13

Mumm-Ra smiled a nasty smile. The boy's anger was gone, for now. Why shouldn't it be? The feelings he had were already there in very mild doses, but the evil that had been set free by the kittens' meddling had intensified them, twisted his perceptions so that what he always feared happened. And now he was telling Wilykat what he wanted to hear. "You like these images." It was not quite a question.

Wilykat scowled and gave the demon priest a dirty look, but he did not say anything to the contrary. He looked back down. Now it showed him in the control room of the Cats' Lair, fighting the pirate. It showed him killing the pirate, and him ending up victorious. It also showed Wilykit crying like a baby afterwards. He narrowed his eyes. "She's always saying I'm the baby! look at her, she's crying because some pirate's dead." He shook his head. "He-he's a bad guy, no one cares if they die..." He sounded like he was trying to convince himself. And in some deep reach of his mind, he was still trying to.

Mumm-Ra chuckled. "Indeed, young feline. Your sister hasn't the courage to do what must be done in battle." He turned away, waving his hand once more. The images vanished.

Wilykat looked up at him. To do what needed to be done. That was right! He'd done that, that pirate wouldn't ever attack anyone again! Third Earth was better of without him, one less villain to worry about!

He shook his head. Then why did he feel sorrow? Why did he feel a deep sadness and a creeping fear far down in his mind? Why was he shaking? Why was this all so confusing?! The ThunderCats didn't want him anymore. Maybe they thought him a threat, he didn't care. He didn't need them! He'd shown he could take care of himself.

Mumm-Ra said nothing. He saw the open, unguarded conflict on the boy's face, and knew he did not need to say anything. Wilykat had been under the influence of the ancients now for weeks, and here in his Black Pyramid, the influence was strongest. No. He need not say anything.

However...

Now he looked up uneasily. The cauldron bubbled, and the ancient mummy strode to it and peered in. What he saw made him snarl in anger, and narrow his eyes. That damned kitten! Well he would take care of her. And alone! He barely stifled a laugh. That audacious cub was coming to his pyramid alone. And furthermore, the cauldron showed him that the adult ThunderCats did not even know that either of them were missing. This was only too perfect.

Outside, Wilykit hesitated for only a portion of a second, far less than she had when both she and Wilykat had snuck inside to take the dare in the first place. Clenching her teeth, both in determination and to keep control of the fear, Wilykit soared on her spaceboard to the top of the pyramid, and shot through the hole, just as Mumm-Ra was coming out to meet her.

She let a surprised yelp as she shot past him, and could see that her adversary was surprised, too. She had been closer to the pyramid than he had thought, and traveled faster.

As Mumm-Ra growled and descended swiftly from the top of the pyramid, Wilykit landed hastily and went to her brother. "Wilykat, let's go, quick!"

"No." The answer was swift and decisive, although he looked like he was making the hardest decision in his life. He backed away from his sister's outstretched hand.

Wilykit blinked, and almost forgot her deadly enemy who was behind her, in her surprise. He seemed to be acting rationally, unlike the past many weeks, but how could he be? He was refusing to leave! She looked at him a little hurt. "Wilykat..."

"I said no!" Wilykat spat the words in sudden anger.

Mumm-Ra had planned to attack, but seeing what was going on, he decided for now just to watch.

Wilykit looked hurt. "You want to stay here? Mumm-Ra'll fry you before you can think about it!" She was speechless, unable to think of anything, her mind sputtering in thought.

Wilykat wiped his eyes. "Shut up!" he screamed. "Just shut up! you don't know everything, you always tell me what to do, I can make my own choices." His voice trembled, but he went on. "Y-You think Mumm-Ra's evil, well maybe he is! But he hasn't told me that I'm too weak to fight. He doesn't tell me I'm clumsy or dumb! I've been hearing what you guys say about me, and Lion-O kicked me out, so go away!! You only wanted me around so you could boss me around! Well you can't do that anymore, I have power. I can be powerful! I can be strong, I don't have to always lose anymore...I don't have to!" Wilykat edged towards the cauldron, where Mumm-Ra stood, unveiled triumph in his expression.

