Seeking Revenge

This story belongs to Stormy!
	
== Prologue ==
The cold rain spattered on the pavement, splashing into a dirty stream running along the curb. The night sky flickered with lightning.
Shade had known that the storm was going to break. Yet she had lost track of the time....
Her footsteps pattered through the puddles, spraying her with muck. A rat dangled from her jaws. I'm almost there.... she began to run faster, the raindrops like needles on her face. Yet she wasn't being careful enough; she slipped on the hard, wet ground and went sprawling. The rat landed with a thunk in a puddle. 
Quickly, she scrambled up, ignoring the searing pain in her left side. She scurried forward to pick up her rat, but she halted, as she found herself staring into a pair of lime green eyes.
She gulped. It was Brick. The flashing sky illuminated his ginger pelt.
He hissed. "What do you think you're doing, wandering around late at night, in a storm, hm? One might even think that you're hiding something from Scourge." She noticed his paws flex, his awful claws elongating and contracting. It might've been a trick of the light, but she swore that she saw a few dark red marks spattered across them.
She stood there, silent, terrified, and unable to breathe for a few moments. Finally, she plucked up the courage to speak.
"H-hiding something from Scourge?" she stuttered, "I-I wouldn't do such a thing. Please--I'm doing nothing--"
Brick's eyes glimmered. Shade couldn't tell if it was with thought, or excitement at the prospect of punishing a cat. Her heart pounded. She sure hoped it wasn't the latter.
Brick's mouth finally twisted into a grin. "Creeping around on a night like this. Against the rules. For an action like this, you must pay tribute to Scourge." Quick and slippery as a snake, Brick lunged forward, and deftly hooked the rat out from between her paws. 
Shade uttered something between a cry of horror and a choke of despair. It had taken her since sunhigh to find that rat! And the little lives waiting for her would need nourishment or they would die...
"Please," she cried, "I have two kits waiting for me. They need food, or they'll starve!"
He shrugged. "You must pay Scourge for what you've been doing."
"But don't you want those kits to grow up to be strong members of BloodClan?" she pleaded.
He cackled madly. Shade let out a little whimper of horror.
"Only the strongest can become warriors of BloodClan," he said. Then he leaned forward, his face a mouse-length away from hers. His breath smelled of rancid Twoleg rubbish. "Let's see if your little kits can pull through to be ones."
Shade opened her mouth to beg, but Brick smacked her hard across the face with an outstretched paw. She toppled over into a puddle, her face throbbing from the blow. He twitched his ear in satisfaction, and picked up the rat in his jaws. Without another word, he spun away.
Thunder rumbled overhead, as if echoing Shade's despair as she lay in the murky water, sobbing. My kits will surely die of hunger now. If the cold doesn't get them first. She would've considered lying there all night, completely given up on life. But she knew that her kits still depended on her.
Slowly, she dragged herself from the puddle, her fur completely sodden. Her teeth chattered. She knew that she had to find sustenance for her kits somewhere, and soon. But how?
She rounded a corner into a dark alley, hoping to find a dumpster with some Twoleg food inside. She would take any sort of quick food at the moment.
She scanned the walls, and cast her gaze down they alley. She spotted a large green Twoleg bin, reeking of rubbish. Shade sniffed the air. Amongst the scent of rotting Twoleg food, she picked out a whiff of chicken, fairly fresh.
Shade could barely suppress her excitement, as she leaped to the edge of the bin, almost slipping inside because of the slick edge. But as she peered into the dumpster, she realized, to her dismay, that the chicken was gone. What have I done to deserve such a miserable existence?
Just then, hushed voices reached her ears, along with the occasional rowdy shout.
Shade leaped back down onto the muddy alley pavement, and pricked her ears. There were other cats in that alleyway; no denying it. Maybe, just maybe....
Shade crept forward, low to the ground. As she neared the group, she realized that there were far more cats than she had expected. One particularly mean-looking striped tom stood at the head of the group, blustering and laughing. Shade noticed two fat chicken bones, the meat half-picked off of them, lying in the center. She flattened her ears.
"Um... excuse me?" she mewed timidly, as she slowly padded forward. All heads turned to look her way. Shade's breath caught in her throat as she spotted a familiar pair of blue eyes. No. He can't be here!
Finally, the striped tom spoke. "Who's this scrawny creature?" Hoots of laughter rose up from the crowd. Shade stared defiantly ahead, hoping that they wouldn't notice how much she was quivering.
"She's a pretty one," a gray tom said, brushing against her flank.
"Get away from me," she spat, and jerked away.
"Fiesty too," the striped tom noted. I won't let these cats strip me of my dignity. It's the only thing I have left, other than my kits.
"My name is Shade," she said, her voice shaking.
"Look, sweetie. We don't care about your name," Stripes said, "We just want to know why you're here, and what we'll get out of it."
Shade stood there, at a loss for words, now that she had the chance to state her problem.
She glanced at the Scorch, the blue-eyed tom. Does he still care about me, even a little bit? But his eyes showed no emotion, even as his muscles rippled under his ginger fur.
She took a deep breath. "Please help me," she pleaded, "My kits are starving-and-and I have no food to give them." She took a deep breath, and blinked away her tears. Her gaze flickered to the half-eaten chicken bones.
Stripes hissed. "So you come crawling her like a maggot, to beg for food? Pathetic."
"Please! I'll give you something in return. Something--anything!"
Stripes blinked slowly, and twitched his ears. But he still didn't respond. Come on, please....
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning flashed through the sky, setting Shade's smoky gray fur alight, and making her collar sparkle.
Her collar wasn't the traditional BloodClan collar, studded with sharp, smelly dong and cat teeth, even though she was criticized for not turning it into one. Instead, her collar was adorned with shimmering rhinestones. Her collar was the only reminder of her wonderful kittypet days....
"Oh Ji-illy!" 'her housefolk, Kendra, called. She didn't stir from her downy cushion; she was much too comfortable. "Ji-illy!"
Kendra plodded into the room. She appeared to be holding one of those crinkly plastic bags. Jilly stood up, excited. Those were always fun to chase around, after they had been emptied. But to her disappointment, Kendra didn't put it down for her.
Instead, she began to rummage around in it. "I have a special present for you," Kendra said. With her pink, meaty paw, she pulled out a beautiful rhinestone collar.
Most cats Jilly had met always complained about their collars and how they pinched, but her collar slipped smoothly over Jilly's head, and fit around her neck comfortably and snugly.
The cobalt blue perfectly accented her smoky gray fur, and the rhinestones glittered in the light. She loved it. Kendra reached down to pet her, as she rubbed against her legs. That collar would always be special to her.
Stripes focused on the collar. "Say, what a pretty little trinket you've got there...." The gems continued to sparkle.
"Oh--um, no, not that," Shade choked, "That's special!" There were some snickers. "Aww... will the little kitty miss her pretty collar?" someone taunted. Shade attempted to block her ears off from them, and focus on the debate going on.
"Yeah, well what else could you give me?" he snickered. Shade hung her head.
Stripes sighed as if to say, All right, let's just take the collar from little Shade, because this is taking much too long.
"Okay. Your collar, for one chicken bone." 
Shade stuttered. "But--but it's worth more than both of the chicken bones!"
He laughed. "For sentimental little she-cats, it might be. But not to us. Now, that's your deal. Take it or leave it."
Shade was once again on the verge of tears. "But--but--okay. Take my collar."
The striped tom nodded, his green eyes glinting in the limited amount of light. He leaned forward, and fastened his teeth around the soft blue material. Shade let out a scared squeak; she didn't trust a cat like him with teeth so near her neck.
He tugged and pulled, until a sharp snap was heard. Her beloved rhinestone collar lay ripped on the wet, dirty ground. It felt as if her heart was ripped, too. Stripes picked it up, and began to pad back to the group of cats. Without a second thought, she darted forward, snatched a chicken bone, and began to scurry out of the alley before the gang could hurt her. 
It was not until she had passed the dumpster, that she realized that she was being followed. She could hear pawsteps splashking through the rain water behind her. She just squinted her pale green eyes, and began to run faster. They can't catch me, they can't catch me...
But as she neared the end of that stinking alley, a clear voice rang out. "Shade. Stop."
She spun around, ready to defend herself, but she ended up facing a familiar pair of blue eyes. It was Scorch. 
She set down the chicken bone warily, just in case the striped tom had sent him to steal it back. But Scorch made no move to take it.
"I don't want to talk to you," Shade spat.
Scorch just ignored her, and continued to speak. "You always just let cats walk all over you, Shade." The words went directly to her heart.
"Well, it's not like I have a choice," she hissed.
Scorch cocked his head to one side, his eyes gleaming. "Yes you do. If you give your kits to Scourge, they will never starve. They will be raised to be strong, and fight for BloodClan. And it will be one less thing for you to worry about." She circled around her, flicking her ear with his tail.
"Give my kits to Scourge? Never!" she spat, "Now if you excuse me, I have kits to tend to. The kits that you left me with." Without another word, she whipped around, and dashed away, the measly chicken bone in her jaws.
The storm seemed to be subsiding, although the rain continued to pelt down from the sky, and the roar of thunder was always in the distance. My poor, poor kits. They must be cold and sodden, not to mention hungry and scared.
Shade quickly ducked underneath a plastic Twoleg thing, and scampered across the sproingy grass. She slipped into a leafy, dark green bush.
Two wet little bundles lay pressed together, shivering. One of them squeaked.
Susan, the little ginger she-kit shook out her fur. "I'm hungry, Mama!" Susan wailed, revealing a pink tongue and little white teeth. Shade rushed to their side, and gave them the chicken bone. 
"Ssh. I'm here. Just eat." Jacques, a little black and white tom, sniffed the air and tumbled forward for food. Shade's belly growled, but she knew that her kits needed to eat before her.
She curled up around them, sheltering them from the world.
You will survive, kits. I promise.
== Chapter 1 ==
"Susan, how many times do I have to tell you, claws unsheathed," Susan's mother said, exasperated.
Jacques tumbled over, easily shaking Susan off. She stood up, shaking the dust out of her ginger fur. She licked her paw, and ran it over her ear. 
Finally, she spoke. "What if I hurt Jacques?" Susan had never understood why Shade always seemed so sensitive and caring, but then would urge them to use violence.
Jacques was currently slinking behind a big green bin, eyes round with curiousity. But Shade wasn't paying attention to him. Nope, her perfect little Jacques can do no wrong. 
Susan met her mother's blue gaze defiantly. Shade sighed. "You know why you must unsheathe your claws."
"No, actually, I don't," Susan hissed. What is wrong with this place? 
Her mother's stare grew hard. "Susan. This is for your own good. You must be unafraid to let out your claws, and draw blood. You must be able to sink your teeth into your enemies." But Jacques isn't my enemy! He's my brother!
She could her him shuffling around in the stinky Twoleg rubbish; but he was still being ignored by Shade. Susan looked down at her paws, shivering. How could our mother suddenly seem so bloodthirsty?
"Do you understand me?" she hissed, "Jacques! Come back here!" Her brother was attempting to clamber inside of the dumpster.
"All right," he mumbled frustratedly. He leaped onto the dirty alley ground, and scurried to Shade's side.
Susan had always thought that Jacques would grow up to be a rugged, handsome tom. It was true; but he always boasted that he looked like Bone, because he had a black and white coat.
As if that's a good thing.
She secretly feared that he would grow up to be one of those deadbeat toms that would ensnare a she-cat's heart with no effort. And when she had kits, he would leave her along in the cold, merciless world.
Well, of course that was a fear of Susan's. Considering that it had happened to her mother.
Or worse, he could grow up to be one of Scourge's guard.
She jolted out of her reverie, to see her mother looking at her expectantly. "Please, Susan. You must learn how to use your claws and teeth now. For your own safety." Shade's eyes now glimmered with frightening intensity. Frustration? Fury? Bloodlust?
Susan's heart began to thump loudly in her chest. For the first time in her life, she began to feel terrified of her own mother. She's asking me to injure my own brother.
Before she could stop herself, words bubbled out of her mouth like a stream. "I won't hurt Jacques! You can't make me!" Before Shade could reply, she spun around, and bolted away.
Her paws thudded on the ground, Twoleg rubbish crinkling underfoot. She could hear her mother in hot pursuit.
Susan's paws were still pink and kit-soft. So when she skidded on a slippery, wet piece of trash, there was no way to save herself. She hit the pavement with a bone-rattling thud.
"Susan?" Shade was calling out. She could hear that her mother's voice was tinged with worry. But she didn't want to risk it. Muscles aching, she dragged herself around a corner and behind a rubbish bin. The smell of Twoleg food rotting drifted through the breeze, along with the metallic tang of the garbage can. Susan's stomach squirmed, as she resisted the urge to vomit. Hey. The stench will hide my scent.
Shade's voice echoed clear and worried off of the filthy walls. "Susan? Susan, where are you? Please, Susan, come out! I would never hurt you, I promise! I will explain everything once you come out! Please!"
Susan could sense that her mother was getting frantic. Maybe this is all a misunderstanding. Maybe I should just come out...
She heard a lone teardrop spatter onto the ground. "Please. I can't afford to lose you," she murmured.
Susan was indecisive.
My mother wanted me to use my claws against my own brother....
But she is so dejected and depressed... and she said that she could explain it all, didn't she?
But why would I trust her?
She heard Shade mutter, sounding horrified and miserable. Jacques must've been there too. That, or she was talking to herself.
She took a deep breath, and padded out from the bin.
But instead of coming face-to-face with a crying and worried Shade, she found herself staring into a pair of lime green eyes.
The tom was not one that she knew. His ginger pelt was filthy and tattered, and his ribs were visible through his fur. But she could see the strength in his muscles all the same. Before she could protest, the tom snatched her up by her muzzle.
Susan let out a squeal of terror as she dangled ominously over the ground. The last thing she spied before the tom whisked her away was Jacques yellow eyes stretched wide in horror, and Shade's jaw open in a silent yowl.
As the tom rounded bends in the alleyways, an intricate maze with no true end, she became more confused and more terrified. Yet she dared not speak. Who knew what would happen to her?
The stench of other cats tainted the air. But this wasn't the warm, soft scent of Shade and Jacques as they curled around each other, attempting to stay warm for the night. It was the smell of cats scavenging for the last decaying morsels in Twoleg bins, cats that killed for food, or just for the blood running through their claws...
Susan couldn't take it anymore. "Help! Anyone?" she cried.
She instantly felt her captor's teeth spike into her scruff. She felt a drop of blood slip down her shoulder, as she let out a meep of horror.
But it looked as if her journey was over. The tom had carried her into a ring of BloodClan cats. Their gazes seemed to burn into her flesh, as they sized her up.
Her kidnapper released her from his tight grip. She tumbled onto the ground, colliding with a head-rattling smash. The cats around her snickered openly. She looked at the furiously. Yet, she couldn't stop her legs from quivering.
Finally, a huge black and white tom muscled through the crowd, his green eyes glimmering with curiousity, and some other emotion that Susan couldn't place. She gulped. It was Bone.
He gave her a little prod on her soft flank, as if to inspect her. She jerked away.
"Undersized little specimen, isn't she?" Bone finally remarked. The BloodClan cats hooted. Or at least Suan assumed that they were BloodClan cats; Shade had told her and Jacques that they all belonged to a big community called BloodClan, and that it was ruled by the powerful Scourge. And it seemed like Bone was his subordinate.
The ginger tom who had snatched her away replied in a deep, scratchy voice.
"I found her wandering the alleyways. It seemed like her mother and her brother were following her." Bone nodded.
"Scourge will want to hear about this," he rumbled.
Susan had been unaware of the dark lump resting on top of the trash can until that moment, as it stirred. She watched slowly as a shiny black shape unfurled, along with a row of hooked dog teeth attached to a collar.
Ice blue eyes flickered open.
This cat was barely larger than herself; but yet he had an aura of importance that struck fear into her heart. Who was this cat?
Bone dipped his head to the black cat. "Scourge," he mewed politely.
Susan felt shock pulse through her. That cat is Scourge? When Shade talked of his power and dominance, she had always pictured him as a huge, burly tom with plenty of battle scars. Not a little black cat; Bone easily dwarfed him.
Scourge's voice rang out high-pitched and cold. "Well, what do you have to report?" he said, training his vision on Susan. It was all she could do not to squeal in terror.
Bone gestured to the ginger tom. "Go on, Brick," he urged.
"We found this little thing skulking about in the alley. Her mother and brother were pursuing her, but I convinced them to yield. Apparently she was running from a training session."
Scourge's eyes narrowed in interest, although he twitched his nose like there was a bad smell under it.
"How do you know this?" he inquired menacingly.
"I stopped her mother and brother. Her little littermate slipped it to me, by accident of course, even as the mother tried to stop him."
With an arching leap, Scourge landed in the center of all the cats, directly in front of Susan.
Up close, she could see every horrid detail of Scourge. Not only could she see his icy eyes and dog teeth, she could see the other dog teeth, crusted with red, standing out perfectly against one white paw.
His size didn't matter. He was completely terrifying.
"Who was the mother?"
Brick hesitated for a moment, then answered tentatively. "Shade is the mother. A weak, worthless she-cat she is."
Scourge considered these words, as Susan shivered. When am I going to get out of here, if at all?
He spoke again, his words as clear as the sky that evening. "She is weak, yes. But not worthless. She can contribute kits."
Brick sighed. "I suppose this is true. This kit's little brother shows much promise; I have been watching them from afar. But on the other paw--" Brick's head snapped around to look at Susan.
She must've leaped about three tail-lengths into the air, purely out of fright.
Bone sniffed. "Just like her mother."
My mother. Why would I ever run away from my mother? She's not evil, compared to these cats!
Suddenly, another ginger tom stepped forward.
"Kits are only good if they are useful themselves," he added, "Useless kits like this one here will just clutter up the streets, and create another mouth to feed. Most likely, this one will never be able to serve in Scourge's guard."
Scourge hissed. "Silence! You do not speak without permission!" He shrank back.
Another black and white tom hastily jumped forward. "Do you want me to take care of him?"
"That goes for you too," Scourge snapped. He turned to Susan. Her heart threatened to thump right out of her chest.
"Was it true that you ran from a training session?" he questioned, almost in a mocking kit-voice.
Susan looked at him in the eye, even as she wobbled precariously.
"Y-yes," she mewed, "But it was for a reason!" Bone openly laughed, as Scourge cracked a toothy smile. Brick just stared with a burning intensity.
"Well, at least the scrap has some fight in her," someone muttered. Fight in me? When I learn to fly.
Scourge crouched down (he didn't have to go far) so they were nose to nose. "Would you care to tell me your wonderful reason?"
"My-my reason? Oh--um--"
She felt Scourge's slender paw placed on the back of her throat. The horrible dog teeth dug deep into her skin. She clenched her jaws, to hold back a yelp of pain.
She could feel his hot breath in her ear. "You will oblige," he murmured, "You will oblige to everything I say, or dreadful things may happen to you, and possibly your mother and brother." She felt the claws dig in deeper.
Susan gulped for air, and began to babble nervously.
"My reason--yes--reason.... My mother--her name is Shade--told me to unsheathe claws--against brother... I couldn't hurt him."
Scourge let out a high-pitched laugh, and flung her limp body into the alley muck. "That's the whole point of training! You have to be trained to spill blood, to rip through flesh with your jaws! That is what makes you a member of BloodClan!"
Susan didn't dare pull herself up, just in case those claws were hovering above her. She heard Scourge muttering to another cat. In return, she heard the first she-cat of the whole meeting.
As she perked her head up in curiousity, she saw Scourge discussing something with Bone and a beautiful tabby she-cat. Her green eyes seemed to sparkle in the red light.
Finally, the tabby she-cat padded to Susan. Her pawsteps seemed like thunder against the cats, now fallen silent.
"As Scourge, our great leader said--it is blood and slash of claws that makes us united as BloodClan. You have shown no promise, so far. But now is the chance to prove yourself. And we may decide to let you live." She cut her speech off abruptly, and gazed up at Scourge, admiration in her eyes.
"Thank you, Slash. As for your chance, here it is," he mewed in his horrible high-pitched voice, "You there. Come over here." The ginger tom who had spoken earlier padded up to him. "Yes, Scourge?" he mewed respectively.
Scourge's mouth stretched into a grin, as he uttered his command.
"Attack her."
*~*~
Jilly jumped up onto the newly-installed fence, enjoying the feel of the wind in her fur. The leaves rustled. It was a very nice view. 
Beneath her, she saw a shape slip by.
She narrowed her eyes curiously, wondering what it was. She saw a cat, with shimmering ginger fur, hurrying past.
"Hey! You!" she called after him. But he still didn't halt. She leaped down from the fence, and began to chase after the tom. There was something about him, that was just so compelling, so interesting. Jilly had to catch him.
"Wait up!" she called. The tom finally stopped and spun around. "What?" he spat. His eyes were a beautiful lake-blue.
She timidly looked at her paws. Now that she had his attention, she was at a loss for words. 
"If you're just going to waste my time, then I highly suggest that you go do something of use," he said, exasperated, "If you excuse me, I have younger siblings to feed."
Jilly instantly felt guilty. This tom was a stray; he had no home, no one to care for him and love him and feed him. 
"I'm sorry," she crooned instantly, "I didn't realize."
He sighed. "Kittypets like you never 'realize'." Kittypet? She supposed that he meant house cat.
She thought for a moment. Then a brilliant idea crossed her mind. "You could come live with me, and bring your siblings! I'm sure my housefolk will welcome you!"
He arched his back, and hissed. "Live with you? In a nest with your stinking Twolegs? I'd rather die!"
Jilly was offended. "My Twolegs are nice!"
"Whatever you say, kittypet," he mewed, "Now I'd better be going." Jilly stopped him for the last time, as he attempted to turn around.
"Wait?"
"Ugh. What now?"
"What's your name?"
"Scorch."
Scorch. How interesting. "My name is Jilly. Nice to meet you Scorch."
"Yeah. Nice to meet you." His voice sounded distant. 
A strange silence followed. Scorch shuffled his paws. Hastily, he added, "Um... I live just down the street and around the corner, behind a dumpster, if you need me." And with that, he sped off.
Jilly watched him go. He seemed like a rough-n-tumble tom, but also a free spirit, and a sensitive character.
Down the street, around the corner, behind a dumpster, Jilly repeated in her head, as she leaped back up over the fence, landing in the soft garden grass.
== Chapter 2 ==
Susan's legs buckled underneath her, as the tom turned to face her. Fight him? But I'm only a kit!
But to her surprise, she saw worry and apprehension gleaming in the tom's blue eyes. He doesn't want to fight me! For a brief moment, she wondered if he would refuse. But her hopes were crushed, as he took a flying leap toward her, paws outstretched, wind ruffling his fur.
Susan darted to her paws, trying to anticipate the attack. As the tom came close, she sidestepped, and his paw only hooked the outside of her leg.
She braced herself for the sting of the scratch, but it never came. Her attacker's claws must've been sheathed for some reason.
"Is that the best you can do, Scorch?" A striped tom taunted.
"Scorch" turned around, panting. He narrowed his eyes, and bared his teeth. Oh no. He's attacking for real this time! 
Time seemed to stand still, as he lunged right towards her. She may have cried in terror; so many thoughts and emotions were racing through her head as she came closer to her unavoidable end.
But Scorch's claws retracted as she barreled her over. She lay pinned on the ground, helpless. She could feel him pummel her stomach, although his claws were sheathed. His lip curled over his teeth as he bit down on her shoulder.
If shedding blood is so important to BloodClan, then why am I not wounded or dead?
