Author's Note:
My rewritten chapters are longer. I am happy.
Okay, well, it's been a looong time since the last rewrite, hasn't it been? Sorry about that, but a lot's happened since then, and I don't want to go into the details. Pfft, the fic itself has gotten a renaming since then!
Oh, and I know now exactly where I want the next two fics in the series to go! Beyond that, I have several ideas of where to take For Good, and I have no idea which one to use. At least I know Books 1-3.
Random plug: Christy (by Catherine Marshall) is an awesome book and TV series. Go read it. Go watch it.
Oh, and today is Cassie's birthday! Happy birthday, Kila-ster! ;D
TO MY REVIEWERS:
BG: You did review the old Chapter 3, so I wasn't a bit surprised that your review was unsigned. xD
Oh wow, I nearly made you cry… I take that as the highest compliment. (And I myself was crying rivers as I wrote that chapter.)
"This chapter was amazingly sweet." Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. Between the Gospel and – I must confess – Narnia as my inspiration, I hope I did do well portraying Jesus. I wrote Chapter 3 from the heart all the way, so there were many elements from my own life and from Real Life in general. More than one part in my own writing hit home.
"You do have a gift. :)" …Thank you. That's all I can say. =)
KJ: Darlin', your reviews always make me happy. Thanks for being my sunshine. =D
Historian1912: No, I havenae dropped off the face of the earth. =D And I'm so glad you love the fic!
Oh, and I'm quite sure I'm not one of the show's script writers. If I had been, this would be a book in print. xD Thank you so much. …There is a project of sorts still in the extremely early stages to create a fan-series, but right now it's at the point where I'm trying to woo people to the idea so that it can actually be worked on. Right now, it could very well die – time will tell, I guess.
==Chapter 4==
Family
"Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind, or forgotten."
- Lilo & Stitch
3/22/3009
He opened one eye and gave his pillow a muffled moan. It was too early to wake up, so he closed that eye and went back to sleep.
Or tried to. It's hard to sleep when you suddenly have about fifty pounds pouncing on you and bouncing up and down on your bed. "C'mon! Time t' get up!"
"Aaaargh, blast it, Kit! Get off my bed!!"
"Nuh-uh! It's time t' get up!"
"You're not even supposed to be bouncing on beds!!" he shouted as he flung back his covers. The little pest was still bouncing up and down, and he tried swiping at it. No such luck. "Sierra, get your son off my bed before I blast him!!"
"Mom said I couldn't bounce on my bed – she never said anything about yours!"
"Kit!" called a voice from the hall. "Quit bouncing on the beds."
"Awww, craters," Kit mumbled, falling to the big mattress with a last voomf. "Mooom."
"Don't you 'Mom' me, young man," Sierra said sternly, striding in and easily picking her six-year-old son up off the bed. "Come on, let's let your Uncle Warp get dressed."
"It's not even my wakeup time," Warp protested, stretching.
"You might as well get up," Sierra countered. "You won't go back to sleep this late in the morning."
"Yeah. Thanks, Kit," Warp muttered, shooting the boy a dark look as he pushed himself out of bed.
The six-year-old wisely backed out of the room. "Don't be a grouch," Sierra chided the man, heading for the door. "Breakfast in ten."
"Gotcha."
In fifteen minutes, Warp was in the kitchen, munching on a pancake. Kari, the new Lorean girl on his staff, was leaning on the counter and watching him. Warp realized this and flashed her a quick grin before taking a sip of espresso. Kari smiled back at him, then turned to pull more tableware out for Sierra and Kit.
Warp heard a couple of the other maids giggling in the dining room beyond, Chesselette and Jiloanne by the sound of them. He sighed. Maybe following that whole "pretty girls as maids for bad guys" stereotype was a bad idea. Sometimes, it was okay. Sometimes, it was even great.
And sometimes, it just felt shallow.
Sometimes, his girls reminded him too much of a part of his past he wished he could forget.
