A/N: Wow, I didn't see that I forgot to actually edit this chapter before I left it out, well thank god highlighting doesn't show up on FanFic or else the story would be wrecked ;)
"Hollyleaf, I have come to give you your eighth life."
The black cat was stunned, but found her voice. "Thank you, Ashfur."
The grey cat in front of her dipped his head in acceptance. His blue eyes were completely at ease, so different than when she had last seen him in life, when he had tried to fend off the black cat that excelled in battle skills. His silvery coat, speckled with grey, was unruffled, untouched by the wind, ash or environment in general. "Hollyleaf, how good to see you again," He murmured, whiskers twitching slightly. "Especially because the last time I did see you, you were creeping over a rock and plunging your claws into my neck." He mewed smoothly.
Hollyleaf flinched backward, her ears lowering slowly in shame. "I'm sorry Ashfur, I was confused and you were going to make my life so much worse…"
"So that gives you the right to end mine?!" Ashfur suddenly snarled in her face, fur bristling. "I was only going to reveal the truth, and from what you were just saying, you wanted that, right? No more secrets in the Clan?" His tail lashed and the StarClan cats in the circle became perturbed, Brambleclaw had a growl rising in his throat that Firestar quickly hushed. It seemed that this act also made the StarClan cats that had not been seen before fretful, as they began materializing silently in the air, a cloud of stardust that masked definite details. "You can't be StarClan, Hollyleaf. You don't choose who dies, and who lives. All you get to choose is who hurts in your life."
"Like how you wanted to ruin Firestar? That's why you wanted to get close to my family, right?" Hollyleaf grew defensive, though she was still crouched in guilt. She was sorry that she killed him. It ate at her every day, why couldn't he forgive her?
"I loved Squirrelflight. She didn't love me back." He swung around to the ginger she-cat. "You played with my heart. You didn't care how it ruined my life or anything of my feelings. You were just trying to make Brambleclaw jealous."
"This isn't the place to discuss this, Ashfur." Squirrelflight mewed hotly, her tail thrashing. "Anyways, it wasn't I who went after you. You started courting me after I fought with Brambleclaw. All I wanted was a friend, and you seemed happy to fill that role. I didn't want anything more."
"Ashfur, you didn't come here to kick up old quarrels, did you? You came here for something else." Brambleclaw said pointedly, shooting a glance from Ashfur to Hollyleaf.
"Oh right," Ashfur's mood switched quickly back to respectful, completely untroubled by the argument he just had with Squirrelflight in front of all of StarClan. The black she-cat's hackles lifted slightly, wary of the sudden change. Though the toms' eyes were kindly, she sensed something broken about him. Something unnatural. She shivered as he touched her nose, and a life flowed into her, bitter and black as sludge. "Hollyleaf, I came here to give you a life of Revenge…" Shocked whispers filled the air around them; a negative trait was never given to any leader during a ceremony, not even to Tigerstar. "But…" He mewed, looking at the StarClan cats with an edge of contempt in his tone. "I figured that since you already had yours, it's my turn." Before any of the cats could react Ashfur spun and kicked Hollyleaf, still reeling from the life, to the ground. A swirl of ash almost hid him completely as he launched himself straight at Firestar, a snarl ripping across his features.
A single shooting star blinded everyone for seconds and then there was Spottedleaf, standing in front of him. Ashfur had aimed correctly, straight for the ginger leader's throat, but now there was a new obstacle in his way. A look of shock registered on the gray cat's face before it turned back into a mask of hatred and he ripped into the tortoiseshell's neck. She fell on her side, then scrambled to get to her paws as Ashfur landed on top of her, and began ripping into her again and again, a white-blue liquid steaming out onto the dead ground in a cloud. There was a sudden mess of activity, a few cries of horror and outrage, but Hollyleaf couldn't make out exactly what was going on. It ended with Firestar lying next to Spottedleaf as her pelt twitched shakily, Ashfur was snarling, but pinned under a muscular white tomcat.
"Spottedleaf," Firestar murmured quietly, and the she-cat breathed something in response, something that Hollyleaf didn't hear. She was too far away, and could only watch as her grandfather shoved his head into the old ThunderClan medicine cat's fur. She shuddered beneath him and went still, her tail tip flutter and went still. A low howl of mourning came from a dark gray she-cat with leopard-spot markings and a silvery one with blue eyes comforted her. Both cats looked pretty old- at least a couple generations back from the Lake. Another tortoiseshell tomcat also stood by the grieving she-cats, his red bushy tail flicking back and forth. StarClan itself seemed shocked, the cats that had formed the circle around Hollyleaf had scattered, she felt alone in this landscape as the cloud of ancestors thickened around the tortoiseshell's body.
