Title:... Nor Iron Bars A Cage.
Writer: Invader Johnny.
Disclaimer: Invader Zim belong to Jhonen Vasquez; I do own squat, so there is no need to bring upon those lawyers and sue my ass since I'm not doing this for the money.
Plot: Vivisection: The action of cutting into or dissecting a living body, better known as the dark side of science, where there is a never ending scream of agony and wishing for death is the only way out.
Author Notes: Hello again my fellow writers/readers, this idea came to me after some discussion with Zim's most loyal servant as well as rewatching the episode "Attack Of The Saucer Morons" for the eleventh time.
Be warned, it will be dark, as if you all didn't already got to that conclusion after reading the summary, so if you are easily freaked out then I suggest you leave now.
I never done anything this gruesome before, so let me know how I did.
It was the smell that struck the subject first; physical sensation had come to be feared some faded time ago.
The creature did feel the leather straps binding it's wrists and ankles, but it did not matter nor did the coldness of the metal gurney onto which it had been placed upon, such trivial things such as locations were lost long ago.
It was always one lab to another, trying to make sense of the organs, what made it thick, how was it alive.
Always an it... Never a person.
"Am I dead yet?"
The feeling of gloves hands placed upon its exposed chest was answer enough.
No, it was the gloves that really made its impression. It was overwhelmingly clinical; as if the entire dungeon, the floor, the cold hard walls, the bastard himself now looming above the subject.
Correction, his experiment – G2.
To be stripped of a name was demeaning, insulting... Horrifying.
The sad part, the creature had no recollection of it's name or a life before this never ending hell for that matter.
"Hello G2." The masked scientist greeted evilly "You seem well rested"
They both knew it a crock of shit.
"You know, I'm impressed" The scientist said, his voice not betraying any emotion "Very few can look at their own organs and remain unaffected... Then again after so many times, it must be getting old"
"Fuck you" G2 spits in his direction.
Underneath it's mask, the scientist smirked "Always a fighter to the end huh? I like that, that's why I respect you, that's why it's my mission to break you"
Suddenly a scalpel plunged into the victim's skin again, cutting through another layer of tissue as he took hold of a flap of skin.
"I will not scream!" G2 thought mentally,"I will not give this smug bastard the satisfaction of hearing me"
With a harsh pull, there was a rather horrifying tearing noise, even if the person beneath the tool wasn't screaming bloody murder, someone else was.
"You can do it! Break free from the chains that have you down!"
"Be quiet!" The scientist snarled "So she dies for sure this time!"
"He called me a she" G2 thought somewhat victoriously "The first time he ever referred to me a such"
A piece of the now revealed female's body was being ripped right from her torso, the knife cutting through the skin slowly and surely as if on a dotted line. "Stop moving," the scientist hissed, glowering at me from behind a facemask. "It won't hurt as much…" Here, he grabbed the flesh like it was a steak. "…if you didn't squirm so much... On second thought, move all you want... Your pain makes my job all the more satisfying!"
One moment later, he was holding up the skin, examining it carefully before placing it in a glass jar filled with blood.
"Right... In front... Of me."
"Don't worry, I'll patch you up again.." He said cruelly as he moved his fingers across the girl's face "I wouldn't want you to miss all the fun"
"With that, he casually placed a piece of my goddamn flesh in a beaker. Once again, he loomed over me, but he put down the scalpel. Thank god. If he cut me up any more…"
He picked up a needle, gazing at me and back at the hole now in the subject's torso. Without any warning, he placed his hand inside the skin wall and held it open, struggling to hold the prisoner down as she writhed in agony. With a scowl, he plunged the needle deeper and deeper, pulling out the syringe slightly as if he was taking blood.
"I can see your heart" The scientist comments cruelly "It would be so easy to take it, to end you, but that would be what you want, am I right?"
"He was right, I just wanted out. Gone. No more. If they stuck me in the freezer to get rid of the pain… by now, I would've taken the incinerator over everything else these monsters had"
"But guess what?" He sneered "I am not here to give in to your demands... I'm here to make a point"
Again, he stood over G2 with another needle. And again, he grabbed inside her body and held the wiggling creature for a moment before plunging the needle into her heart.
