"Sunspirit? Sunspirit? Can you hear me?"

With a groan, Sunspirit flinched and slowly opened his eyes, blinking repeatedly to adjust to his new environment. He was surprised to see Ivyfoot standing over him with a concerned expression.

Slowly he pulled himself up and saw the several cats sitting around him, all watching with similar expressions. Shadestar was also sitting in front of him with his ever present calmness that always seemed to surround the accomplished leader.

"What..happened?" Sunspirit meowed groggily, trying to ignore the sharp pounding in his head. He could see the other cats exchange brief looks and return to watching him with questioning eyes.

"We were going to as you that. When we woke up this morning, you and Willowheart were both gone. At first we thought you guys had gone off to hunt, but your scents were stale and you still had yet to return." Ivyfoot turned his head toward Shadestar.

"Shadestar sent me to look for you. I found you unconscious in the woods. Sunspirit, you're completely disheveled. What happened? Did you get into a fight? Where's Willowheart?"

Sunspirit was silent for a moment, taking in Ivyfoot's words. Suddenly the memories began flashing through his head, the fight, Willowheart, TreeClan, everything. Ivyfoot could see the look of shock in his friends face.

Ivyfoot crouched down beside Sunspirit and eyed him with concern. "Sunspirit, where's Willowheart?"

Sunspirit sat completely still, his eyes staring past Ivyfoot and meeting the cool blue of Shadestar's gaze. Sunspirit's gaze did not falter as he opened his mouth to speak.

"He's gone..."

The cats' eyes surrounding widened in shock, yet Shadestar only seemed to lower his head in understanding.

"I see. I had hoped..."

Ivyfoot looked between Sunspirit and Shadestar in confusion, as did many of the DarkClan cats. "What do you mean?"

Shadestar looked up gravely and faced the entirety of the clan. "Willowheart has betrayed us and gone to join the ranks of another clan."

Shocked yowls pierced the air and many cats leapt to their paws, screeching about how he could possibly do a thing like that.

Despite the noise and surprise around him, Sunspirit sat emotionless, his gaze fixed on the ground in front of him with a dull expression.

'I...couldn't stop him..'

He jumped slightly as a new feeling of warmth enveloped his side and turned tiredly to see Silentshadow pressed against him.

"I'm sorry Sunspirit." she whispered.

Silentshadow sat by the warrior's den beside Cherrynose as the small brown she-cat cleaned her own fur. Her large blue eyes wandered across the clearing to where Sunspirit was talking privately with Shadestar.

The tom's face was completely serious and he stood proudly in a stiff manner. It had been like this since Willowstar left...

Sunspirit had become so distant, his face was always in a constant frown and he had become a lot stricter in the camp. Silentshadow's eyes fell as she watched him stalk away and declare an order to a nearby warrior.

She could tell he was hurting inside. He was tired and angry, and she knew he blamed himself. The golden tom refused to speak of what happened between him and Willowheart to anybody, not even her.

Sunspirit's coldness hurt her, but she knew that he meant well. Tonight was going to be the first Gathering since Willowheart left. All the cats were tense, wondering what might happen, and if Willowheart would be there.

Some believed Willowheart had left the forest, while others were curious to see if he would be in another clan. It seemed doubtful that TreeClan, LightClan, or OceanClan would accept an enemy warrior into their ranks.

She had begun to hear whispers around camp questioning Sunspirit's own loyalty, and rumors that he and his brother were plotting something to take over DarkClan. She knew Sunspirit knew about these accusations, but the tom said nothing.

Silentshadow let out a small sigh, whatever was going to happen tonight, she hoped that Sunspirit would be okay. It hurt her to see him like this.

Sunspirit walked with his head held high as he followed beside Shadestar and led DarkClan into Fourtrees. He would not show any signs of weakness, he was the deputy of DarkClan, such things were beyond him.

Sunspirit didn't look through the crowd of cats surrounding him as he padded forward with Shadestar, instead, his eyes were transfixed on the stone that sat in the back of the clearing. He parted ways with Shadestar at its base after the leader gave him a brief nod.

He then took his place among the other deputies and sat in silence, staring out into the large mass of cats. It didn't take long for the meeting to begin after the clan leaders had gathered atop the great stone.

"Cats of all clans, we welcome you to the Gathering!"

