This is NOT a traditional Christmas story. But that wasn't what I was going for. I wanted something different from the norm, but still in the same sort of inspiring spiritual feel that Christmas inspires.
In any case…I hope you enjoy this.
Faith
Tak did not like this time of year. She did not like being on the Massive. She did not like being around…him. But she had to. Because this was the only way she could get back into Tallest Red and Purple's good graces, the only way she could keep from being sent back to Planet Dirt. And she, elite Invader of the Irken Empire, did not want to go back. Or at the very least, not this month.
Planet Dirt was COLD during this month. Ice cold. It was freezing enough to chip your eyelashes off, bitter enough to break the skin and make it shatter. No, thank you! She'd stick with grunt work on the Massive and kowtowing to the Tallest every chance she got if it meant she could stay away from Dirt.
Not that she didn't miss some things on the planet…
…or rather, ONE thing. One thing she'd made from scraps carelessly tossed and left to rot-
"Merry Christmas!" Her boss cheerily announced as she flinched. Until he got a REAL team of assistants, she had to work under him, the Senior Communications Officer of the Massive, known simply as "Senior". She cringed, her antennae hanging low as the green-eyed, green-clothed communications officer walked into the main bridge of the Massive, a bright contrast against the pink and red walls around him. He appeared to have something red and white sticking out of his mouth…a candy of some kind which he took a big lick of before swallowing it down, pulling out a small box of the things from one of his many belt pockets. "Candy cane?"
The other assembled temporary assistants, all of whom were also eager to get away from THEIR usual jobs on Foodcourtia or Conventia, hucking deep fried grease or bobblehead dolls respectively, took the offered candies as Tak shook her head back and forth. They were suckers for sugary sweets. SHE was an Irken elite, an Invader of the highest caliber. Her favor could not be bought with these…candy CANES!
"They're delicioooous!" Skoodge insisted, the fat lump waving one of them in front of her before he put it in his mouth, getting back down on the floor and scrubbing away at a large orange soda stain the Tallest had left behind. Tak just let out an "ugh" and rolled her eyes again as Senior walked over to her, and she noticed he was wearing something underneath his Kelly-green shirt. Some kind of undershirt that was striped red and white like the candy canes.
"What is this "Christmas" you speak of?" She asked. "You keep talking about it to everyone, greeting people with it every single time you meet them. Eighteen times this morning I've heard you say it, what is "Christmas"?"
"It's an Earthen tradition that's been catching on." Senior said as he looked over the communication console she was sitting at. "Earthen culture is getting huge on Irk, in case you've spent the last few years under a rock."
"No. It was ON a rock. A dirty, filthy rock. Named DIRT." She muttered balefully. "All alone except for MIMI."
"Who?" Senior asked as Tak immediately went on the defensive, realizing she'd temporarily let her guard slip.
"Nobody important. Anyhow, Earthen traditions? Really?" She groaned again. "They've nothing to offer those such as us." Tak insisted, waving a dismissive black-gloved clawed hand in the air as pompously as the Queen of Hearts from "Alice in Wonderland". "They're a distraction from our duties."
"Most of our "duties" get put off because the Tallest toss stuff around in anger, or drop drinks or food because Zim's come up with some plan to launch nuclear chickens through the stratosphere, or they have to clean up all the blood from…well, you get what I mean." Senior said as he shook his head back and forth, his spiked antennae flopping about a bit. "Point being this: are you gonna tell our fearless leaders that they need to be more careful and thus make your job easier, or are you going to shut up and work?"
Tak's mouth became a taut line as Senior put down a small red-wrapped chocolate down next to her.
"Trust me. Saying "Merry Christmas" and passing out Christmas candy isn't half as time-consuming as having to clean out the toilets after Red and Purple have gotten sick from splurging on deep-fried schloorga-dook dogs." Senior went on as he headed over to HIS station and flicked a switch, his display screen popping on as he sat back in his chair. "Everyone on the monitors…keep a close eye on all the emergency channels. They'll inevitably be flooded with calls for help. Christmas might be a time of peace on EARTH, but it's hectic everywhere else."
"Bah." Tak groaned, Senior chuckling.
"Humbug."
"What?!" Tak asked, whipping her head in his direction as he tried to suppress some giggles.
"Just a little private joke."
"…CHRISTMAS…" Tak sighed as she looked over at the chocolate wrapped in red paper that he'd put down, picking it up.
…the paper was metallic, and flimsy. Heh. It reminded her of her first attempts to fix MIMI's computing core processor.
She sighed and unwrapped the chocolate, popping it into her mouth, trying to get focused on her job. Trying to think of something else.
…
…
…
…over the next few days, Tak tried to ignore the fact that looking at Senior as he passed about Christmas cookies and hung up decorations by his room made the thought of MIMI pop up in her head. But she couldn't.
She couldn't stop thinking about her old SIR unit.
About how MIMI had failed her on Earth.
And so, she couldn't stop thinking about Earth, and as soon as she did, she began to think about Dib, and about those "stupid Earthling traditions"…
Like Christmas. Which made her think of MIMI.
