The next day, I see Ash alone by the East Tunnel with his back faced to me. To my relief, he is standing and overall looking much better than yesterday.

I'm not sure why I didn't notice this before, but there are voices quietly speaking behind me.

"Which rebel group are you going for first?"

"Not sure. I'm torn between the Army and the Shadows. We will ask the leader of whichever group we find first."

"I hope you're not just planning on going there all by yourself."

"Oh, don't worry, I already have everything all planned out. Why don't you go back to patrolling the East Tunnel?"

". . . Alright."

I spin around when a cat I don't recognize walks past me. Rain is standing, watching the cat go with amused eyes. She flicks her tail and shakes her head at me. "Too many frightened cats around here. I've been getting pestered all day with the same questions."

        "Ice arrived a moment ago with a warning."

        My head snaps toward the source of the alarming sentence. Ash is next to me, his amber eyes surprisingly calm as he stares at Rain. Now that all three of us are at our full heights, I can see how tall Ash is. He dwarfs both Rain and me.

        "What did he say?" I ask.

        Ash tilts his head toward the sky as if he were reciting something. "It was mostly personal and had little to do with the war. He wasn't here for long because the other rebels noticed him and drove him out. However, by what he said, the Earth-Superior army is recovering quickly because of the new cats from Earth. I am assuming that an invasion will be coming."

        "That means we have to act fast," Rain says, her ears tilting downward at the news. "There are still a number of injured cats that we're keeping in the West Tunnel."

        "I am aware of that."

        "If you don't mind me asking, though, what was the personal stuff all about?"

        Ash removes his gaze from the sky and glances at both Rain and me. His posture stiffens as his eyes meet mine for a split second. I give him a strange look. Why is Ash suddenly acting so strange?

        He looks back at Rain. In a lower voice than usual, he replies, "It was about Leaf. He was trying to lure me back to the Superior side."

        Ash's curt reply doesn't help me with my confusion at all. Who is Leaf? I go back in my memory, trying to remember if I had met someone in Gardinia named Leaf yet.

        Rain gives him a look of sympathy. "Oh, I understand. At least you're not listening to him."

        Ash nods. His muscles relax as if he just released a huge weight from his shoulders. "Yes. Ice's arguments are useless."

Both cats peer over at me.

Tilting my head at them, I meow, "Who's Leaf? . . . Sorry." I awkwardly add the last part, since my question sounds abrupt.

"No, it's fine!" Rain purrs, nudging my leg with her paw. "I'm surprised you didn't ask earlier, since you're usually quite nosy."

"What, nosy?" I stammer. "Never!"

Rain sticks her nose so close to my face that her white whiskers brush mine. "Uh, yes you are! You always ask questions."

"No, I don't!"

"Yes, you do!"

"Rain. Forest." Ash's stern voice clicks both of our minds back into focus. Rain and I back away from each other and turn to face the older tom.

I've been so involved with Rain that I forgot the point of our conversation. "Sorry, what were we talking about?" I ask.

He sits down and slides his tail over his paws. "I will explain who Leaf is. Rain, if you'd like, perhaps it's a good time to prepare to ask the first rebel group."

"Right!" Rain jumps up as her eyes brighten. "After you guys are done talking, you'll come with me, Ash. And you'll want to come too, Forest, right?"

"Right," I agree without a second thought.

"Fabulous, we'll start very soon!" The gray tabby skips away through the long, worn-out grass.

Ash and I watch her leave. There is a weird-looking bush nearby that Rain passes; instead of the usual green that bushes usually are on Earth, it's colored deep blue. A shiver runs down my spine as I recognize the blue stuff that grows out of that bush. Those are blue-leaves, the poisonous plants that Ice tried to give me. Although I'm not even close enough to touch them, I inch away, remembering when I was held down by Ice and shoved around as the blue-leaf almost entered my-

"Forest, are you alright? I asked a question." Ash's loud voice jerks me back to reality. He is lightly poking me with his paw.

Realizing that I've been staring at the bush with wide eyes and ignoring Ash, I say, "Yeah, I'm alright. Sorry about that. What was the question again?"

Ash shakes his head, not repeating the question. "Nevermind, it was not important. Were you wondering about the bush?"

"No, no, I already figured out what the bush is. It has blue-leaves. I blanked out on you because I got a bad flashback, and . . ." My voice drags off.

Ash has an inquisitive look in his eyes. He leans his head downward so that we are face-to-face with each other. "What was the flashback about?"

I stare back at him, nervousness creeping into my chest. Finally, I exhale and start talking. What do I have to lose? "It was about the night I joined the rebels. I got my third strike by sneaking out of the camp with another cat, and Ice forced the other cat to get the blue-leaf, and . . . This isn't making much sense to you, is it?"

"No, continue. I understand how the strike system works. Did the other cat receive a third strike as well?

"Well, no, not exactly. You see, the other cat wasn't from Earth. Her name is Mirage."

        "Ah. She is the fighting trainer of that camp, yes? You were outside of the camp with her?"

        "Yeah. She was training me to fight."

        Ash tilts his head. "And Ice gave you the third strike anyway?"

        "We snuck out. I'm sure Ice punished Mirage in some way. And he was eventually planning to give me the third strike anyway because I was being rebellious." I snort in disgust, lashing my tail.

        "Ah."

