Hello everyone! Hope you guys enjoy the final chapter of this story! Yes it's been a long a perilous journey, but finally, finally, things will end.
Nope, I still don't own the series. Dimrain47 R.E.M 3 is also a badass song for this chapter for what it's worth. You should go take a listen during the chapter, it'll electrify things just a bit :3 Because boy oh boy, this is an electrifying chapter to say the least.
Bumblestripe quickly pads over to a once again devastated Dovewing, and makes a promise "We will find them this time. Mark my words." He whispers to her with malice in his voice. The clan is in disarray, the yowling of anger and shock. Squirrelflight starts ordering patrols out to find them. "Brightheart, Whitewing, Cloudtail, Lionblaze, go search the Shadowclan Border. Mousewhisker, Bumblestripe, Cherryfall, Stormfur, you go to the Windclan border! "Spiderleg, Ivypool, Sandstorm, Graystripe, check by the lake and the Great Oak. Brackenfur and I will try to follow the scent." The clan yowls out in support.
Going straight to the Windclan border, they walk along it, sniffing the trees and bushes, a Windclan patrol comes near. "Windclan patrol, Stormfur bobs his head in the direction." "Well should we fight them?" Cherryfall asks quietly. "They might know where the kits are." Mousewhisker inputs to the conversation, while looking at Bumblestripe. "Then I think we should." Bumblestripe says to them. They merely nod in agreement, and jump the stream into Windclan territory. The patrol walks up, fur bristled. "Get off our territory. Now." Emberfoot angerly calls to them. "Not until you tell us where the kits are!" Bumblestripe fires back.
"What kits?" Furzepelt calls.
Suddenly a cat charges them. It's a slightly plump Larkwing. She's charging at Mousewhisker, and in toe, follows Leaftail, who is also a little plump. Mousewhisker reacts but very late, and is knocked down hard by her. And then Furzepelt and Emberfoot attack. Bumblestripe goes for Leaftail, knocking her away, and slashes her. She slashes back, and cuts one of his ears, but he goes for her back leg, and it catches her off guard while she gets unbalanced. Suddenly Rosepetal smashes her away, and she flees. "Didn't expect to find you here." Bumblestripe thoughtfully says to her. "Wouldn't want to miss it. I'll wound one of them the way they wounded Molewhisker." As he slashes at Emberfoot in toe with her, he asks. "How's he doing anyway." "Much- Better." She says while meanwhile slashing at him. He distracts him, and she knocks him off his paws from his side. He bites down on his shoulder, and slashes him, and he flees. Suddenly a cat knocks him off his paws. It's Larkwing, by the look of it, she's quite bloodied, but very spiteful and full of rage. "Heh. I probably know why.." Bumblestripe snickers to himself, but gets a slash across the muzzle in response for not paying attention. Bumblestripe barrels at her, and she dodges him, but she can't dodge Rosepetal who does the same. After a slash to her side, they pin her down. "Where. Are. The. Kits." He says with a ton of malice in his voice. "I don't know… We haven't heard anything about these kits. But we haven't seen Breezepelt all day…" She says fearfully into his eyes. He lets her go, and she quickly limps away. They lick there wounds, and see Mousewhisker dying. on the ground a little bit away. As he walks up to him, Mousewhisker flicks his tail softly to bring him over. He rasps very quietly "We also raped Leaftail, but-but she didn't seem to have the same… ra-rage.." And after a few coughs he's dead.
"It's amazing how much rage that Larkwing had, she killed both Thornclaw and Mousewhisker…" Stormfur agrees. "Indeed. I guess in a way they both got what was coming for them. Shame it ended that way."
"So no information?" He hopefully asks. "None other than Breezepelt probably took the kits." he responds. Stormfur moans in irritation. "So we've basically got nothing…"
They bring Mousewhisker's body across the stream, and bury him near the stream under a bush. They continue hopelessly walking, searching. Soon they return to a depressing sight at the camp. All the cats look disappointed. Bumblestripe goes to rest with Dovewing, and they fall asleep after a few tears.
t's a little bit before moon high, and Willowshine comes barreling into the nursery with Jayfeather not far behind. "They're at the Moonpool!" She says upbeatly. With that Bumblestripe and Dovewing snap up, and Cinderheart gets up right behind them. He goes to the Warriors Den and gets Ivypool, Lionblaze, and Rosepetal, and they head up the trail to the Moonpool. "If Breezepelt is there I'm going to kill him." Lionblaze says with a malevolence to his voice. "I wouldn't mind that either." Jayfeather agrees. "I don't think any of us would mind that at this point, after everything he has done." Cinderheart thoughtfully says. "How much do you think he'll fight us, I mean look at these odds." Rosepetal says. "Knowing Breezepelt, he'll probably fight to the death just to get his point across." Lionblaze quietly responds back to her. "But of course you never know.. He may want to live to get those nine lives. Oh my will that be fun, having to kill him nine times. I guess everyone will get a turn to kill him then." He sarcastically ends. "Well I wouldn't mind killing him twice, dunno about you others." Rosepetal says. "Oh I would also gladly do that. His smug look and attitude are more than worth doing that. And it'd be nice to teach him pain for once." Ivypool adds on.
