You Are Who You Were

Chapter 2: Dreams do Come True

Out in the far vastness of Space, well OK maybe not quite that far, more like orbiting around Capital Planet, Star Command, the headquarters of the Space Rangers, floated peacefully in space. The rays of light from the sun, and the reflected light of the planet, glinted off of the Space Station's white hull. The silent satellite spun around the great planet in all it's glory and majesty. This Space Station was home to the elite military force, the Space Rangers. None were so bold and daring as this courageous crew of beings from all over the universe. None especially were as great and mighty as the Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear, the legendary Space Ranger who fought for good at all coasts.

So far everything was quiet in the Gamma Quadrant. Zurg wasn't cooking up any plots, that they knew of yet anyways, and things seemed pretty peaceful, well except for the minor violators and small time crooks, but other then that it was a dull day for Team Lightyear. In the lounge Team Lightyear slouched around being bored out of their gourds. Booster was sitting at a table coloring in his new coloring book with some crayons, although this gentle giant was in his twenties he still loved the joys of childhood. Mira was lazily watching TV, some talk show of some sort, slumped in a lazy-boy recliner, the TV remote in her hand and a bowl of potato chips balanced upon her stomach for optimum snacking. XR was playing a poker game on his electronic hand held game, yelling out in range every time he lost a hand, lucky for the little metal man this game was not for real. Their heroic Captain, Buzz Lightyear, was set on the couch to the left of Mira, who was right in front of the TV, drinking a HUGE mug of steamy hot coffee. He sipped quietly his caffeinated brew, letting the sugars warm his senses into becoming more alert. After last night's restless slumber he needed a little pick me up to get the day going, but that was kind of hard since there was nothing to do and his boredom was lulling him to sleep. It was going to take a whole lot of coffee to keep this Ranger's power pack recharged today.

Buzz couldn't stop thinking about last night, and the dreams. They were really starting to get disturbing. Not only were the dreams themselves disturbing, but the fact that he could do nothing to help it either. There was basically nothing he could do at 12:30 at night. He just can't wave his hands and magically the dreams would go away, he wished but it was impossible. But then what if the dreams were telling her something? What if they were telepathic messages from someone in peril coded into her dreams? Whatever they were he was sure of one thing, they must stop or neither one of them was going to ever get back to sleep.

"Aw craters," Mira cursed as she started flipping through the channels, "Not only is there nothing to do there's also nothing to watch!" The Tangean cried out in aggravation.

"Yeah well at least you're not losing! I swear this game is rigged!" XR shouted out as he pressed the bottons on his game.

Mira laughed at the little robot, "You just now figured that out? Well done XR, well done."

"Excuse me, but I am a very innocent and trusting robot. I assume that everyone gives me the same respect and trust as I give them," XR talked on as if he was the most good natured person in the known Galaxy.

The royal rolled her eyes in her head, "Oh pa-lease!"

"Excuse me!" Booster rang out, "Could you too be quiet please. I am trying to concentrate here," Booster politely asked them to stop their bickering while he tried to concentrate on what colors would look good where. It took a lot of thought to plan a work of art and get the colors to blend and be most pleasing to the eye.

But this did no good. Now instead of two rookies arguing there were three in the heated discussion of words. A action free day always got the team on edge, they were more irritable then ever on days like these. But everyone stopped their 'discussion' as soon as the hatch door to the lounge flew open and a blue-haired woman ran through at top speed like a flash of blue lightning. The three looked up a bit dazed as to what that just was.

Buzz looked up to see her rushing towards him. He quickly set his mug of coffee down on the table beside him to welcome her. He sure was awake now.

"Lex, shouldn't you be at work? Not that I mind seeing you here, you know I always cherish the time we have together but," his apologetic speech was cut off short when the strong arms of Lex where thrown around his thick neck, stopping his vocal cords from saying another word of the talk. She was obviously spooked and shaken up. Buzz could feel her body trembling as he held her in his strong arms. He twined his arms around her body, holding her tight and close upon his chest. Lex buried her head in the crook of his shoulder, wrapping her arms around his waist, holding on to him as if she were going to fall off the world.

Buzz stroked her long dark-blue hair that was draped over her back with the palm of his hand, letting his fingers run through the soft fibers. His gentle touch caressing her back, soothing the girls jittering body. He gave her soft kisses upon her head, then left to lay his cheek upon the crown of her head protecting her from her troubles. Buzz felt now important, that his duty as lover was done, to hold his lady close in his arms and protect her from her torment, he was content in his cradling her.

