They stood there in silence for a moment. Nothing could be heard except the sound of rushing water and their own heavy breathing.

Then, suddenly, they engulfed him with yowls of happiness. 

"You did it, Hero! You did it!"

He felt his whiskers twitch into a hesitant look of happiness, seeing the pride evident on every one of their faces. He'd done it. He really had.

He was a Hero.

He let them congratulate him for a few more minutes before deciding enough was enough and shoved them away gently. Now he looked at them with excitement. "What about you? What happened?"

Swiftstorm dipped her head weakly. "Well, I lived," she mewed rather unnecessarily. "Estelle is an excellent healer." She glanced down at her foreleg. "Though she used an awful lot of bandages."

Hero nodded. "I can see that," he mewed, almost instantly regretting the sarcastic tone in which he'd spoken.

Swiftstorm didn't mind, of course.

"And you guys?" asked Hero, gesturing to Jayflight. "I thought you'd been..." His voice trailed off.

He'd thought she was dead.

Jayflight shrugged. "I made it out."

Well, that's obvious. Hero bit back the sarcastic comment and waited for her to elaborate. She didn't speak. "Well, that's good." Details, please?

"And she hardly had a scratch!" broke in Smokewhisker. "I was so relieved..."

Huh.

Hero glanced at Jayflight curiously again before deciding that she was just a bit rattled by the near-death experience.

Still, he couldn't help but wonder if it had been something more...

"Wait," mewed Hero suddenly. "Where's Estelle?" The black-and-white she-cat was nowhere to be seen, which struck him as a bit odd. He didn't think her the type to abandon someone in pain.

Snowfeather and Swiftstorm exchanged glances. "I don't know," admitted Swiftstorm. "Last I saw, she was going to try and help some others out of this place." She ducked her head, muffling a cry of pain when it pulled something. "We...ah, left to got find you after that."

Hero considered that for a moment before nodding his head. "Well, that does sound like a good idea." Seeing the others' confused looks, he added: "To help the others." He gestured with his tail to the land below, and was greeted with nods.

"Yeah, let's get off this roof," shivered Snowfeather. He turned to Swiftstorm, and Hero could just hear him mutter: "I don't think I'm ever going to like heights again."

He couldn't blame him.

He led the way down the stairs. In the initial confusion, Hero couldn't even remember how he'd gotten here, but he noted with worry that the stairs were awfully steep.

Not great for a cat with half their body wrapped in bandages.

Swiftstorm waved him ahead feebly. "I'm fine."

"You're not fine," insisted Snowfeather. "Here, I'll help you." He pushed on her side sharply, and Smokewhisker quickly took the other.

They were doing quite well until the whole building suddenly shook.

With a cry, Hero oppled over and only just managed not to fall down the rest of the stairs. Smokewhisker had somehow managed to say immobile and be an effective barrier against Swiftstorm and Snowfeather's weights.

Jayflight wasn't quite as lucky, slipping down a step or two before lashing her tail around a railing pole.

Hero winced. That looked painful.

"Everyone alright?" he called. He might have seen them fall, but it never hurt to make sure.

"We're fine," mewed Swiftstorm.

"Me too," called Jayflight, uncurling her tail from the bar. "Though my tail feels like it was run over by a monster." She tried to flex it and winced.

"Ok," Hero replied. "Let's just be super careful now."

Thankfully, they made it down the rest of the stairs without any more tremors, and Hero took a deep breath and exited the doorway.

Waiting there, Hero found Tags, who looked suitably relieved to see him there. 

She opened her mouth as if to cry in excitement, then seemed to remember herself and simply greeted him with a dip of her head. "So, you survived, Timekeeper."

"Indeed." He paused. "So, the rest of--"

Hero's statement was broken as the ground suddenly trembled violently. Instinctively rolling to the ground, he shivered as a slab of a something landed with a crash beside him.

He looked at it and shuddered.

The object had managed to crack the concrete.

