Path Into the Darkness
Part Six: WilyKit
Chapter Six: Under Siege

Bengali’s blue eyes darted back and forth in the darkness of the hall outside the wrecked sword chamber. “Where do you think he went, Lion-O?” the white tiger asked uneasily.

Lion-O frowned nervously, also looking for any sign of the demon priest with no result. “I don’t know. And if I can’t get to the Sword, it’ll be harder to find out.”

Turning around, Bengali cautiously eyed the energy field over the walls and demolished security door. The whole area was aglow with the sinister light of its electrical sparks and the telekinetic net’s faint but ominous hum only added to the two Thundercats’ anxiousness. “I could try blasting my way in with the hammer,” Bengali suggested, “but that might take some time.”

The Thundercat Lord shook his head. “No, not yet. First we have to figure out why the power went out and where Mumm-Ra is, not to mention what he’s up to. We could wind up costing ourselves precious time blasting our way in there depending upon what he has in store for us.”

“Or how he got here in the first place,” Bengali added with a low growl. “He and Torlei were supposedly banished. How did he return? And is she with him, if he did?”

“Torlei, by Thundera, I forgot about her,” Lion-O grumbled. He met the tiger’s gaze thoughtfully. “It looked like Mumm-Ra was alone this time, but we shouldn’t count on that. Odds are that if he’s managed to return, she came along.”

“Where do you think should we look first?” Bengali asked the lion.

“If the lights went out, the logical assumption would be that the power generators were tampered with. Let’s check there and—”

Lion-O was cut off by a loud and rumbling crash. All around them, and around all of Cat’s Lair itself, the floors began to shake while the support beams and rafters of the building groaned and shifted under stress, mingling with the sounds of various breakable objects falling off of walls, shelves, and tables and then shattering. It lasted for several seconds, and then stopped as suddenly as it had begun. “Rrowl… what was that?” Bengali wondered aloud. “An earthquake? The gyroscope?”

“I don’t think so,” the lion replied, equally puzzled. “It almost seemed like whatever it was came from the side, not below, if that’s possible.”

Any further theorizing was cut off when the quaking started again, that time lasting longer and strangely originating from a slightly different direction. During the second episode Lion-O fell backwards into the wall, while Bengali gripped a nearby doorjamb for support to remain standing. Both Thundercats heard the plaster in the ceiling crack and felt a fine shower of dusty particulate matter rain down upon them from above and cling to their fur.

“Lion-O,” Bengali growled when the second quake ceased, “are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” the Thundercat Lord assured him. “But what was that? That time it felt almost like it came from outside—like a ship rammed into us head-on or something!”

“Whatever it is, but I’d bet a Thunderian mint that it’s got something to do with Mumm-Ra,” the tiger said, helping Lion-O to his feet.

“And I’d bet that same amount that you’re right,” the lion agreed. “Let’s get outside and find out!”

* * *

WilyKat breathed an exhausted sigh of relief as the ship that carried himself, Leonora, and Snarfer entered the airspace of New Thundera a short distance from Cat’s Lair. It seemed to the Thundercat as though it had taken an eternity to get there, but finally they had made it. He reached over and gave Leonora a gentle shake to rouse her. “We’re here.”

The overtired lioness opened her eyes, awakened from her light sleep and troubled dreams. “Huh? Oh, we’re here?” she repeated, blinking. 

WilyKat nodded a yes.

Leonora reached back and tapped Snarfer to wake him as well. “We’re here, Snarfer,” she informed him as he opened his eyes.

Snarfer stirred and sat upright. “Oooh, rowr, we’re here already? What time is it?”

“Already? I guess it’s faster when you can sleep through the trip. I thought it was never going to end,” WilyKat grumbled. “Actually by local time it’s not that late, just a couple hours after dark. It just feels late because we’re still all on Third Moon time,” the Thundercat explained. “It’s probably almost sunrise over there,” he added. “Anyway I’m about to call the Lair and let them know we’re here.”

Leonora shifted her view from the window to the ship’s viewscreen. “How close are we to the Lair, Kat? I don’t see it. I mean I know it’s dark out and all, but wouldn’t it be lit up?”

WilyKat frowned. “Unless the Feliner II’s instruments are off, we’re not far at all. It should be visible.” An ominous feeling gnawed at his stomach. “Gods, I hope we’re not too late. If Mumm-Ra and my sister got here already…” 

“Well, let’s not worry about that until we’re sure we have a reason to,” Snarfer said cautiously.

“Right,” WilyKat agreed with a nod. “I’ll call them now.” He picked up the communicator from the panel. “Cat’s Lair, this is WilyKat calling from the Feliner II. Do you read me, Lair?”

A soft buzz of static was the only response.

“Maybe it’s a bad connection?” Leonora said hopefully.

“Or maybe just a patch of interference, snarfer snarfer,” Snarfer said, although he had the thought that if it was interference, they had a good idea as to who it was that was interfering. He left that unspoken, however.

WilyKat meanwhile fought back a rising feeling of dread and tried to hail the Thundercat base a second time. “Cat’s Lair, I repeat, this WilyKat in the Feliner II. Are you there?” The three passengers in the ship listened in hopeful—if not desperate—silence for an answer, but after more than enough time for someone to answer passed, there was still no reply to their transmission. “Damn it!” WilyKat swore, louder than he had intended to. “Where are they? We never have the control room unmanned! Not unless—” 

“Unless what?” Leonora asked in a worried tone.

“Unless we’ve all been called out to battle,” WilyKat told her quietly, clenching his fists. “And that hasn’t happened in a long time.”

Suddenly the monitor flashed, distracting them from the unwelcome implications of WilyKat’s statement. “Holy tomatoes!” Snarfer exclaimed. “What was that?” 

