I will save my comments for below. Enjoy!

Chapter 23

Lionblaze

"Hello, Lionblaze, Doveheart." Hazeltail smiled upon their entrance. Lionblaze greeted all the queens in turn – even a quiet Ivypool - and then turned his attention down to the three tiny kits at Hazeltail's belly. "Want me to introduce you?"

"Yes, please," said Doveheart warmly. "They're so lovely…"

Hazeltail purred at the compliment, then nodded at the only she-kit, who was pale grey.

"This is Petalkit," she said softly. "The red one is Rustkit, and the mottled one is Stealthkit."

"I'm sure they're going to grow up to be strong warriors," Lionblaze said. He watched the three kits squirm, a little choked up. "They're beautiful."

"I think they're puny, and they aren't very good at playing!" Briarkit and Windkit appeared, weaving through Lionblaze's legs until he looked at them. Briarkit was the dominant one, a dusky brown she-cat, but Windkit, a dark grey tom, was looking smarter and bigger every day.

"Briarkit, that's quite enough!" Whitewing followed her kits inside, squeezing past the other queens to get to her nest. "I'm sorry, Hazeltail. They've been a nuisance."

"They're going to be apprentices soon," said Squirrelflight. "Hopefully before my kits arrive."

"I don't know," said Whitewing. "You're huge! I'm sure your kits will be here any day now."

"Ivypool, how are you feeling?" The idle gossiping of the queens faded out to Doveheart moving over to her littermate. For support, Lionblaze trotted over and hovered awkwardly. Ivypool looked up at them, her ears fighting the urge to flatten.

"I'm fine," Ivypool said. "Thank you for asking." She tucked her tail over her nose then, effectively refusing all following attempts at conversation. Doveheart looked up at Lionblaze a little despairingly, and Lionblaze shrugged. There was little they could do. The two of them strolled out of the nursery and into the sunlight.

"I just…she looks so sad," said Doveheart, disheartened. "She tries to hide it behind her bitterness, but I don't believe it anymore."

"I wish we could help somehow," added Lionblaze.

"She wouldn't let us," said Doveheart. She mildly shook her head. "At least she has Bumblestripe now. Maybe she's getting out."

The two looked at each other for several moments, and Lionblaze was the one to smile first.

"How about you come hunting with me and Rosepetal?" he asked hollowly.

"Thanks," said Doveheart with a smile. "I think I need some time to think, so I'm going to go talk to Briarlight and Jayfeather. But thank you." Lionblaze watched her go, slightly sad, almost wanting to call after her. Most every smile Doveheart conjured for him was fake, and that make his stomach churn. He wished he could help her, but Doveheart's problem, he sensed, weren't just about the Dark Forest. A part of it was Tigerheart. Lionblaze knew that at the heart of a good portion of her attitude issues was the striped ShadowClan tom that she had undoubtedly fallen for. And there was nothing Lionblaze could do to solve that problem. A part of it was that Ivypool was in trouble, but Lionblaze was doing everything he could to solve that problem. Still, it wasn't enough.

"Ready to go? You have a funny look on your face." Lionblaze turned around to meet Rosepetal's optimistic smile, and he gave one of his own, making a note to file Doveheart's issues away for later reflection. Now it was time to give Rosepetal his full attention.

"Yeah, absolutely, let's go," he said quickly, so the two of them headed out. "How are you?"

"Content, for the moment," said Rosepetal. "It's a little hard to think that WindClan just attacked us. Things were so peaceful, and now…"

"You and I both know what now is," said Lionblaze in a low voice. He raised his eyes to the sky, picking out rays of sunlight among leaves in his attempt to locate the squirrel he knew was nearby. "I'm glad we could make peace with WindClan."

"It seems like it's all out of a story," said Rosepetal with a sigh. "Like you and I aren't a part of it. Peace with WindClan, peace with ShadowClan, peace with RiverClan…it's nice. It just doesn't seem real."

"I wish that was true," said Lionblaze. He perked his ear and stopped, spotting the grey fur of a mouse among the weeds. Rosepetal fell silent right away, but Lionblaze could feel her eyes on him as he slunk forward into his crouch. His muscles seemed to purr in agreement as he stepped forward, pads of his paws touching the earth. Every vibration was keen and present in his ears and paws as he moved forward, one step at a time. The mouse didn't even notice him until he was mid leap, flying through the air and sinking his claws into the soft meat.