Lex pressed her head firmly atop his wide, strong chest, listening to his heartbeat. The metronome cadence of his heart beats soothed her, calmed her, she matched her breathing to his heart's thumping and soon was relaxing in his grip.

When Buzz finally thought she was calm enough to speak to him of the problem he pulled her off of his chest. Lex didn't want to be pried from her safe shelter, but she faced him. The man sat her on his lap, arms still embracing. His cool, calm, deep, blue eyes met her tranquil, but yet fiery, yellow irises. "Lex," he began softly, "What's wrong?" the only other time she had acted like a frightened deer was when she had escaped to him from Darkmatter's Moon. Something must be deeply distressing her.

"I had another dream," she began looking down at her fidgeting hands. "The same dream, only this time I wasn't sleeping."

Buzz looked at her skeptical, "You time traveled to the ancient times of LegoEgo?" this thought was seriously goofy, but Buzz was serious in his question. He figured, hey, if his elder self could come back from the future with a time watch they why couldn't Lex go back in time herself?

But Lex didn't find this humorous, she gave him a miffed glare, but then softened. He was trying to help her, why be mad at him? He wasn't the one causing these phantasms. "No, Buzz, I mean I was at work! I blacked out and almost was crushed by a crate of stone artifacts I was carrying!" she blurted out. "And there was some sort of message at the end." Buzz looked at her with concerned and soft worried features. What was happening to her? Was she going crazy on him? Was Lex not mentally sound? "Something about remembering who I was and that they needed help." she frantically began pulling her long locks over her shoulder to play with, taking her nervous twitches out on her hair.

"Shh, shh, it's OK Lex. They're just dreams," Buzz tried to comfort her in the fact that things she sees in her mind are not real. All though he did not believe this himself, but what else was there to tell her? That hey your completely nuts and something terribly wrong is going to happen? No, I don't think so. He tried to push her back up against his chest again to once again stop her shakes, but Lex pushed forcefully away from him. Buzz was taken back by this action.

"Just dreams? I've been having the same upsetting dream over and over again, and now I'm blacking out at work almost killing myself and YOU say they are just dreams!!" Lex shouted back at him. Buzz opened his moth to defend himself, cheeks turning read from just being yelled at by his girlfriend in front of his team mates, who were watching the whole soap opera with great interest.

"Hey this is better then Opra," XR commented.

But Buzz could only stutter the starts of words, and when he finally had composed a sentence Lex interrupted him again. "Take me to the Medical Bay, I need a CAT scan." Lex asked him to take her to the LGMs, if they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her then maybe the LGMs could.

"A CAT scan? There's absolutely nothing wrong with your head," he playfully rapped his knuckles on her temples, " I'll see if I can have the day off since there's nothing going on and we'll go out, just you and me to talk about this alright?" Buzz suggested to her. He didn't like taking work off, in fact he hated it! He loved Star Command with all his heart, but, his love for Lex was even greater and he thought that they needed some alone time to talk this problem out.

Lex sadly shook her head, "No Buzz. Look, we both know that there must be something seriously wrong with my brain to make me have these dreams," she looked at him with pleading and serious, tired eyes. "Don't deny, I sense these thoughts have crossed your mind too, you don't have to play act for my sake."

"Lex I.." he was a bit hurt by her words, they had wounded him. But yet, a part of them were true.

"It's OK," she nuzzled her head back into his arms as a sign of acceptance towards him, "I'm thinking the same thing." She took her head away again to gaze up into loving his face, "Take me to the Medical Bay, Please?"

Buzz couldn't say no to her plea for help. And it wouldn't hurt to be cautious either, maybe the LGMs could help her after all, a cure maybe, but yet again he had never heard of a cure for nightmares. But anything sounded good at this point, they just needed to understand what was going on. "Alright," Buzz spoke to her, "I'll take you to the Med Bay."

"Thank you," she stretched her neck up wards to kiss him, a thank you for a good deed.

The LGMs strapped Lex to a long metal stretcher. Her white lab coat and dusty blue jeans were traded in for a long, white, hospital gown. Her head rested comfortably on the foam head rest as the LGMs buckled the thick straps across her body, anchoring her to the stretcher.

