Mira lay panting on the cold stone floor. Her muscles felt paralyzed, weak... a blur was swirling in her eyes again...
The ghosting had drained her strength. Those countless walls had no head, no tail. There had to be several floors of them, doorless, blue-glowing chambers. Now they appeared like horrible foes that were cackling derisively at her confusion. What was this awful nightmare? There was no sense in it, no reason in this maze! Who had brought her here? Or was it all just an illusion?
But right at the moment her feebleness felt even too real, as much as the sand desert in her throat. Her inners burned, they yarned to get a gulp of water; she would have given her fortune for a fresh, sparkling fountain... This dusty, moldy air made her cough and gasp. It felt as though she had wandered here for hours. Yet, the digital timer on her wrist communicator indicated that it was still an early morning.
She wearily took support from her elbows, and rose up an inch or two from the grimy floor. Swelling rage and shaky disturbance reflected from her face. The Princess was both angry with herself and that glib twit who had lured her in this obvious trap. Before she even understood, she was yelling to the plain nothingness with a raucous, furious voice, blaming the walls for her dismay.
"Where am I? Who is behind this darned snare? Show yourself! Let me out of here! What---"
But the yelp died on her tongue. As if the sheer stone would have ablazed into life, the wall right in front of her nose began shimmering more violently. The electric blue glow sizzled and rattled, flickering with white straps like a colossal monitor. And before she could utter a baffled 'Huh?', the outline of a giant face had appeared there like projected onto a movie screen. But what -or more accurately said who- was sneering back at her, made Mira's eyes widen to the size of small planets. That set of deep-blue eyes, that dark shiny hair falling into them... that thin nose, that bluish-black Van Dyke...
"Did the curious bluebird have an exciting adventure through the rooms?" the head on the screen mocked with a cold, ruthless grin.
"BUZZ?" she gasped, thunderstruck.
The portrait burst out into a hoarse laugh, his hands rose up to the level of his face. She stared at it with a mixture of confusion and disbelief. What was going on? She had left Buzz' house less than twenty-four hours ago with his team, their former captain bathing in disoriented lies...
"Buzz? Is that you? Why--- was it YOU who closed me in here?" she yelled, gazing unblinkingly at the ghastly cackling man.
Somewhere in the upper floors, the Shadow sat at a dusting control table. The small monitor in the console showed the crouching Nova bellowing in mistrust. When he finally was able to free himself from the bonds of sick exhilaration, he remained to tap his fingers together and taunt mutely. The woman's lying figure spat more questions.
"Oh this is priceless!" he simpered at himself, brooding in his mind, "Alike that other stupid chick, she thinks I'm that local, sniveling nervous wreck Lightyear! Well well... idiocy grows within idiocy I assume. But let's play along, it'll be far much funnier that way! Let her stay in her assumptions. Perhaps it will eventually be one more hit against Lightyear's big dumb head... hehehehe."
"Why are you doing this?" the supine form in the screen asked again. "You... you can't be Buzz! You have to be some fraud in a holosuit or something! And who uses voice distortion to alter speech!"
The Shadow smirked, continuing to tat his fingertips irritably together. Nova in her chamber sat up. The energy was gradually filling her veins again and seemingly was aided by the sudden blazing resentment.
"I never denied anything, did I?" he asked. "I need no holosuits to decorate myself nor any spices to sweeten my tone, you insufferable fool."
She gawped at him. It could not be... it could not be true! Had it been Buzz after all who had lured her here, just like Mira had feared for a microsecond in a fantasy she had considered so fully absurd? Had he really scribbled that sodden piece of parchment? But why? What was the reason in this? And on the top of the heap, had he done something to Yoka-hanen? And that horrible blunt grimace on his face! It seemed so cold that it could have started an ice age any time in these tunnels. In addition, was not that space ranger supposed to be sane nowadays? Departed from the paths of darkness? But why no-one raised a tissue to wipe that ill sadistic smile off his face? A canful of boiling water was showed down her collars; so disturbing was the emotion.
...had Buzz' supposed healing been just a cunning coulisse en route to something else...?
...just a sly, clever play to hatch something else behind the scenery...?
It could not be true...
"W-what?" she repeated the questions tumbling in her mind aloud, again and again. "You wrote that message? You hit me unconscious and locked me in this cell? You, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command?"