Frowning, WilyKat tapped a few buttons on the panel and zoomed in to bring the image into better focus. Several more flashes lit up the screen, and in the closer view it became clear that what they saw was some sort of attack focused upon a building—a large building. One that, in a particularly bright flash, they could see in part bore the shape of a feline head. “That’s the Lair!”

“Oh no,” Snarfer said, his ears flattening against his head anxiously. “That’s why we couldn’t see it! The Thundercats are in trouble. We better get down there and help!”

Immediately WilyKat engaged the engines of the Feliner II and initiated the landing sequence. “I’m already on the way. Hold on.” 

Leonora and Snarfer sat back in their seats as WilyKat maneuvered the ship in the direction of Cat’s Lair. The Thundercat powered up the weapons systems and turned on the searchlights as they made their approach, and to the horror of each passenger in the Feliner II they saw what it was that was causing the disturbance. Mumm-Ra, in the same gigantic form in which he had previously destroyed the MoonTower back on the Third Moon of Plundarr, was outside of Cat’s Lair blasting at the darkened structure with powerful beams of red lightning. 

“Rowr, well I guess that’s why they didn’t answer our call,” Snarfer said, his tail twitching nervously against the back of the seat as he took in the sight.

“He’s not going to get away with this again,” WilyKat growled determinedly, and without warning, fired a dual beam of laser fire from the Feliner II’s cannons directly at Mumm-Ra.

The undead mage was caught off guard by the fire from behind and roared in pain as the beams seared into his back. The ever-living spun around in a rage, his scarlet eyes ablaze with pure fury, and glared at the Feliner II. “Pitiful fools,” Mumm-Ra’s deep and hateful voice boomed, “prepare to meet your end!” The demon priest then raised one arm and discharged his next burst of energy directly at them.

“Eeeek!” Snarfer shrieked in a panic. “Look out!” 

Acting in the same line of thought as the snarf was vocalizing, WilyKat abruptly pulled the craft to the side, but unfortunately the Thundercat did not react fast enough, and Mumm-Ra’s beam struck the Feliner II squarely in the side. All three of the passengers made vocal exclamations as the control panel erupted in a spray of sparks, the interior lights went out, and two of the craft’s engines stalled out completely. “WilyKat!” Leonora cried out in alarm. “What’s happening?” 

“The blast overloaded the main power supply unit, and the engines went offline,” the frustrated WilyKat answered with a growl. The Thundercat frantically began pushing buttons and flipping switches from memory as the emergency lighting in the craft switched back on, illuminating the panel so that the readings were visible again. When he saw the readouts, he cursed again. “We’ve lost a lot of altitude,” he informed his two passengers gravely. “With only our reserve power still functioning, all I can do is force a landing.”

Leonora’s eyes went wide with fear. “You mean we’re going to crash?” 

“‘Fraid so,” WilyKat replied through clenched teeth. “Brace yourself!”

Both Snarfer and Leonora sat back tightly in their seats, gripping the handrails for dear life. “Try not to worry,” Snarfer said to Leonora with a nervous twitter in his voice. “He crashed lots of times when he was learning—er—wait, that’s not what I meant—oh, snarfer snarfer, I mean he’s good at crashing…”

WilyKat meanwhile was too absorbed in the mechanics of safely landing the Feliner II to hear his furry companion’s left-handed complements. The youngest Thundercat took a deep breath and pushed the steering lever forward, using just the right combination of angle and speed to bring them toward the ground at a reduced speed that would not kill them on impact or tear the entire floor off of the vehicle. Seconds later they connected with the ground with a hard and abrasive jolt. Their bodies lurched forward in their seats with the inertia of the landing, WilyKat himself being slammed against the console on top of his already throbbing broken arm. The downed craft scraped roughly across the dirt, stone, and brush in the field beside Cat’s Lair for several long moments before it came to a stop. 

Groaning in pain, WilyKat pulled himself out of his seat and with some effort shoved the hatch that had taken the least amount of damage open. He was banged up, but not so badly that he could not move. “Leonora… Snarfer… are you all right?”

Snarfer, who had been holding his breath ever since the ship hit the ground, finally exhaled in a large sigh of relief and unlatched his safety belt. “Yep, I’m fine,” he assured the Thundercat. “No keeping me down, snarfer snarfer, no sirree!” he said, and hopped out of his chair.

“Me too,” Leonora said, rubbing a new bruise she had sustained on the side of her head when it had been slammed into the wall beside her during the crash. “Let’s get out of here.”

* * *

Lion-O and Bengali had nearly reached the main doors of Cat’s Lair when they ran into Tygra, Cheetara, Chet, and Snarf in the main foyer by the grand staircase. Snarf noticed immediately that Bengali was armed with the Hammer of Thundera and Lion-O with the more mundane option of a laser unit. He and Bengali had also retrieved the Thundercats’ personal weapons that remained in the weapons room, having reached it not long after the party from the control room had taken what they needed. 

“Lion-O!” Snarf exclaimed worriedly when he saw the Thundercat Lord and the white tiger. “What’s going on?”

“Do you know what caused those tremors and the power failure?” Tygra asked.

“Mumm-Ra is here,” Lion-O said gravely, and passed Tygra his bolo-whip, while Bengali extended Cheetara her collapsed staff. “I don’t know how he’s made it back to our realm, but we heard his voice just before the power went out, and the quakes began.”

Bengali growled and clenched his hammer. “We’re going to try to stop him.”

“And stop WilyKit?” Chet asked quietly from beside Cheetara.

“What? WilyKit?” Lion-O repeated, alarmed.

“WilyKit attacked him, Lion-O,” Cheetara told the lion, her voice both tired and worried. “She’s dangerous.”

