After this I'm off to do more work on one of my other stories.

Something went wrong during final spell checking for some of my chapters before posting so I had to retype some of the things that somehow got deleted, although it also gave me a chance to reiterate on a few things that needed revising.

Please enjoy!!!

His head was swimming, he felt groggy, a subtle headache present at the center of his skull, his body felt like a toy robot that had been flung around by a bratty 5-year-old Who didn't care if the toy got dented or broke. Sore, aching, aware enough to know that he didn't have any broken bones nor punctured organs and wondered how he didn't have any after his ship had crashed after he had blacked out.

As he was slowly regaining consciousness, Zurg became aware of several things.

First of all, he felt several bandages on him. Second he was laying on a soft surface that felt a lot like grass but strangely this grass felt a lot softer than what normal grass felt like, it was almost like laying on top of a very soft futon. Third, he felt a cold compress on top of his head that actually felt nice as He did feel kind of hot, But not from a fever but more from the temperature he was becoming aware of around him. And lastly, and more notably, He heard someone... singing? No, humming. Doing so softly though as he could tell that it was a young woman who was humming, but what they were humming about, he did not know.

The more he started to regain consciousness, the more he's also suddenly became aware that he didn't have his robes or cape on, although thankfully he could still feel the undershirt and the slim cargo shorts he had been wearing under it were still there, in case his fancy wears suddenly got ripped up or filthy and he wouldn't appear indecent (That's just an embarrassing moment waiting to happen).

As he opened his eyes, he was thankful to not have been met with a blaring light as his vision was foggy at first before he blinked a few more times to make his vision clear up again.

Once he was no longer seeing doubles he looked around his area, he appeared to be in some sort of forest, and by the looks of it he was under a very big tree that he's never seen before, it could be similar to an oak tree but the coloring and the shape with the leaves are different than the actual thing, to his left he could see a small pond right beside him, It's waters as clear as crystal as he could easily see his reflection even while laying down, looking to his right he saw none other than his arch nemesis.

However, instead of reacting volatilely, like one would expect, he stopped himself as he observed her. Staying quiet as he remains laying still, And not just because he still felt sore and he didn't want to reenact the pain.

It appears she was evaluating on how much medical supplies they had from both of their emergency kits.

'Huh, I guess one of my lackeys included that on my new ship in case anything were to go awry. I often said I didn't need that infernal thing, but for once given the situation I'll let it slide.' He thought to himself, before adding to himself, '... Not that I will admit it out loud, and it's not like I can yell at my lackeys given the fact that I left Planet Z on my own.'

"The good news is that we have more than enough to last us in case something goes wrong if we combine them together, Now I can only hope that the bad news isn't that I'm unable to contact anybody through my comm." Bianca said aloud as she opened up her wrist communicator.

"Bianca Lightyear to Star Command, come in Star Command, This is an emergency!" She called out, But all she got in response was the very sharp noise of static so blaring that she had to quickly close her comm before she suddenly went deaf.

"Well there goes that solution." She sighed in defeat before she growled as she slammed her right fist into the ground, "All the times..."

"So I take it that we're stranded?"

Zurgs voice caught her attention as she turned to him, wide awake and aware of the situation.

"I'm afraid so." She admitted, Even though she really didn't want to be left stranded on an unknown planet with her arch nemesis, it could not be helped, And there was no point in lying about how serious the situation was, "While you were unconscious I tried to see if anything could be salvaged from both of our ships besides the kits, but to no avail. I even thought of trying to jury rig a makeshift emergency beacon to send the Star command, but it was no use, everything from both of our ships was completely thrashed from the wave that hit us in space."

Zurg let out an angry exasperated growl as he scrubbed his face with his hands in effort to try and stave off an actual headache that he felt might form.

"Being stuck on a planet that neither of us have any knowledge of with you is the very last thing that I wanted to do today." Zurg griped as He crossed his arms over his chest, fuming as he turned to his left side, thankfully without too much effort, "'Should've literally just stayed in bed today."

"Likewise." She agreed as she thought, 'There's going to be nothing but arguments between us if we are going to be stuck here due to our alignments, but If we want any hope of surviving, let alone finding a way off the planet somehow, we're going to have to work together... Even though I really do not want to.'

She groaned to herself as she knew she was going to be regretting this later, but they have no other choice.

Besides, She didn't even know if the guy had any survival skills while her on the other hand does have years of experience under her belt.

