Selene, Silvian, Luna, Amok, Chilla, and TugMug all sat in the MoonTower’s observatory having a long talk. With only a few questions, Selene had determined that she and Silvian were indeed related to Luna distantly. Since neither of them had any blood-related family left, the royal pair immediately invited their "Aunt Luna"—as they now called her—and her friends to stay with them as long as they pleased. They even decided generously to grant them immunity from all their past crimes. In their eyes, blood was thicker than water, and the laws of a dead society from thirty years ago seemed far less important than the fact that they had found new family.

Luna was content to humor them and go along with it. She had never felt any pressing need to be around family, but she liked the two of them well enough, even though she already found Selene’s naiveté and warmth a bit nauseating in large doses. Besides, the two royals were letting her stay in plush quarters and they’d pardoned all her past crimes. She would have been nuts to object to such an arrangement.

Frostor entered the room along with Vultureman, Alluro, and RedEye. "Hello all," the general greeted them. "Guess who wanted to come and say ‘hi’ to some old friends?"

Vultureman flashed Luna a nasty smile. "So no one’s killed you yet, eh Luna? Caww, I figured the group of you would have finally gone and pissed off the wrong person and been murdered by now. I hear you’ve had some interesting experiences since Way Out Back."

"Some," Luna answered with mild annoyance. "And how did someone like you get hired here of all places? Why didn’t you go back to Plundarr with your own kind?"

Frostor laughed good-naturedly. "With what I offered to pay him, he would have been crazy to stay on Plundarr. I looked all over for someone who could design fantastic weapons and defense systems for us, and his name came up in my research more than once," he explained before addressing the entire group. "Anyway, I gathered you all here for a reason. The arrival of Luna here and her friends distracted me temporarily, but I forgot to tell you something. Something else out of the past made an appearance today too."

"You mean this?" Psiarik’s voice asked from the doorway. A red-eyed Lunatac woman aged somewhere in her mid forties stood next to him. Everyone turned around and saw them there with him holding the MoonSaber. "Sorry I took off with it, Frostor. I was a little upset and wasn’t thinking clearly."

"You’re never thinking, clearly or not," Silvian snorted.

Psiarik shot him a dirty look while Selene rushed over to him. "I was worried! Where did you go?"

"Doesn’t matter."

"I found him feeling sorry for himself outside. I dragged him back in here," the darkling woman informed them.

Selene took it upon herself to make introductions. "By the way, this is Lushara. She’s been part of our team ever since the disasters, another survivor of the eruption in the capitol. She now holds one of the advisory positions in the royal court and lives here in the MoonTower with us. Lushara, meet Luna and—"

"Psiarik told me all about them," Lushara said with a nod. "Some in more detail than others," she added with a knowing glance at Alluro. She then noticed RedEye, standing quietly on the other side of the room, and liked what she saw. She didn’t know many other men in the area who were also from the dark moon, and none that were close to her age. The female dark-dweller met his eyes and smiled. RedEye smiled back with interest.

Meanwhile Frostor took the MoonSaber from Psiarik and handed it to Selene. "Let me tell you about this. A mineworker found this encased in ice back on Lixuvekh. This sword has been missing for over fifty years now, but this is definitely it. When I saw it, I recognized it instantly from the numerous drawings and sketches I studied in my time as a historian. It’s the legendary MoonSaber."

Nearly everyone in the room gasped. "The MoonSaber!" Luna exclaimed. "The legendary powerful sword of Luran the Conquerer?" she asked in amazement.

"The very same sword," Frostor confirmed with a nod. "We accidentally stumbled upon its hiding place during the ore mining, still encased in the magical blue ice where Chillandra hid it."

"The lost sword... do you know what this means to us? What kind of power we now have?" Silvian said excitedly.

"Does everyone know about this freakin’ sword but me?" Psiarik asked, looking from his wife to Silvian, and from Luna to Frostor, in disbelief.

"Don’t mock its power!" Silvian berated his brother in law. "Our parents and governess told us stories about the MoonSaber before they were killed by the eruption."

"Sorry, but I never heard of it," Psiarik replied grouchily.

