Path Into The Darkness

WilyKit did not sleep well that night, though this time it was not because of any direct interference on the part of Mumm-Ra or Torlei. Instead she was plagued with troubling nightmares, but they weren't like any she had experienced in a long while. This time it didn't start in that dark jungle village, it started in Cat's Lair.

She was a small child again, no more than five years old, exploring, like she always enjoyed doing when she was little, and this time she had ventured to the usually locked room at the end of the hall, the one with the big important door. The weapons room. Not supposed to go in there, that's no place for children, that's what Clarece always says, a voice rang through her thoughts. But today Clarece was busy, she had to take Kat to the doctor, and Snarf was busy doing other things... so she and Lion-O could play. She looked over, and there was Lion-O, behind her, an unsure expression on his face.

"I dunno, Daddy and Jaga said we can't go in there." the younger cub said.

"You're such a baby, Lion-O." she said in a condescending tone. "I bet you're afraid."

"I'm not afraid!" Lion-O protested hotly. "But... we can't go in there." he repeated.

"Scaredy-cat, scaredy-cat." WilyKit taunted him.

Lion-O scowled. "I'm not scared!"

"Prove it then, come in with me." she challenged him.

The boy was nervous about it, but didn't want to let on that he was afraid of getting yelled at. "Well... ok."

Together the two cubs shoved the door open and crept in. Automatically a light switched on as the door opened, a device that had been installed to make locating weapons when needed easier, and they could see all sorts of swords, blades, whips, staffs, and a few things they weren't even sure of exactly what they were hanging in the room, carefully placed in their proper spots. But most exciting of all was the beautifully sculpted sword on the holder in the center of the room, with the strange looking stone that looked like an eye embedded in the hilt. "Wow! Look at that!" gasped WilyKit. "C'mon Lion-O." she said, and ran towards the platform it was placed on.

Lion-O followed. His eyes widened as he looked at it... he'd never seen anything like it, and for some reason he didn't understand, he felt strangely drawn to it.

WilyKit was also enchanted by it, and climbed up to take hold of it. Being a year older than Lion-O, she had longer limbs and better coordination, so she was easily able to get it first. She picked it up in her hands, and watched the light sparkle off the metal and sensed the warm glow of the power within the closed Eye of Thundera. Then, in an imitation of being a brave warrior, she used all her strength to lift it and shouted "HO!" just like she'd heard Claudus and Jaga and the other Thundercats do many times.

Unfortunately her balance was thrown by the heavy sword, and she toppled off the platform. Her leg kicked wildly as she fell, and the sword holder was knocked off of the platform to the floor with a resounding crash. She landed painfully on top of Lion-O, and the sword, still in her hand, had landed across the young boy's throat. Though it didn't cut him or even bang him too hard, the sight was still enough to make Snarf let out a horrified scream loud enough to wake the dead. In a flash Tygra, Claudus, and Jaga were in the room, and Clarece entered a few moments later, back from wherever she had been with Kat. Snarf immediately took the sword away and roughly shoved WilyKit off of Lion-O, while lifting up Lion-O. "What on Thundera did you think you were doing?" he screamed at WilyKit. "Don't you know you could have hurt him with this?! What were you doing in here, you two know you're not permitted to come into this room! Lion-O is such a good boy, and you and your brother are such bad influences on him..." Snarf rambled on in a rage.

"That's enough, Osbert!" Clarece snapped. "WilyKit may have disobeyed us and gotten too rowdy but she'd never hurt Lion-O on purpose, and she's not a bad influence, snarf snarf!" the female snarf defended her.

"Hah! Lion-O would never think of being disobedient to one of our rules, not unless someone encouraged him." Snarf insisted, glaring at WilyKit. "Rowr, unlike that girl and her brother, who have done nothing but cause trouble since the day they were born!"

WilyKit burst into tears. "I didn't mean to hurt him!"

Jaga looked over the room and picked up the Sword of Omens, and reached to set the holder back in place. "Clarece, Snarf, please just take the children out of here for now. I'll clean this up."

Tygra and Claudus shuffled everyone out into the hallway, where Snarf and Clarece were now in a screaming match to end all screaming matches, and which was not unusual for the two of them. After they had each sent the child they were in charge of to their rooms, they had begun to go at each other no-holds-barred, as Clarece refused to let his comment about WilyKit being a bad influence go. "Rowr, you're nothing but an uptight, nit-picking loudmouthed buffoon, Osbert!" Clarece was shouting.

"I may be uptight, but at least I can keep my charges out of trouble, unlike you with those sneaky twins, snarf snarf!"

"If your Lion-O is such a golden boy who can do no wrong, why was he in the room with WilyKit then?" Clarece challenged him.

"Because that brat's misbehavior is rubbing off on him, snarf snarf! Just look at how she attacked him with, the Sword of Omens no less! Rowr, and you have the nerve to say she's good? She's everything that Sibera predicted she'd turn out to be! You just saw the birth hour of darkness in action!"