"Why not, Princess? I have always hated you and your pathetic little lullaby universe. All in such a peaceful balance, no worry of tomorrow? I think it's time for you blasted worms to cringe in front of something else, hehehehe. Hahahaha."
She picked her ear with a finger, as if it had been full of mush distorting the sense of hearing. "But... but... you yourself said your heart had changed! You swore in front of everyone you had left the dark side! Your father believed you!"
His mien adopted a surprised glow. The Shadow had actually no idea what Mira was shouting, thus he would need to select the answer carefully not to spoil the play he had begun. Why did the Tangean jabber about that chicken noodle Buzz Lightyear and the dark side in the same sentence? It sounded almost like that weepy softie had done something evil at some point. But that was just ridiculous. The Lightyear inheritance in this universe was devolved, worthless. On the other hand... had not that other chick squealed also something relevant? The one that could not even speak understandable English...
Gradually a curious glint was ignited in his eyes. He stroke his moustaches with a finger, looking down at the show with a tad of different outlook. Could there actually be potential still left in this once so precious blood? Like the rather intriguing case of that thought-to-be-dead father...
There was a long silence. Mira and the Shadow stared at one another through the ether between the vidscreens; the royal scowling and the menace humming some sneering note. She was the next one to speak, freeing him from the trap of revealing his true self.
"What have you done to your wife?" she had lowered her voice into a hoar whisper.
The wide cavil spurted back on his face. "You mean that stupid naïve chick, who has the intelligence level of a baboon? Hahaha. Well well, nosy eh? If you're so interested in about that idiot, why don't we try the same nice torture method on you?"
Nova's jaw clicked open. Little by little, her both hands clenched into fists, soon her knuckles whitening in the squeeze. An expression of pure hatred crept on her visage. She did not know Yoka almost at all, nor had completely even liked her on those occasions in Kaleva. But the sheer illusion of someone afflicting his wife with violence was too much; it brought hot, salty teardrops in her eyes. This vile man in front of her sounded even worse than Zurg. And she had been such a fool to actually trust Buzz? Believe that the Indian had been 'kidnapped' or relevant? But... but... had it been so that this double-dealing hypocrite had in the shades started ripping his own life apart and meanwhile acting like an innocent dove in front of the unsuspecting audience? What kind of schizophrenic sicko was he?
"YOU'RE MAD AND SICK! How can you... how can you..." she hasped for breath, eyes smoldering like roaring sunquakes, "You... you t-told us you LOVED her! Is this your conception of LOVE? No wonder you have had problems to find even a decent girlfriend, if you turn out to be a violent sadistic beast underneath your cover of a space ranger hero!" It all started coming together now. Why the Captain never really succeeded in female relationships and why he had transformed into such a viper in that desolated planet of runes and sagas...
Only if Mira had understood that she was fed with astute lies... But the Shadow had leaded the game so far that the real identities had been swept under a blanket of fog.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA! MUWAHAHAHHAAAAH!" the male laughed holding his stomach. "Ahh this is really priceless! You possibly can't understand how much I enjoy seeing you pathetic little git cringing there tears in your eyes! You know, you're even more amusing than that other chick. Hmm..." he patted once again his fingers together, "Just wondering what kind of amusing torture things I could use on you! We have plenty of variety over here, perhaps it's just the wide selection that makes it difficult to decide! Hahahaha! Oh yes... I think I need to keep you alive for a while so that I can get all the fun! The slower you die, the more you will scream..." his last sick, twisted words turned into a hushed hiss.
Mira's pupils stood petrified, glued to the monitor. Her mouth was again becoming too dry to form an understandable sentence, whereas her heart was pounding manically against her ribs. And right on the moment as she was about to utter a cumbersome counterargument, the wall began to ripple with white lines and blur again. The bearded man's face warped into a hexagonical pattern, then died out with an audible click. The wall was once again shimmering only that darkish blue, and showed only an exhibition of dull bricks. She was left in chaotic silence with her fast spreading headache. Something banged inside her scull, a hammer of hopelessness. Nova fell back onto the floor, and remained to stare monotonously at the cubicle's ceiling.
---Star Command---
"Now where is Captain Nova loitering? Sweet mother of Venus, she was supposed to be here an hour ago!"
