Chapter 3

In a week, Zim perfected the disease that he would unleash upon the world's hospitals. Or so he claimed, though Gaz was skeptical.

"You did it that quickly?" she asked, picking up the capped vial that contained one of the samples.

"Careful!" He took it from her, cradling it like it was a priceless artifact. Or a bomb that could detonate at any moment. "You may not be a sickly patient in a hospital, but this is so potent, it could tear your immune system to shreds, and then any other disease could overtake you. And you'd fall asleep and not even know what was happening." He gently put it back in its container.

"So are we going to test it?"

"Yes. I was thinking I could go to a small medical center and slip it into some of their medicines... If it works, I can move on to hospitals. This will be a massive operation. Do you know how many hospitals there are? All with different security... this will be extremely dangerous."

"If you want to make an omelette, you have to break a few eggs."

"Eh?"

"Never mind. But if you want to accomplish something, you have to take risks. In fact, why worry about being caught? You're an alien! Hit all of them, as fast as you can. Put that disease in places where it won't be identified, and move to the next. And when the entire world is after you... escape into space, where we don't have the technology to follow you."

Zim blinked. Then he grinned. "Why are you so smart?"

"I'm just awesome like that."

"You sure are. Come here, love." He slid his arm around her waist and dipped her down so he could easily kiss her, and her eyes drifted shut as she enjoyed it. And Dib didn't think he could ever be affectionate... what was this, then? Zim was full of affection. For anyone that earned it.

With his other hand, Zim stroked her hair, straightening the strands between his claws.

"You're perfect," he whispered against her lips.

"Of course I am."

"No, really. I never thought I'd feel this way about a human..." He stood her back up and let go of her. "You confuse me."

"Maybe that's a good thing."

"I never expected this, really. Invaders aren't supposed to worry about love. We don't need anyone. But you have inspired me so much, and without you, I probably wouldn't have gotten this far. I guess I do need you."

"There's nothing wrong with needing someone. Everyone deserves love, right? Even annoying space aliens with Napoleon complexes."

He just laughed and hugged her before picking up a few vials of his precious disease, sliding them into a belt that he had clipped around his waist. "I'm going to go to the medical center. It shouldn't take long, they don't have much security. I scoped it out earlier while pretending I was going to visit a sick relative."

"I'll wait here for you, then," she replied.

"All right. See you in a little bit." He pecked her cheek before running out.

She pulled over a chair to sit in, picking up his notes to look through them. Everyone saw Dib as the smart one, sure. He was the one who focused more on grades. But little did everyone else know, she had quite the brain on her as well. She was Professor Membrane's daughter, after all. And using Dib's research notes, as well as listening closely when Zim talked to himself in his native language, she had taught herself some basic irken.

So she read the notes, written in the strange irken alphabet, all neat and sitting perfectly on the lines. At least math was universal, though. She could understand the wordless diagrams and graphs much better. It took a lot of testing for him to get this particular batch of bacteria. It had only taken a week, but he spent the entire time working. Once he committed to a task, he really got it done.

Then she looked over at the vials. Even if Zim was releasing this stuff into hospitals, what if it reached her? Was it an airborne disease? It could evolve to that point. How long would it be before Zim took her and her family off the planet? Maybe it would be beneficial to build an immunity now. While it could destroy the immune system and leave a human vulnerable to any other illness, she was in a sterile environment. The disease itself was not that fatal, so if she contracted it now, nothing else could get to her, and then she would eventually recover.

...Well, she was the one who said you had to take risks in life. She checked over the notes, finding out how much was considered a dangerous amount. Then she grabbed a hypodermic needle and a vial. Holding her breath, she held the vial way out and opened it. She dipped the needle into the liquid, drawing a tiny amount into it, and removed it. She quickly recapped it and put it away, and then examined the needle. The liquid was colorless so it could easily blend into any medicine it was inserted in.

She mentally ran through the list of what it did to the body. First, weakened the immune system so it couldn't fight off diseases it normally should. Zim's lab was sterile so no diseases would get to her.

Second, it put the victim into a kind of stupor by interrupting communications between nerve endings. She wouldn't be able to feel pain, as though she was shot full of anesthesia. She would likely fall asleep.

Third, it reeked its own damage on the body, if the victim hadn't succumbed to something else already. It had a low chance of killing a perfectly healthy person, but would cause heart problems, difficulty breathing, high blood pressure...

Sounded awful, but she wouldn't feel it. And this was an extremely low dose. So... oh well, go for it.

She prodded the crook of her elbow, finding the vein that phlebotomists used whenever she donated blood. Once she located it, she slid the needle in and pushed the plunger. It barely hurt; she was used to the feeling because of her blood donor status. Once you have a needle put in you for several minutes, you stop worrying about how it feels.

She removed the needle and tossed it into a chute that led to an incinerator. Zim would never find the evidence. If she falls asleep, hopefully she wakes up before he comes back.

