Episode 33: Lost City

[Two Days Later]

The Thunder Cats had left the equine city in search of the Matter Stone, which was now revealed to them after the unfortunate incident involving Kalihara. They had bought supplies for their journey, with some of it being paints to mark the jerry cans to prevent future problems. The book was now one line short of the four positions they would have to search to gain the newly unearthed stone, which was quick to make an escape after the battle between Lion-o and Mumm-ra.

Tygra was manning the pilot's seat as he kept the Feliner steady while they flew towards the first destination. Lion-o was in his room with Cheetara teaching him how to meditate. Everyone else was keeping themselves occupied during the short flight.

"Focus on clearing your mind" Cheetara told him softly as they both sat cross-legged on the floor. Lion-o had his eyes closed as he did as he was told. He was trying to picture pure darkness as she instructed him further.

"Now, once you have nothing, picture a point of light in your mind. Focus your view onto that point while silencing all sound around you. Believe that silence is a sound, the only thing your ears should hear."

Lion-o tried to bring the point of light he was thinking of into the middle of his vision, to make it easier to focus on it. Each time he tried it moved from one spot of his mind to the other, making it difficult to focus. He tried to not listen to anything around him, to hear nothing beyond the ever so slight white noise hum of the ship. Just as he had the point placed firmly and he was focusing on it, it slowly expanded, with an ever increasing sense of calm and contentment enveloping him. His focus faltered quickly, however, as the door opened and Snarf rolled inside on a small four-wheeled platform, the two robotic rabbits used to pull it forward. Snarf was sitting on the back of the platform with a small leather strip he must have stolen from Bengali's stash of blacksmithing materials.

"Snarf! Snarf! Snarf!" he punctuated loudly into the air as he whipped the leather, making a sharp crack! as it came back over his shoulder, the two rabbits changing their direction quickly. Lion-o stood up quickly as the small "Snarf Sled" slid between his feet and went under the bed for a second before coming back out and back through the open door.

"Snarf? What are you do… ing…" Lion-o asked as the small creature headed towards the kitchen and then flipped around, opening Kalihara's door.

"I nearly had it…" the young king told Cheetara.

"It's alright. Just keep practicing." The older cheetah smiled at him as he nodded, with Snarf quickly going back down the small hallway with a squeal as the rabbits increased their speed, as he looked fearful of something coming from behind. A small Quekan bird flew after him, letting out a high pitched alarm call and quicker chirps as it was highly irritated. The bird landed with its wings outstretched, its beak making hissing noises as Snarf entered the cargo bay.

"Snaaaarrrffff!" he yelped out as there was a crashing sound with things falling over in the next room.

"What just fell?" Panthro asked as he came out of the kitchen and looked around in the hallway. Snarf was upside down with an overturned container that had spilled out odd assortments of spare clothing for winter or harsh environments. The two rabbits had broken away from the sled and were sitting nearby, their ears moving in all directions and unharmed by the crash. The Quekan hissed again after him as it lowered its wings and waddled back to Kalihara's room. Ever since they had left the equine city, the bird refused to leave her side. She wanted it to stay with its family, but under no conditions would it abide. When it followed her into the ship each time she stored supplies, Lion-o figured it was a good idea to go to the market and buy a perch for the bird in her room, as well as a water bowl. A merchant had told him to pick up some chili peppers, in which he was highly confused. Apparently, the Quekans didn't have the capability to react to Capsaicin, so they didn't taste heat like he could. This made the chili peppers a treat for the colorful creatures. The fruits and vegetables they ate themselves were perfectly suitable for the Quekan's diet, as well as small bugs which he was more than happy to let go to the little bird instead of eating himself.

"Snarf, why… just… why…" Lion-o groaned as he stared at his furry friend lying upside down with assorted cloaks and fabrics strewn about.

"Snarf…" the red furred creature moaned as he rolled onto his feet and looked up at Lion-o, wincing. The young king sighed as the cubs came out and looked between the Quekan entering Kalihara's room and Snarf further ahead with Lion-o and Cheetara looking down at him.

"So that's where the rabbits went… we were sure we had left them back at the equine city" Kit said as they both picked up the toys and headed back to their room.

"Why was Snarf even doing that?" Cheetara asked.

"Uh, that might, well, sort of fall on my head. You see, I got kind of bored, so I fashioned a tray with wheels and a handlebar. I was gonna skim it down and expand the board, but I saw Snarf play around with it so I… well, everybody needs something to occupy them while we're flying, even him" Bengali told her hesitantly as he scratched the back of his head and gave an innocent smile while he came up behind them.

"So you let Snarf wrangle their toys to go sledding around the ship?" Lion-o asked.

"I didn't mean for him to get the rabbits. I was gonna make a wind up engine to pull him around, but I guess he figured those would work fine too" the white tiger told him chuckling. Lion-o smirked at him. There was a tenuous peace between the two of them after what had happened to the lioness. They both realized that if anything got out of control, that Kalihara would pay the price.

"Just giving everyone a heads up, we'll be reaching one of the sites for the stone in a half hour" Tygra told them from the pilot's seat as he checked where the book was pointing. The lines that emitted from it had changed color, and were no longer purple, but a diverse spectrum of blue, green, red, and white. Lion-o nodded at his brother who turned back around in his seat to continue their uneventful trip. The young king helped his small friend out of the mess he made, and noticed he was bruised on one of his front legs. Snarf winced as he tried limping forward.

"I don't think it's broken Snarf, but we might have something in the medicine cabinet" Lion-o chuckled as Snarf looked up at him.

"Here, let me try something" Cheetara told him as she kneeled. She placed her hands on the bruised paw as Snarf looked at her quizzically. The cheetah closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to use what she had been taught by the priest in the temple. Her hands glowed as she focused, with the bruise disappearing slowly. As she opened her eyes, her vision was a bit off and she felt lightheaded.

"Are you ok? What was that?" Bengali asked next to her in astonishment.

"The priests had finished some training that Jaga had started with me. I… never really understood most of it until now. It allows me to heal minor wounds with my own spiritual energy, as well as enhance certain strengths for others around me with an aura. It tends to come at a cost though, as I can become tired or have other minor adverse conditions depending on how strong of an effect I attempt. As long as I'm careful, this shouldn't be a problem. I'll be fine, just a little disoriented" Cheetara explained as she brought her hand to her forehead and shook her head slightly.

"Maybe you should sit down" Lion-o suggested as he helped her to the small couch to the left of the cockpit.

"Yes… I'll be fine in a minute." The cheetah sat down slowly as she kept her eyes shut, the dizziness fading.

"I guess I'll go tell the others to get ready" Lion-o said as Bengali nodded. The white tiger started to clean up the mess that Snarf had made as the young king walked back to the bedrooms, first telling Panthro to stop doing whatever he was doing and get prepared to disembark from the ship while he was in the kitchen.

"Do I still have time to finish my sandwich?" Panthro asked. Lion-o nodded as the old General gave him a thumbs up and started to take huge bites of his food. The lion sighed and walked to the cub's room, opening the door with a soft whish. The cubs were sitting around on the bottom bunk, with an unknown contraption in each of their hands. On the wall, was a moving picture the likes of which he had never seen. There were wires running from the controllers in their hands to a small device placed under the bunk, with what looked like a boxy version of Kalihara's scout drone attached to the wall aiming at the opposite facing.

"What is that?" Lion-o asked. Kit and Kat were both pressing buttons on the controllers with two characters on the wall moving in response. The characters seemed to be shooting at assorted targets while they took cover.

"Reload! Back off! I'll cover!" Kat yelled as he gestured his hands to the left as he pressed a few more buttons, the movement clearly not doing anything to assist him in whatever they were doing.

"Hey, hello? Earth to Wilys" Lion-o waved his hand in front of them. Kit pressed a button on the controller and the characters froze in time, two bullets flying towards them.

"Oh, sorry Lion-o. Kalihara had this thing in her footlocker. She called it a game console. Pretty nifty. She said we could borrow it for a bit because Bahati keeps trying to chew the wires." Lion-o looked dumbfounded as he looked at the small contraption under their bunk bed.

"How many games does it have?" he asked.

"From what we saw, like… fifty? This is the first one we've tried. It's really fun. I think she had two other controllers in her locker. You could ask for another" Kit told him as they both looked at the lion poking at the machine.

"Yeah, three players would even the score in this game" Kat giggled. Lion-o stood up as they un-paused the game, the action continuing.

"Hey, we'll be reaching the next stone site in half an hour, so be ready to leave alright?" he told them.

"Yeah, sure, we'll pause when we need to go" Kit told him nonchalantly as they kept their eyes glued to the wall, the projection system on the wall turning the opposite facing into one big action sequence.

"Combo!" Kat giggled as Lion-o left. He had no idea the lioness had something like that in her equipment. Maybe everything she had wasn't just for combat, but to keep her occupied during long missions away from home. The young king walked to her room and knocked.

"Enter" the lioness's voice said from the other side, and the door slid open. Kalihara was sitting on her bed with a Personal Data Assistant in her hand, typing away as a wire led from it to the spider drone. She seemed to be typing on it while the Quekan seemed to be preening himself nearby. She had a stylus held in between her lips as she worked on something involving the little machine. Her eyes looked up at him as she put the pad down on her lap, waiting for him to speak.

[Music: Ólafur Arnalds - Ljósið]

"You named him Bahati?" he asked with a smirk on his face.

"It's Camerian for Lucky" she replied as she gestured at the small bird staring at him. Bahati gave out a light chortle as he looked at Lion-o, wondering why he was there. Lion-o walked over and put his hand out to try and give the young bird some attention, but the Quekan hissed a bit and looked like he would bite.

"Easy, I'm not going to hurt you" he cooed softly as Bahati looked at his hand, and then to his face. The young bird got up slowly and waddled a bit forward, his beak half open.

"Is he going to… you know… bite?" Lion-o asked, worried his beak was open for a reason.

"Not unless you give him a reason to. I haven't quite gotten all his mannerisms down, but I don't think he's inherently territorial. He just doesn't really know you. He hides when the cubs come in, or when anyone else shows up for that matter. I'm surprised he's so fearless of me despite the fact I'm just like everyone else here" she told him as her hand gently went out to the bird's head. Bahati turned and bowed his head carefully, waiting for the scratch to his head he enjoyed. He received what he was expecting as her claw rubbed behind his neck, his feathers ruffling a bit as his eyes closed. He emitted a soft cooing sound as he accepted the attention.

"I take it he's perfectly fine with being here" Lion-o said softly as he watched her giving the Quekan a scratch.

"So far. He'll probably want to stretch his wings the next time we land, and I won't blame him. I'm trying to figure out how to train him quickly to know when to come to me, but I really don't have any knowledge about birds." Kalihara looked at her data pad and looked at the spider drone. She let out a soft sigh as she hit a button and watched the spider drone turn on, turn its body and rotate the machine gun turret. As soon as it went through its basic startup procedures, Kalihara looked at Lion-o.

"Here goes nothing" she said just as she was about to hit a button labeled "Test mode 1."

"Wait, what are you doing?" he asked curious.

"Testing some experimental equipment I had in my locker. I was given it before we went on our classified mission, before… well, you saw me in the stasis pod. Our team engineer was supposed to install the parts into my drones and the armor… I hope I did it right…" she explained as she looked at the little robot.

"What's supposed to happen?" he asked as he scratched his top lip, listening intently.

"What's SUPPOSED to happen is it should be able to project a mobile energy shield in front and to the sides, allowing mobile cover against most forms of damage. State of art, but like I said, experimental. I don't even know if I put it in right" she told him as she pressed the button. The spider drone engaged something inside, a sharp whining sound reverberating from its parts, and promptly spun its turret around and turned off in a short circuit. ERROR 403 was shown in red on her data pad.

