The scent had been so light Mira could have mistaken it for an injured animal or the remnants of another's hunt. But she had known getting close to such a thing without being detected would have been odd. The scent had also been following her through the night and into the orange glow of morning. Mira might not have cared, but Proxima had told her the twoleg hiking trail she would navigate forbade drones from functioning. She had been alone, but the pursuit had carried no danger. Only curiosity.

Mira opened her graying muzzle and took in scents: purple and white columbine flowers covering the sides of the trail, a tangy out-of-place pine tree to her left, fresh water from the valley lake below, and that unmistakably rusty blood following her. She was sure a cat held the scent, and she had a good guess as to who. But he had masked himself well enough to make himself unfamiliar. Mira's legs were covered in mud from the morning's journey, but his was deliberate. In fact, his whole pursuit had been sloppy. She decided to turn the tables on him, waiting until she was near a twoleg warning sign to dart into the brambles surrounding the pine tree. She unsheathed her claws and half closed her eyes.

Mira pounced when he drew close, but her long fur snagged on a bramble and she fell into the path. Her pursuer was spooked and rushed through the brambles. She almost warned him of the sharp turn behind the pine tree since the twoleg path bordered a cliff. But thankfully, he stopped. He knew he could either flee or fight, of which he did neither. Mira yowled and leapt back into the bramble. She barely missed the tom, but he snagged his leg. She had a second chance.

"Got you!" Mira shouted as he charged through the brambles. She barreled into the tom and grappled his shoulders. But he was clever, thrusting to the side and flipping her over his back. Before Mira could stand, the mystery tom had pounced her. He snarled best he could and scared her for a few heartbeats. He pulled back and folded his ears when he realized this. Mira caught his familiar scent this close. The blood was just the remnants of a morning meal, but his tan fur and brown-tipped tail were all too familiar. "Farstrider?"

The tom leapt off Mira and darted from the brambles. He never looked back to see he had no chance in outrunning her. Mira tackled him through a patch of low-hanging columbine that had grown in the path. She held her claws close to his pinned head, keeping one of her hind legs over his belly. There was an orange collar under the mud covering his neck. Her ear tips grew hot when he made an awkward smile. She sighed and got off him.

"It is you, Farstrider. Why are you following me?"

Farstrider bent his graying muzzle towards his chest, halfway between being embarrassed and sorry. "It's kind of disturbing, isn't it? I'm very sorry. I should've just called your name."

Mira didn't like seeing him hurt, so she gently rested a paw on his shoulder. "If I'd known it was you, I might've even let you catch me. Did you stop to eat?"

"Oh, I caught a rabbit before I left, er, followed you…. Where's Proxima? I actually had something for her." Farstrider cleared the mud from the collar. It had a glowing dot embedded in the squishy material. "You used this to get into that twolegplace the strays from last night couldn't. It seems pretty important."

"I only needed it for that specific twolegplace," Mira said. "You followed me out this far for that?"

"Yes?" Farstrider smiled as intentionally awkward as possible.

Mira chuckled and motioned him to follow. "Well, since you're already out here, I could use some new company. Drones are forbidden or whatever from this valley, so I'll need a strong tom to help fend off those… whatever's down there."

"I'll be the first Star Covenant visitor in many rotations," Farstrider said. "With how quickly you took me down, I should be the one asking you for protection."

"You surprised me with that flip," Mira giggled. "I am a good bit larger than you. And, you said it yourself one time, you're not much of a warrior."

The senior tom licked his chest in embarrassment. "I guess you remember how I told you my sister chose to hunt me for her warrior-rah initiation."

"And how mad she got when you managed to hide that whole night," Mira chuckled. "I remember a lot about you."

For a while, the two cats walked quietly in each other's company. The purples and whites of low-hanging columbine made the air slightly sweet. It mixed well with the fresh water from the valley, which both stopped to look at. On the bank of the small lake, a massive herd of deer grazed and bathed. Some were too young to even walk gracefully. The adults kept them away from the lake.

