Chapter Nineteen:

He was faintly aware of the sound of voices all around him. The pain in his chest and head whenever he would breathe was unbelievable. He couldn't talk; he could barely register anything around him; he felt like he was dying.

That was when he heard the scream. The scream of the cat he loved: Whitepaw.

"Shadowpaw is the father of my kits!"

Kits? Is that what she had said? He honestly didn't know. His mind was clouding, his vision narrowing... But he could not sleep, for he knew if he did he would not wake up to see the sun rise.

Hisses, snarls, and insults followed Whitepetal's words. Every hateful name in the book they called him. He wanted to sleep; he needed to sleep; he needed to sleep in order to get away from this.

A large growl stuck out from all the rest. "Are you saying you mated with a cat from a different Clan, Whitepetal?"

Whitepetal? He felt a weak smile creep up onto his muzzle. She must've just received her warrior name, as had he.

"What of it?" snarled Whitepetal. "I'm sure you've mated with many she-cats from other Clans yourself!"

He felt sharp and unsheathed claws pierce his flesh, scoring down the recent wound from Rushstar that had just begun to heal. It opened again, blood pouring and getting onto the cats' paws. He screamed and shouted, then finally heard the order from Cliffstar.

"Take him to the Pit." The HailClan leader ordered whichever cats were around him. He felt his body being hauled up onto the shoulders and backs of four cats, and his large body swayed with exhaustion as he was carried away.

He was suddenly on the cold, hard ground on his back. His eyes fluttered open just in time to see a giant rock -a boulder, to be specific- cover the entrance of the dark space he was in. Using his senses, Shadowfire sniffed the air, looking for signs to let him know where he was. A drop of water splattered on his nose, and he sniffed the air again, this time coming up with an answer: he was in an old abandoned den, probably for elders.

Slowly -weakly, at that- Shadowfire raised his head and began to clean the blood off of his matted pelt. He could only imagine the look on Whitepetal's face when she saw him almost get torn in half. He shuddered. He hadn't meant to worry her.

Kits.

The word was so strange to him now.

He would have some of his own. His own kits with Whitepetal!

He could imagine it: one with its mother's eyes, one with his own; one with his mother's laugh, another with her demeanor; his kits, his own offspring with the cat he loved... It seemed unreal to Shadowfire. The large boulder suddenly moved, inch by inch, centimeter by centimeter until a cat stood in the place.

It took him a moment realize it was Whitepetal.

"Shadowpaw!" the white she-cat cried, her dark blue eyes sparkling with worry. She raced towards him, only to stop her tracks at the large amount of blood that was on Shadowfire's paws and pelt, even his muzzle. Her face twisted from a look of worry to one of horror. "Shadowpaw... Who... Who did this to you?"

"It doesn't matter!" Shadowfire leapt to his paws. "Whitepetal, kits... I'm so happy!" His weak legs gave out underneath him and Shadowfire fell to the ground with a hiss, gritting his teeth as he fought not to burst into a fit of yowling his head off.

Whitepetal's eyes flashed and she rested her tail on Shadowfire's. "You're hurt, Shadowfire... I need to go get Oakpaw or Skystorm..."

"No..." Shadowfire mewed softly, sounding like a kit wanting his mother. "Don't leave me here..."

"You need medicine!" Whitepetal meowed desperately, flattening her ears to her head. "I'm going to find Skystorm."

"Whitepetal..." Shadowfire rasped. "Run..."

"What are you talking about?" Whitepetal asked.

"What are you doing in here, Whitepetal?" a deep voice growled from the front of the den.

Three cats entered the den. Shadowfire recognized Blackfang and Cliffstar; the other tom he didn't recognize, though by the descriptions he used to get from Echobreeze it must be Hawktalon.

"I had to... To talk to him. I'll go now..." Whitepetal muttered, rose to her paws and padded over to them and tried to edge her way out of the den.

"Whitepetal!" Shadowfire cried, pawing the edge of the scrappy nest he was laying in. "Don't leave!"

Hawktalon smirked at him and blocked Whitepetal from leaving. "In fact, why don't you stay?" he mused, then winked at Blackfang in some type of signal. The black tom suddenly pinned down his sister, turning her head so she stared directly at Shadowfire.

"Shh, dear sister," he purred sweetly to her as she tried to bite his neck and throw him off of her. "Hush, hush... I think you'll like this very much." He swiftly switched places with Hawktalon and stalked towards Shadowfire, a cruel smirk on his muzzle.

"Start!" Cliffstar yowled, and Shadowfire shut his eyes as Blackfang lunged for him.

Pain. That was all Shadowfire experienced for the next seven minutes, having his flesh clawed into ribbons and screaming, blood running into his eyes and mouth, hearing Whitepetal's pleas to let him go, to let him go... His vision clouding, his heart slowing... He felt his lungs gasp for air, yet not getting it past his throat.

"Enough, Blackfang." Cliffstar demanded and the black warrior stepped away from Shadowfire. The large brown tabby turned his head and stated to Hawktalon, "let the she-cat go..."

Hawktalon leapt off of Whitepetal, and immediately the white warrior jumped to her paws and raced towards Shadowfire. The black tom felt her fear scent and the bristling of her pelt brush against his own bloody one as she hissed, "How could you, Cliffstar?"

"We had to do it, Whitepetal." Cliffstar replied solemnly. "It was for the good of the Clan."

"You were never like this before you became leader!" Whitepetal cried, flattening her ears to her head -or that's what Shadowfire thought she was doing; he couldn't see her clearly from all the blood and tears in his eyes, yet he could smell the scents coming off of her in waves; fear, anger, and betrayal all at the same time. "You were never like my father!"

"Father was a good leader!" now it was Blackfang who took over the argument. "He was a better leader than you will ever be!"

"And I killed him." Whitepetal snarled in her brother's face. "I killed him clean, I killed him without even touching him. How's that for leadership?"

Blackfang hissed and leapt at Whitepetal, and the two siblings rolled around on the ground, snarling and trying to jab each other in the neck.

"Enough!" Cliffstar growled, getting into the tussle and throwing the two acts away from each other on opposite sides of the den. "Blackfang, you've done your work. Leave us now." the black tom threw another hiss in Whitepetal's direction and then left on order, his tail lashing behind him.

"As for you," Cliffstar meowed, turning towards Whitepetal, "I should banish you from HailClan for falling in love with a SunClan cat. But being as your expecting, I cannot do that. Therefore I will substitute for you until your kits are born." he turned towards Shadowfire and purred warmly. "This cat will do, seeing as we've already torn him to shreds.

"What are you going to do to him?" Whitepetal demanded with a lash of her tail.

"Isn't it obvious?" Hawktalon purred, using his claw to lift Shadowfire's head so he was staring at Whitepetal through a bloodied and battered gaze. "Look at him, little cat. Look at how battered he is!" he let out a cackle of joy and dropped Shadowfire's head to the ground, the black tom's head spinning at it crashed against the hard earth beneath it. Hawktalon tsked with his tongue and nipped Shadowfire's ear. "He's been a bad cat, wouldn't you say? It's the perfect punishment for him."

"You'll kill him!" Whitepetal growled.

"Oh, we wouldn't harm the precious little thing you call a mate," Hawktalon purred sweetly to her. "you should know better than to think like that... Didn't your father treat you better than this? Oh, wait... Your father didn't even love you."

With that, the HailClan deputy and leader padded out of the den, leaving the scared white she-cat laying next to the battered black tom.