Warriors: The New Era.
Chapter Thirty Four: The Dragon Slayer
Before we dive in on Jayfeather, let's see what Rock has to say about Sky's executing his revenants.
And after that, prepare for a trip like LSD never seen before...
"DAMMIT! SHE GOT ME!"
Rock's tantrum sent desks, tables, and chair flying everywhere in the control room. The screen as cracked, and the computers crushed.
Bone stood behind him in shock and fear. "I...I..."
"It's not like she was spying on us! If it was that, it'd be far less embarrassing! NO! SHE PLANNED FOR THIS! SHE KNEW MY POWERS, AND PLANNED THAT I WOULD TURN HER MEN! SHE HUMILIATED ME! AND YOU JUST LET HER!"
Bone held his hands up "Hey, there was nothing I could have done! If I did anything, that Garrison guy would have killed me and continued on! And you would have lost your only footing on Bloodclan's remains!"
Rock huffed and puffed like a wolf, "I want to know EVERYTHING about Sky! Not just her tactics, I WANT HER HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY, FAMILY, I WANT TO KNOW WHERE SHE WENT TO KINDERGARTIN FOR FUCK'S SAKE!"
Bone bit his lip, "That's going to take a while."
"I DON'T CARE! I need to know WHO I am dealing with!" Rock roared.
Jayfeather walked alone in the forest.
The woods were spooky and silent, the only noise being his footsteps. He could see the Mountain ahead of him.
"I would never stop so low as to sell my friends out to save my own skin."
Jayfeather looked around in confusion, "WHO SAID THAT?!"
"Jayfeather isn't himself! I know you've noticed! Something is eating him from the inside out."
"B-Berrynose?" Jayfreather asked.
Was it just him, or did the tree look like they were getting closer as he walked. More tight knit, and the branches reaching out to him.
"They are a threat that we need to deal with!"
Memories of the Triumvirate flashed across his head.
Jayfeather began to panic running through the forest. The bark on the trees slowly shifted to resemble and evil and angry face. Faces that all looked at him.
"STOP LOOKING AT ME!" Jayfeather roared.
"We ain't saying to kill the schmuck, but if he gets to rowdy and wild, he may do more harm then good. And I ain't willing to sink with the ship he builds, you feel me?"
Jayfeather sprinted further into the woods, and the faster he ran, the closer the trees hot to him. He just wanted to escape, to get out of the forest. He turned to his left sprinting downhill, hoping he was close to a city, road, something other then trees.
"DID YOU NOT HEAR ME?! KILL HER! Fine. I'll do it myself."
"That...that's...me?! NO!" Jayfeather roared.
He stopped running, trying to catch his breath.
He looked up at the trees, looking back at him.
They were surrounding him.
Jayfeather screamed in horror, as the tree's closed in on him.
"You are changed Jayfeather. I don't even recognize you anymore. Not me, not Lionblaze, not even Half Moon."
The branches grabbed Jayfeather in a tight grip, holding onto his wrists.
"N-NO! STAY AWAY!" Jayfeather pleaded.
The trees moved closer to him, seemingly moving without lifting off the ground.
He felt himself sinking into theground, like quicksand. Jayfeaher looked down, tears in his eyes. "N-NO! STOP, PLEASE! I DON'T WANT TO DIE! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"
He tried to summon his powers, but they did not come. They refused his command.
"LIONBLAZE! FOXLEAP! HALF MOON! BREEZPELT! SOMEBODY, HELP ME!" Jayfeather fought against the roots dragging him down into the earth, clawing helplessly at the leave covered ground, "HEEELLLLPPPPPPP!"
"I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS!"
"You were always my friend, I wish you could see that."
His face was just inches from the ground.
Jayfeather cried, "WHERE IS EVERYONE?! WHERE DID YOU ALL GO?! HELP ME! PLEASE!"
He heard footsteps coming his way.
Jayfeather lifted his arms out of the ground, looking at the silhouette of a man looking down on him.
"HELP ME!" He screamed
The silhouette, leaned down, his face glaring at Jayfeather.
The sinking man gasped.
Breezepelt knocked the hand out of his face, and planted his foot on Jayfeather's head, pushing him further down into the ground.
"N-n-no! P-p-please! NOT LIKE THIS! BREEZEPELT PLEAS-"
He was cut-off by his mouth reaching the ground.
His tears flooded from his face as he the boot removed itself from his head. He looked up to see Breezepelt turn around and walk away.
Jayfeather tried to call him back, but his mouth became flooded instantly.
His head was completely under the surface now.
Jayfeather wanted to breathe, but he couldn't, and he opened his eyes, and shocked at what he saw.
He wasn't underground. There was no darkness or dirt he could see.
He was underwater!
Jayfeather spun around, his limbs free now as he panicked on the change of scenery.
He was alone, in a great blue void.
Jayfeather swam up, swimming closer to the surface, to air he so desperately wanted.
He almost screamed when something grabbed his leg.
Jayfeather looked down in horror, to see a face he had all but forgotten.
