You Are Who You Were

Chapter 4: Natron, the Ever Living

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The team of Rangers had walked to the edge of the canyon where the ancient city lay beneath. LegoEgo stretched out for miles and miles in all directions. It contained all sorts of buildings, houses, monuments, statues, and other odds and ends left from ancient times. A wide road wound it's way through the middle of the metropolis and lead right to the front door of the temple, the tallest of the ancient buildings growing upwards towards the deep blue sky. It was missing now the Light of Orion that used to sit on it's top, but still a majestic and powerful building.

"Whoa," Booster whispered as he tried to take everything in with his beady little eyes.

"Awesome," Mira concluded.

Buzz rubbed his chin and squinted out towards the city. Somewhere he had seen this all before. The city, the sand, everything. He just couldn't put his finger on where he saw it before, but it defiantly did register in his brain of being something he remembered from an earlier date in time. But then he thought maybe he was starting to have funky dreams as well. 'Forget it Lightyear, you're going crazy.' he shook his head back to the task at hand. "So where do we go now?" he asked Lex who was at his left still surveying the land.

"Well, my guess is that we start at the temple," she pointed with her right hand towards the tall sand stone building, "There. It was an important building in their time, perhaps it's still as important today."

Buzz nodded in agreement. That made perfect sense to him. "Good call Lex. Come on Rangers let's get moving."

Booster and Mira followed their commanding officer willingly but XR put up a fight before going along with it. "Oh no! I've seen these sort of things before on TV! The unsuspecting team of explorers enters the temple of doom and you know what happens!?" He raised up on his legs and grabbed Booster by the face, " DO YOU!!?"

"N..n...no," Booster said afraid that his robotic friend was about to rip his head off.

"They die!! That's what happens!" the little robot let go of the rotund Ranger's face. Booster rubbed his sore cheeks. "There's always some ancient cult, or monster, or mummy lurking in the shadows of the temple." he went on, "And just when our heroic team of explorers are about to uncover the treasure, usually some sort of rock, they get killed, their heart is ripped out and they are thrown into the lava pit!! Or captured! Made to drink the blood of the Calarmarie! Turned into laboring evil zombies!!!" XR explained the situation.

"XR?" Mira reprimanded, "That was Iowa Jones! I told you not to watch those movies late at night! They give you paranoid delusions."

"I know. But they're fun," XR smiled.

Mira rolled her eyes at him. He always had some exaggerated excuse as to why it was bad.

"Whatever. Get moving XR," Buzz commanded. XR set his wheels forwards unwillingly.

"Alright but when you turn against all of us don't say I didn't warn you."

Buzz watched his team mate wheel on past him. Giving him a scowl as he passed.

Lex was trying to control her laughing. The little bot's outbursts were amusing. She placed a hand on Buzz's shoulder, "Oh lighten up, Buzz." she giggled, "No body is turning evil, you know that. Don't worry I won't let the big bad boogeyman get you while where here," she pat him on the cheek and then walked down the path into the city following the other Space Rangers.

Buzz softened up and smiled, she could always being him out of one of his angry moments. He too then followed them into LegoEgo.

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The city was deserted, desolate. Nothing. Of course you wouldn't expect people living in a city that was buried beneath the sand for a couple million years to just be walking around today now would you? But it wasn't like other cities, this one showed signs of explosions and blast marks. Huge chunks of buildings were missing or destroyed all together. It was strangely odd indeed. Lex walked up to one building where the blast score was eye level. She ran her fingers across it, squinting her eyes in puzzlement.

"Hmm, odd."

"What's wrong?" Buzz asked as he walked up behind her to take a look at what she was examining.

"This scoring on the side of this building is like new. Why would an ancient city have laser marks on it that were from this century, even this decade?"

Mira stepped up to the blast hole too after hearing their conversation. She took a sample and scanned it with her wrist device, carbon-dating the laser particles. "According to this in the past 5 years at most."

"Why would something that was buried under all that sand have laser burns on it from a few years ago?" Booster asked Lex. He was just as confused as the rest. Sure he didn't get most of this ancient mumbo jumbo, but he still understood that things that haven't been seen by beings in millions of years even buried under tons and tons of sand couldn't have new blast marks on them.

"I don't know, Booster," the girl scratched her head in thought, "Out of all the years and through all the digs I've been on, I have never seen anything like this before."

"Well it can't be from the run in with Darkmatter last year when he stole the Light of Orion," Mira shook her head ruling out one possibility, "We never saw the city beneath sand."

"Well maybe, somehow, these sands preserved things better then other places," Buzz made his own theory. "Maybe this sand has some sort of persevering agent in it of sorts."

