ALRIGHT SO TIME FOR AN UPDATE KIDS. I know it's been a while but this new schedule is gonna work out much better I'm sure of it, especially cos new things popped up lately in my life so yeah. But less about that.
Also I have to admit, reading everyone's reactions to the last chapter was fun as heck. It was a mixed bag of 'oh no Dib!' and 'damn you Gaz!' and whatnot. Very fun indeed.
ANYWAY it's time for the reading so ENJOY KIDS!
The dark sleep was long and uneventful. The kind of sleep which could only be brought on by something completely shutting your brain down, like a heavy drug or a bad fall. However slowly, gradually, I could feel something under my back. Some fabric barely strung over a cold metal surface. Suddenly smells were flooding through my senses, familiar smells but ones I had somehow never truly noticed before. The smell of antiseptic, of cold machinery, of strange metals and even stranger chemicals.
Slowly I opened my eyes.
The first thing I saw was red plated metal above me. I didn't even need to turn my head, I already knew where I was because I'd been here countless times before.
"Zim's... house?" Or to be more accurate it was a cell in Zim's house. I allowed my head to fall to one side and far in front of me I could see a giant, oversized chair in front of a mass of monitors. Some were filled with scrawling irken text while others were simply video feeds.
Video feeds of me, actually.
As I slowly pulled myself up I saw the chair suddenly turn and I couldn't help a smile briefly cross my face. Every time I saw Zim do his 'Dr Evil' thing with his giant chair and his tiny self it made me laugh. It was so very Zim. Vastly overcompensating for whatever it was he felt the need to make up for. Or maybe he honestly thought it made him look cool.
"Ah, so you're awake. Have a nice nap?" He hopped off his chair and began walking towards me, his hands held behind his back. "It's been a long time since you were my captive. I'm getting a rush of, what's that human word..."
"Constipation!" Gir shouted from somewhere out of my vision.
"Yes! Thank you Gir! I'm getting a rush of constipation."
I groaned, not out of any ache or pain but simply out of Zim's stupidity. Amazingly I felt fine, though as I stood up I could feel the creeping hunger coming back to me. Perhaps it was because this place didn't have a single drop of blood, at least not one that I could smell but the vapid hunger I felt before wasn't as demanding. At least not for now.
I didn't bother approaching Zim. The reason was because in long, straight lines in front of me were very thick, very heavy, very un-breakable looking bars. He used to have a forcefield there but it turned out it was far too easy to hack it or break out an EMP blast to take it down. Giant metal bars were much, much harder to break through... not to mention he could poke me with sticks through them. Or at least he used to, before our weird truce set in.
"How did I get here?"
"The Gaz-Beast called me as soon as she could. Together we transported you here and under her insistence I put you in that cell."
"I take it Gaz told you what happened." I asked calmly. "How is she?"
"The Dib-sister is doing fine. You broke two of her ribs and crushed the bones in her hand." As he stopped just in front of the cell I could sense a strange, silent fury coming from him. "But I prescribed her some bacta juice and she's recovering."
There was a silence that seemed to stretch to agonizing degree before I finally broke it. "I'm sorry."
"SORRY?!" The alien snapped at me so suddenly that I almost jumped in shock. Thank God that force field was there. "SORRY? SORRY DOESN'T FLIRKING CUT IT, DIB!" Wow, he used just my name, he had to be really, really angry if he was just using my name. "What the QUIZNACK were you thinking?"
"I wasn't... me." I replied in a quiet tone. I wasn't going to get into a shouting match with Zim, it wasn't worth it. I felt low enough as it was, knowing what I'd done and what I'd almost done.
And I was still starving.
"OH? WAS IT SOMEONE ELSE?" The alien screamed at me, his hands clenched into tight fists. "BECAUSE GAZ CERTAINLY DIDN'T THINK SO."
I sat back down onto the small cot and put my head into my hands. "I'm just... so hungry Zim. You can't understand."
"Hungry? HUNGRY? You don't attack a member of your own clan because you're hungry, DIB." He practically spat my name out. "You could have eaten something!"
"You don't get it!" I shook my head, still refusing to look at him. "It's not like that, it's-"
"What? Do you want me to make you some waffles? Do you want a nice meaty burger?" He was pacing back and forth in front of the cell, his boots clicking off the metal floor. "Speak up, Dib-stink, because I'm sure whatever it is you got so angry about is absolutely worth it."
