Part 5: The Spark of Madness





The commander suddenly dashed towards the main bridge of the Station, dropping the needle.

"No one move! I'm going to check this out." Everyone let loose a sigh once he was gone.

"That guy is such a jerk, even more than Derix. Seriously." Dream sighed. Then she snickered at Xelqued, who was blushing now that Zee was hugging him.

"Derix who?" Zee let go of Xelqued, who let loose a breath he was holding that whole time.

"Derix is a nobody brat that I just so happen to despise." Xelqued snapped. The very name Derix made him angry.

"Now that isn't very nice. You didn't even let me meet your friend…" Everyone turned their heads to see Derix, rubbing the back of his head and looking at Xelqued with a look of utter loathing on his face. He turned to Zee. "My name is Derix IV. And you must be Scientist boy's girlfriend…" Zee suddenly broke into a fit of giggles at that, making Xelqued go even more red. Even Dream started laughing at her friend now, but when she saw his face, she stopped and muttered a sorry.

"Not his girlfriend!" Zee laughed. "Defiantly not his girlfriend. We're just friends is all."

"Of course you are…" Derix looked at Xelqued. "You never told me how attractive your friend was, scientist boy." Xelqued glared back.

"Leave her alone, Derix."

"I was coming, in fact, to ask The Captain how he was doing with his experiment. You know, with her? I would ask my father, but I really did want to know…" Derix grinned coldly. "…He is currently flying this ship today, so he probably wouldn't know, now would he? And I heard that your girlfriend was smart enough that they would be finished with her soon."

"Finished with me?" Zee shot a look at Xelqued and Dream.

"Oh of course, miss," Derix said politely. "I didn't think they would tell you, honestly, I didn't think you'd know until it was too late."

"Know what?" Xelqued and Dream didn't want to tell her about it, not yet anyway. They just told her that something big was coming, and she would need to be ready for it. That's when they started to bring her books to read, so that she would be ready.

"I don't understand," Zee shook her head and turned to her friends. "What are they going to do?"

"Well… um…" Xelqued started. "Y'know, to kill someone is really bad… do you remember how we told you to get ready for something?"

"Of course I do."

"Well… this isn't really a good time to tell you this. But they," he waved a paw towards the scientists. "They think that you're just an experiment. They don't think you mean anything, they can always get something else to work on. So… they were planning on getting rid of you afterwards, by killing you… and starting something else…" Xelqued hung his head as Zee searched him with haunting, terrified, confused eyes. He pointed to the needle on the floor. "That's filled with a sort of poison stuff. It makes you sleep… and then it kills you when your asleep…" Zee's jaw dropped.

"You knew about this?!" She suddenly yelped, her voice so high it was barely audible.

"We were trying to stop it before something happened to you, Zee. Xel didn't tell you because he was… I dunno, scared that somehow you'd take it the wrong way and something would go wrong, you'd give us away or-"

"You thought I was really that stupid?" Zee's eyes looked so full of pain now that Xelqued couldn't stare to look or not to look at her anymore, he just shut his eyes tighter and waited for everything to stop spinning. He didn't hear much of what had happened after that, but he could defiantly tell that Dream was suddenly yelling at Zee. He finally opened one eye and saw Zee backing away very slowly, tears in her eyes as she turned and dashed off.

"Zee!" He called after her, when she didn't reply, he started off to find her.

"Xel where'ya goin?!" Dream yelled.

"She could seriously get hurt out there, she's never been outside of her bubble before!"

"Am I really supposed to care?! Xel, did you even hear a WORD we were saying?!" She, too, turned and began running. "Xel? Are you listening to me? Don't go after her, do you understand me?" But he could barely hear her, because he had finally caught sight of Zee running, and he was chasing faster than ever after her. They turned corridor after corridor, through room after room, practicly knocking over Aisha who were staring after the strange purple creature running their halls. He lost sight of her once more, and suddenly, he slammed, head first again, into something very hard. It didn't shatter, but the blow knocked the air out of him. He tried to take deep breaths, and he shut his eyes. When he opened them, he could see Dream standing over him.

"Xel, why'd you stop? Whats the matter, if you're trying to not let her get away…"

"Hit… something…" he choked. "Hit a wall… can't see straight… I feel weird, Dream…" Everything was dimming, turning purple, turning blue, going back to normal, dimming, purple, blue, normal, dimming… dimming… He only caught voices speaking in bits and pieces.