Sitting near the edge of the cliff, amid the flowers and in good company, released tension Mira didn't know she'd had. He snuck a glance at him every time he did to her. She knew her vision was much better than any other cat, and that Farstrider couldn't see as much of the herd as she could. But watching it, especially their little ones, made her forget Proxima was ever in her company. That it had always been her and Farstrider. And, in the future, it always should be.

"So," Mira said, continuing along the path, "you already know what I'm doing out here. Where's Farstrider heading next?"

"To search this valley," he said, waving his paw over the forest below. "We have lost contact with our branches between here and the Yaga District borders. Last I was here, I met a tom named Rush in the foothills beyond the valley. But that was when I was a very young tom."

"Oh no," Mira said. "That doesn't sound good."

"Maintaining contact between branches this far is hard. Hopefully they just moved when some part of the ringworld grew sour. I was hoping Proxima could help me search."

"Good luck," Mira scoffed. "She won't do anything unless it gets us closer to freeing the ringworld from the sun."

"But your goal of returning StarClan to their rightful place in the sky is noble. Probably the most sane and insane thing any cat could be doing right now."

"Sometimes I just need a break from it all. We've been moving faster and faster ever since we left the Ninki Nanka District. Recently, it's been a bit much."

"That was back when you were with the Yonder tribes, over fifty rotations ago. A long time to keep a brisk pace."

"On and off, of course. I miss talking to others the way I used to. With how often we've run into each other since then, I think you might be one of the only friends I've ever made. Though I don't think 'friend' is the right word, with what happens every time we do meet."

The senior tom licked his chest and stared into the valley. "The Star Covenant teaches a little selfish indulgence is good for your sanity. Especially for wanderers."

"I might have to take you up on that," Mira said, brushing the tom's shoulder. "This path goes on for a while, and Proxima expects me at the edge of the valley forest by tonight. I wish I could warn her she'll need to find enough food for two."

Farstrider's ears perked up. "We aren't separating?"

"Well, you did spend the better half of this morning stalking me," she chuckled.

His ears folded right back down. "Yeah."

Mira rested a paw on his shoulder. "We've bumped into each other so many times, you'd think StarClan themselves set it up…. I'm serious. We separate when we have to and come back to each other. Who knows where it might go this time?"

Farstrider had opened his mouth, but all he had managed was a warm smile and a gentle nod. He had licked Mira's cheek and had walked closer than before. Mira had felt her ears grow warmer as they had continued their trek. They had spent the entire day remembering how comfortable they had always been around each other. They had gone from morning to evening making terrible progress. Not one bit of it had felt like a delay to either as the gentle breeze and pleasant scents had made both surrender to each other's company.

O O O

"Um, I need more help."

Mira turned from the window to see Lilii Borea still struggling to put on an egg-white bodysuit. A mechanical arm extending from the wall was ready to pull it over her bobbed tail. The suit, clearly made for medium-sized dogs, was too short for her long hind legs. Faypaw was holding one of them down. Mira held the other while the mechanical arm forced the suit over her thighs and, after a few adjustments, it began tightening itself against her body.

"Thank you, ma'am," Lilii Borea sighed.

"Mind your claws," Mira said. "The suits were made for duller ones."

"I don't think I could unsheathe them if I tried."

She stayed under the mechanical arm as it began wrapping a black vest around her back. Faypaw was holding it in place from the underside, himself and Mira already dressed in them. The stone walls had several silverwood cutouts where arms could protrude, each marked in warning-red twoleg scribblings. Dozens of sets of descending staircases and see-through walls broke up the never-ending hallway. In one direction, outside, were the distant spires of Harc, marked by several long silverpaths circling and leading to the group's unassuming location. The curvature of the ringworld and the sunrise was barely visible amidst harsh local light.

In the other direction lay the desolate Shattered District. Decorative trees that once made up a garden were withered to their tree trunks and shined like bronze. The fountain they bordered held water petrified in time, no doubt poisoned by many rotations of stagnation and exposure. Chunks of the ground floated, growing larger and larger the closer they got to the horizon until the ringworld itself broke apart. Its usual curvature instead warped straight up like a spire. Even the air itself was without so much as a spec of life.