"Frack!... great…" she snapped as she let out a sigh.

"I take it that it didn't work as intended" Lion-o watched as he felt sorry for the lioness.

"And more than likely I forgot to solder some wire inside somewhere… Siegfried… where are you when I need you…" she grumbled as she stared at the drone.

"Do you need any help?" he asked as he looked at the spider drone.

"Yeah, an instruction manual. I don't know what I'm doing. I figured placing the shield emitter in front, soldering the wires where they need to go, attaching the power cords to the power core, I tethered and secured all the attachments and checked to make sure the emitter was clear of all obstructions. The thing should work, in which it has clearly proven otherwise. This is why I left the more complex stuff to the people who were trained for this stuff, like Siegfried. He could make anything work, guaranteed." Her left hand shot to her forehead as she did a face palm and shook her head.

"Maybe Panthro can take a look at it" Lion-o suggested.

"No, I'll figure it out later, or maybe find out that it doesn't even work and it should go back to the drawing board. Until then I'll just disable the feature in its engagement systems. I'd rather it not go Charlie Foxtrot in a hail of haywire while I'm under fire" she told him with a sigh as she stared into space at the drone, her face showing she was thinking of how to address the problem.

"I take it Siegfried was a member of your team?" he asked quietly. He didn't want to push her into telling anything about her past unless she wanted to.

"Best engineer I've ever seen. He tended to overcomplicate a few things and ramble from time to time, but I've never seen anyone better than he was… I miss him… I miss them all…" she trailed off as she took a deep breath as if bolstering her resolve and will in warding off some emotion creeping up inside of her. Lion-o didn't push, he knew it was a touchy subject.

"Well, I better get myself ready. We'll be landing in about twenty minutes, I just wanted to give you a warning we'll be heading out. Tygra has flown us to one of the positions for the stone, and hopefully we'll get there without Mumm-ra finding out." Kalihara nodded as she looked at him without a word and turned to feel a nudging from Bahati giving small kisses on her forearm with his beak. She snorted in amusement as she picked up the little bird carefully and put him on her lap, as the young Quekan settled in quickly for some petting that he felt he was due.

"I really don't understand why you stick by me little one. You've known me for two days at most" she chuckled.

"It's easy to figure out" the young king said softly as he walked to the door. Kalihara looked up at his face as he looked at her over his shoulder. She quickly diverted her eyes as the bird chirped happily while he was given a good scratch.

"Fool" she whispered as her eyes glanced at his while a small grin crept on his face.

"I meant what I said, about willing listen when you're ready. I'll leave you to get dressed for the excursion" he added quickly as he opened the door and stepped out.

"Lion-o" Kalihara quickly said as he stopped and looked over his shoulder. She wasn't looking at him, but at Bahati as he cooed from the attention. There was a moment of silence as she thought out her words carefully.

"Thank you, but it may take a bit more time" she finally managed to say. She was still bunkered up in her emotional fortress, but at least she knew there was someone there to come out of her shell to talk to if she chose.

"You're welcome" he replied as he closed the door and walked back to his own room. He quickly grabbed his gauntlet and sword, brushed his teeth and tried to comb his hair, with little effect. He smiled at the small mirror, not wondering how he looked with the goofy grin on his face, but to see if he had anything stuck in his teeth.

"Tygra to Lion-o" his brother said over the intercom.

"Wha? Huh? Uh… hello?" he answered, caught off guard by the sudden sound of his brother's voice. He was looking around at the ceiling, wondering where Tygra's voice had come from. He hadn't seen any speakers.

"There's an intercom built into the ship, you didn't know that? Anyways, you might want to come up here. You aren't going to believe this" the tiger prince told him.

"I'll be right there." Lion-o relaxed as the intercom turned off, his mind running through just what he had found.

[Five Minutes Later]

"That's… a lot of swampland…" Cheetara commented as she and the cubs were looking out the window.

"Correction Cheetara… that's a lot of DEAD looking swampland…" Kalihara said over her shoulder as she too looked at the ground below. The gnarled trees and plants below looked brown and black, with brackish water all around. No leaves could be seen on either, and what little ground could be seen was greyish in color. There was significant overcast of clouds throughout the land, with fog and marsh gas in patches of the swamp.

"Why correct me?" Cheetara asked.

"Swamps don't usually look like that unless something is wrong. Either it's heavy pollution… or something else. I've slogged through a few of them to know something isn't right" Kalihara told her.

"Would you know what could cause it?" the cheetah asked.

"Wrong person to ask. Pollution is the only thing I can think of, but clearly there is no industrial civilization nearby unless they're just like-" Kalihara started to explain.

"I've got a city out there!" Tygra interrupted as the clouds shifted. Everyone looked over his shoulder as he checked the console.

"You were saying?" Cheetara said with a small smile.

"I'm allowed to be wrong once in a while Cheetara, I don't know everything" the lioness smirked as she put her hands up in surrender. Tygra brought the Feliner in a long circular drift around the city, letting everyone catch a view.

"Place looks run down" Lion-o said behind everyone.

"Really rundown…" Cheetara whispered.

"It's abandoned…" Kalihara stated as her face turned into a mask of stone.

"Someone might live there" Kit commented.

"Tygra, can the Feliner catch any thermal imaging scans from below?" Kalihara asked. Tygra pressed a few buttons and a small map started to scroll by on the view screen. No heat signatures were shown.

"Pretty spot on with that idea" Cheetara winked at Kalihara. Her face was still devoid of emotion.

"I've seen enough abandoned cities to know what they look like from any direction" the lioness said solemnly as she went back to her room to get her gear ready.

"Ok, now even I want a more detailed explanation about our previous home world" Tygra said from the pilot seat as he draped his left arm over the backrest.

"Were we really that advanced?" Cheetara asked Lion-o.

"We must have been, but I'm just guessing." Lion-o rubbed his chin as if playing with an imaginary goatee.

[Twenty Minutes Later]

"Touch down in five… four… three…" Tygra reported as the Feliner landed on the outskirts of the swamp. There was barely enough ground for the landing gear to sit on, and Kalihara was worried it was soft soil. Once they all felt the jolt of the ship landing, the cargo bay opened with Kalihara aiming her rifle at the expanse of shallow water past. No one could blame her.

"Great, I'm just gonna love moving through that water…" Bengali grimaced. Cheetara shook her head as a waft of marsh gas played near her nose as they exited the ship. Bahati shot out of the ship before they could close the door, flying off into the sky and through the swamp. Kalihara seemed a bit worried, but she let out a short breath and walked into the water carefully.

"He'll be back" Bengali told her, trying to reassure the lioness.

"Of course he will, but the problem will be we won't be here when he does, and if he follows after we could be goddess knows where in that city." The cubs plunked into the water with a slight splash, as they both grimaced at the feel of the floor under the water.

"Yuck…" Kit muttered out as the group headed towards an island, and then continued on. Each island was barely the size of a room, with a few gnarled dead trees and maybe a plant or two that looked to be on its way to the afterlife.

"Kalihara, can you tell what's in the water to do this?" Lion-o asked the lioness as they crested another island.

"All that would do would tell me if it's toxic to us, not what the composition is. I wouldn't be able to tell you what each chemical did even if I did know. Besides, I've already done that. Nothing in the water, though that worries me more" she replied.

"Me too…" the young king said as he looked around. There were no animals living in sight. Not one sound of a bird, or bugs buzzing around. There would at least be flies or mosquitos, but not even those were seen. The trip was mostly uneventful, aside from Tygra slipping and falling back into the mucky water they had just gotten out of.

"That stuff is disgusting" he grumbled as he spat out anything that got in his mouth. After an hour they reached a much larger piece of land that oddly had a very broken brick road.

"At least we aren't in the water anymore" Cheetara commented.

"Hopefully we can find another way back without slogging through that junk again" Panthro said as he wrapped his knuckles against the brick layering under their feet. Chips of one broke off almost immediately. There was no maintenance done in a very long time. As they continued down the road to the city in the distance, they reached a long stone bridge heading to the main gate.

"Can anyone see the bottom?" Tygra asked as he leaned over the side.

"I'm not going to even try" Panthro grumbled as he stayed in the middle of the bridge at all times. Kalihara looked over the side with her goggles over her eyes, the fog obscuring everyone else's vision. The range was registered on her HUD as she aimed her rifle downwards.

"How far?" Kit asked.

"Not too far" she replied reassuringly. She was lying, as her rangefinder told her the crevice went for a kilometer at least. The weight bearing pillars of the bridge were hopefully reinforced.

The team slowly made their way over the bridge, with lamp posts placed every twenty feet, though all of them were out. Cobwebs had started to build along the sides of them as they passed the middle of the bridge and headed down the remainder of the arched path. The gate was massive before their eyes, with huge double doors as large as the Feliner. A large portcullis was also seen, but it was raised to the top, as well as the doors were wide opened.

[Music: Ólafur Arnalds - Allt Varð Hljótt]

"This place is huge… no one would abandon it so quickly. The walls look un-breached, so that means no one attacked this place. Considering the size, it must have been a beacon for trade as well" Bengali commented as they walked in with Panthro unpacking some torches they made prior to leaving the equine city. Kalihara didn't have enough time to have her gauntlet create any flashlights, so the only one to actually have one was Lion-o. Just as they headed down the main road through the middle of the empty city, Kalihara opened a vest pocket and pulled out a glow stick, broke it and threw it on the ground near the gate.

"Never know if we find other gates through this city. There could be miles of area" she commented as Lion-o watched what she was doing.

"Can your gauntlet make more of those?" he asked curiously.

"Yes. Anything I have in my equipment I can get more of, though technically chemical flares would be easier to mass produce compared to these." Lion-o thought it was interesting she had so many different lighting sources.

"Just exactly what are you carrying for utility?" he said quietly as they walked on.

"A small bag of 1.5" light sticks, some 6" light sticks which you just saw, some 6" high intensity light sticks which only last five minutes, and a few chemical flares. I don't usually like to carry the battery powered flares as I almost always forget to pick them up for later reuse" she explained.

"Why would you carry the smaller ones?" he asked.

"Even though they give out less light, they do have their uses, mostly for emergency paths or making bread crumb trails to get out of a bad situation in a dark environment."

"But you have your goggles to see with though" he stated.

"I've had them fail before Lion-o; it's all equipment, and it can all short out" she replied.

"I just never figured your stuff could fall apart. It's pretty rugged." Lion-o eyed her goggles that were on her face.

"Time wears on everything, though maintenance can slow it down. Even my gauntlet can eventually have problems, which is why I have an auto repair kit in my footlocker just in case." The group came to a multi-forked intersection.

"Please don't tell me we are splitting up" Kat moaned out.

"We've all got the communicators that Kalihara gave us. It wouldn't stop us from chatting" Bengali pointed at his ear with the loop over the top.

"Oh great, incessant chattering from you, why would I ever take it off" Panthro grumbled sarcastically.

"I'll have you know I was the lead singer in a band" Bengali retorted.

"Let me guess, the screaming idiots?" Tygra quipped. Everyone chuckled at Bengali's expense as he closed his mouth and looked away.

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up…" he mumbled.

"There was a band named that back on Thundera, they were actually quite popular with the teens" Kalihara remarked as she peeked through an open door into the darkness. All she saw was some worn furniture and a wall with a few paintings. Bengali perked up a bit after she had said that.

"See? She knows good music, and a good singer" he chided as his chest puffed up.

"I said teens; I didn't listen to them, so I can't comment on the lead singer" she replied over her shoulder as they continued on down the first path down a winding road.

"Didn't like their vocals?" Bengali asked as he walked next to her.