"Hollyleaf," A voiced breathed in her ear, and she turned slowly to see the silhouette of a very familiar cat. "Fallen Leaves!" She mewed and turned, some happiness piercing the shock of what she had just witnessed. A few cats turned to give her a sharp glance as they mourned the passing of Spottedleaf, whose body began appearing, becoming solid. The StarClan cats didn't seem disturbed or surprised about this but grim as the cat slowly became more real, and as it happened, the cat's body seemed to sink through the ground, the stardust-and-mist landscape too light to hold a real death. A gray she-cat with bright blue eyes- Cinderhheart?!- stood next to Firestar, her head bowed with silent grief.
"Hollyleaf, look at me." Fallen Leaves whispered again, and the black she-cat turned and bumped her nose against the ginger spotted tom. His green eyes poured into hers, and the ThunderClan cat found she was unable to move. "Hollyleaf, with this life, I give you Sacrifice. Use it to do what is best for your Clan, even at the expense of yourself or your image." The power that rushed through her was bitter sweet, the idea of dying in battle, speaking up for a scared apprentice, going into the tunnels, even when he was not ready, to make his mother happy. Lying to Rock so that he could continue, and then perishing in the waters below the surface… "This was not a lesson that I heeded at the end of my life," the white cat mewed quietly as he broke the bond they had and looked down and away from her.
"Fallen Leaves, I hate to ask, but does your life count?" Hollyleaf doubted the power of The Ancient cats, even though Fall Leaves had talked her through seasons in the tunnels, and guided her back to the Clans when she had left StarClan's sights.
"I'm pretty sure that it counts," Fallen Leaves said, then chuckled lightly but immediately sobered. "Ashfur's did not. I am your ancestor, just from a different time. Thank you for your time with me, but I have a feeling we won't meet again." The white and ginger cat began to fade from Hollyleaf's sight, and she spun to face him. "Fallen Leaves, I'm never going to forget you. You'll live with me for as long as I live," she promised feverishly to the rapidly dissipating image of her best friend. "I will tell my children, my Clan about the cats that walked the tunnels, which lived here before we did, you will not be forgotten." She was smiling by the time she was done, and she watched Fallen Leaves nod slowly, a smile creeping across his features. But then the kind tomcat was gone, with nothing but a glimmer of stardust and one more life in Hollyleaf's leadership.
The other StarClan cats were still clustered around the spot that Spottedleaf fell. The white tom that had been holding Ashfur down had let him up, and was now accompanied by a few other broad-shouldered toms. Hollyleaf's resentment for the tom leapt up again at the sight of him, and she snarled nastily at his proud stance. She didn't know Spottedleaf at all, but she had defended Firestar, and the way her leader had looked at her spoke great lengths.
"Banish him!"
"No! Kill him!"
"Yes! Kill him so that he can't join the Dark Forest!"
The StarClan cats were in a riot, spitting at the gray tom that had betrayed them.
"Make way, make way!"
From out of the crowd, four figures stepped forward. Though they seemed as old as time itself, the stars in their pelts were bright and the details of their pelts seemed almost tangible. Hollyleaf could sense that she was in the presence of very old cats, and she was quite right. The massive ginger tom with white paws in the front was Thunder, the long-haired silvery tom beside him was River; behind them, a wiry brown she-cat named Wind, and a small, black she-cat named Shadow. These were the Ancients, the ones who started the Clans all the way back in the forest lands. They brushed through the groups of brightly lit, newer StarClan cats, making no sound at all as they approached Ashfur. The traitorous tom flinched away from the legendary cats, his blue eyes wide, as were most of the other cats. It seemed that the First cats didn't show themselves too often at all, not even in StarClan.
"What happened here," Wind spoke quietly, staring directly at Ashfur, though she didn't expect him to answer.
"Ashfur came here under the guise of giving the new ThunderClan leader a life. Then turned and killed Spottedleaf." A black tom growled, keeping his eyes on the gray cat in question before spitting at his feet.
The large orange tom, Thunder, nodded gravely. "There has been much killing today, but we hoped that the threat would not touch StarClan itself. Then the Dark Forest cats broke in through the spiritual boundaries, and we were at war. We do not need our own cats fighting against us though."He turned to his associates, orange eyes dark. "How could we not see this coming?"
"You forgot, when you allowed me to come here," Ashfur spat, though his voice wavered just a bit. "I tried to kill Firestar earlier, with the help of Hawkfrost. I thought you all fools for thinking that I was truly reformed and had abandoned my motives."
