After an uneventful landing, the main doors of the ship holding the Lunatacs of Plundarr slid open, and the six renegades stepped onto the soil of the Third Moon of Plundarr for the first time in over thirty years. Their sun shone brightly in the sky above, a sky that colored in a pale purple hue unlike Third Earth’s blue sky. "I had forgotten..." Luna mused as she looked upon it once more.

A few moments later a regal looking young Lunar man and his guard, a decorated brute beast, greeted them. He couldn’t have been much more than twenty standard years, and he had longish white hair and gray skin. He was well defined but short, as most of his breed was, but he was still a good foot or so taller than Luna, who had been afflicted since birth with unusually tiny stature. His guard stood some distance away behind him. "Welcome to the Capitol, fellow Lunar-Plundarrians. I’m Prince Silvian," he greeted them warmly. "How long have you been away from the Moons?"

"You’re the prince?" Luna asked in disbelief, ignoring his question.

"Since I was born," he quipped. He wasn’t sure whether to be offended by her or not, so he waited to hear her response before deciding.

Luna looked him over, curious as to what branch of the royalty he came from. Being an indirect descendant of them herself, she was certain she would know one of his family if he was of their blood. "What about King Lunaro? And Queen Sileira?" she questioned, reciting the names of the rulers that had been in power at the time they’d last been on the Moons.

Silvian smiled. "I guess you have been away for a while then. They were my parents."

Luna only nodded. Back in her time, the royal couple had no children. Suddenly she felt very old. "And you’re not the King, but only the Prince?" she questioned. The Kingdom of the Moons was never without a King or a Queen. Someone was always crowned with either title, even if they were under age.

The prince nodded. "My older sister Selene is the Queen. She and I are the only ones of the royal family surviving after the disasters."

"You mean when Thundera blew up," RedEye said.

"Yes, then," Silvian answered, and gestured for the six of them to follow him. As they started walking, he told them what had happened. "During the first wave of the destruction, that mountain over there, the one overlooking the Capitol and the royal palace, turned into a volcano and blew it sky high, destroying the palace and most of the city."

"Damn," TugMug said, shaking his head. He remembered the city in its full glory, and it was strange to think of it all brought to a halt in one flash.

"They estimated that only four percent of the population survived. And that’s all over the Moons, not just here. Of course, we’ve grown a little since then. Some Lunatacs who were off-world, like you, have come home, and a lot of babies have been born. But it’s still not many. At least that’s what Frostor tells us. He’s our Governor General—kinda the leader around here. He organized us survivors into a society again, and pretty much led us until Selene and I could do it. We were just kids when all this happened," the prince told them in a matter-of-fact manner. "Anyway, Frostor does such a good job at running things that Selene and I still let him take care of a lot of the official government business. Besides, like I said, the whole royal social structure is pretty much gone, except for me and my sister… and Selene and I are only still around because we happened to be out of the palace when the volcano blew and coated it in lava. Can you imagine that? Being buried alive in lava?"

"Better than you think," muttered RedEye.

Luna shot the darkling a look. "The palace destroyed… I never would have imagined it. It had been there for centuries," she said quietly.

Silvian sighed. "Well it’s gone now. I guess you all must have left just before all that happened?"

"No, we’ve been gone longer," Chilla corrected him.

Silvian glanced at her strangely. "Pardon me, have we met? You seem familiar."

"Not likely," she rasped. "I’ve been away from this place for thirty or so years. Longer than you’ve been around."

"Oh," Silvian replied, still trying to place why he would have thought he knew her. "You left the Moons a young child, then?"

Chilla laughed. "No, I was almost twenty."

Silvian blinked. "What? How? I know you’re not that old," he said with a slightly flirtatious smile.

Chilla was somewhat flattered by the young prince’s attention and smiled back at him, even though he was hardly her type. "We didn’t age right. We were in a sort of—suspension—for about fifteen years, so physically we’re all fifteen years younger than we should be."

