What Zurg had done, was a clever play. With some shivers, he horrified how well he still was able to fill the role of that evil tyrant emperor, although it had been nothing but pretending.
"Now... what shall I do... ah, yes, call for help. That pathetic Commander... ah, put now the Zurg away in you. Commander Nebula's troops should be near. I only need to guide them here."
Knowing every detail by letter in this old spare ship of his, Zora was able to block the intranet frequencies and send a private, encrypted mayday to Star Command. The single peril there was that some by-passing lackey would hear his voice. But... he could possibly use the comatose Buzz as some kind of defence, if needed. But anyhow else he would not hurt his flesh and blood.
When he waited for the encryption code to shield up the channel, he went on thinking more, "Unbelievable... Buzz would have wanted me to step back to the throne of Z Empire? Intriguing, indeed, if the reign would be different. If it would have happened in different circumstances... Maybe I still want glory, but not dark glory. Those two expressions have a different meaning. A grievous and penetrating path away from the dark side I have walked, I shall not return to that. I want to forget the 'wisdom', with which my poor Son has messed up his puny not-so-witty brains. Oh, why did he not inherit the intelligence of his Father, but had to stay... as an average boy? Well... to make a brilliant career in Star Command does not require quite much brainwork, I assume. Ah, I came to that conclusion already 25 years ago, so why bother to repeat it? Pathetic mortals gather only pathetic mortals around them."
Zeb Nebula had had penetrating time-rushes already that day. Now he was to hear this news.
"Craters, when do the folks stop trying to conquer the galaxy?" the old ranger tilted his head back and forth in the other end of the comm. channel, as Zurg had briefly summarized the information.
"Uh-uh... Star cruisers 79 and 133 are in two-hour distance, the others coming well back there. Just try to keep it cool over there... do anything you can, pretend that your son is having a nap... anything to keep the whatever-henchmen of this whatever-royal away from there... craters, I can't believe half a word you have explained about Buzz..."
"Look, it is not important to argue about my son. Quasars, I have told you about Torque. You shall order men to protect that puny idiot who calls herself the president... ah, excuse me... I mean Madame President... uh..." Zora felt the shimmer of shame reddening his cheeks.
Nebula could nothing but laugh nervously on the other side, "Reformed? Yeah, right. You never get rid of your Zurgism."
-------------------
As the star cruisers approached Zenith's Starfleet, the resistance was gone as soon as it was evident that someone had knocked the spinning rockets out of the mighty leader. Pretending that Buzz was his 'hostage', Zurg was free to command the fear-struck grubs. And they surely knew their old Master from that bellowing voice and frenzy-sparkling eyes. From the other side of the ship, from the prison compartment were brought back Team Lightyear, the Darkmatters and the other rangers. They had had nothing wrong over there, moreover they had been able to rest and sleep for a moment after the wearisome escape.
On Capital Planet, the detected attack of the attitude-equipped space biker was also thrown in the nearest swamp. The grumbling Torque soon flapped around in the firm arrest hold of two sturdy space rangers, a joyride towards PC-7 in sight. Madame President was able to exhale in easement; although she did not had even known being under some raid (so there had not been a change to nerve).
The dark rangers, who had been furthermore captives in a smaller ship somewhere among the court- and war-vessels of Lord Zenith, were also freed then to be arrested by the Universe Protection. However... their treatment had not been quite nice. Infuriated because those disobedient had dared to harass his Father like that, Buzz had incited the notorious Junttikulmalan boxer-bull twin brothers Mäntti ja Mötikkä to 'give treatment' to those. And so... hobbling, black trimmings encircling their eyes they thankfully dragged themselves into the care of Star Command.
In the launch bay of Star Command HQ, was a large group waiting for the heroes to arrive. The rotund figure of 42 soon glided in the radar, telling that there those wayfarers of unknown distances were. On the tail of that flagship, were several other ones following it, filled with captives, other crew members and space rangers. Its engines loudly roaring, the rugged, old star cruiser found its spot on the deck. As the smoke of the jet accelerators had been sucked into the airshafts, the airlock of the hull opened, and a ramp was thrown out.
