Breaking the Disease
Epic Six
Written by Cartman's Girl and Invader Poe

~*~

Chapter One

Anyway, a few weeks passed. Zib and Enid moved into their own base, not too far away, keeping in the same neighborhood as Cten and Zim's respective bases. Zim built in the same place his old one was, since well, he just wasn't all that creative sometimes. Poe didn't seem to be getting any better, but had at least stopped making awful sounds and throwing himself around the walls of the room, pacing around like a caged animal instead. There was a thick, transparent material seperating the containment room from a questioner's room, where Cten was now. She was sat on a chair, just watching Poe as he stalked back and forth. Maybe the Tallest were right about not reproducing with Rejects, if this is how some of them are. Still, Poe hadn't been like this when she met him, and because of Snab she was now technically mateless yet with a smeet to raise by herself. She sighed sadly, her eyes just glancing at the floor now and again when she felt she was going to cry any time soon. Seeing Poe like this was not easy, and she'd coped with a lot in her life.

One of the times she glanced down, she noticed the muffled sounds of pacing had stopped, and he was leaning up against the glass, staring at her with a kind of primitive curiousity and maybe a hint of recognition. She blinked and glanced at him, but her head still turned downwards. Last thing she wanted was to startle him, and him to start thrashing against the walls again. He tapped on the glass with his claw-tip as if trying to get her attention, perking his antennae somewhat and doing typical 'taller' posturing Irkens sometimes did when encountering one another for the first time; though she'd probably been there before, this was the first time he actually seemed to acknowledge her presance. Cten blinked, slowly raising her head to look at him. Then she slowly stood up, keeping her arms resting by her sides, looking at him - at least trying to look normal without showing how upset she was that even now he didn't seem to recognise her. Her antennae making the usual responce she had done, when in the presence of the Tallest, lowering them slightly.

He seemed to relax when she acknowledged her shortness, and dropped his arms to the side as well, looking down at her. He was topless, and his pants were fairly torn up, as in his thrashings he'd managed to remove his coat and tanktop, shredding them into some sort of bedding, and his ribs could be seen plainly. He seemed to detect her sadness somehow, and turned his head the other way, raising his antennae and giving her what looked like one of those "What's wrong?" looks dogs give their owners. She wasn't sure if he'd understand her or not, since any words before she had said in pervious 'visits' fell on deaf ears. She took a small breath,

"I miss you." she just said quietly, before looking down at her black boots. She was still in the Reject uniform, even if she had spares of her maid uniform upstairs. Poe didn't seem to understand, but he looked sympathetic anyway, and put one of his hands on the glass near the level of her antennae, as though he was trying to touch her through it. He tapped his knuckle against the glass and made a whimpering sound, having been infurated at the invisible barrier at first, crashing against it repeatedly, but he seemed to learn it was there and wasn't moving. Cten couldn't help but look upset now, tears brimming at her eyes. She slowly walked forward, raising a hand and she rested it against the glass where his was. Her antennae remained hanging low, since faking now was against the point. Now the tears ran down her face as she kept her hand against the glass, not able to really look at Poe now she closed her eyes. Poe's claws made a clenching motion against the glass where her hand was positioned, and looked somewhat sad himself to see her in such a state. He leaned forward to try and get a good look into the room she was in, his eyes wandering towards the heavy, reinforced door that lead into his confinement room. She pulled her hand back and wiped her eyes, mentally bashing herself to breaking like this and of all places in here. When she looked at him, she saw his attention was on the door, then glanced back at him.

"I don't blame you for wanting to get out… but I can't let you out yet." she said quietly, "Why am I waisting my breath anyway." she thought to herself, then sighed. "I'm sorry Poe." A look of anger flitted across his face, some of his lower instincts angered by the fact the shorter Irken was denying him, but it seemed to be… fought back? Well, maybe he wasn't totally lost, as his antennae fell limp to the sides of his head. He leaned his forehead against the glass, his hands curling into fists, hitting them against it, but halfheartedly, the lack of food and not to mention the fact he'd more than worn himself out getting to him. Cten sighed, removing her hand from the wall.

