I've only had this sitting around, three-fourths done, for oh... what, two months now? |D Oh well. Hopefully some excitement will pick up here in the next chapter or so.

Dib woke up to a pair of large, violet orbs staring back at him.

The boy yelped in shock and scrambled into a sitting position, sliding against the side of the couch and forcing the mass on his chest to tumble away. A hand flew back to the nightstand, fumbling for his glasses. All he could see was a green form rolling off the sofa with a thud and slithering off. Hastily pushing the spectacles up to his face, Dib was just in time to catch a glimpse of none other than Tak's retreating form wander off into the other room. The Irken was chattering in disapproval as she wandered off, almost unimpressed with the human's reaction. Dib merely groaned, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

What a wake-up call. Ugh. If Tak's here, that can't be good news. He leaned forward, dipping down his thumping head. Then again, she's still alive, so it can't be too bad.

Warily, the boy got to his feet. The living room was dark, blinds shut, but light flooded in from the kitchen area. Apart from the audible tapping of rain from outside, Dib heard voices, and even a bit of what sounded like music. He crept his way across the area and into the apparently more lively room.

Dib was somewhat surprised to find his own sister sitting at the rounded dining table, plate in front of her stacked with peculiar-smelling waffles. Besides the stack sat GIR, undisguised and shoveling bacon and toast into his metallic mouth with loud dramatized slurping sounds. The music was coming from a small radio plugged in over on the counter, one he recognized from Gaz's desk back home, and it was tuned in to some rock station that the girl favored. Stepping into the warm and inviting room, he saw Gaz glance up. Even with her scarred face, her eyes seemed much brighter than usual, honey rather than an icy amber.

"About time! I was gonna wake you up, but I figured you could really use some beauty sleep."

She smirked, and Dib responded with a sheepish smile. "If you keep picking at your scabs, you're going to end up as the one who needs it more than I do."

He half expected the girl to throw something at him, or at least shoot a glare, but she just rolled her eyes. It was pretty true, after all. Dib was pretty sure it was a nervous habit, because through the night, the girl seemed to have picked at her face quite a bit. Some of the gashes looked like they'd recently bled and were healing over again. Feeling his stare, Gaz flushed a little and poked at her waffles with a fork. "I can't help it. At least I'm not slitting my wrists."

"Yet." Dib gave a little smile, if not only for his sibling's rare average attitude. "So, who did you kill to make you this happy?"

Gaz snorted. She stabbed a waffle with the fork and picked it up, letting it splat right on the ground beside her with oozing syrup. Dib watched her, eyebrows raised curiously, until he saw Tak's clawed hand reach out from under the table and snatch the food. Loud chewing noises followed. Was it his own eyes, or did Tak suddenly have black sleeves? Black, worn-out trench coat sleeves? Gaz just smiled, nibbling on her own piece with not much interest. Shaking his head and trying to ignore the fact that Tak was wearing his coat, Dib took a seat, cautiously keeping his feet away from the seemingly hungry alien.

"So... what's up?" Dib rested an arm on the table, patting GIR on the head and earning a cheerful squeak. "I mean, I wasn't really expecting you. Especially after..." He hesitated and lowered his voice. "...My behavior."

"Forget it." Gaz looked down. She stared at her plate for a moment and then raised her head, expression brightening considerably. "Oh! You're not gonna believe it!"

"...What?"

The girl scooted her chair back and sat down her fork, getting on her knees to dive under the table. Dib opened his mouth to warn her that it probably wasn't the best idea, but she emerged unscathed a moment later, dragging up Tak by the Irken's chest and underarms the way a small child might hold up a cat. Tak just stared at Dib blankly, syrup running down her mouth and antennae flicking slightly.

Dib stared back at the unresponsive alien, not sure if he was suppose to observe or have a staring contest. "...Uh. Yea, that would be Tak."

"Well, say hello!" Gaz urged, huffing. "I can't hold her all day, she weighs the same as me!"

The boy was going to insist that he really, really didn't want anything to do with Tak, but thinking about Gaz's nearly-cheerful attitude won him over. He sighed, bending forward a bit. "...Hi, Tak."

"Hi."

Dib blinked, straightening up. If he hadn't seen the Irken's mouth move, he wouldn't have believed she'd spoken at all. But she had indeed. He could never forget that recognizable, accented voice. Even if it did sound rather monotone. Gaz was even more impressed than he was, grinning widely for the first time he'd seen in ages. She gave the alien a hug, receiving only a blink in response. "She's learning to talk again!"

"Hi."

