Hey all. So you might want to keep a box of tissues nearby, just in case. Don't expect this to be a happy chapter. Heck, even I was surprised. See, I don't do outlines for my stories, although I really should. No brainstorming, no chicken-foot diagram, no planning. All my stories start with one initial idea, and I build on them as I go. I never planned to kill Angra way back in the day, I never even thought of Chai until I started that chapter. I also did not plan this chapter to be so sad. So please, don't read this if you get sad easily. Also, if I get flames, I'll simply report it. I don't need to get messages from childish idiots.

Thanks to most of you for being patient! Review like adults, please.

-Juana

Chapter Twenty-Five: Love Really is a Battle Field

Once again aboard the Massive, Miyuki found herself truly shocked to see just how many of her own soldiers were locked away in tight, overcrowded prison cells. Her children cried out to her, making threats at her capturers, trying in vain to break out of their cramped captivity and defend her. But it was useless. The Massive's Irken prisons were contained within giant orbs of blue energy, sending anyone who tried to escape a good zap through their system, disabling them for a harsh, lingering moment. Each time she passed a prison orb, several Irkens went limp instantly.

Miyuki allowed herself to weep as she walked by, knowing she would never get the chance to do so again. And once more, she found herself back in the Great Hall, where the crucifix-like circuit boards had been re-set-up a second time, ready to claim her life. Struggling to see through her tears, Miyuki found that Zim was already strapped to one circuit board, as well as Mara. The third circuit board was empty, waiting for the ex-queen of Irk of to occupy it.

She walked past several thousand soldiers, all of whom glared at her with contemptuous eyes and hardened faces. As soon as she reached the crucifix, she looked up at it with big, frightened eyes and whispered to it,

"You may be able to take my life, but my story will live in infamy across the universe."

"All right, you crazy old bat, get up there," growled a slightly taller-than-most Irken, pushing her towards the circuit board, "Your time is up."

Miyuki obeyed sadly, never having felt so dead in her life. She closed her eyes as several little Irkens strapped her into the board, then jumped off to see how they had done.

Anyone who had ever read the Bible before would be shocked by the similarities Miyuki possessed of the great human the Great Hidden Creator had sent to earth. Miyuki was no holy figure, but her expression, her eyes, told them that she was heart-broken by the extreme lengths of betrayal her own people had gone to get rid of her. Almost as though her eyes could speak, several of the Irkens found themselves wanting to release her, along with her two companions.

Dib, who had read the Bible many times, saw the similarities instantly, and found he was almost shocked by it. He wondered if this was going to be anything like the Bible's story of the crucified human who died and rose again. He figured he would have to wait three days to find out.

Dib was up on the stage with the Tallest, held by Tak and Keef, both of whom aimed large guns at his head. Tak looked only a little determined to witness the death of Zim, who was staring at the ceiling and wishing for it to all end quickly. He had never felt so tired of something in all his life. He looked over at the stage and gave Dib a sad smile, then said loudly,

"I guess you won't be able to take me back to the Earth authorities, huh?" Most of the Irkens around him looked up and tried to comprehend out what he was referring to. Dib returned the sad smile and said,

"I guess not. I didn't want to turn you in anyway. So we both win." Zim laughed a little, then said,

"This is the end. Dib, make sure that bastard Purple doesn't hurt Chai. I know he wants to use her. Don't let him do anything to her, promise me."

"I promise, Zim. She—"

"Belongs to me now, I'm afraid." Zim looked to the left to see Purple, who was walking across the stage towards Tak, Keef and Dib. He had his clawed hand tightly gripped on Chai's shoulder. It was clear she had been sobbing. At the sight of her in distress, Zim hissed,

"Don't you dare hurt her, or I'll—"

"You'll what? You're strapped to a circuit board; you're going to be executed. D'ya honestly think your threats can scare me?"

Zim, lost for words and too angry to care, simply glared daggers at him until Red came to the stage, ready to begin the end of Zim's life.

