Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors!

Title: Deep Dive

Summary: In a world where ThunderClan absorbed ShadowClan seasons ago, young warrior Weaselface is tasked to rebuild the fourth Clan and take her place as leader. But how can she betray all she's ever known and loved, all on the word of one ghost with a grudge?

Chapter Title: Wassup homeboys just gonna. Double ur Clan.

...

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Weaselstar asked.

"They're old enough to cross on their own," Pringles meowed calmly. He'd joined her on the sprint across the Thunderpath, meeting Ted and Partridge in the field. Across the way, Ice Cube was explaining the road to the kittens. "'Sides, it's late. No cars are gonna be out this late."

Weaselstar swallowed heavily. She didn't know an exact age on the kits, true, but they didn't even look four moons yet.

To her dismay, they went- not at full pelt, not even at a jog, but at a casual stroll, one following the other following the other, with Ice Cube walking beside the one at the head; Pavementkit. "'Sides," Pringles repeated, not catching on to Weaselstar's private horror, "It's kinda cute to see them trying to look like the Beetles."

Loner parenting is hardcore.

Picklekit shoved past to touch the edge of the Thunderpath first. Ae proudly puffed out aer chest to the group. "I conquered the road!"

"How do streets happen?" Pavementkit meowed, poking their head out from between aer ears. "Are they always there, do you think?"

Teddy's eyes lit up. He handed Huggy Bear to Partridge. "Oh, oh, I know! I know! It's a bunch of smelly gunk humans put down!" He waved his paw vaguely. "I knew a cat who touched some once. It left a pawprint."

"Cement," Ice Cube meowed cheerfully.

"No, that's for sidewalks. Asphalt is for roads."

Weaselstar flattened her ears. "I feel like my skull is going to explode."

"On the bright side, we're learning new words," Ratfoot muttered to her. She jumped; the warriors had been fairly quiet on the journey back, enough so she'd almost forgotten they were there. "But I grow more terrified the longer I listen."

"You wanna go on ahead?" she offered. "Tell the others how many are coming?"

Bumblestorm did a little skip and shoved Ratfoot's shoulder eagerly. "You hear that? Our first solo warrior task!"

"Of course. We'd be honored to." Ratfoot shoved her back and sprinted away, calling behind him, "Last one there's a waterlogged mouse!"

"You're on!"

By the time they managed to reach the edge of ShadowClan's trees, the two warriors were long gone, but their group wasn't alone. In the darkness, Ashpaw's gray pelt turned almost pitch against the trees as he stood and trotted over to them. In his teeth was a mouthful of soft purple flowers.

"Ashpaw!" Weaselstar meowed, surprised. She nosed her apprentice's head. "You didn't have to come out here this late."

He shrugged. "Hootpaw stayed behind to keep mom busy. It's my turn next time you do something she doesn't like." Ashpaw raised his tail in greeting to the others. "Hi! Welcome to ShadowClan!"

"Aww, look at this little gentleman," Partridge meowed, thoroughly charmed. She gently took a stem from his mouth and tucked it into her fur. "I hope everybody in ShadowClan is this sweet."

He shrugged again, ears falling half-mast. "My mom is kind of a jerk to strangers. But everyone else is nice!"

Weaselstar felt a pang at the frustration in his eyes. She knew the feeling well. She bumped her head against his shoulder and gestured to his flowers. "Want help handing those out?"

Ashpaw perked up a little. They gave each and every cat a small flower to hold or tuck away, exchanging thanks along the way. The final purple flower dangled in Weaselstar's mouth; a trinket of her adventures. Smelling faintly of a natural perfume, the group made the final leg of the journey in high spirits, meeting Fogfur and Dovefrost at the entrance to the camp.

"This is my stand-in deputy," she explained, gesturing to the white molly. "She was my mentor as an apprentice."

"Stars, there's a lot of you," Dovefrost grunted. She sighed and waved her paw. "Can't say I'm the happiest to make your acquaintance, seeing how we're gonna have to teach ya'll to hunt, but welcome to ShadowClan."

Pringles' fur rose defensively, but he said nothing.

"Most of us can hunt," Ice Cube replied firmly. "Only thing you're gonna have to teach us is manners. If you know any."

Dovefrost glared at him a moment, then rolled her eyes and padded inside. "Too old for this dung," she uttered under her breath.

"ANYWAY," Fogfur meowed, looking a bit ashamed. "I'm Fogfur. Weasel asked me to help you get settled in." She leaned in to hiss in Weaselstar's ear. "By the way, Squirrelwhisker and Dew are talking about how much of a bad idea this is. I can't tell you how terrifying it is to see them working together."

Weaselstar licked her chest fur in an attempt to look nonchalant. The warrior had a point- the two were grouchy enough on a good day, but the idea they were grouching together about her made her stomach twist unpleasantly. "Yeah, alright, got it. C'mon, everyone- I'll show you your den."