"Ya maybe," Lex nodded. It seemed reasonable enough. It had been found that people buried in the desert did seem to decompose slower and become almost perfectly saved over the years. Maybe this was some sort of super sand. "How did you get so smart anyways?" she goofed with him.

Buzz put one had on the building and leaned on it, as if he was just the coolest. He rubbed his nails on his chest and blew on them, smiling cooly he smiled a side grin with those sly, blue, eyes. "Well Miss Morgans," he began, "I know many things." he gave her a mischievous smile.

"Ya? Think you know everything eh? Well then, why am I having these strange black outs?"

Buzz had to stop there. He looked to his side as if the answer was there and put his index finger to his lip, all he could get out was gibberish, " Well umm ahh graaa itssss ahhh ya seee ahhh," his cheeks grew red with embarrassment

"She's got ya there big guy," XR smirked.

Buzz growled at the robot, "Grr shut up!"

Lex had to step in and save the robot before Buzz pounded him into the ground. She took his hand and turned his attention to face her. "Now Buzz it was just a joke. I don't expect you to know that."

He sighed and rubbed Lex's hand in his. His eyes looked to the ground a bit ashamed at his outburst and wracked with torment by not being able to solve her problems. "I know but, but it just eats me up to know that I can't solve all your problems. I'm supposed to be the galaxy's greatest hero and I cant fix one little thing, not even for the one I love." It was very difficult to handle for him. Since he had joined the academy he had always come to the rescue, saved millions of people form the clutches of the Evil Emperor Zurg. Saved whole planets if not the entire galaxy and beyond. But he had not cared for those people and places as much as he cared for her, to him not being able to help her was like failure to him. And he wasn't used to failure, especially failure in the eyes of someone he cared for more then anything else in the whole entire world. That was the ultimate shame in his eyes.

"Oh Buzz," Lex smiled. His words touched her but also saddened her to hear how this effected him. "Look at me," she lifted up his chin to make him look at her, to look deep into her eyes and understand. "You are too helping Buzz. You don't know how much you are."

"I don't see how I am."

"Listen, whenever I have one of my visions it's you who I turn to. I talk to you, and you don't think I'm crazy or anything. You stay by my side no matter what and you try and work things out. And if nothing else you console me," she closed her eyes and laid her head on his chest. She took his arms and wrapped them around her body. Buzz took his cue and held her tightly. "You do help Buzz, really you do. If it weren't for you and your team we wouldn't be on this planet trying to solve this mystery. You don't understand how much you do for me. Thank you."

Buzz smiled softly. He now knew his importance to her. He felt the pride and love lift inside him. "Id do it all over again if I had to."

XR wiped a tear from his eye, "Well as touching as this really is. Shouldn't we get moving people?"

Lex looked up from her warm nest in Buzz's arms to the sun in the sky, "Yes XR. The sun is beginning to move across the sky."

Lightyear nodded in agreement. "Come on troops we've got a lot of ground to cover."

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It was about 4 in the evening, Capital Planet time, when the Rangers arrived at the temple. The ancient building soared high into the sky. It bore symbols, images, and hieroglyphics all over it's great stone walls. But they could not get inside.

"This door has been melted off," Lex examined. "Appears to be done with a laser."

Buzz also inspected the strange phenomenon. His eyes lit up with shock and confusion, "This is the same kind of markings a Star Command wrist laser would make."

"But how could Star Command technology make these marks when they were under the sand?" Mira asked.

"Well, the LeoEgoians were an advanced culture. But I do not remember reading anything about lasers in ancient text," Lex was stumped. This was more exotic then the scoring on the other buildings. This seemed to point to Star Command. But how did Star Command get to this city under the sand and why did they destroy the door?

"But there isn't much info out there on this planet, so in theory they could have lasers similar to our own, we just haven't discovered it yet, right?" Buzz made another valid point.

"Yes. You are correct," Lex smiled. "I'm glad I brought you along." she examined it closely. "It's sealed from the outside, that's odd."

"Maybe they didn't want anyone getting in," XR commented.

"No, they didn't want anyone getting out," Lex corrected him.

"What are we dealing with here then?" Mira asked. "I mean, strange visions, secrete chambers, unexplainable blast marks, and doors sealed from the outside? I'm not sure if this is a distress call any more."

"Well, distress call or not. We still have to check it out. I'm not going home until this missions is completed and everything is OK again." Buzz commanded, "Now we have to get through this door. But how?"

"Well," Mira spoke up examining it, "I have ghosted 3 people before," she looked the door up and down and then looked over the crew, "Ouch this could get difficult."

