Summary: Halloween falls on a Gathering, and the clans get a taste of Thunderclan's mischief.

I planned on updating Ignite and then the AU Dump with the Halloween chapter but I can only give the usual excuse of motivation...

Turns out I got the timeline completely mixed up. Fires is already a warrior by the time leaf-fall rolls around, not an apprentice like he's portrayed in Halloween Magic. Oops? Funny enough, the Dark Forest battle happens in leaf-fall, so theoretically, I could make the Dark Forest battle on Halloween, though it would incredibly one-sided and Tigerstar isn't stupid enough to fight an entire clan of non-cats of which half have what is basically supernatural powers.

This chapter somewhat reflects my feelings regarding Thunder.

And ergh...speaking of... Thunder spoilers. Skip ahead please if you don't want to hear this.

Brambleboi deserves better. Even when he's not in charge, he's still getting yelled at by Squirrelflight. The Erins want to make Squirrelflight immortal and I'm sick of her stupid face. Please let her be lying about receiving lives. Ivystar can't come fast enough.

Oh and Splashtail is evil. Who could have guessed?

No one guessed that Curlfeather went to the Dark Forest though... geez

Reviews are appreciated!

Bluestar shivered, the fur along her spine rising. She could feel her pelt beginning to tingle all over, her heart beating erratically. She took a moment to take in a deep breath, attempting to calm her nerves.

There was no cold in Starclan. What she could feel was the beginnings of power starting to form around and inside her. It was a subtle change, cracks forming at the edge of her awareness. The boundary that separated Starclan from the living clans shuddered and weakened. She shivered again, but this time in excitement.

She only felt such a thing during a very specific time – Halloween.

'So soon though? I can usually feel it the night before, not nights in advance!'

"Did you feel it too?" Spottedleaf murmured, coming up from behind Bluestar to sit next to her.

"Hard not to," Bluestar replied.

Those that had taken in a charm's power had become sensitive to the changing of the season. It was akin to instinct; much like how a cat could scent, or how fish swam or how birds fly. They didn't question the sensation.

"Perhaps it has something to do with the moon's phase?" Lionheart rumbled, padding over to join them.

Spottedleaf's ears perked up. "Halloween falls on a Gathering night this time around," she realized.

Lionheart nodded. "I wonder if we can feel the barrier breaking down sooner because of the power that lays within the full moon?"

Bluestar titled her head. "Do you think the transformations will become even more powerful because of the full light of the moon?"

"I don't believe any of us have felt this way on previous Halloweens. If we're feeling the effects now, just think of what it will do to the cats that still wear a charm?" Spottedleaf meowed, whiskers twitching.

Bluestar could have cursed at the fact that she only got to enjoy Halloween once. In fact, it wasn't just her, but also her companions as well.

'All that power and grace… gone in one night. And then I died right before I could enjoy Halloween again,' she lamented. She wondered how much she would have actually enjoyed.

Back in her final moons, when she had doubted herself, her clan and Starclan, when she had finally gotten angry at Firestar for stopping a war breaking out between Thunderclan and Windclan, she had angrily ripped off the vine holding her charm around her neck and threw it at her deputy.

He had given her an affronted look.

Even with dogs loose in the forest, it hadn't stopped Thunderclan from anticipating the biggest event of the season. For Bluestar to renounce the holiday- Thunderclan's one light in the darkness they had been drowning in for a few good moons- it was no question as to why Firestar had been so angry with her that night, holding onto her charm with surprising gentleness.

Her successor loved Halloween.

But this was the first time it would held on a Gathering.

'You can't skip a Gathering lest the other clans get suspicious. But surely the whole of Thunderclan would want to keep the secret. We always considered this night ours,' Bluestar mused.

"I wonder how Firestar will handle getting through the Gathering?" she wondered.

"At the very least it should be funny. Even if they play around with the other clans, they still need to make sure to control themselves," Spottedleaf purred in mirth.

.

.

Firestar let out a shaky breath, his fur standing on end as his chest vibrated from the force of his charm's thrumming. He had been feeling the build-up in power for a few nights now, but it was only now that he felt the power start to unravel. It was the release of power he felt every Halloween which told him what night in particular it was.

The moon hadn't rose yet, but he didn't need it to be up in sky to tell him that it was full.

The full moon posed another problem.

"The clan is getting ready for the celebration," Brambleclaw reported.

Firestar huffed in agitation. "Well, they're going to have to wait unfortunately. Tonight is the Gathering," he said, whiskers twitching into a frown.

Brambleclaw stared at him a few heartbeats, before his eyes widened and he let out a curse. "Suppose we can't tell the other clans that we can't participate tonight?"

