Team Lightyear were waiting in one of the booths when Savy arrived at Cosmo's. Buzz had wanted to stay on the station with her, but she'd persuaded him to go with his team. The last thing she needed was him pacing around outside the commander's office while she met with Nebula.
"Savy!" XR waved her over, scooting closer to Booster to make room at the table. "Hiya, kid!"
"Hey, guys." She sank into the chair, feeling the weight of all their eyes on her.
Mira smiled. "We've already ordered. You want me to call Sally over?"
"Nah, I'm good."
"You can share some of my fries," Booster offered.
She shrugged.
"So how are you doing?" XR raised his can. "I'd offer a taste of the ol' WD-40, but you might wanna just stick to a milkshake."
"I'm good, really. I grabbed a sandwich at the cafeteria." She looked at Buzz. He was too quiet. "So how was the mission today?"
"Traffic duty. Purely routine."
"Except for that maniac in the blue cargo shuttle," said XR. "Can you believe that guy?"
Mira giggled. "And he had the nerve to ask why we were stopping him!"
The other two laughed. Buzz stirred a bowl of chilli, his eyes still fixed on Savy.
This is stupid, she thought. There was no point in ignoring the moozle in the room. "I gave Commander Nebula my decision today," she said.
The laughter died down. Again all eyes were on her.
She swallowed. "I... I thought things over long and hard." Her gaze drifted to XR. "Especially all the stuff you told me. I didn't want to rush into anything." She took a deep breath. "I had to figure out what I really wanted first."
"So what do you want, Savy?" Booster asked.
Difficult as it was, she locked eyes with Buzz. She'd never struggled to stand behind her choices before, but she'd never had so many people to disappoint before either. When he looked back at her, she could see the realisation written across his face. He knew what she was going to say.
"I'm not going to the Academy."
There was silence, as if the air had been let out of the room. Buzz stopped stirring and laid his palms down on the table.
Mira was the first to speak. "Well... if you're... I mean, are you sure that's—?"
"But why—" Booster began.
Buzz tapped his fingers, silencing them. "She's made her choice," he said quietly.
Beside her, XR was looking up, no judgement in his expression, but a hint of sadness. "What'll you do now, kid?" he asked.
Savy wondered if he'd had the same dreams she'd had—visions of the two of them serving side by side, maybe one day even on a team together. She'd imagined working with Buzz too. What would that have been like? Would she have made him proud? What would it have felt like to have the family legacy on her shoulders? Would she have been a good Ranger?
"I, uh, kinda have another opportunity lined up," she admitted.
"On Trade World?"
"Not exactly."
"Whatever it is..." Buzz didn't look at her, his face turned towards the window. He sighed. "You have my full support, Savy. Always."
The tightness in her chest eased slightly. "Thanks."
"So where are you going?" asked Mira.
Savy let out a long breath. "Karn."
"Karn?" the three rookies repeated in unison.
"I got a job offer."
Buzz's eyebrows shot up. "You— what?
It was nice to know she could still surprise even him. "Dr. Furbanna could use an extra hand over there. Y'know, doing supply runs, helping with maintenance, that kind of thing. She says the job's mine if I want it."
"Yes, but Karn?" XR folded his arms. "Are you crazy?"
She grinned. "Hey, it's only the second most dangerous planet in the galaxy. Ask Buzz."
"It's not just the danger," said Mira. "You're eighteen—don't you want to be around people your own age instead of, um, ravenous monsters?"
"I'll get plenty of time off." She elbowed Buzz. "Set that bunk up for me in the spare room and maybe I'll even spend some of it with you guys."
After dinner, when the other three had said their goodbyes, she and Buzz remained at the table, surrounded by empty plates and used napkins. She'd finally caved and ordered a milkshake, and Buzz was tapping a finger absently against a glass.
"You don't mind having me one more night, do you?" Savy asked. "I leave for Karn tomorrow."
"Of course not." His tapping continued. "Have you told your parents yet?"
"Yeah. I spoke to them as soon as I'd decided."
"Mm."
She set down her milkshake. "I guess I should've said something to you as well when Ozma offered."
"That's okay."
"You're... you're not mad, are you?"
The tapping stopped. "About what?"
"That I'm not gonna be a Ranger."
He looked at her, his expression unreadable. She wondered when his opinion had come to matter to her so much—had it been when she found out the truth, or before then on Trade World, when he'd cared enough to want better for her? No one besides her parents had ever done that before. No matter how much she believed in her choice, it was hard not to feel like she was letting him down.
"Just answer me one thing, Savy," he said. "Are you quitting the Academy because of me?"
"I thought about that in the beginning," she admitted. "But no. I just don't think it's who I am, you know?"
"And this other job is?"
She shrugged. "Not forever. But it's something new. That's what I realised I want—to keep trying things, to figure it all out as I go. Who knows, maybe one day I'll be back at Star Command. Maybe not. But right now, I wanna go my own way." She grinned. "I guess it's the Trade Worlder in me."
