9
Leanne sighed as she leaned against the Thunder Tank. Panthro and Lion-O were arguing a few feet in front of her, and it had been going on for some time.
"I told you already!" Lion-O said, "If I knew why it wasn't working, I'd be able to fix it! It's not my fault nobody ever told me how this thing worked!" He waved the sword, which was miniaturized, in Panthro's face.
"And I told you that I'm tired of waiting!" Panthro snapped, "I say we go west and hope for the best!"
"Then it will take us years to get to the Book!" Lion-O snapped back. Leanne groaned and lulled her head back, hitting her head against the tank's side.
"How long has this been going on?" She asked Cheetara, who was next to her.
"At least a good hour." Cheetara said, Leanne groaned again.
"What is it with men and directions?" She asked.
"I'm not sure what you mean." Cheetara said, looking over at her.
"Never mind." Leanne said, turning away from her. She didn't want to have to go into the explanation of the gender stereotype from her home. She went into the tank, where Snarf was resting peacefully. Leanne went over to the small bag that held all of her belongings and pulled out her flashlight. She flicked it on, having it charged halfway from the sunlight from the other day. She shined it on the wall and put her hand in front of the light, making shadow puppets with her hand on the wall. She made a dog, a bunny, and a snake, then she stopped, because she didn't know how to make anything else with one hand. She shined the light on Snarf's face in her boredom, and he mewed unhappily, turning his head away from the light. Leanne sighed and flicked the light off. She reached into her bag again and pulled out her Nana's family tree. She unrolled it and looked at all the names that branched off of other ones. She looked over it curiously, remembering how Jaga had told her that her grandmother had kept this with her at all times. Her fingers brushed over her grandmother's name at the bottom of the list.
"Why did you keep this old thing, Nana…?" She whispered quietly. She looked over the names, remembering how she had written the same ones down for a school project just before the school year ended. Her eyebrows furrowed when she looked over the name of her great-great uncle. She knew for a fact his name was Bernard Gary Redoric, and Leanne had written it as Bernard G. Redoric. But on the family tree, it was written as Bernard I. Redoric. At first she just thought it was a minor mistake. Then she found another error in her great-great-great-great grandfather's name. Instead of it being Theodore J. Redoric, it was Theodore N. Redoric. She quickly began spotting other errors in the middle initials of her ancestors. She looked around the tank, for something she could write with, but she found none. Frustrated, she ran outside, and grabbed a stick. She began writing all the abnormal letters in the dirt. Cheetara, WilyKat and WilyKit saw her doing this and became interested as she kept writing down different letters. Eventually, she found all the errors and looked at her resulting letters.
G, H, I, L, N, T, E, H, T
She looked over them carefully, trying to figure out a hidden meaning in the jumbles of letters.
"What are all those for?" WilyKat asked when he saw the letters.
"I'm not sure…" She said, "But I'm pretty sure there's something to them." She held up her family tree and Cheetara took it, looking over it, "My Nana would not accidentally screw up on so many middle names on this thing!" She put her hand to her chin thoughtfully as she started putting the letters together into words.
She mostly came up with just gibberish.
Gil in the th… That wasn't a word.
Get hit lin… No, that wouldn't work either.
She sighed as she tried to figure it out. Her troubles got the attention of Tygra, who looked over her shoulder as she wrote.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"Trying to make words out of letters." Leanne said as she began to write down the words she came up with in the dirt, "I found all these errors in the middle initial of some of my ancestors, which is something I'm pretty sure my Nana wouldn't do unless she had a reason."
"Well, you've got 'in' and 'the' in there." Tygra observed, "What word do the last letters make?"
"Well, that leaves G, H, L, I, and T…" Leanne murmured thoughtfully.
"So… light?" Cheetara questioned, overhearing their words.
"Light… In the light…" Leanne murmured, "How does that make sense though?" She scratched at her head, then a thought struck her, "Cheetara, let me see my family tree!" She handed it to her and Leanne unrolled it completely, showing her entire family tree, and held it up to the sunlight. Her eyes widened when she saw strange designs appear in the light, hidden in the paper. "Holy freaking crap!"