"Here we are.." Willowshine says as they peek over the rocks. "Oh my, it was only him there… Oh my oh my…" She says shocked as now, Rowanstar, Onestar, Tigerheart, Dawnpelt, and Breezepelt are all there. "Heh. Glad we didn't get seen beforehand." Jayfeather irritatedly pipes up. The moon rises and is almost right overhead of the moonpool, which is shining as bright as ever.
"Well, only thing we can do is confront them." Bumblestripe inputs to the group, and they agree. "Give us the kits back. Now." Ivypool's voice booms up in the dip of the land. "Oh the group of heros is here to stop us!" Breezepelt sneers. "Well good luck with that, because it isn't going to happen." "Onestar, Rowanstar, all of you… Do you really want this?" Jayfeather pipes up. "Even through with everything Breezepelt has done, killing your kit and your deputy just to be the Deputy?" Onestar coldly says as he looks into Jayfeather's sightless eyes. "Yes. We knew that it happened."
"What?!" They all cry out in unison. Even Breezepelt looks a little shocked, apparently he thought he was controlling this all along. Stupid furball, getting what he deserves, he isn't as cunning as he thought… But apparently it's been Onestar controlling it behind Breezepelt's back. Makes sense.
"We're leaders, you think these things simply go unnoticed? How ignorant do you think we are? We're supposed to keep track of the clan, which we do. I've known about it since I followed them out of the camp when he killed them. I needed an excuse to blame Thunderclan, more territory is good. And you always treat us like we are weak. Well we aren't so weak anymore! Look at us, we can fight you off!"
"You fool!" Dovewing spits out before Jayfeather cuts her off. "If you had any sense you would know that we've never taken advantage of you, we never felt you were weaker. If you think that helping you is us thinking you are weak, you are a fool and you more than deserve to die this day. He spits out violently.
"There are two sides to everything." He calmly speaks out. "And in this case, yours is wrong." Jayfeather meets his stare.
Just then Breezepelt gets mad and snaps. "Ok now, since I am in control, let's listen here, nothing is stopping me from killing this kit! What's her name, Hollykit was it? And at the same time, what stops Tigerheart over there from killing Silverkit? Nothing, but my command. See this little game we're playing now?" He sneers and grins and acts all cockily to them.
"Now, why shouldn't I kill this kit?" He asks waiting for an answer. "Because they're not apart of this, just because you had daddy issues doesn't mean you should take it out on our kits." Lionblaze growls.
"Hahaha! I like you alot Lionblaze, so I won't kill your kit, not yet." He says in his arrogant tone. Suddenly his voice turns to ice, and he gives Tigerheart a command. "Kill Silverkit." A squel from her as she's dropped on the ground, and immediately after, the sound of claws digging into her neck. "NO!" Dovewing yowls as she charges Tigerheart, as if to sound a signal, they charge. Dovewing lands a blow on Tigerheart's head but as quickly as that, he swiftly lands his claws deep in her neck, and just like that, with a swift kick, knocks her into the moonpool. Leaving her with a shocked expression, and the blood slowly bleeding out of her neck. It quickly turns a blood red as he stares in shock. Ivypool charges in and attacks him, and in tune, so does Bumblestripe, with a renewed rage over the loss of another one of his family, this time, his mate, Dovewing. Knocking him back, landing a kick to his face, and then a slash to his belly, Tigerheart yowls in rage and kicks Ivypool aside. Leaving it just to him. He avoids a slash to his neck, but takes one to the leg, and then to the face. Bleeding, but not really wounded, he slashes him back in the face, knocks his legs out from under him, and slashes his belly repeatedly. As Tigerheart struggles to give up, he kicks out his paws and takes the wind out of Bumblestripe before pouncing on him. Dodging a bite near his neck, he claws Tigerheart in the neck, and watches his eyes glaze up. He falls off him with a look of shock, and dies. Ivypool looks somewhat impressed, but still saddened over Dovewing. Lionblaze is fighting with Onestar, Ivypool goes over to help. Cinderheart is fighting against Rowanstar, who's looking very weak. Suddenly Graystripe comes out of the darkness and attacks Dawnpelt. Who yowls in surprise at the sudden attacker. As they roll around a little bit, he goes to help Cinderheart. They work together to knock him down, and then slash at him. Cinderheart gives him