I kind of regret putting An Angel Lost in Time separate from the rest of the AU Dump now cause people really like it and now are expecting an update. Look, I make no promises if it will become a full fic. I don't want anyone to be disappointed if that happens, just saying. It's part of the AU Dump for a reason.
SPOILERS DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ DARKNESS WITHIN: Wow. I just read the book and wow. Seems like every medicine cat (barring Jayfeather and Shadowsight) and ESPECIALLY Mothwing are the fandom's new whipping cats. And it seems like Shadowsight, like Squirrelflight, is the poor baby that did nothing wrong. He didn't do anything wrong actually, but I can see why no one can trust the guy now that everyone knows that he was being groomed by Ashfur. (By the way, for all the people who said the imposter wasn't Ashfur, I got some clown makeup for you. TOLD YOU IT WAS HIM)
The correct response to the knowledge of Shadowsight being groomed by Ashfur is to NOT make Shadowsight spend more time with the guy who can manipulate him more. What are you stupid?
So Erins are butchering characters again, what a surprise. Though it still infuriates me that people still want Bramblestar to stay dead.
Also that ending. Ashfur has Bramblestar AND Spriresight trapped and amalgamated within Bramblestar's body. We can't even be sure if that was even Bramblestar at the end- because it's hard to believe that 1) Bramblestar broke free long enough to talk with Shadowsight or 2) Ashfur let him take control briefly.. for what exactly? To tell Shadowsight not to let anyone kill him? I'm more inclined to believe that it was still Ashfur channeling Bramblestar's personality in order to fool Shadowsight further. I mean, the guy's got Brambo trapped in there, so it's not hard to believe.
Starclan intentionally let this guy into the living world AND let him into Starclan in the first place. WTF? I just- why is Ashfur still alive? :/
Now I got to wait another few months- I'll have graduated by the time TBC is over. Geez.
SPOLIERS OVER SAFE AREA BELOW
Sorry for another boring chapter that I practically ripped right from the book. :P Sorry Erins please don't sue me.
Reviews are appreicated!
Jayfeather paced along the edge of the Moonpool. The stone felt icy beneath his paws and a cold wind moaned above his head.
'Please, Starclan, let them come!' Last night, the medicine cats had promised to meet him here. They needed to unite Starclan before they could unite the clans, which seemed like an impossible task with the way the clans were divided now. Especially since Windclan had driven out the one cat who could have ended it all before things got worse.
He was worried about Kestrelflight coming the most though. The tom had given him such an attitude the night before, the Windclan medicine cat still angry over the situation with Firestar. If he didn't come, they would never be able to convince the former Windclan warriors within Starclan to unite with the rest of the clans.
A pebble clattered beyond the lip of the hollow.
"Watch out!" Kestrelflight snapped.
"Sorry!" Fur brushed stone as a cat heaved her belly over the ridge.
Jayfeather padded forward, feeling the rock dimpling underpaw. "Willowshine, is that you?"
"We're here." The RiverClan medicine cat followed the spiraling path toward the Moonpool. "Mothwing sends good wishes."
"Why didn't you wait for us by the stream?" Kestrelflight bounded down to join them. There was an aura of crossness coming from the tom, but Jayfeather didn't have time to be dealing with the cat's sour attitude on this night.
"I wasn't sure you'd come." Jayfeather shifted his paws.
Littlecloud padded stiffly into the hollow, his old bones tired from the journey. "We told you we would be here." They were all silent for a moment.
"So now what do we do?" Willowshine inquired.
"Isn't it obvious? We're going to unite Starclan," Jayfeather meowed. "I'm going to show everyone the danger myself if I have to." He flicked his tail, signaling them all to follow, and he dipped his head and let his nose touch the water of the Moonpool.
At once, the world opened around him and his blindness lifted. He was on a grassy hilltop, dark clouds skimming overhead. Wind-battered meadows stretched below him. Trees huddled in the valleys, stripped of leaves. StarClan's hunting grounds had slid deep into leaf-bare.
"Where's the sun gone? Starclan isn't supposed to be like this!" Willowshine shimmered into view beside Jayfeather, her nose sparkling with water from the Moonpool.
Kestrelflight stalked from the long grass, eyes round as he adjusted to the gloom.
"Now what?" Littlecloud's pelt brushed his flank as the ShadowClan medicine cat joined them.
"Each of you must go to your own ancestors and bring them here."
Willowshine stared down to a muddy river flowing between the fields. Littlecloud faced the swath
of dark forest spreading beside it while Kestrelflight fixed his gaze on the rolling moorland beyond, an unreadable expression on his face.
