AUTHOR'S NOTE: thank you Anonymous Guest for the review; glad you liked the chapter. Yes, the story is approximately half-complete right now.

Chapter 93: Honeycomb Paradox.

"The edges are all blurred, and getting darker, but it's crystal clear. I can't make sense of it. ...Maybe there's nothing to see..."

-Victoria Bells, When He Calls Your Name

After Vervain had kicked him, Blueberry had done his best to stay away from the bearded rabbit. He had tried on several occasions to get on better terms with him, but Vervain kept acting rudely towards him; there was no point in trying anymore.

He remained some distance from the other patrollers, allowing him to become the first to spot Watership Down in the distance. He remembered his brief stay at the warren at the top.

-"Oh wow, that place," he said out loud. "I haven't been there in days. So much for finding berries..." That had been his initial reason for leaving the warren, and with all his adventures in Darkhaven, he still hadn't found those berries.

Unbeknownst to him, however, Vervain had been spying on him, and overheard everything he said. Clearly, this kitten knew the location of another warren, possibly the one the General was searching for! He left Blueberry alone, and went to find Woundwort instead.

-"Sir, I think I may..." he started to say, but was cut off:

-"Quiet. There's someone else nearby."

Bigwig's patrol was progressing nicely. He had quickly realized that the new rabbits seemed to be handling themselves very well, and stepped away from the group. He would make this even more challenging. They would run the patrol themselves: he would not offer any guidance, other than periodically making sure they were on the right track.

A short distance away, however, two strangers were hopping between the trees.

-"What do you want me to do, Hawkbit?" Silverweed asked.

-"I want you to penetrate the minds of the rabbits Bigwig is patrolling with."

-"Why would you want me to do that?"

-"First, answer me this: are you able to manipulate someone else's mind, after you have taken control of it?"

-"Technically, yes I can. But when I arrived here at Watership Down, I vowed I would never hack into anyone else's mind again."

-"I know Cowslip might have forced you to use your powers for his own evil purposes, but I have a legitimate reason for this request. I want me and Dandelion to stay in the owsla."

-"I thought you hated being in the owsla?"

-"I would be lying if I said I didn't hate it, but I must retain the rank, or I will be totally useless to the warren."

-"No you wouldn't. All of us contribute to the warren in our own way. But if you want to keep your position in the owsla despite you not enjoying it, that's a contradiction, and I can't argue with you about this."

-"I have my reasons. Anyway, what I want you to do, is infiltrate the minds of the newcomers so they do poorly on this patrol."

-"What? You're mad! If they don't do well, they might encounter elil, and they might get killed!"

-"No no no, I don't want them killed. I want them to do poorly enough to disappoint Bigwig, but well enough to remain safe."

-"You have a messed-up mind, Hawkbit. I won't do it."

-"In that case, can't you manipulate Bigwig's mind so that he still keeps me in the owsla?"

-"I won't infiltrate or manipulate anyone's mind. But, if you wish, I'll tell Bigwig how much this means to you, after the patrol is over. He's not as cold-hearted as you seem to think. He'll be receptive."

Hawkbit grumbled.

-"Thanks for the thought, but that won't be very helpful."

-"I think I know what's wrong with you, Hawkbit. You let your mind get taken over by negative thoughts. Maybe if you stopped dwelling on negativity so much and focused on good things, you would be happier."

-"Just escort me back to the warren, please. I don't think I would be able to make it back safely on my own, with my ears."

-"As you wish, Hawkbit."

As the two rabbits started to make their way back towards the Down, the patrol was still progressing through the woods until suddenly, Hyzenthlay stamped.

-"Intruders," she whispered, before a gasp came out of her mouth. "I think I can recognize the smell..."

-"Oh no. Anyone but THEM," Flyairth said, after she too had sniffed the air.

-"Nooooo, we're really gonna get caught this time heeeeelp!" Nyreem said desperately.

-"I thought we were rid of them," Blackberry said in frustration.

Bluebell remained awkwardly silent, trying to think of a joke, but faced with such a horrible situation, was unable to come up with anything.

Bigwig, seeing the way everyone was reacting, decided to smell the air too. He gasped in horror as the terrible scent hit his nostrils. General Woundwort was there, along with several other rabbits.

-"No, this cannot be! He's dead!"

At that moment, he was tackled by a large white rabbit; it was Granite. Both bucks struggled, each trying to get a solid grip on the other, until Bigwig managed to hit a weak spot by scratching Granite's tail, allowing him to escape. But it was only a matter of time before he was attacked again by Shale.

