Other Relations: Bumblestar (mentor), Dandeliontail (apprentice)
Clan: RiverClan
Rank: warrior
Characteristics: cold with adults, friendly with kits, loyal to a fault, short temper, full of resentment, has a permanent leg injury, terrible at small talk, hates cats who cheat, hates cats who lie to their loved ones
Murder Motive: anger, justice
Number of Victims: 9
Number of Murders: 9 (+2 lives from Daisystar, +3 lives from Bumblestar)
Known Victims: Branchpatch, Daisystar, Lilaclion, Chasingflower, Bumblestar, several unnamed loners
Victim Profile: cats who cheated, cats who were involved with cheaters, his father, his leaders, his former mentor, his Clanmates, several unnamed loners
Cause of Death: slain in battle
Cautionary Tale: actions have consequences
Story:
It happened when they were eight moons old. Heavypaw and his brother, Violetpaw, were patrolling with their mentors when they caught their father's scent. He was with a loner.
Assuming he was being attacked, they rushed to his defense, but their coats were light and they were out of shelter. A hawk swooped down, and the ensuing chaos badly injured them both.
The commotion was loud enough for their father and the unknown cat he was with to come and help. Together with the mentors, they were carried back to camp, bleeding and badly wounded.
They were glad to be alive, but...
Something was weird. Everyone had just figured it was a decent cat who saw they needed help. But he had arrived with Branchpatch. And he had apparently been overly concerned with Branchpatch's condition over the apprentices, according to Violetpaw's mentor, who explained the events to the two young cats, who had been too disoriented and pained to notice anything post-attack themselves.
Brownspots confronted his mate, and Branchpatch broke down, confessing that he knew the loner. He had been meeting up with him for several moons now, and they loved each other. He never meant for it to happen, it just did. He begged and pleaded Brownspots for forgiveness.
Through tears, Brownspots asked him if the kits were even his.
Heavypaw was listening to it all, his entire body shaking as he struggled to keep quiet. After a long silence broken by sobs and 'sorrys,' Branchpatch admitted that he didn't know.
In just one day, Heavypaw's world collapsed all around him.
His papa was cheating on his dad. He broke his dad's heart, and it broke Heavypaw to see the misery in his eyes, the life and joy completely drained from him.
His dad...might not even be his dad. For all he knew, his father could be that random loner that, if he was their father, didn't even care about his own sons' health when the hawk tore into them.
And the hawk! Heavypaw and Violetpaw were only there because they scented their papa with a rogue and thought that he was in danger. Now, Violetpaw's ribs were badly bruised from falling back to the ground, and Heavypaw's leg had deep lashes across it.
Heavypaw avoided his papa after that. He ignored his every word, pretended not to hear him when Branchpatch asked if he wanted to hunt together. Instead, he spent as much time as he could with Brownspots.
When they were informed that Violetpaw's nerves were damaged and Hawkpaw's leg would never fully heal, Heavypaw lost it. He slammed his papa to the ground, yelling in his face that it was all his fault. Their broken family, Brownspots's misery, Violetpaw's and his pain--it's all because of him!
With such a public confrontation, Branchpatch's secret was revealed to the rest of the Clan. Violetpaw, who had had no idea, felt utterly betrayed.
Branchpatch didn't try after that. There was no use reconnecting with his ex-mate or his sons. They wouldn't respond to his efforts, and he didn't deserve them to anyway.
But with everyone in the Clan either disgusted with him or avoiding him, he felt lonely....he needed someone.
When he became pregnant again, he lied and told Brownspots it was definitely his from just before they broke up. The timeline was close enough to make sense, and maybe this could bring them together again. Clearly out of nothing other than obligation, Brownspots got back with him.
As soon as those new kits were born, Heavypaw could see it. They looked just enough like Brownspots to be his if one didn't look closely. Brownspots didn't want to look because he didn't want to see that he had been lied to again. Violetpaw never bothered meeting the kits, figuring they were just trying to replace them with more fit kits.
But Heavypaw looked, and he saw it. Markings that didn't match either of their fathers, darker noses, black whiskers. It didn't resemble Brownspots or Branchpatch. After talking with his mentor, he confirmed that these traits matched someone else.
It was impossible for Heavypaw to contain his rage. He stormed out of the nursery and raced out of the camp, stopping when his legs got tired and clawing at a tree in frustration. He whipped around at his papa's voice asking him if he was okay. He had been nursing the kits, so of course he had been there to see Heavypaw's breakdown.
