A/N: Hi! First of all, I would like to apologize for the lack of details in this chapter. It is kind of rushed, but that's because I'm all excited for the things that are going to happen next. Also, sorry for the shortness. I felt like I was at a good stopping point. Next chapter will be long, I promise. Hope you enjoy!

Thank you to wonderwumbojellicle, Bombastrap, sarbear2255, and The Obsessed Oddity for reviews!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own CATS.

I squealed and hugged the ginger tom tightly. He seemed surprised at this action momentarily and staggered back a bit. I tugged hard on his arm. "C'mon! Le'sgo!" I eagerly dashed ahead to the gates with over a hundred henchcats trailing behind me. I peered through the bars of the junkyard. The main clearing was empty. Even Munkustrap wouldn't be up this early in the morning. Macavity pushed me back and raised his arms up straight in front of him, his fingers spread apart. He seemed to be deep in concentration. I could barely hold in my excitement; I knew he was making their memories return to them now.

"Mac?" I whispered as to not disturb him.

"Shh," he said, eyes closed. After a few minutes of complete silence, he dropped his arms back by his sides and replied, "Yes?"

"TheJellicles…willtheyknowthatI'avebeengone? Willtheyknowwhat'appenedtothem?"

The carroty tom conjured up what looked like a small stick of dynamite and answered, "No. It will be as if you had never left. They will think that all this time you were gone you had actually been right here with them. Now, cover your ears." He lit the miniature stick and threw it into the clearing. Without asking any other questions, I clamped my paws over my sensitive ears, squeezed my eyes shut, and flinched when I heard a huge blasting sound. I opened my eyes and could barely see the outline of Macavity's face through all the smoke.

"Whatwazzatfor?" I asked him.

Macavity snickered. "Just a little something to wake them all up."

The space between the bars were wide enough for all of us to quietly slip through. Just as the last henchcat shimmied himself through the gate, Munkustrap came racing out of his den.

"Victoria?" the silver tabby said, waving his arms back and forth in the air to clear the smoke. "Victoria, is that you? What are you doing out here? You should still be in bed."

I followed his voice, and, once I felt my arm bump into something, I wrapped my arms around him and jumped up and down in excitement.

"I missed you!" I squealed, forgetting that to him I had always been here.

He awkwardly hugged me back. "I see…I didn't think that you would miss me after not seeing each other for six hours, but whatever makes you happy."

I heard the quiet footsteps of the other Jellicles come towards us. I ran to my brother Mistoffelees and gave him a big hug as well. The smoke was thinning, and just minutes later, after many hugs and confused faces, the entire junkyard could be seen once more.

Suddenly, Munkustrap shouted out, "Get back!"

Macavity and his henchcats were in plain sight. Each and every one of them was smirking and standing their ground as if they were just visiting a good friend of theirs. Munkustrap and the older Jellicles—Asparagus, Jennyanydots, Jellylorum, Alonzo, Skimbleshanks—hissed wildly at them. I glanced over at Demeter. She was trying to stay strong, but I could see her visibly shaking in fear. Bombalurina, however, was harder to intimidate. The scarlet queen stepped closer to the gang of criminals and looked straight into Plato's eyes.

"Nice to see you again, Plato," Bombalurina said, her voice smooth like velvet. "How've you been?"

Plato hissed at her, and she strutted off to stand by the Rum Tum Tugger. Munkustrap spread his arms out in a defensive position and hissed back.

"You know you are not welcome here, Macavity," Munkustrap growled. "You might as well leave now."

Macavity rolled his eyes. "Don't be so hasty, my dear brother. First of all, as you can see, you are outnumbered. And second, I no longer wish to bring harm to you or your tribe of Jellicles. In fact, I wish to become one again."

"No," Munkustrap retorted. "You can no longer be trusted, Macavity. Neither can your henchcats. Not even your tomson."

"His name is Plato!" I screeched, remembering how much the copper tom hated to be referred to as just "Macavity's tomson." "And he's good, I'm telling you! Maybe before he didn't seem like it, but he is now!"

"Good?" Tugger spat out. "Two years ago he kitnapped Bomba and brought him to Macavity, and you expect us to believe that now he has just magically turned good?"

"And whot about the toime when 'e stole me pea'ls?" Rumpleteazer shouted out in her thick cockney accent.