a bite to the neck and kills him. He has another few lives left, but how many is unknown. He goes to leave her and then works on Onestar with Lionblaze and Ivypool. Onestar is viciously fighting Ivypool, but he kicks her away and down the hill she falls. Lionblaze is now dealing with Breezepelt, so it's him once again. He claws at him, and Onestar claws back, but he's sluggish and bloodied. After a blow to Onestar's head he tries to go around, but Onestar bites on his leg, then smashes it. Seriously hurting him. As he cries out in pain, Graystripe crashes into Onestar before he can kill, with a slash to his belly, Onestar is even more sluggish, but before Graystripe can make the kill, Onestar rolls over and smushes Graystripe, and then kills him in front of a shocked Bumblestripe. As Onestar moves over to him, Jayfeather and Willowshine rush over, and together they sluggishly attack Onestar. Jayfeather slashes at his belly, but is blind and cannot see to dodge, and is knocked away. Willowshine on the other hand, she slashes at his belly, and then at his side, before quickly shifting over to his other side. Onestar cannot outmanovre her and it subject to the pain, before finally collapsing to his wounds. Slowly bleeding out and going limp, finally, and after a little bit of huffing and puffing, he dies. Willowshine comes over to look at his leg. And Rowanstar is killed once more by Cinderheart, but as that happens, to demoralize them even more, he slashes and kills Hollykit. Breezepelt yowls out in an insane fashion, while Cinderheart is enraged and in a shock, but Lionblaze is just in a rage from his half brother, and he's licking his jaws for the chance to finally kill him. It's him and Dawnpelt against a slowly encroaching Cinderheart and Rosepetal. He walks back with a crazy grin on his face, but they're walking towards a cliff! He takes a whack at Rosepetal, but Cinderheart gives one back. Lionblaze starts to encroach once more. Dawnpelt knocks Cinderheart back, but suddenly, out of nowhere, Crowfeathers yowls out! "ENOUGH! You will not cause anymore harm! All you have done is bring pain and evil, and I'm sick of it! It ends here Breezepelt!" And with that he charges at Breezepelt, who yelps in shock, he tries to dodge, but can't fully dodge and both of them go over the cliff. A wailing sound as they go down, which is sharply interuptted. The snap of bones at the bottom is chilling as Dawnpelt is the last one left. She looks back with a pained look in her eyes, but that quickly changes to one of energy and life, and a determination. "I'll fight you all to the end." She says with a curt yet sharp look. "My cause is over, but I'll do as much damage to the clans as I can." "Why?" Ivypool desperately asks her. "Because this memory shall not die. I will go down in history as infamy, but I'll go down in History nonetheless." Jayfeather snorts in the background. "Ha! I already had you going down as accusing me of drowning Flametail when I was clearly trying to save him, but you know. I guess you simply weren't satisfied with that? Now going down fighting for a hopeless and awful cause is the way? If you say so, but let me just say, you deserve death, and nobody will mourn you over what has happened. Now, please kill her." "Gladly." Lionblaze finishes.
And with that Cinderheart, Rosepetal and Lionblaze start sending blows, Cinderheart and Rosepetal slash, and Lionblaze gets impatient and attacks her, he is sluggish and he's knocked over, and Dawnpelt repeatedly slashes his belly and he starts to really bleed. But Cinderpelt knocks away Dawnpelt, and drives her closer and closer to the cliff. A blow to her, a blow to knock her back. "One day, someone will go as power crazy as we did, and they too will me remembered as Martyrs." "Martyrs? How are you martyrs, you go power hungry and you expect to be martyrs? Are you foolish or just mouse-brained? You will never be martyrs." Willowshine angerly inputs to her. With a sudden determination, and a blow to Rosepetal to knock her out of the fight. Meanwhile she now turns to focus on Cinderheart, who's closing fast. She gives a scratch across her nose, but she's weak, and running out of energy, and is still in a hopeless fight. She bites at Cinderheart's paw, misses, and Cinderheart counters her with a slash to her leg, and she rears back in pain, and falls over the cliff. "It was worth itttttttt." And once again the chilling sound of bone cracking is heard. Then silence. More silence as the moon shines bright. The silence is broken by the calm breeze of wind that blows over the moor, and makes the grass blow with it.
