Good Fortune

Chapter 9 – The Balance Beam

They slowly got up and they walked to the door on the other side of the balcony that was marked 'Exit'. They went through it and closed the door behind them. The next room simply stared at them with non-existent eyes and the group simply stared back. They were prepared for the imminent torture to ensue.

"This looks… simple," Purple said as he approached the trap. When looking at it for the first time, the entire group definitely agreed with Purple. But in the back of their minds, they knew that nothing had been simple up to that point.

Dib looked around and got a basic idea of how the room was laid-out. There was the entrance, the exit, and a giant hole separating them. That was basically typical at that point. The only thing that was connecting them were two incredibly thin balance beams that were side-by-side. "Yeah, it's simple if you have decent balance. It would be difficult for someone as tall as you."

"If I had my PAK legs, this would be no problem," Purple said. He urged them to come out, as if he expected them to miraculously appear, but there was nothing. He sighed. "You know, I find it surprising that whoever did this managed to get rid of all of the technology in our PAKs except for the things that kept us alive."

"You know, I never thought of that," Zim said. "Isn't that kind of thing incredibly difficult? We would've been most certainly destroyed by now."

"Are PAKs really that complicated?" Dib asked.

"Do you really want to waste your time discussing it?" Purple asked. "It's not like it's important. We're trying to move forward."

"Actually, it's not wasting our time. Wouldn't you want to know who captured us?"

"Yes, but what's your point?" Purple asked. "What does this have to do with our PAKs?"

"Well, who would be smart enough to perfectly dissect a PAK without removing any of the vital technology that keeps you irkens alive?" Dib asked. "They're clearly skilled at it, too. They managed to do it five times without affecting any of you. Unless… one of you is lying to us and CAN actually use your PAK technology."

"Now's not the time to get edgy with us, kid. The last thing we need is for you to get paranoid."

"I'm not paranoid!" Dib exclaimed.

"Calm down, Dib," Zim said. "Yeesh. Why do you have to yell all of the time?"

Dib debated whether or not to find Zim saying that amusing or frustrating, so he decided to just ignore it altogether. "Never mind. The point is, we need to be skeptical of everything at this point. We're down to the last four, and if this trap is going to follow any of the patterns as the previous traps, then we'll be down to the last three in a minute here."

"Gee, Dib," Purple said, crossing his arms. "You're just definitely the voice of optimism today."

"Would you just shut up?" Gaz asked, chiming into the conversation. "I don't see you coming up with any good ideas, so I wouldn't be talking."

"Oh, yeah?" Purple asked. "What about you, miss emotionless? Do you have anything special to say or are you just going it bury it deep down with your emotions. I'm putting my money on the second… if I had any."

Gaz approached Purple. She had many things that she wanted to say to the irken leader. She wanted to make him feel scared that he had ever provoked her. She wanted to grab him by his uniform and throw him down the pit without a second thought, making him the next victim instead of anyone else. She wanted to make him suffer like she did with Iggins after he took her Game Slave 2.

Though, Gaz did none of those things. Instead, she simply went past him and went through the door that they all came in.

Dib gasped, wondering what Gaz was about to do. He looked up at Purple and glared at him. "See what you do? You irkens are all the same."

"Hey, she started it!" Purple yelled as Dib ran after his sister.

When Dib opened the door and closed it behind him, he saw Gaz walking to the door to the balcony. He ran after her, making sure that there wasn't a trap behind that door. Though, he was too late when Gaz got there and opened it.

Though, neither of them got what they expected. When she opened the door, the balcony was entirely destroyed. There were scorch marks on the edges, indicating that the whole thing was set on fire or was set to explode. It was clear that whoever threw them in there didn't want them coming back the way they came. Dib figured that it was the same for all of the other rooms.

That didn't stop Gaz, though. One of the beams was still perfectly intact and it led to the other door. She placed her foot on it and threw on her entire weight to test it out. Since she was light, it managed to keep her stable fairly well.

"Gaz, what are you doing?! Are you crazy?!" Dib exclaimed.

"I've seen you do crazier things," Gaz said as she shimmied along the beam, using some of the broken boards as a way to keep her balance. Her hands were delicate enough to keep the boards from snapping under her grip. "Do you want to see Dad one more time or not?" She didn't allow him to finish the question as she continued along the beam.

