"Hey, Master could I talk to you for a second," Ahsoka asked Anakin nervously.
Anakin opened an eye as he woke from his mid afternoon nap. "Sure, Snips, what is it?" he replied sleepily.
"Well, I…er…" Ahsoka stuttered, "Have you've ever talked to a dead person in a dream before?"
Anakin stared at her, fear in his gaze. "No, what's wrong Ahsoka?" Anakin asked concerned.
Ahsoka stuttered again, trying to find the right words. "I…uh…I-I need to talk to Firestar!"
She then ran out of the den hearing Anakin call out to her. How could she think that he would take her meeting with Tigerstar well without him worrying! She didn't even know who he was or knew anything about him. Ahsoka hoped that maybe Firestar would know or would be able to tell her who Tigerstar was, or is.
She entered Firestar's den hoping to see him but instead, she saw sandy color cat. The cat looked over at Ahsoka when she noticed that she was there.
"Hello, Jedi. Is there something I can help you with?" the cat asked.
"Who are you; do you know where Firestar is?" Ahsoka asked desperately.
"My name is Sandstorm, Firestar's mate," the cat answered, "I think he is hunting with Graystripe right now."
"Oh, will he be back soon?"
"I don't know, I could tell him that you wanted to see him though."
"Okay, thank you."
Ahsoka left Sandstorm and sighed heavily as she walked back to her den.
"What did you need Firestar for?"
Ahsoka jumped as she saw Jayfeather coming towards her. "I…need to ask him something," Ahsoka said trying to keep her voice steady.
Jayfeather glared at her coldly. "What was your question? I'm sure I could answer for you," he offered.
"No thanks, I can wait for him to return," Ahsoka replied coldly as she went over to the fresh kill pile.
"Firestar, can I ask you something, in private?" Ahsoka asked when Firestar returned from his hunt with Graystripe.
"Sure, we'll talk in my den," Firestar answered as he said good bye to Graystripe. When they were in the den and making sure that they were out of ear shot, Ahsoka blurted out, "Did you know a cat named Tigerstar?"
Firestar's eyes grew wide with shock and his neck fur rose a little. "Yes I did. Why do you ask?" he questioned nervously.
Ahsoka then explained her fight with the Dark Forest cat and her meeting with Tigerstar, but she did leave out her excepting his offer to train with them though. She was not quite sure how Firestar would take it, seeing as he was edgy with this conversation. After she was finished, Firestar was silent for a moment.
"Ahsoka, I must warn you that Tigerstar cannot be trusted no matter what," Firestar finally said, "He almost destroyed the clans many moons ago. He would probably like to see the clans destroy themselves and for what you've have told me, he might have plan for you and maybe for Anakin and Obi-Wan as well."
Ahsoka flicked her tail a little nervously. Did she really make a deal with an undead cat and more importantly, an evil enemy to ThunderClan and the other clans? What had she done?
"If he wants to destroy the clans, he might be working with the Separatists as well," Ahsoka added mostly to herself.
Firestar's eyes darkened. "Ahsoka, next time when you see Tigerstar, tell him you refuse his offer. Hopefully he will leave you alone if you do," he advised.
Ahsoka nodded and walked out of the den. "Don't mention this to your fellow Jedi though," Firestar called out before she left, "I will tell them myself tomorrow."
Ahsoka looked back and nodded in reply as she wondered what Tigerstar planned to do with her.
Ahsoka blinked sleepily as she found herself back in the Dark Forest where she met Tigerstar. She groaned as she looked around looking for any sign of Tigerstar.
Maybe I could try to leave, Ahsoka thought hopefully.
"Greetings, Ahsoka."
She turned to see a cat that looked exactly like Tigerstar only with icy blue eyes and a white chest.
"Are you Hawkfrost?" Ahsoka asked, "Tigerstar said I would be training with you."
"Yes, I am Hawkfrost," the dark cat said, "I am pleased to meet you."
"Yeah, me too."
Hawkfrost moved closer towards Ahsoka. "Come, I need you to meet my apprentice," he ordered, "Fallow me."