For a while, she didn't feel any different. She cleaned the puncture wound with an antibacterial wipe she found just to make it feel better, and tossed it away. But when she was walking back over to the chair, the faintness hit her. She suddenly wanted nothing more than to curl up and fall asleep. Her eyes were on the chair, and part of her was urging her to sit down and sleep.

She refused. If she fell asleep, she might not wake up. So she paced, standing as straight as she could, though her feet began to drag, and her body wavered from side to side. After a few minutes, she couldn't even feel her feet touching the ground, and had to look to make sure she was still walking. She could still send the command to her legs to move, sure. She just didn't feel it. The recoil coming up her leg muscles was muted. This was just so odd that she ended up tripping and falling. Hitting the ground didn't hurt.

Staring at her arms, she willed them to move, and they did, again without feeling, like something else was pushing them. So this was the numbness. Most people would probably give into it and fall asleep... she yawned.

Wow, this floor was comfortable. Was it cold or warm? Well, it was hard to tell. But it was nice lying down. Maybe... if she just closed her eyes...

"Ah!" With a gasp, Gaz bolted upright, staring around. Everything was blurry, but as she blinked, the room came into focus. She was alone; Zim was still out planting the disease.

The disease.

She looked at herself. She had fallen asleep during stage two... so has stage three already happened? Something had startled her awake. What...

"Ow!" She wrapped her arms around herself as a jolting sensation came from somewhere in her chest. It felt like her heart had stopped, only to remember its job and start up again. She could actually feel the blood pumping through her, pulsing in her ears, behind her eyes. Hypertension. One of the many ways the disease could damage the body.

She forced herself to take slow, short breaths. She put her finger on her wrist to measure her pulse. Okay, that was way too quick. And too strong. At this rate, a blood vessel could pop. One could have already...

Now she realized she was having trouble breathing. Her lungs didn't seem to want to inflate enough. Another symptom. Painful and annoying, but she'd have to deal with it. The anesthesia part must have worn off. She slowly got up, grimacing at the soreness in her muscles from lying on the cold metal floor. Or maybe that was a result of the disease?

Once she was sitting, she felt better. She closed her eyes, relaxing as she checked how each part of her was feeling. Overall, she felt terrible. Almost as though she had a cold. A really bad one. Everything was aching in some way. But human bodies are strong, and it was fighting the best it could to survive, even with a weakened immune system. Even though she couldn't feel them, she could imagine the little white blood cells, fighting against the foreign bacteria, trying to learn them so they could tell the rest of the body how to resist as well.

She ended up falling asleep again, but it was out of boredom this time.

She was woken up by Zim gently rubbing her shoulder. "Hey, I'm back. It took a little longer than I expected, a security guard caught me while I was in a storage room. He didn't see what I was infecting, though."

"Oh, it's fine. Just... taking a nap," Gaz said, yawning and opening her eyes. Now she felt better. Was the disease gone? She hoped so. "How would we know if it worked?"

"I managed to plant security cameras in some patients' rooms," Zim said, pleased. "This place mostly treats people on the spot and sends them away, but some have to stay. We can monitor them. And wait to hear back from the patients that were there today." He laughed. "Even the gauze for wrapping up broken limbs has been dabbed with the substance! We will get some results today, that's for certain."

"All right, cool." Gaz glanced at the vials. She kinda wanted to keep trying to build her immunity, but decided against it. That first time had been pretty bad. She didn't want to go through that again. She could only imagine what it would be like if the dose was larger... and you were in an environment where diseases you were normally immune to could suddenly attack and incapacitate you before the numbing factor even set in.

"You must have been pretty bored, if you were sleeping in the middle of the day," Zim said.

"Yeah, I was. There isn't much to do here, and I don't know my way around the lab yet." Gaz got up, though her legs felt weak. She leaned on Zim, hoping he just assumed she was still tired. "Let's go upstairs and watch the news, we'll probably be hearing about this soon."

"All right. Just let me get my laptop, so I can monitor the cameras..." Zim scooped up a laptop and slid a chip into the side of it, then led the way out.

Once upstairs, they sat on the couch near GIR, briefly greeting him before convincing him to let them change the channel. He allowed them, and they put it on the local news station.

They were reporting on the cold weather, like everyone else. Zim turned on his laptop and began setting up the program that would let him access his cameras, while Gaz partly listened to the weather report. She didn't feel like doing much right now. That disease took a lot out of her. Maybe another nap was in order. Or some food.

"Zim, can I get something to eat?" she asked.

"Sure. You want some chips? Here, hold this. I'll go get you some." Zim passed her the laptop and got up, going into the kitchen.

While he was gone, Gaz looked at the screen. Then she began configuring the program herself, getting it up and running by the time Zim came back.

He gave her a bag of plain, salted chips and took the computer back. Then he stared at it. "How did you do this?"

