(A/N: Wow it's been a while...I must admit, writing this was a bit like pulling teeth. Painful, but a mean to an end. Thanks to all my reviewers, readers, stalkers, followers, betas, and Raxi, for sticking with me (I don't have any betas for this, but I thought I'd thank them anyway). Zim is a bit...effeminate in this but it was needed. Also, if the sign doesn't stick, Zim uses a heart in his sentences. Um, I find it worth mentioning—to those of you who didn't read 'Poor Little Heart'—that there is a blind poll on my profile for what stories I should work on. You have three votes and, when the poll closes on independence day, I will finish the top three and neglect anything else. Then I will poll again, all the whole writing whatever, and rinse and repeat until I have nothing left undone. Vote now! It is also worth mentioning that this chapter was written to Mumford & Sons' album 'Babel'. Can you see it? Thanks for sticking with me! —Sandria)
Bishop to C-3
Nny and Shoulder-GIR sat beneath his last Tumtum tree, regaining his HP and surveying the massive amount of damage he did to the monsters around him. The patchwork creatures lay torn in pieces and scattered about the Field, pixilating into nothing and leaving behind small stacks of Jokers. Nny sighed as he perused the Deck of Jokers and upgraded his meagre armour and knives. "This sucks."
'I would say the same but your levelling rate has exponentially increased since you first started,' Shoulder-Gaz's voice carried a small hint of pride in it that was almost missed by Nny, 'you've finally learned how to grind properly.'
"Yeah," Nny agreed wearily, "Glad the monsters of this Field are of varying levels. It would've been crappy if I had to face a bunch of high or low level monsters the entire time."
'quoth the raven, nevermore!'
Shoulder-Gaz and Nny didn't even bat an eye at Shoulder-GIR's non-sequiturs any more. They had grown so used to the odd little hallucination's rambling that, if Shoulder-GIR started making sense, they'd be worried. Nny looked at his dwindling Deck and sighed again, "At this rate, who knows where the Gryphon will be!"
'He'll be there for you, I promise.' Shoulder-Gaz leaned her back against Nny's head and rested there for a moment.
"And if he's not?"
'yew'll find him,' Shoulder-GIR chirruped. His eyes glowed a bright white for a second, and then they flickered back to their usual cyan, unnoticed.
With a resigned groan, Nny heaved himself up from underneath the tree and unsheathed his basic knives (with +20 attack thanks to his modifications with the Jokers), ready for attacking another wave of patchwork creatures. He hacked and slashed through the remaining stragglers, angrily tearing into any foes that stood in his way. 'I need to finish this! I need to get to the Gryphon! I need to save him!' Leaving behind only pixillated remains, he moved forward, never once looking back. His resolve was set.
-x-
The Gryphon hissed at the incoming stranger, beak bared and claws at the ready. This monster was not going to beat him! He had to wait for his Piece! His Piece promised him! His Piece would come get him, he promised!
The stranger was shaking, pale hair and skin glowing in the bright light of the moon. He held out his hands in a gesture of goodwill, smiling softly. "I'm not here to hurt you. Calm down, friend."
The Gryphon hissed again, advancing on the stranger to show he meant business. His tail was puffed out and his ruff was twice its size to warn him; don't come any nearer, or else.
"You want to find your Piece, don't you?" The stranger prompted, not backing down. The Gryphon's head tilted to the side in inquisition. What was this stranger saying? Of course he wanted to see his Piece again! He churred and the stranger grinned, "Then come with me. He'll be visiting us soon. I can show him to you if you come with me. You'll be safe." He prompted, stepping forward.
The Gryphon hesitated, light dawning in his amber eyes. This person would take him to his Piece? Well...he didn't seem bad, and he didn't smell bad. So he must be good!
The Gryphon stepped forward slowly, sniffing at the stranger's outstretched palm. Then, chirping happily, he jumped into the stranger's arms and allowed him to carry him away.
He would find his Piece, and everything would be okay.
-x-
Nny stared the cavern down, eyes narrowing as he distributed his Deck across his armour and his knives. "This is gonna suck."
'Says you.' Shoulder-Gaz stared down the cavern as well, a smirk playing across her lips, 'You're what? Level twenty? That's a pretty good jump for a level one-to-fifteen boss.'
"Yeah but—"
'"But" nothing! Get your butt in there and win, you wimp!' Ah, there was the Shoulder-Gaz he knew. Blunt and caustic, just like his sister.