Come on, Scorch, you pathetic piece of crow-food!" Bone hissed. 
As Scorch was distracted, Susan was able to wriggle her arm around, and hook a pearly claw in Scorch's ear.
She could feel the blood gush down her claws, and soak into her fur. A salty tang was in the air. Susan didn't know what to think; using her claws wasn't awful, but it wasn't exactly cheery. But this is an enemy.
Susan dared to look into Scorch's eyes, to see his reaction. They slightly squinted as he winced, but her attack didn't seem to bother him much.
"Enough of this!" she heard Scourge growl. He leaped down from his post, his long claws clattering on the ground.
With a cleverly executed twist, he slammed into Scorch's side, pinned him against the Twoleg sludge, and gave him a long scratch on his flank, for good measure. Susan's stomach squirmed as she watched crimson slither out of the gash.
But to her surprise, Scorch was able to get back up, even as his legs wobbled. He dragged himself out of the center, and to the wall where he tentatively licked his wounds.
Scourge nodded to Bone. Bone turned to face her, his claws gleaming in the sunset.
"I'll fight you if I have to," she mewed, her voice sounding steadier than she imagined.
Bone just shrugged, and without hesitation, slammed into her.
His weight easily crushed Susan. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't think--she was just being mashed into the hard rock earth.
Suddenly, a enraged yowl rose up, and the weight was lifted off of her. She darted upwards, sputtering, and gasping for air.
It was Shade. She was furiously swiping at Bone, her lips peeled in a enraged snarl. Her white teeth glinted.
Shade's head snapped around to Susan. "Run!" she hissed, "You'll find Jacques waiting around the corner!"
Susan felt like the most disgusting, low-down, horrible coward as she loped away. Her mother was all alone, fighting all of the BloodClan cats. But she chose to run instead of gallantly help. 
As she nimbly looped around the edge of a corner, she found herself facing Jacques. His eyes were wide with nervousness.
"We gotta get out of here, Susan," he mewed.
"Tell me something new. Now come on!" she dashed alongside him, panting.
"Did Shade tell you where to go?"
He shrugged, glancing at her as he ran. "No. She just told me not to take us back to our home." Susan's heart shattered as she thought of never returning to the little bush in the Twoleg park. 
"Do you have any idea of where to go?"
"What about that abandoned shed, next to the park?"
Susan scoffed. "That's way too close to our home!"
"That way they'll never expect it," Jacques replied. She could see the logic in this, yet the fear of being discovered nearly outweighed it.
Like shadows, they slipped through the park, unnoticed. The rotting brown wood of the shack was visible on the horizon.
Side by side, they squeezed through a gap in the wood paneling, and found themselves in a cozy cube, although it was laced with cobwebs and dust.
They curled up in the corner, on a musty cushion with springs poking out. Slowly, the nagging fear that had been bothering Susan faded away. They were safe. Scourge's guard couldn't find them.
"Susan?" Jacques mewed.
"Yeah?"
"Why did you run from Shade?" She winced. It was because of that, that they were in the mess in the first place.
"Because.... because I was afraid that she was going to make me hurt you."
Jacques considered this. "It's either hurt me, or have all of us be hurt." 
"But I don't want it to be that way!" Susan wailed.
"Yeah, well it is that way!" Jacques snapped, "Now let's get some sleep. Sky knows we need it."
Curling up against Jacques for warmth, she was able to slip into a somewhat troubled sleep. Her dreams were tainted with the sneering faces of the BloodClan cats, being led to them by Scourge.
Muffled whispering woke her. She gazed out of the gap, to see when it was. Night was still covering the sky like a sheet. The crickets chirped.
"Jacques! Wake up!" she whispered, as she prodded him.
"Wha--?" he said.
"Ssh! Not so loud!" she hissed, "Someone's outside."
He instantly pricked his ears, his eyes wide with fear. Susan did the same.
"What's the point?" one of them was saying.
"I'm sure I just heard some voices inside!"
"Can't be true," a third voice said, "Those little scraps are probably shivering somwhere, far off in the outskirts."
She heard a frustrated hiss. "No, I'm sure!"
The first voice sighed. "Okay, fine. I'll check it out, if you really think that they're in here. You and Flicker can go and search the outskirts."
"But--"
"Do you want to please Scourge, or not?"
The argument disbanded. Fear flooded her as she heard someone's paws shuffling through the overgrown grass outside. The pawsteps creaked on the wood floor as they began to walk in. Jacques tensed against her; Susan did the same.
Although the shack was fairly big, there was hardly anywhere to hide. It was completely barren, except for the cushion that they slept on. Their only hope was to stay on the cushion, and try to be as small as possible, and hope the cat wouldn't notice them in the dark.
The form finally slipped all the way into their hideaway. His eyes glimmered in the dark, ginger pelt barely visible. It was Brick.
Brick's tail swished from side to side. "So you thought that we wouldn't find you here, of all places?" he mewed.
Neither Susan nor Jacques dared to speak. They just huddled closer together.
He padded closer, his features becoming more visible. "I'm not going to hurt you," he sighed, "And I won't tell the others where you're hiding."
"But--why not?" Susan said, so surprised that she forgot to be scared stiff.
He laughed. "I thought you would've guessed by now."
Jacques stood up, beside her. Susan joined him, not wanting to be the only one still sitting. "What do you mean?"
Brick's gaze darted from side to side. "I knew your mother very well once."
Susan gasped with shock and disbelief. This can't be possible. Jacques still seemed to be unsure. Brick finished what he was going to say.
"Kits. I am your father." At first, once she finally heard the words, she was shocked. Jacques gaped in disbelief.
Without another word, Brick slinked out of the gap. Did that really just happen?
She looked down at her bedraggled ginger fur. Now she finally knew where it came from. She had always assumed that it was inherited from Shade's mother, or something.
Shade. A huge opening took the place of their much-loved mother.
Where could she be? Where can we find her? Is she still alive?
*~*~
Jilly never failed to surprise herself. She knew deep inside that it was a foolish idea to go see Scorch, and he would just drive her out, if his family didn't first. Scared, Jilly shivered, afraid to bleed, for she never had.
Dumpsters reeked of sludge and trash that Twolegs had left behind. Her stomach squirmed. How could Scorch possibly live like that? He seemed like a cat deserving of something better, even though he was a bit rough.
You don't even know the tom, idiot, she told herself.
Wrinkling her nose, she checked behind the first dumpster. No sign of Scorch or anyone else.
Luckily, she was able to find a weedy nest under the second dumpster. But Scorch wasn't there. 
However, she did find a bedraggled queen with four kits hungrily suckling at her stomach.
Suddenly, as she realized that Jilly was there, her ears flattened and she hissed furiously. "Leave unless you want to be disembowled," she snarled.
She leaped back, uttering a frightened meep. I don't belong here. I belong in my nest, away from all of this!
"That's right, run. You can't hurt my kits you filthy BloodClan warrior." What?
"What's that? I'm not a BloodClan warrior! Please don't hurt me!"
The queen paused, unsure of if she was a threat or not, and what she was going to do next.
"Mom, stop. She's no threat." Jilly spun around, to see Scorch standing there looking more dejected than ever.
He turned to her. "I'm sorry about Strike. She gets very cranky sometimes." Strike? Why so fierce?
"That goodness you're back," Strike sighed, "I'm starving, and so are my kits."
Scorch looked down, ashamed. "I have nothing to give you."
"What?"
"I said that I have nothing to give you."
"Why not? You know how much we need prey!"
"I tried, mother. I really did. But Bone snatched away the sparrow corpse that I was bringing."
Strike let out a low hiss. "Bone! If I ever get my claws on him..."
"You know how BloodClan cats are!"
Jilly was completely overwhelmed. BloodClan? Bone? She shivered. It sounded awful.
"Scorch... um... is there anything I can do to help?" she questioned.
"I'm sorry, Jilly, but this is a bit too much for a kittypet." Although she would never let it show, she was hurt deep inside.
"So how are you?"
"What does it look like?"
A shocked cry rang out. "Jacques!"
Forgetting his visitor, Scorch dashed to Strike's side. "Jacques? What happened?"
"He's dead!" Strike wailed, "He just couldn't make it!"
Gasping with grief, Scorch sunk down onto the alley pavement.
Jilly walked up, and put a comforting tail tip on his shoulder. He slowly turned around.
"Go, Jilly. Just-- leave." His gaze was hard and cold.
Without another word, she gulped, and scampered away to her own home away from the real world.
== Chapter 3 ==
Sometimes she just wished that she was something other than what she really was.
Jacques had always been the responsible one, the one that Shade would most likely turn to for help. And he was a much better fighter than her (or so was said), and often pleased their mother with his talent more than Susan ever did.
She was glad, because that morning, she was actually up before Jacques. She smirked. And she would be hunting.
A flock of pigeons was cooing and pecking on the pavement next to the grass of the park, as little Twolegs screeched and chased after them. But what puzzled Susan was that none of them attempted to catch the pigeons.
Whatever. More for me.
But as she crept closer, she realized that the pigeons were bigger than she thought. Their orange eyes stared right through her. Swallowing her apprehension, she stalked closer, and pounced.
Her claws directly hit the pigeon, but is just squawked and fluttered away. It was too strong for her, she noticed, embarrassed. She snapped her head around to see if anyone had noticed her blunder. She sighed in relief, as no other cats were in sight.
The realization that she would have to ask Jacques for help hit her. It's always that little Susan can't do anything without her big brother, because he's just so amazing.
Sighing, she tiptoed through the grass, back into the shack. Jacques was still asleep, curled up on the pillow.
"Jacques!" Susan hissed. His head instantly snapped upwards. 
"Jeez! You could've given us away!" he whispered angrily, as he rose from the cushion. His eyes widened. "We haven't been given away, have we?"
Susan shook her head. "No, no. I just-- I just needed your help with something." She managed to choke the familiar words out.
He relaxed. "Oh, sure. With what?" 
They soon were standing in front of the pigeon crowd. The sky was blue, and the green leaves of the trees shone in the sun. Twolegs were staying on the other side of the park. A seemingly perfect day.
If their mother wasn't held captive or dead and missing. And they weren't being searched for by BloodClan cats. And if she didn't have to ask the great Jacques for help on stupid everything!
"We're still kits," he stated, "So the pigeons are pretty big to us."
"Tell me something new," Susan muttered.
"We need to pounce on the same pigeon at the same time."
She nodded her agreement, and curved around the side of the flock. Her green eyes gleamed. Jacques did the same. She gestured to one pigeon with her tail. Jacques shook his head, and pointed out an even bigger one.
Slowly, she padded forward, barely aware of her brother doing the same. The crowd of birds parted as they came closer.
Just as they tensed and waggled their haunches, ready to pounce, the pigeons all fluttered away. Plodding towards them was one of the Twoleg kits. Her arms were outstretched, as she cried happily. "Run!" Susan yowled.
The pair streaked away towards the shack, panting. Susan's heart thumped in her chest. 
"Follow me!" Jacques hissed. And he darted behind a scraggly bush with pokey stems. 
She peeked out of the bush, to see if the Twoleg was gone. It was padding back to its mother and father, looking frustrated.
"You think it's safe?" Jacques panted.
"Should be."
As they slinked out of the bush, ginger flashed in the corner of her eye. She turned her head, but saw nothing.
"Did you see that?" she asked.
"See what?" he responded. The ginger shape slipped across the green grass once again. She heard a frightened squawk of a pigeon.
This time, her brother did notice. He quickly turned away, to see what was going on. Susan followed suit.
There Brick stood, holding a limp pigeon in his jaws. 
Her fur bristled. He was a BloodClan cat; there could be others nearby. "What are you doing here?" Jacques hissed.
"I just thought that you may need some help," he mewed, after he dropped the dead bird at her feet. Susan was unsure whether to thank him and take the pigeon, or just streak to their shack, without risking their lives.
"Are there others?" her brother growled.
"It's just me," Brick sighed, "Can't a father help his own kits?" What she had known all along hit her again. A BloodClan cat is our father.
She wondered what Shade had ever seen in him. He seemed much like the rest, until... until his secret was revealed.  She couldn't deny that he had proved himself to be kind and such.
Before she could stop herself, she blurted out, "Is Shade going to be okay?"
Brick sighed. "Kits..." he began. She dug her claws into the ground.
"Your mother is dead."
Susan cried out in grief, as Jacques sunk onto the ground. How can she be dead? That means we'll be all alone, for the rest of our lives! And we're only kits, how can we fend for ourselves?
Then to her further curiosity, Brick lowered his voice even more to come speak with them.
"Now listen to this, kits," he murmured.
Jacques dug his sharp claws into the ground. "Listen to this? Listen to this? Our mother is gone! How can you not even think of comforting us, when the only person we've ever loved is dead." He spat out the last words like a bitter mouse bone.
He gave no reply. Susan was shocked. Jacques rarely lost his temper, even at the worst of moments.
"That's not the point," Brick finally hissed, "The rest of BloodClan is onto you. We have to leave the area soon. There's another Twolegplace across the forest, but that means we would have to pass through the Clans. Instead, it would be better if we headed up north to the mountains." We? Does Brick really care that much about us?
"Come on," Brick urged, "Hurry!" The Twolegplace was just behind Susan, as she trailed behind Jacques after Brick. Everything seemed unusually desolate, like it was going to collapse at any minute. The only noise heard was the smack of their paws hitting the ground and Jacques' panting.
Something didn't seem right.
She couldn't see the peaks of the mountains even though Brick claimed that they were getting much closer.
"Jacques," she muttered under her breath.
"What?" He panted.
A slow creak and a snapping of a twig was heard as Susan began to choose her worried words. But before she could put her thoughts out, a shape flew from the bushes.
It was a wiry tom, with beady yellow eyes and white fur that stuck out on end as he arched his back.
Desperate, the kits tried to scamper around him. But he slid in front of them.
"One more step and you die," he snarled. Another cat slinked out of the bushes, this time a slender reddish brown she-cat, who seemed to have jagged bits of flint for claws.
Unable to think of anything else, Susan cried out, "Brick! Help!"
Her heart pounded in her chest as there was no reply.
She may have been clumsy and useless compared to Jacques, but she sure wasn't stupid.
Brick had obviously led them into a trap.
"Let us go!" Jacques hissed.
The she-cat bared her teeth. "You'll die in the gutter, next to your mother." Fear shot through her. How could they possibly get out of the situation?
"Don't talk about our mother," Jacques growled. They cackled sadistically. Susan hissed under her breath, as she saw a ginger shape slipping through the tall grass.
Brick. How could he betray them like this, when he was their own father? He was caring for them, just to give them away to be slaughtered, or who knew what!
Thinking of this, Susan asked frightened, "What are you going to do to us?"
"That's for Scourge to determine."
Yep. Dying in the gutter.
In the gutter.
The hole in the side of the street reeked of rain water, and she could see the slime that coated its walls. Disgusted, she gulped, and swiftly pointed it out to Jacques.
"I'm scared."
"It's this or... them."
"But we have to save our mother!"
"We're just kits, Jacques. We don't have a chance. And Brick said that she was dead, remember?"
"We have to believe that she's alive," he whispered.
"Shut up!" the white tom snarled as he whipped around.
"It's now or never."
And Susan found herself skidding across the cracked and dirty street, and tumbling through the dank air. She could just feel the light brush of Jacques' fur against hers in their fall of terror.
Frightened, she felt her paws slam into the hard ground. Her teeth rattled, and water splashed into the thick air. 
"What did I get myself into?" she groaned.
"A gutter," Jacques said matter-of-factly. Susan couldn't even tell if he was being sarcastic or trying to be funny. Or just being stupid.
Without waiting for Jacques' approval, Susan began to pad to the tunnel in the side of the filthy stone wall.
As she straggled alongside her brother, she felt a jolt race through her heart. Hot, salty tears slipped down her cheeks. All she wanted was to go home to her mother, and curl up at her side, with Jacques. They would be the perfect family, except for the absence of a father. Ever since that moment, it was all that she longed for.
The angry shouts of the BloodClan cats echoed down all the way down to them. Such words made Susan's fur crawl.
It felt as if her heart would never be light again.
*~*~
Soft cushions lined her nest. Jilly stretched and yawned, unwilling to get up yet. But she could hear her Twoleg clunking around in the kitchen, and knew that she would want to say goodbye before Susan left. Glinting in the rising sun that streamed though the windows, was her collar. Jilly had nearly forgotten that it was there, it was so comfortable.
Goodbye, Jilly!" Susan called out. She purred her goodbye, and leaped onto the kitchen counter, to peer out of the window. The car picked up speed and sped away. Gracefully, she gave her paw a lick, and leaped off of the counter to eat some food. It was dry and tasteless on her mouth, but unsurprisingly, Jilly had gotten used to it.
She heard a rustle outside of the house. Slowly, her ears pricked. Curious, she went around to the front of the house to see the suspicious shaking. At first, all she could see were the bright green leaves and violet flowers of Susan's bush. But then a flash of ginger caught her eye, and she was plunged into a world of nervous terror.
It had been days since she had went to visit Scorch, and she never planned to again. She just couldn't take it. Her visit was a huge embarrassment for Scorch, and a horrible one for Jilly. How could kits just die off like that? Was the cold and lack of sustenance really that extreme? Jilly shivered to think of that life. The fact was, she didn't belong there.
It was too late. Blue eyes blinked at her from behind a purple blossom, and a ginger shape slid out from behind the bush. 
"Hello Scorch," Jilly mewed coolly.
"Hi Jilly," he replied, keeping his voice formal, but she could see the pleading in his eyes. A pang stabbed at her heart, but she had to ignore it.
"Listen... I'm sorry about what happened the other day, when you came to my home. I realize what a horrible experience for you it was."
"Yes, quite. But it's not your fault."
"I know. But I still need to apologize."
She nodded to him, keeping wary. Scorch took a few steps closer to stand next to her.
"Um... nice garden."
"Thank you."
"Okay, so Jilly--"
"Yes, what?"
"I'm sorry about our first experience, but would you want to try meeting me again? We made our den much warmer. And stocked prey. Please?"
Jilly was put on the spot. She shuffled her paws, but then decided that she couldn't say no.
"All right. Tomorrow, after my housefolk has left. Right when the sun has just risen."
== Chapter 4 ==
Susan's reflection rippled in the puddle of water, from the newly fallen rain. Her fur was now fluffier and downier, with more of a shimmer to it. Unlike the rest of her, her green eyes hadn't changed, but she still thought that they complimented her appearance. Slowly, the water trickled into the gutter on the side of the curb.
Susan remembered those fateful times. When they had lost Shade, and were taken hostage by BloodClan. They had tried to escape in one of the gutters much alike the one next to her, but failed. So now they were stuck in the Twolegplace wasteland that she had the displeasure to call home.
They might've been able to escape Scourge's clutches if they were able to find another way to exit the gutter that day. It was all because of Scorch that they were training with a BloodClan cat. He had been sent to take them out, and had succeeded.
It had been nine moons since then.
"You're starting to get vain. I suppose it only comes with she-cats' age," Jacques scoffed, as he walked up to her.
"Shut up," she snapped, "There's nothing wrong with glancing at yourself every now and then!" Her brother just snorted. For a moment, she secretly wondered if she was getting slightly conceited, but instantly forgot about it. She was training for BloodClan, and she hadn't died yet. Susan was a true fighter.
"We haven't got all day!" Susan cringed at the familiar snarl. It was Slash, their new trainer. It was customary for queens to train their own kits, but Shade had never returned to them.
No. Don't think about that now, Susan.
Slash, the deadly beauty of a she-cat, was waiting for them in the Twoleg lot next to the chain-link fence. Jacques was already strolling there, his ears pricked to listen intently.
Stifling her moan of loathing, she followed.
"It's about time!" Slash circled them, her tail flicking, whiskers twitching. That pretty tortoiseshell pelt surely didn't fool Susan anymore.
But Susan did like to fight. Except that morning, her heart wasn’t in it, and her mind wandering.
“Pay attention!” Slash hissed. Suddenly, she felt a sharp blow strike her side. To her surprise, it was Jacques, not Slash.
“What the heck?” Susan shouted, standing up. Her and Jacques vowed to never harm each other, if possible. It certainly wasn’t the time now.
Jacques took a little gasp, as if he wasn’t sure what he just did. To her annoyance, he smiled sheepishly, and said, “Susan! I’m really sorry! I thought that you would have your guard up!”
“Yeah, well whatever,” she grumbled, and began to lick her side. The blow was only slightly raw, with a thin amount of blood.
Shockingly, Slash didn’t explode at them as was anticipated. She just hung her head in a low growl. It was even scarier than her yelling side, for the littermates weren’t familiar with the strange behavior.
Then the words rang out, that Susan had always wanted to hear.
Except that for some reason they brought dread instead of joy.
“You’re on your own now. I can’t train you anymore. Look at you.”
She had to agree with her. Embarrassed, she thought of how she had gazed into the puddle earlier, and had been flabbergasted at her mature appearance. 
“But wait!” Jacques shouted. She gave him a look. Why would he want her to stay? She’s the bane of our existence!
“What?” Slash snapped.
“You can’t leave us now. We’re still very young cats, and I feel that we won’t be able to survive without your training.”
Sighing, Susan hid her face with her tail. Jacques was no longer making sense.
“You had better learn to fight and survive,” Slash spat, “But I supposed there are a few things that I should tell you.”
“First of all, I’m not your pathetic mother. I’m a high ranked BloodClan cat. Don’t come crying to me when you’re starving or wounded or sick, because I don’t care. It’s not my responsibility.” Susan had no idea whether or not to make a witty remark, or feel frightened at her dark future. Disappointed, she guessed that it was probably the latter.
“Take a new name. ‘Jacques’ and ‘Susan’ aren’t names acceptable for BloodClan, and you will be taken into questioning by Scourge if you don’t change them into something good.” Of course, she already knew what this meant. She didn’t believe that Slash started out with her name, or Bone, or Brick and Snake and Ice. Maybe even Scourge?
Giving one last hard stare, Slash turned tail. Jacques scuffled his paws, and once again shouted, “Wait!”
“What in Scourge’s name could you possibly want?” Slash snarled.
“Please stay. If not, I can find you!” His yellow eyes were round and pleading.
What’s going on here?
For a moment, she thought that she saw a bit of softness in Slash’s expression. But it just flickered and was gone, like the last ray of the sun.
And she spun around and walked away. Jacques looked heartbroken.
“Um. I guess she was like a second mother to us… particularly you?” Susan stuttered awkwardly.
The night was cold and icy, for the rain had frozen over and put a thick layer of frost over everything. Chilled to the bone, she buried herself even deeper into the discarded Twoleg rag that she had scavenged.
She heard Jacques rustle the bedding of his makeshift nest. Susan rolled over, shuffling her own. It was almost like a silent communication saying, “Yeah, I’m awake too.”
Finally, Jacques decided to be the one to break the quiet of the night. “What do you want to change your name to?”
“I don’t want to change my name. I’m perfectly happy with the one that our mother gave us.”
“You know that we have to, Susan.”
“I don’t care.”
“Yes you do. You’re terrified. You know that Shade wouldn’t want us to risk our lives by not obeying Scourge again.”
“Shade wouldn’t want us to give into the cats that killed her!”
“Fine then. See what you think when we finally meet the rest of BloodClan.”
“Meet the rest of BloodClan? When?”
“Oh, you know. You’re not as stupid as you pretend to be. Scourge gives advice, and we both have a lot to say to him.”
She buried her face deep into her nest. What was wrong with her sensible level headed brother?