See how it worked?
Finally she had decided she'd had enough. She stormed her way down the hallway, heading for his room, intent on demanding as loudly as she could that he get rid of the decorations, only to run right into her Tallests, as the two were in the middle of eating what appeared to be…cookies. In the shape of some kind of…men. Oh no. Not them too!?
"My Tallest." Tak said, trying not to think about Christmas as she bowed her head deeply, getting on one knee as Tallest Red nodded at her, Purple chewing loudly, mouth half open and spraying bits of cookie left and right.
"They're good cookies." Purple mumbled out.
"What is your hurry?" Red asked. "Where're you going?"
"I wished to speak to my Senior, my Tallest. If this is acceptable." Tak insisted as Red shrugged.
"Fine by me." He told her. "We're pretty sure he just gave us these to distract us so he could put up another stupid "Christmas decoration" on his door. I don't mind all the RED, mind you…" He admitted, grinning a bit as he slicked his antennae back. "But still, I'm getting annoyed by all his "Christmas spirit". We'd throw him out the airlock, but he always comes BACK, dammit." He said. "You try talking him out of it." He added, he and Purple walking off as they prepared to polish off the Christmas cookies, Tak making her way down the long hallway to push open Senior's private bedroom/study.
Inside it looked like, as an Earthling might have put it, Santa's balls had exploded. There was a manger scene on the mantelpiece, his walls had been painted red, he had tinsel on a little tree to the side, small boxes on a table BY said tree, a stack of cookies on yet another table that was loaded up with candy canes, and his bedsheets were now green and red and white.
But that wasn't what caught her eye…or rather, ears. (Or lack thereof) No. What got her to tilt her head to the side ever-so-slightly was what Senior was…doing.
He was singing. And singing a song she'd never heard before.
Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o'er the plains! And the mountains in reply…echoing their joyous strains!
She blinked as he lowered himself from off his booted tippy-toes, a small little figurine in his hand…that of an Irken angel, hands clasped together, wearing enormous white robes with a halo and pretty silver/white wings. He smiled softly at her, looking her over. "Hello, Tak. How can I help you?"
"…what song is that?" She asked, an intrigued look coming to her eye.
"It's a Christmas carol. It's called "Angels we have Heard on High"." He said as he handed her the angel figurine and she turned it over in her hands. "I made that from a lot of scraps, y'know. Bits and pieces of fabric and the like."
Made from a lot of scraps…
"…what's Christmas about?" Tak finally asked.
"It's a mixed celebration of the birth of the savior of all mankind to those who follow the Christian religion and a joyous, happy indulging in good food, fun, parties, song and just being with the people you care about." Senior informed her. "I wasn't into Christmas until I heard the music. I may think the Earthlings are odd, but…I've never heard prettier music from any other faith. Christmas music just…" He rubbed his chin. "It just resonates with something in me. It's a reflection of something deeper within, a flicker of something more, y'know?"
Tak turned the figurine over in her hands, thinking to herself for a few minutes before speaking up. "And this…goes on that tree?" She asked, looking at the Christmas tree, Senior nodding his head, antennae bowing low.
"Oh, yes. You decorate it every Christmas. It's a symbol of the spirit of Christmas."
"…could…I keep this?" She asked quietly.
"Sure. But…why?" He wanted to know.
"…I just…like it." She said quietly. "And…um…could I, maybe…"
"Yes?"
"…could you teach me some of those songs?"
…
…
…
…it wasn't long before Tak was finding herself fully engrossed in the Christmas spirit. A rousing chorus of "Jingle Bell Rock" to awaken her, she and Senior sharing a duet of "Joy to the World", sucking on candy canes as she looked out the large windows of the Massive, the bridge alit with blinking lights she herself had set up, calmly bobbing her head as "Do You Hear What I Hear" played ever-so-quietly on a hidden stereo she kept at her desk.
And Red and Purple noticed this.
"She's always so…CHIPPER." Purple admitted as Tak cheerily smiled at them from the opposite end of the cafeteria where she and the rest of the bridge crew were eating with Senior. "She's been sucked in by his stupid Christmas spirit."
"Oh dear." Red sighed sadly, shaking his head back and forth. "We can't have that. ONE of him was bad enough. Now he's getting an entourage with a…a DISCIPLE?" He muttered, glancing over at Purple, his face scowling. "We've got to stop her."
Meanwhile, Senior was speaking with Tak, waving a gingerbread man in the air, a fake ninja star made of gingerbread "stuck" in the thing's "head". "A ninja-bread attack victim." Senior insisted with a chuckle. "You're learning. And you are LOVING this Christmas thing, aren't you?" He asked.
"I enjoy things like this. Things I can enjoy on my own because I made them with my own two hands. It's so…satisfying." She said, biting into one of the ninja-bread cookies as Senior nodded knowingly.