Not to mention that the man himself had sustained injuries (even if most weren't serious aside from having become very sore from the impact, Still she didn't know how sore he actually was from it and whether or not it'll hinder him if he tried to move too much), She didn't know yet if He could get up on his own, And let's not forget the fact that it was hot right now, and him having a metallic body of armor was going to be like a death trap for him if It turned out he wasn't resistant to the suns intense rays (Not to mention for her too if he was in fact immune to the Sun in that regard and decided to use his boiling hot metal body to try and roast her alive (Which that in itself would be rather petty even for him, and even he would agree that would be childish) and the fact that she was still wearing her suit which she really needed to shed unless she wanted to faint or die from overheating once they were out of the shade, Even though it was a lot cooler in the forest with all the shade provided by all the trees and shrubbery it doesn't change the fact that it's still hot outside).

"... But If we want any hope of surviving and getting out of this mess... we're going to have to..." She bit her tongue in frustration before she begrudgingly said it, "... work together..."

"Me work together with you to survive!?" Zurg exclaimed in outrage as he flung himself into a sitting position, facing her as he winced viciously in pain but nonetheless continued, "I'd rather turn the stone and be blasted to bits and even smaller bits then even think about working with you Lightyear!"

"Hey I'm not happy about this either Zurg." She argued back, "But given the circumstances we don't got a choice. And besides that, do you even have any survival skills to help you in this wilderness?"

Oh how Zurg wanted to argue and proclaim that he did in fact know, But was interrupted as a mutant two-headed squirrel like creature came by his side which startled him enough that he backed away sharply, almost falling into the pond as a squirrel, being startled by this reaction, scurried away.

Zurg, once he caught his breath, immediately glared at his arch nemesis as it looked like she was trying not to burst into laughter, oh how he really wanted to use his laser eyes on her..

But...

He sighed loudly in exasperated and annoyed defeat as he admitted with a scowl, "Okay fine you win, I don't know how to survive in the wilderness on my own. My skills lay more on the technical, weapons, government and business departments respectfully."

"Well good thing for us both, Star Command trains all its rangers so they know how to survive in crisis situations, from being stranded somewhere to being pursued by a maniacal madman relentlessly to camping for any reason and so on." She told him, though in his ears it sounded like she was gloating (even though she wasn't), "And judging from my calculations earlier while you were still unconscious, this area is a good enough spot to set up camp at least until we can figure out if there are sentient habitants living on this planet. But there's also another problem, Well... three actually."

"What?" He asked her, sneering a little but he nonetheless was curious as to what the problems were.

"According to my readings on my computer/comm, This planet appears to have unexpected weather changes every now and then and even in terms of temperature once every couple days. It can be rather unpredictable, like for example it could be as hot as summer and yet it could unexpectedly be hailing, or it could be as Cold as winter and yet it could be really windy with hot winds rather than cold ones, or it could be as warm as springtime and yet suddenly a twisted blizzard comes out of nowhere, etc. While for some days it'll just be either hot or cold normally in terms of temperature and the weather will be just fine or even be normal like everywhere else." She told him as she opened the computer on her glove as she typed on it, "The second problem is just something really to point out, while avoiding the desert is advisable, I know there will be times we'll need to traverse it if necessary. It would be wise to travel during days when the weather is at a point where travel through it will be possible as it seems like a good portion of this planet's desert Is centered in one area while the rest of the planet is surrounded by jungles and forests with an array of ponds, rivers, watering holes, springs and lakes that can be found here and there, But even so it seems like the desert area works differently than the flora environment around it In terms of what sort of weather it gets as it can always be extremely unbearable in high temperatures about 80% of the time while there's only a 20% chance of any weather changes happening on an occasion And even then given the ratio there's no telling when it'll come over there. Lastly, and more prominently, There are some carnivorous plants in the jungles that we will need to be careful of, and disconcertingly they seem to be impervious to attacks from my laser, some even tried to take a nip at us while I was getting us the safety long before you woke up. Although, through stress and unorthodox improvisation on my part, I discovered there are two ways to keep them at bay. If you chuck a piece of fruit into their mouths they will fall asleep, like taking a sleeping pill but more instantaneous, And The other thing you could do is splash water on them, curious I know but after a brief analysis it seemed that despite being plants these particular kind don't require water, and in fact getting watered makes them scared, docile, and start withering a bit, Which means that water has an adverse reaction towards them As for these plants they get all their nutriences from the minerals in the ground and from the unexpected weather changes as long as none of them is rain, straight up (as kids would say). That's why none of those plants were close to the pond here by about a mile."

'Okay everything she just told me sounds more like something that comes out of a more weird version of Alice in wonderland.' The Evil Emperor thought to himself as he was close to shrugging off her claims as To him such things seem impossible...

'... then again we've both been to very different planets all over the galaxy, and that includes even some more odd ones out there... so really it should not come to us as a surprise, it still is but I digress...' He thought as He did recall a number of planets he has encountered that were pretty odd in their own right, some crazy and even some being so mind-boggling that he threw a tantrum due to all the confusion due to one reason about them or another, '... And besides, due to our situation she would have no reason to lie about such things, 'even she could not come up with stuff as crazy as what she had said.'