Selene studied the sword in her hands. "I heard it was hidden for what was supposed to be all eternity by the sorceress Chillandra to save our Moons from destruction. I wonder what happens now that it’s been found," she mused with some apprehension before handing it to her brother to examine.

"We protect it, and ourselves with it," Silvian replied, taking the sword and holding it in a battle stance for a moment. The mystic blade felt natural in his hands, and it sprung to life, glowing with power as he held it.

Lushara eyed the sword with intent reverence, the same way Frostor had back when he first held the lost weapon on the frozen moon. "I’d always thought that the story of the MoonSaber was just some legend blended with a few historical facts, something we were told about as kids, like the moon fairies of the dark moon."

"It’s true. There are plenty of historical accounts of battle documenting its use by the royalty. Besides, we know the Sword of Plundarr and the Sword of Omens exist, why not our MoonSaber?" asked Frostor.

"But what if someone tries to take it, like that Thundercat did fifty years ago?" Selene asked.

"They’re toast," Psiarik stated, putting his arm around his wife’s shoulders. "I don’t know much about that sword’s legend or history, but nobody is going to take anything from us, you can count on that one."

"Besides, I’m invincible with this in my hands," Silvian said proudly. "With this I hold power equal to that of the Lord of the Thundercats and the Mutant Warrior King."

Vultureman spoke up. "No Mutant Warrior King has held the Sword of Plundarr for years now. It’s in the possession of Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living. The undead dark sorcerer who has it in for the Thundercats back on New Thundera."

"Hmm," Selene mused, "If it’s in his possession, how does that affect the legend then, I wonder? If he is against the Thundercats, is he allied with Mutants, us, or both?"

"Not us," Vultureman cawed disgustedly. "That blasted mummy has double crossed us Mutants more than once. The Lunatacs too." Luna and the others quickly nodded in agreement. "Mumm-Ra is allies with only one being: Mumm-Ra," Vultureman finished.

Selene nodded. "But without the Sword of Omens in the mix, and the right magical incantations, it can’t happen anyway, right? Besides, can’t all the swords also be used to unite us all in peace according to the legends as well? Why shouldn’t we try to end all this destruction and fighting once and for all?" the Queen asked.

"Peace with the Thundercats? The miserable felines who tortured and persecuted us back on Third Earth?" Luna asked incredulously.

Selene cast a sheepish look at Luna, feeling guilty for forgetting how the Thundercats had treated her and her friends.

"And peace with the stupid, worthless Mutants? … Uh, present company excluded of course, Vultureman," TugMug said, poorly masking his lack of sincerity.

Vultureman flashed TugMug a dirty look before speaking again. "Caww, well you’ll never have peace with Mumm-Ra, that’s for sure. He would take all three swords and recite the incantation just to destroy them all and have it on his enemies. He’s pure evil."

Silvian nodded in assent with the others as he met Selene’s eyes. "You’re naive, sister, if you believe there can ever be peace among us."

"It’s better than the alternative—dying together," she argued softly.

Psiarik pulled her closer to him. "Or we can just do what we’ve been doing, and not worry about it for now. We’ll protect the sword and its magic, and our world will be safe. Why go looking for trouble?"

"Is denial the way you handle everything?" Lushara muttered.

"Lushara, don’t start with him now. Besides, this time I agree with him. For now, we should just guard the MoonSaber and entrust it to Silvian. It’s how it is meant to happen anyway." Frostor said. He glanced at Selene. "Not that I don’t think you can handle it of course, Selene, but Silvian does have more combat training."

Selene nodded. "No offense taken, Frostor. Silvian always liked to play rougher than I did anyway," she said with a wry smile, before growing serious again. "It is agreed then. Silvian will be its rightful master and guardian."

In his quarters on New Thundera’s Cat’s Lair, Panthro sat in his bed, feeling completely stir crazy. The local healer had given him a clean bill of health after the incident on the frozen moon, but had suggested rest for a couple of days, just to be on the safe side. Much like Lion-O, Panthro hated the safe side. It was boring. It also didn’t help that he couldn’t get the vision of Snoelle, and the memory of her warm touch, out of his mind. The desire to see her and be with her again was driving him absolutely crazy. He didn’t know how much more of it he could take without getting some straight answers about her.