WilyKit, having sneaked out of her room and hiding just around the corner, watched this scene unfold. "I didn't mean to hurt him." she whimpered to herself. "I'm not bad."

As he left the scene and walked down the hallway, Claudus heard the muffled sob in the corner. "WilyKit? Weren't you told to go to your room?" he said. His tone was not accusatory, simply inquisitive.

"I'm sorry Lord Claudus. I didn't mean to hurt Lion-O. I fell." WilyKit told him honestly, tears shining in her eyes.

Claudus leaned down and picked up the upset child. "I know you didn't. I know you're good." he assured her. "Now, you shouldn't have gone into that room with the weapons, but I know you would never hurt Lion-O deliberately. Pay no attention to Snarf, he's just angry. I know my little girl could never do such a terrible thing." Seconds after he spoke the words he realized his slip, but no one but WilyKit had heard anyway. He then carried her to her room, and saw Clarece coming down the hallway, apparently having left after refusing to speak another word to Snarf until he apologized for his rude behavior. Claudus simply gestured to WilyKit, crying on her bed, and left the room.

WilyKit sat up in bed again, her heart pounding and feeling unpleasantly full of emotion. What a realistic dream that had been, almost like it had happened. But it hadn't happened, had it? That couldn't have been a memory, wasn't it just a dream? She concentrated hard... she had a very vague memory of sneaking into some room she wasn't allowed in once, when she was real little, and getting yelled at for it... something about touching stuff she wasn't supposed to. Someone else was with her too, Kat or Lion-O... but she couldn't remember which. Maybe it was Lion-O, though it was rare for her to do something without her brother back then. But one thing about the dream made no sense. Why did Claudus call her his little girl? She thought about that for a moment, then concluded that he probably just felt fatherly towards all three of the kids, Snarf said that kind of stuff about Lion-O all the time, he still did. She didn't remember Claudus that well, but he had always been pretty warm towards the children. That must be it, she decided. Stupid dream, it's just the stress of all that ghost bullshit earlier coming out, and trying to remember your blocked memories. They were actually blocked, too, not just forgotten. Why in the name of Jaga would Darkail have had Alluro do that to her, anyway? What was so awful that she was supposed to forget?

A nagging fragment of the dream hit her again.

"Just look at how she attacked him with, the Sword of Omens no less! Rowr, and you have the nerve to say she's good? She's everything that Sibera predicted she'd turn out to be! You just saw the birth hour of darkness in action!"

WilyKit, having sneaked out of her room and hiding just around the corner, watched this scene unfold. "I didn't mean to hurt him." she whimpered to herself. "I'm not bad."

"I'm not bad." she repeated again, this time aloud. But she was no longer so sure that was true.

The gray and gloomy morning was a perfect match to everyone's mood at breakfast. The same tense silence filled the room, with nothing but casual "could you pass the rolls?" or "hand me the coffee" comments being exchanged. Psiarik still seemed as angry as he was the night before and, while Selene made only the minimal necessary conversation, such as greetings and good mornings, not wanting to say anything to make the situation worse. Chilla was shooting hateful stares at WilyKit, WilyKat, and Leonora and occasionally glancing at Alluro's empty chair, though if anyone caught her looking she quickly looked away, not wanting to show how much it was bothering her. Even Luna was unusually quiet, she hadn't said more than two words throughout the meal. Jackalman had also kept his mouth shut, it seemed even he couldn't think of to say, even a smartass comment, that would overcome the foul mood of the room.

After the excruciatingly tense breakfast was over, WilyKit excused herself and went to sit in her room by herself. Mumm-Ra and Torlei had returned, saw her there alone, and decided now was a good time to go for the ultimate goal... possession of her body.

WilyKit was unaware that she was in danger until it was too late to do anything. She heard the bedroom door slam shut and saw the lock turn on its own, and gulped. "Oh, shit!" She knew she was in for it now, especially when she ran for the door and couldn't budge the lock. "HELP!" she screamed. "THEY'VE GOT ME!!"

"Your cries for help will do you no good, Thundercat." Mumm-Ra said to her in a disguised voice. He went behind her, and slid his hands across the length of her body, radiating coldness and malevolence in his touch. She squirmed, and he then picked her up and threw her against the wall above the bed. She yelped and fell in a heap on the bed. Torlei pinned her beneath a telekinetic field while Mumm-Ra knelt above her. The ancient demon priest drew back his hand and struck her hard across the face, then kneed her with his supernatural strength in the stomach. Under the powerful force field, she could do nothing but take the assault and cry out. "Leave me alone!" she pleaded. "Just let me go, please!"

"Let you go? Why would I let you go?" Mumm-Ra hissed. "You need to pay for what you did to me."

"Who are you? Why are you doing this?"

Mumm-Ra let out a sinister laugh, and became visible to her as the grotesque corpse that had haunted her two nights ago. He let a breath of foul smelling air onto her, the rotting stench of death, then swiped at her with the claws of a long-dead being, leaving jagged scratches on her shoulder and chest through her clothes. The fabric stained with blood from the minor flesh wound.

