In which destruction is basically inevitable. :) Enjoy!

I'm not REALLY kidding, but there's not actually that much destruction in this chapter. Very soon, however? Hmmm...

Chapter 10: Chaos in Waiting

Birdfeather's paws were tingling, but she kept in line with Jayfeather, not ready to let him see. Her mentor seemed uninterested in talking, so she dropped back a few paces to line up with Dustfur and Snowpaw.

"Hi, Birdfeather," said Snowpaw warmly. "Is Lionstar going to announce you today?"

"It doesn't quite work like that with medicine cats," said Birdfeather with a smile. "I'm sure he will, but for the most part, I've already been announced." Except that her announcement was little to be desired. She tried to look pleased anyways.

"I'm concerned for tonight's Gathering," said Dustfur. "We all know that the last one didn't go well." He shook his head.

"So things can't get much worse, huh?" said Snowpaw. She cautiously batted Dustfur's flank with her tail. "Cheer up, you. You're way too pessimistic."

"Last time I checked, you didn't particularly mind," said Dustfur. Snowpaw bashfully turned her eyes to the ground, but added a skip to her step to make her paces seem normal. Birdfeather knew the movements well. She smiled to herself – it might be good for Dustfur to have a cute she-cat padding after him. He still had problems losing himself in the past. Snowpaw could keep him in the present.

They crossed to the island in relative quiet, all somewhat haunted by the possible turmoil that could be ahead. Birdfeather padded alongside Jayfeather, watching Lionstar jump up with the other leaders and Squirrelflight – as Lionstar requested – take Doveheart's place among the branches. Birdfeather was sure he would have taken Littlefalcon as his temporary deputy, but then again, he needed to save face for the Clans. She narrowed her eyes, seeing Onestar's movements labored as he took his place. The WindClan leader's aches and pains had been mentioned in passing by Kestrelflight, but this looked bad. She knew fully well that Onestar was on his last life. Could that life be over sooner than they expected? She shuddered. They had lost Bramblestar not long ago, and she knew Blackstar was on his last life as well. Were they facing a full revolution of the leaders?

She reached the other medicine cats, and Rushfire was the first one she saw. His blue eyes were stern, and he nodded to Jayfeather, opening his mouth to say something.

"Willowshine!" Jayfeather bypassed the medicine cat apprentice entirely, looking quite intent on marching up to Willowshine and demanding something of her. Rushfire and Birdfeather glanced back to see the two meet face-to-face, and then Birdfeather shrugged. Rushfire led her back out of the moonlit part of the island and down along the banks, where they could sit by the river and talk.

"I hope you have a good explanation," said Rushfire. "I've been waiting long enough to hear it."

"I don't feel I have to explain anything to you," said Birdfeather. Rushfire blinked at her.

"We share dreams, don't we?" he said. "I think that's pretty indicative of the bond we share."

The thought of a bond between them sent a strange sort of tumbling feeling into Birdfeather's stomach. She tried to ignore it as best she could, but the way Rushfire watched her was difficult to withstand.

"This is a little more complicated than sharing dreams," said Birdfeather.

"You're not so complicated," said Rushfire. Birdfeather laughed aloud, looking up to see him that perplexed.

"You don't know the first thing about me," she said, because that was the truth. A lie would never have worked on him anyways.

"I know that you consider Jayfeather like a father to you," said Rushfire, narrowing his eyes. "I know that he sees you similarly. I know that you're a good medicine cat, and you'll do anything to save your Clan. I know that you doubt that about yourself sometimes. I know that you can command fire in your dreams, and that for some reason, cats believe your terrible lies." Birdfeather was suddenly quite aware of the places their pelts touched, and each skim of fur felt like another shock. Her insides began to feel warm, almost fire-kissed.

"The problem is that I can't understand these things," said Rushfire. "And I want to, if you'll let me."

"You may not want to know the truth," said Birdfeather. She wouldn't have wanted to know the truth, had she been walking his path. Maybe that was because she already knew how dangerous this situation was, and she was afraid to get anyone involved. Especially Rushfire.

"Why is that?" said Rushfire. He winced back, hurt. "Don't you trust me?"

His question lingered in the air, and Birdfeather held her tongue. She shouldn't trust him, not when he was RiverClan. Willowshine had abandoned Jayfeather, and Rushfire saw Willowshine the same way Birdfeather saw Jayfeather. He was clever, and he was sneaky, and he was devoted to his Clan. He had always liked to play the leader – whether he was promising her that he would be a better medicine cat, or teaming up with her to find the cure to that disease, or sharing her dreams. Out of all the medicine cats, Rushfire most resembled a warrior loyal to his Clan. To RiverClan, the Clan farthest away from her own home. By all rights, she shouldn't trust him.