"Amazing!" the Lunar prince exclaimed. "You must have some quite fascinating stories to tell. Come on into the ‘Tower," he said, gesturing for them to enter the spiral-shaped structure through a large archway. "I’d love to hear all about it. We don’t get that many interesting guests, usually just boring representatives from the other Moons or troublemaking Mutants."

"Mutants?" Alluro questioned. "My condolences."

Silvian chuckled. "Well, our resident scientific adviser is an avian Mutant from Plundarr, and he’s got some, oh how shall I put it—unsavory—friends? Oh hells, I’ll be blunt, they’re a bunch of rowdy losers. Vultureman himself isn’t that much of a prize either, but he’s a genius, so that’s why we keep him around."

At the mention of Vultureman’s name, the others stiffened. "Vultureman works for your government?" Alluro inquired.

"You know him?" He then did a double take of Alluro. "Say, do you have any family from this area?" Silvian asked.

Alluro’s expression grew stony as he thought about Torlei. "No. Not anymore," he answered coldly.

"Really?" Silvian pressed. "You resemble someone I know. Are you sure you don’t have any relatives from around here?"

"I said I didn’t," Alluro insisted, frowning. What was it with Luna’s type that couldn’t be satisfied with a simple answer of "no" anyway, he wondered idly.

Silvian didn’t press the issue further, but it was clear that something was on his mind. "Hmmm," he said thoughtfully, and continued to lead them through the halls of the MoonTower.

Though Luna been busy looking at the interior of the building and it’s design, taking note of what decoration the royal quarters

had, the Prince’s demeanor after his question had piqued her interest. "So, Prince Silvian, who did he remind you of?"

Silvian turned to Luna and smiled. "Selene’s husband Psiarik. The king."

At that, the Lunatacs exchanged curious looks and walked the rest of the way in silence as Silvian led them into a plush room. At a table sat a slight purple haired Lunar woman with a delicate features that bore some similarity to Luna’s, except that hers showed a gentleness and benevolence that Luna never had. She stood to her full height, about the same as Silvian’s, and smiled as they entered.

"So these are the guests?" she questioned

"Yes," Silivian confirmed, and turned toward the Lunatacs. "This is my sister, Queen Selene." He turned back to his sister. "Selene, these are... uh, I didn’t get any of your names," he mumbled apologetically. "Sorry, I don’t always handle this royal protocol stuff too well. Our governess blew up with the palace when I was eight."

"Silvian!" Selene berated her brother with a shocked look on her face. She had more natural grace than her brother, especially in social situations.

"Well it’s true... sorry. I have a big mouth sometimes," he replied sheepishly.

The Lunatacs didn’t say anything, so Selene took that as a sign that their guests weren’t offended and addressed them. "My little brother may have the manners of a Mutant, but he’s really a good guy," Selene said with a light laugh. "So anyway, please, introduce yourselves. Who are you and what brings you to the Capitol area?"

As she waited for a reply, a puzzled look crossed her face as she examined the features of her guest, especially Alluro, Chilla, and Luna. "Excuse me but, well, this may sound strange, but have I met any of you before? Some of you seem familiar..."

At this, Alluro sighed audibly and Luna prepared herself to give the same answers they had just given Silvian, but it proved not to be necessary, as Selene relaxed, apparently having answered her own question mentally. "Oh, I know what it is. You," she pointed to Alluro, "bear a resemblance to my husband."

"So I’ve heard," Alluro said with a slight nod.

"And you," she pointed to Chilla, "look rather like an old picture that used to hang in one of the halls of the palace."

Chilla blinked, not expecting that answer. "I do?"

Selene nodded. "Yes, a painting of some sorceress from a couple of generations ago named Chillandra." The Queen then turned toward Luna. "And that’s also what I recognize you from, come to think of it," she said with obvious amusement at the coincidence. "You look a lot like a portrait that used to hang in the palace of a tyrant named Luna who was Queen about six generations ago. She was exiled to some remote planet called Third Earth and then sent back to the Moons by some mummy named Mumm-Rana."