"I was a little busy with staying alive during the civil war when that band was around" she told him as she looked up at the roofs of the houses they were passing. A damaged inn sign popped out of the wall to the right further up ahead of them.

"Is it just me, or is the area getting darker the deeper we delve into the city?" Cheetara asked.

"I'm seeing it too. This place feels odd" Lion-o replied as they all stopped.

"Maybe you should pull the sword out and get a reading on where the stone should be in here. We could be lost for days inside this place. I can't even tell if it IS day right now" Tygra suggested.

"You're right. Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight!" Lion-o said as he pulled out his blade and looked across the cross guard of the legendary weapon. His vision seemed garbled a bit, with multiple fleeting scenes flying by. One of them showed the castle to the end of the city, and a massive throne room that easily dwarfed that of the Lair back home. Inside, with the last glimpse he caught before a massive headache rolled across his head was a glowing object and multiple chains nearby that seemed to be moving in a make shift prison cell. He was worried it was some sort of monster. He pulled his sword away as he felt dizzy, falling backwards right into Kalihara as she grabbed him under his armpits and lowered him to the ground.

"Easy… deep breaths…" she said as the others were worried. Tygra helped him back up as he shook his head a few times.

"What did you see?" Panthro asked.

"The castle to the south of the city. I think the stone is inside the throne room" he told them as Kalihara pulled a canteen from her belt and handed it to him.

"Drink" she commanded.

"I'm not thirsty, but thanks anyways" the young king told her.

"Wasn't a suggestion" she replied. Tygra was worried he might not take being ordered by a subordinate well and respond with annoyance, but all he did was stare at the canteen for a few seconds before taking it carefully from her hand and gulping twice. He handed it back to her as she screwed the top back on and placed it on her belt.

"Better?" she asked.

"Yeah, thanks." Bengali stiffened up a bit at seeing her coddling him.

"What the…" Kat yelped as he grabbed Lion-o's arm and pulled at him.

"What's wrong?" the young king asked as he looked at Kat.

"Over there!" the cub yelped as he pointed down another road. Lion-o pointed his flashlight down the direction the cub had shown, but no one saw anything.

"Shadows must be playing tricks with your eyes kid" Panthro commented. Kalihara flipped through multiple visual modes trying to see beyond what the others were seeing.

"Anything?" Lion-o asked. The lioness peered into the darkness carefully.

"Nothing. I'm sorry to say Kat, but whatever you saw might not have been real" she replied.

"I swear I saw something! It was in the shape of a cat!... or maybe dog… I didn't see the head, just the shape, but I swear it was there before it darted around the corner!" he pleaded.

"Hmm, well, thermal is clean, no target box showed up, and I've got no magnetic lock so… whatever it was, it's gone now" Kalihara told him.

"Place is screwing with us. Let's get the stone and get out of here" Tygra said as he turned around and took lead of the group.

"Could have been a scavenger or bandit" Bengali suggested.

"One that can hide their IR signature? Doubtful, but then there could be some magical way of keeping that from being shown" the lioness retorted. The group continued down the path while Kat kept looking behind them, watching their backs in the event whatever he saw was real. Nothing moved behind, though at one point he could have sworn he saw some dust drift from a doorframe, and he knew there wasn't any wind traveling between the buildings.

"This place gives me the creeps" Cheetara whispered.

"I think we're all agreed on that" Panthro commented. They reached an open courtyard plaza with a fountain in the middle with two wells on either side. There was overhanging moss and vines that seemed strategically placed to add style to the fountain that would have looked beautiful if it wasn't so dark. The rope of one well was frayed with nothing attached below four feet, and the other had a bucket that was smashed on the side of the cobblestone. The smashed container seemed to have been made of new wood, so the reason for it being destroyed was confusing to the group.

"Blacksmith… another inn… restaurant… that looks like a granary…" Tygra pointed out as they looked around.

"We've been walking for a while, this looks like a good place to rest for a bit" Lion-o said as he sat down near the fountain. Though the others wished to leave the city as fast as they could once they had the stone in their possession, a chance to rest was welcome. No other sound came from their surroundings aside from their breathing and the crackling coming from the torches. Everyone's eyes were watching their peripheral vision, wondering if something was hiding just at the corner of their eyes without them knowing, but every time each of them turned their heads, there was nothing there. After ten minutes, they were up and ready to continue on.

"This looks like a residential district. The castle is at the south wall?" Bengali asked.

"Yeah, so… we need to head to the trade district in the middle, and just take the main road up" Lion-o said as he got up and moved to a post holding up the balcony of the inn.

"How do you know that?" the white tiger asked curiously.

"Because of this" the young king replied as he moved his flashlight over to a sign on the post showing an inscribed map. The stone was incredibly detailed, with gold and silver inlayed with jewels adorning key spots and names popping up at all locations.

"Hmm, you'd think all of that would have been looted by now" Panthro said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Maybe they never got the chance to get this far" Kat said in an uneasy tone.

"Or maybe they just got lost in the dark and gave up their looting to head home" Tygra replied. A form moved opposite of the large plaza they were in and seemed to dart into another building.

"Ok, I DEFINITELY saw that" Kat pointed as Bengali readied his hammer.

"I saw it too. We're not alone" he growled as the others unslung their weapons. Nothing happened as they looked around, with no sound coming from anywhere.

"Anybody see anything?" Lion-o asked as the others formed a small circle with their backs to each other.

"Nothing" Cheetara whispered as they listened carefully. There was a slight shuffling from some of the buildings, but nothing came out.

"What was that?" Bengali asked.

"It seemed to be hunched over with its arms dangling in front of it" Kat said as he kept close to the older Thunder Cats.

"I'm not picking up any IR…" Kalihara whispered.

"What does that mean?" Tygra asked.

"It means whatever is in those buildings isn't giving off a heat signature. I can't tell what we're dealing with beyond what Kat and Bengali have seen of their shape, and that's at a distance" the lioness replied in a grave tone.

"They seem to be staying away from us… for now" Panthro said in a concerned tone.

"It depends on how long though. We need to move" Lion-o commanded.

"I should walk drag, keep an eye on our six" Kalihara suggested. Lion-o had gotten used to her being to his right, and now that she wanted to be in the back of the group, he felt a bit lonely. Bengali was to the left of Tygra, so it wasn't as if she was going to be near him.

"Alright" he finally agreed as the lioness fell to the back of the group as they ripped the map off the post and carried it with them as they continued to the right of the plaza and into the trade district. They passed through a double door gateway with another portcullis, this one a little worse for wear as they soon headed left. Kalihara pulled out her scout drone and had it float by her head turned in the opposite direction, its defensive systems armed as it kept visual in a small screen attached to the HUD of her goggles.

"There's the castle in the distance" Bengali said quietly, worried that if he spoke with an even higher decibel count that those things in the buildings would hear and come out. The clouds above just at that moment started to sprinkle rain down onto them lightly.

"Oh great… just what we need…" Tygra grumbled. The torches started to fizzle from the water hitting them.

"We gotta hoof it to the castle gates or these torches may go out!" Lion-o ordered. They didn't want to be caught in the darkness with those things hiding all around them, waiting. The group started to jog down the street and headed up the long staircase to a pair of gates, each open and twisted away.

"Ok, there are lights in that castle..." Kit stated as they all saw the windows softly illuminated by candles or torches. The candles and torches would douse as something seemed to move down different paths in one direction. At one point, there were two electric lanterns that flickered eerily in one window, showing the form of some… thing in the shape of a man. The group continued up the long flight of stairs until they reached the main doors, pushing them in with a loud creak. Just as they stepped inside, the clouds started a downpour around the large building, with lightning erupting in the distance. The circular entrance room had two large curving staircases running along the walls with two arched tunnels heading beneath them. Four doors were to each side of the group with four large chandeliers hanging above them, all of them unlit. Four other doors were at the top of the stairs, with a long hallway heading further into the castle.

"We need to be careful, someone is definitely here. They could be after the stone as well… it could be Mumm-ra for all we know" Lion-o said as he looked around.

"Well if you see lights going on, we need to get away fast. Someone is definitely using magic to light candles and torches as they move" Cheetara warned.

"Agreed. Let's… go through this door over here" the young king suggested. They walked in carefully, their weapons ready and torches providing barely any light. The door opened to a small staircase heading down for twenty steps, with a rank odor coming from below.

"Ugh, what's that smell?" Tygra asked.

"Anyone else hear that?" Kit asked. Everyone stopped as they listened. There was the sound of the rain coming from outside, but further below they heard the soft sound of running water.

"Is there a river running under the castle?" Bengali asked.

"If I had to hazard a guess… sewage" Kalihara commented. The group turned around and headed back up slowly as they didn't want to be spotted exiting the door right in front of whomever was roaming the castle.

"Alright, three more doors" Tygra said as they looked at the staircases and the tunnels heading under them.

"We'll check those after, right now I think this one might be the way to the throne ro-" Lion-o started to say as he pushed his hand against the next door. A runic symbol glowed around his hand as everyone was in shock.

"Lion-o, back away carefully…" Cheetara warned.

"I'm trying, but my hand is stuck like glue to it!" the young king yelped as he tried to pull away. Suddenly, three bright rings came from the runic symbol and moved across his arms, making them disappear as they got larger nearing the rest of his body.

"Lion-o!" Tygra yelped as he bolted forward, trying to grab at his brother. The lion was enveloped in the rings as they closed around him and disappeared, the runic symbol fading from the door.

"Whiskers…" the tiger prince grimaced as his hands grabbed at air.

[Meanwhile]

Three bright rings appeared from thin air in another part of the castle, pushing outwards as Lion-o was dropped from upside down onto the stone floor.

"Ooph!" he grunted as he landed, holding his head. He looked carefully as he grabbed his flashlight and shown it around. The hallway he was in was dark aside from the open windows with lightning flashing every once in a while. Luckily, no other lights were on, which seemed to be a good thing given they didn't know what was causing them to turn on yet. The young king tapped his communicator on his ear and tried to speak.

"Can anyone hear me? Hello?" he whispered. He got a garbled response from the other side.

"What… Li… ha… can you… inter…ference…" he heard Tygra speak.

"I'm in another part of the castle, and besides being flipped upside down, I'm alright. I'll try to make my way back to you guys."

"Hang… Kal… cle…" he heard.

"I can't understand. What did you say?" he asked.

"Kali… can… ok, so that worked?" he heard Tygra.

"I'm swapping channels as fast as I can, but something is intentionally interfering. Trying to get a connection. Slicing softs are having a field day with this place" Kalihara said through the channel.

"Lion-o, can you hear us?" Tygra asked.

"I can hear you. I'm in another part of the castle, and I'm alright for the moment. What about you guys?" he asked.

"We're fine, but you gave us a scare a minute ago. We're gonna try and reach you. Do you see anything that can be thought of to coordinate with us? A landmark or something?" Tygra asked.

"I'm in an external hallway with windows that look out… I think… west wing maybe. I can see the remainder of the swamp from here, so no city in sight" the young king reported.

"Alright, we'll try to… meet… damn it… Kaliha… we're losing the connec…" Tygra started to fade out.

"Tygra? Tygra!" Lion-o poked at the earpiece.

"I'm… try… can't keep… losi…" he heard Kalihara saying before all he got was static. He sighed as he walked carefully down the hallway, opening one door slowly and peeking inside. He was met with another hallway that continued on, but there was a break off hallway to the right. There was no sign of anyone inside, so he carefully snuck across the stone floor and into the side passageway. As he reached the reinforced wooden door with studs running along the frame, he peeked through the small grate in the middle. He was greeted with the sight of the throne room on the opposite side, with a glowing fountain on top of a small flight of stairs. There were stain glass windows adorning the walls of the top of the room, with massive pillars as wide as he was tall. He opened the door carefully, with light creaks heard as he winced from the sound. No other lights were seen inside, so whatever was moving through the castle wasn't there.