Sierra and Kit entered the kitchen and disrupted his brooding. Well, Sierra walked right in – Kit tried to edge his way along the cabinets in an effort to move undetected. Warp glanced sideways at the boy and exhaled loudly. "Kit, just come sit down, already."
The boy meekly took his place at the table. "Sorry for the wakeup, Uncle Warp."
"Eh, it's okay – just don't do it again, all right?"
"Yessir."
"Good."
Sierra was Warp's age and his only cousin, on his father's side. As a result, the two had grown up very close, despite some things that happened to Warp when they were fifteen. At the age of thirty, Sierra had gotten married; but, a couple of years later, when her husband learned that she was pregnant with Kit, he left her. After Kit's birth, he handed her their divorce papers and made sure that she had complete custody of their son. Warp tracked the man and gave him both a piece of his mind and a piece of his fist – off-duty, since such an action could get Warp fired from Star Command. Buzz had known, and looked the other way – Warp knew that his partner was almost as upset about the whole affair as Warp himself was.
Half a year ago – three months after the Uni-mind incident – Sierra was laid-off from her job. Despite his now criminal status, Warp offered to take in his cousin and her son in exchange for Sierra's services as a housekeeper, and she accepted.
"Uncle Warp?"
"Mm?"
"Why do grown-ups drink coffee?"
"It's energizing."
"Like sugar?"
"Yeah, kinda."
Warp didn't even mind little conversations like that. Little kids tended to annoy him – well, to be honest, Kit annoyed the heck out of him – but he still loved his little cousin. Sometimes, it made him wish that things could have been different, because the funny thing was that, in the end… All the money he earned, all the "toys" he accumulated…
But he didn't like to think about that. It sounded too close for comfort to Lightyear.
Sierra's golden brown eyes were studying him from over the rim of her coffee mug. She knew what he was thinking. She always knew; just like he always knew what was on her mind.
He stood abruptly and said, "Thanks for the breakfast, Kari. I've gotta go. See ya, Kit, Sierra." And just like that, he was gone.
Sierra sighed and shook her head, then turned to see her son watching her. "What?" she asked him.
"Why does Warp have to be a criminal?" Kit asked, pouting slightly.
Kari cleared her throat and said quietly, "I'll be back in a little bit to clear the table."
Sierra nodded and gave her a silent look of gratitude. The young Lorean slipped out of the room, then Sierra turned back to her boy. If she could get a nickel for every time they went through this… "You know it's a long story, sweetie. You'll understand when you're older."
"That's what you always say," Kit pouted. "And I can understand a lot, Mom."
"Yes, I know. And more than you should. …I don't want you to know right now, okay?"
Kit replied in that resigned tone that younger children use so well. "Okay, okay."
Z-Tower, Planet Z, Zeta Quadrant; 8:58am ZTT (Z-Tower Time)
Warp strode slowly through the many corridors of the tower to reach the Throne Room. He wasn't ambling or strutting – he was too introspective just now for that. As sentimental as it may have sounded, this place held memories for him, and not all were bad, either. There were a lot of good ones.
The truth was that Zurg had, in a way, taken Warp in, when he was seventeen. He hadn't graduated yet, but he managed to work in secret, just like he had at Star Command. Zurg was the person who had taught Warp how to shoot. Warp gave a small smirk at those memories – Zurg hadn't been a bad teacher, but he had definitely been tough.
He entered the Throne Room and bowed slightly to the purple figure on the throne. "Morning, Your Evilness."
"Darkmatter," Zurg returned, preoccupied with one of his vidscreens.
Must be watching PZBN. Warp approached the throne and stretched to see the screen. "What's cookin' on the news this morning?"
"You remember that wormhole research we were keeping an eye on?" Zurg replied, his eyes never leaving the screen.
"Yeah. The SCW… uh… something or other."