Silvian laughed at that recollection as he noticed the resemblance too. "Oh yeah, that old story about Queen Luna that our governess used to tell us? Hey, she does look kinda like that old portrait of her! Didn’t she have a granddaughter that was run off the Moons for leading a ring of organized crime?"

This chain of discussion crossed the line from amusing to disconcerting, and the Lunatacs shifted uncomfortably where they stood. They hoped they weren’t about to be recognized so soon, not when they hoped they’d have a clean slate to work from.

Just then two men walked in, one of them holding a beautifully crafted sword that looked like it came from the times of old. "What’s so funny?" the one holding the sword asked. Upon a closer look, the Lunatacs realized that he must have been the Alluro look-alike that Silvian and Selene had mentioned.

"Nothing," Selene said with a dismissive wave. "Oh, now I’m the one being rude to our guests. I do apologize," the petite Queen said sincerely. "I just couldn’t help but notice the resemblance of one of our guests to the old palace portrait of Queen Luna."

At that remark, the older of the two men, a tough-looking frozen race man in a government uniform, burst out laughing. "Ah, a name from my pre-disaster days of being a historian. I wrote my thesis on Queen Luna’s granddaughter, who was also named Luna. What a hard-hearted bitch she was, let me tell you. Her friends were an unruly bunch of societal degenerates too."

"Watch it!" snapped an outraged Luna.

"Cool it, Luna," Alluro warned in a hushed voice.

But Luna was never one to listen to advice, especially not when it was her pride on the line, and she was not pacified. Instead she steered Amok over to the ice man. "And who do you think you are?" she screeched.

Frostor blinked in surprise, taken aback by her outburst. "Did I offend you? I’m sorry."

"Sorry doesn’t cut it, mister," Luna yelled.

RedEye’s eyes flashed in apprehension. "Uh Luna, I really don’t think..."

If Luna heard him, she ignored him entirely. "Do you have any idea who I am?" she demanded of Frostor.

"Actually, no. Who are you?" he asked.

"A certain ‘hard-hearted bitch’ that you wrote a thesis on!"

At that announcement, the other Lunatacs shook their heads and groaned inwardly. Now they were in for it. They weren’t even home half an hour before Luna blew their cover by running her big mouth.

The four royal court members, meanwhile, stared back at Luna in utter shock. Frostor was the first to recover and address her. "You’re Luna?" he repeated in obvious disbelief. "Luna the organized crime leader?" He then laughed. "I don’t think so. But I’ll give you credit for being funny."

"Well I don’t think it’s so funny," Psiarik said coldly, glaring at them with a completely disgusted expression.

Selene noticed this, and her own mood shifted from amused to worried. "Psiarik, please don’t—"

"Don’t what? Get angry? Why not? Who do they think they are that they can come into the royal household and claim to be someone they obviously aren’t?" he said with a scowl.

Silvian rolled his eyes. "Oh, to quote an ice-mooner, chill out," he said impatiently. He and his brother-in-law were known for their frequent squabbling, and although there was no real hard feelings between them, they did bicker on almost a daily basis. "What’s your problem today?"

Frostor also frowned at Psiarik’s overreaction. "Look, if you’re still angry over the fact that you had to spend the day outside on the frozen moon—"

"That has nothing to do with it," the psychic said, cutting him off. "I just don’t like liars."

"Hey, who said we were lying?" Chilla interrupted defensively. Not that the truth was important to someone like her, but she didn’t care for being accused of something that she wasn’t actually guilty of, especially by some sulky royal who didn’t even know her.

"But that’s impossible," Selene said in a serious tone, the earlier mood of levity now shattered. "You aren’t old enough. And you can’t be… why, that would mean that you’re technically a once or twice removed great aunt of mine, Luna," she said.