"I don't want food!" Finally I looked up at him my teeth practically grinding together, "You complete idiot! What I need is-"
"Blood." The voice came from somewhere beside the two of us and I had to lean forward to see Gaz walking towards us from one of the many corridors that snaked through Zim's base. "He needs blood, Zim."
My heart flooded with relief as I saw that she looked fine, a little beat up perhaps but fine. Her hand was wrapped up in an odd silver looking bandage and she had several cuts across her arms. Cuts that were still healing. As soon as I stood up I was hit with what felt like a sudden wave of bloodlust. Literally my entire body seemed to become tense and alert and again I had that horrible thought that Gaz wasn't my sister.
She was a walking talking meal.
"Gaz- Gaz!" I rushed to the front of the cell suddenly, grabbing the bars with my hands, "You need to get me out of here, please just come open the cage and-"
"SHUT UP." Her voice thundered at me and the monster within my head seemed cowed for only a moment. Or perhaps it was just smart enough to know that pleading never would have worked anyway. I could feel it pacing through my veins, growling deeply just behind my own eyes. I could feel it's raw hunger and my fingers curled around the cold metal bars. My breath picked up in my lungs. I was so hungry. Oh God I was hungry. It was coming back full force now, the need, the desire for blood. I felt so parched, like a man crawling through a desert.
Behind Zim some of the monitors suddenly started beeping, causing the alien to turn his head in surprise.
"I already told you, Zim. Dib isn't human any more."
"I am human." I spoke in a low tone, annoyed at her very assumption. "I'm just..."
"Just what? An idiot? Yeah I know that." Gaz didn't smirk at me, which was surprising. Instead she simply gave me a cold look, one which I knew she only ever broke out for when she was truly angry.
And yet there was something else there too. Something I'm not sure I had ever seen before. She seemed... anxious. Did Gaz even feel anxiety? Apparently she did. Why did I feel proud of that fact?
"He was bitten by a vampire." She said while turning to Zim, who had become preoccupied with her tablet once again. "He needs blood."
"We can hook him up with a blood pack." Zim announced without looking at her. "I have some-"
"No. Zim." I cut in suddenly. "I need to drink it."
Zim let out a quick and harsh laugh, but when neither my sister nor myself answered him he looked up, his eyes moving between the two of us. "... are you serious? Nothing on my monitors even says that you need-"
"Zim, shut up for a moment and listen to me." I sighed deeply and turned away from the two of them, walking back into the cell. On the surface perhaps it looked like I was gathering my thoughts but in actuality I was desperately trying to stop myself from leaping at the bars in an attempt to break through them and rip Gaz's heart out. "I need to drink blood. Desperately. You have no earthly clue how much I need it. So please. If you have some human blood, please give it to me because if you don't I seriously might try to break out of this cell and..." I paused, wondering for a moment if I should even finish the sentence or not. The wolf didn't want to, but I did. Thankfully I managed to win out. "And murder everyone in a fifteen mile radius and drain them of every drop of blood in their body. No I am not joking or exaggerating."
The room went very, very quiet for a moment.
"... okay dokey then." Zim nodded to himself. "Sounds reasonable. Completely insane, but reasonable. GIR!" A second later the robot jumped from... somewhere and collided with the cell bars causing a tremendous clanging noise that echoed around the lab as he bounced right back from them.
He landed at Gaz's feet and grinned up at her. "HI SCARY LADY!"
"GIR!" Zim clicked his fingers and pointed to the flood next to him. "Stop laying around and go get some of the human blood from our human blood container unit."
"You mean the coffee jar?"
"Wha- why did you put human blood in a coffee jar?"
"COFFEE!"
"Right, okay, whatever. Just go get it."
"Can doooooooooooooo-"
"GIR GO GET THE BLOOD!"
The robot quickly saluted and then ran off somewhere, vanishing from sight. Zim went back to looking at his tablet for a moment, frowning and mumbling to himself over the various details. My eyes moved to Gaz who simply stood there not looking at me with her arms crossed, though not too tightly, I guessed her ribs were still healing. The monster inside my brain seemed to be taking a back seat by now, possibly because of the promise of blood delivered right to my door... or cell, in this case.
I decided now would be a good time to apologize to Gaz.
I'm... not good at picking these kinds of moments.
"Gaz I-"
"Shut it. Shut it right now." Gaz turned on me and pointed a finger so sharp at me that I could almost swear she was a vampire too. "You don't get to talk to me. Not right now. Not until you stop looking at me like I'm a goddamn meal."