The young king carefully crept across the ground as he hid behind a pillar, looking at a small cage near the short stairs. The door was open, with chains lying on the ground as well as a blanket strewn on the floor of the small prison. Whatever was inside had gotten out, and that worried him. He observed the fountain was anything but normal, with an eerie blue glow coming from it as the stones were lined with the inlay of silver and gold threading throughout the body of the porcelain. Two wisps of light and fog were twirling up from it, reaching towards the ceiling. The silver and gold seemed to change between each other, with the threads slowly swapping every minute like a kaleidoscope.

"Whatever it was that was here is long gone now…" he muttered to himself as he moved up the stairs and reached the fountain. The water seemed to sparkle at his approach as he looked inside. Instead of seeing the bottom of the fountain, he saw nothing but the glow of the water, as it seemed endless. He pulled out his sword and looked around once more, the glow providing the only light in the room.

"Here goes nothing… Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight" he whispered as he brought the sword up to his eyes. The vision was indeed of the fountain, and inside was the stone, hidden away in another pocket plane. It looked different from the first time he saw it, with the color being a light blue, and the shape looking curved, almost like it was made of liquid. He carefully pushed his gauntlet into the water as the spirit stone reacted and breached the pocket plane the stone resided in. Once his hand had a firm grip on the stone, he pulled it loose, the glow slowly fading from the fountain as the twin snaking wisps of light died away. He looked at the stone carefully as it still glowed in his hand, with the shape almost seeming alive as the form slowly moved, with no facet ever shown, only curves and twists with no points. It wasn't truly liquid, but the feel of it made him realize it was malleable, with his thumb pressing down on one spot and another area expanding. Suddenly, the lights slowly turned on at the far end of the throne room.

Lion-o dashed from the fountain down the steps and ran to the door to the hallway he had entered from, with the torches on the pillars lighting up closest to the throne room main doors. As he closed the door carefully to make as little noise as possible, the doors opened as if by command with a robed figure cast in a thick hood walking in. Long golden threads snaked across his black clothing as he stormed towards the fountain, an odd aura felt off of the being as it reached the fountain.

"No! This cannot be! Someone has taken the power of the fountain! That little sorceress will not escape this castle!" the young king heard come from the hood a whiny nasally voice emanate as the arms gestured wildly.

"I will have use of her spiritual essence by the end of this night or my name isn't Dominatos!" he yelled.

"What a horrible name…" Lion-o whispered. He closed the door just as the robed man turned on a heel and stormed towards the doors he came through, the lights extinguishing as he left. Lion-o slipped back down the hallway and looked around. He slipped the stone into a side pocket of his armor as he looked for a way to regroup with his friends. He decided to head down the hallway he hadn't used yet, and as he ran passed the windows he noticed a slight glow getting brighter down an intersecting hallway up ahead. He slid to a stop as the bluish glow stopped just around the corner.

"Not good" he whispered as he clamped his hands over his own mouth, worried that whatever was around the corner had heard him or the sound of his feet coming to a halt. He quickly looked right and saw a door to a room beyond, and dashed through it just as the bluish glow shot in the opposite direction, with him oblivious to its change in movement. The large room seemed to be a semi rundown kitchen, with pots and pans strewn about, the stoves filled with firewood and coal, almost as if left in the middle of starting to cook. Multiple tables and chairs could be seen in an open area as he used the flashlight to not knock into anything. He could see the blue glow get close to a side door's grate and realized whatever was on the other side might come in. He quickly hid behind one of the long counters and waited as he heard the door open softly while he hit the switch on the flashlight to turn it off, with another green glow sparkle and outshine the blue. He saw just around the corner a figure casting something on the door, a runic symbol growing and then disappearing into the wood.

The figure turned around and started to tip toe through the room, with Lion-o only able to barely make out the form to be humanoid. He figured if it was the robed man looking for him or his friends, and that he could take him right there and then. He held his breath as the sound of the feet moved by the counter he was hiding behind, and just as it was behind his very spot, he turned on his flashlight and shined it over the counter and grabbed at the form, pulling it across the counter and whacking the head against a pan, hopefully hurting the figure.

"Ouch!" he heard a feminine voice as the figure dropped to his side as he quickly grabbed at his sword, bringing the tip of the blade towards the figure's neck. He shined the flashlight at the face and realized it was a woman, a snow leopard to be exact. Her eyes were as blue as his own, and she was strikingly beautiful as she blinked at him. She seemed to be wearing a light blue dress that only covered her torso and cut between her legs with an armored skirt that was open in front, with the top of the dress cut deep towards her cleavage. A multi-tiered pauldron ran down her left shoulder, and what caught him completely off guard was the fact that she was wearing a golden tiara with an emerald right in the middle and a gemmed necklace. Her long wavy hair was brunette, and even in the dim light of the flashlight he saw it was well taken care of. Her right leg was covered in a studded leather thigh and shin guard, with woven golden threads running along the seams, and she was wearing leather toeless and heelless socks. He halted his next strike as he seemed dumbfounded. Could this be the woman Dominatos was looking for?

"Uh… wha…" he muttered out. He didn't have much time to think things through as the beautiful face realized what he was pointing at her and cast something directly into his chest, sending him flying backwards and smacking his back into the wall, collapsing onto a table with multiple pans falling everywhere, making a loud ruckus that must have been heard beyond the room. He slowly got up as the leopard tried to shoot by him. The young king's hand shot out and grabbed her around the ankle, tripping her quickly to the ground as he fought to keep her down and regain his breath. Her fist came down through the darkness as the flashlight lay near his hand, trying to break his hold on her.

"Ow! What the…" Lion-o winced as he tried to grab her wrists, and just as he succeeded he felt a shock ripple through his body. Somehow, she had electrocuted him to make him let go. She rolled away as he shook his head, his body twitching in spasms as he tried to fight it off and get up. The woman got to her feet as she tried to make a break for one of the doors, with Lion-o trying to keep after her.

"Wait! Hold on!" he yelled as she opened the door and came face to face with Dominatos.

"AAAHHHHH!" Lion-o heard in a high pitched scream, but the sound didn't seem to come from the woman, more from the robed man as he looked startled.

"I mean, AH got you now! You're not escaping this time becau-" he started to say just as the woman kicked him between the legs. Even Lion-o heard the crunch.

"Ah!" he squeaked in a much higher pitch as he backed off holding his lower front under the robe while she shot around the corner and disappeared. Dominatos hadn't seen Lion-o lying in the darkness as his body spasmed, as the robed figure seemed to fire lightning from his spare hand down the hallway and slowly ran after her hunched over still holding his groin. Lion-o slowly got up as he made his way to the now closing door, and tried to open it. He was met with the same runic symbol that had teleported him previously.

"Oh not agai-" he started to say just as the golden rings enveloped his body and teleported him to another part of the castle.

[Meanwhile]

Tygra had taken to leading the group carefully through new rooms as they searched for Lion-o with no luck.

"Have you figured out how to cut through the interference?" he asked over his shoulder at Kalihara.

"Trying to get the slicing softs to cut through, but so far nothing but static. This castle can't be that big. We'll run into him eventually" she replied.

"Can't you use those goggles to see his heat or anything?"

"Only within a certain range, and besides, whatever is playing with the communications is playing with glitching my goggles as well. I'm gonna turn them off and run a diagnostic to see if the programming can adapt to the interference." Kalihara pressed a button on the side of her goggles as two high powered flashlights turned on on either side of the lenses as she looked around.

"Relying on normal light for a while" she told him. The group walked down a long cobblestone hallway that had multiple portcullises installed at intersections that branched off to other tunnels.

"Can your drones use any lights?" Tygra asked.

"Wouldn't help. Small passages, high chance of bumping into them or stepping on them. Not advisable."

"Wonder where we are now?" Cheetara asked.

"I got a bad feeling about this" Panthro growled out as they reached the door at the end. As they opened it and walked out, they all realized Panthro was right. They had walked right into a small circular arena for pit fighting, with a seating area above. Multiple chains were hanging from the roof along with a few tapestries of a long gone family. Standing in the middle of the arena, with its back to them, was some very large armored skeleton. It turned its head and looked at them with red glowing eyes inside the sockets.

"Heads up!" Bengali yelled as it brought its huge mace up into the air for a swing in their direction.

"Scatter!" Tygra commanded as the entire group split in all directions, with Kalihara diving back through the door. The cobblestone above collapsed as the mace connected with where they previously were, and brought it down over the entrance they had come from beyond a small hole the size of a baseball.

"Kalihara!" Bengali yelled, worried she was under the rubble.

"I'm alright! I can't get through though!" she yelled from the other side, trying to ram her shoulder into the pile of rocks and timber. The mace was brought up again as Bengali turned his attention to the giant skeleton as Panthro tried to strike at its leg. The thing seemed sluggish but powerful, easily capable of bringing the whole place down on top of them if it wanted. Panthro's hit connected as a piece of armor flew away from the right femur, with Panthro in exchange being batted aside by the free arm. He rolled on the ground thirty feet as he got up, with Cheetara running to help him.

"The armor can come loose! Get that off him and we can stop that hulk of… whatever!" Panthro told them as he and Cheetara dodged another attack. Tygra's whip cracked at the right arm, trying to chip pieces of metal away from the arm cover as he shot his pulse pistol at the head. The skeleton tried to protect its head from the attack, but Cheetara had her staff project roots to hold the left arm. The skeleton twisted its right arm to bring its mace down in a sweeping motion to strike Cheetara, which forced her to evade and remove the roots. Kat grappled the mace and tied the wire around a fallen piece of the wall, in which the skeleton pulled hard against. The rock flung through the air effortlessly with Kat dropping on the ground and covering his head. The rock flew shot past and slammed right into the skeleton's face, knocking it off kilter and dropping it onto its back.

"Nice work Kat!" Bengali yelled out.

"Yeah! That was definitely my plan!" he chuckled nervously as the cub got up from the dusty ground. Bengali leapt through the air with a battle cry and slammed his hammer into the head of the skeleton lying prone, shattering the bone and sending bits and pieces flying with an energy explosion that knocked him backwards and sliding on the ground.

"That takes care of that" Tygra said just as the skeleton's body slowly pushed itself up, its left arm feeling for its head.

"That thing isn't going down without a head? How the heck is it doing that?" Bengali asked as Kit ducked a wild sweep from the huge mace, the skeleton no longer slowly attacking but simply attempting to hit everywhere at once. Kalihara primed a grenade near the fallen debris and blew it, sending the rubble exploding outwards as she charged forward a few steps, saw the mace coming down near her again, and dove through the now open entrance a second time, with more rubble collapsing down.

"Oh come on!" she growled in annoyance as she looked over her prone chest at the blocked opening. Bengali charged and slammed his hammer against the left leg, sweeping it out from under the skeleton as it kept trying to strike at its surroundings, clearly not able to see. The white tiger dove away as the body collapsed forward with its left arm bracing it, with Tygra grappling the forearm and pulling with Panthro's help. The left arm gave way with Kat grappling it again, tying the wire to a fallen log. The skeleton pulled hard at Tygra's whip as both of the Thunder Cat's feet slid along the ground, trying to keep it under control.

"Here's hoping luck is still with me" Kat gulped as the arm pulled away from the hold of the whip and swung hard, the log coming with it as it flailed the large piece of wood around it, causing more damage to the area as it swung around and slammed into the chest of the skeleton, crushing the ribcage. Another explosion of energy happened, and this time, the fight was over as the bones exploded in all directions. The Thunder Cats could barely see where they had dropped the torches, with Bengali trying to push away large chunks of stone from the entrance where Kalihara was behind.

