Author's Notes: Happy New Year! :)
Jessie waited.
She waited blissfully to begin with, thinking silly thoughts about home and about the life she dreamed of. But as time passed and there came no word from Buzz or Woody, uneasiness started to creep into her mind. She waited for many hours, until finally going out to inquire of the two. No one seemed very interested in talking to her. She couldn't even find Booster or XR either.
It was late, well into the night had she been on Earth. After wandering all over the station looking for any sign of her friends, exhaustion had finally caught up with her. She returned to her allotted quarters, this time without Bo. Curiously, it was empty again with no other roommates.
She barely slept. Her mind ran rampant. What was going on? Why had Buzz not come back? Where was Woody?
In the morning, she awoke deeply concerned. She was about to brush her thickly tangled hair when she heard a small creak coming from the closet.
The cowgirl slowed her breaths. She stepped hesitantly towards the futuristic sleek steel closet doors. They were slightly ajar, but the darkness in the small space didn't allow her any way of knowing what was inside.
Her steps were smaller and slower as she neared the doors. Fear and adrenaline were pumping through her, making her fingers quiver as they reached the smooth surface.
Nothing happened for a moment as she was glued to the spot.
Suddenly a hand shot out of the dark grasping hers. She tried to scream but another caught her mouth and she forcefully pulled in. Jessie fought desperately to get away, but the darkness and tight space seemed to suck the strength out of her. She was petrified.
"Shhh! Jess it's me!"
The cowgirl stopped wriggling. She squinted her still adjusting eyes in the darkness and finally picked out her brother's face. Upon finding that she had recognized him, he removed his hand from her mouth.
"Woody!?" she cried and he clasped his hand over her again.
"Listen to me!" he hissed quietly. "We've got to get Bo and get out of here! McNairy is working with Porkchop!"
Jessie forcefully peeled his hand from her face. "What are you talking about?! Where have you been?"
Before Woody could respond they heard loud footsteps from outside the room.
The cowboy looked intently at his sister. "Look, McNairy has sent some of his rangers to come get you. They're going to ask you if you know where I am. You have to tell them you don't know. You can't let them know I'm here. And whatever you do, don't leave with them!"
She had no time to respond as he shoved her out of the closet and the door to the room opened.
Two large rangers entered, one in the general form of a human with carrot orange skin, while the other looked reptilian in nature with bright blue scales.
Jessie was completely stunned. She stared at the rangers for a moment, realizing she was wearing only her nightgown. She cleared her throat. "Excuse me, I believe you have the wrong quarters."
"Pardon us, Ms. Pride. We don't mean to impose, we've only come to inquire of your brother," the carrot skinned one said.
The cowgirl tried to hide the fear in her face, but it didn't help that her cheeks felt like they were burning. "Well, I would as you two the same thing! I haven't seen him since the council meeting, and I was worried he'd gone to see McNairy himself! I went around asking about him yesterday and nobody seemed to know anything about him. Is he in trouble?"
The reptilian ranger stood silently, breathing aggressively, and so the carrot skinned one continued the conversation. "Oh no, it's just that the secretary felt that things were left on a very bad tone at the meeting, you see. He wanted to talk to Woody, to see if he could gain any more insight on the situation."
Part of Jessie had an inkling of doubt towards her brother. What the ranger had said seemed somewhat convincing. Perhaps Woody had been overreacting. And yet, she felt very strongly something weird was going on. "Well, if I do see him I'll tell you. You haven't by chance seen Buzz around either? He disappeared yesterday as well."
The rangers exchanged looks.
"From our understanding he went to talk to McNairy as well. In fact Ms. Pride, will you please accompany us to see the Secretary? I believe it would be wise if you told him everything you have told us for yourself."
The redhead considered her response. "I'm sure you can pass on the message yourselves. I haven't given you much information anyway.
The carrot skinned ranger flashed a dangerous smile. "We insist. The secretary will be glad to hear it from you. And any piece of information is valuable to him."
She stared them down for a few moments. "Of course. I'm sure you two will understand if I change out of my pajamas first, however," she finally said curtly.