"I read up on what happened on Earth. I know about…your SIR unit." Tak almost choked on the gingerbread man as she shuddered a bit and gasped slightly, wiping her mouth as Senior patted her back. "I get it. It was uniquely yours. Something you put time and effort and a bit of yourself into. And now it's gone, and you wanted something else to fill the void."
"…I could get in huge trouble for…for showing so much attachment to MIMI. It'd mark me as a defective to…to care about something I made with a bunch of scraps." Tak said, one hand moving down to her pocket, feeling the angel figurine inside.
"You need it." Senior insisted. "You need this faith you've developed in the season, Tak, because it symbolizes you've made a choice. A choice to be yourself, your own person, not what the Empire wants you to be. You repeat the tenets of our race, but though you can recite them from memory, what you speak from your heart is all about how nice it is to…make something." He said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Have faith that that little…creative spark…is the truest you."
"Even if it gets me killed?" She sighed.
"If I'm pulling a splinter from my assistant's hands, or if you had to tug a comrade out of a trap, or getting a compatriot over a nasty stretch of training course, we need them to trust in us, and trust that what we're saying is right. And what we say to them is that whilst it might hurt to get you out of that trap, it'll relieve their real pain. What LOOKS dangerous will help them become more safe, so come on! Climb up that obstacle course mountain, hop to it. We ask them to accept apparent impossibilities, and when we succeed, we do it despite the apparently contrary evidence they had in front of them. What you now believe might seem dangerous. But you can only climb higher and reach the top if you get onto a more exposed ledge. Do you understand?" Senior asked as they saw Red and Purple walking towards them.
"…I hope so." Tak said, Senior chuckling a bit.
…
…
…
…fifteen minutes later, he wasn't laughing. They were sending Tak back to Dirt for an entire day. Making an "example" out of her, saying her work wasn't sufficient enough. Of course it was. They just wanted to watch Senior squirm. To drill a lesson into him. "You can't beat the system. And we ARE the system".
And so Tak was stuck on Dirt on the coldest time of the year. She cringed to herself, the agonizing wind biting into her body as she trudged through long, white patches of snow, more and more of it piling down around her as a bitter wind blew. She panted and heaved, moving her feet up the hill as she struggled to look around for any kind of shelter…
No, nothing. She shivered hard again, almost collapsing to her knees as she blinked her eyes, her tears becoming frosted over in the harsh cold as she finally made her way down the hill, crossing the long, sloping stretches of white.
So cold. So very cold, she thought to herself as she desperately stumbled about, making her way forward, unsure of which direction she was going, simply intent on making sure she was just moving FORWARD. She didn't dare stop until she could find some shelter. She knew that if she kept still for too long, nobody would be able to help her.
"Dammit. Dammit. DAMMIT." She muttered, gritting her teeth as they chattered in her head. She had trusted Senior to help her. She'd been so happy getting into this stupid "Christmas" thing. What good had that gotten her? She was stuck on a dead planet, freezing to death, that dumb figurine digging into her leg, probably cutting off her circulation at her upper-
But it was then that she bounced into something. She blinked stupidly at it as she looked up and down…a blank, leafless tree. One of many that were peppered around the immediate area, her vision somewhat adjusted now to the burningly-bitter cold and biting wind that was ravaging Planet Dirt. She made her way past empty, dead tree after empty, dead tree before it finally came into sight…
What might have been the only remaining tree on the planet. She blinked a few times, reaching out, feeling the soft texture. Why was it so…soft? In this weather it should have been hard as a rock, but…it was soft. Almost warm. She stood there, looking up at the top of the tree, blinking slowly as the wind continued to howl around her, but…
She didn't really hear anything right now. Save for those familiar, gentle songs. Those words she'd begun to know so well. And suddenly the figurine in her pants pocket wasn't digging into her leg anymore, but now in her gloved hand…
…
…
…
… "Well. Can't wait to see how she did." Red chuckled as he and Purple slowly trekked their way across the snow, following Tak's left-behind footprints, not completely vanished despite heavy snowfall as Senior lead them on, his expression glum, antennae hanging low. It had been an awful, awful night for Tak and for him. He couldn't sleep, wondering how she was going to endure this bitter, hard night on Planet Dirt, so far from shelter…
But it wasn't long before they caught notice of something in the distance. Glittering faintly in the faint light hidden behind the cloudy skies. Red and Purple blinked stupidly as Senior raced towards it, panting and heaving as he approached the figure far, far off in the distance, resting against a single, lone tree.
As Red and Purple caught up to him, they looked it up and down, staring for a long time.
The angelic figurine was untouched, smiling serenely at the top of the little tree, wings straight and proud, beaming at them all, almost as warmly as the expression on Tak's face. She was resting against the tree, hands across her belly, legs stretched out. Her body was frosted over, her eyes open but almost utterly sightless now, and soon she would never move again.
But as Red and Purple turned away in disgust, scoffing, she felt the soft warmth of Senior's arms lifting her up as he looked down at her with…the faintest hint of envy flickering across it, all because of the expression on her face…
Joyful…
And triumphant.