I know it's been like two years since I updated, but one of my friends recently reminded me about this fanfiction and I felt like I should at least try to finish the story! I hope you guys enjoy, thanks for being here for it all. :)

ALSO! Spot the reference to Doing it Wrong by Drake, heh. I love that song.

/

"Stop twitching your tail, you're making me anxious."

Tigerflame huffed angrily at the gray furred tom before reluctantly stopping. He himself was far too anxious to stay still, his heart beating uncomfortably against his chest, so he busied himself with obnoxiously batting a moss ball back and forth between his paws.

The blind medicine cat sat quietly, absent-mindedly sifting through herbs as he pondered how to proceed. Neither cat knew exactly what was going to happen next, nor how to control the mayhem that would inevitably ensue.

"Can someone go through the plan with me again?" Ivypool interjected, worriedly twitching her whiskers as she glanced between the two cats.

Jayfeather mumbled something incoherent under his breath, before very calmly meowing in a louder voice: "Firebreeze is still at the moonpool waiting for us. Tigerflame and her are going to sleep together," he paused momentarily and rolled his eyes as he heard a soft snicker, "not like that you mouse-brain, grow up for StarClan's sake."

The silver and white furred she-cat's eyes glittered with amusement as she gently chided him: "Relax, Jayfeather. It's good that Tigerflame's still strong enough to have a sense of humor. Besides, toms never grow up." the last sentence having been meowed almost mockingly.

Tigerflame joined in on the conversation, laughing for a few heartbeats before he broke off into a cough, his chest heaving. "Then me and Jayfeather are going to lead him to the border of the Dark Forest. Afterwards, Jayfeather's going to walk in Firebreeze's dream and bring her to us and if he's right, with her help when I cross over to StarClan, he should separate himself from me." His voice was hoarse and weak, his words almost inaudible.

"And then you fight," Jayfeather meowed gruffly, his gaze not meeting Tigerflame's, "and remember, you're not just fighting for yourself, you're fighting for the future of the clans."

It was silent for a moment before Tigerflame started coughing again, and Ivypool quickly nudged a bundle of herbs over to him which he then began to chew. "Are you ready?" She asked, her voice softer than Tigerflame had ever heard before. The tom nodded around his mouthful of herbs, touching his tail-tip to her flank in a comforting gesture.

Then the two toms lay down in their respective nests in front of the Moonstone. Foxleap and Hazeltail stayed at the barn, having not been informed of the secretive reality of this journey. Ivypool told them that they were taking Tigerflame to the Twolegplace in search of her supposed old friend (purely made-up) who supposedly had the cure to his mysterious illness. Ivypool didn't have the heart to tell them this was potentially the last time they would ever see their friend again, so she lied through her teeth, smiling and promising them they would be back the next day all happy and healthy.

The silver and white tabby gently brushed her tail over each tom's pelt before silently padding outside to guard the entrance. It could be psychosomatic, but Tigerflame felt the air turn slightly colder without her presence, and he wondered if that was the last time he'd ever see her.

Tigerflame's eyelids felt so heavy but he forced them to stay open, staring at the mystical stone before him. He still wasn't exactly sure why this particular stone possessed such a close link to his ancestors, but he was too tired to wonder, so he just reveled in the aesthetics of it all. It was undeniably beautiful, shiny, and it held a sacred aura that even he, a tom born with a heart made of darkness, couldn't help but bow down to.

"Lean forward and tap the stone with your nose," Jayfeather instructed, his voice as stable and calm as he could manage. Tigerflame wasn't fooled, he heard the quiver in the medicine cat's voice. There had been something odd about his behavior ever since he met up with Firebreeze. When he came back, he immediately called Ivypool over for a private meeting, and since then the two cats had been secretive and almost detached.

The blue-eyed tom was good at masking his emotions, but Tigerflame could detect the slightest hint of guilt mixed with what seemed like grief. Ivypool, on the other hand, was somewhat easier to read. He felt immense waves of sadness and frustration radiating off of her pelt, as if she knew something horrible was going to happen and was beating herself up over not being able to help prevent it.

The air was thick with tension and Tigerflame couldn't help but wonder if they were acting so weird because they knew he was going to die. He wondered if that's what Firebreeze had told them, that this was all futile, because he didn't stand a chance, because she knew something that he didn't and even if he did, he would be powerless to fight it. He was indeed powerless, a pathetic excuse of the strong, healthy warrior he was a few moons ago, and he hated himself for it. He didn't outright ask his friends why they were acting so iffy, because honestly, he wanted to relish in the last few heartbeats of blissful ignorance that he had left.

"Jayfeather, can you promise me something?" Tigerflame whispered, his eyes still fixated on the stone. He felt the flexing of muscle as the tabby nodded. "Falling in love with someone is something else. I know it's nothing unordinary to love someone, but at the same time it is. You just meet this cat and they turn out to be this extraordinary being that you can't picture your life, scratch that, anyone's lives without. She's one cat but she weighs the significance of the world, and not just to me— her soul has touched countless lives and for them to lose something as ultimately wholesome and beautiful as that wouldn't just be devastating, it'd be lethal. I love her and even though she's a brat sometimes, right just wouldn't be right without her. I know it sounds stupid and angsty and insane but I just know it wouldn't. Her life isn't just a life, Jayfeather, not just because she's Firestar, but because of what she can become. She can become something amazing, like, even more so than she already is, and I can't let the world miss out on that, the world doesn't deserve to miss out on that. I know I'm talking about her like she hung the moon but honestly, I feel like some day she's going to do something even better than that. She's a whole universe of potential in itself and I don't want to be the one that destroys that. This is possibly simultaneously the most selfish and least selfish thing I've ever asked but Jayfeather, if it comes down to it, if there's ever a choice regarding her life or anything else, promise me you'll save her. She's worth every ounce of the weight of that decision. She is."

For a long time, there was no response. In fact everything had gone so still that Tigerflame had to glance over at Jayfeather to make sure he was still awake. He was.

"When a good thing goes bad it's not the end of the world," Jayfeather meowed softly, still refusing to meet the tom's gaze, "I can't promise you anything Tigerflame, I simply don't have the ability to control the future, but I can say this: you can survive this. It's not the end of the world, it's just the end of a world, with one she-cat, and I know to you she's worth an entire universe but sometimes fate requires something different." Jayfeather's eyes clouded over and suddenly they swam with grief and the pain of more than one lifetime.

Tigerflame swallowed, his throat feeling dry. He had not been expecting that response. It was painfully raw and he didn't know how to respond. He wanted to scream, to tell Jayfeather to shove his cryptic responses up his tailhole and to demand that he stop being a fox-heart and promise but he couldn't. There was just something so heavy about the way the words left Jayfeather's mouth that Tigerflame couldn't quite comprehend. So he swallowed again, and he didn't fight it. After all, he was hardly strong enough to breathe, how could he fight fate?

Before his anxiety could consume him, Tigerflame leaned forward and touched his nose to the stone, gasping softly as he felt the ground empty beneath his paws as he fell into the blackness.