The pair awoke a few minutes later to discover that they indeed made it inside of Zim's lair, just not in the way they were expecting. They were stuck inside of individual glass cylinders, with no clear way out. Zim stood before them, grinning wide.
"Foolish, foolish humans..." he taunted, pacing slowly around their confinements. "Did you really think I wouldn't find out about your little scheme?"
Dib, still dazed, shook his head in extreme confusion. "I... what? What 'scheme'? I haven't done anything!" Next to him, Gaz was quivering with rage. "I'm about to do something..." she hissed slowly. "I'm going to kill both of you... SO BAD..."
Zim cut her off by shouting, "DO NOT PLAY DUMB WITH ME, STINKBRAIN! I knew it was you!" He chuckled a little. "But I never expected you to waltz up to my door and prove it! Truly your impatience has costed you greatly now, Dib!"
If Dib was confused before, Irk only knows he was even more befuddled now. "I really don't have any idea what you're talking about, Zim," he said again. "What was me? What did I do?"
Zim huffed. "GIR! You stole him from me!"
Dib's eyes went wide. "I- he's not here?" He glanced around the dark lair.
"Do you see him?" Zim's voice oozed with sarcasm.
Zim cleared his throat. "Yes, it seems that my delayed reaction pushed you over, Dib! I simply take a while to accuse you, and you march over and make it obvious! Yes, yes... the same time my henchman disappears, you decide to come to my home and ask me about 'how he's doing'? What a coincidence, eh?" His evil laughter filled the room, but Dib simply ignored his taunts.
"Wait, you LOST him? For how long?"
Zim frowned. "I didn't losehim, worm baby! I'm just... not entirely sure where he resides at this point in time." He said, matter-of-factly.
"Uh, that's what losing is!" Dib retorted. Zim simply mumbled under his breath.
"Enough games! You will return GIR to me immediately, or suffer the consequences!" Zim yelled.
"Zim, I'm being honest. I have no idea where your robot-thing is." Dib attempted to reason with the alien. Zim was having none of it.
"LIES! If you don't have him, where else could he possibly be?"
Dib thought for a moment. "I don't know how he thinks! Did you get in a fight recently?"
Zim's face grew to one of surprise. "Are you suggesting that my robot ran away? He barely has the ability to blink, let alone hold a grudge!"
"Okay, okay!" Dib said. He turned to his sister. "What do you think, Gaz?"
"I'm thinkingthat if we don't get out of here in the next thirty seconds, I'm REALLY going to blow a fuse!" She threatened through clenched teeth.
"Blow a fuse..." Zim mused. Suddenly he jumped. "WAIT! I'M RECALLING SOMETHING!" He turned to face Dib once more.
"GIR and I went off-planet about three days ago. We needed to acquire a certain piece of machinery from a place called 'Sparkplug'. In our attempts to rob a building of this specific part, we accidentally made the entire planet blackout. Everything there is run on electricity, so there were many casualties."
Dib narrowed his eyes. "What does that have to do with GIR being missing?" He asked.
Zim continued: "After attempting to make a hasty exit, we were ambushed by this group of criminal capturers. They tried to get their slimy hands on us, oh, but I really blasted them good!"
Gaz groaned impatiently. "GET TO THE POINT!"
Zim growled. "I remember seeing GIR's disguise in my ship once we docked back on earth, so I thought nothing of it. But upon further inspection, I saw that his costume was the only trace of him since that encounter!"
Dib's face lit up. "Alien capturers...
Zim, I think you figured out where GIR must be- taken by the ambushers that attacked you!"
Zim's face flooded with realization. "If that's true, then how come I haven't heard of them since then? Whenever Irkens take a prisoner, they try to ransom the rest of the species into surrendering! You'd think that they would-"
By some incredible coincidence, Zim's computer suddenly boomed: "INCOMING TRANSMISSION!" The computer screen flickered to life with loud static, and then an image appeared on the screen: two intimidating aliens that held large blasters. Behind them, hundreds of cages containing other life forms, all broken and bruised.
"Greetings, Irken soldier." One alien said, a tall, brown, squid-like creature said.
"I believe we have something that belongs to you," said the other, a gray, sharp-toothed wolf with horns.