"Do not moooovvee," an LGM in a lab coat droned to her, "Or it will not work." she had to remain perfectly still in order for the machine to work properly in taking the electronic pictures of her brain. Hopefully there was nothing wrong with her, but then again if there wasn't, then what was causing these black outs and dreams?

Lex nodded her head in understanding and lied flat on her back as the last strap was placed across her forehead to keep it from wobbling the slightest bit from left to right. Buzz walked over to her just before they sent her into the long, round machine, to give her his wishes and good luck.

"Don't worry this is a standard procedure," Buzz smiled, taking her hand in his, smoothing the back of her hand with his tumb, "Good luck, I love you," he bent down and kissed her lips quickly before an LGM started to push him at the calves out of the room.

"You must leaaaave, you do not have protection from the radiatioooonnnn," the little green bean hummed as he lead Buzz out of the room and behind a thick terrilium plated wall for protection. The words of the LGM made Lex gulp. If Buzz had no protection from radiation even with his Pulsar Enviro-suit 2000 and battle armor, then what was keeping her from having nasty side effects?

'Well that's a lovely thought,' Lex deliberated to herself. The LGM behind the wall flipped the switches and pressed the buttons that activated the machine. It hummed to life and slowly the young woman was sucked into the CAT scan machine. Lex's eyes darted around the red lit tunnel, although there was nothing to see except for glowing red and stainless steal sides of the round chamber. It hummed as the mechanisms inside scanned her brain. 'Just stay calm girl, there's nothing to worry about,' she told her subconscious, 'just a really cold slab and some radiation taking pictures of my brain. Yeah just a normal day right?'

Out in the room behind the glass protection shield, Buzz hovered over the backs of the LGMs trying to get a glance of the monitors and other recording instruments and papers. He tried to get a peek at what was being written out by the computers, but Buzz was just getting in the way, tripping over the LGMs and the LGMs tripping over his big space booted feet.

"Relllaaxxx Buzzz," The LGMs moaned, "We need spaceeee."

"Oh of course, yes, sorry," he backed up just a few inches, I guess that was his definition of space. But luckily Team Lightyear stepped into the tiny lab, distracting Buzz's attention from constantly being a pest.

"Well, well," XR began looking around the office, "Isn't this Deja Vou?" the robot spoke referring to the last time Lex was on Star Command. "This girl just can't seem to stay out of the Med Lab can she?"

"XR!" Mira chided, "Well what XR is trying to say," Mira started apologizing for the sarcastic bot, "Is that we hope she's OK." she smiled warmly at her captain in sympathy and hope.

"Yeah," Booster smiled at his friend stepping behind Mira, " I'm sure everything will be OK."

"Thanks guys," Buzz appreciated his team's concern. He was glad to have someone behind him rooting him on, well Mira and Booster at least, he wasn't too sure about XR.

"Wee arreee completeeeee," an LGM chimed to Buzz holding in his hand a clip board with the results.

"And and!?" Buzz was thirsting to hear the results, he needed to know, and right now! "What are the results!?"

"Well..." the LGM trailed off.

"Oh my gosh! I knew it!" Buzz screamed out, looking to the ceiling holding his head in his hand, gripping at his purple cowl witch was shielding his hands from ripping his hair out, "She's dying!! Oh my poor Lex!!!" tears started to strain from his eyes. His team exchanged glances of confusion. Why was he over reacting? Buzz gripped the LGM by the calor of it's shirt, "Tell me, how long does she have to live?" he dropped the LGM back to the ground, the little green alien taking cover from the far too emotional Ranger.

"Buzz, Buzz!" Mira called after him, gripping his frailing arms and trying to hold them down, "Maybe you should hear the rest of what they have to say first before you jump to conclusions eh?"

Buzz looked at her and stopped his jumpiness, and whipped the tears from his eyes with the back of his arm, "Oh yes, sorry Ranger Nova," he took a deep breath to regain his composition, "So, ahh you were saying?" he once again asked the LGM who was hiding now behind a desk to tell him the good or bad news.

"We found nothing wrong with Miss Morgans," the LGM handed Buzz the clip board for the Ranger to look over. Buzz's eyes scanned the document, three times over too. But not even he could find a thing wrong.

"Well that's good," Buzz sighed in relief, "I think."

Lex came into the room to meet up with Buzz and his team, she was slipping her lab coat back over her clothes as she walked into the door. Her eyes saw Buzz with the clip board in his hands, "Anything?" she asked him.

