Author's Notes: Thank you so, so much for your support and kind words! They mean so much more than you could even imagine! I don't deserve them with my flighty writing and uploading schedule...
It'd been a hot mess.
Only a few minutes after the adrenaline started wear off, Woody already regretted everything he had said. He had allowed himself to lose it completely, something that hadn't happened since he first met Buzz.
Through the entire ordeal, after he'd started shouting, he couldn't bring himself to look at Bo again. He knew that she must have been mortified when the fight broke out. She too would have been extremely upset to see Buzz and Woody fighting in the hall. The cowboy found himself extremely ashamed.
He wanted to go back and apologize immediately, but decided that he should give everyone else the chance to cool off too. So he walked through the endless hallways around the station, finding himself in a place he had never been to before.
It wasn't until he heard a name he recognized in whispers coming from further down the hall that he started to put his guard up again.
"Cheer up McNairy! That went as about as good as you hoped. The cowboy was discredited, just like you wanted," one voice said.
"I don't care about the cowboy! I care about the blood! How could you lose it?!" McNairy's recognizable gruff voice shouted.
"There were a thousand other Space Rangers on my ship. I've told you a million times, I really did try. They let loose the monkeys and the sharks and everything was complete chaos."
"This would have never happened if you hadn't decided without my permission to dispose of the girl. If you'd have let them rescue her, we'd already be at the Black Star by now."
"Relax McNairy! You've got the girl now, right? Just draw the blood you need and we'll be a hop skip and a jump away from ruling the universe."
As Woody inched closer to the source of the voices, he had an idea of who the other voice was, but it was almost so outrageous he had to see it to believe it.
"No, we're going to do this more carefully. There is too much at stake if something happens to the girl and her blood before we arrive. We still have Black Cactus members questioning if we have the girl in our possession. We're going to take her with us. We might need her alive for operating the weaponry."
"Fine, you're the boss, but it's less fun that way."
"Need I remind you, Porkchop, that I saved your hide from the Porcus government?"
Woody gulped. He poked his head to see through the crack of a small office, where indeed McNairy and Porkchop were chatting.
"Technically Nebula did that, but yeah yeah yeah, I'm eternally grateful and all that garbage. What I really want to know is what you're gonna do with the famous 'Team Lightyear?'" Porkchop asked, biting into a blue tinted apple.
"They all have to be rid of, which won't be too much trouble. The one who will bring up some complications is Lightyear himself. Nebula has some ideas…"
"Well, I suppose we can start with that wimpy cowboy, seeing as according to my sensor he is right outside the door."
Woody felt the blood flush from his face. He attempted scrambling away but they were on him before very long, and they dragged him into the small room.
"What's the matter cowboy? Suddenly not in the mood to fight?" McNairy jeered as they slammed him down at a desk chair.
In all honesty, Woody was feeling extremely exhausted from the fighting and anger earlier. He tried to fight back, but he saw that there was little point.
"You're going to use the Black Star yourself…. why?" the cowboy asked glaring at the two.
The Secretary contemplated his answer briefly.
"When Alan Peep joined forces with Zurg's forces, there were several of us on the council that were completely terrified. When even Star Command's greatest rangers were overpowered, we all thought the world was ending. A lot of people died, Woody. Men, women, children, it didn't matter. Without Star Command, governments failed, dictators took over. Issues still are being resolved all over the universe. Some things can never go back to the way they were.
"We're really not that different sheriff. You want to protect the people you care about, and I do too. If the Black Star were to end up in another's grasps, life as we know it would fall into utter chaos and destruction. But if Star Command has possession of the star, we can prevent chaos from ever happening! We'll finally have the power to make individuals truly free…"
"That's not freedom. Can't you see that the war started because someone very much like you wanted control over the star himself? It'll happen all over again, exactly how it was before," Woody retorted.
"But we're fighting for the same side, you and me. We both just want to do the right thing, correct? You're just not looking big enough. Once you recognize that the ends justify the means, you'll understand that this is so much bigger than a silly little shepherdess from a small town on Earth. You could always work with us, Woody. We need someone who has a fighting spirit."
"We are nothing alike! And you're not going to get away with this either! People are gonna start questioning your motives, and why nobody can seem to find Porkchop."
The pig rolled his eyes. "It's a big Universe."
McNairy's smiled sickly. "Well, if it's any consolation, I never planned for you to live for very long anyway." He gestured to Porkchop, whose hoof coming down on him was the last thing Woody saw before he blacked out.
Jessie and Buzz had not seen Woody since the big argument. They knew better than to look for him, as he obviously needed to blow off some steam.
