This includes the finale! So be prepared. The next chapter will be the epilogue... and then, the end of Burning Dawn as we know it.

Unlike my other stories, this one will have a (relatively) happy ending.

Chapter 3

Everyone fell silent at once. They all knew what was going to be said- even if they didn't know the exact details. "DuskClan has been trespassing over our borders for quite some time now!" she declared. Most of the crowd began to murmur in surprise among themselves. I haven't heard of this before, either.

"Now," she continued, "we are more prepared than ever. We have doubled the border patrols, made sure the fresh-kill pile is always full, and rebuilt the dens to be much stronger than before. But this is going too far. It's been six moons, and still, our enemies refuse to change themselves!"

"DuskClan never changes," a light gray tom rasped from where he stood just outside of the elders' den.

I could feel Sunsting stiffening beside me. "How dare they?" she snarled, unsheathing her claws. I flinched- one had nearly gotten stuck in my hind leg. I shifted my position so that I was no longer in danger of being stabbed. "I'll show them what we're made up of!"

I was waiting for the mutters of agreement to come, but the moment that my sister finished her sentence, someone else spoke up.

"Wait!" a light brown she-cat interrupted. "There's more! I found rogue scent on the DawnClan border the other day!" Her statement was making a chorus of confused and hostile mutters from the gathered clan. "It was kind of stale... so I didn't tell anyone. But now, it could contribute to the problem."

I looked up at Mousestar's face to see a mishmash of fear and... more fear. It showed clear by her scent, too. "What?" she thundered. "Rogues?"

She looked ready to pounce onto Roserunner at any time, but she was quickly stopped with a flick of a tail from Blizzardmoon, who shook his head and whispered something in her ear. She hesitated, then finally shook him off, whispering something back that I couldn't hear.

"We will worry about the rogues later," she began, "if the scents are truly stale. But first, we need to deal with DuskClan." Her voice grew into a low growl.

Some cats still looked skeptical, but eventually murmured their agreement along with the rest of the clan. Blizzardmoon waited until everyone began to quiet down, then continued with his speech. "We cannot wait any longer. It is now evening, and if we wish to take out an ambush on them, this is the time."

"Now?" I muttered uncertainly, but most of the cats were already sharpening their claws on nearby rocks or excitedly discussing battle plans with their friends.

Sunsting looked the most prepared out of any of them. She was standing tall and proud, her claws glinting in the fading sunlight. "Then what are we waiting for?" she called out loudly. "Let's go already!"

Strangely, we did not find any patrols at all on the border. There was DuskClan scent, alright, but it was all stale- they must not have refreshed them this morning.

The forest was dark to the point where I had to rely on scent and touch, and I felt suffocated inside the leaves and branches that kept threatening to snag the rest of my humble pelt away. When we finally stopped walking, I felt almost faint with relief. My paws felt like falling off already.

"We're nearing the DuskClan camp," Mousestar hissed to the rest of us before turning around and trekking again through the dense undergrowth- although at a much slower pace than before. I could almost feel the tension in the air- somehow, I felt that this was not going to be a battle that we could win.

Moving, walking, moving. Through the shadowed forest we went.

Moving, moving, pause.

"Silence!" Mousestar growled. "We're right outside! Don't wake our enemies before the battle even begins." She lowered herself into a hunting position, and quietly, muscles tense, she began crawling along the floor of the camp.

Silence, nothing... something.

I buried my head in someone's fur, but that was because I had seen shadows- not of Mousestar, not of the dens or of the precariously swaying, moaning trees, but the shadows of cats- moving. Sunsting appeared not to notice, however, her claws still out and an impatient expression on her face. "What's taking them so long?" she hissed.

I was about to reply, but it happened so fast that I barely had time to react.

Unsettled murmurs were settling in the silence of the DawnClan warriors, and shadows were flickering across in an eerie pattern, shifting and turning all around. Something was pounding in my chest- I couldn't tell if it was my heart or someone else's- and just as my nerves were about to reach their end, Mousestar appeared seemingly out of nowhere, screeching, "DawnClan, attack!"

What? Who were we attacking? I couldn't see cats, yet shadows were everywhere. Panic was beginning to take hold on my throat, and I couldn't see anyone's face clearly. It might have been a friend or enemy for all I knew. Cats were milling around in confusion, but I just stood there, frozen...

...until suddenly, someone yowled above the descending chaos-

"DuskClan has been taken by rogues!" Robingaze shouted. "Stop! Listen to me! We need to regain order!" He panted, looking around the sea of pelts. "DuskClan has been taken by rogues!"

"Let me take over from here, Robingaze," a familiar voice rang out. Blizzardmoon was standing on top of a fallen pine tree, glaring down at the mass of cats screeching, biting, and clawing each other in a confused frenzy.

