Chapter 10 – Grasping Hope/Zim Stands Corrected
"Oh, Hell," Dib said shaking, "It's game over. What do we do now?" Tak looked down for a moment. She felt herself in the same emotional state as Dib right now but refused to show it. Regaining some sense of rationality, she looked up, and thought that if these were going to be her last moments, she was going to spend them well, one being to go down fighting and trying to survive, and the other to take an emotional risk standing in front of her. She dropped her smart gun, wrapped her arms around Dib's neck, and touched her lips with his, being sure that she was doing it right by putting her snaky tongue into his mouth. The warmth each of them felt could not be described in either of their languages. It was something that gave off a glowing sense from inside, something they felt, even if just for a moment, as Tak detached, that neither of them ever wanted to depart from.
Mimi watched the entire event. Some file pulled up in her memory for an instant. One of another robot that she just could not get out of her memory bank once he forced himself in. She felt the same feelings for him that her master felt for this human.
"We're going to continue our own mission," Tak said holding Dib's hands, Her voice filled with the excitement of her first kiss being even more wonderful than she imagined, "We're going to the electrical room, to Nar's office, since he's obviously the one who took this ship over, and to the generator to blow this place before it hits your city. I won't fail, nor will I let you die up here. Understand?" Dib felt reassured, as he knew Tak was right. He had to pull himself together; he was stronger than this. He was just as strong as she was and could easily prove it. Still, the thought of that along with the kiss he had received continued to stay in his mind. He forgot he had ever been with Gretchen, that this was possibly his first kiss he had ever received, and it was from an alien woman (one of which he loved) no less.
"Yes," Dib said, his voice wavering as his lips involuntarily smiled and his cheeks blushed, "I understand. We can do this." Tak picked up her smart gun.
"Good, now let's go," Tak said. The two then ran down the darkened corridor, Mimi leading the way, motion tracker ready.
Gaz and Zim recovered from their fall only to sit up and see just enough through the glass that the entire west hanger was being sucked into the blackness of space. Zim soon became aware that Gaz was actually sitting on his lap, yet did not want her to move. Gaz soon followed in this realization and, likewise, did not get up. Instead, she just looked at him, into his eyes, those red fiery eyes that reflected her own nature, destructive yet passionate.
She flipper her hair out of her face, leaned in and kissed him, the warmth of her lips sending shocks throughout Zim's body. All Zim could think was that he did not want her to stop; this was something he had never felt, this feeling within him that he could love this woman, one of who reflected his nature, likewise destructive yet passionate; his hypochondriac nature did not even pick up on the fact that she was mostly made from water, so he completely forgot that he ever could be burned by her touch. Gaz was affected in the same way; all memory of having been with Todd was removed from her mind upon feeling his lips connecting with hers.
Gir had his head tilted on his master's belt just enough to see this happen through the static of what was left of his vision. The sight of this fired what seemed like yet another glitch into his brain, but at the same time what he wanted to come up. It was the picture of a black cat crossing his path and telling him to follow, dance with her, and frolic in the tall grasses of the farm lands of some Midwestern US state.
Eventually, Gaz let up. There was a moment's pause before she spoke.
"Now wasn't I right?" Gaz asked rhetorically.
"Yes," Zim said, stunned from all that had happened, "Yes you were." Gaz got up, holding her rifle in one hand and helping Zim to his feet with her other.
"Come on," Gaz said, "You still want to go to the med labs, right?"
"Yes," Zim said, still wavering, "Let's go." The two ran off, their hands remaining together. Both were aware of it, and the warmth of their kiss never left, as it was in their hands, held together by a connection that was going to last, whether they knew it or not.
They each continued running down the dark hallway, Zim using heat-and-motion to detect anything out of the ordinary, and Gaz remaining calm, as she was not sensing anything. They eventually reached the white, adamantine door of the medical lab. Gaz broke open the control panel next to it, while Zim took the lookout, shoulder cannon ready.
"Are you sure your human technology can cooperate," Zim inquired, "with such a superior irken control panel?"
"Hey, if I can program an army of robots to guard my room," Gaz responded, "I can get past a stupid door." Gaz hooked several wires up to the exposed connectors and hit a few buttons on her GS-4. In no time at all, the doors swung open to reveal several patches of light, a few closed cryo-tubes, and some strewn about equipment. Gaz got up, turned to Zim, held her hand out like a game show hostess, and gave a smart-alecky smile. Zim gave that look of humility he generally gave the original Tallests whenever they chided him for screwing up or saying something wrong. They then both preceded in, eyes and weapons at the ready.