Honestly, I don't know what to think of this. It took me three years to make a second chapter, and only a week to make the third... Such inconsistency...
No matter - I have completed this chapter and I am quite fond of it. Once again, we will find ourselves viewing things more from Tak's perspective, such as we did in the first chapter, and we will begin to see some of the more psychological aspects of the characters as well. What may at first appear to be out of character moments will, with further supposition, make a great deal more sense when taken as a whole within both the series and this story itself. I have tried to define the essence of Zim as I have found him to be through my character studies (and with a personal understanding in psycho-semantic disorders.) I have portrayed my understanding of Zim through the eyes of Tak in this chapter, and in a way, it is for these very reasons that Zim has always been my favorite character.
But all of this talk is boring, so now I digress. Here is the third chapter, which I sincerely hope you like.
"Absolutely not!" cried Zim, who was beyond furious at this point. 'I cannot believe the gall of that… that female – ugh!' Nor could he believe the fact that these morons were buying into it all! The rotund little Irken to his right, however, insisted on playing the Devil's advocate by replying, "But Zim, think of it from a strategic point of view – we're trying to conquer this planet, and the extra help could be vital in securing ultimate victory." Rearing back as if he'd been physically struck, a look of pure affronted shock materialized on Zim's face. The acid in his voice was caustic as he retorted, "I don't trust her." Raising his arms in a placating manner, Skoodge conciliatorily replied, "I don't trust her either, Zim – but that doesn't mean we should let such an opportunity to advance our cause go to waste!" Zim once more fell back on the one point he consistently made during the entire debate, "She tried to steal Zim's mission once, and she obviously wishes to try and steal it again; it's the only reason she'd ever come back here!" "Myeh!" injected Minimoose, and this was an extremely valid point. "What is wrong with all of you?" Zim practically screamed, "Am I the only one who remembers just how truly horrible she is?"
"Mhee?" the frown that crossed the mutant moose-thing's face seemed to drive the question further home, encouraging Skoodge to chime in, saying, "At least give her a chance – if at any time we feel that she's about to double-cross us, we could… I don't know…" He suddenly found his feet very interesting to look at (anything to avoid the positively vitriolic look Zim was giving him.) "Nyeeh?" came Minimoose's helpful suggestion. Skoodge vigorously nodded his head in agreement, "That could work – we could do that if she tried anything funny!" then, turning back to Zim, he implored, "C'mon, Zim, we've been arguing on this for hours, and I'm getting hungry – can't you just give her one chance?" This brought Zim to pause in thought. Skoodge was right – they had indeed been at this for hours, and it had been a while since he himself had last had a snack… 'I must have the brain-worms to even be considering this!" Giving an enraged huff, the weight of hunger seemed to outweigh the sting of memories past, as Zim finally conceded, "Very well, I will accept her offer, but if I so much as even suspect that she is up to no good, I'll personally strap a rabid weasel to her face and launch her back into deep space – and then I'll do the same to you, because this was your idea, not mine."
"Technically, it was her idea, so -" the dark glare thrown his way caused the corpulent conqueror to audibly gulp, "I'm shutting up now." Considering the matter done, Zim quickly turned around, only to come face to face with none other than the very being they had been discussing – Tak. The deadpanned look she gave him seemed to completely go over his head as he immediately straightened up and exclaimed, "Ah… Tak; just the stink-beast I was looking for." The slight raise of an eyebrow was the only indication she gave as to what she thought of that. "The almighty Zim has decided, after careful deliberation with his underlings, to accept your offer of help in our mission to conquer this filthy ball of horrible horribleness." With a slow nod of her head, Tak finally spoke, "I'm happy to hear that, Zim." Tilting her head slightly, she seemed to come to some sort of decision, before turning around and heading for the kitchen. Calling over her shoulder, she exclaimed, "If you need me for anything, I'll be down in the lab."
With a smirk, she continued towards the oddly placed toilet, 'Three…. Two… One…' Zim's shrill cry of, "Wait just a minute!" came as no surprise to Tak; her smirk blossoming into a full-blown, diabolical smile as she coyly asked, "Is there a problem, Zim?" The shorter of the two Irkens swiftly ran to catch up with her, annoyance and suspicion seemingly radiating off of him as he quickly grabbed her arm and span her around to face him. Pushing his face into her personal bubble, he hissed, "Do you think that Zim would be so stupid as to let the Tak-beast use his lab without question?" Looking down her nonexistent nose at him as if he were at most a minor inconvenience, Tak calmly removed his hand from her arm and brazenly replied, "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do," then, giving a capricious grin, she continued, "but if you really don't trust me, then I guess you'll just have to come and make sure I don't try and sabotage your base."
Looking past Zim, she then added, "Unless you wish to have Skoodge keep an eye on me, I'm sure we'll have lots of fun." Looking over his shoulder at the Irken in question, Zim rolled his eyes at how pale Skoodge had suddenly become; how his mouth began to quiver, and how his legs began to shake. Skoodge, for his part, could easily envision what the sadistic female's idea of fun entailed, and was in no way, shape or form inclined to take up her offer. Casting his baleful gaze towards his commander, he could only hope that Zim wouldn't agree to her proposal – he liked living. Taking note of Skoodge's condition, Zim decided to take pity on his friend before turning back to Tak and sharply retorting, "No, I think I'll accompany you to the lab myself; unlike you, Skoodge is actually fairly useful – it would be extremely… not-good if you broke him." Quirking her brow, she flippantly responded by saying, "Suit yourself." Sweeping her arms in a grandiose gesture of mockery she quipped, "After you." Responding with equal contempt, Zim use an old Earth saying he happened to have seen being used in such a situation – "Ladies first." Giving a shrug, Tak turned once more to the toilet, Zim following in her wake.