“ So you’re saying that we should pour out our innermost problems to the cat that tried to kill us.”
“No, not exactly. You’ll understand, I promise. Just go to sleep.”
“Okay. Good night, Jacques.”
“Good night.”
His breathing slowed, as his stomach rose and fell. How he went to sleep that easily, she didn’t know. Often she lay awake, sadness overtaking her so she couldn’t ever rest.
It seemed like Jacques didn’t even care anymore.
But as she curled closer to him, she realized that he was her loyal brother, same as ever. They had been through thick and thin together.
His heart would never stray.
The sun was surprisingly warm for the previous several days of freezing rain and chilly air. This helped Susan rise, and groom herself. Better wake Jacques up and get out of here, before Slash gets hissy. 
But of course, she had to remind herself. They were no longer being trained. This is our chance to put our skills to the test. We must do a better job of hunting and fight for our own food.
“Wake up, Jacques,” she called to him.
His black and white head rose. “I’m already up. I was just waiting for you.”
She rolled her eyes. From what she could tell, he had completely groomed over most of his fur in a handsome fashion. Except that one tuft stuck out behind his ear, as always. Closing her eyes briefly, she reminisced of the times when their mother had licked over that same little spike. She purred as she remembered Jacques’ protests.
Feeling like she would never be happy again, she pulled herself out of the den. Time to find food. 
There was no nourishment in sight, except a little package of scraps that was being fought over blow for blow by a pair of hefty toms.
“Hey! Wait up!” Jacques yowled after her.
“Shut up!” she hissed under her breath, gesturing to the squalling toms.
“Do you think we can take them?” He sounded dubious.
“Do you think that we can sneak the food from them?” she replied.
“Well, they are preoccupied…” The bigger one of the toms was ripping the other one’s ear off at the moment. The latter’s jaws were wide open in agony, along with his eyes. She could see tears streaming down his cheeks.
Once again, she was disgusted by all of the cats that inhabited the streets. They had no honor, and would kill their own littermates for an extra meal.
Slowly, they crept up behind the fight. “We can easily sneak up in a moment, as soon as that victim tom is looking away,” her brother whispered. The ‘victim tom’ was writhing on the ground. Her stomach squirmed.
Jacques tensed, as the tom still squirmed in discomfort. She couldn’t help hearing his desperate cries of pain. Without giving a second thought, she darted out between the fight. “Stop!”
The bigger tom was striped, and extremely ferocious-looking. His head snapped around to look at her. “Who’s this specimen?” The familiar fear welled up inside of her, rooted right in her kithood. No matter how much she fought and survived on minimal prey, she would never be able to get rid of it. But she swallowed it and moved on.
“You’re hurting him. What did he ever do to deserve this?” she preached.
He didn’t even have to think to reply. “He wanted my food. It was what I found.”
“What you found? We found it at the same time! It’s mine, but then this savage thought it was fun to rip my ears off!”
“Shut up!” The striped one hissed.
“No! Both of you shut up! You toms aren’t worth more than the scum growing on the edges of the garbage cans,” she said.
“Stay out of it, Susan,” Jacques hissed, “We’re here to get food, not to resolve petty scuffles!”
Both of the toms instantly turned on them. “So you are trying to steal my food too?” the littler one growled.
“Um… we were… not anymore!” Jacques stuttered.
Without any thought, they attacked.
Susan ended up taking on the bigger striped tom. He was an excellent fighter, but Susan was quicker and more agile. Expertly, she landed a blow on his side.
She was so proud of herself that she lost her focus for just a moment. The tom rolled over, and easily squashed her.
Sputtering, she tried to wriggle from his weight. But she couldn’t.
“Uck—help!” she choked. Her brother instantly abandoned his fight, and came to hers. As they fought, she snuck away and snatched the box of Twoleg scraps away.
But she saw the little sneaky tom running up behind Jacques, in the perfect position to rake his claws across his side.
Forgetting about the food, she slammed into his side, and scratched his face. This just made the little tom angrier. He paddled her stomach with his paws.
“Where’s your precious mother know, kit?” he hissed.
Blinded by anger, she slammed his head into the side of the trashcan near him. A sickening clang was heard, and a spot of blood was on its rusty silver side.
To her surprise, they both turned tail and scampered away. Smugly, Susan noticed their tails between their legs. That’ll teach them!
“Did you see that? Did you see how I slammed his head on the bin?” she mewed, pushing the chicken towards the middle of them.
“Hey. What’s this?” Jacques murmured. He pointed to a little bright white object standing out against the faint layer of mud. It was a singular white tooth, laying below the spot where Susan had slammed the tom’s head, speckled with blood.
“Keep that too.”
“Keep a tooth? I’m not one of those BloodClan creeps that collects trophies!” she muttered with disgust.
“Susan!” Jacques hissed, “Those are collected to pay tribute to Scourge. You should probably start being respectful, or you’ll get us into a world of trouble.”
What ever happened to my kit brother.
Unable to agree with him, she just looked down. 
“Fine. I’ll take the tooth for Scourge.”
“Wait, but what if I need something for him?” she mewed.
He smirked, and flicked one of the chicken bones into her paws.
“Speaking of which,” he mewed, “Let’s eat.”
It was all so overwhelming. Susan felt constricted, and like she couldn’t breathe, squeezed between all of the cats. Their spiked collars occasionally scraped against her.
She had to stop, and gasped for air.
“Move on!” Someone hissed, and shoved her.
Finally, the line was located. Okay. All we have to do is wait in this line, tell Scourge our names, and give him the trophies. Just the thought of that scared her. She didn’t know how he would react to her sacrifice of a puny chicken bone.
“You did figure out your name, right?” Jacques mewed worriedly.
“Yeah.” She replied abruptly.
“Well? What did you choose?”
Right in the middle of their tense conversation, came a pair of young-looking cats, another she-cat and a tom. They were both a silver with thick tabby stripes and curious blue-gray eyes.
“Are you changing your names now, too?” the she-cat mewed excitedly.
“Yeah.”
“To what?” The dreaded question was brought up again. Susan wasn’t sure that they would approve her choice.
The strange she-cat spoke again. “I think I’m changing mine to Flash. Um… I guess as in the flash of claws in the moonlight!” Susan couldn’t help but roll her eyes.
She continued. “My mother named me Petunia, can you believe that? So ridiculous right?" But that's a pretty name!
Susan just flashed her a smile, then turned away.
"I'm not changing my name," the tom mewed, "Our mother named me Claw."
She wondered how many more cats thought that this was all some great excitement. To her, it was just horrible nightmare that brought up hellish kithood memories.
"What's your new one?" Petunia mewed.
Jacques and Susan glanced at each other, wondering if they should just ignore and go on. "Well?" Jacques whispered.
"What's the big deal?" she whispered back, "They seem friendly."
"Oh all right," Jacques mewed. "I'm going to become 'Scratch'." Scratch? That sounded horrible! Once again, she was worried about her own name.
"What about you, Susan?"
Nervous, she took a deep breath. "Lily."
"Lily?" Jacques screeched, "Lily?"
Petunia and Claw burst out laughing. "Ha, you're hilarious!" Claw exclaimed, and patted her on the back with his skinny tail.
"So what is it really?" Petunia inquired curiously.
Butterflies flitted around in her stomach, but she had no choice. "Um... Lily. I wasn't kidding."
At first, they looked at her, blue eyes wide with shock. Then they burst into roaring laughter. "Lily! Lily!" Claw laughed.
"Susan, really? Lily?" Jacques hissed under his breath.
"It's a beautiful name," she wobbily mewed, "And um... lilies are deadly when eaten!"
"Scourge isn't going to like it," he murmured.
"Stop worrying about me, Jacques! Slash left us on our own, and now we're each in charge of our own lives."
Petunia and Claw were now gone, but Susan could see that they had cut several terrified kits in line. Her heart pounded in sympathy, as an older tom pushed one of them with a simple flick of his paw.
The crowds grew even thicker, the more they waited. Strangely, even Jacques seemed as if he was bored, because he was now poking a kit in the tail.
"Stop it," she hissed.
"Fine. Whatever."
Soon, she lost her sense of direction, as the reek of old and new bones reached her nostrils, combining with the usual stench of Twoleg garbage. Gagging, the littermates moved through the crowd. To her relief, she thought she could see scourge sitting upon a dumpster like some kind of throne.
They were almost there, but she feared her encounter, like she had feared all of BloodClan for years.
Finally, she could see every horrific detail of Scourge up close again. Bone sat at the foot of the dumpster, surveying them with yellow eyes. He bore a strong resemblance to Jacques that made her fur crawl.
"Next to see Scourge," Bone growled. Susan's heart thumped, and she once thought of her chosen name. Can I just think of a new one really fast? Jacques sucked in a deep breath, and padded forward to him. She saw him drop the tooth before his feet.
Um... okay. A name. A new good scary name. Kneading her claws anxiously, she tried to think, yet nothing occured. Uh-- Sun? Moon? No, I just can't! Before she knew it, Jacques was padding up to her, looking proud.
"I did it! My name is Scratch now! Scourge approved me! And what's more, I told him our problems and he gave advice." Her mouth dropped open. 
"How could you?" she hissed, "You can't trust him!"
Bone padded up to them. "Now, are we having a nice conversation?"
"Um-- yes!" "Scratch" stuttered. Ugh. His name is Jacques, no matter what they say.
"This pretty little she-cat had better go before Scourge gets irritated," Bone mewed coldly.
Without a second thought, she zipped in front of the dumpster. She could feel those dog claws raking down her back.
For the second time in her life, her gaze met ice blue eyes.
"Speak now," Scourge mewed, his voice cold and high.
"Um... okay. I'm Susan..." she muttered nervously, "I want my new name to be..." She tried to think of a new name at that moment, yet had no more luck. "I want my name to be Lily."
"Lily? This is the first time that they've sent a prankster over here. Send her out with a punishment," Bone growled.
"Bone, sometimes I believe that you forget that I'm the leader of BloodClan," Scourge responded coolly, "You're dismissed right now." Without arguing, Bone dipped his head to Scourge, and backed away.
And she was all alone with him.
"Well Susan. Don't think that I've forgotten you," Scourge mewed icily, "Quite a troublemaking kit you were."
She swallowed her fear as she spoke. "Yes."
"Those skills may be useful to us, however," he said, "If you just change your name and dedicate yourself to us, you will be rewarded heavily."
"Lily will be my new name," she said strongly, even as her voice quivered.
"Not a traditional name..."
"Lilies are deadly when eaten!" she defended.
Scourge laughed. "Ah. Of course. You will regret your choice, however I will allow it."
"Thank you," she muttered to him. Ginger fur down her back spiked in anxiety.
"You will be free to go, unless you have something to share? And maybe a gift?" he mewed, his voice higher-pitched than usual.
"Yes. Of course, Scourge. I--I have nothing to say to you. However... I do have a gift." She braced herself for his large, blunt claws to slice into her, as she flipped the chicken bone from in between her paws to a pile in front of Scourge's dumpster.
He looked at her, unamused. "An unusual present. Now get out of my sight." She felt Bone drag her by the scruff away. Scourge may be feeling generous today, but Bone sure isn't.
Newly named "Lily" met up with "Scratch" just next to the waning line outside.
"You're okay!" he exclaimed.
"Yeah," she mewed distantly. Her life was constricted to the point to where she thought she had no personality at all, for Scourge had stripped it away.
Lily and Scratch slept pressed against a chain link fence, overshadowed with an ugly dark green bush. Weeds cushioned their nests. Lily longed for the days when they slept with their mother in the bush in the park, or even that one night in the shack. At least they were comfortable.
"Good night, Lily," Scratch mewed. She winced at the use of the name. Susan and Jacques were the names that their mother had given them, and she really didn't want them to change.
She knew that something was going on, as soon as she heard mutterings on the streets of a strange cat, and one of their own come back.
Lily approached Scratch with her fears one night. "There's something going on, I can't put my paw on it, but it can't mean good news."
"Nothing here ever means good news," Scratch pointed out, then continued licking his stained, dirty pads.
"Will you listen to me just this once?"
"I always listen to you!" he protested.
She sighed. "But you don't understand."
"I guess I don't."
But as she went scavenging with Scratch the next day, she saw a pair of cats sitting next to each other, whispering.
"--Been rumors of a pair of cats traveling though the city. Did you hear about them?"
The other tom scoffed. "Flicker, you can't be serious. The news is all over by now. I think it's one of those Clan cats, and Boulder."
"Boulder! He's the one that abandoned us!" Flicker hissed.
Lily leaned to Jacques. "See? Did you hear that?" she whispered to him.
Scratch nodded. Suddenly, both toms were staring at them. Flicker stepped up to them. "This is our territory," he hissed.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Even we know that this is everyone's territory."
"She's right," Scratch mewed, backing her up. A low growl rumbled from them, but they didn't protest any further.
"My name's Ice," the second tom growled, "And this is Flicker." Lily felt jealous of the beautiful name "Flicker". And from what she could tell, Scourge gave him no grief, because Flicker was part of his guard.
"Do you want to go check it out?" Ice inquired, to both of their surprise.
"Um... all right," Scratch mewed, "I'm Scratch, and this is Lily." Their own names still sounded strange, even on their own tongues. Especially on their own tongues. Despite the environment and everything else, she still preferred Susan.
At first they snickered. Then Ice burst into a full- fledged laugh. "Lily? Ha, what kind of a name is that?"
"My name," Lily responded, her ears flat down her head.
They continued laughing.
"Lilies are poisonous," she insisted. Scratch blushed furiously.
"Yes, whatever," Flicker mewed, "Come on."
Lily thought that Flicker seemed slightly familiar. Flicker... Flicker... where was that from? For another time, she was plunged back into her kithood memories. Strange cats were talking in hushes voices, just outside of the shack that she and her brother were taking refuge in. Lily gulped. Flicker was one of the cats that hunted her as a kit.
Following Ice and Flicker, they were soon among the throngs of cats again.
"Stay close," Scratch whispered to her.
"I'm not a kit anymore," she scoffed.
Scratch ignored her and took a step closer. Now they stood between a delicate silver she-cat with a raggedy pelt, and a mousy brown tom. For a moment, she was cast into her own thoughts of how much she hated all of BloodClan, and how she just missed her mother. Shade was caring and protected them all of their lives. It's all my fault that we're here today.
Suddenly, the crowd of cats began to part, forming a striaght path through them, cats on either side. Scratch and Lily were forced to fall back.
A pang of shock hit her, as she spied an extremely powerful looking brown tabby tom, flanked by another silver tom that was all too familiar. It was Boulder. As far as she could tell, Boulder was a kind cat, much nicer than most of the BloodClan ruffians. But all of a sudden, he was gone, moved off into the forest with the Clans some had said. So why would he come back to this dark place?
The large tabby tom's voice reached Lily's ears. "That's Scourge? He's no bigger than an apprentice!" Lily flinched. Who knew what would befall him soon.
"Quiet! These cats would kill if their leader ordered them to!" Would I?
She saw the lean black shape of Scourge slink a few paces forward as the pair drew nearer.
"Greetings, Boulder. So after spending life in the forest, you've decided to come crawling back?" he growled.
"No, Scourge. Life in the forest is good. There is plenty of prey and shelter," Boulder responded.
"Then why are you here?" he hissed. Boulder remained silent, and dipped his head to the large tom.
He spoke. Lily could feel the tension crackling in the air. "Greetings. I am Tigerstar, leader of ShadowClan, and I have a proposition for you." She felt Scratch dig his claw into her paw. She winced, but didn't respond.
The sight of Scourge leading Tigerstar away to speak privately gave her a bad, wrenching feeling in her gut.
Something was going to go terribly wrong.
*~*~
Quickly, her eyes snapped open right before dawn. She couldn't even hear the birds chirp.
Jilly groaned. Why did I have to get up so early? But she knew the real reason why. The excitement of meeting Scorch was too much to bear. He was coming at sunrise and she couldn't wait.
She could no longer ignore the excitement she was feeling all night, and how she had felt disappointed every time Scorch walked away. Now they could finally have an informal, fun relationship if their meeting went right.
Giving up on sleep, she got to her paws, and stretched.
Her distasteful reflection caught her eye, as she stood in front of a mirror. Tufts of her fur stuck out on end, and her blue collar was crooked on one side.
Quickly, she got to work grooming her wild appearance, until her smoky gray fur was smooth and fluffy, and her rhinestones were shining on her straightened collar.
Halfheartedly, she said goodbye to Susan as she left the house.
It seemed like an eternity before she saw the familiar ginger pelt of Scorch moving down the sidewalk. Without any hesitation, she scurried out of her cat flap and leaped over the fence.
"Scorch!" she exclaimed.
He smiled. "Hi!"
"So how are you?"
"Well... better than usual." Her heart twinged in sympathy.
"Are you sure that you don't want me to give you some food?"
He hissed. "Like I said, I'm not a kittypet. Now why don't we go do something fun or what?"
"Yeah, sounds good," Jilly mewed distantly.
He narrowed his eyes playfully. "Let me show you."
He took her down an alley, past his home, to the one next to it. On every wall, was a huge dumpster.
"Now, what you do, is try to run along the bins without falling," Scorch explained.
The first time she tried, she was a bit wobbly, and the reek of trash was really getting into her nose. She envied how quickly and gracefully Scorch ran along the edges.
Finally, she had to stop for breath. Scorch bounded up in front of her.
"If you place your paws slightly to the side, it will make it easier."
Jilly nodded, and attempted it again.
It was so much fun. She felt as if she was flying. But her third time around, she didn't see the spot of slime on the edge of the bin. Right in the middle of it, her paw landed, causing her to slip inside the dumpster.
Disgusting stenches surrounded her, as she tried to scramble to the top of the ledge. To her surprise, she was laughing harder than she ever had before. Scorch was laughing too, as he pulled her out.
"See me tomorrow?"
"You bet."
== Chapter 5 ==
Instantly, excited and frightened mutters rose from the crowd, and turned into a deafening roar.
"Who is that cat?"
"Tigerstar. He just said, you idiot!"
"ShadowClan? Are those forest cats?"
Lily fought her way to the edge of the crowd, panting. "Scratch!" she called out.
"Right here," he said, as he took his place by her side.
"Maybe Tigerstar is plotting to overthrow Scourge!" Nervous cries rang out, although Lily could hear some ecstatic whispers. The only reason why we've stuck with Scourge so long is that he gives us food and protects us, in his own twisted way.
"Over my dead body," a black and white tom growled.
"Snake!" Ice mewed. He bounded to Snake's side. They must be brothers. Only then did Lily notice their collars with smelly dog teeth.
Almost every cat milled around until nighttime, the moonshine on their pelts and dog teeth. Except for the queens, who obviously had starving kits to feed. Lily's heart twinged in sympathy. She wondered how many young lives wouldn't last the night. After all, she and Scratch barely survived themselves. As soon as the claw-moon started sinking in the sky, Lily finally convinced Scratch to go home.
"Come on. It's getting late, and I doubt Scourge will make an appearance until at least tomorrow."
"But we could be missing something important!" Scratch argued.
"If something important was going to happen, it would've occurred already."
"Ugh. Fine. But we have to find another cat to tell us what happened tomorrow."
"Yeah, yeah. Now let's go," Lily concluded.
She thought she wouldn't be able to sleep. But as soon as she lay down on the rags of her nest, she went out like the sun.
Unfortunately, Lily woke up the next morning feeling sleep--deprived and hating the world. Scratch was already awake, pacing the den. Glimmering, his yellow eyes blinked.
She yawned.
"Finally you're up!" he exclaimed.
All she could do was glare, and run her paw over her ear.
Scratch returned the look, and began speaking again. "Let's go hunt. I'm starving. And maybe we can come across some news of Tigerstar and Boulder."
Lily saw no way to stall any longer, so she followed Scratch outside.
The sun was still soft and warm, shining on her ginger pelt, and seeping into her bones. She let out a sigh of pleasure, and waved her tail.
"Where should we hunt?" Scratch inquired.
"I don't know."
"Maybe by the shack?"
"Ugh no," Lily replied, "The only thing that can be found there is worms and the occasional gopher."
"It's that or garbage," Scratch mewed grimly.
Seeing no other choice, Lily padded behind him to the park.
To Lily's annoyance, it was packed with Twolegs, running about the grass, and lying down on colored pelts. They must be trying to soak up the last of the sun before autumn.
The familiar outline of the rotting shack rose up, visible behind the last cropping of maple trees.
Just as Lily predicted, they had no luck. She snuffled around in the grass. No scent, not even a trace of shrew or a hollow burrow.
"Nothing?" Scratch questioned.
"Not a mouse tail," Lily said back.
"Ugh. Rotting Twoleg food it is then."
She found herself padding back under the shade of the maples. It reflected an intricate leaf pattern on her ginger fur. I am pretty, I guess. 
Scratch marched to the shortcut around the Twolegs. Lily snapped out of her reverie, and followed close behind.
Tentatively, she shot a glance at the clumpings of Twolegs. Two of their kits tossed a ball. The full grown one held a dog on a leash, barking.
This gave her an idea. 
A wonderful idea, but also a horrible one, because they could get in big trouble.
But it could work.
"Hey, Scratch," Lily whispered.
"What is it?"
"I have an idea."
"Wait, what?"
"We won't be eating trash today! Cause I have a plan."
Scratch gave her a look, as if to say, "A plan? But I'm the one with the plans that holds us together."
Not this time, Scratch.
"Are you insane?" Scratch hissed, as they strolled along the rows of Twoleg nests, with perfect gardens and white fences. The trees in each were abnormally short and bright.
Lily gave the classic response. "Maybe."
Despite his complaints, Scratch gave her plan a silent approval. Soon, they reached their destination.
"Here we are."
"This house?" Scratch mewed dubiously.
She had to admit, it was the most outstanding house on the street. The paint had began to chip, and the garden wasn't very well cared for. The buttercups were already wilted.
"You go first?" he mewed.
"Sure. Whatever," Lily mewed, trying to sound fearless, when her legs were shaking and her heart was literally on the verge of pounding out of her own chest.
Cautiously, she approached the little cat flap in the door. It was still an unthreatening, yet unviting, like she wasn't welcome.
Which she wasn't, so it didn't make much of a difference.
"Scratch, will you come with me? It would actually be better if we went together, I think," she mewed, hating herself for it. I always have to ask him for help. Always.
"Okay," he muttered nervously.
She waited for him to get close behind her, then without looking back, she pushed through the cat flap. The cold, slippery plastic brushed and pressed uncomfortably at her fur, as she fought her way in. Soon enough, she was through, and Scratch was sliding in after her.
"Wow," he breathed.
Then Lily decided to look up. There were big couches, their cushions feathery and new, unlike the dirty and torn one that she and Scratch once had to sleep on. Small little suns glowed from inside weird Twoleg contraptions, shining on the fuzzy earth.
Curiously, she put her nose into the air, trying to find an aroma of food. There was something that smelled slightly of meat, wafting from another room, but it didn't seem very fresh. But food was food, still better than Twoleg trash anyways.
"Follow me," she whispered.
Creeping into the kitchen like sly snakes, the pair soon arrived at two small bowls next to each other on the hard stone floor. The scent was definitely coming from one of them, that was filled with little brown pellets.
"It looks like rabbit droppings," Scratch complained.
Swallowing down her disgust, she replied. "Well, we haven't tasted it yet!"
And in her attempt to remain optimistic, and get something good to eat, she took a bite. The kittypet food wasn't nearly as bad as she expected, but it still tasted a bit stale and bland. The pellets crunched hard between her teeth, and she swallowed.
"Not too bad," she mewed, "Go on."
