Summary: Every night, Fireheart dreams about a life that parallels his own. Or is it Kasai that is dreaming about a life that parallels his own?

Not gonna lie, I didn't know what I wanted to do for the next idea because nothing was really forming in my head. The ones that did form in my head requires a ton of worldbuilding.

I initially hated the way I started this and thought that I wouldn't have anything to upload this week until I started getting into it more. Hooray for me I guess.

Don't know how many of you read Ignite, but I got a review the other day on fanfiction. Now, I'm open to constructive criticism, but if you do happen to give me such, can you please make your review make sense? Please don't accuse me of putting stuff into the story that doesn't make sense and then proceed to not tell me what doesn't make sense in the first place. And then go radio silent on me. Because I asked this person what they meant and I haven't gotten a response. They also said that I've forgotten that people need love, hugs, and tenderness, proceeded to bring up Spottedleaf for some reason, and told me that I needed to sit down and think about what I was writing.

Take your own advice maybe?

If any of you are interested in that review in particular... it's still there on fanfiction for anyone to see. Just thought I'd make a point. At least tell me what I'm doing wrong? :/

Anyways, enjoy?

Reviews are always appreciated!

"That should do it," Cinderpaw determined, setting one last piece of cobweb over a cut on his shoulder. He wasn't too injured from the Windclan-Shadowclan raid on Thunderclan's camp, but Cinderpaw, Yellowfang, and Bluestar insisted that all the warriors and apprentices that participated in the battle get checked out, no matter how minor the wounds were. "Just make sure you get some rest and don't scratch at anything," she said, eyes twinkling.

"I wouldn't dare disobey an order from a medicine cat!" Fireheart jokingly purred. He turned away and padded towards the warriors' den, intent on finding Graystripe. Thankfully, the gray tom was already hunched inside, eyes wide in worry.

"There's something else I wanted to tell you," he meowed. "About Brackenpaw." Quickly he described how he and the apprentice had gone out early, and how Brackenpaw had scented the invading band of cats. "He fought well, too," Fireheart remarked. "I think it's time he became a warrior."

Graystripe let out a purr of agreement. "Does Bluestar know this?"

"Not yet. You're Brackenpaw's mentor. You ought to recommend him."

"But I wasn't there."

"That doesn't matter." Fireheart gave his friend a nudge. "Come on, let's go and talk to Bluestar now."

The Thunderclan leader and most of the warriors were still in the clearing, while Yellowfang and Cinderpaw distributed cobwebs to stop bleeding and poppy seeds for pain. Brindleface had brought out her kits to see what was going on, and Cloudkit was frisking around, pestering one warrior after another with questions about the battle. Brackenpaw was there, too, giving himself a thorough wash; Fireheart was relieved that he didn't seem too badly hurt.

The two warriors went up to Bluestar, and Fireheart once more told the story of Brackenpaw's skill at scenting their enemies, and his bravery in the battle. "It's thanks to Brackenpaw that we had any warning at all," he meowed.

"We think he should be made a warrior," Graystripe added.

Bluestar nodded thoughtfully. "I agree. Brackenpaw showed himself worthy today." She got up, paced into the middle of her cats, and raised her voice. "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Highrock for a clan meeting."

Goldenflower appeared at once from the nursery, followed by Speckletail, and Smallear limped slowly from the elders' den. When they had gathered around Bluestar, she meowed, "Brackenpaw, come here."

Brackenpaw looked up, surprised, and padded nervously over to Bluestar. Fireheart could see he had not the least idea what was coming.

"Brackenpaw, it was you who warned the clan today, and you fought bravely in the battle," Bluestar meowed. "It is time for you to become a warrior."

The apprentice's mouth fell open. His eyes blazed with excitement as Bluestar pronounced the ritual words.

"I, Bluestar, leader of Thunderclan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. He has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend him to you as a warrior in his turn." She fixed her blue gaze on Brackenpaw. "Brackenpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend this clan, even at the cost of your life?"

Brackenpaw trembled slightly, but his voice was steady as he meowed, "I do."

