"Uhh..." a moan was heard. Dark... dank... moldy... something rumbled in Buzz' head. Gzanng, kaboom...

Was that still the thunderstorm? No... it could not be. It had ceased while he had walked in the forest. Or had it come back...?

No, his dizzy mind made it up. Little by little the man opened his woozy, tacky eyes. The world was swirling around him, in a great whirlpool shaded with black and blue. An iron band of pain squeezed his already cramped cranium, trying to compress it into mere quarks. Hard, throbbing ache spread all the way from his occiput and beat pounding against his temples. This infernal bongo drum made him again and again flicker out back in to the frowzy sewer of unconsciousness.

Then the thought appeared. Someone had hit him. Someone... or something... he had not even noticed. The last memento was that he had rushed panting through the woods.

Yes, there had been that thunderstorm... a stupid idea to expose himself that way to the killer lightning bolts, but he just had to go on, had to get forwards...He had to put an end to this manic play. He would not draw anyone else into this; it was up to him to stop the diabolic invisible enemy. A second sacrifice was too much. If Mira was gone, who would be the next one? No, he would not allow anyone to become the next one. There simply was no such option as some third innocent citizen suffering something atrocious in some maniac's hands.

Where to he was dashing, was not even quite clear. The hints were so frail. Yet, he had to be on the right way...the ruins were there somewhere. If Yoka had seen them, they had to exist...

But that the wet, rain-scented air had transformed into this? This stuffy, dark something. If he only could get rid of the spinning and whirling, and understand where he was...Gradually, very slowly all became clearer, though. He sensed a floor under his palms. It felt very repulsive; the surface was craggy and cold. But ultimately he tweaked himself to sit up.

He had been lying on a floor? How long and where...? These notions were the most instant ones. There were no floors in the middle of thick vegetation, were there? Someone had brought him somewhere... Groaning he took a better pose, raising up his furthermore swirly regard from the slatternly surface. Why did it have that odd glow anyway? Or was his head still so miry that it made up a hallucination? Wearily he shifted his pupils away from that dreamlike gleam. More fuzzy shadows... was there someone lying opposite to him? Buzz brought a set of fingers to massage his temples and squinted.

Yet, a shrill yelp of sudden horror fled from his throat, as he conceived what he was watching face to face at. Bee-lined, a few meters away from him, the hollow eye sockets of a grayed, sooty human scull stared back at him. Its jaw hung half open, as if its grimacing mouth was cruelly gurgling him welcome.

In chaotic panic, Buzz backed up towards the wall behind him. It had been quite a shock to snap awake this way; the first sight being a morbid corpse cheering there so bonily. He cast a glance around the room, his back glued now onto the grained wall astern of him. Where was he? He gazed again at the skeleton, his corner of eye telling that there was another one lying a little distance away. The first terrified notion of this dead being perhaps someone he knew, was whisked aside by the fact that the carcass was ages old. It still had some semi-decayed, crumpled, drooping garments on. Apparently it had once worn a deep-red velvet swallowtail with ruffs on the cuffs and collars, and black starched trousers, which were now however all broken and moldy.

"Yick!" Lightyear grimaced. Even the dungeons on Planet Z felt cozier than this macabre place. He sat inside some sort of cubicle. And that blue light appeared not to be an illusion, it truly emitted it. There seemed to be none kind of entrance or exit... how had he gotten in?

However, the answer was given him before he had even reflected it further on. A creak jarred in his ears. The right-side wall of the chamber had begun to slide open tardily. As the gab widened, more light flooded in, with the sight of heavy iron bars blocking the freedom behind it. Then something, or someone... a black figure stood behind the grating in an open corridor.

The Captain gawped at this appeared person as if it had carried a badly stereotypical fancy dress of something that tried looking ghoulishly spooky. It had ink-black long robes on, covering its whole body from crown to feet -or whatever then was under there. It was about the same height and weight of Buzz, if not exactly in the equal measures. A deep-drawn hood covered its face wholly. Only a pair of sharp, vilely grinning eyes were visible from the abysses of the cowl. In its gloved hand, the murky one kept a small staff. What was more, it did not seem to stand at all, but hovered a few inches over the floor slabs. Its breath rattled with a scornful laughter, as it observed the prisoner from its freedom.

