A few more weeks passed without incident. WilyKit hadn't gotten any worse, but not that much better. The dreams still bothered her, but she was sleeping a bit better now out of sheer exhaustion. The strange sickness had slackened a bit and was only affecting her once every few days instead of every day. The Thundercats had been rather busy, so WilyKit had little difficulty keeping her troubles to herself, especially now that she'd been sent away from the lair on a mission, a rather unusual one. The time for the five-year anniversary of the victory at the Battle of the Swords grew nearer, and there were big plans being made in honor of it. There had been a celebration every year so far, but this one promised to be the largest ever, as for the first time the leaders of all three of the newly allied governments-- Lion-O, Selene, and Ratar-O-- had agreed to a ceremony to strengthen their alliances by each government sending an abassador to each of the other two home worlds for the festivities. It was to act as a sign that peace had truly been achieved, that each side was willing to forgive and forget. Lion-O had chosen WilyKat and WilyKit as his ambassadors. WilyKat was to be the one to go to Plundarr and stay with the mutants while WilyKit was to go to the Third Moon of Plundarr and stay among the lunatacs. They would be accompanied by Snarf Oswald and Snarfer, respectively. Lion-O had offered them the opportunity to make up for all that they had missed out on over the years while they were still children and were seemingly "left out" all the time.

WilyKat was excited to take the mission and see what Plundarr was like when they weren't fighting on it, but WilyKit was nervous. She didn't like the idea of being stuck in the home base of what was once an enemy, even if they were allies now. She liked Selene well enough the few times they had met and she definately had no fears about Psiarik, since he had been the one who had saved her and WilyKat from Mumm-Ra's pyramid before the Battle of the Swords, and had even risked their entire mission to save Chet. It was the presence of the lunatacs they had fought on Third Earth, the supposedly now "reformed" Lunatacs of Plundarr, that made her nervous. They all lived in the royal quarters, the MoonTower, because of their ties to Selene and Psiarik. The fact that Vultureman still lived there didn't make her feel any better either. On top of the uncomfortable feelings her disappearance and dreams brought up, spending a couple of weeks among a bunch of lunatacs wasn't exactly what she thought was a good time. Still, she would never have told Lion-O that, and figured she was just being silly about the whole thing. Besides, I have Snarfer's company on my trip, that won't be so bad, she thought.

WilyKit stared out the window of the ship, on auto-pilot due to the easily plotted course, and watched the stars float all around her and the beauty of the planets and moons from the distance of space. She watched for a long time, and eventually saw the ship approaching its final destination on the Third Moon of Plundarr. She called Snarfer over, and the two of them watched the space fade away into the evening light as the ship entered the moon's atmosphere and the two of them returned to the controls to manually oversee the landing sequence. They landed in the pre-arranged spot and collected their things. As they exited the ship, they saw several individuals waiting for them.

WilyKit recognized two of them immediately: Psiarik and Frostor, and next to them was a small child who couldn't have been much older than four years old, and a man who appeared to be about WilyKit's age who was of a race of lunatacs she recognized as the hunter-race, mostly from his strikingly white skin and long, wild, dark evergreen-colored hair. She shivered a little when she saw this man, but couldn't tear her eyes away from him, as though she was helplessly drawn to him. He was very handsome, and although she couldn't remember ever meeting him before, she was sure that there was something she ought to know about him, a sort of familiarity that she just couldn't place at the moment.

Snarfer noticed that she seemed preoccupied. "Snarfer, snarfer, WilyKit, are you all right?" he asked her as they headed towards them. "Do you know that guy or something?"

"I, uh, no Snarfer." she mumbled. "I've never met him before. I don't know who he is." she answered. Although she wasn't as sure as she sounded, it was the truth as best she knew it, and she felt no need to make Snarfer worry about her memory lapse. She couldn't bear having anyone else think she might be losing it too. She faced her hosts as she and Snarfer joined them. "Hello." she greeted them, not really knowing what else to say. The situation felt awkward.

Psiarik gave her a friendly smile. "Hello WilyKit. It's nice to see you again. Welcome to the Third Moon. You two, um" he looked down at a sheet of paper he was holding "... Snarfer. Sorry, I'm not that great at names sometimes."

"It's okay." Snarfer replied. Snarfer was a little nervous. The idea of staying with a bunch of lunatacs still freaked him out, especially when the ones that used to take great joy in tormenting them were now living in the same building they'd be staying in as ambassadors of peace. Snarfer had a little trouble believing that they'd reformed, and WilyKit had a few doubts herself still.

