Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors, but I do own the characters created for this story. Please don't steal any of them.

Chapter 22

"Don't give up, Rowanwind. Don't give up!" a familiar voice whispered in his ear. He turned to see Deathmask standing beside him. "You're the only one who can end this forever. You have to keep going!"

"Have faith in yourself!" Rowanwind turned to see Firestar standing nearby. A gray tom he did not recognize stood beside him. "Keep going, Rowanwind!"

Rowanwind felt strength flow into his legs. He stopped panting and began to look around, trying to find someone who he could help. Rapidriver of RiverClan was having diffulty against a DarkClan tom.

Rowanwind dug his claws into the tom's haunches and flung him away. The cat screeched and sped off.

"Thank you, Rowanwind," Rapidriver panted.

Rowanwind nodded before turning away to leap onto another crow. He toppled the crow out of the sky and into the ground. Rowanwind slashed at the bird's back, clawing out feather after feather. He ignored the creature's wild squawking.

"Rowanwind, look out!" Lionstorm's voice yelped.

Rowanwind didn't have time to turn. Something collided with his side, and he went flipping off of the crow and across the grass. He looked up to see a badger storming toward him, murder in its beady, black eyes.

There was a mighty screech as Rapidriver came flying out of nowhere. The blue-gray tom struck the badger's head with full force. The badger reared up onto its hind legs and its front paws came crashing down on Rapidriver's back. Rowanwind clearly heard the crack as Rapidriver's spine was shattered.

"NO!" Rowanwind screeched.

Two badgers came rushing over. They slammed themselves into the badger that had just killed RiverClan's deputy.

Rowanwind shook himself and raced away from Rapidriver's broken body. So much death! So much death! He couldn't bare this any longer!

"Rowanwind! Rowanwind!"

A dark blur darted in front of him, making him skid to a stop.

"Rowanwind, what are you doing?" Thunderstripe demanded.

"I can't take it anymore!" Rowanwind screamed.

"Rowanwind, be strong!" Thunderstripe said. "Be strong! Remember why we are here tonight. We are here to rid our homes of a plague of cats who call themselves DarkClan! Remember, Rowanwind!"

Rowanwind squeezed his eyes shut. "Thunderstripe, I don't know if I can do this!"

"I believe in you, Rowanwind! We all believe in you!" Thunderstripe said. "Now get in there and fight like you've never fought before!"

"Reedclaw! NO!" Darkeye's voice caught their ears.

The two best friends turned to see a DarkClan tom jerk Reedclaw's neck. There was a loud pop, and Reedclaw's body slumped to the ground, his light yellow eyes blank and unseeing.

"Darkeye!" Thunderstripe yelped as his brother darted in and leaped on the tom who had just killed Reedclaw. Thunderstripe gave a loud caterwaul and sped off to join his brother in avenging Reedclaw's death.

Rowanwind heard a cat screech in pain and turned to see a deer toss another DarkClan tom using a wide set of antlers. It was Brownclaw! While Gingerheart hadn't grown antlers when Rowanwind had turned her into a deer, Brownclaw had. Rowanwind couldn't believe he hadn't noticed earlier.

A DarkClan tom rushed at him. Rowanwind rolled out of the way. The tom came after him again. Rowanwind got to his feet and hissed at the tom, who snarled back.

"Die, light-demon!"

Rowanwind darted in, feinted with his left paw, and hit the tom in the chest with his right. The tom disappeared in a plume of dark smoke.

"Stupid copies," Rowanwind muttered.

He heard a strange, gurgled bellow. Rowanwind turned all the way around and watched a badger fall to its side. Blood oozed out of deep gashes in its stomach. In utter shock, Rowanwind watched as the badger slowly changed into Stoneriver of WindClan. The DarkClan badger standing over him bellowed in triumph before getting charged by another badger, who Rowanwind assumed was Timberpelt of RiverClan.