He heard a knock at the door, and he called for whoever it was to come in. Six year old Pumari, daughter of Bengali and Pumyra, entered the room smiling.

"Hi Panthro, are you feeling better?" she asked.

"Sure am. I just wish they’d let me out of house arrest."

"Mom said the doctor said you gotta stay here in case they missed something."

"They’re paranoid." Panthro replied.

"Snarf said you wanted to read the Book of Omens so I brought it in for you. Snarf said he would’ve done it, but he’s busy cooking dinner. And I brought you some cookies that Snarf and I made earlier too," Pumari told him, holding out the ancient book and a plate of cookies.

Panthro took the stuff from her and smiled. "Thanks Pumari. You’re the best. I needed to look something up in this really badly." Immediately he began thumbing through the book’s pages.

"Whatcha looking up? Something about the Treasure of Thundera?" Pumari asked him curiously.

"No, I’m looking for information on the Thundercat who saved me on the frozen moon," he told her.

"Neat! Well I gotta go, Daddy and Lion-O want me to help Snarf with the chores," she said, making a face. "Talk to you later Panthro." Pumari waved and left the room.

Panthro waved back and concentrated on the ancient Book of Omens. Intuition guided him to a page holding information on past Thundercat nobles. He turned past pages chronicling feats of Thundercats many generations past, and didn’t stop until he saw the name Katan, that of Claudus’ father. Included with it was a list of names of nobles and the clans they were from that had served under Katan. He scanned the names until he found the name he was looking for: Snoelle, of the Snow Leopard Mountain Clan. A reference page was given and he quickly turned to it. He gasped when he found the passage. There was a sketch of a woman who looked exactly like the one who had saved his life. Thoroughly intrigued, he read the biographical information below it:

Snoelle, of the Snow Leopard Mountain Clan: Mighty huntress and sorceress of the snows. She was known for her valiant fighting in the Mutant wars and for saving the lives of those who were otherwise doomed to die in snows and avalanches. Her final task, assigned by her Lord Katan, was to go to the Third Moon of Plundarr and secure the MoonSaber from King Malla. The Sword of Plundarr was already being used against the Sword of Omens in many a battle and the great lord Katan feared that if the warlike Luntacs joined them in battle, it would spell the end of them all. Katan’s plan was to have Snoelle take the sword away from the enemy Lunatacs, lest the ancient Incantation of Destruction be recited. Snoelle succeeded in obtaining the MoonSaber, but she was stopped by Mallar’s sorceress Chillandra Mistress of the Cold, on the Ice Moon of Plundarr. Chillandra defeated Snoelle after a mighty battle, and both she and the MoonSaber vanished from existence. Despite hours of dangerous search in treacherous enemy territory, no one heard from Snoelle ever again, and she was believed dead. The clan of the Snow Leopards was outraged that their beloved Snoelle had been sent on such a dangerous mission, and they refused to allow any more of their descendants to join the ranks of the Thundercats ever again. Therefore Snoelle was the last of her kind among the mighty Thundercats.

Panthro found himself breathless as he finished reading the passage. She was only presumed dead, that was why she was there to help me, he mused. Then he realized the folly in that line of thinking. She would be very old herself if that were the case, and not the vibrant young woman that had so enchanted him when they met in that cave. It was then that he realized he never actually felt her touch, only the warmth that radiated from her. Great Jaga, she’s a ghost. I was saved by a ghost. Panthro felt a sense of great disappointment and shut the book. I’ll never see her again, he thought miserably.

Panthro had a vivid dream that night.

He was back in the igloo on the frozen moon, wrapped in the blanket by the fire. Snoelle came in. "I have come back for you," she said in a seductive whisper, and sat beside him.

"Why did you leave me when the others came?" he questioned. She did not answer, only wrapped her arms around him and kissed him passionately. Panthro eagerly returned the kiss and held her in his arms. When they broke apart and with great effort, he subdued his passions long enough to question to his mysterious savior once more.

"Why did you leave? Where can I find you? How can I be with you?"

"In my state I do not belong in your realm," she answered cryptically. "Just be with me now, handsome panther," she whispered, and kissed him again.