"She's changed completely! It's as if… as if something lit a fire inside of her, like she's suddenly going crazy!" Silence.

"Xelqued… he was a good boy deep down inside, is he going to be alright?"

"Perhaps. But this 'wall' that he said he had hit appears to have changed his mind waves." A door opened. Xelqued opened one eye, then winced and closed it again, the pain was too gruesome.

"What's going on here?" The commander's booming voice echoed in his mind. "We should be attending to Zafra! She's running wild on the ship, and we've just gotten a message from someone named Sloth… apparently he's more mad than either Xelqued or Zafra are. He said he was going to take Space Station V!"

"Take the Station? Who is this Sloth?"

"I have no idea." The Commander's voice had suddenly gone down. "But we've been hit by rockets of some kind. The Station can't hold out very long, it wasn't built a warship."

"We'll have to leave?! But… but Commander…"

"We have no choice. We must tend to Zafra, though, she has suddenly driven herself into screaming at everyone that gets near her, and we need to get everyone out of here!"

Everything turned black. Xel was having strange dreams, he could see Dream in them, and Zee? What was going on? There was Derix, and his sister, then his sister and another strange aisha who was making toys... and suddenly he could hear again.

"This is horrible... what are we going to DO?!"

"We have to get this ship to Neopia, I suppose. My ship, my wonderful ship... that Sloth monster has stolen my ship... I do hope Zafra got out all right, though..."

"Are you JOKING?! ZEE?! What about Xel?!" Dream. Good old Dream… Xelqued thought. She's a good friend. Very good friend… isn't she? No, that can't be right. Dream… is Dream my enemy? No, that isn't right either. Xelqued was suddenly very confused. Too many thoughts clouding his head, too much.

"Yes, Xelqued," He could hear the deep voice snarling. "I can't believe he's done this. Zafra has gone mad, and she appears to be the one sending messages to Sloth. No one else would dare…"

"But what about Derix III?!?! He's just as stupid as-"

"SILENCE! Dream, you have caused just as much trouble as Xelqued has!"

"I WILL NOT BE QUIET!" There was a strange sound, and then silence.

"You… you blasted girl… just as foolhardy as your parents. Get out of here now." The deep voice was sounding furious, very hurt. Xelqued opened his eyes and blinked, finally calming the red, all the hues of silver and green and red were calming down now, He could see the Commander staggering over something. A green Gelert was snarling in fury, finally turning and running through the door.

Suddenly, Xelqued turned his head and saw a very strange thing.

"Xellie…" a silvery smoke had emerged. "Xellie, you lied to me." He squinted, trying to find out what the smoke was. It was so familiar, purple, long ears, a long tail.

"Zee…" he choked, sitting up.

"Xelqued! You're awake!"

"Xellie, you lied. You let me down, Xellie… why'd ya have to lie to me?" Zee spoke, her voice soft and reassuring as always, only now with a very cold look to it.

"Xelqued, no, you need to sit down. You can't stand up like that."

"Zee, why are you so weird lookin'?"

"You let me down, Xellie. You really let me down. I couldn't stop it, it was the strangest feeling I ever had… everything went red, and I couldn't see anything, until I saw these little ship things leaving the Station... I looked out the window and I saw one more leave and I felt this heat and then..." Zee smiled a very strange smile. "And here I am."

"But, Zee, how did you get off.... we aren't on the station... what..."

"No, boy, we aren't on the Station. It was taken by Sloth and partly blown up. Because of your foolishness..."

"...Xellie, you lied to me. You and Dream lied."

"We never lied to you, we told you as much as we could..."

"It wasn't enough Xellie. I'm gonna miss you."

"What? Zee...?"

"Xelqued, listen to me! Who are you talking to?! Zee isn't here."

Xelqued straightened up and suddenly, Zee was talking steps back toward the window, a black circle with white spots on it. And she was gone.

"Commander! Arlhox, You won't believe it, we've searched everywhere... but we can't find your experiment..."

"You didn't find Zafra?!"

"She didn't get off sir."

The next thing Xelqued could see was the Commander's face, turned straight at him, tight with fury. "Dismemberment, Xelqued..." he snarled. And everything went black.