The golden-red female gave the two felines a final embrace, and a small smile. She fought a tear back in her eye, and reluctantly started to walk away from the alleyway. Now, the home she had known for so long was another memory, and all of the cats that came with it. Zelaphelia looked forward to face the dark night, even though she feared what was ahead. There was no doubt that Macavity was near, but whatever happened she felt ready…

~^..^~

Munkustrap stretched his jaw out in a yawn as he serenely watched an aura of morning colors rise up beyond the horizon. The reflection of orange and purple touched the stratus clouds that were languidly moving across the dawning sky. Munk's eyes glowed in adoration. He sat on top of the iron fence placed as the entrance of the Junkyard. He and Alonzo had volunteered on guard duty that night, and as he watched the sunrise, the silver tabby came to realize that their task was close to over. He blinked a few times tiredly, already half-asleep. It was hard to stay up for hours on end until the dawn, but it at least gave him eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. He sullenly rubbed his eyelids. As months passed, these nights had gotten longer and harder to bare for everyone, and not just for lack of sleep itself, but because the perils of the city had become more treacherous.

It was for several more reasons, Munkustrap couldn't even go through in his mind, why the tribe had become more aware of their dangerous surroundings and he had to become more careful. The risks were higher than the silver tabby had ever seen them, but being the Jellicle Protector, and soon the next leader, he couldn't show the smallest amount of fear, even if it was haunting him every night.

"Munk?"

Munkustrap suddenly phased out of his own mental review and turned around. Alonzo was staring at him with a quizzical expression. The silver-black tom, yawned once more, and jumped off the fence to meet his second-in-command.

"What is it Alonzo?" Munkustrap asked listlessly.

The black-white tom snorted at the sight of his friend, "Well, it's almost sunrise, and you look you could fall over any moment now. Perhaps it would be a good idea to go back into the Junkyard before we both collapse."

Munkustrap groaned tiredly. He didn't feel like debating any ethical duties as guards with Alonzo, so he decided that it was close enough to sunrise that the two of them could leave their posts. With a silent and exasperated disposition, Munkustrap leaped off the fence and started walking with his friend back into their home, but not before catching an amused grin creep onto Alonzo's face. The two toms followed a long dirt trail that ran through what seemed like a mile of garbage heaps that hadn't even been touched by sunlight. Since spring, it felt like the Junkyard was getting bigger, and becoming more like a maze than home, but Munkustrap didn't care that much.

Suddenly, Alonzo broke the silence. "Hey, are you alright?" he asked curiously.

The silver tabby phased away from his absentmindedness, "Uh, yeah. I'm okay. Why do you ask?"

The black and white tom shrugged, "No reason in particular. It's just…well, you've seem…exhausted lately, and not just because we're on guard duty, but…well you just seem tired."

Munkustrap snorted, "Tired? Sure I've slowed down a bit, but I haven't…I haven't-" he broke off his sentence in a yawn.

"Yeah, you haven't been tired at all." Alonzo commented sarcastically.

The silver tabby playfully bumped into his friend and chuckled, "Alright, alright…"-he sighed- "I guess it's just age…Honestly, for awhile now, I've felt as old as Gus."

"Well, you can't blame yourself on that one. You've been working yourself to death! Not to mention…um……well, ever since Deuteronomy left last winter you've…well, you haven't been yourself. You've just been more…distant. You've been working so hard, I was surprised that I even got to talk to you this week, you know?"

Munkustrap nodded his head admittedly. He wasn't going to argue the point that he had been stressed since his father left the Junkyard. It made the silver tabby feel more responsible for the tribe than ever, "I guess I can't debate that. I'll admit, I've been pretty busy, but… I don't know. It's just stress I think…or age."

Alonzo rolled his eyes, "Again with the age? Don't go through a crazy mid-life crisis on me Munk, 'cause I know I'll just get sucked into it too."

"Ah, don't say that Lonz. Once you're old, then that means I'm really old." Munk's eyes went wide in disbelief of the words coming out of his mouth. Even thinking of age made the silver tabby dread the day he would be considered elderly. The two friends chuckled though. It was becoming a little joke between the two of them, but just enough where Munkustrap would be dead serious on the subject to himself.

"Your not old Munk," Alonzo insisted, "Everything around us is just getting older."

"Yeah," the silver tabby mumbled. He sighed, "Times are changing aren't they?"

Alonzo nodded agreeably, "No lies there…… Say, how is Demeter nowadays?"

"Alright, I suppose, but she's been better…It's a bit depressing, but I've barely seen her smile once since……well, since Zelaphelia left."

