Elsi: So, this may only be exciting to me, but right now my Doc Manager reads Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8. With the latter two being the last two chapters from Elemental: AER (book 3). That's just a huge coincidence. But this is good, because it means I may be able to go back to updating AER and Sunstrike's Story without spoilers! (Lies. Sunstrike's Story may take a little while longer.)

Elsi: Anyways, this is a Jayfeather chapter (what else could it be?), and I would just like to remind you that this IS a JayXCinder fic, not a JayXBriar fic. I'm assuming you'll get that when...never mind. Also, there were several moments in here inspired by the timeless PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER (the Incredibles version, of course).

Elsi: Disclaimer - I don't own Warriors, or ANY of this character! Actually, I think I may mention Mousekit, and he is mine (ohhhhh man, I wonder who he could be. Mouseclaw, possibly? Naw, couldn't be. Wink.), so you can't just make off with him. I mean, you could, because technically, he's part of the Warrior universe, and...aw, whatever. I'll shut up.

Elsi: Finally...ANGRY JAYFEATHER. ANGRY ANGRY JAYFEATHER. Cute angry Jayfeather, but I digress. Okay, folks, head on your merry way and figure out what happens to Squirrelflight!

Chapter 6

Jayfeather

Jayfeather was interrupted from a brainstorming session on how to reach out to Ivypaw by an entire train of frantic cats. Dovepaw and Rosepetal hurried into the den, carrying the scent of blood and Squirrelflight and with them. For some reason, Jayfeather became oblivious to the chaos around him as she was pulled down before him and the den becoming too crowded with cats (him and Briarlight, plus Hazeltail, Cloudtail, Whitewing, Millie, Spiderleg, and Dustpelt thanks to the white-cough of leaf-bare, plus Rosepetal, Squirrelflight, and Dovepaw on account of this event, plus Firestar and Brambleclaw, who could do whatever they wanted).

His paws scanned the entirety of his foster mother's body, searching, looking. There were cuts and scrapes all over her, but none of them were deep. This was something bigger, something deeper, and something that felt scarily dark to his mind.

Suddenly, Leafpool's scent washed over him.

"Briarlight is seeing to Rosepetal," she told him, and her voice became all that was real. "What can I do to help you?"

Jayfeather's mind reeled from all of the noise, and he shook himself quickly, making Leafpool flinch away.

"Get me some space," he ordered. "And I have to know what happened."

He could hear the protests erupt through the den as Leafpool relayed his message, but what was more important was the return of a weary Rosepetal. Briarlight's tail flicked over his back to warn him, and then Rosepetal and blood took up a little bit of his awareness. But he still couldn't focus on anything except the mayhem in the den.

"For StarClan's sake, HUSH," he howled, and instantly, there was silence, although the concern of Squirrelflight's entire family seemed to keep crashing over him every few seconds. Why did she have to be the leader's daughter, the former medicine cat's sister, and the deputy's former mate? That was a little extensive for the purposes of his den. "Rosepetal."

"We went out to investigate after ShadowClan warned us of a dark cat in the area," Rosepetal answered. "We were barely outside of camp when this…thing came out of the shadows and attacked us!"

"What was it?" asked Jayfeather, turning his attention back to Squirrelflight. She was weak…so very weak…he knew that there was something he could do, but he didn't know what it was.

"I…it was huge, and dark…" began Rosepetal haltingly. "It looked like a cat, but when Squirrelflight and I talked to it, it didn't respond, only fought harder, and…we couldn't really make contact. It knocked me aside and sank its teeth into Squirrelflight's throat and…I couldn't get there before it had tossed her down, too..

"That's when Dovepaw found us…"

Her voice faded to the background, a simple story; Jayfeather fought for breath and leaned down to investigate the fur around Squirrelflight's throat. He almost recoiled as a little bit of wet pain overcame him. A huge, dark cat that could barely be touched, that didn't feel the pain of a cat's claws, that had instantly overcome Squirrelflight and Rosepetal with a couple of swipes. This wasn't just an injury, either. This was something deeper.

What do I do? What was that thing?

"Jayfeather," and then, to his immense relief, Yellowfang was on one side of him, and Spottedleaf was on the other. He began to breathe easier, and Spottedleaf pressed into his side.

"It's a creature of darkness and shadows," whispered Spottedleaf. "We don't know how it got in the forest, either, but it's…dangerous."

"Enough," Yellowfang snapped. "Look, there's a sort of poisonous ball of darkness in Squirrelflight's system now. If you don't get it out, she'll die."