"There's another door over here" Cheetara said as she gestured her torch to another opening. Bengali could barely move one of the stone blocks as Kalihara stood on the other side.

"I'll be fine, I'll make my way around and meet up with you guys further up ahead" she told them as Bengali looked at the two lights moving around through a small hole.

"Alright, be careful though" Tygra said.

"Yeah, I don't want to be saving your cute tail if you run into trouble" Bengali said with a smirk.

"Bengali, I can still fire through this hole you know" she warned. A small smile crept onto Tygra's face. The two lights disappeared down the hallway back the way they came as the group headed through the second doorway, onto more unknown rooms of the castle.

[Meanwhile]

Lion-o teleported to a pitch black area in which he quickly turned on the flashlight and swung it around. He saw he was in a bedroom, with most of the furniture was extremely expensive looking. There was a four post bed with an overhang to the east wall, with a door to the left of it and a door in the corner near the right foot of the bed that seemed to head out to a hallway. The door to the left looked to go to a small bathroom with a cobblestone bath and some buckets. There was a huge dresser to the front of the bathroom near two windows, and another on the opposite side. A large chest was sitting at the foot of the bed, with a table five feet in front of it and two chairs.

The young king was about to head to the door to the hallway when he heard running and feared it was Dominatos. Why he would care considering the woman had stopped him with a mere kick he had no idea, but he knew thinking that he was a pushover would be ill advised, as he had fired lightning from his hands before he touched the door. He quickly looked around and saw the dresser near the windows and opened the doors carefully, the slight creak of the hinges wearing on his hearing as he wished it was quieter. He jumped in and crouched inside as he pulled the doors closed with a small crack to see out of.

Just as he finished, the door burst open and closed quickly with a light moving frantically in all directions, and finally disappearing. He thought whoever it was had left the room, but he hadn't heard the door open again. As he was about to open the dresser doors and look around, the bedroom entrance flung open with all the torches and candles lighting up. At least he knew when Dominatos was around. He lit up an entire room, and not in a good way.

"I'll find you, and when I get my hands on you, I'll finish what I started! You will comply!" the robed figure said as he stepped carefully around the bed and walked past the dresser towards the bathroom. As he entered, Lion-o tried to quietly open the doors a bit more, to allow him to see more of the room and what was happening. He looked down as the crack was now an inch wide, and there, hiding under the bed, was the snow leopard, watching the bathroom door and breathing heavily. Her eyes wandered to the dresser for a moment, and she immediately did a double take as she saw his eyes peering through the doors. She opened her mouth but clasped a hand over her lips immediately, as Dominatos stalked out and stood near the bed.

"Hmm… she can't fly… she couldn't have that much essence left to cast invisibility… oh… I know where you are…" he whispered out in his nasally voice as he flipped up the silk sheets draped over the bed and stared at the woman below.

"Got you!" he yelled as she screamed. Lion-o busted out of the dresser, the doors slamming into Dominatos's back and sending him flying onto the bed and rolling into the opposite dresser. The leopard crawled out from under the bed as Lion-o grabbed her hand instinctively and ran out of the door. Just as they went through it, lightning flared from Dominatos's hand as he tried to get up, with Lion-o keeping himself between the woman and the attack. He was flung through the door as the woman watched in horror with him slamming into the wall of the hallway, twitching from the electricity, his fur standing up in different directions and making him look fluffier than he really was. She was about to take off again and leave him slumped on the ground, but hesitated and turned to close the door.

"Oh, my head…" Dominatos yelped inside as she heard shuffling coming towards the door. She grabbed the iron handle and slammed the door shut, and cast the same runic spell that had sent Lion-o to the room in the first place.

"Unuma Lana Lamatuse…" she whispered as the symbol appeared on the handle. Dominatos reached for the door and touched it, and disappeared.

"Bloody-" he groaned as he was teleported to another part of the castle, away from the woman and Lion-o.

"Ooh…" Lion-o moaned as he slowly got up holding his head, some of his muscles still twitching and his face looking fatter than he actually was due to his fur standing up. The woman walked over to him and helped him stand.

"That was very noble of you to do what you just did" she told him in what sounded like a Recian accent, similar to human French. Her voice sounded low and seductive as he looked at her, trying to see her face in the darkness. Her hand suddenly glowed with a bluish bubble of light surrounding her fingers, and he could see what she looked like far better than before.

"Yeah, it felt noble…" he muttered as he shook his head. She looked him over, her face contorted into a look of confusion as she stared at his face.

"Why are you here? Did my father send rescue?" she asked, her accent tainting her words and sounding exotic.

"My name is Lion-o, Lord of the Thunder Cats, and we're on a mis-" he started to say.

"Lion-o?!" she gasped as she looked him up and down.

"Uh, yeah, that's my name. Were you a citizen of Thundera?" he asked. Her hand reached out to touch his face, but she pulled it back as if a tether was on it.

"It really is you… I had been told Thundera had fallen… I am so happy…" she whispered as she almost leapt at him, her hands curled around the back of his neck as she hugged him close.

"Wha… uh… well… do we know each other?" he mumbled out as he was extremely confused. She pulled away slowly and looked into his eyes.

"You mean, you were never told?" she asked.

"Uh, there's a lot of information that was never given to a then prince at the time. How do you know me? Who are you?" he asked.

"It would have most likely been told to you on your next birthday. My name is Celica, Princess Celica, and I was to be your betrothed once you were to lead" she told him smiling. His mouth hung open as if the muscles in his jaw weren't there. He just stared at her, trying to figure out if she was telling the truth or was telling a fib. She smiled at him, and he could tell it was genuine.

"Wha… where did you come from? There are other cat cities beyond Thundera?" he asked.

"You mean, you were never told about us?" she asked.

"My father didn't share a lot of things about what was happening beyond the walls… and I really should have listened to him more involving the history lessons…" he told her as he looked away, his father's face smiling at him flashing through his mind.

"Then we should head there once we have stopped this monster of a man who calls himself Dominatos. This peasant magician ambushed me while I was traveling to this city to… um… I'll explain later. We should move quickly to the throne room to destroy the fountain he has erected, and escape thereafter" she told him.

"I need to find the rest of my friends before we can do that, but you're right, we need to stop this guy. Why is he chasing you anyways?" he asked as they both started heading down the hallway.

"He wants my spiritual essence. I am able to cast, as all my blood line has been able to do. My mother, and her mother, and her mother, all the way to the beginning of our family. He needs it because his own essence is pathetic, and wants to strengthen his own abilities" she told him as she seemed to pout.

"How did he overpower you if you're saying he isn't as strong as you in… magic?" he asked.

"The fountain. He has somehow come upon a power from it that can temporarily amplify his magic for a short time, however it wains quickly from whence he uses it, and the fountain recharges slowly. He wants my essence to make the need for the fountain no longer necessary, for what I have no idea. I do not even know how he is even alive inside this castle with those… things in the city."

"The matter stone… or a shard of it…" he whispered. He somehow knew the liquid stone he had gained from the fountain wasn't the whole stone, but a shard that had been cast off. He now had an idea of how many other pieces he needed to find. There would be three others if the look and feel of this one were any guess, as well as the three other lines that the book gave off before they left the Feliner.

"A stone?" she asked as she looked into his eyes while he stared down the hallway.

"That is our mission. My friends and I are fighting Mumm-ra from long ago. He's back" he told her.

"Mumm-ra? I thought he was a fable" she let out a soft giggle.

"He's real, and he's after the four stones. We have two of them, and he has the tech stone, which is why we're trying to gain the Matter Stone, or from what I've seen already, the pieces of it. I already pulled a shard from the fountain in the throne room before I nearly ran into you the first time" he told her. He explained quickly what else his group had done before getting there.

"You were in the throne room? Then… you've already stopped the fountain from functioning! I wonder… I wonder if we might be able to stop what he is trying to do" she asked.

"How long did he hold you there? In the cage" he asked.

"Two days… he enacted a ritual for those two days to siphon off my essence while I sat in the cage, contained by the spells he had cast over it. I could not break the wards he had erected."

"How did you escape?" the lion pressed. If her magic was neutralized by the wards on the cage, he had no idea how she could have broken out. She did not look to be muscular at all, and the only thing he noticed was an empty sheath for a knife on her belt.

"I used my cloak and strengthened it with a spell. The wards stop me from trying to cast out, not in. I was able to use the cloak to wrap around the chains to the door, and when he was asleep, I broke them and ran for my life" she told him as her arm wrapped around his as they walked. Her fur felt as soft as Kalihara's, and he couldn't help but keep glancing at her bust. She was his betrothed? Why didn't his father tell him there was a princess waiting out there for him?

The young king tried not to blush as he looked away.

"So… how long have you been trying to escape?" he asked.

"For half the day. He had siphoned off much, and with me constantly using my spells to keep away from him, I have neither the strength to fight him or leave the city on my own. You're here though, my prince, and now I feel we have a chance to end his miserable existence and stop this" she told him as she entwined her fingers with his own. He stiffened a bit and stood straighter, puffing out his chest.

"I'll… I'll do what I can to stop this. Is he the reason those… undead are out there?" he asked.

"I know not, nor do I care. This city is abandoned for a reason, and for all I know, he could be that reason. He could have killed them all and turned them with necromancy" she told him.

"I thought that was just in books" he replied.

"It is one of the schools of magic. You do not know much about it do you?" she asked.

"I'm more of a swordsman than a caster. The clerics were the ones who usually did any magic, if ever. Thundera isn't exactly a place where it's very active… or was active…" he told her.

"Mmm, then I have much to show you once we leave for Lyon" she cooed to him. He looked at her with a dumbfounded look, not knowing what to say.

"Uh… well… I… we should talk about that…" he started to say.

"There!" Dominatos yelled as he turned the corner behind them.

"Whiskers! Run!" Celica yelped as she tried to pull Lion-o in the opposite direction. Lion-o stood his ground as he pulled his sword.

"Thunder… Thunder… THUNDER… THUNDERCATS! HO!" He yelled as the sword grew in size, the war stone glowing temporarily. Celica hid behind Lion-o. Dominatos cocked his head under the robe, and fired a fire bolt down the hallway towards him. Lion-o blocked it with the sword, being pushed back by the force of it. The heat singed the fur on his hands.

"Ouch!" he yelped as he shook his left hand away from the hilt and blew on his fingers.

"Be careful! He is using my siphoned essence! We must run Lion-o!" she pleaded.

"I use it because you will not! You would abuse it while I would use that power to rebuild this city!" he yelled at her with a finger pointed in their direction.

"What is he talking about?" Lion-o asked.

"He is mad! He would kill me for his own gains!" she whimpered behind him as her hands held onto his shoulders. He felt inclined to protect her at all costs.

"Look, I don't care what you're trying to do, but you are leaving this woman alone" Lion-o growled at Dominatos.

"I will use her essence and finally be able to… that feeling… you… you have the fountain's power held somewhere on you! Give it back! Give it back now!" Dominatos yelled, not in anger, but in pure fear. He pulled back his robe and stared at the two of them in horror. His face was that of an orange tabby, with runic tattoos across his cheeks.

"Not going to happen. I'm going to give you one chance to stop this whole thing and back off" Lion-o yelled at him.

"I cannot stop! Not for their sake! Not for everyone's sake!" the tabby yelled at him.

"What is he talking about?" the young king asked over his shoulder.