"Then it is clear," Shadow hissed, her dark eyes gleaming like the stars in her pelt. "The traitor has pleaded guilty. What is his punishment?" The cats around her hissed their own opinions, though no one would raise their voices above a whisper in fear of angering the First cats. "I vote death." River said bluntly, his normally silver tongue failing him as it seemed the answer needed no conviction.
Wind nodded her head in ascent as well, and though Thunder looked startled that his companions had voted so blatantly, and turned his massive head to look back at the brown she-cat, and next to him, the long-haired tom. "I vote banishment. To the Mist World."
Shadow inhaled sharply at his shoulder, and River shook his head. "That is too cruel for any cat."
Hollyleaf looked at Thunder, whose ears flickered back and forth. "The Mist World is a form of eternal torture for souls- they do not go to the Dark Forest, neither StarClan. They wander on- from what we can tell- an endless white plane until even their memory ceases to exist. There have only been a handful of cats that have been sent there; only for terrible crimes. Toms who force themselves onto kits. Leaders who turn their Clans into war machines, killing generations. Tigerstar should've been sent there, but… we had hopes that he would learn his lesson in the Dark Forest. But obviously anyone who could let their feelings of revenge fester, and then kill a member of StarClan themselves has committed a terrible crime… which is why I believe that this Ashfur should be sent there."
Shadow was slow to respond, but she eventually also nodded. "A crime is not equaled with another crime, even if it is the same. This is more humane…" She hesitated and didn't finish her sentence, just nodded. River looked like he was hedging now, as if he hadn't thought of the option before. "Maybe…"
"My Clan has wandered and been driven out multiple times, I know how cruel traveling alone can be." Wind mewed, her tail lashing.
"River… If you vote yes, that is majority." Thunder turned to the cat, who closed his eyes as if in pain. At last, he nodded his head and slowly twisted his ears back, as if he could block out the criticism that was surely going to come from Wind or anyone who supported her; but the air was dead with silence. No one spoke as Thunder rest his tail on Winds' shoulders and yet the wiry she-cat didn't look at him; though she didn't walk away openly, her head turned away.
Shadow stepped forward, her eyes glittering but emotionless as she stared at the guilty tomcat before her. She regarded him for a moment before murmuring quietly, "We banish you. You are not welcome here anymore. You will walk the empty paths of the nowhere land until your memory fades and your earthly bones turn to dust." And with that, the gray cat vanished with nothing left but a pile of dark ash in his stead. Shadow looked toward Hollyleaf, and the rest of StarClan that had appeared during the dark event, and nodded vaguely. "Carry on with your business."
The Founders of the four Clans leapt up into the sky, Wind still walking a bit away from the others. Once they were akin to the height of the treetops, River turned back to the crowd. "To me, StarClan! We fight for our holy grounds, and there will be much more sacrifice to come."
Hoards of starry cats leapt up past Hollyleaf, the amount of stardust falling gave the illusion of snow in the desiccated forest. When she turned and blinked, only one figure remained standing with her on the forest floor. Leaves crackled under his paws as he approached, and gently touched noses with the black cat.
"With this life, I give you Hope. Use it in the darkest times, when all seems lost and the future is bleak. Use it to bolster your Clan and make them into strong warriors." Brambleclaw meowed solemnly, his amber eyes shining gently with compassion. Hollyleaf barely felt the life rush into her through the fierce emotions of her adopted father. He believed that ThunderClan was strong, that they would survive this terrible battle. And she did too. He stepped away from her, but still regarded his daughter with the same kindness. "I hope that I was a good father. Even after you revealed the truth, it didn't stop me from loving you and your brothers."
Hollyleaf hesitated, and then pushed her nose into his shoulder. "I love you too, father." She mewed.
The tender moment was broken in heartbeats as a voice called the dark tabby away, into battle. Before he left, he looked straight at Hollyleaf with clear eyes. "This is the part where I'm supposed to tell you your old life no longer exists. But it does, and it affects you even now. I hail you by your new name, Hollystar. Live long and lead your Clan to the fullest of your extent." As her father leapt away into the air, it seemed that even the wind whispered her new name. Hollystar looked up as her father joined Squirrelflight, standing just above her with a small smile. Together, they shot off across the stars, leaving the newly-named leader alone in the clearing. With renewed energy, she leapt to her feet and flew through the forest until it blurred to darkness in her vision and she found herself waking up at the side of the Moon pool.
A.N: Dawwww... Hollystar Brambleclaw moment! Anyway, I also made the next chapter tonight so I'll be letting that out momentarily, sorry for the wait!