Wildshadow felt a surge of anger as Curse raised his paw to rip out her throat. Energy coursed through her, furious energy that she didn't know she possessed. With a screech, she twisted violently, throwing Curse off of her. Curse's bone-reinforced claws gleamed as he snarled and came at her again, but she swiftly dodged him and lunged on top of him, clawing viciously and tearing out clumps of fur.

Curse staggered, and many of his minions came up to help him. He growled and swatted them away. Wildshadow took this opportunity to grab the bleeding Swiftblaze by the scruff and hauling him away as fast as she could. She knew, in some inexplicable way, if she got far enough, she wouldn't meet up with Curse again.

After what seemed like hours of struggling through Jell-O, Wildshadow dropped Swiftblaze, panting. Swiftblaze had stopped moving, but his chest was still rising and falling, however slightly.

"Swiftblaze," Wildshadow pleaded, pawing at his eyelids frantically. "Swiftblaze, please, you can't die, please, just say something, anything, I promise I'll get you through this!"

Swiftblaze's eyes barely opened.

"Tell Rosepetal to stop padding after me," he rasped.

Wildshadow felt a surge of relief. "Thank goodness!" she breathed.

"Um, I'm still dying here," Swiftblaze croaked, his eyes lowering to his bloodstained paws.

"Right!" Wildshadow yowled breathlessly, and she scurried around, collecting as many cobwebs as she could. When she came back, Swiftblaze's eyes had closed again, and more blood was sluggishly oozing out of his neck wound.

"Here, here," Wildshadow panted, pressing the cobwebs to the cut. Swiftblaze moaned in pain, but didn't move.

Finally, after some more cobweb-finding trips, Swiftblaze's neck was covered in sticky white cobwebs, and Wildshadow was next to him, trying to calm her frayed nerves. Finally, she drifted off to an uneasy sleep, where she immediately found herself in StarClan's forest.

Wildshadow was marveling at the glistening, frosty stars covering all the trees and grasses when a voice meowed icily, "Different, isn't it?"

Wildshadow spun around. "Bluestar!" she gasped, seeing one of the familiar faces from the many times StarClan had called her to their forest. "What do you mean, 'different'?"

"Well, you've been spending so much time in that dark forsaken place we like to call the Place of No Stars," Bluestar mewed coldly.

Wildshadow's heart dropped. "It...wasn't my fault," she meowed quickly, her mouth dry.

"You know very well it's no one's fault but your own," Bluestar hissed, starting to circle Wildshadow. "We've been trying to call you back for who knows how long! But we couldn't. Because you spent every night with Tigerstar. Tigerstar and his prisoners."

"How could Tigerstar take StarClan cats as his prisoners?" Wildshadow asked, trying to keep Bluestar talking. "And I thought you were one of his prisoners, weren't you?"

"Tigerstar can take prisoners like any living cat can take prisoners," Bluestar growled, "we just can't die. And I was a prisoner. But even Tigerstar has his blind moments, where the opportunity opens to slip away. I'm not the only one. Thunderstar and Poppydawn, for instance."

"Thunderstar?" Wildshadow meowed. "The Thunderstar? The first leader of ThunderClan?"

"What other Thunderstars are there?" Bluestar snapped.

"Who's Poppydawn?"

"Stop asking so many questions!" Bluestar screeched.

"No."

Bluestar froze. Her deep blue eyes slowly met Wildshadow's hazel ones, which had turned a shade of stormy gray.

"What did you say?" she meowed in a deadly whisper.

"I said, no."

Bluestar unsheathed her claws. "You dare defy the will of StarClan?" she whispered, her mouth barely moving.

"Yes, I dare."

"And why is that?"

"Because maybe I don't want the life that StarClan has destined me for."

The two she-cats said nothing for what seemed like hours. Wildshadow's mind was blank except for the will to keep her stony silence.

Finally, Bluestar meowed quietly, "No one can escape fate, Wildshadow. Except you. This was your second chance. And your last chance."

Wildshadow's mind started racing again. "What do you mean?"

Bluestar shook her head. "Leave this place, Wildshadow. You know your destiny. You know what you must do. But remember what I said. This was your second chance. Your chance to redeem yourself. This is also your last chance. To not make the mistakes again."

The starry forest blurred, and Wildshadow found herself brought sharply back to reality. Swiftblaze's breathing was no longer labored, and he was in a deep sleep.

My second chance? Wildshadow thought desperately. What happened to my first chance? What was my first chance?

Sometimes goodbye is a second chance...

Wildshadow looked sadly at Swiftblaze. She couldn't bring her terrible fate, whatever it was, on him. And the others.

The prophecy bounced around her skull.

Four and six shall make the journey.

Six of ten shall not return.

The meaning still wasn't clear to her, but she knew that whatever it meant, she had to go.

Your second chance...

Your last chance...