For the first time in the quarter moon since she had come to WindClan, Hollyleaf found herself blinking awake surrounded by the familiar pale trees and cold air of the Dark Forest. Good. She had been beginning to wonder if Tigerstar and Hawkfrost had forgotten about her, but she figured they just hadn't figured out yet that she wasn't sleeping during the day anymore.

Speaking of Tigerstar and Hawkfrost, at that moment she heard their familiar footsteps approaching from behind her. She turned to face them, and they didn't look pleased.

"Really? WindClan?" sneered Hawkfrost. "You wouldn't go back to your own Clan because you wanted them to believe you were dead, but you'll join those scrawny rabbit-chasers?"

"I'm half-WindClan," she snapped. "And besides, I thought you wanted to create a world without Clan borders and all that. Tigerstar switched Clans when his former Clan wasn't serving his needs anymore; why can't I do the same?"

Hawkfrost scoffed, but didn't argue back. He looked tired– both of them did, actually. Hawkfrost's usually well-groomed pelt looked matted and flat as if he hadn't had time to groom before their meeting, and Tigerstar, she realized to her surprise, was limping. One of his hind legs was soaked with blood, and he was avoiding putting weight on it.

"What happened to you?" she meowed, keeping her voice level and curious.

"Ivypool," growled Tigerstar.

Hawkfrost grinned. "I told you, she's good. One of our best. I said I had trained her well, but you still underestimated her, didn't you?"

"Yes, she's good," conceded Tigerstar. "I did underestimate her– but it won't happen again." He paused as if suddenly remembering something. "Besides, she did a number on you today, too."

"It wasn't just her," Hawkfrost grumbled. "It was her and Blossomfall." But he was clearly embarrassed.

They must have come right from their other trainees, she realized. That was why they were so much more tired than usual– they were trying to fit two training sessions into one night.

"It seems like you had an intense training session already tonight," remarked Hollyleaf.

Tigerstar nodded. "Our moment is fast-approaching. Every training session is crucial now, which is why we haven't been able to come for you these past few nights. It was easier when you were available during the day… but I think this new development will work well for us, actually. We are a bit lacking in recruits from WindClan. Now you'll already be in place when we strike."

She nodded. Her heart was beating so fast she feared the two warriors would hear it. Our moment is fast-approaching.

"I understand," she meowed, forcing her voice to remain steady. "Will you still have time for me?"

Tigerstar nodded. "You are our best warrior. We will make the time. We'll take turns training you from now on. And on days I'm with you, Brokenstar can run training with the others. He may not be as… effective of a motivator as I am, but he'll be fine."

She wondered how Brokenstar felt about being Tigerstar's second-in-command. He had been a leader himself when he was alive. She imagined it must be hard to go from being in charge of an entire Clan to taking orders from a younger cat than himself.

"Right, we're not here to hang around chatting," snapped Hawkfrost. "We've got work to do, and someone will be waking you up for a patrol soon." She snapped to attention. He was right. She had something much more important to do than wondering about Brokenstar.

"Why don't you start by practicing that sequence we went over last time?" suggested Tigerstar. "Attack Hawkfrost first. Claws sheathed tonight, please." They never had her train with her claws sheathed. They believed you should train just as you would fight a real battle– with all your strength. The fact that they wanted her to keep her claws sheathed today showed they must really be exhausted. Good work, Ivypool, she thought. It was too bad she had never gotten the chance to know her; she seemed like quite an impressive warrior, and Hollyleaf suspected they would have gotten along well.

Taking a deep breath, Hollyleaf mentally reviewed everything they had taught her. Over all of the past moons, they had shown her technique after technique with the intent of crafting her into a perfect killing machine. And she had taken them all to heart.

Hollyleaf inhaled, then exhaled, and then threw her body forward.

Claws unsheathed. At Tigerstar.

