Bane vs. Kestrel

[Bristle + War]

She looked at her father. Dead. Her dead father. There's a phrase I never thought I'd hear.

Even as Whitedevil went past, Darkangel kept her green gaze fixed on Bane.

"Sharpfang..."

The deputy might not have even heard her, but she still stood there, she didn't go after him as he went after Heartless or Goldenblaze or whoever the hell was making such a damn racket. She wanted to just scream "SHUT UP!" but when she opened her mouth, no sound came out.

How cliche.

Her lungs didn't take in any air, they didn't want to. Half of her wanted to stay here and die with Bane.

You are Bane's daughter. Would be such a worthless piece of sh*t?

No. He wouldn't.

She turned to her Clan and breathed. She would live.

Panic ran.

He ran till he sped past Bane's body, where his eyes started to water. Hard to tell whether it was from the wind or something else.

He ran till he whooshed past Darkangel, Spiderlily, Priypat and Heartless and Goldenblaze.

Wait a sec, Spiderlily and Pripyat? Panic skidded to a halt and turned around.

"He-hey...Hey!"

Running again.

Kicking up dust, he came to a stop in front of Spiderlily. He'd just missed their little conversation.

"What...What's going on with them?"

Panic, trying to keep the subject off of the dead body of their great leader. How oh-so-sweet.

Now he was referring to Heartless, Goldenblaze, and Pripyat.

Damnit, she'd lost Wishclaw again.

Where the hell was...everyone?!

Bristleclaw sighed, getting a bit frustrated. Her foreleg hurt like hell, and so did her tail, and there was a scratch over her muzzle.

"DAMN!"

She streaked past a few bloody bodies and then there was one that surprised her the most -- but she didn't exactly hate the sight. Bane's body.

"Oh my."

The giant looked around for Lillystar. Great. Where were all the MistClanners.

There it was. The sight he really didn't want to see.

His red eyes narrowed. Bane let this happen to himself? Damn. If only the rogue leader had had nine lives like Bloodstar himself. But, oh well, he hadn't.

Not believing in StarClan was Bane's weakness.

"DUSKCLAN!!"

Bloodstar turned so that his voice could be heard by every cat on the battlefield.

He knew there weren't many of his own left.

"We will go home NOW! Take any of ours who have fallen home, leave NO ONE behind!!"

With that, he looked to where Direpaw and Wickedpaw sat obediantly, the girl fidgeting and practically jumping out of her pelt she wanted to kill something so much, while her brother was looking calmly straight ahead at his leader and his father.

Pain.

Paaaain.

She wanted it so bad. Maybe Direpaw wanted to torture another cat -- she glanced at her brother Wickedpaw, who gave her a stern look back -- or maybe she'd just nibble on her lower lip, get a bit of blood flowing around her mouth.

As Bloodstar announced they would leave, she tried to stay still. Unsuccessfully.

"Well let's go soon, I want to like...hunt...or something!"

Direpaw leaped to her feet, her tail whipping through the air anxiously.

Wickedpaw knew how much Direpaw wanted to hurt something, and he prayed that it wouldn't be him.

If she came near him, he would kill her. And that's all there was to it.

"Indeed, let's go."

He whispered so quietly he would have been surprised if his sister heard him.

[Battlecry]

<sub>Goldenblaze struggled against Pripyat, fighting, but Pripyat, held him fast. His eyes scorched into Heartless's body, her eyes, everything. "... She was my life," He said quietly, spitting out his words, trembling.



Barbwire growled. She had turned her back on the others, not flinching as Pripyat flew past her. She watched as it unfolded in front of her. She ignored as Panic ran past her.

... Her face showed no emotion, but her eyes burned with sadness. She trusted neither of her parents enough to approach them. Her world was falling to pieces around her as she sat there and watched as they flew at eachother in a hissing rage. They had forgotten themselves. She trembled some, trying to keep her posture there. Boneclan still needed her.