"The facility blew up. Exploded and took out the scientists who were working there." Zurg paused and tapped a finger against his mouth grille in sudden contemplation. "Come to think of it, that means that Brainpod 78 is now gone, so I can check him off the Revenge List…"
"Wait, wait, the base is gone?" Warp asked in disbelief. "You're kidding! What happened?"
"Reactor meltdown. The wormhole creator itself, though, did work just once. It brought someone out of the past into our own time!"
Warp frowned incredulously. "You're kidding!"
"Not at all." He pointed to the screen, which showed a Star Command Medbay room. A figure wrapped in bandages lay in the bed at the center of the screen.
Warp grimaced. The figure was a girl, and he could tell from the bandages that she was suffering from serious burns. Laser burns were painful enough – he didn't want to try to imagine how much fire burns must hurt. He exhaled shakily. "Holy nova."
"All the work was lost, too. All of it – gone. Finito. Poof." Zurg flung his hands out briefly to illustrate the last word.
"They didn't back up somewhere else?" Warp shook his head in mild disgust. "Idiots."
Zurg nodded mournfully, idly stirring the straw in his zappuccino cup. "You'd think that at least 78 would've had more sense."
"Yeah." Warp straightened then and brightened his tone. "So, um, Boss, what's on the agenda for today?"
"Well, let's see." Zurg donned his glasses, picked up his clipboard, and began to scan it. "I need you to pick up a shipment from Kentrix…"
Medbay room 024, Star Command; 0823 hours or 8:23am CCT
Waking up was a gradual process. She felt light, ethereal, as though she were… floating. And regaining consciousness… she felt herself drifting back down to earth, down to a gravity that made her feel heavy.
At last, she opened her eyes, just as the door whirred open. Buzz, looking a bit bemused, poked his head into the room. "Erin?"
"Mornin'," she called weakly.
"Good morning," he greeted back, stepping into the room and coming to the bed. "Uh, the team and I were wondering… I mean, we all… Umm… Did you have a good sleep last night?"
"I guess."
"No, uh, dreams?"
"I love you, Erin – more than you can ever imagine. …I will be here, but in the way that I am here wherever you are."
"Erin, where have you been??"
"Team Lightyear, meet my parents…"
"It's Buzz Lightyeahr! To infin'ty an' beyon'!"
"Sorry, little fella, no energy vampires t'day."
"I'm not going back, Buzz."
Erin shut her eyes briefly at the flow of memories from the night before. "Buzz, that was…" She opened her eyes and looked at him. "You and the rest all met my family?"
Buzz nodded, bewildered.
She nodded almost imperceptibly and leaned back into the pillows. "It was real, Buzz. It was every bit as real as the two of us talking here right now."
"But it was a dream!" he protested.
Erin tried to shake her head, but the motion still hurt too much. "It was like a dream, but that doesn't make it any less real." He still wasn't buying it. "Okay, okay, look. Once I'm healed up, take me back to Michigan. Remember when the kids were talking about putting my stuff in stasis? Well, if they did, you'll have your proof."
Buzz sighed. "Are you sure? Erin, what if we go there, and you don't find what you're looking for? How do you think you're going to handle that?"
"Prob'ly cry my eyes out," she smiled faintly. "My ultra sensitivity is the least of my worries right now, though."
"Oh? Why's that?"
"I need a spinal surgery, and the LGMs want to do it as soon as possible. See, I have this defect called scoliosis, abnormal curvature of the spine? Well, come to find out, in this day and age, that can be cured a whole lot easier than it could back in my time. So when the LGMs were patching me up from the… accident, they saw the problem and knew they could fix it. Unfortunately, I still need permission from a… a relative. Any patient does who is under the age of twenty-one."
"Craters, that's a problem," Buzz mused. "…Weeell, I guess maybe if somebody sibling-adopted you…"
"Beg pardon?"
"Sibling adoption. An adult can adopt an orphan under the age of twenty as a sibling," Buzz explained. "And you're –"
"I'm definitely an orphan under twenty," Erin finished.
