Chapter 21: Pain

After being crushed by a Tallest and nearly eaten alive by zombies, Lard Nar was running. Running as fast as his little Vortian feet would take him. Where was he running? At first, in a panic of course, he'd aimed to find some way out of this hellhole before the zombies returned to finish the job, watching the walls with wide fearful eyes for any sign of an exit. But as time went on, and he calmed down a bit, he decided he would go find Tallest Black.

He wasn't entirely sure what he should do with her - kill her, take her hostage (except no one would want to pay ransom for a creature bent on wiping out the Universe), or strike up a deal with her about just wiping out the Irkens and leaving the "superior" races to take up their mantle. He knew such a plan would probably bite him as hard in the ass as one of her zombies would, but it was always a possibility. Couldn't count any possibility out. And if push came to shove, he could always double cross her and stab her in the back - metaphorically or literally.

Hell, he could always sell her, her zombies, and the entire Irken race to the Planet Jackers. Zombies would burn good. Irkens would sizzle. The Universe would rejoice. And he would be filthy stinking rich on top of it all. He could buy himself a new ship and hire new crew members and.. well, they wouldn't be the Resisty anymore since the Irkens would be sun-food, but maybe he could go around stealing from the rich to give to the poor, an intergalactic Robin Hood in an ironically fancy spaceship.

Or just buy the freedom of every goddamn Vortian out there, if there were even any left. Maybe he could rebuild Vort while he was at it..

Had he been paying attention to the hallways rather than laughing to himself about his not-so-diabolical schemes, he would have seen a lone zombie plodding along, focused on the bag of chips in its hands. And had the zombie been paying attention to the hallways instead of mindlessly munching on its snack, it could have stepped aside before Lard Nar ended up plowing headlong into it. As it was, both zombie, Vortian, and bag of chips ended up toppling noisily to the floor.

"Why don't you look where you're- oh.." His few seconds of rage were easily quashed by slowly rising panic, and he got up, trying to appear dominant, standing his ground. "Now, see here, you- you- you undead Irken scumbag! I'm on very important Resisty business here, and you happen to be in my way!"

The zombie, whose forehead was marked with what appeared to be the word "STUPID" in black marker, only slowly turned its head toward the fallen bag of chips, dull black eyes blinking once before it slowly looked up at Nar. The look made him feel rather uncomfortable, like a wounded puppy staring helplessly at him.

"Snacks." It said simply.

The Resisty leader huffed and kicked the bag aside - he'd have picked it up to eat it himself, but gods only knew what sort of things were in Irken-made foods. "Fetch, then, if you want that inedible crap so badly." He snorted, crossing his arms and watching the thing expectantly.

The zombie blinked again, then it gave him a more insistent look, accompanied by an insistent tone. "Snacks."

"They're right there. Go on, boy, go get them." His own tone was like talking to a very retarded dog, assuming the creature wouldn't be able to pick up on it. It was named Stupid, after all - that doesn't exactly scream of high intelligence.

Slowly it glanced toward the bag again, reaching out for it. Its hand hesitated, and both of them watched a spider crawl over one of the chips that had spilled out from the second assault on the bag. Stupid's antennae lowered pathetically, and it drew its hand back as if the spider had bitten it. Lard Nar had been somewhat expecting it to eat the spider instead, and was a little disappointed at this sudden show of weakness.

When the zombie glanced up at him again, however, he found he missed the hurt puppy look. Its dead black eyes narrowed, and it drew back its lips into a snarl, revealing a few too many pointed teeth. It uttered a deep, animalistic growl, shifting in its spot on the floor so that it was hunkering down, preparing to spring like some predatory beast. Quite the change from the mindless and almost cute appearance of earlier, to be sure.

"Whoa, hey now, no need to get upset.." He was backing away now, slowly, hands up in surrender, trying to appear as non-confrontational as possible to keep from having those zombie fangs in his head. "You can always get more snacks later, it's not like that was the last bag of chips on the whole damn ship, you know..?"

