AN: Thanks for the reviews! ^_^
Paprika90: They're not going to stay there too long, and Yoka starts comprehending the differences in this chapter. =)
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Gradually, with Buzz' anxious pleas of calming down chiming in his ears, the old Emperor began somewhat composing himself. His neurotic self-accusations rang no more that blaringly, yet his frame and mind remained as though he had become the embodiment of this very fortress, a restless wraith of the dark, forgotten tides, sweeping eternally along the rotting archways beneath. The dagger-sharp gaze had turned bleary, fatigued, and his aged visage was abruptly shimmering with all the misery the lapsed decennia had carved on it. While the younger man patched the wounded one, he monotonously slurred how a fight had broken out, and how everything had ended to the fortuitous triggering of the serpent staff. The weapon had slipped so, that its maw had inadvertently pointed right at the enemy's heart. Just when the foe's thumb had slid over a certain crucial button.
So had the snake bit the dark twin with its deadly venom.
"See, father, it was an accident. You mustn't blame yourself for this. And craters, isn't he the one who definitely deserves to--" his son attempted to hammer some sense under those black bushy locks.
"Who are we to say what one deserves... What is the extent of humanity? Are we given the authority to judge?" Zurg mumbled, barely moving his lips. "Pathetic mortals, weak minds who believe they own the justice. They commit wrong deeds themselves, yet they think they are the supreme ones to define what one deserves and what the other does not..."
Buzz remained quiet. Even though his reason insisted that the twisted mirror universe doppelganger was worthy of only the final Gehenna, deep down his conscience was quacking against the first and major justifications. Hazily he recalled a mission beyond the lapsed years, when Gravitina had allied with this evil form of himself. How they had battled above the fiery turbulences of the sun... and how the enemy had fallen... Long, long afterwards he had kept scanning the sun's environment, in the hope of finding any signs of life. How evil, twisted, sick, or reprehensible the villain ever had been, always he had hoped for the survival and the change of heart... Because, deep down Lightyear believed that nobody was worth of doom and had to be given a chance to reform, a chance to rip apart the black veils of evilness and clothe himself or herself with a new personality, wear again the robes of light. So had done both Zurg and Warp. Nonetheless... could there be human kinds that were simply too putrid to wander under the heavenly lanterns? With a mind so rancid that it was never able to purify itself, or did not even want to...
The insides of Evil Buzz were slimy, wriggling earthworms plashing in soggy blackness. There could have never been a possibility to amend that monster.
And, still, was he the one who possessed the sovereign right to judge...? And what about all this hatred swelling in his chest like a monstrous balloon? All the dark deeds the rival had carried out against his little precious world, not to mention the cosmoses beyond... On the other hand, similar creations of hell had Zurg once plotted, and yet he had forgiven things he never thought pardonable.
Some questions were plain answerless.
Buzz frowned, attempting to clip the bandage in two halves with scissors that were far too small for his big, thick fingers. Since fitting those digits in the scissors' holding holes was as though trying to slip a football through a needle's eye, he ended up ripping the material with brutal force. Zora appeared to have endless amounts of bruises decorating his overly wide thorax; hence it was no wonder why the emperor devoured such humongous rolls of patch cloth. Nonetheless, the old man was bleeding no more so violently, and apparently would be able to walk on his own if given a crutch. The mental wounds ran deeper, obliging him to remain as an equal half-hysteric wreck as his son and the rest of this dark saga's victims. The body perhaps regenerated the cells, covered bruises with scar tissue... but the streams of consciousness were blotched for forever with crimson waves. And even if the aware psyche was able to push the banshees aside, they would dwell in the deepest subliminal pits for forever... till the day the mind would be quenched like a candle-end burning down, its petite flame suddenly vanishing into the quivering air.
Before Lightyear had begun plastering his father, there had been the numerous attempts to revive the waxy-gone Evil Buzz. But his frozen heart did not spring to life any more. He remained cold and unmoving amongst the dust, the serpent staff silently smoldering beside the fading master of Nex Crucio. The poisonous plasma had hit Booster just as powerfully, but apparently his different physique had saved him from perdition. However, even he was suffering from occasional tachycardia, thus putting XR to zoom around chamber with his doctoring supplies as though he had been chasing an especially manic Snitch in one-man Quidditch game. Even though the term healthy is highly questionable when it comes to tuna cans on wheels, the mecha was the only one possessing that blissful condition. Usually he was the one blown to smithereens on missions, but sometimes everyday makes an exemption.
