Author's notes/Disclaimer: A classmate died in a rafting accident a few days ago. I found out yesterday, so I'm a little depressed right now.
No character off of Invader Zim belongs to me.
Horror of the Irkens
It was silent… Spleenk had finally stopped snoring after falling off his bed. Lard Nar had heard the crash, and opened his eyes to find Miyuki staring down at him. He was lying on his back, and when he tried to move his arms to lift himself up, he realized that Miyuki was pinning him down.
Panic. His eyes widened as he turned to see that Spleenk wasn't just sleeping… he was dead. Green blood had already begun to pool beneath his body, though his eyes were closed as though he were still sleeping.
"Miyuki…" he murmured as he began struggling to free himself. It was no use… she was too strong for him. "What are you doing…?"
She grinned and leaned forwards so that her face was close to his. "You didn't really think that saving Vort was really what I wanted did you?"
"But…" his voice was weak, and she tilted her head back and laughed.
"Poor pitiful Vortian."
With a few clicks, the mechanical legs from her pak appeared.
"No Miyuki!" Lard Nar shouted as he twisted beneath her, hoping that in some way he would be able to escape her clutches. "Don't! Please!"
He let out a scream when the metal tore through his clothing and cut into his flesh. Blood dripped from his torso, and he stopped moving, knowing that it would only hurt worse if he tried to escape. He whimpered when he felt her hands on his skin. She had released his arms now that her spider legs rose above them like horrifying figures of torture, leaving her hands free… she was removing the tattered remains of his uniform.
Fearfuly, he squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head away. Her claws travelled lower. There was nothing he could do to stop her…
"Nar!"
Her voice stung. She was shaking him… that didn't make any sense.
"Wake up!"
Now it did… his eyes slowly opened, and he let out a small shriek of terror when he saw Miyuki looking down at him. Her hood had fallen off on her flight from the provision's room to his room. She had snuck in passed Fleeb and his people to eat some of the snack bars. There was nothing quite like eating snacks to remind her that she was indeed Irken, though resently she'd begun to get tired of snack bars. Why couldn't there be any dry fruit or something that was a little heathier?
This was the reason snacking hadn't worked out so well. Stupid junk food. She still had a wrapper clutched in her hand.
"You were probably having another nitemare," she told the panic stricken Vortian who stared up at her with wide frightened eyes. He was sitting there trembling, and Miyuki had no idea what to do.
"How long have you been in the room…?" he qustioned glancing quickly at Spleenk's bed. He was still asleep of course… nothing could wake him. Nar felt the front of his uniform… it was still there.
"All night…?"
"Ah… no," Miyuki admitted holding up the wrapper. "I was getting myself some snacks after trying out Fleeb's old bed… which I don't really like, but I'm not going to complain." She squinted one of her eyes as she watched him.
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing…" He said hugging his knees to his chin. There was no way he was going to be able to fall back asleep after that. He could still feel the place Miyuki's spider legs had cut into…
"I… I should probably…" Lard Nar began frowning a little. He needed to do something to keep his mind off of those graphic and painful images that kept playing through his head. Why…? He had nitemares like that before, but the Irken had always been a faceless beast. Now his mind had latched onto Miyuki… she was an Irken; his dream had taken her face.
"You should do what?" Miyuki asked backing up a little. "It's only 5.23 hours. You still have a few more hours left… I think. Is that how this sleep works?"
"I can't…" he brought coveres his face with his hands and shook his head. "I can't…"
"Do you want something to eat?"
His stomach was churning. He felt like he was going to be sick.
"No."
"Ok… How about star gazing?"
"What?"
"Star gazing. You can take the escape pod out."
"That sounds stupid…" he growled. There was no way something like that would be able to calm him.
She rolled her eyes. Proud and stubborn; it was no wonder Irk had been allied with Vort for so long.
"Fine fine, I'll go with you," she told him smoothing back her antennae. "We can discuss our next plan while we're out there, so it'll be buisness too, alright?"
An Irken that suggests star gazing…? Lard Nar could only stare. He wasn't sure what to think of this.
"Come," she beckoned, and for one reason or another he obeyed.
They walked together down the twisted passage ways; Miyuki was leading while Lard Nar followed behind her with his head down. He hadn't even bothered putting on his goggles…
At first, Miyuki was going to drive, but Lard Nar who had snapped out of his depression for the moment, insisted that he would drive the small ship. Miyuki moved over into the passanger's seat. She wasn't going to argue, not after the last time when she nearly put two holes in the wall trying to fly the stupid thing.
The cover came down over top of them, and Lard Nar switched on the power. The dash lit up and he took hold of the control stick. Only now did he fully realize what he was doing. He turned and looked at Miyuki… the Irken he was going to be alone with in space. This was her idea… what if she turned on him? There would be no one to come help him out there… he would be completely defensless.
