Shadowy figures loomed above the visitor, only their curious eyes visible from the shade of the tree which they lurked.

Under their watchful stare, the visitor slowly awoke. It was only after sitting up and looking around did he notice that he was trapped in a familiar place.

The tom's green eyes widened. He quickly jumped to his feet, his fur bristling up in fear. Why was he here again?

He had been laying in the very middle of a clearing that was cleared of anything but dust and splotches of blood. Surrounding the clearing were bare, dead trees, so tall that they seemed to disappear into the smoggy sky. Littered below the trees were dry bushes and dead leaves.

A crunch came from undergrowth around him. The cat whirled around and instinctively unsheathed his claws.

Out of the expanse of dead leaves and bushes crept a large gray tabby. His most noticeable feature was his missing right eye. With his remaining amber eye, the tom wore a look of contempt, clearly caring nothing for the smaller cat's threat.

"Greetings Spiderfur." The gray tom said in a purr that lacked any warmth.

The black and white cat, Spiderfur, returned his greeting with a furious glare. "What do you want Losteye?" He hissed. "Why am I here again?"

Losteye didn't even blink, absentmindedly stirring around the leaves under him with a paw as he spoke. "I hear that you have a bit of a crisis going on in MountainClan. Your mate has greencough, correct?"

Spiderfur took a step towards the larger cat. "What does she have anything to do with this?" He snarled. "This has always been between you and me. Hickorypelt is not, and never will be, associated with you or the Dark Forest."

The tom froze as another idea came to his mind.

"Or are you here to gloat?" Spiderfur asked, his voice somehow containing more anger then before. He began to pace. "It was all part of your plan, wasn't it? I came to my senses and abandoned this forsaken place, and your response was to ruin my life like you have for so many others before me."

"What?! No! No!" Losteye gasped. "Spiderfur, I am not here to gloat about your sick mate. I am here to help!"

Spiderfur stopped and stared at him in disbelief. "Help?" He rasped, almost inaudibly. "You want to help?" His voice was slowly rising in volume. "You're lying. A cat like you would never do anything that isn't out of self-interest. Nothing you do will ever benefit anyone but yourself. You do not 'help'. You only destroy!"

Losteye sat patiently, waiting for the tirade to end. "If I am incapable of good, as you say, than what is this?" He turned around and picked something up in his jaws. Then he turned back around.

What he had made Spiderfur gasp out loud.

Catmint. He had a bundle of fresh catmint in his mouth. The one cure for greencough.

"Where did you get that?" He rasped. "All traces of catmint in MountainClan are gone. This horrid season killed all of it."

The gray cat gently placed the herbs on the ground and curled his tail around them. "It doesn't matter where I got it." Losteye replied. "What matters is that your mate will die without it."

A hint of a smile graced the tabby's lips. "Your mate and your kits."

Spiderfur stared at the herbs, drawing one shaky breath after another. Hickorypelt could survive. His kits could be born. But...

"At what price?"

Losteye looked up. "What?"

"What do I have to do in return?"

The tabby looked confused for a few moments before cracking a smile. "You know me well." He sighed, continuing before Spiderfur could reply. "Do you know Streamheart of FallsClan?"

"...Yes." The other tom answered uncertainly. He remembered the she-cat from the last gathering he had been at, where she had been announced as a warrior. According to gossip among her clanmates, Streamheart had suffered a traumatic past involving the deaths of many of her family members.

"I want you to kill her." The one-eyed tom said.

"What?!" Spiderfur yelped. "Kill her?!"

"Yes!" Losteye replied, as if he were speaking common sense.

"W-why her of all cats?" Spiderfur stuttered. "She's already been through so much! Why does she deserve to die?!"

"Streamheart's mother was Jayflight." The gray tom explained, standing up and beginning to pace around the herbs, lashing his tail. "Jayflight's father was Lizardfang, who's father was Needleclaw. Needleclaw's mother was Darkfeather. Her mother was Badgerscar. Her father was Mudfall. And Mudfall's mother was Larchleaf." The last name was uttered with such hatred that Spiderfur was taken aback.

The rambling tabby paid no mind to him. "Streamheart was the lucky one. The one that got away. Her littermates were easy. Ridiculously easy. But she's still alive. And I want- I need her dead."

He abruptly stopped and looked straight into Spiderfur's green eyes. "And you're gonna do it."

The black and white tom stared back in alarm. Alarm at sudden appearance of catmint. Alarm at the choice of the lives between two different cats. Alarm at the sudden display of insanity and obsession by the usually suave tom.

"How about this?" Losteye asked, reverting back to his calm demeanor. "I'll give you the herbs now, and can bring them to your Clan and save your mate and unborn kits."

Spiderfur nodded numbly, already knowing that there was a catch.

"Along with the catmint, I will give you until your kits are born to complete your end of the deal."

Spiderfur sighed and asked the question that horrified him. "And if I don't kill her by then?"

The gray tabby chuckled, before standing up and approaching the smaller cat until they were face to face.

"Let's just say," He purred, "that if you don't fulfill your end of the bargain, then I'll begin to undo all that I promised."

When the black and white tom didn't reply, Losteye turned back and pushed the catmint towards him. Afterwards, he exited the clearing. But before disappearing completely into the undergrowth, he looked back at him over his shoulder.

"Try to make the right decision, my dear apprentice."

Only when the big gray tabby was out of sight did Spiderfur move.

He slowly lowered his head, and out came a muffled sob.

Where the black and white cat had once challenged a gray cat nearly twice his size, the black souls above now watched that same cat cower and grieve.