"Who cares! He's insane! Kill him!" she whispered. Dominatos charged up another fire bolt in his hands, but Lion-o was quicker. He fired a red beam from the war stone down the hallway, barely missing Dominatos as he leapt away, nearly slamming into the wall as the charge in his hands disappeared. Lion-o ran forward as he got ready to try again, and brought his sword tip to his neck effortlessly. The tabby fired off some form of force from his whole body and pushed back at Lion-o, throwing him down the hallway. The young king rolled twenty feet back to Celica, who helped him up.

"I need that stone! Now! You would put everyone in peril to fight me! I will end this!" Dominatos yelled as his hands started to crackle. Lion-o got up and glared at the tabby, but something in his words seemed off.

"What do you mean everyone in peril?" he asked.

"He's going to strike!" Celica yelled as she pressed her hands to the wall, a runic symbol running along the cobblestone and flying right under Dominatos's feet.

"Not agai-" the orange tabby yelped as he teleported away.

"Are you alright?" she asked as she helped him up. He was battered from the constant launch of his body around the castle, and his muscles ached from being slammed into the walls and floors. The pots and pans of the table in the kitchen didn't help either.

"Yeah. What did he mean about everyone in peril?" he asked.

"It must have been the ramblings of a madman just trying to gain more power. It may be all in his head" she told him.

"No, my gut is telling me otherwise." Lion-o's communicator sputtered.

"Moving to another room, no contact" he heard Kalihara's voice.

"Kalihara, are you there?" he asked.

"Lion-o? Where are you?" she replied.

"I'm in a hallway, I've met up with someone who needs help out of the castle. Things have gotten… complicated. There's a wizard in the castle who is trying to do something involving magic and ancient rituals. Can I talk to Tygra?" he asked.

"I'm not with the rest of the group. I got separated when we fought off some large skeleton in an arena" she replied.

"That proves that he is using necromancy. Such a vile art, not refined at all" Celica said with her nose upturned to Lion-o as he had the communicator on speaker.

"Where are you now?" he asked.

"Somewhere in an outside hallway facing towards the bridge to the city. Lion-o… those things are moving around out there… they were previously hiding in the buildings, but somehow things have changed… things have gotten complicated indeed…" she replied. Lion-o looked at Celica. He looked behind her and ran down the hallway to a window and looked out. It was still dark outside with rain pouring by, but lightning flashed in the distance with enough light to show him he was to the left side facing away from the bridge. He ran down the next hallway and through a door to another window with Celica in tow and looked out.

"Kalihara, can you do anything to tell me which floor you're on? I'm at a window" he asked. A rapid flash of light came from one of the windows above him and twenty feet further along. Her head popped out that window and looked around. He turned on the flashlight and shined it up at her, with her head swiveling and looking down at him. He smiled as he saw her face. It was reassuring to know she was okay.

"Who is this Kalihara? One of your guards?" Celica asked.

"No, she's one of my friends and… it's complicated" he said.

"I'll head down and try and regroup with you" the lioness said through the coms.

"We're heading to the throne room. Can you meet us there?" he asked.

"I don't even know where that is, but I'll try" she said.

"Glad to see the communicators aren't being jammed anymore" Lion-o chuckled.

"That makes two of us" Tygra said over the coms.

"Tygra! Where are you guys?" the young king asked.

"I think we're in one of the towers. We saw a light that we chased after, but it disappeared. There was a break off path leading up to where we are now; I guess whoever it was went in the opposite direction. We'll head back down and towards the throne room as well" his brother explained.

"Alright. I've got a funny feeling we need to gang up on this wizard" Lion-o said.

"Lion-o… change of plans… those things out there? Some of them are moving towards the bridge" Kalihara said sternly as two shots fired from the window above, blowing the heads off of the two bodies charging across the bridge. The bodies still moved forward for a few feet before falling to the ground, twitching.

"Those undead are coming towards the castle…" Lion-o whispered.

"Looks like it. Something riled them up inside" the soldier replied.

"Or the wizard called them to attack" Celica said.

"Or something was holding them back…" Cheetara said over the coms.

"Holding them back? What do you… wait…" the lion started to say as he pulled open the small pouch attached to his belt and looked at the shard.

"Maybe that wizard has something that can control those things out there" Cheetara replied.

"I don't think he controlled them. Nevermind, we're heading to the throne room now. Meet you there" Lion-o said.

"I'm sitting here to keep those things from getting across the bridge. Make it snappy, the crowd is getting larger" Kalihara said over the coms. Three more shots rang from the window above, with three more heads popped.

"Celica, do you know which way it is to the throne room?" he asked. She nodded and grabbed his hand, pulling him quickly down the hallway and to the left, through two rooms and finally to another hallway. As they opened the door to the throne room, there, standing near the fountain, his arms raised, was Dominatos.

"No no no, so much wrong… it can't be… it can't end like this…" he was whispering to himself. His hands glowed as he seemed to be casting something towards the fountain.

"Dominatos, stop whatever you are doing and give back the essence you stole from Celica" Lion-o growled.

"Give it back? You know nothing about magic!" the tabby yelled at him.

"I said give it back!" the sword wielding lion yelled.

"Lion-o, I can regain my essence over time, it is not truly gone unless he had drained all of it. Once it is gone, it does not come back, that in itself could kill me" Celica explained. Lion-o was blinking trying to process what she had just told him. Dominatos blinked at both of them. The young king really didn't know anything about magic, or how it worked. Cheetara had just been trained in how to use her own essence, and even she was unsure of what to do with it.

"Yeah… sure… of course… um… well, stop what you're doing. Can't you see the consequences of what you've done?" Lion-o corrected himself.

"You truly are a blind fool. I am trying to fix this! And you hound me!" the tabby yelled.

"Hound you? I'm trying to stop you from killing this woman! She's not joining that city of the dead out there!" the lion snarled. Celica placed her hands gently on his back, pressing herself against him as she leaned her head over his shoulder. He stiffened slightly at the feel of her against him. He had known her for only an hour at most and she was already all over him like they were soul mates.

"Her essence would stop this city from pouring out of the gates to the surrounding land! She is the reason why I must do this! If her family had accepted my plea to save this city, none of this would be happening!" Dominatos screamed at him. Lion-o was caught off guard completely.

"Wait, what? Hang on! Hold on for just a second and let me hear this! What is really going on?" Lion-o asked, lowering his weapon temporarily. Dominatos saw him lower his weapon and his hands stopped glowing, dropping to his sides. He didn't seem hostile.

"You don't know?" the tabby asked.

"I'm a bit short on information right now. My friends and I seem to have stumbled into something we have no idea about."

"I was a court wizard from long ago for this city. The lord was kind and pure, and the surrounding land prospered. Three days ago the fountain appeared in this very throne room. It seemed to be an act of the gods. The lord asked of me to try and use its power once I had figured out its potential, to help the people of this city and the land around it. I tried a ritual to control the fountain, an old but simple restraining runic etching" Dominatos explained.

"You fool! You do not try and control an unknown with such barbaric symbols! You place wards around to contain the energies before you even try to do that! You have a neutralizing spell ready and a containment gem just in case! A first year knows this! What a pathetic court wizard you are!" Celica snapped at him.

"The wards failed! The gem shattered!" he screamed at her. Lion-o put his hand up for her to calm down. Celica seethed as she grasped his arm.

"Tell me what happened" Lion-o asked calmly. Dominatos calmed down as well.

"It was horrible… the people… the citizens of this fine city… at first the wave of energy washed from the fountain and shattered the wards like so much chaff in the wind… it expanded across the city, sapping the life energy of all around to feed its strength to break the ritual, shatter the runes I had placed. I realized the only reason I had survived was because I was standing on one of the wards I had erected. The fountain broke free. I soon found out that the fountain was always under my control from the beginning, without a need for the ritual. It was a neutral vessel of unknown power, neither good nor evil" Dominatos told him as tears welled in his eyes.

"You caused all of this?" Lion-o asked.

"I had no idea! This wasn't some spell gone wrong! This was something that did not want to be contained! It didn't need to be!" Dominatos yelled at him.

"It's because you didn't know what you were doing! And these people, the peasants and farmers and traders all paid the price because of a hedge wizard!" Celica yelled at him.

"Celica, stop goading him" Lion-o put his hand up.

"But…" she started to say, looking into his eyes.

"Can't you see he knows what he did wrong?" the young king said. Dominatos looked at the ground solemnly, grief covering his face. "So what does this have to do with Celica?"

"I tried to gain help from the college of magi in the mountains of Eregal. There nestled in the valley is a city called-" Dominatos started to say.

"Lyon, my home" Celica interrupted. Lion-o looked between her and the orange tabby.

"Then what happened?" the young king asked.

"I begged for an audience of the lord of the city, asking for help by his strongest wizards to help me fix this. If the fountain could siphon life from the people, perhaps it could give it back were it coaxed to return it. Sadly… I was turned away, with the guards and chancellor laughing." Dominatos looked at the ground, remembering that day.

"Our chancellor was right to turn away a beggar like you. You mentioned nothing about the undead, only that you needed our help. If the lord of this city really needed our help, he would have sent an envoy to speak on his behalf" Celica quipped.

"I was the only one left alive! Don't you see that? I had to do something, to fix what I had caused!... and the undead… they came after I had come back…" Dominatos continued.

"Don't tell me! You didn't!" Celica gawked at him like he had grown two heads.

"I tried a ritual to pull from the fountain the life energy it had taken to break the control runes around it. I placed amplification runes, in the event it was sentient to let it be known it wasn't captive. It seemed I had waited too long with the trip to Lyon, and the essence from the people was gone. I had not realized this, and sapped the life energy from the surrounding land to bring back the people of the city. Mayhaps, once I brought them back, they could ask for help from other neighboring settlements to rebuild."

"The swamplands…" Lion-o stated as he thought back to their trip to the city. No wonder the land looked so dead. He had siphoned the energy from it to try and bring the people back to life.

"She is right you know. I am not as strong as I should be. The fountain, it did as I requested, but the amplification runes, they pulled far too much essence, and… I could not control all of it. It flowed around me, in me, and felt worse than the hottest flame. I was delirious from the pain, and in my mutterings of the ritual to resurrect the people from the-" he explained.

"You did NOT use that spell! It is only temporary! It was never meant to be a permanent solution for the dead!" Celica yelled at him.

"It is only temporary because it taps into the essence of the user! That is why it was so dangerous! I figured I could use the land, as it would regenerate over time with help from the returning people! I failed…" the tabby told them.

"You should be hanged for what you have done here!" Celica yelled at him. Lion-o put up his hand to stop her.

"I am already a dead man after what I've seen. The people I cared about turned into those things. I used to love doing magical tricks for the children one day out of the week, at the behest of the lord. It brightened the week for them, and in doing so showed the kindness of the people's ruler. They worked harder knowing that the lord was looking out for them, and with my magic, helped instead of being a tyrant."

"You must have cast the spell wrong" Celica growled.

"What was the spell really supposed to do?" Lion-o asked.

"It is a resurrection incantation, it does as its name implies; however, it lasts only as long as the essence in the caster, which drains quickly. It is usually only used to gain information from an enemy you have killed, or to say goodbye to a family member. It cannot turn someone into those things out beyond the bridge" the princess told him.

"It can. Ulthainos replaced Uldisno in the casting" Dominatos told her. She was in shock.

"You mixed a puppet spell into it? You truly are mad!" Celica snapped at him.

"I was delirious! I didn't know what I was saying! I was trying to finish the ritual before I passed out... and I didn't mix up the spells… I slurred the word and nearly bit off my own tongue… you above everyone should know what happens when a spell isn't finished" the tabby told her.

"What does this have to do with the princess?" Lion-o asked.

"I came after finding out that a cataclysmic event had happened in this city from my father, who sent a scout after this man to see if it was true. He wanted to talk it over with the circle of magi before sending anyone to assist" she explained. Dominatos looked up.