Nyreem was torn between her instincts, which told her to run, and her desire to make a positive impression on the others. When captain Orchis arrived in front of her, she chose the second option.

-"Your leader destroyed my old home! You can't get away with this!" She raised her front paws in an attempt to scare him away. The captain sighed, and picked her up by the scruff of the neck. She struggled desperately, trying to scratch him, but he continued to carry her. Suddenly, he felt something hit him on his side, making him lose his balance and drop Nyreem. He turned to the rabbit who had attacked him (it was Blackberry) and pounced on him. He burred his claws deep into his fur, while Thethuthinnang grabbed Nyreem and carried her to safety.

Flyairth kicked several rabbits away, temporarily incapacitating them, until she came upon the largest one of them all: General Woundwort.

-"You killed my my Prake! You will suffer for it!"

-"No-one stands in the way of my destiny, and the glory of Darkhaven!"

With a fierce growl, the General pounced on Flyairth and scratched her ears. She responded by cuffing him in his empty eye socket, knocking him off her. She tried to pull her paw out of the cavity, only to find that it had gotten stuck inside, severely limiting the General's potential movements.

Vervain was very nervous. He knew that the larger rabbits, like Bigwig and Flyairth, could easily defeat him, so he had to find a smaller one to fight instead; eventually he chose Strawberry. This, however, was still a mistake, as his opponent immediately bit the overgrowth of fur under his chin. Vervain yelped and tried to escape Strawberry's grip, but it was no use, he held on firmly. He tried to scratch his opponent, but Strawberry soon immobilized Vervain's paws with his own. Eventually, the captain broke free, leaving a large piece of fur in Strawberry's mouth. While he massaged his chin to ease the pain, Strawberry kicked him away.

Vilthuril found herself face to face with Blueberry, who was staring at her menacingly. This Woundwort fellow drafted kittens in his owsla; how terrible!

-"You don't have to do this," she said.

-"Fighting is fun!" Blueberry replied. He was about to pounce on her, but suddenly he stopped. "But who should I be fighting: you, or them?"

Vilthuril was about to reply when suddenly, Vervain crashed into the kitten. Before she could react, she was tackled by Feldspar.

Blackberry was still fighting Orchis, and buried his claws into one of Orchis' hind legs. This ripped off one of the captain's claws, incapacitating him long enough for Blackberry to get away.

Spartina stood in the middle of the crowd, unrelated thoughts flying through her mind. The sight of all these huge rabbits, several of them having feathers in their ears like her, or around their necks, was strangely familiar. It felt like she was one of them. Then she saw the large, one-eyed rabbit. For some reason, the first thought that came to her at that moment was "Dark One". The Speaker of the Past had mentioned him several times, how he would come and bring eternal glory. But why did she know that?

-"No-one stands in the way of my destiny, and the glory of Darkhaven!" General Woundwort said.

Then, it hit her. Darkhaven. That was her old home. She was a Darkhaven warrior, and had been for most of her life. While on patrol, she had been injured somehow, and the others left her for dead, as required by Darkhaven law. And then, she had stumbled upon the warren at Watership Down, which thrived through peace and kindness, while Darkhaven existed on principles of fighting and war. She was thoroughly ashamed of her past.

Campion was wandering through the area, doing his best to avoid fighting. His fear had been realized: General Woundwort had encountered the outsiders. At least, he thought it was the outsiders. He could recognize Bigwig, Dandelion and Strawberry, but had never seen any of the others before.

But the fact remained that he did not know which side he was on anymore. He didn't want the outsiders to die, but did Hazel-rah even want his help anymore? And how could he help anyway? Open rebellion against these huge Darkhaveners would be a death sentence, causing further trouble for the Black Rabbit of Inlé. That pretty doe really had suffered a lot, and he didn't want to make things worse for her if he could avoid it. Not to mention Aspen; his poor friend appeared to be under great torment lately. The fact remained that Campion would be forced to at least pretend to fight; otherwise, he would be seen as a coward by everyone else.

He hopped over to a nearby doe and placed his front paws on her back, making sure not to hurt her with his claws.

-"Listen, I'm a frien..."

Before he could finish, she started to squeal; clearly he had terrified her. As he removed his paws from her, she jumped on him, sending them both flying a short distance in the air. When they fell back to the ground, Campion was extremely unlucky, his head crashing onto a sharp rock, breaking his skull open.