"And the time when he burned down my den?" Alonzo added.

"Or when he tripped me on the sidewalk!"

Everyone turned to see who had shouted out the ludicrous comment. Pouncival stared back at over a hundred faces looking directly at him. "Well he did!" the kitten persisted. The Jellicles turned back to Plato and continued telling him off.

"Or the time when he—"

"And a few years ago when—"

"Once he even—"

"Enough!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. "You are all letting your past feelings for him get the best of you! You all need to forgive and forget!"

"Not until you tell us where Admetus and Exotica are!" Electra hollered.

"Yeah! Where are they, huh? What have you done with them?" the rest of the tribe interrogated Plato.

"Just stop it!" I screamed. After regaining my composure, I walked over to Munkustrap and calmly begged him to let them join our tribe, or to at least let them stay for a while.

"Please, Munkustrap. Macavity'sware'ouse'asbeenburneddown. Asamattero'fact, Macavitysavedmefromthefire. That'sgottacountforsomethin', right?"

Munkustrap eyed me carefully and placed the back of his paw against my forehead. "Victoria, are you okay? You seem to be speaking strangely."

I brushed his paw away from my face. "I'mfine. Jusaliltired. Pleaselet'emstay, Munkustrap. Please."

Tugger interrupted. "Excuse me, but did you just say that my brother saved you from a fire?"

I widened my eyes, realizing my mistake. "Uh…didI? Sorry, asIsaidbefore, I'mabittired."

"Victoria, something is going on between you and Macavity, and you're not telling us. We want to know what it is, and we want to know now." Munkustrap stared me down, and I bit my lip while telling myself not to crack under the pressure.

"Lie, Victoria, lie," Macavity's voice echoed in my head. "Don't tell them, Victoria. If you do, I will have them forget you all over again."

"Okay, well, um, thetruthis…um, Iwaskindaboredoneday…soIdecidedtodosomeexplorin'." Yep, that's the ticket. "AndIwanderedintoMacavity'swarehouse…andit...caughtonfire…jus'likethat...and…yeah." I could hear a few henchcats chuckling behind me.

"Are you sure?" Munkustrap questioned, deeply concerned.

"Yepyepyep, that'swhat'appened!" I replied a little too enthusiastically.

Munkustrap curled his lips up into a small smile, but then uncurled it into a straight line again. "Do you really believe Macavity has changed?" he whispered into my ear.

I nodded. "I'llkeepaneyeon'im, ifyawant. I'lllookafterPlato, too. Anddoyathinkwecanlet'is'enchcatsstayforalittlewhile, aswell?" I stuck out my bottom lip and pouted. "Theylosttheir'ome, Munku. An'I'llmakesuretheydon'tgetintoanytrouble. We can finally make peace with Macavity! Isn't this great?"

Munkustrap smiled and nodded, but then muttered under his breath, "A little too great…"

I ignored his comment and bounded up to Macavity. "Didya'earthat, Mac? Munku'slettin'yastaywithus! And all your henchcats, too!"

"But only if you comply with these rules," Munkustrap said sharply. "One: You may not stay up past nightfall. I don't care what you have to do, I don't care how soon nightfall is, but you may not be awake any later. Two: I want you away from the kittens, do you hear me? And that includes Victoria."

"But—" Macavity interjected.

Munkustrap shot daggers at his brother with his eyes. "Do you want to stay here or not? No going near our kittens. If I see you speaking to or even walking toward Pouncival, Tumblebrutus, Jemima, Electra, Etcetera, Mistoffelees, or Victoria, you will be banished for life. Are we clear?"

"Yes," Macavity grumbled. "Continue."

"And furthermore, I don't want you anywhere near my Demeter. I don't want you looking at her, I don't want you talking to her, I don't want you listening to her, I don't want you to even think about her.

"And lastly, if you cause anyone in this tribe pain, and I mean anyone, I will make sure you don't live to see the sunset." I cringed at Munku's tone of voice. I had never seen him so fierce before. He turned to Plato. "As for you, all the same rules apply. These rules apply for all you henchcats, as well." He jerked his chin up at the crowd of cats surrounding Macavity. "And don't expect to stay here forever. This is only temporary. We have plans coming up, and we don't need you to ruin it for us." I gasped to myself. The Jellicle Ball! I had almost forgotten about it!

