The early morning sun goldened the sand surface of Xaneda. One of the community houses in the planet core was not that cheerful. Warp had prepared himself and Zarah to leave the planet as early as possible, but the time and randomness were there always to vitiate one's great plans. Precise twenty minutes before the Darkmatters would have stepped in their ship, an announcement via the Xatagah comm. channels was given that all traffic to and from Xaneda would be prohibited because of some security issues. A defection in the upper layer of the lock-energy shield had been detected yesterday during the short emergency state. What else did it mean but a work spell for Warp? With plaintive moods, he and Choi had to shift the depart towards the future.
What the final blueprint was, it had been concluded in the small hours. Because neither Zarah nor Warp trusted the radio frequency comm. devices, they would -or at least she would- have to be on the spot to recite the sad saga of Buzz to proper persons. He had suggested that she would at first contact privately some of the Team Lightyear members, then arrange a meeting in her house. No sense was there to visit Commander Nebula in his Star Command HQ office, since who knew what kind of spy widgets The Evil Emperor had installed there via his spies, in the recent times. But... all this would happen only when the eye-witnesses were ready to leave the scene of crime.
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Black and violet... a dreadful combination, as a rugged space ranger might say. Conversely, that was the first illusion the eyes of Buzz Lightyear caught. Long time he had been beyond the border, in a world that was filled with chaotic tumult of thoughts, without any sense, without any reason. But now it was all purple and murky. As his mind gradually wandered to the reality, he felt the limpness of his body parts, and the rim of pain that squeezed his head.
"Uhhh..." he moaned a little bit and attempted to move in his position. No use for that action. Between his half-dream the brains began to process the situation, slowly, but surely, "I can't move... I'm stuck... it's dark... no, it's violet... limpness... violet... Z..." That was the first object his eyes attached to. A big yellow Z-letter on the opposite wall.
"Zurg!" he startled awake and finally understood where he was. He sat in a chair of some kind, his wrists, chest and ankles tied with metal bands to the seat. His sleeves were wrapped up and a couple of needles were attached to him, running miscellaneous liquids into his vessels.
Buzz gasped with terror, staring at the complex he was put to sit in. "W-What have they done to me?" The regard reached the suit. He had no longer his own space ranger uniform, but a dark-violet robe on -with a shiny buckle attached to the collar, decorated with a golden, curlicued izzard. Neither had he the thermal hood, but his black hair drooped over his eyes. This one obsessive anxiety of his got him nervous, as always.
"Oh, no! Everybody's seen my hair!" But then the sense streamed back to him, making the ranger notice that this little detail was not the end of the world. More strictly speaking, his current state was closer to that.
Fighting violently against the imprisoning chair, and yelling in flaming anger, he caused some life around him. He namely was in a chamber, yet empty on that moment, with a door that had an electronic grating. A lonely brain-pod walking in the corridor came to see, what the hullabaloo was about.
"Let me out of here! What have you done to me?" the voice of Lightyear echoed back to the hearing organs of this one minion, who rushed to tell his Master that the captive had awakened.
Buzz did not need to be alone quite long, until the menacing figure of the Emperor stood in the open doorway of Lightyear's chamber.
"Ahh, Lightyear! So, we have finally finished our little nap. Did you have sweet dreams?" Zurg teased him. The Emperor achieved an arrogant frown from his side.
"What have you done to me? Why have you brought me here?" Buzz muttered behind his together bitten teeth.
"Oh, yes. Part of my hyper-intelligent plan! It is a lot more intriguing to tell you it now than yesterday!" Zurg took a self-satisfied smile and approached his captive.
"Why don't you just kill me, already, and stop this insane play of yours!"
Zurg snickered to himself for a while and then came right at Buzz' chair. He put a clawed hand on his shoulder, beginning his harangue.
"No, Lightyear. My intention is not to kill you. See, I have had this slight problem since I lost one promising henchman, also known as Warp Darkmatter. Well... he gained what he deserved, after deceiving me, although quite in a conventional way... blasted to ashes by a skilled hornet..." he kept a pause and walked to the other side Buzz' seat.
"Since those unfortunate happenings after... hmm... how much was it? Grub! Bring me the calendar!"
A lackey whizzed to him with a palm book that showed a date, a red circle around it.
"...since 17. 7. 3006, precisely 08:30:00, local time of the Zurgean Empire, when I understood with my ultimate IQ that my henchman had left me, I've been searching for a new apprentice..."
Buzz' eyes widened when he comprehended that Zurg was talking about him.
"...and, who could be the best one for that job, if not the pride of Star Command... the famous, heroic Space Ranger called Buzz Lightyear!" Zurg grinned to him and then left a long, hollow, evil cackle fill the air.
Buzz was in the ultimate rage. He wriggled in the chair and let a curse fly out of his mouth. "I'll never join you! How much you would ever torture me, I am NOT dealing with evil businesses!"
Zurg flitted back to him with a naughty smile. "Oh, no! How could I be so heartless, that I would torture you? You shall follow me voluntarily!" The sentence was ended to the clack of his fingers he clapped enthusiastically together.
"What... do you mean...? I won't..."
"Well, now it shall be the time to tell you! I will turn you into me! With some simple methods, the virtuous, do-gooder Lightyear is going bye-bye..."
"You're a monster, Zurg!" Buzz spat.
"I know."