Indeed, it seemed that the mirror universe menace had fallen to the pits of oblivion. His horribly crooked limbs and the empty, blankly staring eyes only increased the crypt's haunting atmosphere: therefore Buzz ended up pressing his half-stiff lids close and spreading a moth-eaten blanket over him.
Sighing, the space ranger scampered up. White glimmering dots were strewn across his vision, as the dizziness took over fleetingly. He had momentarily forgotten his own injuries, but the painful reality gushed him instantly when the attention returned home from its trip to Zurg's dilemma. And the long dragging of Yoka definitely had not magically healed any of those physical damages.
He limped back to the sofa, where Mira was still guarding the Kalevan. Grim-faced, he bent down to the narcotized woman, whose half-open gaze was furthermore stuck to the vacant gear. Nonetheless, she seemed to stir an inch as his fingers brushed some greasy strands of filthy hair from her sooty, tear-messed face, and remained to fondle her cheek. Still those speechless lips stood immovable... A thin vertical line was drawn across Buzz' nonexistent forehead, as his thick black brows crumbled deeper.
Only if she would understand... there had been a frail sign of trust, but how to make her fully see that he had not been the demon darkening the scarce days she had habited this foreign, unknown world...?
And what would happen when the medicine would wear off? Was there going to be an awakening? Or was she doomed to stay in permanent lethargy, not ever grasping the difference?
If he only had not fallen to the Dark Side himself while being stuck on Kaleva... The trust had been difficult enough to engineer already then, and now this... therefore Buzz could fairly well comprehend why the girl believed that she was wed to the Devil itself. The little shreds of her obsolete mother tongue Lightyear mastered, had whipped him hard today when understanding a small part of the manic gurgles she had shrieked when entering the dungeon. Tuonela or Manala in her culture's ancient mythology meant the House of the Dead... And how he had been called... Tuonen Herra, the Lord of the Underworld...
But, there had been the flimsy sign of light... she could not be totally lost, could she? There was still reason, but how to brace it?
The captain's original idea had been to bring her eye to eye with the imposter as soon as possible. Yet, initially it felt somehow too morbid to start displaying the livid and bruised body of Evil Buzz. But... was it too morbid after all? No. He was being absurd. She was no little naïve princessy in a pink frilly dress galloping in hippy-happy sugar-coated fantasylands, but had probably seen life and its cold truths just as much as he, if not even more. Buzz slightly rolled his eyes at himself; was not he again turning into that overprotective patron-figure so characteristic to him? Yoka-hanen clearly was neither afraid of death nor corpses. It had been he whose hackles had sprung up because of the brown mummies down in the labyrinths of Suur-Kaleva, whereas she had preserved a calm, rational attitude.
The man brought his lips very close to her ear, keeping a few soft fingers smoothing her hair. With a calm tone, he attempted slurring some hideously wrong articulated gurgles of Sivakka. Even though he comprehended how abysmal his skills with that language were, he still thought it better to create the bonds of faith with something that was a part of her universe. However, at this point he regretted that he had not cared to learn more than just a few trivial expressions of that ancient gibberish. On the other hand, the Kalevan linguistics were so complicated that it would have taken at least fifteen years from an average non-native human being to master it sufficiently. Awfully knottier than good ol' English, bursting with lush virgin woods of vocabulary, it was an art in itself. The carrier of runes and the mother of grand epics, where one trivial word could conceal tens of meanings and one meaning be narrated in a myriad of diverse ways. Perhaps the hooknosed redskins were otherwise rather primitive, but they had their complex arts.
"Yoka-hanen... kuu-ulla minun-- umh… aasi… asia? Minae naeyttaeae sinae-- sinun kuka kuisata… eh, I mean-- kiusata sinae-- Se ei minae. Kuu-ulla Mira-- ehm, Sininen sano totus--" Buzz felt his cheeks shimmering with slight shame. He had probably just uttered the longest drivel he had ever formulated with that uber-tangled gobbledygook-gabble, and evidently sounded like as though his brains had been replaced with moldy radishes. Nonetheless, his attempts seemed to create results. Her half-fatuous gaze had shifted a millimeter towards him, and a petite glint of evident curiosity had ignited in it. A faint smile rippled on his mouth. The Indian was listening.
