Purple looked at their faces, suddenly overcome with joy. For a few thousand years they had turned the Irken race into an army of emotionless clones, bound by their artificial intelligence to some sort of greater power that was not registered as being something to able to disobey. But now to see free thinking and feeling Irkens was something that both upset and overjoyed Purple. To think that he had anything to do with the degrading and total obliteration of the true Irken species made him sick, but to see that the Old Ways are coming back filled him with pride.
"I want to thank you all. I never thought I'd live to see the Day of Rebellion... I remember how Miyuki used to tell stories of what would happen because of what we were doing, and she was right... about everything. What we did was wrong, but I'm willing to fight with you until it's right again. Whatever happens today happens because it's supposed to, because it's going to change the collective consciousness and turn us back to where we should be. So thank you, for everything. And... I never thought I'd say this, but Zim, thank you for being a nuisance."
Zim smiled sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders. "Heh, yeah, I guess you're welcome... And thank you for understanding... not many people would."
Purple smiled and surveyed the room one last time. "Alright then, grab your weapons, board your ships and let's go take back our pride."
Everyone scrambled out of the room and darted in different directions, leaving the room empty except for Zim and Aneera.
Zim turned to look at the other, feeling his squeedlyspooch drop to the pit of his gut. He walked over to her and pulled her into his arms. "I love you..." He could feel her gently hugging him back. "I know that I haven't always been the best... but I do the best I can." He pulled back to look at her face, hoping that it would make him feel at least a little better.
She smiled up to him and twitched her antennae. "I love you too. And like I told you before, I don't care how imperfect you are. Besides, you'll always be good enough for me."
Ever since Zim had first realized he was defective he became so convinced that those words would be the only thing that could make him happy again, but now that he'd heard them they didn't change the way he felt at all. He could hear his emotions screaming at him, telling him to accept what he's wanted for so many years, but even though he believed it consciously he just couldn't truly feel its worth.
He didn't say anything back, too afraid he'd hurt her feelings with whatever happened to come out of his mouth. He felt so ashamed of himself, he knew that he could never return her love to where it satisfied him, but he couldn't even hardly accept what was given to him. It wasn't pride, he was sure of that, but there was nothing else he could compare his feeling to.
Aneera snapped her fingers in front of his face, bringing him back down to Earth. "You spaced out, what's wrong?"
Zim blinked a few times and let the room come back into focus. "Sorry, I'm just trying to clear my head. I still can't really accept the face that this is all happening."
If the sound of footsteps hadn't interrupted her, Aneera would have continued and prodded the real reason out of him, knowing he wasn't telling her everything. But she knew time was passing by all too quickly for them to squander it, so she gave him one last smile and dragged him out of the room and into the mess of scrambling bodies.
Bryan had been pacing to room for most of the day, answering to nothing and no one for absolutely anything. Right now keeping his thoughts on track with escaping their imprisonment was the one thing he was trying to concentrate on. After finding out just recently that Noah's home planet was about to be destroyed he'd tried to push his brain to work three times as fast without having it completely implode in on itself.
Having absolutely nothing better to do, Noah had been hanging upside down off the edge of the bed, waiting until the rush of blood would cause him to see spots at the very least. He'd been in the position for over an hour and his vision was getting blurry, but he saw no spots.
"You know, if you keep that up you're gonna pass out." Bryan stopped for a moment to make sure the boy was still well enough to at least respond. He did get a faint nod which was plenty good enough for him, so he continued to pace the room.
Eventually Noah gave up and realized that he wasn't going to see spots before he blacked out, so he slid off the bed and went into the other room to get something to eat. Even though there must have been snacks in every corner and on every wall of the room he couldn't seem to fine something to suite his fancy.
He huffed his way to the couch and threw himself onto the cushions, letting out an unnecessarily loud groan of boredom. "Something needs to happen!" he yelled, hoping that some miraculous even would suddenly occur.
Bryan growled, a spur of curses spilling from his lips as he stomped angrily at the ground. "I've gone over everything! Unless the guards just let us out we're screwed!" He flopped onto the couch next to Noah and hissed, his hands tangling in his hair.
There was a loud bang on the door that sounded very unfriendly. "Hey!" yelled a voice, pounding on the door more fiercely. "Red has requested you so get yourselves presentable! Kyruh!"
The two on the couch looked at each other, Bryan instatnly seeing an opening for escape.
As they stood they could hear the guard shuffling around outside the door impatiently. They hurriedly straightened themselves out and made sure they were clean, wanting to make a good impression at least.