"Look, I'm going to send you something to eat through the chute… and this time it's got what I can hopefully call something to help you." Poe seemed to brighten, maybe recognizing the word 'eat', and lifted his head. In the background, though, coming from the upper levels of the house, a wailing sound started to sound off, probably Vist having awoken to find his Mother gone. Poe looked up at the ceiling in confusion, bristling at the sound and lifting his upper lip. Cten glanced upwards too, then looked to Poe.

"I'll see you later then..." with that she turned and walked from the room, and walked into the sliding doorway. From there, it went up to the upper part of the base, she stepped out into Vist's bedroom. It had been Enid's, but with her now living elsewhere it had been made into Vist's room.

"It's all right Vist…" she said calmly before leaning down to his bed and scooping him into her arms. "I'm here now…" Vist clung to her and nuzzled the side of his face into her shoulder, before looking up at her with his big orange eyes, "Where were you, mommy?"

"I was just down with Poe," she replied as she patted his back, walking from the room. Vist scowled slightly and scoffed.

"What do you wanna see HIM for? He's crazy."

"I know he's crazy dear, but he's showing some progress." Cten made her way down to the kitchen, "And it's better then none."

"But won't he attack you or somethin, like he did.." He sought for the name, "Enid?"

"Maybe, maybe not." she sighed slightly as she opened the fridge, "At least he took notice I was there today. He usually just stalks around. A-ha." she leaned into the fridge and pulled out a brown bag.

"Bah." He obviously dislikes Poe, wrinkling his nose-place, then peered over at the bag. "Whazzat?"

"Something for him to eat." Cten said, glancing into the bag. "I picked it up after I put you to down for your nap today." she went over to what seemed to be a mirror, then tapped it when her hand which carried the bag. It slid open, and she emptied the contents - possibly meat, not really sure - down the chute and shut the mirror after it.

"Ew, shouldn't it be cooked?" He made another face, apparently at the age when a smeet begins to ask many, many questions..

"Poe likes it raw, always has." obviously she wasn't bothered by all the questions, since Enid used to do the exact same thing when she was his age. "So little guy, what do you want to do?" Cten turned her attention to him, supporting him now with one arm.

"Dunno." He looked over at her, "Wasn't Sister's egg gonna hatch sometime?" Maybe he's eager for playmates like Zib was.

"Very soon now, yes." she smiled slightly, and gave his antennae a gentle stroke. "You want some friends huh?"

"It does get kinda boring around here. Beka's no fun." He glanced over in the Sir's direction. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"Oh she isn't that bad..." Cten set him down on the floor, then activated her disguise. Same time she did, Beka also became the tabby cat curled up in the corner of the room. She made her way through the lounge to the door and opened it, "Hello?" Zib grinned down at her,

"Hey, Ms. Cten." He held in his gloved hands a wad of print-outs, and Vist eyed him curiously. "Remember me, Vist? I'm you're... um..." He looked down at his free hand, trying to figure out just what his relation was, "...brother-in... thingee."

"You're just Zib, Zib." Cten grinned, opening the door enough for him to come in, closing the door behind him. "So, what do we owe the honour of your presence?"

"Well.." He strode into the kitchen, wearing his lab coat, apparently favouring it over his old trench coat these days, "Enid's rather upset about Poe's condition, so I used the new computer system in our base to try and research the disease.. I thought maybe I could find a cure, or at least at treatment."

"You found something?" Cten turned her disguise off, her antennae quirking at the possibility of a treatment at least. Beka kept in her cat disguise, since she was asleep now anyway.

"Well.." He sighed quietly, his antennae scythes drooping as he looked down at his papers. He sat down at the kitchen table, spreading them out. "It's apparently a disease confined to Rejects and their sub-culture, so they haven't studied it in depth.. It's also not.. curable." Her antennae lowered, now hanging by her head.

"Oh." she said quickly, before picking Vist up again possibly for physical contact after hearing something like this.

