A/N: Wow. Okay. Update. Rock on. I'll stop babbling and let you read now.

Twenty-Nine: Worse Before Better

Over the next few days, the students became more and more aware that something was going on. Of course they had noticed some of the crossovers arriving and had thought it was a little weird, but had figured they were just a result of a student doing something stupid, like the incident with Maritza Chin Smaragde. However, when no one got blamed for it, they started whispering amongst themselves.

"I heard the faculty is planning something new," Kristine murmured over dinner that Thursday. "Ekwy and miss Minnaloushe were talking right outside one of the classrooms this afternoon, and they said something about being prepared... But then they noticed me and I had to run away," she added with a little sigh.

"What do you reckon it is?" asked Chimalmaht curiously.

"Don't know. But whatever it is, I don't think it's gonna be very pleasant for us." Kristine grimaced. "This is the faculty, after all."

The small group of students silenced as the Rum Tum Tugger and Mistoffelees passed them in the hallway. Only one or two of the most devoted fangirls squealed happily. The two toms were talking to each other, their voices hushed and hurried, and they looked a little... disturbed. Not frightened, they were strong, powerful toms after all, but there was definitely something a little bit nervous about the way they constantly looked around to see if something would appear. Joanna had the distinct feeling that it wasn't the fangirls.

The students watched in silence as Mistoffelees and Munkustrap turned a corner and disappeared from sight.

"See that?" sighed Kristine. "Badness."

"Mm-hm," agreed Misty and shook her head. "Tugger didn't even look at me! He usually looks," she added with a gloating smirk when the others frowned at her.

"He looks at everybody," shrugged Joanna. "He looks at Mrs Norris, for Heaviside's sake."

Misty poked her tongue out. "Please don't tear me away from my fantasy world."

"Can you two concentrate, please?" asked Kristine irritably. "We're in a bit of a crisis over here."

"Sorry," muttered Joanna. "We'll behave."

"Good girls. So." Kristine turned back to the rest of the students. "I think we need a plan. The faculty just isn't concentrating on what's important anymore."

Mystical21 nodded seriously. "Us."

Kristine tried to glare sternly at the girl, but her façade fell almost immediately, and she said: "Exactly."

"Miss?"

Miss Minnaloushe didn't even look up this time. "Another one?"

Munkustrap sighed. "Yes."

"And who is it this time?"

"Some orange tom, keeps asking for lasagne..."

"You have got to be kidding me..." Miss Minnaloushe stood up. Her wings unfolded with irritation. "Is he saying something that the others haven't?"

Munkustrap shook his head. "Sorry. No."

"Fine. Call the rest of the staff. We'll have another meeting. We have to be prepared."

"They've already gathered." Munkustrap's eyes gleamed. "They're frightened. There's nothing I can do or say that will help. I don't know what's going on any more than they do."

She noticed a tiny amount of uncertainty in his eyes, and she wasn't surprised. Munkustrap had protected his tribe for a while, he had fought Macavity to keep them safe, and now there was a new threat and he couldn't do a thing to stop it. This was unknown territory for him. He was lost.

Unfortunately, so was miss Minnaloushe. She had been researching previous canon quakes, but had come up with nothing more than they had already known. At least they had been allowed to keep their minis for this quake. When HFA had experienced one with the arrival of the fifth book, they had lost their mini-Aragogs for months. Miss Minnaloushe supposed that there was some logical explanation for that, but she had yet to find one. In any case, she was thankful for the fact that the minis seemed to be all accounted for and feeling well. She smiled briefly at Bustober Jones and Jennyany-Dots, who sat together apparently discussing something in the barking language of mini-Pollicles, and then swept into the faculty area.

They were all there, her people. The Jellicles looked a little bit relieved at seeing Munkustrap there, as if the mere sight of the protector made them calm when so many things were confusing.

Miss Minnaloushe opened her mouth. She knew she had to say something that would help them. Something to soothe them. The problem was just that miss Minnaloushe had never been very good at calming people down. She had usually been the cause of them not being very calm to begin with.

Finally she spoke.

"We have to get ready," she said. "Prepare for what's coming. I've done my research. These things... they are not easy. When canon is weak, things tend to break through... We have to be ready for that."

"What about the students?" asked Ekwy. "Shall they be told?"

"I think we have to involve them as well," nodded the course coordinator. "We don't have much of a choice. We don't know exactly what's going to happen with the university, and we need as many people as possible to defend it if it should come to that." She hesitated before continuing. "We'll have to cancel normal classes. At least a few of them."

"I volunteer my classes to be taken out of the schedule," Mistoffelees hurried to say.

"I figured you would. Very well, then. We shall keep the Saturday seminars and the Characterization 101. Until this is over." She turned to the Agents. "Let the students know immediately."

"Yes, ma'am," nodded Ekwy, and she and her sister took off.

Miss Minnaloushe looked at the Jellicle queens and the younger kittens. "When you feel it's time, retire to the Heaviside Lair. You should be okay there. I hope."

