A familiar voice sent shivers down my spine. "Welcome back, Iceshadow."

I wouldn't turn. Couldn't turn. It hurt me too much. I wouldn't give him that satisfaction. Not after everything he did to me.

The voice sounded again, slightly hurt as if I had hurt his feelings. "It's been moons. Won't my kit even greet me?"

I lifted my head, still not daring to turn around. I simply stared ahead at the stone wall before me. "No Fa-" I cut myself off, biting down on the word before it could make its escape. "No, Tigerstar. I won't. I'm not your kit."

I shivered as I felt his fur brush against mine. I closed my eyes, dropping my head to the paws. I wouldn't look at him. "But you are," he sounded wounded. "It was I that helped raise you, wasn't it? What about all those times when we played Fox Attack? All those mock fights and stories we shared every night? Who taught you how to hunt and the beginnings of how to fight?"

His words cut deeper than any claw, for one reason and one reason only. They reminded me of my life with Mother. "YOU'RE NOT MY FATHER," I screamed. It was more of a reminder to myself than me telling him what is true. You would think it would be hard, because I had once thought of him as my hero. I had loved him. It wasn't hard. That hero was dead to me long before he truly died.

I could feel him pull back in surprise, then the heat of his pelt as his pain turned into anger.

"Yes I am. I was more of a father to you then that piece of fox dung, Firestar. What had he ever done for you?"

"Nothing," I hissed, flinging my eyes open and staring at Tigerstar. "He never had the chance to."

Tigerstar got a smug look on his face. "And what about now? Now that he, 'has the chance.'"

A lump formed in my throat. I looked away again. "This is a dream. Just like when I saw Striker." The pain from the scratch on my side and paw flared up painfully at the words, but I ignored it. My mind must be going. I'm living in the past.

"Yes," Tigerstar said, softening a little. "Scourge let me meet you here. He figured it would be good if you saw a place that you recognized. Especially after how our your little meeting in the Dark Forest went."

More riddles. These dead cats must just spend their afterlife coming up with new ones, because they had a new one at every turn. "Just tell me why I'm here so I can hurry up and wake up," I snapped.

He wrapped his tail around my shoulders in a show of comfort. I shrugged it off with disgust. His amber eyes glinted with fire, but he stayed calm.

"I want to prove to you that I really did care about you. How I always did think of you as my kit."

I laughed. One of those mad laughs that cats give when they are on the brink of madness. "Care about me? You gave me to Bloodclan and wanted to use me to-"

"I know," he cut me off. "I know. It was a mistake. I couldn't see what was right in front of me, I was so blinded by ambition. But now that I'm dead, I've had a chance to see what I couldn't before. How I was lucky to have so many cats that had cared for me. Sasha, Goldenflower, Leopardstar… And such good kits."

Despite myself, I found my eyes rising back to the tom. I was looking at him.

"I did love you. I just didn't know it at the time. I want to spend time with my kits, like I never could before, and to prove it to you..." He waved his tail, and another shadow emerged from the edge of the alley.

It was another Tigerstar! It couldn't be possible. "This is Hawkfrost," Tigerstar continued. "You probably know him as Hawk from Sasha's stories."

My eyes widened in realization. Not a Tigerstar, but another son like Brambleclaw. I started to notice the differences immediately. Namely, his glowing blue eyes. I had never met the tom myself until now, yet he seemed familiar. Little Hawk had grown up.

"B..b...but," I stuttered.

Hawkfrost lowered himself into a bow. "A pleasure to meet you," he meowed.

Tigerstar smiled. "He's been with me for a while now, and even before then, he had been visiting. Brambleclaw too." I almost missed it, but both of the tom's eyes darkened at the mention of the deputy. "All my kits come to spend time with me. Now that you're here in the clans, we can be together again. Just like when you were a kit."

This was all too much. I backed up from the two. Something… Everything felt wrong. They were hiding something. "You… You're lying," I hissed, backing up some more, until I bumped into a pile of rubbish.

"He really isn't," Hawkfrost said with a smile. A smile worthy of a fox. That smile was all it took for me to recognize him. He was the one that stood watching as Ivypool and Blossomfall attacked each other.