"Can you do it?" From here Jayfeather could see the tops of the mighty oaks where Thunderclan sheltered beneath.
"I'll bring every cat that I find." Littlecloud headed down the hillside.
Kestrelflight broke into a run, streaking toward the moors.
"Willowshine?" Jayfeather saw the Riverclan medicine cat hesitate.
She whisked her tail. "Will the Dark Forest warriors come here, too?"
Jayfeather flattened his ears. "We won't let them."
Willowshine flashed him an anxious look and began to trot toward the river. Jayfeather headed down the hill and into the woods.
A white pelt moved at the edge of his vision. He snapped his head around. Whitestorm! The
Thunderclan warrior was stalking prey. Tail down, muzzle low, he crept forward, his eyes fixed ahead. A mouse skittered over a tree root a tail-length away. Whitestorm sprang and landed on it, killing the mouse with no problem. Whitestorm only sighed over his catch, eyes distant and misty. Jayfeather briefly wondered why the white tom looked so down. 'Maybe because Bluestar hasn't woken up yet?'
"Nice catch!" he called.
Whitestorm jerked around, blinking. The mouse dropped from his jaws. "Hi, Jayfeather."
"Follow me, Whitestorm. Please, it's important." He stared into the white warrior's eyes. "We
need to gather Starclan."
Whitestorm tipped his head. "Everyone?"
"As many as we can." Jayfeather bounded forward and broke into a run.
Whitestorm chased after him. "But what about the boundaries?"
"The other medicine cats are helping me gather Shadowclan, Windclan, and Riverclan." He ducked just in time to avoid the prickly stem of a bramble.
"How did you convince Kestrelflight to help? He and Windclan aren't exactly in a helping mood," Whitestorm asked, shocked.
"With difficulty," Jayfeather said exasperated. He couldn't even be sure if Kestrelflight or the Windclan warriors of Starclan would try anything tonight. What if they didn't want to unite because of Windclan's hostility with the other clans?
In no time flat, Jayfeather already had a sizable following trailing behind him into a ravine that cut through the middle of the woods. As he reached the other side of the ravine and scrambled atop it, he caught sight of a thick, tangled pelt lurking in the shadows.
"Yellowfang?" Her amber eyes narrowed as he called to her. "Come with us!" he urged.
She curled her lip. "What are you up to?"
Jayfeather stumbled to a halt. "I'm uniting Starclan!" She blinked at him, before scowling.
"With the way the clans are at the moment? Good luck," she scoffed sarcastically. No doubt she was referring to Windclan.
"You can either hear what I have to say or you can wallow in the dark. Your choice," he called as he and the group passed her by. He wasn't about to get into an argument with her, not when he had so little time to gather everyone up and explain the situation.
Pale light showed ahead and he pelted for the edge of the forest, breaking from the trees, tail high. The hill rose before him. Charging through ferns, he led his clanmates onto the grassy slope. Cats were swarming from every direction, racing for the hill. He spotted Willowshine's gray pelt leading a horde of Riverclan warriors. Kestrelflight raced from the valley, warriors skimming over the grass behind him like a flock of starlings.
Jayfeather's paws ached from running but hope was swelling in his chest. At the crest of the hill, he stopped and turned, amazed by the ranks of Starclan cats crowding over the slopes below him. The other medicine cats gathered around him, and Jayfeather took a deep breath before turning to address the crowd of starry cats.
"Starclan! Please hear my words! There is a terrible threat to you all! And to the Clans you once lived in. You know the Dark Forest is rising. You can see it in the dead leaves that litter your hunting grounds, and the clouds that block out your sun." Jayfeather glanced up at the gray sky. "You must face the truth. And the truth is worse than you ever imagined." He gazed around the raised faces, hoping they understood. "The Dark Forest must be met and fought. You will not win by huddling together like families of mice. You must stand together or fall divided!"
"But how can we beat an enemy that can bring leaf-bare to StarClan?" Raggedstar called.
Darkflower's eyes glittered. "They have grown stronger than us."
Sunstar padded forward. "When we sent you the Prophecy of the Three, we didn't know the Dark Forest would grow so powerful."
"They should be Four at this point," Yellowfang shouldered her way into the center, pushing past Sunstar. "The Ancients were supposed to give us an ally that would make them strong enough to fight any enemy."
Jayfeather's pelt ruffled. "We still don't know who the Fourth is," he meowed.
Yellowfang rolled her eyes. "Isn't it obvious yet mouse-brain?" He frowned at her tone. The other medicine cats listened in, their ears perked with interest. "You, Lionblaze, and Dovewing are not the first cats guided by a prophecy," Yellowfang prompted. "Bluestar was promised long ago that fire would save the clan. And now..." she trailed off, scowling heavily.