"BUT!" He raised his claw, having a flair dramatic timing, "It is treatable, I believe. There aren't any formal treatment regimens made by the Irken government, since of course they don't care, but as soon as the patient is given a stable, familiar environment. The only recessive symptoms might be increased primtive behaviour, such as carnivorous tendances, tendancy towards non-linguistic verbal communications, prone to attack if angered or cornered.." Cten just sat down on a chair across from Zib, glancing at the papers now and again trying to make sense of it all.

"I can't give him a stable, familiar environment... he seems to bristle each time he hears anything from Vist. I can't chance anything happening to either of them." she said quietly.

"I also did some research on that, since that's a more widely spread phenomena. In theory, once the disease has been brought under control, so should have all his more instinctual urges.." Vist was of course lost in the conversation, but added anyway,

"He just doesn't like me!"

"Sad, but it's true Zib..." she held Vist close to her, shutting her eyes. "He didn't care for him even when I laid him, or when he hatched... Maybe I just have to face facts I've lost my mate."

"You can't give up like that, Cten," He said quietly, "There was.. another reason I took more interest in the disease after I researched it.. Given the mild symptoms of infection, all signs would indicate that Poe already had the disase, and has as long as we've known him, and maybe being attacked by the other Reject it made it somewhat worse.." Cten turned her head away, opening her eyes to stare at the ground.

"Then what do you propose I do, Zib. Tell me that."

"I don't know." He admitted, "But we'll have to do something.." He paused for a moment, pushing his glasses upwards, "..because it's hereditary."

"Something in the back of my mind always told me it was wrong to ever get like this with Poe." she narrowed her eyes, "I never did listen to my instincts. And now even my daughter is up to get this disease, and possibly my grandchildren." Cten made a growl sound, "I was crazy." Zib sighed.

"Don't remind me. I admit there might be no saving Poe by now.. but at least we could prevent it in the others." He glanced over at Vist, "All four of them."

"Not to sound rude Zib, but if you could leave now I'd appreciate it." Cten said quietly as shut her eyes again. Zib frowned, then nodded and stood up, leaving the kitchen and going out the front door, leaving the papers behind for her to look at. Vist looked worried,

"Mommy, why'd he look at me like that?"

"Because... because your Daddy had the disease too." she said quietly.

"My Daddy?" He looked further confused, poor guy was probably way too young to understand what had happened.

"Honey," she turned him to face her, then stroked his face. "I think you should wait until you're a little older for me to tell you about that, okay?"

"Okay." He said begrudgingly, glaring down at the floor, or in this case, Cten's lap, his pointy upper teeth sticking out. He then shook his head a bit, making his antennae shake, "Nobody but you seems to like me, Mommy.."

"I know honey..." she put her hand to his chin and gently lifted his head so she was looking at him. "But I'll always be here for you, no matter what happens." Vist smiled, causing his teeth to protrude all the more, hugging onto Cten.

Meanwhile, Zib was almost reaching his home base. It was close enough to Cten, and Zim's place so getting there was no problem at all. The base's chosen colour was a golden hue, so it didn't stick out too much. Surrounding bushes doubled as protection, if any unwanted visitors entered vines would string them up and such. One ornament stood in the garden, a flamingo which was.. oddly coloured green. Oh well. Inside, Enid was sat at the kitchen table, elbows up and resting her head on her knuckles. She was staring at the egg, which was still an egg and sat on a special box made for it. She blinked, then tapped it gently with a claw-tip.

"Come on guys, you've been in there awfully long... isn't it getting crampt?" Zib opened the door and shut it behind him quietly, looking somewhat drained and a bit more downtrodden than when he'd left on his enigmatic mission, the likes of which he hadn't revealed to Enid. He wandered over to this kitchen table, sitting down and setting his elbows on the table, running his claws through his hair before looking up at the egg on the table.

"They still refusing to budge?"

"Yes." she replied, then sighed. "You don't think there's.. something wrong with them, do you?" Enid sounded worried, and glanced over at Zib.

