(A/N) Things are about to take a pretty dark turn. Brace yourselves.
I... am so sick. I feel like a Irken who's swallowed a bucket of putrid earth-water. But I just couldn't leave you guys on such a cliffy. So I apologize for any typos, and please enjoy the next chapter of Defective, "The Death of a Defective."
Just so you know, I don't really support RaPr; I think of it more as a sibling relationship. But you're welcome to interpret this chapter any way you'd like.
Many thanks to xXFemkeXX, LadyCerebellum, Lileipad, Flameear, and daydreamgirl14 for reviewing! I'd hug you guys, but I don't want to spread my illness… P:
I do not own Invader Zim or any of the characters portrayed here.
Zim skittered along the hull of the Massive, eyes narrowed and fixed on one point just in front of his face. He had a few loose ends to tie up, and not even the Dib-human could convince him to let such things go. Disregarding the battle raging in the airspace all around him, he climbed toward where he knew the escape hatch would be. Typing a code into the device on his wrist, he leaned in.
"Prisoner 777, come in," he said, and static answered him. Scowling, he punched in another code. "Prisoner 777, answer Zim! Answer Zim now!"
The airspace crackled, suddenly filled with the sounds of utter chaos. "Zim!" came the excited vortian's voice. "Zim, this is incredible! All of Vort is in an uproar! They say you've-"
"Yesyes, the time for singing the praises of Zim will come later," the Irken said dismissively. "I need you to send a portable copy of the Massive's schematics."
"Sure thing!" the prisoner said jovially, and the communication device began beeping wildly. A three dimensional hologram came up, depicting the Massive's innards. "It's voice controlled. Handy, right?"
"Excellent," Zim muttered, scaling the remaining length of metal and clambering into the hatch, feeling the very air tremble with the force of the battle. Once inside, he found himself in deathly silent blackness, and felt his way down the rungs by faith alone. Once on solid ground, he felt around for the door; he found it, and he let his metal limbs creep from his PAK. For as soon as he emerged, his life would be in the balance.
The hand on his shoulder nearly stopped his heart equivalent; it did short circuit his PAK as it was, and Zim was unconscious for a split second as it restarted. Then he spun, pulling up the hologram for some amount of dim light, holding it out and finding himself face to face with...
A complete stranger.
"Here," the little table-headed service drone said, holding something up. "You're after the Tallest, right? This might help."
Zim accepted the package carefully, eyeing the tiny Irken with something not quite as harsh as mistrust. "Why do you want to help Zim? Are you a defective?"
The drone shrugged. "Maybe. I... never gave it much thought. Most Irkens don't, you know. But... you, Zim... I've just spent so long cheering for you, I couldn't help it."
Though Zim didn't understand the words, he felt something almost foreign wash through him. It was so powerful, in fact, that he knelt down and removed the tabletop from the Irken's head, replacing it with his own helmet.
"Climb up and wait on the hull."
Regardless of whether or not he fully understood what Zim was doing, the service drone obeyed instantly. Watching him climb the ladder until darkness claimed his form, the Smallest punched in a number on his communicator.
"Dib, there's a defective waiting on the hull of the Massive. Come pick him up."
He heard the human start to respond, but cut the communication before he could. Then he turned his attention to the package, eyeing it carefully and then unwrapping the clumsily done paper.
... ... ...
"The power core! Beam it of the ship!" Red screamed; the poor technicians hammered at their screens and keyboards, all to no avail.
"O-Our transporters are off line...!"
"Then get them back on!" the Tallest screamed. "Get them back online this instant!"
Purple was sobbing, a lurch of the ship sending him tumbling into Red. "I-I... I didn't want to be Tallest...!" he sobbed. "I just was the Tallest! The Control Brains said...!" He cut off with a squeal as a Meekrob ship flew across the view screen, clinging tighter to his partner. "They said nothing like this would happen...! I just wanted to be loved...!"
The ship swayed wildly and the two leaders were pitched to one side. "Hold us steady!" Red shrieked at the terrified pilots, putting one arm around his counterpart's shoulders. "You incompetent fools! Get the ship under control!"