"My Stars." Dovewhisker appeared atop an ethereal boulder out of earshot of the others. Mira approached, pretending to look for a better view. "And I thought twolegplaces during the Great Sky War looked dead. Your world is just a whole bunch of extremes, isn't it? And this is what you've been working towards?"

Mira nodded, still in awe over how lifeless it was up close. "Yeah," she said nervously.

The StarClan medicine cat leapt from her boulder and stood next to Mira. She rested one of her paws on her shoulder, but it did nothing to put her at ease. "I don't know if Fleetheart told you this or not, but thanks for what you're doing. I don't comprehend one bit of how this is possible, or if it is, but I—"

"Promise me something," Mira whispered, cutting off Dovewhisker. The medicine cat leaned close. "Please protect my kit. Something will probably happen to me first. If it does, guide my kit out of this place. Can you do that for me? Even if you can't, like with Rush, just say you can."

Dovewhisker felt Mira's shoulders trembling as she kept her eyes on the dead expanse before her. She thought of something to say, something clever, something calming, but settled on a nod and a brush over her back. "I think I needed you more than you needed me."

When Mira turned to thank Dovewhisker she vanished, along with some of her dread. But it resurfaced right away when she looked at Faypaw teasingly jabbing Lilii Borea as she was lowered into a puffy exterior shell. She had no idea what it would be like in the shattered section of the ringworld she had stared at her whole life. And neither did Proxima. That scared her most.

"Mira, I need to explain a few things." Hidden chatter holes seemed to produce more static than Proxima's voice. The senior molly padded to the mechanical arm. It gently lifted her as the two young cats pushed the final outermost shell under her. It popped and hissed for a heartbeat, inflating to stand on its own. "Drones and sensors do not work beyond this building, so a special program will be loaded into each of your suits. Stand near the command center's central control system and it will do the rest. From there, I should be able to remove the Shattered District from Skhul Terra's vicinity."

All three winced at something jabbing the back of their necks. "What was that?" Lilii Borea hissed.

"A microchip to allow the suit to monitor your vital functions. Among other things, like what cats call 'making dirt,' the suits will provide sustenance for up to three days. I trust you to be protected from the worst of it, but nothing can be done about the low gravity, lightheadedness, and quicker exhaustion. The air is breathable, but presumably noxious. Sometimes you will need to hurdle impossible distances and you will be able to. Objects will appear and disappear from your vision no matter how close you get. The color of the sky and direction of Ajax will not help you navigate or tell time. And, if you are injured, I may not be able to help you."

Mira was finally lowered into her suit, the back melding together and compressing to roughly match her physique. A see-through dome inflated around all three of their heads and hardened, Lilii Borea tapping hers in awe. Each of their suits had a raised spine with a handle, marked in a highly reflective orange. Faypaw was looking at a patch on the side of the lynx's suit that wasn't on the others depicting a twoleg thunderstick and the ringworld. Mira took a deep breath and tried getting all her panic out before the suits' internal chatter holes clicked on and the others could hear her.

"You're going to be a hero!" Faypaw mewed.

A green arrow was projected onto the see-through dome that stayed in the same direction no matter where they looked. Proxima tied a long rope around each of their torsos in a way they could slide it on and off if they needed to jump. Despite how nervous and excited the adolescent cats were, they heeded Proxima's warnings about conserving their strength and kept quiet. Mira took the lead with Lilii Borea in the back. The moment they left the twoleg structure her guardian's voice was cut, leaving her to lead her kit and a stranger through the intimidating expanse. Dovewhisker materialized next to her and nodded, knowing Mira wouldn't respond.

The trio felt fine for a while. Faypaw and Lilii Borea even claimed to feel better than fine, at different points each taking the lead to help Mira up a cliff. They were astonished they could walk straight up it and leap so far. Lilii Borea almost floated away, the other two pulled her down with the tether. From then on, they let Mira stay in the lead. They all felt the first of Proxima's warnings by midday. Lilii Borea vomiting and getting a bloody nose let them rest while the suit cleared her vision. The bloody noses were regular eventually with Mira suffering least frequently but drawing panic from the others whenever she did. She thanked the Stars her leg sleeves continued the micro adjustments that let her walk, but were far less effective. If not for the lower gravity, she would've collapsed moments after leaving.