The reptilian ranger looked as if he was about to spring on her, but the carrot skinned one held him back. He gave an amused expression, and then nodded. "We'll be right outside the door." They slipped out of the room.
Woody poked his head out of the closet. "They suspect you. We've got to get out of here, now."
"Where is Buzz? He went to go find you yesterday," Jessie whispered.
The cowboy looked at her with knitted eyebrows.
There was a harsh knock at the door, causing the siblings to whip around towards the sound. "Ms. Pride? Are you finished?" came the muffled voice from the outside.
"Nearly! If you come in while I'm indecent I swear I'll punch you in the ground!" Jessie called. There was a sly chuckle from outside.
The cowgirl turned back to her brother with a panicked face. "What do we do?!"
Out in the hall, the reptilian ranger grew restless. "Enough of this! We take her NOW!"
The carrot skinned one shrugged. He moved aside from the door and allowed his comrade to open it. They entered and were not very surprised to see that Jessie was nowhere to be seen.
The noticed the closet, and the carrot skinned ranger grinned. "There's really no point in hiding, Ms. Pride. Let's get this over with, cleanly."
The reptilian ranger ripped out the door to the closet. There was no one inside.
Suddenly the carrot skinned ranger wasn't so chipper anymore. "Alright, no more more games Jessie. Come on-"
"YAAAAH!"
The cowgirl leapt from the top bunk on top of the reptilian ranger, taking full advantage of the fact that his helmet was down. Woody, on the other hand, sprung from under the bed and tackled the carrot skinned one down knocking him unconscious. The reptilian ranger struggled to get Jessie off of him, and decided to slam his her against the wall. The redhead fell in an ungraceful heap from his back, but before the ranger could finish the job he was shot down by Woody, who had stolen the other ranger's blaster.
He quickly ran over to help Jessie off the ground, who stood up painfully.
"Are you ok?" Woody asked between heavy breaths.
Jessie bent over and winced. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks." She looked over the reptilian ranger on the ground. "You didn't kill him, did you?"
Woody showed her the blaster. "It's set to stun, but it sure wasn't set to stun when the other guy had it."
"Why?!" Jessie asked, exasperated. "I don't understand what's going on!"
"I promise I'll explain, but we've got to get out of here first. Help me get these two under the bed," the cowboy said tossing her the other ranger's blaster.
The siblings dragged the rangers under the bunk bed and after a quick change Jessie was finally out of her nightgown, but she found that her suit had been missing, something she should have noticed the night before. They crept into the deserted hall cautiously.
"How long do we have until we're in trouble?" Jessie asked.
"I thought they'd be on us by now," Woody responded. "I guess they don't want to make a whole lot of noise until they absolutely have to."
"So what is the plan exactly?"
"We've got to get Bo. I think I know where she might be."
Jessie stopped. "What about Buzz?"
Woody paused. "He's probably been taken to McNairy. I don't think they're planning on killing him. He's too much of an influential figure at Star Command. People would start to ask questions. They could be holding him in the same place as Bo."
The cowgirl nodded reluctantly.
She followed Woody in silence, as they continued to traverse the station undisturbed. It was extremely strange that no one was there at all. It was as if everyone had just disappeared.
"I don't like this," Jessie said quietly as they entered the prison ward.
"I know. This feels very much like a trap," her brother replied. And yet they continued forward, searching the area.
Finally after wasting time on other doors they found one that was locked. With the push of a button, Woody was able to open the heavy metal plated door and it slide open slowly. The incandescent light was almost unbearably bright in the small room, where in on a simple bed Bo Peep lied, staring at the ceiling. Her pale skin sparked in the light, baby blue dress to match her eyes.
She rose from the bed with a start upon recognizing her friends. She rushed to them, pulling them in an embrace. "Woody! Jessie! McNairy is plotting to do something terrible! We've got to get out of here!"
"We know, we've just got to find Buzz," Woody told her brushing a loose hair from her face. "Do you know if they brought him here?"
"There was a commotion last night, but I couldn't really hear much," Bo said. Woody grasped her hand. She tried to brave a smile. "Thanks for finding me."