When he turned back, mouse in his jaws, Rosepetal's entire face had fallen. The mouse carcass fell to Lionblaze's paws, and he mewed something unintelligible to get her to speak.

"It feels like the apocalypse," she said quietly. "I'm afraid that once the world ends, it won't restart again. That I'll give my body and soul to something, and when it finally pays off, I'll realize that I just paid for rubble and too many corpses to bury. I'm scared, Lionblaze." Rosepetal lifted sad eyes and found his face.

"I'm scared, too," said Lionblaze. "I'm scared that I'll be fighting for my Clan and suddenly coming face to face with you, or Ivypool, or Mousewhisker. And I don't lose." He looked up, surprised at how much of that had come out of his mouth. "If I lost, it would be easier to bear." Rosepetal's eyes were torn, her tail alert, her fur bristling, as if his nightmare was taking place in a tangible world for her, and she was expecting him to leap at her. Then she realized that his words had been that – only words – and her entire body drooped.

"How do I get out of this mess, Lionblaze?" she whispered. "Is it too late?"

"No," said Lionblaze, although he didn't know if it was true or not. "It's never too late."

He only hoped that he was speaking the truth.

XXXX

The key to getting out of the Dark Forest, it seemed, was pretending that you were still allied to the cause while doing something inherently displeasing to get you not invited back. In the days since agreeing to help Rosepetal, Lionblaze had worked himself to exhaustion. Along with his normal duties, he was doing everything he could to work with Jayfeather, Doveheart, and Rosepetal to figure out how to get out of the Dark Forest. Doveheart found out from Ivypool and Jayfeather found out from Blossomfall just how difficult it was to get out without getting yourself hurt, but Lionblaze was doing everything he could. He thought it was working. They just had to be discreet about their conversations and actions out of fear that Tigerstar would somehow see. Squirrelflight had given birth to three healthy kits – Brackenkit, Dustkit, and Runningkit – who were being doted over by Brambleclaw and the rest of the Clan. Brambleclaw had strapped a lot of his deputy duties on Lionblaze and the senior warriors in order to spend more time with his new family, which meant that very occasionally, Lionblaze would find himself arranging patrols instead of plotting out conversations with Rosepetal for the next night. Plus, Lionblaze was continually used as a liaison to their trips to WindClan, which were increasing, as WindClan seemed to be the site of most shadow-cat attacks around the lake. Then there was the time that he tried to dedicate to Bouncepaw in order to keep her from being completely alone in the Clan. All in all, it was nearly impossible to find time to sleep and keep up his battle skills and talk to Doveheart about something that wasn't the Dark Forest.

He was finding more than ever that this was a dangerous game, and it required all of the energy and time that he didn't have.

Lionblaze and Rosepetal were sitting on the side of camp, swapping information on their next move on the Dark Forest, when the sound of hissing tore his attention away from his cream-colored friend.

"Maybe that's because you're useless!" The high-pitched voice belonged to Cherrypaw. "You know what, you should just stay away from me!"

"I was just trying to help!" Lionblaze recognized the wail right away, so he was unsurprised when Bouncepaw and Cherrypaw emerged from the apprentice's den, fur bristling. "You're just jealous that I'm a better hunter!"

"Jealous?" Cherrypaw's laugh was high and nervous. "How could I be jealous of you? You're an outsider, what do you know?"

"Oh, no," said Rosepetal beside him. Lionblaze's heart was thundering in his ears as Bouncepaw recoiled, almost injured. He wanted to move, to help, then –

"Cherrypaw, that's enough." Like a flash of lightning, Icecloud had thrown herself between the two apprentices, and was staring down at her own apprentice with a cold gaze. "Bouncepaw is your Clan-mate."

"No, she's not!" cried Cherrypaw. "She's just some stupid loner! I was born here! I was raised to be a warrior, not her! It's not fair!"

"My sister gave her life for you!" screeched Bouncepaw, tears spinning from her eyes. "You don't get to decide if I become a warrior or not! I do!"

"I don't need to decide, your loner blood will – "

"Cherrypaw, you stop that right this instant!" Icecloud had never sounded so angry. Her apprentice glared back up at Icecloud and let out a scream that silenced the Clan.

"Why do you always take her side?" she yelled, and now Cherrypaw was in tears as well. "You're supposed to be my mentor!"