"Not to mention wanted criminals, but hey, those laws died with the old society when everything was destroyed," Frostor said with a shrug. He didn’t really believe them, so he treated their claim like the amusing joke he thought it was before lapsing into a more thoughtful tone. "Actually I wish you were the real Luna. Even though she was a crazy power hungry fiend, I always found her a fascinating historical figure. I would have loved to meet her in person and see what she was like. I couldn’t have written such a good thesis on a boring individual."

"I am the real Luna!" an exasperated Luna shouted. "The reason we aren’t as old as we should be is because a cursed black magic mummy devil priest sealed us up in molten rock for fifteen years on Third Earth and we didn’t age at all during that time!"

Selene was astonished at the farfetched account, but for some reason it rang true to her. Perhaps because it was so ridiculous, she didn’t think anyone would make it up if it wasn’t, unless they were completely and totally nuts. "Really? Wow..."

Psiarik was not so easily swayed as his wife. "Oh come on Selene, you aren’t buying this are you?"

"Now wait a minute," Frostor interrupted, trying to defuse the situation and get to the bottom of it. "I only see six of you. According to every historical account I studied—and I was a historian before the disasters, so believe me, I studied plenty," he challenged, "Luna was run off the Moons of Plundarr with six of her cohorts that were all just as bad as she was. Yet there’s only six of you altogether. I see the white brute Amok, the iceborn Chilla, the hi-grav TugMug, the dark-dweller RedEye, and the hypnotist Alluro... but where’s the seventh? The telekinetic psi?"

"Dead and married to the same damned mummy that imprisoned us," TugMug told him.

"And in that order," Luna grumbled irritably.

"Which mummy? Mumm-Rana?" asked a clearly confused Selene.

"Mumm-Ra, who is Mumm-Rana’s opposite, actually," Chilla clarified. "But we have no use for either of them," she added with a glare.

Psiarik growled at them. "You people are really pushing it! Why don’t you just can the theatrics and tell us who you really are?"

Chilla lost her tolerance for the psychic. She was tired of listening to his attitude. Royalty or not, she didn’t want to hear it. "What the hell is your problem anyway?"

"That’s something we’d all like to know," Silvian remarked snidely.

Psiarik turned and glared at Silvian. "Don’t make me hypnotize you to walk off the balcony in the middle of the night!" he yelled heatedly.

Silvian laughed. "Oh please, you and that stupid mind control thing of yours. Maybe if you knew how to do it right, you could talk Frostor out of taking you on those trips to the frozen moon. You can’t hypnotize your way out of a paper bag without screwing it up!"

"Enough!" Selene yelled. "Honestly, you two have about as much maturity as two toddlers sometimes. Silvian, just stop the remarks, all right? And Psiarik, will you please calm down? What about them has you so upset?"

"I don’t like people who pretend to be someone they aren’t," he stated simply.

"Well, they seem fairly genuine," Frostor conceded. "Their facts all match, and they can account for the age difference and Torlei’s absence. The details seem to check out. I think it’s a good possibility it really is them."

"It can’t be!" Psiarik yelled with a sort of heated desperation.

"Why not?" Frostor pressed.

"Because that would mean... oh forget it. I’m not going to get into this."

Selene frowned. "Yes you are, after making such a big deal out of it. Who are they to you anyway? Do you know them?"

"No."

"Did—did your family know them?" she asked gently. She knew that her husband could get very touchy when the subject of his family was broached. "Did Luna or her group do something to your family way back when?"

Psiarik clenched his jaw, but regained some control. "In a sense."

Silvian sighed impatiently. "Oh, spit it out already then. What did they do?"

Psiarik narrowed his eyes at Silvian for a moment and then faced everyone. "All right. You want to know why I don’t believe them? Because one of them did have a connection to my family. Specifically to my mother. She was involved with one of them before they disappeared. And I’m—"

Selene gasped as she figured it out. "Oh dear gods! You mean...?"

"Yes. One of them is my father," Psiarik stated.

A silence fell over the room, and all eyes focused on Psiarik, then Alluro. It was then that the reason for his resemblance to Alluro became clear...