"Do you think you could do it Ranger Nova?" Lex asked. She knew the Tangean was debating on weather or not she could ghost 5 people through solid stone or not.

"I don't want you to do anything that could get you hurt," Buzz told her. "If we have to we'll find another way in."

"Well," Mira thought, "I feel pretty good. Let's give it a try." she was gonna do it. She was going to try and ghost the whole crew in. It was going to take every last drop of energy she had in her to do it, but the Ranger had a lot of determination, she wasn't going to quit. "Alright, everyone hold hands." they all linked hands and stood before the door. "Now you have to help me out here a bit. Synchronize your thoughts and believe you can do it."

Lex held Buzz's hand tightly, took a deep breath and believed.

They all began to glow and before they knew it they were inside. Mira collapsed on the floor breathing heavily. She was spent. For a Tangean to ghost it takes energy, and the more she ghosts along with her the more energy it takes. Five people was a whole lot to ghost through a door that was about two feet thick, and that took about every last drop of energy the woman had in her.

"Are you Ok Mira?" Booster asked her concerned for his friend.

"Ya...I'm..OK Booster," the Princess spoke between gasps of air.

"Good work Ranger Nova," Buzz complimented, "Stay here and regain strength. You've done enough for a while."

"Yes..sir," she saluted and then fell to her back to take a nap.

The hall they stood in was dark and wide. Their voices echoed off the chamber walls. The only thing that gave off light was the Ranger's phosphorous glowing green trim on their uniforms. Buzz still felt the twang within him that some time before this he was here in this very location, he still couldn't put a finger on it though. But he kept that to himself. His Ranger sense was screaming at him that this had been somewhere he had been before, but he didn't acknowledge it. Of course he hadn't been here before. This planet was relatively new in the field of science, besides he had never heard of it before he was assigned to it last year to watch the dig. Of course he had never been to the city within, ' I must be acting up because I am sympathetic with Lex. I must be so uptight that my mind is starting to play ticks on me and make me think I have the same thing she has,' the lead Ranger thought to himself. Sure that must be the answer he was just sympathizing with her.

"Anyone know what we are looking for?" XR asked.

"Not the slightest clue," Lex shook her head no.

"Well get with the vision making," he snapped his fingers.

"It's not that simple XR," she sighed, "They just come to me. I can't choose when I have them."

"Only I choose that my friend," a voice called through the darkness. The Rangers stopped in their tracks and perked up their ears. Who could that be? It was a female voice, but it wasn't Mira or Lex. Their eyes darted around looking, searching for the source. Nobody was there. They gyrated their heads on their necks looking into every crack, corner, and crevice. But still nothing to be seen.

"Who's there?" Buzz called out through the darkness taking a bold step forward. His eyebrows dipped down and his jaw tightened making some sort of defiant grimace.

"That's the voice," Lex whispered scared and hiding behind Buzz's back. This time not only she heard it but everyone else! This was starting to become worse, her dreams were becoming more then visions of were to find things, but of reality!

"What?' Buzz asked, "You know who it is?" how did someone else get in here? The door was shut solid, nobody could have opened it.

Lex gulped, "It's the voice from my visions."

"I'm going to get to the bottom of this right now," Buzz said through clenched teeth. If this was the voice that was tormenting Lex he was going to give it a talking to. "Show yourself! Who are you!?"

"I am Mondm," the voice was from behind them. They turned around to see a girl as tall as Lex. She was dressed in the attire of the ancient LegoEgoian's. She looked as though she was dressed for battle. On her head was a helmet made of bronze and engraved with the language of the planet. A plume of some sort of animal hair hung from it. Gauntlets of silver on her arms. And shin plates on her legs. The same symbol of the Light of Orion that adorned Lex's staff was carved on her chest plate. She had a dark tan and green eyes. Her hair color was unknown due to the helmet. But obviously this was no normal being.

"Are you the one who has been sending me those umm messages?" Lex asked stepping forward from the group of confused Space Rangers.

"Yes. I am sorry they have disturbed you but it was the only way that I could contact you. I can not leave the temple, I can not pass the great seal on the floor," she directed with her arm to a big seal on the floor in front of the door from witch Mira ad ghosted them in. It was the same symbol as Mondm's chest plate and Lex's staff. "A powerful curse was put upon me to forever stay in the temple until the mystery of our planet was solved."

Lex and the Rangers said nothing. What was this girl talking about a curse? The mystery of their planet? What was going on here?

"That's why I need your help, to free my spirit from this place," Mondm went on to say.

"Spirit?" Booster chocked.