"While the second and third things can be avoided if we're careful, The first problem is much more important as we'll need to tread carefully on this as In our case it's going to be unavoidable, Thankfully we both have necessary clothes to handle such unexpected changes, but unless you want to be facing either being roasted alive or freezing to death inside your armor, you're going to have to remove it. And no, don't argue, if you want any hope in surviving, you're going to have to make such sacrifices like that if you want to live."

'And if he values his life, he's going to have to do it.' She thought that last part to herself until it had occurred to her suddenly after that, 'Wait a minute, I don't know what he actually looks like under that armor. In all the time we've known each other, I never found out what he's hiding under it, let alone under his metallic helmet alone, let alone again what species he actually is. Looks like I'm finally going to get the answers I've been looking for for all these years.'

'As much as I want to argue and say that perfectly fine, And just outright kill her right here and now, I can't argue that in my current form I'll only be more vulnerable to the unexpected weather changes.' He Internally growled at himself at admitting it, but he knew it was true.

Especially as this reminded him of a few of Nana Zurg's stories about when one of his ancestors was so pig headedly stubborn that he ended up dying because he refused to shed his armor until the temperature was more favorable, Especially as he was the commanding officer of an army and due to his own pride He didn't have anybody appointed to lead said army after he had died which led to said army falling into chaos and everything going up in smoke, While leaving his wife a widow and his unborn child without a father.

He had always regretted asking for details on that once he was older, because trust me it's not a pretty way to go.

He'd rather not die the very same way He had, Even he wasn't that suicidal.

Call him what you will, but he does have the will to live, and he'd rather not meet his demise today or anytime soon before he can even reach his elderly years (And outlast Lightyear by then).

Besides, he was actually starting to feel suffocated in the smoldering heat, even while under the cool shade of the tree above them, fainting from dehydration or suffocation due to the heat literally being so suffocating was very bad (that was just one of the ways of being very close to meeting his grave in these circumstances). And don't get him started on how uncomfortable he felt, feeling the heat starting to really spread on his metal body, If he didn't change soon, it would not end well.

He growled as he barked out, "Fine! But for removing my armor, well... I'll show you."

She gave him a puzzled look as He gave her one back before shrugging as he concentrated, his body beginning to glow an iridescent gray-blue light as Bianca shuffled back in surprise.

As she watched him going through what appeared to be a metamorphosis, she was stunned to see his form shrink, appearing more human-like, it was too bright for her to see his actual features, It was only after 10 seconds that the light faded and she was able to actually see him.

And what she found really surprised her (well more than that as just saying this was an understatement).

His new appearance did look a lot more human, even his hands were normal.

Visually speaking he was still taller than her by one and a half inches, so he's definitely missing The near other half from The height she normally saw him with, his physique looked rather slim yet he had muscles yet not in a way that made him look overly buff or made him look too bodacious But rather enough that it really made him stand out, looking strong, proud, and even seem pleasing to the eyes (she found much to her own astonishment) almost like he was one of those models from those magazines she seen some of her colleagues read sometimes mixed with an ambitiously dedicated hunter, sleek yet shaggy but still combed nicely short silver hair, light cadet Gray skin, and, his most striking feature, His bright light goldenrod yellow eyes which almost seemed to glow in the shade as they were literally eye-catching. Like they could stare into your soul and know exactly what you're thinking.

She had no words to describe this, in all the time she had known her arch nemesis never once had she ever seen this side of him, literally, This was all too shocking, knowing that the form she had always known wasn't just the only one he could assume, Not to mention the fact that he had the power to transform and that his armored appearance was actually a form he could assume and not an actual outfit that he always wore.

She thought she knew as much as she did about him, but apparently she was dead wrong as there seemed to be more about him that she still didn't know about.

Needless to say she was speechless and had no way to describe any of this was accurate.

Zurg, on the other hand, felt a big wave of relief hit him as he felt way less hot now as he was back to his organic form, thankful also that thanks to enhance technology and clothing science, of sorts, his clothes were able to shrink and grow with him so he didn't have to worry about needing to change for the sake of making sure he neither looked indecent nor felt like he was being given an atomic wedgie at every angle (from either being too small or too big respectfully).

Half of the time he forgot about his true form given the fact that he was always in his Evil Emperor form, which he dubbed, which was also known as his armored form, 24/7 and Not even his minions knew what he actually looked like under the armor.

He then turned his attention back to the Ranger only to be met by her being extremely stunned, no, greatly shocked by what had just happened, now he was even more confused until it struck him like a bolt of lightning as He felt like face palming himself.

