Title: Epilogue

Rating: G

Warnings: There are OCs. I'm sorry. But when you have the hero sleep with his girl the night before his scheduled death… you gotta have a baby. You just gotta…

Notes: There may possibly be one more chapter after this, not a true chapter of sorts, but a list of all the cats and what happened to them, as well as any questions answered, if you folks are interested. Let me know, and I'll look into slapping that together.

You really should read the Ritzkin Arc in order to understand what's going on. I know it's long. Bear with me…

I do not own Cats…

"And then what?" A pretty queenkit with a golden voice bounced to her feet, clapping her paws. "And then what? Come on, tell us!"

"Tell us!" the other kittens echoed, surging forward to tackle the grizzled old leader of the Jellicle tribe. "Come on, tell us!"

Tugger laughed as he wrestled with the kittens, letting them win, their little paws trying to squirm through his thick coat to tickle them. He tickled a couple of them in retaliation, swiping his tail and feeling the kittens jumping over it and giggling. "And then the Monniks won, and the Jellicles were defeated forever and ever, the end!"

The queenkit who had first spoken, Aurolia, sat on Tugger's chest, switching her tail back and forth. "Really?"

"No, silly." A tomkit this time, Durran. "Cause we're Jellicles! And we aren't defeated!" Durran was, Tugger knew, a grey tabby, just like his father, just like his grandfather, Munkustrap. He was Aurolia's younger brother, and the two were very quickly becoming the leaders of this batch of kittens.

"Oh, you shouldn't listen to the Old Rum Tum." Another adult had stepped in, lifting the kittens off Tugger and helping the leader back to his feet. "You know he always teases you…"

Tugger grinned and ruffled the headfur of the other tom. "Thanks for the support, Misto!" Even if the conjurer hadn't spoken, he would have recognized him by his gait. Mistoffelees had a bad leg, from his soaking at the paws of the Monniks. He never did recover from it, but at least Jenny had managed to save his leg. "He's right, though. Durran, you're right. I was wrong."

"Come on, gather around. I'll tell you the true ending." Mistoffelees sat beside Tugger, patting his lap, and the kittens swarmed the two old toms again, curling up against them.

"Ritzkin did kill Macavity," and Durran gave a whoop, leaping to his paws, but Tugger shushed him, patting him down again, "but Leviticus managed to escape, followed by many of the Monniks. They were scared, when they saw Macavity fall, and Leviticus desert them. Because they were so confused, we were able to chase them out of the junkyard and reclaim it as our own. Sadly, we lost several Jellicles that day. Ritzkin died before the fighting was over, and so did Asparagus, Exotica, and Tumblebrutus. And there ends the story of our hero, Ritzkin, and his life with the Jellicles."

"What happened to Tugger?" It was Moffat, one of the younger kittens, who spoke this time. Mistoffelees had once described her as being a ball of white puff, just like her mother had been when Mistoffelees and Tumble first found her.

Tugger laughed, gesturing at his face, which was heavily scarred. "I got out alive, as you can see, but Leviticus did decide to take my eyes with him. Oh well. He can have them. I don't need them!"

Aurolia giggled and hugged Tugger, and he smoothed her fur down, tweaking the tip of her tail. "You can see us even better than Momma!"

"That's right, little missy! You can't get away with anything around me!"

"Unless you're helping us!" Durran crowed, bouncing up again. Tugger let him, this time, laughing.

Mistoffelees gave a little laugh himself. "Oh, Tugger, you never did grow up, did you?"

"Not in the least!"

A short distance away, two older kittens, newcomers to the tribe, were sitting and quietly listening. They claimed they were brothers, claimed their names were Apex and Cado, and nobody had been able to prove otherwise.

The silver tabby shook his head and turned his face up to the moon above with a sigh.

"What's wrong?" Cado asked.

"That's just… not how I remember it," Munkustrap answered, looking over at the gold-patched tom beside him. "I certainly wasn't that heroic. I messed up more often than I succeeded. I had no idea what I was doing half the time. I don't deserve to be remembered as the hero of the Jellicles…"

"Oh, I don't know about that," the gold-patched kitten answered, and his golden eyes were as unreadable as ever. "You were pretty heroic, Ritzy."

"You don't mean that…"

"Of course he does." Deuteronomy, one of Tugger's sons, leaned over the book he had been perched on to look at the two toms. The older generations truly believed he was Deuteronomy reborn. Munkustrap knew that for a fact, though. "Has Simbol ever kidded about anything in his life?"

"No…"

Simbol smiled, his expression softening as he looked upon the tabby with pride. "Congratulations, Munkustrap.

"You did good."