Ahsoka fallowed Hawkfrost deeper into the forest. She noticed that there no light what so ever here, now having a better look at it.
How can they even see here?
Soon, they came across a small clearing. There stood a silver and white female cat. Wait, it can't be…
"Ivypaw!" Ahsoka exclaimed shocked.
Ivypaw stared at Ahsoka. "What is she doing here?" she said her gaze drifting from Ahsoka to Hawkfrost.
"Good to see that you two already know each other," Hawkfrost said amusement in his voice. He then sat down at the edge of the clearing and cleared his throat.
"Now, for our first part of training, I want you two to pretend you're in a battle," he instructed, "Ivypaw will be defending her territory, while you, Ahsoka, invade her."
"How long do we fight, and what are the rules?" Ahsoka asked.
"You fight as long as I tell you to, and there are no rules, the only thing you should be concerned about is that you succeed."
"Okay."
Ahsoka didn't really want to fight Ivypaw, but it looked like she didn't have a choice. She then reluctantly ran towards Ivypaw and slashed her paw at her with her claws sheathed. Ivypaw flinched but she made a quick recovering as she hissed furiously. She then charged into Ahsoka, making her fall to the ground. Ivypaw got on top of Ahsoka, sinking her teeth into her fur, but not so hard to make her bleed, but enough to be painful. Ahsoka growled, and flung Ivypaw off of her. They continued to charge into each other, biting and hitting each other with their paws. Then Ivypaw without knowing unsheathed her claws and scratched Ahsoka's shoulder. Ahsoka cringed in pain as blood fell from her cut. Ivypaw gasped.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you!" she confessed.
"Enough!" Hawkfrost yelled. He then came towards Ivypaw.
"You shouldn't have stopped like that!" he hissed, "You almost had her! And why where your claws sheathed in the first place?"
"Well, she is new here," Ivypaw explained, "I didn't want to hurt her, especially on her first day here."
Hawkfrost growled at her a little and then turned his attention to Ahsoka. "As for you, you should have been more aggressive," he criticized, "You'll never be able to win a battle that way!"
Ahsoka glared at Hawkfrost coldly.
"I will not harm a cat in training," she said strongly, "Nor shall you force me to. I do accept your training, but I will fight they way I want to fight. Jedi don't fight aggressively in any way shape or form unless we are defending ourselves or others."
Hawkfrost glared at her with an evil gleam in his eyes. "Apparently you are more stubborn then my father had said, but that will soon change, I'll let you two rest for a bit before we continue. I shall expect you ready when I return."
He then left Ahsoka and Ivypaw in the darkness of the clearing. Ahsoka turned to Ivypaw and asked, "Is this what training like here?"
"It is a little aggressive, but it is worth it."
Ivypaw's eyes darkened.
"Because of this training, I will soon be able to prove to my clan that I am the better warrior, and not my so called 'special' sister!"
"'So called special sister'? What do you mean by that?" Ahsoka asked puzzled.
Ivypaw began to pace a little as she ranted, "Everyone treats Dovepaw like she is some fantastic warrior, for absolutely no reason! Even when we only just became apprentices, she got to go on a special journey! Why? I don't even know why! And while she gets all this attention from the senior warriors, I get treated like I'm just second best! Why does Dovepaw get all of the attention? Why does Dovepaw get to be in secret meetings with Firestar? Why does Dovepaw get everything?"
Ahsoka stared at Ivypaw. She didn't seem to be in such misery or jealously when she first met her. Ivypaw then looked up at Ahsoka.
"I'm sorry for ranting," she apologized, "It's just that I've been holding all this frustration in for such a long time with no one to talk to about it."
"It's all right," Ahsoka said sympathetically, "I have had to keep all my emotions and pain inside me as well, with no one to talk to about them either."
"Really, why?"
"Well, Jedi aren't supposed to have attachments or get angry. It is a long story as to why, but it is really hard to do. I have had times where I would just snap because of it."
Ivypaw blinked. "Why can't you get angry?" she asked confused.