"Right." He paused. "Now the question is, who?"
"Well, it'd have to be someone I know."
"I'd say that's a given," he agreed.
"Should be somebody I respect," she added.
"That'd be nice."
"Someone who will love me, care for me, be there when I need him… Someone strong and dedicated…"
"Respect, love, dedication – sure, sure, just great. So where are you gonna find such a Superman?" Erin immediately turned on her puppy eyes, and Buzz's own eyes widened in realization. "You mean me??"
"Well, you're not Superman, but you're kinda available," Erin grinned.
He backed away from the bed. "Ha-no – nonono."
"Oh, come on, Buzz!" she pleaded. "Please?? I think you'd make a great big brother!"
"I just – I-I-I-I don't have time to – I mean, I don't have the money to –"
"I can get a job," she told him. "And it's not like I'm a child – I'm old enough to be in the house unsupervised. It'd just be for seventeen months!"
"Seventeen months?? No way!" Buzz protested.
"Isn't it your responsibility as a Space Ranger to help people in any way you can??"
Buzz raised a finger, then froze, his jaw dropping. She had him, and they both knew it. Finally, he closed his mouth. "You are… absolutely right." Sigh. "All right, all right, but – just for seventeen months."
"Deal. Then after that, we can part ways and you'll never see me again," she grinned.
"Oh, if only," he quipped. Erin gave him a dirty look, and he laughed. "Maybe Mira could let you bunk with her, though. I just… I don't think it would be a good idea for you to live at my house."
"I can think of a few reasons, yeah," Erin agreed.
Buzz rubbed the back of his neck. "Okay, I'll get the papers and sign them, and authorize the surgery."
"Thanks," she smiled.
"What about a job for you, though?"
She grimaced. "I'm not sure. Y'see, I never had a job back home. I was trying to become a writer, and I wasn't going to college this school year – not that I even wanted to."
He frowned. "That could make things tough. I mean, there'll always be a demand for writers, but in the meantime… Maybe you should take up college."
"For what? The only reason I'd go to college would be to become a Ranger –" her eyes lit up – "whiiich actually isn't exactly a bad idea."
"It's not exactly a good one, either," Buzz shot back.
"Buzz!"
"Don't you 'Buzz' me, kid. Look, you have no idea –"
"I have plenty of idea!" she retorted hotly. "I may not have gotten out much in the past eighteen and a half years, but I am not sheltered, and I am not naïve. I know that being a cop and a soldier is hard. But I can do it! And from what I know about Zurg and all the jintillions of criminals around the galaxy, you need every person out on the field you can get! I can do it! I know I can! Just let me try!" Because now that the idea had come up, she wanted with all her heart to follow through.
She reminded him of Mira, the first time he'd met the princess. "Erin, being a Space Ranger is not an easy thing," he said solemnly, bending down to sit on his haunches so that they were eye-to-eye. "And even if you pass the Academy, it's – it can be really hard."
"I know." Her sepia eyes were dark but steady, her voice firm but quiet. "But I've been praying for a long time now that God would show me an opportunity to serve others. I'm here for a reason. Maybe this is it."
Buzz sighed, suddenly and unaccountably feeling old. He looked down for a moment, then back up to meet her gaze. "I want you think about it, long and hard. You can't make a decision like this based on spur-of-the-moment."
"I will."
Nodding, Buzz rose from his half-kneeling position. "All right then. I'll get going now – I've got a lot to do." He headed for the door.
"Okay," Erin breathed. "And, Buzz?"
He stopped and turned back, his hand on the door frame. "Yes, Erin?"
"Thank you. So much."
A small smile touched the captain's lips. "Sure thing… Sis."
She smiled back as he left.