Lion-O knelt at his cub’s side immediately and looked him over in the darkness as best he could to verify that he was not harmed. “What in the name of Thundera—? Chet, are you all right?” 

“He is now,” Tygra told him, while Chet nodded to his father in confirmation. “Cheetara found him trapped under a weighted force field in his bedroom.”

“He could barely breathe,” Cheetara added with a shiver at the recollection of the dreadful sight.

“And the room itself was sealed off with a burning energy field,” Tygra finished. “It took a lot to get through it, and on the first try Cheetara was knocked unconscious herself. Both of us took a few more shocks getting Chet out of there.”

Both Bengali and Lion-O eyed the cheetah and tiger with concern. “Are you all right?” Bengali asked.

Cheetara nodded. “We’re fine.”

“That energy field you described sounds like what Lion-O and I encountered around the sword chamber,” Bengali went on.

“The sword chamber?” Tygra repeated, not liking the implications of that at all given what he, Cheetara, and Snarf had already pieced together about the events and the confirmation that Mumm-Ra was behind it.

“It looks like a tornado hit it,” Bengali told them with a light growl in his tone. “The door was demolished—bashed in beyond repair—and the entire wall is covered in a burning electrical field. Lion-O couldn’t get the Sword of Omens out, even when he called it. It was like it couldn’t hear him.”

Meanwhile, Lion-O rested his hand upon Chet’s shoulder and looked down into the cub’s eyes. “You said that it was WilyKit that did that to you?”

Chet nodded silently. 

A distressed frown crossed Lion-O’s features. “But how? WilyKit could barely walk earlier, let alone do something like place an energy field or bash in a wall! We all saw her—”

“WilyKit can’t, but Mumm-Ra’s bride Torlei can, and would,” Cheetara told the lion. “WilyKit is not herself, Lion-O. There’s an evil force controlling her, and I suspect that’s who it is, from flashes I got with my sixth sense before all chaos broke loose and especially after you just confirmed that Mumm-Ra is here.”

“Drive out the evil that possesses her, and she will find her way back to you.” The words of Snarf Clarece’s ghost echoed through Tygra’s mind as he listened to Cheetara speak.

“So that’s what it is, then. Possession,” said a strained female voice from the hallway. The gathered Thundercats turned and saw Snoelle, limping and leaning heavily on Panthro. Pumari trailed behind the two Thundercats and the two ambassadors, Chamela and Lushara, brought up the rear. When they entered the room, the frightened Pumari immediately ran to her father’s side and hugged the white tiger tightly. 

Bengali put an arm around the girl and looked at Snoelle with concern when he saw how badly she limped and the amount of blood staining her leggings and the once white dish towel that they had wrapped the wound in haste before leaving the kitchen. “What happened?”

Also taking notice of Snoelle’s wound, Lion-O went over to help Panthro maneuver the injured snow leopard so that she could lean against the banister while the panther answered Bengali’s question. “WilyKit happened,” Panthro told them gravely. “She lost her damn mind back in the kitchen and tried to stab Pumari with a knife. When we tried to stop her, she hurled knives at the rest of us with some kind of levitating power and began ranting at us like a maniac.”

“What?” Lion-O exclaimed. It seemed to the Thundercat Lord that just when the situation had seemingly gotten to where it could not get any more dire or chaotic, something else was thrown into the mix to prove his previous assumption wrong.

“Pumyra chased after her,” Lushara informed the lion and the Thundercats he was with. “We don’t know where she went, but she was very angry.”

Chamela flicked her tail back and forth. “Underssstandably so, conssssidering it was her child that wasss attacked.”

“Oh, this is terrible,” Snarf moaned, his pointy ears flattening back against his head. 

Snoelle shifted to get the weight off of her leg and circled her fingers around the railing for support. “Some of the things WilyKit—or rather, the one possessing her—said were very disturbing, almost as much so as her actions. Cruel accusations and insinuations, about us and her.”

“So the darkness finally has taken her over, in the form of Torlei. That’s what she meant,” Tygra mused sadly, out loud but to no one in particular.

Keeping one striped arm on Pumari’s shoulder, Bengali reaffirmed his grip on the Hammer of Thundera in the other. “If Torlei is controlling WilyKit, and Pumyra confronts her alone and unarmed…”

“We have to find her, and find WilyKit, before anyone else gets hurt—even WilyKit herself,” Cheetara stated with a note of urgency in her voice. “Even if Torlei’s the one controlling it, that is still her body, and she is still in there somewhere.” I hope, the cheetah added silently, and was reminded once again of her unsettling vision of the younger Thundercat in the lightless realm, surrounded by menacing spirits.

Tygra nodded in agreement with the spotted Thundercat. “Driving out the evil is the only thing we can do to bring her back to us.” 

“How can you be sure?” Lion-O asked. 

Tygra faced his Lord, his amber eyes steadfast and somber. “Hard as it is to believe, at the advice of a spirit who warned me about all of this and told me that was what we’d have to do.”

“A spirit?” Lion-O repeated in disbelief. “Who? Jaga?” When he spoke the name aloud for the first time since he had learned of the jaguar’s complicity in helping his father hide the truth of the twins’ parentage from himself and the two of them, Lion-O felt a fresh stab of betrayal from his old mentor. To hear that Jaga—who in the past, when he had appeared, had only appeared to him—might now be visiting Tygra instead hurt him even more deeply than he had already been. 

Tygra shook his head, bringing a small measure of relief to the lion. “It was Snarf Clarece, actually. I’ve seen her twice now,” he admitted.

At the mention of his old rival’s name, Snarf blinked in surprise. “You saw her again, Tygra?” Although Tygra had kept quiet about his visits from Snarf Clarece, Snarf Egbert had told Snarf about the first incident. “When?”