Zim instantly tensed, but said steadily, "Hello, fellow alien lifeforms. Yes, I believe that you have taken my robot by mistake."
"Oh, it's no mistake," the wolf said in a low tone, slowly shaking his head. Zim's antennae flicked.
"You were caught breaking the law," the squid explained, fiddling with his blaster. "That is a criminal offense. You just happened to escape being captured. Your friend, however-" he turned to right, focusing on something Zim couldn't see. "He was easy to catch. You didn't even notice that your accomplice was missing. It's the first time I've ever seen a criminal abandon their partner without so much of a glance."
Dib saw Zim flinch. He had obviously picked up on the officer's jab. Still, Zim didn't break his stance.
"I did, in fact, notice. I was just preparing to retrieve him this whole time. What, you assumed that I would let my friend remain a prisoner?" He laughed slightly, but Dib saw right through his bluff. Zim clearly hadn't noticed GIR's absence for some time, or he would have made an effort to capture Dib earlier. Is that...guiltin his eyes?
"Well, getting him out won't be that easy. You're a wanted Irken. There are officers searching for you as we speak." The squid droned.
"Not to mention that your friend is locked up with the other criminals in our highly guarded, off-grid facility." The wolf put in. "I wouldn't worry about him for long, though... I doubt he'll hold up waiting for you to join him."
Zim had been listening nervously to the officers during most of their transmission, but the wolf's last comment seemed to snap something inside of him. "What do you mean... hold up?"
Zim's previous tone had contorted into a threatening voice that made Dib's stomach suddenly drop. He was obviously put off by the officer's confusing word choice, as was Dib.
The wolf's eyes gleamed with sadistic glee. "You really aren't up to speed about us, huh?" He taunted. He seemed to light up as he said, "Criminals, like you Irkens, aren't treated nicely by our officers. We believe that what goes around comes around. The same goes for your robot; he's been through quite a lot of discomfort waiting for you to take notice of his disappearance."
Dib couldn't see most of Zim's face, but he could hear the venom in his voice when he snarled, "Discomfort? Enough beating around the bush, WHAT'S BEEN DONE TO HIM?"
The officers said nothing; only let the camera zoom in on some of the prisoners behind them. They all were lying on the floor of their cages, covered in burn marks. A buzzer sounded from inside the room, and in unison, a taser appeared from inside the walls of the cages and zapped the living daylights out of them. A loud, painful wail filled the air and crackled through Zim's speakers, distorted from the sheer volume. Once the weapons had vanished, the fugitives all groaned rawly and panted, some not moving at all. Dib's eyes never left the screen, and he felt his skin crawl. They capture aliens and electrocute them... until they die.
Even Gaz seemed disturbed, and she had done much worse to people in the past for standing in her way. But that level of evil was rare from her. This was routine, they were being subjected to this on a timed schedule...
They were so invested in their own disbelief that they had neglected to look at Zim, who was trembling. When Dib finally glanced down toward him, he had to suppress a gasp of surprise.
"Listen... here..." Zim's spat slowly, his voice dripping with malice. Dib's blood turned to ice.
"My robot willbe returned to me... without so much as a SCRATCH. I swear to you, you... FILTH... my race's armada will bring your little 'facility' to its knees when they hear of this injustice to one of their fellow invaders! So I suggest you turn GIR over to me this instant, or else..." Zim snapped his fingers, and a large cannon rose from the floor of the lair, aimed right at the screen. It rumbled and sparked to life, Zim staring into the souls of the creatures before him.
Their faces remained unchanged. "Perhaps you'd like to see the little fellow? Maybe that'll get this whole idea through that thick skull of yours," the squid teased. The screen instantly roared with static, before a new feed came through the screen...
"GIR!" Dib jumped at Zim's sudden cry, and whipped around to face him. Zim's previous soldier stance was replaced by a shaking creature whose eyes were locked with the tiny robot sitting on the screen.
GIR didn't react initially, but after a few seconds had passed, he slowly turned to look towards the camera. Dib could hear whirring and sputtering coming from the speakers, and Zim's reaction suddenly made perfect sense; GIR's mechanisms were no doubt suffering and being shorted from the intense electrical shocks he had been enduring presumably for three days. GIR was at much higher risk of death than most of the other prisoners, and he was already damaged!