        My gaze falls from his eyes to my paws. "Before Ice caught us, Rain appeared. She was the reason why Ice came in the first place, since she and Mirage were causing a commotion outside of the camp with their fighting. When Ice pinned me down and tried to give me the blue-leaf, Rain saved me. I still don't know why she rescued me from getting my memories erased, but she did."

        My claws sheathe and unsheathe with nervousness as I tell my story to Ash, but I pay no attention. My voice is steadily getting more intense and emotional, but I no longer have any control over myself to stop. All I want to do is to pour all of my hidden thoughts, everything I have concealed for so long, into his calm, understanding eyes.

        I lift my eyes to meet his again as I continue, "And you know what? I'm happy. I'm happy now that I'm a rebel, less miserable and less homesick then I was back in that stupid, dirty camp. Part of it is because I don't have to be threatened by Ice everyday. I hate Ice. I hate him so much. I despise the amount of power that he has over me, that he brought me here to Gardinia and that he's the only one with the ability to bring me back to Earth."

        My voice cracks with emotion, and I sharply inhale with shock. Why did I tell him so much? I don't think I've ever told someone any of this before, but I feel so relieved that I did.

        After I'm finished with my emotional breakdown, Ash nods. "I know. I do not recognize my brother anymore. Over the course of this war, he has turned to an ambitious monster who wants nothing more than to rule Gardinia. Do you know that I used to be on the Superior side with him?"

        My eyes widen. "No. Why were you there?"

Now it's Ash's turn to stare at his paws. "I was raised that way," he murmurs. "Ice and I were born during the rise of the Superiors. My mother and father were both Superiors and led the movement at the time to rule over the normal cats.  We were taught that the Superiors were the best species of cat there was and that they were considered to be a higher status than the regular ones. I did not dare question it. At one point, when the rebels came together and declared war against us, I was even more determined to defeat them than Ice was. All I wanted to do was to kill those inferior rats and make them succumb to us, and that's exactly what I did in those first few battles. Kill, kill, kill."

        My jaw drops, and the older tom briefly pauses to recollect himself as I express my reaction. The cat who is the mellow, nicer version of Ice? I stammer, "You wanted to kill all of the rebels? But you're the last cat I would have thought of to do such a thing!"

        Ash stands up and looks at me. "Yes, I know. I was a nasty, mean creature back then, but my hatred of rebels gradually disappeared when I met Leaf."

        He explains what happened. Leaf was one of the neutral cats in the war, the ones who didn't belong to either side. She was a regular cat, and she met Ash one rainy night when they were both taking a walk. Although things were rocky between them at first, they eventually took a liking for each other when they kept ending up together. Ash developed a crush on her and learned that normal cats were really not that bad.

        "This was when I started to question how I was raised," he says, flicking his tail. "Most cats on the Superior side refused to speak to regular cats because there was a stigma that even their personalities were worse than ours. I believed this, too. However, fate sealed us together. Whenever I tried to escape from her, she kept coming back. And she wasn't a coward like Superiors said the regular cats were supposed to be; Leaf had a strong personality. She almost killed me once." Ash doesn't explain how he almost got killed by her, but he purrs in amusement from the memory.

        He continues, "Leaf was just a wayward cat who wanted nothing to do with the war. However, she changed, too. She started to care more about the war, especially after she found out that her rebel sister was slaughtered by a gang of Superiors while she was on patrol. Leaf joined the rebels. By this point, I was insanely in love with her, and all of my previous values about Superiors were dying out, partly because she also taught me what the rebels really believed in. It did not help that the Superiors were almost losing to the rebels at the time. The only variable that was holding me back from following her was Ice because I was afraid to what he might think if I gave up on the Superior side."

Ash pauses again, closing his eyes as he sniffs the air. I do the same. There is a fresh smell of other cats in the distance, which means that Rain might be coming back with more felines.

"So what happened to Leaf?" I question, perking my ears up at him.

He opens his eyes and answers, "She died; she got killed shortly after she joined the rebels in a battle. I was in the battle. Ice murdered her, and I helplessly watched as she died alone. The day after I witnessed her death, I escaped in the middle of the night to the nearest rebel group I could find. That is when I met Rain."

"Oh," I say, standing up. Now that I realize that Leaf isn't even alive anymore, I regret asking who she was. "No wonder I never met a cat named Leaf. I'm sorry, I never should have asked. It's probably giving you bad flashbacks talking about it to me. I'm such an idiot; I should have figured it out myself that she was dead."

Ash shakes his head, and to my surprise, he lightly brushes my shoulder with his tail in an attempt to reassure me. "No, it is alright. It was a long time ago. Besides, you should know more about me, since we have been together for a while now. Do not apologize anymore."

He pads behind me and peers out into the distance. As I turn to face him, he lifts his face toward the sky again to taste the air.

"They are coming now," he meows. "Five cats in total. Four regular cats including Rain and one Superior with the ability to transform into a human. The Superior is most likely North."

Just a few moments later, Rain and the four other cats come in sight over the long grass. Ash made a correct prediction because hanging around behind everyone else is North. We walk over to greet them.

Rain gives us a determined look. Her fur is tousled around, and her eyes are wide, giving her a wild appearance. As we approach, she calls out, "You guys are ready, right?"

Both of us nod, hopefully with no hint that we just had a very deep conversation with each other.

Her tail enthusiastically waves in the air. "Awesome, then let's go!"