... And she would be there.



Talonscar looked up as Bloodstar called to them. He had watched their deputy fall, and watched so many others fall around him. He slunk grabbed the nearest cat, the scruff of Venom, and attempted to carry her home, keeping his face emotionless as he padded home after Bloodstar.</sub>

[Kest]

a requiem for the sane.

Pripyat did not relax his grip. "And what about your daughter?" he hissed. "Does she mean nothing to you?"
His claws bit into the earth, offered him traction, kept him firmly grounded. He took a step back, trying to haul Goldenblaze with him.
His voice was quiet but fierce, the voice of a cat trying to make a comrade see reason. He said: "Don't you see her? Barbwire. Heartless's daughter. Your daughter.
You have her, Goldenblaze.

You have her still."

[/blockquote]

[.::Umberwings]

More words.

More senseless words.

Pripyat was right. Where she had gone; there was just no coming back from. Not in one piece, at least.

Then there was pain, savage pain, and she actually snarled as blood welled from the cuts inflicted on her, twisting wildly around to snap at his one remaining ear, seeking to rip it off his damn head. She missed, and just as he jaws came down to attack her throat, that black form of Pripyat joined into the conflict – seizing Goldenblaze.

More words.

Yet more.

Heartless took that moment of weakness to slash upward as she twisted herself to the side, seeking to lay open Goldenblaze’s chest enough that the damn weight would be off her, and she could continue her flight to freedom.

“Heartless snapped.”

Spiderlily spoke to young Panic, her apprentice, with an impassive voice as she watched over the events happening. If something went completely wrong, and her Pripyat attack, she would most certainly be sailing forward to tear the golden tom of his insane mate limb from limb for it. But, until then, she just stayed put.

[Battlecry]

<sub>Goldenblaze looked up at his daughter, shame welling up in his eyes.

... And that was all that it took.

Blood flushed from his belly, following like a trail from her claws. He showed no emotion as he staggered back, and sank into the already soaked earth. Blood pooled around his chest and belly, his eyes shining from the moonlight.

"GET SOME COBWEBS!" Barbwire yowled, rushing forward to her father. He began breathing rapidly, closing his eyes as Barbwire pressed into his cut, trying to stop the bleeding while there was a lack of cobwebs there.

Goldenblaze hardly cared whether he lived or he died. If he strived to live, it was for his last remaining daughter, who covered herself in her father's blood as she desperatly tried to help him. He lay there, trapped in the balance.

Sharpfang lifted his chin, eyes shining. "Prip, get her," He choked. He hated to have to kill her, but she was a hazard now. There was no turning back.</sub>

[Kest]

a requiem for the sane.

Pripyat had released Goldenblaze a moment before and taken two steps back.

At Sharpfang's orders he nodded.

Get her.

Pripyat showed his teeth and snarled. Then he burst forward, closing the distance between himself and Heartless in an instant.

He was fast.
His teeth flashed twice at her face and a third time at her throat; then he was backing off, snarling savagely.

[/blockquote]

[Bristle + War]

CAN YOU HEAR ME s c r e a m i n g?

Panic froze.

"Pripyat!"

His call seemed lost in his own ears; what if Heartless hurt him? I've lost too much already...

Barbwire's frantic attempts to save her father were also lost. Panic looked absentmindedly to where the she-cat stood over her father and shook his head to clear his thoughts.

Pripyat has it under control. Spiderlily isn't worried, why should I be?

Nodding to his mentor, signalling that he was going to go help Goldenblaze, Panic bounded over and skidded across the dusty ground beside the bleeding tom. He gave Barbwire a quick glance, to check if she would push him away, and called out again, We need cobwebs!

"Barbwire, he'll be okay."

Now if only he could get himself to believe it.

Night to the rescue. She saw her leader's body and Goldenblaze lying there and heard the apprentices' calls for cobweb and turned, ran.

