The indigo sky looms above me and everyone else as we stand by the East Tunnel. It's time to invade the Superiors.

        My heart is slamming so hard and quickly that I feel like it's going to leap out of my chest. I recall North's words earlier in the day that if someone kills me tonight, it will be certain that I will never see Earth again. What if I die? I don't want my death to be in Gardinia.

        While I panic, Ash passes by from behind and briefly stops right next to me. "You're with me," he growls in a low voice. "We're attacking the Earth-Superior army."

       Without waiting for an answer, he continues walking, only to halt again to talk to another cat in front of me.

        I wonder if that means if I will see Ice or not. He leads Camp Six, but back when I was there, I sometimes noticed that he was not in the camp. Does he occasionally go check on the Earth-Superior army? I really hope I don't have to see him on the battlefield. If I will, that means that I can basically say goodbye to my life right now.

        After some amount of time, Rain calls for all of us to be silent. Then, when a hush falls over all of us, she meows, "Alright, you've all been told who you're going with by now, yeah? Awesome, let's go!"

        Rain is speaking so quickly that I barely know what she's saying. Even from a distance away, I can tell that her eyes are shining with excitement, and that her tail is eagerly shooting up straight in the air. I still can't figure out why she's so cheerful about this. She must really hate the Superior side.

        I locate Ash's tall, black figure in the crowd and follow him with a bunch of other cats.

        Ash barely acknowledges any of the cats that he is currently in charge of. In contrast to Rain's perky, happy-go-lucky state right now, he looks even more dull and serious than usual, close to being melancholy. His tail hangs low to the ground as he gives a simple nod to all of us. Then, in a quick, steady pace, he walks in a specific direction. Everyone trudges behind him.

        We walk for a long time. The dark indigo of the sky matches my dreary, nervous mood. To occupy my mind, I count the number of cats who are walking with me. As I get to nine cats, I spot a familiar furry tail near the front of the crowd. It's North. I consider talking to him, but I decide against it. He didn't look like he enjoyed my company earlier today, anyway.

        Twenty-two cats? No, I have forgotten about some of the cats who are behind me. It's difficult to count when everyone is moving.

        Twenty-seven cats, not including me. That sounds right. I wonder how many cats there will be in our group after this battle.

        In the distance, despite the cats that are blocking the view, I notice that there's a lone, fairly small stone den in the distance. As we get closer to it, I realize that this is probably where the Earth-Superior army sleeps. Flattening my ears, I try to ignore my sudden urge to turn and run, and I press on.

        At last, we reach the stone den. It actually just looks like a big collection of sturdy rocks right now, since we have arrived to it from behind. I wonder if Ash led us here in this particular way intentionally.

        Ash is facing away from us. His tail is low to the ground, and his ears are tilted back. For a few seconds, his body is completely still, as if he were in deep thought. Then, suddenly, he snaps his head towards us and hisses in a low, rushed voice, "We are not in luck tonight. The wind is blowing from our direction to the den, which means that the guards can catch our scent at any second. Unfortunately, we are unable to sneak up on them. They are both Superior cats, one with super-speed and the other with enhanced scent abil-"

         Ash's speech is interrupted by a large, orange cat that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Before anyone can comprehend what is even happening, the orange cat pins him to the ground. Right away, screeches erupt from various rebels around me, and about five of them surge toward the attacking cat.

        To my horror, that's when countless cats start pouring out from the sides of the den. They charge at us with fiery anger in their glowing eyes. The tightly-packed crowd that I was once part of disperses as rebels run at them, screaming battle yowls and leaping on anybody from the opposing side.

        I didn't need to even move to attack anybody because almost instantly, an immense, brown cat with yellow eyes slams his unsheathed claws right above my nose, almost straight into my eyes.

        My head recoils forward as I'm temporarily blinded by the sharp, red-hot pain.

The cat spits, "You think you can defeat me? You're just a regular little mouse."

Thankfully, before the cat delivers his next blow, I quickly recover from his previous attack. I feel the warm blood running down my face as I do the first thing that comes to my mind- mimicking the move he had just done on me.

To my astonishment, my claws hit square on the bridge of my opponent's nose. This cat must be really slow if he didn't dodge that.

        However, my pride disappears as fast as it came as the cat barely even flinches from the impact. However, there is a wound on his nose. I attempt to pounce on him from the side to knock him over, but he whips around so his back is facing me. With a tremendous amount of force, both of his rear legs slam into my chest, the claws slicing through my fur all the way into the skin. A screech escapes my jaws as I fall backwards and end up landing on my side.

