Bengali, Pumyra, and Lynx-O ran onto the patio where the mutants, Tygra, Chilla, Celeste, and Damien were facing off. "Tygra!" Pumyra called. "We’ve been worried!"

"You needn’t be concerned for me." Tygra said flatly, a faraway look in his eyes.

"Yes, Thundercats, I am taking good care of him." Celeste smiled.

"Are the mutants giving you trouble?" Lynx-O asked.

Damien looked at the mutants hatefully. "Nothing we can’t handle, noble Thundercats."

Just then WilyKit, WilyKat, and Jackalman ran out of the archway. "Bengali! Pumyra! Lynx-O! Tygra!" the Thunderkittens called.

"Kids! What are you...?" Bengali asked.

"Guys, kill them!" Jackalman yelled to the mutants, pointing to Damien and Celeste. "They’re some kind of wierd demons and they locked me up in their dungeon before nearly tearing me to pieces just for watching him sweet-talk Chilla!"

"Yeah, Damien locked us up too! He’s some kind of monster!" WilyKit cried.

Celeste shot Damien an angry look. He heard her voice echo in his mind. Look what your foolish impulsiveness has done! She mentally berated him. She turned to the others. "Surely you cannot believe that we would harm anyone for something as trivial as eavesdropping. Much less terrorize innocent children." she said in a charming voice.

"You lie!" WilyKat cried.

"WilyKat, Celeste is not evil. She’s kind and good-hearted. She saved Cheetara’s life. How can you think such a thing of her?" Tygra defended her.

"Tygra, this is us. You know we wouldn’t lie about something like this. Look at these bruises. Damien did this to us!" WilyKit pleaded.

Pumyra looked from Tygra to the kids, not knowing what to think. She was further distracted when the Thundertank arrived on the scene. Lion-O and Cheetara climbed out and ran to the patio where the others were.

"Unhand those kids, you bullying monster!" Lion-O yelled at Damien.

"Lion-O, what’s going on?" Tygra demanded.

"I’ll tell you. The Sword of Omens showed me Damien attacking the Thunderkittens. These people aren’t who they claim to be, Tygra. We put together what we know and what the sword told us with what we learned from the lunatacs and—"

At the mention of her old affiliates, Chilla perked up. "What are you talking about? We would never have anything to do with you!" she snarled. As if on cue, the storage bay of the Thundertank burst open from an electrical blast. RedEye, TugMug, and Alluro, who had waited until the tank had stopped for a minute or so to make their escape, burst out and joined the others. Chilla looked at her friends incredulously, then stared at Lion-O hatefully. "You locked them up? How dare you?" she yelled.

"They were stealing our Thundrilium." Cheetara answered.

"Not to worry, dear Chilla. I will take care of these foes of yours. Never will they trouble you—or me—again." Damien said determinedly and stepped towards Lion-O.

"Chilla! Get away from him! He’s not who he says he is!" TugMug yelled.

"No! I won’t listen to you! Damien wouldn’t lie to me!"

"Of course I wouldn’t, my love." he replied smoothly.

"Chilla, he’s a demonic creature. Lion-O saw it in that stupid sword of his after he and Cheetara got the better of us at the excavation site. He is not your friend." Alluro told her.

"No." Chilla replied defiantly. "You’re lying."

"For once in his life, Alluro is telling the truth, Chilla." WilyKit asserted. "Damien caught WilyKat and I watching you all on the patio and knocked us unconcious, then locked us up to keep us quiet. He did the same thing to Jackalman. Please, listen to us! You too, Tygra. You know us. We wouldn’t lie to you, not on something like this."

Celeste stepped forward. "You children are delusional. You have somehow convinced yourselves of this fantastical account of an assault because you cannot handle the truth—Tygra would rather be with me than you. That’s what is really going on here, isn’t it?" she asserted in her hypnotic voice. Her influential powers temporarily confused the kittens and everyone else. "Now I suggest you leave my village immediately. All of you. As you can see, Tygra and Chilla are fine, you have found your missing Jackalman and kitten twins, all is right with everything. Go on peacefully before you start something you will live to regret." She said forcefully.

Lion-O held the Sword of Omens. "I will not be swayed by your lies and supernatural charm. The Eye of Thundera knows and shows to me the truth of things and all of your powers cannot persuade me to believe that the Eye of Thundera could be wrong. It will take more than telling us what we want to hear to get rid of the Thundercats. You have tricked and entrapped Tygra and hurt WilyKit and WilyKat. For those crimes, you must be punished." He raised his sword. "Sword of Omens, strike true and destroy this evil with your might!"

