Tak sniffled and grasped the grimy bars in her gloveless hands. She had been on here for about a week now. And she was sick of it. Each morning she woke up in bliss, then she realized where she was and the nightmare started all over again. She got her food from her PAK, and spent her days hoping, watching, and caring for her smeet.
Yes. Her smeet.
A few weeks earlier, she had screwed up with Zim.
Stop laughing. It's really not that funny.
Her days were punctuated with worry and depression. She constantly fretted if her smeet's PAK was working, or if today she would die, or anything.
Her smeet was dubbed Star. A common name on both Irk and Earth. Star rarely cried, just sat in wide-eyed wonder. Her antennae were curled tightly and her eyes the deepest violet, deeper than Tak's herself.
But Tak was confident. She had placed all trust into the least likely of heroes. Zim. She was dutifully waiting for Zim to arrive, blast the cell open, sweep her off her feet and carry her and Star away from this place.
After all, he was her hero, and that is what heroes do.
She waited without objecting, for the familiar, too short Irken to come.
He would come.
He would be here.
He wouldn't miss it.
He would miss her.
He would come.
She told herself this over and over. She clung to the frail shred of hope that Zim was just delayed. He got injured in a fight! Gir was disabled! Dib hijacked his voot! She made up the wildest excuses just to believe Zim was coming. She lied to Star.
"Daddy's coming!"
"He'll be here!"
"Don't worry, sweetie!"
She lied to Star so she would believe it herself.
But over time…
She slowly gave in to the fact he wasn't coming. So she just became a hollow shell of herself. She stumbled through each day, her happy thoughts driven out.
He wouldn't come.
He wouldn't be here.
He would miss it.
He wouldn't miss her.
He wouldn't come.
So one day, she slept. Finally. She had nothing to wait for, so she slept.
She dreamed she was happy with Zim. She was lying in a field with Zim by her side. Their hands were clasped and it was perfect. Then the sun turned deadly bloody red.
She just smiled.
She died in her sleep. Right there and then.
As Zim died too. He was on his way. He had been shot by the Armada's defensives, was slowly bleeding to death. He had passed out and dreamt the same.
Star made a vow, there and then. To escape. To kill the Tallest. And most of all, live without love.