A/N: This epilogue went through many lives before it became what it was. (And really, it's probably too long to be considered an epilogue, but who's checking, ya know?) Frankly, I don't know if any of them made me happy, but this one seemed to tie things up well. I would like to thank all the reviewers and readers who stuck with this story until the end, and their outstanding patience. I'm glad you liked my story, the story that began with only one stray thought, and evolved into a 20 chapter drama. I put way too much thought and time into this story, but I don't know...it was worth it in the end ((smile)). Thank you so much for your feedback, which was an enormous aide to me, and giving me a reason to finish this story. Gracias a todos. And Enjoy!

She seemed to be swimming in kittens. There were so many of them this year! And each of them, no matter what their colors or shapes or sizes, reminded her of the cats of the past, the ones who had either died off, journeyed to the Heaviside Layer, or moved on to another place and another time. The kittens before her didn't know it, but their coats and their genes held the history of the junkyard with them. Such little kittens with so much importance, and yet they would probably never know. Or ever care.

The queen lifted a white paw, showing them a beaten and broken music box. "This was hers," she said. The kittens stared in wonderment at the old contraption. "Victoria's music box. And the Magical Mr. Mistoffelees had given it to her the night he disappeared. Yes, I know it's broken. That's because Momma Victoria broke it."

A kitten with fur reflecting her calico heritage raised her paw. "Why is it broken, Aunty Chanterelle?"

The young queen looked to the music box, thinking, remembering. Her eyes, her mother's eyes, examined the box. Then her mouth broke into a smile, her father's smile, as the memory came back to her. "She wasn't an angry cat," she explained. "She was just in so much pain. My father did all he could for her, and while she depended on him so much, he just…wasn't Mistoffelees. I remember, she was sitting at the corner of the den, trying to fix the music box, until she finally cried out in frustration and threw it against the wall. That's when the note fell out."

Chanterelle searched her grey tabby fur for something, as though she had a pocket to keep things in, making the kittens giggle. Then she made a big gesture, as though remembering where she had put it, and went to a box behind her, taking out a piece of paper. "It read this, and only this: 'I would give up my whole life just for one more dance with you.' Yet, it meant everything to her to read that."

One of the kittens, a tabby with tiger-striped fur resembling his grandparents, stood up. "What does that mean?"

"Well," Chanterelle said. "I don't really know. But I can only guess. Victoria was supposed to be this incredible dancer in the tribe. But we never saw her dance. Mistoffelees was supposedly the same way. I'm not completely sure, our tribe never wanted to talk about him…or my mom…or…well…" she drifted off that thought and got back on track. "I think he missed her just as much as she missed him. You know…she left the tribe, too. My brother saw her leave. He said that when he was on a walk with her, a tuxedoed cat came out of nowhere, as if by magic. And Victoria begged him to take her away with him. He reached out a paw to her…like this. And the moment she took his paw, they disappeared."

The kittens were quiet. During the silence, Chanterelle noticed a blonde and white cat waving to her. She excused herself from the kittens and raced over to the tom. Something was whispered in her ear. She looked surprised, looking to the tom, but he nodded confirmation. She raced off.

The blonde and white walked up to the tire that Chanterelle was using as her stage. "So…while you're waiting…" said the tom. "Did you know that Old Deuteronomy lived a long time?" The kittens knew the song well enough, and frowned at the tom. "What? He did! He almost outlived our father!"

From the shadows, Chanterelle turned to see that her brother was doing alright in telling the kittens a story. A brown tabby came up beside her. "What's wrong?"

"I don't want Porthos to make the kittens cry like he did last time," she said, eying her brother suspiciously.

"He says he was going for realism."

"Bad idea when it comes to Macavity," Chanterelle scoffed.

"I don't know," said a female voice from behind them. Both cats turned. "When we told the tribe about Macavity, it was well received." Chanterelle smiled to the queen, the brown tabby hiding behind his sister, nervous. "Hello, again…Chanterelle, Raine."

"Aunty Bomba," Chanterelle threw open her arms and gave the fragile looking queen a hug. Raine just waved sheepishly from where he stood. Both cats took in the queen.

She was a beautiful cat, once. They knew that only because of the first time they met her, when she was hiding in the shadows, wanting only to talk the kittens, not daring to show her face to the rest of the tribe. But she had let loneliness take that beauty away, and allowed her beaten and bruised soul to show through her corporeal body. Her head hung low with the shame of her decisions and the loss she had endured. Yet she still looked young. Those who didn't know what she was could only wonder why she seemed so old.

"What brings you into the junkyard, Aunty?" asked the grey tabby.

"I've been watching these kittens since they were born," Bombalurina said. "And with everyone else gone…who once knew me…I don't know. It felt okay." The red queen seemed to be shaking. "I want them to understand. So you don't have to go through what we went through when we were young. So you don't have to face the decisions we did…"

On Bombalurina's collar was a butterfly charm that was once her sister's. She fiddled with it every once in a while, a reminder of what was and what might have been. It did its duty, protecting the kittens from a life as Bombalurina and Demeter knew. It made the kittens appear normal until the threat had left them - the threat of their mother and aunt taking them away from their sanctuary. Then the magic died the night the sisters left, leaving only the love of a father and the promise of friends to take care of the kittens to shield them from questions and hate and revulsion. Now, the kittens - or young cats, as they had slowly grown into - were living as they were meant to: They were living as true Jellicles.

