So I guess this makes me a liar, huh? I said that I wouldn't continue on after Shattered...but it looks like I lied. ^.^'

Yes, this is the third and FINAL installation in my Warriors trilogy, based off of my version of Sunrise. If you haven't read those, it's probably for the best that you read them first, since you won't know what's going on in this one...unless you have some major ESP going on. :P

And yes, I would like to get it over with that some of the names won't match the ones that came out, but let me remind everyone that I wrote this before Sunrise and these new so-called family trees came out, so rather than change my entire plotline around, I am going to gleefully ignore any of those, "But his name is (insert name here), idiot!" :D

So here we go! Mysterious prologue time~

Shadows clustered around the midnight sky as a dark tabby padded along a well-worn path in the pitch-black forest, casting amber eyes at the thickly-leaved undergrowth that shivered on either side of him. The glint of dim light off of his shining eyes was the brightest thing in the shaded forest.

Leaves rustled on one side of him, and a scrawny black-and-white tom shouldered his way out. "Leader," he grunted, keeping a respectful distance from the dark tabby. "I haven't picked up any trace of her."

The other tom let out a low growl. "How is that possible, Bone?" he snapped. "You obviously didn't look hard enough. She has to be here somewhere!"

"She isn't." A lean gray she-cat came from his other side. "I would know, wouldn't I, Brokenstar?"

Brokenstar scoffed softly. "Sure, sure, Reedstar," he mewed caustically. "Am I to believe that you have some sort of kit-mother relationship?"

Reedstar narrowed her eyes. "Don't forget that I was the leader before your father was even born, kit."

Brokenstar wheeled on her, his dark pelt a whirl of color, and pinned her to the ground, holding his bared fangs a kittenstep from her throat. "Don't make me do something you'll regret, Reedtail," he snarled.

Reedstar's eyes narrowed and she spat contemptuously at him, shoving him off and shaking her fur loose of the clinging dust. "What are your orders, O Great One?"

"Double the patrols. We have to find her."

Bone looked nervously from one face to the next. "But what if we don't find her?"

Brokenstar lowered his head, baring his teeth, his eyes gleaming in the light of the clouded sky. "We will," he breathed. "Leave me."

The two cats took off like birds in flight.

Brokenstar continued on his path as if they had never been there in the first place, his head up and his eyes forward. His paws twitched as a leaf fluttered off a dead stem, and he cursed in a low voice as he realized that it was not prey and it would never be prey. This endless blankness and dreary nothingness of this place sparked his mind into a feverish frenzy. "This StarClan-forsaken forest," he spat, his eyes flying upwards towards the clouded sky. "Is this really what you wanted for us? What happened to the endless charity of the ancestors, hm?"

As his paws continued, he allowed himself to think back over the past event that had just ignited his rage again: Blackflower.

The black-and-white former medicine cat of his own Clan had reappeared some days ago, but she wasn't really there.

"Hello, Brokentail," she had mewed coolly, her eyes distant.

He had flattened his ears, using the gesture that had made most cats recoil in fear. "What do you want, Raven?"

"That's not my name anymore," she said loftily, tilting her head to the side as her blue eyes sparked. "It's just Blackflower. And I'm leaving this place."

He laughed hollowly. "Good luck with that! You know that no cat can leave this place...you should know that more than most." He let the insult sink in, knowing that it smarted against the wounds that Silverblaze's absence had left. Her fascination with that gaunt-faced weakling had baffled him since the day he had first set paw in this rank place.

To his surprise, she laughed, tossing back her head. "You know nothing, Brokenstar," she chuckled, her shoulders shaking with the extent of her laughter. "You've never known anything."

With a snarl, he launched at her, his claws extended for a slashing blow to the throat...

But he sailed right through her as if she was made of smoke. He hit the ground clumsily, his paws churning as he fought to keep his balance. Gripping the ground, he skidded to an ungraceful stop, wheeling around to stare with wide eyes as she sat on the ground delicately, her tail curled around her paws.

