Wow... so this is it... the end of my second installment in "After the Fire"...

I know that barely anybody reads this story, but if you are reading this A/N right now, I'd just like to thank you for even clicking this in the first place. I finished this story in just under a year, so I'm quite proud of myself (it took me two years to finish When the Sun Goes Down, for comparison)!

Anyways, thanks (again). I hope you enjoy this ending, and see you at The Bee's Buzz (next story after this one, same POVs, etc.), and hopefully my "The Dog Apprentice" and "Colorful" series!

They were almost back to camp when a shriek sounded, shaking the ground, rattling the leaves on the trees, and chilling every cat to the bone.

Fogpaw tripped on a tree root and landed squarely on his muzzle. He was dragged back to his paws by Snowtail, but when Fogpaw looked at his mentor to thank him, it was obvious the white tom's mind was not on receiving thanks.

"It came from the camp!" someone wailed in fear; when Fogpaw squinted through the darkness, he found it was Rosepetal who had spoken.

"Careful, ThunderClan!" Bramblestar meowed, though it was difficult to hear him over the sudden, deafening roar of anxious mews.

Fogpaw stuck with Snowtail as he watched the dark tabby lash his tail and slowly lead the Gathering group back to the stone hollow. Fogpaw's heart thrummed unsteadily in fear of what they would find when they returned.

"Snowtail—" His beginning of a question was cut off by Lakepaw, who abruptly appeared again at Fogpaw's flank.

"You got a little red on your nose," his brother told him, frowning. "actually, a lot of red. What did you do, stumble off a cliff and fall on your face?"

"Yes, because there's plenty of cliffs around here," Fogpaw replied. He reached up one paw and dabbed it gingerly on his nose. When he drew his foot back, he gasped at the sight of it covered in blood. "I just tripped over a tree root…" he mumbled, swallowing back a groan. Of course this has to happen to me.

"Don't worry, it's not all that noticeable," Lakepaw assured him. "Only your entire nose is red. Oh, and… there's some dripping down toward your mouth—"

"Okay, I get it. I know it's bad." Fogpaw sighed and flicked his tongue out of his mouth for a fleeting moment, like a frog. And sure enough, he tasted the salty tang of blood. I suppose I'll have to deal with it until I can get it treated.

"Lakepaw, go find Amberear," Snowtail ordered, butting his head in between the two brothers.

Lakepaw flinched away from the white warrior's stale breath and mumbled, "Why? I wasn't doing anything bad."

For once, thought Fogpaw as he held back a wry smirk.

"All mentors have been ordered to stay with their apprentices," Snowtail snapped, almost feverishly, at the stubborn black-and-white apprentice. "Now do as I say or I'll drag you over to my sister by the ears."

"No, not my ears!" Lakepaw winced and scampered off in pursuit of Amberear.

Anxious bile burned the bottom of Fogpaw's throat. "Does this mean the camp is under attack?" He hesitated, then added, "Again?"

An even grimmer look, if that was possible, settled like dark cloud on Snowtail's face. "Bramblestar has strong suspicions we might be under attack. FoxClan could've easily taken advantage of the camp while we were at the Gathering, since the hollow was emptier than usual." He picked up his pace, and Fogpaw limped after him, lifting a paw to pat the blood off his nose every few heartbeats.

A low, mournful moan pierced the cats' ears as they neared the thorny entrance to the camp. Fear made Fogpaw's belly feel heavy, as if he had swallowed a stone. This is it. Whatever's past that thorn tunnel, we'll have to face it.

Bramblestar cautiously stalked into the thorns, trailed closely by Cloudtail and Squirrelflight. Fogpaw went over the list of battle moves he'd learned in the last half-moon. Leap-and-hold. Back kick. Scruff shake…

Too soon, it was Snowtail and Fogpaw's turn to enter the thorns. Too loudly, Fogpaw gulped. Too quickly, Snowtail slipped through the entrance, and Fogpaw had no choice to follow.

They emerged into the hollow.

