If she believed in destiny, she would have thought that at this moment would be her calling. But she is not selfish enough to take the credit all for herself. There are cats that live beyond the boundaries of their lands who speak of such high ideals, but the reality is that they live and breath and fight just like any cat. Anastasia's tongue curls. All that you claim is your own are your silly fantasies of ghosts and afterlife.
And while she trusts the little bird on her shoulder, she had to make certain of it herself. The slinky red tabby pulled herself through the rows of concrete nests, ears pricked for signs of life. Her ear flicks backward, she thinks she can catch a scent. To her own senses, it seems that he is alone. Anastasia lays the fur down on her back as flat as she could be, and she lets out a low, rumbling purr.
"I've heard..." She began, claws sliding back into their sheathes as she glanced about herself. "That there is a cat here who brought down a holy pillar of Clan life. What does he feel, I wonder?" Her green eyes flash. "Guilt? Remorse? Anger?" Anastasia turns around, tail brushing over the filthy floor.
Alone with his thoughts and with the memories of what he had done. Again and again he replayed Vulturemask's final moments over in his head, though he honestly felt uncertain about how to feel. Pride? Shame? Nothing at all? Just how should he feel? Then again, how was everyone else feeling about what he had done? WindClan was likely pissed and hungering for his head, but it seemed others held a different perspective entirely.
The tabby tom opened his eyes slowly as a voice reached his ears and he found himself staring at a she-cat, Anastasia to be exact. There was no beating round the bush either it seemed as her reasoning for seeking him out was laid out loud and clear. Gale strained himself into sitting up position so he could give her his full focus. But what answer could he give her?
Puffing out his chest, his gaze slowly turned more grim as a level of seriousness descended over him. "How about pride? And as for my hunger... it has somewhat grown. Why do you ask?"
Anastasia smiled at the answer, eyeing the former WindClan cat closely. She had nothing to lose. She would be dead or treated far differently if this cat was lying to her.
"Usually such a crime is accompanied by an unbearable amount of guilt." Her green eyes flashed and shifted. "Especially for someone who used to live in communion with the victim." Her chest puffs out and she walks closer to her object of interest. "Pride is a dangerous thing, once left unchecked." She commented. It was a funny reply to her offer, made her ears twitch, and her lips pull back in a smirk.
"I offer you the chance to finish what you started. One holy pillar down, but there remains another." Anastasia paused knowingly. The image of the queen would soon pop into Galeforce's head, he assumed. "You have the insight, I have the coordination. I want you to give me a list of every cat banished from WindClan. We will create a secret society without territory, without rules, bound only by camaradarie to bring it down—liberate every cat living under these miserable laws. Not just WindClan... but the others too will find themselves at their knees. I watched those RiverClan cats carry two half-dead cats to our Twolegplace. None have any saving grace. Well... are you with me?"
Guilt? It was hard to feel any level of guilt when the storm raging within him continued to push the course. The only guilt he held was for the innocent WindClanners he had been forced to leave behind to continue living under the tyranny of an evil leader. He had once been a kit being reared to believe in the lies being told, but he had broken free and seen the light. If only the others could be freed too.
"Yes, one pillar left to deal with. Then they can begin to heal." Thoughts of Badgermoon danced on his mind and he reflected back on the beginnings of their friendship when it had lasted. He had been a good tom, someone who could actually look after a clan in the right way. That is... provided that the corruption hadn't dug its claws in too deep. "I can give you a list of names, but understand that not all of them will want to fight. They have seen enough and would prefer to live their days out in peace. And... you might want to seek out those exiled from more than WindClan, other exiles are just as hungry for change." He wasn't sure he could tempt Sharpeye into further trouble, but the thought was there.
"And if you want my opinion it isn't the laws that are the problem in the clans. Bad cats will do bad things regardless of how things are arranged. So yeah, I'll join ya for striking down the Mad Queen, but understand that my mission is to give my former family a better life with them being free to remain together." It was evident that there was some differences on goal, but there was enough of an overlap that kept him interested in the she-cat's proposal. In the end they both had the best intentions of the clan cats in mind, right?
The she-cat masked her disappointment in Galeforce's vision behind the goal. Why not go full out—murder was no easy thing to come back to. Anastasia lowered her rump to the ground, deep in thought as she pondered over Galeforce's message. If her truth was not enough to entirely sway him to her own vision, she would have to think carefully about how to approach the next cats, cats whom she was unsure if they would even bare claws against their former Clan.
"The Clans are new, but they are quickly becoming old, because they want so badly to steal the roots other cats have laid down here for years" She decided. "Nine lives is... far too long of a lifespan. Makes a cat go mad." The fur lay flat against her neck. He did not get it—that the Clans were designed for violence. In Anastasia's fanatic eye, the Clans created Sootstar, Sootstar had not created the Clans.
She turned her head up to the sky—dark above them and smoggy from the fumes of Twolegs. Here was home—there was no need to move into the forest for her, but there was a wrong above those fences that she had to make right. "You can slink off with your trophy when it's done, but maintaining peace in a society that continues to exist after such a traumatic blow is not easy." Her breath whistled from her chest.
"Give me the names, and I will see you again... Galeforce."
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