No. This isn't how things were supposed to go. I was supposed to be SILENT I was supposed to love HER. Why? Why did he have to show up? Why did he have to stand there and be so kind and forgiving...why did I have to ruin everything? It's all over then isn't it. I'm done for. After all I have lived through, after all I have gained, after all I have killed for, all the strength I have shown. I am taken down by love. WHAT KIND OF DISGUSTING CLICHE, WHAT KIND OF CAT AM I? I AM SCOURGE AND I AM KING. NO ONE WILL TAKE ME DOWN.

"Scourge? Hey Scourge! HEY! Are you okay?!" Scourge phased back to the present. He was staring into the eyes of Brick, she looked like she was in shock, still crying, but she looked angry, if too subdued to do anything but look.

"Yeah...how much did you hear?" Scourge felt a rising embarrassment and anxiety, a strong fear he had never encountered before. And anger, anger at himself.

"Just...just the...the last part." Brick lowered her head, "I...I guess I knew I was just-I just wanted you to forget him so badly. He was your second in command and I was your third, I was close to you but you weren't with me. Not like you were with him...I suspected, but, I-when-when you asked me to be your mate I was sure I was wrong, that maybe I'd made a mistake but...I see now. You only wanted me to control your clan. Not because you loved me. That's okay...that's fine. But if I can't have you, my love, I'm afraid that no one else can either!"

Scourge was so shocked that he couldn't move, Brick hurled herself in a furious flurry towards Bone, he stumbled back, also shocked at Brick's strange demeanor. She slashed her claws clumsily over over Bone's throat. His body made a dull thud as it hit the ground, blood spattered over the stone, violent and red against the dull grey. Brick dived in for more, her claws barely brushed Bone's fur before giant claws pierced through her throat.

Scourge looked like anything but the small weak scrap he had been, his fur was ruffed up and his pupils were tiny with rage, his teeth flashed, and he lost control. Brick was already dead. But Scourge was not satisfied. Disgusting sounds of ripping flesh and breaking bone could be heard for miles, and his anguished yowls could be heard from even farther away. Scourge was not even making cat sounds, his unnatural screaming was unearthly. Terrifying. Brick's body was a bloody heap of red and white with small tufts of matted fur sticking up here and there. It was impossible to tell what the bloody pulp laying before him had been, except for the small cat collar, stained red and filled with teeth that Brick had collected. She would not be collecting any more.

Panting, Scourge looked back at Bone with tears in his eyes. Never, had the king of blood felt such emotion, and never had he been afraid to look at another cat. He stepped slowly forward and nudged Bone gently. He opened his eyes with a rasping breath and Scourge collapsed in relief.

"I...no I need to, I need to get you to someone who can help, someone who can save you" Scourge was frantic, panicking as he pressed his paws against the gash, doing his best to keep Bone alive, he had to stay alive. Bone smiled, a small cough and more blood joined the quickly forming puddle on the ground. "Do...do you mean it? Really?" Bone didn't seem concerned in the slightest, he knew that Bloodclan had no healers. He knew that if there was an injured or sick cat that they would die. He was quite aware that he would live no longer, and that all he wanted before he died was to confirm what he was so sure had happened, though it could have been a delusion in his dying mind, Bone was sure that he had heard Scourge say that he loves him. It wasn't a question of whether or not Bone was hallucinating any more, there was no way what he was seeing could possibly be real.

Scourge was crying.