Rowanwind turned away and raced off. Three crows suddenly descended upon him. Sharp talons snatched at his fur. He could feel the talons ripping at his flesh. Rowanwind darted left and right, trying to rid himself of the crows after him.

There was a loud growl and two of the three crows were slammed out of the air by the paw of a massive badger.

"You owe me!" Granitetail shouted, batting the third crow out of the air.

A tom came speeding up and launched himself at Granitetail. His claws dug into Granitetail's muscular shoulders. Granitetail swiped at the cat, but he could not reach him.

Rowanwind leaped up and latched on to the tom. The tom let go and slashed at Rowanwind as they fell to the ground. Rowanwind got his feet under him and slammed a paw on top of the tom's head. The tom hissed and raced away.

"There! We're even!" Rowanwind said over the screeches of the battle around them.

Granitetail spun away and lumbered off to help Josephine and Doodle dispath of two DarkClan she-cats.

A brown blur suddenly flashed past Rowanwind. He watched Lionstorm as he raced over to a pile of dark-pelted cats. Rowanwind realized with a jolt that the DarkClan cats were all piled on top of someone. Lionstorm dug his claws into the shoulders of the toms, trying to fling them out of the way. Rowanwind raced over to help him. It took them a few tries, but the DarkClan cats finally darted away.

Rowanwind looked down to see the completely still, brown and ginger body of Torchfur. Lionstorm's body stiffened.

"Torchfur?" Lionstorm mewed, placing a paw on his old mentor's shoulder and shaking him. "Torchfur?"

Rowanwind remembered the feeling when he had realized he'd lost Ashfang. His heart constricted as Lionstorm began to shake Torchfur even more roughly.

"Torchfur! Torchfur, wake up!" Lionstorm meowed, his voice cracking.

"Lionstorm, stop!" Rowanwind said. "He's gone."

"NO!" Lionstorm screeched. "They'll pay for this!"

Rowanwind watched the brown tom run off. He knew exactly how Lionstorm was feeling. He spotted a white flash of fur and realized that Cloudpool, Lionstorm's mate, was running after him.

"What happ...oh, no!"

He turned and looked up at Gingerheart. The she-cat's deer body was oozing blood, but she didn't seem to notice. Her black eyes were staring down at Torchfur.

"No," Gingerheart said softly. "Oh, poor Lionstorm."

"I know how he feels," Rowanwind muttered.

Gingerheart gave a small sob. "Do you think we're winning, Rowanwind?"

"I'm not sure," Rowanwind replied.

"I'll get back to the fight," Gingerheart said, and she turned away.

Rowanwind raced off. He clawed at a tom who had Rudy the kittypet beneath him. He went and helped Thornfur and Brambletongue of ShadowClan take out three she-cats who didn't seem to want to surrender. All three of them disappeared in plumes of smoke.

Dusklight and Ghostlight suddenly appeared as Thornfur and Brambletongue ran off to find someone else to fight.

"I think we underestimated DarkClan," Ghostlight meowed.

"They are creating copies as fast as we are killing them!" Dusklight added.

"That's not good," Rowanwind said. "Hold on."

He turned and helped Robinclaw hold down a DarkClan tom so that she could slash the tom in the chest. The cat disappeared into smoke.

"Thanks!" Robinclaw gasped out. A gash above her eye was oozing blood into her eye.

"You need to go have that looked at!" Rowanwind told her. "Find one of the medicine cats!"

"Alright!" Robinclaw said, running off.

Dusklight padded over. "What are we going to do about the copies? We need to figure out what cats they are using to keep making the copies!"

"We can use a magick detection spell," Ghostlight said. "It will show us where the magick is coming from."

"Sounds good to me!" Rowanwind said as Flower and Flicker, the two youngest cats in RogueClan, ran by after a crow.

"Fant tho megack, fant ats suuhco!" Ghostlight chanted.

"Fant tho megack, fant ats suuhco!" Dusklight spoke.

"Fant tho megack, fant ats suuhco!" Rowanwind added his voice in.

