A/N: sorry it took so olng to update, life happened. As always, I don't own the TC, I don't make anything off of them, I just like to write about them.

Chapter 4

Cheetara had just finished cleaning herself in the river as she went about gathering up her belongings. She had originally gone down there to wash the tear streaked dirt from her face; but after seeing that she would be alone for some time, she seized the rare opportunity to bathe. The cool water had been refreshing after her emotionally draining discussion with Lion-O, and it seemed to have revitalized her in a small way. The tension she had been holding onto for so long had finally ebbed, as if carried away by the river's gentle current.

Now as she was sitting on a tree stump along the river's edge, trying to dry the remaining moisture from her hair, she contemplated what she would do about these night-terrors she was having. She understood that it was because of them, that she now realized the many mistakes she had made. But what could she do to fix them? How would she repair her damaged relationships with her companions, and how would it affect her current relationship with Tygra? She admitted to herself that since becoming his mate, she had not spoken out against anything he had said or done. She had not even expressed an opinion that was different from his. She thought that she was just being supportive to him, but in truth she had lost her real self somewhere in the relationship, but that was going to change. She needed to stay true to the person she had previously been, her true self. After all, wasn't that the reason he was attracted to her in the first place?

She was drawn out of her contemplations by the sound of someone approaching. She turned to see Tygra heading her way down the path from the campsite. He had a distinct swagger in his step as he walked. He looked as if he were strutting as he came closer towards her and she could see there was a glint of pride in his eyes and a wide grin plastered along his lips. "Hey Cheetara" he called out to her. "You should see the size of the Caribou that I bagged this morning! It removes all doubt that Yes, I am The Cat! Not only should we have a good meal tonight, but we should be able to cut up and dry enough meat strips to keep the food reserves up for a while." He opened his arms wide as he brought her in for a gentle hug.

"That's great Tygra," she responded with a genuine smile on her face as she returned the tiger's loving embrace. Although her smile was true, Tygra noticed it didn't come close to reaching her eyes. "What's wrong," he asked, a little worried. "I'm just trying to figure out how I am going to fix some things with the other Thundercats." She told him as she nuzzled her check into Tygra's neck. There was a somewhat downbeat tone in her voice. Tygra cocked his head to the side as he looked down at her. "Like what?" he inquired. "Well…" she paused for a moment, trying to arrange her thoughts so they would make sense, "I've made some mistakes recently, and they have been affecting the way we work together, especially with Lion-O."

"I should have known he'd be involved in this somehow, he is always screwing something up." he quipped with some irritation in his voice. Cheetara blinked in surprise at the statement, and leaned back to get a better look at him. "Tygra…why did you just say that?" she asked looking intently at him. "Well, its true" he replied "He is always screwing things up. He has ever since we were kids." Cheetara pushed back from him before addressing his statement. "You weren't listening were you? I said that I was the one who made the mistakes, not him. Yet, you automatically assumed that he did something wrong. Why is that Tygra, because you have been doing that a lot lately?" She folded her arms in front of her while she waited for his response.

"We've been lucky so far. Something always seems to go wrong with the plans he makes, even if they do turn out alright in the end. Yes, we've made some friends and alliances, but we still don't have a clear-cut plan on how to find the last stone or what we are going to do to defeat Mumm-Ra, IF we get it. It's like we are floundering around in unknown water, trying not to drown ourselves. He always gets in over his head, and then it's up to me to save him."

"Tygra, you know that is not true. Lion-O has done very well considering he had this whole 'king' thing literally thrown on him. Although he does lack experience in some areas, he is improving daily. Look at what he has done so far. The friendships and alliances he is making are strong ones. The events after the fall of Avista have proven that." The pride in her voice at Lion-O's accomplishments actually surprised her a little.

Tygra also heard the pride in her words, and that only made his jealous streak blaze up like a bonfire. "What made you suddenly decide to go spouting off Lion-O's accolades?" he said with growing heat as his temper began to flare. The look on his face was clearly showing his annoyance.

"I am not 'spouting off Lion-O's accolades'" she replied with a little heat of her own. She was beginning to feel more and more defensive. "I am doing what I should have been doing the entire time. Supporting our King! And whether you like it or not he is our king." Cheetara's own anger was rising, and with it was the volume of her voice. "And so what if he made a few mistakes. We all have. I certainly have, and so have you."