Wilykit only stared at her brother, looking very much like a little cub right then, the hurt and shock so evident on her face. "B-but...you...you really think that?" she finally stammered in a little voice. She had completely forgotten the presence of the mummy.

"I know it." Wilykat now spoke in a quiet tone, although he still wept. "I-I know it." He sniffed. "Go away, Wilykit. Just go away."

"Yes, little kitten," Mumm-Ra mocked, She looked at him for the first time since her brother's refusal to leave. "Go on back home before you get hurt." The threat was obvious.

Wilykit glared at him, her fists clenched, then looked back to Wilykat. He was serious. Dead serious. "Go, Wilykit." Then he added in a near whisper, "Please." As much betrayal as he felt, he didn't want to think of her getting hurt, not in front of him.

His sister's lip trembled, and she clenched her teeth, turning back on Mumm-Ra. His eyes had narrowed; he recognized the stance; the look...

As Wilykit shrieked an incoherent cry of rage, and jumped on her board, flying at the demon priest, he growled and stepped back, shoving Wilykat aside and out of the line of fire. Summoning his power, he let loose twin bolts of electricity from his fingertips. The bolts struck Wilykit as she charged, knocking her from the board and sending her sprawling behind the very statue she had defaced. Her spaceboard, cracked in half, was thrown several yards further.

Wilykat watched all this with a kind of dazed fascination. His lack of sleep and proper diet was having its effect now, as his mind felt like it spun madly, thoughts all converging in a whirlwind of confusion. Through eyes that seemed to put the world in slow motion, he watched his sister shake her head and stand up, using the statue as support. He saw the blood where the rough stone had scraped her skin. He saw the stature emit a sharp shock, making his sister yelp and jerk away from it, even as Mumm-Ra once again flew at her. She was going to get hurt!

So what? She came here, not the other way around, she was tresspassing, she deserved what she got!

No, she's my sister!

Wilykat whimpered, a sound not heard for the battle of two warriors happening not far away, and clutched his head. Bursting into tears, he tried unsuccessfully to still the thoughts that warred in his head, as viscously as Mumm-Ra and his sister.

"AUUUGH!" This cry of pain was Mumm-Ra's, as Wilykit scooped a sharp piece of stone from the floor and used her lariat to hurl it at him. The stone, expertly cast, grazed his midsection even as he leapt back to avoid it, slicing a neat line in his gut. It did not bleed, as he was no longer a living man, but he was still able to feel the pain. And now he was angry.

Wilykit leapt backwards and darted behind yet another of the statues that made up the Ancient Spirits of Evil, careful not to touch it this time. She peeked out and barely avoided getting her face fried by a burst of red lightning. She darted in the shadows to the next statue.

She attacked first!

But she was only trying to help me...

No, she just wanted to make sure you stayed under her thumb. She wanted to make sure she could still boss you around!

That was true! She came in and expected him to go, she nearly ordered him to leave! He felt a wave of resentment and he stood, shakily emerging from his corner to see how the fight was going; for that moment, the victor he hoped for was not his blood sister.

There was a sharp outcry from Wilykit, behind the stone of the Ancient ones, as Mumm-Ra gestured, and the very stone itself struck out to hit her in the arm, drawing a line of blood across it. She looked around, trying to see who had just struck her, when coils of stone, like living streamers of rock, lashed out snake-like to attack. One missed, the other two hit the side, and the head.

Half dazed, but finally realizing what happened, Wilykit was forced to leave her cover.

"Aha! That's better"!" Mumm-Ra crowed. "You wanted a fight, now you'll finish this one!" With a burst of laughter that after all these millennia was not that of a sane creature, Mumm-Ra hurled his red death at the child, even as she darted behind his cauldron.