She had no idea where to find cobwebs, but after what seemed like seasons of running, Bringer of Night came to a little shrubby tree.

Cobwebs.

The black she-cat grabbed as much as she could on her paws, in her mouth, and ran back in the direction she came from. More years of running.

"Here."

She spat the cobwebs onto the ground, rubbed them off her paw, and nudged them towards Barbwire.

[Battlecry]

<sub>Of course Barbwire wouldn't push him away, he was one of her dearest friends, and he was only trying to help her. At Sharpfang's order, she looked at her mother, trembling. "If Pripyat doesn't kill you, then I will, you bi***! I guarantee you that!" She vowed to her mother. She would return, Barbwire knew that, if Prip didn't kill her of course. And when she did, Barbwire would be waiting for her.

... Barbwire had every intention to kill her mother, for hurting her father and killing the Medicine Cat.

... And so many others.

And then she'd feast upon her glorious win. Where Heartless seemed to lose her cannibalistic instincts, Barbwire hadn't.

She looked and Panic and gave a slow nod, eyes shining. "Okay..." She said quietly, believing every word he said.</sub>

[Warpath]

Blood and bruises do not build bonds without the brain behind it all...

Scythepaw padded into the blood-soaked meadow with determined haste. She wanted to be near Panic. It annoyed her that she did, but for however hard she tried she couldn't shake the feeling off. Fuming from running all over the forest and not once getting to murder someone, she came to stand by a group of forlorn looking BoneClanners. Glaring around at the lot, she saw that they all had the look of battle on them, smeared with blood and bile. The only bodily fluids she bore were the nasty mess she'd sopped up on her long fur, walking through the leftover carnage. Feeling digusted by the unrealized turmoil that lay all around her, Scythepaw seethed, her maddeningly red eyes flaming.

"What the hell are you all so glum about?!" she finally yowled, furious at the tense silence. "Bane is dead, get over it, he was obviously not the true leader of BoneClan!" "A great leader would never allow himself to die by the paws of one such as Kestrel!" She spat the RisingClanner's name as if it were acid on her tongue.

[Battlecry]

<sub>Barbwire tore away from her father's side, spinning on her heels to face Sycthepaw, teeth bared and still covered in an assortment of cats' blood. She looked rather feral, her mother's genes obviously written across her body.

... Well, aside from the phyco facter.

Goldenblaze opened an eye as she moved away, looking over at her with tired eyes.

"Bane was a great leader, better than you'd ever be!" Barbwire snarled at Sycthepaw, clearly stung by her comment.

"He made Boneclan what it is! We may have lost, we were outnumbered. It happened for a reason. Boneclan will be great again!! And because Bane made it that way!" She snarled, about ready to attack Sycthepaw if Goldenblaze's tail had slipped over and touched her gently on her flanks. She turned and went back to her father, pressing up against him, shooting glares at the other apprentice. "Panic, please go get me some cobwebs for him," He pleaded, turning away from her to look at her friends.

It was then that she realized what he meant to her.</sub>

[Warpath]

Blood ties are not so strong, so easily washed away...

Scythepaw had gotten her wish, finally someone to fight with. Her face contorted into the prettiest little sneer you ever did see. Bane meant nothing to her and she doubted very much that he would have, had she been part of BoneClan for many more years. Being so completely devoted to one cat was a terrible weakness and should be reserved only for one's mate, if any at all. It absolutely disgusted her. Their mourning was pathetic and did nothing for them, but to subsist their misery longer.

"I think you should all grow up and move on, Bane was leader and now he is no more." "Whomever is his succesor is now in charge and you must rally what has not been lost." "Taking time to grieve shows that you are no different from the Clans you just now waged war with and I thought your biggest grievance with them was that your ideals were not the same...pity...how easily liars are discovered."