"Come with us, Jayfeather," Brokenstar grinned, his voice crystal clear despite their surroundings.
Coming up behind him was Scourge, who eyed him maliciously, grabbing his other leg and pulling him down, "It's not so bad down here..."
Jayfeather tried to punch Brokenstar away, but his hand was grabbed by none other then Tigerstar, who had materialized from his right side "After all, who do you have left to come to?"
Jayfeather fought against their grip and tried swimming up, but then Rock grabbed his left arm, grinning, "We are your friends now. Submit to us. Become one of us."
"NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Jayfeather roared, water entering his lungs.
With a demonstration of pure power, he blasted them all away from him with his telekinetic powers.
He shot towards the surface like a torpedo, leaving the ghosts of his past in the water.
Jayfeather flew out of the ground, soaring high into the air. He laughed in joy and surprise as he escaped.
But when he looked at what he was zooming towards, he realized he wasn't flying up...
He was falling down.
City skyscrapers surrounded him, and the road got closer and closer to him.
Jayfeather threw his arms out in front of him, using his powers to cease the momentum of his fall. When he crashed into the empty street, he rolled across the black road for a while before he stood up, and cracked his neck.
He was in Thrundrair city, Northeast of the Mountain, second largest city in Forrestlake, besides Forrestlake City. The skyscrapers were clean and pure, the windows reflecting everything like a mirror.
Jayfeather took this moment to catch his breath.
He was blinded by a bright light.
His ears started to ring.
He covered his eyes with his hand, slowly adjusting to the light. He looked out to see a monster of an explosion in the distance.
And it was coming closer.
Jayfeather looked around to see where he could hide or run to, but when he found nothing that he could get to in time, he just decided to run in the opposite direction.
He sprinted like he never sprinted before.
He heard the ground shake beneath his feet.
He heard the buildings crumble and fall.
He felt the heat getting closer and closer to his back, the burns already on his neck and back.
Jayfeather tripped on a rock, and tumbled across the street, getting into a curled up position, waiting for the Nuclear explosion's devastating reach to overlap him.
When it did not come, he opened his eyes, half expecting to be somewhere else.
But he wasn't.
He was still in the city, that much he knew, but the buildings and skyscrapers were all missing. What stood in their places were empty lots of concrete floors.
The sky was dark, and a storm like no other crossed the sky. The clouds gave no rain to fall, but lightning of many colors touched and burned the sky. The Mountain had a plume of smoke rising from it, making the whole Mountain look like a devastating Volcano.
Thunder boomed across his senses, as he flinched at how harsh the sound was.
And then a roar like a hurricane and a thunderous quake on the ground made him widened his eyes in horror.
A giant, clawed hand covered in brown scales, grabbed the mountain from behind it, allowing Jayfeather to not see it's owner. The hand covered the whole mountain, like a hand would cover a pencil. Another hand fell from the sky, hitting the earth beside it, and shaking the earth Jayfeather stood on. He could see that hand more clearly, and a giant fold of skin etched from the wrist of the hand and back into the sky.
"What do you know of Dragon Sickness?"
A giant shadow loomed over Jayfeather as lightning illuminated the figure from behind.
It was a mother fucking dragon.
The clouds moved, seemingly on the dragon's command, allowing Jayfeather to look at it's snout and cold amber eyes. The head of the dragon connected to a scaled body by a long and snake-like neck. The teeth of the dragon were as big as Foxleap's mansion, and if Jayfeather could estimate it's height, the creature was three times the size of Godzilla in the movies.
And the fire it spat out was a reddish orange, burning everything in it's path. The clouds vaporized on the spot, and the earth melted before it could touch it.
"With a sickness that once drove you mad, so long ago. He is cracking and splintering and soon his mind will break in two, allowing me to take full control."
The Dragon made eye contact with Jayfeather, like a Lion would look at it's prey. The dragon seemingly smiled, and with a huge roar that shook the sky and earth as one, it declared it's hunger for his prey.
Jayfeather began to run the opposite way.
"You're the traitor."
Half Moon's words echoed across his head.
Jayfeather stopped in his tracks.
He looked at his hands, as he heard the dragon's footsteps getting louder and louder, closing in on him.
Jayfeather lowered his head, "No...No, I am not."
He turned around, his bravery long since buried revealing itself to him, "I WON'T RUN ANYMORE! NOT FROM YOU!"
The dragon grinned.
"THEN YOU WILL DIE..."
The dragon opened it's jaws and a beam of fire blasted towards Jayfeather.
Jayfeather's eyes glowed a bright blue, and his hair began to wave as if it were Underwater. He began o glow, and with a battle cry of his own, lifted a wall of telekinetic energy, blocking the fire from touching him.
He floated up into the air, and with blue lightning surrounding him like a lightning rod, he blasted all of his power directly at the dragon's mouth.
The Dragon roared in pain, the lightning sparking everything inside of the monster.