Celeste glanced quickly at Tygra. Their eyes met and she nodded. He felt her command, her presence, her influence fill him. A beam of energy originating from the Eye of Thundera started to form aiming for Celeste. "NO!" shouted Tygra. As Lion-O took aim at Celeste he jumped with incredible speed and strength and attacked Lion-O. "I love her and you will not harm her, even if I must destroy you to do it. She good and kind and true and I will not let you destroy her!"

Everyone gasped as Tygra knocked Lion-O over and kicked the Sword of Omens from his grasp. He struck him on the head and Lion-O, caught completely by surprise from the attack. Adding further to the chaos, Skytomb was landing outside the palace. "Luna’s here. It’s about damn time." RedEye muttered.

Taking advantage of the distractions, Alluro raised his psyche club and dislodged the crystal to fall over Chilla’s head. One way or another he was going to get her out of the mind grip that immortal creep had on her, even if he had to put a mind grip on her himself to do it. "Chilla!" he called, concentrating as hard as he could. "You will not resist. You will return with us. You belong with us. You will not stay with Damien."

Chilla seemed confused by it all. "I—I won’t stay." she stammered.

Damien whirled around and fury blazed in his eyes as he saw what was going on. "Oh no, you won’t get her from me that easily." He faced Chilla and turned on his powers of influence full force. "Chilla, resist him. He is not your friend. He does not care about you, not like I do. He wishes only to control you, to use you. He wants you to be subservient to him. He is using his weapons on you, using his mind powers to try and control your actions. He is your enemy. He must be destroyed. All of your old associates must be destroyed."

Chilla faced Damien. "Enemy... must be destroyed." she replied. Alluro’s psyche club shut off and the crystal returned to its holder, its power nullified by Damien’s. Damien let out a smug laugh as Chilla faced Alluro with hatred burning in her eyes. "Damien’s right. You’re trying to use me, trying to control me! Nobody gets away with that!" she snarled, and shot a blast of icy air at him, then at RedEye and TugMug.

Alluro ducked and yelled back. "You think I’m using you? What do you think he’s doing to you? He says ‘jump’ and your reply is ‘how high?’. He’s taken you away from the entire outside world just to have his way with you and have you in his power. He’s the one manipulating you like a puppet and you say I’m using you?!"

"You’re a liar and I hate you!" she howled. "I’ll kill you! All of you! But you first!" she yelled and lunged for his throat. She knocked him over and began to choke him with her bare hands.

Damien laughed arrogantly. "She’s mine. She’ll always be mine, and I’ll enjoy taking every drop of energy from her and making it mine as well."

A blazing arrow originating from a balcony lodged itself in Damien’s shoulder. "This is the only energy you’re going to get you selfish bastard!" Mirlana said hatefully as she loaded up her bow for another shot from the balcony.

Damien faced his attacker. When he saw it was his supposedly meek servant Mirlana, wearing her old warrior-maiden clothes and wielding her bow and arrows viciously, his jaw dropped in astonishment, just for a moment. "You... dare to attack me? The one who gave you an eternal life in the village? Do you know how many years dead you would be now if I hadn’t taken you as my own, you worthless fool?"

"Shut up Damien. I’ve put up with your egotistical delusions for far too many years now. It’s over and I’m the one ending it. It may have taken me decades to do so, but I’ve finally come to my senses. I’m going to see you and Celeste destroyed and your evil wiped off the face of Third Earth for good!" she turned to the crowd of Thundercats, mutants, and lunatacs gathered below. "Don’t let them decieve you! They are not the pleasing creatures they seem to be. They lie and connive and scheme to get you into their power until you are so wrapped up in their life of pleasure that you don’t realize what they’re doing to you until it’s too late. Little by little they sap your energy, your power, your vitality and change you into a weak being that lives forever as their slave but will die if it leaves the village. They slowly take away your freedom and energy until you have no choice but to be their slave, then they move on and find another, then another, then another and it never stops! I was one of Damien’s victims years ago and I know what they’re capable of. Over the years I’ve seen them destroy one innocent life after another. Don’t let them continue. Stop them now. Destroy them with whatever weapons you have and burn their village to the ground. It’s the source of their power. Free all the poor souls like me condemned to live in their world of lies. Do it now!!!" she shouted as she swung off the balcony onto the patio with the others.