Now she was too terrified to even scream, not that she could have at this point anyway, for the terrible odor, which reminded her of concentrated raw sewage, was burning her nose and eyes and making her choke, and it was difficult for her to breathe in at all. Her body was rigid with fear, and she let out a small whimper. "Just make it stop, please."

Torlei heard that and took it as her cue. She didn't release the force field immobilizing her, but did lean over her with Mumm-Ra and whisper to her in a very sweet, very gentle voice. "Let me help you, WilyKit. Let me in."

WilyKit tried to squirm away from the two of them, but was able only to turn her head. Mumm-Ra quickly smacked it back the other way.

"He's hurting you." Torlei said. "I can see the pain he's causing you... I want to help. I'm your friend. But I can't help you if you don't let me, you have to let me inside you. Then I can drive him away and he'll never bother you again, I promise."

"I don't know...." WilyKit mumbled. "You can really make it stop?" she asked.

Torlei nodded to Mumm-Ra, indicating for him to give her some more convincing. She was very close to breaking, and this time there would be no last minute save by her lunatac loverboy, the locked door would take care of that. Mumm-Ra grinned wickedly at his bride and decided to do something that would really terrify the Thundercat... in his rotting corpse form, he leaned down and pressed his body against hers. Mumm-Ra made sure she could feel the sensation of its clammy, decaying flesh sliding against her skin and let a disgusting, moldy black and green tongue, dripping with a yellowish green slimy saliva the color of phlegm, slip out of his mouth to lick her face. Though he found touching her in general distasteful, torturing her like this was so much fun he overlooked that little fact.

The second she saw the tongue coming at her and felt its slimy, cold touch against her face she let out a shrill shriek. "I don't care, make it stop, oh please, make it go AWAY!!!"

Torlei's eyes glowed with a sinister light. "You agree to let me in and help you, then?" she asked her, still using the sugary-sweet innocent voice.

"Anything you want, yes, please, just get rid of him!" she pleaded.

Torlei exchanged a truly evil grin with Mumm-Ra, then placed her hands on WilyKit's head. She closed her eyes, and forced her astral spirit into the the willing Thundercat's body. Once she was sure she couldn't be thrown out, she let out a wicked laugh, a laugh that echoed through the room and the better part of her the level of the tower that her bedroom was located on.

WilyKit realized seconds too late what a terrible mistake she had just made. As soon as the "good spirit" entered her body, she felt an even more overwhelming presence of evil and realized how she'd been tricked. She tried to force it out, but didn't know how, and furthermore, didn't have the strength to fight it. WilyKit felt a painful shock and a blow, but it was not physical, it was something that seemed to hit her very essence and send it reeling. The world around her went black, and she could feel herself spinning wildly, out of control, falling through a dark void of nothingness. She flailed desperately, trying to find anything she could to hold on, but there was nothing. She fell and fell and fell, and when she landed, she saw nothing. She was thoroughly engulfed in a silent, lightless realm... the darkness had finally claimed her.

WilyKat and Leonora had been heading up to WilyKit's room to see how she was doing and take her down for a discussion on the ghost problem in the study. After the uncomfortable breakfast, the two of them had spent a few minutes talking with Selene and Psiarik and they had decided to try and figure out what it was the ghosts were after again. Psiarik was planning on trying to break the mind block placed in WilyKit's mind by Alluro, but before they did anything for certain, they wanted to see if she was really up to it. Leonora was already armed with the Staff of Dera, as she had anticipated that if they did try something like that on WilyKit, it was likely to draw the ghosts out.

They had just rounded the corner towards her room when they heard her screaming. "Oh no, they've got her!" WilyKat panicked, and ran for her door. Leonora followed. They tried to open the door, but it seemed to be locked from the inside. "Kit! It's me, Kat, open up!" he called in. There was no answer but more cries of pure terror from inside.

Leonora winced. The presences were so powerful they were literally assaulting her senses. "We have to get in there now... they're trying to take her over!"

WilyKat pounded on the door again, and still got no definitive answer, except for a very pathetic and weak-sounding cry from his sister. "That's it, I'm breaking the door down. Broken arm or not, that's my sister in there!"

"I'll help." Leonora offered. "On three, we'll both charge it."

WilyKat nodded. "One... two... three!" he shouted, and the two crashed into the door. Just as their bodies impacted the door, the latch clicked and the door swung open normally, and the two of them stumbled over each other as they burst in the room. Leonora was able to catch a quick glance of a frightening apparition on WilyKit's bed kneeling above her just before it faded from view. It seemed that whatever was happening had stopped... or had it? Leonora definately could sense something unsettling about the room still, though she couldn't figure out exactly what.

WilyKit sat up, and she seemed a bit dazed. WilyKat ran over and hugged his sister tightly, and when Leonora looked away for a moment, a sinister smirk crossed the female Thundercat's face for a fleeting moment. "Oh, thank goodness you got here so quickly, WilyKat." WilyKit/Torlei said. "You too, Leonora." she quickly added, using WilyKit's awareness to get the name of the irritating spirit-sensing lioness.