The tiger nodded affirmatively to the snarf, and then addressed the gathered group. “The first time I saw her was a couple of weeks ago, out at the ruins of Old Cat’s Lair. I had seen a light out there and it was late, so I went out to investigate, and I saw her. She talked to me about the twins. Actually she was the one who convinced me that we should tell you and the twins about their father, Lion-O,” Tygra said, pausing for a moment as he looked at Lion-O. He felt a resurgence of guilt as he spoke the words, but out of necessity he pushed it aside for the time being and continued. “I didn’t even know that Snarf Clarece had passed on until Egbert told me that she’d been dead for two years when I told him about it later that evening.” 

Tygra then realized that the eyes of everyone in the room were upon him, and that even the darkened Lair around them was ominously quiet, as if it too was waiting for him to finish his account. “The second time I saw her was tonight, was just a little while ago… right before we found Chet. When I saw her this time, she told me that WilyKit—the real WilyKit—was consumed by her own darkness and that evil is controlling her. Evil that we have to drive out, so that she can come back to us.”

“Tygra, why didn’t you tell us this before?” Cheetara asked.

“Because we had other things to worry about, Cheetara—Chet’s safety, and yours,” the tiger replied. “It was only moments after Clarece disappeared that I heard your scream and found you unconscious.”

Lion-O closed his eyes and tried to sort through everything that had been thrust upon him seemingly all at once. “So what we’re dealing with here, and correct me if I leave anything out,” Lion-O began, “is Mumm-Ra taking out the Lair’s power systems and communications, and causing quakes that are shaking apart the Lair. Then there’s WilyKit, possessed by Torlei, at large somewhere in the Lair and most likely working with Mumm-Ra. I can’t get to the Sword of Omens to even locate them, much less fight them, and the two of them have attacked and injured a number of us already, and possibly Pumyra who we can’t account for,” the lion summarized breathlessly. “And that’s just the immediate situation. We also have no idea what in the name of Thundera happened to WilyKat, Snarfer, and Leonora over on the Third Moon, but it’s a safe bet that it’s whatever Mumm-Ra and Torlei are trying to do to us now, and here we are trapped without power or communication to call for help or send any warnings.” It sounded even more overwhelming to him to hear it all spoken in words.

“My sixth sense hasn’t been of too much help, but it did give some comforting news on the last issue, not that it helps us with the more urgent crises at hand,” Cheetara informed everyone. “WilyKat, Snarfer, and Leonora are alive. During the trance I was in before we found Chet, I had a vision of them on the Feliner II heading here—talking about Mumm-Ra.”

“What about my people, Cheetara?” Lushara pressed the cheetah. “Do you know if they’re alive?”

Cheetara shook her head at the darkling. “I’m sorry, but I honestly can’t say, about your rulers or yours for that matter,” she said, glancing at Chamela. Although Cheetara recalled the brief glimpse of Psiarik with WilyKit in that brief and abstract vision, the cheetah thought it better not to guess or interpret if she was not sure lest she give the Lunatac false hope or unduly add to her grief if she were wrong.

The impromptu briefing and strategy session was interrupted when another quake, that one far more severe than any of the previous ones, thundered through the Lair, rattling the mighty building down to its foundation. The floor shook violently enough that everyone standing struggled to keep their footing, and more cracks formed in the ceiling above and along the walls, causing more plaster to drop. That time they also heard the ominous and unmistakable sound of the support beams straining and the low whine of metal beginning to give way. Cat’s Lair would not take many more hits that direct or strong and remain standing. 

“We have to act now, and act fast,” Lion-O said decisively as the latest quake lessened, and turned to Panthro. “We need the power back on as soon as possible. Do you think that you can get it back on again?”

“I can try,” Panthro said.

Lion-O nodded, and turned his attention to Snarf. “Snarf, I want you to go with Panthro, and take Chet and Pumari with you for their own safety. WilyKit has attacked them both once, and she may try again. Do what you can to help Panthro.”

Chet looked up at his father bravely. “I can help.”

“Me too,” Pumari echoed. 

Snarf went between the cubs and took each of their hands in his paws. “No,” the old nursemaid said. “Lion-O is right. You two are very brave, but this is too dangerous. You stay with old Snarf and Panthro no matter what, okay?” The two kids did not argue the point further, and nodded obediently to the snarven nanny.

Lion-O smiled at Snarf and the kids gratefully, and then continued, focusing his attention on Tygra and Cheetara. “Cheetara, Tygra—I want you two to find Pumyra and WilyKit. Keep in mind that Pumyra might have already confronted her.” Lion-O left it unsaid that the puma might have been hurt in front of the children so as to avoid upsetting them needlessly, but it was a genuine concern of his given the damage he had already seen that the possessed Thundercat was responsible for. “When you find WilyKit, I want you to capture and restrain her, and do whatever you can to get her under control, and hopefully back to herself.”

The tiger and cheetah nodded agreeably to their Lord, and then Lion-O turned to the two ambassadors. “Ambassador Chamela and Lushara, I would be very grateful if the two of you could stay with Snoelle and help her with her injury. If we have another quake, she may need your help getting to safety. And as for you, Snoelle, please stay off that as much as you can,” the lion urged.

The Thundercat Lord at last turned to the white tiger at his side. “Bengali, you will come with me—we’re going to go outside and confront Mumm-Ra, or whatever it is he has bombarding our home.”

From between Pumari and Chet, Snarf bounced up on his tail in alarm. “Without the Sword of Omens?” 

“I don’t have a choice, Snarf,” Lion-O told his old caretaker grimly. “I’ve faced him without it before.”

