Felline woke feeling as if she'd been punched in the chest. She sucked in a breath that was painfully loud and opened her eyes.

A pair of pale gray eyes hovered inches above her own, brimming with worry and shock.

"Ah!" Felline sat up and was forced to put a hand on her forehead before the contents of her skull spilled out of her eyes. "Ow . . ."

"General," Bastien sharply called.

"Easy there," Panthro rumbled a second later, helping Felline ease back onto the floor. "What in blazes did you think you were doing? At least the kid had the sense not to give himself a concussion when he read the Book."

"I didn't know I'd be doing any reading," she muttered fuzzily.

"What happened?" Bastien asked, sitting back on his heels. He raked a hand through his shaggy hair. "I thought you were dead. You weren't breathing."

She answered with a groan. Lion-O hadn't exhibited any discomfort after having his soul and his body reunited, but she felt terrible. Maybe that was because she'd hit her head on the way down. "How long?"

"Twenty minutes? I went to get help and found the general."

Twenty minutes. Twenty minutes in which Felline had witnessed the death of a star and the birth of the twin blades. She'd seen a young lion wrest his power from Mumm-Ra, and thus begin the ThunderCats. She'd watched legends come to life. She felt dizzy.

"Thank you," she whispered when Panthro put a cool metal hand to her forehead. The cockpit stopped spinning then.

"Can you tell us what you saw?" Panthro asked.

"Sure –" she mumbled sleepily, but then her eyes snapped open. Twenty minutes? Anything could happen in twenty minutes! "No, never mind that! What about Lion-O and Pumyra?"

"No sign of them," Panthro answered grimly.

"Then what's that?" Bastien asked.

Felline crawled over the seats and slid into the pilot's. Her white fingers flew, claws ticking across the controls. Mt. Plun-Darr bloomed across the screens, carmine and obsidian. One side of the mountain abruptly blew outward in a dusty shower of glittering crystal and sharp rock. Other vents smoked sullenly, evidence of something with firepower passing through the mines. Several war mechs slumped against the ravaged mountain, abandoned after they'd punched holes directly into the tunnels. Mumm-Ra's army milled through the empty gulag, apparently leaderless.

"I don't see Kaynar or Addicus," Panthro rumbled, "but I'm willing to bet my baby that Lion-O and Pumyra have been found."

He was right. Red and blue light warred through the cracks, strobing across the clouds.

"They're still alive," Felline breathed. She would recognize that starshine blue anywhere. "Still fighting."

"Shouldn't we help them?" Bastien asked.

Felline and Panthro exchanged a look. Purple lightning crackled, arcing around the fissures in the mountain's slopes, unmistakably evil. Lion-O and Pumyra were fighting for their lives right at that very instant. Panthro jumped into the co-pilot's seat, and Felline threw the engine in gear. The tank growled to life.

Far in the east, a glimmer of pure golden light shone along the horizon. Sunset. As if at a signal, the lizards dispersed like rats, leaping into their mechs and aboard their hovercraft. The ThunderTank was still too far away. Under cover of the mountain's shadow, the lizards zoomed off into the west, chasing the fleeing day. Not as if retreating, but as if their master had gotten what he'd come for.

"Blast!" Panthro roared. He slammed a fist on the console, and a barrage of missiles halfheartedly screamed after the retreating lizards. Two wrecked hovercraft and a demolished mech weren't enough to make them turn and stand, even though they had the cats outnumbered twenty to one. "Come back here, you flea-bitten, scaly cowards!"

Felline brought the tank to a graceful stop near one of the collapsed tunnel walls. The lizards were gone, as were Mumm-Ra and the Sword of Plun-Darr, she was sure. Briefly, she rested her forehead against the yoke. Nobody said anything. She could feel Panthro glaring at the screens next to her, his good eye searching desperately for a hint of their friends.

"It's over," Felline said in a small voice, counter-balancing his bluster. "We've lost."

Bastien shot her a narrow-eyed look. What was it that he saw when he looked at her? Who did he see? How much had this war changed her? Had it changed her at all? Or had it been her illicit sojourn through the Book of Omens that made her feel like she was wearing someone else's fur?

Panthro said something impolite, spun his chair around, and stomped from the cockpit. He opened the hatch to lighter footsteps hurrying up the corridor.

"What happened?" Tygra called.

"Where's Lion-O?" Cheetara added.

"I'm goin' out to drag is sorry hide back here," Panthro said. His words were belligerent, but his voice was bleak. "That is, if they've left any part of him intact."

Pain lanced through Felline's chest, hot and white and urgent. Lion-O wasn't dead. He couldn't be. She put her hand on the quiescent book, feeling its red leather cover press reassuringly against her fingertips. No. He wasn't dead. She would know.

"Come on," she said to Bastien, sliding out of her seat.

"Right." He fell into step behind her.

The five cats filed into a clearer night than Mt. Plun-Darr had seen in countless years. The cancerous evil that had once formed the heart of the mountain had been removed, allowing the dry, sandy breath of the desert to steal in. Broken, blood-red crystal crunched under their feet.

"Why don't we ever meet anywhere nice?" Bastien asked under his breath.

Felline glanced up at him. He grinned down at her, and she offered a small, grateful smile in return. He was so sweet. He'd come to talk to her and had seemed so worried that she wouldn't wake. Why shouldn't she care for him? She lowered her head so that her hair slid between them, blocking him from her sight, but she could feel his presence against her side, hear his breathing. Now wasn't the time. But, maybe. After Lion-O returned to them. Then, just maybe.

They waited for their friends to appear, Panthro in front, Tygra and Cheetara silent behind his armored bulk, Felline and Bastien off to the side. Before long, two tall, straight-backed figures walked out of the stinking black hole in the mountain. A new closeness existed between them. They were like one entity. Pumyra's autumn eyes were as gravely steady as Lion-O's blue.

"Mumm-Ra has the Sword of Plun-Darr," Lion-O said without preamble, to the surprise of no one.

Panthro's bristly black brows drew down like a briar patch over his mismatched eyes. "Then we better make sure we find that next Stone first," he said darkly.

Lion-O nodded. "The balance has shifted. We're looking at a whole new war."

A/N: Because of a pinkie promise (thank you, Darwin!), I've decided to bite the bullet and post this teeny scene to end the chapter so I can move on. I've been agonizing over the fact that it's so pitifully short, but there just wasn't much more to say! Oh, well. It's not like I haven't done weird things before, right? LOL.

In addition to all of my lovely reviewers, I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to those of you who have recently sent me follows and favorites on "Exiles" and "Rebels." You guys fill my heart! Thank you so much!

Reviewer Thanks! rosewhip889, Moonlightdeer, Heart of the Demons, The Night Whisperer, Seeds of Destruction, Momochan77, KelseyAlicia, Blackpantherlilies, AndrianaWarrior7, Guest (I couldn't thank you personally, but believe me, your review made me smile! The excitement was contagious, hee), DragonCurse4, Blacktiger93(I made a promise! It makes me so utterly happy that you're still here!), ashleyjenko(I sure am! Thanks for checking on me from time to time, sweetie. It helps!), NightStalkers, and booklover1798. Would you look at that list of readers? Fifteen of you! You guys are SO AMAZING. Thank you! :3

Ever Yours,

Frankie Anne