Dib sighed. 'So this was about Dad…' He admitted that he really wanted to see his father one more time before he either died or left this place forever. But… the problem was, his father was dead. He simply would be staring at a dead, lifeless body of someone who was once a part of the little family that he had. He didn't think he would be able to take the torture of going through that. "G-gaz, come back here. We need to keep moving forward. I bet Zim and Purple are going ahead without us and we need them."

"What did you just say?" Gaz asked in a stern tone. Dib recognized the tone and he didn't like it. He knew that he was in for something bad, especially when he saw that Gaz was coming back for him and climbed back up into the hallway that Dib was in. She didn't hesitate before tackling Dib to the ground. "I asked you a question, brother!"

Dib gasped under Gaz's weight. He was entirely frightened, never setting Gaz off this badly before. He tried his best to get out from under her, but he knew that Gaz was far stronger than he was. He eventually learned not to struggle and simply yelled, "Gaz, get off of me!"

"Dib, you're smarter than this," Gaz said with a snarky tone. "And as much as I don't need to ask this question, but what is wrong with you? You have just lost the person that has given you direction in life. The one fatherly figure you are ever going to have, and the only thing that you're thinking about is getting you and your boyfriend Zim to move forward. I knew you are stupid, but I didn't realize that you could be so terribly gullible and insensitive to everyone else's feelings!"

"Gaz, I'm sorry!" Dib exclaimed, trying to cover his face. "But you told me that you didn't care. You told me that you wanted to go further."

"I was lying," Gaz admitted. "I've been holding in my emotions for everyone's sake for too long, and now I don't want to be 'miss emotionless'." She stood up, pushing Dib to the side with her foot. "Now, you are either going to come with me to see our father for one last time before you go off and get yourself killed, or you can just accept how gullible, selfish, and heartless you are."

Dib simply stared up at Gaz. He was in complete shock at that point, many thoughts going through his mind at once. Every time he tried to get up, his muscles simply gave out and he would just fall back to the floor. Dib wanted to see his father, but he didn't see eye-to-eye with Gaz.

Gaz saw this as her brother's greatest weakness, and she pitied him for it. "That's what I thought. Cold, heartless Dib." She turned around and returned to the balcony.

Though, within her uncontrolled rage, her sense of delicacy was weakened. She was no longer gentle with the beam. The wooden boards creaked under the increased weight and pressure, though she ignored them. She continued to be smart about her strides, though.

Dib finally got up after a few moments. He quickly went to the balcony door to see that Gaz was reaching up to open the door on the other side. Both of them could hear the plank Gaz was holding to begin to snap.

They reacted quickly to it. Gaz opened the door and planted her hand on the floor before the plank officially gave out, leaving Gaz hanging only from one side. She could tell that her hand wasn't planted at an ideal spot and her balance was incredibly hindered.

Dib was shocked and quickly went after her. He stepped down onto the beam and followed her, figuring that this would be his one chance to redeem himself. "I got you, Gaz!" He shimmied over to the other side, being sure not to look down in fear of following off. He eventually made it to the other side and reached out his left hand to grab Gaz's dangling right hand. He missed the first time, but then reached out to grab it again the second time. This time, he made his mark and he managed to grab Gaz before she could slip.

They helped each other regain balance and managed to get Gaz's hands up to the next door. She climbed up. Gaz, in thanks for her brother's help, brought him up as well.

Dib was breathing heavily, his hands planted on his knees. He then stood up, proud that he was actually able to save Gaz in time before she fell to her death. "Aren't you going to thank me for my heroism?"

"I'd rather punch you in the gut," Gaz said. "Consider yourself redeemed. Maybe you actually do have a soul."

Dib blinked. His sister was definitely back. "Let's just be glad that we're alive, okay?"

"Fine," Gaz said. "Let's go see Dad."

"Yeah…" Dib said. He followed her back through the same hallway that they came in. They went through the next door and they were thankful to see that the room was still fully intact… and that their father's body was still lifelessly sitting outside of the Smeet Room. Dib simply stood there staring at it, not sure what to do.

Gaz took the initiative and moved forward. She kneeled down and unfurled his body so that it was lying face-up. Since Professor Membrane had died of an inner heart condition, there were no marks anywhere on his body, leaving him perfectly intact.

Dib walked over to Gaz and said in a soft voice, "You were in there with him when he dropped down and died. What happened?"

"You must've seen it, too," Gaz said as she placed her father's hands over his chest. "They picked on one of us and picked something that we feared most."

"What did Dad fear most?" Dib asked.