Commander Nebula paced around his office, while XR and Booster stood at the doorway. It was Monday morning; the time had leapt over the weekend. However, something was rather weird under the glow of stars. The punctual Tangean space ranger was late from job although Zeb had scheduled today's mission already last week. The ambassador of Amphibia CXX needed escorting back to her home planet after some boring summit on Capital Planet. She had waited already a good while in a guestroom with her servants, and an umpteen times vidphoned to the Commander whether the convoys were ready. And again, the comlink whined.
"Can't she give it a break?" Nebula snarled, throwing an angry look towards the two rangers. "You have no idea where Mira is?"
The robot and the red reptile shrugged. The moustache man answered the call.
"Hem, hem! May I kindly remind you, Mister Commander, that I am a busy woman and I am being waited on my home planet! If you kindly would arrange me the escorters!" a toadlike, flat face had appeared onto the holoscreen, talking with a falsely sweet voice.
"Craters. Look, Madame Flobberworm, the captain of your escort team has not yet arrived. We need her to..."
"Would you kindly call me Madame Ambassador when you are addressing me?" she chirped sugarily back, "And perhaps I ought to write a letter to the prime minister about your disability to arrange decent guardians to me."
"Alright, Madame Ambassador." Nebula almost snarled under his breath. This toadface with her flowery, laced dress started really getting on his nerve. "Plan change then, if you kindly request it, Madame Ambassador. I will order Team Rocket to the service. They'll be there in five minutes." Almost smoke coming out of his nostrils, he switched off the com channel.
"What? Team Rocket? Why can't we go as a duo? We're both brave knights who can..." XR began complaining, but Zeb cut the mecha short with a grunt.
"No, sorry boys but that ol' frog needs a complete team as her custodians. I have to figure out something else for you. Blasted blackholes, where is that Tangean?" There was no use to dial her comlink number, the connection refused every time. Her home phone joyfully tooted as minutes went on, and not even a Blast-Ended Skrewt answered.
"Have you kids seen her since Friday, by the way?" he frowned.
"Nope. We shooed ourselves to watch Vikki Vortex right when the totally futile 'mission' was over. And we were late! Aah, what a tragedy!" the robot wailed, "We missed a good row of babes because the Gamma Quadrant semifinals had already started before we got home! We had no time to do even popcorn! And all because Buzz was nutso and we had to rot on Morph!"
Nebula scowled. That blabbermouth android just could not find less sarcastic expressions, could he? And what did some beauty contest anyway have to do with the absence of Mira?
"You were on Morph? What happened when you saw her the last time?"
"Well, Sir, Mister Lightyear Senior ordered us on this mission, and when it was over, Captain Nova said she wanted to stay the night in Kaon!" Booster saluted hyperpolitely.
"Now, she did? Sweet mother of Venus, what were you doing there anyway? That loony zeta-worshipper obviously put you to sniff around Buzz' house? Huh?"
"Yeah well that's what Mira did. She was grubbing about all kinds of droppings in the backyard while we were inside having a moment of nonsense", XR informed. "And she found nothing and still wanted to stay and grow moss in that city."
Zeb narrowed his eyes. "Hmh, wanted to stay huh? What if she found something and just wanted to get rid of you two rock sleds? The kid has always had a sore spot for little private adventures, you know..."
"What? You mean she sacked us? But she said she found nothing but owl dung---"
The old male lifted a finger to scratch his forehead. "Look, this starts to stink. I'm not really convinced, but that bucket head perhaps had a point when he crushed The Desk in two. I'm starting to have a bad feeling that Mira has maybe got messed up with something..."
His vidphone gave a screeching discord. Madame Flobberworm couched her stupid little 'hem hem' on the other side, complaining that Team Rocket had not yet arrived. The disgruntled commander seized a moment to snap at Munchapper and his buddy that they should go and get Zurg in their hands.
A few instants later, the Beacon and the Trailer were chatting with the Emperor via comlink. The overly-puffed insect king was throwing a tantrum and grating his dazzlingly white teeth; why had nobody called him after Friday and given any status report about Buzz, and yada yada yada. The surprise grew, since Mira had promised to call Zora and tell the little bits of nothing there was to narrate.
"This is a disgrace! I see the darkness growing, I arrange a mission, and I except that you incompetent sobbing mutts also complete it! Wrahh! And you dare to lie that there is NOTHING WRONG? Grahh! Snorrf! Nitwits! Numbskulls!" Zurg's wrath was the size of a volcano. Such brimstone fumes floated in the ether that neither the Jo-Adian nor the big-mouthed robot dared to argue.
