A/N: Well... I'm rather disappointed with this chapter. This story has proven really difficult to try to finish. Thank you for the reviews, guys, and I hope this chapter is okay anyway...
"NO!"
The shriek rent through the air, piercing the last of Dib's nerves not ravaged by the terrible claw that was ripping through his memories. Tak struggled away from her Alternate. But it was no good, Dib could see it was no good, even in the state he was in.
The alien was glowing. It looked familiar, horribly familiar, it had… it had happened to him before, hadn't it…
"Tak?" Dib said. The word came out in a rasp.
Alternate-Tak, merely a shell almost totally controlled by her real-world counterpart, crumpled into a ball on the ground. The claw tearing at Dib's mind released its pressure and he found he could breathe again.
The little girl next to him—Gaz, Gaz, her name was Gaz, how could he have forgotten Gaz's name but remembered Tak's?—groaned and clutched her head. Then she shook it off and looked at Dib. "You okay?"
"I—yeah," Dib said. His heart was pounding.
Tak crossed her arms over her chest and gripped her shoulders, and she sank to her knees. "I was so close."
Alarm flooded through Dib and he took a step forward. "Tak! You're going to—"
Tak's arm flashed out and she caught his wrist in a vice-like, two-fingered grip. "Come with me."
Before Dib could respond she let go of him and stood back up, heading off at a brisk pace toward one of the corridors. Dib glanced at Gaz and Zim. The alien looked like he was still trying to collect his thoughts and figure out exactly what was going on.
"I guess we've won," Gaz said.
"DIB!" Tak shouted. There was an urgent, almost panicked edge to her voice.
One of her robotic spider legs protruded from her PAK and a white laser fired straight at Dib.
"Nyah!" Dib ducked, his heart pounding.
"I guess you should go see what she wants," Gaz said. Dib glanced from her to Zim. Gaz would be all right. She could take care of herself, especially against Zim. He turned and reluctantly started to follow Tak.
The female Irken led him down the corridor at a trot and then at a full-out sprint complete with robotic spider legs. Dib chased after her as best he could, all other thoughts becoming overpowered by the knowledge that Tak was glowing brighter and brighter.
Tak skittered to a halt in front of a doorway and swung inside, the spider legs retracting again. She didn't have time to regain her balance on the slick floor and her feet shot out from under her, sending her crashing to the ground.
"There's no time!" Tak hopped to her feet just as Dib reached her. When he saw what was in the room, he stumbled backwards. It was a machine that looked exactly like the one he had been kept in in the other dimension. Tak ran over to it and hit some buttons under the screen. Then she turned and looked at Dib. "I need you to do something for me."
Dib started forward. "Tak, why did you—"
"SILENCE!" Tak slammed her hand on one last button and then went to the front of the machine, where a series of green laser lights sprang into existence and began to rotate. "This machine saved you when you should have been obliterated, and now it's my only chance. Munepullium could help but thanks to my alternate-self," she clenched her fists, "it's gone."
Dib reached into his pocket and fingered the one remaining tube of the silver liquid that had cured him and Zim.
"Tak—" he started to say.
"Hit the button!" Tak said.
"Tak, I have—"
"Hit the button!"
Dib jumped and frantically scanned the control pad for a moment before pressing his finger to one of the buttons.
Tak gave him a long look. She closed her eyes.
"Thank you, Dib," she said. "Take care of MiMi."
But… MiMi had been killed by Gaz. She didn't know…?
Tak's feet left the ground and she folded her hands together, her eyes sliding closed. Her antennae fell limp against her head. She stopped glowing but didn't twitch, her only movement being the almost imperceptible rise and fall of her chest. She was still breathing.
There were monitoring levels on the control pad; they dropped far down into the red. Dib had saved Tak's life.
But she was still gone.
He signed. He shouldn't… he shouldn't feel sorry for her. She'd almost killed him, and Gaz. She would have wiped the minds of every creature and provided an easy path to Irken conquest. But she'd done it because her life was ruined… and was a fate like this really any better than death? Caught forever in dreams, memories, and fantasies? Dib would have ended up like that, if not for Gaz. And the only thing that had saved him in the first place was the fact that his mind had been powerful enough for him to project himself into the alternate universe without realizing it. It was his projection that had been obliterated. Tak saving her own life this way had been something of a long shot, she must have known that.