"Wait, you were going to send help?" he asked.

"Don't be foolish. If an entire city's people were killed, we wanted to make sure it did not happen to our own. What had been done was in the past, and we could no more assist the dead than move a mountain." The orange tabby looked down at the floor again, guilt washing over his face.

"They were discussing who they would send, what contingent of soldiers and wizards to stop any force from leaving. I… wanted to test my own skill, so I asked to go with them. I was turned down by my father, who would not risk his own daughter going. I snuck out on my own, and made my way here. It was in this very castle that I was ambushed by you" she said as she pointed to Dominatos.

"You were trying to destroy the fountain!" he yelled at her.

"For all I knew, it was the source of the necromancy!" she yelled back.

"Enough! So you tried to destroy the fountain, and he caught you. What next?" Lion-o commanded as he stepped between the two of them.

"I placed her in the hastily built cage that I ripped the materials from the dungeons as they were never used, and placed as many wards as I could think of on it. She had immense power, more than I could ever have" the tabby told him.

"Obviously" she quipped with her arms crossed over her ample chest.

"So you decided to siphon her essence right then and there? Why?" Lion-o asked.

"I didn't. I begged her to not try and destroy the fountain, to help me use it to repair the damage I had done. She declined, calling me mad the entire time" the orange tabby replied.

"You ARE mad!" she snapped.

"You would abandon these people to this suffering? This necromantic plague? I cannot imagine your own people would see you as more than tyrants!" Dominatos yelled at her.

"The peasants of our city are quite happy with their lives, thank you" she sneered. Lion-o seemed irked by what she had said. There were poor and homeless in her city that were like those of the slums in Thundera. No one wished to live like that, and he knew it.

"Celica… nevermind. So you decided to siphon her energy, which you aren't getting anymore of now" Lion-o stated.

"Yes, if she wasn't willing, then I would use her own essence against her will to do what she would not. I drained her carefully to try and shatter the spell that I had cast to turn the bodies into undead. She fought me every step of the way."

"You were trying to kill me!" Celica yelled at him.

"I was not going to do anything of the kind! What part of careful do you not understand? I needed you! And you were so selfish you couldn't see what would happen if I didn't at least break the spell!" he snapped.

"What would happen if you don't break the spell?" Lion-o asked, dreading the response. Tygra burst into the throne room just at that moment, the others behind him.

"Surrender!" the tiger prince yelled. Lion-o put up his hands, and Tygra lowered his pistol, confused.

"The undead would run out of control. Why do you think they've been hiding in the buildings up until now? The fountain has been providing an energy that has been quelling their need… to feed. That is what undead do. They attack the living to try and regain the life energy they do not have, and the only way they can do that is to-" Dominatos explained, but Lion-o put his hands up for him to stop.

"I don't need to go into that much detail about how they get that life energy, I can figure that out on my own. Now that the fountain isn't providing that essence, what will they do now that they are running amok in the city? Just close off the gates and seal them off" Lion-o told him.

"The mass of them would break them down, and expand outwards, killing outside of these lands, creating more and more. It is not a disease, but the magic controlling them would turn other bodies into more undead. As they travel, the land's life energy would seep away into their bodies, destroying it. No wonder the necromantic arts are so taboo. It is so hard to control" Dominatos told him.

"What about the giant skeleton in the arena?" Tygra asked behind them.

"Skeleton? You mean the bones of a prized war bear? It is a place of regaining honor for those who wish to settle disputes in combat… nonlethal of course. Why?" the tabby asked.

"It wasn't friendly" Bengali told him.

"I didn't know that the fountain could bring back a long dead creature… the bear was stuffed for all I knew!" Dominatos stared at him astonished.

"It had a mace too." The tabby gawked at him.

"Impossible… preposterous… there is no… a bear's paw can't carry a mace!... can it?" The rest of the group looked at each other.

"Kalihara to Lion-o, are you guys done? We've got a problem out here" the lioness said over the coms. Lion-o pressed at his ear and listened.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Those things are heading across the bridge! I can't keep them held back any longer! They're… they're at the gates!" she yelled as she fired quickly from her perch.

"There is no hope" Dominatos stated as he sat on the steps near the fountain and awaited death.

"How much time?" Lion-o asked.

"Until they breach? Frack if I know! Those doors might be reinforced or as soft as tin foil! I'd guess… two minutes tops with how many are coming" Kalihara said as a loud explosion happened in the background.

"What just happened?" Lion-o asked.

"Threw a frag behind them to thin the crowd, I'm gonna run out of these soon! Do what you need to do to stop this Lion-o! I can't keep this up on my own! These things just… oh hell…" she said as she suddenly went silent.

"Kalihara? Are you alright?" he asked. He was worried they had breached the doors and were heading towards her in the upper floors.

"The ones I just took out… their body parts are pulling back together… that's… really disgusting… Lion-o, as of now, I am a delay tactic at best, I am definitely not combat effective against these things… we need to get the hell out of here…" she said quietly. Lion-o looked between Dominatos and Celica.

"Celica, we need you to help Dominatos to dissolve the spell" he commanded. The tabby looked up at him from his sitting position.

"You want me to work with that madman? For all we know he could screw up the neutralizing spell and we could all suffer for it!" she said to him.

"We're all dead if you don't!" Lion-o yelled at her. Her lips pouted up and she batted her eyes at him.

"Lion-o, don't be mad at me, please don't… I don't even think I have the essence right now to do it though" she said as she ran her hands over his chestplate. Tygra was really confused at the sight of her touching him so intimately.

"Did I miss something?" he asked.

"I'll explain later. Cheetara, you had told us you can cast, can you help with this?" he said as he looked at his friends.

"Lion-o, I have no idea the first thing about this kind of magic! I might be able to do the basics, but nothing anywhere near as specialized as this!" Cheetara replied gesturing her hand at the fountain.

"Just focus your essence at the fountain, we know the ritual and can handle it from there, if you are all willing" Dominatos said. Cheetara looked at him and then at her king. She sighed and nodded.

"They're gonna breach!" Kalihara yelled into her coms as the doors started to buckle. They could hear the crunching of the wood from the throne room, deep inside the castle.

"Alright, let's do this. Cheetara, stay here, everyone else with me" Lion-o commanded. Celica started following him to the door, but he stopped her.

"You stay here too. You're part of this ritual" he ordered.

"Oh, Lion-o… why do I have to… alright, I'll stay" she pouted. She seemed used to getting her way. The rest of the team bolted to the doors and started to barricade the entrances with any furniture they could find in nearby rooms.

"Retreating to the throne room! They're coming up the stairs!" Kalihara yelled as short staccato bursts from her rifle sounded through the communicator, as she had swapped parts to turn her weapon into a rapid fire heavy weapon. It wouldn't keep the undead down, but it would at least keep them at bay as she backed towards what safety she knew. As she turned the corner, she met up with Panthro who was carrying a couch over his shoulder, and rammed it through the doorway with her covering his back. Lion-o closed the door with her rifle aimed down the hallway.

"Good to see you're okay" he said quietly.

"Likewise" she replied as Panthro put the couch down in front of the double doors.

"That isn't gonna hold them for long" he said as he dropped a large board across the latches of the door. The secondary doors were covered in assorted boxes, chairs and tables.

"Cheetara?" Tygra asked over his shoulder as the others watched. Celica, Cheetara and Dominatos were all standing in front of the fountain, but nothing was happening.

"We're waiting on you" the tabby said.

"What? What are you… oh" he caught what he was trying to say as he realized he was carrying the stone with him. Lion-o ran to the fountain and pushed the stone back in.

"I'm keeping that when this is done" he told the wizard.

"I wouldn't want it to stay here, after everything it has caused" he replied. Lion-o ran to a small barricade they had built just along the edge of the stairs. Everyone else was set up to keep the undead back if they broke through the doors, which they would eventually.

"Now, just focus, the princess and I will handle the ritual" the tabby said as he looked at Celica. She seemed bored as she looked at him and nodded. The doors started to rock as everyone could hear moaning coming from the other side.

[Music: Darksiders II OST – The Corruption]

"This is gonna be rough…" Bengali whispered with his hammer ready in hand. The three behind them started the ritual.

"How long is this gonna take?" Tygra asked. The casters behind them didn't stop the incantation as they continued without a response.

"We just have to hold out as long as we can, buy them some time" Lion-o said as he readied his sword. Kalihara propped her auto turret on the ground and dropped the spider drone, her scout drone hovering in the air.

"Really wish that shield worked right now…" she whispered. Cheetara's hands glowed, as did Celica's and Dominatos's. The doors started to break down as Kalihara fired carefully through some of the holes, with hands groping about through them.

"Incoming!" she yelled as the front doors started to fall apart, with one of the undead crawling through the door slowly. She fired and hit it square between the eyes, the body going limp slowly as the head exploded. At first it was easy for her to keep shooting, with two more now breaking through the front door, but soon the side door started to show wear. Tygra and Panthro were waiting to hold them off as more started to come through the front, shambling towards them. Bengali brought his hammer down on one coming for Tygra as Lion-o sliced off a head of another. The third door started to be beaten on as the undead kept coming.

"How many people were in this city?" Lion-o asked.

"Considering the amount of buildings, thousands" Kalihara yelled as she was opening up on the right side door, keeping the undead contained by herself. She had to stop every once in a while to let her rifle cool down and vent heat, as even though the power source for the weapon seemed unlimited, it did have to stop firing or it would melt the barrel. That allowed one or two undead to shamble by and head towards the group, in which the drones would make short work of. The problem was keeping the bodies down, in which they kept rebuilding and getting back up to fight again.

"This isn't going so well!" Bengali yelled as he struck another in the chest, sending it bowling into three others.

"How much longer?" Lion-o yelled out. The incantation was still continuing, but the entire top of the stairs was glowing.

"Last frag!" Kalihara yelled out as she threw a small circular object at the door, blowing apart multiple shambling corpses coming through. One of the bodies flew through the air and fell on her, as she fought off its grappling arms and biting mouth with her combat knife. Lion-o bolted to her and sliced the head clean off, as she pushed the body away from her as he kicked the head like a soccer ball towards the door.

"We can't hold anymore!" Tygra yelled as Panthro kept two from biting at him.

"It's done!" Dominatos yelled out as a glowing wave washed over the throne room and out through the castle, across the bridge and throughout the city. The thousands of undead slumped to the ground glowing brightly as everyone in the room was briefly blinded. Once they had regained their sight, they looked around. What they saw amazed them.

"You miscast the spell again" Celica muttered.

"Nope. I got this one right this time" Dominatos said smiling triumphantly as they surveyed the room. The bodies were no longer undead, but living people lying on the ground and getting back up. The body parts that were still crawling before the spell were now whole beings, alive again.

"There is no way you could have made this permanent" Celica grumbled.

"That fountain has more power than you think. I realize that now" Dominatos replied. Celica looked at the fountain and walked to it as Dominatos and Cheetara walked down the steps to the rest of Lion-o's team.

"You really did it. I thought we were just neutralizing the spell" Lion-o asked.

"I figured the chanting could be modified from "No longer puppet or undead" to "return to what it was before it was taken." That even means before I cast the first spell on the fountain."

"Why didn't you do this before?" the young king asked.

"I only thought of it when I found out you had taken the stone in the water of the fountain. How did you take it might I ask? There is nothing physical inside to reach for" Dominatos asked as he looked at the fountain. Celica was moving her hand around inside the water, trying to find the stone in hopes of doing something with it. She looked like a young cub trying to catch a moving fish that wasn't there.

"I have two other stones. That is just a shard, though it reacts to the spirit stone on my gauntlet" the lion replied as he moved his gauntleted hand up to his chest.