"No, nothing," He handed Lex the clip board for her to read as well. She thumbed through the pages and also did not find a single, solitary, mistake. She looked up uneasy and stared blankly at the wall.

"Don't worry Lex, we'll find out what's causing this," Buzz spoke to her. He wrapped a long thick arm around her waist and pulled her in close to his side, kissing the top of her head. But there was no reaction from the girl, witch was unusual. Why wasn't she responding to his affections? Then she grew limp in his arms and collapsed. If it wasn't for Buzz holding her she would have fell to the floor and hit her head. "LEX!" Buzz shouted.

"Look's like you pack a powerful pucker there big guy," XR made a crack joke pointing at Lex who had gone unconscious.

Lex stood in the barren and blank wasteland of a desert. Nothing but sand for miles and miles, as far as the eyes could see. The sand swirled and the wind echoed in her ears. It blew her hair about her, carrying on it the sweet smell of the desert sands of time. She knew instantly where she was, LegoEgo. She started walking about to see if she could find anything, or anyone for that matter. After about a few feet she almost tripped over an object in the sand. It was hard, but wasn't a rock. The girl stooped down and dug her hands into the fine, warm sand, sifting through it to find out what it was that she tripped over. She found it! Digging further she grabbed hold of what seemed like a staff or scepter of some sort. She tugged hard and pulled it free from the sand in witch it was entombed. It was the same staff she saw Quelle holding in her dream! She twirled it about in her hands, watching the sun glint off of the gold and crystal.

"Return home!" A voice called from nowhere. Lex turned to find the source but there was nothing but the floating breeze.

"Back to Turan!?" Lex turned around trying to find who was talking to her. But she found no one.

"Return home! You must help us!! Return home, to LegoEgo," the voice carried on the warm wind, swirling the sand about her, "Return home friend."

Buzz shook Lex hard by the shoulders. "Wake up!" he shouted at her. Buzz was becoming aggravated in his efforts. It had been 20 minuets since her black out time and he did not get her to regain consciousness.

Lex's yellow eyes flew open and she shot up gasping for air. Sweat ran down her back and forehead once more. Cold sweat, the sweat of fear. Buzz immediately wrapped his arms around her pulling her to his chest, smothering her with gentle kisses.

"Oh thank Venus you're OK," he sighed in relief.

Lex was still stunned from her newest dream and didn't say a word. She took in her surroundings first. She found herself sitting on the couch in the Med Bay waiting room, Team Lightyear standing around her and Buzz kneeled beside her holding her close. As soon as she got her senses back and knew where she was she spoke.

"I had another dream," she said softly. Buzz nodded and held on firmly. "It was different. It called me home."

"To Turan?" Mira asked in place of her captain, who was too worked up and busy caressing his lady love.

"No, to LegoEgo," Lex spoke once again in a soft voice.

"That back water planet?" XR asked, "For what?"

"I think this dream is a message," she spoke now directly to Buzz. He was listening now, looking her in the eyes and giving her his undivided attention. "Someone, or something on LegoEgo is calling me. I'm not sure why but, they are."

"What do you suggest?" Buzz asked her. He had no clue what was going on since he was not in her head, he could not hear the message or see the visions. He could only rely on what she told them.

"We've got to go back to LegoEgo," she could see the look he was giving her, a confused one, "Look I think if we figure out what this message means, and help whomever is asking for it, I should be fine afterwards. Please Buzz we've got to help them."

Buzz nodded affirmatively, "A Space Ranger is sworn to protect." he stood up and hauled Lex to her feet, keeping her close incase she was to black out again. "Let's go team!" Buzz commanded Team Lightyear to the Launch Bay.

"Yes Sir!" they all saluted him with great big smiles smeared across their faces. For once today they were seeing some action.

"Oh no," the robot moaned in agony, " Not another field trip to planet of the rust bucket! It took me weeks to scrap all the sand out of my gears!" XR whined as he followed his team out into the halls.

"Oh come on XR! The LGMs fixed you up," Mira sassed him. "This will be a great opportunity for me to work on my yellowing," she held out a bottle of sun screen lotion. This time the Princess was not going unprepared like last visit when her hair fizzled and her skin burnt.

"Enough chatter Rangers! We've got to unravel this mystery fast! Now let's move!" Buzz commanded as they boarded Forty-Two and took their respected seats. The Captain threw the ship into high gear and the Crystolic Fusion engines roared to life. The hatch opened and they took off into space. "To Infinity and Beyond!"

To Be Continued..................