Before you say anything, I want to stop you right now and say this:
Yes, I am a horrible person for making you wait this long. Yes, I regret starting this huge project without an outline and ended up dragging it out as long as I did. No, I won't skitter off and leave it to soup for another year- This is going to get DONE! I'm determined now. No, this isn't like the last 3 times I was "determined" to finish my stories.
If anyone is still reading I would like to thank you for your patience and continued support :) I thank my many (shockingly many!) Alert-ees for staying so... alert :P Don't give up on me just yet!
He felt numb. Not my-leg-is-asleep numb but devoid of any feeling, floating into oblivion numb. It took a few moments to realize he wasn't breathing… and didn't need to. Was he dead?
He couldn't remember much aside from standing- well, dangling- atop the tire with Macavity. He shuddered at the memory of his lips on him, a cold fear gripping him when he remembered the terrified faces of his friends and family. He wondered what had happened to them all.
The void— or whatever it was- around him was dark as pitch. His ears perked up to the sound of shuffling nearby. "Who's there!?" he squeaked; well, not squeak so much as— oh never mind!
Small growling noises that one could only recreate in the wildest of nightmares cackled out of the dark. Evil little sounds nipped at him from all around and only then he found he'd regained awareness of his body, just to be torn apart by unseen creatures. The nipping soon became painful biting that moved up his body. "Stop!" he screamed.
"Quaxo," someone called not too far away. He recognized the voice instantly but couldn't put a name or face to the voice. Wasting no time, he took off into the blindness towards the voice. "Where are you? I can't see... Hello?" His feet were heavy when they moved but padded lightly on a semi-solid surface, he searched frantically for the other tom. "Over here," it called again from further behind him.
He spun on his heel to catch a blurry, bluish spectra twisting gracefully a few hundred yards away. Hearing the cackling monsters pulling towards him, he whimpered and booked it back the way he came. When he reached the glowing form, he was perplexed to find that it wasn't a ghost at all— a relief to some but the lonely feeling in him cracking the rhythm-less flutter that would have been in his chest had he had one. No, it was just lantern suspended by a thin chain to a ceiling he couldn't see with his 'eyes' nor his imagination in a logic-devoid place like this.
Quaxo suppressed a sob, "Is this some kind of joke?!" He turned to the pitch black nothing around him, growing furious when his question echoes back to him. "Answer me!" he shrieked, kicking the lamp and sending it crashing to the 'ground'; boy, this place was full of surprises!
The bright blue light shattered and spread out until it had disappeared into the blackness. Quaxo fell to his knees, burying his head in his hands and sobbing into them. He could hear his cries echo around him, creepy groaning and whispering were the only things keeping him from the luxury of being truly alone. "Cat help me!" he screamed desperately into the hollow. He sniffed hopelessly as his mind hopelessly reeled, falling into the lap of his deepest fears that made death look rather nice and cozy. He was trapped in here for ever.
"No Cat. Just me." He whipped his head around to see a barely visible tom standing close beside him. A stunning moment of shock came crashing down on the tiny tux leaving him at a loss of words, croaking stupidly.
"Mistoffelees!" he finally shouted, jumping up to give the slightly taller tom a death-grip hug. Comforting arms wrapped tightly around his back, keeping him safe from the demons who nipped at his ankles. "I missed you," he mumbled into the demon's sparkling fur: the only thing making him visible in this endless void.
"I know," he replied, his voice smooth as ice yet soft, enveloping Quaxo with relief like a hot blanket. "But it took you long enough to notice I was gone." Quaxo blushed slightly; needless to say he was a little bit preoccupied.
He inhaled the bigger tom's familiar and comforting scent, regaining his focus and composure. "Quaxo," Mistoffelees said calmly. "We need to go."
Macavity basked in the glorious feeling of his new power. He decided to try out his new abilities, striking lightning this way and that with dark jubilee, charring junk piles and stabbing malicious sparks at the feet of his new staff. Munkustrap and Tugger watched on in disbelief as he soon became everyone's worst nightmare and so much more.
Munkustrap snapped, he couldn't stand by and watch his loved ones suffer. He was chosen Jellicle protector because he would do anything that needed to be done; Macavity needed to be stopped... and that's what he intended to do. Tearing from his brother's side he lunged at the cackling menace, managing with no little amount of surprise to tackle him to the ground.
He got a few good hits in at the beginning, but then Macavity decided that he wasn't a big fan of being socked in the face and, with a loud roar, flung his younger brother off of him and sent him flying to the edge of the tire.