Once the two boys were cleaned up and looked as nice as they were going to get they knocked on the door, letting the guard know they were ready. When he opened the door he handcuffed them both and jerked them out of the room, slamming the door shut behind them.
"I don't want either of you getting any ideas, these cuffs will electrocute you within an inch of your lives, if you're lucky." He smirked to himself and gave them another swift jerk, watching as they tensed up in surprise. He laughed deeply and listened to them sneer at him, loving his job. As they headed down the hall there was a loud bang that sounded to their right. It sounded far away, but large.
The group had fled the base and was racing into space, breaking the atmosphere around them. Zim had taken the lead with Zink and Dib flanking him, Purple bringing up the rear with Ara.
They would have been halfway to the Massive minutes ago if they were going faster, but everyone behind Aneera had to compensate for her almost crippled state. Whatever dragon species she was wasn't built for flight on such a densely atmoshpered planet, and the fact that her previously thick, flexible skin between the fingers of her wings had been ripped to shreds and then put back together gave her no advantage.
It never mattered how hard or fast she beat her wings against the resistant air she only seemed to be slowing down. Normally it never would have been painful, but the stray tears that flew from her eyes was enough to tell her that if wasn't able to push herself any farther they might not make it in time.
That thought alone was plenty enough, however, to push her through the last layer of air that surrounded Earth, her body suddenly feeling like half its own weight. She floated for a split second, and the heat from a laser bullet that flew within an inch of her face jerked her back to the present.
The Massive wasn't too far off, two, three minutes tops if they hurried. She yelled, flared her massive wings and bolted forward towards the ship, moving with the speed she was built for. Everyone behind her followed suit and charged the oncoming attackers, effectively shooting down any ship that came within range.
As they passed the moon Dib branched away and joined the ground forces. Zink, who Gaz as co-pilot, split with purple and let Aneera blink out of the vision of the enemy. She sped past the small battle cruisers, sending small sparks at the engines, having them blow to pieces without anyone, including the ignorant pilot, being able to take a second glance at the attacker.
Auzie sat impatiently in the back of her father's ship, watching as the Massive grew closer and closer, they were so close she could almost hear the pained screams ripping from the nearly deceased. The more she squirmed the more her father uselessly tried to get her to calm down.
As they came up on the rear of the enorouse vessel a loud beeping bounced off the walls. An onboard video screen manifested on the control panel. The Irken that appeared was thin with long, thick antennae and bright blue eyes.
"This is Fleet Commander Tiz, what is your business here?" Tiz looked perplexed at Zephyre, curious almost.
"I'm here on private terms." he replied, glancing back up at the raging war.
Tiz narrowed his eyes in frustration, pursing his lips. "I can't let you pass safely until I know your business, if you fail to cooperate I'll shoot you down. Now tell me your business."
Zephyre sighed and let his dart away for an instant. When he looked back up at Tiz the pilot's face was turning red, obviously not wanting to waste anymore time. "My name is Zephyre, I'm an ex-Elite for the Irken Armada. I'm here because Red has my youngest son in custody while my oldest is probably out there getting himself killed!"
Tiz's mood seemed to lighten up a little, understanding the feeling well as Zim was pretty much on the same mission. "Which son is on the Massive?"
"Bryan."
Tiz didn't recognize the name, figuring he was one of the defectives that had gotten away. "Who's out here on the battlefield?"
"Zim."
Tiz's eyes widened with astonishment, not knowing if he should take the statement seriously. "You're joking." he finally said, his face going stern again.
"What reason would I have for lying!" Zephyre's face was almost as red as Tiz's had been a moment before. "I'm not here to argue with you."
With a scoff, Tiz crossed his arms and quirked an antennae. "I know Zim personally, the only family he has is his wife and son, I promise you that if he had any other members I'd know about it."
Zephyre deadpaned for a minute, only hearing the middle of the sentence. Wife? Son? "Look, I would love to explain our complicated relationship but I've got more than one son in danger, at least let me to the Massive."
Tiz looked away to contemplate his situation, deciding that he could tell Zim after he was sure his "father" was inside the Massive. "Alright, fine. You can go to the Massive, but I'll be watching." With that the transmission cut and Zephyre turned to Auzie, who had stopped moving entirely.
"There's... there's TWO OF THEM!" she shreiked, pulling at her antennae. "Why! Why me! I'm a good person! Right! I don't deserve this!"
Zim had long quit trying to fight while they were still in space, not being able to push himself up far enough to strike a blow since they were moving far too fast, pancaking him to Aneera's back.