She sat motionless, claws unsheathed, daring any of them to retort her words. There was no such emotion as fear in her. If they could not accept the truth in her words then they were even more cowardly than she previously thought. BoneClan was merely a way for her to render herself even more terrifyingly brutal than she had started. If they felt no need of her or if, perhaps, they despised her, they need only say so. Rogue meadow had plenty of room and she was at no loss for evil cats to learn from...

[.::Umberwings]

Get her.

While Heartless wasn’t in her right mind anymore, the cannibal was by no means stupid. She knew what those words meant perhaps better then she had a right to have, and she snarled, now free from the stupid half-eared tom’s grasp, to whirl about on the quick moving Pripyat. The first strike missed completely, a wiz and snap close to her muzzle, but already, immediately, Heartless had twisted herself out of the way. The second caught her across her lower muzzle, long and shallow, while the third tore a rip across her shoulder.

Blood.

Heartless spat, rage, pure untouched rage darkening blue depths to the point they were midnight shards as she tore forward at Pripyat, heedless of everything else about her.

Silently, from the hillside, a monster watched everything. The unnatural tom stared down at the cats, the seething confused wretched creatures before him pitilessly as they played out their life’s drama. It was nothing really, nothing at all for Shinentai to concern himself over. But as he rose to turn away from the scene behind him, there was a presence, the sense of unknown powered, and whispers.

“I want her. Bring her to me.”

Shinentai remained still, frozen, at the sound of Mother’s voice. But the chilling voice fell off, faded into oblivion, and the cruel presence faded away. He did not look behind him to see if she was indeed gone – without permission he was unworthy to look upon Mother’s form – be the mutated beast leaped down from the hill; a silver blur of flesh and muscle. It was the brown-pointed female that Mother desired, for some reason as of yet unknown to her favorite; but it was she he attacked. Before the black tom could amass another charge, to rise to meet that one of the female.

A strike.

With a scream Heartless stumbled to the side, snapping towards the silver tom that almost appeared from nothing, yanking her leg that suddenly found itself impaled upon unnaturally long claws. She limped now, badly, blood not only staining the tom’s claws but running down tan-colored fur from her lacerated flesh.

Who was this cat? What could he want?

Maddened as she was, she heedlessly, careless, went forward anyway; ducking and going towards his right side to try to rip an unholy chunk off his face.

What she didn’t plan on was the speed. It was like the she-cat was trying to fight a ghost, there one second and gone the next. The moment that her paw sought to hook across his face he was already gone.

A snap.

A low keening wail sounded from the she-cat as Shinentai’s jaws chomped onto the back of her neck, close to where her spine and skull met. He didn’t like close combat fighting. His strength always lay in distance, being able to out-speed and out-maneuver any and all of his opponents. Still, he shook his head nearly violently, and the cry abruptly died, the she-cat limp in his jaws. She still lived, he could hear her heartbeat, rapid and faint, but she was out cold.

Shinentai dropped Heartless’s form, lifting bloodied muzzle up, unearthly green hues watchful of her clan cats – waiting to see if one would step forward and challenge him for the limp form at his paws.

Mother claimed her. She was Her property now.

Shinentai would kill them all if it required it in order to bring the she-cat back. But now he just needed to keep the cats at bay, until Dual Void could catch up and get the she-cat to take her home.

As if he was going to be reduced to a pack animal.

[Kest]

a requiem for the sane.

Pripyat ducked away from Heartless' furious attacks, slipping fluidly around her, unscathed.
The black tomcat was on the edge of lunging when a third cat appeared.

A silver blur; a flash of claws; a scream and a splatter of blood.

Pripyat stood still, his claws gripping the earth. The silver tom was unnaturally fast--faster than any cat Pripyat had ever seen or fought; in seconds, Heartless was disabled and Shinentai had dropped her at his paws.
Some cats would have seen the attack as merely a confusion of movement, but not Pripyat. Physically, he could never match the mutated tom's speed, but his reflexes were so finely tuned they were almost unnatural themselves. He had followed the silver tom's every move with his sharp blue eyes.