"Fellow Irkens! We have finally captured the criminals Miyuki and Zim, as well as many others who have made our lives so miserable. The first time we tried this, we had only those two here, but now we have Mara, who, we have discovered, has broken one of the most important rules or our society. She has fallen in love with an alien specie! A worthless human . . . thing!"

The sarcastic outrage in his own voice infested the crowd, who began to hiss and shout Irken curses at Mara, who kept her head up high and ignored the verbal onslaught. Zim growled as he noticed that Purple was stroking Chai's antennae, who winced at each touch.

"It was one very special soldier here tonight that led us to our victory over the rebels, and that is the newest Invader, Invader Tak!" Everyone began to cheer for Tak, who beamed only a little, not as into the celebration as she thought she would have been. However, in their excitement, the Tallest failed to notice.

"Now, before the Resisty has a chance to accidentally crash into our ship again," Purple joked, making the crowd laugh, "let's get this execution underway! Any last words, defects?"

"Yeah," said a voice behind him, "It's over." And with that, before Purple could even turn to see her, Tak shot a hole right through his chest, killing him instantly. Chai screamed out as her eyes darted over to Tak, who glared at the now-dead body of Tallest Purple. Red collapsed to his knees in horror, having not expected this in the least. He didn't even order his men to protect him and capture Tak. All he said was,

"Why?"

Tak turned her attention to him, and mocked his voice,

"Why? Why? Why do we do anything? Why do we care? You want to know why? Because I loved him, that's why. But he never noticed me, never saw me as anything but another slave to the Irken machine. Just like you. Just like every other PATHETIC, USELESS, SELF-ABSORBED IRKEN IN THIS ROOM! And you all know it! You know it because I know it! We all think alike, we all have the same boring ambitions, we're just clones of each other, and nothing more! We have nothing to live for except what our leaders WANT us to be! I don't care if Miyuki wants to be different, I don't care if Zim is a defect, I don't care about what you're all thinking of me, because IT'S NOTHING NEW!"

The Great Hall was filled with cameras, and each and every one of them was recording Tak's speech. So it was no surprise when several angry deep voices filled the room, coming not from the actual crowd of Irkens below her.

"You dare defy your own people?" Tak whirled around every which way, looked at the ceiling, the floor, the walls, the middle of the room and yelled back,

"YES! YES I DO DEFY MY OWN LEADERS! AND THERE'S NOTHING A FEW LIVING BRAINS CAN DO ABOUT IT!"

"How dare you, you worthless little creature! Do you know who you are speaking to?"

"YES! BUT WHO ELSE KNOWS THE TRUTH, HUH? COME ON, WHO ELSE?!"

The crowd of Irkens, including Miyuki, Mara and Zim, shrugged, indicating to Tak they clearly had no idea what the truth was.

"THE TRUTH IS THAT OUR LEADER BRAINS ARE JUST THE BRAINS OF THE FIRST TALLEST TO EVER LIVE, SCARED THAT AFTER THEIR DEATHS, THEY WOULD BE FORGOTTEN, AND THEIR OWN RACIST, PREJUDICE WAYS WOULD DIE WITH THEM. WE'VE BEEN TAKING ORDERS FROM DEAD PEOPLE FOR OVER EIGHTY MILLION YEARS, PEOPLE!"

The shock in the crowd was overwhelming. Even Miyuki had not known this. People were outraged and began to denounce the brains, screaming out their anger at having lost so much potential, so much happiness. Red shook his shock off and instantly realized that he was not going to win this one. He slowly rose to his feet, then, as it hit him that he was going to be destroyed, grabbed Tak's gun from her and shot her in the head. Miyuki screamed as the small Invader dropped to her knees and died.

Red, ignoring the screams of Chai and Keef, who were now clutching each other so close that Zim should have been jealous, leapt off the stage and onto Miyuki's circuit board, prepared to kill her as well. But before he could shoot, Miyuki's binding straps fell loose, allowing her to fall to the floor and out of harm's way. Red growled, knowing that she had been freed by the newly enlightened Irkens, and saw that Mara had also been quickly freed. The only one still strapped was Zim. There seemed to be a problem with the wires—the crowd couldn't get him loose.