It was as simple as that, and Jayfeather swallowed his fears, leaning down to the gash in his foster mother's neck. That scratch was deep – it would bleed out and kill her without there being this ball of poison resting inside of it.

"Leafpool, see to Rosepetal," Jayfeather commanded. "Briarlight, I'm going to need cobwebs, a few dock leaves, and as many dry oak leaves as you can find. Hurry."

He heard her leave, and Dovepaw made him jump by resting her fluffy tail on his shoulder.

"I've got your cobwebs," she promised, and then there was one less presence in the den to worry him.

Take a deep breath, Jayfeather, and figure this out, quickly, he urged himself, and he crouched beside Squirrelflight's most grievous wound, shook his paws, and unsheathed his claws. One misstep and he could kill her.

"I need a spare pair of paws," Jayfeather said quietly, calmly. "To hold Squirrelflight absolutely still. And," he added as an afterthought. "I need no one to stop me."

"What are you doing?" demanded Firestar, but Jayfeather ignored him, and the fiery leader sighed, trotting up to him. "I suppose I must trust your judgment."

This was insane, Jayfeather decided, but as he made sure Firestar was holding his kit tightly in place, he took a deep breath and let his claws into the wound.

Blood seeped up around his paws, and a few gasps sounded, and dizzying waves of anxiety and panic spread out across the den. But Jayfeather was too much at focus to let it distract him.

"That's right," Yellowfang told him seriously. "The little monsters have probably attached their poison, so you'll need to cut it loose."

Excellent. Jayfeather let his instincts guide him towards the darkness; once he reached it, he found the three strings attaching a raw, pulsing ball of utter shadow and clipped them loose, praying to StarClan that he was actually getting rid of darkness and not something more important. Someone was screaming in the den, and claws became unsheathed. Jayfeather attempted to put it at the back of his mind. Then, using every bit of care he had in him – which was a lot, given his occupation – he tugged that ball of darkness out from Squirrelflight's wound, letting it collapse onto the floor.

Silence overcame the world, and Jayfeather glanced around blindly at his Clanmates, waiting for someone to speak.

"What in StarClan's name is that?" demanded a voice that sounded suspiciously like Lionblaze. Jayfeather sniffed into the air, finding that his brother and Cinderheart had joined the ever-growing party in the medicine den. Good. They had been at this attack.

"Does it matter?" growled Brambleclaw. "It was inside Squirrelflight!"

Then Dovepaw bustled into the den, too, wrapped in cobwebs, and Briarlight was already passing him what he needed and scraping the ball of darkness towards herself. Jayfeather wanted to call a warning, but, tasting the scent of beech leaves, he nodded in approval and turned back to the task of repairing the wound itself.

As he worked in a numbing state of paralysis, Jayfeather could hear the other occupants of his workspace entering into a heated debate over the substance he had just extracted from his Clanmate's throat.

When he sat back, Leafpool pressed into him, making him feel warm – and then sad again.

"You're an amazing medicine cat," she purred. "I'm so proud of you."

Unable to respond, Jayfeather just blankly sat there, still reacting to what had just happened. It took a few seconds, but then he stood again – a medicine cat's job was never quite done.

"Squirrelflight will be fine. I don't know what it was either," he said curtly, "so don't ask me. But if this…thing is still out there, we need to know about it."

"Do we want our warriors out there with that monster?" demanded Leafpool, sounding as fiery as ever. "Look what it did to my littermate!"

Jayfeather wasn't having any of that.

"Firestar. We need to know about it. We need it off our territory before it can come to the camp. It was close enough this time."

"I'll go, Firestar," Lionblaze offered hopefully. "Cinderheart and I managed to fight it off. Maybe we'll be just as lucky this time."

"Alright," relented Firestar at last. "You two go, and take Thornclaw with you." Then they were off, with Jayfeather forlornly wishing his brother could stay. But no, those days were gone, and both had to serve their Clan above all else. "

"Thank you, Jayfeather," Brambleclaw rumbled quietly, as the den fell back into silence. "You saved her life."

"Yes, and she's sleeping now," Jayfeather snapped. "How about you lot come back when she's awake and stop crowding my den? I need to think." He hadn't meant to be so snappy with these important members of the Clan, but they all cleared out, to his relief, even Leafpool (to his even greater relief).

All Jayfeather wanted to do was close his eyes and sleep for a while; this type of a trial was absolutely exhausting, but there were still things to do, and he could not neglect them. Weary, he did a check on the six recovering ThunderClan warriors, who filed into the den with a multitude of serious questions. He would have to remind himself to thank Briarlight for settling them outside the den during all that. Ignoring them all, Jayfeather headed back into the other section of the den, where Briarlight was sitting talking to Rosepetal.