Looking less apprehensive, Scratch bent over to take a bite. She watched him chew the tough mixture, and push it down his throat. Her stomach rumbled again. Before she knew it, they were hungrily eating the food, as it filled up their bellies. They hadn't eaten so well in a moon.
Lily didn't smell the unfamiliar scent at first, because her nose was full of kittypet food. But even she was able to sense another presence in the room.
Slowly, she turned around, to see a kittypet growling at them.
She didn't know whether or not to be scared or laughing. Kittypets were most often fat and lazy, unable to lift a claw to save their lives. Yet the anger in that one's eyes scared her.
"Um... Scratch?" she mewed nervously.
He looked up. "What?" He jumped at the sight of the kittypet.
"Oh. It's just a kittypet," he realized.
The kittypet growled, muscles rippling under his cream fur. "This is my territory, and my food."
And he attempted to leap at them. The kittypet was obviously an especially ferocious one, but his weight slowed him down before he pounced. Lily was able to sidestep, and deliver a sharp blow on his side.
"Let's get out of here!" Scratch hissed.
"No!" Lily responded, "This is the most food we've seen in a long time! We can't just give it up now!"
"It's not ours, Lily!"
"Well obviously this overfed kittypet doesn't need any more of it though!" she retorted, instantly regretting it. The kittypet raked her side. It stung horribly, but she ducked underneath him and gave him a little scratch on his dangling stomach.
"But we've eaten our share! Now let's go, before there's more trouble!"
She saw no other way to get out of doing what he said, so she just stepped away from the raging kittypet.
"That's right! Out of my house!"
"We'll be glad to get out of your stinking house!" Scratch shouted back. They were nearly at the cat flap, when Lily felt a sharp blow on her tail. She whipped around, hissing, to see a Twoleg holding a broom.
They didn't wait to see what happened next.
She panted, as they ran along the street, the sun now beating down since it was sunhigh.
"Let's go rest," Scratch suggested.
"Good idea," she agreed.
Their little bush against the chain link fence was in sight, when a small group of cats appeared over the rise. Lily groaned inwardly. I've had enough of BloodClan cats to last a lifetime.
Ice seemed to be at the head, his black and white fur in sharp contrast.
"Scourge has called a mandatory meeting. It will take place beneath his dumpster. It starts now."
Dejectedly, she strolled alongside Scratch, dreading what was to come. 
Like this day couldn't get any worse.
Whenever Scourge called a mandatory meeting, it was always bad news. Either some cat was being executed, or being interrogated then executed. Lily's first one was when she was just a puny kit. She didn't remember much of anything other than the sobs, and a lone scream, and the blood. She had nightmares for a quarter moon, causing her to sleep pressed against Scratch (Jacques then) and her mother for comfort.
So this couldn't be good.
"I wonder what's happening," Scratch whispered to her.
"An execution," Lily mewed coldly. Deep down, she knew that she was feeling terror, simply because she had to watch other cats in pain most likely for something they didn't do.
"Or maybe it could have something to do with Tigerstar and Boulder...." Scratch thought out loud.
"That must be it," Lily concluded, "They've come to challenge Scourge, and they're going to be executed." But even she had her nagging doubts. Tigerstar looked much to powerful to just oblige to Scourge like that.
Once they were there, amongst all of the underfed and vicious BloodClan cats, she took her seat beside Snake and Scratch to wait for it to start. Dread pulsed through her. She was nearly comfortable, as soon as a commanding presence washed over the flea--bitten crowds.
Yeah, and there was the tiny black shape of Scourge, his dog tooth collar glinting. For the first time, Lily noticed little bits of string dangling from the blueish material, nearly wedged behind an elongated tooth. They looked like the thread used by Twolegs to tie bells on kittypet collars. This was a startling revelation... she had never considered that Scourge was once a kittypet. Ever since the first time she saw him, she always thought that he was born rogue, and had a tough kithood (tougher than most), and ended up as the dictator of the horrible Twolegplace BloodClan, and all of its so--called 'cats'.
"Greetings, cats of BloodClan," he yowled shrilly.
"Greetings, Scourge," Everyone mewed back like little drones, except for the proud parts of Scourge's guard, sitting with their chests puffed out at the foot of the meeting dumpster.
"I have important news to share with you today." She could literally feel the surge of excitement through the crowd. Scourge giving "important news" couldn't be good, either, but it was better than an execution. And what is he going to say?
"Tigerstar and Boulder have recently left. With them, they brought a chance for BloodClan to rise to power!" he yowled.
"Power! Power!" Bone chanted. A few joined in, but fell silent as Scourge continued.
"Tigerstar belongs to a Clan named ShadowClan. He claims that he has plans to rule over the forest, and if we help him drive out all the other Clans, he will give us a share of the forest!"
This was much better than Lily was expecting. Her heart was light and buoyant, and her paws itched for the beautiful, shady trees and the gurgle of streams. And plentiful prey. Yes, lots and lots of prey. Her stomach growled.
"This is too good to be true!"
"When do we fight?"
"How many cats are there to fight?"
"Silence, all of you!" Scourge hissed, striking fear into their hearts once again, "Most likely, all we will have to do is make an appearance, and these pathetice, bloodless Clans will be running with their tails between their legs. Unfortunately, probably no fighting, Tigerstar says."
"Who cares what Tigerstar thinks?" Scratch yowled up at him. This was the first time she had ever seen him contribute to BloodClan in that manner; it came as quite a surprise.
His blue eyes flashed as if it were a veiled insult. "Tigerstar does not command BloodClan," he growled, "That would be me. We are merely taking his help, and part of the forest."
"So when do we attack?"
"Not until Tigerstar gives us a warning."
Scourge jumped down, his claws making a clattering sound on the earth. In hushed whispers, he spoke to Bone. There's nothing I would like to do more than rip Bone's thick throat out. He thinks he's so tough and special, so he goes around terrorizing cats to impress the great Scourge. Pah.
"We are going to need all of the cats possible to intimidate the Clans when the time comes, and maybe fight, if we are lucky to have the blood of our enemies flow."
Where is he going with this?
"Bring them out!"
Awkwardly, Slash and Snake conversed. Eventually, they pushed out a steady line of cats from a den of discarded boards. They all seemed... starving. More starving than the average cat. Their fur hang in tatters, and their eyes had a frightened glow. Not to mention the cuts scarring their flank.
"Who are those cats?" she muttered to Scratch.
"I'm not sure. Let's find out."
Then Lily saw something that literally made her heart stop, her breathing come in deep, long gasps. Shock coursed through her veins. 
Never had she been so surprised in her life, along with so many more conflicting emotions she could not name.
It was Shade.
Their mother, who was supposedly dead.
Her pelt was scarred as well, her eyes dull, ribs showing perfectly.
"Mom!" Lily cried. Her head peered around to look at her, and her eyes filled with joy.
Without thinking twice, she ran up to her, not even caring about what would happen to her or what Scourge and Bone would think.
"How are you still alive? I need to get you food! I'm just so happy you're back! Please answer me, mother! We've missed you!" Lily mewed all at once. She got no response, even when she brushed up on her mother's beautiful gray flank. But she also touched a few of her scars. Some were still bleeding even. She must be in so much pain... where was she?
"Shade? Mother?"
Her green eyes met blue ones. Scratch padded up beside her, in complete shock.
Still no response.
"Can you talk?" Lily whispered.
Shade's blue eyes glimmered sadly, expressing all of the words and emotions that she could ever say with words.
Oh no. What did they do to you?
*~*~
Susan held Jilly in a firm grip on her lap, as she watched her TV. Jilly had never gotten her fascination with that thing, anyways. 
The cat flap was firmly locked with a weird contraption that only housefolk could function, and so was the one in the back. Rarely did she leave the windows open. As a result of all this, she felt stuffy, and she missed Scorch more than ever.
She could understand her housefolk's worry that she would eventually run away and never come back, so all of this overprotection and sealing the house was just because she loved her.
But she couldn't stand it.
She feared that she wouldn't be able to get out, and would miss a lot of her and Scorch's nightly meetings, then he would think that she hated him now and didn't want to see him, even though that was the only thing she wanted to do in the whole world.
After their first several meetings, they began to grow closer, until they were best friends. They were together all the time, laughing, having fun, sharing secrets that only they knew. And finally he let her give some of her pellets, and the chicken that she managed to nick from the table.
The moon's pale glow soon rose in the sky, along with the harsh yellow light of the street lamps. Susan's breathing became slower, and she was asleep. Her grip slackened. She was asleep.
Ignoring the blaring TV, Jilly saw her chance. Slowly, she crept upstairs. The only window open was the one in her housefolk's bedroom. Heart thumping, she clambered onto the edge. It wasn't that far of a fall if she slipped, but there was always some danger. Before she could think about it any more, she was scrabbling down the smooth house wall, then tumbling through the air, to land safely on the sproingy grass.
Like the sly raccoons that dug through Susan's trash, she crept silently across the prickly lawn, and came to a halt beneath the fence. Tensing her muscles, she leaped, and landed at the very top. Moonlight washed over her gray fur, making it seem more silver than that boring color it really was.
Around moonhigh, she was ready to give up hope. But then she saw a pair of blue eyes shining from the shadow of her fence.
"Scorch! You came!"
"Yeah," he mewed from the ground, "Listen. I realize that it's kind of a bad time for you. It is for me too; my younger siblings are in danger. They're about to outgrow living with their mother and they have to live by themselves. Which means that they are even more subjected to hunger, cold, and ferocious BloodClan cats! They're not allowed to live together, either." As usual, all of his troubles spilled out. They always made Jilly feel guilty about her comfortable, easy life.
"Okay. I'll help in any way I can. Meet me tomorrow afternoon, okay?"
"Yeah, okay."
Before she could think any more about the words, they slipped out. "I love you."
She heard a quiet gasp from Scorch. Then he spoke. "I love you too, Jilly."
Her eyes began to close with sleepiness, and when she regained her focus, he was no longer there. 
Despite the cold night, she felt all warm inside.
Once again, she heard pawsteps pattering along, but this time, on a fence. She whipped around to her left to see who it was.
It was Berry, the she-cat who lived in the house next to her. She seemed nice enough, from the few times that Jilly had talked to her.
But this time she was shaking her head in disapproval.
"Oh, Jilly, girl," she mewed sympathetically, "You're in for nothing but trouble."
Jilly just scoffed, and leaped off the fence, back into the house. Why would she listen to Berry, anyways?
== Chapter 6 ==
The patter of pawsteps, and something being dragged lightly across the ground could be heard from a block away.
If I didn't know better, I would think that a cat just died.
Lily and Scratch stood on either side of their mother, doing their best to help her get to shelter. Her weakened paws dragged along the ground, and she moaned.
Deep down beneath Lily's calm exterior, her heart was racing, mind whirling.
Will she be all right? What if she dies? And how could they've possibly done something like this to her?
"She can't possibly fit safely and comfortably in our den!" Scratch mewed frantically. Lily secretly had the same worries, but didn't know where else could be safer. All of the places that didn't smell to bad, and made for good shelter were inhabited by feirce BloodClan cats or at least had them nearby. That was a risk that couldn't be taken.
"I think it would be better if she stayed with us," Lily replied. Shade let out a low moan.
Soon, she was lying underneath a bush, as she let water trickle from a rag into her mouth. Scratch was out hunting; he would be back soon, hopefully with something actually good. Prey seemed to be getting even scarcer those days, even if you could call what they ate "prey". It was mostly trash and whatever edible thing crawled out of the gutter.
The whole day, the streets seemed quiet. Even the crows that roosted on the overhead wires remained silent. It was unreal, almost like the calm before the storm. 
Lily wondered what the storm could be. But as soon as the possibilities started pouring in, her mind tried to shut out those thoughts. Shade dying.... Scratch dying.... BloodClan attack and execution.... the promised battle. Unable to hold it in any longer, she turned to see Scratch padding towards her with a chicken bone.
"Scratch?"
"Yes?"
"I... I'm worried."
"About what? Finding food? I was real lucky, and found a chicken bone."
"No, not that. It's just... something bad's going to happen. I can feel it."
He looked her straight in the eye, his intelligent voice sincere. "Lily, don't worry about our mother or the battle. She's in our care now. As for the battle, Scourge has everything under control, and will lead us to a victory over those wimpy Clan cats. Soon, we will have more prey than we can ever imagine." She did admit that it sounded good. The light and shadow of oaks side by side, green leaves rustling, squirrels chattering up amongst the branches waiting to be caught. Even better, the rivers trickling by that were full of fish. Maybe Scourge isn't so bad after all, if he's leading us to all of this.
She never thought that she could fin herself thinking of Scourge, almost positively. But then she looked down at her mother again. Shade was just opening her eyes to a crack. All of her gratitude vanished. Scourge is a tyrant and a murderer, I don't care what anyone says.
Her mother hungrily dug into the chicken bone. Lily thought she had never seen a cat so hungry, and that was saying a lot, because everyone on the streets of Twolegplace seemed like their only purpose in life was to get their next meal. For some, it was.
She chose to sit by her mother, and see if she would talk.
"Shade? Mother?" she mewed. There was, of course, no response. Fat tears rolled down her cheeks. But brilliant blue eyes stared at her calmly, as if she were saying, I understand you. I am so happy that you saved me. You are wonderful kits. Or maybe that was Lily's imagination trying to come up with something happy to think.
Just then, most inconveniently, her own stomach growled ominously. She was starving, and she hadn't realized till then, after all of the excitement of trying to heal her mother. It had taken what had seemed like days to press all of the leaves on her gashes. Now she was hungry enough to eat a dog.
"Hungry?" Scratch asked.
"Well, yeah. Did you bring any extra food?" He shook his head.
"This was hard enough to find."
She took a few steps towards the hole in the chain link fence. "I think I'll go get some food now, or at least try to. Water as well. I'm parched." Scratch nodded agreement, as she gave Shade a comforting lick before she began heading out herself.
Same as earlier, the streets were almost like a dream. Barely any cars whizzed by, and no cats were seen.
The calm before the storm.
Shaking off her unease, she absentmindedly padded down a friendly - looking alley. Well, as friendly as an alley could ever get. Lily wouldn't care if she never had to see one again in her entire life. Unless it was the main source of food, which it was, and that really sucked.
There was barely any cat scent there, except for the remains of a queen's nest underneath a dumpster. She decided to leap on top of it, to see if what was inside could be of any use.
And she was surprised.
It had to be one of the luckiest dumpsters she had come across in ages. It had oodles of meat that was still slightly warm, and a few ratty rags and coat scraps that would be perfect for bedding. Only if I could carry it all! Lily decided on taking the food for tonight, because that was gravely needed. The bedding she would bring tomorrow, if she had time. 
After that, the strange feeling that the world was watching her seemed to disappear. More carefree than usual, she soaked a rag in a puddle on the sidewalk. And let's hope my mother doesn't get sick off of this water...
A mourning dove flitted down from the wire, and landed on her fence over her family's den. The markings on it were a strange black pattern. It uttered a low coo. Stick around, and you'll be lunch, she thought. Although she couldn't help but admire the beautiful bird.
Right then, she was at the perfect angle not to notice a pair of blue eyes watching her from just around the bend.
The next day seemed to have the same lazy feeling to it. Lily considered trying to get her mother to talk again, but decided that it was no use. Whatever Scourge's cats had done to her, it was horrific, and uncurable. She shoved down all of the images and possibilities that arose in her mind.
"I think that we need to give the BloodClan cats payback for what they've done to our mother," she stated ominously.
"That's ridiculous, Lily," Scratch mewed sharply, "The BloodClan cats are now leading us to safety and warmth and prey. Plus, you don't even know which cats did it."
"Oh, I have a pretty good idea," she replied grimly.
"Just drop it, all right? We already have enough trouble in our lives."
She pointedly turned away from him, to look at Shade. She appeared calm, and gave a little nod of greeting to Lily.
"Hi, Mom," she whispered. Shade began to purr. But suddenly, she stopped, and a growl rose in her throat. Lily hurriedly looked over her shoulder.
"What?"
Her mother's eyes flashed, as she gestured to two blue eyes, staring at them calmly from across the street. She let out a low hiss, and backed up into the den. Only she could see her true terror.
"Scratch! Scratch!" Lily hissed. He had to pay attention right now. But he still seemed to be ignoring her. Twiddling his claws... I hate him.
But when she looked back, the blue eyes were gone, just like that.
She came to a decision to go investigate what was over there, and to get the bedding she discovered the day before, which was of less importance. A nagging feeling that those eyes contributed to her mother's misery came up.
Sly as a raccoon, she crept along the curb, and dashed across the street when the cars ceased to run along the street. 
There was no trace of another cat in the alley, except for a tuft of ginger fur resting in a crack on the pavement. Brick. She growled. Brick had lied to them, saying that he was their father, just to gain their trust to get them captured. I wouldn't put it past him to do all of this to my mother.
She gave it a sniff. The scent wasn't familiar, but who else could it be, spying on them? Trying to exploit them and attack them? But then she remembered that the eyes were blue, not green. It had to be another cat.
Chills raced down her spine at the utter silence.
And the unknown cat that obviously did not have good intentions.
Stop thinking about it, Lily, she told herself. For a moment, she realized that it seemed as if she traveled back into her kithood, when she was Susan and frightened of everything. 
Soon, she was at the dumpster where she had found the meat and rags. Unfortunately, it looked as if some cat had taken some of them. But that was all right. There was still plenty. As carefully as possible, she gathered up the rags in her mouth and turned around to leap off of the edge of the dumpster.
All of the rags slid out of her mouth and hit the dirty alley ground.
There stood a ginger cat, blue - eyed, staring back at her. He seemed unafraid of her, yet he didn't seem very menacing either. He blinked once, twice. Lily couldn't help feeling that she had seen him before, in a very distant memory. Not a good one either.
After thinking for a minute, he spoke. "I'm glad I finally get to meet you."
Lily wrinkled her nose in disgust. This wasn't the scary threat that terrified her mother, it was just a creeper.
"And could you please explain to me what you were doing watching our den?" she questioned haughtily, as she leaped down to retrieve her bedding. 
"So you don't remember me?"
Lily's suspicions were confirmed. She gulped, and shook her head, even though his face was a familiar one.
"I met you when you were a kit. Remember that day, when you foolishly wandered off right into Scourge's paws?"
She could only assume that he was referring to the time when she ran away from her mother, because she was scared of fighting.
It's all my fault. All my fault that Shade's scarred literally and mentally.
"You were the cat that Scourge made me fight," she whispered. She all remembered it now. He had attacked her, but made sure not to hurt her. It was a great puzzle to her... he could just be two - sided, like Brick. Still, he seems much nicer than Brick...
"I spared your life."
"You had nothing to do with my survival!" she retorted.
"I refused to injure you. And you know why?"
"No, I don't. And I don't care. Just step aside, so I can return to my mother and brother." Instantly, she slapped her tail over her mouth. Siblings weren't supposed to live together once they got older, let alone with their mother.
The mysterious cat didn't seem to care though. "I think you do care."
"Fine, so what? But there are more important things in life."
He slowly came closer. "Like your mother. But have you ever thought of your father?"
"Sometimes," she admitted. Like he hadn't a worry in the world, he flounced to her side, and pressed his flank right against hers. Their shade of ginger perfectly matched. They even seemed to have the same paw and leg structure.
"Now do you understand?" he mewed, starting to sound less elusive, "My name is Scorch."
Lily backed away. He could just be another cat, like Brick, trying to trick her into letting her guard down. He could be plotting to tell Scourge about their living situation right that moment. Yet something in his blue eyes seemed sincere.
Although she was fairly sure that he could not be trusted.
Without another word, she picked up her bedding, and rushed away from him. 
"Get away from us!" she spat, "I know what you're trying to do!"
"Scourge doesn't want to hurt you! He helps you, by keeping everything under a tight power!" 
"That's what you call oppressive corruption," Lily yowled back after him. Scorch brought back bad memories, horrible memories... he suported Scourge. But she had a strange gut feeling that the undesirable tom was her father.
Their den was just around the block, just around the corner. She could make it with out meeting any other cats.
And she didn't.
Yet when she whipped around the bend, she ended up face to face with two angry Twolegs.
The one towards the rear barked out its weird language, pointing to Lily, and Scorch, who was farther down. She let out a cry of terror, and tried to run. But the Twoleg in front reached out its meaty paws, and snatched her. Before she knew it, she was shoved into a tight cage stinking of the cats before her. She began meowing even more, terrified, only thinking about how to survive. She could see Scorch through the wire of the cage, darting side to side, indecisive on whether or not to save her or save himself.
As the other Twoleg rushed towards him, he decided to save himself.
Lily didn't remember much else, other than being shut in a darkened, rumbling car, everything going black.
The storm had broke.
*~*~
Jilly was seeing Scorch once again, but this time, the meeting wasn't all light and lovey - dovey. Scorch seemed to have something on his mind, and a worried look in his eye. He shuffled his paws.
"Come on, what is it?" she finally asked, "Tell me so we can have some fun!" For a moment, her heart lurched. What if he's going to say that he wants to break up with me? She felt dizzy at the thought. Her life would barely have any meaning then.
He opened his mouth to talk to her, his words coming out surprisingly smooth and well - planned. 
"I want to take you for a walk around the city today. And I can talk more about how life for me is really like." She couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. They were still a couple. But this must be serious, if he's in this mood.
"Um... okay, sure," she mewed, and leaped down from her fence. It had been new once, but now it bore her clawmarks and scent.
They walked along the sidewalk so close, that her pelt brushed his. Jitters raced along her spine.
"So, I know that you know life is rough for me," Scorch began awkwardly.
"Well, yeah," she responded in the same manner.
"But you don't really know how this stinking place runs."
"Uh... I always thought that it was completely chaos with no control."
"Not exactly." His words were grim. "See, the feral cats of Twolegplace are all controlled by Scourge. He's the cat in charge. How he rose to power, I don't really want to know, but you're either with Scourge or against Scourge."
"He sounds big and scary," Jilly whispered back.
Scorch let out a little chuckle. "Scary, yes, but you'd be surprised by his size."
They turned around a corner, and began to head into the park.
"There are cats that are somewhat subordinates to Scourge. The biggest and meanest is Bone. But there are others as well, who all serve Scourge and capture cats who are breaking the rules."
She gulped. "What are the rules?"
"Well, obviously, never question Scourge or say anything against him. And you wouldn't anger his guard if you were smart. You're not really allowed to be out late at night, that would arouse suspicions. You're not supposed to be living with other cats once you get older, either."
"Wow," Jilly mewed. She wondered why Scorch hadn't told her about all of this before.
"And I have another reason for telling you all this," he mewed, looking down nervously.
"What?" she inquired, ears pricked, eyes wide.
"Would you like to join me and live on the streets?"
== Chapter 7 ==
Lily just wished that she could sleep through it all. All of the horror, all of the misery.
But she couldn't, because of the reek of cats and their frightened cries. The sound of them getting sick from the movement of the vehicle.
But sleeping won't be any help with getting out of here! She pawed at the intertwined wires, meowing with fury. It was solid as a rock. But she couldn't stay in there forever!
She attempted to reach her paw through the cage bars, trying to find some sort of lock or catch she could use to pop the door open.
Struggling, she tried to push it open, but once again had no luck.
An intimidating voice rang out behind her. "It's no use."
She whipped around. "So you're just going to sit here, doing nothing, while the Twolegs are going to take us away to do who knows what?" she hissed.
He fiddled with his claws almost carelessly. "Oh, it's not so much of a secret what happens to us."