The Thunderclan leader snorted. "Sure, we'll just tell them how sorry we are that we would rather use the strange metal things around our necks to transform into different creatures because we only get to do so once every four seasons. That'll go over well."

"Yeah, we'd rather have some… fun," Brambleclaw agreed, rather glumly.

Firestar gave his deputy a once-over. Brambleclaw didn't look nearly as excited for Halloween as he thought he would be. "Upset that we have to waste half the night listening to boring old reports?"

"If we're lucky, the Gathering will be rather mundane and we can get out there quicker," Brambleclaw commented, a thoughtful look crossing his face. "But that's not the reason I'm not all that excited."

He continued as Firestar gestured for him to elaborate. "I turn into an incubus, remember? You know how Sandstorm gets after a while, being a succubus and all."

Of course, Firestar knew all too well that Sandstorm got especially needy half-way through Halloween night. Succubi needed a certain kind of stimulation that Firestar was all too happy to help his mate deal with.

'It's surprising we don't have more kits yet,' he mused idly.

"Oh," he realized, eyes wide in realization.

Brambleclaw's paws shuffled on the ground. "I don't have anyone to spend the night with," he muttered, embarrassed. "I never should have traded my charms. I should have just kept the Charm of the Tiger."

He would never ask Brambleclaw to step away from the nightly celebration by removing his charm for the night, nor could he ask someone else to trade charms with him.

"Maybe it's a good thing there's a Gathering tonight. It would take my mind off things."

'Take his mind off…?'

"Maybe you do need something to take your mind off," Firestar purred, an idea shaping in his mind. "No one said this Gathering had to be boring."

"You not thinking of-?"

"I am."

"Should we be making sure the other clans don't know of our… abilities?"

The charm hanging by his chest thrummed harder. He concentrated, and for a few moments, his paw was enveloped in a soft gold. "Just leave everything to me."

.

.

The moon stood out against the night sky, full and bright. A chilly wind blew through the Gathering island, making more than one cat fluff their fur up in protest of the cold.

Onestar gripped the branch with his claws tightly, partially because it was cold and he wanted to go back to camp, but also partially in agitation and frustration.

"Where is Firestar? He's never this late!" he growled.

Then he turned his head to growl at his companion sharing his branch. "And would you cut that out? It's getting annoying Blackstar!"

The aforementioned Shadowclan leader had been peering into the sky constantly, ears pricked and eyes darting forth between Thunderclan territory and the sky above. His tail was lashing and some fear scent was leaking off him, but not enough to alert the cats below.

Onestar didn't understand why the Shadowclan leader would show such weakness in front of anyone.

"He does this every leaf-fall, muttering about cats with wings and lions and tigers prowling around Thunderclan. Did it back in the old forest too," Mistystar commented from the branch above.

"Pathetic," Onestar muttered. "Seriously Blackstar, get a grip."

Rustling drew his attention away from the Shadowclan leader. Firestar emerged from the bushes and his warriors followed behind him. They proceeded in sync, almost perfectly. Firestar bounded up the Great Oak, smoothly and gracefully as if his paws were gliding along it.

Brambleclaw merely nodded to the other deputies as he settled beside them.

Onestar opened his mouth to chastise Firestar, before noticing an important detail.

The rest of Thunderclan didn't speak. They huddled together, staring blankly up at the Great Oak. Not one cat attempted to mingle.

It was unnerving.

Equally unnerving was Blackstar staring at Firestar like he had seen a Starclan spirit.

"Something wrong?" Firestar inquired, his body and face betraying nothing. Blackstar averted his eyes, opting to glare down at his paws.

"Just waiting on you, now we can begin," Mistystar said.

As Mistystar was giving her report, a black mist slowly arose from the corners of the clearing, edging towards the clans. Cats started looking down at their paws in confusion, glancing around the island to see it full of the mist.

Mistystar slowly stopped her report, the black mist clear to see from the Great Oak.

Three out of four leaders shivered involuntarily. Onestar swore that his heart was about to leap out of his chest. He didn't know why he was suddenly on edge.

Cats muttered and murmured as they felt the same feeling.

"Now what do we have here? Some delectable little morsels wandering about my stomping grounds?"

A black figure emerged from the mist, with large horns crowning its head and great bat wings flaring up from its back to blow some of the mist away, though it come barreling back moments later.

White, shiny teeth contrasted against the black as it grinned at them, its tongue licking around its maw.

"What is that?" Onestar whispered in fright. His paws felt like they were being weighed down.