A hint of a smile crossed his face. "I guess so."
"And hey, gives you an extra excuse to drop by Karn."
He blushed. "So, uh, Ozma told you about us?"
"Yeah." She snorted. "At least someone did. I can't believe I spent almost a week with you and you talked more about Zurg than your actual girlfriend."
"Hey, if you'd joined Star Command, that would've been valuable intel!"
"Some fathers teach their kids important life skills," Savy sighed. "I had to hear about Planet Z's defence grid."
They shared a chuckle. She realised as she trailed off how alike they sounded when they laughed. Discovering little things like that was still weird, but they no longer made her angry. There was no escaping who she was, and she wasn't sure she wanted to anymore. "It's been an interesting week, huh?" she remarked.
"Yeah." Buzz rubbed his neck. "You can say that again."
She'd boarded the Star Command shuttle on Trade World like some starry-eyed kid, full of hopes and dreams. It hadn't even taken a day for them all to be shattered. "But I'm glad I know the truth."
"Me too."
She frowned. "Craters."
"What?"
"I just realised—if it weren't for NOS-4-A2, we never would've met." She folded her arms. "Can't believe I owe that creep something."
Buzz raised his mostly empty glass, his eyes twinkling. "To NOS-4-A2 then?"
"No way." She paused, then lifted her milkshake. "How about... to family?"
"To family."
The glasses clinked.
Three months later.
"At last!" Zurg surveyed the four Rangers from his hover throne, surrounded by Hornets. "I have you in my grasp, Lightyear!"
"Not today, Zurg!" Lightyear spat, somersaulting beneath a Hornet's blast and firing at three others in quick succession, sending a flurry of shrapnel in Zurg's direction. "Team, with me!"
The scene lit up in greens and reds as the two sides exchanged fire. A wall of Hornets stood between the Rangers and their ship—a wall growing thicker by the second as more reinforcements poured from the sky.
"This time I have you," Zurg whispered beneath his breath. Even Buzz Lightyear couldn't fight them off forever.
"Come on, Rangers!" He could hear the stress in the man's voice as he was driven backwards by the onslaught. "We don't have all day!"
"There are too many them!" yelled Mira.
Zurg cackled. Flicking his wrist at a Grub, he stood up. The creature quickly scampered to him, buckling under the weight of his ion cannon. It slipped it onto his hand, and Zurg let loose a volley of shots in Buzz's direction.
He dodged three of them, but a fourth clipped his suit, knocking him back.
"Buzz!" Booster barrelled through a row of Hornets, shielding Buzz with his body as he helped him up. "What are we going to do?"
"Focus, Rangers!" Lightyear snapped.
"We're outnumbered a gazillion to one!" his robot rookie whimpered.
Oh, this was too good. Zurg wished he'd brought along a camera drone.
"I said focus! We're going to make it to that cruiser!"
"Face it, Lightyear," he fired again, almost hitting the Tangean. "This is the end!"
Despair was such a delicious thing. He could see it written across all of their faces—even Lightyear, for all he tried to hide it, looked as if he might falter. Every Hornet they destroyed was replaced by two more as the Dreadnought emptied its reserves. There was nowhere to hide on the barren, rocky moon. Nowhere to go but the cruiser.
Exactly as he'd planned it.
"Zurg!" Buzz growled. "I have an eighteen-year-old daughter who's about to give her first piano recital this evening, and I am not missing it because of you!"
"Ah, but that's where you're— eh?" Zurg's arm, raised to fire at the Jo-Adian, dropped limply to his side. He stared at Buzz, trying to mentally reform the words he'd just heard him speak, as if they might then make sense.
Daughter. Eighteen. Eighteen-year-old daughter.
He knew he'd heard them correctly. But they were utterly impossible. And yet Lightyear had said them as if they were the most natural thing in the universe.
Could... could they be true?
He studied his enemy, who was still blasting away at Hornets. It wasn't in the pathetic little do-gooder's nature to lie, which meant...
Did Buzz have a daughter? Had he always had one? Did everyone else know?
Had Zurg missed it this whole time?
"Wait—" he began, holding up a hand.
Apparently taking it as a signal, the Hornets all stopped firing.
"Not you, you moronic—"
"Now's our chance!" Lightyear had already activated his jetpack and was flying through the blockade.
"Stop them!"
The roar of laser fire resumed, but Zurg knew at once it was too late. He could only watch helplessly as the four Rangers disappeared through the cruiser's hatch.
He sank down into his throne. For once he couldn't even find the enthusiasm to shake a fist.
Eighteen years! Eighteen years and he was just finding out now! He could handle failing at one of his schemes, but this? This?
He'd failed as an arch enemy.
"Curse you, Buzz Lightyear's daughter!"
A/N: And that's a wrap! Do Savy and her mother ever meet or reconcile? Up to you, but hopefully! Her mother certainly isn't perfect, but I never wanted to vilify her, and I'd like to think they eventually work things out.
Thank you for reading, everyone!