"Did you enjoy your nap, Buzz?" it unexpectedly asked. Lightyear winced, escaping on his legs. That voice... it was his voice.

Was that the fiend he had been looking for? It was not invisible, it truly had a form of a human. Just like he had expected. But still in those robes, it looked like a real ghost.

But that voice... he had so many times pondered the secret of it. Was the mystery behind the unseen going to be revealed now?

But distorting Buzz' musings, the Shadow spoke again.

"Hmm... seemingly not enjoying then. The oh-I-am-so-brave-and-cool space ranger willing to have answers?"

This was like swinging a cutlet in front of an angry lion. Buzz attacked against the bars, yelling. "Yes! I will have answers, and I will have them now! Craters, what is this foul play? It's you, who's been behind this all the time, haven't you? You wrote those messages! You..." He banged the grating violently, fury blazing in his eyes. But the black figure seized him and put him to fly backwards by extending the staff.

A green flash of light momentarily dyed the musty wall stones with yellowish glare. Buzz convulsed on the floor like a spider in shock. His bones were on fire, and he was sure that his head was to split open; so forceful was the blast of the Shadow's viper weapon. The pain did not end when the laser-plasma pulse ceased. Panting for breath the prisoner lay beside the skeleton he had been scared earlier.

"Tsut, tsut, tsut, shouldn't be too zealous, hehe. Why don't you say hello to your ancestors at first?"

Buzz frowned at the carcass, not quite comprehending what the enemy had on his tongue. "Ancestors? What do you know about my ancestors? What is this sick game?"

"Ohh I think I do know a lot more than you, little innocent Buzz... who has always been so keen on praising the glory of goodness, and the virtues of the Lightyears... hehehe. Goody-doody Buzz Lightyear. Too bad you are such a mudblood and not like the majority. You could have had great prospects to become something worthy, but I guess the blood in your family has badly begun to devolve. What a shame, otherwise you could have become perhaps a brilliant ally for me... But you've remained to be such a lovesick fool who weeps after some monkey chick and shudders all alone in his misery... all that kissy-wissy alphabet learning and other mushy love-dove melodrama... makes me want to puke!" the hooded one gagged after his initial tirade. "Do you think the old glorious Dark Lightyears would have tolerated such defamation?" his voice was tuned into high-pitched mockery imitation, "Yoka honey, what's the matter? Are you feeling all sad? Come here, let's make you a good cup of tea and... Yick!"

The Captain sat blankly, panting furiously. What was that cloud of gobbledygook supposed to be? Lightyear blood? And this continuous lecture about the ancestors, spiced now with those insulting words concerning Yoka. How dared that diabolical foe offend his wife like that? Besides, what was this place? Yet his mind was so blurry that the first outcoming shout was only a feeble attempt of defense.

"Wha--- how do you think you know--- How do you know what my family is supposed to be?"

"Now don't interrupt me, when I tell you. I know you're always so keen to hear answers and reasons and all kinds of boring blah-blah-blah. So shut your trap when I explain so that your pint-sized brains can handle it", the capturer sneered and played with the snake staff. "Still don't understand that I lived in your house, side by side with you and your chick almost from the first night on? As I said... I'm everywhere and anywhere, nowhere to be seen... hahahaha! Ahh now that was poetic."

Buzz stared at the person vacantly.

"I heard, I learned, I watched, and had some brilliant fun! Hahaha, your cute girl seemingly didn't enjoy really the tricks I did. Too bad, it was priceless! Oh well, nowadays she's starting to lose her senses. It isn't any more all that fun as it was at the beginning. Hah, the chick can't recognize the difference, thinks it's you who's doing this to her, hehehehe."

Lightyear exhaled with extreme frenzy. Bellowing, he made another attack towards the bars. "WHAT? WHAT have you done to Yoka? Where is she--- AAAAAGGHHHHHHAAAAAHHH!" He was sent flying across the cell once more.