"What is it?" WilyKit asked, she saw the patterns made in the light, "Looks like a map."
"It is a map…" Leanne said, she smiled, "And look where it leads!" She pointed at the end of where it led, which was a picture of a book resting on a podium that was similar to the one she had seen on the scroll that Claudus had given Panthro and Grune.
"I think this is a map to the Book of Omens." Tygra said with a grin as he looked at it.
Leanne sat next to Lion-O as the Thunder Tank rolled on through the terrain, following the coordinates Panthro had deciphered from the old map she had found hidden in her family tree. Leanne couldn't stop smiling. She was happy to know that she had been helpful to the ThunderCats in more than just using the Jewel of Omens' power.
She yelped as the tank went over a particularly rough bump, and she bounced in the air. She fell out of her seat, and she grimaced when she felt the pain of her backside hitting the metal flooring.
"You okay?" Lion-O asked, holding out his hand to her. She took it and put herself back on the seat.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Leanne said, she rubbed her behind as she tried to get comfortable again. The tank lurched as it came to a stop and Leanne fell over again, but this time, her head landed in Lion-O's lap. Blushing at their position, she quickly pulled herself up and looked away, unable to meet Lion-O's eyes. Panthro's face came up on a screen on the inside of the tank.
"Why did we stop?" Lion-O asked, unaware of Leanne's embarrassed state as he went up to the screen that displayed Panthro's face.
"We're here." Panthro said, "We're at the exact coordinates on the map."
Needless to say, everyone was disappointed when they arrived at their destination, and there was no indication of the Book of Omens anywhere. Cheetara explained that the clerics from a long time ago had hidden the book in a tower, but no matter how hard everyone looked, there was no tower of any kind that they could see. So, the only option left was sight beyond sight. So Lion-O decided to do just that.
Leanne watched as Lion-O kept trying to get the sword to give him sight beyond sight so he could know where the book was. She sat on the tank next to Panthro, who was next to Tygra, who was next to Cheetara.
"Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight." Lion-O commanded, holding the Eye of Thundera up close to his face. The hilt of the sword extended slightly, curling around Lion-O's eyes. After a moment, he sighed, "Okay… Let's try this again." He held up the sword again and said, "Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight." Again, nothing happened, he growled as he pulled the sword away, "Come on… work!"
Panthro turned to the others, "Are you telling me our only chance of finding the Book of Omens is if his sword gives him directions?"
"It's about as hopeless as it sounds." Tygra said.
"Lion-O just needs to believe in himself." Cheetara said.
"And I don't think it would kill you to do the same." Leanne said, sending a pointed glare at Tygra, who turned away from her. Leanne looked back at Lion-O, who was trying again. When, again, it didn't work, he growled in frustration.
"This is dumb! I don't even know what I'm looking for!" He growled out. Leanne jumped down from the tank and started walking over to Lion-O.
"Sometimes, when you look too hard, you miss what's right in front of you." Leanne said, Lion-O looked back at her, obviously surprised that she was speaking to him.
"Tell me about it…" He muttered, stiffening slightly as she came up behind him, putting one of her hands on his shoulder and leaning on him.
"Cheetara says that if you master sight beyond sight, it'll show you what your eyes can't see." Leanne said, repeating some of the knowledge that Cheetara had been explaining to her and the two other cats, "But she said that you need to have an open mind. So, try again, but this time, just relax." When she spoke, she was right next to him, and Lion-O could feel the warmth of her skin against his fur, and she was speaking into his ear, loud enough to be heard, but soft enough not to hurt his hearing. His ear twitched with each soft breath that came from her lips and landed on it.
"Relax…" Lion-O said, echoing her words, "Got it." Like I'm going to relax after that, he thought to himself as Leanne pulled away to give him some space. He jumped when WilyKat's face suddenly appeared in front of him from above.
"Wat'cha doing?" He asked him with a grin.