"Then that would make you a ghost?" Buzz asked confused. He wasn't scared, he knew he should be, but for some reason he wasn't. All these new facts were overloading his senses, he wasn't sure what to be any more.

Mondm nodded, "Yes." she then acted as if the Rangers were not there and spoke directly to Lex. "You have brought some strange people with you Quelle. I have never seen such strange men."

"Well Buzz is a bit crazy at times, but he's not strange," Lex smiled giving Buzz a loving glare. But then she caught her mistake. Quelle? Had she just called her Quelle? "What did you call me?"

"Ouelle, that is your name," Mondm payed no attention to Lex's confusion. She thought that Lex knew who she was, or used to be. Mondm was more interested now in these strange people Quelle had brought back with her. She looked the three men up and down, trying to figure out what sort of aliens these guys were. One seemed to be big and round, unlike any humanoid she had seen on LegoEgo. One seemed to be some sort of strange metal man. And the last, witch Quelle had called Buzz, appeared to be normal but still strange. What a big and pronounced chin he had, he must be some sort of alien with that strange facial feature, "What strange aliens you have brought with you Quelle."

Buzz felt a little uncomfortable being examined by a ghost and stepped back a few steps. "We aren't aliens Ma'am. Well Booster here is I guess you could say. He's a Jo-Adian, XR here is a robot, and I am a human. We're Space Rangers."

"Space..Rangers?" Mondm asked questioning the phrase. She had never heard of such a thing in her life. They must be some sort of God's or distant warriors. She shook her head almost laughing. "Strange indeed."

Lex still wasn't satisfied about the name thing, "Quelle? Who is Quelle?"

"You are!" Mondm answered. "Quelle, my sister in protecting the Light of Orion. Remember? My Father Emperor Kaninchen appointed you. Do you not know who you were?"

"No, I'm sorry. I'm Lex, Alexis Morgans. I never was a guardian of the Light of Orion. I don't know you or the Emperor. I'm just an archaeologist."

"You do not remember your past life?"

"No."

"I will help you remember," Mondm put her hands on Lex's head. Lex's eyes rolled back in her head and her body went stiff. There was some sort of magic taking the girl over.

"What are you doing to her!!?" Buzz demanded to know. If she was hurting her in any way Buzz was going to attack.

"Space Ranger, relax. I will not hurt her, but she has to remember her past. Without her memories the mystery will never be solved. Please, trust me. I won't harm my friend." Mondm pacified Lightyear. Buzz stepped down, but he wasn't taking his eyes off of Mondm for a second.

Memories of a past life flooded into Lex's head. It was as if some memory file was unlocked in her brain. Lex began remembering, seeing. Things she had never known. The people, the city, the light, the disaster.

Mondm let go of Lex when she was done. Lex caught her breath but had to take a while to register in her mind what had just happened. As soon as it was done Buzz ran to her and scooped her into his arms protectively.

"You OK?" he asked urgently.

"Yes, I'm fine Buzz, thank you."

"Do you now remember?" Mondm asked.

"Yes. I do. I remember it all," lex answered. She didn't know what had just happened to her but she now had all these new memories mixed in with her old ones. She saw the city as it was millions of years ago in mer mind. She remembered it all, all of Quelle's memories she now had as her own.

"Please you must help me. I must find out what happened to our people," Mondm pleaded with Lex. The expression on the LegoEgoian's face was sad and hopeful. They needed to help her, to put this lost soul to rest.

"We will help you," Buzz nodded. "A Space Ranger is sworn to protect and serve." Buzz nodded to the girl.

"Thank you! Thank you!" Mondm jumped up and down with happiness, "Come, I will explain the situation in my Father's throne room." the Ranger's started to follow her through the temple.

Mira walked up a little groggy, but she wasn't going to be left behind. She saw Mondm and Buzz holding Lex in his arms as if something bad had happened. "Um did I miss something?"

"We'll fill you in on the way Ranger," Buzz told her. Mira shrugged and followed them as well.

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Deep, deep in the shadows of the temple, a shadowy figure loomed in the darkness. It's cold hard stare on Buzz Lightyear. It squinted it's eyes and hissed. "So The Protector, my ancient nemesis, has returned and brought forth Mondm." he surveyed the others. "He has also brought back the robotic defiler!! The cursed one who put me back into my tomb!" it leered at XR. It then caught sight of Lex, "The Protector has also brought back with him the Guardian. She too will fall to my dark purpose as all the rest of her people did before. Natron the Ever Living shall rise again! And then all will bow down to me, or meet the herald of their doom!!" and Natron followed the troop every step of the way to the throne room.

TO BE CONTINUED...........