Commander Nebula was the first one running to meet the vessel's exit-users. Team Lightyear plodded wearily out like some beaten. Next came Zurg out, pushing a wheelchair where Buzz had been tied up. The Captain glowered around from under the black brows, his mouth taped shut Apparently he kept growling some less pleasant words, since the facial muscles around the mouth were squirming. Behind there, stomped away the Darkmatters, also looking fatigued.
"Uhh... I'm gonna sleep at least 48 hours in row", Choi yawned deep and took some support from the hand of her Master. Warp therefore knew he needed some medical treatment, although the first aid had helped quite a lot. "Well... my genie-in-the-bottle wish is that they'll arrange me a big plate of food and then some private chamber for us", he replied.
As Zurg had tapped onto the even floor with the wheel-chair, Zeb had approached him. "Craters! How did it all go? Double craters, is this Buzz?" the Commander turned his gaze at the man writhing in the arresting chair. 'Zenith' had furthermore his majestic imperial robes on, the initial buckle attached to the collars. "What the cooked triple craters has happened to your son? He's like some miniature you! I remember he had a cratery Zurgean violet cloak on when he was brought then from Planet Z with you, but this is getting a hundred times more ridiculous, what..." Aiming his stern regard towards Zurg, the gruff ranger wanted answers. But... Zora Lightyear's attention was drawn away from him. He had spotted a familiar, sweet figure among the spectators, and that it was running into this direction. Pushing Nebula away from his way, almost striking him down, the Emperor rushed in the middle deck.
"Quasars, my Smoopsiepoo! My Viola, my Harebell, my Iris, my..." the old man grapped Mariañ, who had bolted towards him, lifting her from her armpits at least two feet up. Before she had her minute to utter anything, her longing words were muffled under an ardent kiss. Actually, even if he seemed to be rather ludicrous with his love-story, his feelings were very fervent towards the young maiden. And Zurg, if who, was a fiery person. After he had finished well his kissing and made the girl's knees completely slack in power, he opened up the second bag he was carrying.
"Look, Smoopsiepoo, what I have done for you!" Zurg drew forth his collection of ready needle- and handiwork. "Look, here is a new, glorious valance for your kitchen window! You shall adore this one! Look, I made the model by myself!" enthusiastically the old man spread a complex crochet work in his hands. It was completely purple, decorated all over with small Z-letters that were either upside down, sideways or in the normal way. Putting the garment in the arms of the girl, who furthermore a bit dizzily swayed after that choking kiss, Zurg threw a dozen other pieces forth. "Look, here are some kettle-holders for you... and I made you a magnificent scarf, it has these enormously beautiful, large Z-letters decorating the both ends... and this is a knitted cap for you, you shall pay attention to the rarely sonorous vignette... and ahh, my personal favourite, a Z-shaped tapestry, I shall put this onto your living-room wall with my own hands!" The manic man kept loading new articles for Mariañ to carry, till the woman resembled a walking rack, covered with violet, and different-sized izzards.
What came to the expedition group remains on Isgurda, they were picked up by the Universe Protection Unit a bit later. All those dark rangers of course were in the ends of their careers, sentenced to spend the next years in prison. And Na-Vetta... he would possibly never be working in the science circles, any more.
However, let us still return to the come-back day. Buzz Lightyear was freed from his circus costume, and given some anaesthetics to calm down the struggling patient. Zurg's thermal bag indicated to be a first aid treasure. With the help of a supercomputer, the healing herb was analyzed in a few hours and a rarely efficient substance was found in it. A certain kind of vegetal hormone indicated to be the mysterious well of soundness. About its efficacy was truly no scientific evidence, yet, but there was not other change concerning Buzz but to give a try. A liquid boosted with normal tranquillizers was infused out of the plant, and that medicament then put to stream into his vessels. There were at least some instructions in The Peregrinator's Journal, how to produce that remedy. Otherwise preparing it would have possibly taken months. Then... it was only hoping, hoping, hoping...
