9. The Destruction of Buzz Lightyear

For the last pico-part of the radical second, the interferator shield got its powers full. The whole crew inside the ship stood rigid, listening to the voices of silence. Through the windshield, they could see a hornet approaching them, then suddenly stopping. It seemed like the droid had been snuffing the odourlessness of the vacuum. It stirred and shifted, rolled its artificial head. All its circuits were filled with question marks. "System malfunction. Error code Z-5674, no target available", it signalled to the control centre. "Scan operation complete." Next, the mecha turned about and flied back to the other robots.

  A couple of minutes Warp and the company just jutted there their eyes wide, foreheads wet of cold sweat. Such a close shave they did not have to experience every day.

"Hasta la vista..." XR sighed at last.

"Hot rockets...you said it." Booster wiped his face with a tissue.

"Quasars... I guess it's then to let our noses point towards that joviality and hope the best..." Warp added, for the same time hugging Zarah who was still quite much in terror.

 The invisible ship glided into the lower atmosphere of the Dark Capital. Hyper-hornets flying here and there, upon the numberless evil factories and buildings were a miserable sight. The sky was redder than ever, its crimson glow only duplicating the gloominess.

"Gah. How did I ever want to live in this place?" Warp snorted, remembering his older times.

"Even the Landfill Planet Kukkokiekuu is more cheerful than this", Mira noted.

"Now where are we gonna actually land? On the roof of Zurg Tower?" XR asked.

"Nah. We're now on the other side of the planet. It'll take few hours with this creep speed to get to the main buildings. Where else would Zurgie keep Lightsnack than in his debonair dungeons... and they're under that Empire State Building. Hmm... we'll cruise a lil...", Darkmatter gave an answer.

"And I assume that there's not even a plan B?" Mira commented. She knew perfectly that Warp was going to improvise something here, again, the result possibly being that they would wander somewhere lost for days. Likewise... she did not know how right she was in her predictions.

----Three days later-------

 Poor Captain Lightyear. Gradually his mind started to break up under the strong influence of the medicines Zurg pumped into him, in addition of the brainwashing the Emperor so keenly did. For Buzz it was sheer depression that no help seemed to be in sight. Was he really forgotten? Was it true, what the Evil Emperor said that the members of Star Command really did not care about his existence? It could not be veritable. He knew strictly that every word Zurg let out of his loudspeaker was a lie. A filthy lie. But... why did he gradually start to see his thoughts as comprehensible? What if his team, Team Lightyear only cared about their own businesses...? Or the other rangers... they were not all nice to him, accurately speaking. Rocket Crocket... he was always there to mock him. And Ty Parsec... just the same. Was his team alike? What if they behind his back had for a long time hoped that he would be history? XR, who was always commenting about Buzz' self-confidence... was he an egoistic jerk in the eyes of his fellow rangers?

"It must be so, then... I'm an irritating piece of trash in their thoughts..." a dark idea popped into his mind. "But it can't be... they have always been there to help me, even then, when they were just rookies, on their first mission to get me out of this same place..." Buzz let his blurry regard wander along the ceiling and walls of the violet cabin. But somehow his vision was now hooked to the big, glowing Z that was above the door.

"Zurg... what he is offering me... glory? What if he is not as evil as I have thought him to be...? Or is the evilness as bad as I've thought? He didn't kill me, he didn't actually torture me..." As he continued to glare at the decoration letter on the wall, the hallucinations the liquids caused, began again. The letter twisted and twirled in his brains, getting suddenly the form of Zurg, although surrounded by a beautiful, calm, white light. In that dream, the enemy did not look apprehensive at all, but gently called him by his name. "Buzz... join me and you'll be mighty... I shall treat you as if I would treat my own son... Join me..." It was the faded fire of his synapses that made up all this; it was perfectly nothing supernatural, not mind-control, but his own, depressed and confused self.

"They will not help me... not the stupid, careless rangers of Star Command... maybe it is better for me to be here..." the words played on his behalf. "Zurg did not kill me... as I had always thought... what if it is really better here? I have no friends back there, at home... That Zeb Nebula has told me that he was my friend... but is he? A true friend would have helped me this far..."

 A couple of hours went by. More hallucinations, more incoherent thoughts, more misgiving about the past he had this far in Star Command. The creeping minutes... the silence... the gleaming Z on the wall... the darkness... his heart beats... the little hum of the nutrition machine that kept him alive in his prison... the darkness... the dark side...

"Is it that bad...?"

 In the evening Zurg came to his usual visit. In front of him was now a view of Buzz lolling powerlessly in the chair, all resistance gone. He blinked lazily his eyes a couple of times when spotting the Emperor.

A weary voice came to the ears of the villain, "I will serve you... my Master."

 Zurg stared at him in pure amazement for a few seconds, but then straightened up his pose and stepped to the broken-up hero ranger.

"Oo, well what we have here? A very wise decision, if I may express myself. What made you change your mind?"

"I... guess... you are right. About... that it is... better to be here... than out there", Buzz murmured back, with an indifferent expression.

"Now you start to see the facts with your own eyes! You have entered the door to the right path. Well done."

Next Zurg called some of his lackeys to get Buzz out of the machine. Thirteen days he had been sitting there, letting the nutrition salient and other liquids feed his organs and gather the waste products out of his circulation. The injection needles and hoses were gradually detached by the grubs and finally the fetters that had held him still.