Etcetera squinted at Adolph and pointed at him. "Hey, weren't you the kitten who almost killed—"

"SO! Where do we sleep?" Adolph cut her off.

Munku scratched his head. "I don't feel comfortable about you sharing a den with any of us, and I don't think I ever will be." He sighed, obviously not very pleased with all the trouble they were already bringing. "You may have to sleep in the clearing for now. BUT I will have someone on night patrol so don't try anything, Macavity. You should be grateful that we are even giving you a chance at all."

Macavity bowed his head a little. "I am."

None of the grown-ups were convinced, though. They all guided their kittens back to their dens. Munkustrap pulled me away from the criminals and led me to the den I shared with Mistoffelees. You wouldn't be able to tell that it was our home from the outside. It was a normal-sized pipe that gradually widened until it was big enough to fit a few cats at a time, and Mistoffelees had been in love with that pipe since he was just a little kitten. It was beginning to rust, but I didn't mind. It had sentimental value.

Mistoffelees was on his stomach on the ground, his elbows propped up and his chin resting in his paws. In front of him was a book opened to the first page. The title read, "Intro to Magic."

"Watchareadin', Misto?" I said, crawling beside him.

He looked at me and almost immediately dropped his smile. "Why are you so chummy with Macavity all of a sudden?" he said in a serious tone.

I gulped. "Uh…whaddyamean?"

He sat up and crossed his legs in a pretzel shape. "You know what I mean, Vicky. You were begging Munku to let him stay here. You know he's our enemy, Vick. How can you trust him so easily after all he has done to the Jellicles?"

I didn't know how to respond. He was right—how could I trust him? Macavity has done some nice things for me, sure, but he has mostly done awful things: killing Exotica and Admetus, punishing and starving me, forcing me to love him…the list never ended. The more I thought about it, the more I became uneasy about letting him stay in the junkyard.

"Vicky?" Mistoffelees snapped be back to reality. "Have you been seeing Macavity outside the junkyard?"

"What? No!" I responded, pretending to be outraged by his accusation. "ExceptforwhenIlurkedaround'islair, Ineverwenttosee'im."

Misto just stared at me with his big brown—almost black—eyes, waiting for a more detailed explanation. I sighed and continued. "Don'yourememberPlato?"

The tuxedo tom shook his head. "That was over a decade ago, Vicky. And even then I had only caught sight of him two or three times a month. I always knew he was up to something…and I was right. He works for Macavity." He shook his head again in disapproval and tsked. "But I dunno. Maybe he changed. Maybe they all did. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess."

I smiled and read the book along with him, often stumbling over words I had not seen before. I had no idea what a "Houdini" was, and the words "optical illusion" kept on popping up here and there. After we read the introductory chapter together, I suggested, "MaybeMaccan'elpyouwithyourmagic!"

Mistoffelees wrinkled his nose at me. "You call him 'Mac'?"

I ignored his look and carried on. "Isn'tthatagreatidea? Youcouldlearnalotfrom'im!"

"I rather not—"

Just then, two chestnut- and cream-colored cats entered our pipe. Coricopat and Tantomile graciously nodded and smiled at us before speaking.

"Victoria, may we speak with you for a moment?" Coricopat politely asked.

"Victoria, may we have a private chat with you for a minute?" his sister restated.

Oh, no. This cannot be good. I quickly thought up of an excuse at the top of my head. "Sorry, Coryan'Tanto, butIneedtogoseeMunkustrapfor…something." I quickly darted past the psychic twins, brushing against them as I left the pipe. I felt their eyes fire lasers at the back of my head, slowly boring into my brain until they reached my inner conscience. They were searching my mind—I could feel it. I scuttled out of the den and away from their view. I couldn't let them know what I had been through—I couldn't let anybody ever find out.

What do you think? This chapter wasn't exactly the most exciting chapter, but I need to set up a foundation/base for my next few chapters, you know? Next chapter will hopefully be posted tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Please review! Thanks to all my reviewers so far! If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. Critique is VERY appreciated.

Also, just in case there was any confusion or something, Victoria can speaking normally when she is shouting or exclaiming something. So sometimes her words are slurred together and sometimes they are not. Just to clear things up :)