Strike hard and fast– the element of surprise will be your greatest asset. The Dark Forest's plan had depended on the element of surprise. They believed that by training Clan cats to fight for them, the Clans wouldn't know who was on their side and who was the enemy. They urged Hollyleaf in particular to take advantage of the element of surprise, since everyone believed she was dead. Well, she certainly had the element of surprise now. Expecting her to attack Hawkfrost, Tigerstar's eyes went wide as she threw herself at him, claws outstretched. His feet hadn't even moved from their position on the ground by the time her claws raked across his flank, sending blood spraying at her face.

She had never trusted these cats. How could she have? Tigerstar was the most famously evil cat ever to exist. He could claim now that everything he had done he had done for his Clan, but of course he would say anything to get what he wanted. She remembered hearing the story of how Tigerstar had tried to kill Stormfur and his sister when they were brand-new apprentices, practically still kits, just for being half-Clan. No cat who would murder innocent apprentices could ever become good. A cat like that would never just turn a new leaf and decide he wanted to help the Clans. And she wasn't foolish enough to let his compliments distract her from who he really was.

When fighting two enemies at once, your best bet is to dispatch one of them before the other has time to react. As Tigerstar turned on her, preparing to strike back, she took a step backwards and then leapt onto his back. She grabbed his head with her forepaws, and then struck with her hindpaws, knocking his hindlegs out from under him. Only at this point did Hawkfrost finally get his head about him enough to react.

"You were supposed to be training with me today," he growled, leaping towards her. Reacting just in time, she threw herself sideways and his massive claws missed her by a whisker. WindClan cats learn how to use our speed and our smaller size against our opponents, Breezepelt had explained to her once. Tigerstar and Hawkfrost weren't the only teachers she had had.

Remembering the badger defense move they had taught her in the early moons of her training, she darted forward three steps, bunched her legs beneath her, and leapt. She flew easily over Hawkfrost's head, landing gently behind him. He normally had a fairly quick reaction speed, but he was tired tonight. Which was exactly why she was doing this tonight. Before he had had a chance to turn, she spun on her hind legs and raked her claws down his back.

Hawkfrost let out a yowl of pain, finally whirling around, but he was too late. As he lifted his front paw to swipe at her, she sank her teeth into his hind leg and bit down, as hard as she could. She felt her teeth go through fur, skin, and sinew, and Hawkfrost let out a desperate wail.

"Stop!" yowled Tigerstar from behind her. For the first time ever, she detected just a hint of fear in his voice. Tigerstar never showed fear. In fact, he never showed much genuine emotion at all. It always felt as if every word was carefully chosen to have an exact specific effect. He would choose sentences to elicit an emotional response from her, but any emotion he showed himself felt… polished. Rehearsed. His reaction didn't sound rehearsed now.

Never hesitate! Your enemies will not hesitate to end you, so you must be willing to do the same. She had doubted these words to be true when Hawkfrost had said them to her. If she was meant to be fighting Clan cats, they weren't usually killers unless absolutely necessary. They were teaching her to expect much more brutality than the Clans actually practiced. But the words were true now. She had crossed the point of no return; now that she had attacked Hawkfrost and Tigerstar, she wasn't leaving the Dark Forest unless she or they were dead. So she paused for only an instant before letting go of Hawkfrost's leg and sinking her teeth into his throat.

His blood tasted just like Ashfur's had, sharp and metallic. Apparently despite being from a different Clan, all cats' blood tasted the same.

And like with Ashfur, she held onto Hawkfrost until he stopped moving. She had only had his throat between her teeth for a few moments when he finally started to go limp. But just then, she felt sharp claws dig into her back, and she felt her body fly through the air before colliding harshly with a tree.

"What do you think you're doing?" growled Tigerstar.

"What does it look like?" she hissed, spitting Hawkfrost's blood onto the ground. Looking over Tigerstar's shoulder, she saw to her shock, Hawkfrost's body was turning more and more see-through, until after a moment, it had faded away into nothing. I guess that means he must be gone for good, she thought. "I'm stopping you," she spat at Tigerstar.