"We're not getting too hot-headed today," the figure laughed coldly. "She's mainly waiting for her death now. Though, it's a little pity to finish her off, such a sassy girl, she has a lot more attitude than you. But as long as she's alive, I have my intentions to benefit from my prisoners. I really didn't have at first in mind that I could actually use you as my puppet as long as I have a full control over her. You know, all that pathetic heroic stuff... I bet you're ready to do anything for me as long as I don't hurt your pitiful chick. Hahaha."

"You... get... your filthy hands... off... her..." the hurt man hissed through his teeth. This time it was harder to get up from the floor, since the hit of that green flash had been more forceful. But the enemy just jeered.

"See, that's just what I mean. 'You get your filthy hands of her... jabber jabber jabber'..." he imitated again with falsetto. "You just have no attitude. The first thing you manage to produce is that, and you suppose that I'm going to react to that somehow? Well, it gives me some good laughs, strictly taken. Then you go on with lecturing how evil never wins, and how you believe in freedom and justice and so on. How predictable and pathetic."

The jailbird sat quiet. Yes, that thing was right. It helped nothing, how much he ever would bluster and thunder.

"Yes, and then you ask for motives. Well, I have no motives. I just do things because I find them amusing. Just like Zurg used to do. Heard he's dead. I'd have had two choices concerning him, either to pay him back for ruining my life, or to ally with him, knock him down from his throne and thus eventually rule even this galaxy..." the Shadow's voice had been lowered into a wolverine snarl for a moment, but soon regained its malevolently cheerful tone. "Hmm. Although... when I come to think of it, perhaps I do have motives after all. This, everything... maybe I could consider it as an intriguing game. Command and conquer, or something like that." He brought a hand on the place of his chin, as if contemplating, "...and now after living years in near death, in mere vanity, what do you think is my deepest will? To rise again, to see how far I can go, how many pathetic worming people will cringe in front of me before they die, hahaha..."

During this little rant, Buzz' expression had been lifted from the pits of the beastlike anger to the empyreans of sheer confusion. Why did this talk suddenly sound so eerily familiar? Those little bits of colubrine words had revealed a lot more information than the ghost's whole essence this far.

Who on Mars was this diabolic ghoul? While the menace jeeringly went on with his self-praises, Buzz played with that sentence in his mouth. Previously, based on the voice and the way of speaking, he had darkly assumed the foe to be some unknown relative of his. Perhaps someone like that Mizar, who had killed his mother. But suddenly there was a whole new range of possibilities.

What if this person was nothing he had assumed it to be? This gloating about life being a game of destruction...This cackle about all that ultimate dominance...Why did he have the hunch he had heard this a few times before... years ago...

His spine gave a shutter. It felt as though someone had just showed a whole swimming pool full of ice cubes down his collars. What if...

"No, it's impossible. It can't be he, can it?" Lightyear lifted his eyes from the floor to examine the ghost from the shadows. "How could he be on Morph? In a place like this? It... it's impossible! Blast! He was supposed to be dead! He couldn't have survived, could he...?" However, as the seconds went on, the belief was glued more and more firmly on its basis. On the other hand, it just seemed to lack every bit of sense. What was this gibberish about the ancestors? The desire for revenge and sneaky plots Buzz could comprehend grandly, but the other unexplored side was so nebulous.

The Morphean obviously pushed his morose anger slightly aside, as these notions filled his scull. Could he possibly try to slip some quick questions in the middle of the Shadow's boasting? Hence he might grow with savvy and perhaps understand...

He lifted his hinterland up, and for the third time, walked towards the barred barricade. But the blueness in his eyes remained icily calm. He still hoped that he would be wrong in his expectations. If not, the opposed figure was an individual known as the living nightmare. No mercy of any kind could be expected from its side. He was merely something possessed that had a black octopus in the place of its heart.

"Impressing outfit. What's that for?" he began his semi-sly query, scowling darkly. "Reminds me of one forgotten cult that diabolically used to plague this town a few hundred years ago. Kind of remember its members used similar kinds of robes."

