Well, I sort of abandoned this story and decided just to finish it to put my reader's minds at peace. Sorry everyone. School is a consuming place, what with friends, homework and boys. This is the second to last chapter. Much angst ahead, be warned.

Chapter 19

Siftpaw looked up at Faithpaw with shock and terror glimmering in her eyes. Faithpaw stared back, trying to control his emotions. His headache had gotten worse and was nearly blinding him, his stomach was rolling in pain, his muscles ached like heck, and it felt like he was being raked apart by a thousand invisible claws.

"Really?" Inkstar hissed to him, narrowing her eyes, "Are you sure you can't spare a little time to pump up a she-cat? (AN: Heh heh…heh…XD) What's a few kits, anyway? But, if you insist."

"Please!" Siftpaw screamed, "Faithpaw, please! Please, Faithpaw!"

"Sorry," he said softly.

Inkstar raised her paw as Siftpaw writhed and screamed. She unsheathed her claws and paused, letting the moment stretch long. Then she carefully lowered her paw to Siftpaw's next and pressed one single claw to her throat.

"Please," Siftpaw rasped, blue eyes desperately searching Faithpaw's brown ones.

"Sorry," he said again, watching her struggle expressionlessly.

There was a fast jerk of movement and a scream. Inkstar had pierced the one claw into Siftpaw's throat and wrenched it back out again. The black leader leaped back and all the cats watched her bleed to death.

Blood gushing out of the puncture on her neck, Siftpaw struggled to Faithpaw, ignoring Clockpaw who was shaking in tears nearby.

"Ow…" she rasped, touching her neck. Her pads got stained in the blood that poured from the small hole and splashed on the ground below.

"Please help me…" She gasped, grabbing onto Faithpaw with her claws, "Stop the blood…" She reached over and snatched a large leaf off the ground and pressed it to her neck. In an instant it slid off and she was left on the ground.

And Faithpaw stared at her. Jaw clenched, heart pounding, body wringing in pain, he watched as she died, as bit after bit left her body. She didn't say anything, but she kept trying to scramble closer and closer to him, but she kept falling back, and that was probably the worst part of all.

And then it was finally over. Faithpaw stared at her without looking away, his eyes reflecting a world lost.

"Let me go," Faithpaw said to Inkstar, but as he did the world flashed and then froze black and white before becoming normal again, and his two front legs collapsed below him. He stumbled back up. "You said I wouldn't have to mate if you killed her."

His own voice seemed to reverberate in his head and flash after flash of Siftpaw dying spun through his vision. Siftpaw dying. Siftpaw dying. Siftpaw dying.

Inkstar looked confused. She furrowed her brow, eyes flicking between Siftpaw's dead body and Faithpaw, standing there waiting.

A small stream of gibberish, scrambled words and flashing images started in the back of his head. He shook his head to make it go away, but it only strengthened.

"Now Faithpaw!" Clockpaw shouted, jumping on Inkstar's moment of confusion, "Run and lure the other Clans here! I'll stay here to fight them off if they try to follow you!"

"Right!" Faithpaw gasped. He spun around and tripped his way out of camp. Instantly, WaterClan moved foreword, but Clockpaw spun and charged at the nearest offender.

"Run!" Clockpaw yelled to Faithpaw as she battled hard, "Run!"

And Faithpaw did. He pushed his aching, weak legs on as he stumbled through the mossy forest. He could barely move fast, he was so dizzy. Several times he fell and had to catch his painful breath before crashing on. He couldn't even cross the tiny stream dividing MidnightClan from WaterClan, and instead took a fallen tree.

Inside his birth Clan's territory, Faithpaw found himself lost. He couldn't remember any landmarks. The forest looked completely unfamiliar.

"Help," He rasped, feeling his belly churn on itself as if it was filled with acid.

But he knew there was no help for him, even in his ill state. Any cats he found, anybody, would simply force him to mate with them. He was completely alone.

Even Siftpaw was gone. He had killed her.

He tried to keep going, he really did. His legs shook with pain and they kept faltering beneath him, but he kept plowing on, intent on luring the MidnightClan to WaterClan so they could fight each other, and finally they'd fight each other out, and then he'd have peace. Finally. Peace.

But somehow he knew that he would never have peace.

And then he tripped over a rock and crashed to the mossy ground. He didn't move. He didn't even want to. He couldn't. He lay there, looking up at the tall pine trees encased in night.

"Faithpaw!"

Painfully, he raised his head to see who had called him and saw it was Clockpaw, standing tall, looking down at him. He could see a bunch of furious WaterClan she-cat's plowing after her.

"Clockpaw?" He rasped.

Clockpaw looked down at him, his eyes full of a sad knowledge. She knew.

"Faithpaw, go north," He said softly, "You will find a soft little grove where you can lie down. And then rest, Faithpaw. Finally rest."

A tear fell out of her eye and hit the ground. "Go now, Faithpaw." Clockpaw's expression was a twisted mat of grief, pain and fear. "Go."

Faithpaw tried to stand up and couldn't. Gently, Clockpaw hopped off the rock and hauled Faithpaw to his wobbly legs. She gave him a lick on the cheek and then he turned to leap back up the rock and face the oncoming WaterClan she-cats.

"Goodbye, Faithpaw," Clockpaw rasped.

Faithpaw turned and started to stumble foreword, not wanting to see Clockpaw fight her own Clan. His legs almost failed to hold him, and it seemed like every moment he had to push himself up with his weak legs and it hurt so, so bad. And the stream of gibberish was filling him mind, his whole life playing backward through his head at double speed.

He fell and rolled down a small crest. He stopped there and couldn't get up. He saw a soft, calm willow grove lining a small stream just a few yards away.

I can do this, he thought. He tried to get up. Couldn't. He couldn't get his leg underneath him. It wouldn't move.

He started to haul himself across the ground as his back legs failed. His front legs ached at the pressure and he had to stop. He kept his spinning, blackening vision fixed on a small enclave between the roots of a huge oak, lined with gentle leaves.

Her pulled himself harder, legs shaking. He reached the enclave and collapsed. He tried, harder then ever, to move the hind legs he couldn't even feel anymore into a curling position so he could rest forever in the soft area StarClan had prepared for him.

Boom.

And that was when he began to feel his heart. Never before had he been so aware of it. Each beat was a sacred, rattling boom that filled his dying body with a feeling of energy and fear.

Boom.

Feebly, he moved his legs up to his belly and then couldn't move.

Boom.

He tried to blink.

Boom.

His eyes weren't working.

Boom.

He couldn't move anything.

Boom.

He only stared right up at the moon shining down on him and illuminating his white and brown fur.

Boom.

Brighter then anything.

Boom.

Filling his body.

Boom.

Filling his soul.

Boom.

And then Siftpaw.

Boom.

He saw her in the moon.

Boom.

Beautiful Siftpaw.

Boom.

And he thought to himself, a last, dying thought,

Boom.

If you could be here next to me, right now, right here…

Boom.

Would you?

Boom.

Nothing.

Silence.

He sailed right into the moon.