“And he won’t be alone,” Bengali assured with stern loyalty and determination. “Mumm-Ra won’t get far without a fight. We’ll go against him with everything we’ve got, even if it means our lives.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Snarf mewled sadly.

* * *

Outside in the field behind Cat’s Lair, WilyKat was the first the climb out of the destroyed Feliner II, followed by Snarfer, and then finally Leonora. The three of them hurried from the wreck quickly toward the Cat’s Lair, when Snarfer stopped short in his tracks. “Hey, wait a minute!” he exclaimed, looking around nervously. “Where’d Mumm-Ra go?”

The trio shared a quick puzzled glance, and then looked more carefully in the direction of Cat’s Lair. From what little they could make out in the dim light cast by the stars and Plundarrian moons that twinkled in the nighttime Thunderian sky, the giant form of Mumm-Ra that had only moments ago been assaulting the Thundercats’ home was now nowhere to be seen. “But he was just there,” WilyKat murmured with a frown.

Just then an impossibly loud crash, followed by a ground quake powerful enough to make each of them stumble where they stood, came from directly behind them. The three of them whirled around, adrenaline coursing through their veins, and to their horror saw that the giant Mumm-Ra was indeed still present, only he had moved—and had just squashed the wrecked Feliner II under his foot like an insignificant bug. The ever-living’s blazing red eyes stared down at them with intense hatred. “You will die,” the undead mage growled.

His features hardening in anger, WilyKat let out a low and furious growl. “I don’t think so.” The Thundercat reached for an explosive pellet on his belt—one of a few extras he had found stashed in the emergency compartment of the Feliner II during the long ride back to New Thundera—and threw it with all his might at the Ever-Living Source of Evil. He had not used the pellets for so long that the brightness of the flash of its explosion almost surprised him when Mumm-Ra swatted it away harmlessly with his giant blue hand. 

Mumm-Ra cursed at the stinging sensation of the small explosive and retaliated by hurling a blast of red lightning their way. Leonora and Snarfer tumbled to one side, while WilyKat rolled to the other. “My gods,” Leonora gasped, “I knew he was powerful, but…” The lioness’ voice trailed off with a note of hopelessness. “Can we fight that?” she asked, clutching the Staff of Dera tightly in her hands.

Ever the optimist, Snarfer frowned determinedly. “We’ve fought him before, snarfer snarfer. Maybe not that big though… but close! Of course, that was a long time ago now.”

“And this time I am stronger than ever before,” Mumm-Ra growled malignantly at the trio. “Prepare to meet your end, puny mortals.” The ever-living raised his hands and released a searing bolt of evil magic at them. Snarfer and Leonora tried to scramble out of the way in time, but snakelike tendrils of energy from the beam caught them and pulled them back roughly, struggling. Both screamed in agony as it burned them.

“No!” WilyKat screamed, and hurled all three of his remaining explosive pellet at the mage, running forward and charging at him like a madman. Mumm-Ra let out a roar of pain as the pellets struck him in chest and exploded one by one. Behind the Thundercat, Leonora and Snarfer both fell to the ground as the last of Mumm-Ra’s beam dissipated, gasping for breath and wincing in pain, but still alive. While they got their bearings, WilyKat then drew a laser pistol from his belt—one given to him by the Lunatac Governor General before he had left the Third Moon in case he needed it on the trip—and began firing upon the hated mummy over and over again. 

Mumm-Ra threw the Thundercat’s assault off with a reflective blast of his own red lightning and stepped back. “Your rage suits you, Thundercat,” he sneered at WilyKat. “I see that your sister isn’t the only one with a taint of darkness to her.”

“Shut the fuck up!” the enraged WilyKat snarled back with uncharacteristic vehemence. 

“Temper, temper, kitten,” Mumm-Ra mocked cruelly.

“I’ll see you burn in the pit for what you did to my sister, and for all the lives you’ve destroyed,” WilyKat yelled hatefully, and fired another round at the undead mage. 

Leonora ran up behind the Thundercat. “Calm down, WilyKat,” she pleaded. “We have to get into the Lair. If she’s inside we might still be able to help her!”

“It’s far too late for that, lioness,” Mumm-Ra chuckled ominously, mildly annoyed that she had survived when he had thought he left her for dead, but not overly concerned by it. Instead he stared WilyKat dead in the eye, taking evil pleasure in drawing the male twin into a rage of his own. “You know it’s true,” the mage taunted, “and that’s why you’re so furious right now. That’s why your soul is burning for revenge… and giving into its own destiny of the Hour of Darkness.”

“That’s not true,” Snarfer shouted angrily. “WilyKat, come on!” the snarf urged. “Leonora’s right. We have to get inside. Remember why we came here,” he pleaded on. “We need to get to the Thundercats before what happened on the Third Moon happens here. Mumm-Ra’s only trying to distract us!”

“Well he’s not going to get far at that,” a familiar, determined, and very welcome voice chimed in from behind. Snarfer and Leonora turned around and to their relief saw Lion-O and Bengali running toward them. 

“Lion-O!” Snarfer exclaimed, elated to see the pair of Thundercats not only not hurt, but there to help.

“Lion-O?” WilyKat said, snapping out of his anger long enough to turn around and see them. “Bengali?”

Mumm-Ra rolled his eyes at Lion-O’s predictably overconfident appearance. “Oh goody, more kitties have come out to play, including the leader of the pride.”

“Good to see you alive, Kat,” Bengali said to the younger Thundercat with a quick smile. “We were worried about you. All of you.”

“Where’s Kit?” WilyKat asked urgently.

“She’s inside… and she’s not herself. She’s possessed, we think,” Lion-O informed the trio. “And she’s dangerous.”

