Before the Clock Strikes Twelve

 BEFORE THE CLOCK STRIKES TWELVE

Episode Four, Season Five, of Rise.

Enjoy <3

Before the Clock Strikes Twelve
This funeral is just as depressing as the last. The clouds have cleared up a bit, but still cast a heavy shadow over the camp, as if predicting our mood. Amberstar and Whitestar are in a bit of a panic, as they’re worried the Blood Army is making their move faster than we can make ours, which also makes us more vulnerable to the Vipers.

Fighting a two-front war is quite exhausting.

It takes me a long time to convince the leaders that we can handle the Blood Army and we just need to regroup. But with both Presidia and Calypso dead, the only option we have is to go along with whatever Aleric says.

That doesn’t reassure me in the slightest.

The brown tom himself is sitting close to Karina, who is leaning on him slightly, staring at Presidia in shock. Aleric stares absentmindedly at the floor. Even by doing nothing he unnerves me.

“Hey,” Terran nudges me, “we should gather our friends and discuss this.”

I see that they’re already taking Presidia’s body away to bury her along with Calypso. “Whoever’s killed them moves quick,” I murmur, “I wonder who’s next.”

“Nobody,” Terran says, a little too harshly, “we’re going to put a stop to this.”

I gather our friends as instructed (I left Shadeflower out because she insisted on staying out of all this drama we’ve tangled ourselves in) and Aleric speaks up first. “It’s obvious whoever killed Calypso killed Presidia too.”

“That’s true,” I bob my head, “that would explain how quick the deaths happened.”

“Presidia walked into that trap herself,” Karina shakes her head, “She should have been more careful.”

“She was angry about Calypso’s death,” Feathershine sighs, “More importantly, angry at Aleric.” She says his name with enough uncertainty to show she doesn’t entirely trust him. Neither do I.

Aleric shrugs. “I cannot help what others think or feel about me.”

Karina goes slightly red at this and Aleric’s mouth turns into a half-smirk. I can feel Terran bristle slightly at the arrogant look on his face but relaxes when Aleric shoots Karina a soft look. It’s a weird expression on his normally hard face.

“The Blood Army must have seen Calypso and Presidia growing close together and when Presidia betrayed them, they wanted to silence them both in case Calypso had information from Presidia.” There’s a pause before Aleric adds, “And since I’m a traitor too, maybe they’ll come after me next.”

“Highly unlikely,” Nightshadow ponders over this, “you’re impossible to kill.”

“Not impossible,” Aleric corrects, “I’m not invincible, you know.”

“Thank the stars,” I hear Terran mutter under his breath.

Suddenly Applepaw speaks up. “We should just strike back,” she declares, “I mean Calypso and Presidia didn’t just die for no reason right? We have to avenge them. And I’m going to avenge my brother’s death. Whoever killed Firepaw…I’m killing them.” She vows.

Alarm flashes across Aleric’s face. I automatically assume he’s shocked that Applepaw would say that at such a young age. But grief changes cats.

Nightshadow whispers something to his apprentice while Karina offers up another plan. “Okay I know this was dismissed last time, but how about Bryce leads the way in and acts like she’s investigating like last time? I mean it got Aleric’s attention last time.”

Terran gives a nod. “Bryce will sound an alarm just like Presidia would have. We can follow her in capture whoever tries to come get her.”

“I’ll go alone,” Aleric corrects the white tom. “It’s already risky with Bryce going in. It’ll be too much with all of us.”

Karina opens her mouth to protest but Feathershine agrees immediately. “Aleric will do a fine job protecting Bryce.”

Terran tenses and he searches my gaze for an opinion. I give him a nod: let him. “I’m okay with that.” Terran immediately says. I’m touched by his loyalty.

Nightshadow and Applepaw put in their agreement. Karina is left to decide. She’s still hesitant but she’s more convinced by Terran trusting Aleric. By the worried look on her face I think Karina’s more worried about the danger for the two of us then Aleric betraying me.

“Okay,” she sighs, “just the two of you.”

“The rest of us will see what we can do to keep the Vipers away,” Terran supplies, glancing at his sister, “we can’t ignore them forever. Vicky’s death won’t keep them away for long.”

Both Karina and I flinch at the mention of Vicky. Well I wince. Vicky brings up too many bad memories; I can imagine it’s ten times worse for Karina.

Aleric keeps his eyes on Karina and he stands. “We’ll talk more about this later. I’m going to go for a walk.”

Karina stares after his retreating back for a second before scurrying after him silently. Nightshadow and Feathershine murmur to each other and Nightshadow called to Applepaw.

“Let’s go training, Applepaw. Feathershine is going to bring Emerald but you’ll have to go easy on her, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I will.”

Then it’s just Terran and I. I let out a huff and stretch. “Let’s just stay here. We’ve gone on too many walks and none of them have ended the right way.”

“Okay,” Terran agrees, moving over next to me. I curl up and rest my head on his flank. “Are you worried?”

“Only about failing,” I admit, “I think I can trust Aleric enough.”

“Have you ever thought about what it’d be like if we failed to win these wars?” Terran asks softly, “Freedom would cease to exist for us.”

My breath catches in my throat. “Don’t think like that. We can’t fail.”

I won’t fail for the sake of my sisters.

Terran uses his tail to brush my flank. “Sorry, it’s just been on my mind a lot. I’m worried about losing you.”

In that moment, I want to tell Terran I love him. But that would feel like I’m forcing it because I think we’re going to die. I don’t want to think that way. I’ll tell him when we get back alive. I make a silent promise to myself.

His blue eyes are as bright as ever, and it brings me back to a scratched up Terran who sat there with my sisters, soothing them when I wasn’t around.

