Warriors: Skytail's Reckoning (COMPLETED)

Chapter 31

Skystar's eyes flicked around the ruined ThunderClan camp where cats were fighting to the death. The bodies of so many warriors were strewn across the clearing and it made the leader sick to her stomach. Where are you, Bluestar? She scanned the camp for the familiar pelt of her old friend. It wasn't until a sharp cry alerted her to a tussle beneath a giant tree by the back of the camp. Her belly tightened as Bluestar slashed open Slatefall's throat and the warrior thumped to the ground, the life draining from her. The screech the ripped through the air shocked her as Skystar realized it came from her as she raced through the battling cats and tackled Bluestar, digging her claws into the pelt of her old friend.

"How nice of you to join us, Skytail." Sneered Bluestar as she twisted out of Skystar's grip and slashed her shoulder, and Skystar gasped and whirled around to face her enemy. "I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever join us."

Skystar bared her teeth and lashed her tail. She wasn't going to have her back turned to Bluestar for even a heartbeat, and she arched her back. "This has to stop, Bluestar." She growled, glaring at her former friend. "Your cats are losing this battle. You won't win."

Bluestar cackled and flattened her tufted ears, pinning Skystar with her eyes. "Do you think I care?" She bared her teeth and Skystar flinched involuntarily. "Those cats mean nothing to me! It's only you who I'm after, Skytail. You ruined everything for me!" She lunged forward, and carried Skystar off her paws, pinning her to the ground with her paws on either side of her. Skystar growled and gloared up at her enemy, filled with mixed emotions. "You've always been the Clan's favorite!" Bluestar spat in Skystar's face, and the WindClan leader cringed. "Ever since you were a 'paw, you've been a thorn in my side!"

"We were friends!" Skystar protested weakly, pushing the crazed she-cat off of her and staggering to her shaking legs. "I trusted you!" Her legs trembled, threatening to give out beneath her. "I loved you!" All the emotions she'd felt for the traitorous cat in front of her spilled out in her voice. The joy of being an apprentice, pride in becoming a warrior, the shock as Bluestar turned her back on her Clan, and the burning desire to make her pay for taking away her family. The longing to be part of her friend's big life when she was younger, to not be excluded from her for a second made her choke and she launched herself at Bluestar, not caring that tears were streaking down her cheeks and dotting the ground. She wanted it to end. The battle, the heartache, the misery, and guilt all to be gone.

Bluestar let out an incoherent yowl and clawed at Skystar's shoulder, but the she-cat barely felt it. They flipped, twisted, and saumersaulted to and fro, locked into a neverending tussle that would only stop when the other was dead. Claws and teeth ripped into Skystar's pelt and flesh, making blood run down her body but she only had eyes for the cat who threw away their entire friendship for this. The sting of being rejected as a young warrior, the agony of killing Sapfoot, the horror of realizing Feathersong wasn't coming back from the Gathering that ended her life, and the overwhelming amount of responsibility of being WindClan's new leader lent strength and energy into each of Skystar's blows.

She wanted to scream and shout at Bluestar, she wanted to ask why it had to come to this. Why did it always have to end with violence and bloodshed? Why did it have to end with death and grief? Skystar sank her teeth deep into Bluestar's shoulder and, with the strength she'd never felt before, tossed her up against the tree that Spiderthorn had perched on when she'd first found out about Copperstar's untimely death. Bluestar's head connected with the hard bark of the tree with a crack and for a heart-stopping moment, she lay on the ground. For one single heartbeat, Skystar felt grief swell inside her at the thought of killing her best friend, the cat she'd grown up with and loved almost as much as she loved Sparkheart, but then Bluestar sluggishly got to her feet and charged at her. There was anger and hatred in her blue eyes, and it startled Skystar. Where was the fun-loving, carefree apprentice she'd befriended so many moons ago? Was that cat even real? Was it all a dream?