That would not have been good for my health.

"Hero? Hero? You alright?"

Hero spat out a clod of dust. "Yeah, I'm fine," he mewed, shakily getting to his feet.

"Thank StarClan!" cried Snowfeather. "We don't need to lose another....cat...." His voice trailed off awkwardly.

No one wanted to think about Lilypool.

A silence followed, and Hero was, of couse, smothered with thoughts of Lilypool-- thoughts of the beautiful she-cat who'd died before him. It was typical, of course. As soon as you tried not to think of something, it was the first thing on your thoughts. 

It always happened to the things you really didn't want to think about, too

Lilypool's death was definitely not something he wanted to think about.

He swallowed hard and forced himself to look at Tags. "We're going to get more cats out of this..." He gestured with his tail. "This...hell."

It seemed an appropriate word to use, now. He was acutely aware of the smoke rising from many of the buildings and chocking his senses, and the tumbling streets and buildings were demons in their own right.

Demons of fire and stone and metal.

Metal...the heat of the fires suddenly him. Hero sliced off his armor quickly, letting the suddenly red-hot piece of metal clatter loudly on the ground. He winced as the cats behind him did the same, the rattling, clanging noise sending an instant message to his brain.

The fire, the weapons...

They needed to get out of here.

But all those cats...

Hero's fur stood on end when he heard a long screech of pain somewhere to his right. For a moment, he could have sworn it was someone he knew, but then he dismissed it.

It's probably not.

Probably.

In fact, the most likely chance was that it was an enemy cat.

But enemy or not, no cat deserved to die.

Not after all the death already. Not after Hero'd seen why it had all happened, how stupid it'd all been.

Another screech of pain.

They needed to help them.

Tags seemed to come to the same conclusion at almost the same instant, nodding briskly. "There's been a lot of death today," she mewed, spinning and almost running to the chaos. "No need to make it any more."

And that's too true, thought Hero grimly as they passed a charred body. He heard someone gasp behind him, and he winced internally. There's so much death...and for what?

Two greedy, vengeful pieces of garbage that didn't deserve to be called cats.

Didn't was the key word, however. Didn't. Past tense. They were dead.

They were dead.

And Hero had, albeit indirectly, caused it.

He wasn't really sure what to think of it at the moment, as he struggled to stay on his feet and find survivors in this place he'd once called home. He was too wrapped up in his grief for all those that had died and too worried about the ones living to sit back and ponder his feelings.

Perhaps that was a good thing.

Hero felt his consciousness suddenly start to slip. How long had it been since he'd slept? It felt like ages.

A dull pain shot through his foreleg, and he looked down to see a wound he didn't remember having.

Had he gotten it on the stairs? He shrugged the matter off. 

He was too tired to care, anyway.

The blood loss probably wasn't helping.

Now Hero was just walking behind his companions, no longer taking the initiative. Jayflight, of course, looked delighted to leave, and he wondered curiously why he didn't let her to it more often. 

Well, she's not from here, for starters, he snorted. She'd walk us in circles

Of course, technically, she was just following Tags.

And he was content to leave the path-finding to Tags.

Even though they hadn't been the best of friends in the past...

That was Tags, right? His eyesight didn't seem to be quite right...he blinked twice. Of course it was.

The sudden muttering of voices told him that they'd joined up with the main group.

Tags leapt up on some sort of ledge and was addressing all the cats, ordering them to evacuate the City. But Hero's thoughts were distant, and his sense of purpose was slowly slipping away.

Nevertheless, Hero felt himself nodding in agreement and mew assent to the suggestions, and heard his companions do the same.

"We're going to split up..." came Tags' next order, and Hero turned and complied, vaguely registering the fact that she sounded terrified.

Not that he blamed her. They were walking right into the fire.

A fire set by the cat they were trying to save

Snowfeather's anxious mew cut through Hero's thoughts and stopped him in his tracks. "Swiftstorm! No, you're injured! You need to get out..."