Three separate glows, each a different color, came out of their mouths. Ghostlight's pearly white glow collided with Dusklight's musty gray glow before coming in contact with Rowanwind's sun orange glow. The newly combined glows suddenly shot off into six different directions, hitting six different DarkClan cats and lighting their dark pelts up.

"Get the glowing cats!" Rowanwind screamed.

"Get the glowing cats!" Ghostlight and Dusklight caterwauled with him.

"Get the glowing cats!" other voice began to chime in.

Rowanwind went after one of the glowing toms. He leaped and dug his claws into the cat's haunches, dragging him to the ground. The tom screamed in pain. Rowanwind turned and kicked the tom in the face, causing his head to whip around. The tom fell to the ground and did not rise. The glow around his body shot upward and disappeared.

He turned to see Ghostlight and Dusklight take out a second of the glowing cats. Another fell beneath two badgers. A fourth went down beneath a pile of kittypets.

Rowanwind was distracted by another badger. He dodged as its massive claw swiped down at him. He yelled for help. His shout was answered by Tiger from RogueClan. The brown and black tabby tom launched himself onto the badger's back, distracting him long enough for Rowanwind to stab at its chest. The tom disappeared into smoke, causing Tiger to fall to the ground.

"Thanks for the help," Rowanwind said.

"You're very welcome," Tiger replied before racing away.

Thunderstripe suddenly appeared. "Rowanwind! Crookedfern needs your help! He's fighting Sly!"

"Where?" Rowanwind demanded.

Thunderstripe gestured with his tail.

Rowanwind raced off. He skidded to a stop in time to see Crookedfern tackle Sly to the ground. Sly was large, but he was not as big as Crookedfern, nor as skilled. Crookedfern pressed his paws into Sly's shoulders.

"Crookedfern!" someone called out, distracting the huge ThunderClan tom.

Sly suddenly sat up. Crookedfern was tossed to the ground. In an instant, Sly was back on his feet. Rowanwind watched the black tom's orange eyes become a blaze of heat. His paw came up to swipe at Crookedfern...

Rowanwind leaped and toppled into Sly. The two of them rolled away. Sly was on his feet once again before Rowanwind had even finished rolling. Rowanwind jumped to his feet and swiped at Sly's face. The DarkClan leader dodged and smacked Rowanwind across his face.

"You stupid light-demon! I was about to finish him off!" Sly said.

Before Rowanwind could reply, Sly slashed out again and his paw connected with his cheek. Rowanwind's head spun with the force of the blow. His already bloody cheek began to ooze blood once again.

"No, if you don't mind, I would like to finish my victim off!" Sly sneered. The tom spun away and stalked toward Crookedfern, who was desperately trying to stand.

Rowanwind turned just in time to see Sly press his paws into Crookedfern's shoulders. Sly bent down to whisper something into Crookedfern's ear. Crookedfern snarled back at him. Sly jerked Crookedfern's neck. There was a loud, sickening pop and Crookedfern's head flopped to the ground.

"NO!" Rowanwind shouted.

A white flash of fur appeared, and Sly was suddenly hit. He and the white blur went rolling. Sly was on his feet again in a flash, but so was the white blur. Rowanwind realized it was Ghostlight. The white tom's entire pelt was standing up, the fur on his neck bristling the most.

It is time, Rowanwind, he heard Ghostlight's voice say in his head. It is time for me to weaken Sly. And then...you can go in for the kill.

End of Chapter Twenty Two

Author's Notes: I know this might make some of you a bit angry, but I'm not going to update any more chapters until the story is completely finished. It's a total cliffhanger at this point! dun dun dunnnn While you're waiting, why not review? I love it when my email inbox gets flooded with alerts that I have reviews. I mean, who doesn't? So hold on to your horses and be patient while the last few chapters are spun out of my head and onto my computer. Remember, I'm just as anxious as all of you, my readers, to find out what happens next! Ciao, for now.