Warrior Cat Clans 2 (WCC2 aka Classic) is a roleplay site inspired by the Warrior series by Erin Hunter. Whether you are a fan of the books or new to the Warrior cats world, WCC2 offers a diverse environment with over a decade’s worth of lore for you - and your characters - to explore. Join us today and become a part of our ongoing story!
News & Updates
11.06.2022 The site has been transformed into an archive. Thank you for all the memories here!
Here on Classic we understand that sometimes life can get difficult and we struggle. We may need to receive advice, vent, know that we are not alone in our difficult times, or even just have someone listen to what's going on in our lives. In light of these times, we have created the support threads below that are open to all of our members at any time.
Rosethorn was making more progress with fighting than she'd ever expected to make in her life. Her exposure to tragedy had whittled away at her reluctance to witness death and pain, and her determination to succeed whittled it down further. Her mate was a good teacher, and she now had the basics of fighting down- like an apprentice a moon or two into training. It was slow-going, but it was better than she expected.
But something had been bothering her. Even as she'd blossomed out again in the increasing moons since her stillbirths, her mate had not. Time seemed to weigh him down more heavily than before. There was some of the old jibes and joking, but he seemed one or two more layers removed than she was. She couldn't understand it, until she'd overheard an exchange between him and Aspenstar while she was out by the river and they'd been walking past.
There was nothing... overtly wrong with it, but it had planted a seed of suspicion in her chest that grew as she watched them more closely. She'd seen the way he lightened up around her, the way he shut down again when he reunited with his actual mate. And she intended to find out the truth tonight.
If the weather had any sense of humor, it was certainly showing it now. The approaching summer storm reflected her own inner thoughts, and the heat lightning that flashed across the sky in the distance illuminated her narrowed amber eyes as she waited in their training place for Phantomfox to arrive.
These nights with Rosethorn, getting to watch firsthand how she broke free of her trauma and overcame the things that previously held her back, should have been the happiest ones of his life. He should have been beside her - truly, fully beside her, not this shell of himself he was seeing the world through - but he felt so far removed from her that it felt impossible to wade through the distance. Instead, he watched. He watched, in some manner of omniscience, as his vessel went through the motions of her mate; it walked beside her, it snarked to her sass, it praised her progress when she succeeded and when she didn't, it pulled her to the eaves of the pine trees - and he would stop watching them then.
Phantomfox couldn't remember how it felt to stand beside Rosethorn, to feel her soft fur against his side and her warmth creep through him, and he knew no better today than yesterday how to get back to that part of their lives. If only it were so simple.
When she would turn her eyes away, embers in the night, in their place he would glimpse sea glass, sparkling up at him. When she would move from his side, rather than the softness of her plush coat, his skin craved the brush of a coarser touch. Somehow, without noticing, what began as subtle glances and playful flirting had turned him away from the one he should be running to. Instead, he found it harder to walk to that training hollow, to meet her there under the mirthful twilight and StarClan's judgmental glitter.
But with the last dredges of his willpower, he did, and Phantomfox felt his spine prickle under the intensity of his mate's gaze.
Rosethorn watched the way the brown fur along his spine shifted when he looked at her, and suddenly all she read was guilt and reluctance in his gaze. The lump in her throat tripled in size, the heaviness in her chest seemed enough to pull her through to the core of the earth. She had always been the more observant sibling in her family, and as much as she hoped her instincts were steering her wrong, she knew they weren't.
Best to air it all out, then. There was no way she could get through a training session like this.
"Are you in love with Aspenstar?" Rosethorn asked coldly, keeping her chin high and her gaze focused directly on Phantomfox. The twilight seemed devoid of sound in the seconds between question and answer, and the suspense of waiting held her breath captive.
Suddenly, there were two options presented to him. The first was to come clean, accept his failings and ensure the brunt of her wrath, her pain, to watch as her faith in him dwindled and smothered like his faith in himself already had. The second was to lie, scramble to save face and assure her that no, no he wasn't impossibly, undeniably, completely in love with his leader, willing to dismantle the one thing he'd always longed to have for himself if it meant one moment of belonging to her.
