AN: A short-ish update here, I'm trying to get a hold of this story again after four months' hiatus. And hopefully finishing it sometime soon. I don't, with 100% certainty, recall everything I've scribbled in the previous chapters, so there may be some repetition of description, ect. My apologies about that.
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The little crackling comlink connecting Zurg to the underworld troops had gone utterly senseless, with only a dull ticking sound frizzling from the ancient transceiver. Equally dead, the smudgy monitor displayed only a shred of vaulted ceiling swimming in rippling shadows. No Booster, no emperors to answer when hollered. Judging by the nature of the ominous silence, something very grim was going on upstairs.
The fatigued quartet had abandoned the dungeon in a grand haste. Initially they limped and fluttered onwards in a moldy wriggly archway, trying to discover the quickest route to the main chambers. XR rolled on the fore, Buzz hitched and dragged the half-paralyzed Yoka along, and Mira soared on the heels with her hover chair, attempting not to smash herself against the very contiguous walls.
"Hey, captain duo, this ol' tin toy's got a nifty plan: What if I'll go ahead and save the galaxy? Can you guys come along on your own?" the robot threw in his haphazard idea.
"No we can't! Listen..." Buzz coughed, the stuffy, putrid air prickling on his palate. "We can't find a way out of here on our own. If you take the map, we'll get lost. And we need your spotlight, neither one of us can hold one now. Blast, and whatever's happening up there... We need to face it as one troop. As united, we stand better against the perils. I... I got the very worst feeling that Evil Buzz has gotten loose..."
It would have been perhaps easy for such an overly muscular hunk to perform heroic deeds in normal conditions: smashing daddy's cozy hornets and ducking snug plasma missiles... However, even the legendary Buzz Lightyear had his limits sometimes. Injured, washed-out, and laserless as he was, the path out of this behemoth's stomach was not found with lightspeed. And usually a dark and hopeless mind drains the strength even worse than just plain physical pain. Yoka's senselessness, the hatred towards the wicked twin, this horrible estate of his own blood... these wraiths were like sly spiders weaving their sticky webs tighter and tighter around him, ready to devour the unlucky capture, ready to suffocate the hope's frail whimper. Yet, something still gave him adequate power to fight against these poltergeists, and go on, go on, through the throbbing ache and this clammy, airless hell...
"But... couldn't Booster and your father---" Nova started.
"Don't underestimate him! I know myself quite well, after all", the man hissed, adjusting the flaccid Kalevan in his arms so that her weight would be less proportioned towards his piercingly stinging left side. Being still under the tranquillizer's effect, her face stood dull and mouth agape behind the curtains of greasy dreadlocks, thus making her look almost mentally subnormal. And truth to be told, the man was slightly afraid of a permanent psychological destruction, as not yet being fully aware of how much the demon had bedeviled her already sore mind. Thick black brows crumpled deep, he went on, "Don't forget that he's a mirror me, and capable of very nasty surprises. If I do great deeds on the battlefield, his nefarious schemes are like dark, warped reflections of the very me."
As the Lightyear family was known for its pompous egoism, it did not come as a surprise to hear such mega-smug rhapsodies slithering out of Buzz' mouth. Yet, amongst the gloating swam also the very truth. Buzz was no incompetent coot, even though he did not possess the most shining gems of intelligence. Just equal was his alternate universe opponent: more twisted and craftier in evilness than Zurg ever had been, and also so much more capable of accomplishing his horrid, sick machinations.
"And whatever you think", he panted on, eyes narrowing, "always remember, that this psychopath has not an inch of humanity in him. Makes my father's former self look like a jolly Mickey Mouse beside him. Don't ever expect pity or mercy from him."
"You don't need to lecture me about that, Buzz. I know now", Mira's vexed voice wheezed through the respirator.
The squad was reaching a fork of four corridors. In the very opposite alcove, a moss-growing, slippery staircase shimmered in the spotlight's orb. A few empty torch rackets and battered brass plates slapped on the crumbling brick walls glimmered eerily as the yellow beams kissed them. This separator of floors looked faintly familiar for Mira and XR. And as the exhausted team neared the gaping black doorway, they could distinguish two caterpillar tracks worming out of the escalator arcade, continuing to wriggle on the miry stone slabs, and ultimately turn to the passageway in the left.
"At least we're on the right way; this is where we entered your level, Buzz."
"How much more? Craters, we may be running out of time. How many floors left? Doesn't this cornucopia of cursed warped malevolence have any elevators in it? My dad was at least practical when it came to building evil lairs; the hero could easily infiltrate in, find his way, and predict the classic booby traps. This place is just too illogical to be an appropriate villain hideout! What was it with these people?"