Icecloud took a step back, alarmed, and Cherrypaw advanced. Lionblaze saw the ginger apprentice's claws sliding out, and then he was moving across the camp to deflect the angry pounce as Cherrypaw threw herself in the direction of both Bouncepaw and Icecloud with a yell.

The ginger apprentice looked up, reeling from the impact of Lionblaze's paw and the dusty ground. He tried to remain calm.

"Icecloud is your mentor, and you will show her respect," said Lionblaze before he could help himself. "And Bouncepaw is your den-mate and your Clan-mate. This kind of behavior is unbefitting of a warrior, and if that's what you would like to do, I suggest you improve your attitude."

"Lionblaze," said Rosepetal, materializing at his side. "Let Firestar deal with this."

"Cherrypaw?" said Lionblaze, ignoring his friend. Rosepetal hissed, trying to nose him away, but Lionblaze was angry now. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Thank you, Lionblaze, but I'll handle this." Lionblaze looked up to see Firestar and Brambleclaw standing there, and he took a step back, suddenly realizing that Rosepetal was right, and that he had gone too far. "Cherrypaw, Bouncepaw is your den-mate and Clan-mate, and Icecloud is your mentor. Apologize to them."

"S-sorry, Bouncepaw," said Cherrypaw meekly, her eyes fiercely trained on her paws. "Sorry, Icecloud."

"You were angry, and I understand that," said Firestar gently. "But your anger cannot control you, especially not in such a violent way. Do you understand, Cherrypaw?"

Unable to form words out of her humiliation, Cherrypaw nodded stiffly. Lionblaze turned around towards Bouncepaw – whose tears seemed to be slowing – and Icecloud. None of this was enough – Cherrypaw needed sterner punishment for hurting Icecloud and Bouncepaw. It took a moment for anyone to move, and then Rosepetal pressed into his side.

"Let Firestar handle this," she said. "Go take a walk. You need to cool down."

Lionblaze looked at her, perplexed, but his attention was diverted by the furious movement of Icecloud as she cast one distasteful glance at him before storming out of camp.

"Icecloud," said Lionblaze, and before he could even think about his actions, he was racing after her, murmuring her name as if it were the only thing that was real.

"What do you want, Lionblaze?" He caught up to her not long afterwards, and was left to stare into her angry eyes. "There's no battle out here you can fight for me."

"I…" He swallowed hard. "You were – I mean, you are upset."

"Well-observed, Lionblaze," said Icecloud ferociously. "I wonder what could have brought that on."

"Firestar will handle Cherrypaw," said Lionblaze.

"Yeah, and who will handle Bouncepaw? Who will make sure that no one else tries to take her head off just for being born outside of camp?" Icecloud's eyes flashed dangerously. "Bouncepaw gave up everything to join this Clan, and Crouchpaw died to protect it." There were horrible tears in the corners of Icecloud's eyes now. "How could anyone live like that? She gave up her sister to ThunderClan, and it repays her by hating her."

"Things aren't fair," said Lionblaze quietly. "I want to help Bouncepaw, too. I'm sad about Crouchpaw, too." He could tell just by her body language that Crouchpaw was the issue. Crouchpaw's death was the hardest thing Icecloud had ever been forced to deal with. Hesitantly, he took a step towards her in an attempt to comfort her, but Icecloud recoiled.

"Don't come near me," she said. "I can't handle it."

"I want to help."

"Don't you think you've done enough?" Icecloud was crying now, but her voice remained surprisingly brave. She shook her head furiously, but forced herself to meet his eyes. "I could have handled Cherrypaw. You didn't have to get involved."

"She was going to hit you."

"Don't you think I can take a hit from my own apprentice?"

"I…I couldn't watch it happen." Lionblaze held her gaze until she looked away. He wanted to approach her again, but from the repulsion on her face, he knew it was probably not the best of ideas. But he couldn't help himself – he needed to be beside Icecloud.

"Stop saying you care about me like that," she mumbled. "You don't."

"Icecloud –"

"You don't!" Icecloud's hiss was insistent, and he fell silent. "If you did, then you would respect my wishes to go my own way, and you wouldn't go spend every minute of every day with any other she-cat you can get your paws on. You moved on as soon as I got boring, because that's what you've always done."