This almost set Gaz over the edge, but she knew that Dib had to know. She stood up and turned around to face Dib. "If you say anything stupid after I'm done speaking, I'm going to make sure you regret it."

"My mouth is shut," Dib said, taking a single step back.

Gaz nodded. "Whoever was in there put something over my mouth so that I couldn't speak and shoved me against the wall. It was too dark for anyone to notice. Then…" She paused for a moment. "Then they showed two clips: one for that stupid Tallest guy and one for Dad. It was a clip about us… lying on the ground… in a pool of our own blood."

Dib blinked, scared to say anything, but also scared to stay silent.

"The video got worse and more intense, all of it ending with us dying. The lights in the room began to flicker and fake dummies of you and me were nailed to the wall." Gaz paused again. "I think there's more to it than just that, but after that… Dad was on the ground, shook for a while, then stopped."

She turned around and faced away from Dib. "The one time that I realize that our father truly cares about our well-being, even though he is so… busy all of the time. That is the time that he drops dead in front of me, seizing and having a heart attack." Gaz was breathing heavily and slowly dropped down to the floor. She ripped up one of the loose floor boards… then another… then another. "You'll never know what that's like, Dib."

Dib kneeled down next to Gaz, staying out of the way as she pulled some more boards out of the floor. "Well… if it makes you feel better, I'm starting to get it now."

"It doesn't," Gaz said as she tore another hole into the floor.

"Fine…" Dib said, looking down to the ground. He tried to find a way to console Gaz, but he just couldn't find the words. That's when he realized that silence was the best way to go with Gaz. Perhaps he would finally give her the chance to not be annoyed by him for once.

Gaz noticed the silence and actually appreciated it for once. She needed to get lost in her thoughts for a moment, and she couldn't do that with Dib bickering all of the time. She continued to tear boards out of the floor. Gaz looked over at Dib and said, "Move back a little."

Dib did as instructed and moved himself a couple of inches.

Gaz continued her work and pulled another board out from where Dib was. She finally said, "We're going to bury Dad."

"Here in a house on a planet that we don't even know?" Dib asked.

"Do you have any better ideas?" Gaz asked. "This is as far as we'll be able to take him, and he deserves better than just getting left here."

Dib thought for a moment, and again, figured that responding with a dumb answer wasn't exactly the best way to go. Instead, he dug his finger into the wood and, after a couple of tugs, managed to break free another board. Though as soon as he put it aside, he noticed that his hand was filled with splinters. It was a bit painful, causing him to groan lightly.

Gaz noticed this. She had been pulling out the wood while her hands were covered with the end of her sweatshirt. She should've known that Dib would be stupid and unprepared. Though… she was sympathetic for once. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the piece of purple fabric that she was holding onto and offered it to Dib.

Dib simply eyed it as he pulled out some of the bigger splinters. He was starting to put the pieces together, and his curiosity was getting the best of him. "That's Tak's, isn't it? You were… playing with it shortly after she died."

"If you speculate on this then I won't help you out," Gaz said.

Dib backed-off. He then pushed Gaz's hand away, denying her small offer. "Thanks, but I don't think I need it. You should… keep it." He turned around and grabbed his Dad's disheveled lab coat. He tugged at it with his weak hands and eventually tore a piece of the fabric free. He returned to Gaz and said, "We'll need something to remember them by."

Gaz paused at the statement and thought for a moment. Then without saying anything, she stood up and went over to her father. He gripped his tattered coat and tore off another piece of fabric with ease. "Yeah…" she finally said.

Dib couldn't help but crack a half-smile. This was one of the rare occasions where he and Gaz actually saw eye-to-eye, and he wanted to savor it as long as possible. At least… while the three of them were there together… for the last time.

The sentiment didn't seem too long since Gaz turned to continue her work. Dib simple watched until Gaz eventually stopped. She returned to her father's side and brought her hands down to his shoulders. "Grab his legs," she instructed.

Dib simply nodded, not wanting to create any tension. He grabbed his father's legs and lifted them. He was thankful that his father wasn't too heavy. Though, he was a little less thankful of the fact that he wasn't very strong, and especially weak from all of the challenges and walking. He slowly carried his father backwards, making sure not to stumble over the rugged flooring.

They made their way over to the hole that they just made. Gaz gave Dib a head-nod signal, gesturing for him to lower Professor Membrane down into the hole. They did so as gently as they possibly could. Once Dib and Gaz felt that their father was supported by the support beams below, they slowly let go of his arms and legs one at a time. Once again, he lay limp. Though this time, he looked a lot more peaceful than he did before. Dib and Gaz let out a deep sigh, satisfied with their work.