In an effort to gain time, to gather his bearings, he looked... at anything else, silver eyes moving across the tree tops, the shadows dancing around them, anything that wasn't her or the stars. "What makes you ask that?" He parried, tiptoeing around an answer.
"Do you think I'm completely blind, Phantom? Or maybe you think I'm stupid." Rosethorn scowled at his half answer, and she stood from her seated position, her cream and gray fur shifting in the wild breeze. The lightning flicked again, darting across the sky, and the seconds before the thunder boomed were shock-silent.
Her pent up energy was burning in her chest, and she paced back and forth as she continued. "I ask because of the way you look at her- because you haven't looked at me like that in moons. You two have these inside jokes, these little moments we used to have." With a serious effort, she swallowed, coming to a stop a foot in front of her mate.
"You've been so cold around me lately, and I want to know why. Actually, I know why. I want you to confirm it. Go ahead, Phantomfox. Tell me. And have the decency to look me in the eyes when you admit it."
Wicked lightning illuminated them, and it was impossible to prevent himself from looking at her, noting the sharpness in her movements and the urgency in the way her questions gained momentum. He was cornered, he knew that, but like the wild animal that was still present within him, it made him wild, the edges of his lips lifting in the beginnings of a snarl. She was so close, leering up at him, that he could have reached down and bitten her. "And you came to this conclusion when...? When you realized that being in NightClan meant seeing my life outside of you? When my successor, my best friend, became real, someone you could see and be threatened by?"
"You can take that look off your face and shove it where the sun doesn't shine, Phantom," Rosethorn responded quickly, her eyes narrowing. "You don't get to pretend I'm crazy or jealous or insecure. If the answer was no, that you aren't in love with Aspenstar, then you would've just said that instead of having this little meltdown. Aspenstar doesn't threaten me in the slightest. I'm a catch, and I know it. It doesn't seem that you know it anymore, though."
"I didn't come to Nightclan to be treated like a duty you come back to reluctantly. I'm not your burden, and I wish you didn't look at me like I was a chore instead of the cat you said you loved. Answer the simple question, Phantomfox, and don't turn it back on me. Are you in love with Aspenstar? Yes, or no?"
His claws pulled at the dirt, the frenetic energy radiating throughout and around him becoming impossible to maintain, and he snapped his jaws at the air, wrenching away from her to turn away. He needed to breathe, but the thick, humid air was stuck in his lungs. Every attempt he made to divert, hoping to prolong this selfish little life he'd built for himself, she picked apart, unraveling it before his own eyes. He just needed to breathe. For a minute. A second.
But his lungs were filled with lies, his desires touched by deceit. This is what you deserve, taunted a voice, all too familiar, in his head, the disappointed gaze of his sister separating itself from the shadows. What would Foxpaw say, were she alive right now?
He turned back to Rosethorn, the defeat etched into the slump of his shoulders. It resonated in his hollow whisper. "Yes," he spoke hoarsely, letting the breeze carry his truth because he was, once again, too weak to do it himself, "Yes. I'm in love with Aspenstar."
She hadn't meant to stumble across them. In fact, she would rather be precisely anywhere but this exact spot in the middle of a lover's quarrel. In fact, she didn't even want to know they were having a lovers quarrel. She didn't want to know anything about their personal life; knowledge of it at all, good or bad, complicated things, complicated the dull ache that resonated in her chest any time he was too far from her side. He was intoxicating, and she craved the way he made her feel. Objectively, she knew this was wrong, which had been precisely why she had tried her hardest to get over it. She'd tried to make a life with Larkspur; they were raising the litter she had accidentally acquired, and they were perfectly domestic. No matter what she did, though, no matter how hard she tried to convince herself, Larkspur wasn't enough. She'd even tried to find someone else, seeking solace in the arms of a SummerClan she-cat; something she no doubt knew the irony of. Still, though, she was left unsatisfied. No one, it seemed, was a replacement for Phantomfox. Fine, she had decided. She'd just have to get over it. She'd gaslit herself into believing that the feelings were unreciprocated. She'd made it clear she wanted to know absolutely nothing about his personal life. She'd tried to create distance, a failed attempt to keep hold on the faint sliver of a cat she had once been. She had tried to be better, cling to the last piece of humanity she had...