"Ooh~! I know what they were doing~!" WilyKit said in a sing-song voice, making little kissing sounds. Both Leanne and Lion-O blushed at the insinuation.
"No!" Lion-O said quickly, he stuttered a little as he tried to dissipate the thoughts of him and Leanne sharing kisses, "We were just… trying to get my… sword… to work."
WilyKat jumped down from the branches beside his sister as she asked, "Why is this book so hard to find, anyway?"
"Did they forget where they put it?" WilyKat asked. Leanne shrugged, not knowing the answer.
"In a way, yes." Cheetara said as she walked up to the two kittens, "You see, the Book of Omens wasn't lost, rather, it was hidden, with the intention that it would never be found. Legend says the Book of Omens held both clues to our past, and keys to our future. Because some believed it could be even more valuable than the Sword of Omens, the other animals would stop at nothing to get it. The king knew it contained too much power to allow it to fall into the wrong hands, so he had the clerics hide it far beyond the kingdom walls. Far beyond anywhere the Cats had ever been. To keep it safe, they built a temple, one made with magic. The Tower of Omens was inaccessible to anyone but themselves, and protected by ancient enchantments. They then sealed themselves into the temple. Forever. Its location would be a secret they took to their graves."
"That's why Grune and I knew we'd probably never find it." Panthro said, coming up behind Cheetara with Tygra beside him.
"So we just have to just get lucky and hope we stumble onto it?" Tygra asked incredulously. Leanne heard a light, grunting noise and looked up to see Snarf trying to pull down a fruit from one of the trees above. When he finally got it off the branch, almost all of the fruits on the branch fell off and scattered around the feet of everyone below him. They all looked up when they saw a stone lion's head on the stone wall that they thought had been a cliff.
"Maybe we just did." Lion-O said. He walked over to the stone wall and pulled away some old vines to reveal an entrance.
"How in the heck did we miss that?" Leanne asked when she saw it.
"I guess, sometimes, when you look too hard," Lion-O said, turning to her, "You miss what's right in front of you." Leanne smiled at him. Lion-O looked up to the tree branches, "Nice work, Snarf." Said creature mewed happily at the compliment and hopped down from the branch onto WilyKit's shoulders as she began to follow Lion-O and the others inside. They walked through the temple entrance into a dimly lit hallway. It was a single pathway resting over a gigantic bed of huge needles. At the other end of the pathway was a door that looked like the entrance to a lion's mouth.
"That's a really welcoming sight." Leanne muttered sarcastically to herself as they kept walking down the path. She looked down at the spikes surrounding them suspiciously, an ominous sense of doom suddenly encompassing her as they went towards the door. When they reached the end, they found that the doors were closed. Lion-O pushed at them to try and get them open, but they wouldn't budge. He looked down at a little slit in the door and saw it was a keyhole, he looked back at the others with a wry grin.
"Think they left a key behind?" He asked them. Tygra put his hand on his shoulder and pointed to the ceiling.
"Actually, they left a few." Everyone looked up to see a huge group of keys dangling on strings from above.
"How do we know which key is the right one?" Leanne asked as she looked at the great number of them.
"We'll just have to try them all." Cheetara said, she pulled out her staff and extended it so it would reach up to the ceiling and knock down a few keys. Three keys landed in her hand and she turned to the door.
"This could take forever." Panthro said, not happy about their situation. Cheetara put the key into the hole and turned it, the second she did, the sound of grinding gears could be heard and everyone looked around to see what it was.
"I don't think we have forever." Tygra said. Everyone saw that the path they had taken was quickly becoming smaller and smaller. Snarf and the two kittens, who had been a little ways behind to look at the spikes below, screamed and ran to the others. When the path finally came to them, they all jumped up, and grabbed onto the first thing they could. Panthro grabbed onto the tiny ledge just below the door, WilyKat grabbed onto his shoulder, Lion-O grabbed onto Panthro's foot, and Cheetara had grabbed onto his other one, Leanne had grabbed onto Lion-O's waist, Tygra had grabbed onto Leanne's foot, holding Snarf in his arms, and WilyKit had grabbed onto Tygra's foot. The group dangled dangerously over the spikes, which were so closely clustered together, there was no way to get down without impaling yourself.