Dib backed away from the machine and turned. He had no intention to look at the thing again.
Hm… he still felt weak. He pulled out the very last tube of Munepullium, the one that he had been trying to tell Tak about, and stared at it. Then he drank it in one gulp.
"My Tallest, I have once again stopped Tak's plan!" Zim saluted the Almighty Tallest, who were still projected on the screen. "She actually stole that plan from me. That's why I was, eh, building the portal, y'see. My apologies for her bothering you. I didn't know she was using my space station."
"Yes… Irk forbid an Invader should call and bother us," Tallest Red drawled.
"Are we done yet?" Tallest Purple asked. "I'm hungry." Red shrugged. The screen fizzed out into static, which disappeared and the screen became a window again. Zim gripped the edge of his glove and pulled it down to look at his wrist. The skin of his arm, which had been turning grayish, was fading back to green. That was a relief.
"MASTER! You're okay!" GIR slammed into Zim and barreled him over once more. He groaned and pulled himself back upright. Irk, he was probably starting to get nasty bruises from GIR's greetings.
"Yes, GIR, the dreadful poison has been eradicated," he said, brushing himself off.
"Now you can buy me tacos! Filled with mice!"
"Later, perhaps," Zim said.
Dib's creepy sister, Gaz, walked up to them. She was holding a SIR Unit's head; the eyes were blank, and the neck was still sparking. Zim yelped and jumped away.
"Hey," Gaz said. "Want a souvenir?" She thrust the head at Zim who, unsure what else to do, took it. It was MiMi's. Zim swallowed and set the head to the side, facing the dead eyes away from him.
Dib appeared from the darkness of one of the corridors and wandered over. He looked at them, his eyes strangely empty. "Tak's gone," he said.
"Good riddance," Zim said. He scrunched up his face in distaste. "I'm never using this place again. It's tainted." In fact, he would make sure to wreck the teleporters again… and this time make sure that they stayed wrecked. He didn't need more people like TAK coming and going to his base from this station.
Dib took a breath and nudged Gaz's arm. "We better get out of here before he breaks the teleporters again and traps us," he said quietly.
"You just won't get that thought out of your head," Gaz growled.
"Just c'mon," Dib said. Knowing Gaz would follow him but would refuse to be pulled, he let go of her and ran quietly back to the teleporters at the back of the room before glancing back.
Zim was still staring at the viewscreen window, at the emptiness of outer space beyond, wringing his gloved hands with his one antenna slicked back against his head. He reached up with one finger and ran it down the length of the stump of his missing antenna. It seemed to be a little longer than Dib had last seen it a few hours ago. Those things must grow back fast.
Dib slipped into the teleporter once more. Electricity flashed around him and he blinked. His surroundings had changed to the slightly more-familiar interior of Zim's lab. Dib stepped out of the teleporter and Gaz appeared behind him.
[Intruder alert,] the computer said. Gaz gave the ceiling a look that chilled Dib's spine. The computer, apparently taking the hint, said nothing else.
It occurred to Dib that he should break the teleporters himself to trap Zim and GIR in the space station (assuming he hadn't replaced the escape pods from the Bloaty's Pizza Hog escapade... And knowing Zim, he hadn't). He should also be taking pictures of Zim's base. No, wait, he didn't have the camera. Never mind.
Gaz left him alone and headed to the base's elevator by herself. How did she even know where it was? …Zim must have showed her. Dib wished he knew what had been happening while he was trapped by Tak in the other dimension. Speaking of which…
The portal was gone. Dib stared at the space where it had been. The other dimension hadn't been all bad, he supposed, when Tak was out of the picture. He hoped Tak's dormant mind would keep it from crumbling. Kill two birds with one stone, as the phrase went.
"Coming?" Gaz said from the elevator. For once she didn't sound hostile. Dib felt his feet move him to the elevator where he joined Gaz and stood in silence.
[Going up,] the computer said. Light, peppy music started playing from the speakers as the elevator rose. Dib gave the speakers an odd look. Huh! Not really the type of thing he would have expected in the lair of an evil space monster from space. Strange…
Luckily the elevator brought them up through the floor under a little table that lifted up, rather than through the toilet in the kitchen. That was a relief. And the house looked so normal, too.
