Zim's Conquest

By Kawaii_Kitty



Chapter 3

Old Flames

Dib looked at the transceiver on his jacket in a panicked state, and then looked at Gaz, who had a genuinely worried look on her face.

"D-Dib… what's the situation…?" Gaz asked, flipping some of her dark violet hair behind her shoulders.

Dib swallowed hard and listened intently to the transceiver, then shook his head. "I'm not getting anything… I think Zim may have found them…"

Gaz and Todd gasped. "No!" Gaz shouted. "No, no, no, NO!! Th-This isn't supposed to happen!! We're supposed to win!"

A burly man in the cell across from them snorted. "You? Win against Zim? You know how many people have tried and failed? Dozens! Maybe even hundreds! None of them had the brains or the technology to find a way to beat him!"

Dib glared at the man. "I've come face to face with him several times. He just got lucky when he took over. It was just another one of his lame plans, really. I mean, how was I to know the world's people would actually succumb to Zim by him cutting off the world's tuna supply?"

"It's a sick, strange world out there," said the man in the cell across from them. "I would know, I lived in it once…"

Dib blinked at the man's response, annoyed, then he looked back at Gaz, taking his transceiver from his collar, looking at it curiously. He then grinned and stood up, walking to the bars of the cell. He looked down the hall and grinned, as he only saw one guard at the end of the hall. He looked back in the cell and grinned, then proceeded to thrust his arms out between the bars, screaming.

"HELP!!! SOMEONE! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!! THERE'S A DYING WOMAN IN HERE!! MY SISTER! SHE'S DYING!!!" Dib Screamed, his arms flailing, clawing at the air. The guard at the end of the hall turned around and ran toward the cell.

Dib grinned and pulled his arms in, tying the cord of the transceiver in a noose-type fashion, then stuffed it in his pocket, a small bit hanging out. He then turned to Gaz and Todd, motioning for them to play along.

The guard stopped in front of the cell, panting. He looked at the three of them sternly. "What is the cause of all this noise?"

Dib shot a panicked look to him. "M-my sister… I… I think she has malaria! Please... could you come in and look at her?"

The guard rolled his eyes and took a card from his pocket, then slid it into the lock slot of the cell, then steped in as soon the opening was large enough for him to slide in through, and then shut it behind him. He walked to Gaz and knelt down next to her as she lay in Todd's arms. He the pulled out a small maroon device from his jacket pocket and placed it on Gaz's Forehead, waiting for a reading.

The device gave a small beep, indicating that she was all right. The Guard sighed and turned around to face Dib. "Your sister's alright. Now don't you scare me like that again, kid."

Dib nodded, then looked to Gaz. "Okay… but… Gaz? Think you could do the honors of helping us out here?"

Gaz nodded and lifted one of her legs, kicking the guard behind the knees, making him fall forward with a yelp. Dib then pulled the cord noose from his pocket and flung it around the guard's neck, tightening it so he made gagging noises. Dib grinned to himself as he tied the black cord around a thin bar of the cell door near the floor.

Dib then leaned down to pick up the key card that had been dropped and smiled, placing it in the lock. "Oh, I'm sorry. Did we lie to you?" He said with a chuckle as the door slid open. "C'mon, Gaz, Todd. Let's get out of here!" Gaz and Todd bolted from the cell as Dib leaned over and grabbed the maroon device, as well as the guard's gun, and then followed his sister and their cellmate.

As expected, the captive guard had sounded an escapee signal, , leaving them no time to rescue any others. As reassurance, Dib called back to the rest of the prisoners. "Don't Worry! We'll be back to save you!" At this, a loud cheer erupted from every cell, giving Dib a sense of pride.

Dib quickly caught up to Gaz and Todd as they raced through the large holding facility with great ease, given his years of experience of fleeing from various incidents.

When they stopped at a split-hallway, they looked down each direction quickly, deciding which was the best to travel down. Gaz looked to the left and pointed. "That way!" she said.

"How can you tell?" Todd asked as he followed.

"It's in all the best videogames. Two lefts, a right, and another left. Every villain makes their base like that."

"Besides," Dib interrupted. "We've been through here so many times, it's not even funny.

Todd nodded and smiled. "Great, so at the next turn we just- AHH!" Todd fell to the ground as a pinkish blast of energy hit his ankle, no doubt breaking it in the process.

Dib stopped running and ran back to Todd, motioning for Gaz to go ahead. He looked up and saw the maroon-ish patrol-bot that had shot Todd and lifted the gun in his hand and blasted the robot, blowing a hole straight through its center.

Dib knelt down to Todd. "Hey, can you stand?"

Todd shook his head. "Not a chance for it. You two go on and save yourselves. The planet needs you guys." He groaned. "I'll be okay."

Dib thought for a moment and nodded, seeing a very large hole where Todd's ankle used to be, then handed him the gun. "They'll be here soon. Take this and fend them off the best you can." He stodd up and smiled down as Todd saluted him in a n Army-type fashion. Dib returned the gesture and ran off, not caring to look behind him, knowing that Todd could take care of himself.

At every turn, or split hallway, he followed the path of robot body parts that Gaz had made with a gun she had no doubt stolen from a soldier who was probably dead at this point. At the end of this trail, Dib saw what used to be a door, but was replaced by a large hole. He grinned and ran through the hole. Once outside, he found no resistance whatsoever, and quickly figured that Gaz had taken care of anyone who had gotten in her way.

"Hey! Doofus! Over here!" He heard Gaz yell. He looked in the direction the voice had come from and ran to it, quickly noting the burning hole in the fence that she had made.

"Nice job escaping, Gaz." Dib congratulated with a smile.