"Whiskers…" Lion-O muttered under his breath.
"Find the key…!" Panthro grunted, using all of his strength to try and hang onto the ledge. WilyKat and Kit climbed up the chain of people like experts, pulling out some metal tools.
"Leave this to the masters." WilyKat said as he climbed up Panthro's shoulders, his sister not too far behind him.
"Hurry! There's hundreds to pick from!" Lion-O said. WilyKit climbed up onto Panthro's shoulders, using his face as a step of sorts as WilyKat climbed up her shoulders so he could be level with the keyhole.
"Why waste time picking out a key…" WilyKit said.
"When you could just pick the lock?" WilyKat finished. After a moment of tinkering, the door unlocked and they jumped in. Tygra, still holding Snarf, was the first to climb up the chain of people into the doorway, then Cheetara, then Leanne, and then Lion-O. Tygra and Lion-O pulled Panthro up into the door and he sighed in relief, his muscles straining from having to hold onto something while having so much weight attached to him. The doors closed behind them, and they all stood up, looking at the long stretch of a hallway before them.
"The Book could be just beyond that wall." Lion-O said.
"Well, then let's go get it." Panthro said with a confident smirk.
"Wait," Leanne stopped him by holding her arm out in front of the large cat. He looked down at her curiously, "This is way too easy."
"And that's a problem?" Panthro asked.
Leanne turned to him, "Did you forget the freaky disappearing path and the huge spikes that could have killed us?! This whole place could be booby-trapped!"
"And exactly how are you qualified to make this theory?" Panthro asked dubiously, crossing his arms across his chest and leaning down to meet her eyes.
"Uh, duh. I've seen all the Indiana Jones movies. Even that crappy fourth one." Leanne said as if it were obvious, "And every time they went to some temple to get some ancient artifact, the place was booby-trapped. One wrong step, and those walls could be shooting poison darts at us, or the floor could open up and we could fall into some kind of pit, or some giant boulder could come out from the ceiling and flatten us like pancakes!"
Panthro gave her a skeptical look and looked back at the hall in front of them. He looked around the floor and bent down, picking up a rock. He tested the weight of it in his hand and threw it out further into the hallway. The second it hit the floor, huge, whirring blades came out and began spinning rapidly, like saws, ready to cut anything, cutting the small rock with ease.
Leanne pointed at them, "Ah-ha! See? I told you!"
"Legend said the ancients rigged a series of obstacles near the temple meant to keep outsiders away." Cheetara said, looking at all the spinning blades.
"Then this whole place is one big deathtrap." Panthro said, scowling at the blades.
Cheetara watched the blades movement, judging their speed. She smirked, "Gotta move fast!" She jumped in, easily avoiding each blade with her incredible speed. She never once stopped, but kept moving. The closest she came to being cut was when one of the blades cut off a few strands of her long hair. When she reached the end, she grinned proudly to herself, and then pulled out her staff, having it extend long enough to push two switches on either side of the wall simultaneously and one by one, the blades stopped spinning and retracted into the walls again. Once it was safe, everyone ran to the other side of the hall.
"Nice work." Lion-O said, giving Cheetara a thumbs-up. She smiled at him and, once everyone was inside but her, she retracted her staff and dashed inside, the door shutting behind her.
The next room they walked into was a room with multiple ledges on high walls that surrounded them. On one side of the wall was a small window, which had a small line of light coming through, looking down at a pool of water. The light bounced off the reflection of the still water and onto the eyes of a stone lion head on the opposite wall. Inside the pool were piles and piles of sparkling gold coins.
"Look! Treasure!" WilyKit said happily as she and her brother dashed towards the pool.
"We're rich!" WilyKat said. He reached his hand inside the pool for its treasure.