Bile rose in her throat. "What? What are they going to do?" she demanded.
But just then, the truck screeched to a bone - rattling halt. Lily was thrown forward in her cage, causing her side to slam against the edge of the bars, her cage jamming into the one next to it. The she-cat contained in it let out an angry hiss.
The cries turned into worried mutterings and rushed love confessions. Fear raged through her. She turned to the tom once again.
"Where are we?" she questioned breathily.
He gave her a mocking grin. "We're at the pound."
By ones and sometimes twos, the cages were removed from the dark back of the truck. The outside light was blinding, and because of this, she could see the complete inside of the truck. She wouldn't have been able to get out even if she somehow managed to push the door open, because the cages were packed so tight that she was surprised there was even any air in there.
A big, hairy Twoleg paw finally reached towards her cage. She didn't know whether or not to be relieved that she was escaping, or horrified that she was going to meet her fate.
The cage swung around so much in the trip inside the Twoleg building, that she thought she was going to feel sick. Unable to stop herself, she vomited in the corner.
To her relief, she was soon set down. The cage still reeked though.
From what she could gather, these Twolegs would take cats off of the streets, and stick them in these cages. Sometimes Twolegs would bring kittypets, too, but apparently that wasn't as often. What kind of Twoleg would abandon their own kittypet?
At the end of her nauseating journey, she found herself in the very same cage, yet in a row that was more spacious than the awful truck. But there were still cages and cages piled on top of her and around her, all full of terrified cats mewling and talking and crying. It certainly wasn't cheery.
Eventually, the stuffy air in there grew colder. She could tell that it was nighttime. For awhile, she curled up in the clean corner of her cage, in a futile attempt to get some sleep. She soon realized that it was no use. Half of the cats didn't seem to want to sleep, because of fear or nightmares.
Eventually, she just rolled over and stood up. A small white tom stood next to her, licking his paw irritably. His green eyes glimmered. 
She decided to make herself known a little bit more. "When are we ever going to get out of here?" she asked him wistfully.
He sighed. "When a Twoleg decides that they want you. Unlikely, though."
Lily's mouth dropped right open. "So we're stuck here forever?"
He laughed. "Well you seem uninformed," he mewed.
Lily growled. How hard was it to find a nice, sensitive cat on these streets? But she realized that he was better than most, so she listened when he continued to speak. 
"If you're here for a certain amount of time, and no Twoleg wants you, then, well..." he hesitated before continuing. "They take you away, you'll know when it's time. And they'll gas you."
"Gas me?"
"Yeah, gas you. Make you breath poisonous air until you die."
Her stomach lurched. It sounded like one of the most painful ways to die... unable to get fresh air, fighting not to breathe, then finally taking a breath... choking and writhing. It was like drowning in air.
She didn't realize that she seemed to be frozen, until the tom pointed it out to her by poking her with his claw.
Embarrassed, she instantly leaped up. "Ow!" she mewed instinctively.
"Anyways, my name's Light," he said, yawning. "Well - I mean - it's Spike."
Lily raised an eyebrow. "Are you part of BloodClan? I'm guessing you are."
"Well, yeah," he said, "Light was just my name before having it changed. I still haven't gotten used to Spike."
Unsurprisingly, he was no exception either. There weren't many cats against Scourge those days. It saddened Lily, but then she realized that she didn't have the courage to do it as well.
"My name's Lily," she mewed.
"Ah," Spike mewed, "So you're a kittypet?"
Insulted, she replied sharply, "No. That's just my name." She prepared herself to give the whole lilies-are-poisonous-flowers speech, but Spike interrupted her before she could.
"That's a pretty name. Quite... unusual."
They didn't speak much after that. But that was fine with her; Lily thought that she might have finally found a friend in an cruel world.
The next morning had to be one of the most painful ones in her life. She had a rude awakening, from some Twolegs plodding down the rows. She shrunk back in her cage, as they carelessly flung open the cage door and dumped some pellets in her food bowl. 
The clinking sound rang in her ears. This made her realize just how spacey and tired she was... ugh...
It seemed like a few moments later, that she opened her eyes again. She was slumped on the hard floor of her cage.
"Tired?" Spike asked her teasingly, poking his nose through the bars.
"You bet," she grumbled, eyeing him in a grumpy fashion.
"We all want to get out of here. So don't feel alone. Plus -  with your pelt and age, it will be easy for you to be chosen. Me, on the other paw - not so much."
"Why not?"
"No Twoleg would want a boring cat like me!" Lily couldn't tell if he was joking or not, so she just said, "You're not boring!"
The day dragged by at a slow pace, everything completely monotonous. Towards the afternoon, a cheery little Twoleg came in. She didn't look quite young enough to be a kit, but she wasn't old enough to be an adult Twoleg either.
"That's Mandy," Spike explained, "She comes in every week to take care of us."
Her brown Twoleg eyes seemed to zoom in on Lily instantly.
Mandy padded over quickly, and popped open the cage. Lily, of course, saw her chance. In a flash, she darted out of the cage, hoping to landing on the hard gray ground, and run.
But intead she was caught in Mandy's arms.
She made little cooing noises and squealing as she tried to struggle free. Then she set her down.
Lily was elated. Happy that she was free, she began to scrabble away, desperately trying to find an exit. 
She did come across the Twoleg doors. But they were closed and locked.
"Pigeon dirt!" she snarled. There was no escape. The only way she could get out was being adopted.
If she didn't.... she shuddered.
Time seemed to drag by in her enclosed prison. There was no view of the sun, so she could hardly tell whether or not it was day or night. She just slept when she was tired, ate when she was hungry. Well... she was always hungry. The pound servings weren't enough for the average cat, and on top of that, they were absolutely disgusting. Lily honestly couldn't be able to tell the difference if they were rat droppings or food.
Meanwhile, she talked to Spike. Unlike most BloodClan cats, his name didn't really suit him. Lily honestly thought that "Light" was much better. Although if she thought about it, "Lily" was a name for a beautiful and pampered little tortoiseshell she-cat. Not a tough alley she-cat. For the first time, she really thought of her old name more, and the more she missed it.
"How long have you been here?" she asked Spike one day.
"Hmm. Moons," he replied distantly.
"Moons?" Lily asked, in complete shock. How could a cat possibly survive if they had been here for moons? Wouldn't they be insane? And how long until they would exterminate the cats?
And yet Spike seemed fine, undaunted by the times ahead. She figured it would be rude if she asked about it though, so she refrained.
"What part of Twolegplace did you live in, before you were captured?"
"Oh - um, gosh..." Lily thought of all the different places that she lived. It was like a blurred memory before, and now it was distinct and clear as day and night. Before she talked to Spike, she didn't reflect on her life much. Maybe she didn't want to, which was understandable. Shuddering, she thought of the time when she had been forced to fight and flee and suffer. Her loved ones, too. Shade certaintly didn't deserve those scars.
"Uh - I live just down by the park, several blocks away," she stuttered. Spike looked at her curiously.
Like a gushing waterfall, unable to stop herself, Lily poured everything out. From when she was a tiny kit and trying to survive, to when she was older and searching for enemies around every corner.
Spike gave her a strong gaze of sympathy. Through the cage bars, he reached out his tail to give her a light, reassuring touch on the shoulder. Lily returned a look of gratitude.
"You don't belong in BloodClan," she said suddenly.
He shook his head. "I do. I really do."
She looked at him dubiously. "But... it doesn't seem like your type of life."
Dejectedly, she looked outside. Drab and gray as ever, was the hallway, full of unlucky cats in cages. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Spike slumped against the side of his cage. Worry coursed through her. Spike had remained considerably cheerful all throughout the miserable experience. What if his confidence had cracked...?
"Spike? Spike?" she mewed. All he did was give her an empty look, and begin to eat his stale food. Lily could hear its unpleasant crunch from where she was.
Lily tried to curl up and go to sleep, yet she was having trouble falling asleep. She had obviously stirred up some horrible memories in Spike; yet instead of spilling them all out like she had, he closed himself up.
The next day was considered exciting in their situation, because Mandy came that day. Lily actually found herself purring and letting Mandy stroke her; it wasn't so bad, once you got used to it.
"Not so tough now, are you?" Spike lightly teased.
Lily didn't have the heart to tell him that he was a really bad joker, so she just swatted him lightly against the side with her paw. Her fur slightly snagged on the cage bars.
Familiar frustration welled up inside of her, because of their predicament. They couldn't even go where they pleased. Boredom ate away at her as well. The occasional hunger pang too.
Spike just went on to make a face. Lily giggled. He was probably the most fun cat she had ever met, and the nicest one from BloodClan.
Not until then, did Lily consider that there may be more kind souls out on the streets. She counted as one, right? Or did she?
"You are honestly the nicest cat I've ever met," she mewed to him. He just shuffled his paws.
"Well, you surely are unique," he responded finally. She found herself inching closer, until she experienced the weird sensation of their fur brushing from between the cage wire. It pushed into her skin, but she didn't care.
"If we ever make it out of here, do you think that we could maybe..."
"Become mates?" She finished bravely. Spike looked at her sheepishly.
Come on, say the words, you idiot! she told herself. 
"I love you!" she choked out.
"I love you too," he replied certaintly.
The pitch black of night seemed to eat away at her. It especially bothered her that when she closed her eyes, it made no difference.
"Are you still awake?" Lily whispered. 
"Yes." Spike's voice echoed back through the darkness. She heard a gusty sigh.
A niggling worry was seething inside of her since the day before. "Spike... did you want to say something?"
"No."
"Look, the other night, you said something about being deserving of BloodClan's harsh treatment. And I'm worried."
"Don't be."
"If you want to talk about it, I'll always be here."
"I don't want to talk about it, okay?" She flinched at the angry snap in his voice. Spike had never been this upset in all the time Lily had spent at the pound.
"Spike, I'm really sorry."
"No, it's fine, you didn't do anything."
"It seems like I've stirred up memories in you that you've been trying to forget."
"You're picking at me again."
Exasperated, she sighed. "I'm not, I swear. It's just that I'm worried. You haven't been able to sleep."
"Well who can, in this place?" Good point.
"Just tell me some of it," Lily requested.
"Okay. I did something horrible, that I really shouldn't have done. You would hate me if you knew." She could hear conviction in his voice.
"You can trust me," she whispered to him.
"I realize, I'm just not comfortable with saying."
"Come on, can't we share anything with each other?"
"You just want to know, you don't care about me. You've been picking at me to find out."
Shocked at the accusation, she proceeded to snap back. "Well excuse me for caring!"
A storm was brewing between both of them, when Lily was sure that only the day before that she loved him. She went to sleep with a cold resentment burning inside of her.
Later than usual, Lily woke up, to the customary rows of cats, all depressed or scared or bored. Guilt crashed over her, when she remembered the night. She didn't know why she would push him like that, he had every right to be angry with her now. Automatically, she turned to apologize to Spike.
But he was gone.
Desperately, she called out, "Spike? Spike! Spike!"
"Shut up!" the speckled she - cat next to her snapped. 
"Have you seen him?" she mewed, flustered.
"He's gone, stupid. They took him, they gassed him. No surprise, he was here for quite a while."
She's lying, she's lying, she's lying, because she's a jerk. she told herself.
"Please? Has anyone seen him?" she cried.
A striped tom on the other side of Spike's empty cage spoke. "Like Lila said, he's gone. Gassed. A shame."
Lily's heart already had been broken plenty of times in her life. So now it was fragile enough for it to be shattered into little pieces, like it did at that moment. Unable to control herself, she slumped onto the floor of her cage and began to cry.
He was the only thing that kept her going in the hellish prison called "the pound", now he was gone. Forever. Because he had been killed.
After that, she didn't try to eat or do anything. She just lay there, lethargic. Spike was gassed even before she could apologize for their fight. He died thinking that I didn't like him. Her heart wrenched. And along with him, died the secret that was never told.
*~*~
Jilly's breath was taken away at the offer.
"Yes," she whispered.
Scorch purred, and wrapped his tail around her. Her heart thumped in her chest.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
They stayed there for a moment, until Jilly lightly pulled away.
"So... when do I join you?" she questioned.
"Whenever you want," Scorch mewed cheerfully.
She cast a glance over her shoulder at her house. Would Susan miss her? They became more and more distant over the moons. Would she miss Jilly?
But she thought that she had to at least say goodbye to her, before she joined Scorch on the streets.
"Maybe in a quarter moon," Jilly replied.
"Okay," he said. With flourish, he flicked his tail and leaped over the fence.
I can't believe that I'm becoming a street cat. It's unreal. Excitement and adventure blossomed before her, promising a future shaded with light and darkness. Soon, she remembered how rough life could be for a BloodClan cat. Yet Scorch could protect her from that, right?
== Chapter 8 ==
Lily was jolted out of her restless slumber, when the door of her cage began to rattle and creak open. One of the caretakers was opening the door, and gently pulling her out. She let out an irritated hiss.
There stood a tall male Twoleg, with a shaggy black fur patch. He looked intimidating. Lily couldn't help feeling slightly creeped out by his presence. What's going on? she wondered vaguely, and tried to struggle out of the Twoleg's arms. Before she could stop it, she was dumped in the other Twoleg's arms. He didn't do anything to hurt her, but there was something about his grip that was cold and uncaring.
Before Lily could say "trapped", the bubbly Twoleg caretaker yanked out another cat cage from a stack of shelves next to the cages. With a sounding yowl, Lily was shoved inside.
It was considerably more comfortable than the cage she was in previously, but it was still dark and cramped. Apprehension stood out prominently from all of her other emotions.
Then it dawned on her. She was being adopted.
Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? Lily pondered, as she bumped along the road in a car. The whole experience was scary, true, but it could be either. It was good that she was being adopted before she was killed by the Twolegs in the pound.
But she just had a bad feeling about the Twoleg that picked her up. He didn't seem like the nice type. Well, if there was a nice type of Twoleg.
As soon as the rumbling of the Twoleg monster stopped, she could hear the slam of the door as the Twoleg climbed out. How he functioned the monster, Lily didn't know. Twolegs. Just plain weird.
Gruffly, he grasped the handle of the carrier. Tensing, she waited for him to pop open the spring that would let her out. Her ginger bushy tail waved, erect, her eyes gleaming with intensity.
But he didn't open it.
She hissed with frustration, and slapped the side of the cage with her paw. In return, she felt it rattle with the slap he returned. So that's how it is.
It was hard to see through the webbed wires of the carrier, but just through the cracks, she could see a seedy looking Twoleg nest. It looked somewhat like a barn, if Lily could remember Shade's stories correctly.
With a pale paw, the Twoleg shoved the door open. Inside, it reeked of old hay and rats.
Is this my new home?
As the cage door finally clicked open, and Lily shot out, she figured that she might be being a bit fussy. Squeaks of small rodents echoed around the barn. Her stomach growled.
Leaving the Twoleg behind (she had seen enough of him), she crouched into her trademark hunting position. There was just so much opportunity, that she didn't know where to start.
Understandably, she targeted a dumb-looking mouse, nibbling a bit of seed by a corner of a hay bale.
Before the mouse even had time to react, she had it pinned to the ground. It squealed in its last attempt to escape, and fell limp.
She licked her lips, and dove right in. Beneath her pleasure was guilt that she was eating well, when the rest of BloodClan was still starving. Like... she couldn't care less if it were Snake or Bone that was starving. Which they wouldn't be because of their greed and theft. An image of her brother popped into her mind. His ribs pressed against his pelt. The image was blurred and gone, as she got to her feet.
Snagging another mouse, she ate once again. Sinking to the earth, she never felt so good in ages.
Her bleary green gaze flickered open, to the last rays of sunlight than shone from the beginning of dusk. Ugh... She hadn't meant to fall asleep right then in there, but honestly, why did it matter?
She was her own cat now.
The realization was exhilirating. No other cat to control her and restrict her, but more importantly, no other BloodClan cat that would make her life miserable. It was like her own warm cube, full of prey and safety. No worries. No wondering when her next meal was going to be, no fear that a BloodClan cat would catch her living with her family and execute them. 
It was complete bliss.
But a guilty thought rose up in her, budding and unfurling like a dandelion. The burning yellow gaze of Scratch, and the soft pale green ones of Shade were forever etched in her memory. How could she just leave them like that? Picking around in dumpsters for their next meal, while she was full fed? But it's not like she had a choice... that bad Twoleg might do something to her if she tried to leave...
A faint squeaking reached her ears. Sounds like dinner. Lily licked her lips, and sharpened her claws nonchalantly. She bunched up into her hunting stance, tasting the air. Creeping forward, she spotted her victim. She curled back in disgust as she realized that it was a filthy rat, not a fat, scrumptious mouse.
Great. Now she was going soft, after all that time. On the streets, a rat was perfectly welcome. So she leaped, hooked it with her claws, and drove her teeth into its soft flesh. It was slightly wiry, but not too bad. No worse than the food served in the pound. Perhaps even better.
More squeaking aroused her. No more food, or you'll overeat. Like a dumb kittypet, she told herself.
Surprisingly there another rat, instead of mouse. Ignoring that, she sunk into another stupor. She missed feeling useful. But most of all, she missed Shade and Jacques and Spike.
Spike. She swallowed her bile.
More rats gathered around the hay bales, writhing and squeaking. And to think that was what lived in the very alleys she gathered food from.
More rats slipped out from the hay, joining the mass before her. Now this was just getting obnoxious.
Lily attempted to push her way through them, when she felt sharp teeth sink into her leg. A gasp of pain slipped out of her jaws as she freed herself. Another rat squealed and bit her paw, its claws also digging into her. With a pained hiss, she swiped at it.
More rats came at her, clambering up her legs, their claws sharp and prickly. She began to bleed. What kind of rodent was dangerous enough to injure her?
Viciously, she fought back. her claws sliced through flesh and beady black eyes, but they seemed to keep coming. She felt her knees start to buckle. Once again, she embraced the familiar terror that bubbled up into her like many other times. But this time, she felt trapped.
Nowhere to run.
Couldn't hide.
Stinging bite marks covered her body, aching, hurting like she barely have ever felt before. 
Just as she felt like giving up, as the rats were overwhelming, she heard a large thunk on the earth next to her. Able to break away from the biting, scratching mass, there was a square window in the barn wall. She cursed herself silently for not noticing it before. 
A huge, burly tom was slicing his way through the rats. Lily gasped, and began to help as best she could, even though her body was on the verge of collapse.
"Get out of here," he mewed gruffly, and leaped onto the window of the barn door, his black and white patches illuminated with the light. It was not Scratch.
Bone grinned his twisted grin, and beckoned for her to come.
And unlikely savior.
Lily had no choice but to claw her way up the wall, and drag herself onto the wall. If she toppled over from exhaustion, she wouldn't be surprised. 
"Come on," he grunted. With a hard nudge, she shoved her down into a jump. To her surprise, she landed on the ground on all fours, stable.
Lily didn't risk speaking. She was in trouble, that was all she knew. Bone led her down back to a dirt road, his expression grim. 
"Hurry up."
Yeah, she didn't really think Bone was in the mood for talking.
As soon as they approached the main streets, Lily was about to collapse with pain and exhaustion. But something caught her eye. There was a splatter of red across the pavement on their path, little smear were a cat could've stepped. Or even been dragged.
The mingled scent of BloodClan reached her nostrils. More blood scuffs appeared on the sidewalk.
"Um..." She muttered to Bone.
He flashed her a look. "Shut up, and keep walking. We have some important business with you."
Lily's stomach dropped. It could be Scratch, Shade. She resisted tears.
But you can't know for sure, she reminded herself. There was no way to tell the scents from each other.
But why else would they say they had important business with me?
As they entered Scourge's back alley, stinking with grime, she saw the worried then relieved eyes of Scratch. Shade appeared to be there too. Sympathy cracked her hear as she saw her wobbling legs and still-healing scars. At least they were safe.
Once she looked up at Scourge, she was greeted with a sight that surely couldn't mean good news.
His sleek black fur was now stained with dark red blood, sticky, coated all the way to the top of his legs. It also stained his mouth, dripped from it.
A hard blow hit her shoulder, as Bone shoved her back into line. Obviously she had been gawking.
His first words sounded more like a death sentence than a promise.
"Welcome to the new age of BloodClan." 
Lily's eyes remained locked with his figure, refusing to shrink down, even when she felt her stomach lurch. She swore that Scourge's eyes met hers a few times. They were displeased. 
"I have annihilated our competitor for the power," he explained in a calculative, cold way. Muffled cheers flowed from the crowd. Until you were amongst all of BloodClan, you never realized how many cats were out there. How many cats were struggling, how many cats were competing for survival.
"In three sunrises, we will march to meet the enemy."
"The enemy?" Lily muttered under her breath.
The tom next to her gave her a look. "The Clans," he murmured.
"The Clans? We're supposed to fight them?"
"Yes, just like before. Except when we win, we won't have Tigerstar to constrict our power." His claws flexed.
Won't have Tigerstar to constrict our power. The shining blood on Scourge's legs gleamed with the weak beams of sunlight. She swallowed.
"We will be undefeatable, they can't stop us. We will crush them beneath our feet, then the forest will be ours!" Excited screeches ripped through the tense atmosphere, cats swiped their paws excitedly through the air. A muscular she-cat's claw snagged on Lily's ear. Stepping away, she tried to comprehend all of it.
The battle was finally coming.
The one determining her future, her brother's, and every other cat in BloodClan.
"But, of course, the cowardly Clans have a chance to flee before we arrive. However unlikely it is, it could happen, considering that they are inferior to us."
Every cat in BloodClan remained silent as sparse clouds blowing overhead.
One brave, lonely voice sounded. "Scourge has just been lying to us. We won't have any blood or glory in battle. We'll just go there, and win cowardly as the Clans surrender."
From her position towards the back of the cats, she could see Scourge's claws sink into the material of the dumpster.
"What's the point of all of this, if we don't get a battle? We're no better than mice then!" he spat the last words out.
Lily couldn't tell if he was talking to the crowd of cats, or to the cat next to him, but either way he was in trouble.
Scourge remained painfully and ominously still, and Bone just surveyed with superiority as Snake pushed through the crowd to the certain tom.
He was wearing a collar, but obviously wasn't one of the highest-ranked BloodClan cats, because the dog teeth didn't stud the entire thing. He seemed proud and brave, by BloodClan terms, his gray pelt in sharp contrast with his aqua blue eyes.
Flexing his shoulder muscles, he opened his mouth to speak once again.
And faster than a hummingbird, Snake lashed his paw out.
Smoothly, he retracted it, and ran his tongue across the dripping blood.
A long, oblique gash was stretched across the gray tom's throat, bubbling with blood. It ended on his lower chest. Lily saw him part his jaws wide, no doubt to spit some famous last words, but he just coughed up clots of blood and spit. Unable to hold himself up any longer, his legs buckled, and he lay there to die on the filthy alley floor.
"This meeting is over," Scourge declared.
Some cats lingered, some shot out of the alley like it was going to be them killed next. Who knew, it could be.
Lily had no idea what to do with herself. Should she flee, should she stay here and wait?
But when she saw a flash of lemon yellow through the crowd of seedy-looking cats, and a glimmer of a smoky gray pelt, she realized. At full speed, she dashed to Scratch and Shade's side, brushing against them.
"You're back! What happened?" Scratch mewed excitedly, "Tell us!" Shade just quietly swished her tail, and gave her a lick on the shoulder.
Shade still couldn't speak. A reminder of how much she hated Scourge.
Lily prepared herself to speak, when something caught her eye. Beneath the smooth angles of Scratch's black-and-white face, was a blue collar. Not a kittypet one, one adorned with sharp, long teeth of all sizes. Dog and cat.