Gaz nodded and kidded the gun in her hand. "Yeah, I know. Heh, and those people said that First-person-shooter games were bad for you."

Dib chuckled, then looked at the sky. "Well, now that we're out of there… what do we do now?"

Gaz sighed. "Well, we can't go back to the campsite. Zim might still be cleaning up there. I say we go home. There might be stuff there we can use."

Dib smiled and began walking toward the city. "Good thinking, Gaz! Maybe you really do belong in this family after all!"

Gaz growled and walked directly behind her brother, giving him a swift kick in his calf, causing him to fall down.

A while later, Dib and Gaz reached a block that seemed very familiar to the both of them. Their neighborhood. Turning the corner, Dib smiled as he saw the place where he had grown up in. The Third house on the left side. Getting a large boost of speed and energy, dib began laughing as he ran up to the abandoned house. Stepping on the welcome mat, he closed his eyes, feeling a sever case of nostalgia coming upon him.

"Well?" Gaz said in a sort of annoyed tone. Dib looked at her curiously. "You're stepping on the mat, genius. The key is under there."

Dib laughed nervously and stepped off the mat, lifting it up and grabbing the now green copper key from under it. When he slid the key in the lock, he looked at the door curiously.

"What's wrong? You forget how to turn the doorknob?" Gaz said sarcastically.

Dib shook his head and looked at her. "No… the door… it's unlocked…"

Both Dib and Gaz looked at it a moment. "Well… it HAS been a while since we've been here. We probably just got looted or something. I mean, look at this place. No one's been in this neighborhood for probably a good two or three years!"

Dib concurred with his sister with a simple nod and reached up to grab the doorknob, turning it and opening it slowly. As Dib peered inside, all appeared normal, except for the fact that there were a few rodents who had made their homes inside the house. He gave a soft sigh as memories flooded back to him and continued into the house. He noted a soft clanging noise, but paid little attention to it. He looked to his left to see the spot where the family's large television had once been was now bare, as were the surrounding walls. In fact, Dib's entire living room had been left deserted. The house was dark. Had anyone been living in it, one would come to suspect some form of vampirism.

Dib looked in the direction of the stairs of his home, seeing the familiar pale green light, which had existed in his father's basement Laboratory. The clanging sound appeared to be coming from the same direction. Curiosity found its way to Dib's legs, forcing him to march toward the light. As he turned into the stairwell, the familiar sight of the neon tubing, which read, "Be the Brane, Membrane" and a picture of a brain with a pair of goggles welcomed him. He smiled inwardly and continued down the steps.

When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he looked into the laboratory that his father had once spent so much of his time in. Everything was lit beautifully by an unknown light source, and there were panels gathered around a tall body clothed in dark violet and black clothing. On the back of the body, there was a large back pod with a set of arachnid legs of its own. Dib immediately recognized this figure and couldn't help the impulse of shouting out the name of the being before him.

"TAK!!" he shouted, then moved to cover his mouth, lest the Irken soldier had heard him.

The body tensed up and stood up straight, the boots of the soldier clicking on the ground. An electronic sound of the legs coming from the ceiling and retracting into the pack was heard. The body of the one identified as "Tak" turned around, revealing to Dib her large, tired violet eyes and a shiny silver tube connecting from the left side of her Forehead to the same of the back of her head. At seeing Dib, her expression turned to utter surprise.

"…Dib? Is that you?" she said in a voice that reminded Dib much of Earth's British Accents.

Dib nodded. "Yeah…It…It's been a while, hasn't it?"

She too, nodded. "Yes… yes it has. Dib… what are you doing here?" she asked with a cock of the head.

He shot her a curious and suspicious look. "I should ask you the same thing, Tak."

She took a confident step toward him. "Well, if you must know, once you left this place, I thought it would be a terrible waste it would be to let all this wonderful machinery go to a waste by collecting dust, so I decided to do it the honor of putting it to good use. I have decided to take the liberty of taking this house as my base, ever since Zim did a seek-and- destroy and accidentally found it..." She looked to the side, ashamed.

Dib looked at her and gave her a small smile. "Hey, Tak, I completely understand. I mean, since Zim first took us away, Gaz and I never exactly thought it wise to return here. But, since it's been so long, I guess that Zim didn't figure we'd come back here. He's bound to come looking here soon enough." He gave a sigh, not wanting to meet Tak's eyes as he became considerably heavy-hearted. "He got my faction… I just know it…"

She looked at him, a tad concerned and confused. "Dib? What's wrong? Your eyes… they're…"

Dib sniffled and took off his glasses, wiping his eyes for a moment. "It's okay, Tak… I'm-"

Dib was stopped mid sentence by surprise as Tak's first finger came up and caught one of the tears that had rolled down his face on her glove. Dib could see that the liquid caused her a mild discomfort and began reacting moderately violent with her skin under the black glove, as a small amount of steam rose from her hand.

She winced a little and looked at him with great interest and a small, pleased smile on her face. "Dib you look… charming without those things in front of your eyes."

Dib's expression became more shocked at these words, and a blush then lined the pale features of his face. "T-Tak… I… thank you." He smiled at her.

The two stared at one another in silence, merely smiling at one another and feeling pleased by one another's presence. For the first time in years, Dib finally felt at peace, but with an enemy alien who had tried to destroy his world more than once? He was confused, but he decided silently to sort it out later. After all, the presence is what matters most to anyone right now.



A/N: Well, that chapter…sucked really, really bad! Oh well, I liked how it ended, nice and cute. If you're unsure of who this Tak is, I suggest you download and watch Tak: The Hideous New Girl. Where can you download this masterful master of masterful masterness? Go to Http://yourmom.dhs.org/zim and you'll be on your way! "Good job soldier, be gone with you."