Yet, fate seemed to have other plans for her.She had been on her evening walk when she happened across them. She'd tried to quickly stumble backwards and immediately retreat further into the forest as to avoid the situation entirely. She would have, too, had she not happened to be there when he said the words, those words, those impossible words...
I'm in love with Aspenstar.
She froze in her tracks, a deer in headlights. The words echoed in her head. I'm in love with Aspenstar. I'm in love with Aspenstar. I'm in love with Aspenstar. She let out a soft noise, a mix between a gasp and a sigh, before immediately regretting the noise. If they hadn't known she was there before, they did now.
The NightClan leader gulped, bracing for impact. Whatever was about to happen, it wasn't going to be good. She could already feel the headache creep into the corner of her skull. She flexed her claws, before opening her jaw. There were so many things she could say, so many things she could do. Run into his arms, revel in the moment that he admitted the thing that she so wished to be true. Tell him he couldn't, tell him off, save face. She could tell Rosethorn that she didn't mean it, that she never intended for this to be how her life turned out.
Instead, borderline stunned into silence, the NightClan leader could only mutter, "Wait... what's going on?"
"Isn't this just the icing on the goddamn cake?" Rosethorn grumbled under her breath, her amber eyes darting between Aspenstar and Phantomfox. In truth, she didn't hold this against Aspenstar. She wasn't the one who'd claimed to love her, the one who promised to stand by her side. She could understand what drew her to Phantomfox- probably many of the same things that drew Rose to him. Still, those words were echoing in her head.
I'm in love with Aspenstar.
Where they caused disbelief and astonishment in the Nightclan leader, they sparked anger and indignation in Rosethorn. "So, while I was laid up mourning, recovering from delivering five dead kits, you were off flirting with and falling for someone else? Did you bring me to Nightclan to mother your child while you balanced having the wife you were committed to and the girlfriend you really wanted? Did you mean to make an absolute mockery of me, or was that simply a side effect of having your cake and eating it too?"
There they were, suspended between them, the wickedest of words he could have wielded. His mouth opened to speak again, say anything to soften the blow, but before he utter a single syllable, there she was. Aspenstar. And he found that, with her standing there, hopeful eyes beholding him in a new light, he couldn't bring himself to lie anymore. He couldn't claim to not love her.
But the fury in Rosethorn's barrage of questions pulled him apart, and in that moment Phantomfox was keenly aware of exactly what the kindest thing to do for her would be - and that was the withhold his kindness, pull his lips back in a sneer and be cruel. If he could make her hate him, wish he were dead, she would be all the better for it. Better than to know and love him, despite all his failures. Despite the irrevocable fracture in his soul. He was poison in her future, and all he'd done was prolong the effects of his touch on her life until now, until this moment where he could grant her freedom from his influence. So what did he do?
Phantomfox raised his chin. He looked, at last, into Rosethorn's eyes. And in the most vile, guttural way he possibly could, he spat his rebuttal at her. "Yes, after you fell asleep with your cheeks still wet against me, I pulled myself away and took myself to my own joy. I couldn't bear to shoulder my pain and yours, so I went to someone who could feel mine and who took it away from me. I fell in love while you fell asleep. I found what we were no longer capable of giving each other, and I found it in Aspenstar right. under. your. nose."
Aspenstar believed that the worst part about being at rock bottom wasn't actually being at rock bottom; it was the descent. She was watching her own descent unravel before her eyes. As soon as she heard Rosethorn confirm that she had heard him right, Aspenstar knew that this moment would fundamentally shape the rest of her life. She could once again feel herself being torn, torn the same way that night Pinesimmer told her the truth tore her in half, split her between the cat she wanted to be and the cat she was. The cat she wanted to be wanted to stop him, craved for her to put her foot down and end this once and for all. The cat she wanted to be wanted to rush to Rosethorn's side, tell her that she never meant for this to happen, then tell Phantomfox that she couldn't believe he could be so cruel. The cat she wanted to be wanted to feel guilt, remorse for her actions.