"I AM JAY'S WING! ONE OF THE THREE! ROCK'S BIGGEST MISTAKE! HE SHOULD NEVER HAVE GAVE ME THESE POWERS, AS NOW THEY WILL BE USED TO DESTROY HIM, JUST AS THEY WILL DESTROY YOU!"
Lightning popped out of the dragons eyeballs, electricity coating the dragon, the scales not protecting it from Jayfeather's wrath. It lifted a huge hand to swipe him out of the sky, but Jayfeather flew around the monster's reach, and before it could recover, Jayfeather roared in power.
With the speed of lightning, he shot towards the dragons neck, piercing it and traveling through it, and flying out the other end, covering in blood and skin, but the power surrounding him quickly vaporized the metallic liquid.
The Dragon roared in pain, looking to the sky in fear, before the thunderous roar died down, and the creature fell dead on the earth, kicking up dust and dirt as the shockwave of his landing.
Jayfeather stood against the dirt and dust, blinding him and surrounding him.
When he opened his eyes, he was back in the forest.
Lionblaze looked at the blueprints with thought, as Poppyfrost continued with her plan.
When Jayfeather took off, Poppyfrost wasted no time gathering EVERYONE to reveal her plan to take out Alderheart, without killing him.
Except Icecloud, whom Foxleap was busy making soup for. Apparently she had caught some sickness, and was bedridden.
"-and then, Lionblaze with grab him, and before he can escape, Sparkpelt will knock him out with the gas bombs. Lionblaze will have already taken the antidote pill, allowing him to breathe through the gas, and Alderheart will be out like a light."
"To make that work, we need to take off his breathing mask, and see his face," Sparkpelt revealed, "And...I don't know If I will be able to do it when we see his face."
"Yeah, and we will need someone who can distract him. Ivypool can't, mostly because she hasn't had much experience with her powers."
"I can always give them back to Dovewing," but Dovewing shook her head. "No. I meant it when I said I want nothing more with this shit. I'm getting married soon. I'm not dealing with this shit."
"Then we need-"
The door opened.
Everyone looked to see Jayfeather's silhouette.
Half Mon curled her lip and looked away.
Lionblaze growled, walking forward. Fernsong tried to stop him, but Lionblaze moved past him.
"We're planning to help save my girlfriend. Not that you would care to much about her. You rat."
Jayfeather slowly walked forward.
Lionblaze moved at the same pace, "You call her a traitor, when YOU are the real one! You betrayed EVERYTHING the Three stand for! Say what you want about you trying to protect us and keep us safe, BUT I WILL NOT HIDE IN MY MANSION IN THE HILLS, WHILE OTHERS FIGHT OUR BATTLES FOR US! I AM NOT A COWARD!"
Lionblaze began to cry, "It's not in my blood, Jayfeather! IT'S NOT IN MY BLOOD!"
"No. No, it is not."
Lionblaze looked up at Jayfeather's face, his hair back in it's loose state. He was clean shaven, and his eyes burned with resolve.
"It's not in your blood...It's not in her blood..." He pointed at Poppyfrost, before pointing at Foxleap "It's not in his blood...and it's not in mine."
Jayfeather grabbed his brother by the shoulder, "We are Warriors aren't we? We are the Three. And the Three don't back down from a fight."
Lionblaze spluttered and smiled, grabbing his brother and holding him tightly.
Jayfeather hugged back, letting some happy tears fall, "I'm sorry, Lion...I'm so sorry."
Lionblaze nodded, holding his little brother like he would die soon, "You're back. You're really back!"
Jayfeather let go of Lionblze and turned to all of his friends.
"I...I know I haven't been kind to all of you. I know that I haven't been a good man to call your friend. Or your brother. Or your family. I have no right to ask any of you this...and you certainly have NO obligation to agree. But... can you forgive me, for what I have done to all of you?"
Everyone stood in silence.
Foxleap nodded almost automatically.
Hollyleaf rushed to her brother, hugging him like Lionblaze did.
Foxleap joined in immediately after wards.
And Honeyfern...Fernsong...Poppyfrost...Fallen Leaves...Ivypool...Dovewing...Hazeltail...Midnight...Sparkpelt (reluctantly, though)...Berrynose...
All that was left was Half Moon.
Jayfeather removed himself of the group hug, and turned to Half Moon.
"Can you forgive me?"
What followed after was one of the most uncomfortable silences ever recorded.
Half Moon stood, three feet away from Jayfeather.
Jayfeather lowered his head in shame.
Suddednly, she threw herself onto him, hugging him and crying with laughter.
"I KNEW YOU'D COME BACK! I JUST KNEW IT!"
Jayfeather cried and smiled, hugging her back.
After five minutes, he turned to everyone, still hugging Half Moon as she kissed him on the cheek.
"So, what's the plan?"
AND THERE YOU GO! Jayfeather is hereby free of Rock's influence.
If you feel like he was forgiven to easily, if they could forgive Cinderheart almost instantly, I'm sure they could forgive Jayfeather as well. They are a tight family after all...
Adios.