'You owe me, big time.' Mungojerrie placed the weak, bleeding body of Plato down onto the table in their den, scowling at his sister.

'I don't owe you anything, 'Jerrie. You're my brother. You're meant to help me in times like this.'

The tiger-striped queen was speeding around the den, grabbing bottles and creams and tablets and just about anything she could think of that might help in some way.

'Macavity should know. If there's something or someone dangerous within his ranks, he needs to know so he can fight it. I don't know who you think you're protecting by hiding him.'

The agitated tom gestured flippantly towards Plato.

'But it's certainly not us. You're putting us all in danger, 'Teazer. The monster who did that to Plato is still at large and it needs to be destroyed before anyone else gets hurt.

So excuse me for saying that you owe me, but you do. Because the only thing preventing me from dragging Macavity here right this moment, is you.'

'Pass me the bandages.' Rumpleteazer held out her hand expectantly without looking away from her patient but instead of feeling the fabric she had asked for in her hand she felt her brother's tight grip on her wrist, pulling her towards him.

'You know who did this, don't you?' The queen tried to pull away but her brother gripped her other wrist in his free hand, forcing her to face up to him.

'And you're covering for him? Plato is DYING, Rumpleteazer. And you're protecting the cat who tried to kill him? Everlasting cat, you make me sick!'

She was fighting back tears as she struggled to get free.

'Just let me go, I could help him, If I just...'

But Mungojerrie shook his head, throwing her paws free.

'You can try. Try and ease your guilt by healing him. Pollicle! most of his injuries don't even look like they've been done by a cat. But later I want to know the truth.'

There was a darkness to Mungojerrie that 'Teazer had never seen in him before and even through her tears, it scared her.

'Jerrie, just help me save him, please!'

Mungojerrie did as he was told and helped but no matter how many times Rumpleteazer looked at him, the darkness didn't fade.

Victoria was completely disorientated. Leaving the warehouse to go looking for two cats who's names she couldn't even pronounce correctly was just about the most stupid thing she had ever done in her life.

In her boredom at home, she had poured over maps of land surrounding the warehouse, trying to visualise it but nothing could have prepared her for reality. In the distance she could see what looked like lights and concluding that where there was light, there was probably cats, the snowy queen made a beeline for it.

Crawling through one final pipe, Victoria shaded her eyes as the sight in front of her proved too dazzling for her to cope. There were cats here. Lots of them. Her eyes darted from one to the other but she could barely tell any of them apart. In the whirling mass of colour, she would never be able to find the two cats she needed.

And then suddenly her view was blocked by a single face in alarmingly close proximity to her own.

'Well what have we got here then?'

The cat staring intently at the young queen had the biggest main Victoria had ever seen on a cat.

'What are you hiding for, kit?'

Victoria couldn't help wrinkling her nose in distaste. She was way past being a kitten now. Adrenaline and annoyance making her brave, she pushed past the maine coon and tumbled into the centre of the junkyard.

'I'm looking for two cats to help my friend. He's hurt, but no-one's hurt him. And when I touched him I burnt my paw. They're his aunt and uncle but I can't remember their names.' |She knew she was making no sense and inadvertedly she had begun to cry. She was scared and exhausted and the way these cats where looking at her told her they all thought she was crazy.

'Please help him, his name's Mistoffelees.'

There was a reaction to this, as though it was a name they recognised. Seemingly out of nowhere, a sleek black queen appeared next to Victoria.

'Mistoffelees is alive?'

Victoria couldn't help thinking she looked familiar. Looking again, the queen met her eyes and Victoria realised why she seemed familiar. It was as though Mistoffelees was staring straight at her. Their eyes were identical.

Getting over her shock, the white queen nodded emphatically.

'He works for my- Macavity. But something's happened and I don't understand it. He said to find his aunt and uncle, that they would understand.'

Silently, out of the darkness, two more cats appeared, perfectly in synch with each other. The taller of the two stared into her eyes and then nodded to the other who spoke in a voice that seemed to echo without meaning to.

'We will come with you. Please show us the way.'

Slightly hypnotised by the queen's voice, Victoria nodded vaguely and began to scurry clumsily back towards the warehouse.

Mungojerrie washed the last of the blood off his hands. They had done all they could for Plato but now it was up to his body to mend itself and Mungojerrie seriously doubted that a body that had suffered through so much trauma would ever have the strength to fix what needed to be fixed.

Rumpleteazer was sleeping, or at least pretending to, leaving her brother to keep watch over the feverish young tom as he slipped in and out of consciousness. 'Jerrie's eyes scanned his friend's injuries. They were not done by any normal cat. You did not get third degree burns from a normal catfight. His mind was trying to make connections. There were things he knew and they were somehow interlinked. If he could only work out how.

You could get third degree burns from electric shocks but the burns were in patterns down Plato's body. In a sickening way they were almost ordered. You did not get that from a random electric shock.

The answer was in front of him, Mungojerrie knew it.

Electricity,

Controlled electricity.

He had seen it.

Sparks, targeted in one direction.

But where had he seen it?

And then he realised why Rumpleteazer was protecting Plato's attacker.

She was protecting him. The tom she seemed to favour more than most.

The one who had appeared out of nowhere.

Quiet, unsuspecting, small, innocent, weak.

But now Mungojerrie knew who had harmed his friend and, getting up, he went to find Quaxo.