Buzz felt completely sick to the stomach about the fight. Woody must have felt pretty betrayed, at least that was the way the space ranger saw it. The sheriff's line about if Jessie had been in Bo's place, it stuck with him and seemed to play on repeat in his mind.
And Bo was his friend too. Bo hadn't even been allowed to do much during the meeting. She must have been terrified and confused about the whole ordeal.
Jessie had not said a word to him since the meeting.
He found her a while after she had walked away from him in the lounging area, eyes red and puffy and fingers still trembling slightly. It hurt him to see her this way. He couldn't bear the fact that he was partly the cause of her emotional stress and pain. He wanted to leave her alone for a bit longer, if only for the reason that he wouldn't have to face the guilt of looking at her tear stained cheeks. However, although she didn't say anything, she patted the seat beside her and Buzz obediently sat.
In the many moments they sat in silence, Buzz contemplated everything that had happened to them over the years. He remembered a mission once he had participated in when he was still a cadet, in which the Predicament Cycle was extremely prevalent. A small planet had overthrown their oppressive government, but the whole place had fallen to anarchy. Inevitably a new dictator took his place, guaranteeing safety and protection. And yet, so many of their freedoms were stripped from them. The ranger task force that had been sent was to assist the people in taking down this new dictator as they requested. Shortly after the planet was plunged into anarchy again, forever stuck in the vicious cycle.
Buzz considered McNairy, and his way of gaining support by preying upon the fears of the senators. He began to worry that, if drastic decisions continued to be made quickly without the knowledge of more than 99% of the appointed senators in the Universe, perhaps they would fall into the cycle as well.
The ranger has devoted much of his life building up Star Command; it made a great deal to him. His mind drifted back to the day everything changed. It was the day that he was so overconfident in pursuing Zurg that he had been caught in the gravity of a small planet in a small solar system that wasn't even charted.
After he crashed, after losing contact with Star Command, after losing everything, he devoted every minute that he could trying to get off the miserable planet while dealing with a simple sheriff who was making life increasingly difficult.
Little did he know the place would grow on him so much.
But the final nail in the coffin was Jessie. There was no way he could live without her now, regardless of how devoted he was to his work. She was so much more important to him than Star Command… everyone on Earth was more important to him. Why hadn't he seen it before?
It was like a beautiful epiphany, reminding him much of the epiphany he had in those early days when being held captive by Sid. He couldn't help but grin a goofy smile.
Jessie had noticed his strange expression and raised an eyebrow. He laughed. He loved her expressions. He loved everything about her. He bent down in front of her as her expression turned from confusion to concern.
He grabbed her hand and placed it between his gloved ones.
"I'm sorry Jessie. I'm sorry that I've been so blind this whole time. Woody, Bo, everyone else, and you especially mean more than anything to me. Let's go home. Let's get married," he said enthusiastically.
"W-what?" the cowgirl sputtered. "What about Bo? What about Porkchop?"
"We'll keep her protected. We can't continue our lives like this Jess. No matter what the universe throws at us, we've got keep going. We can't let fear rule us anymore."
"But… but the council, McNairy… They don't trust us remember? How will we get Bo home?"
Buzz's eyes were lit with determination. "I'm gonna go call in some favors. Start packing!" He started to hop away excitedly.
"Buzz! What about Woody?" Jessie called after him.
The space ranger spun around. "I completely forgot! I guess I've gotta go find him first!" He started to turn again, but the cowgirl caught him this time.
It was in that moment that Buzz had realized he hadn't even let Jessie speak. Perhaps she was still upset with him, or didn't agree, or didn't want to get married at all… He was completely terrified.
"What brought this all on? Why are you acting all squirrely?" she asked, purposefully concealing her emotions.
"I am completely, one hundred percent in love with you Jessie, but I've been putting Star Command above you. I don't want to you feel like you have to become a Space Ranger just to be with me. I want my life to be about you, not all of this," he said getting lost into her sparkling green eyes.
She finally cracked a smile, and then finally she was beaming and crying all at the same time. She laughed as she rubbed away tears, but Buzz caught her hands and wiped away her tears himself. He leaned in and they kissed in that wonderful moment.
When they finally parted, the ranger brushed away a strand of loose flaming red hair. He kissed her forehead, and then reluctantly started to walk away again.
"Buzz?" Jessie called out before he got very far.
The ranger turned around again.
"I love you," she said simply. They were words they had exchanged before, but for some reason they meant so much more at that moment. When Buzz made it out back into the hallways, he was walking on clouds as her eyes were still ingrained into his mind. What a gal.
He'd been so much into his own dream world that he accidentally bumped into Nebula, who grunted loudly.
"Oh! Excuse me! Hey, you're just the person I wanted to see!" Buzz cried happily.
"Me too, Lightyear. McNairy wants to see you."