This time Panthro was unable to stop himself, and he took her in his arms and made love to her, taking in every bit of her intoxicating essence as their bodies joined in the soft firelight of icy getaway. After their interlude she slipped back, drawing herself away from him once more.

"No, don’t leave me, not again!" he called out, clinging fruitlessly to her retreating arms.

"I must go. If you so desire, you can find me here, where I remain imprisoned. Find me. Save me, my panther, as I have saved you, and we can be together for good."

With that she vanished. As her shadow faded away, the warm glow of the fire died, and bitter cold swept the room, leaving him chilled and lonely once more.

Panthro sat bolt upright in bed. "She does exist, and she is alive!" he exclaimed, his heart still pounding from the vivid dream. "I have to find her. Great Jaga, she’s still there!" The panther leapt to his feet and dressed quickly. "I don’t care what the others say, she exists and I will find her!" Driven with determination unlike any he’d felt in a long time, he left his room and ran straight for the landing bay.

Cheetara was walking down the hallway from the bathroom when she heard another door open. "Guess I’m not the only one up," she said, and looked around to see who it was. To her surprise she saw Panthro running down the hall. "What on Thundera is he doing up?" she wondered, and chased after him. She caught up with him in the landing bay, firing up the Feliner II, a newer duplicate of the original.

"And just where do you think you’re going?" she demanded of the panther, who was supposed to be in bed resting until he was declared recovered.

"Uh, Cheetara—I have to go back to the frozen moon," he told her.

"The frozen moon!" Cheetara exclaimed. "Are you crazy? You nearly died there earlier today!"

"She’s there, Cheetara. I know the rest of you don’t believe me but I know she’s there, and she needs me to find her and rescue her, the way she rescued me. Snoelle needs me," he said, his voice showing a deep feeling and devotion Cheetara hadn’t ever heard from him before.

"How do you know this Panthro? Kit said the scanners—"

"The scanners were wrong. She came to me in a dream. I have to find her, don’t you understand? I just know!" he said.

More so than any of the others, Cheetara did know what that feeling was like. It was the same feeling her sixth sense had left her with many a time. "Well wait a minute... don’t go by yourself. If someone needs your help, some of us can go with you. I’ll go, and I’ll see if Lion-O or any of the others would be willing. Would that be all right?" the cheetah asked.

"Yeah, I guess so," Panthro answered. "But hurry."

Cheetara smiled. "You don’t need to tell that to a cheetah." She darted out, and rounded up Lion-O, Tygra, and WilyKit from their sleep, despite their protests. She quickly told them what was going on, and brought them down to the landing bay with Panthro, who already had the Feliner II ready for take off.

"Panthro, you’re absolutely sure there’s another Thundercat up on that frozen moon?" Lion-O asked.

"I’ll wash Snarf’s dishes for a week if there isn’t," he answered.

"Hey, Snarf’ll love you if you’re wrong," WilyKit laughed, hopping into the Feliner II with the others. The Thundercats all buckled themselves into their seats, and they took off for a second trip to the frozen moon of Plundarr.

It was the dead of night when they landed on the frozen moon, at the same spot where they had earlier rescued Panthro from the igloo. Panthro, wearing his cat suit this time, darted out into the ice structure and began to search the place with a powerful flashlight. His search revealed nothing but a burned out fire and a frost covered blanket.

"I hate to tell you this, Panthro, but it sounds like Snarf’s dishes are calling your name," Lion-O observed with a tired sigh.

"No, she’s here," Panthro insisted. "I know it."

Cheetara felt an odd sensation, a tingling she recognized as her sixth sense. "Panthro is right. I sense a presence here. The floor, in the corner," she said, pointing to the far wall. "We need to remove the ice and dig."

"Dig? You think someone’s trapped underneath the floor?" WilyKit asked.

"Yes," Cheetara answered. Immediately Panthro pounced on the spot and began blasting it with the lasers in his nunchuks.

Once enough ice had been cleared, Tygra shined a light down the hole and gasped. "Holy Thundera! Panthro was right! There’s a woman encased in blue ice!"

"Help me pull her out," Panthro said, climbing into the hole before any of the others could stop him. Cheetara and Lion-O also reached in and helped him lift the ice block out of the hole.