Some hours, a good lunch and a bit rest later, was the turn for medical examination. Of course those that had had urgent problems, like Warp, had been nursed immediately. His handicap turned out to be worse than had been expected, but nothing that would require lifetime-staying in the hospital. The laser had struck right through his skin, charred a bit the ribs. He would get a skin implant, and some bio-plastic layers onto the bones. While waiting for the surgery, he could stay with his wife, in the med bay of Star Command.
At the moment, the both Darkmatters were sitting in a waiting room, outside Mariañ Haydée's office. She had survived successfully from Zurg's crochet attack, and piled the purple wonders into a closet. Although she mainly was a surgeon, she also carried out normal physical examinations, at least when it was concerning something as important as the health of the Isgurda-travellers. Hence, the door of her room opened up, asking Choi to step in.
"Okay, Zarah... I'll give you a check, now. I heard that you had quite hard times on that planet", Mariañ's jovial voice asked.
"Sure, yeah... my husband got wounded, Mr. Lightyear almost got killed..." Choi sighed, meanwhile observing the surgery. White walls with green panels, those usual Star Command colours gave the peaceful atmosphere.
"My poor hun... ah, excuse me..." the younger woman gave a hasty giggle, "I wanted to know about your state. I heard that you have suffered from hypothermia."
"Oh, yes. But I dunno... I was sick for a few days and that it generally was..." Zarah winced from her thoughts, as an injection needle was stuck into her vessel. The compression bandage had been put around her arm for a while ago, already.
"Now... clench your hand into a fist a couple of times. I need to take also some haemoglobin samples..." Haydée arranged her instruments. Out of the blue a loud burst of laugh made her startle. Her patient stared at the one corner of the room, holding her stomach and tittering almost hysterically.
"W-what the h-heck is that?" Zarah howled, pointing at the hanging flower pot.
Normally there would have been nothing amusing in such an object, but this one, however, was quite peculiar. A violet, grinning helmet with red eye sockets was hanging upside down from the ceiling, a couple of lobelias growing from the mould inside it.
Mariañ gave a goofy smirk. "Isn't it lovely? That was my engagement gift I got from Zora."
Zarah furthermore horse-laughed, "You mean he gave you his Zurg-costume helmet? To you? What a very romantic gift!"
"Well yeah, I didn't know what I was supposed to do with that junk, so I filled it with soil and planted some flowers into it."
"Krbmbff... Bha ha ha!" a nasal burst got Zarah's mouth to widen from ear to ear. Hardly ever something so ridiculous had been done with a 'tender affectionate present of love'.
Thus the topic changed to Zurg, what else. Like two scandalmongers, the girls rumoured everything between the underworld and the next galaxy.
"So how come that you fell in love with Emperor Zurg?"
"Ahem... actually, it was all pretty sudden... you know... I used to be his common nurse, too, because his treatment was a top-secret thing. So I was like hired to do some extra-job in the middle of my normal surgeon work. I brought him food, changed his bandages, and so on... like, well, a normal nurse. I don't know, what happened between us two..." Mariañ had a dreamy expression while she sorted the blood test tubes. "He kind of had attached his eyes on me... and, well, I..." a half-mousy expression on her face, she lowered her voice, "He's a real gallant. And looks so charismatically handsome... you should see those muscles he has, ahh, haba haba..." the young doctor would possibly have mixed up the gores with her coffee, if Zarah had not interrupted her.
"You're gonna drool those test tubes full, if you ain't gonna stop now. And... hehe... you didn't answer my question, just started to adore his biceps."
"Well guess what?" Haydée giggled, "he just one day completely surprised me. I was bringing him afternoon tea, he had almost healed up then, already. He just kind of... ahem... captured me in his arms, and with no asking put a ring onto my finger. I just can't describe what happened... but he just said he loved me and that he had decided that I would be his from that on."