My opponent charges at me and raises his unsheathed claws towards my belly. Widening my eyes and predicting his next move, I curl up and desperately kick at him with all four of my paws. There's no way he's going to get to my belly; I know enough that injuring my underside would be painful.

But as I try to dodge his moves in a flurry, I get a good look at his face and realize something horrible. Where was the wound that I inflicted on him earlier? Before, there was blood spurting from it, and now it's just gone.

With the realization that this cat might have a strong power that I haven't realized before, I roll onto my other side and manage to get onto my paws. Fear is coming back to me, making my heart beat with more speed and intensity. What if he is impossible to defeat? I have to get away from him. My opponent lunges at me, but I escape his grip and flee.

"Coward!" he calls after me as I dart away and hide among the battling cats.

I don't have time to comprehend his insult. I just keep running and running until I almost crash into someone. My paws skid to a stop just in time, and then my eyes fall upon the cat I least expected to see.

Stripe's dirty, mangled ginger fur sticks out in all directions, but when she turns around to face me, her blue eyes are as shiny as always. "Hey, Forest!" she cheerfully exclaims, as if we weren't enemies on the battlefield. "Haven't seen ya in a while! How's life? How did ya even get here? I didn't know that you joined the Earth-Superior Army."

Well, that's just great. I forgot that she doesn't even know that I'm a rebel. "About that.." I say, shrinking back. "I'm not exactly part of the Earth-Superior Army."

Before I can continue, she meows, "No? You're not? Then why are ya here? Did you go out exploring in the middle of the night and-"

"I joined the rebels."

The ginger she-cat's eyes widen, her jaws frozen in an open position. Her ears flatten unpleasantly. She doesn't get a chance to speak though, because out of nowhere, a gray figure leaps and pins Stripe from behind.

"Did you finish your lovely conversation yet?" a deep, cocky voice snarls to Stripe. "If so, I would love to continue our fight that you just so rudely cut off."

I peer up and see that North is on top of the ginger cat, patiently waiting for her answer.

"Oh, you still want to fight me?" Stripe meows, her cheerfulness suddenly back. "I'm sorry! I just wanted to talk to my old friend here back from Camp Six, right, Forest?"

North and Stripe both look at me. North has an annoyed glint in his eyes, while Stripe still looks overly happy. She's practically purring. I can't help but think that Stripe's enthusiasm is starting to seem over-exaggerated.

"Stripe," I say nervously, "I don't think we should be friends. We're not on the same side."

        Stripe slips out from under North and walks closer to me until her nose is almost touching my face. North lands on his paws and suspiciously watches us, his tail impatiently waving side to side.

        "You're right," Stripe replies. Now I know for sure that her flowery happiness is fake. "So I guess we should fight. We're enemies, aren't we?"

        I pause, remembering the one rule that Rain explained to me when I met her. I have to be loyal to the rebels whether I like it or not. After a deep breath, I say, "Yes, we are."

        The friendliness in Stripe's eyes disappear. It is replaced by pure hostility. Shortly afterwards, she suddenly swivels around and charges at North, who is surprisingly still standing behind her. North is ready to fight right away and leaps over Stripe before she gets a chance to even touch him. As he soars over the ginger tabby, he rakes her back with his claws before landing behind her. Stripe yowls in astonishment of his counter move, and both of them turn around to face each other at the same time.

        I don't know why I decide to attack Stripe, but by this moment, I feel brave enough. She's my enemy, and I have to fight for the rebels. I'm not going to stand here and wait for someone to come kill me. I run around North and try to attack her from the side. She notices me and immediately slashes my shoulder with her unsheathed claws. I flinch and hiss at the pain before slamming my paw right on her head.

While clumsily and just barely dodging another strike from Stripe, a commotion of hissing and snarling erupts behind me. I only get to have a tiny glance towards the fighting before I'm quickly punished with a stinging slam to my chest. North is fighting another cat.

        Stripe takes advantage of my distraction by slamming me hard with her paw again. This time, I lose my balance and fall down to the ground. Stripe pins me down while I'm on my side and attempts to roll me onto my back. I screech and dig my claws into the ground, but she persists in trying to expose my underside. Slowly, I get weaker until my claws let go of the grass, and my opponent finally pins me on my back.

        I close my eyes and accept that I'm going to die.