"Then by the powers of Starclan, I give you your warrior name. Brackenpaw, from this moment you will be known as Brackenfur. Starclan honors your forethought and your determination, and we welcome you as a full warrior of Thunderclan."

When she finished speaking Bluestar stepped up to Brackenfur and rested her muzzle on his bowed head. Brackenfur licked her shoulder respectfully, then walked over to stand between Fireheart and Graystripe.

The watching cats raised their voices to chant the new warrior's name. "Brackenfur! Brackenfur!" They began to press around him, congratulating him and wishing him well. His mother, Frostfur, pressed her muzzle against his flank, while her dark blue eyes glowed with delight.

"Tonight you have to keep vigil alone," mewed Sandstorm, giving Brackenfur a friendly nudge. "Thank Starclan! The rest of us can have a night off!"

Brackenfur was too overwhelmed to answer properly, but he broke into a deep, contented purr. "Th-Thank you, Graystripe," he stammered. "And you, Fireheart."

Fireheart felt a rush of pride to see the cat made a warrior at last, almost as though Brackenfur had been his own apprentice. It made up, a little, for knowing that he would never go through this with Cinderpaw. Starclan had a different fate for her.

"I still can't believe that you knew the attack would happen," Brackenfur praised him.

"I didn't know. I just felt like something would happen," Fireheart quickly replied, embarrassed. Indeed, he felt a premonition that told him to go out near Fourtrees that morning.

Graystripe snorted next to him, and Fireheart gave him a light nudge in response.

Now that the ceremony was done, weariness swept over Fireheart. He was about to go back to the warriors' den when he caught sight of Cinderpaw limping rapidly over to her brother.

"Congratulations, Brackenfur!" she mewed, her blue eyes sparkling as she covered his ears with licks. Brackenfur's purring faltered and his eyes looked troubled.

"You should have been with me," he murmured, gently nosing her injured leg.

"No, I'm fine as I am," Cinderpaw insisted. "You'll have to be a warrior for both of us. And I'll have to settle for being the greatest medicine cat this forest has ever seen!"

'I should have been able to save you. I knew you would break your leg, but I couldn't stop you in time,' Fireheart lamented to himself.

His strange dreams sometimes paralleled his life, though he had a hard time remembering them. He was so busy trying to find catmint for Bluestar that he had to push aside his apprehension for just a moment.

In that moment, Cinderpaw got run over by a monster.

"Going to have weird dreams again?" Graystripe purred to him.

"You know I don't control what goes on in my head," he grumbled, curling up into a tight ball in his nest, eyes already drooping.

For a moment, there was black, the sounds of other warriors settling into their nests fading into the background. Then his vision lit up, and he opened his eyes to see himself surrounded by an endless field of blue and white, different colors and specks of starlight swirling around him.

His body moved for him, one paw taking one step after another, leaving ripples where his paws stood. He felt lightheaded watching his body move without his say.

Finally his body stopped, his head looking up at a great wall of something shiny, like he was staring into the river when it was calm, but with more clarity.

But instead of his own reflection, there was a Twoleg with ginger head-fur instead. He titled his head, watching the Twoleg do the same. The Twoleg mimicked his actions the best it could.

He placed his paw on the wall, the Twoleg doing the same with its own paw, and the wall ripped and shined brilliantly.

He blinked, and suddenly his reflection was that of a ginger cat, his hand still pressed to the mirror. The world around him was fading away into white, the cat's image gradually disappearing.

An annoying beeping assaulted his ears. He grumbled, trying to fall back asleep. When the beeping persisted, he begrudgingly raised an arm and tried to find the source of his problems. With a sharp click, he switched off the alarm clock. His eyelids felt heavy as he fought to open them. When he did, he was greeted with bright red neon.

He hissed and shut his eyes at the bright light. When his sight finally adjusted, he squinted at the bright numbers that read 6:02 am.

'I want to go back to sleep.'