"--Scratch?" she choked.
He twitched his whiskers. "What?"
"Your collar. How could you?"
Sparingly, he glanced down. "Lily, Scourge may not have a pure heart of gold, but he is still leading us to freedom and a good place to live so we will never starve."
Logically, Lily replied. "It'll just be the same old oppressive rules just applied to the place we're living!"
"You don't know that for sure. And besides, as long as we have enough to eat and drink... why does it matter?"
Maybe Scourge wasn't so bad after all.
Shade showed no sign of agreeing or disagreeing with Scratch, but still didn't speak, still ran her tongue over her scars.
Long shadows were cast over the ground. The fuzzy clouds had all blown away, leaving a silver moon to shine down on them. Lily's emerald eyes glimmered with the glow. 
Shade's whiskers twitched, shining silver. Her nose wobbled as she sniffed. With a gentle shove, she pushed them behind a soggy cardboard box that had been left there. Shade followed nervously. A group of three high-ranked BloodClan cats marched by, their language dirtier than the alley ground.
Despite Scratch's protests, she led her family to the place where the gray tom lay there, dead.
She slunk to his side, and bowed her head.
"Why would you do this?" Scratch murmured, "There's no point."
Lily turned to face him. "How would you feel if you were slaughtered by a BloodClan cat, and left here in a puddle of blood to die without anyone caring?"
He didn't respond.
Reluctantly, Shade padded over, looking timid. Ever since they found her again, she seemed scared. Lily hadn't really seen it in depth until now. 
Struggling, she attempted to find some words to say about the gray tom in her head. He seemed very pro BloodClan, but obviously didn't like some of Scourge's decisions.
You were very brave, she finally thought. If only the rest of us found the courage to stand up for what we think is right.
Being squeamish was not something that Lily was proud of, although she could toughen up if need be. 
This is what she did as she slowly sopped up some of the sticky blood with Twoleg rubbish, clearing it away from the circle where the tom lay. 
She awoke to a sharp nudge to the flank.
"Ugh..." she groaned. Her head was slumped against her chest, and her legs buckled and squashed underneath her.
The gray tom was still there, sprawled across the ground.
"Let's go," Scratch muttered to her. Slowly, she got to her paws, and dragged herself behind Scratch. Shade followed her close behind. Lily felt slightly guilty that they left the gray tom so unceremoniously, but they had to do it.
Walking by a majority of the BloodClan territory, it gave her time to reflect on how much it had changed. Instead of cats scrounging and squabbling for a bite to eat, there was full on training sessions. The cats were practicing fighting on each other. Eliciting blood, even.
Lily cringed at the sight of a muscular tabby tom mercilessly throwing a little brown kit to the earth. It wasn’t right. The kit was much too young to be fighting.
“I win!” the tabby shouted.
She copied Scratch, and just walked by without seeming to care. Shade on the other paw was shaking.
“It’s all right,” Lily murmured to Shade, resting a comforting tail tip on her shoulder. “This is just practice. Once we defeat the Clans, we’ll all be safe and warm and happy. You know that, right?”
Shade looked into straight at her, eyes telling her all that she needed to say. Then she just shook her head.
Lily stepped away. The battle couldn’t be worth it.
But it could be… only if they won.
*~*~
Jilly was now unsure of her decision. She was curled up in the hollow center of a bush, rain dripping through the flimsy leaves and soaking through her fur. Chilled to the bone, she pressed up against Scorch. He gave no sign that he noticed, other than a gentle twitch of his ear.
She was in the mood for a conversation, but didn’t want to disturb Scorch, so she just slipped out of the bush by herself. And instantly regretted it. The showers of rain were like sharp pine needles, pricking at her fur, subsiding, then pouring again.
Shivering and wet, she leaped over a rock, leaving a muddy trail.
Lightning flickered far in the distance, giving just enough light to see a dark outline of a tree. Its trunk was thick and strong, its leaves spread out wide. Feeling like a daredevil, she pattered to the foot of the tree, and sunk her claws into the bark. In quick strides, she managed to haul herself up to the first branch of the mighty tree. The rain pounded against her face, fiercer than ever. But now, she was beyond caring. Of course she missed Susan, but... this was real freedom. Do whatever you want when you want.
Even Scourge and his cats couldn't crush that.
Jilly awoke to a surprisingly sunny day. The clouds had all cleared away to the east, promising some nice weather to come. Instead of blowing violently like the night before, the leaves were rustling gently. Strangely, Jilly always found beauty in the way one side of a leaf was a bright green, the other a dark forest color.
I had better go wake Scorch up, she reminded herself. Daintily, she scooted backwards down the trunk of the tree, not feeling nearly as epic as before.
But when she peered into the bush, she realized that Scorch was gone.
It felt like a stone dropped in her belly. He probably just went to find some food or something, she frantically told herself. But no matter how much she reassured herself, she felt so alone, and so scared. There was no cat there to protect her, and teach her how to behave on the streets. But he would be back soon, right?
Several minutes passed, as Jilly nervously paced outside of their bush.
Just when she was about to break down, a series of angry hisses and snarls rang out. Instinctively, she darted forward, wanting to see what was going on.
At first, her head told her that it was just one of the normal BloodClan squabbles, nothing she should become a part of.
She changed her choice once she saw Scorch, waving his claws at two scary toms and a wiry she-cat.
Flee was her first instinct, but she realized that it was completely dishonorable. So she went with the only other option.
Fight.
At full speed, she streaked across the prickly green grass, zipping around gopher holes and trees.
"Scorch!" she panted, "I'm here!" Then she promptly tripped into a gopher hole.
"Jilly, what are you doing here?" Scorch hissed under breath.
"Helping you," she spat back, it coming out tougher than she had intended.
"But you've never fought a battle in your life!" Scorch replied, "How can I be expected to fight and help you at the same time?"
Before Jilly could reply, the leader of the pack swaggered forward. "Well, looky what we have here."
She narrowed her eyes, and tried to be as intimidating as possible. "Shut up," she growled. Scorch moaned with embarrassment.
He just laughed, and so did the other tom. But the she-cat seemed to take it more personally. 
"What did you say?" she challenged.
"I just told your friend to shut up. Is it that hard to understand?" she snapped back.
With a furious screech, the she-cat lunged forward, her silver fur blowing, claws outstretched.
Jilly couldn't think, couldn't breathe. All she wanted to do in that moment was protect herself and fight back. 
Considering the circumstances, Jilly met the attack bravely. Even though she sidestepped, she was able to bounce forward and land a blow to the she-cat's shoulder.
Silver fur bristling, she leaped in surprise, as if she didn't believe such a weakling she-cat could actually fight. Jilly never had, but maybe it was just something that flowed through her veins.
After that, the she-cat came at her harder, her movements faster, powered by anger. Jilly did her best to block them, although she got one ear snagged and a scratch across her nose. But she managed to bite the silver she-cat's tail, and her shoulder blow had to sting.
"We did it!" Scorch yowled, "We beat them!" Jilly purred in return, happiness welling up inside of her as they began to return home.
"Did you see me?" she was babbling, "She wasn't being very careful, and she whipped her tail around. Fast as a rattlesnake, I sank my teeth into it!" 
Scorch purred in return. "I thought that my fake-out move was rather good. But anyways, it was your first fight. How did you cope, over all?"
"Great," she said, "I thought it was kind of fun."
"That's good," Scorch responded, "But no matter what, fights are never good news."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right," she mewed distantly, as the sun slowly rose above the lush green fields of the park.
== Chapter 9 ==
The first thing that Lily experienced was the anticipation, the excitement of a big battle, and an inevitable win. 
Then she felt the fear.
Fear that her, Scratch, or Shade wouldn't come back.
Then she felt the sensation of her legs beginning to buckle with the effort of walking so far without stopping for water or just a break. The other BloodClan cats seemed strangely undaunted though, for such a long, painful walk to a dangerous place inhabited by enemies. Shade was already having trouble. Her right paw never seemed to fully heal from Scourge's abuse, so she began to drag it in the dirt.
The very weather seemed to be dreading what was to come, for soft, gray clouds blanketed the sky. No birds sang, no butterflies flew through the air.
"I'm so excited!"
"I know, right?"
The chatter of cats filled up her ears as soon as they reached their destination. Four huge oaks, their branches reaching to the sky, loomed before them. Instead of inciting dread, they cause her this strange feeling of false security. 
"This is called Fourtrees," Scratch whispered, "This is where we went last time to meet the Clans."
Lily wondered what the Clan cats would be like. Would they be nice and honorable? Or even more vicious and evil than BloodClan?
To her disappointment, she was squashed and crowded so she couldn't even catch a glimpse of the Clan cats. They seemed... healthy. The forest must've done good for them. And it would be all theirs if they won.
All that reached her ears in the overcrowded clearing was Scourge's high and mocking mew, and the strong voice of another cat that she didn't recognize. From what she could gather, he was leading all of the Clans into battle against BloodClan. He was fairly young, but still seemed to be strong and full of spirit.
Lily's nervousness began to shut down and transform into a light daydream. The soft pressing of her brother and mother around her was comforting, and it was all so warm and the huge trees seemed like they were cradling--
"BloodClan, attack!"
Lily was rudely awakened from her reverie when all the cats around her jolted forward at the call, including Shade and Scratch. Unwilling to just sit there, she dashed forward along with her.
An unfamiliar scent hit her nose. It wasn't exactly pleasant, but it wasn't worse than the stink that tainted the streets and trash cans and gutters of Twolegplace. It was... fresher. More earthy. 
And just then, she saw her first Clan cat. Unfortunately, she was taking a leap towards her face.
Lily tried to sidestep it, but the she-cat quickly stuck out a paw and hooked it across the bridge of her nose. Pain exploded all around her nose and eyes, even at the base of her ears. That she-cat must've stuck in her claw really hard.
There was no time to think about those kind of things, she reminded herself. Back in the battle, she made a move for the she-cat's paws, but looked at her stomach to fake her out. That time, she actually fell for it. Her legs tumbled, and she toppled over. Lily wasted no time in pouncing on top of her and battering her stomach. Her claws repeatedly raked and raked through flesh, tufts of fur flying. The she-cat was choking. Her eyes pleading, as she tried to wriggle away.
An angered hiss broke out, directed at Lily.
"What in the name of StarClan are you doing? You're killing her!" a tom spat, "Filthy rogues! Have no sense of honor!" 
The words went directly to Lily's heart, whether they were true or not.
Slowly, she retracted her claws from the she-cat and backed away. The tom rushed to her side.
"Willowpelt, are you okay?" the tom muttered. Willowpelt. What a weird name.
She coughed. "I'm fine." But she stopped to shoot a furious yet sad at the same time, right at Lily. Together, they limped away. Guilt tugged at her fur, stronger than before. Maybe I really am a monster...
A huge weight barraged into her side, catching her unawares. Tumbling into the dirt, she tried to get a glimpse of her attacker. He was a heavyweight gray tom, with long teeth. 
"You'll regret the day that you set paw in our forest," he snarled. Lily just twitched her ears. She didn't believe in talking during battles. 
With two quick strides, she was on the tom, tearing at his ear. He retaliated by landing a few blows to her stomach. Despite how brief they were, they made her stomach feel on fire. She could only imagine how much pain Willowpelt was in. 
Regaining her focus on the battle at hand, she swiped her claws across the tom's eye. She felt her claw sickeningly sink into his pupil. He screeched with pain, and backed away. 
Other cats didn't seem to be having as much luck as her. The Clan cats seemed pretty well trained, yet they still didn't have the advantage of the dog teeth collars or long claws.
More BloodClan cats poured over the hill, weaving through the treetops, teeth flashing. They would win this, it was plain to see.
A striking orange tom clambered up to the top of a huge rock. "Clans, regroup!"
The new reassurance gave her twice the amount of confidence and energy as before. Fast and sneaky as the wind, she battered through her enemies like never before, going through cat after cat who challenged her. 
Not until she reached a misty gray she-cat with stunning blue eyes.
The she-cat was in much better health than she was, it was plain to see. Lily didn't let this daunt her; she had beaten every rival in the battle so far, and BloodClan had the upper paw.
Quickly, she tried to execute a roll and spring to her feet, knocking the she-cat over, but she anticipated this and squashed her when she came close. This she-cat definitely had enough to eat. Lily could barely breathe.
"The forest will be ours, Clan cat!" she wheezed from underneath her weight, for once engaging in talk in battle. This wasn't meant to be a battle tactic, but the gray she-cat was distracted as she tried to find out a witty, suitable reply. Lily was able to squirm out from under her weight, shooting a taunting glance as she made a leap striaght for her paws.
At the last moment, the she-cat stuck out a paw.
The blow left her ears ringing, her mouth tasting of ripped tissue and blood. Her eyes remained squinted closed. The loud voice of a cat screeching reached her ears. Head pounding, she climbed to her paws, and tried to listen to who was talking and what they were saying.
"Whitestorm!" the orange tom was wailing as he crouched over the blood-clotted body of a frail white tom. Bone stood before them, smiling. All you needed to do to find out which cat killed him, was stare right in Bone's evil face. 
I'm only fighting for BloodClan to gain safety for Scratch and Shade. 
Bone caught her stare. 
"What are you looking at, pidgeon-brain? Go fight and pretend like you're not the coward that you are."
"I am not a coward," Lily growled under her breath. Maybe she was a coward once, when she was a lowly kit. But certaintly not now. Now she was a fighter, one to watch out for. 
If they won, Bone had better watch out too.
"I say these words before Whitestorm so he may hear and approve my choice! Graystripe will be the new deputy of ThunderClan!" the ginger-orange tom blustered.
At that moment, a group of several young cats streaked towards Bone. Lily felt her stomach lurch. Cats of that age couldn't take on the full-grown Bone! He was too powerful. If anything, she had to help secretly. 
Yet they seemed to be managing just fine, as two latched onto his back and were furiously spitting and clawing. The others were landing blows at his stomach and paws. Bone was feebly trying to swipe back, but the young and lithe cats managed to dodge his blows and continued scratching and biting harder than before. 
Bone began to give out. Lily never thought she would see the day, but he was helpless on the earth, as the young cats battered him. Rising up in her stomach was a sick satisfaction that one of her major enemies was being beaten down. And by cats barely older than kits, too. 
Finally, Bone's paws stopped quivering, and he remained still. The young cats consciously jumped off of him, and began to lick their paws and get back in the battle, which was still raging heavily around her. 
Lily scanned the area for Scourge. Bone was surely dead, but knowing Scourge, he would keep fighting until the end.
Indeed he was. He was head to head with the mighty orange tom, his blue eyes glittering like sharp shards of ice, unforgiving and cold. The other fiery ginger tom also seemed to be blazing through the battle, yet with more honor. 
Good and evil.
Lily wished it hadn't come to this, but at this point, she would do anything to get off the streets.
In a flash, Scourge bolted forward, and latched on to the tom's neck.
The tom began to gag and convulse, blood leaking from his throat and mouth. Crumpling to the ground, he tried to stand back up, but he slowly slipped away. Scourge gazed over him, his eyes flickering with triumphant flames.
Her stomach lurched. The tom seemed to be burning with heroism and good nature, but he was just cut down like the rest of the cats. 
Suddenly, a weight slammed into her from the back. Uttering a half gasp of surprise, and half choke, she turned to face her attacker. It was a tom, his thick pelt as black as night.
I can't just let him sneak up on me like that! Baring her teeth in a vicious snarl, she lunged right for his legs.
She did no trick to fake him out, nothing clever. But the speed and strength behind her leap was enough to send him sprawling.
But she should've known that it couldn't be that easy. A claw reached around, and scraped her side. She whipped around, to be staring into a pair of amber eyes. 
The black tom rose up from behind her, as the amber-eyed she-cat struck blow after blow on her face. Pathetically trying to shield herself so she could get an attack in, she held up one paw over her face. This unbalanced her, so when the black tom sank his teeth into her haunch, she toppled over, at their mercy. 
Right then, she just realized that she was going to be battered.
"I surrender," she coughed. Instantly, she was let up by the Clan cats. She coughed, and breathed heavily.
"Get out," hissed the black tom.
Lily didn't need to be told twice. Streaking away, she kept an eye out for Scratch and her mother. 
The only thing she did see was Scourge and the bright orange tom simutaneously leaping at each other, the gleam of battle in their eyes. Shock coursed through Lily. That tom was dead! How could he possibly be attacking Scourge now? The Clans were surely the strangest cats Lily had ever met.
At first, she was confused. But when she saw the dark, red scar across Scourge's neck, she could barely believe her eyes.
"Scourge is dead!" The strangled cries rose up, echoing through the BloodClan cats, who separated themselves from their own battles to run. 
She felt a rock drop in her stomach. Scourge, dead? How could the powerful leader that had been controlling her life be dead? Just like that?
"Lily!" a familiar voice cried. "Lily!"
She turned around to the comforting face of Scratch. "Scratch!" she called out in return. Pushing her way through the steady stream of fleeing cats, she came to his side.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit cut up. You?"
He winced. "One she-cat back there gave me a pretty nasty scratch to the chest. But other than that, I'm fine."
Lily breathed out a sigh of relief. The whole situation was so tense that she was glad that she could finally have some time with her family. If they managed to just kill Scourge, then they could cut us all down easily.
"Where's Shade?" she asked suddenly. 
His eyes widened. "Last time I saw her, she was battling a hefty tabby tom. She seemed okay, so I left to fight another battle."
Lily felt the panic set in. "'We have to find her!"
Desparately, they fought against the steady flow of escaping BloodClan cats.
After what seemed like a moon, they finally were able to spot a familiar dark gray pelt.
"Shade! Shade!" Lily screeched. Scratch looked on, down at her.
"Are you sure that's her?"
"Yes, I'm sure! She's still fighting! Let's go help her!"
At their fastest pace, the two littermates dashed to their mother's side.
She appeared to be fighting a gray tom, with a long scar down his back. 
Another tom with jet black paws turned to him, angrily. "I said, ShadowClan, retreat!" But the scarred tom continued trying to batter Shade.
With a furious screech, Lily tried to leap in and help. But it was too late. Shade's paw was dragging on the ground, as she tried to defend the next attack.
"It's her faulty paw!" Lily yowled. Shade tried to swat the tom with it, but he was able to easily dodge, and sink his teeth into her neck.
With a rasping cry, Shade sank to the ground. Blood gushed from her throat wound. Looking slightly surprised and a bit pleased with himself, the scarred tom dashed away after the rest of the "ShadowClan" cats.
In reality, these Clan cats are no better than we are.
Lily dashed to Shade's side, Scratch close behind her. Grief overwhelmed her, until she felt she couldn't even breathe. Instead, she just sank to the ground, her body wracked with sobs. Never in her life had she felt such dejection, and feeling of being so alone. Her mother was abused by BloodClan, then died in a battle that BloodClan started. A fresh wave of tears leaked out of Lily's eyes.
Scratch gently put a tail on her shoulder, as if trying to comfort her, even though he wasn't crying himself. But as she looked up over her shoulder at him, and rested her gaze on his spiked collar, she realized that he wasn't the cat that he used to be. 
She was all alone in the world now.
As they finally began to pad after the terrified and defeated BloodClan cats, Scratch tried in vain to comfort her. 
"It's all right. We'll get revenge for what they've done to Scourge," he growled. Lily twitched her ears in anger.
"But what about Shade?" she sniffed.
"Yeah, that too," he added. Like he doesn't even care.
No matter what Scratch tried, she'd seek her revenge for the death of her mother, killed in such a brutal way. Even if it finished her off as well.
*~*~
It was just one of those days, were there wasn't much to do. She wandered the alleys, right by Scorch's side. As much as she cherished her time with him, she missed being a kittypet sometimes. There was so much less stress, so much less struggle for survival.
Suddenly, Scorch's ears pricked. "Hey, I think there's some cats down there," he mewed.
"Yeah?" Jilly mewed nervously. She hoped that they would turn the other way. Just from a half moon of experience, Jilly learned that most cats weren't exactly friendly. In fact, most of the time they would steal your prey if they could.
Nevertheless, Scorch padded up to the group. There were only three cats, all talking in hushed voices. At once, they looked up.
"We don't have any food, if that's what you want. We can barely find anything ourselves," a tortoiseshell she-cat mewed.
Scorch shook his head. "We don't want food. I'm Scorch, and this is my mate Jilly."
The tortoiseshell snorted. "Jilly?"
"What kind of a name is that?"
"Yeah, don't you know that Scourge will get mad?"
She felt Scorch tense up beside her. Jilly swallowed her apprehension, and moved a bit closer to him.
Finally, he rested his blue eyes on her. "Come on, Jilly. Let's go somewhere else." Jilly couldn't decide if she was offended that he was protecting her, or glad to be away from those cats.
More briskly than usual, they padded around a corner and sat down behind an old rotted piece of wood, so they wouldn't be spotted by Twolegs.
"I think it's about time you changed your name."
She gulped. "But what if I don't want to? Contrary to what you street cats believe, Twolegs can be kind and caring. I don't want to forget that."
"You are a street cat now. It's about time you face it. And this means, that you have to take a name that Scourge would approve of."
That Scourge would approve him? What, does he expect me to change my name to Blood or something?
"It doesn't have to be anything that fierce. Just tough and dark enough that Scourge and his subordinates will buy it."
She really didn't want to change her name, but she realized that by now, she just had to.
"What about... Shadow?"
"Good one, but there's already a Shadow. Maybe something... similar." He paused for a moment. "How about Shade?"
It wasn't too bad. In fact, it was kind of pretty. It had a nice ring to it. Shade.
"Yeah, that's good."
"Well, congratulations, Shade."
Now she knew that she could never go back to her old life.
And she was happy.
== Chapter 10 ==
It was a few moons later.
Lily still grieved for her mother. No matter what she did could vanish her kind face from her memories, nothing anyone could say to ever make Lily forget her.
But there was nothing they could do to bring her back; all they could do is make sure that she was avenged.
"Scratch, we're not staying in BloodClan anymore," she mewed to him in their den. Her tears had dried up awhile ago, leaving her eyes shining and ready to fight.
He rounded on her. "What do you mean?"
"Don't you see? We need revenge for what the Clans have done."
His muscles instantly tensed. "Right. We'll show them that they can't just get away with what they've done to Scourge."
Lily slowly shook her head, ever so lightly. Scratch was a changed cat. No longer level-headed and ready to fight for what meant most to him: family. Now, his hunger for revenge was directed at the wrong cat.
Lily decided that she wouldn't tell him different. To deal with him now, it seemed like she must be manipulative. Slippery like a snake. Unable to be trusted more than Bone.
Awkwardly, she peered outside of the slender branches of the bush. There was one thing that caught her eye right away.
The Twolegs. They were much more active than usual, shouting in their loud gibberish voice, clunking about in their heavy boots.
Near them, clogging up the streets, were bigger cars. Trucks, Lily believed that they were called. They seemed to have long talons, reaching towards her. Dangerous.
And just like that, a Twoleg hopped in, and started it up. Making an obnoxious screeching noise, it moved away, slower than the average Twoleg car. One by one, the others followed. Moving away, obviously for a purpose, but Lily didn't have the slightest idea what.
"Did you see that?" she hissed over her shoulder at Scratch.
He instantly snapped back, giving her all of his attention. "See what?"
"Those Twoleg trucks! They were huge and they had claws! I think something weird is going on." Without waiting for Scratch's approval, she slipped out of the bushes.
A realization hit her. She wasn't Scratch's shadow anymore.
She was the leader, the decision maker. The strong one. At last.