A look of horrified realization crossed the faces of all of the outsiders but Chilla, who was still choking Alluro, and Tygra, who was still fighting Lion-O. Lion-O was doing his best to hold him off without hurting him, realizing that it was Celeste’s influence that was forcing him into the irriational rage he was exhibiting.

"You’ll pay for this outrage with your life, you pitiful ingrate!" Damien snarled as he transformed into his supernatural vicious form and lunged at Mirlana with his claws.

"Leave her alone!" Jackalman hollered, and smashed a nearby wooden end table over Damien’s back. Heroic stunts weren’t part of his nature, but Mirlana had been the only one in the village to come to his defense when he needed help, and wasn’t going to stand by and watch while Damien tried to harm her.

Jackalman’s action spurred the other mutants into action, along with a bunch of the others. They proceeded to pick up torches and set fire to the palace and other buildings in the village, as well as destroy everything in sight.

Tygra continued assaulting Lion-O. "I don’t want to hurt you, Tygra. I know this isn’t you doing this to me." Lion-O said, his voice heavy with emotion. "Tygra, she’s evil. Would someone with good intentions urge you to destroy your fellow Thundercats?"

Celeste laughed wickedly. "Oh give it up, Lion-O. You lost him to me long ago."

Cheetara took out her staff and swung at Celeste angrily. "You haven’t won anything yet." she snarled as her staff smacked Celeste in the head. Celeste fell backwards and scowled. She transformed into the same supernatural and evil form that Damien had taken on, and shot Cheetara with an energy beam, sending a painful shock through her body. "Unngh!" Cheetara cried out as she dropped to her knees.

Lion-O dodged another shot from Tygra. "Tygra, please!"

"You won’t harm her Lion-O. I love her!" Tygra growled.

Lion-O raised the Sword of Omens. "This is the only way I know of to bring you to your senses. Thunder—Thunder—Thundercats HOOOO!" he shouted as the sword extended to full length, the Thundercat signal filled the sky, and the loud growl of the Eye of Thundera roared through the village and the surrounding forest.

Tygra’s eyes glowed along with those of the other Thundercats’ and awareness of what was truly happening filled his mind. "Great Jaga, what came over me?" he mumbled as the memories of Celeste’s manipulations and his attack on Lion-O came to him. He turned and saw Celeste in her true form. "You... you did this to me... you said you loved me."

Celeste pouted. "Oh dear Tygra, don’t tell me you’ll let a little thing like this come between us? And to think I had such great plans for us!" she added with a sarcastic laugh.

Mirlana looked up from fighting Damien and pulled out his retracted bolo-whip. "Tygra! You’ll be needing this back I think!" she shouted as she tossed it to him, just in time to dodge a shot from Damien.

Tygra caught the whip and lashed it, his strength and power restored by the Eye of Thundera, and stared at Celeste again. "How could I have ever thought I loved a creature as evil as you? You tried to destroy me."

"One way or another, I will." she said viciously. "I don’t lose my battles, striped warrior." She blasted a beam of energy at him. He deflected the shot with his whip, and then lashed the whip at her. She was forced backwards, only to be stunned by a shot from Bengali’s hammer and a few exploding marbles courtesy of Pumyra. Lion-O didn’t wait for her to recover and raised the Sword of Omens. "HOOOO!" he shouted. The beam struck Celeste and knocked her backwards.

Meanwhile, Chilla had Alluro pinned to the ground and was choking him with all her might. He reached up and shoved her as hard as he could, lessening her grip enough so that he could speak. "He’s gotten you so whipped that you’ll even kill for him huh?" Alluro taunted her.

"Shut up! Damien loves me and I won’t let you or any of the others destroy that!"

"Loves you? You think he loves you? Did you hear that warrior maiden say what he does? He wants your power. He’s turning you into a weak zombie-like slave and you’re letting him do it. If that’s love, I’d pass."

"No! He wouldn’t! We’re supposed to spend the rest of our lives together, being happy! Why won’t any of you let me have that?"

"Oh look at him, Chilla! Do you want to spend the rest of your life with that?!" With much effort, Alluro managed to reach up and forcefully turn her head to see Damien in his true demonic form ready to tear Mirlana, Jackalman, and now RedEye, TugMug, and also Luna and Amok (who had apparently come out of Skytomb to take on Damien themselves when they saw

what was happening) to pieces.

Something in Chilla snapped when she saw Damien as he really was. "That’s... Damien? It can’t be." she whispered, in utter shock.

"It is! Chilla, that’s Damien! Don’t let him fool you any more!" Mirlana shouted.