However, she was not the cat she wanted to be. Instead, Aspenstar was a monster. She didn't think she had always been this way, but maybe she had. Maybe she blamed what had happened in her leadership too much for shaping her into the creature she now was. Perhaps she had always been the cat she was now: cruel, vain, self-serving. She supposed it didn't matter now. No matter how she got this way, this simply was now how she was.
She paused for one more moment, before making an inward note that StarClan must have foresaken her for her to have ended up in this position. It was only then that she spoke.
"That's enough."
She took a few steps forward, intentionally trying to create distance between the two cats before one of them, probably Phantomfox, did something they would come to regret. She was responsible for what was going on here; it was her responsibility to make sure that those involved came out... mostly unharmed.
"Stand down, Phantomfox," she then ordered, her voice softer this time. A quiet plead was in her voice: you don't have to do this. Of course, though, Aspenstar knew that he did. He was reacting in precisely the way she knew he would; it was this very fire, this monstrosity that lurked beneath the surface, that was one of his biggest draws. He didn't care about the cat she wanted to be, the cat she used to be. He saw her darkness and he accepted it.
"Rosethorn, I didn't mean for this to happen..." she then meowed, but she could tell that her words sounded insincere. In reality, this was exactly what she meant to happen. Aspenstar was a queen, and the queen always got what she wanted, no matter the cost...
Disgust curdled Rosethorn's gaze, her amber eyes two flecks of resentment and fury as she looked between the two. "Whatever you say, Aspenstar," she said quietly, her tone disbelieving. She glanced at Phantomfox over Aspenstar's shoulder, refusing to let her pride falter under his words, under his choosing of another over her. Her parents had preferred her sister, Phantomfox preferred Aspenstar. Fine. She was through with being anyone's second choice.
"I hope you two are happy together," she said curtly, tilting her head. "Only I hope if tragedy strikes, he doesn't abandon you for another as easily as he abandoned me. And I certainly hope you're proud of yourself," she added, speaking directly to her former mate, "for so openly admitting to choosing someone else over the mate that needed you."
This circus show did not deserve another second of her attention. Rosethorn wouldn't validate this exchange with her presence. "Best of luck to you both. I hope Starclan doesn't curse you with any stillborns, because then you'll just be blamed for your grief just like I was. See you back at camp." She didn't add that at the first opportunity, she'd be dragging Foxpaw away with her. Rosethorn simply left, her head and tail held high as she walked swiftly off. It was only in the sanctuary of the treeline that the tears scorched their way down her cheeks, staining the ground with droplets of salt water.
He should have, most likely, said anything else. I''m sorry you had to see that.' 'It was for her own good.' 'I had to be cruel to save her, in the end. It never would have been easier.' He should have said anything to absolve himself of what she'd borne witness to, finally seeing for herself truly what kind of irrefutable horrors lay behind those sterling silver eyes, shining brightly at the back of Aspenstar's head despite the utter blackness in his soul. But one thing Phantomfox knew, if he didn't know anything else at all, was that the things better left unsaid were quite possibly the best things to say to her. "I didn't mean to fall for you. I didn't mean to be unfaithful. But it's too late to pretend now, Asp. I can't just unlove you."
I meant what he said. The words played in her ear softly on repeat, the same way they did when he had admitted to Rose that he loved her. So, it wasn't a lie then. Her head was pounding, her heart beating heavily in her chest. She wasn't sure how she had ever expected this to work out. Even in her fantasies where they were together, she'd never actually considered how it would happen. Was this how she wanted it to go? On one hand, it wasn't. She didn't want Rosethorn to be hurt, not really. The she-cat had been kind and a friend, and she didn't really think she wanted her to be devastated. Yet, on the other hand, this was the only way this could have happened, wasn't it? It was always meant to end in an explosion. If she wanted him, and she did, had she also wanted the explosion? Was that part of why she wanted him, the fact that she was starting to enjoy watching the world destroy itself around her? It was hard to say.