"No!" Leanne cried, dashing over to the two kids and pulling them away from the pool. It was too late, though. WilyKat's hand reaching into the water disturbed its stillness, causing ripples along the surface. The ripples affected the reflection of light that came from the tiny window, causing the light to shake and move away from the lion's head. Once it was, the lion's eyes began to glow red and water began to gush out of its open mouth, as well as pour out from the walls. Everyone immediately went up onto the ledges along the walls for safety away from the water. Panthro was the quickest of the group, and Leanne used her powers to jump up on the same ledge he was on, and was surprised him in something like a fetal position, his knees pulled up to his chest as his back was against the wall. He kept shaking his head back and forth. "You okay there, Panthro?"
"I never told you guys this…" Panthro said, looking at the water fearfully, "But I can't swim." Leanne looked at him with wide eyes, then at the water. She would have thought she shouldn't have been surprised, (Cats can't stand water, after all) but she was. She sighed and went over to him as he stood up, backing up on the wall.
"When we get out of this, remind me to teach you." She said, patting his shoulder. She jumped up onto the next ledge that was a little bit above them. She held out his hand to him, "For now, just hang onto me."
"You're kidding, right?" Panthro asked dubiously, looking at her outstretched hand. She smiled at him.
"I'm a strong swimmer." She assured him, "I can handle you." Panthro, not seeing many options at the moment, took her hand and she helped him up onto the ledge. They kept climbing up the ledges, until the water got too high for them to keep standing on the ledges. Leanne grimaced slightly at how tightly Panthro grabbed onto her arm, afraid to drown in the water. She did her best to keep both their heads afloat in the water, but Panthro was pretty heavy. She gently instructed him on how to do a dog paddle, which he somewhat succeeded at, still hanging on to her arm. She swam closer to the others, but it wasn't doing much good. Tygra pointed up to a grated part of the ceiling, where a different room could be seen on the other side.
"Looks like there's an exit up there." He said to everyone, "We'll wait for the water to rise, then float up to it."
"Easier said than done!" Panthro said with a grunt as he kept swimming, he held onto Leanne tightly, refusing to let go, for his life depended on it. She was quickly becoming tired from kicking her legs through the water in order to keep the two of them above it. Cheetara reached up to the entrance with her staff, pushing against it, but it wouldn't budge.
"I can't open it from this side!" She said worriedly as she kept pushing against it.
"Panthro, you need to let up a little!" Leanne said to him as his grasp was tightening around her arm, "I'm losing circulation!" He didn't move, and Leanne soon found it was getting difficult to swim with the extra weight. "I'm serious, Panthro! Loosen up!" Panthro's grip still didn't loosen. Leanne found it more and more difficult to stay above the water, so she took a deep breath and tried to relax and float on her back, so she would at least have air, but it was a bad idea, as that meant Panthro lost a support that he very much needed, and he couldn't stay up on his own.
"I'm not gonna last…!" Panthro said, and he began to sink into the water, taking Leanne with him. His weight was too much for her to swim with, and she sank with him. Lion-O dove after them in the water, but wasn't quick enough to get them, and he didn't get far enough before he had to go up for air himself.
"They're gone!" He gasped to the others once he reached the surface.
Panthro held onto Leanne as they went to the bottom. He looked around to see they were in the pile of treasure the WilyKittens had seen when they had come in. He looked around, and saw an opening in the wall, that looked vaguely like a plug. He smirked and reached for it, opening it up, still holding onto Leanne's arm, who was starting to look a little pale from the lack of air as they was suddenly sucked through it from the water rushing through the hole. They went through a tunnel, and when they finally came to an end, Panthro pushed it open, and gasped for air when he was in an empty room. Leanne fell out of the hole and he looked at her concernedly. He patted the side of Leanne's face to try and get her to wake up to make sure she hadn't taken in any water, but she did not awaken. He heard the sounds of Lion-O and the others, and looked to see their fingers poking through the grated opening on the floor of the room.
"Hang on!" He left Leanne's body and rushed to where they were, he reached down and pulled the grate up. Everyone smiled at the sight of him.
"Panthro!" WilyKat said happily when he saw him, "You're alive!"