"Well," Raine reasoned. "It's best they hear stories from someone who was here living through them. We can only say as much as we understood from what you told us in the past."

"And they say the best way to teach a kitten is through stories," Chanterelle pointed out.

Bombalurina shrugged. "I'm not like Gus. Or like your mother." The thought of her sister still brought tears to her eyes. She had always blamed herself for taking Demeter away from the tribe. Demeter put her heart and soul into trying to make this tribe her home, and Bombalurina took her away from it. Without it, she slowly wasted away, dying of a broken heart. But no one had ever appeared happier to reach the end of her life.

"I can't tell a story too well. So, stories like what I have to share, about an Abyssinian who was there when the Pharaoh commissioned the sphinx, or the tuxedoed tom who was the pied pipers assistant…or even my own story…I don't know if I can get through to them."

"They understand more than you know," Chanterelle point out. "And if you stay here with us this time…" She looked over to her brother for help.

"There's no one here for you to be scared of anymore," Raine added.

Bombalurina smiled. "Funny how things work out," she said, mostly to herself, as she looked out to the kittens, who were giggling at something Porthos said. "Demeter called this place home, yet I'm the one to return to it."

Raine put a paw on Bombalurina's shoulder, before walking out to whisper something in Porthos' ear. Bombalurina didn't bother to hear the blonde and white cat introduce her. She imagined it was much like Jellylorum would introduce Gus as 'the theatre cat' before he spoke to the kittens. But she couldn't compare herself to him...

She swayed nervously in place. Then Chanterelle tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. Demeter's daughter led the queen out to the tire, helping her take her seat, before turning and joining her brothers in a sentinel's position surrounding the kittens. Though they looked to be protecting them, their faces looked eager to hear the stories they never knew. Stories that were denied to them because the tribe was too heartbroken to speak of them.

Bombalurina took a moment to look around the junkyard, taking in all the changes that had taken place since she lived there. Surely, humans moved around certain items, took some away, put new things in, or vandalized some. But the tire seemed timeless, never moving, never changing, never defamed in any way.

Yet the cats that surrounded it had changed completely.

"Once," she began, "There lived a queen named Grizabella, the glamour cat. And we, as a tribe, shunned her. She was different. She had a way of life we didn't understand, and weren't willing to accept. She wanted us to accept her so much. But we, the adults, denied her the love she needed from us in her old age. I don't know why we hated her so much.

"But when she came to us, on that Jellicle Moon, to that Jellicle Ball, and spoke of memories that were fading along with her, a beautiful queen named Victoria, who at the time was just slightly older than any of you, reached out her paw to the glamour cat, and lifted the weight of the world off of Grizabella's shoulder."

Bombalurina couldn't help but grin, as the eyes of each kitten were completely focused on her, listening to every word she spoke. They seemed to perk up when they heard Victoria's name, a queen who was a favorite among the kittens.

"I talk about Grizabella, because I always wondered what it was that was so alluring to her when she looked up to the Heaviside. Because she didn't look back. And all I could think was, 'what was so great about the Heaviside Layer?'

"But you'll recall your great leader, Munkustrap, and all the stories you've heard of him. Well…I didn't like him much." The kittens laughed. "It's true, it's true. Because he was madly in love with my sister, and I couldn't have it. She was too precious for me to let go. But Demeter, my sister, knew that if something was that precious to you, you had to let them go…so they could be happy."

She looked over to the three former kittens of her sister. "She let her kittens go so they could grow up being happy - not like us. And…because she loved Munkustrap - not like me." The three young cats laughed, as the kittens didn't get the joke. "Now, what was I saying? Oh…right…

"The Heaviside Layer…the Everlasting Cat…my sister and I thought these things were elusive to us, as Jellicle cats. So I was angry that Munkustrap was transfixed on his paradise when we couldn't have it." Bombalurina had to stop, feeling the past emotions building up in her. Then she sighed shakily, and looked back to the kittens. "But I swear to you, no cat is exempt from Heaven. Not even the ones who have done the deeds we have.

"For you see…I was hiding in the shadows, watching Munkustrap leave us. It was his turn, during one Jellicle Ball, that the new leader of the tribe took Munkustrap's paw and led him to the stairs that led to heaven. And I saw…that it wasn't the glory of what awaited him that he was so transfixed on. It was the open arms of the queen that was waiting to embrace him when he finally climbed those stairs that he couldn't take his eyes off of."

The kittens slowly took in what they had heard, some too young to really understand. But the descendants of Demeter understood. Chanterelle spoke first. "Mom only wanted happiness on earth because she never thought she would make it to the Heaviside."

"And dad," Porthos continued, "Only worried about happiness with the ones he loved because he had no reason to fear not getting into the Heaviside."

"But neither got what they wanted," Raine said softly. "Not on earth, at least."

"But only in the Heaviside," Bombalurina finished. "Where there is no more pain, no more crying, no more lies …that's where they could finally be happy."

-The End