A/N: ...Aaaand here's the final chapter: a songfic! And this time, I'm actually using canon characters!

Song Used: All I Ask of You (Reprise) from The Phantom of the Opera

Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors or The Phantom of the Opera.

All Ashfur Asked Of Squirrelflight

~000~

I gave you my music
Made your song take wing
And now, how you've repaid me
Denied me and betrayed me
He was bound to love you
When he heard you sing...

~000~

Everything was peaceful. The night sky glittered with stars, and the lake was crystal-clear. Crickets sang quietly from their hiding spots in the grass, and a few stray fireflies flitted lazily about.

Two cats sat by the side of the lake, their tails entwined and soft purrs rumbling in their throats as they stared out over the lake.

The ginger she-cat lifted her head. "We should be getting back to camp," she meowed. "Firestar's probably wondering where we are." She stood, twitching her ears. "Come on, Brambleclaw," she purred.

The tom stood, shaking out his pelt. He looked back over at her. Amber met green, and their gazes held for a long time.

"I love you, Squirrelflight," Brambleclaw meowed.

Squirrelflight returned his gaze. "I love you too, Brambleclaw."

She flicked his ear with her tail, a mischievous glint appearing in her gaze. "C'mon, mousebrain," she teased. "Race you back to camp!" She took off running, leaving Brambleclaw blinking. Then he smiled. "You're on!" He sprinted after her, laughing and kicking up a cloud of dust as he ran.

Neither of them had noticed the gray tom who had been crouched in the bushes. The one who'd seen everything.

Ashfur padded out of his hiding place slowly. His eyes were still fixed on the spot where the two lovers had disappeared. And from the look on his face, you would think that someone had just ripped out his heart.

Which, in a way, someone just had.

"I was always there for you, Squirrelflight." Ashfur didn't even seem to know he was speaking. He was still staring off into space, a look of utter anguish on his face.

"I was there for you when Brambleclaw pushed you away. I was there to comfort you...to protect you...to guide you."

And how had she repaid him? By throwing him away like crow-food. The very heartbeat Brambleclaw had come crawling back to her, she betrayed him. She abandoned him for that fox-heart.

Tears were beginning to well up in the corners of his eyes. Ashfur finally lowered his head, his eyes squeezed shut.

"Of course he would love you," he whispered. "You were the most perfect she-cat in the world."

When he lifted his head again, Ashfur looked...broken. He opened his mouth again and uttered four simple words.

"How could you, Squirrelflight?"

The dam broke; Ashfur's agony became too much for him to bear. His paws gave way beneath him, sending him crashing to the ground. Tears spilled freely down his cheeks now, wetting his ash-gray fur as he gasped for air. He continued to cry quietly, muttering her name over and over as the images he'd seen replayed themselves in his mind.

Squirrelflight, pressing her head into Brambleclaw's tabby pelt. Promising her love to him instead of Ashfur. Purring to each other as Ashfur watched on, helpless as Brambleclaw stole her away from him.

Suddenly, it hit him like a lightning strike.

This wasn't Brambleclaw's fault.

This was Squirrelflight's.

It had been her who wronged him, not Brambleclaw. She had been the one to toss him aside after everything he did for her.

It was her who deserved to pay.

In that instant, anguish turned to fury. With the strength born from pure rage, Ashfur dragged himself to his paws, his dark blue eyes burning like fire as he turned his gaze to the sky.

"You will curse the day you did not do all that Ashfur asked of you!"

The flames licked at the brush around him, but Ashfur didn't care.

Because tonight, after moons of waiting, Squirrelflight would finally pay.

Before him, trembling in the midst of the fire, were Squirrelflight's three grown kits. Their gazes were filled with pure terror as they stared at the branch that would lead them to safety. The one that he was blocking.

Ashfur turned his gaze back to the cat he once loved. Her eyes-like two glittering emeralds-were filled with a mixture of fear and rage. And they reflected the exact same question he had asked that night, seasons ago.

How could you, Ashfur?

A strange feeling was roiling inside him as he stood there amongst the searing flames. It stretched his face into an insane grin as he leered down at them all.

It was in that moment that the remainder of his sanity deserted him.

Laughter began to issue from his throat; a chilling, cackling sound that would make any sane cat's fur stand on end. It grew louder and louder, until finally it filled the air as the gray tom stood there, howling his triumph to the sky.

...Yeah, I know that's not how it happened in the book, but still.