Gaz looked over at Dib, and Dib returned the look. She didn't say anything, nor did she give any indication with her face, but Dib imagined in some way that Gaz was using telepathy to say thank you. He thought it was silly, but it was better than thinking that Gaz thought of him as an idiot. Which she did. But he was her only idiot at that point.

Gaz took one last look at her father before looking forward to where they came from. "Let's go. We're done here."

"Don't you want to say your last goodbyes to Dad?" Dib asked.

"Don't you want to get out of here?" Gaz responded.

"I do," Dib said.

"Then stop complaining. There is nothing more that we can do from here," Gaz said. "We've done all we can for Dad. Do you really want to stay here and look at his cold… lifeless body for any longer?"

"And drive myself to insanity?" Dib asked. "I think I'll pass."

"Exactly," Gaz said, walking past him. "Let's go."

Dib nodded and followed his sister. He wasn't too excited to be moving forward. Not only did he not want to leave his dad behind, but he also didn't want to find out what was to come. At this point, the only person he felt he could afford to lose was Purple, and even then, he felt that he needed Purple. This was a strange planet and Purple seemed to know more about Irken technology than Zim did. And… he just couldn't face any more deaths. 6 was enough for him.

Dib and Gaz managed to get past the disheveled balcony with ease. Though, before Dib climbed up to the next section, he was dumb enough to look behind him at the ground. It looked so close to him, yet it was so far away. There was no way that he would be able to jump off of the balcony without breaking several bones. If he survived, he would certainly be rendered immobile.

Gaz practically read Dib's mind and pulled him up. "We're not jumping off of the balcony, stupid. Not unless you want to end yourself so soon."

"Why do you have to be so dark?" Dib asked.

"Do you want to know the answer to that?" Gaz refuted.

"No."

"Then don't ask."

"Fair enough," Dib said. He walked forward. He was half-afraid that Zim and Purple went ahead of them and were leaving them behind, but he was even more afraid of one of them already falling victim to the trap they had just faced. Neither of them were in the right mind, so it was highly likely. Dib opened the door, hoping that he was wrong.

Thankfully, in the long run, he was. Zim and Purple were safely on the other side of the trap.

"Took you two long enough," Purple said with a sly grimace. "What did you two do, anyways? Sulk?"

"We were doing something important," Dib said.

"You emotionless irkens wouldn't understand," Gaz said.

"Oh, and you would?" Purple asked with a slight smirk on his face.

Dib didn't even wait a single moment this time. He put a hand on Gaz's chest, knowing that she was still fuming from her encounter with Purple the last time. "He's not worth it. Trust me."

Gaz removed Dib's hand from her chest. "I know that. I just need to assert my dominance on him. He doesn't know who he's messing with."

"Yeah, well assert your dominance some other time," Dib said.

"Whatever."

Dib turned around. "Let's just calm down for a second." Dib looked down at Zim, who was curled up in a ball. He was shocked, wondering why he hadn't noticed him like that before. "What's wrong with Zim?"

"Yeeeah," Purple said. "There's something freaky about this trap that you two are going to find out about. It brought Zim down pretty good."

"What are you talking about?" Dib asked. He approached the skinny beams. They looked like they were too skinny to easily walk on, but he could easily crawl on them. "They look fine to me."

"Just find out for yourself," Purple said, crossing his arms. "You'll be fine, I'm sure. It's the easiest trap so far. Just make sure you keep your sanity intact."

"My sanity… intact?" Dib asked. He looked at Gaz, and she seemed unfazed.

"Just go, Dib," Gaz said.

"Yeah, they're probably just trying to scare us or something…" Dib said with a sigh, though he doubted that Zim would play a prank along with his ex-leader, regardless of how loyal he was. Dib got down on his hands and knees and crawled out onto the support beam. He tested it quickly to see if it would support his weight. Once he was satisfied, he moved forward and Gaz was right there behind him.

At first, he thought he was right. Purple was just trying to scare him and he bribed Zim to look scared. But then… then he understood what was going on. He was only a quarter of the way across the beam when he heard something echo across the entire room.

Who knew my own son could turn out to be so selfish? Move forward and leave all of the dead behind as if they meant nothing.

Dib's heart skipped a beat. The voice that echoed across the room was undoubtedly his father's. He stopped for a moment, collecting his thoughts for a moment. His knees and arms began to shake a bit.