Miyuki, on the other hand, had taken his hesitation as a sign that he had some how forgotten how to fly the vessel.
"Here, I think it's like this," she said, reaching over and pushing the control stick up. The vessel was thrown upwards and was quickly launched out of the room through the open hatch.
Luckily Lard Nar had kept a tight grip on the control stick and Miyuki was too tall to be thrown around.
"I know how to fly it!" he snapped glaring angrily out the wind shield. He bit his lip and cast a quick glance at Miyuki to see if she was angry. One of her eyes was narrowed slightly, but there was no indication that she was upset.
"I just thought you were having a memory lapse," she replied sitting back in her seat. "I wasn't trying to insult your intelligence."
There was a rift between them. Miyuki could sense it. The small Vortian kept his eyes staring straight ahead and his hand clutching the control stick firmly.
"You can let go of the controls now Nar," she said watching the painfully bright stars drift by them as he continued moving the ship forward. There was no reply, so she turned and gave him another one of her questioning looks.
"Nar? We're far enough."
Silence.
She sighed and took his hand, forcing him to release the control stick. He let out a frightened squeak and recoiled from her as the ship slowly came to a stop. She released his arm and he fell back against the wall; his heart was beating violently against his chest as air came to him in quick breaths. He had been afraid to stop, and now…
Alone with an Irken. He could only imagine what was going to happen.
Miyuki reached out, and he closed his eyes and turned his head away. Her fingers traced over his horns; they were softer than they appeared.
A sharp intake of breath was Lard Nar's reaction. His eyes blinked open seeing the face of the Irken female.
"Miyuki…?" he questioned as she gently pulled him away from the wall, closer, until he was almost touching her.
"I was thinking we should probably restore our food supply soon. There isn't much left, and I don't know about you but I'm nearly out of monies," she told him letting her antennae fall as she continued to ponder over their next course of action.
"What should we do then…?" he asked letting his head rest against her as she continued stroking his horns. There was something soothing about this action… His muscles were relaxing on their own.
"Steal of course," she replied with a smile.
"From Food Courtia…?"
"No, that would be too bold, even for us," she stated. It would be too risky getting food supplies from the planet that the Resisty's base was orbiting. No… they needed a planet off the Armada's radar.
"We need some place further away… a planet that is populated, but the Tallest don't really care about."
"How about… Earth?" Lard Nar questioned.
"Earth…? Where is that?"
"The computer can find the exact coordinates…" he told her. "It's a blue planet… it's where I lost the Vortian battle ship during our first encounter with the Armada. After that happened, I got Spleenk to do a bit of research on that planet… there was no information on it."
"How do you know we can get supplies from it then?"
"Before I was forced to activate the shrinky self-destruct, our computer's bio-scanners picked up the signatures of at least seven billion alien life forms…" he tilted his head back so that he could see her expression.
"Ahh.. I see what you mean. That planet must have supplies then for that many aliens."
"Mm."
"But stealing from an unknown planet seems kind of immoral…" Miyuki said. She sighed before leaning back in her seat. "Maybe I could talk to their leaders and figure something out."
"And if they're hostile?"
"That's why I said I would do it Nar… if they're hostile, I don't want you or the Resisty anywhere near it."
"So… I drop you off there on some strange unknown land and leave?"
She nodded. "Yes, that sounds about right."
"I won't do it."
"Why not…?"
Lard Nar almost said something, but he stopped himself and lowered his gaze. He wasn't too sure why he didn't like this idea. It seemed ok; there would be no danger for him or the Resisty but…
Miyuki chuckled. "Oohh I see. You'd be worried about me."
"No I wouldn't!" he quickly argued pulling away from her startled.
"Uh huh…"
She was going to argue with him a little more, until she caught sight of something outside.
"We better get moving if we don't want to get sucked into that black hole," she stated, calmly pointing to the swirling mass of debris that was quickly growing larger as they were pulled into it.
Lard Nar grabbed the controls and set the boosters to their maximum level of output. The small ship jerked away from the black hole's pull, but this caused Lard Nar to lose control of the vessel. Luckily he was able to regain control before they crashed into anything, and they flew back to the base in silence.
When they landed, the base was active with the awakened Resisty members. Miyuki pulled on her hood as she and Lard Nar stepped out of the vessel. Shloonktapooxis was on the computer playing some kind of shooting game with the large three headed alien.
"Hey boss! Hi Miyuki!" Shloonktapooxis greeted cheerfully without even looking away from the monitor. "Where'd you guys go?"
"Get off that thing," Lard Nar said stepping over to the computer and getting in between the Resisty members and their game.
"Aww.." the floating purple cone looking alien pouted. "We were going to win that round you know."