"You're welcome." Leonora answered, then gave WilyKit a suspicious look. Something was definately not right here.

WilyKat released WilyKit and looked at her scratches. "What happened? The ghost did this?"

"And more. That hideous thing that was above me even licked me and tried to enter my body. It probably would have if you two hadn't gotten in here in time to scare it away."

"Thank Jaga we got here in time then." WilyKat said, relieved.

"That doesn't seem like their usual behavior. Last night they weren't intimidated by a whole group of us. For them to run from just me and Kat?" Leonora wondered.

WilyKit/Torlei eyed the Staff of Dera in Leonora's hand. "Perhaps that had something to do with it? It has power against spirits, right?"

"Yeah, that's gotta be it." WilyKat agreed. "They probably saw you had the Staff of Dera and they turned tail and ran! That thing's supposedly got some kick-ass power."

Staff of Dera, how inconvenient, Torlei thought. She dug through WilyKit's awareness and found out some troubling information about Leonora, first of all that she was a Halerani, and the child of the most powerful of the clan. Even without training, she could be a nuisance to them with that Staff of Dera and her ability to see them in spirit form. She telepathically relayed a message to Mumm-Ra, knowing that a telepathic message would be the only way to avoid alerting the lioness to what was really going on. Take care of the lioness, Mumm-Ra. If she has the Staff of Dera she is a threat to us. I will take care of the others, but you must get her out of my way if our plan is to be successful.

Mumm-Ra, fully invisible and unable to interact in the mortal plane within the room, the only way he could evade detection by Leonora, heard Torlei's message. Not to worry my dear, just get WilyKat down to that little meeting Psiarik and Selene are planning, and I will deal with Leonora.

I shall, darling, I shall, she replied, and then gave WilyKat a doe-eyed, grateful look. "I'm so glad you got here, Kat... but how did you know I needed you? Were you looking for me for something?" she asked him.

"Actually, Psiarik and Selene wanted to talk to you. Psiarik thinks he may know a way to take out that mind block that Alluro gave you. They were hoping you'd give it a try so we could figure out what it is exactly the ghosts are after, you know what we originally tried to do last night." WilyKat told her. "You up to trying that?"

She nodded. "Oh yes, I'd do anything to get my memory back." Torlei scanned WilyKit's awareness again. She wondered what it was exactly that Alluro had blocked in WilyKit's mind, too. Maybe it was something she could use. WilyKit and the others might not know how to break through Alluro's block, but she certainly could. Mind control was not her specialty, but she knew enough about it to understand how it worked, especially when the blocker was her brother, someone she knew well enough to know his style and methods. Hell, back in the days before she had died, she and he used to work as a team, she knew could undo his block with no trouble at all.

WilyKat smiled. "That's great sis! Come on, let's go and do it then!" He stood and helped her to her feet.

The three of them stepped into the hallway, when WilyKit/Torlei turned to Leonora. "Oh, Leonora, could you do me a favor?" Leonora didn't notice, but the Staff of Dera glowed brightly and sparkled when WilyKit/Torlei stood close to it. She sensed it, but luckily for her, Leonora did not.

"Sure." Leonora answered. "What?"

"Could you just, you know, check out my room? Maybe you can get some information on whatever was there that way. I'm sure you'll be ok with the Staff of Dera. Just try and see if you can figure out more on who this is that is doing all these terrible things to me."

"That's not a bad idea, good thinking WilyKit." Leonora said. "I'll meet you two downstairs in a few minutes."

"Be careful, Leo." WilyKat said, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

Leonora smiled. "Don't worry, I will." She then returned to the room as the other two walked down the hallway.

"Thanks Leonora!" WilyKit/Torlei called after her. Scratch one nosy lioness, heh heh heh!

Leonora stepped back into WilyKit's room, trying to determine if there were any spirits still around. She sat on the bed and closed her eyes. Suddenly the Staff of Dera glowed very brightly and made a loud humming noise. Leonora opened her eyes and looked at it. "What the...?" She was cut off by the sound of the door slamming and the lock clicking. "Oh, no!" she gasped.

"Oh, yes!" Mumm-Ra's voice boomed through the room. "You won't be interfering with me again, Leonora, you or your little toy staff!"

She bristled. "So you do acknowledge my presence, ancient demon. Tell me then, who are you? Why are you doing this to WilyKit and the rest of us here?"

Mumm-Ra laughed. "Heh heh heh... I'm not quite what you think... not exactly an ancient demon. More like an ancient demon priest." he told her. "Your boyfriend and his sister... well, before my dear wife got finished with her, that is... know me as Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living!"

"Dear gods of Thundera!" Leonora gasped. "Mumm-Ra!! But... you're not a ghost!"