Choi's jaw clicked open, "You mean... he didn't even propose to you? He just one day decides that..."
Mariañ shook her head amused, "Yep. Didn't even propose to. Just gave me this ring and said that the wedding day would be determined later..."
"And you had had absolutely NOTHING romantic before that?"
"Nothing... well, if not counted that continuous eye-play... well what can you expect from that old, egoistic emperor?"
"And you just agreed? Like that?"
"Yeah, well..." the surgeon's eyes roamed daydreamingly.
"You're just impossible", Zarah burst to laughters, again. "Oh, well, who am I to scold here anything... at least yours is a human, not a bluish-pigmented half-robotic alien..."
After more sample-taking, testing and examining came the time when the time was over.
"You can in come now, Mr. Darkmatter", Mariañ called the alien, who was sitting in the lobby with a comics magazine, outside the office.
"How was it? Everything's okay with her?" came the severe answer.
"Yes, they both do well", she waved her hand back, opening the door slightly.
Warp did not quite understand the response. "Both? Quasars, if ya have another patient there, I can't just bounce in!" he gave a laugh.
"Well that one is just so little that it shouldn't bother you, yet", she only gave a casual giggle, thinking that the male was joking.
"Wait, wait, what are ya meaning?" he stopped her ongoing with sharpness in his accent.
Raising her brows Mariañ threw in, "I thought... you knew."
"Knew what? Now what's this mysterious playing with secrets? Is my little Zarah okay or not?"
"Yes, yes, everything is very fine, only that she's carrying now a little one. I really thought you knew...?"
"WHAT...?" Warp was to drop his eyes. As the surgeon opened up the door, he stood in the same gaping position that this issue had left him to jut. Choi sat in the arm-chair, buttoning her jacket back. Her coy expression met Darkmatter's one, while he was slowly entering the room. Zarah had heard about her state only somewhat a five minutes ago, so it was noveau also for her. Mariañ actually thought this was a planned and known thing, since Zarah had not uttered anything when the doctor had made a notice about it. Well... there are times that a person can stay speechless.
Much nothing could be read in Warp's eyes, only evident trepidation and maybe some disbelief. And such things replied her face. Bashful perplexity with a tinge of determination under it.
Irritatingly Zurg's bride broke the tensed atmosphere by starting to babble about some scientific odds, "You know, it's quite interesting to see that the DNA of two different species matched that well. Mr. Darkmatter's race is amazingly similar to humans, only that the skin colour... uh, are you listening to me?" she tilted her head.
Warp took some steps towards his wife. She inadvertently cringed a little under that stare.
"You're... pregnant?" came a quiet question.
"I... I just heard about it. I... but I... want to have m-my..." she stuttered something back.
Warp did not even listen to her words, but just gawped, "You mean... you're carrying my flesh and blood inside you...? That there's this little creature..." sitting beside the woman, Darkmatter had given his guarantee about the happiness he felt inside him. And Zarah also understood it from his latest sentence. More messages were not needed to proclaim anything. The big alien took the red-hair into his embrace, giving a long, fiery kiss on her lips.
"According to the samples, the critical point was somewhere one month two weeks ago..." Mariañ kept spoiling the intimate atmosphere. However, this time her fine medical studies gained some attention, at least from Warp's side.
"One and half months ago? That was..." his tone got lower, "Quasars... that was the same night I carried you back from that wicked death lair... the one and only time during the travel that we..." Thinking of this suddenly brought some cold sweat on his forehead. It had been so close that Choi's existence would have stopped being that day... and that in all the randomness those frail moments had happened to be a beginning for a new soul.
----------------------
Buzz Lightyear's days began to have a brighter dawn. By and by, step by step, the cold fingernails of the dark side did not abrade his soul any more. Like a black curtain would have been lifted up from in front of his eyes, he began to reminiscent, who he actually was and what was his purpose in this universe.