The black and white tom quivered a little. He hadn't completely gotten over his little quarrel with Zela the last time he saw her, or at least as far as Munkustrap knew. He seemed less sensitive talking about her though. That was a bit of a relief on both their parts.

Alonzo was finally able to speak, "Yeah…she hasn't been the same has she?"

"Unfortunately, and I wish I could talk to Deme more about it. Maybe release some emotional tension she's had with herself. She's been a complete depression all year."

"And if that's not bad enough, Plato goes missing."

Munkustrap paused, and shot a blank expression at his friend. He had forgotten completely about what had happened. It was about late spring when the orange-red and white tom named Plato had disappeared spontaneously. It caught the entire tribe off guard, and his mother, Jennyanydots, was just as devastated. After that, the Jellicles weren't only on the search for him, but Munkustrap had taken extra precautions to make sure that it didn't happen to anyone else. Plato had been one of the longest searches they had gone on for a long time, but the silver tabby had an exact suspicion: Macavity must have been involved. However, the Mystery Cat had been unusually quiet for some months, and Munk would have known if it was him at some point. The ginger tom had hidden his involvement well, and it certainly made Munkustrap's job of proving his guilt ten times harder. It didn't matter though. He was at least convinced that his half brother was still a prime suspect in this disappearance. Munkustrap blinked a few times, but continued on his way with Alonzo. He smiled artlessly, "Yeah, no kidding. By the by, you didn't see anything…odd on guard duty, did you?"

The black-and-white tom raised his eyebrow at his friend and snorted, "Do I ever?"

Munkustrap didn't need to reply. He already knew the answer to his own question. He chuckled for his own humor, "No, I guess not, but I just want to make sure. I don't know why, but whenever we're on duty, I'm always afraid that Macavity-"

Abruptly, the silver tabby's words were broken off when he heard a crash behind him. The two toms sharply turned their heads around as their ears went flat. Munkustrap let out a low growl as four bitter words escaped his tongue: "Speak of the devil."

The oddness about it was that the trail was completely normal. It was clean of any suspicious marks or liability to what the strange crash was. With some hesitation in his steps, Munkustrap crept forward with Alonzo only a foot behind him. He peered around a large heap of trash. Everything seemed normal around the garbage piles, but all of the sudden a faint, but strongly familiar smell infiltrated the silver tabby's nostrils and pulled on his curiosity. He stepped into the pits of the Junkyard as his eyes shifted across his surroundings. The silver and black tom still found nothing out of the ordinary. Abruptly, his entire perception changed. He spotted a dark shadow only a few feet away from him and Alonzo rustling about in the garbage. Munkustrap was taken aback, but with a sudden intrepid growl, he nudged Alonzo in his shoulder and with a nod of readiness, they both courageously sprinted in a sudden attack towards the creature.

Munkustrap extended his clause and prepared for a fight. He could feel his veins pumping with adrenaline and his eyes set on his target. With his friend next to him, the two were about to strike at the figure simultaneously, until the light hit the mysterious shadow and a sudden pang of realization hit the silver tabby. With a pause, he recognized that the figure was the golden-red queen, Zelaphelia, who was staring back at him with shock surrounding her goldenly adorned violet eyes.

He flinched back in surprise, as did Alonzo, and they both stood in perhaps the longest awkward silence ever experienced. It took a few seconds to process what had happened before the silver tabby could speak again. Munk gulped once. "Z-…Zela?" he whispered in disbelief.

She glanced a few times between the two toms, and then gave a small smile to him, "Hi Munkustrap…"

^~*~^

Zelaphelia kept looking back and forth at the two familiar toms, both wearing a shell-shocked expression. She wasn't surprised. It had been the first time they had seen her in almost a year. The young queen rose out of her stumbled position from when she had accidentally tripped over her feet in the trash. The junkyard had changed so much that she could barely find her way through the chaotic mess. Of course, she still blamed her clumsiness. Zela had admitted to herself that she was graceful and agile in battle, but just galumphed over everything else. It made her a bit nervous in front of Munkustrap and Alonzo. When looking over at them, the two toms just stared at her in complete shock. They sat in silence, while saying about a million things with their eyes.

Finally, Munkustrap leaned over to Alonzo and whispered something to him that Zela could barely hear: "Lonz, go to Demeter, tell her to come immediately…"

With a nod, the black-and-white tom rushed across the heaps of junk and disappeared over a green foyer. Zelaphelia grinned at Munkustrap, but his face shared both an expression of stone, and of complete shock. After a quiet pause, he was finally able to sputter out a few words, "Z-Zela……you're…you're back!"