Mumm-Ra appeared in front of her in his regular, terrifying, blue-skinned form. "That's right, my dear, I'm not. I can play a convincing one with my magic, though, heh heh! My bride, however, she is a bit more ghostly than I, and has to remain in spirit form without concentrating to keep her body intact. By taking over a Thundercat, however, that saves her the trouble... and makes an excellent stage for revenge."

"But you're dead! And that means... this had nothing to do with WilyKit's memory loss?" Leonora stammered, trying to take it all in and understand it.

"I have been dead for thousands of years, yet I still exist. It is the definition of ever-living, Leonora. We can't be killed. We were merely banished when we were defeated at the Battle of the Swords. Luckily for us, we have redeemed ourselves in the eyes of the Ancient Spirits of Evil, and they transported us back to your realm so we could have our revenge. As for your friend's memory loss, we were simply using WilyKit's silly emotional problems to manipulate her into allowing Torlei to take her over... and it was pathetically easy." Mumm-Ra boasted.

"So... that wasn't WilyKit with Kat, was it? That's Torlei in WilyKit's body! She did possess her... oh, no!" she sobbed. "Poor WilyKit... we didn't get here in time."

Mumm-Ra grinned. "That's right, lioness... she is lost to you all forever."

Leonora ran for the door. "I have to warn them!"

"Oh no you don't!" Mumm-Ra shouted, and fired at her with his red lightning.

The bolt struck her squarely in the back. "Ungh!" Leonora cried out, and stumbled to the floor. Aside from creating an excruciatingly painful stinging sensation where it had hit her, the bolt also seemed to paralyze her somewhat. She tried to stand up again, but was unable to.

Mumm-Ra saw her topple over and laughed. "You weren't even a challenge! As for warning your friends about me or my wife, that won't happen. The next place you see them will be in the afterlife... and you're all going there sooner than you think!"  The devil priest then shot her again with the red lightning, and disappeared from the room.

Leonora let out another strangled cry of pain as she was struck by the beam for a second time. She laid there immobile and panting for a few minutes, but was determined to at least get up and try to warn them. She could sense that Mumm-Ra was truly gone from the room this time, she wondered if he had gone to watch the possessed WilyKit wreak havoc on everyone in the tower. She was also a bit insulted that he didn't take her seriously enough as a threat to make sure she was really disposed of... not that she was going to complain too much about it, though. "Not a challenge, huh?" she muttered. "I'll teach you to what it means to underestimate me, Mumm-Ra." Leonora said determinedly. With great effort, she managed to get onto her hands and knees and slowly crawl towards the door.

She winced with pain as she moved the first few feet, which seemed to her more like miles, but soon the stinging sensations shooting through her limbs with each movement became less severe and more easily ignored. Once she reached the door, she took hold of the knob with both hands and used all of the strength she could muster to pull herself to her feet. After straining a few moments, she was able to stand, though she was a bit wobbly, and leaned against the door for support. She then bent down and retrieved the Staff of Dera, but the action made her feel a bit lightheaded. She leaned against the door again and rested for a minute or so, took a few deep breaths, then unlocked the door, pulled it open, and stumbled out into the hallway. Hold on guys, I'm coming, she thought. She only hoped that she wouldn't get there too late.

WilyKat led his sister into the study, where Psiarik and Selene were seated at the table waiting for them. Selene also had little Silvian with her in her lap. The child was in a mood of wanting to follow his parents and watch them in whatever they were doing, and she saw no harm in indulging him, especially since he would probably be safest around them anyway if the ghosts chose to seek him out as a target for their activity. As the two Thundercats entered, Psiarik frowned. "Where's Leonora?" he asked.

"I asked her to check my room to see if she could get a sense of any spirits there." WilyKit/Torlei informed him. And right about now, she should be finding a lot more than she was expecting, too. she thought nastily, and struggled to keep from outwardly showing her delight at that wicked thought.

WilyKat sat down at the table. "Yeah, we got there just in time... the ghosts were harassing Kit again."

"Oh no! What happened?" Selene asked her.

"They were really horrible... they even tried to possess me!"

"And you were able to stop them on your own?" Psiarik asked. Something about that idea struck him as strange.

"Not exactly, they vanished when Leo and I broke into the room. We guess that they saw her with the Staff of Dera and figured they couldn't win, so they left." WilyKat explained.

In the same way that something about that explanation hadn't rung true with Leonora earlier, it also didn't with Psiarik. He frowned. "That's not like these ghosts. You saw what they did last night. They weren't intimidated by an entire room full of people, including Leonora. Why should this time be any different, I wonder?"

"It had to be that Staff of Dera." WilyKit/Torlei asserted. She didn't like the expression on Psiarik's face, it was almost like he was suspecting something, or would soon be.

Silvian struggled on Selene's lap, so she set him down to allow him to wander around the room, with the strict instruction to not go too far. She then faced the others. "Well, whatever it is that drove them off, we should probably just be thankful that it did."

Psiarik faced her. "Don't you want to know why it happened, though? I doubt they've given up for good. In fact, they probably just retreated to get us to let our guard down, so they can strike when we aren't prepared for it." As he said this, he became more aware of an unsettling dark presence in the room, and it suddenly seemed to double.