The Shattered District lived up to its name, with enormous chunks and grains of sand floating endlessly in all directions. The twoleg structure they left from vanished amidst a sea of beige and heat waves. Whispers and throaty hums were all the noises her suit brought from the outside. They walked up cliffs and casually strode high dunes. Sometimes the ground felt like sand and sometimes like mud. Some chunks of floating earth exposed the underground tubes of the ringworld and the layers of soil and silver atop them. Her paws had grown numb from walking, even with frequent breaks, blood pooling at their bottoms instead of flowing through her. Turning her head sideways immediately made her dizzy, but she always looked back at the others occasionally. Lilii Borea propped up her sagging head when she realized she was being watched.

"You okay, Lilii Borea?" Mira said.

"Yes, ma'am," she responded, her exhausted voice clear through Mira's dome. "Just a bit tired is all."

Faypaw kept his eyes on her. The lynx seemed to be taking it poorly and Mira wondered if she could keep up. When she faced forward, a large tube bathed in heat waves was hovering over that hadn't been there before. She would have marched right off the cliff she approached if not for grains of black sand feathering out into a gradient. Parting them, the sky below went from hazel to black and separated her from another chunk of the ringworld by several tree-lengths. She shook the tether from her belly and waited for the others to catch up. "We'll need to jump again. And it's a long one."

A tree-length below, on the cliff, was a ledge she could jump from to better aim at the other side. Heat emanated from the bottom so intensely she could feel it through the cool air her suit supplied. The others could, too, more put off by it than Mira.

"The floating black sand is a bit ominous," Lilii Borea said.

"It also means it's safe to jump down, and the arrow hasn't changed directions," Mira said. Be sure to stay upright when you do. You can't twist wearing these suits."

Mira slid from the edge of the cliff and slowly floated to the small ledge. She took a deep breath, oriented herself, and leapt across the chasm. She tried not to look down or up, already confused at the sky going in two different directions, and landed with a thump on the other side. She collapsed as her sleeves reoriented themselves and compressed.

"You look really tired." Mira heard Faypaw, but was far enough to only differentiate the two.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Lilii Borea panted her words and prepared to leap to the small ledge just like Mira.

"Why wouldn't I worry? Proxima said this place was dangerous."

"I'm still alive, aren't… aren't I?"

"You threw up after we all got sick."

She rested her paw on Faypaw's see-through dome. Mira could barely see Lilii Borea step towards the cliff, parting the sand screen floating in front of her. She held a deep breath as she fell to the ledge and landed in a yowl of pain. "Gah! My leg!"

Mira's fur shot up. She could see Faypaw peering over the ledge and holding his paw out. "What's wrong?" Mira shouted.

"My foreleg is broken. I can feel it—" She grunted for a while. "It's moving!"

"Hold still. The suit is trying to brace it." Mira heard the lynx whimpering on the ledge for a while. She waited until her breathing slowed a bit. "Can you jump?"

"I think so."

"Good. Faypaw, be ready to grab her when she jumps to you."

Faypaw reached his front paws as far down as he could manage in the suit. Lilii Borea reared up and jumped, floating up the ledge as fast as she fell. Her dome clanked against his as he wrapped his paws around her torso before she flew too high. They both tumbled out of Mira's view.

"How did it break?" Faypaw said. "I saw you jump down. You fell just as slow as Mira."

"I'm sorry, ma'am," Lilii Borea sighed. "I'm sorry."

"It isn't your fault," Mira said, shaking her head. "You're heavier than me. Maybe the effects of this place are different on you." She could feel blood trickling down her nose again, its scent newly potent against the dry blood already there. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah." She could hear Lilii Borea grunting.

"Then start heading back. If you go the exact opposite direction of the arrow, you should make it back to the twolegplace. Faypaw, go with her."

"What?" she heard him mew.

"Make sure Lilii Borea gets back safely and wait for Proxima." She didn't hear a response, but waited. Her focus returned on the blood dripping upwards towards the top of her dome. "Faypaw? Do you hear me?"

"Can you make it back by yourself?" Faypaw said, parting the sand and peering over the ledge.

"Yeah," Lilii Borea said.