The realization soon hits. Dovewing, Graystripe, Silverkit, and Hollykit are all dead, Ivypool is wounded badly, and Lionblaze is dying as they speak. The Moonpool is tinted red from Dovewing's body, and close by lie Tigerheart, an absurdly bloodied Onestar, who tried to prove to Thunderclan that Windclan wasn't weak and failed. A bloodied Rowanstar who's trickling down the hill, who tried to land grab from Thunderclan. At the bottom of the cliff lie Crowfeather, who sacrificied himself to end the madness that he created, Breezepelt, who started all of this by raping his mate, killing her, killing the Deputy Ashfoot. All which Onestar knew about and supported... And finallyDawnpelt, who was seemingly a power crazy follower, who simply wanted to be remembered, whether it was good or bad, and she sure accomplished that.. But for infamy.
Lionblaze is dying as they speak. And so Cinderheart and Jayfeather rush to get him back to camp, as they walk by he mumbles to Jayfeather "You've been a great brother, live your… your.. life now, and be proud, I walk the stars now. Good luck my brother…" Jayfeather is desperately meowing to him "You're not dead yet, and as long as you're alive I'll try to keep you alive. Ivypool follows at a limp's pace behind them. The others try to slowly bring him down. Rosepetal and Willowshine walk side by side to his pained self, and they eventually make it down. At the camp they're greeted like heros. And the news spreads like wildfire through the clans. The war is over, the truth has come out, and cats can stop dying. Lionblaze died on the journey down, and Cinderheart is deeply saddened. After they're done caring for him, Willowshine goes to feed her kits, and also Graykit, who's mother Dovewing, Bumblestripe's mate, is dead. There is a clanwide mourning for the losses, and peace soon returns. Leafpool come up to him and tries to heal him some more. Meanwhile Briarlight drags herself up to him and murmurs "You did good brother, I'm sorry for your loss." He rasps back to her "You lost Graystripe too, also, go comfort Millie, I'm sure she'll be alright eventually but, for now… I'll be fine." He assures her. But meanwhile the clan celebrates, he did his job. He did it well, they saved the clans, at a high price. He lost two of his kits, one of his sisters, his mate, his father. But, he saved the clans, and still had a kit to look forward to, and a future. And he'd make the best of it.
As the sun sets and the moon begins to rise, Bramblestar calls the clan out for a mourning.
"Today we lost several good cats. One went with his mind cleared, Mousewhisker. One went going for revenge for her kits, Dovewing. Another went trying to end it all, before a father took it upon himself to end it. Lionblaze and Crowfeather. A father who was just trying to protect his kit, he did, but he died in the process, Graystripe. An elder who was forced out of retirement to help the clan, dies in a border clash with Shadowclan but took Kinkfur with her, Sandstorm. And finally, two kits, who didn't get to live their lives, Silverkit and Hollykit. As he says Lionblaze's name, he flashes a look of sorrow at Cinderheart, who gives him one back. "Tonight we mourn them. They did great deeds to bring us peace, and we also respect the living cats. Willowshine, Jayfeather, Bumblestripe, Cinderheart, Rosepetal, and Ivypool, come up here."
Jayfeather and Willowshine walk up, Cinderheart slowly pads up, Rosepetal limps over with Ivypool, and Bumblestripe drags himself over. "These six cats saved the clans, along with the other ones who died trying. Give them a chant." Bramblestar's voice booms. "Willowshine, Jayfeather, Bumblestripe, Cinderheart, Rosepetal, Ivypool, Lionblaze, Crowfeather, Mousewhisker, Dovewing, Sandstorm, Graystripe! "The clan yowls out. Jayfeather timidly nods, Willowshine gratefully nods. Cinderheart blushes, Rosepetal flicks her tail at Molewhisker, Ivypool flashes a look at Bumblestripe, and Bumblestripe just looks at the cats below.
Mumbling to himself as the crowd cheers on "Oh Dovewing, I love you. We won this war together, at such a high cost, but we prevailed. I will miss you, but I will see you again in Starclan, but let's both hope that's a long time coming."
Ivypool over hears his mumble and quietly whispers. "Don't worry, she'll understand. Now you just need to live your own life. I'll miss her too, but it's what she'd want. We will prosper. We will survive, and she will forever be in our memory. Bumblestripe grins at her, and nods.
And once aagain. "Graystripe, I'll miss you too. I'll try to care for Millie and Briarlight as best as I can."