Bumblestripe, Larchpaw, and Toadstep were holding off a mangled group of four foxes. All three toms had torn and bleeding pelts, but their eyes were filled with unfiltered determination and malice— especially Bumblestripe, who had finally been discharged from Jayfeather's care a quarter-moon ago.

Across the clearing, Leafpool was standing forlornly over a lifeless reddish-colored shape, some cobweb clinging to her chin. Hazeltail was curled over the body, her eyes closed and whiskers quivering as her body was wracked with sobs. Smokypaw sat beside his shuddering mother, his blue gaze round with grief.

It wasn't difficult to come to a conclusion. Icecloud flew over to the depressing scene, nearly bowling over Leafpool as she collapsed next to her littermate. The white she-cat's pelt was already darkening from her brother's spilled blood, but she didn't appear to notice her horrid new fur color as she threw back her head and yowled, "Foxleap!"

"He's with our parents, and Shrewpaw, Larchkit, and Hollykit now," Birchfall murmured, padding forward to stand shakily at Foxleap's motionless head. Spiderleg followed soon after him, his gray-flecked muzzle twitching as he suppressed what was surely a wail similar to his sister's.

Fogpaw tore his eyes away from the sad family to see Snowtail's reaction. His mentor's mouth was ajar, and his ears slowly began to fall back flat against his head. Oh, right. Foxleap was his mentor.

Right then, Snowtail glanced down at the silver tabby, and whispered, "I swear by StarClan that I will teach you all that Foxleap taught me."

Fogpaw nodded solemnly and mewed back, "Thank you. And I will be honored to share that same knowledge with my apprentice, when the time comes."

Meanwhile, Bramblestar, Tigerheart, Lilyfern, and Rosepetal had relieved Bumblestripe, Larchpaw, and Toadstep of their duty defending the mourners from the foxes.

Squirrelflight and Dewclaw investigated the perimeter of the clearing until they met in the middle. "There appears to be no other foxes besides the four Bramblestar and the others are dealing with now," the deputy mewed, voice cracking as she cast another glance at Foxleap.

"Get out of our home, and stay out!" snarled Tigerheart, scoring his claws down the side of a dull-furred gray vixen's muzzle. She screeched and twisted to fight back, but Bramblestar, with a mighty, lion-like maneuver, threw himself on top of her, stunning her. The dark tabby then rose to his paws and kicked the pummeled fox into the undergrowth. Yelping, her fellows followed her, leaving behind an uneven path of blood-outlined paw-prints.

"Tell that leader of yours to give up already!" Lilyfern spat after them.

Unhurriedly, the four warriors turned around and began to head over to Foxleap just as Bumblestripe, Larchpaw, and Toadstep emerged from the medicine den with their minor wounds freshly treated.

Hushed quiet crashed down on the Clan. Any conversations tapered off into nothing, or dissolved into mist that Fogpaw imagined evaporating into the lightening sky. A lump formed in the silver cat's throat; this was a sunrise that Foxleap would never see. Did he even watch yesterday's sunrise, and wonder if it might be his last?

"Hazeltail," Bramblestar murmured. He flicked an ear and sent a couple droplets of blood flying onto the crowd nearby.

The small she-cat curled her thin, whippy tail tighter around Foxleap's frozen abdomen. She moaned, and her body shuddered in another massive sob. Larchpaw, who was smoothing down his shoulder fur to cover skin drenched in herb dressings, joined Smokypaw at their father's flank. The two young toms looked as thoroughly devastated as Fogpaw had ever seen.

"Hazeltail, could you tell me exactly what… exactly what happened to Foxleap?"

But the grief-stricken she-cat paid no heed to the ThunderClan leader's words. She stayed silent as a boulder save for the tiny, high-pitched cries rolling off her tongue every so often. Bramblestar frowned and lifted his head away from Hazeltail, instead glancing helplessly at the group of cats who had stayed back from the Gathering.

"Bramblestar, I- I can tell you most of what happened," Birchfall volunteered.

"Please do," Bramblestar said, ducking his head in permission.

