The walk back to camp was a quiet one, and no cat dared to question Sunstar. Lostheart walked in the back of the group with Greysight, as usual. She still found it hard to believe that there would only be three clans now. 'I wonder what Willowstar did to get Morningstar to comply.'

It was true that Morningstar was the kindest and fairest of the leaders, but even she wouldn't give away the freedom of her clan like that. Lostheart had seen the way she looked up on the stone, and it was not the face of a proud cat.

Thistleprick and Raggedear remained silent as well as they tried to grasp what had just happened. Thistleprick felt a twinge of anger in his paws, something had clearly been kept from he and his brother.

He looked to where Roseclaw was walking nearby, hopeful that she might tell him. Roseclaw caught his gaze from the corner of her eye and strode forward, nose in the air.

'She's mad at me.'

Thistleprick allowed himself a small chuckle and sighed inwardly, he really did have a bad habit of doing that to cats didn't he? Raggedear's slim yellow eyes flickered over to his brother at the sound, but he said nothing.

The clan padded warily into camp, disheartened by the forest's recent developments. Browneyes was standing outside the elder's den awaiting their return, he could feel his heart sink as he saw the faces of his clanmates.

Browneyes trotted quickly over to the group, "What happened?" he meowed with concern. Sunstar was the first to reply.

"TreeClan happened." he growled. Browneyes blinked at his leader's unexpected and vague reply, but followed the golden tom as he padded to the center of camp to give an announcement. Longtail had managed to hobble out of the elder's den as well and began to make her way toward the group. Mintpaw had been standing with Roseclaw, but as she saw her mother trying to join them, she quickly ran to her side to help her.

"TreeClan and LightClan have joined together, though I suspect Morningstar to have been forced into some sort of ultimatum." Sunstar meowed. Thoughts of Morningstar's frail form sickened him, it was horrible what his brother could do and he had no doubt about it, Sunstar was sure Willowstar had taken one of her lives. For her sake, he hoped it was only one, but knowing his brother...

Sunstar shook his head while Longtail and Browneyes's eyes widened in shock. "That's crazy!" Longtail yowled, "He can't do that!"

"I assure you Longtail, he can and he has." Sunstar replied harshly, narrowing his eyes at his supposed former mate.

Browneyes looked to his brother and felt his own face fall at Darkpelt's stony expression. It couldn't be true.

'We don't stand a chance.'

"...What are we going to do?" Browneyes meowed, looking to Sunstar hopefully. At his question the rest of the DarkClan cats turned toward Sunstar as well for his leadership. "Increase patrols, and don't let your guard down." Sunstar growled, "That's all we can do." He walked away from the group and towards the stone walls of his den, leaving his clan to watch him disappointedly from behind.

It was silent for a moment as the cats stood in the clearing, staring off towards the leader's den, however, the silence didn't last as a loud voice cut through the night.

"Okay, just what exactly is going on here?!"

Lostheart blinked and she, along with her clanmates, turned and parted to see Thistleprick standing angrily in front of them. Greysight growled in annoyance from beside her, "Shut up, you don't know what you're talking about. And I doubt your brain could even comprehend it."

"Oh, I understand what's going on here just fine. You DarkClan cats are just trying to use us! You and that TreeClan are having some sort of fight right? And you knew your clan was too small to beat them, so you decided to take us in for extra fighting paws!"

Greysight's cloudy eyes darkened at Thistleprick's harsh rebuttal while Lostheart sat calmly by her side, watching the tom with her calculating gaze.

"My brother and I aren't just going to go put ourselves in harm's way for something we're not even involved in. We're not just here for tools to be used! You guys never said anything about a fight! Come on, Raggedear."

Thistleprick turned away from the cats and padded towards the tree tunnel while Raggedear quickly padded forward to join him by his side. The black tortoiseshell's yellow eyes cast a single glance back at the DarkClan cats as they stood with dumbfounded expressions.