As she went to spiral around one of the cruisers Zim heard his little mic crackle, hearing Tiz's voice practically inside his head.
"Uh, Zim... we have a problem."
"TIZ! I can't talk right now! Can't it wait!" Zim struggled to keep hold at she spun upside-down, straining his neck with force.
"No! It can't! There was a unidentified Irken ship that entered the battle scene and when I demanded to know why he was here he said he had come for his two sons. I asked who they were and he said-!" The mic shut off and went to static, they lost the signal.
Zim couldn't worry about him right now, he had more important things to think about, but those thoughts, too, were jammed out of his head as Aneera smashed into the side of the Massive.
Bryan and Noah slammed against the wall as the ship rocked with the intense force of the blow, the guard only staggering to the side. He yanked the two back to their feet harshly, making the both of them grunt as their wrists strained against the cuffs. They continued down the hall quicker, the guard making them walk twice as fast.
There was another bang and the ship jerked to the side, sending all three to the ground with a loud smack as they hit the ground roughly. This time Bryan made no hesitation, raising his right leg and positioning it over the guards head, bringing it down in an axe kick. The satisfactory sound of the guards skull cracking had him snatching the keys from his belt, quickly deactivating the cuffs.
"Come on, we have to hurry." Bryan scopped Noah up in one arm and took off down the hall, not looking back at the certain mob that was sure to manifest itself. There was another bang and the ship was sent rocking back and forth, making Bryan slide across the floor, cursing under his breath. "I really wish they'd stop!"
Aneera dodged another wave of energy as it smashed into the ship, causing it to shift and jerk. She had been hanging about the docking station while the bigger ships of Tiz's fleet attacked the doors, trying to pry them open, wanting to be the first one inside.
As the fourth shot was fired the surge of electricity that lined the door frame told them its locking gears had been fried. Aneera charged the ship and dug her claws into the thick metal shell, prying the door open. There was another surge and the door began to open on its own. She snuck her nose under the gap as it widened, squirming to get through, bellowing as the circuits caught her scales.
Once she managed to work her way in Zim was practically thrown from her back and slid along the ground towards the small group of technitions waiting by the door. As he twisted and jumped to his feet he swung his baton across their midsections, sending them all to ground.
Aneera shrunk to her smaller form and darted for the door, pushing a small silver button by the frame. A wall of energy cut of a portion of the station from space, filling it with oxygen. She took a deep breath as the door slid open, letting her slip by into the Massive with Zim on her heels.
The small ship crashed through the energy shield, ladning at the edge of the giant wall. The hood opened up and Auzie popped out with her haised poised in fron of her, ready to attack anyone who so much as looked her way. Her father then emerged with a small electron blade fastened to his forearm.
"Alright," Auzie started. "Who do I not shoot?"
"Uhm, you're brother or anyone who's fighting soldiers with uniforms." With that he took the lead and headed through the door into the giant ship, hearing the clanging of footsteps behind them.
Bryan rounded the corner, and saw the large glass double doors at the end of the hall. He ran after it, ducking and swerving as laser bullets shot past his head and feet. As she reached the doors he put his left shoulder forth and broke through the glass, shattering it into little glittering shards. He threw Noah into a concealed corner and jumped to the back table, instantly seeing the glistening silver metal. With one quick movement he maneuvered both blades into his fists, pivoting on his foot to face the soldiers behind him.
They two soldiers stooped short and watched in awe as he bolted into the air, bring one blade each across their throats as he fell graceful back to the ground. Blood spurted from their necks and flew outwards, splattering the walls in little droplets. He turned back to Noah and held an arm out. "Come on! We can't stay here!"
Noah looked at him with horrified eyes, then threw his fists in the air as he ran to him. "That was AWESOME!"
Bryan once again sped off down the hall, heading straight for the Tallest's Comm room.
Auzie found an abandoned hallway and stopped, hanging her head low and quirking her antennae. "I can... I can smell him... I think." She held both of her arms out, angling her hands downwards. "Wait... That's... Yeah... It's him."
Zephyre looked at her confused, she was always sure when it him, why not now...? Zim.., He thought. It's throwing her off. "Just follow it!"
The small girl didn't argue or take another moments pause, dashing down the hall as quickly as she could, keeping her eyes alert and fists ready at her sides. As she flew across the metal flooring she could smell it, it came flying at her with amazing speed, but it was all wrong. There was the semi-familiar odor that she recognized to well, but it was all mixed up in something else... something dark and salty sweet.