The large Resisty member nodded all three of his heads in agreement.
Lard Nar ignored them as he began typing in the command for the computer to find the coordinates to planet Earth. He waited for it to download the file while the two Resisty members, and now Miyuki, stood behind him and watched.
When the numbers finally appeared on the screen, Lard Nar sighed. It was further away than he expected it to be…
"Oh boy!" Shloonktapooxis exclaimed. "Are we going somewhere? Can I go this time!? Pleeeeeeeease!?"
"Settle down Shloon…" Miyuki said. "We still need to figure a few things out before we're ready to leave."
"That's easy! You guys obviously want a romantic relationship with each other," he said smiling as always.
"What!?" Lard Nar snapped, and Miyuki stared at the floating alien strangely.
"Isn't that what you had to figure out?"
"Uhh.. no," Miyuki said still staring. "I mean we have to figure out how to get there still, especially if it's further away."
An akward silence followed. It was broken by Lard Nar who cleared his throat before speaking.
"Anyway… lets get ready to depart. I'll figure out the quickest route possible, though it will probably still take us a few weeks, if we're lucky."
While Lard Nar began making preparations, Miyuki and Shloonktapooxis were given the task of telling everyone about their new destination.
"I thought for sure you liked him though," Shloonktapooxis said as he floated along beside Miyuki.
"I'm not capable of feeling that way towards members of my own race," Miyuki informed him. "Why would you think I'd be able to feel it towards anyone else?"
"Hmm…" he thought for a moment before sticking out his tongue. "I dunno. Magic?"
Miyuki chuckled and shook her head. "Remember not to call me Miyuki in front of the refugees ok?"
"Riiight! I remember that now."
The door to the provision's room opened and the rescued slaves quickly gathered around Miyuki. She was their hero, but having so many gathered around her legs made walking very difficult. Fleeb smacked himself in the forehead. That's what he'd just told them not to do.
Spleenk was sitting at one of the tables, as well as Fleeb. Gelst was at his own table with three other Resisty members, and there were two more groups sitting around talking with each other.
"Ok everybody!" Shloonktapooxis called, gathering everyone's attention. "We're going to be heading out again today, so get ready!"
Spleenk got up and headed out, and he was soon followed by the other Resisty members. Gelst hissed as he passed by Miyuki, but she didn't retaliate this time. There were too many of Fleeb's people around her for her to do that safely.
Miyuki was about to leave with them, but she was stopped when one of the refugees tugged on her cloak. They wanted her to stay for a while. They got her to sit down and they crowed around her eagerly.
"We can't thank you enough for what you've done oh wonderous savior," Smikka remarked bowing his head.
"You saved us from those horrible Irkens…"
His body was covered in bruises and large burn scars. Some of them were from the battle, but Miyuki recognized that many of the scars where older.
"I want to see all of those Irkens burn in a fiery pit for what they did to us…" Smikka growled.
Miyuki tried not to react to such a cold remark. She gripped her cloak tightly and bit her lip to stop herself from saying something that would blow her cover.
"What about you?" one of the others asked. "How did you end up here…?"
"Did those monsters destroy your home planet too?"
"No," Miyuki replied, trying to make her voice sound raspy and less feminine, though she wasn't sure how well it was going to work.
"The shift of balance in the universe caused by these Irkens… I can't allow it."
"So you're going to kill them all dead right?" a smaller refugee asked.
"And become the same kind of monster as them!?" Miyuki roared standing from her chair, and this caused Fleeb's people to cower fearfully from her. She cleared her throat and sat back down.
"I will do no such thing… What I plan to do is capture their leaders… these "Tallest" as they're called. I will give them a chance to redeem themselves."
"What!?" Smikka shouted. "After everything they've done!? You obviously don't know what it's like to be a slave for the Irken Machine!"
"No I don't" Miyuki admitted leaning forward so that her haunting purple eyes stared into the eyes of the smaller alien.
"What they have done is terrible, and I don't plan to forgive them so easily… they will need to renounce their title as Tallest and be banished far away from their home planet," she sat back up and rolled her shoulders. "If they refuse my generous purposal, then I will destroy them!" She slammed her fist down on the table, causing a few of the closer refugees to jump.
"But I'm getting ahead of myself. We are no where near defeating the Armada or capturing these Tallest."
She left Fleeb's people who stood in stunned silence. They had expected their savior to hate the Irkens as much as they did, but he didn't! Zastra didn't seem to have any personal grudges against the Tallest or the invaders at all.
More notes: Ah… romance and angst. Perfect. The crew is starting to notice too. The next chapter will have mainstream characters, like Dib, and Gir. Sorry if their appearance is a little weird, but I wrote this story out months ago, and that's what ended up happening.