"What..." Etcetera swallowed and then tried to speak again. "What's going to happen?"

"I don't know any more than you do. I'm sorry."

The tortoise-shell sat back down again, curling up against Tugger's legs for protection. He gave her a wide grin, which she returned as brightly as she could. She was scared.

"What else can we do?" asked Munkustrap.

"Make sure that Kihr doesn't enjoy the prospect of battle too much." Miss Minnaloushe sighed. "I'm going to see the Headmasters."

There was another room besides miss Minnaloushe's office that wasn't visible on any map. That was the room in which the Headmasters sat. One of them was not always there, since he was a very important man with many other things to do, but the second one greeted miss Minnaloushe when she entered. He sat in a large armchair by a fireplace, his face shrouded in darkness and smoke from his cigarette.

"Good day, miss," he said and gave her a nod. "I trust you are well?"

"I am, sir," she replied courteously.

"The students are working hard, I hope?"

"They're... doing the best they can, sir."

"Then what, if I may be so straightforward, are you doing here?"

He motioned for her to sit down in the chair next to his, and she did.

"There is problem at the university, sir," she said simply.

"I see."

The Headmaster took a deep drag from his cigarette. When he released the smoke his breath turned into a racking cough. Miss Minnaloushe waited politely until it had calmed down.

"You know you don't have to do that anymore," she said, nodding towards the cigarette.

He nodded. "I know. Old habits die hard." Before the smoke had vanished he had lit another cigarette. "Trouble in the school, I hear. Never did I think that little place in the universe would get trouble. Is it serious?"

"It is. But we shall deal with it. Somehow, it shall be taken care of."

"I trust you, miss. I know my associate does as well."

"I am honoured to hear that, sir."

Suddenly the entire room shook, and a faraway rumble was heard. A mirror that hung from the wall opposite to the pair fell off its hooks and smashed into a thousand brilliant pieces on the floor, and several ornaments on the mantelpiece trembled.

"No matter," said the Headmaster calmly. "The mirror will come back. That's what things do here. That was your trouble, I take it?"

"Yes."

"It was a knock on the door. They are waiting outside to be let in."

Miss Minnaloushe frowned. "Who are they? Where do they come from? What do they want?"

"Many questions, miss." The hint of a smile showed on the Headmaster's face. "They are mirages. Shape without form, shade without colour. But they'll have their forms soon, and every thing will be content."

"Sir?"

"Yes, miss?"

"Are they dangerous?"

There was a pause. "They might be. If you stand in their way. I would advise you not to do that."

"If they attack the university, I have no choice."

Another smile. "I thought you might say that, miss."

The pair was silent as another quake made the whole room shiver.

"I should get back to the university, then," said miss Minnaloushe and stood up. "They might be agitated if I'm not around."

"And someone has to let the mirages in," said the Headmaster and nodded slowly. "You go ahead and do that."

His eyes shone eerily through the slowly rising blue smoke.

The following days, Ekwy happily spent trying to get the students in shape for the possibility of battle. This was mostly achieved by forcing them to jog around the junkyard and do push-ups in the snow, even though she occasionally would train them in how to properly hold a weapon and to duck when someone tried to hit them over the head with a toasting fork. They learned the last part the hard way.

Gecka was supposed to help her sister "readying the troops," so to speak, but since more and more crossovers were arriving each day she was put in charge of making sure the new ones settled in well enough. Over the days OFUC became the host of twenty-odd cats from various fandoms, and with every arrival the entire junkyard trembled from quakes. Gecka put the lot of them in the Heaviside Lair, which was starting to get awfully crowded.

So came the day everyone had known would come. It was in the air when they woke up, making everybody nervous and edgy. The atmosphere had the same feeling as just before a storm breaks out; an electricity that suffocated and annoyed. The Jellicles felt it more clearly than anyone, and even the kind Jennyanydots had no patience for either students or kittens.

The Jellicle students went around growling and hissing at everything that moved (and some things that didn't. Nabooru was spotted shouting rude things to a trashcan, which had apparently given her attitude) and the humans decided that the best thing they could do was to keep out of their way. Which meant that Joanna only stayed in the TSE 4 for sleeping, letting Misty be alone to rant about everything that was wrong by her lonesome.

That was why Joanna was in the Jellicle junkyard when the last, final quake caused the windows of the TSE 1 to shatter, and a howling wind began to blow. In a flash, her pounding headache that had pained her all day was gone. The air sparkled with electricity, making her hair stand on end. Suddenly people started running around her, shouting to each other and pointing towards the sky.

Slowly, Joanna raised her eyes. At first she couldn't understand what she was looking at, but then she realized. The shimmering blue ward that Mistoffelees had put up was barely visible anymore. Behind it, where stars had been shining as brightly as the day they were created, a shadow had started to form. It grew with alarming speed, swallowing more stars, making the junkyard an even darker place.

Someone screamed.

Then the Jellicle moon was blackened out by the shadow, and there was a sound like thunder.