“Oh, figured out that much did you? I’m impressed,” Mumm-Ra said sarcastically, and interrupted the Thundercat reunion with a wide spray of red lightning aimed at the group.

“We know,” Snarfer said with a resigned shiver, and bounced out of the way barely in the nick of time as the ground erupted around them with the force of Mumm-Ra’s blast. “That’s what we came here to warn you about,” he called out to Lion-O and Bengali.

Mumm-Ra cackled with hearty amusement. “And you’re a day late and a dollar short, as the ancient saying goes, pitiful snarf!” The giant ever-living then strode quickly toward the assemblage of his enemies and brought his foot down hard, causing them to scatter once again, and nearly crushing Leonora.

“Get into the Lair,” Lion-O told the three new arrivals. “Bengali and I will deal with Mumm-Ra. Find WilyKit and help the others find a way to get her out of Torlei’s control. And hurry!”

None of the three needed to be told twice. The trio nodded agreeably to the Thundercat Lord and then broke into a run for the Lair’s front door. Mumm-Ra aimed to fire another energy bolt at them on their way up the stairs, but a precise strike from the Hammer of Thundera courtesy of Bengali effectively ruined his aim, and it flew off harmlessly into the sky above the fleeing trio. 

“Dealing with me will not be as simple as you seem to think it will,” Mumm-Ra hissed angrily at Lion-O. “You cannot defeat me this time, and certainly not without your Sword of Omens.”

“I did it once,” Lion-O snarled back, firing on him with the hand laser. “I can do it again.”

“Can you now?” Mumm-Ra challenged. “We’ll just see about that.” The demon priest threw his head back and let out a loud burst of maniacal laughter, and then with a sinister flash of light, vanished from sight entirely.

Bengali looked around wildly, ready to strike with his hammer at any surprise attack from the undead mage, but none came. Lion-O also tensed in anticipation for the unexpected, but the air around the pair of Thundercats hung still and silent for several moments with no attack and indeed no sign at all of their longtime enemy. The white tiger Thundercat growled nervously and looked to his Lord. “Where did he go?” 

“I don’t know, and I don’t like it,” Lion-O replied, watching their surroundings with a wary eye.

“I don’t like it either,” Bengali asserted, lowering the Hammer of Thundera cautiously. “He’s playing games with us. Almost like he wants us to go back inside to face him… or WilyKit.”

Lion-O cast a thoughtful glance back at Cat’s Lair, filled with an ominous sense of dread. Normally it was at times like that when he wished Jaga would appear to him and advise him as of what to do, but it had been some time since he had last seen the spirit of his mentor, and given what he had learned recently of the jaguar and the deception he had participated in to his grave and beyond he was not sure he would be able to trust his words anyway, and that too left him with a feeling of unease and despair. 

“Lion-O?” Bengali’s voice broke into the lion’s thoughts, and Lion-O toward the tiger to hear him out. “Do you think we should go back in?” 

The Thundercat Lord sighed and looked at the eerily dark outline of Cat’s Lair against the night sky. “Yes.” 

Bengali nodded back silently, and started for the Lair. Hoping that he had made the right decision, Lion-O followed closely behind.

* * *

Due to some quick and brilliant work from Panthro, the emergency generators switched on right after WilyKat, Leonora, and Snarfer reached the main foyer of Cat’s Lair. “Hey, the power’s back on,” Snarfer said optimistically. “I guess that’s a good sign.”

“Not for you it isn’t, furball,” a sinister female voice sneered from the landing at the top of the stairs in front of them. The trio looked up and saw WilyKit, leaning smugly against the banister on the second floor.

“Kit!” WilyKat exclaimed with obvious relief. “Thank Jaga! You’re alive!” 

Impulsively he rushed toward her, but Leonora grabbed his wrist and held him back. “Remember, that’s not her,” she reminded him. The crystal on the end of the Staff of Dera in the lioness’ hands was aglow in the relatively close proximity to WilyKit, and she realized it must be picking up upon the evil presence controlling the female Thundercat. 

Torlei snarled in disgust at the Halerani. “You’re supposed to be dead. We’ll have to make sure we’re not so sloppy this time.”

Snarfer let out a low mewl of sadness. “WilyKit, how can you say that? Snarfer, snarfer, come on—that’s not you! You’ve got to remember and come back!”

“You’re stronger than her, Kit,” WilyKat called out to her earnestly. “I know you’re still in there. Fight her.”

Torlei laughed at their dramatics. “Fools,” she hissed contemptuously. “You’re acting like you think she still has a chance. She’s history, boy. Get used to it. I’m your sister now.”

While Torlei was gloating, Pumyra emerged from the shadows of the opposite hallway on the second floor, with Tygra and Cheetara behind her. The tiger and cheetah had caught up with the angry puma a few minutes prior and had explained the situation to her. Pumyra’s temper had since cooled, and she did not hold WilyKit herself accountable for Torlei’s actions against her cub, but she would have been lying if she had said she did not still harbor a feeling of distrust and unease for WilyKit, possessed or not. “No,” Pumyra said coldly to the creature inhabiting the younger Thundercat’s body. 

Torlei whirled around and saw the three Thundercats opposite her and narrowed her eyes at them. “No? What are you going to do to change that? Stab me?” she mocked.

Cheetara stepped forward to Pumyra’s side. “You can’t control her forever,” she asserted to Torlei. “WilyKit will come back to us. She’s strong, and she’s fighting.”

Unimpressed by the Thundercats’ blustering, Torlei snarled and threw one of her host body’s explosive pellets in their direction, causing them to scatter backwards as it exploded against the floor in front of them. “And you lie through your spots, cheetah,” the ever-living retorted. “Do you think I didn’t know what you were trying to do, contacting her with that ‘sixth sense’ of yours as you call it? I know exactly what you saw!”