"No, it's probably just a feature of my human heritage, the average gestation period being 9 mo--" he halted suddenly, sitting up in his seat, hair-scythes perking when he heard a faint, almost meek tapping sound. Enid blinked, then stood up and leant over to the egg, leaning to where her ear would be if she had any. Yes, very faint sound of tapping could be heard. She pulled back, her antennae standing straight and her eyes widened.

"...they might be coming...!" Zib stood up as well and moved over to Enid's side of the table, looking down at the egg eagerly. The faint tapping continued on one side of the egg, while on the other there was a loud crack as a tiny fist burst through the wall of the shell. Pieces of shell fell away from the louder crashing from the inside out, this one obviously more eager to get out then it's twin who was still trying to break the shell. Enid knelt down on the ground so she was now eye level with the egg, as more pieces fell off now and then. Eventually small cracks began forming on the other side. With a few more assults from the more energetic occupant, the egg laid in ruins, and the two smeets were exposed to the world. The female with Zib's eyes looked down at the shattered remains of the eggshell, and snorted somehow,

"HAH!" The one laid out besides her, blinked a few times and squirmed in his place. Enid blinked, then looked at Zib.

"...I guess we're parents huh...?" she asked quietly. The male, who had oddly coloured eyes - black on white - seemed to be lost and began making weepy sounds.

"I... guess... so." Zib blinked, seeming lost for words, a rarity, reaching up to scratch the back of his head. The female looked over her shoulder at her brother, and gave him a "Whiner." look. And whine he did, well, whiney cried before Enid leant down and picked him up. He seemed to calm down a lot, snuggling against her as she held him. She raised an eyebrow, already noticing the vast differences between the two.

"Uhh... if you dare, pick up your daughter..." she said. Zib flinched and looked down at her. The female turned her glare towards her father, but seemed to grin slightly, showing off her pointy fangs, as though she recognized him. Zib reached down and lifted her beneath the arms, mumbling to himself,

"Why do I get the feeling you're going to be a lot like my mother…"

"And my Father, when in a bad mood..." Enid looked at her daughter, before looking back at her son who was now gripping onto one of her fingers and starting to suck on it, despite his zipper-teeth. Zib glanced up at the ceiling and blew on his bangs in exhasperation, setting his daughter to his shoulder. She hugged his neck, and Zib started to smile before her hug became tight enough to start to crush his windpipe. His eyes buldged slightly and he tried to lodge his fingers between her little arms and his throat,

"Dear, Daddy.. grk.. would like to breath.."

"Oh my." Enid pulled her free finger from her son's mouth, which he promptly began to cry finding the finger now gone. She managed to grab onto her daughters arm, and pull it down from Zib's neck, then to pull her off of him too. Which might be met with a not so happy responce. "Bad girl, don't try to choke Daddy again." she chided, her son still crying in her other arm. Happy it was not, as the smeet started to flail and claw at the air, making angry little hissy noises.

"It's alright, En, I think she was just being affectionate.." He rubbed his throat, "..I think."

"Didn't your Mom say once, seconds after you were.. uh, born you 'hugged' his legs then tried to drag him off?" Enid kept her daughter at arms length away, letting her hiss to her heart's content.

"Oh, yeah," He grinned slightly at the memory, while the flailing hatchling tried to bite the hand holding her out, though not hard. "I used to be quite like both my parents when I was younger.." He blinked and stopped reminicing when he noticed his daughter chewing on Enid's hand.

"Hey!" Enid shook her hand slightly, then put her daughter onto the table before blowing on her hand. Didn't hurt a lot, but still being bitten by your own daughter wasn't really a nice experience. She sighed, then stuck her finger back into her son's mouth, who yes, all this time had been wailing for some sort of comfort. Zib picked the female back up before she crawled off to destroy something, and she started squirming again. He glanced at Enid with a weary, though slightly panicked look,

"We couldn't have possibly been this bad for our parents… could we?"

"Not that bad." she eyed her daughter, then looked down at her son. "Though... Daddy once told me when I was very small I hated being apart from him so... maybe half this bad."