He knew he couldn't though, because he had classes at 8:00 am and he needed to get up, get dressed and eat something that wasn't just coffee and a piece of toast to get him through the day. No one told him how hard Real Property would be! Sometimes he couldn't tell what was real property and what was personal property…

Well, it wasn't like practically everyone in high school hadn't warned him that law school would be difficult. He knew it was hard, but the work that constantly piled on him was ridiculous! He remembered when Mock Trials were fun and he genuinely enjoyed it.

A soft ding went off. He noticed the screen on his phone turn on briefly.

'Clothes first,' he decided.

After getting dressed, he unplugged his phone from its charger, noticing that Gray had texted him.

'At this unholy hour in the morning? Must be serious,' he thought idly, pressing on the screen to bring up the text. Usually his best friend would joke about him having cat dreams every few days for a laugh. He rose an eyebrow at the screen almost incredulously.

Gray 6:07 am: Sil's complaining of abdominal pain. Prob nothing but we're heading to the hospital anyway.

He almost wished that Gray would make fun of him about having cat dreams instead of this kind of news.

He still couldn't believe that his best friend, someone who was pursuing a career in making comic books for a living, had gotten together with a rich heiress of all things.

Initially he was happy for his friend for finding someone, but Silvia monopolized all of Gray's time. Suddenly they weren't hanging out as much anymore, and then all of their conversations somehow shifted towards her. It didn't help that he was in university now, with a workload that rivaled that of all four years of high school combined.

His stomach turned uncomfortably as he thought of the few fights they had gotten into because of Gray's relationship with Silvia.

'Thankfully we're past that now,' he thought in relief as he turned on the coffee machine.

It was a shock to find out that Gray had gotten Silvia pregnant, especially because they were all so young and not yet out of college.

He was more shocked that Silvia's father hadn't tried to castrate Gray yet.

'She's what? Seven months pregnant? She couldn't have gone into labor now,' he thought uneasily.

.

.

He was a little early as he arrived at class. Looking at his phone, he knew that he had about ten minutes left before class started.

He felt the table shift as someone settled down to sit on the chair next to his.

"Hey," a soft, tired voice greeted him.

He looked up from his phone to focus on the blonde woman next to him. Sandra looked exhausted, though he couldn't blame her. She was swamped with classes and enough extracurriculars to make anyone's head spin. Having to wake up early didn't help her either.

He couldn't believe his once high school tormentor now turned friend was going to the same university as him, studying in the same major.

"Gray text you too?" she inquired.

He nodded. "Hope it's nothing serious."

She took a sip from the coffee cup she brought in with her, humming thoughtfully. "Can't believe the class clown is the first of us to have a kid. And he's not out of college yet." She sniffed distastefully. "Or married."

"That's what he gets for fooling around," he grumbled. "Anyway, I was thinking of visiting Cynthia after my last class. See how she's doing and all that."

"You're still blaming yourself for what happened to her leg?"

He didn't answer her, but they both knew his answer was yes. Someone had run the red light while she was goofing off as usual, dancing into the street without looking both ways. He was tutoring her that day.

He tried calling out to her, but it had already been too late. Now she was stuck on crutches for who knows how long, her usual playfulness vanishing into thin air.

He was broken out of his musings as the professor strolled in, turning on the projector to show the class yet another boring PowerPoint presentation.

He inwardly sighed. It was going to be a long day.

.

.

Gray called him as he was on his way to visit Cynthia, his last class having been completed a good twenty minutes ago.

"What's up?" he greeted.

"Kasai, it's bad. It's really bad," his friend babbled over the phone. Was he sobbing?

"Gray? What's going on?"

Gray was sobbing too hard to articulate what was going on, his sentences broken and trailing off into more sniffles.

"You have to calm down, I can't hear what you're saying! Just take a deep breath," he tried consoling him.

He could hear Gray take an audible breath. At least he was listening to him.

"Now what's going on?"

"It's Silvia! She went into premature labor and something went wrong- the twins are stuck and there's so much blood-"

Twins? Silvia was having twins? He mentally cursed in his head. He figured she was going into labor, but it was so early.