The BoneClan warrior stared avidly at Shinentai. He bared his teeth slightly, his expression an odd mix of anger and amusement.
"It's not nice to take another cat's kill," he rumbled.

He shifted his gaze to Heartless' body. Lowering his head slightly, he drew in a long breath.
Then his blue eyes jumped back to the silver tom's face. "She's alive."
He paused, taking one slow step forward. "...I'd certainly...hate it if she stayed that way." Now the humor grew more pronounced; his grin widened, showing the full expanse of his razor teeth. In his anger, his madness had been seemingly drowned out. Now it resurfaced, showing itself in his expression, his flickering blue eyes, his singsong voice. "She killed one of our own, and I do have my orders, you know."

[/blockquote]

[Onyxdart]

Stoneclan was leaving. Pinedark glanced around frantically for everyone as she noticed, further away from her, Snowstar and the others started trickling away from the battlefield. She'd certainly become some kind of separated from the others, hadn't she?

She saw, as the cats thinned out a little, one cat standing still and waiting, and despite being tired and sore, went tearing across the field, jumping over anything that got in the way, assuming it was jumpable, or dodging what wasn't jumpable.

She skidded to a stop about 3 inches from Loveless, purring like mad, and then stepped forward and buried her nose against his shoulder. Then she stopped for a moment and looked around. There was Stoneclan, leaving, and here they were, but where was Chainless? She tilted her head back a little to meet Loveless's eyes, her head tilted and tail flicking anxiously in question.

Andromeda had gotten separated from Medium, which was very bad, since she had no idea what she was doing. She scarred off a couple of cats who clearly also had no idea what they were doing, and were probably just out of apprenticehood.

She'd been forced to fight with another cat who was the better fighter, but had short fur, so at least when she hit, she hit, as opposed to swiping fur. Still, she had injuries from that, mostly to her front legs and chest.

But she was alive. She saw a familiar form streaking across the field past Bane's body, and made for that direction. Halfway there, she raised her voice- it was an unusual sound to be hearing from the she-cat, that raised voice.

"Bristleclaw!" she yowled, and bounded towards the huge she-cat.

"Where are all the others? Have you seen Medium?" she asked, forgetting for the moment that she was most definitely /not/ supposed to be here, and was, in fact, supposed to be back at home guarding camp.

Oops.

Warfox was walking like a stiff cat much older than he. His back hurt from twisting like a young idiot while he'd been fighting War, and his chin stung- still- and every other major joint seemed to be conspiring against him. Once of the slashes War had given him down his side still bled sluggishly. And those were only the wounds the crazy orange tom had gotten fighting one cat. In battle, he tended to get a little out of control and reckless. But he was the deputy, so he was trying valiantly to pretend he was perfectly alright and this was a walk in the park.

It manifestly was /not/. He left bloody footprints on the way off of the field, but at least it wasn't all his. Of this he was certain- he would heal. There were many who would not, who would not leave this field. They were with Starclan.

He turned as he left and looked back, saying a silent prayer to Starclan that the departed souls made their safe way home. Then he turned and forced himself to pad alongside his leader, managing to wince only once in awhile.

[/center]

Spellbound was alright. He was a magic cat, after all. He was also the world's biggest chicken and had no qualms hiding to save his own hide. As far as he was concerned, he'd be bound to attack some poor cat on their side, and that'd just be useless. So he'd found a place to hunker down and had from time to time gone out to fallen cats to see if he could help anyone at all. He hoped that was enough.

When he bounded up after his clan, he did feel guilty. He was uninjured, and here others were limping around- even the stoic deputy, who appeared to be walking on shards of broken glass that no one else could see, from the look on his face. The happy-go-lucky tom shook his head. He hoped he'd done some good out there, tending to others rather than fighting. Because there was no way no one was going to notice that he didn't have a scratch on him, even if he did have blood in his coat from the other cats.

[/center]