Padding along the streets, trying to figure out the commotion, Lily had some time to reflect.
BloodClan had changed since Scourge died. It was no longer even "BloodClan", either. It was just a group of cats, slowly splitting apart, just trying to find food and shelter.
Things were somewhat better without Scourge. Less cats died, for the rules were let up since he and Bone were dead. Families could take care of each other. There were no more brutal and gory executions.
But the cats just weren't quite as tightly-knit. Everything just seemed more primitive.
Lily's pads began to ache from the abrasive earth, as they drew nearer to the edge of Twolegplace. Houses grew sparser, Twolegs less common. Everything seemed dirtier, too.
After some more awkward time, tensely walking along the Twoleg trucks' path, Lily and Scratch found themselves staring at what seemed to be at what seemed to be a solid, thick wall of deep green pines. After that, it just seemed like darkness and chirpring noises, little creatures that could only thrive in the forest. Her mouth watered. Just think of all of that you lost, in that one battle...
To her right, she could see the Twoleg truck slowly moving, the wheels twisting slowly, picking up dirt and much from the dust clearing spanning all of the forest's edge.
She could remember the prickle of pine needles beneath her paws, as she walked through to the four trees for battle.
Scratch began to creep closer to the action. Shaking herself out of her memories of moons ago, she followed after him.
Snaking around bushes, she realized that she felt more natural moving among the forest than before. Beginning to feel excited, she soon forgot about her surroundings, just enjoying the cool forest air. The green leaves rustling above, reflecting every shade of green existing. The ground felt cool and moist beneath her paws.
Suddenly, noise erupted from close by, jolting out of her utopia. Bushes crackled, branches splintered.
"Run!" Scratch yowled. Without needing to be told twice, Lily bolted after him.
From living among the Twolegplace and all of its twisting paths and shortcuts, she had developed a very good sense of direction. So tearing through the forest, with no path or anything to direct them, she just let that kick in.
"This way!" she called out to Scratch. Turning around a bush, she felt confident, for she thought she could smell a  bit of filth, meaning that Twoleg inhabitation was nearby.
But as soon as they burst through the line of trees, they realized it was a completely different lot. Nothing familiar, no landmarks, nothing.
"We're lost," Scratch whispered hoarsely.
Keeping calm, they scanned the clearing. She was almost expecting a dust bunny to blow by. Snickering at her ridiculous stereotypical thoughts, she turned to Scratch.
"This shouldn't be to hard to get out of. Just go back into the woods, and follow the path of where our pawsteps trampled."
A distant rumbling echoed through the forest, a new flock of birds bursting from the treetops. Skeptically, he shot her a glance. "And how will we do that, if we're crushed to smithereens?"
"Good point."
Unable to bear the silence, she opened her mouth to give another "excellent" plan. But suddenly, voices were heard, muffled from the rumbling sounds of the forest. Pawsteps pattered on the stone ground of the desolate lot.
"Quick, hide!" she hissed, although there was nothing to hide behind. Feeling stupid, she scurred to the edge of the forest, and tried to station herself behind a few curling fern fronds. Scratch just flattened himself, hoping for the best.
"... Blackstar, we can't just keep doing this!" a feminine but tough hiss sounded, "The monsters are just going to tear through the forest until we have nothing left."
Lily peeked out from behind a particularly large fern leaf. That huge tom with black paws was present, along with a huge group of other cats. She remembered him, charging into battle against them. Next to him, stood a tortoiseshell she-cat.
He simply twitched his ears irritably. "We will have a home after the forest is destroyed. You know that."
"But will the Twolegplace be sufficient? And think of all the rogue cats that are still living, after the defeat of Scourge. They might have a bone to pick."
She froze up, casting a rushed glance at Scratch. He glanced back.
"Hey, I think I just saw something!" a cat in the crowd called. Heart pumping, she quickly sidestepped into the shrubbery. With the distraction, mutterings broke out in the crowd, most unsure or foreboding.
"Silence, ShadowClan!" Blackstar hissed. Chills ran down her spine at his words. ShadowClan. ShadowClan. 
Shade's throat slowly gushing blood, as she collapsed and lay limp on the earth. The ShadowClan tom scampering away, like he hadn't just committed murder. Like murder is a stranger to us.
I just want my mother back.
The growling noises omitting from the forest eventually began to cease. Relaxing, the ShadowClan cats began to pad back into their territrories, to her relief. Slowly, she began to stalk out, and Scratch unflattened himself. Surprisingly, no one had even noticed him.
But there was one little thing that she saw as the cats walked away. A familiar gait, a ginger pelt that was similar to her own.
Dramatically, his head turned around, allowing them to see exactly who he was. Green eyes glimmered.
It was Scorch.
Strangely, she felt calm, like she had the upper paw even though it wasn't a fight.
He was no better than a rat. Abandoning Shade while they were still kits, repeatedly leaving them, then joining the malevolent Clan that murdered their mother.
"We're going after him," she stated, confidence practically radiating from her. Scratch seemed to understand.
How could he just side against them like that?
Dashing after the retreating ShadowClan cats, she had a fleeting thought. What if she joined ShadowClan, like her father? Maybe not for the same reasons though. She could strike down, executing her revenge, if she could just worm her way into the heart of the enemy itself.
"I can see him," Scratch whispered. Lily nearly leaped a tail length into the air. He looked at her quizzically.
"Oh-- sorry," she muttered back. Regaining her poise, she sent out a tense whisper to her father.
"Scorch! Scorch!" she murmured. His head cocked around, seeing them. Turning to his Clanmates, he mewed, "Just a moment. I think I saw something."
The she-cat in front of him rolled his eyes. "Like what?"
"Twoleg-related," he improvised.
"Ah." She nodded her approval. Lily guessed that she must be some sort of authority. Giving a respectful dip of the head, he trotted off into the undergrowth. Before she knew it, she was face-to-face with the father who didn't want her.
Lily didn't really believe in formalities.
"What do you think you're doing here?" she growled quietly.
"What do you think?" he answered coolly, "I've decided that the streets were no longer right for me."
"You're joining your mate's killers!" she snapped back. "How could you do this?"
"I have my own reasons," he answered coldly, although the hurt shone through his eyes.
Lily looked over him critically, a scowl drawn over her soft features. Scratch tore at the earth with his claws, stressed.
"But I must warn you."
"Of what? Those trucks?" Lily inquired.
"We already saw them," Scratch chipped in. 
"Well, partially." He took a deep breath. "ShadowClan will be leaving the forest, along with the other Clans. Because the Twolegs are destroying the forest. I'm going with them."
Lily didn't know if that was supposed to be shocking news for them or what. Their father was never a part of their life, and it wouldn't make much difference if he completely left.
"Here. You had better go," she said sharply. "Your new Clan will be waiting for you."
Without another word, she whisked away.
"Don't you see? This is our chance!" her brother exclaimed to her, as they left the forest. "We can get our revenge, if we tag along with the Clans. Revenge for what happened to Scourge!"
Her heart sank. It was just Scourge that he really cared about. 
"But what if they recognize us?" she pointed out. "It's best to travel by ourselves to where they're going."
"Good point."
"Leave at dusk?"
"... I guess that sounds good."
We're going to avenge you, Shade. I promise.
*~*~
"Are you sure you can make it?"
She grunted in agreement, gripping the honeysuckle vine like it was her only thing between life and death. With a great heave, she hauled herself over the edge of the roof.
Ruffling her fur, she gave her shoulder a conscious lick.
"I shouldn't have let you do that," Scorch sighed.
Shade gave her tail a flick. "Just because I'm expecting kits doesn't mean that I should be left in the den to be treated like a cripple."
"Yes, but you are very close to giving birth."
"Whatever."
He purred. "Street she-cats. Always waiting until the last second to admit that they're about to burst."
"I wasn't always a street she-cat," she mewed softly, remembering her beautiful times with her housefolk.
Scorch seemed to understand, but said nothing.
Deciding to focus more on the beauty of the view, she dropped all thoughts about her past, and gazed upon the setting sun, slowly turning a golden-orange as it dipped over the horizon. Tall trees stretched up, blotting out her view of some of the sky. Which was all right, because they provided a breathtaking silhouette.
"Pretty, isn't it?" he muttered.
"Yeah," she replied, in the same manner.
Suddenly, a jolt passed through her. Ignoring it, she just scooted a bit closer to Scorch, and kept her eyes on the beautiful pinkish clouds of the sunset.
A sharp pain stabbed at her stomach, slowly knawing at it. This time, it couldn't be overlooked. Shade hunched over, groaning. "Scorch..."
"Shade? What's the matter?"
"They're coming."
Spasms passed through her body. She flopped down onto the scratchy surface of the roof, panting. Scorch placed a comforting paw on her heaving flank.
A new lurch came, bringing intense pain and pressure with it. She cried out, despite her efforts not to, pushing as hard as possible.
"Well done, you have your first kit!"
Already?
Confidence built up, she forced out her second kit. Taking a deep breath, she turned around to look at them, squirming around the rooftop. Using her fluffy tail, she pushed the kits closer to her stomach. Instantly, they latched on to suckle.
"Aren't they beautiful?" she whispered. There was a tom and a she-kit, both amazing. The tom had black and white patches, while the she-cat was covered in ginger fur that matched Scorch's. 
"You can name the first one," she mewed.
Widening his eyes, he replied. "All right. I think... I think I'm going to call the black and white tom Jacques, after my brother that died."
Shade nodded, embracing the seriousness of the moment.
Hoping that Scorch wouldn't object, she moved on to name the fluffy ginger nuisance pawing at her stomach. "I think the she-kit should be named Susan, after my housefolk from so long ago."
To her relief, Scorch didn't say anything. Just gave Susan a lick on the head.
If getting up was tricky, getting down with a squealing kit was harder. Shade had to completely wrap her legs around the wood bars where the honeysuckle vine was growing. Susan nearly slipped, but grasped the wood just as she was about to fall. She would grow up to be a fighter, Shade was sure of it.
They would both be.
== Chapter 11==
All she could think about was how much she wished that she had put this off until the next day.
Unable to sleep, she had tossed and turned all night long, waking up Scratch a few times in the process. Every time she drifted off into a light slumber, she was plagued with images of that tom discreetly slicing down her mother's throat.
And every time, she snapped awake, the leaves of the bush seemed like grasping tendrils, waiting to smother her. She tried to dismiss her kit-like fears and just go back to sleep, but whenever she did that, the cycle repeated again.
So now she found herself trudging along the last filthy streets of Twolegplace when the sun was just peeking over the horizon. She let out a yawn. Then tripped over her own paws in tiredness.
"Come on Lily," Scratch grouched, helping her up.
Shaking herself off, she replied.
"Don't even use those names anymore. They were just what BloodClan used to strip us of our true identities. From now on, we're Susan and Jacques again."
Jacques didn't seem in a mood to fight it. He didn't quite agree either.There seemed to be a low hum in the air, almost like a drone of bees, except more screeching and metallic. It gave her the shivers.
Her eyes grew damp, as she arrived at the place that she believed used to be the four trees, where the legendary battle took place. All those deaths...
It took until sundown to reach the edge of the territories, where the terrain grew rocky and more barren. The pair decided to stop for the night, under an overhanging rock. There wasn't much of a threat anymore now that they were all alone, so there was no need to worry for once.
As Susan drifted off into the first good sleep in days, she knew that now they were really moving away from their old home, out on an adventure. Much to her pleasure, Jacques allowed her to sleep in instead of barging in and waking her up at the crack of dawn. It was a nice surprise, considering the clouds seemed to have rolled away before she had even woken up.
But as they began their tiring journey, she wished that they had stayed. As they slowly padded across the soft yellow fields, sun beat down on them. Susan's mouth felt as parched as the ground beneath her paws, her fur nearly dripping with perspiration.
"Can we stop?" Jacques whined, trying to bounce into her shade.
With one swift movement, she leaped away, leaving him to stand in the baking sun.
"No, we should be able to cover a lot of ground by today. So keep going. I'm just as tired as you are."
Jacques mumbled curses that Susan pretended she didn't hear, and loped after her.
They didn't go far, before a wooden post blocked their way, linking a fence together that twisted around a field full of strange animals she had never seen before. 
They looked like fluffy white clouds, but they reeked worse than anything she ever smelled before, even the dumpsters at her old home. They seemed rather large too.
"Are you sure this is safe?" Jacques whispered.
She rolled her eyes, mostly at the fact that he had taken the effort to whisper. "Yeah, I'm sure it will be fine. But you can never know. Let me check it out a bit more."
Gingerly, she took a few steps into the field. Nothing happened. But what if they raged whenever someone came close? They couldn't risk that!
Okay. Get a grip. That's just plain ridiculous.
"Come on, Jacques! It's safe!" she yowled over her shoulder, just hoping she was right. He padded after, and side by side, they journeyed across the field together.
As they got closer, she realized that the animals' faces were blank and stupid, so there was nothing to worry about. Just the awful stench.
After they were able to stroll through the unknown animals with no danger, it was still a relief to wriggle under the fence and relax in the cool, refreshing shade of a dying tree.
It was only the fifth day, and it seemed like they were traveling forever. Even though it wasn't long since they left. But everything seemed to be such a big blur of time and emotion, that it was hard to make out.
So she surprised herself with a feeling of home, as the Twolegplace rose over the horizon, outlined against the blue dusk.
Just like home. 
Despite all the experience they had in their old one.
"Can we stop?" Jacques whined, "Just to sleep? For this once?" 
Susan had to agree. Her legs felt heavy, and her pads were sore from the rough terrain and crackly grass.
"Yeah. But let's find somewhere in the Twolegplace." So her paws guided her to a place that she knew very well. An alley. Not hard to find, even in an unfamiliar Twolegplace.
To her delight, she spotted a huge box, leaning against the alley wall. The perfect shelter, perfect place to sleep.
But as they came closer, they realized that it already seemed inhabited. A tom stood before it, knawing on a bone. 
As soon as they were close enough to be standing before him, Susan could make out all of his features. He had a coat that was such a pale gray that it seemed white, especially in the dirty shine of a nearby street light.
He looked up. Strangely, one of his eyes was green, the other a amber-hazel color. A long, jagged scar stretched across the green one.
"Well you don't seem like you're from around here," he remarked.
"No, we're not," Susan mewed, "We've been journeying."
"I do enjoy a good story," he murmured warily.
"Look. We don't want story time," Jacques growled, "We just want a place to sleep and information."
Susan cringed at her brother's statement. The last part seemed so dumb.
But when she thought of it for a moment, she realized it could be good. Information. An asset to them.
"Speaking of which, could you tell us anything about a large group of cats, possibly passing by here?"
"I suppose I could."
She groaned. Just like this cat to withhold all the information from her.
"What about this," she proposed, "We tell you our story, and you tell us what we need to know."
He nodded.
So Susan began, with the tales of her kithood, Jacques chipping in every now and then to help, whether she liked it or not.
They ended with their arrival at the very place they were standing. Susan prided herself in not crying through the whole thing.
"That was a very interesting story," he mewed. Susan twitched in frustration. It was like their whole miserable lives were just a show for his amusement.
She cleared her throat.
He spoke. "The Clans are beginning to pass the other side of Twolegplace, heading towards the mountains. Been rumored all around here."
Dipping her head, she mewed, "Thank you." They tried to get around him into the box.
"A place to sleep wasn't a part of the deal," he snickered. Susan was about to rake her claws over his ear, when he stepped aside, allowing them to sleep as well. As soon as they squashed in on the rags coating the bottom of the box, he flumped in too, not realizing that Susan still had her right eye open. His odd eyes now looked tired and sad. Pity washed through her, even though she had no idea about his ordeals. At all.
Waking up in the morning, she realized that her leg was jammed up against the side of the box in an attempt to give the others some room. How she regretted it now, her leg all stiff and sore. An unattractive crack was heard as she took it down.
She head a purr of amusement.
Standing there, was the weird-eyed white tom from the night before.
Susan rolled her eyes. "Creeper."
His expression fell. "Sorry for not really introducing myself last night. My name is Flick." He came a few steps forward. Right away, she noticed a little fling of his paw as he walked. Hence the name Flick, she figured.
"Where's my brother?" she questioned. If this was in her old Twolegplace home, he would guess that something terrible had happened to Jacques. But here... there was a much friendlier aura, something that was hard to find.
"He's out hunting. Said he'd catch something special."
"Oh and I suppose he'll be serving you too," she snorted, putting up her old guard.
"No need to be hostile," he scoffed, stepping away slowly, no longer as friendly.
"Hunting," she sniffed, turning around. "Hunting in a Twolegplace. Ha."
Instead, she went for a tour of the whole place, and compared it to her old home. There were much less Twolegs blundering around, making it safer for her to travel. There were more smaller Twoleg nests as well, and more plants. Also, the mountains rose up into her view, always peeking up in the distance for her to see.
Much nicer. Much more relaxing. Less scuffles.
But at the end of her walk, it was still just a Twolegplace, filthy and dirty.
Susan didn't like to be proven wrong, so when she came back to see Jacques and Flick knawing on a mouse, she was embarrassed, surprised, but still hungry.
"Hi," she greeted them. Limp on the earth was a vole, still warm, even if one side of it was dirty from being sprawled onto the earth. Graciously, she dug in.
"I've decided something," Flick mewed, "I can be your guide through Twolegplace. You said you needed to get through, right?"
"Yeah, we do," Susan pointed out, a bit sharper than needed, "But we never asked for your help. This is a mission for just me and Jacques."
"Wouldn't be any good if you got lost."
Gosh, I hate this cat. 
But he was persistent. "Come on, I just want to be helpful. I miss the company of other cats."
Sympathy washed into her, making her oblige. "Fine." Jacques just nodded.
"Okay, so we will have to start before sunhigh, or else the Twolegs will be all buzzing around and such. We take a break then."
Good to know. 
As soon as they set out, she instantly realized that they did not need a guide. It was easy. Just move forward, until something was in your way, then move around it and forward again. But she had to admit... Flick was good company. For reasons she couldn't admit to herself.
All she saw in his face was Spike.
The lame jokes, the sweet demeanor, how easily he got attached. All the traits of the cat who met an untimely death in that pound. He even had the white pelt. Just those eyes... the weird colors, the strange scar. Admittedly, Susan liked him.
"But when I walked around the corner, I realized that Jack, the tom I met earlier, had disappeared!" Flick was explaining as he walked backwards.
Nostalgia jerked at her.
Then he tripped over a crack in the pavement, nearly falling over.
This is just too much... what happened to the mysterious cat from last night?
Spike on her mind, she helped him up and followed after.
"Why don't we stop here?" Jacques suggested. The temperatures were rising during the day, and falling when the night came around. Which was greatly irritating, considering it was so hard to find somewhere warm at night.
The little cubby between a tree trunk and a smooth stone was as good as any. Jacques staked his spot first, pressed against the trunk. Susan sighed, and clawed a few palm leaves and weeds to cushion the earth. Susan shivered, as she climbed into the nest, pressing up against her brother. Flick somehow managed to jam into the nest as well.
"Sorry," he mumbled, practically squashing Susan, who was unlucky enough to be in the middle. At least she was warm.
But she couldn't even fall asleep, due to her shivering and the breeze drifting off the mountains. She squeezed herself tighter. Even as she was no longer freezing, she was aware of Flick's pelt pressing close to her.
"Ugh," she groaned, trying to shove him a little bit.
"None of us can sleep," Flick murmured.
Susan gave him the look, but replied. "Yeah. I think I'm going to get out of here and brave the cold."
"Can I come with?"
She was inclined to say no, but she realized that she just didn't want to face the memories of her time in the pound. It would be easier to just get it out of the way now.
Plus, she had been behaving like a real big jerk.
She nodded. "Okay."
As soon as her paw pad touched the sidewalk, it felt like she was stepping on a block of pure ice. She tensed, but didn't want to make a fool of herself in front of Flick. Stepping in awkward little strides, she moved as fast as possible until she could rest on the root of the next tree.
Surprisingly, considering how clumsy Flick was, he was able to maneuver across rather quickly. He leaped up beside her, his fur fluffed out to full extent.
"Cold, isn't it?"
She purred. "You look like a giant fuzzball."
He rolled his eyes. Susan let out a low hiss. He could at least make an attempt to joke. He was less like Spike that she thought.
Before she could stop herself, she blurted out what she had been thinking all day. "You remind me of a cat I used to know."
He seemed a bit taken aback. "What, like with the same markings and everything?" She guessed that he was referring to his scar over his eye.
"Well... sort of," she mewed, "He just didn't have the same eyes and scar and paw flick. He... he died because he was in the pound for too long. I was there with him."
Flick nodded sympathetically. "I see."
They stood in silence. Susan didn't really feel like speaking, her head almost lolling in tiredness.
"I got my scar and paw flick when my Twoleg threw me out."
She was taken aback. Flick, a kittypet?
"Yeah. I lived in a really nice house, really big and a lot of soft carpets and plush pillows. My Twoleg fed me every day, and admittedly, I was a bit overweight."
"Every day, I would climb up the smooth stairs, and onto the balcony to watch the sun rise over the mountains," Flick continued, "It's been a while since I've been loved like I was there."
"Sounds great," Susan lied, not knowing how anyone could stand being cooped up in a Twoleg nest, no matter how nice and comfy it was.
"But one day... things seemed to disappear. All of our luxurious things, my favorite downy chair. The Twoleg... she cried more often, and sometimes I couldn't eat because we had no food. Eventually, my Twoleg had no choice. She threw me out into the streets, with no place to go. I was hungry, and lost. Scared too.
"One day, I was running from a dog that got away from its Twoleg. It was chasing me and I was running as fast as possible, but it was still faster than me. So I took a risky move, and jumped over a large stone, an outcropping that was in the park I was at. But I slipped at the last second, and hurt my paw really badly. The dog was able to give me the scar over my eye, before the Twoleg dragged it away."
He took a deep breath, before continuing on. "Ever since then, I just haven't been the same. Haven't been happy."
"Well I'm sorry," she mewed. His life story was just as bad as hers, if not better, so she had to dig deep into her heart to find sympathy.
"And it's kind of hard for me to say this, but," he continued to drone. If it weren't for the words pulling her in, she would just start daydreaming again.
"Susan... I think I'm falling in love with you."
She snorted. "Is this supposed to be a joke? Cause it's not that funny. You could do better."
"No, it's not a joke," he mewed, just masking his irritation.
In shock, she took a hasty step backawards onto the freezing sidewalk. Susan was repulsed. Not that she disliked him... he would be replacing Spike. That could never happen. And he would just be annoying.
"No. No, I'm not interested," she said coldly.
"But-- what? Is there something wrong with me?" Flick asked.
"No," she mewed, "I'm just not interested in being in a relationship with you. In fact, I think that you can be very shallow at times."
"Shallow?" he blustered.
She nodded.
"Look. I'm not feeling the same, now that you've completely showed me what kind of cat you really are."
"Yeah. A fighter," she declared.
"I'm leaving," he scoffed. 
"That's really immature!" she shouted after him, "You were the one that wanted to come in the first place! We didn't need your help anyways!" She stormed off, not seeing if Flick stayed or left.
As she climbed back into their temporary nest, Jacques spoke. "You really thought I was asleep the whole time that was happening?"
"Shut up, Jacques."
It wasn't even hard getting through Twolegplace without the help of Flick. Flick wasn't Spike, and Susan was ready to accept that.
"I think I can see the end of this place," Susan muttered. The houses were thinning out. Eventually, the road turned into dirt, stretching out into the upcoming fields.