At the exact moment Psiarik had that odd sensation, Mumm-Ra appeared, visible only to Torlei, in the corner of the room. Silvian unknowingly walked right into the area where Mumm-Ra was standing, and was instantly surrounded by intensely cold air, specific to that spot in the room. "Cold." he mumbled, but didn't quite move away fast enough to suit Mumm-Ra.

Mumm-Ra grimaced. "Get away from me, you brat!" he snarled, and kicked him.

Silvian screamed and tumbled back a couple of feet. Selene saw this out of the corner of her eye. "Silvian!" She leapt out of her chair and grabbed him, then hugged him tightly. He was sobbing, and Selene was trying desperately to calm him down, though she was upset herself.

"What happened?" WilyKat asked, and got up to see what had happened.

Psiarik was at Selene's side in a flash. "Is he all right?" he asked worriedly.

WilyKit/Torlei could not hold back a snicker.

Psiarik heard and glared at her. "That's not funny."

She grinned wickedly and decided it was time to let the fun begin. "Oh yes it is, dear boy." she said, her voice now deeper and more sinister than WilyKit's, and laughed again. "And so is this." She raised her hand and Silvian began to levitate out of Selene's arms.

"No!" Selene shouted, and tried to pull him back. Silvian screamed again.

WilyKat stared at his sister in shock. "Kit, stop this, what are you doing?"

Psiairik finally realized what had happened, and his face went pale. "That's not your sister, WilyKat... that's a spirit in the body of your sister... possessing your sister!" he informed him. WilyKat shook his head in disbelief, but he couldn't deny that the twisted, evil smile on his sister's face was definately not her. Psiarik charged at WilyKit and reached to grab her, hoping that the shock would be enough to get her to let Silvian out of whatever force she had him in. WilyKit/Torlei was taken completely by surprise as Psiarik grabbed her, and thrashed violently in his grasp. "Let go of me this instant, or I will see to it that your child is torn to pieces before your very eyes!" she threatened.

He was not aware, however, that the force actually holding Silvian was not her, but Mumm-Ra. As he watched Psiarik's attempt to take them by surprise, Mumm-Ra let loose a burst of maniacal laughter that echoed throughout the room, then shoved Selene backwards, freeing Silvian completely from her grasp. Still invisible, he held the struggling child high in the air. "Put him down!" Selene shrieked. WilyKat, meanwhile, climbed a bookshelf hoping to spring off of it when he was high enough and grab the child from the air with his good arm. Once he was at the proper height, he leapt off and snatched Silvian from Mumm-Ra's grasp, and tumbled to the floor. He landed painfully on his broken arm, but was able to prevent the boy from being hurt.

Out of the corner of his eye, Psiarik saw WilyKat get Silvian out of harm's way, and glared into the eyes of the possessed Thundercat in his arms. As they made eye contact, he used the opportunity to put his empathic abilities to use, and read her thoughts... and was shocked to discover that this spirit inside WilyKit was an all too familiar one. "You! And Mumm-Ra!" he announced.

"Very good, dear nephew." Torlei hissed sarcastically. "Now kindly let go of me, before I introduce you to the true meaning of pain."

"Mumm-Ra!" both Selene and WilyKat echoed in shock.

Mumm-Ra materialized in the room in full physical form. "In the flesh, heh heh heh! You didn't really think you could get rid of me forever, did you?"

WilyKat's thoughts raced. All this time it had been Mumm-Ra and Torlei tormenting WilyKit? And if WilyKit was possessed, that meant that they hadn't rescued her back in her bedroom, and if Leonora had stayed behind.... "Oh no, Leonora..." he whispered.

"Ah yes, your spiritualist lioness... she was no match for the might of Mumm-Ra!" he said, and let out another burst of evil laughter.

Hearing Mumm-Ra brag about finishing Leonora, on top of having his sister possessed and seemingly lost to him by Torlei, made something inside him snap. "YOU EVIL BASTARD!" he screamed, and made a flying tackle at Mumm-Ra. Despite the pain of his now throbbing broken arm, he managed to land on the devil priest and wrap his fingers around his neck, choking him with all of the strength he had, and some additional strength given to him by his surging adrenaline and pure rage.

Mumm-Ra struggled beneath WilyKat for a few moments, but was able to shoot him off of him with a blast of his evil powers. WilyKat landed in a heap, stunned. His strength seemed to be gone, and the pain from his broken arm was now unbearable. "You can't stop us, Thundercat! We will not rest until we have revenge on all of you who participated in our banishment at the Battle of Swords! Together my wife, in her new body, and I will first destroy this entire building and everyone in it, then go to Thundera and let all of the Thundercats be destroyed by WilyKit's own hand... and when they are wiped out, we will move on to Plundarr and destroy Ratar-O and all of his mutants!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Selene yelled, and called the MoonSaber to her hand, much in the same way Lion-O was able to summon the Sword of Omens to his.