Psiarik nodded politely and faced the two again. "Although I know you know who Frostor and I am, WilyKit; Snarfer, I'd like to introduce myself to you. I'm Psiarik, King of the Moons of Plundarr, this is our Governer General, Frostor. And I don't believe either of you have met Darkail, our top-ranking royal officer," he gestured to the hunter-lunatac "or little Erissa here." he bent down and took the little girl's hand, then looked up and smiled again. "These two are WilyKit and Snarfer of the Thundercats."

Darkail leaned forward and took WilyKit's hand. "Charmed." he said in a silky-smooth voice as he shook it. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"You too." WilyKit answered, trying to sound normal, but it was very hard, given how his presence was making her feel. She shivered again at his touch and felt that odd sensation again, but it vanished as soon as he let go and greeted Snarfer.

"Well then, why don't you come with us? We'll show you where you'll be staying. Our mutant ambassador arrived a little while ago, he's already settled in. Apparently he's good friends with our resident scientific advisor, Vultureman. His name's Jackalman." Frostor told them, and motioned for everyone to follow him.

"Rowr, Jackalman? He used to be real trouble, snarfer, snarfer..." Snarfer mumbled.

The little girl, Erissa, spoke up. "How come you no like mutants? Vultureman's nice, 'cept when he makes things blow up and he gets mad." WilyKit looked down at her. There was something familiar about her too, although not in the same way that the hunter-lunatac seemed familiar. She looked at the girl and tried to think of who she reminded her of. She was a little on the tall side for her apparent age, and had longish wavy white hair with the purplish pink skin color that some of the races of lunatacs had.

Snarfer smiled at her and bounced up on his tail. She seemed amazed at his acrobatics with his tail and smiled at him. "Vultureman used to do things a lot worse than make things blow up. He used to be real bad, snarfer snarfer, sure was. So was Jackalman." Snarfer looked at her, watching him wide-eyed as he bounced on his tail. "What about you, are you a troublemaker?" he teased, bounching back onto his feet for a moment.

She shook her head. "Nun unh. I'm good. They all say so." she informed him emphatically. The girl giggled as she watched him bounce around. "You're funny. I never met a Snarf before."

"Yeah, she's a good kid. Maybe a little hyper. But everyone's crazy about her." Psiarik remarked.

WilyKit gave Psiarik a curious look. "Is she your daughter?"

Psiarik laughed. "Oh, no. She's my sister actually-- but I do have one child, a son. He's inside. His name is Silvian-- Selene wanted to name him after her brother. Losing him really hit her hard-- hit all of us kinda hard actually. It was our little way of helping keep his memory alive, you know? He's only two years old though."

"Kids are nice." WilyKit agreed. "Chet and Pumari really liven up Cat's Lair." WilyKit gave Erissa another look. "She's your sister you say? That's a big age difference."

Psiarik shrugged. "Yeah well, my family's full of funky age differences. My dad's only like sixteen years or so older than me chronologically, since he spent about 15 years in stasis in hardened lava. Besides, she's actually my half sister. My mother's been dead for a long time now."

"Mine too." WilyKit replied thoughtfully. "Since I was a baby actually. Thank Jaga I have Kat." She glanced at Erissa again. "So, uh, she's Alluro's daughter huh?" WilyKit asked with amusement. She noticed she didn't look all that much like her father however.

Psiarik read her thoughts. "She doesn't look much like him. Looks more like her mother. Chilla."

WilyKit couldn't help but laugh. Snarfer snickered too. "Sorry." WilyKit giggled. "I don't mean to be rude, I just find that entire idea really funny, that's all. Chilla does NOT strike me as a parental type." She and Snarfer both giggled again.

Frostor laughed too. "Yes well, playing 'mommy' was a rough adjustment for her, to put it mildly."

"Not half as hard on her as it was on the rest of us living here and dealing with her." Psiarik remarked.

WilyKit laughed again. "I'll just bet."

Frostor grinned. "As you may have imagined, it wasn't something she had planned on... And if you find the idea of Chilla having a child funny, you should watch Luna babysit sometime, if you really want a laugh."

Erissa frowned. "What's wrong with Aunt Luna? Other than she yells a lot?"

"Rowr, I guess some things don't change, he he he." snickered Snarfer.

"That's right, the two of you knew Luna and the others back on Third Earth, didn't you?" Darkail spoke suddenly.

"You could say that." WilyKit answered with a half frown. "But I'd really rather not think about it right now. Why don't we try and focus on the future?"