"You are doing no such thing," Tigerstar snapped, lunging towards her, his injured leg dragging behind him.

Always look for your enemies' weaknesses. Even a cat stronger than you has weak spots– your job is to find and exploit them. Make a plan, pick your moment, and strike. This was one of the first lessons she had been taught, and she had taken it to heart. Tigerstar and Hawkfrost were both stronger than her. Physically stronger, and better fighters. They had spent their entire afterlives training. But she knew eventually, she would catch them at a bad time. No cat could be perfect forever. When they had shown up today exhausted and injured, she had known this was her opportunity. She wasn't going to find them weaker than this, and they were planning their big attack soon. It was now or never.

Tigerstar was a much better fighter than her. She couldn't hope to beat him under normal circumstances, even with Hawkfrost gone. But now, with him already being tired and injured… maybe she had a chance.

No. A chance wasn't good enough. She had to win. Not only her life but the lives of countless other cats depended on it. If Tigerstar lived, he would go back to his other trainees, and his war with StarClan would go on as planned. They would kill code- following Clan cats, they would kill good StarClan cats for the second time, and they would get their own trainees killed. Even though the Dark Forest trainees had chosen to align themselves with Tigerstar, she didn't think they deserved to die fighting his war. She had seen how charismatic and persuasive he could be– it would be easy to be sweet-talked by him.

Tigerstar aimed a blow at her head with his massive paw, but she had seen it coming and dodged it easily, stepping sideways out of his way. She had played this fight over in her head countless times. From the first day they had offered to train her, from the moment they had told her dead cats could die again, she had known this was something she had to do. She would win their trust, let them make her stronger, and when the moment was right, she would kill them, protecting her Clanmates from the threat they posed. She had thought she would get her chance in a moon or two, but she quickly saw they were much stronger than she had guessed. So she waited, biding her time and becoming a better fighter. In the Dark Forest, she learned their techniques and with Breezepelt, she had him show her all the WindClan fighting techniques he knew. WindClan was trained to use their larger and stronger enemies' size against them. She had known this fighting style would be immensely helpful in this eventual showdown.

After Tigerstar's missed blow, he was briefly thrown off balance. Where he had expected his paw to connect with her head, he had found only air. She took advantage of this moment of imbalance to throw herself at his side. Her claws made contact with his right flank, but before she had a chance to dig them in, he spun around and sank his teeth into her shoulder.

Hollyleaf yelped as she felt blood rush to her wound. Desperately trying to free herself, she lashed out with her claws. They found the flesh of his chest, and Tigerstar loosened his grip just enough for her to yank her shoulder out of his grip.

The two cats circled each other, hackles raised. "I wanted to help you," snarled Tigerstar. "To help all the Clans. And this is how you repay me?"

"Liar," she hissed. "You never cared about the Clans. All you cared about was revenge. You wanted to punish Firestar for beating you, and punish StarClan for not letting you in. I heard how you talk about him. You don't just think he's a weak leader; you hate him. And that's what this is all about to you. Hatred."

"Well, hatred," growled Tigerstar, "can be a powerful tool." His amber eyes glowed red-hot with it. But she would not let herself be scared. She had to win. For all her Clanmates, new and old. For every cat who Tigerstar's revenge quest would harm. For her family.

Her breath was coming shorter and faster. She felt as if there wasn't enough air in the whole forest for her to breathe. This was not only the most important fight of her life, but also the hardest. Am I really strong enough to do this?

Just then, at her right side, she felt a familiar flank. Though she could see no cat next to her, she knew it was Breezepelt's. At her right pressed another cat whose pelt she would know anywhere. Lionblaze. And behind her, she sensed, rather than felt, Jayfeather. Though she was alone here, somehow she carried all three of her brothers with her. She imagined their strength becoming hers. Imagined them fighting beside her to vanquish this enemy that threatened them all. And with them at her side, she knew she could do anything.