She shrugged, taking out a potato chip. "I just clicked some buttons."

"This is working great. I can easily access any of the cameras by clicking these little arrows... genius. And oh, they all have tiny thumbnails over here for even quicker access. Gaz, is there something you're not telling me?"

She spoke slowly. "Well... I may or may not have taken a computer programming class this semester. And there's a slim chance that it could be the third one I've taken. And it's Honors."

"Wow, impressive."

"People never realize I'm just as smart as Dib. I just have different interests."

"I never said you weren't smart, it's just... this is an irken computer. The programming language is completely different from anything you'd learn in school."

Gaz just smiled. "Yeah, but I figured it out. Besides, it was already started for me, I just had to figure out what everything said."

"You understand irken?"

"Yeah, some. I taught myself."

Zim smiled too. "You just keep impressing me. You are the most perfect partner I could ever ask for. I'm glad we're together."

"Me too. So, how are things looking?"

Zim opened one of the camera feeds, watching it. "This guy has pneumonia. Not easily treatable, he has to stay while the doctors take care of him and make sure his condition doesn't worsen. Well... the pain relievers may have had my special serum injected into them. So... let's watch, he should be getting his medicine any moment now."

A nurse entered the room and talked to the man, but there was no audio, since Zim hadn't deemed it necessary for this. The man responded with a short sentence, and then sat up a little so he could take his medicine. He seemed to ask for something, and the nurse nodded and walked out.

Zim checked another camera feed for a moment, determining that she was going to get him some food. Then he returned to the sick man.

For a while, there was no change. He took a drink of water, presumably to help wash down the pills. Laid back. Examined the ceiling for a while before picking up a book that was laying at his side, opening it and reading.

Then he began to cough. They could see his nose running, and he pulled over a box of tissues, cleaning it up. But he had barely set it aside when his coughing grew more violent, and he wrapped his arms around his chest. His immune system was weakening. His pneumonia, which had been held at bay, was now advancing. It could take over before Zim's disease could.

The man was shouting now, they could see. They tried to read his lips. Something about his medicine not working, he was starting to feel a lot worse. Now they wished they had used cameras with microphones.

Then he collapsed back, as his nurse ran in, quickly putting down the tray of food and pressing her hand to his forehead. Then she dropped it to his chest, and looked worried. She looked at him, asking him something, which he responded to with only a few words. Then he closed his eyes, visibly relaxing. The anesthesia. Even though his body was being invaded by microbes, the pain was going away, so he was able to calm down.

The nurse shook his shoulder, checked his heartbeat once more, and went to get a doctor. The man was still alive, they could see his chest rising and falling, but he had fallen asleep.

"So far, it's working," Zim said. "It shouldn't be long now. See how slowly he breathes, and how his body shakes when he does it. He's coughing in his sleep, look. His lungs are struggling. They were already weak before. But now... they might not be able to handle it. And no air means no life."

"At least he'll die in his sleep," Gaz said quietly. "I do feel bad for him, but... well, if your people come, my people will die in large numbers anyway. Maybe it's better this way. At least these deaths won't hurt as much. Not to the victims, anyway."

"This isn't an easy job," Zim said, patting her back. "Many Invaders have quit because they couldn't stand bringing pain to the inhabitants of their assigned planets. They're such a hassle to the Empire, because then we have to send someone else to finish their job for them, and then track them down for a trial, because quitting a job like that, without permission, has severe consequences. So you can understand why I didn't want to give up on Earth. My Tallest would not be happy."

"I see. So I guess to be an Invader, you can't have any sympathy."

"No, we're not supposed to." Zim looked away when the man's chest stopped moving. "Some of us still do, though."

Gaz met his eyes, and the emotion in them made it clear. Zim did feel bad about what he was doing. He didn't like that he had to kill off so many people, his girlfriend's species in fact, just to complete his mission. He didn't like that in order to be appreciated by his leaders, he had to be cruel and heartless like they are. Once upon a time, this job seemed glamorous. He had begged for the chance to do it, having grown up destined for the military, hearing about how it was one of the most important military positions. And he wanted to be important. But now he knew how awful the job was. And it was too late to quit.

His hand closed over Gaz's, and she squeezed it gently. Maybe it wasn't all bad, though. After all, if he hadn't become an Invader, he wouldn't have been sent here. He wouldn't have met her. He'd be with someone else, or maybe, not with anyone at all. And after being in her amazing company, it was hard to imagine being alone.

Meanwhile, the man on the camera feed passed away peacefully. Doctors surrounded him, talking to each other, before bowing their heads solemnly. One went to retrieve his contact information, needing to call the family to inform them.

Now they knew this plan would work. They just needed to put it into action on a global scale. Lives would be lost. Maybe that horrible human sympathy was rubbing off on him. Zim already couldn't wait until it was over.