His face glowing with hatred, Red leapt onto Zim's circuit board and ripped off the binding cords that bound the little Irken to them, then grabbed Zim and leapt toward the ceiling, where a hover pad flew by, giving Red the opportunity to jump onto it, clutching Zim in his right arm, the gun pressed against his head. The crowd below roared angrily and began to chase after the hover pad. Miyuki ran with them, desperate to rescue her soldier before it was too late.

Red landed in a quiet deserted room and slammed the butt of the gun into Zim's head, knocking the Irken down but not out. Red dropped the gun, slammed and locked the doors, then turned his attention back to Zim. Grabbing his antennae and drawing Zim's face close to his, he hissed,

"You worthless little defect. Everything is ruined. You and your little renegades, you destroyed the glory of the Irken empire!" His clawed hand sliced through Zim's uniform; Zim cried out as blood sputtered and hit Red's uniform. Red dug his claws into Zim's cheeks and hissed,

"My life is destroyed. My people betray me, my best friend is dead, and it's ALL YOUR FAULT!" He smashed his fist into Zim's jaw. Zim coughed and spat blood and a few teeth out before he replied calmly,

"It was bound to happen sometime, Red. You and I both knew it. Eventually, someone was going to crack. I'm happy it was Tak." At these words, Red gave Zim a small, harsh beating, blood spattering everywhere.

"Fight BACK! Fight me, you little freak!" Zim answered,

"No. I promised I wouldn't use violence. It solves nothing."

"It gains EVERYTHING! FIGHT ME!" Zim refused again, and received another beating. He did not allow himself to scram, but he did whimper and cry. The beating become worse and worse, every slam of Red's fist getting increasingly harder and more painful. But still Zim refused to scream or fight back. Red was beginning to get aggravated. This was not the Irken way to handle a situation. Both sides needed to fight for it to be fair, but Zim refused. The little Irken looked up at Red, bleeding, bruising, even developing a black-eye, and said, almost as innocent as a child,

"I feel really bad for you."

That was it. No one felt bad for an Irken, let alone a mighty Irken leader. Red grabbed the gun off the floor and aimed it at Zim's head, ready to fire . . .

A loud crashing thundered from the other side of the room. The crowd from the Great Hall was trying to get in. Red knew he was a dead man no matter what happened, so he decided to wait for them to enter the room so they could witness his final murder. Several crashes, bangs and even explosions were heard, until the door cracked open and hit the floor with a thunderous metallic thud. Hundreds of Irkens poured into the room, thousands more outside in the halls, were growling and hissing at Red as he grabbed Zim and held him close, nearly suffocating him in his death grip. Miyuki was carried to the front in the crowd's angry desperation. Once she was set down, she glared at Red and hissed,

"Release him." Red snorted and replied,

"You honestly think I would do that just because you're angry?'

"I'm beyond angry, Red. I'm furious. Let him go." This only made Red choke Zim a little harder. Zim couldn't even attempt to make any kind of sound. He could only watch the scene play out helplessly. Miyuki could see the fear in his eyes and said to Red,

"There is no need to kill anyone else. Tak is dead. She knew it was going to happen."

Red shot back angrily,

"Purple is dead, too, you old fool. Death is the only way to solve this!" Miyuki shook her head and answered,

"No, it isn't. You think killing a few people is going to make everyone worship you again? These people have finally chosen what they wanted, it's time you stepped down and did something different with your life." Red pressed the gun against Zim's head and growled,

"That isn't going to work. I know they want to kill me, Miyuki, I know they want revenge. I know I am going to die today. But I'm not going to die without taking this little freak with me!"

"That little freak is my child, and if you don't release him, you will be destroyed slowly and painfully."

"What does that mean, your 'child'?" spat Red. "What on Irk does that possibly mean?"

"The Irkens you consider defective, Red. That was all my doing. I programmed them like that, I saved them from becoming conformists, from becoming like you. They are the way all people, of all races, should be. Compassionate, gentle, open-minded, capable of love, non-violent and best of all, imperfect. They are my children, and I created them. Not your brains, not your military's brain-washing methods, not the harsh training. Me. They can think for themselves, something you never learned to do."

