Chapter 7: Gathering Rotting Data
"This isn't safe Zim! Gir could see us!" Dib shouted as they ran down the sidewalk after the comet. His words right now meant nothing to Zim, and he was left ignored. Zim didn't want to think about Gir right now, so he won't. But he also didn't want to think what would happen if that, that rock ship thing hit his house. That one he couldn't help himself from thinking about. It didn't help when the rock shredded his roof and crashed behind the house.
"AUGH! Noooo!" Zim wept as he ran into his house to cry about it. Dib decided to run around the house and over the back fence to see the thing that caused the damage. When it was in sight, Dib stopped running and treaded carefully, not wanting to startle whatever it was. Just in case it was alive. When you are Dib, you can't be too careful.
As he crept closer, the rocks began to fall off, revealing a very steamy, damaged ship. Moving himself to the part that looked like the front, Dib set himself up for the stupid record and touched the ship with his finger.
"Ah!" he quickly placed his finger inside his mouth to warm it up. 'Why is it so cold? It entered our atmosphere with a forty degree angle and at that speed...' The sound of cracking glass caught Dib's attention as he looked back up at the ship. Whoever was in it was still alive and it wanted out! Dib jumped side to side, unsure what to do with himself. 'I want to see what it is, but what if it isn't friendly? It could be a friend and help me against Zim! But it could also-'
He wasn't given time to make up his mind. The shell of glass was chipped off and shoved onto the grass, causing it to freeze so fast more steam rose. Which still didn't make any sense in itself. Dib, backing away, saw a short round thing rise from it's ship. As it seemed to stretch, it slipped and fell onto the ground to join the rest of the world.
"Ow!" it squeaked.
"Um, are you okay?" Dib decided to take the chance to get friendly with it. But as he walked over as the steamed dissipated, his hopes were diminished as it picked itself up and dusted off it's robes,
"Greetings! I'm Invader Skoodge!" it saluted, "Do you know an Invader Zim? He's short, green, red eyes and has a really bad temper?"
"Oh yea." said Dib.
Now in a not so dark foreboding place...
He was searching for something. Something... sweet. It wasn't ketchup, he found that awhile ago. It was something that completed him. It just fit, like that hat he remembered. He never wore a hat before, but he had someone's memory of a nice black one. Sensing another Irken, Red commanded his spider legs to take him to the ceiling. He watched as another PAK-less Irken walked on by and into another hallway. As Red decided it would be faster to just keep traveling from above, knew he was in several levels of trouble.
One, someone who claims to be Zim but acting a lot more cooler than the Zim he knew, has taken over everything he owns and is now taking over Impending Doom Two. He didn't like the idea of his mentor, Lady Miyuki's last contribution to the Irken Empire, The Massive being so easily taken over by enemy hands. But what could he do? He didn't understand why he was caring this much, he was doing so well not to-
Two, the enemy has found him useless and his useless partner useful. Forced to be comedy when wanted and trapped in a jail when undesired. He's escaped but were can he go? What can he do? Why didn't Purple come see him? Was he not able to was he not-
Three, he hasn't himself. Himself would never kill in that manner and his taste in clothes were normally so vibrant. He liked black, but not as much as he was liking it now... Somehow, that idiot of a prison guard screwed with his PAK. It couldn't just be the electric shock therapy tweaking with his mind, or else it would be minor changes. But he has memories, memories that feel so, so cold and fun. He remembered that fake Zim talking about how they must not willfully harm anyone here, as they didn't know how it could affect them. 'But it only affected them by death,' Red took a look at his hands for the first time since the incident. They were pale, sickly pale. Like in those memories that were not his. The spider legs stopped moving.
'Am I dead?'
He couldn't be, PAKs weren't designed to command dead bodies. You can't command something that had nothing to live for, the Empire tried many times and the tests kept coming back as failures. It just can't be done.