"Special." Was the only reply.

Had he been less scared out of his wits, he'd have given a snarky response to that - as it was, he uttered a loud, somewhat girlish scream and ran like hell in the way he'd come from, thinking Stupid was right behind him, snapping at his heels. Ran as fast as his little Vortian feet would take him, ignoring all the earlier plans and just looking for somewhere to hide or escape this hellhole before his brain became zombie chow.

The zombie in question, however, hadn't sprung at all. Once Nar was gone, it promptly stopped snarling and settled back down on the floor, sighing softly as it reached over into the bag, pulling out a handful of chips and the spider.

"Gift.. ruined.." It muttered, stuffing chips and arachnid into its mouth to chew sullenly. "Eat him next."

He was alone again.

Ordinarily he would go back to rejoicing and whatnot for this fact, as it still meant he had no Zim to deal with.. but he was still wounded. Vulnerable. Easy prey if the zombies found him again. Hardly in any condition to be getting up and dancing, especially now that his hover belts were broken again. One of the zombies must have bitten them during the frenzy..

Which was why he was now dragging himself along the floor like his legs were broken, leaving a lovely little trail of blood along behind him where it had seeped out of the other Irken's attempt at bandages and soaked his robes. It was pathetic, really. He could have gotten up and staggered along easily, as his legs were the least damaged.. but whenever he tried, a surge of dizziness and nausea swept over him, and he was forced to stay down. Even lifting his head up too far would get the same effect.

And the pain.. oh god, the pain. At first his injuries were still numbed, and he was making good time in his crawling - across two halls at least. But then that feeling wore off. Suddenly his body had exploded in immense pain, a hell of a lot worse than when he'd first been attacked, and for the next few minutes after that he was stopped dead in the middle of a hallway, curling up in a fetal position and trying not to cry. It was like he'd eaten one of the zombies and it was still "alive", trying to claw its way out of him.

He felt like he was going to die.

But he had to get to the bridge.. had to stop her.. had to end this, once and for all.. even if it was the last thing he did..

Purple stifled a soft whimper and forced himself onward, antennae pinned tightly against his head. He was somewhat glad he was alone, the more he thought about it - Red wouldn't want to see him like this. Hell, even Zim might be concerned. But then the little bastard might also try to finish him off while he couldn't fight back.. all it would take would be a few strikes with a PAK leg, or a few well-placed shots of water...

Perhaps he HAD been alone too long. He'd started to think of the rest of his "team" as enemies just as much as the zombies were..

.. maybe it was just because he hadn't found them yet...

The ship was barren, at least the part he was crawling helplessly in. The only sounds he could hear were the groans of the hull and his own labored breathing, the damp scratching of his bloody robes being dragged along the floor, the scritching of his claws in the tile, and a soft sound in the ceiling he assumed were the emergency lights. He would have thought he'd have found SOMEONE by now.. but then he wasn't going very fast or far.. perhaps he just hadn't made it to where they were, yeah..

He had no idea how long he'd been crawling along like this. He'd lost all track of time, and the pain was getting worse... burning, aching... he wasn't sure how much more he could stand...

.. maybe he should just give up..

At the same time he thought of that, he realized the material of the floor he was dragging himself across was different. The place was still barren and empty, of course, but after a moment or two, he realized he'd managed to plop himself right in the bridge.

But where was Black? Where were the advisors? Where were the technicians? Something about the whole set up felt very, very wrong..

A long, motionless shape caught his eye, the one thing in this room of emptiness. It looked vaguely Irken..

Without hesitation he hauled himself toward it, at first thinking it was going to be Black or one of her zombies lying in wait, then something more horrible.. once he was close enough, however.. that more horrible thought started to look true.. hesitantly he gripped an icy shoulder and rolled the creature over on its back, unable to stifle a horrified gasp.. lifeless red eyes stared up at him.. the body was riddled with more wounds than himself, blood long since stilled.. there was no chance in hell he could have survived all that damage..