"Spoken like a true visionary." Darkail told her with a smile. "Let us get you settled inside then, and go to dinner."

An hour or so later, WilyKit and Snarfer had been shown to their guest quarters and were finishing their unpacking in the short time before they were supposed to meet everyone at some sort of welcome dinner. WilyKit was looking forward to dealing with Luna and her crew again about as much as she wanted to wash her brother's dirty socks by hand, but she was getting resigned to it. It was her duty as a Thundercat to give any mission she was assigned 110%, and she intended to do just that. She was stretching on her bed when she heard a knock at the door. "Come in!" she called.

Snarfer stood there. "Hi WilyKit... snarfer, snarfer, it's time." he told her nervously.

"Oh goody goody goo drops." she muttered, using a statement she had picked up from Mumm-Ra sometime way back when. She stood and joined him in the hallway. "Let's go and get this over with."

"Well well well, look who it is, nyah ha ha!" a familiar jackalian voice rang out. WilyKit and Snarfer whirled around to see Jackalman and Vultureman in the hallway. "So you're the Thundercat Ambassadors, huh? Long time no see, WilyKit."

"Can't say I've missed you." she shot back. "So how'd you get the title of Ambassador? Been kissing up to Ratar-O the last five years?"

"Cawww, he was visiting his old pal Vultureman." Vultureman answered. "Let's cut the talk and get the food. I'm starving, and no one will eat until you three show up."

WilyKit and Snarfer exchanged looks of "I don't believe this is really happening", and walked with Vultureman and Jackalman down the hallway.

The group arrived downstairs and were greeted by Selene, who was very warm and pleasant to the guests. WilyKit realized she did genuinely like her, she didn't seem to be at all like her "Aunt Luna". Selene led them inside and seated them at a huge table. All of their old lunatac enemies were there, as well as Psiarik, Frostor, and Darkail. The little girl wasn't around, but WilyKit assumed since it was getting late and a dinner like this would be boring as hell for a kid, that she had been sent to play or to bed or something. They sat down, and what had to have been one of the most awkward moments of their lives began. There was some small talk and chat, but nothing really noteworthy happened until Luna did the inevitable and opened her mouth.

"So WilyKit, Snarfer, how's our dear old friend Lion-O?" Luna asked.

WilyKit tried to think of what answer to give her. She stared at Luna. She looked about the same, only even older, and she now wore glasses. It made her look comically serious, and it was all WilyKit could do not to laugh. "Uh, Lion-O's fine." she replied.

"I imagine he's getting old and out of shape now. I mean, he's got to be in his forties. Not the dashing young fool he once was." Luna continued.

"Ain't that the truth! His hair's still big though, except now it has gray streaks in it." Jackalman replied. "I saw it on the monitor when Ratar-O was working out the terms of this whole ambassador exchange thing." Some of the others laughed at the mental image of the "mature" Lion-O.

"With an ego as big as his, I would think he'd dye it." Luna quipped. The lunatacs and the mutants laughed.

"Aunt Luna, please..." Selene said with a pleading tone in her voice at her loudmouthed relative. She didn't want this to get any more awkward than it already was.

"Well he's no older than you are Luna." Snarfer commented. That comment too made several of the others, lunatacs included, snicker.

Alluro gave Luna an amused look. "The snarf has a point, Luna, you haven't much room to talk. You were getting on in your years back on Third Earth, and here it is almost twenty years later."

Luna snarled at him. "I'm not the one who's a grandparent, Alluro. Perhaps you shouldn't be so critical lest someone point out your own age."

"Or receding hairline." muttered Vultureman, just loud enough to be heard. There was another chorus of snickering.

"A change of subject, please?" Selene requested with uncharacteristic forcefulness.

"Is that a royal order, darling?" Psiarik asked her with a goofy grin on his face. "This was just starting to liven up."

Frostor smiled. "Luna, you wouldn't want to offend our guests would you, after all that's gone on to ensure peace?"

"WilyKit doesn't offend that easily." Darkail informed them. WilyKit noticed Alluro give him a pointed look. Darkail then added. "I imagine not, anyway. It isn't the impression she gives. Neither does Snarfer."

"No, I don't. Just be warned, when it comes to wit and verbal banter, I believe in giving as good as I get. You can say what you want to me and I won't get offended, but I can't be responsible for what I might say in response." she said with an innocent smile.

"Good answer." Darkail said approvingly.

