I don't own Warriors.

Review reply to lunarspirit: They found her scent at the ShadowClan border, and they knew she was missing. Secret will return, but it won't be for a while.

Tangleclaw shook out her fur as she climbed out of the river. Water droplets fell right off, sliding into the ground below. Riverpelt was waiting for her, as usual.

Tangleclaw took a moment to admire him. His gray fur, the sparkle in his eyes. She was happy just to be with him. Of course, she was just as happy when she was deputy, and probably more so when she was leader. Riverpelt would always love her and she would always love him. After she took over the forest, they could be together and nothing would matter. No one would care then.

"I have to get back to my clan soon," she told him.

"You always used to say RiverClan," he murmured. "When did it become your clan?"

"When I became deputy," Tangleclaw replied. "Soon I'll be leader, and then the forest will be mine."

"Remember when I told you that I would never make you choose between me and something else?" Riverpelt asked.

Tangleclaw nodded. "Of course I remember."

Riverpelt pulled away from her. "I want you to choose between me and this insane power that you want."

"Insane?" Tangleclaw snarled, her temper flairing up.

"You're trying to take over the forest! I fell in love with you, but that's where it ends. I thought we could have a relationship, but I don't think we can if you're going after that."

Tangleclaw raised her head. "You want me to choose? This isn't a hard decision. I'm going to take over the forest, and you can either back me up or die."

Riverpelt had a steely look in his eye. "I would never side with a murderer. You're just like Tigerstar and Blackstar. What are you planning on doing next? Killing Leopardstar?"

"I guess you'll find out," Tangleclaw hissed. "Or maybe you'll be dead before you can."

"I hope I am dead if you take over the forest."

Tangleclaw smiled. "That won't be an issue."

xxx

Tangleclaw stood in front of her clan, gazing at the cats flocked around her, trembling in fear.

"It is painful for me to say that Leopardstar is dead," she began. "However, I will lead RiverClan into a powerful era, where we will dominate. We will show our strength, and, most importantly, we will be given a chance to avenge Leopardstar's death."

"Who killed her?"

Tangleclaw looked down at the cat. "I believe that it was Minnowscale. She might smell of RiverClan still, and Leopardstar wouldn't have had a chance against three warriors."

"You'll have to travel to the Moonstone immediately," Mothwing said, pushing her way to the front of the crowd. "Share tongues with Leopardstar, and then we should leave."

"Of course," Tangleclaw replied smoothly. She moved to Leopardstar and murmured a few words. "I ready to leave."

xxx

"What are you doing here?"

Tangleclaw turned, raising her head so she looked Crowstar straight in the eye. "I'm traveling to the Highstones to receive my nine lives."

Crowstar blinked. "When did you become deputy?"

Tangleclaw furrowed her brow, thinking. "Not very long ago, actually. It's only been a few days. Leopardstar was killed early today."

"Good luck," the WindClan leader said as he moved away.

Tangleclaw laughed under her breath. Like she would need luck. Mothwing continued a swift pace and Tangleclaw sat on the tan rock by dusk.

"When we get down there, you can't speak," Mothwing said. "When the moon shines on the rock place your nose on it and you'll get your nine lives."

Tangleclaw surveyed the medicine cat coolly. "I'll be fine."

The cat nodded mutely and began walking down the tunnel. Tangleclaw followed, anticipation welling up inside her.

Mothwing sat in a small cavern, gazing at a grey rock in the center. Tangleclaw watched it too, waiting for something to impress her. The cave filled with moonlight, giving the rock an eerie silver glow. Tangleclaw laid next to it, placing the tip of her nose on it. She closed her eyes and cold gripped her body.

When she opened them again she was at a clearing in an unfamiliar forest. She could see the stars moving toward her. They grew larger and larger—close enough for her to touch—when they shifted into shapes of cats. The first was her dream mentor, Tigerstar, his eyes lit with a spark of warmth she had never seen before. Then there was Hawkfrost, his body healed from the mutilated marks that covered him, and a white tom with black paws that she guessed was Blackstar. A small cat, it looked more like a kit, really, with extra long claws entered, and five more she didn't know.

"You know me, of course," Tigerstar purred. "Hawkfrost too. This is Blackstar, Scourge, and Darkstripe. These cats," he said, flicking his tail over to three others, "were before our time, all with great visions of what they wanted the forest to be. Sadly, we all failed to complete this. We're putting all of our trust and hope in you, Tangleclaw, to take the forest into a new age of power."

The first cat to step forward was a white she-cat. Her amber eyes held a sort of pride Tangleclaw hadn't seen before, but there was a hard glint in them "I am called Ambersnow. It brings me joy that we might finally have a victor among us. If I had a heart, it would be filled with pleasure. However, with this life I give you anger, so you will cut down any who disagree with you without thinking." Ambersnow touched her nose, and a bolt of fury rushed through Tangleclaw, claws extending and ripping through flesh.

Ambersnow backed away, and a black tom took her place. "My name is Nightclaw. With this life I give you pride, so no cat will be able to be superior to you." Tangleclaw felt a pleasant vain sensation floating in her.

The next cat stepped up to her. Her fur was a muddy brown and her body was covered in horrible, disfiguring scars. "My name is Forgotten. I was not a member of the clans, and am proud of it. They had free will, and they should have been robots. With this life I give you stamina, so you can fight longer than the best warrior before tiring." Tangleclaw felt the life pour through her, refreshing her like a long drink of cold water.

Darkstripe stepped up next. "With this life I give you trickery, so you can fool your friends as well as your enemies."

"With this life I give you intelligence," Hawkfrost began, "so your battles will never fail. Plan your retreat as well as your attack."

"I give you intuition," Blackstar said, stepping up. "So you will never fail because a simple assumption."

The cat called Scourge moved up as Blackstar moved away. She had heard that getting your nine lives was hard, but so far it had been simple. "With this life I give you fear, so you will never underestimate your enemies." Tangleclaw was shocked; she hadn't thought she'd ever need something like that. Even so, she pressed her nose to Scourge's. This life frightened her. She felt like a rabbit, racing through the forest, knowing something was chasing her, and know she would get caught.

"I'm glad that you have finally made it to this point," her dream mentor, Tigerstar, spoke. "Even without your brother's help, you have become a deputy soon after becoming a warrior. With this life I give you raw power, so no cat will be able to match you in a battle." This live was cruel. It tore through her, he claws ripping into flesh, the smell of fear clouding around her.

"Thank you," she murmured, scanning the clearing. "But shouldn't there be one more?"

"He's coming," Scourge said. "He has many things to attend to, at the moment." Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw the cats shiver in fear.

Out of the shadows in the forest came, not a cat, but a wolf. He was large, powerful, and terrifying. His coat wasn't one color, but shifted through them. It was all the colors, but none of them. His eyes were red, but not bloody. He hadn't been injured, but he'd been born with it. Tangleclaw didn't feel scared, just curious.

"I give you your ninth and last life," the wolf said. "I give you the power to know your superiors. I also give you the name Tanglestar." The cats in the clearing yowled her name, and as it died away in the corners of the forest the cats who had given her eight lives melted away, back into the form of stars.

"Let's talk, Tanglestar," the wolf said simply. "My name in Anelmen."

Thanks to lunarspirit for reviewing the last few chapters!