Author's Notes: Little bit of a shorter chapter. I'm finally starting to feel like I'm getting back into the groove of this story! Now that I know definitively where I want it to go, I'm feeling a lot better about it. Also, anyone else excited about Toy Story that Time Forgot this Tuesday? :3 Thanks for the reviews and favorites as always!
Bo's eyes flickered open.
She blinked a few times, trying to bring the scene before her into focus. A hospital ward? Had the past few hours been some nightmare?
The woman tried to recall exactly what she thought had happened. There was a message that played, and then she was taken away to be hidden on Capital Planet. She remembered vaguely a bomb threat, and people murdered and then blacking out for some reason…
There was a slight discomfort in her right arm. She traced her left hand up her other arm, freezing as she felt a tube. She'd had an IV in before, but this was different. Afraid to look, she took a quick glance, seeing a blur of red in the tube. Bo suddenly felt extremely nauseated and wondered if she was going to faint again, but fought it. It took a few seconds for her to regain her composure enough to touch the tube again and pull it out.
She felt like vomiting as she peered over a small bag of red liquid connected to the tube. This had to have been a dream. Alan was dead, he couldn't be hunting her for her blood anymore.
And then she finally recalled the message displayed in the hospital room at Star Command, where some unknown person had marked her as a criminal... And the panic that ensued… She'd requested they waited for Woody. She knew surely he would have come, and probably did, but they whisked her away before she could even fight back.
Bo swung her legs around the bed and examined her surroundings. It seemed innocent enough, just a simple small white room that was nearly empty other than the bed and the machinery she'd been hooked up to.
As much as it repulsed her, she grabbed the bag on the machine and adjusted her hospital gown. Before she could reach the door, however, it swung open.
What she could only assume was a man stood in front of her, with the snout and ears of a pig. He wore a pinstripe suit and held a sleek black cane. His portliness filled the entire frame of the door.
"You're awake at last, Ms. Peep," he said with a know-it-all sort of tone, as if he had anticipated exactly the moment she would arise.
"Who are you?" she asked calmly, despite how panic stricken she felt inside.
"The name's Porkchop, Dr. John Porkchop," he replied simply.
"Ok John, this isn't my first rodeo. I know how this works, and I'm just warning you now that Star Command doesn't play nice."
Porkchop scoffed. "They weren't kidding about you, were they? Star Command is crippled. I was so easily able to snatch you up right under their nose."
"Star Command isn't my only ally," Bo said, gripping the bag a little tighter.
"Are you referring to the other Earthlings? Yes, I've done my research on you Bo. It's quite amazing that a single drop of blood in such an ordinary woman could alter the course of history."
"Not alter, destroy history. Stoneheart wanted to end everything, but I'm getting the vibe that you're not that type."
The portly man grinned. "Right you are m'dear. I'm only a humble genius uninterested in the ethical questions your brother was famous for."
"Did you work under him?"
"Correct again. I was one of his best scientists, contributing brilliant ideas like reprogramming Zurgs androids and finding the actual location of the Black Star. When I found out what he was really planning to do, I couldn't let it happen. Of course it turned out I didn't need to do much, since Lotso did most of the dirty work for me."
"Lotso…" Bo responded distantly. She hadn't thought about him in a long time. He was the one who shot her and caused a whole mess of problems. But he was dead, so it was pointless to dwell on his memory.
"Both Alan and Lotso were extremely close minded. If they had only opened their minds to the endless possibilities that your blood can unlock," he gestured to the bag. "Perhaps they wouldn't have met such an untimely death."
"Care to elaborate?"
Porkchop gave a cheeky smile. "The best part is that I've devoted myself to studying something that completely revolves around you, and you don't even know a thing about it."
Bo huffed. She subconsciously let some of the old Porcelain Cowgirl creep back into her head, letting some of the anger spill over acting like a venom in her veins. "You underestimate me."
"No, actually I overestimate you. I overestimate everything, calculate every value, crunch every number, predict every variable. I anticipate what you do even before you know yourself."
"That smart of a little piggy, huh? That mind of yours isn't going to do much good in a man to man situation."
There was a glint in the man's eye. "I think you'll find that you're wrong." He stepped aside from the door frame, and in rushed in many soldiers in identical space suits. They briskly took the bag away from Bo and passed it to Porkchop. As they started to grab her, Bo felt extremely weak again. Struggling against them made her nausea flare up and she knew she was going to faint again.
She glared at the pig man until the colors sloshed together again like a painting.
"What?" Woody asked staring blankly at the LGM. He looked over at Buzz to see if he made sense of anything the alien had just said, but the Space Ranger looked as dumbfounded as he was himself.
The LGM shook its head like it was talking to a child. It was a very odd sight.
"There are few ancient celestial stars that have existed since the beginning of time that possess great power. The Uni-Mind is an orb that is powered by one of the ancients still remaining. The Black Star is an ancient as well."
"Then the Defenders of the Black Star... they're not just a fairytale?," Buzz interjected.
"They represented the universe. It times of great war they harnessed the power of the Black Star to freeze time and find solutions. Once Star Command was created, however, they stepped down.
"There is another function of the Black Star: To end everything."
There was an eerie silence as the alien concluded.
"So what does Bo have to do with any of this?" Jessie asked, not wanting the LGM to expound on his last thought.
"Her mother was part of the Defenders of the Black Star. The blood is the same. It is required to allow access and activate the sequence," the LGM replied.
The trio looked at each other nervously. "This just got a lot more complicated," Woody remarked.