They exited the room back out into the narrow hall, where inexplicably the lights had suddenly gone down.
A lone figure made its way through the shadowy corridor towards them. They considered running away, but Jessie was able to make out a familiar face.
"Buzz!" she grinned and met him the rest of the way. "Buzz, thank goodness! We're gonna…" Jessie trailed off. Something was very wrong as she studied his face.
"The game is up, agents of Zurg," he said, distinctly missing any warmth or kindness in his voice.
Jessie's eyes grew large. She stared at him for a moment. "What are you talking ab-"
Woody, although he didn't recognize it until that moment, knew many of Buzz's attack patterns as they they had fought side by side over the years. So when the ranger started to raise his arm in using the lazer in his suit, the cowboy automatically raised his blaster in that split second. But upon fully realizing at who he was pointing his gun, he aimed for the lazer instead of the man.
Everything was going so fast. Buzz had been hit, and it phased him for a moment. Woody took the few precious moments to grab Jessie away from the ranger. She was shocked, unable to move. Bo grabbed her hand and they started to run in the opposite direction.
"Buzz it's me. It's Woody," the sheriff tried desperately. "What did they do to you?"
Buzz angrily leapt up to attack the cowboy, leaving Woody no choice but to run as well.
A ear piercing alarm sounded. Screens were displayed everywhere, replaying a recording of the sheriff attacking Buzz. Rangers started to flood out of all directions. The three sprinted on, Woody leading them towards the escape pods.
He hadn't used his blaster once since using it on Buzz, but he realized they would never make it if he didn't start shooting. If McNairy got his claws on them he would surely kill them.
Someone had activated the emergency shutdown of the station. They were nearly to the pods as the gate to the area started to close. The cowboy shoved the girls under the gate, but it was closing too slow that surely other rangers would be able to slip under as well. He stayed outside, fighting off some of them while he could.
Woody's blood went cold when he saw Buzz rounding the corner. He went under the gate himself just as it was about to close and saw Jessie picking off some rangers from the inside of the large pod depositing area..
"Go, Go!" the cowboy shouted as he looked back to see Buzz make it under the gate.
Jessie had taken all of the remaining rangers down, and they scrambled to get a pod open. Woody knew he had to buy time with Buzz charging at them. The cowboy reluctantly took a shot, but the ranger dove out of the way.
"Buzz, wake up please. It's us! It's your friends!" Jessie shouted desperately.
"Get the pod open Jess," Woody told her, pointing his blaster at Buzz but not shooting.
The sheriff knew he would never last in a brawl against his friend. He wasn't even close to being as strong, let alone the fact that his arm was still weak, but he had to try.
Buzz finally reached him, knocking the blaster cleanly out of his hand and taking him down the ground in one fluid moment. The rolled around on the ground, Buzz pulling slower more powerful punches and Woody doing his best to dodge them.
The girls finally were able to activate a pod and set its destination towards Earth. The turned towards the fight, in which Woody had received a well calculated blow in the jaw. Jessie studied the blaster in her hand still set to stun. She raised it with shaky hands. Bo watched her in horror, but nodded all the same.
Buzz had pinned Woody, punching him over and over again. The cowboy had fallen unconscious, but the ranger was not satisfied to stop. He was about to deliver a fatal hit right before Jessie fired her dead on shot in Buzz's back. He fell to the ground.
The women pushed him off of Woody, who'd been beat up pretty good. He was waking up again and so Jessie and Bo hoisted him up and led him to the interior of the closet sized escape pod.
Jessie turned back for Buzz, but Woody caught her hand. "We can't take him with us. McNairy's done something to him, he'll try to kill us."
The cowgirl began to sob, and as it turned out all three of them were crying.
"I promise we'll come back for him. I promise we'll get him back. I promise," Woody tried again as Jessie only cried harder. Bo took her other arm and they sat her down to strap her in the pod.
They all took one last hard look at Buzz Lightyear, lying on the ground. Woody finally punched the release button, and they were off again into the stars leaving behind Star Command's greatest space ranger.