"Yes ma'am!" With a snarky salute, Nny stepped forward into the cavern. The BGM changed, from the light melody of the Field, to a haunting waltz in A-Minor. Almost in sync with the beat of the BGM, Nny stepped forward slowly, cautiously. 'Whatever this Field Master is, it's gotta be creepy with the way this cave is looking.'
There were spiderwebs everywhere, clinging to the ceiling and the walls, blocking his path, and getting in his mouth and hair. "Bluh, bluh, blargh!" He spat, the Immersion Effect taking hold of Nny as he walked forward. "Ugh, I freaking hate spiderwebs."
'Me too,' Shoulder-Gaz griped. She had spiderwebs sticking to her face and hair. Shoulder-GIR, on the other hand, was having a blast hanging in one of the more complete webs.
'help me! help me!' He squealed.
Nny rolled his eyes, 'Comic-relief at it's finest...' He inched forward a little more and then halted abruptly.
Right in front of him was a small humanoid—who looked pretty familiar—with a small mat of black hair on its head and pale skin. Nny half expected the thing to be hissing about its 'precious' and coughing its name. A soft clicking noise could be heard emanating from the humanoid. 'Be careful,' Shoulder-Gaz warned, 'this may be the Field Master.'
"Oh, but it looks so harmless..." Nny unsheathed his knives, regardless of his ideas on the alignment of the thing before him. Better safe than sorry.
'So do I,' Shoulder-Gaz warned.
"Fair point." Nny crept up on the humanoid, knives at-the-ready, and gently poked it in the back with the hilt. The thing turned around and Nny let out a girly shriek.
It wasn't human, that was sure. In fact, apart from its silhouette, there was not a single human thing about it. It had three sets of eyes, each one milky white and useless, and its mouth split into four pieces, each one a mandible dripping with venom. Its head turned a full one-eighty and its arms were jointed three times instead of the normal one time. It crab walked, metal legs ripping from its ribs and propelling it forward with insane speed. Nny almost propelled himself backward with the massive amount of 'NOPE' he was feeling upon seeing the Field Master do that.
'Don't run, you coward! Fight back!' Shoulder-Gaz screamed at Nny from the sidelines, one leg propped over the other.
"Easy for you to say!" Nny shouted back, scrabbling to block its web-attacks with his dual blades. He managed to stave off most of the damage, even dealing some damage of his own, when he finally caught a glimpse of its stats.
He almost peed himself when he saw the HP on the sucker. "One thousand four hundred?!" He was aghast, "That is way too much for me to handle right now!"
"Perhaps," purred an unfamiliar voice off from behind Nny, "I can be of assistance~! " Large vines, covered in thorns tore into the spider-freak. It shrieked and fell away, pixilated ooze dripping from its wounds.
Nny turned to face his saviour and almost dropped his knives. "Z-Zim?" He stammered out, sweat pouring from his person as he surveyed his saviour, "Wh-what are you doing here?!"
"Saving you, silly~ " His saviour was indeed Zim—or at least he thought he was Zim, he was acting far too effeminate to actually be Zim. Black pompadour, green skin, blue eyes, pink uniform; every last detail spoke of Zim in his human disguise. Every last detail, except his strange way of addressing Nny.
"I—uh—thank you?" Nny hauled his butt back into gear and began attacking the Field Master—who's name turned out to be 'Symbiotic Mechavore'—with renewed vigour. With Zim's help, the thing was soon defeated, and the multitude of Cards were collected by the two of them.
Nny caught a glimpse of Zim's Card and frowned, "King of Hearts? You don't seem to be the person to be in the House of Hearts, Zim."
"Well you don't seem the loner type, D~i~b~ " Zim replied with a coquettish wink. "Besides," he primped his hair with one gloved hand, the other clutching a large rosebush-like staff, "I believe Zim to be the master of hearts, so King of Hearts is a demotion. He is perfect, after all."
'Wait...he?' Nny blinked, understanding finally reaching him.
'Not this guy,' Shoulder-Gaz groaned.
"Keef?!" He scrabbled away from the Player Character, horror written across his features.
"Took you long enough," Zim giggled, blowing Nny a kiss, "I mean, really. I knew who you were from the moment I saw you, but you. Didn't. Know. Me." He pouted, "frankly Dib, I'm hurt."
"H-how?!" Nny stammered out. He could not process what was going on, 'Zim is Keef?! And then there was Iggins...Does that mean that every Player Character here is going to be someone I know?!'
Zim shrugged, "I found this game from a Tumblr download link. I thought it looked fun, and it was~ " He lazily leaned on his staff and pointed to the corner of the cavern, "What I want to know is: how come you haven't opened the chest sitting in the corner." Nny shot a look where he was pointing and saw the chest, just sitting there.