"We thought you were gone." Lion-O said as he pulled him out.
"I'm not," He turned his gaze to the unconscious Leanne, "But she won't wake up." Lion-O, fearing the worst, ran over to her, kneeling beside her body. He patted her face to try and get her to wake up, but it didn't work. Thinking quickly, he closed his fingers around her nose and opened her mouth. He put his lips to hers and exhaled, performing CPR to get her to wake up. After he breathed in a second time, Leanne's body convulsed, and he pulled away as she began coughing roughly, spitting out the small amount of water that had gathered in her throat. Lion-O sighed in relief when her silvery eyes looked up at him.
"Thanks…" She breathed. She pushed herself up and Lion-O stood up with her just as Panthro got the last of their group out of the water.
"How'd you even get here?" Tygra asked him.
"When I got to the bottom, there was an opening in that pool." Panthro explained, "I went through it, and we ended up here." He smirked a little, "I guess not being able to swim has its advantages."
"I'm still teaching you when this is all over." Leanne said, patting his shoulder. Lion-O looked around them, and smiled when he saw a doorway.
"Who wants to bet that leads to the temple?" He asked, pointing to it. They all ran through the door, ready to see the temple on the other side.
But when they reached it, there was no temple. They were simply standing on a cliff that overlooked a small piece of the jungle below, and a waterfall straight across from them. Lion-O glared at it angrily.
"There's nothing here!" He growled, "All those traps just to protect… more jungle?" He clenched his fists angrily, "Maybe no one can find this temple because it doesn't exist!" Leanne reached over and put her hand over his fist.
"Or maybe," She began gently, her voice making Lion-O look over at her, "It takes more than just getting past a bunch of traps to find it. Believe in yourself." Her grip tightened slightly around his hand, "I know I do." Lion-O's expression softened as he looked at her. She released his hand from hers, and he instantly missed the warmth her skin had given him. He reached for his sword and pulled it out, holding it out in front of him.
"Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight." He commanded. The hilt of the sword extended slightly, curling around Lion-O's eyes again. This time, the sword did as he asked, and showed him that, just below, there was a button on the cliff below them. His eyes widened, and his sword returned to its dormant, miniaturized form and he put it away in his gauntlet. "There's a switch…" He kneeled down and saw that the sword had told him the truth and he could see it from where he was. He lay down, trying to reach down to press it, but it was too far away, "I can't reach it!" Leanne was about to suggest she go down and press it, when Tygra pulled out his whip.
"Allow me." He said, he snapped the whip, and the ends of it smacked against the switch. After a second, the switch sung into the wall of the cliff, and as it did, a stone panther head appeared on the other side, soon, two others followed out of the waterfall. A stone archway moved the water out of view of a huge tower that was hidden by the waterfall. A moment later, three flat, stones seemed to elevate from the ground, giving them a path to walk across to the tower.
They all did so immediately, heading straight for the tower, which was slightly moss encrusted from years of hiding behind water.
"The Tower of Omens…" Lion-O breathed, looking at it as they came closer.
"I can't believe I finally found it!" Panthro said, looking up at it, "Guess all it took was the right partners." He looked at the others when he said this. Leanne assumed he wasn't really talking about her, so she didn't meet his eyes when he glanced at her. He smirked, and ruffled her dark hair in his big hand, "And that includes you, Leanne." She swatted his hand away and fixed her messy hair, smiling at him for using her name for the first time.
"Call me Lee." She said with a grin. They walked into the temple, finding many wooden spiral stairs that led up the tower.
"The Book must be up there." Tygra said, looking at them.
Cheetara looked over at her friend with a smile, "You did it, Lion-O!"
"Indeed, he did." A raspy, cold voice said from behind them, "And it will be the last thing he ever does!" Everyone looked to see Mumm-Ra had followed them inside, holding a small lantern with a familiar, aged face showing inside it.
"I led him right to you," Jaga said from the lantern, "I'm sorry."
"Jaga!" Cheetara exclaimed, seeing her mentor's face, "You're alive!"