Munkustrap growled. Macavity wanted to play dirty, using his bloody magic again to pull him to the ground with infernos of pinpricks paralyzing in his arms and legs. He opened his mouth to scream but he couldn't force out any sound. Getting—Everlasting, staying up was downright impossible. The ginger tom chuckled darkly as he slowly closed in on his prey.
Tugger watched dumbfounded from the crowd as his brother's motionless body was flipped onto its back. Fear flashed in the tabby's eyes as his head was placed to hang over the side of the black rubber, neck exposed and vulnerable. Jenny and Jelly croaked helplessly as they frantically urged the little kittens away from the sight of the imminent execution. "Don't you ever, ever, disobey me again!" the new Macavity roared as he raised his foot above his brother's neck.
Shrieks and pleas were offered for their friend's life, Tugger's heart twisting at the ginger cat victorious grin, loving every moment like the sick bastard he was. He caught his Munkustrap's panicked gaze, tear-filled as he deliberately gulped his last breaths.
Macavity finally decided he was finished with their bargains and stomped down. Hard. Tugger looked away, unable to watch his brother's degrading demise.
Silence slammed him harder than any blow Macavity could physically deliver, rocking the handful of Jellicles that had stayed behind.
No one spoke. No one breathed.
He slowly looked back to the stage to find Munkustrap still silently shivering on his deathbed, Macavity's foot not too far from his head. A deep rumbling sound radiated quietly from the two. The older tom breathed hard as he stared angrily at a spot on the ground in front of their pedestal, his teeth clenching and grating calculatingly.
He roared loudly as he again braced himself and drove his foot down to Munkustrap's Adam's apple, again stopping short failing to finish him off. Losing patience, he drew out his claws that began to sparkle and crack with renewed magic and strength. His paw glimmered and glowed magnificently as he raised it over his head to strike the soul out of his competitor... it never made an attack. "What?" he breathed confusedly.
Tugger smiled. Although greatly distorted by the older tom's concoction of souls and magic, he could hear Quaxo's voice peeking in the undertones of his own. Macavity sneered before giving the still paralyzed body beneath him a hard kick so that it rolled off onto the junkyard floor. Leaving his brothers Plato and Tumblebrutus, Admetus dashed over before the magic cat could have any second thoughts and snatched up the stunned Jellicle Protector.
"What's wrong, Mac?" Tugger teased. The red tom snarled in response, a sweat breaking on his brow.
"Shut up!" he roared to either the voices in his head or the smug looking Coon. Few Jellicles cried out or gasped softly as the Napoleon of Crime began gripping and pulling his hair with a blazing intensity.
Tugger's face softened, Quaxo began to shine through even more as Macavity raged over his declining control. The once deep voice soon grew shrill and demonic as Mistoffelees's distinct features manifested and incorporated into the red coat.
The ear splitting screams coming from the tyre was haunting and traumatic, sounds they'd remember for the rest of their lives. They watched in terror as the Napoleon of Crime fell to his knees, gripping and clawing at his head. Blood trickled down scarlet fur.
Before long, his cries quieted into heavy gasps and sputtering coughs, the spell drawing to an end; it seemed their aspiring magician had failed in foiling Macavity's plans.
"Quaxo!" Tugger called woefully, carefully crawling towards the breathless tom. "Quax, I know you're in there..."
Macavity snarled and fruitlessly swiped at the Coon who was too far to even consider flinching at the attack. "Shut up!"
"... And I know you can do it! I've seen you do amazing things no one's ever thought possible before..."
"Silence, you fat-headed buffoon!" Another swipe, this time managing to strike some fear in the Tugger's chest.
"...He can't hurt you anymore, Quax. You're greater than he is-" He was cut short when the scarlet tom jumped to his feet and launched himself at the golden cat. Although Tugger wasn't too much smaller than Macavity, he was hit with so much force that he was taken out as though made of paper.
He stared up at his infamous brother, his heart sank hopelessly when he saw no trace of his little tuxed friend. All he saw above him was the rage driven madtom he'd come to disown as his blood.
He wasn't sure where he acquired such taste, but Macavity really liked to play with the delicate mesh of skin and veins at his victims' necks. A dirtied, scraggly hand was thrust up under his chin to expose his vulnerable neck, tracing the familiar thick cords and bone. Tugger struggled for breath.
"I love you, Quaxo. I just wish we had more time," he whispered hoarsely. Macavity stopped, hand hovering close to his jugular.
The hideous cat blinked. A severe look on confusion flashed across his features, then intense thought, then back to crazed rage. "WHAT!?"
Before he was given opportunity to unleash his full unaltered force upon the gold tom Macavity's chest burst open with a crack of white, flinging him like a ragdoll to the ground.
Sparks burst through his skin like a knife through air, tearing him apart from the inside out. His blood curdling screams distorted when the pitch of the great demon again made itself known. This time the sound more menacing and deadly than before.
