The jay had felt overwhelmed by the crowd of cats. All from different clans, some she didn't know. She didn't relate to anyone. They all were different.

Yet they shared one thing- the desire to stop the war. At least, that's what Freestar had told them to do.

But Jayflight couldn't get over the fact that Freestar had lied. He wasn't granted strength from StarClan, permission to walk into the clans and create FreeClam.

She was the only one who knew, not even her mother knew that Freestar only had one life. Jayflight felt like she was stuck in boulders and fallen trees.

Brother or not, if she told the clan about Freestar's secret- he might do something. Something bad. Even to the extent of- killing her.

When he died the secret would be out. Or what if she died before him? Maybe she should just keep it a secret her whole life. Til one day, many seasons after both their deaths, they somehow find out about how fake FreeClan really is.

It can't be her problem right now. She had a lot of things to do. Now that Jayflight was deputy she experienced new responsibilities she never even dreamed of having. She never dreamt of her brother starting a clan though either...

"Hey! Aren't you the one who killed my precious Leaffall?!" She heard bickering in the distance. Cats from other clans were arguing. Maybe this wasn't the best idea...

Freestar seemed unbothered, more interested in discussing something with another cat. One from their old clan, their old place they used to call home.

Welp, it was up to Jayflight to solve this conflict. And it didn't seem like an easy one either Accusation of murder wasn't the easiest to solve. Especially for a cat like Jayflight.

The cat started to stand up on their hind legs. Unsheathing their claws slowly as they raised their front paws up. Ready to strike the accuser. Not even defending themselves with words yet.

Jayflight ran up. She grabbed their scruff before they could lay a paw and pulled them back. "We're FreeClan. We're here to stop the fighting, not cause more of it.

Well, that point she felt pretty heroic. Never had the she had that bravery to stand up to someone like that. What was this new Jayflight?

"But please- don't throw random accusations. It might've been another cat." She added weakly, starting to loose her pride. "I don't want to see blood in our new camp..."

They both didn't say anything. They all locked their eyes on each other. It made her feel uncomfortable, but she didn't break contact. After a few moments one of them huffed and walked away. The other one did the same right after that, in the opposite direction.

Well they're not friends. But walking away is better then claw and tooth combat.

Jayflight took a glance to Freestar, hoping he had been watching. But he seemed unbothered as well. He wasn't even facing her. The leader had already been heading into his den. This early in the night.

But FreeClan had nothing to do but lay around all day in general. Not having enough cats to protest against the clans. Waiting to reveal them all, not in secret meetings with few cats who seemed unsure who they were loyal to.

Jayflight sighed as she headed to the warriors den. Trying to calm herself from the exhausting thing she had to do. Well, it wasn't exhausting- it was scary...

Her nest had been decorated with feathers of different, colorful birds. Flowers stuck around it. Reminding her of how when they first started the clan, she had taken time to decorate for the fun of it. Something that pleased her.

Jayflight moved a few flowers out of the way. Starting to curl up in her nest. She wrapped her tail around her until it could reach her nose. Comforted by her own fur, she fell asleep.

***

Jayflight had woken up in a mysterious, dark and gloomy forest. Freestar was next to her. As he had been in all of her dreams.

Every dream had Freestar in it. Even her nightmares. She could never escape it. Always seeing her brother every since FreeClan started.

It was kind of scary. But Jayflight wouldn't tell him that. Or the part that some part of him was always stuck in her dreams, telling her what to do. Or warn her about something. Or sometimes he would just fall out of the sky...

She moved on from that.

"Well, this doesn't look like StarClan, does it?" He said calmly. This wasn't the moment to be this calm!

Jayflight nodded. She was shaken with fear as she looked around continuously.

"Maybe someone else is here to give me what I deserve." He turned his head to Jayflight, "Do you know about anything that isn't StarClan?"

She shook her head. For all she knew, this could be a dark variation of it.

Maybe this wasn't StarClan. It certainly didn't feel welcoming.

"Why hello, you two." Said a eery voice, their words slurring.

They both flinched, looking around with curiosity. Jayflight with caution.

This wasn't a StarClan cat. They barely sounded cat. Their voice reminded her of adders. That wasn't a good thing.

She came to realization what this place was. But they couldn't have visited here, they weren't bad. Was there a new afterlife the clans hadn't discovered?

"Do you want answers... by any chance?" It's icy voice came back again. It was no where near comforting. And though she started to expect it to come back. Each time they talked it made her shudder more.

Four- no- six adders appeared from what she had thought were tree roots. They slithered towards her and Freestar, their hisses filling in the silence when the voice wasn't talking.

"Is this how leaders earn their lives?" Freestar questioned, an adder jumped at him. He dodged to the side.

Jayflight screeched as three adders surrounded her. Did all Freestar care about was getting the lives StarClan had denied him? Couldn't he realize that maybe this was something- she didn't know- DIFFERENT?

As all three adders leapt at her at once, she had jumped over them to an empty patch of grass.

Six. Whole. Adders. How in what way could they not get bitten?!

Freestar ducked low as he let a claw out. He chopped and adder's neck off like cats would do to a fish. He kicked the head to the side.

It was a bit weird in the dark. To Jayflight. It had seemed like Freestar had fleas in his pelt as he jumped around. But she knew it was just the avoidance of adders.

One slid up to her and she chopped its head off, the same way Freestar had did. She stepped back as she dug her claws into some tree roots. But they had became adders too.

It was a shame she already had her claws in the necks of those ones though. They were practically useless. Unable to do anything.