"But Sir Emperor, we..." Booster nervously twisted his hands, "We didn't know that Mira..."
"You shall take new orders now, you loogin sluggards! You shall go to Morph immediately and find that ghost! It is obvious that Mira Nova has not even come back to Capital Planet, but something has happened to her either on Friday night or somewhat later. I shall try to contact Buzz, although I am afraid I will not be able to talk to him."
"B-but, Mister Lightyear, we have our daily job at Star Command and..." Booster whined on.
"It is your job to find your captain!" Although peppered with futile bellowing, Zoxedaszeĉ had a clear and reasonable point in his sentence. Neither one of the rangers had courage to refuse, now as Commander Nebula had even dumped them out of his office. Hence they squeezed into Forty-Two and shot off towards Buzz' home planet.
Nonetheless, the day occurred to be anything but fertile. The earth had slurped Buzz, and Mira was as much present as butterflies in the deepest winter. The ranger duo strolled here and there making questions about Nova, yet they seemed to be combing through the wrong side of the town. Thus by the early evening they had not even peeked towards The Bates Motel nor been much near Lightyear's house. As Commander Nebula heard about their tiny by-order, he was not at all peevish that they were looking for Nova. His only side comment was, that Zurg should wash his mouth with tall-oil soap when Munchapper obediently reported also the stack of snide nicknames they had received during the day.
Yet, the diurnal stopped to complete pointlessness and the remnants of Team Nova flew back home. If Mira would pop up tomorrow, then the worries would be over. Otherwise, a heavy plan B would have to be developed.
The following night on Capital Planet, in one of the most well known jet set districts, seemed to be the calmest and most idyllic. A gentle curtain of snow was falling onto the streets, like a cloud of silvery feathers. Only a few speeders soared outside in the near silence; otherwise everything appeared to be in a heavy slumber. The spring was somewhat late, and it was predictable that the frost would embrace the surroundings for a while still.
Whereas Kaon had the deepest summer and those sweet scents of full-blooming flowers in the air, the tides were a tad different here in the Galactic Core.
The Darkmatter Manor stood lifeless on one larger site. The doors were locked, drapes drawn tight shut to cover the windows. A gentle wrap of untouched snow lay on the yard, showing the continuing absence of the little family of mixed races. And, some distances away, stood another bombastic colossus, The Z Tower II, which looked merely like a bonsai-version of the old sinister palace on Planet Z. But it was as placid as the neighborhood. No vile hornets were buzzing around the horns of the roof, and no horrible torturing devices awaited the postman if the envelopes happened not to be violet. In the first basement floor, a pack of servant grubs were puffing in their dormitory, in miniature four-posters that were lined along the walls. A few of those bugs stood in nightguard across the labyrinthine house, but also they were rather much looking like sleepwalkers than perky alert guardians.
In the topmost floor was the bedroom of the master and mistress. It came not as a shocking surprise that the vaulted chamber seemed to be sprayed all over with purple shades and izzards. The faint glow of the nightlamp, the tapestries on the walls, the mossy sinking carpet, even the flannel pajamas of the couple carried these famous signs of the newly risen mini-empire. Zora and Mariañ were vast asleep, but something seemed to be disturbing the old man's dreams. He tossed and turned on his side of the bed, unbeknownst by his wife, who slumbered like there was no error or mishap in the world. This far, the male had wriggled so much that the soft blanket was at least three times around his body, its clutch nearing an overhand knot. The pillow had been dropped onto the floor, and the shirt part of his pajamas had experienced a peculiar transformation under the nightmare's torture. Obviously it had not stood the combination of squirming and muscular tension, since it was torn into two from the backside. Also the front was suffering; several buttons had fallen off and were in a disoriented scatter on the sheet and the floor.
"No... no... it shall not happen, no..." Zurg's lips were forming sentences. His inhales were deep, rapid. Apparent sweat drops glimmered on his forehead, his night-trimmed hairdo had turned into a bush of dark out-sticking twigs. In his vision, in the dusky dream he lived, menacing shadows danced and cackled hollowly.