Tak's tongue lolled out of her mouth, waffle sap leaking from her partially-opened jaw and onto Gaz's striped arm stockings. If the girl noticed, she didn't care, only beaming further. "Isn't that great?"

The girl let Tak drop. The Irken stayed at her feet, staring up with large, emotionless eyes, almost as if questioning why she was let go. "Hihihi."

Dib grimaced. "Is that all she can say? Because that's going to drive me crazy."

"...Well. Yea, for now." She placed a hand on Tak's head. The Irken let out a tiny disgruntled noise in the back of her throat, but didn't react much more. "But Zim says that it's a sign of progress."

"It is."

The magenta-eyed alien himself entered the room, wig and contacts on. He avoided Dib's form, eyes instead scanning over Tak and Gaz. He clawed at his chin. "She reacts well to you, Gaz-human. Feel very grateful." He passed the male human, approaching the other alien with interest. Dib glanced down under the table to watch Tak's reaction, slightly annoyed to find that Gaz had indeed covered her in one of Dib's old coats. She hissed a little, crouching against Gaz's legs. Zim's lower jaw stuck out slightly in his usual thoughtful manor. "Hmm. Perhaps Zim brings her discomfort. This is both good and bad. If she has familiarity, she's likely to trigger some sort of memory."

"So, is she injured, or just dumb?" Dib spoke up almost eagerly, hoping to cure Zim's calmly hidden irritation.

The Irken answered without looking back. "Neither. Or, well, both. If I had to pick one, it'd be injured." He placed his hands on his sides. "I was able to examine her when she was brought in. Her PAK is damaged. Claw marks." He frowned at the defensive Irken girl, who had managed to stop glaring at Zim long enough to nibble at Gaz's knee-high socks.

"Claw marks?" Gaz glanced down. So the marks on the PAK she'd seen before were some sort of wounds. She moved her foot back a little when Tak attempted to gnaw on her socked foot.

"Mmhmm." Zim's false gray eyes narrowed. "At first, Zim couldn't figure out what they could be from. Maybe a fight, a crash, some sort of incident. But Tak's escape pod couldn't have stopped at any other planet, because it's not designed to actually fly. Just, you know, make quick escapes." He crossed his arms. "So, assuming Tak did float around for several years, and she didn't have anything to support herself at all, running purely on excess PAK energy..." He stopped abruptly, pursing his lips.

"...Yea?" Gaz scowled, staring at him expectantly. Even Dib was a bit curious at where this was heading.

Zim just gave a loud sigh. "Look, to put it simply, PAKs are very high-maintenance. They can't run for excessively long periods of time without being rested or recharged or whatever. As smeets, we use to be told stories about how invaders would be driven to insanity because they simply refused to take care of themselves, getting trapped on enemy planets without any source of Irken technology. Tak might have been able to drain power from the pod for a little while, but definitely not two, let alone five years. My guess is that she simply was too stubborn to hibernate herself, so to speak, and forced her PAK to it's extreme. In other words, she drove herself crazy. Or, well, crazier."

There was a long moment of silence. Then, quietly, Dib asked, "The scratches?"

Zim looked a little sheepish. "My guess is that, after a while, Tak simply couldn't take it and tried to claw off her PAK. Obviously unsuccessfully." He glanced back down at the Irken in question, who had taken into staring absently at the opposing wall. "Perhaps she was too weak, and her already-damaged PAK just decided to sleep. It's an oddity, but it happens."

"Then why couldn't you figure it out sooner?" Dib gave a pursed frown.

"Well, I've never actually seen it for myself," Zim replied harshly, bitterly watching the other alien. "Incidents have been reported, rare, but they have. When it happens, however, the Irken's PAK is immediately confiscated or just shut down, depending on where they are. Tak here is too far away from Irk for them to track her and her PAK status."

He stopped talking abruptly after the sentence, like he had planned on continuing but suddenly changed his mind. The male Irken scowled thoughtfully at the other alien, who had become annoyed with Gaz for moving her foot away and started to chatter, staring up at the girl with some intense purpose that she just couldn't get out in actual words. Gaz's mouth formed a wavy line and she patted Tak on the head, who merely went silent and stared back at her upon contact. "So... Those noises she made just now. It's like she's trying to talk."

"Maybe she is," Zim responded flatly. "Either way, she's trying to get your attention, and starting to think and feel again. Which is probably bad for us, and good for Tak."

Tak's antennae quivered slightly, and she turned her head in Zim's direction. "Hi."