'Wait of course, she's never seen me outside of my armored form, in all time we've known each other I've only ever seen her outside of her normal uniform on an occasion, but she herself has never seen me wear anything other than that which she has always seen for years and years... with a few exceptions but nonetheless I was always still in my armored form.' He concluded, He really should have seen this coming.

Although he found it funny seeing her rub her eyes to make sure that she wasn't hallucinating, pinch yourself, even slap herself for good measure, to which it made him laugh even more until she pointedly told him, "SHUT UP!" Blushing as she exclaimed, "It's not my fault I've never seen you assume this form before! I didn't even know you could change forms!"

Wiping a tear from his right eye he told her, "As humorous as your reaction is, I cannot fault you for never knowing that, I've always kept it a secret. In fact nobody knows much about my own species, In fact still we're so rare that nobody knows how to classify us. Not even my minions know about this."

"Really??" She asked, genuinely confused as all get out.

Although it did occur to her that in all the time that she and everyone at Star Command had known him through all their encounters, they never once found out what his species was, so much so that there have been more conspiracy theories than the gossip tabloids spreading around about it, Even on other planets.

In fact she even remembered an actual villains magazine She confiscated from one of the inmates a long while back, They even had a segment on everybody guessing what sort of species Zurg himself was.

It seems like everybody and their villainous grandmother were all boggling with curiosity on what sort of species he was or even where his actual origins came from.

"Nope. Not any one of them." He replied, very slowly getting up as he can still feel his body aching from all the bruises and from feeling more battered up then a beaten up punching bag but to his relief he wasn't so weak that he couldn't get up on his own let alone stand upright without needing assistance... to a degree as he had to be careful as he was aching so badly that if he twited wrong he'll end up collapsing, Removing the cold compress from his head as He was glad to see that he wasn't disoriented or even dizzy after having a nasty crash back there, Although he needed to take a few deep breaths to make sure neither would occur and make sure he moved slowly so he wouldn't make the pain in his body even worse then it already was.

"Not like it's any of your business Lightyear." He scoffed as he ever so slowly stretched his body to try and alleviate some of the aching and make sure he didn't pull anything, "So don't bother asking."

Despite huffing, crossing her arms and turning away from him slightly in response, Bianca couldn't help but notice that his voice sounded different too.

Before, his tenor voice sounded like a mix of organic and metallic, almost like the voice of an AI yet he wasn't one.

But now?

It went from tenor to baritone, it was as smooth as butter and, though she wasn't going to say it out loud especially not to him, she couldn't help but admit that it sounded... handsome.

Don't get her wrong there was nothing wrong with his voice before, It was neither grating nor annoying by any means, she just couldn't help but notice a significant difference between the two.

"Anyways," Bianca said as she pulled out a tent that's compressed into one box made out of itself that can easily pop out just by pulling the cord, "Our next course of action should be setting on camp, and get started looking for food that's edible to eat, The sooner we can do so the better."

Zurg was about to say something but then was startled in fright by a flying squirrel that had white fur and sharp red eyes with little reptilian fins on its legs as it glided by him, causing him to stumble back, immediately losing his balance due to his current state of health as, to his display, he landed in the pond rather than the ground.

Immediately on instinct, Bianca dropped the soon to be tent and bolted for the pond, instantly grabbing Zurg's hand just as he surfaced, and started to quickly but carefully pull him out of the pond.

Zurg pants as he started to physically shake, barely able to keep himself upright as he was now sitting on his hands and legs as the pain he had been trying to ignore was bleeding through his body tenfold from the sudden jerk reaction.

"Stupid squirrel..." He mumbled as he was very upset that a squirrel of all things, mutant or not, was enough to startle him and almost make him drown.

It took everything in him not to curl up into a ball to try in vain to push away the pain, In fact it was so bad that he felt dizzy and disoriented, and was having trouble just trying to stay awake.

Upon seeing this, Bianca immediately understood that he was in even worse shape than she had anticipated as she carefully guided him back to the mat that he had been laying on when he was unconscious the first time and carefully laid him down on his back.

Soon after that she went for her kit to pull out the liquid painkiller so that she can inject it into Zurg as, to his dismay, he was losing the battle against the pain as he helplessly fell into unconsciousness.

Just before everything went completely black, he vaguely heard the woman say to him just as she came back to his side, "... you'll be okay, just rest, I'll watch over you..."

Done!

To be honest, I'd actually planned for this chapter to end differently, but to my own dismay I don't remember what it was that I originally was going to write for it, so I decided to make something up, and I'm glad it turned out well.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Tell me what you think in the reviews and I hope you are all having a good day or night wherever you are! Until next time, TTFN!!