"Dib, don't you dare stop," Gaz said. "Dad's dead. He has no pulse and he is now buried under the floorboards. Keep. Moving."

"Yeah… yeah, I get it," Dib said. He slowly moved forward, though he was still shaky from the demeaning words.

Do you really think I'm dead, Gaz? Do you really think I died simply because I had a heart attack from watching my kids die? You are more foolish than I thought you were."

"You died," Gaz said quickly, clearly agitated. "Get out of here. Get out of here now."

I guess you aren't as smart as I thought.

That's the thing about human children. You can simply expect them to be idiotic brats who think only of themselves. Even Zim wasn't like that when he was a stupid smeet.

Dib grunted angrily in disgust and Gaz was experiencing a slight sense of shaking. The last voice was undoubtedly Tak's. It was really quiet, but Dib could hear Gaz say 'shut up'.

Gaz, can you not face reality? I think your stupid brother has left you astray.

"No, I didn't," Dib said.

"Dib, shut up," Gaz said. "Keep moving before I move you myself."

He nodded. "Fine."

The two of them kept moving forward. The farther they got, the more it seemed that everyone who died had something snarky to say to them. Though, the ones that made them slip up the most was their father. They had just said their goodbyes to him. The last thing that they would want is to hear his voice one last time, telling them that they were bad children.

Once they got past the beam, they quickly crawled onto solid ground. Both of their hearts were beating heavily and they let out heavy breaths in order to deal with the thoughts that were going through their heads. This wasn't a new low for Dib, but he certainly didn't feel alright.

He felt a tap on his shoulder. Dib looked up and noticed that Purple was trying to hand him a small piece of paper. "I found this on the other side of the beam. It has some kind of message with the moral at the end of it. Seems kind of stupid, though. They're trying to kill us, but they want us to feel good about ourselves in the end…"

Dib grabbed the paper and read it to himself: "Everyone has negative thoughts about the world and the people around them. Wouldn't it make one feel better if they realized those thoughts aren't even real?"

Dib glared at the piece of paper. He crumpled it up as he stood. He walked over to the edge of the hole and tossed the piece of paper. "That was your reason for putting us through all that, huh? To teach us to ignore all of our negative thoughts?! You are a sadistic, insane person! What are you trying to tell me to do, huh?! Killing five of my friends and my father and all you want to do is teach me a lesson in the end!" He let out a shrill yell.

Dib felt a hand go on his shoulder. He figured someone was going to tell him to call down, and he didn't want that. He quickly thrashed his shoulder back and threw off whoever was touching him. He heard the person hit the ground with a heavy thud. Dib eventually looked down and noticed that he just knocked off Zim.

He breathed heavily for a few moments, but then he calmed down a bit. He saw Zim's innocent face, something he rarely saw. He knew that Zim was scared, too. He knew that Gaz was scared. He knew that Purple was scared. They were all so close to the end and they had managed to keep their sanity intact. Dib felt that he should be the absolute last to lose his sanity.

Dib knelt down next to Zim and said a soft, "Sorry."

"It's fine…" Zim said. "If this were a normal situation, then I would still be yelling right now." He sat up straight, resting his hands on his knees. "This thing… it broke me, too."

"What happened?" Dib asked, wondering what Zim had to go through.

He didn't want to relay exactly what happened, but Zim figured he could get out a short summary. "Let's just say that I thought that Tallest Red had enough to say to me to bring me down… and I was wrong." He lowered his head a bit. "So, so wrong."

"Does it make you feel better that it's all a lie?" Dib asked. He was still angry about the stupid message, but he felt that it held some righteousness, regardless of how the message was preceded.

"It would make me feel better if they weren't really dead," Zim said. "I don't care about how much I hate Tak, or how much Skoodge has done better than me, and how much Almighty Tallest Red hates me. I just don't want… I don't want… Guh! Let's just move forward. Zim is tired of waiting."

"Are you sure?" Dib asked. "We can wait here as long as you like. There's… there's no more rush anymore."

"I want to get out of here right now," Zim said. "Right. Now."

Dib nodded. "Okay." He stood up and reached out a hand for Zim to grab. Zim did so and got helped up. Right after, Dib figured that Zim would flick the hand away, but he simply held onto it. Whether it was idly or not, Dib actually was glad that it was there. He had his sister and he now had Zim. If his father were here, everything would be ideal for Dib. But… nothing about this irken house was ideal. He just had to resist breaking down like he just did.