The cries and yelps were cut short when the skin of his neck bulged and gave way revealing the torn blood vessels and snapping the bone like glass twigs.
A small twitch of the corpse was the last movement they'd ever see from the Napoleon of Crime.
Tugger stared in shock, only daring to avert his gaze to look and see if the others had seen the same as he had. Munkustrap, sitting up weakly in Admetus' grasp, sported a look of sheer horror as he blankly stared at the still cadaver. They exchanged numb looks before resuming their own private gawking.
In the remains, a small glow began to ebb from Macavity's gaping heart. It was very subtle at first but once it began to bloom it shone brilliantly and brought with it an eerie calm in the wake of the violent self-destruction.
It soon grew past the dead tom to spill out onto the bloodied junkyard floor and creep out to the edges of the clearing. Someone yelled for the others to get back when it showed no sign of stopping and began to collect at Tugger's heels.
A thick layer of bright, heavenly light that sparked and fizzed set over the ground before slowly dimming away, leaving behind a misty fog. The clouds were just thin enough to reveal two new bodies lying limply by the bloodied open corpse of the late Macavity.
Tugger scanned one of the newer bodies until he found the all too familiar sparks and sheen of his dear magician. "Quaxo!"
Ignoring the ghastly sight beside him, Tugger ran to his friend's side; he nearly threw himself at the tiny tom. Turning him onto his back, he wasn't met with the kind face of his little tuxedo friend, but the black, sharp features of an unknown tom.
Slowly, it slid an eye open to glance up weakly at the coon. "Rum Tum Tugger," he sighed with a small smile, as if he was expecting the Tugger to be first at his side though a bit disappointed that to be the case.
On Macavity's opposite flank Munkustrap was kneeling down low and softly murmuring to something beneath the fog, smiling. "Where is he?" a small voice inquired sadly, Munkustrap's gaze immediately met Tugger's and the pathetic creature in his arms.
From the thinning mist, Quaxo sat up tiredly and, peering over Macavity's lifeless corpse, caught sight of the coon and his charge. A strangled, low sob choked sadly in his throat as he clambered over to the black cat.
"Mistoffelees?" Quaxo rasped and took the bigger tom from Tugger's arms, cradling him like a kitten against his chest. The all black creature shuddered against him and lolled his head back to look up at his tuxed counterpart, calm blue eyes staring fondly into Quaxo's searching gaze. His chin quivered and around them the brilliant fog darkened.
Mistoffelees struggled for breath but smiled sweetly up at the tux. "You're good," he rasped. "You don't need me anymore."
Tears began to fall, rolling off of Quaxo's cheeks and onto Mistoffelees' pitch black coat; from where he sat it looked to Tugger as though the tears fell up, Mistoffelees melting into the young Quaxo. At this point he wouldn't be surprised. "What are you saying?" the tux cried, gripping his friend tighter.
"You'll do great things, I..." Mistoffelees reared back and gasped for air that just wouldn't come. Tugger swallowed hard and fought back the urge to moan pitifully at the sight of the dying tom he knew (but found incredibly difficult to comprehend) had been a huge part of Quaxo's life.
Beside the two black cats Munkustrap shook hard, running on the last bit of nerves. He reached out to gently lay a paw on Mistoffelees, but Quaxo wouldn't have any of his goodbyes and moaned his protests until Mistoffelees stopped him with a firm paw on his chest. The fingers blurred and unraveled at the ends in ribbons, coiling around the young Quaxo and leaving his fur shiny and shimmering under the growing twilight. "I know you'll be fine."
"You can't leave me!" Quaxo sobbed uselessly. "Please! I need you—" his cries grew frantic and incoherent when the slow trickle of Mistoffelees's body heaved and all but fell apart into a weightless blanket of smoke and licks of black in tiny arms. "Mistoffelees!" the tux screamed, fingers clutching at the wisps of black shimmer bleeding into his arms in vain.
With Mistoffelees gone, the last of the black duo wailed and collapsed into Munkustrap's outstretched arms. Munkustrap himself looked terrifyingly close to tears. Tugger, because he could and no one (if there was anyone left hanging around) was going to get to see him cry today, threw himself at the huddled toms, crushing them both in his arms and burying his face in Quaxo's headfur.
Even though he'd only met the real, singular Mistoffelees the one time Tugger had felt the emptiness he'd left behind instantaneously. Even the night Macavity came in and tore Quaxo to tiny, irreparable pieces, he'd never seen the tux look so destroyed and vulnerable.
He hoped Mistoffelees was right about Quaxo being fine; Tugger wasn't sure how much more the tux could survive at this point.