Red's death grip on Zim tightened ever so slightly as the Irken leader listened to Miyuki's words. They were all true, and he knew it. But he never cared, he had never once thought about freedom, at least, not the freedom his people took away from other civilizations. He liked the Irken race being submissive to the higher powers, he liked being important, and he loved the attention it brought him.

And nothing, NOTHING this old has-been woman said would ever change his mind.

Red glanced down at Zim and hissed,

"You . . . . do you know how much time and monies Purple and I have wasted on getting rid of you? To ensure the destruction that you always seemed to escape at the last moment? Do you know how much we hate you?" Zim coughed and said nothing until Red allowed him some room to breathe.

"Of course I do," he wheezed, "Why else would I put so much effort into driving you insane?"

Red smashed the butt of the gun into Zim's head once more, this time nearly killing him. Miyuki shouted at him to stop the violence, while Zim hung limply in Red's arms, blood dripping from his lower jaw. Red was about to give the final blow, but stopped himself when he heard the high-pitched, squeaky voice of the human creature growing closer to the front of the crowd.

"ZIM?! Zim, where is he!? Is he okay? Is he— oh God." Dib came to a halt nearly at Red's feet, who glared down at the little human with hateful, contemptuous eyes. Dropping the dying body of Zim on the cold steel floor, Red reached down and grabbed Dib by the hair, pulling him closer to kill him, but it almost all happened too fast: as Red dragged the frightened, resisting Dib closer, several shots went off somewhere above them, all hitting Red in the head and PAK, killing him instantly. Dib screamed as a shot hit his arm. Blood spurted out, painting the fallen leader his appropriate color in both name and nature.

Tallest Red, leader of the Irken Empire, was dead.

For a moment, the weight of the death hung in the air silently, thickly covering the crowd with unsure disbelief. No one was sure they were able to believe it until Miyuki moved forward to lift both Zim and Dib into her strong arms. She cradled them softly for only a moment before calling for medics to assist her. Several Irken drones came running to her aid, setting to work on the two soldiers.

Miyuki looked up at the ceiling and gave a soft smile to the snipers above: Mara, Skoodge, and, to her surprise, the memory-impaired Chai. They all watched the medics work on Zim with determined yet frightened eyes. Miyuki gave her a little nod and turned back to the medics. Several minutes went by. The medics patched Dib up quickly, unable to heal his wound without the use of a pod, but they continued on Zim for a while, with the crowd waiting for some kind of update on his condition.

The medics suddenly stopped their work on Zim. Everyone leaned in a little closer, Miyuki included, before a tiny gasp from above alerted everyone of the result. Chai's gasp was followed by Miyuki's, Dib's, Skoodge's and Mara's, which then was followed by the combined gasps of the huge crowd below and around them.

Zim was dead.

Miyuki began to sob and covered her face, while Chai jumped down from her place above and grabbed his little body, screaming and crying into his neck, begging for him to wake up. Dib dropped to his knees in stunned silence—nothing could kill that little alien. Why now? He hadn't even been shot to death. How could this happen?

The crowd of Irkens before them began to wiggle their antennae in salute to the great soldier who had died for the cause he believed in. Miyuki grabbed Chai and wrapped her long arms around her sobbing soldier and her dead child, who looked so peaceful, as though he knew he had not died in vain.

The night was cold and dark, filled with either silence or sobbing and occasional screams of grief. There had been so much death this day, and in the days past. But it was over. The war was finally over. The brain-washed Irkens had been enlightened by Tak, who was also grieved by many, including Miyuki, Chai and Mara. Even Dib found himself saddened by her death.

Days passed. Proper arrangements had been made to return Dib and Keef back to Earth, as well as Mara, who wished to remain with Dib. Tak and Zim's bodies had been put in their final resting places. Dib remembered Zim's request to be taken to the Earth authorities to prove his sanity, but Dib refused to allow it. He wanted Zim to be with his own people, not on an autopsy table millions of miles away from home.