#needlestrike

But even with two medicine cats, they cannot figure out what the illness is nor how to treat it. It isn’t until Puddlepaw is visited by Littlecloud, who tells him that it’s yellowcough and about the lungwort on WindClan territory. They ask Onestar to give them the herb, but, knowing his Clan was facing the same illness, Onestar denies to help them.

Around this time, Darktail’s rogues are pushing into ShadowClan and ThunderClan territory, threatening both Clans with their violence. Needlestrike, frightened for Alderpaw and the kits’ lives, goes to ThunderClan to make sure they’re okay. She’s tired and scared that half of her Clan will be killed to the sickness and rogues. She asks Alderpaw to leave with her. Alderpaw is shocked, telling her that she has an apprentice and a Clan to look after and that Violetkit and Twigkit would be heartbroken if they had to leave Lilyheart and the kits. Needlestrike is furious, telling him they could leave the drama of the Clans behind and give Twig and Violet better lives, but Alderpaw stands his ground, refusing to go with her.

Unwilling to leave the Clans without Alderpaw and the kits, Needlestrike returns to ShadowClan. When she returns to camp, she sees Darktail and two or three of his rogues. Darktail tells Rowanstar that if he lets him and his rogues join ShadowClan, he will help them get the lungwort from WindClan through claws, not words. Needlestrike agrees with this idea, knowing how many rogues Darktail has from her journey with Alderpaw. Rowanstar denies his offer, telling him he’d never accept help from rogues. Needlestrike, now furious with her leader, tells him their sick could be healed if he accepts help from Darktail. But Rowanstar is persistent. Needlestrike tries to convince the warriors to help her sway Rowanstar in the right direction, but they agree with him, reminding her of Sol.

Needlestrike and most of the apprentices decide that their Clan is full of cowards, and leave to join Darktail’s group. Puddlepaw is left without a mentor, and RiverClan refuses to give up their medicine cats to train him, as they are dealing with yellowcough themselves.

After about a moon, Needlestrike learns that Rowanstar finally sent his cats to attack ThunderClan, losing almost half of his Clan members. Needlestrike decides she’s had enough of the kit drama, and convinces young Violetpaw to join her and the Kin, telling her that she has so much potential that Darktail can help bring out of her. Violetpaw joins Needlestrike and the Kin, gaining her name, Violetstorm, after her time in ThunderClan.

A couple of moons pass, and more ShadowClan warriors have joined Darktail’s Kin. Needlestrike has met a lovely she-cat, Rain, and fell in love. But, the sickness has now fully infected the Kin, picking off warriors and rogues one by one. Darktail decides it’s time to attack WindClan, but Rain speaks up, telling him they should just sneak onto their territory and steal the lungwort. Darktail is angry, telling Rain that WindClan has forsaken ShadowClan and the Warrior code, which states that they needed to help them in their time of need and that they should be punished for it. Rain gets angry, telling him that half of their cats are sick and that they can’t risk their lives. Darktail attacks and kills Rain. Needlestrike, trying to protect her mate, gets in the middle of the fray, losing her eye in the process.

Darktail sends his “Kin” and himself to attack WindClan, bringing along plenty of sick cats as well. Needlestrike refuses to go, still grieving over the loss of her dear mate. After the battle, Needlestrike learns that Darktail killed Onestar and Harespring and that many ShadowClan turned Kin cats were killed, including her dear friends Beenose and Strikestone. Needlestrike loses plenty of sleep and can’t bring herself to eat as she tries her best to heal as many of her Clanmates as she can, giving her own prey up to the sick and injured. Deciding that they never should have joined the Kin, Needlestrike and Violetstorm construct a plan to get away form Darktail and his rogues. Violetstorm does the whole poppy seeds in the prey thing, but are found out by Sleekwhisker. Needlestrike is horrified to find that her friend still trusts Darktail. Violetstorm denies that Needlestrike was part of her plan to leave.