Dib groaned, shaking his head. "Quit encouraging her." Gaz glared at him, silently sending the message that Tak was suppose to be encouraged, before the other female began gnawing on her knee. Sticky leftover syrup was drying out on the alien's shirt, and worse, Dib's coat, which made the boy glower. "And why is she wearing my clothes? That was the coat Dad gave me for my ninth birthday!"

"Oh, please. You never wear it anymore." Gaz lightly tried to shove Tak away with a socked foot, but the Irken just rolled over onto her back and clung onto the other's leg, making clicking sounds as she gnawed on the skin. It wasn't rough, but even her non-hostile claws and teeth were sharp enough that Dib saw his sister wince momentarily. She recovered just as quickly, however, and reached down to try and get Tak to let go. "How else was I suppose to get her here in the rain?"

Dib raised an eyebrow. From the table, GIR, who had been quiet for a while, suddenly screamed, "RAIN, RAIN, GO TO BAY, COME N SWING ANOTHER DAY..."

"GIR!" Zim had flinched when the robot suddenly raised his voice, and did nothing to cover it like Gaz had with Tak's rather playful attack. In fact, he looked much more tired than Dib felt, and ten times as cranky. The SIR unit stared at him with large orbs, single antenna drooping sadly, but Zim didn't show any signs of remorse. He immediately switched back to the topic, addressing Gaz once more. "...Which was an extremely stupid move. Next time, you will use Tak's hologram."

"Okay," Gaz responded simply. A moment of silence followed before she continued, "Well, uh, can I... have it, then?"

Zim blinked a few times. "...Oh. Err, right. Of course. Heh heh. Zim might be needing a recharge himself." He nodded dismissively, crossing his arms. "...Which is probably what he will go do now. He'll be late for school today. Don't wait up."

"...School? Seriously?" Dib felt like banging his head on the table. School was the last thing on his mind at the moment. He sighed and glanced up at Gaz, who was staring down at the Irken chewing on her leg with a sideways frown. "...Are you going?"

Gaz took a moment of silence before responding, feeling both the males in the room staring at her. Defensively, she snapped, "Why are you both staring at me like I'm a freak show? I might go, I might not, okay?"

"Geez, Gaz. I was just asking. Calm down."

"Perhaps it would be best not to hassle the Gaz-monster," Zim suggested. When gaining a rude glare from Dib, an antenna flicked and he continued, "S-She is welcome to stay with her Tak pet, but if she does decide to go, she'll have to lock Tak in one of the empty storage rooms downstairs. Either way, Zim is going to shut down for a few hours."

Gaz's expression was blank as she continued prodding at Tak's head, the Irken in question nipping at the human's fingers when they got too close to her mouth. GIR, seeming to have forgotten his master's bad attitude, giggled and started chomping down on the remaining soggy waffles. And Dib, feeling trapped in some sort of awkward bubble, gave the standing alien a sort of sideways look. "Bad sleep? Me too." He forced a light laugh. "Especially after last night, eh?"

Zim completely disregarded the boy's comment, turning on the spot and walking to the trashcan-disguised elevator with his hands behind his back. Dib mentally scolded himself and entwined his fingers, leaning back on his chair and closing his eyes.

Of course, Gaz was not going to let him have peace. "...What did you two do last night?"

"Watched TV," Dib hissed quietly, cracking one eye open to peek at his sister. Gaz had pursed lips, eyebrows raised. Feeling his face warm up, the boy retorted, "What did you do last night?"

"...Slept?" Gaz huffed. "Then Tak woke me up and said 'hi' so I dragged her over here. I thought she was going to bite my hands off."

Glancing down to see Tak ripping at a piece of waffle GIR had dropped, Dib believed it. He groaned, sensing a future migraine as he stood up and pushed his chair in. "What time is it?"

"Uh... five thirty?"

Another groan.

"Wake me up in an hour." Dib trudged out of the room, letting out a deep yawn and falling back on the couch. In the back of his mind, something was unsettling him; maybe it was loathing toward Tak, or protective thoughts about his sibling. Gaz might have thought herself capable of anything, and she was as stubborn as Dib himself, but deep down the boy knew that it was just an act. What if Tak decided to strike again? And without either of the boys around? Dib shivered and curled in a ball, burying his face into the sofa.

The last thought he had before drifting to sleep was something about Zim.

Yay! Tak's getting her smarts back, sorta! Will Gaz go to school to continue her smarts, too? Will Dib ever man up and stop bitching around? Will I ever figure out what I just said? Who knows!

Question of the Day:

Weirdest appealing couple? Maybe two characters that don't have much/any interaction with each other that you think would make an awesome couple? Or at least an interesting one? Hey, feel free to leave your answer, I might look into it! Have a wonderful week, I'm sure I will!