The mecha fingered hastily the small console, getting sucked into the secrets of the green wireframe map. "Fifteen says the pal here. Well, looks like your ancestors were slightly different from the classical evil-mad-scientist type, you know the one with shark pools and piranhas and hero-sized air vents to crawl in..."
Buzz swore under his breath, trying to ignore the imaginary thistles ripping his muscles. However, the alternatives were scarce: either to continue, or have a picnic here. Whereas the latter one was not a plausible option at all. Hence, the team was soon swallowed by the staircase's black gorge, the desperate rush upstairs dragging on.
****
Blib... blib... blib... Water was dripping slowly somewhere, the zigzagging archways multiplying the echoes eerily. XR's lantern brushed past a small shelf on the wall, where a loose, cobwebbed human scull stood on a shallow stone basin decorated with densely coiling ornamental serpents. A tattered shred of crimson curtain hung above it, making the whole repulsiveness look like a macabre altar. In the flickering, sweeping light, the bony visage appeared almost as though it had been ghostly following the quarter's course with those empty, hollow eyes, its grimacing smile sniggering mutely at them.
"This place is sick", the Princess grunted, turning her jaded gaze aside. "Anything on the comlink?"
"Nope", the android confirmed. "This gimmick's just as talkative as that merry head."
Mira glared at the bigmouth robot. As usual, his sarcasms were utterly out-of-place.
Three more floors... two more... one more... Finally the languid four managed to reach the final vault's threshold. Yet, no fate was still established. A considerable distance of worming crypts remained before the main chambers. But at least the halls were wider now, the air less stale, and no mossy staircases were any longer pestering them.
Time seemed to be frozen, as it always did on moments of great confusion. The rangers rushing along the very last archways found it unnerving that they were coming across nothing but silence. If Evil Buzz indeed had been unleashed, as the twin of the Light Side had predicted, where was the thunder of battle? Or... was there an ambush ahead? The foe prowling somewhere in the shadows, waiting for the remaining foursome to fall upon Zurg and Booster's lifeless forms sprawling on the floor... Clearly the menace had only a single ill will spinning in his psychotic mental carousel: the slaughter of everyone and everything. And he definitely was not going to leave any eyewitnesses behind, even if he was planning for a stealthy escape. ...In addition, where were Commander Nebula's troops loitering? Eternities had passed without the promised backup.
XR snapped the spotlight off. The chambers just before the control room were lit with a flock of acid-green lanterns found from Evil Buzz' premises. The last-second, hushed creeping the squad attempted, was rather pathetic. The coves had already reverberated their every hurried tread so loudly that the enemy had to be deafer than an old sponge, if he was not yet aware of their presence. Nonetheless, since the robot was the single one with some firepower, he was sent first to probe the tomb-silent halls ahead. Miserably failing the secrecy, Mira and Buzz endeavored prowling in the few circular antechambers before the burrow of dank muteness.
So oppressing this subterranean dusk was... Buzz felt a few hot sweat drops rolling down the side of his face. Yoka-hanen was staring at him blankly with glazed, half-open eyes, undoubtedly not perceiving a flying maggot's tail about the situation. Feebly, Mira was making noiseless gestures towards the galloping shadows where their only protector had vanished.
Silence...
The Princess pricked up her ears, a petulant pout painted on her face. Nonetheless, both she and Lightyear were to sprout all the way to the ceiling when XR's sudden yelp rang through the frowsty ether.
"The course is clear, but you better come quickly! We... ehh... seem to have ah-- a big problem over here."
Holding her ribs, still slightly breathless after the shock created by the sharp robotic bawl in this climax of black horror, the Tangean aimed an anxious goggle at Lightyear. Nodding, he emerged from the dusty curtain's shelter where he had been semi-skulking, entering the stifling enigmas.
A very odd view awaited. Buzz could briefly recognize two lumpy figures lying on the flagstones. The nearest one appeared to be an ashen-faced, crouching Zora, who was grasping hard his temples and rocking his body back and forth, looking as though the last crumbs of intelligence had escaped from his cranial cavities. His jaw was twitching; his vacant pupils were staring aimlessly at the raven alcoves beyond the blaring orbs of light. Dark blotches colored the few rags of shirt the man still had left, droplets of blood oozing from the gashes that ran crisscross his bare chest and arms.
Buzz stopped dead, almost dropping the listless woman he was dragging. "Father! What happen---" His gaze flicked to and fro the chaotic chamber, trying to hunt the reason that seemed jestingly galloping away every time he though he had captured it. Ranger Munchapper was the second lump, XR was stagnating beside him with a stethoscope... Yet he hardly caught the relieved exclaim telling that a pulse had been found, as his gawp landed back onto Zurg. That pasty-flown countenance, that ague-like hysterical trembling; Lightyear could have sworn he had recently seen a reaction very similar to this... That blind horror reflecting from those deep aged eyes, just like after a certain jeremiad about the Emperor's past savagery, involving Mizar and Adi-Gaia.