"You were in that dream," I breathed. "You were causing some of the bloodshed."

Hawkfrost's eyes narrowed. Tigerstar shot him a look that could kill, then turned back to me. "Yes. We have to stay there in that awful place, and fight to improve. We are a clan there."

A clan. A word that had stopped affecting me brought back fresh new memories, almost as bad as the old ones. Blood. Death. Killing. No stars.

"You belong with us, Iceshadow. We are family, whether you acknowledge it or not." Tigerstar's voice became harsh. Edged with anger and full of foreboding. "Won't you fight alongside us? Help us be happy one last time?"

Hawkfrost's claws flicked out. They glinted in the dim light. Stepping backward, I wondered if I could kill dead cats. "No, Tigerstar." I lifted my head and stared him straight in the eye. "You're dead to me, and I will never fight for you again."

He snorted. "Go ahead, Hawkfrost. Kill her. Maybe then we can force her to stay."

"Finally," he growled leaping forward.

I unsheathed my claws, but I didn't have to. Clang! Both the toms were thrown to the side as one of the hollow shiny things fell from a ledge on the side of a twoleg den and landed on them.

"What in the name of Starclan," I shouted, looking up at the ledge. Blue eyes stared back down at me.

"Get her," Tigerstar growled, shoving the thing away with his hind paws. Hawkfrost leaped to his feet and pounced. My paws felt like they had turned to stone.

"RUN you," came a voice from above. Grey fur flashed as the blue eyed cat leaped in front of me, landing on the incoming Hawkfrost.

"Stay out of our way," hissed Hawkfrost. They raised up on their hind legs and locked paws in a ferocious grapple.

"Leave her out of this," hissed the grey cat. He sounded… familiar.

"You aren't welcome here," Tigerstar yowled. He hunched his haunched in preparation to leap.

Finally, my feet decided to move. I didn't think about what I was doing. Just dove for him. "Graaaaaah." His eyes widened seconds before I landed on top of him, sinking my claws into the fur on his back. "Okay, Father. You wanted to play fox again. Well, we're playing fox."

He dropped, attempting to roll me over. I held on as his full weight crushed me beneath him. Then I started to kick out with my back legs. There was nowhere for them to go but out from underneath him, but at least they took pawfuls of fur out with each kick.

"Let go!" He sounded furious. It felt great to hear him scream.

"No!" He rolled back over onto his paws in attempt to knock me off once more. I clung on like a burr. "If I can't get rid of you, than you can't get rid of me."

"You tell 'em Iceshadow." That was the strange cats voice. I dragged my attention away from Tigerstar long enough to see Hawkfrost drag his claws down the grey cat's shoulder.

"Got you," Tigerstar shouted in triumph. He bucked beneath me in the moment I took to turn away, and had knocked me to the ground. "You should have ran when that worm told you to." He smiled as he stood over me. One paw on my throat."

I was sick of these dreams. "You know what," I said, flicking my ears. His tail twitched in confusion, but he said nothing. "I hate you."

His paw pressed harder, just as I had hoped. With a great yank, I pulled my head to the side hard enough to slip his paw off. He stumbled forward, leaving me directly below his exposed belly. I showed no mercy. Not this time. My claws ripped large gashes in the soft flesh. Not as big as Scourges, but big enough. He bellowed loudly, stumbling away from my blows.

I stood over him, preparing to deal the final blow. This is it. Dead or not, dream or not, I would be rid of him for good.

"That's enough." I knew that voice. Feathertail. The world went dark. I couldn't see anything. No sound came to my ears. Tigerstar, Hawkfrost, even that odd grey cat who had probably saved me was gone.

Yeah... That ended badly. At least for Iceshadow. So who's that strange grey cat with blue eyes? Walking in her dreams like that. Psh. Surely coincidence, right?! XD

Seriously though, sorry about such a long wait. I was soooo angry at my internet connection for not letting me post but the problem is fixed for now. I also might go back to the old Tuesday schedule for posting. Both Rising and Falling have now been updated, and I even have two new stories. Feel free to check them out if you like pokemon. Please check them out. ;_; Next post won't have as long of a wait. I promise. ;)