"B-But Sir...!" a technician whimpered, and suddenly Red's eyes were wild.
"Questioning your Tallest?" he roared. "Are you a defective? Are you?!"
The worker cringed, crying, "N-No, my T-Tallest! Tallest Red have mercy on me!"
"No one questions the Tallest!" the irate leader screamed. "Now get this blasted hunk of junk under Irken control once more!"
"It is under Irken control."
A blast sailed past Tallest Red's antenna, fizzling into the wall as the leader froze; he tightened his grip on Purple, so much so that the other leader couldn't even squeak.
"Turn around slowly," came the soft voice. "Turn and face your end, scum."
Red stayed perfectly still, only shuffling his feet in a careful circle, rotating Purple with him. Then his eyes lit; faced with the small invader, the question was out of Purple's mouth before he could stop it.
"Who are you?"
"Prepare to face your doom, my Tallest!"
The pair of leaders spun in the other direction to see a second tiny Irken, blaster in hand, chief's hat falling into his eyes. Shaking his head to rid himself of the disguise, he cocked the other present which had been in the package.
Red's eyes were blazing, head swiveling back towards the first threat. But there was only empty space behind the leaders now, not a blaster-wielding rebel. Blinking in confusion, Red spun back.
"Zim!" he spat, trying to suppress Purple's whimpering. "You filthy little earthanoid defective!"
Zim didn't flinch. "Such high praise is indeed deserved by Zim."
Tallest and Smallest stood facing one another, each frozen. From one side, a guard approached hesitantly amid the noise of Irkens still trying to follow the last order they had been given: try to regain control of the Massive. But one defective guard acted, lunging for Zim in an attempt to defend his beloved Tallest.
The Smallest fired without hesitation, the blast frying one of Purple's antenna. The Tallest shrieked and the guard stalled, Zim suddenly in total control.
"He'll lose the other if you take one more step," the leader of the resistance said seriously, his face devoid of all emotion for once. The guard backed away, and Zim glanced curiously at him. "You're a defective; Zim can tell. Get off this ship while you can."
"I-I serve my T-Tallest..." the poor creature stammered, and Zim sighed.
"So does Zim. Zim has always served his Tallest."
"Then stop being mean to us, Zim!" Purple wailed, his remaining antenna twitching wildly.
The Smallest didn't flinch. "I'm not being mean. I'm just being Zim. For I am Zim!"
... ... ...
Dib was nearly in tears from a twisted combination of rage and worry, sitting in the cockpit of the Voot Cruiser with only a defective service drone for company. He steered the Massive carefully, now, knowing that Zim was on board; he had been trying to reestablish an audio connection since the Irken left, but only succeeded after nearly half an hour.
"Zim! Zim, get away! Stop waving that thing around!"
Red's furious voice sent chills up Dib's spine. He knew that the drone had given Zim a blaster, but hearing the leader's words made it real.
"Zim serves his Tallest, but he does not obey his Tallest," the Smallest said casually. "Now tell me! Why do you mock Zim?"
"Because you're a moron, Zim...!" Purple blubbered. "Because you can't be an invader...!"
"I'm not an invader!" the rebel snapped. "Zim is the Smallest! You will bow to the Smallest! Bow, bow this instant!"
"The Tallest, bow to the Smallest?" Red asked incredulously. "You're crazier than we thought!"
The sound of a blaster fizzled over the link and Dib winced, but both the Tallest could be heard afterwards, and the human felt relief wash through him.
"Yes, good..." Zim sounded satisfied, presumably as the Tallest went to their knees. "Now, my Tallest... you decide which of you lives."
Dib stiffened as silence crackled across the link, and he found himself holding his breath. Then came the inevitable sigh.
"Zim... spare Purple, then."
"What?" the chosen Irken gasped. "N-no, Red, you can't die...! Not... Zim! Zim, stop this! Please!"
The Smallest ignore Purple's cries. "My Tallest... you made Zim beg for the Dib-human's life. Now you beg for his life. Beg, beg now! Before Zim decides... otherwise."