"Why haven't you taken it?" He didn't bother walking toward the chest, he was too focused on making sure Keef wasn't going to stab him in the back.
"Oh, I don't need it. " Keef stood erect and proudly showed Nny his staff, "I have Fleur de Lyse. You need it 'cause you're severely under-equipped. I am here to help, you know~ "
Nny decided then was a good time to open the chest, dispute his misgivings about Zim and his intentions. That, and Shoulder-Gaz was glaring at him. He opened the chest and found a large, black trench-coat with the title 'Waste-Lock's Armour'. He donned the coat and marvelled at the massive leap in his DEF and DEX. Amazing what a simple piece of clothing can do for the stats.
"Fit's like a glove, huh?" Zim winked at Nny, who shuddered, "Glad to see you've at least got the sense to mod your basic armour."
"I learned that the first time 'round," he admitted sheepishly. "So," he began, "Why are you helping me? I thought that only one person could beat the Black Queen and beat the Game."
"Well, silly! I like you! In fact, as soon as I heard about your joining the game from the grapevine, I knew it was destiny! Sure, my Zim-buddy isn't here, but Dib-buddy is, and that's just as good! I knew it was my mission as King of Hearts to help my buddies."
'Creepy...,' Shoulder-Gaz shuddered, eyeballing Keef with malice.
'i think he's fluffy! an adorable! sides,' Shoulder-GIR giggled, 'he's got some pretty flowers with him!' He went on to sing a Chipmunk's rendition of "Painting the Roses Red" from Disney's 'Alice in Wonderland'.
"I believe," a melodic voice chimed in, "that you should leave this one alone, master."
Nny paled, "What was that?"
"Oh, nothing~ !" Zim waved dismissively, "Just the Flowers."
"'Just the Flowers'?!" Another voice added, this one low and melancholy, "I am offended, master."
"We are more than 'just the Flowers'," a third, child-like voice commented. "We are your Creature, and you our Piece, master."
"Aww, don't get all huffy! I just didn't want Dib-buddy to get overwhelmed with your awesomeness!" Zim giggled again and pulled three small things from his pocket. They were three small seeds that he planted them in the ground, and where they were planted, grew the Flowers: a yellow violet, a red daffodil, and a blue rose; each one had a face, and none of them looked pleased.
"Master," the red daffodil complained, leaning in towards Zim, "This one is a Piece!"
"A powerful Piece, master," added the blue rose.
"You should be careful around him, master," the yellow violet commented snootily, "he is dangerous and should not be helped. You should have left him to die by the claws of the Field Master, master."
Nny was speechless, "Three Creatures?"
"One creature, three bodies," Zim corrected, "and they are precious babies, aren't they~? " He coddled the three flower blossoms, who looked rather pleased at the turn of events.
"Master," chimed the daffodil.
"We love you," the rose crooned.
"We love you so much, master," finished the violet.
'Euch...this is too sappy for my tastes...' Shoulder Gaz made a move to abscond, only to be stopped by Shoulder-GIR's mad jig.
"Look, this is all fine and well, meeting you here and stuff...but this cave is creeping me out. Can I go now?" Subtext 'you creep me out'. Nny started walking back towards the cavern entrance, making sure to travel the same path as before so as to avoid spider webs. Zim followed after uprooting and pocketing the Flowers. Once outside, Zim grabbed ahold of Nny and pulled him into his bosom.
"I have news for you," he whispered dramatically, "news about your Creature."
"You what?!" Nny's voice was muffled under the layers of pink fabric he was now inhaling, "Tell me!"
"Oh, he's safe~ " Zim assured the frantic Nny, "and I know where he is. He's at the Castle of Hearts."
"Take me," demanded Nny. Unbeknownst to him, Shoulder-GIR began dancing harder.
"I will, and I'll help you level up; under one condition, however."
"What? I'll do anything!" Nny pushed himself away from Zim's crushing embrace and intently stared the Player Character in the eyes.
"Help the House of Hearts out."
"Pardon?" Shoulder-GIR's dance got harder and started to freak Shoulder-Gaz out.
"There's a factional war going on between the White side—I don't have time to tell you all of it, but it's pretty nasty—and the House of Hearts is at a disadvantage, because we have more passive players than the other Houses. Therefore, a massively active player such as yourself should be able to tip the scale in our favour! "
"That's it?" Nny was confused, he figured the favour would be more intense or demanding, but this worked.
'What kind of dance are you doing, and can you stop?!' Shoulder-Gaz demanded.
"Unless you want to kiss me as well~ !" Zim winked and pursed his lips.