Ahsoka sighed. How could she explain it?
"Well," she began, "the Force is very really complicated thing to explain but if you let your feelings take over your decisions, you end up going to the Dark Side of the Force."
"The Dark Side, what is that?"
"It is when you use the Force for your own evil, selfish purposes instead of using it to help other people." Ahsoka claws dug into the ground as she thought of Sith and the Separatists.
"The Separatists leader, Count Dooku, uses the Dark Side of the Force. He is what the Jedi call a Sith Lord, who are people who use the Dark Side of the Force. He has done terrible things to the Jedi Order and the Republic because of his own, selfish ambition."
Ivypaw listen in wonder as Ahsoka continued to tell her about the Separatists, the Sith, the Jedi Order, and the Clone Wars.
"Wow," Ivypaw said when Ahsoka finished talking, "You Jedi live a hard life."
Ahsoka sighed heavily. "Yes, but it is worth it in the end," she said.
"You guys aren't as bad as I thought," Ivypaw admitted, "Hopefully we can stop those fox hearted Separatists!"
Ahsoka laughed as she and Ivypaw continued to chat until Hawkfrost showed up.
"That's it! More power, more speed!" Tigerstar cried as Grievous and Asajj fought each other brutally.
Both of them had scratches, bite marks, and blood all over them. Asajj hissed furiously as she charged herself into Grievous. But Grievous dogged just a few inches away as he slapped her hard on the back with his paw. Asajj fell to the ground but quickly got up and attacked again. As the battle continued, an orange and white she-cat watched them from a distance unseen.
She watched them carefully as two cats tore themselves apart. The she-cat laughed a little as she enjoyed violence and bloodshed.
"Enjoying yourself, Mapleshade?" a voice asked.
Mapleshade turned around to see a dark tom with a broken tail coming towards her and then sat next to her.
"Indeed I am, Brokenstar," she replied coolly.
Brokenstar turned his attention to the fight as Grievous sunk his teeth into Asajj's hind leg. She cried in pain as Dooku, who was sitting next to Tigerstar, flinched a little but had no emotion in his eyes.
"Their pretty skillful, Grievous and Asajj," Brokenstar commented impressed.
"Shouldn't you be training Breezepelt?" Mapleshade asked suddenly, "Or is he just too difficult for you to train?"
Brokenstar hissed as he answered, "I just finished tonight's training with him actually."
A painful cry came from Grievous as Asajj scratched him in the face. Mapleshade then saw Tigerstar come between them.
"Enough!" he ordered, "This is enough training for now. You are free to go now."
"Good thing to," Asajj taunted, "Otherwise Grievous would be nothing but a bloody corpse if I had him a little longer!"
Grievous hissed furiously. "You wouldn't have lasted a second out there if I had used my full strength!" he yelled angrily.
Asajj laughed and continued to taunt him as Grievous threatened her back. Finally, Dooku walked towards them and shouted, "Stop it! You two are giving me a head ach!"
Then the three Separatists cats disappeared and Tigerstar left, limping a little. Mapleshade flicked her tail a little. These cats must be even more powerful then she had thought to have injured Tigerstar like that.
"Is there a reason why you're interested in these cats?" Brokenstar suddenly asked.
"Well, there not normal clan cats, first off," Mapleshade answered, "Plus, I wanted to make sure if Tigerstar was right."
"I see. You didn't think his plan would work did you?"
Mapleshade shook her head.
"Yes and no. There was high chance of them helping us, but I wasn't quite sure if it would work or if we could trust them to keep their loyalty to us."
She paused for a moment. Thinking back on it, it did seem unlikely that the Separatists would fall for Tigerstar's offer. But now it seemed that it worked so well as to get one of those Jedi to come.
"But now," she continued, "it seems that this could work."
Brokenstar looked at her. "You have your own plan for them, don't you, Mapleshade?"
Mapleshade laughed wickedly.
"Of course I do, Brokenstar, why do you think I allowed Tigerstar to bring them to the Dark Forest in the first place?"