"Can you really?"

"Yes. Help her finish this, Faypaw. It's why you went with her in the first place."

Before Mira spoke, Faypaw already leapt to the ledge below with the tether around his hips, bracing himself before jumping towards her. Mira sighed, but was relieved she wouldn't have to travel alone. Dovewhisker materialized and started inspecting the suit. Faypaw tumbled softly nearby, kicking up a mass of slow-floating black sand.

Faypaw approached to retie the tether. "I know you didn't want me coming in the first place. But I can't sit back after everything I know about what you're doing just because it's a little dangerous." He dusted himself off and cleared his throat. Lilii Borea was looking over the cliff. "I can't leave her alone in a place like this. I'm sorry I have to do so for you."

"You're not leaving me," Lilii Borea said nervously. "You're doing what you set out to do in the first place. Good luck, ma'am. Good luck, Faypaw. You'll come back to me, right?"

"Of course." The two cats stared at each other as tiny dots. Dovewhisker sighed happily as she heard Faypaw's purring. He cleared his throat and instinctively tried brushing his ears when Mira pulled on the tether for them to keep moving. "Right. We can't linger in a place like this."

Mira chuckled a little with Dovewhisker. Lilii Borea's silhouette disappeared from the cliff's edge, her tired voice also clicking off as she left the range of the suits' chatter holes. She didn't have to look back at her kit to realize how hard it was for him to hear her struggle while leaving her alone on the ledge, but was thankful the adolescent lynx was still in high spirits. Dovewhisker's coos turned into concerning hums as she inspected the back of Mira's head.

"I know you won't respond," she said, "But the fur behind your neck is falling out. Your kit's has already done so. I also see lesions on both of you. This place is doing something to you I've never seen from any illness or injury."

Mira's eyes were wide, more concerned for Faypaw than herself. She had only noticed the more prominent annoyances of the bloody noses and lightheadedness. A flick of her ears made her realize the fur behind them was thinning, too. She was horrified to think the same or worse was happening to her kit. Proxima never mentioned anything like it. She motioned for him to stay at her side.

"Your nose is bleeding," Faypaw said.

"Yeah. Yours, too." Mira barely managed to keep her tone even. Her heartbeat raced when she saw the bald lesions on Faypaw's neck for herself. He hadn't noticed them, but she only felt things would get worse from there.

The day went on and nothing got easier. Mira was holding back her panting best she could to keep her kit's mind at ease. Ceaseless rays of light and heat assaulted them to the point where their suits couldn't keep them cool anymore. Light seemed to pour in from everywhere but the sky. Even the black sand beneath her paws felt bright. The top of her see-through bubble was blocked by dry blood, which the suit no longer expended precious energy to clear. Dots of it occasionally crossed her vision and blocked her view of several perfectly aligned blue cubes floating in the sky. They reminded her of the fresh water being injected into her body. She desperately wished it could trickle down her throat, instead.

An uncomfortable weight was building at the top of Mira's belly. She couldn't feel air from the suit blowing behind her ears anymore. Her sleeves were compressed around her legs and compensated for her lopsided walk. Faypaw hadn't said a word since leaving Lilii Borea. Light glared from his bubble dome and obscured his face. Dovewhisker joined and left periodically, with Mira left to assume this place could somehow even affect StarClan.

Nothing had changed about their surroundings except their orientation and the color of the sand from black to gray. Sections of the shattered ringworld still floated all about with no end or pattern in sight. After a while, they stumbled upon a twoleg structure, appearing in their vision only when they were close. The monolithic black spire seemed like it may provide reprieve from the hellish light and heat. It was a tad bit off from the green arrow and Mira had no way of gauging how far it truly was from their path. Then Faypaw collapsed.

"Faypaw!" Mira's dome clinked against his and triggered an aggressive warning beep from inside her suit. "Tell me what's wrong. Where does it hurt?"

"It's everything," the adolescent tom grunted as he struggled to get up. "I don't get it. It's all just so sudden."

Mira brushed a paw against his suit. Most of the fur around his head had fallen out, and she could only imagine the same was true for his body. Blood had pooled at the top of his dome much more aggressively than hers.