But she did trust him, and that scared her a lot.

"No," said Birdfeather, and the lie broke in the air around him. Birdfeather swallowed. Her paws began to tingle again as Rushfire shook his head.

"Your little trick won't work on me," he said. "Explain, Birdfeather."

"Or what?" She found her words coming easily now, a touch angrily, the spark in her stomach growing. "You can't make me. I can keep you in the dark forever."

"Can you?" said Rushfire, eyes gleaming. "You lied to StarClan warriors. Jayfeather dropped StarClan entirely from your ceremony. I could pronounce the two of you traitors of the warrior code and look on from the side as ThunderClan falls." His eyes sparked. "Willowshine would want me to do that."

"Why?" said Birdfeather. She laughed. She felt the spark within her begin to fire up, and she could visualize flames now. "It won't matter, in the end."

Rushfire's nose wrinkled, and Birdfeather took a step back, realizing that smoke was beginning to curl from underneath her paws. She forced herself to see clearly.

"The end," said Rushfire in a low voice. "What end?"

Birdfeather didn't answer. Every light in her chest went out like a spark. Slowly, she revolved to face the river and watched the dark water coursing by. Low mumbling from the Gathering behind her reminded her that they still existed, that life was still proceeding. She shouldn't be here with Rushfire, sitting outside of it all. She should be perched beside Jayfeather and the other medicine cats, like she would have been, had her life had any semblance of regularity.

It had been so long since Birdfeather had thought of herself as normal, so the thoughts didn't take hold for very long. She reminded herself quickly that her "what if" world didn't exist, could never exist. She would always be sitting on the edge of a dark river, looking into the depths that could sweep them all away, while the normal world went on behind her.

"Birdfeather, please." His voice had changed. He was no longer the fire that matched hers – now he was more of a distant-twinkling star. "StarClan connected the two of us for a reason."

Here she sat, on the edge of the river, with the normal world out of reach, and here Rushfire sat beside her. The RiverClan medicine cat tore the grass up with his claws, tossing the shards of grass into the river. Birdfeather watched them travel downstream. When he could get no response from her, he sighed.

"You keep speaking of some big secret, but also of an end." He turned his eyes towards the sky. Birdfeather saw all of Silverpelt reflected in their depths. Under Rushfire's scrutiny, it didn't seem like the stars could ever catch on fire or blink out. It didn't seem as though everlasting darkness could cover the stars entirely, but she knew firsthand that such a future was nearby. That was the end that she feared – that she would fail to quench the darkness.

"Those StarClan warriors were going to hurt us, weren't they?" said Rushfire. He nodded, and Birdfeather wondered why he was so fixated on the stars. It was like he was measuring their treachery from afar. She knew she had tried to picture a traitorous Silverpelt, too.

"Most likely," said Birdfeather.

"Why?" said Rushfire. "They connected us, didn't they?"

"I don't think so," said Birdfeather. "Those were Old StarClan warriors."

"Old StarClan?" Rushfire's eyes narrowed again. "StarClan is timeless."

"I wish that were true," said Birdfeather. The truth wanted to escape; she could feel it burning in her chest like a brand, like the heavy claws of an adversary she needed to dislodge. "Do you really want to know?"

"I want to be involved," said Rushfire. "If I can do anything to help, anything at all, it will be worth the risk. I don't want there to be secrets between us."

He wasn't lying, and that scared her a little bit.

"Moons ago, there was a prophecy," she said. Her voice was so quiet that she couldn't hear it above the roar of the water. For a few seconds, she fell silent, but Rushfire waited. "It spoke – it speaks, of five powerful cats, each equipped with elemental powers, who had to destroy the darkness that was coming." She shrugged her shoulders. "We didn't know what it meant for a while, but it's pretty clear."

"So the fire," said Rushfire. "That wasn't just in a dream?"

Birdfeather glanced up at him and lit one of her paws on fire. Rushfire watched the flames glow between them for several moments, his expression unreadable. Birdfeather felt almost numb showing him this. It felt as though he shouldn't know any of this, but she wasn't afraid. Nor was he.

"You wouldn't have requested your full name based on a dream," said Birdfeather, shaking her paw out and watching the tendrils of smoke along with him.

"It depends on how good the dream was," said Rushfire.

"I wouldn't call me saving you from fire-wreathed claws a good dream."

"There were advantages."

"How?" Birdfeather narrowed her eyes. Was he seriously trying to make this into a joke? The situation had been dangerous – it still was. Rushfire smiled at her, just a little tentative now.

"You look beautiful with fire in your eyes."

"Birdfeather!" Before Birdfeather could formulate a response that would adequately sum up the gibberish running through her brain, a crashing noise symbolized the arrival of Jayfeather. Her mentor's eyes were cloudy, but surprisingly acute. "You mustn't trust him!"

