Exotica, seeing Macavity holding Kumori, leapt onto him, splitting some of her wounds open in the process. In a flash, Macavity was holding Exotica by the throat.

“You’re not catching me off guard this time.” Macavity laughed cruelly as he strangled Exotica. But Kumori was no longer watching Macavity kill Exotica. She felt like she was in Macavity’s lair, watching as a helpless kitten, as Macavity strangled her birth-mother. Her past and present were colliding.

“No..no more.” Kumori whispered, coming back to reality. It was still loud enough for Macavity to hear. He threw Exotica to the ground, laughing as always. “I’ll go with you...if you don’t take Demeter away.” Kumori figured that she could do at least one thing worth being remembered for before being taken away.

“As you wish, but you’ll be taking her place.” Macavity advanced. Kumori closed her eyes tightly, half knowing what he meant, and not wanting to know the other half. He walked over behind her and put his paws on her shoulders. Macavity’s touch could only be described as both bone-chillingly cold and burning hot at the same time. “Make it easy on yourself kitten, and don’t fight. It’ll give me more... satisfaction.” he said in Kumori’s ear, toying with her collar. She didn’t like the way he said “satisfaction.”

“My name is Kumori.” She tried to sound brave, but failed.

“Not where you’re going.” Macavity pulled on her collar with one razor-sharp claw, and it fell to the ground. It seemed like Kumori’s entire life fell with it. Then Macavity, almost delicately, placed a choke chain around Kumori’s neck. It was cold and heavy. Whistling, he gave the signal to the Stalkers that the battle was over. They quickly, although reluctantly, left the Junkyard. Some of them were dragging Jellicles with them. All in all, 23 Stalkers had been killed, but only a fraction of the Jellicles remained. Macavity took the rather short lead-end of Kumori’s new “collar,” and started to walk to the gates. Feeling the pull of the chain around her neck, Kumori panicked. She fell onto her stomach, gouging the hard dirt with her claws in a desperate attempt to stay where she was. The fight between her need for air and the need to stay put began.

“I don’t want to go! I want to stay here! Don’t take me! Somebody save me! ” Kumori screamed at the top of her lungs, forgetting that anyone left alive wouldn’t be physically able to help her. Macavity walked back to Kumori and grabbed her by the scruff, his claws digging into her neck, and started to drag her to the gates.

“I said don’t fight.” he growled. Munkustrap stood at the Junkyard gates, but he was in an appalling state. Blood gushed from many large wounds all over his body, creating a pool around him. His legs wobbled from the effort of remaining standing, and he leaned onto the fence for support. He couldn’t seem to get enough air, as his breathing was heavy.

“You can’t take her...” Munkustrap hoarsely said. It seemed as though saying just that heavily taxed what little reserves of strength he had left. He raised one shaky paw and slowly extended his claws, determined to protect Kumori no matter what happened to himself. Surprisingly, Macavity didn’t laugh. A smirk played on his lips, as if this moment was too good to waste on laughter. As if he knew something Munkustrap didn’t.

“Oh but I can, Munkustrap, and there’s nothing you can do about it. She’s coming with me perfectly legit.” That horrifically smooth tone to Macavity’s voice returned. Munkustrap’s eyes first widened with shock, but soon narrowed in disbelief. “Don’t you know that old Jellicle rule?” Macavity continued, pretending shock at his brother’s ignorance. “The one that states that as long as she and I both agree, I can remove her from the Jellicle tribe.” Macavity chuckled deep in his throat.

“There’s no way Kumori would ever agree to come with you!” a familiar voice from behind cried. It was Plato, Kumori’s former collar clutched in paws shaking with anger. His statement caused Macavity’s withheld laughter to come forth. He let go of the lead, and Kumori immediately jumped out of reach to run behind Plato.

“Don’t let him take me!” Kumori sobbed. This increased Macavity’s laughter ten-fold. After a minute, his laughter abated enough for him to speak, and he turned to face Kumori and Plato.

“Of course they’ll let me ‘take’ you. You said you’ll go. I never forced you to say that; I said that you could stay here or come with me. The only other thing I did was fully explain the situation to you. But you’ve always had a choice. Your decision was completely your own.”

“You’re not a...” Munkustrap started to say.

“A Jellicle?” Macavity interrupted, “Of course I’m not. But she is, and the rule still applies to her.”

“So this entire massacre was just to get her to say she’ll come with you?” Munkustrap accused, rage building in his weak and raspy voice.