Cheetara felt a numbing sensation through her gloves when they touched the strange ice. "This ice... it’s colder than regular ice somehow. There’s some kind of magic in it, making it colder than it should be, supernaturally."

"Well then I’m going to break the ice," Lion-O announced, raising the Sword of Omens and pointing it at the ice block. Everyone moved aside, and Lion-O let out a mighty shout of "HOOOOOO!" A burst of energy sprang from the sword, smashing the magic ice apart to reveal an exotic-looking Thunderian woman.

As soon as the ice shattered, Panthro leapt forward and caught her in his arms. Immediately he recognized her as the same woman from his dreams.

She stirred and moaned softly. "Where—where am I?" she asked weakly.

"We have freed you from your prison," Lion-O told her as he noticed her insignia. "You are a Thundercat?"

"Yes, she is," Panthro answered for her. "I read about her in the Book of Omens. Her name is Snoelle, and she’s the last surviving member of the Snow Leopard race."

"The… last?" a confused Snoelle murmured. "But—"

"Shh," Panthro cut her off. "You’ve been trapped for a long time. Take it easy, Snoelle. We’ll explain it all to you shortly."

"You know of me?" Snoelle asked, then focused her eyes and recognized him. "By Thundera… Panthro... you came for me."

WilyKit blinked in confusion. "Okay Panthro, so you were right about someone being trapped here. But what I don’t get is how she could have saved you if she was trapped in magic ice all this time."

"My astral body saw him in peril," Snoelle explained. "I projected it with all my energy to save his life. I see that I was successful. Oh Panthro, how I thank you for returning the favor." She reached for his hand and squeezed it.

"Oh, you’re welcome," he said, almost blushing, or as close as Panthro could come to it.

Snoelle met his eyes. "I found your dream, and contacted you in it. That worked as well?"

Panthro remembered the rather erotic dream, and smiled at her. "Damn well."

The snow leopard returned the smile, and closed her eyes again. "So tired..."

"We’ll take you home to the lair. You can rest and recuperate there," Cheetara offered. "As Cheetara, Thundercat noble and wife of Lion-O, Lord of the Thundercats, I formally invite you to stay with us, fellow Thundercat noble."

"Thank you," Snoelle replied graciously. The Thundercats then took Snoelle back to the Feliner II, and headed back to Cat’s Lair at top speed.

A Plundarrian moon away, Psiarik tossed and turned in his sleep. His recurring nightmare had returned, a nightmare he hadn’t had for some time now, but one that for years had haunted him every night.

He was a teenager again, sitting in the study in his mother’s house. His mother and stepfather stood above him, angry expressions on their faces. His little half-sister sat nearby crying. She hadn’t meant to get him in so much trouble, and his stepfather had such a temper...

"Don’t you feel any remorse for what you’ve done?" his stepfather yelled.

"I didn’t know she’d get scared. I just wanted her to forget she saw me," Psiarik tried to explain.

"You hypnotized your little sister when she caught you sneaking out just so you wouldn’t get into trouble. Your little stunt with mind control gave her nightmares. Doesn’t it even bother you that you used your seven year old sister’s fears to make her cover up for you? Don’t you care about anyone but yourself?"

"I didn’t know that’s how it worked!" he protested. "I never meant to scare her! I just wanted—"

"You just wanted, you just wanted," his stepfather repeated, glaring at him coldly. "Everything is about you, isn’t it? You’ve always been so damn selfish! How many times do we have to tell you that you have no business going around and imposing your will on others? It’s wrong!"

"I couldn’t help it... it just comes to me so easily, sometimes I can’t help it."

The angry psychic man scowled. "You can’t help it, can’t control it... that’s a lie, and we both know it. If you weren’t such a spoiled little punk, you would be able to do it just fine."

"You don’t understand!" Psiarik shouted back. There was a sting of truth to his words, for his motives had been selfish, but he truly hadn’t known that she would have suffered ill effects from it, or he wouldn’t have done it. "You’re just a seer don’t have the stupid power! Mom, tell him what it’s like. Tell him how it just starts happening sometimes. Tell him how hard it is to control!"

His mother cast him a disapproving glance. "I’ve always been able to control myself with a little discipline," she stated. "Unfortunately, you seem to have inherited your father’s destructive and cruel tendencies." With that, she turned away.