It's too late to pretend now, Asp. It really was now, wasn't it? They'd been pretending for so long, each pining for the other. There was no use hiding this anymore. She'd considered the ways that she'd do this for most of the last few moons, how she would tell him. She had always known that at some point, he would have to know. She would make a dramatic gesture about it, and then send him off to be with his family because she knew she wasn't strong enough to love him without having him. She had figured that that would be the only option when she told him she loved him. He wouldn't return the feeling and she'd have to send him away to save her own heart. It was this reality, that she couldn't admit to loving him and continue working with him as if she hadn't just told him that, had been the reason that she'd kept her mouth shut. Denying her love was suffocating, but the idea of Phantomfox not being within an arm's reach was more than suffocating.
But, if he loved her too... did that mean that she could have her cake and eat it too?
"You can't just unlove me," she repeated, her voice a soft murmur. The words were like fine wine to her; in a matter of sips, she was already drunk, drunk on the idea of Phantomfox, on the idea of love, on the idea of getting exactly what she wanted. She let out a soft noise, somewhere between dreamy and tired, before she took a few steps closer to him.
Aspenstar stood in front of him. She was tiny compared to him, small enough that she had to turn her chin up to look him in the eyes. It was like looking at the lion who fell in love with the lamb, if the lamb was actually a wolf in sheep's clothing. She stood silently for a moment, her gaze focused on his, trying to read the emotions that were bubbling just under the surface. She studied him for a moment. This was the first time she'd actually allowed herself to study him in the way that she wanted. Stolen glances across his frame were nothing like watching him, really looking at him for the first time, unafraid that she'd allow too much emotion in her eyes. She no longer had to hide the soft affection in her eyes. What did that mean for her?
"I never thought I'd hear you say that. Between you and I, the amount of time I waited at my den's entrance, hoping tonight would be the night you got your head out of your ass was embarassing." She let out a soft laugh, before going quiet again. After a moment of silence, she closed the distance between the two of them. She pressed her forehead into his shoulder, letting out another soft sigh. It felt so good to be able to touch him, good enough that she'd pretty much forgotten Rosethorn altogether at this point. She stood next to him like this, her head pressed into his side. "I love you, too," she murmured into his fur, not yet ready to move away.
This moment was precious. It shouldn't have been so, forged from deceit and infidelity, but it felt so, so fragile he was afraid to shatter it. If it were glass, he was surely the hammer that would fracture it by simply a breath, but all he wanted to do was fully drink in her scent. Eventually, he did allow himself to do so, the movement so miniscule and tender she wouldn't have noticed it until his muzzle was pressed to her scruff. The contact, the scent, it was everything he'd dreamed it would be and more.
Aspenstar smelled like petrichor - like storms had blessed a rain-starved land - and like the open moors beneath an indigo sky. The very kind of sky that sprawled out between the pine needles, between the vicious storm clouds and spindly lightning bolts.
I love you, too. At once, the final pieces of their puzzle fit together. Since the day of the attack that left him inexplicably changed, Phantomfox had walked the earth with a piece of himself missing, lost to time, singed by tragedy. Solitude eased the throb of it. Anger erased the guilt. But the bloodlust - borne of the intoxication of feeling powerless, succumbed to the will of a beast far stronger than himself - was eternal. That bloodlust tempered him into a weapon, throwing himself time and time again at sharper edges until the only choice for himself was to sharpen or become blunt. That bloodlust led him here. To NightClan, to Aspenstar, to completion. His lungs felt fuller, his heart lighter. He felt a purpose - and if that purpose couldn't be to fulfill himself, he could fulfill her, her wishes, her conquests. He'd been her weapon from the start; it was just now clear that he wasn't just a sword anymore but an atom bomb, willing to lose himself in her whims the moment she pushed for him to detonate.
A last draw of breath to inhale her scent and then he stepped back, glimpsing his reflection in her eyes. He saw himself sink to the ground until it was Aspenstar who could look down on him rather than the reverse. "I love all of you, Aspen. There isn't a part of you I wouldn't love. You are the greatest gift to me, but you've never belonged to me. You are too strong to belong to anyone, so I want to belong to you. I want to be your warrior, your guard, your best friend, your weapon, so long as it means I can belong to you for even a second. I am at your disposal. You have me until you find me of no more use to you." There wasn't an ounce of hesitation in the way he spoke, only true and utter devotion. In that moment Aspenstar would be able to see the truth: And that was Phantomfox was now a being whose life was tethered to her. He was completely vulnerable to her. She could kill him in this moment and he'd still love her as his blood stained her fur.