'this isn't a dance, it's a jig! a jig of GRAVE DANGER!' Shoulder-GIR danced harder, eyes flashing white and cyan in spurts.
"No thank you," Nny deadpanned, "I'm gonna just...help you..."
'Hey, Dib?' Nny shot a glance over at Shoulder-Gaz and Shoulder-GIR, silently asking "what?" 'I think we should be on our way.' She gestured to the sky above the Field, which was covered in grey, swirling, ominous clouds. The ground rumbled and Nny glanced back over at Zim.
"I—I think we should go," he blurted out.
"Why? What's wrong? It's nice here! " Zim's fingers splayed across his mouth lazily, and he smiled.
"He has a point, master," the daffodil said.
"There is something wrong here, master," the rose added.
"We must be on our way, master, just look around you," the violet finished.
A look of surprise crossed his face and he glanced around, noticing the sudden greyscale of the Field and the turbulence above them. Suddenly serious, he stood erect and offered his hand to Nny, "C'mon. Let's go to the Castle of Hearts together~ "
Nny took his hand and opened his map, selecting B-four and preparing himself to move. Suddenly, the Field's BGM changed, slowing down and skipping slightly. The background animations slowed too, lagging and skipping all over the place as all colour leeched from the graphics.
Zim swore loudly in a language Nny didn't recognise, "Looks like there's no time for both of us to leave! Flowers!"
"Yes master?" They chorused.
"Protect Dib! Make sure he stays safe! He's your master now!" Zim handed the small seeds over to Nny, an apologetic look crossing his face. The rumbling grew louder as the clouds above swirled and the lagging increased.
"But—" cried the daffodil.
"You can't—" the rose exclaimed.
"Master—" the violet choked out.
"Just do it!" Zim selected B-4 on Nny's map and looked at him sadly, "Sorry I couldn't be much help. Consider this a parting gift~ " Within the last seconds of Nny being on C-3, Zim gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Bye buddy!"
Nny disappeared in a flash, the Flowers with him, and then the Field opened up. Large Thorns ripped out of the ground and swallowed up Zim as the Field distorted, turning into a Black Field. Pockets of green acid oozed from underneath the turf, smoking and causing the plants to rot on contact. The entire Field was a wasteland, and its crowning achievement was the rigid form of Zim, petrified and surrounded by Thorns.
-x-
"Madam!" The Rabbit huffed as he entered their meeting-space, breathless from his run in cyber-space, "terrible news madam!"
"She has taken another Field; I know." 'Madam' didn't even bat an eye at his news, but he wasn't finished yet.
"There was a Player there, the King of Hearts! The Piece of the Flowers! Madam, this is dangerous! She is disregarding all laws set before her!" The rabbit was flustered, how could he possibly be more clear about how dangerous this was?!
"She WHAT?!" 'Madam' flew forward and grabbed the rabbit by his lapel, "You'd better be lying, or I SWEAR..." Her hands shook with pent-up fury as she dragged him to be eye-level with her. "Tell me you lie," she hissed.
"I-I cannot lie, madam. The Black Queen has tainted a Field with the King of Hearts on it." A scream issued forth from 'madam's throat as she threw the rabbit across the room. "But madam," the rabbit protested, "there is good news!"
"LIES! YOU LIIIIIE! There can be no good news! There is only bad news flowing from your lips of lie!" She was having a full-on mental breakdown now, throwing the biggest tantrum the rabbit had seen so far. Her limbs flailed wildly as he attempted to get close to her, causing him much pain when they connected with his fragile frame.
When he finally got close enough, he whispered, "Dib and the Flowers got away." Then his world dissolved as he exited their meeting-place, fully satisfied with his perseverance. 'She'll calm down soon,' he reasoned, 'then we'll talk more.'
'I hope...'
-x-
The Queen laughed whole-heartedly, cackling as she viewed her new Field, "A stroke of luck," she purred, "That we captured a Piece."
"Agreed. If—WHEN—she finds out, she'll lose her temper again!"
"Again?! I'm sure she's losing it now. What a loser!" She chortles this time, a full-on belly-laugh that stems from the cruel undermining of 'madam's character and jejune humour at her expense.
"I would have to disagree. I think she's sulking right now."
"While we are allowed to have different opinions," the Queen noted, "Mine is correct and you should sod off."
"Make me."
"Maybe I will," she sneered.
"Have at it then!"
"I will!"
And with that, all ideas of world domination lost in the sea of a petty squabble, the Black Queen argued with herself, alone in her throne room, her hands wrapped around her own neck.