"I told you," she said in a light voice, "I'm leaving. I guess I forgot to tell you I already had."

"Idiot!" he exploded. "You were in my Clan! You will obey me!"

Her eyes hardened, looking more like blue chips of ice. "You're nothing to me," she spat, looking more like the cat that Brokenstar had known in his kithood—the fierce warrior healer. "I'm out of this place, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!" She wheeled around and disappeared into the bushes.

"No!" Brokenstar dashed after her, seeing her white pelt flashing ahead of him. "I'm the leader here! You belong to me!" He raked his claws at her, feeling a sharp shock when his claws caught fur, yanking out a chunk of her fur and leaving the flesh below pink and bloody. He slowed to a stop as she disappeared like a crack of lightning, fading to nothing in less than a heartbeat.

Brokenstar didn't pant—there was no exhaustion or tiredness in this place—but his head whirled with something deeper than mere exertion. Slowly, very slowly, he tilted his head down to look at the faint glint of white fur that was caught between his claws.

Even at this very moment, Brokenstar felt the same surge of excitement as he had had then. Almost without his command, his paws sped up until he was flying through the dark forest, his ragged fur catching against brambles and thorn bushes, but he felt nothing but his own ecstasy. "Forgotten warriors of the Place of No Stars!" he yowled, letting his voice flood the silent air. "Come here and listen to your leader!"

As the clearing came into view with the sharp gray rock jutting into the air like a claw torn from the ground, cats were already seated, their pelts blending subtly with the shadows cast by the rock.

Brokenstar didn't bother climbing it. Racing into the center of the clearing, he stretched out his paw, letting the caught white strands of hair fall to the ground, dark red beads of blood still clinging to the base.

"What is this?" The deep mew came from the direct center of the circle. Another dark tabby heaved himself to his paws, coming over to look down at the fur with imperious eyes.

"Fur, Tigerstar. Fur from the traitor Blackflower." Brokenstar's eyes glinted as he stared down his greatest rival—the cat that was still trying to knock him from his position of leader of this rag-tag group of cats.

"But she's gone," Tigerstar snorted. "You must be incorrect."

"I tore it from her flank myself," Brokenstar snarled, letting his temper flare. "She thought she could escape—I couldn't touch her before. But then...I caught her."

"And then promptly let her go?" a cat called.

Wheeling around to hiss furiously, Brokenstar saw the cat that had spoken—that soft-brained Darkstripe. If only your confidence was as weak as your mind, he thought. Then it would be easy to break you...but not with Tigerstar around.

"Idiots!" Clawface padded over to stand beside his former leader, casting Brokenstar a quick glare. "Isn't it obvious what this means? If Blackflower can get out of this place—"

"Then we can, too!"

Scourge, sitting beside Bone, looked bored. "You're basing this idea off of a few strands of fur?" he asked in his high voice. "It seems a little far-fetched to me."

"I guess you want to stay here forever then?" Brokenstar was pacing now, his paws pounding against the dry ground. "Stay here under StarClan's eyes, kept out of the light by unjust paws? We were the most powerful, we were the smartest, the quickest, the fiercest." He stopped pacing, turning to face the silent cats. "Why should we get the bad prey out of this deal? Why should we be stuck here, forgotten by our kin and watch our Clans weaken?"

He could tell they were enraptured by his words—words of freedom.

With a new arrogance in his voice, he sat down and said simply, "Follow me. I will lead us back to where we belong...and we will claim StarClan's hunting grounds as our own!"

Victorious yowls split the air of the dark forest, while the cold specks of light in the sky watched silently.

So this should be enough info to keep me going on some vague sort of plotline. I really don't know what I'm going to do with this fic, but I'll figure it out along the way, I suppose. Oh, and the POVs are going to be Lionstar's kits, 'kay? As cliche as that is, I really have no other options on those unless I pop in an OC and that would be extremely cliche. ^.^

So...until we meet again~

R&R!

Shadow