"Smeet, you answer to me and I DEMAND you go back to skool. Now come on," Zim hissed as he pulled as hard as he could on Vax's ankles.
"No," Vax cried out. "I don't like cold feeling in my stomach that teacher lady gives me. I want to stay with you, Master Zim."
"I don't CARE smeet!" Zim yelled. "You are to obey what I tell you, now obey!"
Vax was about to start yelling again when she felt Zim's grip around her ankles go slack. She pulled herself up against the door frame and looked behind her to see Zim on the sidewalk with his arms wrapped around his middle. "Master Zim?" she asked in a small voice, wondering why he let go.
"It's… nothing, smeet," Zim hissed. "Let's go. You are to go to skool like a good filthy worm beast should. Then after I take over the world you won't have to see the bad TEACHER fool any more."
Vax walked over to where Zim was and put a small hand on his shoulder. "Is that normal behavior of filthy worm beasts?" she asked. "Are you trying to fit in?"
Zim looked up at her and grinned, happy that she was paying such close attention to what she needed to do. "No, smeet. It's nothing. Now," he announced as he stood up with gusto. "Let's go forth and CONQUER the filthy huuuuuuuu-mans with their own pathetic educational system of DOOM!"
Vax nodded and took Zim's hand as they walked away from their house. She began to notice that she reached for his hand because she felt comfortable being in contact with another living creature, not because it was a good way to blend in. She knew she couldn't get away with being close to Zim unless she gave a technical reason for it but she also was beginning to discover that she was pretty good at coming up with technical reasons for doing things. It may be slightly dishonest to act that way but it seemed that Zim encouraged a little bit of deviancy in her, so it was okay in her mind.
She looked up at the Irken she called master and began to wonder what she felt about him. The concept of feeling was such an alien one to her but she realized that unless she had something to feel 'good' about she was going to loose her mind in the hell that her master called skool. She felt that she liked Zim, and was happy to be able to call him master even though he seemed a bit odd when placed against what she knew of the Irken society from her Pak files. He was loud, boisterous and emotional about a few things at least while her data told her that a normal Irken was quiet, unnoticed and took orders. She silently wondered what she was supposed to be.
She decided that she did indeed like Zim and would model herself after him since that's what seemed to make him happiest. She would do whatever she could for him and be as good of a helper as she could be so she could help take over the planet that he deemed as filthy and worm infested. She looked up at him and nodded, feeling a warm sensation in her squeedly spooch and firmly decided that this was the way she wanted to feel all the time. "Master Zim?" she asked.
"Yes smeet?" Zim replied, a little breathlessly.
"You said yesterday that if I don't like the scary teacher lady I should fight back. Is that all right?" Vax asked.
Zim looked down at Vax and saw a look of determination about her. He grinned and nodded. "Yes, smeet, you can. Just make sure that no one discovers that you are an Irken, and try not to get caught."
"Yes, master Zim," Vax replied quietly.
Zim pulled her along, past his skool and into hers. The scary looking teacher from the day before once again confronted them and they both exchanged small glances before Zim pushed Vax forward and laughed nervously before backing out of the classroom. Vax turned to see Zim rubbing his shoulder and giving Vax a nod before walking quickly down the hall. Vax nodded back and took her seat, sitting innocently in front of the scary teacher lady.
The woman began to pace in front of them, back and forth before she shut the door with a click and turned to the class of first graders. "Well, class, I see that you've all returned for another day of learning. So, you're all going to sit there and listen quietly while I teach you, understand? One PEEP and you will all stay inside during recess."
"Yes, ma'am," the class whispered back, obediently.
Vax gazed blankly at the woman as she began to read to them out loud in a horrible screeching voice from a dog eared story book that should have been thrown out at least a decade earlier. She thought long and hard, wondering what she could do to keep the cold feeling from her squeedly spooch without getting caught. She would do anything to keep the feeling away but she also knew she couldn't let down her master. He had given her orders and she was going to follow them through, just as a good Irken should.
"Brat 1!" the woman yelled, pointing to a small tubby boy in a stained yellow shirt. The boy squeaked in fear and looked back at the teacher, his eyes growing large in fear. "Tell me the entire alphabet without stuttering."
The boy stood up and took in a deep breath. "A, B, C, D, E…" he began very quickly and went through the entire alphabet in one breath in order to keep himself from giving away his fear.
The woman smiled a fake, plastic smile and nodded. "Good," she said sweetly. "Now SIT!" she snapped.
The boy jumped into his seat and clung to the desk's top like his life depended on it, still shaking like a leaf in autumn.
The spiteful woman then turned to Vax and smiled, bringing the tips of her fingers together in front of her face, giving her a slightly demonic look. "Brat 27," she cooed. "What is four plus three?"
"Seven," Vax replied, not missing a beat.
The woman looked slightly upset that Vax wasn't intimidated by the mere sound of her voice but she let it slide. "Well done," she murmured.
"Thank you very much," Vax replied politely, still thinking about what she could do to get back at the mean teacher lady.
As the class continued, Vax got an inspired idea and glanced up at the woman to see if she was looking at her. The woman was terrorizing another child and had completely lost interest in Vax, which was perfect for the small smeet.
Vax got up and to the astonishment of her peers, marched up to the front of the class and took one of the erasers off the board and dropped it on the floor. It fell to the ground with a dull thunk.
The woman heard this and straightened up, turning only slightly to see the pattern of dust spread out over her floor. All the children stared at it wide eyed and then looked at the woman in front of them. "Who?" she asked quietly. "Who did this?"