Red was dead.

Again.

"Why did you have to go off and try to kill her yourself, you stupid bastard..?" Tears welled up in his eyes, and he moved to smack the corpse, but his hand faltered, and he ended up collapsing on top of its bloody chest instead. "Why did you leave me like this..?" His voice was muffled and choked with tears, tears that had already started to pour out of his eyes, soaking the thing where blood hadn't already soaked.

His heart was breaking, and once again he felt like he was going to die..

A voice cut through the sound of his sobs like a poisonous lance, and he froze against the corpse, a chill running up his spine.

"Aww, how touching."

He heard the vague whirr of hover belts approaching him and his fallen co-leader, and immediately he snapped up on all fours, head whipping toward her, nevermind the surge of dizziness that came with the motion. His lips were pulled back in an attempt at a snarl, though there was still more sorrow than rage in his eyes, trying helplessly to stop crying in the face of danger. "You.. you killed him.."

Black blinked, then laughed, hovering up until there was a foot between them, grinning her son's grin. "Why yes, yes I did. And you know what?" She leaned in close, as though to kiss him or bite his face off, whichever came first. "It was easy."

Without a second thought Purple suddenly snarled and launched his wounded body at her, only to end up slamming face-first into the floor. He heard her laughing at him as he struggled to push himself up on all fours again, coughing up more blood. Before he could attempt another pitiful attack, her boot slammed into his side hard enough to send him sailing across the dais, where he struck the railing full-force and slumped to the floor. Seconds later her claws were around his throat, and she was grinning down at him again.

"You didn't think it would be that simple, did you? Just waltz in here, take me out, have your happy little Empire back? I'm not going anywhere, you hear me?" Her grip tightened, and he found it hard to breathe, blood dribbling down his chin. The tears had stopped, but she could still see them in his eyes, and for some reason they infuriated her, as she snarled and slammed him up against the railing again, hard, a soft wheeze replacing any sound of pain. "Pathetic! You, your mate, your entire race, absolutely PATHETIC!"

Purple just wheezed again, Tallest-issue PAK legs slowly easing out of his PAK as his claws hooked onto her arm. He remembered the beginning of this whole situation, her and her strange mind powers.. so he tried to talk to her with his mind rather than his mouth, as he couldn't breathe with the latter. If you get rid of me.. someone else will stop you..

She snorted, her other arm catching the PAK leg aimed for her head before it could hit its mark, and easily tore it in half. "Who? There's no one in the Universe who would DARE challenge me."

The Irkens you haven't wiped out.. the Resistance.. fuck, maybe even something just like you, a slimy monstrosity out to feed on an Empire.. you know what, I like that option best - get your own medicine shoved down your throat, see how YOU like being dismembered and eaten..

Rather that dignify this with a response, she promptly chucked him across the dais again, and this time he ended up colliding with the panels on top of a technician's station, and slid down into another station beneath it to provide himself with some kind of shelter against her, withdrawing the broken PAK leg and folding the rest beneath him. His body burned and ached and throbbed its hardest yet, and he could have sworn something had ruptured in him. All in all it wasn't fair - a half-dead Irken versus whatever the hell she was at full strength.

There had be some way to weaken her..

"My Tallest..?" A voice wondered, and he realized he wasn't alone back here - the technician who was stationed here was still here, and was staring at him oddly. His eyes were strange, half-misted over, as though he was under some kind of spell, but the sight of the wounded Tallest seemed to be breaking it...

Purple immediately snapped a hand over the smaller's mouth, though he was damn sure she already knew where he was anyhow, and pressed a shaking finger to his own lips in the time-honored 'shh' motion. The other nodded obediently, and he let go of him, watching warily for Black. Maybe he could confuse her, buy himself some time.. time to do what, he had no idea.. an idea hit him, and it was bound to fail, but he grabbed the technician and whispered it in his antennae anyway, almost too softly for the poor bastard to hear it.