…Well, "normal" as in, how it usually looked. Not normal as in what actual humans would actually live in, no matter what Zim thought to the contrary.
"So… what now?" Dib stopped in the living room. "We just… go home?"
"That was the idea," Gaz said. "I didn't sleep at all last night. I'm going home and going to bed, so don't disturb me."
Dib looked out one of the windows by the door and started—it was light outside. Skool would be starting soon if it hadn't already.
Gaz glanced at him. "You should go to bed, too. You had an even worse night than I did." Then she headed out the front door and slammed it closed behind her.
A sudden noise behind him caused Dib to whirl around. Zim was rising up in the elevator with a sour look on his face. The deactivated GIR was clutched in his arms and he slouched into the room, hardly seeming to notice Dib. And he wasn't wearing his disguise. He was up here in the house without his disguise. And Dib didn't have his camera… typical.
Zim extended the spider legs from his PAK and shakily levered himself onto the couch with them, dumping GIR next to him. He glared at the floor. "Still hard to control," he muttered. Dib figured he was talking about his PAK legs.
Dib stared at Zim awkwardly, poised to leave the house fast if the need arose. Zim just rubbed at his antenna again.
"So… what did you do with the space station?" Dib asked. He probably shouldn't have said anything. Zim seemed so oblivious to his being there that he probably could have left without any trouble. Now, though—
"Destroyed the teleporters again." Zim waved his hand a little. "No one can use them now, ever again."
Dib blinked. "Oh. Well… that's good, because—"
"Tak hypmo—hypnotizing the Tallest into wanting to kill me," Zim growled with eyes narrowed in fury, not paying any attention to Dib. "TREASON! Treason."
Dib stumbled over his own words and fell silent. Uh, never mind about telling Zim that Tak was comatose in his space station. It seemed Zim was never planning to return there again; best to just let that subject be.
Zim blinked and looked up suddenly, staring at Dib with a blank expression. He blinked again. "HEY! What are you doing here?!"
Dib turned and ran for the door.
"Begone with you!" Zim shouted, hopping down off the couch. "Computer! Intruder! There's an intruder!"
[Yeah, it took you long enough,] the computer said. Dib flung himself through the door and slammed it closed behind him again before he heard Zim's reply. He sprinted down the front walk, slowing only when he passed through the gap in the fence and ended up on the road. Out of enemy territory, back onto neutral ground. He looked for a long time at Zim's house. The alien's face appeared at the window, buggy red eyes and all, and glanced around, then disappeared again.
Dib sighed and headed home.
Maybe he'd be lucky enough to get a bit of a break before the next universe-threatening catastrophe befell him.
"GIR, analyze." Zim stripped his hand of his glove and held it out to GIR.
"Yes! My master!" GIR, whom Zim had reactivated a minute ago, saluted, eyes glowing red. He scanned down Zim's arm. "Sir! Poison is eighty-five percent eradicated from your system. Estimated time for you to be at full health again: three hours."
"Excellent." Zim pulled his glove back on.
GIR's eyes faded back to teal. "We gonna go get the cooties now?"
"NO!" Zim shook his head. "Forget the cootie plan! No more portals. We're doing something else." He wandered into the kitchen, opening the fridge and taking out a pack of Irken brand Dip-Stix. He went back into the living room, flopped onto the couch, and ripped open the pack. "Eh, later. Later we'll do something else. I need to recuperate."
GIR jumped up next to him. "OOH! I want some! Can I has blue? I never gets blue!"
Wearily Zim turned the package so the blue section was facing GIR. The little robot eagerly licked the sugar stick that came with the package and dipped it in the blue powder. Zim rolled his own sugar stick in his fingers thoughtfully. Maybe he didn't have to think up another plan today. He'd nearly been poisoned, after all. And Skool was right out. He fiddled with the stump of his missing antennae and yawned.
"GIR, guard the house," he drawled. Then he keeled over onto his side, allowing his mind to shut down and drift off into a sleep-like state.
He was home, finally. No more chasing after Gaz or Dib or GIR or trying to survive Tak's horrible poison.
He could relax. He'd earned it. And GIR had, too.