A second cat's scent shot up her nose and Skystar was suddenly thrust into the dirt, pinned to the ground. With a sharp twist that unbalanced her attacker, she was faced with her mother. The cat who was supposed to love her, raise her to be good, teach her all about being a mother. But Cherrywhisker was far from that. This cat that stood before her wasn't her mother; but a monster. This cat had abused her daughter, treated her sons far better, killed her mate, and tried to kill Skystar. This cat didn't deserve to live a heartbeat longer. Not when there were other cats who deserved to be loved and cared for from a mother who loved them for who they were, not for who they could've or should've been.

In a flash of swiping claws, fury, and a slash of bright red, Cherrywhisker was dead at Skystar's paws. There was nothing she could feel for the cat who hadn't raised her right. Skystar stared at the lifeless body of the cat who was supposed to love her and she turned away, feeling sick. Once more, she was faced with Bluestar. Narrowing her eyes, she ran at her old friend one last time. For a heartbeat, she saw the apprentice Bluestar had once been. Then, the bloodthirsty, arrogant, and murderous cat had returned. They clashed in a whirlwind of teeth and claws. They bit, scratched, clawed, and kicked with all their might. Skystar dug her claws into Bluestar's shoulders and flipped over with her on top of the gray leader. Raising a shaking paw, she slashed open the leader's neck. In truth, she didn't want to kill her best friend, but what other choice was there? Bluestar wouldn't live as a rogue without terrorizing the Clans, and there was no way she'd live as a kittypet. No, this was the only way for peace to befall the Clans once more.

"Too scared to kill another cat, Skystar?" Spat Bluestar, her voice filled with all the cold and harshness of leafbare. "I thought you'd get used to it, after you killed Sapfoot."

Skystar shuddered as she remembered the bright red slash opening the tom's throat and watching in horror as the ex-WindClan warrior bled out, all while Bluestar watched. She found her voice and weakly mewed. "It was your fault Sapfoot is dead," she blinked at Bluestar, emotions and memories exploding inside her. "Your grudge against WindClan got him killed."

Bluestar snarled in return, but it came out gurgled and Skystar flinched, looking down at the claw marks where she'd struck her. She couldn't bear to look away, she couldn't. How could she? "He died for a cause he believed in."

Skystar shook her head, her claws digging into the earth. "No." She meowed, surprising herself at how calm and level her voice sounded. "He died for a cause you believed in. You got him killed because you couldn't let go of your bitterness."

The dark gray she-cat writhed beneath Skystar, her eyes dark pools of hatred. "You dishonor his memory, you half-witted excuse of a leader." She taunted, her eyes twinkling. "Go on, finish me off." She exposed her throat, and Skystar hesitated. She knew her former friend would bleed out long before she'd ever kill her. Something about that made her even more uneasy. "You brought shame upon the Clans the moment Redstar welcomed you into WindClan."

"You brought me to do this, Bluestar." Skystar gritted her teeth against the pain as her wounds started to sting. "Look around you! Was all of this worth it? What cause do you so passionately believe in? How many more cats have to die because of you?"

The ThunderClan leader let out a gurgled moan, which Skystar realized was an attempt at laughter. "Every drop of my warriors' blood means more to me than you will ever know." She glared into Skystar's eyes, piercing through her heart. "You came here because of me. I brought you into the Clan, I can take you out of it." She tried to aim a blow for Skystar's neck, but her paw barely moved off the ground.

Something hardened in Skystar's belly as she looked down at the vile leader. All those seasons ago, Bluestar brought her into WindClan, where she thrived and was trusted enough to become deputy and eventually leader. She met Bluestar's gaze without flinching. "You're wrong," she meowed and Bluestar's eyes widened ever so slightly. "I'm not here for you. I'm here for my Clan and my warriors. My family." She backed off the she-cat and turned away. "You will not get the satisfaction of dying by my claws, Bluestar. You will die like the rogue you always have been."

"Coward!" Cried Bluestar but she refused to turn around. She felt strangely free, like whatever had held onto her for so long was finally letting go. "Come back here and fight me like a real warrior, you kittypet!" She could hear anguish and desire in Bluestar's mew, but she kept walking until she knew the ThunderClan leader, her friend- her enemy- was dead.