"What mistakes have I made?!" Tygra responded loudly, clearly on the defensive now. "Well…first, your great military training didn't help us much to navigate the Petalar's forest did it? You often mock or insult anyone that isn't just like you. Then your stupid pride nearly costs us the stones that we did have when you gambled them in Avista; and when Lion-O died and you were the king, we all ended up being captured. And who rescued both US and the Sword of Omens that time…your brother." Cheetara was nearly shouting now, her whole body was tensed as waves of her anger rolled off of her. The inferno that blazed inside her was fueled largely by the knowledge that she had remained silent the whole time these things were happening, she had said nothing.

Tygra was both hurt and furious now. He hated to be reminded of those particular failings, and he especially hated the fact that he had to be saved by his little brother. He had no idea what caused this whole thing, and frankly, right now he didn't care. But he knew that nothing would be gained here by screaming at Cheetara. "I'm done with this." He said as he turned away from her. "I'm outta here!" with that, he strode off away from both Cheetara and the camp as he followed along the riverbank. He knew that he needed to calm down, and then afterwards he could try to figure out what just happened.

Cheetara's heart was pounding in her chest; her adrenaline coursing through her system. She watched silently as Tygra stormed away from her. Her own anger had not abated in the slightest; it was still burning with a fury inside of her. She knew that she could not return to the camp yet, not in her current state of mind. So she turned in opposite direction of Tygra and headed for an open meadow. She grabbed reflexively for her staff as she started to run. The familiar feeling of the object in her hand brought her a tiny bit of comfort. She really needed to go hit something now…hard…and repeatedly.


Sweat flowed down Cheetara's brow as she sailed through the air. Muscles tensed as she slammed her ironwood staff hard into the ground. She followed it up by performing a forward somersault, ending in a lateral scissors kick. Her chest was heaving and she was breathing heavily now as she continued her attack routine. How many hours had she been doing this now anyway? She could not remember. Her arms and legs were becoming heavy. Her body ached with fatigue, but this is what she had needed, what her mind seemed to crave… movement.

Cheetara easily flowed from one fighting form to another. For years she has conditioned her body with countless hours of training. Long days of practicing each strike, each block, and each hand position, repetitively until they were done correctly each time. She continued practicing until the movements had become second nature to her. This was her strength. While the other clerics trained until they got the forms right, Cheetara trained until she never got them wrong. She had trained herself repeatedly until she had perfected each form, then she proceeded onto the next one. Eventually, the transitioning became easier and the forms began to merge. They would to blend into each other like an extravagantly choreographed dance; the sequence never mattered, because she could interchange them at will.

That was when it finally it happened; she got to the point where her body seemed to move on its own accord, acting without conscious thought. It was here in this state, that her mind gained what it so desperately sought after… peace, and freedom.

As she had done so many times before, she used this freedom to mentally examine all the burdens that she and her companions had gone through since the beginning of this journey. While she acknowledged the things she had done right, she scrutinized the many things she did wrong. She visualized each mistake as a target in front of her, each failure as an enemy. She analyzed each action as if it were an attack, countering each thought until she obliterated the image. This was how she worked things through, it brought her clarity, and with that clarity came understanding. At least… that's how it was supposed to work.

This time was very different though. Try as she might, she could not achieve any clarity in her thoughts, and understanding…. that was nowhere to be found. Her emotions were still too raw, still too exposed, like a fresh wound that has not yet scabbed over. She could see, now, how her actions and inactions had hurt her friends. How her poorly worded comments had caused them pain. Mostly, she remembered her dreams. The images of her friends dying gruesomely because of her mistakes still remained. They were as vivid as ever, it was if they had been branded permanently into her mind. She ha thought about it long and hard, but the question still remained, just what was she going to do about it? She would not find the answers she sought though, because she was brought out of her musings by the sound of her name being called.