Alluro felt like someone had kicked him in the stomach. "What?" he answered weakly.

"You two do look alike..." Luna muttered.

"And I’m certainly not the guy’s father," Chilla said with a rude laugh.

Alluro was still reeling from the news. "You mean that Lurella was—" the stunned Lunatac whispered when he managed to catch his breath.

At the mention of his mother’s name, Psiarik flew into a rage. Until this point, he had honestly believed that they were all lying, and that there couldn’t be any truth to their claims. When the implications of the knowledge that there was hit him, he didn’t know how to take it, and dealt with it the only way he knew how. He closed his eyes, clenched his fists, and yelled. Loudly. "This is not happening!"

Silvian found the outburst amusing. "Denial in action," he sneered.

"Shut up!" Selene snapped at her little brother. She then turned to Psiarik. "Please calm down."

"Calm down? My long lost father, the sleazy guy who used my mother to get his hands on her money and then vanished when the law caught up with him and his lowlife friends leaving my mother alone with me—this jerk shows up with one of the most wanted criminal leaders in history and her gang, and you go and invite them to visit our home and you expect me to calm down?" As he shouted the last phrase a random burst of telekinetic energy from his psyche caused a vase behind him to explode.

"You can take your little telekinetic temper tantrum outside," Silvian muttered.

Alluro found himself feeling defensive about the image Psiarik had of him. "I didn’t ‘run off’, you know. I didn’t even know you existed."

"Well there’s a shock," Psiarik snapped hatefully. "Mom said you always were wrapped up in yourself."

"Gee, maybe Lurella wasn’t as much of an airhead as we all thought. She had you pegged right after all, Alluro," Luna observed with a snide laugh.

"Shut up, Luna," Alluro retorted.

Psiarik glared at Luna for her remark. "How dare you talk about my mother like that? Aside from my little half-sister, she was all I ever had while I was growing up. I certainly didn’t have a father," Psiarik said accusingly, shooting Alluro a pointed spiteful look as he spoke the last sentence.

Selene was growing weary of the stress of the situation. "I think we all need to cool off," she said quietly.

"You’re right. I’m outta here," Psiarik said, and stormed out. The MoonSaber, temporarily forgotten in the confusion, left the room with him.

A world away in the cockpit of the Feliner, Bengali, Lion-O, and WilyKit were heading as fast as they could for the area on the frozen moon where they’d traced Panthro’s distress signal. "I’m scanning the entire area, but I don’t see any trace of Panthro," WilyKit said worriedly.

"Keep looking," Bengali said from the pilot’s seat.

Lion-O, who was busy monitoring the life-reading scanners, picked something up on his screen. "Check six degrees northeast, Bengali. I’m picking up a life reading buried that could be him. It’s strong."

Bengali nodded and piloted the Thunderstrike accordingly.

"I see it! There’s Panthro’s ship!" WilyKit exclaimed.

"Yes, but he isn’t in it. He’s still three degrees farther away, if it’s his life reading I’ve picked up. His ship is deserted," Lion-O informed her.

"I see some kind of ice structure," WilyKit confirmed, now running her own scanning equipment on the same region. "Do you think that’s where he could be?"

"I think we ought to check it out," Lion-O said. "Bengali, take us down."

"You got it," Bengali replied, and landed the craft just outside the igloo.

Once landed, the Thundercats left the Feliner and carefully peered into the igloo. Bengali was the first to spot Panthro, sleeping peacefully in the corner, under a blanket, beside a recently burned out fire. He motioned to the others and they hurried in. Bengali reached Panthro first, and shook him awake. "Panthro! Are you all right?"

"Bengali?" he said groggily as he slowly regained consciousness.

"We got your call for help. We’re here to take you home," Lion-O said, relieved to see that his friend was all right.

"Thanks," Panthro said with a weak smile. "Where’s Snoelle? Did you tell her you’re here?"