"Zim..." the listening human whispered, tears coming to his eyes. "You... begged for my life...?"
"Visual link established," the computer announced. "Link is two-way. Connect?"
"Yes..." Dib breathed, and the screen flashed. There was Zim, standing straight and proud before the Tallest, who were bent double. His antennae were up, swiveling, and the blaster in his hand was pointed straight at Purple's trembling form; the Tallest was already missing one antennae. Red was staring at the Defective with hate-filled eyes, and the workers were still swarming about, mindlessly following their last received order.
Or perhaps they were simply allowing things to play out.
"Now grovel!" Zim commanded, flicking the blaster. "Or I'll kill him now!"
Red ground his teeth, but nevertheless pressed his forehead to the ground. "Please... Zim..."
"Almighty... Smallest," Zim corrected, striking a pose. As he did so he caught sight of Dib, watching rapt through the main screen, but didn't react to the audience.
"Almighty... Smallest," Red began again. "Please... spare Purple. He may not be a Defective, but he won't be any trouble, not like me."
Zim made small circles with his free hand. "Yes? And...?"
A shudder passed through the Tallest's body as his counterpart watched in reverent silence. "Please... Almighty Smallest... have mercy. I give you my life... I give you everything, just... please spare him. He's a child. Just a... smeet. He won't be any trouble. Almighty Smallest..." His voice dropped suddenly, head drooping. "Please, Zim. Please."
The Defective was silent, then twirled his blaster. "Very well. Zim promised to give up being an Invader; Zim gave his whole life. So you've been... adequate."
Red made to rise, but noting his head was in the crosshairs made him stop. "Zim...?"
"Now..." the Smallest mused, scratching one antennae casually. "My Tallest spared the Dib... but how did they return him to Zim? Let's see... ah yes." He laughed for a moment, seeming to all but dissolve into a fit of dark giggling, then abruptly sobered.
"Damaged."
The blaster sang and Dib, hitting upon it an instant too late, flung himself against the screen.
"Zim, no!"
Purple screamed wordlessly as the blast struck his PAK in a shower of metal and wires, and Red lurched forward uselessly; Zim was laughing again, a twinge of insanity shallowly embedded in the sound, and he positioned the weapon again, firing thoughtlessly and shooting down several borderline defectives who made to help their beloved Tallest.
"Wh... Pur... Zim, what is this?" Red asked in a frail voice. "I did... I..."
"I've returned him to you," the invader said slyly, "but not intact. Damaged; just like my Dib-human. Now... you gave Zim your life...?"
"Zim, stop!" Dib wailed over the screen, but again went unheard. In desperation as Zim leveled the blaster, he jerked the Massive's controls and sent the ship spinning. The Smallest was pitched forward, slipping in a patch of blood and colliding with the softly keening Purple. Shoving himself away from the Tallest, he spun towards the monitor.
"Why does the Dib interfere?!" he demanded, and Dib bit his lip.
"... It's enough, Zim," he said finally. "Zim, it's enough. Don't... don't be like them, Zim, please."
Zim ground his teeth, lips drawn back. "You foolish, blind pig-smelly! You have no idea-!"
"Zim, you need to get off that ship, regardless!" Dib snapped, leaning forward. "We're almost to Irk! You need to get off that ship!"
"Run? Never!" the Irken shrieked. "Zim will-!"
The Massive lurched sickeningly, cutting Zim off. As the Smallest went tumbling Dib squealed, "That wasn't me!" The ship swung wildly, sending Zim and a dozen Irken pilots slamming into the wall. Fire blazed across the main window as alarms began to blare, the human's frantic voice blending with the sirens.
"Zim, you've entered Irk's atmosphere! I can't control this ship, Zim! I've lost control of the ship! Zim! Zim!"
The Smallest staggered to his feet, clinging to a nearby, freestanding console for support. Then he saw Red, standing with Purple in his arms, the disabled Tallest's PAK plugged into the computer itself; a grin was painted sloppily across Red's tear-stained face.
"An Irken PAK-" he said softly, "the most powerful peice of technology in all the galaxies."