It took until sunset for them to walk through the pastures, and look back, no longer seeing the Twolegplace. Before them, they could see a forest, and far away to her left, there was a huge stretch of blue water. They were too far to see the details, but Susan believed that it was the ocean. Back in her old home, there were legends about it, ones that were told to comfort kits in the cold night.
Jacques sniffed. "The Clans are nearby."
Susan hissed in frustration. "That's not good. I think it's best if we're ahead of them. Come on, no stopping until we reach the area ahead of them. I bet my pelt that they're heading for that forest."
"Like the little Clannies that they are," Jacques snorted.
Susan let out a groan, as she saw another field of the fluffy white cloud animals, reeking as ever. She hated crossing their fields, simply because of the smell. At least we know that they're not dangerous.
But there was one thing wrong, she realized, as they were about halfway through the field. A dog was trotting along on the far side of the field, every now and then letting out a little yip or bark. She decided to ignore it, because they would be across in no time.
But another dog came into view, slightly bigger, slavering jaws.
And just like that, they charged after the cloudlike animals.
They weaved through the masses, causing havoc, the animals bleating and darting away.
"Run Susan!" her brother was yowling, "They can crush you!"
She snapped out of her disbelief, and began to dash away from the stampede. Panic raced through her, as she tried to escape what would be death by being stamped into the earth.
Relief washed through her, as she finally reached the other side. For a frantic moment, she thought that Jacques had been lost among the animals, but he emerged soon after her, limping.
"One of their feet grazed my bad leg," he moaned.
"Will you be okay?" Susan mewed, concerned. Despite the BloodClan collar that still hung on his neck, he was still her brother.
That forest was closer to them, their dark, leafy branches stretching up to meet the pale blue sky, emitting the noises of little forest creatures.
Clan scent wafted over the breeze.
"I think that this is the place we're looking for."
*~*~
Just watching those kits... her heart could melt.
They were too young to really talk or do any serious playing, but they did tumble around between nursery. Such little cute balls of fluff. She broke out purring again.
She could hear Scorch shuffling around a few cat-lengths away, but she wasn't really concerned with him at the moment. Susan was beginning to crawl away, like the little rebel she was. Cupping one paw, she pulled her into her belly again. Jacques just mewled.
"Aren't they great?" she mewed to Scorch.
He didn't reply for a moment. But eventually, he turned around and spoke. "I wonder what they'll be like when they're older."
"I don't know. But I don't want them to become like those BloodClan ruffians."
Scorch looked at her quizzically. "You're going to have to make them join the BloodClan guard at some point."
Shade shot to her feet. "What?"
"They won't be able to survive, if they're just on the streets. Like it or not, we're going to need Scourge's protection."
"What are you talking about?" she sputtered. "Protected or not, I want them to grow up to be moral, honest cats that are good at heart."
"They can always hang on to that."
Shade felt betrayed. How could Scorch just suggest that she send her kits off, to be torn apart by Scourge and his minions?
"All you care about is the kits now, anyways," he said, his voicing raising to a shout.
"Oh, so this is about you now?" Shade yowled back, "You're selfish! You have to stop just thinking about yourself and think about your kits!"
"What, do you have a better idea of what to do with the kits?" Scorch hissed furiously. His muscles rippled underneath his ginger fur, in anger. His soft, familiar eyes were now ridden with rage.
"Well then," Shade mewed haughtily, "We can raise them with a Twoleg. They'll be well cared for, safe, and they won't be raised as killers!"
She stopped, took a deep breath, and waited for his response. Her kits were now slowly wandering, but her mind was focused on something else.
Scorch threw his comeback at her. "Of course. You and your Twolegs. I know that you would rather be curled up on a Twoleg couch instead of being with me and the kits. Now you want to keep the kits captive in a Twoleg nest... that's beyond reasonable!"
"They aren't captive. They're just being cared for in one place. Loved." 
"You know what, Shade," he began to growl, "I'm going to go. This is too hard for me. I can't stand having to deal with a kittypet as a mate, stifling me, not listening to me."
"What, so now I'm labeled as a kittypet? If you hate kittypets so much, why did you love me then?"
He winced at the question, already padding out.
"You were special. But not anymore."
And just over that one, stupid fight, he was gone. Forever.
Shade waited on him for sunrises, all while watching the kits. But he never came.
She had been trod on a little too much, gone through too much pain.
Her heart-- from that moment-- was broken into two lonely pieces.
== Chapter 12 ==
Susan thought that she would never get used to the forest, but the cool ground beneath her paws was welcome after the scorching grass. The lofty trees shaded her from the boiling sun, twiggy pale green plants curling around them. 
I had better enjoy this while I can. Cold weather is coming soon.
"Why don't we find a place to stay?" Jacques mewed.
Susan, for once, agreed with her scattered littermate. 
To her surprise, after hiking to the edge of the forest, there was a huge lake that expanded a long distance. She could just see the other side of the territories from there. There were more woodland, than the moor towards the right of them, some of it surreal pines and other parts being leafier maples and oaks.
"Let's head around this way," Susan mewed, not liking the windy, open moor.
Reaching the pine forest, they were able to stumble upon a ramshackle old Twoleg nest. Had to be the most abandoned-looking nest that she had ever seen.
Like two trout leaping over a rock in a stream, they slipped over the rickety fence and into the "garden".
"This looks like a nice place to stay," Jacques murmured.
"... Right."
The Clans showed up not much later. Susan could smell their reek from far across the lake, the lake wind blowing it all over towards them. As long as they weren't bothering them... although Susan wouldn't mind giving ShadowClan a problem or two.
She shivered in the brisk post leaf-bare chills.
Deciding not to just sit there and turn into an icycle, she figured that she should go inside. Hey, exploring could be fun.
The door was shut tight, but one of the windows was shattered, missing most of the glass. Susan was careful not to cut herself on the shards, and slipped inside. It was in surprsisingly good shape, for a Twoleg nest that was abandoned in the midst of a forest.
Only a small amount of dust clung to her pads as she strolled over the old carpet. Looking over her shoulder, she checked to see if Jacques was coming. No. Just me. Good.
She slipped around the corner, sniffing at the chipped paint on the flimsy wood. A Twoleg lighting device lay leaned against the wall. She gave that a sniff as well, circling around it, rubbing her fur on the hard material.
But suddenly, it slipped off of the wall. Shoot! I unsettled it!
With a huge crash, it slammed onto the ground. Jumping back, she just avoided the long bar, saving herself from injury.
Deciding to creep further into the lowly house, she tentatively stepped a little farther.
But soon, she heard a few clomps from the other room, and muttering. In a language she didn't understand.
There was still a Twoleg in this nest.
Fear shot through her, after remembering the time she and Jacques tried to get food from the Twoleg nest. Squealing (which wasn't herself), she scampered out of the rooms.
She could hear the Twoleg clomping behind her, and reseting the strange device. 
A round object whizzed right by her whiskers. Another one smacked into her hind leg, surely leaving an unforgettable sore.
In one swift movement, she leaped through the window, ignoring the indignant shouts of the Twoleg.
"Well what happened to you?" her brother mumbled, chattering.
The breeze no longer bothered her.
"Apparently there's still a Twoleg living there."
"Good to know."
But it couldn't be a problem, right? If they just left it alone, then maybe it wouldn't bother them. Or even come to like them.
Next day, the Clans finally made an appearance, with some unlikely representatives. Susan spied them from far away, squinting her green eyes as to see their exact looks. There were five of them, although only three looked like they could be a threat. The three being a huge brown tabby tom, a muscular silver she-cat, and a clever looking tortoiseshell. The other two were small, not too scary.
"Jacques. Clan cats, just up ahead."
His ears pricked, eyes widened. He uttered a low hiss, and leaped up beside her.
"Come on, let's get them," he mewed, "They hurt Scourge. And our mother." Susan winced. The picture of her mother suffering her untimely death still hadn't evaded her mind.
These weren't the exact cats... but it still worked to teach them a lesson.
Both of them leaped down from the fence, growling, flexing. The Clan cats came to a dead stop, eyes open in horror. Susan studied the moves of the brown tabby tom. He looked the most dangerous of them all. Although the only emotion he seemed to be expressing was surprise.
But to her shock, it was not the tom or even the silver she-cat who attacked, it was one of the small, fluffy cats, hardly looking like a threat. She knocked right into her, without much hesitation. Looking into her striking green eyes and ginger pelt, Susan could make a pretty educated guess that she was somehow related to that bright orange tom, the one that killed Scourge. If Jacques wants revenge for Scourge, then he had better battle this cat.
Susan's fighting skills were a pretty good match for this she-cat, but she was quick and vicious. She was slipping around her at a lightning speed. 
And now her tomcat friend was coming to her aid. How can I fend off both of them at once? Jacques seemed busy with the remaining rest.
It didn't take long for her to realize that she was being overpowered. Knowing that she was beat, by the most unlikely opponent, she gave up and scurred around the side of the house. Jacques was already there.
"Filthy Clan rats," she spat. He nodded, although he seemed distant.
Gradually, she could smell the scent of Clan even closer, stronger than ever. It was a disgusting reek, almost as bad as the worst places in Twolegplace. The Clans had moved in. Susan was somewhat sure that it was ShadowClan, but couldn't be quite sure. 
Now was the time to find out.
And possibly, just get the revenge she had been seeking.
It appeared to be a young cat, all by himself, ears pricked for some prey that had fluttered away.
Without hesitation, she leaped down right in front of him, elongating herself to be much taller. Like the sidekick he was, Jacques followed her.
"Who are you?" Susan hissed.
His eyes widened in surprise. "I-I'm a ShadowClan warrior, and my Clanmates will be coming soon."
She gave a disdainful sniff. "I seriously doubt that this little scrap is a warrior yet. Clanmates coming soon? Ha."
ShadowClan is here. Now I can get what I want. She lashed out with one paw, striking a painful blow across his face.
He stepped back, terrified. "What do you want from me?"
"We want to get revenge, for what your Clan has done to us, those many moons ago," she growled.
Without warning, Jacques slammed into the apprentice. She was shocked. All she was planning to do was scare him, maybe send him off with a few bruises, but he seemed to be aiming farther. Not that she minded.
Susan joined in, slashing her claws down his flank as her brother pummeled him. Tufts of ginger fur stuck between her claws.
But as the tom looked up, Susan began to break. All of a sudden, she was in that position, the place of the killer. The cat who towered above her mother, and every BloodClan cat ever threatening and looking down on her. Pure terror and despair laced the young tom's yellow eyes.
"Jacques, let him go for now. We've wounded him enough."
He gave her a questioning look at the change of intentions, and released him. But Susan doubted that he would really make it, his wounds mortal. But there was nothing they could do about that. Plus, being in a Clan of killers, he had it coming.
As if nothing just occured, she licked the sticky blood off of her paw, sympathy for the poor tom slowly evaporating.
"Let's see if ShadowClan look down on us now."
The Twoleg inside of the house remained docile for most of the time, and Susan was actually able to get used to him. At first, he tried to throw more things at them, but got used to them and sometimes even fed them. She had always thought of kittypets as lazy and stupid, but her position at the moment proved her wrong.
Even that ramshackle house started to feel like home.
But sometimes she had to pace around, into the forest around the area just to burn off energy, to get the jitters away.
Life became boring, although in a very leisurely way. Jacques seemed to miss the journey and Twolegplace, but she didn't. Not at all.
Okay, she was homesick.
Milling around on the edge of the fence, something caught her eye really fast. A tortoiseshell pelt. There was a she-cat, slowly dragging her way past, straining with effort. Her back leg seemed to be damaged somehow.
Jacques noticed it too. His pupils grew wide, and he shimmied down to the bottom of a tree and watched the she-cat. Susan followed. The tortoiseshell was in their territory, no doubt about it. If those Clan cats were going to be all fussy about their territory, then they could do the same.
With one swift movement, Susan charged at her, aiming to knock her over. But as soon as she came close, a burning intensity of battle lit into her eyes, as she tensed up. And she launched up to her paws, uttering an intimidating hiss.
Suddenly, she became aware of the Clan cats that darted out of the shadows, surrounding them. Some of them came from the back even, growling. How did they manage to station themselves there without us noticing?
Blood boiling, itching for a fight, Susan yowled and began to attack. First, she charged the tawny she-cat that dared pretend to be a cripple, just to launch them into the situation. Her claws raked at her, but she was fast, and was able to flip her over.
Frustrated, she bounced back up for the next attack. But more cats were glomming onto her, smothering her, their sharp claws pricking into her skin. Holding back a yelp, she did her best to find Jacques. He seemed to be in a similar situation.
A tom held her throat, claws gleaming. "We could end it all right now," he growled. Susan was once plunged into the familiar sense of her very life being at risk. Wondering how she could get out of it. I am really hated by many cats, despite me thinking that I'm a good cat... but ShadowClan can't take my life like how they took my mother's.
Prepared to fight, she hissed, "Release me."
The tom spoke again. "Not until you swear to never harm the Clans again."
Plunged into a nearly impossible decision, she closed her eyes, attempting to think. She could never get her revenge if she swore this oath, but if she didn't swear it, then she would be killed and there would be no revenge anyways.
Susan decided that she wasn't ready to sacrifice herself, no matter how heroic it sounded.
"Fine. I swear," she snarled.
"Good." The intruding claws let her up. Instantly, she peered over to where Jacques was. Panting, he had just been let go, mini blood marks on his splotched pelt.
"They made me swear," he blubbered, "There was nothing I could do--I would die--and..."
Dismissively, Susan cut him off. "I had to as well. Or they would kill me. But we'll find a way to get around it, I promise."
Many moons later, she still remembered that dreadful addition to her life story.
Her dreams that night seemed haunted. Like they were anticipating something big to happen, possibly even something dreadful.
At first, she was padding through Twolegplace, although the silence was so pressing that was almost stifling. No Twoleg cars rushed by. No cats were strolling through the streets, squabbling. Not even a lonely bark of a dog was heard.
Slowly, the hard street under her paws turned long, lush meadow grass. Although the buildings still remained in their original places, shadowing her.
Although, there was another shape in the shadows, one harder to identify. It came closer. Slinking from the earth, was Shade.
Gorgeous tail curling up, she was purring, like she couldn't be happier in her entire life. She spoke vigorously as she smiled, although Susan couldn't even hear her voice. Like she needed to to realize the cheer emanating from her mother.
Flickering into view, Scorch was by her side, smiling as well, his ginger pelt in its prime. Their fur brushed gently together, like a butterfly's wing against a leaf.
But Scorch's smile soon turned twisted, as a collar shimmered onto him, the studded teeth dripping with the freshly spilled blood of cats. Susan swore that she could see Jacques in a similar form, reflected as Scorch's shadow.
And just as he came, Scorch faded away, only darkness swimming around him instead of golden light.
Tears spurted out of Shade's green eyes, tail drooping, her fur suddenly becoming ragged and unkempt.
Suddenly, an unseen force struck her from behind. Her mother dropped to the ground instantly, her face contorting with pain. She couldn't even hear the snap of her neck, as it lolled to the side. Pupils rolling upwards, blood trickling from her.
Susan tried to scream, but the whole place seemed to be completely bound by silence. The spongy grass shriveled up beneath her paws, into a crackly brown weed. Terrified, she ran into one of the still-remaining Twoleg buildings to find that it was a pound. Cats squalled inside of it, begging for their lives, even though she couldn't hear.
Spike was among them, but instead of trying to make noise, he just stared at her with sad, misty eyes before he slowly faded as well.
She began to cry, unable to bear it.
Looking up, she realized that Scourge was before her. Unwavering, his icy eyes pierced her. To her shock, he was able to speak, the only sound that she could ever take in.
"You are doomed, Susan. Always have been, always will be." Instead of disappearing, he watched with contempt as the building began to melt as well, turning flaky and brown. Blood oozed from beneath her own claws. Strange hissing and a few screams echoed.
Unable to take any more, she slipped, landing belly-up in blood.
Scourge leaned over her and--
"Susan!"
"Wha-?" She woke up to the unfortunate sound of her voice wavering and cracking from the night.
Jacques' round eyes hovered above her. "You need to get up. It's urgent."
She groaned. Haven't we had enough of urgency? Shaking bits of grass off of her pelt, from where she had fallen asleep, she moved after him.
Standing there, was the last cat that she would ever want to see right then. It was Scorch.
"What do you want?" she snapped.
"Can't you show a bit more respect for your father every now and then?" he mewed, bored. Susan let out an aggravated hiss. It seemed as if he was rubbing that unfortunate fact in their faces on purpose.
"He was waiting here to talk to us since dawn, I think," Jacques said.
He nodded. "You have become quite famous among the Clans, especially ShadowClan."
She growled. "Yes. They deserve payback for what they have done." 
Scorch looked slightly confused for a moment, but seemed to decide to not risk appearing as ignorant. Giving a nervous flick of the ear, he continued speaking.
"As you know, I have joined ShadowClan. It keeps me safe, gives me a home. But there's something that has been nagging at me, something that I was meaning to tell you."
"Skip the long introductions," Susan scoffed, "And tell us what you mean." Some part of her deep down was secretly afraid of the answer, but she had to put on a brave face.
"When you were born, something was kept from you. You see, there was a third kit."
It felt as if her legs were plunged into hot water. "What?" she demanded.
"There was a third kit," he repeated simply, "You were too young to remember him. After your mother and I broke up, I decided that I would take something to remember her, something that I could love. So I took him."
"Without her knowing?" Susan gasped.
"Oh, I wasn't too inconspicious. But she didn't notice, as she was wallowing in grief and self-pity."
Jacques shot in, with an unusual barrage of questions. "But what happened to him? Where is he now? Is he with you?"
Scorch sighed. "As soon as he was old enough, he ran away to join the Clans. I let him. But as you can see, I finally joined myself."
Images flashed through her mind. What could he really be like, or look like? She had a niggling suspicion that he was a part of ShadowClan.
"But unfortunately, he was just killed. By you."
What does he mean? Susan screeched inwardly. What were the odds that he was that dopey little cat that they wounded? He looked much younger. It couldn't be possible.
"You two matured rather fast," he said, "Simply because you've been through a rougher life. No matter how insane it seems, it's the truth. You two killed Talonpaw, your own brother." He spat the last words with a surprising contempt, as he had been calm through the whole conversation.
I really am a killer. A horrible cat. 'But it never would've happened, if it weren't for him. He's haunted me my whole life, as a father that was never truly there for me.
"It's all your fault!" she snarled, "You were the one who never told us, who never really cared for us even enough to say that we have an unknown brother!"
Scorch stood up, hostility clouding his angry gaze. "But Shade didn't choose to tell you either," he mused.
Refusing to believe his lies, she spat back all of her fury at him. "I bet you were the one who threatened her, telling her that she could never tell us!"
"So what if I did?" Scorch replied, "All that matters is that she lied too. You think that I'm a horrible father, take a look at your mother. Shivering. Weak. Cowardly. She could never work up the courage to allow you to become friends of Scourge. Therefore, your life has been doomed to misery. And it's all her fault."
Susan was normally temperamental, and she was coping well so far. But at that moment, something exploded inside of her. It was pure fury, possibly shadowing some inner feelings of sadness.
In one colossal leap, she landed on top of him, tearing at him. It was what he deserved, for the countless moons of not being there for them. For deserting them, hurting her mother, not honoring her, and breaking her heart along with the other things in life that shattered it to pieces. Fast as lightning, he retaliated, slashing his claws across her flank, taking out hunks of her fur.
This wasn't a tamed fight that they were once forced to have, as Susan was just a tiny kit.With expertise, Scorch flipped her over using his hind legs as well as his front. As soon as she smacked into the ground, his claws were pummeling against her stomach. His weight was crushing her, even as Jacques futilely tried to haul Scorch off of her.
Jacques gave one more tug, not able to remove Scorch, but distracting him. Susan took advantage of this moment, and slipped out from under him. With a sharp jab, she knocked him over onto his side. Viciously, she ripped at his ear. Blood spurted out of it, splashing onto her nose. Slowly, the skin began to tear as Scorch screeched in agony.
And just like that, his ear ripped right off.
Anxiously, he cuffed his paw over his ear. With an angry screech, burning with newfound fury, he leaped at Susan.
He instantly was able to pin her, even as she sidestepped. No hesitation, he sunk his teeth into her throat.
This had become into far more than a friendly visit. It was a nightmare.
But Scorch deserved it, for all that he had done to them during their life. And more importantly, their mother.
Susan began to see dots, as bile slowly rised into her throat. Feebly, she kicked him with her back paws. But Scorch would not let go.
She was dying.
"How could you--kill your own daughter?" she choked.
"How could you attack me? You're the most worthless thing I've ever lay eyes on."
The words stung her surprisingly, considering she had never really known her father. But it felt like there was just another scar added to her heart. Worthless? Maybe... She wanted to cry, but had more pressing matters.
There was a crushing sensation on top of her. But it wasn't the feeling of being strangle, bitten to death. It was the feeling of Scorch's body collapsing on top of her. His teeth released her neck.
Weakly, she wriggled from underneath him, to realize that he was dead. His neck was cracked to one side, bleeding.
The exact position she had seen Shade in, in her dream, although it was him instead of her.
Jacques stood above him, his mouth covered in a thin red stain. His claws were still unsheathed, and he was still panting.
"I had to kill him."
Susan was shocked, but wasn't exactly ready to complain. But after all of it, she had the oddest feeling... grief. Grief for the dead father that neglected her. His limp shape seemed out of place in the weak daylight.
Once again, she collapsed on the ground. "Go," she stated simply, voice flat.
Jacques ears flicked back, and he took a step away. 
"I said go," she repeated, a bit stronger than before.
Scrambling away, he heeded her request.
She needed to be alone for awhile, to contemplate all that had happened. She had unknowingly killed her own brother. But her father finally got what he deserved.
But was she selfish? Was she worthless? The thoughts raced through her mind for the moment.
No, she finally decided. She may be tough and sometimes cold, but she had loved and lost, made others happy. Pictures of Spike and Flick were dominant in her mind. She had always supported her brother. And most of all, her mother.
No, she was not worthless.
Even though it was still morning, the temperature seemed to drop to a bit chillier. Her fur stood on end.
There was a low hissing in her ears. Confused, she looked around, wondering if it was Jacques. But the hissing noise elevated into a whisper.
Susan, my daughter, it whispered.
Instantly, Susan shot right up. "Mom?" At that moment, she would be accepting to anything. A warm scent wreathed around her.
It may have been her imagination, but she heard a soft, delighted purr. It's me, dear. Your life has always been doomed to be hard from the start, but you have braved it through it all. No matter what fault you may have, I am truly proud of you.
A cool breeze blew across her ginger fur. "Mom? Don't go!" Susan sputtered.
I must, my daughter, Shade whispered into her ear, But know that I am always there for you. There will always be more hardship coming for you, but no matter what, I will be there.
Her misty, evanescent form disappeared in a soft puff, only leaving her with bittersweet memories.
*~*~
The cold rain spattered on the pavement, splashing into a dirty stream running along the curb. The night sky flickered with lightning.
Shade had known that the storm was going to break. Yet she had lost track of the time....
Her footsteps pattered through the puddles, spraying her with muck. A rat dangled from her jaws. I'm almost there.... she began to run faster, the raindrops like needles on her face. Yet she wasn't being careful enough; she slipped on the hard, wet ground and went sprawling. The rat landed with a thunk in a puddle. 
Quickly, she scrambled up, ignoring the searing pain in her left side. She scurried forward to pick up her rat, but she halted, as she found herself staring into a pair of lime green eyes....
THE END
Category:Stormy's Fanfics