While it had been a tight (and extremely awkward) fit, they managed to access the toilet and were already making their way into the bowels of the facility. The cylindrical tube was cramped, and allowed very little leeway with which to move; Zim continued to hiss and grumble to himself as the platform continued its steady plunge into the earth. Tak's insufferable smirk seemed to only worsen his mood. All the while, the elevator moved on – passing the otherworldly glow of external illuminators as they pierced the darkness, only to vanish as quickly as they appeared. The internal lighting, a harsh grey glow, would often flicker and die at random intervals, only to reignite with a halogen-like hum. The air was thick, and the heat was subtly rising as they made their way further down. And through the haze of it all – the transition from light to darkness to light again, the thrumming drone, the lull of compressing atmosphere and the subtle raise in temperature – Zim closed his eyes for a mere fraction of a second.
That was all the time Tak needed. Swiftly turning upon the little Irken that had been plaguing her thoughts for some time now, the tall female snatched him by the front of his uniform and slammed him against the translucent wall that enclosed their descent. Releasing a squeak of terrible discomfort at the physical altercation he suddenly found himself in, Zim began to thrash about, clawing fiercely at the arms that restrained him. "What is the meaning of this?" he shouted, "Put me down, now, Tak!" For the briefest of seconds, he found himself relieved as she seemingly complied by pulling him away from the wall – only to be slammed into it once more! Through it all, Tak retained a malicious grin – one that only seemed to grow in intensity the more he struggled. 'Look at you, Zim,' she thought, 'so small, so weak, so… short.' Narrowing her eyes, she leaned in towards his face, angling herself in such a way as to emphasize her superior height over him, one more factor that should have absolutely ensured her victory over him in their last encounter, yet somehow failed all the same. The horrible knot in her sqeedilyspooch reappeared as her anger and resentment began to rise.
'And here you are, at my mercy.' Pushing him further against the glass, her face a mere breathe apart from his own, she couldn't help but appreciate the way he struggled and squirmed within her grasp. 'I could break you right now.' And at that thought, she placed one of her hands around his throat and began to squeeze. Yes, that's what she'd do – she'd end it, here and now, with no one to get in her way; she would finally prove that it was she who was superior, she who held ultimate victory over him. And as she applied further pressure to his neck, she wanted to see that fear he held for her, that final vindication she so desperately wanted. But all she found was a defiant glare adorning his features – an aura of unconquerable determination mixed with the inability to even contemplate defeat! Her eyes widened only a fraction at the revelation and along with the knot in her guts there once more sprung forth that strange, indescribable feeling that had been plaguing her more and more as time went by. This was the reason, she finally realized, that she lost to him; he couldn't be beaten because he had no understanding of what defeat was. She could break every bone in his body a thousand times over, and yet he would undoubtedly demand that she surrender because he could not be defeated. He was so incredibly stupid that there was no other option but victory!
It was his defective nature that made him so… strong wasn't the proper word, not in the sense of what she understood his strength to be. No, his defectiveness was what allowed him to be so flexible yet unyielding in his quest for conquest! He was not an Invader. He was an unstoppable force for destruction and chaos, something that could never truly be contained, or put down. This was what made him dangerous - why their people loathed him, why their leaders hated him, and most of all – why the control brains feared him! At this watershed realization Tak's manic grin fell away, replaced with a pensive frown as she thought, 'Yes, I could break you... But I won't.' Slowly, she released his throat – his ragged gasps for air were only broken by the occasional spluttering cough – as she tilted her head to observe him further. She had yet to fully release him though, and if anything, she seemed to have subconsciously pressed herself closer to him (a point of fact that only seemed to further consternate him as he struggled more desperately to get out of her horrible clutches.)
Her smile was suddenly back, but instead being devious or demented, it was a cunning, thoughtful grin – one that seemingly entailed a strategy in the works, and it terrified him! 'No, I won't destroy you…,' she devised, 'not with such potential in you – I can use you, mold you into something that the Empire would be proud of, and then I will bend you to my whims until you can bend no further…'It seemed that Zim had seemingly managed to finally catch his breath, because he immediately began shouting at her again; "Tak, as your leader, I order you to let me down now, or I will unleash my doom upon your vile head!" The lanky female's grin took on a nastier aspect as she once more thought to herself, 'And then I will possess you as my own.' Wait a minute – what was that last part? Did she actually just think that? Her eyes widened in horror at the overt implication of such a notion, and with a disgusted sneer she dropped the annoying little Irken in a heap on the floor. With a chime, the door of the capsule opened – they had finally arrived at their destination.
Quickly picking himself up, Zim growled, "Tak if you thin-" Tak stridently interrupted, "I'm not one of your slaves, Zim, I'm your new partner, and I fully intend to help you take over this miserable ball of dirt, but in order for that to happen, you need to listen to what I say." Quickly catching up to her and casting a sidelong glare at her, he retorted, "And what makes you think that Zim would even listen to the Tak-beast?" Turning promptly towards him, she proclaimed, "Because, I have something that will make you unstoppable." At this, she procured something from her PAK, at which Zim's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, such was his surprise! Quickly straightening himself, he looked Tak in the eye and casually replied, "Zim is listening."
Well, there you have it. I hope it was to your liking, and if not, please inform me of what you did not like, and I'll see what I can do about it... Unless it's something stupid, and then you should be ashamed of yourself for being a terrible person. Thank you for your time.