His stepfather glared at him again and gave a nod of agreement. "She’s right. You’re more your father’s son every day. Keep this up, and someday you’re going to be the same useless and selfish opportunist he was."

"I’m not like him!" the younger psychic protested vehemently. He knew all too well how his mother felt about his absent father. She’d certainly reminded him of that half of his origin enough times, especially in instances like this. "I’m nothing like him! I said I was sorry!"

"I think you’d better let your stepfather cool off for a little while," his mother told him coldly, not bothering to turn around to look at them. "Why don’t you go and think about what you’ve done?"

"Fine!" Psiarik yelled back, and ran outside. He was furious at them. Why were they so unreasonable? Didn’t they ever screw up? Why couldn’t they just understand?

He sulked and fumed as he ran through the rolling hills of his family’s property, a large estate near the capitol city of the Third Moon. After he reached the crest of the tallest hill, he sat sullenly in the grass for a while, when he heard a

strange rumbling from above. He looked up and saw that the sky glowed an eerie red instead of its normal purple hue. "Why does it look like that?" he wondered.

He didn’t have time to ponder it further, though, because he then suddenly heard a loud explosion from the direction of the city. Immediately he got to his feet and saw the peak of the mountain on the other side of the valley, just above the distant outline of the grand royal palace, explode in a yellowish fiery blast. Before he could react to that horrific sight, the ground beneath him shook more violently than he’d ever felt, and he fell to the ground. When he looked up, he saw his own house shake and crumble as a chasm opened beneath it. He thought he heard a couple of screams and cries before the house collapsed in on itself and fell into the chasm, vanishing forever.

"No!" he cried out too late. The ground stopped shaking, and all he heard was a moment of terrible silence, and then the far off wail of sirens in the city. The image of his destroyed home burned into his mind permanently as the realization that he would never see his mother, sister, or stepfather again began to sink in.

Then, the images in his dream changed from mere replay of memory, and his haunting nightmare took a sinister turn that it had never taken before. He was an adult again, and this time he stood in an unfamiliar place that he somehow knew was Thundera. A red-haired lion Thundercat stood viciously wielding the Sword of Omens. Selene was facing him off with the MoonSaber, her gentle face stained with tears and the blood of her brother, who lay motionless on the ground nearby. A Rat-Mutant stood ready to slaughter them both with his own sword, the intimidating and deadly double-bladed Sword of Plundarr. In the background, two cloaked figures emanating an evil as deadly as could be imagined, were watching the scene unfold with cruel amusement. Psiarik knew the danger his wife was in, and called to Selene.

But he called too late, and the three swords met and clashed. Lightning crashed all around as the cloaked figures began chanting in a foreign, ancient tongue. The swords somehow joined and a terrible destructive force pulled them together. Instantly Selene, the Thundercat, and the Rat-Mutant all fell to the ground dead. Psiarik rushed to Selene, but an earthquake knocked him to the ground so he couldn’t move. A chasm opened beneath Selene and the other warriors and the ground swallowed them all up. All but him.

"Not again!" he screamed. He then saw the watchful form of Alluro standing above him. He said only one word. "Destiny." Psiarik turned away, unable to face the intensity of his gaze. "You can’t stop what is destined to be," a disembodied voice called out as he closed his eyes. "When the past becomes the present and the ancient struggle is set in motion, only what seems impossible can stop the inevitable."

Psiarik sprung back into consciousness, his heart pounding and a cold sweat covering his forehead. He looked to his side and saw, thankfully, Selene sleeping peacefully beside him. He realized that he was still shaking, but breathed a sigh of relief. "It was just a stupid dream," he whispered. Taking a deep breath, he lay back down against the covers and attempted to fall back asleep, but that proved impossible. The images had been too real and unnerving for him to be able to rest.

"Great," he grumbled. "Now I’ll never get any sleep tonight." Carefully he extricated himself from the covers and climbed out of bed. He grabbed a robe and decided to head down to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of Plundarrian whiskey to soothe his nerves.

As he shuffled down the hallway, the image of a red-cloaked figure in bandages chuckled softly to himself in the shadows. Now isn’t this interesting... Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living thought with great amusement.