The two rounded the corner quickly, ready for guards to come attacking them head on as they sped down the halls. But just as Auzie had skidded around the corner and was dead center in the hall and massive black figure make a quick attempt to fly over her, expanding outwards on both sides. Auzie watched it pass over her head, turning to try and get a glimpse of the figure as it was suddenly behind her. As she turned she could just catch the tail end flicking around the corner at the other end of the hall.
"What was that?" Auzie rubbed her antennae to make sure they were still attached to her head.
Zephyre knew that smell well, it wasn't Bryan, almost, but not quite. "I don't know, maybe someone from the resistance."
Auzie spun to face her father. "Didn't you see the size of that thing! I thought you said the resistance was mostly Irken, that was NOT Irken! That was-!... Well I'm not quite sure what that was... but it sure wasn't green!"
He shrugged his shoulders innocently and pointed to a connecting corridor down a little ways. "That way."
"What? Why?" Auzie tilted her nose upwards a little and sniffed. "It's not down there... the hall doesn't connect. Besides, the smell was mixed in with that... thing. We have to follow it." Just as she finished her sentence she jerked her head to the right, catching another whiff of something. Something feminine... and evil.
Red sat in his respectful chair in the communications room, angrily tapping his fingers against the arm rest. His eyes were narrowed as the video feed from the security cams were playing on the giant screen in front of everyone.
There were nine in total, covering the most populated or used areas in the Massive. Five were just showing guards patrolling, two were showing the prison cells, one was showing a long hallway where a fight was mostly off screen and the last turned static just as soon as Red looked at it.
"What was that?" He pointed to the middle right camera feed, waiting to see if it would come back online. When a full minute passed and nothing happened he looked at one of the ComTechs. "Pull up the feed for SC14-9, it should be the one for the whole of sector four."
When a link was established with the cam the ComTech switched the feed to full screen and watched. After about eight seconds a tall, lithe figure sprinted into the large open area, clad in a long, flowing black coat and impressive looking boots. One hand was wielding a blade while the other was obscured from view.
Red leaned in a little closer, knowing exactly who it was. "Track him down. I want him bound, chained and broken."
Two rather muscled Irkens trooped out of the room and followed orders. It took about five minutes before they appeared on screen with Bryan, taking the liberty of showing who exactly it was that was going to bring him down.
Bryan, however, was not amused in the slightest, pulling one of his two blades out from under his belt, poising to strike. He watched the two guards before him, they weren't any taller than him, but way more filled out. He could visibly see their muscles ripple beneath their uniforms, instantly knowing that he needed to trike first, and strike lethal.
He charged the pair, tucking Noah under his coat as he whipped his blade in front of him from the far left to the far right. The speed had caught both of the others off guard, not expecting him to be so light on his feet.
As Bryan brought the blade back to him a thin line of blood flew from the necks of the dead Irkens, pooling around their heads as they laid on the floor.
The halls that Dib sprinted down were dimly lit, a strip of lights on either side of the hall on the floor and an overhead light every twenty yards. The orange glow made the boy look less pale and emphasized his round face, also making him look twice as tall as any Irken there.
The base him and Zim had designed was fully built and operational, with only a few minor kinks here and there. All of the equipment worked just fine and they were in touch with every Irken that was fighting with them, which was quite a lot.
Dib never knew there were so many of them that were ready to abandon heir own race because of what they had been put through. The Irken race was, as a whole, a very violent and racist species, but so much so that those who society had rejected had banded together, forming their own society against the Aramada's.
He still wasn't sure where Zim had found all the Irkens that were currently running around the halls, but he was jsut greatful they at least had help. Otherwise, Earth would have been done for and possibly enslaved.
As he rounded a corner Dib almost fell into one of the taller Irkens, catching himself by grabbing the corner of the two adjoining halls. As he raised a hand to straighten out his askewed glasses he could make out who he'd nearly knocked over.
"God Dib! Watch where you're going why don't cha!" The female righted herself and readjusted her files and papers, which had also nearly ended up all over the floor.
Dib stood perfectly still, his brain suddenly going on vacation. "Tak...?" he asked, almost not sure if he was completely seeing right.
"Idiot." Tak replied, ramming into his shoulder as she passed by. She was almost out of reach of the human when he caught her by the arm.
"What are you doing here! Shouldn't you be with Red trying to kill us!" He glared at her, tightening his grip.
She huffed and stared so intensely into the wall Dib thought it was going to burst into flames. When she finally did look at him he flinched, his mind making him think his blood had actually started to boil. "That really is no business of yours. All you need to know is that I have specific permission from Zim, ok? I'm allowed to be here." She yanked her arm away from him while emphasizing the word 'allowed'.