Thankfully, Squirrelwhisker didn't seem too keen on starting a fight this late at night, and simply hovered by the medicine den. She exchanged a final word with Dew before snorting dismissively and disappearing into the warriors' den. Birchfoot stopped grooming his tail by the prey pile to nod at them, looking quite awkward. Hootpaw cheerfully meowed a greeting. Weaselstar could just barely hear Adderpelt snoring as they passed the nursery. Fogfur gestured to various places with her tail and rattled off names as they went. The nice thing about having such a small Clan, Weaselstar supposed, was that there weren't many cats to stare at them.

Pinethroat buried her muzzle in Mossytooth's fur and grumbled something about them reeking of the Thunderpath. The gray and white elder laughed and said, "We probably stink like sap to them. Maybe we should all take a dip in the lake together!"

That's more positive than I expected, Weaselstar realized. Pinethroat had relaxed quite a bit from the stressed elder of a few moons ago.

By the time they reached the old leader's den, the novelty had worn off just a little. Weaselstar sighed in relief as she pushed the moss covering the den aside. "This is where you'll be sleeping while you settle into Clan life. We stocked it with new bed-"

A wad of moss hit Weaselstar directly in the nose.

She shook it off, stomach sinking at a familiar squealing. Featherkit and Honeykit were wrestling through the piles of moss in a jumbled ball of black fur, tugging on whiskers and stepping on tails. Spottedkit had rolled some into a ball and was batting it back and forth between her paws. Larkkit watched with blown pupils. Elmkit had been the one to toss the moss, cackling madly on top of the center nest.

"Kids!" she yelped, taken aback. "What are you- where's Sweetshine?"

"Makin' dirt," Spottedkit supplied.

"We just made those nests!" Fogfur complained, but her whiskers trembled with barely-suppressed laughter.

"We know," she meowed, but didn't look keen to stop batting. In fact, she made direct eye contact while she did it.

Partridge shoved her way up front with a coo. "Oh, aren't they cute! Whose are they?"

"Mine and a friend's," Weaselstar admitted, pelt hot. "Though they might end up missing some ears next time you see them."

"Nonsense. It makes the place feel more homey and lived in."

The brown and white tabby gladly settled into a loaf near the corner, watching warmly as Elmkit scooped up another ball to chuck- this time at Larkkit. Ted gingerly stepped over Spottedkit and Larkkit to drop Huggy Bear down- almost instantly, the kittens gravitated towards it, enthralled by the odd smells and color. He laughed and shot Weaselstar an I-told-you-so as he settled in. Pringles hardly seemed to notice, collapsing next to Ted and resting his chin on the ginger's shoulder. Weaselstar got the feeling he hadn't been out much since the kits came, and was more worn out than the rest of them.

"Helluva way to meet your kits," Ice Cube meowed, nudging her shoulder. "If it's cool to ask, who's the father?"

Weaselstar's claws dug into the dirt. That was the million dollar question. This is not a good time to unload that whole mess. "Adderpelt," she said finally. "He's asleep in the nursery, so you'll have to wait to meet him. Adder, Sweetshine and I are raising our litters as a big group." Weaselstar carefully pointed each one out. "The one who threw moss at my face is Elmkit. The black one digging into Ted's fur to get at his flower is Featherkit, and the black one trying to rip Huggy Bear from Elmkit is Honeykit, he's the only tom. Larkkit's the one chewing on her own tail."

"I 'ave an i'ch!" Larkkit defended herself around the fur.

"Gremlins, the lot of him," he said, grinning cheekily.

"Bone cat babies!" cried Picklekit, stomping none-so-politely over Ted and Pringles to be muzzle-to-muzzle with Elmkit. She let go of Huggy Bear, unintentionally sending Honeykit into a sprawl. "You're a lot smaller than the other cats."

Elmkit narrowed her eyes at aer. "That's how kittens work, mouse-brain."

Kitkatkit padded over to stand beside her sibling, tail sticking up. Despite the full moon of an age difference, she didn't look perturbed. "You aren't so tough. We beat a road!"

"So what? We've beaten lots of roads!" Honeykit snapped, then leaned in close to Spottedkit to whisper. "What's a road?"

"Probably a kittypet thing," she said. Spottedkit glanced up as Pavementkit padded in. "You smell like flowers, but fake."

"I like flowers," he replied, a bit hurt. "It's not my fault the only ones we got in the trash can have perfume on them."

"Oh," she meowed, then looked back at her moss, feeling awkward. "Well, we don't do that here, so... you're welcome?"

"I'm sleeping on Huggy Bear if I have to skin every single cat in this room and then myself," Clockkit announced, casually strolling further inside.

Weaselstar snorted and looked at Ice Cube. "You were saying?"

"We were made to be friends," he replied, then gestured for her to go inside. "Leader's first."

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay! I was trying to decide what all interactions I wanted to have in the single night. I felt it best for Squirrelwhisker to go stew in her juices a bit, bc I feel like after talking to Hootpaw she'd be all like "FINE I guess NO ONE cares what I think" and sulk for a bit. This will not last, of course lol.

Next chapter is gonna be primarily set in-camp, and miiight lead up to a flashback? I'm not entirely sure yet.

-Mandaree1