"Tyttoe pieni, oh-ii taemae polla-- olla kohta. Mutta sinae taeytyae ymmyrtyae... ymmyrkaeinen--- umh... Minae ei osaa se sana. Ymmistyae-- Ympaetae-- Ynistae-- eh." The man was arduously looking for the Sivakkan counterpart of 'to understand', failing miserably. Mira's Babelfish Translator would not have been far away, but he did not want anyone else to get involved in this. Hence he decided to tie his ashamed tongue with a reef knot for a while. He slid his arms around Yoka, and lifted her flaccid form up. His pulled muscles were screaming under his skin, but what were those moans compared to the mind-piercing squeals of his desperation? Staggering her dragged her across the room's bedlam, ultimately squatting down right beside the cold black lump of fraying rags formerly known as Evil Buzz. The man propped Yoka's hanging head against his soft shoulder so that she would have a clear view of the gloomy corner, keeping a strong wide arm around her. His mouth remained close to her ear, his broken twaddle toned soothing and silent. With shaky digits he lifted the filthy rag aside that covered the foe's extinct, sunken face. The flickering orb of a nearby lantern hit the mirror universe twin's profile, painting his ashen countenance with an ill, putrid hue.
"Katsoa njyt-- nyt, tamae sinut kiusata. Piha-- uh, paha. Ei minae. Naeyttaeae sama kuin minae. Minae hake sinae puis-- pois." Buzz' throat felt as though he had tried to swallow sandpaper, and abruptly his mind seemed to double-lock itself. Sivakka flowed no more in the creeks of speech; the mental surfs became more and more stained with anxiety.
Please understand... Please see the difference...
He cast his eyes back upon girl. Despite the tranquillizer still binding her, the expression on that slack face had abundantly changed. Open-mouthed, she gazed at the sprawling corpse, her jaw twitching mutely. Both dank shock and surprise could be read from those fatigued pupils. Tardily they were sweeping away from the fallen man, past the grimacing serpent cane, towards her owner's beseeching countenance, and back again, as though timidly comparing the figures. Indeed, somewhere beneath the stuffy narcotics, a confused mind was frantically seeking for answers, endeavoring to perceive whether this was just a continuation of the old nightmare, or a true dawn in the faltering reality...
Buzz' angsty murmurs could not dwell in the foreign lands any longer, but shifted back to English. And he simply knew no more phrases to express himself. "Yoka, please, do you see what I'm trying to tell you? This evil twisted thing kidnapped you, impersonated me, destroyed horribly the little precious peace I had with you. I wanted you to see his remains so that you'd get my point. He... this monster, he's dead now. There was a fight between him and my father-- an accident--"
The Indian's glutinous, yet petrified stare was fixed to her husband's visage.
Those faces... identical till the last streak... Two Proud Crescents in the House of Perkele... Yet, those eyes... Through the haze she had been gawping at them, awaiting for the soulless icy gleam to sparkle again in them...
...but it had never lurked forth...
...and now this... the Lord of the Green Lightning lying in front of her, dressed in his royal black robes. But his eyes were closed... and he had clearly descended into the lowest floors of the netherworld, where emo and the forefathers slept. Yet, if those closed lids would fling open, would the demon fire burn there? And not in the one holding her?
Did Proud Crescent truly have a wicked brother, just like in the Song of Pulunruikkaus, where the lenient king Pyryharakka had a jealous twin Uuttukyyhky, who later killed his own brethren and masqueraded as the dead one...?
Still... Everything was so confusing...
"Kaksoisveli..." a timorous lisp escaped from between the Kalevan's lips. "O-onko... Ylpeaellae K-kuulla tosiaan kak…kaksoisveli... k-kuten s--suuremo… Sininen... supatti... Eikoe Ylpeae Kuu olekaan... Herra Tuonen, vaan v-veli on haellae… verenhimoinen, Manan Ruhtinas… mustasieluinen… petturi kavala… Ja Tuoniko itse... nyt o-on huijarin niellyt…?"
Lightyear squinted his suddenly prickling eyes, and felt as though a burden the size and weight of Mount Everest had just been lifted from his shoulders. She was awakening from Evil Buzz' curse, she was believing Mira's explanation... Even though the Dark Lightyear was not his genetic twin brother, that rationalization was sufficient. She was very slowly accepting the fact that there were two of them, identical by looks, but opposites by heart. And that the crooked desperado on the flagstones was the one responsible of her misery. Nonetheless, judging by her stuporish slurs, the girl was very delirious. Her conception soared behind the gates of reality, re-living some of the archaic Dark Legends of her tribe. But despite her disorientation, Buzz was swelling with abrupt elation. The inflating joy made his heart hammer violently against his ribs, his chest burn both with relief and passion. He would have wanted to glue her against his thorax and kiss the girl senseless right now and here, make her comprehend fully his fervent love, make her see that the nightmare would be over...