Something was gliding between shining metal bars, across dark, cold stone... there were objects around shimmering in strange, vibrant colors... everything stirred in a blurry mixture of shapes and colors, and an almost high-pitched soulless cackle was all the time present, haunting... it seemed to infiltrate every nook, the inners of every dust particle... a pair of cold, blue eyes flashed in a green twilight...
"NO! NO!" a hollow gargle emerged from Zurg's throat. He was ripping the air with his clawlike hands, as if his unnaturally long thin fingers had tried to tear the mere atoms apart. His wife startled awake beside the wrenching male, staring soon shocked at the Emperor.
...A man was sitting on the floor, his outline gleaming in the dark... he raised his head, slowly... suddenly the image of the cold, soulless eyes were back, a flash, then there were two figures... the other one still sitting on the cold stone floor, another one hooded, hovering out of the shadows...
A loud groan of denials shot out of Zora's gorge. It was as if there was no way out of the weird dream, he felt he was stuck somewhere, a great pain searing across his forehead.
"Mollygoggle? Popkin? What's the matter?" the girl piped nervously, extending a hand to shake awake her mate. But right at the moment, Zora experienced a sort of snatched spasm, his whole huge body becoming rigid and the words coming shrieking out of his mouth.
"Alone, he has been, chained... abandoned... BUT THE DARK LORD WILL RISE AGAIN WITH HIS SERVANT'S AID, GREATER AND MORE TERRIBLE THAN EVER HE WAS! A servant will join him... the Dark Lord shall rise... SHALL RISE..."
"Ziggery-Pooh? You're having a bad dream..." Mariañ mewled mousily. "Wake up, Googly Bear!"
She did not have to wait for long for his awakening, though. As the ordeal's rage went on, the male rolled over the bed's edge, and with a great thud, landed onto the floor. But this was not enough. The falling half-giant drew the rickety nighttable down with his weight. Shattering glass chinked with a splash of water. A loud moan rose up from the floor level. The girl raced to perch onto the bed's edge and peered down.
"Honeycomb? Purplebee? Are you all right?"
"Urrhhhggg..." he grimaced. Zurg was lying half-sitting on the carpet, a large transparent vase over his head. The remains of his pajama shirt were wet and an amount of cut flowers was sliding down his front. The nightstand was lopsided behind him, together with the remnants of a drinking glass and a mini-portrait collection of Zora's grinning mugs. As finally understanding where the Emperor was, he removed the vase and set a palm instead over his eyes. His forehead was furthermore throbbing, like in a nasty migraine attack.
"Ohh my glorious selected purple orchids, blooming so majestically in their imperial splendor, ohh the poor frail fairies of grandiloquent jungles..." he blabbered looking at the mess, still a bit off his rocket after the hallucination.
"Ziddums, are you sure you are alright? You had a really bad dream and you fell..."
He sat up, blinking. It was all suddenly in front of him as if he had seen a photograph display. Momentarily the nightmare had been forgotten, but her worried squeak had brought it back.
"You... you were shouting horribly something about... a dark lord and that someone was coming back..."
He still goggled at the wall ahead. A lingering memento of those cold blue eyes was floating in front...
"Y-you had baddy dreams last night too, but I didn't want to wake you up then because you calmed down... you were muttering something about Buzz..."
"Buzz..." his lips produced the name. The sapphire eyes, the icy gleam... there had been also another kind of picture. The same deep blueness swelling with teary rage, fear, hatred towards something...
...he had his mother's eyes...
"Honey?" the feminine voice continued the questioning in the background.
The old man slowly scampered up to his feet, holding lightly his aching head. A stern frown soon steeled his face. The strange feeling did not vanish, it was as if the dream had continued inside him even though he was awake.
Something was wrong with Buzz... something dark and horrible was gathering strength... There had been this alarm for a while screaming inside him that something was wrong. Already before his son had begun acting so oddly. And now it was all shrilly shrieking about Buzz...
Something was happening on Morph...
Zurg tried to filter his blurry thoughts through the pounding headache.
What the jumping nanotubes was this atrocious feeling...?
"Zora? Zoxed---?"
He swirled around on his heels to face his wife so fast that she winced. An austere gleam reflected from his eyes. The syllables came out solemnly and ominously.
"The dark side is rising... and my son has something to do with it. There is something evil in the horizon, far much more evil than I ever have been..."
...to be continued...