She nodded a couple times and smiled, knowing this was obvious news. "Yeah…"-she sighed-"Sorry I haven't visited in awhile, but I figured it would be good if I finally came back home-"

Munkustrap grinned and snorted, "You certainly have that right!"-In a burst of happiness, the silver tabby abruptly squeezed her in an embrace-"Welcome back. Oh, you've grown so much."

The golden-red queen looked back at him and smiled warmly. "It's good to see you Munkustrap. So…how are you?"

"Me? Oh, I'm great," he said. Zela could tell by his cheesy face that he was lying, "and you?"

She sighed, "I think I've been better…" the golden-red queen's eye wandered along the garbage as the two began to walk back onto the dirt path leading further into the Junkyard. Munkustrap gave her a puzzled look, but kept his pace with hers.

His eyebrow furrowed in confusion, "Zela, what's wrong?"

Zela did not hesitate to start her story, "It started after I left the countryside during winter, and walked into a town called Kingsten…"

^~*~^

The wind hit Alonzo's face as he rushed through the familiar but utterly unknown regions of the Junkyard, but he knew perfectly well it was a cut into the center where the tribe resided. His thoughts were racing and his heart was pumping with excitement. For several months, he hadn't thought about Zelaphelia coming back, but now she had suddenly shown up as fast as year had passed. The black-white tom wasn't exactly sure if he was glad, angry, or simply confused in which emotion to choose from.

From the moment he had met her, Alonzo had a sort of sympathy and friendliness towards Zela, but then as she had continued to live in the Junkyard, and knowing that she was Macavity's blood made him think twice about his faith in her. It got worse after he had watched her kill his brother, Admetus. He now knew it was unintentional, and the golden-red female had no to the control over her actions. According psychic twins, Coricopat and Tantomile, Macavity had used his power over Zela to control what she was doing. Alonzo always had a hard time believing it, and it took an eternity to apologize for harassing her for so long. But the black-and-white tom had hopes that things would be different between the two of them. Zela had probably matured from her guilt after traveling England for almost a full year……or not. True, his suspicions were still their, but that was just the piece of doubt in his mind.

Abruptly, he found himself standing on top of a pile of neatly stacked tires arranged by size. The Junkyard was normal, as usual. The kittens would be playing around in the open area or still asleep, queens were generally around doing…well, whatever queens did, and the adult toms were either hunting or cornering one another for doing a non-masculine action, of some sort. It was a regular morning, and luckily for Alonzo, he knew exactly where he could find Demeter on such a day. Acting with informal haste, the black-and-white tom crawled down the row of tires and ran into Munkustrap and Demeter's den. It was quiet, and Alonzo was in too much of a panic to notice any of the undisturbed elements in the small space. The golden queen was in the exact same place as he had expected: lying on top of the large sewer pipe, moping in depression.

The black-white tom had suddenly slowed his pace, and casually walked in on her. She looked up with her sad green eyes and sighed, "Hi Lonz," she mumbled groggily, "what are you doing in hear so early?"

Alonzo didn't even pause to tell her his news, "Demeter, Zelaphelia's back in the Junkyard."

The golden queen's head instantly rose, and her eyes popped in complete disbelief, "What? Are you serious!?" She looked as if she had reached insanity. Alonzo thought it would be better if he backed off for his own protection.

"Yeah…" he murmured hesitantly, "Dem, we just found her roaming around in the middle of the Junkyard! I'm telling you, she's back!"

Demeter immediately jumped to her feet and hopped down to meet with him. He backed away a couple steps as she stared at him with her crazy eyes and odd smile. "Then what the hell are we standing around here for?!" The golden queen ran past him and out of the den. She buzzed around the unexpected tribe members as they confusedly gazed at her once she passed them. Without a second thought, Alonzo quickly followed her, knowing well that maternal instinct wasn't going to lead her to Zela. It would probably just get her lost…

^~*~^

The dirt trail seemed to grow longer as Munkustrap walked with Zelaphelia while listening to her story. He was amazed. Believing what the golden-red female had gone through seemed almost impossible. But nothing shocked him more than when she told him about the Pollicle with the red "M" scar on his neck. Munkustrap knew that emblem better than anyone. It meant that the dog was with Macavity.

He wondered why the ginger tom would go all the way to Kingsten just to track down Zela, but then he remembered that Macavity had contacts all over the country. It was no wonder he found her. Now, hopefully, the route Zela had taken would confuse him enough to get him off her trail for awhile. The golden-red queen breathed easily while explaining all that had happened, and was unusually calm with the whole thing.

"I'll admit that I expected this." She said, "I knew he would be after me when I came back, but now… Munk…… I'm afraid. I don't know what I'm going to do. If Macavity has been following me the entire time, than I could be putting the whole tribe endanger again-"

The silver tabby shook his head, "No, Zela. You said so yourself, you hid your tracks so he couldn't follow you back. Something tells me he won't be back for awhile."