Nevertheless, Lightyear had to harness the sentiments and rebalance his spinning scull. Even if it felt incomprehensibly tedious. This situation needed iceberg-cool rationality. He had let himself fall too sloppy in the dungeons, and an attitude like that would not help solving the existing dilemmas. Namely, in spite of the captain's sudden jubilance, the limbo was not yet totally over. The ragged victims of this dark adventure were still stuck in this stone whale's stomach like half a dozen Jonah-clones. Most of them needed acute hospital treatment, and the way out was not just beyond one single bunnyhop. The greatest problem obviously was Booster. Nobody was able to carry such an overswollen gastropod, and it became swiftly apparent that XR, despite all the idle junk stored in the pits of his torso, possessed no wheeled stretchers large enough to set that unconscious lump on them. And then there was the pallid figure lying under the rags. Notwithstanding certain bitter opinions gliding in the stuffy air, Evil Buzz could not be left to decay here. After some miscellaneous mumbling and whispering, Lightyear drew the covers back over the foe, and hauled his 'little' precious to rest again on the sofa. The headstones for trust and recovery had been laid, and hopefully the burned house of their union would one day be rebuilt from the ashes. This would require time and subtlety; shattered minds were not patched overnight. In addition, the man could not start any syrup-oozing loveydovey coo-coo show in the corner, but truly had to re-grab the reasonableness and deliberate how to handle the tricky situation.
Hence, somewhat a heated negotiation blazed up. The shape and color of the hot potato changed every other second, when somebody of the more argus-eyed four came up with a novel idea, only to be turned down instantly.
"Look, I still think either me or XR should try to get out and attempt contacting Star Command or local police forces or anything. The comlinks work fine in the forest clearing. If just--" Nova wheezed through the respirator.
"No, it's still too risky", the jaded Buzz massaged his temples, "Craters, we have to move on as one group. We have only one map. Mira, remember your condition. What if you get a serious asthma attack or something on the way? Who's there to help you? And if XR goes... blast, he's our only protector here, and--"
"Well, when someone figures out a nifty way to drag the wounded brontosaur and the iffy zombie along, we can say hasta la vista to most of the problems", XR kept tilting his magnetically floating head, arms akimbo, "Hmh. Too bad our Jedi Master Zurg here isn't strong enough with the force, otherwise he could've levitated all of us out. And even though my artificial intelligence is one of the seven grand miracles of this galaxy, I don't think even I'm capable of that. Of course one can try..." The mecha extracted a weird assortment of thingamabobs out of his midsection: a black pointed hat, a thick, heavy leather-bound book labeled as 'The Standard Book of Spells: Grade I', and a polished stick that distinctly looked like a wand. He set the headpiece to roost on top of his dome helmet, flipped the book open, and pointed at Munchapper with the rod. "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The Jo-Adian remained on the stone slabs, just as heavy and immovable as before.
"Craters. Hoverus Dinosaurius! Darn." The android leafed annoyed through the brick-thick volume, "Ka-Zam! Tarantellegra! Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo! Through the Power of the Grayscull! Avada Kedav--" Snorting, the bot ended up kicking the dimwitted book shut. "It's no use. Should've known they tricked me in that Tradeworldian shop. Learn to be a wizard in two weeks... bah. That's for levitation."
Buzz and Mira rolled their eyes at the daft tin can.
"We can't waste our time on stupidities. We have to--" Lightyear retorted grumpily, nonetheless turning swiftly silent because of her waspish blurt.
"Shht! Listen! What's that?"
Some kind of faint tapping sound was echoing from an indefinite direction. And as the slightly rigid-gone team pricked up their ears, the noise gradually grew more audible. The wriggling, colossal crypts duplicated any sounds so that it was rather difficult to determine their origins. This one rang as though some uncanny many-legged creature with steel-heeled boots had been scampering along the corridors outside, on the way creating more legs under its belly out of thin air. In any case, the clatter seemed to be little by little closing in on the rock leviathan's hippocampus.
"Wait a moment..." Buzz' brows sprung up, "Is that... Could that be...?"
...to be continued... Comments?