Violetstorm and Needlestrike are dragged to the lake, knowing they are going to be executed. Needlestrike is weak and starving, and Violetstorm is still too young to take on so many cats. Darktail tells Needlestrike to prove her loyalty and that she wasn’t part of Violetstorm’s plan by killing Violet. Needlestrike isn’t able to bring herself to attack Violetstorm. Darktail tells Raven, Roach, and Sleekwhisker to attack Violetstorm and Needlestrike, but are unable to get their claws on them when Puddlepaw, now Puddlenose after his dead mother, Berryheart, and Dawnpelt burst out of the bushes and attack the three rogues, ordering Needlestrike and Violetstorm to escape.

They get away as fast as they can, leaving the Clan territory, chased by Roach. Once Roach gives up, Needlestrike and Violetstorm stay in a a small hollow they found, Violet coaxing Needle to regain her strength and eat. Needlestrike’s wounds have gotten infected, but is too delirious to help Violetstorm find the right herbs that can help her.. Then they meet two young loners, Zelda, a kittypet turned loner, and Tree, a cat who lost his mother during a storm at a young age. Tree still has his abilities to see dead cats, and Zelda has a vast knowledge of medicine herbs from travelling for so long.

After Needlestrike heals and gains her strength back, both her and Violetstorm decide to return to the Clans to help fight against Darktail. Only to learn that Darktail was killed by Heathertail, who was chosen by Kestrelflight to be the new WindClan leader, now Heatherstar. The Kin disbanded, SkyClan returned home, Alderpaw is now Alderheart, and young Twigpaw has been named early for her bravery in battle, now Twigshine, after her mother, Pebbleshine. Alderheart and Twigshine are ecstatic to find out that Needlestrike and Violetstorm are alive and well. Violetstorm has taken a liking to both Zelda and Tree, and they all join Needlestrike in ShadowClan, where Tawnypelt is now leader, Tawnystar. She took in a few rogues to rebuild her Clan. Needlestrike is happy to hear that one of her close friends, Cloverfoot, has become deputy of ShadowClan, though she hasn’t had an apprentice, she was the only young, healthy candidate. RiverClan also has a new leader, Reedstar, after Mistystar passed away due to the yellowcough. His deputy is Minnowtail.

Needlestrike finally reunites with Alderheart, who seems a bit uncomfortable with her. He tells her it wasn’t fair to him or Twigshine when she just ran off with Violetstorm one night. Needlestrike apologizes to him, telling him that she wasn’t thinking straight. Alderheart seems sympathetic toward her. He forgives her, and they go their separate ways. Tawnystar gladly takes Needlestrike back as her medicine cat, and she’s happy to be working alongside Puddlenose again.

Violetstorm, Tree, and Zelda become mates after a while, and Twigshine takes a liking to Reedpaw. Reedpaw joins ThunderClan with Twigshine, gaining her name, Reedclaw.

The Clans immediately made room for SkyClan instead of being jerks like in Raging Storm.

I think that Sleekwhisker and Juniperclaw would be the villian after Darktail in this AU? Sleekwhisker is a rogue now, but Juniper is now back in ShadowClan. They try to take down ShadowClan again while Alderheart is there helping Needlestrike heal Puddlenose after the whole silverthorn incident. They still poison them by you know stealing the deathberry seeds and sneaking it into their prey when no one’s looking. And then Needlestrike kicks their asses.

Alderheart went silent with shock. “We know it’s a bad time,” Rowanstar meowed, “but Tawnypelt and I are the last cats in ShadowClan. We would feel safer in ThunderClan camp, if Bramblestar would let us stay.”

Twigpaw clawed at the ground in anger. Rowanstar tried to take her sister away, lost half his Clan to a stupid mistake, and attacked ThunderClan, wiping out two of their warriors, Cloudtail and Birchfall, and he expected them to take him in? Alderheart stepped in front of Twigpaw before she could say anything. “We’ll take you to Bramblestar,” he meowed, blinking at them.