We’ve come a long way.

It’s crazy for me to think about how we’d even met, and how we had bonded so quickly. There had been something about Terran that had sparked my interest, and I’m pretty sure from that moment onwards, I had slowly fallen in love with him.

Terran gazes into my eyes for eternity and I let myself fall into them.

~

Nightshadow and Feathershine sat side by side, watching Emerald and Applepaw scuffle. For a scrawny and tiny she-cat, Emerald is strong. She surprises Applepaw with moves of her own, probably learned from moons of fighting with her sisters.

Applepaw laid sprawled on the ground. “I admit defeat!” She declared, with Emerald standing over her.

Feathershine laughed and Nightshadow smiled. He was focusing more on Feathershine than on his apprentice, but he knew Applepaw wouldn’t mind so much. He loved Feathershine’s laughs.

He knew Applepaw was losing for show too. Emerald beamed at us, her confidence boosting.

“Go for another round,” Nightshadow called.

Applepaw shrugged and pushed herself up, letting Emerald have the first move again. The two mentors watched for some time before Nightshadow leaned over to give Feathershine a lick on the cheek.

She blinked at him. “I thought we were training our apprentices.”

“They’re training,” he murmured, “but I wanted to tell you I loved you.”

Feathershine smiled. “I love you too.”

“Stop the mushy stuff!” Applepaw yelled from where she was fending off Emerald, “We can hear you!”

Nightshadow rolled his eyes at his apprentice and pulled Feathershine closer to him. Nothing could keep them apart.

Applepaw pretended to shield Emerald’s eyes. “Come on now! Don’t take away her innocence!” Emerald giggled at that.

“Bryce and Terran do that all the time,” Emerald informed Applepaw.

This made Nightshadow laugh and Feathershine joined in. “I knew they were doing something whenever they were together in that den,” Nightshadow told Feathershine, who only nodded.

“They’re finally showing their true feelings,” she agreed, “about time.”

“Maybe this just means we need to show ours more often,” Nightshadow touched his nose to hers, enjoying how close she was.

Applepaw just groaned. “That isn’t an indication that you should start making out in front of us!”

Nightshadow just studiously ignored her.

~

Aleric was sitting in the middle of nowhere, not really sure where he was. As good as he was with the Twolegplace, Aleric had never really been to the Coalition territory before. He was lost.

He could hear Karina hovering behind him but he didn’t say a word. For a long time, she just stood there behind him, as if waiting for him to notice.

Finally Aleric breathed out a long sigh. “Karina, please stop standing there.”

She walked around until she was next to him. “Sorry, I just didn’t want to interrupt a private moment.”

“It wasn’t private,” Aleric informed her, “and I wasn’t having a moment.”

She sat down next to him, not too close, but not too far. She faced him. “Why’d you walk out of the meeting so quickly? They may want to try to trust you now but you shouldn’t just walk around without caution.”

“Nobody can hurt me anyway,” Aleric said, suddenly feeling tired. “and I don’t know…I just didn’t want to hang around anymore.”

“You know everything.”

Aleric shot her an amused glance. “Do I really though?” He didn’t want to point out he was completely lost in this territory.

Karina shamelessly blushed. “Okay, maybe you don’t, but you know enough. What bothered you so much about the meeting?”

Aleric looked away. He knew what had bothered him, and it was lingering on his mind now. “Did you hesitate to give your approval of me accompanying Bryce because you were worried about danger or because you didn’t trust me?”

Karina sat back. “I trust you.”

“To what degree?”

The dark gray she-cat stared at him with golden eyes. “I think I’m the first to truly trust you,” she told him. “Why would think anything else?”

''Because you were the last one to agree. Because you’re not the first to trust me.''

When Aleric didn’t reply, Karina scooted closer, making the brown tom suddenly feel nervous. He hadn’t ever been nervous before, if you didn’t count those times with Elena.

Thinking about Elena now made Aleric feel sick. He wanted to turn away from Karina but he couldn’t. But he didn’t want to relive his mistakes.

Maybe for once history would not repeat itself.

“I was worried about you,” Karina’s voice dropped to a low whisper, “I didn’t like the idea of you going alone back to where the enemy is.”

“I won’t be alone,” Aleric shrugged, “I have Bryce.”

Karina laughed, just a little. Aleric felt a smile tugging at his lips but he pushed it away. He didn’t want to smile. Smiling meant he was enjoying this conversation and Aleric wanted to stop all this.

“That sounded rude,” Karina admitted, “but you’re only going to protect Bryce.”

“Perhaps,” Aleric mused.

He found himself looking over. Her golden eyes were warm and Aleric found himself softening up. He let his eyes shine with some sort of emotion for once. Karina’s eyes lit up at that but she didn’t mention it.

Aleric remembered the moment they shared earlier. He remembered the burn in his heart when Karina finally stepped away.

Aleric had fled the scene after, making excuses and saying they should get back before Bryce.

This time, he didn’t want to back down. He drew closer to Karina and she held her breath. “Have you ever loved before?” She blurted out.

Aleric frowned slightly. “Once.”

“Really? I didn’t think--”

“Shh,” Aleric cut her off gently, “I don’t want to talk about that. I don’t want to talk about anything.”

“Then what do you want to--?”

Aleric touched his nose to hers and the world burst into flames. He felt on fire himself, because there was energy there—a little too much.

Karina froze where she was until Aleric stepped back. “Don’t worry about me,” was all he said, even though a thousand words were inside of him.

He turned and walked away, even though he could feel Karina’s gaze following him. He remembered what he had told her the other day:

Do you know that this yearning I have for you will one day destroy me?

The End.