The foe abruptly fell silent. The glint in his oculars adopted a surprised scorn. The it laughed, "Hahahaha, dramatizing the atmosphere as always Buzz Lightyear does! Even hushing the end of the blabber to make it sound so solemn and important! What a jerk. But at least your slow cerebration has figured out something. Yes, my outfit is really impressing. One hundred percent Nex Crucio quality. It was actually on him", the enemy pointed at the nearest, unclothed skeleton on the prison floor. "Didn't need it any more, so I was free to borrow it. Hahah. As if I'd need to borrow. I take what I want if I want."

This made the Captain blink. Another waterfall of unreciprocated queries was suddenly on his tongue, brought forth by the sheer effect of that Latin term. He had mainly thrown in the cult reference as a sarcasm.

Nonetheless... it tangled together with the parcel of unopened mysteries. But what, how, why? What did He-Who-Could-Not-Be-Yet-Quite-Surely-Named possibly have to do with a cult decayed centuries ago? And what was it with the claim about the forefathers? That male standing in front of him had said that these two skeletons were his ancestors?

Nevertheless, as if the Shadow had read Buzz' mind, it had begun drawling again.

"Ahh then your unanswered questions, hehehe. I can so easily guess what you were going to squeak next, I saw it from your face. So predictable... ahh well. In case you wonder where you are, you're in the old Headquarters of Nex Crucio. Not perhaps the most dweller-friendly house, but has kept me decently alive the few years of my destruction. And as my guest, you of course have received the nicest cell with those two joyful roommates, hehehe. But, although the environment is a tad dusty, I have quite neat chambers with electricity and such necessities. But, I have to steal my food from Kaon, which is of course humiliating for a superior being like me", he hawked and started toying again with the snake cane, as if it had been his most cherished childhood plaything. He went on blabbering about things that merely did not even fit his explanations. But obviously it was in his human nature to ramble every once in a while incoherently, before recalling the straight topic and returning to it. "Oh yes, although my life has been merely pitiful hiding, I haven't been bored. Far away from that. See, I have a neat library here, left from the golden times of Nex Crucio. I know all about it. Impressive, most impressive. And what's more, the books are full of familiar names and familiar-looking faces..."

Lightyear's visage stood adamant. "What do you mean?"

"Well... I wasn't ready to take the part-time job of a history teacher, but perhaps you'd need a tiny lesson about the intriguing facts concerning your funky forefathers", the sneerer took a more comfortable pose. "You seem to know at least something about Nex Crucio, but obviously not the most delicious tidbits. But let's recapitulate, a bit. Hundreds of years ago, when humans moved on Morph, this cult was founded by some fellows who considered Morph's natives, well... rather devolved and primitive. Those certain individuals saw themselves being far much higher with their race, and also wanted to show it. They wanted the city of Kaon and some nearby lands to be only for humans. Their target was to eliminate as much natives as they could, and scare the rest away. And crossbreeding was another horror for them. The cult members periodically napped people... either those that were natives or in too close relations with them..." the robed one cast a glance around, "They tortured and killed them here, kept them withering inside these cells, and so on. I think you can imagine what I mean. And, outside, all these neatly dark personalities were just plain citizens, had families, looked so innocent. Ah, I really must raise my thumbs up for their sneakiness!"

Buzz listened, with a grim expression, squeezing the bars with his fists.

"Haha, the cult kept the city in cold fear. Nex Crucio was something so horrible for them, they could only talk about it in whispers. No-one knew... no-one understood. And those, who found out, either joined it or then died. But, gradually a rebel rose in the town. Someone had skipped sides, and told, told everything he knew about the cult. Then, one night, it was Nex Crucio against the rest of the city. People armed with guns and blasters and such stuff gathered up to defend the pathetic things called 'peace and justice'. Bah, what wretches. Ahh well... sad enough, that night was the end of the cult. They found the terrain fortress, blew it up, and caught most of the members." The shadow whisked a bit his robes, as if being frustrated, "But, they didn't know about these underground places that never got destroyed. The old tower up there was just a coulisse. Yes... some of those Nex Crucio folks, who escaped the furious crowd that night, of course came down here. A few others were lucky to flee the planet I suppose. But for some reason those who came here, didn't get out. Obviously the entrances collapsed, as the upper buildings were destroyed. So they stayed here a bit longer than they thought..."