"What?" Birdfeather's eyes went wide. Another crash, and the other medicine cats appeared. Birdfeather heard the noises of the Gathering begin full-fold.

"You can't trust him!" said Jayfeather, shoving Rushfire back with one shoulder. He stood between Birdfeather and Rushfire now, and Rushfire's eyes were wide. "Everything you say, he's taking straight back to her." He turned to Willowshine, spitting. The RiverClan medicine cat didn't budge an inch. "This is an act of war."

"War?" said Flametail, but his voice was false. "How could you suggest something so horrible, Jayfeather?"

"Because it is everywhere," said Jayfeather. "The land has shook, and now the end is upon us, and this is not the time to be feuding."

"Petty feuding?" The fur on the back of Willowshine's neck stood up. "You've turned from StarClan, both of you! What else could I do, but get Rushfire to trick Birdfeather into telling the secret you've kept hidden?"

Trick Birdfeather…

The fluttering, tumbling feeling that had kept her body light throughout the evening was suddenly heavy and full of wrath. Birdfeather pushed Jayfeather aside and marched so she could see Rushfire's face.

"You've betrayed me." Her words were too loud, but she didn't care. She could taste ashes, feel the smoke in the air. Her anger felt nearly tangible. "All of this – the dreams, the messages, the flirting – was all to get me to tell you my secret?"

"Birdfeather, you have to listen – "

"I'm not going to listen to you!" It all seemed terribly plain, laid out in front of her. Rushfire could avoid her lies, so why couldn't he lie to her as well? He had been playing games with her this whole time, trying to earn her trust, and once he had, the first thing he had done was to get the secret from her. All to help RiverClan!

"Rushfire is truly loyal," said Willowshine, but her words were background to the rage-flames in Birdfeather's ears. She couldn't make out the expression on Rushfire's face anymore. Everything was blurring. She had never been so angry in her life.

"There will be no loyalties where we're heading," said Birdfeather. "No war, no peace, nothing."

"Birdfeather, listen to me," said Rushfire. She growled, her lips curling back, her claws sliding out. Everything was a lie. How had she been so stupid!

"I'm never speaking to you again," she said. It felt like enough. He recoiled from her words, eyes going wide. Then Birdfeather spun, carrying her rage with her, and the medicine cats ducked. It seemed that everything was aflame in her mind, from her memories, to her misplaced feelings. Hadn't she felt something for Rushfire, hadn't she? It felt like anger now – like betrayal. And she had fallen for every single word, like the lies-obsessed fool she was.

"Birdfeather!" Rushfire nearly screamed her name. She whirled around, spitting. The medicine cats were staring, suddenly silent. Rushfire's blue eyes were wild, and he stepped close to her. "You need to calm down."

"Don't tell me to be calm!" She spat the words at him, and small sparks fell from her mouth, but Birdfeather didn't care. Her pelt felt hot, and she could feel the heat she exuded. She was beyond control – but Birdfeather didn't care.

"You lied to me!" screamed Birdfeather. "You made me trust you! You lied to me, and no one can lie to me! To me! You made me think you cared about me!"

"I never lied to you!" screamed Rushfire, stepping closer to her. She saw flames around him, the very object of her rage. Rushfire moved through them as if they were not there, as if he really was a talisman to keep away the fire and the panic. "I never lied."

Birdfeather tipped her head back and laughed, and it seemed as though the stars really were on fire, raining down a crimson-colored betrayal so similar to this one. She could see the pretty flames, licking up the trees, making them scream. The destruction was the music she needed to survive. It felt so close, burning in her blood and fighting for the freedom she would not grant it.

"I never lied to you," said Rushfire. "I lied to my Clan for you. I lied to my mentor for you." He coughed, and his eyes were watering. "I love you, Birdfeather."

Those three words cut through to her heart like lightning strike. Suddenly, the anger and the fire packed through the space around them.

"You can't love me," said Birdfeather. Rushfire tilted his head. "You can't love me. I'm hellfire. I'm hellfire, and I'm going to kill you all."

The heat expanded, and Birdfeather lost it. The world suddenly blackened too quickly for her liking. The last thing she heard was screaming, but no one was screaming her name, and Birdfeather was falling backwards in time with the fire that fell like bloody retribution from the stars.

Aaaaaand the stars are on fire all the time. FYI, because I don't know if this was super confusing or not, Birdfeather is essentially so angry she starts hallucinating fire at the edges of her vision. It's an extended metaphor.

Or is it?

Review if you liked! Don't forget to favorite/follow! Next chapter flashes over to Willowleaf's side of the world, but then we're back! I'm going to post one a day of the next three chapters, because they're all done.

~Elsi