Moonfur couldn't believe they were just going to leave and she felt a slight hollowness in her heart. Sure, Thistleprick was annoying and rude, but the two toms were beginning to grow on her. Her dysfunctional eyes fell and she looked up to watch the brothers pad away. Almost immediately she met sharp yellow eyes and blinked as she and Raggedear locked gazes. It didn't last long, and almost as quickly as it had happened, the mottled tom turned away and continued forward.

A low growl rumbled in Greysight's throat as she prepared to step forward, but was stopped as Lostheart blocked her with her tail. The motion surprised Greysight and she turned toward Lostheart with a confused expression.

"...Why?"

"They're right." Lostheart replied. She had never thought about it before, but as she did, she could feel the guilt running through her veins. 'Who am I to decide the fate of someone's life?' It was wrong.

Greysight was silent and remained where she was, her eyes seemingly staring off into the distance. Browneyes and Darkpelt had watched the exchange with matching expressions, "Are we really going to just let them go?" Darkpelt meowed gruffly.

Longtail snorted from the back of the group where she sat beside a sad looking Mintpaw. "They're just rogues, let them go." She began to stand up, flinching slightly as she had to put weight on her leg. Mintpaw quickly perked up and stood to help her, guiding her back to the nursery.

Roseclaw watched them for a moment before turning towards the tree tunnel and then back to Lostheart. "...Are you sure?" she meowed quietly, blue eyes turning back towards the dark opening to the forest.

Lostheart nodded silently.

"But what about TreeClan?" Browneyes meowed, his voice quiet and somber.

"Willowstar has made it clear that he will not rest until he destroys our clan. I don't know why he's doing it, or what's running through his head, but we can't just let him control the lives of other cats."

Browneyes, Darkpelt, and Moonfur all blinked and turned towards the dark she-cat in surprise.

"It may not be any of our business, but the only reason Willowstar took hold of LightClan was so that he could defeat us. Even though he already had enough cats to do it himself, he is determined to break down our moral. I don't want Morningstar and LightClan to suffer because of our existence..."

Greysight felt her mouth curve into a small smile, Lostheart never ceased to surprise her. The she-cat really was different. Moonfur nodded in understanding as well, "You're right." she meowed.

They sat in silent understanding as the cool night air blew lightly through the trees around them. Lostheart sighed and looked up to the full moon, 'I wonder what you would tell me...Mom, Ivyfoot...'

Greysight's paw suddenly twitched and her head snapped upward, catching the other cats by surprise. "What's wrong?" Roseclaw asked anxiously.

Greysight rose to all four paws, "It's Thistleprick and Raggedear it looks like they've run into another group of cats on our territory."

"Intruders?!" Darkpelt growled, rising to his paws, ready to fight. Browneyes padded to his brother's side and nodded in determination, "We'll get them."

Roseclaw looked from the two toms to the group of she-cats worriedly. "Greysight, you can lead us to them." Lostheart meowed hurriedly.

Greysight nodded urgently, "Hurry! Follow me!"

Roseclaw opened her mouth to say something, but was left in silence as Greysight, Moonfur, Lostheart, Darkpelt, and Browneyes dashed off into the woods. The white she-cat took a few steps forward, but stopped and stepped back, turning to look back towards the elder's den ,fighting with herself whether to go or not.

'I hope you guys know what you're doing.' Roseclaw thought in frustration. 'Please don't get hurt...'

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Short chapter, but I really wanted to get one out. IMPORTANT, a lot of people didn't catch on when I talked about it in Willow and Sun's past. Willowstar LITERALLY stole Shadestar's life that day, Mosspelt said he was never accepted by StarClan which is true. Sunstar is the only DC cat who knows because he witnessed it himself and I've mentione it a lot as his 'ability' but I guess no one got it. Its a theme thats never been used before so maybe thats why :/ I really tried to make that clear. If you're still confused you can go back and read previous chaps.

Lost Out

P.S. Finally finished writing out the final plotline of the last book. :) It's been in my head, I just finally got it down so I know all the details and don't forget anything.