…then it came again.
The pain.
"The wicked, wretched, unwanted pain. The want to claw out, get away, stop the nonsense and get rid of the shits who decided to put… put me…
…put me through… this…"
"Shush little one, I'm only taking sone of your blood, you're get some more, no need to be greedy" The scientist taunted "After all, you should learn by now that refusing to my will is futile"
"Why?" She croaked.
"Umm?"
"Why are you doing this?"
The scientist removed his mask, revealing his green face, one full of long, terrible scars.
"Because you humans did this to me!"
G2 gasped "I know you"
"You should, I was once known as Invader Zim" The Irken said "Now I'm simply known as Researcher Zim"
"You're a butcher" The girl spat weakly but hatefully.
"Appropriate" Zim admitted in delight "I done this before to thousands of your race G2"
The former Invader walked away, showing the human a jar "Remember this?" He asked casually.
"No.. No"
"Let me refresh you memory then" Zim said as he walked towards his prisoner "It's the first organ I took out of you... Your lungs.. It was such an experience opening you up for the first time"
He set the jar down in front of the girl.
"I collected several organs from the humans that have died within these walls" The alien admitted "But you... Oh you, it wouldn't be any fun to watch you die, oh believe me I considered it, I won't deny it, but in the end? without you, the job, my sole reason for living would be meaningless"
"What did I do... To... You?"
"You?" Zim laughing evilly "Oh, you been trapped here you probably don't even remember much of your life before you became my little toy... You rarely got in my way... But he.. He didn't"
The girl slowly turned her head warily at the direction the alien was pointing, only to notice a large headed silhouette staring back at her, hovering within the glass tube.
And despite his body being covered in the shadows, she could still see his crying eyes.
"Who is he?"
"Dib" The Irken sneered "You probably never noticed him before, not that you ever did when you were free, he's your brother"
G2's crying eyes widened "My... Brother?"
"He interfered with my plans too many times" Zim continued to talk hatefully "So he's now paying the price for saving his pathetic dirt ball from me... So... Little Gaz... Ready for round two?"
The Irken grabbed some menacing looking saw "I think I'll open your head up this time... I often wondered what made you smarter than the average stink-beast... But don't worry, you'll feel everything"
G2... Formerly known as Gaz screamed at the heavens now.
While her brother could do nothing but watch in terror, sobbing uncontrollably as his sister was forced to pay for being the saviour of their doomed planet.
All the while Zim happily used the tools at his disposal to continue with his dirty deed.
The very same primitive equipment the humans had once used to vivisect him.
He did not forgive, and he did not forget.
As the sadistic alien continued to open up her cranium, Gaz finally collapsed from the enormous pain or maybe from the shock, at this point, who could tell.
Her last thoughts before darkness overtook her were.
"I don't want to wake up... Let me die... Let me... Go"
So... How many of you did I caught by surprise?
For those of you interested in knowing, the name of the story comes from the poem by Richard Lovelace with a well-known verse being "stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage."
In which states that even though Gaz is incarcerated, she's still able to think within her mind even if it's hoping for death.
Now, at the beginning of the story I bet several of you expected Tak or maybe even Zim to be opened up like lab rats? But I wanted to be original and what's better than an ironic twist by having Zim perform the vivisection on Gaz?
Normally I wouldn't consider harming Gaz, much less have Zim do the evil deed, but I decided to make an exception, since within the show's realm I think our favourite Irken wouldn't think twice about harming Gaz just to scarred Dib for life.
I admit, I originally considered for Dib to be the one one strapped to the table but then I thought that people could see that one coming so I up the ante on the angst by having Gaz being the victim, all the while her brother was watching, THAT can be considered cruelty on a psychological level which is something Zim is capable of.
Lets not forget, if he nearly murdered Dib with a bunch of piggies, he can make him suffer by causing pain to the closest thing he has to a friend... His little sister, plus one of his biggest fears within the series was for humans to vivisect him, in here the tables are rurned..
So... Your thoughts?
Invader Johnny Signing Off.