Damien turned and saw Chilla staring at him, the recognition of what he really was registering in her mind. "Chilla, darling, I can explain..." he spoke in his hypnotic and charming voice. It seemed incongruous with his frightening appearance.

Chilla’s face hardened and the nasty expression that usually was present on her face slowly returned. A cold fury built inside her. Alluro, still pinned beneath her, saw the change occur and breathed a sigh of relief as he recognized her own true nature re-emerge. Chilla stood and faced Damien. "You lied to me! You used me!" she hissed. She spat a blast of icy air at him. "No one treats me like that and lives to tell about it!" she snarled as she turned on him.

Damien ducked the attack. "Well, so you’ve chosen your loser friends over a life with me. It’s too bad. Now you’ll have to die right along with them." Damien shot a powerful blast of energy directly at her. Since she was still disoriented she couldn’t dodge the blast and was hit hard, knocking her unconcious. She tumbled backwards, and Alluro caught her just before she fell to the ground.

Chilla confronting him was enough of a distraction for Mirlana to load up another fire arrow and aim at him. Damien saw her a second too late, as the blazing arrow plunged into his body, piercing his supernatural heart.

Lion-O, seeing his fellow Thundercats holding Celeste at bay and seeing Mirlana successfully hit Damien, raised the Sword of Omens once more. "Sword of Omens, banish these evil creatures to a realm from which they can never harm anyone ever again!" he shouted. The Eye of Thundera pulsed with energy, and a beam formed. As it shot from the eye, it split into two streams. One stream struck Celeste, the other Damien. Each howled in pain as the blinding white light consumed them. There was a brilliant flash, then an explosion as each of them burst into a hellish ball of flames and then vanished out of existence with unearthly screams.

The demise of their masters caused the existence of the entire village, now half demolished by the mutants anyway, to begin to fade out of existence as well.

Mirlana lost all her strength and fell to the ground.

Jackalman reached for her. "Mirlana. What’s happening?"

"It’s the end of me. Their power, their evil power, it was keeping me alive. That power is gone, and soon I will be too."

"You don’t deserve this. You’re better than them. You helped us. You helped me." Jackalman stated, trying to hold her up.

Mirlana smiled. "I’m glad I could. Take care of yourself, my friend." she told him.

Lion-O came over to her. "You’re brave. You helped us defeat them when you knew it meant losing your own life. I admire your courage."

"Dying could never be worse than spending another minute with them. I had to stop them to save all the others, and maybe myself." Mirlana whispered.

"I think you’ve definately done that much." Lion-O assured her. "Good luck with whatever existence you go on to now."

Mirlana nodded. "Goodbye." she whispered, and faded from existence forever. Lion-O lowered his head and rejoined his friends.

Jackalman looked upon the spot she had been somewhat sadly, but was shaken out of the depressing thoughts when Slythe, Monkian, and Vultureman came up behind him. "Hoo hoo, this place is falling apart. Let’s get out of here."

"Yessss, back to Castle Plundarr." Slythe ordered. The mutants exchanged nods and headed back to their vehicles and flew off into the night.

Chilla stirred back into conciousness. Alluro and TugMug helped her to her feet. "Where’s Damien, is he dead?" she mumbled.

"Lion-O nuked them with the sword. Damien won’t be chasing you again anytime soon." TugMug answered.

Luna and Amok came over. "Get back into Skytomb now. We’ve had enough of this nonsense. We’ve found Chilla, now let’s get out of here."

"Right." RedEye answered, and opened the doors. Chilla leaned on Alluro and TugMug, still feeling wobbly from the blast Damien had given her. They returned to Skytomb and took off.

The Thundercats gathered in the clearing where the village once stood.

Tygra looked at the ground regretfully. "I cannot tell you all how sorry I am for all the trouble I have caused."

Cheetara offered him a smile. "You were in love. It does funny things to you, to everyone. What’s important is that you came through for us when we needed you."

"And we’re glad to have you back." Lynx-O said.

"That’s right." Lion-O added. "Deep down you’re a Thundercat. You’ll always be one of us, and even Celeste and all her power couldn’t turn that against us. I’m still proud to call you one of us."

"I just hope your taste in women improves before next time." Bengali laughed.

"Not to be pushy or anything, but let’s get back to the lair ok? That dungeon was really grimy." WilyKat complained.

Tygra gave the boy a smile. "That’s the best suggestion I’ve heard all day."

The Thundercats piled back into the Thunderstrike and Thundertank and went home.