All the children stared straight ahead, hardly daring to believe that there was someone among them who was brave or stupid enough to go up against the adult. As scared as they were, it was against child code to tattle on a fellow classmate.
"You have ten seconds to give yourself up before I get really mad," the woman said in a sweet voice. "One, two…"
Vax merely stared straight ahead, ready to take whatever came her way. Master Zim was right, if she was going to be of use, she had to fight back. And fight she would.
Zim shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he attempted to at least pretend he was paying attention in class. He knew that he needed to put on a good farce in order to get the humans to give away their secrets and this sometimes required more effort then screaming 'I'm normal' every few seconds.
Of course screaming didn't hurt his cause; it caused the worm brats around him to smile and walk away, which to Zim's knowledge was what humans did when they wanted to acknowledge someone. It was a big success in his book because he always got the same reaction, which meant that all the filthy humans accepted him. Little did they know.
"ZIM!" he heard someone yell loudly. His happy day dream of leaving the planet in ruins dissipated as he looked up at Miss Bitters who was growling at him. "I will not have any happiness in my classroom. Was your dream good? Did you get enough sleep last night?"
"Well…" Zim started slowly.
"Because I hope you didn't. You're here to be miserable and unhappy not off in some dream land. Now pay attention or I'll do something really HORRIBLE," she yelled, leaning over Zim and looking as menacing as she possibly could.
Dib looked at Zim who seemed merely apathetic at Miss Bitter's rant. Dib frowned and cocked his head to one side. Any child with brains would be terrified of Miss Bitters, even Zim. Yet there he was looking almost bored in her presence.
Zim was a little intimidated by the teacher. She was certainly one of the few things on the planet Earth that he could honestly say he was slightly fearful of, if only because he had never seen a human that could ooze around a classroom the way she did. Not that it mattered, because when the time came he was going to destroy it all.
The only problem was that it was getting harder and harder to respond to anything that happened to him. First it was just feeling numb, or perhaps not acting quite like himself but now it was hard to even move or keep his mind on the task at hand. Then again paying attention in skool was never something he particularly enjoyed doing.
He wanted to go home, see if there was anything he could do. Someway he could get his hands on the reboot disk he so desperately needed. The only problem was getting out of skool before the bell rang. He saw what happened to kids who tried to sneak out of skool. It always ended badly and painfully for whatever pathetic fool tried to escape.
Zim waited it out, almost breathing a sigh of relief when the final bell was heard. He sunk back into his chair and waited for the rest of the students to run out of the door, jump out of the windows and climb into the air ducts in their bid for freedom. He did not wish for the pathetic worms of the planet to see his one moment of weakness right before he would take over the planet.
After he heard the door close he braced himself against the desk and pushed himself out, slowly and slightly painfully. With a sigh he grabbed the top of the chair and leaned against it, waiting for his Pak to right its programming.
"What's wrong, space boy?" he heard behind him.
Zim narrowed his eyes even though Dib was behind him and hissed angrily. "Dib-smell," he muttered.
"Awwww, does your alien scum bag body hurt? Did you pull something while trying to create a doomsday weapon to destroy the earth?" Dib asked cheekily.
"As a matter of fact…" Zim began slowly, trying to think up an excuse to buy him some time.
"Both you little brats get out of my classroom before I kick you out myself!" Miss Bitters barked before Zim could continue.
Dib sighed, upset that their crabby teacher had ruined the dramatic moment. "We'll deal with this later, Zim," Dib hissed as he brushed past Zim.
"I'd be happy to destroy your filthy large head of stupidness," Zim shot back.
Dib rolled his eyes and left the classroom. Only after Dib was gone did Zim start the painful trek to the elementary skool by himself.
Zim walked out of the elementary skool with a slightly bouncy Vax clinging to his hand. "So, I fought back today as you ordered, Master Zim," Vax said.
"Oh? Good work smeet," Zim sighed as he pulled the young Irken towards his base.
"I did little things, like break her chalk and drop erasers but it made her really mad," Vax continued. "Can I take some of the goo that Gir makes every night to skool tomorrow? I have a good idea."
"Sure smeet," Zim said.
"Thank you master Zim," Vax said sweetly.
"No problem smee… When did you get so," Zim searched for the right word, "Devious."
"You ordered me to, Master Zim," Vax explained.
"I did," Zim sighed, trying to keep his thoughts in order. "Oh."
"Master Zim, are you all right?" Vax asked. "You don't seem as evil as you usually do."
Zim opened the door to his base and took a few steps inside. "I…" he said slowly. "Pak malfunction."
"Malfunction?" Vax asked as she searched for the word in her vocabulary. "Master Zim…" she began and squeaked as she tried to catch Zim as he fell to the floor. "Master Zim? Master Zim!" she yelled, feeling an icy knot in her chest. "I don't understand… Master Zim," she shook her head, trying to will away the feeling. "Please wake up, Master Zim."
Here we go, next bit. Zim is kinda OOC but I figured he has a pretty good reason to be. Vax is getting more and more easy to write now that she has a personality XD thank god. It will continue to evolve as time goes on.
Zim is fine, he'll live but after he's saved he'll wish he was dead, heh heh. There will be no romance in this story so no pairings of any kind. Just letting you guys know. And I hope you all had a good winter break or whatever you do over this time of year. Hugs and cookies to all my reviewers and I'll see you next time.