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"With An Angel Voice, Devil In Disguise"
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Dawnclaw was going to face it with her head held high.

Or perhaps she would, if she were a better cat. She wasn't.

"StarClan's dung, StarClan's dung, what am I going to do?" She muttered.

"That little piece of lemming dung, Brindlebee! We grew up in the Nursery together! You don't understand anything! You moose!" She cursed, rage lighting up like a fire inside her. She made up her mind then and there, a resolve of spontaneity. A better cat would know that decisions formed on impulsive rage were terrible, but Dawnclaw was not a better cat.

She forced her legs into a run, determined to get to camp.

After a short run, a raspy, shaky voice caught her attention.
"Dawnclaw."

She turned. The voice was low, which was something Dawnclaw was familiar with, but it was uncertain and fearful, very unlike the unfazed, confident molly that Dawnclaw had come to know.

"Aquiver? What's wrong with you?" Dawnclaw asked. The dusky-furred molly was lying in a small patch of ferns.

"I... I." Aquiver stood, but the movement seemed to trigger Aquiver to vomit, she coughed and spluttered, looking very weak indeed.

She straightened up, and looked Dawnclaw in the eyes.
"I'm not in the best health. And if you values yours, you won't yell anyone what you saw."

Malice and poison were laced in her tone, Dawnclaw felt it lick her heart, which slowly came to a stop. She hadn't seen this side of Aquiver, and it scared her.

"You're in no position to make threats, Aquiver. The Clan would side with me rather than with an outsider." Dawnclaw warned.

Aquiver's lip curled. "Are you sure? Brindlebee was screaming so loud the whole forest could hear. What are your Clanmates going to say about that?"

Dawnclaw winced. Without a reply, she burst into a run, desperate to get back to camp.

The trees blurred, and Dawnclaw slipped on a leaf. She swore that the birdcall of a common redpoll was mocking her. She got to her feet, cursing Leaf-Fall. Not matter how pretty the blend of reds, oranges, yellows, and greens were, It wasn't fun. Chilly winds signalling Leafbare, and these StarClan cursed leaves.. She shook her head to clear it, before walking the final metres to camp.

When she entered, it was chaos. She could hear the shrill tones of Brindlebee, the outrage of her Clanmates.

"Poor little beetle!" A bicolour queen named Duckflight gasped, referring to Sablekit.

"Dawnclaw is a beast! She should be exiled for what she's done!" Stormthroat voiced, loudly. Both she and Duckflight were Pinetuft's siblings.

Stormthroat had always been outspoken. She had always been rude and critical. But never had her words ever been about Dawnclaw. The two were always on fairly good terms.

"Oh, poor Pinetuft, you had no idea! It's okay. Once she's exiled, you can leave that filthy cat. No cat blames you!" Cherrystream purred, wrapping her calico tail around Dawnclaw's mate. Pinetuft shuffled away from her, clearly uncomfortable and trying to explain the real story - but Cherrystream leaned against him again.

The sight of this was what spurred a dumbfounded Dawnclaw into action. Pinetuft was hers! And he clearly wanted nothing to do with Cherrystream. All that she-cat wanted was to be known as 'the cat that saved the abusive, exiled filth-cat's mate.'

"You flea-ridden, snake-tongued, vole-hearted, moose!" She swore, her voice high and filled with rage.

The whole camp turned to stare.

Yowls broke out, no doubt shaming Dawnclaw, but she had blocked them out.

Leaping on the Leader's Stump, she bared her teeth and them all.

"Look at you all; how pathetic! That vole-heart has been feeding you lies, and like the mindless gossips that you are, you lapped it all up like kits at a belly!" She hissed.

The entirety of SpruceClan stared back at her, in a state of stupor.

"You're saying.. you're saying that you didn't neglect the kit?" Lynxheart, an elder, rasped.

