Mungojerrie, meanwhile, was brought back to Macavity's lair. Strangely, the former calico agent didn't fight back at all, he simply followed them docilely and with an air of depression about him.

Tygera, another agent, and daughter of Macavity, smirked at him. Mungojerrie gave the striped queen a cursory glance as he followed the group.

Macavity smiled from his throne as Mungojerrie stopped silently before him. He knew this would prove to be interesting.

"Mungojerrie, dear boy, I know you'll want to stay here for a while, perhaps a long time? Please, make yourself at home." Macavity said with a hint of persuasion in his voice.

"Oi don't want t' stay 'ere, Oi just want t' be left alone, please." Mungojerrie looked down despairingly.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that, dear." purred another queen. She was similar to Tygera, tan with white and black strips over her body, a black eye patch and paws like Alonzo. Mungojerrie vaguely recalled Alonzo telling him that he once mated with a queen who wasn't a Jellicle at all. Perhaps this strange queen was the offspring of the union?

"Alonza Joann, please, take Mungojerrie to the other queens, I'll talk to him after you're...through with him." Macavity told the queen.

Alonza looked up from her potential seduction. "Even to the Breeders?" The Breeders were a group of queens who hated one or more Jellicle queens, a magical queen wanted to be Mistoffelees' mate, for example, and another queen hated Victoria the White Cat, several were magical Cats, but some of the Breeders were also prisoners, and kept to breed with the toms in Macavity's employ.

"Yes, I'm sure we'd like him to see the other Breeders." Macavity smiled. Mungojerrie was already the sire of two kittens with two different Breeders, but the Breeders were part of the reason so many toms usually stayed with Macavity for life, moreorless, after all, there wasn't a tom yet who could turn down the prospect of breeding with numerous queens to ensure they had offspring.

As Alonza whisked away a dejected Mungojerrie, Knave, from his perch next to Macavity, smiled. "More brothers and sisters for me and Tracer, eh, Mac?"

"Yes, dear boy, that's part of what'll keep him here, for good." Macavity smiled back.

"Up, up, up, past the Russell Hotel, up, up, up, up, to the Heaviside Layer." sang a saddened pair, Munkustrap and Old Deuteronomy. Munkustrap threw a pawful of catnip into Rumpleteazer's grave, sniffling as he did so.

As the Big Boys filled up the grave, Jenny and Skimble returned with the cat burglars' kittens. While a number of the tribe never liked the pair, the fact that the Old Gumbie Cat and the Railway Cat were suffering was enough to sadden everyone.

Jemima and Jelly were especially suffering, they told the pair the truth, after all. Now the kittens were going to be raised by their grandparents, and there was little doubt in anyone's mind that Mungojerrie was also lost to them, though he was probably still alive.

After the funeral, the kittens curled up with their relatives. Mungorumple wanted to be left alone, but Jemima wouldn't allow it, Firebane began 'bonding' with the Big Boys, it saddened them to see the kit suffering, while Onyx and Pearl curled up to their grandparents.

"Granda Skimble?" Onyx asked, sniffling.

"Aye, lad?" asked the Railway Cat.

"What happened to Poppa?" asked the kit.

Skimble hugged his grandson closer. "I wish I knew, m'boy, I wish we all knew. Don't worry, though, we're bound t' find out."

Pearl and Onyx snuggled to their grandparents and Jenny eventually sang the kits to sleep. Skimble worried again, was Mungojerrie ever going to return, or was he lost to them, now and forever?

Mungojerrie woke up an hour before dawn. Surrounded by queens, Micamaxi, Tygera, Bertadora and Fantasy were the only ones he could see right now, he eased himself out of the pile and carefully snuck out of the doorway towards the exit of the lair.

"Going somewhere, boy?"

The calico tom turned slowly to find Macavity sitting on his throne, the twin kittens of Growltiger and Griddlebone at his feet, and all three of them flashing him the most unsettling smiles.

"Well, ehm, it's just that..." Mungojerrie was cut off by a manically grinning Macavity.

"You just want to let your family know you won't be needing them anymore, is that it?" asked the Napoleon of Crime.

"Well, yes, I guess it is."

The twins smiled and the male, Tigerbone, spoke up. "You're free to leave, you have one hour, and if you're not back by dawn, Mac'll let us string you up by the innards, calico."

Mungojerrie paled where he could, but nodded anyhow and ran out the lair.

Macavity smiled and patted Tigerbone on the head. "Good boy. You'll be a fine successor, even if Mungojerrie breeds with the queens, something will have to happen to you first, Tiger."

Growltiger and Griddlebone's son growled with approval.

A slight, but definite, sound woke up a red and tan pair of kittens. Looking at each other, Munkusala and Persephone, twins born to Munkustrap and Demeter, snuck forward together on black paws, careful not to wake up anyone else in the Junkyard.

"'Oo's there?" asked a familiar masculine Cockney voice.

"It's only us, Mungojerrie. 'Sala and 'Sephie." Munkusala told the calico tom, using their nicknames.

"Did you come back for Rumpleteazer and the kits?" Persephone asked him, with a hint of hopefulness in her voice.

Mungojerrie looked down at his paws guiltly. "Well, actually, no, Oi didn't. Oi came back, one last toime, t' tell ya tha' I'm goin' back to Mac's gang, Oi'm leavin' the tribe, 'n' the kits, I can't stand thinkin' tha' I had kitt'ns with my sistah, and all. If the others ask, just...just tell 'em tha' truth." With that, Mungojerrie turned and vanished back into the shadows.

Munkusala and Persephone looked at each other in shock. Mungojerrie had left the tribe and his kittens, his mate and sister, normally, it didn't matter to Cats if mates were siblings or not, was gone to the Heaviside Layer, but their kittens were suffering the agony of not knowing exactly what happened to their parents.

"'Sephie," Munkusala began, making the best effort to whisper because of his low voice, "what do we tell the others?"

Persephone's white and gray face became thoughtful. "We'll tell them...we'll tell them, we psychically found out about Mungojerrie. Pretend that we used our powers and located him with Macavity, that we read his thoughts and found out he's gone from the tribe. No one else is around, even Uncle Cori and Aunt Tanto wouldn't know we're lying, if we're careful enough. And we're technically telling the truth, like he asked."

Munkusala thought carefully about this. Nodding, he extended his black paw to his twin sister, and they shook paws, sealing the pact of secrecy. They wouldn't tell that they had spoken to Mungojerrie, but they would tell them that he left the tribe and was back with Macavity's crowd. No one but they would remember the truth about Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, nobody but them would remember the Dark Secret of the cat burglars.