“Munkustrap, I’ve been planning this...escapade for months now. A test run for my stalkers. It just so happened that Kumori came into my sights as well, and so I made some slight adjustments to accommodate her. If I wanted only her, then things would be much different. And besides, I love pissing you off. I can always kill you later; it’d be too easy right now. You know how much I love challenges.” Walking over to Plato, Macavity was pleased to see that he was too stunned and confused to react. Macavity raised one paw level to Plato’s eyes, and spread out his fingers. Plato’s eyes glazed over, signifying that he was in a trance. “Sleep,” Macavity growled. Obediently, Plato’s body crumpled beneath him as he went into a deep sleep. Now there was nothing between Kumori and himself. Kumori just stared incredulously at Plato’s unconscious form, too dazed to realize that Macavity was walking towards her until he looped his right arm around her waist and pulled her against him. She gasped and tried to pull away, but Macavity dug his claws into her side and strengthened his grip. Munkustrap lurched forward, but the extreme loss of blood prevented him from retaining his balance. He fell heavily onto the ground, and blacked out.

And then absolute darkness again enveloped Kumori, depriving her of her senses of smell, touch, hearing, and even direction. The only thing she was aware of was of the bone-chilling cold, particularly intense where Macavity’s claws had pierced the skin on her side. A moment later, Kumori found herself in a large, dimly lit room.

“Wha- what the hell was that?” Kumori asked breathlessly. She had one paw over her heart, and she could feel it pounding to a degree where it threatened to explode. Her legs were shaking uncontrollably, with only Macavity’s arm around her waist to keep her standing. Macavity removed his arm. Kumori fell onto her knees, still trying to calm her dangerously uneven breathing.

“That my dear, was teleportation.” Macavity had an amused expression on his face. “Nothing, not even with magic, is instantaneous. That place we were just in was the place in between places. Between for short.” That explanation confused Kumori more than it enlightened her. Finally, she had her breathing somewhat under control, and was able to look around at the room she was in. It was indeed a very large room, even by human standards. A long dark red carpet ran lengthwise through the center of it, from large double doors at one end to a big podium at the other. Two hallways were on either side of the podium. There were many wooden benches along each side of the carpet. Lining the stone walls were stained glass windows, which cast eerie colors all over the room. They were in a church. In the shadows all around her, Kumori saw movement. She guessed that they were Macavity’s henchcats. And then she remembered the kittens that the stalkers had stuffed into sacks.

“What happened to the kittens?” Kumori managed to whisper.

“My, we’re just full of questions, now aren’t we?” Macavity smirked, grabbed the lead of the choke chain, and started walking towards one of the hallways. As soon as the chain started to tighten around her neck, Kumori started walking. Although it had been only a few minutes since Kumori had tried to resist the pull, there was already bruising around her neck. The slight tightening was a painful reminder of the result of her protesting. “The kittens, I was planning on selling them on the black market. Kittens fetch a handsome price, especially when they’re healthy. And since you Jellicles take such good care of your kittens, I’d thought I’d help myself. Of course, I’ll have to break them in. Their value greatly depreciates if they have spirit and no muscle. Who knows? Maybe I’ll keep a couple. Ahh, here we are,” Macavity stopped outside of a small light-brown door, no different from any of the others lining the long hallway, and opened it. “Our room.”

Kumori stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes were wide with horror. Why was this happening so suddenly? Trying to back up, she only tightened the chain around her bruised neck. Macavity walked back to Kumori. Holding the chain in between his thumb and index finger, he slid his paw up the lead until he reached the part where the chain looped around on itself, forming the collar. Then he pulled Kumori right up against him, and she was shivering uncontrollably with fear . The chain tightened enough so that Kumori couldn’t breath at all. Instinctively, her paws grasped the collar, trying to loosen it, but to no avail. Macavity grinned maliciously.

“What, you thought I wouldn’t enjoy the spoils of war so soon?” Macavity shoved Kumori into the room. She fell down onto her knees, and quickly turned over so that she was facing Macavity. As he shut the door, there was a loud ‘click’ as the door locked behind him. Slowly, he advanced. Slowly, Kumori retreated, unable to move faster for fear of losing her balance. Her back hit the wall, and Macavity was quick to pin her to the ground. He put his paws on her elbows to stop her from clawing.

“You know,” Macavity sounded thoughtful, “I could put you in a trance, like I did your little boykit. You’d be totally unaware of anything going on. It’d be painless, until you woke up. But that’d only be a minor discomfort.” The proposition seemed pretty good to Kumori, despite the fact that she would be letting him rape her if she did accept.

“So why don’t you?” she spat. She wasn’t about to let him think she’d given up.

“Because I love to hear them scream bloody hell.”

Later, Macavity threw Kumori’s limp and crying form into a dark room. The last thing she saw before she blacked out, by the light from the doorway, was six queens. And they were all black and gold.