"Maybe they'll get more mellow with age…" Zib hoped quietly, while his daughter yanked on his forelock and giggled cutely at his slight wincing. "Speaking of parents, I think we should tell them the good news.."

"Well, seeing how you looked when you got home... I think your Mom should know first." Enid's antennae lowered, already had seemed to sense how Zib had left her Mother. Zib winced again, whether at Enid's perception or maybe his hatchling managing to pull out a handful of black hair and weild it over her head victoriously, who knew.

"Alright, I think I know his number…" He unfolded the communications arm of his pod, holding the smeet to him with one arm while he dialed in Zim's code. Zim soon appeared on the screen, doing some experiment of sorts,

"Eh, what is it, Zib?" Zib just held up the female, who was now trying to reach for the pod arm. Zim stared at the female blankly for a while, before his antennae arched forward and he narrowed an eye.

"Oh, they've arrived?" he asked the obvious. Gir could be seen in the background, wearing a bucket on his head and singing about 'If I only had a brain' - curse TV for poor Zim.

"Yeah, a boy and a gi--" He was cut off as the transmission suddenly went static, while on Zib's end, the smeet had managed to catch the evasive communicator, in her mouth, nonetheless, and was cackling around a mouthful of metal. Zim blinked a few times, then arched his eye ridges. Enid scowled at her daughter, quickly freeing her hand again from her son to pull her daughter off. With the quickness, it surprised the smeet and she let go.

"Honestly..." she muttered. Zib sighed and held the communicator out of reach this time. The signal fuzzed back into focus, the wide angle allowing Zim to see both parents and their hatchlings.

"..as I was saying," he picked some of the metal out of the girl's mouth, "Obviously a healthy pair at that... well, at least this one." He looked over at his son and frowned, a bit worried about all the crying.

"Huh, at least one shows the potential of the Irken species." Zim muttered as he crossed his arms, looking a tad annoyed at the wailing from the boy.

"He's clingy, that's all." Enid replied, her daughter once again trying to gnaw her fingers off.

"Irken? I think this one has some wolverine in her, or maybe Tasmanian devil.." He looked down at his daughter, but he spoke with a hint of odd pride, poking her stomach and causing her to squirm and giggle. He then glanced over at Enid, "I… guess they need names, huh?"

"Well it might be handy, when telling them apart. Even though they don't look the same." Zim said, seeing the differences in the smeets physical appearance besides the personalities. Enid narrowed an eye at her daughter,

"Well for some reason Ivy sounds right for her. You know... Poison Ivy." she shrugged slightly. "What do you think?"

"Sounds about right. What do you think?" Zib turned the hatchling around to face him, and she blinked, before apparently smirking toothily in approval. "Ivy it is, then." Zib tilted his head to get a better view of his son, "Now, you… hmm…" Ivy scowled, disgruntled that her brother was getting attention, made a swipe for him.

"Hey!" Enid pulled her son out of her range, he hiccuped and pulled down on his antennae.

"I like her." Zim smirked. Enid thought for a moment, then handed her daughter back to Zib before holding her son out in front of her.

"I think I'll call him Ragde." Ragde blinked his eyes open, revealing the black on white eyes he had, even if he couldn't really see anything since it seems he's inheritited Zib's eyesight.

"Ivy, be good." He chided and pulled her claw back, causing her to squirm and fidgit and scowl disapprovingly upon the world. Zib pondered, waving his free hand in front of Ragde's face, "I figured at least one of them would be lucky enough to get my vision.." He reached into the pocket of his lab coat and produced a pair of glasses he'd made, a replica of his own, formulated for somewhat Irken, somewhat human eyes, and placed them on Ragde's face. They were far too big, though, and luckily he'd also inherited his Father's ability to have the levitate mysteriously in front of his features. Ragde blinked a few times as thinks suddenly sunk into clear light, first thing he officially really saw being his Mother. He smiled shyly and grabbed onto her fingers, still smiling at her.

"Hi Radge." Enid smiled at him, before kissing his forehead. Zim rolled his eyes at the mushyness, leaning on one elbow at his control panal.