Now, Twigpaw stayed silent, shaking with both anger and grief. Alderheart reached the entrance of camp, where Lionblaze and Berrynose were standing guard. He explained what happened with Rowanstar and Tawnypelt, and the two warriors let them in, though they seemed hesitant. “I’ll be there in a bit,” Alderheart meowed to them. “I need to speak with Twigpaw.”

Lionblaze nodded and followed Rowanstar and Tawnypelt into the camp.

Twigpaw and Alderheart stayed silent for a few heartbeats. Then Twigpaw cried out, burying her face into Alderheart’s chest fur. “It’s not fair!” she sobbed, her eyes stinging with tears. “Why did it have to be Violetstorm and Needlestrike. Why did Needlestrike take her away from me in the first place?”

Alderheart wrapped his tail lightly around Twigpaw’s shoulders. “I know, Twig,” he murmured, licking the top of her head in hopes to calm her. “I’ll miss them too.”

Twigpaw stayed like that for a long while, sobbing like a helpless kit into Alderheart’s fur. Alderheart glared up at the sky, which was now darkening, StarClan warriors beginning to sparkle in the inky darkness. Why did you take them away? he wanted to howl. Why are you punishing us?

Alderheart’s gentle grooming eventually soothed Twigpaw enough to make her stop crying. “Why don’t we find a place to bury them?”

Twigpaw sniffled, looking up into his amber eyes with her own green ones. “But we don’t have their bodies,” she croaked, her voice horse from sobbing so hard.

“We have Violetstorm’s feather, don’t we?”

Twigpaw nodded. She kept the bright red feather close to her heart ever since Violetstorm disappeared, leaving it behind. “I could bury that,” she mewed.

“And I’ll bury something else,” Alderheart meowed, getting to his paws. “Like a pine needle, or a piece of prey to keep them well fed in StarClan.”

Twigpaw smiled. “Violetstorm always liked vole best,” she purred, blinking the tears out of her eyes. “Let’s bury one of those.”

Alderheart nodded. “Come on, I know just the place.” The reddish tom let Twigpaw retrieve her feather from the apprentice den and they headed off toward the edge of the territory, where they shared borders with no other Clan. The night air cooled Alderheart after such a hot day, and he could taste rain. Was this StarClan’s way of saying they were mourning as well?

Finally, they reached just the place Alderheart was looking for. Right under a large oak tree grew a patch of sweet smelling violets, where Violetstorm used to like to sit when she was an apprentice. Alderheart remembered the young she-cat coming home with the sweet scent on her fur, as if she was rolling around near them. On the oak tree were long scratch marks. Alderheart liked to think this was where Violetstorm dug her claws into the bark and stretched.

“Here,” he meowed, beginning to dig. It didn’t take that long to make two small graves, one for the feather and one for the vole Twigpaw caught on the way there. He blinked at her. “Place the feather in one of them.”

Twigpaw nodded and did as she was told. Then Alderheart put the vole in the other grave. The two filled the holes back up, lowering their heads to honor the two fallen warriors. Alderheart plucked a violet from the bush and rested it on the grave with the feather.

“Take care in StarClan,” Twigpaw murmured, looking up at the star speckled sky. “We’ll miss you.”

Alderheart took a deep breath, closing his eyes. “We can sleep here for the night, if you’d like.”

Twigpaw blinked at him, smiling. “That’s a great idea.” She patted the earth next to Violetstorm’s grave. “Come on, let’s get comfy.”

Alderheart laughed and purred. The two of them curled up near the churned earth. Twigpaw lay her head on Alderheart’s back and yawned. “Do you think they can see us?” she asked, tired.

“I’m sure of it,” Alderheart assured her, grooming her ruffled fur.

Twigpaw yawned and stretched until she was comfortable. “Good night, Alder,” she murmured. “I hope you have sweet dreams.”