Having heard the commotion and gone to investigate together, Snoelle and the two ambassadors, helping the injured snow leopard walk, stood in the archway on the bottom floor that led to the sitting room in which they were staying put as bidden by Lion-O. 

WilyKat meanwhile looked up at Cheetara questioningly. “You saw her, Cheetara?”

“Oh she saw her, all right,” Torlei seethed to her host’s twin. “She saw her about to get her head bashed in by the spirit of Grune the Destroyer. She saw her cowering like a baby in the arms of my nosy nephew, who if I have my way, will be torn into little bloody pieces by Kalin or Demrock, or beaten into a bloody pulp with WilyKit once Grune finishes with her.”

Leonora gasped. “Grune the Destroyer! But why would he do that?”

“Grune was a traitor, Leonora,” Panthro’s voice came from behind the stairwell. He, Snarf, and the children emerged from the corridor leading to the generator room, and joined the others in the atrium. “He needs no more reason than that.”

“Oh please, spare me your moralizations,” Torlei groaned sarcastically at the panther. “What Grune wants from her is revenge. Do you have any idea of the depth of the hatred he carries for you Thundercats, especially WilyKit and her twin, the flesh and blood result of Scarlette and Claudus’ sleazy affair?”

WilyKat froze in dumbfounded shock when he heard his possessed sister’s words. “Wh-what?” Scarlette… Claudus… flesh and blood…

Realizing that the male twin did not know the seamy truth of his origins, WilyKit’s features lit up with a malicious and twisted smile. “You mean, they never told you?” 

“Told me what?” WilyKat asked. His heart pounded hard in his chest as he realized he was about to get the answer to the questions he and his sister—especially his sister—had wanted so badly a few weeks ago, and now he was not so sure he was ready to hear it.

Cheetara faced WilyKat with alarm and concern, remembering how Lion-O had reacted to the news and that the circumstance was far less a stressful one than the one they were in now. “We were going to tell you, WilyKat, but…” 

“It just wasn’t the right time when you left,” Tygra added, feeling the same concern for the male twin and wondering simultaneously if somewhere inside her possessed body, WilyKit either knew or was about to find out. “We were hoping that when you all got home from the Third Moon—”

“Tell me what?” WilyKat repeated, taking a few steps up the large staircase toward the possessed body of his sister and the two Thundercats that apparently also knew and did not want to say.

Torlei took a few steps toward her host’s brother, grinning poisonously. “Why, the truth about who you are, WilyKat, and who your parents are,” she went on in a saccharine tone. “And how you were gypped out of your own birthright by your dear Lord Lion-O down there,” she added with a hard edge, gesturing to Lion-O and Bengali, who had just thrown open the doors of Cat’s Lair to walk in on the scene.

“That’s not how it was!” Tygra argued heatedly. 

“He’s right,” Panthro asserted, joining WilyKat on the stairs. “Don’t listen to her, WilyKat. She’s twisting it to hurt you.”

“Twisting what?” WilyKat demanded, his tone almost as emotional and angry as the possessed WilyKit’s had been earlier. “Tell me! I want to know!” 

Torlei laughed cruelly. “Congratulations, WilyKat. You’re the illegitimate child of the former Lord of the Thundercats and Grune’s fiancée,” she sneered, delighting in watching the words sink in to the already distraught Thundercat. “How does it feel to be a bastard?”

Time froze for WilyKat for that moment, as he took in the meaning of what the strained, unnatural voice of the woman who looked just like his sister said. He desperately did not want to believe her words, but at the same time they rang terribly true. All at once things over the years of his life that he had found curious and summarily dismissed, or looked away from as asked, blissfully believing in those who claimed to love him, came tumbling over him in a rush and formed a clear picture, a puzzle in which Torlei had finally placed the key piece. 

WilyKat looked from the maliciously delighted face of his twin to the fallen and guilty faces of first Tygra and then Cheetara, and then finally to the sad and regretful faces of Panthro and Snarf. “No… tell me it’s not true…” was all the male Thundercat twin could get out, his voice barely above a whisper.

“They wouldn’t have lied,” Snarfer asserted, also floored by the possessed Thundercat’s declaration.

A lie, WilyKat’s thoughts echoed. Our whole lives have been a lie…

Torlei twirled WilyKit’s lariat around her fingertip and pouted in mock sympathy at WilyKat. “You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you? Maybe you even need to think it, that your dear friends and surrogate family—or in the case of Lord Claudus, pretending to be your surrogate family—couldn’t possibly be capable of keeping such a thing from you? That they would never be capable of, much less deliberately hurting you with such a lie?”

Lies upon lies upon lies… 

Taking a few steps closer to her host’s twin, Torlei shook WilyKit’s head and continued to taunt WilyKat. “I know what you must be thinking. How you can’t imagine that your own father would sit by and give the Lordship to his little golden boy, borne to him by a lawful lioness mate, when he already had two children that rightfully had the claim by blood. It seems impossible that a noble Thundercat like Claudus, known for upholding the Code of Thundera—Truth, Justice, Honor, and Loyalty—would not only sleep with a fellow Thundercat’s betrothed, but then cover up the mistake for years and years and enlist his people to help him do it. It makes a mockery of everything you were taught, doesn’t it?”

WilyKat’s expression was somewhere between numb shock and betrayed anguish as he listened to the words spoken by the creature controlling his sister, and knew them in his heart to be the truth, made all the uglier by the lies fed to him for so long to cover it up. 

With vicious satisfaction Torlei relished in the utterly lost look in the male Thundercat twin’s eyes. The ever-living knew and delighted in how deeply it hurt WilyKat, because she knew how it had hurt his twin merely to hear Grune imply it in the lightless realm in which her soul was trapped not long ago.