-"Why are you killing me? I'm a friend!" he shouted.

-"If you're a friend, why were you attacking me?"

Campion fell silent. He didn't even know the answer to this himself.

-"Please spare me, and I will go in peace."

Campion's brain was leaking out of his head onto the ground, leaving him unable to think clearly. He heard Hyzenthlay reply, but was unable to figure out what she said. His vision was getting blurry, and it appeared to him that Hyzenthlay was turning into Woundwort. The General lowered his head, and took a bite out of Campion's brain. None of this really happened, but to him it felt terrifyingly real. He squealed, and Hyzenthlay started to squeal soon afterwards. Suddenly, a loud explosion was heard, as he ground opened underneath them. Campion dropped into a seemingly endless black pit, while Hyzenthlay was sucked upwards into oblivion.

Bigwig was kicking and scratching Shale in order to incapacitate him, but the Darkhavener held firmly onto his shoulder with his teeth. Suddenly, Shale was pulled away by a string around his neck. Bigwig stared in front of him as reality appeared to dissolve into nothingness, eventually pulling him inside.

Silverweed had just reached the warren's main entrance with Hawkbit, when he heard the squeals. He turned around, and saw an unusually-shaped cloud over the forest. The Blade of the Sky! It had struck! In desperation, he used his claws to fired a light beam at the cloud, which then burst into flames. He gasped in horror, as he realized his actions had made things worse. A few moments later, a giant shockwave travelled through the air, knocking him and all other rabbits down.

Vervain slowly got back up, with a paw on his chin to ease the pain, when suddenly he noticed another rabbit in front of him. This was not one of the Darkhaveners, nor one of the outsiders, but she still looked very familiar.

-"Hey Vervie," she said. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

As he heard her voice, it suddenly dawned on him who it was.

-"Chibiscuit?"

It was at that moment that the shockwave caught up to them, sending them flying in two opposite directions.

-"Meet me at Nepenthes!" was the last thing Vervain heard before he lost consciousness.

Hannah was observing the fight from a distance.

-"Don worreh, bunnes, I'll save ya! Wit magic! Now what were the woods, aready? Oh ye...

Ah cool the greet chef, livin in is toowee

E beeg foe hiss stwent, plz give me thee pohwar

I knoo, I yur slave, fr eve hour

The woohoo shoul gran me vish in the flowe

SAVE THE RABBITS!"

At that moment, she too was hit by the shockwave, blowing the magic pebble out of her paws.

Leo was in the Honeycomb, helping his namesake and the other Efrafans with their injuries, when suddenly, a wormhole opened behind him. Before he could react, he found himself sucked inside, and the wormhole closed once again.

The Speaker of the Past was sitting on a pile of trash in Darkhaven. She raised her head, and saw the rapidly-approaching shockwave.

-"This has been very predictable," she said emotionlessly, before she too was absorbed.

Lionel-Hector was sitting at Sir Fredrick's desk inside the building. The drawers were a mess, so many unsorted papers everywhere. He was searching for warranty information about the crane, but he had no idea where to look. Suddenly, he noticed something out the window: a weird knife-shaped cloud in the sky. He had to take a picture of it, it would get so many likes on social media. As he pulled his smartphone out of his pocket, however, everything around him vanished.

At the warren of the shining wires, Crackers was the first to notice the sky changing colour.

-"Oh seriously?" She angrily stamped the ground with her tail. "This again? Have they learned nothing from last time?"

-"Last time? You mean this already happened before?" Rosie asked. "What is this anyway?"

-"It's a great danger; we must remain close together or face the consequences," Tumbler said, as she quickly tied her own tail with Crackers'. "Can you bury yourself in there, Rosie?"

-"I don't want to spike you again..."

-"Don't worry about that," Crackers said, "we need to keep you safe!"

But it was too late: the shockwave caught up to them, and Rosie was thrown in the opposite direction of the two squirrels.

Acacia, Vesper and the others were still travelling in the woods, when they spotted the approaching shockwave. At that moment, the gem on Vesper's necklace started to shine brightly.

-"What is happening?" Acacia asked.

-"I don't know. It never did this before."

The shockwave caught up to them, and the forest was turned into a desert.

When Silverweed emerged from his tharn state, he could only see an endless grey mist in all directions. After a few moments, however, a few black, white and green spots started to appear in the distance. Most only remained there briefly before they vanished, getting replaced by others.

He knew what this place was. Hopefully, from here, he would be able to reverse the recent damage to the fabric of reality.