Sunspirit was surprised to hear Morningstar issue the call for the meeting begin. After the past attack from LightClan, LightClan's previous leader had died in battle. Morningstar had become the newest leader, Sunspirit wondered if she was up to leading a clan, the she-cat was an unbearably kind cat.

She always seemed very shy and submissive, which is why it surprised him to hear her voice ring throughout the clearing.

"I will begin by sharing the news from LightClan, we are recovering well. On behalf of LightClan, I'd like to thank you Shadestar for putting an end to Wavestar's treachery." she meowed, turning towards the sooty tom.

Shadestar made a slight nod in return before Morningstar faced the clans once more. "I will try my best to lead LightClan as well as Sprigstar has done."

A dark grey tom with wavy black stripes joined her at the height of the great stone. "You have OceanClan's gratitude as well, Wavestar had become too corrupt . We were blinded by our loyalty to him, as the new leader of OceanClan, I hope to make up for our clan's past mistakes."

Shadestar remained completely calm, thanking Dualstar for his kind words. The new OceanClan leader was a strong warrior, and Shadestar had no doubt he would be able to return OceanClan to its past greatness.

"I would also like to announce the new deputy I have chosen to help restore OceanClan. He is one of our strongest and most loyal warriors, Brisingstep is the new deputy of OceanClan."

Cheers from OceanClan broke out from the crowd of cats, as well as many supportive meows from cats of the other clans. Sunspirit found himself smiling widely, all previous anxiety temporarily forgotten. Brisingstep, despite being from OceanClan, was one of his closer friends.

He had met the tom during his first Gathering as an apprentice, he was a loyal cat and Sunspirit couldn't be happier for him. His green eyes searched over the crowd as he realized Brisingstep wasn't sitting with the rest of the deputies, but Sunspirit couldn't find any trace of the OceanClan tom.

He was broken from his searching when he laid eyes on Oakstar, TreeClan's leader, padding forward on the Great Rock. Thoughts of his brother rushed through his head, yet he still hadn't seen any sign of Willowheart.

Oakstar was a strong tom, he had been leading TreeClan for a while now, but the aging tom was able to remain strong. The red tint to his brown tabby pelt gave him a regal appearance.

"Greetings friends. TreeClan is doing well, just recently Redfern gave birth to five new, healthy kits. Truly StarClan must smile upon us for our good fortune, for not only have we acquired new kits, but a strong warrior as well."

Sunspirit's ears instantly perked and his eyes flickered toward Shadestar, for a second blue eyes met green, but the DarkClan leader revealed nothing.

"We are proud to accept Willowheart as a warrior of TreeClan."

The name Willowheart caught the attention of several cats in the clearing, it couldn't be the same Willowheart from DarkClan? Their thoughts were answered when an angry yowl sounded in the clearing.

The warriors turned in surprise to see Cherrynose; a small, spunky she-cat from DarkClan; glaring defiantly up at the clan leaders.

"Willowheart is a traitor! How can you let him into your clan?!"

The clearing broke out into a loud buzzing as the cats whispered amongst each other, some confused while others were angry.

Shadestar rose to all fours and joined Oakstar at the edge of the Great Rock. "Silence!"

The cats looked up in surprise at the sound of the DarkClan leader's strong voice. He then turned to Oakstar.

"Is this true?"

The large red tom nodded, "Willowheart came to us, and we are glad to accept him. He is a strong warrior whose talents will be respected in TreeClan."

Morningstar stepped forward between the two toms, "Surely there is something about this in the warrior code?"

Oakstar remained impassive. "The warrior code says nothing about the admittance of other into a clan. Willowheart is a member of TreeClan now."

Shadestar lowered his head and conceded with a small nod. "He's right Morningstar. Willowheart is a member of TreeClan now."

Oakstar appeared to be pleased by Shadestar's response, the great tom nodded his head respectively. "He is a formidable tom, Shadestar. I feel like we can expect great things from him in the future."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

End was kinda rushed. : Updateee. Yes we are almost done with the flashbacks. ALSO Yes I did/ am writing this story xD I was referring to my friend Moon who is choosing to right one of the other stories in my profile "Never Meant to Belong". Speaking of which I can't tell you when she'll update :( We'll just have to wait and see. Reviews are loved! Any questions leave em' in reviews :)