The blast took out a section of the pool's stone, right beside Wilykit's head. She screamed in surprise and skittered aside, not wanting to find out if her nose's suspicions about the acidity of the pool were correct or not. She did not want to find out the hard way she had been right.

Two more blasts, and two more chunks of rock. Wilykit was beginning to feel desperate. She could not hide, and if she stayed in the open, she would be dead for sure, and what did she have for weapons? She had a lariat and a bunch of powder/liquid pellets. And one that was different from the others/

Crouching low, her slight form hidden by the broken wall of the cauldron, Wilykit took a capsule from her belt, and cast it in the water that flowed from the breaks. It did not sizzle, but it did bubble, and from it grew green, scales, fire; some was liquid-triggered puppetry, but most was illusion.

"What by all the Ancients-?" Mumm-Ra exclaimed as he shot forward in the air to seize the kitten hiding behind the pool. He found not a cowering cub, but what appeared to him to be a living, breathing dragon, and one that was not happy, to boot. He cursed and flew backwards as the dragon spit its fire. He did not even see Wilykit dart from her hiding place, searching her belt desperately for something she could use against the mummy.

Grease pellets, he didn't even touch the floor; couldn't slip him up. Powders, sneezing...was he even capable of sneezing? Wilykit hurt, and she was terrified, and she couldn't think! What could she use? She didn't know, what should she use?? Flash...the flash capsules. She looked around on the sand-littered floor for something she could use as a weapon If she could hurt him enough to deplete his power, he could do nothing..

While Mumm-Ra fought what he thought to be an angry dragon, and Wilykit desperately tried to make her racing thought make some sense and grow into a plan, Wilykat had seen what she had done, and could see what she was doing. He narrowed his eyes. "Mumm-Ra, it's not real, it's a dragon-capsule, a puppet!"

Wilykit's head snapped up so fast, one might have thought she broke it. She gaped at her brother, all her racing jumbled thought-flashes gone in simple shock. Wilykat had betrayed her!

Mumm-Ra ceased his attack and approached, staying still as the dragon spit its fire; he felt no heat. The fire singed him not.

He narrowed his eyes and slowly turned his head. He did not like being tricked, and now he had been humiliated. "Clever cub," he growled low in his throat, and landed on the ground. he walked towards her, and she backed away quickly, still searching for the right capsule.

"So, you dare to make mockery of Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living..." Wilykit stumbled as she backed away, then a look of alarm crossed her face when she felt stone behind her.

"Enough play, kitten. Let's see just who is the stronger here." A nasty curl of his lips formed a demon's smile. He knew who was the stronger, and Wilykit's cunning was of little use here now that her trick had been exposed. There were too many eyes in the chamber.

Before Wilykit could even thinking about dodging, Mumm-Ra had splayed his fingers, sending a strong jolt of red, jagged electricity into her body. Wilykit screamed and dropped the capsule she'd been trying to fumble from her belt, as she hit the wall and collapsed to the floor, trying to clear her head.

Mumm-Ra mocked her, allowing her to get halfway up again before hitting her once more and sending her to the ground.

Wilykat watched all this, not with satisfaction, but horror. What had he done?

Wilykit tore her belt loose as she staggered to her feet, throwing it as hard as she could at the feet of her foe. Several went off, creating a shield of smoke and flashing light, and Wilykit ran on all fours, limping on a foot and a hand, seeking some kind of protection or refuge. But there was none.

All her distraction had served to do was to make the demon more angry than he was, and he rose from the smoke, enveloping the kitten in a suffocating beam of energy, and hurling her across the room.

By a desperate feat of gymnastics, the wiry cub managed to save herself from a very broken head. As she hit the ground in a clumsy roll. But the breath was knocked from her and the arm she used had been hurt badly. She thoguht it might have been broken. Her head had hit the floor, sending her dazed to the floor, blood seeping from the wound, not to mention a few good bruises she would have later from that fall, if she lived that long. She tried to get up.