"Listen. Before you all shriek, let me explain everything. Yes. I did neglect - emotionally neglect Sablekit. But whatever that moose of a queen told you, it wasn't intentional. And StarClan, I know it was still terrible. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't regret what I did to him. But the fact is, I didn't want kits. I never did. But I ended up with them. And I ended up with five, which is many, many kits for a new queen to raise."

She paused.

"I felt alone and scared, I didn't know how to raise kits. I made a terrible, terrible mistake, but have I abandoned Sablekit? Deemed him unlovable and left? Decided he would live a terrible life and left him somewhere to die a quick death? No! I'm going to stay and support my kit. I'm going to support him while he fights, and I am going to fight too. You don't know what really goes on. You know but a mere, warped detail from Brindlebee, an exaggerator, a cat likely to overreact and act without knowing what's really going on. So before you pass judgment on me.. learn the story."
The dilute tortoiseshell finished, her voice wobbling. She stared around at all the cats around her, waiting for a response.

Silence was all she got.

"I stand against her!" Stormthroat howled, her voice furious. "That's my littermate's kit that you ruined!"

"Exactly! Poor Pinetuft. Poor Sablekit!" Duckflight voiced.

Panic bubbled inside Dawnclaw. She was an object of hatred, among her own Clan! They viewed her as an abuser! ... was she?

The bubbled consternation surged up Dawnclaw's throat, scorching it. Her skin was red, raw an irritated, it began to peel off, leaving her with holes as layer after layer of skin and fur fell. Spume cascaded out of her agape mouth, spilling down her orifice throat. Swirls of blood was mixed in with the foam, it washed everything away, until Dawnclaw was left in a state of oblivion with just one thought.

They're right. I abused a kit. Emotional neglect is abuse.

I am an abuser.

"How narrow-minded of you!" One voice shattered the obscurity. This voice was low-pitched, husky, and certainly the last cat Dawnclaw expected to come to her defense after the previous events.

Aquiver. 

Dawnclaw choked. She wasn't a better cat, but maybe Aquiver was. Whatever had gone on before, the other molly had put aside. 

"It's a very controversial matter. Dawnclaw committed a horrible crime, but really, Sablekit is a mild case. The damage done to him wasn't all that extensive! He's not violent, the neglect was emotional, and not only Dawnclaw's fault." 

Despite the respect and liking that Aquiver had gained by SpruceClan, many yowled against her words. But there were two cats who they trusted above all else, and those two cats stood with Dawnclaw too.

"It was all our faults." Swiftear began, from somewhere behind Dawnclaw. "Dawnclaw was a new queen, a young one, who had five kits. We didn't support her enough, help her enough. I took particular care of them, but yet I didn't notice. Minkfoot shared a den with them and didn't notice. Pinetuft didn't notice, and he fathered them! As a Clan, it was our duty to help and assist Dawnclaw, and we didn't do that. We can't blame just Dawnclaw." The bicolour tom blinked.

Dawnclaw saw a mackerel tabby tom stand beside her, his green eyes hard. 

"The past has occurred, and we must forgive. Instead of pointless blame, we must come together to support this family.  And we vow to be careful, attentive and kind in the future. We can prevent this." He meowed, his voice like flint.

Pinetuft picked his way through the crowd. He spoke very few words. but he sedated everyone, as it was agreed by the entirety of SpruceClan that if Pinetuft trusted someone, that meant that they were a good cat. 

"I agree with Aquiver, Snakestar, and Swiftear. I stand with Dawnclaw."

No more was uttered. But as the crowd dispersed, Dawnclaw caught many looks of digust and hatred aimed at her.

Great StarClan.. what am I going to do? If you wish to punish me, do it. But don't let it affect the kits.

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A/N:
Sorry for the wait! This chapter was pretty difficult to write.

Fact of the Chapter: Pinetuft is deathly afraid of praying mantises, or as they're know to the Clans, simply mantises. DawnClaw wanted to name a kit Mantiskit for this exact reason. In this scenario - same, Pinetuft, same.

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