There was a lump in Lionblaze's throat that he couldn't dislodge, and he didn't know how it was showing on his face. Is that what she really thought of him?

"Don't try and deny it," said Icecloud. "First it was Doveheart, then Cinderheart, then me, and now, what? Rosepetal, too? Don't you think you've hurt enough cats, Lionblaze?" She glared at him, her eyes full of tears.

"Icecloud, stop," said Lionblaze as she tried to back away. "Icecloud, please. None of that is true. Please. Wait."

"Why should I?"

"Because I love you." It didn't matter what she thought of him. He had always thought the same things about her.

"No, you don't," said Icecloud. Her eyes were sad, but accepting. "You don't love me. You don't trust me, you don't respect me, and you don't love me."

"You don't trust me, either!" said Lionblaze furiously. That made Icecloud blink in surprise. "I told you that I wanted to tell you everything, and you thought I was lying. Even now, you think I'm going off with Rosepetal because you rejected me. Is that honestly how you see me, Icecloud? You think I made all of…all of us up?"

"I think you're a kit," said Icecloud, as his words seemed to infuriate her further. "I think you don't know what you want."

"I want you," said Lionblaze. "And I would like to believe that all of this lashing out at me is you trying to protect yourself from wanting me, but please, Icecloud, believe me."

"You don't trust me, so I can't trust you," said Icecloud. "Maybe I did love you. Maybe I still wish things could be happy again. But I'm not going to let myself love you if you don't trust me, which you clearly don't, because you – "

"I'm part of a prophecy."

Icecloud suddenly fell silent, and Lionblaze took a deep breath before continuing.

"Jayfeather, Doveheart, and I are part of a prophecy," he said quietly. "We're not…we're not normal cats. We have…abilities. Like how I never lose a battle – that's not skill, it's my power." He closed his eyes, unable to see her reaction. "The prophecy says that the three of us are the only ones that can stop Tigerstar and the Dark Forest from enacting their plan to destroy the Clans. That's where the shadow cats are coming from, and why everyone around me is in danger, because if they can get a hold of anyone that is close to me, then they can get to me and ruin me before I do the same to them."

"A prophecy." Icecloud stared at him, her jaw set. Lionblaze held his breath, suddenly realizing that he had told her, and that there was no going back. Then she tilted her head to the side, suddenly interested. "What's going on with Tigerstar? He's dead."

"You've heard the stories the elders tell, about the Place of No Stars," said Lionblaze.

"That's just a tale to keep kits from sneaking out of camp," said Icecloud, rolling her eyes. "Not that it did much good for you." Her whiskers twitched at her joke, but then she was serious again. "Are you telling me that it's real?"

"Very real," said Lionblaze. "Lately, Tigerstar has been calling cats there and training them for some big plan he has. According to some, he wants to purge the Clans of all of their…he calls them abominations. Cats born outside of the Clan, cats descended from kittypets, cats who mate with other Clans."

"That's all of ThunderClan," said Icecloud suddenly, her eyes wide. "That's Firestar and Graystripe and Cloudtail and Millie and Leafpool and Berrynose and…" She stopped, her eyes widening.

"And me and Jayfeather," agreed Lionblaze. "And practically every cat going into the Place of No Stars right now. They think that they'll be saved, but they won't. Tigerstar is going to destroy everything we know."

"And the shadow cats?" said Icecloud. "They're part of this, too?"

"We think that they're from the Place of No Stars, too," said Lionblaze. "We think that the appearance of the shadow cats means that the end is coming, and far too quickly for our liking."

"Who is we?" said Icecloud.

"Jayfeather, Doveheart, and I, mainly," said Lionblaze. "Firestar knows about all of this, too, so he's doing his best to accommodate for that."

"So peace with the other Clans, and all of those trips to help WindClan…" said Icecloud.

"Are part of his plan to prepare us for war with the Dark Forest," agreed Lionblaze.

For a long time, Icecloud didn't speak. She stared at the ground with eyes wide as the moon, unmoving. Lionblaze watched her, knowing that it was a lot to take in, but still nervous. She hadn't reacted yet to the part about him being involved, him having special powers. He was weird, and she didn't seem to realize it quite yet.

"I know it's terrifying," said Lionblaze. "Now that you know the truth, I understand if you don't want anything to do with me."

"Are you joking?" said Icecloud suddenly. Startled, Lionblaze took a step back.