Why were there adders here though? In Jayflight's literal dream! She never thought about adders much, and this was just more of a surprise.

Freestar has leapt out of the way of two of them. She saw him managing to cut them in half through the process. Jayflight had longed to help more. She figured she would get in the way though.

Freestar had focused on one at a time, though there had only been two left. He narrowed his eyes. As it kept up he swiftly swiped his paws to cut it into pieces.

But his focus on one didn't stop the other from moving. Jayflight leaped onto his back. He came crashing down as she turned around. She sliced the adder with her hind leg. Hoping it couldn't hurt either of them.

"Thanks." He muttered, "but can you er... get off please?"

Jayflight rolled off of him. Though staying prepared incase more adders we're summoned. She didn't see anything as she narrowed her eyes around. But then again, they had practically came to live out of the tree roots before.

She stayed close to Freestar. But soon got distracted by laughing. Hysterical laughing.

"Quite. The. Show!" Said the menacing voice. "You guys are so worthy of ruling the clans."

Clans, plural?

Freestar seemed to be just as confused as her, "What?" He asked.

The "cat" didn't say anything. The next thing the two siblings felt was claws dig into there pelt. Jayflight started to feel breathing on her neck. What was it now?

"Well surely, you must realize that you can do so much better then just ending the war." The cat said. Jayflight could now hear where the voice was coming from. A cat who managed to pin them both down at once.

She turned her head a bit around to look at the cat. Seeing now it was a she-cat. She looked young to be dead. Perhaps around Jayflight's age. She looked a bit closer, seeing that the cat had cuts all over their stomach and face. No- not cuts- scars.  Some seemed to open up.

An ear was torn off as well. Seeming as if her face had gotten mauled one way or the other. The one thing that had stuck out to Jayflight the most though...

Was it seemed that she had no eyes.

It was a void in there. But how could the cat have attacked so precisely if they couldn't see anything but darkness?

She let out a terrifying noise. Jayflight could barely make it out for a purr. "You guys don't know your true destiny?" She asked.

"No, all we know is that we're gonna save the clans! If you want to stop us, you can't!" Freestar had argued. Jayflight realized he hadn't met her eyes. Well, didn't even look towards her to see how terrifying she was.

The she-cat paused for a moment as she relaxed her claws. Sheathing them and loosening her grip a bit on the two. Yet her force was still enough to let them stay pinned.

"With a soon to be humongous clan like FreeClan, can you see yourself taking over the clans?" The cat asked, "What StarClan really means is... We don't need SkyClan anymore... let FreeClan triumph over them!"

Jayflight gasped, "you mean... wipe out another clan?" She stammered. Freestar's ambition to make FreeClan a real clan was big. But he was looking for peace. Not to wipe out a whole other clan!

"What if you wipe out all the clans? Nobody would have to fight ever again! You would have everything StarClan's sky reaches to!"

Jayflight could tell Freestar had seemed to be listening carefully. He could've been actually considering this. Which seemed odd for him, even as odd as he was getting now.

"But StarClan doesn't want me." He admitted after a long pause, "They didn't even gift me my new lives..."

The she-cat paused for a moment as well, "But don't you have powers to help you lead instead?"

Jayflight didn't know anything she was talking about. She never heard of StarClan giving cats "powers." Especially not instead of lives.

"No, why would they?" Freestar asked.

There was another, much longer pause from the she-cat. Her claws had been unsheathing again as she dug them into each of their pelts. Jayfeather whimpered in pain.

"WHAT?!" The cat screeched, "WHAT USE ARE YOU THEN?"

She seemed to have though Freestar had been gifted an ability. That StarClan predicted him to have a role in stopping the war. Something that could help him take over the clans.

"You both are useless then!" She hissed, "StarClan doesn't accept you. First they don't give you lives, then they don't even give you a power like other cats in history that sent me here?!"

Jayflight wanted to ask questions. But the cat went on.

"Useless!" She repeated multiple times, saying it so much their ears could fall off.

She pushed Freestar aside. Ignoring him. Jayflight saw him start to fade away. Probably waking up. She wasn't sure how long it had been.

Jayflight showed no sign of waking up. Did that mean she was going to stay here and get killed like a piece of prey?

The cat sank her claws deeper into Jayflight's shoulders. She bit onto the roots of a tree to avoid howling in pain.

"I don't know how StarClan cats do it." The she-cat started. Whispering into her ear, "But when you die, and I hope it's soon. You are going to gift a cat powers."

Jayflight squeezed her eyes closed as she nodded weakly. Anything to get out of here!

"I would say if other cats question you. Refer my suffix to Star. But since that wasn't really achieved. Tell them Shatteredgaze sent you."

Well Shatteredgaze didn't seem like the name of a very nice cat.

The name sounded sort've familiar. And it made her shutter, this cat didn't seem good... she was unsure why she told her this instead of Freestar. But it still has no positive intentions in it.

She was relieved when she felt herself waking up. Being freed from the grasps of the cat.

Surely a dark forest cat...

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Word count: approx 2360 :)

Special chapters are supposed to be short stories of the past in FreeClan. So if something ends there, it probably won't pop up again in another special chapter.

I might make an exception for this one though, since it's kind of important.

But chapter 10 will be a different short story, still involving Jayflight and Freestar. But I'm still deciding on wether it's going to be before this event or a much later one when they're older.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter though! A tad bit longer then the rest. But I didn't want any cliff hangers that would be unanswered.

It sort of looks like a cliff hanger. But if I were to add anything it would just be them exchanging glances about after the dream.

Maybe this will contribute to Emberpaw and Currenttails story though? *eyebrow raise*