He sees Briarlight cheering his name the loudest, and she smiles at him despite all the loss.
He spends the night trying to stay up, but is so weak after the battle that he simply can't. He wakes up as dawn breaks and walks with Purdy, Bramblestar, and Brackenfur. And he puts his nose to Dovewing's fur one last time, and same with Graystripe who follows not far behind. Then they are buried. And with a few tears falling, he heads back to an upbeat camp, and goes by the sunning rocks. He lays down, and he feels the sun rays on his back as bright as ever, and he relishes in that fact. He watches Graykit playing with Mosskit, Jaykit, Softkit, and Fernkit, and watches Sorrelkit and Duskkit play not too far away. And with a yawn, he drifts into a gentle sleep. And in a dream, Firestar walks up to him, and simply tells him "Good job Bumblestripe, you don't truely know what you did. But remember, Starclan will be forever grateful for all you have done this past moon."
Two moons had passed, Molewhisker and him had recovered from their injuries, and today was to be like any other patrol. But Ivypool was different today, she seemed… Interested in him.
Sure, they'd been talking alot lately, alot more than they did before Dovewing died, but now they talked all the time. And she seemed to really like him. But she didn't expect him to think of being interested in her, I mean, her sister had been his mate! But in truth, he did kind of have a crush on her. Maybe it was out of just desperation to have a mate? Nah. That's not him… Right?.. No. He was falling for her. And he was going to make a move on her, and it would be tonight, just as he had done for Dovewing. The Half Moon was rising, and he figured tonight would be the night.
So tonight he asked her to go on a walk. "Hey Ivypool, wanna go on a walk tonight?" "Sure!"
And so that would explain why he's taking her to his spot under the jasmine, the spot… The spot he shared with Dovewing all that time ago. But he would move on. He flicked his tail to have her follow him through the bushes, and it was probably one of the last nights that it'd look beautiful, at least until the next Greenleaf. "Well, we're here. This is probably the prettiest spot in the forest, and I wish to share it with you." Ivypool's out of words. She's shocked "Bumblestripe… It's beautiful!" "There's another reason I brought you out here though as well." He said as his pelt got hot. "Would you be my mate?" One word, and a smile from Ivypool. "Yes."
Pacing outside the nursery door, Bumblestripe is waiting for news about his mate's kitting.
"Congrats Bumblestripe, you have a tom and a beautiful she cat!" Jayfeather spoke to him, and nudging him quietly he whispers "You chose well, and i'm glad that things could finally work out." And with that, he walked up to an exhausted Ivypool. "Kitting took a lot of energy eh. More than the Dark Forest training sessions?" He teases her gently. "Y-es" she pants back to him. Letting her rest a moment, before asking her. "What should we name them?" "Well the gray she cat that looks like you, how about Mistkit?" She responds to him joyfully. "I like it. How about for the tom that looks like you, Smokekit?" "If you like it, I'll like it." He says licking her cheek. "I love you Ivypool." "I love you Bumblestripe." Willowshine and Cinderheart just looked on.
And things in the end worked out, Graykit understood what happened, and he would eventually be happy for them. Rosepetal and Molewhisker would later have a kit together, Foxkit, and Larkwing would be the new Deputy of Windclan despite being a nursing queen. Tawnypelt would go on to lead Shadowclan, and Harespring would go on to lead Windclan. Windclan would be shaken for many moons, but they'd be less arrogant and scared of the other clans trying to take them over. And Shadowclan, well, they're Shadowclan, as arrogant as the Romulans from Star Trek. But they'd improve from Rowanstar, because that was pretty low to try to take power and land. And ironically, both of Tigerstar's kits would be in power, but neither of them try to take over the clans. Funny how life works out in the end, isn't it?
Cinderheart's kits: Fernkit M, Hollykit, Sorrelkit F.
Willowshine's: Jaykit M, Softkit, Mosskit, Duskkit F.
Dovewing's: Graykit, Whitekit M,Silverkit F
Breezepelt's: Duskkit F, Shadekit M.
Ivypool's: Smokekit M, Mistkit F.
Rosepetal's: Foxkit M.
Deaths: Thornclaw, Nightcloud, Toadstep, Whitekit, Blossomfall, Crouchfoot, Ashfoot, Heatherpelt, Seedpaw, Mousewhisker, Silverkit, Tigerheart, Dawnpelt, Onestar, Rowanstar, Breezepelt, Dovewing, Crowfeather, Graystripe, Sandstorm, Hollykit, Kinkfur, a few unknown Riverclan cats, a few unknown Shadowclan cats.