"I…I'm unusual," he said. "I'm not…being with me is going to put you in danger, because they want nothing more than to destroy me. And if you're with me, then…you'll be involved. Being involved isn't fun."

"First of all," said Icecloud, "From what you're saying, it sounds like everyone is involved, and everyone is being targeted. So what – I don't have kittypet blood, so I'm going to be spared?" She stood taller, braver. "You're crazy if you think I won't fight until I'm dead to save you and everyone else they do want to target, because they're my Clan-mates. Secondly, did you really think I wouldn't want to be with you because you have special powers?"

Lionblaze shrugged, that pesky lump having reappeared in his throat. He was imagining horror, disgust, Icecloud pulling away and shaking her head and running as far away from him as possible. He was imagining her fear.

"Lionblaze," said Icecloud tenderly, and now she was approaching him. "To me, you've always been the most special and unusual cat in all the Clans. What you're telling me now is that StarClan agrees with what I've always known."

"It's not easy." His only words, and they were choked. That lump in his throat wouldn't dislodge itself. Icecloud smiled.

"I don't care."

She was brave.

"I don't want you to get hurt." Now he recognized that he was going to cry.

"I can take care of myself."

She was too brave.

"I'm afraid, Icecloud." It was all building up inside of him, ready to be released.

"I'll protect you, then. You can't go into this alone, and you can't make me leave. You trusted me with this, and I won't abandon you now." Icecloud pressed herself close to him.

He loved her too much, and she was too brave, but that was why he loved her in the first place. Finally looking up into her eyes and seeing that she trusted him brought the tears faster. Knowing that he had told her everything and knowing that he trusted her made them spill over. There, in the sunny forest, with Icecloud's tail over his back and her chin on his shoulder, Lionblaze let his first tears in moons spill from his throat and fall like sunbeams to the ground.

What would happen if he couldn't protect her? If she, by staying close to him, ended up being their very first target, and he had to watch her suffer or die simply because she loved him? Lionblaze wanted her to stay by his side forever, and he wanted her to smile up at him with those big eyes that showed their love for him and accepted him completely. He wanted Icecloud to keep him warm at night and wish him well when he went off as a liaison and stand there, fierce and proud after a battle, and walk home with him. He wanted to fight by her side and protect the Clan alongside her. He wanted one day to peer down over her shoulder and see their kits there – five perfect bundles who would one day surpass him in every way possible.

But what if he couldn't protect her?

Kind of an awful ending, I know. I couldn't figure this one out. Now I think every major character has cried. Let's see. Doveheart, Ivypool, Jayfeather, Icecloud, Cinderheart, Sunstrike, Breezepelt...oh, missing Willowshine. Still, Lionblaze has cried now! And he's all manly man, so this has been a long time coming.

Notes:

1) One thing I really hated about the canon CinderXLion pairing was how Cinderheart took Lionblaze's news of the prophecy. It was a very Cinderheart move, and that's not something Lionblaze needs. Hence the way I wrote Icecloud taking the news. I want her to be feisty - Lionblaze needs feisty. Cinderheart is sassy, but she's not the right kind of fire to match up to Lion, I don't think. My Icecloud looks out for herself, and I love her.

2) I hope everything makes sense with how ThunderClan and the other Clans are interacting. I realized like last chapter that I had skipped over a lot of the inner-Clan tensions that had been in the original outline in exchange for cute character relationship building. Which is great, but not great. I've slightly altered the plot of the next few chapters to fix things up.

3) I've screwed up with time. I meant to spend longer on Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight sorting out their issues, but it didn't work out that way. So...yeah. There are kits now. I also screwed up when Ivypool became pregnant...welp. We're either going to have a bunch of time skips or some rearranging to do in the next couple of chapters. Apologies. Here's ages: Bouncepaw (7 moons), Briarkit/Windkit (5.5 moons), Rustkit/Stealthkit/Petalkit (.5 moons), Brackenkit/Dustkit/Runningkit (newborn). Wow, Bounce and Dust were really not supposed to have that much of an age difference. Oh, well.

That's all my notes! Thanks SO much for your support, everyone! I'm hoping that this story is good and that you like it! Please let me know what I could explain more, as I've got a chance to explain most anything you want me to explain in the next couple of chapters. Let me know soon, though, because we're getting to the end game soon, so...;) it will be a fun ride.

Much of the love!

~Elsi