"Then that shard must go with you, for your sake as well as ours. It is nothing but trouble here." As they were talking, Dominatos gasped and dropped to a knee immediately. Walking to them was the lord of the city.

"My liege, you are alright" the wizard said as he averted his gaze from the cat.

"I don't really remember what had happened, but I vaguely remember being… hungry. What has transpired in my throne room? Who is this?" the lord asked. He was surveying the damage and the furniture piled near the doors.

"It's a long story" Lion-o told him.

"I think I have time."

[Twelve Hours Later]

The group was heading back to the Feliner as the weather had cleared up somewhat, with no rain or lightning above their heads. The stone was safely tucked into a pouch at Lion-o's waist, with Celica following along.

"This road is hard on my feet… we aren't going to walk the whole way are we? Can we not ask for a carriage?" she whined.

"What a pain…" Tygra grumbled. He rolled his eyes as he tried to keep away from the princess.

"It is a pain! A princess like me should not have to walk across this harsh environment now that the trouble is gone… papa was right, it is difficult for someone to be out here surviving" she whined even more.

"So who is she?" Tygra asked Lion-o as he whispered into his ear.

"She's… well…" Lion-o started to say as he looked over his shoulder at the woman. Tygra was waiting for a response as Bengali kept trying to not look at the princess's bust. Kalihara kept to the rear of the group, watching their flanks.

"Did you know anything about an arranged marriage?" Lion-o asked his brother.

"Arranged marriage? What, like father had talked to another city to arrange for… oh, you can't be serious; you?" Tygra asked with his mouth agape. Lion-o nodded.

"Well I knew about a few places outside of Thundera from what father told us, but I didn't know there were other cities out there. Probably nowhere as big as Thundera was, that's for certain" his brother told him.

"Father told use about other cities?"

"You didn't listen to those history lessons much did you? Lion-o, he didn't teach us to hear himself speak, he needed us to know who our friends and enemies were. I just didn't know some of them were cats just like us…" the tiger prince scolded him.

"I know! I know… it's not like we knew this was going to happen though Tygra. I'm learning alright? Go easy on me" Lion-o replied. Tygra sighed, and for once instead of continuing to attack his brother verbally, he backed off and closed his mouth. The lion was doing his best.

"So are you marrying her?" Tygra asked.

"What? I…" Lion-o started to say as he looked behind them. He saw Celica chattering away to Cheetara, who seemed to just be nodding as the princess complained and putting up with her. Behind her, about ten feet away was Kalihara who continued to keep her eyes on the surroundings. She looked tired, and just as she turned her head, there was a small screech that came from above. Everyone stopped and looked up. Bahati swooped in with a berry from some tree he had found and landed on the lioness's armored shoulder.

"There you are. Guess you got to stretch your wings" she cooed to the bird.

"Where did he find the fruit?" Tygra asked.

"Such a beautiful creature. I want one!" Celica said excitedly as she walked back to the lioness and tried to put her finger out to pet the Quekan. Bahati tried to gulp down the fruit, but at the last second threw the last bit of it at Celica and hissed with his wings raised.

"Easy, settle down" Kalihara whispered to him as she put her own finger up to scratch his neck. He bit lightly at her finger, not trying to cause harm, as a small chirp came after while his beak pushed her glove down to his belly, telling her where to rub. Celica tried to continue bringing her finger to give him some attention, but Bahati hissed again and tried to bite at the encroaching digit. Celica pulled away with a yelp.

"Such a bird should be better trained" the princess scolded the bird.

"I've had him for two days, and I'm not his master. I don't think anyone is. He's a wild majestic creature" Kalihara rebuked. Her finger had moved to the side of the bird's neck as the Quekan closed its eyes, enjoying the attention.

"You have a pet bird that you have no control over? He is highly aggressive. If you cannot train him to be less so, then he should be put down" Celica told her.

"What? No way! Don't you dare touch my bird" Kalihara glared at her. Bahati hissed at Celica with his wings outstretched, almost as if understanding.

"Hmph, as long as he doesn't try to attack me or get in my way, I won't have to" the princess told her as she turned back around and stormed to the rest of the group. Kalihara glared at her back the entire time with her eyes narrowing.

"If he found fruit nearby, that means the land is healing. That's a good sign" Bengali said as he looked around. One of the dead trees nearby wasn't so dead anymore, as two leaves had sprouted from one branch. The group continued to the Feliner, with Lion-o carrying Celica over the swamp water to the ship. The young king was rewarded with a kiss on the cheek as Celica requested a room from Panthro. Lion-o turned and saw Kalihara sit on the cargo ramp as Bahati shot out and took a few circular flights before coming back. If she had seen the kiss, she was showing no jealousy, or seemed to care. She had told him he would find a princess. He just stared at the back of the lioness as she sat there.

"Lion-o? Which room is yours? Can I stay in it with you until we reach Lyon?" Celica asked through the bulkhead door.

"Uh, what? Um… we have a spare bedroom, why do you want to stay in my room?" he asked, with Kalihara turning around and looking over her shoulder.

"Well, we are betrothed, wouldn't it be normal for us to stay together?" she asked.

"BETROTHED?" everyone asked at the same time, excluding the lioness. She just looked at Lion-o with curiosity.

"My father had an arranged marriage set up before the fall of Thundera. It seems when I would rule, that… well, she would be my queen. HOWEVER, since the fall, that contract has more than likely died with my father. This is really new information and we barely know each other. It isn't valid anymore unless we both say otherwise, just like any other consenting adults" Lion-o explained. Celica looked confused.

"You mean… you don't want to marry me?" she asked, her lips pouted up.

"We really don't know each other Celica. I didn't even know you existed until today. Look, I'd rather not deal with this until later, we barely just made it out of an undead horde. Let's just reach Lyon, and we'll figure out what we need to do from there. I'm exhausted" Lion-o tried to dodge the question as he gestured to the rooms. She looked at him oddly, blinking, as she walked through the door and headed towards the open entrance that Panthro had mentioned was her room.

"Tygra, how far away is this city of hers?" Lion-o asked as he sighed, with aches and stiff muscles enveloping his body from the harshness of the day.

"I didn't know there was a city nearby until she had told us about it. She said it was here on the map while we were talking to the lord of… what is the name of the city we were just in?" Tygra asked.

"It is El Daron, and it was what the fable El Dara was based off of" Lion-o told him. The cubs didn't seem at all fazed by it, as even though the city they had been searching for all along wasn't real, the place it was based off of they had found, though it was a bit worse around the edges at the moment.

"Well, Lyon is about three hours away if we head out now. Want to?" the tiger prince asked.

"Let's get up in the air" the young king responded as he looked back at the ramp. Kalihara brought Bahati back into the ship and headed towards her room. Her eyes met his as she walked by him, but she didn't say a word. He couldn't tell if she was asking him a question with her eyes, or if she was annoyed with him or what. What was he going to say to her? A few days ago he had professed his love for her, and she had told him he'd find some princess to be with. She had been right. Celica would have been his queen if the lizards had not attacked Thundera. The problem with the arranged marriage was that he still felt strongly for the lioness. It was true, that the marriage was nulled the instant Thundera fell, and would have to be reappointed by Lion-o if he felt it should be so, but he didn't really know the princess very well. He didn't even know Kalihara very well either.

"Alright, we're getting under way" Tygra reported as he strapped into the pilot's seat and closed the ramp. The ship hummed to life as Lion-o sighed and walked through the hatchway and entered his own room. He took a quick shower, reveling in the hot water cascading over his fur and crossing over the sore spots on his body. He had fought lizards and robots, been shot by pulse rifles and had rocks and pellets shot at him, but never had he felt so much ache compared to having magic constantly used on him throughout one day. As he was blow dried by the nozzles and put on a fresh pair of underwear and pants, there was a knock on the door.

"Enter" he groaned out as he sat on the bed, wincing from the aches. Kalihara for once came to his door. She walked in wearing her cargo pants and green tank top, her dog tags jangling around her neck.

"You looked a little worse for wear, so I brought an analgesic rub" she told him as she tossed a small squirt bottle onto the bed.

"Thanks" he chuckled out as he reached over and picked it up, and squirted some of the cream into his hand. He rubbed it into is shoulder and then tried to reach his back, which was difficult to do with the aches as well as his arm not going that far. His face contorted with a wince as he couldn't quite stretch as far as he wanted.

"Here, let me help" she suggested as he turned his back to her as she sat on the edge of his bed and squirted some of the cream into her own palm. Her hands ran along his shoulder blades as he almost instantly felt the hot and cold sensation coming from the cream.

"What is that stuff?" he asked.

"Got it from the equines, it's the same stuff I can get back on Thundera. Back there we just called it Icy Hot, but apparently here it's made from some native plant. Feel better?" she asked.

"Yeah, a lot better" he replied, flexing his shoulders as his muscles rippled. He rubbed at a muscle on his left shoulder to see if it had a knot and felt her hand had moved at the same time right under his, as he looked over his shoulder right into her eyes. They stared at each other for a little while in silence, neither moving. Just then, Tygra knocked on the door and opened it before Lion-o could say anything. The tiger prince saw the entire situation, with Kalihara's hands on Lion-o's back, both them in casual attire.

"It's not what you think" Lion-o said flatly.

"Sure it isn't" Tygra chuckled as he put his hands up in defense.

"It really isn't" Kalihara joined in.

"Yeah, sure, no problem" the tiger said with a grin on his face. Kalihara sighed and got up from the edge of the bed.

"I'll leave this here if you need any more of it" she said as she walked past Tygra and padded back to her own room.

"How are you back here and not in the cockpit flying?" Lion-o asked.

"Autopilot. Anyways, you get the idea that Celica isn't exactly one of those nice girls?" his brother asked.

"She's… rough around the edges towards others, but she has led a sheltered life as royalty. Hard to believe there is another city out there like Thundera" Lion-o replied.

"Probably not like Thundera; we were the crown jewel for the cats. It's a fiefdom for the lords under Father's command, to keep control over the best hunting grounds and farming lands remember?"

"I guess. I wish the books and maps hadn't been burnt in the library. Really should have studied more" Lion-o said as he let out a sigh. Tygra nodded.

"So arranged marriage? You didn't answer my question. Are you going to reenact the arranged marriage?" his brother asked

"I don't know her. If I knew her well enough and I liked her, then maybe, but…" Lion-o trailed off.

"You already like someone. That's why I'm asking. I need to know that my brother isn't just flip flopping around between the girls" Tygra said, waiting for the repercussions. Lion-o growled at him.

"It's not like that. I didn't know Celica even existed until today. My heart still belongs to… her… and unless Celica proves otherwise, that's who it belongs to forever." Tygra grinned.

"At least you're sticking to your guns. Glad to hear it, because frankly, I can see you and her together" his brother chuckled just as he was about to leave.

"Wait, Kalihara or Celica?" the young king asked.

"Do you really have to ask that question? The one you're in love with tuna for brains" the tiger prince replied smirking.

"Tuna for brains? Hey now I'm-" Lion-o started to say as Tygra closed the door. The young king sighed and chuckled as he shook his head. The red haired lion closed his eyes and laid down on his bed carefully, his body still sore despite the cream rubbed into his joints. He needed to get some sleep as he was exhausted by the cold water of the swamp, the movement through the city, the fight against Dominatos, and the undead horde. He was out like a light in less than a minute.

(Author's Note: So I was worried I'd get attacked for missing a week of posting up a new chapter by my friend, in which her response was "Oh I was watching the Olympics." THANK. GOD. Gave me time to finish this and actually scrap three ideas instead of rushing it… and play some new games that came out… and run errands long overdue…)