"Your fur is falling out," Faypaw whispered, shaky on his paws.

Heart racing, Mira propped Faypaw to her left side and felt him follow her steps well enough to move towards the twoleg spire. Dovewhisker materialized and examined him. Her fur stood with such fright she shook some of the ethereal mud from it. She phased right through his see-through dome as she tried getting a scent from the half-unconscious tom.

"What can you do for him?" Mira whispered before clamping her mouth shut.

"What?" Faypaw mumbled.

"Just trying to get through to Proxima," Mira said, her dome tapping his. "Just keep up with me."

"I don't know what I can do," Dovewhisker trailed off from the pair. "If only Fleetheart were here…. Focus on getting him to safety. He looks worse than he is, but he needs to leave this place.

The StarClan medicine cat disappeared again. As she was told, Mira resisted the urge to glance at her kit. "Are you still with me?" she said.

"Yeah," he mumbled. "Don't stop for me."

"No, I'm going to try and contact Proxima. We need to leave this place. You need help. Focus on breathing. Just breathe."

Mira slung Faypaw onto her back and forced herself to keep going through the extra pain. He heard his breathing when it grew heavier, each one like an agonizing cry for help she couldn't answer. The green arrow in her peripheral vision, unblocked by the blood, aimed towards the black spire. She briefly wondered if they were ever travelling in the right direction or if the suits were breaking down in the strange heat and light. But nothing was more important than getting her kit to shelter. Mira made that her singular focus. It pushed her through her suit's aggressive beeping, her kit's raspy breathing, the heat and the weight and the harsh light, the detour to the twoleg spire that seemed to take forever.

"My Stars!" Dovewhisker's scream made Mira gently set her kit down and rush to his side. One of Faypaw's yellow eyes had morphed into a black patch of skin with barely a pupil. The fur around his head was replaced with patches of slick, pale-red skin. Blood oozed from fresh lesions around his neck that opened and closed at random. And his tongue was the same bronze color as the trees from when they left.

"Faypaw! My kit—" Mira had to hold back panicked sobs and the urge to remove the dome from his head. "Dovewhisker, what's wrong with him!?"

"I've never seen anything like this before," Dovewhisker gagged. "It's like he's being burned alive without fire."

"Help him!"

"I don't know what's happening—"

"Then find someone who does!" Mira shoved the StarClan medicine cat, who vanished in a spray of light unable to outshine the outside. Remembering Dovewhisker couldn't contact any other StarClan cats, Mira lifted Faypaw and dashed to the twoleg spire. His chest was still rising and falling but felt unnaturally hard on her back, like she was carrying a cat-shaped rock instead of her kit.

Two ugly blocks of silver bordered the edges of the arch-shaped entrance. She ran past fragments and stumps of bronzed trees and crystal shards of see-through walls. The moment she was inside and shielded from the harsh light, a wave of cold injected into her from a needle in her back. Color seemed to be sucked away from everything as her vision blurred. Her suit still made angry noises and the green arrow twisted and bent, deciding it was just as lost as her. But all she cared about was Faypaw.

Mira didn't stop at the entrance or the statue-filled lobby and kept running down a great hall to her right. It let evenly-spaced beams of light through, but shielded her from the worst of it and the heat. Narrow skylights lined the high ceiling, some of which were closed or shattered to the floor. Twoleg statues half the height of the walls lined them striking various poses. There wasn't a sound or beat aside from her heavy paw steps and exhaustive panting. Ethereal flakes of ash and splintered wood gave Mira her first bit of relief since setting paw in the Shattered District.

"Fleetheart." Mira's voice was broken as she set her kit down and approached. She had appeared some distance away, her hide pouches closed and her tail limp. "What's wrong with him?"

Fleetheart shook her head and planted herself between her and Faypaw. "You shouldn't see him like this."

"What!?"

"It's easier if this… if this wasn't your last memory—"

"Mom?" Faypaw's voice was like brambles raking her ears. "Help me."

"Get out of my way!" Mira clumsily swiped at Fleetheart and phased through her. Her breathing didn't become any steadier and her panic was only growing with each step closer to Faypaw. Neither medicine cat could help him.