Swiftstrom had been following him?

Sure, she might have been quiet, compared to her Clanmates...but still.

He was slipping.

Her couldn't deny it anymore. He was desperately, exhaustively tired.

Hero could hear Swiftstorm protest, snapping him out of his near-sleep for a moment, them he lapsed back into just thinking and walking.

Poor Swiftstorm.

She'd need time to heal, undoubtedly, but Hero couldn't help admiring Estelle's work...

Estelle.

Where was she?

Hero was shocked to find distant he'd gotten. He hadn't gotten this tired in a long, long time. Normally, if he were tired, he'd just sleep. Problem solved.

But Estelle!

He needed to find her.

Hero stumbled forward with a new source of determination. Swiftstorm said that she was heading back to the City to help more cats! I've got to find her!

He was practically running now, his vision and mind clear again now that he had a goal. Still, he knew that that would fade quickly into fatigue.

I can't let that happen!

Hero ran on, stumbling only twice when a tremor shivered the ground underneath his paws-- enough to throw him off balance, but not enough to knock any other building to the ground. 

And thank the stars for that, he thought as he pushed himself off the ground, before sighing and plopping back down as another tremor shook the earth.

He sat for a moment, regaining his breath. Glancing around, he wondered if his quarry was anywhere near. "Estelle? Estelle?" called Hero.

Nothing.

Suddenly, Hero felt very, very tired. The tang of blood reached his nose, and he turned to his foreleg to see it bleeding profusely. He must've scraped it after he fell over.

Hmm, that's not good, was his only thought before his vision began to slip and he heard a frightened voice above him.

"Hero! Hero! Wake up!"

"Whatever for?" he tried to ask, but only managed the "what" before he felt a paw slam across his face. 

"OW!" The cat's claws had been unsheathed, leaving small nicks across his face. They were burning in pain now. Burning away the tiredness. "What was that for?"

"Up! UP!"

Hero complied and stumbled to his feet, scowling at the figure in front of him. "What is it? I'm just...so...tired..."

He started to slump again, but the cat caught him. "Hero! You've got to stay awake! At least until we can find a healer."

Healer...Estelle... "ESTELLE!" Hero was up on his feet again, wincing as his right foreleg almost gave out under him. The other cat was instantly at his side, supporting him.

"Woah, steady there, Hero." 

With his newfound clarity of thought, Hero finally recognized the cat as Jayflight. "Jayflight?" She was definitely the last cat he'd thought would find him.

Jayflight nodded. "Yeah, it's me."

"Thanks for finding me."

She nodded once. 

Hero wanted to say more, to explain his gratitude, but all he could say was, "I would've died without you."

She nodded again. "I know."

The next question he asked was sudden, out of the blue. He blamed it on the blood loss. "How'd you survive that wall?"

Jayflight stiffened. "Just lucky, I suppose. Now, where were those medicines Estelle gave me earlier...?" She patted the ground around her quickly before finding some small round objects. "Ah, here we are. Should keep you awake a little longer," Jayflight mewed as she shoved them into Hero's mouth.

"Thanks," Hero mewed. He paused. "Wait, Estelle?"

"Missing."

Hero felt a shaft of disappointment cut through his belly.

"Any news?" Any good news?

After all, he'd barely heard anything Tags had said at that meeting. There must have been something he'd missed.

Something that wasn't just plain discouraging and depressing.

Jayflight shrugged. "Not much, I'm afraid. Sofi is safe, but Levi is MIA." She paused. "A lot of others too."

"Oh," was all Hero could manage. How many friends would die in this battle?

"But look on the bright side," Jayflight mewed. She sounded like she was trying to convince herself. "We're alive." 

She didn't mention that so many were dead-- Bling, Lilypool, Foxspring... She didn't have too.

He knew. He remembered.

But they were alive.

And perhaps she's right. I suppose that's something to be thankful of.

written by Ember