Hatred was a powerful tool. But her love for her brothers, for her Clanmates, for all the Clans, was more powerful.

When Tigerstar pounced, she was ready. She ducked, pressing herself into the forest floor, and rolled to her right. His paws struck the bare dirt where she had been only a moment before, and before he had a chance to move again, she darted beneath his underbelly, slashing at the back of his forepaws. He roared in pain, but as she moved to roll back out the way she had come, he dropped down, throwing his entire body weight onto her. The breath driven out of her, struggling to breath beneath his massive body, she began to panic. All he had to do was sink his teeth into her neck and she was done for. Was it really going to end here?

No. The voice was distinctly Jayfeather's. Though she knew it was just in her head, it steadied her, the way his imagined voice had encouraged her to keep moving when she had first been injured in the tunnels. She would always carry her brothers with her for support, even when they weren't really here.

Fight, Hollyleaf! called another voice. Lionblaze, this time. She gritted her teeth. She had come so far. Her fight did not end here.

Think of something, you idiot, snapped a third voice. Breezepelt. And he was right. She couldn't beat Tigerstar by being stronger than him, but maybe she could outthink him.

She let every limb go limp, as if she had passed out from suffocation. Tigerstar relaxed his grip, and at once Hollyleaf heaved upward, throwing him back onto the forest floor. She didn't let even a moment go by for him to regain his bearings before she leaped onto his now-exposed underbelly, grabbed his head with her forepaw, and ripped his throat out with her teeth. Tigerstar clawed feebly at her, but blood was gushing from his throat. After a few moments, his body went limp. She waited before getting up, in case he was faking her out using the same trick she had done to him, but after a moment she realized the same thing was happening to his body as had happened to Hawkfrost's. She could see the forest floor through his pelt, and soon, there was none of him left.

He was gone. Forever, this time. He could never hurt any living cat ever again– her Clan was free of him at last.

She sat down to take stock of her injuries. Her back hurt from when Tigerstar had thrown her into the tree, and she was still bleeding from her shoulder, but other than that her injuries weren't too serious. She took a moment to clean her shoulder wound, hoping no cat in WindClan would notice it, before she curled up on the forest floor, closed her eyes, and woke herself up.

She awoke to find Breezepelt pressed against her side. Has he been there this whole time? she wondered. When I felt him in the Dark Forest, was that really him? Quickly, those questions were washed from her mind as a wave of pain flooded her shoulder. Twisting around, she found it was still bleeding. Fortunately it wasn't on the side where Breezepelt was lying, but she still had to clean the wound quickly before some cat woke up and saw it.

Above her, the first tendrils of dawn were starting to break over the hills. Cats would be waking up for the dawn patrol soon. So, despite her back crying out in protest, she hauled herself to her feet and padded off to exit the camp. WindClan didn't have a separate dirtplace tunnel, so she would have to pass by the cat on night watch to exit, but she could just say she was going to make dirt. That was believable enough.

A dark shape stood watching the exit as she approached, which she recognized quickly as Sunstrike.

"I'm just going to make dirt," Hollyleaf meowed to Sunstrike as she approached, trying to keep her tone casual. But as she spoke, Sunstrike's eyes drifted from her face to her shoulder, which was now dripping blood onto the grass.

Hollyleaf froze. What explanation could she possibly give to explain how she had acquired an injury this severe in her sleep? A simple thorn in her bedding couldn't have done this. Would Sunstrike believe a wound from yesterday had reopened?

But to her surprise, Sunstrike's eyes moved back up to meet Hollyleaf's, and Sunstrike gave her an understanding nod. And that nod chilled Hollyleaf's blood more than questioning would have. Because if Sunstrike wasn't asking her how she had been injured, it was because she already knew. It was because she, too, had woken up with wounds like these.