Mumm-Ra laughed derisively at Selene. "You think you can hold me off with that sword? Even with all three swords together, you couldn't defeat us for good! You won't stop me... I'll destroy this place right now! My wife and I will be the only survivors!" he told her, then vanished.

WilyKit/Torlei strugged again in Psiarik's grasp. A radical idea occurred to him. He knew that some psychic lunatacs could banish unwanted spirits from possessed individuals, and that it had something to do with using a mind link to pull the other's spirit back into the body and forcing the other out.  He stared deeply into her eyes and placed a hand on her forehead. "WilyKit... come to me!" he said, echoing his call through her mind.

Torlei only laughed. "You pitiful fool, she is gone! Only I exist in here now!" Psiarik ignored her and continued to try and establish the link. Torlei could sense the power and potential within him, and an even more wicked thought occurred to her. "You want a link to her, dear? You've got it!" she hissed, and used her own mental abilities to lock on to him. Before he knew what was happening, she began draining his strength and power from his own mind and body and bringing it into her own. He let out a shout of pain and tried to break it, but was unable to.

"Psiarik!" Selene cried, and aimed the MoonSaber at WilyKit/Torlei.

"Harm me, and you strike him dead as well... his life is in my grasp now!" Torlei warned her.

"Selene... get out of here! You have to get everyone out before Mumm-Ra destroys this pace. I will hold Torlei off."

"No! I won't leave you here with her!" Selene argued.

WilyKat managed to get to his feet, pick up little Silvian with his good arm, and stand next to Selene. "He's right. If you stay then Mumm-Ra could potentially get you too... and the MoonSaber would no longer have a holder, at least not until Silvian grows up. That could put everyone in danger. Come on, we have to evacuate this place." WilyKat said, tugging at her arm.

Selene nodded tearfully. "Once everyone is out, I'm coming back for you!" she promised. "I love you!" she called out as she departed with Silvian and WilyKat.

Psiarik started to say that he loved her too, but was unable to speak as Torlei tore into his mind and pulled more of his power from him. He tried to hold her off, to break away and stop her, but he was unable to. He was able to comfort himself with the thought that he was at least buying time for the others, since she could not do anything while linked to him either, even though he knew deep down that she would ultimately wear him down, take his power, and move on, it was only a matter of time. She laughed as she read his thoughts. "How right you are, you are no match for me. Your noble attempt to sacrifice yourself for those you love is admirable, but it will be all in vain. Once I have your power on top of WilyKit's, I will be twice as powerful."

"You won't win. WilyKit will not let you stay in her body forever... somehow she will break out. It's only a matter of time."

"A time long enough off that you will not live to see, I'm afraid, dear nephew." she informed him coldly.

He bristled and stared at her hatefully. "Don't you dare call me that. I have no family, other than Selene, Silvian, and my sister."

"Oh yes, that's right... you're in a little tiff with my dear brother, aren't you?" she said, then chuckled a bit. "I could have told you that he was a liar... but you found that out on your own. I'll let you in on something, though, you were a little harsh in blaming him for what Mumm-Ra and I did, he really had nothing to do with it. Not that I minded watching you turn on him, anyway, it's the least he deserves after how he treated me. It's too bad you didn't catch him, I would have loved to see the expression on his face when you threw him in jail... But in all honesty, his mind block didn't do any more damage to the Thundercat than a few nightmares and apprehension... which is nothing compared to what she had blocked. Are you curious at all as to what it was that she blocked, dear nephew? I know what it is... and let me tell you, it is a deliciously evil side to this Thundercat."

"Shut up!" he growled. "I refuse to listen to anything you have to say. It's probably all lies anyway."

WilyKit/Torlei shrugged. "It doesn't matter anyway... for your time is just about up!" she snarled. Psiarik felt an excruciating tearing sensation in his head, a sensation like how he would imagine it would feel to have his brains ripped out, and began to slip out of conciousness.

"You... won't... win..." he mumbled right before his entire world went black.

Selene and WilyKat had just gotten everyone outside when they heard the entire tower begin to rumble and shake, even from the safe distance where everyone was standing outside. "Holy shit!" Frostor shouted, and pointed to the eastern side of the building.

Seemingly 100 feet tall, stood Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living. He was punching the side of the building with his massive fists, causing the foundation to shake and crumble. WilyKat had only remembered seeing him look like that once before, that time that he and WilyKit had fled the Tower of Omens seconds before he destroyed it. One of their last days on Third Earth before they moved to New Thundera... a time that he had nearly killed them all, but failed. He was supposedly dead for good that time, too. And after the battle in the Book of Omens. And the Battle of the Swords. Dammit, why don't we ever learn our lesson? Kat wondered. His eyes misted over with tears. Leonora was gone, Mumm-Ra had killed her. WilyKit was possessed, and probably as good as dead. Her body would likely live through the iminent destruction of the tower, but he wasn't sure he would ever see her again. Even Psiarik was probably a goner by now, and that pissed him off too.