"Are you alright?" he demanded, half-caring about the response.

"Leafpool says that my ankle is sprained," Rosepetal answered. "But she put something on my scratches and bound it. Jayfeather…what was that thing that we fought? We couldn't touch it…not really…"

"You're in shock," Jayfeather told her shortly, not precisely wanting to work answers out of her yet. He reached over, his expert senses directing him to the thyme. "Chew these. They'll help your anxiety." Satisfied that she was following instructions, Jayfeather settled her down outside the den, did one last sweep of the den to ensure that all of his Clanmates were alright, told them all in a loud voice that they were not, under any circumstances, allowed to badger Rosepetal about what had happened, and pulled back to the herb store, breathless.

There was silence from Briarlight for a few seconds, and Jayfeather found himself wanting to go to sleep right there. Then there was the sound of her sitting.

"What?" snapped Jayfeather, for once not ready to deal with her passive way of dealing with her problems. It was great that she was so cheerful and ready to help all the time, but Jayfeather knew that Briarlight was less happy than she put forward, and she never dealt with it.

"I'm sorry, Jayfeather," Briarlight began, "but you just reached down a cats throat and pulled out this." She slid forward the beech leaves, in which she had wrapped whatever blood-soaked thing he had found in Squirrelflight's wound. "Also, you're covered in blood."

"Yes, well…" Jayfeather answered. "I did what I had to do." Briarlight was silent.

"You're a really great medicine cat, Jayfeather," she said as he was prodding into his nest to take a short nap. Even he understood the benefits of resting. "You mean a lot to the Clan. I don't know what we'd do without you. You…you deal with all of its hurt and its emotions and its burdens…"

Then Jayfeather knew what was going on, and he sent as fierce of a glare as a blind cat could send. Briarlight was silent again.

"You aren't a burden to the Clan," he told her in as gentle a voice as he could conjure in his current state of stress. "Briarlight, you help me out a lot. You keep us all going, day after day." When this had no effect on her, Jayfeather forced himself to dig deeper. "You're kind of like the opposite of that thing." He indicated to the approximate location of the darkness ball. "You're just an injection of hope into our lives, this fuzzy thing that attaches itself in the Clan and fills it with light." StarClan, it was so poetic that it brought a bitter taste to his mouth, and so sincere that it made his stomach churn, but Briarlight's breath was taken away; that filled his entire body with warmth. "I'm resting. Keep an eye on Squirrelflight and tell me if she wakes."

XXXX

Jayfeather woke in a cold sweat, gasping, and he knew that something had gone horribly wrong before he could even wake. He lurched forward, brushing past the Briarlight who had dragged herself in to warn him. And then, the cats were back. Thornclaw was standing in shock, while a hoarse Hazeltail was trying, along with the other five warriors still recovering, to figure out what happened from him. Lionblaze was pacing the length of the den, tail lashing back and forth. Rosepetal was trying to fight her way over to Squirrelflight, who, unfortunately, had woken and was now asking what had happened to her.

Cinderheart was screeching.

"Jayfeather, do something!" cried Lionblaze – so he did.

"Dustpelt, be the senior warrior and get your Clan-mates out of here," Jayfeather commanded. "Briarlight, same routine as before. Thornclaw – pull yourself together! – find Dovepaw and get me some more cobwebs and then find Brambleclaw and Firestar and tell them that Squirrelflight woke up. Lionblaze, you saw what was happening, so help me hold Cinderheart down.

Once all of it was said and done, Jayfeather padded alongside Cinderheart, began to investigate the location of what was undoubtedly another darkness sphere, and turned to his patient.

"Where?" he demanded. In response, Cinderheart jerked her back leg, making him curse in spite of himself. How many life-threatening, destiny-menacing injuries was he going to have to save this she-cat from, anyways?

"Please, Jayfeather!" Her voice was so torn, so hopelessly lost, so shrill…

I'll save you, I promise.

Suddenly, the world was coming down to this. Jayfeather's heart was thudding in his chest. His paws shook as he reached for the affected spot. Could this kill her? Of course. If he messed up…if he didn't do this correctly…she would die. He was frozen, staring into greyness, breathing in Cinderheart's scent for what could have been one of the last times, listening to her screeches as if they were something to hold onto, too.

"Get a hold of yourself and do it, then!" roared Yellowfang. As if his StarClan guide held all the answers, Jayfeather was suddenly released, and he took a deep breath.