"The doctors don't know if she'll make it," Gray whispered. "In fact, if we hadn't caught it in time, she would be dead already."

"Okay, okay." He contemplated what to do. They didn't live in the same place anymore, because they went to different colleges. He wished that he could visit the hospital where Gray was at, but it would probably be too far to drive to. Plus he had classes again tomorrow, so it wasn't like he could stay for very long.

"Do you want me to stay on the phone?" he asked softly.

"…Please," Gray sniffled, his voice desperate and panicked.

Cynthia would hopefully understand why he couldn't stick around for too long today.

"She'll make it Gray. She's too strong to let something like childbirth bring her down," he laughed nervously, hoping that Gray didn't catch his own nervousness. He need his spirits lifted, not brought down at the moment. "Next thing you'll know, she'll be nagging you to get her sushi again. And possibly calling her dad to castrate you."

He could hear Gray chuckle weakly over the phone. "Yeah, they're both going to kill me."

.

.

He opened his eyes to see himself surrounded by an endless field of blue and white, different colors and specks of starlight swirling around him.

His body moved for him, one foot taking one step after another, leaving ripples where his feet stood. He felt lightheaded watching his body move without his say.

Finally his body stopped, his head looking straight at a mirror that stretched in front of him for as far as the eye could see.

But instead of his own reflection, there was a cat with ginger fur instead. He titled his head, watching the cat do the same. The cat mimicked his actions the best it could.

He placed his hand on the wall, the cat doing the same with its own paw, and the wall ripped and shined brilliantly.

He blinked, and suddenly his reflection was that of a Twoleg with ginger head-fur, his paw still pressed to the shiny wall. The world around him was fading away into white, the Twoleg's image gradually disappearing.

He woke up startled, feeling something was amiss. Graystripe was still asleep in his nest next to him, paws twitching every few heartbeats.

Typically Graystripe would be up first, asking him playfully if he had any more vague Twoleg dreams again.

He tried recalling the dream. All he could remember was… something about someone being pregnant and kitting early? He remembered Graystripe crying…

He got up to his paws, careful not to wake his friend or anyone else. As soon as he was out of the warriors' den, he bolted straight for Yellowfang and Cinderpaw.

They both startled awake at his abrupt intrusion.

"Fireheart, what-?" Cinderpaw murmured tiredly.

"No time! I think- I think someone needs help!"

He flinched as Yellowfang growled at him. "You woke us up because you think that someone needs help?"

He forced his fur to lay down flat. How was he supposed to tell her that the cat who needed help happened to be a Riverclan queen that was about to give birth?

"Does this have to do with those weird dreams Graystripe makes fun of you for?" Cinderpaw yawned.

Yellowfang's head swiveled around to gaze at Cinderpaw, then back again to Fireheart. "You've been having dreams?"

He hesitated for a moment. "I- yes," he admitted. "Please just trust me when I say that there's a cat who needs help right now," he stressed.

She stared at him for a few more heartbeats, before sighing in defeat. "You better be not wasting our time," she hissed.

'Hang on Silverstream, we're coming.'

Later down the line when everything starts to become clearer, he's not sure whether Firestar is the dream or if Kasai is the dream.

Anyway, they find Silverstream at Sunningrocks, Yellowfang yells at Fireheart to get Mudfur, and Silverstream ends up surviving. I know Silverstream giving birth is supposed to be three days after Brackenfur becomes a warrior, but AU's gotta AU.

Firestar would absolutely become a lawyer if he were human. Or a police officer. Defending people is in his nature.

He would also quite possibly be a politician, but good politicians that work for the people instead of their own self-interests is rare to come across these days :P

I'm attached to the name Kasai. Because I'm obsessed with anything Japanese haha. Other names given to him that start with F just sound kind of dumb to me at this point.

The transition from cat-human and human-cat sequence was inspired by Aikatsu Planet, where the idols transition from live-action to animation. They place their hand on a mirror where their anime selves are reflected in and basically swap/become anime from there? Hard to explain it actually... It's also a real-life game you can play... if you live in Japan that is.

Tell me how I did.