How many of her new Clanmates were training in the Dark Forest? She may have killed two of their warriors, but would it make a difference if half the Clan cats were working for them still? Surely, they must not all know the Dark Forest's true intentions. There was no way this many cats could be persuaded to betray their Clans so easily. She was sure many of these cats had just been persuaded to train there to improve their skills to better serve their Clans. She had seen first hand what skilled manipulators Tigerstar and Hawkfrost could be. But how many of those trainees would fight with the Dark Forest when the final battle came?

Sunstrike had seemed so sweet in their interactions, too. She was one of the last cats in WindClan Hollyleaf would have predicted would be training in the Dark Forest. What had Tigerstar told her to convince her to join? If he could convince a cat as pleasant as Sunstrike to join, he could convince anyone.

But Tigerstar and Hawkfrost are dead now, she reminded herself. Whatever disloyalty they were sewing in the minds of their trainees, they wouldn't be able to nurture it any longer. She had recognized from the beginning that getting rid of Tigerstar and Hawkfrost was about far more than just getting rid of two powerful fighters– it was about getting rid of two cats with the power to convince many more to join them. Based on what they had told her, the vast majority of Dark Forest trainees had been directly recruited by one of the two of them. The other leaders, Brokenstar and Mapleshade, were ruthless fighters and brutal mentors, but they didn't have Tigerstar and Hawkfrost's charisma. With Tigerstar and Hawkfrost gone, she hoped the Dark Forest's leadership would fall apart and the trainees would be able to see through their nefarious plans more easily. But of course, she couldn't know for sure what would happen.

Leaving Sunstrike, she headed towards the lake. The river separating WindClan territory from ThunderClan was probably closer, but she still hadn't been to the ThunderClan border since she had left the tunnels. It just wasn't worth the risk of being spotted.

By the lake, she rinsed her shoulder, and even found some horsetail to press into her wound. After a few moments, the bleeding was subsiding, and she was on her way back to camp. To her relief, the camp was still sleeping when she returned, and Sunstrike didn't try to start a conversation with her about their shared nighttime habits. She laid down next to Breezepelt again, and closing her eyes, she was asleep within moments.

To her relief, Hollyleaf dreamed only of climbing trees and catching squirrels, and wasn't pulled back into the Dark Forest. She knew that with Tigerstar and Hawkfrost dead she would likely never have to go to that place again, but it would be a while before she didn't go to sleep nervous.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, and that night she once again slept soundly. It's over, she told herself as she awoke with the sun. I've succeeded. I'm free now.

Yawning, she stood up and stretched. Her back and shoulder still ached, little reminders of the Dark Forest that still clung to her body. Breezepelt was nowhere to be found, meaning he must have gone out on the dawn patrol. As she padded to the center of the camp, a conversation next to the gorse bush over the nursery caught her ears.

"He said Tigerstar and Hawkfrost are dead!" meowed a fervent young voice. Is that Larkpaw? Hollyleaf wondered.

"Yeah, Brokenstar doesn't know how they died, either," added a deeper voice that Hollyleaf recognized as Whiskernose's. "But he says as soon as they find out who did it, they'll be punished." Hollyleaf shivered. Somehow, it hadn't occurred to her the Dark Forest might seek revenge for what she had done. Did the other leaders know Tigerstar and Hawkfrost had been training her? If so, it wouldn't be too difficult to piece together who had murdered them. What could she possibly do against the full force of the Dark Forest?

"I've told you a thousand times, Whiskernose," meowed a cross tom. Harespring. "I left that place for a reason. I'm going to be a father soon, and I have too much to lose by running around with cats like that now. I don't want to hear about what's going on there; I just want to put that time of my life behind me and serve WindClan. Only WindClan. You can keep going back there, and I'm not going to tell any cat, but leave me out of it."

Larkpaw and Whiskernose mumbled their apologies, and Hollyleaf found herself with a newfound respect for Harespring. It seemed like he had trained in the Dark Forest, but realized his own Clan was more important than whatever they were promising him there. If Harespring could change his mind, so could cats like Sunstrike. And with Tigerstar and Hawkfrost dead, she hoped that would happen soon.

Before it's too late.