"He really is going to destroy the place, isn't he?" Jackalman asked, watching the powerful Mumm-Ra now shake the building with a blast of red lightning.

"I think so." Chilla replied, watching the scene in awe.

Selene cast one final look at the group before she announced her decision. "I don't care what happens to me, but I'm going back in there!"

"What? Selene, you can't!" Frostor shouted after her.

"I have to!" she yelled, already halfway to the door. "Psiarik needs me! I can't just leave him to die!" Without waiting for a response, she ran inside the doomed building and made her way as fast as she could towards the study, where she had left Psiarik. There was no light inside, the tremors that the building was experiencing at the hands of Mumm-Ra had apparently knocked out the power. The MoonSaber, which gave off a luminescent glow, was her only source of light as she made her way down the dark hallways.

On the way to the study she crashed into Leonora, who was now literally crawling from her injuries. At the first tremor, she had been knocked over and in her woozy and weak condition after Mumm-Ra's attack. Selene helped her to her feet. "Leonora! You're alive!" she gasped with surprise.

"Yes." she said weakly. "The spirits... they're Mumm-Ra and Torlei. WilyKit is possessed by her."

"I know." Selene told her gently. "We found out the hard way... they attacked us in the study. Mumm-Ra said he'd killed you. Thank goodness he was lying!"

Leonora gave her a wan smile. "He thought he did... but I'm stronger than he thought. I wanted to warn you... but I guess I was too late. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize... just get out of the building. Mumm-Ra is destroying it. Everyone is out but you and Psiarik. I came back to get him out before the entire place caves in."

"I'll try." Leonora said, and made her way for the exit. Selene continued on her way to find Psiarik.

Selene finally made it to the study, after stumbling through the dark hallways and violent tremors. The terrible sensation reminded her all too well of all those years ago when she was a child and the terrible earthquakes resulting from Thundera's destruction had destroyed her home and killed so many people. She hoped in the name of all the gods that Psiarik was still alive. As she entered the room she saw him drop to the floor in a lifeless lump. WilyKit/Torlei immediately went to the window, which was now broken from the shaking of the building, and leapt out the six story drop to the ground. Selene didn't know whether or not she lived through it, but she didn't care. All she could see was Psiarik on the floor and the awful, pained expression on his face.

She knelt beside him. "Psiarik, my love... please be alive." she said tearfully, and threw her arms around him. She could feel a faint hearbeat and breathed a sigh of relief. She thanked all of the gods silently about ten times, and hugged him for almost a full minute.

Another tremor, this time much more violent than any of the others, shook the building. Selene knew she would never be able to lift him, much less carry him out in time, and that if they dropped out the window, they would both die from the fall. She looked at the heavy wooden table in the center of the room and figured that was their best chance at survival. Pieces of the ceiling were already falling on them and she knew that soon the entire building would collapse. At least under the table they might not be struck by any falling debris. Using all of her strength, she dragged him beneath the table. Seconds later, the floor beneath them buckled and the ceiling caved in.

The group outside watched in utter horror as the building was reduced to rubble by Mumm-Ra. They could not tear their eyes from the terrifying sight, and they almost didn't notice a figure stumbling towards them. RedEye, with his infared vision, was the first to see it. "Look! Someone came out." he called. Everyone looked over as Leonora approached.

WilyKat beamed. "Leo! You're alive!" He immediately ran over and gave her a huge hug and a kiss.

"Yeah, I made it. Just barely... Mumm-Ra nearly did me in." she whispered, and leaned into his arms. "Oh Kat, you don't know how glad I am to see you."

"Yes I do." WilyKat replied, and kissed her again.

Luna looked around frantically for any sign of Selene. "Where's Selene? She was with you, wasn't she?" she asked Leonora worriedly.

Leonora met her eyes, and didn't answer right away. "She's still in there." she said after a pause. "She went to get Psiarik, in the study."

"That's on the sixth floor." Frostor said. "Dear gods..." He looked at the pile of rubble. He'd been through enough during the disasters to know that the odds of anyone surviving in a building that had collapsed like that were pretty low.

"Don't you even think that." Luna said to Frostor. "They're alive."

He took a deep breath and faced her. "I know this is hard for you to hear, but the odds are that they are not."

"How dare you!" she screamed.

There was another loud rumble, and the group was silenced for a moment as the giant Mumm-Ra faced them. "Missing someone?" he asked in a smug tone, then laughed. "If you think this is the end of my revenge, you're wrong... this is only the beginning. I will destroy the rest of you later! Right now, I have more important targets to destroy. WilyKat... I hope you weren't planning on returning to Cat's Lair to rejoin the rest of the Thundercats... for in short while, there will be no Cat's Lair... or Thundercats! YEAAAHAAAAAHAAAAAAA!!!"

Mumm-Ra's solid form began to shine brightly, then fade as he teleported himself to Thundera. Right before he faded completely, WilyKat was pained to see the wickedly grinning form of WilyKit, still alive, but still quite possessed, seated comfortably on the giant Mumm-Ra's shoulder.