. "And clearly you have not changed. Paleface, I hereby strip you of your warrior name and regulate you back to the rank of Apprentice. You will do all that is required of you as an apprentice until I say otherwise or you prove to have learned your lesson. Since there are no other apprentices, you shall have to take on the duties a normal apprentice will. If you truly cannot handle the strain, then I will have others split the work."
"What-?!"

"Let's see how long you last under the same conditions you put Falconpaw." Foreststar sneered.

"Why you-!"

"Go to the Apprentice's Den!" The leader roared. "Sleep knowing that you have failed what will likely be your only apprentice, because I know now that I should not have trusted you with the well-being of my son. You're lucky I haven't tried to kill you!"

"Foreststar-."

"GO!"

Palepaw slunk towards the apprentice den, muttering under his breath. The brown leader turned his cool gaze on Adderclaw, who ducked his head.

"You have shown remarkable growth, for one so young, but know that you do not shoulder this burden alone, and you, of all, have been redeemed. Live well, young tom. Live the life Falconpaw and Swiftpaw both wanted for you. You more than deserve it."
"Th- thank you, Foreststar."

The brown tabby leader nodded to his youngest warrior and turned back to the Clan at large.

"Does anyone have anything good to say about Falconpaw or Swiftpaw? They should not be remembered for how we treated them, but what they brought to our Clan." The cats of ThunderClan were silent as they thought of the solemn apprentice and his happy-go-lucky companion.

"Please...?" Foreststar whimpered. "Tell me that I have not failed my son, that my entire Clan was so blinded by Snowclaw's misplaced hatred that you all think he's contributed nothing?!"

"He was a hard worker." Mintheart offered. "Even when he was as tired as Adderclaw mentioned, he always made sure the queens and elders were fed, would even stop by my den to check on me. He was always the last to eat, and the first out to hunt. He would have been a wonderful leader if he focused a bit more on keeping himself alive. The grey tom meowed. "I'm pretty sure he takes after you, in that respect." He told Foreststar.

"Falconpaw always made time for two things: Swiftpaw and the elders." Kinktail chuckled.

"He loved a good story." Longclaw, the Clan's oldest tom, meowed wistfully. "I had to have told him my tales a thousand times, and he always came back. Could ask for them by name, I bet."

"He was quite the fighter, I noticed." Lakeheart offered. "Before his ceremony, you had us assess his skillset. He knew mostly defensive moves, and that says a lot about the kind of cat he is. As down as he was, he never hurt anyone. Not even those who probably deserved it." The blue-grey tom glared toward the apprentice den, where his brother now resided.

"Swiftpaw adored him." Deerfur murmured. "Would ask about him every day, would make sure I knew his name."

"She insisted we eat with him, though StarClan knew why, then. I can see now, why he would be lonely." Jaygaze, a blue-eyed senior warrior meowed.

"They were wonderful cats, and I'm glad they found each other. Even if... even if I didn't want them to at first." Adderclaw admitted.


Swiftpaw raced through the fields, stirring up all the prey in the area and ruining any cat's chance for hunting. Not that they would care. This was Starclan, there was plenty of prey. She certainly didn't pay them any mind. She was far too focused on reaching her friend.

"Falconpaw!" She yowled as she ran. "Falconpaw, they remember us!" She bowled the brown tom over in much the same fashion he had her on his last night. He went down with an "Oomph!" And she placed her paws on his chest, nudging him playfully. "Didn't you hear me, Falconpaw? They know the truth! They hate Snowclaw now! And Foreststar demoted Paleface- sorry, Palepaw. Sent him back to the apprentice's den like the coward he was!"

"I would be lying if I were to say that didn't feel good." Falconpaw admitted with a smirk. "I still don't like you being here."

They had discussed this plenty of times once he reached her. At first sight, disbelief clouded his gaze and he snarled at her.

"You mouse-brained fool! How could you? Why would you leave the entire Clan behind?! And what about Adderclaw? You probably shattered his heart, you miserable excuse for a she-cat!" He'd roared.

She avoided him for a while after that, and he found her at sunset, came crawling for forgiveness. It had taken more than a few tries to get a word from her, much less to get her to actually forgive him. But he'd managed it, and all was right with the world. Except for the part where they were dead.

"Well I'm here, and there's nothing you can do about it." Swiftpaw scoffed, sticking her tongue out. He licked her nose on instinct and they burst into giggles after a moment of shock. "Honestly, Falconpaw, I made my choice, and there's nothing I would trade it for. Deerfur still has Lakeheart. They'll have plenty of kits come newleaf. Adderclaw... he'll move on. It would have been cruel to stay when he was too enamored to see the truth. He can moved on... I wasn't able to, and I don't regret that. Now it just means that you're mine forever." The black and white she-cat smirked, licking the brown tom's ear.

"Anyway, I've been calling you from The Island. Didn't you hear me?"

"I have no clue what you want."

"They remember us, Falconpaw. We made an impact. Cats like you! It rots like fox-dung that we had to die, but it worked! Nobody likes Snowclaw or Palepaw, and everyone can see you as I did, at least, see how good a cat you are. No one else should bother seeing past that."

"I doubt anyone would want to." Falconpaw snorted.

"We really need to work on that."

"No, we really don't." He thought about Claws, the grey and black tom who originally found him and tried to teach him the 'art' of using she-cats to get what you want. He had to have somewhere close to a million kits by now. Falconpaw knew from the moment he met Claws that he would only have one mate. That was his resolve.

"You're the only she-cat who likes me, and it just so happens that I like you back. No problem, right?"

What if Swiftpaw didn't like him What if she just followed him because she felt bad and hated the Clan? That was perfectly reasonable. She could be with Adderclaw. They could've gone on with their lives. He would've been okay-.

Swiftpaw swat him aside the head with a sheathed paw.

"You're thinking too hard." She told him.

"I saw what you could have." He insisted.

"I have you, Falconpaw, and you have me. And we have the rest of StarClan. Please let that be enough."

Falconpaw nodded, suddenly ashamed. Swiftpaw was here, with him, and even if she wanted to, she wouldn't go back. She would stay with him, and the selfish part of him rejoiced in that fact.

"Okay." He said at last. "We should hunt or something. Unless you had an idea."

"We should visit Foreststar and Deerfur and the others later on. Tell them that we heard." Swiftpaw offered. "But for now? Yeah, hunting sounds great."


Those who had spoken at the vigil and those who silently agreed were at peace when they all retired to their nests, weary and drawn from either watching or taking part in the multiple arguments that occurred. The eternal apprentices went to every cat, circling them playfully and wishing good dreams on them all.

Falconpaw did for Snowclaw and Palepaw what Swiftpaw refused. He touched his nose to the white queen's forehead as she slept in the Warrior's Den for the first time since The Incident.

Palepaw swiped at an appirition of his former apprentice with malice in his eyes, and when he woke up, he limped to the medicine den. Apparently he had clawed himself in his sleep.

Mintheart chuckled and glanced at the brown tom by his side. Falconpaw winked and vanished. If Palepaw couldn't see past his own greed, then there was no point in trying to change him.

Life went on.