The ship lurched again, heat rippling through the air. Dib was panicking, hands flying across keyboards and screens. "I can't... Zim, something's blocked me out! The temperature controls are gone! Zim, can you get off the ship?! Zim?!"
A crack rippled up the screen, splitting the human's frantic face in half. Irkens were screaming now, bashed against the ship's walls and burned on the hull; a few we're already dead. The Smallest felt raw fear fill him, and suddenly he was desperate to hear his human's voice.
"How is the battle going?" he asked abruptly, his eyes still fixed in Red, his ears closed to everything save for Dib's voice. And instantly his better half understood.
"It's going well!" he answered in a rush. "We're winning, Zim! Th-the Meekrob are here and... jeez, these guys are scary-powerful! Zim, the Defectives... we haven't had one fatality yet...! Zim, they're... cheering for you, Almighty Smallest! All the rebels... we're cheering for you...!"
"Tell Zim more," the defective said, his voice strained as the Massive bucked.
"I'm... Zim, we're going to do it...! It's going to work...!" Dib said; promised. "Skoodge is... reporting that the armada is on the run! We'll... when this is over, we'll...!" The human's voice broke abruptly, tears streaming down his face. "I love you, Zim! This is all-!"
"Don't!" Zim wailed; begged. "Tell Zim how we're going to win! Then what, Dib-thing? Then what, Dib?"
Irkens were dying as Dib composed himself, their screaming breaking through Zim's carefully constructed shield. Tallest Red never moved, not once, and the Smallest kept unseeing eyes fixed on him.
"... It'll be glorious," the human answered finally, his voice steady. "Zim... you'll live forever."
The screen fizzled, sparking and then going dark, the ship's dying circuits finally giving out. Zim's senses remained blurred by his own choice; he saw only hazy shapes and motion; heard only white noise and the echo of Dib's words.
The Massive was starting to break apart; Purple's breath was hitching and slowing ominously. Still Red kept his eyes fixed on Zim, and Zim likewise kept his eyes fixed on Red. With Dib gone, the Tallest was the only real thing the tiny defective had left.
The grate of metal on metal split the air as the hull began to cleave apart, and the screaming dropped in volume tellingly. Wind rushed in around the two enemies, but neither paid it any heed. Only Purple showed any sign of responsiveness, raising his head weakly as if toward the fresh air of his planet.
"It's over, Zim."
"For you as well."
A chunk of metal splintered up, cutting the Tallest and the Smallest off from one another at last. The console that anchored Zim to reality lurched, it's base cracking and detaching; he paid it no heed, simply accepted it as fact. There were no tears in his eyes, no final words on his lips; it was over, and that was all. He was to die, and that was all.
So he closed his eyes and thought of his Dib.
"Need a hand, you sorry excuse for an Irken invader?"
"Tak!" Zim's eyes flashed open, the name out of his mouth before he even registered it, and suddenly he felt his antenna grabbed roughly. He was lifted from the ground, wailing indignantly as he was hauled up and into the cockpit of a ship- a modified Spittle-Runner. His antenna were held painfully for another instant, then he felt himself thrust away to collide with a control panel.
"Hold on!" came the hard-as-nails British voice. The ship swerved wildly, explosions echoing around them and debris bouncing off the metal hull with a sound like earth hail. "This'll get rougher than you're used to!"
"Zim!"
Red's voice was both unexpected and terrifying; Zim leapt to his feet, only to be unbalanced and slam into Tak, who shoved him away with a snarl of, "Tryin' to fly, 'ere!"
The rebel commander landed awkwardly against the rear window of the Runner, looking back to see the bloodied Tallest in pursuit. Something volatile bubbled up inside him and he reached for the hatch, shouting, "I have to finish him!"
"Oh no you don't!" Tak snapped, reaching back casually and grabbing his shirt, hauling him toward her until their hips cracked painfully into one another's. "I just went through the trouble of saving your sorry arse again; you won't be committing suicide on my watch!"
Zim writhed, eyes locked on Red. "Let me go! You shall not stop Zim! Nothing can stop Zim!"