Lights inside Faypaw's see-through dome illuminated the detail scrubbed from his face. Jelly-like sores had consumed both his eyes. His nose had completely disintegrated and left stretched, pink skin around a heart-shaped hole where it was. What remained of his ears were shriveled strips of black flesh dangling from his head. He had no fur, exposing blisters oozing black pus. Two bronze fangs protruding from his slack jaw had replaced his tongue.

"Help me." His jaw was motionless as he pleaded.

"Faypaw, stay with me. Don't go!"

Mira's see-through dome clanked against his. She hit it against the ground, then again, and again. Red warning lights and angry beeps tried to deter her, but she ignored them and kept smashing it until it shattered as one piece. Mira thrashed her bloody paws, freeing her claws from the bodysuit and tearing layers away until they finally punctured the outermost shell. Her eyes immediately stung. The first breath she took of the lifeless air was a gasp. She tore the shattered dome away and cut herself free of the suit, leaving the vest and bodysuit alone. Mira sliced Faypaw's suit from the side he was laying from and carefully broke the bubble over his head. When she finally cut his suit open, his first gasp was gargled with blood and drowning out whatever he was trying to say.

The vest on Faypaw had loosened enough to be slashed away. Where Mira should've seen the egg-white bodysuit was instead an amalgamation of its remnants, crimson flesh, and black pus slathered over it all. The areas around his thighs and neck were just rings of black flesh. His legs were worn down to rounded nubs leaking rose-red blood. Mira gagged. She resisted her urge to scramble away. It was her kit! She couldn't just leave him like this.

Mira dared to rest a paw on his shoulder. Her gentle touch slogged the water sac of whatever was left of his insides and inflated his thighs. Any harder would've killed him. She knew it. But she was slow to take her paw away. Every heartbeat made Mira's blood run colder, colder than Faypaw's felt unnaturally hot. Every heartbeat made her wonder if he could even feel her touch. Wonder if his heart was still beating under what remained of his entrails or if that, too, was lost in the hellish fusion of flesh and woven-pelt.

Mira carefully slid her hand towards his face. "Faypaw."

"Mom…" His hoarse exhale finished the word. "Help… me."

Mira scrambled away. This wasn't the Faypaw she wanted to remember. But she couldn't look away. She couldn't ignore her kit's suffering. The senior molly barely noticed the aethereal flakes of ash floating around her kit. Fleetheart rested a starry paw on her shoulder and pulled. Mira reluctantly walked to the other side of the hall with her.

"Why can't you do anything?" Mira pleaded. "Why can't either of you do anything?"

Fleetheart hid her momentary excitement Mira had contacted another StarClan cat, instead keeping her tone somber. "I've seen cats who look like this. But burned, struck by twoleg lightning, poisoned by soot-laden water. It's like all of it is happening, but it's not. I don't even think Panzer would know what to do." Mira again rested her eyes on Faypaw's disfigured body. He seemed to grow flatter after mere moments. Fleetheart approached and rested a paw on his back. "I'm sorry, Mira. I wish I… we could do more. I can only prepare to guide his spirit."

Mira's heart fluttered watching the StarClan medicine cat. She thought, just for a heartbeat, her cold blood would warm seeing her kit's jaw lock back in place, waiting for a smile to creep along its edges. Each heartbeat it didn't happen was another moment she had to look at the mess Faypaw deformed to. Another moment his furless boils and shiny blood would destroy the clean, black locks of fur and his excited yellow eyes in her mind. She waited for what she knew couldn't happen until she couldn't wait any longer and approached. Fleetheart was simply praying for a dying cat. No miracle would save him.

Mira cut away her black vest, letting the heat from the dead twoleg nest wash over her own balding fur. She shifted the rest of the outermost shell from him, resting what remained of him on the smooth floor. With the space clear, she sat and rested her head on Faypaw's chest. The ease at which it pushed and the lack of a beating heart no longer unnerved her. She couldn't look into his eyes or feel any twitch in his paws. She could only believe, in her mind only, that her kit was still alive and wouldn't die without knowing he was in company. Mira sat in silence, only sobbing when she was sure his body twitched. Glowing specs of ash continued falling over both.