"Should I… leave you alone now?" Zib glanced back over at the communicator and grinned a bit.

"If you want to, Mom, I know there's only so much familial bonding you can stand."  He managed to do this while holding a now furiously jealous Ivy away from Radge, who wanted whatever her brother got, if not better.

"Yes yes well I have important work to do. So, see you... uhrm, later. And I guess congratulations." with that, Zim hung up and Zib's communicator folded back into his pak. Ragde glanced over at his sister, and seeing the evil glare in her eyes made him whimper and cling to Enid more. Enid glanced over at Ivy, now holding Ragde close to her.

"Not even a day old and already sibling rivalry..."

"I'd be surprised if they weren't fighting in the egg…" He sighed and tried to hold Ivy close to him as well, for Ragde's saftey, "Should we tell Dib or Cten?"

"Well, if you want to tell Dib go ahead." Enid shrugged, stroking Ragde's antennae to calm him down. "As for Mom... how was she?" she lifted her gaze to Zib. He laid his antennae back, and even Ivy seemed to take notice of the somber mood and stop squirming,

"I think she's starting to give up."

"Oh no…" Enid's antennae drooped down slightly, "She really must be upset then, not like she's having the time or her life or anything." she pulled a chair out and sat on it, even Ragde had stopped his whimpering and looked up at her. Zib frowned and put his arm around her shoulders, and Ivy blinked over at her Mom curiously,

"It seems like the only thing that she's got to hold onto nowadays is that hatchling of her's… Maybe seeing her grandchildren would cheer her up?"

"Vist is the only Irken she has anymore... maybe you're right." Enid looked up at him, "Maybe seeing her grandchildren will help her at least be happier today then usual." Ragde looked from his Mom over to his sister, looking slightly confused. He nodded,

"So, communicator, or do we take them over in person?" Ivy tried to at least make a concentrated effort to look like she knew what was going on, but of course, she didn't. Ragde smiled slightly at his sister, covering his mouth with his hands and giggling. Enid persed her lips together, then smiled.

"In person, I think she'd prefer in person and to let Vist see these two." Ivy made an 'eh?!' sound and turned to glare at Ragde, one eyelid twitching and a few sharp teeth sticking out.

"I guess it's time for our first family outing then... They'll need clothes, though, and with eyes like theirs, contacts.."

"Not this young... just cover them with something for today. Those lenses are itchy, and with Ragde's eyes I don't want anything else happening to them. It's not far anyway." Ragde shrunk back against his Mom, then whimpered slightly. Zib nodded again, setting Ivy down on the table precariously, taking a few slow steps backwards to make sure she wouldn't set off, and ran into the living room. He returned with a few blankets, and managed to catch Ivy just before she crawled off the edge of the table, holding one out to Enid. She took it and wrapped Ragde up with it. He squeaked in surprise, but soon finding himself warm and protected he sighed happily, snuggling against the blanket.

"Aw, he likes it." Enid smiled, before putting her contacts in. Ivy resisted every attempt to be wrapped up, of course, tearing a few holes in the blanket with her claws. Zib finally managed to get it around her haphazardly, at least enough to restrain her, much to her dismay. He still had his own contacts in, and started towards the door. Enid pulled her wig on as the two left the base, she closed the door behind them.

"Welp, here we go." she said brightly. Ragde peeking a look out from his blanket at the world, looking all wide-eyed. Ivy seemed curious as well, and it took all of Zib's strength to hold her,

"Good grief… I'm starting to think Zim and Poe's hatred of each other was Nature's way of telling us their DNA should never come into contact with each other.." he mumbled, as they headed toward Cten's house.

"Heh... we're in for a long trip aren't we?" she smirked, looking down at Ragde. "Seems she's everything naughty while he's the good stuff. Weird." the other base soon came into view on the horizon, looking as normal as it possibly could.

"Well, hopefully Ivy got some calmness… Hopefully.." He glanced over at Ragde, "I'd hate to see an Irken stuck without any actual… Irkiness… either."

[To be continued]