'They are from the alternate universe. What if I can't die, because my alternate self hasn't either?' It was a wild guess, but it was the only thing that he came up with that made sense, 'Either way, these memories must be from my alternate self.'
The thought of not dying sounded really cool to Red.
'But that still didn't account for the bloke I took out earlier, he still died.'
There was no accounting for the guard's alternate self's state of living but as another PAK-less Irken walked by, he decided to test his theory. The spider legs releasing their grip on the walls, Red dropped down in front of the stranger. Not a warrior, this Irken jumped back frightened. Red, who was raised were all Irkens were at least on one level of soldierly did not recognize the potential culture difference.
"Hello." Red recalled the tone he was using was the one in the jail room. 'The alternate me seems to like killing more than me.' it amused him, but he wasn't sure if it really was him who was amused. The smaller Irken stayed quiet, wrapping itself into a tight ball as if it was the only way it could defend itself. Readying his top right spider leg for a jab, a word came to him.
"...sword."
The littler guy loosened and his antennae perked up, "Uh, sword?"
He only knew what swords were because of the conquering of the lesser planets, but the one that was glowing bright in his mind, hardly seemed primitive. It did have a supernatural aura encasing it, but the powers Red was seeing was nothing to scoff at.
"Our, our only sword is in the historical mu-museum 089 level of-of the Leviathan..."
'So did my alternate self die or retire?'
"The Leviathan, eh?" the spider leg jammed itself right between the Irken's frightened small red eyes before climbing to the ceiling again. "It shouldn't be too hard to break in."
Back on Earth...
"Hey Zim," Dib walked into the still open door of Zim's base. But to feel less intrusive, he knocked on the wall, "do you know anyone by the name of Skoodge?"
"Why are you here Dib?" Zim glared at him through teary eyes, "Don't you see I'm grieving?"
"Zim!" Skoodge wedged himself between the two, "I've got to warn you about something! It's really bad!"
"Skoodge?" Zim fiercely rubbed at his eyes, "Why are you here?" another large sound came from overhead, but Dib figured it was a passing airplane.
"To warn you about something really bad!" when the sound stopped over Zim's house, Dib figured it was not, in any shape or form an airplane.
"Everyone thinks you're responsible for what happened to the Massive! I got to get you out of here!"
"Sir," interrupted the computer, "there are is a large number of unregistered voters entering the premises. Shall I dispose of them?"
"I'm famous?" was all what Zim could register. Dib was about to take a look outside the window to see what Zim's computer was talking about, but the answer was already walking through the door.
"Alright Zim, time to meet..." Slacks readied his gun before dropping it, "you know? I've got nothing."
"Your maker?" Zee added.
"We don't believe in that stuff, so it would not mean anything to him." Tim shrugged.
"I've got it," Invader El stepped forward from the group, "Zim, you are worthless."
"Nonsense!" Zim waved it off.
"Never mind, I've got nothing." El stepped back into the crowd.
Not on Earth...
"Commander, I found another body!" the reporter interrupted by bursting open the doors into the security meeting, "and I've got terrible news!" The Irkens and Vortians stared blankly back at the messenger.
"I'm assuming from shock and distress you said that out of order." the Irken sitting in the nicest chair said narrowing his purple eyes.
"I-" the Irken paused, then gasped as realization came over him, "Oh my! I'm so sorry sirs!" he threw himself in a bowing position.
"Get up," a smaller green eyed Vortian helped him back to his feet, "don't punish yourself too badly, the affects of this universe is making all of us sound a little weird."
"Th-thank you..." the Irken sniffed. Somehow.
"Who was it this time?" some tall dude asked.
"It was... it was the Flight Leader's oldest son Skoodge!"
"What?"
"No!"
"So much potential wasted..."
"Coming here was a bad idea! I don't care that our lord is searching for our lost lady, this is too dangerous!"
"We should evacuate this place immediately!"