"But Munk, whoever has been following me was probably one of his contacts, not just Macavity. I figured out that he has spies everywhere! He could have killed me without even leaving the city. And if he still is here, than he can easily-"

"Rubbish," the silver tabby said simply, "Zela, if he wanted to find you, he would have already. You don't need to worry, at least not now. I just want you to stay calm, and not get too antsy. Besides, you haven't seen the tribe in months. Your mother's going to be thrilled to see you."

The golden-red queen didn't say anything for a short time. She looked worried, almost like her mother. Munkustrap thought it was very ironic to see that Demeter and Zelaphelia both had such a skittish behavior. Zela finally looked at him, "Munk, I can't tell her what happened, at least not about the Pollicle."

The silver tabby's eyebrow furrowed, "Zela, you can't keep something like that from your mother! She needs to know-"

"She needs to know what? That Macavity has been tracking me down? That he's after me again? Do you really think I should give her a panic attack?"

Munk shook his head, "Zela, think about what you're saying to yourself. If Macavity is after you-"

"-And he is."

The silver tabby grunted, "Then why would you keep your mother from knowing? It's not right to lie to her."

"I don't have a choice! I care about my mother too much to worry her. If rusticating taught me anything it's that I should follow what my instincts tell me. Please Munk promise me you won't say anything. I… I'll tell her when she's ready."

Munkustrap narrowed his eyes on his step-daughter, "You mean when you'reready?"

Zela didn't respond to his rhetorical question. She faced the dirt and walked on. Her face expressed a look of unadulterated confusion and pain, as if she was facing an unknown death. The young queen looked up at him once more, "Just please promise me-"

Suddenly, an elated cry was heard only feet away from the two Jellicles like the end of a victorious battle, "Zela!" Munkustrap turned his head sharply, and smiled to see Demeter excited face gazing at her daughter. That was the first time he had seen her smile since Zelaphelia left the Junkyard.
When Munkustrap looked back at Zela, her face matched her mother's perfectly. "Mother…" she whispered. Without anything to say to the silver tabby, Zela quickly sprang into Demeter's arms. They embraced so emphatically that Munkustrap could have shed a tear. The golden queen's muffled voice started crying in her daughter's fur, "I've missed you so much…"

"I've missed you too." Zela replied looking up at her mother. The two of them stayed silent, but just continued to hold each other. The silver tabby grinned at the nostalgic scene. He didn't think he could have seen a more heartwarming reunion. Suddenly, Alonzo popped up behind Demeter and Zelaphelia. He smiled once at them, but then saw Munkustrap and instantly jumped up to him. As the two queens started walking along the dirt trail together, the silver tabby and his friend wandered behind them.

"I see that Demeter found her way here."

Munkustrap nodded flatly, "Yup."

Alonzo looked at his friend quizzically, "And Zela told you about everything I'm guessing?"

"Yup."

The black and white tom blinked, "So what did she say?"

The silver tabby didn't know how to answer his friend. The golden-red queen made it clear that she didn't want anyone knowing about what happened. He figured that maybe it was right if Zela took care of this problem herself. So very silently, he promised her that he'd respect her wishes. "Not much." He mumbled, "It wasn't anything important."

^~*~^

The morning sun sat low in the sky as a tired curious cat arose from his newly acquired den. He rustled his golden mane and yawned tiredly while grooming his black fur. He usually didn't awaken to morning, like the rest of the tribe did, but a dream-or nightmare rather-had shaken his psyche to consciousness. Tugger could never forget the vision of it.

The Rum Tum Tugger was wandering around aimlessly in the dark. No one was with him, and it felt like he was going to nowhere. He was overcome by confusion of where he was. His cold paws shook as he kept his eyes wide in the night .Suddenly a bright red light blinded the leopard-spotted tom, and forced him to look away. It took him a short time for his eyes to finally adjust to the light. Suddenly, a soft voice called his name, "Tugger…?" it said sweetly.

The Curious Cat's eyes opened wide and shifted around. He looked for the source of the familiar voice, but found none, and to make matters worse, he discovered his lips were paralyzed. Suddenly, the red light morphed into a strange figure. Tugger narrowed his eyes to look closer, and to his amazement, he recognized the enigmatic blur as the golden-red female, Zelaphelia.. He gasped, trying to find words to shout, but realized again that it was becoming difficult to even let out a breath. Maybe it was because he was in front of Zela.