 Buzz was in a very weak condition. When he attempted to stand up, his eyes went foggy and he fell back into the seat. One reason for this was that he had not eaten proper food in ages. His legs felt limb and the rest of the body was quite slack, too. Short, black beard covered his face because of being unshaved for so long. Therefore, Zurg gave another summons to his minions, who soon brought a wheel-chair to the fatigued space ranger.

"You get him to the barber room, and ask the brain-pod to shape the nice beard our new henchman has grown. Then you give him a new robe, this one is crumpled. And, as for your grand day, I shall donate you with a nice cloak, a black cloak with a naughty red lining... Jim-kraken-dandy, you shall be keen on the wonderful fashion of Planet Z, designed by me!" Zurg fingered smugly his helmet.

The grubs helped Buzz to sit down to the vehicle they had brought and headed their way to the floor Z-9 of Zurg Tower. When they were still on the doorway, the metallic voice of the Emperor gave one more order. "After you have finished your work, you shall bring him to the imperial guest room. A light dinner shall be served to Apprentice Zenith."

 In all his new freedom, Buzz had not completely got rid of the arresting accessories. Heavy handcuffs had been locked around his wrists, a strong fetter connecting them. He would carry them as long as the Emperor would see it necessary. He did not trust Lightyear, he knew he could intrigue plots for to flee. Although, it was not much possible in his current state, being under the control of the medicines and all.  In the guest room, at a massive table, the Captain weakly chomped the ration that was put in front of him. Zurg did not eat; he only inspected the beaten-up ranger sitting opposite to him.

"This shall be the beginning of a new era... if my predictions concerning you, my young apprentice, shall be fulfilled", he let his metallic voice reach Buzz's ears. "I shall soon rule the whole Galaxy with my ultimate evilness, and you will be an important person in conquering the Galactic Alliance and the rest of the pathetic solar systems. You know the weaknesses of Star Command, you know that silly, 'democratically elected' missus President and you know the oh-I-am-so-good-and-brave Commander Nebula. You know how they can be easily defeated."

"Mmhh..." Buzz muttered and took a gulp of water. The eating felt awful, since he had been so long time without proper food. His stomach was like glued to his spine. Therefore, he could not fill it quite much with bites; he felt the sickening grumm in it already.

"Not hungry?" Zurg asked surprised.

"Nhh..." Buzz pouted and pushed the plate away.

"Oh well, I attempted to give you a delicious supper. However, your Master can let you now to sleep. A chamber has been arranged to you, it is only a temporal place, though, but will overcome the 'comfortable' chair in which you have been this far. You see, the more you obey me, the more I shall grant you!" the Emperor smirked.

"Hhhh..."

"It will take a few days to furnish you a proper hall with all the goods you will need. I shall give my servants the instructions to start to clean and decorate some empty rooms in 7th floor. But, remember, it depends on your allegiance." Creaking his claws together, Zurg gave a call to a comm. link, for to guide Buzz to his new cabin.

--------------------

 Time did not exist on Planet Z, what was that Buzz had experienced. Crawling now to sleep into his temporary room somewhat 24 hours after the relieving dinner with Zurg, he came to reflect the happenings that had occurred recently. How long had he been the slave of that chair? No answer to that nodus was found anywhere. He had not seen the whirligig of day and night, only corridors, tunnels, miscellaneous rooms without windows. It was literally a part of Zurg's scheme to drown his apprentice into murky dullness...

 Buzz' new quarters were quite comfortable compared to the usual dungeons where the prisoners where kept. Although he was still forced to carry his chains, in addition that the door was heavily locked, he had a warm and soft bed there, a plate filled with delicious food, a lamp crystal to give some rays to the secluded life. But that it was, otherwise the chamber was apathetic and empty, his own sound of breath as his only company. In a few days he would get a better living place... was that so what Zurg had promised?

 Among all this, there was some kind of a weird emotion inside Buzz. It quietly whimpered that there was something distantly familiar in Zurg, in a totally strange way. Buzz could not associate what was streaming in his subconscious. Something in the way he spoke, the way he moved around... little characteristics that the ranger never had paid attention to when usually fighting against the Emperor and his evil forces. But what that oddity was, the closet of comprehension was locked in front of him.

"What have I done to myself...?" he asked many times, the drowsiness making his eyes tacky. The weak peep of his forgotten conscience attempted to crawl along his synapses, but the new, deep murmur of his darker nature was there to gain the victory. "Why should I listen to you, any more...?" he inquired his voice of righteousness, "...you have done nothing but harm to me. You pretend there to help me, but what is it, instead... you have always suffocated the changes I could have made..."

"No, Buzz! No! Don't give up to the forces of darkness! You know it's wrong, what you do now, don't disagree with the last remains of goodness that are in you!" was the counterargument of the other voice.

"Shut up..."

"Fight, Buzz Lightyear! That's what you always have done! Don't give up, don't descend to the infernos, no!"

"I said once, shut up! I used to believe in you, in your commands... that you, my consciousness, were there to guide me... but what were the promises of the saving? Where is my team? No one cares about me, it's the same for them, if I was dead!"

"No! I did not promise you direct saving, be patient! You always have been patient, don't lose your sense, now! NO, don't give up!"

Then there was a third howl, a metallic-sounding, temptating summons. For Buzz' mischance, it drew the same rope with the dark side. "Join me... I shall reward you... with prices and fortune you never could have imagined... you want power, after all, that it is. And that is, what you shall have... power, in the dark side... by my side..."

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"You shall have it... the dark glory..."

......to be continued........