Meanwhile WilyKat looked once more at Tygra, whose expression was downcast to the floor with obvious guilt. He saw similar shame in Cheetara’s eyes, in Panthro’s, and even in Snarf’s. “You knew?” he managed to choke out, his voice cracking with emotion that was pushed almost to his own breaking point in light of everything else he had been through.

“Jaga told us,” Cheetara confessed.

“And you thought he could do no wrong,” WilyKit’s cruel voice giggled sarcastically. “Surprise!”

“How—how could you do that to us?” 

Lion-O took a step in WilyKat’s direction, understanding all too well how the other Thundercat—his brother—felt. “That’s a question I’d still like to know the answer to myself, WilyKat… but it’s one that will have to wait until our sister is out of Torlei’s clutches and home safe with us.”

“Lion-O is right,” Snoelle echoed. “Saving WilyKit’s soul is what’s important right now.”

Torlei glared at the snow leopard and hurled a telekinetic blast of energy at her. “Her soul is damned for all eternity.” 

Unable to move out of the way in time due to her injury, Snoelle fell backward as the blast struck her in the chest. Chamela and Lushara caught her before she fell and bolstered her back to a standing position while a furious Panthro growled in anger and charged up the staircase, pushing past the stunned WilyKat, and faced down WilyKit. “I refuse to believe that,” the panther growled in angry assertion. “The WilyKit we know has a good heart. She may have doubts and faults like we all do, and maybe she made some mistakes that we don’t know about when she was missing, but she’s not evil and she’s strong—a hell of a lot stronger than a cold bitch like you!”

“You’re so sure of that,” Torlei hissed back contemptuously. 

“You’re damn right I am,” Panthro said, “and I’m going to prove it.”

Cheetara’s sixth sense tingled with unease as Panthro moved closer to the possessed Thundercat, and at the foot of the stairs, Leonora’s Staff of Dera glowed brighter. “Panthro—” Cheetara warned.

“I know what I’m doing, Cheetara,” the panther cut her off, and took a few steps forward until he stared harshly into WilyKit’s eyes. “As for you, I’m going to call your bluff. I don’t believe that our strong WilyKit, who lives by the Code of Thundera, a girl that I helped raise, will let you stay in control of her forever. I think that she’s going to fight her way out of your control, and I’m going to see to it that she does—by fighting you, if that’s what it takes.”

Torlei narrowed her eyes, welcoming the challenge. “Nothing would give me greater pleasure… but harm her body and you harm her. My true form is ever-living. Hers is decidedly less durable.”

“Your true form is nothing but a miserable ghost, or otherwise you wouldn’t have jumped into her body.” Panthro pulled out his nunchuks and threw them over the railing so that he was unarmed. “I would never hurt you, WilyKit,” he said, speaking to the soul he believed was inside the possessed body he spoke to. “You know that. I love you just like the rest of us do.”

As soon as Panthro discarded his weapon, Torlei leapt forward and pounced on him, knocking him back against the railing at the top of the stairs. Panthro put up enough of a fight to keep her from throwing him down the stairs or choking him, but in the grapple he was careful to do nothing more than restrain her. The other Thundercats came forth to come to his aid, but he waved them back. 

“No,” Panthro told them with a determined growl. “If WilyKit’s really as lost to us as she says—and I don’t believe she is—then I’m going to do what it takes to bring her out. Our WilyKit wouldn’t hurt a fellow Thundercat, not when it came down to it. I know she is strong and I know she’ll find a way to stop your insanity.”

Lion-O watched the scene with a terrible feeling of dread. “Panthro, I don’t—” 

“No, Lion-O,” Panthro argued, pushing WilyKit’s choking hands off his neck with considerable effort. The older panther locked his eyes with the crazed ones of the possessed Thundercat, challenging the evil and hateful being that stared back at him, searching for any glimmer of the Thundercat he knew in the familiar features. Panthro’s own gaze remained steady as he faced her down, full of emotion but not weakening in its determination. “You know as well as I do that WilyKit would never turn her back on us. She’s too strong-willed to let some undead bitch destroy her life, and she knows how much we love her. She knows that no matter what happened, no matter what she did, we’d still love her and try to understand and help her through it. Don’t you, WilyKit?” 

Panthro’s emotional plea was not enough to weaken Torlei’s hold on the lost Thundercat. “No,” the undead psi snarled contemptuously, pulling on a reserve of magic to give her the advantage to pin him beneath her. “You can’t help her, now or ever. And your foolish sentimentality just cost you your life, panther.” She grasped at a weapon stashed in her belt, the same knife she had taken from the kitchen earlier.

Her brother, standing closest to the grapple, saw the deadly glint of metal flash brightly for a second against the light above as it slashed through the air. “WilyKit, no!” 

WilyKat bolted forward, but he reached her a second too late. With a feral roar, the possessed WilyKit plunged the knife into Panthro’s chest, stabbing it in deep and twisting it before she pulled it back out, covering herself all of the close spectators, especially WilyKat, in hot spray of blood. Panthro screamed in agony and looked up at her with an uncomprehending expression as he gasped for breath and clutched at the gaping hole in his chest. 

All too happy to share the pain, Torlei relinquished control of WilyKit for one brief moment, numbing her own senses so that even in the other realm, the cusp of life and death, the true WilyKit could feel the blood on her own hands and see the face of her old friend. And in his last moments of consciousness, Panthro did see a flash of guilt and sorrow momentarily replace the cruel look in the younger Thundercat’s eyes. It was the last thing he saw before the world went black around him, and he fell still against the stair.

Path 22