She came closer to him, the mature, serene queen-kit, smiling with her lovely goddess-like eyes of fuschia and lavender, edged with shimmering golden swirls surrounding her narrowed pupils. Her glistening black fur on her back was scratched with red stripes like bloody scars. The Curious Cat thought his eyes would burn from staring at such a divine beauty. She smiled at him and blinked. He returned the enraptured gaze, and realized they were only inches from each other. Tugger wanted to speak to her in his charming voice and grin with his devil-grin. What surprised him was that he couldn't. He could only be Tugger to Zela, not the Curious Cat. There was always something about the way she looked at him that made him melt into something beyond his usual persona. He reached his paw out to touch her beautiful golden face, to see if she was actually real, and she was about to do the same…

Suddenly Tugger felt the ground beneath him start to quake. Both felines fell from their balance and were forced to look up to the sky. Red clouds started swirling above Tugger's head and the ground suddenly cracked open and separated them. The leopard-spotted tom looked over at Zela. Her face was horrified as she tried reaching out for him. Before he could try to grasp her paw, a giant black claw wrapped around the petrified queen and tightened its hold on her in an enormous red fist. When Tugger looked up, he saw that the paw belonged to the enlarged face of Macavity. The ginger tom stared at him with his piercing yellow eyes and malicious tooth grin. With a rush of bravery, the curious cat was about to run straight into the giant Macavity and save his beloved friend, like the climax of a story, but the second he moved forward, he fell into the dark abyss of the cracked earth. The last thing he saw was Macavity cackling wickedly and Zela sputtering tears and reaching her paw out to him. When her face disappeared, he screamed.

Tugger was having that dream every night for two weeks, and always woke up in a cold sweat, unable to sleep afterwards. He had gotten used to it after the first week, but he still couldn't get over that he was dreaming about Zelaphelia. She was all he could think about since she left the tribe. He had waited patiently and eagerly for her to come back, but now he was starting to lose hope, and now this dream he was having of her was making him feel almost desperate. The Curious Cat hadn't told anyone about this dream, despite the fact it started to haunt his damaged psyche. He would feel less masculine expressing emotion so openly like that if he did. So, as a result, Tugger dwelled quietly in his den and stayed very aloof from the tribe.

This was the first time he had come out of his den in week. The queens, of course, were constantly coming in and asking what was wrong. It was extremely annoying seeing them come in and try to council him uninvited. What was wrong with queens? Couldn't they tell that when toms want to be alone, they should be left alone? Apparently not… the leopard spotted tom thought to himself groggily. Several queens had come in, including the adolescents, Electra, Jemima, and Etcetera. They were completely confused on why he was acting this way. Every time they asked, he told them to go away. All three of them had given up after the first few attempts. Then of course his ex-mate, Bombalurina had tried consoling him as well. Her pursuit had been just as affective as the adolescents'. Even some of the older queens tried to comfort him as well. Jennyanydots and Jellyorum tried offering him food, as if vermin wasn't wandering around his den anyways. And so it would go on, and it wasn't even the queens that came: Cassandra, Alonzo, the psycho twins, Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, Victoria, Misto, heck, even Munkustrap came in once and awhile. It drove him nuts. Would no one just leave him?

"Tugger?"

Tugger suddenly lost his train of thought from the sound of his name. He saw Bombalurina grinning at him outside of the entrance of again. Not again… the leopard-spotted tom thought.

"What do you want Bomba?" he asked sorely, glaring at the red queen.

She frowned at him and sauntered gracefully into his den, "No need to get upset Tugs. I was just seeing if you were up."

"Well, as you can tell, I am so if you could go get your uppity little ass out of my den, and give me a few moments peace from your shrill voice, that would be just relieving…" Tugger nestled his paws and legs under his body and sat waiting for Bomba to leave. The red female glared at him for a few seconds, but she quickly shrugged off his antagonism and turned around, "Have a good day you pretentious grump."

Tugger hit his hand to his chest and grimaced sarcastically, "Owe. That just hurt Bomba."

The red queen sighed and ran out of the den. With a smile of relief, Tugger laid his head on his paws and closed his eyes restfully, thinking of maybe getting just an hour of sleep. He felt his peaceful self start to doze off……until Bombalurina's voice entered his den again: "Oh, yeah, I forgot that I wanted to tell you something." She said matter-of-factly.

Tugger's face formed a glare as he peeked out of one eye to see the recalcitrant queen. "What?" he asked agitatedly.

"Zelaphelia's back."

A shocking realization came back to Tugger at the remembrance of the name. His head popped up and stared at the entry way of his den to question Bombalurina, but the scarlet queen was already gone. Without thinking, Tugger jumped to his feet and dashed out of his den…