"Listen, GIR," Zim fought to keep his voice steady. "Don't worry, okay? I promise that I'll fly out there and beat them all up, and bring you straight back home." GIR didn't say anything. Zim's voice grew more desperate. "And then we can plot to destroy earth again, and watch that dumb monkey show you love so much, and eat all the tacos and cupcakes you want!" GIR sparked dangerously, which pushed Zim's speech out into a painful tumble: "I PROMISE THAT I'LL GET YOU OUT OF THERE I'LL STEAL THE WHOLE OF THE IRKEN ARMY IF I HAVE TO JUSTPLEASE HANG ON!"
The buzzer sounded again. A giant taser appeared in front of GIR. Zim's breath hitched before it struck GIR like a cobra, letting a shrill cry of agony escape GIR and joining the other fugitives' like a symphony of torment. Gaz swore as GIR's whole body convulsed with each shriek. Dib let out a single squeak of horrified awe. Zim clamped his hands over the sides of his head to try and block out the sound.
At last the session ended, leaving a quivering, spazzing GIR lying on the floor of his crate. The sound of his processors loudly groaning and hissing filled the dead silence of the lair.
"Can you hear me, GIR?" Zim asked hoarsely, emotion rippling through his words. "P-please, hang tight... I'm coming to get you!"
GIR suddenly turned to the camera, his unfocused cyan eyes staring blankly through each person in the room. At last, he uttered a single word:
"Z I M...?"
Before the screen crashed, and GIR disappeared from view.
The silence was suffocating. All three of them were completely dumbfounded and horrified by what they just saw. Zim never looked away from the screen.
Despite what he had just witnessed, Dib couldn't stop thinking about the way Zim spoke to those officers, the raw hatred in his voice clawing at them. It hardly sounded like the over-the-top alien Dib had familiarized himself with. It was easy to forget that Zim was a trained Irken warrior. Dib had half-expected Zim to leap through the screen and kill both of them in that moment and it was painfully clear that he wanted to.
Gaz was the first to break the silence. "I guess my game can wait," she muttered.
Dib was in silent agreement until her heard another noise. It sounded like a low whimper, and Dib flinched at the memory of GIR being fried right in front of him. However, the noise seemed to be coming from somewhere in the actual room. His eyes finally settled on Zim.
He had partially turned away from the screen, looking down towards the floor. His hands were curling and uncurling into fists, and in his eyes were, unmistakably, tears.
They were silent, aside from the occasional whimper. Zim drew no attention towards this, and Dib decided not to probe him about it. Zim was clearly trying very hard to re-absorb them; the way he grit his teeth and took deep breaths was enough proof for that. It didn't last very long, for a few seconds later Zim bolted upright again.
"G-COMPUTER!" He stammered, his voice sounding far away. The computer beeped, to show it was listening.
"Show me the address of the last transmission sent! And release the children!"
The computer did as he was told.
"Don't you go anywhere!" Zim spun around to face the kids, teeth bared. "As much as I hate to say it, I need your help. I need distractions and potential backup for me to rescue GIR. You don't have a choice, as you're still technically my prisoners."
Dib and Gaz didn't say anything, and Dib was shocked to feel himself nodding. Gaz did the same. Somehow, they were in agreement to this half-worked out plan of Zim's. Perhaps it was GIR's pleading gaze, or perhaps it was the fact that they didn't have much of a say in the matter anyway.
"Stupid creatures hid their address!" Zim snarled, banging his fist on the control panel. Then he paused.
"But not their computer's I.P address... COMPUTER!"
The computer was already on it, and came up with directions to a random location in deep space. Zim motioned for the children to follow him, and they all boarded his tiny ship. Zim plugged in the coordinates.
Dib finally spoke, "Wait, don't we need weapons and stuff? To fight them?"
Zim didn't look at him. "The cruiser already has artillery built in. All we need is our rage to drive us, like they trained us."
Dib instantly decided that "they" meant Zim's past commanders from his time in training, and was slightly surprised that Zim seemed to refer to him and Gaz as if they trained alongside him.
Before Dib could doubt this plan any longer, the cruiser took off, and none of the three passengers were entirely ready for the impending battle for GIR's rescue.