Jayfeather's fur bristled, jaw hanging open. Of course the Fourth had to be Firestar of all cats- the one cat who could end it all and currently wasn't anywhere near the clans to help. "Firestar is the Fourth? Firestar is meant to save us all? You realize he's not even in Thunderclan anymore right? How are we supposed to win this now?!" He had no idea if the search party was even close to finding the Thunderclan leader!
"What?" Kestrelflight's growl broke him out of his train of thought. "Are you telling me that thing is meant to save us all?"
Jayfeather whirled around and angrily hissed at him, as did Yellowfang and many of the Thunderclan warriors of Starclan. "Don't. Call. Him. A. Thing," he hissed, taking a menacing step forward with every word he spoke. For every step Jayfeather took, Kestrelflight stepped back. "Do you even hear yourself right now? You're still angry over Firestar even when he's not here! What is your problem?!"
"It's because of him that Windclan is the most hated clan at the lake! He destroyed any chance of Windclan having potential good relationships in the future! He destroyed your territory, Jayfeather!" Kestrelflight yowled at him.
The blind medicine cat lashed his tail. "No, Windclan isn't the most hated clan because of Firestar. You could have left him alone. Our territory wouldn't have been burned down if your clan hadn't provoked him." A look of realization creased Jayfeather's face. "It's not Firestar you're angry at is it? You all know you screwed things up, but you Windclan cats are so prideful that you don't want to admit that you're the ones in the wrong. You're just using Firestar as some kind of excuse." Kestrelflight's ears flattened, but otherwise didn't say anything.
"You have a choice," he raised his voice for all of Starclan to hear. He especially wanted the Windclan cats to hear, as well as every cat that feared his absent leader. "You can either unite and we can all continue living, or you can all hate Firestar for something out of his control and we can either be killed or enslaved by the Dark Forest. Your choice," he said bluntly. Tigerstar was more likely to kill them all, but he wouldn't put it past the evil leader to keep some cats alive to lord over them all. Cats muttered around him, debating with each other.
"You must follow me once more," Jayfeather yowled. "You need to see for yourselves." Beckoning with his tail, he headed down the slope, into a dingy forest where slimy bushes choked the roots of the trees and the sunshine turned to eerie half-light. Traveling within the Dark Forest never got easier, even though he had been here a few times before.
After showing Starclan the Dark Forest warriors' brutal training and listening into the evil cat's taunting of destroying the clans, the large group quickly made their way out of the darkness and into the light of Starclan territory.
"Now that you have seen them, have heard what they are threatening our clans with, are you afraid to fight?" Jayfeather called out.
Raggedstar bristled. "Never!"
Jayfeather saw determination hardening the gazes of the StarClan warriors. "But will you fight together?" he questioned.
Sunstar swished his ginger tail. "We can't fight such cruelty while we're divided."
Yellowfang stepped forward. "How will we know who to trust?"
"You can trust me," he gestured to the other medicine cats, even Kestrelflight, who stubbornly averted his gaze, "and all of us."
Jayfeather opened his eyes into blackness. The Moonpool rippled at his nose. Kestrelflight, Littlecloud, and Willowshine were waking, their pelts brushing the stone as they clambered to their paws.
Jayfeather felt blood welling on his pads. The long journey had left him grazed and aching. "StarClan is united. Now we must gather the Clans." He pushed himself up. "We must tell them everything."
"Let's meet at the island at sunhigh," Littlecloud said. "I'll bring Blackstar."
"I'll bring Mistystar," Willowshine said. "But Thunderclan won't have Firestar representing them?"
Jayfeather grimaced, aware of that small detail. "I'll have to bring Brambleclaw instead," he murmured. He turned to Kestrelflight. "Can I count on you to bring Onestar?" Kestrelflight said nothing.
"Honestly Kestrelflight! You saw what was going on in the Dark Forest! Get over whatever irrational hatred you have with Firestar and cooperate or we'll all die!" Willowshine growled.
The Windclan tom sighed, finally looking up at them. "I can't promise that Onestar will want to come."
"Try," Jayfeather growled. Honestly, hearing him out was the least Windclan could do! "The only way we're winning this battle is if the clans unite. Convince him of that if nothing else."
I didn't intend to make Kestrelflight the bad guy cause of Darkness Within, honest. I was writing him like this way before the book was released.
Whitestorm's sad cause Bluestar is still in her healing coma. Will she wake up soon? HHhmmmMMmm You should all know by now how predictable I am. The answer is obvious duh.
Brambleclaw has to replace Firestar's role with the uniting the clans thing...
Tell me how I did.