"JAYFEATHER!" Cinderheart screaming his name, his name, no one else's filled him with the gripping feeling of a passion for this poor, sweet she-cat, and Jayfeather leaned forward to do his work. His claws worked expertly, this time, and Jayfeather made sure they were steady. Lionblaze did his job reliably and strongly, and after a few more cries of pain that nearly pulled him apart, he was done. Briarlight rolled this ball in beech leaves, too, and Jayfeather moved closer, tucking his medicinal remedies onto Cinderheart's wounds without thinking. When he was done, overcome with emotion, he touched his nose to the side of her cheek.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" asked Cinderheart, and Jayfeather could nearly see her blue eyes. Jayfeather shook his head, knowing how close he had come to failing her, to freezing up.

That was the moment when Brambleclaw chose to burst into the den with Firestar half a step beside him, to see Squirrelflight, and when Jayfeather flicked his tail to Dovepaw, who was waiting by the entrance, Brackenfur and Sorreltail rushed in, too. Suddenly, the den was unfortunately full again.

It was fine for a few seconds, and then, struggling to sit up, Squirrelflight looked Brambleclaw in the eye and said, "Took you long enough, you bossy furball. Now can we please just put this behind us?"

At that same moment, Cinderheart sat up, looked around, as if searching for someone. Jayfeather took a step forward instinctively, but the only thing she could say was, "Lionblaze!" and he exploded violently.

A few minutes later, Briarlight had control over the den while Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight loudly talked out their problems and Cinderheart and Rosepetal slept (StarClan only knows how that one had been managed). The rest of them, Jayfeather included, were left outside, waiting for the moment when Briarlight would drag herself out and announce that Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight were still at odds with one another – for Jayfeather didn't doubt this, despite Brambleclaw's outward affection for his former mate. There were some things that time couldn't heal.

"Hey," Lionblaze said weakly, walking over to Jayfeather. "That was a well-timed outburst."

"Yes, well," Jayfeather answered hurriedly. He honestly didn't want to admit that his outburst was due to the combination of his foster parents getting over the hard feelings that he didn't ever want to get over and the fact that the she-cat he had just recently found himself to be in love with had called out to his brother.

StarClan help me, I just admitted to loving Cinderheart.

It made sense, too, what with all of the swimming lessons and the fact that he knew her identity, and…Jayfeather felt very sick suddenly, and he turned to his brother.

"Cinderheart is in love with you," he noted. Lionblaze didn't reply. "For StarClan's sake, you love her, too, don't you?" That, he could stand.

"I…" Lionblaze's hesitation, on the other hand, was something that he could not stand. Not now. Not with all of this shadow nonsense coming to light and sick cats to heal and Ivypaw's conversion in his mind. Not this, too.

"Don't you dare play with her heart," spat Jayfeather, making his brother recoil. "She deserves to be happy, Lionblaze."

Lionblaze didn't answer for several moments, unable to reply. Jayfeather felt a twinge of guilt, but it vanished to be replaced with grave seriousness. If he hurt her…

"Brambleclaw is going to forgive Squirrelflight," Lionblaze said quietly. "And I know you really aren't looking forward to that, but it's going to happen." Jayfeather didn't answer. "When you were pulling that…thing out of Squirrelflight – and that was scary to watch – Brambleclaw flipped. You were lucky Cinderheart and I arrived to hold him back. I think he just realized…that there are more important things than the past. When we found Squirrelflight and Rosepetal in the forest…I felt that, too. You should think about talking to Leafpool."

Great, thought Jayfeather bitterly. He leads on the one she-cat I want more than anything to be happy and decides he can give me advice.

Unfortunately, Jayfeather knew very well that it was advice he was going to have to take.

Elsi: ALL OF THE JAY AND CINDER! More on that later. If you've read the first book of Elemental, you know about the JayXCinder, but eh. It'll still make for a good story (I hope). Okay, so, tell me what you think! I'm prioritizing this story above the regular series for the time being, for the sole reason that I don't want to spoil this fic TOO much. It shouldn't be a problem, but I'll do my best to...I don't know, produce two chapters for every one I produce of AER. Sunstrike's Story will chime in whenever I get to a point at which I will no longer be spoiling the plot of WaS.

Elsi: The next chapter is a Dovepaw chapter! I'm doing my best to spice up the Dovepaw plotline, honestly, because right now she's the least interesting of the Four. Yeah...but it'll happen eventually.

Elsi: Okay, so, I really don't like begging, but if you liked this or have any miscellaneous comments, could you please leave me a review and tell me what you thought? I love hearing what you guys think (and it reminds me to update), and I really do try to take your suggestions into account! Thanks, guys! More Elemental to come!