"I'll never, NEVER join an evil android that killed my father!" Buzz yelled, thunderbolts flashing in his eyes. If the fetters had not kept him on his spot, he would have been wrestling on the floor with his enemy, now.
"Whahahhaahhahhhhhaaa! An evil android! That was the best prefix I heard today, definitely!" Zurg wiped a fake tear away from the eye socket of his helmet, "Oh, and what comes to your dear father, it was a long time ago... he was just obstructing me and deserved nothing, but to be put to the book of distant memories... That person, your pitiful, pitiful and pathetic poppa means nothing to me. No need to discuss about him."
"Why did you kill him?" Buzz glowered back.
"Why? I said clearly, in plain and refined English, that he was something retarding the glorying raise of my Empire." The topic seemed to be somewhat awkward for Zurg and therefore he decided to shift it to the destiny of Buzz. "Yes, where were we? Oh... we were discussing about the intriguing fact that there shall be a new member in the dark side, after some time."
"As I said, I won't join you!"
"Oh, but you will. You will understand the power of the dark side, how much better it is to let you be the servant of it. I am trying to free you mind, Buzz -if I may call you so- but I can only show you the door. You are the one that has to walk through it."
"You won't get far with this. My mind won't be broken with your twisted methods! And there will be an army of space rangers assaulting this planet, by tomorrow morning; your Empire will be history!" Buzz let his spit fly in the air. He was deadly sure that Team Lightyear would immediately gather a group to free him.
Zurg gave an amused chuckle. "But what if no one knows that you are here? Do you think in that little brain-pan of yours, that I would immediately call and tell your silly Commander that you are here as my guest? No! And, do those other rangers really care so much about you, that they would come here to face my arsenals and hornets?"
Buzz went silent. He had not expected this. A cold fear began to shiver along his spine.
"Oh, and soon you shall learn, that it is a lot more profitable to live in my palace, than be a mindless slave of Star Command, only serving some corrupted commanders and their myrmidons. Here, after you have learned to obey me, is your future. A glorious, dark future."
"I serve life! I don't serve the darkness and chaos!"
"Life... which you so nobly serve, comes from destruction, disorder and chaos. And now... the journey to the dark side shall begin!" With a hideous grin on his helmet, Zurg blurted a couple of words to a comm. link on the wall. After a few minutes, something clackering rolled along the corridor that leaded to the current chamber.
"Do you hear that, Mr. Lightyear? That is the sound of inevitability." The Emperor turned about to achieve a pair of grubs pushing a flivver. It was filled with strange-looking bottles, needles and surgery implements.
"Ahh, straight from my laboratory of naughtiness! An old but efficient method to use tranquillizers, some medicines and liquids to turn one's mind to serve me."
Buzz' face distorted into a fearful grimace. Zurg in front of him mixed something into a hypodermic needle and then flashed his red eyes towards Buzz.
"There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path. By tomorrow, you will know the path... and after that, you're ready to walk it, towards the dark side."
There and then, the Emperor stuck the needle into Buzz' wrist vessel, letting the whole portion of the drug flow into his inners. After a few minutes more, a weird weariness began to fill the body and mind of the Captain. When Zurg noticed his pupils getting increased and his head beginning to droop, it was the time for the Emperor to leave his captive alone.
"It is working. Let us see, how much there is resistance left in you, by tomorrow morning. Farewell, Lightyear. I shall make you a new name, since there is the need to think, how the new apprentice of Emperor Zurg will be called."
With these words, Zurg blew about away from the room, letting the poor ranger alone with his beginning hallucinations.
The expression on Zurg's amorphic helmet did become quite much more serious when he had sat back down to his throne. Snapping tart, he sent every minion away from the room. He wanted to get engrossed in his thoughts, at least for a while. The question of Buzz' dead father had raised bitter memories into his mind.
"I shall get rid of the relics, as I always have been able. It was not supposed for him to bring that nauseous topic forth... curse you, Buzz Lightyear."
Stirring in his seat, he attempted to find a better position.
"Z. Z. Lightyear was nothing but a pest on my way... a weak-minded and depressed man. His existence needed to be wiped away. He is gone, why to pry into rotten graves of some pathetic history... But, back to Lightyear. He is a knotty thingie, so much bathing in his braveness and sense of justice. It can take for a while, before he shall be turned... but that will happen, oh, yes. Only what I regret the most, is that I did not have the savvy to start to arrange this before... I trusted, I fool, trusted Darkmatter!"
Canvassing there those pungent topics, Zurg felt very burging inside his complicated costume, as if the air would have turned to sheer carbon dioxide. Coughing he stood up and hovered to the private men's room of the floor. There, he fingered his collars and let the lock system of his helmet open. As he had pulled the mask off, there was the perfect comprehension, why he had been in the verge of suffocation. His hair was wet with sweat, as well as his neck and forehead. Wiping there his face into a tissue, he came to peep into the mirror.
"The age is taking me..." He slowly grazed his grooved cheek with his fingertip. "I am not immortal and I need someone to continue my reign, just like I was there to continue the glory of my Master..." A heavy sigh filled the room.
"Sure I was
once young and full of the force of life... zeal to follow and be obedient to my
teacher... who leaded me to the dark side... However, he has died... and I am there
to follow him also into the abode of the dead, where is no thought, no
achievement... that is why I need Lightyear to get it all into his hands... But he
is mine, now. Do not worry any more, Zurg."
......to be continued........