Briefly the younger man turned to Mira, who had landed with her space-age wheelchair near the dust-breathing sofa. He let the Kalevan down, placing her carefully onto the rather filthy cushions that the ancient, half-rotten piece of furniture so generously provided. The blue one seemed feeling queasy again, which could be effortlessly read from her pained, downcast mien.
"Mira, would you look after her for a moment? I know you're exhausted, but just a little while, just that---"
Her wheezy sigh interrupted him. "I know, I know. You go to your father."
He tossed an uneasy smirk towards her, and scampered back to the nook where the old royal cringed. Confusion crumbling his brows, Buzz knelt onto the stone slabs, cautiously querying,
"Father? What happened here? Where's-- Craters, you're bleeding all over!" He goggled grimacing at the Emperor's bruises, only just fully comprehending Zora's hideous state. "XR! I need disinfectant and bandages, my father's--"
"Okey-dokey, just a teensy weensy nanosecond, I unfortunately don't have a cloned twin brother whom I could send to serve you while I'm myself nursing this one..." the android replied from the corner, where the unconscious Jo-Adian was sprawling amongst the dust, tongue lolling floppily out of his maw.
"I don't need you personally, just throw me the first-aid kit..." Glaring, he turned back to the ostensibly hysteric elder one. Zora did not seem to pay attention at all to what was churning around, as though his mind had disconnected itself from the very reality. Nevertheless, he obviously sensed Buzz' presence, as for the first time, the stuttering mouth was gurgling out almost mute, yet comprehensible words.
"Sc--screaming... They are all--- screaming... I... hhhh--had... no... rrr--right..." His hairy, long-fingered fists pressed ever harder his sweating temples, as though desperately trying to hold a crackling, shattering scull intact.
"Father! What's going on? Who's screaming? Where's Evil Buzz?" the startled son yelped.
"I-- d-d-d-id not m-mean it, I d-d-did not want to--- I-- c-could not stop it-- They are screaming again---" Zurg raised his madly burning glare, beneath which the offspring winced, involuntarily taking a spidery stir backwards. And then, his palm hit something. Something else than those cold, coarse flagstones... Something lukewarm, draped in canvas... He spun around, momentarily icy chills wriggling down his spine. This ill place and its horrific surprises were making him more and more neurotic as the crawling seconds passed. Indeed, the view behind him made his hair rise up. How could he have not noticed this third figure when entering? Though, apparently the robotic ranger had, since declaring the course clear...
It was Evil Buzz, partly hidden in the shadowy blotch of a decomposing curtain. Lying there on his back, limbs unnaturally crooked to both sides, his wide-open blue eyes were staring disjointedly at the ceiling. From the first glance it appeared as though he had been in deep stupor, yet... the slightly twisted countenance was oddly waxy, the pupils carried an uncanny enamel-like coating. And under the mass of black robes, his body did not seem to flinch even a millimeter, his chest not raising up and down with the tempo of breathing...
Lightyear blinked, his befuddled gawp next falling onto a familiar-looking viper staff a few inches away from its master. The silvery serpent's maw was faintly smoldering... as though it had been belching more than just a few petite doses of its deadly venom in succession. And indeed, Zurg and this very chamber had evidently been hit with those plasma barfs more than just once, judging by their drastically changed condition.
Blam. Just then, the old man's peculiar splutterings became clothed, the understanding whooshing through Buzz' head like a stormwind.
Screams. Even though he had never revealed anyone, Zoxedaszeĉ had narrated him about the haunting of his dark estate, about those that had faded away in his very claws... The millions, the millions of quenched voices...
Why were they screaming, unless--- Unless...
He turned back to the bloodless-gone foe, who furthermore goggled so unblinkingly at the illusionary infinities, that it appeared already unnatural. Disgusted though the man was, he slipped a few fingers under the Shadow's collars to feel the carotid.
No pulse. Additionally, the skin was abnormally cold. Of this, only one logical conclusion could be drawn.
Evil Buzz had to be dead.
Zurg's gargling croaks on the background were growing more sensible, telling that he was with his full force endeavoring to smother the dissonant ringing in his cranium, and glue together the few fragments of sense left. "Thh-- the staff--- I tried to r-rip it away fff...from him, but s-something gave in and it-- it sl-- slipped... I-- I did not m-mean t-to..."
"Father, it had to be an accident, you can't blame yourself--"
The green lanterns made Zora's brown eyes gleam with an ill, acid glint. "I took a life! I had no right! Even though what he was, I had no right! Another one perished in my cursed, damned hands, another one..." he stared disgustedly at his chapped, aged palms, and the stiff, unnaturally long thin fingers. "When shall it end? Shall it never end? Who bound our blood to this legacy of death? And why, WHY?"
...to be continued... Comments?