"You'll only destroy yourself!" the she-Irken screamed, then looked away. "Not after all my work to keep your sorry arse intact."
The Spittle Runner was wrenched into a sudden spin and Tak grit her teeth, trying in vain to control their wild flight. Zim, thrown to the side, crashed into the hatch; the collision forced the door open abruptly, and the Smallest found himself dangling amid the wreckage of the Massive. Finding himself there so suddenly stole his ambitions to finish Red, and he scrabbled desperately in an attempt to climb back up into the Spittle Runner.
"T-Tak...!" he gasped. "I've seen smeets who could fly better!"
"J-Just hang on!" the female Irken spluttered. "We need to get free of this wreck of a ship!"
But that was easier said than done, and they had simply run out of time. What was left of the Massive hit the dusty surface of Irk with a jarring crash, rolling over and over and tumbling across the empty expanse of rock and soil. Tak shrieked as she and Zim were wrenched apart, though she chose to cling to her ship rather than follow him. The Smallest was tossed about as if caught in a hurricane, dashed against computers and dead bodies. Then he was thrown free of the wreckage altogether, bouncing painfully across the ground and at last sliding to a halt amid a cloud of dust. Staggering to his feet, he turned to look back at the Massive.
Nothing recognizable remained of the great ship; all that was left was twisted, creaking metal and bodies- so many bodies that they spilled out onto the surface of the murdered planet. Zim shivered, clutching his shoulders, trying to block out the images of agony and death flashing before his eyes.
And then the shape appeared, shuffling in a half-dead manner from within the remains of the Massive. Zim didn't move as he approached; he couldn't move. And so the gap between them closed, and kept closing until barely an earth-foot separated them.
"He's dead, Zim," the Tallest rasped, his PAK sparking for some unexplained reason. "Is that what you wanted? You wanted me to see him die? You wanted me to hold him as his breath stopped?"
Zim winced but didn't reply, looking down. Red brought his face closer, leaning almost double.
"Listen to me, Zim," he said softly, in that authoritative tone he had always used to address the wayward little invader. "It doesn't matter what title you carry; it doesn't matter what others think. You… will always be… an incompetent, vindictive, selfish creature. You aren't worthy to be called Irken, Zim. You'll never know what sacrifice is; you'll never comprehend the sacrifices I made to keep Purple and our civilization alive.
"Because you're still just a defective little smeet."
And then the Tallest folded in on himself, his PAK fizzling as he hit the ground, dead; as dead as Purple.
Zim stared, numb, and then slowly began to back up. Hands out, he backed away from the Tallest's body, shaking his head deliberately.
"No… no, Zim didn't do this… and Zim… no, Zim is Irken… Zim is an invader…!"
Selfish…
Vindictive…
Incompetent…
Smeet.
"No!" the Smallest screamed, clutching his head as if hoping to keep it intact. "No, no, nooo! This isn't happening, this isn't happening!"
Falling to his knees without so much as noticing, Zim tried in vain to catch his breath. But no matter how much he clutched at himself, he still felt as though his body was being torn apart by a thousand claws.
"Class…!" he gasped out, grinding his forehead into the soil of his home planet. "I'm still in Ms. Bitter's class…! I've… fallen asleep! Yes, Zim has fallen asleep! Ha! The Dib will wake him up and…! Dib! Dib, wake Zim up, please! Please!"
But no one answered the little invader, for he had only a corpse beside him. And so he cried there alone, wailing for any relief- any escape from the horrible, perverted nightmare-world he had found himself in.
"I am Zim…!" he choked, mud- a combination of his tears and his own crumbling planet –working its way into every part of his being, blinding his eyes and clotting between his grasping fingers.
And he went unheard, completely alone; just a malfunctioning Irken invader cut off from all he held to be fact.
(A/N) Well, that was a ride, hmm? Anybody else wonder why Tak hadn't appeared yet? Because I had plans. ;P
The next chapter is called "Delving into You." Please review for a hint! Reviews always make my day. :3
I'm going to crawl back into bed now...