"I'm not!" I was. I really was. I could smell the blood pouring off her, hear her heart pumping in her chest, lingering on her healing wounds. Blood. The very thought of it was making me antsy and anxious. I was so hungry and it seemed so close that I could almost reach out and touch it... or more accurately, rip it out of her warm body and pour it down my throat. "I mean... I'm trying not to!"
"Right. Just like you tried not to burn that building down."
Without even thinking I growled deeply at Gaz and, to the delight of my sick pride, she flinched. However I bit my tongue and forced myself to turn away and walk back to my tiny metal cot. God what the hell was taking Gir so long? When I saw that robot again I would rip his stupid metal head off and kick it into a black hole. Suddenly however a smell reached my nose. A smell that literally sent every hair on the back of my neck standing up and sent electricity rushing through my limbs.
Blood.
I turned and again approached the cell bars as closely as I dared and began looking around desperately.
Zim and Gaz noticed and shared a look that I barely noticed. I didn't care about them, all I cared about was the blood. The fresh smell driving every sense in my body wild, so much so that I could almost taste it on my tongue. God I had never wanted anything so much in my whole life. I take back everything I'd ever said about Gir, he was a God-send, a wonderful angel from above to deliver me from this hell-thirst.
The little robot came bounding into view and above his head he was holding a coffee jar... filled with blood. The red liquid danced up from side to side as he walked, gleefully giggling about something but whatever it was it was utterly lost on me. All I cared about was the blood, the sight of it making me feel on fire. I wanted to reach through the bars and grab the jar out of Gir's hands, to just take the thing I craved so deeply.
The thing which my entire being, my very soul, whatever was left of it, was crying out for.
However before Gir could even pass the blood through the bars Gaz snatched the jar up and held it before her. My eyes were locked onto it, my entire body focused on that one jar. I could smell the blood congealing, becoming less potent with every passing second.
I wasn't sure who said it, me of the starving wolf inside me, but the words came tumbling out of my mouth. "Gaz. Give me the blood."
"Why should I?"
"Gaz please I just- GIVE IT TO ME!" Gaz jumped back as I reached for her, a clawed hand grabbing for it like a flash of lightning. I wasn't even close but even so the very force of my attempt was enough to terrify everyone in the room. Instantly Gaz and Zim shrunk back and I did too.
The horror that swelled within me threatened to tear my body apart and I fell back onto my behind, scrambling away from the front of the cage to the cot which I leaned on heavily, panting to myself and looking to my own sister with terrified eyes. In a second I had gone from me, the starving, trapped prisoner to a beast in a cage. It took me a second to realize my hands had turned to claws and my teeth felt too long in my mouth.
Once Gaz had regathered herself again she gripped the jar tighter and in a low tone she growled out. "I'm not going anywhere near you, not while you're like this."
I didn't disagree with her. Instead I simply buried my face into my hands with a mixture of shame and quiet self loathing.
"I'll do it." Zim announced suddenly, which surprised me to the point of making me look up from my despair.
"What?" I frowned at him in confusion. "Why would you-"
"You attacked at her. Not me." Zim replied as he took the jar from Gaz. "And yet I've been here far longer than she has. Not once did you even give me the same... weird look that you've been giving her. You also had the perfect chance to attack me at that disgusting Joja-Stink store, yet all you did was mildly threaten me in that... mild way of yours." He smirked to himself. "Plus you demanded human blood. Not the far superior irken blood. So clearly I should be safe."
"That's... actually kind of true." Now that I thought about it, I hadn't once considered Zim as any kind of meal since I'd been here, or even before in the store. My vampiric senses were demanding human blood and human blood only, the inner monster wasn't interested in aliens or anything else for that matter. "Alright." I stood up, perhaps a little too eagerly, and approached the cage as Zim walked forward without fear, the jar held in his hands.
The smell of it was driving me almost completely over the edge, the very thought of blood between my teeth making me want to lick them hungrily. But my inner wolf was a careful creature and knew another outburst would not be tolerated. It was holding itself together for now for the promise of finally sating its thirst.
I had to give Zim some credit, his observational skills once again came in handy. As he got to the cage he thrust the jar out and I gasped as the blood wobbled within the jar, almost spilling over the side. I was there in a second, snatching it out of his hand. His gamble had proven right, I wasn't interested in his weird, green, alien blood. I was only interested in what I held before me.