The light brown warrior flattened his ears respectfully and stood rigidly in front of his superior. "Well," he began, "the only cats out in the clearing were Foxleap, Hazeltail, and their sons. Every other cat had hit the moss, you know, resting up before the Gathering cats returned." Whitewing stepped up to him, and he nuzzled his mate affectionately before continuing with a soft sigh, "Then, suddenly there was this huge snarl, and all at once everyone exploded out of the dens and over to the scene."

Not even a heartbeat after Birchfall paused to take a breath, Smokypaw rose to his paws and squeezed Larchpaw's shoulders gently with his tail while he snagged Bramblestar's gaze. "The four of us, we heard rustling in the undergrowth right behind where Foxleap was sitting… he and Hazeltail were sharing tongues, and Larchpaw and I were telling them how our training was going today. I'd just been explaining how happy I was to have Bumblestripe back as my mentor— no offense, Cloudtail— when four foxes leaped out from the bush right there." Shakily, he removed his tail from his littermate's shoulders and jabbed it in the direction of a ragged bush a tail-length from where Foxleap lay. "It was completely out of nowhere, and for some reason they just latched right onto Foxleap. Maybe because he was eating the squirrel right then? I guess we'll never know."

Bramblestar lowered his head again, first at Birchfall and then at the trembling gray apprentice. "Thank you, both of you." He turned tail and bounded over to the Highledge, where he clawed his way up the rocks until he was gazing down upon the clearing, so he could address the entire Clan. "This horrible tragedy only proves how much more urgent this issue is. More innocent lives will be taken if we don't act now, and remove FoxClan from our territory." He narrowed his eyes into slits and shouted, "Do you hear me, ThunderClan? Our territory!"

Fogpaw didn't hesitate to join in the faithful cheers. I'm loyal to my Clan. And my Clan is ThunderClan. All around him, grief-tinged and determined cries echoed, bouncing off the walls of the stone hollow, ringing in his ears. We are fierce. We are brave. We are undying loyal. He threw back his head, inflated his chest, and on the exhale screeched, "For Foxleap!"

He yelled this a couple more times, then lowered his head again to catch his breath. He caught gazes, so many pairs of eyes blinking at him in surprise. Not so quiet anymore, am I? Fogpaw beamed at Lakepaw's stunned expression; quickly his brother recovered and continued yelling "For Foxleap!" At one point, Fogpaw stared across the crowd, over the sea of muzzles pointed at the sky, and saw Icecloud looking at him, her azure-blue eyes filled to the brims.

"Thank you," she mouthed to him.

All Fogpaw did in response was release another string of "For Foxleap!"s.

Because what else could he do? Some might think we're just cats. Just a variety of strange, small, furry creatures. And we are all different- pure-blooded, half-Clan, former loner or kittypet…

Fogpaw stopped for a moment, and nudged Lakepaw's shoulder. The black-and-white tom froze and then inclined his head so they could lock gazes. "Blood doesn't matter, Lakepaw," Fogpaw mewed gleefully. "Don't you see? Blood doesn't matter! And no matter who our father is, or what he's done or if he's alive or not… it doesn't matter! Because we can be perfectly content with our lives the way they are, because… because our entire Clan is like a family! We work together, we grieve, we fight, but we always forgive."

Lakepaw glanced from him to the rest of the Clan, still howling their hearts out. "We also avenge."

At that moment, the cries ended abruptly. Bramblestar was on the ground again, wading through the enormous, multicolored puddle of cats. When he emerged at the opposite shore, he spun around, scored several deep claw marks in the earth, and yowled, "And now we eradicate FoxClan, and take back what's ours! They won't know what hit them. Avenge Foxleap with me, cats!"

As the dark tabby burst into the thorn tunnel and then out into the forest beyond, another chorus of "For Foxleap! For Foxleap!" leaped from countless tongues and into the sky.

Fogpaw didn't hesitate to throw himself into the pulsing crowd. He felt Lakepaw's pelt brushing his, and his paws pounding less than a whisker-length's beside his. In spite of all the differences he'd faced with his brother, Fogpaw right then could only foresee one thing: a bright future, where FoxClan would be gone. Foxleap would be avenged. And peace would reign over all the Clans.

Peace out ^^