"Was that a challenge to match wits, Thundercat?" Luna asked WilyKit with what appeared to be amusement.

"Don't start a battle you don't have the ammo to fight, Luna." Jackalman laughed.

"Shut up, you fleabrained mutant!" she snarled.

"AUNT LUNA!" Selene yelled angrily. A silence fell over the group. It wasn't like Selene to yell like that. She lowered her voice. "Please, enough already. Is it too much to ask to have a civilized dinner?"

"For them?" Frostor said, gesturing to Luna and her group, smirking. "You bet."

"Shut up, Frostor." Chilla scowled. "Like you're any better. You're finding the whole damn thing funny."

"Oh, and you're not?" TugMug asked her. "Give me a break!"

Luna ignored the others and turned towards Selene. "Sorry dear. I'll stop it. As a favor to you." she apologized. "I wouldn't want to start a diplomatic incident after all." she said, sounding about as sincere as Mumm-Ra.

WilyKit picked at her food. This was turning into the dinner from hell! She was going to have to put up with them for weeks? Damn, she didn't think she could take it, not on top of the stress she was already under with her wierd sickness, troubling dreams, and unanswered questions about her parents. There were no more outbursts after that at least, Selene had made it quite clear she wouldn't stand for it and the others stayed in line. Unfortunately that didn't make the dinner all that much easier. She noticed Alluro giving her strange looks on two separate occasions during dinner, as if he was trying to read her thoughts or something, and it gave her the creeps. As if that wasn't bad enough, she also found herself staring at Darkail and thinking about him. What was it about him that had her so intrigued? Why couldn't she tear herself away? She could tell that he liked her, but that was all. What was she missing?

The next course of food was brought out, and WilyKit focused on that instead, and decided to try and not think about why she was so fascinated by Darkail, why Alluro would be staring at her, or any of the other problems in her life. Soon Selene started up a decent conversation that kept those at the table, including herself, occupied pleasantly, and the rest of the dinner passed without incident.

Wondering what to do with herself now that she was settled into her room for the night, she reached into her bag and found something she had forgotten about way at the bottom. Thrilled that she had an opportunity to finally read it, she pulled out Grune's journal, snuggled under the covers of the bed she was given, and began to read.

Parts of it were fascinating, through Grune's writing she was able to get a real sense of him. He had been a proud man, full of ambition, strength, love, and, at one time, goodness. She learned that he had been one of the Thundercats along with his closest friend Jaga, Lord Claudus, and several others, including the one named Scarlette who had died in that accident. She learned Scarlette had not been officially a Thundercat but a competitor with Tygra for the position that Tygra won by default when she had died. She also learned, much to her surprise that Scarlette was Grune's lover and the woman named Sibera was Jaga's fiance. Much of the early journal told of missions Grune had gone on and how he had fallen in love with the young trainee Scarlette, and how the two of them grew inseparable. Nothing in the early part indicated that Grune would have turned to the path of evil that he had later chosen.

WilyKit was drawn farther and farther into Grune's writings when she saw a passage that she identified with, a passage that in parts was hauntingly coincidental to her own current mission.

"It is on this day that Claudus sends me on the mission of peace to the Third Moon of Plundarr in the hopes that we can form a sort of alliance with the lunatac royalty, specifically King Lunaro. Personally I don't think it will ever happen, just like that failed peace mission to Plundarr that Tessana was sent on weeks ago. Still I know I must try, even though I find the title "Ambassador Grune" to be rather amusing. I am no diplomat, but I suppose my straightforward manner is why Claudus chose me in the first place, after all, they're likely to try and give me the runaround and will need to be set straight and I'm more than intimidating enough to do it if I choose to be. If only this mission of peaceful negotiation wasn't so long! I hate the thought of not being able to see Scarlette for five weeks. She and I have been together only a matter of months, and I already know she must be the one for me. I know she loves me as I love her and would agree to be my mate if I asked, but she has said she wants to wait on any important decisions, personal or otherwise, until she obtains the rank of Thundercat. I must hand it to her that she is confident, but her rival Tygra is no pushover. Naturally I hope Scarlette will win the position, but that decision is ultimately up to Firestripe and he is impossible to read. Ah well, no use dwelling on something that can't be changed. I suppose now I should be worrying about how to approach those treacherous lunatacs and deal with that arrogant king of theirs while watching my back the entire time. I can't help but wonder what awaits me when I arrive as an Ambassador of Peace on the Third Moon of Plundarr."

Curious and intrigued, WilyKit turned the page.