The screams of terror that emanated from the smaller Irkens was what Aneera liked the most, watching them flee away from the wall of fire that chased after them, but never quite making it.
She been tracking down multiple Irkens at one time, following whichever became closer. A few times she had been mislead by the smell of fresh blood, always finding large quantities strewn about in certain halls and rooms.
It was obvious that whoever was doing the damage was either their ally or just another enemy of Red. At first they just regarded it as one of Gaz's horrible killing techniques, until they remembered that she didn't possess a blade, which had been used in the slaughters. Eventually, after finding so many, they just decided to let the matter alone, Aneera getting used enough the smell of blood that she could avoid it.
At one point they had actually met up with Gaz, finding her in a large room already filled with blood and dead bodies. Zim had gotten to his feet to take a closer look, once again finding that the work belonged the the mysterious killer no one knew about.
"Who is this guy? And why is he killing everyone before I get to them!" Gaz huffed and stamped her foot against the ground in frustration, hating when all of the good kills were found to be taken. "When I find them I'm going to give them a piece of my mind!" After that she had stormed out the door, driving her gun down the throat of the nearest Irken she could find, giving him a stomach full of plasma.
She continued down the halls, mumbling horrible things under her breath. If he thought he could just show up and start a massacre then he certainly had another thing coming, she'd make sure of that.
For the next twenty minutes she mindlessly killed anyone who she saw, which came to be a total of four short, scrawny Irkens who had no business fighting. After screaming to the heavens how dead this guy was she quit killing people and started interrogating them. She had caught a medium sized Elite, at least someone worth killing in the end, and shoved him against a wall.
He winced and wriggled in her grip, his feet dangling in the air while his hands clawed at hers, which were busy crushing his throat.
"Who's the JERK killing everyone off! I haven't had a good kill in the last half hour! I wanna know where this guy is!" She hissed at the quivering alien, watching happily as his skin began to visibly crawl.
"I don't know! I don't know! I haven't seen him! Nobody who sees him lives! I-I swear!" He swallowed hard and pleaded for him life.
Of course, Gaz was not at all ready to let this juicy little Irken off so easily. He too received a stomachs worth of plasma and an extra dose of hate. As his body slowly stopped convulsion she heard some guy scream on the hall parallel to hers, taking off immediately.
He didn't scream for very long, only suffering for a half second. But that gave Gaz more than enough time to find the killer, skidding around the hall just in time to trap him there.
His head turned sharply towards Gaz, crouching into a defensive stance. The trench coat that fell from his shoulders draped around whatever he was holding in his left hand.
"FINALLY! Look here ass, I don't know who you think you are but I swear to GOD that when I'm through with you you'll look ten times worse than all those you killed put together!" Gaz charged him, switching out her gun for a nice, long electric baton that Zim had been kind enough to loan her.
The other kicked off backwards and fall flat on his back, the smaller Irken he'd been holding smacking into the wall to his left.
"Gaz! DON'T" Noah cried, effectively stopping the evil girl in mid jab.
Bryan raised both feet and kicked her backwards, scooping Noah back up into his arm and crossing the blade in front of him. "You know this freak?"
"She the sister of my dad's best friend, therefore, you may NOT kill her!" Noah reached out and, with his tongue stuck out in pure concentration, he tried to pry Bryan's fingers from his blade. "I... can do this!" But eventually he realized that nothing was happening.
"Well I don't care who you think she is, I don't trust her." Bryan slipped his blade under his belt and continued onward, leaving Gaz behind to fume.
"Hey wait a minute!" She stomped down the hall behind them, clenching her fists with rage. "I was given specific orders to get Noah to safety! You can't just run off with him! YOU AREN'T HIS FAMILY YOU WEIRDO!"
Bryan stopped walking and his body stiffened, his body becoming heavy and cumbersome. He spun around on his heel and was two inches from the girl's face. "Then take me to them!"
Gaz blinked, her left eyes slightly twitching. "Fine."
Aneera: *dies* Months... It's been MONTHS! I don't deserve to LIVE! I NEED TO DIE! *cries in a corner*
Author: ... While my somewhat alter ego is having a mental breakdown I'm going to apologize for the wait, it's been a while since I've had enough motivation to work on this between school and watching Soul Eater...
Zim: You guys forgot about me...
Authir: Not... completely...
Zim: *cries* YES YOU DID!
Aneera: SHUDDUP! You have no RIGHT to cry! *continue to ball eyes out*
Zim: ... That's gross...