"Now, which one of you should I devour first? I know…" Its head lifted to stare up at the leaders. "How about the delicious looking white one… then I can have the blue one as a snack for later… and use the scrawny one's bones to pick out the meat in between my teeth for later," it purred.

"What would I be?" Firestar asked it nonchalantly. The leader's eyes snapped over towards the ginger leader incredulously.

It grinned at him. "I'll keep you as my pet, forever."

Firestar nodded solemnly, as if accepting his fate.

Onestar's paws no longer felt petrified.

"Shadowclan retreat!" Blackstar's shrill yowl cracked as he bolted down the Great Oak, bounding away towards the tree bridge. The clearing thundered with multiple paws as Mistystar and Onestar called for the same.

All that was left was the shadowy figure and Thunderclan.

Firestar's pelt shook until he started laughing uproariously.

The gathered Thunderclan cats evaporated into a golden light, revealing that there had been nothing there in the first place.

Brambleclaw also snorted in amusement as the black figure disappeared. The two were bathed in a golden light as their forms melted, revealing their temporary forms for the night. Firestar glided down from the Great Oak on beautiful white wings tipped in ginger.

Brambleclaw shook out his own bat-like wings, clearing away the black mist for good.

"See what happens when you put your mind to things?" Firestar meowed.

"Yeah, I didn't know I could do that!" Brambleclaw purred. "You know we can never do this again though? We probably just broke the warrior code in multiple places."

"Halloween won't occur on a full moon again for a while, not until everyone in the clan is long dead. We'll just let them believe it was all a bad dream," Firestar said.

They could hear laughter increasing in intensity as they left the island, their clanmates having hidden in order to watch the show.

.

.

Undergrowth audibly crunched as a huge, striped paws strolled through the forest. The tiger savored the feel of grass underneath his paws, the sensation of his fur brushing against leaves and bark. The forest thinned as he approached the shore, eyeing the Gathering island with vague interest.

"Going somewhere?"

The tiger snorted, turning his head to stare at the ginger nuisance with wings staring him down, his body hovering above the water as his wings kept him airborne and out of reach.

As much as he wanted to smack the angel down and watch him flounder in the water, he didn't want any trouble on this night.

"This is the only night I get to cross over and feel powerful. I'll be out of your fur come morning," Tigerstar said uncaringly, slowly laying down on the sand, his body half hidden in the shadows. Truthfully, he just wanted to get away from Darkstripe's whining about needing blood. "Shouldn't you be at the Gathering?"

"I am at the Gathering," Firestar confirmed, gesturing his head towards the island. With the eyesight of a tiger, he could see a non-winged version of Firestar sitting on the Great Oak.

"Interesting," Tigerstar rumbled. "An illusion?"

"Astral projection. I'm currently focused on two things at once."

Then the dark mist appeared, and he got to witness all three clans run away with their tails in-between their legs.

Tigerstar chuffed. "Bravo," he conceded. "Didn't think you had it in you, kittypet."

"I try," Firestar said distractedly, whiskers twitching in amusement, sides heaving as he tried to keep his laughter in.

"Suppose this is the part where you banish me?" he asked dryly.

"Are you going to cause trouble?"

He huffed. "Darkstripe is running around trying to find blood. I don't even think he's in clan territory anymore."

"And you?"

"You won't get any trouble from me. Why bother when you can just banish me from this plane of existence?" he growled. He loathed the power Firestar had over him during Halloween.

Firestar narrowed his eyes. "Fine. But if you try to fight anyone, I'll know about it," he warned, his form flickering. He disappeared from sight as he released his astral projection.

Tigerstar merely got up, shaking out his pelt, and then prowled back into the shadows. He was intent on avoiding anyone from Thunderclan.

The only thing he wanted tonight was to feel the strength of a tiger flow through him.

Perhaps catching a mouse or ten to satisfy his hunger couldn't hurt either.

Firestar has divine insight. He can look up any answer as long as he can think it.

Hollyleaf would have fit better for the illusion bit, but currently she's stuck in the tunnels.

There was another version where I would have had Firestar share his charm with Bramble, splitting the power for them both to become angels for the night. This was scrapped; I felt incubus magic would have fitted better for what I wanted to do.

The full moon makes it so that Starclan can transform(as they are attuned with their previous charms) in their own sky instead of needing to cross into the living world in order to do so. Tigerstar just wants food. He can't get food in the DF, so he crosses over every Halloween. I have more of an explanation, but I just want to get this posted already. I had to fight myself to write this chapter. I think I hate the Starclan segment of this chapter.

Happy Halloween!

Tell me how I did.