Mumm-Ra chuckled darkly, "Hardly, he's nothing but a vapor in a jar." He said, "And I have little use for him now." He raised the lantern up high and threw it down.
"No!" Lion-O shouted. Leanne, thinking quickly, used her powers to increase her speed and she glided across the floor to Jaga, grabbing the lantern before it hit the ground. Mumm-Ra growled angrily, and Leanne flinched in fear. Just looking at the ancient demon made her remember the pain from the torture he had given her when she first saw him, and she began to shake. He raised up his hand, and a purple beam shot out of it, Leanne screamed as it threw her back, and she slammed against the wall of the stairs that led up to the Book. Lion-O turned to where she landed, ready to go and help her, "Leanne!" He was stopped by someone's hand on his shoulder, and he saw Tygra looking at him.
"We have to get to the Book." He said, Lion-O glanced one last time at Leanne, before turning and running for the stairs.
"Go!" Panthro shouted as they ran, "Mumm-Ra's mine." He pulled out his nun-chucks and glared at the demon, he swung at him, and Mumm-Ra narrowly avoided each strike. He kicked him back, but he quickly recovered and tried to suck away some of Panthro's life force. He brushed off the magic like it was nothing and kicked Mumm-Ra back again, "This sack of bones is no match for Panthro."
"Don't be deceived by appearances." Mumm-Ra hissed, "My true form is far more powerful." He raised his hands and began to speak what sounded like an incantation, "Ancient Spirits of Evil, transform this decayed form into Mumm-Ra! The ever-living!" A cloud of smoke went around him, and suddenly Mumm-Ra wasn't Mumm-Ra. He was a huge, muscled demon dressed in armor, and had two huge, leathery wings. He raised his hands, and purple beams of light appeared around him and Panthro stood perfectly still, and none of them hit him. Mumm-Ra opened his mouth and a purple blast shot out of it, knocking Panthro back. WilyKat and WilyKit ran in front of him, ready to protect their friend. Mumm-Ra, seeing no point in fighting two children who he could easily kill, flapped his wings, sending him up into the air, and blowing them back at the same time. He flew up the staircase, blasting off more purple energy at Tygra, who barely avoided one as it hit one of the stairs. He jumped onto a stone ledge near the stairs, getting away from the demon as he kept flying. Mumm-Ra fired off another blast at Cheetara, who was just ahead of him, and she jumped off to join him on the ledge.
Mumm-Ra flew up higher and higher, to where Lion-O was running up the stairs as quickly as he could. Mumm-Ra was about to fire off at him, but was stopped when a sudden weight latched onto his foot. He looked down and saw nothing, but he could feel that someone had grabbed onto him. A blast from a gun came at him, and he easily deflected it. He spat out another blast at the force on his foot, and Tygra became visible when he felt the pain of it. Mumm-Ra shook the tiger off of his foot. As he fell, Tygra used his whip to grab onto Mumm-Ra's foot again.
"You won't shake me that easily." He said.
"Or me!" Cheetara said, jumping up and grabbing onto Mumm-Ra's other foot. The demon growled in frustration and annoyance and opened his mouth again, shooting off a huge blast at the both of them, making them release him and fall. Panthro, who was climbing up the tower with WilyKat, WilyKit, and Snarf on his back, reached out and grabbed Tygra by his ankle before he could keep falling to his death, and Cheetara grabbed onto Tygra's hand before she fell with him. Lion-O looked down from where he was on the stairs in relief at the sight of his friends who were safe from Mumm-Ra. He glared down at the demon as he flew up higher towards him and he quickly dashed up the stairs to the top of the tower. When he reached it, he looked around for any sign of the Book, and when it wasn't on the floor he was standing on, he looked up and saw the book was suspended in a stone cage at the very top of the tower. He smiled and walked underneath it, but stopped when he heard Mumm-Ra's roar and saw the winged monster come up.
"The Book of Omens and its power belong to me!" He growled. Lion-O pulled out his sword, letting out a battle cry.