His friends -although he at first did not want to recognise them as his well-wishers- were spending quite a lot time in the hospital cabin he was closed in. Unfortunately the very first moments he was in the arms of the bed, he was tied up to it since the continuous fits of rage. But little by little it all began to transform. From under some concrete covers were dug out the soft-hearted space ranger who had once been the pride of the Alliance.
And he remembered. He recalled every single moment of those dark hours of Zenith's occurrence. As the healing went forwards, he resembled his reforming father who had some months ago gone through almost the same progress. Shame, regret, apathy, some depression... But the most important detail was that tha-grydda truly had efficacy. It was not just any vegetable among other weed, but a true, forceful healer. No wonder it was worth of protection, so that the hands of maliciousness would not terminate it.
"Blast..." Holding his both temples with the palms, Buzz very clearly announced his opinion. In white pyjamas he listened to his fathers scolds, sitting between the hospital bedsheets.
"The Commander is considering of taking your back to your work, as soon as he regards that your brains are back in position. You have not behaved well, son. You shall no more try to conquer the galaxy." Zurg sat at his bed, the arms folded over the chest.
"Craters, I guess it's a Lightyear legacy of some kind..." the younger man shook his head to the whole idea with a grin, "You, who have tried to take over the Alliance about... 5040 times, are giving me now reprimand?"
"Exactly 5045 and half times. You underestimate me", Zora corrected gravely, "My supreme memory will not fail, although I have failed all those 5045 and half times."
"Alright, alright. Craters, I got the point." Hugging his father, Buzz tuned his voice somewhat more severe, "Thanks for saving me, Dad. I try to be without turning to the dark side, any more."
A knock on the doorframe roused the men. A sarcastic voice interposed, "Ahh, the peaceful family unions! Hey, Izzard, your... ahem... Smoopsiepoo waits for you in the lobby." Warp stood at the entrance, Zarah under his arm.
"Ahh, dandy..." Zurg smirked, "Now, Buzzy, remember to brush your teeth before going to sleep and eat all your vegetables on the dinner. And do not forget the daily stomach muscle exercises."
Thus the man disappeared in the corridor.
"Soo... the sick days start to be over, huh?" The blue alien shook the hand of the patient.
"Gradually... and hopingly I have to never return here... at least not under these circumstances." Lightyear responded.
"Ha ha! I guess it was after all quite a shock to find out who your daddy was!"
Buzz' expression turned solemn. "Unfortunately... Blast, I understand now that it partly caused this whole mess. My mind couldn't cope with it, and uhh... I just couldn't hold myself together any more. So... I guess I started to think that I was some Zurg myself." Staring firmly at Warp, he continued, "I mean... it resembles a bad joke. I had used to think that my father was a brave man, who fought evil and had died an honourable death... but that the most sinister thing ever in the whole galaxy indicates to be him... phew..."
"Hmm... didn't he once use that daddy-sonny-thingie as some kind of trick to unarm you?"
"Yes... on Roswell, once. But craters, I though it was only an evil scheme to beat me, and made me hate him even more. But that all in all, there was a truth basis on that..." Buzz sighed.
"But now you have washed the laundry in your brains and accept that this b-sci-fi cliché can happen in the real life, too!"
Lightyear's face got brighter, "Yes. And did you see, how he really cares for me! His words were so caring when he left the room! I finally have a real father!" Buzz resembled a little kid in his enthusiasm, until he recalled why he had called the Darkmatters to visit him.
"Oh, yeah... congratulations, Warp and you too, Zarah."
"Thanks. I guess this means we have to settle down a bit for a while. No hyperactive action adventures in a few months", Darkmatter smirked.
. . .
So continued the legend. One day, one day on the racetrack of time, Buzz Lightyear stood in front of his commanding officer, declaring out loud with a firm chest-tone, "Buzz Lightyear reporting for duty, Sir!" And the rest of Team Lightyear saluted too, standing beside their Captain, looking forward to step into new adventures.
THE END