After breakfast, Erin pulled her Bible out of her backpack and opened it to the Book of Hebrews, chapter 11. This chapter is called "The Hall of Faith," because it lists out different people who trusted in God and acted upon that trust. Abel, the second son of Adam and Eve. Enoch, the man raptured before the Flood. Noah, a man who prepared for a flood for over a hundred years in the middle of dry ground. Abraham.
It was Abraham that caught Erin's attention. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign country… That sounded familiar. Erin herself had been called to a new place, a new time… for a reason, and she had obeyed the call.
She flipped all the way back to Genesis, specifically chapter 12, where Abraham's story began: Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from they father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee. Abraham made mistakes, yet he trusted God, Who held to His promise and blessed Abraham.
"I have a plan for you here, a future. It will not be easy, Dearest, but there is always difficulty in following My will."
Closing her Bible, Erin took a deep breath, let it out, and stared up at the ceiling. "Okay, God. Just… show me the way, and I'll follow."
Yo decidido seguir a Cristo
Yo decidido seguir a Cristo
Yo decidido seguir a Cristo
No vuelvo atrás, no vuelvo atrás
Later, the LGMs gave Erin a new laptop so she could surf the Internet. She was amused to find that Google had been ousted by a website with the name Infinity, and briefly wondered if there was a relation to Buzz's catchphrase. Probably not, but it was still interesting.
She typed "Emperor Zurg" into the search and came up with well over a hundred thousand results. Scrolling down the page, she saw that many results were news headlines broadcasting Zurg's devious deeds, though some results were apparently people's blog commentaries. Among the latter, she found both jokes at Zurg's expense and some hate-talk.
Interesting. She hadn't thought that Zurg's brand of evil was serious enough to generate hate-talk.
She found the Galactipedia article on Zurg and discovered that his full name was Zuriel Zurg. "Zuriel? Huh. Isn't that Hebrew?" she mused aloud.
There was a lot of data on Zurg's actions against the Galactic Alliance, but that wasn't what captured Erin's interest. No, it was the personal history. She had to cross-reference to several other articles, but in the end, she pieced this information together:
Zurg's race was the Zeretanae, but the common Anglicization was "Zeta." The Zeta Empire had always existed independent of the Galactic Alliance, which was only five centuries old. Zurg's grandmother, Arazai Zurg, had been an oppressive Empress, and eventually, her tyranny pushed her people into a civil war. The rebellion was led by none other than the Prince, Zurg's father. But after two years, the rebels suddenly disappeared – Erin inferred that Zurg knew what had happened, but the articles did not say. The Empress turned her attention to the GA and a conquest that had, apparently, been years in the making. It was only through the work of a newly-formed military force called Star Command that the Zeta Empire was held back from overrunning the GA. However, Erin could not find information on how the Zetas had been defeated, and made a mental note to ask Buzz about it later.
Arazai was killed, and her grandson was left to take the throne at the young age of twelve. When the Emperor was a few years older, he apparently became involved in the Fringe, which was when Star Command first started to keep an eye on him. At the age of twenty-five, he inexplicably changed. He took on the title "Evil Emperor," and began to disrupt the peace within the GA. Now Erin's curiosity was piqued. What had happened when he was twenty-five to make him change so dramatically?
After that, the personal history became more cut-and-dry as it flowed into his "crimes" against the Alliance.
"Interesting," she murmured. She saved the data to the laptop, then typed in a new search. "Warp Darkmatter." The Galactipedia article used an old Star Command photo, taken only two years ago. Erin stared at the picture – Warp was an undeniably handsome man. The grin he wore was warm and friendly, and his stormy blue-on-yellow eyes sparkled as if he hadn't a care in the galaxy. Warp Darkmatter – didn't – look – evil.
If anything, he looked like the kind of guy any girl would consider herself lucky to be with. Erin understood now how he could be such a ladies' man if fans were correct in inferring that from the TV series.