The technician blinked, and stared at him oddly again. The wounded Tallest just grinned back at him and nodded.

Meanwhile Black was biding her time, waiting for him to try something stupid. She could have easily gone over there and yanked him out, but she wanted to give him a sporting chance. Highly unlikely he'd be able to do anything as he was.. and his scent was delicious. Pain, fear, blood.. an intoxicating aroma.. it made her drool a little.

"Come on, dear.." She purred. "You can't hide from me forever, you know.."

Nothing, then..

"Then come and get me, bitch!" Purple crowed and leapt up onto his feet as well as he could (propping his arms up on the panel before him to keep from toppling over from the resulting dizziness), quite the change from the weak broken thing of earlier. Then he made rude gestures at her with his hands, and pelvic thrusted in her direction. The technician behind him had to stifle the resulting giggle from the last motion.

That.. wasn't entirely what she was expecting. She swept through his mind to find out what the hell he was up to.. and for some reason, couldn't find anything. So instead of calmly moving over to pull him out, she decided to give in to her predatory urges and pounced, aiming to land on top of him. He propelled himself out of range with his PAK legs, and she ended up crashing to the floor - before she had time to react, a slab of something solid slammed upside her head, knocking her back to the floor, presumably unconscious.

The technician put his keyboard back and sighed. "I really hope you're the real Tallest Purple, 'cause if you're not, you just got me a one-way ticket to Deactivationland for assaulting a Tallest."

"It's me, trust me," He said simply, coughing up a bit more blood. Well, now that she was out, perhaps he could drag her down to the crematorium and-

He never got to finish that thought, because something had grabbed the nearest PAK leg, and then he found himself sailing through the air. His body and the railing got reacquainted once he stopped soaring, and a sharp addition to the pain family told him his arm was broken once again by the impact. That was obviously the least of his worries, as he heard hover belts quickly approaching. Claws hooked around his neck again and hoisted him up off the floor, and the change in altitude made him feel faint and the ship around him to blur for a moment. Once his world came back into focus, he found he rather missed only seeing blobs of color - she was absolutely furious.

And her eyes..

He found he couldn't look away from them.. even though it seemed to make the pain inside him worse..

She wasn't saying anything now, though her mouth was moving.. no, wait.. maybe he just couldn't hear anything.. it was all one tone, growing louder the longer he stared into those black eyes.. the pain was growing even worse now, and he started to think that he was going to implode.. yet he just couldn't look away... over her head he noticed the technician was screaming at him, then suddenly blood spurted from his no-longer misted eyes and he fell to the floor..

.. was she trying to do that to him...?

Then the ship finally slammed into the planet's surface, and shuddered and rattled hard as it scooted along the ground.. there had to be some kind of din going on, but all Purple could hear was that one tone.. apparently even the damn thing crash landing hadn't broken her concentration.. finally the ship stopped, and behind her he only vaguely noticed something moving up as sneakily as it could.. things were going blurry again, it was hard to tell..

Something flat and metal struck her in the back of the head, and out of surprise she dropped him, freeing him from that trance just in time for him to hear Zim's voice: "You leave him alone!"

Huh.. apparently the little bastard WOULD care. Neat.

Black laughed her trademark laugh, and then Purple found himself sailing through the air once more - this time he didn't just hit a wall or something, no, this time his body impacted with the reinforced glass panes hard enough to smash a hole through one and hurtle out and down into what appeared to be a desert.. he hadn't enough time to really look at the scenery, as he slammed into the ground, face-first, exactly where some of the shards had fallen, and something fell on top of him, stabbing those shards deeper into his gut. The something, presumably Black, hissed, then he was being dragged away as he heard other, smaller things thudding onto the ground.. and one bigger one..

"Let him go."

Red..?

I still intend to finish this. 8D

This chapter is brought to you by FAIL.

F-A-I-L. It's what's for dinner.