Wilykit had never cried in pain before, but she did now. She had never taken quite a beating before in her battles, and the feeling of defeat hurt almost as much as the physical wounds.

Mumm-Ra stalked over to the helpless cub and reached down, grabbing her by the throat and lifting her high in the air. She made a strangled sound and began again to fight, kicking at him and clawing at his hands, trying to ignore the stabs of pain from her injuries. But her legs were not long enough to reach anything but arm, and her claws were not long or strong enough to do much damage. "Now," Mumm-Ra snarled. "Now you will meet your maker, you miserable little bastard."

Wilykit gagged as Mumm-Ra began to squeeze, shaking her hard every few moemtns as he cursed her out. Her fight became more frenzied as she could not breathe, and the terrible pressure making her feel as though her head might explode before she died from lack of air.

Wilykat shook as he witnessed this viscous assault, and everything in his heart cried out. His mind may have been taken over, sullied, and hurt deeply, but his heart could not be marred. "NOOO!" he shrieked, and ran forward, taking his own unused supply of capsules from his belt. He chose the explosive ones, all four of them, and hurled them all at Mumm-Ra's face.

One bounced away, not having hit hard enough to have done any damage, but the other three struck him full in the face, and he howled, dropping Wilykit and staggering backwards. Half unconscious, Wilykit choked harshly, desperately trying to get some air into her lungs.

Meanwhile, Wilykat was, not for the first time, in a fury of anger and hurt, but this time, he knew exactly what he was doing. He threw everything he had at the mummy, who reeled with the unexpected attack. Wilykat was searching for the broken pieces of his sister's spaceboard.

When he found one half, he stared at the shiny bottom of it in horror. It was his reflection, but his own heart saw what the light reflected back. It was him; but he felt, more than saw, the first thin tendrils of darkness around him, and suddenly he knew why Mumm-Ra could not bear to see his own reflection.

With a cry of terror, Wilykat turned it around and held it as a shield as Mumm-Ra finally got his bearings and attacked. But the board did its work, and Mumm-Ra caught only a glimpse. But it was enough. With a howl of despair and rage, he reverted to his weak form, retreating to his sarcophagus. So close...he had been so close....

Crying himself, Wilykat ran to his choking sister, kneeling by her small form. He put a hand on her shoulder. "Wilykit?" he whimpered. "W-Wilykit, don't die, please? I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

Wilykit had her eyes closed, but she forced them to open, and she tried to sit up. Her brother helped her. "I'm..." she started, and it came out as a weak, hoarse whisper. "I...I'm not gonna die."

"Come on, we have to get back to Cats' Lair," Wilykat whimpered. "We have to get Tygra to help you..." He put an arm around the injured kitten, and helped her up. He took the larger portion of the spaceboard, which had the repulsors in it, and helped Wilykit aboard. They both barely fit but they made it, and Wilykat flew them out at less than half speed.

***

"Is she going to be all right?" Cheetara asked. Then she added darkly, "Will they be okay alone?"

Tygra nodded, closing the infirmary door behind him, "I think so. Wilykit can't speak without hurting her throat, and so Wilykat told me, he told me everything." He sighed. "This has got to be the most vile thing Mumm-Ra and his masters have done yet."

Snarf glanced worriedly to the med room door. "Mrrr...what about Wilykat?"

Tygra shook his head. "He almost got Wilykit killed, Snarf. He hates himself for it. I think he will be a very long time forgiving himself for it, if ever. Even though it was not his fault."

Lion-O frowned. They all were gathered in the hallway. "Is there anything we can do?"

Tygra shook his head again. "No. We can only be there for him. Give him our love. I think the twins will be the ones that deal with this the most though." He opened the door a crack, and they peered in. Wilykit and Wilykat were locked in a tight, almost desperate embrace. "But I think they will be okay."

Part Twelve

Table of Contents
ThunderCat Stories Page
Main Page