Finally. Blood. Precious, life giving blood.
I no longer cared about anyone or anything else in the world. Everything seemed to fade away as I brought the jar to my lips and I didn't even give it a second thought as I finally tipped the contents of the jar back into my throat.
Have you ever had a moment of such exquisite ecstasy that the entire universe around you becomes just that moment? Just you, alone, with the utter complete joy of that single second? For that moment I was only consumed with blood. The feel of it flowing down my throat, coating my fangs, filled every atom of my being with new life, new energy. It was bliss, true bliss, like nothing I had ever experienced before in my life.
I finished the jar in almost no time, barely stopping at any moment for a breath and once the jar was empty I fell back onto the floor again, leaning against the cot, my eyes closed as I lost myself in the feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment that drinking the blood had brought me. I placed my hands under my glasses and over my eyes and taking them away only to run them through my hair as I laughed softly.
Nothing in my entire life had ever felt as good as that moment.
My good mood was cut short however by Gaz's snarky tone. "Do you want a little privacy? Maybe we can dim the lights and find you a box of tissues."
I looked back at Gaz, fixing her with a frown but I didn't dare reply. Besides, I had Zim to do that for me.
"I don't get it. Why would he need tissues?"
"Because... nevermind." Gaz rolled her eyes at the alien and then seemed to dare take a step closer to the cage. "So are you all done now? You're not going to try and rip my goddamn head off?"
"I feel... great. Better than great, actually. I feel amazing." And I did. I stood up and found myself licking my lips, the wonderful, coppery taste of the blood still lingering on my tongue. If this was what a vampire went through every time they fed... I could certainly see why they would keep doing it night after night.
"So you're not going to try and murder you brood-sibling or myself?" Zim asked cautiously, a hand raising to his chin.
I paused and looked to my own hands, which no longer were shaped like long claws. I could feel no presence of the beast within me, no stalking wolf, no growling monster. I felt... normal. Better than any normal I'd felt before but still, normal.
"I'm fine, guys. I swear. But..." I still couldn't forgive myself for what I had almost done to Gaz. "But even so. I think you should arm yourselves. Just in case."
"Sure." Gaz shrugged and then reached into one of her pockets, drawing out the stun gun she'd hit me with before. "You didn't think I'd just leave this hanging around, did you?"
"And I have my PAK." Zim chuckled. "It doesn't matter what you've done to yourself, you will never be as mighty as ZIM!" And he cackled maniacally. Gaz and I, despite everything that had happened, shared the all too familiar look of 'this guy'. However Zim soon stopped cackling and waved a hand in the air. "Computer, disengage the cage lock."
With a loud beep the bars suddenly rose up and I went to walk out of the cage, however before I did so I leaned over and picked up the coffee jar which had once contained the precious blood. However I as held it in my hand I couldn't help but notice... there was no reflection. I frowned but soon turned away, perhaps in my vampiric state I could only be reflected in some surfaces and not others?
Either way it was nothing but a minor symptom of the bigger problem.
As I walked out of the cell I couldn't help but notice how Gaz hadn't put away the stun gun she held so tightly in her hand and again, in some ape-man part of my brain I felt proud. Sure I had almost killed her and I'd never forgive myself for that... but making her have a little more respect for me? Now that I could take a little pride in.
"So what now?" Gaz asked sternly.
"It's obvious, isnt it?" I raised an eyebrow and looked between the two of them. "We find a way to turn me back."
YEAH THE TEAM IS BACK TOGETHER ON AN ADVENTURE YEEEEAAAAH. Or at least they're going to join forces to try and get Dib into a human person form again. Not that he isn't but... yeah.
So yeah I did want to point out some references in this chapter.
First was bacta-tape. Bacta is of course from Star Wars and is basically a heal-all that everyone uses to heal themselves.
Second is FLIRKING which is something HeCallsMeHisChild invented (or I'm pretty sure she did anyway) and I had to throw it in here because SHOUTOUTS.
Third is Quiznack which is from the awesomeness that is Voltron: Legendary Defender which EVERYONE needs to go see cos it's fantastic.
Anyways I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Sorry if it seemed off but this week has been insane and I've not had a lot of drive to do much editing, but hopefully the next chapter or so will be fun and give a breather from all the action we've had lately.
As always, tell me what you think in the form of lovely comments or reviews or smoke signals or whatever and I'll see ya'll next time! PEACE!