"You're everything I ever wanted in life, Faypaw." Mira sobbed while she paused, both waiting for the strength to continue and for a response she knew would never come. "Fourteen rotations ago, I finally let your father sweep me into a different kind of life. You were my miracle kit. You taught me there was more to life than just one, singular adventure. And, even though I couldn't give you siblings, bedding, or nurse you, you grew into a fine young tom. I love you. I always have and always will. What I went through was no excuse for not being a mother. I'm sorry you thought I didn't want you."

Fleetheart rested a shoulder on Mira. The senior molly's chest heaved up and down with broken breaths as blood dripped up her nose. "It's going to be okay, Mira."

"It was already okay," Mira growled, resisting the urge to look at the mass of flesh beside her. "What about this is okay? What about any of this is okay!?"

"Nothing," Fleetheart said. "But it's going to be okay." Mira stood and hobbled away from her kit a sobbing mess. She couldn't feel her sleeves working anymore but didn't care, making it several steps before collapsing. Fleetheart's eyes widened when she saw blood trickling from her eyes. "Mira! Not you, too!"

"Why did I let you come? Why couldn't I have been a better mother to you?"

"Stay with me," Fleetheart said, brushing what remained of the fur on Mira's head, every other stroke phasing through. "You can't think like that. You need every bit of strength you can muster to—"

Flakes of the ceiling rained down at a sudden vibration; Fleetheart climbed over Mira, fearing a collapse. A boom outside shook the place and shattered one of the skylights. A second preceded a massive black spike crashing far down the hall with such precision it didn't collapse the ceiling. A final boom and another black spike landed next to them on the opposite side of the hall, pulverizing one of the twoleg statues. When the dust settled, a near-perfect hole was left in the ceiling. A massive cable was attached to the end of each spike and stretched as far into the sky as Fleetheart could see.

The all-black spike stuck out at an angle. A door hissed open to reveal a cramped interior wide and tall enough for several twolegs to fit uncomfortably. Black belts hung from the walls to strap down what once would've been its occupants in a circle. There were no lights inside save for the screens next to each set of belts. For several moments, Fleetheart was left wondering what had just happened. Mira already knew.

An all-white drone donning a red cross hissed to life, connected to the ceiling of the spike by a thin cable. The dozen-armed drone floated outside and hit the ground the moment it did. A flat, snake-like cable protruded from the spike and slithered towards Faypaw. Blue light shined from one of the drone's outstretched arms, lingering longer on Mira than it did Faypaw. After two angry beeps, it enveloped Mira in its grasp and was dragged back towards the spike.

Fleetheart returned to Faypaw's side, piecing together why the drone hadn't grabbed him. "This is the doing of your friend, Proxima, right? I think you're going to make it. You're going to be okay—"

"No!" Mira began thrashing with strength she didn't realize she still had. It was enough to open several more sores and force the drone to squeeze harder. "You can't take me from him! You kept him from me for so long already!"

"She can save you, Mira. You still have things to live for."

"I don't want to leave him!" Her thrashing snapped one of the arms, causing the rest to tighten so hard Mira yowled in pain and was forced to keep still. "Please, let me stay with him! I can't go on without him, please."

Fleetheart's clawless paws flexed as she watched the wailing mother being dragged into the spike. Padding inflated from most sides to keep Mira secure without the belts. The door closed and the thick cable attached to its roof straightened, sending a snap through the air that briefly deafened her. Streams of fire poured from the spike's top edge, kicking up the mostly settled dust. Fleetheart covered Faypaw's body, but knew the fire would phase right through her. The spike down the hall and the other that landed outside also roared to life and sailed into the air. Three loud booms accentuated their quick exits and really threatened to collapse the roof.

"I really wish you didn't see him like that," Fleetheart said, looking through the hole in the ceiling and catching a glimmer of the ascending spikes. "Faypaw won't wander alone, I promise you that. So be strong, Mira. We're still counting on you."

The ceiling fell in even larger chunks. One shattered through Fleetheart into dozens of pieces, leaving her unharmed. The rumble of the structure's collapse was muted by how slowly it did so in the lower gravity. With nothing more to do, Fleetheart vanished.