The article explained that Warp had been orphaned at the age of fifteen, and that details were still unknown as to how Zurg won him over in the first place. But Warp had excelled at the Academy, graduating just behind Buzz. The article went on to list his many accomplishments and heroic deeds before it listed his crimes.
When she came to the crimes, she paused, unsure if she wanted to continue. Back home, she had always been a fan of Warp – even had something of a fangirl crush on him. She could get away with it back then: he hadn't been real yet! Now he was real, and she wasn't sure what she thought about him.
At last, she exhaled sharply and continued to scroll down the page. She should know this.
Then she heard footsteps approaching, and she quickly pressed the Galactipedia main page so that no one would see what she had been looking at. Buzz entered the room, smiling. "Erin!"
She gave him a smile that she hoped wasn't guilty. "Hi, Buzz!"
He sat on her bed and folded his hands on his knee. "I got those papers signed. We're sibs now."
The pure, childlike joy in Erin's face shone past her bandages. "Buzz…" She stopped and swallowed. "Buzz, you have no idea what this means to me. You really don't."
It must have been her vulnerability that really drew her to him. He wanted to protect her. "Maybe not. But, umm…" He looked down at his folded hands and shook his head. "I lost what I was going to say."
She placed her small, uninjured left hand on his two big hands. "We'll take it slow, okay?" she said softly. "It'll still take time for us to get used to this."
"You make it sound like marriage," Buzz said quietly, smirking.
Erin laughed softly. "Well, it's not, but it's still pretty important. Thank you, Buzz. For everything."
"You're welcome, Erin." Conscious of the fact that he had to start being a brother, he leaned forward and gently gave her a hug, which she returned as strongly as she could.
Something unspoken passed between them, something less than love but more than like. He held her like that for a while.
"He's my brother."
- Princess Leia to Han Solo, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
I've heard it said
That people come into our lives
For a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led to those
Who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you
- "For Good," Wicked
Author's Notes and News:
I know it was kinda slow, but I hope it was still enjoyable.
I'm definitely happy with the way Buzz and Erin's conversations turned out this time around – I think they were more realistic and in-character. And in regard to their last conversation, I had the instrumental piece "Luke and Leia's Theme" in my head (so I finally played it while I typed the scene out) from Return of the Jedi. You know that soft music that plays when Luke tells Leia that they're brother and sister? That's it. You can hear it more fully if you let the movie credits play – it's right after the Ewok music.
And it was fun to write Warp again. He's great. A little more introspective, maybe, than I tend to get with him, but it was still fun to do it.
…Oh! Which reminds me. The maid Kari? Remember that I said that she's Lorean? Well, I just made up a name for the race that is humanoid and has those high pointed ears – like the pink-skinned girl dancing with Brainpod 57 in "Star Crossed."
The Spanish song was "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus." Cookies to whoever figured that out! And I'm not sure about my translation of the last line, but oh well.
So! REVIEWS MAKE ME HAPPY, AND THEY HAVE A WAY OF HASTENING THE NEXT CHAPTER. You did know this, right? The reason it took me so long to get back to this one (because I'd started it MONTHS ago), was because I had to finish rewriting my fantasy novel for the Christian Writers Guild's Operation First Novel contest. I didn't make it, again, but I'm not surprised. I think we'll probably self-publish. Anyway, if it weren't for that, I might have already had this chapter and the next long done. Oh well. Maybe I can still get the fifth online before the year's out.
Cherry Productions and I have been roleplaying Buzz/Mira on the XR fan club with her as Mira and me as Buzz. I love playing Buzz – he's so awesome! And Cherry's awesome, too!
IT IS SNOWING RIGHT NOW IT IS THE FIRST SNOW OF THE SEASON I LOVE SNOW LONG LIVE WHITE CHRISTMASES TAKE THAT, GLOBAL WARMING OH THAT'S RIGHT GLOBAL WARMING WAS ALL A SCAM ANYWAY HA-HA I LOVE MY SNOW AND IT LAUGHS AT GLOBAL WARMING