To say she had anticipated this performance would have been a lie. This wasn't to say she didn't love it - Aspenstar was absolutely thriving with the confirmation that his loyalty was solely in her possession now - just that she... hadn't anticipated the tom would be... quite this willing to give himself to her. If Aspen cared about the psychology of the cats around her, she might thing there was something to that. She might have even asked him if he had mommy issues. But, psychology didn't matter to her, not anymore. It didn't matter why cats were devoted to her, just that they were. And Phantomfox, her best friend, her starcrossed lover, surely appeared devoted. Devoted in a way she didn't understand. While she loved him, wanted to be by his side, she would never put himself at his disposal. He was absolutely right: she would never be owned. The leader would own the world one day, that she was somehow intrinsically sure of, but no cat would ever claim ownership of her. And even though she loved him, craved his touch and the closeness of his body, she knew her love was fleeting. And, his words made it seem like he was aware of that truth: if he stopped being useful, her love would stop. Perhaps this was selfish, but Aspen had accepted her selfishness a long time ago.
She touched her nose to his head, an acceptance of his proposition. "You'll just always have some use, then, hmm?" she meowed, a slight tease in her voice. Her words were openly affectionate, though. "Two moons ago, I had a dream where we laid in a meadow like this, pressed into each other. I remember how right it felt, to be sitting next to the closest thing to an equal that I will ever find. It happened twice. The first time, I thought it was nothing. Just a trick of an over active imagination. After the second time, though, I knew it wasn't. I was going to tell you that day that I couldn't keep feeling the way that I did without at least letting you know. When I came and got you, though, I froze up. Any ability I thought I had to tell you how I felt was gone. That's why I sent you away on the mission," she admitted, looking for the first time away from the tom and up to the sky.
"I thought I was just some hare brained female who was letting my emotions best me, and the only thing I could think to do was distance myself from them. But, when you came back, god. I should never have been that excited to have you within arm's reach if I needed you again. But I was. While you were gone, I felt emptier than I ever could have anticipated, like the spark was gone. You're my spark, Phantomfox."
When she bowed her head, when she fortified their bond and his pledge with the confirmation of touch, he rose with the gesture, as if an extension of her now. She moved; he moved. He was no more than a tide at the mercy of the moon. Unknowingly, that feeling of powerlessness was the thing he'd been searching for, a foe he could not best, a chain he could not break. It was exhilarating.
He chuckled at her words. "I'm sure you'll find me of great use for a long time to come," he crooned. "I had wondered why you sent me away. It's all I could think of the whole time being gone, wondering what you were doing and if you were thinking of me too. It was driving me mad, the not knowing. I even tried searching the stars but it's like they only shine for you, like I was in total darkness for the first and only time. If I am your spark, Aspen, then you are my stars."
She smiled at him, a soft smile, one that in the past, she had always felt a twinge of guilt when she gave him. It was odd, not immediately looking away after this smile, coming back with a witty deflective retort, but Aspen didn't need to do that anymore. She didn't need to hide. She never realized how much she hated the fact that up until this moment, she had. "I do hope so."
She flicked her whiskers as he continued. "If you're curious what I got up to while you were gone, I promise it wasn't much. Well, other than the loner that I killed before realizing she had a litter of kittens," she winced slightly - that hadn't been one of her better days. "Of couse, we took the kittens in, I told Larkspur they were abandoned, and we decided we would co-parent them. I couldn't help but think the whole time that I would have rather it have been like the first time I... nefariously acquired kittens." She let out a chuckle of her own, remembering the day that she and Phantomfox had barged into a barn as a duo, only to walk out as a small patrol of her brother's children. "But other than that, it was rather uneventful."
Once again, seriousness took over her expression as she listened to him continue to speak. She found herself pressing into him again, letting the silence drift over them for a prolonged moment. "That's an awful elaborate way of making a pun out of my name," she teased him gently. "Does this mean we're dating?" She then quipped, offering the tom a wink.
