The crashing of waves below us sent up a thick mist of water droplets, sprinkling on my worn out jeans and faded white T-shirt. My legs hung over the water as I sat beside my mentor. Her palms gripped the damp rock beneath us while mines crossed over my chest to accompany my disappointed expression.

Although at the time I hadn't wanted to be there, now I wanted nothing more than to suck in every bit of memory my subconscious threw at me. From the salty breeze that tossed her long black hair into a messy bird's nest to her hickory eyes that gazed over the rolling waves as if searching for something in the distance.

Her thick black jeans with more pockets than she had things to put in them were soaked up to her knees, and water dripped off her army boots into the waves below. She didn't seem to mind or even noticed the salty water creeping down her tan arms.

I, on the other hand, wasn't as unnoticing of the trails of salt making their way down my skin and irritating my eyes. Trying to catch her attention, I childishly swung my legs back and forth, sending her a pointed look.

What felt like forever to the past me felt like less than a second before she turned back around to face me, her eyes still seeming to look beyond rather than at me. In a low, gentle voice, unlike her normal brusk or irritated one, she said just above the crashing of waves, "Maxima's got a talent for looking in the oddest of places, don't you think?"

"Yeah, she's a real nut case sometimes isn't she? Choosing me of all cats," I wanted to say, but my younger self had different ideas. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I guess it means that nothing slips by her eye," replied Boss with a shrug. "With all the options, it's no wonder we always end up with wackos like you. She hasn't chosen wrong yet."

"Hey!" Shouted the younger me with my arms crossed. I looked away from her with my chin held high, "Maxima chose me 'cause I'm strong, and brave, and kind. I'm not a wacko. Plus, doesn't she always choose 'the best' choice? That means I'm the best."

"You were certainly the most prideful choice," replied Boss, her eyebrows raised at my behavior and her voice lined with irritation. However, her voice flipped back when she added, "Being a wacko and being the best choice aren't mutually exclusive."

I turned towards the ocean. "Then explain why I haven't even been accepted by Maxima yet. Why I'm still wearing a cape and playing pretend," I wanted desperately to ask her, but no words left my mouth. "Explain why I don't even have a teacher anymore. Why you're gone."

As if understanding what I had said, Boss gave me a sympathetic smile that I didn't remember from my memory. "I don't need your sympathy. What I need are answers," I pleaded in my head, hoping that she truly could hear me.

Her smile remained as the scene began to swirl. All the colors of the black night sky, silver stars, grey rocks and her brown eyes blended together. Her image vanished as quickly as she had left me the first time. Gone forever.

My new surrounding sprung forth from the blended colors. The silver turned into white walls on either side of me, and my feet landed on the cold grey floor. The air smelt of chemicals that had been used to clean the pristine room. I recognized the hallway immediately.

I had been following a brown cat with two patches of black tabby stripes, one on her head and one on her hip. Excitement bubbled up in the younger me's chest while I skipped my white paws, that had yet to gain the orange and black markings, across the concrete floor. Other, less pleasant emotions bubbled up in the older me's chest as my paws moved without my consent.

The younger me had always loved going out on missions with the gang. Boss, Mouse, Daisy, Jade, and of course my partners in crime, Ilene and Pudding. The me I was now would also have loved to go out with them another time more than anything. Unfortunately, that particular mission I never wanted to go on again.

A hiss from behind me broke me out of my thoughts. "Misha, cut it out. We're back-up which means stealth not 'let's see how loud we can be'," the female brown and black cat behind me whispered.

The tabby on brown cat in front of me, Mouse, laughed quietly, "Oh come on Jade, you know she can't help it. She didn't choose to be an elephant in her past life."

I made a fake pouting face, too excited to truly be unhappy. Unlike the other three, Mouse always managed to crack jokes about me in just the right tone or wording that they missed hitting my ego. Used to, we'd joke around together, especially about Daisy- Ilene's mother and basically older clone.

Mouse stopped in front of a large metal door. Jade and I stood on either side of her, staring together at the logo on the door. Although forgotten soon after the events that would follow in mere minutes, the logo bounced back into my memory full force. A gear with a broken heart in the center with the right half of the heart black and the left half white.

A persistent irritation in the back of my brain told me I had seen that logo before more recently. This feeling wasn't shared by the younger me, but by the older me instead. However, my mind was too preoccupied by the flashing memories of what would happen next to care.

I erged my paws to turn around and leave, but they stayed glued to the ground. I tried speaking to warn my two companions, but my mouth wouldn't open. Desperately, I tried to close my eyes and wake up from the nightmare, but no darkness spread over my vision. I continued staring at the broken heart.

I could hear speaking, but my mind was elsewhere. The only reason I knew what was said was because of how many times I had relived that instant. "Well," Jade's voice grudgingly said, "they're probably close to finished anyway. It's not like they really needed any back-up."

Disappointment set into the younger me upon hearing her words. I had wanted to play a part in the mission.

Why have back-up if they weren't going to need it? Did they only have back-up so I wouldn't feel left out?

The younger me ranted in my head, but it came to a sudden halt. From behind the unopened metal door came a piercing cry that sent the hair down my back straight up. I'd recognize that voice anywhere. It was Ilene.

Mouse and Jade immediately jumped into action, pouncing on the metal door and sending it flying open. The younger me jumped to my feet, staring at the horrors behind the door that I remembered all too well.

But the older me couldn't see through the door for the moment it opened, my vision turned black. A masked face stared back at me sending shivers down my spine. I couldn't see any eyes beneath the mask, but it felt like they were staring into my soul.

But the part that scared me the most were the colors of the mask. The left half was painted white while the right half was black. The mask seemed to float in the pitch black emptiness, and I could see no body the mask belonged to. The same mask worn by the cat who had been waiting for them behind that metal door.

Although its entrance was abrupt, the mask took its time to fade away, leaving me shivering in the abyss of darkness. Half of my brain vowed that it would somehow right the wrongs that the masked cat had done to me while the other half wanted nothing more than to hide away from it. I hated fear more than anything, but maybe that fear would keep me alive.

The black abyss faded into a hazy dark grey like the color of a cloudy night sky. The air around me became thick with mist, causing the panting I didn't know I had been doing to become more labored. Yet the peaceful silence calmed me, easing my breathing and clearing my mind.

I jerked my head around, hearing unrecognizable noises nearby. Like strong gusts of wind and water splashing. The dark mist continued to swirl around me, blocking my vision. Wearily, I called out into the darkness, my voice cracking, "Who's t-there?"

To my left, the thick mist began to sparkle from a moon-like silver light shining deep from within. The light poured down the mist in a stream of glittery water droplets, forming the silhouette of a cat. The silhouette grew larger as it glided through the mist until it was only a few cat lengths away.

Despite how close she stood, the large cat's maine coon-ish face was covered by a veil of mist. Locks of golden fur curled down her back, and her massive gold tail wrapped around her body. A persian maine-coon mix with the most beautiful golden fur I'd ever seen.

The female cat's eyelids opened, revealing two golden orbs that shined through the mist veil over her face like beacons. Beacons to what, I was unsure. But the urge to come closer pulled at my paws.

A sharp pain ran through my skull and my eyes fluttered open. Above me, the cat tree I had been sleeping on loomed over my fallen body. Normally, I would have been a mumbling mess, but the dream still lingered in my mind.

Golden eyes.

The golden cat and masked face fought for attention in my mind. Ilene's scream was echoing in my ears. The smell of salty waves was still present in the air. And the loud beeping of my watch slowly won the battle of attention.