Heavypaw was too enraged to respond verbally, instead he leaped at his papa, clawing and biting.
Branchpatch tried to fight him off, but he didn't want to hurt his son. He kept his claws shealthed, trying to back away while telling Heavypaw to please stop.
It only made Heavypaw more angry. He destroyed everything. How dare he be such a coward?
He kept attacking and attacking and attacking, until Branchpatch slumped to the ground. Blinking the red away, Heavpaw panted as he saw what he did.
On his way back to the camp, he was found by a patrol. He considered telling them it was rogues, maybe get revenge on that loner...maybe he would have said that if his mind was clear. Instead, he told them that he knew that Branchpatch had had an affair again and confronted his papa, when Branchpatch attacked him.
Heavypaw was shaking--which wasn't an act, but worked to sell his story.
After that, a nursing queen took in the kits. Violetpaw didn't need to have the constant reminder of who caused his injury around him, and Brownspots didn't have to force himself into an unhappy relationship. There was also the added benefit of those innocent kits growing up without the burden of knowing they were only made to be used as tools to manipulate.
Heavypaw did miss his papa...Before everything, he was a really good father. But seeing how relieved cats are with him gone, maybe it was for the better.
He knew what he had to do when he heard cats whispering about how Chasingflower's new litter look a lot more like Daisystar than they do Lilaclion.
Killing a leader was no easy task. Luckily, it was greencough season, so though cats were sad, no one questioned it when their leader got deathly ill. One life after another, he was gone.
Bumbleheart, Heavywave's former mentor and the deputy of the Clan, became the leader. She announced Violetshiver as her deputy.
Heavywave couldn't have been more proud.
He was a good cat, he really was! His dad and brother were everything to him. He was a good Clanmate too, always performing his duties and helping his Clanmates with whatever they needed, giving the apprentices advice when he noticed them struggling.
See, he didn't kill out of a thirst for blood. He killed because the world was a better place without cats that hurt and lie to the ones that love them. Think of it as taking the rotten mice out of the prey-pile.
Roughly a full year after Chasingflower's affair, it was Lilaclion's turn to cheat. He chose to do it with Bumblestar.
It broke his heart when his papa cheated, and it broke his heart again to learn that his beloved mentor was just as despicable. But he had his own code. Lilaclion and Bumblestar were affair partners. That meant they had to go.
He should have killed Chasingflower as well, but she had been nursing then, as Bumblestar was now. Heavywave waited until Bumblestar's kits were apprenticed before he killed her. Until then, Chasingflower's punishment was long overdue.
It was not just cheaters that had to go, but the cats that knowingly mated with them. The world was almost clean, but there was one more stain to be wiped away.
That loner.
But other than vague ideas of what he looks like, Heavywave had no idea who this cat could be. So any cat that even slightly resembled the loner's appearance was dispatched. It wasn't pleasant, but it's what needed to be done.
He was only serving his Clan. And in the end, he died on the battlefield, protecting his young niece.
He would have it no other way.
Additional Information:
--Didn't want to make it too long so might be abrupt in some places.
Basically his papa cheated twice so he killed his papa. Then the leader had an affair with Chasingflower, who was mates with Lilaclion. So he killed the leader. Later, Lilaclion had his own affair with Bumblestar, so he killed Lilaclion and Chasingflower, then killed Bumblestar. Then he also killed roughly 4 loners.
(imagine if Lilaclion and Chasingflower were killed together...somehow).
--Ficklebird, Frigidplash, Sandpetal, Rimekick, Firebeetle, Craneclaw, Basilwood, Dandiliontail, Sparrowsilk, Snipbrook, Owlsteep, Hollowwave, and Flytail were all Violetstar's kits.
Milkweedfreckle, Stormpaw, Pebblecurrent, Pipitwind, Greenbounce, Burnetrain were all Eaglebreeze's.
--Heavywave adored his nieces and nephews. He died saving Hollowpaw, so in his honour Hollowpaw became Hollowwave.
--He took 14 lives including the extra lives taken from both leaders, but their deaths only count as one each, which is why it's officially 9.
--In case it's confusing, Heavypaw didn't snap on his first visit to the nursery. He saw them, talked to his mentor to confirm his suspicions and planned to talk to Brownspots. But he was told to clean out the nursery, and while there he saw the kits again and couldn't contain his anger.