"Cheetara," Lion-O called out to her. She finally looked in his direction, acknowledging that he was there. He was leaning against a large rock, holding a towel out for her and smiling. He had originally come just to check on her, to see if she was doing any better. She had left the camp several hours ago, and never returned. He knew that she wanted to be alone to think some things over, but he had started to worry. As he came upon the meadow, he saw that she was practicing her clerical forms. He had seen her practice the forms many times before in the past, and every time it was a sight to behold. Seeing that she was safe, he felt a little foolish. He was going to apologize for interrupting her, but it became evident that she had not noticed his approach. She appeared to be in deep thought and he did not want to disturb her. Instead, he leaned against a large rock that was nearby and began simply watching her. Seeing Cheetara practice was like watching poetry in motion. Her lithe, athletic body moved with a fluidity and grace that would make even the greatest of dancers envious. Her balance and timing far surpassed anything Lion-O had seen at the ballets his father had taken him to while he was growing up. With a final shout and the slamming of her staff into the ground by her feet, Cheetara completed her attack routine, but she did not move from that spot. She gazed off into the distance, as if lost in thought, oblivious to her surroundings. Lion-O Watched as she stood there. He saw her windblown hair messed around her flushed cheeks, strands of it sticking in place because she was covered in sweat. He watched the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed in and out deeply, and he knew without a shadow of a doubt, that he has never seen anything so beautiful in his entire life. Luckily, Lion-O snapped out of his gawking before she noticed he was there. He needed to calm himself down and suppress these feelings seemed to be coming back with so much vengeance. So he put a smile on his face, picked up the towel that she had left by the rock and called out her name.

Cheetara walked up and took the towel that he was offering her. "Lion-O, how long have you been there?" "Just a little while," he responded, "I didn't want to disturb you, but it looked like you just finished your routine." She noticed there was a slight reddening of his face when he answered her, and he didn't hold her gaze as long as he normally did. For some reason this pleased her a little. "Yeah, I was. I was just thinking about... some things."

Lion-O leaned back against the rock next to him as he looked at her for a moment. After coming to a quick decision, he realized that now was as good a time as any, so he looked her in the eyes and asked her "Do you want to talk about those Night-terrors now? There is nobody else around, and I'd like to know what part I play in all of this."

Cheetara sighed as she looked at the ground for a moment before returning her gaze to meet his. "No," she replied, "Truthfully, I don't want to talk about it at all" she paused a moment steeling up her resolve, "But you're right, nobody is around, and I will have to talk about it eventually. I suppose now is just as good a time as any. We never know when we'll ever get time to ourselves anymore."

She sighed to herself as she sat on the ground in front of him, motioning for him to do so as well. After they made themselves comfortable she began explaining the kinds of dreams she had been having. She described how she had made the same mistakes as she did in real life, but the outcomes of her missions and battles had changed vastly because of those decisions. The tears started rolling down her face as she told him how her actions often led to his demise and sometimes others as well. She also described how vivid and gruesome the tortures and deaths in her night-terrors were, which was why she often woke up screaming.

Lastly, she told him of the dream where he sat in judgment of her crimes and how all of her faults had been laid before her. "The worst part of it," she said, barely keeping herself from sobbing. "Was when I woke up, I realized that it was all true…I have been negligent; and my actions in that canyon were not only a dereliction of my duty, they were borderline treasonous!"

Lion-O's heart was almost near its breaking point. He hated seeing the cheetah maiden in so much pain. He had watched her closely as she was speaking to him. He not only heard the distress in her voice but could actually see her torment in her body language. "Come here," he softly stated as he opened his arms for her.

Cheetara moved over to him and leaned down into his embrace. Her tears began soaking into his shirt as she nuzzled his chest, but she didn't care. She placed her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly. She had no idea how things would work out, but she felt that they would.

"Everything will be okay," Lion-O whispered into her mane as he wrapped his arms around her. Without even thinking about it he began to gently rock her from side to side. He held her close as the rocked, trying to impart as much comfort and compassion as he could to her. "I don't think what you did was treasonous." He told her as they continued to rock, "I think you made a judgment call in the middle of a battle. You did what you thought was best at that time to save Tygra." He paused for a short time, and then he asked her "If we were in the same situation now, would you do the same thing?"

"No," came her reply. "I wouldn't. I will not abandon you again."

"Then we move on." He told her, "You've made some mistakes, we all do. They were not catastrophic, so you learn from them, and try not to make the same mistakes twice." After a moment, he got an idea. He lifted her chin so that she could see him, then teasingly said, "You'll just have to think up new ones to make."

She giggled at his remark, and lowered to head back to his chest. Today was emotionally exhausting for her and she was grateful for the comfort her friend was giving her. Until that moment, she never realized just how much she truly needed it. It also made her realize that Lion-O had probably needed comfort many times along their journey, and she had not been there to give it to him. She made up her mind right then and there that she would be there for him no matter what. He was here for her when she needed him, even after she had hurt him, so by the ancients she would do the same for him; and the Abyss take anyone that tried to stop her…..