"SHUT UUUP!" the leader slammed his fist down on the table, causing it to rock. "Ahem, excuse me." he added meekly, "but we have no idea how to get back. We came through what seemed to be a creature made out of pure energy. We've sent scouts to search and find another one like it, but I've been told we haven't found one yet."
"So, are we stuck?"
"For now." Concerned looks were shared around the room, along with a few homesick.
"What do you suggest we do now, Tak?" the small Vortian asked. The named Irken rose from his seat and placed his hands on the table,
"I think it's best that we won't tell Tallest Zim anything of this."
"What?"
"You sure?"
"Really?"
"He is so close to his- OUR goal," Tak clenched his fist, "he can't be distracted by this. She was important to all of us. Light years of people grieved her passing on that horrible day. By the way, in our universe, we are the best trained combined force ever seen! When we took over this piece of junk, it was a joke." he hissed as he pulled out his slim gray gun, "Don't tell me we are being outdone by a guy who led nincompoops!"
Meanwhile, not so organized...
"No, no my fellow invaders!" Skoodge waved his hands, "He must mean another Zim!"
"Skoodge," Invader Larb replied with boredom, "Just as every code in our PAKs are unique, so is our name. The only exception to this is when an Irken dies and the name is free to assign to another smeet. In our population of trillions upon trillions, this is why we all have stupid names." Other Invaders nod their heads in agreement.
"Well, that's just stupid!" Zim scoffed. It only seemed to assure him and Skoodge.
"Ha! You're doomed now Zim!" Dib cheered from way in the back.
"And in the honor of our Tallest, we will take over this planet." Skoo smiled.
Dib was downcast.
Meanwhile, not so downcast...
"We are at maximum range." The navigational commander spoke, "Shall I prepare a shuttle f-"
"Yes!" Tallest Zim leapt from the chair, "Xavicdal, take over for me!"
"Very good sir," the Vortian said a little meekly as he awkwardly sat in the chair that was much too big for him.
He felt he was walking on air as he exited the room. Which was stupid of course, it was just a figure of speech. But the feeling could not be killed. 'She could be there again, looking to the sky for answers.' Tallest Zim told himself, 'Like it never happened, and yet it did. Somewhere else, were it doesn't matter anymore.' he picked up pace, 'This time, I will do it right. This time, I know what to say.' he was racing by his own people, not apologizing for the shock and messes he caused, 'We will never fight, it will be perfect. We WILL spend forever together-'
He stopped.
'I need to calm down.' he corrected himself as he entered the docking room. He was panting from the run, but even after calming his body, his mind was still racing. It was like someone had slowed down the world, nothing was going fast enough for him. 'I need to calm down.' He repeated to himself again. Everything was in slow motion, the voices and sounds were blurred and low. Habit kept him from looking too ridiculous, as he nodded to the safety personal and waved to the gate warren when he entered the cockpit. Grasping the controls with his hands his small red ship dropped from The Massive and into space. 'I need to calm down.' he pushed the buttons on the counter top for Earth's coordinates, 'After all, she could not be there.'
Meanwhile, down there...
It was Dib's chance to ignore Zim's pleas as he walked outside and back to his house. Zim hasn't been easy, but every time he's tried to take over the world he still managed to stop him, if barely. But over thirty invaders? Dib felt so completely lost and upset he didn't here Gaz talking about the wonderful day she had without him or his father's new discovery in the labs. None of it mattered anymore. The enemy has won. He failed Earth.
Climbing onto his bed, Dib opened the window to look up at the night sky. This was probably the last time he was going to see it so clearly, and so beautifully. Dib sighed, he had dreams about fixing Tak's ship and going up there. Away from here, away from this planet that would not recognize all what he has done for it.
"Please," he whispered as he laid his head down on the windowsill, "please let this not be the end." Sadly for him and the readers, the chapter said, "I've lived long enough! Kill me!" And so I did. I plunged the knife right into it's neck. Words and data spewed from the gaping hole leaving nothing but an incomplete sent