Buzz' eyes had stagnated wide for a while now. During the last sentence, the icky facts were getting a clearer image. 'Stayed a bit longer...'

"So, you can say finally hi to Zoxewa Kazor Lightyear and his brother Jardaz Lightyear, he's further there dressed in that red rag. Hahahaha. At that time, they were the leaders of Nex Crucio. Impressive, I must say again. Jardaz once looked a lot like your dad, in case you didn't know. What I don't still understand since your rotten dad was supposed to be dead too!"

"No... you're lying..." the Captain snarled disbelief. The names and accusations swirled in his vision in a morose rollercoaster. He was suddenly back in his father's library room, inspecting the holo-picture of the same brothers. Next, he re-lived the horrors of the moment when Zora had crying bellowed out the secret of Mizar. Next, a jump to the hazy rooms on Planet Z... him holding the loose helmet of Zurg, watching straight into his father's pleading eyes...

His family... no, it had to be a cruel lie...

"Lightyear, you brainless twit... oh can't you finally see it?" the Shadow mocked him, "You think you come from a noble, virtuous family? Generations cherishing goodness... blast, you've been brainwashed. It's the dark side that's strong in your family. You're a descendant of pure evil, Buzz. And if you think it starts or ends to Jardaz or Zoxewa... no. They weren't the only Lightyears in the cult. I've read that the most loyal members rose up from your family, and that lasted for generations. Some of the remained ones, and I mean Lightyears, tried later on to revive Nex Crucio, but never really succeeded. But thanks to them, at least a few functions of this nice fortress were fixed like the secret entrances. I have no idea what happened to them, why they couldn't rebuild their brilliant organization, hah. And why they never tossed the skeletons off from here, I don't know that either. Well, not my business." He drew himself closer to Buzz, who glazedly stared at him with utmost fury, "But... I'm quite jealous that you have such an estate. If I'd have ancestors as noble as this... but blah. Do you know how worthless you are to carry the Lightyear blood since you've become just the opposite of what you should be? You should have become like me... but some bizarre odds made you such a whiny saint. If I had had such heritage in my world..."

The gaolbird felt sick in the stomach. All the little hints and tales he had heard about his family were suddenly jammed inside his chest, making it heavy as an erratic boulder. And that there, behind him, lay two mere monsters... whose genes and reputation he bore?

Dark Lightyears... Killers and devils to the last bit... His world, his precious world, all shattering... Was he alike, after all? The dark side had sat so deep in him once it had bound its claws around his throat. But no wonder why, he deliberated. No wonder why, if it was this what he carried in his veins...

His intestines gave a salty lurch. Obviously they had trouble to keep inside the little food he had eaten hours ago. Some bad-tasting goo squirmed upwards his throat, but he swallowed it with effort.

On the other hand, Buzz Lightyear needed no more guesswork to set at least a few pieces to the right spots, while standing at this foggy jigsaw puzzle of chaos. He knew now who the enemy was. As illogical and weird as it still sounded like, he was dead certain. Only one person in this whole universe carried the vile characteristics of this shadowy peril.

Despite the worming in his stomach, he straightened his pose. His steely voice broke the topic thoroughly, tossing the ancestry away.

"I know who you are."

The Shadow's eyes expressed sheer wonder for a nanosecond. Then the jeering smirk was back. "Oh, you do?"

"Yes."

"Hahah, did it take so long from your chipmunk brains to figure it out?"

He lowered his hood and let it fall sloppily down.

Buzz' expression remained inexorable.

And somewhere spaces beyond, Emperor Zurg struggled with his nightmare...

But how on Tellus was Buzz caught into such a dilemma, him getting captured and thrown into this musty underworld? Was he not supposed to be at home, thinking of ways to stop these doggone mishaps?

Yes, he had deliberated... and thought he had finally found a means. But apparently the cruel odds had ruined it thoroughly.

...to be continued...