CHAPTER FOUR

Bluestar stood, claws out, in front of a shamefaced Lionheart and a crouching, apologetic Whitestorm.

"We didn't want this happening!" she spat. "That girl has had enough grief!"

"But—"

"No buts!" the blue-furred she-cat hissed.

Whitestorm rose from his crouch. "We had to do this, Bluestar. Surely you understand?"

Bluestar shot him a venomous look. "All I understand is that you led them to the Moonstone, knowing what would happen, without asking StarClan's permission!"

The muscular white tom bowed his head. "True enough. But you see ..." His voice trailed off.

Lionheart flicked his tail. "What he's trying to say is: they are the five! We had no choice; they needed to get there."

Bluestar froze, taking this new information in. Then she sighed. "Very well. But you still should have told somecat!" Suddenly, she stiffened.

Lionheart blinked. "Bluestar?"

Whitestorm nudged him. "Shh! She's going say a new prophecy!"

Bluestar's eyes glowed faintly."For if the twice-felines fail, the Clans will be lost before they are made."

Lionheart looked at his companion quizzically. "That's not a new prophecy. That's been puzzled over since the dawn of time. No one could make heads or tails of it."

Whitestorm sucked in a breath. "And this means that it's about to come true."

Lionheart closed his eyes. Suddenly he seemed like a tired old tomcat again. "Yes ... but before us. Way before us. We really shouldn't have sent them back in time. Anything could happen now."

So they padded away, back into StarClan's forest, pondering over Bluestar's ominous words ...

... And far back in time, the twice-felines woke.

Having your molecules pulled apart and rearranged into a different body isn't actually all that painful.

I felt a tingling sensation all over my body, and my vision blurred. When my eyesight cleared, I was standing in exactly the same place I had been sitting—except I was a cat.

I looked down at my paws, expecting them to be short-furred and ginger, like last time, but to my surprise, they were long-furred and black! What in the name of StarClan?!

I looked up. Sitting around me were four cats, all of them looking surprised. One was slim and lithe. Her eyes were a deep amber, and right now they were panicked. Her fur was short and a lovely shade of chocolate-brown.

Next to her was a long-furred—no, make that very long-furred—silver-gray tom. His green eyes were sharp and intelligent.

Sitting frozen in shock was a smallish gray-and-white tom with startlingly blue eyes. He looked traumatized, yet strangely delighted.

Directly across from me was a huge, well-muscled deep orange tom. His amber eyes were achingly familiar, but I couldn't figure out why. His paws were as white as snow.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "Hi?"

The brown she-cat exhaled in relief. "Annie!"

"Josie!"

"I ... cannot ... believe this! I am actually a cat!"

"Alright ..." I said. I turned to the toms. "Which one of you is Ryan?"

The orange tom said "Me" in a voice that was unmistakably Ryan's—even if it was a little deeper. Then it struck me, and I couldn't believe I had been this stupid. To this day, I cannot believe I had been so utterly idiotic. I mean, the signs were right in front of my face. He hadn't tried to hide much, after all.

Ryan was Lionblaze.

My eyes widened. I lifted a shaking paw. "You ... are ... so ... dead."

He stared at me in confusion.

"All this time? All this time you never bothered to tell me? Well, Lionblaze, you are DEAD!"

He blinked at me incredulously. "Gingerstar?"

I rolled my eyes. "Of course, dummy!"

"Well then," said a sarcastic voice, "I guess I'll add to the little party, won't I?"

Lionblaze and I nearly jumped out of our furs. That was Jayfeather's voice.

"Oh, don't look so surprised," Jayfeather (the gray-and-white tom) said. "It turns out my foster brother is my real brother." Jeff. Jayfeather was Jeff. Epic facepalm—or facepaw—to me.

"Would somebody please tell me what's going on?" the silver tom pleaded. Of course. Macks.

I smiled thinly. "You've read the Warriors series, right?"

"Yeah. It wasn't that great, but yeah..."

"Well, it's real. Only in, like, a different dimension or something. A parallel universe. And now we've turned into cats and are in it."

He closed his eyes. "Ohhh ... kay."

"See, the Gingerstar in Warriors is me," I said. "End of story."

Josie snorted. I glared at her.

"Turns out, when I got turned back into a human, so did Lionblaze. I just didn't know it." I shot a venomous look at my mate. "Ryan is Lionblaze. By some odd twist of fate, Jayfeather got turned human too, and he's Jeff."

Before Macks could take all that in, Josie brought up an excellent question: "Where are we?"