"ThunderCats! Ho!" He shouted. His voice carried throughout the tower, down to where Leanne was just recovering from Mumm-Ra's attack. She looked up at the top of the tower and, though she didn't know it, her eyes flashed white for a moment. Suddenly, air began to build up underneath her, and she shot up into the air, flying around the tower, still holding the lantern that Jaga was captive inside. She flew by Panthro, Cheetara, Tygra, and the others, and didn't bother to see Tygra gaping at her sudden power. Panthro smirked at him when he saw his face.
"Close that mouth." He told him, "You're drooling." Tygra quickly shut his mouth and continued climbing up the tower.
When she reached the top, Leanne saw that Mumm-Ra and Lion-O were battling it out, and she came down, kicking the demon in his face before landing skillfully on the ground. Mumm-Ra glared at her and roared as he threw her back, making her drop the lantern Jaga was trapped in, and he blasted her towards the end of the tower's floor. She grabbed the edge of it, and dangled from it, too panicked to try and figure a way up.
"I've got you!" Lion-O shouted, running towards her. Mumm-Ra blasted at Lion-O, and he cried out in pain.
"Lion-O!" Leanne cried, she scrambled to try and get back up, but her feet couldn't find anything to push against to help her up. Once the stream of energy had ended, Lion-O collapsed from a sudden exhaustion, and he knew Mumm-Ra had stolen some of his life force.
"You are much like your father." Mumm-Ra said with a dark laugh as Lion-O pushed himself back up.
He glared at the powerful form of Mumm-Ra, "What do you know of my father?"
"Only that I killed him!" Mumm-Ra said, he raised his hands and zapped Lion-O with his magic. Lion-O cried out as he felt Mumm-Ra sucking away more and more of his life the longer it went on. Jaga watched this from his lantern with wide eyes.
"The boy is not ready yet." He said, "He cannot win this alone." The lantern suddenly shone brightly, as bright as the sun, and Mumm-Ra cried out in pain, shielding his eyes from it.
"The light! Aah!" He transformed into a crow and flew away from the tower, "The book will be mine!" Soon, the light disappeared, and Lion-O looked around, panting from the remnants of the sudden taking of his life. He heard light grunting, and looked to see Leanne was still trying to get up to Lion-O, he ran over and helped her up just as Tygra and the others came up the stairs. Lion-O and Leanne looked over at Jaga's lantern, and saw it was destroyed.
"Jaga!" Lion-O exclaimed sadly. Cheetara went over to the lantern where he was trapped and cradled it.
"He sacrificed himself for you." She said sadly, hugging it, "For all of us." Everyone hung their heads sadly.
"I should have looked after him better." Leanne said, guilt suddenly filling her. She was the one holding the lantern, she was sure if Cheetara was the one holding it, Jaga would never have needed to die. Seeing her depression, Lion-O put his hand on her shoulder, and she turned to him, grabbing onto his waist and leaning against him, tears threatening to flow out of her eyes. In her sadness, she didn't see a small, luminous orb come out from the lantern, and didn't notice it until Tygra spoke.
"Look." He said, and she did look, she saw the little orb travel from him, to Panthro, to Cheetara, to WilyKit, to WilyKat, to her, and finally, to Lion-O. It was as if it was Jaga, saying goodbye to them. The little orb traveled up to the ceiling and to where the Book of Omens was kept. The Book glowed when it came in contact with the orb, and the cage it was suspended in lowered to the floor. Everyone glanced at Lion-O with small smiles, acknowledging their victory from Jaga's sacrifice, and taking joy in it. Lion-O walked over to the Book and pulled it from its suspension. He looked at the cover, which bore a red stone similar to the one in his sword, but not the same one, and turned to the others with a smile.
"At long last." He said, he opened the Book, "We have all the answers." His eyes scanned over the first page, then quickly went to the second, then the third.
"Well?" Tygra asked, seeing Lion-O's sudden interest in the book, "What does it say?" Lion-O looked up from the Book with wide eyes.
"It says… nothing." He said, "It's blank."