(ORIGINAL BOOKS' AU) Warrior Cats - A Frail Soul's Torment

10 - StarClan's Betrayal

Author's Note I: there's a little TRIGGER WARNING for the presence of swear words (since there isn't any in the original books, I thought it might be nice to warn before the reading).

- LaraEndlight
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<< They let him in StarClan. >>

As Leafpool's words left her mouth, Squirrelflight felt a cold, chilly wind running through her fur and inside her body, freezing her blood like.

<< ... what? >>

Thinking, no, hoping she hadn't heard her sister very well, Squirrelflight repeated herself.

<< What?! >>

Her voice sounded like the panicked squeaking of a rodent.

<< When StarClan put him on trial, Ashfur was deemed worthy of joining its ranks. Under strict surveillance of course. >>
<< "Surveillance"?! "Worthy"?! That's bullshit! >>

Hissed Squirrelflight, remembering a few of the curse words her father learned from Twolegs when he was a kittypet in the past, he hadn't taught her those intentionally of course, she was just really good at eavesdropping the leader's conversations when she was an apprentice and when her father got really frustrated and upset, he used to let his tongue slip.

<< I understand you're upset sister... >>
<< Upset... really? Oh, why would I be upset?! >>

Asked the red cat rhetorically.

<< Because StarClan looked at the cat who plotted with Hawkfrost to kill Firestar and that wanted to let innocents die over a cat he was obsessed with and let him in where good cats end up in death? >>
<< I know what he did, he was judged in a fair trial and in all honesty, I voted against him. >>

Said Leafpool lowering her head, displeased with her own inability to be objective during something as important as a trial in the eyes of their ancestors.

<< But in the end, the majority voted in his favor. >>
<< But why? Why?! What could they have ever seen in him that's worthy of forgiveness? >>
<< Some said that there must have been a reason for him to find himself where StarClan holds its trials and not immediately in Dark Forest. That the fact that he hadn't actually killed anyone and had always been a loyal warrior before... well, before his treacherous acts, was enough to give him a chance to show that there's still a light in him... >>

Explained Leafpool, her voice lacking any kind of trust or sympathy for the gray cat.

<< Yellowfang straight up said that he simply "loved too much". >>
<< Loved too... she compared a fucking obsession with real love?! >>

Squirrelflight felt anger replace every inch of the fear she felt before.
The rage from those days Ashfur and Brambleclaw fought over her and other cats would blame her for not choosing one and "enjoying the attention" (as some elders said), the rage of the night a cat she had considered one of her closest friends and that was her own relative¹, revealed himself to be a monster, that rage she had felt at the memory of how powerless and stupid she had felt when she gave up on that branch and spilled her secret instead of fighting him, even at the cost of her own life, like any mother would have done.
"And now, my own ancestors looked at him and decided that his sick fixation was love, that he can stay up there and watch over us all with them..."

<< Who else voted in his favor? >>
<< Squirrelflight, I don't think you should... >>
<< Who else?! >>

Leafpool was taken aback by the hostility in her sister's voice, but knew it wasn't directed towards her.

<< Aside from Yellowfang. His parents and his sister and Bluestar and other older spirits I didn't know. >>
<< Well, it's good to know two of the she-cats our father valued so much are actually stalkers apologists. >>

Growled the red cat walking in circles, scratching the ground with every step she felt a strong sense of betrayal.
Those were her ancestors they were talking about, the cats she put her faith in and looked up to, the cats that should have protected her and her family and guided them all in dark times. Yet her protectors welcomed a cat that was ready to murder over the object of his obsession, comparing his twisted desire with the love of any normal warrior and turning a blind eye to his betrayal against his own leader.
The same protectors that ordered her to break the Warrior Code and judged her for it, that were ready to cast away a medicine cat that had suffered for her infractions and gave her life to save innocents kits.

<< Squirrelflight? >>

Leafpool put a paw on her back.
No, not Leafpool, but Alderheart.
The she-cat had awoken with an irregular breathing and an even more irregular heartbeat, the medicine cats were saying something she couldn't hear, for only one voice was speaking in her mind.
The voice of the ghost of a tortoiseshell cat.

<< Get her some poppy seeds. >>

Ordered Jayfeather and Alderheart went to retrieve the seeds, but the red deputy shook her head at her sons and got out of their den, searching around for her sister's ghost and finding nobody where she once stood.

<< She was right... >>
<< What? Who was right? >>

Asked the gray tabby, confused by his mother's words as Squirrelflight bared her fangs with fury.
"Mapleshade is right..."

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Author's Notes II: (¹)= I know many usually try to justify incest and relationships with a big age-gap with the old and pointless: "But these are animals!" excuse.
But let's be real: if you write a fantasy story with humanized animals, you better make a point to explain how these kinds of things work in your universe, 'cause if your "animals" are basically written like humans in animals' body, the "they're just animals!" is nothing but a lazy lie that would work only if you were writing a documentary. Fantasy is not real life and if your cats have the concept of "love", "family", "right and wrong", "religion" and such, then they have no realistic take on incest and pedophilia unless you have explained at some point how much of a "realistic cat" they have in their human-like mind.

- LaraEndlight