I dodged the slavering jaws of a screeching tortoiseshell tom just in time to hear the DawnClan deputy say- "Is this really what you wanted?" he roared. "Fighting against one another? We must unite!" He stood up on his hind legs, rising to his full height. "Unite under one ruler!"

The relentless chaos was beginning to die down a little as cats tottered around dizzily and began realizing what was actually happening. I saw a small blue-gray shape shimmy up the tree with stealth and declare, "Exactly! We cannot let this go on any longer! Look!"

Mousestar flicked her tail in the direction of the confused-looking, battered DuskClan inhabitants, who were being trapped in a circle by a ring of muscle-bounded toms and she-cats alike who were growling and snarling, claws unsheathed. "This is what brings us down. Being divided."

Silence. I felt someone sigh beside me, and a DuskClan kit calling out to its mother.

"Look," she added in a softer voice. "Is this really what you want to live for the rest of your life? This dividedness?" She growled at the rogues, who were now beginning to look uncertain. "Follow a true leader. I vote for a life without constant bickering about borders, where all our uniqueness will be recognized."

What? I felt someone's fur brush against mine, and I spun around to find Robingaze's eyes growing dark and his head being bowed. "I knew it," he muttered. "Those five warriors were always close to Mousestar. Blizzardmoon must have planned this with her.

"Planned what?" I hissed.

"Everything," my father responded, louder now. "Willowstar's murder... one of them must have convinced Ferretroar to kill Redstar in order to give her chances to gain power... and both clans must have made up the lies about the prey-stealing. I bet Foxstar sent out warriors whom she trusted to keep a secret." He growled.

Some cats were beginning to turn their heads to Robingaze, murmuring among themselves. "The only thing that I don't get," he continued, "is why Mousestar and Foxstar agreed to this. They were already deputies by the time..."

"Silence!" Mousestar barked, noticing the mutters among the crowd. "Blizzardmoon," she said, turning to her deputy, "I've got you what you wanted. I will continue to live as a loner from now on, after you have given me the Starwater. I'm sure Foxstar agrees to the same terms."

Starwater?

"There is no such thing as a drink to make you live forever," Blizzardmoon laughed, tossing his head back just a little bit. "My cats," he announced, turning to look at the stunned crowd, "is this who you want as leader? Someone who wants merely to be immortal and leave behind clan traditions?"

"Look," he added, "I will make all your dreams come true. You will live a peaceful life, and we will all live as one! No more being separated. No more rules saying whom you can be friends with or mate with. I am who you want! Join, and I will give you power."

Silence. Then, the last cat that I thought would speak up, did.

"I'm first! Me! Me!" Sunsting exclaimed, bounding forward to stand under the tree trunk. Blizzardmoon looked quite stunned for a moment before regaining his smile and replying, "Eh... of course. You shall be made my deputy. But first... I want to make sure that this new clan- BlizzardClan, I should think- is cleansed of old filth." He gestured with his tail to the frozen Mousestar.

"Get rid of her."

Sunsting hesitated. "But... she's my leader." Even in terror, Mousestar managed to maintain a leader-ish posture. "No," the DawnClan ruler rasped. "He is a murderer. Get rid of him. He... he told me lies."

"Wait!" I finally found my voice. "What do the clans think... we need their opinion..."

But no one was listening to me. Sunsting's claws were unsheathed. One moment, they were pointing at Blizzardmoon... the next, Mousestar. "You want to give me power," she mused, "while you claim that he is a murderer."

She glanced at the two cats. "Stand right in front of me." They obeyed and did as she told them to do. "Now... I'm going to ask you two a few questions..." She circled around Blizzardmoon and Mousestar with caution; and then-

NOT THE END

This is just getting too long. Oh, and a major cliffhanger. There will have to be a Chapter 4 and maybe 5... *sighs*

For the people who are confused at what the heck just happened (I am too), here is a basic rundown of the sideplot:

Blizzardmoon wants power and will do anything to get it, so he met Mousestar the deputy of Willowstar- who was Mousefang at the time- to help kill her leader and hand over the leadership to him and live as a rogue, and in return get something called the Starwater to make her immortal- which, we know now, is completely a trick.

Blizzardmoon then met a warrior of DuskClan, Ferretroar- and told her to tell Foxstar, her sister (who was Foxtalon the deputy then) to help her murder Redstar and live as a rogue after drinking the Starwater ("You could always come back to the clans, many moons after even the faintest memories of you are gone...")

(Blizzardmoon had long friendships with Ferretroar before, so she was easy to persuade.) Ferretroar believed that he was doing this so that she could gain power in DuskClan, but that did not turn out to be the case.

The rogues had been bargained with to attack DuskClan by Blizzardmoon to cause as much chaos and confusion as possible.

Sorry for the really long and rushed chapter! This is what happens when you try to force a long-plotted story into three chapters. When the patrols came back with the minor scratches, they just scraped themselves intentionally on some bushes. They were told that they got to share in the power in order for them to agree to cooperate.