"What are talking about?" WilyKit asked with a confused frown. "There’s no one else here, Panthro."

"Yes there is," Panthro said. "Snoelle, the Thundercat who saved me. She brought me here after she saved me from the crash."

"But here’s nobody else here," WilyKit insisted. "We’ve been doing life reading scans and yours is the only one for miles around. There are no large life forms except for yours. All our sensors couldn’t be wrong."

"But she saved me!" Panthro argued.

"Rowr, maybe you were dreaming, or the exposure to the cold made you hallucinate," Bengali suggested.

"I didn’t hallucinate her," Panthro said sourly. "She was here."

Lion-O sighed. "At any rate, nobody is here now. Come on Panthro, we have to get you back to the Lair and have you treated for exposure," Lion-O said, helping Bengali lift Panthro to his feet. "Let’s just get back to the Feliner."

They helped Panthro into the back seat of the Feliner and once they were all inside, took off for New Thundera. On the way, Panthro told them everything that had happened to him and everything he remembered about Snoelle. The other Thundercats listened to him, but to his disappointment, didn’t seem to believe him. Panthro was determined to prove to them that she was real somehow, as soon as he got back. He couldn’t stop thinking about her, and her warm and tender touch. The panther hadn’t been in love in years, the last time he’d felt something like it being long before Thundera exploded. He couldn’t remember ever wanting so desperately to see someone again. Panthro resolved that he would look everything up in the Book of Omens the second he got back to New Thundera and was physically able to.

Mumm-Ra paced back and forth in front of his cauldron. He had just awakened his companion Ma-Mutt from his twelve-year long sleep, and the dog was panting in excited anticipation at his feet. Mumm-Ra had been awake for almost a day now and he was relishing the feeling of the power that pulsed inside him again. "I had almost forgotten how wonderful it feels to be completely recharged," he said to his faithful hound. Ma-Mutt barked in response, and then ran to a large sarcophagus that lay near his, scratching at it and whimpering.

"I suppose you’re right Ma-Mutt," Mumm-Ra said with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. "I’ve put off waking her up all day. It’s just been so nice and quiet without her here to annoy me."

Ma-Mutt barked again and Mumm-Ra sighed. "I know, I know. The Ancient Spirits of Evil ordered me to do it. But I still don’t have to like it," he grumbled. The ancient mage then raised his arms and began chanting in a forgotten language. A sinister blue light emanated from his hands and surrounded Torlei’s still sarcophagus, engulfing it for a moment before it vanished in a bright flash. All was still in the black pyramid for a moment, and her crypt began to open.

"Torlei, you have risen," Mumm-Ra stated, watching his undead wife emerge from the sarcophagus.

A tall female form in a navy blue cloak, wearing a green medallion inlaid with a golden lightning bolt on a thick silver-linked belt emerged. She smoothed a pale purple hand over her long and unruly grayish-lavender hair and greeted him. "Yes, my husband. Did you miss me?" Torlei asked with amusement as she looked toward him, her eyes and the crescent moon on her forehead above them glowing with a sinister red glow, like Mumm-Ra’s own eyes.

"Only in your dreams," he arrogantly replied, turning away from her to face his cauldron once again.

"Darling, you’re breaking my heart," she remarked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Oh, I wasn’t aware you possessed one of those."

"So why did you wake me up if it wasn’t for my stimulating companionship?"

Mumm-Ra was tempted to make a suggestive comment, but chose not to. There would be plenty of time to use his partner for the one thing he actually liked having her around for later. But first they had to take care of their enemies, lest they disappoint the Ancients. "I was ordered by the Ancient Spirits of Evil to bring you back among the ever-living. It’s time to get rid of the Thundercats once and for all, and we’re going to do it together."

Torlei’s interest was piqued. "How?"

"Come here, my dear, and I’ll tell you all about it," Mumm-Ra said, and gestured for her to stand beside at the cauldron. She strode across the cold stone floor of the pyramid and joined him, and he told her his plans in detail.